Pamela Palmer - [Vamp City 02]

by A Kiss of Blood

  “I don’t believe you,” she snapped. She ought to just shoot him, shoot them both, and be done with it. Though with their vampire superspeed, they’d probably just step out of the way of the bullets.

  And Mike . . . dammit, she’d thought he was her friend.

  “Quinn,” Mike . . . Micah . . . said, drawing her gaze. “Arturo’s promised he’ll not hand you over to Cristoff this time, and I can assure you he won’t. He screwed himself good by taking you from Cristoff in the first place.”

  “Cristoff knows it was him?”

  “No. Cristoff is on a rampage to find the traitor who freed you. He can never know it was Arturo and Kassius, or their lives are forfeit. Mine, too, now. Since your memories can’t be erased, if Cristoff gets his hands on you, he’ll learn the truth. Our only recourse now is to hide you and find a way for you to renew the magic without Cristoff’s ever finding out we were involved.”

  Which meant that after it was done, they’d have to ensure she was silenced. She had no illusions about what that meant though it didn’t mean they’d succeed. Still, if what Micah said was true—and having met Cristoff, she suspected it was—Arturo couldn’t let her get anywhere near his sadistic master.

  She still wasn’t going with the lying bastard.

  Shoving her gun in her waistband, she moved to Zack and shook his shoulder. How he’d slept through gunshots, she didn’t know. “Zack, get up.”

  To her relief, he rolled over to face the room, blinking sleepily, his hair a mass of tangles, and a pillow mark on one cheek. His skin looked more gray than before, the dark circles beneath his eyes more pronounced. And his eyes . . . The whites had turned nearly silver.

  “Dio,” Arturo muttered, then turned an accusing gaze at Micah. “You didn’t tell me.”

  At the sound of Arturo’s voice, Zack glanced up. “What’s he doing here?”

  Micah stared at Zack with a frown. “I didn’t know. I haven’t seen him in days.”

  “Arturo lied about not being able to leave Vamp City,” she told her brother, acid on her tongue. “And Mike is his vampire bitch. Liars, all,” she added with disgust. “We’re getting out of here.”

  Jumping from a second-story window onto a concrete sidewalk probably wasn’t the best idea, but their options were limited, with vampires blocking the only door. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have to jump. There was a construction crew working halfway down the block. If she leaned her head out the window, and yelled, “Fire!” ten bucks said they’d bring her a ladder.

  “Quinn,” Arturo said, his voice hard with warning, as if he’d read her mind. “Zack is suffering from magic sickness. He’ll die if you don’t reverse it.”

  She glared at him. “Right. And of course that means returning to Vamp City with you. No thanks.”

  Arturo opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it again, his frown deepening. “How long has he been ill?”

  As much as she wanted to ignore him, his worried tone had her answering. “More than a week. You told me he’d sicken if he left the area. He left.” Enough of this. She turned and lifted the sash on the window, flicking away a dead fly to reach the rusted screen latch.

  Micah spoke to Arturo behind her. “You said Kassius sensed something when he bit her. That Zack has somehow gotten tangled in her magic.”

  Arturo grunted. “But he has no idea what that means. Nor do I.”

  “His eyes . . .” Micah’s voice rose slightly as he addressed her. “Quinn, I’ve seen magic poisoning before. If we don’t figure out what’s causing Zack’s, Ax is right. He’s going to die.”

  She straightened slowly and turned to face them with a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look. “So his leaving town didn’t cause it? That was just another lie?”

  Arturo shrugged, a hint of a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. A smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I prefer to call it a lucky guess.”

  She just stared at him, the fury seething, burning. “What in the hell did you do to him?”

  His expression turned serious, perhaps even puzzled. “Nothing. I do not know why he’s sick. Perhaps it was leaving the area. Perhaps it was leaving Vamp City. Perhaps it was something else.”

  Damn him to hell. Lies, lies, lies. If there was any truth buried anywhere within that, how was she supposed to know? Whirling toward the window, she began prying one of the screen hooks loose.

  “You would jump, cara?” Arturo asked quietly. “You will injure yourself. In Zack’s weakened state, he might not survive at all.”

  She ignored him and pried the second screen hook loose, then glanced back to find the two vampires watching her.

  Arturo’s gaze caught hers and held fast, frustration and determination swirling in those dark eyes. “Even if you escape, you cannot hide from me, Quinn. After your last escape, I put a magical tracer on you. I may not be able to follow you during daylight, but come nighttime, there is nowhere you can go that I cannot follow. How do you think Micah found you so quickly?”

  Unfortunately, this she believed because Micah had introduced himself to her just hours after Arturo freed them. As soon as the sun had gone down.

  Her blood steamed. Maybe she’d shoot him after all. Shoot them both.

  “I want to go back, Quinn,” Zack said, sitting up slowly. “I want to go back to Vamp City.”

  Zack’s quiet words stopped her cold. She met her brother’s tired gaze. “They made you say that.”

  “No.” He swallowed and looked away. “I want to see Lily again before I die.”

  “You’re not going to die.”

  He turned back to her, his eyes older than she’d ever seen them. “Yeah, I am. Something’s happening to me. I can feel it. And I’m not going to survive it.”

  Her breath caught. He sounded so sure, but he was wrong. He had to be wrong. “You’ll be okay once the magic is renewed.” Her own words, repeated so many times, came out automatically. But the moment she heard them, she froze. Her gaze flew to Arturo as the truth crashed over her with a shattering understanding. She was the only one who could renew the magic. Phineas Blackstone’s sons couldn’t do it. There was no escape. Not for her.

  She sank down onto the sofa beside Zack, stunned. “I have to go back to renew it.”

  Her brother took her hand. “No. Blackstone’s sons . . .”

  “Can’t. That was just another of Arturo’s lies.”

  Zack said nothing for a moment, but his grip tightened. “Don’t go back, Quinn. Let them die.”

  “Renewing the magic might be the only way to save you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Stay here,” Zack urged. “No, leave here. Leave now and drive as far and as fast as you can. You can get away.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Certainly not to die. Just a month ago, she’d been bracing for the day he left her. When he graduated. When he moved to California with Lily. Lily. He said he wanted to see her again. Again.

  Quinn turned to stare at her brother. “Did you find Lily when you were there?”

  Zack released her and looked away. Slowly, he leaned his long frame back against the sofa and closed his eyes. “She was at Castle Smithson.” Where he’d been a slave. “She was a maid or something.”

  Quinn felt the words like a blow. He’d known all along where the girl was, yet he’d said nothing. He’d left her behind. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  His jaw hardened, tightening in that way it used to when he was small, just before the tears started. “What difference did it make? It’s not like I could save her. I couldn’t even save myself. I was fucking useless.”

  Oh, Zack.

  Her gaze swung to Arturo on a surge of hope that he could help save Lily as he’d saved Zack. But as she stared at that handsome, charming visage, as the vampire’s mouth began to open, she turned away, chastising herself for forgetting, even for a moment, that she couldn’t trust a word he said. He would promise her anything to get her out of the sunlight and back within his reach. Then he’d take her back
there, use her to renew the magic, then try to kill her so she could never be captured by Cristoff and reveal what she knew about her escape from his vile master.

  She turned to Zack. “You can’t go back there. Your chances of seeing Lily are next to zero, you know that.” If the girl was even still alive. “You’ll just be enslaved again.”

  “I will find her for him,” Arturo said quietly. “And I will keep all three of you safe.”

  Zack’s eyes snapped open, hope flaring within those sickly depths.

  Quinn threw the vampire a look of disgust. “He’s a liar, Zack.”

  “He freed us, didn’t he?”

  “Did he? And yet, here he is.”

  In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens.

  Zack took her hand again. “Leave, Quinn, I mean it. Let that godforsaken place die.”

  “And let you die with it? I’d give my life for you,” she whispered, emotion clogging her throat. “You know that.”

  He dropped her hand, pulling in on himself as he scowled. “Why? I’m nothing. You’re the one with the X-man-like power. Figure out how to work it, then come back and kill the vampires that survive Vamp City’s destruction. You’ll be a hero, Quinn. Why waste all that on me?”

  “Because I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” her brother said matter-of-factly. “So do what I want this time. Let me go.”

  Let him go.

  Swallowing hard, Quinn shot to her feet and turned away, staring, unseeing, out the window as her emotions knotted together until she didn’t know what she was feeling, let alone what to do. The last thing, the last thing, she wanted was return to Vamp City. Nothing good awaited her there, only the threat of torture and the risk of death. But how could she walk away, run away, knowing Zack was going back there? Because whether or not going back there cured him, Zack’s chance of survival in that place was miniscule unless she went too.

  Her magic wasn’t much, but it had saved him once. And maybe he really did need her to renew Vamp City for him to be okay. Assuming she could figure out how.

  The sirens were growing louder. Glancing down at the sidewalk, she saw people hurrying away from the building as if they’d heard a fire alarm.

  Or gunshots. Crap.

  She whirled back. “The police are coming.”

  Arturo nodded toward the door. “Come, cara. We cannot leave the building in daylight, but you’ll be safe in Micah’s apartment.”

  She just stared at him. “From the cops, maybe.” The wail of the sirens tore at her eardrums, and her nerves. Dammit, dammit, dammit. “Can you use your mind control to make them believe nothing happened?”

  “Slowly, yes. But not if they grab you. Then I may have no choice but to fight them off.”

  And then cops could get hurt. Or worse.

  “Come, cara. Quickly.”

  The moment she got within his reach, she’d be going back to Vamp City. But maybe Zack wouldn’t have to. And the alternative was an almost certain trip to the local police station. And maybe jail.

  She huffed with resignation. “All right. Let’s move this discussion to Micah’s.” Fortunately, his apartment was just across the hall.

  Quinn strode back to her bedroom, grabbed the small duffels she’d packed days ago in case they had to run at a moment’s notice, then returned to the foyer. Arturo watched her as she approached him, his eyes dark and enigmatic.

  Her heart began to beat crazily as she closed the distance between them. She told herself it was from the adrenaline and the sirens. It had nothing to do with the chemistry that had flared between them from the start, or the whiff of his scent, familiar and heady, that triggered memories of pleasure, of friendship, of betrayal.

  “The coast is clear,” Micah said, peering out the door. They crossed the hallway into an apartment lit only by lamplight. Room-darkening curtains had been nailed across the windows, canceling out every hint of daylight.

  Micah closed and locked the door, then turned to her, his eyes serious, yet gentle with the concern she’d seen in them so often. “You’re safe here, Quinn. Please believe that if you believe nothing else.”

  For a moment, he was her writer friend again, and she found herself asking him the question she most needed an answer to.

  “Will Zack get better if I renew the magic?”

  Micah hesitated, as if weighing his words. “I don’t know. It’s likely. It’s also possible that he’ll get better just by returning to V.C. Regardless, there are people there who might be able to figure out what’s wrong with him.” His mouth tightened with regret. “I’m sorry, Quinn, but he needs to go back.”

  Her instincts told her he spoke the truth, yet all he’d really told her was that Zack might die either way.

  She turned to her brother, who’d sunk down onto the sofa. “Stay here. Stay in D.C.”

  “No.”

  “I’ll call Dad and ask him to drive down, then I’ll renew the magic, find Lily, and come back to you.”

  “No, Quinn.” Her brother straightened, staring at her with the pride of a grown man. “I’ll find her.”

  “You’re too sick.”

  “I’ll be better once I return to V.C.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Zack’s gaze unfocused as if turning inward. A moment later, he nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m going back.” In his eyes, she saw a strength that hadn’t been there a month ago. A conviction. And she realized she wasn’t going to talk him out of this.

  She wasn’t sure she should.

  Quinn turned away, digging her hands into her hair, hands that were beginning to shake. Because all of her carefully erected plans were shattering at once. She had no choice but to go back, now—she knew that—to renew the magic and to try to see Zack and Lily safely out of there again, even if it was the last thing she accomplished of her own free will. Zack had always been the most important person in her life, and she wasn’t about to turn her back on him now, when his life was at stake.

  Outside, the sirens died, car doors slamming shut as the cops swarmed the building.

  “It will be dark enough to leave within the hour,” Arturo said quietly. “Will you come willingly, cara?”

  She was surprised that he bothered to ask, now that she was back in his clutches. Then again, she was armed. And even without wooden bullets, an unwilling sorceress could be a dangerous companion, as she’d proved on more than one occasion even if she hadn’t been in full control.

  He needed her.

  The balance of power between them had shifted subtly but profoundly.

  “I have promised to find Lily and to keep all of you safe, Quinn. All I ask is that you save my friends and my world in return.”

  She met his gaze. “I’m not sure Vamp City needs saving.”

  Dark eyes studied her. “Even if it’s the only way to keep your brother alive?”

  And that was the real heart of the matter because there was nothing she wouldn’t do to save Zack. And Arturo knew it. She’d made it abundantly clear on her previous visits. Zack was her Achilles’ heel.

  But Arturo had his own problems now. He’d almost certainly screwed the pooch when he’d taken her from Cristoff, which meant his own survival likely depended on his protecting her. She might not be as powerful as the vampires, but she had leverage this time that she’d lacked before, and she understood far better the game they played. Not only would she never again automatically trust a word they said, but she was the only one with a snowflake’s chance in Hell of saving their friends and their world. They needed her alive, and they needed her cooperation.

  She met Arturo’s gaze, that knowledge in her eyes. “I’ll go back, and I’ll renew the magic. But there are going to be conditions. And if you betray me again, Vampire, I’ll let your world die.”

  His brow lifted, and she knew he recognized the hollowness of her threat. As long as Zack needed the magic renewed, she’d renew it. But he didn’t call her on it. Instead, his expression turned serious, his ga
ze gripping hers. Slowly, he nodded, a single downward dip of his head. “I will not betray you again, Quinn. Never again, cara. Someday, you will believe that.”

  She doubted that. But it was a moot point. She was going back to save her brother. And the only one she intended to trust was herself.

  Chapter Three

  Through Micah’s closed apartment door, Quinn could hear the cops storming her own apartment, then spilling back into the hallway.

  At the pounding on Micah’s door, Quinn tensed, but when she started to rise, to hide, Arturo shook his head. “You’re in no danger.”

  Quinn eyed him skeptically. “And the cops?”

  “They are in no danger, either.”

  Though she couldn’t see the door from the leather sofa where she sat in Micah’s living room, she heard Micah explaining that he’d heard a car backfiring on the street. The front door closed, but Micah didn’t return.

  Quinn glanced at Arturo. “Did he leave?”

  “Yes. He’ll move among the cops, using mind control to convince the majority that there were no gunshots. Once they leave, we can go. It’s almost full dark.”

  “Where do you plan to take us that Cristoff won’t find us?”

  “To a friend of ours. You will both be safe there, I assure you.”

  She snorted.

  “You do not trust me, cara mia.” The words were soft, almost sad. But his gaze unsettled her pulse in a way that was all too pleasant. All too annoying. “I am sorry for the necessity of my lies.”

  “Necessity? And are you sorry, too, for the lies you’re telling me now? That you’ll tell me in the future?”

  His mouth tightened, but he didn’t answer.

  “Where does your friend live?”

  “I cannot tell you more. Doing so would endanger him should you fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Which you’ve promised won’t happen,” she countered.

  He dipped his head. “I have. But some things are out of even my control.”

  She gave him a look of disgust. “Of course they are.” Unable to remain still for another second, she rose and began pacing, wishing she could look out the window. But the only way to do that was to pull out her knife and slice away the heavy fabric. It wasn’t worth it.