Ironic Sacrifice (4 page)

Jayden stared at the girl in grease-stained coveralls that entered the office of “Resurrection Wrenches.” She couldn’t be more than five feet tall. Her mop of black ringlets framed a cherub-like face with amethyst eyes, a button nose and Cupid’s bow lips. Only the steely cynicism in her eyes and the curves of her breasts under the coveralls revealed her to be a grown woman.

Those lilac eyes met Jayden’s and widened. For a moment it looked like she would speak to her, but then she turned to Razvan.

“Whaddya want, asshole?” she demanded.

Jayden gasped, terrified that the vampire would destroy her for speaking to him so rudely. Razvan laughed and bowed to her.

“Akasha, fair Lady of this glorious city.” His tone was all exaggerated formality with his signature touch of mockery. “I bring you the good tidings that I have finally found a pet mortal whose beauty comes close to matching yours. I beseech you to guard her whilst I seek your master.”

Akasha’s gaze whipped to Jayden. “No shit, really?” She turned back to Razvan with a glare. “He’s not my master, he’s my husband.” Without waiting for a reply, she darted to the window and turned off the neon sign that said “Open.”

“Let’s go into the shop. You need to tell me what the fuck is going on.” She tossed back her mass of curls and marched through the door.

Jayden blinked. This woman did not match her packaging.

Razvan bowed to Akasha and urged Jayden forward with a hand at the small of her back. She had never been inside the service area of a car repair shop before. It struck her as odd that this one didn’t have a waiting room. The smell of oil, grease, and metal was as overpowering as it was fascinating. Cars and trucks of various makes and years were up on hydraulic lifts with their hoods open and their guts exposed. A Siamese cat peered at them from a car window before disappearing from view.

Akasha pushed two wheeled stools their way and went to a mini fridge next to a royal purple toolbox. “Do ya want a beer…lady?”

“I’m Jayden. It’s nice to meet you… and sure. I’ll have one.” She shot Razvan what she hoped was a defiant glare.

She didn’t have time to gauge a reaction. Akasha pulled out two bottles of Kokanee, twisted the tops in an expert motion, and handed her one. When their fingers brushed, Jayden gasped and was thrown back as she was sucked into a vision.

A little girl screaming as bullets sliced up a man and a woman…running in the blood stained snow…in an orphanage, can’t speak…in a home filled with robotic children in matching uniforms reciting under a stern woman’s eye…the woman beating Akasha with a bible…running away…starving, cold, alone…a man takes her in, she is happy for a while…she cries as the cops take him away…alone again…pinned on the hood of a Cadillac, a gun pressed to the back of her head as a man tears her body with his violent lust…beating the man…bashing his head into the pavement until his skull comes apart in her hands… throwing up..driving…

“Jayden!”

Strapped to an operating table…a scientist poking, and prodding…trying to make sense of the freak… going to kill her when it’s all over…

“Jayden!” Razvan’s command pulled her from the vision.

The beer bottle smashed on the floor, adding another mess to the concrete.

Her eyes met Akasha’s.
“Oh, God, you were so young! And…and so much pain!” Jayden’s voice cracked as she was overcome with sympathy.

Akasha’s lower lip trembled as if she were about to cry, then her eyes narrowed to slits and in a blur of speed, she backhanded Razvan.

He rocked back on his stool with the force of the blow and crashed to the floor. Jayden leapt up, heart in her mouth.

“I’m sorry!” she cried. “I can’t help it! Please, don’t fight.”

She couldn’t bear it if Razvan killed this woman who had suffered so much.

Akasha ignored her and hauled Razvan to his feet with strength that shouldn’t be possible for her size. He spit blood on the concrete floor and laughed, fangs flashing. His cheek was already swelling and turning purple. She must have cracked the bone, and still he laughed as though the mechanic had done the cutest thing in the world. As Akasha marched Razvan back to the parts room, Jayden didn’t know who to be more afraid of: The vampire or the girl who was strong enough to take one down. Who were these people? She shivered. Was it too late to get away?

***

“What kind of sick game do you think you’re playing?” Akasha demanded.

She’d had a bad feeling the second Razvan arrived with the statuesque redhead. They may have been all dolled up like a couple on a dinner date, but the girl looked like a frightened rabbit as she huddled in her faux fur coat and darted nervous glances around the shop as if looking for an escape route. Razvan, on the other hand, looked way too pleased with himself, like the villain who’d just tied the screaming damsel onto the railroad tracks. And there was another look in his eyes, something she couldn’t read in him…and it disturbed the hell out of her.

“Is she willing?” she whispered to him.

He avoided her eyes. “We had a bargain.”

“That’s not what I asked.” She clenched her fists and stalked towards him. “Is. She Willing?”

“You saw her power,” he said, ignoring her question again.

It dawned on her. Centuries ago, Razvan’s twin brother, also a vampire, disappeared and he’d been using psychics to try to find him. Silas was the most powerful clairvoyant Razvan recruited, and even he failed. Jayden’s detailed glimpse into Akasha’s head implied that she may be even more powerful than her husband.

She glared at the vampire. “You may have used Silas for your quest, but hell if you’re going to use this poor terrified woman.”

Razvan drew himself up and opened his mouth, ready to fire back a smart-ass remark, then he slumped and sighed.

“She was going to kill herself, Akasha,” he whispered, actually sounding sympathetic. “She even wanted me to kill her.”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“Jayden is so powerful that she can’t control her visions and they’ve driven her insane.” He gave an uncharacteristically helpless shrug. “She was reduced to living in her car, half-starved. She was going to jump off a bridge the next day but instead she found me in an alley with my prey and offered to take her place.”

Akasha hugged herself as goosebumps crawled over her skin. “
Do
you kill your prey?” It was supposed to be illegal under vampire law, but she knew there were loopholes.

Razvan chuckled. “Not usually. I just like to play with them a little.” He put his index finger to his lips in a hushing motion. “Now don’t go and destroy my reputation.”

Akasha rolled her eyes at him before returning to the matter at hand. “Does she know you’re not going to kill her now?”

“Yes,” he replied impatiently. “Now would you please watch her so I can find Silas? Only he can teach her to control her powers so she can be well again.”

She nodded reluctantly. “All right. But if she’s unwilling, you know I’m going to help her escape and tell you where to stick it.”

Razvan laughed, his sinister demeanor restored. “Help all you want. I have Marked her. She can never escape me.”

Akasha gaped at him. His Mark meant that Jayden was under his protection for the rest of her life and he would kill anyone who dared to hurt her. Either this wasn’t a game to him, or it was one with very high stakes.

She followed him out and noticed that Jayden was sweeping up the broken glass from the floor. She watched in amazement as Razvan caressed Jayden’s cheek with infinite tenderness.

His deep gentle voice made her spine tingle. “Farewell for now, my pet. I leave you in Akasha’s capable hands. I will return soon.”

After he left, Jayden stared at her with wide, fearful green eyes. Akasha glanced down to see that she still had blood on her knuckles. She reached for a shop rag and the girl flinched as if expecting to be hit.

Akasha sighed. “Fuck. I need another drink.”

***

Jayden watched warily as Akasha wiped the blood from her hand with a rag and returned to the mini fridge. She pulled out two more beers, opened them and slid one across the bench to Jayden, careful not to touch her this time. She lit a cigarette after a big swig of beer and blew the smoke in the opposite direction.

“You can relax. I’m not going to hurt you. Razvan just has a way of pissing me off.”

Jayden straightened and sipped her beer, humiliated that she was cowering before this tiny woman.

“How long have you known him?” she asked, curious about the nature of their relationship.

“A little over four years.” Akasha laughed. “We kinda got off on the wrong foot when I threw him through a sliding-glass door.”

“Why?” Jayden asked, thunderstruck.

“I thought he was threatening my man.” Akasha smiled in remembrance.

“And why did you hit him this time?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t going too far.

Akasha was silent for a while as she nursed her beer and smoked. Finally, she crushed out her cigarette into an overflowing ashtray.

“Razvan likes to toy with his prey. I didn’t like the smug look on his face when he brought you here. He’s a little more old-fashioned than Silas is with humans and I didn’t know if you were with him willingly or not.”

“But you didn’t get mad until I saw … your ...um …past.” Jayden trailed off lamely.

“Razvan especially likes psychics,” Akasha said as if that was the point.

“Oh.” She still didn’t get it. “Why?”

Akasha sighed and lit another cigarette with the butt of her first one. “He’s been searching for his missing brother for centuries, using psychics to help. When they fail, he throws them away. Now I’ll ask you, are you with him willingly?”

Jayden was touched and perplexed that the woman cared so much about the fate of a stranger.

She shrugged. “We made a bargain.”

“What kind of bargain?” Those amethyst eyes narrowed, making her want to squirm.

“I offered my life in exchange for another woman’s.” Jayden looked down at her lap. “I wanted him to kill me.”

“So Razvan was telling the truth.” Akasha’s voice softened marginally. “Are your visions really that bad?”

Jayden refused to look at her, the pity would be unbearable. “Yes. They grew so strong and invasive that I lost my job and dropped out of college, and then when I couldn’t get another job, I lost my apartment. I just want them to go away. I don’t want to see any more terrible things!” she cried, choking on tears of frustration. “You can’t know how awful it is for me.”

Akasha got up and tossed her beer bottle in a trash barrel. The clang of glass against metal echoed in the shop. “You’re right. I can’t.” Her tone was implacable. “But now that you know Razvan isn’t going to put you out of your misery, doesn’t it mean the bargain’s off?”

Jayden shook her head. “No. He said that since I offered him my life, it is his to do with as he pleases.”

Her new acquaintance snorted in outrage. “So, what, he owns you now? I don’t fucking think so. This is the twenty-first century and we aren’t living in the feudal system he grew up in. If you want, I’ll do what I can to help you. He Marked you, so he can find you wherever you go, but I have connections that can make him back off.”

“No!” The shout tore from her throat.

Panic rose up at the thought of losing the stability she felt around the vampire and being cast back to the chaos, and perpetual visions of suffering on the streets.

She met Akasha’s shocked stare defiantly. “I mean, I’m okay for now. Razvan’s been kind to me and I don’t get visions from him when he touches me.”

Her cheeks flushed as she remembered his tumultuous lovemaking. Akasha saw it right away and leaned forward in a flash, eyes narrow slits of accusation.

“He fucked you?” she demanded. “He actually thinks his ‘owning’ you goes that far?”

Jayden blushed harder. “It’s okay… I mean, it was wonderful.” She couldn’t suppress a sigh.

“Oh damn, mental picture!” Akasha opened another beer as if trying to drink the images away. “But if you had said no, do you think he would’ve stopped?”

Jayden frowned. It was hard to imagine telling such a dark and powerful man “no.” But Akasha had a point. It didn’t matter how gorgeous he was, or how good he was in the sack. She didn’t want him to rape her.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled.

Akasha glared. “Well you’d better find out, if you’re going to stay with him. If he rapes you I
will
hurt him…for real.”

Jayden changed the subject. “What is your husband like?”

Akasha lit up with a dreamy smile and her eyes overflowed with rapture. “He’s a sweetie. You’ll like him. He’s going to help you control your powers.”

“Really? Razvan didn’t tell me.” Surprised pleasure washed over her and a tiny candle of hope ignited. Could there truly be help for her?

“Yeah, I’m not surprised. He likes being an enigmatic bastard.” The mechanic put a flashlight on the bench. “Could you point that for me while I check out the wiring harness in that Dodge?”

“Sure.” Jayden picked up the flashlight and followed her to the car.