The Vampire's Favorite

by V. R. Cumming

  Eric’s wavering smile was sad and a touch bittersweet. Aren’t we all?

  I immersed myself in our bond for one, precious moment, reveling in his determination and the sheer strength of will that had seen him through the past few months, and the love. God, the love he held in his slender frame amazed me, engulfing me so deeply, I could’ve happily drowned in it for the rest of my days.

  A soft snuffle drew me partially out of the bond. I opened eyes I hadn’t even realized I’d closed and gazed down at the crown of Tangi’s head, bowed over my knees so close, his breath warming my skin through thick jeans. I laid a hand on his braid, and was instantly surrounded by his scent. Cool pine, dark earth.

  One by one, we were joined by those standing with us, nearly simultaneously with Eric through his bond with me and the wolves through Tangi’s blood bond with Alden. Then Marco and the pets he’d brought with him, Remy and Paolo and their faction, Trilly and Kyle and Bon, and beyond them somehow, other Vampyr and creatures I’d never even met.

  And even farther away, like pinpoints of good in a ruined sky, were Gigi and the baby and all our Vampyr kin back home, tied in thin streams of light to me through Eric and Marco and the love singing through me with every beat of my heart.

  The connections lit up like an odd synapsis chart in my mind, spread out around Oriana’s complex and a different, stronger group of lights. Her stable, those loyal to her, and Christ, there were a lot of them, maybe more than we could take on and hope to win against.

  Too late to back out now.

  Tangi sat upright and stripped out of his shirt, dislodging my hold on his braid. His eyes met mine as he contorted in the confined area of the limo and shed his jeans, and in them, I saw reflected exactly what was in my own heart. We had to try. For Anna Grace, for Charity, for Ma and Pop and Mike and all the humans and other who lived here. We were doing what we had to for them, and for ourselves, too.

  Vengeance brings its own reward.

  The connections we’d forged expanded and grew, encompassing us all as Tangi hunkered down on the limo’s floor and let the change take him, holding my gaze the entire time.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  A block away from Oriana’s, a thundering explosion rocked the limo. It fishtailed out of control around the burning wreckage of a car parked along the curb of the affluent neighborhood. Eric slammed into me, shoving me into the door as Tangi in all his wolfy glory pranced between our feet searching for balance.

  Paolo smacked the side of his fist into the tinted window dividing the front of the limo from the back. “Out now!”

  The limo screeched to a rubber burning halt in the middle of the street amidst the pop, pop, pop of gunfire.

  Fuck. We’d brought fangs to a gunfight.

  Everybody bailed out of the side of the limo opposite the spray of bullets, scrambling for safety in the muggy heat of a late summer day. I crouched beside a tire, one hand in Tangi’s silky ruff, gripping him as much for comfort as to keep him from running full on into live fire. “What now?”

  Eric squatted calmly beside me, completely unruffled. “We distract them while Paolo gets firearms out of the trunk.”

  A bullet pinged against the limo’s trunk right behind my head. I ducked reflexively and yanked Eric down onto the pavement beside me. “Why didn’t you tell me we were going in armed?”

  “You had enough to worry about. Besides, it’s not like you can’t read my mind.”

  Oh, har. Read his mind, indeed. Like what he had going on in his head was simple enough for a clod like me.

  “Cut it out,” he said mildly. “If Marco would just get his ass here—“”

  On cue, a black Suburban jerked to a stop with its hood angled in front of the limo’s trunk. Marco slithered out of the driver’s side door and duck-walked to us, Glock in hand.

  He had a gun. Why didn’t I get a gun? And why the fuck was I always the last one to know these things?

  “You should’ve paid attention during our meetings with Remy instead of playing with your new pet.”

  “Bring you to Minnesota and you turn into a smart ass,” I muttered.

  Eric bounced back into a squat, grinning. “I was always a smart ass. You’re just a bigger one.”

  And the hits kept rolling in.

  Marco nestled up to me, his huge body adding heat I didn’t need. “Why did I bother to teach you to shoot if you refuse to carry a gun with you?”

  Eric’s grin faded into a disgruntled frown. “They’re in the trunk.”

  “Not close enough,” Marco snapped.

  The hail of gunfire subsided into a barked retort here and there. Paolo sidled up to Eric, his milk chocolate skin shiny with sweat and grime. “Remy’s been hit. Do you have the strength to help him?”

  Eric nodded. “Sure. We need those weapons, though.”

  “My job,” Paolo said, and around us he went, Marco right behind him.

  Another bullet popped into the trunk, closest to the end of the car, and I gritted my teeth. “Fuck’s sake, Eric.”

  He shrugged, a negligent lift of one shoulder. “We knew it was a possibility. She’s had decades to fortify her stronghold. Stay here. Back in a minute.”

  I reached out, fully intending to snag his arm and keep him right where he goddamn was, out of harm’s way, and missed by half a mile. He was already gone, crawling over the rough asphalt to Remy and the pet pressing a bloodied hand to his master’s shoulder.

  I closed my eyes and thumped the back of my head into the limo’s rear panel. Fuck. We hadn’t even begun the attack and already had a man down, one of our strongest. Oriana had known we were coming, all right. She’d just chosen to entrench herself in that fortress-like home of hers and pick us off one at a time.

  Smart move.

  Air moved around my mouth, then the coppery smell of fresh blood flooded my nostrils. My eyes popped open. Marco was crouched two feet away, holding his thumb out to me.

  “You need it,” he said.

  “So do you.”

  “Not the way you do.”

  He stuck his thumb against my lips, all but shoving it into my mouth. I latched on like the baby petlet I was, sucking down his male essence without a second thought. Just a little to help me keep my legs under me. Enough to steady my pulse and grant me a shade of the calm Eric was exuding by the bucket load, without sending me into the raving horror of bloodlust. Just in case, I dug my fingers deeper into Tangi’s silky fur and sought out my bond with his, sinking into the oddly elastic connection stretching between us.

  Marco pushed his thumb a little farther into my mouth. “He’s not that calm.”

  I tested my bond with Eric, found it as rock solid as ever. A bare hint of nerves skittered through it and was just as quickly withdrawn. I sucked down a final drop of Marco’s blood, closed off the shallow cut in his thumb. That little faker. What the hell did Eric think he was doing, hiding his emotions from me?

  Protecting you.

  The words whispered through my mind, driven by a ruthless cunning I knew only too well. The cold man. But why was Eric’s beast speaking directly to me, bypassing Eric? Was he out of the cage Eric had shoved him into in the deepest part of his mind? Had the beast taken my lover over without me knowing it?

  Eric glanced sharply around and mouthed, I’m ok.

  I nodded, pretending a relief I didn’t feel around the foreboding tightening my nerves beyond the stretching point. The time was drawing near when Eric and the cold man would be one, an inseparable being bound together by a vampire’s blood. And I might lose him then, really lose him in the most important ways: His heart and his mind.

  Marco wiggled his thumb out of my grasp, breaking through my lapse in concentration. “You shouldn’t worry so much. He has more control than you and me put together.”

  “I know.” What I didn’t know was if it would be enough for Eric to tame the cold man and retain the parts of himself that were wholly Eric once the turn came and my lover was truly my master. �
��Gun?”

  Marco’s cruel mouth twisted into a smirk. “Good pet. Stay down and follow my lead.”

  I didn’t have time to grouse. He was already gone, headed around the limo into the group of familiar pets he’d brought with him from Georgia. They’d scattered across the street, sheltering behind cars, trees, or whatever they could find as they returned fire. I was on a first name basis with all of them, not hard when SOP among the Vampyr was to protect yourself and your family by sharing nothing else.

  I let go of Tangi and sent a subtle command-request for him to protect Eric. Tangi skulked off, none too happy if the resentment filtering into my mind was anything to go by. He’d get over it, just like Charity would get over being left behind. A man had a right to protect his own. I figured Tangi fell into that category now, exactly the way the rest of my family did.

  Marco reached the Suburban, fished a handgun and a loaded magazine out, then tossed them to me. I chose a spot a few feet away from a pet I’d shared skin with a couple of times and exchanged a grunted hello, then surveyed the scene from behind the temporary blockade created by the limo and the Suburban. The car was still burning some fifty feet behind us. Other than the measured gunfire passing between us and Oriana’s stable, the neighborhood was quiet.

  I drew a bead on the top of a head poking up above the rock wall separating her estate from the street. Fuck the cops. Somebody should’ve called the fire department by now, but no sirens sliced through the air, wailing a warning as they shot toward the engulfed vehicle.

  Maybe everybody knew it wouldn’t do a goddamn bit of good. Or maybe, like the cops, they really didn’t want to get involved.

  Which boded ill for Oriana’s little empire here. Rule number one? Don’t tell humans about the Vampyr, or at least keep it to a minimum. A cop here and there, I could see bringing into the fold, especially if they were strong beacons, but purely human neighbors? Unthinkable.

  Lanu was gonna have a hissy fit when she found out.

  The head I was observing shifted, revealing three inches of forehead. Good enough. I aimed carefully and squeezed the trigger, let my hands absorb the recoil. Rock splintered off the wall six inches in front of the forehead and the pet disappeared. Fuck. Guess I needed to get out to the range more often, now that my legs were working again.

  Mostly.

  I took my time selecting another target, mimicking the pets around me. Nobody seemed in a hurry to breach Oriana’s defenses, a crying shame since the longer we waited to get in, the longer Oriana had to marshal her men, and the more time Fen had with my kid sister.

  I clamped down on the frustrated anger sitting like a hot powder keg in my gut. What were we waiting for? It’s not like we could lay siege to the place. Sooner or later, the cops were going to have to do something. We needed to resolve this situation before then.

  Patience, Eric whispered in my mind. Marco has a plan.

  Nice if I knew what it was, I grumbled.

  He hasn’t told anyone. Just trust him.

  It was almost funny to hear those words from Eric. His relationship with Marco was strained sometimes, especially when it involved sex. In spite of that, Eric trusted our mistress’ favorite, and so did I.

  So I’d hold onto my patience until Marco put this unknown plan into action.

  I didn’t have to wait long. Eric appeared at my side, ducked low beside an alert Tangi. Remy’s bandaged up.

  The words hit my mind one minute, and the next, a rapid series of loud booms rent the air, followed by the screams of men caught in the explosions. I dropped down behind the Suburban, dragging Eric and Tangi with me. God in Heaven. Sounded like the entire block was going up. Had somebody gotten ordinance on sale or something?

  Eric lifted his face to mine, his mouth stretched into a wide grin. That would be phase one of Marco’s plan.

  I didn’t bother to ask. Around us, our forces were abandoning their temporary refuge for the streets, streaming toward whatever distraction Marco had mustered.

  Eric stood slowly and held his hand out to me. “Ready?”

  I slapped my hand into his and let him pull me upright, and together with Tangi, we skirted the haphazardly parked cars and entered the fray.

  Chaos ruled the yard surrounding Oriana’s estate. In the steadily dwindling daylight, pets ran helter-skelter through massive shade oaks between the cover provided by the mostly intact wall and the mansion’s entrances. Gaping holes pitted the once smooth lawn around the interior of the wall, far enough away to trap anybody standing beside the wall between it and the explosions, judging by the handful of bodies lying prone on the battered ground.

  Somebody was a clever bastard. Another five feet toward the wall and it would’ve blown across the street, taking us out along with Oriana’s outer guard.

  Eric, Tangi, and I raced along the outside of the wall toward the iron gate crossing the driveway and flew through the mangled remains at a dead run. Ahead of us, the last of Oriana’s pets scrambled inside. The doors started to swing shut, and my heart leapt into my throat. Oh, shit. If they closed those doors, we’d have to start all over again without the benefit of parked cars providing shelter.

  Tangi took off like a shot, stretching his compact wolf form into an all out run, outpacing us in a flash. He was joined by nearly two dozen other wolves, a couple smaller, most bulkier by at least half.

  I nearly shouted my relief into the darkening sky. Alden had made it. Thank fuck.

  The doors had almost closed by the time the wolves reached the bottom of the steps. The lead wolves leapt upward, transforming in mid air as their bodies twisted in a blur of light and energy and became human again. Alden and Tangi landed shoulders first against one of the doors nearly simultaneously with three other werewolves.

  The doors popped back under the collective blow and were forced closed again by whoever was on the other side, but it was too little, too late. More nude bodies piled against the door as one by one the remaining wolves shifted in mid-leap and piled against the solid wood, adding their weight to the inward push.

  And at last, Eric and I reached the steps along with a host of others. Up we went, a vengeful army of Vampyr, wolves, and creatures I refused to look too closely at. Today was not the day for deep contemplation about the fairy tale world I lived in.

  The doors gave way, and the pets on the other side scrambled out of the way of the incoming mass. The wolves burst in first, most not bothering to transform back into their animal forms. They slashed and clawed their way through anybody too slow to escape them, spraying red streams of blood across their naked human flesh.

  Eric and I pushed our way into the bottleneck caused by the entrance’s squeeze point. Across a sea of bodies churning through the interior of Oriana’s mansion, I spotted the object of my hatred partway down the long passage dumping into the stone room. Fen fought alongside his mistress, his arms a blur of fists and knives, perfectly sequenced with the flash of the sword Oriana swung at any and all comers.

  There were too many creatures in here, too many for a bullet to clear the space and hit the right target. I clicked on the safety of the gun Marco had given me and stuffed it into the waistband of my jeans, shoving attacking bodies away, absorbing blows without feeling them as I scanned the writhing crowd, searching for Anna Grace.

  Eric grabbed my arm and yanked me away from a slender pet sporting a rapier. She’s probably locked away somewhere.

  My gaze zeroed in on Fen and Oriana. If I had to guess, and really, I didn’t need to, Anna Grace was the reason they were stationed where they were. We’d have to fight our way through them to get to her.

  I had absolutely no problem with that.

  All the anger and frustration of the past few months condensed into a simmering rage so fierce, the need to lash out hummed through every inch of my being, branding me inside and out. So much of our lives had been beyond our control lately. Selena and her crazy lust for Eric, fueled by Zane’s obsession with Devin. One breaking in the worst po
ssible way when Gigi sacrificed herself to save me and Eric. My legs giving out on me, and long before that, Mike trying to recruit me, and through me, my sisters, without me being any the wiser. Oriana’s fucking machinations. Fen’s brutal torture of Eric and Tangi and God only knew who else.

  The damage we’d suffered snowballed inside me, carrying my will along with it. I wasn’t stuck in a wheelchair anymore, helpless to fight back. I was whole again, and I was fucking pissed off.

  I bellowed my fury into the deafening din. “Fen!”

  His eyes met mine across the battlefield separating us. Slowly, he smiled, and in that malicious gesture was a dare I couldn’t resist. I charged through the combatants between me and him, Eric at my side. Together, we fought our way forward, dodging blows where we could, fighting back where we had to. Everything in me boiled down to three objectives: Kill Fen and Oriana. Rescue Anna Grace. Make it out with my family intact.

  Somewhere in the flurry of attack and counterattack, I lost track of Fen. I didn’t worry about it. He wouldn’t get far. He and I had a score to settle, one he’d issued the day Kyle had helped me and Eric escape Oriana’s clutches. Fen wouldn’t give up until I was under his care again, of that I was certain, and he sure as hell wouldn’t miss an opportunity to have another go at Eric.

  I tried to confine my parries to those I knew without a doubt were against us, saving killing blows for the most vicious and tenacious. Oriana’s forces diminished steadily as Eric and I forced our way toward where we’d last seen her, and the fighting scattered, moving into other rooms and floors as her pets fled or were pushed back by the attackers.

  We reached the entrance to the stone room at the same time as Marco. Sweat stained his long-sleeved black shirt and he was panting lightly. “The mistress?”

  I nodded toward the thick wooden door barring our path. “Probably through there.”

  He jiggled the handle, twisted it open, then cut a sharp eye toward me and Eric. “Don’t risk yourselves unnecessarily. I didn’t come all this way just to lose one of you.”