Deceptive Changes: Kat LaMond Book 1 (6 page)

I nodded and let my shoulders slump as I walked into the bedroom.  They followed and himmed and hawed at my clothing choices. 

We finally decided on a see-through black slip shirt with a black bra and tight fitting flare legged dark blue jeans.  I added some three and a half inch heeled boots and a leather corset jacket.  The guys dressed in dark blue jeans, layered shirts, flat shoes that could be dressy or casual, and nice, warm coats.

I grabbed a flashy purse and we left. 

Todd drove us to the night club and we walked through without a glance at the beefy muscle at the door.  I did catch sight of the looks of those waiting their turn, and was glad there was more than one bouncer.  Todd had reserved a VIP table, which meant being guided through a set of double doors, down a subdued hallway, up a short flight of stairs, and into the VIP area. 

I plopped my purse on the table and sat in the middle of Trace and Erick.  The club wasn’t boring so much as I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this. 

Todd nodded to me and then flicked his hand.  Erick got up and walked away with Todd.  Trace put his arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. 

A few moments later, he grabbed the bottle of wine and opened it.  He poured some into two glasses and handed one to me.  It was a very expensive, very exclusive, wine that I had no idea on.  I took a sip of the dark liquid and sighed in pleasure.  It was smooth and just the way I liked it, slightly fruity with a hint of spice to it.  I’m not a wine connoisseur so I wouldn’t know who made it or where it came from, and I didn’t much care to look at the label.  I continued to sip at the wine as I watched Todd and Erick sit at the bar. 

A few minutes later a man walked in.  The only reason my attention was drawn to him was because he was a vampire and unusual.  He had shoulder length silver hair, like spun metal, pale skin, about six-two, and lean but muscular. 

I watched as he walked over to Todd and Erick.  He said a few words and then they followed him.  I started to get up but Trace put a hand on my shoulder.  I looked at him and he shook his head.  I guess I was to stay here.  I didn’t like that I had to stay when two of my men went off with some vampire.

><                            ><

I sipped at my wine for the better part of twenty minutes and started to get antsy.  Whatever they were talking about shouldn’t take this long.  I leaned into Trace and spoke at normal volume, “I should see what’s going on.”

“No.  Todd said to have you stay here.  It shouldn’t be too much longer.”  I nodded and lifted my glass but it was empty.  Trace filled it half way and I continued to sip the wine.  I was bored.  It wasn’t like the club wasn’t busy, it was, I just wasn’t in the mood for the party stuff.

“I’m bored and I don’t want to dance either.  If they don’t get here soon, I’m leaving.”  Trace sighed.  “Don’t sigh at me, mister, you guys wanted to take me to this place and then half of you leave.” 

Trace stood up and held out his hand, “Come on.”  I grabbed his hand and allowed him to lead me out onto the dance floor. 

The DJ was playing some techno beat.  Trace pulled me to him and kissed me deeply.  He ran his hands along my back and back up. “Dance, Kat.”  I looked at him and sighed.  “Just do it.  It’ll be fun.  We can dirty dance ourselves into oblivion.”  He winked at me and started. 

I picked up the rhythm and danced with him, lightly at first.  Nothing exotic or anything.  The music changed and the beat took on a sexier tone. 

I slid down his body, running my hands along his chest and back and went into an almost squatted position, running my hands just this side of touching his groin.  On my way back up I did run my hands over his groin and butt. 

I was so focused on dancing that I didn’t realize Todd and Erick were with us.  They ran their hands on my body as I danced.  The music changed to something softer and I smiled at them.  I was happy now.  We went back to the lounge and drank the rest of the wine.

I was ready to go home now that I had danced and drank wine but the guys weren’t.  They talked amongst themselves as I drifted to sleep.  I woke up when a loud bang went through the room.  I looked around, grabbing my purse.  I had a knife hidden in the stupid thing.  I really couldn’t wear a gun or two and enter the club, since I like leg holsters instead of shoulder or back holsters.  “What the hell was that?”

“It was the music, Kat.”  Todd’s voice soothed my worries for a moment. 

“Can we leave now?”

“Yeah.  We’re done.”  They stood up and Trace held out his hand.  I took it and he led me out of the club.

We drove home and went inside.  The lights were out and it was quiet in the house.  You’d think with six other people living here that it would be busy at all hours but no, they all slept on the same general schedule except us.  We stayed up late and rose early, or at least I did.

I threw my jacket on the chair in the sitting room and, with it, my purse.  I walked into the bedroom and fell onto the bed face down with my arms and legs spread out. 

I fell asleep for about two minutes when Todd, Erick, and Trace walked into the bedroom.  They were whispering about something.  I didn’t even try to hear what it was about.  If they had wanted me to know they wouldn’t be whispering.  My eyes slid shut again.

I woke up under the covers with pj’s on.  I rolled over, or tried to, at least.  Todd and Erick were snuggled up against me and Trace was on Todd’s side of the bed. 

I sat up and shimmied out of the covers and climbed over two bodies to get to the bathroom.  I turned the shower on and washed quickly. 

I finished with the shower, stepped out, and wrapped a towel around my body and head then went into the bedroom.  The guys were still asleep.

I grabbed clothes and went back into the bathroom.  I didn’t want to wake them.  I changed into business clothes and walked out. 

Trace was sitting up in bed, the blanket covering his lap and from the waist up he was naked.  I stared at his chest for a minute and then slowly looked up at him.  He smiled and held out his arms.  I gave him a hug and murmured, “I have to go to work.”  I kissed his cheek and nudged Todd and Erick.  I gave them kisses and left.

I got into my AMG and drove down the driveway, turned onto the roadway.  About three hundred feet from the drive an SUV came speeding up behind me.  I slowed so it could pass but it didn’t.  It hit my backend and thanks to good tires and German engineering I kept the car on the road without fishtailing.

I sped up.  My car was quicker on the uptake but they had the power.  They caught up to me quicker than I would have liked.  I looked at the speedometer and found that we were pushing ninety miles an hour.  A turn was coming up in the road; one I knew needed to be taken at around thirty miles an hour. 

I took the turn at ninety and thanked God that I didn’t go over the guardrail.  I scraped the guardrail but it wasn’t serious, the metal shrieking grated on my nerves, though.  The SUV had slowed down to take the turn, which gave me a bit of time in order to get away from it. 

Where was a cop when you needed one?

I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the SUV closing.  I looked down a second to grab my cell phone and got hit in the back again.  The cell phone went flying from my hand.  I had slowed down to look for my dumb phone.

Another turn and this time the SUV didn’t slow.  It rammed me and I went over the hill.  Luckily, it wasn’t a bad hill to go over.  My car bottomed out and flew down the hill.  I tried to keep the car away from trees and barely succeeded. 

I touched the brakes and the car slowed steadily, but not fast enough since the ground was layered with leaves and fungus and other slippery stuff.  The car slid as it slowed and started to turn.  I tried to correct it but it wasn’t working.  The car slid around so I was facing uphill and hit a tree with the backend.  The airbags exploded and my face smashed into the pillow.

I hit the airbag to get it out of my way and found the two goons nearly on me.  I fell sideways and reached for my concealed Glock on the underside of the passenger seat.  I had my hand on it when the door was ripped from its hinges and my legs were pulled out.  I tried to keep my body inside but they were too strong.  Vampires.

He pulled me out of the car and I flopped onto the ground, the breath knocked out of me.  I looked at them and knew I was dead.  I didn’t have any other weapons on me.  I was so screwed. 

The guy who had pulled me from the car hauled me over his shoulder.  I kicked and screamed and hit him with my fists but he barely flinched.  I kicked my foot out and connected with something.  I looked over my shoulder. I could feel the guy carrying me laugh.  I had hit the second vampire in the jaw.  He was rubbing his jaw and cussing.  I started cussing louder and kicked again. 

I stopped struggling for a minute and as the guy loosened I slid a little bit but it was enough.  I brought my leg down and connected with his balls.  He stumbled and cursed the day I was born. 

“Let me go, bastard,” I shouted.

“I can’t.  You’re our bargaining chip.  We need you to get to Todd.”  His voice was gruff from the hit to the groin.

“He won’t do it.  If you let me go, I’ll talk to him.  Maybe I can help you.”  I prayed: please let them be this stupid.

“Do you take us for idiots?”  Of course they weren’t that stupid. 

“No.  I’m just trying to negotiate.”

“Well, stop.  I’m not letting you go, no matter where you kick me.” 

I huffed out a sigh and said, “I will kill you.  Make no mistake, vampire.  You continue this and you’ll just be dust after.” 

The other vampire sucked in a breath and started talking about letting me go.  “We can’t, you know that.  We have to have her.  If we don’t she’ll kill us anyway and so will Todd.” 

They stopped talking once we reached the SUV.  The guy dropped me to my feet and shoved me face first against the truck, then bound my hands and feet and put a blindfold around my head.  Being bound by hand and foot didn’t bother me nearly as much as being blindfolded but there wasn’t much I could do, so I resigned myself to just going with it.

He shoved me into the back seat of the truck, and told the other vamp to drive.  He kept his hand on my arm with bruising force.  What did they think, I was dangerous or something? 

I started counting and noted each time my body swayed one way or the other as we turned.  I figured that would at least keep me occupied while they took me to wherever.

><                            ><

The car stopped after a long while and I was pulled from the truck.  The vampire dragged me when I walked too slowly for him causing me to stumble and trip over things.  I tripped over something and realized I was now in a warm building.  The vampire yanked me forward and made me kneel.

The vampire removed the blindfold and I blinked into bright lights.  Oh, great.  I was kneeling in front of a tripod with a video camera on it.  “You will read the cards and we will send this message to Todd.”  He spat Todd’s name out like a bad word.

“I won’t.”  He slapped my face hard.  It stung and my eyes watered.  “You can hit me all you want but I won’t do it.”  He slapped me again and this time he flicked a knife out.  It was one of those butterfly knives. 

“If you don’t, I’ll start cutting.”

“And then what will you have to bargain with?  If I’m injured, you’re dead and you won’t get what you want.”  I was a defiant bitch when I wanted to be but that only brought pain when he sliced my arm deeply.  I bit my lip to keep from crying out because damn, that had hurt. 

“The next one goes on your stomach and then I work higher,” he threatened. 

“Do what you want.  If I’m hurt I still won’t do it.” 

I held back a scream when he sliced my stomach from end to end.  It wasn’t deep but it hurt like a sonofabitch.  The other vampire came up behind me and sliced my back.  I wasn’t expecting that one, damn it.  I cried out.  He had cut much deeper than the other vampire.  The vampire that did most of the torture hit the other vampire and sent him through the wall. 

“Why the hell did you do that for?” the vampire asked as he got up from the floor.

“We don’t want to kill her, you idiot.”  He turned to me and said, “Say the words and then we’ll let you go.”

“Are you kidding me?  You just said I was your bargaining chip,” I screamed and then muttered, “Idiots.”  That got me a backhand across the jaw.  I went over like a sack of potatoes.  I laid there for a minute before the lead vampire hauled me onto my knees again.

“Just say the words, slayer.” 

I screamed at him, loud and filled with anger.  “I’m not a slayer.  I may have killed Antreas but that’s about all I did.”  I could see that he knew that I had killed more than just Antreas.

Instead of saying anything, he ripped my shirt off and sliced my collar bone.  I hissed as pain went through me.  “I will continue cutting.  Besides, I suppose this is better since we’re already taping.”  Bastard.

“I don’t care.  Todd better not come here and try to rescue me.  I refuse to say anything more.”

“Then screaming will do.” 

I was kneeling with only my bra and slacks on.  The sleeves of my blouse were falling down my arms.  He sliced my stomach again.  I didn’t scream but I wanted to, I really freakin’ wanted to scream. 

He continued cutting at me until I was bleeding on my arms, stomach, legs, and back.  He left my neck alone, thankfully, but I could see that my blood, filling the air, was causing him some problems considering his eyes were shining with power.  I was too hurt to pass out from the sight of my own blood, and I was a bit afraid for my life.

I flinched back when he started for my throat but the other vampire, apparently younger than the torturer, got to me first.  He bit into my neck and started sucking.  It was vicious and hurt like a bitch.  I whimpered and held my tongue.  If I was going to die I wasn’t going to scream.

The torturer pulled the other vampire off me and actually apologized for the other’s behavior.  Not only was I bleeding everywhere else but now my throat was bleeding.  I could feel the blood trickle down my neck and shoulder to my chest, making my skin itch and my stomach give a nasty little roll.

The torturer bent down and sucked on my neck for a second and then licked the wound.  I could feel it close up and the blood stopped flowing.  I held my head high and tried not to flinch from the pain as my skin pulled and stretched. 

The torturer walked over to the camera and said something quietly.  I couldn’t hear since my ears were ringing and the edges of my vision were cloudy.

He came back to me, hauled me to my feet, and pulled me forward.  I stumbled and almost fell several times but he just kept on walking, pulling me along, and dragging me when necessary, down the long hallway.  There were four doors along the way, and I saw an outside door a few feet away from where he stopped.  I so wanted to make a break for it but, right now, I was alive.  That was what mattered.  After, they so weren’t going to be alive. 

He tossed me into the room, the one closest to the outside door, and locked me inside, careless of how I tripped and fell to the floor.  I gasped as the air in my lungs was knocked out when I crashed onto the floor.