by Joey W. Hill
It was a red shirtwaist tea dress with flared skirt, standing collar, V-neckline and short sleeves. The fit emphasized her breasts, the fabric flowing in curved lines to the nipped waist. Her hair and makeup were done, and she wore black heels. At her throat she wore a pendant she hadn’t worn before. One he hadn’t bought for her, at least not directly.
While taking a short break at the hospital, one of the other nurses, Rose, had talked her into walking down to the market with her. It hadn’t been an expensive thing, but Nina had been so taken with it, she’d used some of the cash Alistair gave her for sundries to buy it.
The circular pendant showed a nighttime scene, a small plane flying under bright moonlight and over sparkling water, thanks to the working of the metal.
Alistair touched the necklace and lifted his gaze to hers. “It was one of the best and worst moments of my life, if that makes sense,” she said.
“It does.” He shifted his grip to the side of her throat, squeezed lightly, though from his expression, he wanted to hold her much more aggressively. “Let’s go get this done, shall we? He’s coming up the maintenance road.”
Sooner we get it done, sooner we can shag.
The man was diabolical, because he had her laughing as they stepped out the front door. Just as Donovan was pulling up, with a harrowing three carloads of vampires and servants. She saw a flash of shock on Donovan’s face as he registered her expression, the matching devilish grin on Alistair’s. Only she saw the coolness in Alistair’s eyes as he held her gaze one last moment before turning and moving to the top of the stairs, his face going expressionless.
She didn’t know until Nero told her later that hers matched him, her smile disappearing into an impassive but wholly unconcerned look as she took her rightful place to Alistair’s right, just a pace behind him. She had her hands folded demurely before her, head up and eyes leveled contemptuously on the show of force below. Their nine vampires, the landscapers, Coleman, Nero and Stanley had arrayed themselves on one side of the steps, and they were a tough-looking group, too.
She’d never gotten a good look at Donovan, but she instantly knew he was the male who’d dragged her below street level and beaten her. The look in his eyes made her skin crawl, a post-traumatic reaction she viciously kept inside herself. He was a big male, as she remembered, with long dark-blond hair tied back, unnaturally still brown eyes and a strong-boned face. He wore the clothes of a gentleman as Alistair did, only a brown suit and gold vest. Donovan carried a walking stick with an eagle’s head gold handle.
Curtis stood at his back, a mirror of Nina’s position. When their eyes met, the servant grinned at her, a baring of teeth. She was a healer, a nurse, but she indulged a momentary fantasy of driving a knife into his abdomen, taking away that smug expression and delivering him into the grip of agonizing, prolonged pain
“You’re a bit tougher than I expected,” Donovan said to Alistair. “For a made vampire.”
She shoved down another reaction as he brought back the sound of his voice against her ear, his hated breath shivering along her throbbing neck and shoulder.
“Shame that can’t be enough for you,” Alistair replied. “I could have used an ally with your brains and strength in my Region. Guess I’ll have to train up one of these others, unless they show your short-sightedness.”
Donovan’s gaze shifted briefly to Nina and then came back to Alistair. “Shame to lose her when I kill you. She ended up being more of an InhServ than anyone expected. The Council gifted you with more than you deserve.”
Alistair lifted a brow. “And you tried to take more than your share. We’ll see who the gods favor.”
“What?” Donovan drawled. “No tea first?”
Alistair scoffed. “The Devil’s waiting on you to share his.”
Nina managed, barely, not to react with a startled shriek when Alistair leaped from the veranda and plowed into Donovan, driving the vampire back so they both hit the hood of his car with a loud thump and creak of protesting metal.
There’d be no fifteen paces and turn, no cordoned off fight zone. When Alistair erupted into motion, the mask of civility was ripped away. In a blink, she realized the rage that Alistair had shown when he’d first woken from the explosion had never left him. He’d locked it down, a river of fire flowing beneath everything between that moment and now. The torrential storm of fury triggered by the presence of his enemy had that river roaring forth.
The heat was as overwhelming as the chilling control it had taken to channel it until now. Those who doubted that made vampires could match the control of a born one could just go bugger themselves.
The others obviously hadn’t expected such a show of fury, either. They thought because he’d tried to deal fair with Donovan, with her, it made him weak. Only violence and death would teach them different. God, she hated human nature. Or vampire nature. Hell, any species that God had made the mistake of imbuing with more brains than sense.
But she also remembered another side of that coin, the breathtakingly dangerous side of her vampire. If you’re truly mine, then what I say you can and can’t do is my bloody business.
She was as daft as the rest. She moved to the top step. Those on their side were watching tensely. Nero stood shoulder to shoulder with Stanley at the apex of that group, and she could tell just by observing them if things were going well or badly. But she could barely tear her eyes from Alistair.
It was hard to follow, because the two vampires were moving almost faster than a third mark could track. Over the car, beside it. Through the plantings. Kicks, punches, grunts, snarls. Blood spurted as Donovan landed a nasty face punch, but Alistair retaliated with a kick that sent the other vampire spinning and crashing headlong into the driver’s side door of one of the parked cars. Both groups of onlookers shifted like water from the tide line as the two fighting males went this way and that. Then they hit the base of the stairs, making the boards vibrate and shake.
She couldn’t tell who was getting the upper hand. Neither, she suspected, at least at the moment. The two of them were well matched and she suspected that, too, was a surprise to Donovan. He was a born vampire, but he was about fifty years younger than Alistair, and apparently the age difference made their strengths more equitable. Both were skilled fighters.
Apparently realizing it, they backed off from one another for a moment, circling, eyes locked, but minds evaluating. “Ready to give up?” Alistair said pleasantly. “You could just fall on a stake for me and be done with it.”
“My sentiments exactly, mate.”
“Not your mate. Your Region Master, and you either call me that and mean it, or you get to see your Maker.”
“No made vampire is ever going to be my Master.” Donovan leaped again.
This time, Alistair had switched from full out brute force to strategy. He ducked beneath the lunge, slammed into Donovan, and charged with a yell, crushing him against the car. His speed increased past a blur as he punched the male in the rib cage, again, again and again, not giving him time to recover, marshal defenses or retaliate. Nina came down the stairs, giving Nero a sharp head shake when he would have stopped her. “I know what I’m doing.”
She sort of did. She knew she had to be close, but she was also aware she didn’t have the speed of a vampire to stay out of the way. She glanced Stanley’s way and he was at her elbow in an instant. “I have to be within a few feet of him,” she said, “But I have to be out of the way, too, so they don’t roll over me. And I’m not perceived as interfering.”
“Got it. They’re moving faster than me, but I can anticipate them well enough.” And then, she did gasp, for as Alistair and Donovan came so close to her she felt the wind of their passing, Stanley had snatched her and moved her out of their violent path.
“Like that,” he said, with a certain level of satisfaction, though his gaze, like hers, remained fixed on the other two.
Curtis was circling as well, and had copied her initiative, using the help of one o
f Donovan’s vampires. Damn it. They had to move quickly to stay out of one another’s way, and he bared his teeth at her once or twice, that humorless, mocking smile.
Alistair had done some damage, but it had also marshaled another level from Donovan. Nina fought back a scream as Donovan went for Alistair’s upper torso, and she saw the area she knew to be far too tender get bludgeoned by the other vampire’s fists. When Alistair was bent double, Donovan grabbed his arm and wrenched it. The right arm.
Alistair bit off the hoarse scream, but twisted with the motion, avoiding the break and taking them both down. Using legs locked around Donovan’s body, he flipped them both and then kicked the other vampire squarely in the face, knocking his head back and breaking his nose with a sickening crunch.
Now. As Alistair rolled on top of the other vampire, Nina surged forward, yanking up her skirt and pulling the wooden stake from the garter. He glanced her way, hand lifted, and she slapped it into his palm. Just before she did it, Donovan’s arm shot out and he grabbed her ankle, fingers biting into it like a bear trap. She discovered that a vampire could crush bone in his grip. Curtis grabbed her around the waist, but Stanley turned on him with an animal-like hiss. The other vampires on both sides were closing in.
She bit back the scream despite the mind-blanking agony, made sure Alistair’s hand closed securely on the stake before she let go. She’d do nothing to distract Alistair from…
Donovan had made a strategic mistake, trying to stop her instead of shoving Alistair off him. He tried to block him, but Alistair wouldn’t be denied. He slammed the stake down, with such a decisive, aimed and controlled movement it was clear he still had his wits well about him. He didn’t even glance off a rib, despite Donovan’s attempt to struggle. The stake went straight in.
Everything else in the tableau froze. Donovan arched, a bitter wheeze escaping his lips. His eyes, flashing with battle rage, dialed over to lingering hatred before everything just left him. Eerily, it reminded her of the sun’s quick drop below the horizon when it touched firmament, its hold on the day released for night.
One brief moment of tense silence, and then Alistair shoved the body away from him. “Back off,” he said, death in his voice, and Donovan’s forces melted back, even as Alistair’s took a step forward, reinforcing the point.
In the next blink, Alistair had moved over to Nina, who’d gone down on her arse. She could barely think through the pain, but it would be fine. She just needed a minute to struggle past it and then…
“Drink, my brave and clever InhServ,” Alistair said quietly, and she realized he had a wrist before her mouth, had cut it open and was pushing the blood to her lips. She latched on before she could think to deny herself, so he could conserve his strength. She’d no idea what any of the rest of them were going to do, he might need to be on alert, handling…
Oh, blessed miracle, it only took a few swallows for the pain to ebb enough for her to think again, as good as morphine. The bones would take more time to assemble themselves from the puzzle pieces she knew they must be, but they would, because that too was part of the miracle of being a third mark. No surgery needed. Just the blood of her Master.
Look. There’s nothing for you to manage.
She did look, and saw that Donovan’s vampires were standing in a far less belligerent and certain-looking cluster, while Alistair’s vampires, Nero and the male staff were nearby, their watchful attention an obvious warning. If any of them unwisely chose to break protocol and attack Alistair, they would be met by an immediate response.
She and Curtis had been allowed to serve as squires, so to speak, and Stanley could come to her defense and protection in that role. However, the fight between Donovan and Alistair had to be strictly vampire against vampire, or protocol was broken. Alistair had explained that when he handed her the stake from the weapons left on the table in his bedroom.
But you’ll stay well out of the way, Nina. You take no risks. He’d given her a steady look as he put the stake in her hand, holding it an extra moment as if he was going to rethink her insistent offer of aid. But in the end, he’d let her help. Trusting her to be there when he needed her.
He might take her to task for coming within Donovan’s reach, but that was all right. Alistair was alive.
She’d committed every one of their faces to memory, these vampires who’d stood for Alistair, and knew she owed their servants an apology for her brusqueness with them. Later.
No apologies. You conducted yourself as an InhServ would, and earned their respect by kicking their arses into gear.
Alistair sent her a quick look as he thought that. He was holding himself well, but as a healer and his servant, she could feel the pain vibrating from him. Donovan hadn’t shattered the arm anew, but it had been a near thing, and she knew his upper torso and the assembly of organs beneath his ribs weren’t up for that kind of pummeling so soon after the car explosion.
Donovan said I’m tougher than expected, Alistair reminded her.
I believe he said ‘a bit’ tougher. And not invincible. She slanted him a glance. JD is going to give you a piece of his mind, the way the two of you ran roughshod over the landscaping he’s worked on so hard.
Alistair’s lips twitched, and he brushed a hair away from her cheek. When we get behind closed doors, I’m going to steep myself in you, sweet nurse. But for now…don’t protest, because I have to look strong.
She did bite back a protest as he slid his arms beneath her and hefted her up in his arms. She noticed the tightening of his body, the pain responses, but they were so subtle, she knew she would be the only one that would. To those watching, he appeared as well as he’d been before the match.
Tremendous, bloody control. Once again, she saw that Lady Lyssa hadn’t endorsed him for Region Master out of favoritism. Or, if it had been, it had been balanced by the knowledge he could more than handle the job.
Well, at least one person thinks so.
I see at least a dozen others, including myself. She assumed it was all right to link her arm around his neck, but made herself not rest her cheek against his chest, though she really wanted to do so. He took her up onto the veranda and put her gently down on a bench. He’d jerked his head at Nero, so the butler came with them. Alistair put a hand on Nina’s shoulder. “Make sure she stays here until I handle the rest of this lot. She’s done enough.”
“Right-o, sir.”
Alistair went back down the steps, striding across the driveway to where his men and Donovan’s stood. She remained tense, no matter that the battle seemed over. That was often when all hell would break loose. She noticed that Nero watched just as carefully as she did, and his hand was not far from the pistol at his hip.
“What butler school teaches you to carry a pistol?” she murmured.
“The smart kind. Especially in a household like this one. I’ll be glad when this is handled. I’m tired of putting together my own meals. Mrs. C is far better at it.”
Nina almost smiled, though her eyes didn’t leave Alistair. With her third mark, she could hear parts of the conversation, but his body language gave her most of it. Stiff and formal, borderline menacing, with Donovan’s vampires. He was waiting, and promptly getting, individual declarations of loyalty and determining not by the words, but by the manner, if he could accept it. She noticed his vampires had adjusted so they stood behind each declarant. From the slightly nervous glances over shoulders, he’d done a good job of convincing Donovan’s followers that if the answer was delivered wrong, they might not leave that spot alive.
When he said something she couldn’t quite make out, Donovan’s vampires looked toward her at nearly the same moment, then brought their eyes back to Alistair, a quick snap. They appeared more than a little uneasy, but their nods came quickly, their spoken “my lord” reaching her with particular emphasis.
He wasn’t going to kill them. She hoped. What was it he’d said? He wasn’t cruel when he didn’t have to be. His mercy had to be earned, though. He
wouldn’t hesitate to cut any one of them down, right here in the driveway, if he thought that vampire would be a problem for him like Donovan. She didn’t let out an easy breath until he stepped back, gestured. The vampires headed for the cars. One began to collect Donovan, but Alistair said something sharply, and he was left where he lay. Her gaze slid from that body to a second one.
Curtis had fallen near his Master, his hand outstretched, his staring, lifeless eyes focused on him.
She swallowed. “He won’t let Donovan be buried?” she asked quietly.
“He will burn there with the morning sun, the ash becoming a mark upon the drive that will remain long enough to be a reminder,” Nero said.
“And Curtis?”
“Probably the same fate as our sniper. More food for JD’s plantings.”
“My guess, Lord Alistair will be even more flush for a while.” Stanley joined them on the veranda. “Donovan’s lot have kept their lives, but the penalty for being on the losing side is going to be a hefty hike in their quarterly tithes.” He tossed Nina a grimly amused look. “Maybe you can talk him into funding a new wing for the hospital. Not good for a man to make too much money off the misery of others without giving back. Long as he has enough left over to stock his liquor cabinet to the brim.”
“Stanley.” Alistair had turned toward the veranda. Stanley tipped his hat to her, nodded to Nero, and trotted down the stairs again. Nero closed his hand over Nina’s.
“Steady, girl.”
She nodded. Made herself look away from Curtis, even though the memory would be there, in her head, like so many others. Lived together, died together. And yes, whatever Donovan’s feelings…the pose in which they lay told her the truth of it. Curtis had cared for his Master. Maybe even loved him.
Donovan’s lot loaded up the cars, drove away. Alistair spoke to his vampires. He shook each one’s hand, glanced toward the veranda, gestured at her, spoke. They nodded. A few vampires smiled, sending her a speculative, somewhat amused look, and then they, too, went to where they’d left their cars, along the drive and by the garage area.