Black Heart: Wild On (11 page)

            "Son of a bitch, he left it open," I said. Dane didn't close the door. I didn't hesitate, and vaulted over the side. My wings sprouted and went straight out to the sides, slowing my descent considerably. The impact wouldn't bother my feet and legs, but I preferred a controlled landing. "Maybe Dane isn't as dumb as I thought."

            Desire, need, and lust were flowing out the door in waves. I recognized Antoinette's power. She was using it to fire up the crowd, to make them wild with desire and lust. Did she do it on purpose? Or was that part of her curse, to forever drive everyone around her crazy with lust? I wouldn't put it past Valerie to pay her to incite the crowd like that. Most likely it just amused Antoinette to control everyone like that, to cause chaos.

            Under her power, men and women would all be pairing off. They wouldn't be overly concerned with coupling with their mates, either. Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives were of no consequence when under Antoinette's heady spell.

            Antoinette didn't care if she broke up families, tore apart budding relationships. She thought everyone should screw everyone else. Destroying lives was just the icing on the cake.

            I held my breath before I strode into the Ruby Necklace and looked around. The back hallway hadn't changed. The walls were painted black, the ten doors red. There were five privacy rooms to a side, with the stairs straight ahead. Four of the ten rooms were occupied. I could hear the kitchen behind those stairs. But there wasn’t a door into the kitchen.

            "How did he get through to the kitchen?" I said, and went back out into the alley. And there it was. The kitchen door, nice and tightly shut. Locked. I scowled at it. Okay, I was pissed at Dane again. So I went back into the privacy room area. "I guess I don't have a choice."

            Heading up the stairs, I tried to figure out how best to deal with Antoinette. Her power was messing with my body and mind, despite holding my breath. Her power had nothing to do with smell, though her pheromones did seem more potent to me. By holding my breath I was trying to stop the added affect of everyone else's pheromones from taking me down. I could fight off Antoinette's power, if prepared, but I couldn't resist the combination of her power and everyone else's needs and lusts.

            I marched up the stairs to the VIP Lounge. There was more staff on hand than the last time I visited. The male waiters were all different, but I recognized a few of the females. They were all still dressed like strippers, with both men and women topless, wearing those white collars and wrist cuffs like Playboy bunnies or Chippendale dancers. Beside the collars and cuffs, the women wore only black leather thongs and stiletto pumps, and the men wore painted-on black spandex pants. I counted ten men and ten women on the wait staff.

            The VIP area was full. I didn't recognize many of the vampires outside of Antoinette LaRue and her vamp family. She was sprawled on the couch dead center. I was very pleased to see that Boney was not there, but Angelique de Saussay attended her. Also, both Giorgi Sisters were there, the witch Lorelei, and the vampire Lolita.

            Antoinette looked spectacular in a strapless, form-fitting black evening gown. Her shimmering brown hair flowed down across her milky shoulders in silken waves down to the middle of her back. Everything about her was perfect: hair, makeup, diamond jewelry, manicure. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, if not the most beautiful in the world. That gorgeous.

            It was hard to believe something that beautiful had such a foul nature. She was a woman that took great delight in subjugating others, especially women. Boney swore she was in the prostitution business for the sheer pleasure she got from forcing others to debase and demean themselves. She was a billionaire, and didn't need the few millions she earned off prostitution each year.

            With Antoinette were three of the women she'd subjugated: Angelique, Lorelei, and Lolita. Foremost among them was Angelique, also a French woman, she was a prostitute that Clive Honeywell Changed and kept as a consort. She was one hundred and fifty-six years old, looked thirty, but possessed almost no vampiric powers outside of morphing into a bat or wolf, and I only assumed she could do that since I’d never seen her morph.

            Lolita Giorgi was a fifty-one year old vampire, but looked twenty-five since she was Changed at that age. Her older sister, Lorelei, was fifty-five, but looked a mere sixteen. Lorelei was the witch of the two sisters. Both were tall and athletic, with brown hair and brown eyes. Since being captured by Antoinette, they'd gone through a transformation. Lorelei was now Antoinette's loyal and devoted witch, and Lolita was a call girl.

            All three women were dressed in a similar theme that I suspected was more Antoinette than their own fashion tastes. Angelique adored dressing in latex and leather, but the Giorgi sisters never did. Tonight, though, all three were in full red and black latex, with matching red thigh boots. Not exactly dominatrix outfits, but highly sexual nonetheless.

            I actually felt sorry for them, though all were my sworn enemies. Amazingly they didn’t look overly affected by the sensual power radiating from their mistress, rather all three stood behind Antoinette’s couch and looked bored witless. I wished I knew how they could ignore that power, because it bedeviled my libido something awful, and one grew tired of biting one’s very sensitive tongue rather quickly.

            Using my vampiric link to Dane, my eyes zeroed in on him down in the dance area. I sensed he was highly aroused, but managing to maintain control of his senses. He was feeling some pain in the lips and tongue, and I realized he was doing what I did to fight off Antoinette's power. Dane was biting his tongue and lips hard enough to draw blood. I healed right away, he did not.

           
Good for you
, I thought.

            I could heal his injuries later. It was good to be a vampire, some times. Knowing he was relatively safe helped me to concentrate of the problem before me. There was no getting around Antoinette undetected.

            "So, Antoinette, is Valerie letting you play Queen of the Carnival?" I said. I looked her three surprised minions over contemptuously. I know, not the brightest ploy but I was short of ideas. "I see you have the latex clowns all lined up and ready."

            Angelique barely took the effort to glance over her shoulder. Lolita and Lorelei both cast hateful looks at me. They were both captured and subjugated while tangling with me, so I'm sure they blamed me for their downfall. People like that never accept the blame for their own actions.

            Antoinette slanted a sultry look at me, then turned away and surveyed the crowd below. It was rather dismissive. I kept walking slowly, ready to move in any direction in half a heartbeat. Angelique wasn’t a fighter, but both Lorelei and Lolita were quite willing to leap feet first into a fight.

            I noticed something down below, at the edge of the dance floor. Mercedes was walking around, sniffing the air. Was she after Dane? Could she find him like that in human form? The woman seemed obsessed with him.

            "Boney warned me you were rather impetuous," Antoinette said, reclaiming my attention. "Are you here to stake me?"

            The idea seemed to amuse her.

            "Not yet," I said, emphasis on "yet." I smiled at Lorelei when she bristled. "But actually, I’m working on something else. I have questions and information you might find useful."

            "Really? What could you possibly know that I would find useful?"

            "Timothy Saxon has been kidnapped," I said, pausing and giving her a meaningful look. Antoinette perked up, her blue eyes suddenly intense on me. I waggled my eyebrows smugly at her, then continued my slow strut. "Your surprise tells me that Jeff Howell failed to warn you, too. Well, it looks like a group of vampires are trying to recruit him. You know Timmy, don’t you? They took him away from his family, and I’ve been hired to find him before they Change him. Would you know of anyone that might want to recruit one of your accountants?"

            I rounded the couch. She looked me up and down, but then her eye locked on mine and grew more intense. I really wanted to see what was going on downstairs, but couldn't allow myself to be distracted so close to Antoinette.

            "Jeff knows? When did he know?"

            Oh, she was so suspicious. She had good reason to be suspicious. Antoinette preyed ruthlessly on other vampires, and understood better than most the consequences of losing those unholy battles. The best I could figure she was the biggest dog in town, with lots of slightly smaller dogs nipping at her heels.

            "I told him yesterday evening, but he seemed more concerned with trying to capture me and give me to Valerie St. Clair," I said. I grinned roguishly. Then I glanced around, pretending I was checking to see if the other vampires in the VIP area were listening. They were, but I looked the downstairs over. Mercedes was closing on Dane, who seemed unaware of the danger. I turned back to Antoinette, making my sapphire eyes flash to cover my concern. "I threw Jeff through a wall, and tore all his little friends new assholes before I left. Oh, and I blew up his limo."

            They all stared at me. I shrugged and stepped in closer to Antoinette. I had to wrap it up with Antoinette and get downstairs.

            "He didn’t call you?" I said. "Hmm, well he didn’t seem that concerned, either. I wonder if he could be the one who grabbed Timmy Saxon? I’ll have to look into that."

            Antoinette’s eyes clouded as she looked inward. I fought the urge to smile. There’s nothing I’d love to see more than my two most dangerous foes fighting each other.

            "So, you don't know anything about Timmy's disappearance?" I said.

            "Of course not," Antoinette said, reaching down into her purse and pulling out her phone. "That'll be all, Sable."

            Lolita, Lorelei, and Angelique came around both ends of the couch. They forced me backwards, away from their undead mistress as Antoinette began calling her people. More damage control. That's all any of the vampires cared about.

            Angelique stopped near Antoinette's head and glared at me. Guess she hadn't forgiven me for chopping off her sister's head. But if any undead fiend deserved to be killed the rest of the way, it was Dominique.

            "You made a big mistake coming here," Lorelei said. She was wearing a red latex halter dress, with an odd black "jacket" over it that laced up the long sleeves and had a big cutout over her boobs. It had three buckles: one at the throat, two across her belly. Garters hung off the hem, holding up red stockings that came out above her red thigh boots.

            "Major big mistake," her sister Lolita said. She wore a shiny red latex bustier dress, with red-patent thigh boots.

            Lorelei began to chant something low under her breath. The ruby ring on the witch's right middle finger began to glow. She was bound to a demon for her magic, which made her a black witch. White witches channeled angel magic.

            Lolita moved opposite her sister. Those two always ganged up on me. So I seized a waitress passing too close. She was a perky little brunette with bangs and big silicone boobs. The waitress couldn't have been over five two, so she was easy to lift and throw. And I threw her straight into Lorelei, ending her spellcasting.

            "Bitch!" Lolita screamed, and attacked.

            The dark-haired vamp had a couple decades on me as a vampire, so she was probably faster, definitely physically stronger and had been in many more fights than I ever dreamed of engaging in. But I had martial arts training.

            Lolita threw a wild right cross at my face. My left forearm blocked, and I straight finger thrust my right hand into her throat. Vampires don't have to breathe, but when I crushed her windpipe she stopped to cough and gag and clutch at her throat. I kicked her in the belly, doubling her up. Another kick to the back of the legs sent her crashing to her knees. Then I seized her chin and the back of her head, and snapped her neck.

            "That felt good," I said, grinning at Lorelei as she staggered to her feet. Antoinette only gave an annoyed glance at Lolita. "You're still mortal, witch. Your sister will survive the broken neck, you wouldn't." I could smell the fear oozing out of her pores. "If you mess with me anymore, I'll rip your head off."

            The Giorgi Girls did very bad things to me once, and came way too close to killing Desiree. I kinda hoped she'd push me too far.

            "Leave them alone," Antoinette commanded.

            I glanced over at her, and she caught my eye. A wave of pure sensual power hit me. Yeah, I staggered back a step. Maybe three. It was enough that I forgot the VIP Lounge was multileveled, and I fell backwards to the next level.

            "Hello, Sable," Mercedes said, standing over me with four of her wolves to either side.

            "Isn't this area only for vampires?" I said. "And their fang whores. Does that make you a fang whore?"

            "Oh, yes, I love to be bitten," she said. "But that's not why I'm allowed up."

            I cast out with my vampiric senses. Gabe was fine, though a little agitated I wasn't there yet. Dane was fine, too. He was highly aroused, though. Not having sex. Yet. It occurred to me it was closing on midnight, and I had to find him before that. We just had to be kissing at midnight. I was a little superstitious in that area.

            Rising to my feet as gracefully as possible, I noticed her attending wolves watched me with growing lust. Antoinette's erotic power was doing a number on them, as well as me. I started to sink my fangs into my tongue, when one of the wolves reached out and stroked my hair.

            "Oh," I gasped, surprised.

            Our eyes locked, suddenly I was hyper horny. That could've happened without Antoinette's interference, but with her power overwhelming my senses it made it nearly impossible to avoid.