Terry Spear - Vampire

by Killing The Bloodlust (Triskelion) (lit)

  Chapter 16

  Crystal felt like a loose cannon, full of hell and bent on destroying the creatures that threatened to destroy her. She seemed changed. What had happened to make her a real huntress?

  She glanced at a woman poking a shovel into her flower garden. The sight made Crystal sigh. Humans who weren’t targeted by a vampire could live a real life.

  She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw the host following her. Totally exasperated, she shook her head and gripped the steering wheel in anger. This wouldn’t do. She had to follow him.

  An SUV pulled in front of her. Was it a host too? His slow speed seemed to ensure he was. Made to order. Lead the way.

  The host obliged and led her down a maze of streets, back alleys, onto the highway, and off again. If Robert and his brothers attempted to follow her this time, the hosts made sure they couldn’t. A feeling of isolation filled her, but she quickly shook it off. She’d been alone for four years. No way would she let a couple of days spent with Robert turn her into a dependent, clinging leech.

  Though she watched the road, her mind conjured up the image of him and his dark brown eyes framed in jet black lashes as they studied her. Nicolai was determined to change her, but now she wondered, did Robert do the trick instead?

  She swallowed. She’d fallen hard for the hunter. And there was no way she could let Nicolai kill him. Never had she been so motivated in her life. And certainly she never meant to kill a vampire as a precautionary or offensive measure, only in defense, when her life was threatened.

  Trying to calm her ragged nerves, she leaned back against the car seat and stretched her arms with her hands locked firmly on the steering wheel. The black SUV continued to zigzag down streets until she herself was so thoroughly lost, she’d need a guide to get back to where she started.

  Would the host take her to Nicolai this time?

  The vampire fledgling had said he was never to be disturbed during the day. And after Nicolai’s dip in the river, she assumed it’d take them awhile before they could free him. The hosts would take her somewhere else then. Somewhere they could imprison her until Nicolai woke and came for her.

  Not today. Not ever.

  She narrowed her eyes as she considered the distance she’d traveled on the mileage gauge. Over twenty miles. They didn’t plan to continue to drive her all over hell and back until it grew dark, did they?

  Two more hours and the sun would begin to set. She glanced at the gas gauge. Plenty of gas for another couple of hours, at least.

  Another half hour passed, then they passed by the auto dealership where the host had run his pickup truck into the glass. Now she knew where she was.

  Several minutes later, the host parked at a redbrick house. Another two-story house, this one complete with a wrap-around-porch, and black shutters that framed the windows. Picture perfect.

  She waited while the hosts emptied out of the two vehicles. Twelve of them.

  Like a fly caught in a web, the hosts gathered around her vehicle. But what they didn’t seem to understand was that she was the spider and they were the insects.

  She seized the cane and stepped out of the car. The hosts backed up, giving her room, then several motioned to the house.

  All male, all well-built, young, cream of the crop. Only, it helped to have some older, more seasoned men to guide them. Nicolai had made a mistake in sending only young hosts.

  “Whose house is this?” Crystal asked, turning her head to view some of those who followed her.

  They all watched her, as if she held some kind of power of attraction for them. It unnerved her some as she figured she’d have to fight them soon. Undoubtedly, Nicolai’s overwhelming interest in her had caused quite a stir in the local vampire community. She was as deadly to them as the vampires who turned on them when they disobeyed.

  No one spoke a word. “No leader amongst you?” She stopped before the porch as the front door opened wide, welcoming her. “I can’t enter a home when I don’t know who lives here.” She lied of course, but they didn’t have to know that. The problem was her nerves were getting to her again.

  The hosts exchanged glances.

  “Don’t know?”

  When no one said, she turned around. “I’ll have to come another time then.”

  “Kostya’s home, mistress,” one of the men said under his breath.

  Her heart sank. Kostya. She hadn’t been able to kill him before, losing all of her resolve the last time. What happened to her determination now?

  She hesitated.

  The dark-haired man spoke again. “We weren’t supposed to say. He said you’d be afraid to enter his house.”

  She didn’t want to kill him. Really, she didn’t. She turned to look back at the house. But then again if she wanted to live as a...a huntress and not one of Nicolai’s concubines and protect Robert, she’d have to break Nicolai’s family up, once and for all. She swallowed hard, then walked up the two stairs to the porch.

  The men followed her, clustered like bees around a flower, guiding her inside.

  No one tried to disarm her. As long as no one attempted to remove her weapons, she’d remain calm.

  Still her hands prickled with anticipation when she walked inside the home. Like the others, the place was dark. She maneuvered around a couch to one of the windows, but five hosts blocked her path. “If I’m to visit Kostya, I wish there to be light. I hate the dark.”

  An older man, his black hair graying at the temples, stepped into the room and motioned to the window. “Open the drapes. It’s better than her ripping them out of the wall.”

  One of the men pulled the curtains open. Light filled the room, but none of the sun’s rays could enter at the angle the sun now rested high overhead.

  The older man waved to the door as he spoke to the hosts. “What of the others?”

  “The hunters never knew she left the house.”

  The man smiled broadly. “Good. This time Nicolai will be pleased, thank heavens.”

  “Heaven has nothing to do with this,” Crystal said.

  “Believe me, we’ve seen enough of Nicolai’s rage to want some peace and quiet for awhile.”

  She turned toward the stairs. “Where’s Kostya?”

  “Sleeping. Why don’t you have a seat and wait until he wakes?”

  “I’ll come back later if the time is so inconvenient for him.”

  The front door slammed shut behind her. Her heart sprang in her chest. She knew they’d make every attempt to keep her there, but she just wasn’t ready to begin the attack.

  A dark-haired woman appeared at the top of the stairs. “Kostya’s awake, but busy right now.”

  With Lila? Was he joining with her?

  Crystal ran for the stairs, determined to save Lila if she could. When she reached halfway up the steps, six male hosts appeared at the top of the staircase blocking her path.

  “Let me talk to Kostya. He wanted me here. It’s rude for him to not to see me.”

  “He wishes you to wait for him a few more minutes,” the female host replied.

  But Crystal couldn’t wait. She had to stop him before it was too late. She readied her cane. “I don’t want to do this.”

  “Then don’t,” the older man said from downstairs. “Sit here.” He motioned to a black velvet couch. “Someone will get you something to eat and drink. It’s lunchtime, is it not?”

  She aimed her cane at the first of the men. His green eyes widened. When he lunged at her, he bared his baby canines. Damn. He was a vampire, not a host. How many of the ones in the house were vampires, newly turned, who looked just like the hosts?

  He knocked her down the stairs to the bottom. A curse slipped off her tongue. She wasn’t any different than she was before, late to react to the threat and not ready to serve on the offensive.

  She yanked the sword out of the cane. Anyone who got in her way would die if she could manage it now. She hadn’t any choice.

  Before she could get to her feet, five
of them pounced on her, pinning her down. Damn, they were weak vampires, but five of them were enough to thwart her momentarily. Each stared at her with the intensity of a vampire trying to control her mind. A nervous laugh erupted from her throat. Would they never learn they couldn’t control her with their mental telepathy?

  “Is she causing trouble again?” Kostya said from the top of the stairs. A trickle of fear ran down her spine at the sound of his dark voice. Instantly chill bumps dotted her arms. She struggled to get free.

  “They’ve got her pinned down on the floor of the living room, master,” the woman said, in a pleased voice.

  “Good.”

  Two of the vampire fledglings hissed at Crystal.

  “Sounds like she’s giving them a bit of trouble.”

  The stairs creaked as he stepped down them toward her. With all of the male vampires hovering over her, pinning her arms and legs to the carpeted floor, she couldn’t see Kostya’s approach.

  When he stood before her, he smiled. “Flat on your back again, I see. The last time, you managed to get free of me. Not this time.”

  His satiny black hair hung loosely about his shoulders, and he wore no robe this time, just a pair of silky black boxers. The sight disgusted her. Did he think she’d be impressed with his physique like the mindless female hosts seemed to be who offered him their lifeblood?

  “I’d have you take her to my room, but since she seems to like it where she is at the moment, keep her here.”

  She ceased her struggles. She’d rest. The vampire fledglings couldn’t hold onto her forever. She tilted her chin up. “Did I wake you?”

  Kostya raised his brows. His mouth curved up slightly. “Lila did.” He motioned to someone.

  When the woman who had been standing at the top of the stairs came forward, Crystal frowned. “Have someone new? Lila’s old news now?”

  “I can’t feed off her all the time, as much as she wishes me too.” The woman turned her head, inviting Kostya to drink his fill of her blood. Kostya turned and caressed her neck. He reached his hand down her shirt and massaged her breast. The female host moaned.

  With intrigue, the vampires who held Crystal watched Kostya seduce the woman. Did they wish they stood in Kostya’s place? A superior-strength vampire who could have any woman at his beck and call?

  Was he showing off to the fledglings? Or to Crystal?

  She still held the sword in her hand, though one of the fledglings rested his knee on her wrist while his hands held her arm down. Even so, his grip had loosened as he watched Kostya ravish the female host.

  After managing to extend her left wrist knife, Crystal waited for just the right moment. Then she realized the moment would never come if she waited for it. She closed her eyes for an instant, sucked in a breath, then opened her eyes. Targeting the vampire who held her sword hand, she jerked her left arm free from the vampire whose attention was diverted to Kostya, and swung her wrist blade into the chest of the one who held her sword arm.

  The vampire didn’t have time to cry out as the blade penetrated his heart. But the other who she’d wrenched her arm free from, yelled a warning instead.

  Kostya had extended his fangs to bite the female host, but turned to see what Crystal had done.

  The fledglings didn’t react quickly enough as Crystal swung her sword at another one. She only wounded him in the arm, making him scream. But she didn’t have time to calculate her swings. Instead, she attempted to free herself, then target the one she knew would be her fatal error, if she let him go this time.

  Kostya realized the same thing and shoved the female host aside. Crystal scrambled to her feet, then stabbed her sword into a fledgling who tried to retake her. This time she managed to hit the heart. He collapsed in a crumpled, wizened heap like the other.

  Two down, four fledglings to go. And one pissed off full-strength vampire who’d missed breakfast and woke on the wrong side of the bed. Plus she didn’t know how many others were in the house. Her blood pumped through her heart at an increased rate. Fear, mixed with exhilaration, filled every pore.

  Kostya swooped at Crystal. He bared his teeth while his black eyes were nearly red with anger, his gaze intent on her throat. She thrust her sword at him, but a fledgling grabbed her arm and twisted it safely away from Kostya’s chest. Her heart stilled when she was suddenly left defenseless in the path of the raging vampire.

  Kostya’s body slammed into her while his hands clutched her shoulders in the same instant. The blow knocked her off her feet. She fell backwards with Kostya clinging to her like a vine to a collapsing wall. She landed on her back again and winced with the sudden jolt.

  Now the fledglings watched the new show Kostya put on for them. Tame the huntress or kill her.

  Claustrophobia tugged at her chest as the four fledglings held her arms down while Kostya rested on top of her. His six-foot body leaned heavily against her chest while an obvious arousal pressed into her pelvis. Now what would he do to her? Kill her, then face Nicolai’s rage? Take her for his own as he’d threatened to do and again, see what Nicolai had to say about it?

  The eager looks on the fledglings’ faces indicated they wished to see how he’d handle the fiery hunter in their midst. Infuriated she’d lost the battle she squirmed underneath him, bringing a smile to his lips.

  “Like this, you’re totally appealing. I can see why Nicolai wants you so badly. The notion of having someone who isn’t easy to be had is intriguing.” He seized her face in his hands, his dark eyes piercing her with a look of superiority. He held her life in his grasp and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  The notion exasperated her as she tried to focus on her next move and not on the defeat that overwhelmed her spirit at the moment.

  “There are rumors circulating that a vampire can bite you and live to tell the tale.” He nuzzled her face with his, his smooth skin warm and soft. But his quickened breath, darkened eyes, and extended teeth meant he was losing control of the bloodlust rising in his system.

  Not believing she could talk herself out of her predicament, she still had to give it a try. “Kostya,” she said, her own breath shallow from him pressing so heavily against her, “think of what will happen to you if Nicolai comes and finds out what you have done to me.”

  “What is that, mistress?” He licked her cheek.

  She closed her eyes. He assumed she was defeated and already the vampires’ own. Never.

  “You wish to feed. I interrupted your feeding and you’re going to bite me and--”

  “Your mother visited my home one day.”

  Crystal’s heart stopped. This was where she died? Kostya’s home? Crystal had only been five when her mother and father were killed. Except for her brothers telling her a vampire, a cousin of Nicolai’s, had torn their throats out, not many more details had been mentioned.

  Kostya ran his fingers over her cheek. “I didn’t realize you were her daughter. It happened so long ago and you keep your family secrets so well.” He grinned and arched a brow. “But one thing puzzled me.” He touched the low neckline of her shirt sending a spark of electricity through her body. “The vampire who ripped out her throat didn’t die.”

  The connotation swirled through her head like a whirlpool while she tried to make some sense of what he said. If a vampire could mix his blood with hers and it wouldn’t kill them and the same thing was true of her mother, had her mother carried the same special gene?

  Nobody had ever said anything about it to her. Well, rather no one ever had told her about her own gene either, but why wouldn’t they have said her mother had a reluctance to kill vampires? Was it because of the shame attributed to the perverse personality trait? She swallowed hard. That’s why her parents hadn’t killed her. Her mother had been like her too.

  Kostya broke into her thoughts as he ran his fingers through her hair. “The vampire didn’t die from her blood. Because of that, he thought he was immune to all hunters’ blood and killed your father. Only as soon a
s he drank his blood, the vampire died.”

  Taking a deep breath, Kostya rubbed his lips over Crystal’s. She turned her head trying to avoid his attentions, only now she exposed her jugular to him. He mouthed her throat with extreme delight. “We thought that maybe the poison of your mother’s blood took longer to infect him and if he hadn’t killed your father, he would still have died from biting your mother.”

  He pushed her shirt down exposing her injured shoulder. The outer skin was nearly healed, but darker pink than the surrounding healthy tissue. “Another vampire managed to taste your blood and survived that, only to die by your blade. So did the mother have a special blood type that the daughter also carries that can mix with the vampires without harming either?”

  His mouth turned up appreciably. “There’s only one way to know for certain.”

  * * *

  Boniface walked into the kitchen as Robert served up another pizza. Robert glanced over at Crystal’s brother and nodded in greeting. He imagined Boniface was the one who still cared for Crystal, if any of her family did. Robert wondered, if he were in a similar predicament, whether he’d have gone against the family’s wishes.

  Yes, he would have, beyond a doubt. He’d have never allowed his own sister to fight for her life alone.

  The conversation continued in the living room between Max and Tom and the others, but Boniface seemed to want to have a word with Robert alone as he leaned against the counter and remained silent. When Samuel and Mark carried the pizzas into the living room, Robert faced Boniface.

  “I don’t want to alarm you, or cause problems with my uncle, but Crystal’s a handful.”

  Robert folded his arms. “I know.”

  “There’s a good chance she’s already in the thick of trouble this very minute.”

  Robert glanced at the kitchen door leading to the garage.