Blood Rights (28 page)

She glanced at Mal. Something ugly flashed through her gaze and rolled over him. Pity? Sympathy? Whatever it was, he wanted none of it. She broke eye contact to adjust the buckle on the sword’s strap, now nestled between her breasts. ‘Who would know the locations of those kinds of safe houses?’

Mal looked at Doc. Doc shook his head. ‘No way. I’m not asking that man for any favors. I’m not getting in his debt again. Ever.’

‘Whose debt?’ Chrysabelle’s head came up, interest replacing all other emotion in her eyes.

‘No one,’ Doc answered.

‘Dominic’s,’ Mal said.

‘Don’t.’ Doc’s hands flexed against the car roof. Fi moved in closer, putting a hand on his side.

Mal ignored Doc. Overhearing Chrysabelle’s willingness to kill him had put him in a foul mood. Fouler than usual anyway.

Chrysabelle rolled her cherry lips in, then out on an exhale. ‘The way I see it, Dominic owes my aunt. I’ll ask him. I don’t know why you think Doc should do it anyway.’

‘Because Doc used to work for him.’

Chrysabelle’s brows shot up.

Doc cursed softly and smacked the roof. ‘That’s history. Let it be, vampire.’

‘Yeah.’ Fi nodded, coming down on Doc’s side. What a shock. Apparently, it no longer mattered that if not for being part of Mal’s curse, she’d be six feet down instead of cuddling up to the shifter. Females. He shrugged. ‘History or not, doesn’t change what happened.’

‘Does it matter?’ Chrysabelle tapped her watchless wrist. ‘Time’s wasting. Unless you’ve decided to give tanning another chance.’

Mal hooked a thumb in his belt. He hadn’t packed enough weaponry if they were headed to Dominic’s. ‘We might need Doc’s help to get to him.’

Doc growled. ‘I’ll take you to the club, but then you’re on your own.’

‘Thank you. I’m sure Dominic will be willing to see me,’ Chrysabelle said, smiling at Doc before glaring at Mal. Like he cared what she thought.

Doc guided Fi around him and into the sedan’s front seat. She slid over, then he got in and slammed the door.

Chrysabelle took a few steps, reaching for the handle to the back door.

‘Not so fast.’ Mal lifted his chin toward her newly acquired weapon. ‘That goes in the trunk.’

Her fingers toyed with the strap, an insolent smile curving her mouth. ‘Big bad vampire scared of a little old ceremonial sword?’

The next instant he was in front of her, his hand latched to the back of her neck to keep her eyes on his. Heat from the blade pricked his skin. ‘I am afraid of nothing. Not you. Not your hot blade. Not even leaving you with
no option
.’

Her breath shuddered in her throat, and her pulse jumped a tick. ‘I’m not afraid of you anymore either.’

‘No?’ Thunder rumbled in the distance, followed by a flash of heat lightning that lit her eyes like two icy-blue flames.

‘No.’

His thumb shifted until the tip nestled over the tender flesh below her ear. He stroked the spot, enjoying the erratic vibration beneath her skin. ‘Then that must be lust causing your heart to beat so fast.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Yes, that’s it.’ Sarcasm dripped off her voice. ‘My desire for you is so strong I can barely contain myself. Every comarré dreams of the day she’ll have an anathema of her very own. One who can’t stand her. One whose demons want her dead.’ She fluttered her lids and shook herself with a fake shiver. ‘I’m such a lucky, lucky girl.’

He tightened his grip. ‘You lie.’

‘Not this time, vampire.’ She grabbed his wrist and tried to move his hand but failed. ‘You should be able to feel that much.’

‘What I feel is your temperature rising.’ And desire mixed with revulsion. The same mix of emotion he’d felt from her before. Did she love to hate him or hate to love him? Maybe he should push the issue and find out.

‘Because you’re making me mad,’ she spat.

‘You felt nothing when we kissed?’

‘Nothing. Does that disappoint you?’

He released her and forced a laugh. ‘On the contrary. It relieves me.’

‘The sword stays with me.’ She grabbed the car door and yanked it open. ‘Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to go save my aunt.’ She slid into the dark interior, leaving him alone as the first drops of rain pummeled down.

Tatiana stood in the hangar door. Storm clouds rolled over the horizon, diluting the coming dawn. Behind her, Mikkel exited the plane.

‘She’s secured?’ She flexed her hand against the slight remaining soreness. Interrogation was hard work. Washing the blood from her hands instead of licking them clean had been easy enough, but the blood splattered on the plane’s interior had tested her control. The perfume of comarré blood would linger for days, tainting her dreams as she slept in the plane’s light-secured bedroom.

‘Very. I tied her up and locked her in the bathroom.’ He winked, a puerile gesture she could have done without. ‘Not even Houdini could escape those knots.’

‘Good. Did you get anything more from her?’ she asked, already knowing the answer. If she couldn’t get the old bat to spill more than the name of some remnant errand girl, what chance did he have?

He shook his head and looked acceptably displeased. ‘Nothing. She’s going to be a hard one to crack.’

‘I’ll make her talk eventually. I’m just too hungry to concentrate with all that blood. I’d hate to slip and drain her before she gets a chance to tell me everything she knows.’ She laughed and Mikkel joined in, nodding.

His smile faded. ‘Do you think her blood is still good after this much time?’

Tatiana’s belly growled, and she narrowed her eyes at him. Pretty did not always mean brains. ‘Of course it’s still good. And all this talk of blood isn’t helping. Especially knowing the girl is out there, somewhere, with a vampire helping her.’ The old comarré had given that much up when she’d thought Tatiana was her niece. ‘It just makes me want to hunt that much more.’ The vampire helping the rogue comarré would be ash as soon as she found him.

Mikkel glanced at the sky. ‘The Nothos should be back soon.’

‘Good. Then it can track down the female remnant and bring her in.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t believe those two vampire guards took down my other Nothos. Whoever sent them clearly trained them, although the element of surprise was on their side.’

‘Training fringe.’ He shook his head. ‘What a waste.’

‘Except that it obviously works.’ All nobles, including her, kept a contingent of trained fringe guards. She eyed him, wondering if the flight had affected his brain. Since gaining her new power, she’d felt a distance between her and Mikkel. She grimaced. ‘The Americas’ abundance of fringe is just one more reason not to live here.’ Fringe vampires weren’t worth notice, except when they stood in the way of what she wanted. Then they made excellent practice for hand to hand.

The smell of brimstone wafted in with a gust of rain-tinged air. She inhaled the familiar scent. ‘Finally.’

The Nothos stalked in, a limp kine under each corded arm. It dropped them at her feet with a slight bow. The female kine whimpered as she hit the concrete.

‘Well done.’ The kine were deliciously young but not children. That was a line she would never, ever cross. She spoke to the Nothos while watching the pair slowly rouse. ‘You are to find a female remnant named Nyssa. She works as a black market errand girl. Half shadeux, half wysper, believed to be mute, but use the iron mesh earplugs anyway. I can’t afford to lose another of you.’

The Nothos stayed still.

‘Do you need iron shackles?’

‘No, mistress.’ It patted a pair of the rusty bracelets hooked to its belt.

She glared at it. ‘Then go.’

The Nothos nodded and leaped into the now pouring rain, its
strange loping gait carrying it swiftly into the last bit of remaining darkness. Tatiana envied the creature’s indifference to sunlight. Hard to believe the only thing separating their kind from hers was a bit of human DNA. The walking horrors didn’t deserve such a boon any more than they deserved their invisibility to human eyes. One more thing breaking the covenant would remove.

The male kine groaned. His eyes flicked open and he reached for his head. ‘What happened?’ His hand came away red and sticky.

The sweet perfume of hot blood brought her fangs down hard. Tatiana bent toward the male kine until the silver of her eyes reflected in his. Could there be a kine somewhere worthy of sacrificing to the ring? One pure enough to activate the ring’s power? Doubtful. Kine were weak. Far from pure. Good for one thing and one thing only. The male trembled at her closeness, and his fear sent liquid pleasure spilling down her spine like the finest silk.

‘Where are we?’ he asked. ‘Who are you?’

She smiled broadly. ‘You’re in hell. And I’m the devil.’

T
wenty minutes later and a world away, Doc rolled the sedan down an alley that reminded Chrysabelle of the one where she’d stabbed Mal. Despite the rain, two large, hairy men flanked a rusted metal door long ago stenciled with Seven. At the sedan’s approach, both straightened. One flicked a cigarette to the ground and exhaled a thin curl of smoke.

‘What’s Seven?’

Doc glanced into the rearview mirror. ‘Dominic’s club. As in seven deadly sins.’

‘This is where Dominic lives?’ Based on the way the vampire dressed, she’d imagined something more in keeping with her aunt’s estate, not the slums.

Doc shifted the sedan into park. ‘Yes, this is his club and his home. There are more levels than you’d guess.’

Beside her, Mal rolled his head from shoulder to shoulder like a man loosening for a fight. ‘Take your shirt off.’

‘What? Why?’

He kept his eyes on the two guarding the door. ‘Put the sword
on beneath it. With the shirt’s length and your hair over the handle, it won’t be as noticeable.’

She raised her brows but did as he said. That he wanted her to keep the sword he’d been adamant she leave in the trunk minutes before spoke volumes. He expected trouble. That made two of them.

Doc checked his watch. ‘Dawn can’t be more than forty-five minutes out.’

‘We won’t be that long.’ Mal looked at her, his eyes silver, his fangs kissing his bottom lip, his human face long discarded. ‘You ready?’

‘Yes.’ She stared at his fangs longer than she should have. Already the blood was building in her again, weakening her flesh. Being in such close contact was ruining her cycle.

‘Follow my lead.’

She nodded. She’d do what seemed right, whether it was his lead or not, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

‘Be careful,’ Fi said, scooting closer to Doc. ‘Both of you.’

Putting his arm around her, Doc lifted his head to look at them in the rearview mirror. ‘Watch out for the twins.’

‘Will do.’ Mal opened the door and slid out. He waited in the rain for Chrysabelle, then shut the door and rapped lightly on the hood. Doc pulled the sedan farther down the alley into the shadows.

Immediately, the scent of the two men by the door hit her. She blinked water out of her eyes. ‘Varcolai,’ she whispered, knowing full well Mal had probably made them already.

‘Wolf,’ he whispered back, confirming they both knew what they were dealing with. ‘Stay behind me.’

Bristling slightly, she hung back at his right shoulder. Did he still think she couldn’t take care of herself? Granted she didn’t
have much human-world experience, but judging by the two varcolai guarding the club door, this wasn’t exactly the human world.

The shorter guard jerked his chin at her, glinting light off the platinum hoop in his ear. ‘No weapons. No exceptions.’

Mal put his arm out and held Chrysabelle in place, his hand coming across her body to rest on her hip. ‘We have no weapons.’ His voice had a mesmerizing quality that danced over her skin. ‘There is nothing unusual about us. When you let us in, you’ll forget you’ve seen us.’

The guards stared blankly, nodding as though the movement took thought.

She shivered as the rain penetrated her shirt. Holy mother. Mal had just glamoured the guards. Impossible. Vampire powers didn’t work on varcolai.

One guard opened the door, then stepped aside. Mal snaked his arm behind her and pushed her forward. The moment they were through the wards and the door shut, she spun to face him.