Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) (16 page)

The car finally came to a stop lasting longer than a red light. The engine cut off and the driver got out to open my door. I didn't bother waiting. I jerked the door open, almost knocking him over in the process. Anxious to see where we were I climbed out of the back seat, ignoring the proffered hand from the driver. Stubborn? Yes. Graceful? Definitely not. I barely made it out of the limo without giving the dri
ver an eye full of more than my lace panties. I tugged at the slit, barely keeping the daggers hidden. Conry hopped out behind me, the driver still unaware he was there.

"Master Caligula's beach house." The driver made a sweeping gesture to the residence nestled on the edge of a cliff
overlooking one of Newport's private beaches.

Beach house was a loose interpretation. It was more like a beach mansion. The area was littered with them from the Rockefellers to the Roosevelts, estates with mansions turned museums lined the Newport coastline.

I'd taken the tour on more than one summer trip with my adoptive family. I was always awed by the expansive marble, the very accurate Japanese tea house in one yard used to meet with foreign dignitaries and the overall grandeur of the era. I shouldn't have been surprised to find Caligula had taken up residence in the affluent area. Perhaps the cliffs and the ocean, the wealth and excess stirred up memories of Capris.

I made my way up the stone walk, about to knock on the front door when it seemed to open of its own accord. Moving through the doorway I was greeted by yet another of Caligula's servants. I bit back the
thank you, Jeeves
on the tip of my tongue as the butler took my coat. This place was as far from the unassuming Cape Cod as you could get. And I wasn't talking about distance. While the small suburban home said normal and content, this place screamed manic opulence. The high ceilings and black veined marble made the place feel cold despite the fires roaring in the parlors on both sides of the grand hall. Caligula came down the right side of the double stairway and I realized this was his home. The house in Salem was just a front, a place to troll for and then court his victims. Is this where he drained them of every last drop of blood?

Gliding across the floor he was suddenly in front of me. My hand was in his and against his lips before I could pull away. "Maurin
, you are a vision tonight. Please join me in the parlor for drinks before dinner."

Vision
, huh? I was going for more of a ghost of girlfriends past kind of thing. He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me close as he led us into what would have been the woman's parlor when the house was originally built. Two ornate velvet chairs were situated near the fire. A small table with two champagne flutes on top was between them. A stand holding an ice bucket with an open bottle of champagne inside was behind the table. Caligula let go of me long enough to fill both glasses. I sat as he handed me mine, with Conry only a few feet away.

"Thank you." There was no reason to be rude, yet. I needed him to think he had me fooled. "I must admit I was surprised you contacted me after your lawyer warned me off. You said you had some information for me?" I fingered the necklace, sliding the cross back and forth along the chain. I watched his eyes follow the movement.

"That was before you informed me of the Coven's involvement. If you wish to know more about the dark arts there is plenty I can share with you. For now let us enjoy our champagne. We can discuss everything else over dinner."

Seeing he wasn't going to tell me anything until he was good and ready I had no choice but to keep up the charade. I demurely emptied my glass and got up to get another. C
aligula smiled and quickly moved to refill it. This had to be the most bizarre experience of my life and I had a lot to compare it to. My life was pretty bizarre. But sitting across from a man who was once in charge of the largest empire of the ancient world, had tortured and killed in both lives, and drinking champagne as if being properly courted was insane. The cool, slick obsidian pressed against my thigh kept me rooted to the real reason I was here. To kill a killer.

The second glass w
ent down smoother than the first. My fingers tingled like the bubbles in the wine. I felt the crystal stem slipping from my fingers and tried to tighten my grip. Something was wrong. The glass slipped, spilling the champagne on the floor. I watched as the cascade of wine fell from the crystal flute before splashing against the Persian area rug, followed by the delicate glass which shattered into little pieces.

My vision began to cloud, the room spun. He slipped something in my drink. But how? I watched him while he poured. Could he have moved so fast I didn't see it? It was already opened when we came in. Shit, I was an idiot. Of course he would put whatever he gave me in the bottle, as a vampire he was immune to most poisons.

I felt him move closer. He leaned in, watching my eyes, waiting for me to pass out. I had a few seconds at best. I drew a dagger from beneath my dress. I knew I nicked the tender flesh of my inner thigh by his intake of breath. There was no sting from the blade as it cut my skin. I lost sensation in my lower body and the blackness was closing in. I swung wild, my arm heavy and sluggish.

He grabbed my wrist but not before I nicked his chin with the tip of the blade. The back of his hand connected hard with my face, splitting my lip. Blood bloomed on my mouth. With a hard tug on my hair he forced my head back and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth. I couldn't pull away. My stomach churned, from his touch and the need to purge the poison from my body. My vision was gone, my body totally immobile but my ears hadn't failed me yet. Conry let loose a growl that rattled the tall windows. He had made his presence known and was going to rip Caligula apart.

I heard someone shout. A woman? And then Conry yelped. His pain radiated through me. I tried to reach for him mentally. I needed to shift us out of here but the drugs were thick in my mind. I couldn't pull enough of the between into me. Could I call for the Hunter or my father? Would either of them reach me before the others? My mind struggled with the simplest thoughts. The others! People were coming. Aidan. He was coming for me, with Amalie and Cash. If I could hold on long enough they would bust through the door, kill Caligula and save me. Before I felt the satisfaction of knowing the monster trying to kill me would meet his end I was gone. Everything stopped. No sound, not even of my own heart beating. No feeling, no more heavy limbs rooting me to the velvet chair. Nothing. I was in a suspended state of nothingness. And no one came.

13

I don't know how long I was like that. I struggled to open my eyes. I wasn't sure I was successful because the room I was in was pitch black. With heavy lids I blinked again. Still no light but the cool air stinging my tender eyes confirmed they were at least open.

My tongue was thick and my mouth made an audible sticky sound when I tried to open it through the cotton that had taken up residence. The pain I hadn't been able to feel when the drug took effect came rushing in, overloading ev
ery nerve ending in my body. Tears rolled down my temples as my body shook from the drug wearing off.

Cold warred with the pain for dominance of my senses and I realized I had been stripped of my dress, my body e
xposed. I still had underwear on. The lace wasn't really keeping anything from view but it made me feel better knowing they were there. Sharp pains speared my side but I didn't think it was from an injury I suffered. No, this was more like an intense phantom pain.

Fear gripped my heart as I realized it was Conry's pain I felt and I remembered his yelp. Someone hurt my dog. Not Caligula, someone else. My mind struggled to piece together what happened. A woman, I remembered a woman. She was the one who attacked Conry. She couldn't be human, another vampire? Had to be, and an old one if she got the jump on my ethereal dog. That fucking bitch was going to meet the end of a stake. If I made it out of here.

Anger fueled my body, coursing blood through my veins. With each fierce beat of my hate filled heart I felt a little more, heard a little more and saw a little more in the dark.

My senses
came back but my confidence was nowhere to be found once I finally took in my surroundings. I was in a dark room, underground? No, under the house. The walls were made of stone and there was the distinct hum of fluorescent lighting. A soft whir and click, followed by another. I struggled to get up, to find the source of the unusual sound but couldn't.

I was strapped to a metal table, iron shackles on my wrists and ankles. I turned my head in the direction of the sound. Faint blinking lights, joined beeping of machines. Medical equipment. I followed the lines from the machines back to my body, noticing for the first time the needles and tubing stuck in my arms. I watched my blood run out my arm through the tubing into the machine and back again. Dialysis? What
did they do to me? What did they do with my blood? For the first time in a long time I succumbed to fear. My voice cracked on a sob as it tore from my chest, drowning the anger that resided there moments ago.

Conry whimpered in response to my cries. He was down here. He was still alive. I didn't want to think about not having him with me anymore. Some of the despair released its grip on my heart when I heard him. He saved me when Olwyn attacked me in the hanger. If it wasn't for him I might have suffered more than scars on my stomach that night. If he was still with me, even with both of us injured and weakened, we could get out of here.

"Hey, boy, you okay?" I cooed, despite knowing he was anything but okay from the pain I still felt in my side. I strained to see him. He was in a small room across the hall behind iron bars. We both were, I noticed. I also took note of the iron bar sticking out of his side. What was it, was that a handle? Fire poker? She stabbed him with a fucking fire poker.

I was going to kill her, death painful and slow by a thousand toothpicks dipped in holy water. He tried to stand, to make his way to the edge of his cell and closer to me but only made it a few steps before collapsing. The iron weaken
ed him. And me. They knew we were fae, that I was enough fae to be effected by the iron. We weren't going to heal any faster than a mortal. Infection was suddenly a very real threat. Anger and frustration took over again. I roared, thrashed, screamed for my jailers. I wanted them here, to know what their plan was so I could start plotting my escape.

The
IV ripped free while I flailed on the table. Blood seeped steadily from where the hep lock ripped out. I wasn't making any progress with the straps or iron cuffs. In fact the more I fought, the more the iron cut into my skin, the weaker I felt. I forced myself to calm down. I had to keep my head. Conry and I wouldn't make it out of here if I totally lost my shit. I stilled my body, letting out a frustrated sigh, before my mind followed.

"Tsk, tsk." The woman was outside my cell. "What have you been doing? You're going to hurt yourself. And we can't have that. Not yet."

The sound of keys jingling and the lock turning was followed by the sound of her shoes clicking against the stone floor. The sound of her footsteps was simply for my benefit. She hadn't made a sound as she approached. She shut and locked the cell door before stepping into my line of sight. A vampire I had never seen before and she was old. Not as old as Caligula or the vampire king and queen but closer than any I have come across before.

"Are you going to be a good girl while I fix the
IV? Or do we need another dose of the henbane?" She moved in to reinsert the hep lock. "You made a mess of that beautiful vein. We'll have to move it."

The machines stopped. Silence filled the room. My heart raced with nervous anticipation. Her hand slid along my thigh. Would I be able to work it free if she tapped a vein in my leg? I was strapped spread eagle, my legs held down tighter than my arms. She moved around, tracing the ou
tline of my body with a finger while she decided where to start a new line.

"Who are you?" I didn't recognize my own voice. My throat was raw from screaming and dehydration.

She didn't answer right away. "This is going to hurt." She jammed the needle in my neck, slowly pulling it out to leave the tiny plastic tube for the hep lock behind. My back arched involuntarily and I couldn't hold back the groan. "Don't strain, it just makes it hurt more."

"Who the fuck are you and where's Caligula?" I ground out through clenched teeth.

Little daggers stabbed my ear drums as her laugh bounced off the stone walls. "My sire would no doubt be delighted by your desire to see him. He has thought of nothing else since you came to see him a couple days ago. He barely had the restraint to wait for the henbane to take hold. And then he tasted you. I feared he'd keep you all to himself. It took some convincing, he's quite mad you know, but he has never refused me. Not once since the day he turned me. You may look like his love but I am his kindred spirit."

The machines kicked on again and I felt a tug on the
IV in my neck as the blood was drawn out. "I had to promise not to kill you. Not like the others. But you're not at all like the others. I needed them to get to you."

I tried to listen to everything she sa
id, I really did. I knew the importance of every word that fell from her evil lips could be critical to my survival but the only thing I heard in her villain tirade was
a couple days ago
. I tried to hold back the well of tears but it was no use. I felt them running back down my temples into my hair. I had been down here, wherever here was for more than a day. No one came.