by Megan Hawke
"Come on, let's go find a nice quiet place to play," Ben said. He pulled my head back, so that my chin was pointing straight up. Then he poured something down into my nose. Talk about a horrible feeling. "There, that'll keep you nice and malleable."
It only took a second to realize he poured chloroform into my nose. Wow, talk about doing a number on my brain. I wasn't breathing, but it was being absorbed through the nasal membranes.
"Bastard," I managed to gasp out.
"I know. Cool, isn't it?" he said and laughed.
Ben picked me up in his arms and started walking with urgency. What was his hurry? There wasn't anyone in Deep Ellum interested in rescuing me. No, not Black Heart.
The chloroform sloshing around in my sinuses, evaporating and making my world spin uncontrollably, caused me to lose all control over my body. I couldn't even see anymore. Everything was just a dizzying blur. For the first time since dying I was feeling nauseous.
"We're here," Ben said. "Are you as excited as I am?"
Ben knocked on a door, by head butting it. He knocked again. Harder, more insistent. A moment later someone answered.
"Damn, you did it," a man said. Unfamiliar voice. I still couldn't see. "I didn't think you'd be able to catch her."
"I did," Ben said. "And it didn't even take half an hour, either. She was easy."
Ben slipped past the man, and darkness enveloped us. I sensed close quarters. He headed up a narrow, steep stair. It was one long, long stairwell, too. We had to be three or four floors up when he finally came to a small landing and another closed door.
"Open up! I have a present for you, Valerie!"
Valerie? Not Valerie St. Clair. Surely not her. I desperately tried to determine my location, from how long it took him to reach that place, and directions he took. It could be Ruby Necklace. But I didn't recall a long stair anywhere.
I heard high heels approaching from the other side of the door. She was mortal, since I could feel her. A moment later the door open to reveal Valerie St. Clair. I groaned in misery. A bad night was getting worse.
"Oh my! You're giving me Sable Hart?" she cried in delight, and then leaned over and kissed him rather passionately. "You're always so good to me, Benny."
She was still in the golden evening gown. As she leaned over me, I got a gander at her diamond necklace and matching earrings. They were mind boggling. Yellow and white diamonds galore, her jewelry had to be worth a half million or more. Why did Valerie always make me feel so jealous? I wasn't jealous of other rich people.
"It's nothing. A thank you gift for all you're doing for me during my trials and tribulations of late," he said. "Where do you want her?"
"In Hell," Valerie said, and they laughed. "Is she drugged? Can she understand me and what is happening?"
"Yes, she's drugged. I don't know how much she understands," he said. "I can't feel the undead."
Valerie was helping Ben? That made her an accessory to murder. Then she placed a warm, soft hand on my cheek and turned my head. We were face to face, and she had a huge smile on hers.
"Good, you're awake. Now you are mine, Black Heart. Aren't we going to have fun?" Valerie said in the sweetest voice. She really had a great voice. Very deep and sexy. Caressing Ben's face next, "My love, could you take her down to the dungeon for me?"
She had a dungeon under the club? Why? She had that gorgeous home with a very nice dungeon. Did she have the urge to inflict pain and humiliation on her lovers at all hours and locations? She's been hanging around vampires way too long.
"My pleasure," Ben said. "I hope you allow me to stay and watch."
"Of course. You know how much I adore an appreciative audience," Valerie said.
I expected Ben to turn around and head back down the stairs. Instead, Valerie turned and walked off. Ben followed her across a luxurious living room, filled with antique furniture and decoration. I suspected she was trying to make much older vampires feel comfortable. We passed by a gourmet kitchen, and into a dark hallway.
We went to the end of that short corridor. There were two opposing doors. Both were open. On the right was a very nice bathroom. The left was a bedroom, with a queen sized bed. The bed was covered with a brown fur comforter.
Valerie pressed a spot on the wall, and it opened up to reveal a dark stairwell. The walls and ceiling were painted darkest blood red, with the floor covered in black carpet. The handrail was also lacquered black.
Okay, the chloroform was doing a number on my mind that sent me into a mental swirl, but I was pretty sure I was in the Ruby Necklace. How did you have a basement in the sky? I could hear the thumping music of the club below, I could feel the hundreds of excited hearts pounding as they dance, flirted, and had wicked sex. I even heard the DJ say the name of the club between songs.
I couldn't recall any indication from my previous visit of a floor or two above the dance floor. I remembered the ceiling being high, like three stories high. I never paid attention to how tall the building was before, but it was one of the tallest in Deep Ellum. Were there five stories?
Ben followed Valerie into the stairwell. My head and feet banged against the walls. But I barely noticed, because halfway down I realized I could no longer feel all the people below in the club. I could only feel two mortals — Valerie and Gabe.
"Gabe!" I cried.
"Sable?" he said.
His voice was weak, hoarse. Gabe felt weak, drained of energy. His feelings of fear and dread washed over me a second later.
"Sable, too?" Jeff Howell said. "Benny, you are full of delightful surprises tonight! First you bring us a hated vampire slayer, and one of Black Heart's favorite lovers, and then you bring us Black Heart herself."
"Well, she was becoming a pest," Ben said.
He dropped my feet and held me up. I could almost stand on my own. The chloroform had pretty much evaporated. But I stayed completely limp, forcing him to hold me up. I didn't want them knowing how coherent I'd become, and dose me with more drugs. Jeff and Valerie looked upon me with amusement, while Gabe looked at me with alarm.
Gabe was in bad shape. His aura was terribly diminished. They'd stripped him and hung him by his wrists from the ceiling. Blood was slowly streaming down both sides of his neck, the bite wounds only half healed. His breathing was loud and labored. It was a horse race to see if he bled to death or suffocated first.
"Now we have an audience as we kill the werewolf slayer," Valerie said. She slid a finger through a line of blood across his chest and put the finger in her mouth. Was that supposed to shock me? Her eyes locked on mine a second, then they filled with evil delight. "Jeff. I have an idea."
"I already like it," Jeff said. "The way your eyes are sparkling say it is devilishly wicked."
"It is. I want to force Sable to watch me stake her boyfriend," Valerie said. "Then I want to use the very same stake to stake her!"
"I like it," Ben said.
"So do I," Jeff said. "We'll break her heart, and then kill it forever."
Have to admit, that idea sent my heart to racing. Jeff and Ben heard it pounding within my chest, and grinned with an evil glint in their eyes. I'm afraid that just encouraged them.
"Chain her spread-eagle on the St. Andrew's Cross," Jeff said, indicating a large wooden X centered on the south wall. "That'll give her a good view while we stake her slayer lover boy."
"It was my idea," Valerie said. "Can I stake him? Please?"
"Being an accessory to murder isn't enough for you?" I said. "Now you want to commit the murder?"
"He deserves to die," she said. She sneered at me a moment. Valerie had a good sneer. Did she do everything better than everyone else? She turned back to Jeff, "Please?"
Jeff laughed as Ben picked me up and carried me over to the cross. Since it wasn't a Christian cross, there was no power within it to repel the undead. I never took my eyes off Gabe as I was carried across the room. Jeff moved to the side and started lowering Gabe while Valerie caught him. She laid him out on the floor.
Gabe started to groan and writhe, still too weak to even fight off Valerie. Jeff hurried over and seized his wrists, crossed them and pressed them to the floor. Then with Gabe pinned down and helpless, Valerie headed toward a table in the corner loaded with BDSM paraphernalia, atop I spotted Gabe's pack with his vampire staking gear.
"I'll kill him with his own stake," Valerie said.
Ben dropped my legs, spun me around to face the wall and pushed me into it. With one hand twisted in my hair, he held me up while he unfastened the handcuffs with the other. I heard and felt Valerie move back to Gabe while he fumbled one-handed with the cuffs.
Ben turned me around. As he lifted my left arm to lock into the waiting manacle, I spotted Valerie straddling Gabe's waist. She held a foot long wooden stake over his heart and a five pound hammer in the other hand. She raised the hammer high.
"No!" I cried. Valerie turned triumphant eyes on me. I locked eyes with her, and shoved my power down her throat. Valerie gasped as I stole her willpower away. "Stake Jeff! Now!"
Valerie didn't hesitate. She lifted the stake off Gabe's chest and thrust it towards Jeff. Ben froze, casting a shocked look over his shoulder. I didn't hesitate either.
My knee smashed into Ben's groin with all of my supernatural strength. He released me and howled with pain. I think I totally mashed one testicle, maybe both of them. Thrust kicking him in the small of the back, I sent Ben across the room to crash into that table of BDSM paraphernalia.
"Don't look him in the face," I commanded Valerie. "Kill him! Whatever it takes, kill Jeff!"
I harbored no thoughts she would actually kill Jeff. He was too fast and experienced to be taken down that easy. But neither Gabe nor I was in any condition to fight a vampire powerful enough to earn a chair on council.
"Back off, Valerie!" Jeff cried.
My gamble was paying off. I thought Jeff liked Valerie too much to hurt or kill her. Anyone else, and he would have just slaughtered her within the first seconds of her attack. But his desire to keep her alive and unhurt gave me the seconds I needed.
Racing to Gabe, I scooped him up and tossed him over my shoulder in a fireman's carry. He moaned and groaned, but stayed still. At least he was coherent enough to know I was the good guy.
"I don't think so," Ben growled, jumping in front of the stairs.
I cut left and reached the table before he realized what I wanted. Snatching up Gabe's Glock I turned on Ben and started shooting. He howled with pain. Again. Ben was the only vampire I knew who reacted so profoundly to pain. Didn't he ever get into a knockdown, drag out fight with another vampire before then?
"I'm going to kill that bitch!" Valerie cried.
"Oops," I said. Jeff must've caught her eyes. Now no one was blocking for me. Turning the pistol on them, "Ciao, baby."
Pulling the trigger as fast as I could, which was damn fast, I ran to the stairs. The slider locked back just before I reached them, and I threw the pistol at Ben and headed up. I took the steps three and four at a time, and burst out the top into the short hallway.
"Shit!" I cried.
Bouncers were racing towards me. They were already within the short corridor. So I turned into the bedroom and slammed the door. I locked it, and overturned the chest of drawers in front of it. Then I looked around.
"Damn, Sabe, you fucked up," Gabe whispered.
"Not the first time," I said.
"I hope not the last, either," he said.
"Ha! I ought to bite you on the ass," I said.
"Oh, that's the only part of me that doesn't hurt right now," Gabe said. I tossed him on the bed. "Whoa!"
"Wait a second," I said, and eyeballed the wall. The music was coming through loudly. I kicked out, and my foot penetrated the sheet rock. Three more kicks, and I thrust my head through and looked down. Dance floor! The middle level was hidden from view beneath me, but I could see the dance floor, VIP Lounge, and long bar. "Bingo."
Using the only straight-back chair in the room, I quickly cleared the sheetrock between two wall studs. Enough to squeeze through with Gabe. So I grabbed him and pushed through.
"Oh shit! Sable!" Gabe cried, as we were suddenly freefalling.
"Oh, shut it," I said, extending my wings and flapping frantically.
Men and women screamed and scattered. I hit pretty hard, but kept my feet. Folding my wings back, I took off running for the door. Jeff shouted to stop us from the hole up above. People screamed and scattered behind me, and I heard his feet hit the floor.
A couple bouncers moved to block my escape, and I thrust my wing spikes at them. That scattered them, and I raced out the door to more startled shouts and cries. I could hear Jeff just feet behind me.
Planting my right foot, I spun around. Jeff cried out in triumph, and I brought my right wing spike around in a brutal right cross. That spike drove straight into his temple, coming out the other side of his head. I kept spinning, and threw him across the street. And I was running again.
Within a dozen feet I was off the ground and winging it hard. Heading north. Heading for Kale's house and safety.
Chapter 14
"You can't go to Wild On tonight. It's too dangerous. Everyone on the council will be there," Desiree said. She stood before me, wringing her hands and fidgeting in helpless fear. "Including Jeff Howell."
"It probably wouldn't be prudent," Gabe said. He was on the couch and grinning at me. "So I want to go."
I sat beside him on the couch, between him and Heidi, tying my running shoes. I also wore faded black jeans and a red Metallica t-shirt, but what I wore wasn't important, since it would all come off soon after arriving.
"I bet you do," I said, stroking his bearded cheek. We shared a smile. "You're even dumber than me."
"It's a gift."
"You're both out of your minds," Desiree said. "Don't you understand, Sable? Council wants you under heel, or dead. You refuse to submit, and are proving too powerful to subjugate. That only leaves dead."
I wasn't feeling particularly powerful after the previous night's setback. I preferred "setback" to the more obvious and painful "defeat" and "capture" by mere mortals. It just proved to me I had to stay focused. If I'm the least bit distracted — BAM. Slap down. I had to be more careful.
"They won't do anything at the Wild On," I said. "Henri and the other Trudeaus will be there, too. I'm pretty sure he won't let them do anything too dastardly to me."
"Too dastardly?" Dane said. They were the first words he'd spoken since learning of my and Gabe's near miss the night before. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, he's a vampire, so I'm sure he wouldn't be bothered if they tied me up, bent me over a stump, and ran a train on my ass all night," I said. I shrugged, smiling weakly. "He'd probably be first in line, too."
Dane grunted, a pained look screwing up his face. He really didn't like it when I was so sexually graphic, and brutally honest.
"Sounds like Saturday night in vampire world," Heidi said. "If it wasn't held outside, in the dirt, I'd go. I'm not a fuck-me-in-the-dirt kind of girl."
Heidi had grown her hair out since last I'd seen her. Her shoulder length hair was now down to the small of her back, and looking gorgeous. All wavy and shiny blonde.
Heidi obviously had plans to go out partying, wearing a silvery top that left nothing to the imagination, white mini skirt, and matching thigh boots. Gabe could barely pull his eyes away from her to speak with me. Even my little sister was staring in awe.
"Good, you can stay here and make sure Gabe stays out of trouble. He is not allowed to leave the house. Understand?" I said, my eyes boring into Heidi's. Her big blue eyes widened and she nodded. I had power over her since I Changed her. Heidi had no choice but to obey. "He's crazy enough to go after Ben while I'm at Wild On, and I won't allow it. Besides, he's supposed to be on the computer doing research for me." I gave him a questioning look. "I don't know why he hasn't started yet."
"Hey, I've started. I'm on dinner break," Gabe said. "
But don't you think I could serve you better at the Wild On? I mean, shouldn't you take your very own werewolf to the werewolf party?"
"No, I don't," I said. "You're even more unpopular among the wolves than I am among vamps."
That was just token resistance from Gabe. He was aroused by Heidi, and wanted to stay with her. Heidi knew it as well as I did, and was getting a little excited herself. She really couldn't help it.
"I'll help Heidi," Desiree said. "I was invited to tonight's Wild On, but I won't go anywhere Antoinette is at. She scares me."
Good. I didn't want any of the minions there except Dane. Dane had proven himself at the Trudeau Wild On that past Monday night. He had come through unscathed, as did Gabe. Of course, Mercedes claimed Dane and never let anyone else have a taste. Gabe made out with a dozen women, and loved it. He didn't care if the women were mortals, werewolves, or vampires, just that they were wild and willing.
"So, it's just you, me, and Dane, huh?" Sabrina said.
Little sister was wearing what she assumed was Wild On party attire: tight jeans under black thigh boots, silky camisole top, and black leather jacket. Way off. With all the rains we'd had of late, the ground was too soft to walk in high heels, especially for a mere mortal. Secondly, it was supposed to get down to around thirty-five that night, and was already forty-two outside. The clouds would keep the temperature from plunging too deep. In a word, Sabrina would freeze to death.
"No. It'll be me and Dane," I said. "You can't go."
Sabrina was instantly on her feet and in my face.
"Why not? I'm part of the team. You said so," she said. "If I can't participate, then I'm not really part of the team."
"There are some things mortals shouldn't do," I said. "One of them, and it's at the top of the list, is go to a Wild On."
"Dane's going."
"He's a dhampir, so he can give as good as they can dish out," I said. My sister slanted a curious look at him. Like most, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the very idea of a dhampir. "Sabrina, a Wild On is run by werewolves. It starts out as a hunt, then turns into a massive orgy. You'd be passed around by vampires and werewolves until sunrise. Their bodies can handle that much sex, but yours cannot. They could easily kill you, and since you are my sister, they might just do it for the fun of it."
