3
AN HOUR LATER, DECLAN HADN’T RETURNED. IT GAVE me way too much time to worry about what had happened.
It was like a stranger had been looking out at me through his eyes. While he and I didn’t exactly have a long history together or, for that matter, anything in common apart from our current on-the-run predicament, we had an understanding, both spoken and unspoken.
He’d chosen to leave the government-funded research compound to accompany me. To protect me. To ... be with me.
A lot of money had been spent developing Nightshade. The person who’d created it hadn’t left any written notes behind; the formula was entirely in his head.
I shivered and pulled my thin sweater closer to me as I sat on the edge of the bed staring at the door of the motel room, waiting for it to open.
It was my blood that had set him off. Declan was affected by it—his vampire side was. My blood wouldn’t kill a dhampyr, but it would weaken him—we learned that lesson when a scientist we’d gone to for help had used it against Declan to try to kill him. The scent, however, now triggered his bloodlust.
It might be true that he was an assassin who’d killed countless vampires in his life, but he would never deliberately hurt me. Once I’d gotten used to him and his fearsome appearance, I knew this for a fact. I felt safe with him.
However, I hadn’t felt very safe an hour ago. I’d felt scared to death—for him and for myself.
I paced back and forth in the small motel room between the bathroom and the window, so many times that I practically wore a line in the carpet. I went to the window and peered outside at the dark and nearly deserted parking lot, a million questions racing through my mind. Where had he gone? Was he okay? Was this—whatever it was—going to wear off? Get worse? Hurt him?
I tried to think about something else because this was eating me up inside. My mind wandered back to being at the bar and reading the newspaper. My picture, my sister’s plea for help. She had no idea what had happened to me that day—a day that was still crystal clear in my memory.
I remembered the chemist—the parachemist, since he dealt in formulas meant for preternatural uses—who’d grabbed me and put me between him and Declan. Declan wanted the prototype formula he’d had. It was only in its initial stages. One sample. And it had been injected into me.
My sister knew nothing about this. She might have seen some security camera footage of the hostage situation, the standoff between Anderson and Declan, but she’d have no idea how it had turned out. Just a fleeting image of me running away and being pursued by a large, scary-looking man with a gun who’d just shot someone in the head and left his dead body bleeding on the lobby floor.
With a shaking hand, I picked up the motel phone and held it to my ear. I pecked out the numbers and waited as the phone rang once, twice, three times. Voice mail picked up and the familiar sound of Cathy’s voice brought the sting of tears to my eyes.
She lived here in Los Angeles. From where this motel was, her house was only about ten miles away. Despite speaking to her weekly on the phone and sending tons of emails, I hadn’t seen her or my nieces since Easter when I’d stayed at her house for the weekend. I missed her so much.
I opened my mouth to say something after the beep, but pressed my lips together. The silence stretched like bitter taffy until I lost my nerve and hung up. This wasn’t the time. And it wasn’t fair to just leave her a message that explained nothing.
The moment this was all over—if I found my way out of this mess—when I finally saw my sister, I swore I’d never leave again.
I leaned back on the bed, trying to ignore the huge rips in the mattress from Declan’s violent burst of rage. A bare spring poked into my back.
The next moment I sat bolt upright when someone knocked on the door. Declan wouldn’t knock. And no one else knew we were here.
Heart racing, I slipped off the bed as quietly as I could and went to the window to glance outside. I gasped. Matthias stood outside the door with his hand pressed against it, a half smile on his face.
“Jillian—” The eerie singsong way he said my name carried easily through the thin door. “I know you’re in there. Your blood . . . it calls to me even from a distance.”
Cold sweat slid down my spine.
He could smell me. It was a chilling thought. I guess I couldn’t exactly pretend that no one was home. However, I wasn’t about to swing the door wide open and roll out the welcome mat. The memory of what he’d done to me the last time we were alone spiraled in my head.
I hated this guy.
The erotic dreams I’d had about him since he’d disappeared in a fiery burst of ash were meaningless. I couldn’t control what my unconscious came up with.
“What the hell do you want?” I didn’t bother to raise my voice since I knew he’d hear me anyway.
“Let me in.”
“No, thanks.”
He sighed. “Open the door, Jillian.”
My hand curled into a tight fist at my side. “Why are you here?”
“To see you.”
“You saw me earlier.”
“Only for a moment.”
My shoulders tensed. “Declan will be back any minute.”
His pale eyes moved to where I peeked through the window and locked with mine. “Then we best hurry this up. I get the distinct impression he doesn’t like me very much.”
He was so insightful.
I shook my head. “Not a good idea.”
“I’m not planning on ravishing you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He looked way too amused by my protests. “I’ve brought you something.”
My guard was up. “What?”
He pulled a small leather case out of the pocket of his black pants. “Noah tells me you’ll need this soon. It’s a vial of fusing potion.”
My attention narrowed skeptically on the case. “Why didn’t he bring it himself?”
“He doesn’t know where you are.”
“But you do.”
He shrugged. “I followed you.”
“From the bar.” My fingernails dug sharply into my palms.
“Yes.”
“So that means you’ve been lurking around here for more than an hour.”
“Lurking makes it sound rather vile, Jillian. I was waiting for the right time to visit you.”
My stomach churned. The curtains hadn’t been drawn earlier. If he’d been spying on me and Declan when—
Well, he would have gotten an eyeful. My face grew warm with embarrassment, which led directly into a fresh burst of anger. I went to the door and opened it a crack so I could glare out at him and his smug expression. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I thought we already discussed this.” He put his hand on the door and pushed it open farther while I tried to stop him. He was strong. I wasn’t. He won.
His gaze swept the small room in an instant, resting on the shamble of a wall and torn-up mattress. His attention returned to me and he raised an eyebrow. “Having some fun to pass the time?”
I tried to keep a lid on my anger and eyed the case he held. “How do I know that’s the real thing?”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Sorry, no.”
“It’s real. I mean you no harm, Jillian, whether or not you believe me.”
I studied him for a moment, but couldn’t read his intentions. Finally I held out my hand. “Okay. Thank you for bringing it to me.”
He hesitated a moment before handing over the case. I was surprised he did so without further argument. I noticed there were dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in days.
“Feeling okay?” I asked.
“Who me?”
“No, the dethroned vampire king standing behind you.”
His lips stretched over white teeth until I could see the sharp tips of his fangs. In the movies sometimes they were able to retract like a switchblade, but in real life they were always there, sharp and ready to pierce their next victim’s flesh.
“I’m feeling fine. Although, I must admit, being this close to you still fills me with a difficult to resist need even knowing about your very powerful blood. It’s interesting to me.”
Unease continued to flicker inside me. “I guess I should be extra careful around you now. You could come back for second helpings now that you know my blood won’t kill you.”
Something unpleasant slid behind his eyes then, but I wasn’t sure what it was. “Maybe you shouldn’t have opened your door to me.”
“If I hadn’t, you could have broken it down. Vampires don’t need an invite inside people’s motel rooms. Do you?”
“No, we don’t.”
He didn’t look so well. I hadn’t noticed it at the bar earlier, I’d been too shocked at seeing him walking and talking that I hadn’t paid close attention. But he looked very pale, thinner than before, and those dark circles seemed strange to me, although I wasn’t sure why. If he was human, I’d say he looked sick.
“What do you want, Matthias?”
“You know what I want.”
“I’m not inviting you in here with me.”
His gaze flicked to the destroyed mattress. “I’m not asking you to.”
“Then—”
“I saw your picture in the newspaper today. Your sister is worried about you. I’m surprised you haven’t contacted her yet.”
I swallowed. “It’s not the right time.”
“Your little nieces will wonder where their aunt has disappeared to.” He grinned at my look of shock. “Not hard to find out information when you have a name and a city.”
“Leave them alone.”
“I wouldn’t dream of bothering them. I simply wanted to learn more about you.”
My face felt tight. I didn’t like him knowing about my sister and nieces. It felt too personal. “There’s really not much to know.”
“Where’s my daughter, Jillian?” Again the amusement on his face disappeared and he was all business.
A breath caught in my chest. “I don’t know. Don’t you believe me?”
“Look at me.”
I was tired and unprepared to deal with him tonight. The moment I looked into his eyes he captured me there immediately. It was like being instantly hypnotized. All of my fear and apprehension and anger disappeared completely. A warm and pleasant sensation flowed over my skin and I found I couldn’t look away.
He leaned against the doorframe. “That’s much better.”
“Damn you, Matthias.” It sounded much more conversational than angry now.
“I know you don’t like it when I do this.”
“You’re right, I don’t.”
“It can’t be helped.”
“It’s cheating.”
“There are other methods I’ve used to get someone to talk. Believe me, this is much less painful for you.”
He drew closer, and I didn’t attempt to step back. I couldn’t move and at the moment I was perfectly fine with that. He’d influenced me to be calm and I was calm, even face-to-face with the vampire who’d told me he’d personally ripped the hearts of traitors out of their chests. Side by side, he didn’t look as dangerous as Declan. But he was.
“Where is she?” he asked evenly.
“I don’t know.”
“Declan took her somewhere and didn’t tell you where.”
“That’s right.” I now understood all too well why Declan hadn’t told me anything about this. It was because my mind was too easily influenced. I would have blurted out her location to Matthias already if I’d known the truth. “But Sara’s safe. I know she is.”
His pale brows drew together. “Sara?”
“Yes.”
“You named my daughter?”
I nodded slowly, studying his face, which looked so tired it made me think he hadn’t slept much in the past week. “Sara means princess. I thought it was a suitable name for a vampire princess.”
“Half-vampire.”
His eyes were the same pale gray as every vampire’s. A dhampyr’s were a couple shades darker, but still colorless. I wondered what color Matthias’s eyes had been when he was human.
“Jillian,” he said sharply, drawing me a little out of my trance.
“You—you can name her something else, of course. I just wanted to call her something other than baby.”
“Sara’s a fine name.” He studied me closely for a moment, then stroked a line down the side of my face, over my throat where the fang marks were. I leaned against his cool touch, enjoying it more than I wanted to. “Did you miss me when I was gone, Jillian?”
It felt as if I was floating in warm water. “Yes.”
He smiled at that answer.
I hadn’t meant to say that. I’d felt badly that I’d been to blame for his death—or my blood had been, anyway. But as far as him being gone after all the trouble he’d caused . . .
I hadn’t missed him. I didn’t even like him.
“Are you working with Declan to destroy me now that you know I’m still alive?” He took my chin firmly between his cool fingers so he could hold my gaze.
“No.”
“And your blood—Noah doesn’t know where all this
will lead. Do you think you’re going to die from the poison in your veins?”
“Yes, I’m dying.” I couldn’t lie even if I wanted to.
His expression was as unreadable as Declan’s usually was. “How long do you think you have left?”
“When the fusing potion wears off I don’t think I’ll survive it. I might mentally be able to handle the pain, but I don’t think my body can. It’s going to give out. I figure I have a couple of weeks. If that.” My throat felt thick as I spoke about my own death sentence. I tried not to think about it much, but it was the truth.
“How does the dhampyr feel about that?”
“He doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“He hurt you.” His gaze moved to my throat that showed fresh bruises from Declan’s crushing grip on me earlier. “Do you want to leave him?”
“No.”
“He’s dangerous. And he’ll only become more dangerous.”
I shook my head. “The scent of my blood triggered something bad in him earlier, but it wasn’t his fault.”
His lips pressed together. “What happened has little to do with your blood.”
“You’re wrong. My blood sparked the violence in Declan. He would never hurt me.”
He smiled humorlessly. “Don’t be so sure about that. He’s a dhampyr, and because of that he’s automatically a threat to anyone who gets too close to him.” He hissed out a breath. “There’s no time to worry about these peripheral issues right now. My questions have been answered. Good night, Jillian.”
He stepped back, and his mental influence over me vanished and the calm I’d felt disappeared like an icy wash of water had been thrown at me. Anger at having him mess with my mind shot forth.
“Wait.” I grabbed his arm before he walked away. “Declan isn’t a threat. It’s my blood and his serum that’s messing him up, it’s not him.”
He eyed me. “You’ve seen other dhampyrs, haven’t you? The other kind?”
Just the mention of them sent a shiver through me. Declan was a very rare kind of dhampyr. The more common ones were hunched-over monsters that weren’t capable of human reasoning or thought. They were more savage than a pure vampire and once they got the taste of blood, they were completely deadly. It was the reason that most human women who became pregnant by a vampire got an abortion. If they didn’t and they bore a monster dhamp, they never survived the birth. The dhampyr clawed its way out of its mother’s womb, ready to feed on her before it moved on.
“Declan’s nothing like that,” I said under my breath.
“For now.” Matthias turned and began walking away, throwing a glance at me over his shoulder. “Just be careful with him or your two-week estimate for living may be drastically reduced.”
I followed him out into the deserted parking lot, drawing my sweater closer to me, chilled despite the hot night. “What are you talking about?”
His gaze swept me. “The dhampyr is dangerous. I sensed something earlier at the bar from him. It was one of the reasons I followed you immediately. He is ... close to the edge of his control. And I was right.”
“You were spying on us earlier, weren’t you?”
He didn’t flinch at the accusation. “You once accused me of being violent toward women. I hope by now you see that’s not true.”
“I saw you kill a woman.”
“A traitor who meant to kill me and was conspiring behind my back.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Declan is a good man.”
“But he scares you, doesn’t he?”
I looked up at him. “You scare me more.”
His lips curled. “Your loyalty to him is admirable. But that”—he nodded toward the motel room—“is just the beginning of the troubles you’ll have with him. All dhampyrs descend into violence or insanity at his age. I know the original drugs he took curbed this, but that’s the past and what happened earlier is what the future holds.”
I didn’t want to believe what he was telling me. It was my blood. It was the new serum that was messing him up. This wasn’t anything other than that.
But what if Matthias was right?
“So what am I supposed to do?” I whispered.
“Leave him.”
I shook my head. “There has to be another way.”
His jaw clenched. “This wasn’t my purpose in coming here tonight. What happens with that vampire hunter is not my concern.”
Something in the way he said it made my breath catch. “There is a way to help him, isn’t there? And you know what it is.”
“Yes, there is a way. The only way. But you won’t like it very much.”
“What is it?”
He studied me for a moment. “Why would I tell you?”
“Because I—I’m asking you nicely.”
He laughed out loud at that. “Jillian, I don’t think you’re capable of asking for anything nicely.” I could have sworn I saw some irritation and impatience in his gaze before his expression softened a fraction. “Find out where my daughter is being kept and I will tell you how to save your dhampyr lover. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Matthias, wait!” I chased after him as he began walking away again. Suddenly, he turned and grabbed me hard, dragging me backward. I shrieked out loud.
“Someone’s here.” He pulled me around the corner of the motel before releasing me. “Go back to your room. Don’t come out or they’ll be able to smell you.”
Before I could ask another question he stalked back around to the empty parking lot. He was twenty feet away from me when I saw the dark shadows of three men stretch across the pavement.
I pressed back against the wall, but I didn’t leave. Not yet. I needed to know who they were and what they wanted. Maybe they were after Declan and me. He’d said they could smell me, so that meant they were vampires.
It was the small man wearing glasses and a three-piece suit, flanked by two larger ones, who spoke first. “Your majesty.”
“Meyers.” Matthias’s back was to me. He stood as if blocking my location. “How did you find me?”
He didn’t sound totally surprised to see these people. His voice was curt and lacked friendliness. This wasn’t a welcome visit.
Meyers ignored the question. “We’ve come for the key, your majesty. It’s time.”
The line of Matthias’s back stiffened. “You were a loyal blood servant to me. I trusted you above all the others.”
“The key, your majesty.”
“Twenty years. I was about to finally sire you, give you eternal life. And this is what you do? Betray me along with all the others?”
There was some strain visible in Meyers’s face. He removed his glasses and cleaned them on the corner of his shirt before putting them back on. “I have no choice.”
“Kristoff cannot be released. I locked him away with very good reason. You know this.”
“Kristoff will be awakened and returned to the throne that you stole from him. Your majesty, it’s always been a matter of time before this day would come. You must have seen that.” Meyers scanned the area. “The woman is here, isn’t she? The one rumored to have poisonous blood.”
“She’s not here.”
“No one understands why you’d continue to protect someone like her. It only alienates you more from your former subjects. They demand that Kristoff permanently take your place. You will never be king again.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
Meyers smiled. “Your optimism is admirable, if unwise. There’s no other way this will go. It’s too late to make amends. And your dealings with the woman is only another sign of your growing weakness.”
“Meyers,” Matthias said evenly. “You said yourself this woman is likely a rumor. Very few claim to have seen her. It’s merely a myth created to unsettle us by a group of human hunters—a ruse to shake confidence in my ability to rule. She doesn’t exist.”
Meyers flicked his chin at his two hulking companions. “Hold him in place.”
They moved so quickly I could barely follow it, each grabbing one of Matthias’s arms. My fingers dug into the brick. I expected him to slough them off easily, to pound them into the ground. I knew he was strong and dangerous and I’d seen him kill several people without a moment’s hesitation.
But he didn’t.
Meyers produced a knife and brought it up to Matthias’s throat. “I only know where you keep the key because you told me yourself.”
“Consider my confidence in you now at an end.”
“I don’t enjoy this, your majesty. Don’t think I do.”
I didn’t understand why he wasn’t making mincemeat of these people. What the hell was he waiting for? This wasn’t right.
“Why do you need the key?” Matthias said. “You’re one of the few who knows where he’s being kept. You can just break in and let him out.”
Meyers smiled. “Breaking the lock will cause the room Kristoff is being kept in to be destroyed, including those who attempt to release him. There are no secrets, Matthias. I know all, and I’ll use my knowledge to free the rightful king. His gratitude to me will be endless.”
“You have no idea what monster you’ll be unleashing upon the world,” Matthias growled.
“Quiet him,” Meyers instructed.
One of the thugs plowed his fist into Matthias’s gut, then drove an uppercut into his jaw. Matthias spat blood and snarled at him like a cornered wild animal.
Meyers walked a slow circle around the vampire king. “There was a rumor you’d been weakened from drinking some of the Nightshade-tainted blood when you had the woman in your bedroom before you disappeared. Your weakness tonight proves it’s true.”
Matthias clenched his teeth. “I’m just having an off night.”
The rumor that he’d drunk my blood was true. The rumor that it had been in his bedroom was not. I looked around frantically for someone to help, someone other than me to witness this, but there was no one around.
“You should have sired me years ago,” Meyers said. “Maybe then my loyalties wouldn’t have shifted.”
Matthias jerked his chin at the vampires who held him in place. “Why don’t you get one of your new friends to sire you?”
“I wanted the blood of a king so I’d be stronger than the others. And I’ll get it. But first, I need that key.” Meyers sliced the knife down the front of Matthias’s shirt, splitting it open, then pushed the thin material down over the vampire king’s shoulders so his pale chest and abdomen were bared.
“How did you find me, Meyers? You didn’t answer my question earlier.”
“There’s a tracking device I had placed under your skin by one of your more amorous consorts six months ago. Perhaps you thought she only scored your back with her sharp fingernails in a moment of passion. For a random whore she was very adept at her job, don’t you think?”
“Brilliant, actually.” The blood from Matthias’s mouth trickled down over his chin.
“I thought so.” Meyers pursed his thin lips. “I do apologize for betraying you in this fashion. But once you were deposed, my loyalties to you were no longer part of my job requirement. I’ll be loyal to Kristoff. Hopefully he’ll acknowledge this by not making me wait twenty more years before he sires me.”
“Or he’ll just tear off your head and drink his fill to regain his strength. I wouldn’t stand too close when you awaken him.”
Meyers’s mouth twitched. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“My brother is a sociopath. His passion is pain and making others—human and vampire alike—suffer. It’s Pandora’s box you’re playing with—you don’t know what horrors will emerge when you open it.”
Meyers smiled. “What’s life without a little risk?”
Without another word exchanged, he sliced the knife deeply into Matthias’s stomach, cutting upward, and then plunged his hand inside the gaping wound.