“Sire, we have arrangements to make,” Ivan said quietly. I turned to find him quaking silently in the doorway.
I was scared to look back at the scene that had just made me so ill, but I needed to. I had to see for myself if she’d survived.
Because if Adrienne was dead, I could guarantee I was next.
Massimo put his bloody booted foot back on the ground and turned to his progeny. “Get the silver.”
Ivan hurried away, returning seconds later with the black backpack he’d retrieved from the van. He handed a pair of thick gloves to Massimo before passing him the opened bag. Massimo pulled out a tightly woven silver blanket and tossed it over Adrienne’s prone body.
Smoke immediately rose from her skin and she started moaning as I sat there, just as helpless as ever.
“A few hours like this might change your attitude,” Massimo said. “But if it doesn’t, I have no problem repeating this little scene tomorrow night.” He walked to the door before sparing me the smallest of glances. “If you even think about running, I’ll just kill you.”
“No,” Adrienne groaned. “Leave her alone.”
Massimo’s eyes flashed dangerously as his lips thinned into a straight line. “Now that’s four.”
I swallowed harshly, my heart pounding in my ears as Massimo stood there and stared at Adrienne. Finally, he spun around, and Ivan hurried after him as they left the room. The door was closed behind them and I could finally breathe again.
“Hey,” I whispered to Adrienne as I crawled closer. “Are you okay?”
She moaned softly. But there was no other answer besides that. I grabbed the edge of the silver blanket and tried to pull it off her face at least, but it wouldn’t budge. I stood up and used all my body weight to try to move it, but it was stuck.
Crouching down again, I took a closer look and found heavy weights attached along the edge of the blanket. I hadn’t noticed them before because Massimo had so effortlessly tossed the silver onto Adrienne. But without vampire strength, I wasn’t moving that thing.
I sat down next to her again and pulled my knees to my chest. “I can’t help you,” I whispered. “The silver’s too heavy for me.”
She didn’t answer.
But that didn’t stop me from talking.
“It’s okay though. We’re going to be fine.”
She still didn’t respond, but if she had, she probably would have told me I was being an idiot.
How were we going to be fine?
We’d been kidnapped by a sadistic, ancient vampire. We had no idea where he was taking us or what he had planned. And worst of all, our guys had no way to even track us.
It was then I remembered that, in all the chaos, I hadn’t even told her the most important news.
I laid down on the floor and inched as close as I could get. Leaning in, my lips just barely grazed the silver above her ear as I breathed the words, “They’re alive.”
Adrienne moaned again, and I figured she must have heard me, so I kept talking. “I can feel Alexander through our blood claim. If he made it, that means Nicholas made it too. We just have to hang on until they can find us.”
The words rang false in my head, but I hoped they brought Adrienne some comfort. I could see the angry red skin where the silver was touching her and knew she had to be in a lot of pain.
When she didn’t answer again, I figured she’d passed out, and I was thankful for that. I knew that when the agony became too much, sleep became your only reprieve.
I laid next to her and stared up at the ceiling, searching for that connection to Alexander and the comfort it always brought me.
Only a few minutes passed before I finally got what I was looking for.
Rage like I’d never felt before coursed through my system, making my heart pound and my hands clench as I rode it out. I closed my eyes and reveled in the feeling. Not because it felt good to be so mad, but because it was all I had of Alexander and it made me feel closer to him when I’d never been so far away.
The connection only lasted a few minutes before it was gone again. I searched deep inside, but there was nothing left of Alexander there now that he wasn’t murderously angry.
I laid back down on the hardwood floor and closed my eyes, letting memories of Alexander fill my head and crowd out all the scary things I had to face.
I didn’t know how many hours passed before I heard Massimo’s heavy boots clunking toward the door. He ripped it open and stood there silently, just his presence making it feel like the room was several degrees colder.
“Take the silver off and throw her in the closet.”
Ivan scurried across the room and pulled the silver blanket off Adrienne. Her skin stuck to the metal, and I had to look away as huge pieces of flesh were ripped from her body.
When he was done, he gathered her broken limbs in his arms and dragged her over to the walk-in closet before tossing her inside. I sat there as quiet as a mouse, hoping they’d somehow forget about me.
But, of course, I wasn’t that lucky.
“Put the human in there too.”
“But I thought she was feeding one of us tonight.”
“Are you questioning me?” Massimo asked, his voice low and deadly.
Ivan squeaked in terror before running over to me. I was unceremoniously tossed over his shoulder before being thrown into the closet on top of Adrienne.
As I was trying to climb off her without injuring her further, Massimo walked over, his massive frame filling the doorway. “Can you hear me, wife?”
I glanced back at Adrienne to find her swollen eyes shut and crusted in blood. Her chest was still slowly rising and falling, so I knew she wasn’t dead, but that was about all I knew.
Were there injuries vampires couldn’t heal from?
“Moglie, listen to me,” he said again.
This time, Adrienne moaned, and her bloody fingers twitched.
“When you wake up, you’ll be mostly healed, but ravenously hungry. Because I care about you, I’m leaving you a snack for when you wake.”
Aw, shit.
I was the snack.
My eyes widened as I looked from Massimo to Adrienne and back again.
“You’ll be so thirsty, you’ll drain her dry,” he said with a chuckle. “Hope you two weren’t close.”
He laughed again before slamming the door closed. I sat in the dark room, listening carefully to the sounds of something large being pushed up against the door. I waited another few minutes until I hadn’t heard anything out there in a while before testing the door.
The handle would turn, but I couldn’t push it open.
I hurried back over to Adrienne, carefully picking out her hand from the bloody mess and squeezing her fingers. Bending down close to her ear, I whispered, “Adrienne, I need you to get up. If you can push the door open, I can leave once the sun rises and get help.”
Where I would find help during the day, I didn’t know, but it was better than sitting around and waiting for what Massimo had in store for us next.
And it sure as hell was better than sitting there all day and waiting for an injured and hungry vampire to wake up.
But she wasn’t moving. I could hear her breathing, so I knew she was still alive, but she just wasn’t answering.
Had the sun risen already?
“Adrienne, wake up. You have to help me get out of here.”
She moaned this time and swatted at my face, but there was no force behind it. It seemed like she was no stronger than me in her current state.
I stretched toward the light switch and turned it on before settling against the wall with a sigh. I’d resigned myself to the fact that we weren’t escaping, but that didn’t mean I needed to sit in darkness the whole time. The problem was, that single bulb in the ceiling wasn’t going to change the fact that I was locked in a closet with an injured vampire who was going to wake up hungry.
I just had to hope she’d remember who I was when she did.
Chapter
10
Nicholas
“Is there a reason you’re driving so fucking slow?”
I twisted the wrist he’d broken earlier and ignored him. Alexander was wound tight and being antagonistic. Instead of sinking to his level, I’d take the high road and continue to do what I thought was right.
“We’re not making it to the city before dawn with you driving like a grandma.”
I grit my teeth and stared straight ahead, filling my mind with everything I had to do and ignoring Alexander.
The first stop would be the prison. I wanted to search Massimo’s cell myself. He’d somehow planned all this right underneath our noses and I wanted to know how.
Next, I’d go to Ivan Van der Waal’s apartment and go over everything my men had already done. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, it was that I needed to see his apartment in person. To be in his space. I thought it might help me understand his motivations and perhaps predict his future actions.
“Nicholas, pull the fuck over and let me drive.”
“Will you shut up?” I snapped.
“Will you fucking drive?”
My jaw ached as I clutched the wheel tighter. “I’m driving five miles over the speed limit. Any faster and we run the risk of attracting the attention of the human authorities.”
Alexander scoffed. “We’re fucking vampires. We’ll just glamour them into thinking they were wrong and send them on their way. I know you’re several hundred years younger than me, but surely you knew that already.”
My jaw clenched even tighter as a whole mouthful of words threatened to spew through my teeth. They weren’t good words, though. They were full of the anger and anxiety that hadn’t stopped pulsing through my whole body since I walked up to the training facility with Adrienne on my arm.
Just thinking her name sent a wave of fear crashing over my head that threatened to drown me. I took slow, even breaths through my nose and waited until I felt like I could talk without my voice wavering.
“We don’t have time to get pulled over.”
“And we don’t have time to be driving backwards either! Let’s fucking go!”
My head whipped in his direction before I could stop myself. “Alexander, if you don’t shut the hell up, I’m going to toss you from this damn vehicle.”
My guard crossed his arms over his chest as he looked out his window. “I’d like to see you try,” he muttered, but that was all he said for a while, and I was thankful for that.
We raced down the dark highway that was brighter and brighter as the minutes passed. Finally, he broke the silence again.
“We’re really not going to make it to the city tonight.”
“I know.”
“We should stop and get a hotel soon.”
I turned to look at him. “I thought you were dead set on getting back to Manhattan tonight.”
“Yeah, I was, but I’m more dead set on not bursting into flames again. Once in a week is more than enough.”
I glanced back at the road before turning to him again. “You’ve been busy lately.”
Alexander snorted. “Fucking tell me about it.”
We were quiet again as I found a highway sign advertising lodging. I located a parking spot near the front, and we walked side by side into the hotel.
The employee behind the front desk looked surprised to see us, but she recovered quickly. “Hello. Do you have a reservation?”
“No, we don’t. Do you have any rooms available?”
The dark-skinned woman turned to the monitor in front of her and tapped a few buttons on her keyboard. “Yes, but it looks like we only have rooms with one king bed available.” She glanced up at me curiously.
We’d have to sleep in the bathroom anyway to be safe from the sun, so it didn’t really matter how many beds there were.
I shrugged. “That’s fine. Do you have hourly rates?”
It made no sense to book this room for a whole day when we’d be gone as soon as the sun set.
Her eyes darted between us and she smiled discreetly before she turned back to her monitor. “Sure. I’ll just need a credit card.”
We finished our transaction, and she handed me a set of plastic key cards.
“Hope you two have a good time!”
I frowned at her tone. “Thanks?”
She just smiled back indulgently as I turned to leave. We were well across the lobby when Alexander snorted and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I turned to him with another frown.
“She thinks we’re lovers,” he said around a chuckle.
I rolled my eyes and shrugged his arm off me. “You’re an idiot.”
He laughed louder as the elevator doors opened and we got in. Soon, though, the light mood was dampened as the silence descended and we were both left to our thoughts again.
“Can you feel anything?” I asked, desperate for some kind of news from them. Even if it was bad news.
Alexander shook his head. “I haven’t felt her in hours.”
We didn’t say the words out loud, but we both knew there was no way to know if that was a good thing or not.
Did that mean Massimo had left them alone?
Or that they were both dead already?
I had to hope if something catastrophic happened to Charlotte, Alexander would know.
Just like I had to hope Adrienne was strong enough to hold on until I could get to her.
We walked into our generic hotel room, and I made sure to hang the do not disturb sign on the doorhandle before locking everything as well as I could. It wasn’t ideal, but I’d bunkered down in more dangerous situations.
We sat on opposite sides of the bed and scrolled through our phones. I was willing to bet his was as useless as mine was at that moment.
I sighed and went to shove it back into my pocket when it rang. I almost dropped the stupid thing in my haste to answer. “Talbot.”
“Sir, we have some information.”
My heart leapt in my chest as I stood. “What is it?”
“Ivan Van der Waal’s address led nowhere. The super says he hasn’t lived there in over a month.”
That was not what I wanted to hear. “What else?”
“We found a van registered in his name about a week ago. We’re sharing the information with the human authorities. If he drives through any tolls, we’ll know.”
I breathed a small sigh of relief. We were getting somewhere, at least.
“Anything else?”
“We’re trying to find out where Van der Waal’s been staying for the past month, but the sun’s almost up and my men will have to go down for the day.”
I grit my teeth and cursed what we were for the hundredth time. Because despite the heightened senses and extra abilities, the compulsion to sleep through the day and the inability to be out in the sunlight made being a vampire undesirable in times like these.
“Okay. Get back in touch with me as soon as your men are up for the night. I won’t be back in the city until this evening.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll see you tonight.”
I hung up and tossed my phone on the bed before turning around to see if Alexander had been paying attention to my conversation. But the moment I saw him, I knew he hadn’t.
Alexander’s eyes were wide and vacant as they stared across the room. His hand reached up slowly to cover his heart as I watched him looking at nothing.
My stomach clenched deep inside me. “Is it them?” I asked softly.
He nodded, eyes still open like he was actually seeing what was happening with them.
“What is it?”
“She’s afraid,” he said softly.
I held my breath for a moment before asking my next question. “Like last time?”
He shook his head. “Not even close.”
I blew out the breath I’d been holding and collapsed on the bed. I didn’t know how much more I could take of this.
But worse.
I didn’t know how much more Adrienne could take
of this.
And now I was stuck in a hotel until morning.
***
Adrienne
Hunger.
Ravenous, all-consuming hunger.
Or was it thirst?
I didn’t know.
All I knew, all I could see, and taste, and smell, was blood.
I dragged my body toward the deliciously pumping heart only feet away. Eyes still closed, I reached out and grabbed my meal before sinking my teeth into their flesh.
My lashes fluttered as the first mouthful of blood washed down my throat. It tasted so good. Felt so good. I never wanted to stop.
Something hit me in the face, but I grabbed it and held on as I continued to drink. I’d been so weak, but with every swallow, I felt better. Stronger. My head clearer.
So, when I finally heard her voice, I was just lucid enough to listen.
“Adrienne! You have to stop! It’s me! Charlotte! You have to stop drinking from me! You’re taking too much.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping to block out the sounds, but they were too loud, and they were tugging on some memory deep in the back of my mind.
“Adrienne, please,” she sobbed. “Please stop. Don’t do this!”
I pulled her closer and sucked harder, trying to get all the delicious blood I could before she ran dry.
Wait, who was she?
“Adrienne,” she screamed as something hit me again. “Get off me!”
The next blow landed right on my eye and I jerked back in pain. “Hey!” I yelled.
She scurried away from me and I sat there, letting the blood flow through my veins and my head clear as I tried to figure out what was happening.
I looked down at my hands and watched as a crisscross pattern of burns healed before my eyes. They looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place them.
I glanced to where she’d tried to hide and finally, the pieces all clicked, and I realized what I’d done.
I’d almost just killed my old roommate.
“Oh my God, Charlotte. Are you okay?”
Blood Lust Page 9
