Cherry Stem (Vampire Cherry Book 1)

by Sotia Lazu

  Dilemma solved, I kicked at Ádísa’s ashes, watching as my boot scattered them. I’d wanted her to tell me why she hadn’t picked someone better known and what her comment about women of my family meant, damn it. And I’d wanted to be the one to rip her head off—or something less brutal but equally final.

  Resigned to knowing I couldn’t have everything, I stole a kiss from Alex. “Let’s get the girls and get out of here.”

  I STARED DOWN THE IRON door barring our way to the first room in the basement. Anything could be behind it, but I was ready for anything, so that worked out fine. “I’m going in first. We can’t be sure what shape the newly turned vampires will be in. For all we know, Ádísa, Willoughby, and Johnny have been starving them into obedience. If they’re in the room, half-crazed with hunger, you’ll be the perfect snack for them.”

  Wisely, Alex didn’t put up an argument.

  I put my ear against the door for the third time. I couldn’t hear evidence of life on the other side, but that didn’t mean Dotty wasn’t in there. Even if the door weren’t thick enough to conceal a heartbeat, Alex’s heart pounding would definitely cover it.

  I tried the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. Not surprising. I didn’t expect the thing to be unlocked anyway. “Hello?” I said, and jumped when two distinct voices returned my greeting.

  “Hold on, we’re here to get you out.” My mind reeled at the possibilities of what would greet me when I entered the room. Would the women be chained up? Tortured? The mental picture of naked, bleeding bodies lying on the cold floor made me flinch. Oh God. With a curse, I grabbed the knob again and rattled it. Nothing. Alex was out of bullets, so I’d have to break the door down.

  “Hold on,” I yelled again, swearing to myself I’d make sure they were properly taken care of from that day onward. I’d make it the point of my unlife to help them forget whatever pain was inflicted on them for the first weeks of their existence as vampires.

  I took a step back, steeled myself, and shoved at the door with my shoulder, putting all my weight into it. I accomplished jack shit on my first effort, but the second time was the charm. The moment my body made contact with the iron surface, the door gave way, emptying me into the room. I didn’t bust in; it was opened. From the inside.

  I landed face first on a sheepskin rug, in front of a pair of feet with perfectly painted orange toenails. The legs attached to those feet went up for miles, and from my position I saw more of their owner than I wanted to. I raised my gaze to her face. It looked familiar.

  “Oh look. They brought us a chick,” the tall girl standing above me in a forest-green silk robe said.

  I’d seen those hazel eyes before, in one of the pictures Alex showed Sheena’s assistant. Intense eyebrows, short black hair... Liza. Liza Mills.

  She looked a lot more interested when she took in Alex helping me up. “And who are you?”

  “He is off limits.” I bounced back to my feet, confusion forgotten at the thought of him being in danger. “Nobody bites him.”

  “I’d say,” Alex murmured.

  “I wasn’t going to,” Liza said. “Like I’d feed on a human.”

  Huh? Humans are our food source.

  I glanced around and saw two more girls watching us. They were dressed the same way Liza was, only in different colors, and looked the exact opposite of the prisoners I expected to find. The room wasn’t what I’d pictured, either. It wasn’t big, but it was every girlie girl’s fantasy, with cosmetics and hair products lining all surfaces except for the two sets of bunk beds. I was prepared for a medieval torture chamber but found myself in a sorority house.

  “We’re here to save you,” I said. Now, how to convince them they needed saving?

  “Are you a missionary?” the blonde sitting cross-legged on one of the beds asked. “I’ve dealt with your kind before. I have to tell you Willoughby says our souls are in no danger from our turning.” She was clutching at the lapels of her robe, keeping them closed over her breasts and paying no mind to how much of the rest of her was on display.

  The third girl sat at a vanity, braiding her dark chocolate brown hair in a manner similar to how Ádísa often wore hers. “Where is Willoughby? He was supposed to feed us today.” Done with her hair, she tossed her braid back and turned toward me.

  “Yeah. Did he send you instead?” asked the blonde.

  I had no clue why she’d think I was there to feed her, but I was thankful she only asked me, and not Alex. That, and what Liza had said about not feeding from a human, indicated Willoughby kept the girls on vampire blood. It sort of made sense, since vampire blood is more nutritional, but I didn’t get why he didn’t even tell them humans equaled food.

  Willoughby was obviously trying to gain their loyalty. Cultivate an actual maker-childe bond. I wouldn’t be resentful just because he obviously took far better care of them. I wouldn’t.

  Then again, any care was better than dumping someone in an alley after their turning.

  All three fledglings looked at me like baby birds looking at their momma. A momma about to tap a vein for them. This so wasn’t happening.

  I had to tell them the truth, and I doubted they’d like it. “Willoughby took off. And Ádísa is dead.”

  “Oh my God. What happened to her?” Liza seemed about to cry. “Where did Willoughby go? Is Johnny okay?”

  I wanted to bang my head on a wall. Instead I shook it. “Dead too,” I whispered.

  “We’ll tell you all about it,” Alex said before I could say more—like how I was the one responsible for Johnny’s new status. “First we have to get you somewhere safe.”

  “Are we in danger?” Liza was the most vocal one. The other two girls approached us, and I didn’t like how they seemed to be measuring Alex. Whether they meant to bite him or not, they most definitely seemed hungry for him.

  Constantine appeared at the doorway as I took Alex’s hand in mine. “He got away,” he said, his gaze roaming the fledglings. “Are they all you found?”

  “Just told these girls their maker disappeared and the other two people... taking care of them are dead.” I spared him a glance that I hoped warned him not to disagree. He nodded, and I said, “Can you fly them to your place? We’ll look for the rest and Dotty, and then come find you.”

  “To my place?” He scrunched his nose in dismay. “Cherry—”

  The young vampires hissed in unison. The blonde took a step back. “You’re Cherry?” Her fangs were out, but she sounded funny more than menacing. “We’ve heard about you.”

  Well, this was odd.

  “You want to stake us, don’t you?” The brunette stood in front of the blonde. “Don’t worry, Sally. I won’t let her get to you.”

  I turned to Liza, whom I deemed the brainiest of the three. “Listen—I don’t know what Willoughby and the others told you, but I have nothing against you. They were the ones who took your lives from you. They did the same to me. I’m on your side. I’m here to rescue you.”

  “From what? Luxury?” The blonde one, Sally, wrapped her fingers around the brunette’s bicep, stopping her from nearing me. “Don’t, Carrie. She’s dangerous.”

  I was about to throw a fit. “I’m not dangerous. I’m not the one who turned you so you could fuck and kill men for their estates.”

  Blank looks all around. Awesome.

  Constantine held his hands up. “I will explain everything when we get to my mansion. You ladies seem to need to feed. I will take care of that too. If you’ll get dressed and follow me.” With a small bow, he stepped outside.

  I was waiting for protests, but none came. Not taking their eyes off me, the girls hurried to the closet. Alex turned away, and I was left to watch bouncy boobs getting squeezed into revealing tops and perfectly shaped tummies being sucked in for skintight jeans to be zipped up.

  I remembered the plastic surgery I never had, and stood there sulking as the girls exited the room, mindful not to come too close to me.

  “Come find us when you�
�re through looking around,” Constantine called out over his shoulder, wrapping an arm around Carrie’s waist and the other around Liza’s shoulders. Sally seemed at a loss for a second, but then she grabbed his waistband and the four of them were soon out of sight.

  Alex grinned. “Do you think he’ll take care of all three of them?”

  I scowled. “We have to find the rest of them and Dotty.” Constantine could take care of all three young ladies. Also, I could gag. Sheena would probably be her annoying self enough to keep any sexing from happening till we met up with them.

  And I didn’t care.

  I led Alex to the next room.

  That door wasn’t locked from the inside, and it took three kicks and a shoulder wedge for me to open it.

  My previous fears came to life when I saw Dotty chained to the far wall, her jeans and frilly blouse torn in several places. She was thinner than when I last saw her. Her nose had bled at some point. Rust-colored stains covered her front, and a crust of blood blocked what I saw of her right nostril.

  Her nose wasn’t the only part of her she’d lost blood from, though. Even from across the room, I made out the raw and angry bite marks on the insides of her elbows and her wrists. I bet there were more on her neck, but I couldn’t see them, the way her head was tilted.

  At least her jeans were still on. Whatever happened to her, she at least wasn’t violated that way. Nobody would have bothered dressing her afterward.

  Fury fought with nausea inside me. They didn’t need to have her chained up, hanging from the wall like a side of beef; they could have thralled her into submission. They could have licked her wounds closed, for fuck’s sake. I wanted to weep for her—for what happened to her because she was unlucky enough to know me.

  I wished Constantine hadn’t lost Willoughby. I wished he’d caught the sadistic creep and brought him to me, so I could mete out some justice.

  “Dotty?” I whispered. “Can you hear me, honey?” Her heart was beating, thank God, and her chest rose and fell, albeit slowly. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.

  The shackles looked sturdy. I could probably break them, but I might injure Dotty more. Luck smiled at us when I noticed a small key on the bench to my right. “Help me,” I said.

  Alex ran to her side and propped her up, while I undid her bindings. She slumped against him, and he maneuvered her so cradled her body in his arms. “I’ll wait here while you search the other rooms.”

  With a grateful, shaky smile, I left him and his precious cargo and went to tear down the rest of the doors in the basement.

  I found nobody else. A second preppy room, like the one we found the newbs in, was empty. As, predictably, was Ádísa’s bedroom.

  I returned to Alex and carefully took Dotty from him.

  “You’d better fly her to Constantine’s,” he said. “She needs to be looked after as soon as possible.”

  I wasn’t sure I could take Alex with. Dotty was still out for the count, and I’d have to hold her with both arms.

  He shook his head, as if reading my mind. “I’ll bring the car.”

  I thanked him, and we made our way outside. He kissed me when we got to the front gate. It was awkward with Dotty between us, but he managed a lingering kiss, full of promises.

  I reciprocated with equal fervor. With the bad guys out of the way, we had a future, and I was keen on starting on that as soon as I had Dotty restored to her healthy, vibrant self, and back with her son.

  I gazed at Alex one last time before I took off. He looked at me with a secret smile that made his eyes twinkle. My chest swelled with love that warmed me up inside. I wouldn’t let another opportunity pass me by. When I saw Alex later tonight, I’d tell him I loved him.

  I tucked Dotty’s head under my chin, smiled back at him, and launched into the night sky.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I WAITED AT CONSTANTINE’S for three hours.

  I shouldn’t have waited that long. I should have known something was wrong when Alex didn’t show within the first thirty minutes. I should have felt it.

  I didn’t.

  I was too preoccupied with worrying over Dotty, who didn’t wake up even after Constantine and I closed her wounds. Sheena helped me clean and change Dotty into warm pajamas and didn’t freak out once during the whole thing. That she wasn’t drunk or even tipsy spoke volumes about the truth of her resolution to be strong and finally deal with things she avoided for a while.

  I was busy helping Constantine feed the three girls, then explaining to them why we killed two of the vampires treating them as royalty. His patience with them was surprising, as was the firm yet kind way he dealt with all the excitement our revelation caused. They were still wary of me but at least seemed open to the possibility they were lied to by their maker and his friends. It was more than I could have hoped for.

  By the time I realized Alex was taking far too long, it was almost two in the morning. I tried his cell phone, but it kept ringing and ringing until my call was forwarded to his voicemail. “I can’t pick up right now,” his recorded voice informed me, “but if you leave your name and number, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

  The pit of my stomach gave way, and the world tilted. I wanted him to get back to me now. Where was he? Did he have an accident while speeding to get to me?

  “Don’t be silly.” Sheena stopped my pacing with a hand on my shoulder. “Have some of this.” She offered me a cup of the tea Wesley made for us all. The poor man felt useless among the drama until Constantine set him on tea duty.

  I didn’t take it. The stupid stuff wasn’t going to fix anything.

  “He probably went by his place to shower and left his phone in his car. Maybe he’s set it on silent.” Her efforts to reassure me were valiant but ineffective.

  “He would have called me.” He wasn’t taking a shower. No shower took that long. “He wouldn’t make me wait like this.” I should call his place or his mother’s, but I didn’t have either number.

  I shoved my phone in my pocket and made sure Dotty was tucked in where she lay on the couch. “I’ll go find him.”

  Ignoring Constantine’s protests that I couldn’t leave him with three pissed-off women and a crazy one, I ran out the door and was in the air in seconds.

  I COULD HAVE GONE TO his mother’s first. Hell, I should have gone to his mother’s first, but I didn’t want to waste time doing things in what might be the wrong order. Determined to start at the beginning, I flew back to Ádísa’s, landed in front of her manor’s gate, and flared my nostrils until I caught his scent.

  Nose in the air, I followed Alex’s trail around the corner he appeared from earlier tonight and into a well-lit street lined with two-story houses, their gardens trimmed to perfection. There, under a streetlight, I saw a familiar car.

  My feet almost kicked up sparks, as I covered the distance to the car at full speed, hoping against hope that Alex was just taking a nap behind the wheel, the exhaustion and excitement of the night having finally caught up with him.

  He wasn’t behind the wheel or in the backseat. I punched through the lock of the trunk, to pop the lid open. Not there either.

  The unmistakable scent of his blood wafted to my nostrils. It didn’t come from the car but the gravel. A closer look revealed a couple of dark droplets. Alex had been here, and he’d been bleeding.

  Something happened to him as he was about to get in his car. I tried telling myself it could be something as small as a nosebleed, but I knew better than to let the lack of more blood appease me.

  I couldn’t have been too far when he was hurt. I should have heard him call for help. No. I should have been there with him. I should have saved him from whatever harmed him.

  Willoughby.

  The thought made me panic. Every hint of rational thought I might be capable of got choked out. I tried to think of other possibilities. Alex could have been hit by a car—no, there would be more blood. He could have been mugged, although the si
ght of his gun should be enough of a deterrent for any aspiring mugger, who wouldn’t know it was empty. He was a cop; he’d manage to at least pull his gun on his attacker.

  If his attacker was human.

  I could no longer hide from the truth. Willoughby got to him. My maker came back after he escaped Constantine, and he got Alex alone. In my mind’s eye, I saw him pinning Alex to the car and closing his jaws over my Alex’s jugular.

  Did he kill him? I shook my head. Alex had to be alive. He had to be alive for many, many years. We had to make each other happy.

  My vision blurred with tears. Wiping my eyes and cheeks furiously, I let my sense of smell overtake my other senses, not hoping for much. If Willoughby flew Alex out of here, it would take me forever to find him.

  The scent hit me again, and I frowned. Willoughby carried him away on foot? What for?

  The streetlamps were too bright. A cat howled from atop a nearby trash can.

  He did it for me to follow them. It was a trap for me.

  I STOOD AT THE ENTRANCE of Alex’s mother’s house, working up the courage to make my way inside. I didn’t know what I’d find, and for the millionth time considered calling Constantine. He would be more than useful an ally in a confrontation like the one I was about to have with my maker.

  Calling him would be the wise thing to do, but not knowing in what condition I’d find Alex meant I couldn’t wait. I squared my shoulders and tried the door. It wasn’t latched, which added to my unease as I stepped into the living room.

  Empty.

  The entire house smelled like Alex, so I no longer trusted my nose to lead me to him. The ground floor was empty. I threw caution to the wind and rushed to the basement, only to find it in the same state I remembered it—bed unmade and Alex-less.

  That left the upper floor. Had to be where Willoughby was holding him.

  I flew up the stairs, and the stench of blood slammed into me like a sledgehammer. It was no longer a hint or a trail. It smelled like a bucketful or two, and it came from Alex’s old bedroom.