Russian Roulette (Helena Hawthorn Series Book 1)

by May Freighter

  He didn’t even have enough time to think of the first question when Alexander burst into the room, making the kid stumble. “We’ve got a problem!”

  Everyone’s eyes focused on Alexander. He took the drink out of Lucious’ hand and set it down. “Looks like the hounds have gotten to her first.”

  Lucious cursed under his breath. He should have gone after her despite his promise to let her go.

  “Where is she?” Lucious asked.

  Alexander opened his mouth to speak when Andrew strode over with a dagger, pointing it at them. “Are you talking about Helena?”

  “Yes, young man, we are,” Alexander replied.

  Lucious scowled at his friend. There was no need to inform the human. They needed to contain him until they dealt with the hounds.

  “If you are going to find her, take me with you,” Andrew said.

  With newfound interest, Lucious studied the boy. The human was afraid of them—of what they were. His elevated heart rate confirmed it, yet he was prepared to go into the unknown for her.

  “And what are you willing to do to help your woman?” Lucious asked.

  Andrew’s cheeks flushed the shade of a ripe apple, and Lucious instantly knew this human’s reaction meant one thing: their relationship had not reached an intimate level. His usefulness equated to an empty kettle on the Moon.

  “I will do anything I can.”

  Lucious exchanged glances with Alexander. They both must have thought the same thing because Alexander smirked. This kid was going to be their distraction while they eliminated the hounds in their own trap.

  “Welcome aboard,” Lucious said with an outstretched hand.

  They sat in Alexander’s car, a mile away from ‘The Rift’ bar, waiting for the right time to strike. Unable to help himself, Lucious glanced at his watch for the umpteenth time. He checked on Andrew who clenched the dagger in his shaking hands. The only noise in the car was the kid’s irregular breathing as if his body couldn’t decide whether he was relaxing or running a marathon.

  “We need to move.” Alexander opened the door. “We have an hour till the sun rises.”

  Andrew shifted in the back seat. “Are you guys really vampires?”

  “Young man, I believe it is not the right time to be having such a dull conversation.” Lucious dismissed further questions by climbing out of the car.

  The air outside began its daily transformation from cold and humid to light and fresh—the first indication that the sun wasn’t far from rising over the horizon and knocking him unconscious. If they didn’t make it in time, best-case scenario, they would arrive as dead bodies at a morgue where Alexander had a few friends. Worst case, death would claim them again and, this time, there was no return. They were banking on the hounds not expecting a human to be the one knocking on their door. Pitiful, yet it was the best plan they could produce on such short notice.

  Andrew joined them. His knuckles paled from clutching the dagger to his chest.

  “You could lose a hand if you are not careful with that,” Alexander joked.

  Andrew lowered the weapon. “I’m not scared of doing something so stupid. I’m more concerned for Helena.”

  “Admirable,” Alexander said, “but women exist to be used. Remember that.”

  “We could spend the hour discussing our views on women or we could get on with it,” Lucious said.

  They repeated the plan, pausing to look at the brick-and-stone, single-storey bar. The stained windows of the property were boarded up, making it hard for them to assess what sort of welcome they would receive.

  Lucious separated from the others and stalked across the paved car park. They didn’t know where they were keeping her, so the best course of action was to cover as much ground as possible by Alexander searching the ground floor and Lucious checking the cellar.

  He knelt next to the chained metal doors levelled with the concrete and lifted the chain. He hissed as a burning sensation shot through his fingertips and singed his skin. Bloody silver!

  Lucious shrugged out of his jacket, wrapped the leather around his hands, and pulled at the chain. The rings sluggishly separated, and he nudged them apart one last time. Careful not to make any noise, he encased the chains with his jacket, leaving it on the side.

  One at a time, he lifted the doors. He assessed the dark space below. His ears strained, listening for any movement. Satisfied with the silence, he jumped down, causing dust to rise.

  A simple door with a few beams of lamplight seeping through the cracks in the worn wood blocked his way. Lucious drew out a knife he had borrowed from Alexander and pressed his back against the wall. He pushed the handle down, forcing the door open with a strained creak. He struggled not to laugh at the irony of the situation.

  No longer caring for stealth, he entered the room. The whimpering of the hinges would have alerted any vampire in the district of his presence. So, he waited. Ready. When nothing happened, he frowned and scrutinised the room with a dozen unopened boxes stacked against the far wall.

  He checked the staircase. No one was coming. He heard muffled grunts from above but refrained from going there to check on the situation. Alexander could handle himself in a fight. His mission was to find the saint.

  Lucious drew closer to the final door on his left. He listened for any movement. Beyond the obstruction, a nervous thumping of a human heart filled his ears. His fingers tightened on the hilt.

  On the other side, the first thing he saw was the saint. Her hands were chained above her head. Her face was pale from what he guessed was exhaustion. Lucious sucked in a breath, discerning a faint aroma of her sweet blood hanging thick in the air.

  Something cold and hard pressed against the back of his skull.

  “Don’t move,” a harsh masculine voice warned.

  Lucious smirked. Amateur. He turned on the spot, caught the barrel of the gun and pushed it down. An ear-piercing explosion made his eardrums pulsate. He gritted his teeth as a burning sensation spread through his thigh. Annoyed, he seized the vampire by the throat. The other hand he used to yank the vampire’s gun away. After tossing it to one side, he raised the man off the ground, pressing him against the wall.

  “Who are you?” No matter how Lucious looked at the ineptitude of this lowlife, he was no hound.

  The man released his energy, ready to fight back. To combat him, Lucious continued to wring his throat, ceasing the vampire’s struggle.

  The vampire spat at him and wrapped his hands around Lucious’ wrist.

  When Lucious realised the man was planning to break his bones, he plunged his fist into the vampire’s gut. He moved his fingers past the diaphragm and found the heart. “Answer my question before I end your miserable existence.”

  The vampire glared at him. “We were hired to keep you alive until the Council arrived.”

  Lucious schooled his exterior to appear indifferent although the news of their imminent arrival sent chills to his bones. He didn’t want to be in their reach when the enraged elders—who advocated his death—arrived. Since he chose to run from their summons, he was partially responsible for their murderous intent.

  “When are they coming here?” Lucious asked with a hint of desperation seeping into his voice.

  The vampire grinned but didn’t give him an answer. Lucious jaw ached from clenching it as he fought to keep his anger under wraps. His hand compressed the slippery heart.

  “Answer me, damn it!” he yelled.

  The vampire’s eyes flashed blue, and Lucious knew he wasn’t going to get anything else out of him. He grasped the immobile organ and jerked it out of the bounty hunter’s body.

  Lucious tossed the useless heart onto the stone floor. He wiped his hand on the vampire’s shirt while the bounty hunter’s skin sagged and collapsed in on itself. Large bulging eyes stared at him throughout the whole process until they dried up and the vampire lay on the ground in a mummified heap.

  This wasn’t the time to admire his work. Lucious knelt and
searched the man’s pockets. His thigh muscles screamed from the silver bullet lodged in them, but he dismissed the pain. He found a packet of cigarettes and a cheap plastic lighter—nothing he could use. He threw them at the wall and cursed.

  The saint’s gasp resonated behind him. A second later, Helena asked, “Things didn’t go your way?”

  Lucious froze. He had forgotten about her. Taking a deep breath, he stood and turned to face her. He steeled his expression, allowing no emotion to escape. The pain from the bullet was clawing at the back of his skull, but he would be damned if he let her see any weakness.

  He licked his lower lip. “Someone in your position shouldn’t be talking so much, my dear.”

  Helena couldn’t help a blush colouring her cheeks. She had witnessed him murder someone and felt no pity for Rick. He was a creep that would have been more than happy torturing her for hours had his partner not ordered him to leave her alone.

  “If I didn’t interrupt you, I’m afraid you would turn the room upside down,” she replied.

  Lucious took a step closer. His mesmerising eyes focused on hers, and Helena forced herself to look away. Rick was able to control her and since her link with this man was what had changed, she didn’t want to risk him finding out he could manipulate her, too.

  He stopped a few inches away from her. His wide chest was covered by a black tank top that hugged his taut muscles.

  “Aren’t you going to beg me to let you go?” he asked, his breath tickling her ear.

  Helena balled her hands. She didn’t want to beg or lower herself. Doing so would be wrong somehow. “I won’t.”

  “I could leave you here, chained up and helpless for any other vampire to find.”

  She lifted her gaze and shot him a knowing smile. “But you won’t, will you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come here in the first place.”

  “Smart girl.” Lucious’ cool hand brushed her wounded side, and she winced. He lifted his blood-stained fingers and licked the blood off, one finger at a time which made her blush deepen.

  “I am disappointed you don’t taste different from others.”

  “I already told you, I’m human.”

  “You have, and you are on the surface. But the energy that went away when our link broke did not belong to a mere mortal.”

  Helena wasn’t sure what his words meant. She was normal to an extent. So, why did he say she was a saint when he saw Michael? What else did he know that she didn’t?

  She forced herself to concentrate on her predicament. She was chained to a stone wall and the cold from it had chilled her enough to populate her skin with gooseflesh.

  He gave her enough room to see that he continued to bleed from his thigh.

  “You’re badly hurt,” she mumbled.

  He chuckled—a light melodious tone she had come to like. It soothed her nerves and allowed her to think past the pain in her side.

  “So are you, my dear,” he said, going down on one knee. Lucious studied her cut, and she tried her best not to find his features, which were deep in concentration, attractive. “I can fix your cuts with ease, but mine will have to wait until later.”

  “Wait, what’re you planning to do?”

  He beamed at her with a predatory smile. “Not something you are expecting, I bet.”

  He bit into his thumb and smeared his blood over her cut.

  Helena attempted to pull away, but he grasped her hip with his blood-stained hand. His hurtful grip kept her in place while he continued the unorthodox procedure.

  “Why are you doing that?”

  “It will heal your cut.” He bit into his wrist next. Standing, he grabbed the back of her neck. He pressed the dripping wrist to her lips. “Drink.”

  She sealed her mouth shut.

  “This will heal your head trauma.” The bite-mark healed, and he bit into his skin again. “Hurry up, we don’t have all night.”

  Helena wrinkled her nose, her stomach growing more unsettled with each passing second as she watched blood rolling down his arm in tiny rivers.

  “Ah, for goodness sake,” Lucious muttered under his breath. Taking away his hand, he pressed her resisting body into him and kissed her. His forceful, cold lips met hers. He grasped her chin and dug his fingers into her skin until she opened her mouth for him.

  The metallic taste of coppery blood filled her mouth, and the kiss deepened. There was no emotion in this action other than frustration. She figured out what he was doing. He was making her drink his blood to heal her.

  The cool liquid soothed her throat on its descent. The sensation didn’t seem as bad as she believed it would be. As the seconds ticked by, she couldn’t help her body’s reaction once she relaxed into the kiss.

  Lucious withdrew to give her space to catch her breath.

  “Why…kiss?” she managed between gasps.

  “Thought it would take that disgusted look off your face.”

  Helena bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything else. She could live with a certain level of embarrassment for one night, and she had already surpassed hers. Taking this chance, she studied the cut in her side. It had scabbed over.

  “I didn’t feel anything,” her voice came out full of wonder.

  Lucious raised his hands to grab the shackles above her head. “Only with larger injuries would you feel anything, yours were minor.”

  “But why didn’t your bullet wound heal?”

  Lucious yanked open her restraints.

  She rubbed her wrists and waited for an answer.

  “I must remove the silver bullet in my thigh first. I will heal once it’s out. Let us,”—he grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze—“leave this place.”

  She stumbled after him, her stiff legs struggling to keep up.

  “Allow me.” He wrapped his arm around her waist.

  Her cheeks heated for the dozenth time that day from his touch. She wasn’t comfortable being this close to a guy, and it made her think of Andrew. She hadn’t told him how she felt. Not like she was even sure of what she felt. Too many things had happened since her talk with Laura.

  She hung her head. How was she going to explain being missing for the whole night?

  Lucious led her up the creaky stairs, supporting her weight with ease. He was maintaining her pace while saying no word of complaint. Were vampires as bad as Michael wanted her to believe?

  They reached the final step, and Lucious took her by the hand, sending a faint shiver through her system. Helena eyed their joined hands and shook him off, which he didn’t seem to mind. Instead, he continued ahead past two navy doors marked as toilets.

  He turned the corner, and she heard him curse. Wanting to know what happened, she rushed after him. The action made her head spin, so she steadied herself by the wall until the sensation dissipated. Taking smaller steps, she turned the corner where Lucious had disappeared.

  She was faced with a spacious dance floor of a rock bar. The tables and chairs were tossed around the room in an obvious struggle. Signed guitars hung from the walls in their half-shattered glass cases. The dull lights from the ceiling illuminated the dance floor and the bar. That was when she saw Alexander and Lucious standing together, both looking down at something.

  Helena pushed past them. No matter how long she stared, her brain wouldn’t accept the naked truth of what she saw. There had to be some kind of mistake.

  On the worn wooden flooring, next to a table with a matching set of overturned chairs, lay Andrew in a pool of his own blood. He wasn’t moving. Why isn’t he moving? There was blood. So much blood rushing from his head that it wasn’t normal. Helena’s heart nearly stopped and her words vanished from the tip of her tongue. Her knees threatened to cave.

  “Is he…” The word ‘dead’ remained stuck in her throat.

  “He’s alive,” Lucious said, “although, his heartbeat is slowing down.”

  Helena banged her fists on Lucious’ chest. “How could you let this happen?”

  He said not
hing, and she continued her feeble assault. Her body betrayed her, taking away what little strength she had. She slid to the ground. Past the dull pain shooting through her kneecaps upon impact, she crawled over to her best friend.

  “Andrew,” she whispered his name like a prayer.

  Her fingers brushed a lock of bloodied hair away from his ashen face, and Andrew’s eyelids gradually lifted. He had trouble focusing at first. Once he met her gaze, there was so much love in those green eyes that her heart was ready to burst from loss.

  She traced the contours of his face, careful not to move his head. She couldn’t understand where so much blood was coming from.

  “Helena…you’re…safe,” he spoke each word between faint breaths.

  She couldn’t look at him like this. Andrew was always full of energy and life. Her cheeks burned as hot tears streamed down. She should be the one laying on this floor, not him.

  Lucious could help him like he helped me. Wide-eyed, she turned to look at the man who healed her. He and Alexander were standing to one side, watching her torment with interest.

  “Help him!” she pleaded.

  “No,” Lucious replied.

  She gasped at him. I can’t let him die. “You have to help him, he’s dying.”

  Alexander shook his head. “He’s too far gone. No amount of our blood could heal such damage.”

  “Then what—” In order for Andrew to live, she knew what needed doing, and he may never forgive her for taking the choice away from him. I’m so sorry, Andrew. She shot Lucious a desperate look. “Turn him.”

  He didn’t say anything, but she knew her demand had surprised him.

  “Please…I beg you. Save him.”

  An outburst of Lucious’ mocking laughter filled the room. “You think living such a life is saving him?”

  She held back a sob. “I don’t care as long as he’s alive!”

  Lucious cocked his head to one side, his judging eyes fixed on hers. Whatever he saw there made him satisfied because he knelt next to them. “Brave words, but what will you do for me in return?”