“Yeah,” he said. “I lost my phone, and uh, I lost Petzly too.”
It was like dealing with a child, a lying child. Charles had never been deceitful, only ignorant. What was this about?
Bennet looked back and forth between us before taking two steps away.
“I apologize,” Charles said. “I’m here now.”
His face turned white, color fading as he looked over the bodies.
“That’s not her, is it?” he asked.
“No,” Bennet replied.
Charles’s shoulders relaxed.
“Oh good,” he said. “Last thing we need is another leader to drop. What is it with this city? Can’t a vampire get a little peace?”
Bennet looked at me, a small smirk on his lips. Then it was gone. He always seemed to enjoy Charles’s commentary, or possibly the annoyance it caused me. One day he would sire a progeny of his own, and then he would understand, and that smirk would be gone.
“Looks an awful lot like her,” Charles said.
Movement caught my eye, a lift of the car trunk. I heard the gentle thrum of her heart. Charles and Bennet raced for the car.
“No!” I yelled.
I had to reach her first. She couldn’t be here. She had to be safe.
“Wait!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Violet
How Charles survived as a vampire, I had no idea. Maybe Scarlet Harbor was just devoid of hunters, a safe haven for the vampires without any sense of self-preservation. What was this, the third time I’d found him and climbed into his trunk? He’d made it easy enough—no latch, never checking inside, and parking at the same place every night by the dorms.
I waited for the rumble and noise of the engine to stop, the blaring music to cut off. The car door slammed shut, shaking the entire vehicle, then nothing. I waited a little longer before lifting the lid of my compartment.
Before my foot reached the ground, cold fingers squeezed around my throat. My heart raced, panic rose, and I scrambled to remove his hold on me. A strong arm lifted me from the trunk, and it didn’t belong to Charles.
He was tall, taller than Walter, much taller than me. His eyes were a blazing storm of crimson, his wide jaw set. He meant to kill me.
I pulled at his fingers with one hand, and played the only card I had to play. Pulling the dagger from my thigh, I stabbed the bastard right in the chest.
“No!” The voice was distant, familiar, as the edges of my vision pulsed with darkness. This was it.
I turned the blade, digging it in as deep as I could manage, as my strength slowly drained away.
“Let go.” His voice was panic, it was authority, it was raw. It was Walter. “She is mine.”
The pressure on my neck lightened, and the world turned. But before I hit the ground, arms caught me, embraced me, held me close. I knew that feeling, I knew that chest, and I knew those strong arms—Walter.
“You’re keeping humans now, Walter?” the tall vamp asked.
I kept my eyes on him, as my vision came back into focus. His shoulders were broad, his face square. The ferocity had faded from his square face, but it didn’t change anything. My dagger remained lodged in his chest—good.
“And what, Charlie here has to drive them around?” he asked. “You could have at least bound her before locking her in the trunk.”
“I didn’t put her in there,” Charles said.
“Are you okay?” Walter looked at me, his anger gone. All that was left was concern.
“Yeah,” I said.
He gently lowered my feet to the ground, and I held onto his arm as I regained my balance.
“You’re concerned about her well-being after she stabs your only brother in the chest.” The tall vamp laughed. He ripped the dagger out, cringing only for a moment before letting the blade clatter to the ground. “It was likely meant for you.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt Walter,” I said.
The tall vamp raised a brow and looked to Walter.
I held out a hand. This guy was Walter’s brother, or so he said. “Let’s try this again,” I said. “I’m Violet, fantastic to meet you.” I’d never done anything like this, never tried to befriend a bunch of vampires. But Walter was worth it, and no matter how this night turned out, it was a fine adventure.
A smile grew across the tall vamp’s face, revealing the full length of his long fangs. “Bennet,” he said, and accepted my hand.
“Charlie.” The blond put out his hand, though his face was still lined with concern. “Walter’s my vampire dad.”
Walter sighed, and tilted his chin up toward the starry sky.
A blood brother, a progeny—this was me meeting his family, and it wasn’t as weird as it sounded.
I shook Charlie’s hand, and learned another difference between him and the other two. He was less stiff. And Charlie suited him better than Charles, though I still liked Chuck.
“How did you get in my car?” Charlie asked. “And why?”
“It’s been sitting at the dorms, an open invitation with the trunk that doesn’t latch,” I said.
Charlie pushed on the metal and squished up his face. His shoulders fell. “Okay,” he said, “but why?”
“You led her to me,” Walter said.
Bennet looked at me as if I was a puzzle. Charlie looked at me as if his question hadn’t been answered. As for Walter, he looked around the open courtyard as if we were in danger. Were we?
Four men, dressed head to toe in black, came out of the shadows and lifted a crusty black thing and a girl—both corpses. They carried the bodies off behind sky-high topiaries, and away from view. Who were the ninja men? Who’d died?
“It’s time we go in,” Bennet said, then turned for the door of the building that was practically a castle.
The front of the manor was tall and flat, with classic arches for windows and doors. It felt grander, more imposing than its two-story height, likely from the decorative stonework above. There were only two darkened windows on the entire front of the building, which made sense given the residents. I doubted vampires were big fans of windows.
It was the turrets that gave it the castle feel—those and the stone. Standing in front was like being at the kinds of ruins that were scattered throughout European hills, but this castle hadn’t aged like they had. How long ago had it been built?
There were gardens all around, meticulously maintained spiral topiaries and bushes with every leaf in place.
Even after everything that had happened, I was a little intimidated—not just by the building, but by the idea of the woman who lived inside.
Charlie looked to Walter, then followed Bennet. Walter put his hand on the small of my back, and we, too, walked toward the manor.
His hand there was a reminder of our connection, of what we had just shared hours before. It was a reminder of what he said when I’d been in danger—she is mine. Had he said that only to save my life? It was worthy cause if I said so myself. Or, did he say it because he meant it, at least in part? Did I mean more to him than he let on? Did he want me to be his? And what about me? Did I want to be his? Maybe I did.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” he whispered. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m a big girl,” I whispered back. “I’ll be fine.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t say another word. Good.
A shirtless man opened the door for us, and pulled me out of my head. He was fit, and the leather pants gave him a bit of a male stripper look. There weren’t too many guys walking around shirtless in autumn—well maybe in Florida, but not here. He didn’t seem to mind the cold.
We stepped over the bricks where the dead girl had been, and I expected to see blood. There was none. Had I been wrong? Was she still alive?
Just inside the door was a foyer. The decor was a hodgepodge, not at all what I expected in a building like this. The Ulfhednar Estate was much larger than the home I’d grown up in, so I figured the interior here would be at le
ast as grand. Some elements were, like the oriental rug and massive hearth. Other pieces seemed out of place, like the black leather sofa. Maybe it was just a difference between human and vampire taste.
A set of two men walked by carrying spears. They wore black leather pants and no shirts. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a vampire vibe, but a bondage-style reverse Playboy Mansion.
With each step forward, Walter grew more uptight. He wasn’t comfortable here. Was it this place? Or was it getting closer to the queen?
In the beginning, this was what I’d wanted. I’d come to learn what was happening in Scarlet Harbor, to see the queen with my own eyes. And now that I was here, I didn’t care about this place, or the woman we were inevitably going to see. I only cared about Walter. If he didn’t want to be here, then I was ready to go.
I looked up at him, to his tense jaw, and leaned as close to his ear as I could reach without standing on tiptoes. “We can still leave,” I whispered.
He took my hand in his, a surprisingly public gesture in front of his family, and squeezed. I squeezed back.
Bennet led us down a long hall, up a flight of stairs, and down another long corridor. Paintings on the walls looked like they’d been there a long time, and like they belonged. I was no art major, but I recognized a few as having a Renaissance feel. Most of the paintings, however, looked like they came from the Medieval era before it. Faces were surrounded by halos—some beautiful, others grotesque.
Bennet opened the fifth door on the left. We filed inside a brightly lit room. The ceiling was high, the layout large and open. Along the edges of the room stood statues wearing suits of armor from different empires. Hanging on the walls around them, the weapons that matched. How old was the vampire who’d decorated this place? Did all of this belong to the new queen? Was all of this hers at one time or another, or was she just a collector of antiquities? Given the whole vampire thing, my guess was the former.
In the center of the room was a four-poster bed decorated in red linens. Balled up on the floor, sitting beside the bed was a young blond woman clutching a pillow. Her hair was pulled back into two ponytails, her skin was fair, and she wore heavy, smudged makeup. With tall boots over her torn jeans, and a t-shirt much like the one I was wearing, she seemed out of place in the manor.
She glanced at us as we entered, then looked back off into space. She appeared young, younger than me, though it was hard to tell with vampires. Walter looked like he was about thirty, but he was over two hundred years old. If this woman was supposed to be the queen, she had to be older than that, didn’t she?
She looked a lot like the girl that had been on the doorstep, and the one from the dorm. No way could that be a coincidence.
“I’m just trying to do some good,” she said. “You know? Take this crazy thing that was dropped into my lap and change the world for the better.”
Walter leaned close, and whispered in my ear. “Ashley King, Queen of the Chesapeake Region.”
That answered the question of who, though it was still hard to believe. I’d expected to find a queen of vampires surrounded by her harem, both regal and deadly dangerous, and most of all, having her shit together. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this woman had been crying.
Charlie looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight and chewing on his lip. The other two were stoic. It must have come with age, if the queen was an exception.
“Walter,” the queen said, “I thought you were going to make sure everyone was following the rules.”
Walter said nothing.
The queen rose to her feet. The sadness in her eyes faded, and her irises flooded with red.
“Someone isn’t following the rules,” she said.
“It will be dealt with,” Walter said.
“Will be,” she said, “but hasn’t been yet. I thought you were my best guy, next in line for the throne and all…well, if Yeke hadn’t shown up.”
I hadn’t known. Walter hadn’t shared any of that with me. Did that make him a prince?
Again, Walter said nothing.
“And, Bennet,” the queen said, “Safety Patrol means no bodies, right? I mean, murder doesn’t sound all that safe to me.”
Bennet said nothing.
“You know, I’m feeling a little better already,” she said, and cracked her knuckles. “So glad you guys dropped in.”
“Didn’t you ask for us?” Charlie asked.
“Sure did,” she replied, with a smile that spread ear to ear. “So who wants to promise me that this will be dealt with?”
Her smile, her demeanor, all of it made me nervous. I waited for the wrath, for her to be everything I’d always known vampires to be, but even more so because she was queen.
“All of us?” Charlie half answered, half asked as he looked between the other men.
Ashley King nodded.
“That’s what I want to hear,” she said. “And I want it done now.”
“As you wish,” Walter said.
The men turned for the door, Walter ushering me ahead of the rest.
“And, Charlie,” the queen said, “don’t bring your human girlfriends here. It’s not smart.”
“Me and her?” Charlie asked, before flipping his attention to Walter. “I brought her here, but I didn’t bring her here. I mean, she’s not my girlfriend, not that she wouldn’t make a good girlfriend. We just met. It was an accident.”
“Wait, what? That sounds—” the queen said.
“Violet is with me,” Walter said.
“Walter?” The queen’s brows shot up. “Really, wow. I never would have guessed. You and me, Red, we should chat sometime.”
“Yeah,” I said, unsure what else to say. “Sometime.”
Walter grabbed my hand and started back toward the door. “Excuse us,” Walter said. “Our task requires urgency.”
“Nice to meet you, Violet,” the queen called after us.
Before I could speak another word, I found myself in Walter’s arms, by Charlie’s car.
“She seems—” I wasn’t quite sure what to say.
But Walter did. “Dangerous.”
“That wasn’t the first thing that came to mind,” I said.
“She stole her power from another. It was too much power for one so young,” he said.
“You mean political power,” I said.
“That too,” Walter replied. “But what I meant was that she has all the physical prowess of the seven-hundred-year-old vampire whose heart she ate to obtain it.”
I had known vampires did that, but I’d never known why. Given their violent nature, it was astonishing that they didn’t all just attack each other all of the time. Maybe more of them did than I knew.
Walter’s words repeated in my head—one so young. I had to ask.
“How young?”
“I don’t know her human age,” he said. “But she was just turned.”
“Just turned like a century or two ago, or just turned just turned?” I hoped I misunderstood.
“Last month.”
Last month. The queen just turned last month, with immense power, and no experience. It was madness.
“And that’s why there’s a power play,” I said. “Makes sense.”
“Not just that,” he said, “but the rules she means to place cause dissonance.”
“No killing?” I asked. Between the safety patrol and murder comments, it seemed the most likely.
“Exactly.”
“And you were prince before this?” I asked.
“There’s not meant to be kings and queens,” he said. “Nor princes.”
“But you were supposed to be in charge,” I said. “And who’s Yeke?”
It was so much to take in all at once. This was as far from a typical meet-the-family as a girl could get. How much were they like Walter? How much were they like the bloodsuckers I hunted?
“Yeke was the last king,” Walter said. “The one who banished my sire to the bottom of the sea.”
So that
was why Ashley King had called him a prince, because his sire had been in charge before her and Yeke. And what of his sire? He’d said banished, not buried. Was he still alive out there, somewhere?
Charlie and Bennet approached. I wanted more time, to ask more questions, though I wasn’t even sure what to ask. Walter was really opening up to me, and I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to know everything, to know him. And even though we weren’t there yet, with every moment that passed, I was more and more sure that I wanted to pursue this thing we had between us, as scary as it was.
“So what’s the plan?” Charlie asked.
“We deal with Evans,” Bennet said.
“Bennet goes to Evans’s house,” Walter said. “Charles remains here.”
“You want me to be in charge here if something happens?” Charlie asked. “She’s not going to let me be in charge. And doesn’t this seem like the riskiest job? They did just dump that girl—”
“You will alert us at any sign of trouble,” Walter said. “Violet and I will return to the docks.”
He included me. I hadn’t been sure he would, not after he’d left me behind at the hotel to come here.
“Whoever finds Evans and his co-conspirators will alert the others. It will be a united front, as our enemy will not be alone.”
“The sun will soon rise,” Bennet said.
Walter nodded. “We begin at sunset.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Walter
The remaining hours before daybreak were limited. I hoped to spend what time I had left with Violet.
Instead of dropping her off in the alley behind Langmoore Hotel, I returned her to the place our night had begun—her room.
Violet swiped her keycard and opened the door.
“Do you have time to come in?” she asked.
I answered without hesitation, “Yes.”
The cart that held the half-eaten cake still stood beside the bed full of rumpled linens. It was almost as if no time had passed. It was nearly as if I’d just tasted her, felt her soft curves, been buried within her.
“Tell me everything,” Violet said, then took my hand.
Hunted: A Vampire Paranormal Romance (Vampires of Scarlet Harbor Book 2) Page 10