Me and You and a Ghost Named Boo

by Selene Charles

  I’d gotten out of worse scrapes. I just had to keep my wits and not let Cole’s thrall consume me.

  The Master vampire looked grimly amused by my behavior, as if he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or choke me. His hand kept clenching, opening and shutting.

  “And so I should kill you now?” The silkiness of his words belied the threat.

  I purred. If he was going to thrall me, the least I could do was make a show of it. I knew where my charms lay—in my allure. That was how I drew so many to me. I was Et Prochrae, and forbidden fruit was always the sweetest.

  Coyly, I ran a finger across the swells of my breasts, moving them slowly, so as to catch his eye and make him want.

  An approving rumble rolled through Cole’s vocal cords, sounding like a mix between a growl and a large cat’s purr.

  “What say you, Luc? Hmm?” Cole leaned back, gliding his hand up and over his lover’s as his finger idly stroked an engorged vein on the back of it. “Should we keep her?”

  “She killed Juliet.” Luc’s entire face scrunched into a furious snarl. “She deserves to die just like the dog she brought with her.”

  “Tsk, tsk.” Cole stood, moving with the ease and grace of someone confident in his own skin.

  The man was nowhere near as gorgeous as my Mercer, yet I had to fight to keep from moaning at the raw sexuality and sensuality he was exuding from every single pore. The way he moved, the way he spoke, the way he looked at me... It all felt like sex—wild, dirty, a little raw and a whole lot nasty kind of sex. No wonder Luc was so damn jealous.

  Twirling on Luc, Cole brushed down his jacket as if casually dusting off lint though Cole was as immaculate in dress as he was in appearance. Not a hair was out of place, his bone structure was the stuff of legend and had no doubt made many a master artist weep to replicate it. Cole’s gaze when he looked upon his man was fire and brimstone, though.

  “You sound positively jealous, lover,” Cole purred.

  Luc stiffened, eyes wide, lips pinched, staring at Cole with unabashed terror.

  Even I was shocked by the sudden change in temperature. The air felt tight and charged like the night just before a lightning storm.

  I wet my lips.

  “Though I suppose I should kill her. She did, after all, kill my cousin. Non?”

  I recognized the French form of no and shivered, wondering how the hell I could still find him so damn sexy even when I was pretty sure heads were about to start rolling.

  Possibly even my own.

  As if he’d heard my thought, Cole glanced over his shoulder at me and smirked, cocking his head with the elegant grace of a cobra, deadly but beautiful. “Reparations must be made. You do understand, Scarlett Smith? I cannot allow this act to go unpunished.”

  Now. Now was the time I fought. Now was the time I became brave.

  Ignoring the panic clawing at my insides, I stood to shaky feet and lifted a hand, pointing my finger at Luc. “Then punish the one who started it all.”

  A chuffing noise spilled off Luc’s tongue. “Lies.”

  I’d expected Cole to be the one to utter that word, expected to see his eyes light with rage, expected to see him turn on his heel, head for me, and end me before I could even take my next breath.

  I wasn’t the one he grabbed by the neck, though, choking so hard that gurgling, gasping noises spilled off Luc’s tongue as he was lifted off his heels. I wasn’t the one whose face turned bone white. I wasn’t the one whose fingers scrabbled pitifully at Cole’s hands, trying in vain to rip them off his throat.

  Cole’s smile was radiant. “I see you are just as bright as I believed you to be, mon petite chou.”

  I curled my nose, not having a clue what he’d just called me but not wanting to be his little anything. Luc’s gurgling sounds were terrible to hear, making me shiver and shake.

  With a sigh, Cole moved elegantly back a step, dragging Luc with him before forcing him to sit in the seat he’d just vacated. My breathing hitched at the sight of Luc’s eyes beginning to bulge from his sockets. Capillaries had burst inside them, painting them in spiderwebs of deepest and brightest black.

  “Do you know why I punish him, Scarlett Smith?”

  I wanted to scream at Cole, to tell him not to fucking call me that as though he owned me, as though I was his, caressing the vowels of my name like a lover’s touch, igniting the blood in my veins and making it hard for me to think.

  Goddamn it, I hated vampires.

  I said nothing, and his sexy grin only broadened.

  “Because I knew, you see. Though I had no proof. Until now.”

  Luc’s struggles increased. Choking a vampire wasn’t going to kill him. It was just torture. We didn’t actually have to breathe, but that didn’t mean being choked didn’t hurt like a sonofabitch because it did.

  I wet my lips. “What... what proof?”

  “Well, you, you see.” His words were silky soft, slicing through me like a sharpened blade, making me tremble.

  Luc’s legs twitched violently, and finally, some of that steely calm cracked. Cole snarled and moved in a blur of chaos and colors behind his lover’s back. His grip on Luc’s throat never slacked, but his other hand pressed tight to Luc’s chest, right above the spot of his heart, claws extended and at the ready.

  I felt movement at my back.

  Cole shook his head. “Non,” he snapped to the guards, who I could only assume had been ready to come inside and aid him.

  The movement ceased.

  I didn’t need to ask Cole what he meant because I knew. The moment I’d stolen the memory from Luc he’d quickly run away, like a heeled little bitch, to tattle to his master. I knew Cole knew my secret. I raised my chin a notch.

  “I do like you, Scarlett. Muchly. Now, you are going to work for me.”

  Like hell.

  He smirked, and I stiffened.

  “Sorry, love, but you don’t have a choice. As we both know,” he said silkily, “Luc is right. We do have your dog caged. Though I vow to release him if you honor our deal.”

  I almost laughed. What fucking deal? I’d never made a damn deal with him, but he had my Mercer, and I could never, never allow harm to come to him, not if I could help it.

  “What deal?” I finally forced the words out.

  “Proof that Juliet and Cole conspired behind my back to bring me down.”

  I sniffed. “And how am I supposed to do that?” Just because I could see the memories didn’t mean he would, and I doubted he’d just trust my word.

  “Juliet was a shield, you see,” he said, voice calm and decadent again.

  One of Luc’s eyes had almost fully popped out. Bile rose up my throat.

  “What she did not want you to see, you wouldn’t. She was a master in her own right, and I could not crack her. More than that, she could share her gifts with others. As she often did. Many years ago, she and Luc became lovers, too.”

  A sound like a muffled scream crawled out of Luc’s throat, and he twitched, but Cole only tightened his grip. Blood had begun to seep like sweat from Luc’s pores.

  “They thought I didn’t know,” Cole pressed on as though he didn’t notice he was slowly making mincemeat of the man, “but her mark leaves a lingering trace of scent. Oh, I knew, Luc. And I allowed the farce to continue, maybe out of boredom, maybe out of curiosity, I don’t know. But I needed to see how loyal you were to me, and what I discovered was... you weren’t at all, my love. Shh, shh, shh...” he murmured when Luc began struggling harder.

  Cole leaned down and tenderly licked the blood off Luc’s temple. The act might have been called loving if it weren’t for the fact that he was killing the poor bastard right before my eyes.

  Any attraction I’d once felt for the vampire vanished like a moth’s wings in flames. The man was a psycho. Then again, he was exactly what I’d expected, too.

  A look of sublime ecstasy kissed his features, and I shook my head. What he had done wasn’t only taboo, it was forbidden. We were not
cannibals. Not many laws governed the vampires, but one did exist. We never drank from our own. The agony of it would be excruciating.

  My stomach flipped.

  Luc’s shoulders heaved with silent sobs as Cole continued to flick his tongue down his cheek in long, slow, deliberate strokes.

  Blue eyes turned toward mine. Cole was getting off on Luc’s suffering and my disgust.

  “You see,” Cole’s voice had taken on a husky tenor, “I allowed it all.”

  My nostrils flared, and the smell of Luc’s blood—that mineral copper scent made my throat squeeze with thirst—had me clenching my palms, digging my nails into the soft meat and leaving crescent-moon shapes behind. If Cole was a monster, what did that make me?

  My blood hummed even as bile crawled up the back of my tongue.

  “And you, Scarlett Smith, the freed vampire caught in the crosshairs of a lovers’ spat, you would have taken the fall. I would have killed you.”

  Luc jerked, beginning to spasm violently as Cole’s grip intensified. A second later, the second eyeball popped out.

  I squeezed my own eyes shut, looking away, unable to bear the sight of his torture another minute. “Luc said—”

  Cole’s laugh was robust, hearty, and sexy. “Yes, I’m sure he would love nothing more than for me to end you. A nice and easy way to wipe away all traces of his culpability. For you’re the last to know, aren’t you? You saw.”

  I bit down on my molars. He wasn’t asking a question, so I had nothing to say.

  He chuckled. “Luc. Luc. My beautiful idiot. You sealed your own fate when you told me she was an empath.”

  Telling myself not to look at them, I looked anyway. Cole was leaning over Luc, his mouth hovering like butterfly wings over the blue-tinted lips of his lover.

  Bloody tears dripped unchecked down Luc’s cheeks.

  Cole’s look was disappointment mingled with disinterest—mostly disinterest. It was in the set of his shoulders and the way he looked at his lover with a blank, empty stare, like a mother walking into a child’s room, noting the mess, and thinking, “same ol’ same ol’” before turning and walking back out.

  Luc’s hands went from pulling at Cole’s to wrapping tightly around his wrists as his jaw trembled, a man desperately fighting to hang on and make his mate remember, make him love him again.

  The scene was shattering, and I had to turn away again.

  From the corner of my eye, I spied the guards moving in closer. Was what Cole was doing wrong? Would he be punished by his house for torturing his lover? Somehow, I didn’t think so.

  That made it seem so, so much worse to me.

  Mercer, where are you? I knew he wouldn’t hear me, yet I clung to the golden thread of hope inside of me that said he still lived. Wherever he was, he still lived.

  “Scarlett Smith,” Cole said, voice totally bored, “and so now we come to the purpose of your being here tonight. You see, a freed vampire in my territory... It is not to be tolerated. It is a slap in my face, honestly. I was going to kill you. Now, I’m not.”

  My chuckle was reed thin and high-strung. “Oh yeah, and what are you planning to do with me, exactly?”

  “Well, my dear. As a master vampire, I am not without my own... talents, if you will. You will take my hand as you read Luc’s life and share his memories with me. Once I see what I know will be there, I will kill him.”

  A heart-wrenched cry curled from Luc’s chest. My throat squeezed.

  “All of it legal now. Must do things the proper way.” Cole grinned at me as though I was his prized pupil.

  Dammit it all to hell, but my body instinctively reacted to him. My skin shivered, and my toes itched to walk closer to him, to fall on my knees in worship and beg him to end the madness he’d built inside me.

  Instantly, the image of Mercer’s face flooded my mind. That’s when I realized I’d been walking toward him, halfway to his side already. I stopped, foot midstep, glaring hotly at his grinning countenance.

  “You’re quite strong,” he said as though he liked it.

  “And you’re a fucking bastard,” I hissed, lowering my chin.

  Cole’s laugh was exactly like Vincent Price’s. I swallowed compulsively.

  “I must admit, it’s been ages since anyone has dared to speak to me as you do.”

  I scoffed, not even bothering to hide my revulsion.

  “I like it.”

  My answer was the bird, which, rather than pissing him off as I’d hoped—because I could’ve fucking dealt with a fight right about then—only made him laugh harder.

  That sensuous, macabre sound pulled things down low in me, making me pant like a bitch in heat even as I wanted to ram my fist through his chest and rip out his heart.

  “Now come here,” he said, all traces of laughter gone.

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Then you should know,” he said softly, sensuously, “that your pet is even now chained in iron. He’s been given a... cocktail.”

  “What the fuck did you do to him!” I screamed.

  Immediately, the guards, which had been silent, flanked all around us, death staring down on me from all sides.

  My body shook. My legs felt like blocks of cinder.

  Cole gave a slight shake of his head, but he had one brow lifted and was studying me as though he’d not looked at me before. No longer teasing, he just showed curiosity. “Moon fever—ever heard of it?”

  Don’t react. Don’t scream. Don’t pounce on him, and don’t bash his brains in. The words repeated ad nauseum in my head even as I tried to ignore the churning fear whipping me into a frenzy.

  Oh God, oh God, oh God. I tried not to shake, but I lost. The muscles in my body snapped and popped like Mexican jumping beans. If they’d done what I thought they had, Mercer would be mindless with rage. The man would be completely consumed by the beast.

  He’d be just like Clarence—mindless, rage-filled madness. He would kill anything and everything that came at him, even including Steven if he’d been near. He wouldn’t think about anything other than his need for carnage and chaos.

  Cole smirked. “I see the cogs in your head spinning. Know this, beautiful girl: the effects are temporary. They’ll only last through the night.”

  “We were supposed to be safe. You broke the—”

  He held up a hand. “Oh, he’s quite safe, I assure you. No harm will come to your pet.”

  “He’s not my goddamn pet!” I snapped, grabbing the bridge of my nose and rubbing furiously. “He’s my friend.”

  Cole looked as though he wanted to laugh and he couldn’t believe me. Instead, he shrugged. “As you say, love.”

  My lashes fluttered. I wanted to kill him, wanted to end him, but I wasn’t strong enough. I knew that. Only another master could kill him, and only if he or she was stronger. I wasn’t that. I was a newborn. I was...

  The darkness slithered.

  My heart froze.

  No.

  No.

  I couldn’t. Not there. I couldn’t tap into that... that thing, whatever it was. I couldn’t. I didn’t even know what it was I was tapping into. Every time I used it, I felt twisted and wrong, as though it were changing me, remaking me into something... someone else.

  “But you will swear fealty to me,” Cole continued, oblivious to the thoughts in my head.

  “I’d rather die first.”

  After swirling a finger down the thick, viscous red of blood bathing his lover’s face, Cole then brought it to his lips and sucked on it greedily.

  He was trying to intimidate me, trying to increase my panic, my tension, and dammit, that was working. I couldn’t let him know that, though, couldn’t let him see just how off I felt and how hard it was to focus on something other than the desecration taking place before me.

  “If you want your pet freed, then I don’t see as how you have a choice, Scarlett Smith.”

  “Plus one.” I could barely get the words out. “Fuck me,” I hissed, realizing just why
they’d been “benevolent” enough to grant me a plus one. I’d exposed my weakness to them long before I’d even shown up.

  “Yes, rather brilliant of me, I’d say. I was rather disappointed when I learned you’d brought a dog, but seeing you two together, I do believe he’s your weakness, is he not?”

  His words were soft, coaxing... a lover’s glide over my flesh, but I wanted to puke, wanted to drop to my knees and retch as Blue’s words came back to haunt me. “Never show them your weakness.”

  I’d brought my weakness with me. The only thing that could hurt me, the only thing that could still wound me... That was Mercer.

  That had only ever been Mercer.

  “So,” he sounded bored, “what will it be? Fealty? Or the death of your—”

  “Stop!” I gasped, holding up a hand. “Stop. Please, stop.” My voice cracked.

  His lips twitched. “Get on your knees.”

  I’d never considered myself a prideful person, but glancing around the room and feeling those eyes on me—censorious, hateful eyes—I would have rather swallowed a bucketful of forge-flamed steel than do that.

  Cole glared down at me in challenge.

  With jaw trembling, I dropped first to one knee and then the other. My heart burned with the knowledge that no matter how long it took, I would kill him someday. I would end him. I would hurt him.

  Sadistic glee curled his full lips. “Now, come here, flea whore.”

  Clamping down on my tongue, I choked on my pride. I would never swear fealty to that bastard, but he didn’t need to know that. All I needed to do was make sure Mercer got out of there alive. After that, I’d do whatever I had to, even if that meant signing my own death to get it done, but not before I took the asshole down to Hell with me.

  I crawled toward him, keeping my chin held high. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words could never harm me. The children’s rhyme echoed in my head. He would not break me, no matter how much he tried.

  His nostrils flared, and threads of darkest red rolled through his eyes. Slamming his claw-tipped nails into the back of Luc’s hand, he lifted it to me. Luc whimpered but no longer fought.