To Walk the Night

by E. S. Moore

  Tremaine shook his head as if disappointed in me. “You really should talk,” he said. “I want to know how and why you became involved with the Luna Cult. Are they already sworn to another House? Was this whole thing some sort of elaborate ploy so they could get you inside to finish me off? I have claimed the Cult. They are mine now, as are their wolves.”

  I tensed at that but said nothing. He was just trying to get to me. I had stood behind similar bars and listened to the same sort of banter before. I was sure Jonathan wouldn’t have already declared his loyalty to House Tremaine. Even under duress, he would fight them.

  I couldn’t help but glance at the smear of blood on the floor and wonder. Whom had it belonged to? Could I really be so sure Jonathan hadn’t already caved? It could be his blood for all I knew. Or Simon’s. If Tremaine had given him the Denmaster, then what was stopping Jonathan from bowing down now that I was behind bars?

  “The weapons you carry are forbidden,” Tremaine said. “How did you get them past our security? Then again, how did you get them at all?” He looked thoughtful a moment and I was certain he was working out who I was in his head. “Were you the one who killed Edgar?”

  I smiled at him, hiding my relief. The longer he was oblivious to who I was, the longer I would live.

  Tremaine nodded as if my smile told him everything he needed to know. “I imagine you were the one who was snooping around my property the other night. How did you get past Zane so easily? No one gets past his notice.”

  “Check the morgue,” I said, unable to hold my tongue any longer. I figured Zane was the horny wolf outside.

  Tremaine’s smug look faltered and the rage slowly returned. His hand started forward, inched closer to me. He jerked it back before I could act on the mistake, his smile returning.

  “Do you like your accommodations?” he asked, tucking his hands behind his back as if he was afraid they might ease forward on their own if he wasn’t careful. It was clear by the look in his eye he wanted nothing more than to wrap his fingers around my throat and squeeze until they popped through the back of my neck. “The cells on this side are made of pure silver.” He glanced down at my hands and the smile widened. “As I see you have already discovered.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Perhaps later. Although it is kind of you to offer.” More blood dribbled from his lips and ran down his chin. He was definitely losing control. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “It was quite hard to procure so much pure silver, as you might guess,” he said, eyeing the bars to my cell. “It isn’t something we can boast about to other Houses.”

  “I’m sure they will be thrilled when I let them know.”

  Tremaine laughed. “I think I might send pieces of you to each Count, see if any of them recognize your scent, the taste of your flesh. Someone sent you here, and it seems they don’t mind breaking the rules. I want to know who.”

  “Remember what I said a moment ago?” I said, sneering. “I think it applies here as well.”

  Tremaine’s jaw tensed. The two vamps at his side were having just as hard of a time controlling their emotions as he was. Their eyes gleamed with hunger, and I knew they would love nothing more than to tear me apart limb from limb.

  “Your wit leaves much to be desired,” Tremaine said. All evidence of his smugness was gone. All that remained was his anger. “Who sent you? Why are you here? You must have known you could never defeat me with only a mere trio of wolves and useless Purebloods at your side.”

  “Who says I was being witty?” I took a step forward, putting myself closer to the bars. If only Tremaine would reach out for me, I would have him. Antagonizing him might not be the best idea in the world, but it was all I had. “I’m going to fuck you up seven ways to Sunday. We’ll see who will be sending pieces of whom to the other Houses. I’m sure some would appreciate the gesture.”

  A chill settled over Tremaine’s features. He stared at me with eyes burning in near fever. “They are all dead, you know?” he said at a near whisper. “Those you came with. Their blood stains my floor, taints the very air I breathe. You are alone here and you will tell me what I want to know. You have no other choice.”

  My stomach seemed to fall straight through the floor. Jonathan and Nathan were dead. Why did the thought bother me so much? They were werewolves. They were the enemy. I shouldn’t care one way or another what happened to them.

  But I did care. They might not be my friends, but they were the next best thing to it. What did that say about my life that I looked at other monsters as friends? They were strangers to me, wolves who came to me for help, not friendship.

  And yet the thought of their deaths hurt. They had trusted me for some reason I couldn’t quite fathom. I had even gone as far as to trust them to come along with them. They could have turned me in to save their own skin, told Tremaine who I was, but they hadn’t.

  “I will give you time to think about it,” Tremaine said. “Tonight will be busy as we prepare for tomorrow’s full moon. You have until then to make your decision. Either you tell me what I want to know, or you will become part of the celebration. We shall see how you like being the focus of attention during tomorrow’s festivities.”

  I glared hard at Tremaine. I wanted to throw myself at the bars of my cell and rip his throat out, silver bars be damned. I knew he wasn’t going to let me walk whether I talked or not. If I gave him what he wanted, he would just throw me to the wolves. He was probably planning on doing that anyway.

  “Think about it.” Tremaine and his vampire flunkies turned and left, leaving me trapped in my silver cell, his last words lingering in my ears.

  27

  I wiped my hand across my mouth. A smear of blood shone bright on the back of my hand. A dull ache in my gums told me that my teeth had started to push through, though I wasn’t quite sure when exactly it had happened. The moon was getting to me just like it was everyone else. By tomorrow, things were going to get pretty damn violent. It might make what happened earlier look like a slap fight in comparison.

  I dropped down on the floor and tried to formulate some sort of plan. I knew chances were slim I would get my hands on Tremaine or any of his men while still behind bars. I also knew I wasn’t getting out of there unless someone came and broke me out. The full moon was coming, which meant the wolves were going to go completely bonkers. The vampires wouldn’t be much better. I really needed to get out of there by then.

  I ground my teeth in frustration. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this one. Unless some moon-hopped wolf went nuts and accidently tore the doors off my cell, I was as good as dead. Hell, maybe sitting there wasn’t such a bad thing. The silver should keep anyone out, just as it kept me inside. Maybe I would be lucky and the vampires and wolves would kill themselves off in a moon-induced rage.

  The night just kept getting better and better. With Jonathan and Nathan presumably dead, there was no one who could help me. There was always a chance Count Tremaine had lied about the fate of my companions and they were cooped up somewhere else. Maybe there was still a chance one of them would break free and help me escape.

  And maybe I was grasping at straws made of pure silver. Even the thought burned.

  Contemplating my fate wasn’t going to get me anywhere. As far as I was concerned, things couldn’t really get much worse. I just needed to wait it out and hope a moment presented itself in which I could make good my escape. If all went well, I could take out a few vamps and wolves on my way out. I refused to die down here.

  The door opened and heavy footfalls descended the stairs, bringing my head up. As soon as I saw the sharp features and square shoulders of the man approaching, I realized that my night could indeed get a whole hell of a lot worse.

  “Hello, Adrian,” I said, my voice even, although I was a total mess inside.

  Adrian knocked the magazines and newspapers from the swivel-backed chair and wheeled it over to my cell. He eased himself down, resting his arms on the backrest
. He smiled, displaying his pointed teeth.

  “We are alone,” he said. “No one else is listening, and as long as you cooperate, no one will have to know about our conversation.” He glanced back at the Purebloods cowering in their cells before turning back to me. Obviously, he didn’t view them as important. “I think it time we had another little talk, don’t you?”

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  Adrian glanced toward the stairs, his shoulders tense. He looked as alert and as imposing as ever. He also seemed detached, if it was even possible to be both alert and detached at the same time. It was unsettling.

  “Do you remember our last conversation?” he said. “I might have told you that my offer would not come again. It appears I had been mistaken. I think now would be an opportune time to reopen dialogue on that matter, don’t you think?”

  “What makes you think I am any more willing to listen now than I was before? I don’t think much has changed since then.” Okay, maybe I was stretching the truth a bit there; but hey, I really didn’t want to talk to this guy, no matter what he might have to offer.

  “Nothing,” he said. His gaze never left mine. He was in complete control of himself, totally unfazed by the coming full moon and the night’s activities. We could have been sitting and having a nice talk over beers in The Bloody Stake for all the emotion he was showing. “But I am here nonetheless.”

  I crossed my arms and faced him without expression. I wasn’t about to sell my soul to the devil again. Once was enough.

  “You are quite an amazing person.” Adrian allowed himself a slim smile. “You managed to dispatch my test without so much as a scratch.”

  “My Honda would disagree.” And my knees and hands, but he didn’t have to know that.

  He frowned. “Pardon?”

  “My bike, asshole. Your fucking wolf wrecked me and scratched my bike all to hell. You owe me for that.”

  Adrian’s left eyebrow twitched. I couldn’t tell if it was due to amusement or irritation. I was betting the latter.

  “Regardless, you are unharmed.”

  One of the Purebloods edged toward the front of his cell. He made hardly a sound, yet Adrian’s head snapped around like someone had slammed a couple of pots together behind him. The caged man froze where he was, eyes full of terror, and then slowly slipped back the way he had come.

  “What’s your point?” I asked, pulling Adrian’s attention back to me. I didn’t like the way he looked at the scrawny man. He had definitely looked hungry there. I wasn’t about to sit back and watch him snack on some guy who thought it might be a good idea to eavesdrop on our conversation. “I have come out of worse scenarios unharmed. What makes you think you or one of your grunts are any better than every other wolf who has ever tried to take me out?”

  “I have you now.”

  “Your boss has me now.”

  His eyelid twitched again. Definitely irritation.

  Adrian took a deep breath and let it out slowly before going on as if our little exchange had never happened. “You handled yourself well at the Stake when you found out I was asking about you. I would have expected you to act much more violently. I was almost hoping for it.”

  “I was having an off day. Let me out and I would be happy to oblige you with as much violence as you could ever want.”

  “You walked right in the Luna Cult Den even though you knew it could be a trap,” he went on, unperturbed by my interruption. “You met with Jonathan and his wolves and came out, once again, unscathed.”

  “He didn’t threaten to throw me in a cage,” I said. “What’s your point?”

  “And here you are now. You walked right into a Minor vampire House, knowing full well there was a good chance you would be forced to fight. In fact, I believe you were counting on it. My source had been quite vague as to what was going to happen. He could only tell me Jonathan had a plan and it involved outside help. Imagine my surprise when that help turned out to be you.”

  “Gregory.” I spat the name.

  Adrian blinked once as the name crossed my lips. That was all the reaction he showed. “He was useful for a time, though his information was quite limited. It was frustrating, to say the least.”

  “Where is he now?” If I could get my hands on Gregory, I think I could die content. Screw Tremaine. Just give me the traitor and I would be happy.

  “Which part?”

  I hesitated a second before nodding. I guess that explained what had happened when my eyes had closed back in the ballroom. I had pretty much figured it out already anyway. There weren’t too many wet, sticky liquids that could have fallen on me back there.

  I looked down and saw I still had his blood on me. There wasn’t as much as there should be. I imagine my coat had taken the worst of it. I was going to have to throw these clothes away.

  “I guess that means there is one less asshole I need to kill when I get out of here.”

  “Perhaps.” Adrian shrugged noncommittally. “But I really think you should stop and consider my offer before deciding who needs to die. I have updated it if you care to listen.”

  I mimicked his shrug and kept my face carefully blank.

  “House Tremaine might gain power by bringing the Luna Cult into the fold, but they are still just another vampire House. They will make a mistake somewhere down the road, and someone much more powerful will destroy them. I don’t plan on sticking around long enough to see it happen. Not from the inside anyway.”

  A scream came from somewhere above, muffled by at least a few floors. I kept my gaze on Adrian, refusing to so much as flinch at the sound. Adrian did likewise. He looked as though he hadn’t even heard it.

  “Then why are you here at all?” I asked. “Once the vamps have hold of you, it isn’t exactly easy to break away.”

  “Because I needed to establish a base, obtain power of my own. Do you think those that followed me did so only because they thought my ways were better? They did so because I promised them a way out, a way to take control of their lives. We will not hide in the shadows like the Cult. We will not bow down to anyone—werewolf or vampire—who thinks they can own us.”

  “So you led them here? That doesn’t seem like the way to go if you wanted to go your own way.” I laughed. “Tremaine probably forced you to swear the Oath.” From the look on his face, I knew I was right. “How exactly do you plan on getting out of that one?”

  “Once he is dead, my Oath will be broken. I will be able to do as I please. I will take the wolves from the wreckage of the House and from there ...” He shrugged. “The world is a large place.”

  I stared at him long and hard. The Oath was a supernatural bond between vampire and werewolf. A vampire couldn’t bond another vamp, just as a werewolf couldn’t bond another wolf. It had to be a werewolf swearing fealty to a vampire. No other combination worked as far as I knew.

  I had never seen an Oath sworn in person, never planned to, but I knew it had something to do with blood and magic older than the world itself. The Oath is what keeps the wolves in line once they enter service with a vampire House. They are bound and incapable of harming the vampires who rule them, no matter how much they might want to.

  How all of this affected me, I had no idea. Whatever Adrian truly wanted, he was being pretty damn evasive about it. I couldn’t very well kill Tremaine for him if I was stuck behind bars, and I doubted he would just open the doors and let me walk. He had to know he was pretty high on my to-be-killed list.

  “There is one thing I am missing,” Adrian said. “One thing a man of my stature needs if he wants to rule his people absolutely.”

  “And that is?”

  “A mate.”

  My throat closed up. If he was implying what he thought he was implying ... I shuddered.

  His eyelid fluttered and his upper lip lifted in a sneer. “I can see the mere suggestion disgusts you.”

  “It’s nothing personal,” I said. “I just don’t make a habit of dating anyone whose blood could turn
me into a raving lunatic.” Not that I was dating anyone at all. He didn’t need to know that either.

  “I never said anything about dating.” Adrian squared his shoulders and sat up in his chair. He had an ultra-alert look about him that set me even more on edge. “And just because our blood doesn’t mesh, doesn’t mean other things do not.”

  “No thanks.”

  “I would bond to you. I would take the Oath. I will let you free from here and lead you straight to Count Tremaine. I will let you kill him, dismember him, revel in his blood, and stand by your side as you do it.”

  I blinked at him a few times. Did he really just say what I thought he said? “You’d what?” I asked to be sure.

  “I haven’t told him who you are. He thinks you are just some vampire from another House who has infiltrated the Luna Cult. I have done my part in making sure that is what he continues to believe.” Adrian almost smiled. “Jonathan refuses to give you up. He stands fast that he knows nothing of you, that you joined his ranks unnoticed.”

  “He’s still alive?” Relief washed through me. It warmed me from head to foot.

  “Yes, so is Nathan if you care to know. They have taken the Oath. They belong to House Tremaine now, as does the Luna Cult. They cannot help you.”

  The warm feeling was washed away by a flood of cold. “They wouldn’t have done that.”

  “They had little choice.” His face went utterly blank once again. “It was either swear the Oath or be executed in a most unorthodox way.” I definitely heard the disgust there. “Count Tremaine threatened them with the mixing of blood. He would have sent them back to the Cult where the Madness, as well as the insanity caused by mixed blood, would cause them to tear the Cult apart in one bloody orgy of death. They would kill everyone.”

  My mouth went dry. I had no idea what I could possibly say to that. I knew I couldn’t simply agree to Adrian’s terms. For one, I didn’t trust him. For another, there was no way in hell I was going to sleep with him. Just the thought made me want to vomit.