Famished

by Jacquelyn Frank

  The second attempt on Simone had been less about kidnapping her and more about exposing her and the vampire nation. Since capturing her had proven unsuccessful, Draz had tried to come at her by threatening her people. There was very little rhyme of reason to it. It was the actions of a madman and the working of a sick mind. Regardless, it was clear he had delusions of grandeur and had made Simone the focus of his attempts to take over the vampire nation. The idea was absurd of course. There was no reality in which a sycophant could control the vampire nation. The nation would never accept it. They would rise up and obliterate Draz. Even now they were stirring in defense of their queen. Two floors of the massive acreage that was vampire central had been turned into temporary barracks for the volunteers who were rushing to her side from all over the country…and beyond. There was a good three hundred of them and they were hard at work tripling the protection that guarded vampire central. The building was as secure as Fort Knox. Anyone entering or leaving was searched thoroughly. There were metal detectors and x-ray machines. All of the latest technology had been installed. Access to the floors had now been changed from keycard access to biometrics. A palm print was needed to use the elevators or access the stairs. The elevators leading up from the parking garage stopped on the lobby floor and emptied their contents into the line of people being searched as they entered the building.

  Access to the top floors was, however, even further restricted. Only a select few were allowed access to Simone’s apartment level. Simone. Marcus. Darcy. And a seriously vetted contingent of six guards who stood in rotation of twos in the foyer of the apartment, and six guards who stood in rotation of twos outside of the apartment. Other than that…no one else was allowed access to her.

  The floor their offices were on was another matter entirely. There was about fifty people who worked on the floor on a regular basis and all had to have access. Marcus had hoped she would choose to work out of her office in her apartment, but that idea was quashed even before he asked her. She would never agree. She resented being trapped in the building as it was. To be trapped on one floor was completely unacceptable. However, if vampires could infiltrate a party they could infiltrate the building. He tried to warn her of this, but she refused to hear him.

  “I won’t spend all of my time suspecting every one of my people of foul play. There are more good than evil among them and I won’t jump at every shadow. You may feel free to research everyone you wish to research and question whomever you feel is in need of questioning, but I won’t be restricted to my apartment. I will move freely to my offices…to the gym…to the other amenities the building offers including the restaurant and the clinic…if I desire or need them. I will use the pool. I will travel from floor to floor in order to visit companions or workers as I see fit. You may provide whatever guardianship you feel is necessary in order for me to do these things, but they will be done.”

  She had put her foot down. There had been no budging her. He had barely tried in the face of her stern voice and no nonsense attitude. Besides, he was keeping her in the building, keeping her from hunting, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her for anything more because he knew exactly how he would feel if their roles had been reversed.

  His empathy was perhaps dangerous. He didn’t know. But he went with her everywhere and he trusted himself. He trusted the guards. He had vetted them himself, researching them down to their jockey shorts. He knew everything about them. Knew how dependable they were. Knew he was picking the best and brightest and most trustworthy to protect her. He would accept nothing less.

  His first sign that the problem of her feeling cooped up was reaching its boiling point was when she nearly bit his head off over breakfast.

  “Do you really have to hover over me every minute?” she demanded.

  He didn’t blame her for feeling that way. They had been attached at the hip for the better part of a month. He was just as tired as she was of being cooped up together. At least he got the opportunity to hunt, to leave the building as he desired. He had to remember that.

  The second sign of trouble was when she sent him out of the office, along with her guard, and slammed the door in their faces. Left with little choice, he stood waiting for the storm that was her short fuse to pass. Eventually she emerged from her office with an apology and a much better mood. Too good of a mood, he thought with suspicion as she tripped lightly through the rest of her day. What had changed? he wondered.

  The answer came as soon as they reached her apartment for the night.

  “I am going hunting with you tonight,” she said, her tone an attempt to shut down any argument. It didn’t work of course.

  “You know you can’t do that,” he argued immediately.

  “I can do whatever I like,” she said firmly. “I have made a date with an old friend and we are going to dinner. Then I am going to go with her to her apartment where I will feed from her and sate myself for the first time in four weeks. I refuse to be fed like a baby any longer. I need to feel full. I need to get out of this building.”

  “Simone, they could be waiting for just this opportunity to—“

  “Then let them!” she snapped. “Let them come! You have had a month to try to find them and you are no closer to doing so! Let them come and get me. Use me as bait so they will bring me to Draz where I can get my hands on him and kill him myself!”

  It wasn't as if that same idea hadn’t occurred to him before. In fact, he had tagged her GPS locator on her phone, the feed going directly to his phone. As long as the phone was with her he would know exactly where she was. The thing was, Draz would be aware of that. It was likely the first thing he would do was get rid of anything that could track her to himself.

  So he had sewn GPS locators into her coats and her purses. As long as she kept them with her, he could find her anywhere.

  But there were no guarantees she would be brought face to face with Draz. It was likely, but there was no guessing…and he didn’t want to guess. He wouldn’t risk her unless it was a sure thing…and there was no such thing as a sure thing when it came to Draz.

  “You know we can’t do that. You are to precious to your peop—”

  “I am not irreplaceable!” she snapped. “There are systems in place should something happen to me! Draz will never get his hands on my throne. We all know that. The only way he can be stopped is if he tries to take it and fails. Only then will he learn his lesson.”

  “Have you no care for your own safety? Your own life?” he demanded of her. “Are you going to just throw it away? Are you going to allow him to take you and destroy you?”

  “You have so little faith in my ability to take care of myself,” she said with a sigh.

  “You are one woman. He commands a small army.”

  “I command a bigger one! Let’s lure him out of hiding. Let me hunt and see what comes. Let this all be done with…whether it means ending my life or defeating him. This is no way for a person to live. I won’t spend the remainder of my reign locked away in this tower like a princess in a fairy story.”

  He sighed and backed up against the door of her bedroom where he had followed her and shut it so that others could not hear them argue. One of his hands still clung to the knob and the other rakes with frustration through his hair. On the one hand he understood her. He wanted to help her. He wanted Draz’s neck between his hands so he could twist his head off for himself.

  “We have no guarantees Draz would come face to face with you,” he said.

  “You know damn well he wouldn’t be able to resist. He would want to gloat. He would want to do the deed with his own two hands as if he would win the crown in victory on a battlefield for killing a ruler. He thinks we are still in medieval days. He is ignoring that we are a democracy in as much as we are a monarchy. That will be his downfall. Let him come for me. Let him come,” she said, moving her body close to his until she was pressed flush against him and he was trapped between her luscious warmth and intensity of spirit and the door. She
was so compelling. Far too compelling. And this wasn't a decision he could make. It wasn't up to him. It was a matter for the council to decide. It was an idea that had to be talked about at the highest levels of government. Her life was not her own to give. It belonged to the government.

  “This isn’t up to me,” he argued as her hands slowly spread out over his belly and stroked up over his chest. She caressed his pectorals enticingly and he knew he was being played as if he were an instrument and all she needed to do was handle him in just the right way in order to hear what she wanted to hear. “You have to clear such a plan with councilors. A plan like this takes weeks of preparation.”

  “Marcus, I know you. As part of my protection you have already devised the actions you would take should I be taken hostage. You need only apply it.”

  “It’s not up to me!” he insisted as her lips pressed tempting kisses all along his.

  “Sure it is. It’s up to you whether I hunt or not. You simply let me out and let the chips fall where they may. I could command you, you know.”

  “You could. And you’re going to have to. It’s the only way I’ll do it.”

  She drew back from her seduction of him with a frown. “Then consider yourself commanded.”

  “You’re going to have to answer for this with your councilors and the princes,” he said with a deep frown and a clutch of anxiety clawing at his insides. He had to talk her out of this.

  “I’m just doing what must be done. With a single act we can rid ourselves of the bane that is Draz. He has far too much power. He is too much a threat to the vampire nation. He could get it in his head to expose us.”

  “It would hurt him even worse than it would hurt us. He won’t do it,” he insisted.

  “He’s already tried!”

  “He knew it would never happen. He only wanted to make us dance like little puppets. He wanted to make us scramble to cover up any hint of exposure. That’s all.”

  “Perhaps. But I’m no longer willing to take chances. He's a wildcard. A danger. He must be stopped and this is the only way I can think of to stop him.”

  “What if he doesn’t kidnap you?” he pressed. “What if he simply kills you on the spot?”

  “He wants me. You know he wants me. He wants to lord over me. He wants to see me on my knees begging him for my life and the safety of my people.”

  “And he's going to get it,” Marcus said bitterly. “You’re going to hand it to him.”

  “I trust you to find me. To find him in time and stop him. I would trust no one else.”

  “Not even Danton?”

  “Danton…Danton doesn’t love me the way you do. He loves me, just not in the same way. Not in the way I need. Not in the way that will motivate you more than anyone else.”

  “I do love you,” he said fiercely as he grabbed her by her arms and gave her a harsh shake. “Do you know what it will do to me if you are wrong? If you are hurt or killed? It will be the end of me. I will never recover.”

  She reached up with her mouth to kiss him gently on the corner of his mouth. “This is for the best and you know it. I have given everything to my people over my long lifetime. Starting with our first days of trying to survive on this planet and ending with my public service to them. It’s only evolution that I should risk everything. It wouldn’t be your fault.”

  “Yes. Yes it would. Because I’m going to let you do this. I’m actually going to let you do this. I could run to the council or Leopold or anyone who will listen who might have the power to stop you, but instead I’m going to simply obey you and let you do this. Because, in the end, you will remain a captive for the rest of your tenure as queen otherwise and I couldn’t bear watching you whither away from having your life and your freedom cut away from you. You need your freedom in order to thrive. You need to live your life as you see fit and you have the right to face your demons…to take on your enemies.”

  “So…how should we do this?” she asked.

  “I imagine it will be as simple as us leaving the building and going out into the wilds of NYC. But first…I want to sew a GPS locator into your clothing. If he finds the one in your coat or takes away your purse and phone, at least you will still have your clothes on your back. That means wearing something that will conceal it. Something that won’t be noticed when he frisks you for weapons and other things.”

  “In a boot?” she suggested.

  “Good idea. People never search the inside wall of a boot. They usually just turn ‘em upside down and give them a shake. And even if they do search, it’ll be hidden so good they won’t be able to find it. He’ll be expecting you to be tagged, so I think the one in your jacket should satisfy his search. You can point it out to him if he seems like he won’t accept not finding one outside of your phone. I also want you to have a weapon. Something he won’t see and won’t take away from you.”

  “I think I have that covered,” she said, moving away from him and leaving him to trail after her as she headed for her closet. She went in and he waited for her to emerge. When she did it was with a beautiful silver decorative belt. She quickly put it on, without looping it through belt loops. He tried to see where the weapon was, looking perhaps for a hidden knife. There was nothing he could see. It was too thin to hold a knife.

  “I don’t get it,” he said.

  She smiled and with a quick flick of her wrist she undid the front clasp of the belt, whipped it around so she was holding both ends in her hands and quick as lightning she wrapped it around his throat, dancing back behind him, kicking his legs out from under him with a blow to the back of his knee. He dropped to his knees and she dug her knee into his back and pulled the belt taught. That was when he felt the razor wire biting into the skin of his neck. All she had to do was yank hard enough and she could effectively choke him out…or more likely decapitate him with one powerful pull.

  Satisfied she had demonstrated her weapon and her ability to use it, she unwrapped the wire gently from around his neck, the wire tugging at his skin where it had bitten through in places. They were minor wounds that would heal in a matter of an hour.

  “The thing that concerns me most is how you don’t end up dead in this scenario,” she said. “This time they will come loaded for bear. They will no doubt bring enough soldiers to take out you and any guards I may have. Also, I am low on energy. I can’t be taken like this. He can too easily starve me in a matter of a couple of days.”

  “I will go out and hunt first,” he said. “Then I will feed you. That will sustain you for another four days. Then we will go and try to hunt together. If he waits until you are on your way back from your hunt, then you will be at full capacity. If he takes you before as I suspect he will, then you will not be at a disadvantage. You will have your pulse attack available if you need it.”

  She frowned at the idea of feeding from him as she clipped her belt back around her waist. However, he could see she saw the wisdom in his plan…even if it meant feeding her ‘like a baby’ once more.

  As the plan came together he began to feel slightly better about it. He would never be okay with her risking her life, but he could definitely see the merits to their plans. It was finally a chance to rid themselves of a dangerous thorn in their side. As long as the sycophants had a distinct leader they were deadly and dangerous. That didn’t mean that there weren't other leaders. There was one in the western states who had almost as much power and they did risk her taking over the entirety of the United States when they created a vacuum by eradicating Draz, but that was a worry for another day.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  They left the apartment, taking all four guards with them into the elevator, and dropped down a couple of floors. Here there was a situation room attached to an armory. Marcus called in a good twenty men and they crowded into the room. He filled them in on their plan and every face was grim.

  “You’re to hide yourselves completely. You six will make your presence obvious, he’ll be expecting a guard contingent and if w
e don’t satisfy that expectation he will know something is up. Randall, I need a GPS sewn into these,” Marcus said, tossing his a pair of boots with flat heels that had been selected because they were insulated for warmth…that meant an inside and outer layer capable of having a GPS sewn in and making it look natural to the eye.

  “I don’t want to sacrifice any of you, but I won’t kid you. This is a deadly assignment. You can easily be killed if you don’t watch yourselves. I would rather you let yourselves take a non-lethal hit and go down and stay down as if you were completely incapacitated. Protect yourselves at all costs while putting up an effort to protect the queen convincingly. Is this understood? There will be losses. Try not to be one of them.”

  The soldiers all nodded. They were game for anything. Their devotion was not lost on their queen. She stood humbly before them.

  “I cannot express my gratitude at the sacrifices you are willing to make for me. As a queen I am proud of you all. As a woman I am deeply touched by your loyalty. Thank you.”

  Marcus dismissed the twenty men…and after they had all dispersed, they went down a floor and Marcus called in another twenty men. These he would use as a backup. These would follow the others from a discreet distance. And these would not know about the others. If there was a spy in their network, they could perhaps trick Draz by separating the two actions. Still, they chose men that Simone had worked with for a long time, men she trusted…if indeed she could trust anyone. She had had upper level moles before. The female vampire from the party had been an authoritarian before she had crossed the line. When asked why she would betray the queen and take up with Draz she had simply said it was so she didn’t have to keep playing by the rules. Following Draz meant she could break any law she wanted to. She had even said she aspired to become a sycophant…that the only reason she hadn’t fully indulged was so she could be of use to Draz. The enemy vampiress had drunk from a tainted source in the past, had known the high of it…but had also had the self-control to keep from crossing fully into addiction and allowing herself to revert to the nature of a vampire without remaining a sycophant.