She cried out at the new pain and tried to push him away, but he was too strong. He was pulling at her vein with a will, drinking her blood as if it was the sweetest water and he’d been lost in the desert. Her strength vanished, consumed along with her blood, and she fell still, barely aware of the thready beating of her own heart.
Something hot and salty was pressed to her lips, and she tried to turn away. Derek held her head still and forced her to open her mouth. She felt the thick splash of blood on her tongue, and she suddenly knew in horror what he was doing.
He was turning her.
Chapter Fourteen
Dominic sat in the airport terminal, a ticket for New York in his hand. All around him, humans bustled about, loud and smelling of blood and sweat. A thousand scents filled his nose, and he had to think about something else to avoid being overwhelmed by it.
A familiar figure in a muddy trench coat sat beside him. Vladimir smiled at him. “Going away?”
He should have been surprised that the Russian had found him, but somehow, he wasn’t. “Yes.”
He peered at Dominic’s ticket. “New York. Thriving town, New York.”
“It’s just a stop over.”
“Ah. I see.” He sat back and stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles. “Tell me, Ulfen, what will you do when you get to New York?”
He glanced at Vladimir, wondering what game he was playing. “I don’t know. Vanishing, I hope.”
“There are a few werewolf packs in the city. You knew that, right?”
Dominic sighed. “I do now.”
“You might want to cultivate a little favor with them… or you might want to leave town quickly. Of course, you might find that they’ll be very welcoming if you come with a powerful ally.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Russian smiled. “I am a hunter. You are a hunter. I propose that we join forces and work together.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because I can keep you from ever suffering as an omega again,” he answered coolly. “I know how unpleasant life as an omega can be. Surely you don’t want to go back to that position in a new pack.”
Dominic looked away. “I don’t intend to join any pack. I’m on my own for a reason. And I don’t intend to join up with you.” He hesitated, and his curiosity got the best of him. “What do you hunt?”
“Witches, mostly. Demons. Things that go bump in the night a little harder than they should.” His smile vanished, and he said seriously, “Someone needs to protect humanity against the threats of the supernatural.”
He looked down at his ticket and considered the offer. It was tempting. If he agreed, it would give him a purpose, something that his life was sorely lacking. Vladimir was powerful, and he could do the things he said he could, preventing Dominic from ever again falling to omega status in a wolf pack. He took a deep breath.
“Are you done hunting Mia?”
Vladimir nodded. “For now. She’s no longer my concern.”
“Why?”
“Because.” He smiled again. “What do you say? Partners?”
Dominic looked at him. “Does it pay?”
“In satisfaction and adrenaline.” He winked. “But don’t worry - you’ll never go hungry.”
He had nothing to lose. With a nod of his head, he extended his hand to Vladimir. “Partners.”
Vladimir shook his hand firmly. “Welcome to my world.”
***
Erik finished dressing and strapped on the harness that held his axe. The bedroom still felt electrified with the magical exchange that had taken place, and his skin prickled with it. Nika stood nearby, watching intently.
He picked up his phone and called Elke. His assistant picked up on the third ring, and a cacophony of noise in the background nearly drowned her out. “Hello?”
“Call a meeting of the six oldest Draugr, including Moselle, one hour from now at Snake Eyes.”
“What’s up, boss?”
He felt grim and determined, and his voice reflected his mood. “We’re taking Paris.”
“Tonight?”
“No, next month. Yes, tonight. Call it and be there, yourself.” He hung up and turned to Nika. “You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely. I’m not letting you face her alone.”
Tamara appeared in the bedroom doorway. “What’s going on? I heard a - is that an axe?”
“It is.” Erik turned to her. “I’m sorry to do this, but we have business to attend to and have to leave. Help yourself to anything in the house. Hopefully we’ll be back in the morning, or in a few days, depending.”
She frowned. “Nika? What is he talking about?”
“We have to go, and we’re sorry to desert you,” his fiancée reiterated. “If you get some sleep, we’ll probably be back by the time you get up.”
Erik unlocked his gun cabinet and began arming himself with firearms loaded with silver ammunition. He handed a pistol to Nika, and she slipped it into one of his shoulder holsters.
Tamara’s eyes saucered. “You’re handling a gun?”
“It’s only for emergencies,” Nika explained to her friend. “In case something happens and I need to defend myself with deadly force.”
“What the hell kind of business are you getting into?”
Erik answered. “The vampire kind.”
***
The clientele had been cleared from Snake Eyes so that the elder Draugr could meet without young interruptions. When Erik and Nika arrived, the six oldest vampires in Sweden had been assembled. Maria was there with Laurentia, who stood at the side of the room with an air of dismay. Elke stood at the bar, chatting with a 15th-century creation named Niklas, and she waved to her king when his touch on the door handle made the wards ring.
They went to the bar, and Elke said, “They’re all here. The best and brightest of the Stockholm bloodsucking community. We have Annika, who’s only a little younger than you, and Christian and Niklas.” The vampire in question nodded his blond head when his name was spoken. “Markus and Lena are here, and Maria. And I brought Moselle, like you asked.”
“Thank you.”
Nika could feel them looking at her, judging her. For most of them, this was their first close encounter with the new Rune Master. She tried to keep her face impassive and to display calm self-assurance, but she stayed close to Erik anyway.
He vaulted up onto the bar and looked out over the group. Nika hovered near him, and Elke did the same, both of them standing in front of him.
“Tonight, we take Paris,” he said without preamble. “Derek Dupin has taken the territory belonging to Laurentia Moselle, and he has allied himself with Mia, the last Dark Sister. We’re going to kill them.”
Markus, who was seated at one of the tables, leaned forward. “If Moselle isn’t strong enough to keep her territory, why should we be bothered to win it back for her? Let Dupin keep it. And I don’t care about the Dark Sisters.”
“You should care about Mia,” Nika said. “She tried to kill Erik tonight.”
“Such is ever the fate of usurpers.” A dark-haired woman with flashing green eyes smirked. “I do not concern myself with assassination attempts on petty dictators.”
Nika could feel cold anger rolling through her from Erik. “Petty dictator,” he echoed.
The woman nodded, unafraid. “We Draugr have existed for centuries without a king. We have no need of a king now. The young ones might be impressed by your posturing, but that’s only because they’re in a drug-addled stupor. Once you relieve them of their dreyri, they’ll turn on you.”
“Like you’re turning on me now, Annika?” he asked. Nika had heard that rumble in his voice before. This mouthy vampire had better watch her step.
Annika rose from her seat at Markus’ table. “I can’t turn on you when I was never with you. Have fun with your little riot.”
She turned and walked away, audacious and insulting. Erik limbered his axe and flung it at her
, and it embedded in the wall in front of her, the handle quivering. Annika flinched in spite of herself and turned to face him.
“Do you want this back, or can I keep it?”
Unexpectedly, Erik smiled. “Why do you always have to bust my balls?”
She wrenched the axe out of the wall, taking bits of plaster and drywall with it. She threw it back, and Nika ducked. Erik caught it in mid-air. “Because it’s in the shield maiden handbook,” Annika said.
“I never got any handbook,” Elke said, grinning.
“Maybe when you’re older,” a buxom blonde said, moving forward to sit at the bar. She must have been Lena, Nika deduced. “So, what’s the plan?”
Erik said, “Derek Dupin has an estate outside of Paris. We don’t have to take on the whole city, just him and his groupies. The first thing we’re going to do is get a headcount on the number of vampires and goons he has working in his house. The second thing is we’re going to go in and kill them all.”
Maria shook her dark head. “A typical Viking plan, all onslaught and no subtlety. I thought you had experience with stealth.”
Erik responded calmly, “I do. But I also have experience with the element of surprise.” He pulled out his cell phone and hit a button on it, saying, “Bring it.”
The front door opened, and another Draugr, this one a male with shocking bleached white hair, dragged in a heavy crate. He stopped in the middle of the Snake Eyes dance floor and ripped the lid away with his claws, exposing a set of military-issue automatic rifles.
“Courtesy of the SOG Special Unit,” Erik said. “Each of these is equipped with a double-drum magazine filled with silver bullets. That’s 100 rounds per clip. The beauty of an automatic rifle is that you don’t have to really aim all that well - just press the trigger and spray. You’ll eventually hit something.”
Markus went to the crate, his eyes gleaming red in excitement. “Do I get to keep it when this is over?”
“I have no trouble with that,” Erik shrugged. “But if you use it in a way that brings undue attention to us or does excessive damage to humans, I’ll take issue with you very directly.”
Annika snickered. “He means he’ll beat your ass.”
“I mean I’ll kill him.”
Markus did not look up. “I know what he means.” He picked up one of the rifles and ran his hand down the barrel lovingly. To Nika, it looked like he was considering making love to the thing. “She’s beautiful. Did you know I was a sniper during the Second World War?”
Elke rolled her eyes. “Yes, Markus. We all know. You’ve banged on about it to all of us a hundred times.”
He ignored her. “Just think of how many Nazis I could have killed back in the day with a gun like this.”
“I hope you can still shoot,” Erik said mildly.
The veiled insult shook Markus out of his reverie. “Fuck you, Thorvald. I’m a professional.”
The Draugr king smirked. “So I’ve heard. You make a nice, tidy living at it, too.”
The other vampire grinned. “It pays the bills.”
“And then some.”
Lena, blonde with the heavy bosom, spoke up. “So how are we going to get a headcount on his house without him knowing?”
“That’s where Nika comes in.”
The black-haired vampire who hadn’t spoken yet said, “I was wondering when she would be useful.”
Nika glared at him. “Christian, is it?” He nodded.
He crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “You call yourself the Rune Master. But shouldn’t that be Rune Mistress?”
“Master is a title of ability, not gender,” Erik said coldly. “And disrespect her again and I will slit your throat. This is your future queen.”
Christian snorted. “If the only way you can get obedience from your people is by threatening them, you’re in a poor bargaining position.”
“That would be true, if I were bargaining, but I’m not. I’m ordering, and you are obeying.” Erik jumped down off of the bar and walked toward the other vampire, his eyes turning blazing red. Christian did a good job of concealing his nervous reaction to the ancient Draugr’s anger, but they all could smell it seeping out of his pores. Erik stopped with his nose practically touching the other man’s. “Any questions?”
They stared at one another for a moment, then Christian looked away. “No.”
“Good. Nika, if you please…”
She took a deep breath and tried to remember the lessons that Ingrid had taught her. She spread her hands out flat in front of her, thumb to thumb, then spread them straight out to the sides. A flat sheet of golden energy formed, showing an image of a city. She concentrated on feeling Mia’s power signature, on tracking her down in the massive energetic noise of humans in Paris. Soon, she had pinpointed the building where she was lying.
Nika manipulated the image with sharp gestures of her hands, flicking her fingers and expanding the view of the estate to be a semi-transparent model of the real thing. She could see people walking or sitting in every level of the house, from attic to basement. She could see the doors and windows, where the furniture was located, and who was armed and who was not.
In the master bedroom, she could see Mia lying in motionless, gripping a pillow to her stomach. On the floor beside her bed was the dead body of a woman in torn and grimy clothes, her head scarf in disarray. She looked like a refugee who had come to grief. The reason for the body’s lifelessness was obvious – her throat had been completely torn away. Not one drop of blood had been spilled, though, and despite the corpse, the bedroom was immaculate.
Lena whispered. “That’s a turning kill.”
Erik put his hand on the small of Nika’s back. Excellent work, he told her telepathically.
She smiled but did not speak, afraid that if she did, she would break her concentration and lose the image. She expanded the scrying view until she could see not just the house but also the grounds of the estate. More men were milling around in the vineyards and gardens around the mansion, carrying automatic rifles of their own. Markus pointed his finger at one, gun-like, and pulled an imaginary trigger.
The door to Snake Eyes opened, and Ingrid strolled in, adjusting her white crocheted shawl over her shoulders. She smiled at her son.
“I am here on behalf of the Valtaeigr,” she said. “I will help you get to Paris if you need it.”
“We call can fly,” Maria said. “We’re old enough.”
“Speak for yourself,” pouted Elke.
“We will all go to the estate and draw their attention out of the house and to the front lawn. While they’re distracted, Nika and Ingrid will go into the building and confront Mia.” Erik looked at his assistant. “I need you to stay here and make sure that nobody comes into the club. We’re closed tonight. Keep it that way.”
“The young ones will be howling for their dreyri,” Niklas warned.
“Let them.” Nika looked up at Erik, and his icy blue eyes were fixed on the targets on her scrying mirror. He looked firm and in control. “Arm yourselves, and take extra clips. Let’s go.”
The vampires helped themselves to the weapons from the SOG, and as they filed out, Nika collapsed the floating image into a tiny cube that she held in her hand. The rune tattoos on her forearms were ablaze, and her eyes, instead of Draugr red, were glowing with the golden light of runic magic.
Erik kissed her deeply. “You are magnificent,” he whispered.
She smiled for him. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”
He grinned and picked up a rifle for himself. He slotted the double roll magazine into place and nodded to her. “That’s the plan.”
Markus held out a hand to Ingrid. “Come fly with me.”
“No. We will be going through the ley lines.” She met her protégé’s eyes. “We have unfinished business, I think.”
“May the gods hold us in their favor.” Erik turned to Laurentia Moselle, the only one of the Draugr who had failed to select a rifle. “Are you fighting for this c
ity, or am I taking it for myself?”
She looked at him coldly, her face a mask of defeat and disdain. “You are taking everything from me anyway. My relics, my vats, my treasures… what will stop you from taking my city, too?”
He nodded. “If you fight at my side and act like you want to keep your position, you will be allowed to rule Paris in my name.”
“As your puppet?”
“As my vassal and ally.”
She sneered in silence for a moment, then said, “I prefer a pistol. Do you have one?”
Erik pulled his own pistol from its holster at his waist and handed it to her. For a moment, Nika’s mind was filled with the image of Laurentia pointing the gun and pulling the trigger there in the club, but she only took the weapon into her small white hand. Without another word, she walked out through the front door, following the others out and up into the air.
“One more kiss,” Erik said, coming to Nika to claim her lips once more. “I will see you when this is over. Be safe.” He turned his gaze to his mother’s face. “Both of you.”
“We know what to do, Huntsman,” Ingrid said softly. “Worry about yourself.”
Chapter Fifteen
Erik led his Draugr to the estate, landing in the front lawn with their rifles at the ready. Markus, always eager to let some lead fly, immediately sprayed the front of the building with a volley of bullets.
“I think they know we’re here,” Lena said drily.
“Fan out,” Erik ordered. “Markus, establish over watch and do what you do best.”
The vampire grinned. “With pleasure.” He flew to the roof of the mansion and lay on his stomach, sighting down his rifle and waiting for a target.
He didn’t have to wait long. Vampires and humans armed with automatic rifles of their own poured out through the front door while others raced around from the east side of the building. A silver bullet hit the ground just in front of Erik’s toe, splattering his boot with mud. He laughed.
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