Between a Vamp and a Hard Place (29 page)

On top of all that? The stupid vampire was a no-show. I shielded the screen of Gemma's phone and peeked at the time: 2:06 a.m. He was supposed to be here at two in the morning, and every minute that ticked past made me that much more anxious. I thought of Rand, completely alone in our room. What if this was all a ploy to get him alone, and I'd fallen for it?

No, I had to be positive. The Dragon didn't know what we were thinking. He didn't know Gemma was helping me. He thought I would be here alone. Why wouldn't he?

The phone in my hand vibrated with an incoming text.

Bogey at six o'clock.

I peeped up, gazing around the old graveyard. Gemma sat in a circle of moonlight, but in the distance, I saw a form moving underneath a tree and sneaking up behind her. It was a man with long, flowing dark curls.

At her seat, Gemma glanced around the graveyard, then returned to typing on her phone, her face lit up from the backlight. She knew he was there but was pretending otherwise.

This was my chance. I palmed a stake, gripping it in my sweaty hand. I could do this. As the vampire moved through the shadows toward Gemma, I crept a few steps behind him, stake in hand. His long hair fluttered as he walked, his hands unnaturally pale in the moonlight. He wore a dark shirt and dark pants but otherwise was nondescript. I hadn't gotten a good look at his face, but it had to be Vlad. Who else would be here late at night, making a beeline for Gemma? Who else would have that long, freaky hair and such pale hands?

I bit my lip and continued to move quietly behind him, readying myself. The moment he bent to touch Gemma, I'd stake his ass.

As I crept up behind him, I heard him inhale deeply. He touched Gemma's shoulder. “I see it is you, little one.”

There was no mistaking that creepster voice, the flat, hollow sound of it, the lack of accent. With an adrenaline rush, I surged forward and plunged my stake into the monster's back. It went in like butter, tearing through clothing and flesh as if they were nothing.

An unholy shriek arose from the creature. He stiffened and staggered a few steps away, even as Gemma leapt off the bench, eyes wide.

The vampire fell to the ground on his stomach. The stake jutted out of his back, slightly off to the side.

“Did you get his heart?” Gemma panted, clutching her chest.

“I don't know!” He wasn't moving, but it didn't exactly look like I'd hit his heart, either. I grabbed another stake out of my boot and rolled the vampire onto his back. His eyes were staring sightlessly up at the sky, his mouth slightly parted. I had a horrible feeling for one moment that I'd staked a normal guy.
Please, please let this be a vampire.
I reached out to touch him.

Ice-cold. Relief shot through me.

His gaze darted to my face, and then he grabbed my hand.

With a yelp, I stuck my second stake into his front, this time through his heart. Gemma smothered her scream behind her hands.

He groaned, shuddered, and lay still.

I looked over at Gemma. “Did we do it?”

“How the fuck should I know?” She threw her hands up. “What's supposed to happen now?”

Something gurgled. I glanced down at the vampire at my feet. Nothing.

“What—”

I held out a hand. “Wait for it.”

We waited. Nothing happened.

I frowned, then remembered. Staking didn't kill anyone. It was the beheading. “I think we need to cut his head off,” I told her, reaching down to grab his hair.

It came off in my hand.

What the heck . . .

I stared down at the limp corpse of the vampire at my feet. His hair underneath the wig was . . . blond?

Hands slowly clapped from behind us. “Bravo,” said a cold, humorless voice. It was familiar, but it wasn't hollow like it was when it normally came out of Rand's mouth. My skin pricking with fear, I turned and faced the newcomer.

This man had short hair. And a goatee. His mustache was thin, his nose long and pointed. He had a massive underbite and prominent eyes. Dark, slashing eyebrows.

And he looked mean as hell. His eyes gleamed that weird vampire green that Rand's sometimes changed to.

And he clapped. Slowly. Mockingly.

I stared down at the vampire at my feet. That wasn't the Dragon. I'd heard his voice, seen the hair, and thought him fooled. But he'd fooled me. He'd sent another vampire in his place. Another vampire wearing a wig, and he'd talked through his mouth.

This was bad.

“Gemma.” I licked dry lips. Clutched the stake in my hand.

“Y-yes?” She stood next to me, utterly frozen.

“Run,” I breathed.

“Oh shit,” Gemma said. She turned and ran—

The vampire moved, a blur of motion in the darkness. Before I could even comprehend what I was seeing, he grabbed Gemma. Her body arced backward, and she flew through the air. Her back smacked into a tombstone in the distance and she lay still, unmoving.

I stared in horror, unable to move. Not that it mattered. A mere second later—
how was the Dragon so fast?
—a cold hand wrapped around my neck. Fingernails dug into my skin. A hard body pressed up against my back, and I gasped as the hand dragged my head backward, extending my throat.

“Do you think me stupid, little one?” Vlad hissed into my ear.

I said nothing. I was too afraid. Fear coursed through me, turning my blood to ice. My heart slammed so loudly that it felt like it would break my ribs.

“I am thousands of years old,” he said, voice turning silky. “Do you think I have not seen every trick in the book? That I cannot predict what you will do?” His fingernails dragged down my throat, leaving welts in their wake. “Do you think I cannot smell an imposter?”

“I had to try something,” I whispered. I was utterly terrified. Was Gemma dead? What had happened to her? Dear God, what was going to happen to me?

He clucked in my ear. “Poor, sweet fool. I imagine you did, didn't you?” Something hard and bony prodded my cheek. His nose. “I can see why Rand is so besotted. Such a pretty package. Sweet, tasty, nubile.”

I shuddered. His voice made my skin prickle.

“And so very determined to keep him safe.” He sniffed me again. “However misguided your actions are, I find them very amusing. And so few things amuse me as of late. I must say, I'm intrigued by you. By all of this.”

I licked my lips, terrified. “Let me go.”

“Since you asked nicely?” he mocked. “But mere moments ago, you were trying to kill me. Would I not be a fool to do as you ask?”

“Please,” I whispered.

“Please what?”

“Please let me go.”

To my surprise, he released me so quickly that I stumbled forward. I caught myself, straightened, and turned to look at him warily.

He gestured at me. “You are released, delicious one. What will you do now?” His eyes gleamed, and I felt suspiciously like a mouse cornered by a cat.

Was he truly letting me go, or was this another trick? What could I do? I couldn't run, that was for sure. He was faster than me, stronger than me, and running wouldn't solve anything.

One of my stakes lay on the ground nearby, and I snatched it up, then held it like a sword.

Vlad took one look at me, then threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you
are
fun.”

“You're an asshole,” I told him. “You should leave Rand alone. Why are you hunting him? What's he done to you?”

“He is a disloyal soldier,” Vlad said, taking a stalking step toward me.

I instinctively moved backward, nearly tripping over a gravestone. I skittered around it, still brandishing the stake. It didn't feel like nearly enough. Why had I thought that I could take down someone like Vlad the freaking Impaler?

“I once had four loyal knights. He's told you this, yes?” Vlad waved a gesture, dismissing this. “Of course he did. He tells you everything, does he not? I am sure he told you about all the times that he rode at my side, slaughtering innocents and burning towns in my name? The warriors he killed by the dozens? The men he impaled on spikes at the gates of their castles as a warning to others?”

I swallowed hard, clutching my too-small stake. “He told me that you controlled his mind! That you sit there like a spider in the back of his head and take over everything.”

Vlad shrugged, the movement fluid as he continued to move toward me. “There is always some sacrifice with immortality, sweet one. They did not ask what my price was. They simply agreed to it.”

“Because they were dying!”

“One might argue that death is not always the worst that can happen to a man, as your Rand might attest.” Vlad's strange mouth curved into a cruel smile as he continued to stalk forward, heading directly for me.

I clutched the stake tighter. I could do this. I could. He just needed to move closer, and then—

The vampire moved forward, motions so quick that I could barely process them. In a flash, he'd batted the stake from my hand and grabbed me by the forearm. He wrenched me forward, eliciting a cry as I felt the bones in my arm crack.

Then he had me by the throat again, tucking my body against his.

“Four loyal knights,” he hissed into my ear, so close that I could feel his lips move against my skin.

I shuddered.

“And one by one, he turned those knights against me with his sad tales. That a life of rampage and war for all eternity was somehow wrong. That what they did was evil.”

“It was evil!”

“Of course it was, you fool.” His hand tightened on my throat, nearly choking me. I wheezed and gasped for breath as he continued. “The others were my vassals because they could not think for themselves. Only Rand was not content. Only Rand would not stop asking questions. He had to be removed.”

“So you had Guy take him out,” I whispered.

“But his poison had already filled their minds,” Vlad mused. “It was too late, and one by one, I have had to dispose of my most skilled soldiers. I like this time period and its luxuries, but it breeds rotten warlords. No one wishes to make war anymore. They want to stay in their safe homes and stare at computer screens and politick. They are worthless.” His fingers glided down my throat. “But occasionally, they also breed lovely creatures such as yourself. Spirited. Loyal. Heedless.” He licked my neck. “And so very delicious. I don't think I've ever tasted your like.” He sniffed my throat. “No wonder Rand prizes you so. Lovely
and
delicious. It is no surprise he was afraid to bring you to me.”

And here I'd disabled him and run straight into Vlad's arms. I squeezed my eyes shut. God, I was stupid. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Eventually,” he said, stroking my throat again. “I imagine feedings will eventually destroy you. But deprive myself of your taste before then? No. Yours will be a long and torturous death, I'm afraid, my lovely little one. I'll drain you dry and suck on your corpse before I'll give you up to death.”

That sounded nightmarish.

“But first,” he said, fingers gliding over my throat, “we're going to use you to lure your misguided lover out of his lair.”

I stilled. I'd drugged Rand and left him alone in the hotel room. Did the Dragon realize that? “He's unavailable right now.”

“Is that so? Because you seem to forget I have a mental connection to him,” Vlad said, and leaned in against my throat.

For a brief, shining moment, I thought he was going to bite me.
Yes!
I thought.
Bite away! Drink all my polluted, holy-water-and-garlic blood!

But he only scraped his teeth over my skin, making me shudder with disgust. “He is awake, he is angry at you, and he is on his way here to confront me and save you.” Vlad tsked.

He was awake? Oh God. He must not have drank enough of my blood. I wanted to ask questions, but then that would let on to Vlad that I'd done something to myself . . .

And there was still a chance he might drink from me.

I needed to hint about it. So I pulled away from his grip, turning my head. In the process, I exposed my neck to him, something that never failed to turn Rand on. “Don't drink from me. I don't want you to put your fangs on me.”

My heart thudded with excitement and hope as Vlad scraped his teeth over my skin again. “I never mix pleasure with business, sweet. You'll simply have to wait.”

Crap! I didn't want to wait. I struggled in his arms for real this time. “Wait for what?”

“Why, for Rand to come and plunge headlong to his fate. The poor, misguided fool is heading straight for his death. I suppose I should thank you for luring him in. I know he was hesitant before because he did not want to leave your side. Now I shall kill two birds with one stone, as you would say. Rand is an accomplished warlord, but he will not dare attack me while I hold you captive, for fear of harming you.”

I closed my eyes, hating myself for screwing this up. I'd just made things worse. Now, Gemma was probably dead, Rand was heading here so Vlad the Impaler could kill him, and I was going to be a vampire sippy cup for the rest of my life. And worst of all? I'd spiked my blood with all kinds of vampire-harming things and Vlad wasn't even going to take a taste.

I'd made such a mess of things.

M
inutes ticked past like hours, the chill of the night making my teeth chatter as we waited. Tears streaked my face, despite my stubborn determination not to cry. I sat on the ground, my jeans damp from the soil beneath me. The Dragon sat on the park bench next to me, one long-fingered hand carefully curled around my throat. A pile of dust sat at our feet, the remnants of the Dragon's failed soldier. He had no need for weaklings in his army, he'd told me, and beheaded the man even as he slept on, unaware.

Cold bastard. I supposed I should have been relieved that it was one less vampire in the world, but all I could think of was Rand, waiting in his coffin for six hundred years.