He flexed his muscles, and the thick silver rope, which was two-inch cable, snapped immediately. He threw it down and stood, his shoulder knocking into a shelving unit as he rose, which shook and rattled, alerting his captors he was awake.
The guards outside the door started talking. “Who’s going to go in there and shut him up?” one of the shifters asked.
“I’m the one that had to haul his ass down here, and he was heavy as shit,” another one answered. “Justin, you take this one.”
“Fine, but once I shut him up, you have to go get me a drink. Nobody told us we’d have to spend the night guarding this asshole. I’m thirsty.”
The doorknob turned.
As soon as the shifter reached in and clicked the light on, Jake had him by the neck. He spun, taking him down to the ground and had part of the cable wrapped around his neck before the feline could even react. For good measure, Jake banged the back of his head on the floor with enough force to crack his skull.
Another shifter stuck his head through the door. “What the fuck?”
Jake sprang, swinging his fist at the same time. He connected with the shifter in the side of the head. The guy crumpled to the ground. He would regenerate, but it was going to hurt like hell. The third one barreled in right behind him.
Patiently, Jake waited until the shifter came to him. Then Jake took him around the shoulder and flipped him right on top of the unconscious second guy. Before the last shifter could speak, Jake rammed his fist down on his chest, snapping more than a few ribs and driving all the air out of his lungs.
“You guys are idiots,” Jake said. “At the very least do a little research before you come to battle a hellhound. But it wouldn’t have mattered, my strength trumps yours by a healthy degree. But, still, this is just pitiful.” Jake had never met a shifter as strong as he was, except for Diesel when he was in mid-change. Trying to keep the boy from hurting someone took the totality of his strength.
Something possessed Diesel during the full moon, unlike these guys.
The shifter beneath him regained his breath. “What the…hell…man?”
“Who hired you?” Jake demanded.
“I’m not telling you shi—”
Jake rammed his fist into his jaw. No more time to discuss anything with these fools. They were young and had obviously been hired as cheap labor, because there wasn’t a brain cell to rub between them. He finished tying them up.
Now it was time to get to Neve.
She had probably gone into the penthouse suite on her own. Jake cursed. Even though he shouldn’t have known, Jake knew she had botched her first Collection, and that it had been a vamp. Louie had been frustrated at the time, because he’d had to pull a lot of strings to get the Boss to give her another chance. Screwing up on the first try was a no-no. Neve had no idea what Louie had done for her, but now that Jake thought about it, there must’ve been a good reason he’d been paired with Nevada this time around. Louie must have known this vamp was going to be a tough—if not impossible—Collection.
Jake swore again under his breath as he closed the door behind him. It didn’t matter if the shifters woke up and busted out of their bindings.
All he needed was enough time to get to the top floor.
“That’s a good girl,” the voice caressed. “Now come in where I can see you.”
Neve had slipped into an empty living room. The urge to flee pounded against her ribcage, right along with her racing heart. But try as she might, she could not shake the need to obey the voice. She didn’t understand why, because vampire glamour of any kind had never worked on her before, but there was no denying it was happening right now.
The hair along her arms rose as she eased farther into the room against her will.
“I won’t hurt you,” the voice assured her. “Unless you try to fight me, of course. But there is much we need to discuss. I have waited many years to find you.”
“Who are you, and what do you want?” Neve countered. “And how are you controlling my mind?”
A soft chuckle erupted from the other room. “Come, and I will explain everything.”
Neve placed her back up against the wall. One turn and she would be facing the bedroom where her Collection lay. She closed her eyes, digging her nails into the wall, hoping against all odds they’d keep her rooted in place.
Her mind was screaming at her to get away, but her body wasn’t responding.
She didn’t care what the Boss had to say, she wasn’t accepting any more vampire Collections ever again. Vamps were clearly her weakness, and she couldn’t afford to be weak in this business. If she got out of this alive, she would have to force Louie to understand.
Either that, or she’d find a new job.
Something that carried much less stress and didn’t have the words “bodily injury” and “risk of death” in the job description.
She’d ultimately become clean to prove something to herself, and she had. She’d proved that she was worth something in this world, that she had value. But there was no need to prove anything else. She was done.
She cleared her voice, her nails still deeply embedded in the wall. “What if I’m not interested in coming to see you like ‘a good little girl’?” She snapped her mouth closed as a new wave of urgency washed over her, pushing her, forcing her to obey. She held her ground, physically digging her heels into the carpet. “I said…what if I…don’t…want to…have a nice…conversation?”
“You cannot free yourself of me. It is hapless to try. Come to me or I will turn my urging into pain.”
Neve didn’t move.
A second later, a migraine with the beat of a sledgehammer throbbed just behind her temples. She extracted her nails from the wall and gripped her head in agony. This vamp wasn’t kidding around.
“Fine,” she called through fiercely gritted teeth. “Make it stop and I’ll come forward. It’s not like I have a choice anyway.”
Her head cleared instantly.
She had to move, but it didn’t mean she had to play fair. She reached into her vest and extracted a tiny three inch silver arrow and palmed it. Neve had the best sleight of hand of anyone she’d ever met. She could keep the arrow concealed, no problem, and if she was able to get close enough, she could do some real damage. The silver arrow stung her palm, but it was nothing significant. But it would fell an ancient vamp if she could lodge it in his heart. It wouldn’t kill him, but she didn’t need him dead.
She just needed him down.
“You are taking much too long, my child. I am scheduled to leave this desert wasteland shortly, and we will finish our discussion well before then.”
“How did you know I would be assigned to Collect you?” Neve asked, stalling.
“That is a very good question, but one you must have answered in person. Come to me now and stop this nonsense.”
The urge to follow his order banged against her brain. It felt like this vamp had looped a collar around her neck and was yanking hard. Now that Neve’s fingernails were out of the wall, she had nothing to anchor her. She slowly moved forward against her will. It pissed her off, but there was nothing she could do. She rounded the corner in one more step.
The vampire was seated in an elegant straight-backed chair, one that oddly appeared to have been brought in from elsewhere.
Neve gaped when she saw his face.
The vamp was distinguished but didn’t look a day older than a forty-five-year-old human. He had dark, neatly combed hair, a tiny bit of gray dusting his temples, and chiseled features. He was very handsome for an older man. Vampires aged extremely slowly. One year of aging for a vamp equaled about twenty-five human years, which made this vamp over a thousand years old.
He stood in one fluid motion, which made it seem like he was made of water. “Are you surprised by what you see, dear child?”
When she didn’t respond, he urged her to answer his questions. “Stop doing that,” Neve snapped, irritated by the constant intrusion. “I’m he
re. I will answer your questions. There is no need to push me to do it, just give me a damn minute.”
A smile broke out over his face.
His pointed incisors were fully extended. Vamps could hide them if they wanted to, dhampirs didn’t have the luxury. Neve didn’t need blood at all to survive, so her fangs were just minor irritations. This vamp was flexing his muscles by showing them to her. “How delightful to find that you are strong and feisty.” The vamp came forward. He wore dress pants and a black silk, button-down shirt. “You are also stronger than I had anticipated, which excites me. Usually, the half-breeds are so very dull and uninspiring.”
A sinking feeling came over Neve as he moved closer. She studied his features more carefully. They were patrician, very sculpted. He was likely French in origin, like they had guessed. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Your mind is leading you down the right path. Keep following it, and you shall figure it out soon enough.”
“How are you inside my head like that?” Neve took a step back as the vamp continued to advance on her. “Explain it to me.” She wanted to hold up her hands in front of her to try to stave him off, but that would have been silly.
Instead, she focused on trying to shut down her thoughts.
“It surprises me that you have not been schooled in the ways of the vampire. These answers are easily found,” he said, a single eyebrow lifting. “I find this very odd. What has stopped your education?”
Neve sputtered. “Um, public schools in Vegas do not hand out a supernatural textbook in the fifth grade.” Damn Louie for not making sure she knew more about vampires. He was the only supe she’d ever been close enough to who could’ve provided any answers. Maybe Louie had assumed she already knew? “Unless there’s a supernatural high school I don’t know about, I’ve learned everything I know from the School of Paranormal Hard Knocks.”
His bone-white face clouded. “It seemed you were educated. I sent one of my flock here to seek you out three years ago. He told me he barely escaped with his life. I did not believe him, but it has taken me this long to find my own way here and discover these things for myself. Now that I see you in full, I do believe he indeed had trouble.” The vamp’s face brightened.
“That Collection was one of yours? That vamp broke the law. I did what I needed to do, but in the end he slipped away.”
“Of course he was mine,” the vampire scoffed. “We do not waste our time trying to find you, Collector. Vampires prefer to have Collectors come to us. That is our way.”
Good grief.
“Well, that’s a crappy way to do things. If you wanted to talk to me so bad, you could’ve called me on the phone. I almost got fired for that Collection.”
The vamp ignored her and went on. “He said you incapacitated him, not once, but twice.” He held up two skeletal fingers. “And you managed to get him through the front doors of the casino before he was finally able to flee.”
Neve stuck her chin out. She remembered wrestling the vampire. “I did,” she said. “He thought he was crafty, but I got him down, and then down again. It wasn’t until we got into the Blue Moon that he got away. I made a rookie mistake and relaxed my guard as soon as I had him on my turf. I was young and stupid.”
Mr. Laurent cocked his head at her appraisingly. “Good.”
“Good?” Neve balked.
“Yes. It pleases me you are so strong. You will be a good addition to my horde. Come, we must get prepared to leave.”
Neve almost tripped as she was forced to take a giant step forward. “Leave? I’m not going anywhere with you, and I’m certainly not joining your horde.”
“Of course you are, and you will.”
“Um, nope,” Neve countered, “I’m not. No part of me wants to lead the life of a vampire. I barely qualify for vamp status as it is. I’m perfectly happy staying in Vegas and minding my own business. After I take you in, I plan to go back to my nice, mundane life.”
“Take me in?” Mr. Laurent tilted his patrician face upward and cackled. “Into where, pray tell? Back to the casino so your Boss can reprimand me? I think not. That is not what I came here for, nor is that the agenda for tonight. You will come with me willingly or I will make it painful. It is your choice, dhampir.”
Immediately, a rapid pulsing started up in the center of Neve’s brain.
She knew if she disobeyed him now, the pain would be much more harrowing than any migraine. As the dreaded beat became worse, she lifted both hands to the top of her head and slid the silver arrow into the front pocket of her vest.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked. “And you haven’t explained how you’re controlling me. Your fledgling had none of these tricks up his sleeve, or I never would’ve been able to capture him. I would’ve been his slave instead.”
Mr. Laurent came forward, right into Neve’s personal space, a grim smile showcasing his wicked incisors. “That’s quite an easy question to answer. You are my child, of course. One of my own gene pool. A Master controls all who are his.”
Jake ducked around a corner, hoping this door would finally be the one that led him to the interior stairwell he’d been searching for.
Instead, it opened into a private gambling area.
The head casino manager took one look at his bloodied, ripped shirt and recently healed wounds and rushed toward him. “Sir, sir,” he called. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Jake assured the man, smiling widely to put the human at ease. “My girlfriend just got a little jealous of the time I was spending with one of your beautiful waitresses.” Then he gave the guy a knowing wink. “All I need to do is find a stairway back up to my room to change my shirt. She’ll cool off while I’m gone, and all will be well.”
The casino manager’s mouth fell open.
Jake was certain that his response wasn’t the answer this man had been expecting. Jake broadened his hundred-watt smile and moved forward. “Listen”—he wrapped an arm around the man, who was no older than thirty, and drew him in like a close conspirator—“you know how women get. Things get a little heated, add alcohol into the equation, and it can all blow up in your face. You must see this kind of thing every day. But I’m fine, as you can see. I just need some directions to get to the stairs. You know how these casinos are. It’s a maze to find what you’re looking for, and behind every door there’s a hidden surprise.”
“Yes…sir,” the manager said, straightening himself. “If you exit and head to the right, there’s a bank of elevators in the middle of the floor. Go left down a short hallway, and you will see a sign—”
Jake cut him off with a slap to the chest. The guy stumbled backward. “Thanks, I got it from here.” Jake backed toward the door and offered a wave to the other employees who had gathered just behind them. It was damn lucky none of the other patrons could see him. They were around the corner. “Everyone have a great night.” He waved cheerfully as he ducked out the door and fled to the right, trying to keep a low profile so he wouldn’t be stopped by anyone else.
As he walked, he brushed the dried flakes of blood off him. His wounds had already healed but had left some faded pink lines in their wake. His shirt was torn and soaked red with blood, but even though it looked like he’d been in a hell of a fight, there was no evidence anything was wrong with him.
Halfway down the casino floor, he spied the bank of elevators. He turned to make his way there and spotted a casino attendant standing in the hallway, a stern look on her face.
She was stationed there to make sure only guests went upstairs.
Jake swore.
He didn’t have his key card on him, and he was covered in blood. He kept his head down and moved forward, making a split decision. He took the hem of his shirt in his hands and peeled it off his body in a movement so quick no human could track. Without missing a beat, he deposited it in a trash can and walked with his head up, meeting the casino employee straight in the eye.
He gauged her to be about sixty years
old and, judging by her sallow skin and yellowed eyes, appeared to be both a smoker and a drinker. As she spotted him, her gaze took on an unimpressed expression, and she crossed her arms, readying for a battle. She’d seen this before. Jake was likely not her first partially naked hotel guest, and she knew naked guests spelled trouble.
“Room key, please,” she said in a bland tone.
Jake’s hands went to his back pockets, patting them quickly. “Oh, crap. I think my wife has our key. Stupidly, we only got one. I just spilled a drink down my shirt and need to run up and change into a clean one real quick.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What room are you in?”
Without pause, Jake answered, “6152.”
“Top floor, huh? Where’s your ring?”
“What ring?” Jake asked, genuinely surprised.
“Your wedding ring, pal.” Her voice took on a sardonic tone. “You know, the ring you’re supposed to wear when you’re married. You ain’t wearing one.”
Other guests spilled around them, each flashing their cards and getting a quick nod from the gatekeeper to pass.
“I’ve never worn a ring,” he said easily. “I work in construction, and it’s an occupational hazard. But I promise to bring my wife back down to vouch for me later.” The passersby were starting to give Jake interested looks. One whistled, and Jake decided to move closer to his opponent. He could’ve easily knocked her out of his way and been gone before she knew what hit her. It would’ve sped up this process, but it also would have only brought shit down around him later, as he knew this lady wasn’t going down without a fight. “Listen, I know you’re trying to do your job, and I appreciate that, but I need a shirt.” To accentuate his point, he flexed a pec, knowing she could see it very clearly. “I’m not going to cause any trouble. I’m just going to my room to get dressed.”
Sin City Collectors Boxed Set: Aces Wild, Ante Up, All in Page 6
