BloodPledge

by Tima Maria Lacoba

  Jenny’s fingers squeezed mine, and her other hand grabbed my arm.

  ‘Come lady, you’ve already disrupted my plans, and unless you wish to see your friend killed, I suggest you come willingly.’ He beckoned me with a wave of his fingers.

  A wave of revulsion swept over me. Where are the men? Where’s Alec? I called out to him with my mind, but there was no response. My hands shook.

  Kari sucked in a breath. ‘Keep away from her you big ape or I’ll rip your ugly head off!’

  He raised one eyebrow. ‘You comparing me to a simian?’

  ‘If the monkey suit fits,’ she spat, and edged us back toward the bar. Kari was older, so I knew she’d be faster and stronger than Rasputin, and hopefully, his henchmen as well. Somehow I doubted even he would be arrogant enough to meet her head on. No wonder he resorted to using white-oak.

  Rasputin moved a step closer and raised his hand, exposing the strange-looking ring he wore. It was in the shape of a wolf’s head, and a tiny spike emerged from the forehead as he pressed it. ‘Useful little trinket,’ he said. ‘It only takes a scratch, and ash.’

  It had to be white-oak.

  His men laughed, fanned out and encircled us. Their black leather pants and ankle-length chunky boots squelched as they moved. One eyed Kari, the other Jenny. I glanced behind me. My best friend’s usual sparkle had gone, her eyes wide with fear. ‘Stay behind me, Jen.’

  ‘Come lady,’ Rasputin said. ‘There’s not much time. I promise you’ll be treated well.’ His voice was melodious and hypnotic, and his eyes – I couldn’t break away from their gaze. ‘One word from me and my men will kill your friends.’

  It sounded so reasonable, an easy decision to make. Then all would be well. I wanted to do as he asked, yet another part of my mind screamed against it. My feet began to move. I couldn’t stop myself.

  ‘That’s right, come to me, my lovely one.’ He took another step toward me.

  ‘No!’ Kari’s voice intruded, and she held me in place behind her. The urge to slap her rose up in me, and I struggled as much against myself as I did against her arm.

  I knew what he was doing, but I was powerless to do anything about it.

  ‘That’s it, my lovely. Break free. Come to me. You know you want to. Your family and friends will all be safe.’ His voice purred, and I was suffused with a sense of longing, wanting ...

  From somewhere in the distance, I heard Kari urging Jenny not to let go of me. She was yelling at that beautiful voice, telling it to shut up, threatening to chop off its tongue and feed it to the sharks.

  No! I tried to pull away and go to him but felt myself dragged back.

  ‘Laura, please.’ Jenny pleaded.

  A burning sensation on my finger, spreading to my hand. My mind was fuzzy. Still that voice, now more insistent. I had to obey.

  ‘Come!’

  My hand was burning. The pain was so intense I blinked and looked down. The eyes of the serpent were glowing; their deep scarlet filled my vision and enveloped my mind, and the fuzziness that had settled on my consciousness like a dark cloud was swept away by its blinding light. My mind belonged to me again.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m not coming with you.’ The burning pain in my hand receded.

  ‘I tried to make it easy for you, lady.’ Rasputin’s voice no longer oozed magnetic appeal. ‘I so abhor violence.’ With a jerk of his head and a hiss, he indicated for his men to act.

  Kari edged us back toward the bar then took up a fighting stance – slightly crouched, hands at the ready. Snarls filled the room.

  Think, Laura, think! There had to be something I could do. Then it came to me. My blood was poisonous to vampires. It had killed Maris, and if the threat of just being touched by it terrified Russell, why shouldn’t it have the same effect on Rasputin’s henchmen?

  I whispered over my shoulder to Jenny. ‘Find a knife. Anything sharp.’

  Behind me, Jenny rummaged through a drawer. ‘No knives. A corkscrew?’

  ‘Perfect!’ It had a sharp point. I grabbed it and, keeping my eyes on the advancing henchmen, gave myself a short, sharp stab in my middle finger. Ouch! Blood welled up.

  Holding my hand up as the blood dripped down onto my palm, I faced my would-be abductors. ‘I’m sure you’ve heard what my blood can do to you. Come any closer and you’ll feel it.’ I raised the corkscrew as well. ‘My blood’s on this and I won’t hesitate to use it.’ As good as a syringe.

  Rasputin’s henchmen stopped and cast a glance at their leader.

  Ha – a bleeding finger and corkscrew as deadly weapons.

  Rasputin stroked his beard and smiled. ‘Well done, lady. You win this round. But I assure you, the next one belongs to me.’

  His gaze flicked over my shoulder, and his smile faded. The black-leathered henchmen retreated to stand next to him.

  ‘Don’t bet on it.’ Sam appeared, sword poised. Blood was splattered on his grey shirt. He angled his head toward me. ‘Well done, Laura. If anyone of them tries to get close, go straight for the heart.’

  ‘I will,’ I said, hiding my fear. Pricking myself in the finger was all the stabbing I ever wanted to do.

  Rasputin hissed again and jerked his head toward Sam. His men hesitated, glanced at one another, shook their heads and dived out through the windows. It didn’t matter that they were closed. They crashed through the glass and disappeared into the water.

  Kari laughed. ‘Looks like monkey boy’s on his own.’

  Sam and Rasputin faced each other.

  ‘Sempronius.’ Rasputin’s voice took on that honey-sweet tone again, this time aimed at Sam. ‘We are Brethren. There’s no need to fight one other.’

  Sam stood his ground. Could he resist when I couldn’t?

  ‘Poor Sempronius, always the guard at home, forever stuck behind a computer. They only ask you when there’s no one else. How it must irk you.’

  How was it possible that such an evil man, as Rasputin, could attune his entire demeanour to appear so sympathetic?

  Sam’s sword hand shook. ‘Not true.’

  ‘They don’t appreciate you. I would never leave a great warrior such as you behind. Come join me.’

  Sam’s sword hand lowered.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Jenny cried.

  ‘Sam!’ Kari and I called out simultaneously.

  ‘Don’t listen.’ I said.

  ‘Deliver the Ingenii to me and I promise you’ll have your every desire.’ Rasputin pointed at me and smiled that evil smile.

  Sam raised his sword and turned toward us. Helplessly we watched him fight an inner struggle, his face contorted in a grimace. His legs propelled him forward, even as we saw him try to force his sword arm down with his other hand.

  Rasputin’s voice took on a deeper, more persuasive tone. ‘Good, Sempronius. Bring the Ingenii to me and I promise you’ll never be left behind.’ Sam’s eyes lost focus. He gave up the fight.

  Oh crap.

  I still held the bloodied corkscrew. My finger had stopped bleeding, but I didn’t want to use it on Sam. Anything but that.

  Sam raised his weapon and grabbed for me. Kari stepped in front of him. He threw her aside as if she were made of paper. She crashed into the settee at the other end of the room overturning it.

  Jenny screamed.

  I backed up, the corkscrew held before me like a weapon. ‘Sam, don’t. Remember who you are – Luc’s man. Fight it!’

  He stopped. A frown crossed his face.

  I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me and turned my head. Judy stood in the doorway, staring at Rasputin, her face livid. ‘Don’t you dare touch my daughter!’

  Where she’d been all this time, I had no idea, but her presence seemed to rattle Rasputin. He growled at her then yelled at Sam, ‘Bring her to me! This minute!’

  When Sam took another step toward me, Judy sprang between us, a wooden pool cue held aloft. Over his shoulder, I saw Kari rise and launch herself at Rasputin. They rolled on the floor in a tangle of arms
and legs.

  Sam blinked, dropped his sword and sank to his knees. He clutched his head and groaned.

  Kari had Rasputin on his back, one hand around his throat, the other encircling his wrist, the white-oak ring only inches from her face. Although her age was in her favour, I knew Rasputin would play dirty and negate any advantage she had. My hunch was proved right when Rasputin said, ‘Join with me, Karelia my sweet. I need you.’

  She wavered. Within a second, he had her pinned against the wall, the wolf’s-head ring with its deadly spike a hair’s breadth from her face.

  ‘Kari!’ I screamed. Throwing the corkscrew aside, I pushed past Judy and grabbed Sam’s fallen sword.

  ‘Laura, no!’ Judy called out.

  ‘That’s a white-oak spike in his ring.’

  ‘Oh God,’ Judy cried, and as I raised the sword, she ran toward Rasputin and slammed the pool cue against the back of his head. Wood splintered in all directions. He barely flinched.

  I raised the sword above my head and brought it down hard. The sharp steel sliced through both his wrists. Kari dropped to the ground and Rasputin howled. Staggering back, he glared at me, eyes wide with surprise, before he turned and jumped through the same broken window his men had crashed through earlier. The severed hands clawed at the ground, as if searching for their lost body.

  ‘Let me take that,’ Sam said and gently retrieved his sword from my grasp.

  Kari blinked up at me. Bile rose up in my throat at the realisation of what I had just done, and I barely had time to run from the room and lean over the side before I threw up.

  I was vaguely aware of voices, and the light pad of feet on the deck.

  ‘It’s okay, Laura, dear. Your mother’s here.’ Judy drew my hair back from my face while I emptied my stomach contents into the water.

  Alec’s voice came from a few feet away. ‘Laura! What’s wrong?’ He was at my side in an instant, water dripping from his hair and jeans. I grabbed his hand.

  Luc’s voice, a hand on my shoulder. ‘Laura, ma petite.’

  ‘What happened?’ Alec asked.

  ‘Rasputin was here. Tried to take Laura,’ Judy said.

  Luc swore.

  ‘I cut off his hands.’ I heaved again.

  ‘I’ll stay with her,’ Alec said. His hand replaced Judy’s and held back my hair.

  ‘Everyone’s okay,’ she said, but before I could add anything, another wrenching wave of nausea hit me.

  Fish are getting a free feed tonight, I perversely thought.

  ‘Come, ma Cherie,’ Luc said. ‘She’s in good hands.’

  Luc and Judy left. With nothing left to expel, my vomiting ceased. Alec wiped my brow with a wet handkerchief he’d retrieved from his jeans while I leant against him, exhausted, trembling.

  He handed the handkerchief to me, wrapped his arms around me and swore under his breath, his voice grim. ‘This won’t happen again.’

  I wiped my mouth and streaming eyes and tried to dislodge the disgusting image of Rasputin’s severed hands from my mind. ‘I think you like getting wet.’

  My cheek vibrated from the light rumble of Alec’s chest, before he sobered. ‘The Rebels were beneath the boat. It was a setup to draw us away from you and allow Rasputin to board.’ From the dangerous tone of his voice, I guessed he was angry with himself for allowing it to happen.

  ‘He wanted me to come with him, and I nearly did. He was so persuasive – his voice, his eyes.’ I shuddered at the memory. ‘Now I know how Mrs Henderson felt.’

  Alec’s arms tightened around me. ‘Mesmerisation doesn’t work on an Ingenii. Never has, and Brethren are immune to it. Yet, if Rasputin can....’ His voice dipped almost to a whisper. I looked up. His worried frown didn’t instil much confidence in me.

  ‘You can’t do that to each other?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. As far as I know, Rasputin’s skill was limited to humans before Timur transformed him. How did you break his hold?’

  ‘I didn’t. It was the ring. It started to burn, as if trying to get my attention, forcing me to look into its eyes. And when I did—’

  ‘You were free,’ he finished.

  ‘Uh huh.’

  He gazed at me for a while, and my mind replayed the sickening moment when the steel I wielded sliced through flesh and bone, like a knife carving through a joint of meat. Another tremor racked me.

  ‘You’re in shock, darling. Let’s get inside, and I’ll figure this out later.’

  ‘I cut off a man’s hands, Alec. I cut off a man’s hands.’ I wondered if the horror of it would ever leave me.

  ‘You saved your mother, Kari, Jenny and even Sam, from what I’ve heard. You did good, Laura. Keep telling yourself that. Your quick action saved their lives.’

  He was right, yet the haunting image was difficult to forget. I’d never physically hurt anyone before in my life. There hadn’t been any need. Was this yet another facet of my secure and sheltered old life slipping away? Who would’ve thought the old Laura could turn into Ingenii warrior princess? I’d surprised myself. But it was one experience I didn’t want to repeat.

  It had been such a brazen attack against the very heart of the Principate. I was their ticket to escape the endless nights that their existence decreed. Yet they had chosen this path; chosen to become Brethren, knowing the price of immortality meant sacrificing the daylight. What was the saying, having your cake and eating it, too?

  The boat shuddered as the engines started. Cal appeared and unhitched the moorings. Tendrils of his damp, sandy-coloured hair flopped down over his face as he bent to release the last thick coil of rope from one of the piers. ‘Cruisin’ around,’ he said, as he straightened and faced us. ‘Keep the mongrels guessing.’

  ‘How’s Sam?’ I asked.

  ‘Pissed off. He can’t believe that juvenile got into his head. Embarrassed, too.’ He grinned, and both his dimples showed. ‘Saved by a couple of women.’

  So much for feminism.

  Cal’s gaze moved to Alec. He jerked his head up, ‘Top deck. When you’re ready.’ He disappeared in a burst of speed.

  ‘Feeling better?’

  ‘Yeah. Nothing left to feed the fishies.’

  Alec looked at me and his eyes showing a mixture of pride and concern. ‘You never cease to surprise me.’ He kissed the top of my head, tucked me into his side. We made our way up another set of stairs.

  ‘How come they’re all up there?’ I asked.

  ‘Judy thought it best for your friend, Jenny, to be elsewhere while she and Luc cleaned up. It was a shock for her, too. Terens took her up.’ Vampire hearing again. He must have been listening to the others in the stateroom while I was busy being sick.

  I’d bolted out, leaving the severed hands behind, their blood staining the beige carpet. Poor Jenny saw it all. She’d been so excited to learn of the existence of vampires. After tonight’s events though... . ‘I wonder if she’ll run away from me after this.’

  ‘No way,’ he said confidently.

  ‘I assume Rasputin’s hands will regenerate?’

  ‘A couple of weeks from now, he’ll have new ones. Pity you didn’t remove his head.’

  I looked at him in horror, and he grinned. His little joke worked. I was able to smile back, and my trembling eased. ‘Terens’s arm regenerated overnight.’

  ‘The older a vampire, the faster they heal.’

  ‘Thank goodness Rasputin’s a juvenile, then. It gives us a two-week reprieve.’

  ‘We can only hope.’ He opened the door to the uppermost deck.

  Chapter 24 - Wolf’s Head

  LAURA

  The top deck was the control centre of the yacht. Its three-metre-long, white-panelled console resembled a plane’s cockpit with its array of computer screens and various other techno-gadgets at whose function I could only guess.

  Sam was seated at the captain’s white leather swivel chair, his back turned to the others as he manoeuvred the boat from its mooring. The first-mate’s chair
beside him was empty. Directly behind him stood a small cocktail bar against which Jake and Cal leant. Both were gazing intently at the ring Jake held between his fingers. It was the same wolf’s head that had been on Rasputin’s hand.

  ‘Really cute,’ Jake muttered facetiously. He pressed the side of it with his thumb and the deadly spike sprang out.

  Terens was crouched on the floor in front of Jenny, who was seated with Kari on one of the L-shaped settees scattered around the deck. Both her hands were held in his. He must have said something to her, for she nodded, looked up, saw me and smiled. Terens turned and winked at me, then joined the others.

  ‘Hey hon, you okay?’ Jenny asked me, but before I could answer, Kari shot to my side and enveloped me in such a bear hug I thought my ribs would crack.

  ‘Laura, you were incredible,’ she said then sniffed and pulled back. ‘That big ape would make anyone vomit.’

  ‘Thanks Kari.’ I was quickly learning that subtlety was not one of Kari’s strong points.

  ‘I’ll get you some water,’ Alec said.

  Kari sat me on the settee between her and Jenny. ‘You saved my life, and I’m the one who’s supposed to be the bodyguard.’ She looked crestfallen.

  ‘You were great. How were you to know that man could mesmerise us all like that?’ I patted her hand then turned to Jenny. ‘I’m so sorry, Jen, I honestly thought you’d be safe with us.’

  ‘I can cope, girlfriend.’ She glanced in Terens’s direction and smiled.

  Thank you, Terens.

  Alec returned and handed me a chilled bottle of Perrier then perched on the coffee table opposite me as I rinsed my mouth and drank. The water tasted cool and sweet. ‘We didn’t know what Rasputin was capable of, Kari. If Sam had trouble—’

  ‘Then we’re all in trouble.’ Sam finished. ‘Son-of-a-bitch can sniff out a weakness and twist it around in your head.’ He briefly turned his head toward us. ‘Laura, did he try that with you?’

  ‘Sure did, but the ring brought me back.’

  Alec repeated what I’d told him.

  I looked at my hand. The eyes of the serpent glowed, as did its twin on Alec’s hand. But then, they always did when either of us was close by, as if they relished each other’s company. Luc told me the serpent rings were fashioned from the pendant the witch had worn around her neck; so perhaps it was true – they were two halves of a whole – the way Alec and I were, and whenever we came together, the rings blazed to life.