Appetite of a Vampire [Vampire Love and Lust 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Dani April

  “Hey, having four men at once can’t be easy,” he teased her.

  “I’m a vampire. I can take it,” she teased him right back.

  “Do I detect some pride in your voice at what you are?”

  “I don’t know yet,” she told him honestly. “I’ll tell you after tomorrow night whether I’m proud to be a vampire or not.”

  * * * *

  They slept side by side all day, and the following night when Marty woke up, Barry was right there under the covers next to her. It felt good waking up with him like this, and she wished for a fleeting moment that he would chain her back to the bed and take her again, but she had no time for passionate thoughts. This was the big night, and no matter what happened she knew she would get her answers.

  Though Marty had been eating well ever since they got to the city, Barry had hardly eaten a thing, and so she took him out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner before they got started on their walk up to Nob Hill. She watched him eat his noodles and laughed at how hungry he was. Of course she had politely declined the waitress when she asked her if there was anything she would like to eat. She couldn’t even drink the water that was set before her on the table. But she enjoyed watching Barry wolf down his noodles and egg roll anyway.

  At the end of the meal Barry broke open his fortune cookie. “A big change is about to come to your life,” Barry said, reading his fortune after it had fallen out of the cookie. He looked across the table at Marty and smiled. “When I met you, a big change already came to my life.”

  “How are we going to do this tonight, Barry?” Marty wanted to be serious.

  Barry set the keys to the mansion on the table before them. “We’re going to use these,” he told her. “We know there are going to be a lot of people there, so we can’t just go in the front door, and after last night we know it doesn’t even do any good to knock on the front door. I’ve been around back, and I should be able to get us around there tonight as long as no one else is around to see us.”

  “We’ll have to go in real quiet. I don’t want to get arrested for breaking and entering.”

  “We’re just entering. We already have the keys,” Barry reminded her then pointed down to one of the keys. “This one here is identical to the one I saw the boss open the side door with. If we can get in that door, it leads down to the finished basement.”

  “Last night the party seemed to be upstairs. There may not be anyone down in the basement. Remember, we’re going in there to find a vampire for me to talk to.”

  “I know, but there is bound to be a way up to the house from that basement.”

  “I thought you said it was all locked off except for that one little area down in the room where you unloaded all those vampire crates?”

  “It was, but that’s where these other keys come in. One of them will unlock the door leading up to the main part of the house. We’ll just have to try them all until we get one that fits.”

  Marty took a deep breath as she thought over what they were about to do. The Chinese waitress came back and filled up Barry’s teacup, and Marty tried to gather her thoughts. “Okay, I think your plan gets us upstairs,” she told Barry. “But then what?”

  “Well at that point it gets a little iffy. We have to hope like hell we meet a vampire before we meet one of the human servants because they’ll probably call the cops on us and get us arrested.”

  “And if we meet a vampire,” Marty said, “we have to hope they’re in a good mood and will be willing to help us.”

  “You think once they see you they’ll know you’re one of them?”

  “I’m pretty sure they will know.”

  “How?”

  Marty smiled because she had already thought this one out. “Vampires are used to reading the thoughts of every human they meet. My thoughts aren’t going to be that easy to read because I’m not human. They’ll know what I am, all right, as soon as they see me.”

  “And what are you going to say to them?”

  Marty had also been thinking long and hard on this one. “I’m going to get them to tell me who my maker was, and if he’s there I’m going to go to him and ask him why. I also want to ask them how they live with this curse and how their relationships with humans are. Once I get the answers, we’ll leave. Believe me, it’s not my intention to make friends with these vampires tonight.”

  Barry seemed relieved by her response. “Good. I’ve already got us reservations on a flight for LAX tomorrow night.”

  Just thinking about home made Marty smile.

  “And Marty.” Barry hesitated as if he was unsure whether to tell her any more. “I contacted the other guys and told them. They’re going to be waiting at the airport for us when we get off that flight.”

  Now Marty really had to smile and knew she was probably blushing. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to them, but I know I want them all.”

  “We all want you, too, Marty. You’ll see. It’s going to work out.” He picked up the keys to the mansion and put them back into his pocket then motioned the waitress over to pay the bill.

  Tonight Marty found she was actually ready to go back to the mansion. She had never been more determined in her life and didn’t even give her fears any thought. When they were outside of the restaurant and headed back to Nob Hill, she reached up to kiss Barry. She thought about telling him she loved him because that was something that needed to be said.

  “Barry, you know I…”

  “What?”

  “I’ll tell you later.” She broke off because at that moment she thought there would always be time later. “Right now, let’s go see those vampires.”

  But half an hour later when they arrived in front of the Victorian mansion, they found things very different from what they had been the night before.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “What’s going on in there?” Barry asked Marty as they pulled up short in front of the mansion.

  Marty just shook her head, trying to figure it out. Whereas last night everything around the mansion had been light and filled with activity, tonight the house was in utter blackness, with not a single light showing from any of the windows, and with none of the outdoor lights on. Also, there were no cars on the street in front, nor were there any parked in the long driveway that led to the back. It was as if the place had been abandoned.

  “Are you sure we got the night of the assembly correct?” Barry asked her. “I think maybe it was last night. Tonight it looks like whatever it was is all over with.”

  Then it hit Marty what must be going on. She could see everything perfectly with her night vision. She did not need any human light to see by in the darkness.

  “This is a vampire convention,” she told Barry. “They don’t need lights like you do. And they arrived in those boxes that you took downstairs, so I doubt they needed any cars to get here. All of those vampires are still inside that house right now.”

  They crossed the street and slowly and quietly made their way down the driveway. Marty listened for any sound that might give them a clue, but it was as if once they set foot on that property, all of the sound had gone out of the night. She looked back at Barry, who was trailing behind her.

  “I’ve never been here before. You’re going to have to tell me where to go.”

  “It was the middle of the day when I was here,” he said and almost stumbled in the dark. “I think the door we want is just past those windows up here.”

  They both kept their voices to a small whisper as they spoke. Marty had already seen the door he was talking about and ran up to it. “Give me those keys,” she called back to him.

  He came up to her side and handed them over. The key he had indicated fit snugly in the lock and turned the doorknob with a click. “I’m not going to be able to see a thing in here,” he told her.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got this. Just lean on me and follow.”

  They entered the house, and Barry closed the door behind them. For a moment th
ey just stood and listened, but all was still and quiet. No one had yet detected their presence.

  “You should see a stairwell to your left,” Barry told her. “That leads down to the sub-basement. I don’t think it’s a good idea that we go down there. To your right is another door, but it’s probably locked. I think that’s the one we want.”

  “I see it,” Marty told him, still trying to whisper. She started trying all of the keys in the lock to the new door. “It’s just a matter as to which one of these works.” There were a dozen keys. She tried them all, and none of them fit the lock. “It looks like we’re going to have to go down before we go up.”

  She turned over to the stairwell leading down to the sub-basement. “It’s possible we might be able to find a stairway leading up to the main house, but are you sure you want to go down there?” he asked.

  “I don’t really want to, but I don’t think we have a choice. Follow me.”

  Marty led them down the narrow stairwell. The winding stairs seemed to go on forever. Finally they made it to a concrete landing at the bottom. Marty looked around her and at once realized this was the room where Barry had placed the crates the day before, because they were still lined up neatly in order.

  “I hope you can see something,” Barry said. “Because I’m completely blind down here.”

  “I can see everything.” Marty was looking around their new surroundings and quickly realizing that things were very wrong and about to get worse. Those crates were all still tightly sealed, and she could sense movement coming from inside several of them.

  “What’s that?” he asked her, hearing the sound of the movement.

  “Something is moving inside of those crates.”

  “I think it’s time we got out of here, Marty. Can you see another way out?”

  Across the large room there was another locked door. “Yes, I think there is a way. Hurry!” She started to fiddle with the twelve keys in the lock, forced to try each one individually against it. Her hands were starting to shake from fear, and the first five she tried did not work.

  Suddenly the lid on one of the crates behind them lifted open, and a hand rose up from out of the inside. Barry was at her side, but he could not see what she could see in the dark. “Is that what I think it is?” he asked.

  “There are vampires down here with us,” she answered.

  Then more of the crates were being opened from the inside, and other vampires were rising up out of them. The first one looked across the room and saw them trying to escape out of the door, able to see just as well in the dark as Marty could.

  “You should not be here!” the vampire hissed at them, nothing but anger and seething hatred in his voice.

  The next key that Marty tried turned the lock over. She opened the door but delayed just long enough to look back at the vampire who had spoken to her. Perhaps she should try and say something to him. However, it was intimidating and hard to hold her ground because there were now ten vampires advancing across the room toward them.

  “I am one of you,” she called to them. “I am a vampire, too. You don’t have to be afraid of us.”

  Apparently this was the last thing they were expecting her to say, and, for a moment, it stopped them in their tracks. All of their eyes turned a fiery red in the dark, and they slowly approached her and Barry as if suddenly weary. One of them reached out and grabbed a hold of Barry with a restraining hand. He tried to struggle, and though he was a big man with lots of muscle, his strength was like that of a child’s next to the vampires.

  The male vampire who had spoken to Marty came up to her, his burning eyes only inches from her own as he leaned down to inspect her for the authenticity of her claim.

  “I am a vampire just like you,” she pleaded with him. “Please let us go. All we came here to do is to talk with you.”

  But the male vampire was already shaking his head. “No,” he told her in that hate-filled voice. “You are not a vampire.”

  Marty’s world spun around at his words. How could he have said that? “But I am,” she continued to beg him, unable to accept the meaning of his cruel words. “I have lived with this curse every day just like you have.”

  “I don’t know what you are,” the male said. “But you are not a vampire like us.” He turned back to the vampire holding Barry. “Kill them!” he ordered. “Kill them both!”

  It all happened in an instant. The vampire holding Barry struck him in the chest with the force of a bullet shot from a gun, his hand ripping open Barry’s chest and sending an avalanche of blood pouring down his sweater. Another vampire advanced on Marty to do the same damage to her.

  “Noooooo!” Marty screamed. A strength born out of her anger and her fear, one she had never known before, was unleashed. In one swing of her arm, she sent the attacking vampire flying back across the room like a rag doll. The vampire holding Barry was going to strike him another blow, and this one surely would have been mortal. Marty caught him by his shoulder and thrust him across the room where she had sent the first one.

  Barry fell into her arms bleeding badly. “Oh, my God, Barry, can you make it?”

  He was still conscious and nodded that he would go on. “Yes. We’re going to get out of here.”

  She helped him through the door and then slammed it shut on the rest of the vampires grouping on the other side for another attack. She held the door shut against them and looked down to find an open padlock hanging loosely on the side. Her strength was starting to give out as the vampires tried to push their way inside with them.

  “Barry, can you see if one of those keys will lock that,” she asked him.

  He was still moving slow from heavy blood loss, but he fished the keys out of her pocket and began trying to fit them to the padlock. His movements were painfully slow and seemed to be growing weaker by the moment, but on the second key he had luck, and the padlock closed over its target.

  She helped Barry, and together they ran. Behind them, the vampires in the other room were pounding on the door. So far the padlock was holding. There was a stairway that led up from the basement, and they took this. Barry fell to his knees on the first step, and Marty had to help him back to his feet. His sweater was torn and soaked in blood, and even as he climbed the stairs he was bent over in pain. She let him lean against her for support as she guided them up the steps.

  This stairway was what they had been looking for all along. It led to the main part of the mansion. When they came up, they burst into a large, elegantly furnished dining room. An overhead light was on, and they walked into the room and right into the sight of the old human butler from the night before. He was holding a pistol pointed directly at them.

  “Stop right there!” he commanded them. “It’s you two again. This time, I’m calling the police.”

  They were trapped by him. To Marty, calling the police at that point didn’t seem like a bad idea, but the only problem was she could still hear those vampires in the basement struggling to get loose, and she didn’t think the police would arrive before they did. They didn’t have time to stand around here and wait or to argue with the old butler. Barry was bleeding to death in her arms, and each second she delayed might cost him his life.

  She looked the butler straight in the eye. “You really don’t want to call the police.”

  “I don’t?” He hesitated.

  “You just want to give me that gun and let the two of us go.”

  “I do?” Now he wasn’t sure.

  Marty reached out for the gun. “It’s okay. You can trust me. Just give me that gun and walk away.”

  The hypnosis was complete. “All right,” he said, handing over the gun and then walking out of the dining room in a trance.

  Marty wasn’t too sure what she would do with a gun, because the butler was the only human she had seen in the place, and she was pretty sure it wouldn’t stop a vampire. She discarded it on top of the dining room table. Looking around the strange surroundings, she realized she was lost.
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br />   “Can you keep going?” she asked Barry.

  He nodded, but she could see blood forming in his mouth, and with a chest wound, that was a bad sign. It almost certainly meant that one of his lungs had been punctured. A cold terror ran through her when she saw the white pallor of his skin.

  There was a loud crash from down in the basement. The vampires had broken through and would be coming for them up the stairs any moment. She took Barry’s hand and led him forward down a richly carpeted hallway. There was only the one dim light the butler had turned on in the dining room, and other than that the house was dark. After the crash sound from the basement, everything had become quiet.

  They were walking along a railing that overlooked a lower floor of the mansion. What must have been a ballroom was laid out beneath them, the large chandelier idly hanging over the marble floor. A door opened from somewhere back in the house, and two male vampires that Marty had never seen before walked out onto the ballroom floor below. Their eyes glowed red as they looked up at her and Barry.

  “Stop right there!” one of them commanded her. She could feel his mind reaching for her. He was trying to hypnotize her the same way she had hypnotized the butler a few moments before. The only problem was it wouldn’t work on her because she was also a vampire, but for some unknown reason these guys truthfully thought she was a human being, and that was the reason they were so hostile. Something wasn’t right here.

  Marty looked down at them, happy they were on the floor ten feet below her and had no way of getting up to her and Barry at the moment. “Why are you doing this?” she asked them. “I am one of you. You don’t have any reason to be afraid of me.”

  The vampire seemed confused and taken aback that she had not succumbed to his hypnotic stare.