Stolen: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance

by Marissa Farrar

  Roman, I called out, inside my head. Please, Roman.

  Did any of the blood bond still exist? I needed him to know I was still alive. God only knew what Mother—I mean, Madam—had told him about me. If he’d thought he’d lost me, would he care? Was I just another courtesan to him? I wished I’d been brave enough to talk to him about how I felt. I wouldn’t make that same mistake.

  Roman… I called again.

  This time, I felt a stirring in the back of my brain, as though a part of it had awakened.

  My heart lifted with hope. That was him, I was sure. Did that mean he was close? Mother—Madam—said she had him locked away somewhere, but he must be somewhere here in the center.

  I suddenly realized something. Though the guard had taken my very obvious machete away, he hadn’t bothered to search me for any other weapons. Pressed against the inside of my calf, I could feel the solid presence of the sheath and metal.

  I still had the knife!

  A knock came at the door and Madam turned at the sound. “Yes?”

  I heard the click of a lock and then a familiar blond head appeared around the opening.

  Aiden!

  His blue eyes widened slightly at the sight of me. Had they not told him who they were holding captive? I guessed not.

  “The vampire is awake,” he said. “Warren is asking what you want to do with him.”

  “Is he still in the irons?”

  “Yes.” Aiden’s gaze flicked nervously to me. “He’s not going anywhere.”

  “Good. You stay here and keep an eye on this one.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Giving me a final glare, she swept from my prison cell, leaving me sitting on the floor, while Aiden hovered over me, uncertainly.

  “Aiden…” I started.

  “Don’t say anything,” he replied, and turned to the door and locked it behind the Madam.

  I ignored his instructions. “You have to get me out of here, and help the vampire she’s got locked up in the other room. She’s going to sell me on to be raped and tortured.”

  I saw a muscle beneath his eye twitch. “Don’t exaggerate.”

  I held back a laugh. “Are you serious? You know she takes girls and holds us captive until she can sell us to rich vampires. She’s a vampire herself, you know.”

  His face twisted in disbelief. “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “I’m not. She’s a vampire who can walk in the light. That’s why she’s been able to trick us all for so long.”

  “No, she’s taken you girls from bad backgrounds and given you something else to live for.”

  I actually laughed this time. “Is that what she’s told you?”

  “Of course. It’s the truth, isn’t it? She said that your mom used to drink until she had no idea what she was doing, and then hit you.”

  I flinched at the memory. “Yes, that’s true, from what I can remember, but not all of the girls have my background. Can’t you tell by the way the younger girls are crying when they come in here?”

  “They’re bound to be frightened at first, but you all turn out okay, don’t you? You go on to have good lives.”

  “Seriously, Aiden, you can’t believe all this bullshit. We’re sold to vampires!”

  “Well, you all seem to believe you’ll go on to be happy. I’ve seen you leaving here, all dressed up and excited to be going on to the next part of your lives.”

  “The girls here are children. As soon as we become adults and are able to start asking questions, we’re sold on. How old are you, Aiden?”

  “Twenty-six,” he mumbled.

  “Plenty old enough to know better. Why do you do it, huh? Why do you help her?”

  He was growing defensive, his arms folded across his chest. “I earn good money here, better than any money I could earn in a different security position.”

  “So you sold out,” I stated. “And the lives of a few girls don’t even matter. I don’t matter. Christa and even Annie don’t matter.”

  A muscle beside his eye twitched. “I didn’t say that.”

  “So help me now.”

  “Dakota…” His words held a warning, and he glanced toward the locked door.

  I had to remind myself that Aiden wasn’t a good person either. Perhaps he’d shown me the occasional kindness, which I’d read too much into, but he was also keeping us prisoner here, and had for several years now. We girls couldn’t be blamed. We were utterly naïve, not understanding how the rest of the world worked, but he wasn’t. He left to go into that normal world every time he finished a shift, and yet he’d done nothing to help any of us. I had no reason to think that would change now.

  “You’re worried she will hear us?” I asked.

  He only nodded as a reply.

  “So you do believe she’s a vampire.” He wouldn’t be worried about her overhearing us if he completely believed she was human. There was no way she would be able to hear us through closed and locked metal doors.

  “I suspected,” he said, his voice lower. “But if I help you, she’ll kill me.”

  An idea sprung to mind, and I reached for the knife at my calf.

  Aiden immediately drew his gun. “Dakota!” he warned.

  “Hear me out. I have a knife. Pretend you don’t know, and I’ll stab you—somewhere you won’t die—and steal your gun and the keys. You can tell her I caught you by surprise, and escaped.”

  “She’ll still kill me.”

  “Not if she’s already dead, she won’t. I just need to set Roman free and he’ll kill her.”

  “He hasn’t done such a great job of it so far.”

  “No, but he will. Roman has a better reason than anyone for wanting to see her dead. She stole Roman’s daughter when he was human, which was ultimately the cause of him becoming a vampire in his attempt to find her again.”

  Aiden frowned. “When did this happen?”

  “Over a hundred years ago.”

  His mouth dropped. “Are you serious? She’s been doing this for a hundred years?”

  I nodded. “That’s why you have to help me stop her. She can’t continue to do this. We need to let the other girls go, too. They might even be able to find their families again.”

  “And what about you?”

  “If I make it out of this alive, I hope I’ll have found my new family with Roman.”

  His blue gaze fell on me. “You care about the vampire?”

  I nodded again. “More than anyone. That’s why I can’t just sit here and do nothing. I’ll fight, Aiden, even if it means I end up dead.”

  He ran his hands through his hair and gave a growl of frustration and indecision. I knew he was torn, and I took hope in that fact.

  Finally, he turned back to face me. “Okay, do it. Stab me in the shoulder, so it looks like you got me from behind. I’ll say I heard a noise from outside, and went to investigate. You’d pulled the knife and jumped me before I got the chance to pull my gun.”

  “Thank you, Aiden.”

  He gave me a grim smile. “You can thank me when we all get out of this alive.”

  I hoped I would get the chance.

  Reaching down to the knife hidden against my leg, I tugged up the leg of my jeans and pulled the blade from the ankle sheath. It wasn’t a big knife, but it was big enough to do some damage. I’d never hurt anyone before, never mind stabbed another person. I couldn’t think about it too much or I would end up backing out.

  I gripped the handle of the knife. “Okay, turn around.”

  He took a breath and turned his back on me, before taking a couple of steps closer to the door. “Quickly, before she comes back, and before I change my mind.”

  I stepped toward him, but he lifted his hand to halt me. “Not too deep, okay? But deep enough to look real.”

  I gave a huff of exasperation. “Just let me do this.”

  Not allowing myself to think any more, I rushed toward him like a crazy person, my arm lifted in a swinging arch. I couldn’t help but cr
y out as the knife came down, and I felt Aiden subconsciously duck beneath me, unable to help himself from reacting when he knew what was coming. But the knife found purchase and easily stabbed through the jacket and shirt he wore, penetrating the skin and flesh beneath. He gave a cry of pain, but dropped to the floor, not trying to fight me.

  The sight of the blood spreading from the knife wound made my stomach turn in a lazy flip flop. Heat rushed into my cheeks, followed by a flash of cold, and I swallowed hard against my nausea. I couldn’t allow myself to be affected by the sight of blood. I was sleeping with a vampire; it simply wouldn’t work out.

  “I’m sorry,” I hissed at Aiden.

  He was crouched on the floor, his body curled over, his fingers instinctively reaching to his shoulder for the knife.

  Working quickly, I unhooked the set of keys from his belt, and then popped the holster and removed the gun. As I’d mentioned to Roman, I had no idea how to use a gun—had never held or fired one in my life. The weapon felt cold and heavy, and I didn’t even know if the safety was on. I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it, but considering our circumstances, I figured it was likely. Hopefully, I’d at least be able to work out which direction to point it so I didn’t just shoot myself in the head.

  “You want the master key,” Aiden croaked. “The big one. It’ll get you in and out of most of the rooms here.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered back. “I’ll send help as soon as I can.”

  Leaving him on the floor, I ran to the door and used the key Aiden had pointed out. I tried to turn it quietly in the lock, knowing the Madam’s keen vampire’s hearing would pick up any sound soon enough. Hopefully, she’d assume Aiden was checking things out, but I had to be careful.

  If she saw me trying to escape, she’d kill me in an instant.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. I knew where I was—on a floor of the property that was currently unused. Perhaps, in earlier days when it had been far easier to lose people off the face of the earth than it was now, Mother—Madam—was able to take more girls and so used this part of the building to keep them in as well. Now, there were only six of us, or perhaps five, assuming she hadn’t already brought someone new in to replace me, so she didn’t need to use all of the property.

  Aiden had said she was keeping Roman down the hall.

  Moving on my tiptoes in my sneakers, I edged down the corridor, keeping my back to the wall. Were there cameras in this part of the building? Was someone watching me? I couldn’t see anything, but I wouldn’t have put it past her.

  I was also alert for other guards, and even the vampire who had attacked Roman in the alleyway. I’d never seen any vampires here, or so I’d thought, so there was a chance she’d just had Lucas do her bidding and then sent him on his way. I had a gun, but I didn’t know how much good it would do if I was faced with a full vampire attack. Considering my lack of experience, I figured it probably wouldn’t be of much use at all.

  I continued to take slow, cautious steps. Which room was Roman being held in? There were several along this corridor, all identical, and all with the doors closed.

  Pausing for a moment, I let my eyes slip shut.

  I called inwardly again. Roman!

  This time I felt his immediate response, like lightning bursting in the back of my brain.

  Here!

  I didn’t hear the word as much as feel him telling me. Perhaps he came through so much clearer because he was physically closer, or perhaps, I allowed myself to hope, he was growing stronger.

  I stopped outside of the room I had sensed him calling from. My heartbeat sounded too loud, the blood thumping around my ears. The vampires would surely be able to hear me.

  And where was Warren?

  The click of a gun safety right behind my head soon answered that question.

  Shit.

  “Turn around, slowly,” Warren said from close behind me.

  He didn’t know I had the gun. I held it against my body. I didn’t think he would shoot me—Mother would be furious if she had thousands of dollars’ worth of her goods splattered against the wall. It was a gamble I had to take. If Warren recaptured me now, I’d have missed my chance.

  Keeping my finger on the trigger, the butt of the weapon pressed hard against my stomach, the barrel pointing slightly downward, I slowly turned.

  The moment his torso came into view, I fired.

  The gunshot was incredibly loud in the confined space, my ears ringing. The butt bucked against my stomach, causing my whole body to jerk. Warren fell backward, his own weapon going off in a return shot. But my shot had caused him to lose his aim and the bullet flew past my head, lodging into the wall behind.

  In an instant, the door beside us flew open and Mother sprang out. Her normally perfectly made-up face was contorted in anger, her eyes blazing, her skin utterly white in her fury.

  She took in the sight of Warren lying on the floor, clutching his thigh where the bullet had hit, blood spreading thorough the material of his pants and smearing on the floor beneath.

  “Useless!” she raged. “God-damned useless. I knew I should never have trusted humans.”

  Though the sight of Mother as a furious vampire was terrifying, just beyond where she stood I noticed she’d left the door open. Through the gap I saw Roman. He was sitting in a metal chair fixed to the floor—one that reminded me of the sort of chair used during the death penalty. His wrists were bolted down to the armrests by metal cuffs, and his ankles were cuffed to the legs of the chair.

  But he was awake and alert, and his eyes locked with mine. The anger I’d seen in Mother’s eyes was nothing compared to Roman’s. The whole of his eyes were black, no white remaining, and his skin was china white, ridges appearing down his cheekbones and forehead. I’d never seen a vampire look such a way, or even known they had the ability to look anything less than beautiful.

  But he was beautiful, in a terrifying, demonic way.

  I didn’t get to focus on him any longer.

  A cold, long fingered hand wrapped around my throat, choking my breath, and then my feet left the floor, so I was dangling in midair. My back slammed up against the wall, winding me again, pain shrieking through my spine. The gun I’d forgotten I was holding dropped to the floor with a clatter.

  Damn. That was a stupid mistake. Mother had moved too fast for me to be able to even think about shooting her. I’d still been recovering from the shock of shooting Warren.

  Her fingers tightened and I gasped a strangled whistle of air into my lungs.

  “I don’t like to kill one of my products,” she snarled, “but really, Dakota, you’re seriously testing my limits.”

  My eyes felt like they were bulging from the sockets. I managed to throw a sideways glance toward the gap in the doorway. If I was going to see anything in my final moments, I wanted it to be Roman’s face, not the woman who had made me call her ‘Mother’ for the past six years of my life.

  Roman was staring back at me, his vampire’s face still furious, but that wasn’t all. With a roar, he pulled his arms upward, his muscles bunching for all the effort and strength he put into the action. His biceps bulged, the cords in his neck straining. I didn’t think he would do it, but then I heard the creaking bend of metal and something in the cuffs popped, metal pieces pinging to the floor.

  His arms were free.

  Still intent on either torturing or killing me, I hadn’t quite figured out which, Mother—no, Madam, I refused to think of her as a mother any longer—hadn’t noticed. My vision was starting to gray at the edges as Roman bent to release his legs.

  A sudden blur of movement happened around me, and Madam’s hands released from around my throat. I fell to the floor, coughing and clawing at my neck. Only the collar I still wore had prevented Madam from completely crushing my windpipe. I didn’t think I’d be alive now if I wasn’t still wearing it.

  Where I had fallen, the gun I’d taken from Aiden lay only a fo
ot away.

  In front of me, Roman and Madam fought. Streaks of motion, the sound of snarls bouncing off the walls, the whites of canines flashing. I was terrified for Roman’s safety.

  I looked to the gun again, lying discarded on the floor. It was a risk. My aim was horrific, they could move before my mind had even registered it, and I’d shoot the wrong one. But I had to do something.

  Madam had Roman pinned up against the wall by his shoulders, and he had hold of hers with both hands. They were lunging at each other with their mouths, as though both trying to tear the other’s throat out. Warren lay unconscious a couple of feet away, and I knew he wasn’t going to prove a problem for the moment.

  Trying to hold my nerve, moving quietly though she was distracted, I reached out and my fingers wrapped around the butt of the gun. I got to my feet and slowly walked up behind Madam, then lifted the gun and aimed it right at the back of her head. She noticed at the final moment, turning toward me, as though unable to believe one of her girls would dare do such a thing as shoot her, but the movement happened just as I pulled the trigger, so instead of putting a bullet in the back of her head, as intended, the bullet smacked a hole right in the center of her forehead.

  Taking the moment of advantage, Roman threw her through the open doorway and into the room where he’d been held. She crumpled to the floor, blood spreading across the cold concrete floor.

  Footsteps were pounding toward us from down the corridor. More guards, or possibly even more vampires, were coming.

  “Here!” I threw the keys at Roman. He slammed the door shut and locked it on her.

  “I’ll be back for you later!” he growled through the locked door.

  His face was starting to look normal again. “Quick, we need to get you out of here.”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m not going anywhere without the other girls.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Roman glanced down the corridor, his eyes wild. “We don’t have time to save the girls. I don’t know how many people she might have lined up in case of an emergency.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not going.”