The Ripple Effect

  “Disco,” I whispered as the room started to spin.

  Goose had told me a vampire could drain a person in just over a minute if they wanted to. Seven pints of blood gone that quickly. How much had he taken? How much would he take? Did he want me dead now? What the hell was going on?

  Panic suffocated me, and Marigold Vesta’s amulet was there as always, begging me to call on its power, to use it as a tool to protect myself. Before I could accept the power the stone provided, Disco was finished at my throat. He brought his hand up, bit into his wrist, and placed the bloody wound to my mouth.

  “Take it.”

  Even though I was woozy, I was still sane. “No.”

  “Marius can smell a trace of Paine on you, but not me.” I could hear possessiveness behind the statement, his anger that another’s scent mingled with mine. He brushed his skin against my lips. “Take it.”

  So that was what this was about. Disco wanted to make his place known, to ensure Marius knew that no matter what transpired between me and Paine, Disco was the primary vampire in my life. Was I surprised? No. He’d made it clear how he felt about me—about us. No matter how I felt about it, his determination to see us back together hadn’t changed.

  I didn’t look at him as I did what he requested. His blood was sweet, cool and wet against my tongue. I tried not to moan as I swallowed until the flow of blood stemmed. I’d always enjoyed the way drinking from him brought us closer, as though his lifeforce wrapped around mine and twined us together, cementing a union we could both feel. Even without a mirror I knew my lips were covered in red, my chin smeared. There was also something else. Something far more dangerous.

  Disco shoved his knee between my legs, forced me to part my thighs, and used his arms to lift me. His pelvis held me in place, the firm ridge of his fully erect cock flush against my sex. I didn’t want this but I did. It was so confusing, so fucking wrong. I loved him, but I hated him. I wanted him, but I didn’t.

  “You’ve put me through hell.” He rolled his hips, and this time I did moan. “Every single night I’ve ached for you. Each time I close my eyes, it’s your face I see. I’ve wanted to hold you for so long. To take back the hurt I’ve caused. To tell you how sorry I am.”

  “It’s your own fault.” It was his fault, right? Or was it mine? I tried to remember, to bring to mind all the reasons I should tell him to go to hell.

  “You’re right, it is my fault. But it’s your stubbornness that has taken it this far. Everyone makes mistakes or does things they wish they could take back. I’m one of them. You have no idea how much I wish I could turn back the clock, to undo what I’ve done. I want you back.” He thrust his hips against me. “Here, in my arms, in my bed.”

  “Your bed is the last place I’d want to be.”

  “Then forget the bed.” He shoved his hand between us, pressed his palm against my sex, and applied pressure. “We can take baby steps.”

  “Stop him, stop him, stop him,” warred in my head with “say yes, say yes, say yes.”

  He smelled so damned good, cinnamon and cloves, mist from the morning dew and a hint of smoke. Wherever he’d ventured with Marius, someone had been smoking a cigar. The sweet tobacco mingled with his own unique scent, enhancing it, making him impossible to resist.

  “Please.” I was back to pleading for him mindlessly. Yes, I would certainly hate myself for it, but my pride didn’t matter. My anger at him was dissipating into nothing.

  “We have to talk. There’s a lot you need to know. There are so many things I want to say.”

  “Then maybe you should give me some space.” The words were rumbly, my voice heavy with desire. “It’s hard to think when you do that.”

  “Then don’t think.” He chuckled and ran his thumb over my clit, using small circles with just the right amount of pressure.

  Ecstasy. Bliss. Heaven.

  I dropped my head back, allowing the wall to support me. His clever fingers continued working the sensitive bundle of nerves—pinching, flicking, rubbing—as he bowed his head and nibbled my ear. It wouldn’t take much to send me over, to have me calling out his name as I came. It had been weeks since I’d felt like this, wrapped in sensual waves of heat and pleasure.

  When the bedroom door opened unexpectedly, I lifted my head and met Marius’s infuriated gaze. To my shock, Disco kept me exactly as I was, trapped between him and the wall. He didn’t move his hand, and he didn’t appear to be at all ashamed of the position we were in, but he was tense. I could feel the way his muscles tightened, could see the way his face went from impassioned to guarded.

  “I thought we were finished for the evening,” Disco said and brought his mouth to my chin. He started licking away his own blood, the laps of his tongue gentle and soft, creating ripples of heat in my belly. I wasn’t an exhibitionist by any means, but with his blood rushing through my body, I wasn’t as reserved as I would normally be.

  “Not yet.” Marius closed the door, indicating he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “I suppose it’s just as well.” Disco finished cleaning the blood from my lips and chin and sighed. “Rhiannon and I were just finishing up.”

  “Finishing?” Marius didn’t sound convinced and sniffed the air. “It seems to me that you’re just getting started.”

  “Foreplay makes anticipation so much better, so much sweeter.” Disco’s blond hair tickled my nose as he lifted his head, eased his hand from between my legs, and stared me in the eye. “Doesn’t it, love?”

  Lord yes, did it ever. “Yes,” I whispered, lowering my gaze, shaking like a leaf. “It does.”

  As he moved away from me, I tried to put a lid on my raging libido. I was so close to climax, right on the edge. I throbbed in places I couldn’t control, teetering on the brink of sexual arousal, confusion, and uncertainty.

  “Off you go.” Disco pulled me from the wall, swatted my ass, and retrieved my bag. I took it from him with trembling fingers, waiting as he lowered his head and kissed me. All things considered, it was a chaste kiss—a small swipe of his tongue, the metallic sweetness of our blood combined as we tasted each other, long enough to show Marius the affection between us was genuine—but I still felt totally exposed.

  “I’ll be here when you get back,” Disco said, watching me closely. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

  “I won’t.” My voice didn’t crack, and I didn’t melt into a puddle on the floor. Small points for the underdog, but points just the same.

  Marius stayed where he was—standing in my path—as I walked to the door. I held my head high but didn’t look in his direction as I took a step to the side, breezed past him, opened the door and left.

  Chapter Six

  “You look like shit.” Sonja didn’t waste any time as I took a seat across from her at the small café we used for our meetings. It was a safe place to sit and chat, full of passersby, and no one noticed us.

  “I’m sure I do,” I muttered and tossed my bag on the floor. “What do you have for me?”

  “As it pertains to magic transfer? Quite a bit.” She tossed a folder across the table. “From what I could find, it’s fairly common. Of course, you asked for this at the crack of dawn, so I didn’t have a lot of time to do extensive research.”

  “Sorry about that.” Calling her at six in the morning wasn’t very nice. “I wouldn’t have bothered you if I didn’t need this today.”

  “Just don’t do it again,” she warned. “I’m not a morning person.”

  “Duly noted,” I replied, gazing at the folder.

  If anyone knew about the black arts, it was Sonja. When I’d ventured into the future, I discovered a lot about Rainbow Brite—thus dubbed by me because of her rainbow colored hair. She was the familiar of one of the most feared vampires in New York, meaning she wasn’t your average necromancer. Not only was she powerful, she also enjoyed dipping her toe into things that could get you sent straight to Hell. Not that I was complaining. Her information was beneficial to my cause.

 
As I opened the folder, I questioned, “Do you think it will work?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Will it take a lot of magic?”

  “No more than normal. A blood offering, a binding—the usual. It’s not all that different from creating a zombie and trapping a soul inside of the host body.”

  “It can’t be that easy.” I didn’t think it was possible to place something as powerful as Sucker into another item. However, from what I was looking at it could be done.

  “Believe it or not, it is. Witches used to do it all the time with powerful relics they wanted to keep in plain sight. When their villages were attacked or destroyed, they usually managed to keep their most precious possessions intact. You’d be amazed at what a person can do with a knitting needle, for example.”

  In an odd way, it made sense. “That figures.”

  She went quiet and I disregarded the folder to give her my attention. Her blonde hair with strands of pink, blue, and purple was neat and tidy, her thick glasses in their proper place on her nose.

  “You want to say something, so say it.”

  “Joseph told me Marius has returned for the knife.” She took a deep breath and placed her hands on the table, her fingernails painted their usual bubblegum pink. “If you go through with this—if you transfer the power to something else—I can’t be a part of it.”

  “I don’t recall asking you to.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just putting it out there. Right here, right now. I’ve been around longer than you, and I’ve seen some scary shit. I’d rather not be involved. When a vampire as powerful as Marius comes around, the outcome can’t be good.” She thrummed her nails against the table and studied me. “Do you want some advice?”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Is that a trick question?”

  “Give him what he wants. Don’t fight a battle you can’t win.”

  “It’s only a battle if you have something to lose,” I reminded her. “If I don’t settle my debt with Marigold, I’m as good as dead regardless.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Her tone and demeanor changed, taking my laughter to silence. Her fingernails stopped rapping and she stared me dead in the eye. “There is always something to lose. You might not know what it is, but there is always something they can find to take away from you.”

  I hated asking questions I didn’t want the answers to. “Are you speaking from experience?”

  “Personal experience?” I nodded and she said, “No. But from what I’ve seen? Yes.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means exactly that. I’ve never gotten out of line or given Joseph or his maker a reason to punish me. But I’ve seen others...” She shifted in her seat, took off her glasses, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’ve been around when an example was made out of a familiar who stepped out of line. It’s not something I’d like to see again. I might not like you, Rhiannon, but I don’t want to see you or anyone suffer like that.”

  Ever the glutton for punishment, I had to know. “Tell me.”

  She shoved her glasses back on her face. “If a vampire isn’t willing to kill a familiar, they have to find some other way to put them in their proper place. They’ll use those closest to you to get the job done, be it a child, a lover, or a spouse.”

  “They kill them?”

  “Not necessarily.” She shook her head. “It’s the display of power that’s important. Half-demons and their spawn love that kind of thing. Old vampires will feed off your fear and use it against you. Others will manipulate you just because they can. It’s all about the chaos—the misery. The people you care for are only a means to that end. Sometimes death isn’t the scariest thing a person can face, but I’m sure you already know that.”

  As a matter of fact, I did. My stomach churned as I mulled over her advice. There were several people I cared for, some of which were in the family. Then there was my sister who was nestled away in a mental hospital in Florida. No one knew about Jenny—I did everything in my power to keep it that way—and I was damn glad I’d taken precautions to keep her hidden.

  “If I give them the knife, I’ll have to make a deal with a demon to create another weapon.” If I wanted to make sure I had something strong enough to kill Victoria—the sister of the half-demon I’d beheaded who wanted serious payback—there was no other alternative. The bitch had to die, or the future mankind would inherit wouldn’t be much of a future at all.

  I didn’t realize I’d spoken the words aloud until Sonja said, “There are worse things than being indebted to a demon. If you’re careful, you can make a safe barter. You just have to know who you’re conjuring, what they crave and offer it to them.”

  “Could you make something like that happen?” Crunchy Grape-Nuts, I couldn’t believe I was asking Sonja about summoning a demon.

  “I might know of a demon or two, but...” She paused for added effect. “If I help you, no one can know. Joseph isn’t aware of what I do in my free time, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. I’m not stupid about black magic, and I don’t go looking for trouble. And there is also a cost. I don’t work for free. If this wasn’t important to me, I wouldn’t even offer. Unlike you I don’t want to face the wrath of Joseph’s maker.”

  And away we go. “What do you want?”

  “I want to bring a soul from purgatory, from the abyss between here and there.”

  “Baxter.” The vampire Sonja loved who was killed by a deranged child vampire. The little bastard had taken Baxter’s heart, banished his soul, and stole his rest.

  “Yes, Baxter.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve tried to do it myself, but I don’t have the strength. With the amulet”—she glanced at my chest—“we can pull it off. I’m sure of it.”

  “Since I don’t know how long I have, we’re working against the clock.” I closed the folder. “I’ve got work tonight, but I can meet you tomorrow. Where do you want to do this?”

  “The warehouse where Kibwe murdered Baxter.”

  If it weren’t for the services she was offering, I’d have said no. I’d died on the floor of that warehouse. Left as food for the worms. I’d felt the rays of Heaven as they had sang to me, and I’d almost crossed over to the other side. If it weren’t for Goose and Sonja, I would have. Their necromancy kept me from stepping into the light and leaving this world behind. The warehouse was not a place I wanted to return to. There were too many bad memories.

  “Why there?”

  “It’s where he died and where he was banished. It’s the best place to pull him from limbo and send him where he belongs.”

  “Okay.” It was my turn to pinch my nose and accept that helping Sonja wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped. “Let’s meet in the morning.”

  “Does ten o’clock work for you? I have an early study group.”

  “Sure.” I lowered my hand and nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”

  I bent to the side, grasped the duffel, and shoved the folder inside when Sonja stopped me. “Rhiannon.”

  “Yeah?” I zipped the bag and peered over the table at her.

  “Give Marius what he wants. Don’t push the issue. You’ve only been given a glimpse of what it’s like for vampires. Gabriel has shielded you from it, but maybe he shouldn’t have. Since you’ve never attended one of their gatherings, you don’t know just how depraved they can be. They kill for pleasure and sport. They live off of chaos and hurting people in any manner possible. It’s not something I ever want to be a part of again.” She took a deep breath and whispered, “It won’t end well for you.”

  I gave a curt nod, rose from my seat, and walked toward the café doors. She wasn’t telling me anything new. I’d done a bit of research of the older vampires, so I knew how sadistic they could be. Actually, her warning only reminded me of how most things transpired in my life. No matter what I did. No matter how hard I tried. No matter how good my intentions.

  Things never ended well.

 
Chapter Seven

  “Damn it,” Mike snapped, one of his beefy hands wrapped around my neck. “Pay attention!”

  I broke his hold by dropping my weight, using his own mass against him. He moved forward, giving me enough space to place his shoulder against my back. I grasped his forearm, getting a solid grip, bent my knees and used all my strength to step back and force his body over my head. He was a heavy son of a bitch, nearly too much for me to take.

  He landed on the mat with a plop, but he didn’t stay down. I steeled myself for the lecture that was coming. Mike didn’t mind staying after class to help me refine my self-defense moves, but only when my mind was in the right place. Sparring required total attention. One lapse in someone’s focus and someone could be seriously hurt.

  “That was sloppy.”

  “I’m sorry.” And I was. My inattention to the task at hand was stupid, and I knew it—we both knew it.

  “I didn’t think today was a good day, but you insisted,” he muttered, rising to his feet. He ran his hand over his nearly bald head, the muscles in his arms and shoulders bunching. “I should have listened to my gut when you said your head was on your shoulders.”

  Placing my hands on both sides of my face, I replied, “It’s there.”

  “It’s not here.” He wasn’t gentle when he tapped my forehead, the tip of his fingernail scraping my skin. “That’s the problem.” Stepping back, he glowered at me. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been like this for weeks.”

  I shrugged. I couldn’t go into details with Mike. “I’ve got a lot going on. It’s taking its toll.”

  “Then work the bag.” Mike was well and truly pissed. “Take your anger out on something that won’t hurt you.”

  I winced at the comment. Last week he’d nearly dislocated my shoulder. I’d been right there with him, working on the shoulder toss I wanted to perfect. Larger bodies weren’t as easy to maneuver as small ones, and the women in the class weren’t anything like the vampire opponents I might face.