by J. C. Diem
“What happened to make her lose her mind?”
He shrugged uneasily. “Who knows? Maybe she was already nuts before she was turned.”
“My father would have known if she was crazy,” I refuted.
“I guess,” he muttered without conviction.
“Does she have delusions like this often?” Reece queried.
“Not very,” Pricilla said. “But when she gets an idea into her head, nothing can dissuade her from it.”
“What was that nonsense about her becoming our matriarch?” I asked.
“That’s a new one,” Benjamin replied. “I have no idea where that came from.”
“It’s your fault,” Candice said to me then shrank away from Reece’s glare.
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t care what she looked like before you showed up looking all clean and pretty. Now she’s having delusions of grandeur and thinks she’s going to become our Queen.”
Katrina had been determined to turn me into the undead once she’d sensed me in New Orleans. She’d finally accomplished that goal and now she was under the misconception that I would become her right hand. Maybe she was even crazier than I’d realized.
“It’s obvious she’s making this up,” Pricilla declared. I turned to her for clarification. “Everyone knows vampires don’t dream.” Not wanting her to realize that I still had a lot to learn about our kind, I nodded in pretend agreement and filed that information away.
₪₪₪
Chapter Nineteen
By the time we returned to our base with our stolen goods, the newcomers had finished showering. Katrina hadn’t allowed them to put their filthy clothes back on. They showed no signs of shame or embarrassment at being naked when we handed over the new clothes.
Most of them had regained the ability to think and communicate by now. Usually it would take days for them to recover after losing the leader. Maybe being subjugated by Katrina so quickly after their master had been killed was the cause of their alertness. Or perhaps she was right and she did have powers that no other vampire possessed. For all I knew, the force of her will might be enough to allow them to regain their wits.
Katrina waved at them to take a seat on the chairs or the floor and they obeyed her without question.
“Where did you come from?” I asked the group.
One of the women looked at her new master and waited for her nod of permission before responding. “Chicago,” she said. Small and plain, she was almost timid for a bloodsucker. I noticed that all of the surviving women were on the ordinary side, while the men tended to be attractive. It seemed that Katrina didn’t want any female rivals.
“Why did you come to Denver?”
“We were attacked by a group of humans two nights ago,” she replied. “They knew what we were, but they didn’t try to kill us.”
“What do you mean?” Pricilla asked.
“They tried to capture us,” the woman explained. “They wore something that looked like thin chainmail that was made of silver. We couldn’t touch them without being burned. They managed to take three of us before the rest of us fled.”
I looked at Reece for an explanation. “They must work for EERI,” he said.
“Why would they capture vampires?”
“For the same reason they take shifters and other supernatural creatures,” he shrugged. “To serve whatever mad plan they’re working towards.”
“Ours isn’t the only nest they’ve raided,” the blond man said. “We caught some survivors that had been attacked in our territory a few months ago and put them to the question.”
“We thought they were scouting out Chicago with the intention of invading us,” the timid woman explained. “It turned out they’d been raided and most of their group had been captured. Their master had been taken and they had no one to lead them.”
“What did you do with them?” Reece asked.
“We killed them, of course,” she responded. Her frown seemed to question his intelligence. “Our nest was already large enough. We couldn’t accommodate any extra mouths.”
“Our master only ever kept twenty servants,” the blond guy explained. “Any more than that and the humans would notice when too many of them disappeared.”
“Your master was a fool,” Katrina said coldly. We all turned to her, unsure what to expect from her this time. “It isn’t necessary to kill our food. We can take what we need from them then trick them into forgetting they ever saw us.” She spoke as if it had been her idea rather than mine. She gave them the impression that she’d been using this method for years.
“If we could stop ourselves from draining them, it would enable us to cohabitate with the humans,” her new servant said cautiously rather than questioning her claim. He’d already grasped that her temper was volatile.
“What is your name?” she asked him.
“Justin,” he replied. The others introduced themselves when her gaze came to rest on them. I didn’t bother to learn the rest of their names. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be necessary to get to know them. A sense of doom was swelling inside me. I didn’t know what the cause of it was, but I knew something bad was going to happen soon. I nearly smiled at the thought. Whatever was coming, I hoped it would cause Katrina the utmost misery.
“Tell us about your dream,” I said and received furtive frowns from almost everyone. They’d been hoping Katrina would forget about her delusion. Something told me her dreams were going to lead us to the coming disaster.
Her gaze turned inward as she recounted her impossible vision. “I was in a beautiful palace sitting on a throne made of crystal. I had created a vast army of servants and we had brought the humans to their knees.” Her eyes swept across the room as if she was seeing a different place entirely. “Instead of hiding in the shadows like a common rat, I had attained my true purpose. I no longer had to fear the animals that I prey upon.”
“What is your true purpose?” I asked. As far as I knew, there were no palaces in the US. It didn’t seem like a good idea to point that out to her while she was recounting her delusion.
“To rule a vampire nation and to have humans as our cattle.” Her lips curled upwards in a cruel smile. “Tomorrow night, we will begin our annihilation of all rival nests. The only undead who shall remain are ones that have either been created by me or who have become my servants through conquest.”
“How are we going to find the other nests?” Orlando asked in a carefully neutral tone.
“It will come to me in a dream,” she replied with a smile that was supposed to be serene, but instead just made her look crazy.
Reece shifted in his seat and drew her attention. Her smile changed in tone. My wolf bristled at the unmistakable gleam of sexual interest in her eyes. “I can see why my daughter wanted me to turn you,” she said. “You really are quite handsome.” She traced his well-muscled body with her eyes and he unconsciously shrank away from her.
“He’s mine,” my wolf growled before I could stop her.
It was the wrong thing to say and Katrina sent me a flat stare. “He is my servant and I will do with him as I will.”
“You can try,” Reece said. “But it won’t work.”
Her brows drew down into a frown. “What do you mean?”
“We’re only part vampire,” he explained. “Our wolves are still bonded to each other.” That wasn’t the complete truth. He was still bonded to me, but I was no longer tethered to him. Despite that, my body rejected anyone who attempted to force themselves on me.
“So?” Katrina said. “What does your bond have to do with you having sex with me?”
“We’re alpha werewolves,” I told her. “Our bond is stronger than usual. It means we’ve given ourselves to each other and that we can never mate with anyone else.”
She stared at me in blank astonishment. “I don’t believe that.” She flicked a look at two of the new men she’d added to her nest. “Hold her down and take her.”
Reece
was on his feet and had his guns pointed at them before they could even twitch. “No one touches Lexi,” he said in a tone that was quiet, yet deadly. Behind his back, Benjamin, Orlando and Justin went into motion when their master gave them a nod. They leaped on Reece and bore him to the ground. The other two men skirted around them and headed towards me. Their expressions were more grim than excited, but they would do what their new ruler had instructed them to.
I stood, but I didn’t reach for my gun. My mother was about to learn that turning me would have consequences that she couldn’t possibly have anticipated. “This is a mistake,” I told her when one of them circled around behind me and locked my arms behind my back.
“You haven’t had sex with a vampire yet,” she said with a wicked grin. “You’re about to discover what you’ve been missing out on.”
The second man put his hand behind my neck and bent to kiss me and Reece went wild. With a roar of rage, he tossed aside the three men who were holding him down as if they were children. Surging to his feet, he grabbed the vamp who had been about to kiss me and tore his head from his shoulders with one hand. The man standing behind me let go of my arms and backed away, but he didn’t get far.
Reece’s wolf took control. His clothes were torn to shreds as his body changed. He transformed into a hulking beast almost as rapidly as I could now. Also like me, he was no longer a normal werewolf. Instead of his usual silver fur, it had turned as black as mine. The death magic that came with being turned into a half-vampire had to be to blame.
He bounded after the fleeing minion and swiped at him with both hands. His claws ripped the man in half, but it wasn’t a killing wound. Leaving his legs behind, the shrieking vampire dragged himself towards the stairs. Reece kicked him over onto his back then pinned him down with a foot on his chest. He jabbed his claws into the guy’s throat and severed his head, ending his shrieks as well as his life.
Leaving the decapitated body, Reece turned and loped over to me. He stood at my back, looming over me and growling to warn the others to stay away.
“You see?” I said to Katrina. She was staring at the carnage in disturbed astonishment. “You can’t force either of us to have sex with anyone else.”
“So it would seem,” she said, striving to pretend that she wasn’t bothered by the deaths. “In light of this, you are both exempt from joining in our sexual activities.” She waved a hand at us in dismissal and crooked her finger at Justin. Sending Reece a glance of terror, her new minion stepped towards her, already unbuttoning his shirt.
“I’m going to see if anyone heard the screams,” I informed my mother. She barely bothered to nod and I turned away before I could witness her stepping into Justin’s embrace. This time, I left the mess for someone else to clean up.
Reece gathered up his shredded clothes and weapons then followed me up the stairs. He stopped in the room next to mine where he’d stashed his belongings, but I continued on. Standing on the roof, I took in the silence and listened for sirens. None sounded, which meant the screams had gone undetected.
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, I knew it was Reece even before he opened the door. “I thought my mother had problems,” he said to my back. “Nina doesn’t even come close to the level of psychosis that Katrina has attained.”
“What? Don’t all undead mothers order their daughters to have sex with their minions?” I asked with mock surprise. I heard the rustle of the clothes he’d changed into as he reached for me. I stopped him before he could put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t,” I said curtly.
“You can pretend you don’t care about me anymore, but I heard what you said to your mother. Some part of you still thinks I belong to you.”
Turning, I stared up into his anguished eyes. “You’re wrong, Garrett. I don’t want you. I just don’t want anyone else to have you either.”
Frowning at the name I insisted on calling him, he rubbed his forehead in confusion. “Where have I heard that before?” he asked.
I knew exactly where he’d heard it, but I shrugged and turned my back to him again. When one of the werewolves from Texas had kissed me, Reece had taken control of my body and had pushed the man away. He might have chosen Gloria to be his new mate, but we’d still been bonded and he’d told me that he’d considered me to be his property. The same thing had happened to me just now. My wolf still loved him even though the rest of me wanted to see him suffer. Even severing our link hadn’t changed that.
“How long, Lexi?” he asked in a low voice. “How long are you going to punish me for something that was out of my control?”
“That depends,” I said with blithe unconcern. “How long do you think creatures like us will live?”
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty
I lay awake for a long time. Even after the sun rose and the vampires on the ground floor became inanimate corpses, I remained sleepless. Reece was just as restless. He paced up and down in the room next to mine. He didn’t have a bed and eventually lay down on the floor and went still. His heartbeat became even slower when he fell asleep.
With the building finally devoid of sound, I was free to ponder about my mother’s apparent abilities. She’d known that the nest was approaching Denver, but they hadn’t been on their way to roust us from the city. They’d merely been fleeing from humans who apparently worked for EERI.
The Extraordinary Entities Research Institute was an evil rival to the PIA. Mark had informed us that their end goal could be catastrophic for mankind. It didn’t surprise me that Reece had known about this while Kala and Flynn hadn’t. He’d been Mark’s second in command and led our missions when our boss was absent.
While Katrina hadn’t been completely correct about the motives of the nest, she’d somehow known that they were coming. I’d never heard of vampires having clairvoyant powers before, but I couldn’t discount it. I would find out just how accurate her visions were when we rose for the night.
I eventually slept, but it was as shallow and unsatisfying as usual. Waking up hungry, I remembered the box of cookies that I’d stashed in my backpack. I chewed a few and swallowed them down while Katrina cavorted with some of the new male groupies that she’d gained. From what I could hear, there were several orgies going on downstairs.
Reece knocked lightly on the door then entered when I didn’t answer. His gaze went to the box of cookies sitting on the bed next to me. He put a hand on his stomach when it rumbled. I’d noticed I didn’t get as hungry as often as usual, but we still had to eat.
At his hopeful look, I tossed him the box. He caught if deftly then closed the door and leaned against it. Biting into a cookie, he made a face. “Ugh. They’re stale.”
“You don’t have to eat them,” I pointed out. Giving up on the cookies, he tossed them back to me and I bent to hide them beneath the bed.
“We can’t live on just blood alone, can we?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not exactly an expert on our kind.”
“We’re the only two hybrids in existence,” he mused. “I wish I could talk to Mark and get his insight into what we can expect.” As he spoke, gaze shifted away from me and he looked down at the floor. His scent changed slightly as well.
Remembering the furtive glance he’d given Katrina after he’d returned from stealing the guns and other equipment, a sneaking suspicion hit me. “You’ve already talked to him, haven’t you?” His expression gave him away and I shook my head. “How long do we have before they bust in here and wipe us all out?” I was surprised the Shifter Squad had waited so long to exterminate us.
“Mark wouldn’t do that to us,” he protested. “He believed me when I told him we’re not like normal vampires. He’s trying to come up with a plan to help us.” I rolled my eyes, but refrained from reminding him that we couldn’t be saved.
The others were wrapping up their orgies and we’d be heading out soon. We descended to the ground floor and didn’t have to wait long before the others joined us. Katrina stood in fro
nt of her leather chair rather than taking a seat. “I dreamed that there is a rival nest a few hours from here. Come. It is time to begin building my army.”
Wary looks were exchanged when she swept regally through our ranks and took the stairs upwards. No one was brave enough to challenge her and we meekly followed in her wake. I went along with it because it was better than suffering the boredom of sitting around doing nothing.
Little conversation was exchanged as we sprinted to the northeast. I wasn’t sure where we were when we came to a stop three hours later.
“Our foes are only a few miles away,” Katrina said. The lights of an unknown city glittered in the distance. “We will feed to replenish our energy before we strike. My plan is to make enough noise to draw the minions out while Lexi and her lover infiltrate their home and kill their master.” I wasn’t sure why she continued to refuse to use Reece’s name. Being turned down when she’d wanted him to have sex with her hadn’t helped endear him to her.
Her plan was sound, but being consulted before volunteering us for the job would have been polite. It would also go against her character. No master vampire would ever ask a servant their opinion. She raised an imperious brow and I nodded my acceptance. Reece’s agreement came far more grudgingly.
We were in a rural area with farmhouses spaced out widely apart from each other. Katrina chose a dwelling and sent her minions inside. They returned shortly with two middle-aged humans in tow. They’d been dragged kicking and screaming from their beds. We fell on them in a feeding frenzy and drained them dry.
Katrina insisted on us entering the house to clean up after our meal. Being the only ones who still had a reflection, Reece and I entered the small bathroom. I used a washcloth to wipe away all traces of the quick snack I’d had then handed it to Reece.
He took it and stared at the mirror with a haunted look. “I should have stopped them from killing that couple,” he said barely loudly enough for me to hear him.
