16
I DIDN’T SEE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. I WAS TAKEN out of the room and back upstairs feeling stunned and ill by what just happened.
I was eternally bonded to a former vampire king.
I’d asked Kristoff to turn Declan into a vampire.
In return, I’d agreed to assassinate the leader of the Amarantos Society.
And to think, it was only ten o’clock.
Meyers was there and he knew what to do to get me ready. It involved a short black dress, stiletto heels, a case of makeup, and about a half an hour, twenty minutes of which I simply paced back and forth in the ensuite bathroom of a large bedroom they’d locked me in like a rat in a luxurious cage.
I tried not to think, but that was impossible.
My decision about Declan had been a hasty one, I knew that. And I’d made it selfishly and without much thought to how he’d feel about it. But I couldn’t let him die. Not like that. When he’d agreed to let Kristoff euthanize him, he hadn’t been thinking right. Jade was insane from being a dhampyr of her age. It was possible Declan wasn’t dealing only with the violence, but the beginning stages of insanity as well.
I tried to justify my actions any way I could, but I knew there would be consequences.
I got dressed and pulled myself together as much as I could. I applied the makeup as if I was going out to a club with some girlfriends, going heavier with the eyeliner than when I was a blonde. When I was satisfied with the results, I knocked on the bedroom door.
“I’m ready.”
When the door opened I was surprised by who was waiting for me. Noah stood there in the hallway, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh shit!” He clamped his hand over his nose as veins branched over his cheeks.
I tensed. “Good to see you, too.”
“They want me to go with you.” His words were now muffled.
“You?” I swallowed hard and looked over at Meyers, who stood patiently to the side, leaning against the wall. “Why him?”
Meyers shrugged. “Kristoff wants to do an experiment. See if Noah has any worth to him as an assistant. If he can’t handle being with you, then it’s decided.”
Noah looked dismayed. “It’s a job interview.”
“Great.” More complications for me to deal with. The thought that being near a hungry fledgling was the least of my worries at the moment didn’t help much.
Noah’s eyes were black. “You look kind of hot right now in that dress. You smell even better.”
“Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I slipped into the high heels and eyed him cautiously. “Is it a problem you’re going to be able to handle?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not a very good answer.”
His face showed his stress. “Even though I know it’ll kill me, all I want to do is drink your blood.”
“That’s even less of a good answer.”
This was what Declan would be like—but worse, much worse. Noah wasn’t angry with me, he didn’t hate me, and he hadn’t been a dhampyr to start with. And he still wanted to bite me. I shuddered to think what was in Declan’s immediate future. All I remembered was how Noah was in the beginning—zombielike, uncontrollable, and ravenous.
I’d made a horrible mistake. But there was no going back now, only forward.
Noah drew closer, closing his eyes and inhaling. “Holy hell. I’m so f*cking hungry.” His lips curled back from his fangs and I felt his breath on my skin.
I slapped him. “Stop it.”
He held his hand against his face. “Shit. That hurt.”
“I don’t want you to die. I need you too much.”
His brows drew together. “You do?”
I nodded. “Declan’s being sired.”
“Oh, shit. Really? Why? How? Who?”
“I asked Kristoff to do it.” At Noah’s look of shock, “There was no choice. He was dying—being poisoned. It was the only answer.”
His mouth fell open. “He hates vampires.”
“I know.”
“He’s going to kill you.”
I cringed. The reminder only made things worse.
“I mean . . . uh, he might not even want to kill you, but I’d stay about a million miles away from him until he gets his shit together. As a dhampyr to start with—” He grimaced.
“What?”
“I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with him. And I’m already a vampire.”
I didn’t think my stomach could sink any lower than it already was, but I was wrong.
“And Kristoff’s going to do it himself?” Noah asked. “You know what that means, right?”
I looked at him with concern. “No. What does it mean?”
“As both Declan’s father and his sire, he’ll have total control over him. They’ll have the ultimate blood bond. No wonder Kristoff agreed to do this. After all, it’s against vampire law to turn a dhampyr.”
Noah was a wealth of knowledge about all things vampire, especially now that he was one.
I felt ill. Kristoff had agreed pretty quickly to this, considering he was the one who’d created the law in the first place. Kristoff saw the benefits, and it was similar to what Carson had done with Declan, only much worse. Over six feet of mindless muscle who obeyed every order. The ultimate bodyguard to protect the new vampire king from those who might not share his vision. I was just surprised he hadn’t thought of it himself.
All I knew for sure was that whether Declan had died or was turned into a vampire . . . he was now lost to me forever. It hurt worse than I ever would have thought, but I had to put it out of my mind and focus on my task tonight. Doing the exact thing I’d tried to avoid from the beginning—kill someone purposefully with my blood. The safety of my nieces depended on me succeeding. Kristoff could say he loved children and that they were in no danger, but I didn’t trust him. Actions spoke much louder than words.
I shook my head and tried to ignore the pain in my heart. “I’ll deal with all of this later. Right now I have to do something and it looks like you’re coming with me.”
He looked grim. “They already told me all about it. You agreed to this? Really?”
“I had no choice.”
Instead of questioning me more about it, he just nodded. “Okay, then let’s go. There’s a car waiting outside.”
Meyers watched me as we passed him, a small smile twisting at his mouth. “Good luck, Jillian.”
I smiled back at him. “F*ck you.”
I had to take my frustrations out on someone.
THE DRIVER TOOK US TO A NIGHTCLUB CALLED THE Silver Cross that was an hour away from Kristoff’s home.
“Man, I’ve heard of this place. Really? This is it?” Noah looked up at the sign.
I eyed the exterior guardedly. “What have you heard? That the leader of a secret vampire society owns it?”
“Actually, that didn’t come up. It’s a sex club. Very elite. Only for the richest and horniest in Southern California.”
Kristoff better not be messing me with me right now by sending us here. “But you heard nothing about vampires being here?”
“I think I would have remembered something like that.”
I couldn’t say I was all that surprised. Vampires enjoyed mixing blood and sex, and where better to feed off both desires than a sex club?
Be strong, Jill, I told myself when I found it difficult to force myself toward the front doors. I couldn’t lose it now, I had to stay strong. For the kids. For Noah. For . . . Declan.
Even for Matthias—wherever he’d been taken. I’d be more worried about him if I didn’t know he was immortal. He wouldn’t be killed only because he couldn’t be killed. It didn’t set my mind at ease very much. There were many things Kristoff could do to his brother that didn’t include murder.
Our life forces were bound together. Maybe I’d know if something happened to him. All I knew was that despite my circumstances and stress, I physically felt better than ever. Even better than before I’d been injected with Nightshade in the first place. I felt stronger, more alert, and full of energy. There was no pain. The bruises I’d had yesterday were completely gone. For the first time in two weeks I didn’t feel like I was going to die.
He’d given me a second chance at life. But I could still be killed.
“Game plan?” Noah asked, breaking through my thoughts.
I pulled my long hair over my left shoulder. “I’m open to suggestion.”
“He’s expecting you. He thinks you’re a gift from Kristoff.”
I grimaced. “I love blind dates.”
“You ready?”
I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “Yes.”
“Then let’s do this.”
We approached the front doors to The Silver Cross. The bouncer eyed us.
Noah nodded at me. “This is Jill. Alex is expecting her.”
The bouncer’s fat face didn’t change, but his light gray gaze scanned me and his nostrils flared. I smelled good to him thanks to my Eau du Nightshade.
I tried my best to look at ease, as if I was accustomed to being sent from one vampire to another like a slutty blood servant. It was a struggle.
Thanks to my brand-new bond with Matthias, the fang marks on my neck from the last bar I’d been to had faded completely. I was fresh and unblemished meat. I bit my bottom lip, tasting the thick red lipstick there, then adjusted the front of my low-cut dress that barely covered my breasts and left my entire back bare. And I focused on not being afraid.
I didn’t think about Declan and how he’d react to becoming the very thing he’d hated all of his life. I didn’t think about Matthias and wherever he’d been dragged away to. I didn’t think about Sara, the dhampyr baby with very valuable blood who was completely and utterly helpless right now. And I didn’t think about my sister’s kids, who had no idea they were in horrible danger while their mother had no idea what had really happened.
Or . . . I tried not to think of these things.
What I needed to do was focus on Alex, the leader of the Amarantos Society—someone who sounded horrible and greedy and manipulative. He was a vampire who deserved to die and one I would feel no guilt about killing.
The bouncer spoke into his earpiece, then nodded and opened the door for us. Someone else was waiting there—tall, big, bald, and ugly.
“Follow me,” he said.
After exchanging a glance with Noah, we followed him. Despite Noah’s initial reaction to seeing me again, I was impressed by how in control he seemed right now. His survival instincts had kicked in. Between death and becoming Kristoff’s reluctant vampire assistant, he’d chosen door number two.
The interior of the club was dark and loud pounding music assaulted my ears. At first glance, it looked like any other club I’d ever been to. There was a long black bar along one side of the expansive room. A dance floor. Dozens of couches like domino tiles spread in front of me. Silver and black were the main colors, and a sparkle of light from a mirror ball scattered across the faces of the dozens of people here tonight.
At second glance I saw more details of the patrons of The Silver Cross. Varying degrees of nudity, bodies pressed against each other, the smell of sex and sweat, and the heavy cloying scent of perfume.
“Only humans out here,” Noah whispered to me.
“How can you tell?”
“I can smell them.”
I didn’t look too closely at my surroundings. I kept my eyes ahead, focused on a door in front of us marked “VIP Access Only.”
Our guide silently eyed us, then pushed the door open to let Noah and me through into the next room.
It was darker in here—so dark I could barely see my hand in front of my face until my eyes adjusted a bit better. Hotter, too—easily over ninety degrees. The room was smaller than the previous one and there was no music playing, apart from the muffled throb that could be heard coming from the previous room.
In here I smelled blood as well as sex. My gut twisted with fear. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the outline of a naked woman, tied to a pole with her arms above her head, a look of bliss on her face. A fully nude man fed from her inner thigh and a half-dressed woman fed on her throat.
“Vampires,” Noah said. “Lots of them.”
“No shit.”
And suddenly, every eye in the house went to me.
“Keep walking,” Noah said.
“Trying to.” I stumbled on something on the ground and a cool hand reached out to steady me. I didn’t see who it belonged to, but it slid up my bare thigh under the edge of my skirt and headed north. I slipped away from whoever it was before they got any friendlier.
“She’s for Alex,” our guide snapped. “Hands off unless you want it permanently removed from your body.”
That helped save me from any more groping, but I still felt the curious stares weighed down with hunger as I moved through the hot room, silent except for the sounds of feeding or grunts and moans of pleasure.
There was a mirrored wall in front of us that reflected the darkly lit Hieronymus Bosch scene behind me. The Silver Cross was my first vampire sex club. I sincerely hoped it would be my last.
My own image was reflected before me—heavy makeup, midnight black hair and eyes, and a tiny tight dress to match. Long bare legs, stiletto heels. I looked like someone who belonged in a place like this. The thought wasn’t much of a comfort.
Our vampire guide opened a door hidden in the mirror that led into another dark room. Noah was about to walk through, but was stopped.
“Just the human,” the guide said.
“Jill—” Noah began.
“It’s okay.” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath to steady myself. “Wait out here for me. I’ll be fine.”
Noah frowned. He might be acting as if he was totally in control, but just being in a place like this had pushed him a little further over the edge. His eyes were black and hunger had branched over his cheekbones.
He nodded. “Try not to die.” It might have sounded like a joke if he didn’t look so serious.
I stepped through the door and it slowly closed between us. I then realized that the mirror was two-way glass, and from this new room I could see everything that was going on right next door. This was an observation room.
“I was told to expect you.”
I stiffened at the smooth, deep voice and fear snaked through me.
Showtime, I thought.
Time to be a killer.