by Lexi Blake
I stood my ground. The importance of what Daniel had done, what he was doing, wasn’t lost on me. I wasn’t sure how he’d known Chad would survive his bloody murder, but I was damn sure Danny wouldn’t call the Council to take Chad for training. This was the dangerous game Alexander had mentioned. “Not on your life, buddy. If I’m in this mess, then I’m in it one hundred percent. I won’t let you shut me out. Am I your queen or just your companion?”
“You are always my queen, baby,” Daniel said. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Neil came over and slipped his hand into mine. He took a deep breath as though steeling himself.
Chad flailed, arms and legs thrashing as he strained against Daniel’s hold. His face was no longer recognizable, just a blur of fangs and eyes and need. His hands reached out, grabbing for me. Prey. I was prey, and he wanted to drain me. Neil stepped in front of me, not obscuring my view but placing his body in the way should the hungry vampire manage to get free. Instinct told me to flee, to put as much distance between us as possible. Trust kept me rooted in place. Daniel would never let him get close.
Daniel’s hold on Chad became brutal. Sharp claws sprung from his right hand, sinking into the flesh of Chad’s throat. He spoke in guttural tones. “I know you’re hungry. You will not feed until I will it, do you understand? I’m your master and you will obey me.”
Chad didn’t look like he was big into obedience. He looked like he was going to fight tooth and claw against anything Daniel said. This was a monster that would tear up everything he could get his hands on. He was a ball of hunger, destruction, and violence. It was utterly unlike the way Daniel was on the night of his turn, and I finally understood what Marcus had tried to explain to me. Daniel was different. His strength went far beyond the physical. The turn was violent and twisted, but Daniel had been unaffected. A new vampire always kills, and he doesn’t stop killing until he’s trained. But Daniel hadn’t killed that first night. He’d risen and retained his personality. He’d fed but left that first victim alive. Then he came home to me. He’d taken me gently, and we made love after. There was nothing in Daniel that first night that vaguely resembled Chad.
“He’s done this before,” I whispered more to myself than anyone else.
“Yes,” Neil replied. “But this is only the second time he’s tried it on his own. The other times, Marcus was there to help him. Chad seems stronger than Justin.”
Long, sharp fangs gleamed in the night as Daniel struck, piercing Chad’s throat with a sickening force. His throat worked, draining Chad of what the knife had not taken. The lawyer who’d sat cordially at my table for dinner spasmed, his legs kicking, trying to fight the inevitable. When he finally stilled, was finally calm, Daniel released him, blood dripping from his mouth, tongue working to save each precious drop. Daniel let him slip down, and Chad fell back, no strength left to even hold himself up.
The still of the night was broken with Daniel’s low words. “Do you make your oath to me?”
Chad could barely make his lips form the word. “Yes.”
“You will protect me and mine?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?” Daniel demanded.
Chad didn’t seem to understand for a moment, but then the words came. “Yes, master.”
Daniel judged him ready, and with those magnificent fangs, tore a hunk of flesh from his wrist and spit it to the ground. He held his wrist over Chad’s limp form and let the blood, his unique, precious blood, flow from his body into the new vampire’s. It didn’t take long for Chad’s need to overcome his weakness. He pulled himself up through sheer force of will and attached himself to Daniel’s wrist, drawing hard on the flesh. After what seemed an eternity, Daniel forcefully detached the fledgling from his arm, and Chad was able to steady himself enough to stand.
I thought about stepping back because Daniel was no longer holding the fledgling. Yet now Chad seemed steadier, more in control. What the Council achieved with months of force-fed ancient blood, Daniel had done with two minutes of himself.
“Welcome to the night, Chad,” Daniel said quietly. “I am your master, but I will never force myself on you. In return, if I find you’ve forced yourself on someone else, I’ll be your executioner. I require your loyalty, but offer my protection from all that would harm you. Do you understand?”
“I do.” Chad took a long, steadying breath.
“You hungry?” Daniel asked, but it was my Danny’s voice again, just a hint of teasing behind his words.
“So fucking hungry,” Chad replied, but he made no move to acquire his meal.
Daniel motioned, and Neil dropped my hand, walking forward. Neil winked back and smiled. There was no fear in his eyes, just a hot anticipation.
Daniel placed a hand on Neil’s shoulder. “Chad, this is my servant. He has agreed to feed your hungers this night. You need blood and you need sex. If the turn has changed your preferences, tell me now and I’ll find you a female.”
Chad shook his head, his eyes on Neil. “No. I’m happy with Neil.”
“Chad, if my servant is damaged, I’ll be angry.”
“I understand.”
Neil rolled his eyes at Daniel but looked at Chad with a welcoming smile. “I’m hard to damage, honey. You don’t listen to him. You do your worst. I promise I’ll like it.”
Neil took his hand and started back into the house. They walked by and before they managed to open the door, they were kissing, eating each other’s mouths, hands finding new places.
Daniel fell to the ground, exhausted by his efforts. His chest heaved as he tried to calm his own emotions and relax. I’d just witnessed the birth of a new vampire. It had been a brutal and powerful experience. It deserved the quiet contemplation Daniel was giving it.
I’m not a contemplative girl. All I knew was the whole ritual thingie was over, and we could fight again because Chad’s turn had interrupted a very important ass kicking.
I walked over to my prone husband and straddled his waist, falling to my knees so I was over him. He looked up and his hands went to my waist. A slow, sexy smile crossed his face, telling me he completely misunderstood my intentions. I made them clear by using my thumb and middle finger to thunk him strongly on the forehead.
“You’re a dumbass.” It was so obvious.
He’d just performed a ritual that was sacred to the Council. If they found out, he would be declared an outlaw and hunted. It was more than Daniel’s life on the line. If Daniel was declared an outlaw, I would be sold to the highest bidder, Neil would be without protection and at the mercy of his temporarily castrated father, who probably wasn’t in a good mood. And Dev, well, Dev would be righteously killed. Then there was the question of a bunch of baby vamps Daniel had apparently decided to lead into I didn’t know what. I had questions, and he was damn sure going to answer them.
“Oww,” Daniel said, rubbing his head. He flipped me over and my back was hitting the ground as he loomed over me. “I know, Zoey. You don’t have to point it out. I’ve had a rough night. I need a drink.”
He got up but not before hauling me along with him. He stalked off toward the kitchen, leaving me no choice but to follow.
Daniel was opening a bottle he pulled from the refrigerator. He always kept a supply of blood at my place. It wasn’t mine since he had gone through his stash a couple of nights ago.
“Neil’s?” I asked, wondering who else had been donating. I wasn’t jealous or anything. I really wasn’t. I sat down, ready to talk.
He laughed as he placed the thermos in the microwave, setting the timer. There’s a reason blood should be at the proper temperature. It tends to coagulate otherwise, and that’s just gross. Daniel pulled a shot glass out of a cabinet and set it down on the table. He poured a shot from the warm thermos and drank it back like we used to shoot tequila when he was alive.
He sighed and poured another, quickly downing it. “That’s the stuff. I have no idea whose blood this is, but they drank a shitload of
Scotch before they donated. You can buy it at the club. It’s strictly black market. Sorry, Z, but I could use a buzz.”
“I’m so glad you’ve found a way to get a little fucked up since you’ve managed to fuck up all of our lives. Hey, before the Council cuts off your head, do you think they’ll let you have a little O pos with vodka?”
Daniel took another shot. “Just ask your questions, Zoey. I promise I’ll answer truthfully.”
I felt the smallest amount of sympathy for him. His blue eyes were tired, and though his face hadn’t changed in six years, for some reason tonight he looked older. I decided to start with the simplest question. “How did you know Chad was a vamp?”
“You mean beyond the fact that he was obviously gay but couldn’t resist you?”
“Yes, beyond that.” He would definitely have to do better.
He sighed. “Fine. You know how I can feel when a new vampire rises?”
Somehow Daniel could feel the moment when a human began the transition to vampire. He could sense it and where it was happening. It gave the Council time to intervene before the vampire started destroying everything around it. It was a very rare talent and it had kept Daniel alive according to Marcus. “Yes, but I thought you could feel it at the moment of death, not before.”
“When I was hauled back to Paris earlier this year, some of the Council members had certain experiments they wanted to try on me. The last king who rose was able to sense latent vampires. Even though the vampire walks and talks in a human body, there are subtle differences. So they wanted to test me. You see the DNA, like all DNA, runs in families, but it skips around a lot. The Council keeps genealogical records that would make the Mormons look like amateurs. Thousands of years of family records from each vampire and still they can’t tell who will rise and who will just rot.”
Daniel paused, and I knew we were going to get to the nasty part of his tale. “What did you have to do, Danny?”
Another shot and the talking seemed to get easier. “Fuckers brought in a hundred men from all over the globe. They just took them off the street, away from their families and their lives, all because they had the misfortune of being the direct descendants of vampires. They told me to find a latent vampire, one they could turn while he was vital to swell our ranks, to regain our power. I couldn’t. So they killed them all and brought in another hundred. This time there was one guy, a guy from Greece. He had two kids. He cried anytime I got near him, but he was different. I can’t put my finger on it, but I knew.”
“Did they make you kill him?”
“Oh, yes, Zoey. He’s why I strongly advocate strangulation,” Danny said with a bitter laugh. “He rose and the Council took him. Obviously they just had me kill him, not take him through the actual turn. He doesn’t care about his kids anymore. He was the only one I could find, and they killed the rest. I guess there was press about the missing people, so they stopped. I’m supposed to investigate the names they send me and, if I find one, send him to the Council.”
The implications chilled me to the bone. “They’re building an army.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head, more than a little confused. “They let you keep Justin?”
“They don’t know about Justin, Z. They don’t know about William or James or Jean-Marc or Bryan. Now they don’t know about Chad. Luckily I’m the only one left who can feel when a vampire rises. I have Marcus to thank for that.” Daniel poured another shot. I wondered how I was going to get a drunken, two hundred twenty pound vampire to bed because he looked like he was shooting for pass-out drunk.
“So you found all these guys and they just let you kill them?”
Danny shrugged a little. “You don’t understand what it’s like, Z. Chad could explain it better. I never met a vamp when I was alive. Something inside Chad recognized me. The vampire part of me called to the same part of him.”
“That sounds a little hot,” I joked.
Blue eyes rolled, but he smiled at me. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m stronger than other vamps, but I don’t have much trouble convincing them. That sounds horrible. I’m convincing them to die, but if I don’t the Council will figure out something else. I need them, Z.”
And those men would likely have lived out their lives and been put down by the Council when they turned during their old age. Daniel had offered them their birthright. I couldn’t complain. The way I understood it, persuasion didn’t work on latent vampires.
I looked for the problem with the scenario. It didn’t take me long. Just because no one else could feel when a new vamp rose didn’t make him safe. “They trust you? That doesn’t sound like the Council, Danny. They have to have someone watching you.”
Danny giggled. There’s no other word for the sound. Yep, the liquor was working. “They absolutely have a spy. He sends in a report every week on my activities and has ever since I came home. He’s been writing his little reports for almost three years. You wouldn’t believe the file he has on me. They think they’re so smart. He made his oath to me six months ago. I approve every report he sends out.”
There was only one vampire it could be. “Michael.”
Daniel nodded. “Yes. And Alexander knows. He doesn’t know about all of it, but he knows enough. He’s more afraid of me than he is the Council. Michael was willing. He came to me. Marcus came to me.”
I caught my breath. Marcus was a Council member, one of the oldest vampires walking the Earth. “Marcus Vorenus made a blood oath to serve you?”
“Yes,” Danny said quietly. “He’s not as bad as you think, Z. He’s been a good mentor. He doesn’t want the Council to succeed any more than I do. They’ve waited centuries for their weapon. They learned their lesson with the last king to rise. They had a plan this time. My training was unique. It was developed to completely break my spirit, to make me a vessel for their will. Most vampires are trained for no more than a year, but they kept me for three. They would have kept me longer if Marcus hadn’t taught me how to fool them. He taught me to act the part. I have to appear to be what they need. I’m the weapon they’ll use to subjugate the other races, to build our ranks, to make the Earth plane our feeding ground.”
The room was silent. I thought about what Felicity had said earlier. If Daniel hadn’t come to me that night, their plan might have worked. The Council wanted to upset the balance, and the only thing that stood in their way was Daniel. He took another shot and now his hand was unsteady. I reached out and covered it with my own. He sighed and turned it over, weaving our fingers together. He was so alone.
While the rest of us were living our lives, he was planning a war.
“I’m going to have to sacrifice one of them, Z.” His hand tightened around mine. “They’re pressing me. It’s been months since I started this project, and so far I’ve delivered nothing. I can’t have them getting suspicious. It would out me and Michael and all of us. I’m going to have to send one of them to the Council. I’m not ready to start a war yet. I would lose.”
A fierce practicality came over me. “Then you’ll pick the strongest, and he’ll be our spy.”
Daniel nodded. “I believe my blood will hold. I don’t think they will be able to turn him if he’s strong.”
“Promise me something, Danny.” Rage and fear curled in my gut, fighting for precedence.
“Anything, baby.”
Rage won. “Promise me we’re gonna kill them all.”
Daniel’s smile held not an ounce of humor. “Oh, yeah, baby, we’ll kill ‘em all.”
* * * *
Two hours later, dawn was near. I knew everything now, and I wouldn’t sleep a wink knowing what was coming. Daniel, however, didn’t have the choice to sit up and worry. I managed to get him to his feet, steering him toward the third bedroom where Daniel stayed when he slept here.
“You don’t want to do that, Z.” Daniel laughed as if I’d done something hilarious.
There was a whole lot of moaning from behind that door and something
that sounded like a howl. He was right. I really didn’t want to interrupt that. Unfortunately, Neil and Chad were in the only light-tight room in the house. “Where am I supposed to put you?”
Daniel smiled and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Baby, I can think of a few places where I would fit just fine.”
I rolled my eyes but had to laugh. He always got horny when he was drunk. “There’s a body bag in my closet.”
It was sad but true. Most girls’ closets were full of shoes and sweaters, and I had a body bag.
Daniel protested, but I got him to my room and sat him down on the bed. I pulled out the heavy bag and laid it out on the right side of the bed. It was habit. For years I’d taken the left side and he’d slept on the right. I still slept on the left side. I unzipped the bag and turned back to my husband, who was trying and failing to get out of his shirt. I pulled the soft cotton over his head and kneeled down to work on his jeans. He threaded his hands in my hair and pulled back, forcing my face up. He looked down at me, his face flush with desire. I closed my eyes and let him kiss me, his lips molding mine softly, his tongue seeking entry. It felt like forever since he’d been this close. My skin lit up the minute he touched me.
He groaned as I opened my mouth beneath his and let him fill me. My hands found the hard muscles of his chest, and I couldn’t help but remember the last time we’d made love. He pulled me up and pressed me close with one hand as the other started to explore, trailing down my neck toward my breast. Gentle and smooth, Daniel treated me like I was made of glass, precious and fragile. It was so different from the sensations Dev pulled out of me.
I pulled away, pushing against his chest. Daniel dropped his arms and sat back, a hollow look in his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I thought…I don’t know why I thought that. I had too much to drink. God, Zoey, I can still smell him on you, but I didn’t care.”
I sat back against the closet, and didn’t even try to stop the tears that came. It was so fucked up. I loved Danny, and I just realized that there was a part of me that was starting to love Dev. Anything I did, any way I went, I hurt someone. Anything I chose would break my heart.
