“He’s right, Max. He cuts me loose, I’m going to find a way to hurt his ass. You ought to take Stormy and get the hell out of here. Leave me to it.”
She closed her eyes slowly. “I couldn’t leave you behind, Lou.”
“Storm’s on the edge and she’s teetering, Max.”
Max looked at Stormy. Stormy lowered her hands, opened her eyes, met Max’s, then Lou’s. “We aren’t leaving you, Lou. I’ll be all right.”
Max nodded. “Then I guess I’ll make this fast.” She looked at the vamp again. “My twin sister is a vampire. Her name is Morgan de Silva. She’s married now, to the vampire Dante. Do any of those names mean anything to you?”
He shook his head slowly.
“Dante was sired by his great-aunt, a very old Gypsy vampiress named Sarafina.”
“Aah. This name I know. Sarafina has a…reputation.”
“Lou and I saved Dante’s life last year. Sarafina would tear anyone to ribbons who threatened to hurt either one of us.” Lou knew that was a lie. Sarafina didn’t even like them. But it was a good bluff. “And she’d have plenty of help,” Max went on. “Trust me.”
The vampire smiled slowly. “You are not going to intimidate me with threats, Maxine. Don’t waste your time.” He shrugged. “Besides, I can see you’re lying. In fact, Sarafina doesn’t even like you all that much.”
“Wouldn’t matter. She owes me.”
He still didn’t seem impressed. “So being related to one of us is why you know so much about us.”
“No,” she said. “Not entirely. Are you familiar with the DPI?”
He frowned, looked over at Stormy again, as if checking on her before returning his gaze to Max’s. “I’ve heard of them. The government agency devoted to the research and elimination of the Undead. They’re defunct now, yes?”
“A gang of vampires burned their headquarters to the ground and killed most of the agents a little more than five years ago. I was a curious teenager and lived near the site. After the fire I wandered onto the grounds and found a CD full of information—files on vampires they had studied, tests they had done and so on. It read like a horror novel. But it was real.” She shrugged. “I’ve been studying the subject ever since.”
The vampire lifted his brows. “If any of them survived and know about the files—”
“Several of them survived. Frank W. Stiles being the most dangerous of the bunch. And he does know. He’s targeted me, my sister, her friends.” She lifted her chin and stepped closer to him. “He shot my friend Stormy in the head and tried to frame Lou for the crime. She spent a week in a coma, and we didn’t know if she would live or die. We, all three of us, have risked our lives to protect our vampiric loved ones from the likes of Frank Stiles and the vampire hunters. The last thing we ever expected was to be repaid like this. With torture and trickery. But then again, I guess there are bad apples in every group, aren’t there, Mr….” There she paused. “What’s your name, anyway?”
He smiled slowly. “So you can send your army of preternatural protectors after me?”
“Oh, they’re already on the way. Those children you abducted made their way back to shore.” She looked at her watch. “It’s been more than an hour now. I sent them out of town with instructions to call my sister, and I’m sure they made that call long before now. Your time is extremely limited, my friend. So if there is anything more you need to know from me, you’d better ask fast.”
His face went utterly blank.
“I’m not bluffing. So get to the point. What is it you want to know?”
“I want to know about Gilgamesh.”
“The first vampire. Why?”
He reached for the cattle prod.
“Nu! Stai!” Stormy cried. She surged to her feet. Her face was fierce, and her eyes had changed color. They were gleaming onyx jewels now.
Though she didn’t want to, Max gripped the vampire’s arm. “Don’t hurt her. She’s got no idea what she’s doing. Look at her eyes.”
He did, and then he couldn’t seem to take his eyes from hers. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked, his voice a whisper now.
“We don’t know. It’s some sort of possession. That’s not Stormy right now, it’s…it’s someone else. When she comes back to herself, she might not even remember what she did or said in this other state. She gets violent when she’s like this. If she attacks you, please, don’t hurt her. It’s not her fault.”
He glanced at Max as if she were insane. Then at Stormy again. Her eyes were fixated on his and filling with tears.
He lifted a hand. “Relax, little one.”
“Let them go,” she whispered. “Va? rog.”
He glanced toward Max, then Lou. “Tell me what you know of Gilgamesh.”
“I ask you again, why?”
“Because he was the first. Because he sought power over life and death. Power he gained. Power I need.”
“So you intend to kill him?”
“Don’t judge me. You’d do the same to bring this one back,” he said with a nod toward Lou, “if you were in my position.”
She frowned. “You want to bring someone…back? From where? From the dead?”
“Dead is dead,” Stormy muttered. Then she screamed it. “Dead is dead! Dead is dead! Dead is dead!” She kept shrieking the words over and over as she launched herself at the vampire, her fists pounding him, hands clenching into claw shapes and scratching at him.
He went down onto his back under the force of her assault, and a set of keys flew from his pocket. To his credit, he was trying not to hurt her but simply to fend off her assault without causing her any injury. To that end, he gripped her wrists and held them in his hands.
Lou didn’t have any clue what to expect next, but suddenly Stormy wasn’t fighting the vampire anymore. She was kissing him. Lying atop his prone body, legs straddling him, body pressing close. She murmured things against his mouth. “Unde-i dragoste e si ceartã. This love is sweet torment, print meu. My prince.”
Max scrambled after the keys and quickly went over to Lou, while the vamp was so distracted he couldn’t possibly pay attention to her. She didn’t know what the hell was going on with Stormy, why she—or maybe the being possessing her—was making out with the vamp, but he was clearly swept up in it.
Dammit, he’d better not try to bite her!
She quickly unsnapped the manacles at Lou’s wrists, at just about the same time the vampire groaned deep in his throat, closed his arms around Stormy, and began returning her kisses with a fervor that bordered on desperation.
“Stormy!” Max ran to her, gripped her shoulders, pulled her head away from the creature’s lips.
The vampire stopped kissing her, moving her rather gently off him. He got to his feet, his chest heaving, his eyes gleaming and fixed on Stormy. She sat there on the floor. He looked bemused, puzzled. “Who are you?”
“Prin depãrtare dragostea se uitã. How is it you have forgotten me, of all people, my love?”
He narrowed his eyes on her, got to his feet and took a single, bemused step closer.
“Sunt rataat,” she whispered. “I’m so lost. I need you. Am nevoie de ajutorul vostru.” She pushed her hand backward through her hair, blinked her eyes clear and frowned in confusion.
“Tell me who you are,” he said. And his voice was hoarse, almost choked with what sounded like emotion.
Stormy seemed puzzled as she looked from one of them to the other. When she spoke again, her voice was her own. “My name is Tempest Jones,” she said. “But my friends call me Stormy. Who are you?”
She was back—she was herself again.
And Lou was back, too, and this time, he was holding the cattle prod.
“Back away from her, pal.”
The vampire looked at him, his eyes widening. Then he shot an angry look at Stormy. “At least you used a pleasant blade to drive into my back.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You kissed me. You’re telling m
e it wasn’t just a diversionary tactic?” He shook his head. “I’m ashamed I let myself believe, even for a moment—”
“I kissed you?” She shot a look at Max. “I kissed him?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
Stormy lifted fingers to her lips, and her eyes met his. “I did. I…why did I do that?”
The vamp reached down to help Stormy to her feet, but Lou jabbed him with the prod and sent a jolt through him that dropped him to his knees.
“No, don’t!” Stormy shouted. And to everyone’s surprise she went to him, then seemed to stop herself just short of reaching down to help him and instead stood there, staring in confusion.
The vampire knelt there, palms to the floor, shaking.
“Come on, Max. Storm. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Stormy turned slowly toward Lou.
“No!” The vampire rose to his feet, shaking off the effects of the jolt, and before Lou knew what was happening, he had grabbed Stormy from behind, jerked her to the front of him, her back pressed to his body, his face dangerously near her throat. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Jesus, just tell us what you want!” Max cried. “Don’t hurt her. I swear to you, she wasn’t trying to trick you. She’s been having these episodes for days now. I swear.”
“I want Gilgamesh. I want to know how to find him. And then I want to know all there is to know about this…Storm.”
“I can’t just tell you how to find a vampire so you can hunt him down to steal his power.”
He bent his head then, opened his mouth and closed it over Stormy’s neck. Lou gasped and lunged forward, but the vampire only turned to keep Stormy between them. Stormy let her head fall backward against him, closed her eyes, opened her mouth and gasped as if in pain or pleasure—it was impossible to tell which. She lifted her hands to his head, threaded her fingers into his hair.
The vampire lifted his head. His eyes gleamed with bloodlust and passion. Two small wounds remained in Stormy’s neck. She opened her eyes, and they were swirling and changing. She cupped the vampire’s head, moving her hand slowly, caressing him. She didn’t try to get free. If anything, she leaned into him even more closely.
He frowned but otherwise ignored her touch. “Shall I drain her, or will you tell me before your friends arrive to destroy what I have worked so hard to build here?”
“It’s your own lust for power that destroyed your kingdom, my love,” Stormy whispered. “Just like before.”
He scowled at her, pulled her around to face him. “What are you doing?”
She muttered. “Do you not know me? Do you no longer love me?”
“Stop it!” he cried. He flung an arm toward her just as Max dove at her and took the brunt of the invisible force that wafted with that arm. It caught her off guard, and she slammed backward into the wall.
Lou lunged at the bastard. “You brutal son of a—”
And then he was locked in combat with the powerful creature. They spun, fought, slammed each other bodily into walls and furniture. Lou smashed into the wall, and something heavy fell from a shelf and cracked as it landed atop Max’s head.
The two men froze. The vampire looked stricken and lunged forward, but Lou shoved him aside and went to Max himself.
“Are you truly the heartless bastard you seem?” Stormy cried.
The prince turned to the woman called Stormy, even as Malone gathered his own woman into his arms. Blood trickled down her forehead. Jesus, had he killed her?
“Can’t you see it’s over?” Stormy asked him. “The others are drawing near. You’ll soon be dust if you don’t get out of here.”
“How do you know they’re near?”
She scowled at him. “Are you so blinded by hate that you can’t sense them? Open your mind! Let these two go. You have no use for them.”
“I have plenty of use for them. As hostages.” He turned away from her, striding across the room toward Lou, only to be stopped by the small hand on his shoulder.
“I know you,” she whispered. “You’re not this being you pretend to be. You’re a great leader, a prince. You are Vlad Dracul. Dracula. Prince of my heart.”
He stopped there—stopped dead in his tracks. “What did you call me?”
He turned slowly, staring at her eyes with their constantly changing colors. “How can you know to call me that name?”
She pressed her hands to either side of her head, and tears sprang into her eyes. “I don’t know. Jesus, I don’t know. I only know…you. Somehow, I know you. Please, Vlad…”
He moved closer to her, slowly. She didn’t back away. She looked past him once, then said, for his ears alone, “Take me as hostage, if you must have one. Leave them. Let them be.”
“Do you know what you’re asking?” He caressed her with his eyes. “I will not let you go until it pleases me to do so. And if I find out you have been attempting to trick me with this—”
“It’s not a trick. Maybe…maybe you’re the only one who can help me to find out what it is.”
He held out a hand. She lifted hers, and it trembled, but she placed it into his. And then he whirled her into his arms and carried her out of the castle.
Max lay on the floor with her head pounding like a bass drum, but she managed to open her eyes. Lou was holding her against his chest, her face buried in his neck, his in her hair. He rocked her gently, and she felt wetness and thought it might be tears. “I’ve been such an idiot,” he whispered. “God, Max, don’t die on me. Not now. Don’t do it, don’t go. I love you. I’ve loved you the whole goddamn time. I was just too stubborn and too damn scared to admit it. I was so afraid I’d mess up your life. So afraid I’d end up losing you in the end. The way I lost my wife…and my little boy. Baby, I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to risk that again, but lemme tell you something, Mad Max. You’re worth it. You’re worth any risk. Every risk.”
His hand was at her wrist, and she thought he might be feeling for a pulse. There must be one. She was certainly alive, but he wasn’t finding it, and she thought maybe that was a good thing. “I’ll do anything, Jesus, anything. Just don’t take her from me. God, what was I doing? Thinking I could keep from tying myself to her, when I’ve been tied to her all along in every way that matters? I love her. I’ve always loved her.”
Hell, now she knew she was alive. And if he couldn’t feel her pulse, he must be the one near death, because it was pounding.
“Lou?”
He loosened his arms a little, just enough to let her body relax away from his so he could look at her face. “Max, baby, you’re alive.”
“Yeah. So far, yeah. You had some doubt?”
“I couldn’t feel a pulse. Jesus, Max.”
“I’m here. I’m fine. I think you panicked.”
He shook his head, doubting it. “How long have you been awake?”
“Long enough to—where’s Stormy?”
Lou shot a look across the room. “No,” he whispered. “Goddammit, no!” He got up, helping Max to her feet as he did.
Then there was the sound of doors breaking to smithereens, the whisk of movement.
Morgan and Dante appeared, looking furious and ready for battle.
Morgan surged across the room and swept her twin sister into her arms. Dante came forward, clapping Lou on the shoulder.
“You look like hell, my friend,” Dante said.
Lou shook his head. “Yeah, well he got his share, too.”
“Who? The vampire? Vlad Dracul?”
Lou and Max looked at each other, then at Dante. “What do you mean, Vlad Dracul? He wasn’t…”
“He was,” Morgan said. “It’s all over the preternatural world that he’s been living out here—set himself up like a king and had an entire town under the control of his mind. No one’s had the nerve to bother him—no one saw it as overly urgent to stop him, since he wasn’t killing his victims.”
“When we got home and Lydia told us you were in Endover, we came immediately. We were nea
rly here when your friend Jason phoned.” Dante looked at Lou in awe. “You held your own against Prince Vlad. The one and only Dracula.”
“And I’ll have to again, by the looks of things,” Lou said. “The bastard kidnapped Stormy.”
“We have to go after him!” Max shouted.
“We will. We will.” He touched her hair, the wound there. “You need this stitched up.”
“Take care of her,” Dante said. “We’ll get on his trail and contact you when he beds down for the day sleep. You can catch up with us then. All right?”
Lou nodded.
Max shook her head. “I can’t just let them go.”
“You aren’t,” Morgan said softly. “I swear to you, as your sister, we’ll stay on their trail, Max. I promise.” She sighed softly. “I owe her, you know. Storm and I—we have a bond now. I won’t let harm come to her.”
Max lowered her eyes. “Okay.”
Lou scooped her up in his arms and carried her back down the stairs and out of the mansion. He moved all the way to the beach, finding the boat Stormy and Max had brought out here. Gently, he lowered Max into it and sped as rapidly as he could back to the mainland.
On the shore, he spotted Gary, who helped him pull the boat in and seemed worried when he saw Max. “Hell, what happened?”
Gary looked different, Lou noticed. His eyes weren’t as clouded as before. Both his face and his wit seemed sharper.
“She had an accident. Out on the island,” Lou explained.
“The island?” Gary looked past them. “Well, what was she doing out there? No one goes out there. There’s nothing there but woods and weeds.” Then he frowned. “What…what’s burning?”
Maxie lifted her head and stared out toward the island. The flames were rising into the night, licking at the very stars, it seemed. Morgan and Dante had finished the job she had begun. The place would be nothing but smoldering ash by sunrise.
“Where can he be taking her?” she whispered to Lou. “Where could he be going with Stormy?”
“Max, listen to me. You said the language she was speaking…was Romanian.”
Max looked into his eyes, silent for a long, searching moment. Then she said, “You don’t think—you don’t think there could be some sort of…connection.”
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