Dark Surrender (15 page)

He got this look on his face, and then looked her in the eye again. “The vamp you offed tonight, it wasn’t a female, black hair, bone white skin, black eyes…” Min was about to say no, her imaginary vampire kill had been a male, but then he said, “Goes by the name of Elaina.” And the bottom fell out of her stomach.

Elaina.
The image of Luca’s maker flickered in her mind’s eye: jet black hair, bone white skin, and those scary black eyes.
Shit!

And then she felt a stab of fear. She knew from Luca’s memories that Elaina could control him. She’d let him escape and then called him back to her. She pretty much owned him body and soul, when she wanted to. It wasn’t a freaking coincidence she was in town. She’d come here for him. It had to be why. But why had she drawn the werewolves into it?

Is she here to recruit Luca’s help in fighting off the werewolves?
No, she could’ve zigzagged and left them still hunting for her. She’d lead them in a straight line straight to him. She’d wanted them to follow her. And she wanted them out for vengeance. Why else take the effort to kill the pack leader’s sister? The murdering vampire had a plan.

But what was it?

She’d ask Luca, tell him what she knew before sending him away. He had to go, he just had to. But then again, why hadn’t Elaina just called for him if she wanted him? A flash of Luca’s memories entered her mind. She had chained him with silver, had burned crosses into his chest, and then slit him open with a silver dagger. She’d pushed her hand into his stomach and was reaching up through his ribcage, toward his heart.

“
I’m going to crush it.” She said in the horrific memory. “Like you crushed my heart when you left me.”

Oh god...
She was more than just a monster. She was crazy. Like serial killer, Jeffrey Dommer crazy.

“
Min?” Günter was looking at her with worried eyes. “What’s wrong? You haven’t run into this vampire, have you?”

Min couldn’t seem to take in a breath to answer him.

He grabbed her hand. “We can protect you. We’ll put you and your…” he stopped, a strange look floating, almost glowing in his eyes, then he said, “family…somewhere safe until we hunt down this bitch.”

No, no, she couldn’t have Günter and his wolves nosing around her until she’d sent Luca away to safety. He had the wolves and his maker to hide from. And if Elaina had brought them to the City where she knew Luca was, and then she had plans for them all.

God, things are going to hell.

Finally Min took a deep breath, and somehow made her body relax and her expression turn light. But that wasn’t the right expression either. It wasn’t what she would have felt during that moment, and she knew it. She had to figure out a reason she would have become so upset.

“
No. The vampire I killed was male, blond, young looking. And though it was a close one,” she took a deliberate gulp of her drink, “I left nothing of him. And he didn’t have anyone else with him.”

His face wore a worried look as Min continued. “And I think I’m just…I can’t believe Marina is dead.” That was the truth, it felt like a bad dream to her.

“
Good.” He said, laying his hand on her shoulder. “I’d hate to think…even though we’re not anymore…I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you too.”

Min stood up and kissed him gently on the lips. “Thank you for caring. But I’m careful, and I’ll just stay inside for the next couple of weeks. You’ll tell me when you get her, right?”

He looked a little taken aback, “I’ll leave word at your shop.”

Good.
She left, feeling her heart thudding unpleasantly in her chest. She had to get home to Luca. He’d be there, waiting for her. She just knew it.

*****

Chapter 16

When he woke, Luca had gone to Min’s house and waited inside for her. He wanted to see her, yearned to touch her. He felt so happy as he paced the hardwood floor of her living room, trying to envision the route she would take from the store to the house. But soon he began to worry. No matter what route he could propose, it was taking far too long. What if her injuries hadn’t healed, and what if they left her weak and ill, and…

What if they left her open to attack?
Luca well knew he wasn’t the only dark, hungry creature in the city. Weakened, Min wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.

Instantly Luca rushed out and scented the air of the city. He paced, moving through the city with inhuman speed, only stopping to scent the air again and again. He had gone straight to Min’s darkened, empty shop, and had worked his way out. Her scent had been strong, but for some reason when she deviated from what was obviously her usual path, she smelled not only fainter, but different. Not quite afraid, and not quite angry.

But just at that moment he felt real fear, her fear, spiking in a hellish wave. But no visions came to him, no muddled thoughts. Just fear.

Finally he tracked her dimming scent to a small bar and grille that was filled to capacity. He looked in through one of its comically large windows and found Min holding the hand of another man. A muscular, good looking man, and she rose off her bar stool and kissed him on the lips, soft and chaste, but there was an intimacy to it that struck him hard. He felt a flicker of a memory, of the two of them together, naked and making love in Min’s bed. He pulled away from that thought, staggering from the window of the bar.

Was what he felt like a weight pulling down on his chest his heart breaking? Could a thing that hadn’t beat in three hundred years really have the ability to break? He turned, the memory of Min kissing the strange man burning in his head like acid. He took off into the night.

*****

Min rushed home, dropping her keys in haste as she tried to get her front door open. She felt such panic. What if Günter had followed her home? It was an unlikely thing, but still, he was above all things a ruthless hunter. He might have believed her story about why she smelled of vampire. But he would still think to check up on the story, especially since he was hunting the murdering vampire that took his sister’s life. In honesty, if she had told herself the tale she’d told Günter, she would have followed her too…no question.

Min looked about at her surroundings, the street, the bushes, the other houses neighboring her home, before she stepped into the house, checking to see if she could spot Günter hiding in plain sight. He was tricky and a master at the hunt. Did she really think he’d be so sloppy as to let her see him as he trailed her?

And she didn’t, finding the street both silent and abandoned.

Unfortunately, that is exactly how she found the inside of her house too: empty and silent. He should have been there, waiting for her. She had been so certain where he’d be. Certain he’d been there before she’d decided to stop at the bar and garner Günter’s notice. She waited, trying to keep calm. But the longer she waited, the worse she felt, the more her mind began to play cruel tricks on her. She kept imagining Luca being chased by the wolves. And though a vampire was more than a match for most single wolves, Günter wasn’t you average wolf. He was alpha of his pack, and a highly trained assassin, hunter, and soldier. And that was another thing, he wasn’t a lone wolf, he was the master of a powerful and highly trained pack. He could fight and kill anything he came across, and had, until the elusive and maniacal Elaina.

Oh god, there was that too. Elaina was in the city, and Min knew from Luca’s memories that she was a monster, cruel and vicious, and insane. She had to warn him of her too. He needed to hide, to leave the city.

But deep down Min knew that even if she could hide Luca from Günter and his pack, that she could never hide him from Elaina. She had lived his memory of her calling him from halfway across the known world. He hadn’t even been able to feed, only able to rest when the sun rose and his body forced him to dig and scrabble into the earth. He hadn’t been able to stop until he stood in front of her. And she’d laughed, and she’d tortured him for days, keeping him starved and broken until he had thought he would lose his mind.

She paced the rooms of the downstairs desperately, mentally calling out to him again and again, just about to go out into the city and start searching for him, when finally she heard the front door creak open. Had she left it unlocked? She couldn’t remember. She tensed, listening for footsteps. If she heard the steps it was Günter, and she had failed at subterfuge completely. But as she listened, she heard nothing at all. Luca came into view, staring with terrible, haunted eyes at her in the dim light of the parlor. His eyes were filled with red blood tears, and Min was taken aback by the idea that a vampire would cry bloody tears. He looked about the room, closed his eyes as if listening to something, and then inhaled deeply. At last he turned from her, saying nothing.

“
Where have you been?” Min said as he moved to him. “It’s not safe for you—”

His face flashed with red hot anger as he rounded on her. “Where have I been?” He moved until he was leaning down, his beautiful mouth a viscous snarl. “Where have you been?”

“
What do you mean? I’ve been waiting here for you.”

He laughed snidely. “Oh yes, I’m sure you’ve been beside yourself with worry.” His eyes had cleared, and were now balls of green flame. “How long, may I ask, were you with the werewolf?”

Min stared up into his eyes, feeling the blood drain from her face, and from her hands, turning them cold.

“
Were you in his bed, or did you two just go into the back of that shitty little bar and screw in the restroom…maybe the mop closet?”

Min felt her breath begin to speed, as well as her pulse. “You were there? You saw us?”

“
Thank you for not trying to deny it. How forthright.”

Min reached out and grabbed him, looking to the windows in the room, relieved nothing was staring in at them. “Did he see you? Please tell me he didn’t see you.” Her voice sounded so very desperate to her.

“
Not that it would have mattered, but no, I left before either of you could notice me.”

Relief flooded into her blood, cooling the burn of fear, and soothing the rasping in her lungs. “Oh, thank the goddess.”

Luca pulled away from Min, glaring at her with disgusted eyes. “What, don’t want you wolf lover to know you’ve been fucking a vampire?”

“
Yes!” she said too quickly, with far too much relief. Then she shook her head, “I mean no. No, he isn’t my lover…not anymore…but yes, I don’t want him to know about you. He can’t know about you.”

Luca was about to scream at her when she reached out and grabbed him again. “Günter isn’t just some werewolf, or ex-lover, he’s the lord of The Hunt!”

Luca’s eyes cleared of his disbelief, and widened at the realization of what she’d just said. “Hunt? You mean like The Hunt they tell of in the old country?”

“
The very same. And the man you saw me with tonight is the leader of The Hunt in this country. He’s very powerful, and skilled to destroy anything that gets in his way.”

Luca shook his head. “I can take care of myself. A pack of ravening dogs won’t be the end of me.”

“
They’ve been destroying your kind for centuries. And they travel en mass. Once they pick up your trail they won’t stop until your dead.”

“
I’m already dead,” he said cruelly. “Or haven’t you noticed yet?”

“
But that’s not all.” Min felt a terrible jolt as the image of Elaina laughing with blood tinted fangs flashed involuntarily through her mind.

Luca jerked back from her, gasping. His eyes turned wide with fear. He’d seen it too.

“
Elaina,” they said in concert.

Luca strode over to the window and looked out onto the night in silence.

“
Günter and his men tracked her hear. She killed his sister, Marina, and then led them straight here, straight to you.”

Luca looked to Min, his expression riddled with fear. “Why hasn’t she called for me?”

She could feel his fear—so powerful that he was consumed by it. She looked up and then pulled his face to hers, kissing him, trying to give him some comfort, something else to concentrate on. And it worked. Slowly that fear died, and his hunger for her took over. And it wasn’t the coldness of his bloodlust; it had heat to it, as if nothing else was alive within him except his need for her.

They moved from deep, wet kisses to pulling each other’s clothes off. Min became naked first, and he licked and suckled every sensitive part of her body, from her breasts to her belly, from the backs of her knees to the softness of her inner things, and then her quivering sex. Slowly he lapped at her opening, one hand clasped on her inner thigh, the other running gently over her body. He looked up at her as she tried not to scream, but gasped and writhed instead. He finally came up between her legs, hard and long and ready, and she seized his mouth with hers, tasting herself on his soft, cool lips. He thrust into her mercilessly, and she threw back her head as she finally screamed his name. He nuzzled at the silky flesh of her throat as he pushed in and out of her, harder and faster, until he was battering himself into her. She opened up to him, so wet, so very hot.

Min lost her self. Somehow her touch had soothed his fears, as his touch soothed the lingering pains in her body. When he climaxed inside her he fell onto her, his body sweating, though still cold, his breaths coming in gasps, though she knew he didn’t need to breathe at all. For a long moment he stayed there, his face pressed against her breasts, so very still. He looked up into her eyes, his own glittering with happiness, his smile so very young.