Sire (29 page)

"He's never going to give in, you know," Caitlin said. "You're never going to convince him to live the way you do."

"Don't be silly. Of course not! I'm not going to
reason
with him. I'm going to
show
him. I'm going let him know just how good it feels to let the animal out of its cage. And the key to that, Caitlin, is you.

"Right now, Michael is chained up in my dungeon." She smiled. "Yes, I have a dungeon. Cliché, I know, but useful. Regardless, Michael is chained, and he is struggling to free himself, so that he can come and rescue you. He was screaming your name when I left him.

"Pretty soon, he's going to be spent. And then the hunger will set in, clawing at his throat. But the nights will drag on and on, and his hunger will just keep growing. Pretty soon, it will drive him mad. Have you ever seen a starving dog, Caitlin? Seen how vicious they are? How they'll tear into anything that gets near them?

"Michael is going to be a starving dog. All of his sensitivity and morals and hangups are going to be stripped away, and nothing but the vampire will remain. And then ..."

Angelica looked at Caitlin, and all of the youth, innocence, and frivolity drained from her face, replaced with cold, calculating malice.

"Then, Caitlin, I will give him you."

Chapter Twenty Two

Indigo was hot and cramped and loud. Like always.

Just a few days ago, Alexis would have loved it. Funny how things change.

"I still think this is a dumb idea," Garret semi-shouted into her ear.

"Yeah? Well I think it's a dumb idea to leave Caitlin to die." Although that seemed to be the minority opinion. Alexis had talked to the police—the Chief again, actually—and she'd gotten the same story as when Bethany was taken. We're really, really sorry, but vampires are big and scary and mean, and there's just nothing we can do to help.

Useless bastards.

Garret flinched. Good. "Hey, it's not like that. You know I care about her. And Evan. But we're in over our heads here."

"So is Caitlin!" Alexis hissed. Then she elbowed him, maybe a bit harder than strictly necessary. "Shut up, there he is."

The vampire they'd been tracking had just walked into the room. He looked young, like eighteen or nineteen, but Alexis knew that didn't mean anything. Hell, he could be a hundred years old, for all she knew.

This one had a type. Every night this week, he'd found a girl about five feet tall and a hundred and nothing pounds to chat up, and some time around midnight, he'd left the club with her. They had never seen any of the girls again. Not at Indigo, and not on campus.

Alexis just hoped he went for dark-skinned girls.

"Am I slutty enough?" she asked. She was wearing the shortest skirt she could find, and black leather boots that reached up to her knees. The shirt was the selling point, though. It was light and clingy, and so thin that it was almost transparent. Hell, in the right light, it probably
was
transparent. You'd have to be blind not to notice that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath. The back was open, and the neck line plunged so low you could damn near see her belly button. If this outfit didn't scream "bite me," Alexis was going to have to rethink her place in life.

Garret looked at her like she had just asked him to take his cousin to the prom. "Yeah, I might do you right here."

Alexis gave him a dirty look. "Shut up and meet me out back."

Her heart pounded, and she started to feel dizzy as she walked across the floor. The damn hooker boots weren't helping her balance, either. But she kept breathing, and she kept walking. One foot in front of the other, sway the hips a little bit in case he turns to look ...

He was leaning against the bar, talking to three girls. Sorority sisters, from the look of them. Alexis walked past the vampire, and ran her fingers over his thigh, across his hip, up his torso, and across his chest. The vampire looked at her, one eyebrow raised. The sorority sisters made some snitty noise, but Alexis ignored them. She gave the vampire what she hoped was a sultry look, then ran her fingers back down his body. She hooked them inside his belt just long enough to tug him away from the bar, then walked away.

She glanced back after five steps, looked him up and down, and licked her lips.

Then she cut through the crowd as fast as she could, making her way to the fire door at the back of the dance floor. She pushed it open, and cold air assaulted her. She stepped outside and slammed the door, shivering but relieved to be out of the crowd.

Alexis glanced down. Damn it was cold out there. Well, maybe that would help entice him.

Okay. She had to stay in character. Mind in the moment and all that.

The vampire pushed the door open a second later. "There you are," he said. His voice was deeper than she expected.

Alexis leaned up against the opposite wall, and let her eyes linger over his body again. She picked up one foot and set it flat against the brick wall, and ran her fingers along the hem of her skirt, hiking it up just a bit. She tossed her head so that her hair hung over her shoulder, leaving her neck exposed. "Here I am," she said, trying to make her voice languid. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, then tried to give him a come-hither look. "What are you going to do about it?"

The vampire pressed his body against her. Alexis had to fight the urge to push him away, or vomit, or both. Instead, she made a happy little murmuring noise.

"You gonna show me a good time?" She asked.

"Baby, the things I'm going to show you? You won't even believe."

His hands were all over her body. She felt like she was being smeared with slime. She could feel herself tensing, but forced herself to relax. She slipped a silver chain out of her back pocket, and stretched it between both hands. It was almost over.

"Your heart is pounding," he said. "I can feel it hammering inside your chest." He ran his fingers from her collar bone to her sternum, just in case she had forgotten where her chest was.

"I'm just excited," she whispered into his ear.

"That's okay," he said. "A fast heart makes it even better."

His eyes turned red, and he bent his face toward her neck, but Alexis wound the silver chain around his throat. His skin started to sizzle, and he backed up and made a gurgling sound, but she went after him, pushing the silver against him as hard as she could.

He fell over backwards, and Alexis followed him down, then straddled him. He was trying to reach the chain, but he couldn't make his hands move.

Headlights flared to life at the end of the alley, and Garret pulled the car up.

"Give me the knife," Alexis said. Garret handed her one of Michael's silver daggers.

Alexis looked the vampire in the eyes. He was confused, and ... scared.

Just like all the girls he'd killed must have been confused and scared.

Alexis slammed the dagger into his chest. His whole body convulsed, and another wet sputter came out of his mouth, but then he fell still. Smoke poured out of his wounds.

Garret looked like he was about to throw up.

"Help me get him into the car," Alexis said.

Garret looked around reluctantly, then grabbed the vampire under the arms and hauled him off the ground.

***

They drove to an abandoned gas station about two miles away, and parked in the back. They were far enough away from the main roads that Alexis didn't think anyone was going to drive by, and the lights were dim enough—a dull amber from street lights a block away—that even if they did, she didn't expect to be seen.

Unless the people driving by could see in the dark, of course.

But whatever. This had to be done, and done quickly.

"Help me get him out of the trunk," she said.

Garret's lips were pressed into a thin line, and his Adam's Apple kept bobbing up and down, but he climbed out of the car and opened the trunk anyway. The vampire was still in there, still paralyzed by the silver dagger. His injuries were still smoking, and some of the veins in his neck were starting to turn black.

Garret hoisted him up and set him on the ground, his back against the gas station's wall. Alexis started binding his hands. She had brought every piece of silver she could find. She didn't own a lot of silver—gold went better with her skin—so she had to go through Caitlin's things to find more. Alexis didn't think she'd mind, all things considered.

When she was reasonably sure that there was enough silver to hold the vampire in place, she grabbed the dagger and yanked it out.

The vampire gasped and gurgled, and the black traces disappeared. His eyes darted left and right, and then turned red. He snarled at Alexis and Garret with a mouth full of fangs.

"You have no idea what you've done," he said.

"Yeah, you're right. I just accidentally lured you outside and stabbed you with a silver knife. We're completely clueless here." Alexis replied.

"I am going to eat your heart, little girl."

She smiled at him. "You aren't going to be eating anything ever again, if you don't cooperate."

The vampire laughed. "
You're
threatening
me?
Now that's funny."

"No, what's funny is that you fang heads think you own this town. What's funny is that you've convinced so many people to just roll over and play dead."

"We do own this town, girl. We—"

Alexis rammed the silver dagger back into his chest. He hacked and sputtered and twitched, and then stopped moving altogether.

"Jesus, Lex," Garret said.

She let the vampire sit there for a minute, then yanked the dagger back out. "Where's Caitlin?" she asked.

"Who?"

She traced the dagger across his face, leaving a smoking red line across his cheek. He winced and jerked his head away. "Caitlin Manning. Michael McKenna's ... whatever. Angelica has her, and I want to know where she took her."

The vampire laughed. "You're friends with that little bitch? You know she killed one of our guys."

"Damn right she did. We helped."

Alexis saw something flicker in the vampire's eyes. Doubt? Maybe fear?

"Where is she?" She pushed the dagger tip into the skin beneath his throat. Smoke curled up into his nostrils.

The vampire gritted his teeth. "She's at the mansion. She's going to be executed. Tonight at midnight. It's gonna be a party."

Garret and Alexis looked at each other. Damn. They were cutting it close.

"What are they going to do to her?" Alexis asked.

The vampire laughed. "Michael is going to drain her dry."

That shook her. Alexis had never trusted Michael, and the thought of that damn fang head hurting her girl ... but was this legit? Or was the vampire playing them?

Whatever. "Where's this mansion?" Alexis asked.

"It's up your—"

She rammed the dagger home again.

When she yanked it out, the vampire was more polite. "It's like ten miles outside of the city." He gave her an address, and she typed it into her phone.

Garret was standing back by the car. "Okay, we got what we need. Let's get out of here."

Alexis started walking toward the car. "Wait, what about him?" Garret asked.

She glanced back at him. "The sun will be up in a few hours. That'll take care of him."

"Wait, what?" Garret and the vampire spoke at the same time.

"You can't just leave him here!"

"I'll die if you leave me in the sun!"

"Lex, this isn't ..."

"You're killing me!"

Alexis walked over to the vampire and smiled sweetly. "And what were you going to do to me?" she asked him. His lips trembled, like he was trying to hide a snarl, but he didn't speak. "That's what I thought."

"Alexis, come on. We can't do this. He's a hum—"

"He is
not
a human being. He's a monster."

"Come on, man," the vampire said. "Don't let her do this to me. She's crazy! But you're not. You're rational. I can tell, man. I can tell you don't want to do this. Set me free, and I promise, I won't hurt either of you. It'll be like this never happened. It'll be like—"

Alexis rammed the dagger into his heart one final time. His mouth hung open, dumb, and his body slouched over onto the ground.

"Come on," Alexis said, and climbed into the passenger side door.

Garret stared at the vampire for a minute, then got into the car.

Alexis brought the address up on her phone. "Drive."

Chapter Twenty Three

They were smart enough not to drive up to the front door, thank you very much.

Instead, they hid Garret's car off the side of the road, about five minutes from the mouth of the mansion's driveway. Then they ducked into the woods and headed for the house. The thing was built on top of a hill and lit up like Disney World, so finding it wasn't hard.

But getting through all that underbrush in a pair of hooker boots?
That
was hard. Especially since Alexis was carrying a crossbow and a bag full of arrows, and had a dagger strapped to her thigh.

Garret's legs were about a mile longer than hers, and it was hard to keep up with him. Alexis was sweating and panting by the time they reached the stone wall surrounding the main grounds. The twelve foot high stone wall.

"Now what?" Alexis whispered.

"I don't suppose we could just say we tried and go home?"

Alexis gave him a withering glare, and he looked down at his feet.

But then he started looking around, searching for a way in. Alexis followed his eyes up a tree and along a branch that extended over the wall.

"No way," she said.

"It's this or we go tell the guys at the front gate that we forgot our invitation."

Damn it.

Garret climbed the tree easily, and once he was wedged in between two branches, he reached down to help Alexis up. And "help" is kind of a relative word. He basically grabbed her hands and yanked her off the ground.

When Alexis was settled, he stretched out flat along the tree branch and shimmied his way along its length. Pretty soon he was at the end of the branch and sitting on top of the wall. He waved at Alexis to come on.