“And you, my beloved swan?”
“I just wanted to stretch my legs, my mistress.”
“And childe of my childe?” Dunyasha turned to Nicodemus. “You will reinforce all that Cade says. I know that. You protect yours.”
“Da.”
“All thought the wraiths were involved.”
“At one point or another.”
Dunyasha looked away and then up into the night sky. “They would not risk confronting me over something small. Not again.”
Cade and Nico looked at each other as Cade thought, Not again?
“Nicodemus explained to me earlier, when he returned to the caves, that he had to bring all your explosives here to destroy an enemy that was…”
“Colossal,” Nicodemus said.
“Where is this enemy now?” Dunyasha asked. “I see naught.”
“Pollution’s everywhere, lady!” Joe twitched his nose as he shouted.
“Underneath us,” Cade answered as he squeezed his hand around Joe.
“You’re gonna make me poop, you keep squeezing, pal.”
Dunyasha was quiet a moment. “And what of the things inside this house?”
“Those are my guards. Golems.”
“Golems, no. They smell more like him.”
“Yeah, you smell that, lady?” Joe asked. “Well, there might be like two hundred or more of us in there. And guess what? They ain’t as classy as me. They’ve probably already been through Nefertiti’s underwear drawer. And some of thems, they probably never been that close to a real woman before.”
“I find your statement both repulsive and somewhat complimentary,” Moselle replied.
“Oh yeah, baby?” Joe asked with a twitch of his nose. “How about you and I get out of here? There’s still enough of me left to make you a nice big dil—”
“Joe,” Cade stopped him. “Enough.”
“Cock blocker.”
Dunyasha suddenly moved; now she was at the rear of the fire engine. “Another vehicle approaches.”
“Da,” Nico replied. “Large car.”
“Sabrina…” Cade said flatly, unsure how to feel.
“What is happening here, Cade?” Moselle asked anxiously.
Cade pulled Nicodemus’s knife from his belt and handed it back to the old guy. “Here.”
“Spaseeba.”
“Did you do what we planned?”
“Da.”
“Good.” Cade took Nico’s hand and shook it. “Perhaps we can end this battle tonight.”
A small tremor preceded the arrival of Moselle’s limo. Cade joined Dunyasha, standing at her side, right where he belonged. The limo turned the corner into Moselle’s driveway slowly and approached them with clear cautiousness.
“You can return to the caves, mistress,” Cade said, treading lightly. “I’ll finish this and come home to sleep. I promise.”
Dunyasha looked at him—briefly yet long enough for him to know she would not heed his words. She had her own agenda now, and that worried him.
When the limousine’s headlights lit up the driveway, Cade became enthralled by his sire. He could not take his eyes off Dunyasha. The lights turned her dress translucent; he could make out the curve of her hips, the shape of her breasts, but he could not see the finer details. It was not like he had never seen his mistress without her clothing before. He had simply forgotten and stared until the bright lights crept around her back and he could make out the puffy welts of her flogging scars.
Cade wanted to touch one of her scars. They were a reminder of an ancient time. A time when his master had been alive. Second, he thought. Just when precisely were you alive, Dunyasha?
The limo came to a complete stop and sat there a moment, the engine running.
“You think she knows, yo?” Joe asked from Cade’s hand.
“Knows what?”
“Knows what?” Joe laughed. “Knows what you plan to do with her. You gotta give brassy tits some credit, yeah. She’s here. She could’ve run.”
Cade looked at Dunyasha’s cold face and then nodded to Joe. “Maybe she should’ve.”
* * *
10 Russian - I failed her too, mistress.
Jackson’s Last Stand
Jackson and Sabrina sat silently. Neither had said a word in the last ten minutes. If not for the occasional earthquake that rattled the wine bottles in the mini-bar, the last part of the drive would have been oddly peaceful.
An empty water bottle rolled side to side at Jackson’s feet. How long he had watched it bounce around he was unsure—he was spent, mentally and physically. He would have blamed the long day, but it was the last thirty minutes that really did him in. Of course, he wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Jackson rested his eyes on Sabrina, reminiscing on their second time having sex—parked outside of Walmart as Weston stole them some clothes. He had another erection and he knew Sabrina had noticed it too because she’d smirked and winked playfully at him.
“Maybe we should have Weston circle around.”
“Oh, sweetie, I couldn’t handle another ride on that thing of yours. I’m sore.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” he said and then nodded. “Tomorrow morning.”
“Maybe.” Sabrina adjusted the oversized hooded sweatshirt she wore.
Jackson peered forward. “It looks like they’re waiting for us.”
Sabrina did not move, just asked, “Who is ‘they’?”
“I see Cade, Moselle, and it looks like an old Russian soldier—”
“Soviet soldier.”
“Okay. Soviet soldier…” Jackson nodded. “And two other women. One of them looks kinda like Morticia Addams but wearing a white dress and a lot less friendly.”
“Dunyasha.” Sabrina choked.
Jackson turned as he asked, “Cade’s master?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to just get out of here, Sabrina?”
“There’s no escape now.”
Jackson didn’t like the sound of that. Combined with Sabrina’s unwillingness to look outside; he knew she was scared to death.
“I’ll go talk to them. Stay here.”
“Wait…”
Jackson had opened the door but had not stepped out.
“Be careful, okay?”
“Sure,” he answered..
Once outside the car, Jackson felt like he was walking on the moon. Moselle’s home—her yard—felt entirely foreign to him. So dark and quiet…something’s wrong here.
“Don’t let anyone in that car, Weston. And shield me if they—”
The long-limbed woman who stood with Cade, the one Sabrina said was his master, suddenly disappeared and in a blink reappeared only a few feet in front of him.
“What the hell!” Jackson exclaimed, startled. “How the hell did you move that quick? Your legs didn’t even—”
“Human?” Dunyasha said as her head twitched.
“Yea-es?”
“His name’s Jackson.” Cade approached. “He’s my friend.”
“Is he?” Dunyasha sniffed. “You make friends with them now? He know what you are? What we are?”
“No. Yes. I’ve allied with him, just as you allied with them in the past,” Cade explained.
“So you yet plan to kill him,” Dunyasha said. “Protect our secret.”
“What?” Jackson did not like the sound of that. “I’m starting to think Sabrina was right about you all. You—”
“Why is he here?” Dunyasha interrupted.
“I’m here,”—Jackson said—“because I want to stop this. I want to stop all of this. I’m here to protect Sabrina from all the things that attack her. All of them, Cade.”
“Oh?” Cade flashed his teeth. He caught Jackson’s meaning, Jackson was sure of it.
“Her again.” Dunyasha looked annoyed; her head twitched. “I smell her. She is here.”
“She is,” Jackson said. “I didn’t want to bring her here. I don’t trust you. I told her we—”<
br />
“We?” Cade asked, his eyes wide.
“We?” Moselle parroted.
“Yeah. I told her we should get the hell out of here.”
“But you said—” Moselle began.
“I was not going to abandon her, Moselle. Not before. Not now.”
Dunyasha took a step closer to Jackson before she looked him in the eyes and said, “This human has claimed her. He is covered in her scent.”
“That’s right.” Jackson crossed him arms.
“Jackson?” Moselle called out; he could hear the hurt in her voice, albeit slight. “What in the name of Sekhmet is happening here? And why are you wearing that hideous camouflage?”
Jackson felt like saying a hundred different things—smart things, hurtful things, self-protective things—but he blurted out possibly the worst that came to mind. “I fucked her!”
“You what?” Cade grumbled.
“Twice,” Jackson said. “And it was good. Sabrina’s mine now.”
“You and Sabrina…” Moselle took several steps back, she looked stunned.
“In the back of the limo.”
“M-my limo?” Moselle’s voice shifted to anger. “You…you dare to disrespect me so grandly, Jackson?”
Jackson didn’t say anything. He just stood there and watched as Cade walked back to the fire engine and opened its passenger side door. The vampire fished about for something on the floor a moment, and when he returned, he drew a pistol from the satchel in his hand and aimed it.
“When I shoot you the first time, you’re gonna scream in pain. When I shoot you again, you will plead with me to stop. By the third and fourth shot, Jackson, you will beg me to shoot you again just to kill you.”
A steady rumble shook Moselle’s front yard so hard the front gate tore from its hinges and fell to the street.
“Plug this guy and let’s go, man,” Joe squeaked. “Pollution’s here.”
Jackson could see Cade’s finger on the trigger of his gun, but it was no more threatening than Moselle’s rage-covered face or Dunyasha’s deathly cold glare.
“Weston—” He began to command until a scream drowned out his voice.
“Stop!” Sabrina shouted from the moon roof of the limo. “Stop all this crazy shit!”
Sabrina Steps Up
Sabrina pulled herself up through the moon roof, so she could stand on the top of the limo. She considered releasing her wings, to ascend to a low hover, but that meant she’d ruin the hoodie she wore and regardless of its size and horrible camouflage print, it brought her some small scale of comfort in this chaotic moment.
“Stop!” Sabrina shouted again as she took in the scene.
Cade. Nicodemus. Natalia, Dunyasha…and Moselle. They all heard what Jackson said. They all heard it.
“I’m not afraid of them, Sabrina,” Jackson stated. “Weston and I can handle this.”
“Weston…” Cade sneered. “I see now. Better be careful, Jacks. Maybe the air spirit wants Sabrina all for himself. He’s been inside her in ways neither of us could dream of.”
“Damn it, Cade! Stop!” Sabrina yelled.
“Who are you to issue commands here, Sabrina?” Moselle stepped forward, and unwrapped her arms from around herself. “This is my home! My land! You think you can steal what is mine and then flaunt it in my face here? Here? I should—”
“Moselle—” Sabrina began.
“I rule here! No one else!”
When Moselle shouted, Sabrina noticed that her eyes were not on her so much as on the limo—specifically the back end.
“Moselle, please…”
“Return to me my property, Sabrina. Do not make me take it back.”
“What the fuck, Moselle?” Jackson scowled. “I’m not your property. I never was. I’m done being treated like—”
“Some rich girl’s boy toy?” Cade chuckled.
“Yeah,” Jackson agreed, then frowned.
Sabrina overheard Cade say something in Russian to Nico. She knew it was bad news when she saw the old man begin to move slowly to the side of the group.
“Nico, don’t you make this worse!” Sabrina yelled and then pointed at him. “Cade, call him off. Stop this!”
She returned her gaze forward and locked eyes with Dunyasha. Until then, she had avoided looking directly at her. Cade had told her many stories about his sire, and all those stories ended one of two ways: filled with death and destruction or Cade and his family buckling to her every command.
Sabrina had wished she would never come face-to-face with the woman. She had been Cade’s savior, his matriarch, his leader, and his lover—his everything. She knew she could not compete with all that. Yet now, as she looked at the stunningly beautiful woman, Sabrina sensed something oddly familiar about the elder vampire.
The ground shook more and more. Sabrina tried to balance herself atop the car, but her bare feet slipped and she fell. Before she hit the ground she found herself in the arms of Dunyasha. A fact, her brain could not comprehend.
“You caught me? How?”
Sabrina looked around. Nothing moved. There were no sounds; it seemed like the world itself was frozen. Unexpectedly, a voice entered her head and by the deep Russian accent there was no doubt it belonged to Dunyasha.
“What do you see, fairy princess?”
“Everything stopped,” she answered out loud.
Suddenly, the world came back alive. Jackson shouted, Cade rushed to her, and Nico ducked down into the shadows under one of Moselle’s trees.
“What the fuck?” Sabrina blinked her eyes.
“Put her down!” Jackson demanded.
Cade pointed his gun and shouted. “Back off, Jackson!”
“You…you’re—” Sabrina began.
“Time fractured,” Dunyasha said in her mind. “Only a powerful fairy would truly see.”
Sabrina shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “Powerful fairy?” she asked. It seemed like everything stopped again.
“Now and a fraction of a second from now.”
“How is that even possible?” Sabrina asked as Dunyasha put her down.
“Fairy-kind magic—”
“Put her down, damn you!” Jackson shouted again.
No longer in contact with Dunyasha, Sabrina felt suddenly motion sick. Jackson moved in—a blur—too fast for her to stop him. He lashed out, and with both hands, he shoved Dunyasha. Sabrina flinched. She was not sure what to expect. Part of her thought Jackson would just cease to exist: combust, explode, maybe just disappear. Cade had painted his sire as such a powerful being, she just figured any act of aggression against her would warrant instant death.
Sabrina heard Cade shout a second before a weapon discharged.
POW.
Another powerful quake. To her surprise, Dunyasha fell backward to her seat before the whistle of a bullet ended in a loud clank and chime. There, Sabrina saw it, an inch behind Jackson’s head: the flattened round. Weston stopped it.
“I’m going to rip your bleeding head off!” Cade growled at Jackson, his teeth fully bared.
The earthquake grew suddenly worse, and both Sabrina and Jackson fell beside Dunyasha. More cracks appeared around Moselle’s front yard, several of which began to pump out thick, shiny oil.
“It’s too late, buddy!” At Cade’s feet, a rat pawed at his pants. “I told you it was here!”
The limo bounced as a large tear in the ground opened up underneath it. Sabrina tried to stand but the way the ground moved made it futile.
“Move! Move! Move!” Cade shouted and then reached down to help Dunyasha up.
“Cade…” Sabrina began to say, it was the first time she’d looked into his eyes since the night he vanished. In some way, she wanted to touch him to make sure he was real. “I thought you were dead.”
“I am dead,” he said coldly. “Now more than ever.”
“Cade…”
A look of sadness mixed with concern on his face but concern for what, for whom, Sabrina was unsure.
<
br /> “We got to move people!” he said with a large, sweeping gesture. “Moselle, arm the water turret. Nico get inside the truck. Move that thing around; make it a hard target for Pollution.”
“I will not be ordered as if I’m some commoner, Cade. My guards—”
“Gone,” Nico stated coldly.
“That cannot be.”
“Damn it, Moselle. Do you want to defend your home or not?” Cade asked.
Sabrina watched Moselle glance at her limo again before she answered. “Yes, I do.”
“Good. Go!”
A rumble like thunder filled the night sky, but there was no lighting to accompany it.
“Mistress, you shouldn’t be here. Can you transport yourself back home? Mistress?” Cade said to Dunyasha as he led her away, but Dunyasha kept her eyes on Sabrina. “Mistress?”
Dunyasha… Sabrina could not help but wonder about the woman.
What kind of fairy magic affects you? Sabrina knew fairies and vampires were bitter rivals, but she had never heard or read anything about a fairy using its powers against an elder vampire. The only fairies who might even have command of such power are the Elemental Kings…like my father…
“Sabrina.” Jackson took her hand during the commotion. “We should go.”
“Go where?”
“Anywhere but here,” he said over the loud rumble of the earthquake.
She turned her full attention to him. “Is that your plan, Jackson?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it your plan to tell everyone we fucked too?” she asked as she took her hand out of his. “Sabrina’s mine now?”
“I—”
“You didn’t think that would piss everyone off?” Sabrina fumbled with her bangle under her sweatshirt’s sleeve. “You didn’t think that what we did in private was supposed to be private? You know, just between you and me?”
“You said you were going to tweet about it.”
Sabrina sneered. “You might as well have told everyone you came inside me. The cherry on top of the fucking sundae, Jackson.”
Two Polluted Black-Heart Romances Page 34
