The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo (Love at Stake)

by Kerrelyn Sparks

  Dougal took a deep breath. “It began in 1735, when I was fourteen years old. I was kidnapped from the town of Glasgow in Scotland and taken aboard a British merchant ship.”

  “Kidnapped?” The Grand Tiger’s eyes lit up. “Tell me more.”

  “I tried to escape. Twice.” He didn’t want to mention the lashings he’d received. Or the hopeless humiliation that he’d felt when he’d finally accepted his new life.

  “Good!” The Grand Tiger sat on the edge of his throne. “But you were recaptured? Did they punish you? Is that when you lost your hand?” He motioned toward Dougal’s prosthesis.

  “No. I lost my hand four years ago in battle.”

  “But you still fight?”

  “Yes, Your Eminence.”

  “Excellent. Now tell me more of your story. Were you abused on the ship?”

  “At first, but then I learned how to play the pipes, and that kept the crew happy with me.”

  “Very good.” The Grand Tiger nodded. “I want to hear you play.”

  Dougal bowed his head. “I will bring them with me next time.”

  “Excellent! Now tell me what happened next.”

  “Our ship was departing from India when we were attacked by pirates.”

  “Pirates?” The Grand Tiger jumped to his feet, grabbing a cushion off his throne. He stepped off the dais, tossed the cushion on the floor, then sat across from Dougal. “What happened then?”

  Dougal winced inwardly. His shameful secret would become public knowledge. Everyone would know he’d been whipped into submission, his spirit crushed with despair. “I was sold into slavery.”

  J.L. flinched. Rajiv hissed.

  The Grand Tiger looked appalled. “Rajiv! Bring drinks for us.”

  “Yes, Your Eminence.” Rajiv jumped up and helped a servant carry in a round table with short legs. They set it on the floor between Dougal and the Grand Tiger.

  Another servant rushed forward with a tray. She set two bottles and four small cups on the table, then bowed and retreated from the room.

  “Come.” The Grand Tiger motioned for the four of them to gather around the table. “We must console Dou Gal for his sufferings.”

  “Yes, Your Eminence.” Rajiv poured a clear liquid with a strong alcoholic smell into a cup for his grandfather and then for himself. “This is Blissky for our guests.” He poured some into J.L.’s and Dougal’s cups.

  “To Dou Gal.” The Grand Tiger lifted his cup, and the others followed suit. “Gun bei!” He tapped his cup on theirs and knocked back his drink.

  “Gun bei,” Rajiv and J.L. responded, then tossed back their drinks.

  Dougal took a sip, reluctant to drink too much before a mission. To his surprise, the Blissky had been watered down. He gave Rajiv a grateful look, then finished his cup.

  Rajiv grinned, then refilled all the cups.

  “I regret that I didn’t know of your plight,” the Grand Tiger said. “I would have come to Shanghai to rescue you.”

  “You are most kind, Your Eminence,” Dougal said, uncomfortable with the sympathetic looks he was receiving. He’d rather be seen as a secretive grouch than be pitied.

  “What are friends for? You are my good friend now, right?” The Grand Tiger lifted his cup. “A toast to friendship! Gun bei!”

  “Gun bei.” They all drank, and Rajiv refilled their cups.

  “Does that mean that Your Eminence was alive in the 1700s?” J.L. asked.

  “Yes. I am four hundred and sixty-two years old.” The Grand Tiger waved his cup proudly. “To having nine lives! Gun bei!”

  “Gun bei.” They drank, and Rajiv filled their cups.

  The Grand Tiger scooted around the table to be closer to Dougal. “So how did you escape?”

  “Did you run your master through with a sword?” Rajiv asked.

  Dougal shook his head. How many times in his life had music saved him? And now, because of his prosthesis, he could only play a sad tune. “I had a tin whistle with me, and I would play it at night to comfort myself.”

  The Grand Tiger patted his shoulder. “I want to hear you play.”

  “Yes, Your Eminence. The music drew the attention of my master’s daughter. She would come every night to listen, and then we started talking.”

  “And you fell in love?” The Grand Tiger’s eyes lit up.

  “Yes.” Dougal nodded. “She helped me escape.”

  The Grand Tiger grabbed his cup. “A toast to true love! Gun bei!”

  “Gun bei!” J.L. and Rajiv shouted and downed their cups.

  Dougal took a sip. He didn’t want to talk anymore about Li Lei. It was shameful enough to admit he’d been enslaved, but he didn’t want to confess how he had failed the girl who had saved him. “I would be honored to hear your story, Your Eminence.”

  “Of course.” The Grand Tiger looped an arm around Dougal’s shoulders. “I’m on my ninth life, you know. The next time I die, it’s curtains for me, old friend.”

  Dougal lifted his cup. “May you live another four hundred and sixty-two years.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” The Grand Tiger tapped his cup against Dougal’s. “Gun bei!”

  “Gun bei.” They all drank.

  “I had six beautiful daughters and twelve magnificent sons.” The Grand Tiger waved a hand in the air. “Two of my sons were killed by hunters, may their souls be damned forever. Three more sons were killed by Master Han and his vampire lords.”

  “May they rot in hell!” Rajiv growled as he poured more liquor into all the cups.

  The Grand Tiger nodded at him, then turned to Dougal. “Son number six went down the Mekong River and founded a tiger colony in Thailand. He was doing very well, and I was most proud of him. But then that nasty vampire, Lord Qing, slaughtered him, cutting him into pieces so he could not advance to another life. His oldest son, Raghu, became the leader of their village. Rajiv is the second son.”

  Rajiv placed a hand over his heart. “I will not rest until our family has been avenged, Your Eminence.”

  Dougal shifted on his cushion. He hadn’t realized that Rajiv had a personal reason for helping the Vamps.

  The Grand Tiger gazed fondly at Rajiv. “He is my youngest grandson. And the only one to learn English and find us a worthy ally to help us defeat Master Han. He’s a smart boy.”

  Rajiv bowed his head. “Your kindness is beyond measure, Your Eminence.”

  “We are honored to be your ally,” J.L. said.

  “To friendship!” The Grand Tiger lifted his cup. “Gun bei!”

  “Gun bei.” They drank, and Rajiv filled the cups with the last of the liquor.

  The Grand Tiger slumped to the side, leaning on Dougal. “I’m so very proud of my grandson.”

  Rajiv’s eyes glimmered with tears. “Thank you, Grandfather.”

  “We will help him and keep him safe,” Dougal added.

  The Grand Tiger patted his arm. “You are a good friend, Dou Gal. You must play for me. And I will sing for you. And dance the Tiger Dance.”

  “I would like to see that, Your Eminence.”

  “Then I will dance now!” The Grand Tiger attempted to get up but fell over.

  “Your Eminence?” Dougal jumped up. “Are you all right?”

  The Grand Tiger let out a loud snore.

  Rajiv ran to his grandfather’s side, then glanced up at the Vamps, smiling. “He’s asleep. But he’ll be talking about tonight for months to come. Thank you.”

  J.L. rose to his feet. “We need to be going now. The sun will have set on most of Master Han’s bases.”

  Rajiv straightened. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  J.L. shook his head. “We have to teleport some captives back. We won’t be able to teleport you at the same time. But we’ll come back for you later.”

  Rajiv nodded with a resigned look. “All right. But call me if you need any help.”

  For the next few hours, Dougal teleported with J.L. to one enemy camp after another so he could embed all t
hirty of Master Han’s bases in his psychic memory. The camps were quiet, with only a few lights burning along their palisade walls. According to J.L., the soldiers tended to do their military exercises during the day and rest at night, with a small contingent of guards on duty. In the last few years, they had become lax in security, since no local person dared approach a place that might harbor a hungry vampire inside. Only those who wanted to join the army ventured close.

  They were in northern Myanmar when Dougal climbed onto a flat rock on top of a hill that overlooked the last camp. “See anyone ye know?”

  “No.” J.L. lowered his binoculars. “Sometimes I can spot Wu Shen. He’s one of their top military officers, so it’s a good bet that if we see him, then that’s the camp where Master Han and the lords are hiding.”

  “There’s a guard.” Dougal pointed at a lone soldier venturing away from the camp, heading into the ravine below them.

  “Probably needs to take a piss,” J.L. muttered. “Want to nab him?”

  “Sure.” Dougal removed some tranquilizer darts from his pocket. They had decided earlier to take only two captives, and to make sure they were from two different bases. That way, when the soldiers never returned to camp, they would probably be labeled deserters. Master Han wouldn’t be alarmed over the desertion of two soldiers when he had an army of a thousand.

  They teleported down to the ravine and crept up behind the soldier. When the soldier was zipping up his pants, they zoomed forward. J.L. grabbed him, slapping a hand over his mouth, while Dougal jabbed a dart into his neck. The soldier struggled, and Dougal inserted a second dart.

  When the soldier slumped over, unconscious, J.L. tossed him over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  Dougal grabbed the soldier’s fallen rifle and teleported back to the Japanese island. After J.L. materialized with the soldier, they rushed inside the school and placed the soldier on a stretcher in the room for prisoners.

  While they fastened the restraints, Gregori peered inside. “Yoshi told us you were back. You got one?”

  “Yep,” J.L. responded. “We need to get him into stasis.”

  Abby, Leah, and Laszlo ran into the room, followed by the fox shifter. Dougal exhaled with relief to see Leah looking well.

  “Are you all right?” She glanced over him quickly before inserting an IV in the captive’s arm.

  “Aye. Did anything happen while we were gone?”

  “No, it’s been quiet.”

  “Don’t worry,” the fox shifter said. “I will not let any harm come to the scientists.” She smiled at Laszlo, who smiled shyly back.

  Dougal’s mouth twitched when he realized Laszlo was wearing the red shirt Wilson had torn to reveal his chest. “We need to go so we can bring you another soldier.”

  Leah nodded. “Be careful.”

  Thirty minutes later, Dougal and J.L. returned with a second captive. While the scientists were busy, Dougal went to the cafeteria to report to Angus. J.L. teleported to Tiger Town to bring back Rajiv.

  “We’re off to a good start,” Angus said as J.L. and Rajiv entered the cafeteria.

  Rajiv sat at the table with Angus and Dougal. “If there’s anything the were-tigers can do to help, just let me know.”

  J.L. grabbed a bottle of Bleer from the fridge. “We shouldn’t take any more captives right now, or it will look suspicious.”

  “Aye,” Angus agreed. “Let’s wait and see if our scientists are successful with the two we have. Once we know that it works, we can step up our game.”

  Dougal took a sip from his bottle of Bleer. “I’m no’ sure if this strategy is enough. Even if we change a hundred soldiers back to normal, willna Darafer just make a hundred more? Or two hundred? We would be stuck here forever, waging an endless battle.”

  J.L. sat beside him. “I doubt it would be endless. Once Darafer and Master Han figure out what we’re doing, they’ll attack.”

  Angus rubbed his chin. “They have a total of three vampires: Master Han, Lord Qing, and Lord Liao. That means they could only teleport three soldiers here at a time.”

  “We canna be sure how powerful Darafer is,” Dougal said. “He might be able to teleport a huge number of soldiers. And even if he came alone, I’m no’ sure we can defeat him, no’ without the God Warriors.”

  The table grew silent as they all considered.

  Dougal drank more Bleer. “If we can change the soldiers back to normal, then we need to keep Darafer from making any more.” He turned to J.L. “Do ye know how he’s doing it?”

  J.L. shrugged. “Some kind of hocus-pocus, I think, but he needs a specific plant to pull it off. The demon herb.”

  “Oh, I remember that!” Rajiv sat up. “They were growing it at the zombie village.”

  “Zombies?” Dougal asked.

  “Not real zombies,” J.L. assured him.

  “They move around like zombies,” Rajiv insisted. “Their brains aren’t working.”

  J.L. nodded. “Darafer’s using them as slaves.”

  Dougal’s prosthetic hand clenched, and he slipped his hand under the table. Slaves. “Are they being whipped?”

  “No,” J.L. replied. “Darafer’s got them under some kind of mind control. They’re unconscious all day, then get up at night to work in the field. When we saw them, they were gathering the demon herb, and some of Master Han’s soldiers came to pick it up.”

  Angus drank some Bleer. “I wonder if our scientists can break the mental hold Darafer has on them?”

  Rajiv nodded. “Maybe they can turn the zombies back to normal!”

  Dougal’s hand relaxed. “That’s exactly what we need to do. Change the zombies back, then burn the field of demon herb so Darafer canna make more mutated soldiers.”

  J.L. whistled. “He’ll be really pissed. If he thinks the villagers have betrayed him, he might kill them.”

  “We’ll evacuate them.” Dougal turned to Rajiv. “Can the tigers help with that?”

  Rajiv nodded. “Yes.”

  “And when Master Han’s soldiers come to collect the demon herb, we’ll attack and keep them from reporting it,” Dougal added. “It should buy us some time so the villagers can escape.”

  Angus leaned forward. “How many villagers are we talking about?”

  “About thirty,” J.L. said. “They were all elderly or young women and children. All the young males are gone, probably serving in Master Han’s army.”

  Angus shook his head. “I’m no’ sure we can make this work. If we swoop in at night to teleport the villagers here so we can treat them, the soldiers will be there and try to stop us. If one of them reports to Darafer, then all our plans could fall apart.”

  “Then we have to do it during the day,” J.L. concluded. “There won’t be any soldiers. And the zombies will be unconscious. Our scientists could go there and work on them for hours, and no one would know.”

  Dougal sat back. When he’d started this train of thought, he hadn’t realized it would end up with Leah being sent to China. “Laszlo canna do it during the day, and I doubt Gregori will let Abby go.” Leah would be on her own. His hand clenched again. “We canna do it during the day.”

  “We have to,” J.L. insisted. “It’s the only way to keep Darafer from being alerted. The shifters could go along to keep them safe.”

  Angus glanced at his watch. “The sun will be up here soon. You have forty minutes to bring back one of the zombies. We’ll see if our scientists can make him normal. If they can, we’ll move forward with the new plan.”

  Dougal swallowed hard. He’d hoped Leah could remain safe if she stayed on this remote island. But now she would have to venture into enemy territory. And she’d be there during the day, when he would be powerless to protect her.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Dr. Chin, wake up.”

  Someone patted Leah’s shoulder, and she jerked awake. For a second she thought she was back at the hospital in Boston doing her residency, but then she saw Abby sleeping in the bed next to her a
nd Howard, the were-bear, leaning over her.

  “I’m sorry to wake you,” Howard whispered. “But the zombie girl is coming to.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She sat up in bed. She was still wearing her clothes from last night.

  “I woke up Rajiv,” Howard said. “He’s trying to talk to her in Chinese.”

  “I’ll be right there.” Leah ran across the hall to use the restroom. While she was washing her hands, she glanced at her watch. Eleven fifteen. So she’d gotten almost five hours of sleep.

  Shortly before dawn, J.L. and Dougal had brought a girl to the clinic where the prisoners were being kept. They’d called her the zombie girl, explaining that she came from a village where the entire population was under Darafer’s control. As far as J.L. knew, their only sustenance was some sort of drug Darafer made out of the herb the villagers grew.

  It hadn’t taken long for Leah to determine that the zombie girl was suffering from severe malnutrition in addition to whatever drug she’d been given. She had stared blankly, not saying a word, while Leah had cleaned her up, slipped her into a hospital gown, and hooked up an IV. Abby had come up with the idea of using a milder version of her drug that boosted a person’s mind control—the same drug she’d used on Dougal—to see if it could help the girl break free from the zombielike haze that had been suppressing her mental faculties.

  By then, the sun had come up, and the Vamps had all retired to the basement for their death-sleep. Howard and Phil, who had slept during the night, had woken up to take their shift in the security office. Leah and Abby, both exhausted from working all night, had finally gone to bed. Howard had promised to wake them if anything happened to the captured soldiers or the zombie girl.

  Now Leah rushed to the lab to grab her stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. Then she dashed across the hall to the clinic. A quick glance at the two captured soldiers assured her they were still in stasis. The girl had wakened, and the panicked look on her face made it clear that she was no longer in a zombie state.

  Rajiv was sitting next to her, talking to her gently in Chinese. “It’s all right.” He tried to pat her hand, but she jerked away from him, eying him with suspicion.