Chapter Twelve
The sound was almost as painful as the sensation when the tape was ripped from Lyric’s mouth. She gasped, sucking air deep into her lungs. Her arms ached from being bound tightly behind her back. Her mind was reeling as she continued to try to make sense of everything that had just happened.
“If you scream, I promise, I’ll slit your throat,” came the whispered words of her abductor. “Got it?”
She nodded her head quickly up and down, trying to resist the urge to scream bloody murder. Taking in her surroundings, she noted that he’d brought her to an apartment, a lavish, expensive penthouse apartment at that. Finally getting a good, hard look at him, she concluded that she didn’t know him from a hole in the ground.
With his dark hair and eyes, he was clean cut and looked much like any other average Joe on the street. At first glance, there wasn’t a single threatening thing about him. Then she saw it, hidden in the depths of his gaze, something that wasn’t right, wasn’t complete somehow. Her heart sunk when the dim lighting surrounding them glinted off the knife that he held.
“It shouldn’t be long now, and your boyfriend will be here. I have some fun planned for the three of us. Well … fun for me anyway.” He laughed humorlessly, his eyes fixed on Lyric. “My, you sure are a pretty thing. No wonder he hasn’t devoured you yet. I’d be dragging that out, too.”
Lyric grimaced inwardly but said nothing. What could she say? Apparently, this guy knew Jade. She didn’t want him walking in here though, vampire or not. This guy could be really dangerous.
He stared at her for a nerve-wracking length of time. She wanted to ask him what the hell he was looking at, but the blade he continuously turned over in his hand prevented her from doing so. As desperately as she wanted Jade to come to her rescue, her fear for his safety meant more to her. The vision she’d had of Jade danced through her thoughts, and a chill trickled down her spine.
“Cat got your tongue?” He asked, tapping the knife absently against the edge of the coffee table. He’d tossed Lyric down on one of two cream colored sofas and taken a seat on an easy chair across from her.
So, he wanted her to talk. What for? If he was going to kill her, why waste her time making small talk? It was meaningless.
“Who are you?” Against her better judgment, Lyric glared as she made the request. “As long as you are calling the shots, I’m sure it’s not too much to enlighten me a little.”
The stranger gave her a lazy once over, lingering on her bountiful cleavage that was thrust especially high in the bustier. Disgusted, she looked away, her eyes falling to the yellow post-it note stuck to the table between them. She couldn’t make it all out from where she sat, but the first line was clear: ‘Taylor, this time it’s really goodbye.’
Upon noticing her gaze, he snatched the note from the table and tossed it to the floor. His expression grew dark and shadowed. She was nervous but determined to keep a cool head. He looked away, and for a moment, she thought she saw pain etched into his youthful face.
“Taylor?” She began, fear causing her voice to shake. “Is that your name? I just want to know what’s going on here, Taylor. Can you not give me that much?”
He made an exasperated noise before pinning her with bloodshot eyes. He was riddled with anxious energy, and Lyric knew that made him unpredictable. In a sudden motion that made her jump, he slammed the knife into the coffee table so that it stood upright by the point.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on, pretty thing. If it wasn’t for your boyfriend, I wouldn’t have even met that chick.” He pointed at the crumpled yellow note on the floor. “I would likely be happily married, like I was supposed to be. If your precious blood sucker hadn’t killed the love of my life.”
He wore a mask of hatred, and Lyric could only stare curiously. Oh great, so this was about Jade after all. Her heart sped up in tempo, and she mentally groaned. Of all of the possibilities behind her vision, she never would have guessed the source would be a lovelorn human male. She considered the many things she could say in response, but nothing sounded right. She didn’t doubt for a moment that Jade did as Taylor claimed. He’d tried to tell her that he was a ruthless murderer, and she’d refused to heed his warning. And, still she loved him.
“I’ve spent almost a decade hoping that I would come across that vampire again,” Taylor continued. His fists clenched, and he swore heartily before getting to his feet to pace the room. “And now, things are finally going my way. Thanks to you, I have some leverage. There’ll be no running this time.”
His voice cracked on the last word, and Lyric studied him hard. He looked tense, like he could snap at any moment. The guilt that washed over him was heavy, evidently something that haunted him. A man driven by the guilty need for revenge was not someone that would be willing to make any compromises.
Lyric swallowed hard. If this was some eye for an eye thing, she was as good as dead.
She watched Taylor as he paced, trying to make it look like she wasn’t. She didn’t trust him. Casting a glance around the apartment, she saw nothing that would help her and no way out other than the door. Even though her feet were not bound, she’d never make it out with her hands tied as they were.
“You know you’d never make it out of here.” Taylor’s eyes followed the direction that she looked. He nodded knowingly. “Though I can’t say I blame you for considering your options.”
She sat silently, refusing to meet his eyes again, fearing that she would see something there that would confirm her suspicions that she was awaiting her death at the hands of this man. Why couldn’t her visions have shown her this? The desperation that gripped Lyric then had hot tears pricking the back of her eyes. Furiously, she blinked them away before he could see them.
Taylor came back to stand beside the coffee table, plucking the knife from it. He watched her with quiet contemplation, and Lyric prayed that, if he were intent on killing her, he wouldn’t go so far as to rape her first. Who knew what he was capable of?
“I’m sorry that you were unlucky enough to get caught up in this,” he said, his voice low. Was that a trace of regret she detected? “But, I am going to take all of the lucky breaks I can get. I mean, we are talking vampires. How lucky can I get?”
“Indeed.” Lyric mustered the one word answer, believing it best not to engage in conversation with him. She quaked with fear, waiting to see what he would do with the blade he now studied intently.
He fixed her with eyes that saw something other than her, something that fed his fury. A grin tugged at his lips, and he resumed pacing, his hand wrapped tightly around the handle of the knife. “Where is that mother fucker? He is your lover, isn’t he? I’d hate to have gone to all of this trouble just to have him not even show up.”
Lyric pitied this pathetic man. She certainly understood the desire for vengeance that he had, but the vampire bite peeking out from beneath his shirt collar destroyed any sympathy she might have had for him. For someone who had such hate for vampires, he sure seemed to be acquainted with them. Unless it was only Jade that he hated so deeply.
Reaching into the inside pocket of his sport jacket, Taylor withdrew a large, blood stained wooden stake. He turned it over a few times, admiring it lovingly. Bile choked Lyric as she watched him; the psychotic smile on his face morphed his features into a hideous mask. Oh God, she prayed. Don’t let Jade show up. If this guy got the upper hand, somehow, anyhow… No, she couldn’t allow herself to entertain that thought.
“I said, ‘He’s your lover, isn’t he?’”
“Yes,” she gasped out, fearing what he might do if she refused to answer. “He is my lover. But, please, you don’t have to do this. Jade never would have intentionally done anything to take her from you. If he’d known…” Her words trailed off as she realized that anything she said was only going to encourage him rather than have the opposite effect.
The laugh that poured out of him didn’t even sound human. His strangely macabre cackle caused goos
e bumps to break out on Lyric’s flesh. She groaned and wracked her brain for something to say that might help, anything at all.
“Don’t waste your breath, sweetheart. I’ve lost everything. My true love, the woman I tried in vain to replace her with and my own mind.” Brushing the knuckles of the hand that held the stake against the puncture wounds he bore, Taylor stared off absently. “There is nothing that can take this night away from me now. Your monster owes me.”
Lyric opened her mouth to reply when a muffled sound came from the hall. Before either she or Taylor could react, the door burst open with a loud slam. Jade stormed into the room like a hungry animal. His expression was murderous as he spied first Lyric bound on the couch and then her captor just feet away.
“Jade! He’s got a stake!” Lyric cried out, fear for the man she loved over ruling any concern she should have had for herself.
Instead of attacking Jade, Taylor flung himself at Lyric and pressed the blade of the knife to her throat. It burned as it made the tiniest surface cut, not even enough to draw blood but more than enough to cause her heartbeat to pound in her ears. She struggled to hear over the noise as the two men faced off.
“Take another step, and she’s dead.” Taylor warned; the pressure on her throat increased as he enforced his words. “I promise.”
Uncertainty flashed over Jade’s face, but it didn’t linger. The venomous look he pinned Taylor with was as hungry as it was ferocious. “Get your filthy hands off of her. Whatever your problem is, it has nothing to do with the girl.”
A chuckle came close to Lyric’s ear, sending uncomfortable shivers down her spine. At such close proximity, she could smell the booze on Taylor’s breath. Who knew what else he was hopped up on?
“Don’t be so sure, vampire.” Taylor sneered. “Me and you have to have a little talk. And then, I’m going to take great joy in what comes next.”
“And what could we possibly have to talk about?” Jade’s attention was on the dark-haired man holding Lyric in a painfully dangerous position.
She watched him with wide eyes, unable to keep herself from drinking him in despite the situation. He was gorgeous in his dressy attire. His gaze flicked to her briefly and then back to Taylor, but she didn’t miss the agony in those green and gold eyes.
“You probably don’t even remember. She was nothing to you … just another blood source. But, she was everything to me.” Taylor’s hand shook against Lyric’s throat, and she winced. “I watched you kill her. I watched you force yourself on her like the sick animal that you are. You tore into her and left her to rot on the kitchen floor.” He virtually snarled the last, and Lyric struggled not to twitch in any way.
“And you ran.” The awareness spread across Jade’s face as he remembered something. He raised a finely sculpted eyebrow and dared to take the smallest step towards Lyric and Taylor. “Oh I do remember you, pal. Your scent, it’s coming back to me now. You bumped into me on the street earlier, and I knew there was something about you that I couldn’t place. But, I remember, because you ran.”
The tension in the room seemed to double in its intensity. A change in the atmosphere had Lyric almost choking on the raw hate emanating from the outraged man threatening her life. If what Jade said was true, then it certainly explained the immense guilt that she was sensing from Taylor. That kind of emotion could make a desperate man quickly come apart. Though she refused to give up hope, she didn’t see a pleasant end to this situation in sight.
“What else could I do?” Taylor’s voice rose to a shout. “I couldn’t save her from you. I had no other choice.”
Jade nodded but remained silent. Lyric watched her vampire lover closely, fearing he would do something rash. If only she could get her damn hands free.
“Why wait until now then? Why not confront me that night?” Jade asked, eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the man that held his woman. “You’ve been bitten. Willingly, I’d bet. How can it be that you try to play the hero now?”
Pissing the guy off further wasn’t going to help anything. Lyric did her best to give Jade a look, which he ignored. She felt that she was at the mercy of these men and their emotions. It was not at all reassuring.
“How dare you? I have spent a decade looking for you, doing anything I could to be part of your world. And now, I am going to make you pay for the ten years you stole from me, along with the woman that should have been my wife.”
The strained silence that descended was almost deafening. Lyric’s wrists burned, and she squirmed as much as she could without forcing the sharp blade deeper into her skin. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take. Between the mental anguish and the physical discomfort, she was quickly coming undone.
After several moments--which felt like hours--went by, Jade conceded with a slight nod. “Alright. You can take your best shot at me. That’s only fair. But, let the girl go.” He gestured to Lyric, and she immediately began to shake her head.
“No! Jade, don’t. You don’t have to do this.”
He gave her a quizzical look that said she was the crazy one for thinking he would leave her there to die at the hands of a maniac. A sharp tug on her hair caused her to yelp.
“Shut up, bitch. You are as disposable to me as Lisa was to him.” Taylor jerked on her hair again, forcing her head back so that her eye contact with Jade was broken and her pale throat was exposed. “I don’t want to just wipe you out, vampire. I want to make you suffer. Like I’ve been suffering.”
Lyric could clearly detect the trace of a smile in his voice. Taylor appeared to be gaining confidence now. She knew she would die. Perhaps Jade had only prolonged her life by saving it. What if she’d been meant to die that night?
Her lips trembled as she bit back a sob. She was not going to give this sick son of a bitch the power of her tears. Regardless of when death claimed her, every moment with Jade had been worth it.
The enraged sound that came from Jade was purely animal in nature. “Don’t fucking hurt her, you little piece of shit. I don’t have much willpower left to prevent myself from tearing your limbs off. If you so much as scratch her with that thing, I promise you will die slower than anyone should ever have to.”
There was no hesitation on Taylor’s part as he laughed outright in response. The sound of wood under pressure told Lyric that he was squeezing the stake in his other hand, readying himself perhaps. She held her breath, afraid to so much as breathe. She didn’t want to be the one to set him off.
“I fully expect you to take your best shot at me. But, you should expect that I will do the same. I have nothing left to lose.” There was a defeated note in his voice that tugged on the empathic side of Lyric. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
“Look,” Jade’s tone was icy cold. “You want me? Come and get me. But, get your hands off my lady. Now.”
“I’m afraid that blatantly rude and disrespectful orders are going to get you nowhere, you goddamn leech.” With an achingly slow motion, Taylor slid the blade lightly across the surface of her flesh, just enough to burn as it cut.
Lyric couldn’t prevent the small shriek that burst from her. All it would take was some actual effort on his part, and her throat would be slit from ear to ear. Any moment now, it was coming.
“Just, stop! Please,” Jade pleaded, and Lyric’s heart broke. “I will do anything you want. Just, don’t kill her.”
There was quiet as Taylor considered this. Then, he shrugged and smiled as if truly pleased with himself. “Oh, I won’t be killing her, my friend. You will be.”
Shock rendered Jade temporarily speechless. The scenario playing out right before his eyes was like something out of a nightmare. The six-inch blade that bit into the soft flesh of his ladylove had him beside himself with panic. He had known that danger would come to her because of him.
“What the hell are you talking about?” With fists clenched tightly at his sides, Jade maintained steady eye contact with the asshole that held Lyric’s life in his hands. He co
uldn’t wait to sink fangs into this pathetic coward.
The eerie vacancy in the man’s eyes chilled Jade. This guy had lost it long ago. And, it was all because of him. Something that he had done for the thrill of the kill and the rush of appeasing the bloodlust had led to this moment. If anything happened to Lyric, Jade would have nobody but himself to blame.
“You heard me.” The words were stated slowly, a hint of menace behind each one. The hate emanating from the wacked-out man tantalized Jade’s hunger.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion then as Jade watched the blade jerk in the hand of his foe. Lyric screamed, and blood welled from a perfectly precise cut just below her ear. Blood ran in a fine line down the side of her neck from the small gash. It wasn’t life threatening, but Jade was livid. The fury stormed through him, and the need to kill was overpowering.
The scent of Lyric’s heavenly blood reached him, and Jade was beside himself with hunger. Fear and pain mingled in the energy of the room, driving Jade to taste that sweet nectar that spilled down her chest to seep into the fabric of her bustier. A strangled cry emerged from him as he fought down the urge to lick that crimson trail.
Jade’s eyes widened with horror when Lyric’s attacker boldly touched his finger to her wound, rubbing her blood between his fingertips. With a smirk, he held his hand out towards Jade.
“What’s wrong blood sucker? Don’t tell me that you don’t want some of this. It will be such a waste otherwise.” With a flick of his wrist, a second cut opened near the first. Lyric whimpered and shook her head at Jade.
He knew she wanted him to leave her, but that would never happen. Crossing the remainder of the room slowly, Jade didn’t once take his eyes from the man that was about to become another victim. So maybe he’d killed the guy’s lover, but this brought him past the point of caring. There would be no remorse once he got through with this guy.
Lyric's Gift Page 11
