Trueblood 01-The-Consolation-Prize (19 page)

“Doesn’t Luka want you?”

Chloe shook her head. He reached out and smoothed down her hair.

“Will I do instead?”

His eyes darkened and his fangs extended. Chloe gulped. Another plan. Maybe Luka would know what was happening and save her. She let the vampire guide her into a small dark room.

Chloe closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. She gasped when she felt his teeth pierce her neck, then the pain faded. Chloe thought it might be the last time anyone held her and she clung to him as he drank.

* * * * *

Another trick? Luka remembered where he’d seen the thing before. On a shelf in the passageway. He’d thought the dragon had glared at him then, but the look on its face now was pure venom. Luka brought his foot back to kick it and missed. He gave a snort of disbelief and stomped back to his desk.

He wished she hadn’t stripped. He wished he hadn’t seen the marks on her body, wished he hadn’t scented another vampire. Luka banged his fist on the desk and knocked the mouse next to his keyboard. A new e-mail message flashed onto the screen. He clicked on it and the breath froze in his throat. A message from Syren. A man he hadn’t heard from in over two hundred years. His father.

Just one word.

Congratulations
.

Luka stared at it in disbelief. He scrolled up and down, thinking there must be something else but there wasn’t. A sender address sat at the top of the screen. He pressed
reply
and typed:
What the hell does that mean?

He waited, desperately hoping it wasn’t -- congratulations, you’re going to be a daddy. Moments later, the reply came back.

You found your lifemate
.

Luka pushed the keyboard away in disgust.
No, I fucking haven’t
. Then he typed that, only he omitted the word fucking. The “message couldn’t be sent” screen popped up. Luka checked the address. It was the same as the one that had accepted the first response. He was surprised his father had risked contact at all. Two hundred years and that was all Luka got? Five bloody words? And Chloe was not his lifemate.

Your lifemate.

The pain in his arm was so bad he doubled over, gasping for air.

Your love.

She couldn’t be. She’d betrayed him.

Your love.

Luka clutched his arm to his chest as he struggled to breathe. What the hell was happening?

Find her.

By the time he got downstairs, there was no sign of Chloe. Dan stood by the entrance watching the staff check the guests in.

“The woman -- have you seen her?”

“She left.”

As Luka moved closer, he knew Dan had just fed. He also knew on whom. Luka whirled round, dragged Dan out of sight, wrapped one hand around his throat, and pinned him to the wall.

“She said you didn’t want her.” Dan hissed the words through his teeth.

“And you couldn’t have said no?” Even as Luka asked that, he knew it was a stupid question, expecting a cat to ignore a mouse sitting on its nose and dangling its tail in its mouth.

“Let him go.”

The voice of Jason, Dan’s lover, came from behind Luka. Luka ignored him and kept Dan right where he was.

“How was I supposed to know?” Dan choked out.

Jason stepped closer to Luka’s back. He carried no weapon and he was mortal. He stood no chance, though defeating Dan would require more effort. Rage swirled inside Luka, a thick black cloud smothering everything in its path. Before it swamped him, Luka dropped Dan and swept out of the building.

Chloe’s car had gone from the parking lot. He stood for several minutes, his eyes closed, trying to sense her.
Nothing
. As he turned to go back to the club, he saw Dan hurrying towards him.

“Luka!”

Luka pulled his temper under control.

Dan came to his side. “I know what you are.”

“So I’m not gay. Shoot me,” Luka snapped.

“I’ve known that for ages. I’m not talking about that.” Dan dropped his voice. “You’re a Trueblood.”

A hand around Dan’s throat and his feet no longer touched the ground.

“Listen,” Dan choked out, trying to wrench Luka’s fingers off his windpipe.

Luka let him down, wondering if there was any way out of this. Could he mind-wipe Dan? Luka didn’t think he had that sort of ability, not on a vamp of Dan’s age. Dan rubbed his hand over his throat. Luka watched his fingers. He’d have to choke him to death instead.
Shit
. He didn’t want to do that either.

“Let me finish before you decide whether I need strangling. I’m your friend, Luka. We’ve worked together for years and I’ve kept your secret. You didn’t trust me enough to tell me you weren’t gay, but I played along with it, pretended to envy your relationship with the fabulous, fictitious Rio.”

Luka clenched his fists at his sides and said nothing.

“After you stalked off, Jason made a comment about you being arrogant because you could stand a bit more light than me. That was something I didn’t know. I went into his mind, unraveled his thoughts.” Dan sighed. “I should have done it before. It might have saved us both some heartache. Fifteen years ago, when Jason was a kid, his sister killed Chloe’s family. She made it look like an accident, a faulty boiler leaking carbon monoxide. Chloe only survived because she’d gone outside.”

“Christ.”

“His sister’s name is Selena.”

Oh fuck
. Luka’s world started to collapse.

“Jason’s sister was married to Chloe’s grandfather and she inherited the family home, Washburn Hall. Chloe was looked after by the local authorities. Selena didn’t want her. They’ve had no contact since.”

Why hadn’t she told him any of this?

“At some point after the family died, Selena was turned by Constantine Nevchek. When Jason found out what his sister had become, he wanted to be turned too and he’s spent the last few years trying to find someone to do that. His sister refused but Jason came down from Scotland thinking if he persisted, she’d give way. Jason was talking to her about you, and Nevchek overheard him say he’d seen you out after dawn, out before sunset, that you must be some special kind of vampire.”

“It was Nevchek who guessed I was a Trueblood?”

Dan nodded. “Are you really?” he whispered.

Luka saw no point in denial now. “Yes.”

At that moment, Luka saw Chloe had been innocent. Everything she’d told him had been the truth. What had he done?

Your love
.

“Oh, fuck.” Luka clutched his arm. It burned like it had been dipped in acid.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need to find her.”

“What do you want me to do, my lord?”

Luka cringed at the words and the look of awe in Dan’s eyes.

“For a start, don’t fucking call me that.”

He had to put things right with Chloe, but he had no idea where to find her. Luka stormed back into the club, followed by Dan.

“Where’s Jason?” Luka asked.

“I told him to clear out his stuff.”

Luka ran downstairs to the staff locker room and flung open the door. Jason looked up and dropped everything he was holding, his eyes wide with fear.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted. “I had no idea. I wouldn’t have --”

“What’s Selena’s married name?” Luka asked.

As he strode across the room, Jason backed away.

“Selena Lord,” he gasped.

Luka spun on his heel. “Take care of this,” he said to Dan.

Up in his office, Luka used his computer to access the electoral register. He paid for the minimum number of searches and entered Chloe’s name and the city where she lived -- Leeds.

He looked at the box for age and drew in his breath. She’d been born twenty-seven years, four months, three weeks, and six days ago. The day his arm first began to hurt.

Her address came up. 14 The Tramline, Guiseley. About seven miles away. Luka had to get there before Constantine. As he ran down the stairs, he realized the dragon had moved. He’d left it on the floor of his office and it had been sitting by his computer when he’d gone back in. How the hell had that happened?

“Is she really dying, Phoebe?”

“Yes, Angel.”

“Can’t we save her?”

“Only he can save her. At least he believes now. I don’t think scowling at him helped, Rufus.”

“Well, since I couldn’t breathe fire on his balls, it was the next best thing. He doesn’t deserve
her.”

Selena woke and wished she hadn’t. This had all seemed so simple when Constantine had planned it and everything had gone wrong. She pulled the covers over her head and closed her eyes. She lay like that for a long time hoping the situation would be sorted by the time she came out of her room. She needed to feed but she didn’t want to run the risk of bumping into --

“Selena?”

Her eyes sprang open under the sheet. How had Constantine gotten in there?

“I know you’re not still sleeping.”

She emerged with reluctance.

“While you bury your head in the sand, Eve and Krista have fled and Chloe has disappeared.”

Oh fuck. Why hadn’t she disappeared too? She’d lain in bed when she should have been packing.

Constantine sat on the white leather couch in her room, his legs outstretched, crossed at the ankle, hands behind his head.

“Chloe’s gone? But you warded the door.”

He raised one eyebrow. “So it’s my fault?”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

“The ward was still in place, so what does that tell us?”

“She didn’t leave through the door.”

He took his hands from behind his head and clapped them slowly. “There is a spark of intellect. I began to wonder.”

“It’s a long drop from the window. She must have been injured. Or…maybe someone put up a ladder.”

“The window can’t be opened that wide.”

Selena swallowed hard. “Could someone have removed the ward and put it back again?”

Constantine tsked. “You’re disappointing me, Selena. Why bother to put a ward back once the person it guards is free?”

He had a point. Though she’d had a ward on her own door. How had he gotten through that?

“Tell me, how do you think I came to be sitting in your room?”

Bloody mind reader
. She looked at the door, figuring she needed to find a stronger barrier and then noticed the fireplace was ajar with a dark space beyond. “There are passageways?”

He nodded.

“Why that conniving little bitch.” She reared up from the bed.

Constantine didn’t move. “Where does she live?”

Selena stamped to her computer and sat down. “She booked her stay online.” A few tapped keys later she turned to risk a smile. “14 The Tramline, Guiseley.”

“Thank you.”

He stood and walked over to her. His hands slid through her curly hair and down her neck.

Selena stiffened as his fingers circled her throat.

“You were greedy, Selena. You could have had it all, but you couldn’t wait.”

“I could,” she choked out.

“I should have known that someone ruthless enough to kill her husband and his family wouldn’t hesitate to put her own interests before mine.”

One twist of his hands and her neck snapped. Selena felt no pain but she couldn’t move. Surely he knew that breaking her spine wouldn’t kill her.

Constantine spun her wheeled chair across the room to face the window. “Yes, I know that hasn’t killed you but without blood you can’t heal yourself so you’ll just have to sit here.” He flung open the shutters and fastened them back to the wall. “Ten hours to think about your stupidity and as a final reward, one moment in the sun’s spotlight.”

Then he was gone. Selena opened her mouth to scream and only a strangled groan came from her throat.

* * * * *

Chloe drove away from Rebellion at low speed. A couple of motorists tooted their horns to urge her to get a move on, but she was petrified she’d fail to react in time to a drunken pedestrian, a suicidal cat, or a herd of elephants. Within a few blocks, she knew she had to stop before she had an accident. She found a parking spot around the corner from Leeds General Hospital and pulled in. Since her sixth-and-a-half sense seemed to have stopped talking to her, she’d take finding a parking place as a sign.

She had no hope that a hospital could do anything for her medically, but it was the safest refuge Chloe could come up with and there was always a slim chance they could help her. The Accident and Emergency Department heaved with people, most of whom appeared to be drunk and bleeding. Chloe stood in line, her lack of interest in the blood reassuring. She felt no urge to lick the forehead of the guy next to her, even though he was rather cute. So not a vampire yet.

Giving her name and address was no problem, saying what was wrong with her proved somewhat trickier.

“I feel…ill.”

The tired looking triage nurse rolled her eyes.

“I’m exhausted,” Chloe added.

“Aren’t we all? What are your symptoms? How long have you had them? Are they getting worse?”

“I’ve been like this for over a day. I ache. My legs and arms don’t work properly. My head’s spinning. My vision’s wrong. I’m unsteady. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve never felt this bad before. And yes, it’s getting worse.”

The nurse looked at Chloe over the top of her steel-rimmed glasses.

“Sleeping okay?”

“Like the dead.”

“Eating? Drinking?”

Chloe shook her head, pretty sure blood didn’t count.

“Any thoughts as to why you feel ill?”

The truth could work in her favor. They’d think she was crazy and look after her. Chloe lowered her voice. “I’ve been attacked by vampires.”

Not even a raised eyebrow. This woman must have heard it all before.

“Take a seat.”

Chloe settled in a corner of the room on an uncomfortable plastic chair. On her right sat a guy holding a bloody towel to his arm, and on her left a wide-eyed pregnant woman conducted a fascinating conversation about snow with her knees. At least Chloe wasn’t talking to herself out loud. She had a surge of hope that maybe the hospital
could
make her feel better. She shouldn’t give in. In the meantime, until the sun rose in several hours time, she felt safe surrounded by people. Even nutcases. It gave her time to think.