by Nina Bangs
“No one values me, raptor. They value my power. I haven’t mattered for a long time. I’m just a tool.” He smiled. “Like you.”
Utah’s patience was fading fast. He turned to leave.
“One more thing.” Seir was back to staring at his drink. “Zero and Fin will probably give each other a wide berth at the exchange. But if you ever see the three of us together, I mean touching close, run like hell.” He paused.
Come on. Utah wanted out of here.
“Doomsday stuff happens when we’re together.” He didn’t smile as he said it.
The cold, clammy hand of premonition rested on Utah’s shoulders all the way back to his room. But as he closed his door, he purposely shut out all thoughts of Seir. He had other things to think about.
A short time later, Utah lay in bed. He couldn’t stop his personal Rolodex of reasons he hated vampires from flipping over and over and over. They were cold-blooded killers. They were freaking parasites. They couldn’t be trusted. The reasons went on and on. Yeah, some of them were just hearsay, but he was willing to believe any vampires-are-the-devil claims he heard because . . . He wanted to. And if some of those claims also fit him, well, he chose to ignore them.
What about Lia? How would he feel about her? For the first time he actually tried to decide why he even cared. Fine, so he thought she was as sexy as hell. But that was only part of it. She was smart and brave and . . . flawed. Flawed like him. He felt a kinship. Most of all? Lia treated him like a person. And as much as he thought that vampires weren’t people, he knew that he wasn’t.
He fell asleep with all his questions unanswered.
This was just weird. Utah couldn’t believe they were doing this in a damn rose garden. There was something strange about the place. It was February, cold, and rosebushes shouldn’t have leaves or flowers. These did. And it wasn’t cold here. In fact, he’d taken off his coat.
“Christine is doing this. She always brings the heat. She’s a life freak. She’d try to grow stuff in the middle of Times Square and water it with tourists’ blood.” Seir’s mockery was back. “She’s bought completely into Zero’s out-of-death-comes-life crap. Kill the human polluters, and Earth will bloom again.”
Utah was keeping Fin’s brother close. It would sort of ruin the trade if one of the major players disappeared. He looked around. As far as he knew, Fin and Zero were patrolling the perimeter to make sure no humans noticed what was happening. The good guys were on one side of the field with rows and rows of rosebushes separating them from the bad guys.
Only the good guys weren’t all good. There were good guys Kione, Ty, Spin, and him. Then there were Adam and Jude’s five vampires. Not so good. Too bad Jude wasn’t here to help control his men. Utah saw Adam’s hand in that. He hoped Jude was okay.
And considering the black looks passing between the vampires and Kione, he hoped they’d hold it together until after he got Lia back.
Across the rows of rosebushes stood the bad guys. Utah recognized only one of them—Seven. She had Lia with her. But he hadn’t gotten a good look at Lia because the rest of Seven’s legion of darkness had clustered around her.
“Christine’s brought an interesting mix with her.” Seir wasn’t about to shut up. “Some vamps, a few demons, werewolves—”
Adam appeared beside them. “It’s time to make the trade. Seir has to come with me.”
The vampire looked so smug that Utah wanted to rip his head off. Of course, that’s what he felt like doing to every vampire. Lia was his partner, so he should’ve been the one going into the middle to do the exchanging. But Adam had pulled rank. Jerk. Adam didn’t care about Lia, he just wanted to be seen as the big freaking cheese of the vampire nation. Utah wouldn’t be surprised if one of Adam’s people whipped out a camera and turned this into a photo op for the son of a bitch.
Wait, something else occurred to Utah. Where was Adam’s rage? Why wasn’t he royally pissed at Seven for siphoning off a bunch of his vampires? Utah narrowed his eyes as he watched Adam and Seir stepping over rosebushes on their way to the middle of the field. The vampire wore a strange expression as he watched Seven come forward with Lia.
Utah’s heart pounded, his breathing quickened. Had Zero treated her okay? She looked the same. He took a deep breath to relax the tightness in his chest. What would she say? What would he say?
No words were exchanged as Lia followed Adam back to their side of the field and Seir walked away with Seven. Then Seven’s people faded into the darkness and were gone.
Utah’s rush to meet Lia came to a sudden halt as someone spoke.
“The time has come for you to die, fae bastard.”
Aw, shit. Utah turned to look at the five vampires. They’d formed a semicircle around Kione. The unseelie prince was standing his ground, though.
“Your curse wasn’t enough punishment? No one can say that you don’t know how to hold a grudge, bloodsuckers.” Kione smiled, and a distant rumble of thunder disturbed the silence. “But then so can I.”
Utah crouched, ready to free his beast. He saw Spin and Ty do the same.
Lia looked dismayed. Adam didn’t.
Utah figured Adam probably thought of this as a win-win situation. If Kione died, Adam got rid of an annoying minion who couldn’t be trusted to always follow directions. And if Kione destroyed the five vampires, Adam would have a clear shot at Jude if he wanted it.
With everything at stake, Utah was surprised to see Adam turn to leave. What the . . . ? You’d think Adam would at least make a show of caring what happened to the five vampires. Or maybe he wanted to be able to tell Jude that he couldn’t help them because he wasn’t there.
And what about Lia? Adam wasn’t taking her with him. You didn’t just leave a new vampire standing alone. She’d need blood and others of her kind around her. Utah started toward her, but before he could reach her side she waved him off.
“Stay away. Don’t come near me.” She put her hand over her mouth and stared at him with . . .
Hunger? Not what Utah had hoped to see. He looked closer. Not just hunger, but full-blown bloodlust with a side order of shocked horror. He cursed himself for actually hoping. Had he really thought she might come back unchanged? Get over it. She was vampire, and she’d never again . . .
Utah wasn’t ready to complete that thought. Not now. He’d think about this after he helped Kione kick some bloodsucker butt. He turned away from her to focus on Kione and the vampires.
The vampire in the middle stepped forward. His long black coat snagged on one of the rosebushes, but he yanked it free. He pointed one finger at Kione. “No punishment will ever suffice to wipe away what you did to our clan. The curse merely filled the time before we could find and destroy you.” A twitch of his lips passed for a smile. “Rejoice, because after this night you need never suffer the curse again.” He pushed his coat aside and freed his sword. The four behind him did the same.
Utah was impressed. All five were big men with faces carved into hard lines. He’d bet none of those lines came from laughter. Everything about them was black, from their identical long coats, to their black fingerless gloves, to their eyes. Hate and rage lived in those eyes. Power surrounded them. It wasn’t a benevolent power. It reeked of blood and reached out to touch him, promising that he too would die if he decided to interfere. It was an old power, forged from earth and fire, polished by ice and stone. They were one step removed from elementals. Or maybe they just felt that way.
But Utah was still putting his money on Kione. And if Kione needed his help, Utah would have his back. Utah beckoned his beast from its cave.
“I’ve waited centuries for this moment.” Kione began to glow. “I’ve suffered with your fucking curse, and I added every moment of agony to what you owe me. Tonight your bill comes due. I hope you die hard.” His smile would send grown men screaming into the night.
The moment following Kione’s last word stretched on and on and on.
Lia looked uncertain.
Not unexpected. The vampires were her people, but Kione was her partner. Utah hoped she had enough sense to stay out of this. She might be vampire now, but these guys were way out of her league.
Ty and Spin moved apart, ready to free their souls.
Utah sensed violence a second before the vampires struck. And as the rose garden became a blur of motion, death stalked the darkness.
Utah took a deep breath and . . . didn’t free his beast.
Chapter Twelve
There were enough monsters in the rose garden.
Ty and Spin had put lots of space between each other, but still their beasts filled the field, crushing rosebushes and dwarfing everything around them.
Utah didn’t often get this perspective because he was usually one of the monsters. But wow, as ancient predators went, Ty and Spin were pretty impressive. He hoped they didn’t get so caught up in the killing that they forgot to stop.
He’d stay human as long as possible. He wouldn’t be able to marshal all his reasoning powers in his animal form, and at least one person here shouldn’t be lost to the bloodlust.
He glanced at Lia. So far, she was just standing there staring.
Everyone that wasn’t a T. rex or a Spinosaurus backed up. Kione and the five vampires might fling around all kinds of flashy power, but it all gave way to the sheer physical presence of two predators, each fifty-plus feet long, supplied with all the equipment necessary to kill and to keep on killing. Especially when the supersized killing machines were just about invulnerable in their present forms.
“You would interfere with a fight that is not your own?” an outraged vampire shouted at Utah.
“Doesn’t look like the odds are exactly even, bloodsucker. Five of you. One of him. Nope, not even.”
Lia seemed to have forgotten him as she stared at Ty and Spin, so Utah edged a little closer to her. Even as vampire, she couldn’t compete with the players already on the field. He’d stay nearby in case she needed him. Face it, the only thing she needs you for now is a quick energy drink, a bloodsucker’s caffeine substitute.
The five vampires needn’t have worried about anyone interfering. Kione and the vampires moved so fast that no one could even see them. They were simply shadowy blurs in their dance of death. Yeah, there was blood, but you couldn’t tell who had shed it. Ty and Spin stood motionless, ready to grab a vampire if one became visible. Lia still looked dazed.
Utah along with Lia, Ty, and Spin waited, trying to get a feel for how the fight was going, and seeing nothing as the battle raged on and on and on. Utah didn’t think he could take it much longer. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t see Kione or the others, but it was too quiet. A life or death struggle should be filled with shouts, screams, and cries of agony. But there was nothing, just the occasional rumble of thunder. What the hell were they doing to each other? It wasn’t natural.
Then everything changed in an instant. A booming crash of thunder shook the ground as five jagged spears of lightning lit the night sky. The sizzle and crack of the lightning as it struck mixed with the scent of ozone, burned flesh, and cloth. When the smoke cleared, the five vampires lay on the ground. They weren’t dead, but they were definitely down for the count. Bits of their charred coats still smoked, and each had an impressive hole in his chest. They lay on their backs and stared up at Kione. And once caught in the fae prince’s deadly gaze, they seemed helpless.
Everyone stared at Kione. Utah shielded his eyes against the fae prince’s brilliant flare. It hurt his eyes, but he couldn’t look away, couldn’t even shut his eyes to block Kione out.
There was nothing subtle or even remotely human about the dark fairy. He was a blaze of white light so intense that Utah could actually feel it crawling over his body, sinking into every cell, burning him up with its deadly compulsion. Sex.
Kione had told them the truth. He wasn’t ramping up the sex with them before. This was ramping up the sex. Not the fun part of sex, either. Utah’s cock was so hard it hurt, the agony building until he doubled over and dropped to his knees. His breaths came in tortured gasps. If he could only breathe he’d scream. He ripped open his jeans and wrapped his fingers around his staff, tried to bring relief, but touching himself brought only more agony.
Along with the pain came the need to screw someone. Nothing emotional about it. Only the mindless compulsion to fuck and fuck and fuck until he was drained and dead. But he couldn’t move. He could only kneel in the dirt while he hung over the edge of the biggest freaking orgasm of his life. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he strained toward the freefall to end all freefalls. Nothing. He just hung there.
Despair wracked him. No one except Kione could ease his agony. But Kione didn’t seem about to ease anyone’s pain right now.
That’s when he heard Fin’s voice in his head.
“I’m going to black out your vision for a moment. When I do, it’ll break your connection to Kione. Then look at something else, and don’t look back. I can’t be there right now. I have something else I have to handle.”
Then everything went black. Utah immediately turned his head. And when his vision finally cleared, he knew who he’d be looking at. Lia was staring back at him. Her face was white, her eyes wide with the memory of Kione’s compulsion.
“Fin was in your head too?” He fumbled at his zipper, hoping she didn’t notice.
Lia nodded. “I didn’t know . . . I never thought Kione could . . .” She swept her hand across her eyes. “We have to stop Kione from killing the vampires.”
“Why?” He thought the vampires deserved anything they got. Death by sex. Before meeting up with the fae prince, Utah would’ve thought that was a good way to go. Not now.
“Because they’re under Jude’s protection. He’ll be obligated to challenge Kione. He’ll die.”
Utah noticed that even as she spoke, she made sure she kept her distance from him. Since when had he become a pariah? Then he tried to think logically. She’d just risen. Lia would probably be leery about getting close to anyone for fear of killing them. Made sense, but it didn’t make him feel any better.
Utah turned just enough to see Ty and Spin without looking at Kione. They’d returned to human form and were facing away from the action. So Fin had gotten to them. “I don’t know how we can keep Kione from doing what he damn well pleases.”
What evidently pleased Kione was explaining a few things to the vampires before he destroyed them. Good. That gave Utah a few moments to figure a way out of this mess.
“You should know the truth before you die. You weren’t with your clan, so perhaps you need to see what they did. I’ll narrate since I didn’t have time to fill in any subtitles. Watch.”
Suddenly, images filled Utah’s mind. Kione was including everyone in his show-and-tell. A clearing in a heavily forested area. Wooden structures. Lots of men, no women in sight. Utah wasn’t a historian, so the men’s clothing told him only that this happened a long time ago.
“You’ll notice me there. I’m the naked guy chained to the post. Iron chains. Not my favorite metal. Leaves a nasty burn.”
Kione’s voice was so cold that Utah felt it as a physical layer of ice touching every exposed part of his body. He pulled on the coat he’d taken off earlier, making sure he didn’t look in Kione’s direction.
“Also notice the lack of women. My bad luck. I knew little about your clan before they captured me. I didn’t know that in your clan males lost the ability to have sex as they aged. The ancient ones felt no stirrings at all. They were all ancient here. Your females had left centuries ago. But that didn’t mean that they didn’t want to feel something.”
“They discovered what I was, what I could do. And even though they were the most powerful vampire clan on Earth at the time, they wouldn’t have been able to capture me under normal circumstances. But I had a fatal weakness. The one and only weakness I’ve allowed myself during the millennia of my existence. Step into my memories and know why you die tonight.”
The sc
ene shifted, and suddenly, Utah was no longer seeing the event from a distant place, a place that allowed him to feel some detachment. He was there, surrounded by the vampires, one of them.
The flavor of lust. He rolled it around on his tongue, reacquainting himself with its taste. For so long he’d felt only the one hunger. But no amount of blood could wash away the memory of sexual need, something he’d thought never to feel again. Now he gloried in the hardening of his body, the rush of raw sensation, the excitement.
Soon it would be his turn. He’d sink his fangs into the unseelie bastard’s neck even as he buried himself in its body.
They’d forced the fae abomination to their will three seasons ago, and he never tired of his explosive release each time he used the creature. He knew only one disappointment. No matter the pain they inflicted, it never cried out. He wanted to hear its screams of agony. He and the others of his clan now competed to see who would be the first to hurt it so badly that it couldn’t hold back its cries.
The line moved forward. While he waited for the next male to begin, he stared at the thing’s face. Meeting the creature’s gaze caused his lust to rise, his body to tighten, his hunger to run unchecked. If his power wasn’t so strong, he knew looking at its face would destroy his will. Even now, he had to exert all his strength to keep from falling to the ground and crawling to it.
He glanced at the males around him. Any of them would do for what he wanted, but it was not allowed. They could not take their pleasure with each other, only with the one who had no ties to Earth, who was less than they. Their master was right in his ruling. Once they became lost in sexual frenzy with each other, the unseelie thing might use their distraction to rescue his female and escape.
The male in front of him turned to grin at him. “Thank the gods the fae are immortal. We can take pleasure from it forever.”
He snorted his contempt. “Not the gods, but our own hunting party that captured its mate.”
