My eyes widened as I moved my searching nose up his neck and immediate hunger curled in my stomach. "You're human!"
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are! The Red Devil isn't supposed to be human. He's a vampire."
"You're wrong." He pulled away from me and his eyes narrowed.
"Who the hell are you?" I reached for his scarf but he pushed my hand away roughly.
"Don't touch me," he growled. Then he turned and walked briskly out of the park.
"Sarah, are you all right?" Thierry's words were harsh and filled with concern as he reached my side. He watched the Red Devil disappear into the shadows.
"I'm fine."
But I wasn't. Not even close.
I frowned so hard it hurt. What the hell was going on?
Interlude
San Diego, California, 1903
"Where is your wife?"
Thierry looked up from the Red Devil's journal where he'd been keeping notes on the assignment he'd just completed. His friend Nicolai's wife Elizabeth regarded him from the doorway of the small inn they currently called home.
"Veronique has returned to Paris," Thierry said.
"And Nicolai is in New York. My goodness. All this time on our hands and however shall we occupy ourselves?" She smiled at him and ran her hand suggestively down her side.
Elizabeth was a beautiful woman. Blond hair, red lips, a peaches-and-cream complexion. As a human she'd been an actress whose talent and fame was rivaled only by that of the great Sarah Bernhardt. Men from miles around would come to see her perform and lavish gifts, money, or their undying devotion on her.
Nicolai was one who could give her all three… and he added immortality to the list.
His friend was completely smitten by the gorgeous actress who had agreed to marry him and then immediately be sired as a vampire. Nicolai was obsessed, devoted, and truly in love with Elizabeth and believed she felt the same for him.
Elizabeth was an excellent actress.
Her attire that night was, in a word, scanty, and showed bare skin that would bring a flush to a modest woman's cheek. Elizabeth was not modest. She knew what she wanted and was shameless in her pursuit of it.
Currently, she wanted Thierry.
The thought made him very uncomfortable.
His marriage to Veronique continued to be tolerable. She tended to stay in Europe for long periods, occasionally showing up and expecting him to fall at her feet, and he knew that she was vaguely annoyed when he didn't.
She'd recently left with the promise not to return after a particularly unpleasant exchange in which she'd accused him of hiding from the world and not participating in life enough. But that had been his cover for several centuries. No one would suspect that a handsome but passionless aristocrat was the Red Devil, who had developed even more of a bigger-than-life reputation since Marcellus had been the man behind the mask.
Though, as much as he worked, as many vampires as he was able to save, nothing seemed to change. He had hoped helping the hunters slay the nightwalkers would be enough to appease their need for something to kill, but now that the nightwalkers were no more, the hunters had taken up their stakes against vampires who walked during the day. It was a wearisome battle that seemed to have no end in sight.
But life was not only about work. There were distractions.
Elizabeth strolled deeper into the room. She had a habit of touching everything, running her fingertips over the tops of furniture or woodwork… or men who were not her husband.
"You keep to yourself too much," she told him, her red lips turning up at the sides. "It's not healthy, this solitary life you lead."
"I'm perfectly fine as I am."
"Nicolai asked you to take care of me when he was away." She pouted. "I don't feel very well taken care of."
He remained still as she came to sit on the edge of his desk. "What is it that you want, Elizabeth?"
"Isn't it obvious?" She raised an eyebrow. "I want you."
He couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. "You want me? I'm quite sure Nicolai would not approve of that statement."
"Nicolai doesn't have to know." Her expression turned slightly sour. She stood up from the desk and began pacing the room as if she were a caged animal. "I can't live like this. I feel imprisoned in this inn. I need to be on the stage again, I crave it."
"Nicolai wishes for you to be safe as you adjust to the life of a vampire."
"Safe," she spat the word out as if it were a curse. "Safety is for cowards. I want to feel the wind on my face. Hear the applause of the audience in my ears." She approached him again. "I want to feel the hands of a lover on my body."
He sighed. Despite her beauty, she did not appeal to him. He already had a beautiful woman in his life whom he felt little for.
Only his secret identity as the Red Devil gave him any sense of peace, and even that was waning. Women were confusing and manipulative creatures. There were times when he longed to have someone in his life who would make him feel alive after such an already long life, but he had long since given up hope that the fortune teller so many years ago had been correct in her prediction that true love would find him.
He stood up. "Elizabeth—"
"What's this?" She snatched up the notebook in front of him.
"Give that to me."
She smiled. "Ah, something to finally capture your attention. Very interesting."
Before he could reach for it, she ran out of the room. He followed. Her bedroom door slammed shut and locked behind her.
He knocked. "Elizabeth, let me in."
"I'm reading. It will only be a moment."
He stifled the feelings of panic that swelled in his chest. Stupid, he chastised himself. Stupid mistake. I let down my guard.
He kicked the door open.
"It cannot be." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "You …you are the Red Devil?"
"No."
"But it says it right here."
"You are mistaken." He came at her and took the journal away from her. "It would be in your best interest to forget everything you have just read."
He turned his back on her and went back to his room, silently fuming that he had been so careless. The job that evening had not gone as well as hoped. Hunters in the dozens had shown up at their compound. The vampires they had imprisoned there were long gone, since Thierry had freed them. But one hunter had gotten a glimpse of him, albeit a fleeting one while he wore his mask, and he had worried that he'd been followed back to the inn despite his best attempts to cover his tracks.
The evening had been tense, but now at just after midnight he might begin to feel more at ease if not for Elizabeth's prying eyes.
She followed him. "I won't tell a soul, Thierry."
"There is nothing to tell." The thought that she knew his secret ate at his gut like acid. She was an insipid, vain, and impossible woman. He tolerated her since she was married to his good friend, but that was as far as it went.
"The Red Devil," she said as she came closer. "I have always wished to meet him."
"Go to your room, Elizabeth."
"Although, don't you ever feel that all of the time you spend leading this double life could be used in other pursuits?"
"Other pursuits?"
"The Red Devil saves only whom he chooses. His actions are ultimately pointless. That is what he says."
"What who says?"
"Nicolai. He believes the Red Devil, well, you, would be better off fading away. He believes your existence draws the hunters' hatred and pursuit of vampires more than if you didn't exist at all."
His jaw tensed. "Nicolai is entitled to his opinion."
"If it were me," she said, "I would either want the glory of everyone knowing it was me or not bother doing it at all."
"Then that is what separates us."
"Have you considered quitting?"
He didn't reply, since any reply would be an admission that he was what she believed. The truth was that he had co
nsidered quitting. As she said, his work was largely misunderstood. There were those who thought him a hero and those, such as Nicolai, who thought him a problem that made the hunters even more vicious.
"I am tired," he said instead. "I wish to sleep."
"You're lonely."
"I grow weary of this discussion, Elizabeth. Please return to your room."
"I know what you desire."
He would take her back to her room, push her inside, and lock the door. He might consider letting her out tomorrow morning. Possibly not.
"I do not desire you, Elizabeth."
Her smile was steady on her face. "Perhaps not. But you desire something else. I know it."
He looked down to see that she had a knife in her hand that she slowly drew over her forearm. The blood welled red against her white skin.
His body reacted to it.
He cursed inwardly. He had not consumed blood for a great many years. Veronique had explained rather explicitly that those of their age should be careful with blood intake. They could now exist without it entirely. Veronique had no problem with this, but for him it had become an issue.
Elizabeth was right. He did desire blood. It was a hot ache that began in his chest and spread through his entire body—a need that refused to be ignored.
"Here." Elizabeth raised her arm toward him.
He pushed her away roughly. "Leave."
Her expression darkened. "Drink from me or I will tell your secret to everyone I know."
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
His eyes narrowed. Why did she wish to bait him like this? Was she that bored? Did her love for Nicolai not exist when he was more than a hundred paces from her side?
Nicolai would be heartbroken to know the truth about his beloved wife.
"Taste me," Elizabeth demanded, her voice going from seductive to shrill.
He felt his fangs sharpen and elongate. His hungers were controllable, normally. But his emotions were high, and that did not help the situation.
He grabbed her arm and brought it to his lips, raising his eyes to meet hers. Her eyes closed with pleasure as he drew his tongue along the self-inflicted wound.
"Yes," she hissed.
The blood stirred a darkness inside Thierry that only took seconds to overtake him. He'd overestimated his control, especially after so long. He wanted more. Needed more. The desire overwhelmed him.
He broke the connection with a growl.
"See?" Elizabeth gave him a slow, amused smile. "Was that so bad?"
"No." He grabbed her shoulders. The look she gave him made him believe that she expected him to kiss her and perhaps carry her off to his bed, but that wasn't what he wanted from her.
He pushed the light-colored hair away from the side of her neck and sank his fangs in.
She gasped in pain.
He drank until he felt her small hands on his chest. She was attempting to push him away. Finally his senses began to come back and the world widened to include more than just the taste of her blood.
She held a hand up to her neck, her eyes wide with shock. It hadn't been as exciting as she'd expected. He saw fear in her eyes now. He'd taken too much.
He swallowed. "I'm… I'm sorry. It's been so long. I misjudged my control."
She blinked at him. "I will tell Nicolai. I'll tell him everything. That you are the Red Devil. That you attacked me. He'll kill you for this."
She turned away, but he grabbed her arm. He had to stop her—to convince her to say nothing. His secret couldn't be revealed. "Please, Elizabeth. Listen to me—"
She wrenched away from him, then turned and ran out of the room and down the stairs of the inn. Thierry thundered after her. She opened the front doors and ran out onto the street—
—Where there were five hunters waiting. Thierry halted his steps and watched in horror as they grabbed her, pulling back her lips to see her fangs.
"Our information was half right about this place, but it's a female not a male. She is one of the monsters."
The others roared their appreciation before a stake was plunged into the beautiful actress's heart. She hadn't even made a sound of protest. She'd already been weakened by loss of blood and was too stunned by the sight of the hunters to scream.
Thierry's knees gave out and he collapsed, shaking, to the ground.
It was his fault. The death of his friend's wife was on his hands.
All his fault.
He felt certain as he stared out at her body, lying in the middle of the street as the hunters departed, that he would never recover from this.
The Red Devil died that day as well.
Chapter 13
In the park, after the Red Devil had disappeared, Thierry grabbed my hand and practically dragged me back to Haven.
"We must talk," he said. He didn't sound happy.
We entered the club and I glanced at George, Amy, and Barry, who all took a step back from us as we passed them on the way to Thierry's office. Even the patrons in the club glanced up in our direction with wariness in their gazes. Butch sat at a table holding a wet cloth up to his head.
I was a jumble of emotions, but the slamming of the office door helped me snap back to the present. I looked up. Thierry's gaze was filled with anger.
"Why would you go out there all alone? After everything that has happened to you? You could have been killed."
I crossed my arms. "George was with me."
"You'll excuse me if that does not fill me with confidence." His expression slowly began to soften a little around the edges. "Sarah, why must you continually tempt fate?"
I blinked back tears. "I had to meet Stacy. I had no other choice."
"There are always other choices."
"She called and I met her to apologize. She's thinking about breaking the curse, but it doesn't sound all that positive."
He was silent for a moment. "I'm very sorry."
"She confirmed that the curse was to make me into a nightwalker."
His expression was grim. "Yes, I have suspected that for some time now."
I felt so frustrated that I wanted to scream. "Are you going to kill me if I don't get cured from this?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Stacy told me that there used to be a bunch of night-walkers and you helped the hunters kill them all. Is that the truth?" It sounded so horrible as I said it I almost wanted to take it back. Why would I believe anything that witch told me?
"You aren't truly a nightwalker" he said simply and quietly.
"I have the symptoms."
"It doesn't matter. You are currently cursed. That is all. It doesn't change you from who you were originally."
"So are you trying to say that she was lying about the nightwalkers?"
"The nightwalkers were indiscriminate killers," Thierry said. "Focused on feeding and violence. They were an unfortunate by-product of vampirism—a rare mutation of the vampire virus that fortunately no longer exists. There weren't that many with this affliction. A few hundred at the most."
"The Red Devil told me that they had objects to make them able to go out during the day."
"The Red Devil told you that, did he?" There was a borderline mocking tone to Thierry's words I didn't particularly care for. "Then it must be the truth. He seems very trustworthy for you to be meeting him in parks without my knowledge."
"I didn't meet him there. He just showed up."
"He is an impostor." His expression darkened.
"You're right."
His eyebrows went up. "You're agreeing with me? This is a switch."
I crossed my arms. "He's human. I could tell when I got close enough."
"Human?" He seemed surprised. "I didn't expect that. But I do know that he's dangerous. Did he give you any indication what his plans include?"
"No."
"So he told you about this object a nightwalker can use."
"Maybe he was making it up." I absently touched my neck.
Thierry glance
d at my throat, at the marks his fangs had left behind when we were literally necking earlier. "It's dangerous to be alone like this. For you."
"I'm feeling okay at the moment. The shots I did earlier must have helped with my… my hunger."
"I will be very careful and constantly vigilant of my own… hungers." His jaw was tight. "The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Sarah."
"I know that."
"And you have no reason to fear that I would eliminate you because of these symptoms you now display. I don't look at you as a nightwalker. I am not proud of what I had to do in the past to get rid of the threat. Nightwalkers are mostly to blame for vampires' being considered monsters by hunters and humans alike. Of course there are vampires who are evil due to their destructive nature, but they have made the choice to be that way. The nightwalkers were all evil. I saw what they were capable of with my own eyes, Sarah. It was horrific."
"So you did what you did to save other people."
"Yes."
I hugged him and he tensed at my touch. "Don't worry," I whispered. "I won't kiss you. That seems to be what triggers it."
He leaned back and looked down into my eyes. "The thought of not being able to kiss you again is not a pleasant one."
I leaned back and grinned up at him. "I know, I am a fantastic kisser."
His lips twitched into a sad smile. "There was a time, Sarah, that I thought myself a very noble man who did things and made choices to help others. Now, after all this time has passed, I find that the only thing I care about is right here."
"The club?"
He shook his head. "You. I care about your safety and your happiness. Both, however, are currently compromised by this curse and the presence of the Red Devil impostor, and I will do everything in my power to help you."
I ran my hands down his warm, firm chest. "Keep talking like that and I'm going to kiss you. And that wouldn't be a good thing."
"No." He studied my lips. "It wouldn't be."
"I'll have to start writing you IOUs."
"An excellent suggestion."
Stakes & Stilettos Page 17
