Bad Blood

by Everly, Faith

  “Come on.” Gabriel pulled me away from the action, leaving space for the redheaded twins to drop to their knees and take turns sucking the cock of a dazed, smiling human who buried his hands in their hair. A short, curvy, naked girl walked over to him and shoved her tongue into his mouth while he played with her ass.

  The topless human girl who’d just come again was passed from the first vampire to another, who dropped to his knees and peeled off her pants in one smooth motion. He buried his head between her thighs while the vampire who’d fingered her held her up, dragging his tongue over her neck. The three of them moved together, their bodies like one.

  I didn’t want to go. I wanted to peel off my clothes and let them take turns on me. I wanted that pleasure, that ecstasy. Dark, endlessly deep abandon.

  My feet finally moved. I didn’t have a choice with Gabriel forcefully removing me from the floor. I looked over my shoulder in time to see the vampire whose eyes I’d met enter the human girl from behind. She came again, screaming over the music before he had even started fucking her for real—and when he did, he was merciless.

  And she loved it.

  That could be me. I wanted that to be me.

  “Gabriel.”

  I walked into a wall of muscle who’d come to a stop in front of us. Blinking hard, I fought through the fog of arousal to take him in.

  He was an intimidating dude. Taller than Gabriel, his bare chest covered in crisscrossing scars. His black eyes glittered as he took us in. His black hair was tied back with a leather cord and hung past his shoulders, but it had stopped growing on top of his head a long time ago.

  Gabriel smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “Felix. Just the man I was looking for. I have a favor to ask of you.”

  This was the guy we were here to see?

  Maybe it was the way his eyes kept landing on me.

  Or the way he grunted whenever they did.

  No matter why it did, the bad feeling I’d already had turned into flat-out dread.

  Six

  DOMINIC

  A room chock-full of the most powerful of our kind. Ruthless, as well, willing to use their natural powers as vampires to their advantage in all areas of life. They lived hugely, as my father did, in castles and penthouses and villas. The heads of major banking houses who’d used their persuasive ways to claim power. Politicians. CEOs. Superstar artists, musicians, actors.

  Not all of us chose to live outside the human world, as I and most of my family did. As seductive a notion it was, using my gifts to amass power, the fact that I’d never much cared for humans or their world stood in the way.

  Here I was, now surrounded by vampires who commanded virtual armies of humans who were all but slaves before them.

  And every single one of them looked terrified to the point of tears.

  Granted, they fought hard to hide their terror, but I knew the experience of standing before an enraged Lucian too well to believe their false bravery.

  I saw the trembling of their arms, their legs.

  The way some of them pressed their lips together in a thin line. The flaring of nostrils. The movement of their throats when they gulped as his gaze swept over them.

  None of them were guilty of the crime which Lucian was about to announce. I couldn’t let them know I knew it, though, which was why I took pains to appear as worried as they did while I worked my way across the cavernous hall, weaving in and out of various clusters of bodies.

  Jessabelle and Kristoff stood off to the side, near my father as was warranted by their being part of his immediate circle of trusted family members. Jessabelle was as confident as ever, at least on the surface, with the imperious tilt of her head and the sensual pout of her ruby lips conveying boredom.

  Only I knew better. We’d known each other for far too long—and far too intimately at various points of our involvement—for me to believe her act.

  Sophie was gone, and she was terrified of what this meant for all of us.

  Especially for herself since, though I held her in high regard, I knew she was always most interested in herself and had only volunteered to be part of the campaign to find the Blood Queen that she might boost my father’s impression of her. To heighten her importance.

  Even a centuries old vampire could be capable of naivete.

  I caught Kristoff’s eye and motioned for him to join me away from the rest of them. I backed into the deep shadows along one wall while my father continued to simply glare with inexpressible rage at the assembled.

  “What is it?” Kristoff hissed when he joined me. “As if we can afford to attract his attention right now.”

  “I know where she is. Or was.” I shook my head slightly when his mouth fell open. “Not here. But we have to move if there’s any hope of finding her before it’s too late to get her back.”

  “Why would it—”

  “I told you. Not here.”

  His gaze darted over to where his sister stood, slim arms folded. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Not that I question her trustworthiness, but someone might want to stay behind. To look after things.”

  “And I’m sure she would volunteer.” He shot me a withering look. “There’s no way. She’ll demand to come along. To make it up to him, if nothing else.” The slightest tip of his head indicated Lucian.

  Right, but who would stay with Graz and make sure she didn’t spill the truth? On the other hand, I didn’t dare whisper word of her involvement here, with so many of my kind all but slobbering for the opportunity to prove themselves trustworthy.

  Meanwhile, I knew Jessa wouldn’t stay behind without a good reason. And it was up to her whether she thought the reason was good or not. She would eventually push me to the point of revealing what was better kept secret.

  Graziella would have to come up with a way to make this up to me.

  “Fine. The moment he dismisses us, dress in your street clothes and meet me in my bedroom. Avoid catching his eye if you can.”

  My father’s voice rang out like a gong. “Which one of you has the audacity to stand beneath my roof while behaving so treacherously? Which of you wishes to die this evening?”

  I’d heard him use such language before, but never with the depth of absolute murderous rage now threatening to boil over. Deep, pulsing, dangerous rage. Ancient.

  “Because die you will once I discover who made it possible for our queen to escape before I had the chance to turn her and place her at the head of our entire species. Before her human mind could comprehend everything we offer. Her birthright. Her duty to our kind and to humanity, too. She was to take her place at the Summit, so as be certain all in attendance would witness her ascension to our throne.”

  His face shifted from its normal, handsome arrangement into a demon’s visage, eyes the color of blood searing their way into any they landed upon.

  Graz stood on a chair along the wall opposite me, peering over the heads of those in front of her. Her skin was normally pale, at least, and her eyes as huge. She appeared no more frightened now than she ever did.

  Her eyes met mine. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly.

  I merely allowed my gaze to sweep over the room as if I searched for the culprit. Oh, how she owed me.

  Later, after I’d held up the hand on which I wore my ring—as if that clever Sophie hadn’t already seen a way around that, sending Graz back without her—I ducked away to my bedroom.

  How ridiculous. I had to wonder whether my father was in his right mind, whether he honestly believed it mattered whether we were in possession of our rings. For one with his age and his supposed wisdom, he was awfully limited in some ways.

  Once his rage calmed he would see his error. He would realize anyone might’ve taken Sophie away, then come back without her.

  I needed to find Sophie before that happened.

  Sophie, Sophie, why must you be who you are? Why couldn’t she obey? Why not do what was best for her, for her safety and future?

  Why put herself at od
ds with Lucian St. Germaine? Hadn’t I made it clear enough that he wasn’t one to be crossed?

  If she hadn’t disobeyed and escaped, she wouldn’t be Sophie. I should have seen this coming, damn it all. Damn my pride. My believing she would be so enamored with me, with my cousins, that she would fall in line.

  Jessabelle did not bother with the trouble of knocking before gliding into my room. Our chambers were all roughly the same as the room in which we’d placed Sophie, though we’d had time to put our own touches here and there. Hundreds of years gave a person plenty of time to decorate.

  She spun an old globe hand-painted with what explorers knew of the world in the seventeen-hundreds. “So? What is this for? Why force me to wear jeans?”

  “You realize to many humans, at least Americans, jeans are what they wear for comfort.” Kristoff looked down at his own. “I know I prefer them to dress slacks.”

  “You would.”

  “Put your disdain for the human world aside for the time being.” I closed the door behind her and her brother, dropping my voice to the barest whisper. “I think I know where Sophie’s run to. I most certainly know who she’s with.”

  Jessa’s face fell. “Oh. No. Not him.”

  “You know he’s fated to be one of her consorts, just as Kristoff and I are.”

  “Certainly, but how has Augustine polluted his mind by now? Ten years is a long time to spend away from us. There’s no telling what he believes, what he’s willing to do for Augustine.”

  “We’ll be lucky if he hasn’t already shoved her head full of lies,” Kristoff glowered. His eyes went from green to a muddy brown before shifting to full red.

  “Save your anger for when we find him.” I took one of their wrists in each hand, prepared to bring them with me rather than allowing them to make the jump on their own. That would involve catching them up on Graz’s betrayal and the less I said while under Lucian’s roof, the better.

  I could only hope in that split second between leaving the manse and arriving in Philadelphia that Gabriel hadn’t amassed an army to defend his prize.

  And that he still believed none of us knew about his penthouse hideaway.

  Seven

  SOPHIE

  This room might’ve been an office. Or it might’ve been a seedy closet where dead bodies were stashed in between the whole murder part and the disposal part.

  Either way, I didn’t want to be there. But I had to pretend to be a blank slate, so I did what I could.

  “I was on my way to see you when you found us.” Gabriel took a seat in a leather chair roughly as scarred as the vampire whose office we were in. He pulled me into his lap and frankly, I wasn’t sorry to be there.

  He was the only place where I felt safe, as twisted and unbelievable as that was given the whole vampire thing.

  Felix looked me up and down as he took a seat behind his desk. The thing looked like it had been in use since Roosevelt was president. The first one. It probably had been, come to think of it, since who knew how old this guy was.

  “A pretty one,” he decided with approval in his gravelly voice. “You always did attract the best blood bags, Gabriel, as pretty as you are.”

  Gabriel grinned. “What can I say? I got lucky.”

  “That you did.” Felix’s black marble eyes—unnerving, to put it mildly—lingered on me for another moment before turning to him. “Luck doesn’t get you far with me, as you know.”

  “I’ve known you long enough to be aware.” He stroked my hair, which was strangely comforting. Did he mean for it to be? “And you know me. I pay well.”

  “What are you here for?”

  “Scent blocker.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “One of my more expensive items. Rare, as well. I don’t know if I have any in stock at the moment.”

  “Don’t bullshit me, Felix. I know you have it in stock. You always do. How do I know? Because I’m one of the few of my kind who can afford it.”

  Felix’s mismatched, unfortunate features slid into something that looked like it was trying to be a smile. “My sharpest customer, too. You realize if you’re found with scent blocker, there will be hell to pay.”

  “I’ve dealt with worse. And I know how to take care of myself.”

  “Where do you plan on going?” Felix asked while fishing around in his pocket.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Frankly? Yes. If I’m about to sell you one of the most valuable and illegal substances in the entire supernatural realm, I deserve to know where you plan to take it and how you plan to use it.”

  The hand stroking my hair grew a little heavier, to the point where it would start to hurt if he didn’t ease up a little. His fingers dug into my thigh. I cleared my throat as softly as I could and the pressure eased a little.

  “I want it for the Summit. There are a few visits I’d like to make while everyone is together and deciding the laws for all supernatural beings, and I wouldn’t wish various parties to know I’m lurking.”

  “Such as your father.”

  “To start. Yes.” There was a growl in his voice. I would’ve warned Felix to chill the hell out, but I wasn’t supposed to have opinions. And Felix wasn’t a human like me. Something told me he could handle himself.

  Judging by his scars, he’d been handling himself for a long time.

  He pulled out a key ring with what had to be forty-seven keys on it and slid one of them into a desk drawer. “The things I do to keep the lights on around here.” So he was the owner, or at least the manager. Boy, if that was the case, I had a lot more questions for him than I had originally thought.

  Then again, no. Because I didn’t want to spend more time with him than was absolutely necessary.

  He pulled out a brown vial and laid it on the desk. Hmm. I had expected something a little more special considering the trouble we were going through to get it.

  Not that watching a bunch of humans and vampires getting it on was exactly trouble, but still.

  Felix leaned in. The desk lamp shone more light on his face that way, and I very much wished it wouldn’t. He looked like somebody had smashed his face with a frying pan. While it was hot.

  He couldn’t be a vampire. He wasn’t human, but vampires were beautiful. The ones writhing and fucking out on the dance floor sure had been, just like Gabriel’s friends up at Miller’s. That was how I could tell the difference between the vampires and humans out there in the club. Even the most gorgeous human was no match.

  Felix was not gorgeous. He didn’t even have a full head of hair.

  “I could make a lot of money with this one,” he whispered. “She might pull in the highest asking price I’ve ever commanded.”

  I realized in disgust he was talking about selling me like one of the poor saps outside.

  Gabriel’s grip tightened. “She isn’t for sale. You know I don’t like to share.”

  “We could call it a fair exchange.” Felix lifted a shoulder. “I would be glad to do that.”

  “You’re such a kind-hearted soul.” There was no humor in Gabriel’s chuckle. It was way too dark for that. “The answer remains. No. She’s all mine.”

  The monstrous creature snarled. “You come into my place of business and have the nerve to tell me what I can and can’t have?”

  The brown vial was gone in the blink of an eye, back in his drawer. “No deal. And if you don’t want to end up with no scent blocker and no curly-haired snack, you’d better get the fuck out of my establishment right now.”

  I got ready to go because I was no fool. The guy was ready to rip Gabriel’s head off.

  Gabriel held me in place, because of course he did.

  “You never asked to hear what I intended to pay for that.” That playful note was back in his voice. I had heard it so many times already. Normally, it was kind of a turn-on.

  Now? I had the feeling it meant he was in just as dangerous a mood as Felix. My skin crawled. Every instinct screamed at me to go and never look back, but there was
no breaking free from a freakishly strong vampire’s grip when he was good and determined to hold on.

  Instincts. I couldn’t help but think of Dominic and the hell I was probably putting him through. And Kristoff, who had never been anything but nice and was the reason things hadn’t gotten any worse between me and Dominic when he was in one of his pissy moods.

  The two of them—and maybe even Jessabelle and Graz—might be sitting in front of Lucian at this very minute. Were they as full of dread as I was? And why did I care? Why was I thinking about them now?

  Gabriel was the one trying to make sure I didn’t get killed. He was the one I should trust. He was the one who needed my allegiance.

  Felix snickered. “As if you could afford it, bloodsucker boy. I don’t like being denied—and every time I am, the price goes up. I hope you didn’t need that scent blocker too desperately.”

  I sat up straighter as my instincts made their way to the surface. Fuck this guy. He wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as Gabriel. A bunch of muscles and a scary personality. Big deal.

  “He won’t tell his father and uncle about the way you auction off humans.”

  Felix’s head snapped back. Gabriel jumped a little, like I had shocked him. How much did it take to shock a vampire?

  I took advantage of their silence and kept rolling. Was I right about any of this? I knew I was, even if I didn’t know how I knew. It was one of those gut feelings I had to follow.

  “If this was legal, the whole selling humans as blood bags racket you’ve got going on, you wouldn’t need a vampire guarding the door. You wouldn’t have to be so sneaky and sketchy about it. Don’t tell me the only illegal activity you’ve got going on is selling potions or whatever they are. There are rules about how humans and vampires exist together, aren’t there? Rules like the ones being reviewed and decided on at the Summit. It sure would suck for you if Gabriel went to the Summit and told everybody about the money you’re raking in, selling humans.”