A Blood Seduction

by Pamela Palmer

  “Concealed. If the vamps find the tunnels, they can get into them. Grant’s magic is good, but it’s not that good.”

  Parlor tricks, he’d said. Yeah, right. The man was a wizard. Literally. And yet he couldn’t renew the magic of Vamp City. But they expected her to? They were crazy.

  “I’m Quinn, by the way,” she said quietly.

  “Marcus. They say you walked into V.C. on purpose.”

  She glanced at him. “The second time.”

  Understanding entered his eyes. “Your brother.”

  She nodded. “I lost him.”

  Marcus squeezed her shoulder lightly from behind, a warm gesture that strengthened and settled her more than any number of words could do. She’d thank him for it. Later. By finding a way to get him home.

  As they rounded the next curve, Quinn saw the rest of the group ahead, the guy with the silver reflective glasses holding up a lantern, waiting for the stragglers. Was he really wearing sunglasses in the dark?

  When Quinn and Marcus caught up, the leader began to speak, his voice low-pitched and quiet. “We’ll come out of the tunnel in an abandoned row house about a block from the castle. Getting out of the Gonzaga kovena lands may be the most dangerous part of the journey. I’ll go first to ensure that the coast is clear. Stay here until I give the signal. Once you’re topside, don’t go near the windows and don’t make any noise. Not a sound.”

  “Jeff?” Celeste asked. “If the coast isn’t clear?”

  “If there’s trouble, follow Celeste deeper into the tunnels. She knows them almost as well as I do.” Jeff turned and started climbing a wooden ladder that rose straight up.

  Quinn glanced at Marcus. “Is it day or night, now?”

  “Day.”

  “Why not wait until full dark?”

  “The vamps can see perfectly fine in the dark, and we can’t. The little bit of daylight provides an even playing field.” He shrugged. “Though not fucking much.” He lifted his finger to his lips, his gaze following Jeff as their leader slowly pushed open the trapdoor above.

  Quinn and the others turned silent as stone, barely breathing as they listened, tense and ready to run. If the vampires found them, they’d almost certainly catch them. Vampires were way too fast.

  A soft click sounded, a tap similar to the one Celeste had made on the two doors. At the sound, Celeste grabbed the ladder and started climbing. One after the other, the remaining slaves followed until only Quinn and Marcus remained. As before, he waited for her to go, then brought up the rear.

  Moments later, she emerged into a small, dark room, deep with shadows, that might have once been the living room of a small town house. The remains of rotted furniture littered the wood floor while the smell of mildew and decay thickened the air, along with swirls of dust.

  Jeff, his back pressed against the wall, peered out a window so dirty it let in only the faintest of light.

  Quinn followed the woman in front of her into the shadows at the back of the room while Marcus closed the trapdoor. Did they really think there was a chance that a group this large could pass through the city unnoticed by the vampires? They must.

  Jeff slowly opened the front door, but only far enough to slip through. Halfway out, he nodded, then disappeared. One followed, a second, a third. Seven of them were out the door, Quinn only two back, when the house began to shake just as it had right before the sunbeam burst through the last time.

  Upstairs, something crashed. Timbers creaked, one snapping. The whole damn house was going to fall on top of them!

  Marcus grabbed her arm with one hand and yanked open the hatch with the other. “Down,” he hissed.

  Quinn hesitated. The others didn’t, diving for the hatch like rats escaping a fire. “But this is it,” she hissed back.

  “No. Not here.” He pulled her to the floor, until she was on her hands and knees. “There are too many vamps around. We’d never make it.”

  The others were rushing back in the door, bending low as they, too, dove for the hatch. Marcus shoved her into line between two of the men. Just as she started down, Jeff slipped into the house, shutting the door a split second before sunlight erupted into the room from the street outside in a blinding, fiery burst.

  Quinn scrambled down the ladder, speeding up simply to keep her fingers from being stepped on by the bare feet of the man above. She felt hands at her waist and allowed herself to be pulled aside as the man above her jumped. Someone turned on a flashlight, but she was still sunblind and would probably remain so for several more minutes. Vaguely, she was able to make out Marcus’s solid form coming down the ladder.

  A shout sounded from above, then a woman’s scream.

  Quinn’s eyes widened, her heart beginning to pound.

  Jeff closed the hatch and quickly joined them. “We lost Crystal and Rick.”

  “How?” one of the women demanded. “You left them up there?”

  “Crystal fell over a fallen beam,” Jeff said, as if discussing the weather. “Rick stayed to help her. Apparently, they were caught.”

  Marcus grunted. “Because you closed the door.”

  Jeff scowled. “And if I hadn’t before the light erupted, we might all have been found. We might still be. All it takes is one vamp to ask the right questions, and we’re all dead. Let’s move.”

  “Back to the castle?” Quinn asked no one in particular.

  Marcus answered. “No. There is a maze of tunnels down here. Jeff and Celeste and I are the only ones who’ve been down here though none of us are experts. Far from it.”

  “This way,” Jeff said. And now only eight followed.

  Quinn.

  Quinn started at the sound of Arturo’s voice, her heart catching, then racing as she looked around.

  “What’s the matter?” Marcus grabbed her shoulder.

  I do not know who took you, but I’ll find you.

  Holy shit. Could he really speak to her from this distance, or was he a lot closer than he should be? If he could sense where she was, they were in deep trouble. She wondered if he could read her mind. Vampire, can you hear me?

  I will find you. The words sounded as much promise as threat. And they hadn’t answered her question.

  Marcus squeezed her shoulder. “Quinn?”

  “Nothing. I just . . . nothing.” Her heart racing as much from Arturo’s contact as the near miss, she followed the others. Dammit, it was as if she hadn’t escaped him at all.

  She had no idea how long they’d walked, or how far, when Jeff finally started up another ladder.

  “Do you know where this one goes?” Celeste asked.

  “No clue. There’s one way to find out.” He put his finger to his lips, then slowly lifted the lid as those below doused their lights. As before, the rest of them waited silently, listening.

  Quinn felt the change in the air as the hatch lifted and smelled the faint scent of manure. A moment later, the soft telltale click of fingernails gave the all clear, and the others started up the ladder. Quinn scrambled after them, climbing into the dark, her hands landing on a hay-covered wooden floor. A barn? It was hard to tell in the low light though the place did appear big enough. It certainly smelled like a barn—one with animals. Downtown like this, it was probably a stable.

  As Marcus closed the trapdoor behind them, Jeff crept toward the large, open doors that were letting in the only light. The other slaves waited behind, ready to make a hasty escape, if needed.

  Several minutes later, Jeff returned. “There’s a house that way, and it looks lived in. We’ll go out the other way. There has to be a back door.” He turned on a flashlight, revealing the stable she’d imagined. Jeff motioned them to follow, and he led them around several large piles of wood that appeared to be old building timbers. Finally, they stopped before the back wall. Quinn could just make out the outline of a door in the dark w
ood. Jeff grabbed the latch and lifted it slowly, but as he pushed the door open, rusty hinges squeaked loudly enough to wake the dead.

  Or the undead.

  “Look what we have here.”

  Quinn whirled, along with the others. Not ten feet behind them stood a male vamp dressed in jeans, a red Washington Nationals T-shirt, and muddy boots, his fangs long and deadly, his eyes dotted white.

  “My favorite snack.” He laughed. “Blood rats.”

  He moved too fast to track, but a moment later, two of their number were gone. Jeff began pushing people out the door. “Go!”

  Quinn grabbed her stake and whirled to Marcus. “We need to kill him.”

  “He’s too fast.”

  “We can’t just leave them!”

  Marcus pushed her toward the back door. “Know when to cut your losses.”

  But they never made it to the door. One moment she was standing by the back door arguing with Jeff, the next she felt herself flying through the air, a hard band around her middle. Then she was being slammed back against something hard.

  Her vision swam, her senses tumbled. Slowly, she realized she was standing within one of the stalls, shoulder to shoulder with Marcus as he struggled to free himself. The vamp must have carried them back here with his superhuman strength and speed. He now had them both pinned between his bulk and the wall.

  Turning to Marcus first, the vamp gripped her companion’s face, forcing him to look into his eyes. Marcus’s struggles quickly fell silent. Slowly, the vampire turned those white-centered eyes on her.

  Tell him you’re a sorceress, tessoro. He will not kill you.

  Jeez, could Arturo see what was happening to her? Could he feel the push of glamour?

  She forced herself to relax, forced her eyes to unfocus even as her pulse raced. Finally, the vamp released her, then darted away so quickly that Quinn barely saw the stall gate swing open and shut. Marcus wandered a short distance away, moving as if in a trance to join the first two women to disappear. All were now enthralled.

  Clearly, the vamp wanted to collect the whole set of humans. Which meant she might actually stand a chance of taking him down.

  But the minutes passed, and he didn’t return. Marcus and the two women walked slowly, aimlessly, around the stall, and Quinn forced herself to do the same in case the vamp returned with more victims. If only she could unenthrall the three. She refused to leave them at the mercy of the vamp like this.

  Where was he?

  Had the other slaves killed him and taken off? No, she was the one they would never leave behind. She was their ticket home. Maybe the vamp had killed the others. But, then, why hadn’t he come back right away? Maybe he was fetching Traders to pick up the lot of them for auction.

  That final thought chilled her to the bone.

  But as she tried to come up with an explanation she liked better, the vamp pushed open the stall door, holding it. “Come,” he said. Marcus and the two women moved toward him as commanded. Quinn quickly followed. Outside the stall, she found Celeste and one of the male slaves already enthralled. So he had gone back for more. And he seemed to have decided six were enough.

  Quinn slid the stake out of her pocket, gripping it tightly. As the vampire led the way out of the stables, Celeste and the male tried to merge into the line, jostling the others. Quinn took advantage and cut to the front, right behind the vampire.

  Gripping her stake, she took a deep, nervous breath, knowing she’d only get one shot at this. Okay . . . go! She leaped, circling the vamp’s neck from behind with her left arm as she drove the stake into his back, up beneath his ribs, with all her might.

  A second later, she was flying through the air, crashing back first into the soft ground with a whump that left her struggling for air. Terrified, she was about to be leaped upon and her throat ripped out, she rolled, pushing to her feet. And saw the vamp on the ground, facedown.

  Hot damn. I did it.

  “Quinn?” Marcus blinked, confused.

  She smiled, unable to help herself, and nodded to the downed vamp. “I got him.”

  Marcus’s mouth dropped open. To her surprise, he dove for the vamp, rolling him onto his back. The vampire, who’d looked no older than his late twenties moments ago now looked sixty. No . . . seventy. Eighty? He was aging a decade every three seconds.

  Marcus dug through his pockets, pulling out coins, keys, tossing them in the dirt a good distance away. Then he scooted down to the man’s feet and yanked off his boots, one after the other, tossing them, too. Behind him, the others stirred, and they all watched as the skin began to fall off the vampire’s bones.

  Quinn grimaced. That was just . . . gross.

  Marcus jumped back. “Quinn, back up!” Quinn did what she was told and was glad a moment later when the skeleton, clothes and all, erupted in a puff of flesh and ash that rained onto the dirt a good five feet in every direction.

  No wonder Marcus had taken what he could. Everything he’d left had disintegrated along with the vampire. Very, very strange. As the three women swooped in to pick up the things Marcus had claimed from the body, Marcus strode over to her. “You staked him?”

  Quinn nodded. God, she’d just killed a man. A vampire, but still.

  Marcus gripped her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Fine.”

  “He would probably have killed us, you know that.”

  She looked up, met his gaze with a frown. “I know.” She’d been so proud of herself at first. Now she felt . . . numb.

  Releasing her, Marcus motioned for the others to join them. “Let’s get going. We’ll find Jeff if we can. If not, we’ll head toward the gladiator camp.”

  As they left the stables, she realized they were still downtown. There were buildings all around them though more suburban in density than modern D.C. And most appeared long abandoned.

  As they started down the sidewalk, keeping close to the buildings, none of them seemed as tense . . . or were watching for vampires as carefully . . . as they probably should be. Quinn suspected they all felt the same—that if there were any vamps close by, they’d have heard the commotion and already come running.

  Quinn kept feeling Marcus’s gaze, his brows drawn as if he were trying to decipher a puzzle.

  “What?” she finally demanded.

  “He didn’t enthrall you. Why not?”

  “I suppose because I’m a sorceress. None of them seem to be able to.”

  “A handy trick.”

  “Especially since they never expect it.”

  Marcus grinned. “Thanks for the save.”

  And just like that, the pall lifted, and she found herself smiling back. “You’re welcome.”

  Marcus made a funky little move that was almost a jig. “I might actually get home.”

  “How long have you been gone?”

  The smile left his face. “Over a year. It was spring when I was captured. My wife was five months pregnant. I’m a dad.” But the words held no joy, no pride, only a devastating heartache. “I wasn’t there for her, to help her give birth, to take care of her afterward.” Fury leaped into his eyes. “I’ve missed my son or daughter’s entire first year. And my wife probably thinks I’m dead. For all I know, she’s found someone else.”

  “At least she wasn’t caught with you.”

  The sound he made was heartfelt. “Thank God for that. I was walking home from the gym after work. A drunk bumped into me, then turned and stared at me. The next thing I knew, I was in the slave auction.” He glanced at her, his heart in his eyes. “I need to get back to my family.”

  Quinn touched his arm. “I’ll do what I can, Marcus. If I can get you home, I will.”

  “I believe you. And if we get out of here, I want my wife to meet you. My full name is Marcus Aurelius Washington.” He shrugged. “My mom was a history professor. I
live on California Street in Kalorama. Look me up?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  They lapsed into silence, taking the back roads and alleyways as much as possible. When a form detached itself from the shadows, they all pulled their stakes, but it was only Jeff. And he was alone.

  “The vamp?” he asked, joining them. They told him what happened.

  “Where are Tim and Janika?”

  Jeff shrugged. “Tim’s dead. Janika was captured by a Trader.” So matter-of-fact.

  Marcus eyed Jeff sharply. “And you, of course, got away.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Not a fucking thing, man.”

  But Quinn knew exactly what he meant. Jeff was a survivor. He might be their guide, but the only one Jeff was looking out for was Jeff.

  “Come on.” Jeff took off in a different direction, heading south. Not in the direction of the gladiator camp, damn him.

  “Where are we going?” Marcus demanded, as if reading her mind.

  “A safe house, where we can get some food and regroup.”

  As badly as she wanted to get to Zack, she had to admit that food sounded like a good idea. There was still time to go after Zack. And she didn’t really expect to manage it with a cast of thousands. Or of seven, for that matter. Hell, she had no idea how she was going to manage it at all. The only thing she knew was that she had to find a way. First, she’d get Marcus home to his wife and baby. As her boss liked to say, you had to count your wins, not just your losses. She’d be glad for any win at this point.

  They’d traveled half a dozen blocks when Jeff led them down a narrow alley and motioned them behind a small wooden storage shed. “Wait here. There’s a hot spot nearby. I want to make sure it’s not being watched.”

  When he’d gone, Quinn leaned close to Marcus. “What’s a hot spot?”

  “One of the places where the sunbeams are breaking through. They’re multiplying.” He grunted. “I’m surprised Jeff didn’t take one of us to act as bait.”

  She’d had the same thought. “Can the vamps smell us?”

  Marcus smiled, laughter in his dark eyes. “Fee fi fo fum? I’ve never heard of one who could, and it’s a good thing, or we’d stand no chance against them. They may be as fast as Superman, and damned near as strong, but their senses aren’t that much better than human.” He frowned. “Other than the night vision. And the fear and pain feeding.”