by Liz Schulte
“Well, I’m guessing that was probably what made Paolo a scary son of a bitch. If they crossed him, he unleashed you. But now everyone knows you aren’t seeing eye to eye.” I glanced out the window again. If I was right about what was happening, there was no time for all of this, but Corbin still wasn’t budging. Paolo or his people could get here any moment.
“There have been no challenges to his authority.”
“Yet, but vampires are more openly hunting humans. They aren’t hiding like they once did. As you said, more and more bounties are being put on them. Don’t you see that they aren’t scared anymore?”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Corbin asked dispassionately. “Maybe they’re all sick of hiding. I wouldn’t blame them. I’m sick of all of this too.”
“It’s a change. As far as I can tell, the council opposes any sort of change in the Abyss.”
Corbin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “The only part of this that truly bothers me is how did they know Thomas would come? He has been anything but predictable in his movements. I’ve followed you for months and he never came. Now suddenly he is exactly where they want him to be.”
“A little too convenient, don’t you think? I’m not pretending to know everything, but it’s finally starting to make sense. That’s why we can’t stay. I have it on good authority that the plan was to give him to you then take him away. The goal is to get you back. If you won’t come back, I don’t know what they’ll do.”
“Time to wake up.” He went to Thomas and slapped him soundly before I even stood up. “Come on, you little worm. Time to talk.”
Thomas’s eyes fluttered and opened slowly. They bypassed Corbin and immediately went to me. So blue and confused. “What happened?” he asked with a groan. “Why can’t I move? Femi?”
I narrowed my eyes. I’d seen the recognition in his eyes when he was in the wolf state. This cool, blue innocence wasn’t going to work. He was too good at playing the victim. He manipulated my feelings…because he knew he could. “He’s working with them. He’s stalling. We have to go. We’ll find somewhere safe and question him there.” I dug out the keys to the locks out of my pockets and offered them to Corbin.
The sound of a car on the street perked my ears up. Corbin moved to the window then was back in a second. “You’re right. We need to move.” I went to undo the chains, but he stopped me. “No time.” He looked at the beam where the loup-garou had cracked it. He kicked it three times until it splintered in half. He tore down the upper half, hitting Thomas several times in the process, and tossed it to the side. The ceiling cracked and sagged.
Corbin lifted Thomas off the rest of the beam and tossed him over his shoulder, chains and all. “Where’s your car?”
“About a block to the east,” I said, handing him the keys and feeling Thomas’s pockets for a cell phone. “Get him there and put him in the trunk. I’ll distract them.” I pulled his cell out and crushed it beneath my boot.
The front door smashed against the wall as four vampires charged through. Corbin moved fast, taking Thomas into a room off to the side as I stepped out to meet them, guns drawn and already firing. Vampires moved too fast. If you waited to see what they were going to do, you were already too late. Bullets weren’t going to kill a vampire, even silver ones, but they would slow them down. The first vampire charged at me low and hard. There wasn’t time to move, so I adjusted, dropped a gun, and pulled the closest knife. He impaled himself on the blade, the force shoving the hilt of the knife into my stomach just above the hipbone. That was going to leave a mark.
I shoved the other gun to his temple and pulled the trigger, knocking him back a few inches so I could move, twisting and ripping out the knife to run it across his throat before knocking him to the floor.
“They’re not here,” a female vampire said. “We need the bounty hunter alive.”
I twirled the blood-covered knife in my fingers and smiled at her. “Give it your best shot.”
She motioned with both hands and the other two vampires charged at me. I threw the knife at the one coming at my left, but he deflected it as I shot the one on the right until the clip had been emptied. The one on the left grabbed me in a bear hug and squeezed so tight that at least two ribs snapped under the pressure. Pushing past the pain, I stretched my fingers to reach another blade I kept at my hip. The tips of my fingers barely brushed against the top of it.
The other vampire came toward us slowly now, carefully readjusting his eye patch. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he said, picking up my knife from the floor. “An eye for an eye.”
“If it isn’t One-Eyed Willy,” I said. “Go ahead, give us the Truffle Shuffle, then.”
He came at me, and I kicked out my foot, sinking my heel into his throat (some people never learned). I jammed my other heel through the other vampire’s foot. His arms loosened enough that I could finally reach the knife. I grabbed it and brought it up hard, jamming it through my shoulder and into his heart. His skin sizzled and he cried out, letting me go completely. Though it hurt, I tore the knife from my shoulder, spun around, and buried it to the hilt into his chest again.
Then I did the same to the other two vampires just to make sure they didn’t get back up again. Blood ran down my arm as I turned to face off with the older, infinitely more dangerous female vampire. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, with a slight smile on her perfectly red lips.
“I can see why they like you,” she said, her voice dark and rich. “But I can’t let you leave.”
I pulled out another knife for my bad arm and cracked my neck to the side. “You won’t take me alive.”
She moved so fast she blurred. I braced for impact, but then there was a crack against the ceiling above me and her body fell to the floor hard, skull crushed. Corbin stood in front of me. “You ready to go?” he asked. “The police are probably on their way.”
I stepped over her. “I could have taken her.”
Corbin raised an eyebrow. “Debatable.”
I let him drive my car because my shoulder still burned and the muscles clenched as it tried to heal. Sekhmets healed fairly fast. Not instantly, but the recovery time was definitely less than most races. Vampire blood had its own healing properties, but since the wound had been made with a solid silver knife, it was probably the reason for the burning sensation.
My phone buzzed with a text message. I pulled it out of my pocket, sucking in air between my teeth at the movement. I felt a little dizzy, but I read it. It was a new crime scene picture and an address from Dempsey. This one was more like the originals in the style of the killings. Everything happened at once.
“You know I never had an issue with vampires, but every time I get mixed up with one of you, I always end up the worse for it.”
Corbin laughed. “Maybe you should mind your own business, then.”
I scowled at him. “I was trying to stay out of the Thomas situation. You were the one following me around. He was the one who approached me to begin with. I’m innocent.” I looked out the window and didn’t recognize anything. “It’s the two of you who keep dragging me back in.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
That was an excellent question. I catalogued all the places I actually knew in the area, and there was really only one that fit the bill, so I directed him out of the city and to Dempsey’s cabin in the swamp.
Thomas didn’t struggle during the boat ride. He sat between us, facing me. His vibrant blue eyes were visible even in the dark, sending goosebumps down my spine. He had always had this effect on me. Half curiosity, half I should know better, and I did, but it didn’t stop the attraction. If anything, it only made it worse. He was dangerous and he was bad, and he took what he wanted without any regard for the people around him. So why did I have the sudden desire to run my fingernails down his back? Oh, perfect. I was a cliché.
Thomas winked at me, looking calm and collected, which I had to give him credit for, considering he was about to be in a secluded
cabin with Corbin. Even though I was there, we all knew that if Corbin wanted to kill him, my chances of stopping him were pretty close to nil.
I stopped the boat at the same dock as before and led them inside. Corbin unceremoniously dropped Thomas to the floor with a thunk and redid his chains, not bothering to hook them to anything, then sat him up against the wall, undoing my shirt covering his mouth.
“Why are you in New Orleans?” Corbin asked him calmly.
“He’s going to kill me, Femi. We both know that.”
Being easy or empathetic wasn’t going to get the truth. “Then I guess you better answer his questions.”
Thomas’s pleading look turned sad, and twisted the invisible knife in my chest.
Corbin slapped his forehead with the palm on his hand, knocking his head back against the wall. “Oy! Stop fucking around. You know exactly what’s happening. And you’re going to tell me what that is, or you will learn all about pain today.”
Thomas’s face changed. His upper lip curled, and those eyes became piercing and cold as ice as they settled on Corbin. “Tell me, did you spend more time trying to find me or trying to save that whore Camila? I fucked her for years. Right under your nose, but you never noticed. I half convinced myself you didn’t really care about her at all, and Paolo was crazy when he told me she was the best way to keep you in line. But, as usual, Paolo was right. Getting rid of her made all the difference in the world with you. Really, had I known that was all it would take to break you, I would have done it decades sooner. I never could stand the two of you.”
Apparently he had a death wish. Good to know. This time I hit him before Corbin could. From the look on his face, Corbin was contemplating breaking things, preferably pieces of Thomas’s body. Mine was a gentler touch. We were getting off topic. “Why are you here?” I repeated, like I was talking to a child.
Thomas turned his cold gaze to me. “I should have let them kill you when I had a chance.”
“Why didn’t you?” I asked, even though I knew I shouldn’t open this doorway.
His eyes warmed considerably. “I keep trying to figure that out.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Enough is enough, Thomas. I’m done. Whatever this was has been over for a long time.”
Hurt turned the edges of his mouth down. “I thought I knew you. I thought I had you figured out. I was positive you wouldn’t turn me in. When Paolo told me his plan, I told him there was no way you’d give me over. Just this once, I wanted to be right. You’ve had chances in the past and never pulled the trigger. Deny it all you want, Femi—nothing is over between us.”
“You’ve been in contact with Paolo,” Corbin said, his voice dangerously soft.
Thomas didn’t look back at him. “Paolo said it didn’t matter if you did it of your own free will. Just as long as you knew where I was, they were prepared to go to much greater lengths to get you to tell them everything you knew about me—in front of Corbin, of course—but then you surprised us all and gave me up right away. Why?”
“He’s lying,” Corbin growled.
Thomas laughed. “Have you still not figured it out? Paolo didn’t have me. He never wanted me. I’ve been free the whole time. Did you really think you just kept missing me? You never had a chance. He wanted you submissive. He wanted you unconnected. He wanted you to be his good little soldier.”
Corbin blinked, shaking his head slightly. “Why?”
“You might have enforced Paolo’s orders on the other vampires, but I was there to keep you in line. That was my job. Camila’s whispers in your ear were unacceptable. Had you supported her, Paolo wouldn’t be where he is now. She was in the way. She swayed you. We could all see it. But I couldn’t kill her without killing you, and Paolo wouldn’t stand for that, so we removed her from the equation. I thought you would simply break the connection, but you wore it like a fucking badge of honor, getting more and more unbearable. So you felt a bit of pain. That’s life.”
Corbin’s eyes were so black they looked like empty sockets as he stared at Thomas.
“Then the elf. Dear God. I didn’t think that’d ever end. The last thing we needed was a war with them, but you couldn’t just walk away from her. So, short of killing her too, that left me. We had to renew your interest in finding me. Remind you what I took from you. Fan the flame, so to speak.”
Corbin lunged at him faster than I could possibly stop.
Chapter 17
