Fury Calls (18 page)

A
chilled sweat covered Meghan's body, which shook uncontrollably from the desire ravaging it. She wrapped her arms around herself and huddled tighter against the wall, battling the effects of the drug as she searched for a way out of the club.

Once inside, Lee had set her loose and she had raced for her freedom, but the kiang-shi had circled around her. Determined to find a way out, she had dodged them and gone for the shadows created by the fake cavern walls Ryder had used to create the theme for the club.

As she moved along the shadows, praying to find an exit, she realized she would die if she didn't feed, recalling the out-of-control vampiress at Otro Mundo. But then Diego's words came back to her:

Human blood won't bond with the drug and neutralize it.

Whirling around, she realized she was adrift in a sea of humans, pulsing with life and blood that couldn't help her. But she imagined sinking her teeth into the soft flesh of a neck, feeding on the warm richness of humanity.

She had to get out of the club. She tightened her hold on herself and made a dash for the back exit. Only one of Lee's kiang-shi bodyguards stood there, barring her escape. She rushed at him, kicking and scratching, but he pushed her aside the way an ox might a gnat with a swipe of his tail.

The initial strength the drug had provided her was fading as the sanginarium ate away at her system. She would continue to weaken unless she fed—and once again, the call of the human life nearby, pulsing with blood, almost undid her.

Sucking in a shaky breath as she fought for control, she raced to a second exit but found it barred and guarded as well. Then she turned toward the front of the club, but found yet another kiang-shi at that entrance.

Lee's guards intended to keep her within the mass of humanity. In the midst of the walking blood bags that would do little to appease her need.

Her breath heaved in her chest as she retreated to the shadows of the club once again, hiding the demon she was barely mastering.

Lee's words kept on broadcasting in her brain, trying to shatter that fragile composure.

“Feed, my treasure. Imagine the satisfaction it will
bring.” For good measure he followed it up with visions of rich blood pulsing beneath her fangs.

She closed her eyes and covered her ears, but the urge rose sharply. Intensely.

She knew she couldn't linger there, close to the temptation of so many people and Lee's constant urging to feed from them.

Wildly searching for any avenue of escape, she caught sight of the window of Ryder's office, high above the floor of the club. She remembered then about the door that led to that office and the back rooms of the Lair.

Swiftly skirting around the edges of the club, she was feet away from the door when she realized that it, too, was being guarded by one of Lee's cadre. She recognized him as the kiang-shi who had been at the main door just moments earlier.

She couldn't fail this time, she thought, and launched herself at the kiang-shi.

 

Blake risked entry through the main door, rushing past the bouncer in a blur of speed that he hoped would go unnoticed. As he came to a stop, he noticed the bouncer shooting an odd glance toward the entrance, as if to double-check whether someone was there, but then he returned to his duties, asking for the ID of the next patron in line.

A close call, he realized. The fit through the door had been tight, forcing him to pass closely to the humans lingering there. But now he was within the club, and the uneven energy of the kiang-shi beat at him along with
the thrum of vampire power. Multiple vampires, he realized, and wondered whether the cavalry had arrived.

Searching the interior of the club, he saw no sign of Diana and her vampire pals.

Not good, he thought. There were too many Kiang-shi, plus Lee, for him to handle alone, but he wasn't going to let that deter him.

He had to find Meghan and get her out of there.

Focusing his vampire power, he reached out for a touch of her sympathetic energy and felt a glimmer of it, only…

Something was wrong. He knew that immediately.

He moved along the fringes of the club, hiding in the shadows and nooks created by the fake rock outcroppings built into the side walls to mimic the appearance of a cavern. He'd always thought the theme hokey, but welcomed the cover it provided tonight.

As he neared the back door he hadn't been able to open, he detected the power of a kiang-shi and backtracked. Along the other side of the space, back behind the cover of a partial wall intended to hide the workings of the club, he finally caught a glimpse of Meghan. She was fighting one of Lee's kiang-shi, seriously out-muscled but completely determined.

He rushed to her side, but as he did so, the out-of-sync thrum of energy warned him all was not right with her. As her gaze met his, he took note of the wild fierce look in her eyes.

He knew then what Lee had done. What he had planned and why she was here.

 

Meghan felt it. With their blood connection she knew the moment Blake realized what had happened. Though she shook with the force of his realization, there wasn't time to acknowledge it. Or to ask for his forgiveness.

She had to break past Lee's bodyguard and get to the safety of Ryder's office. Once she was there, the humans milling about the Lair would be safe.

She dug her nails deep into the kiang-shi's decayed flesh, her fingers slid in and she jerked at the flesh, stripping it away as she tried to break past him.

Blake joined the fray, but went straight for the Kiang-shi's neck, his hand flattened, fingers extended. With a knife-like jab he pierced the side of the kiang-shi's throat. He pushed deeper until his hand almost disappeared in the demon's flesh. When he retracted his hand, bits of cartilage, flesh and bone came with it.

Meghan felt the kiang-shi weaken and took advantage, driving her fist upward into its throat. The loud snap and crackle of his throat flattening beneath her punch sickened her and she fell back, unable to finish.

Blake had no such problem.

With another vicious jab and yank, more of the kiang-shi's body landed at her feet. As the demon's knees buckled, Blake encircled its head in his arms and with a sharp jerk, finished the decapitation.

Shoving away the falling body of the Asian vampire, he rushed to her side and embraced her.

Comfort flooded her for the smallest fraction of time before other sensations buffeted her mind and body. The feel of his lean body stoked the inferno in her breasts and core while the pulse of his blood…

Beating. Strong. His vampire energy melded with hers and she shook as the longing to sink her teeth into him rose almost more sharply than she could control.

He knew it.

He urged her away, his arms holding hers, as he said, “Fight it, Meghan. We'll win this battle together.”

She wanted to believe him, but the urge was almost unbearable now. The fury of the drug jolted her body over and over. She wrapped her arms tighter around her body, imagining that by doing so she could keep herself from shattering, but knew it was a futile battle.

“You can't save me, but you can save them,” she said, and tilted her head in the direction of the dance floor.

Sadness darkened his eyes to the color of a stormy sea before he nodded with understanding. He grabbed her in his arms and raced for the door leading to Ryder's office.

He moved at a breakneck pace, aware her dominion over the drug's effects was near an end. When they reached Ryder's office, he tossed open the door and immediately moved to the large mahogany desk at one end of the office. Leaning her against the edge, she watched as he sped around the room, in search of what she didn't know until he returned with the thick cords for the curtains.

Shivering, her control nearly done, she hopped up onto the surface of the desk and lay down, releasing only one extremity at a time until she was tightly bound to the massive desk. Only then did she finally allow the lust and hunger of the drug to take over.

As another climax slammed into her body, she cried
out Blake's name and arched off the desktop. Her back bowed tightly in a spasm of ecstasy and need. The ropes bit deep into her wrists and ankles, so deep it drew blood and even the faintest whiff of that had her snapping and biting at the air as if that could bring satisfaction.

Blake stood by, immobile as a statue as he watched her writhe on the surface of the desk, battling the drug. Knowing that each second he stood by without doing something, she was slipping away as the sanguinarium took its toll on her body.

Unless she fed from another immortal.

With enough vampire blood flooding her system, he might be able to counteract the effects of the drug. But he suspected that just his blood alone wouldn't be enough. The lust would likely have her bleeding him dry before it made any difference.

He hurried to the window of Ryder's office and drew apart the curtains that had fallen closed. Down below, in the midst of all the humans, he detected nothing out of the ordinary, but as he used his vamp eyesight to scope out the darkness along the edges, he saw what was going on.

Ryder was grappling with one kiang-shi at the back door while Diego was hauling one from the front door toward the side of the club. By his count, that left only Lee to deal with.

His gut tightened as he realized only Diana remained to do battle down in the crowd. She was no match for the kiang-shi elder, but together they might be able to keep him distracted long enough for Diego and Ryder to come to their aid.

But first, he had to do something to keep Meghan alive.

He knew the fridge in Ryder's office likely held its share of blood bags filled with human blood, but they were useless.

Only his blood could make a difference now.

He approached Meghan as she thrashed on the surface of Ryder's desk, her body jerking and yanking on the cords, but he had done too good a job. She wouldn't get free of the bindings.

As he neared, she turned her pained gaze on him. The neon-blue green of her vampire eyes nearly blinded him with its intensity, and blood began to fill her eyes at the edges of her eyeballs. Drool escaped her lips and she snapped at the air with her fangs, hungry for something into which to sink her teeth.

He intended to give her just that, but first he had to calm her a little, fearing that she would savage him if he didn't. It wouldn't help any of them if he was too weak to fight.

Carefully he approached, and as he finally got close he reached out and took hold of her head in his hands. He applied gentle pressure to immobilize her and tenderly ran his fingers across her hair, soothing her the way he might a wild animal.

For good measure, he sought out the connection they shared and sent his thoughts to her. He poured out the emotions he had kept in check, knowing that this might be the last time to share them with her.

He wanted her to know all that she had been to him.

T
he images invaded her mind, picture after picture of all that had ever been good between them. In between each image came emotion. Rich, unbridled sentiments that left no doubts in her mind about how he cared for her.

How he loved her.

Tears came to her eyes even as her body jerked as the drug racing through her system responded to the emotions. Her breasts swelled, tips pebble-hard until she imagined they might burst. Between her legs came the heavy throb of need.

“Please, Blake. Please,” she begged, needing release, but he just tenderly cradled her head with his hands.

Softly stroking the sides of her face as he leaned close, he whispered, “Not like this, Meghan. Just hold on a bit longer.”

Frustration swamped her and she snapped at him, the unfulfilled sexual need giving rise to the fury to feed and get satisfaction of another kind.

His touch came on her face once again, delicate and compassionate. His words soothing, trying to lull her rage as he said, “Nice and easy, Meghan. Just a little nip for now.”

She popped her eyes open and realized he was bringing his wrist to her mouth. He was offering himself to sate her thirst and she couldn't hold back any longer.

Rearing up, she sank her fangs deep into his wrist.

 

Foley shook with the chill bathing his body, made even colder by the damp sweat covering him.

He knew the signs well. He had seen more than one vampire die during his hundreds of years of existence.

He had just never imagined that he would go like this—alone and in a pile of his own blood and filth.

An apt reward for the shitty way he had led his life up until now. At least at the end he had tried to make amends.

Maybe God would take that into account, he thought. He shivered from the cold and curled even tighter into a fetal position, trying to conserve what little life he had left.

He didn't know how long he had been lying there when he heard the soft footfall by the door.

Opening his eyes, he realized it was Diana Reyes. Or maybe he was imagining her. He'd always kind of had a thing for her, so it only seemed right that whatever angel had come to take him to meet his maker might look like her.

“Blake sent me,” the angel said, kneeling beside him. As she reached down and picked him up in her arms, it occurred to him that this was no angel. She was all-flesh-and-blood woman holding him close.

“Damn you, Foley. Why did you have to go and get all White Hat on us?” she whispered, rocking him in her arms.

He smiled weakly and closed his eyes. It had been so long since he had been held like this. Tenderly and with caring. Too long.

“It's worth dying just for this moment,” he said softly, as his body began to shake violently from the chill of death. As he began to lose all sensation in his extremities, he focused on the feel of her, soft and womanly beneath the side of his face.

As he did so, he sensed something he hadn't expected. But he was too weak to talk. Too far gone to ask.

“Oh, no, Foley. I am so not going to let it end like this.” Diana raised him up, baring her neck and holding his head close to the pulse beating strong and steady beneath his lips.

He didn't wonder at what she was offering since even that second of hesitation would be the last thing he did.

Instead, he pierced the skin at her neck and fed, the first suck weak until the energy of her blood slammed into him, more potent than that of a human, nearly as rich and fulfilling as that of the undead.

Her soft cry of pain at one forceful suck tempered his feeding, but with each measured pull, the cold fled from his body replaced by the heat of her blood. The
dull pain in his abdomen receded as his body slowly continued healing.

Beneath his lips her flesh was warm. The scent of her and the feel of her skin surrounded him. With greater consciousness as the threat of death left him, he imagined as he had on many a night how it might be to lie with her.

As she grew weaker from his feeding, he surrounded her in his arms and pulled away, aware that he could not keep on draining her.

He was still frail, as now she was, and they collapsed onto the floor together, unable to remain upright any longer.

As their gazes connected, he said in a soft whisper, “I don't know how to thank you.”

She forced a smile to her lush lips, grasped his hand in her soft one, and said, “Don't go back to playing for the Dark Side.”

Even if Diana hadn't asked it of him, he didn't think he could.

Things were different now. He was different and if he somehow survived, he knew that the eternal life that awaited him had to be different from the one he'd already lived.

 

Meghan bit down over and over again, rapaciously feeding from his wrist until he was light-headed from the loss of blood.

Pulling away his savaged wrist, he stumbled back, his knees weak.

Meghan howled in anger at his withdrawal and once
again began squirming and pulling at the ropes keeping her from satisfying her blood rage.

“Easy, love,” he urged softly, taxed beyond what he had expected. Her feeding had been demanding and he plopped into Ryder's expensive office chair as his knees finally gave way. Blood continued to drip from his wrist onto the expensive Oriental rug on the floor.

He'd allowed her too much of his blood, he realized, as he failed to heal. He was too powerless to do much of anything else and wondered what was keeping Ryder and Diego. He had expected them long before now. With that thought came another.

He still had no clue what was up with Diana down in the crowd below.

Stumbling to his feet, he staggered across the short distance to the window and once again searched for her and the two other vampires. With an unfocused gaze, he thought he saw Ryder down below, still fighting with someone, but he wasn't sure.

He turned, intending to search for them, only to discover Lee standing by Meghan, a delighted smile on his face.

“Have you ever seen a dogfight, Blake?”

With a quick flourish of his hand, he whipped out a long, thin stiletto from beneath the sleeve of the elegant silk jacket he wore.

Blake knew he was done for. He wasn't strong enough to battle Lee in this condition. But if he kept him talking long enough…

“Can't say as I have, mate. Never much cared for sport like that.” He wavered on his feet as the blood con
tinued to leak from his ravaged wrist, forcing him to lean back against the window to keep upright.

Lee's full lips curved into an even broader smile. “It's quite a sight. Both animals biting and snapping. Sinking their jaws deep into each other's flesh.” He bent and cut loose the first curtain cord at Meghan's ankle.

She responded to the freedom immediately, kicking out with her leg, but Lee easily dodged her blow.

He sauntered to her other leg, but before cutting it free, he leaned over Meghan's body and in soft tones whispered to her, “You will heed my summons,
baobei
. You will obey me when I command you to kill him.”

At his words, Meghan instantly quieted and Blake realized Lee was using his elder powers to control her.

He glanced out the window out of the corner of his eye, but saw no sign of Diana, Ryder or Diego. Had they fallen to Lee's bodyguards?

Lee quickly picked up on that subtle glance and chuckled as he smoothly sliced through the cord, freeing Meghan's other leg. He strolled casually to the head of the desk, leaned down and whispered to her, “You will have him and then I will have you.”

Bugger that, Blake thought, and catapulted himself at Lee with the last of his strength, tackling him to the ground. The knife went flying as they sprawled into a heap behind Ryder's desk.

Lee tried to toss him off, but Blake had the upper position and used it to his advantage. Much like he imagined Lee's dogs might have done, Blake sank his fangs through the silken fabric of his jacket and deep into the thick muscle in Lee's shoulder.

Wrenching and turning, Lee tried to force him off, but Blake somehow held on, one arm around Lee's neck while the other snaked beneath Lee's armpit, cementing his hold on the kiang-shi. He sucked intensely of Lee's blood, ignoring the odd taste of it. Instead he savored the power that surged into him, the power from the European vampires Lee had fed from. The blood empowered him enough to maintain his hold on the Asian vampire.

Realizing that Blake was not about to go so easily, Lee ceased his struggles and crawled a few feet away, moving out of the tight space behind the desk. Blake realized too late that the knife was now within Lee's reach.

The kiang-shi swiped the knife up in his right hand and crossed up and over his left shoulder, driving the blade toward Blake.

Pain seared through Blake as the silver of the blade skimmed along his shoulder blade, slicing him open before it plunged deep into his back. Somehow he held on to Lee, took another frantic suck of blood, but Lee pulled the blade out and reversed the direction of his strike.

He bent his elbow and pounded the blade from down below into Blake's side. He repeated the attack, plunging from above a second time and then a third from down below, each swipe stronger and deeper than the first.

Through the haze of pain, Blake registered the burn as the silver blade sank into his body each time. He felt the slight catch as the final blow snagged on a rib before it punctured his lung and slipped even further. The burn registered in his heart, stealing the strength from him.

He fell away, losing his grip on the kiang-shi.

Mustering his flagging energy, he tried to rise as Lee scrambled to his feet, but the knife blows had done their job too well. A gurgle came from deep in his chest as he struggled to draw a breath, forcing him to cough.

Bright red blood spewed from his mouth and onto the floor. The smell of his blood was thick in the air. As Meghan caught the scent of it, she went wild on the desktop, thrashing and howling, pulling the ropes and biting the air with her fangs.

Lee laughed, sensing victory. With a wild slash, he cut the cord from one of Meghan's wrists and then expertly reversed the bloody blade and quickly slashed through the other cord, releasing her.

She bounded off the desk and faced them, a feral look in her eyes. A wild tremor shook her body as she stood there, smelling the air.

Blake knew she was beyond reach, beyond caring for anything but blood, and Lee wasn't much better.

Gleeful laughter erupted from him as he sidestepped from where Blake lay, bleeding to death. As Lee moved, he crooned to Meghan, “He is yours,
baobei
. Savor him. Watch the light fade from his eyes as you devour him.”

Meghan advanced on him, but something flickered in her gaze. Something that said to him that she might not be as far gone on the drug as he had thought.

Forcing himself into an upright position, he softly whispered, “Don't go chicken on me now, Meghan. A cheerleader can kick that Chinaman's sorry ass any day.”

Another flicker danced across her eyes, but she still
moved toward him, almost as if stalking prey. Only he wasn't going anywhere. He would be an easy kill for her in his current condition. For that matter, he might be dead meat by the time she finally decided to attack.

On his back and along his side he felt the dampness of the blood draining rapidly from his body. Lee had gotten something vital with those knife thrusts, and the silver was interfering with his healing. When he drew a rough breath and felt a sharp pain at the center of his chest, it occurred to him that Lee had probably nicked his heart.

Black circles danced before his eyes, but he forced himself to focus and somehow rose to his feet. A mistake, maybe, as he noted what was left of his blood drain from his extremities and pool in his gut. His legs grew even more rubbery, and he couldn't stay upright against the wall.

Lee sensed it as well. He knew Blake's death was imminent, but that wasn't enough for him. Once again he urged Meghan onward. “Take him,
baobei
, before he robs you by dying.”

Dying, Meghan thought.

That one word broke through the haze of the drug and she struggled to fix on that word. She somehow managed to converge all her senses into recognition of that one concept.

Dying.

Blake was dying. The smell of his blood was strong. She had the scent of it imprinted in her brain from the many times they had shared themselves. From the many times he had loved her.

“Feed from him, my treasure. Feed me.” Lee intoned
his command but she pushed him out of her brain. Only one thought dominated her mind.

Blake was dying.

Then another thought assailed her. Her own death.

She knew the drug was sizzling in her veins, demanding blood to satisfy it and destroying her the longer she couldn't feed.

She imagined sinking her teeth into flesh and tasting the rich earthy warmth of blood. Imagined the rush of power through her veins.