Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (30 page)

“So much for the great escape.” Colleen sagged against one wall, between two sets of shelves. “You think this is it? Their hideout?”

After a moment’s consideration Jeremy said, “No. Banks are too accessible. They need to hide a bunch of bats and maybe a dozen humans. We were taken during daylight. I think this is a holding cell. I’ll bet they move us after dark, after the vampires wake up.”

“Wallace can find us, right?”

“He could if he was still in the area.” Jeremy banged his fist on the door. “I told him we should have gone with him.”

Where was Wallace now? Still up in Sacramento, or on his way home? He’d have no clue as to what had happened to them. He might be dead already. Colleen shut her eyes and delved deep into her mind. She was psychic. They shared a connection. It always worked in the movies.

Not in this case, however. Darn real life. It had a nasty habit of letting people down.

Colleen pushed away from the wall. She was pleased to discover she could stand without wobbling. “Okay, so they’ll be coming for us. What do we do? I don’t see any stakes lying around.”

“If we’re lucky, it’ll only be one or two. I can handle one or two. I’ve got a few ideas.”

The door creaked and started to move.

Instantly, Jeremy and Colleen leaped away from the door and toward each other. They backed up about fifteen feet and watched the door swing open.

Hopes of an easy escape died with the six vampires who crowded into the vault. Colleen didn’t recognize any by features, but their movements and their attitudes were chillingly familiar. They, or their kin, had come to the Woods and the Waters at night to drink from their brides and acquaint themselves with their future brides. All six looked at Colleen as those others had long ago, with bodies in a semi-crouch and hunger in their eyes.

She shrank against Jeremy and screamed for Wallace in her head. Just for an instant, she thought she made contact. He was rocketing his rented van down the highway at a dangerous speed, headed in their direction. Her mind saw his eyes flash red and heard his vicious oath.

A seventh vampire entered the vault, shattering Colleen’s desperate daydreams. This one was female, a leggy, brown-eyed blonde in a halter top and cutoffs. Their guards parted to allow her access then closed ranks behind her. She looked to be no more than twenty-five. Colleen knew that had to be a lie. She carried herself with an arrogance that spoke of an existence far longer than two decades. If she meant her smile to be disarming, her predator’s fangs wrecked the look.

“Colleen,” she said. “Finally. We really had to hunt for you, you naughty girl.” She undulated forward but stopped a good four feet away and mercifully made no attempt to touch her. She sniffed at Colleen instead. Her satisfied growl sent a shudder down Colleen’s spine. Colleen crowded closer to Jeremy.

“You don’t remember me, do you? No, I guess not. I wasn’t around that long. Maybe you weren’t even born yet. It’s hard to remember sometimes.” The vampiress shrugged it off. “Still got the psychic thing going on? That’s good. You were the strongest of the lot.” She smiled in a sham of friendliness. “I’m going to help you reach your full potential. We’re going to have so much fun. We’ll be just like sisters.” She reached out.

Jeremy set himself between them. The vampiress blinked, as if only now noticing him. “Aren’t you gallant. And pretty. You’re the Tin Man’s bat bitch, aren’t you? I’m sure we can find a use for you, too.” Her voice dropped to a jaguar’s purr as she looked him up and down. “All sorts of uses.”

Jeremy said nothing. Colleen clutched his arm. Her psychic prickle hit a burst of power wafting off the she-bat like heat waves. Like pheromones. Vampire allure. The blonde sent her attraction washing over Jeremy with a force that made Colleen sick to her stomach. Jeremy just half smiled down at her, still without a word.

The vampiress literally staggered back from the blunt rejection. Her eyes went scarlet. Dropping any pretense at good will, she snarled openly at them both.

“You’re good,” she spat at Jeremy. “Nice barrier. Somebody did one hell of a job on you. I can’t wait to break it down.” She whirled and thrust her way through the guards. “Watch them,” she ordered her backup bats. “Him especially. He’s been conditioned to resist us.” The she-bat stormed out without bothering to shut the door behind her. “Where’s the damn truck?”

Somebody answered from outside the vault. This voice too sounded female. Colleen thought she caught the word “Mistress.”

The vampires closed up and went back to watching them with those awful blink-free stares. Jeremy stepped in front of Colleen, blocking her from them, his back to the vamps.

“When I move,” he whispered close to her ear, “open up your blouse a little. Show them your throat. You don’t have to say or do anything else. Just let them smell you.”

“What?”

“We don’t have much time. See that vamp on the far right? The twitchy one? He’s right on the edge of a feed. I think I can work him.”

“Hey!” a vamp barked. “No talking, you two. Move apart.”

“Sure,” Jeremy said easily. He stepped away from Colleen. Correction, make that flowed. He’d ramped up that inhuman grace of his to near-vampiric levels. The vampires took notice and focused their full attention on him. All but the one on the end, the twitchy one Jeremy had pointed out. This one continued to stare at Colleen, at her neck in particular.

Recalling his instructions, Colleen tugged at the collar of her blouse. She tried to make the action look natural, like she’d grown too hot or nervous. The nervous part she didn’t have to fake. She fumbled her top three buttons open. Crap. How did one seduce a vampire? Slit the wrists?

“How’s it going, boys?” She knew that husky tone in Jeremy’s voice from their nights together. He used it more on Wallace than with her. It never failed to get a swift reaction. Same here. The whole line went on the alert, like dogs presented with raw steak. Jeremy smiled and casually massaged his neck, his fingertips suggestively tracing the path of his carotid artery. The twitchy vampire licked his lips and growled low down in his throat.

“Awful close in here,” Jeremy said. “Damn, I’m getting thirsty.”

The twitchy vamp growled again. Colleen’s palms grew damp. How could Jeremy stay so calm with these six monsters eyeing him like he was Sunday dinner? But they weren’t monsters to him, were they? He’d been trained to service things like them. To him, they were the prey.

“You guys must be hungry,” Jeremy remarked, still in that seductive drawl. “Too bad you can’t touch us. We’re not for you. We’re going to the head of your flock. Her blood’s too rich for the hired help, and I’m a trained blood lust slave.” The bat on the end hissed sharply. Jeremy smiled at him. “Must be tough, to be after us so long, and then you finally catch us, and you’re not allowed to drink. I’ll bet that really
bites
.”

That did it. Colleen practically felt the click as the bat on the end switched over from guard to predator with easy blood right in front of him and five hungry rivals in the room. His eyes left Jeremy and raked over his fellows in crimson-tinged suspicion.

“Damn shame,” Jeremy said and quickly stepped backward, exactly like a victim in retreat.

It proved too much for the twitchy vamp. He lunged at Jeremy. Two of his partners leaped to drag him back. He turned on them with fangs bared to the root, and the fight was on.

“Come on.” Jeremy grabbed her hand and slid them along the wall, the shelving at their backs, away from the blurry chaos in the center of the vault. Colleen shut her ears against the inhuman snarls and the sounds of teeth ripping flesh. They ducked through the doorway and ran.

A dozen strides took them into the former bank’s lobby, a messy hole littered with shabby chairs, a couch, plastic blood bags, and too many splotches of dark maroon on the floor. She spotted the door to the outside the same second Jeremy did. They bolted for it in tandem.

A particularly vicious roar erupted from the vault. Colleen glanced back. “Don’t worry about them,” Jeremy said. “They’re followers. Flock. It’s the woman we have to watch out for. She’s—”

She was right in front of them. She backhanded Jeremy into the wall. “You got that right, sweetie. As for you…” The vampiress turned toward Colleen, right into Colleen’s swinging fist. Knuckles met teeth. The she-bat reeled back with her hands clamped over her mouth and a thin, high screech that leaked between her fingers. Colleen grabbed Jeremy and helped him stagger out the bank’s double doors and into the night.

At the curb sat two vehicles, an armored truck and a Cadillac with its motor running. The Caddy was guarded by another woman. Colleen caught a glimpse of dark hair, Asian features, red eyes, and a mouth full of fang before Jeremy barreled into the vamp and knocked her aside. She sprawled on the sidewalk. Colleen hopped over her and clambered into the passenger side. Jeremy threw himself behind the wheel and roared the Caddy away from the curb. The bank and the vampires fell away behind them.

After three blocks, Colleen judged she had enough breath back to ask questions. She thought her trip-hammer heartbeat would drown out her voice. “Where are we?”

“Hell if I know. I don’t recognize this neighborhood. See if this thing has a GPS. We should find a police station, or someplace we can hide until sunrise.” He flashed a smile at her. “Nice move with the queen. How’d you know to aim for the fangs?”

“I didn’t.” Colleen rubbed her knuckles. The skin stung where she’d cut it on the vampiress’s teeth, and the bones of her hand hurt like hell. “I just wanted to knock that bitchy smile off her face.”

Jeremy laughed and steered the car in search of a populated area. Colleen sat with her aching hand in her lap. Where was Wallace? She wanted to believe he’d heard her and was racing toward them. Had that just been wishful thinking?

The street they were on petered out into a back road through an empty landscape. Jeremy glared at the naked, night-washed desert and swore. “I thought California was all highway. Where’s a four-lane when you need one?”

Headlights flared in the rear-view. Jeremy glanced at the mirror and swore again. Colleen swiveled around to peer out the back. Her hopes for a cop car shriveled under the glare behind them, which hinted at the outlines of a more massive vehicle.

“It’s them,” Jeremy said with conviction before she could speak. “They’ve got our scent, and they won’t give up. Hang on.”

Colleen buckled in and hung on. Fortunately, armored cars weren’t designed for high-speed chases on back roads. Sadly, neither was a Cadillac. With no idea of the road’s layout or where they were headed, they couldn’t run flat out. The vampires didn’t have to worry about little things like car crashes or massive body trauma or death. They literally had all night.

Another car darted out of a side road to cut them off. Jeremy swerved. The Caddy jounced into a shallow ditch along the berm and stalled. The armored car rumbled to a halt several yards at their back. Why move in? Their quarry had nowhere to run.

Colleen watched helplessly as four men climbed out of the other car. They took their time. The body language of all four shouted “Vampire,” with a side order of, “You’re screwed.”

She groped for Jeremy’s hand. “Do we have a plan B?”

“This was it.” He bleakly watched the vamps approach. “Check the glove box. Maybe there’s a pencil or something. Anything wood.”

Colleen fumbled the glove box open and desperately rummaged through it. She found nothing beyond the standard paperwork, not even a paper clip. Would locking the doors help, or would the vampires simply rip them away?

When she looked up again, a vampire had his fangs pressed right up against the window.

She didn’t scream. She refused to scream. Not so easy with a vampire leering at her the scanty thickness of a window away. Colleen held herself stiffly upright when everything in her wanted to huddle into a ball like a mouse finally caught by the cat.

The vampire scratched playfully at the glass. His icy thoughts nipped at her mind. Colleen slammed her mind shut against him. Channeling Wallace, she blasted at him,
Get the hell away from me, you son of a bitch!