He had to hurry. He didn’t have time to mess around. Fear seared through his guts. He took a syringe of rosary pea extract out of his pocket. It had been for the rogue, but now he was going to have to use it on the unconscious vampire. He plunged the needle into its heart. That would slow the vamp down should he awaken while Chaz was busy with the others.
He withdrew the needle and flashed over to the third vampire in less than a few seconds. This vampire seemed a little sluggish and clearly had no real fighting skills. Chaz took advantage by throwing a right hook with all his might. He felt the crunch of bone beneath his fist. The vampire twisted away with the force of the blow and went down in a heap. The vamp moaned and tried to lift up. Chaz swung his leg upwards and caught him just under the chin. “Do yourself a favor. Stay down.”
Chaz could feel the fourth vampire approaching.
Hey, Sam? I could use a little help over here.
In moments, Sam appeared. She took one look at the scene and froze the rest of his attackers. “What is going on here?” she asked.
“You tell me, Sam,” he yelled back, running towards Stacy. “Oh God, are you all right?” he asked her, terror sending little spikes into his belly.
She nodded. She stared down at the gun then at him and shook her head as she holstered her weapon—just another thing he’d have to make right.
She stared up at him, steadfast, fear, and relief swirling in her gaze. But that was Stacy, wasn’t it? Standing her ground in spite of her fear? His guts tightened into a cold knot as his fingertips grazed the bruise on her cheek. His arms wound around her, and he knew he never wanted to let go.
“They decided they wanted to have me for dinner,” Stacy told him. “I had other ideas.”
Chaz didn’t just hug her, he enveloped her in his arms. She held on for dear life. Over her head, he caught Sam’s gaze.
“They were trying to kill Stacy,” he told her. “And me.”
From the looks of things, Sam had just been about to let them go when she stopped dead. “They were what?”
“They were trying to kill me.”
Astonishment filled Sam’s features. “Why would anyone in their right mind do that?”
“I have no idea. You tell me. Because none of tonight makes sense.”
Stacy let go of him and caught his gaze with hers. He stared down at her for a long time before he let his arms fall to his sides.
“Sorry about the vampire lessons, but you needed the diversion. There were too many of them.”
“Thank you.” She hesitated. “Sam.” Then she looked over at Pat and Mike, both still unconscious. She ran to them, bending down to see how they were. Chaz moved to follow.
Until they heard a scream.
Chaz whirled in the direction of the noise. “Pitch.”
Sam arrived way ahead of him. Her indrawn breath was all he needed to hear. But he had to see for himself. If for no other reason than he abandoned the one friend he had in this other existence.
Pitch lay crumpled on the ground. Right where he’d been thrown. The smell of dead blood mixed with the unique scent of rogue vampire blood. A regrettable combination he’d smelled before.
Oh, God. Pitch.
Mick had been his mentor and friend, father figure, but the elder vampire had been stern and had held a piece of himself in reserve. As if he’d been afraid to get close to Chaz. Or maybe because of the bond they shared that no one knew about. Or because Mick had known one of them might die saving the other. Pitch had been closer to his age, and because of his nature, much easier to approach. They’d become friends.
Chaz remembered Pitch’s laughter, deep and hearty. And his first question when Chaz told him he was purchasing the loft in Hoboken. “You’re not gonna steal any of my women on me, are you?”
His heart broke. He remembered Pitch’s easy smile, easier manner, and he remembered his comrade in arms, his brother.
Sam started chanting in her native tongue. A prayer for the soul of the dead. He’d heard her chant this before, but Pitch wasn’t dead yet, and Chaz wasn’t sure how he was going to get through the next few moments.
Sam stopped praying and squeezed his shoulder. “We have to be quick, Chaz. If he begins to heal, he’ll go rogue.”
He nodded, his insides hollow, and his heart broke. “I don’t have any extract. I used it to save Stacy.”
“You won’t need it. I will keep him immobile. As I am with the others.”
Dead yet not dead. Drained yet not drained. Chaz couldn’t imagine a worse way to end his vampiric life. To come awake to nothing but the blood.
“We need to take his head. But with what? I have no sword. No knife.”
Sam opened her jacket to reveal a very long, very wicked-looking dagger sitting in a leather holster. “This comes from a time when becoming a vampire was an honor,” she said, handing the dagger to him. “Pitch would have wanted to go out in style.”
Chaz nodded. His eyes burned and dried as no tears came. They laid Pitch out with reverence, and then Chaz knelt beside his friend. There wasn’t much left of his neck anyway.
Sam began chanting again and, with a sad smile, nodded that he should get it over with. A single stroke, that was all he needed, and Chaz severed his head. Then he brought the knife down straight into Pitch’s heart. A moment later, Pitch began bleeding out.
What the hell was I thinking? Stacy…
Her face filled his vision. Stacy. The thought of her name hollowed his insides. Oh, my God. Stacy!
“Sam?” he strangled out.
She breathed deeply. “I don’t sense him, and the stench seems to be dissipating.” Her hand clenched his shoulder. “You must finish here. Besides, I’m faster, and I still have a hold on the others. She will be safe with me.”
She sped off, and after the way the night unfolded, Chaz asked himself why too many times to count.
All of a sudden he heard someone crashing through the brush. He rose, ready to take on the rogue, but it wasn’t Mick. Ozzie came running into the clearing, his chest heaving, and skidded to a halt next to Pitch. Chaz stared. Ozzie fell to his knees beside the body. He rocked back and forth, his arm curling around his stomach as he moaned. Chaz waited until Ozzie stilled.
“Too late,” the vampire whispered. “I called to Pitch to warn him. He didn’t answer.”
“It’s okay, Ozzie.”
“No, it isn’t. I lost the trail. Damned, wily, son-of-a-bitch. He doubled back on me.”
“It isn’t your fault. We all made the mistake of underestimating him.”
Ozzie shuddered and rose. They waited and it didn’t take long until there was no blood left inside the body. Then he poured a scented oil on Pitch’s body, and Chaz lit the match. Chaz reached out but Ozzie fled, unable to watch Pitch burn.
For a moment Chaz wanted to die too. Then he looked down. Inside the pool of blood on the ground, he found a silver cross, right where Pitch’s hand had been. And he knew exactly who the cross belonged to.
Chapter Twelve
Stacy
Standing in front of the bar, Stacy had no idea how she would explain she’d ended up using her gun. Again. Five bullets.
Toasted. Plain old toasted. Boogeymen and myths.
Speaking of the Boogeymen, Chaz and the woman he called Sam vanished, leaving Stacy alone with a bunch of vampire statues, creeping her out to the max. Her cheek throbbed with fire, and she so wanted to go over and do more damage to Donnie’s privates. But she’d always been taught not to kick a man when he was down.
Then again, she thought, her tongue licking her lips, he wasn’t a man.
A reaction set in, and Stacy shivered. She helped Pat sit up against the outside wall of the bar. Pat’s cheek was already red but not too swollen, thank goodness. Mike groaned, so she shifted to see how he was doing. He had a large knot growing on the side of his jaw that was going to turn all kinds of colors and hurt like a bitch.
A sigh rustled through the trees, sort of like a last breat
h. She shivered again. Then the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen flashed back next to her, her face filled with anger. Sam.
“Are they all right?”
“I think so.”
“I’m going to have to give them each a little of the Lethe. Then I’ll put them inside.”
Stacy nodded. “I don’t think either of them has a concussion. Being a little high right now might help with the pain.”
The vampiress nodded, picked Pat up like he was a child, and took him inside the bar. She came out a minute later and did the same for Mike. When she returned, she nodded to let Stacy know they were all right.
“I drained some of the swelling on their wounds.”
“Thank you.”
The woman’s jaw clenched, and she stared at the frozen vampires looking like she wanted to dope slap each one of them. She began pacing, stopped and stared brows drawing together.
“I thought about going after his nuts again,” Stacy explained. “But I wasn’t sure, given his current state, if he’d feel it or not.”
The woman lifted her head, features clearing. “Not a bad idea. They can hear, see, and feel.” She turned away, muttering to herself in a language Stacy didn’t understand as she surveyed the area, then she shrugged. “Be my guest.”
Stacy started walking towards Donnie when Chaz reappeared and caught her elbow.
“What are you doing?”
Stacy pointed at her compatriot. “She said I could kick Donnie in the balls again.” When Chaz didn’t grin, Stacy realized something was terribly wrong. “Chaz? What’s going on?”
Dread filled her at the grief in his gaze. “Pitch is dead. We had to take his head.”
“What?”
“I’ve never met a more genuine soul,” the woman lamented. “He had a zest for life I’ve only encountered a few times before. Never will again now.”
Chaz nodded, grief etched in his features. He shared a look with the woman, a look Stacy knew she could never be a part of. They’d shared hundreds of years together that she could only guess at.
“Oh, God, no. Not Pitch.” She tried to snare his gaze. “I’m sorry. So, so sorry. I liked him. He told me who he was when he was human.”
Chaz looked like he wanted to scream. Instead, he ran over to a plastic garbage can and threw it, so it bounced into a fence with a slam. He whirled back towards her, chest heaving, fists balled. He looked like he wanted to fight the world.
“Damn it all!” Chaz exploded. “Pitch was one of the good guys, and we weren’t with him when we should have been. And because we weren’t, he had to try to destroy the rogue by himself.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Chaz,” Sam told him.
“Yes, it was. I should have been there. The rogue was more important.”
That hurt. But Chaz was right. In his world, he had his priorities.
“You couldn’t be in two places, nor could I,” Sam added.
Besides, this was her fault. She was the one who pushed to be the bait. “I’m grateful you came to my rescue,” she said to Sam.
Chaz didn’t seem to realize how terrible she really felt, and Stacy tried to understand. He was grieving. “Shouldn’t we be interrogating Donnie and his friends?”
“That’s not for you to do,” Chaz fired at her.
“Got it,” she blasted back, turning to hide her tears.
She headed for her car. “Stacy, wait!”
“No,” she called back, waving over her shoulder. “It’s fine.” She hurried to the car, trying to keep the stupid hurt she felt from bubbling over. Logically, she knew Chaz was in pain. He’d lost someone important to him. He needed to prioritize.
Stacy needed some space from the night, from this new reality she’d found herself in and the man she knew she was quickly falling for.
“I need some sleep,” she told him, not looking back as she tried to keep hurt from her tone. “And you need to figure out what’s going on. You have your priorities, and I have mine.” She shrugged, glancing once over her shoulder, affecting an even expression, half-understanding, half-hysterical worry she was sure he’d never buy. “Go take care of your vampires, Chaz. You, too, Sam. I’m going to try to find a way to explain why I discharged my firearm to my boss without getting fired,” she added, a sharp pain gutting her as she remembered the care Pitch’d taken to restore her firearm the first time she’d used it.
Stacy shut the door of her car, feeling ridiculous and helplessly alone. Neither one of them followed. She understood, though the truth of the matter still stung. In their world, Pitch was a loss they might never get over, and she was expendable.
He flashed over to her car. “The rogue is still out there. You’re still in danger.”
Stacy ignored him, started the car, and spun the tires to get away.
As she drove home, Stacy tried hard not to let their exclusivity hurt her. She’d never really experienced any kind of prejudice before, but she likened the feeling to when she was a child and never got invited into the ‘popular’ circle. They were telling her she would never be part of their circle. She was human. They weren’t.
Fair enough. She could handle that except for one small detail—Chaz.
What the hell was she going to do? Just accept that they were from two different worlds? And then what? Die? That was a lovely thought. Let him drug her into sweet forgetfulness? Now that was even lovelier.
Welcome to the wonderful world of vampires.
Stacy pulled into her driveway, knowing she’d better come up with a plan and soon. Because sooner than later, she wouldn’t be able to extricate herself from the situation she was in, and neither would they.
Chapter Thirteen
Chaz
Chaz wanted to go after Stacy, but he hesitated.
“Go after her,” Sam said.
“I’m not sure I should.”
“Why? Does she frighten you?”
He laughed softly despite the grief tearing at his guts. “More than you do.”
Sam laughed with him. “Time heals, my friend. Of that, we are both certain. So go after her. Let what time you have together help you heal.”
“I don’t know, Sam. I really don’t know if I should.”
“Why not?” Sam asked, her tone surprised.
“She’s human.”
Sam shook her head at him, making him feel like a child. “She is. And yet, I wonder. She’s done nothing but try to help us.” Sam lifted her shoulders, but Chaz sensed no apology. “She was shouting her thoughts, and it seems we’ve done nothing but kick her in the teeth for her efforts.”
“Not exactly fair, is it?”
“Not exactly nice either,” she added, her tone filled with respect. “Are we really that different?” Sam chided, her tone gently berating them both for their prejudice. “Are we all not beings with infinite possibilities?”
“You can ask that after what just happened? Pitch is dead. We tried to set a trap, and we got trapped instead. Doesn’t that bother you? Even a little?”
“Yes, but we didn’t have a great deal of time to plan.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think any plan would have worked. I think we were set up.”
Sam stared at him, her gaze turning to deep thought. “By humans? I think not.”
Chaz shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. No, someone smart is behind all this.”
“A plot?”
Chaz nodded. “I believe so. Don’t you?”
She didn’t answer right away. “To what purpose?”
He shrugged. He didn’t know. Not really, but a bad feeling had snaked its way from his spine to his guts, telling him they were in for trouble.
And then there was the cross. He decided not to tell Sam about that just yet. “I have no idea, but vampires fear going rogue worse than death. In nearly a thousand years, there have only been a couple dozen. Now there’s the three in six months? I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Agreed.”
“So, the
question becomes, is a person, or maybe a group of people, using these vampires to create mayhem? And is there a possibility that these vampires and the increase in rogues are related?” He watched Sam frown as she considered his questions. “Shouldn’t we ask them?”
“In a minute,” she answered, her brow furrowing. “If your logic is correct, someone is creating and playing with some very dangerous toys.”
“I know. So we need to find out who and then why.”
Sam seemed to agree. “My first guess would be that this person or people are after Hunter’s cell.”
“Maybe,” Chaz agreed. “But we’ve always been a straightforward bunch. If someone wanted Hunter’s cell or Jason’s or any of the leaders, they’d make war. They always have in the past.”
Sam frowned and glanced over at the young vampires in her mental grip. He had the feeling she wanted to do more than just hold them, and he understood her anger. There was nothing honorable about the way they were going about their ‘business.’
“True,” Sam replied. “But times change. Just as Stacy has reminded me that humans are constantly growing and gaining knowledge, so are vampires. This may be a new way to make war.”
Which left them both with a very important question. “Who would be powerful enough to control vampires this way?” he asked.
Sam shook her head. “I don’t know, but somehow, I don’t think this is purely mind control. Even I couldn’t do something like that. And as you know, I’ve tried many techniques at Sanctuary.”
Chaz nodded. “What I don’t get is the danger. This is like playing with an atom bomb. Rogues cannot be contained. One wrong move and…why take that risk?”
Sam seemed to agree. “Because of the reward. We’ve been talking about single cells. What if this person, or more than one person, wants more. Perhaps, by creating enough chaos, they think they can take over all vampires.”
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