Aces Wild: A Sin City Collectors Novella

by Amanda Carlson

  “Thank you,” Jake said. “I will.”

  He brushed past her, but instead of walking toward the bank of elevators, he ducked around the corner and down the hallway until he spotted the door he was looking for. He didn’t bother to look back to see if the gatekeeper was curious as to why he hadn’t taken the elevators. He was certain not many guests chose the stairs to get to the sixty-first floor, but it didn’t matter. If she came after him, he’d be upstairs before she could figure out where he’d gone.

  As the door closed behind him, he was already rounding the fifth floor. Hellhounds were built for speed, and the only thing on his mind was reaching Neve in time.

  He knew instinctively that she was already in trouble, and he cursed himself for ever leaving her in the first place.

  Neve crashed to her knees, her hands braced against her temples. It felt like her head was going to pop off her neck at any second. If she’d found an ax lodged in her temporal lobe, she wouldn’t have been surprised. She didn’t know how to fight this kind of pain.

  She moaned, trying to force the vamp out of her mind, but she didn’t understand how it worked. She felt his presence, but had no idea how to kick him out. The realization that she was so woefully unskilled in the art of battling vampires made her furious.

  “Must we really do this?” her newfound father said from his position on the couch. He’d reclined, draping his arm casually along the back of the sofa, as though no unusual events were taking place and Neve’s brain wasn’t being fried from the inside out. “You cannot get away from me, and I will continue to punish you until you acquiesce on your own.”

  “This is”—Neve groaned—“not the best way to introduce yourself”—she panted—“as my long-lost dad. I’ve stayed away from”—another wave of pain attacked her, and it was all she could do to not collapse into a heap on the ground—“abusive relationships my entire life. I’m not about to enter into one with you—” A new pain sliced through her brain that sent her crashing to the carpet face-first. She writhed in agony. “Ahhh,” she cried. “Make it…stop…”

  “Submission is the vampire way. I am your Master, and you will obey me in all things. We begin this now, so you understand what is intended of you as we move forward. Tell me when you accept my command and I will free you.”

  “I don’t…think so,” Neve moaned, wishing the vamp would use a sledgehammer and actually split her skull open. Then at least it would be over. This agony was exactly why she hated vamps. Torturing their prey was exactly why Neve would never willingly be part of such a race.

  Her father sprang off the couch and stalked to her, his face ferocious, his cheekbones bulging in stark relief. “No one defies me! Do you not know who I am? How can this be possible?”

  “If you want me…to answer your questions…you have to…let up on the…torture.” Neve gasped, rocking back and forth, clutching her head.

  Without giving her a break, her dear father paced back and forth, tossing his arms out in front of him. “The last person to defy me died a very painful death, and that was seven hundred years ago. Supernaturals fear me. They respect my power. They do as I ask without question.”

  “That’s…nice…to hear…”

  “I am Regent. A king of my kind. No vampire on earth is more powerful than I. Do you understand what I’m telling you, halfling? Even if you were not my fledgling by blood and birth, I could bring death to you in many ways. It is an honor to even be in my presence.”

  “Not…feeling the…honor.” Why hadn’t she passed out yet? Pain like this was inhumane. Likely, her sadist father wasn’t letting her. It felt like someone had cracked her cranium open and was peeling it like an orange.

  “Enough of this!” he raged. “You will pledge your life to me this instant, and we will leave this place forever.”

  Neve’s body went completely still.

  The pain left as instantly as it had come. She lay on the floor, her arms flung wide, like a rag doll who’d just been kicked around the playground by a pack of bullies.

  “Kneel before me,” her father demanded.

  When Neve didn’t lift a finger, he reached down and grabbed hold of her hair, dragging her upward off the ground by her scalp so that only the toes of her shoes touched the floor.

  “Ow!” Neve yelled. “What the hell are you doing?” Her hands flew to his grip, but nothing would lessen his hold, even clawing him with her trusty nails.

  “I am doing what is necessary and nothing more,” he seethed. “Once you swear your allegiance to me as your Master, and we exchange my potent blood, you will be bound to me by both blood and body. It is the strongest bond a vampire can have with another. Producing a dhampir is a very sacred and rare thing.” His face was a horrifying mask of hate. “A vampire can produce a child only if the human host is a match, something we cannot know ahead of time. It happens so rarely that you are only one of three I have ever produced in all my long years. Once you and I complete the ritual, you will stand beside me as my heir. When you are subservient and made stronger by my blood, we will kill and rule together until the end of time.”

  Neve was having trouble processing all of this. Her scalp was on fire, and her brain was scrambled, but she knew one thing for sure: Her father was out of his damn mind.

  Ancient supernaturals who had accumulated this much power were deadly and dangerous at best, harrowing and violent with a penchant for vicious killing at least. If he was here now, it was because the other two dhampirs he had fathered hadn’t worked out so well for him. Neve guessed they were both dead, which was exactly what would happen to her if whatever ritual he was talking about actually happened.

  “I’m not pledging anything to you,” Neve managed between severely clenched jaws. Her eyes watered their mercury tears, and she was horrified she couldn’t control them. “You’re just going to have to end my life right here, because I’m not interested living life as a killer vamp under the tutelage of my Vampire Daddy Dearest.” Her scalp was screaming.

  Mr. Laurent had his hands twisted tightly in her hair, their faces not more than a foot apart.

  His face expanded into a malicious grin. “Ah, there’s where you are wrong, my child. I need not have your permission or even your cooperation. I will take your blood, force you to drink from me, and when you are done consuming my blood, you will willingly pledge anything I ask.” He dragged her roughly toward an armchair.

  Neve grabbed on to his hands and dug in again with her sharp claws, shredding his skin. But he only laughed at her efforts.

  He sat smoothly in the chair, forcing Neve to the ground beside him, like she was nothing more than a toddler. Neve hadn’t experienced this kind of strength before. Her new father was as strong as twenty rutting fire demons, and that didn’t bode well for her escaping this room unscathed. It was going to take more than a salt shaker to reach her end goal. The only weapons she had on her were small and temporary on such a strong supernatural, but if she could get the arrow out of her pocket and lodge it into his heart, she’d have a chance.

  Her father shook her once for good measure before hauling her up onto his lap, one arm locked around her waist like a steel vise, the other dragging her head back as his incisors lengthened even more.

  Neve struggled in his grip, trying to wiggle away, but she didn’t move an inch.

  “You know,” she panted. “This wasn’t exactly the best way to introduce yourself as my father if you wanted a relationship with me. Most long-lost fathers come bearing flowers and a heartfelt apology for deserting their offspring at birth. They don’t wrestle them into a chair and drink their blood.”

  “I did not know you existed until a few years ago,” he answered, as though they were sharing lunch and not a bloodletting. “On a chance, one of my scouts stopped in this city. He was at a bar and saw a female halfling take out a demon with little effort. When he returned, he told me this tale, and I put the pieces together. I had been here roughly twenty years ago, give or take a few, and had a
tryst with a human showgirl who had caught my eye. She was beautiful and elegant for a human, well worth my consideration.”

  Neve bucked in his lap, but her father’s grip wouldn’t give. “You ruined my mother,” Neve cried. “She talked about you like you were a divine being, but she could barely remember any details.”

  “Of course she couldn’t,” he said. “I am divine to humans. I bewitched her easily, like luring a hummingbird to sweet nectar.”

  “You broke something inside her.”

  “Yes,” he answered, nodding. “A human cannot be with a vampire and not suffer the consequences. Her mind was lost after our encounter. It is a sacrifice they must pay.” He sounded wistful.

  Neve willed her eyes to stop leaking. She refused to show any more emotion to this horror of a man—her murderous, treacherous, hateful father. “What was she like when you met her? I deserve to know that much,” Neve asked, stalling for time. She stilled in his arms, indicating she might behave, as her hand inched toward her vest pocket. Once this tyrant took her blood, there would be no more chance of escape. If she could get him to talk, it gave her more time. “The only mother I knew was strung out on drugs, vacant, a shell of the woman she should’ve been. I assumed that was who she’d always been, since I never knew her as anything but, but there’s no way you’d have been attracted to that.”

  “Your mother was vibrant and full of life, like a ripe peach ready to be plucked from the vine.” He almost licked his lips. “She was buxom and sensual in a way that pleased me. She stood out. She was not the same as all the other human cattle, and she has passed those traits on to you. I am pleased.”

  “So you took what you wanted and didn’t care that the cost was too great for her.”

  “Indeed.” His voice hardened. “I will not be denied, ever. I followed her home like a shadow, the first human I’d been with in more than a century. My body rang with anticipation. Humans are usually so trivial and boring, but once she smiled upon me and took me into her bed, I became lost—”

  Gross. “And…now I’m full up on details, thank you very much.” Neve shuddered, forcing bile back down her throat. “By the time she had me, she was broken beyond fixing. I grew up with a mother who could barely comb her own hair.” For the first time in her entire life, Nevada Hamilton’s heart ached for the mother she never knew, never had a chance to know because her vibrant life had been cut short by an evil, greedy vampire.

  Rage boiled through her, forming tight knots of fury in her blood.

  Now that she understood her mother was not the way she was by choice, Neve would make it her life’s goal—if she got out of this alive—to coax her mother back from the brink.

  There had to be a way.

  The vampire went on, oblivious to Neve’s pleas to stop. “That is the cost. You cannot have a mind-bending encounter with a powerful supernatural and not be scarred. But you may rest easy knowing that I treated her like a queen for those few hours we were together. She was truly a rare gem in the human world. I treasured her.”

  “My mother traded her entire life for a few hours with you. Sounds like a rip-off to me.”

  “If you must know, I am not so generous with others. She kept her life.” His grip loosened a little, and Neve took the opportunity to thrash in his arms, using the movement as a cover to palm the arrow from her pocket. “Enough of this!” he snarled. “We end this now. I must be in another location by daybreak, and your stubbornness is proving less than cooperative.”

  He wrapped his long, bony fingers around her neck, grabbed on to her chin and roughly forced it up toward the ceiling.

  He hissed as he brought his head down, his incisors long and deadly.

  Neve angled the arrow toward his heart and was about to plunge it in right as the hotel door blew off its hinges.

  The scene in front of Jake was heart-stopping.

  Neve was locked in the embrace of a vampire, his teeth imbedded in her neck. He barreled straight into the chair they were sitting in, colliding with it, sending everyone flying. “Get away from her,” Jake roared, squaring up in front of the vamp, who had regained his footing and composure in about half a second.

  The vamp was dressed in expensive clothing and old as hell.

  “You were not supposed to make an entrance here,” the vamp snarled. “I paid an extreme sum of money to keep you well away from here.”

  Jake hazarded a glance at Neve, who now stood in the other corner. She was dusting herself off, and when she glanced up, her expression wasn’t thankful, it was pissed off. Jake couldn’t tell if she was mad at him for interfering—most likely—or was mad he had left her in the first place—equally as likely.

  “It wasn’t my job to stay away,” Jake informed the vamp, “and you hired a bunch of amateurs to do your dirty work.”

  The vamp hissed, his massive incisors exposed. “It is of no issue. I will simply kill you and be done with it.”

  Jake arched an eyebrow at the vamp. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I’m a hellhound. Your fangs can’t puncture my hide. My kind have guarded kings and queens against vampires for thousands of years, and we’ve built up a resistance to you. And if your witch comes back, her spells won’t work on me either. My body now has immunity to her, as well as the nymph toxin you thought would bring me down. Recovery is what I’m built for. Screw with me once, my bad. Screw with me twice, and you’re dead. That’s how we operate.”

  The vamp balled his fists, showing that he knew about hellhounds, unlike the shifters. But fighting him hand-to-hand would be an epic battle. This vamp radiated strength. He was old and powerful and so enraged that Jake had taken away his prize that Jake wasn’t actually sure if he would be able to get him down on the first try. If he decided to flee, it would be Jake’s first failed Collection.

  Gods above, he hated vamps, and now he was pissed Neve had made him leave his gun behind. A few bullets to the brain would at least allow Jake to get him to the floor.

  Neve cleared her throat across the room. “Jake Troubadour, I’d like to introduce you to my father.” She turned to address the vamp. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your first name. But it doesn’t really matter, because whatever it is, I’m sticking with Daddy Dearest.”

  “My name is Sebastian Laurent, and I am Regent Vampire.” His voice commanded the room. “There is no other vampire in the world stronger than I.”

  “Yeah, you already said that. But that just means when we take you down, it will be all the sweeter,” Neve chirped as she turned toward Jake. “Daddy Dearest here was just trying to make me his vampire slave daughter. His plan was to kidnap me and turn me into a cold-blooded vamp killer until the end of time. He also admitted to ruining my mother, and if there wasn’t a strong enough reason to take him in before, I’m thinking that’s more than enough.”

  Jake didn’t hesitate. He lunged for the vamp, who moved so quickly he seemed to disappear. Jake stopped short of barreling into the wall, only to find the crafty vamp cackling in another corner. At least now Jake had situated himself between the vamp and Neve.

  Slippery bastard.

  “You can’t simply take me down,” the vamp said with a snicker. “I just finished explaining to you there is no other vampire in the world strong than I am. I came here for my daughter, and if I cannot defeat you, hellhound, I will torture her until you both accept this fate.”

  Behind him, Neve crashed to the ground and began to moan.

  “What are you doing?” Jake shouted as he ran to Neve’s side.

  “I just told you,” the vamp scoffed, easing into a relaxed stance. “I will inflict pain on my daughter until you hand her over to me. If you wait too long, her brain may not make a full recovery, which is fine with me, since she is too stubborn to become my heir as she is. Breaking her now would be much preferable than doing it later in my dungeons.”

  Jake ignored the vampire and reached down to cradle Neve in his arms.

  She groaned, her eyes were shut and her h
ands were fisted tightly at her sides. He knew she was in an incredible amount of pain, but he had no idea what to do. “Nevada, can you hear me?” He rocked her. “Neve, please answer me.”

  Instead of coming out of it, her back arched upward as a new round of pain assaulted her.

  “Hurts…” she finally managed, “so…much.”

  “I can do this all night if need be,” the vampire contended. “If you want to save your jeune mariée, you must give her to me before it’s too late.”

  “My what?” Jake knew enough French to know what the vamp had just said, but he couldn’t believe his ears.

  “Your bride,” the vamp bit out. “I had hoped my daughter would not find her match before I reached her, but it cannot be helped. The night my scout saw her in the bar, he followed her…and subsequently found you. And after you…mated with her…the bond was set.”

  Jake’s brain felt scrambled. “Is that why she didn’t remember what happened after? Why when she kisses me she goes into some kind of trance?” Jake glanced down at Neve, who began to thrash, her head arched away from him in agony.

  He had to find a way to help her.

  “Just give her to me, and this will all end,” the vamp said. “If she wishes to see you in a few hundred years, we shall discuss it. By then she will have learned her role.”

  “Answer my question, Laurent,” Jake demanded. “Why does she go into a trance when she’s with me?”

  “My daughter is woefully uneducated.” The vampire tsk-tsked. “When a vampire, or in her case, a halfling, finds a rightful bond, they are drawn to them inexplicably. They cannot stop themselves from their need, but if their brain does not agree to give in to the bond, it will cause things to become…complicated.”

  “Complicated how?” Jake shifted Neve in his arms. She groaned, and he tried to soothe her with his hand, brushing hair off her face. “And can you lessen the torture for one single damn minute until we figure this out?”

  “There is nothing left to figure out, hound. You will hand her to me willingly, and I will stop inflicting pain. It is that easy.”