What was it with John? Lance shook his head. “Are you crazy?”
“Sane as ever. Besides, you know better than to argue with me.”
Lance was saved by his unlisted cell phone ringing. Thank God for small mercies.
“Hello?”
“Father Soleil? It’s Chad Trask. Could you meet me at my family’s boat? I overheard people wanting to kill you.”
Chapter 30
Chad Trask watched his sorrows swim in his glass of Grey Goose. His girlfriend had dumped him this morning when he’d refused to take her to the conference. He replayed the scene in his head.
“Why not? I want to work in DC and you won’t even introduce me!”
“Honey, you’re pretty, but you’re just not DC caliber,” Chad had answered.
He didn’t know why she’d walked away. He was just being honest.
The bottle gurgled another double shot over his melting ice cubes. At least he had been able to escape from Radu Tepes’s post-announcement party in his parents’ house to the Trask family sailboat. The house had gotten too hot and stuffy. The yacht was cooler and quieter, a good place for a sensitive young man to nurse a broken heart.
He swirled the glass. Another drink blurred Chad’s memory just enough to light his self-righteous indignation. What had happened to her sense of humor? It was just a bit of fun.
Anything to keep thinking of the vampiress who had ripped open too many corners of his mind.
Chad wallowed comfortably in his oppression until the door from the top deck opened.
For a moment, Chad stared blankly, then he dropped his glass. The vodka sloshed across his suddenly numb fingers.
Through the years, the forty-five-foot yacht had hosted many parties, some up to fifty people. It had never felt as crowded as it did right now.
Because Radu Tepes, candidate for president, stood right in front of him. Chad had never been alone with Mr. Tepes. He wasn’t even sure the vampire knew who he was.
The closer Radu came, the better looking he got, Chad thought hazily, until he focused on Tepes’s expression. That famous face radiated a cold eagerness.
Everything in Chad’s body clenched.
The bloodsucker sat down at the table, trapping Chad between the hull and the undead. Radu crossed his arms and smiled. Chad shrank into his seat behind the dining table.
“Mr. Trask.” Mr. Tepes smiled. It looked like it should reassure him. Somehow, Chad wasn’t reassured. “Your future president needs you.”
“I thought you couldn’t enter someplace you weren’t invited.” Chad tried for bravado, but his teeth chattered at the air of menace. “You’ve never been on the boat before.”
“But I was invited, Mr. Trask. Your father told me I was welcome anywhere, anytime.”
He was in deep shit. Chad cringed.
“What do you want?” His demand came out as a whine.
“I saw you at the conference today.” Radu’s smile grew toothier. “You were in deep conversation with a certain woman.”
“I’d just met her,” Chad lied. “I don’t know anything about her.”
“Don’t fib, Chad. No one likes a fibber.”
Chad’s knees knocked together under the galley’s table. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t find a way to wiggle away.
Radu Tepes leaned forward. “You know the vampire that protects Father Soleil. Bring them both here.”
“I don’t know how to contact her,” Chad answered, too scared to lie.
“Then bring him here. She will follow.”
“Why should I call them? You have more reason than I do.”
He had forgotten how fast vampires moved. A breeze ruffled his hoodie. Then his BlackBerry rested on the table between them. Radu pushed the phone into Chad’s hand. “Be creative. You seem the smart type.”
“No,” Chad repeated. He didn’t know what the other man wanted, but it couldn’t be good.
Radu’s beaming face made Chad’s ass clench even harder.
Chad hung up his cell phone, his sprained wrists shaking.
“Father Soleil is on his way. I’ll just head out now.” He zipped his red sweatshirt up around his newly bruised face and made for the cabin door.
If only his family had docked at the popular Riverfront Marina, he would have been safe. But no. His father insisted on having their own dock downstream on the river. “More private,” he’d often stated proudly. Like privacy was so fantastic. In reality, Chad knew his father had wanted to show off their affluence. Too bad money couldn’t protect him now.
Chad refused to rub his damaged skin as his shaking knees managed to climb the stairs to the top deck. Nearly everyone went their entire lifetime without meeting a vampire. How’d he manage to meet two?
He was nearly out the door when Radu appeared in front of him.
The vampire took his arm as though they were lovers. “I lied,” Radu whispered seductively. “I have another use for you.” Chad landed against the far wall of the main cabin.
Before Chad could breathe again, Radu had slapped duct tape over Chad’s mouth and forced him into the smallest of the cabins. As the door slammed shut, Chad feared he’d never see his family again.
A wave of anger screwed his resolve to the sticking place. That jerk might kill him, but at least Chad would go down swinging.
He rolled on the carpeted floor. Three nights ago, he’d brought Melody to the boat. They’d split a bottle of wine in this very cabin. He’d thrown out the condoms, but the corkscrew should still be …
Yes. Right there, under the bed. He twisted as best he could and tried to reach it with his hands behind his back.
Radu opened the door. “Forget about escaping, child. I can hear you.”
Chad slumped against the bunk.
Radu gave him yet another smile that was supposed to be comforting. The man really needed to work on that, Chad’s panicked mind said.
“Never fear, infant. I won’t kill you. I’ll keep you when this is done.”
Chad groaned against the tape. At least his brain had shut up.
“You’ll love it.” The vampire’s voice deepened, turning his words into an enticement. “No more worry. No doubt. No problems with police. I will take complete care of you. All you have to do is amuse me and supply blood. You will be able to do what you want. My money and influence will guarantee the best parties. The best drugs.”
Chad swallowed.
Radu bent over until Chad thought the vampire would kiss him through the tape.
“I’m going to be president. There are many advantages to being a good friend of the president.” Radu touched Chad’s neck with disturbingly tender fingers.
“You’ll be untouchable. Anything you want, you can have, as long as you give me what I want.”
Chad floated away on the fantasy of Radu’s voice. He could see his future in that rarified world. Anything he wanted, at any time. No responsibilities. As much pussy and booze as he deserved.
“Chad, here try this.”
“Oh, Chad, I just love this shirt on you… .”
“We’d love to have you over, Chad.”
“No problem, Mr. Trask. Please drive carefully.”
Radu’s voice broke into his vision of the life he wanted.
“Think on it, Mr. Trask. I doubt you’ll get a better offer.” Radu left the cabin and locked the door. Through the walls, Chad heard the vampire’s soft footfalls.
“Right on time. You’re mine now, Father Soleil.”
Eyes shut, Chad shuddered. Maybe the price for that promised life was too high.
Lance parked Ilona six blocks away from the Trask home. He and Valerie heard Elvis rocking the jailhouse all the way down the street. The multimillion-dollar mansion splashed light over the entire neighborhood. The singing and chattering shook the sidewalk under Lance and Valerie’s feet.
She frowned as they bypassed the house for the dock. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Good thing you’re my bo
dyguard, then. I heard that nobody is as fast as a vampire.”
“You’ve got another death threat. Don’t be frivolous.” Valerie shook her head as they approached the Trask sailboat. “Boat. More like a yacht,” she muttered.
“You disapprove of luxury?” Lance retorted. His girl who drove an outrageously expensive car?
“That’s different,” she muttered. “Look at this thing.”
It floated in the water, a gleaming blue and white ship fit for a prince.
“My car at least is useful. Let me go first.” Valerie led the way onto the top deck.
Four silver knives flew through the air. Valerie staggered as they pierced her chest. The meaty thuds threw her into the water, blood streaming ribbons into the night.
“Valerie!” Lance dropped to his hands and knees. All he saw was a drifting of dust on the surface of the water.
Before grief could begin its journey through his heart, iron-hard hands threw him onto the deck of a boat. Even as he scrambled his feet underneath him, darkness spiraled through his vision. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Radu Tepes’s famous gleaming white smile.
Chapter 31
Newsflash. Knives hurt. Like Lucifer’s claws plunged into her very flesh.
Silver knives?
Hurt worse.
Writhing in pain, Valerie sank into the frigid water. The toxic metal burned like acid crawling inside her body, preventing her healing ability from mending her shattered collarbone. Her body screamed at every movement as the silver rasped against the raw ends of her bones and muscle.
It wasn’t just dumb luck Radu hit her. He’d always been a superior marksman. And she’d been stupid, thinking he’d listen to her warnings. Thinking that the danger to Lance’s life had passed.
She had to save him.
Her blood gushed into the water as she sank to the bottom. She had to get the damned things out or she would die of silver poisoning in minutes.
And then what would happen to Lance?
She had to get those knives out now.
A wooden chopstick was trapped on the bottom of the lake. She plucked it from the current and shoved it between her teeth. Silver knives hurt, yes.
Getting silver out hurt even more.
The combined taste of pollution, her own blood, and silver nearly made her gag. At least she still had her driving gloves on. Her hands didn’t burn as she grasped one handle.
She bit down on the stick at the feel of the cold metal exiting her fevered flesh. Try as she might, a bubbling groan escaped. Hot pain shot down her arm and through her chest. Long seconds passed as her hands slipped on blood, but finally she pulled the first blade out of her body.
One by one, three more daggers landed on the murky bottom.
Surfacing on the far side of the lake, she spit out the splintered chopstick. Now she had to find Lance.
Pain.
Waking.
Lance rolled over with a grunt. Sticky blood pooled on the rocking deck below him.
“Yoummf okeh?” Chad’s muffled whisper bounced in around Lance’s scrambled brain.
“Chad?” Lance’s neck hurt. His hand came back bright red. He’d been clawed but good.
“Fether?” Chad’s gagged voice cracked.
Lance shoved a pillow from the bunk against his wound. The pressure brought him some respite.
He unzipped his saturated leather jacket. “Ugh.”
Blood poured out of his chest like water flowing from a hot spring. This was wrong. He should have healed any wounds by now.
Chad choked on sobs at the sight.
“I’m coming, Chad,” Lance wheezed. “Hold on.” He grabbed one end of the tape over Chad’s mouth and yanked.
It was too much. Lance passed out.
Where was her lover?
Valerie dragged herself to the other side of the shore. Sopping blood and water, she climbed up the rocky incline to the paved bicycle path. Radu would not escape her wrath. Not this time.
The silver’s paralyzing grip was slowly and painfully shutting down her muscles. Her legs refused to move. Her legs buckled and she landed, face first, on the blacktop. Valerie threw her head back to the cloud-covered moon and snarled.
She clawed forward.
A bicyclist screeched to a halt. “Miss?”
A jogger stopped and reached for her arm. “You okay?”
Another six inches dragged underneath her broken body.
Lights and voices blurred into a spiral around her. “I’ve got a first-aid kit. You call the cops,” the bicyclist ordered the jogger.
Her nails dug into the cold pavement. Four more inches toward Lance. Damn these fitness-crazed Portland people, exercising in the early-evening dark and cold rain.
“She’s a vampire!” The cyclist’s voice seemed very far away.
Oh, give that one a biscuit. Three inches ground against her face. Gravel dug into her cheekbones. Her arms were numb.
“What are you doing?” asked the shocked jogger.
Fresh blood under her nose brought her eyelids up.
“Come on, here, smell it, that’s a good girl.” A familiar voice and gentle hands guided her head toward a bleeding forearm.
As always, Valerie refused to die. Her tongue found the blood and she latched on. Hot apple-laced nourishment filled her mouth, even as her vision went dim.
The top of John Janté’s head nearly blew off as the woman sunk her fangs into his wrist.
The Internet was filled with fantastical descriptions of a vampire’s bite, of the soaring, orgasmic pleasure, of the intimacy and beauty of this infinitely powerful being sucking for its very existence.
In reality, it just hurt. He clenched his jaw even as he gathered her closer, protecting her from the soft rain. “Does anyone have a coat?” he asked against hope. “We need to warm her.” Her soaked clothes would give her pneumonia if he didn’t move fast.
Someone whipped off a fleece jacket and tucked it around the two of them. “I didn’t know that vampires needed that,” the jogger said.
That’s right. Undead. Relief relaxed his shoulders. No problem with normal infections. In response to his mood change, her feeding softened. Once the initial snake-bite feel wore off, the pull of her mouth was not unpleasant. In fact, it was kind of sexy. Her red-stained lips puckered and sucked and a low moan escaped her mouth. For all the world, she sounded like she was enjoying a spectacular meal. How very flattering.
“Is she going to live?” the bicyclist asked.
“I think so.”
He’d known something was wrong the minute the two of them had disappeared down the street. The call stunk of deception, and if John had not frightened Lance off, then his friend would have thought of this.
John shook his head in self-disgust.
The jogger misunderstood his gesture. “Hey, she’ll be okay. Let’s see what’s going on.” He pulled Valerie’s jacket to the side and recoiled. “What the hell happened to her?”
Swollen, livid wounds decorated Valerie’s chest. Hot red-purple lines of deadly contamination radiated around each hole, tracing the pattern of her veins. Through her skin, her collarbone sat at a strange angle.
“Silver, I think,” John answered.
The blood hit her system.
Like a flower closing in slow motion, the infection receded. Her clavicle shifted back into position. Her ribs curved properly again, and the red lines disappeared as they all watched.
“That’s … kind of gross,” the woman said, her voice fascinated.
John’s stomach would have churned, but he felt quite peaceful. Perhaps it had to do with her hand gently caressing his left nipple. Tingles spread down his chest to his groin. All he wanted to do was get her someplace more private.
“She’ll be all right now,” he told the crowd. “You can go.”
“How do you know so much about vampires?” the jogger challenged.
John’s head wobbled back and forth. His neck felt so loose and
comfortable. “Do any of you remember Josephine O’Neill Trudeau?”
“The famous hunter?” the teenager asked.
The vampiress seemingly didn’t hear, but her foot twitched away from John. The woman was riddled with tells.
“She was my great-grandmother. I’m very well informed about vampire habits,” he reassured the teen. He pointed to the now-disappeared lines of infection. “Now that the silver is gone, she will heal.”
Oh, Nana, John thought, if you could see me now, saving the one who saved you.
“Have you lost too much blood?” the motherly woman with the umbrella asked.
“I am fine.” He smiled reassuringly.
Valerie detached from John’s arm and gave a tired thumbs-up. “Thank you for your concern,” she told the people surrounding them. She blinked heavily and rubbed her eyes. The group finally dispersed as she scrambled to her feet.
John asked, “Did you ever meet my nana?”
“No.”
Her pupils constricted. This woman was a terrible liar. Encouraged, he chatted and held her still as she swayed back and forth.
“She said that Dracula himself taught her to kill vampires. He wanted a fair fight when she came for him. Too bad he died before she came for him.”
John could see her calculating the width of the river between themselves and a sailboat moored to the north. The current had carried her south, but not too far. “My great-grandmother was a very strong woman,” he continued conversationally as she knelt and started to draw a diagram in the mud.
“You telling me this for a reason?” she snapped. “I’m working.”
“Just that I have a familial weakness for strong, dangerous women.” He winked at her, just to see what would happen.
Her eyes widened before she narrowed them again.
“You should have a familial weakness for killing my kind.” Her gaze wandered around his face, flickering to the air around him.
“Oh, no. Nana knew the time for vengeance had passed.” John glanced at the river. “You’ll need a take-off velocity of—”
“You can do that in your head?” she interrupted.
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