Bloodlust

  My stomach twisted. I couldn’t let him give Sara to this monster so he could drink her blood. Anything I had to do to prevent that, I’d do it. But, damn it. I didn’t know how to stop this.

  Stephen’s gaze went to Matthias. “Your brother looks terrible. It looks like you’ve been taking out your vengeance on him rather extensively.”

  Kristoff laughed. “You know our rivalry has gone on for some time. But right now I’m the one with the power.”

  Matthias kneeled on the ground, his forehead coated in a sheen of perspiration. His bloody shirt was gone and his chest was pale and bare. He looked weak from earlier. He’d need a lot more time to recover from having his heart torn out and shoved back in. Despite his pallor, his expression was fierce. “Stephen, you son of a bitch—you’re the reason Alex is dead.”

  Stephen cocked his head, his face showing nothing but bland interest. “Actually, I believe we can thank your brother’s secret weapon for that. But I’m happy to reap the rewards of it. I’ll make an excellent leader of the Amarantos. Bring it back to its prior glory that Alex attempted to smother with his misplaced morals all of these years.”

  Matthias looked at me and I saw the worry in his gaze. It didn’t help ease my mind very much that everything would work out for the best this morning. His attention moved to his brother and his eyes narrowed.

  “My poor brother,” Kristoff said. “You do look a wreck. But I have the dhampyr here now and will allow you to drink from her whenever you like.”

  “I’m guessing there will be a price for that.”

  “Like what?”

  “For me to stand back and let you offer my daughter up as a sacrifice to help you gain friends and influence people. But I won’t sign my own child’s death warrant.”

  Kristoff considered this. “I have to say that I’m impressed. You never put anyone but yourself first in the past.”

  Matthias’s expression shadowed. “I’ve changed.”

  “You’ve become much too fond of humans over the years. It’s made you soft.”

  “No, it’s made me think about my actions before I set any master plan into play.”

  “Master plan. I don’t think you’re capable of having one of those anymore. You’ve been much too focused on pleasure and wasting your gift of immortality for the last thirty years.”

  “You call it a gift. I’m not so convinced anymore.”

  Kristoff smiled and glanced at me as I warily watched their exchange. “He plays the part of hero well, while making me out to be the villain.”

  “The soap operas always have a good twin and a bad twin,” I said.

  “Are you sure which is which, Jillian?”

  I glared at him. “I think so.”

  “Then it would probably surprise you to learn that it was Matthias who discovered the immortality ritual. It was he who founded the Amarantos Society. And it was his master plan for vampires to become a stronger race and take hold of the world, making humans our blood servants.” Kristoff spread his hands. “If he told you any differently, he was lying to you.”

  The news crashed over me and took my breath away for a minute. I felt as if I’d been struck. I looked at Matthias. “Is any of that true?”

  His expression was unreadable. “All of it is.”

  Stephen stood close by with his arms crossed. He wore a suit that looked designer, modern, and very expensive that was tailor-fit for his tall, lean frame. “Matthias read about the immortality ritual in one of his ancient books of magic and wanted to learn more about it and any other method to make himself more powerful. That’s why he founded the society. The entire purpose of the Amarantos is to discover ways to lengthen life and gain power. It was a spell using dark magic that originally created vampirism in the first place; the ritual is simply an extension of that.”

  “I drew the line when it came to the blood sacrifice of a child. But my brother drew his line in a different location.” Matthias’s voice was flat. “Kristoff, you’ve seen for yourself the ritual’s effects. It’s unnatural for anyone to live forever. All things must have a beginning and an end.”

  Kristoff moved to stand face-to-face with his brother. “I totally agree.”

  I eyed him, waiting for the punch line. He was admitting that it was wrong? Declan stood silently six feet to my left. He didn’t meet my gaze when I glanced at him. However, his brow was furrowed.

  “If you touch my child I will destroy you,” Matthias said, breaking the silence in the room. “You can’t give her to Stephen.”

  Kristoff frowned. “I never planned to give her to him. That’s not why he’s here.”

  My gaze shot to him. “I don’t understand. You—you told Stephen to come here so he could use Sara for her blood.”

  “No. I never said anything of the sort.”

  “Then why is he here?”

  He moved toward me and grasped my chin in his hand to raise my gaze to his. “He’s here for you, Jillian.”

  My eyes widened. “Me?”

  “After what you did to Alex, he was impressed. I planned to use you as an assassin, but I feel that giving you to Stephen is a sign of faith between us.”

  He was going to gift me to Stephen as a slave—one he could use to kill his enemies. The thought made me equally furious and scared to death that I wouldn’t be able to find a way out of this mess.

  The vampire’s face showed no expression. “I didn’t see her kill him with my own eyes. For all I know, she smuggled a stake into the nightclub. I need evidence that it was her blood before I’ll be satisfied.”

  “Of course.” Kristoff nodded toward Declan. “Fetch the others.”

  Declan soundlessly left the room and returned less than a minute later with Sara’s nanny and Noah.

  Oh, shit. Not Noah. I’d wondered where he’d disappeared to when he left the tunnels. Now I knew.

  “Bring them closer,” Kristoff instructed.

  Noah looked worried, as he should. Both Noah’s and the nanny’s eyes turned to black when they got within six feet of me and hunger branched across their faces.

  “The problem with Jillian,” Kristoff explained to Stephen, “is that she’s not a dedicated killer. Luckily her blood is more than enough to lure the vampires close enough that they find it impossible to resist the need to feed from her.”

  I shook my head, feeling frantic and trapped. “Please, don’t do this.”

  “Would you rather it be Sara I was offering up to Stephen like you originally thought?”

  “Of course not.” I looked over my shoulder. “Declan—”

  “Say nothing, Declan,” Kristoff commanded.

  His jaw was tense and I saw emotion in his gray eye, but Declan didn’t speak or move. Anything Kristoff said, he had to obey. The thought sickened me right down to my soul.

  Stephen studied the two hungry vampires from a dozen feet away. His distance to me was the only reason he seemed unaffected by the Nightshade himself. “The young man accompanied Jillian to Alex’s nightclub last night.”

  “He did.”

  “Are they friends?”

  “I believe so.”

  “He’ll still bite her if he was able to resist her before?”

  “I can help with that. Noah,” Kristoff said. “Look at me.”

  “No, don’t look at him—” My voice was strangled.

  But it was too late. He looked, and Kristoff captured him in his hypnotic gaze.

  “You find Jillian’s blood irresistible don’t you?” Kristoff asked.

  “Yes,” Noah said, his brow furrowed and his jawline tense. “But if I bite her, I’ll die. That’s a bit of a deterrent.”

  “Noah—”

  “Yes?”

  “Bite Jillian and drink her blood.”

  When Noah turned to me I saw a wash of blankness in his eyes from being influenced. Without hesitation, he lunged for me, and it was just like what happened the night he came back after being sired—a zombielike hunger replaced rational thought and a
ction.

  I screamed as he grabbed hold of me, his lips peeled back from his fangs, and lunged for my throat.

  Declan grabbed hold of Noah’s shirt and wrenched him back from me, throwing him so hard across the room that Noah stumbled and slammed his head against the wall. It was exactly like the other night. Only this time Noah was still conscious, scrambling to get back to his feet and come toward me again. Declan stalked over to him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt.

  “This is for your own good,” he said, before slamming Noah’s head against the floor.

  This time he was definitely unconscious. I didn’t have much time to feel relieved about that when the nanny grabbed me. I shrieked as she sank her fangs deeply into my arm, paralyzing me immediately so I could only stare down at her with horror as she drank my blood.

  After a few seconds, she looked up at me, her brows knitting together. “I was so hungry.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  And then she was gone. The ashes that remained of her fluttered gently to the ground at my feet.

  I scanned the large room to see that everyone present looked surprised by this turn of events.

  “Interesting,” Stephen said after a moment. He sounded pleased with what he’d seen. “She’s as deadly as you said she is.”

  Kristoff looked sternly over at Declan. “Why did you stop him from drinking from her?”

  Declan rose from the floor from his crouched position over Noah. “Because he would have died.”

  “That was the point.”

  Declan’s expression was tense. “I didn’t want him to die.”

  Stephen studied Declan for a moment. “This is the dhampyr who killed many vampires in the past—the one everyone thought was indestructible?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s against our laws to sire a dhampyr. You know very well why that is.”

  “My laws. And I broke them this one time. I was curious to see what would happen. He’s adapted remarkably well to his siring. He’s very impressive.”

  Stephen pursed his lips and scanned Declan from eye patch to shitkickers. “I agree. But he’s unpredictable.”

  “As a brand-new fledgling, he’s strong enough to resist Jillian’s blood while many older vampires have been too weak to resist—as you just witnessed.”

  I looked across the room to Matthias. He’d watched everything that had happened carefully and he met my gaze now. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Telepathy wasn’t part of our bond. Or perhaps it required a great deal more concentration than I had to spare at the moment. His attention moved to Stephen, whom he watched very carefully as if analyzing every word he spoke.

  Did he have a plan to get out of here? Or perhaps now that he knew his daughter wasn’t in any immediate danger, he was simply going to bide his time until he got his strength back. While I didn’t like that he’d kept the truth from me about his role in some of the things he’d attributed to his brother, I was hoping he had one of those master plans—or, hell, another of his disappearing acts—up his sleeve.

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t wearing any sleeves at the moment.

  “Your son is very strong willed,” Stephen said.

  Kristoff nodded. “But he bends to my word. What I tell him to do, he does—but I must be specific. I thought he’d make an excellent bodyguard for me, but now I’m not so sure. He fights me, even now. It’s because of Jillian. I believe Declan would choose her life over mine.”

  Stephen laughed. “You’re surprised about that? He’s still a man. When I take her with me they’ll be separated. That should help matters.”

  “That’s not good enough.” Kristoff’s cool gaze scanned the former dhampyr. “Declan, you’ll do exactly as I say, won’t you?”

  “Yes,” he replied tightly.

  “Anything I ask?”

  “Your word is my command.”

  My stomach sank. I didn’t like where this was heading.

  Kristoff held his son’s gaze for a moment longer. “Drink Jillian’s blood. Now.”

  There was no time to run. He moved even faster than he had when he’d held the knife to my throat.

  “Declan, no!” I cried out as he grabbed me from behind, pulled my black hair away from my throat, and sank his sharp fangs into me.

  24

  DECLAN WAS GOING TO DIE.

  No—please. Not like this.

  I tried to fight him, but it was too late. My arms fell slackly to my sides as his bite paralyzed me. Declan hadn’t been a vampire long enough to learn how to take away the pain, I wasn’t sure if any vampire could now that I’d been claimed by Matthias, so this hurt like hell. Instead, I was numbed by knowing what this meant. Pain was actually the last thing on my mind.

  I felt cold, sickening fear as he drank from me. I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop this from happening.

  It was too late anyway.

  When he released me, we stared at each other in shock. My dark blood was on his lips. He touched it and looked down at his fingertips as the realization of what he’d just done sank in. “Fuck. I’m so sorry, Jill.”

  I reached for him. “Declan—no—”

  He convulsed in pain and fell hard to the ground on his knees.

  I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming, but the sound still wrenched from my throat. I waited in terror to see him explode into fiery ash and scatter around me as the nanny had only a minute ago.

  And there was nothing I could do, nothing I could say, that would change this. The man I loved was going to die and I’d never see him again, never touch him again, never kiss him again, and—

  And he was still here.

  In horrible pain.

  But still here.

  I collapsed to the ground next to him and touched his face. It was solid and real and this wasn’t just a hallucination.

  Kristoff crossed his arms as he watched us. “Exactly as I thought. Your blood won’t kill him. It may in the future, but so close to his siring, he is still strong enough to resist.”

  I struggled to breathe. “What are you talking about?”

  “Dhampyrs make very strong vampires. It’s one of the reasons they aren’t normally allowed to be sired. I wasn’t sure just how strong he was. Now I know.”

  I was in shock, sickened by what I’d just experienced firsthand. It fought with the relief I felt that Declan was still alive. “So you made him drink my blood as some sort of experiment?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  Declan slowly recovered from the heartburn from hell. He pulled me against him into a tight hug.

  My arms went around his shoulders. “Declan . . .”

  “Shh, Jill.” He whispered in my ear.

  He slid something down the front of my dress. It was his knife. It cut me as it pressed against my skin, but I tried not to flinch. He wasn’t trying to stab me with it, just transfer it to me. He was giving me a weapon to protect myself with.

  He held my gaze, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t think he was currently capable of making full sentences. The intense pain he’d felt a minute ago was still in his gaze.

  “So romantic.” Kristoff shook his head. “Matthias, the woman you’ve claimed seems to belong to another. Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “You couldn’t have known that would work,” Matthias said flatly, ignoring the question. “Declan could still have died.”

  “But he didn’t. I’ll take that as a sign of good things to come.” He turned. “So, Stephen, as you can see, Jillian is an admirable weapon. Just not when it comes to former dhampyrs.”

  “She seems to be.”

  “She’ll be impossible to resist for your male and female enemies alike.”

  “Actually, all I saw was a weak-minded female and two fledglings whom you had to influence to bite her.”

  Frustration slid behind Kristoff’s gaze. “Declan, bring her closer.”

  Declan’s face tensed and he rose from the ground, wiping the back of his hand over
his mouth to clear away the remainder of my tainted blood. He pulled me to my feet. It had only been two bites—three if I counted the guard from earlier—but it was enough blood loss for me to feel weaker than I had before. I hoped like hell I wouldn’t pass out. I needed my head working right.

  Declan pulled me closer to his father and Stephen. Stephen stiffened as I got within six feet of him and hunger branched across his face.

  “Yes,” he hissed. “I see what you mean. Her scent is dangerous.”

  “It is. She’s dangerous even to me, aren’t you, Jillian?” Kristoff grasped my face and brought me close to him, until only a couple inches separated us. I watched as he fought against his hunger, his lips curling into a tense smile. “It’s a shame that you don’t have the killer instinct to go along with your deadly blood.”

  I stared into his face that looked so much like Matthias’s. “You’re wrong about that.”

  He raised a pale eyebrow. “Am I?”

  I stabbed him in the throat with Declan’s knife, jamming the blade deep enough that I felt it scrape against bone.

  I was sure this hadn’t been Declan’s intention in giving it to me. But the opportunity had presented itself, and I’d taken it. After all, I’d never been one to follow the rules.

  Kristoff pushed me back from him so hard that I flew across the room, landing hard on my back and smacking my head against the floor. He grappled for the handle of the knife sticking out of his larynx and pulled it out, which produced a spray of blood. I could see the surprise in his furious and pained gaze.

  The woman he’d thought lacked the killer instinct just stabbed him in the throat.

  It was a start.

  With the knife now clutched in his hand he rushed at me, all civility and calm, kingly exterior gone. He was going to kill me and be done with it. Forget using me as a weapon to hand over to his Amarantos buddy. Now he just wanted me dead.

  I scrambled back, crablike, on the ground as he approached.

  Declan stepped between us and I looked up at him with surprise. His hands were fisted at his sides.

  Kristoff coughed and sputtered but didn’t speak. Couldn’t speak. It was the main reason I’d aimed for his throat—so he couldn’t give Declan any more orders. We now had a window of opportunity before his healing kicked in and mended the damage I’d done.