The Vampire's Seduction (17 page)

I pulled the Corvette to the curb and turned around (no rearview mirrors for me, remember). It was Connie.
Double shit.

“Hello again, Mr. McShane. My, but you’re getting careless. This is twice in one week,” she drawled. “Do you know how fast you were going?”

I glanced at Reedrek. He’d put on a guileless expression. Surely he’d be cool. It was me and William he wanted, not the local citizenry. Although Connie
was
important to me. What a time to realize
that.
I needed to start being one of those sensitive Alan Alda types who’s always in touch with his feelings. If I got out of this mess, maybe I’d take a class or something. But the pressing matter was whether Reedrek would sense she was important to me.

“Good evening, darlin’. Aren’t there enough criminals out there burgling or armed robbing to keep you busy without stopping piddling little speeders like me?”

“I’ll always go out of my way for you, Jackie. And by the way, you just incriminated yourself.”

“I could never lie to you anyway, baby.”

She reached into her back pocket for her ticket book. “Where’s the fire?”

“Uh, nowhere. I was just talking to . . . to . . . my uncle . . . Fred, here, and I kind of lost track of how fast I was going.”

Reedrek looked at her sweetly, not a fang in sight. “How do you do,” he said, all pleasant-like.

“Nice to meet you,” Connie said.

I didn’t know what to do next, but I knew I wanted to get out of there. “Go on ahead and give me that ticket, then. I’d hate to take up any more of your valuable time when there are muggers and murderers on the loose.”

I gave the old bloodsucker a sideways glance. Speak of the devil . . .

“I’m not in any hurry. Where are your manners, Jackie?”

“Uncle Fred, this is Officer Consuela Jones, Savannah’s finest.”

They nodded at each other, and Connie said, “Don’t you mean
one
of Savannah’s finest?”

“I mean just what I said, sugar.”

“Well, aren’t you sweet?” She flipped open her ticket book and took the pen in her hand.

Reedrek spoke to her. “You don’t wish to issue that citation.” I stared at him. What in the Sam Hill was he doing?

Connie looked puzzled but not angry. “I don’t?”

“No, you don’t. Come to the passenger side of this vehicle.”

I twisted toward Reedrek, ready to spring if he made any threatening move in Connie’s direction. She walked calmly to his side, as if waiting for some instruction from him.

“Bend down toward me, my girl,” Reedrek purred. She did. He reached up to cup her chin in his awful hand, running his fingers along the side of her cheek. He leaned upward as if to kiss her. Then I saw those awful fangs grow down and out. He was about to bite her, and she wasn’t trying to get away. She was going to let him.

I reached over Reedrek and, in one swift motion, swept the charm from around my neck and dropped it over her head. I shoved Connie’s shoulder, just enough to make her straighten and take a step back. I put the ’Vette back in drive and stomped the accelerator before she had time to come to her senses. “That’s enough.”

“Do you believe me now, young one?”

“Yeah.” The implications of what I’d just seen were exploding in my head like so many multicolored fireworks. What else hadn’t William taught me about vampires?

“Let us go and see William,” Reedrek said.

I knew instinctively that I couldn’t refuse, especially since I didn’t have the charm anymore.

“Yeah,” I said.

I followed Reedrek’s directions until I pulled up to a dingy goth club called Nine. To say I was freaked out would be an understatement. Whatever happened when Reedrek and William came face-to-face, I didn’t want to be within biting distance. Besides, I was starting to get really pissed at William again. If I let dear old Grandpa teach me the stuff he wanted to teach me, what would he want in return? William’s head on a plate? I was getting to the point where I could almost consider it.

Reedrek headed for the door and I followed. Several dark figures loitered near the entrance, smoking cigarettes—young goths, all dressed in black just like . . . I stopped in my tracks as Werm came forward out of the gloom. He looked back and forth between me and my grandsire, and a rapturous look came over his ferretlike features. I knew he’d made Reedrek for a vampire. He met me a few steps from the entrance and I grabbed him by the arm. Reedrek sensed I was no longer following him and stopped.

“Get as far away from here as you can,” I hissed at Werm.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“You don’t want to know. Now,
git
!” I shoved him away from me.

Werm’s eyes widened. “Who’s he?”

“Never you mind. Move your ass or I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

Werm seemed mesmerized by Reedrek. “No way.”

Some badass I am. I fought the urge to slap the little weasel. But that would have further drawn Reedrek’s attention. It was best to get the blood drinker into the club, where at least Werm could fade into the crowd. Something told me he was good at that. I turned my back on Werm and marched toward the entrance with Reedrek.

God have mercy on us all.

William

The music was infernally loud. Jack’s human obsession for noisy mechanical things would’ve been tickled by the racket. It never failed to astound me when humans purposely assaulted their ears with blaring sounds that in no way resembled music. True music came from finely tuned instruments, not electronic distortion boxes.

Jack would simply say I was old fashioned and out of it. As if I wanted to be
in
anything so annoying.

The only redeeming part was the beat—a driving, pulsating base line that pushed through the air like a pounding heart. Loud and hard. A primitive sound very near and dear to my own impulses. And to Olivia’s. She’d taken to the dance floor like a fish to water, swirling and swimming among the pierced and pale mortals like a shark sizing up a school of tattooed mullet.

I kept my back to the wall. The mortals, doing their best to look scary in their own right, gave me a wide berth. Good for them. Their innate sense of danger served them well. I was in no mood to mix with humans. I had other, more pressing matters on my mind. I could feel Jack’s sense of betrayal and his anger like a sharp ache. But I refused to feel guilty for protecting him. I’d become accustomed to his anger, although there were times I wished I could gain his friendship, if not outright love. At least I’d been able to depend on his loyalty. Locking him up would severely test that loyalty, but it could not be helped.

A human touch on my arm pulled me from my dismal thoughts. A pretty blonde with amber eyes gazed up at me—as if she was a night creature and I was her moon. As though she’d been caught spying, she quickly looked away. Although I’d never seen her face, I recognized her immediately. The smell of her blood was familiar to me. She’d been my dinner of nights past.

I grasped her chin and forced her eyes to meet mine, searching for any conscious remembrance of me. There was nothing. Just the animal recognition—body to body. Her skin, muscle, and bone had retained the sensory memory of pleasure, and she had found the giver—me—in this room full of people.

“Hello . . .” She looked down again but her hand moved along the velvet softness of my jacket. “My name is Shari.”

“Hello, Shari,” I answered.

At the sound of my voice she stepped in closer until our clothes were touching. She raised her chin and whispered into my ear. “Will you dance with me?”

Any normal human would not have been able to hear her. I heard not only the words but the longing in them that even she didn’t fathom.

“No,” I said, although I allowed her to lean against my chest. As though her body had turned to water, she slid downward. I clasped her with one arm and held her next to me before she fell to her knees. Then I gazed into her eyes again. “You don’t know me.”

“I want to,” she said slowly.

In spite of the loud music, I could hear the beat of her heart and feel it pumping as though we were back in Eleanor’s secret room, skin to skin. I lowered my face and smelled the hair that spilled over her collar, hiding my favorite spot on her neck. For a few seconds I wasn’t sure who had bewitched whom, because my hunger rose like the head of a cobra sensing prey.

Not here, not now.

To divert my greedy thoughts, I concentrated on a group of three men and one woman watching our little tête-à-tête. Two of the men were nodding with lecherous, knowing smiles. How would Jack put it? They thought I was about to score.

Little did they know I was thinking more of lunch. The thought nearly brought a smile to my face.

“Some other time,” I promised, recovering my control.

“Let me stay.” She sighed and slipped her arms about my waist, nuzzling my neck, snuggling closer. Her sweet sexual arousal billowed around me like an earthy perfume.

I had to send her away, but not without reward. I bent over her and captured the edge of her ear with my teeth. With a whimper, she went still like every good little swan, waiting breathlessly for the bite. I increased the pressure without breaking the skin and her well-trained body spasmed into an orgasm, coming swift and hard. I held her securely as she curled toward me, moaning into the front of my jacket. No blood, just a little discreet pain and then pleasure.

Feeling pleased with myself, I looked up in time to see Jack—he who should’ve been behind locked doors—walk through the entrance of the club. I felt his fear like a knife in the dark. Then in an instant Reedrek was standing next to him.

In the space of a single heartbeat, Reedrek crossed the room and loomed in front of me, close enough to touch. I pushed my little human swan away so suddenly that she stumbled into the arms of the nearest clubgoer. Then I drew my speechless hatred about me like a cloak. The human world receded, leaving us in our own supernatural dimension. Even the music hushed.

Reedrek looked well pleased with himself as always. A few hundred years had not softened his manner—nor my hatred toward him. The air around us crackled with malice and enmity. Thanks to the magic of Lalee’s shells, my sire’s appearance didn’t shock me as it might have. I’d seen him with Alger. I’d known he was coming.

“You look old,” I said, just to annoy him. Inside I was rapidly barring the doors to my mind, shoring up every defense.
You will not take me.

“I
am
old,” he admitted. His nasty smile bared long fangs polished by a millennium of blood. He looked out over the crowded club, which appeared to be moving in slow motion. “So this is the pinnacle of society in this backwater town. I made you for better things than this.”

“They do well enough.” I wasn’t about to debate the merits of Savannah with him. I would much rather teach him to hate and fear it, since his absence would improve the city immeasurably. He’d taken my true life and everything I’d loved, and the tomblike smell of him made my skin crawl. “What do you want?”

I could feel him searching for fear, for weakness. “You’ve been a detestable disappointment thus far,” he said. “It’s time you fulfilled your potential.”

I decided to remain deliberately obtuse. “My potential?”

“Yes. You could be king of your own empire here, and yet you do nothing.”

“Ah, and I suppose the disappointment lies in the fact that I haven’t made you stronger through our blood ties.”

A roiling cloud of anger darkened his expression. “It’s true; in doing nothing to further your own power, you’ve contributed even less to mine. But that is about to change.”

I cocked my head like a fascinated student and let him continue.

“You will feed tonight and every night. I’ve come to make certain of it. And I’ve come to put an end to your little underground escape venture.” He paused for effect, I suppose. “Or I’ll rip out your heart and stake you to a tree in the center of one of these lovely squares you seem so fond of.”

Death or submission—those were my choices. No great surprise there. Unfortunately, in the world of dominance and submission I was what would be called a natural top. Dominant in every way. Submissiveness went against my nature. A true son of my “father.” And death—death was my fondest fantasy. Time to find out what other hells awaited me.

“Why did you kill Alger?” I ventured, leading him into what I hoped would be at least an intellectual trap.

A slight hesitation gave evidence of the lie to come. I wondered at my ability to see it. “I killed him because he was a failure, a coward, and a disgrace to his lineage.”

“And you had no grand plans for him?” I persisted.

“No. He was supremely unworthy.”

“Are there no others you have killed?”

“Only Alger—he had to be extinguished.”

I let his insults pass. There would be time to avenge Alger later. I moved in for the check. “What of Lyone?”

Reedrek leaned back as though he’d been shoved.

I’d surprised him—a feat I hadn’t thought possible. I used that success to spin my own half truth for, as Jack might say, the hell of it. “You’ll be happy to know he’s been located. A polar expedition has been mounted to free him.” I savored the final blow. “Frederica and Gaelan have been released and moved out of Amsterdam as well.”

There, I’d truly stunned him, and he let it show.

“How did you—”

The tight lid I kept on my fury rattled inside me as I drew myself into my finest killing posture. A human would have been struck dead by the sight of my pure intent. I felt my feet leave the floor as I rose into the air. Reedrek took a half step away from me.

“You were there. I felt it. How could you have been there?” he asked, unbelieving of his own senses.

“Do you imagine I will tell you any of my comings or goings? Have you discovered yet that you don’t own me, that you never did?” I waited for the leap, the fatal blow.

“No. But I made you and I can end you.” He rose to face me, his hair floating upward like a nest of writhing snakes. His clawed hand shot forward but stopped just millimeters from my neck. The air disturbed by his sudden movement caressed my skin, but the blow did not land.