3
AN HOUR LATER, DECLAN
HADN’T RETURNED. IT GAVE me way too much time to worry about what
had happened.
It was like a
stranger had been looking out at me through his eyes. While he and
I didn’t exactly have a long history together or, for that matter,
anything in common apart from our current on-the-run predicament,
we had an understanding, both spoken and unspoken.
He’d chosen to leave
the government-funded research compound to accompany me. To protect
me. To ... be with me.
A lot of money had
been spent developing Nightshade. The person who’d created it
hadn’t left any written notes behind; the formula was entirely in
his head.
I shivered and pulled
my thin sweater closer to me as I sat on the edge of the bed
staring at the door of the motel room, waiting for it to
open.
It was my blood that
had set him off. Declan was affected by it—his vampire side was. My
blood wouldn’t kill a dhampyr, but it would weaken him—we learned
that lesson when a scientist we’d gone to for help had used it
against Declan to try to kill him. The scent, however, now
triggered his bloodlust.
It might be true that
he was an assassin who’d killed countless vampires in his life, but
he would never deliberately hurt me. Once I’d gotten used to him
and his fearsome appearance, I knew this for a fact. I felt safe
with him.
However, I hadn’t
felt very safe an hour ago. I’d felt scared to death—for him and
for myself.
I paced back and
forth in the small motel room between the bathroom and the window,
so many times that I practically wore a line in the carpet. I went
to the window and peered outside at the dark and nearly deserted
parking lot, a million questions racing through my mind. Where had
he gone? Was he okay? Was this—whatever it was—going to wear off?
Get worse? Hurt him?
I tried to think
about something else because this was eating me up inside. My mind
wandered back to being at the bar and reading the newspaper. My
picture, my sister’s plea for help. She had no idea what had
happened to me that day—a day that was still crystal clear in my
memory.
I remembered the
chemist—the parachemist, since he dealt
in formulas meant for preternatural uses—who’d grabbed me and put
me between him and Declan. Declan wanted the prototype formula he’d
had. It was only in its initial stages. One sample. And it had been
injected into me.
My sister knew
nothing about this. She might have seen some security camera
footage of the hostage situation, the standoff between Anderson and
Declan, but she’d have no idea how it had turned out. Just a
fleeting image of me running away and being pursued by a large,
scary-looking man with a gun who’d just shot someone in the head
and left his dead body bleeding on the lobby floor.
With a shaking hand,
I picked up the motel phone and held it to my ear. I pecked out the
numbers and waited as the phone rang once, twice, three times.
Voice mail picked up and the familiar sound of Cathy’s voice
brought the sting of tears to my eyes.
She lived here in Los
Angeles. From where this motel was, her house was only about ten
miles away. Despite speaking to her weekly on the phone and sending
tons of emails, I hadn’t seen her or my nieces since Easter when
I’d stayed at her house for the weekend. I missed her so
much.
I opened my mouth to
say something after the beep, but pressed my lips together. The
silence stretched like bitter taffy until I lost my nerve and hung
up. This wasn’t the time. And it wasn’t fair to just leave her a
message that explained nothing.
The moment this was
all over—if I found my way out of this mess—when I finally saw my
sister, I swore I’d never leave again.
I leaned back on the
bed, trying to ignore the huge rips in the mattress from Declan’s
violent burst of rage. A bare spring poked into my
back.
The next moment I sat
bolt upright when someone knocked on the door. Declan wouldn’t
knock. And no one else knew we were here.
Heart racing, I
slipped off the bed as quietly as I could and went to the window to
glance outside. I gasped. Matthias stood outside the door with his
hand pressed against it, a half smile on his face.
“Jillian—” The eerie
singsong way he said my name carried easily through the thin door.
“I know you’re in there. Your blood . . . it calls to me even from
a distance.”
Cold sweat slid down
my spine.
He could smell me. It
was a chilling thought. I guess I couldn’t exactly pretend that no
one was home. However, I wasn’t about to swing the door wide open
and roll out the welcome mat. The memory of what he’d done to me
the last time we were alone spiraled in my head.
I hated this
guy.
The erotic dreams I’d
had about him since he’d disappeared in a fiery burst of ash were
meaningless. I couldn’t control what my unconscious came up
with.
“What the hell do you
want?” I didn’t bother to raise my voice since I knew he’d hear me
anyway.
“Let me
in.”
“No,
thanks.”
He sighed. “Open the
door, Jillian.”
My hand curled into a
tight fist at my side. “Why are you here?”
“To see
you.”
“You saw me
earlier.”
“Only for a
moment.”
My shoulders tensed.
“Declan will be back any minute.”
His pale eyes moved
to where I peeked through the window and locked with mine. “Then we
best hurry this up. I get the distinct impression he doesn’t like
me very much.”
He was so
insightful.
I shook my head. “Not
a good idea.”
“I’m not planning on
ravishing you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He looked way too
amused by my protests. “I’ve brought you something.”
My guard was up.
“What?”
He pulled a small
leather case out of the pocket of his black pants. “Noah tells me
you’ll need this soon. It’s a vial of fusing potion.”
My attention narrowed
skeptically on the case. “Why didn’t he bring it
himself?”
“He doesn’t know
where you are.”
“But you
do.”
He shrugged. “I
followed you.”
“From the bar.” My
fingernails dug sharply into my palms.
“Yes.”
“So that means you’ve
been lurking around here for more than an hour.”
“Lurking makes it sound rather vile, Jillian. I was
waiting for the right time to visit you.”
My stomach churned.
The curtains hadn’t been drawn earlier. If he’d been spying on me
and Declan when—
Well, he would have
gotten an eyeful. My face grew warm with embarrassment, which led
directly into a fresh burst of anger. I went to the door and opened
it a crack so I could glare out at him and his smug expression.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I thought we already
discussed this.” He put his hand on the door and pushed it open
farther while I tried to stop him. He was strong. I wasn’t. He
won.
His gaze swept the
small room in an instant, resting on the shamble of a wall and
torn-up mattress. His attention returned to me and he raised an
eyebrow. “Having some fun to pass the time?”
I tried to keep a lid
on my anger and eyed the case he held. “How do I know that’s the
real thing?”
“You don’t trust
me?”
“Sorry,
no.”
“It’s real. I mean
you no harm, Jillian, whether or not you believe me.”
I studied him for a
moment, but couldn’t read his intentions. Finally I held out my
hand. “Okay. Thank you for bringing it to me.”
He hesitated a moment
before handing over the case. I was surprised he did so without
further argument. I noticed there were dark circles under his eyes
as if he hadn’t slept in days.
“Feeling okay?” I
asked.
“Who
me?”
“No, the dethroned
vampire king standing behind you.”
His lips stretched
over white teeth until I could see the sharp tips of his fangs. In
the movies sometimes they were able to retract like a switchblade,
but in real life they were always there, sharp and ready to pierce
their next victim’s flesh.
“I’m feeling fine.
Although, I must admit, being this close to you still fills me with
a difficult to resist need even knowing about your very powerful
blood. It’s interesting to me.”
Unease continued to
flicker inside me. “I guess I should be extra careful around you
now. You could come back for second helpings now that you know my
blood won’t kill you.”
Something unpleasant
slid behind his eyes then, but I wasn’t sure what it was. “Maybe
you shouldn’t have opened your door to me.”
“If I hadn’t, you
could have broken it down. Vampires don’t need an invite inside
people’s motel rooms. Do you?”
“No, we
don’t.”
He didn’t look so
well. I hadn’t noticed it at the bar earlier, I’d been too shocked
at seeing him walking and talking that I hadn’t paid close
attention. But he looked very pale, thinner than before, and those
dark circles seemed strange to me, although I wasn’t sure why. If
he was human, I’d say he looked sick.
“What do you want,
Matthias?”
“You know what I
want.”
“I’m not inviting you
in here with me.”
His gaze flicked to
the destroyed mattress. “I’m not asking you to.”
“Then—”
“I saw your picture
in the newspaper today. Your sister is worried about you. I’m
surprised you haven’t contacted her yet.”
I swallowed. “It’s
not the right time.”
“Your little nieces
will wonder where their aunt has disappeared to.” He grinned at my
look of shock. “Not hard to find out information when you have a
name and a city.”
“Leave them
alone.”
“I wouldn’t dream of
bothering them. I simply wanted to learn more about
you.”
My face felt tight. I
didn’t like him knowing about my sister and nieces. It felt too
personal. “There’s really not much to know.”
“Where’s my daughter,
Jillian?” Again the amusement on his face disappeared and he was
all business.
A breath caught in my
chest. “I don’t know. Don’t you believe me?”
“Look at
me.”
I was tired and
unprepared to deal with him tonight. The moment I looked into his
eyes he captured me there immediately. It was like being instantly
hypnotized. All of my fear and apprehension and anger disappeared
completely. A warm and pleasant sensation flowed over my skin and I
found I couldn’t look away.
He leaned against the
doorframe. “That’s much better.”
“Damn you, Matthias.”
It sounded much more conversational than angry now.
“I know you don’t
like it when I do this.”
“You’re right, I
don’t.”
“It can’t be
helped.”
“It’s
cheating.”
“There are other
methods I’ve used to get someone to talk. Believe me, this is much
less painful for you.”
He drew closer, and I
didn’t attempt to step back. I couldn’t move and at the moment I
was perfectly fine with that. He’d influenced me to be calm and I
was calm, even face-to-face with the vampire who’d told me he’d
personally ripped the hearts of traitors out of their chests. Side
by side, he didn’t look as dangerous as Declan. But he
was.
“Where is she?” he
asked evenly.
“I don’t
know.”
“Declan took her
somewhere and didn’t tell you where.”
“That’s right.” I now
understood all too well why Declan hadn’t told me anything about
this. It was because my mind was too easily influenced. I would
have blurted out her location to Matthias already if I’d known the
truth. “But Sara’s safe. I know she is.”
His pale brows drew
together. “Sara?”
“Yes.”
“You named my
daughter?”
I nodded slowly,
studying his face, which looked so tired it made me think he hadn’t
slept much in the past week. “Sara means princess. I thought it was
a suitable name for a vampire princess.”
“Half-vampire.”
His eyes were the
same pale gray as every vampire’s. A dhampyr’s were a couple shades
darker, but still colorless. I wondered what color Matthias’s eyes
had been when he was human.
“Jillian,” he said
sharply, drawing me a little out of my trance.
“You—you can name her
something else, of course. I just wanted to call her something
other than baby.”
“Sara’s a fine name.”
He studied me closely for a moment, then stroked a line down the
side of my face, over my throat where the fang marks were. I leaned
against his cool touch, enjoying it more than I wanted to. “Did you
miss me when I was gone, Jillian?”
It felt as if I was
floating in warm water. “Yes.”
He smiled at that
answer.
I hadn’t meant to say
that. I’d felt badly that I’d been to blame for his death—or my
blood had been, anyway. But as far as him being gone after all the
trouble he’d caused . . .
I hadn’t missed him. I didn’t even like
him.
“Are you working with
Declan to destroy me now that you know I’m still alive?” He took my
chin firmly between his cool fingers so he could hold my
gaze.
“No.”
“And your blood—Noah
doesn’t know where all this
will lead. Do you
think you’re going to die from the poison in your
veins?”
“Yes, I’m dying.” I
couldn’t lie even if I wanted to.
His expression was as
unreadable as Declan’s usually was. “How long do you think you have
left?”
“When the fusing
potion wears off I don’t think I’ll survive it. I might mentally be
able to handle the pain, but I don’t think my body can. It’s going
to give out. I figure I have a couple of weeks. If that.” My throat
felt thick as I spoke about my own death sentence. I tried not to
think about it much, but it was the truth.
“How does the dhampyr
feel about that?”
“He doesn’t like to
talk about it.”
“He hurt you.” His
gaze moved to my throat that showed fresh bruises from Declan’s
crushing grip on me earlier. “Do you want to leave
him?”
“No.”
“He’s dangerous. And
he’ll only become more dangerous.”
I shook my head. “The
scent of my blood triggered something bad in him earlier, but it
wasn’t his fault.”
His lips pressed
together. “What happened has little to do with your
blood.”
“You’re wrong. My
blood sparked the violence in Declan. He would never hurt
me.”
He smiled
humorlessly. “Don’t be so sure about that. He’s a dhampyr, and
because of that he’s automatically a threat to anyone who gets too
close to him.” He hissed out a breath. “There’s no time to worry
about these peripheral issues right now. My questions have been
answered. Good night, Jillian.”
He stepped back, and
his mental influence over me vanished and the calm I’d felt
disappeared like an icy wash of water had been thrown at me. Anger
at having him mess with my mind shot forth.
“Wait.” I grabbed his
arm before he walked away. “Declan isn’t a threat. It’s my blood
and his serum that’s messing him up, it’s not him.”
He eyed me. “You’ve
seen other dhampyrs, haven’t you? The other kind?”
Just the mention of
them sent a shiver through me. Declan was a very rare kind of
dhampyr. The more common ones were hunched-over monsters that
weren’t capable of human reasoning or thought. They were more
savage than a pure vampire and once they got the taste of blood,
they were completely deadly. It was the reason that most human
women who became pregnant by a vampire got an abortion. If they
didn’t and they bore a monster dhamp, they never survived the
birth. The dhampyr clawed its way out of its mother’s womb, ready
to feed on her before it moved on.
“Declan’s nothing
like that,” I said under my breath.
“For now.” Matthias
turned and began walking away, throwing a glance at me over his
shoulder. “Just be careful with him or your two-week estimate for
living may be drastically reduced.”
I followed him out
into the deserted parking lot, drawing my sweater closer to me,
chilled despite the hot night. “What are you talking
about?”
His gaze swept me.
“The dhampyr is dangerous. I sensed something earlier at the bar
from him. It was one of the reasons I followed you immediately. He
is ... close to the edge of his control. And I was
right.”
“You were spying on
us earlier, weren’t you?”
He didn’t flinch at
the accusation. “You once accused me of being violent toward women.
I hope by now you see that’s not true.”
“I saw you kill a
woman.”
“A traitor who meant
to kill me and was conspiring behind my back.”
I couldn’t argue with
that. “Declan is a good man.”
“But he scares you,
doesn’t he?”
I looked up at him.
“You scare me more.”
His lips curled.
“Your loyalty to him is admirable. But that”—he nodded toward the
motel room—“is just the beginning of the troubles you’ll have with
him. All dhampyrs descend into violence or insanity at his age. I
know the original drugs he took curbed this, but that’s the past
and what happened earlier is what the future holds.”
I didn’t want to
believe what he was telling me. It was my blood. It was the new
serum that was messing him up. This wasn’t anything other than
that.
But what if Matthias
was right?
“So what am I
supposed to do?” I whispered.
“Leave
him.”
I shook my head.
“There has to be another way.”
His jaw clenched.
“This wasn’t my purpose in coming here tonight. What happens with
that vampire hunter is not my concern.”
Something in the way
he said it made my breath catch. “There is a way to help him, isn’t
there? And you know what it is.”
“Yes, there is a way.
The only way. But you won’t like it very much.”
“What is
it?”
He studied me for a
moment. “Why would I tell you?”
“Because I—I’m asking
you nicely.”
He laughed out loud
at that. “Jillian, I don’t think you’re capable of asking for
anything nicely.” I could have sworn I saw some irritation and
impatience in his gaze before his expression softened a fraction.
“Find out where my daughter is being kept and I will tell you how
to save your dhampyr lover. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Matthias, wait!” I
chased after him as he began walking away again. Suddenly, he
turned and grabbed me hard, dragging me backward. I shrieked out
loud.
“Someone’s here.” He
pulled me around the corner of the motel before releasing me. “Go
back to your room. Don’t come out or they’ll be able to smell
you.”
Before I could ask
another question he stalked back around to the empty parking lot.
He was twenty feet away from me when I saw the dark shadows of
three men stretch across the pavement.
I pressed back
against the wall, but I didn’t leave. Not yet. I needed to know who
they were and what they wanted. Maybe they were after Declan and
me. He’d said they could smell me, so that meant they were
vampires.
It was the small man
wearing glasses and a three-piece suit, flanked by two larger ones,
who spoke first. “Your majesty.”
“Meyers.” Matthias’s
back was to me. He stood as if blocking my location. “How did you
find me?”
He didn’t sound
totally surprised to see these people. His voice was curt and
lacked friendliness. This wasn’t a welcome visit.
Meyers ignored the
question. “We’ve come for the key, your majesty. It’s
time.”
The line of
Matthias’s back stiffened. “You were a loyal blood servant to me. I
trusted you above all the others.”
“The key, your
majesty.”
“Twenty years. I was
about to finally sire you, give you eternal life. And this is what
you do? Betray me along with all the others?”
There was some strain
visible in Meyers’s face. He removed his glasses and cleaned them
on the corner of his shirt before putting them back on. “I have no
choice.”
“Kristoff cannot be
released. I locked him away with very good reason. You know
this.”
“Kristoff will be
awakened and returned to the throne that you stole from him. Your
majesty, it’s always been a matter of time before this day would
come. You must have seen that.” Meyers scanned the area. “The woman
is here, isn’t she? The one rumored to have poisonous
blood.”
“She’s not
here.”
“No one understands
why you’d continue to protect someone like her. It only alienates
you more from your former subjects. They demand that Kristoff
permanently take your place. You will never be king
again.”
“Don’t be so sure
about that.”
Meyers smiled. “Your
optimism is admirable, if unwise. There’s no other way this will
go. It’s too late to make amends. And your dealings with the woman
is only another sign of your growing weakness.”
“Meyers,” Matthias
said evenly. “You said yourself this woman is likely a rumor. Very
few claim to have seen her. It’s merely a myth created to unsettle
us by a group of human hunters—a ruse to shake confidence in my
ability to rule. She doesn’t exist.”
Meyers flicked his
chin at his two hulking companions. “Hold him in
place.”
They moved so quickly
I could barely follow it, each grabbing one of Matthias’s arms. My
fingers dug into the brick. I expected him to slough them off
easily, to pound them into the ground. I knew he was strong and
dangerous and I’d seen him kill several people without a moment’s
hesitation.
But he
didn’t.
Meyers produced a
knife and brought it up to Matthias’s throat. “I only know where
you keep the key because you told me yourself.”
“Consider my
confidence in you now at an end.”
“I don’t enjoy this,
your majesty. Don’t think I do.”
I didn’t understand
why he wasn’t making mincemeat of these people. What the hell was
he waiting for? This wasn’t right.
“Why do you need the
key?” Matthias said. “You’re one of the few who knows where he’s
being kept. You can just break in and let him out.”
Meyers smiled.
“Breaking the lock will cause the room Kristoff is being kept in to
be destroyed, including those who attempt to release him. There are
no secrets, Matthias. I know all, and I’ll use my knowledge to free
the rightful king. His gratitude to me will be
endless.”
“You have no idea
what monster you’ll be unleashing upon the world,” Matthias
growled.
“Quiet him,” Meyers
instructed.
One of the thugs
plowed his fist into Matthias’s gut, then drove an uppercut into
his jaw. Matthias spat blood and snarled at him like a cornered
wild animal.
Meyers walked a slow
circle around the vampire king. “There was a rumor you’d been
weakened from drinking some of the Nightshade-tainted blood when
you had the woman in your bedroom before you disappeared. Your
weakness tonight proves it’s true.”
Matthias clenched his
teeth. “I’m just having an off night.”
The rumor that he’d
drunk my blood was true. The rumor that it had been in his bedroom
was not. I looked around frantically for someone to help, someone
other than me to witness this, but there was no one
around.
“You should have
sired me years ago,” Meyers said. “Maybe then my loyalties wouldn’t
have shifted.”
Matthias jerked his
chin at the vampires who held him in place. “Why don’t you get one
of your new friends to sire you?”
“I wanted the blood
of a king so I’d be stronger than the others. And I’ll get it. But
first, I need that key.” Meyers sliced the knife down the front of
Matthias’s shirt, splitting it open, then pushed the thin material
down over the vampire king’s shoulders so his pale chest and
abdomen were bared.
“How did you find me,
Meyers? You didn’t answer my question earlier.”
“There’s a tracking
device I had placed under your skin by one of your more amorous
consorts six months ago. Perhaps you thought she only scored your
back with her sharp fingernails in a moment of passion. For a
random whore she was very adept at her job, don’t you
think?”
“Brilliant,
actually.” The blood from Matthias’s mouth trickled down over his
chin.
“I thought so.”
Meyers pursed his thin lips. “I do apologize for betraying you in
this fashion. But once you were deposed, my loyalties to you were
no longer part of my job requirement. I’ll be loyal to Kristoff.
Hopefully he’ll acknowledge this by not making me wait twenty more
years before he sires me.”
“Or he’ll just tear
off your head and drink his fill to regain his strength. I wouldn’t
stand too close when you awaken him.”
Meyers’s mouth
twitched. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“My brother is a
sociopath. His passion is pain and making others—human and vampire
alike—suffer. It’s Pandora’s box you’re playing with—you don’t know
what horrors will emerge when you open it.”
Meyers smiled.
“What’s life without a little risk?”
Without another word
exchanged, he sliced the knife deeply into Matthias’s stomach,
cutting upward, and then plunged his hand inside the gaping
wound.