Sin City Collectors Boxed Set: Queen of Hearts, Dead Man's Hand, Double or Nothing

by Kristen Painter

  The man stuck the sign beneath his arm. “Welcome to Las Vegas, Mr. Hudson. I’m Ernie, your driver. Do you need to go to baggage claim?”

  Ernie was a shifter of some sort by the smell of him. Wolf, coyote, one of the canine varieties. Whatever. All that mattered was that the service catered to supes and had UV-proof windows on their vehicles. “No. Straight to the car.”

  As if reading Gage’s mind, Ernie answered, “I’ve got a Lincoln Navigator, fully tinted. If you want to wait by these doors, I’ll have it around in just a minute.”

  “Fine.” Gage stood by the sliding glass doors. Pink edged the horizon line. Dawn. He refused to let it panic him. There was plenty of time yet.

  Ernie was quick with the car, but Gage didn’t wait for him to get out and open the door. He climbed into the back as soon as the vehicle rolled to a stop. “Right to the hotel, please.”

  “You got it, Mr. Hudson.” Ernie smiled in the rearview mirror before throwing the SUV into drive and pulling into traffic. “I took the liberty of getting you some refreshments. There’s a thermos in the backseat pocket. Should still be plenty warm.”

  Gage’s gaze dropped to the container. His fangs punched through his gums. He forced them back. He never drank blood from an unverified source. “No, thanks.”

  Ernie laughed and shook his head. “My sister-in-law told me you wouldn’t drink it.” He changed lanes. “My brother’s married to a vampire. Nice girl. Brazilian. Crazy temper.” He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “No worries if you don’t want it. She’ll drink it.”

  Gage’s eyes went back to the thermos. The seal on the cap, put in place by the lab, was unbroken. He took the thermos out and read the name and address on the seal. “She ever get supplies from this place before?”

  “Oh yeah,” Ernie said. “All the time. That’s how I found the place. Blood’s not exactly my thing, but then you probably guessed that.”

  “You’re a shifter.” The thermos was warm in his hand. Warm from the blood inside it.

  Ernie nodded, his eyes on the cars around him now. “Coyote.”

  “That’s what I’d guessed.” Gage made small talk, but his attention was focused on the thermos. Drinking the blood would save him the effort of getting a donor sent over. That meant more time to sleep and prepare for the night ahead. Less risk of the SCC finding out he was in town, as they sometimes monitored those services as a preemptive measure. “How’d your brother end up married to a vampire?”

  “Long story.” Ernie shrugged. “My brother’s kind of a risk taker. They met nighttime skydiving, if you can believe that.”

  Gage twisted off the top of the thermos, breaking the seal. The warm, earthy aroma set his body alive with anticipation. He held the container up to Ernie. “Thanks for this.”

  Ernie nodded. “I do my best to make my customers happy.” He punched a button, and the glass divider between them started up. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

  “Appreciated.” Gage tipped the thermos back and drank. It was warm and good and exactly what he needed. He’d almost downed the whole thing in one long swallow when the bitter aftertaste hit him. Gagging, he spit what remained in his mouth back into the thermos. “There’s something wrong with this blood.”

  The divider was up. He pounded on it. “What’s in this blood?”

  Ernie laughed, but a sharp whine drowned out the sound and made Gage’s head ache. His body went loose, his muscles unresponsive. His head felt heavy. Hard to hold up. “What did you do to me?”

  Ernie’s only answer was to turn the SUV in the opposite direction of the hotel.

  Gage lifted a hand toward the door handle, but he made it only halfway before his body stopped responding entirely. He slipped farther down in the seat. The whine in his head turned to a dull throb that morphed into the hum of the road beneath the SUV. With each passing second, his vision grew darker, until at last, everything went black.

  Minka’s muscles were stiff with cold and disuse. She shifted, trying to move her right arm, but it was stuck beneath her, dead with pins and needles. She grabbed it with her left hand and pulled it free. The rush of blood and pain made her gasp. She lay on her back, rubbing the feeling into her arm. The floor beneath her was hard, cold and smooth. She put a hand on it. Concrete.

  But the most overwhelming thing was the darkness. Utter blackness that not even her supernatural eyes could penetrate. She put her hand in front of her face and wiggled her fingers. Not a thing.

  She went back over what she remembered. The green vial in the envelope. That was no love potion. What it had been was some kind of knock-out concoction. Which meant she’d been set up. The playing card she’d thought had looked wonky was clearly part of it. But who would do that to her? And for what reason?

  Sure, there were supes she’d Collected in the past who might be out to get her, but most of them were imprisoned. Some were dead. She thought through past cases, but came up with no clear idea of who could be behind this.

  At least she still had all her clothes. She reached into her jacket pocket. But no phone and no keys. Damn it. Her knife was gone, too. She listened for a sound, for anything that might be a clue as to where she was, but the place was as silent as a tomb.

  That was a happy thought.

  After one more stretch of her numb arm, she turned over and got on her hands and knees. She reached back and checked the pocket of her jeans. The playing card was gone, too. That clinched it. She’d definitely been set up. Whoever was behind this was in for a surprise. Pixies had wicked tempers, and when she got out of here, she’d give them a little demonstration. Inch by inch, she moved forward, sweeping her hands out in front of her, trying to find a wall or a door or something that would help her figure out where she was and how to escape.

  Her fingers collided with metal. Bars. She slid her hands up them as she stood. The bars continued over her head. She followed the bars to the right, hoping for an opening. She didn’t find one, but eventually hit a metal wall. The steel plate was smooth except for rivets at regular intervals. She followed the wall, keeping right and counting her steps until she judged it to be about ten feet long. At the end were more bars. She kept going, counting steps and feeling her way around until at last she’d completed the circuit and was back at the metal wall again.

  She was in a cell. Ten by ten, with one metal wall and three made of inch-thick metal bars. There was no door or opening that she could find.

  Defeat settled over her for a moment, but she shook it off. She wasn’t a quitter. Never had been. Wasn’t going to start now.

  She paced the span of the cell, keeping her hands out in front of her to avoid smacking into the bars. When she reached the far side, she grasped the bars and shook. Solid. She ran her hands up and down as far as they would go. About a foot from the floor was a flat crossbar. She wedged the toes of her boots between the bars and stood on the cross span, reaching up farther.

  Another flat crossbar. She could just wrap her fingers over it. Being short sucked. If she went up on her tiptoes, she could almost get her whole hand on it. Using every ounce of supernatural strength, she pulled herself up and got her elbows on the bar.

  Bracing her knees and feet against the bars and using all her strength to hold herself in place, she slipped one hand up the bars toward the ceiling to see if she could touch it. But the bars continued higher than she could reach. With a soft curse, she jumped off. Her boots hit the concrete with a slap.

  Anger unfurled in her belly. Whoever was behind this was going to be very sorry when she got out. She grabbed the bars again and shook them. “Show yourself. Whoever’s kidnapped me, let me see your cowardly face.”

  A rectangle of lights flared to life with an electric snap, blinding her. She shielded her eyes and squinted. They were on a far wall, maybe fifteen feet from the bars. Her eyes adjusted slowly. The lights surrounded a panel of black glass. One way, probably. On either side, cameras hung from the ceiling. The only exit she could see was a door directly
across from her cell.

  She stared at the black window. No doubt her captor was watching her. Perv. She crossed her arms and glared at whoever was up there. “I’m ready to get out of here.”

  No response.

  Her anger blossomed into something that caused her muscles to tremble with the need for action. “Did you hear me?”

  Still no response.

  The urge to hit something made her hands itch. “If you think this little game is going to break me, you’re wrong. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  “This little game has only begun, pixie.”

  The voice was male and raspy and laced with evil intent, but not one she immediately recognized. There was something vaguely familiar about it, but after years of hunting bad guys for the Collectors, they all started to sound alike. A grinding noise, like the chain drive on an old garage door, came from the side of the cell. She turned to see the metal wall rising up into the ceiling, which had to be fifteen feet high.

  She crouched down, thinking she might be able to roll under the wall and escape, but there were more bars on the other side of the rising wall.

  And then she realized there was someone else over there. Another prisoner. Held in another cell just like hers. A man. A big man. He lay on his side, facing away from her so that she couldn’t see what he looked like. His long hair was tied back, and he was either unconscious or dead because he wasn’t moving.

  “Hey,” she shouted. “Are you okay over there?” Her nostrils flared. She knew that dark, spicy scent. Vampire. New fear filled her. What did her captor have planned?

  The metal wall slammed back down, and the lights went out again, plunging her into darkness once more. She uncrossed her arms to flip two birds in the direction of her captor’s viewing window. Knowing she wasn’t alone gave her both hope and a little fear. If her captor intended to pit her against the man in the next cell…she took a breath. There was a chance she could defeat a vampire, but not a big chance. All depended on how old and how well fed the vampire was.

  A soft hiss filtered through the silence. The scent of honeyed almonds followed. Panic trickled into her gut. The same potion that had been used on her in the car. She pulled her tank top over her nose and mouth and retreated to the far corner, but it was no use.

  Her sense of balance disappeared as her body went limp. She used the bars to get down on the floor without falling, then curled into a fetal position. There was no way to fight being drugged, no way to stop breathing. In that respect, the vampire had an advantage. Seconds ticked by, each one increasing her drowsiness. Then her struggle was over and she passed out.

  Gage’s mouth tasted like he’d been sucking on steel wool. The metallic sourness of whatever he’d been drugged with lingered, making him want to retch. He swallowed instead. He’d tasted worse.

  He blinked a few times, but it didn’t help his vision. Even vampire eyes needed a little light, and wherever he was had none. He pushed to a sitting position as his stomach growled. The tainted blood had done nothing to assuage his thirst.

  “Ernie, you little prick. If you’re out there and I catch you, I’m going to skin your mangy coyote hide. To start with.”

  His words bounced around the space, giving him a rough idea of the size of the place he was being held in. Not large, but not a closet either. He got to his feet, shaking his muscles to loosen them and feeling around with his arms out to see if he could find walls. He did. Bars.

  He cursed under his breath and grabbed hold of them. The bars were thick, but that wasn’t going to stop him. He pulled, leaning into the effort. The bars creaked and began to move. With a nod of satisfaction, he applied himself to the task.

  Lights flipped on, making him squint. He was completely surrounded by bars with about fifteen feet of space around them except on one side where the bars abutted a steel wall. He had about fifteen feet to the ceiling.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, vampire.”

  The man’s voice came out of nowhere, but the lights in front of Gage surrounded a large pane of glass. His eyes adjusted to the brightness, and he could just make out a shape behind the smoked glass. Cameras hung from the ceiling. Someone was watching him. Orchestrating this.

  He snarled at the figure, “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t come through these bars and tear you apart.” There was a door on the opposite side of his cell. That had to be a way to get to whoever was behind this.

  Low, sinister laughing was soon replaced by the harsh grind of metal against metal. The steel wall on the other side of the bars was moving. Gage took a step back, keeping his hands fisted but his body loose and ready to fight.

  As the metal rose, his defensive posture dropped. Another cell sat opposite his, separated now by only the wall of bars. A woman lay curled on the hard concrete. His intended meal? There was a certain kind of human that got off on watching vampires feed, but if his captor thought he was going to put on a show, the creep had another—

  Gage muttered a curse as he saw the woman more clearly. A chill swept him. Her blond hair and curvy form were as familiar to him as the night was dark.

  He walked to the bars, grasped them and leaned his forehead against the only thing keeping him from the one person who’d ever meant anything to him. “Minka,” he whispered.

  She didn’t move.

  “That’s right, vampire,” the voice came again. “Your precious pixie.”

  Rage flowed through Gage like molten lava, burning his control to ashes. He bared his fangs and snarled, “Let her go. You have me. I’m enough.”

  The voice laughed. “You’re in no position to tell me what to do.”

  Gage turned toward the window. The shadowy figure was still there. “Who are you? What do you want from us?” He glanced at Minka. “Why isn’t she moving? What did you do to her?”

  “Your concern is touching.” The voice scratched at Gage’s memories with the vague familiarity of a recurring nightmare, but Gage couldn’t place it. He listened more closely as the man continued, “As for who I am and what I want from you…you’ll figure it out in time.”

  Gage glared at whoever was in the booth. “Tell me now.”

  “So many demands. That’s just like you, vampire. Thinking the world owes you something. It doesn’t. In fact, you’re here to pay a debt. A debt you owe to me.”

  “Screw you. I don’t owe you jack.” Gage grabbed the bars separating his cell from Minka’s and yanked hard. They didn’t move like the others had.

  “Escape if you wish, vampire, but there will be consequences.”

  Gage kept his hands on the bars, but stopped pulling on them. “Such as?”

  A new sound filled the space. A soft whirring from overhead. Gage looked up to see the ceiling of both cells split open and two new panels drop down. The one above him was covered in spotlights. The one above Minka held hundreds of bells.

  Bells. The clanging of bells could kill a pixie. Without closer examination, he knew the spotlights above him weren’t ordinary bulbs.

  The man’s voice returned. “Of course, if you want to escape, who am I to stop you?”

  Gage took his hands off the bars. “So I can fry myself? I think not.”

  “Oh, now, that wouldn’t be very sporting, would it? Those lights won’t turn on if you try to escape.”

  “And I should believe you why?”

  “Because that’s not the consequence.”

  “What is?”

  “The bells.”

  Gage looked toward Minka’s ceiling, his stomach pitching with the thought of what he might have caused.

  “That’s right, vampire. You escape, those bells start ringing like it’s church on Sunday. Bells make the prettiest sounds, don’t they? And if she tries to escape, those shiny UV bulbs above you come glaring on. Think of a cloudless day on the sunniest beach imaginable, and you’ll be in the ballpark.”

  “Bastard.”

  Soft chuckling answered him. “You be sure to fill her in when s
he wakes up.”

  The lights around the glass went out, but two dim banks of fluorescents flickered on, washing the space in a sickly green. Tiny red lights on the cameras indicated they were active, but at least the figure behind the glass disappeared. Very distantly, Gage heard a door close.

  Their captor might be leaving them alone, but he’d still be monitoring them with the cameras. What kind of sicko was this guy? Someone who thought they owed him a debt. That didn’t help.

  Gage crouched by the wall of bars that separated him from Minka. He got as close as he could. Close enough to inhale the sugary-sweet scent of her. His jaw tensed, but the clutch of longing in his chest overrode that. “Minka, wake up. Minka.”

  She shifted and turned onto her back. Her lids rose slowly, and she blinked a few times like she was trying to focus. She scrubbed a hand across her face. “Where am I?”

  “I have no idea.” Since he’d last seen her two years ago, she’d only gotten more beautiful. The ache in his chest got worse. Damn, he’d missed her.

  She twisted at the sound of his voice, her gaze pinning him. Her eyes rounded slightly in recognition, then narrowed again as a storm of emotions clouded her gaze. “Oh, I know where I am now.”

  “Where?” Gage asked.

  She rolled away from him. “Hell.”

  Gage Hudson. She’d never have imagined in a million years that he was the vampire on the other side of the cell. Maybe because she’d done her best to erase him from her thoughts. Maybe because his hair was longer now. Maybe because of the drugs that had sedated her. Yeah, the drugs. That was good.

  Whatever the reason, there was no getting past the fact that she was going to have to deal with him now. Same coal-black hair, same ice-blue eyes, same incredible body. No reason to think his ability to betray her was any different. She pushed to a sitting position. That lying, manipulative, stupidly gorgeous piece of undead—

  “Minka.”

  She spun back around. “If you’re the reason I’m in here, I’m going to kill you myself. What are you doing in here anyway? I was drugged. What’s your excuse?”