The Vampire's Seduction (42 page)

“Do you really have a gun on you right now?” Renee looked up at her, wide-eyed.

“Yes,” Connie said with a wink. “But I’m not telling you where.”

Renee giggled and I noticed that Connie was wearing the charm I’d given her. The ugly-ass thing actually looked at home with the warrior woman outfit. “I’m glad to see that you’re wearing my jewelry,” I said. “After the last time we talked, I was afraid you might never speak to me again.”

“I know. That’s why I’m here. I felt bad about the way I left things. Especially after you’d indicated that . . . you might be going through some difficult times.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you could make it. You look like a goddess.”

Melaphia made a sputtering sound, even though she wasn’t drinking anything. “You okay?” I asked. She had a weird look in her eye as if she’d been poleaxed. She hustled Renee away like she expected an explosion. Before I could ask what was wrong, Olivia walked up and extended her hand to Connie. “Olivia Spenser,” she said. “Love the outfit.” A little taller than Connie, she looked pointedly at the other woman’s cleavage. “And the tits.”

Connie shook hands with the vampire without missing a beat. “Consuela Jones. My friends call me Connie. You can call me Officer Jones. Your ass looks great in that dress, too, by the way.”

Olivia laughed heartily. “Thanks. I work out. Isn’t that right, Jack?”

I was in a field mined with estrogen bombs and didn’t know which way to run. Three and a half of the strongest women I’d ever known were facing me, and they were all looking to me for something different: Renee for security, Melaphia for loyalty to William, Connie and Olivia for territorial rights. Damn. As soon as I got over the shock, I might get to like all this feminine attention.

As if on cue, the crowd milling around the front door parted and in walked Reedrek, flanked by William and Werm. Werm, wide-eyed, looked as if he could jump out of his newly acquired vampire skin at any moment and desperately wanted to. Now that he was at a costume party, his leather, chains, and piercings looked appropriate at last—retro Billy Idol.

William’s uniform, the one he’d posed in for his old portrait, was immaculate right down to the polished brass buttons, but he looked as if he’d been through the mill. Red welts stood out on his otherwise pale flesh. Some nameless emotion surged through me at the sight of his wounds.

Reedrek himself was dressed, ironically enough, in full-fledged movie vampire regalia. Just like in my vision, he wore a tuxedo, a white dress shirt, and a black velvet cape lined in red satin. You had to give some credit to an evil dead with a sense of humor.

When he stepped forward, all conversation, tinkling of fine crystal, and general crowd sounds ceased. With a prickle of excitement and a little fear I realized that he had enthralled everyone in the room at once. Damn, he was good. Could he teach
me
to do that? The very thought of it made me feel a surge of power in my blood, as if I’d grown an inch.

Reedrek extended his arms out to his sides, bringing the edges of the cape out until he looked like a giant, butt-ugly buzzard about to take flight. “There you are, Jack, my boy!” He was actually talking in a Bela Lugosi accent. In addition to everything else, he was quite a showman.

“Tell, me, my son,” he continued. “Is that a vial of voodoo blood in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”

William

Hamilton House had been decorated exactly as I’d specified, with candles and crystal, right down to the hothouse camellias and peonies flown in from Japan. And the music: Tchaikovsky. Since I chose to remain apart from most of the humans in Savannah, planning a party like this was not unlike the grand theater that was the rage in Europe during the monarchies. Glittering sophistication and opulence to dazzle. Impressing mortals amused me . . . and allowed me to pick their pockets for my pet causes.

Too bad my date for the night was Reedrek. Too bad this would be the last memory I took with me to hell.

I had to put away any enjoyment in the gracious surroundings and concentrate on stopping Reedrek. Either that, or watch everyone I cared for die . . . again. Standing in the foyer, I wondered what Jack had planned for the evening. What would his reaction to our sire be?

That’s when my gaze found Eleanor, and the breath of free air I’d been savoring deserted me. She hadn’t been burned after all. I’d suffered another of my sire’s malicious games. A threat was as good as a nod when it came to evil, though. He would burn her if I failed.

She looked expectant and relieved, as though she’d waited all evening for me to walk through the door. Radiant, she was decked out in a cocktail dress that could have been part of Jackie O’s fabled wardrobe, her long dark hair swept up into a smooth twist at the back of her head. Her demure attire might have fooled most of those in the room. I, however, remembered too many nights of that loose silken hair sliding over my chest and belly before Eleanor moved on to other pleasures. My pleasures.

Tonight she was transformed into a cool, sophisticated queen—except that this world, my world, was infinitely more savage than Camelot. Or perhaps not. Jackie had lost her Jack. As Eleanor held my gaze I could only say a silent good-bye before bringing my attention back to my sire.

With a wave of his hand, Reedrek calmed the room like a master hypnotist at work. The human guests were frozen with their last word or thought balanced between the past and the present. The musicians played on but the sound was discordant, off-kilter—the screeching of a note held too long. Even I was reluctantly impressed. With three of his offspring in the same room, Reedrek was on a power high.

In my weakened state, I had been careless. I knew better than to allow my gaze to stop at Eleanor, but my relief had overwhelmed me. In the next instant, Reedrek moved to hover near her like a bristling bee circling a dewy lily. He paused to smell her neck below her ear but kept his gaze on me.

“She smells of smoke. A pity her lovely pleasure house burned down.” He sighed dramatically. “I believe I’ll make this one when I’m done with you,” he said. His tongue lolled out like a smiling dog before he licked her neck to mark the spot. “She’d make an excellent sex slave, don’t you think?”

I could see confusion in Eleanor’s eyes but she didn’t move, couldn’t move. She couldn’t see the evil being, yet she knew something was wrong. I could have calmed her fears but I didn’t. She needed to be afraid. I shut her out and locked my mind on Reedrek’s as we moved into the house proper.

“If you’re so good at creating offspring, why are you here alone?” I asked. “Why didn’t you bring a gang of your thugs along?” There was only a slight hesitation in his reply but in between words I picked up a quick flash of raised voices in a lightless room.

Reedrek raised his head. “You belong to me. I don’t need any help to get rid of you,” he snarled.

“That may be true, but why not have an unimpeachable witness? Unless you want to do something in secret. If you’re showboating for your friends, why would they believe what happens here?”

“Because your little smuggling venture will stop. Dead in the water, as they say.”

And you will become king of the west,
my mind taunted.

He didn’t dispute me. His hand brushed Eleanor’s breast as though he hadn’t heard.

“Is it worth it?” I asked. “If you kill me, you’ll lose the power of my lovely anger. You’ll be stripped of one of your oldest assets.”

My ploy paid dividends. He lost interest in Eleanor and moved back toward me. “As if you’ve been an asset to me since you moved to this godforsaken place. Have you ever heard of the law of diminishing returns? I invested in you for two hundred years. Every year since then, I get less and less back.

“Your time has come, as has that of your friends.”

Friends.

I searched the room for Jack and Olivia. Then I saw Melaphia and Renee. I quickly looked past them, working to conceal my alarm. My gaze stopped briefly at Connie. They hadn’t been frozen like the full humans in the room, although Connie moved extremely slowly, like a sleepwalker. Reedrek could hardly help but notice.

We met Jack, Melaphia, and Renee in the center of the room.

“Is that a vial of voodoo blood in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” Reedrek said to Jack with a chuckle.

Jack ignored him and stared at me. He was wearing the voodoo blue jacket that I’d given him, and one of my better shirts. Even as I had the thought, he self-consciously twitched the shirt’s hand-sewn French cuffs, flashing my very own silver cuff links.

An obvious trespass. At any other time I might have laughed or even sparred a bit. But the time for sparring was over—the bell had sounded for the heavyweight bout.

“You look better than I expected,” Jack said.

“So do you,” I answered. “The shirt suits you.”

He squirmed as though the material chafed his skin. Reedrek rested his hand on my shoulder before sliding it up to clamp his fingers around the back of my neck. A warning or preparation for the kill—either was possible. Reedrek had no more need of me if Jack gave him what he wanted. I shifted under his grip, moving one foot forward and slightly closer to his. I would not let him pull me into the air or spring forward at Jack. Not without a struggle.

“Where’s the blood, Jack?”

“Right here in my pocket just like you said,” Jack replied.

Reedrek held out his hand. “Well?”

“Uh, we have a couple of things to talk about first.”

“We’ve already had our conversation.” At that I could feel Reedrek’s mind shifting again to assail Jack’s. Only this time I went along for the ride. A vision of neon, car racing, and Jack’s policewoman, Connie. Desert hot, screaming tires, and excuse the pun,
coming
attractions. All a boy could want.

Freedom.

So that was what he’d offered Jack. Something I’d been reluctant even to discuss with him. Temptation had always been Reedrek’s strong suit. If he’d been around for more than a mere millennium I’d have sworn he was the model for the Christian belief in Satan. All myths have an origin.

Jack continued to look steadily into mid-distant space, outwardly seeing nothing. Inwardly, he watched Reedrek’s highlight film in the theater of his own mind. And he wanted everything he saw. Of course he did.

Ice cold dread clenched my unbeating heart. Jack’s eyes had gone reddish black with something akin to bloodlust. He’d kill for what he wanted. I wasn’t worried for my own existence. I’d long since ceased caring about that. I feared for those I loved—Melaphia, Renee, Eleanor, even humanity itself because God only knew what destruction Reedrek and Jack, together, unbridled, could wreak. But most of all, I feared for Jack himself, the only offspring I’d known since I’d lost the first blood-of-my-blood, my beloved Will. Once I’d threatened to kill Jack myself rather than let Reedrek have him. Could I do it? Could I summon my strength of will to save Jack from what Reedrek would turn him into? If so, it was just as well the price of the effort would be my unnatural life. I had no intention of spending the rest of eternity with the grief of Jack’s death by my own hand. The sorrow of what might be my only choice seared me more painfully than the flames of Reedrek’s torture had.

Suddenly I heard urgent whispers, as if from a great distance, twining around me like smoke, tugging at my attention.

We are ready . . .

Not alone . . .

Kill him . . .

Reedrek must have heard them as well because the vision faltered. He released Jack’s mind and searched the room. His gaze stopped on Tobey, who leaned against the courtyard doorway among three human women frozen mid-flirt. Producing a loud, menacing hiss, Reedrek bared his fangs and tightened the grip on my neck.

Tobey, dressed to kill as a Chinese martial arts master who’d walked straight out of a Shaolin temple, looked calmer than I would have expected. He placed his now-empty glass of champagne on a tray held by an immobilized waiter and sauntered toward the only movement in the room.

My second-worst nightmare about Reedrek and my friends was coming true. “Get out of here—”

“Oh, it’s much too late for that. You’re not going anywhere, isn’t that right, Tobias?”

The whispers returned.
We can take him . . . Move away . . . Let us handle it . . .

Reedrek glanced around at the sound. “Us?” He seemed more amused than worried.

Iban and Gerard appeared from other parts of the glittering crowd.

“Well, now isn’t this gratifying? You’ve all turned out to greet me.”

“Actually,” Tobey answered. “We’ve all turned out to
eat
you.”

Things happened very fast after that. Reedrek began to move and I stomped down on his foot before hooking my ankle around his. Instead of rising as he’d planned, he lost his grip on my neck, allowing me to push him forward. Momentum took him to the floor, where four vampires fell on him at once. Tobey bit savagely into Reedrek’s jugular, then flipped him over so Iban and Gerard could each find a juicy spot. “Stay out of it!” Olivia said, shoving me backward before going for Reedrek’s groin. With a whoop, Werm made it five by at-taching himself to an ankle. The entire group grappled together, struggling and sucking. Reedrek’s blood spurted and flowed, splashing fangs, faces, and party clothes. Olivia’s silver hair was red with it. Jack himself seemed mesmerized—frozen like the humans in the room.

As I pushed myself up I felt the first hope I’d dared entertain. Olivia’s suggestion was touching—meant to save me from the harm that would come to me for helping kill my sire—but I didn’t intend to stay out of it. My bloodlust for revenge wouldn’t be satisfied until my sire was dead. Past history should have taught me better: this victory was too easy and too soon.

Reedrek’s scream of utter rage rattled the windows of the room. It appeared he wasn’t ready to accommodate us. Two or three of the frozen humans nearest us were bowled over by the concussive force of the ear-cracking boom that followed. Alarms bleated from cars parked along the streets on the square, and a siren sounded in the distance. My ears were ringing like bloody cathedral bells as I reached for the back of Olivia’s dress to pull her away. But Reedrek was faster. His body stiffened, rising off the floor even with the weight of the others on top of him. Then with a bucking spasm he produced his own personal lightning, a blinding flash of fiery voltage strong enough to burn my fingers through Olivia’s clothes.