Master of Darkness

by Susan Sizemore

  “She’s mine. You have no right.”

  “All of Manticore is mine. I am king Prime.”

  A drop of blood oozed from Eden’s cheek as Justinian pressed one claw into tender human flesh.

  Laurent’s first impulse was to rush forward. Everything in him called out to get Eden away from the monster. But that wasn’t the way. There was only one certain way to save Eden, to save them all.

  And he acknowledged that his whole life had been leading up to this moment.

  “You won’t be king Prime for long, old man. I challenge.”

  Laurent turned slowly, though he hated turning his back on Eden’s predicament for even a moment. It had to be done right. He had to make it official.

  “I challenge!” he shouted, making sure everyone heard, that all the other Primes knew his intentions.

  The other Primes sent up a cheer thick with bloodlust.

  “I challenge Justinian for leadership of Tribe Manticore!”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “The guys on guard are squirrely,” Joe said as he returned from his reconnaissance mission. He’d left the rest of his team waiting in the company van a block away from the Manticore stronghold while he carried out the initial part of the plan.

  “Good for us,” Daniel said.

  “I don’t understand,” Antonia said over Cathy’s snarling. She had a firm grip on Cathy’s leash.

  Right now the office manager was in the form of a hundred-and-ten-pound white and gold wolf. She was a small woman, but her mass made her a formidable creature when morphed into werewolf form. Someday Cathy would learn how to control the change, and manage to keep sentient as well while in morphed form. Being a werewolf would be fun. But for now the full moon took away everything but the darker, dangerous cravings of werewolf nature. The need to hunt and kill was about to come in handy.

  “There are two vampires patrolling the grounds, but they’re not really paying attention,” Joe explained. “I overheard part of a very intense Pulp Fiction-esque conversation about sunrises.”

  “That you managed to get close enough to overhear them bodes well,” Antonia said. “They must be Dawn users.”

  “Which means we can take them,” Daniel said.

  He was holding a Glock modified to fire silver-tipped bullets Sid had recently developed. She’d said that it might prove useful in a missing-persons case.

  “I wish we’d found some more useful equipment when we broke in to the vampire hunter’s place,” Daniel added.

  “It would have been nice if the vampire hunter had been there,” Joe said. “We could have used her help. At least we got the zapper.”

  “Where is it?” Daniel asked.

  Joe had carried it in a backpack when he approached Justinian’s house. “I was listening to the sunrise conversation while I set the zapper up to save us some time. It’s hidden by a bush at the back of the house, near the tall windows you remembered, Lady Antonia. You’re right about that being the best insertion point.”

  He’d also left some clothes for later. Now he started to quickly undress.

  “I’m glad to be of help. Now what?” Antonia asked.

  “Now we move out,” Joe said. “Take out the guards, turn on the zapper—your job, Daniel, I can’t do it with my nose. Then we break in and save Sidonie.”

  Joe took a deep breath, and morphed into his black wolf form.

  “Hurray for us,” Daniel said.

  “Let’s go,” Antonia said, and set off at a vampire’s swift pace, the blond werewolf loping at her side.

  “Well, well,” Justinian said. “I was hoping for this.”

  “I bet you were, old man,” Laurent said. “Did you foresee beating me?”

  “Of course.”

  Justinian tossed Eden aside. She landed squarely on top of Sid, and the women went down in a heap. Laurent stepped around them, concentrating on his sire.

  “I foresaw you needing to be put in your place one last time, boy. You’ll be my heir, but I’ll tame you once and for all first.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Laurent complained. “Heard it before.”

  Laurent waited and watched the older Prime. He was in no hurry. Once upon a time—many times—he had blindly, mindlessly attacked. And every time led to the same painful, humiliating ending.

  Now he had the patience of an adult. And something besides himself to fight for: Eden. Sid. Freedom.

  “Come and get me, old man,” he invited.

  As Eden fell hard on top of Sid, the vampire whispered, “Help me!” and shoved her manacled hands toward Eden’s face. “One more tug.”

  There was a wild look in the vampire’s eyes that shocked Eden, then she grinned. Sid was on the side of the angels. She sure hoped Laurent was on the side of the angels, because she’d never heard anyone sound so dangerous before.

  A deep, animal snarl from Justinian made her flinch. She felt the rush of air as the older Prime leapt toward Laurent, and her adrenaline spiked with fear.

  Laurent needed her!

  Eden would have rushed into the fight, but Sid grabbed her. “Help me! Then we can both help Laurent!”

  This got through to Eden. A fight to the death raged only a few feet away. She had to make sure the one who died wasn’t Laurent.

  None of the Primes were paying any attention to a pair of lowly females. Eden wrapped her hands around Sidonie’s wrists and joined the vampire in breaking the chain.

  Sid was right, it took only a few moments.

  But the instant Sid was free and on her feet she covered her ears with her hands and slammed back down to her knees.

  And she wasn’t the only one.

  Eden looked around as vampires began to howl, run around like maniacs, and attack each other. She whirled around desperately, looking for Laurent. She spotted him and Justinian in front of the fireplace, struggling back and forth across the floor. They were both covered in blood. Justinian’s face was a mask of pain. She saw that Laurent recognized what was going on, and was working through the disorientation.

  “That’s my boy,” she murmured, and quickly turned back to Sid. She grabbed Sid by the shoulders. “Look at me!”

  It took a moment, but Sid’s gaze finally focused on Eden. “Hurts.”

  “Ignore it. Fight it. Get up. You’re tougher than these Manticore bastards.”

  “Damn right,” Sid answered, on a hiss of pain.

  Eden stepped back, letting Sid get to her feet on her own. She watched as Sidonie Wolf transformed from a beautiful woman into a beautiful woman with long fangs and sharp, vicious claws.

  “I forgot that females can do that too.”

  Sid forced a laugh. “So do Tribe males,” she said. Then she bared her fangs and jumped on the back of the nearest Prime.

  Eden didn’t have any of the usual weapons of her vampire slaying trade, but she didn’t let a little thing like that stop her. What was the use of sweating through years of martial arts training if she couldn’t beat up on some scum vampires that were being zapped?

  The world wanted to go red, but this was no time to let it. Discipline and stubbornness were the best weapons Laurent had right now. He actually preferred the pain from the zapper to what he’d been going through moments before.

  You’re a fool, boy. Weak. Mine.

  Justinian bombarded him with such thoughts from the instant the fight started.

  You can’t hurt me. You know who your master is.

  The words were deadlier than the blows.

  Laurent was physically stronger, faster.

  But Justinian was better at twisting the knife.

  Until the zapping began, Laurent had spent too much energy defending against the insidious thoughts that slid past his shielding and tried to wreck his heart and soul.

  Eden loved him. He had a sister. Antonia was safe.

  This armor covered old wounds, kept him in the fight, but it was new to him.

  You’re losing more blood than I am, Laurent pointed out, and
spun around to rake claws across Justinian’s back.

  The older Prime howled. And as he did the windows exploded inward. In this moment Laurent noticed that the room was full of violence—Primes battling with Primes. Sid and Eden were in the thick of it, fighting back to back.

  “Good girls.”

  Then a pair of werewolves came through the broken windows, followed by more humanoid shapes. A gun fired. A Prime screamed and fell. Help had arrived.

  Laurent was laughing when he grappled once more with Justinian. This time he went in for the kill.

  Joe blessed whoever had come up with Dawn, because there sure were a lot of vampires in the room. But fortunately, the drug users were weaker than the rest, and most of the vampires were users. This gave him and Cathy more than half a chance. The zapper had set all the Primes off already, the pain spreading the always volatile into a riot. Cathy was already spreading bloody carnage. Joe took a quick look around to see how the rest of his team was doing. Sid was in the fray, so was Antonia. Much to his surprise he saw the human hunter smashing a heavy chair over a vampire’s head. And, my, my, there was brother Laurent. Satisfied, he let out a warrior’s howl and leapt into the riot.

  “Give me that!”

  “What?” the blond guy in glasses asked. He was standing with his back to the fireplace, holding the weapon up, taking very careful aim, but hesitating with his shots.

  “That’s not the way to do it. Give me the gun.”

  He pointed the gun at her. “Who are you?”

  “Something you’re not—a pro. Give me.”

  “Duck.”

  She did. He fired. The vampire that had been coming up behind her let out a very satisfying scream. Silver bullets, she supposed, or garlic embedded in the shells.

  “Good work,” she acknowledged, and snatched the weapon from his hands. In turn she tossed him the chair leg she’d been using as a club.

  “Hey!” he called, but she was already moving away. The gun was warm, heavy, and reassuring in her hands. She had plans for this mother.

  “You can’t kill me.”

  “Wanna bet?” Laurent answered.

  Justinian was panting hard, bruised and bloody, reeling from exhaustion and suffering the effects of the zapper. But he wouldn’t stop. And Laurent was frightened that the old Prime might be right. As hard as he tried, as many chances as he got, he kept pulling the killing blow.

  The worst part was that Laurent was certain it had nothing to do with the way Justinian had conditioned him. But pity nagged at him. It didn’t feel like weakness, but it was stupid.

  He took another swing at Justinian, this time raking bloody gouges across his throat. Justinian’s head was thrown back. This gave Laurent a quick view past Justinian’s shoulder. He saw Eden running toward him, with a gun in her hand. She was intent on him, not aware of the Prime rushing up on her.

  “Behind you!” Laurent shouted.

  But she reacted an instant too slowly. The Prime tackled her. The gun flew from her hand. Laurent instantly forgot Justinian. He rushed to help Eden. Laurent scooped up the gun and fired without hesitation.

  Eden gave Laurent a grateful look. She was grinning, and her eyes were shining. Such fierceness was a good thing in a vampire’s mate.

  She started to say something as she pushed out from under the dead vampire.

  “Antonia!”

  Justinian’s tortured shout drowned out everything else in the world. He looked up, just as Justinian rushed past him.

  Then Laurent caught sight of the woman in the center of the room, and his jaw dropped. She was as beautiful as silver in the moonlight. So beautiful it was painful to look at her. A vision. A memory.

  “Antonia?” He could barely speak for the joyous pain.

  “Laurent!” Eden shouted in his ear. She shook his shoulder. “Do something!”

  In an instant Laurent came to the real world. He raised the gun and fired. Three rounds. One in the head. Two in the back. He hoped to hell he hit the bastard’s heart. At any rate, he felt Justinian die. It was as if a dark weight lifted off the universe.

  He had no idea if the shout of joy that went up was from Eden, Sid, or himself. The chaos around them was quieting down, but he didn’t care. The zapper stopped shrieking into his brain, and he hardly noticed. Laurent’s interest in that moment was only on Antonia.

  He had to step across Justinian’s lifeless body to reach her. It was only when they were close that he noticed that her lips were drawn back, and her fangs were out. There was a part of him that had forgotten she was a vampire.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  “You’ve grown,” was her reply as she looked up to meet his gaze.

  “So, Sid, how you doing?” Joe said, coming up to his partner.

  He was back in human form after jumping outside to turn off the zapper. He’d paused long enough to pull on his stashed clothing and a pair of sandals. The room was strewn with the bodies of the vampires who hadn’t run away. The good guys were the only ones left standing.

  “You don’t look any worse for wear,” he added. “You do know we had to take time off from some important cases to find you.” He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Of course, if a missing-person’s agency can’t find one of its own people …”

  “I detect a certain amount of annoyance in your tone,” she answered. “Do you want me to look worse for wear?”

  “No.” He grabbed her and hugged her. “I was terrified for you.”

  “Aw,” she said, and grazed her fangs gently across his shoulder before she stepped back. A sign of affection from a vampire to a werewolf. “Thanks for the rescue. I knew you’d figure it out.”

  Cathy was sitting on her haunches at Sid’s side. Sid’s telepathy was the only thing that could calm the bitten werewolf during the full-moon seizures. Now that the fighting was over, Cathy certainly needed to be controlled.

  Joe glanced over his shoulder at the reunion taking place in the center of the room. So far Lady Antonia and Laurent were just looking at each other. “What’s he doing here?” Joe asked, not trying to conceal his hostility.

  “Same thing you are. Rescuing the fair maidens.”

  She stepped closer to Antonia and Laurent, and Joe followed, confused. Daniel came up to put his arm around Sid’s shoulder. The vampire hunter joined them but without sparing a glance for anyone but Laurent.

  Eden didn’t know why, but she was more frightened for Laurent at this moment than she had been when he was fighting Justinian.

  Don’t reject him, she thought at Antonia. Don’t you dare.

  “I…” Where to start? What to say? “I looked for you,” Laurent finally told Antonia. “I called but—”

  “I couldn’t have answered.” She glanced disdainfully at Justinian’s corpse. “He saw to that.” She put a hand on his arm. “It was years before I could look for you.” This time she looked toward Sid. “We looked for you.”

  “Sidonie told me.”

  “We have a lot to talk about, Laurent.”

  “Let’s get out of here, first.”

  She nodded. Then her expression turned stern. The look in Antonia’s eyes was pure steel as she looked him over from head to toe, then looked him in the eye. “Choose.”

  Her tone was pure steel as well. The voice of Lady Antonia, head of House Antonia of Clan Wolf. Laurent wasn’t confused for a moment about what she meant.

  Choose.

  It occurred to him that he was now technically the king Prime of Tribe Manticore. Ironic as that was, he could imagine the wicked possibilities.

  Then he thought about Eden and glanced sideways at her. She looked so bloody, intensely hopeful.

  I love you, Laurent Wolf!

  “Wolf,” he answered his mother, knowing full well every difficult thing the choice entailed. “I choose Clan Wolf.”

  “A wise decision,” Antonia said. She smiled. “I think your young woman makes you better than you want to be.”

  He turned to Eden, and she
rushed into his embrace. Never mind everything else that had happened, was happening; he couldn’t do anything but kiss her. The warmth of her, the eagerness of her response; this was the reassurance that they were alive. Everything was going to be all right.

  It made him smile against Eden’s lips when Sid’s gang started to applaud.

  When they broke the kiss, he kept his arm around Eden’s waist. He turned them to face Antonia. “This is my—”

  “Fiancé,” Eden piped up.

  “Fiancé,” he agreed, on a rush of pleasure. Fiancé. Yeah. “Future bondmate is the term,” he told Eden.

  “Well, then,” Antonia said, holding out her arms at last. “Welcome home, both of you.”

  Epilogue

  Seven months later

  “I don’t know about this new look of yours,” Eden said, taking a step back from Laurent’s embrace. From the hungry, eager way she felt you’d have thought she hadn’t seen him in a year. Still, her expression was a bit dubious. “I finally get my trip to Hawaii, and I come home to find that you’ve cut your hair.”

  While they’d spent a lot of time apart in the last months, this three weeks had been the longest time without any physical contact since Laurent entered what he thought of as Clan Boy Boot Camp. They’d only been allowed a few phone calls and e-mails.

  While she’d been sunning on beaches and finally visiting her volcano, he’d been undergoing treatment at the Clans’ clinic up in Los Angeles. Along with drug treatments to allow him to function in the daylight, he’d had a lot of counseling to go through.

  And they’d brought in a big dog for that; old Barak of Clan Shagal to give him a lot of long, hard talking-to, and a certain amount of physical thumping as well. Tough love. That was what Elder Barak was all about.

  Barak had been inside his head and out, finding the curves and quirks and phantoms that even the Wolfs’ best psychic healers hadn’t been able to find. Laurent came away from the experience feeling like his brain had not only been washed, it had been waxed and detailed.

  “My therapist convinced me that the long hair was a connection with my Tribe past,” Laurent told Eden. “Cut the hair, sever the connection. Get it?”