“What the fuck are you?” I breathed, ice slithering through me.
His lips twisted into a parody of a smile. “What’s wrong, mo chroí? Don’t like what you see?”
Rage flashed, burning away the ice, and I took a step forward, my hand curling into a fist, ready to pummel the asshole. “Shut yer fucking mouth, ya ain’t got the right to call me that.”
The creature bounded across the room, the barrel glinted, and I braced myself for a grapple. Pain exploded across my cheek, and the next thing I realized, I was on my knees with blood filling my mouth. I jabbed my tongue at my teeth, making sure they were all there, and worked my jaw, my head swimming. Motherfucker had pistol-whipped me.
The sound of the gun cocking drew me up straighter, and I glared up at the creature who looked so like Kristair as he pressed the cold muzzle against my forehead. “Kiss my pucker. You don’t want me dead, or I’d be dead already,” I rasped, glaring at him, spitting out blood on his shoes. “So what the fuck do you want?”
It was too unsettling for words. He looked just like my lover, not one facial flaw different. He had Kristair’s smooth, rich voice. But it was the eyes that gave him away. They burned with a cruelty I’d never seen in Kristair’s face, not even when he was looking at his most hated enemy or when he was at his most dangerous. When I’d watched him kill Claudia and Dominic, as furious as he’d been, as much as he’d felt I had been threatened, there had only been implacable resolve in his gaze.
It was easier to face this copy of him if I just concentrated on his eyes.
How this had happened? I couldn’t begin to figure it out, but Kristair would have ideas when I talked with him. Knowing he was outside fighting that über-bitch only increased my urgency.
“That’s a loaded question. There’s so much I want from you, that I want to do to you, and lucky for us, we have a little time.” His hand went down to his zipper. Cold horror stole through my stomach, and the ice returned, trickling down my spine.
“You may be pretty and all,” I snapped, “but some bitch wearing Kristair’s face doesn’t really do much for me. You’ll have to catch me again some other day.” My muscles quivered as I forced myself to stay still when all I wanted to do was jump to my feet and pound the guy’s face in. The muzzle imprinting itself into my forehead convinced me that a bullet would move much faster than I could.
“All the more satisfying for me if you’re not into it. Let’s see what else you can do with that mouth other than hurl abuse,” the creature purred.
“You put your dick anywhere near my mouth and I’ll bite the fucking thing off,” I promised through clenched teeth.
The bastard just smirked, his hand sliding into his pressed black dress pants. Just the kind of clothes Kristair normally picked out for himself. My stomach clenching, I closed my eyes, gathered my desperation, and stretched my mind out. Something warm and velvety brushed against my lips even as I sensed the creature, his mind so similar to Kristair’s, but so fucking twisted that it was unmistakably not him.
Snarling, I stabbed out with my thoughts, and he stumbled back, hands coming up to his head and confusion clouding his gaze as he shook his head violently. He tried to brush away my mental attack as I stabbed at him again, but the attempt was clumsy. I knocked his hand as it started to come down, and the gun went skittering across the floor.
He recovered quicker than I hoped he would. Before I could grab my gun or summon up the energy for another mental attack, he was on me. Hard hands dug into my hair, wrenching me up to my feet, and a knee drove into my stomach.
Gasping, I bent over double, struggling to drag air into lungs that refused to work. I grabbed his pants, pulled them down around his knees, and then jerked backward on the fabric, yanking his legs out from under him. He went down with a shout of surprise and anger. I hauled back and kicked him in his gut, only to hesitate, doubt hitting me as he doubled over, clutching his stomach. He just looked so damn much like him.
The hesitation cost me, as he uncoiled and grabbed my leg, wrenching my knee hard and jerking me down onto the ground with him. Adrenaline rushed through my veins as we struggled. He rolled so that he was on top of me, pinning me under him. “This will do as well as the other,” he rasped, and then he kissed me.
I froze in shock. God help me, he even tasted like Kristair. I found my body responding to that heated kiss whether I willed it or not, and my stomach churned.
“Don’t.” I drew in a ragged breath as he finally lifted his head. “Just fucking stop it.”
“Don’t,” he mocked, lips twisted in a cruel smile. “Bitch, please, don’t even try to deny that you’re hot for it.”
The flash of rage banished my confusion, and his crude language ruined the illusion he was trying to create. I talked like that, not Kristair. Snarling, I headbutted him and heard the satisfying crunch of bone. He fell back with a bellow of pain as I wrenched my gun out of its holster and pointed it at him, trembling deep inside. Somehow, it was even more horrific to have the gun on him instead of having something that looked like Kristair pointing it at me.
He stared at me, dark eyes glittering, blood pouring from his nose. “You won’t pull the trigger,” he said softly.
“Don’t be so fucking sure of that.” I gestured with my gun and rose, taking a step away from him so he couldn’t grab my leg again. “Pull up your damn pants for god’s sake.” Now that the fight was over, doubt filled my head, and my thoughts raced. What the hell was going on? Who was this fucker?
The creature slowly rose to his feet, still moving with the easy grace of a predator. I watched closely as he righted his clothes and tried not to let how much he looked like Kristair affect me. I could still taste him on my lips, and god help me, it fucked with me hardcore.
“We both know you’re not going to shoot me.” He smirked and took a step toward me, grinning wider as I stepped back again. “Stop fighting me, Jacob. We belong together.”
What the hell was I gonna do? What if it was Kristair and he was possessed or something? I’d left him just outside. Maybe I was wrong about the T-shirt he’d tossed on this morning. It had been so crazy. Maybe it had been blue instead of gray. Maybe he hadn’t worn jeans; he rarely did.
I wet my lips, trying to think as he closed the distance between us again, and my hand tightened on the gun. “What do you want from me?”
“I just want what’s mine, and you’re mine, have been from the moment I saw you.” He reached out to take the gun from my hand, and I gathered my will, reaching out for Kristair’s mind in a desperate mental stab. If he was my lover, then he was in there somewhere.
A dark wall stood between us. I shoved the creature back, shaking my head in warning as I struggled to get a sense of him, and realization dawned that wherever Kristair was, it was far away from Alette’s house. He was no longer on the property.
The wall shivered, and I sensed the cascade of Kristair’s emotions as he chased down the woman. They were following railroad tracks. My gun was wrenched out of my hand, and the creature was on top of me again, driving me back toward the table. The stench of burnt flesh strengthened, and I almost gagged.
“You’re not Kristair,” I snarled.
“Prove it!”
“I don’t have to.” Far away, I sensed Kristair’s sudden concern, the way it dimmed the urgency of the chase, and I sent him a wave of reassurance. The connection was weak, nothing like it used to be, but it was there.
I held onto the connection as hard as I could, using it to banish my doubts as I punched the creature in the face. As he reeled back, I followed up with other punch, then a roundhouse kick to his jaw. I didn’t hold back either, hitting him as hard as I could and sending him flying back into the wall.
He straightened, baring his fangs, and came at me, hissing in fury. “You’re slipping. Kristair isn’t a vamp anymore.” How the fuck this guy was running around during the day as one I didn’t know, but that would just be one more question I asked my lover when I finally
got a hold of him. At least he didn’t have Kristair’s former strength and agility.
His hand dug into my hair, wrenching my head back as he lowered his mouth to my neck. His breath brushed my throat, and I cried out as his tongue lightly traced the vein the way Kristair used to always do. He might not be intending to kill me, but if he bit me, he’d be able to weaken me enough that he could do any sick thing he wanted to me, and I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
That thought gave me the strength to shove him off of me. My hand scrabbled for something on the table to use as a weapon and closed around a heavy, ungainly object. I swung it at the creature’s temple as he grabbed me again, and the crystal vase hit his temple with a solid, sickening thunk. It was an awkward hit, but I hoped it would be enough to stun him.
He sagged with a groan, and I grabbed a hold of his shirt and hit him with the vase again for good measure. That did the trick, and I let him fall to the ground. The sense of evil I got from him was still there, which helped, because seeing him look so damned innocent unconscious fucked with me.
There wasn’t much time. I needed to get to Kristair. I sure as hell wasn’t about to let him take on that bitch by himself again. But I couldn’t leave this bastard behind either. I grabbed my gun and tore the room apart, looking for anything I could use to bind him. I found cords tying back the heavy draperies in another room. Perfect.
I tied his hands behind his back, making the knots as tight as I could, and then bound his feet to his hands. He didn’t make a sound as I dragged him outside and threw him in the passenger seat of my car. With any luck, he’d be out for a couple of hours.
The sun had fully risen, and the sense that we were running out of time dogged me as I peeled out of the driveway and followed my sense of Kristair. It pointed unerringly to the east. We had to get the woman too. The bastard next to me might have something to do with it, but she was the one behind it all. I just knew it. We had to have something to give Alette when she woke up.
The road intersected with the railroad and, wincing, I turned my baby off the road and onto the ties, hitting the gas. God help me. If a train came by, we were so fucked. There was a groan from beside me as the car bucked and jerked. We were getting closer though. Kristair wasn’t too far ahead.
I kept checking the rearview mirror, my heart pounding, stomach lurching. A tunnel appeared ahead, curving into the mountain, and I jerked the car off the rails, trying to ignore the scraping of the Z28’s undercarriage, and slammed on the breaks.
“Kristair!” I shouted, jumping out of the car and bolting into the tunnel. I tripped and almost went sprawling as my eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. It couldn’t be far now; they couldn’t be far. I heard twin sets of pounding footfalls echoing hollowly down the concrete walls.
A woman cried out in pain, and Kristair snarled. I breathed a sigh of relief as they came into view, struggling. I sensed the cold, implacable fury in Kristair as he dragged her up off the ground by her throat and raised his blade. “Kristair, wait! Don’t!”
I ran up to them and grabbed Kristair’s arm to stop him from killing her. I tried to put the words directly into his mind, to penetrate his predator instinct, but our link wasn’t that strong yet. ”Listen to me,” I said again, aloud. “We need her alive for now.”
Kristair lowered his arm holding the blade and turned his head to glare at me. The woman kicked out at him, legs flailing, nails digging into his hand to try to claw it away from her throat. His fingers whitened as he tightened his grip. There was a dare in her eyes that was downright eerie, as if she wanted him to finish her off.
“Kristair.”
He snarled again, punched her in the jaw, and then caught her as she collapsed. “Are you satisfied now?” he snapped, slinging her over his shoulder.
I grinned and leaned in to steal a kiss from his lips. “Very. It’s over. We’ll toss her in the car with the other asshole and deliver them both to Ussier tonight. And then we don’t ever have to deal with this shit again.” The relief was almost overwhelming.
“Who else are you talking about?” Kristair asked, a frown furrowing his brow. “There’s been no indication that she had a partner.”
“You’ll never believe it, Kristair, not in a million years.” I still had a hard time wrapping my head around what had happened.
“Try me. I’ve seen any number of inexplicable things over my lifetime.”
The Z28 came into view; the passenger door was flung wide open, the seat empty except for the shredded remains of the drapery cords. I froze, staring at it in horror. “No, no! Fuck me!” Behind me, Kristair shouted my name as I ran toward it, looking up the railroad track and scanning the underbrush for any sign of him, but the creature was gone.
Chapter 14
I STILL had trouble giving credence to what Jacob had told me, though he certainly wouldn’t lie about it and he wasn’t the kind of man prone to making up hysterical tales either. The idea of a copy of me running around Pittsburgh with homicidal intent was unsettling at best. What bothered me the most was I knew that Jacob hadn’t told me the entire story of his encounter with the doppelganger.
I studied him out of the corner of my eye as we sat on the trunk of his car outside of Alette’s house. The frustration ate at me.
Something more than a fight had transpired between the two. I was certain of it. His fury that the man had escaped masked deeper emotions that I couldn’t decipher, not with so much else going on around us. It bothered me enough that I tried to reach out to him mentally as I’d sensed him do earlier, only I got the same blank wall that had stood between us since I awoke as a human.
“They’re here,” Jacob announced, hopping down. We’d tossed the woman in the trunk after we’d made sure she was bound and unconscious, but Jacob wasn’t taking any chances on a second escape, not that I could blame him. From what he’d said, that doppelganger should’ve been unconscious far longer than he had been.
“I’m still not so sure about this plan of yours,” I said, eying the unmarked police car as it turned into the circle. I got down more slowly, trying not to let the pain of my own wounds show. My chest burned with dots of fiery pain, and my hand throbbed.
“You’re the one who insisted on not leaving this place unguarded, Kristair. Everyone else we know who we could bring in on this is dead until sundown. I’m not hanging around the whole day with all these corpses lying about, twiddling my damned thumbs. ’Sides, we’ve got to get chica hidden away.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic, though it didn’t mean I had to like it. I’d fixed Alette’s door, hanging it as best I could in the frame, but she and everyone else inside would be vulnerable to another attack. Especially if that creature was still running around, causing havoc; we still needed to hunt him down. And I couldn’t in good conscious leave Alette and her younglings without protection.
I studied the detectives as they got out of the car. I’d seen them once, when I’d been stuck riding around in Jacob’s mind. Detective Kuykedal had been driving. He was a wiry African man with the paler skin of mixed heritage, shrewd, hard eyes, and a scraggly goatee. He glared at Jacob, which, according to my lover, was his favorite expression.
Detective Aderson was tall and slim, body swathed in an expensive trench coat. He was at least a decade older than his partner, with a sharp widow’s peak and hair going gray. There was an easy, competent air about him. He glanced around at the bodies on the lawn with no change of expression on his face. Dangerous men.
“Mr. Corvin, didn’t I tell you at one time that you were in over your head?” Detective Aderson stopped in front of my lover, his dark gray eyes flicking to me, assessing.
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Jacob couldn’t help sassing them. I wasn’t sure if it was them personally or the fact that they were cops that brought this out in him.
“Smart ass,” Kuykedal muttered. “And who the fuck are you?”
I raised a brow and then inclined my head in a slight nod. “Kristair.�
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They exchanged glances, surprise evident in the minute widening of their eyes and the cant of their mouths. So Jacob’s instincts had been right; they did have contacts among the vampires. Someone in Pittsburgh was using them as eyes and ears.
“Thought you couldn’t go out in the day without turning into a crispy critter,” Kuykedal said.
“I’m very talented.”
Jacob cast me a quelling glance, and my lips quirked at the thought of him telling me to behave myself. “Look,” he began, “I think it’s time we all came clean here and helped each other out.”
“I think you need quite a bit more than our help. From the look of things you want a get out of jail free card and I’m all out of those,” Detective Aderson said. He glanced at me, and I grinned, showing my teeth as he cleared his throat. “But since you’re involved, Kristair, I think we can spare a few moments.”
“How kind of you.”
Jacob was staring at the two of them like they’d grown second heads. Then he grinned in delight. “Wow, Detectives, you’ve never been so ready to listen to what I had to say without giving me a lot of shit. I should’ve had you around before, love.”
I almost felt sorry for Aderson and Kuykedal. With the slim bit of deference they’d shown me, they’d lost any leverage they’d had with Jacob. “I thought you said your protector was dead,” Aderson said.
“I was mistaken. Weird shit happens. I’m sure you know that.”
Kuykedal aimed a narrow-eyed glare at Jacob. “Stop pussyfooting around. Damn, boy, what the fuck did you do? What part of ‘stay out of it’ did you not understand? You’re supposed to be concentrating on football; I’ve got a shit ton of money riding on you.”
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