“Fuck your regret,” Claude said, and finally some fire returned to his voice. “You’ve enabled this. You’ve covered up for him for what? A century? More? I can’t let this stand, and I can no longer wait for your permission or your judgment.”
“I know you can’t. But I promised her. I swore to always keep him safe.” He struggled for his words. “I couldn’t keep her alive, Claude. But I swore that I would do better for our son.”
Claude took a step forward and Eddie jumped, just a little bit. He looked at the door again. Damn. Was Claude really that scary, or was my brother that much of a wimp?
“I can’t pretend to forgive what you have done—no matter how good you thought your reason. Where will you stand now?”
“I cannot help you in this, you know that.”
“But you’ve already taken a stand, haven’t you? That’s why I’m out of town so much now, sent to handle affairs that you used to handle.”
“Not exactly.” Luc shook his head. “I needed to be here—to stop him—”
“To clean up his messes, or to keep me from catching him with the evidence you couldn’t refute?” Claude’s fists clenched and unclenched at his side, but his words came out calm. “Very well, maître.”
No. That was far too accepting for my taste. The Magister might get away with siding with his son—I could understand that, even if I couldn’t contemplate ever making such a decision myself. But for Claude to stand neutral?
I opened my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, but never got the words out. My brother flinched behind Luc.
I barely had time to duck in front of the couch when the door burst open and a vampire sprinted in so quickly I registered the door opening after the vampire was nearly on Claude.
A shot rang out. Claude. He’d pulled and fired so swiftly at the vampire approaching, I hadn’t even seen it.
The vamp barely slowed. Long knife in hand, he stabbed at Claude. I almost couldn’t wrap my mind around it, even though I knew that a bullet wouldn’t do much damage to a vampire.
The vampire hit Claude and they fell into a dance too fast for me to follow. Claude fired again, slowing his opponent a hair. Then the gun flew, through the doorway and into the kitchen beyond. I almost went after it before reality hit. I wouldn’t just have to get through the vampire fighting Claude—not to mention I’d be hopeless at navigating around their fast, brutal fight—but I’d have to get past Luc, too.
Movement drew my gaze back to the door, where another vampire followed in the first’s wake. Him, I got a good look at. Because he didn’t bother to run in at vampire speed. He sauntered in after the other vamp broke the door off its hinges. And he was carrying a freaking sword.
Nicolas Chevalier.
I vaguely wondered if the neighbors would be calling the police.
If there were any neighbors. Were we in a city? Out in the middle of nowhere? No way to tell from inside the house.
Luc watched as Claude wrestled with one vampire, fighting for the knife, and Nic closed in behind them. My heart jumped into my throat at the sight of that knife. Vampires were tough to kill, but not impossible. Take out the heart or the head. And it was a big freaking knife.
My brother backed up a step, looking unsure. I felt uselessly for my sidearm. What the fuck kind of help could I be without a gun? The vampires seemed to think the same, because their focus was entirely on Claude.
My answer stared at me in the face. The coffee table.
No chance of hitting the vampire Claude fought with; they moved at speeds that hurt my eyes. No chance to get past all of them to Claude’s nearly useless gun. But Nicolas. Arrogant, prodigal son, he was watching his lackey fight Claude—weakening him for the kill.
A kill that Nicolas’s gleeful expression left little doubt that he’d participate in. I had faith that Claude could take out the vampire he wrestled with. And Luc and my brother might stay out of the fight—until things looked bad for them, anyway.
Hell. My brother. No wonder he’d been watching the door so nervously. He’d known they were coming. He’d betrayed me—us—to Nicolas. The man who’d almost killed him. What had Nicolas said or done to bring him around. Offered him money?
My chest hurt at the thought. Shit. Sure, he hadn’t always made the right choices in his life. But to betray me to someone he had to know intended to kill me? I couldn’t accept that.
I pushed up from the ground and grabbed the coffee table. Cheap and light, parts of the wood covering had rubbed or ripped away to reveal the particleboard beneath. It practically screamed Ikea. But it was a simple model. Helpful if you didn’t have super strength.
I used my whole body when I threw it at Nicolas. I knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but for Claude to survive, I needed to keep his attention. Claude was my only hope.
And I was his.
Nicolas reacted immediately to my attack. The vampire flew at me, and I didn’t even see him move until he was on top of me. The idea of a vampire other than Claude biting me sickened me. Between us, it was personal. It was about trust. It was intimate. A show of love.
But Nicolas didn’t bite me. He threw me.
I hit the wall and for a moment I felt like I was in a vision. Sound disappeared. I couldn’t move. Shock halted my thoughts.
Then it all came rushing back. I sucked in a breath of air and sharp pain spiked from the back of my ribs where I’d hit the wall. I slid down the surface of the wood paneling to the floor.
Across the room, Claude stood facing me, facing Nicolas. The Magister’s son seemed to have decided I was no longer a threat, because he turned his back to me and faced off with Claude.
The vampire Claude had been wrestling with was crumpled into an unmoving pile at Claude’s feet. Claude held the vampire’s bloody knife. There was so much blood. On the vampire. On the floor. On Claude’s hands.
But others were there now. Two more vampires had come in at some point and, based on their proximity to Nicolas, I didn’t think they were there to help us.
Like a light snuffed, the bit of hope I’d nursed that we’d make it out of this died at the sight of them. There were too many.
Luc was shouting something but, like in my visions, I couldn’t seem to grasp what he said. His expression had turned dark, his eyes narrowed in worry, and he gestured at Nic and Claude.
I struggled to my feet, fighting against the pain spiking from my back. Something was wrong with my left shoulder, and my arm didn’t want to move. But my right arm worked just fine, and I would be damned if I didn’t at least go out fighting.
The two vampires who’d entered while I was on the floor circled Claude, and he kept them at bay with the knife and a fearsomely calm expression. Nicolas stood watching, his back to me. I’d been right. The man didn’t like to risk himself when he wasn’t certain of the result. That was okay. I really wanted to hit him, anyway.
The lamp fell off the end table when I grabbed the leg. I swung it like a club, hitting Nicolas. It didn’t break under the strength of only one of my arms swinging it so haphazardly, but bounced off his back, instead.
But it got his attention.
“Asshole!” I yelled when he turned.
“You’ll pay for that,” he growled.
“Probably. But you’re still an ass.”
Then I was hitting the wall again, but this time the vampire was attached to my throat. In the distance, I could see Claude cry out to me and, seeing an opening, the vampires circling him attacked.
Pain arched through my body from my throat, and I batted at Nicolas with my working arm. He pressed so hard against my neck that I couldn’t breathe right. Then everything slowed down, and an almost pleasant fuzzy haze covered the scene before me.
Nicolas lifted his head and grinned, my blood covering his mouth and chin.
“Messy eater,” I muttered, or tried to. The words came out garbled.
Nicolas turned to shout over his shoulder. “You should have minded your own business, Claude. This is your f
ault. You got her killed!”
Claude screamed back something nonsensical and one of the vampires on top of him flew out the bay window.
Nicolas turned back to me. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? I do like to play with my food, but you’re a little bland.”
He started toward my neck again, then fell back a couple of steps. I fell to the ground, right on my butt. My legs didn’t seem to work. And for a moment, I thought I’d passed out and gone to dreamland.
My brother stood between Nicolas and me.
“She can’t do anything to you. Leave her be,” he said.
It wasn’t a resounding defense, but the fact he stood between us was enough. More than I would have expected. Maybe not enough to forgive everything, but it got him closer.
Nicolas looked like he might acquiesce for a moment, his gaze flashing between me and Eddie. Then he grinned, and struck.
My brother hit the wall next to me, and slid into a puddle beside me. Knocked out or dead? I couldn’t tell.
My neck was wet and I was starting to get cold. And at any moment, Nicolas would be on me, finishing his goal of bleeding me dry.
But Nicolas never hit me. Instead, I watched him turn to his father.
“What did you say to me?” Nicolas asked.
“I said leave the woman alone.” Luc’s graying pallor and the almost crazy look in his eyes made me hope that Nicolas had finally pushed his father too far. “This has gone far enough, my son.”
I couldn’t see Nicolas’s expression, but I could hear the smile in his voice. “You’re right, father. This has gone far enough, and for long enough. The pieces are all in place. And here you are, all alone.”
Nicolas was blocking my view of Claude. Was he hurt? Dead? God, I had to see. Limbs screaming and head spinning, I tried to force myself up into a standing position. When a wave of blackness stole seconds from me I decided, instead, to crawl but I shuffled on my knees because I only had one good arm.
Nicolas jumped at his father, and I could see the other vampire Claude had been fighting jump Luc as well. But I didn’t care about them. I had to see if Claude was okay. I had to see if my brother was okay.
He wasn’t.
I shuffled a couple of feet to look at Eddie. His face was bleeding, his nose broken. Maybe his jaw. But it took more than that to kill a vampire. Even with blood seeping out of the back of his head, right? I knew that young ones were easier to kill, but surely not head-injury easy. I hoped.
I touched the side of his face, as if touching him would make him being here real, and my hand slid down to his shirt. That’s when I saw it.
His shirt had opened just enough—courtesy of a broken button—for the brand on his chest to be visible.
Shit.
Nic and Luc continued to fight, and a piece of the couch hit the drywall above my head. I ducked and closed my eyes, but it landed a foot behind me. I turned back to my brother.
Did Nic have a hold on him, too? Is that why he’d told the vampire we’d be here with Luc? What the fuck did the brand do? Not torture people, that was for sure. If that had been the case, then the giant wouldn’t have given that up.
But controlling someone from a distance would fit. If I were the giant, I would’ve tried to keep the lie as close to the truth as possible. That way he could feign ignorance if Claude caught on.
What could Nic possibly gain from branding someone like my brother and a selkie leader? They had nothing in common.
Unless…unless Nic used the brand to control them somehow. That would fit. A selkie prince would be useful—not on his own, but if Nic was making a big move to take over. Hell, was it possible he controlled people using the brand as a link?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t entirely sure it mattered. Right now, we had to survive.
I only made it a couple of feet, just far enough to see Claude on the floor, unmoving. Pain the likes of which I never thought I could feel clawed at my insides, and I finally gave up on my fight to move. I curled up on the floor. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t allow the darkness I so craved to pull me under.
Because I was stronger than that. And Claude would expect more of me. I reached out and grabbed a chunk of wood that was next to me on the floor. From the coffee table, maybe. And I held it in my hands, waiting for Nicolas to attack.
Somehow, I knew that Nicolas would win. Luc hadn’t been able to bring his son to heel for more than a century, and taking his son’s life would be a far greater step than that. But Luc’s sense of honor wouldn’t allow him to watch his friend die without at least attempting to stop it either. Luc didn’t plan on surviving.
I closed my eyes, still clinging to my bit of wood. The scuffle continued, far more quietly than I would have guessed. Not much yelling. No cursing or one-liners. No insults. Just the sound of flesh hitting flesh, of knives clattering to the floor. The occasional boom of someone hitting a wall. Amazingly, nothing hit me.
The room was so cold, and I was so fucking tired. Blood loss, part of my brain insisted. A short nap, a little rest, maybe then I could get up.
No.
I forced my eyes open. The hell I was going to let some asshole vampire kill me while I lay unconscious. I struggled to my knees, using my right hand to prop myself up, my small wannabe stake between my hand and the ground. I couldn’t let it go, even though I knew if I tried to use it, I’d face-plant into the ground the second I lifted my hand from where it propped me up.
Blinking at the scene before me, I tried to take it in. Nicolas stood in front of his father, their profiles to me. Pieces of what could only be the other vampires were on the ground. They were both covered in blood and beat the hell up. But when Luc’s gaze slid to me, he moved just enough so I could see his chest. And the long sword that stuck out from where his heart should’ve been.
He mouthed something to me. It might have been, “I’m sorry.”
Then Nic turned around.
Nothing sane dwelt in him—not really. I’d have sworn to it at that moment, staring into those eyes so full of hate.
“It’s my turn now. No one to order me around. No one to try to make me live within the bounds of human law.” His expression twisted into a snarl so fierce he looked inhuman. “We’re better than you! Why did he always try to protect you?”
He lunged toward me, and I couldn’t help but cry out when he bent to take my neck again. He paused for a moment, lips so close to the skin on my neck that I could feel the rush from his mouth when he laughed. I cringed, then with my last bit of strength, I plunged my wannabe stake into his stomach.
He laughed louder and pulled back, wheezing as he chortled. He plucked the wood from his stomach and tossed it. He leaned in again, and I silently prayed that Claude might still be alive. That he might get away. That Eddie might get away with him.
But before Nicolas’s teeth could break my skin, his body stiffened. Something hit my chest—cooler than my skin but warmer than the air around us. A full second passed before I registered the knifepoint sticking out from his chest. And that what had hit me was his blood.
Claude knocked Nicolas to the side, moving him away from me.
Hope surged through me. If Nicolas was dead, we were saved. I was so fucking cold, and Claude was torn up—covered in blood and his body nearly broken by the vampires he’d fought. But if there was no one left to fight, we had a chance.
I blinked against the darkness that crept into the edges of my vision, and movement caught my eye. Nicolas was moving. Slowly, but moving. Headed for the door.
Had Claude missed the heart?
“Get him,” I muttered, but Claude didn’t move from my side. I wasn’t sure it mattered. I wasn’t so cold anymore, but I was so fucking tired.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You’ve…fought so…long.” Words didn’t seem to want to form in my mouth, and I wondered if one of the vampire hits had knocked my jaw out of whack. But it didn’t hurt.
“He doesn’t
matter.” Claude didn’t even glance at Nic, who had struggled to his feet. “I need you to make a choice, mon chou. Will you stay with me?”
His question seemed to have deeper meaning than I could grasp in that moment. But the idea of being with him—trusting him not to hurt me—didn’t scare me anymore. He loved me. I loved him. It all seemed so damned simple now. There was no need to deny it anymore.
“Love…you,” I managed.
Claude was cursing then, and I realized he’d been talking and I missed it. He shoved something against my mouth and I fought him instinctually. But even in his beaten state, the vampire was a good deal stronger than I.
Sweet coppery heat filled my mouth. I gagged and coughed into his arm, but he didn’t move. I managed to swallow, but the liquid kept coming. I thought I passed out for a second, but the blood flow never seemed to stop. My stomach felt horrible, like I desperately needed to vomit. If I could just move. But I couldn’t move. Claude was yelling at me, telling me to drink. Telling me not to die. Not yet.
If he was desperately trying to fill my body with his blood, then I had to be dying. Because vampires weren’t made without human death.
Heat rolled through my stomach and spread to the rest of me. It was painful compared to the cold I’d been feeling, and awakened all the pain from my injuries. I tried to cry out, but I couldn’t put a voice to the agony. I couldn’t find a release for the heat building. Every part of my body throbbed.
Over Claude’s arm, something moved. Luc came into view, his eyes on us and his expression unreadable. With one quick jerk, he pulled the sword from his chest.
The world went blessedly dark.
Chapter Fourteen
The fishy smell of the ocean filled my lungs. Waves rolled, hitting the beach in front of me, then sliding back out. To my ears, it sounded like the roar of a helicopter—close and likely to hit me if I didn’t duck. That part was supposed to get better.
My stomach twisted, and I was hit by a sudden hunger. One that I didn’t have to feed, not yet, but which I craved more than just about anything I could remember. That part was supposed to get better, too, but it would never go away.
Vampire Games (Entangled Ever After) Page 12