My Wicked Vampire

by Nina Bangs

  “I’ve been a messenger of Bast for thousands of years. I’ve learned to protect myself. Besides, Airmid is a goddess of plants, not a warrior goddess.” Her eyes gleamed with wicked satisfaction. “And I fight dirty.” Her satisfaction was short-lived, though. “She’ll return.”

  Cinn pressed her lips into a thin line. “I’ll be prepared. Thank you for what you did. It couldn’t have been easy to fight your boss’s friend.”

  Asima groomed one paw. “Sometimes you have to make a difficult choice and then be prepared to defend that choice.”

  “We’ll take over, Asima. Go get some rest. You deserve it.” Cinn dragged the chair back to where it belonged.

  Asima left in a hurry. Dacian watched her go before righting the cot. “I think I underestimated her. She has more power than I gave her credit for. Because no matter how dirty she fights, Airmid should’ve been able to bounce her off these walls.”

  Cinn sat on the cot. She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Will this thing with Airmid ever end? I can’t guard my plants forever, and I can’t depend on others to do it for me.”

  Dacian sat on the chair. “You’ll have to talk to her again, convince her to back off.” His expression said he’d be there when that conversation took place.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  Neither of them seemed willing to continue the conversation, so Dacian reverted to thoughts of the fantasy. He’d been sure the sunlight and food would share top billing with their lovemaking. After all, he could make love without a fantasy. He’d been wrong. Dacian couldn’t even remember the taste of the hot dog, and the sunlight had hurt his eyes and made him sweat. He liked the night better.

  But he remembered every smooth line of her body, remembered the warmth of her skin and the scent of his woman. There was possession attached to each memory. The realization had been sneaking around corners in his mind ever since he had first emerged from his rage to the sight of her round little behind. But it hadn’t decided to come out of the shadows until the fantasy.

  That was because Eric had made sure Dacian didn’t bring along any of his normal baggage, all of his excuses for why a relationship wouldn’t work. He couldn’t love a human because she’d grow old and die. A woman wouldn’t love him because of his fangs and liquid diet. Love couldn’t survive as long as Stephan still walked the night. All legit reasons for running from Cinn, but none of them had mattered on top of that roof.

  Time to cut off his thoughts before they really got dangerous. He might accept his feelings for Cinn, but he’d never act on them. And she might enjoy making love with him, but she had too much common sense to involve her emotions.

  “Hey, I need to talk to Cinn.” Wade’s voice came before him as he pounded on the door.

  Jerked out of his increasingly depressing thoughts, Dacian stood and opened the door. Wade strode in, bringing a blast of cold air and the promise of dawn. Damn.

  Cinn didn’t look too thrilled by the demon’s visit either. “What’s happening, Wade?”

  The demon huffed and puffed and shuffled his large feet. “I was just walking back to my room and suddenly I remembered that I gave you a whole bunch of my fishing gear.” He threw Cinn a confused look. “Can’t figure out why I’d do that. You never said you liked fishing, and to tell the truth, I’d give away my granny—if I had one—before I’d give away any of that stuff.” He did some more shuffling. “So I’m here to ask for it back.” His eyes glowed as he waited for Cinn’s decision.

  Relief washed over her. Thank God, Wade’s reaction to Eva’s pollen had faded. That meant her two plants would return to normal—whatever normal was for them—in a little while. “You can have it all back.” She nodded toward the corner where she’d piled everything on a small table. “I appreciate your generosity, but I probably wouldn’t get around to using the stuff often.” Like ever.

  “Thank you for understanding.” He hurried over to his things before she could change her mind. The door banged shut behind him when he left.

  “Well, things are looking up.” Cinn refused to acknowledge the herd of elephants still tramping around her greenhouse. She glanced at her watch. “You don’t have much longer before dawn.”

  “I’m not happy about leaving you with someone else.” Dacian stood and did some pacing. “I’m getting a bad feeling about things. I know Ganymede thinks he’s got everything covered, but Stephan’s had time to work on his strategy. He’ll have every eventuality covered.” His pace quickened. “The more I think about how everything fell into place, the more I see Stephan’s hand in it.”

  “You’re right. Too many coincidences.”

  He nodded. “First, my contact calls to say he’s found out that Stephan knows where Taurin is and is coming for him. Then Ganymede gets a tip that I’m in Alaska.” He stopped and his gaze sharpened. “We have a wizard in the castle who’s way too powerful to ever want a job here. So what’s he really after?”

  “It only makes sense that someone in the castle is passing information to Stephan. Otherwise how did he find out about Taurin in the first place?” The informant could be anyone. She knew jealousy made Kyla’s name pop into her head, but still, she’d check to see when the vampire had arrived at the castle.

  “I wish the damn dawn weren’t so close. I want to check on some things myself. Ganymede might be powerful, but that doesn’t make him infallible.”

  Cinn was closest to the courtyard door when someone knocked. She watched Dacian grow still as he reached for the person’s identity.

  “Edge.” He scowled.

  She smiled. Maybe the jealousy bug was catching. She hoped so. Cinn opened the door.

  “Damn, it’s cold out there.” Edge stepped in, bad temper stamped on his face. “You know, I’m getting tired of babysitting a bunch of plants.” He glanced at Cinn. “I’ll babysit you anytime. Too bad you’re attached to the leaf-people.”

  The tension in the room shot through the roof. Great. Two large males with tons of testosterone in one small space was a formula for disaster.

  Thank heaven Dacian had to leave before violence became an issue. With a surly nod toward Edge and a heated stare for her, he banged out of the greenhouse.

  Too bad she’d been adjusting her sleeping schedule to Dacian’s waking hours, because now she’d have to sleep while Edge hovered. Maybe a little small talk would put her more at ease. “If you were up all night, how will you stay awake to guard the greenhouse?”

  His smile would make most women forget what he was. Not her. Strange, though, that she didn’t have any trouble putting Dacian’s fangs on the back burner.

  “I had a good night. The right people died. I’m running on adrenaline right now. But Bain will take over later in the morning and I’ll rest. Other than vampires, most nonhumans don’t need much downtime.”

  So much for small talk. She didn’t want a blow-by-blow description of how the right people had died. Cinn faked a yawn. “Well, I’m still human, so I’ll say good night.” Without meeting his gaze, she stuck a pair of earplugs in her ears so noise wouldn’t wake her, stretched out on the cot, and pulled the covers up to her chin.

  And somewhere during her rerun of the fantasy, she fell asleep.

  If it weren’t for the snow, Cinn would’ve been bored to death. She’d risen in the afternoon to find Bain peering at her plants. That was better than him peering at her.

  Outside it was snowing. Hard. So hard she couldn’t see a foot in front of her when she peeked outside. Even though she wasn’t from the area, she knew snow was rare in Galveston. Not only was the white stuff sticking, but at least six inches had already accumulated and it was getting deeper by the minute. Weird. The weather report had predicted forty-five degrees and cloudy. Not cold enough to snow.

  She felt grimy, but she figured she’d wait until Dacian woke up. Then he could go to her room with her while she took a shower and got clean clothes.

  Coffee couldn’t wait, though. “I’ll be back in a minute. I’ll ju
st slip into the kitchen and—”

  “Wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Bain turned to look at her. “Ganymede dropped in a little while ago to see how things were going. On the way through the kitchen he hopped onto a counter and stole a pork chop. Chef Phil got all bent out of shape. Guess he was worried about the Board of Health or something.” Bain seemed to reconsider. “No, I guess it’s just because Chef Phil is a cranky shithead.”

  Cinn didn’t see what that had to do with her, so she headed for the door.

  “Anyway, Chef Phil chased Ganymede in here. He was so pissed off he didn’t even stop to put down the bowl of meatballs he was holding. He followed Ganymede all the way down to where your supersized Venus flytrap is.”

  Uh-oh.

  Bain grinned. “That plant just dipped down and scooped those meatballs right out of the bowl. Scared the crap out of Chef Phil. In between the running and the screaming and the cursing, I think I heard the chef say he quit. So I don’t think you’ll find a bunch of happy people inside the kitchen right now.”

  Cinn wasn’t sure what to say about that. “Oh, God, I’ll have to apologize to everyone for Carla.”

  “I think the chef already left the building, but I’m sure there’re plenty of other people who’d like to see you do a little groveling.”

  “Thanks for your support.” She didn’t try to tone down the acid content of her comment. “I guess no one thought about warning the chef to stay away from the weed warriors.”

  He looked puzzled. “Why would I warn him when he was so much fun to watch? Broke up the monotony.”

  She wanted to pound on his gorgeous head. “Don’t you have any sense of right and wrong?”

  “Sure.” He grinned. “Wrong is usually a lot more fun.”

  With a hiss of frustration, she left the greenhouse and strode into the kitchen. This was about the only time she felt safe without a guard tagging along. During restaurant hours there were always people around. Airmid would keep her distance.

  But this afternoon the busy worker ants looked as though someone had stepped on their hill. Kitchen staff were running in every direction and bumping into each other more often than not. And above all of the din, a voice shouted.

  “I need cream. Where’s the cream? I asked for the potatoes an hour ago. Someone turn that burner off.”

  Sparkle? Cinn made her way to the center of the frenzy. Sparkle stood at her command post in front of one of the commercial stoves. She wore mile-high strappy platforms, skintight black pants, a sparkly gold top, and a cropped black leather jacket. To top everything off, she wore a diamond stickpin in her chef’s hat. Chef Phil had never looked this good.

  “I hear you have a problem.” Cinn would start with the obvious and take it from there.

  Sparkle tossed her red hair away from where it hung over one eye, and glared at her. “You think? You’re lucky I don’t pull your meatball-stealing bandit out by her roots.”

  Cinn winced. “Umm, I’m sorry about that.”

  Sparkle took a moment to yell at some worker ants who weren’t scurrying fast enough. One of them rushed past Cinn, muttering, “The hell with Prada. The devil wears Hermés.”

  “Damn right I do.” Then Sparkle focused on Cinn again. “You slept late. Must’ve had some great dreams.”

  Cinn squashed the urge to smile. Oh, yeah. Her dreams had been a replay of the game, and not the one on the field. “Want me to help?”

  Sparkle stepped away from the stove and pulled Cinn with her. “I think I have everything under control. Luckily, there aren’t many people eating in the restaurant.” A crease formed between her amber eyes. “You know, there’re a few things puzzling me. First, the hotel part of the castle is full. Not something you’d expect during a slow month like January. Second, where is everyone eating? There should be more people in the restaurant. I mean, where else can they go in this storm?”

  An unexpected shiver worked its way down Cinn’s spine. “What’s the weather service’s explanation for the storm?”

  Sparkle shrugged. “Who knows? Cable and phone service are both down. We can’t even get local TV stations. Nothing but static on the radio. I guess we’re lucky to still have electricity.” Just then the lights flickered. “Oh, crap.”

  Cinn held her breath, but finally the flickering stopped.

  “Holgarth has already shut down the park, but we still have to take care of the hotel’s paying guests. If the electricity goes, we have generators, but it won’t be fun for any of us. Don’t worry, though, we’ll get heat to your plants.”

  Cinn wanted to speed up the time until Dacian could be with her. It wasn’t exactly that he made her feel safe. He made her feel complete.

  Before Cinn could ask any more questions, Ganymede leaped into the room. His amber cat eyes had a frantic gleam to them.

  “Stop. No. Tell me you’re not cooking for the guests, honey-pumpkin.” His tail whipped from side to side in a distressed frenzy.

  “And who else was supposed to do it after you scared off our chef?” She went all slitty-eyed on him.

  “Hey, it wasn’t me. The plant scared off Phil.” Ganymede avoided her gaze.

  “Go ahead, blame it on an innocent plant.” Sparkle tapped one Hermés-clad foot.

  “You’re kidding, right? Have you seen that plant? She’s a man-eater.”

  Cinn couldn’t let that pass. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Carla just took some meatballs. If you hadn’t stolen the pork chop first, the chef never would’ve gone into the greenhouse.”

  Ganymede chose to ignore that truth as he returned to his whining. “You can’t do the cooking, babe. You know what happened the last time you cooked a meal.”

  Sparkle looked sulky. “So? We paid everyone’s hospital bills.”

  “Why don’t you let the rest of the kitchen staffdo it? They have the routine down. You need to do other important stuff like…”

  Cinn could see the desperate look in Ganymede’s eyes as he tried to think up some “important stuff” for Sparkle to do. Cinn wasn’t in a mood to help the cat, but if he was right, then she didn’t want to be eating Sparkle’s culinary efforts either.

  She hooked her arm through Sparkle’s. “Let’s go up to your suite and discuss how your character-building campaign is coming along.”

  Sparkle’s expression cleared. “Great idea. And while we’re there, we’ll talk about your pitiful outfits. Other than the ones I loaned you, of course.”

  Cinn glared at her.

  “Oops. I forgot that part of character building is learning to be charitable toward others. So we’ll chat about your unfortunate clothing choices. Is that better?” Sparkle started to drag her from the kitchen.

  “Wait. I have to let Bain know I’m with you.” Cinn pulled out her cell and flipped it open. “Strange. It’s not working, and I just charged it.”

  Sparkle shrugged. She glanced back to where Ganymede was eyeing a steak someone had put on the grill. “Let Bain know Cinn’s safe with me.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Ganymede sounded as though he didn’t care if Sparkle dumped Cinn in the first trash bin she came to, as long as his honey wasn’t cooking dinner.

  They’d almost reached Sparkle’s suite when the lights went out. There was a moment of complete darkness before the emergency lights came on in the hallway.

  And in their glow stood a man…or something. He was big, close to seven feet, with shoulders that seemed to fill the whole hallway. But that wasn’t what made Cinn stare at him with unblinking horror. He had the stitched-together look of a Frankenstein, without any of the charm.

  “Holy hell,” Cinn breathed out on what felt like her last breath.

  The man moved with a speed that pegged him as definitely not human. Cinn didn’t even have time to suck in enough air to scream before he’d reached them.

  Sparkle seemed frozen in place, and it wasn’t until he grabbed her that she breathed a word. “Rabid.”

  Then both of them disappeared.

  Cin
n turned and ran. She didn’t scream. Screaming would take breath and only attract humans who’d be useless. She didn’t bother with the elevator. It would take too long. Instead, she lunged for the stairs. Cinn was halfway down when she realized where she was instinctively heading. Dacian’s room.

  But she needn’t have bothered, because he met her before she reached the bottom of the steps. He wore no shirt and his feet were bare. His hair made a dark tangled frame for his face.

  He was vampire. His eyes were solid black and his lips were drawn back to expose deadly fangs.

  As soon as he saw her, Dacian stopped. She was okay. He fought to calm the explosive violence pushing at him. “What happened? Your fear woke me. I thought…” He didn’t know what he’d thought. In fact, there hadn’t been any thinking going on at all. Only his driving need to protect the woman he loved. Well, hell, now was a great time to throw the L word at him.

  Her face was pale in the glow of the emergency light. “Someone grabbed Sparkle and disappeared.”

  She didn’t get any further because Ganymede materialized on the step beside her. This wasn’t the lazy, laid-back, big-appetite cat of a short time ago. His amber eyes glowed and something so powerful crouched in them that Dacian expected the staircase walls to explode outward.

  Ganymede only said one word. “Sparkle.”

  “We were walking down the hall. A big man appeared. Not human. He grabbed her and disappeared.” Cinn put her hand on the wall for support as reaction set in.

  Dacian reached up and dragged her down to the step he was on. He pulled her hard against his side. Ganymede remained on the step above them.

  “What did he look like? Did he say anything?” Ganymede pinned his ears flat against his head.

  “He looked all messed up, like someone had torn him apart and then put him back together without bothering to make all the edges match.” She threw up her hands. “I know, rotten description.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “Sparkle looked as though she was in shock. She didn’t say anything until the man grabbed her. Then she just said one word—‘rabid.’ Mean anything to you?” She stared at Ganymede.