Min's Vampire (54 page)

Lucy locked her gaze on the
girl’s cold blue eyes. Another surge, a much stronger one flowed
from Lucy into the girl. The annoyed burning in her skull was
almost painful.
Get your filthy hands off
me!

When the blonde girl set her down they
shared the same look of deep shock. They staggered away from each
other, the blonde shaking her head as Lucy fell back against the
wall, gasping up the foul air of the alley.

This
really
can’t be happening.
Lucy held her hand to her aching throat and used
the other to hold herself up against the side of the building. But
then she looked over at the blonde, and sure enough she had fangs
still—not an optical illusion and not Lucy’s imagination getting
away from her in a dark alley.

The blonde hissed. “What the hell did
you just do to me?” She looked like she’d just tasted something
disgusting. “I can’t believe you used magic against me!” The blonde
came a step closer, a cruel smile on her face. “Two can play at
that game.” She closed her eyes, holding her hands out, looking for
a moment like a bleached blonde, really skinny Buddha. That was
until she opened her eyes and they were blood red. No pupil, no
whites, just a liquid pool of blood red shimmering in the darkened
alley.

Immediately Lucy felt something crawl
across her flesh, grabbing at her arms, wrapping around her throat,
making goose flesh pop up all over her body. But that’s all that
happened, just the feeling that something was crawling over her,
trying to grab hold of her, and it was radiating from fang
chick.

The blonde shook her head as her arms
dropped back to her sides. She shrieked her anger and lunged at
Lucy, hurtling toward her with terrifying speed.

“
No!” Lucy gasped. Her back
was pressed against the cold bricks of the wall again.
“Stop!”

Fang chick stopped on the spot, as if
she’d hit a wall, falling to the pavement. She looked up at Lucy,
furious. Her eyes glowed a demonic red.

Unfortunately Lucy hit her knees too.
When the blonde was halted she’d felt another charge shoot out of
her. And with that her legs went out from under her. She felt so
weak she was having a hard time just holding herself upright as she
knelt on the parched pavement of the alley.

The blonde stood back up and looked
down on Lucy with a pleased smile spreading across her face.
“You’re draining, whore!”

Lucy felt the heat rekindle inside her
skull. She didn’t like being called names. Especially whore—she was
still a virgin, for pity’s sake.

“
It might take me a moment
or two to get to you,” fang chick growled, “but you’ll be dead a
hell of a lot longer.” She charged Lucy again, fangs bared, her
face contorted and twisted with hate.

“
Stop!” Lucy said, holding
her hand out, feeling the burning in her head move down her arm and
out through her fingertips. The blonde stopped in her tracks again,
but this time she kept pressing, as if she were pushing against a
wall. Lucy could feel the last of her strength fade, both her hands
now desperately trying to hold her up from the ground. She felt the
blonde’s hand grab hold of the back of her neck, pulling her up by
her hair and tossing her back against the wall.

For just an instant Lucy was staring
into those cold blue eyes again, and the voice in her head didn’t
have to say anything: she knew she was dead.

Out of nowhere a man’s hand came out
of the darkness, grabbed the blonde’s shoulder and yanked her off
Lucy. Lucy didn’t know what was more fantastic or impossible. The
blonde flew backward through the air, landing gracefully on top of
a dumpster. She stood there, her hands on her hips, her chilly eyes
looked hurt but still angry. That was pretty
unbelievable.

What was even more unbelievable was
who’d thrown her: Gabriel stood there in his good suit, his
appearance hadn’t changed much in the last few minutes, but there
was something changed about him.

He felt dangerous.

“
Delia, what the hell are
you doing?” he growled.

Delia?
Lucy’s eyes bugged out until they felt like they ready to pop
right out of their sockets.
Oh, the
actual
girlfriend.
Lucy shook her head.
Does
Gabe know he’s dating a vampire?

Okay, you just said she’s a
vampire! A vampire? It can’t be…

“
Don’t act thick!” Delia’s
voice was harsh and metallic, her eyes blazed like sapphire blue
fire. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“
This was your idea,
remember? You thought that if I had a fake wife, then we could be
together… in secret.”

Delia crouched as if she were about to
pounce on Gabriel. Lucy was afraid she might hurt him. She wanted
to stand up and protect him, but she could barely keep herself from
falling to the ground.

“
Your whore is mine to
kill.” Delia flung herself at Lucy again. Gabriel caught hold of
her in mid-air and pinned her to him.

“
Nothing happened!” Gabriel
shouted in her face, holding her by the wrists.

“
I can smell you on her…”
She took a long, angry sniff of him. “And her on you… you kissed
her, you asshole!”

Almost effortlessly she flung Gabriel
away from her and into a garbage dumpster.

Lucy shrieked in
horror—
he can’t be dead
—but before she could pull herself to her feet Gabriel was
back on his feet and leaping across the alley. He grabbed Delia by
both shoulders as he pulled her away from Lucy. They pushed and
pulled at each other and fell to the cold pavement of the alley.
Delia struck Gabriel and he sailed down the alley, hitting hard,
yet rolling onto all fours, his face now straining with anger, a
snarl ripping through his bared teeth.

He’s not a vampire…
Lucy knew that. She was flashing back to him
standing in the sunlight with her, numerous times.

“
I won’t let you hurt her…”
Lucy could swear she saw his body ripple, stretching the fabric of
his suit. “She was just playing her part, as was I.”

“
You’re siding with the
blood sack?” Her expression held revulsion and shock as she walked
closer to him. “You really are just a dog!” She charged him, her
hands now fists as she streaked forward and rammed right into him,
flipping them both over.

Suddenly Gabriel’s form shifted,
expanding as he flipped over atop Delia, his suit shredding away
from him as a giant wolf took his place. No, not a wolf. It was too
big. Almost twice the size Gabriel had been, and from the neck down
it was shaped almost like a human… except for the pitch black fur,
and the giant sharp looking claws.

Nope, not a
vampire.

And unbelievably Delia grabbed the
wolf around the neck and picked him up and threw him off her. She
sprang to her feet and raced after him. They collided with a
sickening crunch.

Lucy was still trying to pick herself
up off the pavement when someone pulled her up by her armpits and
set her gently against a particularly warm, soft wall. She looked
up and Micah grinned down at her—he was the wall she was leaning
against.

“
You okay?”

“
What’s going on?” She
looked over to where the wolf and Delia were fighting, crashing
into dumpsters, breaking windows.

“
Yeah,” Micah said wistfully
as they both watched the battle. “They really need to get a
room.”

Dante Enoch was now on the other side
of her. He stared disapprovingly at the skirmishing lovers. “Just
typical.”

Lucy took a long, slow breath, and
then shook her head in confusion. “So vampires and werewolves…
they’re real?”

“
And much more, Ms. Hart,”
Dante murmured.

Micah chimed in happily. “And our two
species have been enemies for thousands of years—”

“
It’s not that simple,”
Dante said, his gaze still on Gabriel and Delia. “We’ve enjoyed two
centuries of peace. A truce, if you would. And if either King found
out of this, war would be inevitable.”

“
And that would be—” Micah
stopped in mid-sentence, Dante’s stern gaze making him gulp and
choose an obviously more serious last word. “Bad… it would be
bad.”

Out of nowhere a man appeared beside
Micah. He was pale and blond, with cool blue eyes and the most
expressionless face. His hair was slicked back from his face, and
was long enough to be in a ponytail that fell halfway down his
back.

Without having to ask, Lucy knew he
was a vampire too. She could feel the same cold dead feeling
radiating from him as from Delia.

“
Your sister and Gabriel are
making a mess out of this alley.” Micah was chuckling as he said
it.

“
Yes, Vin,” Dante said
stiffly, as if speaking to the vampire was a hardship. “Would you
be so kind as to rein Delia in?”

The blond vampire slid a cold glance
Dante’s way, and then walked confidently over to the battling
couple. He waited a beat as they pushed away from each other, and
before they had a chance to latch onto each other again he put
himself between the two. He held a hand up to warn off the
werewolf, and then he turned to his sister.

“
You have to stop
this.”

“
Mind your own business!”
She tried to move past him, but he kept himself in front of
her.

“
Think, Delia. You’re
fighting your lover.”

The word lover struck Lucy quite
literally in the heart. She’d never thought one word could cause
her actual physical pain, but there it was. One little word, not
even a very long one, and she felt it stab through her like a
knife. She forced herself to take a deep, painful breath—it felt as
if the knife in her heart was really there—and then she let it
out.

Tears burnt at the backs of her eyes,
threatening to fill her eyes with their hot wetness. But Lucy
clamped her eyes shut on them. She would not start crying, not for
something so impossibly wrong. It had been just a job—being
Gabriel’s fiancée, a means to an end—and she needed to get back to
thinking that way, to believing it.

Vin’s voice cut through Lucy’s
reverie. “What if you hurt him?”

“
He’s… he’s…” Delia was
pointing at Gabriel. Her blue eyes welled up with tears, her harsh
voice faltering as she looked from her brother to
Gabriel
. At least she had a real reason to
be crying.

“
And her!” She was now
thrusting her finger in Lucy’s direction, and even though she was
still crying, the hatred in those watery blue eyes was
scorching.

“
But he’s in love with you,
Delia.”

Lucy hadn’t noticed, but Gabriel had
shifted back to his human form, and now he was moving to Vin’s
side, his face full of affection, his eyes beseeching.

Lucy suddenly looked away,
embarrassed: Gabriel was naked, not a stitch of clothing on him,
just a thin sheen of sweat that made his skin glisten, and made
every curve and cut of his body stand out.

“
I’m only doing this for
you.” Gabriel’s voice was rough and thick.

Delia sobbed into her hands. “I know,
I know. I just didn’t realize…”

“
That I’d have to act the
part of an engaged man?” Gabriel walked steadily toward her until
he had her shoulders in his hands—just as he’d held Lucy’s only a
few minutes ago.

Delia crumpled into his bare arms and
buried her face into the flesh of his chest. “I didn’t realize it
would hurt so much.”

“
Freaking love birds!” Micah
growled with a smile on his handsome face.

“
We should leave them
alone,” Dante said.

Lucy looked over to Delia and Gabriel.
He held her in his arms, whispering things to her, stroking her
golden hair. Most of him was obscured by Delia’s body pressing
against his, but his shoulders and chest were luminous in their
nakedness.

Lucy’s gaze flicked over to Vin and
she was surprised to find he was staring right at her, his blue
eyes not a bit cold—he was looking at her as if he wanted to eat
her.

Which he just might want
to…
Lucy turned as Dante and Micah helped
her walk, each lending her an arm. Which was good. Her legs were
like rubber, and her knees kept knocking.

“
So,” Lucy said as she
walked along between the two werewolves, desperately trying to push
the bewildering tangle of emotions out of her head. “Is there
anyone that doesn’t know about this little…?”

“
Shit storm?” Micah
chortled.

“
Arrangement?” Dante
corrected.

“
Yeah…that.”

“
Well,” Dante said.
“Gabriel’s parents, and of course, Delia’s.”

“
And anyone who might want
Gabriel dead.” Micah seemed to ponder this. “You’d be surprised how
many.”

Lucy felt the pressure and tension
evaporate when they stepped out of the cramped little alley and
stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of La Companion Refectory. A
sly north wind blew around and through them, making Lucy feel
unaccountably better. She gently pulled her arms free of Dante’s
and Micah’s grasp. “I’m going to need more money,” she announced.
She looked right into Dante’s light brown eyes. “That alright with
you?”