by A and E Kirk
Sitting behind a massive desk, Dimitri looked more pug than bear. Pudgy face, flat nose, jiggling jowls, double chin, no neck. Ebony hair slicked back with enough grease to deep-fry a buffalo and round, moldy-green eyes that reflected the fungus that was once his soul.
A small monkey sat on the edge of the desk, a metal collar around his thin neck with a chain attached and latched to a clip embedded in the wood. When Jaeger leaned on Dimitri’s desk, the monkey squealed and jumped away, but was yanked to a stop when he hit the end of the chain.
“Come on,” Jaeger said. “Discretion is one thing. This guy’s a killer.”
“Who am I to judge?” Dimitri shrugged. “Miss Blackwood, sit down.”
Kiara stood on the high back of her seat and kept the chair balanced on one leg as she reached for the ceiling. At Dimitri’s command, she hopped down and flumped cross-legged in the center of her plastic seat.
Kiara said in an overly cheery voice, “We’re, what, at least twenty feet below ground? More? Less?”
“More or less,” Dimitri said. “Ain’t none of your concern.”
Kiara fidgeted. She could not imagine why anyone would have an underground office. It smelled musty and dank. The walls were painted coffin-brown. Her skin itched.
Then there were the voices. They were not like the ones she usually heard. These were just moans, groans, and crying, with a few all-out wails.
Two of the bouncers who had interrupted her exhilarating time on the dance floor to “invite” them to Dimitri’s office were guarding the only door. In the hall outside, they had passed two Bengal tigers, muscles shimmering under glossy fur. Kiara could still hear them prowling and rumbling low growls.
Jaeger’s shouting punctured her concentration. “Kidnap us and my father will bury you alive.”
Kiara grimaced at the last words.
“Relax.” Dimitri waved a hand through the cigarette’s swirling smoke. “Just Miss Blackwood. And I’m not kidnapping her so much as…relocating.”
“Back to Nightmare—the VLAAD Institute?” Kiara would take any place over this office.
“Rusila’s reign is over,” Dimitri said. “You’re gonna have new owners from now on.”
Jaeger grimaced. “What? Who?”
“Whoever pays the most,” Dimitri smiled. “This little lady is the supernatural Holy Grail, and I can’t thank you enough for bringing her right to my door. At the price she’ll bring and the powers I can bargain for, I’m set for life. Not even the Queen of the Undead and her ticks will be able to touch me. I can afford to leave you be, little wolf.”
Jaeger surged to his feet, shouting, but Kiara heard a different voice instead.
“This insect thinks he may take us. Us!” Nero roared.
He stood beside Kiara in his military uniform, his face red with rage, veins throbbing on his neck and forehead.
“To think that anyone believes they may lift a hand against us! He shall die for such impertinence!” Nero withdrew his sword from his hip and hovered the blade under Dimitri’s jowls. “We must make an example of him.”
Still shouting, and completely unaware of Kiara’s current hallucination, Jaeger jumped from his chair so fast it toppled over. The two bouncers pushed off the wall and advanced on the prince’s back.
“You will die for such impertinence,” Kiara said.
The bouncers froze just steps behind Jaeger. Dimitri’s jowls jiggled as he raised his brows. Jaeger slid her a startled look.
Kiara rose to her feet. “I am Kiara Blackwood, the true Oleander. How foolish to presume you are able to capture an immortal serial killer.”
“Now end him!” Nero slashed his sword in anger.
“Cute.” Dimitri snorted a laugh. “Your memory really is a mess, huh? You weren’t a serial killer. You were a guard dog. A psychopath with a scythe and unprecedented breeding. But at the end of the day, you were nothing but a pet obedient to your owners.”
Nero pressed his sword into the soft flesh of Dimitri’s jiggly neck, but no blood dripped down. “He lies.”
“I would never suffer owners,” Kiara said.
“Call ‘em what you want,” Dimitri shrugged. “But you killed on the vamps’ command. All those years ago, it was your merciless brutality that helped them rise to become the most powerful supernaturals in Europe. Then, poof, you up and disappeared.” Dimitri’s eyes flicked suspicion between Jaeger and Kiara. “Is that why you’re cozying up to Miss Blackwood here? To use her to take down your enemies and restore power to your pack? I heard you were ambitious.”
“Of course not.” Jaeger pushed off the desk and folded his arms.
The voices in her head were back. Louder. Sadder. More pained. The walls jiggled gelatinous and oozed closer in her peripherals, trapping her in.
“Lies! Lies!” Nero screeched. “I am too powerful to be lorded over. I ruled! I rule everything! Kill him!”
Nero chopped wildly at Dimitri, increasingly furious when the rotund man remained annoyingly intact. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing Nero to fade away.
“Miss Blackwood?” Dimitri sounded like the solicitous host. “Would you like some water? Blood? You don’t look so good. You can rest when we’re airborne. Speaking of.” He stood and glanced at his Rolex. “Gotta fly. Jet’s waiting.”
“You can’t sell her,” Jaeger growled.
Dimitri barked a humorless laugh. “Do it all the time, boy.”
Kiara’s stomach rolled. Bile sloshed up her throat and burned. The voices keened in her head at a high pitch. She understood.
“Kiara, don’t worry.” Jaeger touched her cheek, then turned to Dimitri. “If you know what she is, you know you can’t make her do anything. She’ll bury you.”
Kiara cringed. That word again. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
Dimitri motioned. The bouncers grabbed Jaeger from behind and pulled him back, arms locked. Jaeger struggled until a sizzling buzz sent him into spasms. A burning smell permeated the air. Jaeger recovered, but looked dazed, and without the bouncers holding him up, it was doubtful he could stand on his own.
Kiara swallowed, and forced herself to breathe deeper than the quick shallow gasps the panic caused.
“That was just a light Taser, because I’m such a gentleman. But I can up the juice if you push me.” Dimitri nodded at his men, one of which put the muzzle of an automatic to Jaeger’s temple. “If she puts up a fight, I’ll have him bury a bullet in your head. And if that doesn’t make her cooperate, I’ve got a whole army ready.” More beefy guys crowded the doorway. A lioness slunk in and crouched, snarling. “I’m betting she can’t take all of us before we bring her down.”
“Not a good bet,” Jaeger said, his words thick. “Go ahead, Kiara. Do your worst.”
So burdened with sadness and fear, Kiara could barely lift her eyes to Jaeger. “No. I’ll go with him.”
“What? No!” Jaeger jerked violently in the bouncers’ grip. “Do your whole crazy-ninja-death thing.”
“Ha!” Dimitri beamed at Kiara. “That’s the spirit. And I’d like your word that you—”
“Won’t try to kill you?” she said quietly. “You have it on the condition that Jaeger makes it out of here unharmed and you tell him right now all you know about the shifter who is framing me.”
“Agreed. But I don’t know much,” Dimitri shrugged. “Lately, the only person looking for this kind of guy is a sorceress. I don’t have names or numbers on these freelance contractors, but they’ll call me from time to time looking for work. I gave her number to several such individuals.”
“You mean murderers,” Jaeger said with disgust.
“People gotta make a living. I haven’t a clue if she hired anyone. I never heard from her again, but the first Kiara killing went down,” Dimitri took a long, thoughtful drag on his cigarette, “less than a week after.”
“Who was the sorceress?” Kiara asked.
Dimitri’s eyes flicked sideways. “Don’t know. But the number she gave me belonged to
the witches’ isle.”
“Mai’s coven?” Jaeger said with irritation. “That doesn’t help worth a damn. Mai presides over thousands of magical practitioners.”
“Not my problem.” Dimitri stubbed out his cigarette. “Now let’s go.”
“Kiara, don’t do this,” Jaeger pleaded, his golden eyes paling in desperation.
He struggled in earnest against the men holding him, until Kiara cupped his cheek and smiled, a moment before her solid right hook rendered him unconscious.
CHAPTER 41
Jaeger regained consciousness as two bouncers dragged him down a hall toward an elevator. He struggled to get some footing. “Guys, let me go or I’m gonna kick each and every one of your asses.”
One of them laughed. “Maybe you could threaten us with Alpha’s wrath again. Might be more convincing.”
“Yeah. Just be glad you’re getting out with your life,” the other said.
“Fine,” Jaeger said.
He went completely limp. As Dimitri’s guards paused to readjust their grips, Jaeger jumped to his feet and slammed the back of his fists into the two men’s noses. They reeled from the blows. Jaeger dropped one man with a one-two punch to the jaw and grabbed the arm of the other. He twisted until there was a pop. Jaeger then pulled the screaming man’s gun from his holster and whacked it against his head. With that, the guard stopped screaming and collapsed to the ground.
Jaeger looked down at the unconscious bodies. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Ding! The elevator doors opened behind him. Two new armed guards spent one shocked moment taking in the scene before pulling their guns.
Jaeger froze mid turn and tossed aside the weapon, putting his hands up with a groan. “Ah, come on.”
The two guards eased out, firearms trained on the young prince.
“Turn around,” one said.
“Sure, sure. You win.”
Jaeger slowly started to turn, then grabbed the man’s wrist and spun him around. Jaeger got a finger on the trigger of the gun and shot twice at the second guard, a bullet piercing each thigh.
An explosion echoed against the walls. The wounded man dropped to the floor, grabbing his legs and moaning in pain. The guard in Jaeger’s grip punched the prince’s lower back and knocked the smirk off the werewolf’s face. Jaeger repeatedly slammed an elbow back, pounding on the side of the guard’s head until he went limp, blood streaming down his face.
Jaeger smiled down at the pile of Dimitri’s fallen soldiers. “Oh, yeah. Take that!”
Ding!
The elevator opened. Someone grabbed Jaeger from behind, a steely arm around his throat, and hauled him backwards inside just as the doors closed with another cheerful ding!
In a smooth, violent motion, the intruder wrenched Jaeger around, fisted his shirt in two hands, and slammed him up against the wall housing the buttons, several of which dug painfully into Jaeger’s lower back. A short alarm sounded, and the car jolted to a stop.
Jaeger blinked to clear his vision.
Then he wrapped the intruder in a hug.
Or tried to.
Leontes slammed him up against the wall again, rattling the elevator walls. With eyes black as pitch, fangs bared long and lethal, the vampire snarled, “Tell me where she is or I will kill you.”
CHAPTER 42
At Kiara’s adamant refusal to step foot in an elevator, the armed group moved to the nearest stairwell. Dimly lit, humid, and the air smelled sour. Dew slithered down rusted railings. Each landing had a large, hastily spray-painted number. Dmitri led the way, keeping three men between him and Kiara at all times. Five more guards brought up the rear.
She sat down on a step, fiddling with her ankle strap. “These shoes are killer. Were heels around back in my day? What was my day?”
“Pick her up,” Dmitri ordered.
The men stared at each other until the largest one finally lifted her up, cradling her in his arms, but keeping a wary eye.
“You’re very warm.” Kiara touched a hand to his chest, making him flinch. “Are the prisoner cells upstairs?”
“No,” the man said.
“Then why are we going up? I’m a prisoner, so I should go down to the bottom. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Dimitri glanced back. “The helicopter is on the roof.”
Kiara nodded. “But the prisoners are in cells on the lowest floor.”
“No,” Dimitri said annoyed. “They’re on B three. Now shut up.”
“Thank you,” she said, then somersaulted backwards out of the henchman’s arms and dropped like a stone between the narrow space in the center of the stairwell, yelling “Wheeee!”
When she spotted a spray-painted B3, she caught the rail and used the jolt of the sudden stop to swing up and onto the landing.
From above, Dimitri bellowed, “Get her!”
Kiara heard the rip of clothes and roar of beasts as she slipped through a door. A string of bulbs arched across the ceiling with a constant hum of electricity. Exposed pipes dripped water, which left stains of rot and mold on the concrete walls. The whispered moans of pain and despair drummed much louder in her head.
She massaged her temples. “Are we sure they’re real?”
“Kill, kill, kill, kill,” Nero hissed as he marched down the hall.
The fact that he had devolved to that particular single word was a worrisome sign indeed. Kiara feared she would not be able to keep him in check if the whispers were true. She wished for Leontes’ presence to keep things from getting out of hand.
Nero rounded a corner and withdrew his sword. “Aha!”
Four guards leaned against the hallway walls in varying positions of ease and boredom. They carried large guns slung over their shoulders or strapped to their belts. Startled by her presence, their hands reached for the weapons.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!” Nero shouted.
Kiara threw a shoe at the closest guard. As he swatted it away, she unleashed a roundhouse kick to his head, knocking him aside. She ran up the wall, back flipped, and on her way down buried a fist into Guard Two’s face. She slammed her foot against his chest, sending him tumbling into Guard Three.
Kiara landed on her knees, the barrel of an assault rifle pressed into her cheek. Guard Four smirked and pulled the trigger.
Kiara tilted her head sideways.
As the deafening boom of the bullet blasted next to her ear, she used the remaining shoe in her hand to knock the weapon into the air, then swung the stiletto and stabbed the heel into the man’s eye. As he grunted in agony, she kicked his knee. With a crack of bone and a shriek of pain, he went down. Kiara caught the falling assault rifle and slammed it against the side of his head. Blood exploded from his mouth, along with a tooth. He splayed out on the ground, eyes closed.
Kiara sagged against a wall, panting. Nero scurried up and down the hall, stabbing his sword into the bodies, chanting under his breath, “Kill, kill, kill.”
None of the guards so much as twitched.
She pushed off the wall and went back to grab her shoes, pulling the one out of the man’s eye with a wet slurp. A sudden wave of dizziness darkened her vision.
“Stop it,” Kiara snapped.
“That is not me,” Nero said.
A door slammed. The loud clang echoed through the halls. Snarls of beasts were followed closely by thundering feet. Nero charged toward them, back the way she had just come. Kiara left him to follow the other voices in her head. She began to sweat, limbs growing unbearably heavy.
She dragged two of the unconscious guards along as she forced herself to keep moving. Eventually, she stumbled up a short flight of stairs into a large room lined with cells. Behind the floor-to-ceiling bars, people huddled, shivering and scared, covered in filth, blood, cuts, and bruises. Their eyes shimmered with abject misery. A pile of unconscious wolves lay near the splayed out forms of several big jungle cats.
The air swelled with the scent of earth, excrement, sweat, and fear. Kiara could p
ractically choke on their despair. She may have been the last person Dmitri intended to sell, but she was hardly the first.
“Kill, kill, kill,” Nero’s words chanted in her head, but she shook them off and bounded toward the sorry group. “Fret not. I’ve come to your rescue!”
Kiara grabbed one of the doors and pulled. It groaned, but did not break free. Unease skittered cold down her spine. It should have ripped off with ease. She was more tired than she thought. Kiara slumped wearily against the cell, enjoying the cool metal against her sweat soaked skin.
“Okay,” she said, working to draw deep, slow breaths. “Everyone take a second and then we’re going to charge out of here fast as we can. Who’s with me?”
A few lifted their heads. Eyes blinking in slow motion, gaze unfocused, pupils dilated. They seemed only vaguely aware of her presence.
“That is not inspiring confidence in my grand rescue.”
With a bellowing roar, a tiger leapt into the space. With a great force of will, Kiara concentrated her strength. White spots dotted her vision. She ripped the cell door clean off its hinges and flung it hard. The metal hit the beast and tossed it back into the hall. Bullets exploded into the room.
She had hoped to get the victims out before Dimitri’s reinforcements arrived, but with the drugs keeping their minds and bodies dull, it was impossible.
Kiara pointed a finger at the nearest prisoner slumped against a pile of large jungle cats. “I need you to do me a huge favor.”
CHAPTER 43
It did not take long for Leontes to find the first body. The second was close by, and he found more as he moved along.
“I recognize Kiara’s way of leaving bread crumbs. But…” Leontes finished checking the latest of Dimitri’s fallen guards. “This is different.”
“How so?” Jaeger asked.
Leontes rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “They are all still alive.”