“Not quite.” He grew very quiet as he tried to decide how much to tell her. He wanted her to know more. That’s how it’s supposed to work, he guessed. First, you get to know each other.
“What happened, Nic?” Her gentle voice encouraged him.
Nic licked his lips. When he spoke, his voice was soft and low. “My brother and I were sixteen when our folks were killed.”
“I’m so sorry, Nic. Was it an accident?”
He shook his head and looked at his sword on the wall.
“By vampires?”
“Yeah.”
“So you started training? Or did this group contact you?”
“I don’t know how they found us. Probably with an orb.” He shrugged. “They offered us the job. I took them up on it. Zeke turned them down.” Nic’s eyes looked into hers. “So, they trained me.” He held out his arms to present himself. “Here I am, their sworn warrior.”
“What about your brother, Zeke? Are you older?”
“Zeke’s two years younger than me.”
“If he isn’t a warrior, what’s he doing?” She reached across the divide and curled her fingers around his.
“He’s a cop. Down in Mobile.”
“Do you see him often? You said he helped you with the house?” They stayed in contact, just fingers touching, but somehow, for Nic, it was all he needed. Just her touch.
“We visit about once a year. He came a few months back, so I won’t see him for some time, I guess.”
“Did your parents die or were they, you know, made into vampires?” She’d waded right into it, and he hadn’t seen it coming. His breath froze in his lungs as he stared at her. How did she know?
“She’s the one, Nic. We both know that.”
“Maybe.”
“They were converted. They call it converted, like you decide to change your religion or something.” He looked away. God, this hurt. He’d told her more than he’d ever told anyone. Even he and Zeke didn’t talk about their parents. Not after he’d joined with the Council and Zeke split to find his own way.
She slid across the couch to his side and wrapped her arms around him. Her arms were like home to him, gentle enough to soothe him, yet strong enough to support him.
Somehow, she knew not to press deeper into that ragged wound.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered into his ear. He pulled her to him and hung on. She held him safe for a long time. Burying his face in her neck, he wanted to climb inside her and just stay there. Once he’d regained his control, he cleared his throat and moved away from her.
“I’ve never told that to anyone else.” He gave a little half-laugh, surprised by his admission.
Fiona brushed his hair from his forehead. “I know how hard it is to open up. You told me about your parents, so I’ll tell you about mine.”
She still held his hand. “My father left when I was born. He never married my mom. She was real young. She never finished high school and had no job skills. Her father, my granddad, threw her out of the house when he found out she was knocked up.” She stopped and took a deep breath.
“Anyway, we lived with a bunch of different people, anyone who’d let us crash with them. I don’t think she had a steady job because I don’t remember being in daycare.” She shrugged. “When I was about nine, my mother met this guy and fell in love. Gary was good-looking and he moved in. He never married her. I never liked him. He looked at me… Shit, by the time I was twelve, I knew why he looked at me.”
Nic shook his head. “Damn, Fiona.”
“He turned her out. Made her a prostitute. She turned tricks to pay the bills, buy his drugs and her booze. I stayed until I was fifteen, and then I split.” She moved her palms across each other to show how fast she’d left. “My granddad had died, and I moved in with my grandma and lived with her until she died just a few years later.”
“Where did your mother…”
“Getting a cheap motel room cost too much even for an hour, so she brought the men home.”
“Where were you when your mother was with the men?” Nic wasn’t sure he wanted to know this.
“Usually in my room down the hall. I could hear them sometimes.” She licked her lips and went on. “She used to get beat up a lot by the johns. Gary would beat her too, if she didn’t make enough money.” Her voice got small. She shifted in her seat as the words spilled out of her. “Sometimes after he beat her, Gary would come to my room.” She curled tighter in on herself and twisted her hair around her finger. “I would hide in my closet under the dirty clothes. Then I got a job washing dishes at a diner and used the money to take self-defense. I never let him touch me.” Tears spilled over, and she bit her lip to keep it from trembling.
Jesus, and he thought his life had been rough. At least he’d had his brother, and they had his uncle to live with after his folks died.
“You never let anyone touch you, did you, darlin’?”
She shook her head and her eyes lowered. “I swore I’d never be like her.”
“Oh, darlin’.” His voice was like gravel as he pulled her to him. She came, clinging to the strength and warmth of his arms.
He knew Gary was probably long gone, but the urge to find the son of a bitch and make him pay was overpowering. Fiona was incredible, a real survivor. In so many ways, they were very much like each other.
They sat on the couch for a long time, just holding on, passing their strength back and forth between them, each giving what the other so desperately needed.
At last, Fiona wiped her eyes and sat up. “You think your guys need some extra help? Could they use a woman warrior?”
— • —
“Ivan, stop here,” Annie whispered. Ivan pulled the van over to the curb and waited.
Annie peered through the windshield at the house just ahead of them. She put her hand on the door, as if to get out.
“Is this the place?” He was surprised Draco’s place was in this neighborhood. Ivan’s lair was in an older part of the city, but this area was filled with new one- and two-story family homes. Very upscale, high-dollar real estate.
“No, it’s not.” Annie took her hand off the door handle.
“Then why are we stopping?” Slightly irritated, he threw the shift lever into park and sat back, waiting for her explanation. Honestly, this woman was driving him nuts. His head hurt. She forced him to think too much, and he wasn’t used to it.
Annie’s head rested against the cool glass of the passenger window.
“That’s my house.” Her voice cracked with pain.
“Oh. Annie, this isn’t a good thing to do. You’re just going to make yourself miserable.” Ivan reached out and touched a tress of her long, blonde hair.
“More miserable than I am? Possibly. But, Ivan, I don’t ever want to feel good about the way I am now.” Her voice was quiet but sure.
Ivan looked at the house. It was a brick two-story on a nice street in a newer part of town. He wondered about the life she’d had ripped from her.
She reached up and touched the glass in front of her and sighed.
It was hard to ask, but he got it out without his voice catching. “Were you married?” He’d never even thought to ask her if she’d left anyone behind.
“No, I wasn’t married. Wasn’t with anyone, either. No, my parents live there, and my little sister, Amy. We were going to share an apartment after college. She’s going into law, and I was going to be a doctor.” Her voice held wistfulness, a sorrow for things and people lost.
“Come on, Annie, let’s go.” Ivan put the van in gear and waited. If he knew anything, he knew they needed to leave this place. Annie may want to suffer, but it was too much for him.
“Right. Put it behind me. Hakuna matata.” Her laugh was bitter.
“Haku what?” Ivan looked at her, wondering what she was talking about.
“It means no worries.” She turned away from the house. “Let’s go.”
— • —
Ivan stood in
the middle of the great room that had been the heart of Draco’s lair.
Phallic art was everywhere. A Hindu-styled painting of two men fucking hung on the wall. A bronze statue of a Roman and a centaur stood on the coffee table. The Roman rode the centaur, but not on his back. There were actually etchings of naked men. Real etchings. Ivan hadn’t seen anything so decadent since he’d spent a month at court in the Dauphin’s palace at Versailles. Come to think of it, the Dauphin had a penchant for erotic art too.
“He would bring these young male prostitutes he picked up. He said he paid them to let him fuck them and feed from them. Some he paid extra to go in there.” She waved her arm to indicate a door in the wall. “I think most of them didn’t count on being tortured, even if he did pay them.”
Ivan opened the door, flipped on the light, and stood in the doorway. He’d seen his share of rooms like this one. A selection of equipment for torture hung on the walls. His eyes moved across the room to the table. Leather straps hung at the four corners. Draco’s collection of whips was extensive.
David, his apprentice, would have enjoyed this room. The little bastard loved pain, but inflicting it bored Ivan. David would have suited Draco more, certainly more so than Annie.
“Did you ever…” He found it hard to finish his question, as his throat tightened.
“No. Just your run-of-the-mill ordinary beatings. I suppose I was lucky.” She shook her head, her brows furrowed.
Ivan felt relief flood through him. The beatings were bad enough, but to think of Annie strapped to that table, being hurt just so that asshole Draco could get off, made him crazy.
"He should never have taken you."
"What?"
Turning away, Ivan closed the door and frowned. “Draco knew the rules. You don’t take anyone who matters. Only the refuse of society, the ones that no one cares about. That way, no one comes looking.”
“Ivan, really!” Annie snapped. “You’re not upset he tortured those guys, just that he might have brought attention to himself and ultimately to you?”
“That’s right.”
“What about those young girls tonight? They were teenagers!” She fired back at him. “And your pet, David, looked young to me.”
“He was seventeen and had been on the streets as a male prostitute for three years before I picked him up. And he asked me to turn him. He thought it was better than how he was living, the fool. I can’t be responsible for Vlad and Romano’s choices. The rules are there for a reason. To protect all of us. As for the other, I don’t go in for children. I may be many things,” he left them unsaid, “but I have never touched a child. Those bastards deserved what they got.”
“But your virgin?” she pressed. “Was she a nobody?”
Ivan looked at his feet. Annie had him there. “No, she wasn’t. Look, we are allowed to take virgins, but only for special occasions. I had to get a fucking permit, for God’s sake. And she was for David, not me.” He tried to keep the defensiveness from his voice, but Annie had a way of pointing out things he didn’t want pointed out. He hadn’t had to explain himself to anyone in hundreds of years, if ever. “At least mine was much older than the others. From what I could see, the others were barely in their teens.” He didn’t want to fight with her; it made him tired. He rubbed his temple with one hand. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a headache. Must be low blood sugar. It couldn’t possibly be the arguing, could it?
“Just like people, I guess there are good, bad, and in-between vampires.” She looked at him, but there was no accusation in her eyes.
He’d never thought of it that way. To his way of thinking, vampires were bad, nothing more and nothing less. But then, there was Annie. He’d never met anyone, dead or alive, like her.
“Let’s just gather what we can and get out of here.” It hit him that he was very hungry.
She nodded, picked up some bubble wrap, and walked off. He started wrapping the laptop and printer.
Standing at a large round table, Annie wrapped a crystal vase.
“What’s that for?” Ivan stopped as he walked past her.
“It’s a vase. You put flowers in it.”
“I know what it is. What are you going to do with it? Can we sell it?”
“I’m not selling it. It’s for flowers. I like flowers.”
Ivan looked at her. He almost asked where she thought she’d get flowers from, and then he shook his head. No need to start another argument, and besides, he didn’t have the strength.
“Fine.” Ivan continued searching dresser drawers. “There’s a lot of women’s clothing here.” He held up a slinky, black negligee. “He made you wear all this?”
“No, he wouldn’t let me touch that stuff. I had to stand around naked, freezing my ass off, like some pet cat. He did it to humiliate me, I guess. I think someone else wore it, before me.” She fingered the material.
“You like it?” Ivan lifted an eyebrow. She nodded. “Then it’s yours.” He shoved it into a bag, along with some other clothes he’d picked out for her.
From a corner of the room, Annie let out a whoop. “I found it!”
“What?”
“My purse. I have all my stuff in here. Wallet, makeup, you know, all the things a dead girl can’t live without.” She went through it to see what was missing. “The cash and credit cards are gone.” She groaned.
“They would be the first to go. He probably drained your accounts.” Ivan shrugged. “At least you found your other stuff.” The tension between them from before seemed to dissipate. He walked over and kissed her.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, you’re beautiful without any makeup.” He touched her cheek with his fingertips.
Annie blushed and then kissed his cheek. She returned to work, and Ivan finished searching the cabinets.
Finally, everything they wanted was bagged. Annie went to the king-sized, brass bed Draco used and knelt down beside it. Reaching under, she pulled out a chest, opened it, and held up the Rolodex. “Here it is.” Her fingers flipped through it. What do you know? It’s right here under B for Board of Elders.”
“Great! We’ll get in touch with them when we get home.”
“Why not now?” Annie shrugged. “We can use one of his cell phones.” She rummaged through a box on the coffee table and held one up. She handed it to Ivan.
“Okay.” Ivan punched in the numbers. It had a Washington, D.C., area code. He waited with the phone to his ear. God, he loved technology. To hell with the “good old days.”
Chapter Five
“Draco? Hell, is that you?”
Ivan didn’t recognize the voice on the other end, but he didn’t expect to. “No, Draco’s dead.” He held the phone so Annie could hear too.
“Then who the hell is this?”
“Ivan.”
“Ivan?” He sounded incredulous.
“Yeah, Ivan.”
The man on the other end spoke away from the phone and then came back on.
“What are you doing calling on Draco’s phone?”
“Listen, I need help. There are two assassins in town. They busted up the frenzy and killed everyone. I got away with Draco’s pet. She and I are at his lair right now.”
The silence lasted just a heartbeat.
The voice hissed. “Shit.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not too happy about it, either. Can you help me out? I’m going to need some muscle.”
“Can we meet? Somewhere safe. Let’s make it tomorrow night.” The voice was smooth now, under control.
“Sure, there’s an old warehouse behind the bread factory just as you come into town off the interstate. Midnight?”
“Right, midnight. Oh, and Ivan, bring the girl. If it’s too hot there, we may have to relocate her.”
“Sure, she’ll be with me.”
The line disconnected. Ivan sat back, puzzled.
“Great! They can help us,” Annie said.
“He didn’t say that. Something’s up, Annie. It sme
lls.” He shook his head.
“We don’t have a choice, do we? We can’t tackle those two on our own.” Annie bit her lip. “We’ll have to trust them.”
“No, that’s a mistake, baby. Never trust the Elders. They have their own agendas.” Ivan hated getting involved in politics. Mortal politics were nothing compared to vampire politics. On their Board, if you lost your seat, your head usually went with it.
Ivan grew quiet. Annie got up and walked around the room making a last sweep.
“Guess we should get out of here?” She looked at Ivan.
“Right. Grab those bags, and I’ll get these.”
Together, they left the house, loaded the van, and drove home.
— • —
Marcos hung up the phone and swore.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!”
“What’s wrong now, Marcos?” Lila sounded irritated. He looked back at his current mistress, spread out on the bed. They’d been interrupted by the call. She caressed her breast, teasing him.
“The hit. It didn’t go down quite as planned.”
She sat up, her nipple still between her thumb and finger, her eyes narrowing. “What does that mean?”
“Ivan and some slave bitch are still alive.” Marcos lit a cigarette, inhaled, and scratched his stomach. He went back to the bed and lay down. Staring at the ceiling, he inhaled deeply and blew out a stream of blue-gray smoke from his nostrils. “That means the territory for Elsa isn’t open.” He sucked in another lungful.
“Uh-oh, she won’t like that. Not after you promised her the fourth spot.” Lila frowned, reached across, and plucked the cigarette from between Marcos’ lips. “You know I don’t like it when you smoke, darling.” She popped the lit end of the cigarette into her mouth and drowned its fire in her saliva.
“Bitch. Now I have to light up another one.” He rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Cigarettes weren’t cheap these days. “I’m meeting Ivan and the slave tomorrow. We’ll have to fly in after dark and rent vehicles.”
“Who do you want to come? They should all be there to take their places.” She sat up and began to brush her long, blonde hair. “Look, there’s no room for fuck-ups, darling. I worked damned hard on this deal, and I have a stake, pardon the pun, in the outcome. My firm’s percentage of our client’s fees is already in the bank.”
Heart of a Warrior Page 8
