Watching the last wisps disappear, Val thought, Damn, I never thought I’d be sorry to see you go.
She glanced away to find Ridgemont eying her, an expression of profound amusement on his face. She wondered what the hell he found so funny.
Before she could ask, Hirsch demanded, “What are you doing here? You said you’d let me handle it.” He stepped in front of the bed as if to block his sire’s view of her.
“I did,” Ridgemont said coldly. “But you didn’t. You sent in an army of armed mortals while you stayed safe in this little hovel and amused yourself with the two children in the other room.” He lifted a brow. “The idea was to prove your worth in combat with the gunslinger.”
“He tried that. Twice.” Val curled her lip at the German’s back. “Cade kicked his butt both times.”
She heard a noise like a slap and started in surprise. Ridgemont was suddenly standing beside Hirsch, who was now facing her. The master vampire’s hand was locked around the German’s forearm, keeping his fist from striking her. They’d moved so fast she hadn’t even seen it happen.
“You haven’t won the right to beat her, Gerhard,” Ridgemont told him, his tone so matter-of-fact Val felt a chill.
“You swore she’d be mine if I could get her away from him,” Hirsch gritted. “You didn’t specify how.”
“You’re stupid, but not that stupid.” As casually as a man tossing aside a ball of paper, Ridgemont threw him into the wall so hard the house shook. “You knew exactly what I intended.”
Hirsch jerked himself away from the indentation his body had made in the plasterboard and coiled into a snarling crouch. “You’ve always favored the American over me. There’s something unnatural about it.”
“Oh, it’s entirely natural,” Ridgemont said, lifting an insulting brow. “The gunslinger is a warrior with a sense of honor. You’re a fool ruled by your fangs and dick.”
Hirsch opened his mouth to spit a retort, but before he could speak, he crashed to his knees as if someone had kicked his feet out from under him.
As the German fought to rise, the master vampire slowly walked around behind him. “Do you think I’m such a fool I don’t know the one who gets the girl will challenge me?” One hand blurred out, fisting in Hirsch’s blond hair and jerking his head back until Ridgemont could peer down into his rolling eyes. “That’s exactly what I intend, you ignorant peasant. But you have to prove yourself worthy of her. I’ll not see her wasted on someone I’ll kill in ten minutes.”
“Do you think me a fool?” the German spat. “Even if I gut your pet, you’ll keep her for yourself -- and I’ll remain in your thrall for another century.”
Ridgemont’s icy eyes narrowed. His free hand clamped around Hirsch’s throat, grip tightening until his captive gagged. “Do you question my honor?”
The German licked his lips. His gaze slid away. “No.”
“Perhaps you’re not such a fool after all.” He released Hirsch and stepped back with a wintery smile. “Go. Find him. Prove you’re entitled to my gift.”
“But it’s daylight!”
“If you want her so desperately, a little sunburn is not going to stop you. I can assure you it hasn’t stopped the gunslinger.”
The German’s mouth tightened as he rose to his feet. “It’s early yet. He’ll still be healing. May I feed before I go out to hunt him?”
“I assume you refer to the two captives in the next room,” Ridgemont said, a note of warning in his voice.
Hirsch’s eyes flicked to Val’s naked body and lingered in a way that sent a chill up her spine. “Of course,” he said, his smile nasty. “There’ll be time enough for her once McKinnon’s dead.”
“An hour, no more.” The German disappeared as though he’d vanished into thin air. “Puppy,” Ridgemont muttered.
Val opened her mouth to protest his handing the two girls over to Hirsch, but before she could say a word, he turned and lifted a brow at her. “It seems we have a little time alone.”
It occurred to her Hirsch’s victims might have the better end of the deal.
* * *
“What time is it?” Cade licked cracked, swollen lips and loosened his grip on the merc a fraction.
Hank’s hazel eyes were wide with fear, but he obediently looked at his watch. “Five fifteen.”
Cade cursed silently. It had taken him hours to heal his injuries -- hours Val couldn’t afford.
Where was she? And what were they doing with her?
God, he was weak. He managed to roll over and push himself onto his hands and knees. For a moment he braced there, head hanging, his arms and thighs trembling so violently they could barely hold him up. His tongue felt swollen and sandpaper rough in his dry mouth. Gathering the last of his strength, he pushed slowly to his feet, clawing at the tarp until it fell away. The sunlight of late afternoon stabbed through the trees and into his eyes, but he ignored it.
He needed to feed. Now. Fortunately, there was a ready source of blood waiting.
Hank still sat on the ground, helplessly paralyzed. Scanning the mercenary’s mind, Cade could sense the pain of stiffened joints, the numbness from sitting motionless for so long -- and Hank’s utter terror at the sight of his vampire victim on his feet, his chest whole and unwounded despite the dried blood crusting his skin.
Why isn’t the bastard dead? the merc mentally gibbered. I shot him!
“But not in the right place.” Cade felt an unpleasant smile stretch across his lips. Leaning down, he reached out and lifted the big man’s square chin, forcing him to meet his gaze. “Scared, Hank?” The mercenary stared at him, unable to speak. He lifted part of the compulsion. “Answer me. Are you afraid?”
“Yeah,” Hank croaked.
“Good,” he whispered, his voice silken and menacing. “So is the woman I love. And you’re going to help me save her.” He bared his fangs. “In a way.”
* * *
Ridgemont sat down on the edge of the bed. Val swallowed, acutely aware of her nakedness, of the bruise she could feel rising on her face from Hirsch’s slap. He reached toward her. She flinched back instinctively, but his big, blunt fingers simply brushed her throat. “I see my spawn have been entertaining themselves.”
Val realized he referred to Cade’s bite as well as Hirsch’s heavy hand. “Some attentions were more welcome than others.”
He chuckled. “I’ll wager so.” His eyes drifted back down her naked body, and she drew in a breath at the cruel interest she saw in them. He rose, and Val instinctively shrank into the mattress. “Your heart is thumping like a rabbit’s,” Ridgemont observed, one corner of his wide mouth lifting in a malicious half-smile. “That’s a very erotic sound to a vampire. You’d be wise to calm yourself.”
She licked her dry lips and choked out, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See that you do.” He bent down to pick something up off the floor. When he straightened, he held a limp, brown bundle. She flinched. But then he shook it out, she realized he held the bedspread Hirsch had stripped from the mattress before tying her down. With a neat snap, he flipped it over her.
Ridgemont met her eyes and shrugged. “I find I could do without the temptation. I suspect that after having you, I’d find it difficult to give you back.”
He picked up a ladder-back chair that sat in the corner, put it down beside the bed, and sat down. Stretching out his muscled legs, he crossed his ankles. “Though I could easily persuade myself that abusing you for a while would drive Cade into a very satisfying frenzy.”
Val licked her dry lips and dared a question. “So why keep Hirsch from beating me?”
“The bastard pissed me off with his cheating,” he said with a shrug. “If he’d had the guts to go along on the raid, he could have flogged you with my blessing. One look at your welts would have been all the incentive Cade needed to rip out his heart and eat it.”
She blinked in surprise. “Hirsch is right. You do favor Cade.”
“Well, of course. The Ge
rman is all very well for a drinking companion, but I’d snap him like a twig in a fight, even with the power you’d give him. If I’m going to sacrifice the pleasure of your company, I’d rather it be to some good purpose.” His eyes lingered regretfully on the rise of her breasts under the blanket. “I’ll have to kill you when it’s over, of course.”
Val had actually begun to relax. At his words, her whole body jerked into a knot. “Of course,” she said faintly.
“Without the bond from transforming you, you’d be impossible to control,” Ridgemont explained. “Though I’ll probably fuck you a few times before you die.”
Just like my mother. Damn it, she would not let the bastard see how much that thought terrified her. Stiffening her spine, Val forced herself to meet his eyes. “That’s assuming Cade doesn’t kill you first. And I think you’re going to find him harder to defeat than you expect.”
Ridgemont shrugged. “Actually, I’m not at all sure I can beat the gunslinger once he Turns you. Which is the whole point. True, I’ll still have more power, but he’s cunning enough to find a way to defeat me anyway.” An odd expression crossed his face. Almost… pride? “Even without you, he almost killed me last week. A bomb isn’t quite what I’d had in mind, but I was pleased by his willingness to eliminate me in any way he could.”
“Pleased? You were pleased?” She stared at him, so startled she forgot to be diplomatic. “What kind of lunatic are you?”
“No lunatic at all.” He smiled slightly. “Just a knight stranded in the wrong century. Though being a twenty-first century female, I suppose that’s something you’ll never understand.”
She eyed him. “Why don’t you enlighten me?”
He glanced lazily out the window. “Since I don’t hear a fight going on outside, I might as well.” Leaning backward with the air of a man settling in to tell a particularly entertaining story, he laced his hands behind his head. His thick biceps bulged under his sleeves. “When I was a young man --”
The words were out before she could think better of it. “I gather this was before your sire got his hands on you?”
Ridgemont went as still as a snake, his eyes flattening with reptilian menace. “McKinnon mentioned that, did he?”
Oh, God, Val realized, staring at the murderous fury in the vampire’s gaze, I’m about to get my throat ripped out. She swallowed and sent up a quick, silent prayer. “Actually, it was the ghost. Abigail.”
Ridgemont relaxed, curling his lip. “That little brat is something of a pest.” He shrugged. “But she’s been a useful hostage since Cade won his freedom. Otherwise, he’d have left years ago, and that didn’t suit my plans.”
“He is rather… fond of her.” Val carefully unclenched her fists. She’d diverted him from killing her -- at least for the moment. “You were saying?”
Ridgemont eyed her for a long moment, his gaze flattening until her heart started pounding again. The moment stretched out, vibrating with agonizing tension as she began to sweat.
Then he smiled ever so slightly and snapped the tension like a guitar string. “As a young man, I traveled the tourney circuit.” Ignoring Val’s involuntary sigh of relief, he settled back in his seat once more. “Earned quite a nice living taking other knights hostage. God, I loved those days.” His expression softened, becoming almost dreamy. “You have no idea what it’s like to have a war horse between your thighs and a sword in your hand, going to meet another warrior in combat. In the next few seconds, you will live or die, depending on your strength, skill and luck. Every sense is so acute, it seems the world has edges, like shards of glass.” Slowly the warm glow faded from his eyes. “I have lived more than eight hundred years, fucked and tormented more women than I can even begin to count, tempted the Inquisition and the Nazis, but I have never felt that way since. There are no more knights, and I am old and powerful. And bored. But Cade… given enough power, he would be a most satisfactory opponent.”
Val stared at him as the light slowly dawned. “You’re an adrenaline junkie. And you think he could give you the perfect fix.”
Satisfied, he smiled slightly. “Now you begin to understand.”
“So everything you’ve done to him --”
“Has been toward that end,” he agreed. “That’s why I took him when he charged in to save that silly girl, and it’s why I’ve spent so many decades goading him.” His gaze intensified on her as if waiting for her reaction. “And it’s why I killed your parents.”
Stunned, she stared at him. “What?”
“Just any Kith female couldn’t have provided him with what he needs to match me,” Ridgemont said. “I had to find someone with a great deal of latent power. And you fit the bill perfectly, so much so it was obvious even when you were a child.”
“You did know I was Kith before the raid.”
“Oh, yes.” He grinned at her. “I saw you in an Atlanta shopping mall one night. You were walking hand in hand with your father, and I could see the power blazing off you. So much potential… And in those days, you looked a bit like Abigail. Same coltish, child build. You were perfect.”
Her stomach twisted with sick guilt. Mom…Dad… “For what?”
“At the time, Cade was still under my control, and had been for more than a century,” Ridgemont explained. “I was getting impatient, and I wanted to give him the incentive he needed to start breaking my grip.”
“Why didn’t you just let him go?” God, she thought, staring into his calm, reasonable eyes, he really is a monster.
The vampire shook his head. “It’s rather like building physical muscle. You gain strength by working against another force. Cade had to break my grip himself to build his psychic strength.” Rising to his feet, he began to pace, gesturing as he spoke. “Knowing how he is about his sister, I decided the thing to do was set him up to kill a child. I knew he’d do anything to avoid that.”
“But what if he’d failed?”
He shrugged. “No harm done.”
“Except to me!”
Ridgemont lifted a blond brow at her. “I would advise you to wipe that condemning expression off your face if you want to live long enough to fuck the gunslinger again.”
Too furious to care what he did to her, she sneered. “You won’t kill me -- it’d take too long to find another Kith female with as much power as I have.”
He stared at her, such anger rolling across his eyes that a shaft of fear pierced her outrage.
Then he threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, you are perfect for him. Of course, I seriously doubt you’ll outlive him by more than a half hour before you goad me into butchering you… but one can’t have everything.”
“I really want to watch him kill you.”
“Somehow I doubt you’ll enjoy that fight as much as you think.”
Val curled her lip. “We’ll see.”
“Yes. We will. Where was I? Oh yes. It was really simple good luck that I found you. If we hadn’t been living in Atlanta at the time…” He shrugged. “When I saw you, realized how much power you have, the whole plan burst upon me. It was perfect. He would save you from himself, get free in a decade or so, gather his strength… And then I’d put you in his path again.”
He’s been playing us, Val thought, stunned. Every move, from the beginning, just like a chess game. “And it worked.”
He grinned smugly. “One of the best long-range gambits I’ve ever put together.”
“But why kill my parents? You didn’t have to involve them.”
“Being Kith is a genetic trait. Your father had it. If I’d let him live, it was entirely possible he would have packed you up and taken you off, leaving me unable to find you again.”
Her father had been like her? She blinked, stunned. “But what about my mother?”
“I’d intended to let her go.” He shrugged. “But Hirsch got carried away. Luckily your grandmother was sufficiently compliant for my purposes.”
“What does Grandma have to do with this?”
He
gave her that chillingly pleasant smile again. “I used her to keep track of you for years.”
“She was a spy for you?” She’d known the woman was a drunk, but…
“I didn’t give her much choice. She had a trace of psychic power herself, so it took a little work, but it was worth it.” His gaze turned contemplative. “I think she was aware of what I was doing at times. Not that it did you any good, of course…”
Suddenly Val realized she might be looking at the reason for her grandmother’s drinking problem. “Is there any aspect of my life you haven’t ruined?”
He contemplated the question, then grinned. “Probably not.”
* * *
Cade swore violently, staring at the little brick ranch as he crouched in the concealment of a field across the street. Judging from the dark power he could almost see swirling around the house, Ridgemont was inside.
When the hell had he showed up? Cade had scanned Hank’s memories half an hour ago -- punching through the mental blocks Hirsch had set up hadn’t been hard -- but the merc did not remember Ridgemont being present then.
He should have known rescuing Val wouldn’t be that easy.
To make matters worse, the vampires had already been busy, judging from the barely conscious thoughts of two female victims inside the house. Scanning them, Cade saw that Hirsch had just finished amusing himself.
The girls remembered seeing Val, though he couldn’t sense her presence directly because of her Kith shields. Then he touched another memory in their minds, one that made his gut clench: they’d heard her scream. Damn it, if only he’d been half an hour earlier!
Unfortunately, getting here had been a bitch. He’d picked the location of Hirsch’s temporary lair from Hank’s mind easily enough, but transportation had presented a problem. His house was still swarming with cops processing the crime scene and trying to figure out where all the dead bodies had come from. There was no way Cade could get to the Lexus, so he’d had to make other arrangements.
After telepathically summoning a deputy to find Hank -- Cade had reluctantly decided to leave the merc alive, since he didn’t kill helpless men -- he slipped off to a neighbor’s house and asked to borrow the man’s car. The neighbor did not, of course, refuse.
Forever Kisses Volume 1 Page 20