Catch

by Annie Nicholas

  “I never betrayed the contract I have with the vampire nation. Each one I slayed was proven guilty prior to execution. Why would I kill the one vampire Lord who is upholding the laws?”

  “Budapest.”

  He flinched when I said the city’s name. “I’ve survived worse. Tane and I will never be friends, but I can tolerate him.” His admission drew a soft whine from Gwen.

  I glanced at her and gave her a ‘ what the hell is wrong with you?’ look.

  She couldn’t meet my gaze. Too many secrets, she needed to tell me what was going on between the two of them.

  When I turned to Colby, he too stared at Gwen. “Do I know you?” She snorted. “Nice to know I’m that remarkable.”

  “Before last night. You seem…familiar.”

  “No, we never met.” She spun and waited by the door.

  “Colby, have you ever heard of a blood bond?”

  “It’s what you and Rurik have. It’s how he saved you from Dragos and enslaved you.”

  Touche. “Yeah, well, apparently it’s not with Rurik but with Tane. If you kill him I’ll die too.” I placed my hands on my hips and listened to my gut, not my brain.

  Colby hung his head.

  The whole time I’d been alone with Rurik I never felt like a traitor to my race.

  Imprisoning Colby changed that. Guilt grew. What would Laurent think of my new life?

  Far from the picket-fenced house with the two point five kids he wanted to give me.

  It was the only future I couldn’t have. Fate had different plans for me.

  I couldn’t chance setting Colby free until sunset and I knew Tane was safe. Like it or not, this bond meant more than a marriage since death do us part was taken literally.

  Tane might be an asshole, but he was my asshole. It killed me to admit this, yet he was growing on me. Where Rurik was suave and sexy, Tane was cunning and deadly. I admired all these traits.

  “Let me clear the waters for you, Colby. When the sun sets, the sharks will begin to circle. If I let you go and they catch you again, they’ll bite first and ask questions later.

  Maybe too much later.”

  A clicking of claws announced Kam’s return. “There are no sharks around here.” Gwen rolled her eyes and left the room. “My brother, the genius.” I followed her at a quick trot to not lose her in the dark.

  “I didn’t try to kill him.” Colby’s shout followed us before Kam slammed the heavy metal door shut.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Outside the cave, Gwen stopped to answer her buzzing cell phone. “What?” I leaned against a tree and stared at the fading light in the jungle. How the hell was I going to convince Tane to let Colby go? If he was innocent then the assassin was still at large. Maybe Luckard did have balls the size of watermelons and snuck onto the mansion’s grounds to make the attempt. Rurik thought someone else was behind the crazed Nosferatu’s plots. I couldn’t wait until sunset to consult with him. He’d know what to say and what to do.

  “How’s that possible?” Gwen’s shout cut through my worries. She paced as she listened to the answer.

  I straightened, drawn by her distress.

  “Was anyone killed?”

  Dread tightened my gut. I paced along side of her, waiting for more information crumbs.

  “Shit, scour the hotel, question the staff and inform the brothers. I’m on my way.” She closed the connection and looked at me. “Tane’s gone.”

  “What?” I was stunned. “Are you sure?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I take my job seriously.”

  “I mean, can he be, say, with someone in another hotel room?” The thought of Tane getting it on with another person turned my stomach. In the past few days, I’d begun thinking of him as mine…and possibly Rurik’s.

  “Some of his guards are dead.”

  “Oh.” Not anyone could take on a Nosferatu vampire, even in the day they were powerful. Whoever wanted Tane dead was very determined. What was I thinking?

  Luckard must have managed this.

  From Gwen’s stormy expression, I knew she came to the same conclusion. “The human Tane fed from was poisoned with the drug. It’s very rare and I don’t know how they keep getting their hands on it. They used it the last time they captured him.”

  “I’m very familiar with it. Don’t you watch the humans?”

  “We’re spread thin. Our humans are loyal, we don't guard against them. I can’t think of one who would betray him.” She scratched her head. “They’re happy here.”

  “What do you know about the person Tane fed from? It may give us a lead.” As soon as I said the word us, it dawned on me how much I worried about Tane. Not because of our entwined lives, but as someone I cared about.

  “Personally, not much.” She lifted her phone and dialed then spoke in a soft voice.

  I wrapped my arms around myself. What were they doing to Tane? The image of those thick metal bars piercing his body turned my stomach. I wanted to rush to his aide, yet didn’t know where. Could I use our bond to find him like at the hotel? Opening my mental shields, I reached out. “Tane?”

  His presence appeared in my head, except he didn’t respond. I groped in the fog, but the connection ran through my fingers like sand. A sigh passed through my lips. The drug dampened a vampire’s psychic powers and strength. They must have given him the whole damn bottle. We wouldn’t find him using the bond. My worry deepened and I glanced at the setting sun. It would be at least two hours before Rurik and the other vampires woke.

  Gwen touched my shoulder. “Anything?”

  I shook my head. “What about the other Nosferatu?”

  “They’re scattered across the city and trapped in their hiding places until nightfall.” She snorted. “I couldn’t have planned a better scenario to get at Tane if I tried.”

  “They used Colby as a scapegoat to scatter our resources.”

  “How could they have made Colby pick up the crossbow?” She crossed her arms and grimaced.

  “They didn’t have to, but when the opportunity presented itself, they took it.” Luckard didn’t strike me as a schemer. Who could have known all these details?

  I tried to recall the events over the past two days. Rurik had been in Tane’s apartment when I woke, I’d been so concerned about hurting his feelings. I signed some paperwork and gave it to Archios. “Damn.”

  The cell phone rang again and she answered it. Her frown deepened as she listened then glanced at me. “The human is dead. He belonged to—”

  “Archios.”

  She raised an eyebrow and shut off the call. “Spill it.”

  “He suggested the hunt for Colby and assisted in planning the trap.”

  “Some of the surviving guards have a scent to follow, but Luckard is very good at setting false trails.”

  “How the hell is he moving in the daylight?”

  She blinked. “Sewers.” Once more she got on the phone to relay the information then closed the connection. With a quick twist, Gwen disappeared into the cave and shouted over her shoulder. “Colby has to be innocent.” She sounded relieved.

  I stumbled over the uneven ground, trying to keep pace and not get lost in the tunnels. The light from the prison door opening bloomed ahead.

  “Hurry, Connie,” she shouted, and disappeared inside the room.

  “Not everyone has supernatural eyesight,” I mumbled to no one in particular and stubbed my toe. “Freaking sandals in a cave.” My oath carried with an echo.

  Gwen and Kam were arguing in front of Colby when I finally entered. Her finger poked her brother’s large chest to punctuate her point. “Go outside and use my cell if you don’t believe me.”

  “It’s not about belief, sis.” Kam’s voice rumbled as he spoke. “I don’t understand how you could decide to release him without permission.” Colby observed the two with keen interest. The dullness in his eyes had disappeared, replaced with a sharp eagle’s gaze.

  “He’s great at tracking. It’s how
we found Tane the first time.”

  “Sure, I can help, but why the hell would I?” Colby drawled out his question. I recognized this man chained to the wall—my calculating, meticulous ex-boss, vampire slayer extraordinaire, and another new non-human in my life. “From my point of view, Luckard is doing me a favor.”

  Kam swung around. “See, he did try to kill our master.”

  “No, I didn’t, but it doesn’t mean I’d mourn him.” The muscles in his shoulders visibly relaxed as he leaned against the wall and stopped straining. Confidence oozed from him all of a sudden as if he weren’t the prisoner.

  “Why did you help the first time he was captured?” Gwen stepped closer to confront him.

  He cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “To find her.”

  “You know, if Tane dies, so does she.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  "Not until today." He gestured with his chin at me. “I’ll help, but it’s to save her, not your double dealing master.”

  Gwen glanced at me over her shoulder, a slash of jealousy in her glare. It caught me off guard, then she returned her attention to Colby.

  He ignored her and met my gaze. I’m not sure what he saw. Anxiety, worry, guilt and confusion—all mixed together. “Why a bond with Tane of all vampires, Connie?”

  “It’s not something I chose or can change. You were there, Colby.” Weariness settled onto my shoulders, tired of having to explain my decisions to anyone. Good or bad, I had to deal with them. “Let him go. Help or no help, he’s innocent and should be released.”

  Kam crossed his arms over his chest, the keys to the manacles clutched in one hand.

  “Am I not your master’s bonded?” I met the tall werewolf’s dominating gaze and didn’t flinch, even though inside I quaked in my boots.

  “Yes.” He growled the response.

  “Then by the power vested in me, I order you to release him.” I didn’t know what the hell I was saying, but it sure sounded impressive.

  Kam must have thought so too. His ears lay back against his head, yet he reached for the chains. He glared at Colby. “Hurt my pack and I’ll gut you and eat your spleen.” Colby rubbed his raw wrists after being released.

  Gwen inched closer to him from the side, her head down, shoulders curled in.

  Watching her act timid was like watching an elephant try to be graceful. What the hell was wrong with her?

  She sniffed him.

  Colby skipped a step away with a what-the-heck expression on his face.

  “He smells odd, doesn’t he?” Kam’s ears came forward.

  “Yes, but oddly familiar. He smells like—like mine.” She approached him with more confidence and inhaled deeper. Even from across the room I could see Gwen’s pupils dilate and lighten to bright amber.

  My heart raced. I didn’t care to watch her change form.

  “I got a whiff of it at the hotel, but things were moving fast and it caught me off guard.” She leaned into him and touched his hair. “Definitely mine.”

  “If he’s werewolf, I don’t recognize his pack smell.” Kam bent to smell Colby and got a swat on the nose.

  “I don’t belong to anyone.” He placed some distance between himself and Gwen.

  “And it’s nobody’s business who I am.” He shoved Kam out of his way and headed straight in my direction.

  I could see murder in Gwen’s eyes. Most brilliant men were stupid at something.

  Apparently, Colby didn’t know anything about women, especially jealous werewolf kind.

  I threw my hands out in front of me and retreated from him. “He’s all yours, Gwen. I’ve problems aplenty with my own men.”

  He stopped mid-step and twisted to stare at her. “I haven’t any interest in flighty blondes, either.”

  A dark blush crept across Gwen’s cheeks and she stepped closer to her brother, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  I heard him whisper to her, “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”

  “Colby, I know you don’t give a rat’s ass about what happens to Tane.” I smoothed the wrinkles on my shirt and did my best to meet his intense green eyes. “Or me, but the killer is probably among the kidnappers.” I nodded to the werewolves. “Can’t they tag along as back-up while you hunt them down?”

  I may not have a college degree, though I had lived a lifetime of compromises.

  Dealing was a means of surviving when you had nothing.

  The frown on Colby’s face deepened and aged him ten years. “The longer we wait, the colder the trail.”

  The siblings glanced at each other as if excited by his invitation.

  Colby grabbed my hand as he stalked out the door. “How does this bond work?”

  “My-my life is connected to Tane’s. It’s how I survive. Sometimes we can hear each other’s thoughts.”

  “That must be disturbing.”

  I nodded as I stared at the ground and whispered, “Yes.”

  “Can you try to reach out and see if you can get an idea of where he is?” He led us through the dark cave without a flashlight.

  I tripped and stumbled, but his steadying hand caught me each time. The werewolves hadn’t followed. “I tried already. They drugged him.” His steps hesitated as we exited the cave. “So he’s vulnerable.”

  “You still want to kill him.” I yanked my arm out of his grip. “Do you really hate me that much?”

  His brow furrowed. “No but you’re a lost kid who made a bad choice. I’m just as responsible for your situation as you are. I could have sent you home or ordered one of my men to pursue you or—”

  “Ordered? Like an assignment?” My blood boiled.

  “Most of them would have considered it a bonus.” He grinned and it took the edge off his face.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “You are one clueless bastard when it comes to women. Look at Gwen.” I pointed in the quiet cave. “She wants you.”

  “She’s a lonely, confused werewolf. Once I’m gone she’ll forget what she smelled.” I doubted it. I’d witnessed the look on her face when she claimed him. Colby didn’t know her like I did. Surrender wasn’t in her vocabulary. His life was about to get very interesting.

  A man with long, brown wavy hair and a five o’clock shadow accompanied Gwen out of the cave. Kam shrugged. “Can’t go into the city in my beast form.”

  “We’ll need to rendezvous with my team.” Colby addressed them.

  “What about Connie?” Gwen came to stand next to me. She seemed collected and calm again.

  “She stays here.”

  “I do?” Cocking my head to the side, I quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t you need my link to Tane?”

  “Like you said, he’s too drugged. You’ll just slow us down. Stay here, if he wakes and you get a sense of where he is, then call me on my cell.” Gwen took my hand. “Then let’s accompany her to the house so we can be on our way.”

  “I think I can manage to get there in one piece on my own. Just point out the right trail.”

  Handing me the flashlight, she nodded. “There’s about an hour of daylight left.

  Don’t tell anyone of Tane’s disappearance except Rurik. I don’t know who we can trust.” Chapter Twenty-Four

  Gwen’s last warning about trusting no one left a cold emptiness in my gut. Colby, Gwen and her brother, Kam, ran off into the jungle at an unnatural speed.

  I stood staring at the swaying leaves in the wake of their departure. Alone in the jungles of Brazil, I realized I was too much of a city girl to appreciate its beauty.

  Where others saw lush green vegetation and exotic life, I saw bugs. The jungles suddenly appeared more vast and darker than a minute ago. I did my best impression of the werewolves and ran down the trail. Getting caught out here in the dark would equate one of my worst nightmares.

  Did I put on a brave face for Gwen’s sake? Yes, of course. I needed her to focus on finding Tane, not babysitting me. Could I make it back to the mansion safely? I sure as hell hoped so.
<
br />   Out of breath, sweat trickling down my back, and legs burning, I arrived at the natural pool in the gardens. On weak knees, I collapsed in the closest chair. I had made it without some snake trying to eat me.

  The sun still sat on top of the jungle canopy. I’d kill for a glass of water right now, the clear liquid from the stream taunted me and I licked my lips.

  Quiet set upon the mansion grounds. Even though the vamps slept, they had servants and guards. Where was everyone? Maybe they were getting ready for sunset and the vampires awakening?

  My own vamp would be wondering of my whereabouts and adventures. Tane forbade him from being at the hotel last night. If Colby had spotted him, he would have sensed the trap.

  Rurik’s concern for my safety touched me. Most people take affection for granted until the day they lose it and are alone. Been there, done that. I got so used to nobody caring that when someone finally did, I clung to him. That’s why the loss of Laurent almost destroyed me and why I deserted everything to be with Rurik.

  Everyone needs to be loved, even the unlovable. I’d thought of Tane as a demon once, but I’d just organized his rescue. Maybe Tane and I were not so different? Stubborn and damaged, sometimes being so alike made it difficult to accept the other’s faults. It would also explain why Rurik loved us both.

  I closed my eyes at the thought, still uncomfortable with the possibility of sharing my boyfriend. Jealousy was a poor companion. The idea of Tane touching him set my teeth on edge. We had some hard decisions to make if we survived this crisis.

  What if he decided to share Tane’s bed? I’ve never been good at sharing and knew myself well enough to foresee a quick departure.

  My eyelids popped open. Then again, Tane could die and drag me to hell with him.

  The sun had drifted behind the tree foliage.

  Why hadn’t they killed him—us yet? I remembered so little from being tortured besides the pain. Luckard asked about the drug we used on Dragos, the same one they used on Tane. They obviously had acquired some.

  I scratched my head as the gears spun in my mind and tried to make a connection.

  What if they only had what Eric stole from Tane? That little vial didn’t contain much after Budapest. Maybe they were out?