Dark Mate (MATE series) (14 page)

Eva staggered away, dropping
the empty goblet on the floor with a clatter. She raised her arms to
shield her face from the raging inferno. The savage flames towered
above her, swaying and twisting with a strange, terrible grace and
beauty. In the heart of the fire, she thought she saw eyes. The
eyes blinked and vanished, just as the fire whipped down towards her.

“
No!' She screamed,
batting away the shooting flames with her bare hands. “No!”

But as the flames touched her,
she felt a searing cold rush from the surface of her skin down to her
marrow.

Tongues of fire licked at her,
chasing her as she scrabbled across the room. Eva screamed and
shivered from the icy chill of their touch. “Stop! Get away
from me!”

Cold, brittle laughter
reverberated round the room.

With a hiss, a svelte figure
stepped out gracefully from the flames, and the fire died altogether.
There was not a single drop of blood on the table. The flames had
consumed all that spilled blood cleanly, completely.

Vonetta Imotez stood smiling
at Eva, her eyes and skin still glowing like embers.

“
You!” Eva spat.
“You took my blood!”

“
Yes...” Vonetta
laughed and licked her lips. “Your blood is...exquisite, and
so familiar. It tastes of...
him
.”

Eva gulped.

“
I can taste Gabriel in
you,” Vonetta drawled, circling her slowly. “I love the
taste of a Master vampire. A vampire at the apex of the food
chain...”

“
You're a vampire
yourself.” Eva shook her head. “Why would you prey on
your own kind? I didn't think that...”

“
Oh, I am a vampire.”
Vonetta smiled. “But I am also a succubus.”

Eva fought to keep her face
impassive as she stared into Vonetta's glittering red eyes. Vonetta
Imotez was a beautiful woman, and it wasn't hard to imagine men
falling like flies into her bed. No male would be able to resist her
allure. Not even Gabriel King, she thought bitterly.

And why would Gabriel resist
her? He had been searching for her his whole life. He would take
her in a heartbeat. She had seen him take Vonetta into his arms. He
was going to kiss her, yet...she knew, she just knew that he
wouldn't. There was something in his voice, in the way he held
himself and her...

“
Once upon a time, I was
a normal human woman. Just like you.” Vonetta waved a hand.
“I became what I am, because of what a vampire and a demon did
to me. But really, it was all because of him.” Her eyes
flashed with pain and anger. “He thought he was being noble
and righteous. He wanted to be a hero and save the world. He was a
fool. A selfish, thoughtless fool!”

Eva caught the slight quaver
in her voice. “Gabriel...” she said softly.

“
Yes. Gabriel. Gabriel
King.” Vonetta snarled his name. “I knew he was looking
for me, but I had no use for him then. So I watched him, but I kept
myself hidden from him. But now,” she laughed. “Now,
Gabriel King is a powerful Master vampire. Taking his blood and his
body will be...richly rewarding.” Her fangs gleamed. “I
will drain him. Slowly, satisfyingly. He owes me.”

“
He...he loves you!”
Eva blurted out, even though the words pained her.

Vonetta arched a brow at her.
“Oh?”

“
He...he's been trying
to find you. He wanted me to look for you! All this time, he...”

“
Is that what you
think?” Vonetta took a step closer to Eva. “Is that
what you truly think, Eva?”

“
I...” Eva
stuttered and swallowed.

Vonetta straightened up and
smirked. “I thought so.”

“
He will come for you,”
Eva said without conviction.

“
No, he will come for
you,” Vonetta corrected with a slow smile. “You. Not
me.”

Eva shook her head. “I
don't...”

“
Please. Don't play
coy. You know, don't you?” There was a strange glint in
Vonetta's eyes.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
You know that you're
his mate. Gabriel King will come for you.”

“
I...I don't want to be
his mate.”

Vonetta smiled indulgently,
but her eyes were sharp and shrewd. “Oh? Really?”

Eva squeezed her eyes shut and
whispered, “I can never be with him. We can never be
together. I am just a simple human woman. I need a nice, good man,
not...Gabriel.” Gabriel with his sinful, scorching touch and
kisses. “Gabriel King is...not good.”
But he is. He
is oh so good.

Vonetta continued smiling at
her. “Do you know where you are, Eva?” She flicked a
finger at the candle and the flame sputtered to life. The room
filled at once with slithering, looming shadows.

“
This—is Widow's
Parlor.”

Eva gaped. She'd heard of
Widow's Parlor. It was supposed to be a small, exclusive, very
private massage parlor. Not much was known about the owner, a very
wealthy, reclusive heiress. She was just known as Madam Von, and it
was reported that no one had ever seen her face.

Eva reeled. Vonetta Imotez
was Madam Von. And those who had seen her face, never made it out of
her parlor alive.

“
Yes, you are in the
very heart of Widow's Parlor. Very few clients make it this far.”

“
Widow's Parlor,”
Eva muttered, her throat dry and tight.

“
My clients love the
special services that are offered at Widow's Parlor. Full body
massage, sweet, fresh blood served to them in a golden cup, and of
course, mind-blowing, heart-stopping sex.” She threw back her
head and laughed. “Oh, I service them well. Only my most
favorite clients have the privilege of being drained on this table.”
She jerked her chin at the long black and gold table behind Eva.
“Most of them are happy for me to go to them, and they take
their last, shuddering breath in their own beds.”

Eva recoiled from her in
horror.

“
I have tasted
everything,” Vonetta went on blithely. “When I drain
them, I take everything. Their blood, their memories, all their
fears and desires, the very essence of their lives. Just one drop of
blood, and I can tell what you want—” She leaned in to
whisper in Eva's ear. “—and what you are afraid to
want.”

Eva turned away, and Vonetta
chuckled.

“
Hmmm, you said you
don't want to be Gabriel's mate. But a vampire will never let his
mate go. You can run, but you can't hide,” she cooed. “But
there is a way. The blood bond can be broken...”

Eva blinked at her, and
Vonetta smiled slowly, letting her answer float out on a long, soft
breath. “One of you has to die.”

Eva froze.

“
Since you've been a
good girl, I'll do you a favor.” Vonetta smiled benignly at
her. “I will kill Gabriel King for you. You'd no longer be
bound to him. You'd be free.”

She stopped in front of Eva
and trailed a nail down her chest. She pressed a cold hand over
Eva's thumping heart and whispered in her ear, “Isn't that what
you want?”

Before Eva could swat her hand
away, Vonetta laughed and stepped back. “Illusions and
delusions, that's my favorite. The taste is always
so...bittersweet.” She let her gaze drop to Eva's scarred
wrist and smacked her lips, as if relishing and remembering the taste
of her blood.

Eva balled her fist, but
Vonetta had sashayed away to pick up a goblet. She turned it over
casually in the flickering candlelight, and sang, “You think he
loves me. He thinks he loves me. But I know what you know. And you
know what he knows.”

She flicked her eyes to Eva,
her gaze challenging, as if daring her to speak the truth out loud.

A drop of blood clung to the
lip of the goblet, and Vonetta raised the goblet to Eva in a toast.
Swirling her tongue round the cup, she closed her eyes in bliss as
she swallowed the drop of blood.

Eva gasped as the flame on the
candle flicked out suddenly. She blinked quickly and stared round
the room. Vonetta was gone.

She started to shake
violently, and she slid down the wall. Pulling her knees to her
chin, she hugged herself tightly and tried to calm herself down.

She knew exactly why Vonetta
had taken her.

As bait.

Eva pressed her hand to the
throbbing scar on her wrist. Vonetta had slit her wrist and dripped
her blood into the golden goblet. Vonetta was just toying with her.

All it took was one drop of
her blood, and Vonetta had taken more than a drop. Vonetta knew her
hopes and fears, her desires and delusions. She had to keep her mind
blank.

I will find you, Eva!

Eva opened her eyes and stared
round wildly at the sound of Gabriel's voice. She heard him loud and
clear. In her head, in her heart.

She clutched the sides of her
head, and tried to cut the connection, and block him. She couldn't
let him find her.

“
No, Gabriel,” she
whispered, curling tighter into a ball. “Don't. Please don't.
Don't find me.”

If you do, you'll die.

Gabriel materialized right in
front of Vonetta. Her blood had led him to her. And her voice. He
heard her in his head, calling and singing to him like a siren.

The room was illuminated by a
lone red candle in the middle of the long black marble table.
Vonetta was sitting at the head of the table, taking small, dainty
sips from the golden goblet in her hand.

She smiled up at him. “What
took you so long, Gabriel?”

“
Where is she?” he
demanded.

“
Who?” Vonetta
looked at him with round, innocent eyes over the rim of her cup.

“
Eva.”

“
She's here, somewhere,”
Vonetta answered with a shrug. “But you know that already.”

“
Let her go, Vonetta.
She's innocent.”

“
Innocent?”
Vonetta threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, she is innocent
all right.”

Vonetta drummed her nails
impatiently against the side of the golden goblet and studied him in
silence. When he didn't say anything more, she drained her cup and
pushed back from the table.

Gabriel watched her grab the
flickering red candle from the table and saunter to the other end of
the room. She pressed her hand against the wall, and a door
shimmered into view. Gabriel misted to her side and laid a hand on
her elbow. “Vonetta.”

She stared straight ahead, not
turning to look at him. Finally, she smiled thinly and said, “Come,
Gabriel. Have a drink with me. For old times' sake.”

She pushed the door open and
stepped into a dark, musty room. Gabriel followed her in silence,
and he felt the wall seal shut behind him once he had ducked through
the doorway. He blinked and inhaled sharply.

It was as if he had stepped
back in time, into another world, a world he would rather forget.

He was in that dungeon again.

Gabriel gave himself a good,
hard shake. No, he wasn't.

This wasn't his Master's
dungeon. This was Vonetta's little holding chamber, where she kept
her victims until they were ready to be brought out and laid on the
dining table.

He saw her immediately. Eva
was chained by her ankles to the stone wall. She was lying on the
floor, moaning softly, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow.

Vonetta teleported to her and
used her nail to cut Eva's wrist. She held the goblet under Eva's
bleeding wrist to collect the fresh red blood. Vonetta turned her
head and fixed Gabriel with a challenging stare.

Stop me, and she dies.

From the look in her eyes,
Gabriel knew that Vonetta would kill Eva on the spot if he so much as
took a step forward. He stood still and watched her quietly, almost
regretfully.

He had wanted to help Vonetta.
But she had hurt his mate.

She had sealed her fate.

Vonetta squeezed Eva's wrist
to wring a few more drops of blood into her goblet. When she was
satisfied with the amount she had collected, she raised the candle
and thrust Eva's cut wrist into the blood red flame. There was a
hiss, and the wound closed instantly, leaving an ugly, jagged line.

Vonetta drained the goblet in
one long gulp, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Still
looking straight at Gabriel, she spat, “She tastes of you.”

“
Let her go.”

“
Why.”

“
She is of no use to
you.”
But she means everything to me.

“
But you, Gabriel,
you...are very useful to me,” Vonetta drawled.

Gabriel walked over and put
himself between Vonetta and Eva. His broad body shielded Eva from
Vonetta's eyes.

“
I know,” he
whispered, encircling Vonetta's waist with one arm. She gasped as he
crushed her against him. “And you can have me. All of me. My
blood, my body, my life.”