ENTANGLED (16 page)

Damn him all to Hell.

Whether from Nudra’s blood coursing through my veins, the loss of my own blood from Vicky and Arman’s dinner feast, or the sheer loathing I had for myself, my vision became a blur of black dots again.
Fight it
, I told myself, but control over my body drained away with every drip of my blood onto the table. I forced words to form on my tongue. “Help me,” I called out, in case the raccoon was nearby.

The only sound was the echo of my voice back at me. I closed my eyes and the black dots took me under.

“
Kali. Ka-li
.”

Someone was shaking my shoulders. I cracked an eye open and Rad swam into view. He was disheveled, clothes caked with mud, face streaked with dirt, hair wet and starting to curl at the ends.

Admittedly, he’d never looked better. “What…” My lips were dry and stuck together. I wetted them. “How’d you find me?”

“Saw a black SUV speeding away from the church when I showed up. Took me a minute to figure out you’d been kidnapped. I tried to follow them, but they lost me outside of Oak Park. I had to track down your precious Council and get them to help me locate you.”

“Oak Park? Where are we?”

“Naperville. Nudra’s compound. You wouldn’t believe this place.” He looked me over, grimaced. “You’re supposed to keep that red stuff on the inside, you know.”

Il saccente
. Smart ass. “No shit, Captain Obvious. Unstrap me.”

He did and never once ogled body parts he shouldn’t, which I appreciated because I was so out of it, he could have groped me and I wouldn’t have lifted a finger. He cut the straps with the silver knife, then stuck it in his back pocket. Racked with a bone-deep cold, my body shook violently as he helped me sit up.

Removing his shirt, he slid it over my head and worked my arms through the sleeves, my limbs as floppy and weak as a string puppet. The shirt was wet and muddy but warm with his body heat.

Best. Shirt. Ever.

When I pushed off the table, my knees buckled and I went down. Rad caught me before I hit the stone floor. “Not so fast there, hot shot.”

“Is the Council here?”

“They sent me ahead to confirm you were being held against your will. I’ll call them.”

“Forget it.” I brushed hair out of my eyes with shaking fingers, and though it killed me to do it, I wrapped my arms around his neck. I needed to get my wits about me before I faced the Council. “Just get me out of here.”

He lifted me with ease, securing his arms under my shoulders and the backs of my knees. We were headed for the door when we heard shouts outside and the handle turned. Rad snapped the ancient deadbolt into place, jamming the door.

Jostling me as he ran to the opposite end of the chamber, he headed toward a raised wooden platform with a coffin in the center. Dim light reflected off the top of the highly polished black lid of the coffin. Blood red satin curtains on the wall behind it created the illusion of a dramatic headboard. Surely Nudra didn’t sleep here, did he?

“What are you doing?”

Rad set me on the floor, one arm around my waist to steady me. “Hiding.” He lifted the coffin lid. White satin and fresh grave dirt sat inside. “Get in.”

Normally, the very idea would have sent me screaming in the other direction. Delirious, I laughed out loud instead. The door knob rattled violently behind us. “Why don’t you snap your fingers and start a fire or blow the roof off or some other distraction so we can get out of here?”

With one quick movement, he picked me up and tossed me into the coffin. The smell of moldy dirt hit my nose. Gross! Rad shook his head. “Already tried. Nudra’s got some kind of anti-magic spell on the structure. It’s tamper proof.”

He launched himself into the coffin, pinning me up against the satin before dropping the lid. Dark and musty, it smelled like Nudra. Rad had me weak and at his mercy with that damn silver knife in his pocket. My body shook harder.

“Shit, Kali,” Rad whispered in my ear. My back was to his front and he spooned his body against mine. His arms went around me, solid and reassuring.

“I can’t help it,” I whispered back. “Nudra injected me with his blood. I’m having a bad reaction.”

“He did what?” Rad ground his teeth, his jaw working against my skull behind my left ear. “I’ll kill him.”

“If anyone gets to kill him…” My teeth chattered hard. “It’s me.”

Rad gave me a squeeze, sighed. “So when did you go blond?”

We were lying in a vamp’s coffin, trying to avoid bodily harm, and he wanted to revisit the subject of my hair. Nudra wasn’t the only one I was going to kill as soon as I got my strength back. “Two-hundred eighty-five years and…” I counted up the days. At least my brain wasn’t fried if I could still count. “Nine days ago.”

He turned my body, maneuvering me to face him. Not an easy job considering our close confines and my dead weight. “You bleached your hair because of me?”

I couldn’t hear anything outside the coffin, but something told me that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “I didn’t bleach it. It just…happened.” The morning after my first Rad nightmare to be exact. “On its own.”

That shut him up. Or something else did. He leaned down, sniffed my neck where blood still oozed from the knife wound, and then without warning, he nuzzled my skin. An arc of white hot electricity danced between our chests. Literally. It lit up the inside of the coffin, bouncing off the handle of the knife sticking out of Rad’s back pocket and reflecting in Rad’s eyes where lust, deep and dangerous, sparked to life. “Man, you smell good.”

Oh, shit. He was half human. “Rad, whatever you do, do not—”

Too late, he licked my skin.

Average shelf life for demons is not much longer than it is for humans. Not because we’re susceptible to disease and old age, but because we live with the seven deadly sins. You know, gluttony, pride, lust. While humans can, and do, send themselves to Hell for dabbling with sin, demons
are
the sin. Each of us embodies at least one. In other words, it’s in our DNA. We can’t escape it. Humans have the opportunity to overcome their vice and make it to Heaven. Demons, not so much.

The moment Rad’s lips touched my neck, I tried to pull away from him. I did. But the confines of the coffin wouldn’t allow it. The instant my blood touched his lips, he was a goner.

Bigger problem? So was I.

Never mind I already had two blood slaves, as his tongue licked the side of my neck, the energy sparking between us exploded into a colorful light show of lust so bright, I knew the entire coffin had to be glowing. We were sure to get busted, but I didn’t much care at the moment. Inside my body, it was the same. Rainbows, unicorns, puppies—the best orgasm I’d ever experienced.

One after another, the orgasms kept bursting under my skin. Emotions tore through my chest with an intensity that left me shaking all over again. I felt what Rad felt, and it was joyful, intoxicating chaos.

Happiness, excitement, lust...

Love.

Those last two were killers. One playing with my heart, the other my body, and neither of which I had an ounce of control over. A concentrated warmth flooded my chest and the light seeping under my lids intensified with it. For half a second, with Rad holding me close and his lips trailing fire over my skin, I swear I experienced Heaven.

And then he blew it all to hell.

His lips nuzzled my ear. “Kali, I need to tell you something.”

Hell’s blood
. Rad was about to brush against a pain much too raw to discuss in an evil vamp’s coffin. Too deep to discuss, period. “Not. Now.”
Come back
, I mentally called to the light and the warmth.
Please, come back
.

No dice. Heaven was gone.

“This is important. About us and what happened…before.” He licked my neck again. “Damn, you taste so good. Smell good too. Like chocolate pastries and vanilla ice cream.”

I’m so
not
vanilla ice cream. Jeez. “That’s the blood, Rad. I’m infected, remember? The human in you is now addicted to…” I swallowed hard. “Me.”

The coffin lid flew up and Nudra, angry but smug at finding our hiding place, pointed a bright silver sword at me. “How charming. Radison Beaumont and Kalina Dolce making out in my coffin.” His gaze locked with Rad’s. “She is a prize, isn’t she? I can’t wait to have her alone myself.”

Rad’s free hand moved but Nudra pinned the point of the sword against my heart. “Snap those fingers and she dies.”

He kept his gaze on Rad, but spoke to me. “Get up, my dear.”

The sword point bit into my skin through the shirt. I pushed against Rad’s chest, signaling him to stay put. Finagling my other hand hidden behind my backside, I touched my fingers together. Nothing. No magic anywhere.

No wooden stakes either. Ugly, here we come.

Nudra took my hand, guiding me out of the coffin. All the while, he kept the sword trained over my heart and his gaze locked on Rad.

There was only one thing to do. I fake-fell over the side of the coffin, swiping the silver knife from Rad’s pocket. Nudra’s sword drooped for a second as he automatically tried to stabilize me.

Shifting my weight, I fell into him, and having mastered Bambi eyes long before Disney did, I gave him my best innocent look. “I’m so weak.”

“Of course you are. The new blood slaves have drained you. You need more of my blood to make you strong again.”

“I need your blood, all right.” With one swift motion, I stabbed the vamp king in his heart with the silver knife. Wouldn’t kill him, but it startled him enough, I had time to yell, “Stake!” at Rad.

He snapped his fingers, causing the willow torture table to fly into a million curly pieces. Lucky for us, Nudra’s anti-magic spell was only on the house’s structure, not contents. Solid branches flew through the air, and the moment I snagged one, the warm sensation came flooding back to my chest.

Nudra swung the sword at my neck. I ducked, dragging the knife down with me and cutting him from heart to belly button. His eyes went wide and he stumbled backwards, blood and guts spilling a trail. The smell of his blood filled my nose.

One good thing about not being human? Vamp blood reeks.

The sword sailed toward my head. Too late, I threw up an arm, knowing I would lose it, but thinking in that split second it was better than losing my head.

Nothing hit me. Rad flew out of the coffin, blocking the sword before it made contact. It clattered on the stone floor, Nudra’s face showing fear for the first time. “I’m your master, Kalina Dolce. You cannot murder me.”

Even when nauseated, drained of blood and wearing nothing but a wet, muddy T-shirt, I still have standards. “Nudra, by the order of the Bridge Council, I hereby…”

With vamp speed, he swept my legs with his. I fell hard, but my aim was true. I nailed him square in his already bleeding heart with the willow stake.

Just before he went poof, I smiled into his astonished vamp eyes. “My name is Kali Sweet and I’m nobody’s blood slave.”

Nudra disintegrated into a pile of ashes and the stake bounced to the floor.

Both of us breathing hard, Rad and I looked at each other. “We make a good team,” he said, reaching down to help me up.

“We are
not
a team.”

I swayed on my feet, adrenaline leaving as fast it came. He swung me up into his arms, ignoring my weak protests. “The band and I are throwing a Halloween party tomorrow night downtown at the Blackstone.” His lips quirked and it was a good thing no icebergs were in the near vicinity or I would have drowned. “Wanna come?”

I blame Nudra’s blood for what happened next. The warm sensation in my chest intensified and maybe, just maybe, the polar ice cap there melted a teeny, tiny bit. But not that much. “No.”

Rad looked pained. “Kali. Please.”

I shook my head, then laid it against his naked chest. Damn but he smelled good. Not in that weird blood slave way, but in a nice warm, human male way. “Just take me home, Rad.”

He did. And the next day, he brought me coffee. Nothing else. Just coffee. Rang the doorbell, left it on the doorstep.

I was due at the Bridge office at seven that evening to give them my report on Nudra. Forget I’d gone against orders and killed a vamp king, once they found out I had three blood slaves, I was doomed. So on the drive downtown to the Bridge office, I took a detour.

The party was in full swing on the tenth floor outdoor terrace of the Blackstone, costumes as plentiful as beer and groupies. For once, my short skirt, thigh high boots and red cape looked completely appropriate. Hone and Renee waved at me from the bar while Chaos Demons music filled the air.

I located Rad, standing alone on the edge of the terrace, staring out over the city. I sidled up to him, hoping the city lights and dark expanse of the lake would calm my racing heart.