Talon

by Alice Wade

  The woman’s voice brought the Kailani back to the dark dungeon, pushing memories of Talon out of her head. She was mumbling and suddenly agreed loudly to Kailani’s plea for her to escape. “I know we need to get out, but I don’t know how. Kailani, are you all right?”

  Lainey saw that the woman wasn’t going to attack them and concern quickly replaced the fear she felt earlier. If she could help this vampire, she might just be their answer for getting out of this dungeon. “If I help you now, can you help us get free?”

  Kailani’s incisors dripped at the offering Lainey was giving freely. “Feed me,” she groaned and closed her eyes.

  As Lainey moved forward on her own accord, Quade stopped her roughly by grabbing her arm, “What the hell do you you’re doing? Dace would disapprove of this. She could convert you!”

  “She also is our only hope of getting out of here. She needs her strength back, and the only way to do that is blood. My blood.” She shoved the larger man’s hand off her arm. “Now stand back.”

  Kailani smelled the food source approach her. She felt the strong heartbeat as Lainey kneeled down before her. The tortured growl that built up in the tiny vampire’s throat nearly was Lainey’s undoing, but she held her ground, knowing this may be her only shot at escape.

  “I want to help, Kailani. Please tell me what to do.”

  Lainey’s proximity was almost overwhelming, and Kailani inhaled deeply to retain what little control she still had. Even the little blood the captain was able to give wasn’t enough to sustain a full-grown vampire in such a depleted state.

  “Tell me what to do, Kailani.”

  A powerful hand grabbed Lainey through the bars. Ferocious silver eyes in a fevered state bore into her soul, clouding her thinking. Quade lunged forward to pull her back when a growl issued forth and halted his approach.

  “Stay back,” she snarled. “I’ll try not to hurt her.”

  “Try hard,” he warned.

  The vampire laughed. “Or what?” Kailani broke her fixation of the pulsating flow through the artery inches from her mouth and stared at the man, “Or you’ll kill me? I’m as good as dead anyway.”

  Lainey was mesmerized at this point by the power of the vampire taking full effect. She allowed Kailani to pull her down while she tilted her head, exposing the tempting flow of blood. Lainey moaned again, this time in pleasure as the effects took hold. Kailani lost control and bit deep into the neck, sinking into the woman’s artery. Her venom raced through the blood, calming her victim and easing the discomfort of the bite.

  It was Nirvana. Kailani almost fainted from taking so much. She almost couldn’t stop as the clean, fresh fluid filled her mouth. She purred as she drank, vibrating in pleasure as the delicious nourishment filled her stomach and replenished her depleted body. It was the purest blood she had drunk in weeks, and she wanted desperately to drink all there was to offer. Yet, she took what she must to survive and left the woman enough to live. That was only fair, was it not? In a sensual caress of her mouth, she closed the wound and kissed her, tenderly suckling the entry point in a sensual way. This allowed the woman to wake back up from the experience unscathed.

  Lainey was still held in the vampire’s embrace as she came around. She found herself staring into glowing, silver eyes now speckled with yellow. She felt safe. Odd, she thought to herself, for she was cradled in a vampire’s arms and feeling safe should be the last thing she’d expect.

  “Why would you do that?” the vampire whispered, stroking her cheek in a tender act. “Why offer yourself so freely?”

  “Because we have to get out of here and you can help,” Lainey whispered as she slowly detangled from the intimate position. “Did you take what you needed?”

  “Yes, thank you.” Flexing her fingers, she immediately felt the positive effects and the warmth of the blood as it replenished her body. “He must be someone special if you willingly gave yourself to a vampire like that.” Kailani implied the claim of personal ownership on her finger.

  Lainey smiled. “Yes, he is.”

  “What’s his name?” The vampire really didn’t care, but she needed to calm the woman down now that she was awake. The fear that wafted off her was sour and making Kailani ill. She knew talking helped ease the heart and soul, therefore Kailani chatted until the woman’s fear ceased.

  “Dace. His name is Dace.” Lainey said the name with such love that Kailani looked at her in regret. There was a very good chance Lainey would never see this Dace again, and that was heartbreaking.

  The emotion embedded in Lainey’s voice sounded a lot like how she felt about Talon. Did she have the heart to tell her the truth of her fate, that she, a starving vampire, didn’t have the strength to break her free? Hissing in frustration, she whirled from the woman’s sight and hovered in the corner. She knew she was still too frail to do more than parlor tricks to stay alive. If only she had one more day to feed a few more times off these two, then maybe. Yet Kailani didn’t have days but hours, and that was just not good enough. She knew someone would come for these two very soon. Not to mention, once Kaen got a good look at Lainey, he’d probably do the honors of her converting himself. He did have a thing for pixy-faced women.

  She decided to tell her the truth and let her deal with it. Another tactic to dealing with the Dûr Falas, Kailani thought. If she fought them, she would die a painful death. However, if she accepted her fate, well then, she may just emerge alive and with her mind intact enough to salvage.

  “They will come for you.” When Lainey looked up she continued, “They come for the women first, so expect that.” She looked at Quade, “You, they may just kill.” There was something about Quade the petite vampire didn’t like. Even his blood smelled sour.

  “Great, so that…” he waved at the vampire, “…scene was only needed for you to tell me I’m going to die?” Quade shook with anger as he stalked closer, stopping immediately when the tiny woman hissed in warning.

  “Shut up, Quade,” Lainey said as she stood. “What are they going to do to me?” She ignored her comrade and watched the vampire.

  “Convert you.” It was said with a flat tone. “Kaen is a vampire. The Dûr Falas are a rogue coven who love to take over regions and feed until they get bored. They’ve done this hundreds of times. They are many. Finding them all and killing them has taken centuries. They are unbalanced and demented. We’ve been trying to stop them for centuries, and this is the closest we’ve come to finding what would really stop their insanity—Kaen. He is their leader.” She stood and stretched her body, feeling the effects of the partial feeding take hold. “Kaen so enjoys creating new sexual slaves, so he converts the woman, and he kills or feeds on the men.” She added casually.

  “We?” Lainey’s voice was tight, on the verge of panic.

  The only thing keeping her from all-out hysteria was the ring on her finger reminding her to be strong. She would get out of this somehow. Looking back at the vampire, who watched her with eerie eyes, she wondered just what the hell had they stumbled into.

  The vampire listened to her thoughts and ignored the ramblings as the human tried to talk herself down. How cute, but she had no chance of waking up human in the morning. “Talon and I were hunting them until I got caught. He’s probably prowling out there now. I can almost feel him, but we’re both shielded so Kaen won’t sense him.” The vampire walked the room, staring at the walls and sensing things not visible to the others.

  “Can you help at all?” Lainey was desperate. The thought of being converted sickened her, not to mention sent a tremor of terror through her spine.

  The vampire eyed the man. “Maybe if the stupid one allowed me to feed.”

  “No,” Quade announced firmly. “No vampire is drinking my blood.”

  She laughed. “You will be food either way, human.”

  Now that she was stronger, pow
er filled her senses. Kailani stretched her awareness outward to identify how many vampires and living bodies were in the area. She felt beating hearts a few rooms down from where they were. Reaching out further, one of those hearts was filled with terror and she frowned with regret. She opened her senses up further and connected with this poor soul and grunted when his terror peaked. Then nothing. They’d killed another innocent soul and it truly angered her. They must be stopped.

  Touching her head, she said, “We have a little time. They are occupied at the moment, so make up your mind quickly.”

  “Damn it, Quade!” Lainey whirled on her partner. “Do it!” she ordered.

  He stood there defiantly for a few moments before he finally approached the bars, staring aggressively at the tiny vampire as she sneered back.

  He was furious with Lainey and disgusted by the vampire. He couldn’t believe he was going to do this, but he wanted to get out as much as Lainey did. If she was brave enough to offer this vampire her blood, so could he, but damn if he wasn’t pleased about it. “I’m only doing this for a chance to get out of here, not because I care one whit about you. Understood?”

  “Oh, goodie,” she said before she hissed and then released her coercions to relax Quade.

  To Lainey, she caressed his neck in an intimate act, seductive and tender. When his eyes glazed over as his head fell back, she knew he was under the vampire’s spell. Kailani purred just before she tenderly bit into his neck with loving care. Lainey sat down heavily as the scene unfolded. She was horrified she was watching a vampire feed, yet she couldn’t look away. Luckily, it was over in moments and Quade was coming back around, shaking his head to clear the fog of the coercion.

  “There, all done,” Kailani said. With a pat and a caress, the vampire pushed Quade away as she wiped her mouth, though there wasn’t a drop of blood there. “Now we plan.”

  Chapter Two

  “Anything?” Dace asked for the fiftieth time that evening.

  It was well past midnight. Lainey and Quade had yet to return. Dace had become more and more frantic. Unimaginable things could be happening to Lainey at that very moment with the worst being her trapped in Ondre’s dungeon. A horrible sinking feeling in his gut told him that was probably the case, and he knew he couldn’t get her out. His eyes landed on their lean-to, causing his eyes to water. He wasn’t ready to lose her yet. Angry or not, he wanted her here.

  “Well,” Omar, a larger, stout man said. He was winded from returning from the city. “Dace,” he paused with a pained expression on his face, “I heard there were two thieves caught in the castle, sir.” He suddenly couldn’t meet Dace’s eyes when he said what came next, “It’s them.”

  “I know, ” Heart-wrenching pain stabbed his heart. “Now what do we do to get them out?” Dace whispered with a deadly calm.

  That same dreadful feeling Dace felt when he’d robbed the castle returned. “For that, you will need my assistance,” answered a velvet smooth, deeply seductive voice from the shadows, causing both men to spin around and stare at the source. “But I require something in return.”

  Before them stood a creature of myth and legend; one who caused panic by the mere uttering of his name alone. To have this elf walk among the living was enough alert them that a hunter was among them and they would do well to run.

  Talon had arrived. Dace and Omar both took a step back in unison.

  “You see, gentlemen. I want my mate back. She is caught up in this same mess and needs me to pull her out.” Talon approached farther into the firelight and stopped. At well over six foot five, Talon loomed over the living. He stood proudly before them with arms crossed over his broad chest that tapered to a narrow waist. This intruder tapped his fingers on his shirt sleeve before dusting off the front of his embroidered vest. He was dressed rather nice for one thought to be a killer, complete with dark colored trousers tucked into polished leather boots. His Elven heritage was clear in both his form and features. He had the common almond-shaped eyes, a chiseled face, and his ears were elegantly pointed like all of his people. What announced he shared another heritage were his eyes. They were a chilling ice blue ringed with black that seemed to pierce their souls. These screamed vampire.

  His sneer was seductive and curved the corner of his mouth, “The question is, gentlemen, can you work with a vampire to achieve your goals?”

  Dace’s hackles raised as his instincts told him to run and run fast. Talon was legend; he was death. One didn’t encounter the elven vampire if one wanted to live, and one sure as hell didn’t engage the man in a conversation over the firelight. He didn’t know what to say, could not form any words even if he wanted, so he did the next best thing—Dace laughed.

  “I see your esteemed leader is a master of words,” Talon commented to Omar. “Impressive.” The vampire strolled the clearing and idly looked at bottles of cheap wine sitting out. After locating an unused glass, he poured himself a glass of wine. “Not one for high standards for vintage wines, either.”

  “Times have been hard,” Dace finally stammered out. “Who are you exactly?” He knew who this was, but his fear caused him to blurt out the first thing to come to mind.

  “Really, you are going to ask that? I’m insulted.” Talon raised a brow in mock insult. “I’ve been watching you for weeks. Long before this situation took place.” He swirled the contents of his glass, checking the sugar of the cheap wine, and then swallowed the contents with a grimace. “You are cleverer than that. My mate was captured and it’s taken me this long to identify her location within the dungeon. It appears your woman is also in the same location, am I correct?” Dace frowned at that, but Talon continue with a stance that spoke of arrogance, he added, “I am going to get Kailani out before I raze the building to the ground and kill whoever is inside. I figured you’d be interested in saving your woman as well. Am I mistaken by that?”

  The wine tasted horrid, but their terror-stained blood smelled delicious, and he felt his hunger build to a frenzied level. Later. His standards were much higher, and he preferred those who lavished themselves with better quality nourishments and drank better wine, for sure.

  “Based on your silence, you’re either stunned or aren’t interested.” Talon shrugged.

  Dace jolted out of his shock, and choked out, “Why?”

  “I’ve decided to play nice since we’re fighting the same evil. You’ve impressed me Dace Veridan and I’d rather save what is important to you before I destroy the rest.”

  Dace cleared his throat and forced the heavy pit of fear back into the depths of his stomach. “Your mate is inside the dungeon?” Dace repeated.

  “Yes. She was careless, for once. It was bound to happen eventually, but Kaen outsmarted her over a week ago.” A growl rumbled in his chest as he controlled the beast within. “I want her back.”

  His confidence was staggering, and Dace shook off his discomfort as he stood to check the fire. “You say you and I are fighting the same evil. What exactly is that?”

  “Dûr Falas.”

  “Excuse me?” Everyone knew the group who attended the king so closely. Their name sent a chill through the hearts of strong men. Dace could not believe this vampire was thinking he and his men would fight against that force. “I think you are mistaken, we fight the crown.”

  “Same difference.” Talon waved his long-fingered hand in the air. “Kaen is so far entrenched at this point that they are one in the same. It is only a matter of time before the king is disposed of,” Talon replied calmly as if this were everyday conversation. After speaking he turned and faced Dace with crossed arms, watching him with a slightly tilted head. “We fight the same evil.”

  Dace coughed. “Dûr Falas.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m no warrior.” He looked around the shantytown with remorse. “Neither are my men. We are fighting to survive and nothing more,”
he whispered.

  “I have read your thoughts over the past week. You want an end to this tyranny.”

  That Dace could not deny, and he bobbed his head in agreement. “I do, however I’m not a warrior. I’m a blacksmith who is trying to keep people alive. Dreaming about ending this tyranny and actually doing it are two different things. I just wanted to uncover the truth about what caused our king to go down such dark paths.”

  “I just gave the truth to you. Now the question is, are you man enough to do something about it? Your mate is held captive. She will be harmed. Are you brave enough to set her free?”

  That declaration of Lainey’s fate bit his soul like a snake. Dace turned to look at the vampire with distain and then snarled. “You dare accuse me of being a coward?”

  Talon laughed, arrogant and sure. “Yes and I see it’s having the desired effect.”

  Dace scowled. “I understand now that the stories which precede you are correct. You are a whore’s son.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. Now, are you ready to discuss this or shall I leave?” Talon looked around as if spotting his exit.

  “How did you get in anyway?” Omar finally asked, drawing the attention of the elegant vampire his way.

  “Your protection was very good but not enough to keep me out.” He thought about it. “It won’t keep Kaen’s men out either, now that I think about it.” A secretive smile appeared. “I put your man to sleep.” He nodded to Omar. “He is unharmed and dreaming of sexual conquests at the moment.”

  While Omar looked in the direction of his young sentry, Dace worked through his options. He really didn’t have many and this idea that the vampire could control minds was unsettling. When he looked back at Talon and then Omar, he smiled. If Talon could read minds, then so could Kaen. Joining forces with the elven vampire would only even the odds, right? However, what would the price be for siding with Talon? Would he be required to hand over young maidens as payment?