Tezra could sympathize with the woman not wanting to be changed, but she couldn’t imagine Krustalus being capable of loving anyone that much. “Something must have delayed him in meeting with her. No further entries were written after this.”
“Here are three police officer badges,” Atreides said, pul ing them out of another box near the table.
Daemon considered the numbers. “Have Maison identify who they belonged to and verify with the chief that these were the hit men. Also, have Maison find out if her husband ordered the hit.”
“Why would Krustalus not kil her husband and the chief if they were involved?” Tezra asked.
“Sometimes letting the rabbits run scared gives more satisfaction than terminating them. The game is ended too quickly then,”
Daemon said.
Atreides handed him a file. “Yeah, wel , here’s al about the woman who wasn’t in their records. Jane Cramer, twenty-five, special investigations. Here’s a note in police records about her disappearance. ‘After searching for the whereabouts of missing police officer Jane Cramer, and no new leads, the case was closed.’ If you notice, it was signed by Chief O’Mal ey, who ten years later denies she ever
was
a police officer.”
“Then a year later, they said she committed suicide.” Sickened by what the police had done, Tezra took a deep breath.
“Have you seen enough here, Tezra?” Daemon asked.
She nodded, but Daemon seemed even more disturbed than she was, and she couldn’t imagine anyone being more upset than her.
“Take Tezra back to Patrico’s,” Daemon suddenly said, his voice hard. “Now, Atreides.”
Atreides seized Tezra by the waist, but before she could ask what was going on—though she assumed Krustalus had arrived nearby and she just hadn’t sensed him yet—she found herself in the black void of vampiric travel.
As soon as they reached Patrico’s beach house, the overturned sofas and sword slashes in the wal s and furniture warned her of a vampire struggle. Her heart fil ed with panic, Tezra screamed, “Katie!”
Patrico groaned from behind one of the sofas, and she dashed to him while Atreides vanished. “Patrico!” His head sported a bloody gash, and he was favoring his left arm, his face grimacing with pain. “Where’s Katie?” she asked, then heard someone in one of the bedrooms.
Unsheathing her wrist blades, she dashed down the hal only to find Atreides searching the rooms. “They’re not here.”
“Voltan? The guards out back?”
Atreides shook his head. “No sign of anyone.”
She knew as wel as he did that if the men were kil ed outside, their ashes would have scattered in the wind. Her heart beat so hard, but the blood seemed to drain from her brain, and feeling lightheaded, she grabbed Atreides’s arm. “Did Daemon know about this?”
“No.” Atreides led her back into the living room. “Take care of Patrico. I’ve got to get some other men here at once.”
“But…why did Daemon send us here?”
“Krustalus sent him word he was meeting him there for a final showdown. He wants you, and he came to fight Daemon for you.”
“It was a ruse, dammit.”
“No. He was there, maybe beyond your range, but there nonetheless.”
“He’s got Katie!”
“We’l deal with it when we can. For now, you take care of—” Atreides turned his attention to the back porch. “Dammit. Stay here!” He vanished.
Tezra nearly quit breathing. She could deal with this. Racing into the kitchen, she grabbed a rol of paper towels, then hurried back into the living room. Patrico was mumbling something but barely making any sense.
“Voltan went with them. The traitorous bastard,” Patrico suddenly said, sounding more lucid.
“Voltan?”
As loyal as he was to Daemon, she didn’t believe it for a minute. To keep Katie safe? To play along?
“Why didn’t they kil you?”
Patrico’s eyes drifted.
“Patrico!” She pressed the towels against his forehead. “Why didn’t they kil you?”
“Krustalus’s people told me to tel you if you want Katie back, you’l have to go to Krustalus alone,” he blurted.
Swords clashed outside, and she said, “Hold this against your head, Patrico. Hold on. We’l get help soon.” Then she ran to the window, and her heart took a dive. Four vampires targeted Atreides, two slashing at him with swords, the other two waiting in reserve. He’d never make it.
Dammit.
“Bernard!”
she cal ed telepathical y.
“We need help. Don’t distract Daemon if he’s fighting Krustalus. Krustalus’s minions
have taken Katie and Voltan. The others must be dead. Patrico’s severely injured. Atreides is outnumbered. Have someone
send help to Patrico’s place
—
four-oh-five Seabreeze, Seaside!”
Without waiting for a response, she grabbed a sword out of a stand near the back door and ran outside. One of the vampires turned and hissed at her. Atreides jabbed his sword into him, turning him into ashes that blew away in the stiff breeze, his clothes remaining behind in a pile on top of the sand. A redheaded vampire appeared next to her. Tezra sliced at his shoulder, and he cursed but seized her sword hand and teleported her away from the house. She swore at him, at Krustalus and the world for her mistake.
***
When her senses stopped swirling, Tezra found herself in a lighted cel ar. The vampire who’d moved her here yanked the sword from her hand. Two others appeared, and when she attempted to use her wrist blade on the redhead, another came up behind her and grabbed her wrists and
tsked
. The smel of her father’s cologne assaulted her.
Krustalus
.
Sliding around her, the vampire was tal like Daemon, dark-haired and eyed, only his eyes appeared fathomless, daunting. She didn’t think any vampire could mesmerize her, yet he stole her thoughts, her speech. Krustalus wore blue jeans and a simple shirt. He’d blend in with the ordinary Joe on the street, except for the cleft in his chin the size of the Grand Canyon, and didn’t look like the devil incarnate.
“Krustalus,” she breathed, her heart racing, irritating her. She didn’t want the monster to know how scared she truly was of him.
“Tezra, sweet. You have come to me as I knew you would.”
He released her, and she lunged at him, her wrist blade aimed at his heart. He vanished. Unable to stop her forward motion, she slammed into a rack of wine. A sharp pain radiated through her left wrist.
A scrawny young male vampire laughed—his eyes as blue as Bernard’s and hair straw blond like Maison’s. “Krustalus has other business to take care of before he can have you, but know this, your actions are seen as sexual foreplay to the ancients.
He’s the most control ed vampire I’ve ever known, but you nearly made him lose that restraint. That’s why he left instead of playing with you further. It’s nice to know he’s kind of human sometimes. Next time you attack him, if he’s done with his other business, he’l not hesitate to make you his.”
Before she could respond with a huntress’s fatal retort, he and the others slammed her against the floor, nearly jarring her teeth loose from her head when it smacked against the concrete. Dazed, she couldn’t fight them when they grabbed her wrists and removed her blades, then just as quickly they vanished.
Sitting up, she rubbed the back of her head where a lump had already risen and pain streaked through her skul . Rising unsteadily to her feet, she considered her prison. The concrete block cel ar was fil ed with several racks of wine bottles, similar to the one beneath Daemon’s home, except there was no bed.
Torn between feeling trapped and not al owing herself the emotion, she listened for any telepathic voices or any other communication, but heard none. She crossed the smal room to the barred window and stared out at the ocean waves crashing endlessly against the rocky beach. Against one wal behind a row of wine bottles, she saw crates stamped with the name
Clam
Diggers
.
If she could reach Bernard without distracting Daemon…
“Bernard, I’ve been taken prisoner by Krustalus’s people, and I’m
being held at…”
The door squeaked open, and she quietly waited for the next vampiric confrontation she was sure she’d have, her heart beating at twice its normal tempo.
“Join your sister,” a blonde-haired vampiress said with a sharp tongue, then whipped around and slammed the door shut, the lock clicking afterwards.
Tezra rushed forward and ran up the stairs to greet Katie. “Oh, Katie honey, are you al right?” Wrapping her arm around her trembling sister, Tezra led her downstairs and hugged her close, thankful she was unharmed for the moment.
Katie’s face was ghostly pale, but she looked like she was holding up otherwise.
But suddenly Katie squirmed free, reached under her sweater and pul ed out a sheathed dagger.
Tezra couldn’t believe it. “Where the hel did you get that?” Shaking her head, she took the dagger and attached it to her own belt, the weapon giving her a modicum of hope. “Stay right here.” She moved Katie between the row of wine bottles and the crates.
Tezra seized one of the bottles and slammed it against the window, shattering the glass and the wine bottle. The noise was sure to alert the rogue vampires, but she had to do something to get her sister out of here.
Reaching through the shards of glass dripping with burgundy wine, she desperately attempted to move the bars cemented across the window, hoping that at least one of them was loose, but they didn’t budge.
Katie gasped and Tezra whipped around. Her heart dropped when she saw the tal , thin, black-haired vamp dressed in ebony leather standing near Katie, who was wearing a white sweater and jeans. The contrast made Tezra think of an angel and the devil.
“Lichorus.” Tezra barely breathed, assuming that’s who the vamp was. Tezra dashed between her and Katie, shielding her sister.
The vamp’s ebony eyes flashed in irritation. “Lichorus? Ha! She has
Mustaphus
for her lover though she stil wants Daemon. I am Ionia, and
I
wil have Krustalus.”
“Good for you. Release us, and you can have every bit of him.”
The vampire bared her wicked teeth. “For years he’s stalked you, wanting nothing more than to have you. A test of wil s. The perfect conquest, so he has often related. Only I wil kil you first.”
Tezra held the blade behind her back, waiting for the vampiress to draw closer, trying to reason with her. Diplomacy worked sometimes, but she doubted anything she said would convince this vamp not to touch her or Katie. “He’l know you murdered me. Then he’l finish you off.”
Ionia smiled, the look pure evil. “I wil make sure Krustalus believes it was Lichorus who did the deed. Easy enough to do. She truly lusts for Daemon, and she hates you for stealing his heart.” She ran her tongue over her sharp fangs. “The only reason she hasn’t kil ed you before now is she fears Krustalus’s retribution. He’s not one to betray.” Ionia took a step forward.
“But Krustalus can read your mind. He can find out what truly happened.” At least Tezra assumed he could if the vamp let down her defenses.
The vamp stopped, twisted her head as if considering the notion, then gave a wicked smile. “I’m leaving evidence incriminating Lichorus, and he won’t bother to read my mind.”
Enough of diplomacy. “As if he’d trust you.”
Hissing, Ionia flew through the air at her.
Tezra pul ed out the concealed dagger and for an instant, the vampiress looked surprised. Tezra thrust the blade at the vampiress’s chest, but it glanced off a rib.
Ionia screamed and retaliated, giving Tezra a vampiric shove, knocking her onto her back against the unforgiving concrete.
Tezra dropped the dagger while pain radiated through her spine. Ionia gloated.
Feeling the bottom half of the broken bottle where she’d dropped it, Tezra grabbed it. She jumped to her feet and shoved it into the woman’s chest, desperate to kil her before the other vampires could come to her aid.
Clutching her bloodied chest, the vampiress howled. Tezra dove for the dagger on the floor nearby, her fingers gripping the blade’s leather handle. As soon as she had it in her grasp, she stood, but Ionia seized Tezra’s hair and yanked her backwards.
Twisting around, Tezra jammed the hunter’s weapon between the vampiress’s ribs and into her heart before Ionia could react.
Ionia shrieked, then her body dissolved into ashes. Before Tezra could breathe a sigh of relief, four vampires appeared in front of her, al males bearing fangs, and al looking famished, especial y the blue-eyed blond.
“
You
, we’re supposed to keep alive, but
her
,” he said, motioning to Katie, “she’s of no consequence.”
“No!” Tezra screamed and thrust her blade at the blond.
In the middle of the battle with Krustalus’s minions at the warehouse, Tezra’s telepathic voice reached out to Daemon.
“Dae…mon
.” Her voice sounded weak, broken, desperate.
Tezra.
His heart nearly stopped as his thoughts shifted to where she was supposed to be, safe with Atreides and Voltan at Patrico’s place with her sister.
“Tezra, what’s happened?”
Silence.
Shit! Daemon’s blood pressure elevated, and he wanted to leave for Patrico’s house at once, but couldn’t abandon his people to fend for themselves without putting another ancient in charge.
to fend for themselves without putting another ancient in charge.
“Bernard,”
Tezra cal ed out, not focusing her message.
Daemon glanced at the bul dog of a man who was fighting a vampire, their swords striking at each other, but Tezra’s communication distracted him. Daemon finished off the vampire he was fighting, then went to Bernard’s aid.
“What did you say to her, Bernard?” Daemon growled through clenched teeth.
“Nothing. Hel , she’s supposed to be safely at Patrico’s house, isn’t she?”
Daemon sent a message to Atreides.
“Where the hell is Tezra?”
When his brother didn’t respond, Daemon forced himself to remain focused on the vampire danger in front of him. After getting the best of Krustalus with two wicked slices to his sword arm, but not terminating him like Daemon would have liked, the vampire had made a hasty retreat to lick his wounds somewhere else. But several of his minions, though not turned by the earlier plague, were wel over hundred years old and formidable enough.