Downbeat (Biting Love)

by Hughes, Mary

  Luke growled. “We’ve got to stop this.”

  “Not yet.” Logan turned his fierce concentration toward the screen.

  Drusilla twisted out of the megavamp’s grip and danced away. She gave the monster a brilliant smile and untied the strings on one shoulder. The neckline fell to the tip of her breast.

  He grabbed for her. She barely evaded him.

  “He’ll hurt her,” Luke said.

  “We won’t let that happen,” Logan said. “But we haven’t found his weakness yet. Do you want to go through this again?”

  “I’m his weakness,” Raquel said. “I have to give myself to him.”

  Dragan tightened his hold on her. He’d never let go. He glanced at Luke. Well, not until he delivered her into angelic arms.

  “You’re one weakness,” Logan agreed. “But not his only one.” Under his breath he added, “I hope.” He glanced up. “Give Dru a chance to make him reveal another.”

  On the display, Drusilla untied the strings at her right shoulder. The bodice fell, exposing both breasts. Dragan found his reaction somewhat clinical. They were nice breasts—but not as beautiful as Raquel’s.

  “He’d better reveal it soon,” Luke said. “She’s about to offer everything.”

  The megavamp licked his chops. His eyes were nailed to Drusilla’s hands, grasping the material of the dress at her hips to peel down to ground zero.

  She took a deep breath. Dragan could see she was steeling herself.

  “She’s trembling,” Luke snarled. “She’s scared.”

  “Fuck,” Logan said. “You’re right. It’s suicidal, but get ready to go in.”

  “I love suicidal.” Luke drew a handgun and sprang past them out the limo door.

  Logan tossed Dragan the tablet on his way out.

  Drusilla was wiggling out of her skirt.

  “I can’t let them do this.” Raquel started to slide out the door after Logan.

  Dragan snared an arm around her waist while keeping his eyes on the tablet. “Don’t—”

  A scream split the air. Gravloth had grabbed Dru’s naked buttock and cinched her in close. She slapped him.

  He only grinned. Waggling lecherous eyebrows, he grabbed both her nipples—and wrenched them like twirling jacks.

  She shrieked, twice as high and five times as loud as the scream. The sound was so shrill and powerful that the glass in the back window of the store shattered.

  Gravloth clapped both hands over his ears. Luke and Logan, just coming into view, stopped.

  Dru wound up and smacked the Soul Stealer’s face good. Even outside, the crack rang in Dragan’s hearing.

  Crack? Dragan’s gaze riveted to the tablet’s screen.

  The monster’s jaw hung at an odd angle.

  Dru snatched up her sundress and stalked out the back. She shoved into the limo. Luke and Logan hustled in after her. “Drive,” she growled.

  Miyagi turned front and squealed out of the alley.

  On the display, the Soul Stealer stood where he was, rubbing his broken jaw.

  As the limo raced toward Strongwell’s electrified household, Dragan held Raquel’s soft body next to him and breathed her beloved scent.

  Gathering the strength to do right by her. After which he’d rip out the Soul Stealer’s heart so the monster could never hurt her again, or die trying.

  Strangely, giving her up was the harder of the two.

  Footsteps crashed, far away.

  “Good fuck.” Luke stared out the back window. “The monster’s following us.”

  Logan leaned to see past him. “Once we get to Strongwell’s, we’ll be safe.”

  “Elias could get through Strongwell’s fortifications.”

  “It’s a good thing Gravloth doesn’t have an ancient’s smarts to go with the power then, isn’t it?”

  “You hope.” Luke’s eyes were bleak.

  Logan nodded. “Better to play it safe. Miyagi, when you get to Meiers Corners, don’t go straight to Strongwell’s. Cruise up and down Main Street for a while.”

  Miyagi threw a grin over his shoulder. “Over the river, got it.”

  Logan sat back. “With the sun this high, either he’ll get smart and find shelter before he ignites, or he won’t. I’m hoping he won’t.”

  After twenty minutes, Gravloth loped into the shade of a building. Miyagi gunned it for Strongwell’s.

  The moment they squealed into underground parking, the hum of electricity surrounded them.

  Dragan sat like stone as the Alliance vampires slid out one by one. Raquel slid out behind them, ran to where her mother was getting out of the front seat, and gave her a big tearful hug.

  Then she turned and waited for him. Slowly, reluctantly, he got out.

  This was it.

  He delayed one moment longer, taking her hand and following the others into the household proper. They gathered in the blue-striped parlor where Bo Strongwell, hands behind his back, chin pressed to his ship’s prow of a chest, paced. With him were his blond Viking of a lieutenant, Thorvald, Julian, Julian’s lieutenant, Rebecca, and Logan’s lieutenant, Sissy.

  Bo stopped pacing as they trooped in. “You made it, good. Does that mean Gravloth has a weakness we can exploit?”

  “Didn’t see it.” Logan strode directly to the bar and poured himself a finger of amber liquid. “We’ll have to try again, damn it.”

  “How’d you escape then?”

  “We got lucky.” Dru poured herself three fingers and drank it in one gulp.

  “No.” Raquel’s tone was giddy. “Logan was right. Gravloth has another weakness.” She used the back of one wrist to wipe her eyes.

  Logan frowned at her. “What do you mean? I didn’t see any weakness.”

  “Didn’t you? When Dru screamed, then slapped him. She broke his jaw.”

  “I’m not going back,” Dru said. “I faced him once, but I need time before I can do that again. And more of this.” She poured herself another shot and downed it.

  “I have a plan to trap him,” Raquel said. “But you’re not the bait. I—”

  “Wait,” Dragan said. She intended to offer herself as sacrifice; he couldn’t delay any longer. “I have something to say first. Come with me?”

  He took Raquel’s hands, led her to a chair, sat her down and knelt before her.

  Hope warmed her eyes.

  The Alliance males ringed them, curiosity alight in theirs. Trudi clapped her hands together, anticipation on her face.

  “Raquel, my heart. You deserve a life of love and happiness. The best of everything, including the best mate.”

  Raquel beamed at him. “That’s lovely, Dragan.”

  He swallowed hard. Gravloth wasn’t the only unmated vampire available for her. Do the right thing. “I give you to that mate with whatever blessings my dark soul can offer.”

  Heart breaking, he kissed her hands goodbye.

  And held them up to Luke Steel.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  She jerked free of him. Surprise made him let go. She leaped to her feet. “Do you think you’re being fucking noble?” She trembled, her eyes blazing. “You’re not.”

  “This isn’t about me—”

  “Yes, it is. You’re afraid, aren’t you? We’re all afraid of things. I’m afraid of screwing up and being humiliated. Camille is afraid of doing things on her own instead of through men. And you—” she nailed him with her glare, “—you’re afraid to love.”

  “Raquel, you don’t understand.”

  “I understand, all right. I understand I may never be good enough in the eyes of the snobs. But you know what? Some things are worth trying, whether you bomb or not. I’m worth trying.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Zajicek! I’m worth the risk.”

  It stunned Dragan. When his family was slaughtered because of his arrogance, he’d lost his heart, a black hole where it had been. When Raquel left him for Iowa, he’d felt the same sucking black hole.

  As if
somehow, in between, she’d grown back his heart.

  All the “risks” he’d taken all these years. No risk at all. Denying himself love…that was really self-punishment for killing his family.

  In offering her love, Raquel presented him with the first real risk he’d had since he’d risen sixteen hundred years ago.

  He tried to tell her. “I can’t. I can’t lose it all again.”

  “Fine. Give up then.” She spun away. “Come on, Mother. We’re going.”

  She was leaving him again. His heart jumped into his throat. He stumbled to his feet. “Wait. Please.”

  She stopped. He thought she’d heard his breaking heart, but as her mother left Raquel slashed his hopes with, “One more thing. Maybe I’m not worth trying.” She spun back, eyes blazing. “But my plan is. No human or vampire can kill the Soul Stealer. But I’m betting humans and vampires, in a precisely orchestrated strike, can.”

  He didn’t understand what she was saying. He only knew she’d grown back his heart and was now threatening to rip it out again. He stretched out his hands to her. “I need you, Raquel.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “My name is Rocky. No fancy Raquel, plain old Rocky. Here’s the deal. I may never be upper-class enough for you. But I’m willing to try. My plan to destroy Gravloth may end up with us all dead. But I’m willing to try.”

  She nailed him with her gaze. “One last chance, Zajicek. What about you? Are you willing to try?”

  Through the muddle that was his mind, one thing burst clear—she meant more than her plan. She meant them.

  How could he? How could he risk loving her, only to know he might lose her? Might, through arrogance or stupidity or plain bad luck, be the cause?

  Forget more centuries spent in aching darkness, a raw bleeding hole in his chest. How could he love her knowing he could be the one to hurt her? How could he risk it?

  He lifted his head to say no.

  He met her beautiful eyes. His beloved Raquel. Her sweet essence was the air he breathed. Her heart was big enough to fill even his black hole.

  He might hurt her.

  His Raquel was willing to risk it.

  Shock burst through him. His Raquel—that name was his name for her, not her own. And it was flawed. His image of her was deeply flawed, because it didn’t take into account the thing about her that attracted him most.

  He loved risk—and she did too.

  Oh, her poison wasn’t fast cars or skydiving or looting with barbarian hordes.

  Her risk was loving him.

  The biggest risk of all. How could he do any less?

  He signaled his commitment to her the only way he could. “I’m willing—Rocky.”

  I closed my eyes, hardly believing he’d said it, hoping but not fully trusting the deeper meaning I heard beneath.

  Hands slapped a hard back. My eyes sprang open.

  Luke and Logan were congratulating a very red Dragan. Behind them, Bo stood neutrally and Julian, sitting in a chair, glared.

  Well, imagine that. Everyone else thought he meant what I thought he meant too.

  “Stop it.” Julian’s eyes flashed violet. “The braggart doesn’t need any more applause. Rocky, what’s your plan?”

  I could barely stop grinning. Dragan would try a relationship with me. “My plan, right. When Dru clocked Gravloth, she broke his jaw.”

  Behind Dragan, the Alliance vampires exchanged glances. Logan said, “I saw it. But I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “Right before that, she shrieked, loud and high enough that she broke glass. Gravloth hated it—he clapped his hands over his ears to try to muffle it.” My gaze meshed with Dragan’s.

  He confirmed it. “C# in the seventh octave. You have perfect pitch?”

  Relief cascaded through me. I hadn’t imagined it. “Yes. She shrieked a C#7—the exact note that figures in the high register study Dr. Vilyn was playing when Gravloth murdered him.”

  “Wait,” Logan said. “You’re saying high notes drive the monster into a killing frenzy?”

  “I don’t know exactly. But sonic vibrations are powerful. That C# must resonate with Gravloth’s bone structure in such a way that is both painful and makes him vulnerable.”

  “Fuck,” Bo said. “His Achilles heel.”

  “It’s not going to be easy,” I cautioned. “The instant he knows what we’re doing, he’ll adjust to protect his vulnerability.”

  “But we have a shot.” Luke slammed a fist into his palm. “Let’s take it.”

  “Wait a minute,” Logan said. “How? So we make his bones vulnerable, so what? We can chop off his head, but only if we get close enough. He’s faster than us and stronger than us, and I don’t think he’ll let Dru saunter up to him again.”

  “Not after the bitchslap I gave him.” Satisfaction sat grim on Drusilla’s features. “Which he so deserved after what he did to my tits. I’m not a crappy radio, am I?”

  “Do I want to know?” Bo said.

  “Dru’s not the bait,” I said. “I am.”

  “No.” Both Julian and Dragan said it. With a glare at Dragan, Julian slashed a hand through the air as if it were a sword cutting my argument. “We don’t risk the lives of humans in a vampire war.”

  “I’m volunteering. We know he wants me. He’ll pursue me.” Maybe he’d pursued me from the beginning. That first Wednesday, when Kevin went to the church to make everything perfect for Dragan’s next rehearsal and was chased into a heart attack, the megavamp could’ve been there checking out my scent. I shuddered at the thought.

  “There must be another way.” Dragan pulled me into his arms. “We have time, let’s sit down and think.”

  “I agree,” Bo said. “There must be a plan that doesn’t involve dangling human females as mate bait.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Logan pointed at the window, shielded with thick iron bars.

  A whump underscored his words. The room shuddered slightly. Dragan’s arms tightened around me.

  Reeling back from the window was Gravloth. He looked stunned.

  Bo swore. “What does the monster think he’s doing? We’re electrified.”

  “Walls and the bars?” Dragan asked. Bo nodded.

  Outside, the megavamp clenched his hammer fists and ran into the bars again. The whole wall shuddered. He bounced off, stumbling.

  “Doesn’t seem to be stopping him,” Logan said.

  “It’s fucking daytime.” Bo threw exasperated hands in the air. “He’s an idiot.”

  “Insane, maybe,” Logan said. “But not an idiot. Even if he doesn’t get through now, it’s only a short time until sunset. Then Nosferatu’s techs will arrive to crack us open like an egg. While normally the nine of us could fend off an army of vampires, Gravloth’s another story.”

  “We’re sitting ducks,” Luke said.

  “Damn.” Bo turned to me. “Okay, what’s your plan?”

  “It’s simple,” I said. “Set up in a place that gives us the advantage. Call Gravloth and let him know I’m there, to lure him in. I distract him, Dru shrieks C#, Luke cuts off his head.”

  “But where? If we don’t have an advantage here on our home turf—”

  “The church,” Dragan said suddenly. “The basement hall resonates with that C#. It will amplify its effectiveness.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “The little red church it is. Okay, now the tricky part. Gravloth can change plans instantly. We need to have that same ability.”

  “Earpieces,” Logan said. “Connected to one person calling the shots.”

  “Faster,” I said. “We don’t have time for words, not even commands. We need to react at the speed of light. Or the speed of sight.” I turned to Dragan.

  His black eyes gleamed. He knew where I was going.

  “Oh no.” Bo followed my gaze. “He isn’t even one of us. No way is he leading us.”

  “Not us,” I said. “The musicians.”

  “What?” Julian jumped to his feet, swayed and caught hi
mself with obvious sheer willpower. He still wasn’t a hundred percent. But his voice didn’t show it as he ranted on. “Me and Luke, trust a traitor? Zajicek hates us. What’s to stop him from throwing us at the Soul Stealer and running like hell?”

  “His word,” I said. “If he commits to doing something he’ll do it.” When Julian still sputtered I said, “You’ve been in his hands when he was on the podium. Did you trust him then to cue you? Not to lose you or the beat?”

  Julian did not look happy. “In case you haven’t noticed, the stakes are higher.”

  “They are. I’m laying my life on the line, remember?” Sudden fear shook me—or maybe that was Gravloth slamming into our defenses yet again. Our chances of success weren’t high.

  Dragan stroked my head. “I don’t like the idea of using you as bait.”

  “I don’t either, but we’ve got to all work together.” Old insecurities suddenly surfaced. “Are you still in?”

  He shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Call me Rocky again.” Love me. “Dragan, please. Are you still in?”

  “Yes, Rocky, of course I am. I’m all in.” He gave me a warm, intimate smile. Then he raised his head. “All right, let’s do this. Steel, are you in?”

  “Yes,” Logan and Luke said together.

  “Emerson?”

  “Fine. Yes. Assuming we can get out of here.”

  “Can’t use the front door.” Dragan had stopped squeezing the breath out of me, but he kept one arm loosely around my shoulders. “Gravloth would be on us within moments, despite the sun and electricity. Same with the garage door.”

  “A hidden exit?” Logan asked.

  Bo grimaced. “That was next on the wife’s remodeling plans.”

  Logan snapped his fingers. “The sewers. Liese and I mapped them on our honeymoon.”

  “There’s a romantic project,” Luke said dryly.

  “It was, actually. You’d have to have been there. There’s a spur right outside Strongwell’s underground parking. If we break through, we can use the sewer tunnels to get to Julian’s and pick up a car.”

  Bo let down the heavy drapes, covering the window. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get some weapons and go.” He strode across the room and out.