by Terry Spear
If he didn’t return until morning, the danger from the vampires would be past anyway. She closed her eyes, trying to settle the worry that crept into her bones. Every rustle of a branch stirring in the breeze caught her ear. She strained to hear footsteps. Dread bunched in her stomach, while her heart pounded in her ears.
She attempted to lie lower on the floor. Her eyes grew more tired. Keeping them open and herself vigilant could mean the difference between remaining free or becoming Nicolai’s consort.
Crystal lay still in the interior of the white convertible for some time, then sleep overwhelmed her.
Sometime later, rapid footsteps headed in her direction and stirred her awake.
12
Robert Parker had made a mistake in trying to find out what he could about Cpt. Crystal Anderson. Though his job of discovering his sister’s killer was still tantamount, the buxom blond was stealing into his thoughts both during the day and throughout the night. She lured him like a female vampire set her sights on a human male, and yet, Robert wasn’t exactly human, so how could she attract him like she did? Was it because the two powerful brothers, heads of the local vampire family, also appeared to both want her? Is that what made Robert desire her, too?
He rubbed his chin. What did make her so attractive to them? Beyond her looks, of course. He hadn’t ever seen two vampires willing to cross each other over the same woman.
Here he was just as drawn to her, fighting the attraction, and it seemed to be a losing proposition. The muscles in his gut clenched when he entered Nicolai’s kitchen through an open window and accidently knocked a bottle opener to the floor. At once his heart stopped. He hurried out the same way he came, cursing himself for his clumsiness.
Then he hid in the shadows of the house next door, hoping that the vampires wouldn’t locate him. Easily, they could have overwhelmed him with their sheer numbers. But all at once, they left the house, not searching for him, it seemed, but for something or someone else. They took off in various directions, first surveying the area, their heads turning back and forth, attempting to use their sensitive hearing to locate any sound of whatever they sought.
Then they disappeared in a flurry of fluttering capes.
He waited until the hosts returned to the house. Then he dashed for his car, intent on going home to a well-deserved night of sleep.
His thoughts shifted to Crystal. He glanced back at the house. Was she inside with the other hosts? For an instant, he wanted to rescue her, shake her, and make her see the error of her ways. But she was a brainwashed host. She couldn’t be saved...not when the heads of the family wanted her.
The slamming of a car door jarred Crystal from her slumber, though her mind remained hazy.
Where was she? Crouched on the carpeted floor of a car…Robert Parker’s car.
Once he started his vehicle and drove down the road at breakneck speed, every bump in the pavement bruised her side. The floor was definitely made of cardboard. Either that or she was a descendent of the fairytale princess from Hans Christian Anderson’s The Princess and the Pea.
The car’s interior smelled like new leather, except for a slight aroma of a man’s woodsy aftershave. She took in a deep breath. If she detected the delectable scent again, she’d know Robert Parker lurked nearby. She was becoming a connoisseur of men’s scents. Being without a man in her life for two years had more of an effect on her than she’d thought.
He drove for several miles, the dark giving her some sense of comfort.
She peeked between the seats when he pulled a CD out of the player, then shoved a new disk in. The orchestral music from the movie, The Thirteenth Warrior, began to play.
Suddenly the car pulled to a stop. Had he come to a red light? He turned off the music. Was he home? Hopefully he hadn’t driven to another vampire bash.
He turned on his interior lights. Oh, hell, he’d see her now. Her heartbeat sped up. The car wasn’t big enough to hide in.
“Sit up,” he ordered. His dark voice commanded immediate obedience.
She didn’t want to believe he knew she hid in his car, so she flattened herself against the carpet as low as she could.
He reached back, grabbed her arm, and jerked her up. His sudden action and surprising strength as he gripped her wrist made her cry out. What was he? A vampire who could live in sunlight? If Kostya was born of the womb, maybe this one was, too, and perhaps they could survive in daylight. Her people would really be in trouble then.
She wrenched her arm free.
“What are you doing here?”
She smiled her most heart-warming smile. He continued to scowl at her. Well, that didn’t work.
She folded her arms. “I need a ride back to my hotel.”
“Have Nicolai take you there.” He motioned to the door.
“He and I are at an impasse.” No way would she confide anything of her story to a human host or a daylight vampire. Everything would go straight back to Nicolai.
“Get out!”
She didn’t want to be beholden to anyone. Especially not to someone like Robert Parker, Army officer and whatever else he was. But she was desperate.
“I’ll pay you to take me to my hotel.” Damn, her purse and suitcase must have still been in front of her hotel door. If someone hadn’t stolen them by now.
Great. Just what she needed. More trouble.
“You can’t ride with me. Get out.”
“I don’t even know where I am. And…and I don’t have my purse with me. It’s back at the hotel.”
He shook his head and pulled his door open.
After climbing out of the car, he jerked the seat forward. “I said for you to get out.” His voice was full of foreboding.
Did he fear her? Sure, he figured she’d kill him, being she was a huntress. “I won’t hurt you, if you’re afraid of that.”
“Hurt me?” He gave a haughty laugh. “I don’t mess with your kind.”
“And I don’t with yours, normally.” She tried to curb the indignant tone in her voice. She hated most hosts, weak-willed and mindless. But she needed this one’s help. She’d do almost anything to obtain it to stay out of Nicolai’s reach. “I need a way to get back to my hotel. Please.” Despite hating to beg, she really didn’t feel she had any other choice.
He grabbed her arm and yanked her out of his car. She fought giving him a fist in the jaw. Instead, she involuntarily shivered in the cool night, hoping he didn’t think she was scared. She was just cold. As far as she was concerned, she’d beseeched him as much as she was going to. Damn him. She had some pride left still.
A hooting of an owl nearby and the sound of cicadas singing their raucous tune, made her reconsider. He couldn’t leave her out here in the middle of nowhere. Not with Nicolai and his minions determined to make her one of their own. She reconsidered pleading some more.
Robert shook his head. “You should have made better choices.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he climbed into his car and slammed the door. He looked at her for a moment, as her eyes pleaded with him to reconsider. He didn’t. He drove off.
Her temper flared as she stormed off down the road in the same direction he’d gone. He didn’t drive fast. In fact, she considered the way his taillights drew farther down the road. As long as it took him to fade from her sight, she imagined he drove way under the speed limit. Was he reconsidering? He disappeared around the bend in the road. Nope. Bastard.
Normally she didn’t kill vampire hosts, but she’d make an exception in his case, if that’s what he was. Trying to calm her raw nerves, she walked toward the halo of lights she could see in the distance. It had to be the city lights. However, she’d never make it back in time for work the next day. In fact, if Nicolai caught up with her, she’d never make it back, ever.
For over an hour, she walked. Then as she neared some small town, poorly lighted and all shut up for the night, a pickup truck pulled against the curb.
A man rolled down the window. “Need
a ride, miss?”
He might have been a mass murderer, but his offer looked pretty good about now. In any event, she could handle the likes of him if he got out of hand. He shoved the door open for her. Half eaten bags of potato chips and chocolate chip cookies littered the seat and floor.
She climbed in and buckled her seatbelt, relieved to be somewhat safe. He looked at her rank. “Captain, eh?”
She nodded.
His lips stained with chocolate, parted into a smile. His teeth looked like a badly mended picket fence, yellowed, and full of gaps. “I was a private during Nam.”
“Ah. Can you take me to my…” She hesitated. He wouldn’t think she was offering to take him to her hotel for fun and games, would he? “I was mugged at my hotel. I’m trying to get back there. Could you take me there?”
“Nicolai wanted you to return to his house. I’d best do what he asks.”
Crystal’s skin prickled. She’d never make it to a safe place at this rate. Still, she wasn’t giving up. She grabbed the steering wheel and twisted it full force toward her. Before the man could stop her or take his foot off the gas pedal, he drove straight through an auto dealership’s plate glass window.
His brakes screeched. The glass broke with a shattering bang. The odor of burning rubber filled the air.
His truck crashed into a brand new SUV and came to a dead stop. Crystal’s seatbelt caught her, slamming her back against the seat on impact. She jerked the belt off, then jumped out of the pickup.
The man groaned in obvious pain. “He’ll get you. You can’t get away.”
13
Ignoring the truck driver’s taunt about Nicolai, Crystal ran down the well-lit street, then into a dark alley. Neither was safe. An open window in an older one-story, brick home caught her eye. She dashed across the alley, and reached for the sill. Peeking in, she saw no signs of a living soul in the study lighted by the soft glow of a nightlight. She climbed in, then closed the window.
Momentary relief filled her. Walking in on someone was the least of her concerns. Finding a refuge for the night from the bloodsuckers remained her immediate desire. Gingerly, she crept through the study. The house remained pitch dark except for a faint light coming from a room dead ahead.
The occupants were undoubtedly asleep or not at home. Hopefully whoever resided here were normal humans and not vampires or hosts. She sneaked into the lighted room…a kitchen. The fridge’s door light cast a pale wash of illumination. She breathed in the heady scent of cinnamon and rosemary.
Opening the fridge, she found it stocked full of real food. No bottles of blood. Definitely vampires didn’t live here. A mixture of relief, but worry filled her. Hosts still could live here.
A floorboard creaked behind her. Panic touched her heart. She whipped around.
A light flipped on overhead. A gray-haired man glared at her, a sword held in his hands ready to do business.
“I…I’m sorry to break in to your house, sir, but someone’s trying to kill me and…and I’m trying to get to my hotel.”
He glanced at her nametag. “Anderson.”
“Yes, sir.”
His gray eyes penetrated hers. “You’re the traitor.”
So astonished to hear the words that only another vampire hunter would call her, she didn’t have time to get angry over the insult. But he wasn’t part of her family. Where’d he come from?
“Can I have refuge here for a while? Until it gets light?”
“You can’t stay here.” His voice was graveled with sleep and on edge.
“Do you have a knife I can use to protect myself with?”
He paused.
“Please, I have to have something to defend myself. Despite what my family says, I do kill vampires.”
He motioned to the hall. She walked down it, her mind working out how she could convince him to allow her to stay the night. His slipper-covered feet padded slowly behind her.
When they came to a bedroom, he pointed to a dresser. “Top drawer.”
She opened it. A wrist knife rested inside on a black velvet cloth. She turned to the man, her heart quickening. He nodded.
She pulled the knife from the drawer. “I’ll return it as soon as I can, sir.”
“It was my wife’s. They killed her last night. You won’t find me or any of our kind here tomorrow. It’s yours to keep.”
Crystal’s jaw tightened. “Who killed her?”
“A scrawny blond male. Only one I know of in the area. One of Nicolai’s converts. Ripped her throat clean through. No reason to either. She’d retired from the business twenty years earlier. Her hands had become so crippled with arthritis, she couldn’t work any longer.”
Crystal’s mind attempted to absorb the news and at the same time think of a way to talk herself into a safe haven for the night. “I’m so sorry about your wife.” She paused, before she attempted to solicit his further help. “If you’re leaving—”
“Not until tomorrow when it’s daylight.”
“Could I stay here for the night? Sleep on the couch?”
“You’re an outcast. You’re in league with them.”
She ground her teeth in frustration. “If I were in with them, I wouldn’t be trying to find a way to keep out of their grasp. And I wouldn’t need a weapon.” A normal life…that’s what she longed for.
“At my age, I can’t afford to take chances. You’ve made your choice. You’ll have to live with it.” He pointed to the door with his sword.
She fastened the knife at her wrist. “Thank you so much for your kindness.” She was truly grateful, but she figured it didn’t mean anything to him. She was a traitor to her people…that was all. And his wife, who’d served their people well, was dead. “I might not live through the night, but you’ve enabled me to at least have a chance. If you see my brothers…” She sighed deeply. “Thanks.”
She opened the door and walked outside. As soon as she closed it, the latch inside bolted shut with a click.
Her blood iced. The air seemed colder than she remembered. And thick with the scent of pine.
Then his words struck her as odd. If the blond male vampire from Nicolai’s house had killed the old woman, why hadn’t he died from biting her? Something wasn’t right. She knocked on the door, the sound echoing in the street. But he wouldn’t answer her.
She hurried across the dark alley and back into the dimly lit street. If nothing else, she could see her attackers better. The knife strapped to her wrist gave her an inner strength and peace. She took another deep breath of the fresh, crisp air.
The pickup truck had been pulled from the showcase window of the dealership. The tow truck still had it in its grasp. Meanwhile, several men boarded up the window to keep looters out. No police though, and no sign of the driver of the damaged truck.
The men didn’t notice her as she passed by the store.
For over an hour, she walked along the dark, dusty road. Not a single car passed her. Then she thought she heard a flapping of wings. A breeze stirred. A shiver trickled down her spine. She turned.
A redheaded man stood before her, his curly hair tied back in a ponytail. He smiled. “Nicolai’s incensed about losing you. Said you’d be sleeping beside the road somewhere. You’ve come a lot farther than we thought you could.”
He took a step forward.
She shook her head. Her throat turned dry. “I won’t go back to him.” She clicked her knife open.
The blond-haired vampire, who’d held her hostage in Nicolai’s house, appeared. Undoubtedly, the redhead had sent out the call using his mental telepathy. Any vampires in the vicinity would have heard his appeal. She hadn’t a choice now but to kill them both if she could, or return to Nicolai and give in.
The blond grabbed for her arm. She shoved her blade into his heart. “For the elderly woman who couldn’t fend for herself, and for all the others.”
The vampire fell to the ground, wizening into a white prune of a man.
The other attacked her, his
pointed fangs bared. He knocked her off her feet. She landed hard against the pavement with an oof, the breath expelled from her lungs. A shimmer of pain spread through her back.
He fell on top of her, his weight pinning her to the pavement. She struggled to wedge her hand and knife between his chest and her body but couldn’t maneuver into the right position.
“Nicolai wanted you, but you’re all mine now.”
“Not!” Kicking her boot hard against the pavement, she twisted her body and shoved him off. With a lightning stab, she struck at him, forcing the blade between the ribs and into the life-pumping organ. He cried out and collapsed on his back, his skin deflating like a pricked balloon that had lost its air.
Unsteadily, she rose to her feet, then stumbled off down the road toward the city lights again. Her muscles ached from all of the walking and fighting, just like when she had to run the two-mile physical fitness test when she wasn’t in shape. Worse than that, she was weary of the ostracism from her own kind. Her people didn’t want her, but she couldn’t join the hated bloodsuckers either. She longed to be human. It wasn’t an option.
She moved one foot in front of the other. Her combat boots weighed more with every step she took. Then a car flashed its lights at her. A police car? Or more vampires or hosts posing as normal humans? She didn’t trust anyone anymore.
14
The car’s siren rippled in the air briefly. Crystal stopped. Retracting her blade, she waited as two officers climbed out of the vehicle. Both shined flashlights in her eyes. She squinted at the glare, unable to see what either looked like.
“It’s her. Cpt. Anderson.”
Nicolai’s henchmen.
“Ma’am, we got a call you were abducted at your hotel. The manager secured your purse and suitcase. Can you tell us what happened?”
She took a deep breath, attempting to settle her nerves. Real humans. “Can you take me back to my hotel?”
