Blood Knot (25 page)

So fast!

That was all she really had time to think before the drug started to slow her thoughts and her movements.

The world started to swim around her.

“…
a bit too much to drink…” she heard Shakeel say.

Hands on her arms.

Winter tried to open her mouth to protest. Open her eyes to see what was happening. Neither her lips nor her eyes would cooperate.

She was being hauled about now. Shakeel was still talking. She could hear him against her. Touching her.

Terror swamped her and for one desperate, shining heartbeat, she screamed out in her mind, because she could not voice the words, or reach out with her arms.

Then Winter began to think instead of panic. She was on her own. Wishing for help or a miracle wasn’t going to get her out of this. She was going to have to sort it out for herself. That meant she had to convert the drug. She had to analyse it and neutralize it. The longer she took to do it, the more time Shakeel had to do whatever he wanted with her. That was all.

Her hearing seemed to be unaffected and she recalled Nial saying that hearing was a passive system, common to both vampires and humans.

They were outside, now. The air was cooler than the restaurant, but that just meant the drug was making her sweat and the evening breeze was chilling her flushed skin. Winter struggled to open her eyes but still her muscles wouldn’t obey. The signals weren’t getting through.

She concentrated on countering the drug instead, knowing that now, every second counted. Shakeel had no reason not to hurry now.

She heard his grunt and felt pressure against her abdomen and lighter pressure across the back of her knees. He’d tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Winter turned her focus inwards, to the free-flowing icicle chip molecules of the drug. She grabbed one and studied it.

Complex! Alien and weird. Definitely put together in a lab, and not one where people wore white coats and sterile paper socks over their shoes. This was the sort of lab where people thought it would be cool to drop this chain of amino acids here, and insert that one there instead and let’s snort it up and see what it does, just for laughs…

But it was organic and therefore biodegradable. She ripped apart the chain, breaking it down into oxygen, hydrogen, water and other harmless base elements and pushed it toward other similar molecules. The tear started a chain of crumbling molecules. The drug was a marvel of inventiveness but it was highly unstable and fell like a house of cards as soon as she poked at it.

The demolition chain reaction fizzing through her body, flooding it with rich oxygen and water, Winter was now free to focus on external concerns.

The back of her head hit a padded wall. Hard. She gritted her teeth against the pain.

A door closed with a familiar muffling sound. It was a car door. Shakeel had dumped her on the back seat of a car and she had hit her head against the the other closed door.

Winter lay still. She had to wait for Shakeel to touch her before she could put him to sleep. The drug he had given her had left her completely helpless. If she sat up now or reached for him, he’d know something was wrong and she would never be able to approach him at the Flatiron building. Everything counted on the next few seconds remaining as “normal” as he expected them to be, even if she personally wanted to tear out his testicles.

But Shakeel didn’t touch her. Instead, he tore her gown from her body with the help of a knife and dispensed with her panties the same way.

Winter lay helplessly, her eyes closed while he hummed softly. She imagined him smiling that slow smile of his while he studied her. It made her want to throw up.

The windows on both doors of the car smashed inwards, spraying little squares of safety glass everywhere. Winter carefully opened her eyes. There was a roar of noise that sounded almost human, but not quite. Nial’s hand reached through the falling window behind Shakeel, who was crouched over Winter. The big hand hooked around Shakeel’s neck and pulled him backwards through the windowless space as he squawked and clawed at his captured neck. There was no mercy in the hold. Shakeel was dragged relentlessly from the car through the broken window.

At the same time, Sebastian’s streamlined body drove through the window over Winter’s head, grabbed the back of the front seats for leverage and pulled the rest of the way into the crowded back seat area.

He straddled Winter’s body, picked up Shakeel’s struggling form and fed it out the window for Nial to deal with. Then he unlatched the door, kicked it opened and stepped out. Finally, he turned to face Winter. He was already unbuttoning his shirt. “Did he touch you at all?” he asked, his voice controlled and icy.

“
I might have been able to do something with him if he had,” Winter said, trying to keep her own voice just as steady. “He used a knife to cut everything off me. I had no chance.”

“
Bloody bastard,” Sebastian said levelly. He held out his shirt. “Here.”

She knelt up on the seat, carefully moving around the broken glass. “Thank you.”

Sebastian looked away. “Not a problem.”

Winter slid the shirt on and buttoned it. It was large enough on her that it was a decent sized dress. She would flash thigh and stocking tops as she walked but for New York, that would barely raise an eyebrow.

Sebastian helped her from the car. Her shoes were missing. Another insult to add to the injury for the evening. She sighed.

The car was a white Lincoln Continental, and it was parked in an alleyway that looked like it was the back service alley for businesses. Possibly the restaurant itself, which made sense. The alley backed onto housing buildings and was dark and lonely.

Nial stood in the middle of the alley, his arm around the throat of Martie Shakeel, the other hand holding the man’s wrist high up behind his back.

Nial, like Sebastian a few minutes ago, had discarded his jacket and wore just his shirt and suit trousers. Now Sebastian was bare-chested. Nial had rolled his shirtsleeves up as usual.

When Winter emerged from the car, Nial’s gaze slid over her from head to foot and his expression hardened. “Not touched, hmmm?” he said, speaking into Shakeel’s ear.

“
I swear!” Shakeel groaned. “I just took off her clothes!”

“
And drugged me. Twice,” Winter added. “The second one was a doozy. Cooked up in some backyard lab somewhere. I would have been as limp as a beached jellyfish while he did his nasty business.” She could feel her mouth trying to turn down as she looked at him. “That’s really the only way you can get your jollies, Shakeel? Animated girls don’t do it for you?”

Shakeel whimpered. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

Sebastian glanced at her, lifting his brow. “Someone knows something he shouldn’t,” he murmured.

“
Oh god…” Shakeel murmured. “I didn’t know you were one,” he told Winter. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t have…I never would have, I…oh shit.” He gulped.

“
Relax, Shakeel,” Nial told him. “She’s not a vampire.”

Shakeel gave a little squeak at the word, and his eyes rolled backward in his head as he tried to look at Nial.

“
Yes, Shakeel,” Nial crooned, his fingertips stroking Shakeel’s exposed neck. “I
am
a vampire.” He struck Shakeel’s neck, biting with a growl.

Shakeel squealed, high and loud, trying to struggle in Nial’s grip. But Nial was far stronger than Shakeel and after a few seconds, the other man fell limp and silent.

Nial let him go and Shakeel slumped to the ground.

“
What did you do?” Winter demanded.

“
Nothing but bury my canines into his flesh. I wouldn’t taste his blood if he were the last human left on the planet.” Nial pushed at the motionless body at his feet. “He fainted, Winter. Some humans do that if they can’t cope with sudden, overwhelming fear.”

Sebastian laughed loudly. Then he glanced at Winter and shut up. But she could see his body shaking with amusement and his eyes glittering with it.

Nial touched his shoe to Shakeel’s flaccid shoulder again. “You’ll have to work your magic, Winter. Strip his memories of the evening.”

“
And replace them with what?”

“
Nothing,” Sebastian said. “He’s a serial date rapist. He’s not going to own up to losing an evening. He can’t afford to have his personal life examined closely. He’ll just sweat out the fact that he’s lost time and know that someone knows. It’ll do him good.”

“
I like that,” Winter said. She stepped across the rough road surface carefully and crouched down next to Shakeel. “That means I don’t have to be too delicate about pulling the memories, either. I can leave him with a headache.”

“
Please do,” Nial said. “I regret that I must ask you to heal my bite marks from his neck. They’re too much of a giveaway, especially to Shakeel who knows of our kind. I managed to minimize the aphrodisiac I used, though. That bite really hurt him.”

“
I’ll take care of it, Nial,” she assured him. “Although I’ll leave the lactic acid in place so he’ll still have a stiff neck when he wakes up.”

“
That will do, I suppose,” Nial said regretfully.

Once she had finished wiping Shakeel’s most recent memories, Nial and Sebastian dumped his sleeping form in the back of the Continental and Winter ensured he would sleep for another ten minutes or more by dropping him into another REM cycle.

She turned away from the car to find both Nial and Sebastian standing together, watching her, barely two paces away.

Winter took the two paces gingerly across the rough tarmac, then reached up and threw an arm around them and tried to gather them both to her. A cold shudder ran through her as she relived the moment in the restaurant when she had realized what Shakeel had intended to do with her, and that Nial and Sebastian were too far away to help her. Terror in retrospect.

Perhaps they understood because they both moved closer together and pulled her in to them, holding her against them. Offering the comfort she craved.

“
You came,” she told them. “I thought I was on my own, but you came.”

Neither of them said a word, but their arms tightened around her.

It was a perfect moment. Winter realized that she didn’t want it to end. And she knew why. Sebastian was there. Nial was there. No choice was necessary. She was bathed in perfect peace and harmony. A moment out of time and reality.

Then Shakeel snored and grunted and reality came crashing back and the moment was gone.

SEBASTIAN LOWERED WINTER to the floor as Nial picked up the remote and switched on the two big floor lamps bracketing the sofa. Soft amber light filled the middle of the main floor.

“
I should hit the pillow. I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Sebastian said, stepping away from Winter. His chest in the light was a soft matt brown and for the first time she realized that he was more tanned than she had ever seen him. Well, he had been in Ningaloo to soak up the sun, something he could do with comfort now. A tan looked good on him.

“
A night cap, Sebastian?” Nial asked, heading for the mobile bar standing next to the fireplace.

“
I don’t think—”

“
Irish whiskey. Ten years old,” Nial added.

“
I suppose…”

“
I’m going to go and get changed,” Winter said.

“
Stay and have a drink,” Nial suggested.

“
I’d really rather get changed,” Winter replied. “Sebastian doesn’t need to see me half-naked and he should have his shirt back.”

“
I need to talk to you,” Nial said flatly.

Winter drew in a breath and let it out, looking for calm and barely finding it. She turned back into the room and walked over to the sofa and sat on it. She curled her legs up under her and made sure the shirt was properly tucked in around her.

“
Just me?” she asked, trying for a steady voice.

“
Both of you,” Nial replied. He handed Sebastian the whiskey and sat on the stool, stretching out his legs. “Tell me what you think of the whiskey. I’m curious to know.”

“
I’m sure it’s good. You always buy the best,” Sebastian replied and sipped. “And I’m right,” he added. “It’s one of the finest I’ve tasted.” He stood at the other end of the small bar from where Nial was sitting and rested the glass on the granite top. The heavy base made a soft thud in the quiet room.

Nial crossed his arms. “So, Sebastian, you got your wish. You got the impossible dream, thanks to Winter. You’re human once more.”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “And?”

“
That’s what you always told me, wasn’t it?” Nial said. “You wanted to be human, so that you could live and love like a human?”

Winter jumped a little. But Sebastian didn’t even glance at her. He was simply staring suspiciously at Nial.

Nial shrugged again. “You’re so human, in fact, that you’re locked into a human relationship so tight that to break it will bring both your deaths. That’s about as frail as anyone could wish for, wouldn’t you say?”

Sebastian’s gaze finally flickered toward Winter.

“
Nial, what are you doing?” Winter demanded, fear touching her. “What game is this?”