Mouth drying, she pulled her wrist back and cradled it to her chest. “You’ll have to make sure to stop.”
“You’re a flavor that I want to savor. I’ll be on my best behavior.” He smirked, inching closer. “Until you ask me to be bad.”
“It’s dinner. Nothing more.” Red leaned away from him, hands on his firm chest. She was throwing herself on a lion and betting her life that he would let go.
Kristoff loosely grasped her wrist and brought her knuckles to his lips. “So just say the words.”
She chewed the inside of her cheek. He was playing this game again, drawing the naked words from her. “Just do it. Don’t you want to?”
“More than anything.” His fingers caressed her pulse before he pulled her into his arms. He brushed her ponytail off her neck. “Tell me what you want so we’re crystal clear.”
“I want you to bite me,” she whispered, forcing herself not to look away. A disturbing part of her wasn’t lying. Maybe she had since he had bitten her the first time. She would never admit that to anyone. An excited shame warmed her cheeks.
Anticipation curled at the corners of his mouth. Licking his lips, he brushed his fingers a crossed her cheek. “This won’t hurt at all.”
Tilting her head, Red scrunched her eyes closed. She almost wished it would.
Kristoff kissed her skin before his fangs sank into her neck.
Red gasped. The initial shock of pain sent sweat beading on her skin. She gripped his biceps as the strange pleasure sank into the bite. A vampire’s venom usually only brought their victims into a daze. Kristoff’s bite felt like ecstasy. Her toes curled. “Damn it, Kristoff, not so much venom!”
He chuckled, lapping at her blood. “I promised it wouldn’t hurt, and I keep my promises.” Kristoff bit into her again, pulling her closer, sucking on her neck. His fangs sent shockwaves through her core.
Goosebumps rippled down her arms. Her legs shook. She clutched him desperately. Her nipples poked through her bra, rubbing against him. All shame, doubt, and logical thought escaped her.
He started to pull away.
Her hand pressed his head against her. “Don’t stop!”
Growling, Kristoff wrapped an arm under her ass, spinning her around to lift her onto his desk. He caressed her back before playing with her hair. His fangs sank into her again.
“Fuck!” Legs wrapping around him, knees gripping his hips, she tugged at his dark blond hair. His cold touch burned. She struggled to get closer.
Time stopped as he drank. Kristoff pulled out, licking her bite. His tongue worshiped her neck, tracing down her clavicle for a stray drop of blood. His strong arms held her up.
She slumped against him, heart skipping. She pawed at his shoulders, trying to pull herself up, but her arms felt boneless.
Meeting her gaze, Kristoff cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb against her panting lips. He leaned his forehead against hers. He stared at her as if he were going to kiss her.
Red didn’t know if she would stop him. Her fingers gripped his shirt as if she were falling overboard. “Kristoff…”
“Strawberries and magic. That’s what you taste like.” Wonder suffused his voice. He quirked his brow. “Did I hurt you? You’re making a face.”
“No, but I-I can’t breathe.” Red shook her head, belly clenching. Her ponytail lay half out of its holder. Her tank top straps had twisted. She released him, hands fluttering uselessly. “Not when—"
“You’re in my rm He leaned back, arms still around her. His gaze traced over her, quiet satisfaction growing.
Face hot, Red loosened her fingers and nudged him away from her. She slipped off his desk on wobbling legs. Hand on her chest, she staggered to the couch and flopped down. She bit her lip as she crossed her legs. She tried to look everywhere but at him. The fog of her bite faded enough for the embarrassment to sink in. She had nearly dry humped him!
“I love seeing you blush.” Kristoff smiled before he walked over to this small rolling drink stand hidden in a metallic globe. He poured her a glass of wine and spiked it with his blood.
“Yeah.” Still incapable of complete sentences, Red stuttered before falling silent. Her body seemed to hum.
Kristoff handed her the glass. “Drink that. I took a lot. Thank you.”
Her fingers brushed his as she accepted the wine. Her stomach tightened. “You helped my friend tonight. I should be thanking you.”
“Anytime, Red. I’ll let you get…” Kristoff smirked. His twinkling blue eyes took in her sweaty flushed face. “Settled.” He brushed back a lock of hair of her forehead. “Rest up. I’ll let you know when the next calamity hits.”
Watching him leave the office, she rubbed her neck. Not even a raised scar marked where his fangs had penetrated her. Oh, god, why did she have to think the word penetrated? Lucas had broken up with her, and she had practically gone to second base with his progeny the same night. Red dropped her head into her hands.
Vic’s vibrating phone on a nearby stand drew her attention.
She picked it up with shaking hands, telling herself to get a grip and focus on the job at hand.
The voice on the other end didn’t wait for her to say hello. “Goddamn, Vic, you have to check your email. I got the intel!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
January 27th, Evening, Club Vltava, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, California
Red trotted out of the private hallway into the first level of Club Vltava. She snagged a small croissant off the bar counter. She didn’t know if it was Kristoff’s blood, Vic possibly being healed, or the new information on the Dague’s lair, but she felt a caffeine jolt like ten espressos running through her.
Vic’s desert contact had been cagey when he had found Red on the other end of the line. She’d had to give Chuck the hunter as a reference and wait for the paranoid fact checker to call her back. It felt like an eternity, but she was finally able to coax him into spilling the details on what he’d learned from flying over the desert in his small crop duster. His plane might have been old, but his mobile radar Wi-Fi system with Through-the-Wall Sensors was state of the art. Cranky as he was, she was proud that it was a hunter who had cracked the location before the vampires. It wasn’t yet ten. They still had enough moonlight to hit back at the Dague.
Chewing the flaky pastry quickly, she hustled toward the VIP room where she was certain Delilah and Nedda still snipped at each other. She darted through the milling minions on the dance floor. Time had healed some of their wounds. Red tried not to think about how few their numbers were. The latest intel had shown her the door, but they still had to bust through it. Red slipped into the makeshift war room.
Nedda and Delilah faced off with their hands on their hips.
“I don’t care if Higbee can’t trust her people! Go above her head!” Delilah groused.
“She is the chairwoman! That is like my boss’s boss’s boss!”
Both female vampires shot Red a look of nearly equal disdain before refocusing on the other.
And they thought they didn’t have anything in common, Red thought ruefully. Neither liked her much.
She strode to the laptop on the long table connected to a large external monitor. Logging into her email, she downloaded the maps sent by the desert hunter before exiting her account. She made sure she had the right documents up on the screen before looking to the bickering vampires. “Are you guys coming to a good stopping point on this? I know exactly where the burrowers are keeping their prisoners.”
“What?” Nedda sputtered.
“Why didn’t you start with that?” Delilah stomped to her.
“You two were occupied.” Red gestured to the screen. “Cora sent Vic nosing through the hunters for help. Well, my people came through.”
“Quit gloating.” Nedda shook her head.
Delilah wrinkled her nose. “Get to the point, and then I’ll decide to be impressed.”
“Souled Sal told us the Dague’s lab was in a burrow near a circle o
f dead trees, a livestock pen, and was near the water. He could smell the fish. My hunter discovered new tunnels. Farther north than we suspected.” Red brought up a standard colored geographical map of the area around the Salton Sea on the computer screen. Black dots marked the scattered burrower tunnels while orange dots indicted the recent finds. She circled a patch of desert close to the inland sea with a bright orange dot. “This the only tunnel system that fits. The radar scan revealed enough traces of equipment and numbers to indicate they’d been there a while. Basil didn’t mention being moved, so I’m betting that their spooky device doesn’t travel well. If they’re doing the Genesis Machine tonight, they’ll make a production out of it with their captives on display.”
“How do we get in?” Delilah asked, leaning closer to the laptop.
“Can you guide us down there?” Nedda asked.
Red pulled up a rough radar map of the new tunnel system. “It’s a labyrinth, but based on his testimony, Sal was kept on the west side, closest to the entrance by the trees. They wanted the ‘pains in the asses’—as he called his cellmates—away from their device. There are two other known entrances.” She pointed them out on the east and north sides. She switched to another image, clicking the laptop’s touchpad. “You can see the tire tracks by the north one even on the aerial shots.”
Nedda furrowed her brow, squinting at the zoomed-in aerial image. “Nothing is by the east entrance.”
“They wouldn’t want the rank and file hopped up on meth around their pet scientists,” Delilah commented.
Nedda crossed her arms. “It will take hours to get there, and you know they will have eyes on the highways.”
Oh, vampires of little faith, Red thought as she scrolled north in the picture to reveal a small landing strip. “We don’t have to go by car.”
“Kristoff will be happy to loan his jet,” Delilah said, volunteering him without missing a beat.
“Yeah, where is he?” Red asked, striving for an apathetic tone even as the back of her neck heated at the thought of the vampire.
“Never you mind,” Delilah said quickly, sharing a glance with Nedda. “Can you bring us hunters?”
“Vic and I spread the word, but how many really want to fight in a vampire’s war?” Red shrugged, trying to hide her frustration with the fact. Chuck had promised to alert others too, but he wouldn’t promise they would come. Hunters were skittish in LA when it came to vampires. There weren’t any other factions strong enough to hide behind in this city ruled by the undead, not even the Brotherhood. “A small team could surprise the Dague long enough to release the prisoners before destroying the lab.”
“We don’t need hunters. The Prince has men on the way,” Nedda said.
“You Portlanders keep saying that, but I don’t see these fucking knights charging in.”
Red held up her hands. “Stop fighting! The Dague took people you love. You’re both stone cold diabolical bitches, so team up already to get your honeys back.”
Nedda glanced at her sire, delicate brows knitting together.
Delilah huffed out a sigh. “We need to report this to Cora and get a plan in order.” She pulled out her phone and leaned over the laptop. “C, I have good news.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Red knew it was as close to getting an ‘atta girl’ from either vampire as she was going to get. She glanced around. “Where’s Kristoff? We need to make sure he remembered to put gas in his plane.” Red’s stomach growled, reminding her that a croissant wasn’t enough.
Nedda tilted her head, glancing at Delilah still occupied on the phone. Her lips pursed thoughtfully, brows lifting. She stepped closer to Red and pulled her aside. “We’re taking the fight to them tonight. Get yourself something to eat so your stomach doesn’t give us away. Be useful and fetch Kristoff from the cells on the way.” Nedda waved a dismissive hand at Red, then walked over to Delilah. “Put the supreme on speaker.”
Scowling at the imperially icy tone, Red took a last glance at the two vampiresses before leaving the VIP room. She grabbed another snack from the bar, then headed to the elevator. Munching on a hipster brand of breakfast bar and sipping on a small bottle of mint tea, she descended to the underground parking garage. Her treats were inhaled before she reached the storage room that concealed the hidden entrance to the cell room. Walking inside, she put down her drink to open the fuse box to trigger the secret door.
A muffled scream echoed under the decoy shelf. Harsh panting followed. “Stop!”
Trey.
Pulse kicking up, she hurried to flip the hidden switch that swung the shelf open.
“Get to the parts we don’t know, then.” Kristoff’s growled words slashed through the air like a sword when the secret door burst open.
Red rushed into the hidden jail room, stopping at the edge of the first cell. She covered her mouth with fingers chilled from horror.
Trey slumped over, bound in ropes, chest heaving in a chair in the center of the chamber. His right eye was swollen shut, skin purpled under the smeared eyeliner. Bruises mottled his upper lip and jaw like stubble. The dim ceiling lights and flickering candles created deep shadows on his battered frame. Blood dripped from the corner of his lips. Damp patches and jagged rips marred his dark sweater. A single fabric cat ear remained on the torn hood discarded on the floor.
Fangs nipping at his fingernails, Donal paced in black as if he were already a widower. Blood drops shined on his leather jacket and pants.
Kristoff circled the tied-up human, a glacial expression on his face like an executioner on a scaffold. Bright, fresh blood speckled his bare chest. His muscles tensed under the rough black lines circling his biceps. White fangs gleamed in the light. The tall candelabras and the empty wall manacles reflected off his narrowed blue eyes. He stalked around his victim with the confidence of a king in his castle. This wasn’t the Kristoff playing diplomat or the one holding a camera, this was the real monster behind the visage of civility.
Kristoff raised his head at Red’s entrance. His fangs snapped back into his gums. The dominating demon posture shrank as his shoulders slumped. “Red…”
Red shook her head as if the terrible sight would disappear. It didn’t. Trey had been on their side. He had been her guide to the underground Paisa party. Her feet shifted into a fighting stance. She gestured to the human who looked more like beaten hamburger than a raver. “Why the fuck are you two doing this?”
“He betrayed me,” Donal spat, slamming a meaty hand on Trey’s shoulder. He glared at Red. “He betrayed all of us.”
“Get out of here, Red,” Kristoff warned softly, lifting his stained hands. Dismay flattened his lips. His eyes darted between Donal and Red.
“You’re torturing a man.” Red jabbed at finger at Trey. Anger surged through her toward Kristoff, but more at herself. She stared at Kristoff like he was a stranger, but this was who he had always been. She couldn’t even say he’d lied to her.
Stepping forward, Kristoff tried to reason with her, palms up. “We need to find out how much he told them.”
She backed away from him, nose full of the scent of blood, fixated on the splatters on his bare chest. How could she had let him even touch her? She had been almost thinking of him as a friend. Not as a murderer.
Kristoff flinched as if pained from the fear in her eyes.
Pushing away from Trey, Donal gritted his teeth. “Get on with it. Who cares if she sees? This might be good for her to know what happens when a claimed human betrays their master.”
Heart skipping at his words, Red forced herself to match Donal’s challenging gaze. The light bulb went off in her head. Nedda had set her up, sending her down here. Another vampire power play. Her exhale rattled in her lungs.
“Donal…” Kristoff warned, amber flashing in his irises as he glared at his friend.
“Help me,” Trey begged, slurring through quivering cut lips.
Red stepped forward, hand on her hunter’s kit. Trey might have betrayed them, but sh
e couldn’t let the torture continue. She had cracked Sal with compassion and logic. She could do the same to Trey. Red wanted to tell them this was unnecessary with the new intel, but like an icy wind, she knew they wouldn’t need Trey then. Instead, she said, “Cora wouldn’t like this.”
“She wanted to know how the Dague got the keys to our cells.” Kristoff blocked her from Donal’s view. His gaze pleaded with her to leave. “She won’t care how she learns it in the end.”
Donal paced behind Kristoff, running a shaking hand through his red hair. “This is my claimed human, and she’s not my supreme. She can’t do anything.”
“I’ve told them everything they asked!” Trey sobbed, bowing his head.
“Leave him alone. He’s confessed.” Mouth drying, Red insisted, “You don’t have to do it this way.”
“There is no other way!” Donal shouted at her. He spun to face his former lover. “Trey here wanted immortal life, didn’t you? Got sick of waiting.”
Shaking his head, Kristoff rubbed his forehead. His broad shoulders tensed. Turning on his heel, he growled low. “From the top then.” Stalking to his prisoner, he clasped his hand on the battered man’s shoulder.
“Don’t make a show of it!” Red balled her fist against her hunter’s kit. Her odds of getting Trey out of this room, let alone out of a building filled with Kristoff’s minions, were bleak. She didn’t even know if she could get him out of the chair. Even if she shot her way out, she then had to deal with the Blood Alliance bringing her in for killing a vampire. She already knew what the punishment would be. Violence wouldn’t get Trey out, and Red had a sinking feeling that neither would reason.
“No, you need to know how this traitor hurt your friends.” Kristoff squeezed Trey’s shoulder. “And this treachery to humankind goes back a spell, doesn’t it, Trey? You can skip how you were feeding intel to Michel during the Blood Summit.”
“That long?” Red slumped her shoulders.
Running a stiff hand through his shoulder length red hair, Donal huffed through clenched teeth. “I know!”
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