Part of me begged and pleaded with myself to go back to the music and laughter and revelry of the ball. But I knew that wasn’t what my heart and my stubbornness were leading me to do.
I chose the front door and held my dress so I didn't trip on my way out.
There were over two dozen cars waiting in our sprawling circular driveway, drivers bored out of their minds, waiting for their masters to finish their fun. I was grateful to see Daringly was engaged in friendly banter with a handful of them. These were his colleagues, and he was enjoying some fresh air.
I looked sorely out of place among them as I struggled with my heels and whooshing dress on the pavement. But I stumbled over toward Daringly and his eyes went wide. He took his hat off his balding head and placed it over his heart.
"Well, you look lovely this evening, Miss Eloise. Is there something I can do for you?"
I tried not to be distracted by the surprised stares the other drivers were giving me. I had a mission to accomplish, no matter how stupid it probably was. Everything I did was pretty much stupid looking back on it. "I need you to drive me somewhere faster than you've ever driven me before."
The challenge brought a smile to Daringly's face, and his hat was placed tightly back on his head. "Then let's get on the road, shall we?"
Fourteen
Arden
“Please, just let me go. I won’t tell anyone what happened. I don’t want to die.”
The larger of the two lackeys that had been assigned to accompany me on the mission gave a sneering laugh at the begging boy. The kid had already endured a solid hour of beating. I was surprised he was even still conscious.
The vampire, Holsten, ruffled the kid’s hair before cocking his arm back and taking a swing at the boy’s gut.
The kid, Joseph was his name according to the files I’d stolen, let out a whimper. It was all he had left in him. Snot ran down his face as he struggled to look up at us through swollen, bruised eyes.
“You already have the shipment, you don’t need me.”
Holsten’s partner, Leo, crossed his arms over his chest and came to stand next to me. He smelled of sweat. A combination of his and poor Joseph’s, no doubt.
“Kid would’ve had a bright future in this business, man. He hauled almost double the load Jardin’s carrier boys do, and the border inspectors didn’t bat an eye. Shame he was working for Leona, eh?”
I didn’t say a word. Leo was clearly annoyed that I was a statue supervisor for the night.
What can I say? My heart just wasn’t in it.
I watched as Holsten continued his masterpiece. Blood trickled as Joseph’s lip split. Not to say blood hadn’t been flowing before then. He’d made the mistake of biting his lip early on.
Joseph was young. His ID card said twenty-three, but that was obviously fake. Border inspectors were as daft as they were easy to pay off.
The warehouse we were in echoed the sounds of the beating that was going on inside. Joseph’s truck, filled with cooled blood of various types, was parked in the corner out of the eyes of any patrolling cops.
Holsten paused, his brows furrowed in an inquisitive look. He wasn’t a very attractive vampire, which was hard to come by.
“Yo, Leo, you hear something outside?”
Leo groaned in response. “No, but I’ll check it out. We’re about to butcher this kid and I don’t want anyone interrupting.”
I put out an arm to stop Leo from leaving so quickly. “I thought we’re supposed to bring the carrier boy to Jardin?”
Leo shoved my arm out of the way and lazied to the entrance of the warehouse. “Change of plans, hotshot.”
I gritted my fangs. Cleaning up after a vampire kill was the last thing on my list of things I wanted to do that night. I rubbed my temples, waiting for Leo to come back in and give us the all-clear.
Things would have been so much simpler if he did.
Instead, the door to the warehouse swung back open, and my heart dropped into my toes.
“Found this tramp sniffing around outside, lads.”
Leo was pulling a girl by her hair. Her beautiful brown hair. Her eyes going wide as she realized who she was being dragged to.
Eloise.
And what the hell was she wearing? It was stunning, don’t get me wrong. But not what my Eloise would ever wear.
My Eloise?
Leo threw her to the hard ground. She barely got her arms in front of her in time to stop her head from smacking the floor.
I clenched my fists. I had to play this right. If they knew I knew her…
Eloise lifted herself into a sitting position. A twinge of pride hit me to see that she was hiding her fear pretty well. But I knew that look deep in the back of her eyes. She was scared.
Holsten chuckled. “This is not what I expected, but damn, I am not disappointed.”
I shot him a glare.
“Leo, why would you bring her in here? She’s probably drunk and lost or something. Set her loose in the woods out back and I’m sure her boyfriend will find her in the morning.”
Leo glanced at me quizzically. “You can’t be serious.”
Eloise watched me silently. A tear was forming in her eyes, but she quickly blinked it away. She only broke eye contact with me long enough to check on the carrier boy.
Had she come to try to save him? I had to stop myself from laughing. I was gonna have a hysterical break; I swear.
Leave it to Eloise to decide she was done being the damsel in her fairytale. She wanted to play the hero.
For as bright as she was, she was still kinda clueless when it came to the world of vampires.
“I am serious. Are we in the business of killing little girls now?”
Leo looked to Holsten for some backup. Young vampires were just so bloodthirsty. Then again, Evangeline was barely younger than me and she would have put these two to shame.
She would have already killed Eloise.
I thanked my lucky stars that Evangeline had been sent on a separate errand for Jardin.
Holsten stepped away from the carrier boy and I swore under my breath. His attention was on our new arrival, and that was not a good thing by a long shot.
“Listen, Arden. You’re a good guy and all, but you’re not in charge of this assignment. So I think we’re gonna go with my plan and make sure there are no witnesses.”
“Jardin won’t be happy about that. He likes to leave at least one person to tell the tale, you know? Makes him feel like the bogeyman.”
Holsten shrugged. “Jardin can kiss my behind just this once. Cause I think that little lady is going to taste divine.”
Eloise tensed on the ground in front of me, and my hair stood on end.
The game was up.
I had to make a choice now.
I couldn’t watch Eloise die. I’d denied my feelings for long enough. I hadn’t been able to sleep a wink. Thinking about her was the only thing I could do.
But if I crossed Monseigneur Jardin... I’d be betraying my master. My creator. He gave me the greatest gift any man could ask for. Eternal life.
The second greatest gift.
My body went numb as I locked eyes with Eloise. What is forever if it’s spent in regret?
My choice was made.
It wasn’t an easy choice. Not by a long shot. It’d be a lot of nights on the run. Days in hiding. Jardin wouldn’t take this lightly.
But the alternative was worse than anything Jardin could do to me.
Holsten and Leo took their first steps toward Eloise. She let out a peep of a cry. I broke.
In an instant, I was in front of her. I put myself in between her and my two coworkers. They glared at me, dumbfounded.
“You’ll get your turn with her,” Leo grumbled.
A growl formed deep in the back of my throat. I flashed my fangs. “You’re not going to get an inch closer to her.”
Holsten and his buddy got into fighting stances that matched mine. “What the hell, man?”
&nb
sp; I lunged forward, jumping on Leo. He fell backward to the floor with a resounding thud. I threw a punch hard at his jaw, a crack ringing loud and clear in the spacious warehouse.
He yelled profanities at me.
Holsten ran forward and grabbed both of my arms, trying to pull me off the other lackey. I snapped my head back, connecting with his nose. He howled and released me as he checked his nose.
Thank god vampires are obsessed with her pretty faces.
I saw out of the corner of my eye that Eloise was crawling along the floor. It was not a graceful movement as she struggled in her tight-fitting dress. Slowly but surely, she was heading over to the carrier boy.
Leo pulled himself off the floor and came barreling toward me. I reached into my shoe and effortlessly spun to avoid the oncoming attack, stabbing my attacker with the dagger I’d had hidden.
Blood spurted from the wound in his back as he stumbled away from me. The stench was atrocious to my senses.
But Leo was already back at it. And I hissed in pain as he sunk his fangs into my arm.
“Bastard,” I spat.
Unfortunately for Leo, he had left himself exposed. I plunged the dagger into his neck, hitting an artery. His teeth unlatched themselves from my flesh and he gurgled on his own blood.
What a way to go.
There was a crash and a scream.
My head whipped around to see Holsten grabbing Eloise’s leg. Joseph, the carrier boy, was on the ground. His chair had tipped over, probably from Eloise trying to free him before she got caught.
Time to end this.
Holsten’s face was beet red as he pulled Eloise closer to him, his fangs glinting in the poor lighting of the warehouse. She was smart, though. She pulled back her free leg and jabbed her heel into his eye.
A piece of her skirt tore as he pulled away to hold his face. With the distraction my sweet Eloise had provided, I grabbed the dagger out of Leo’s body and threw it.
It whistled through the air and met its target with clean precision. The hilt of the dagger was the only thing you could see sticking out of Holsten’s skull.
He fell with a thud.
I took a deep breath as I took in the scene.
Holsten and Leo were dead.
Eloise looked terrified.
I was a dead man walking whenever Jardin heard about this.
Fifteen
Eloise
I blinked. I blinked again. My head was running faster than I could keep up with, and my hands shook as I stared at the dead bodies on the ground in front of me. Arden's chest heaved and attempted futilely to wipe the blood from his face. I looked down and saw my own ensemble had spatters of crimson. Tearing my gaze away from the sight, my eyes locked with Arden. Looking into his dark brown eyes was the breaking point, and I burst into tears.
In an instant he was by my side, wrapping his arms around me. I ignored the sticky liquid that the embrace transferred onto me. To just be held by him was more than I could have hoped for. I ran through the past fifteen minutes in my mind. If he had killed those two men... just to save me... then he wasn't too far gone. He wasn't the horrible person I had forced myself to think he was after I had learned who he worked for. He clearly couldn't be controlled by his boss. So maybe that meant he could be saved.
Maybe it was okay to love him.
He pulled back and placed his hands on either side of my face, ensuring I couldn't turn away from him. The concern was evident on his face as he spoke. "Are you okay? Eloise, tell me that you're okay."
I couldn't form words right then, so I nodded my head. Relief washed over him and he placed a kiss on my forehead. The warmth from where his lips touched my skin radiated outward, filling me with butterflies and a sense of safety. I was sore, that much was for certain, but things were going to be okay. They had to be.
My mother’s carrier boy stirred on the ground, an aching groan coming from him as he struggled against the rope that tied him to the tipped-over chair. I turned away from Arden to check on the carrier. He had been beaten pretty badly before I got there. The evidence was in the large black and blue splotches over his body, seen through the tears in his clothes. There was a deep gash on his arm from defending himself from the onslaught. He was so young. I patted his hair and tried to tell him he was safe and I was going to get him help. I don't think he understood what I was saying, but he relaxed just enough that I was able to make quick work of freeing him from his restraints.
Footsteps told me that Arden had come up behind me and I looked up at his frowning face. His fists clenched. "I am so sorry that any of this happened. I should have done something to stop it before you even got here, before they even captured the carrier."
"I'm not going to lie, Arden." I stood up from the boy and stared down Arden with a fierce gaze. "If you were able to stop them once my life was on the line, you could have stopped them before that point too."
The disappointment and regret that his eyes conveyed made my heart hurt for him. "But I can't ignore that you did stop it in the end. You saved this boy’s life. I can't ever repay you for that."
His brow furrowed in surprise. He must have expected I was going to yell at him for a lot longer than that. But there wasn't time for any of that. We needed to get the carrier to somewhere safe where he could receive medical attention. Before I could suggest a course of action, a cell phone began to ring. The sudden loud sound in the middle of the empty and silent warehouse put me on edge. Arden pulled the phone out of his pocket and his face went white. He accepted the incoming call and placed it on speakerphone so that I could hear.
"Jardin," Arden answered.
The voice on the other end of the line was as cold and as harsh as ice. "Ah, Arden. Did you think I would really send you on a mission unsupervised when it involved the mother of your little ex-girlfriend?"
My heart raced. He knew what Arden had done. He knew that two of his men were dead and who was responsible. I gawked at Arden, but he raised his hand to tell me to remain silent. When he spoke to Jardin, his voice was even and confidant, not betraying his own increasing panic.
"The mission never included hurting Eloise. I didn't get paid enough for that." I knew he was just covering with what he thought Jardin would react best to, but his words sat sour on my stomach.
There was a crackling laugh. "That's cute, really. But don't bullshit me, boy. You know I can't let this slide. I allow this and next thing you know, everyone's pulling crap like that. No, there has to be punishment to fit the crime. I'm out two able-bodied men, and a stolen blood shipment."
Arden clenched his teeth, and I saw his grip on his phone tighten. I was almost concerned he would break the device. "You can have your damn blood shipment. I'm taking Eloise and the carrier and I'm walking away, Jardin. You won't have to see me again."
My heart leapt in my throat. Was he really going to leave everything behind for me? Or was that yet another lie he was telling for Jardin?
"I'm sorry, but that's just not an option. You belong to me and you leave when I say you do. If you try to get out on your own, there will be a reckoning, boy. Are you sure you want to bring that on yourself and your little lady? After all that I’ve offered you?"
There was fire in Arden's eyes as he hissed. "Give it your best damn shot."
With that, he shut the phone off and I saw his chest rise and fall at a worrying pace. He looked at me and I found myself scared by the ferocity he had about him. Before I could say or do anything, his body was pressed against mine and his arms were around my waist. His lips crashed against mine and I first stiffened in surprise, but then melted against his touch. My head spun as the tension and the pain and the danger of the situation joined with the passion in his kiss, and it was too much for me to handle. I had to rely on him holding me up.
I moaned, and the sound snapped him out of the moment. I felt an ache of longing as he pulled away. He looked me over once more and moved to the carrier boy on the floor. With one strong motion, he had the boy on h
is shoulders in a firefighter's carry position. He made his way to the exit of the warehouse and I followed closely behind, not wanting to be too far from him when we were out in the dark of night. I shivered, my dress offering me no protection from the cold breeze.
I was glad I had sent Daringly away once he dropped me at the warehouse. I couldn't imagine what would have happened to him if I hadn't. Since we needed a ride, Arden commandeered one of the cars of the dead goons back in the warehouse. He opened the back door and laid the carrier down across the seats so that he could continue to rest. He opened the front passenger seat for me and I stepped in, carefully gathering my dress around me. He slammed the door shut once I was in, and the sound brought my growing headache to the forefront of my attention. I was going to be sore the next morning for sure.
Arden jumped into the driver's seat and turned the vehicle on, the engine purring to life. He took a deep breath and his gaze fell on me. "I've put you in a very dangerous position, Eloise. I can never apologize enough. But what I can do is give my last breath protecting you."
I placed my finger on his lip to quiet him. "Hopefully you won't need to give a last breath for a very long time. I know where we can go for now until we figure out what to do next. Somewhere that Jardin wouldn't dare touch us."
He scrunched up his face as if he had smelled something bad. "I hate to ask where."
I nodded. "We have to go to my mother, Arden. The mansion is secure, she has the guard force we need, and, as much as Jardin can threaten her, she is not a force so easily taken down."
"I'm the last person she wants to see," he interjected.
"Well, she's going to have to deal with it for now. If she doesn't let you in, then that means I'm not going in either. I don't think she's willing to make that sacrifice."
Arden's hand reached over and grabbed my own from my lap, giving it a tight squeeze. "We aren't anywhere close to being in the clear yet. It's going to be dangerous."
"Then let's stop wasting time. The boy needs medical attention quickly."
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