Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4)

by Rawlings, Rachel

  My vision began to cloud, the room spun. He slipped something in my drink. But how? I watched him while he poured. Could he have moved so fast I didn't see it? It was already opened when we came in. Shit, I was an idiot. Of course he would put whatever he gave me in the bottle, as a vampire he was immune to most poisons.

  I felt him move closer. He leaned in, watching my eyes, waiting for me to pass out. I had a few seconds at best. I drew a dagger from beneath my dress. I knew I nicked the tender flesh of my inner thigh by his intake of breath. There was no sting from the blade as it cut my skin. I lost sensation in my lower body and the blackness was closing in. I swung wild, my arm heavy and sluggish.

  He grabbed my wrist but not before I nicked his chin with the tip of the blade. The back of his hand connected hard with my face, splitting my lip. Blood bloomed on my mouth. With a hard tug on my hair he forced my head back and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth. I couldn't pull away. My stomach churned, from his touch and the need to purge the poison from my body. My vision was gone, my body totally immobile but my ears hadn't failed me yet. Conry let loose a growl that rattled the tall windows. He had made his presence known and was going to rip Caligula apart.

  I heard someone shout. A woman? And then Conry yelped. His pain radiated through me. I tried to reach for him mentally. I needed to shift us out of here but the drugs were thick in my mind. I couldn't pull enough of the between into me. Could I call for the Hunter or my father? Would either of them reach me before the others? My mind struggled with the simplest thoughts. The others! People were coming. Aidan. He was coming for me, with Amalie and Cash. If I could hold on long enough they would bust through the door, kill Caligula and save me. Before I felt the satisfaction of knowing the monster trying to kill me would meet his end I was gone. Everything stopped. No sound, not even of my own heart beating. No feeling, no more heavy limbs rooting me to the velvet chair. Nothing. I was in a suspended state of nothingness. And no one came.

  13

  I don't know how long I was like that. I struggled to open my eyes. I wasn't sure I was successful because the room I was in was pitch black. With heavy lids I blinked again. Still no light but the cool air stinging my tender eyes confirmed they were at least open.

  My tongue was thick and my mouth made an audible sticky sound when I tried to open it through the cotton that had taken up residence. The pain I hadn't been able to feel when the drug took effect came rushing in, overloading every nerve ending in my body. Tears rolled down my temples as my body shook from the drug wearing off.

  Cold warred with the pain for dominance of my senses and I realized I had been stripped of my dress, my body exposed. I still had underwear on. The lace wasn't really keeping anything from view but it made me feel better knowing they were there. Sharp pains speared my side but I didn't think it was from an injury I suffered. No, this was more like an intense phantom pain.

  Fear gripped my heart as I realized it was Conry's pain I felt and I remembered his yelp. Someone hurt my dog. Not Caligula, someone else. My mind struggled to piece together what happened. A woman, I remembered a woman. She was the one who attacked Conry. She couldn't be human, another vampire? Had to be, and an old one if she got the jump on my ethereal dog. That fucking bitch was going to meet the end of a stake. If I made it out of here.

  Anger fueled my body, coursing blood through my veins. With each fierce beat of my hate filled heart I felt a little more, heard a little more and saw a little more in the dark.

  My senses came back but my confidence was nowhere to be found once I finally took in my surroundings. I was in a dark room, underground? No, under the house. The walls were made of stone and there was the distinct hum of fluorescent lighting. A soft whir and click, followed by another. I struggled to get up, to find the source of the unusual sound but couldn't.

  I was strapped to a metal table, iron shackles on my wrists and ankles. I turned my head in the direction of the sound. Faint blinking lights, joined beeping of machines. Medical equipment. I followed the lines from the machines back to my body, noticing for the first time the needles and tubing stuck in my arms. I watched my blood run out my arm through the tubing into the machine and back again. Dialysis? What did they do to me? What did they do with my blood? For the first time in a long time I succumbed to fear. My voice cracked on a sob as it tore from my chest, drowning the anger that resided there moments ago.

  Conry whimpered in response to my cries. He was down here. He was still alive. I didn't want to think about not having him with me anymore. Some of the despair released its grip on my heart when I heard him. He saved me when Olwyn attacked me in the hanger. If it wasn't for him I might have suffered more than scars on my stomach that night. If he was still with me, even with both of us injured and weakened, we could get out of here.

  "Hey, boy, you okay?" I cooed, despite knowing he was anything but okay from the pain I still felt in my side. I strained to see him. He was in a small room across the hall behind iron bars. We both were, I noticed. I also took note of the iron bar sticking out of his side. What was it, was that a handle? Fire poker? She stabbed him with a fucking fire poker.

  I was going to kill her, death painful and slow by a thousand toothpicks dipped in holy water. He tried to stand, to make his way to the edge of his cell and closer to me but only made it a few steps before collapsing. The iron weakened him. And me. They knew we were fae, that I was enough fae to be effected by the iron. We weren't going to heal any faster than a mortal. Infection was suddenly a very real threat. Anger and frustration took over again. I roared, thrashed, screamed for my jailers. I wanted them here, to know what their plan was so I could start plotting my escape.

  The IV ripped free while I flailed on the table. Blood seeped steadily from where the hep lock ripped out. I wasn't making any progress with the straps or iron cuffs. In fact the more I fought, the more the iron cut into my skin, the weaker I felt. I forced myself to calm down. I had to keep my head. Conry and I wouldn't make it out of here if I totally lost my shit. I stilled my body, letting out a frustrated sigh, before my mind followed.

  "Tsk, tsk." The woman was outside my cell. "What have you been doing? You're going to hurt yourself. And we can't have that. Not yet."

  The sound of keys jingling and the lock turning was followed by the sound of her shoes clicking against the stone floor. The sound of her footsteps was simply for my benefit. She hadn't made a sound as she approached. She shut and locked the cell door before stepping into my line of sight. A vampire I had never seen before and she was old. Not as old as Caligula or the vampire king and queen but closer than any I have come across before.

  "Are you going to be a good girl while I fix the IV? Or do we need another dose of the henbane?" She moved in to reinsert the hep lock. "You made a mess of that beautiful vein. We'll have to move it."

  The machines stopped. Silence filled the room. My heart raced with nervous anticipation. Her hand slid along my thigh. Would I be able to work it free if she tapped a vein in my leg? I was strapped spread eagle, my legs held down tighter than my arms. She moved around, tracing the outline of my body with a finger while she decided where to start a new line.

  "Who are you?" I didn't recognize my own voice. My throat was raw from screaming and dehydration.

  She didn't answer right away. "This is going to hurt." She jammed the needle in my neck, slowly pulling it out to leave the tiny plastic tube for the hep lock behind. My back arched involuntarily and I couldn't hold back the groan. "Don't strain, it just makes it hurt more."

  "Who the fuck are you and where's Caligula?" I ground out through clenched teeth.

  Little daggers stabbed my ear drums as her laugh bounced off the stone walls. "My sire would no doubt be delighted by your desire to see him. He has thought of nothing else since you came to see him a couple days ago. He barely had the restraint to wait for the henbane to take hold. And then he tasted you. I feared he'd keep you all to himself. It took some convincing, he's quite mad you know, bu
t he has never refused me. Not once since the day he turned me. You may look like his love but I am his kindred spirit."

  The machines kicked on again and I felt a tug on the IV in my neck as the blood was drawn out. "I had to promise not to kill you. Not like the others. But you're not at all like the others. I needed them to get to you."

  I tried to listen to everything she said, I really did. I knew the importance of every word that fell from her evil lips could be critical to my survival but the only thing I heard in her villain tirade was a couple days ago. I tried to hold back the well of tears but it was no use. I felt them running back down my temples into my hair. I had been down here, wherever here was for more than a day. No one came.

  The reality of my situation hit me. I hadn't realized I still held on to the hope that Aidan or my father, that someone would get me out of this until she clued me in on how long I had been down here. The tears fell faster as a horrible thought took hold of my mind. Had they killed them? Or worse, chained them in some torture chamber like mine? When they heard the scuffle, before the mic no doubt went dead, did they try to charge in only to be out maneuvered by Caligula?

  "Ah, you've figured out no one is coming to rescue you." She wiped away the tears as if genuinely concerned about my breakdown. She brought her fingers to her mouth, licking the salty fluid away. "This is always my favorite part."

  "What do you want with me?" My voice broke through the tears.

  "I thought it would be obvious." She waved a hand in front of the dialysis machine like she was practicing for The Price Is Right. "Your blood, the key to your power. The silver was a nice trick." She ran her fingers along her lips and I noticed the blisters for the first time. They were almost healed, looking more like cold sores than the seeping pustules they would have been when she first tried to drink from me.

  "I waited a full day for the silver to work its way out of your system, it took a lot of henbane to keep you under and out of the iron so your body would reject the metal. I under estimated the witch who stirred the potion for you. I didn't drink straight from the vein the second time, for obvious reasons. You know, the dammed silver was actually suspended in your blood? Clever witch. But not one to be outdone I procured this device and had it modified to purify your blood."

  "You could drain the life from anyone, why me? Weren't the five other girls you killed enough?"

  "They were an appetizer. Barely enough to wet my whistle. I have an insatiable appetite. In my past life I lured the young maidens to my chambers under the ruse of being hired as a hand maiden. The blood of nearly six hundred girls filled my baths before they locked me in that tower.

  “It was Caligula who freed me of course. He recognized himself in me after spending only days with me at court. Rumors had already begun to spread, I made the mistake of hiring an aristocrat's daughter. I told myself I wouldn't have her but her youth called to me. My body sang with the need to soak in her blood. I could absorb their vitality, you see. My own beauty, my own youthfulness extended by theirs. There is no sensation like bathing in warm blood, even now I prefer it to drinking. Caligula became aware of my gifts and rescued me the night before my execution." She made adjustments to the equipment, punching buttons, changing cycles.

  "It took us sometime before we realized my gifts had expanded. I had only been satisfying myself with humans until he met Mercy. The assassin he sent was his greatest mistake and my greatest blessing. She was so young, too young. I became a feral beast. I had to have her, had to feel her against my skin. I had denied the creature inside me too long and she was just the opportunity I needed.

  “She was gifted with the sight, for a time I was too. You can imagine my surprise when I saw what would happen to my sire. I wouldn't save his woman, not after he tried to cleanse his line for her, but when the Council was through with him I nursed him back to life. He wasn't the same and I tired of watching him barely exist. Europe called to me, I hadn't been home in ages." She sighed, a little shudder crossed her body as if she remembered something arousing. “They were glorious times, watching the modern age take hold. The mind of man grew darker and my life was easier for a time."

  She was on a roll and I had no intention of stopping her. I was pretty sure I had figured out who she was. Caligula was crazier than I thought for turning her. No wonder he wanted to kill off his line and keep his children a secret from Mercy Brown. If the Blood Countess was an example, he'd sired a line of monsters. I was in some serious shit. I had an idea of what she had planned for me and none of it was good. The colloidal silver didn't stop her but it bought me time. There was obviously enough left in my system that she wouldn't risk it touching her skin again.

  I needed to take advantage of however long it gave me. The henbane had almost completely worn off, the fog in my mind had lifted so I tried to focus on the between. I called out to my father, desperate for him to hear my plea. The weight of the iron was as heavy in my mind as it was on my flesh. I hadn't regained enough strength. I could only hope she'd keep talking or the silver would stay in my blood a little longer. I was working on a way out. I needed more time.

  "The blood lust was always my curse, even after all my years I could still lose myself in it. I got sloppy. The European Council sent for a cleaner, that fucking vampire has haunted my every step. I thought I lost him after Reykjavik.

  “I came here knowing my sire couldn't refuse me. Caligula took me in and for awhile I was able to satisfy both our needs. How the hell was I supposed to know the assassin actually lived near here?" She let out a small chuckle.

  "He led me to you, did you know that? I was watching him the first time I saw you. The other girls looked like Mercy but you, you could almost be her doppelganger. The girls were the only thing that kept Caligula from meeting the sun. When I saw you, I knew I could have it all. The freedom to move undetected, the power to take the blood I need without being hounded by the fucking council and the one thing that would save Caligula."

  Oh hell no. No fucking way was this bitch going to use my blood to get into the between to track down victims and my body to bring back her sire. I tried again, tried to force my brain to remember what Hunter taught me in his office. He said I was powerful, that I could spindle more of the between in my mind than any other fae he knew. I had to push through the iron blocking me. I might not be able to jump Conry and me out of here but by the gods I would bring someone to us.

  No matter how hard I tried I couldn't reach my father. I'd only met him in the between in the flesh before. I wondered if not having created a mental link to him was why. Mason said not every fae had that gift but he was my father, surely he could hear me. I tried again. Nothing. Damn it! I almost let my disappointment and frustration out on a scream.

  "What are you doing?" She hovered over me, then fussed with her equipment, then hovered over me again.

  One of the alarms on the monitor beeped furiously. All this shit I was hooked up to gave me away.

  My heart raced, my head pounded and I dripped with sweat. She knew I tried to pull on my power. I felt the warm rush of drugs through the IV. She doped me with more of the henbane. I had seconds before I was out again. Ingested, it only took minutes to put me out, intravenously it worked faster than anesthesia. I called out to the only person with the ability to see inside my mind. Over and over I silently called out to him.

  "Don't get any ideas pet, no one is coming to save you. They've searched both of my sire's homes and found no trace of you. I didn't think the glamour would hold up on the ghoul, you would have seen through it with your fae blood no doubt. Good thing iron was such a popular building material back in the day. It'll keep the fae bottled up inside you, makes your blood more potent too." She stroked my arm tenderly. For being a completely insane, murderous bitch her bedside manner wasn't half bad.

  I sank back into the abyss of nothingness. Calling out for my hunter as I continued the downward spiral. I could almost feel the bottom. It rushed up to meet me. The sound of my heartbeat slowed.
Seconds ticked by between beats. Thump. Thump. With a lurch the last audible thump sounded in my ears. I was weightless, suspended in a black sea. Cool velvet coursed across my skin, in my mind. And then I heard it. A whisper, Maurin. My name had never sounded more beautiful. It was the last thing I heard.

  14

  The voice of my captor split my skull as she screamed, over and over again. There were words in there somewhere but I couldn't make them out. All I heard was the ear piercing shrieks. Elizabeth Bathory tore the room apart. Equipment clattered to the floor, something big crashed against the wall. I tried to fight off the effects of the henbane but I'd been given so much in such a short period of time. My eyes were not even trying to open. My ears and a small part of my brain fired on less than one cylinder.

  Something happened. Had Caligula decided she'd kept me long enough? Was he coming to take me? I didn't want Bathory to have any more of my blood but I really didn't want Caligula to take me when I couldn't fight him off. The thought of his hands on my body, living out some sick fantasy while I was mentally aware but physically unable to stop him terrified me. Faced with two deadly fates I found myself choosing the physical death of the Countess draining my blood to bathe in, over Caligula using my body, slowly killing my soul until I finally withered away.

  My neck burned and I felt something run down my shoulder. The IV was out, probably yanked out by the amount of blood I felt puddling beneath me. Some sensation came back but not nearly enough. I heard her fumbling with the leather straps, she wasn't unlocking the iron cuffs yet. Either she was forced to move me or Caligula was really taking me away.

  Please let her be taking me somewhere else. If we moved I had a chance to get away during transport. I didn't think I'd get the same opportunity with her sire. Elizabeth was a bit of a hot head. Her rash actions and blood lust could work to my advantage. Caligula on the other hand had probably run calculations on all the ways he could secure me, including the ones where I tried to escape.