On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  “Yeah, Father’s really in the know-how. Here, catch.” He threw one bottle after another at me, until I had about ten.

  I struggled to pop them into the pockets of my denim jacket.

  “Now you can go,” Oren called, leaning against the doorway. “Be careful out there, okay? You’ve never gone up against vampires before.”

  “I’m not going up against anyone. I just want to get Ebony back.”

  “Vampires don’t give back what they believe is theirs,” Oren said.

  “He’s right. If I couldn’t find her last night, someone’s already claimed her as theirs.” A muscle twitched in Conrad’s jaw. “C’mon, I’m getting pissed off just talking about it.”

  “I’m getting pissed off wondering how you could let this happen!” was what I wanted to say, but held my tongue. I couldn’t waste any energy arguing with Vamp Boy right now, especially since I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Oren might be annoying at pointing out the obvious, but he was right. I’d never even seen a vampire, yet was now prepared to go against one—or more—if it meant getting Eb out of trouble.

  Conrad turned towards the front door, unlocked and opened it. A gust of cool air rushed inside, making my skin cold.

  Papan took my hand after I’d grabbed my keys. I decided to leave my phone, because the last thing I needed was to get a call in the middle of whatever we were about to face. Besides, I didn’t want to deal with Gareth right now. I couldn’t handle another problem. Why couldn’t life push one bad thing in my path after I sorted the one before it, instead of shoving everything in my way?

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Papan asked, tugging on my hand to stop me before I could follow Conrad.

  I nodded, meeting his eyes. “You know, I—we—have no choice.” The last time I tried to leave him out of my plan to save Ebony, he’d gotten upset with me. “She’s my friend. She might not think she needs me at the moment but that’s not going to stop me. I won’t let her be consumed by the hopelessness I helped her get into.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Papan whispered. “None of this is your fault, but I’m going to do whatever I can to help.”

  Conrad poked his head back in and said, “He’s right, y’know? It’s not your fault, but I appreciate your help.”

  I waved at Oren as he approached. “See you later.”

  Papan and I stepped out onto the porch, but didn’t move until Oren closed and locked the door behind us. I didn’t even take a deep breath until I was satisfied he and Willow were safe behind closed doors.

  “Who’s that new chick in your house?” Conrad asked.

  “That’s my sister,” I answered, heading for my whale of a car.

  Chapter Ten

  Conrad punched the scrawny vampire in the stomach hard enough to make him groan and fall to his knees on the filthy pavement. The vampire hunter wasn’t done yet—he kicked him in the ribs, sending the vampire headfirst into the concrete.

  I was spending way too much time in back alley nowadays and it had to stop.

  “Maybe you should give him a chance to talk,” Papan suggested, moving a little closer to me. “If you beat him to death, we won’t find out anything.”

  “And maybe you should leave the vampire dealings to me, Wolf.” Conrad glared at Papan for just a second before kicking the downed vamp a few more times.

  The male vampire rolled over onto his back, clutching his midsection and closing his eyes. One of his fangs peeked out the side of his mouth, the other one was missing. It was somewhere in this alley, since Conrad had smashed it off with his steel-toed boots.

  “Where is she?” he growled.

  “I told you. I haven’t seen her for…a few days,” the nameless vampire answered, blood dribbling out the side of his mouth. “You didn’t have to break my fang.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t break anything else!” Conrad stepped closer. “Now, tell me where she is. Or I swear I will fucking kill you right here.”

  “I don’t—”

  Conrad crouched, grabbed a handful of the vampire’s long hair and twisted it around his hand, forcibly raising the vamp’s head off the ground. The terrified bloodsucker groaned in pain, tears sliding down the sides of his face.

  I tried not to squirm at the sheer violence of this situation and it took just about every ounce of willpower I had to stay rooted to the spot, but I had to trust Conrad knew how to deal with this. Vampires were his gig, and if he felt he needed to exert this much force then I wasn’t about to oppose him. We both wanted the same results—to find Ebony.

  “Please, Rad, stop…” The man licked his lips. “I didn’t hurt your girl.”

  “But you had a taste of her, didn’t you?” He tightened his grip until the man finally nodded. “I thought I told you I didn’t want your filthy mouth anywhere near her!”

  “She didn’t oppose it. I’m just one of many.” The vampire’s voice trailed off when Conrad shoved his head against the concrete.

  Papan stepped closer. “Whoa, calm down.”

  “I told you to stay out of it,” Conrad said through gritted teeth.

  Papan’s shoulders tensed. I dragged him back before he took another step. No point in letting Papan get in the way of whatever the hell Conrad was stirring up.

  “I think you need a more forceful reminder.” Conrad yanked one of the pointy wooden stakes from his bandolier and held it above the man’s chest. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Where’s Ebony, you asshole?”

  “No, please…I don’t—”

  He smacked the man’s cheek with the blunt end of the stake a few times. “Answer my question and I’ll let you go.”

  “Please, I don’t want to die.” Several splinters stuck to the vampire’s face.

  “Then tell me where she is,” Conrad spat.

  “The last I heard, she was in Stock.”

  Conrad’s features darkened. “Are you sure?”

  “That’s where I saw her. That’s where I took a…a sip from her.”

  “Who was she with?” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and for the first time since we’d cornered this vampire, Conrad looked worried.

  “She was with the owner.”

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”

  The vampire flashed his one remaining fang at me. This was the first time I’d actually seen a vampire outside a TV show or movie, and it was as disappointing as it was freaky. Conrad was man-handling this guy. I’d always imagined bloodsuckers to be scarier, tougher.

  “No, I’m not,” the vampire said. “She seemed pretty chummy with Cam.”

  “Who’s Cam?” I asked.

  “That’s not important,” Conrad said with a shake of his head. “What’s important is that I now know where she is and what we’re dealing with.”

  “I hope you’re right this time.” He’d been saying the same thing for the last hour. Yet we’d popped into three different vampire clubs and there hadn’t been any sign of her. No one knew anything, or pretended they didn’t. Well, except for the guy we had cornered now—who had decided to run off at the mere mention of Ebony. We’d given chase so he hadn’t gone far before Papan caught him.

  “Can I go now, man?”

  Conrad narrowed his eyes, still crouched low and ready to strike. “Did you enjoy drinking from her?”

  He looked almost crazed as he shook his head wildly. “Come on, Rad, you know I can’t help myself with pretty young things.”

  Conrad laughed, and it sounded nasty and cold as it echoed around us. “You’re one of Cam’s boys. If he had his eye on Eb, you probably helped lure her and would’ve enjoyed drinking from her, even after I specifically told you not to!”

  “No.” The vampire licked his lips.

  “Don’t lie to me, you piece of shit!”

  “Rad, come on—”

  “Hicks, we’ve got our answer. Leave the piece of shit,” Papan said.

  Conrad didn’t respond. Actually, he didn’t even seem
to be listening. His gaze was fixed on his victim. He looked glassy-eyed and cunning, like a killer who’d cornered his prey.

  “He doesn’t deserve to exist,” Conrad whispered.

  Even after Papan slipped his hand from mine and made a move to stop him, I knew there was no way Conrad would miss his target. Not from where he crouched, so close and ready with his stake. As soon as he spun it around and shoved the spiked wooden end into the vampire’s chest, an inhuman shriek bounced off the walls and the vamp vanished in a spray of ash and blood. Some of it squirted my boots as well as Papan’s. Conrad’s white shirt was splattered with crimson droplets but he didn’t seem to care.

  “That’s what he deserves.”

  “What the hell did you do that for?” Papan smacked the bloody wooden stake from Conrad’s right hand. It flew across the alley, bouncing noisily on the ground a few times before settling near a brick wall.

  Conrad rushed to his feet. “He had to die.”

  “No, he didn’t. He told you who has Ebony.”

  “Yeah, a vicious parasite that controls most of the vamps in Sydney has her.” Conrad rubbed his nose with the back of a hand. “Besides, if I’d let him go, he would’ve run off to warn him as soon as we turned our backs.”

  “Is this how you deal with vampires all the time?” Papan refused to back down.

  Conrad closed the distance between them. Papan might have a few inches on him but it didn’t stop the other guy from stepping up to the plate and challenging him. They faced each other like two fighters posing for their upcoming bout.

  “For your information,” he said. “I haven’t killed a vampire for years. You see, the vamps and I have a system. They behave themselves and take blood from the willing and I leave them alone. I might even grace them with my presence in their clubs sometimes, but they don’t kill innocent people because they all know they’d have to deal with me.”

  “If this is how the rest of the night is going to go, I don’t think we should stand beside you,” Papan said.

  I glared at the combination of ash and thick blood on the concrete. I couldn’t believe it was all that was left of the vampire.

  “I thought you wanted to find Ebony.”

  Papan shook his head. “We’re not playing this game with you. I refuse to leave a trail of blood and ash and then have some vampire decide they want to place a vendetta on Fox. She has enough to deal with at the moment, and I won’t let her become the target of some crazy vampire as well.”

  As much as it warmed my heart to realize Papan was acting all tough and macho because he was concerned about me, I couldn’t let him ruin our chances of finding Ebony. If a vampire had lured her into his clutches, how hard would it be to get her away and in one piece? I didn’t want to find her dead or worse—undead. We needed Conrad to save her, so the group couldn’t break up.

  “Guys,” I began, “we need to focus. There’s no point in fighting each other, or we’re never going to get Ebony back. And that’s not an option.” I placed a hand on Papan’s arm, hoping my touch would be enough to distract him from this madness. “We have to stick together, or whoever has her has already won. I’m not prepared to hand her over so easily and I don’t think either of you want that, either.”

  Both men were quiet, staring at each other but neither backing down.

  “I don’t expect you to kiss and make up, but we should get moving,” I said, raising my voice. “This alley’s giving me the creeps. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be found beside this gunk, do you?”

  Conrad took a step back. “Let’s go. I know where the club is.”

  “Of course you do,” Papan added with a snort.

  I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

  When we strolled back into the busy street the commotion hit us instantly. The color, noise, traffic, chatter and laughter all blended into one and made my head pound. It wasn’t until I let the buzz fall to the background that I was able to concentrate on walking. Luckily, Papan had stayed a step or two behind Conrad and had kept me close to his side.

  Everything about this night was new to me. I didn’t know what to expect, how to react, or what to do when it came to vampires, so the more Vamp Boy revealed—because he was now living up to the name—the better off Papan and I would be.

  “So, about this Cam guy,” I said. “What can you tell us about him?”

  “There’s not much to tell. He’s a greedy bloodsucker who likes to think he’s better and more powerful than anyone else. He makes my job a lot easier, since he likes to snuff out the competition,” Conrad answered.

  “Okay, I get it—big bad vampire you don’t like. But what’s the deal between you two?”

  Conrad exhaled and seemed annoyed. “Y’know, I didn’t think I would be interrogated by you two about all of this.”

  “Well, I’m not sure what you expected, but we’re not going in blind against an enemy we don’t even know.” Some of the anger Papan had expressed in the alley was starting to rub off on me. “Besides, you came to us, remember?”

  “Spill it,” Papan added.

  “You two are real pains in my ass, y’know that?” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and a few people complained behind us. He gave them the bird before directing us down a side-street that wasn’t as busy as the main one.

  “Where are we going now?” I asked.

  “I can’t talk to you with so many assholes getting in the way.” We continued to walk until we reached another intersection that was dead quiet. “Okay, fire all of your questions at me right now because the clock is ticking. Trust me when I say we don’t want Cam to have Ebony for too long.”

  Papan crossed his arms. “I take it you have some history with this vamp?”

  “You could say that,” he said with a shrug. “We used to be friends. Actually, we were high school buddies and when I found out what I was destined to do, I told him about it. I even took him with me when I went trolling for vampires. Back then, there was no real system. They did what they wanted when they wanted, and as long as they didn’t get caught, no one cared who was eaten. When I took over, I changed all that. I introduced myself into their community, gained their respect and allowed them to play as they wanted as long as all the blood sources were willing. Of course, there are always strays who think they can do what they want or newbies who lose control, but it’s understood that once a blood-drinker breaks the rules, I take them down.”

  As fascinating as this was—because I never would’ve thought Conrad to be able to implement something this elaborate—I wanted him to get to the point. Besides, I knew firsthand what a mistake it was to let someone without preternatural gifts see what you could do. It never ended well.

  “What about Cam? Tell us about him,” I urged.

  “I’m getting to it.” He started pacing in front of us. “One night, while I faced an old vampire who’d lost his mind and had to be put down, Cam was attacked. The vamp got away, took Cam with him. By the time I tracked them down he’d tortured and turned him. I killed the old fuck but didn’t have the heart to kill my friend, which turned out to be a mistake. He blamed me for what happened, even if he played it cool and pretended everything was okay. He quickly rose through the ranks by killing his competition and in a matter of years was pretty much running the show. He’s sent out vamps to kill me countless of times but never succeeds and always denies it. He wants me snuffed out because he knows that even though someone else will fill my shoes eventually, he’s convinced he can take them out every time they rise. Besides, I’m costing him money. I don’t have a day job, but get a cut out of every vampire club in Sydney because I suggested the idea of having so many nightspots.”

  Papan whistled. “You’re a different breed of hunter, that’s for sure.”

  “Thanks Wolf, I’ll take it as a compliment.”

  Papan shrugged. “Take it however the hell you want.”

  “Okay, guys, let’s not get off track again,” I interrupted. “And this is why
Cam having Ebony is so dangerous?”

  Conrad nodded. “The guy hates me. I’m not sure how he found out about what we were doing because I was very careful about where I took her. But when she went clubbing alone, it would’ve been easy for him to grab her.”

  “Why didn’t you think of that before you did something so stupid?”

  He sighed. “Maybe because I wasn’t thinking—all I wanted to do was make her feel better. I wanted to help her move on. Look, I don’t want any more accusations shot my way. I know this is my fault, but now I’m going to do whatever I have to in order to get her out of his clutches.”

  “If he’s as determined to get to you as you say he is, maybe he’s been playing with his food for a bit. Besides, we don’t know how long he’s had her. How long has she been missing?” Papan asked.

  “Two days.”

  “Shit,” I whispered. “Come on, we have to get to that club right now! So lead the way.”

  Conrad stared at me for a moment before he turned towards the street and led us back into the busy night. Each step I took behind him and beside Papan felt like a chore. I now regretted leaving my car parked so many blocks away, but it was near impossible to find anything closer in this part of town.

  Twenty minutes later, we stopped at a set of lights and waited.

  “There it is,” Conrad said, pointing at the gray, concrete building across the road. It looked like a restored warehouse and had a long line of people waiting to get inside. The name of the club—Stock—hung on the façade spelled out in flashy red neon. It looked to be a two-story building with small rectangular black-shuttered windows at the top level.

  A tingle of dread curved its way around my body and I shivered.

  “Are you okay?” Papan asked near my ear.

  “Just worried, that’s all.” To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if it was just a matter of sneaking into the club by a secret side door, or if Conrad would lead us in through the busy entrance. What about finding Ebony? Would we stroll inside and see her right there on the dance floor? I doubted it would be that easy.