Seducing Death

by Cassandra Lawson

  “Then they picked a funny place to live,” Zane said.

  “That’s what I thought,” Danny agreed. “Their argument about not having any other options makes sense, but something feels off about the whole thing. Maybe I’m overreacting.”

  Zane put a hand on Danny’s shoulder to stop him, and Danny turned to meet Zane’s overly serious gaze. “Trust your instincts. Many times, they’re what keep you alive.”

  Danny sure hoped his instincts were wrong.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “It’s too fucking cold,” Ian muttered as he stepped out of the jeep near one of the more remote human settlements.

  Simon laughed. “Cold? Sure, it’s cooled down some in the last month, but I’m still uncomfortably warm in my Kevlar vest. Where have you been that this is cold?”

  Simon was right. While it was windy and a little overcast, it wasn’t really cold for this area. Ian had gotten used to the comfortably warm beach in Kyleigh’s realm. “The place where Kyleigh stays is warmer than this,” he explained.

  “And you aren’t going to tell me anything about it,” Simon finished for him.

  “I would if I could,” Ian said. Kyleigh hadn’t exactly said he couldn’t talk about her realm, but she didn’t have to. For him, it was like someone wondering if they should set themselves on fire or not, just because no one had said they shouldn’t. The Fae were not creatures you messed with, and he was already doing that by hanging around here. Why give them more reasons to be angry with Kyleigh?

  “Let me know if we need to stop so you can talk to any of the trees,” Simon said.

  “Very funny,” Ian replied dryly. “As you may recall, my information was pretty helpful yesterday.”

  “I’m not saying the trees don’t give you good tips,” Simon insisted. “You have to admit that if the situation were reversed, you’d be messing with me.”

  “You’re right,” Ian said, “and I’m really hoping we don’t find anything like we did yesterday.”

  Simon shuddered. “Yeah, hell of a first day back on patrol for you.”

  “I’m thinking about burning those clothes,” Ian admitted. They were down in his laundry room, and he wasn’t looking forward to dealing with them any time soon.

  “Connor should have an incinerator we can drop our clothes in on days like that,” Simon added.”Of course, he’d never agree to anything that wasteful.”

  “Don’t ever tell him I said this, but I like the fact that Connor is so big on protecting our resources,” Ian said. “Supplies aren’t nearly as hard to come by as they were fifty years ago, and some people have forgotten those tougher times. Connor not only remembers them, he realizes we could lose our imports if things go wrong.”

  “True. Con is smart when it comes to that sort of stuff,” Simon admitted. “I’m still tempted to suggest the incinerator, just to watch his reaction. It would be funny as hell.”

  Ian laughed. They’d finished changing out the jeep battery and were walking along the narrow path to the small human settlement. These humans were at least friendly to vampires. That’s why only the two of them were out here. As much as Ian hated to admit it, the humans on their team were pretty useful when dealing with the more skittish human settlements. Many who lived away from the vampire settlement did so because they didn’t want to live with vampires. That meant a lot of them were terrified of any vampires, and some didn’t see the difference between born and turned vampires. There were a few settlements, like the one they were visiting today, that wanted to avoid technology. They were kind of crazy but not dangerous.

  Two humans, a man and woman, rushed toward them. “You have no idea how glad we are to see you,” the woman said in a voice teetering on the edge of hysteria.

  “What’s going on?” Simon asked, immediately on alert.

  “Some people showed up here, throwing around threats and trying to make us all go with them,” the woman explained. “They said we were betraying our kind if we didn’t band together against you.”

  “We thought they were all humans at first,” the man added. “I started to have a bad feeling when I noticed some of them had fangs. It didn’t make sense that vampires would say we’d betrayed our own kind.”

  “Some just stood there like statues, only moving when they were told,” the woman added.

  “Did they take anyone?” Ian asked. In most human settlements, the answer would be obvious, but these humans were pretty resourceful.

  “No,” the man said. “They managed to kill a couple of people who were fighting them off.”

  “The traps caught some of them,” the woman said. “We left them there, hoping you’d come soon.”

  Ian smiled. The bastards probably hadn’t expected problems with this settlement. These people came across as weak and unprotected, but the entire place was rigged with traps and places to hide. Still, the humans were in more danger now that Roger’s people knew what to expect.

  “I hate to say it, but I think you’ll need to come back with us for your own safety,” Simon said.

  “We’re not idiots,” the man snapped. “We’ve been packing everything up and waiting for you to arrive.”

  There were about forty people to transport, so Simon grabbed his phone and sent out the messages to arrange for jeeps and a transport bus.

  “You know what’s bothering me most right now?” Ian asked.

  “I’m pretty sure I can guess, but why don’t you tell me anyway,” Simon said.

  “All of a sudden, these assholes seem to know where all the human settlements in the area are. The ones they’re hitting now are too remote for them to have just come across by accident. They must be getting out here using jeeps they stole from Treasure Island, but how the hell do they know where to go? This can’t be dumb luck. I’m guessing they knew where to find the settlements before they stole the jeeps.”

  “Well, I guess it’s time to check those traps,” Simon said with a determined look in his eyes.

  That was one of the reasons Ian had always liked working with Simon; neither of them were squeamish when it came to getting information. At the same time, neither of them took any joy in the process when it turned ugly. Sure, Ian could play the part of sadistic bastard when he had to, but he’d never really enjoyed it.

  “Hopefully, we can get some answers before the transport jeeps show up,” Ian said as they walked over to where the humans had said the traps would be. “I’m worried that if we wait much longer they’ll be too mindless to give us anything. Of course, this is assuming any of them have heartbeats.”

  “Maybe we should go back to get the cooler of blood,” Simon said thoughtfully.

  Ian shook his head. “Let’s see what condition they’re in first. Some might already be too far gone.”

  Ian was actually pretty impressed with what the humans had set up. They didn’t have a lot of supplies, and everything was made by hand. There were some turned vampires trapped in deep holes in the ground. A few were hanging from trees, snarling like wild animals. Pulling out two throwing knives, Ian looked over at Simon.

  “May as well check the vampires in the trees first,” he said.

  “From the looks of it, we aren’t going to get much from these ones. They’ve been without blood too long,” Simon said.

  “Let’s see if we can get in close enough to check for pulses anyway.” The sound of footsteps on dry leaves put them both on alert because the movement wasn’t coming from the direction of the settlement.

  Simon let out a long suffering sigh. “There are at least two shifters heading this way.”

  Ian raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “I’ve been spending so much time around shifters, I can pick up their scent,” Simon explained.

  Sure enough, two of them glided out of the woods, one Ian immediately recognized as Zane. That shifter struck him as a major pain in the ass, and they didn’t need any more problems. The other shifter looked pretty similar to Zane, and Ian wouldn’t be surprised if they
were related.

  “You hunting, vampire?” the one Ian didn’t know asked with a cocky grin, leading Ian to the conclusion that he was probably a pain in the ass too.

  Simon ignored the question and gestured to the strange shifter. “That’s Cam, and you’ve already met Zane. They’re brothers.”

  Ian nodded, trying hard to ignore the fact that both shifters were naked.

  “That’s the one who’s fucking the Death Fae,” Zane said to Cam.

  “Why the hell would you want to do something like that?” Cam asked. “Are you suicidal?”

  “Don’t call her that,” Ian growled.

  “Zane is just trying to start trouble,” Simon said. “What are you two doing out here?”

  “We’re hunting,” Zane replied. “You must have noticed by now that the lynx likes to get out for a good run and kill.”

  Simon nodded. “Yeah, I have trouble keeping up with Layla some days.”

  “The little kit could always hunt with us,” Cam offered.

  “Hell no,” Simon shot back. “Listen, we really need to find out if any of these vampires still have beating hearts and question the ones that do quickly.”

  “Can you tell if the vampire’s hearts are beating by their scent?” Ian asked the shifters. From what he’d been told, the shifters could tell the difference between born and turned vampires, but he didn’t know if they could tell the difference between the various types of turned vampires.

  “Sure,” Zane said.

  He and Cam walked around the vampires hanging from the trees.

  “No heartbeats here,” Cam said. “What now?”

  “We’re going to put these vamps out of their misery. There are some holes with vampires in them too. Can you check out the others?”

  “That’s it?” Zane asked, sounding indignant. “You just want us to sniff a bunch of vampires?”

  Simon glared at Zane until he grinned. “Fine, we’ll go sniff the other vampires.”

  “How is it that we didn’t run into shifters before?” Ian asked. “It feels like every time I turn around, Zane is there.”

  “I’m sure we ran into them before but didn’t know what they were,” Simon said. “We likely didn’t run into them often because shifters avoid contact with other species as much as possible. If it weren’t for Layla, they wouldn’t seek us out now.”

  Ian nodded and went to work putting knives through the hearts of the turned vampires and cutting them down. They’d already learned that once the heart stopped beating, there was no reason to question them. By that point, they were pretty much programmed to respond a certain way and no longer had any mind of their own.

  There were six vampires, so it only took them a few minutes. Then they headed over to the pits and found Cam on his stomach with his head over the edge of one.

  “Hey there, sweetheart,” Cam said.

  The muffled female curses coming from the pit didn’t sound like what they normally heard from turned vampires.

  Cam stood and jumped into the pit. “Now, that’s not a very nice thing to say,” he crooned, grinning at the female in front of him.

  The vampire’s black hair was cut extremely short, accentuating her sharp facial features. Ian had to give the woman credit; she wasn’t showing any sign of fear.

  “Get me out of this hole,” she snarled.

  Cam chuckled. “You’d rather go up there?” he asked. “They aren’t going to be nearly as friendly as I am.”

  “Knock it off, Cam,” Simon said. “We need to question her quickly.”

  Connor would likely be there soon, and if they hadn’t been ignoring his messages, they’d have heard that they should stay away from the turned vampires until he got there. Given Ian’s past behavior, he could understand why Connor would be apprehensive about Ian being involved with only Simon to supervise him. Ignoring the messages was the best way to avoid disregarding an order from Connor. Later, Ian was pretty sure he’d laugh at his own childish logic.

  “I got two more alive,” Zane said. “Maybe you should question them while Cam talks to the female.”

  “I’m not going to leave Cam down there to harass her,” Ian said, surprising even himself. Yeah, he might not like the turned vampires, but Mitchell had made him much more tolerant of the ones who were still alive. Not all of them went into this willingly.

  “He won’t hurt her,” Zane said.

  Cam laughed from the pit, and Ian looked over to see him barely avoid being stabbed in the heart. Cam’s hand shot forward as he deftly took the knife and tossed it out of the pit. They all scrambled out of the way to avoid being hit with the flying knife.

  “Ah, sweetheart,” Cam said eagerly. “I love a woman with spunk.”

  “Fine,” Ian said, “but if he gets killed, it’s his own damn fault.”

  Zane led them over to a pit where a male vampire sat curled up in a ball in the corner. It was actually kind of a strange scene because the man was huge, yet there he sat, knees against his chest and face buried in his knees.

  “What’s your name?” Simon asked.

  The man didn’t answer.

  “If you help us, we can help you,” Ian said, but the man still didn’t respond or move. “Do you need blood?”

  That question was met with silence.

  “Let’s check out the other one first,” Ian suggested. “This guy is obviously going to take more effort.”

  “Fucking bastard!” the female screamed, drawing Ian’s attention back to the pit Cam was in.

  Zane was grinning. “Sounds like she’s really warming up to Cam.”

  “Are you sure he won’t hurt her?” Ian asked. Even when he’d been at his worst, Ian wasn’t bastard enough to overlook rape.

  “Not unless she asks him to,” Simon said.

  Ian’s brows went up in question.

  “Shifters like it kind of rough, but they like willing partners,” Simon explained.

  “Yeah,” Zane agreed. “We like ‘em clawing and biting while they beg us to do the same.”

  “I’m suddenly very sorry I asked that question,” Ian muttered.

  In the last pit, they found a young vampire, probably not much older than Mitchell. His blue eyes stared up at them defiantly.

  “Care to tell us how you knew where this settlement was?” Ian asked.

  “I became the thing I hate most to destroy you,” the boy said. “Why would I help you now?”

  “Because we can help you,” Simon said calmly. “Whatever you were told about us is a lie. Answer our questions and we’ll help you.”

  “Fuck you,” the boy said before putting the knife into his own heart.

  “Dammit!” Ian shouted. “We should have pulled him out of the pit first.”

  “You saw the look in his eyes,” Simon said. “He wasn’t going to give us any information.”

  Ian wanted to argue because he was just a kid. How could they sit there and watch a kid die without doing anything to prevent it. “Let’s go pull the other vampires out before it’s too late,” Ian said. “Maybe you’re right about it not doing us any good, but we need to try.”

  They approached the pit with the other male vampire, and Zane sniffed the air. “It’s already too late. Guess he killed himself while we were talking to the younger one.”

  Ian cursed under his breath and ran a hand through his hair.

  “Why is this bothering you so much?” Simon asked, studying him closely. “You’ve never been squeamish about this sort of thing. I get that you might be worried we’ll find more like Mitchell, but I can tell you that’s not likely. I’ve met more than a few with beating hearts since that asshole, Roger held me captive. Most of the ones with beating hearts are that way because they were chosen, and the reason they were chosen has to do with them being filled with hate.”

  Ian nodded. “You’re right. I guess we should go over and see how Cam’s doing with the female.” He still didn’t completely agree with Simon’s logic, but now wasn’t the time for Ian to
probe his new found conscience.

  Ian could hear the female’s curses and threats the entire time he was talking to Simon, so he knew she was still alive, and guessed Cam was too since she was still insulting him. Beside the pit, there was an impressive pile of weapons.

  Then it suddenly got quiet, and Ian panicked as he hurried to the edge of the pit. When they got there, the vampire’s legs were wrapped around Cam’s hips, and her fangs were in his throat. Zane looked in and grinned. Ian figured that was proof that Zane was an idiot. Why the hell else would he be smiling while Cam was being attacked by a vampire.

  “Cam!” Simon shouted. “This is not the time for that. Help us get her out of there.”

  The vampire pulled her fangs out of Cam’s throat and snarled.

  Cam chuckled. “Easy now,” he said and patted her ass. “They just want to ask you a few questions.”

  “I have no intention of helping killers like them,” she spat out before moving away from Cam.

  “Killers?” Simon asked. “Now, that’s kind of funny coming from you.”

  “I only kill because I have to,” she insisted. “This is a war. Do you think any of us would have become vampires if we weren’t trying to protect the humans from extinction?”

  “Extinction?” Ian asked. “You think we want the human race to go extinct? Who the hell told you those lies?”

  “Roger,” Simon said. “I’m right, aren’t I? He’s got you convinced you’re doing the right thing, but you don’t even know half the story.”

  “I know vampires killed my parents,” she insisted. “Roger is trying to keep his people safe any way he can.”

  Ian heard the doubt in her voice when she talked about Roger. She obviously didn’t completely trust him. “How is he keeping humans safe? By kidnapping them? What do you think happens to those humans who are made into vampires with no heartbeats?”

  “That rarely happens, and everyone knows the risks when they volunteer to be infected with the new virus,” she insisted.

  “You don’t really believe that, do you?” Cam asked from behind her.

  She turned, looking truly startled. “Of course, I believe it!”