Death's Rival (18 page)

Bruiser glided through the falling dark toward me as I tucked my gloves into a pocket.
I studied him as he wove between cars. His dark hair fell over his forehead in a silken
wave; his brown eyes were liquid and intent. He was the same, but better somehow,
richer, more mesmeric. He moved differently too, smoother, catlike. Sleek. The breeze,
hot and wet, shifted, bringing his scent to me. Vamp and human and . . .
vamp
. He smelled of mixed vamp odor, almost like a blood-slave, the herbal pong something
they acquired as they were passed around. As he got closer, his eyes holding me still,
I could see even more differences. Bruiser was so full of vamp blood that his eyes
were half-vamped out, pupils huge in his brown irises, and not just because of the
night. His eyes gleamed, cold and dark and empty, yet hot and speaking to me of sex
even before he opened his mouth.

“My Jane. You have arrived.”

I grunted and swung my leg over Bitsa.
His Jane. Yeah. Right
.

Bruiser reached me and slid an arm around my waist. His arm felt different, harder,
stronger, like a steel band, as if he could lift me up and toss me into the air, a
dance move to end all dance moves. He pulled me close and ducked his head, nuzzling
my neck, his lips hot and softer than velvet and finding that place under my ear that
sent shivers through my body, raising chill bumps on my skin—hard to do in the heat.
I wasn’t used to being smaller, shorter than anyone, and the sensation of feeling
petite and weak against the taller man was oddly arousing. I let him lift me to my
toes, breathed in the scent of his sweat on the warm night air. Almost with a will
of their own, my fingers laced through his hair.

“I missed you,” he whispered as his other arm went around me, pulling me close, close
enough that I knew just
how
he had missed me. Bruiser was four inches taller than me, and was now clearly stronger
too. I
knew
that, predator to predator. But the knowledge faded beneath the onslaught of his
scent, the heat of his skin, and his arousal pressed against me. “I
missed
you
,” he repeated, the three words morphing into a growl.

Beast breathed in his scent with me, claws out but not yet pressing in.
Vampire. Much vampire blood,
she thought.
But still your Bruiser.

He pulled me up, closer, my body crushed against his. I’d never been
the little woman
before. Ever. But I was now. Weirdly, I liked it. His mouth found mine, his lips
hot and soft one moment, hard and demanding the next. My breath caught.

He broke the kiss before I was ready. “When this conflict is done”—his lips moved
against my ear—“I’m taking you to my place, and we will not leave until long,
long
after dawn.”

Heat shot out from the touch of his lips and settled deep in my belly. Spreading out
in tendrils of desire and need and pure
want
. I had to lick my lips before I could answer, half gasping, “Okay. Fine. Sure.”

Bruiser laughed into my hair and swung me to his side, effortlessly. I fell into step
beside him. The warehouse had two heavy steel doors and, situated between them, one
oversized delivery door. We made our way to it, Bruiser holding me so close my right
arm was trapped under his shoulder. He pressed a button, and the delivery door began
to slide up, revealing the darkness inside. Our shadows were long and thin across
the charcoal-painted cement floor. The room inside was empty, all in gray, with a
bar at the back. And doors leading off into the dark. “So, where is the lair?” I asked.

Then it all went to hell.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

But He Didn’t Let Me Go

I smelled/heard/tasted the attack before it came, a single breath, pulled in over
my tongue, the taste of betrayal. Scent-laden with pheromones: the clan’s Mercy Blade,
vamps; Sabina, the older priestess who lived in the vamp graveyard; Katie and Leo.
Distinct pops of displaced air, vamp-speed. Blurs of motion.

My expectations ruined me. I expected Bruiser to release me and move two steps to
my side. I expected him to draw a weapon. I did
not
expect him to freeze, my arm clamped to his side, stealing my single moment of reaction
time. I did not expect his whispered “Leo. I—No!” I jerked my arm and twisted my body.

Bruiser held on to me. And my trust was shattered.

Katie caught my free arm, which was reaching for my ankle holster, in a vise. The
Mercy Blade stepped on my foot, which was lifting to my hand, and forced it back to
the cement floor. Sabina circled behind me and caught my head, twisting my chin up,
stretching my neck, holding me still. I was immobilized. The electric door whirred
down behind us, enclosing us in the dark. Leo walked out of the echoing shadows, footsteps
measured and slow. He was vamped out, his fangs snapped down, eyes all black pupil
in bloody, scarlet sclera. Sabina unlatched the clasp on my silver and titanium necklace.

Bruiser swallowed, the sound of his throat moving loud in the sudden silence. “I brought
her to you. But . . . This is not what . . .” His voice sounded thick, confused, and
trailed off into nothing, but my eyes were on Leo. I understood what was about to
happen. My heart thumped hard once and raced to a limping beat. I wrenched my body,
fighting for freedom. It was like wrestling shaped steel.

Beast is not prey!
she raged inside me.

“George. Bruiser. Don’t let him do this,” I said, my words strangled from the angle
of my neck.

“I . . . can’t. I’m sorry,” he said again, real regret clotting his voice, and maybe
real pain.

Leo stepped up to me, like a dance step, measured, smooth, like the opening movement
to a tango. He was slight but strong, shoulder-length black hair pulled back in a
queue with a black ribbon, the end hanging over one shoulder. His eyes, Frenchy black;
his face, usually so pale, was now suffused with blood. He looked well fleshed, as
if he had been working out and had put on muscle. His usual scent, like pepper and
papyrus, was different, with a hint of berries and oak and fermentation, like fine
wine. I realized that Leo had fed long and deeply.

His fangs clicked down, three inches of glistening white, his jaw having to do something
odd to allow the movement. My breath heaved and my heart raced, and Leo’s eyes bled
slowly black and scarlet, vamping out as he smelled my fear. “You, my new
Enforcer,
have equally served me well and caused me much grief,” he said, the words sibilant
and echoing in the empty space. “You found my enemy, which is a service to be well
rewarded. But this trouble you have brought to me must end. I have taken council of
my advisers and have discovered a way to reward you for both.” He smiled, and my heart
sped even faster. Leo chuckled softly and leaned in, breathing deeply of my panic.
“Yessss,” he whispered, his lips close to my ear. “And then you will be my new Enforcer
indeed. You will be bound to me as the Carta
rightly requires. You, rather than my George, will act as my second in the Blood Challenge
I will issue to this enemy you have identified.” He smiled and it was snakelike. “That
is,
if
you survive your own duty and fate.”

“Boss—Leo, don’t—” Bruiser stopped as if his throat was choked shut and buried his
face in my hair, speaking now to me. “I’m sorry,” Bruiser whispered, the word echoing
exactly as Leo’s had. “I can’t stop him. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” I could smell
his misery, his self-disgust.
His compulsion.
He
was
sorry. But he didn’t let me go. He couldn’t. He was blood-trapped, blood-drunk. Compelled.
Leo’s slave.
This
was why vamps were evil. This stealing of will.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble,” I said, fear like lightning, my words gasping.
“And I don’t need any reward for discovering Lucas de Allyon. I haven’t even proved
he’s your enemy. I said it’s possible.”

“Your analysis was exemplary and your conclusion valid,” Gee said. “We concur with
your hypothesis and analysis. My master’s true-dead uncle had previous . . . rivalry
with this Mithran regarding some small territorial disputes following the Civil War.
Hence this necessity.”

Leo lifted a hand to my face, calloused along the thumb side of his index finger,
and warm from all the blood he had ingested. The Mercy Blade pressed against my knees
and they buckled, the vamps riding me down until my knees hit the cool floor, a supplicant,
as if begging. I might have thought that Gee DiMercy would save me as he did once
before, would have compassion, but he wasn’t human either. And he too was Leo’s.

Bruiser fell to his knees beside me, still holding my arm. I started to threaten Leo,
but Sabina yanked down on my bun so hard my hair tore and my scalp bled. I could smell
it. I fought to inhale with my head at this angle, my breath sounding tortured. Leo
bent over me, his black hair falling forward, to caress my cheeks. From the corner
of my eye, I saw a flash of steel and smelled Leo’s blood where he cut himself. One
of Sabina’s inhumanly strong hands held my head back; the other hand pinched my nose
closed.

“Blood to blood,” Leo murmured, “mind to mind. My power calling to your power.” He
bit into my throat. Electric pain cut through me. Magic slammed into me, hot and wet,
raw and scarlet, heavy with semisolid
things
that flooded into my spirit cave and molded to my soul like clots.

Leo’s wrist covered my mouth as I gasped. I breathed down the drops of blood and the
magic, choking, feeling it hit my lungs and slam into my bloodstream, my jaws suddenly
aching with heavy pressure, my fingertips burning, as Beast struggled to break free.
There was nothing of compulsion in Leo, nothing of the painkilling laving of tongue
that could have blunted the pain. Nothing of the mesmerizing ability that made the
taking of blood pleasurable for the victim. This was control. This was dominance,
not the reward he’d promised. If I fought, he’d rip out my throat.

As soon as I thought that, a wave of pleasure rippled through me, starting at my neck
and following every nerve ending across my torso to settle low in my belly. Heat and
desire coiled there, mating together.
No,
I thought.
No
 . . .

Tears blurred my eyes, and my stomach roiled. My mouth filled with Leo’s blood, almost
human-warm, gelatinous, with a sharp, peppery, fermented flavor. I had no choice but
to swallow. My gulps tore my throat where Leo’s teeth pierced me, and more pain/pleasure
flared out. My heart beat fast against my ribs as he drank, fangs buried deep, lips
sealed tight. Sucking hard. And I swallowed as he swallowed, a dance of pleasure and
agony. Two, three, six gulps. Need cascaded through me with each sip of his blood.
If my hands had been free, I’d have clutched him to me, and I hated him for that control,
for that want. This was what made blood-slaves willing to do anything to get their
next high. Anything at all.

Leo’s arm moved from my mouth and I finally got a breath, inhaling, the sound a hissing
panic and a gasping desire, and Leo drank in my fear and craving. He slid his arms
around me and pushed me flat to the floor, until I stared up at the shadows. Sabina
released me, stepping away; the Mercy Blade followed her, leaving me on the floor
with Leo and Bruiser. They held me between them, the two of them, as Leo’s magic welled
up, twining around me, sliding inside me, like electric vines. In the dark I could
feel it, a prickling breeze over my exposed skin. Could see it, wisps and strands
of pale gray light. Could smell it, like old parchment and pepper, Leo’s personal
scent. His magic flowed beneath my skin, pumped through my veins, mingled with my
blood, and I sobbed once, only once, my flesh throbbing against his fangs. My heartbeat
was a soft thump-thump, thump-thump, growing louder as the blood I’d breathed in and
swallowed was carried with his magic through my body, through my heart, and arteries
and veins. Changing me. Empowering me. Half a dozen gulps of my blood. Stolen.

Thief of blood,
Beast hissed.

Leo’s fangs withdrew, the motion slow and cutting like twin razors. I grunted with
the pain. Bruiser was still whispering, his lips barely moving air, “I’m sorry, I’m
sorry, I’m sorry.” Katie took Leo’s place, standing over me, staring down, alpha to
my zeta. I curled back my lips and growled at her. She chuckled at the sound, her
own power flowing over me like cold water, brown and teal and dark green. She held
up her arm and I smelled her blood. Three claw marks scored her wrist, blood running
down to her fingers and up to her elbow. Beast had drawn blood. I snarled at her.
I felt Beast’s fangs in my mouth, long and pointed and built for killing, for shredding
meat, not for draining the blood of prey.

“You are not human,” she said. She licked her own blood, staring down at me as her
wrist healed. “We have always known this. Your blood will taste sweet.” She knelt
and bent over my elbow, rolling my sleeve up, lifting my arm to her mouth, bending
it at a painful angle. She bit me.

The pain this time nearly broke me, an electric shock that froze my breath and darkened
the edges of my vision. I lay still, my body against the cool cement. She was lying
across me, her legs to the side, her weight far heavier than I expected.

Leo’s heir took only three deep gulps before withdrawing her fangs. They clicked back
into her mouth on the little bone hinges and she slid her tongue along my arm, closing
the wounds before she wiped her lips with a finger, licking off a drop of my blood.
Bruiser was curled along my side, still whispering his sorrow.

“Now you are mine,” Leo said.

“Now I can bind you easily should Leo fall,” Katie said. “Our defenses will not be
subsumed, nor will they fail should the worst happen. The Vampira Carta is now our
defense.”

As if they had rehearsed it, they stood and stepped away, leaving Bruiser and me on
the floor. Our hips touched, my arm stretched around underneath him. I was gasping,
trying to catch my breath, trying to slow my heart. Not succeeding. I pulled my arm
from him. The simple movement sent jagged pain through my nerves from my neck to my
fingertips. I wiped my tears away. I felt pelt on my cheeks and a misshapen jaw. My
hand came away bloody with vamp-blood that had missed my mouth. I sat up, moving with
pain. My hair had come down, and it slithered loose around me.

Leo, dressed all in black, was across the room, perched on a stool, one forearm on
the bar. A candle burned near his elbow, and a dusty bottle of red wine with a curling,
crinkled label sat near. He lifted the bottle and poured the wine into crystal goblets.
Katie walked to him. She was wearing champagne-colored silk pants and a flowing vest;
the cloth caught the light, glistening. Sabina, the priestess, dressed in her ubiquitous
starched white robes, stepped close to them. Leo held out his hand. “George.”

Bruiser pulled a leg under him and stood, leaving me there, going to his master, his
eyes averted. Cold steel touched my throat from behind, the Mercy Blade’s sword, his
scent distinctive, and so I stayed on my butt, in submission. The three vamps drank
the wine, like a toast or a pledge, as Bruiser stood there, looking away. I tried
to slow my heart and find my breath, weight balanced on my hands, the floor cold beneath
me.

This is a great gift I have given you, the sharing of my blood and favor,
Leo said.

I started to reply when I realized that he hadn’t spoken aloud. He was talking into
my mind.
Well, crap.

He smiled, just a bare curl of lips, his fangs hidden away.
Beware when you claim a position of power in my territory, little Enforcer
.
With power comes both responsibility and cost. And sometimes sacrifice. By your own
works and your own choices, you are mine.

Have you used the bones?
another voice murmured into my head. I recognized the dulcet, accented tones of Sabina,
speaking of the sabertooth lion bones hidden in my garden. I tried to shake my head,
tried to lie, but the pain in my throat stopped me.
Your enemy will know you by your scent,
she thought. I had no idea what she meant.

“What is she?” Katie asked Leo. “She is delicious. I like it.”

“Unknown. Something cat, of course, though not were-cat. They stink. She is elegant,
like this wine”—he tilted the glass, and I could see the ruby fluid coat the crystal—“rich
and earthy and heavy with the tannins of aged oak.”
I knew that
Sabina could have answered Leo’s question. Instead, she looked at me over her shoulder,
no expression on her face.

I reached up and pushed away the sword at my throat. Gee DiMercy must have considered
me no threat now, for he stepped back. Any movement hurt all over, and I thought I
might fall, but I pulled myself to my feet, unsteady. Bruiser rushed back and reached
out to stabilize me. I growled at him and he stopped as if a puppet master had wrenched
his strings. When I spoke, the words were slurred, my cat-mouth not meant for speaking
human sounds. “I’ no’ a vintage,” I said, my vocal cords tight and aching, my voice
rough with pain and with Beast’s nearness. “This was no gift. It was my punishmen’
for claiming to be your Enforcer.”

“You transgressed,” Leo said. “That transgression bent the law and forced us into
this war. Now we can rectify the problems you have created and turn the balance of
the war in our favor. You will assist us in this endeavor.”

I felt the pull of his will, his pressure of his commands, and I said, “I’ll fulfill
my . . . responsibilities.”