Deceptive Changes: Kat LaMond Book 1 (14 page)

“I won’t.” Yet. 

They walked with me to the double doors that led to the backyard.  Beatrice and Ardeness were fighting Thorn and losing.  Sandra and Mark were going after Monica.  Charles was taking Teresa and sort of winning.  Todd and Sven were fighting.  I watched as each of my people were taken down, except Todd.  Todd and Sven were still fighting and it looked real. 

Sven was trying for speed but with Todd’s abilities as the new king he was able to keep just ahead of Sven.  Sven changed tactics midstride and caught Todd across the back.  Todd went down to his knees.  I started to open the door but Trace held me back.  I continued to watch and by the end, Todd had gotten Sven a few times.

When Todd came into the house I asked, “Can I take a swing at this?”  He pursed his lips at me and then nodded.  I was out the door and wondering who would take me. 

Erick called, “Katja, this isn’t real.  You need to take off your weapons.” 

I cringed and went back into the house.  “Are you sure I can’t keep my weapons?”  They shook their heads.  Damn.  I took off my holsters and sheaths and set them on the side table by the door.

I walked outside and grabbed two fighting sticks.  I looked at each of the vampires.  I could see that Sven wanted another crack at me, if only to taste me again.  Thorn was looking at me like he wanted to eat me, and not in a good way either.  The two women vamps were clenching their fists and looking at me like they wanted my head on a platter.  Okay then.  “Who wants first go at me?”  Sven raised his hand.  I nodded. 

I walked into the middle of the sparring field and waited for him to come after me.  He circled me as I circled him.  He lunged at me.  I spun to the ground and nailed him in the stomach with my stick.  He rolled to the ground and jumped up.  He smiled as he made a motion for me to get him.  I shook my head.

He came at me quickly.  I fended him off as best I could and got in a head shot.  He reared back and licked the blood from his mouth.  “You do that again, Katja, and I will taste you.”  I frowned at him.  He didn’t give me a chance to answer.  He hit me in the chest and I went flying.  I hit the ground and all the air in my lungs exploded out of my mouth. 

I rolled when his foot came down near my head.  I grabbed one stick and knocked his feet out from under him.  He went down for a second and then popped back up.  I was regretting that I had taken my real weapons off.

He had me by the collar of my shirt and planted a kiss on my lips, for that alone I whacked him with the stick.  I didn’t give him a chance to say anything.  I hit him on the leg, hard enough for his leg to buckle.  He let me go and hissed at me.  His fangs came out.  He growled and said, “I will have you, Katja.  For that alone.”  My heart went into my throat as I backed away from him.

I held the one stick at the ready.  He didn’t even try to stalk me.  He simply pushed off the ground and was behind me with his arm around my neck.  His fangs slid into my neck and I was immediately overwhelmed with a pleasure that made my knees weak.

I tried to fight through the feelings that welled through me but I couldn’t.  The stick dropped from my hand.  Sven’s hands roamed my chest and stomach.  I sighed as his mouth worked at my neck.  I heard voices but they were far away.  Sven’s body jerked and his teeth slid from my neck.  He licked the wound and turned.  I fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

><                            ><

I woke up in my bedroom with my men surrounding me.  I looked at them and sat up.  The room swam as my heart beat loudly in my head.  “What happened?” I asked as I put my hand to my head.

“You don’t remember?” 

I blinked at Todd and thought about it.  I sucked in a breath as the memories came back to me.  “It was Sven.  He took my blood.  We were fighting.  Did you shoot him?”  Todd nodded.  “Is he dead?” 

“No.  He’s healing in the other guest room though.  What kind of bullets were in that gun, Kat?”

“I had some exploding rounds made.  Sorry, I didn’t think you’d want to know being that they’re illegal and all.  Besides, it would have been one hell of a surprise to some bad vampires.” 

Todd’s mouth hung open.  He closed his mouth and thought for a moment.  “Good thing I didn’t aim for his heart.  He’d be dead if I had.”  Yeah, what a shame.

“How long was I out?”

“Only an hour, Kat.  You lost some blood but nothing dangerous.  Sven is going to need some blood and no one wants to donate.” 

“Are you asking me something?” 

“No.  I wouldn’t ask you to do that.  I’m going to need to run and grab some though.”

“No. Don’t.  It was partially my fault that he’s injured.  I’ll donate the blood.  How about Thorn, Monica, and Teresa?  Do they have donors?”

“Yeah, Beatrice and Ardeness have offered to feed Thorn.  Charles has offered to donate for the girls though Nadja wants to be in the room when they take his blood.” I must have looked surprised because he continued. “Charles has been a donor before, when he was with Antreas.  I didn’t know if you would be willing to allow us to feed the girls or even Thorn.  We wanted to speak with you first.”

“If they need it, I suppose not.  I can’t allow my jealousy of the girls to affect the mission.  Besides, if I donate to Sven, you should feel what I feel.”  They nodded but didn’t move.  “What else?”

“Nothing.  We’re just surprised, that’s all.” 

I looked at each of them.  “I guess I’ll go feed Sven then.”  I got off the bed.  Trace and Erick held my arms and walked me into the guest room.  Todd went off somewhere. 

Sven was lying on the bed, bleeding and paler than he had been.  It looked like he had lost a lot of blood.  I heaved a sigh and walked up to the bed alone.  I looked around for a knife. 

Trace handed me a knife and I cut my wrist.  My blood dribbled onto Sven’s mouth.  He didn’t move or flinch or even swallow.  I hoped I wasn’t too late.  I didn’t much like him but I didn’t want him to die, not yet.  I pressed my wrist to his mouth.  A moment later his mouth opened and his teeth slid in.  I hissed as pain went through my arm.

His hand wrapped around my wrist and his eyes flew open.  His dark blue eyes shimmered with bloodlust.  I gulped and tried to pull my wrist away.  His hand tightened on mine.  He continued to suck on my wrist as he looked at me.  Pleasure filled me from the top of my head to my toes.  I think I moaned but I couldn’t tell for sure, since blood was pounding in my ears and muting out almost all sound.

He let me go and licked the wound, then smiled at me.  “You saved me.  Again.  You really do like me.”

“Don’t get excited.  I only helped because we need you.  After this is over, I’ll probably kill you,” I said as I got off the bed.

“Before it was you will kill me, now it’s probably.”  His grin widened. 

I walked over to Trace and Erick.  They wrapped their arms around my waist.  “I can get into this three on one thing, Katja.  No wonder they stay with you.”  He winked and got off the bed.  He didn’t attempt to come near me but scented the air and groaned in delight.  I don’t know what he smelled but it put one of those man-smiles on his face, then he walked out of the bedroom.

Trace and Erick gave me a kiss on the cheek.  Erick whispered, “That was quite a turn-on, Katja.” 

I looked up and found his pupils dilated, thoroughly aroused.  “Really?” 

He nodded and then flicked his eyes to Trace.  I lifted an eyebrow at Trace.  “I found it strangely erotic.”  I shook my head and pulled them out of the room.  I wasn’t ready to have sex with two men in a house full of vampires.

I found Todd in the other guest room.  Sven was watching as Monica bit into Todd’s neck.  Todd sighed as her mouth worked at him.  I could feel the charge in the air, a sexual charge.  I backed up a step and bumped into Trace.  I looked up at him but he was staring at Monica and Todd.  I swung my gaze back. 

She had her hands on his chest and his arms were around her back.  It
was
strangely erotic but I couldn’t handle it.  I turned on my heel and pushed through Trace and Erick.  I went into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and sat at the table.  This was getting stranger and stranger. 

Trace and Erick walked into the kitchen.  Trace said, “It’s over.  She took her fill.  Todd should be in shortly.”  They chuckled. 

“What?”  They looked at me, their amusement slowly fading. 

Erick said, “I believe he needs to change his clothes.  It might have been a bit too pleasurable.” 

I stared at them, then grinned.  I might not be able to watch as she took his blood but I could just see him having to change clothes.  I’ve been on the receiving end of that bite.

Todd walked in and sure enough he had traded his blue jeans in for a darker pair.  I smiled at him.  He blushed.  I walked over to him and gave him a big hug.  I whispered, “Good, huh?”  He stepped back from me and nodded.  I didn’t think he really wanted to talk about it.  “Don’t you want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to talk about, Kat?  It felt damn good.  I’d do it again if I could but I won’t have them taking any more blood from me,” he said and paused.  “To be honest, it felt like I was cheating on you.  How can you want to kill Sven after what I just felt?”

“It’s easy.  I don’t really like him.  His bite may be delicious but it isn’t for me.  I like having three semi-normal guys.”

“Semi-normal?”

“Yeah, you guys are way too hot to be normal.”  I chuckled at my joke and leaned against the table.  The four vampires walked in.  They were all rosy cheeked.  I grimaced.  I guess our time alone was over.

After a few weeks it seemed that the vampires had made a home.  We sparred with them and learned how to effectively fight vampires.  By the end of the month we had a tight fighting force and nothing to fight.

I stayed away from Sven and Thorn even though they continually gravitated toward me, especially Sven.  The women snacked on others.  Todd refused to let them take his blood any longer and Trace and Erick didn’t want any part of it.  Erick still disliked vampires and Trace wasn’t comfortable allowing them to sink teeth into him.

I didn’t allow any of them to snack on me either.  They went out at night and found people that wanted to be bitten by a vampire.  I didn’t realize that they had followers.  I should have known but I hadn’t wanted to think about it.

Todd woke me up with a kiss to my cheek.  I smiled at him and snuggled closer.  We hadn’t done much but train, eat, and sleep.  I was still uncomfortable with having the vampires in the house and having sex.  They had extremely good hearing.

All four of us were snuggling when a scream sounded from down the hall.  We launched off the bed and ran out.  It was Monica.  She was screaming in rage.  We ran to her side and found Teresa dead.

“How the hell did this happen?” Todd asked. 

We could only shrug.  Monica wasn’t screaming anymore, she was crying.  I repressed a sigh as the guys looked at me.  Why did I have to deal with the crying vampire?  I wasn’t any good with people who cried. 

I wrapped an arm around Monica’s shaking shoulders and brought her into the kitchen.  I sat her down and held her hand.  I let her cry it out and when her faintly pink tears stopped, she looked at me.  “I’m sorry about your friend, Monica.”

“She wasn’t just a friend.  She was like my sister.”  She looked up when Todd entered the room.  “What happened?” 

He shrugged.  “We haven’t found out.  All we know is that she was staked.  We don’t know who did it but I’m sure it was one of Cyril’s vampires.  How he or she got into the house, I’ll never know.”

“What do you plan on doing?” Monica demanded. 

Todd just looked at her.  “I’m not sure yet.  We’ll figure something out.”

“It’s not safe here.  I have to leave.”  She stood up and looked at us.  I think she was waiting for us to dispute the facts but we couldn’t.  It wasn’t safe anymore.  Someone had killed one of our vampires. 

Todd asked her, “Do you think it’s any safer out there?”

“No, but at least I won’t be a sitting duck,” she said, then she was gone. 

We stayed sitting at the table.  How were we going to fight them?  “Todd, I have an idea.  You won’t like it but I think it may draw them out into the open.” 

He sighed and said, “What’s your plan?”

“I was thinking about using live bait.”  He waited for me to continue.  He didn’t seem all that surprised.  “I figure we could stage a huge fight or something and then have Cyril approach me or you.  Probably me, since I’ll be leaving the house in a huff.”

“How will they know?”

“If the vamp traitor is near the house then he or she will report what happened.”  I smiled.  I could see how it would go down.  “I’ll miss you, just so you know.”  He nodded and thought about the plan.

“Okay.  Before we do this, I’m sure I speak for Trace and Erick, I want time with you.” 

I sighed and nodded.  This wasn’t going to be a good thing with the two male vampires in the house.  “We need to get rid of the other two vampires or we move to a different place for the day.”

“You feel uncomfortable with them here?  Why didn’t you say so?”

“I didn’t think it’d help matters.” 

He sighed and grabbed my hand.  He held my hand and brought it to his lips.  He kissed the knuckles and then set my hand on the table.  “You should have told me.  I wouldn’t have let them stay.”

I chuckled and said, “It’s not all the time, just when we want to have sex, Todd.”  He grinned.  “I have a feeling that if we did have sex that Sven and Thorn would want to join.”  His grin vanished as soon as the words were out of my mouth.  His liquid brown eyes darkened.  “Uh, Todd.  Relax.  I said it might happen.” 

“I know, Kat.  I was okay with Sven but Thorn, no.  He’s a strong vampire, yes, but he’s young.”

“He hasn’t tried anything with me.  I think he’s into one of the girls.”  And by girls I meant Beatrice and Ardeness.  Todd’s eyes lightened and he smiled at the thought.  The girls were sex deprived and were interested in just about any guy.

We were still chuckling at the thought when Trace and Erick came into the room.  “Hey, guys.” I finger waved and became less happy.  “What’s up?”

“We thought you should see this.”  Erick held a stake, the stake. 

“Yeah?”

“This is the stake that was used on Teresa.”  We nodded.  “Doesn’t it look familiar?”  We examined it closer and found that it was one of ours.  We rarely used the stakes but sometimes they worked better than a bullet or a knife.

“Who could have done this?” I asked.  A thought skittered into my mind.  Which one of us did it?  I tried to toss the question but it was nagging me now.  Did one of us kill Teresa with or without our knowledge?

Neither of my men knew the answer to my vocalized question.  I stood up and gave a nod to Todd.  I was going to let him fill in the other two on our plan.  I’m sure the vampires already heard our plan. 

I walked into my bedroom and packed a bag, then went downstairs and grabbed another bag full of weapons.  As I was packing I thought up a better scheme.  As long as Sven wasn’t our traitor it should work out. 

I sighed and tried to steady my heart as I walked up the stairs to the kitchen.  As I entered, I heard talking.  I stopped at the door and heard Beatrice and Thorn speaking quietly.  They stopped speaking and I heard something that I didn’t want to think about.  I went back downstairs and used the outside door.

I walked up the hill and went in through the double doors.  I glanced to my right and found that it had been Thorn and Beatrice.  He was snacking and she was more than pleased.  His brown eyes flicked to me and then closed. 

I continued down the hall and found my men in our bedroom.  I dropped my bags by the door and sat on the bed with them.  “Did you talk with the vamps?”  Todd nodded.  “Are they going to leave for a few hours?”

“No.  They’ll still be here but they were thinking about taking the girls out for a nice dinner.”  That would work, I suppose, since I needed to ask Todd some questions about Sven. 

“When will they be leaving?” 

Todd looked at his watch and said, “In an hour.”  I could live with that.  We laid on the bed for the hour.

><                            ><

A knock at the door made us sit up.  I opened the door and found Sven standing there looking uncomfortable.  “We’re going out to dinner.”  He looked like he wanted me to say ‘don’t go’.  I nodded at him and started to shut the door.  He put his hand on the door and said, “I can stay if you’d like.”

“It’s okay, Sven.  I think you should go have a bit of fun.  Don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay.”  He nodded and left.  I shut the door and grinned at my guys.  Whew, that was done.  Now, for the big announcement.  I didn’t plan on letting Sven in on the plan.

We waited a few minutes for the car to leave.  “I have something to ask you, well, tell you.”  They looked at me.  “I think we should involve Sven.  Well, not actually inform him of what we plan.”

They frowned at me. “What are you talking about?” Todd asked.

I sighed and sat cross legged on the floor in front of them.  “Okay.  Let me see if I can say this so it makes sense to all of us.  I think we should use Sven.  You trust him to protect me, right?”  Todd nodded.  “Okay.  I was thinking that when we stage this huge fight, I’ll run to Sven’s waiting arms.  You know as well as I do that he will be waiting for just that chance.” 

They stood up in alarm.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Kat,” Todd cautioned. 

I stared at Todd.  “Why not?”

“Because, he really does want you.  Because, he may be the bad guy.  There are too many maybes.” 

I sighed.  “Todd, guys, it really is a good idea.  If he isn’t the bad guy it won’t matter.  He’ll be there to protect me against them.  Besides, he’s a lot faster than Thorn and stronger to boot.”

“Kat.  We don’t want to talk about this right now.  We want our time together before we put this plan into motion.”  I nodded.  I was excited about our plan, mostly because I had thought it up, but I figured it would get fucked up one way or the other no matter who thought it up.

I set the plan aside and looked at them.  They were dressed in comfy clothes.  Sweat pants and t-shirts.  I was in jeans and a t-shirt.  They were smiling a little.  “Why aren’t you happier?”

Trace spoke up.  “We aren’t happy that you’ll be gone.  Again.  We don’t know how long you’ll have to be gone from us before we get you back.”

“That’s too sad a topic.  Let’s just focus on the here and now.”  I grabbed Trace and pulled him to me.  I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist.  He held me tight.  I kissed him with as much passion that I could muster under the situation.

He kissed me back with eagerness.  He carried me, not to the bed, but to the bathroom.  I pulled away long enough to raise an eyebrow.  He smiled and carried me to the tub.  It was full of hot water and rose petals were floating on the steaming water.

Trace set me down and pulled my shirt off.  He watched as I took my jeans and underwear off and slipped into the steaming water.  I laid back, closed my eyes, and relaxed.  The heat soaked through my muscles almost immediately.  I felt Trace slip into the water and then he was right next to me.  He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me flush against him.  I leaned my head on his shoulder. 

I didn’t want to do this.  Not have sex, that’s not what I mean.  I didn’t want to make some stupid argument up and then have a fake fight.  I wanted to stay with my guys and be warm and protected. 

The water moved and Todd and Erick joined us.  They wrapped their arms around Trace and me and just held us.  It was comforting to be held.  We stayed wrapped in each other’s embrace for a long while. 

><                            ><

We relaxed and almost fell asleep when there was pounding at the door.  We sat up quickly, droplets from our skin tinkling on the water.

We stood up and tried to carefully get out of the tub.  It looked like a circus act or something.  We tripped over our feet and the slippery tub. 

We finally got out and grabbed robes.  Todd got to the door first.  He opened it to Charles.  I caught the terrified expression on Charles face, an expression that hardly was ever on his scarred face and it made my heart clench.

“Charles?” I said, confused and worried.

“It’s Thorn.”  He wouldn’t say anything further. 

We followed Charles outside.  It had to be thirty degrees outside.  I shivered as we ran to the SUV.  Sven was there, standing by the open back passenger door, with Thorn in his arms. 

“What happened?”  I noticed Beatrice and Ardeness were standing by the driver’s door, tears streaming down their faces.

I went over to them and wrapped my arms around their waists.  I gently coaxed them into the house.  “Charles?”  He came up to me.  “Take them into the kitchen and get them a glass of something really strong.”  He took them into the kitchen and I went into the sitting room.  Sven had Thorn laid on the couch.

“Now, what happened?”  I looked at Sven.  His eyes were wide and frightened.  “Sven, please, what happened?” 

He looked at me and blinked.  “We…we were going to dinner when a beggar came from the alley and asked for money.  We didn’t think much of it and blew him off.  We started for the restaurant when Thorn took out a knife and stabbed his own throat.  Luckily, I was fast enough and grabbed him.  Beatrice grabbed the knife from Thorn’s throat even as Thorn fought me to grab the weapon.  He managed to get out of my grasp and grabbed the knife from Beatrice.  He started to run from us and as he was running he kept stabbing himself like he was possessed.  I caught him before he could make the last fatal wound.  I knocked the knife from his hand as he brought it to his heart.

“He was bleeding severely and looked scared to death at the same time.  When he couldn’t get to his heart, he passed out.  I carried him to the SUV.  The girls were already at the truck with the door open.  They were as scared as I was.  I drove here as fast as I dared, and that’s it.  Beatrice tried to feed him in the truck but he wouldn’t take the blood.  I’m afraid he might die.”

I looked at my guys.  They were shocked, and fear tinged their eyes.  I couldn’t let Thorn die.  It was almost never ending with vampires.  I looked around for something to cut my wrist.  No weapons.  “Todd, I have to try.  If I don’t succeed then you have to.”  He nodded. 

I went to the bedroom and grabbed a dagger.

I walked back into the sitting room and kneeled beside Thorn’s prone body.  His streaked hair gleamed and glittered against his pale, pale skin.  I took a couple of deep breaths. 

Sven was asking why I was taking so long.  I shushed him and took another deep breath.  I bit my lip as I put my wrist over his mouth and slashed through to the artery.