Galen looked disappointed but happy at the news. “Then he is a better man than me. I tried for ten years, I swear this to you.”
“It was a valiant effort,” I comforted, patting his hand.
He chuckled and poured us some white wine. “My Lisbeth. I have missed you.” I started putting my napkin into my lap as he swirled his wine and took a long sip.
“I have a question,” Knight chimed in, stopping my hands from straightening the napkin. “And no offense to you, Galen. I really appreciate you inviting us to your home, I do. But Lisbeth has some explaining to do. So if you don’t mind, why are we here?”
Fuck.
“Pardon?” I asked, picking up my glass to take a sip.
He stopped my hand and took the wine from me, deadly serious, so much so I felt chills all over. “No games, Lisbeth. You’re hiding something from me and I can feel it. Out with it.”
My poker face needed work, especially where he was involved, so I looked down at my plate. “You know why we’re here. The pack negotiations. Can I have my glass back?” He slid it back to me and I downed it with one gulp.
“You could’ve stayed anywhere for pack negotiations, but you came here, to him. Does he know?” He pointed an accusatory finger to Galen.
“Damn it, Knight. I came here because he’s my friend and I missed him.” I didn’t need help convincing Knight of that, because it was the truth.
Knight leaned back in his chair in frustration. “That’s the only reason we’re here? You swear it on your life’s blood?” I mashed my mouth together. “What I thought.” He swore under his breath and downed his glass.
Galen gently took my hand, and I knew Knight had brought him in on this little intervention. Traitor. “Lisbeth, Knight is worried for you. You checked out yesterday from a nightmare of all things, and why? You cannot do something like that without explanation. I wasn’t even there and I’m worried about you too.”
It was going to be like this, then. They were demanding an answer, one that I couldn’t give. I was going to drive both of them away, just like I did Arthur. “I’m sorry that I’m scaring you,” I said, my eyes just barely looking at Knight’s face, watching him take a deep breath and try to calm himself. “I regret to say that I cannot explain my real mission, and before you ask, it’s not because I don’t want to. I am sworn to secrecy, a secrecy that’s on pain of death, and no, I’m not being dramatic.”
“Are there things you can tell us? Anything?” Knight probed, his voice less angry now, but desperate enough that I longed to reach out for him.
“Some. They’ll be vague and confusing, but I can’t help that.”
Galen’s rough thumbs moved over my smooth skin. “You would risk your life for this mission? Why?”
I looked into his eyes, and then Knight’s. “Kitty.”
Knight’s face relaxed, like everything suddenly made sense to him. “Of course.”
“Kitty?” Galen asked, confused. I pulled a photo from my underclothes to show him. His face softened and he smiled, his fingers running over the photo of my tiny daughter. “I see.” He handed it back.
Knight looked ashamed as he met my eyes, finally relaxing enough to lean back into his chair. “I’m sorry I was forceful.”
This time I did reach out, taking his hand in mine with a small gesture, and my heart flew out of my chest from the contact of his fingers. “No harm done. I’m sorry I can’t explain everything. I really am.”
“What can you tell us?” he asked. With my spare hand, I reached into the other side of my underclothes and pulled out the small bundle of cloth James had given me. “What all do you have in there? Is there a kitchen sink?”
I raised an eyebrow at him and unfolded the cloth. “This is blood from the person I need to find.”
“Find why?” Galen asked.
“To find someone else.”
Knight sipped his drink. “So you need to find one person, in order to find a different person. Just to be clear.”
“Correct,” I confirmed. “And you’re the only person on the planet who can help me.” I held the cloth out to him.
He pointed to himself in surprise. “Me? Because I’m super special, right? My badass fighting crime skills are renowned throughout the land–” I cut him off by putting the cloth right under his nose. He sneezed all over it.
“Knight, really? This is the only one I have and it’s over four hundred years old!” His eyes opened wide, the pupils dilated so far I couldn’t see his irises anymore. He gasped for air like he was struggling to breathe, and he knocked the table over, falling off the porch to the grass. “Knight! Knight, what’s wrong?” I hovered over him on the ground, his face turning a shade I didn’t like. Everything fell away except for Knight’s face and the slowly fading light in his eyes. I was back to the night I’d almost killed him and I was paralyzed with fear.
“He can’t breathe,” Galen shouted, trying to shove me aside. “I have to give him CPR.” I hissed at him to back off, but he kept shoving me until I moved away. He pumped Knight’s chest in a steady rhythm to try and save him.
No, you can’t be dead. You can’t leave me again.
I can’t survive without you. You’re everything.
Galen pumped at Knight’s chest until his arms hung limply at his sides. He slumped against the porch, defeated. “Lisbeth, I’m so sorry.” He wiped his eyes and forehead. I crept up to Knight’s body and felt his neck. No pulse. I killed him. That stupid cloth that James had… James. James did this. He planned it from the start. I was going to wring his FUCKING neck. His bitch ass would suffer so badly he would beg for death before I was done with him.
Wrath filling me up to the brim, I stood up, ready to march back home and extract every ounce of revenge I could think of when Knight came gasping awake, grabbing my ankle and making me scream. I fell and hit the porch edge hard. Galen jumped back to Knight and felt his pulse.
“He’s alive,” Galen said. I sighed in relief and sagged to the ground as Galen helped Knight sit up. “What happened?”
Knight stared me down, his breath ragged and harsh. “I saw where Lucas is.”
8. The vampire’s lair
“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” Knight grumbled behind me.
“Stop complaining,” I hissed, my boots clicking down the cobblestone road. Groups of tourists interrupted our way several times, making us bob and weave through the crowd just to stay afloat.
“Knight, s’il vous plait?” Galen offered when we’d found a lull in the traffic. “I promise you many tasty meats when we’re finished.”
That peaked his interest, but Knight still managed to look grumpy. “Assuming all three of us come back from Creepyville. I want it noted how much I protested bringing a human to meet a vampire we don’t know that could possibly be a psycho. I’m betting a super fucking psycho.”
His constant protests and nagging clicked in my head, and I turned around on the sidewalk, sidestepping a group of kids as I approached Knight. “You’re afraid to go in the catacombs. You, the big bad wolf, don’t want to go underground.”
His pinched mouth confirmed my thoughts. “That’s not… no… I’m just…” He pointed in the direction of the tourist entrance we were headed to. “Psycho vampire.”
“I’ll hold your hand,” I promised with a pat on his shoulder, and he turned serious, his eyes going from my hand to my face, the look in them causing a flush to run over me.
“Really?” he asked hopefully.
I pulled my hand back and stuff it into my jacket pocket, clearing my throat and turning back around. “Onward, to the cave of wonders.”
My feet were hurting from all the walking when we got to the catacomb entrance. At the beginning of the very long line of tourists stood a few signs that warned the squeamish, I.E. Knight, to turn back, and they said so in many languages, just to get the point across.
Stopping at the end of the line, I checked Galen’s face before proceeding. “You good?
Not too scary?”
He rolled his eyes at me before swearing, “Oh fuck off, I went here on my honeymoon.”
“Language,” I chided, one finger pointing to Knight. “There are children present.”
“You’re a children!” he protested, his eyes darting around at the entrance to the catacombs and all the creepy signs he couldn’t read. “Also I don’t like it here, can we go?”
“We’re not even inside yet.” That was my job, and it wouldn’t be easy. I’d drunk just enough extra blood to have the power, and the feeling of it coursing through my veins had a sickly effect. I could do this. It would burn off quickly and I’d be back to normal levels. The first step was knocking on the entrance. There were no workers of any kind outside, they were all behind that door.
With me in the lead, we headed towards it, and the crowd behind me protested to us cutting in line, but I’d anticipated their reaction. As Galen knocked on the door, I reached a hand out to the humans, pulling some of my power out.
“You will let us pass,” I shouted as loudly as I could in French. The power burst from my hand and out to the crowd, calming their protests. My hand shook when I dropped it to my side and the black entrance door opened for us.
A man with a long brown ponytail and a goatee to match poked his head out, scowling when he saw the three of us cutting in line. “Wait your turn, stupid,” he spat in French.
My hand shot out again and he stared at it with a gulp. “Vous allez nous laisser passer,” I repeated to him with compulsion. His face slacked and he opened the door wider for us to enter. “Lead the way.”
The man led us down through hallway after hallway, the air getting colder the further we went, the stink of underground permeating every inch of the dark. Mixed with it was Knight’s smell growing agitated with sweat, and in the dark where no one could see or judge me, I automatically reached between us to grab his hand like I promised I would. He clasped it like a lifeline, running his thumb up and down my skin.
Far too soon, we reached a small museum with the entrance to the catacombs. Some workers and tourists were in there, and I dispelled them with another order. Controlling this many humans was making me break out into a sweat as well, and Knight gave my hand a comforting squeeze that provided me enough strength for one final command.
Open the door and let us in the catacombs.
With all the humans retreating, Knight glanced up at the sign above the cave entrance. “What’s it say?”
Galen answered, “Stop, this is the empire of death.”
Knight helped me lean against the wall to catch my breath. “And you went here for your honeymoon? Dude.”
Galen shrugged unapologetically. “My wife loved it.” He winked.
Beyond the door, there were still more tourists lolling about, but at this point, we were free to do what we wanted. We found a quiet unlit corner and I rested for a few moments. Knight and I could still see, but Galen got out his flashlight for his limited human sight.
When I felt in control again, I straightened and faced my companions. “Okay, Knight. We need you to navigate.” Our hands were still clasped. Now that I had his hand, I didn’t want to let it go.
“Gimme the thing,” he said and motioned to my chest where the cloth was. I took it out, unwrapped it, and handed the blood-soaked piece to him. My other hand joined the first to clasp his hand as tightly as I could. He looked down at it, then back up at me. “Oww?”
Flushing, I pulled away. “Sorry. Just… you died last time you smelled that.”
Smiling warmly at me, he reached for my hand again and didn’t let it go. “I’ll be fine, buttercup.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He shot me a look before putting the fabric under his nose. Again, his pupils dilated and he struggled for air, but it passed as soon as it began, before I could get worried again.
“I see him,” Knight said to us. His eyes stayed dilated, but he tugged my hand along with him down the corridor. My other hand went to Galen who took it and followed behind me.
We walked down stairs, through paths, past countless skulls and bones littered about. The air started to turn icy, as if there was something lurking beneath the very air, and we were one wrong step away from finding it. The smell surrounding us went from underground musk to a scent I knew well.
A vampire’s lair.
My pupils dilated at the smell of blood. “We’re getting close,” I told Galen. Even so, we still had not found the heart of the lair. This was merely the entrance, warning off potential threats that a vampire lived here.
Knight smelled the cloth every so often, navigating us until even I’d lost track of where we had been. The scent of blood grew stronger with every turn until it filled my lungs and I struggled to breathe. Knight felt the effects as well, pulling up his t-shirt to cover his nose.
“Someone needs Santa to bring him some wet wipes,” he said from under his shirt.
Galen let go of my hand to examine the wall beside us. It was splattered with blood. Some old, some fresh. He opened his mouth to say something when we heard a high-pitched screech from somewhere in the tunnel. My heart raced quickly enough to fly out of my chest, and I held out my free hand for him, Galen’s fingers shaking when he took it.
Eventually, the paths grew primitive, with earth instead of stone, and there were torches lit on the walls. Every so often we saw a stack of books, a chest of gold, a pile of jewels. How long had this Lucas been living underground?
Knight gripped my hand even tighter when we passed one final junction. I could hear a faint sound, almost like music. Music underground? Knight passed the cloth back to me and I tucked it safely into my underclothes.
“Galen, stay behind us,” Knight cautioned, and he stepped into the lair of the vampire.
9. Lucas
“Do come in, travelers,” a pleasant voice greeted us. We stepped into a room that looked as foreign as a tap dancer in a dojo. Pleasant classical music filled the warm air, the walls were intermixed with stone and earth, there was a rug covering the dirt floor, a fire in a fireplace, shelves upon shelves of books, and an antique dining table set with one setting of expensive china. A blonde-haired man sat at the head of said table, wearing a heavy dressing robe that matched the large armchair he was seated in. His plate smelled like Chinese takeout. “I said come in,” he repeated, picking up some chopsticks and taking a bite of food.
“Definitely a fucking psycho,” Knight whispered, leaning close to me, my already prickled skin reacting to him.
Everything about the unkempt vile sanctum had an unsettling air to it, but I couldn’t really be surprised. It vaguely reminded me of James and his horrid mansion. Would Lucas bite me too? No, I’d never let that happen again.
Lucas chewed his food with a refined air and swallowed before taking a sip of wine. “Come. Sit. I won’t bite.” He laughed under his breath at the joke. “My name is Lucas, but you already know that I trust?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, taking a step closer, keeping myself between Lucas and my companions.
Wiping his mouth, he stood up and tossed the cloth napkin over his plate. “Hundreds of years hiding away. Cathedrals, cemeteries, abandoned castles... an opera house. Humans discovered me now and then until I came to the catacombs. I’ve been here over a century, and the only humans that saw me were ones I wanted to see me.” He stroked his blonde stubble in thought. “And yet. In all the centuries, moving around, even with humans getting a glimpse, no vampire has ever found me before.” He faced me sternly. “How did you find me?”
I reached a hand behind me to signal Knight should move. “I can answer that, but my friends will need to leave the room.”
Lucas grinned and chuckled a few times, his eyes lighting up with understanding. “Ahh, I see. You’ve come because of Anastasia.”
“Who’s Anastasia,” Knight asked in a stage whisper.
“Sssh,” I hissed at him. “Don’t ever repeat that name back home. Not ever.” I turned so I
was able to look at Knight, while still keeping Lucas in the corner of my eye. “There is a death penalty for mentioning her name or anything to do with her.”
“Your friends don’t know why you’re here, do they?” Lucas chuckled again.
I turned back to him, my stance tensing with every second that passed. “That’s not your concern. I need to find her.”
He took a deep breath and let it out, making a noise that made it clear he didn’t care. “Mmm… no. I can’t help you.”
“Please.” My tone was too desperate. Begging wouldn’t get me what I needed, not with someone like him. “You’re the only one who knows where she is.”
“Why should I help you?” He tilted his chin, studying me, as if he hadn’t really looked at my face before then. As an answer, I pulled out the photograph of Kitty and walked close enough to show him. Upon seeing my features in the light, he inhaled with a sharp intake of breath, and after a few seconds, he took the photo, studied it, then he looked at me with a strange expression, his golden eyes searching for something. His fingers came up to grip my chin and he twisted it this way and that to look at my face.
He held up the photo to me. “Who is this child?”
“It’s my daughter,” I explained, still in the grip of his hand. He brought me closer still to stare deep into my eyes. What was he looking for? Whatever he found there satisfied him and he let me go, returning the photo with a swift twist of his fingers.
“Fine. You have my assistance,” he declared. He turned, grabbed a bag off the floor, and started picking up random things around the room to stuff into it. “Put that fire out, would you?” Knight crossed over to stomp on it and I wondered how the room wasn’t full of smoke from the flames. Then again, Lucas had had enough time to figure that out. As Lucas finished packing his bag, I came close to him and put a claw on his shoulder. Amused, he looked from the claw to my eyes.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 41
