by Jackie May
Henry sputters, and his hands clench into fists at his sides. He’s going to come to blows with Parker any moment if Parker doesn’t back down—not that I want Parker to stop. I can’t believe he’s sticking up for me. And, I have to admit, I hate Parker a lot less right now.
Terrance and Wulf watch the drama unfold between them like it’s a good soap opera. They look just as shocked by Parker’s interference as me. It must be really unusual for a vampire to argue with his sire. I can’t help the feelings of hope welling up inside me. Parker is Henry’s right-hand man. If anyone could convince Henry to release me, it would be Parker.
“We’re not kidnapping her,” Henry says. I could choke on his haughtiness, there’s so much of it in the air around him. “We’re taking care of her. She’s alone in the world. I’ve seen her life. She has no one to protect her. She needs me. I’m giving her a home and a family, safety and security. Those are things she wants anyway!”
“Sire, if she wants those things, offer them to her. Don’t force them on her. You’ll never win her over with force. And think of Nadine. You know Nora is powerful. Think of how much help she could be if she was cooperating willingly.”
Boy, was that ever the wrong thing to say. Henry’s temper finally explodes. “I am a master vampire!” he shouts. “You do not question me, and she will not defy me! I can make her do anything I want!”
He’s standing in front of me with his hands on either side of my head before he finishes his last word. He moves so fast it takes my breath away. There’s no time to escape him, or even understand what he’s doing, before he grips my face and captures my gaze in his glowing red one. “You will do as I say, Nora. There will be no bargaining.” I feel the weight of his words and curse. He’s compelling me. “You will assist me. From now on, you will do everything in your power to find Nadine. Do you understand?”
The command settles in my mind like a cake in the oven that’s just fallen flat. It’s heavy, and hard, and irrevocable. I nod, because I can’t speak past my anger. It’s my first command. I’m officially his little psychic tool.
I’ve been compelled. Henry compelled me. I now have to help him find his missing vampire. I have no choice. The thought makes me ill.
Henry releases his grip on my face but keeps his gaze on me. “I would hate to have to compel you to do anything else since I know you’re not keen on the action. But make no mistake, love, you are mine. You will do as I say, and accept your new life, or I will compel you to accept it.”
I hate him so much that I can’t even feel the fear his threat should ignite in me. Someday I am going to kill this bastard. As he waits for acknowledgment from me, I stare him down, letting him see exactly how much I loathe him. I wonder if he can see the promise of murder in my eyes.
Henry grins, as if he finds my hatred a juicy challenge. “I can make you want me, you know.”
The blood in my veins turns to ice. “It wouldn’t be real. You don’t want to compel me to like you, because it wouldn’t really be me. You wouldn’t really be winning.”
“I would prefer not to, no, but I will if you make it necessary, Nora. Do not doubt me on that.”
Henry stares me down for a long minute, and I stare right back while trying to get my fear under control. I would have doubted he’d really do it before he compelled me. But if he’s willing to force me to help him find his missing vampire, maybe he really is willing to force me into a relationship with him. I don’t want to find out, so I try to get the attention off me. With a hard swallow, I drag my eyes away from him and turn to Terrance. It’s hard to look him in the eye. I feel like I have no dignity left and hate that I now have to help him against my will. “Do you know where your friend was tonight?” I ask. “Specifically, the last place anyone saw her?”
Terrance hesitates. Pity streaks across his grumpy face, but he quickly squashes it and turns all business. “She was at the bar.”
“Where?” I glance down the long length of the bar. “Do you remember which seat exactly?”
“She was—”
“Forget the troll, Nora,” Henry interrupts. “You are here to help me find my vampire.”
I’m almost stunned by his heartlessness. Almost. Terrance growls, and I place a hand on his arm, willing him to calm down. I can take care of this. “Unbelievable.” I shake my head in disgust. “You are such a dick, Henry.” He hisses at me, but I ignore it. “Helping Terrance find his missing friend is helping find your stupid vampire. Do you think their disappearances, both from this club, are coincidence? No. And his is more recent. How long has Nadine been missing?”
Henry is too angry to answer me, so Parker speaks up. “Over a week,” he whispers.
“Over a week?” I shake my head, a scornful smirk on my face. “You dragged me here looking for clues over a week old?”
I’ve never caught an imprint that was older than two or three days. Henry knows that since he’d rummaged around in my head, taking any and all information he wanted about my gifts. “It’s still worth a try,” he grumbles defensively.
“Right. Sure.” He and I both know I won’t find anything from his missing vampette. “Don’t murder me when I try to help with something I might actually have a chance at seeing.”
Henry’s jaw clenches, but he concedes me this victory with a curt nod. I don’t celebrate. That would be acknowledging the fact that he has control over me. Glancing to Terrance again, I give him a grim smile. “Please show me exactly where your friend was sitting tonight, if you can.”
Terrance scratches his head and looks to Wulf. The werewolf’s eyebrows pull low over his eyes as he thinks about it, and then he walks over toward the bar. “I think it was one of these two seats,” he says. “I remember the girls sitting near the soda dispenser.”
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Sliding onto one of the stools in question, I close my eyes and run my hands over the bar. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only place I have to start.
“What are you doing?” Wulf murmurs. He’s close enough that the sound of his voice startles me. The big guy is really quiet on his feet.
“Trying to concentrate,” I hint.
He smirks and gives me a friendly salute before backing up a step. I wink at him and close my eyes again. At first, I pick up nothing, but if I focus, sometimes I can catch weaker imprints. After a moment, I’m sucked into a memory.
Deafening bass pulses through the club. It’s crowded—every stool at the bar is taken, and a row of customers stands behind them, calling out to Wulf for drinks.
I enter the vision standing next to the seat I’m sitting on back in the real world. A young woman sits there now. She’s not very attractive—tall and bulky, not fat, big in a masculine way—but she’s made effort with her dress and makeup. The girl beside her has similar features, though her face is slightly more appealing.
The girl next to me has one hand wrapped around a mug of dark brown liquid and has the other hand resting flat on the bar—the place I picked up the imprint. She stiffens suddenly as Terrance appears behind the bar, offering to give Wulf a hand. The girl beside her sees her nerves and flashes her a giddy smile. “He’s going to love you, Shandra. I’m sure of it.”
“Nell, you’re his sister and my best friend. Of course you think that. But I’m just a kid compared to him.”
“So am I, and he loves me just fine.”
I smile at Nell’s enthusiasm, but Shandra isn’t as amused. “He hasn’t even come over to say hi yet. Do you think he’s upset that I was sent here? He’s lived on his own for so long. Maybe he doesn’t like the idea of having a mate.”
Nell glances across the bar to where Terrance is pouring a shot for a decent-looking guy with blond hair and huge muscles. “I don’t think so,” she decides, frowning. “It’s just really busy tonight. Terrance is a loner, but no troll wants to go without a family forever. Maybe the clan is trying to push him into motion with this, but I think once he considers it, he’ll like the idea.�
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Before Shandra can stop her, Nell waves her hand in the air and calls out to Terrance. His entire face lights up at the sight of her. “Nell! Is that you, baby sis? What are you doing here?”
Giggling, she throws her arm over Shandra’s shoulder and holds up her drink. “I’ve brought your future mate to meet you—clan’s orders—so get your scrawny butt over here!”
Shandra glares at Nell, but Nell doesn’t notice. She’s too busy giggling at the look of shock on Terrance’s face. He’s gaping at Shandra with his jaw on the floor. “I guess the clan elders forgot to mention this whole mating idea to him,” Nell whispers.
Terrance finishes pouring the drink for the hot guy customer who is also staring at the two trolls with a hint of surprise, and slowly makes his way over to his waiting guests. Terrance warily lets his sister introduce him to Shandra, but I don’t pay attention to them. My eyes stay locked on Mr. Muscles across the bar. He hasn’t stopped looking at the girls since the moment they got Terrance’s attention. There’s something about the way he’s watching them that doesn’t sit quite right with me. His gaze is calculating and hungry. He’s clearly not a troll. He’s much too small for that, despite the body builder appearance. So why is he so fascinated by a couple of unattractive troll girls?
I pull myself from the vision, taking a moment to orient myself. I don’t answer all the questions being thrown at me as I head toward the stool Mr. Muscles was sitting on. I don’t want to lose my concentration. Quickly, with Mr. Muscles’ face at the front of my mind, I slide onto his stool and run my hands over the counter he’d been leaning against. The vision comes much quicker this time. It’s a stronger imprint. Whoever the stranger was, he was pretty excited last night.
His hand clenches into a fist on the bar as he watches Terrance talk to Shandra and Nell. It’s clearly an awkward conversation. Poor Terrance looks so frazzled. I feel badly for Shandra, too. Whatever this mate business the girls were talking about was, it had obviously been something she was looking forward to, and Terrance didn’t seem to share her excitement.
Shandra says something to them both and abruptly jumps up. Her eyes are glossy with unshed tears as she heads toward the restrooms. Terrance and Nell automatically begin arguing with one another. I find it fascinating and am dying to know how marriage and family works among troll clans, but I force myself to pay attention to Mr. Muscles. He knocks back the rest of his drink in one gulp and follows after Shandra.
When the vision ends, my head starts to throb—an unfortunate side effect of getting sucked into visions. I’m going to have a killer headache after this, because I’ve got to try and dive into a few more before I can call it a night.
I lean over the bar with a groan, resting my head on the cool counter until the throbbing subsides. Parker and Henry reach my sides first, both calling my name in concern.
“Just give me a second.”
“What’s going on?” Terrance asks as I concentrate on not vomiting.
“Nora, love, what’s wrong?” Henry places his hand softly on my back. “Are you ill?”
His chilly fingers on my back give me the creeps. Squirming out from beneath his touch, I scramble off my stool and glare at the man. “Getting sucked into memories isn’t exactly a picnic, but I’m fine. Stop touching me.”
Ignoring his annoyed frown, I turn to Terrance. “When your sister and Shandra showed up, you were serving a drink to a guy—early twenties, decent looking, blond hair, brown eyes, big arms, thick neck. That’s your guy. That’s who took her. He followed her to the restroom when she left you and Nell to argue. Do you remember him? Did you know him?”
Terrance gasps and his face pales. “How do you know that?”
“Sometimes I can see things. Imprints of the past. Whoever the man you served last night was, he was awfully interested in your sister and her friend.”
“What kind of underworlder was he? What race?” Parker asks while Henry has his own set of questions. “Who was he? What did he want? Why did he take her?”
Ugh. I knew this was going to happen. “How the hell am I supposed to know?”
“You had a vision,” Henry snaps, displeased with my bad attitude.
“Yeah, a vision,” I snark back. “A picture. Imprints are like movies. I can see what’s going on, but I don’t hear what’s going on in their heads.”
“But what was he?” Parker asks again. “Knowing his race will give us a place to start looking.”
“I don’t know.”
Parker doesn’t set off my bitch meter as much as Henry, but I’m still losing my patience. I’m not in the mood to go into all the details of my gift’s limitations, so I ignore the lot of them and head toward the back of the club. They follow silently and, wisely, don’t bother me as I begin running my hands slowly along the walls of the dim hallway where the restrooms are.
I really don’t have much of a chance of picking up anything useful, but I have to try. Shandra seemed so young and nice, and Terrance is so worried about her. The first imprint that sucks me in is a flash of a woman holding herself steady against the wall while she throws up. I guess even underworlders can’t always hold their liquor.
Next, I’m pulled into a couple who I first assume are making out against the wall, but on closer inspection I realize the woman has her fangs sunk deeply into the man’s neck. The imprint is so strong I can’t pull out of it, and I’m forced to wait out the feeding. Like my vision of Henry this morning, this couple seems to really be enjoying themselves. The fact that the experience seems orgasmic for both of them doesn’t lessen my repulsion. All I see is a monster drinking blood.
When I’m finally free of that imprint, I’m quickly sucked into another one. This time, a man with all black eyes stands in the darkest corner of the hall, and a scantily clad woman kneels in front of him. I roll my eyes and vow never to wander into the dark recesses of a nightclub. I’m just about give up the search when I find what I’m looking for.
Mr. Muscles leans against the wall outside the women’s room. One hand is tucked into his jeans pockets, and the other holds a lit cigarette. Though, it’s a hand-rolled cigarette, so it might not be a cigarette at all. He’s got a bored look on his face, as if he’s waiting for his girlfriend to come out of the restroom.
When Shandra finally exits the bathroom, Mr. Muscles takes a long drag from his cigarette and pulls away from the wall. He steps into her path, accidentally colliding with her.
Shandra shoots him a nasty look and growls at him in a way only an angry troll could manage. “Watch it!”
“Sorry,” he grumbles, blowing the smoke from his lungs into her face.
“Gross!” Shandra waves the smoke away from her face with a cough. “Thanks, asshole.”
She pushes him out of the way, slamming him against the wall hard enough that the guy’s eyes widen in shock. He presses his hand to his chest where she’d shoved him. She probably left a bruise.
Shandra takes two steps before she sways on her feet. Mr. Muscles quickly grabs her from behind to help steady her. As he walks a confused, drowsy, and dizzy Shandra toward an emergency exit at the end of the hall, he looks to anyone watching like nothing but a concerned boyfriend helping his drunken date outside.
Pain flairs behind my eyes and in my temples when the vision fades. I’ve never had so many visions in a row, and my body is protesting. But I can’t stop now. This is working. I wait a moment for a bout of nausea and dizziness to pass, but as soon as I can walk without falling over, I head to the emergency exit.
“Oh, my head is going to hate me forever,” I groan when I push the door open and am sucked into the most intense vision yet.
As soon as Mr. Muscles pushes the stumbling Shandra through the door, she collapses. Mr. Muscles is strong, but he can’t hold her dead weight and struggles to get her unconscious body to the ground without dropping her.
“Damn,” a new voice says. “How much does that bitch weigh?”
Another guy, who looks like he
comes from the same gym as Mr. Muscles, jumps out of a car that is backed into the dark alley behind the club just feet from the exit. It’s a ghetto mustard-yellow, low-riding Chevy Nova with ridiculous spinning rims and a chrome exhaust pipe. There’s a decal on the back window that seems out of place on the tricked-out classic car. It looks like a fraternity logo of some sort, but I don’t recognize the symbols. I snort. Yeah, these guys are definitely fraternity types. Stereotypical to the point of painful.
“Too damn much, bro,” Mr. Muscles says with a grunt and a laugh. “Help me get her fat ass in the car. Did you get the security camera?”
“Taken care of,” Muscles Two says as he grabs Shandra’s feet.
Together, the two meatheads are able to tuck Shandra into the backseat of the car. “Damn,” Muscles Two says as he finally gets a good look at Shandra beneath the car’s dome light. “She’s ugly, too.”
“Trolls aren’t exactly known for their looks, dumbass.”
“A troll?” Muscles Two whisper-hisses as he shuts the door. He glances all around the alley, as if suddenly afraid a boogie man is going to jump out at him. “You swiped a troll?”
Mr. Muscles hurries around to the passenger side of the car. “Yeah, and I bet we only have a few minutes before her two troll friends come looking for her, so get your ass in the car, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
Muscles Two’s face drains of color. “Two more? Shit! Are you insane? Those things go berserk. Just one troll could level an entire city in a rampage.”
“Yeah, but, dude, imagine having that kind of power. She’s the best thing anyone could get their hands on. There’s three guys competing, and only two spots to fill. Elijah said species matters. This’ll get me voted in for sure.”
“If we live through this,” Muscles Two grumbles as he climbs behind the wheel.
The car peels out of the alley, and the scene goes black.
I come back to reality with a gasp, feeling like I’m about to puke. I’ve never pushed my body to the limit like this before. Parker reaches for me when I stumble, and I fall against his chest. His arms come around me instinctively. “Nora?”