I sat up. “No, you need me. I’m the only person who will be able to say for sure whether or not you’re in the right place. Plus, I know my way around better than you ever will.”
“I don’t care. It’s too dangerous. I’ve seen enough to be able to figure it out.”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t. Also, what do you think the other girls are going to do when they see you—especially if you have to kill Mother?”
“I will kill her,” he interrupted, his dark eyes blazing.
“Okay, think about how that will look to them. You’re sure as hell not going to look like the good guy. Mother might not be the sweet and nurturing type, but she’s the only grown woman we’ve ever had in our lives. Plus, though the girls have been taught about vampires, they’ve never come face to face with one before.”
“Yes, they have. The woman you call Mother.”
“Well, no vampire they’ve known is an actual vampire. You go in there and slaughter the only woman they’ve known, and they’re going to see you as the enemy. There’s no way they will go with you.”
He looked at me, his head tilted slightly to one side. “And so what do you suggest?” he asked, as though resigned to the fact he already knew my answer.
“I go with you, and while you’re dealing with Mother—the Madam—I’ll take care of the girls. Unless we catch them during a meal time or teaching time, which will be highly unlikely considering it will be night when we break in there, the girls are all going to be locked up in their rooms. There are guards as well, a minimum of two, though there may be more.”
“Are they human or vampire?”
“Human, I think.”
“But you can’t be sure?”
I bit my lip. “I believed Mother was human for six years. I can’t be sure of anything.”
He exhaled a sigh through his nose. “There’s no point in attempting anything tonight. It’ll be daylight in an hour. There simply isn’t time. We’ll rest until tomorrow night and try to find the place you were kept.”
“Should I go back to my room and let you sleep?”
He smiled and shook his head. “No, Dakota. I wouldn’t be able to sleep properly without you.”
Chapter Fourteen
We slept most of the day away.
I woke for an hour or so, while it was still light, enough time to use the bathroom and eat some of the groceries he must have had ordered in when I’d been sleeping the previous night, before the other vampire had arrived. I was nervous about what we were going to do when the sun went down, and I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep again, but then I curled up beside Roman’s immobile form. There was something comforting about his solid body in the bed. I appreciated being able to take in the sight of him without him knowing—the straight nose, and full lips, and square jaw. His skin was pale and perfect, not a blemish to be seen. I lifted my hand and lightly ran it along the line of his cheekbone, and down to his lips where I traced the outline.
The spot between my thighs pulsed with pleasure at the memory of what we’d done. I was so thankful Roman had been the one who had bought me, though I doubted Mother would be quite so thankful in the next twelve hours, assuming we were able to locate the training center.
I pressed my nose and mouth against Roman’s cool, hard bicep and closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, it was to Roman stirring beside me. Night must have fallen.
“Hey,” he said, brushing the hair from my face. “Sleep okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I did, actually.”
“I can’t remember how it felt to sleep as a human,” he said, with a wistful tone.
“I don’t know how it feels to sleep as a vampire,” I replied.
He laughed. “No, I guess not. Have you changed your mind about coming with me?”
I shook my head. “Of course not.”
“When we see her—if we see her—remember all the bad stuff she’s done. She’s had children stolen from their families for over a hundred years. She sells you girls and lines her own pockets with the money. I know you have some affection for her, but she lied to you about what she is. She’s a vampire, Dakota. She’s no one’s mother.”
I sniffed. “I know that. And I’ll try to hang onto all the times we were locked in our rooms, and kept in solitary confinement and not allowed to eat. I want my friends to be freed, honestly, I do, Roman. And I understand your need to stop her. You deal with her, and I’ll take care of my friends.”
He nodded. “Deal.”
I wondered how a couple of the girls would react to the idea of me taking care of them. I was pretty sure Scarlet would tell me to get lost, and had an inkling that Kitty might follow in Scarlet’s footsteps. I couldn’t control them, or it would make me no different than Mother. I would offer them their freedom, if I could. It was up to them if they took it or not.
Of course, there was also the possibility Mother would just kill both of us.
I tried not to think about it. The idea of Roman being dead, and our brief romance being cut short, made my heart freeze.
Roman touched my arm. “Are you okay?”
I took a shaky breath. “Yeah, just trying not to think too hard.”
“You can always stay here. You don’t have to come.”
“Then I’d be more afraid, because I wouldn’t know if you were safe or not.”
He pulled me to him and kissed me, long and slow, and deep. In that moment, I’d have happily stayed in bed with him for the rest of the night instead of deliberately putting ourselves in danger.
He must have read my thoughts, because he broke the kiss. “As much as I would love to spend the rest of the night in bed with you, time is running out.”
I nodded. “I know.”
I dressed in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. Roman donned his usual slacks and shirt. I figured I needed to be able to move quickly. I was standing, looking at my reflection in the mirror as I pulled my long hair up into a ponytail to keep it out of my face, when Roman came up behind me.
“I have something else for you.”
I twisted to look over my shoulder toward him. He held something out to me, black and shiny, and lethal.
My eyes sprang wide and I spun to face him. “Roman! I have no idea how to shoot a gun.”
He frowned. “She didn’t teach you?”
“No. I don’t think she wanted us to try to kill the vampires we were sold to.”
“A gun wouldn’t have helped with that anyway.”
“So why give me one?”
“You won’t need to kill any vampires, Dakota. I was thinking it might be needed more for the guards. I assume they’re armed.”
I nodded, but my thoughts went to Aiden, the blond guard who had always treated me well. I didn’t think I had it in me to shoot him, even if he was trying to stop us.
Whether it was my expression, or if a little of the blood bond remained and Roman was able to pick up on my feelings, I didn’t know, but he said, “You don’t think you’d be able to kill them.”
“Only one of them. He was kind to me and the other girls.”
A corner of Roman’s mouth quirked. “Do I need to be jealous?”
I couldn’t help but smile back. “Only a little.”
“Okay, no gun, but you need something to defend yourself with.”
He left me again and returned with a knife—the kind with a long thin blade used for gutting fish. “How’s this?”
“Better, I think,” I said, still eyeing it doubtfully.
“Good. I have an ankle sheath you can use, so it will strap around your lower leg.”
“Right.” I tried to sound as though I had a knife strapped to my leg every day of the week.
“That’s not all.” He went to the fireplace and took an item down that was hung above it. I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but now I thought perhaps I should have.
“Here,” he said, handing me the biggest knife I’d ever seen. “It’s a machete. Even if
you can’t bring yourself to use it on someone, just the threat should make someone think twice about approaching you.”
“Thanks, I think.”
The machete had a sheath of its own. Roman leaned around me as he slid it in through the loop of my belt so it hung from my waist.
He stepped back to assess me. “Practice taking it out.”
“This is crazy.”
“So are some vampires. Just do it.”
“A knife won’t kill a vampire.”
“No, but it will slow them down, and a knife that size will definitely kill one of those guards.”
I shivered at the idea of actually having to hurt someone. What if I froze at the crucial moment and someone got hurt?
I pushed the thoughts from my head. I needed to be brave. Focusing on the chance I would see my friends again, and usher them into a whole new life, I thrust away my nerves.
I’d do whatever I had to.
Gripping my hand around the hilt of the knife, using my right hand, so it hung from my left hip, I practiced whisking the blade in and out.
“Wait here a moment,” Roman said. He vanished from in front of me, and then reappeared seconds later holding a long trench coat. “This will keep the knife hidden from any prying eyes.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him and slipping it over my shoulders.
“We’ll travel like we did before,” Roman said, “when I took you to the Empire State Building. No point in wasting any more time using a vehicle. We’ll leave the building as though we’re a normal young couple, but then prepare yourself. I’ll pick you up, so put your arms around my neck and hold on as tight as you can. I’ll take us to the neighborhood where I believe the training center is located.”
“You’ve narrowed it down that far?”
He nodded. “Yes. I think so. I memorized the map and I’ve been running though it in my head. Though anything you might remember when we’re nearby will also help.”
We left the apartment together, side by side, catching the elevator down to ground level. The machete felt huge beneath my long jacket, but I hoped no one would notice, or would stop me to ask why I was carrying such a huge weapon in public. In the current day and age, I would probably be arrested.
The doorman smiled and nodded slightly as we passed. We stepped out onto the street. People were around, cars passed by with their headlights on, but no one paid us any attention.
“Okay, Dakota,” Roman said, turning to me. “I’m going to pick—”
His words were cut off as something flew between us, colliding with Roman and sending him soaring backward. A scream lodged in my throat, and I stared around to try to see what had happened. Roman had vanished from in front of me.
“Roman?” I called, not caring if I caught the attention of the pedestrians around me. “Roman!”
I heard a scuffling from down the street and, with my hand on the hilt of the machete, I chased after the sound.
Down a narrow alleyway, only the faintest of light coming from a streetlight overhead, I saw two figures fighting. They moved quickly, and then almost vanished from one spot, only to appear in another.
Roman was fighting someone, another vampire.
What the hell?
Not caring what the public thought, I ran down the alleyway toward them, pulling the machete from the holster. I realized who the vampire Roman was fighting was—the long haired vampire from the other night. Why would they be fighting? I’d thought they were friends.
Then I became aware of someone moving behind me, and I froze, all muscles tensed. My breath caught in my lungs, my shoulders stiffened. I needed to hurry move before something bad happened.
Moving as quickly as I could, I spun, swinging the massive knife as I did so. But the person was ready for me. Something hit the hand holding the knife, and out of sheer reflex, my fingers sprang open and the knife clattered to the ground.
“Don’t even think about it, princess,” a male voice growled at me.
Realization about the person’s identity sank in—Warren, the older guard from the training center.
Shit. That must mean Mother knew what we were planning. She must have sent him here. Of course she’d have people keeping an eye on us girls. She’d always been about control. There was no reason for that to end once we’d left the place.
I heard Roman’s yell of, “Dakota!”
I must have distracted Roman. I turned just in time to see the other vampire dart up behind him. Lucas caught his head in both hands, and with a single crack that sounded like a gunshot through the night, he broke Roman’s neck.
“No!” I screamed.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Warren chuckled. “I doubt you’ll be alive long enough to mourn him for too long.”
And with that, a blow struck me on the back of my head, and all the lights went out.
Chapter Fifteen
The pain in my head throbbed as if a living, breathing creature had taken over my brain.
I groaned and tried to peel open my eyes. For a moment, I couldn’t remember what had happened, and had no idea where I was, but then the events all came flooding back to me.
Oh, God. Roman.
Was he dead?
I couldn’t bear the idea of such a thing. My life had finally started to mean something over the last few days with him, and the thought of going on without him broke my heart.
I needed to get an idea about what was happening. If he wasn’t dead, I had to know so I could continue to fight myself. Otherwise, what was the point?
Opening my eyes, I realized the place I was in was more than familiar. Gray concrete walls and floor, no natural light. This place was like a prison cell, because that was exactly what it was.
I was back in the training center.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar female voice suddenly spoke up, making me jump and causing fresh pain to spear through my head. “The little bitch is finally awake.”
I opened my eyes to find a pair of women’s boots not too far from my face. Moving slowly to protect my aching head, I looked up to see a pair of legs, which led to a body, her hands on her hips as she stared down at me.
“Mother,” I rasped.
“You lost the privilege of calling me that when you betrayed me,” she snapped. “How many girls have I raised, and not a single one has plotted against me.”
That you know of…
I pushed myself to sitting and cautiously looked around. It was as I had feared. I was back in one of the holding cells, one currently unused and therefore unfurnished. I knew there would be a lock on the door.
I opened my mouth to speak, my voice hoarse against my dry throat. “You had the perfect combination of fear and love. None of them wanted to because nobody knew the truth about what you are.”
“Ah, I see Roman Kramar has filled you in on that little detail. That man has been the bane of my life for some years now, always asking questions. I knew he was getting closer to me, so it was up to me to do something about it. Selling you to him was the only way I’d know for sure if he was plotting something against me. I didn’t know who else was involved, if there even was anyone else. Luckily, it was only you. I couldn’t really have asked for this to have gone any better.”
I coughed, and my head thumped. “You only sold me to Roman because you wanted to use me?”
She laughed. “Of course. I’ve always told you girls that I vet the vampires I sell you to extremely thoroughly. I wouldn’t have sold you to Roman if it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to know what he was up to. How he thought I wouldn’t recognize his name the moment he applied to buy one of you girls, I have no idea. I make it my business to know everything about everyone.” She stopped and crouched down to bring herself to eye level with me. “I stole his daughter from him, many years ago, when he was still human. Did he tell you that?”
I nodded.
“She was a pretty little thing—all dark ringlet curls and big brown eyes. Compliant as well. She
earned me a lot of money before she died. If it hadn’t been for me taking her, Roman would never have become a vampire.”
“I know. He told me everything.” I glanced around at the empty room. “Where is he? Is he still alive?”
She laughed, and I gritted my teeth in response. “As alive as a vampire can be. Don’t worry, killing him right away would be too good for him. I’m going to keep him alive for… oh, I don’t know… maybe a couple of hundred years, locked up and starving, and slowly driving himself mad.”
I stared at her in horror. “You can’t do that!”
“Why not? I can do whatever the hell I want. There are no laws important enough for me to have to abide by them. Why do you think I’ve been selling people for a hundred years and Roman is the first to have ever challenged me? And look where that has gotten him.”
“What about me?” I asked through gritted teeth.
She gave a heavy sigh. “Well, I did consider killing you, too. In fact, I even considered doing so in front of the other girls as a warning of what happens when people betray me, but then I figured they would lose their love for me rather quickly, and this whole place would end up in mutiny. So, instead, I think I’ll make some calls and sell you all over again.” She ran a finger down the side of my face. “I have some vampires on my books who are looking for a very special kind of girl. The kind of girl who likes to be hit, and humiliated, and raped.”
My blood ran cold. “I don’t like any of those things!”
“Of course you don’t, dear. There are very few who do. They’ll want you to cry and beg, and tell them ‘no’ and ‘stop.’ That kind of thing gets them even more excited. You will go for a pretty sum, too. And then when they’re done with you, when you stop reacting because you’re too physically or mentally broken, well, then they will kill you, and my job will be done.”
Tears filled my eyes. Could she really do such a thing?
Yes, I knew she would. Roman had told me she was heartless and that I’d been brainwashed. Now I could see he was completely right.
I closed my eyes, shutting out the sight of the hateful vampire.
Stolen: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance Page 8
