Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (38 page)

“Well hey, that’s goddamn generous of you. What if I say go fuck yourself?”

“Then we burn you out of your den. I crucify you to the side of my home and slit your bat bitch’s throat. Then I reclaim my property. Then I gut your former teammates. And then I take the child.”

“Gotta admire a man with a plan.” Wallace gestured to Jeremy. Jeremy darted to the windows and peered outside before he galloped upstairs. “Where are you?”

“You don’t know? Clearly not. You’ve torched three of my dens already and still missed. Your informants must not be as reliable as mine. You know of Montrose Street?”

“I do now. If I leave my nest, what are the chances I’ll get there?”

“That depends on how good you are. You have my word no harm will come to your flock until after we’ve settled our differences.” His cool laughter frosted Colleen’s spine. “I await your coming, Tin Man. I invite you into my home.” Lebec rang off.

“Your word, right. That and a hike through a cow pasture will get me shit-covered boots.” He glowered at the silent phone, then at Jeremy, who leaped off the stairs and skidded back into the kitchen. “How many? Did you see?”

“I couldn’t tell. I spotted two for sure. Could be three, could be three dozen.”

“No,” Colleen said suddenly. “Nowhere near that many.” Her awareness of them buzzed in her mind. “There are only eight.”

Wallace stared at her. “Your psychic thingy?”

She nodded. “It’s gotten a lot stronger since, um, the other day. As soon as I thought about them, I could hear them. Not actual thoughts like with you, but along those lines.”

Jeremy stared at her. “You can hear inside Wallace’s head? God, you poor woman.”

“Eat me,” Wallace said. To Colleen, he continued, “Only eight? You’re sure?”

“I’m getting vibes from eight different vampires. That’s the only way I can describe it. They’ve got the whole block surrounded.”

Wallace started pacing again, excitement and not anger in his stride. “That’s why the challenge. He’s running scared. Maybe even running out of assets. His kennel’s gone, the women are gone—” He stopped. “Three of his rental properties are gone. He thinks I did it. When the hell did I have time?”

“Annie and Gus?” Jeremy suggested. “They’ve got the same list.”

“When did they have time? They have lives. They’ve been out of the biz for years.” Suddenly, he showed fang in a broad grin. “But Annie did some sharing. Sounds like the Preacher’s been a busy boy.”

“You can’t go,” Jeremy said. “He’s probably nailing the ‘trap’ sign over his door right now.”

“Of course it’s a trap. I’m not a total moron. Problem is, it’s a damn good one. I leave you here, he moves in the second I’m gone. I take you with me, I’m delivering you right to his door. I stay put, he torches the place. Annie and Gus can’t give us backup. They’re going to have their hands full.”

“He does have good intel,” Colleen said. “He’s playing on your worst fears. He knows you’ll go charging right in with no plan and you’ll end up getting slaughtered.”

“Or he will. You got any better ideas?”

“Yes.” She was surprised how cool her voice sounded. Maybe it was the vampire in her. Or maybe it was the memory of her mother and the hell this monster had made of her life. “He’s had things his way long enough. Why should he get to dictate the rules? I say we play the game our way.”

She outlined what she had in mind. Jeremy started nodding before she finished. “Practical,” Wallace remarked. “Just like you.” His eyes blazed up as if something particularly vicious had just occurred to him. “In fact, I’ll go you one better. Let me make a couple of calls.”

* * * *

All was in readiness. Lebec’s squad of vampire thugs gathered in the cellar, awaiting his word. All doors and windows had been sealed with holy water, leaving only the front entrance free. That had been set with a witch’s trap. Once the Tin Man entered, he would not be able to leave. He would not be leaving in any case.

All Lebec lacked was his prey.

“The fool,” he snarled. His fixed, narrow glare leaped from the door to the ornate clock on the mantel. More than an hour had already passed since he’d flung his challenge at the slayer’s feet. “Does he think we’re playing a game?”

“He’ll be here,” Sully whined assurance. “Guy’s a slayer. Killing other bats is what he does. On top of that he’s, whatchacallit, chivalrous. I told you threats would work. Now that he thinks his pets are in danger, he won’t stop till he rips your heart out.”

“Yes,” Lebec agreed, relaxing again. “He thinks of himself as the hero, correct?”

“I guess so. I just know we’ll all sleep easier when he’s gone. You mind if I stick around? Nobody’s going to believe he’s ash unless somebody actually sees it.”

“As a matter of fact, I do mind, Sully. I find you not only treacherous, but quite annoying.”

“Treacherous? Me?” Sully inched back a step. “I haven’t lied to you. I told you everything I know about the Tin Man. I told you where he nests. I told you where his friends live. I told you he had that girl.”

“You told him this house is a vampire den. You’ve been selling out your own kind for years to preserve your own worthless existence. You’d stake me in the back right now if you believed you could benefit from it.”

“Would not. Okay, I did a few things to keep him off our backs. That was before. I know who the real king is now. I’m here to help you, not him.”

“Good, because I need you.”

Lebec struck like a viper. His fangs ripped into Sully’s throat before the other bat could cry out. He drew three, long, exhilarating swallows, no more. It wouldn’t do to go into blood lust with a battle looming. Sully was still twitching feebly when Lebec tore off his head. Head and body shushed to ash that tumbled through his fingers.

Lebec carefully licked every last liquid speck from his lips. Ah, vampire blood. The source, the wellspring, the secret to his success. What the Tin Man had stumbled upon at the outset had taken Lebec years to discover. Vampire blood made one infinitely stronger, swifter, more aggressive and powerful. Vampire blood made one king.

The cell in his pocket shrilled for attention. Lebec withdrew it. “Yes?”

“The Tin Man has left his nest.”

At last. “His flock?”

“They’re still inside.”

“Follow him. Do not engage. Keep me apprised of his movements. Are Teale and McCoy still with you? Put McCoy on the phone.”

A new voice came on. “Sir?”

“Gather the flock. Wait five minutes, then go to the house and retrieve the girl. Take the boy, too. Then burn his home to the ground. Better still, burn the whole block.”

“Yes, sir.”

He returned the cell to his pocket. Finally, things were going right. Although Colleen Forrester was not of his personal bloodline, she had always been his favorite. The potential and power he’d sensed in her had finally come to glorious fruition. She would be Eve to the hybrid army he would train and lead. If he could take the boy as well, so much the better. The boy was too well-trained to simply waste. Lebec would save him as a toy, a reward for his flock to play with after they’d gorged themselves on human blood.

He hummed to himself. So much to do. Track down his scattered daughters. Find a new location in which to rebuild the kennel. Perhaps Alaska this time, or home to Canada. Somewhere near the Arctic Circle, where sunlight fled for weeks on end and night favored him and his children.

But first, destroy the slayer.

* * * *

The two vampires waited precisely five minutes then advanced on the house. The more slender of the two rapped on the door. No one responded. The two exchanged a look and licked lips in unison. The victims had chosen to fight. That always made attack so much more fun.

“Come out, pretty lady,” the slender one purred. “We know you’re inside. Come and join us, sister. Come out and play.”

The door swung open. Both vampires grinned. The woman smelled delicious, a flesh bag bursting with thick, scorching blood. Her fear only added to that tasty zing. The slender vamp indulged in a growl. It was a long way back to Montrose Street, and Lebec hadn’t specified how intact he wanted her.

She looked them both in the eye with a valiant effort at calm. Abruptly she dropped to the floor.

“Hey!”

Both vampires looked up from their prone would-be victim. Jeremy’s first holy-water balloon took the slender vamp in the face with all the force his outfielder’s arm could deliver. The second hit the other in the chest. Both reeled off the steps, their flesh melting as if from an acid bath. They weren’t destroyed, but no doubt wished they were.

Jeremy lifted Colleen off the floor. “How many left?”

The presence of them droned like bees inside her head. “Six now. No, wait. Five. Four. My God. I didn’t realize Wallace could move that fast.” She gasped. “They’re going to burn the house.”

Anger flashed through her. The hell they would. This was her home now. She would defend her king. Marshalling her mental forces, she instinctively blasted a command outward into the darkness.
Stop.

The vampires obeyed. One of them swore brutally in her head. “I think I got Wallace,” she said guiltily.

“It won’t last. Can you pinpoint them?”

Now that they weren’t moving, she could, and she did. She beamed their locations to Wallace, along with an apology. His answer was blunt and four-lettered. Within seconds, the vampires shook off their paralysis and started advancing again.

“I’m done,” Colleen said. “Any more balloons?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Stakes only.” He reached to shut the door.

The two on the walk lunged forward. The slender vamp, his face half gone, grabbed Colleen’s blouse before she could withdraw fully into the house. Jeremy punched him in the ruin of his face, for all the good it did. His partner caught Jeremy’s arm. They hauled their victims over the threshold.

“Yo. Assholes.”

Both vampires whirled. “Trick or treat,” Wallace said and plunged his stake into the slender vampire’s chest. The second bat moved, not quite fast enough. Wallace’s silver knife sliced into his throat. Wallace shook ash off the stake and rammed it home. The vampire crumbled in mid-gag.

Wallace glared at Colleen and Jeremy. “What’s the last thing I said? ‘Don’t go outside.’ Jesus H. Christ in a wheelbarrow. Nice arm, Scarecrow.” To Colleen he added, “Any more out there?”

“I don’t hear any. I think we’re okay.” She couldn’t stop staring at the twin piles of ash on the sidewalk. “What do we do about…uh…?”

“Wind’ll get it,” Wallace said. High-stepping carefully over the splashes of holy water, he hustled his lovers inside.

* * * *

The Tin Man would come. Lebec no longer doubted. He had a vampire’s fierce protectiveness toward his flock and a slayer’s overwrought sense of justice. Then there was his macho pride, a useless human trait he hadn’t managed to shed. He’d charge right through the front door like the matinee lead in a melodrama. The hero had to vanquish the villain alone in the climactic one-on-one.

Heroes always seemed to forget the villain never played by the rules. Creed and his gang, the witch’s trap, these were only some of the rule-breakers Lebec had on his side. He fingered the stake securely tucked inside his jacket. Would the slayer be expecting that? Doubtful. The Tin Man wasn’t stupid by any means, but his past actions as described by Sully painted a portrait of a man both reckless and impulsive. Careful planning trumped that every time.

Although there was the matter of those three rental holdings, his scattered chain of dens. Those had been destroyed with a care that bordered on methodical, at odds with all he’d heard of his foe. Lebec had initially dismissed Sully’s warnings and paid a heavy price for it. Had he underestimated the slayer yet again?