A Vampire’s Mistress (5 page)

Only one person came to mind.

Chapter Four

Her body re-formed, the particles knitting back together as the bits and pieces of her coalesced into solid form like ice crystals building upon one another, fragile, but whole.

Weakened by the unexpected transport, Marina fell to her hands and knees. The veins in the highly polished chessboard-black-and-white marble floor wavered as she tried to orient herself and get her eyes to focus.

Illuminated by the last rays of the sun filtering in through the open French doors, the floor gleamed. She recognized those doors, and the balcony beyond. Lifting her head, she swallowed bile.

Oh, gods, no.
She’d come full circle.

The sight of Lake Como, molten copper in the evening light, was all too familiar. She’d risen many an evening to look over that water, trying to think of a way to escape Nick.

Her throat sealed shut, and even though she didn’t need to breathe, she touched her hand to her throat trying to rid it of the suffocating sensation. She settled back on her knees.

She was in Italy, at Nick’s villa. The familiar black silk furnishings and ornate gilded rococo medallion holding an enormous crystal chandelier above her, spoke of wealth and leisure, but she knew better. It was a pretty gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless. And once again, she was trapped.

The Seattle Clan might have been capable of preventing anyone transporting directly into the headquarters, but apparently weren’t able to stop a powerful vampire from transporting someone out.

Strong invisible fingers clamped around her upper arm, then hauled her to her feet. Marina gasped. From the zing singing through her system she knew it was Gabe. Relief steadied her feet and she straightened. How he’d made it through transport with her, she had no idea, but right now she didn’t give a damn, she was just grateful he was still beside her.

“Well, well, isn’t this cozy?” Nick’s smooth deep voice rolled over her with the force of a tsunami, stripping her bare to the bone in one swift stroke. She’d known he hadn’t died, but seeing him again made her cold all over. The hair on the back of her neck rose.

Her gaze drifted up over the tips of a pair of highly polished leather loafers that cost enough to feed a small mortal village for a year. They matched the expensive cut of the black double-breasted suit. The dark silk of Nick’s shirt and tie set off his deep olive complexion, emphasizing the black ring around his deep brown eyes and the wave in his slicked-back long dark curls. She met his cold gaze without flinching, but it took everything in her not to turn tail and run.

Probably sensing what she wanted to do, Gabriel’s fingers tightened on her arm, but he remained silent.

His long thin nose twitched.
Flick.
Fangs came out, very white against the darker skin of his lips. “It seems you’ve been seeing someone, my dear, and not just the mortal guards in Palermo. I can smell Gabriel’s mark on you. You should have invited him to come along.”

“Why would I have done that?” she countered, keeping her voice even and unruffled.

Nick shook his head slowly, the back of his finger brushing his bottom lip. He wagged the finger at her in gentle reprimand, but the gentleness was feigned. When he got the chance, she knew he’d make her pay. “I know he helped you escape.”

Marina tensed. She didn’t want Gabe in the middle of them again. He would only end up hurt.
No. Please, no. Stay invisible. Please.
She sent out the silent plea to him, but it went unheeded. An instant later Gabe fluxed, coming into full form beside her.

Nick’s feral gaze locked on Gabe’s hand on her arm, then traveled back to her face.

“How predictable you are, my old friend.” His cold gaze flicked back to Marina. “I knew you wouldn’t resist the lure of rescuing your lady love no matter what the cost.” His smile didn’t in any way reach his cold dark eyes as he glanced back to her. “Thank you, my dear, for being such delightful bait.”

Part of her wanted to lurch forward and claw the smug look from Nick’s face. The other part wanted to run as far and as fast as her abilities could take her, away from this dark vampire prince who’d made her existence a living hell. “Whatever it is that you want, Nick, my answer is no.”

“It would be far more polite, as my guest, if you’d at least pretend to let me finish.” Irritation rolled off him in waves, sending the smell of acrid smoke in her direction.

“I’m done pretending.” She tried to push past Gabe, but he blocked her with his mountain-size shoulder and held her upper arm in a manacle grip. “You never wanted me, Nick. Once you had me, you made that clear a hundred times over.”

Fury and black pain mingled in her system, spiking the air with a mix of pepper and the tang of copper. She shifted impatiently under Gabe’s hold and after a few seconds, he released her. Unlike Gabe, Nick had never taken her feelings into account.

His gaze sharpened to a knifepoint. “Oh, but you’re wrong there, my dear. I did indeed want you. How could I resist such a perfect pawn?”

“I’m not going to even pretend that anything you say, want or do has any interest to either of us,” Gabe inserted dismissively. “The council will deal with you for the illegal transport. Marina and I are transporting out of here.”

Nick gave him a self-satisfied smile, dismissing the threat entirely. “Really? I actually had other plans in mind.”

“Either we’re going to transport out, or you’re going to be beheaded. It’s two against one, Nick,” Gabe retorted.

“I think not,” Nick replied. Someone else was transporting behind Nick. Out of the corner of her eye, Marina observed the dark swirl of particles knitting together into a large male form. She wasn’t going to take her attention off Nick for even a second.

A huge, platinum-blond vampire, wearing a black leather duster, black jeans and a black T-shirt began to appear. The small silver hoop in one earlobe glinted as he formed.

Marina gasped as she recognized Vane, the reiver who was Nick’s accomplice in this scheme. His eyes flashed from scarlet to crimson at her reaction. He took an appreciative sniff of the air. “A pleasure as always, Marina,” he said, his voice gruff with hunger.

Standing her ground, she shuddered. As a reiver, Vane was even less concerned than Nick about who he sacrificed, mortal or vampire, to get what he wanted. Her relationship with Nick had gone from unstable to hellish as soon as Vane had wedged his way into Nick’s inner circle. He’d been the one to suggest to Nick that he could profit from her ichor rather than simply beheading her. “Who the hell invited you?” she said.

Vane grinned, revealing even, white teeth. “You know me. If I’m not invited, I crash.”

Why was Vane here? He was Nick’s strategic commander and American business partner. Gabe’s presence wasn’t a surprise to Nick. He’d known Gabe was with her. He’d brought them here—together—on purpose. What purpose? She had to figure out his agenda.

“This the reiver you told me about?” Gabe asked close to her ear. Marina nodded, the subtle scent of orange blossoms cloaking her skin hitting him square in the chest. Nick was right about one thing. He, Gabe, had to protect her, no matter what the cost.

He assessed the reiver, trying to read his thoughts. No go. He attempted to read Nick’s and found himself blocked by both. A brief glance around had told him right away they were at Nick’s villa in northern Italy. As a
Shyeld
for Nick, Gabriel had been here often enough to know the place’s secrets.

The thick sixteenth-century walls held a variety of secret passages. Nick liked the place because it was far enough from Rome for him to exercise his own form of princely vampire rights without the High Council breathing down his neck, yet close enough to Rome that he could still tap into the thoughts of other royals and members of the High Council if he wanted to.

Just behind Nick, the large landscape portrait of the Tuscan countryside hid a passageway that could take them quickly to the boat dock at the base of the hill. He’d already tried and failed to transport Marina out of the villa. Nick had placed a no-fly zone over his estate, making transport in or out without his permission impossible.

The same thing had surrounded the Seattle Clan’s headquarters. Clearly there
was
a way to transport. He just had to figure out how.

Vane presented an unknown in the situation. Was he the one who’d breached the security measures at the Seattle Clan’s headquarters? Someone had to have helped Nick. As powerful as he was, it would have taken some insider knowledge to crack the security measures..

Nick crooked his finger, beckoning Marina. “Come to me, Marina.”

Gabe stiffened as she took a step toward Nick.

What the hell? In the back of his mind he began to wonder if perhaps Vane wasn’t the one who’d been the insider. Or had
Marina
transported them to Nick’s?

He tightened his hold on her arm and tried to read her thoughts. Marian’s mind was unreadable. Her expression was utterly blank. Shock? Guilt? Something else? Gabriel couldn’t tell.

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, toward him. “No—I—no.”

“You played your part to perfection.” Nick held out a hand, his eyes hard and focused, his voice low and seductive. “How amusing that he actually believed you were in danger. You played the part of the victim to perfection, my dear. Gabriel fell for your frail, frightened act just as we thought he would. And you managed to sway him into thinking you once again cared for him. Look at his face, my pet. He’s still very much in love with you, even now after you’ve once again betrayed him. I have to give it to you, Marina. You do have a way about you when it comes to snaring men.”

The tip of Marina’s tongue did a quick swipe of her lips, her eyes a shade too bright and confused as she glanced from Nick to Gabe and back again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Get out of my head, Nick.”

“Come now. The game is over and we’ve won. You should be proud of your efforts.”

She pressed the heels of her hands to her temples. “Stop it. I’m not part of your game.” She took a step toward Gabe that faltered when he retreated a step in response. “You have to believe me, Gabe. He’s playing us against one another.”

For a brief moment Gabriel hesitated. He didn’t know who or what to believe. He couldn’t read Marina. She, or Nick, was blocking him. But then something deeper took over as he looked into her eyes, a certainty in his gut that told him without a doubt that Marina would never have betrayed him like this. Not the first time and not now.

He swiveled, staring Nick down, breaking his efforts to glamour Marina. “Whatever you’re planning to do with her ends now.”

Chapter Five

Nick’s mouth curled into a calculating smirk as he rolled his shoulders back and lifted his chin, looking for all the world like a medieval lord of the castle. “You’re out of your league,
Shyeld
.”

To hell with that.
The air shifted around Gabriel, whipping like a wind through the room and out the open balcony doors, where the setting sun cast the water of the lake a blood red. “Not a
Shyeld
any longer.”

Nick’s gaze flicked to Vane, a communication passing quickly between them. “Well, that’ll make it all so much easier. I can only imagine how tragic the High Council and the royal families will find it when they discover that Marina was beheaded by the former
Shyeld
she spurned, who then was beheaded by one of my business associates seeking revenge for my death.”

“Last chance.” The threat in Gabriel’s voice was clear.

Nick tilted his head to the side, then glanced at Marina. “You really do have a unique power over men, my dear. Even now he’s willing to lay down his life for you.”

Marina had struggled to find her voice, but when it came out it was hoarse and gritty, and full of hatred. “You bastard. You told me that if I did as I was told, you’d let me go after five years. I’d be free and you’d leave Gabe alone. Instead you turned me over to those vampire hunters. Do you know what they did to me? Every day they drained me until I was too weak to do more than open my eyes, then they’d shoot me full of dead man’s blood. Do you have any idea how much that hurts? It’s like stinging ice running in your veins, freezing you until you’re paralyzed.”

“Too bad Rihanna wasn’t there to appreciate it,” Nick said, his tone laced with sadistic amusement.

Marina’s rage pumped up another notch. “Rihanna? What does she have to do with any of this?”

“Your maker was instrumental in keeping my father, and as a result me, from being chancellor of the High Council. I’ve paid her back by taking the one thing she held dear as leverage, and in the end I’ll have control of the High Council. Once vampires come out into the open, I’ll go from being high chancellor to emperor of our new world order.”

“World domination. Wow, I expected more from you,” Gabe said with deliberate sarcasm.

Marina’s eyes widened. “You mean to tell me you’re going to rip apart the fabric of our society for some petty, stupid rivalry within the royal families?”

“While world wars have been fought for less, it’s not about the rivalry so much as position.” Nick phased a glass of deep red wine into his hand and took a sip.

“Your position on the council has never bothered you before, so why are you doing this, Nick?” she pressed.

“Why?” He laughed, mocking and cold. He crushed the glass in his hand, making it shatter, sending a spray of wine and shards of glass flying. A few chips bounced up, stinging into her skin. Nick’s eyes glittered. “One word—power. Except for a select few, the High Council refuses to acknowledge their power is eroding. As mortals rely more on technology and science, and less on superstition and religion, the old ways are rapidly disappearing. They are becoming more of a threat, only the High Council refuses to act. Once vampires become known to mortals, it’ll be only a matter of time. And once we are acknowledged, we will establish a new world order—where vampires reign supreme. Out of the shadows.” He brushed chips of glass off his sleeve. “With me at the helm. Me as ruler of it all.”