by Mary Hughes
“Yeah. Thanks.” I drew a fingerful of serum along Joyce’s edge, grateful that the kid cop got me.
“You’d think if Mr. Elias was safe at a homeless shelter, he’d have had the decency to contact us.” Weirdly, Keydew sounded not worried but annoyed.
“That’s the poison.” I returned the ruby tube to my vest and laid Joyce on my lap, careful not to smear her. “The stuff in the needle makes a vamp feel human. Turns off his super strength, super senses, and super healing.”
“How does that relate to Mr. Elias?”
“They shot him full of that stuff—after he’d been gassed, fought for his life, and lost significant blood. He’d be wandering around feeling human. Maybe even thinking he’s human.”
“Gosh.” His young jaw clenched, like those points were broken glass he was chewing. “If the vampire king is at the homeless shelter, why are we heading for your sister’s home?” He cut me a glance. “Shouldn’t we go to the shelter first?”
“No. I need to make sure Rey’s okay.” I tried to swallow. In my breathless urgency, it stuck in my throat as if I’d gulped a cinder block.
…
Pride battled with annoyance as Ryker drove Kat to her sister’s. Pride in Kat’s solving the puzzle. Annoyance at his friend for not living up to his god-king standards. When Elias escaped from the bad guys, he’d have automatically gone to ground. With his healing impaired, he’d have risen disoriented. Not himself. Primed for Rey to find wandering along Eisenhower.
So simple. Elias had gone with Kat’s sister to her homeless shelter.
Though if Elias thought he was human, he’d be easy fodder for Kat’s wicked vampire-killing blade. He hadn’t missed the determination with which she’d put on a fresh coat of serum.
He drove with a small part of his mind while the larger chewed on the foremost problem—how to keep her from destroying his friend the instant they met. He still hadn’t thought of a way when she pointed out her sister’s small Chicago bungalow.
Killing the lights and siren, he pulled the police vehicle to the curb. Delay, delay… Using Keydew’s light tenor, he piped, “Miss Kat, we really should wait. I’ll call for backup from the local police—”
“No time.” Kat hopped out of the squad and ran up the narrow walkway of her sister’s home.
Swearing, he switched off the engine and jumped out after her. Slowed. This was the break he’d wanted. “Tell me where the shelter is, then. I’ll program a driving route.” Rather, he’d drive there and rescue his brother vampire before Kat or anyone else could harm him more.
She mounted the stoop, turned, and reeled off an address.
“Thanks, Miss Kat.” He spun to leap into the SUV and drive off.
And leave Kat alone?
He stopped, hand on the door, surprised at the anxiety wringing his insides. He made himself open the door. Kat was safe enough with her sister. Elias wasn’t. He needed to get to his friend, rescue him, and have at least a decade’s worth of you owe me.
Yet something about this disturbed him.
The distinctive snick of a key in a lock announced Kat was opening her sister’s front door.
Swearing again under his breath, he slammed the car door shut, hit the lock vehicle on his fob, and dashed to follow Kat. Or at least the Keydew version of dashing, clomping after her with his awkward heavy-duty shoes.
And then he smelled it, on the first puff of warm air coming from the house.
Vampire.
Chapter Nineteen
“Rey!” I nearly broke off the key pulling it from the lock.
“Miss Kat, wait!” Keydew’s agitation echoed and reinforced my own.
I was positively frantic. My heart pounded as I burst through the door and dashed inside, Joyce ready in one hand, fearing blood splashed all over the floor and walls in a replay of my parents’ death.
“Rey.” A short front hallway opened onto a combination living room–dining room. I dashed through the entry into the living room. No blood on the walls. Still, my frenetically pumping heart expected a bloodbath. “Where are you?”
Past the conversation group was the dining room. Beyond that, a door led to the kitchen, which swung open.
My sister backed her way through with a china cup on a matching saucer.
“Kat?” She sent me a curious glance as she took the cup to the table. She bent, her red ponytail swinging along her arm, beside a seated hunched figure I hadn’t seen before. Her brow was knit with concern.
My sister was stunningly beautiful. She had amazing, lustrous hair and skin glowing with health. Her hair was an unusual shade of copper-red, her eyes almost the same color, though the DMV called them brown.
The figure she bent solicitously over wasn’t doing so well.
“Rey,” he moaned softly.
The vampire king was here.
I couldn’t breathe. The most terrifying vampire in the world. And my sister stood right beside him.
…
Ryker stared at his friend. Elias was bold, decisive. Brilliant.
This male was pale and drawn, his eyes dull with pain, his lips almost blue. The woman stroked his head, hand crinkling his lifeless hair.
That poor creature, with his innocent face and childlike eyes… Whatever poison had been in that syringe had seemingly wiped his personality.
Ryker rubbed the heel of his hand against his chest as if he could ease the sorrow there. He thought bitterly of the times he’d rescued his brother vampire. This night was supposed to cap them all. “You owe me three kingdoms. Pay up.”
This Elias couldn’t pay the debt of a penny.
Oh, hell. Debt was meaningless where brothers were concerned.
Ryker straightened Keydew’s spine. Time to do what he could to make things right.
…
As Officer Keydew crowded in behind me, I barely paid him attention, riveted to my sister and the sick male. My breath returned in quick, cold puffs.
Rey flashed me a grimace. “I’ll be with you in a minute, Kat.”
My sister, so near Elias, should have been terrified.
But if anyone was in wretched agony, it was the vampire she bowed over, the king whose drab head she stroked. Truly, he appeared a feeble human.
No. It had to be an act, like Max’s lover, Juliette. I clenched Joyce. I couldn’t let down my guard for a second.
Stiffening my resolve, I eased into the room. I’d come here to kill the vampire king and avenge my parents. And damn it, that was what I was going to do.
Not many changes had been made to the place in the years since our parents died. Nearest me was the couch, its back to the front window. Chairs faced it over a coffee table. On the table was the remains of a board game, recently played. A meal, recently ignored. Beyond the living room grouping was the dinner table where Rey stood close to the vampire king, too close for me to dash in with blades a-flashing. I tried to catch her eye, to signal her. Move away.
She was focused totally on Elias. “Here’s a nice hot cup of tea.”
“Beware.” His voice was as dry and cracked as the rest of him. “Beware the Shadow Lord.”
“Drink.” She pressed the tea on him. “You’ll feel better.”
Her voice was soft, soothing. Not hard or dark with stress in the least. She wasn’t faking any bravado.
She didn’t know he was a vampire.
“He’s so diminished,” Keydew whispered over my shoulder.
I glanced at the young officer. Infinite sadness shadowed his nice young face.
“He’s faking,” I ripped out. My intuition, every piece of evidence, hell, Ryker himself said this was the vampire king…
Unless Ryker had lied to me. My hand tightened on Joyce’s grip. If the PI was laughing at me somewhere, I’d give him some pointed steel truth to laugh over.
&nbs
p; “Chee oar,” Elias groaned. “Chee oar moon day.”
Rey glanced at me. Her expression was bleak. I understood why. Was he really this rambling, this incoherent?
Boiling with frustration, I barked, “Rey, what’s going on? Why is he here?”
She patted him and came to me, drawing me toward the end of the couch while Keydew went to close the front door. He reappeared a moment later.
“I realize it’s not strictly procedure.” My sister gave me a tentative smile. “But I was worried.”
“You were worried? You didn’t answer my calls!”
“Sorry. It’s just that…” She glanced at him. “He’s getting worse. He was doing fine at the shelter. Then he started having episodes. They couldn’t keep him. I brought him home for a little while, but only until I figure out how to get him into a hospital—”
“Rey, do you hear yourself?” I dug my free hand into my hair. “Has he hypnotized you?”
She frowned at me. “Why would you think that?”
“Because…” Well, hell. Either this was the king of the vampires or it wasn’t. Time to find out.
Spinning from Rey, I strode to Elias. My sister worriedly followed, Keydew trailing us both. I grabbed the king’s shoulder one-handed and shook him, sword ready in the other. “Are you Kai Elias?”
“Kat!” Rey cried.
My sister’s tone was something I’d never had directed at me before—appalled.
My stomach dropped unpleasantly. But I wasn’t the bad guy here. I didn’t release him. “Are you Elias?” My voice was dark with stress.
He only smiled vacantly at me.
“Kat, stop it!” Rey plucked at my arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”
She was appalled with me.
My anger turned sour in my mouth. I released him with a huff. “Elias, if you’re trying to hoodwink me—”
“I don’t understand you, Kat.” A frown grooved deep in my sister’s forehead. “He doesn’t know his name. I asked him, but… I call him Greyson.”
“My name is Greyson.” He repeated it like a child.
“Greyson?” Ice dropped into my stomach. I switched my stare to Rey. When we were girls growing up, Greyson was the name she’d given her imaginary boyfriend. “You named him Greyson?” I practically choked on it.
“It’s just a name,” she hissed at me. “Don’t make anything out of it.”
“Rey.” Elias or Greyson or whoever the hell he was reared straight, his eyes wide and hard with terror. “They’re coming. He’s with them. The Shadow Lord’s right hand. Strigorul!”
“It’s okay, Greyson.” Rey nudged me away and crouched beside him, hand running reassuringly along his hair. “You’re safe with me.”
From sweet and daft to night terrors in the blink of an eye. Rey dealt with some damaged people, but not like this.
“What is wrong with him?”
She shot me a glare, rose, and dragged me away from the table. Stopping at the couch, she pitched her voice low and bawled me out. “Leave him alone. He’s sick and delusional. That’s why I had to bring him here.” She shook her head. “He thinks someone called the ‘Shadow Lord’ is after him.”
“Lord Umbra,” Keydew muttered, huddling with us before the couch. Again, the young officer had followed us, as if he didn’t want to leave us alone.
I frowned at him. “Does that name mean something to you?”
“An informant mentioned a man called Umbra—which means shadow.”
“You have informants?” Spindly Officer Keydew was some sort of spy runner? It seemed wildly out of character.
I didn’t like any of this. Clutching Joyce, I switched my gaze between Keydew, who was behaving very strangely, and the delusional male over at the table spouting about moon days and shadow lords. I’d come here to kill the vampire king. I was this close to marching over there and doing it.
My sister, though… Rey’s eyes rested on Elias, deep sympathy in them. No, caring.
No, affection.
That churned the ice in my belly. Greyson. Fear crowded out my rage. Ever since the vampires hurt her, Rey had kept her distance from all men.
Yet she’d given this one her favorite name.
She liked him.
I should have seen this coming. Talking on the phone with her, hearing her concern for the poor, sweet man. Each time I spoke with her, he’d grown on her a little more.
If I killed him now, no words could ever explain why. Not to Rey. Not with her gazing at him like that. I shifted on my feet, regripping Joyce, my gaze switching between my sister and the male she called Greyson.
“He’s here.” Elias’s eyes went white, his face draining of blood. “Strigorul is here.”
“Who the hell is Strigorul?” I snapped.
“A hallucination.” Though Rey’s low words were for me, her attention was totally on Elias. She hurried to him. “No, darling. The man can’t hurt you again. I won’t let him.”
“Please listen.” He grabbed her arms, terror in his black eyes. “Rey, please. You must go. Now, please. Go.”
“It’s okay, Greyson.” She stroked his head.
His gaze darted frantically around the room.
Lit on me.
Stopped. Steadied.
Intense.
Something hitched inside me, as if I’d touched a shorted-out toaster.
“You,” Elias said. His voice was less hoarse, more commanding. “Save her.”
“Shit.” Keydew spit a very un-Keydew swear and spun toward the door. “Vampires. Incoming.”
Chapter Twenty
The sick man staggered to his feet and tried to push Rey toward the kitchen. “Hide.”
“Too late,” Keydew said.
The door burst open. A huge, overdeveloped hulk stormed inside. Black combat pants, black T-shirt stretched over muscles marching up his arms like steroid mountains, tusk-like fangs gleaming, glowing red eyes. Facial armor like a welder’s mask. Flanking him were a pair of hulkettes in the same black fatigues and smaller welders’ masks. Seriously, they were so alike, right down to the rectangular blue badges on their chests, all they needed were black pom-poms and creatine endorsements sewn on their butts.
The blue-badges. These were the fangs for hire, the same group that had managed to originally capture Elias.
Except the leader had a red badge. I didn’t like the leveling-up that implied.
“Damn it all to Kur,” Keydew spat. “They must’ve followed us here. Get down,” he added as a fourth bloodsucker nosed around the corner of the entryway.
Or rather, nosed his rifle.
My stomach did a belly flop into my legs as the four of us hit the floor, Keydew and me behind the couch, my sister and Elias beside the table, just in time to avoid a strafing of bullets.
I clutched Joyce hard. Where vampires usually relied on fear and fangs, these hardened suckers were professionals. The speed of the breach, the deadly way the sharpshooter covered the room, reinforced the fact that they were most definitely a serious threat.
Against a boy cop, a sickly weak-as-human vamp, my sister, and me. We were in deep shit.
The bullets stopped. Crouched behind the couch, both hands wrapped around Joyce’s hilt, I mentally ranked them by threat level. Thing One and Thing Two were SEVERE, the gunman was CRITICAL, and the leader was DEFCON OH-CRAP.
With my sister’s life at stake, tonight was not a good night to die.
“Give him to us,” DEFCON intoned, his deep, dark voice echoing with an older vamp’s power. “Hand him over, and the rest of you can go.”
I croaked, “Who?”
He pointed a sharp talon. “Elias.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see that very bloodsucker and my sister army-crawling toward us.
Give them Elias? Hand over the s
ucker king I was going to kill anyway? Then walk away, hale and hearty, having not earned my sister’s wrath?
A no-brainer.
I eased to a stand, hands raised, Joyce still in one. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Kat, no.” Rey’s voice was hard with stress.
“No trouble.” As I spoke, I slid sideways, putting myself between DEFCON and my sister. She was trying to shield Elias, though somehow the vampire king eased my sister behind him.
Keydew, to my surprise, was at my elbow, sliding with me. I’d have thought he’d have stayed safe behind the couch.
“Bring me Elias, now.” Voice heavily laced with compulsion, DEFCON curled his finger at me.
“You bullies aren’t taking Greyson,” Rey snarled.
“Rey, don’t.” Elias’s whisper was hoarse. “Hide. Please.”
I was in position. I glanced behind me.
My sister’s gaze was hard and confrontational on the bloodsuckers at the front door. “I’m not cooperating with you.”
“We aren’t cooperating.” I snapped into a fighting stance.
DEFCON attacked without warning. Not only a professional, a ruthless professional.
He was targeting Elias, but I was first in his way. I brought Joyce level with his neck and braced myself.
His throat split on my blade. I had a tenth of a second to think, Not as impervious as the king before Joyce hit his spine, his bone as hard as concrete. Much harder than a normal vamp. The force juddered painfully up my arms, nearly tearing her from my grip.
A single spray of blood cut off like a water hose.
He grinned down at me with my sword still embedded in his throat.
Terror stabbed cold spikes in my legs before I could turn and run. For two hummingbird-beats of my heart, I thought the ruby serum hadn’t worked.
Then DEFCON fell back a step, surprise erasing his grin. Joyce came loose with a sucking sound. His plate faded, revealing green skin. Seconds ticked by as we all stared. The sub-goons didn’t attack, maybe simply shocked, maybe waiting for a command from their leader.
A command that’d be a long time coming, if ever. The vertical gash in his neck…extended. More seconds ticked by, lots more than with the plain blue-badges. His skin slowly turned lumpy and his neck wound started bubbling.