Between a Vamp and a Hard Place

by Jessica Sims

  I stiffened under him. For a split second, I didn’t want him to. I wanted us to keep playing all night long. To make love for hours more.

  But that would ruin the plan. The moment Gemma got here, we needed to race to find the Dragon. I’d only have one chance to get this right. The moment Rand found out I’d drugged him, he wouldn’t trust me again.

  I couldn’t let that happen. So, fighting the pain in my heart, I gave my ass another wiggle. “Bite me, then, love. Do it.”

  His cock slid from me, and I experienced a moment of loss so great I mewed aloud. Please, God, don’t let that be the last time I feel him, I thought as he pulled me upright until I was on my knees. He clamped my body against his, cock pressed against my back. His arm went around me, his hand to my neck, and he nuzzled at my throat from behind.

  I tilted my head, closed my eyes, and waited for him to drink.

  He sank his fangs, and I sucked in a breath at the sensation, holding extremely still. Then I felt him begin to suck, felt a bit of blood spill down my neck. He moaned, and I felt his entire body jerk behind me, coming with the force of his own orgasm. “So sweet,” he rasped, licking at my blood again.

  I twined my fingers in his shaggy hair, holding his head there. “Take a bit more,” I encouraged. “You’re thirsty. I know you are. I can handle it.”

  I expected him to protest, to pull away, but instead, he took another long, hard pull from my throat. And another. Then he reluctantly licked the wound, sealing it, and held me against him, his body warming.

  I leaned against him, wrapped in his arms, his scent, his love . . . and felt content. “I love you, Rand,” I told him. “So much.”

  I felt the moment it hit him. He shifted against me, then staggered. I moved forward, darting across the bed, then turned to look at him.

  He put a hand to his forehead, blinking, his expression woozy. “I . . . something is wrong.”

  “I love you,” I said again. “I’m so sorry.”

  Recognition flared in his eyes even as he slumped forward. I caught him and laid him on his back.

  “Why?” he asked as I tucked a pillow behind his head.

  “Because I love you,” I said, leaning in and kissing his slack mouth. “And I’m going to save you.”

  “Lindsey,” he breathed, reaching for my hair. His fingers touched it, and then his hand fell back.

  For one horrible, frightening moment I thought I’d killed him. I knelt on the mattress and stared at his body, watching. I worried that he was wrong. That garlic wasn’t a soporific but a poison, and I’d just killed my lover.

  But when he didn’t turn to dust, I breathed a little easier. I fixed him up on the bed, pulling the covers up to his chin and dragging his legs onto the mattress, making him comfortable. Stupid, but it helped ease the guilt raging through me. And I kissed his sweet face over and over again. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

  Then I got dressed, sucked in a deep breath to calm myself, and leaned over him once more.

  “Vlad,” I called. “Are you there?”

  Rand’s eyes flicked open, but the rest of his body didn’t move.

  “I think we need to talk.”

  “I am listening.” The hollow, creepy voice was back.

  “I want an exchange,” I said. “Me for Rand.”

  “Why would I want you?”

  I made my voice a sultry purr. “Because I taste divine. You trade me Rand’s freedom, and I’ll come to you.”

  Twenty-three

  Two hours later, I waited at the train station, desperately trying to hold my shit together. Rand was asleep in our hotel room in the middle of the night, when he should have been conscious. He was completely and utterly vulnerable. It bothered me like crazy that I had to leave him. He was safe, I told myself, as long as he was in the room. No vampires could be invited in. I ignored the thought of a vampire charming a hotel employee and then coercing them to invite him in the room, because if I let myself go down that path, I’d go mad.

  Rand was as safe as I could make him.

  The train I was waiting on pulled in, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a familiar face step off.

  “Lindsey!” Gemma waved frantically and rushed forward, her large purse tucked under her arm. “Thank goodness. I was starting to think I’d never get here.”

  It didn’t help that I’d felt the same. I gave her a wavering smile. “Hey. Ready to kick some vampire ass?”

  She patted her bag. “I’ve got some gear here. Let’s get someplace private so we can talk and prep, okay?”

  I nodded and followed her lead.

  “Someplace private” ended up being the train station family-designated bathroom. We went inside, and Gemma locked the door.

  She turned and studied me the moment we were alone. “You okay to do this?”

  I sat down on the toilet and nodded weakly. I felt like crying, but it was too late for tears. “I’m good.”

  “Is our boy tranquilized?”

  “Yeah, he should be out for a while,” I told her. “I have the place the Dragon is staying, too.” I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket with the hastily scribbled address on it. “I’m going to meet him at this place at two in the morning.”

  “Okay, cool. Let me show you what I brought.” She set her bag down on the sink and began to pull all kinds of things out. A jar of minced garlic. Bottles of holy water. Crosses. Knives. More stakes. Then she pulled out a few things that caught my interest. A package of needles. Two T-shirts in green. And a brown wig that looked suspiciously like the color and length of my hair.

  I gave her an odd look. “I can guess some of that, but I’m blank on some others.”

  “So we know where you’re meeting him, right?”

  I nodded. “I looked it up on Google Maps. It’s an old graveyard.”

  “Creepy.”

  I drummed my fingers on my mouth. “He thinks I’m heading over there to give myself up in exchange for Rand.”

  Gemma shuddered, then composed herself. “Okay. So here’s what I’m thinking. You want to stake him and not just kill him outright, right?” At my nod, she continued. “I dress up like you. We wear the same shirts. Same hair. We smell different, so we’ll need to prick you and rub me with your blood. Gross, I know, but that’s what he’s going to notice, so we’ll disguise it. Then, while he’s occupied with me, you sneak up and stake him!”

  I nodded slowly. “It could work. Are you sure you want to do this? It’ll put you in danger.”

  “The best weapon we have is our blood,” she said, and pulled out two flasks of holy water. She handed me one, then passed me the jar of garlic. “Drink up, eat up, and let’s get this shit on the road.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “We’re in a bathroom.”

  “No time to be picky. Just wash your hands before you eat, and touch nothing.” She tapped her holy water flask to mine. “Now, bottoms up.”

  * * *

  An hour later, I hunched behind a gravestone. We’d found the old graveyard, and the place the Dragon had picked out couldn’t have been creepier if it tried.

  Trees, bushes, and other greenery surrounded the graveyard, which wasn’t all that surprising. It was on the edge of Brasov, after all. But what I found unnerving was the sheer number of graves. Back in the US, it seemed like our graveyards were perfectly spacious. Here, headstones were crammed over what felt like every freaking inch of the place, and if there wasn’t a headstone, there was a stone cherub with soulless eyes staring off into the distance. I hid behind an enormous cross topped with a cherub.

  Like I said, creepy.

  The center of the graveyard had a small cobblestone path and a fountain with a bench. I guess it was for people who wanted to spend their afternoons hanging out amongst the dead or something. It was there that Gemma sat, holding my purse and playing with my phone. She wore the wig and had her head bent, presumably so she could hide the fact that she wasn’t me.

  Me? I got to
sit and squat in the back of the graveyard, stake in hand, waiting for my moment. My stomach roiled from a mixture of too much holy water and even more garlic, and the bottles tucked into my bra jabbed my armpits. The ground underneath my feet was muddy, and it was fricking cold at two in the morning.

  On top of all that? The stupid vampire was a no-show. I shielded the screen of Gemma’s phone and peeked at the time: 2:06 a.m. He was supposed to be here at two in the morning, and every minute that ticked past made me that much more anxious. I thought of Rand, completely alone in our room. What if this was all a ploy to get him alone, and I’d fallen for it?

  No, I had to be positive. The Dragon didn’t know what we were thinking. He didn’t know Gemma was helping me. He thought I would be here alone. Why wouldn’t he?

  The phone in my hand vibrated with an incoming text.

  Bogey at six o’clock.

  I peeped up, gazing around the old graveyard. Gemma sat in a circle of moonlight, but in the distance, I saw a form moving underneath a tree and sneaking up behind her. It was a man with long, flowing dark curls.

  At her seat, Gemma glanced around the graveyard, then returned to typing on her phone, her face lit up from the backlight. She knew he was there but was pretending otherwise.

  This was my chance. I palmed a stake, gripping it in my sweaty hand. I could do this. As the vampire moved through the shadows toward Gemma, I crept a few steps behind him, stake in hand. His long hair fluttered as he walked, his hands unnaturally pale in the moonlight. He wore a dark shirt and dark pants but otherwise was nondescript. I hadn’t gotten a good look at his face, but it had to be Vlad. Who else would be here late at night, making a beeline for Gemma? Who else would have that long, freaky hair and such pale hands?

  I bit my lip and continued to move quietly behind him, readying myself. The moment he bent to touch Gemma, I’d stake his ass.

  As I crept up behind him, I heard him inhale deeply. He touched Gemma’s shoulder. “I see it is you, little one.”

  There was no mistaking that creepster voice, the flat, hollow sound of it, the lack of accent. With an adrenaline rush, I surged forward and plunged my stake into the monster’s back. It went in like butter, tearing through clothing and flesh as if they were nothing.

  An unholy shriek arose from the creature. He stiffened and staggered a few steps away, even as Gemma leapt off the bench, eyes wide.

  The vampire fell to the ground on his stomach. The stake jutted out of his back, slightly off to the side.

  “Did you get his heart?” Gemma panted, clutching her chest.

  “I don’t know!” He wasn’t moving, but it didn’t exactly look like I’d hit his heart, either. I grabbed another stake out of my boot and rolled the vampire onto his back. His eyes were staring sightlessly up at the sky, his mouth slightly parted. I had a horrible feeling for one moment that I’d staked a normal guy. Please, please let this be a vampire. I reached out to touch him.

  Ice-cold. Relief shot through me.

  His gaze darted to my face, and then he grabbed my hand.

  With a yelp, I stuck my second stake into his front, this time through his heart. Gemma smothered her scream behind her hands.

  He groaned, shuddered, and lay still.

  I looked over at Gemma. “Did we do it?”

  “How the fuck should I know?” She threw her hands up. “What’s supposed to happen now?”

  Something gurgled. I glanced down at the vampire at my feet. Nothing.

  “What—”

  I held out a hand. “Wait for it.”

  We waited. Nothing happened.

  I frowned, then remembered. Staking didn’t kill anyone. It was the beheading. “I think we need to cut his head off,” I told her, reaching down to grab his hair.

  It came off in my hand.

  What the heck . . .

  I stared down at the limp corpse of the vampire at my feet. His hair underneath the wig was . . . blond?

  Hands slowly clapped from behind us. “Bravo,” said a cold, humorless voice. It was familiar, but it wasn’t hollow like it was when it normally came out of Rand’s mouth. My skin pricking with fear, I turned and faced the newcomer.

  This man had short hair. And a goatee. His mustache was thin, his nose long and pointed. He had a massive underbite and prominent eyes. Dark, slashing eyebrows.

  And he looked mean as hell. His eyes gleamed that weird vampire green that Rand’s sometimes changed to.

  And he clapped. Slowly. Mockingly.

  I stared down at the vampire at my feet. That wasn’t the Dragon. I’d heard his voice, seen the hair, and thought him fooled. But he’d fooled me. He’d sent another vampire in his place. Another vampire wearing a wig, and he’d talked through his mouth.

  This was bad.

  “Gemma.” I licked dry lips. Clutched the stake in my hand.

  “Y-yes?” She stood next to me, utterly frozen.

  “Run,” I breathed.

  “Oh shit,” Gemma said. She turned and ran—

  The vampire moved, a blur of motion in the darkness. Before I could even comprehend what I was seeing, he grabbed Gemma. Her body arced backward, and she flew through the air. Her back smacked into a tombstone in the distance and she lay still, unmoving.

  I stared in horror, unable to move. Not that it mattered. A mere second later—how was the Dragon so fast?—a cold hand wrapped around my neck. Fingernails dug into my skin. A hard body pressed up against my back, and I gasped as the hand dragged my head backward, extending my throat.

  “Do you think me stupid, little one?” Vlad hissed into my ear.

  I said nothing. I was too afraid. Fear coursed through me, turning my blood to ice. My heart slammed so loudly that it felt like it would break my ribs.

  “I am thousands of years old,” he said, voice turning silky. “Do you think I have not seen every trick in the book? That I cannot predict what you will do?” His fingernails dragged down my throat, leaving welts in their wake. “Do you think I cannot smell an imposter?”

  “I had to try something,” I whispered. I was utterly terrified. Was Gemma dead? What had happened to her? Dear God, what was going to happen to me?

  He clucked in my ear. “Poor, sweet fool. I imagine you did, didn’t you?” Something hard and bony prodded my cheek. His nose. “I can see why Rand is so besotted. Such a pretty package. Sweet, tasty, nubile.”

  I shuddered. His voice made my skin prickle.

  “And so very determined to keep him safe.” He sniffed me again. “However misguided your actions are, I find them very amusing. And so few things amuse me as of late. I must say, I’m intrigued by you. By all of this.”

  I licked my lips, terrified. “Let me go.”

  “Since you asked nicely?” he mocked. “But mere moments ago, you were trying to kill me. Would I not be a fool to do as you ask?”

  “Please,” I whispered.

  “Please what?”

  “Please let me go.”

  To my surprise, he released me so quickly that I stumbled forward. I caught myself, straightened, and turned to look at him warily.

  He gestured at me. “You are released, delicious one. What will you do now?” His eyes gleamed, and I felt suspiciously like a mouse cornered by a cat.

  Was he truly letting me go, or was this another trick? What could I do? I couldn’t run, that was for sure. He was faster than me, stronger than me, and running wouldn’t solve anything.

  One of my stakes lay on the ground nearby, and I snatched it up, then held it like a sword.

  Vlad took one look at me, then threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you are fun.”

  “You’re an asshole,” I told him. “You should leave Rand alone. Why are you hunting him? What’s he done to you?”

  “He is a disloyal soldier,” Vlad said, taking a stalking step toward me.

  I instinctively moved backward, nearly tripping over a gravestone. I skittered around it, still brandishing the stake. It didn’t feel like nearly enou
gh. Why had I thought that I could take down someone like Vlad the freaking Impaler?

  “I once had four loyal knights. He’s told you this, yes?” Vlad waved a gesture, dismissing this. “Of course he did. He tells you everything, does he not? I am sure he told you about all the times that he rode at my side, slaughtering innocents and burning towns in my name? The warriors he killed by the dozens? The men he impaled on spikes at the gates of their castles as a warning to others?”

  I swallowed hard, clutching my too-small stake. “He told me that you controlled his mind! That you sit there like a spider in the back of his head and take over everything.”

  Vlad shrugged, the movement fluid as he continued to move toward me. “There is always some sacrifice with immortality, sweet one. They did not ask what my price was. They simply agreed to it.”

  “Because they were dying!”

  “One might argue that death is not always the worst that can happen to a man, as your Rand might attest.” Vlad’s strange mouth curved into a cruel smile as he continued to stalk forward, heading directly for me.

  I clutched the stake tighter. I could do this. I could. He just needed to move closer, and then—

  The vampire moved forward, motions so quick that I could barely process them. In a flash, he’d batted the stake from my hand and grabbed me by the forearm. He wrenched me forward, eliciting a cry as I felt the bones in my arm crack.

  Then he had me by the throat again, tucking my body against his.

  “Four loyal knights,” he hissed into my ear, so close that I could feel his lips move against my skin.

  I shuddered.

  “And one by one, he turned those knights against me with his sad tales. That a life of rampage and war for all eternity was somehow wrong. That what they did was evil.”

  “It was evil!”

  “Of course it was, you fool.” His hand tightened on my throat, nearly choking me. I wheezed and gasped for breath as he continued. “The others were my vassals because they could not think for themselves. Only Rand was not content. Only Rand would not stop asking questions. He had to be removed.”