Deny Me If You Can (14 page)

“What do you want me to do?” Megan asked and
dried away the tears that had run down her cheek.

“Help us save Jaromir,” Shane said.

Megan looked at him. “How? I'm not as strong as you are. Jillian will kill me within a second, and this time I doubt that she will play around with me. She will make it short and fast to get rid of the problem.”

“Yes, most likely
.”

“Sneaking in
is pointless. She will see me coming from miles. There has to be another way.”

“There is,” Ivan said.

Megan met his gaze. Hope awakened within her. If there was a chance to save Jaromir, then she would do it. She would do anything to save him. “Tell me.”

“You must become a vampire.”

Megan stared at Ivan with big eyes. Her chin had dropped and she could barely believe what she had just heard. Becoming a vampire? Now? She knew that it had to happen sooner or later if she wanted to be with Jaromir, but when she heard those words out loud it somehow became more real. And this was not how she had imagined her turning to be like. She had thought Jaromir would do it while holding her in his arms and making her feel safe.

Megan
was nervous and worried. She had no idea how the change worked, and was there even time for one? She had heard all kinds of rumors. The classic one was that the vampire bit someone and the bite alone would turn you into a vampire, but Jaromir had bitten her and she was still human.

“There are several ways. The most common way is drinking vampire blood
during the full moon,” Shane said.

Megan blinked. “Isn't the full moon a werewolf thing?”

Shane snorted. “You would think that. Either way, we can't wait until the full moon. It's days away and who knows what will happen until then.”

“What other way is there?” Megan asked.

Shane leaned closer. “The bond.”

Megan blinked. “What?”

“The bond has already awakened your vampire instincts. All it needs now is a simple push, and you will become a vampire within minutes. It will be painless and you will not suffer like newly turned vampires usually do.”

Megan gulped. “What do you mean?”

“If a human is turned during the new moon, a long transition follows. The vampire suffers from bloodlust and primitive instincts drive him or her. It's painful and it goes on for weeks. You will kill everything that stands in your way without remorse just to get blood. This is why few vampires are made. There is no control.”

Carolyn grabbed Megan's hand. “But if you change through the bond
, you will skip all that. You will be ready to save Jaromir the second you open your eyes. The change will be instant.”

“But I told you that the bond is we
ak. It's almost gone.”

“It doesn't matter. As long as it's still there, you have a chance.”

Shane stood up and looked straight at Megan. “Tell me now, Megan if you want to do this or not. If not, we will let you walk away tonight. A few vampires will follow you home and stay there with you for your protection. The rest of us will go after Jaromir and make sure Jillian pays once and for all. If we manage to turn things around, Jaromir will eventually come for you and finish the job himself. I doubt he will allow you to just leave his life now.”

“And if I
agree?”

“Then I will tell you what you must do. Once you are a vampire
, you will be able to protect yourself better. You will be stronger, faster and more alive than you have ever been in your entire life. A whole new world will open up for you.”

“It also means that you can come with us. We are going to need you. You are the only one who has a connection to Jaromir thanks to the bond,” Gloria said. “Once you are a vampire the bond will become stronger. It will make it possible for you to seek Jaromir out.
Without you, we will have to go in blindfolded. We don't know what is going on inside the club.”

Megan could do nothing else but listen to what they were saying. Everything felt so unreal.
During the day, she had been both happy and sad. She had saved her sister and had believed that the continued hunt would be fun this time. How wrong she had been.

“Don't worry,” Shane said. “You will be protected the whole time. Jaromir w
ill have our heads if something happened to you.”

Megan smiled when he grinned. His attempt
at making a joke only worked for a few seconds though. If Jillian had hurt Jaromir, she would regret it big time. Megan wanted to hiss again, but she held it back. Instead, she took a deep breath and nodded. She was going to do this. Jaromir was hers, and that was final.

“The hunter becomes the prey and the prey becomes the hunter,” she said to herself.

“Close your eyes,” Shane said.

Megan couldn't believe that she was actually doing this. Her heart was beating hard and her breathing was fast. She held a tight grip on the chair's armrests while she tried to relax, but it was almost impossible. She stared in front of her where every vampire but Shane stood.
He stood behind her. They all watched her with interest, but also with worried eyes. Apparently this hadn't been seen for almost a hundred years. Becoming a vampire through a bond was rare. Turning someone into a vampire the regular way was rare enough, so she could only imagine how unusual this was. The vampires wanted to see. They were all curious.

“How can you know that this isn't going to hurt if you have never seen a transformation like this one?” Megan asked Shane with a shaky voice.

Shane placed his hands on her shoulders. “Every vampire knows.”

Megan looked up at him. “I understand.
So how does this work?”

“T
hanks to the bond, you and Jaromir are connected on a soul level. You must pull his soul essence into yourself and connect with it. Once it's done, he must accept your connection to finish it.”

“That isn't very helpful.
How am I supposed to do that?”

Shane squeezed her shoulders. “Trust me, you will know. Close your eyes now and relax. Focus on my voice.”

Megan took a deep breath and breathed out slowly while she closed her eyes. The last thing she saw was all the vampire eyes that were filled with expectation. Would she manage to turn herself into a vampire through the small piece that remained of the bond? Was that small piece enough? Would Jaromir agree? Megan could only hope.

“Shouldn't I drink blood to make this work?”

“No, the bond should be enough. Besides, only Jaromir's blood can strengthen the bond. Any other vampire's blood will not work.”

“Alright,” she said
and settled herself comfortably. “Get on with it.”

Megan had no idea what to expect or what it would feel like. All she could do was trust Shane's words that this
would be painless, but at the same moment that the thought crossed her mind, she knew that she would do it even if pain was involved. Jaromir was in danger and she would do anything to save him. That was how deeply she was devoted to him. The bond and her attraction for him had made her fall for him fast. It didn't matter to her anymore how it had happened. She wanted him in every way possible, but above all, she wanted him safe.

Her determination took over and she knew in that moment that she would do everything in her power to get him back. Silently, she whispered a last good bye to her sister before she turned her focus on becoming a vampire.

Jaromir was angry at himself. He should have seen this coming. He should have understood that Jillian would do everything to finish what she had started. Now he was all alone. The few vampires who had stayed behind with him were dead. Jillian's big hooligans had killed them. They had tried to protect him while he had tried to protect them, but Jillian's gang had been too big. Too many big, mean vampires for the few of them, but he was glad that Shane and the others managed to get away. Hopefully they also managed to get to Megan before something bad happened to her. He could only hope.

If he managed to get out of this mess, he would make sure that Jillian would never be able to hurt anyone again. At first
, he had thought that the jail would be enough. He didn't kill unless it was necessary, and apparently it was necessary now.

The problem was that he was stuck. He was tied to a chair with chains
inside his own office. As a vampire, he was strong, but even vampires had limits, and these chains came directly from his prison. They were made for vampires. It was impossible for him to get out of them. It didn't matter how much he pulled. It didn't work.

He had been left alone inside his office. Jaromir didn't know why, but it was a huge mistake from Jillian's side. It gave him a chance to figure out how to get out of this hellish situation.

Megan was still out there and she was unaware of what was going on. That worried him. Being stuck sucked. He had felt her presence near the club and he had managed to send her a warning, but he wasn't able to go to her and defend her. He knew that Jillian would go straight for Megan and finish the job once she was done here. Just the thought of Jillian's strong hands around Megan's fragile throat awakened an anger within him that he had never felt before. He wanted to scream, to rip the chains apart and throw himself at Jillian. He wanted to rip her apart too so that she could never hurt Megan again.

Jaromir had no idea how Jillian planned to do it, but
he was sure that Megan knew that something wasn't right by now. He hadn't showed up when he had said he would. He knew she would come to him. She would seek him at the club, and by doing so she would walk straight into Jillian's trap.

That thought made Jaromir hiss and pull at his chains.

Jillian hadn't hurt him, and he suspected that she wouldn't. She needed him. At least, he hoped so. He was the King after all, but Jillian would never become his queen. Every vampire knew by now what was going on at his club, and if she forced him to take him as a queen, they would both die. No vampire would accept Jillian as their queen after her rampage. She couldn't force him to make her his queen. The question was what Jillian would do instead. The obvious thing was killing Megan, but what Jillian would do with him, he could only speculate. A thousand different thoughts crossed his mind. Everything from making him her personal slave to killing him.

The door flew open and Jaromir watched Jillian enter along with a bunch of mean looking vampires. He recognized some of them and knew immediately why they had chosen her side. Several of them had caused him problems in the past. Two of them had even challenged him for the throne, but they had failed.
Jaromir knew that most vampires liked him, they thought of him as a wise and kind King who did what was needed for his people. They would never have allowed any of these men become the new King. These men wanted the throne because of selfish reasons. They wanted money and power. Helping others was not on their list. If they managed to throw him off the throne and kill him, a war would break out. One king after another would follow, just like they had before he had become the King. They had all taken the throne with force. He, on the other hand, hadn't. It had been given to him by the people. They had chosen him as the King after the death of the previous king.

Realization hit Jaromir. This was what all this was about.

Jillian grinned when she stopped in front of him. “How does it feel to be helpless?”

Jaromir ignored her question. “What do you want, Jillian?” he asked even if
he knew.

“I want you and your little queen to
get out of my way. You have no idea how long I wanted to be by your side. Then that little slut walks in and thinks she owns the place. That is so not fair.”

Jaromir growled
. “You would never have been my queen.”

Jillian leaned closer. She gently caressed his cheek. The touch sen
t unpleasant chills through him. The last thing he wanted was to be touched by her. It made him feel dirty.

“We had something precious once,” she said with a soft voice. “Our relationship meant something, but you never saw it.”

His gaze darkened. “The only thing we had was you being a piece of flesh in my bed.”

Jaromir knew that his words weren't true, but he had wanted to hurt Jillian. She
had
mattered to him once, but he had never seen her as his potential queen. She never had what it took.

Jillian hissed and hit him in the face. The force from the hit sent his head flying to the side. The pain made his head spin and his cheek throbbed painfully. He moaned
, and for a short moment, he felt paralyzed. She hadn't been gentle. Jaromir moved his jaw carefully and relaxed with he felt that it wasn't broken, but it would hurt for a few days. He would maybe even get bruises. Vampires were usually difficult to mark, but Jaromir knew when a hit was hard enough to leave a bruise.

Jaromir looked at the two vampires
who once had tried to take his throne from him.

“You know,” he said to Jillian. “They will throw you out as soon as they don't need you anymore. They are only doing this for selfish reasons.”