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Page 19

 

  "You said they're vampires. How do you know? What did they look like?" I was clinging to a nebulous hope that Erin had been dragged off by a bunch of FBHs who maybe wanted to rob her. It was a ludicrous hope, but one that would make it much easier to save her.

  Tim dashed my hopes though. "They were standing in front of the big mirror, over there. " He pointed to a three-way mirror Erin had set up in the main room of the lingerie shop. "The only one I could see was Erin. None of the men showed a reflection. Are there any other creatures that don't show their reflections?"

  I closed my eyes, trying to come up with something that would give us hope. "Maybe… a few spirits but… no, Tim. Chances are good that you're right and vampires kidnapped her. Tell me what they looked like. You said three men? Are you sure there wasn't a woman with them?" The four newborns from the theater—the only ones we knew about who were still out there running around—had been two men, two women. Unless the guys had ditched the girls and taken up with a third male vamp, it didn't seem likely it was them. Newborns nesting together tended to be cliquish.

  Tim frowned and I could tell he was trying to remember every detail. Erin was his closest friend, and he was hurting like hell. The pain oozed off him like motor oil, burnt and thick. I also suspected Tim was feeling a little bit guilty over hiding out rather than trying to stop them. Sometimes doing the smart thing didn't track as doing the right thing.

  "The one who was holding her was stocky, short… He had a buzz cut. The second man was… I don't know… ordinary. Those two looked like they belonged here, today, in this world. But the third… he scared the hell out of me. "

  I looked up into his eyes. Raw fear. Primal terror. And I knew, right then. "He was tall, with long curly dark hair, wasn't he? And he had a five o'clock shadow and wore black studded leather, didn't he? And you knew, just by looking at him, that you were looking into the face of hell. "

  Tim nodded, eyes widening. "Yeah, how did you know?"

  "Did he say anything?" My stomach felt ready to leap into my throat.

  "Just two words. He said, Take her. He's evil, Menolly. I swear to you, I was so scared just watching him that I almost pissed my pants. I wanted to help Erin, but… he looked like he'd eat me up and spit out the bones. I lost my nerve. I hid, damn it. I hid and didn't do a damned thing!"

  As I stood back, letting Delilah move in to comfort Tim, I knew then that Dredge had Erin. At least for now. It had to be Dredge. He fed off of fear, and when you looked in his eyes, you knew your life was over, that you'd lost the battle and the punishment was about to begin…

  "What's your name, girl?" His voice cut me to the quick. Ice cold, and I knew no tears would work on him, no amount of begging would get me out of what he had planned. "Tell me your name. "

  Even though I knew better than to give my name to a vampire, I couldn't resist the command. "Menolly," I whispered. "Menolly D'Artigo. "

  Dredge leaned over me, the crooked smile on his face filled with dark delight. He slid one sharpened nail along my cheek, stopping just before he drew blood. "Well, Menolly D'Artigo, I'm about to carry you up to the highest mountain. There, I'll drop you into the abyss and watch you fall, and fall, and fall. "

  He ripped open my tunic and my nipples hardened in the cold dampness of the caverns. I heard whispered laughter from around the room and realized we had an audience. Murmurs reached my ears, catcalls and suggestions, but Dredge waved them away. "Patience. We have all the time in the world. "

  Leaning down, he slowly licked me from breast to navel.

  I shuddered, not wanting to respond, angry that my body was betraying me. A quiver in my stomach made me catch my breath, and again he laughed.

  "You like? Good. What about this?"

  He interlaced his hands, cracking his knuckles. The next thing I knew, a line of razor-thin blades ripped across my stomach, slashing a trail of shallow lines that burned along my flesh. Unprepared for the pain, I shrieked and Dredge shuddered, drinking it in. "Scream as loud as you want. There's no one to hear you. No one to save you. "

  Another line of cuts and the sudden sting of salt water over the wounded flesh. I bit back my cries for the next few minutes as he laboriously began etching thin patterns along every inch of my body, drizzling salt water over each cut, each scar-in-the-making. After the tenth cut, a spiral right between my breasts, I started screaming. After the thirtieth, I was beyond words. And after a hundred, the torture began in earnest.

  "Menolly? Menolly? Are you okay?" Delilah touched my shoulder, startling me. She quickly danced away when I hissed.

  I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. No time for me to get lost in memories. Dredge had Erin and that meant she was doomed unless we got to her before he had a chance to.

  "Sorry… just thinking. " I saw Delilah glance at Camille, who was holding a silver arrow made of moonlight. "Did your spell work?" I asked, ignoring the glance that passed between them.

  She paled and shook her head. "No. Not a single clue. "

  "We have five hours till sunrise. We'll have to just start searching the city—" I stopped as Delilah's cell phone rang.

  "Chase," she whispered, flipping it open. Please, please let everything at home be okay, I prayed, hoping that for once the gods would be listening. She hung up. "We have to go home. Chase just got a call from Sharah. Four more vamp victims—the FH-CSI team got to them before the regular force heard. They haven't risen yet, but you know they will. "

  I glanced at Tim. "Tim, we have to go. We have to take care of them before they rise and hurt somebody else. We don't have any choice. "

  "Can't Chase take care of it? Erin's out there with that monster…"

  "I know, and if there was any way I could go get her right now, I would. But we don't have a clue to where they took her. I promise you though, we'll do everything we can. Morio and Camille will drive you. " I glanced at them. "Along the way, try to figure out if there's something you can do to locate Erin. " I begged them silently to play along, even if they didn't think they could help. Tim needed to hold onto hope for a little while. And I had to go to the morgue and stake some bloodsuckers.

  Camille jumped on board. "There are still spells we haven't tried that we can cast at home. Come on, Tim. Menolly, are you going alone?"

  I glanced at Wade and Nerissa. "No. Take Nerissa, Iris, and Trillian with you. Trillian, once there, head out to the morgue with Chase. Delilah, Wade, and I will meet you there. " I hated putting Delilah in danger, but we had no choice and she was better in a physical fight than Camille.

  Things were bad now, but I had a feeling they were going to get much worse over the next few months and here on the front lines, we didn't have the luxury of retreat. As we headed out into the night, my thoughts flashed to Erin and I felt queasy all over again. Whatever happened to her, I prayed it was quick. But in my heart, I knew Dredge would never offer anyone that much mercy.

  CHAPTER 10

  "Morio, take Nerissa and Iris in your SUV. I'll ride with Camille and Tim," Trillian said.

  Camille bundled her arm around Tim and led him toward the door. She glanced back at Delilah and me. "You guys be careful, okay?"

  Nerissa held open the door as they hurried out into the glittering night. I turned to Delilah. "You and Wade go on ahead to the morgue. I'll meet you there. Don't play hero—wait for me before going in. Wade, we need stakes. Got any handy?"

  He snorted. "Yeah, like I keep those around. "

  "He may not, but I do. " The voice from the door made me jump. I spun around. Roz entered the shop.

  "Have you been spying on us?"

  "Not exactly. I checked out the zoo like I told you I was going to, then followed your… trace… here. " He tugged at the belt of his duster, looking almost bemused.

  "My trace? I've got a trace?" Traces were like a magical GPS and usually meant you'd been tagged by some wizard or witch. If I had one, then somebody
had slapped a spell on me to monitor my position and I damned well wanted to know who'd done it.

  His eyes flickered and he looked surprised. "You didn't know about it?"

  I frowned. "If I'd known, I'd have put an end to both the trace and the person who triggered it. "

  Wade feather-touched my arm. "There's no time to debate whether or not you're being spied on. We have to take care of those newborns before they rise. "

  "He's right," Delilah said. "We can ask Camille and Morio to find out who's behind it later. For now, let's get moving. Chase will be on his way to the morgue pretty soon and I don't want him there alone. And it's not safe to leave Sharah holding the bag, either. If those vamps rise before we get there, she's dead meat. Or maybe undead elf. "

  They were both right. I motioned to Roz. "Come with us. "

  Wade jumped in Delilah's Jeep, while Roz climbed in my Jag. "After we're done," I said, "we need to have a little talk. Dredge captured one of our friends—a human. We can use your help rescuing her. "

  "What do I get in return?" Roz turned his head out the window and stared as the blur of dark buildings and incandescent lights flew by.

  I didn't answer. As I pushed the gas pedal to the floor, I thought about the trace. Could Dredge have somehow whammied me? But that wouldn't make sense. He didn't need a trace to find me.

  "Did you put the trace on me? You'd better give me the truth because Camille and Morio will ferret it out. "

  Roz didn't even turn at the question. "I had no need. The trace was already there. I just picked up on it. "

  "Do you know who did? Was it Dredge?" I had the feeling he knew more about it than he wanted to admit.

  "Your guess is as good as mine but if I had to come up with an answer, I'd say no. Your sire wouldn't need to do that. My guess is that Queen Asteria had it fixed to you and your sisters. That way she can find out where you are, should something happen. "

  Queen Asteria! I'd never have thought it, but it made sense. "You might be right. She's protective, and she knows we're in danger. And dropping in on her with a few dead demons hasn't exactly put her mind at ease. " I glanced at Roz. "No doubt she told you all about it, so don't even ask. I don't want to think about Bad Ass Luke and his cronies. "

  Roz laughed, throaty and deep and I suddenly was all too aware that I was in the presence of another demon who, like me, walked between shadow and flame. "I wasn't going to. All I care about is hunting down Dredge and destroying him. "

  I shifted and headed up the hill toward the morgue, Delilah's Jeep keeping pace right behind me. "What will you do after he's dead?"

  "Go back to doing what I do best, I suppose," he said. "Seducing women in the night. What else is there?"

  "You ever think about putting some of your talents to use for the greater good?" Roz was helpful. We needed to know more about him, but I could see him becoming a strong ally in our fight against Shadow Wing.

  "No, but I might be open to suggestions," he said, looking through his bag. "I've got seven stakes. That should be enough. I hope. "

  "Three more victims. Three more chalk marks on the board. I wonder if the female contingent of our four newborns are the culprits. After all, Dredge and the men were busy kidnapping Erin. " I found it odd that nobody had noticed any of Dredge's cronies wandering the area. They would look just as out of place as he did, but the two vamps who helped him kidnap Erin had been our newborns. What was going on?

  "You think he's trying to build a master nest here?" Roz frowned. "If he can form a big enough one, then he can hive them off. Maybe he's looking to take control of the area. " He paused for me to answer but before I could speak, he waved toward the park. "Something's going down over there. I can feel it. "

  He was right—something nasty was going down. The scent of blood hung so heavy in the air that it seeped through the closed windows of the car. I skidded to the curb and thrust open my door, hitting the bricks before I had time to say a word. Roz was close behind me. I heard a screech as Delilah's Jeep skidded to a halt near ours, but I was already on my way into the park on the corner lot intended to beautify the area.

  As I lightly skimmed the ground, my heels making the barest clicking sound, my fangs extended. The smell of vamps filled the air—that unmistakable fragrance of blood and death and hunger.

  The park was half a block square, and filled with fir and maple and weeping willow. I dashed into the dark, following my nose. At this point, I could hear the last gasps of someone dying.

  Strike someone, and make it a mob, I thought as I broke through into a small clearing shrouded from the view of the street. Our gang from the theater was there, having a heyday. Two women lay on the ground, each with her very own hunka-vamp leaning over her. The two females were holding a struggling young man between them. He looked around fifteen and he'd already been bitten. As I watched, he went limp in their arms.

  "The master said take them with us this time!" one of the women yelled as they spotted me racing toward them. "Let's go. "

  "What about this bitch?" asked one of the men. His name was Bob. I recognized him from the morgue photos.

  The other shook his head. "Leave her. Dredge said she's all his. "

  I poured on the speed as they tossed their victims over their shoulders and took off running. "Follow them!" I yelled back to Roz as I dodged trees and leapt over rocks trying to keep them in sight. They were fast, but I was faster, and I managed to get within arm's reach of good old Bob, who was struggling to keep hold of the plump matron hanging over his shoulder.