The Rise of Vlad (The Seeker Series Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Vlad entered the great hall of his castle, thoughts of Nita plaguing his every step. He’d felt her anguish in his sleep.

Mordecai appeared before him, carrying a tray of cookies for Lucius. “Atticus and Declan are on their way here, my lord.”

Vlad stifled a sigh. “How long before they arrive?”

“Any minute now.” The elderly butler turned toward the stairs.

“The child eats cookies?” Vlad stared in disgust at the tray of chocolate chips.

“Indeed he does, my lord. I have never seen the likes of this one.”

Vlad could relate. He’d never known of another vampire that drank blood and consumed food either. Not to mention one that could walk in the sun, other than the ones too diluted to know what they truly were. “He must be protected at all costs, Mordecai.”

“I will guard him with my life,” Mordecai swore, climbing the stairs with more vigor than his age should allow.

The doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the council members. Vlad waved to Mordecai to prevent him from slowing his steps. “I’ll get it.”

Blurring his way to the foyer, Vlad opened the door and invited the two council members inside before closing it behind them. “Shall we take this to the den?”

Declan nodded, already heading in the direction Vlad indicated. Atticus followed.

“Have a seat and tell me of this plan you’ve concocted.” Vlad nodded toward the couch.

Atticus spoke first. “The plan we’ve devised requires the help of the Kiana leader.”

Vlad’s gut tightened at the mention of Nita, but he kept his expression blank. “What makes you think the alpha of the Kiana would help you?”

“We don’t,” Atticus quipped. “But we do believe she would help you.”

Guarding his emotions, Vlad stood and glided over to the bar. He kept his back to the council members as he poured himself a glass of his most coveted wine.

“You’re wrong,” Vlad finally answered, turning to study the two stone-faced vampires. “Miss Franks despises the very ground I walk on.”

Atticus held his hand up to the light as if to study his nails. “I don’t think she does. And even so, you saved her life. That has to count for something.”

Vlad’s patience wore thin, giving way to his anger. “I saved her as repayment for rescuing Shon’s mate’s life, as well as protecting Lucius from a Seeker known as Ellis.”

“And if I recall correctly,” Atticus mumbled, “She was there to repay a debt to begin with.”

Vlad was in the vampire’s face, his hand around his throat before Atticus could blink. “Do not think yourself above my wrath. Your accusations are neither wanted nor welcome. If you value your tongue, I suggest you keep it behind your teeth where it belongs. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” Atticus seethed.

Vlad released him with a slight shove before turning to face Declan. If Vlad were inclined to trust any of the council members, which he didn’t…it would be Declan. “Tell me your thoughts.”

Declan ran his fingers down his silk tie and met Vlad’s penetrating stare. “I think it’s a surefire way to flush them out. Miss. Franks seems to be the only one that knows the identity of the man we’re looking for. We find him, we find the lair.”

“Do you really expect her to help you, her most hated adversary?”

“I think she might do it for Lucius. She seems to have some strange fixation on Angelo.”

Vlad’s fangs shot down before he could stop them. He took a healthy drink of wine to calm himself enough for them to retract.

Declan’s insinuation that Nita wanted Angelo, enraged Vlad, but he managed to keep his tone smooth and even. “Tell me the plan, and I will have Angelo speak with her.”

Declan looked relieved. “We would like for Miss. Franks to locate the man she met with—“

“Wade Leighton,” Vlad interrupted.

Declan gave him a blank stare. “I’m sorry?”

“The man you seek. His name is Wade Leighton.”

“How long have you known this?” Atticus asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Vlad swung his gaze to the blond council member. “A day or two.”

“It doesn’t matter how he knows,” Declan stated, bringing Vlad’s focus back on him. “It only matters that he does.”

Once again fingering his tie, Declan continued. “If we can get Miss. Franks to inform Leighton, that many of her people have been slaughtered by the vampires, and in retaliation, the shifters have destroyed the Impaler, and plan to attack the council members, he may offer his assistance.”

Vlad shifted his gaze to Atticus and back to Declan. “I see. Then what?”

“Miss. Franks can then track him back to their lair. You and Angelo can destroy them before the know what hit them.”

“Assuming they are in the lair. They’re humans, Declan. I imagine that most of them have families, jobs and homes.”

“Bring down the leaders, and you’ll destroy the flock. Besides, I can almost guarantee there are documents, computer logs or records of every man, woman and child associated with the seeker society, inside that lair.”

Vlad figured as much also. “Very well. Angelo, Shon, and I will handle it. If the shifter agrees to help us. I’ll be in touch.”

Declan stood and offered his hand. “Thank you, my old friend. We will speak soon.”

Accepting his outstretched palm, Vlad gave him a small smile. “Always a pleasure, Declan.”

“You are not going to offer us a snack?” Atticus questioned, his nostrils flaring for dramatic effect.

Vlad released Declan’s hand and turned to face Atticus. His voice was deadly soft as he stepped in close to the shorter vampire. “If you ever presume to touch anyone under my protection, I will flay the skin from your bones and stake you to the ground for the sun to enjoy.”

“Let us go, Atticus,” Declan intervened, turning toward the door, “before you end up dust in the wind.”

Vlad watched them glide toward the door in a hurry to leave, his mind already returning to the shifter.

Nita hadn’t been far from his thoughts since the moment he’d awoken that evening. Something was amiss with her. He could feel it.

Blurring his way up the stairs, Vlad stopped outside Angel’s room and tapped on the door.

“Come in,” Angel called above his son’s tinkering laughter.

Vlad pushed open the door and stepped inside. “I must speak with you and Shon, at once.”

“What’s going on?” Shon questioned, entering the room with Laura on his arm.

“I’m sure you both are aware of the council members’ visit,” Vlad began.

Angel nodded. “I heard everything.”

“Same here,” Shon piped in. “Do you think Nita will agree to this plan?”

Vlad gazed into Shon’s eyes from beneath the hood of his cloak. “We will know soon enough. I am going to see her now.”

Shon’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re going into shifter territory?”

“We’ll come with you,” Angel offered, handing Lucius to Ember.

Vlad shook his head. “I go alone.”

Angel rested his hands on his hips. “The wolves aren’t going to just let you walk into their territory, Sire. If they—”

“I can take care of myself,” Vlad interrupted, annoyed that he’d been questioned. “I will return shortly.”

Vlad left the room before any of them could argue. The pull of Nita’s fear called to him, summoning him to her side.

Chapter Sixteen

Nita stared up at the stars, fighting the nausea rolling through her stomach. She had returned to the Shaman’s cabin at nightfall to find him sitting around a fire and murmuring something in the old language.

He’d given her a foul-smelling concoction that had rendered her unconscious. She’d awoken some time later, nude and strapped to a table near the fire.

Voices surrounded her, chanting words that she couldn’t understand in her drugged state.

The Shaman’s face suddenly appeared in her line of sight. “I have petitioned the spirits on your behalf. Your fate is now in their hands, my child.”

“What is going to happen to me?” Nita slurred, blinking to clear her vision. Her heart felt as if it were going to explode at any moment.

“You must stay strong,” the Shaman told her, his voice fading into the background as the chanting grew louder. “For death will come for you, and in his mouth will be daggers of blood, the blood of our ancestors. Call out to them, that they may heap mercy upon your soul.”

A blade slid across her wrist, wrenching a hiss from her throat.

The chanting grew louder as the knife opened her other wrist as well.

Nita’s terrified gaze scanned the painted faces of the men and women dancing around her, their voices melding together to become one horrific hum.

She was going to die, of that she had no doubt.

Vlad’s face floated through her mind, hauntingly beautiful with his pale blue eyes and full lips.

How could she think of him at a time like this? she wondered, fighting the panic rising in her chest. He was the reason she’d been forced in this position to start with.

“
Nita
…” Vlad’s voice whispered in the dark, beckoning her.

“
Vlad
?” If Nita lived to be a thousand, she would never understand why she answered his call. Of course when it came to the Impaler, nothing she did made sense.

The burning in her wrists began to numb, but nothing compared to the feeling of cold now seeping into her body.

“Once you have bled out,” the Shaman informed her, leaning in close to her ear. “Your blood will be replenished by a warrior chosen to be your mate. If the spirits deem you worthy, you will bear the warrior many sons.”

Nita’s heart nearly stopped at the Shaman’s words. If she came out of this alive, she would be mated to the one they choose to give her blood.

She attempted to shake her head, her mouth opening to plead with the Shaman not to do this. But no sound came forth.

Her breathing began to slow, as did her heartbeat. Nita fought with everything she had, to no avail. With chills racking her nude frame, her body grew numb, and the darkness threatened to overtake her.

“Do not fight it,” the Shaman insisted. “It is the only way.”

Miles Castro suddenly appeared next to the Shaman. “We were destined to be mated from birth, my love.”

“No,” Nita managed to wheeze, tears welling up in her eyes. She would rather die than be mated to a man she didn’t love.

Miles reached up and stroked her hair. “Once my blood flows through your veins, you will be mine until death. I will give you strong sons and daughters, and our sons will lead the Kiana, long after we are gone.”

Nita stared up at Miles Castro’s face, attempting to convey with her eyes what her voice couldn’t say.

Miles softly kissed her lips before dragging his mouth to her ear. “You will stay alive, or your mother will pay for your sins.”

Nita began to fight in earnest. Castro had just threatened her mother’s life if Nita didn’t survive.

Miles clucked his tongue. “Do not resist, my mate. You will only make things harder for yourself. Save your strength for the battle yet to come.”

A scream abruptly rent the night, and then another. Blood sprayed across Nita’s face as she fought to hold her eyes open, straining to catch a glimpse of the hooded man now spinning through her midst, slicing throats and breaking necks with the speed of a funnel cloud.

Miles snarled, his face contorted with rage. He shifted into wolf form and disappeared into the night.

Bones crunched in the distance, and sounds of fighting could be heard over the pounding of Nita’s ever-weakening heart.

A wolf sailed over the table she lay on, his fur brushing against her skin, only to cry out as his head was ripped from his body.

Nita lay there helplessly as the robed figure slaughtered the handful of pack members participating in the ritual.

He stopped before the Shaman, gripping the old man’s neck and lifting him off his feet. “If she dies, I will come back to this place with an army, until every member of your pack is dead. Both young and old.”

There was no mistaking the voice beneath that cloak. Vlad had come for her.

Nita’s heavy eyelids drifted shut against her will. Her heartbeat slowed to a crawl and darkness overtook her.

Chapter Seventeen

Vlad tossed the Shaman away from him and hurried to Nita’s side. He laid his fingers against her neck, but her pulse could barely be felt.

Snapping the ropes that restrained her, he gently lifted her limp form into his arms and ran with vampiric speed up the mountain.

Once he’d gotten far enough away to stop, Vlad freed his cloak and dropped it on the ground, placing Nita’s nude body in its center.

The blood had stopped flowing from her wounds, and her lips had turned blue.

“Don’t you fucking die on me,” he snarled, biting into his own wrist and pressing the open wound against her mouth.

He tilted her head up and massaged her throat to prevent her from drowning. “Swallow it, Nita. Come on. I know you can do this.”

Satisfied that he’d gotten some blood down her throat, Vlad wrapped her in his cloak, scooped her up, and stood in one fluid motion.

“Stay with me,” he demanded, running toward his home with every ounce of power he possessed.

Vlad burst through the door a few minutes later, barking orders as he flew up the staircase to his room. “Angelo? Go tell Mordecai that you need syringes. Bring them to me. Quickly.”

Placing Nita in the center of his bed, he turned to Shon who now barreled through the doorway.

“Jesus, Vlad. What happened?”

“There’s been a change in plans. I need at least ten vampires, strategically placed around the grounds. And I need them as quickly as possible.”

Shon’s gaze raked over Vlad’s body. “Shifters, I assume. If the smell is any indication.”

Vlad nodded. “They were killing her.”

“Her own people?”

“Yes,” Vlad ground out between clenched teeth.

“It looks like they succeeded. She has no heartbeat that I can hear.”

“Go get the backup,” Vlad snapped, turning back to stare into Nita’s lifeless face. “The shifters will be coming.”

“I’m on it.” Shon’s footsteps echoed down the hall, disappearing on the stairs.

Angel rushed into the room, carrying the syringes, his face pale with worry. He set the items on the bedside table and leaned over Nita’s ashen face. “Is she gone?”

“She is not gone,” Vlad snarled, pushing Angel aside and snatching up one of the syringes.

Ripping the package open, Vlad plunged the needle into his vein and pulled the stopper until the syringe was full.

He yanked it free and inserted it into a vein in Nita’s neck, only to repeat the process.

“Grab that other one and transfer as much from me to her as you can. Hurry, Angelo.”

Angel did as Vlad instructed. The two of them worked together, continuously filling Nita’s body with Vlad’s lifesaving blood.

“Sire?” Angel’s voice penetrated Vlad’s anxiety-filled brain. “It’s not working.”

Denial surfaced along with rage as Vlad stared down in disbelief at Nita’s beautiful features.

“Get out,” Vlad demanded, unable to meet Angel’s gaze. “And shut the door behind you.”

Vlad waited until the click sounded, signaling he was alone in the room with Nita.

The syringe he still held rolled from his fingers to land at his feet. She was gone. He would never again hold her in his arms, taste her passion, see the fire flash in her amber eyes as she promised retaliation for something he’d done.

His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees beside the bed.

“I’m sorry, Nita,” he whispered, taking hold of her cold hand. “Forgive me.”

Vlad had no doubt that he was partly responsible for her death. Had he not given her his blood to begin with, her own people would have had no cause to bleed her out.

Then again, she would have died without it. His blood was the only reason she’d survived being shot.

A gasp suddenly rent the air, and Nita’s back bowed off the bed.

Vlad was on his feet in an instant, cupping her face. “Nita? Look at me.”

Her eyes flew open on command, and Vlad’s breath caught. Her once amber-colored eyes were as black as onyx.

“Where am I?” she rasped, staring back at him in confusion.

“You don’t remember what happened?”

She shook her head, her gaze searching his. “I…”

Tears sprang to her eyes, pulling at the heartstrings Vlad wasn’t aware he even had.

She jerked her hands up, turning her wrists from side to side. “How?”

Vlad noticed with no small amount of relief that the cuts were nearly healed. “It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you are alive.”

A small indention appeared between her eyes. “You saved me. On that table. I— It was you. The hooded figure.”

Vlad simply nodded, allowing his hands to drop away.

Nita pushed up higher against the pillows, forcing him to sit back and face her. “How many died?”

He shrugged. “Not nearly enough.”

“Those were my people,” she whispered, blinking back tears.

The hurt coming from her pissed Vlad off. “They tried to kill you, Nita. No. They
did
kill you. They do not deserve even one of your tears.”

The onyx color began to swirl in her eyes, giving way to her normal beautiful amber. Vlad decided not to mention the black he’d seen upon her waking.

“What is happening to me?” She lifted her hands, turning them left and right.

“It’s the vampire blood in your veins. I’m assuming that it’s sharpened your vision.”

“You’ve turned me into what you are?”

Vlad shook his head. “I don’t think a shifter can become vampire, Nita.”

“You don’t think?” she exclaimed, continuing to study her hands.

“To my knowledge, a vampire has never attempted to turn a shifter. Perhaps you have the gifts of both monsters.”

Nita lifted her gaze to Vlad’s. “Shifters are not monsters. We are born to protect, not harm.

“My mother,” Nita suddenly gasped, moving to get up. “He’ll hurt my mother.”

Vlad gently pushed her back against the pillows. “Who will hurt you mother?”

“Miles Castro. He promised that if I didn’t survive to mate with him, he would make my mom suffer.”

Castro would die, Vlad silently vowed, brushing Nita’s hair back from her face.

He fished out his cell from the pocket of his jeans and handed it to her. “Call her. Tell her to meet you at a motel near the edge of town. I’ll send someone to pick her up.”

Nita’s mouth fell open. “She would never come here, Vlad. She sees you as the enemy.”

“What about you?” He wasn’t sure why he asked, but the words came out before he could stop them.

“You’ve saved my life. Twice, and I’m grateful to you for that. But it doesn’t change the fact that you are a vampire.”

“As are you. In a sense.”

Nita stilled, staring up at Vlad in defeat. “I can never return home,” she murmured as if the reality of her situation had finally sunk in. “My people would never allow me back in the fold.”

He didn’t respond.

With trembling fingers, Nita took the phone from Vlad’s hand. She dialed her mother’s number and brought the cell to her ear.