Shattered Circle c-6 Page 15

  “It is a simple thing I ask for,” he said, “but very valuable.”

  “Are you able to tell me what that is, or does knowing what that price is have a price?”

  My sarcasm sobered him. His smile faded into an expression of deadly seriousness. His hand pushed my hair away from my shoulder, then rounded the side of my neck. “Let my lips touch yours for one kiss and I will tell you what I can do for you.” He made it sound entirely sexual—which was quite a contrast to the placement of his hand, which only served to remind me how fragile and vulnerable the human neck was.

  Additionally, bartering to break down the barriers of intimacy always irritated me.

  Heedless of both warning signs, I contemplated kissing him.

  He gave my earlobe an affectionate little tug, then his gaze traveled over my face, coming to rest adoringly on my eyes. “I have what you need, Persephone.”

  I believed he did.

  To find out what he could do that trumped the plan I had in mind, all I had to do was kiss this mysterious being who wasn’t a man, a vampire, or a wærewolf. He wasn’t anything I could yet identify. He could work sorcery without pulling on a ley line so he was internally powerful, enough so that he could teleport himself. That wasn’t normal.

  Maybe the taste of him would give some hint.

  I scolded myself soundly. It wasn’t like I’d know. Until a few weeks ago I’d never kissed anyone but a human. I was sure Johnny tasted like Johnny, not like some default wærewolf flavor, and I doubted all vampires tasted like cinnamon. So Creepy would taste like Creepy.

  What flavor would he have?

  I wondered what his lips—a bit wide for his face; not too thin, not too thick—would feel like on mine. His dark beard was trimmed short, but it looked soft. It was a very masculine mouth, as if he could command legions with ease. But the sum total of that impression was created by a combination of things.

  Like his eyes.

  His stance.

  He conveyed confidence and authority.

  Knowing how out of control my life was becoming, being close to someone with his level of self-assurance was aspirational.

  Yeah. That’s what I want. To be in control of my life, not a victim of it.

  Sometimes, in a small corner of my heart, I wished someone else was the Lustrata, wished for my simple life back. I didn’t want to be a target anymore.

  The wærewolves in particular seemed to have it in for me. Some in the local pack had personal grudges and resentments. The Rege had tried to kill me, and so had Aurelia. Hell, even Johnny had tried, though he might be the only one who had a legitimate excuse for his actions.

  The vampires had made their share of threats, too. Heldridge had it in for me. Eva had tried to poison me. Liyliy had kidnapped me, and when I escaped she decided it was better to shred me with her talons and drown me than to have me unmake that necklace. Mero was determined to deliver me to the Excelsior. That would not be good at all.

  They all fear me.

  They see me as a danger to them.

  How do I become something that those who oppose me would not dare to strike against . . . and yet maintain my “self”?

  I’d hesitated longer than I should have. I’d taken a tangent along a side path, meandering in my own thoughts, and hadn’t answered him. Like a little girl lost in the woods, when I came back to myself and realized my mistake, it was too late. The predator was closing in.

  My eyes closed. I held my breath.

  Creepy’s lips brushed mine.

  With his hand at the back of my neck I could not have pulled away, but I didn’t resist. The chaste exploration surprised me. It was just his mouth making contact with mine, barely, then sliding to the left, then the right. It wasn’t even a kiss, really. He was feeling me, caressing me in a way that I’d never been touched before. It was infinitely intimate. It took my breath away.

  Literally. What I’d held in my lungs escaped all at once in a quavering sigh.

  I felt him smile.

  Then his lips pressed against mine.

  It was a moment of utter sweetness. I yielded. I kissed him back.

  His grip tightened. His mouth pressed harder on mine, so hard it hurt. I mmmm-ed a protest and tried to pull away but his hand held me firm. His beard was rough now, scraping over my skin. I tried to say no, but his tongue filled my mouth—he tasted of raspberry and orange. No, he tasted like a blood orange.

  As the seconds ticked away, he grew rougher. Gripping turned into squeezing, fondling into groping. When I heard the seam of my shirt tear, I thrust my hands under his chin and pushed as I turned away. “Stop it!”

  He roared in anger and, clutching the back of my neck, spun me around like a dancer. My knees gave and the next thing I knew I was crouched before him on all fours, looking out at the decaying hall around us. His fingers gripped my shoulders but he wasn’t pulling me away from this danger; he was holding me to it. Threads of light sprang from his fingertips and wound down my arms, forcing them to stay straight.

  In a raw whisper Creepy said, “I can remove all the uncertainty, Persephone. I can remove the danger and replace it with serenity so deep you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it. Imagine your life without threats, without doubts. You want that, don’t you?”

  Breathing hard, feeling the floor cracking under my palms, I saw fine fissures appear under my hands and spread. I fought to keep all my weight on my knees. “How can you do that?”

  “How matters not, if that is what you desire of me.” His voice shook with an intensity that traveled down his arms into my shoulders, vibrating out to my palms. The cracks widened.

  “How matters to me!” I shouted, trying desperately to hold the force he was exerting in my legs and back. My muscles trembled with the effort.

  “What would you object to?” he growled.

  “I object to being coerced by threats.”

  “Indecision makes me impatient. This method brings answers. Now, what would you object to?”

  “Harming others.”

  “The world must balance. If I give to you, I must take from another.”

  “Then, do it my way.”

  He leaned down to my ear. “But your way takes from the Excelsior. It takes his home earth to make a stake such as that. It counters his free will, prohibiting him from coming near you while the stake is in your possession!”

  “I need only a little dirt and the stake won’t bother him if he doesn’t seek to harm me, so I’ll accept that risk.”

  He barked a single laugh. “The stake will not defend you from his human minions.”

  My jaws clenched. I was the Lustrata, bearer of the mantle. I could tap a ley line and call on energies many witches would not dare to touch. “I can do quite a bit to protect myself.”

  “Yes, my beauty, you are strong—thrice tested—and your potency is waxing, but you are not yet full as the moon.”

  Johnny and Menessos would help me. Certain witches would. And the elementals. “I have other defenses.”

  “Do you dare to underestimate who you trifle with, witch? He is the Supreme Vampire for a reason. His minions will employ others not bound by him, others who will not be held back by your weapon. They will lay waste to all the people who would stand to shield you. They will destroy the flimsy weapon you create. The blood of all those you hold dear will run thick upon the open ground, and they will throw you before the Excelsior anyway. All will have been for naught.”

  I said nothing and simply tried to breathe normally to quell the fear that rose up when those I cared for most were endangered, and to evaporate the tears burning at the backs of my eyes.

  “I have what you need,” he said again.

  Through clenched teeth I asked, “How would you accomplish it?”

  He snorted. “So stubborn!”

  “I have to know! I have to think it through to decide.”

  “Then think, sweet, sweet Persephone. Think long and hard. Call for me when you’ve decided how
you want to proceed.” He shoved on my shoulders.

  The floor shattered and I fell headfirst into darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Johnny straightened. He squinted at the doc. The man’s actions were calm, tending his glasses as he always did. Did she talk him into killing her? It was a normal thing for the doc to do. For him, normal includes putting dying animals down gently.

  “Her internal injuries were not survivable.”

  Johnny stared with the intention of intimidation.

  When the doc placed his glasses back on his nose, he saw it. “Unless someone does an autopsy, you won’t know for sure what the cause of death was precisely. My guess is massive internal bleeding from a gastrointestinal wound. She was in hypovolemic shock when I arrived, John.”

  “Sire, a word?” Gregor interrupted.

  Johnny nodded and Doc Lincoln walked away.

  “I have programmed the address you gave me into the GPS on my phone. I’m leaving shortly.”

  He listened to Gregor without looking at him. Instead his focus had remained on the veterinarian, who retrieved something from his truck and returned toward the crash site with it. Johnny had the distinct feeling it was a veterinarian’s version of a body bag.

  “Sire?”

  When Johnny heard that word, he realized Gregor had repeated it a few times. He tore his attention from the wreckage. “I need you to keep her death a secret for as long as possible.”

  “Absolutely. May I ask why?” Gregor repeated.

  “The longer this news is unknown, the safer my son is.”

  Gregor nodded. “I’ve put Brian in charge. He’s made arrangements for a tow truck to come and is confirming whose land this is so that we may offer financial compensation for the damage.”

  “And the body?”

  “Will go into the back of one of our vehicles for transport. We will see that Ms. Romochka’s final arrangements are in keeping with her wishes.”

  The phrase “final arrangements” were like knives twisting in his gut. If I hadn’t pursued her, she would still be alive. But if she hadn’t tried to kill Red, I wouldn’t have chased her.

  His hands raked through his hair.

  “The Omori can handle this. Perhaps you should return to Ms. Alcmedi’s house? I will tell Brian he can find you there if necessary.”

  “No. I’ll stay here until—”

  Gregor gripped Johnny’s arm. “It would be best if the Domn Lup were not on the scene when the others arrive.”

  His ascension and subsequent press conference had made worldwide news a few days ago; his distinctive tattoos ensured that anonymity was unlikely. Without a word Johnny turned and walked to his car.

  Red’s saltbox farmhouse was only a few minutes away, but those minutes passed slowly. His thoughts raced, circling around what Aurelia had told him of the key in her suitcase. He agonized over going to Red’s as Gregor had suggested, or rushing into Cleveland to ransack Aurelia’s room at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

  No. Aurelia had tried to kill Red. He had to check on her first.

  She’d been through so much lately. Damn near all of it was his fault.

  But she subdued Aurelia. He had to admit, that was impressive. Aurelia was—had been—a scheming woman who’d endured much to gain a high rank in the governing body of the wærewolves.

  He pulled into the driveway and saw a car that hadn’t been there when he left. It was an Audi like the one Zhan drove, but this one was white. The license plate was FANG 12. It was from the fleet of cars Menessos’s haven owned.

  Perfect. That’s exactly what I want to deal with now. Vamps.

  He got out and headed toward the front door, but then slowed his steps. The main door was open. The screen door would let the cold air in. He’d left it open when he’d entered, but surely she would have closed it by now. It was pretty cold.

  He eased up onto the porch.

  From there he could see down the long hall. Red was sitting Indian style on the kitchen floor and her eyes were shut. If she was back, that must mean they found the kiddo. She seemed in a trance, though. He hoped she was doing some witchy thing of calming and thanks.

  Then a man stepped into view, circling her with an expression of suspicion. His arms were folded across his chest, then one hand rose thoughtfully to his lips. He had not noticed Johnny on the porch.

  Recalling that Ivanka told him it had been a strange man at Red’s house who had broken her arm, he wondered if this was the man.

  By the scent, this guy was definitely a vamp, not an Offerling or Beholder.

  Since Ivanka was an Offerling, he wasn’t sure that she’d have called a vamp a “strange man” or if she would have been wounded by one, but he didn’t know the details of what had happened and she hadn’t given a description of the man.

  This guy was not quite as tall as Johnny, and he wore a tailored black suit that would have garnered the instant approval of both Aurelia and Risqué. His hair was a mass of thick black curls that hung to his waist, secured back in a ponytail. He removed his jacket, and laid it on the counter. The shirt underneath was white. He crouched before Red, studying her.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  The vamp twisted around as he rose, quickly scanning Johnny as he entered the house. He gave a respectful nod of his head. “Domn Lup. My name is Franciscus Meroveus.”

  “So tell me, Francis—”

  “Please. Domn Lup, call me Mero.”

  Johnny stopped on the threshold of the kitchen. “Who invited you in, vamp?”

  Mero did not answer, but his smug smile showed a hint of fang.

  Mountain, Johnny figured. The Beholder was the only one on the premises under the control of vampires. “What do you want?”

  The vamp sucked in a deep breath, relaxed his knees, and squared his shoulders first. “I came for the witch.”

  Johnny recognized the warning signs and mirrored the intruder’s pose. Being out of Red’s life for a few days dealing with his own issues had put him at a disadvantage. He had no idea what was going on, only that he didn’t like it. “You need to leave. Now.”

  With an expression of annoyance, Mero checked his manicure and said, “Make me.”

  Johnny had expected the vamp would accept the challenge rather than bow out. He leapt forward.

  A bolt of energy slammed into his chest with enough force to knock him backward onto his rump and send him sliding down the hall.

  Johnny groaned. I will not let Red down again.

  Not all vamps could use magic. He’d fought Menessos before and it hadn’t been pretty. But he was stronger now. Smarter now. And he knew vamps like this one were very confident. It should be easy to lead him into being overconfident.

  Mero rubbed his fingers over his thumb. “I bet that hurt.”

  Johnny shook his head as if shaking off something more than he truly felt. He rose up slowly. “She is mine.”

  “She must come with me.” He pulled his fingers away from his thumb and a string of white light emerged and stretched. As his hand rotated around this string it swelled like a balloon, becoming a brilliant ball of blue lightning arcs and flares of pale purple. He tilted his head slightly. “Are you going to insist on making this difficult?”

  Johnny had no intention of letting this vampire take Red anywhere. He staggered one step and set his stance. With his hands at his sides, he called his beast. He blinked like he could not see clearly, and waited while the animal slid under his skin.

  It was not unlike the way Seph’s half-grown Great Dane, Ares, would push his head into Johnny’s palm begging to be petted, but this was from the inside. And it wasn’t a domesticated canine.

  This was wolf.

  Long slumbering, after Eris had unlocked the bindings in his tattoos the beast had awakened feral and violent. He had clashed with his inner wolf and won its respect—his strength of will was mightier than the beast’s. He controlled it now, but that control had a price—the beast’s physical st
rength was not his own.

  He commanded it, Come.

  All at once, he raced forward and the beast burst forth.

  His hands darkened and his fingers grew claws. His torso broadened with expanding muscles. His face transformed and his snout pushed partway out as his teeth grew long.

  Mero released the orb.

  Johnny slammed it linebacker style with his shoulder and kept going.

  Mero’s eyes widened and, too late, his hand lifted for another blast.

  Having taken the hall in four strides, Johnny leapt as his lower half changed form. He crashed into the vamp and both toppled over, sliding into the dinette set at the rear of the kitchen. Their momentum broke the table legs and sent the bench and one chair tumbling. The tabletop slammed down on them and while Mero struggled against the weight pinning him down, Johnny thrashed, kicking his shoes away, throwing off his jeans, ripping his shirt. A one-armed rearward thrust threw the tabletop against the wall with the landline phone. He heard the crack and crumble of molded plastic. The speaker on the receiver immediately began droning.

  A sudden burning pain seized him in the side as the vamp shoved a fiery ball against his flesh. Howling, Johnny rolled away, but his retreat was blocked by the chair now shoved against the wall. Mero had not released the scalding magic so the movement had dragged the blistering ache across his stomach.

  Reaching up, Johnny jerked the chair up and out of the way, twisting it and bringing it down on the vamp’s shoulders and head. It splintered into pieces. Johnny’s paws scraped along the floor, slipping on wood shards, until he’d knocked them away and found purchase on the linoleum. Just as he was fully up, Mero was getting his legs under him.

  Johnny lunged, bringing his jaws down on the vamp’s arm. He tried to bite through it; he worried at it, trying to tear it off, but Meroveus’s arm was like steel. Then something solid and heavy smacked against his head. Stumbling backward, he released Mero. Dazed, Johnny saw that the vamp’s other arm, now holding the thick wooden leg that used to be attached to the table, was swinging downward with the follow-through from the blow that had connected with his head. He reared up and thrust in again, aiming for Mero’s neck. Mero sidestepped and swung the table leg for an upper-cut strike.