Passion Bites: Biting Love, Book 9

by Mary Hughes

  It was now or never. I stood, lifted my breasts and sashayed toward Luther with a hopefully come-hither look in my eye. “You beat him.” I tried to make that sound like a turn on.

  He shot out a palm. “Nope! You’re not pulling that again. I don’t want a knee to the balls.”

  I faltered. Now what? Luke was pinned and time was running out, but the situation could still be salvaged if I could just think…

  Owun pointed. “Look, master, she has a needle!”

  Luther started for me. “What’s in that syringe?”

  And that fast, the plan was lost.

  I slumped, hypo hand wilting to my side. Damn it, we’d gotten so close. But now the plan had failed and Luke, me, hell, Lizelle and Una would pay.

  “Alexis, quick!” Luke struggled under the vampires holding him. “Stab me. Stab me with the Ancient serum.”

  Good heavens, that was a brilliant lie. He was amazing and I knew in that instant I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, whatever it took.

  “Coming!” I dodged minions to dart toward him. He shook off the vampires, leaped to his feet and dashed toward me.

  I actually nearly got the damned thing in his arm. Scared the crap out of me, but I had to make it convincing.

  Then I was caught. Whew.

  Owun darted in and seized my wrist, wrenching me away with a strength that nearly snapped bones.

  “Hey!” I scowled at him.

  “Bring her here,” Luther said. “Watch that hypodermic. If that contains what I think it does…”

  As the vampires grabbed Luke’s arms and again restrained him, Luke glared at Luther as if he could burn the monster with his gaze.

  Luther took the hypo from my hand. I resisted until Owun almost broke my wrist again to make me let go. Luther gazed at it. “An ancient serum? As in, it makes one an ancient?”

  “No,” I said. “It makes you stronger but…crap.” I pretended I’d let that slip. If Luther was savvy to the modern woman, that would’ve been too obvious. But Luther underestimated women, and me in particular.

  And Luke played it beautifully when he groaned. “Alexis…how could you?”

  “I win again.” Luther injected himself.

  I pasted on a horrified expression and counted. One, two, three…

  His face went gray. “What…what’s happening?”

  One of the minions had the empty poison vial and held it up. “Is this it?”

  “Master…” Owun swallowed hard. “It’s your poison.”

  Luther gasped like a fish, “Your mistake, bitch. Bring the antidote.”

  “Yes, master. Right away.” Owun dragged me to a locked cabinet and opened it with a code entered on the keypad, then took out another vial. “Can we use the same needle, master?”

  “Imbecile. I’ll drink it. It will go directly into my bloodstream.”

  Owun brought him the vial. I pretended to be horrified while again counting one, two three…

  “It’s not working!”

  “That’s because it’s enhanced.” I let my smile break free. “Unless you shut yourself off, now, you’ll disintegrate in five seconds.”

  I didn’t really think that, but he didn’t know for sure I was lying, because he shut down, falling to the floor.

  Luke jerked free of the vampires holding him and rushed, not for me, but for the door.

  Finally learning he didn’t have to always be the hero. Finally, finally trusting me to rescue myself.

  Which is the only thing that saved us, because I was rushing for the door too.

  We met. He scooped me up and lit out of there.

  “What took you so long?” I said as my hair flew and my naked skin rumpled in chill.

  “I found the control room. Keypad entry. I just didn’t have the code. But Owun—”

  “Entered a code to get the antidote. You think it’s the same one?”

  “Let’s find out.” He set me down outside a heavily armored door. The thud of feet behind us meant we had a second or two at most.

  If the code didn’t work, we’d be hip deep in vampires and minions.

  The code worked.

  Sheer adrenaline rushed us both inside. Luke slammed the door shut despite hydraulics, barely in time for goons to thud against metal.

  Inside the control room, the same passcode got Luke into the building’s security system. He took the electrical shields down with a particularly vicious poke of the enter key.

  I was watching the lobby security camera when two rivers of mist streamed inside. Julian burst from one, reforming shoulder-to-shoulder with Bo.

  Another few keystrokes, and Luke had raised the metal curtains and unlocked the doors.

  More Alliance must’ve arrived while we’d been locked up inside the building. Nikos and Thor led the charge through the doors. Right behind them were Elena, Nixie and Twyla and seemingly half their combined households.

  More of Luther’s vampires were already streaming into the lobby, including the big sail-nosed vamp. They went directly for the humans and my heart rat-a-tatted.

  Elena had forsaken her usual SMAW and Rambo’d what looked like a semi-automatic rifle except normal bullets wouldn’t have sent vampires stumbling backwards with that stunned expression.

  Nixie swung what looked like a hockey stick but, from the severed vampire heads, must have been an axe enhanced by freaking lasers; Twyla fired a silver-quarreled crossbow.

  Sail-nose and the rest of Luther’s henchvamps faltered, their stunned expressions frankly funny. I knew what they were thinking. These were humans, slower than vampires and not nearly as strong, and it should have been like feeding from a hedgerow of ripe raspberries.

  But the humans fought, and their surprising lack of fear made the rogues hesitate enough that the Alliance males wiped up.

  Until a revived Luther stumbled into the lobby, leaning heavily on his minion Owun. A quick check of the monitors showed he’d left only a handful of minions minding Luke and me.

  The blond vampire snarled, “What the fuck.”

  Julian faltered. “Luke? What’s wrong?”

  My heart dropped into my stomach. He thought Luther was Luke.

  “What are you doing?” Luther screamed at his minions. “They’re humans, idiots. Blood cows. Kill them!”

  As he raved, spittle flying, Luther’s vampires and henchmen rallied. One grabbed Julian from behind.

  Julian smashed a furious elbow into skull, the vampire falling with a whump, but then Julian only stood there. “Luke, what’s gotten into you?”

  I clutched a fist by my throat. His hesitation might get him killed.

  All four Alliance vampires were definitely confused and distracted by “Luke” and his apparent defection. Meanwhile dozens of Luther’s men were starting to take out Alliance humans.

  “Join them,” I urged Luke. I ran to the door. “Let them know that’s not you.”

  “Right.”

  I opened the door—and saw the rocket launcher.

  Boom.

  I would have been an Alexis-shaped smudge on the opposite wall if Luke hadn’t misted into me, taking me to the ground milliseconds before the charge shot over. As it was, I felt the wind flash above us, and the force of the explosion taking out part of the wall.

  “Human,” Luke growled. He lifted me and ran for the door.

  I figured out the significance of that as he spun and used his back to bowl over the quartet of men guarding us—apparently Luke knew he could get out because he was faster than the human could reload and stronger than all four.

  He hit the stairwell. He didn’t run downstairs so much as leap over handrails from staircase to staircase. We burst into the lobby in time to see vampires slapping weapons from human hands, Luther screaming them into a frenzy. I hadn’t seen his color so well on
closed circuit but here I could see how gray he was, how bloodshot his eyes. In his own way, he must have had Luke’s will of iron.

  “He’s not me,” Luke shouted. “That’s Marrone—he’s my triplet!”

  The Alliance vampires startled, and then Bo growled and went for Luther.

  “You’ve spoiled everything again!” Luther grabbed a pair of blades out of a minion’s hands and lurched out of Owun’s steadying grip to kamikaze toward Luke, screaming like a madman.

  Luke set me down and, naked, stood before me like a shield made of flesh and blood.

  I shrieked at him to get out of the way.

  “Shh, Alexis.” He stood there, utterly calm, relaxed. “I’ve trained for this.”

  Luther roared, blades glinting sharp in the half-light. There Luke was, that big dumb shield…as Luther brought the blades down to bite Luke’s vulnerable flesh, Luke shimmered… I was suddenly dragged a foot back, Luke’s strong arms around me—

  Revealing Zinnia. The mother of the graceful blond children so like Luke and Logan, the mother of Luther’s children, had Elena’s SMAW fitted to her shoulder.

  “I know you,” she said in a tone like death. “You clouded my mind then, but it’s clear now. This is for my children.” Her shoulder jerked as she pulled the trigger.

  Luther’s eyes went round. He wavered as if trying to mist, then his expression changed to terror. He must’ve realized the chemical cocktail in his blood didn’t let him.

  “Master. No!” Owun leaped in front of Luther, catching the brunt of the charge.

  Blood sprayed. The human fell, a hole in his chest.

  He wasn’t much of a flesh shield either. The charge hit Luther and cored him too.

  Slowly, almost gracefully, the blond man fell to the floor.

  Henchvamps scattered.

  “Bo! Here.” Elena tossed a pair of handcuffs to her big Viking husband. He slapped them onto Luther and touched the button. A green light went on, probably some sort of electric mist deterrent. He didn’t need it, but they didn’t know that.

  The Alliance members started to help their wounded outside. I turned to Luke, my need in my eyes.

  He smiled and zipped away to get my medical kit.

  “Byornsson.” Elena pulled her T-shirt tail out of her pants, then tugged it off over her head, wadded it up and threw it at me. “Put this on. Your Ds are making my near-Bs feel distinctly inadequate.”

  As I put the shirt on over my naked body—it was a bit tight in the chest—the Strongwells lugged Luther out. The handcuffs told me that, despite the hole in his chest, they expected him to survive.

  Owun’s body was left where it was. Nobody touched it; many refused even to look at it.

  Traitor.

  I sank down next to his broken body. Whoever he’d been to the Emerson household, to me he was John Umbras, Lizelle’s abusive husband.

  Dead.

  A small hand rested lightly on my shoulder. I looked up. Nixie and Julian were behind me. Nixie simply said, “What’s wrong?”

  “I knew him.” I sighed and rose. “He’s my best friend’s husband. Was her husband.”

  They exchanged a glance.

  Julian said, “We’re sorry for your loss.”

  Nixie said, “Look, we have to spin a story, to explain his—” she touched her breastbone, “—you know. A gas leak or something, but we can make him the hero.”

  “No.” I was already shaking my head. “Make the story whatever you like. Whatever horrible things he did to you, he treated Lizelle worse.”

  I was about to tell Julian and Nixie where they could find my friend when Luke swept in with my backpack. He pulled me into a hug. “You did it.” He blinked against my hair. “Logan said his wife saved herself from a vampire, but I…I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think a human could.”

  My heart warmed. “Told you so.”

  “I hope you continue to tell me so.”

  At the words, my heart began to beat faster.

  He raised his head to hold me at arms’ length. “Adelaide didn’t even try to hold the attackers off.” A bloody tear glistened on his cheek. “You did. You did what Adelaide should have done.”

  “No. I only did what Adelaide would have done, had she known what I know.”

  We stared into each other’s eyes, our future singing between us.

  Then Julian said, “Marrone is really your brother?” and the moment was lost.

  We broke the embrace. Julian, black brow arched, was watching Bo and Elena drive Luther away in their sedan.

  Luke nodded. “I was as dumbstruck. Turns out Logan and I aren’t twins but triplets, along with Marrone, or rather Luther. I found out his real identity when he was spieling off the usual villain’s gloating. ‘Appreciate my brilliance, you peon.’ Apparently he’s been planning his revenge for over four hundred years.”

  Julian whistled. “That’s a long time to hold a grudge.”

  “It was a big grudge.”

  “Luke, Julian…” I needed them to come with me to get Lizelle. But I’d had time to consider that if more of Luther’s minions still lurked about the building, I didn’t want them to know where she was, and the bad guys potentially getting to her before I did. I floundered, eventually came up with, “Could you help me with something before I get started on first aid?”

  As we clomped downstairs, Luke told Julian about the secret hospital floor, and what Luther was doing. Julian looked grim.

  My friend and her daughter were shaken, but fine—at least physically. I’d do a thorough examination after we were out of there, but it looked like Una didn’t have any complications from the vampire blood. But of course we’d have to talk. I hadn’t made up my mind how much Lizelle needed to know about John/Owun, or her daughter’s experience at his hands—although it might have been reassuring for her that he hadn’t just sweet-talked her back this last time but had probably used some version of vampire-enhanced compulsion—but of course she’d have to hear about his death.

  But I couldn’t find the words. We went back upstairs, me to help the households’ injured, Julian to take care of buttoning up the rest of the building and I still hadn’t told her. No plan, yet it had to be done. “Lizelle,” I finally said.

  “What’s going on there?” She pointed.

  A small crowd had gathered, milling around where Owun lay.

  I shivered. Owun’s body. I’d seen my share of death, but he was someone I’d known. A terrible man, yes, but it still bothered me. And it would bother Lizelle more. I started to steer her and Una around the crowd. “I have to tell you something first.”

  “Wait.” Luke stopped and stared, surprise obvious.

  That was when Twyla turned from the gathering, her face pale. “I can’t believe… Look.”

  Dropping my arm from Lizelle, I barged through the people ringing Owun. Except the floor was empty.

  Owun’s body was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Marrone’s lieutenants must’ve sneaked past us,” Twyla said. “Taken the body.”

  “It’s the only explanation,” Luke agreed, but I could see his sharp frown.

  It was a mystery, but we had more pressing matters. The backup Alliance vampires and humans had arrived in several vans. Lizelle and Una left with the first one headed home. I field-treated a couple broken bones and a concussion. The worst casualties had already been stabilized in the windowless back of another Alliance van with the judicious application of vampire blood. Nikos was looking a little older again, but not as bad as five years ago.

  We returned to Julian’s townhouses. I was picturing the long hot shower I’d take at home, when Nikos appeared at the front doorway.

  “Elias. Secure line. Bring the doctor.” He disappeared into the house.

  The Emersons exchanged a telling glance, then wav
ed us inside. My shower would have to wait.

  “No.” Luke’s hand on my arm stopped me. “You’re low on blood, and you’ve used up any energy you had caring for the wounded. You require medical attention.”

  “I need answers more.”

  “No, I forbid it—”

  “By what right?”

  “Uh-oh,” Nixie said. “Mate spat. Time to dip out.”

  “Actually, I want to see what happens.” Julian’s black brows rose. “You know you do too.”

  “Okay, me too.” They turned bright eyes on me.

  I only had eyes for Luke. “You’re not my mate,” I pointed out. “You said as much. Ergo, you have no say in what I do.”

  His gaze fired red-gold and his jaw clenched in obvious frustration. “If I were your mate—”

  “You still couldn’t order me around. I might give more weight to your opinion, but I’d make the final decision. I’m captain of my own life, Luke.”

  A growl vibrated from his throat. “I don’t like it.”

  “What, me not getting medical treatment, or you not being able to compel me?”

  “Both.” He sighed and wrapped arms around my waist. “A compromise, then. If we go to the meeting first, will you seek healing after?”

  “See, was that so hard? Sure.”

  “Good. And yes, it was hard.” He ushered me over the threshold. “So what’s going on?”

  “Bo said he was going to call Elias,” Julian said. “To let him know what happened—what Elias doesn’t know already—and find out what he wants done with Marrone. Luther. Damn, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

  The meeting room was behind an innocent wall panel down a dark corridor. Thank goodness the room itself was brightly lit, although the weapons on the wall were a bit intimidating. Vampires and spouses were already seated around a large table, a conference hub in the middle and a large flat panel screen on the wall, live but entirely black.

  As soon as Luke and I sat, Julian punched a button on the hub. “We’re all here, sir.”

  “Good,” a voice said, deep and dark as the vast night.

  The blackness stepped back and was revealed as a shirt on a male chest so enormous it could’ve been its own country.