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

by Kristen Painter

She understood why he was doing it, but for the first time since she’d realized he was being held captive along with her, she felt alone.

  Losing control was unacceptable. Gage pulled into himself and refocused. He’d gone longer—much longer—without feeding. But his reaction to Minka’s cut hands wasn’t about his need for blood as much as it was about his need for her. Whoever their captor was, he had to have known that. Probably had counted on it. Who was this guy?

  Gage studied the mental file he kept on all his past Collections. He separated out the ones he and Minka had done together. Sorting through them gave him some distance from the riot her blood had caused in his brain and allowed him a chance to center himself.

  “Hey.” The word was soft and plaintive and right beside him. Impossible to ignore.

  He lifted his head. The scent of her blood lingered, sweet as night-blooming jasmine. He swallowed. “Hey.”

  “You all right?”

  She’d never liked when he shut down. “Yeah.”

  “My fingers are healed.”

  He couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t take the pain right now. “Good.” The warmth of her body sank into his. She was on his left side. As close as she could get with the bars between them.

  “We need to figure out who this guy is.”

  He nodded. “Agreed.”

  “You have any ideas?”

  He’d never been so happy to have her change the subject. “Not immediately. We did a lot of Collections together.”

  “Doesn’t make it easy, does it?”

  “No.” He tipped his head against the bars. She was so close. He reached a hand back and looped a strand of her hair around his finger, the gold silk tying him to a whole new batch of memories.

  She didn’t pull away. “The debt thing doesn’t help. I’m sure everyone we Collected thinks we owe them.”

  “Right. But everyone we Collected is either dead or in prison.”

  She sighed. “Right.” She turned to look at him through the bars, stripping her hair out of his grasp. “Except maybe they’re not.”

  He twisted to face her better. “Who?”

  She glanced once at the glass, then lowered her voice even further. “Remember that crazy chemist? He was trying to invent a serum that would turn everyone into a supernatural?”

  “You mean the Alchemist? What was his name? Frank something?”

  “Franz Gruder.” She nodded, eyes wide. “And yes, I mean him.”

  Gage thought back to that night. “I remember that Collection. We took down his lab, and he caused an explosion in the fight. The place went up like a tinderbox. He and his wife died in the fire.”

  “Not exactly.” Minka’s mouth thinned to a hard line. “We had some intel about six months ago that he’d resurfaced in Phoenix. We pulled all the evidence and found out the male corpse’s DNA had been manipulated. The Alchemist had only made it seem like he’d died in that fire.”

  “And the wife?”

  Minka frowned. “The body of the female definitely belonged to her.”

  “It’s got to be him, then.”

  She wrapped her fingers around the bar between them. “And that’s the debt we owe him. His wife’s life. It all fits. Those potions that he used to drug us? That’s his signature.”

  Gage swore. “He definitely wants us dead.”

  “Even better if we do it to each other.”

  Gage sighed. “I don’t think he cares so much if you kill me. He’d probably rather do that himself. What he really wants is for me to lose you. To lose the woman I love. Just like he did.”

  There was protest in her eyes, but she said nothing, just turned her face away from him again to rest the back of her head on the bars.

  “I didn’t almost lose control earlier because I’m hungry.” The almost was important.

  She looked at him again. “Yes, you did. I saw you.”

  “Yes, I’m hungry,” he said quietly. “But it wasn’t the blood. It was your blood. It was you.”

  She stayed quiet.

  “I know what you taste like.” The velvet of her skin. The way she gave herself over to him completely. The way she mewled in pleasure when he took her. He’d memorized the map of her body, but the only place he’d been able to visit it these last two years was in his dreams. He wanted her back with the kind of desperation that scared him. And nothing scared him. “My hunger for blood right now is nothing compared to my hunger for you.”

  Her gaze dropped to the floor. “Please don’t do this, Gage. It took me a long time to get over you.”

  Her words sounded like a lie, but he let it go.

  “I can’t go through that kind of pain again.” She raised her head. “I won’t. Not with a man who can’t be completely honest with me.”

  “I understand.” He did and he didn’t. Maybe once he found Blackwell and got the answers he needed, he’d find a way to earn her forgiveness. To win back her trust. “Someday I hope to be able to explain everything to you. Maybe then…we can give things another shot.”

  “Maybe,” she whispered.

  The lights around the glass cut out. The fluorescents stayed off, leaving them in darkness.

  She shifted and sighed.

  “Get some sleep if you can.” If only he could hold her.

  “I might try.”

  He heard her shift position as she lay down. He took comfort in the fact that she stayed near him and didn’t move away. He sensed her heat signature with his hand, then lay down parallel to her and stuck his arm between the bars. “Put your head on my arm.”

  The argument he expected never came. Instead, she wrapped her hands around his forearm and settled her head on his bicep. A few minutes passed, and her breathing evened out.

  He lifted a strand of her hair to his nose and let her sweetness invade his senses. He’d missed her perfume. Hell, he’d missed everything about her. He smiled. She’d said maybe. There might be a chance for them yet.

  His smile faded. If he could get them out of here alive.

  He lay flat on the floor and stared into the dark. There had to be a way out of this in which both of them survived. What were the Alchemist’s weaknesses? He thought back to that job and the briefing they’d had going in. There had to be something they could use, something that would give them the advantage.

  He jerked upright at the sound of laughter and realized he’d drifted off. Still pitch black, but the weight of Minka was gone from his arm. He couldn’t sense her by her body heat either. She must have moved away from him. The sluggishness lingering in his system meant it was daylight out. There was no other reason he would have succumbed to the need to sleep. He scraped a hand over his face as his body came to life with the urgent need for blood. He rolled his shoulders, stretching his muscles. How long before his hunger for blood became his weakness? The Alchemist knew Gage could only go so long before losing himself to the dark need that defined his existence. No doubt the man was planning on it.

  The laughter filled the room again. Not the Alchemist’s, not with those dulcet tones and light, clear notes.

  “Minka?”

  She laughed again. This time the sound was rounded and drawn out. Like she was intoxicated.

  “About time you woke up, vampire.” The Alchemist’s sneer was audible in his words. “The pixie’s been waiting for you.”

  The lights flared on, bright and glaring. Gage squinted, but only for a moment. On the far side of the cell, Minka was propped lazily against the bars. Her smile was unnaturally bright, her eyes glassy. And in one hand, she held a gleaming blade. She waved it at him. “Hiya, Gage.” Her smile went lopsided, and her gaze, for a moment, locked on to him. “Damn, you’re pretty.”

  “Hi, Minka.” This wasn’t like her at all. She looked drunk. And where had she gotten that blade? “Why don’t you put the knife down and come over here and talk to me?” Gage inhaled, and an odd smell assailed his nostrils. He grimaced, glad that breathing wasn’t a requirement for him.

  B
ut, of course, it was for Minka. Gage glanced at the vents. Which was how the Alchemist had drugged her. His body wanted to go back to sleep, but his mind knew Minka needed him.

  She got to her feet slowly, pulling herself up with the bars. “It’s hot in here.” She struggled with her leather jacket, leaning heavily against the cell wall.

  The room seemed the same temperature it had been since they’d arrived. Had to be whatever was in her system. “Put the knife down. You’ll be able to get your jacket off a lot easier that way.” What the hell was the Alchemist up to now?

  “Yeah,” she slurred. “Good idea.” She tried unsuccessfully to put the knife in her pocket, almost cutting herself in the process.

  Gage stuck his hands through the bars. “Hey, why don’t you let me hold it for you?”

  She stopped to look at him. Her eyes narrowed. “No. I’m not giving you anything of mine again.”

  Whatever the Alchemist had given her seemed to be heightening her true feelings, pushing them to extremes. Gage pulled his hands back and held them up. “That’s cool, too.”

  She set the knife on the floor, then continued to struggle with her jacket, finally yanking it off and dropping it to the ground. With one hand on the bars, she leaned over and grabbed the blade.

  “Better?”

  “Kinda.” She slouched against the bars. “Still feel hot.”

  She was down to a tank top and jeans, both of which clung to her. If she ditched either of those…maybe that was the Alchemist’s play. Get Gage all hot and bothered at Minka’s expense. That wouldn’t explain the knife, though. Gage had a pretty good idea of where that fit in. He looked toward the glass and snarled at the dim figure hiding behind it.

  Minka let out a loud exhale, pulling Gage’s attention back to her. She fanned herself with her empty hand. “It’s like I’m hot on the inside.”

  “He drugged you, Minka.”

  Her eyes widened only slightly. “Who?”

  “The man behind the glass.” No reason for the Alchemist to know they were on to his identity yet.

  “Drugged me how?” Her lids looked heavy. Maybe she’d fall asleep, and the drug would work its way out of her system.

  “I’m guessing he put something in the air.” He nodded at the vents in the ceiling. “You have to breathe it. I don’t.”

  “Bastard,” she muttered.

  “Exactly.”

  She waved the knife at the glass. “Bastard,” she yelled louder.

  “That’s right.” She seemed to be coming out of her stupor a little.

  A shushing sound turned his head. A thin mist filtered through the vents. No doubt more drugs. “Enough,” Gage shouted. Rage made his muscles taut and forced any remaining urge to sleep from his system. “Leave her alone. You’ve got me. Leave her alone.”

  The Alchemist’s laughter answered him. “I have no plans to touch her. Yet.”

  Minka moaned. Gage faced her, the Alchemist’s threat ringing in his ears. “Are you okay? What’s that stuff doing to you?”

  She slid down the bars and sprawled on the floor. “I’m so hot, baby.”

  Alarms went off in Gage’s head. Had the Alchemist just dosed her with something new? “Fight it, Minka. Whatever he’s doing to you, fight it. You’re stronger than this.”

  She turned over and got on her hands and knees. With the blade still gripped in her fist, she crawled toward him. “I know what I need.”

  “No, Minka. Get a hold of yourself.” He backed away from the bars. The last time he’d seen that look in her eyes, she’d kept him in bed for almost two days.

  She grinned with a kind of crazed, I-don’t-care smile that chilled him. The Alchemist would pay for this. That much Gage knew.

  She reached the bars that separated them and stood. She stuck her bottom lip out. “Don’t you want me, Gage?”

  “Minka. You’re not yourself right now.”

  She gyrated against the bars. “C’mon, baby. Remember how it used to be?”

  Yeah, he remembered. Every night. As he lay in his bed alone. “It can be that way again, but not now. Not here.”

  She leaned into the bars, anger flashing in her eyes. “Are you rejecting me?”

  “No, no—”

  “Then kiss me.” She pressed her face against the bars and puckered up.

  As much as he wanted to, he didn’t want it like this. “You’re not yourself, sweetheart.” He went to her, reached through the bars and caressed her shoulder. The silk of her skin beneath his hand made his body tighten. “You don’t want me to do this. Trust me.”

  She jerked back. “You want me. You know you do.”

  “I don’t deny that. But. Not. This. Way.”

  She flipped the knife in her fingers, twirling it like a Vegas act. The gleam in her eyes was wild. Dangerous. “I know how to make you do what I want.”

  “Whatever you’re thinking about doing, don’t.”

  With a snort of rebellion, she took the knife by the handle and drew it over her palm. Red welled up, glistening and bright.

  The scent punched him in the gut, yanked his fangs down and sent his senses reeling. He opened his mouth, drawing in the sweet, metallic perfume of her, unable to resist. His control, already thin, teetered on the edge of a deep, dark abyss.

  “Minka, don’t.” His voice came out a growl, heavy with desire.

  She smiled and lifted her hand to him as she swayed closer to the bars. “Don’t you want a taste?”

  Hell yes. He backed up. His insides stormed with need. Chaos ruled his head. Bite her. Take her. Feed. He swallowed. He needed blood. It would make him stronger. Able to fight the Alchemist. No. He threw his head back and growled in frustration. “No.”

  “I think you do, vampire,” the Alchemist chimed in.

  Gage pointed at the window separating them. “What you need to think about is how I’m going to kill you once I’m out of here.”

  The Alchemist laughed. “We both know that’s an empty threat. Now do as the pixie wants. Drain her dry.”

  That the Alchemist wanted him in such a state that he’d drain Minka to the point of death sobered Gage a bit. “That’s never going to happen.” He found a shred of control and retreated to the far side of the cell, putting as much distance as possible between him and Minka. The cut she’d made was nearly closed, giving him some respite.

  “I say it will, vampire. Show him, pixie. Show him what he’s missing.”

  Minka nodded and drew the blade across her palm again, opening the wound anew. Fresh blood spilled forth. It sang to him with a siren song that shredded his resolve. He needed her. Needed her blood. Her body. Her heart. The war within him almost brought him to his knees.

  The Alchemist’s laughter was drowned out by a screeching noise that ricocheted through the space.

  The bars keeping Gage from Minka were slowly rising into the ceiling. What little control he had left vanished. The beast in him rose up, hungry, wanting. The hunger became everything. It possessed his mind, controlled his body and wiped away any rational thought left within him.

  More vapor leaked from the vents, and on the other side of those disappearing bars, Minka lost her glassy-eyed, doped-up look. She blinked a few times and rubbed at her forehead.

  Gage barely registered that the woman he loved was coming out of her drug-induced state, but it was too late. The hunger had won. He crouched, ready to lunge as soon as the bars cleared enough space.

  Just a few more inches, and the hunger would finally be satisfied.

  She leveled the blade at him as she backed up, the confusion on her face turning to fear. “Don’t, Gage. Don’t make me do something I’ll regret.”

  More laughter from the Alchemist.

  Then the lights went off.

  Tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump.

  Despite the screech of metal, the sound of her pounding heart filled Minka’s ears. Gage had been this strung out with the need for blood once before. As he did then, he reminded her of a junkie. The
only difference was, he hadn’t brought it on himself. The blood lust was just something that happened to his kind if they went too long without feeding. Seeing him succumb to the darkest side of himself once was enough. She’d never let him get that way again after they’d gotten together.

  For the briefest of moments, she wondered who was fulfilling that need for him now, but keeping herself alive was a bigger priority than guessing who was in his bed.

  She held the knife in front of her. It wouldn’t kill him unless she got a direct hit to the heart, but it would buy her some time.

  Maybe.

  In the dark like this, his senses were better than hers, but that didn’t mean she was going to go without a fight. The bars stopped rising, and an eerie stillness settled over the space. Her body was a hair trigger, alert for the impending attack.

  His boots made a soft, gravelly sound as he shifted position on the concrete.

  The soft rush of moving air followed. He’d launched toward her. She shifted to the right as far and as fast as possible. He was quicker than she was, but pixies weren’t slow and she’d anticipated well.

  He struck the bars with a thud and yowled in disappointment. “Come here, Minka.”

  “No.” There was no point in keeping quiet. He could hear her pulse thumping away, sense the warmth of her body. She might as well have glowed in the dark. And he knew she had the knife. The only other weapons she had against him were personal ones. Time to play dirty. “Gage,” she said in her sweetest, most sincere voice. “Do you still love me?”

  Apparently, that got the attention of their captor. One of the dim fluorescents flickered to half-life with a low hum. It was enough for her to see by. Enough that their captor didn’t have to rely on the power of his night-vision cameras.

  Gage stalked toward her, a hulking mass of thirst and need, eyes wild, fangs on full display. He lifted a hand. “Come here, Minka. Now.”

  She retreated, knife out, hope dwindling. She repeated her question, drawing the words out with extra emphasis. He could kill her if he attacked her in this state. “Do you love me? You used to. You used to say you’d never loved anyone the way you loved me.”

  He slowed.