Vampire U (16 page)

In the darkness, I understood how a lamb led to the slaughter must feel - not fear, but acceptance of the inevitable tinged by a dull disbelief that the shepherd has betrayed you.

"He was always a coward, your Mander," Alex said from the darkness over my left shoulder.  The affected southern drawl was gone; his cold tone held an accent that no living man would recognize, heavy with British and French influences atop a crisp annunciation that spoke of nobility and education.  Everything about the southern party boy had been a mask.  Here in the dark, I was alone with the real Alex Golov, a vampire who had been alive during the civil war and maybe longer.  I spun to face the voice, my blind eyes wide and straining to see something - 
anything
 - in the darkness.  "They say he's strong, but he's just old and tired," Alex said.  "While the rest of us harvest, he broods and sows the seeds of discord among our brotherhood."

"Mander's stronger than any of you," I said.

Alex laughed.  "If that were so, he would face me.  Instead, he gives you to me as a peace offering."

A chill ran up my spine.  
Do you trust me?
  Mander had asked before dragging me into the tunnels.  Now I was in the hands of his enemy.  Was it true?  Had he given me up?  Words failed me.

"I'll enjoy taking you," Alex said.  "Perhaps I'll even allow Mander to live, if he proves to be a loyal servant."

I turned in circles, my feet slogging in the wet sand as I followed the voice moving around me.  I heard no footsteps, yet Alex came closer and closer with each word.  My body wanted to panic, to bolt into the darkness and crash into a wall, but something held me in place.  I felt the tendrils of Alex's will inside my head again, stronger than ever.

Your purity gives you strength,
 I'd been told, but I didn't feel strong now.  I was a mouse, and Alex was a stalking cat, batting at his captured prey for amusement before turning it into just another dead thing.

My neck ached where Mander had bitten me, a reminder that I'd sealed my fate when I gave my blood to him.  Either we would succeed together, or I'd been betrayed and would die here.  Either would be better than becoming another doomed soul like Kara Thompson, corrupted and abandoned like a scarred husk to live out my days in squalor and paranoia.  At least I'd freed Morgan from captivity.  Even as my fear and Alex's mental invasion threatened to crush me, that thought let me hold onto a hope that I could die with my head held high.

I didn't want to die at all, but I couldn't fight Alex.  The rest of my wooden stakes had burned up in Vic's motel room, and sunlight was just a memory down here.

Don't stand your ground on sand.
  Momma Bones's last prophecy was a faint echo in the buzzing hive of my brain.  
Wait until you stand on rock.
  I felt the wet, gritty sediment squelch beneath my shoes.  Was this what she'd seen?

Taking a deep breath, I lowered my mental defenses.  Alex's will rushed in like floodwaters, shoving the vital essence of 
me
 into a dark corner of my mind.  My body crumpled to the floor, and I lay paralyzed, gaping at the darkness like a catfish pulled to the surface and left to suffocate on the shore.  I heard footsteps, quick and light, then strong arms scooped me up and carry my limp body swiftly into the darkness.

I awoke with a deep buzz in head.  Thought came slowly, like bubbles rising through syrup.  Flickering light cast a red hue over my blurred vision, but after such a long time in the dark, any sight felt welcome.  My muddled brain dragged itself together, and I realized I was staring down at my feet.  My 
bare
 feet.  And bare legs.

Bare everything.

My arms stretched above my head, and when I tried to pull my hands down, I realized my wrists were bound to something above me, holding me upright even if I tried to slump forward.  I knew somehow that I should be terrified, even struggling to free myself, but it all seemed so remote, as though this was happening to another person.

Something smooth and hard pressed against my back, cold and slippery as the rocks beneath a frozen lake.  Lifting my head, I saw that I was tied to a post in the center of a circular chamber.  Torchlight glistened on the wet, black-streaked walls of mortared stone, making the moisture seeping from the joints look like blood.

I remembered Alex's haunting, triumphant voice in the darkness after Mander disappeared.  Then an endless journey through blackness, carried like a child in Alex's arms.

I shifted against the post to which I was bound.  Ancient hardwood slid against my bare buttocks and between my shoulder blades - hardwood soaked in blood and smoothed by centuries of writhing, anguished bodies.  Even with the vampire in my mind suppressing feelings of absolute horror, I knew immediately where I was.

Still, I raised my head and looked at the post behind me, the "red stick" of legend, the very namesake of Baton Rouge
.
  Alex had brought me to the very heart of Beta House, their secret source of dark power deep below the innocent facade of youthful indulgence.  I shivered, imagining that I could feel the souls of countless women tied to this very post, enjoyed and consumed by Le Moyne and his vampire coven.

"Such a pretty thing," a voice said.  I raised my head to find Alex Golov before me, as naked as I was.  Every inch of him bulged with the hard, thick muscle of a prized bull.  His manhood hung between his legs like a heavy pendulum of flesh.  He grinned at me, flashing sharp fangs, and his eyes blazed red as they bored into mine.

Through the muddled veil of my emotions, I felt a stirring of desire between my legs at the sight of his powerful, perfect body.  I could feel him in my head, the subtle whisper of a devil in my ear, urging me to abandon rational thought and give myself to him.  That urge reminded me how Mander's bite had engulfed me in passion.  But with Mander, there had been a deeper connection, a sense of purpose and destiny.

With Alex, there was only an unthinking animal lust.  I could feel him in my head, nurturing the seed of unconscious desire buried deep in the most primitive part of my brain, fanning the warm coals into a roaring fire.  My whole body itched to fuck Alex, a simple truth could hardly admit to myself.  I wanted to crush that urge beneath a mountain of sane, logical reasoning, but my surrender to Alex in those desperate moments after Mander's disappearance had made me vulnerable, and now Alex had left something imprinted on my soul - a bond that cried out for consummation.

Alone in that secret place, my fear was nothing compared to that dark yearning.  My hips shifted forward, and my thighs fell apart.  Cool air caressed my wet folds, soothing and refreshing against my hot skin.  Alex stepped close, his eyes holding mine, drawing me in.  I swam in pools of crimson, mesmerized by the ancient malevolence I saw there.  I'd felt humanity in Mander, but whatever demon dwelt in these vampires controlled Alex fully.

"Your arrival here was inevitable, Danielle," he said, brushing his lips against mine.  They felt hot, not from natural inner warmth, but hot like fresh blood on ice.  "Since the moment we met, I knew I would chase you to the ends of the earth to have you."

I craved the touch of his cool lips against my skin, both for the ecstasy and the end that they would bring.  In the quiet corner of my mind where the real me still hid, I felt only despair.  I thought of poor, sweet Morgan, enthralled by Vic and reduced to a sex toy and a food source.  I'd saved Morgan, but I couldn't save myself.  I'd put my trust in a monster, but Mander had left me alone in the dark.  I'd known what he was, but now his betrayal stabbed deep.  Helpless and exhausted, my only escape was the hope of oblivion in Alex's bite.  
Let it end,
 I prayed.

"Drink then," I said, lifting my chin to expose my neck to his waiting mouth.  "Drink all you can!" 

Alex threw back his head and roared with laughter.  "Oh, sweet child, we have so much to do first."  He leered down at my firm young breasts, and his cock stirred between his legs, twitching as it rose.  His cool hands touched the ropes that held my wrists, gliding down my arms to brush lightly against the smooth skin of my ribs as his mouth closed against my neck.

I felt the needle-sharp tips of his teeth on my throat, but he didn't bite, not then.  His lips lightly brushed my skin, and he breathed softly on me, awakening my nerve endings with a cool tingle.  My neck flushed with color as blood rose to the surface, drawn to him as the tide is drawn by the moon.

I wanted to fight back, to draw away, but my body betrayed me to the tightness that sang between my legs, hot and urgent with need.  I pushed my hips forward again, and our legs entangled.  His smooth, hard thigh muscles pressed against my slender legs, sending a wild thrill through my body, and his cock grew suddenly engorged with lust.  Unlike the rest of him, his manhood felt warm when he pressed it against the shallow curve below my belly, and I wondered whose blood fueled that massive erection.

But my body didn't 
care.
  I arched my back, thrusting out my high, round breasts into the cupped palms of his waiting hands.  Alex squeezed them hard enough to send a dull ache rolling through my chest as his mouth swept up the line of my jaw, and he kissed me.  There was no love in that kiss, only a primal hunger as his tongue thrust between my teeth, penetrating me.  Claiming me.  He drew my tongue into his mouth, sucking gently as he closed his teeth around it.  His eyes were open, and he stared into mine, mocking me, relishing my fear and the power he held over me, knowing that he could drain my lifeblood at any moment.

Every second that I continued to live was a gift from Alex, yet my body felt intolerably hot, as though a fever ran through my blood.  His masculine form seemed an oasis, cool relief in a burning desert, and I pressed myself desperately against him, sighing as more of my skin made contact with his naked form.

He rubbed against me, hard with arousal now.  My virgin body craved release from a lifetime of restraint, but as I imagined his pulsing length penetrating the tight hole between my legs, I wondered why he hadn't simply forced my legs apart and taken me.  Why bother to grind down my will?

My mind cleared for a moment, like a beam of sunlight piercing a roiling cloudbank.  I thought of all that Momma Bones had told me, how the sacrifices at the 
Baton Rouge
 had given power to the 
petro loa
.  Sacrifice.  That was the key.  Alex would gain some measure of power by taking my virginity, but they would reap far more if I gave it of my own free will.  Alex could cajole me and manipulate my emotions, but he couldn't make the choice for me.

Then the words of Momma Bones's strange prophecy rang clear in my head.  
Wait until you stand on rock.
  Beneath my bare feet, I felt solid stone worn smooth by two centuries of footsteps.  In the dark, I'd known my resistance to be hopeless.  Here against the 
Baton Rouge,
 my situation was no less dire, yet this was my last chance.  If I somehow survived this encounter after Alex took my virginity, I would never again be more than his puppet.

Summoning all my will, I pushed out against him, reclaiming the space in my head where his presence had insinuated itself.  It felt like diving into a vine-choked forest.  Black, tangled tendrils wrapped around every part of my psyche, influencing my every thought and feeling.  Yet somehow, I stood outside it all, able to see where I'd lost control.  I thrashed and slashed, severing his connections to my mind with the force of my sheer determination until...

I yanked my head to one side, breaking the kiss.  At the same moment, I twisted, putting my hip toward him and closing my legs to the probing thrusts of his stiff rod.  Alex's mad crimson eyes flared with rage, and for a moment, I thought he would simply snap my neck.  But I was too sweet a prize, and in the next instant I felt him redouble his assault on my mind, a mental blitzkrieg that staggered me.

"Foolish bitch," Alex growled, his voice a demonic rumble.  "If you won't give yourself to me, then I will break you."

Tied to the pole, I had no advantage over him, no way of escaping.  He was so strong, and every instant I resisted him felt like an eternity of struggle.  I had no doubt I would die in that dark and secret chamber, but I wanted to die as myself, not a hollow, used-up shell of a woman.

So I fought back against his withering onslaught, holding my ground as he pummeled my mind with the force of his malevolent will.  I felt my resolve begin to crumble almost at once as black vines of doubt forced their way into hairline cracks in my willpower.  Before, his influence had been a subtle insinuation, leaving me intact but guided.  Now it came with the brute force of a sledgehammer, and I knew that he meant to leave my mind in ruins.

I wanted to fight the vampire and force him to break me so utterly that I could never know the pain he would inflict.  But in the end, I simply wasn't brave enough to destroy myself.  In the face of his psychic deathblow, I relented, opening myself to him once again.  Alex Golov felt me surrender, and he howled with triumph as he poured his will into my mind.  All thought and sensation faded into numbness, as though I'd plunged through the ice of a dark, frozen lake.

It felt as though everything unfolded through the distant lens of a telescope.  My body surrendered to him, but it felt like someone else's problem.  My hips shifted again and my legs spread apart as Alex reached down to guide his erection between them.  Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and I felt a pang of regret that this was how I would lose my virginity, not to a man I loved, but to a creature out of nightmare.

In the darkness behind Alex, something moved - an indistinct blur of black and white.  It drew my eyes past Alex's shoulder, and he tensed as his scarlet eyes widened in sudden realization that we weren't alone.  For a moment, he hesitated on the verge of piercing me, and that moment cost him everything.  Even as he started to spin with the lightning-fast instincts of a hunter, Alex let out a ragged gasp and his body lurched backward.  With horrifying suddenness, everything snapped back into focus.  My mind was my own again, and every sensation and emotion hit me like the raging torrent of an icy waterfall.

In the firelight, something stuck out of Alex's chest, something sharp and glistening red.  Bright rivulets of the same shade trickled down his torso, and I studied them, perplexed, until something pulled my gaze upward.

Mander stood behind Alex with murder in his eyes, one hand wrapped around the other vampire's throat, the other holding the narrow stiletto of polished oak he'd embedded in Alex's heart.  As Alex's pale skin began to smoke, Mander jerked him away from me, throwing the body to the ground just as it burst into flame.

Mander watched him burn with a strange and distant look in his eyes.  As the flames spread, Mander began to sway unsteadily.  He groaned, and I could only watch helplessly as he collapsed on the floor and writhed in agony.

Meanwhile, Alex Golov burned as bright as a sun, filling the air with a cloud of acrid smoke that stung my nostrils.  The wooden spike jutting from his ribcage caught fire more slowly, an orange flutter on the surface of a white-hot pyre.  The flame consumed him quickly, ending his unthinkable lifespan of murder and violence in mere seconds.  When it was over, nothing remained but an oily black stain on the stone floor and a black haze in the chamber's stagnant air.

I blinked at the purple afterimage of Alex's death, then turned to Mander.  As always, every sight of him sent my emotions into a pitched battle, but now I felt fear.  If Momma Bones had been right, killing Alex would have wounded the evil spirit that lived inside these vampires.  Including Mander.  Pain twisted his face, and his back arched as he let out a strained groan.  He jerked suddenly, then lay still, his white dress shirt mottled by dark stains.

"Mander!" I cried out.  "Mander!  Get up!  Please!"  My voice was a pleading wail, but I didn't care who heard.  Let them come for me.  If Mander was dead, nothing else mattered.  Long, silent seconds passed, each one an eternity that found me alone with dark thoughts.

Then Mander let out a long, soft moan, and I nearly wept with relief.  He sat up on his elbows and looked at me.  "That 
hurt."

Now my relief at seeing him alive was overwhelmed by my anger.  "Where the fuck did you go?" I yelled.  "He almost..."  I couldn't finish.  Tears welled up in my eyes.  In the wake of Alex's mental assault, my own emotions felt enormous and raw.  Relief and doubt.  Fear and rage.

Mander rose gracefully and came to me, pressing his fingers to my lips with a soothing touch.  "I know," he said.  "I'm sorry.  I had no choice."  He reached up and untied the leather cord that held my wrists.

When my arms were free, I pushed him away, furious.  "You left me for him!  How could you?"

Mander shook his head.  "There was no other way, Danielle.  All of Beta House followed Alex, and he was stronger and faster than me.  To destroy him, I had to know he would be alone and distracted."  He looked around at the dark round chamber.  "We call this the Heart.  Whatever drives us - the spirit your Momma Bones spoke of - is strongest here.  We grow more powerful when we feed in this place, and the feeding itself is far more intense."  Something burned in his obsidian-black eyes, giving me a glimpse of the sins he'd committed in his long, dark lifespan.  Whatever humanity I'd seen in Mander before, it was losing its struggle.  The demon inside him held sway, cold and remorseless.