Of Blood and Passion

by Pamela Palmer

  “Cristoff must not have realized it was Ax using the mind blast.” He stared at her for a moment more, his features grim. “We have to get you out of here.”

  “Not without Turo.”

  As if reading her thoughts, Arturo spoke in her mind again. Meet me back at Neo’s, tesoro. I will get there as quickly as I can.

  Quinn let out a huff. “He just told me to meet him back at Neo’s.”

  Meeting her gaze, Kassius nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  “He might need our help.”

  “No. He should be safe enough since Cristoff doesn’t know he was the one who attacked him.” He grabbed her hand. “I know you care about him, sorceress, but don’t fight me on this. As it is, it will be all I can do to get you out of here alive. If Cristoff catches you, all is lost.”

  She knew he was right. With a frustrated twist of her mouth, she nodded. Arturo would meet her at Neo’s, as he promised. She had to believe that.

  “All right.” Rising to her feet, she expanded her bubble upward so that Kassius could stand without hunching over. “Cristoff knows that I look like Grant. And you’ve lost both your clothes and your glamour. At some point you shifted into a wolf.”

  “I heal better that way. Are we still in Cristoff’s study?”

  “Yes. In a different bubble than the one we came in on. I was trying to expand it toward Grant’s room, but I lost my bearings.” She scowled. “Which I’ve done again…” Her eyes snagged on her knife lying on the floor a few feet away. “Wait.” She went to the knife, remembered how she’d been oriented when she set it down, how he’d been lying.

  “There,” she said, pointing. “About three feet from here is where the desk sat when we first walked into the study.”

  Kassius nodded. “I know where we are, then, but we’ll not be going back to Grant’s bedroom.”

  “Fine by me.” She handed him the flashlight. “Lead the way.”

  He met her gaze. “Thank you, Quinn. For your blood, and for risking your life to return for me.”

  Quinn smiled. “You’ve risked plenty for me, Kass. I wouldn’t leave you in here. But you’re welcome. Now, which way?”

  He turned and pointed the light’s beam to the right. “That direction. About fifteen feet.”

  Nodding, Quinn called up her magic and did as he directed. “Where will this take us?”

  “Egor’s room. We are of a size, he and I.”

  “I can only create passages for us horizontally. At some point we’re going to have to get off the second floor. Do you have a back stair?”

  “Several. But Cristoff will be covering them. I have another plan.”

  Quinn didn’t question him, just continued to expand their dark passage.

  “Ax won’t be happy that you’ve learned his secrets,” Kassius murmured as she worked.

  “He’ll get over it. It’s not like you had a choice.”

  “I have always had the gift of seeing another’s truths when I bite them. But never has anyone turned it back on me, as you do.”

  Quinn realized what he was saying. Her eyes narrowed. “What truths of mine did you see?”

  He glanced at her, his expression grim. “Childhood memories of you enduring your parents’ emotional abuse. If I ever get out of Vamp City, I intend to pay them a visit.”

  “You’d terrify them without ever saying a word.”

  A hard smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “I might say a few words…and show a few teeth…as well. Your parents would deserve it.”

  “Only one of them is my parent.”

  “Which makes your father’s failure to protect you all the more reprehensible. I will pay them a visit, sorceress. They’ll not be harmed. But they will know I do not approve of the way you were raised.”

  “You’re a good friend, Kass.”

  Moments later, he handed her the flashlight. “That’s enough. Hand me through, but stay here until I know it’s safe.”

  Quinn took his hand and he exited partway, then tugged her through after him into what appeared to be a bedroom. As Kassius grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of a chest of drawers, Quinn turned back to the opalescent black bubble filling half the room. No one else could see it. No one could accidentally enter it. But she’d probably left enough of them around the castle, by now.

  “I’ll be just a moment,” she told Kassius, then stepped back into her bubble and dissolved it around her. By the time she was through, mere moments later, Kassius was fully dressed and peering into the hallway.

  He glanced at her, his look telling her something she already knew—if they were caught, they were both dead.

  “You are my prisoner,” he said.

  “Okey-dokey.” But the thought of leaving the relative safety of Egor’s room had cold perspiration running down her chest.

  Unfortunately, there was no disguising her to look like someone else, not when she was already glamoured to look like Grant. Kassius took her upper arm lightly and steered her into the hall, leading her in the direction of Cristoff’s throne room. For one horrible moment, she wondered if Kassius would be the one to betray her this time, but then he turned at the wide front stair and began to lead her down.

  This was his plan? To walk through the castle foyer, calm as you please, as if Cristoff didn’t have every guard hunting Grant Blackstone? It was a damn good thing Grant had given her a magical emotion-tamping crystal, because her heart was about to explode from her chest.

  They were halfway down the stairs when two vampires moved into sight and looked up at them with surprise.

  Quinn’s heart dropped to her boots and she began to slow, preparing to run, but Kassius only tugged her with him as he continued down the stairs.

  The two vampires remained where they were, one on either side of the staircase, as if waiting to take them calmly into custody.

  Three steps from the bottom, one of the guards moved forward, blocking their way.

  “Kassius,” he said formally, then turned to her. “Sorceress.”

  Chapter 18

  Quinn’s pulse was racing, her body awash in terror. They’d been caught. She felt Kassius’s grip on her arm tighten and prepared herself to be thrown over his shoulder as he ran.

  But the guard’s urgent words stopped them cold. “Cristoff must not find you. Which direction shall we send the others, Kassius?”

  For a moment, Kassius said nothing, clearly as stunned by this turn of events as she was.

  “Out back. I thank you, Samuel.”

  The vampire’s grin was as swift as it was fleeting. “The world is changing. Now, go. Godspeed, sorceress.”

  Quinn stared at him, then nodded. “Thank you, Samuel.”

  As the guards disappeared, Kassius led her down the last few steps, then around the corner to an empty alcove.

  “Pull a bubble around us, Quinn. Quickly.”

  With a nod, she called up the power and did just that, then turned on her flashlight and doubled over, gasping for the air she’d forgotten to breathe in her terror.

  “Holy shit,” she muttered, then straightened and peered at him. “Did you know they were allies?”

  Kassius shook his head, his eyes comically wide, making her laugh. “I did not. Both of them—in fact, many of the vampires within the Gonzaga kovena—were fine, honorable males at one time. I admit, I didn’t think so many had returned to themselves. I’m glad to be wrong.”

  “They’re reclaiming their souls.”

  “It would seem so. I had thought Ax an anomaly, at first. I thought that his return was thanks to you. But that’s clearly not the case. Expand the bubble this way, Quinn,” he said, taking the flashlight from her and motioning with it. Then he began to walk.

  Kassius’ sense of direction turned out to be extraordinary. Only a short time later, he asked her to hand him through and, when she followed she found herself standing in the small dorm room with the trapdoor that led to the tunnels.

  “Nice job,” she mur
mured. And within moments they were once more safely underground.

  As Kassius pulled the latch closed over her head, Quinn began to breathe evenly again. But not freely. Arturo was still with Cristoff somewhere, and Cristoff hunted her with a beacon that would tell him whenever she was near. To add to that, Zack could die at any moment, as could Vamp City itself and all those trapped within it. And Lily was still missing.

  Quinn wondered if she’d ever breathe freely again.

  Quinn strode in through the back door of Neo’s with Kassius and Micah close behind. They’d spoken little on the ride home, but one thing was certain. She couldn’t stay here now. Not with Cristoff able to find her with that damned sword. All he had to do was ride close to Neo’s, and he’d know she was in the vicinity. Her presence might compromise Neo’s operation, or even destroy it.

  Mukdalla turned as they walked into the kitchen, her hopeful expression dying as she took in their unhappy faces.

  “Fail,” Quinn said.

  “Where’s Arturo?” Neo asked, striding in.

  “He just left Gonzaga,” Quinn told him. He’d spoken to her telepathically on and off since she escaped. When he got to Neo’s, they were going to have to talk about where she might go. There was nowhere within Vamp City where she’d be safe. Not unless it was deep within an enemy kovena’s castle. But that would just be trading one dangerous vampire for another.

  She might be able to live with the wolves. Savin’s pack might take her in. Though even they might consider her too great a liability.

  The only place Cristoff couldn’t reach her was the real world. But that meant abandoning all hope of saving Vamp City and her brother, and that was not something she could ever do.

  “What happened?” Neo asked.

  Quinn had no desire to relive any of the past hours. Leaving the story for Kassius to relay, she headed downstairs to check on Zack. Glamoured as she still was, she didn’t need him to see her in return, she just needed to know he was still okay. But all was quiet downstairs, the exercise room empty and dark. Walking to the hall where hers and Zack’s rooms were, she found his bedroom door closed. It was all she could do not to walk in and check on him, but where she might not have hesitated a few weeks ago, she did now. He was a full-grown man who deserved his privacy, especially in the middle of the night.

  With a sigh, she started back through the community room to find Mukdalla coming down the stairs.

  “They went to bed a few hours ago.”

  Quinn nodded. “Any more…episodes?”

  Mukdalla frowned. “One. It was much the same as the first. He passed out, then roused seconds later apparently fine.” She walked over to the big table in the middle of the room and set down a tall glass of what looked like lemonade. “Fresh squeezed. I thought you could use a pick-me-up.”

  Quinn nodded, but she didn’t move to take the glass, still reeling from Mukdalla’s words that Zack had passed out yet again. They’d probably had to work just as hard to save him.

  Mukdalla walked straight to her and opened her arms.

  Quinn hesitated only a moment, then took the comfort offered as tears filled her eyes. “I can’t lose him,” she whispered as she felt herself enveloped in a strength few human women possessed, a band of warmth and caring which drew Quinn in even as it had her stiffening. She’d never been comfortable with hugs. Then again, when had anyone ever held her like this? The realization that she couldn’t remember broke something inside of her and she found herself sinking into Mukdalla’s undemanding warmth, pressing her cheek to a shoulder strong enough to carry any load.

  As tears began to escape her eyes, she pulled away and dashed at them. “I keep trying to save him, I keep failing.”

  Mukdalla smiled a soft smile that was utterly beautiful, one Quinn felt all the way inside. “You haven’t failed, Quinn,” she said quietly. “You’ve tried a couple of things that haven’t worked. You’ll try something else. And eventually you’ll succeed.”

  “But will it be in time?”

  “Yes. It will.” Mukdalla picked up the lemonade glass and pressed it into Quinn’s hands. “I choose to believe that. I must believe it. And you must, too.”

  Quinn nodded. “You’re right. I won’t give up.”

  “I know you won’t. Now, can I get you something to eat while you wait for Arturo? Or do you wish to sleep? You must be tired.”

  She was exhausted, but she’d never sleep until she knew Arturo was back and safe. “I’ll wait. Are the others upstairs?”

  “They’re outside keeping watch for any sign of Cristoff’s guards. If you’d like some company, I’m about to bake cookies.”

  If you’d like some company. The words felt foreign to her. She’d never needed company, or particularly wanted it, other than Zack and Lily. Yet right now, she didn’t want to be alone. And the truth was, she would enjoy Mukdalla’s company, very much.

  “Sure. What kind of cookies?”

  Mukdalla grinned. “Chocolate chip.” Together, they started up the stairs. “Your brother and Jason are both cookie hounds. But I’ve been sending the cookies with Micah, too, for the children. There’s nothing that calms a scared little one like a chocolate chip cookie.”

  Quinn smiled at the image of vampires bearing chocolate chip cookies. Good vampires. “Anything I can do to help?”

  Mukdalla smiled in reply. “Absolutely.”

  “Mukdalla…my glamour hasn’t worn off, yet you don’t seem the least bit bothered by it. Can you see through it?”

  “No. I simply don’t see what is not important. Your eyes haven’t changed at all, Quinn. They shine now as they always do.”

  Quinn startled. “They’re glowing?”

  The other woman laughed. “Not glowing, no. Not with magic. Your eyes reflect the goodness in your heart, sorceress. That’s the shine I see now, the shine I’ve always seen. It’s why I know you will not fail.”

  Quinn hoped to heaven she was right.

  They’d just put the first tray in the oven when Arturo walked in the back door looking too much like he had after his captivity in the wolves’ feeding trough.

  “Turo.” Quinn met him halfway across the kitchen, hugging him tight as he buried his face in her hair. “What happened? You look terrible. You need to feed.”

  “Amore mio,” he said against her neck. “All I need is this, to know you are safe.”

  A rush of warmth welled up inside of her, filling her chest, pressing against the walls of her heart until she feared that organ would be crushed beneath the pressure. She pulled back, pressing her hands to his cheeks. “I’m sorry I doubted you.” When she’d appeared in front of Cristoff, Arturo had risked everything to save her.

  He stroked her hair with a gentle hand, his eyes tender, yet concerned. “You are unharmed?”

  “I’m fine.” She frowned, thinking of all that had happened, of all she’d learned about him. “We need to talk.”

  Arturo tipped his forehead against hers even as his hand slid down to curve around the back of her neck. “We need to do more than talk, amore mio. Much more.”

  Chapter 19

  “I need you,” Arturo murmured, his forehead against Quinn’s as he drank in the warm scent of sunshine on her skin. He needed her kiss, needed to sink into her body until her cries of pleasure pushed away the icy cold that had invaded his soul in that moment when she’d appeared, suddenly, in Cristoff’s study. Dio, but his heart had nearly stopped.

  He straightened to find Quinn watching him with heat in her eyes. “Let’s go, then.” She took his hand. “Goodnight, Mukdalla.”

  “Goodnight, Quinn. Sleep well.”

  Arturo smiled, squeezing Quinn’s hand as he followed her out of the kitchen, for he had no intention of letting her sleep. Not yet, certainly. Not until every hard kernel of ice had melted from his veins.

  Quinn threw him a smile that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, and thoroughly approved. Yet shadows moved through her eyes and he knew she needed to forg
et the past hours as badly as he did.

  She led him downstairs to her room and was pulling off her shirt before he even got the door closed. He closed his eyes, blocking out the falseness of the glamour, and took her into his arms where she was all Quinn. He pushed her gently back against the door, and kissed her, her warm lips a balm, a fire to a man dying of cold. His tongue swept inside her mouth, tasting sweetness. Chocolate chip cookies, if he wasn’t mistaken. His hands traced her precious head, her slender hips, her lovely breasts, as he reassured himself over and over that she was alive, that she was fine.

  Love swept through him, at once fierce and achingly tender, yet he refused to say the words. He understood her well enough to be certain she was not ready to hear them, that she struggled not to care too deeply for him. And he knew this, because he felt her emotions, the swells of affection, and the small stabs of love that invariably sent her retreating from him. She could love him, if she let herself. And it was his greatest wish that she do so. Not only because he longed for her to return his feelings, but because she so badly needed to learn to open her heart, and to trust in that most vulnerable of emotions.

  Until she was ready to do that, he would show her how he felt without words.

  Quinn reached for him, curling her arms around his neck to pull him closer and deepen the kiss. As their mouths caressed and joined, heat built between them, a passion that quickly erupted into a blazing hot flame, one that threatened to consume them both. They tore at one another’s clothes, tossing them onto the floor, then fell to the bed in a tangle of bare limbs, greedy mouths and desperate, seeking hands. Arturo slid his hand between her legs, his fingers into her welcoming heat, and he found her more than ready for him. An instant later, he slid into her body at the same moment his fangs pierced her neck.

  As her sweet blood flowed over his tongue, she gasped and cried out in pleasure. With keen anticipation, he took a single hard pull of her blood and rejoiced as she screamed her passion, as her body contracted hard around him, over and over and over.