by Tina Folsom
“Yes, I drink his blood on occasion. That’s what keeps our bond strong, and my body young.”
Stunned, Savannah stared at Delilah. A human who drank a vampire’s blood? She’d never imagined that. There were a lot of things she’d never imagined. She’d never imagined this world she’d been thrown into. But it was real.
Delilah chuckled, when a young Chinese woman holding a little Asian girl by the hand walked past their seating area. “Ursula, let me introduce you.”
She approached with the child.
“This is Savannah Rice; Savannah this is Ursula. She’s Oliver’s wife. You probably haven’t met him yet, but you will.”
“Pleased to meet you, Ursula,” Savannah said and shook hands with her.
“We’re all keeping Buffy in our thoughts,” she said. “She’ll make it through this. I can feel it.” Then she motioned to the girl tugging at her hand. “I think somebody wants more cookies.” She allowed the girl to pull her toward the food area.
Delilah laughed. “Their parents are gonna be annoyed with us for spoiling them like this.”
“Their parents won’t mind, as long as they’ve got their little ones back.” Tears suddenly stung in Savannah’s eyes.
The girl Delilah had been taking care of came back with a large bowl of ice cream. “Are you crying?”
Savannah sniffled. “No, honey, I’ve just got something in my eyes.”
“Oh, okay. But it looks like you’re crying.” She offered Savannah her bowl. “Do you want some of my ice cream?”
At that, tears started running down her cheeks. A girl who only hours ago had been locked up in a dark and dirty shipping container was offering to console her. There was still so much good in this world, despite all the evil.
And now Savannah had the support of all of Scanguards, a company of vampires and preternatural creatures more powerful than she could have ever imagined.
“We’ll find Buffy,” Delilah said softly. “We’ll find her.”
34
John was watching Savannah from a corner of the H lounge where the assembled men had withdrawn in order to not disturb the children, when the door opened and Donnelly entered. John waved to the detective to join him, Samson, and Amaury. He’d been relieved to see that Samson was in the room. It had given him an excuse to leave Savannah. Just in time, because ever since they’d started talking about blood, his need to bite her had grown by leaps and bounds. And he knew it was wrong in so many ways. She was a mother in fear for her child, and not in the right frame of mind to make any kind of decision, let alone the decision to allow a vampire to bite her. He was a bastard for even having these thoughts at a time like this.
Donnelly greeted them all and immediately reported his news. “I’ve got something. SFPD’s organized crime unit has been looking at an individual who’s suspected of money laundering. They haven’t been able to prove anything so far, and that’s why this case has been under the radar, and I hadn’t heard anything about it. But listen to this: the guy owns a string of dry cleaners under various business names. Incidentally, the IP addresses our hacker, Otto Watson, was able to trace from the emails he received, lead back to several of these dry cleaning shops.”
“Finally, something!” John let out.
“Not so fast, John. We have a name, but not much else. The organized crime unit doesn’t have a location for him. He moves around too much, and they don’t have the resources to surveil every single one of his business locations.”
“Who is he?” John asked.
“Name’s Sergei Viktorov, Russian national. Immigration has no information on him ever even entering the country. We assume that he’s here under a false name, but we’ve not been able to find anything further on that.”
“A Russian, that fits,” John said. “What else?”
“They sent over a photo, but as I said, since immigration has no record of him, and the DMV hasn’t got anything for a Sergei Viktorov either, we can’t even be sure it’s him.” He reached into the pocket and pulled out a photo. “I printed it out on your printer. But the colors are a bit off.”
“Let me see it,” John demanded and took the picture from Donnelly.
John perused the picture. Just like the children and the two kidnappers had said, the man was in his fifties and blond.
“My colleagues told me something else, too.”
John lifted his gaze back to Donnelly. “What’s that?”
“Rumor is that Viktorov has a preference for young meat, sisters, twins, mothers and daughters. According to Vice, some prostitutes in the Tenderloin reported that a man matching his description has offered to pay for women who would bring their virgin daughters with them so one would watch while he fucked the other.”
“Disgusting asshole!” Samson cursed.
“Fucking bastard,” John grunted. “It sounds like him.” And he’d set his sight on Savannah and Buffy. John’s blood started to boil at the thought of what Viktorov was planning.
“Are you okay if I show this picture to the girls?” Donnelly asked.
“Let’s compare it to what your sketch artist has come up with first,” John suggested.
Donnelly was already turning in the direction of the sketch artist, when John saw Savannah approaching them. Quickly he said to Donnelly, “Mike, not a word about Viktorov’s reputation to Savannah. It’ll only upset her, and it won’t serve any purpose.”
“Understood.”
Savannah made a beeline for Donnelly. “Do you have news?”
Donnelly cast a quick glance at John, then nodded. “We think we know who it is. A Russian named Sergei Viktorov. I was just about to compare the photo we got to what the sketch artist has drawn.”
“Let me see.” She took the photo from Donnelly’s hand and looked at it. Her mouth dropped open. “Oh, no! Oh God no!”
With one step, John was by her side and gripped her arm. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him, eyes wide, while she lifted the photo higher. “This man, I know him. He came to my office. He shook my hand.” Her face distorted in disgust.
“Who is he?” John asked.
“Viktor Stricklund. He claimed to be from Sweden. Wanted a business meeting about cyber security for his company.” She choked out the words. “Oh, God, John, that’s how he knew about you. He said my assistant arranged the meeting, but I couldn’t check with Rachel, because she was out sick. He probably never had an appointment. He must have somehow found out that Rachel was out sick and then pretended that she set up the meeting, knowing I couldn’t verify it. And when Alexi told him that I had a family emergency, I told him that my daughter had disappeared.” She swallowed. “He pretended to be concerned. He offered his help, said he knew people who could search for her. To get rid of him, I told him that I’d already hired a private investigator.” Tears now ran down her cheeks. “He played me. And I didn’t see it.”
John nodded. “He’s brazen. He wanted to make sure he knew what steps you’d taken. I assume he showed up in your office before you received the ransom note?”
She nodded.
John exchanged a look with Donnelly. “Show the picture to the kids. Confirm that he’s the same guy who took Buffy.”
Donnelly nodded, took the picture back and walked to the sketch artist and the two kids she was working with. John pulled Savannah into his arms. “We’ll get him, darlin’, we’ll get him now.”
John caught Samson’s look, as the Scanguards CEO said, “I’ll have Thomas run his photo through our database, just in case.”
John knew he was referring to the database of known vampires across the country that Scanguards had put together. “Thanks.”
“And I’m sure Thomas or Eddie can get into the servers of Homeland Security to see if anything comes up under a Swedish national named Viktor Stricklund. Maybe that’s the passport he travels under,” Amaury added.
Savannah turned in John’s arms, wiped her tears away and addressed Samson and Amaury, “I’m sor
ry. I shouldn’t fall apart like this. Thank you for all your help. I’m so grateful. But I’m sure the name he gave me is just as fake as everything else about him. We won’t find him like that.” She sniffled. “There’s only one way he’ll show himself.”
John gripped her shoulders and made her look at him.
She met his gaze. “And we all know what will draw him out.”
John shook his head. Without her saying it, he knew what she meant. “No! I won’t allow it.”
“It’s not your choice, John. It’s mine.”
He saw red right there and then. With a quick nod at his bosses, he bit out an “Excuse us” and snatched Savannah by her arm, dragging her toward the nearest door.
“John, let go of me!” she protested, but he ignored her and flung the door open that led into the kitchen and supply rooms adjacent to the lounge.
“We’re gonna have a word,” he bit out and dragged her along the corridor and around the corner, glancing at the signs on the doors, until he found one saying Break Room. He pushed the door open and entered with Savannah in tow.
A female employee sat at a table, reading a magazine and drinking a coffee. She whipped her head in their direction.
“Out!” John commanded, and the woman scrambled to her feet and rushed out of the room. When the door shut behind her, John let go of Savannah and flipped the lock shut so nobody could barge in and interrupt them.
When he turned back to Savannah, she glared at him, her hands braced on her hips. “What the fuck, John?”
“That was gonna be my line!” he replied just as furious. “Are you fucking crazy proposing what I think you are? Offering yourself as bait to this madman?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Not as bait! I’m offering myself in exchange for Buffy. So she doesn’t have to live through this nightmare any longer.”
“That’s fucking nuts! He’ll never let her go if you offer yourself. He’ll take you both! That was his plan all along. And now you want to deliver yourself to him on a silver platter? Over my fucking charred body!”
“It’s not your decision! She’s my daughter! And I’ll fucking do what I think is best.”
“The fuck you will!”
“You can’t stop me!”
“Can’t I? Watch me!”
“You have no right to tell me what to do!”
“I don’t care whether I have the right or not! I’m not gonna stand here and watch you put yourself in danger.” Because it would break him. It would shatter what was left of his heart.
“You have to.”
“No! I’m not gonna lose you. I’ve been through this once. I’m not gonna do it again. I’m not gonna let the woman I love walk into certain doom. I won’t do it. Damn it!”
Savannah’s eyes widened, and she sucked in a shaky breath.
Had he suddenly scared her into submission? “What? Damn it, Savannah!”
She shook her head. “You love me?”
Only then did he realize what he’d said. For a second, he froze. But he knew it was true. “I love you more than I thought I could ever love again. And not just you. I love Buffy. I love her like the child I lost. I love her because she’s part of you. And I’ll do anything to get her back for you. But I can’t let you do this. I can’t lose you both.”
Tears started welling up in her eyes, and she sniffled. “Oh, John. I didn’t know… After what you told me about Nicolette… I didn’t think you could feel anything…”
He sucked in a much-needed breath of air, and with it, some of his rage dissipated. “I didn’t either. But, you, Savannah, you made me feel again. And I can’t throw that away. I can’t let this bastard steal that from me. From us.”
She took a step toward him and put her hand on his chest. When she lifted her gaze to look at him, there was calm determination shining from her eyes. “If you truly love me, then you have to let me go. Buffy is part of me. If I don’t do this for her, I’ll never be able to forgive myself. And I’ll never be happy again. It would kill the love I have for you. Because I do love you. I don’t know how it happened or why.”
John put his hand over hers. Knowing that she loved him, that she felt for him what he felt for her, would have been the most joyous revelation he could have ever imagined, had it not been for her request to let her go.
“But what if he takes you both?”
“You’ll make sure that he won’t. I trust you. I trust you to save Buffy. And once she’s safe, then you’ll come for me too. I’ll trust in that too. And then we’ll be together. All three of us.”
He knew her mind was made up. No matter how long he argued with her, Savannah wouldn’t change her decision. Resigned, he said, “We’ll do as you say. Under one condition.”
“What condition?”
“You let me drink your blood now.”
35
John’s request stunned her into silence. Ever since he’d told her about the effect a vampire’s bite had on a human, Savannah hadn’t been able to get the thought out of her head.
“I’m not asking because I crave your blood, though I do, but because it will help me track you if anything goes wrong during the exchange.”
She tilted her head to the side, looking at him quizzically. “Track me? How?”
“If I have your blood in me, I’ll be able to follow your trail in case he takes you away. Vampires have a strong sense of smell, like bloodhounds. With your blood in me I’ll be able to track you over long distances. It’ll ensure that I won’t lose you.”
“But why not use an electronic tracker?”
“We have to assume that he’ll take every precaution and search you. If he suspects you’re wearing a tracker, he might have you strip.”
At that thought, Savannah felt a shudder of disgust run down her spine. “You’re right. It’s best.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “This is not how I imagined it. I hadn’t planned on forcing this on you. I wanted you to choose freely. To decide for yourself if, and when, I would bite you.” He dropped his lids and looked away. “I know you’re not ready for this. It’s not the right place, or the right time. I’ll make it quick.”
Savannah put her hand under his chin and lifted it, so he had to meet her gaze. “And shortchange me?” She shook her head, smiling. “Oh, John. Please don’t make it quick. Do it the way you wanted our first time to be. I want to experience what it’s like to feel your fangs piercing my skin. You told me it was a pleasurable act. Let me feel that pleasure.” Because if something went wrong, then this would be their first and last time. If Viktorov managed to snatch her away, or if he killed her when he realized that he’d lost, this would be their only time. But she couldn’t say that. She couldn’t give those thoughts voice.
“Are you sure, darlin’?”
“I’ve never been so sure of anything. Show me what it’s like to love a vampire and to be loved by him. Show me what my future will be like.” If she indeed had a future. If she was so lucky.
John pulled her to him, sliding one arm around her waist. His chocolate-colored eyes turned molten, a golden shimmer framing his irises. “I will always cherish this moment, though if I had a choice I would do this differently. But I can promise you that what you feel will be my true self.”
He slanted his lips over her mouth and kissed her gently, nibbling softly on her lips, his tongue sliding over the seam of it to ask for entry. On a breath, she parted her lips and received him. Her tongue met his for a dance as old as time. Immediately arousal swept through her cells. He could do that to her in an instant, fill her body with the kind of need only he could satisfy.
Already, she felt his hands on her clothes, felt him undressing her, shoving her top over her head to lay her torso bare. She felt his hands on her breasts then, kneading them, teasing her nipples. But they didn’t stay there. Instead they got to work on her pants.
“John, I thought you wanted to drink my blood,” she said, panting.
“I do,” he said, his voice thick with lu
st, “but I have to be inside you. For our first time, I need to make love to you when I bite you.”
“Oh God!” She glanced around the room. A kitchenette in one corner, a row of lockers along another wall, a small table and several chairs. “How? Where?”
“Don’t worry about that, darlin’,” he assured her and stripped her of her pants. Then he opened his cargo pants and shoved them and his boxer briefs down to mid-thigh.
His cock sprang free, hard and heavy, ready to impale her. She reached for his erection, wrapped her hand around it, and felt it twitch in her palm.
But then he lifted her up and moved them both a few steps, until her back connected with the wall. He held her there, suspended, as if she were as light as a feather. He pressed his body to hers, spreading her legs, and she wrapped them around him.
His hard-on nudged at her center.
“My God, you’re wet,” he groaned and plunged into her without preamble. As if nailing her to the wall.
A shudder charged through her body, and her interior muscles spasmed around him.
“Just like that, darlin’, that’s exactly what I need.” He drew back his hips and thrust back into her. His eyes were fully golden now, and his lips had parted, showing the tips of his fangs.
She reached for his face, and he didn’t draw back. With her index finger, she touched one fang and caressed it. His cock spasmed inside her, thrusting wildly.
“Fuck!” he cursed.
Breathing heavily, he severed the contact to her finger and dipped his head to the crook of her neck. Savannah obliged him and tilted her head to the side to give him better access, to offer herself to him.
“Take me, John, I’m yours.”
She felt his tongue lick over her skin and shivered. Her entire body began to tingle pleasantly. Then she felt them, the sharp tips of his fangs touching her skin, exerting pressure, and then, suddenly, a sharp pain that lasted only a millisecond. Finally, she felt his fangs drive deeper, lodge in her neck, settle there, and draw blood from her vein.