by Jane Hinchey
“We had a deal.” Her voice dripped ice, gone was the sweet tone of earlier. “You trapped me, without my magic, for decades. That was a mistake on your part.”
“Sugar, it pains me that you’re so angry,” his southern drawl was really quite delicious and I could have listened to him talk all day, “but some business dealings just aren’t suitable for a delicate flower such as yourself.”
“You presume too much.” Her ice was melting. I could feel it from here. In its place? Anger. Hot. And plenty of it.
“Oh?” The way he adjusted his hat told me that while he wanted her to think he was relaxed, he was not. He was alert. Ready for any move she may make.
“I am not delicate, nor am I weak. You assume because I’m female that I am both of those things. You forget that I have power. A power that you need.”
“Needed. I needed your power. That is no longer the case.”
She laughed, a heartfelt belly laugh, tossing her head back and showing all her teeth. I didn’t see what was so funny.
“You think I can’t lift the spell?” Her laughter abated but a smirk still curled one side of her lip.
“Do you believe you are the only witch in my employ?” He shot back.
“Employ?” She screeched, cheeks flushing, “I was never your employee! We were partners!”
“A partnership that had served its purpose.” Oh man, I could see where this was going. He’d teamed up with her to spell Maxxan so vampires could walk in the sun. Once that was complete, he’d trapped her in the cellar beneath the barn. I wondered why he didn’t just kill her – it would have been kinder.
I wondered where my dad fit in with all of this. I lifted my head to ask. Big mistake. Another wave of nausea hit, hard, and I couldn’t contain it. Leaning over I vomited up the contents of my stomach. Gross.
“Anyone got a mint?” I coughed, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand.
“You brought the child.” The Gunslinger smiled, walking to me and holding out his hand, “come, child, allow me to assist.” I accepted his help, I doubted I’d be able to get to my feet under my own steam. Man, whatever she’d used to knock me out was a doozy. My legs were limp spaghetti and I staggered a little, doing my best not to face plant in front of them. I suspected I would have a very difficult time fighting my way out of this one.
“Not a child.” I gritted, releasing his hand and standing, slightly wobbly, in front of him.
“Not at all, I see that.” He eyed me up and down and the appreciative gleam in his eye told me he liked what he saw. Oh boy. “You have grown into a beautiful woman.” He took off his hat and bowed slightly before placing the hat back on his head. He was being…charming. I was taken aback. And confused as all hell.
“Wha?” Again, eloquence is not my strong point.
“You want her?” The red witch stormed up to him and shoved him, hard. His charming smile slipped a notch. I looked from him to her and back again. From the kiss he’d planted on her when he first arrived, and her jealous outburst just now, I guessed they’d been lovers in the past. Until he’d done the dirty on her.
“I need her. She has something that will be very useful for me.”
“Her blood.” The witch tilted her head, her red curls brushing her cheek. I touched my own hair, wondering if I should get a haircut like hers – it looked good on her.
“A weapon to be used against my enemies.” He agreed.
“You’re going to kill me?” I asked, not particularly surprised at this piece of news.
“You would be of little use to my dead sweetheart.” He ran a finger down the length of my cheek and I shivered. It didn’t elicit the same tingle of desire as when Jordan touched me. “No, I need you alive, pumping that blood around your body, an endless supply.”
“Why? How?” My brain was a fog and I was having a hard time connecting the dots.
“I will soak weapons in your blood and use them to kill my enemies.” He told me conversationally. “I’d only take a pint or so at a time. Enough to do what I need without bringing too much harm to you.”
“I don’t like that plan,” I told him, shaking my head. It sounded like locked rooms and needles and I couldn’t go back to that. I couldn’t. Panic started to kick in, finally. My heart thundered in my chest and sweat bathed my skin. I didn’t feel so good either and wondered if I was going to hurl again.
“You don’t need to.” He told me, turning his attention back to Alice. “As for you, I fear you may prove to be more trouble than you are worth.”
“I spelled this town for you – so you could walk in sunlight once more, feel the warmth on your skin, bask in it. You told me how much you missed it, longed for it. Isn’t that what you wanted?” Her voice rose, an almost hysterical note seeping in. I guess being trapped in a cellar for years would send you slightly crazy.
“And I thank you for your services. You were paid handsomely if I recall. But I must confess, the appeal of being a daywalker quickly lost its charms. I haven’t visited this backwater town in many a year. Turns out I prefer the night.”
“What?” The whisper was deadly. I heard it. Felt it. Shivered in appreciation of it. Oh, she was pissed.
He laughed. Laughed! Walking up to her he got in her face. “Oh darling, you believed there was something between us? Well, I admit I can see why you might have thought that for your flesh was most luscious and your body most accommodating, but darlin’, you became a liability, and I cannot afford those.”
“I was a commodity to you. Something to be used and thrown away.”
“It was business, nothing more.” He shrugged and I felt for her. She had, apparently, loved him. He’d just been screwing her until he got what he wanted. And then he didn’t want it anymore. So all of this, the spell on vampires, the rogue population that had been attracted to Maxxan, had all been for nothing? A whim of an old gunslinger turned vampire?
Withdrawing a dagger from her boot she sliced it across her finger, drew some weird symbol on one of the barns support posts, chanting under her breath as she did so then she looked him dead in the eye, arched a brow, and placed her palm on top of the symbol with what can only be described as a flourish. She had a flair for the dramatic. There was a loud boom of thunder, shaking the walls. A gust of wind caught the barn door and flung it open – outside I could see the storm clouds gathering, rolling in fast and furious. The sun was almost set, the added storm brought nightfall that much faster. She’d broken the spell. Vampires could no longer walk in the daylight.
The Gunslinger clearly didn’t give a damn, raising one shoulder in a so what gesture. I couldn’t help myself, I laughed.
Turns out that wasn’t the best thing to do. Alice turned on me, furious. And I knew what she was thinking – it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. He didn’t want her anymore, had never loved her in the first place. But he wanted me – for I had something he needed. The best way to hurt him? Get rid of me. Then he’d feel. Then he’d be pissed. Then he’d feel pain. Unfortunately, so would I. I didn’t like where this was going.
I summoned a fireball, glanced at my palm and swore a blue streak when I saw a ping pong ball sized fireball. Damn it. She’d zapped my power. Had probably drained me like she’d done Jordan. I hoped he was okay, if he was awake, if he was looking for me for I could surely use a rescue party right about now. Oh okay, and I admit it, I’m worried about him.
“You think you can keep her contained?” Alice asked him, eyeballing me, “you think you can keep her under control? She’s a fire demon fool. Look how fast she’s recovering.”
“Everyone has a price, I just have to find hers. After all, her father had one.” He was watching me with interest – I kept my eyes on Alice. She was going to come for me, I was sure of it.
“What about my dad?” Although I knew. He’d been working with the vampires. I just didn’t know why, or what exactly, he’d been doing for them.
“Your father has been most accommodating.” The gunslinger smiled
again, “I’m sure we can come to a similar arrangement.”
“Such as?”
“Name it.” He offered.
“What did my father want?” I wasn’t interested in any deal the gunslinger had to offer. I did want to know what my father was involved with though.
“Money.” The gunslinger shrugged as if it was obvious.
“You were paying him? To do what?”
“There is a drug that is most appealing to vampires. Your father accommodated the production and distribution of Rampage.”
“What? Vampires do drugs?” That was new. And my dad was a drug dealer. Bloody hell, of all the things I had never expected that.
“Human drugs and alcohol have a limiting effect – we craved something more.”
“And my dad designed this drug?”
“Good Lord no. But it requires a special plant, one that will only grow in extremely hot temperatures. Your father sourced land for crops, arranged harvesting, had the product shipped in its raw state to our facility for production.”
“This drug…Rampage…is it why vampires are going rogue? Because they’re high? Out of control?”
The gunslinger shrugged again, “it is possible. If a human is unable to control his urges and is then turned, he will experience those same foibles as a vampire.”
“You say you have enemies…” my mind was finally catching up, “you mean others like you who want to overthrow your drug empire.”
“They try. They fail.”
And I was his next weapon in that war. He was the vampire equivalent of a drug baron in Columbia. Mind blown.
“Enough!” We’d been ignoring Alice for too long it seems, for she whirled and threw her magic at me, sending me flying through the air. I hit the back of the barn with a loud crack, the air knocked from my lungs.
“You dare touch her?” I heard the gunslinger shout, then it was a blur as the two of them went toe to toe. Struggling to my hands and knees I tried to keep an eye on the fighting pair but they were impossible to track – both were powerful beings and they seemed to be on equal par when it came to strength. I could hear grunts and gasps, dust kicked up, then I couldn’t see much at all as the barn was flooded with vampires coming to watch their boss take down the witch.
This was my chance. I began crawling, hoping to find an opening beneath one of the barn slats big enough to squeeze through. I doubted I’d get this opportunity again. If the gunslinger won this fight he’d see to it that I’d be held captive forever, using my blood as a weapon. If the witch, Alice, won she’d kill me just to spite him. Either way, it was a no-win for me and I needed to get my ass out of here.
I was shit out of luck with finding an exit point. Frantically crawling around I was almost ready to admit defeat when it happened. The roof of the barn was torn clean off. It was dark and stormy out and I squinted into the night sky, not believing my eyes. A dragon. A mother fucking dragon had just ripped the roof off the barn!
Everyone inside froze, including me, only I was tucked away in the corner, unnoticed. The dragon appeared to be searching, flapping its massive wings and looking around the barn as it hovered overhead. Then it let out a roar, followed by a stream of fire. Okay, you need to focus I told myself. Fire can’t burn me, but dragons fire? That was untested, I needed to call forth my own flame to protect myself.
Confusion broke out, shouting and vampires running around on fire. I stayed where I was, untouched as yet, but the dragon seemed intent on incinerating everyone in the barn and eventually, its flames would reach me for I didn’t have the strength to run. I hoped I had enough strength to call forth my fire demon powers though. It would suck if I died. I managed a small lick of fire that shimmered over my body – not the human fireball I’d envisioned but it did the trick.
Around me the barn burned, timbers crashing to the ground, smoke thick in the air, along with the scent of burning flesh and tortured screams of the vampires. I’d caught a glimpse of Alice, holding Henry in a headlock while with the other hand she held up a magic shield, propelling the fire away from them. In the midst of battle, she saved him. I wondered why, after all that he’d done to her, why she would save his sorry ass.
I stopped worrying about them and started worrying about myself. It was getting hard to breathe and my eyes were streaming from the smoke and ash. The wall beside me went up in a whoosh of flame and I crawled toward it. Reaching out I gave it a push, enough that a couple of the planks gave away and I crawled outside, sucking in gulps of air. My clothes were charred and smoking and now that I was clear of the barn I drew my flame back into myself and rolled on the ground to put out any residual fire.
Wind whipped around me, the storm was picking up intensity and the flapping of the dragon's wings wasn’t helping any. I expected it to rain any second, you could feel it in the air – that would thwart the dragon's plan of barbecuing everyone – but then, looking at the state of the barn I’d say he’d already achieved his objective.
Laying there, coughing, I watched as the dragon swooped down low, a stream of fire spraying the barn in flames, before he’d soar up into the sky again and circle overhead, watching. I coughed and rolled onto my side – I felt sick again and missed when the dragon caught sight of me, I wasn’t prepared when he swooped in and snatched me up. I screamed. I’d been going for long and loud but ended with short and breathless, my lungs still rebelling from the smoke and my stomach still churning from Alice draining me.
Being whipped into the air and flown away was my undoing. Everyone had a point and I’d reached mine. With all the flair of a real damsel in distress, I fainted.
Chapter Eighteen
“Rae, babe, open your eyes.” I was laying on something soft, there was something blissfully cool on my face. With a monumental effort, I dragged open my eyelids to find Jordan sitting by my side, dabbing at my face with a face washer.
“What happened?” I groaned and then started coughing and struggling to suck in air.
“Easy, easy. Here, drink this.” He helped me to sit up and pressed a glass to my lips. I gulped down the water which soothed my parched throat. We were in his room at the hotel.
“How did I get here?”
“I brought you.”
It dawned on me then. “You’re the dragon.”
“I’m the dragon.” He confirmed.
I punched him. Hard. He fell off the edge of the bed, holding his nose. “What the hell was that for?” He cried.
“You let me think you were a cat!” I accused. He had the good grace to look ashamed.
“I never said I was a cat.” He protested, touching his nose, checking if I’d broken it.
“You never corrected me. You let me assume. Asshole.” I muttered, flopping back down on my pillow.
“Sorry. I should have told you. My species is rare. Endangered. It’s risky for me to reveal what I am.”
“Even to me? You said we were fated mates? Doesn’t that count for anything?” I couldn’t quite manage to keep the hurt out of my voice. He hadn’t lied. Technically. But he’d withheld the truth. And what did he think I’d do with that knowledge, run around telling everyone? He didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.
“We are. You are my mate. And I was planning on telling you – after we’d dealt with the vampire problem. It’s the vampires I wanted to keep this from. I know you have a…temper,” he shrugged un-apologetically, “and I could just see you using my dragon status as a threat – or taunt – if you got riled up.” Damn it, he had a point. I would totally do that. He sat back down on the edge of the bed and held one of my hands in both of his.
“Errr, well in case you didn’t notice, you kinda outed yourself by ripping off the roof of that barn and turning them into crispy critters.”
“That hadn’t been my plan, but I was frantic. They’d taken you.” I heard the worry in his voice – I could sympathize, I’d worried about him too. It was becoming more and more clear to me that he’d been speaking the truth about his wi
ld claims of us being fated. I was inexplicably drawn to him, he was consuming my every thought.
A large wet nose appeared on the opposite side of the bed and I squealed in delight, “Bear! You’re here!”
“I found him racing over the fields, miles away. I think he was trying to get back to you.”
“The witch said she’d sent him home. I thought she’d meant hell.”
“She must have sent him back to your place. That’s his home now. With you.”
“Awww Bear, I’m glad you’re here.” I wriggled over and wrapped my arms around his neck, laughed when he gave me a slobbery kiss and his tail swept everything off the bedside table.
“Tell me what happened after she knocked me out.” He was in SIA mode and I couldn’t blame him – Maxxan had a powerful vampire and an equally powerful witch on its doorstep – the situation had escalated dramatically. I filled him in on all that had happened, including my dad’s involvement, up until when he’d turned up at the barn.
“A drug.” He stood up and began pacing, I could see the cogs turning, “that makes sense. That would explain the spikes we see in the rogues.”
“The Gunslinger said that if you were an addict as a human, then you’d be an addict as a vampire – you just had to find the right drug.” I was paraphrasing but it made sense to me. While your DNA may change, your personality did not.
“You said his first name is Henry?”
“That’s what the witch called him – he called her Alice, she called him Henry.”
“Do you think you could identify him? Work with a sketch artist? The Gunslinger has been this mysterious figure that we know very little about, he’s adept at keeping a low profile.”
