by Tami Lund
Spreading my legs, I pushed two fingers inside myself, stroking while I pulled up a picture of what Cam might look like naked. A tuft of hair on his upper chest, tapering to a dark trail leading down to the pot of gold, so to speak. Or am I the pot of gold and he’s the leprechaun? That wasn’t a particularly steamy analogy, so I squelched it and focused on the idea of him kneeling between my legs, lifting me by my ass so he could push into me, deeper, harder, more, more...
I gasped as my body shuddered through my release. Through the haze of self-induced, momentary bliss, I heard a noise. My eyes flew open, and I jerked my hand out of my underwear.
Cam stood in the doorway, staring at me. I thought I’d closed the door when I changed into his T-shirt earlier.
“H-how long have you been standing there?” I asked.
“Long enough.” He sucked in a harsh breath and raked his fingers through his hair.
“What are you doing up here?”
“I...” He shifted his gaze to some point across the room. “The bond. I could tell you were... I would normally be able to restrain myself, but when I’m hungry, it’s harder.”
Oh God, he could tell when I was aroused, even when we weren’t in the same room?
“That was exquisite,” he whispered. “The only thing more lovely would be if I were the one giving you that orgasm.”
I tried to be ashamed, or at least embarrassed, but his words stirred the pool of lust in my belly all over again. “I can’t…” I uttered the words even as my hand drifted toward my hip. His gaze locked on the appendage, followed the action with seemingly rapt attention.
“I know,” he said, his voice a croak. “I don’t want you to.”
“Yes you do.”
“You’re right.”
His admission sent a jolt of tingles through my body. My inner muscles clenched, trying to hold onto the last vestiges of the orgasm that was fading, yet quickly being replaced by a new wave of desire. Desire for a vampire. It felt so wrong, and yet so very right. My conflicted emotions did nothing to detract from the urge I had to invite him into the bed with me. He needed to feed, and I needed another release.
“Do you ... do you want to feed? On me?” I couldn’t believe I’d actually uttered the words, yet I didn’t take them back.
He shook his head. “It’s late. You need to sleep. I’ll figure something out.”
Figure something out? Like what? “I don’t want you to suck on some other woman’s neck.” I had no right to feel proprietary over him, had no right to tell him he could not sustain himself with another woman.
One corner of his lips lifted and he said, “I prefer sucking on other places, actually.”
Several images flashed in my head; him sucking on my earlobe, my breasts, my inner thigh, my pussy. Each was more erotic than the last, and I’d happily allow him whichever he preferred. Or all of the above.
“That sounds...” I couldn’t get the damn words out. My tongue was swollen, my throat dry, my brain barely functioning.
“You are not making this easy, Anya. I promised you I wanted nothing in return for helping you find your sister. I do not want to destroy what little respect you’ve developed for me. I have a lead. The last vampire she was contracted to.”
“The last vampire? As in there was more than one?” My own lust tamped to a low simmer as I tried to comprehend my reasonably innocent sister with more than one vampire partner.
“Far more than one. By all indications, she was happy in her role as a courtesan, and she was popular, too. But then she took on a contract with Parnell, and they’ve both seemingly disappeared.” Before I could get worked up, he lifted his hand and said, “Remember what I told you. They may simply be enjoying one another’s company, too caught up in the fantasy to bother with the real world. She is very likely fine.”
“Are they here? In Chicago?”
“He has a residence here, yes. But he also has one in Italy. I’ve reached out to the brothel that set up the contract, to see if they know where they are currently staying.”
Italy. Some guy might have been so enraptured with my sister that he took her to Italy? I was equally relieved and maybe a bit jealous over the idea.
“Let me continue to track down your sister, and once I have, if you are still in this frame of mind, I would be delighted to take you up on the offer.”
Well, score one for gallantry, although my core throbbed with disappointment.
“Get some rest. I will likely be asleep by the time you wake, but I’ve arranged for food and a few essentials to be delivered. I’ll leave a note with whatever I’ve discovered. If you’d be so kind as to remain in the house until dusk, I would appreciate it. It will be easier to ensure your safety, as we haven’t yet found the second man who attacked you.”
“Did you find out anything from the guy you did catch?”
Something akin to dark storm clouds crossed his face. “Yes. And no, I will not elaborate. Not right now. Not until I have more information.”
“You said—” A noise like breaking glass cut off my words.
“Stay here,” Cam ordered, and then he whipped out his phone and began tapping on the screen even as he hurried down the hall.
Ignoring his command, I grabbed my jeans and tugged them over my hips before rushing after him. Skidding to a stop at the railing overlooking the area below, I saw a roomful of people, mostly men, and all vampires, I suspected. One of the windows had been shattered; glass coated the wooden floor and the rug in front of the fireplace. People were outside, grappling, fighting. As I watched, one person grabbed the other’s head and twisted it before ripping it clean off his body. Blood spurted everywhere as the body collapsed to the ground.
Guess the whole decapitating thing wasn’t a myth. It was gross, though, and my stomach flip-flopped. Blood didn’t usually bother me; I’d seen plenty of farm animals birthed, injured; had gone hunting with my dad who insisted I gut the deer carcass myself before hauling it back home to be processed. But it was a far different picture when the blood was the result of some guy’s head being ripped from his body.
There was no way to tell who was on Cam’s side and who wasn’t. The only other vampire I’d met thus far was Peadar, and I didn’t see him anywhere. Cam, though, was backed into a corner, fending off three men at once. Each time he leveled one of them, another stepped up to take his place. They kept encroaching, but none were attempting to kill him.
What the hell was going on?
“Well, hello there, pretty girl.”
Whipping my head to the side, I watched a blond guy with a thick neck lumber up the stairs toward me. Turning back to the chaos, I saw Cam lift his gaze to take in my predicament. He began fighting with renewed vigor, as if he meant to make his way through the crowd of brawling vampires—by this point, I presumed I was the only human in the vicinity—to come to my rescue. Nice thought, but pretty damn unrealistic, given the sheer number of people crowded into his great room. Nope, I had to rescue myself this time.
Rushing back to my bedroom, I lunged for the bedside table, a small nightstand propped on four spindly legs. Flipping it onto its side, I sent a lamp, an alarm clock, and what looked like a hand-croqueted doily flying, and then I jumped on one of the legs, feeling a sense of satisfaction when the wood splintered.
“Well, aren’t you a resourceful little girly?” The blond vampire loomed in the doorway, leering at me like he was pleased I was trying to kill him. I grabbed the broken shard of wood and turned around, wielding it like a sword.
“The boss didn’t mention Camden had a courtesan. In fact, he said Camden rarely partook. Charges them for running their businesses, but he doesn’t even try the merchandise. My boss thinks that’s fucked up.”
I had no earthly idea what he was talking about, and I really didn’t care. I just wanted to survive this encounter and maybe try to get downstairs to help Cam. His odds were a tad worse than mine at the moment.
I lunged at the vampire, stabbing him in the
arm before he jerked and stumbled away from me. “Hey. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Trying to survive, dumbass.”
“If you keep that up, you aren’t going to.” He stalked toward me. The next time I jabbed at him, he grabbed the piece of wood and twisted, pulling it—and me—toward him. I lashed out, punching and kicking, trying to get away, but he simply wrapped an arm around my ribs and lifted me off my feet.
“Hey, you aren’t wearing a bra. That shirt’s pretty damn unsexy, but now that I know your tits are so easy to get to underneath...”
“Don’t you dare touch me. I—I’m contracted to Cam.” I blurted the words, having no idea if they would have an impact. I’d meant to say bonded, but, for some reason, contracted came out instead.
“Contracts can be broken,” he warned. “But not until the boss gives his okay. Come on, let’s go downstairs and see if they’ve managed to subdue your boyfriend yet.”
“Not my—” I clamped my mouth shut. Probably not a good time to point that out. I’d just told the guy I was contracted to him, after all. And he didn’t seem to have any inclination to harm me, which had to be good, right? If I had no real ties to Cam, that might change his mind about killing me.
He didn’t allow me to walk. With his arm still wrapped around my torso, he carried me down the hall to the stairs. The world beneath us resembled a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with vampires grappling and occasionally crashing to the ground with a stake protruding from their chest or minus a head or a few appendages. The only thing missing were clouds of dust; apparently that was one myth that wasn’t true, unless none of them were actually dying.
Obviously, some of those guys were on Cam’s side; there was too much fighting for it to be Cam against twenty or so vampires. Still, I had no idea who was winning, only that Cam was still holding his own, was still alive, and was still eluding capture or death.
“Hey, Camden,” the guy holding me shouted. “I found your girlfriend.”
When Cam jerked his head up to watch us descend the staircase, the group circling him literally piled on top of him, burying him in a sea of vampire bodies, like an entire football team had just sacked the quarterback.
“Son of a bitch,” I swore under my breath. “This can’t be good.”
“Nope,” my captor said, sounding far too cheerful. “Not for him anyway.”
Chapter 6
What the fuck was going on? I hadn’t recognized a single vampire who stormed into my house—not a goddamned one. There’d been too many for my lieutenants to subdue, and I’d become too lax in my security after a handful of quiet decades. My own damn fault.
And now I’d put Anya’s life in danger as well. I had no idea who these men were, what they wanted from me, but it most certainly was not an offer of tea and crumpets. As many and as determined as they were, I worried that Anya would get caught in the crosshairs and be killed. When the blond asshole had shouted at me while carrying her down the stairs, if I’d had a beating heart, it would have stopped, at least until it registered that she was—for the moment—unharmed. She wasn’t dead, but she was in their clutches.
Whoever “they” were.
After subduing me, they’d wrapped me in a silver chain—just what I needed, more of an energy drain when I barely had any as it was. I should have taken Anya up on her offer to feed from her. I still might not have won that fight, but at least I could have walked out of my own damn home without stumbling and falling to my knees enough times that two vamps finally stepped up and slipped their arms under my pits, dragging me to a waiting white panel van with no windows in the back. Apparently these guys weren’t new to the business of kidnapping.
“What a wimp,” somebody said. “That’s not even a lot of silver. How the hell is this guy in charge of the entire damn city?”
So they knew who I was, but then again, several of them had said my name during the scuffle, so I’d already deduced as much. Given the rumors, this looked like some sort of coup. Someone had decided they wanted my territory.
It had happened before, and I could overcome this latest threat—except for Anya’s involvement. I couldn’t do a damn thing that might hurt her, or worse, cause her death, which annoyed me anew. Goddamn it, this was exactly why vampires tended to suppress emotions. When you cared, it made you vulnerable.
I was shoved into the back of the van, causing me to smack into the side head first before rolling onto the floor. While stars swam before my eyes, I heard someone say, “What should we do with her? Put her back there with him?”
“Are you a fucking moron? She’s human. She’s immune to silver, so she’ll just take it off him. Put her in the car with us.”
Damn it. I’d have sunk my fangs into her skin without remotely asking her permission. I’d have figured out a way to make it up to her later. Diamonds, furs, a mansion on the lake, a trip around the world in a sailboat, half a dozen orgasms in one night, whatever the hell she wanted in return, because her blood would have given me the strength to get us both out of this situation. And then I’d have taken her to one of my hideouts that wasn’t even on the map, tucked her away, and returned to fucking destroy whoever the hell had the audacity to try to take over my territory. There was a reason Luther had deliberately chosen me to rule Chicago. He had known, even back then, that I’d never let it go.
I sat on the floor in the van while it lumbered through the streets of Chicago. Wherever we were going, it couldn’t be too far from my home base, because dawn would be breaking soon, and at the moment, I was the most protected of all the vampires in the vehicle with me. Those guys in the front would start sweating as soon as the first rays of the sun spiked through the windshield. Depending on their age, they might freaking explode on impact.
The brakes squeaked as we came to a slow stop, and then I felt a blast of cold air, indicating somebody had rolled down a window. A couple of people spoke in low tones, and then the window was rolled up and we continued forward, driving at an unhurried pace, like we were in a residential area. Or, I learned a few minutes later, the alley behind a huge brick building. While the two guys from the van crab- walked me toward the structure, I noticed a small, gold placard affixed to the wall next to the door.
“Macy’s? You went through all this to take me shopping?”
“Shut the fuck up, smartass.” The guy to my left gave me a shake and then hissed when his hand came into contact with the silver chain.
I wanted to ask after Anya, but I didn’t dare show my hand, not yet, not when I had no idea what I was up against and was still confident they hadn’t hurt her. They hadn’t, had they?
“Get your hands off me, you asshole. Jesus, you’re right, I’m not wearing a bra. Does that make you happy? What the hell do you want me to do now, jump on a trampoline?”
Nope, she definitely wasn’t injured. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning at her obvious disdain for whomever she was talking to. I’d love to see her jumping on a trampoline, with or without a bra, but I’d never in a million years say as much.
“Now that’s an idea—omph.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the guy next to Anya double over; she’d either punched or kicked him. Served him right for assuming he could handle her. I had my doubts that even I could handle her, not that it would stop me from trying to find out.
After we figured out how to get out of this predicament, of course.
We entered the building through the loading dock, stepping into a warehouse with ten-foot ceilings and rows and rows of shelves stretching all the way to the rafters. Clothing, home furnishings, pots and pans and other kitchen paraphernalia, bathroom supplies—pretty much everything a savvy vampire might need without actually having to go out and purchase it. Pretty damn genius place to set up shop, actually.
We were led down a row of shelves piled with women’s clothing, guided by the light of the security sensors. At the end, someone was holding open a door, and about ten of us piled i
nto an elevator that dropped us a couple of levels beneath the building. Anya was in the car with me, but there were so many people crammed between us, I couldn’t so much as make eye contact, let alone touch her. I did, however, take small comfort in the muttered “ouch” I heard every few seconds when someone inadvertently moved too close to my silver chains.
When the doors swept open, I saw a stark, empty hallway with bare light bulbs hanging every few feet from the exposed rafters. We all shoved our way out of the car and headed down the hallway, the sounds of various shoes slapping the concrete floor echoing up and down the corridor. Before we reached the end, the guys who were still half-carrying me came to a stop and turned to the left, one of them knocking on a nondescript door there.
Someone opened the door just enough to peek out at the crowd gathered in the hall, and then he swung it open, apparently an invitation for us to enter.
The room was massive, probably ten thousand square feet. It looked like the throne room from the Game of Thrones series, with cylindrical, white pillars creating a pathway leading to a dais and what appeared to be a throne, upon which a cocky, arrogant vampire sat.
I recognized the thick blond hair swept away from his face and pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Glittering dark blue eyes. Patriarchal nose and a square jaw. His black button-down shirt hung open, revealing perfectly carved abs. Every woman’s fucking fantasy, vampire and human alike.
“What the hell are you doing back in Chicago, Hollis?”
“Cam,” he said, hopping down off his throne, strutting toward me like we were long-lost friends. Maybe we had been friends once, or so I thought when I’d first been turned, but a vampire could only take so many stabs to the back before he cuts ties with the cause of the wounds.