Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) (32 page)

What her mother had told her was her birthright (or bane depending on how you looked at it) had come to pass. She was a vampire slayer, and she had more than slaying vampire after vampire on her mind. She wanted one in particular—the one that had murdered her brother! She knew the vamp was a female of some years and experience, and she knew that the dangerous female vamp was known as Deadly Moon.

She and her brother had lost their parents to a drunk driver when she was sixteen, and her brother had stepped in and become the sun, the stars, ‘the everything’ she needed to get through the heartache of their loss. Jack had even taken over where her mother had left off and did his best to train her to become the slayer she might one day have to be.

During those early days with her mom, she had kept her own council. She hadn’t wanted to disappoint her mother by telling her that ‘slaying vampires’ was not something she had ever wanted to do.

And then her mother and father were gone, and she wanted to accomplish all the goals her mother had set for her. She heard her mother whispering in her ear, “Baby … I know this doesn’t seem fair … all this extra work, but one day it will save your life. Want it or not, you are a slayer, and one of them might come for you …”

Jack wasn’t a slayer by birth, but he had learned everything he could from his parents and took up the job of ‘slayer training’ when they lost their parents.

She’d allowed him to put her through all the trials, the gymnastics, the karate, the wielding of the deadly wooden stake, but now Jack was gone as well. He was gone because of a vampire, and she wanted to rip the creature from limb to limb and feed the pieces to the beasts of hell …

Nikki had money enough. Their parents had left them comfortably provided for, and Jack had made a fortune in the computer software business and left everything to her.

The weeks before she lost her brother, Nikki had graduated from NYU. Jack had managed to pull on a few friendship strings and got her started doing little fluff pieces for a national travel magazine. She had been accepted to graduate school and had been looking forward to it and the life that went with it … but, no longer.

She had to find his killer, and she had the advantage of her slayer abilities. She had questioned the police about what they knew, but all they had been able to tell her was that Jack Walker had met an incredibly beautiful woman at some charity function at Lincoln Center and that they had left together.

Jack had been found in a suite at the Plaza with his throat torn and most of the blood drained from his body.

The police thought it was a serial killer, but Nikki knew better. She called on her slayer skills and went to work. She quietly, unobtrusively took on her own investigation and painstakingly followed where the details took her.

It was leading her to a vampire of unusual abilities, and she would have to be careful, because although she might have super-hearing, super-speed, and super-strength, she could be killed as easily as any human. She
was not immortal
.

The Alexe week that Jack had been mutilated and killed, she went out looking for information. She visited the clubs she knew vamps frequented in NYC when they went looking for easy prey.

She had walked into one dance club and was surprised to see a great number of vamps mingling with petty, expectant women. She made her selection and sidled up to him.

He wasn’t expecting an attack from a human. He didn’t know she was a slayer because she hid it well. And so her first encounter went off easier than she had expected.

It wasn’t difficult to get him into a position in the dark alley behind the club where she laid him low with the skill and the strength that was hers as a slayer.

Some of her success was due to the shock and surprise he experienced when she threw him hard to the ground. The rest was the point of the wooden stake held directly and threateningly to his cold heart. She explained to him then that she would free him if he told her what she wanted to know.

He wasn’t a newbie, but he didn’t have a great number of years or experience as a vampire, so he caved immediately and told her that the rumor was Deadly Moon had been with the Walker human. It was the first time she had heard a name in relation to the dangerous, ‘never seen ancient’ vampire.

He told her everyone in vamp circles was talking about it because Deadly Moon did not usually make a spectacle of her kills.

He didn’t know anything more, but instead of setting him free as she had promised, Nikki had made her first vampire kill.

Remorse? None. She had not kept her word—she had not released him when he gave her the information—but she had no regret. He wouldn’t be able to kill some poor, hapless human, now would he?

Everything she did from that moment on was with the intent of finding Deadly Moon, the vampire other vamps seemed to fear.

Nikki knew enough to be discreet when she singled out a vampire for questioning … and killing. She never did so when other vamps could look on and listen in.

Her latest kill, two nights ago, had won her the information that Deadly Moon was in Dublin. Nikki still had no description of the female vamp. None seemed to know her, only
of
her.

Nikki put aside these thoughts as she took the key the man at the counter handed her and went to the small elevator. She had taken the largest suite he had, as she didn’t know how long she would have to be in Dublin.

She had been to Dublin and the Irish countryside once before, with her brother …

She arrived at her door, #110, and opened it wide before she stepped in. The day was misty and gray. Night would come fast on a day like this. She scanned the place with more than her eyes as she stepped inside.
All clear …

Or so she thought.

A hand came from nowhere and clamped down on her mouth. Another strong, muscled arm went around her and pinned her arms at her side, and a voice with a distinguished English accent whispered in her ear, “Go home, Nikki Walker, before you get yourself killed.”

She tried to spin around and see her attacker, but even with her super-strength she couldn’t budge. One hand was still on her mouth, but the other managed to slip under her open jacket. She struggled hard then, harder than she had ever done before, but he was too strong and quick for her. He snatched her weapon and tossed it before he let go of her mouth and turned her to face him.

She could have screamed then, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to bring attention to herself, especially on her first day. And there was something in this one’s aura that made her think he wasn’t really there to harm her—after all, he had warned her off instead of immediately killing her.

So instead of screaming like a banshee, which she desperately wanted to do, she looked him over.

What she saw made her raise her dark eyebrows. He was tall, and his black hair fell in layered waves around a ruggedly good-looking face. His shadow beard added mystery to his chiseled features. His clothes were expensive and jet-black. Black leather jacket, black tee beneath it, and black jeans and silver-tipped black boots. Whoa—just who was this?

Vampire
—
that’s who
! All at once Nikki’s slayer sense kicked in and told her,
Stupid … he’s a vampire.

As though reading her mind he chuckled. “Aye, then—that established—all I am here for today is to indulge in a reasonable discussion.”

“
That established
—what established?” she returned warily. Had he read her mind? Different vamps had different ‘abilities’.

A short laugh escaped his lips, but then he grew serious all at once. “Let’s skip the game playing, Nikki, shall we?”

“I will if you will, English …”

“
Again
, game playing,” he chided.

“I’m not playing a game. How could I when I don’t know the rules?” She shrugged. “Besides, I don’t play with strangers. You know my name … I don’t know yours.”

“Rules, eh? I shall have to list some for you. Firstly, and most importantly, stay out of
my way
—meaning, don’t look for Deadly Moon. As to my name?” He inclined his head and brought up his dark eyes to her face. “My name is Damon Drummond.”

Nikki stiffened and shot him a warning look. “I have no quarrel with you, Damon Drummond. I don’t know how you know what you do, but I don’t follow other people’s rules—especially when the person listing the rules is a … vampire. Deadly Moon and I …
we
have a problem,
and I
mean to solve it.”

“You will have two problems if you keep trying to track her.”

Was he threatening her? It felt like he was threatening her, and yet, she didn’t really feel threatened. What then? Was he saying that he would be a problem for her if she didn’t stop tracking Deadly Moon? Why? And if that was so, well then, he seemed to think a great deal of himself, and something told Nikki that he probably had cause to do so.

He was not like any vamps she had ever encountered. She also wondered if Deadly Moon was his lover. She eyed him speculatively, but before she could retort he had her shoulders and brought her in close. A sizzling, spidery electricity tickled the air between them.

“I have never seen anything like you, Nikki Walker. From the top of your fiery head to your dainty and dangerous feet, you are unique. You look at me with eyes the deepest shade of blue I have ever encountered in all my four hundred years, and it would be a shame to see them permanently closed.”

“Are you threatening to do that—permanently close my eyes?” Nikki shook her head, “Then go ahead, have at me, because nothing is going to stop me. My brother’s eyes were even more blue than mine, and his were permanently closed before his time … I don’t mean to suffer the Alexe fate … at least not until I get my ounce of justice for him.” She held herself stiffly aloof. “So that brings us to
my rules
 … the first being, stay out of my way, Damon Drummond, and perhaps I will let
you
live.” It was bluster, she knew. This vamp could do her in with the blink of his eye.

He smirked at her and said, “You will get yourself killed if you throw words like that at some vamp you simply cannot take because he has age and experience, and there are some out there, slayer, that you cannot take.” He let her go and wagged a finger at her, “So you want to know if I am threatening you. Fine. Call it what you will, it is still a warning. If you pursue Deadly Moon, you will find yourself a target because your presence will become obvious in their world, and these are bad times in Dublin.”

“You don’t know me. You are not concerned for me, but for Deadly Moon, and so everything you say—
jaded
. I keep my own council.”

“Relieve yourself of the illusion that you are any threat to
her.
You are like a fly she can swat out of her way.”

“Then why are you here—warning me away?”

“I have my reasons.”

“You have wasted your time.”

“I see that …” He suddenly reached for her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. He bent to her face and whispered something that made her toes curl, not because she heard the words but because his low, husky, and sensuous voice rocked her hormones into place and made her body tingle.

She knew all at once that he was going to kiss her. He was actually going to kiss her, and she couldn’t stop herself from wanting that kiss. What the hell was wrong with her?

She should stomp on his foot—kick him in the groan, wallop him one across the face, and break the mood. She had the strength, the skill … and absolutely no inclination to do so.

His mouth was on hers, at first gently and deliciously. She had no will of her own as her lips betrayed her good sense and parted to invite his tongue to stay awhile. And that was exactly what she got—a kiss that drowned her in passion and filled her head with exploding rockets. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t pull away, and she didn’t want to.

Gone! Zap—he was gone faster than any vampire she had ever witnessed on the move.

She stood for a long moment, and the question reared its ugly head and demanded,
Were you under a vampire trance?
The answer was a big fat
no
. It would have been such an easy answer, and one that could have wiped the shame from her conscience, but it wouldn’t have been true.

Slayers couldn’t be mesmerized by vamps—slayers were immune to most vampire magic. The next question sent the blood to her cheeks.
You wanted the vampire Damon Drummond to kiss you—didn’t you, Nikki Walker?

About Claudy Conn

Claudy Conn, a native New Yorker, now lives with her husband, Bob; their wolf, Cherokee; and Cherokee’s son, Rocky Man, who weighs in presently at 190 pounds.

She loves horses and riding and raised her ten-year-old gelding Southern Pride from the moment he was born. She also loves gardening, swimming, skiing, hiking, and travel—and of course, reading, writing, but no, she says, no arithmetic!

To get her monthly news, her reviews for all her new paranormal romances, and excerpts, come on and visit her at her website:
http://www.claudyconn.com