Black Heart: Coeur de Sade (Black Heart Series) (15 page)

            "Oh no," I whispered, frozen in place.  Antoinette started a slow strut towards me.  A very sultry strut.  The others followed.  I turned to look down at Boney.  "Did you set me up?  Was this a trap?"

            "I-I...I'm sorry," he said, and looked away.

            Antoinette placed her gloved hands on my shoulders.  Her perfume enveloped me.  Then her powerful pheromones swept over me, starting to beat me down.  It was her pheromones that induced my feelings of submissiveness.  She swept my hair back away from my left ear, leaned over and nuzzled it.

            "Don't blame my sweet lover, Sable.  He really had no choice in the matter," Antoinette purred into my ear.  She cupped my left breast.  Gave it a squeeze, and pulled a groan of pleasure from me.  She put her right hand on the base of my spine, and pushed down.  "Don't stop.  Keep fucking, my pet."

            I obeyed.  There was no choice in the matter.

            "You have no right," I whispered.  I wasn't capable of any more.

            "Dear, beautiful Sable, surely you've learned by now that in the vampire world, might is right," she whispered into my ear again, then stuck her hot, wet tongue deep inside.  "I'm more powerful than you, so I have the
right
to do anything I want to you."

            When she tried to kiss my cheek, I turned my head to the right.  Angelique had snuck up while Antoinette distracted me with her ear action.  We were nose to nose.  She smiled in triumph, cupped my chin and leaned in for a kiss.  Her lips parted, and mine mirrored hers. Eager, despite everything.   She paused, our lips a fraction of an inch apart, locked eyes with me and smiled.  Then the beautiful French vamp slowly pressed her glossy pink lips into mine.

            "Mmmm," we both groaned as our lips slid all over each other.

            Antoinette's erotic power surged through my body, scrambling my brain and pushing me to the edge of climax.  Angelique thrust her hot, wet tongue into my mouth, and I met it with my own.  Our tongues tangoed as our greasy, glossy lips slid all over each other.  Neither one of us was breathing, and I was groaning pathetically.

            "I want the talisman," Antoinette said, sending a supernaturally cold chill through me.

            It was too hard to think.  Could she influence me with her power?  Could she compel me somehow?  I really didn't feel like fighting her right then.  I just wanted to make love to everyone.

            "But, the council?"

            Angelique, deprived of my lips, lowered her talented mouth to my breasts.  She pulled a gasp and groan from me within seconds.

            "You will give it to me," Antoinette said. "Or bad things will happen."

            She reached down between my legs, found my clitoris, and sent incredible waves of pleasure washing through me.  All she had to do was touch the clitoris, and I was instantly climaxing.  Over and over.

            "Bad things?" I said, eyes wide.  How as I supposed to think, much less speak with her if Antoinette was forcing me to have one climax after another in rapid succession?  "What?"

            The gorgeous French vampire smiled coldly.

            "Your sister Sabrina is almost as pretty as you," she said.  "I will give her to Angelique for a month of training, then put her to work on the sleaziest street in Dallas."

            "I'll kill you," I said, surprising them all.

            "You'll try," Antoinette said.  Her smile was angelic.  She leaned over and kissed me.  Deeply.  I pushed into that kiss, savoring it.  I so wanted to please her, and kill her at the same time.  "But you will fail, and Sabrina will be a whore.  Unless you obey and give the talisman to me."

            Antoinette sank her fangs into the carotid artery on the right side of my neck.  Angelique twisted around in front of me and sank her fangs into my left jugular.  I had no choice, and let them drag me down into utter bliss.

CHAPTER 9

            A front came in during the day, giving us thunderstorms.  The temperature never got above seventy-three all day.  The weatherman said it would drop to fifty-seven overnight.  That was a little on the cold side, but about right for Dallas on October 10th.

            Gabe called me right at sunset.  He wanted to make sure I hadn't forgotten him.  I was still in my coffin.  Desiree hadn't returned from her professional sleep-over.  He left a voice message.

            I woke up alone.  Antoinette took Boney with her when they all finished passing me around just after four in the morning.  I don't think I completely returned to my senses for another thirty minutes after she left.  Just thinking about her now made my heart race.

            If Antoinette wanted to scare me.  She succeeded.  The last thing I wanted was to meet that super seductive vampire again.

            Entering the hospital was tough.  I always hated going to hospitals as a mortal.  As a vampire it was worse.  I could sense all that misery.  Misery sang to me, called to me.  Misery and despair rattled my bones it was so thick at the hospital.  The scent of blood was noticeable, but corrupted with that antiseptic stench.  Neither my unholy hunger nor libido was excited within a hospital.

            For once I rated no second look from anyone as I strode to the elevators.  Gabe would be disappointed, but I went totally anti-vamp.  I wore a maroon silk blouse with high collar, gray pin-stripe suit jacket and matching knee-length skirt, and black pumps.  Sharply dressed.  My mother would even approve, though she'd think the four inch heels too much.

            "Hello, I'm here to pick up Gabriel Preston," I told the nurse on duty.  "Has he been released yet?"

            The nurse cut her eyes up from a clipboard.  She did not look pleased about being interrupted.  The name tag on her baby blue scrubs said, "Simone."

            Simone was a tall, big-boned African-American of about fifty.  Her dark hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense bun.  She set her clipboard down and picked up another, pursing her full lips.  She wore no makeup.  But she had a big aura.

            "Yes.  Two hours ago," she said, then glanced disapprovingly at me.  "We've been expecting you."

            I didn't like her attitude.  After the previous night, I wasn't in a mood to be hassled.

            "Problem?"

            "You have met Mr. Preston, right?" Simone said.

            "Enough said," I said, grimacing.  Gabe wasn't making friends.  I was afraid to ask if he was being rude or crude.  Or both.  "I'll take him off your hands now."

            "Thank you," she said.

            She turned abruptly and marched straight into Gabe's room.  I followed closely, shaking my head.  As usual, Gabe was alienating the female population.

            "Sable!  About damned time," Gabe said.

            Gabe was tall, with a splendid, muscular body.  I think I could see a rather handsome face under all that hair on his face.

            "It's a work day," I said.  That shut him up a moment, as he considered if I really could work during the day as he took in my "work attire."  I could, but it would be borderline painful.  I just had to avoid
direct
sunlight.  Technically, vampires did not have to sleep at all.  "I got here as quick as I could."

            "You have a job now?"

            I didn't have to work.  I stole a lot of money from Yuri, before I killed him.  Gabe probably had similar resources, since vampire hunters made no secret that we took whatever monies we found from vampires we staked.  But he had a regular job, too.  He said the job was for the insurance, but I suspect it was an attempt to blend into society, to hide from the vampires he hunted.

            "Oh, I'm working."  He raised an eyebrow at me.  I smiled back at him.  "You look ready to leave."

            "Yeah, I'm more than ready," he said, scowling at the nurse.

            "Thank Nurse Simone for her patience, and let's get out of here."

            Gabe was back in his everyday clothes.  Mostly.  Instead of faded jeans he wore loose gray sweats, since he'd been shot in the thigh.  Shotgun wound.  Point blank.  Yeah, it was an ugly wound.  Other than that, he looked like a surly outlaw biker, complete with black Harley-Davidson t-shirt and dirty denim vest.  No colors.  The scuffed up boots he arrived in were replaced with equally worn running shoes.

            Simone handed him a clipboard, and went through the release forms quickly.  He was signing and initialing page after page.  He didn't bother to read any of it.  Did anyone?  The nurse rattle off what each page said, while indicating where he was to sign or initial.

            "Where is Nurse Kelly?" Gabe said, giving Simone a dark look.  "I want to say good-bye."

            "She's at lunch," Simone said.

            Gabe's aura drew my attention then.  It kinda strobed.  Brightened for a second, like a flash of unholy anger.  I never seen that before.  I paused to compare Gabe's and Simone's auras.  Gabe's was bigger, but not by much.  His also looked different.  It wasn't the perfect halo of Simone's and most people, but a halo with the insides mostly filled in of an alpha werewolf.

            "She's been at lunch every time I asked for her today."

            Why was I not surprised they were keeping a nurse away from him.  He was such a pig.  And he said the rudest things to women, but I believe he really didn't think of them as rude or crude, but as flirting.

            Nurse Simone leaned over, took the clipboard and said, "I know."  She glanced at me.  "He's a pig.  Kelly will stay at lunch until he's gone."

            "That's a bunch of — !"

            "Gabe!" I snapped, eyes flashing.  "Zip it.  I'm taking you home now."  I looked at Simone.  "Sorry.  Some of us are kinda used to him."

            "I pity you," she said.

            Gabe wouldn't allow Simone to help him into the wheelchair.  An elderly volunteer was waiting outside the door, and he came in to push the wheelchair.  Hospital policy.  The patients were all wheeled out by a doctor, nurse, or volunteer.  He also refused any help out of the wheelchair and into the front passenger seat of my car.  Gabe actually slapped my hand when I tried to pull the seatbelt over him.

            "I'm not helpless," he said.

            "You will be when I knock you out."

            The volunteer chuckled as he pushed the wheelchair away.  Gabe scowled at me, so I slammed the door.

            "What the matter with you?" Gabe said when I slipped behind the wheel.  "What got your panties in a wad?"

            "You," I said.  "Can't you be nice to anyone?  You're going home, for Christ sake, so you should be happy, and nice to everyone that helped you."

            He was silent while I started the engine and left.  We were going up the on-ramp to southbound Central before he said anything.

            "Thanks for picking me up.  I'm not sure anyone else would," he said.

            "You're welcome," I said, and relaxed a bit.  "Now, let me take a wild guess.  Nurse Kelly was pretty.  You made crude comments or suggestions to her, and Nurse Simone wouldn't let you see her after that."

            He looked anywhere but at me for a long moment.

            "Maybe I might have misinterpreted the signals she was giving me," he said sheepishly.  "What I said wasn't that bad."

            "What was it?"

            "Nothing."

            "That bad, huh?" I said, grinning.  Gabe would never change.  "You're incorrigible."

            "One of my more charming attributes."

            "Yeah, that is what I was thinking, too," I said.  "So, where are we going?  Last I heard you lived in Arlington."

            "I did," he said.  "But I have a house in Dallas now, just outside of Duncanville.  Take I-35 to Loop 20 and head west.  I'll tell you where to turn."

            Gabe guided me to the last Duncanville exit, and then right on Cedar Ridge.  It was a heavily wooded section of Dallas.  Most of the homes looked to be three-bedroom bricks.  Good size, wooded lots.  A very attractive neighborhood.  His house was on the side of a hill.  The lot was cut out of the hill to make it level.

            He had a rear entry two-car garage, even though there was no alley.  It was a tight turn when he parked in the garage.  I paused to search the house with my vampiric senses.  No one detected.

            "Give me the key," I said.  "I want to search the house first."  He handed me his keychain, giving the house a wary look.  "Any alarm?"

            "No.  You really think someone might be waiting?"

            "You're a vampire hunter.  Yes."

            "I'll have to move."

            "I'll help, unless you don't want me knowing where you live," I said.

            "Thanks."

            The house had three bedrooms, two bathrooms.  Twelve hundred square feet.  It only took a few minutes to search it.  I had Gabe in the master bedroom, in bed in short order.

            "Where are you going?" he said.

            "I have groceries in the trunk," I said.  "You want me to fix you anything?  Dinner?  Coffee?"

            That surprised him.  Gabe just gawked at me.  I loved it when I did something that left him speechless.  That happened so rarely.

            "Thanks.  A beer would be fine," he said.

            "No beer.  You're on medication," I said.  I gave him a look that said no argument.

            "A coke then," he said, scowling.

            I didn't buy any soft drinks, so checked his refrigerator.  He had a twelve pack of Pepsi.  I gave him one, and started unloading the groceries and putting them away.  Then I took him an unopened bag of corn chips.  Gabe loved to munch on chips.

            "Comfortable?" I said with a tight little smile.

            "Yes," he said warily. "Why?"

            "I'd like to talk about your friend, Quentin."