“If I knew how to do that…” I let the joke die on my lips when I noticed the trembling of her hands. “Look, Dorian Gray has influence that goes above and beyond drugging vampires. He spent centuries delving into the dark arts and has learned how to capture someone’s free will. Vinx was under his thrall when she attacked me.”
Natalie’s gaze darted to the door, most likely trying to pace out if she could make it to the door before anything with fangs got ahold of her.
Keeping my tone calm and steady, I pressed on. “I haven’t blamed her for what happened for one second. Because that wasn’t her. She gave you her vow she would protect you, and she will honor that.”
“The vampress who slaughtered a cathedral full of people? That’s the chick you’re telling me to trust?”
Casting my stare to my hands, I rubbed one palm over the other and hunted for the words to explain how things went so tragically wrong. “Most of the people she killed that day were sent by Dorian. The rest were Draculesti magi trying to save her from herself. But it was Dorian who set the stage, chose the players, and supplied the necessary props. All part of his plan to launch us into a war for his own twisted delights. No one is safe right now, human or otherwise. But there are two beings I know have gone toe-to-toe with Dorian. Two who actually seem able to get under his skin. Both are under this roof. When shit goes down, and it will, I’ll follow wherever Vlad and Vinx lead because they are our only chance for survival.”
List either complete or forgotten, Natalie tossed the pad back onto the desk. “Did they send you up here to preach their propaganda? Because that was impressive. You should get bonus blood bags or a commission of some sort.”
Looping my thumbs in my pockets, I let my shoulders rise and fall in a casual shrug. “I know it sounds like that, but I promise you that’s not the case. You came here with your own preconceived notions about vampirism; be they good, bad, or indifferent. Maybe you’ll change your mind. Maybe you won’t. That’s for you to decide. Either way, I just want you to know we will keep you safe while you’re here.”
As if cued by the words, a loud crash from downstairs shook the walls. Vinx’s voice thundered through the manor, booming out her vengeful wrath,“You traitor! I’ll kill you with my bare hands and wear your guts for garters! How dare you betray your own kind! No! No! I will handle him myself! Let go of me!”
Heavy footfalls pounded up the stairs. As quick as the ruckus started, it died away into an eerie silence.
Natalie hugged herself tight, her teeth chattering with fear. “That’s the sound of keeping me safe?”
“I can’t say what that was.” Striding forward, I grabbed her list off the desk and held it up for her to see. “But I’m going to investigate and see to this list. While I’m completely confident you’re in no danger whatsoever, if it makes you feel better you can lock the door behind me.”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Westerly?” Natalie shouted, tears of regret welling in her eyes. “There’s a hive of enraged immortals right outside of the door! Bet your ass I’m locking the door, then shoving that bureau in front of it!”
“Erring on the side of caution is always a good idea. I’ll be back with these,” I held up her list pinched between my thumb and forefinger, “as quick as I can.”
No sooner did the door shut behind me than I heard the lock click into place and the unmistakable sounds of furniture scooting.
Dropping my chin to my chest, I shook my head. If being the ambassador of Nosferatu relations was going to be a new role of mine, I was really going to have to talk to the royals about playing nice.
Chapter Six
Vinx
(Ten Minutes Prior)
I stood in the billiard room staring at the bookshelf that led to the underground tunnels. Behind my eyes I saw beautiful visions of hope. Vlad and Rau bursting out from the musty caves below, arm in arm and hooting about days long since passed. Regaling each other with tales from the crusades or bellowing booms of laughter over what a bitch the times of famine were… even for the undead.
I didn’t realize I was still capable of holding my breath until Finn burst out of the hidden doorway with Batdog tucked under his arm. The horde of vamps who ventured into the tunnels filed out behind him.
“You all remember where shit is,” Finn sighed with obvious boredom. “Beds are back that way. Blood bags are being held captive by the chick in the lab coat. I’m going to go put this little bag of farts in the queen’s quarters. He smells like week-old Thai.”
Trailing Finn out of the stairwell, Micah waved her hand in front of her nose. “No more pork for him. Everyone else, please, find a cot and settle in. Again, we apologize for the extra excursion, but it was necessary to ensure your safety.” Lips clamping shut in a thin white line, she glanced my way with one eyebrow raised in question. “Wasn’t it?”
Pinching the sleeve of her lab coat, I gave it a gentle tug of comfort. “It was.”
Even as I spoke, my head was on swivel. Watching the other Nosferatu fill the ballroom, I rose on tiptoe to see over their heads as each collapsed onto a cot in exhaustion. What felt like an eternity later, I saw the light glimmering off of sandstone hair and tingles prickled up my spine. Vlad was at the back of the moving hive, his arms wrapped tightly around Rau. For a moment a smile of relief tugged at my lips… until I noticed the grey hue of Rau’s skin as he sagged against his father.
Whatever happened in the tunnels cut their heartfelt reunion short.
Rushing to Vlad’s side, I hooked Rau’s other arm around my shoulders and helped prop him up. “He was doing fine last night! What happened?”
Vlad’s jaw locked tight, rage dilating his pupils to dangerous black pits. “I have no idea. Everyone was faring well. Then, he collapsed without warning.”
“Let’s get him up to his room so he can rest.”
“No.” Vlad’s tone left no room for discussion. “He’s in pain. We need to lay him down.” Steering us to the nearest vacant cot, Vlad delicately laid his son down.
Rau’s eyes rolled back, his body writhing in anguish. Black veins were visible through his skin. Foam gathered at the corners of his lips from his violently grinding teeth.
As he tossed and turned to find some relief from his pain, I caught the first whiff. Nostrils flaring, I sniffed again. My fangs snapped from my gumline, a growl rumbling from my chest. “Who else was down there with you? Did you see anyone?”
Vlad brushed the hair from Rau’s forehead. “We encountered no one. Our hive moved alone. If any being without the scent of a vampire dared show themselves, I would have known. It must have been the poisons Dorian injected him with. I would guess they have lingering effects, or he’s experiencing withdrawals.”
Spine ramrod straight, my head snapped in one direction then other. “No. Someone joined your group. A vampire that wasn’t here before. I can smell them.”
Vlad’s top lip curled from his teeth in a malicious snarl. “Who? Show them to me.”
I held up one hand to steady him, my stare locked on a vamp settling onto a middle cot wearing ragged clothes and a pitiful expression. Chin raised, I hunted for a whiff of his scent. The second I caught it, a low hiss snuck from between my clenched jaws. “He wasn’t here before.”
“How can you be—”
Before Vlad could finish his thought, I exploded into swirling tendrils of inky black darkness. My form solidified at the foot of the stranger’s cot. Fangs exposed. Eyes blazing red with fury. “What did you do to him?”
The intruder scooted back on the mattress until his back was pressed to the wall. “Wh-Who?” he stammered, stare lobbing around the room in search of answers… or escape.
Creeping around edge of the thin mattress, I slithered closer with a reptilian grace. “Rau. You did something to him. I can smell the fear wafting off of you with a stagnate funk. You weren’t among those in t
he prison. I may not remember faces, but I know every scent. You came here with an agenda. Now, you’re going to tell me what it is.”
Vlad positioned himself between the alleged traitor and Rau, the magi closing into a tight barricade to protect their ailing prince.
The vamp’s eyes welled with blood-tinged crocodile tears. “I didn’t come here to hurt anyone. I swear. You’ve seen the news. You know what it’s like for our kind out there right now! Humans are hunting us for sport! You are our queen! I came here seeking refuge. Nothing more!”
Bouncing off the balls of my feet, I landed in a low crouch on the end of his cot. “Don’t lie to me. Did I forget to mention, another smell I’m painfully familiar with is that of Dorian Gray. His blood is the beckoning bouquet of a hard rain after an arid drought. The first flower of spring after a harsh, unforgiving winter.” I crawled forward, and with my hands on either side of his hips, I pinned in my prey. Leaning in intimately close, I whispered against his ear, “And I can smell him all over you.”
“Okay! Okay!” Slamming his palms to my chest, he tried, without success, to shove me away. “Gray sent me here to infiltrate your group. He told me when I got close enough to Rau to inject him with a solution of silver fragments. He wants him weak—wants you all weak—so you can’t fight him.” In a blink his nervous, frightened façade cracked, revealing his truth with a wicked grin. “The truth is you can’t. None of you can. He has the power to destroy you all, and when he wields it, you will bow before him. The entire world will.”
“Vincenza, step away from him.” Vlad’s tone was a commanding rumble, his chest puffed with homicidal rage barely held in check. “The magi have methods to extract all the information he possesses from him. We may find some use for this rat yet.”
Lifting his chin, the vamp had the nerve to bump my nose with his. “Yes, Lady Draculesti, do what your husband commands and stand down.”
“Ah, hell,” Vlad muttered behind me.
My head tilted.
A coquettish smile curled the corners of my lips.
Then, I grabbed the insurgent by the collar of his shirt and flung him across the room. His chest slammed into one of the marble pillars, shaking the ground beneath our feet. Before he could crumble to the floor, I lunged for him. Jaws snapping, my hands curled into vicious claws. “You traitor! I’ll kill you with my bare hands and wear your guts for garters! How dare you betray your own kind!” Vlad hooked his arm around my waist and yanked me off him. Kicking and flailing, I wildly thrashed for freedom. “No! No! I will handle him myself! Let go of me!”
While the magi moved in to seize the traitor, Vlad tossed me over his shoulder and whisked me up the stairs. Taking a left at the top of the stairs, he stomped down a narrow hall and dropped me on my ass in the middle of a room no bigger than a utility closet. While I scrambled to my feet, he locked the door behind us.
“He tried to hurt one of mine! Get the hell out of my way.”
Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers, Vlad used the toe of his dress shoe to swivel the face of a full-length mirror my way.
One glance and my sluggish heart lurched in a stutter-beat. A beast stared back at me. One with talon-like claws and patches of scales over her arms, neck, and face. My hand moved of its own accord, cautiously touching the cheekbones that now jutted from my skin in exaggerated points.
Stumbling back, I gaped down at my mutated hands. One blink, then another, and the transformation dissipated as if it had never happened at all. “What… was that?”
“As far as I can tell, it was the Dragon’s essence being channeled through you. Though, I must say, I’ve never felt or witnessed such a display.” Face a mask of concern, Vlad risked a step closer. “How are you feeling now?”
“I don’t think there is any word powerful enough to explain my current emotional state.” I tried to lean against a wall, only to find all of them lined with huge rolls of expensive looking fabrics. “And what the actual fuck is this place? How have I never seen this room?”
“This is where Rau has his suits tailored and custom linens made.” Closing the distance between us, Vlad caught my hands in his. “I understand the fury you’re feeling better than anyone possibly could. Nightmares of the lack of control I felt under its influence still haunt me. I need you to know that I will fight to prevent you from losing yourself to the Dragon, but I can’t do it alone. You will need to battle against your own raging impulses. Right now, we must both cling to the knowledge that Rau will heal. He will drink blood from a donor, instead of a bag, and the silver will be diluted enough in his system to ease his anguish until the effects wear off. As for the infiltrator, we will learn all we can from him and hope he possesses some sort of insight that will aid us in bringing Dorian down.”
I knew he was talking, could see his mouth moving and everything.
Unfortunately, the heat throbbing in my veins couldn’t be bothered by things like actually listening.
While the external effects of the Dragon had worn off, internally I ached for release.
Sweaty, pulsating… release.
Dragging my tongue over my top lip, I stepped closer and peered up at him from under my lashes. “So strong and heroic. Scooping up your enraged bride, even though she has a history of ripping off appendages and slapping people around with them.”
Vlad’s mouth twitched with the hint of a smile. “Does she? I must have missed that part when I was helping people flee her wrath.”
That should have killed my libido in a major way. Any other moment and I’m sure it would have. But the Dragon had stirred, setting my skin on fire with desire. “And yet you risked my fury for the sake of your people. That kind of courage should be rewarded.”
My fingers snaked around his neck, brushing the silky strands of his hair.
I felt him harden against me, his chest swelling with desire. Still, to my great regret, he pulled back. “We have people waiting for us downstairs who will need the reassurance of seeing their queen without scales.”
“Is there anything you want to see me without? Pants? Shirt? Inhibitions?” I asked, throwing in a little sassy eyebrow wiggle.
“You are wonderfully incorrigible.” His hands found their way to my hips, gripping them with a touch that was far too gentle for my current mood. “But we do have that pressing matter of Dorian Gray having infiltrated our hive.”
“The only part of that sentence I liked was the word pressing.” Rising up on my toes, I traced his lower lip with mine. “Dorian has tormented you for centuries. He was responsible for the death of your first wife. He stole your son. He drugged me and ruined our wedding. Are you really going to allow him to rob you of a very,” my gaze flicked down to his growing enthusiasm, “hard earned honeymoon, too?”
Vlad’s fangs dropped with an audible pop. Hands cupping my ass, he crushed me against him. “Madame Draculesti, these thoughts of yours seem far from virtuous.”
“Lock the door and I’ll show you what remains of my virtue.”
“You’ve barely had time to recover from the debacle downstairs. Surely it would be scandalous for me to exploit you at such a moment.” He breathed the words into me in a throaty murmur, mouth teasing over mine.
“My darling husband, there isn’t a thought going through my head that isn’t scandalous. Now, I’m done asking nicely. Lock. The. Door.” Hands drifting down his legs, I curled my fingers into claws and dragged my nails up his inner thighs.
One palm dropping to the back of my knee, he scooped my leg up around his waist. “It would take a stronger man than I to resist such an alluring command.”
Dizzy from the white-hot need radiating through me, I leaned my forehead to his as he lifted me off the ground. My chin-length hair fell in a curtain around my face that blocked out the rest of the world… leaving only him. Only now.
We moved as one, gliding back until his shoul
der blades slammed into the door. Keeping hold of my leg with one hand, the other slapped at the space behind him in search of the lock.
“Want me to get that?” I chuckled.
I didn’t wait for his response before lifting my other leg and locking my ankles behind him in a tight vise grip. Leaning to the side—and taking an extra beat to drag the tip of my fangs across his shoulder—I clicked the lock into place.
Righting my posture, I beamed with a victorious grin. “This chick’s got moves.”
“My darling queen,” Vlad growled, his pupils dilating with desire, “I’m more than three centuries old. I’m about to introduce you to moves you’ve never even heard of.”
Chapter Seven
Vinx
Sometime between round two and three we covered what needed covering with our rumpled clothes and made the mad dash down the hall to our bedroom. Not before scooping up Batdog, knocking on Micah’s door, and arranging a bit of puppy sitting.
What followed left my entire body purring with contentment. “I don’t know who taught you that little tongue trick,” I dotted Vlad’s bare chest with kisses, “but if they’re still alive, I’m sending them a fruit basket.”
One arm curled behind his head, his free hand traced circles on the small of my back. “We have to keep some secrets. How else will I hold your interest?”
Pushing up onto my elbows, I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. “I refer you back to the aforementioned tongue trick. Also… is it because you’re super old? You can’t actually remember where you picked that up?”
Head falling back, a bark of laughter escaped him that somehow softened the vampire god. “Well, that completely destroys the element of mystery I was striving for. That said, if I’m being honest, it’s been so long I’m thrilled I remembered how to do it all. It would have been horrible for me to boast in such a grand way, then need to be talked through the logistics of it.”
Laying my chin on his chest, I peered up at him from under my lashes. “Thankfully for us both, that was absolutely not the case. My legs are Jell-O. But, if it was, I would have talked you through it like I was reading IKEA instruction, tab A goes in slot B.”
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