Guarding Valentina [Paladin Protection Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

Denise threw herself at Jase, her hands curving into claws as she launched herself against his chest.

“Don’t bite her!” Aedan reminded the werewolf as Jase’s jaws opened and then snapped shut a second later. They’d discussed this in their briefings. If Jase bit one of the vampires, he risked being infected himself. No one knew if werewolves were immune to the blood of a vampire or not, and they weren’t willing to take the chance of finding out.

Jase’s claws sunk into Denise’s arms, and he held her away from him, ignoring the lacerations she inflicted on his chest and forearms as she struggled and thrashed. Her enraged screams were deafening, but she wasn’t able to wrench herself free of the werewolf’s grip.

“Hold her still!” Aedan yelled and slashed his katana in a sweeping arc that parted Denise’s head from her shoulders. Gouts of blood gushed everywhere, and the air filled with the noxious odor of decay and rot. Both of them were covered in the vile sewage that spewed from the dying vampire’s body, and Jase dropped the corpse, his already ugly visage now twisted into an expression of disgust.

“Sorry, I should have warned you lot about the smell.” Aedan kicked the body onto its back and drove the point of his sword into Denise’s chest, piercing the heart.

Silence fell, and Aedan took a second to throttle back on his instincts, calming himself down enough to be able to think clearly again. He flicked the gore off of the blade and sheathed it, glancing up as he heard a muffled whine from Jase. He watched as the werewolf shed its fur and shrunk down until he was human once again.

“Man, and I thought they smelled bad on the outside!” Jase quipped and tried to wipe some of the viscous blood off of his bare body.

“I cannot believe you’re standing there, butt naked and quoting
Star Wars
.” Aedan shook his head in disbelief.

“Believe it. He’s sick that way. We’ve not been able to find a cure yet.” Sin’s voice had both of them turning around. He and what seemed to be half of Division S peered through the doorway, with only Sin’s massive bulk holding them back from spilling out onto the roof. Sin held up a cell phone and gently lobbed it to Aedan. “That’s Val’s. She must have left it for us to find.”

“If someone wouldn’t mind getting Jase something to wear, we need to head downstairs and fire up that tracking system of Jake’s. I can’t rescue her stubborn, difficult ass until I figure out where she is.” Aedan headed back inside, and the crowd seemed to melt out of his way. He knew the others would be close behind.

At the first landing, he stopped just long enough to hit redial on Val’s phone, and when he heard Christoph’s recorded voice on her voice mail, he cursed himself for being a fool. By the time he’d finished listening to the message, he was cursing both himself and Val. She’d gone and sacrificed herself, but he knew without a doubt that wouldn’t be the end of it. Christoph wasn’t the kind to let a vendetta die, not until there was nothing left of his enemies but ashes. He thought he’d made her understand that, but she’d gone and handed herself over to the monster anyway.

Aedan tucked her phone into his pocket and started taking the stairs two at a time. He needed to find her before it was too late. There was not a chance in hell he was going to let go of her without a fight.

* * * *

Val came to slowly, consciousness returning one sense at a time. The first to come back was touch, and she took a mental inventory of her injuries as well as her immediate surroundings. Her head ached, and her throat was still throbbing from Christoph’s bite. She could tell just from the depth of the pain that whatever he’d done to her, it would take a good amount of time before she was fully healed.
That is, if I live that long.
Recriminations filled her head as she remembered Christoph’s mocking words as he’d admitted that he’d lied to her. Her sacrifice had been for nothing. Anger and pain surged through her, but neither of them was enough to overcome the lethargy that ruled her limbs or the weakness that made even the slightest of movements feel impossibly difficult.

She twitched her fingers and determined she was lying face up on something that felt like it was upholstered in velvet, and her arms were secured behind her back. She tried to move her hands, and the bite of metal at her wrists told her she was handcuffed, not bound.

Sounds began to intrude into her awareness, indistinct and unrecognizable at first, but soon she realized it was a conversation being held in sibilant whispers. She opened her eyes slowly as she discovered that even the dim light that filled the room she found herself in was strong enough to make her eyes water. Her vision adjusted, and details of her surroundings started to become clear. It was hard to think through the wool that was wrapped around her brain, but she tried to figure out where they could have taken her. They were in a loft-type space with exposed concrete and metal beams crisscrossing far overhead. Carpets and throw rugs covered the concrete floor around her, and a smattering of furniture had been strewn about the place. By far the largest piece was a king-sized bed that dominated the area that had been made habitable. The air was cold, and burning candles seemed to be the only light source. The scent of warm beeswax blended with the lingering scent of rot and ruin that permeated everything around her.

“Ah, she’s awake.” Christoph’s voice was rife with satisfaction as he moved into her line of sight. “I had thought perhaps I’d taken too much and killed you already.” His lips were still stained crimson, and she realized with a sickening lurch of her stomach that it was her blood that had dyed his mouth that color.

“She’s much too tough to die so quickly,” Ingrid chimed in from somewhere behind her. The girl’s voice had been piping and sweet when she was alive, but there was no sweetness left in it now, nor any humanity.

“You lied.” Val’s defiant words came out as more of a croak, and she realized just how parched her throat was. The moment she became aware of it, her thirst grew until it took up nearly all of her focus. She had to fight to keep her mind on Christoph and what he was saying.

“Of course I lied.” His lips turned up into a smug grin. “I
am
the villain in this little tale. You were never my final target, Val. After all, someone gave you your orders. And even he will not be my final kill. When Paladin is a smoking ruin and every member of your precious Division S is dead, then I will come for the man who truly killed my children. Geoff Remington.”

“You won’t be around that long.” She managed to get the words out past the sandpaper rasp of her tongue.

“Oh, I think I will be. Or are you talking about your precious dhampir? He can’t find me. His ability to track my kind isn’t strong enough. There are some who could, but he isn’t one of them.” Christoph trailed a cold finger down her cheek, and she turned her head to escape the obscene contact. “I did my homework, you see. I know all about Aedan Doyle. He’s a first generation dhampir with a touch of his mother’s psychic gifts. He’s nothing more than a womanizing rogue, a violent criminal with abandonment issues. Is that who you’re pinning your hopes on? My dear, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Or you would be, if I were to let you live that long.”

He pressed the tip of his finger into the open wound on her neck, and she moaned as the pain flared again. “I am going to save you from having to experience that, Val. You should be thanking me.”

“Fuck you.” Val managed a passable snarl and then clamped her jaw shut. She was done talking. She felt a weak probe at her mental shields, and she reinforced them with every scrap of will she had left. Her attempt to trade in her life to save the others may have failed, but that didn’t mean she was done yet. If she could just keep him distracted long enough for the others to track her, then her sacrifice would still mean something.

“Is that a challenge or an invitation?” Christoph’s smug voice was lower now, with a sexual undertone that made her stomach twist in revulsion.

“Before you kill me, I have one question.” Val was still hoping she could hold him off until the others came for her.

Christoph leered at her, letting his fangs show. “Only one? Very well, what is this one burning question you have to know before I end your pitiful existence?”

“If your children meant so much to you, why did you leave them alone when they clearly still needed you? They were what, less than a year old? They were babies, Christoph, and you abandoned them. Do you really think it was Paladin that killed them? I think it was you.”

“Bitch!” he snarled and drove his nails deep into her throat. She barely choked back a scream of pain as he tortured her. “I only left them for a few weeks. I had to go assist one of my older children who needed me. It was not their fault they acted out while I was away. They were only children, I would have punished them when I returned, but you and your damned team got to them first. Our home was nothing but ash when I got back. You killed my children! Not me,
you
!”

“I bet she laughed while they burned,” Ingrid’s voice piped up, and Val watched as her former coworker circled around the couch and took a seat at Val’s feet. “She’s a coldhearted bitch who was never any fun to be around. She was always serious, shouting orders and working so hard to be better than everyone else. Kill her for me, Christoph. I want to watch her die.”

Ingrid lifted Val’s legs at the ankles and drew them into her lap. She kept hold of them, pressing them down into her thighs, her grip tight enough to leave bruises on Val’s skin.
Great, more for the ever-expanding collection.

“Soon,” Christoph crooned, and his rotting breath fanned over her skin again as he licked away the trickle of blood that ran down her throat. Part of her was amazed she had any blood left after Christoph had fed on her. She could feel the lethargy in her limbs, and her heartbeat was weak and unsteady.

“Just get it over with,” Val snapped. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but it was hard to think clearly anymore.

“Oh no, this should not be rushed. Quick and dirty was fine for your friends, but for you, my dear, I have something else in mind.” Christoph lifted his head and withdrew his hand from her injured neck. The pain immediately eased, and Val was grateful for the reprieve, even though she knew it wouldn’t last.

Christoph moved above her, and then he was pressing her down into the cushions of the sofa. All the air was pressed out of her lungs, and she opened her mouth to try to gasp in more, but then his wrist was pressed against her lips and something rank and foul was flowing over her tongue. She gagged and tried to turn away, but there was no escaping the putrid liquid that filled her mouth.

“Drink,” Christoph whispered. Val fought with everything she had, but the strength of two vampires was more than she could hope to defeat. Ingrid’s fingers dug cruelly into her calves, and Christoph’s hand was splayed over her chest, compressing it until she expected to hear the snap-pop of her ribs breaking at any second.

Barely clinging to consciousness, Val remembered what Aedan had said about the ways to create a vampire. She knew if she swallowed even a drop of Christoph’s blood, she was screwed, but it seemed impossible to fight it. Christoph’s graveyard stench and the horrifying taste in her mouth overpowered her senses. Her ears rang and the world faded to gray as firefly flashes of color began to dance before her eyes.

When he lifted his hand from Val’s chest, it was pure instinct for her to suck in a deep breath, and she didn’t realize she’d swallowed the mouthful of blood until her lungs were already full of air.

“It’s done,” Christoph gloated as he removed his wrist from her lips and held it out to Ingrid. The fledging released Val’s legs and crawled her way up Val’s body to lick and nuzzle at Christoph’s still-bleeding wrist.

Too weak to move, Val could only watch in horror as Ingrid suckled at the wound, her body doing a vulgar, sexual grind against Val’s. A terrible cold began to spread outward from the pit of Val’s stomach, and the world began to fade away again.

“Sleep, Valentina.” Christoph sounded like he was speaking to her from some distant plane, and his touch seemed almost warm compared to the icy blackness that was consuming her from the inside out. She fought against it for as long as she could, but in the end she fell into the darkness, too tired to resist any longer.

* * * *

It hadn’t taken Jake and the technical wizardry of Paladin’s operations personnel long to locate Val. Her tracking device indicated she wasn’t even that far away. Aedan wasn’t surprised at that discovery because he knew Christoph had always been arrogant to the point of foolhardiness. It was no shock that the vampire believed he was so invulnerable that he’d chosen to stay within five miles of Paladin’s headquarters.

A location was all they had needed, and within minutes every member of Division S was demanding to be included in the rescue mission, including a haggard-looking Jase. Aedan hadn’t been aware of the cost of the werewolf’s transformation, but Jase assured him once he changed to the hybrid form again, he’d be back up to full power.

There had been no time for Aedan to change out of his bloodstained clothing, and the viscous fluids that had drenched him were rank enough that everyone gave him a wide berth. Jase was treated the same way, and so they found themselves alone in one of the transport vehicles as the convoy rolled out.

“I do believe they think we smell bad.” Jase snickered as he dropped the SUV they’d been assigned into high gear and flew by the rest of the vehicles.

Aedan cracked a smile and managed a laugh. “We do smell. But they’re going to stink just as badly once the fighting starts. I hope you guys have a good dry cleaner in the area. They’re about to get a lot of business.”

“Yet another thing no one warned us about when we got into the paranormal protection racket. And this is my last set of clean clothes.” Jase tugged on his shirt sleeve. “Jazz is going to kill me if I keep wrecking my wardrobe this way.”