Darkness Haunts

chapter Twenty



Derrick shook me awake the next day. I squinted at my watch and determined I’d slept about ten hours—twice as long might have been better. The room was dim. I realized someone had pulled the black-out curtains closed so light couldn’t get through. Of course, there was a vampire in the house. Not the thing I wanted to consider upon awakening.

I’d fallen asleep on a make-shift cot we’d put together in the bedroom after I’d taking a shower the night before. Emily had gotten up from the bigger bed hours ago and left for school. Derrick and I were the only ones in the room.

His grim expression told me he must have regained his faculties since waking. Lucas had given him a few commands so the werewolf couldn’t report our activities back to Variola, but it wouldn’t change Derrick’s opinions on matters. I was learning the limits of compulsion quickly.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“Variola called,” he said in a gruff voice. “She wants to see us at her house in two hours. You should eat something and get ready.”

My stomach rumbled at the suggestion. I needed to get my strength up after all the blood loss from the day before. It had been awhile since I last ate. We’d brought some snacks with us yesterday when we went down into the mine, but those were long since digested. Of course, with Derrick angry at me now there would be no nice, cooked breakfast to enjoy. I missed the smell of it already.

He stepped out of the room after I got up. His rigid shoulders and lack of visible emotion told me he was holding his anger in check. To him, waking Nikolas and freeing him from the sleeping spell was a kind of betrayal. I’d known doing it would upset him, but hadn’t seen a way around it.

If all went well, this whole thing would be over soon and there would be no more second guessing every decision I made and having to worry about which people and relationships I had to sacrifice in the process. The heaviness of my choices was weighing on me too much already.

Going into the closet to get my clothes gave me a start. I’d forgotten Nikolas had been relegated to sleeping in the small, windowless space. His body lay across the floor with one arm tossed over his head. It forced me to tip toe around him to find something to wear.

I supposed he’d wake up soon since older vamps didn’t need to sleep much during the day, but he didn’t stir while I moved around him. Of course, the guy had to recover from five years of malnourishment on top of the temporary damage drinking my blood did to him. He still felt weak to my senses and would probably remain that way for another day or two.

An hour later I was ready to go. I’d managed to eat two bowls of cereal and a banana after getting dressed. Derrick sat on the chair by the window alone, staring out of it. Felisha and Charlie had left early that morning—they’d been the ones to take Emily to school.

He barely glanced at me when I walked up to him. I hated seeing him that way and wished it didn’t have to be like that.

“What did you tell Variola when she called?” I asked. Lucas should have worked that out with him last night, but I’d missed hearing the details.

“She thinks we found a different vamp. A newbie I had to kill when he attacked us down there. I told her he was a squatter with no place to go. Don’t know if she bought the story.”

It wasn’t like she could verify it since he’d be nothing but scattered dust now. I shrugged. “We’ll have to hope she did because Nikolas isn’t getting handed over to her.”

He gave me a hard look. “Hope you know what you’re doing, little girl. The stakes are high when you play games at this level and losers don’t walk away.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I snapped.

He stood up. “You better.”

***

We were greeted in front of Variola’s home by three male werewolves who stood outside the main entrance. They stopped talking as soon as we walked up. I tried moving past them, but a guy with oily, blond hair grabbed my arm.

“Weapons.”

Damn, I had hoped they wouldn’t ask. My right hand reached back for the Sig and returned to set it in his hand. He tucked it in his pants and put his hand out again.

“All of them,” he demanded.

I swallowed back a few choice expletives and jerked my jacket off to unstrap the wrist sheaths on my arms. The two pocket knives, along with another blade hidden inside the waistband of my jeans, came next. He kept putting his hand out. It reminded me that they had disarmed me after my capture and had discovered all my secret hiding spots. Better not to think about how they’d taken my clothes as well.

I knelt down and pulled the knives from under my pant legs, handing them over with reluctance. There was nothing left to give him.

“Spread your arms,” he ordered.

I sighed and lifted them up.

His eager hands ran over my breasts, giving them a hard squeeze before moving downward. A shudder of revulsion went through me as he ran his hands along the waistband of the pants I wore, dipping deeper than necessary. My ass received the same treatment as he reached around for it while pressing up close to my front. His heavy breathing on my neck was hot and putrid. I turned my face away and gritted my jaw, wishing for it to be over as quickly as possible. The search came to a head when his intrusive fingers ran between my legs. Jeans did not provide near enough protection for what he was doing.

I let out a curse and shoved him away with all my strength. Even with wearing my pride like a shield, there was only so much I could take. Derrick growled when he heard my protests and leapt forward to take the man by his throat.

“I’d suggest you don’t try anything that stupid again if you want to keep your head attached.”

The weaker were dropped his eyes in submission. Derrick let him go with a grunt. The threat was enough for the guy to finish things up with a swift pat down of my legs and boots. One of the other werewolves waved us inside with averted eyes. I kept my chin up as I walked through the door and tried to ignore their following behind us.

The sight before me in the living room froze me in my steps. With so many sups in the house, I hadn’t bothered to check who all was inside. It appeared the past had come back to haunt me.

“Noreen.” My voice came out low.

The last time I’d seen her, she’d been lying on the floor of her club office in Monterey, unconscious from the wounds I’d inflicted on her. She looked fine now, in all her manicured glory, wearing a cream pantsuit.

I resisted the urge to run as I stared at her standing next to Variola, who wore her standard black leather get-up. The two women couldn’t have been more different had they tried, but their stances were almost identical. They both stood with their feet spread apart and hands on their hips. It was a poor imitation of yin and yang.

Variola spoke first, “Melena, I do believe you’ve met Noreen before. She was most anxious to see you again.”

Pearly white teeth reflected from Variola’s smile. No fangs yet, but the coldness in her dark eyes shone through enough to make me worried. Did they know I’d released Nikolas? I glanced over at Derrick, who had moved off to the side. He stood there with a blank expression that didn’t give away whether he was paying attention to the exchange or not.

I turned back to them. “Yes, I remember her.”

“Good,” Variola said while moving forward to come closer. She stood several inches shorter than me, but the waves of power rolling off of her made up for the lack of height. Fighting her weaponless would be impossible and I hoped it wouldn’t come down to that. Especially since another headache seemed to be coming on. I resisted the urge to rub my temples.

“What’s this about?” I asked. “We’re still looking for the vampire you want.” Better to brazen this one out with the hope she didn’t know the truth.

The witch-vamp’s eyes hardened. “Derrick told me you were still searching. It seems to me you’re taking far too long to find one vampire who shouldn’t be that difficult to locate. Lucky for us, the perfect incentive arrived yesterday to help give you a little motivation.”

I stiffened. Incentive?

“Robert,” she called out to a vampire standing near the entryway. “Why don’t you bring our guest?”

The man who’d brought Emily and her mother up to Fairbanks nodded and marched off. I recognized his name from her mentioning it several times. Robert wasn’t much to look at—a small guy with history professor looks who was about ninety in vampire years, though he could pass for mid-forties in human. Before stepping out, his eyes had reflected a hint of cruelty. Variola only surrounded herself with the best.

For the next few minutes we stood waiting while the tension in my muscles continued to build. About a half dozen sups were in the room. Most were staring at me with expressionless faces. I tried to ignore them in favor of sending my senses out to find Aniya, but nothing came back to me. I had to hope they hadn’t hurt her.

My head swiveled to the entryway as footsteps approached, signaling Robert’s return with the “guest”. I gaped at seeing Matt. He’d been worked over hard with a black eye, assorted facial bruises, and fang marks in his neck. He had to be in pain, but his eyes were filled with fury.

How could he put up such a brave front? Most humans would have been in a state of shock at this point.

“What does he have to do with this?” I asked, wishing I could pulverize the witch-vamp’s triumphant face.

Variola laughed and Noreen stepped forward, running her gaze up and down my body. “You, little human, need a lesson in manners and obedience. This boy here will be the perfect training tool so there will be no more problems with you in the future.”

Noreen walked over and kicked Matt between the legs with her high heeled shoes. He doubled over and cursed her. I leapt forward to try and stop the witch from doing anything more, but two vamps grabbed my arms and pulled me back. They avoided my flying feet and one of them punched me hard in the stomach. The air rushed out of my lungs and ribbons of pain sliced through my ribs. I had to wheeze through the pain.

“Leave her alone,” Matt yelled out.

My head lifted to stare at him. How could he have any bravery left after what he’d been through?

Variola smacked him on the side of the head. “Young man, you’ve gotten yourself into enough trouble. If it weren’t for your father, I’d kill you now, but don’t push your luck.”

His father?

Matt spit on the fancy Oriental rug laying across the wood floor before replying, “Not just my father, Theirn will be pissed at you too.”

“Do not bring up Theirn with me! I’m free of him and his precious New Orleans. Your threats do no good here.”

My head swung back and forth between them, trying to make sense of the conversation.

“What is going on, Matt?” I asked him.

Regret filled his eyes.

“I knew about them being here,” he indicated the sups in the room, “but didn’t know where to find them. When you showed your friend’s photo, I didn’t think about the guy with her being a vamp until later. Since you look human, I couldn’t talk about it anyway. But then you started hanging around with that werewolf and I realized you had to know about them.”

Derrick stood stoic during the whole conversation and wouldn’t meet my eyes. Damn him. Why wouldn’t he say anything?

I returned my attention to Matt. “Okay, but how do you know about these people?”

He gave me a rueful smile. “My father is a werewolf and second to the head vampire in New Orleans. Last night, I saw the vamp who’d been with your friend and followed him here hoping to negotiate her release for you, but it didn’t work out like I planned. These a*sholes have no honor.” His angry eyes roamed around the room.

The werewolf next to him elbowed his gut. Matt didn’t cry out in pain this time, but he did double over again. I hated to see him hurt over this. He’d been trying to help, though I wished he’d stayed out of it.

Even though he had a werewolf father, which I hadn’t expected, he was human and vulnerable. For whatever reason, he hadn’t been turned. Many were-parents bit their children once they reached adulthood, others refused to change their offspring, and some gave them a choice. His father must have chosen to leave him as a human.

“Wait, didn’t you say you were from Texas?” My senses would have told me if he lied.

He nodded, having recovered from the latest hit. “I am. That’s where my mother raised me. It was during the summer my Dad brought me to New Orleans where he lived. I met a lot of these guys from my visits there.” He indicated Variola and a few others. At least that explained where they came from before arriving here.

“How did you find out about all this?” he asked.

“Oh, I’ve known about the supernatural community for a while,” I answered, looking away.

Variola laughed. “Still trying to hide what you are, sensor? I believe it’s a little too late for that.”

Matt’s face reflected surprise. “Theirn has been looking for one of your kind for years. He said there aren’t many of you left and the few who are still around get snatched up the minute they’re discovered.”

“More like killed,” I muttered.

He shook his head. “No, they all think you’re too valuable to be killed. You should have stayed hidden, Melena. These people will never let you go.”

I swung my gaze over to Variola.

“Oh, poor dear, no one ever told you. There is always work your kind can be doing for the rest of us. What? You thought that war three centuries ago would keep us from using you? No, little sensor, the angels are long gone and they aren’t coming back to protect you again.”

I tried to jerk free, but the vampires held me in place. All this time I’d been running, thinking they would kill me if caught. Instead, they wanted me for some kind of slave labor. That didn’t make it much better, but my perception of the world no longer looked the same. Wanda must not have known this or she would have told me. What more did they want? Would I ever be free again?

One look at Matt gave me the answer to my second question.

His eyes held sympathy in them. “I’m sorry, Melena. If I’d known what you were, I would have at least warned you.”

His words rang as truth and it made me think he would have tried to keep my secret if I’d told him. Not that I would have. The instinct to protect my identity had long been ingrained into my psyche.

Noreen’s insipid voice caught my attention. “Of course, we do have a problem now. If Matt knows about her, he’ll tell his father. Then we’ll have Theirn to deal with when he hears of this and we can’t afford that.”

Variola nodded her head and gave Matt a critical look. “We can’t compel him not to talk either. Since his werewolf daddy makes him immune to any of our compulsions.”

I guessed that to mean only a very old sup like Nik or Lucas could do it then. Another piece of information I hadn’t known. It must be the older they got, the more effective and wide-ranged their compulsion.

Noreen smiled. “There are two choices—lock him up or kill him.”

“No,” I protested. Neither witch looked at me.

“You’ll have to make sure it isn’t traced back to us,” Variola warned.

“Oh, I know what I’m doing,” the younger witch replied with an anticipatory grin before sashaying out of the room.