The Prince of Cups (Villainess Book 2)

by Melos,Alana

  “Let’s,” Gerard said. “Although… we can still back out, Reece. Taking on a whole force, probably a whole division of troops, is suicidal, even with the Occulten Miliz on our side. And there’s no guarantee Nosferatu is going to listen to us. He might just kill us all. Or capture us. I could think of a thousand different things he’d do. The smart move is to let Prime handle the invasion, and give them warning. If we leave now, we can get back there to do it.”

  I shook my head firmly. “No,” I replied, fixing him with a stern look. “You might run and hide and be the spy, but I’m not. With or without you, I’m going in. I am going to convince Nos to help, and I will stop them.” I stated it like the facts I knew they were. It was going to happen. I would make it happen. I ground my teeth as we had another staredown. He broke the gaze first, shaking his head.

  What was that about not being suicidal? he asked me telepathically, his mental voice laced with sarcasm. Aloud, he cleared his throat, “This is your play. I’ll follow.” For now, he added. I’ll see how it goes.

  “I don’t want them in my future home,” Rebekah said, siding with me. “We can always use explosives and blow the portals up, but I agree, I think we should do something!”

  “Two against one,” I said. “So let’s go.”

  Without waiting to see if they were following, I turned on my heel and headed towards the meeting grounds. The wind picked up, and it chilled me, but it also brought to me the sounds of boots on the street behind me and I knew both of them were coming with me. Truth be told, I think even Regulus knew for all of his protests, Axis wouldn’t be invading unless they felt they could win. Either something had shifted in Prime or they thought they had the edge with troops or weapons here. No matter which way it was, anything we could do to stop them, or at least hurt them and slow them down, could be vital to Prime’s survival. There were more metas now, but the nations were fractured. The new world order under one regime had been broken ages ago, and people around the world still squabbled amongst themselves, fighting for dominance. Without organization, the Nazis could hurt my home, and badly.

  It was mine to hurt. No one else’s. Mine.

  The building itself was derelict as Rebekah had described, windows boarded up, doors missing, and graffiti everywhere. Some of it was anti-Nazi shouting in garish colors for freedom from the Reich, and some was pro-Nazi countering the freedom argument with racial slurs about how all the unpure needed to die, but most of it was the silly shit kids would spray paint, like, “Tom was here” or “Debbie does sixty-nine”, that sort of thing. The meeting room Nazferatu had specified was downstairs, and I switched my attention to the wolf I’d pinged before, finding his unguarded thoughts easily. Through his eyes I saw the hidden entrance to a rough hewn tunnel, which went underneath the building. The wolf, Jaeger, entered with his ‘pack’ as he thought of them… though he thought of the whole of the regiment as his pack, one massive pack. Although he was German, many of the other wolves were not. They were from all countries, all nationalities, united as one by the vampire Nosferatu.

  That was curious. He considered Nazferatu his pack leader, though the leader of the wolf regiment was a female by the name of Freyja, who was Scandinavian. Nazferatu had another underling who ran the vampires, Adira. What I found most unusual about the setup was both species got along well. So many books and movies had them at each other’s throats, mortal enemies, but not here. They were friends, brothers and sisters in blood, and Nazferatu had cultivated that spiritual bond through the years until a hurt against one was a hurt against all.

  I couldn’t have wished for anything better.

  Gerard pulled out a flashlight as we went downstairs and found the cave entrance. There’s a lot of minds here, Gerard sent, displeasure coloring his thoughts. This is a bad idea.

  No, look what I found, I replied, showing him the thoughts I’d gleaned from Jaeger. It couldn’t be more perfect.

  That’s if she’s telling the truth, he replied, and if they believe us. From what I can tell, all of the vampires slept here for the night, plus those wolves we saw walking in. That’s about thirty opponents. We’re good, but we’re not that good. He shook his head slightly, his itchy mental fingers wanting to just change my mind for me, but he knew he couldn’t.

  We won’t have to fight, I sent as well as some calming, soothing vibes.

  “There’s a lot of guys here,” Rebekah said, her voice trembling as she unconsciously echoed her father. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

  “We’re already here,” I said firmly. “We’re doing this.”

  The three of us entered together. Gerard’s mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes narrowed as he glanced at his daughter. The Siren gulped a few times before entering, then plunged in as if throwing herself off a cliff. I walked in more slowly, taking the time to look for other entrances and exits, as well as marking the minds Gerard had sensed. He wasn’t kidding. There were twenty-seven different minds here, eight of which were likely the wolves we saw and the rest vampires which were damn hard to kill.

  If I had been a lesser person, I might have been scared. I wasn’t though. It wasn’t just that I thought Nazferatu wouldn’t kill me--though I really believed he wouldn’t--but that I just knew it was going to come out in my favor. I would make it. I knew I could do this. Doubt never entered my mind at all.

  The cavern was sloped downward, and we had to be careful as the grade was actually quite steep. It evened out after a couple minutes of walking down, and opened up. Battery powered lamps were present, guiding the way, and we could see shadowed caves where more than likely the vampire’s lairs actually were. I imagined them hanging upside down like in that ancient movie The Lost Boys, or in coffins like in the classic book Dracula, and curiosity tugged at me, pushing me to go down into the darkness to find out for sure. I resisted the impulse and moved forward, following the two Nazis into a large cavern.

  Lit by the same battery lamps, we could see a large open area, cleared of any extra rocks or debris. The floor was the same bedrock which surrounded us, and stained with some dark, unsavory stains which I knew had to be blood. Benches and stairs had been carved into the surrounding walls in between the three passages which led into the room. The benches doubled as stairs going up the three or four rows. To me, it looked to be an arena of sorts, or a sparring ground where they might train their skills. There was no seat which looked to be more distinct than another, which I expected as Nazferatu had set himself up as the leader of this motley crew and all other his subordinates. It didn’t matter their position within the ranks; all were below him.

  The benches were populated sparsely considering how many spaces there were, and nearly all of the people present wore the Reich’s uniform. Not knowing quite what the protocol was, we just stood there and waited for someone to take notice of us.

  It wasn’t long before a dark-skinned woman approached. Her skin was a lovely mahogany shade, but her eyes were a dark and dull red; she was a vampire. “You must be Caprice,” she said, her German accented weirdly to my ears.

  “I am,” I said. “I’ve come to have a meeting with Na… Nosferatu.”

  “He thought you’d be alone,” she said, looking over Rebekah and Gerard with interest. “But he knows. He is on his way.”

  “We’ll just take a seat then,” I said.

  “If you wish,” she replied, giving Rebekah a look over once again, in more detail. She squirmed under the intense gaze, but stood her ground, giving the vampire a tight smile which almost looked genuine.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, trying to distract her from the Siren. Something was off there, but I had no idea what it might have been. Perhaps they knew each other. Perhaps they’d been lovers. I had no way of knowing.

  “Adira,” she said, stressing the second syllable and almost rolling the r, which made the already unusual name downright exotic. “I am the second in command here.”

  “It’s good to meet you,” I said, offering her my hand t
o shake.

  She looked at it, and licked her lips. Gerard and I tensed as one as we shared the same thought… had I committed some sort of vampire faux pas? Didn’t they shake hands? After a few more seconds of her deliberation, she took my hand in hers and shook it thrice, no more, and no less, then released it.

  “Everything OK?” I asked.

  “You’re marked by the colonel,” she said. “I was not certain if it would be acceptable to touch you.”

  The bite. I would have regretted that decision, but that choice had given me a few really great orgasms so far, and I couldn’t see a downside to it. So what if he always knew where I was? It had been to my advantage so far. “I see,” I said slowly. “I’m not his property or girlfriend or anything.”

  On my right, Gerard stifled a snicker at the thought of ‘girlfriend’, but Adira seemed to take that seriously. “How very interesting,” she said. “That’s what you think it means.”

  “What does it mean?” I asked.

  “That you’re his pet,” she replied succinctly. At that, Gerard let loose a single guffaw before I turned and glared at him.

  “I’m not anyone’s pet,” I replied. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks.”

  One of her brows went up languorously, as if this interested her when nothing else had. “We’ll see,” she said. “The colonel is here, now.”

  When she turned, so did I. Nazferatu bled out of the darkness, his uniform impeccable. The Aryan face… I had to say he was handsome, if a bit severe, but I preferred my Nosferatu. I actually missed Michael’s ugly, but constantly grinning, face. His body was a lot bigger too, more cut and muscled.

  “Greetings,” I said as he approached. His eyes went to my neck, then to my eyes, and my breath caught. We stared at each other, and my heart began to beat faster. He was handsome… and man he’d been a good fuck. His attractiveness didn’t seem so severe now, but rather welcoming and warm. I wanted to lick my way up his body, and tear his skin from his bones. Thoughts of the blood and sport we could have together, night after night, danced through my head. We would drown ourselves in blood-soaked sex. My nipples hardened and I took a step forward…

  ...and Gerard stopped me with a hand on my arm as he inserted a cold barrier of ice between mine and Nazferatu’s minds. He’s got his hooks into you, Reece, he said, his tone one of cold disapproval that I didn’t see it myself. Mystical thing. Probably related to the bite.

  As the shield sliced my mind in twain, cutting me off from Nazferatu’s influence, I blinked and scraped my foot back on the stone so I was standing where I’d entered. The vampire grinned then, and bowed to me.

  “You wished a meeting,” he said, his words soft, almost sibilant.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I’ve a proposition for you, and your people as I said before. Shouldn’t we retire someplace private and talk about it?”

  “I’ve nothing to hide,” he said. “What you say to me, will also be said to them.”

  “Alright,” I said, wishing again for the weight of my sword on my back. “There’s an invasion tomorrow--”

  “I know,” he said, interrupting me. I scowled at him, and he laughed, delighted that I had such fire in me. Gerard allowed a few thoughts and emotions of the vampire through the barrier, all edited and colored by him, but that was so like my own Nosferatu that I knew those thoughts to be true.

  “And I want you to help me stop it,” I finished.

  Adira laughed openly, and Nazferatu shook his head. “Why? You won’t return to your world,” he said. His words were slow, deliberate, and they cut right to the core of me. I did want to stay… with him. This time, I caught the thought myself and excised it from my mind, like a surgeon cutting out a tumor. Now that I knew to look for it, it wouldn’t surprise me again… in theory. “And the heat of battle, the blood of our enemies… this is what we live for.”

  “They’re phasing you out,” I said bluntly. “They’re going to kill all of your kind, vamps and wolves and whatever else you have lurking around here.”

  He laughed. She laughed. I didn’t laugh, not finding this amusing at all. “They built their empire on the men we killed,” Nazferatu said, his arrogance pouring over into me, laying heavy on my mind like a thick meaty sweater. “If you wanted to see me, pet, you could have just said so instead of making some lie.”

  “It’s not a lie,” Gerard said before I snapped. It was his turn to send calming feelings to me as my temper flared.

  “What is your information?” Adira asked. Her bright red lips in that dark face mocked me, twisted into a sardonic smile. I longed to stab her. Even though Regulus was trying to calm me, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be calm.

  “Documents we saw in Reich HQ,” he went on to say. She looked at his short stature and youthful look, and it didn’t take a mind reader to see the doubt written all over her fat stupid face. “And personal knowledge. You may not know who I am, who we are, but trust me when I say I’m in the know on these sorts of things.”

  “Who are you?” she asked, amused.

  “Code name Regulus,” he answered, smiling his innocent boyish grin.

  Adira and Nazferatu exchanged a glance, and some message passed between them. Nazferatu’s thoughts were stained with doubt. “It’s the truth,” I said coolly. “And if you know his reputation, then you should know how dangerous he is.”

  He chuckled. “No matter,” he said. “You have false information. Or are mistaken.”

  “It’s true,” Siren said, stepping up between Gerard and I. “And I can prove it.” Standing shoulder to shoulder to me, I could feel her slim body trembling.

  “Then do so, child,” Adira said, and the way she said it made me want to smack her in the face even more. Gerard cautioned me to temperance, but I could tell he wasn’t happy either. His perpetually youthful face had caused many people to underestimate him. It was great when he was blindsiding them; not so great when he needed people to take him seriously.

  Rebekah took a big breath, and melded with the shadows, popping out of existence for me and reappearing behind the vampires a few seconds later. She did the same again, and when she reappeared between Gerard and myself, her face was screwed up with dissatisfaction and unhappiness. She hadn’t wanted to do that.

  “They’re phasing you out by killing your kind,” she said. “There’s two of your number, a wolf and a vamp, who have been declared dead recently, right? Dieter and Angelina? They’re not. Or at least they weren’t when you were told they were. They’re stealing their powers, their strength, to put into Übermensch. All the power, none of the drawbacks. I was the first subject. A friend of mine was the second. Neither of your people survived the process.” She said that with her head held high, her chin jutting out, as if to defy them to deny the truth. Or, perhaps, she was bravely facing what terrible fate they would inflict upon her for her audacity, for her part in their brethren’s death. A small worm of admiration for her niggled its way into my mind.

  I watched Nazferatu’s thought processes carefully. Anger took hold of him first, that his people were killed. The second replaced the anger in a flash, a coldness which promised people would pay, and pay dearly. In no corner of his mind was doubt. He knew we were telling the truth. There was something in her shadowstep, as he called it, which told him it was real.

  He curled his hands and pointed at her, “You are going to die.” He said this much as I would; it was a fact. There was little hate or malice in it… just cold, empty words, all the better to strike fear into someone’s heart.

  I dropped my pack and I stepped in front of her. “It’s not her fault,” I said. Gerard urged me telepathically to step aside and let Nazferatu take his anger out on Rebekah, his own blood, and I spared him an annoyed look. “She’s a victim, as much as your man, your men, were. Take your anger out on the Reich, where it belongs.”

  The vampire didn’t listen to me, and he vanished into the darkness, only to reappear a moment later, his hands curled around Rebekah’s throat. I c
ouldn’t see her thoughts of course, but the look on her face was one of resignation… which struck me as an oddly brave thing. She’d gone in here knowing they’d need proof, and that when she showed it, they’d kill her. She didn’t have to come in with us, but she did anyway, sacrificing herself to stop the invasion of a world which wasn’t even her home yet.

  “Stop!” I said, turning around and latching hold of Nazferatu’s mind. I made him let her go, ignoring the dirty feelings welling up in me for breaking my rules. It was for a good cause, or at least a just one. When he let go, she breathed a sigh and melded into the shadows, only to reappear behind me. I let go of Nazferatu’s mind, holding my hands up in a peaceful gesture.

  “I get that you’re mad,” I said. “I don’t take people fucking with my things either. But it wasn’t her fault, and if you want her blood, you’ll have to go through me first.”

  Gerard looked at me, surprise on his sharp features for a second as he slapped his forehead mentally. This is a really bad idea, he sent. Nice knowing you. Nazferatu also looked surprised, but he regained his composure quickly, a twist of his lips showing he had an idea in mind.

  “Blood for blood,” he said, his words slowing, as if tasting them. A glint showed in his eye which reminded me of my Nosferatu, the vampire who lived for killing and indulging his senses. It seemed a constant surprise how similar they were, and how different at the same time. “It can’t be any other way.”

  “Then fight me,” I said, and Gerard facepalmed for real. I mentally hissed at him to shut up, but he’d thrown his mental hands into the air and given up, busy plotting how he was going to get out of here since he’d be the only one of us three living. “Blood for blood you said, but I won’t let you take hers,” I said. “You’ll have to fight me for the privilege of taking it.” It was a gamble, but one I thought would pay off.

  I could see his thoughts turn in his head, and he licked his lips. “If you lose, I get you both to do with what I want,” he said, his voice soft. The rest of the cavern had hushed, and it was so quiet his soft words resonated throughout the chamber.