“Not your fangs?” Nic quipped.
“For you, just fists.” Ivan smirked at him.
Nic growled in his throat. If he ever got the chance, he would fucking skewer this cocky bastard.
“Gentlemen, please. We have a truce, right?” Fiona looked from Ivan to Nic. He gave a reluctant nod, as did Ivan. “Then I expect you both to honor it.”
“Now,” she continued, “how do you subdue your victims?”
Nic didn’t like that, not one damn bit, but he guessed she was just trying to find out what she could, like she’d said, scoping out her adversary. Being able to talk to a vampire without being killed immediately afterward was a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. However, he’d rather be swinging a sword than sitting here swapping insults.
“Mostly by the element of surprise. Usually, I jump out of the bushes and yell ‘Boo!’” Ivan’s voice was dead serious, but the corners of his eyes crinkled.
Nic could tell Fiona didn’t know whether to believe him. Annie suppressed a giggle.
“Cut the crap, Ivan,” he growled.
“I knocked you out with a sap because I wanted you alive later. There’s no struggle, no chance for you to call for help.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anyone who can hypnotize people with their eyes, or turn into a bat and fly.” He paused. “But flying would be cool,” he admitted with a nod.
“Look, I’ve seen the damage your kind can do. Don’t come off acting like you’re Mr. Regular Guy,” Nic said.
“Well, everyone’s got strengths and weaknesses.” Ivan smirked. “What’s yours?”
“I can take your head off with one swing,” Nic threatened.
“And your weakness?” Ivan asked, unfazed by the threat.
Fiona put her hand on Nic’s arm. “It’s got to be his reluctance to trust.”
Nic looked away and then back at her. “Fiona,” he warned.
“Nic,” she warned back, giving him a look. He knew they shouldn't have come here. How had she talked him into this?
Annie sighed in frustration. “God, men are such children! We aren’t on the playground, boys, get over it.”
“You noticed that, huh?” Fiona nodded.
Annie turned on Ivan. “Look, despite what you say, I intend on fighting. She’s my sister.” Annie frowned at him. “I have to be there.”
“Baby, that’s not a good idea. You don’t know how dangerous it is being in the middle of a battle with no way to defend yourself.” Ivan shook his head.
“He’s right.” Nic backed him up. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re a liability.” He made a slashing motion with his hand.
Ivan glanced at Nic, not hiding his surprise, and then looked back at Annie. “I can’t fight and keep my eye on you too,” Ivan added.
“Then I’ll have a weapon. I don’t care, but I’m going to be there.” Annie’s chin jerked up.
Fiona spoke up. “She can carry a blade. Anyone can use that, and it’ll protect her up close.” Annie looked at Fiona in surprise and gave her a grateful smile. Nic and Ivan glared at Fiona. Great, just what he needed. Another helpless female to rescue.
“I don’t like it, Annie, but I know I can’t stop you.” Ivan relented, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Can’t you order her to stay out of it?” Nic asked. "Aren't you her master, or something?"
Ivan looked at Nic and gave a short laugh. “No. I have about as much chance as you do to order Fiona to stay home.”
Annie and Fiona grinned.
“All right. But she’s your problem, Ivan,” Nic said, jerking his head toward Annie.
“Yeah, she’s my problem.” Ivan nodded and then touched Annie’s hand. Nic shifted in his seat at the tender touch between the two vampires.
“So, do you know where they’re holding your sister?” Nic asked. All this talk was getting to him. It was just a little too… He searched for a word other than “friendly.” Because vampires could
not
be his friends.
“Yeah. They’re using Draco’s lair, one of the males you killed. It’s where Annie…was staying.”
Nic knew dancing around the truth when he saw it. He leaned forward and tapped the table with his forefinger for emphasis.
“Let’s cut the crap. I want to know what the hell is really going on, and if I don’t get some straight answers, we’re walking. Who are these actors, and why do they have her sister?” Nic met Ivan’s gaze and held it.
“Fair enough,” Ivan said. “It’s a little complicated, but I’ll make it simple so you can understand, Nic.” His grin flashed. “There’s been a shift in power among us. Someone high up decided that the males here needed to be permanently replaced by some females. That’s where you came in.” Ivan pointed to him.
“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t work for vampires.” Nic’s eyes narrowed at the suggestion.
“Well, whoever you do work for is working with this group.”
Nic sat back. The anonymous tip. “Son of a bitch! Your people used my people to do their fucking housecleaning?” Nic clenched his fists at being used. “Shit. No way. I don’t believe my people knew who tipped them off.”
“Ah, a tip, huh? Figures.” Ivan nodded and looked at Annie. “They got someone else to do their dirty work, leaving their hands clean and no way to trace the murders back to them. No wonder Marcos was so sure we couldn’t prove he’d done it.” Ivan leaned back and let out his breath.
“Marcos?” Nic asked. Another vampire?
“The bastard who arranged the whole thing. Someone highly placed doing a little dirty work for the others. No trail and no evidence. Just eight dead, slaughtered by a couple of assassins.” Ivan shrugged.
“Assassins? What are you talking about?” Fiona glared at him.
“I guess, from Ivan’s point of view, that’s what we are,” Nic answered calmly. “I prefer exterminator. Simply getting rid of nasty parasites.”
Ivan tensed as the fingers of his hands curled into fists as they rested on the table.
“I knew this was a mistake, Annie. These people aren’t going to help your sister. They couldn’t care less about her. All they want to do is feed their hatred of what they don’t understand and what they fear.”
“I understand
exactly
what you are, you…” Nic growled back. Fiona’s hand on his shoulder stopped him before he could say exactly what that was.
“Now, boys. We can pull out the measuring tape later.”
They glowered at each other across the table. Less than three feet of wood separated them. For a moment, the air between them crackled with hostility and testosterone.
Ivan leaned back. “You know nothing of me, of who I was, and what I have or have not done. I have been on this earth for four hundred and fifty years, watching your kind destroy it and each other with astonishing viciousness and regularity, for God and greed. My kind has had only one war, much like your Revolutionary War, and our ruling body has been in existence for the last three hundred years. Admit it. Our small drain on society has very little effect,” Ivan said through clenched teeth.
“Drain?” Nic sneered. “Killing humans is considered a drain?”
“We take the refuse. The ones no one cares about, the ones that you good folk complain are a drain on your society. The homeless, whores, addicts, and those who should be filling your prisons.” Ivan leaned forward. “Actually, we’re doing you a favor.”
“You were doing us a favor when you kidnapped Fiona and planned to rape and kill her, you bastard?” Nic lowered his voice to a whisper.
Ivan’s face softened. “No, she was different. It was an initiation, an old tradition that called for a virgin.”
Annie frowned. “This is bullshit!” she burst out. Ivan’s eyebrows rose in surprise and Nic startled.
“You’re both killers!” She gave an exasperated sigh and turned to face Ivan. “Ivan, you know it’s not necessary to kill to feed. As for all that virgin crap, it’s a stupid ‘old boy’ tradition that should have died out a hundred years ago.” He gave a reluctant shrug of agreement.
“And you.” She pointed to Nic. “Do you even think of us, our kind, as people? Do you think I
asked
to be this way? That I got up one morning and said, ‘Gee, to hell with med school and my dreams of being a doctor. To hell with having a husband and kids! I want to be a vampire!’” Tears formed in her eyes as she spoke. “Do you really believe I want to live so long that I can’t even remember the names or faces of my loved ones?” She cut her gaze to Ivan, and he lowered his gaze to his hands.
“I may not be human anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m a monster! I know just what was taken from me, just what I’ve been damned to, and I don’t like it, not one bit. Do you realize we are sentient beings? We think and feel, love and hate, just like you do. If anything, we deserve your pity, not your hatred. If you want the truth, I wish I had died.” Tears spilled as she took a deep breath and wiped them away with a paper napkin she pulled from the dispenser.
Vampire tears? Nic struggled to reconcile what he heard and saw with what he believed, or had believed. No, this was an act. It had to be. He had to be strong and not let emotions get in the way, no matter what Fiona thought. He knew his duty.
“Look, all I know is that these bastards have my sister, and they’re threatening to make her like me.” She indicated herself with a sweep of her hand. “And I’d rather see her dead than damned. We
need
you. We can’t save her without you. Please help me,” Annie begged.
Fiona opened her mouth to answer, but Nic cut her off. “No. I’m not going to do it. To hell with both of you and your lame justifications. I’ve taken an oath, sworn on my blood, to kill your kind. I can’t just forget all of that and dash off with you on an unauthorized mission.” Nic ran his hand through his hair and set his jaw. “No.”
Annie’s face fell, but Ivan showed no reaction; he just held steady his stare at Nic.
“Wait a minute, Nic,” Fiona started, and he turned to her. “You don’t speak for me.”
“Yes, I do. I’m the warrior, it’s my job, not yours. You have no idea what you’re getting into. I won’t let you do it. My final answer is no.” Nic ground out the words from between his clenched teeth. Fiona sat there, her mouth open in dismay at his words.
Just as she turned to face Nic, Ivan spoke first. “I thought as much.” He let out a tired sigh. “So, I took a precaution.”
“What kind of precaution?” Nic's belly clenched.
“An incentive, if you will.” Ivan turned his gaze to Fiona. “I have your friend, Beth.”
“What!” Fiona yelped. “You have Beth! What are you talking about?” She looked from Ivan to Annie and back.
“I saw her the night I picked you up. Heard you call her name. So we went to your house and found your address book.” His reached for the cell phone, flipped it open, and showed them a picture of Beth, bound and gagged.
“We picked her up earlier tonight,” Annie said, and then added, “She’s unhurt.”
“You son of a bitch, I knew we couldn’t trust you,” Nic growled, and hit the table with his clenched fist. “Let’s get out of here before I kill someone.”
“We can’t, not without Beth.” Fiona’s voice shook.
“I’ll take care of this later. They can’t stay in here forever. At dawn, they have to lair,” Nic told her. “I’ll catch them then.”
“If you kill us, you kill Beth,” Ivan replied.
Nic gritted his teeth. Rock meet hard place.
“Please don’t let it come to that. Help us,” Annie begged again.
“If you think we’ll help you now…” Fiona started.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think,” Ivan replied, his gaze flicking to her face.
“I think you’re bluffing,” Nic snapped.
Annie glanced at Ivan and bit her lip.
“Annie may not be capable of it, but I assure you I am.” Ivan’s steely gaze bore into Nic’s. Annie looked as if she was going to be sick.
Fiona leaned in. “I don’t want to call that bluff, Nic, do you?”
Nic sat back, his mouth twisting into a grimace. Damn them all to hell. He hated not being in control.
“So, now we both have someone we love in danger.” Annie looked at Fiona, her eyes pleading.
The moment stretched until Fiona let out her breath, and Nic knew what was coming.
“I’m in,” she said. “But I want guarantees. Beth is not to be hurt.”
“Of course.” Ivan nodded. “You have my word.”
“Your word!” Nic barked. “What do you think that’s worth, Fiona? He’ll kill us as soon as we clean up his mess, and then he’ll kill Beth.”
“No, we won’t!” Annie fired back.
“All I have to offer is my word, Nic. Whether or not you believe it, I do understand the concept of honor.” He placed his elbow on the table and extended his hand for Nic to take, as if they were going to arm wrestle. They stared at each other across the table.
“Nic, please,” Fiona whispered. “I want Beth back.”
Damn it. It would mean their lives if Ivan wasn’t telling the truth. To trust a vampire or not? He had to be out of his mind; this went against everything Nic believed about vampires and himself. And rescuing mortals from vampires was Job One.
With a resigned sigh, Nic pushed their pies out of the way, put his elbow down on the table, and grasped Ivan’s hand.
Ivan gripped it tightly, placed his other hand on top of Nic’s, and spoke. “I, Ivan Cognovich, give my name’s oath not to kill either of you, to keep you safe as if you were my own, and to keep from harm your friend, Beth. Will you give me your oath?” Ivan asked, and removed his hand.
Nic placed his hand over Ivan’s hand. “I, Nicodemus, give you my oath not to kill either of you, to keep you both safe as if you were my own, and to keep from harm your sister, Amy.”
For a moment, they glared at each other, tensed as biceps flexed and knuckles whitened. Fiona and Annie held their breaths. Then they released their grips, having come to some fragile understanding.
Time to get down to business. If they were going to do this, Nic wanted to take charge.
“When do you want to move?” Nic leaned toward Ivan.
“Tonight, if we can. They won’t be expecting it.” Ivan mirrored him as they bent their heads to plan the attack.
“What weapons do you have?” Nic asked.
“Only these.” Ivan held out his hands. “And the ones in my mouth.” His grin and wicked sense of humor flashed again.
Perhaps he’d underestimated Ivan. There was definitely something powerful about him. Nic was sure the vampire would be a formidable opponent, and for now, he was glad Ivan was on their side.