Eternal Prey (18 page)

Lia kept her head down, even when he guided her to the cot and pulled her down beside him. She wouldn’t let him see her tears. Tears she didn’t understand.

But she should’ve known she couldn’t keep anything from him. He tilted her face up and just looked at her. Then he wiped the tears from under her eyes with his finger.

“What do you fear, Lia?”

Lia had believed she feared nothing. Well, she’d revisited that belief. “You.”
What if this is the only time?

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close against the demons haunting her tonight, and filled the silence with his chaotic thoughts. They had to get out of here. He had to protect her. What the hell did all these emotions mean? And how had he allowed this woman to push ahead of Rap in his mind, his
heart
? No, not his heart. Not yet. But it was getting close. Too close. He couldn’t let that happen, and if he thought about it long enough, he’d remember why.

But he steered clear of what he really wanted to know. Why did she fear
him
? He’d expected her to say she feared Christine. Understandable. Was it all about his beast? He didn’t think so.

He didn’t get a chance to give in to temptation and ask why because someone tried to open the door.

“Damn.” Utah leaped from the cot and reached the door in one stride. “Who is it?”

“Christine. I assume you’re trying to keep me out. It won’t work.”

“Didn’t think it would.” May as well let the bitch in. He moved the chair from the door and backed away.

But it wasn’t Christine who came through the door first. As the door was pushed open, someone shoved Jude into the room. Christine stood outside with several of her people.

Utah stared at them. Not vampire. What were they?

Christine smiled and waved at him. “They’re werewolves. Strong and able to run errands during the day. Very useful.”

Utah would’ve commented on the strangeness of that if Adam wasn’t using Kione and him. Evidently, vampires were equal opportunity employers.

“I’ll leave you three here for a nice cozy chat while I get things ready for the big event.” Christine winked at Lia. “I hope you’re worth it, Lia. Jude took a lot of persuading.”

Jude glared at her. Utah could see new blood on the vampire’s clothes. The wounds must’ve already healed.

No one said anything until Christine closed the door. Then Jude flung himself at the door, but it didn’t budge.

“Already tried that.” Utah returned to his seat on the cot beside Lia. She rested her hand on his thigh. She’d grown pale. This was a tough night for everyone. “Why are you here, Jude?”

Jude took a moment to examine a tear in his jacket, but Utah suspected he was taking time to think about what he wanted to say.

Finally, he switched his attention from his jacket to Lia. “You didn’t tell him?”

Utah didn’t like the sound of that. He stared at Lia. She wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“I told you that Christine wants me to work for her.” Exhaustion seemed to pull apart each word. Lia leaned back against the wall.

Utah nodded.

“Just not as a human.”

It took a moment for the implication to sink in. “Explain.”

“If I become vampire, she’ll hire me.”

“And if not?” His beast sensed his anger and inched toward the cave entrance.

Lia shrugged. “I die.”

The silence pounded at Utah. He wanted to drive it away with his roar of fury.
Control. Calm.
“How much time did she give you to think about it?”

“Until she could get Jude here. I told her I wanted him to be my maker.” She cast Jude an accusing stare. “Thought you’d put up more of a fight.”

“Did my best, babe.” But Jude wasn’t looking at Lia. He was watching Utah.

Utah figured the vampire knew where the real danger lay.

Lia didn’t seem to realize she was digging her nails into his thigh, but Utah welcomed the pain. It provided a distraction. He needed that right now. His soul wanted out, and it didn’t care that the room wasn’t big enough, or that he’d crush Lia and Jude in the process. All it wanted was a shot at Christine.

“We’ll figure this out. It won’t come to that.” Utah’s mind skittered down dozens of corridors, all dead ends.

She finally looked at him. No emotion showed in her eyes. “Don’t do anything that’ll get you killed. Fin needs you alive.”

What about you? Do
you
need me alive?

“I was going to become vampire anyway. This is just moving the schedule up a little.” She might as well have been discussing a change in her dentist appointment for all the feeling in her voice.

Utah knew this had to be her way of coping with what Christine was forcing on her, and everyone coped in different ways. His way was to go out and kill something. But God, he’d like to hear a little more horror in her voice.

Utah turned to Jude, who’d planted himself in the chair and looked about as dangerous as a vampire could look. “Can you fake turning her?” Yeah, he was grasping at straws.

Jude smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Not a chance. It’s pretty tough to fake draining someone and then giving her your blood. I think Christine would catch on.”

Utah was starting to feel desperate. He’d always been a top-of-the-food-chain guy. He wasn’t used to this feeling of helplessness. He turned back to Lia. “Tell Christine you want me there when it happens. She said she was getting things ready, so it won’t happen in this room.” Maybe the space would be bigger. His beast would find a way to stop it. Hell, even if it wasn’t bigger, he’d fight in human form. Whatever it took.

Lia didn’t say anything to him. Instead, she spoke to Jude. “I’m sorry about dragging you into this. I didn’t think she’d be able to find you. And even if she did, I thought you might beat her. She must have crazy power even for a vampire.”

Jude looked puzzled. “You don’t know?”

Utah didn’t give Lia a chance to answer. “Know what?”

Lia took her hand from his thigh as he leaned forward.

“Christine isn’t a vampire.”

U
tah snorted his disbelief. “She had her fangs in my neck. She took my freaking blood. If it looks like a vampire, bites like a vampire, then it’s—”

“Still not a vampire.” Jude sounded weary of the whole thing.

Lia thought her head would explode. Too many life-altering events crammed together. She couldn’t get a handle on the bam, bam, bam effect. Sort of like a giant pileup on the interstate during a fog. “How do you know she’s not vampire? I didn’t sense anything.”

Jude closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “No offense, but you’re still human. I’m vampire. I know my own. She’s a fake.” He thought about that for a moment. “Okay, a really powerful fake.”

The silence dragged on too long for Lia’s strung-out nerves. Finally, Utah said what they all must be thinking.

“Seven.” Utah sounded disgusted. “Has to be. She had enough power to knock me out of my raptor form. And right before she took me, I saw Fin’s face. He knew her. She played everyone. There never was any rogue vampire stealing Adam’s people. And we all assumed Seven was a guy. Seir set us up. He’s working for her.”

“Doesn’t add up.” Jude finally showed some life. “He helped out a few times in Houston and Philly. What made him switch sides?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m going to kill him.” Utah’s eyes were coldly determined.

“What is Seir? I mean besides Fin’s brother.” Lia was trying hard to concentrate while keeping her thoughts from creeping back to Utah. The only good thing about so much happening at once was that he hadn’t had time to think. How long before he started questioning her reason for making love with him? She hoped he didn’t think about it for a long time.

Utah shrugged. “Demon? Who knows?” His expression said it didn’t matter. Seir was dead.

Lia watched Utah take a deep breath and visibly try to ratchet down his bloodlust.

“So here’s where we are.” Utah raked his fingers through his hair. “She’s blocked my line to Fin, so we can’t count on help from him in time to stop this.”

Lia winced. He’d injected a mega shot of loathing into the word “this.”

“We won’t be able to match her power, at least not in a straight-up fight. If she takes us to a larger room, I can free my beast, but that didn’t help much back at the bridge. If we can catch her by surprise, we might have a chance.”

“A few too many ifs.” Lia had to make one thing clear. “I want you to let me become vampire. It’s what I’ve always wanted, just not this way. It’ll give us more time to plan an escape that has a chance of succeeding.”

“No.” Utah’s rejection was harsh and didn’t allow for compromise.

Lia glanced around the tiny room. No listening devices that she could see and not many places to hide one. Just to make sure, she slipped off the cot and knelt to look under it. Nothing. She talked softly, hoping her voice wouldn’t carry to a sharp-eared guard on the other side of the door.

“Fin had a vision of me. At some point, I’ll be in a position to touch Christine with something symbolic of her number. Fin didn’t see the where or what of it. He did see that I’d be someplace outside with smoke rising behind me.” She took a moment to curse the vagueness of his stupid vision.

“When that moment comes, I’ll send her back out into the cosmos.” If everything worked according to Fin’s damn vision. She wasn’t counting on that happening. “Wherever we are right now doesn’t match the vision, and I don’t have a clue what the symbolic thingy is. So I’d say that now isn’t the time to engage Christine.”

Utah maintained a stony silence.

She sighed and forged onward. “It’ll take me a few days to rise as vampire. I don’t think Christine will kill you guys while that’s happening. You’re trophies, and I think she’ll try to convince you to work for her.” At least that’s what Lia hoped. The uncertainty would kill her even if Christine didn’t. What if she woke to find they were dead? Her heart squeezed into a tight little ball of dread.

“What do you want us to do?” Utah still didn’t look receptive.

“Go along with her. I mean, this is what Fin wanted. We’ve found Seven, and now we have a chance to work from the inside to stop her.” She didn’t look beyond that. They’d find a way to either escape or get rid of her.

Jude was more open to her suggestion. “Look, Utah, we have to face facts. It’s not just Christine out there. I’ll be the first one to attack once I think we have a chance of surviving.”

“Even if that chance comes too late?” Utah glared at Jude.

“Too late?” Jude glared right back. “Hey, talking to a vampire here. The vampire life has lots of perks. It’s a hell of a lot cooler than lugging a freaking dinosaur around inside you.”

Not for Utah. She saw the rejection of all things vampire in his eyes.
He’ll die before watching me become vampire
. He hated them that much. Something small and hopeful withered inside Lia.

She made her decision. Utah would despise her once she became vampire anyway, so she might as well tick him off in a major way. She’d do whatever it took to keep him alive.

Lia had only one more thing to say and then she’d shut up. “I think it’d be best if Christine thinks she still has us fooled. Telling her we know she’s Seven won’t gain us anything.”

The two men nodded, and conversation died as each concentrated on his own thoughts. They didn’t have long to wait. When the door finally swung open, Lia was ready.

Christine stood in the doorway along with a bunch of nonhumans. She’d changed into a long black dress. Lia tried to look casual as she stepped between Utah and Christine.

“Utah’s not thinking too straight right now, Christine. He’s not a huge fan of vampires, so he sort of resents what Jude is about to do. You might want to restrain him so he doesn’t do anything to get himself hurt.” Lia didn’t turn to look at Utah, didn’t want to see his expression of betrayal.

Christine clapped her hands in a strangely girlish gesture. Okay, it was creepy.

“I knew I made the right decision with you, Lia. You’re already making yourself useful.” She waved Lia aside so she could see Utah. “I understand your feelings completely, my beautiful raptor. But we can’t have you interfering with Lia’s big moment.”

Lia finally worked up the courage to look at Utah. He was staring at Christine, a look of horror on his face.

“What did you do to him?” Lia clenched her fists so tightly her nails dug into her palms. She welcomed the pain.

Christine waved her concern away. “He’s fine. I just limited what he could do. He’ll walk and talk when I want him to, but other than that, he’ll be a silent witness. I’ll release him once everything is over.”

Lia flashed back to Philly. Eight had done the same thing to Kione, frozen him in place.
I’m so sorry, Utah.
Somehow, she didn’t think he’d be in a forgiving mood.

Jude looked grim as Christine led them from their small room down a hallway to . . . Lia blinked. A garden center? They were in the store part, surrounded by gardening tools, pots, and other stuff. All the windows were boarded up except for two glass panels at one end of the large room that allowed them a view into the greenhouse. Lia didn’t visit many greenhouses, but the plants she could see looked a little too healthy. It was a jungle in there.