Clay’s head moved back and forth with a violent shake. “Clan law says you’re never to interfere in matters of mating. Stopping Hildegard from feeding from me is interfering. They’ll boot your ass out so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
Heath spoke then, with a grimness lacing his tone. “What’s the worst than can happen, Clay? So we don’t have the support of the clan. Trust me when I tell you, my friend, I’ve been there. It might not have been purposely, but I was human for a time. It might not be the same thing, but I started all over once, I’ll just do it again.”
“The hell you will,” Clay shouted. “You know it’s much different than being human, Heathcliff. You’d lose everything. All the power you’ve gained over the years, the power that was transferred to you by becoming a clan member. You’ll have no protection from rogue vampires. No resources, nothing. I’m not dragging everyone down with me. That’s just not an option.”
Keegan slapped him on the back. “From what I hear, you won’t even know we’re there, pal. You being a heavy sleeper and all.”
The men chuckled, but Clay didn’t. “Keegan, this won’t bode well for you, either. You know pack law. You’ve bitched about it a hundred times. No violence.”
Keegan’s lips grew thin. “That was before a child was involved. Because it makes me think of my own daughter, Hollis, and Marty, too. If they were in the kind of danger Casey and Naomi are in, not even pack law would stop me. The hell I’ll allow this to go down without a fight. Not with Naomi involved.”
“There’ll be no fight,” Clay reiterated, his jaw tight.
Greg’s laughter was hearty. “Like you could stop it.”
“There’s nothing to stop. Hildegard will drink from me today just like she’s always done.”
“The hell she will,” Heath muttered.
“But she will,” Clay said with resignation. “I made a deal with her. She lets Casey go, and I’m hers forever. Lock, stock, and soul.”
“What the fuck have you done?” Greg roared, the boom of his voice shaking the glass tumblers of blood on the table.
“I sold my soul to a demon.”
Awed silence prevailed.
The first to shake off their disbelief was Keegan. “But I thought as vampires you had no souls. How the fuck can you sell something you don’t have?”
“We do have souls,” Heath said in flat response. “It’s a little-known fact, but it’s true—much like my reversion back to a human. It’s buried pretty deep, because no self- respecting vampire wants to be someone’s bitch for eternity, but it can happen. What I’d like to know is how you found that shit out, Clay?”
“Your manservant can come in handy for more than just a clean pair of shorts, buddy. He tells me that if a vampire sells his soul to a demon, he’s basically fucked. I’m Hildegard’s to do with as she pleases. It’s just like Heath said. I’m her bitch. She shows up in Hell with me, that leaves Casey free and clear and with plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do.”
“I’ll kill Arch,” Heath mumbled.
Clay rose. “You won’t. He has no idea the kind of information he gave me. And it’s true, gentlemen. No self-respecting vampire would sell his soul—unless he didn’t give a shit about self- respect or anything else but the safety of his kid, and a woman he didn’t plan on developing feelings for, but has anyway.” And damn Casey for making him want something he hadn’t wanted in so many centuries he’d lost count. His bargain with Hildegard would be far easier if he wouldn’t spend eternities wanting Casey.
“But what about Naomi? If you sell your soul to Hildegard, and you have to spend an eternity in Hell with her, what about your kid?” Keegan asked.
Clay’s face was stoic. “I’ll still be granted the opportunity to see her. Not much will change other than Hildegard and I won’t be spending centuries apart anymore. We’ll live as all mated couples do.” Fuck, he hated that. It made him want to puke. The very thought that she’d want him to honor her right to him as a mate made his skin crawl. But the choice was clear. It was him or Casey. Not in this lifetime or a hundred more would he risk her or his daughter. What still baffled him was Hildegard. She’d gone for his offer like a salivating dog. All this time he’d thought her interest in him was purely to sustain her existence on this plane. Yet she’d jumped at the chance to make their mating one that was real.
“We can stop this, Clay. Don’t do it. Let us help you,” Greg pressured.
“No. But do me this? Make sure Casey’s taken care of, okay? She’s new at this. Keep her out of harm’s way at all costs.” Because if someone hurt her, he’d fucking find a way to come back and mutilate them. “And keep her away from me until this is over. If I know her, she’ll try to take on Hildegard, and she’s not ready for that. Make sure she doesn’t leave your sight until twilight. Make sure she’s fed, Greg. You be the donor. Nina won’t mind as long as she doesn’t directly feed from you, and at least I’ll know it’s pure. With vampire blood Casey’s life on this plane can go unhindered.” He looked at each of them, men he’d played poker with, golfed with, even gone into battle with, and left them with one last statement. “I’m trusting every one of you to honor my last wish. Keep Casey away.”
Heath shook his head. “This is fucked up, Clay. I can’t in good conscience let you leave here without—”
Clay was gone before Heath could finish his sentence.
And he was going where no one stood a chance of finding him.
Especially Casey, who made his gut ache with need.
He wasn’t 100 percent certain he could deny her if she showed up.
Because he wanted her.
And he’d go right on wanting her long after this pact made in Hell was official.
CHAPTER 18
“Casey! Casey—open this door now! We have a problem!” Wanda’s voice verged on hysterical.
Shit, shit, shit. So much for a quiet escape. The plan had been to hit the bricks after Clay returned to sleep, and before everyone got here for the big showdown with Hildegard and her army of demons. But Clay hadn’t returned yet.
However, if she disappeared, then called Wanda and told her the location for the paranormal rumble had changed, she could lead them all on a merry chase until she was shipped off to Hell.
And she still wasn’t sure how that happened. When the hour struck, did a cab come and pick you up and take you to Hell? Was there a train station with a stop for Hades?
“Caseyyyyyy! I know you’re in there. I can hear you and so can Nina. Now open this goddamned door or I’ll open it myself!”
Damn their vampire ears. The window. She could climb out, float to the ground, and hit the bricks.
Well, okay, that might have worked if Nina wasn’t such a brute force to be reckoned with. The front door split in two, wood shards exploding inward to skitter along the floor. “You move, I’ll kill you, Casey Schwartz!” Nina threatened, charging at her like a rabid human rhinoceros.
Casey paused, but only for a split second before she was tackled and knocked to the ground by Wanda. Her sister sat on top of her, holding her down with but one hand. Her hair was wild, windblown and plastered to her face in spots. “Do. Not. Move. Have you lost your fucking mind?”
Fighting for air, Casey sputtered, “What . . . the hell?”
“Oh, look, girls,” Marty said from above, as composed and beautiful as always, not a hair out of place. “It’s the sacrificial lamb.” Her face was lined with her anger.
Nina knelt beside Casey’s prone form. And she didn’t look like rainbows and rocking horses were going to factor into whatever was up. “You know what, kiddo? I’ve had about enough of this shit to last me to the next eternity. What the fuck is wrong with you, offering yourself up to that loon? Didn’t we tell you we’d find another way? Didn’t we say to just sit the fuck tight until we figured this out? But no. Do you listen to us? No. Why the fuck would you? I mean, what do we, the paranormal, know?”
Hell’s bells—they’d found ou
t?
“Yeah, that’s right,” Nina confirmed. “We heard all about your offer to take that freak’s place in Hell. Are you whacked? Did you lose some nuts and bolts?”
Her breath returning in slow passes, she gasped, “But who told you?”
“Oh, Miss, I’m afraid it was me.” Archibald, crisp and unruffled, appeared before her line of vision to out himself. “While I admit, and with great embarrassment, that I’m prone to nodding off due to my age, and indeed, it’s true, my hearing isn’t what it once was as a vampire, I do still hear. As I was on my way to the kitchen to prepare some warm milk for myself, I found myself presented with quite a dilemma—the offering of your unlife to that wretched woman. Now truly, what’s a manservant to do, I ask?” He threw a hand over his forehead with a dramatic gesture. “Oh, the full five seconds spent toiling over right and wrong. But alas, I am in Miss Wanda’s employ. Thus, my loyalties lie with her. Her wish was for me to watch over you when she couldn’t. Hence, I let my fingers do the walking, and called Master Heath posthaste. I do apologize for, er, blowing your cover.” He smiled and nodded with a curt tilt of his head.
Oh, God. No. No. Archibald had heard her and Hildegard. What kind of devious planner was she to have not checked to see if Archibald was in his room? Jesus! She was an epic- diabolical-planning failure.
But she couldn’t let them stop her. They’d be shunned. All of them, and Naomi and Clay were in serious danger. A surge of terror and a side order of fear made her heave her body upward, knocking Wanda to the floor. She slid across the room, hitting the couch with a hard crack. “Get—the—fuck—off—me! I have to stop this. I can’t let her hurt Naomi. I won’t!”
Nina and Marty were on her, pulling her away with ironclad grips as Wanda leapt to her feet like a gazelle. “Casey—stop! You have to listen to me. You’re no longer up for grabs. Clay offered himself up—he sold his soul to Hildegard. It’s him who’s going to Hell,” Wanda yelled, grabbing Casey’s chin and forcing her to focus.
Her eyes were wild, her pulse hammered beneath her skin. “What?”
“Listen to me. Clay sold his soul to Hildegard. She’s going to Hell, but she’s taking the one thing she’s always wanted with her—Clay.”
“But—I thought . . .”
“I know what you thought, honey. You thought Clay was a means to an end, a meal, so to speak, but that’s not what this was about. It’s about Hildegard’s wish to make him hers. That bitch was Clay’s sister- in-law. She killed her own sister and turned her niece because she’d always wanted Clay—he just didn’t want her. In her fucked up mind, she believes her sister Dagmar stole Clay from her. Now, in an effort to spare you, he’s sold his soul to save Naomi and you.”
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, hard waves of prickling anger racing along her spine. “I’ll kill him! Do you hear me, Wanda? I’ll kill him. Stupid, stupid, lame, dumb- assed, difficult man. Where is he? I swear, when I find him, I’m going to do something horrible to him. I’ll make him eat a rosary—lick a plateful of garlic!”
Wanda shook her head. “That’s the problem. We don’t know where he is, Casey. He disappeared just before daybreak after meeting with Greg and the others, and no one can find him.”
Oh, the hell he’d get away with this. She’d stalk his ass in Hell. If he thought life with Hildegard was purgatory, juuuuust wait. “Where could he have gone, Wanda? It’s not like I know where his favorite places to hang out are!”
Archibald poked his head around Nina’s shoulder. “Oh, Miss, surely you remember Master Clay telling you he can feel you as well as that horrid piece of rubbish, don’t you?”
“You heard that?”
His face was aloof and undisturbed. “If you only knew the things I hear, Miss Casey.”
“So what does that mean, Arch?” Wanda asked.
“I would think it means that because Master Clayton is mated to her, it’s a two-way street.”
“But I don’t feel anything,” she cried. Other than the need for his neck in a headlock between my thighs.
Archibald put his hand over her eyes. “Close your eyes, Miss Casey. Summon his image. All that’s required is that you grease the wheels of your new gifts. They’re rusty from lack of use.”
Grease the wheels of her gifts. That was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever . . . ohhhh, he didn’t. She shook Archibald’s hand away. “He’s at a pizzeria called Angelina’s in the village. He loves the smell of pizza. Angelina’s is abandoned. I get the feeling he thought he could go there and no one would find him but the one person he wants to find him. Hildegard could do her dirty deed with no interference.”
Wanda was all organization and orders. “Archibald, get the men on the phone. Tell them to meet us there. Hurry. Clay’s only been asleep for an hour. If we time this right, we can beat the bitch at her own game. Nina—crack your knuckles. Marty, sharpen your canines. We have demon ass to annihilate.”
Casey struggled against Nina and Marty, fear blazing to every screaming nerve in her body. “No.You can’t do this. Please, Wanda. Please, please, don’t do this—none of you. I know what can happen. Greg said you could all be shunned, lose everything. Please, just let me go alone.”
“Oh, fuck that,” Nina rasped. “Like I give a shit about a castle in Staten Island? It’s a fucking big, drafty dust ball I spend more time Swiffering than I do enjoying. The clan can bite my skinny ass. Now shut the fuck up, and let’s go.”
But at all costs, she was prepared to keep them from coming. “Nina? Don’t make me hurt you,” she growled low.
Nina let her shoulders slump in tired defeat. “Are we gonna do this shit again? C’mon, already. I’ll kick your ass from here to Coney Island. You caught me off guard the first time you nailed me, but it ain’t like that anymore. And trust me when I tell you, I’ve sharpened my vampire skillz—unlike you. Now could we just do this without a fight? I’d like a fucking good day’s worth of sleep, something I haven’t had since I met you and your fireballs. I sure as fuck don’t want to do caffeine-laced blood anymore so I can keep daylight hours because it makes me hinky. So lay off already, and let’s rock.”
Casey balled her fist, raising it high in the air with the threat of imminent flaming.
Marty yawned, obviously bored. “Oh. No. Look,” she said, wooden and bored. “Nina and Casey are going to fight. We—are—all—surprised.”
“Ladies!” Archibald hollered, demanding their attention. “Please, no more fisticuffs. Honestly, if you knew the amount of time I spend clearing away the debris Miss Casey alone creates, surely you’d take pity on an old man. Now, we must hurry if we’re to make the mating on time. Miss Wanda, call Master Heathcliff and have him gather the forces. Miss Casey, there’ll be no more talk of shunning and interference in the matters of mating to that lowly serf. Of this I can assure you, Master Greg and the others will find Clayton whether he likes it or not. They are vampires and in an emergency are sure to use their powers of the mind to locate him despite Master Clayton’s wish they leave him be. Now, do you wish to allow the men in your lives to be ambushed, or would you think it wise to find our Scooby-Doo mobile and lay in wait with the element of surprise?”
“I don’t see him. Do you see him, Wanda?” Casey asked. The windows of Angelina’s were boarded up. Not an ounce of daylight seeped through them. The musty restaurant was as dark as a tomb. And that made perfect sense for someone like Clay.
“I don’t see him, either,” Nina added. “Where the frig could he be in a pizza joint?”
Frustration and fear for Clay’s safety made her yell, “Don’t you two have super eyeballs? What good are you if you can’t see in the dark?”
They’d made a human, er, paranormal chain in an effort to stay together, putting Casey between Nina and Wanda. Wanda gripped her hand hard. “Casey, hush. Why don’t you just give Hildegard a ring-a-ling and tell her that we’re here? Or maybe you’d like a megaphone. I know how badly you wanted to be a cheerleader. You can live out your d
ream while you lead our hunter right to us.”
Instantly, Casey was remorseful. “Sorry. It’s my nerves. They make me edgy.”
Nina bumped shoulders with her. “And loud. Knock it the fuck off and shut your trap. Just keep walking and don’t let go of our hands.”
“Nina?”
“Marty?”
“Stop dragging me. I have heels on, for the love of God. If I trip and rip this dress, I’m going to pull your fangs out with a pair of old pliers.”
“Oh, my God, if the two of you don’t shut the hell up, I’ll beat you with my shoes,” Wanda hissed. “Now hush, and let Casey focus. Casey, honey—do you feel Clay?”
Feel him. Yeah, she felt him—everywhere. She just couldn’t pinpoint it in any one direction. It was like he was all around her and nowhere at all. “I can’t explain it, but it’s like he’s everywhere. Ever since Arch told me to grease my wheels, they’ve just been spinning. I can feel him, but not in any one particular place.”
“Well, for fuck’s sake, use more grease. I see nothing but a bunch of goddamned tables and chairs and a row of pizza ovens,” Nina complained.
“Speaking of Arch, where is he?” Marty said from behind.
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks.
Nina gripped Casey’s hand harder. “He was holding your hand, Marty. Don’t fucking tell me you lost him. Jesus, dumb ass, he’s a human—an old one at that. Left on his own, that nut’ll flay him alive. Heath will kill us himself if we let anything happen to Arch.”
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