“Guardian. You will escort the Vessel to the preparation rooms. She will receive us after the ceremony. It is time to restore our people to their former glory.” Ice dripped from Stephan’s voice.
I knew my face betrayed my disgust, but I didn’t care. No way was I “receiving” him. No way in hell I’d have sex with that thing.
I looked around, wondering who the Guardian might be. None of the assembly moved, not even a twitch. It was creepy, like being in a wax museum surrounded by figures that looked too lifelike. Daniel’s hand slid from mine and gripped my biceps. I frowned before I could stop myself. His aura sparked with red now, but his face betrayed nothing. He didn’t even look at me as he turned on his heel and started for the far wall. I stumbled behind him, confused and unsure.
“How amusing. She didn’t know!” Stephan’s cackling laughter rang through the chamber and other voices joined in, hollow and brittle to my ears. They laughed until he stopped and then went silent, marionettes cut off as if on cue.
“Guardian.”
Daniel stopped without turning around. I leaned away from him with every ounce of my weight and struggled to get free. I would have had more luck pushing a building.
“You will act as Consort. She will be Blooded when I arrive.” Stephan approached and lifted a lock of my hair to his nose. I twisted away using all the strength in my legs, but only succeeded in plowing into Daniel and getting a hunk of my hair yanked out. “She will swear her fealty or be punished. I expect you to fulfill your duty or steps will be taken. Our court will be the first to employ her services as she is one of our subjects.” He fluttered his fingers and let the strands float to the ground before spinning on his heel and walking back toward the dais. “After that, we may be amenable to releasing her for a period of time to the Vampire Council. We will be sure to report to the esteemed members of your service here today.”
Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I planted my heels and punched Daniel in the arm. The meaty thunking sound my fist made when it connected sounded cool, but my knuckles shrieked. Next time I’d hit a brick wall instead.
Services? Do his duty? Council? He continued toward the door without any sign he even felt the strike or me flailing around trying to get free.
“Guardian.”
“Bastard!”
Daniel flinched at the shout and stopped.
Stephan chuckled, perhaps enjoying the betrayal and rage boiling through me. “Take Dominique with you as well. She’s quite attracted to Miranda. Her bloodline is strong and pure. She will provide a hearty meal for the Vessel.”
A willowy blonde peeled away from the wall to my right. Her cheeks were sunken hollows, and her eyes large in a too-thin face. She moved in jerking steps, and her tattered black evening gown tangled around her ankles. When she stopped on Daniel’s other side, he began to move again with resolute steps.
“Oh and, Guardian, we will send Christophe. He will enjoy emceeing the event. We wouldn’t want you to lose control of the girl and be killed.”
I paid no attention to the vampires falling into step behind us. Daniel had my full attention. The one person I had thought I could trust propelled me into slavery.
Chapter Eleven
We emerged into a dark paneled hallway lit by guttering oil lamps. How strange that I had visited this house so many times and never been aware of the rooms below ground.
The pain in my head lessened the moment I crossed the threshold. I could no longer detect the Incubi. Not feeling like my head would split from the inside cheered me, but T.T.B. still had his hand clamped around my biceps.
I jerked my arm again, and he released me. The lamps hung at four-foot intervals, giving just enough light for me to see the tense set of his shoulders and clenched hands. Good to know I wasn’t the only one unhappy right now. No way would I have sex or whatever with that disgusting creature. I didn’t like being a vampire fuck buddy. Stephan crossed the line from unwanted duty to cringe-worthy and disgusting. An aura of wrongness clung to him in a buzzing cloud.
“You must listen to me, Miranda. I can win us free of this.” Daniel’s voice ghosted through my mind.
Trust him, huh? Maybe he should have used his mind talking ability to warn me before I came downstairs. What a secret to keep from me. Jackass. I started mentally humming Cee-Lo Green—chorus only, you know which part—to drown him out and stomped his foot when he started to project even louder. He grunted in pain, and I smiled in satisfaction.
“That’s right, buster. Cross me and pay. You’re lucky I didn’t hit you in the googlies.”
He cleared his throat. “Miranda, I will act as your Consort for the ceremony. Dominique will help with the sacrifice.”
Dominique shambled along with us. I peeked around T.T.B.’s chest at her to try and catch her eye, but she continued to stare straight ahead.
“Sacrifice?” I’d already killed one person with sex. I didn’t want to do it again.
“Death or sex, Miranda. There must be a death, even if it is only symbolic. Sexual orgasm is a sufficient sacrifice. You will also need to be fed.”
I walked a few steps ahead of him, figuring he’d catch up. Daniel excelled at following me. There wasn’t anywhere I could run to. The hall didn’t have any doors on either side, just more of those oil lamps.
“I don’t do chicks, Daniel.”
“Trust me.”
I snorted. Right. Trust him. “So, how does this work? We all screw, and I feed the Hunger on Dominique and poof! I’m a vampire?”
“I will drink your blood and feed you mine. Your Hunger will feed on both of us. It may…overwhelm you. Do not be frightened.”
“Overwhelm? Do you mean run around all crazy and hit everyone in the room?”
“Yes.” He caught my eye, and I arched one brow.
Stephan sent me away from the other Incubi for the ceremony. My father had planned to share it with the entire coven. All the vampires here save the Feelers neared starvation. If my Hunger had the potential to rip through everyone around me, it had the potential to eat them all. What would Stephan do if I ate all his food?
Better yet, what if it acted in reverse? What if all that sex magic grabbed them up and they went into a feeding frenzy? Killed all the Feelers?
Stephan wanted to control me. But he also feared me.
We stopped in front a door carved with vines coiled around naked bodies. Great, furniture porn. Of course this would be the place.
Daniel sighed and looked at the floor before grabbing the knob and pushing it open. I stood in the threshold in shock, backing up before he grabbed my arm again. Dominique slipped past him into the room, her bare feet sinking into the carpet. The Feeler who’d followed us down the hall cleared his throat. I rolled my eyes and studied the door molding. It glowed green.
“Come. You must be prepared for the ceremony.” Daniel captured my hand and held it by the fingers, waiting for me to move.
He was out of his mind if he thought I’d go in willingly. A huge four-poster bed with high railings hung with sheer draperies backed up to the far wall. But I wasn’t worried about the orgy-sized bed. No, the worry was reserved for the other things in the room. The things that hung on the walls and lay on every flat surface I could see. Floggers, dildos, whips, manacles, assorted leather straps, and what might be clothing, gags…a fetish shop had exploded in my father’s basement.
If this was his personal playroom, I’d vomit on my boots.
Dominique shrugged out of her dress and turned to face me. Her ribs and pelvic bones showed under her skin. Tiny, apple-sized breasts tipped with rosy nipples puckered the only soft flesh left on her body. I swallowed and looked away.
I’m not into chicks. But I knew that my body, my Hunger, didn’t care about sexual preference. Dominique was starved.
If I believed Daniel, Adrian, even Crypt Keeper, so was I.
I couldn’t feed on her—she’d die. With only a vague idea of the ceremony for a Blooding, I had to trust Daniel to guide me through
and keep us all alive. I frowned and looked at the rest of the room.
A fireplace tall enough to walk into dominated one far wall. I focused on it, trying to ignore all the stuff on the mantle. And the naked woman. I even managed to wonder how they routed all the smoke and heat from this far below ground before my eyes wandered back to the mantle. The mantle that held candles—OK, fine—and an enormous…OK, not fine.
Someone shut the door behind me with a soft click. I’d crossed into the room without thinking. I continued to stare in the general direction of the fireplace, being careful to keep my eyes unfocused. There wasn’t anywhere to look that didn’t have some kind of sex device on it, or next to it, or well, you get the idea. The longer I stood there in silence, the more angry and upset I became. I’d been stupid to assume I could waltz in and out again. I hadn’t truly considered my parents to be dead and my father’s court usurped by that thing down the hall.
Not only was I outnumbered, but outgunned. I couldn’t understand the value I held. My ignorance and bravado chained and wrapped me in a nice big bow for Stephan.
This all just sucked so bad. I didn’t feel grief for my parents’ deaths, not in a horrible crushing despair kind of way. More self-pity and the realization that I was now utterly alone. No one else on the planet shared my blood.
I glanced at the man beside me. Man felt like more and more of a loose term. His aura still blazed in beautiful pureness, but now the colors swirled so much it all looked sort of muddy. Conflicted? It would be tough to tell a girl all kinds of sweet pillow talk, lie through omission about yourself, and let her trust you. Especially when you had to take her into a room full of sex toys that looked more like torture devices so she could be “prepared” to bang a crazy, ugly-as-hell, older-than-Egypt vampire.
I tried to feel sympathy for him but failed in three seconds.
“I told you not to come.”
“Fuck off. Did you really think I’d listen? And I’m not the one who lied about who I was.”
“I never lied.” He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at me.
I crossed my arms and glared back. “Right. Keep hawking that on the street corner, honey. I’m sure someone will be along to buy shortly. A sucker born every—oh, wait, they’re not. That’s why they need me.”
“You stubborn…”
I raised one eyebrow while he continued on in a foreign language, something guttural and harsh. When he stopped I tucked my hair behind my ear and checked my nails.
“Finished?”
He snorted and squeezed the bridge of his nose.
Dominique continued to stand in one place waiting for instructions or something. I tried to ignore her, but the energy arcing off her body raced over me, calling to the magic I tried to cordon off and contain. I held no attraction to her at all, but my breasts and lower things swelled in anticipation. I flexed my thigh muscles and rocked my weight from side to side. The poor thing would break in half if a four-year-old sat on her lap. I wished I could buy her a cheeseburger and a milkshake. I didn’t have physical food, but I could feed her. Unless I killed her. Crap.
“Well, let’s just get this over with.” Action is always better than brooding in my book. I yanked off my jacket and shirt and began to unbutton my jeans.
Daniel overwhelmed me, crossing the space between us in a flash. He crushed his lips to mine, grabbed my ass, and squeezed hard enough to hurt. I opened my mouth to protest and tried to shove him back, but it was no more effective than pressing against a mountain. A mountain made of very warm, muscular flesh.
“You must reciprocate now.”
“What? Get off me, T.T.B.!”
“If you want to live through this, you must kiss me back. Kiss me with passion or we shall die. Christophe approaches.”
Well, when he put it that way, I decided to get into the act. Goddess could he kiss. He growled low in his throat when I threaded my arms around his nape and buried my fingers in the short hair there. The soft, slick strands slid through my fingers, and I couldn’t keep from grabbing and pulling it. The heated pressure of his erection against my belly increased. He picked me up off the floor and wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Mmmm…” Damn, the thick length of his cock rubbing my crotch turned my blood to fire.
“Well now, it will never do to ignore poor Dominique.” A silken drawl broke the spell of Daniel’s kiss. “Give the girl some attention, Guardian. If you can’t handle both females, I’ll step in and assist you.”
Daniel turned his head and snarled. “Keep your tongue behind your teeth, Christophe. I am charged with Blooding the Vessel, not you.”
I slanted my gaze sideways and recoiled in shock at the Feeler’s appearance.
Flanked by two vampires I recognized from my father’s court, the Empath’s features appeared to be melted. One eye drooped halfway down his cheek, and the lips on that side slid almost to the neck. My disgust must have shown, because he let out a barking laugh.
“What? Don’t fancy a shag with me? I have much to recommend me where it counts.” He rubbed his groin and chuckled when I hid my face.
Daniel slid me to the floor and used one arm to push me behind his right side. This was one time I really didn’t mind.
“I was sent to make sure you were doing your duty, Guardian. If you do not, there are others here who will be happy to fill in as it were.” The Feeler stalked toward me with a gliding walk that belied the misshapen body.
“He feeds on strong emotion. Do not give him more than you already have.”
Daniel’s thoughts wisped through my head, the sound so light I thought I’d imagined it. Feeding on fear would do a lot to explain his grotesque appearance. The long, gnarled fingers, pointy teeth, and melted wax look hit all my buttons. Freddy Krueger dunked in a vat of acid with the Joker.
He traced one dirty fingernail from the corner of my right eye, down my cheek and neck, until coming to rest on the mound of my breast. My heartbeat fluttered and heaved as though I’d been hauling ass ahead of a pride of lions, but I kept my face relaxed and neutral. Point to me.
Daniel grabbed Christophe’s hand and bent the wrist back until I heard things pop. “Do not forget who I am.”
He hissed at Daniel but retreated a few steps, then turned to address the Incubi at the door. “Send someone. I’m hungry.”
Christophe moved to one of the chairs by the fireplace. I looked at the doorway to see the two Incubi who had accompanied him regarding me, their Hunger filling their eyes and creeping over my body in cold tentacles. I shuddered and inched closer to Daniel. They shut the door without making any further eye contact.
Daniel covered my hand with his and squeezed until I looked up. I blinked, gazing into blue eyes darkened with worry and what may have been an apology. Not that I cared. All the fear and anger I’d let go while he kissed me roared back to the surface. T.T.B. shook his head back and forth once and leaned closer until his forehead touched mine.
“Let…listen…”
Huh. Apparently I could block him out if I really wanted. Interesting. He rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand and hummed a few bars of something under his breath.
“Crash, into me—” The words spilled from my lips. His face lit up before he shuttered the emotion away. He kissed the back of my hand. Uh-oh. My internal radar started going crazy. Something big and important was about to happen.
Daniel looked at me with such resolve and absolute certainty in his eyes my heart tripped over itself and climbed into my throat.
“I don’t know what you’re about to do, but don’t. This room’s purpose is pretty obvious and since you just sold me out, I’d rather we keep things professional from now on.”
I yanked my hand free and stalked toward an ottoman on the other side of the room. When I noticed the rings in the floor to the front of it that had obvious wear marks from use, I turned to head back the other way. Great.
“I did not sell you out. I tried to warn you things were not as
they were when you left, but you refused to listen to reason. That stubborn impudence of yours is going to land you in larger and more dangerous situations than you can handle. I am as much a prisoner as you.”
Daniel reeled Dominique into his body, caressing her lower back. “Miranda, come here. We must begin the ceremony.”
I snorted and walked forward a few steps and then back again. I could pace. Pacing was good. The sight of his long fingers dancing over her skin pissed me off.
She rose onto tiptoe, crushing her lips to his, running her tongue over the seam of his mouth.
“Obviously we’re screwed. And you’re preoccupied with Fuck Me Hard Barbie. I’m still pissed about the secret mind speak. Don’t all you vamps have access to this Jedi mind trick? You didn’t want to do it before, why now? And what’s with the Vessel thing?”
He opened his mouth and gave her a French kiss to die for. I clenched my fists against the urge to rip her ratty hair out. “If you refer to our ability to communicate thusly, one consciousness to another, I promised to stay out of your head. Not all vampires have the ability; some can hear only or in contrast transmit only. That is why I want you to remain silent. There are guards stationed at the door. I will explain the Vessel thing later. What is a Jedi?”
Well, this was new. “How can you not know what a Jedi is? Where have you been living, under a freaking rock?”
I walked over and peeled Dominique’s hand off his ass, inserting myself between them.
Daniel reeled me in tight to his chest and bent down to kiss me. Dominique huffed and tried to re-plaster herself to his torso. That wasn’t happening. I turned to her, fitting my backside to his groin, and captured her lips with mine.
I blushed and rested my fingertips on her hip bones. My teeth knocked into hers, and I licked her chin. Making out with other women had never been on my agenda, and somehow I’d never fed a female vampire. Perhaps Daniel was right about my magic seeking a mate. Her thin lips found mine, and she took control. I tried to pretend I was kissing a man. It didn’t work. Her breasts kept getting in the way.
Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) Page 13