There was no way to get close to the queen of the hive. To this day, her current identity—if she even had one—was unknown. Those who had actually laid eyes on her and survived only half remembered her features: the fall of long silken black hair, eyes as black as the deepest pit of hell, and red lips stained an even darker, richer crimson by the blood that sustained her race.
Like countless other men and women, Maddox had been seduced by the press of her body against his, by the feel of sharp teeth puncturing vulnerable skin to feast upon his life’s blood. The scars still lingered on his flesh to this very day, marking him as one of the very few who’d been taken but had escaped the soul-sucking damnation of so many other victims.
“Maybe it’s time to step up the battle,” he said quietly. “We’ve been pussyfooting around, doing our best to stay off their radar because we’re outnumbered and outgunned. For every fledgling we take out, ten more are created because they know we can’t get them all.”
Sam shot him a glance. “So you’re saying it’s time to get more aggressive?”
Rubbing tired eyes, Maddox shook his head to clear it of the phantoms of past failure. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He’d chosen his side, damn it, and he was too damn old to make a switch now. Like an addict quitting heroin, he’d have to go cold turkey. It was time to stop feeding his addiction.
Sam kept his gaze fixed on the highway straight ahead. “We were wondering when you were going to decide to stop bullshitting around and get serious,” he finally said.
Deeply disquieted, he raised his brows. There was no way Sam could have been privy to his personal and innermost thoughts. “Oh?”
Casting a nervous glance his way, Sam licked his lips. “Look, man. I’ll be straight with you, simply because I don’t think it’s good for us to have secrets. So far we’re the only three sentinels working the NOLA hell beat, and if we don’t hang together, then we’ll all fall separately, if you know what I mean.”
Maddox nodded. He clearly heard the conflict in Sam’s voice. “I get that you’re saying there’s strength in numbers.”
“Yeah, well, just so you know, Reyen’s been hinting around that he’d like to cut the number from three to two.”
Sam’s words hit him like an openhanded slap.
I knew that bastard would stab me in the back
, Maddox thought with icy rationality.
Anger immediately lanced through him, squeezing his skull in a viselike grip. “Like how?” Not that he had to ask. He already knew how Reyen Akansea dealt with people who got in the way of his single-minded mission to destroy the Telave. Although he and Sam kept their slaying confined to those with direct contact with the cult, Reyen took his zeal one step farther. On more than one occasion the Indian had taken out a human simply because he happened to worship the vampiric mystique.
One less of them to be birthed, Reyen would say as he drew another hash mark on his inner forearm with the tip of his blade. He’d later have the mark permanently tattooed on, part of the way he kept a running count of his kills.
Maddox refused to let his pulse race ahead of his thoughts. “Was he planning to tell me to my face, or was it going to be something I was never meant to see coming?”
The hum of the big car’s engine temporarily filled the lull of silence between them. Normally Sam had one of his electronic hip-hop fusion dance groups blasting; it was a form of music Maddox personally couldn’t stand because it all sounded like one long whine to his ears. Tonight there was nothing playing in the background. At first he thought it might be out of consideration for Jesse, who still lay blissfully unconscious in the backseat. But no. Silence was the requirement for serious conversation. No distractions.
Sam hesitated, reluctant to reveal more. “You know how Reyen works,” he said after an uncomfortable pause. His lips flicked in a mirthless grin.
Maddox released a short laugh. He felt uncomfortable under Sam’s knowing gaze. “No shit.” Rationally, he knew Reyen would make sure Maddox never knew what hit him.
He glanced at the man behind the wheel. Had Sam been wired a different way, they would probably never have met in this lifetime. Like Reyen, Sam had no love of the Telave. He wanted them gone—for good.
Sensing his friend’s dissatisfaction, Maddox sighed. “Thanks for the heads-up, man. But it’s something I’ve always known about Reyen.”
“For a partnership as long as you two have had, it sure is one fucked-up dynamic.” Sam shot him a squinted look. “And you’ve been off the
bite
how long?”
Catching the unspoken contempt lacing Sam’s words, Maddox looked at him suspiciously for a moment. He had to wonder if Sam was feeling him out, sniffing around for the answers Reyen might want. Maddox wasn’t sure whose side Sam might stand on if he were asked to pick between them. Sam did a good job of staying neutral when the tensions mounted, but he had a feeling that wasn’t going to last.
Suddenly he felt cornered, like a rat in a trap. A lump of panic rose in his throat, threatening to cut off his air. Shit. It was the one subject he hated to discuss with anyone.
For an instant he felt the sting of self-revulsion. Like every addict, he wanted to think his secret was his own, something he would make every effort to conceal even as he indulged his need for another fix. The sneaking around, the deceit, was beginning to gnaw away at his conscience. Perhaps that was why he’d begun to drink more. By the time he finished a bottle, he would have temporary respite from his craving for the forbidden.
He swallowed hard, refusing to look away. A liar always looked away and avoided direct eye contact. He met Sam’s gaze without flinching and said, “Years.” He even offered a wry grimace so his lie would seem more authentic. As he spoke, cold awareness rushed over him. Of course, he’d never given up the habit.
And he wasn’t about to start now.
Sam raised his brows. “Really?” Faint surprise and hesitation colored the single word.
Maddox knotted one hand into a fist, forcing his nails deep into the palm of his hand. “Absolutely,” he said drily. His even, neutral voice betrayed nothing.
Grimly, Sam nodded. “Good.”
To Maddox’s relief, Sam left it at that, which was just as well. He didn’t feel like talking anymore, especially about such a touchy subject. If nothing else, the conversation served as a reminder that the men he worked with didn’t entirely trust him.
Suddenly he was conscious of deathly weariness and terrible depletion of nervous energy that was the inevitable result of taking down a noxious beast.
Maddox shut his eyes, concentrating on the hum of the engine. Right now all he wanted was to go home and sleep.
Preferably without dreaming.
Chapter 10
S
liding through the narrow crawl space leading to his underground apartment, Maddox reached up to pull Jesse through the opening.
“You think she’ll be okay?” Sam asked as he helped maneuver her unconscious body.
Cradling Jesse against his chest, Maddox nodded. “I think so.” He cocked his head. “Slide that grate back into place before you go.”
Sam grunted and wrestled the heavy iron bars back into place. “I don’t know why you didn’t find something above the ground,” he groused. “Only rats and spiders hide in dark spaces.”
Maddox managed a shrug. “I feel safer underground, less exposed.”
“You’re really more vulnerable,” Sam argued back. “If any of those baddies gets down here, you’re trapped. And what about the flooding? If another damn storm comes through, this place will be under water again.”
Maddox managed a nod. “We’ll be fine, Sam.”
Sam Chen peered through the grate he replaced. “You going to be out tonight?”
“Think I’ll skip it.”
“I wish you’d quit turning off the cell I gave you. It would make it easier to keep in touch.”
He frowned. Sam was all for using the latest gadgets and electronic wizardry to coordinate their movements. And while he’d admit such items had their uses, there were times when he didn’t want to be tethered to any form of communication. Sometimes it was more desirable to be out of touch, incommunicado. “I don’t like those things,” was all he said.
Sam shook his head. “You are living in the twenty-first century, man. Even Reyen has enough sense to roll with the times.”
“I like being a dinosaur.”
“Dinosaurs died out because they couldn’t change with the times, man,” Sam reminded him. “You’d better get with the program. I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better.” He shivered. “If they ever get better again.”
Tightening his grip on Jesse, Maddox cocked his head. “See you later, Sam.”
“Right. Whatever.”
Heaving a sigh of relief, Maddox carried Jesse through the wreckage of the old bar. Thin shafts of morning sunlight streamed through the cracked plywood nailed over the huge stained-glass window and matching door that had once been the centerpiece of the lounge’s decor. At one time a narrow staircase located at one side of the hotel had led down into the salon area. The stairway itself was presently filled with debris from the floods. A second exit toward the rear led to an elevator locked permanently between floors.
Sam was right, of course. Getting trapped down here with something nasty would probably mean not getting out alive. The old manager’s apartment he presently occupied didn’t have a separate exit of its own. Going inside led to a dead end. There wasn’t even a window in the bathroom.
He hadn’t lived here long—maybe a year or so. The place was cozy for one; cramped for two. If he was going to keep Jesse with him, it might be wiser to look for a safer place. The old business district was filled with abandoned buildings. Surely a little scouting would turn up something more suitable. That was, if someone else wasn’t already squatting there. After the hurricane, a record number of people had been left homeless. Those unwilling to relocate or unable to gain other housing options had quickly denned up in the abandoned districts, creating encampments of their own. Like him, these people now existed on the fringes of so-called normal society. It seemed to be the way the world worked. When a society began to crumble, people seemed to revert to an almost primitive state, becoming violent, vicious, and utterly destructive.
It was exactly how prophecy predicted the end of days would happen
, he told himself. When civilization began to fall, chaos would inevitably ensue. As man turned upon man, the beasts would glut themselves on the remains.
Maddox sighed. “I don’t want to think about that anymore,” he murmured. All he wanted to do was get Jesse taken care of and climb into bed himself. He wouldn’t think about such things until absolutely necessary. Otherwise, he believed he’d come to the conclusion they were fighting a losing battle all around. In that case, it would be better to get out. A loaded gun cocked under his chin would take care of that just fine.
An emotional knot wedged in his throat. That wasn’t the way any man wanted to think of his future. In a way, he was glad to have found Jesse. She could be his touchstone, someone to keep him from slipping too far over the edge during one of his depressive episodes. Though not naturally predisposed toward the dark and the annihilative, recent events had cast a gothic aspect over his life.
Slipping under the threshold, he deposited Jesse on the bed. Much to her credit, she’d actually made the damn thing, smoothing out the sheets and straightening the faded comforter. Most of the things in the apartment had been salvaged from the upper floors of the hotel, which had included a nice stash of bedding. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to dig around for some cleaner sheets and a better bedspread. What they slept on now probably needed to be tossed into the trash and burned.
Jesse roused herself from sleep long enough to uncurl her body. Her eyes were closed, the lashes sweeping like butterfly wings against her pale skin.
Maddox reached out, running his fingers across the waves of her hair, brushing aside the sweat-matted tangles that clung to her face. Her skin and clothing were stained with the remnants of stinking black blood from the undead she’d slain.
A frown creased his brow as he looked over her state of disarray. Without further thought, he began to unbutton her blouse, slipping her arms out of the sleeves and easing the garment out from under her body. Not the least doubtful of what her reaction would be if she were aware of what he was doing, he smiled wryly as he unzipped her jeans. Slipping her shoes off her feet, he manipulated the tight denim over her hips and down her long legs.
He tossed the stained garments aside. Jesse was left only in a bra and panties.
Maddox eyed her nearly naked body. The sparse light of the nearby lamp sucking away the last few ounces of precious oil lent her milk white skin a phosphorescent, almost unearthly, glow. The thin white tendrils woven beneath her flesh seemed to form a pattern as delicate as a spider’s silky web, the mark of the demon that claimed her as its own.
Unable to stay his move, Maddox ran his palm across her flat abdomen. He suddenly became aware of the feel of her naked flesh beneath his hand, now barely less than an inch from the breast cupped by a plain white cotton bra. At the same time he felt a new, smoldering intensity come to light in his chest.
Gritting his teeth, Maddox forced himself to lift his hand away. Yes, it was true he wanted Jesse; he would take her in a heartbeat. But molesting her as she lay unconscious wasn’t the way to commence any sort of decent seduction.
Wiping a hand across his brow, Maddox lit a few more lamps to chase away the shadows before heading toward the bathroom. He emerged a few minutes later carrying a couple of cool damp washrags and a towel.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he lifted one of her hands. Jesse Burke was a tall woman, and the size of her grip well matched her height. Her fingers were long and tapered; her palm wide and strong. Though Reyen’s armament hadn’t been one she was familiar with, she’d done an admirable job with it. He had no doubt she would be a force to be reckoned with once she had a weapon of her own.