Famine's Feast (The Templar Book 4)

by Debra Dunbar

  “I think you’ve been seeing too many James Bond reruns.” Sheesh, he was just like the villain, giving me a long speech about his plans and how he was going to kill us all. The only thing missing was a tank full of sharks, and a candle set to burn through the rope dropping me to my doom.

  “She’s not going anywhere right now,” Cerveza said, clearly just as bored with the mustache twirling as I was. “Get back to the fighting. Leave Jack to watch her if you really need to. The sooner you take Baltimore, the sooner I can get my property and go home.”

  Simon nodded, eyeing me through narrowed eyes. “Go. But before you leave, can I get in there?”

  My heart sped up. Partly from fear that a powerful, fast vampire was going to be in a confined space with swordless me. Partly from excitement, because the one thing I did have was my keychain. I could do some serious damage with the gold crucifix. My father once said that women fought like angry badgers. There was no holding back with us. Our lesser strength meant we needed to always go into a fight at one hundred percent. I hadn’t always lived up to that, but if Simon put one foot inside this space, he was getting the angry badger me.

  “Yes. You, me, Jack can all enter and exit. She’s the only one who is restricted by the barrier.”

  “Then go. Get out of here.” Simon waved a dismissive hand at the mage who looked pretty close to angry badger himself at the rude treatment. Cerveza didn’t argue, though. With a quick hooded glance my way, he backed into the shadows. I heard the creak of stairs, the slam of an old door. The whole time Simon stood, arms crossed, watching me. It was starting to shake my confidence. The adrenaline I’d worked up during our conversation was fading, leaving me a little weak.

  “There’s no one to hear you scream,” he whispered. “No one but Jack and he won’t care.”

  Okay. Adrenaline back again. I slid both hands into my jacket pockets then took a few steps backward. The extra distance wouldn’t do me any good with the speed of a vampire, but I liked having the wall close to my back.

  Simon stepped forward, pacing back and forth in front of my invisible cage before walking right through the barrier. I knew it was no use rushing him, so I waited, curling my fingers around the sharp edges of my keychain. What was taking him so long? I assumed he was going to bite me. It was what vampires did with humans, and the act would put me back in the category of food. I wouldn’t be special. I wouldn’t be a foe or an enemy to lose sleep over. I’d be nothing more important than a random meal.

  But no matter how much he wanted to degrade me, he did see me as an enemy. I was a Templar. I’d fought alongside vampires. One found me valuable enough that he was willing to have something with me beyond a casual donor or a blood-slave. I knew he was hesitating, wondering what was up my sleeve. Nothing was. It was in my pocket.

  He rushed me. My back slammed against the cold cement basement wall, but I managed to get the keychain from my pocket before he’d pinned me.

  His hands left my shoulders edging up on the wall so they caged in my head. I got where he was going with this and tensed, determined to drive my crucifix into the side of his head the moment he bit. His hands were suddenly against my cheek, palms cradling my jaw, but instead of biting me he twisted my head, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

  “Pretty, pretty girl. So smart and strong, so very pretty. Will you be mine? Will you give yourself to me? All of you?”

  His words washed over me, tugging on me like a siren song. The rotten bastard was turning on the thrall. He wouldn’t be satisfied just biting me. He wanted me to offer myself to him. He wanted me to give him my blood and my body as well. I lowered my gaze to look at his mouth, at the tips of fangs peeking between his lips. Then I raised my eyes, languid and willing. He tilted his head, leaning toward my neck.

  I jabbed the crucifix upward, point first into the soft flesh of his lower palate. “The pretty girl says no.”

  His scream was satisfying, even if it was right up against my ear. He tried to push me away from him, but with the wall at my back all it did was drive the breath from my lungs. I pulled the keychain free, and grabbing his shirt with one hand, I struck again and again, holding on as he tried to retreat from me. His hands flailed, and one caught my arm, numbing it and nearly sending my only weapon to the floor. I might not have dropped it, but my aim was off, and on my next strike the keychain missed its mark. The vampire acted, twisting my arm across my body and downward.

  I dropped, rolling with it and head-butting him in the stomach. He held on and we grappled. I could channel angry badger all I wanted, but in hand to hand combat with a vampire, I was going to lose. Still I fought, kicking and twisting, trying every tactic I could to get free, or at least to hurt him further. With a growl he pushed and once again my back was at the wall, my arms pinned across my chest, my legs locked in between his. I squirmed and he pushed his pelvis against mine to hold me still. Which brought me to the realization that Simon was enjoying this far more than he should.

  He held me there, motionless. Then he rubbed himself against me. “You are fun. I don’t think I’m going to kill you after all. I’ll keep you as my own. Eventually you’ll crawl to me and beg me, and I’ll make sure Dario knows that before he dies. Maybe I’ll let him watch a few nights of you begging me to take you, both body and blood.”

  He could turn on the thrall all he wanted, I wouldn’t beg for him. I could be shaking from withdrawal, desperate for the addicting venom in his fangs and I still wouldn’t beg. He saw it in my eyes and he laughed, blood oozing from the holes I’d punched in his cheek and jaw. Then he grabbed my face and tilted it, lowering his head.

  I tried to keep my heart rate even and closed my eyes. His breath was cool against my neck, his tongue like a slug on the sensitive skin. Then he bit.

  Pain shot through me. It was like being stabbed with something jagged. His fangs tore through my flesh, as if he were digging around in my neck trying to find a vein. There was a sharp pop of pain, then a pulling sensation.

  I wanted to throw up. But the pain somehow made it manageable. I was a captive undergoing torture. I could get through this.

  The venom hit. The pain remained, but my traitorous body translated it into something erotic. I bit back a moan and felt myself slump against the vampire. He rubbed himself against me again and it was all I could do not to rub back. The warmth built, rolling through me, increasing in speed and intensity until I felt myself come apart, every nerve ending vibrating with pleasure. I hated it. I hated him. And there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop it. Again and again the desire built, over and over I climaxed until I knew I would have fallen to the ground had Simon not been pressed against me. Finally, he was done, pulling his fangs out and not even bothering to seal the wound. I felt thick blood trickle down my neck and wondered how much more I could lose and remain conscious.

  Then he moved away and I felt myself slide down the wall to the ground, my legs shaky. The crucifix keychain clattered from my trembling hand and he nudged it with his toe.

  “I’ll let you keep this.” He laughed. “This was the most fun I’ve had in nearly a century. Yes, I’ll most definitely keep you alive. For as long as possible, anyway.”

  I had no witty comeback. Already my body yearned for more. Maybe he wasn’t too far off when he said there’d be a time when I begged him. I’d just need to make sure I killed him before I reached that point.

  As he walked casually through the magical boundary of my cell and up the stairs, I looked down at the keychain, glittering gold in the dim light of the basement. If he thought I’d be any less fierce the next time, he was wrong.

  Although maybe fierce was exactly what he was hoping for.

  Chapter 31

  Amazingly I managed to doze a bit, waking up just before dawn. My sword was still in the opposite corner of the room. My keychain was still clutched tight in my hand. I hadn’t seen Jack at all. I hadn’t seen anyone since Simon left, which was fine as far as I was concerned.

  The bite
wounds throbbed, but they’d stopped bleeding. It felt like they went right through to the opposite side of my throat. He’d been rough, and I was far more bruised and shredded than a donor or blood-slave would be. This was an attack. Which made it all the more humiliating that my body had loved it, wanted more. My nerve endings still tingled with the residual venom. I was still on the edge of the high. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, or how bad my detox would be. Most donors just felt slightly hung over, with a faint longing for another experience, but I had no idea if vampires could control the amount of venom they put out, if Simon gave me more than the usual dose.

  Would he let me suffer for days before he bit me again? Or would he take my blood every night, several times a night until I was a quivering mess?

  No, he wouldn’t. Because I was getting out of here. And if I couldn’t manage that, the next time I’d succeed in killing him. I had to keep telling myself that.

  I waited for dawn, just to make sure no vampires would disturb me. There was still no Jack, and I wondered if the man was even in the house. It didn’t matter. I pocketed the keychain then explored the magical barrier, trying to get a read on how it was put together and if there were any limitations to the spell. As expected, it was tightly constructed. I couldn’t very well dig through the cement floor. The back wall was sturdy block concrete. I looked upward, through the jagged hole I’d fallen through and into the dark interior of the abandoned house. The spell couldn’t go all the way up or I would have hit against it upstairs. In fact, it couldn’t have an upper edge at all or I wouldn’t have been able to fall through.

  It was my way out. If only I were twelve feet tall, or could fly. The back wall was the only place within reach that wasn’t spelled, so I examined it again, looking for breaks in the mortar or cracks in the block. They were there, but in spite of my attempts to climb the wall, I couldn’t manage to get my fingers or toes into the wall enough to get more than a few feet off the ground. Add “if only I were Spiderman” to the list.

  I dropped back to the ground and stumbled. Crap. I’d lost more blood than I’d thought, and I hadn’t eaten since early yesterday evening. There was no food, no water. Did Simon intend for Jack to feed me? Probably not. He might not have remembered humans needed food and water to survive. Either way I needed to get out of here, and the only way was up, so I took the one tool I had and began to use it to chip away at the mortar, hoping to make enough hand and foot holds that I could manage to reach the pipes overhead. Then I’d need to worry about how to swing myself up and into the upper floor without falling back down. Add “if only I were an Olympic gymnast or Cirque du Soleil performer” to the list.

  “You’ll break your pretty keychain.”

  I jumped at the accented voice. So much for escape. I’d thought daytime, with Simon in the ground and Jack nowhere to be seen would give me a window of opportunity. Seems the mage had thought so too.

  I turned around to see Cerveza, a leather jacket over his business casual attire. “I thought Jack was going to watch me. Draw the short straw, did you?”

  “Jack is bored and finds this place ‘creepy’ so he went out for breakfast. He figures if you didn’t manage to escape last night, you’re hardly likely to do so while he grabs coffee and an egg sandwich.”

  “So he left you in charge? You’re Jack’s flunky?”

  “No, I’m the man who’s going to set you free.”

  That…that was not what I’d expected. I didn’t know much about this guy, but I did know that he seemed driven by one thing and one thing only right now—recovering his stolen property.

  “Let me guess, you’re once more offering me the deal? I hunt down the soul trap in the harbor area and bring it to you in exchange for my freedom?”

  “Glad to see you catch on quickly.” The mage pulled a few items from his pocket, tossing one through the barrier. It was a piece of chalk.

  “Hedging your bets, or did you give up on Simon and the vampires assisting you?”

  He tossed another object at my feet. A plastic bag of salt. “It’s always wise to hedge one’s bets. Simon is an ass, and my soul trap is a low priority for him. I’m banking it will be a higher priority for you.”

  A box of matches joined the other items. “Why will this be a higher priority for me? What keeps me from making a dash into Baltimore, never to be seen again?”

  “Your oath.” The mage rolled a candle stub to me. “And the fact that once I get the trap, I’ll banish the plague demon that’s terrorizing your city. No more sick humans clogging up your hospitals. And with the demon gone, perhaps your vampire friends will have a chance at keeping their territory.”

  I couldn’t banish that plague demon. I didn’t have the power. None of us did. My only hope for the vampires, and the well-being of the humans in the city, was to give this man back his property. Guziel wasn’t here for a short time, he was here for the long haul. Cerveza wouldn’t give up until he got the soul trap back, and by the time the plague demon had caused enough of an epidemic to attract the Conclave’s or the Elders’ attention, it would be too late. People would die, and so would vampires. And with Simon in control of the city, even more people would die.

  All I had to do was give this man back something that had been stolen from him, something he rightfully owned.

  “I swear that if you set me free I’ll find and return the soul trap to you, at which point you will banish the plague demon and never again cause harm to the city of Baltimore or any of its residents.”

  “Deal.” He gestured to the pile of items at my feet. “I assume you know a basic unlock spell?”

  “Yeah.” Was it that simple? Gah, I was such an idiot. And in addition to my Templar gear, I really needed to start carrying magical supplies.

  “Salt around the barrier. Chalk symbols every meter and a five-point star within the space. Unlock spell at each quarter, smudging with the candle smoke, then another in the middle. Good luck.”

  He vanished again before I could ask him important things such as how precise did the symbols and star need to be, did the salt need to be along the back wall or not, and did he have more chalk? I eyed the little nub with concern, wondering how I was going to get a dozen or so symbols and a gigantic five point star out of that.

  I managed, although my fingers were scraped and bloody from trying to draw with a piece of chalk that the last few symbols was smaller than a dime. I sweated the whole time, listening for Jack and trying to weigh the need for precise drawings versus the fear that he’d return and see what I’d done. Although I wasn’t sure what he’d do about it. If he came into my cell, I’d attack him, but who would he call for help? Simon and his vampires were dead during daytime, and any human help would take too long to arrive. It was reassuring, but still I hurried.

  Finally, I was done. I carefully stepped back and flexed my cramped hands. Now all I needed to do was light the candle and begin the ritual.

  The candle finally lit with the fourth match. I shielded the flame as I got to the edge of the circle, worried that if drafts put it out, I wouldn’t have enough matches to keep it lit. Slowly I walked the circle, widdershins as this was an unlock spell, designed to unravel. That done, I stood in the middle and took a deep breath.

  “Resero. Recludo. Aperio.”

  For a second nothing happened, nearly sending me into panic at the thought that I might need to face Simon once more tonight. Just as I was beginning to think I’d screwed up one of the symbols, the salt began to sizzle. Like fire following a trail of gunpowder, smoke raced around the circle, turning the salt black. Then it raced inward around the symbols and the pentagram until it made a tight spiral at my feet and died out with a pop.

  I ran for my sword, snatching it off the basement floor and sliding it into my scabbard. Then I took the stairs two at a time, bolting out of the house like it was on fire. Jack must have gone to Pennsylvania for his coffee and egg sandwich because he was nowhere to be found. About a hundred yards away from the dilapi
dated house I started feeling dizzy and sick. My legs wobbled, and I stumbled. The car was just ahead. I had to make it to the car.

  I did, but I was gasping and fighting to keep upright. Once there I began to retch, the spasms painful in my empty stomach. I texted Tremelay that I was okay, somehow managing to get into my car and drive home without passing out. Once in my apartment, it all hit me. I was home. I was reasonably safe. It was time to fall apart and think about how close I’d come to death last night. I’d been an idiot going to meet Lawrence alone. Yeah, I’d let Tremelay know to check on me today, and Dario would have known I was missing come nightfall, but I could have been dead by then. I’d fallen through a floor, I’d had the crap beaten out of me by a vampire, and I’d been bitten. I reached up a shaky hand to touch the side of my neck feeling the jagged skin, the scabs, and a dampness that let me know my dash for safety had started the bleeding again.

  Time to reassess. I could beat myself up later. Right now I had things to do, starting with cleaning myself and getting something in my stomach. I made my way to the bathroom, still feeling wobbly on my feet. I’m sure blood loss and not eating had something to do with my condition, but mostly my unsteadiness, my queasy stomach, my pounding head, and my cramping muscles were from detox. Coming down off vampire venom was like the worst hangover ever. I’d pop some aspirin and be all right in a few days, though.

  It was the cravings that would linger. My body flared at the remembrance, leaving me with a mixture of revulsion and sexual excitement. Thank God he hadn’t had sex with me. Blood rape was enough trauma for me to get over. I didn’t want to deal with sexual rape too—especially since I was sure my body would have betrayed me in that act just as it had when Simon bit me.

  That was the hardest for me to get past. He’d done something against my will, and against my will I’d enjoyed it. Not emotionally, not mentally, but physically, as painful as it was, I had enjoyed it. He’d made me like it. That was the real damage I carried. He’d made me like it. And the thought of that made me rush for the toilet again trying to empty the nonexistent contents of my stomach.