Crimson Heat: 4 (Vampira) (4 page)

She had a better idea.

“Summon my three top bounty hunters,” she ordered her nearby guards. “Tell them I wish to see them and to make them an offer they cannot refuse.”

“Your wish is our command, my Queen.” The closest guard bowed and he and most of the other guards left the room, leaving one behind.

Queen Crimson stared at the male who had found Satin. “And the rest of the information you have given me is true and correct?”

The male nodded. His sharp scent of excitement penetrated the air and she knew he anticipated falling back into her good graces and getting his old cushy job back.

“You have left nothing out?”

He shook his head. “No, my Queen. I have given you everything I know. She was at the fashion show for another vampire and the vampire’s twin sister. I have given you their names and their location.”

“Yet, you do not know what name Satin lives under?”

“No, I gathered the information quickly so she would not recognize me and I returned it all to you.”

“Good.” She turned to her closest guard.

“A stake through his heart,” she commanded.

“But, my Queen—“

Before the male could protest further, his words were cut off as the guard thrust a stake directly into his heart. His eyes rolled up and he slumped to the floor in a motionless heap.

“Remove it,” she ordered.

Without hesitation the guard grabbed the deceased male by his feet and dragged him away.

Satisfaction slithered through her and she smiled. Killing was such a treat. She stared into the magical crystal ball at the end of her cane and willed it to show her a scene from her past. A scene from her last time with Satin. As the ball glowed white, she settled back on her throne, and watched as Satin’s eyes closed with pain as Queen Crimson’s sharp fangs broke the skin over Satin’s jugular vein. Sweet, hot blood swept into the Queen’s mouth and she hungrily drank, ignoring the writhing and moaning distress from her slave.

Oh yes, my sweet vampire. We will soon meet again. I can hardly wait.

* * * * *

Zeena’s high-pitched shriek almost toppled Lisbeth as she stepped out of the dressing room. In a split second, two sets of arms embraced her.

“She got an order from one of the top costume companies in Europe.” Christina laughed.

“Oh my gosh, you were supposed to let me tell her,” Zeena complained as both sisters broke the embrace.

“Congratulations!” Pride for Zeena’s accomplishment whipped through Lisbeth as the two sisters let her go. Zeena showed her the order form asking for several thousand copies of the sexy red dress she had worn down the aisle.

“Impressive. It seems like you knew that red dress was going to be a hit and in bringing it last to the audience you made them drool. You two are going to be busy vamps making tons of dresses.”

Christina shook her head and waved her hands. “Not me. I was just doing her a favor, like you. I’ve already got a full-time job as a cop, remember? And I promised to visit our mother and father later this afternoon. I’ve backed out too many times already. They’ll kill me if I’m a no-show again.”

“Well, you should give up that job and just tell them I’m going to need your help,” Zeena said as she tossed the order onto a nearby table.

As the two vamps argued, Lisbeth watched them closely. Born as twins, yet with different sires as sometimes happened in their clan when a female mated with two males, the young females acted similar with their playful manners. Yet they were also different in that Zeena was creative and trusting and her sister tended to be more conservative and realistic.

Lisbeth admired them. They appeared not to have a care in the world where their lives were concerned. It had been the total opposite for Lisbeth at their age. From as early as she could remember, she’d feared for her life while a slave. Lisbeth still suffered anxiety and terror dreams giving her the feeling she would once again end up at the mercy of the Queen of the Crimson Clan and her painful fangs as they dug into her neck searching for blood.

“You’re only going to end up shot dead,” Zeena complained to her sister. “Then where am I going to be?”

“I am not going to be shot dead,” Christina retorted with a smirk. “I’m a vampire, remember? A stake to the heart can kill me and maybe a couple of other things like working my fingers to the bones helping you with your career, but don’t worry. I won’t be getting killed any time soon. Too many things going on in my life.”

It was hard to believe that these two vamps were nearing their mating cycles. Instead of working toward getting Zeena’s business off the ground, they should be making plans on hiding from males who would have no qualms about seducing two innocent vampire princesses.

But Lisbeth held herself in check. It was not her place to warn them of what they would soon be encountering. It was the job of their mother Megan, Queen of the Crystal Clan, and Lisbeth had no doubt their mother and sires were already tutoring the females in the art of not giving in easily to males or their own female needs for sex.

Taking advantage of their ongoing argument, Lisbeth excused herself and made her way to the nearest ladies’ room. Hidden inside the stall, she dematerialized and a second later rematerialized in her New York penthouse, several blocks away from where the fashion show had taken place.

Being among familiar surroundings relaxed her. The air was fresh and clean. No sign of any imagined scents.

She sighed and tossed her purse onto the kitchen counter. Opening her fridge door, she then grabbed a bottle of synthetic blood from inside. She was tired and needed a quick pick-me-up. Then she would get some sleep. Perhaps that would get rid of the uneasiness plaguing her since she thought she’d smelled that offensive scent at the fashion show. Maybe when she woke up, everything would be back to normal.

* * * * *

Zeena smelled the vampire males the instant they strolled into her dress shop at sundown. There were three of them and they oozed a sensual scent she found attractive and hard to resist. They spoke to her saleslady at the front of the store and then all three males gazed her way.

Oh dear. They appeared quite intent on getting whatever they were here for.

A sense of needing to flee rocked her as they strolled toward her, but she stood her ground. Whatever they wanted from her they weren’t going to get. She had to make sure of that.

“You had a fashion show this morning,” The tallest of the males said as they stopped in front of her.

Oh my, but he was a big one. At least six-foot-five, he towered over her with a menacing atmosphere. He had short, spiky black hair and his gaze was black, the darkest black she’d ever seen.

He was dressed in black and wore several thick gold chains around his neck, appearing smart with a dangerous allure. She made a mental note to copy that look when she created a male fashion line.

Despite her immediate nervousness, she relaxed a little. That’s why these males were here. They must have been at her fashion show and wanted to place an order. She extended her hand to the vamp. He didn’t take it. She dropped her hand. Okay. So the vampire didn’t have human manners. No worries.

“Zeena Smith, at your service. What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

She gave the other two a quick once-over, noting their ultra-large shoulders. These males were just as attractive as the tallest one. One of the other two also had black hair, a bit longer than his companion’s. He possessed an intriguing rose tattoo on his right cheek. Despite that odd placement, he remained attractive with a flawless-shaped nose and piercing blue eyes. The other male had light-brown hair and light-brown eyes. His thick eyebrows dripped with menace.

They needed to lighten up. Sure, the fashion business was competitive, but with gruff expressions like that they would scare everyone away.

Ordinarily she would have joked with them about their seriousness, not to mention the interesting foreign-like clothing they wore, but their nearness and intense scents made her aware that they could grab her and dematerialize with her instantly.

Zeena swallowed nervously. For the first time in her life, she felt vulnerable here in the human world.

“What can I help you with, gentlemen?” she said again, warm and flushed as the three men stared at her without speaking.

Visions of Lisbeth popped into her head. Lisbeth, walking down the runway earlier today. Lisbeth, being so beautiful and the crowd cheering.

Zeena blinked and noted something odd about the tall guy. His pupils were widening as he stared at her. Try as she might she couldn’t seem to break the intense interest in knowing what he wanted from her.

“The female you know as Lisbeth. Where can we find her?”

More visions welled from deep inside her memory. Lisbeth and Zeena’s mother speaking about Vampira and why they were in hiding. Lisbeth being the CEO and owner of a lucrative company. And that she and other members of Vampira were able to walk in the daylight thanks to drugs.

Oh sweet vampires!
They were trying to mesmerize her into telling her about Lisbeth. They were here for her!

In a flash, Zeena erected the mind shield that would keep them from probing deeper. It was hard and she almost caved a few times as they continued fighting her, but her persistence paid off and the wall preventing them from reading her mind slid into place.

“You aren’t wanted here,” she snapped, keeping her voice low enough so just the males could hear. “Leave or I will call for help. I’m betting you don’t want members of my Crystal Clan coming down your ass.”

She glanced over at her saleslady Lora and nodded her head, an indication to get close to the alarm bell.

From this angle, she was able to see Lora’s hand slide behind the sales counter, to the emergency button Zeena had there. It was a direct link to her sire. One push to that button and Crystal Clan Warriors would materialize from his kingdom, ready for battle.

As far as the human saleslady Lora was concerned, it was an alarm system to a private security company who would be here within minutes. In truth, it would be seconds. If a confrontation occurred, she would mesmerize Lora into forgetting anything she saw.

The three males frowned.

“We’re old friends,” the tallest one continued. “We want to get in touch with her.”

They weren’t dressed like anyone Lisbeth would know in the human world. She observed one of the other two males, the one with the tattoo on his cheek. He wore a black leather belt around his waist. It was lined with silver throwing stars. The other male had a crossbow slung over his shoulder.

Why in vampire heavens had she not noticed their weapons when they’d first walked in?

They must have been mesmerizing her the instant they’d come in. Chances were they were from Lisbeth’s old life.

Dammit! How had they found Lisbeth? Had someone spotted her at the fashion show? But how was that possible? She’d had plastic surgery to alter her face and she took scent disguisers on a daily basis. Lisbeth took so many precautions that Zeena had been comfortable in begging her to appear as a model for her.

“Sorry, but I don’t know who you’re talking about. If you want a list of the models, you’ll have to go to the modeling agency that I use. Would you like the name of the agency?” How
had
they found Zeena? How did they know she knew Lisbeth?

“We were already there,” the tall male answered.

She could
feel
their minds continue to probe against her shield as they tried to find a way inside. They were strong. It was three against one and she was weakening. She sensed the longer they remained close to her, the harder it would be to deny them what they wanted. Thank the sweet vampires her sire had insisted she learn how to deflect mesmerizing vamps! If he hadn’t talked her into taking lessons from the Powerful Three—three psychic Warriors—she would have given these males standing in front of her everything they wanted from her.

“I’m sure you can return to that agency and ask them your questions. I don’t know who you are talking about. Have a good day, gentlemen,” she said with a firmness she didn’t feel.

The vamps glared at her with fury in their eyes, but she held her ground. The tall one emitted a harsh grunt and the three of them turned and left.

“Wow, those guys were hot! Did you see how they were built? Big, tall men,” Lora gushed as the door closed behind them. “And they sure were mad at you. I wouldn’t want those guys mad at me, that’s for sure. Who were they? Why are they so pissed?”

“Lock the door. We’re closing early,” Zeena instructed Lora, whose eyes widened in surprise.

“But we still have a couple of hours to closing.”

“Just do it. Take the rest of the time off.”

Lora frowned.

“With pay.”

She knew Lora was a single human mom who had three young mouths to feed at home along with an invalid elderly grandmother. She held down two full-time jobs to pay for a sitter for the kids and her grandmother and she was always vowing to keep her family together.

Lora’s weakness had always been big, muscular men who didn’t use condoms and didn’t stick around to find out if she was pregnant.