Infamous: (A Bad Boy Romantic Suspense)

by Noir, Mila

  I also wondered how many of the people I was looking at might be more than what they seemed. Certainly none of them could be vampires, but plenty of other things could be passing right before my eyes and I’d never be able to tell.

  That creeping feeling of something being wrong sounded off in my head like warning bells. It got me moving fast again, hoisting my bag on my back and checking behind me in shop windows as I went. My own reflection looked pale and haunted, with two high points of color on my cheeks from moving so fast. My hair was a bit wild, and all in all I looked exactly like I felt: tired, wired, and a bit on the edge.

  I crossed several canals without really looking, then checked my bearings. I was still heading in the general direction of the main station, but I needed to make better time. It was slipping by fast and I wanted to be out of the city by noon. I considered cabbing it, but I had limited cash. Besides, I liked the open air, even if Venice wasn’t the best-smelling city I’d ever encountered.

  By this point the streets were filling up with people and I had to navigate crowds. I suspected Solosha or one of Robert’s employees would have figured out I was gone by now, but I might have a little leeway. They were all used to waiting on a vampire, so daytime wasn’t their strength. Which was to my advantage, so I’d better not waste it.

  I was moving towards the center of the city but doing so in a bit of a roundabout way. The main station, Santa Lucia, was a big modern affair that was a major hub to the rest of Europe. I could go nearly anywhere from there, and it would take anyone looking for me quite a while to figure out where I’d gone. This is why I’d made sure I had cash—harder to trace. Part of me really wanted to go back to Paris, really see it before getting the hell out of Dodge, but I knew that was the first place anyone would look. There were other options—Munich, Milan, even Zurich. I should probably pick the one furthest from there and hope for the best. After that, my plan was to get to an airport, call my folks, and be back in the States within a few days. Would anyone go that far to find me? Hard to say, but I was beyond homesick and it seemed like my best shot. Even if I couldn’t end up actually going home, the States would be a lot easier for me to navigate on my own. Find work. Make a life.

  Finally I could see the station up ahead, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was going to make it. I stopped to catch my breath and suddenly felt a hand on my arm. I turned, expecting Solosha.

  Instead, I saw a tall, excruciatingly thin man with long, spidery limbs and heavy, lanky dark hair. His shape was terrifyingly familiar.

  “Hello!” he said cheerfully as I tried to break his grip. It was vicelike and painful.

  “Let go of me or you’ll be sorry,” I said. He laughed and pulled me closer.

  “I don’t think so. Your two vampire protectors won’t be up for hours. It will be too late for them to do anything by then,” he said.

  “They aren’t the ones looking after me,” I said, suddenly wishing I had never left Robert’s house, let alone slipped past Solosha.

  “Oh, you mean the sylph? She is…occupied,” he said, a nasty smile on his face. I pulled at the arm, then hit him, then tried to scratch him. It had no effect.

  “What did you do to her?” I snarled, afraid I’d gotten her hurt. Or worse.

  “See for yourself,” he said, and dragged me down a street that was strangely quiet and empty. I kicked, I yelled, but nothing happened. No one could hear me and I couldn’t break his iron grip.

  He pulled me into a doorway and then shoved me inside a rank, dilapidated hallway. It smelled like rotting fish and mold, and I gagged.

  When my eyes adjusted to the low light, I gasped, then began to hit at him fiercely.

  Solosha lay in a heap on the floor, arms chained, robes ripped and torn. Some kind of iridescent liquid was spilling out of her mouth and onto the floor in a pool. She looked dead, but I didn’t know anything about the life cycle of sylphs. I was angry and scared, but mostly I felt overwhelming guilt. This was my fault.

  “No one is going to rescue you. And if you don’t stop that, I’ll hurt you,” he said. His eyes were hard and cold and I believed him. I stopped, mostly because it wasn’t doing any good. I felt helpless and stupid and alone.

  “What do you want?” I asked, beginning to shake.

  “Oh, it’s not what I want. It’s what my employers want. But you’ll find out,” he said. He pulled me away, and I thought I saw Solosha move a little. I hoped I did. I hoped my kidnapper was a lot more cocky than he was effective. I hoped she would wake up and get free.

  He shoved me in front of him and moved me along quickly. I could feel the strange smoothness of his limbs and wanted to recoil but he kept me too close.

  “I don’t know what your employer thinks, but I’m really no one. I don’t matter. You could just say you didn’t find me,” I tried. He laughed again, a grating, unpleasant, sneering sound. It was a laugh at my expense.

  “I don’t care, is the thing. They pay me, I do what they ask. It’s a very easy, equitable arrangement.” He moved me down the same deserted alley towards a car, and I pulled back, trying to slow him down. It didn’t work. So I moved my hand to my pocket and felt around. There wasn’t anything I could stab him with. Tina’s knife was in my bag on my back, but there was something that might help. Maybe. It was a few petals from the flowers that had been decorating my room at Dimitri’s. I let them fall, hoping somehow, some way, their scent and mine would give them a clue. It was unlikely; they were so fragile and they would probably get stepped on and ruined. But it was something. I had to try.

  He shoved me into the car and I sprawled on the seat, banging my head on the opposite door. I tried to see if I could open it but it looked welded shut. Clearly this was a vehicle that had been used in other such “jobs.” That was a sobering thought.

  My kidnapper crawled in after me and shut the door, locking it and then sitting against it. He banged on the roof and the car started up, revved, then spun away. We hit a lot of jerking, bumping pavement. I couldn’t see out. I had no idea where we were headed.

  “Fortuitous that you decided to try and escape your lovers. I admit, I was finding it difficult to get at you. I would have eventually, but you made it so much easier,” he said, clearly taunting me. My face flushed with guilt.

  “You’re the reason I was leaving. I wanted to get away from everyone so no one would be unsafe because of me,” I said, not sure why I was admitting anything to this…thing. In the car he was even more cadaverous looking, with pale skin that had a strange green cast to it. His features were sharp, unpleasant, and his eyes were hard little chips in his lined face. He wore all black, slimly cut, which just emphasized his height and spindly limbs. He almost looked delicate, but I knew better. There was a horrible, wiry strength to him.

  “How delightful! You walked right out of safety and into my arms. Dimitri and Robert will be heartbroken, I’m sure.” He said this last derisively, as if it was unlikely anyone would come looking for me or care that I was gone. I smiled at him, but only with my teeth.

  “If they find you, they will tear you into little pieces. You don’t know anything about them. Or me. You don’t know what you’ve done,” I said. His smile faded a little.

  “I know your vampires quite well, actually. Have for years. Dimitri is a selfish noble who barely warrants worrying about. Robert, though powerful, is more concerned with big problems than what any human, however…appealing to look at…is up to. I can’t fathom why they bothered protecting you to begin with. They had to know someone would find out your little…secret. And come looking for you. I can’t imagine why they’d take on the responsibility.” He was leaning forward now, enjoying himself. I looked at him with loathing.

  “If that’s all you think of them, then you don’t know them at all. But I won’t bother trying to convince you. I’ll just enjoy it when they catch up with us and take you apart,” I said.

  He was next to me in a flash, gripping my arms tightly, his face close to mine. His eyes
were glittering and insectile suddenly, multifaceted and piercing.

  “I wouldn’t count on it. And you’ll be long dead before they manage to figure out where you are and who has you.” He shook me a little, clearly angry that I wasn’t playing the frightened, cowardly prey he wanted me to. I kicked him and he grunted. Then he struck me, a hard blow to the face. I reeled back in the seat and clutched at my hurt cheek.

  “You’ll be sorry,” I said, angry and scared and feeling like my face was on fire.

  “You keep saying that. Maybe it’s comforting. But you’re going to talk to my employers and then…well…” He shrugged.

  Then he hit me again, and all I saw was black.

  Spiders are everywhere, crawling, jumping, flexing their horrible limbs. I feel their legs on my face, my arms, my legs. I open my mouth to scream and feel them crawl into it.

  Teeth again, biting at me.

  Then blood. Always blood. Is it mine or someone else’s? A cool breeze against my face, reassuring for a moment, then gone.

  Back to blood. I can smell the sour penny scent of it. Can feel it slick against my palms. Am I bleeding?

  Everything is so dark, only vague shapes, hulking, spindly, moving too fast with too many legs.

  Trapped again. Things are crawling over me, I can hear them chattering and chittering. I think I may go insane from the feel of them moving over my face.

  A laugh, hard, brittle, unpleasant.

  A voice, deep, frustrated. Another, placating, yet another cheerful. Bright. That one is the worst. That one is the most dangerous.

  I’m trying to move away, but my limbs are too heavy. I can’t move. I can feel hands on me now and I try to shove them away. They are pulling me in all directions, pulling at my skin, my hair, my face. I want them away from me and I try to shout again.

  But there is no sound. My throat doesn’t work.

  I am in hell.

  I woke up screaming, hands bound, in a small bed in a small cell-like room. It was too hot and stony, and there was a single barred window that let in a depressing sliver of yellow light. There was also a barred door, and I realized I was definitely in a cell somewhere. But where? I couldn’t get up to the window, and there was nothing about the environment that told me anything—just blank grayness.

  I sat up and regretted it. My face still hurt, though it was more of a dull ache now. My stomach was incredibly empty and growled painfully. My whole body ached like I had a flu. My wrists were raw from being bound with what felt like thorned rope.

  But mostly how I felt was pissed. Really, really, pissed. I realized it might not have been the best idea to leave the relative safety of Robert or Dimitri’s care, but this wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t made any of this happen. And now I was stuck in what was probably a literal dungeon and I was just over it. I was sick of being at the mercy of others for things I couldn’t help.

  “Ovary up, Emma,” I said to no one and sighed. I looked at my wrists, squinting, and saw that my thorny rope assessment wasn’t far off. My bag was nowhere to be seen, so the knife was out of the question. The binding was some kind of cord that was rough and spiky for no apparent reason other than to make me uncomfortable. Someone was having fun at my expense. And I had a pretty good idea who.

  “If you’re watching or listening somehow, you sadistic, spider-legged asshole, I am on to you. You won’t get shit from me,” I said loudly. There was no answer, but I had a feeling I had been heard, just the same.

  This was confirmed by the sound of footsteps a few minutes later and then the leering, unpleasant face of my kidnapper, whose name I still didn’t know. Mind, it’s probably not common practice to tell your kidnappee your name. So I mentally called him “the Spider Jerk” so I’d have something to refer to him as and get a little dig in whenever possible.

  “You rang, princess?” he said, leaning against the bars.

  “I thought there was probably a camera or listening device in here somewhere. Unless you can hear long distance,” I said.

  “While my hearing is acute, it doesn’t quite work through several layers of solid rock, a basement, and three floors,” he said.

  “Great. So you’re not just a sadist, you’re also a voyeur.” I got up and stretched my legs.

  “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s merely so you can be observed by my employer, and to make sure you don’t escape,” he said.

  “How the hell would I manage that? I’m a human being, not a shape-shifter, vampire, or, like…flying goddamn nun. What do you expect me to do, eat through the walls?” I said sourly.

  “I don’t ask questions. They wanted eyes on you so I provided some. Now, anything else? Magazine? Refreshment?” he said. He was mocking me and I was frustrated. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it, either.

  “Well, unless you want your employers to watch me starve to death or dry up like a prune, I’ll eventually need food and water. And these wrist bindings are ridiculous. It’s not like I can punch through the bars.” I was standing near him now, watching him through said bars. He was considering me coolly, a nasty light in eyes.

  “No, but at least this way I can guarantee you aren’t comfortable at any time. I find I like the idea of you being in pain, even if it’s just minor,” he said.

  “Well, that’s gross,” I said and sat back down on the bed. I sighed and looked at the barren walls, the utter lack of anything to look at or do. The boredom might get to me before the starvation.

  “I’ll bring you some food, however. Can’t let you waste away. Then you’d miss all the fun.” He started to walk away.

  “Why do I get the impression your idea of fun and my idea of fun are radically different things?” I said. He laughed, and its harsh, utter lack of mirth echoed as he disappeared up the stairs again.

  I sat there for several more hours, staring at my hands. I tried keeping my mind occupied by counting, doing multiplication, going over my favorite movie quotes, anything to distract me from the big fat nothing there was to do or see. I got up and paced just to give myself a minor change of scenery and keep my muscles from getting stiff.

  Counting the steps I took ate up some time, as did counting how many steps it was around the room. I wondered who had been in it before me and if they’d also slowly gone insane from the lack of air, light, and activity. I wasn’t quite in Crazyville yet but I could see it happening pretty fast. I missed my phone, my family, and my vampires.

  I had a bad feeling I wasn’t going to see any of them again.

  At some point I fell asleep again on the incredibly lumpy bed, and when I woke up, feeling worse, there was a tray of dubious-looking “food” on the floor. It looked like oatmeal and tasted like wet sand, but I ate it. Even though it was decidedly gross I felt better after. My blood sugar was no longer in my feet and my head cleared a little. I drank the glass of water that was left with it in huge gulps and then realized a horrible truth: there was no bathroom in this cell. That was going to get…complicated later. I tried not to think about it.

  Instead, I thought about what Dimitri and Robert were doing. I knew they’d try to look for me, but would they be able to find any trace of what had happened? I’d left on my own; they might assume I’d gone home or was otherwise traveling under my own steam. The only way they’d find out it was something else entirely was if Solosha came to and told them. Although maybe if she was gone they’d figure out something was up. They weren’t stupid.

  Clearly whoever had paid Spider Jerk to grab me had something they wanted from me, likely to do with that whole “not being influenced by vampires” trait I had. I kind of hated being “special” in this way. But if I hadn’t been, what would have become of me and Tasha? That thought brought me up short. She, at least, would be dead by now. And I probably would be too. At least this way she was safe and, though I clearly wasn’t, I was still alive.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had more power in the situation than I had thought. Whoever this was needed me. Needed
what I had. Just like the vampire council and Dimitri and Robert needed me. Otherwise I’d, again, be dead. I wasn’t. And I wasn’t an unwilling vampire, either. So something about all of this was really fishy. I mean, any one of them could have “made” me at any time. I couldn’t overpower them. So why hadn’t they? It would’ve been easy. Something wasn’t right. I was missing something and I couldn’t figure out what.

  My eyes got droopy and the room spun. I felt suddenly very, very, very strange. My limbs got heavy and my head felt like a large lead ball. I fell to the mattress and tried to move but couldn’t. I heard an unpleasant laugh, and my last thought before unconsciousness was…

  “That fucking Spider Jerk drugged me…”

  I woke to painful light. I was sitting on something, a chair, and the light in my eyes was so yellow and so bright I was blinded. I blinked, tears streaming down my face from the intensity of it. My arms were free but my legs wouldn’t move. I didn’t really want to think about why.

  As my eyes adjusted I made out three shadows at the other end of the room. This room, unlike the cell, had paintings on the walls and rustic furniture in deliberately distressed tones of white. I could smell sea air, and when I turned my head I could see a familiar-looking mountain across an inlet of ocean. I couldn’t figure out why it was familiar. My head was still foggy and my vision kept blurring. It was night out and I could see that the brightness was coming from a spotlight that was fixed on me. I could feel some of its heat on my cheek.

  “She’s awake,” said a gruff voice I didn’t recognize.

  “Good,” the Spider Jerk said.

  “You didn’t have to drug her, Stoller,” said another voice, familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

  “Have to? No. Wanted to? Enjoyed it? Yes,” said Spider Jerk, aka Stoller. At least I knew his name now. I coughed, trying to speak, but my throat felt like it was full of knives. I didn’t know what he’d slipped me but it was nasty stuff.

  “I think she’s waking up.”

  “Excellent. We should get started.”