Passion Bites: Biting Love, Book 9 (24 page)

Although if it came to a fight, he’d bring it. Last time, at Emerson’s, he’d been prepared to fight to the final death—although in reality, he wasn’t prepared for death so much as courting it. This time he would fight even harder, because paradoxically, he had something to live for. Alexis.

“All right,” he said. “Your original plan. Let’s do this. But we’re doing it my way.”

She spun with a savage grin. “Yes sir, Mr. Master Vampire, sir.”

For the first time, he felt like a master. He owned it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

We waited for Luther’s minions to wear themselves out, then, the minute the electrical field was breached, Luke misted out to find the vampire poison and my medical kit.

I waited inside the room.

Naked.

Hey, I was a potential vampire mate to Luke, which meant his brother would be attracted too, right? It’d give me a moment’s advantage while his blood all dropped from brain to balls.

At least, that was what I hoped.

The door busted open a moment later, jamb warped and impromptu shoe wedges shoved loose.

Luther stepped through the gap—and stopped, eyes burning bright red and roving over my nude form. Two big vampires stepped through behind him. I recognized one by his sail of a nose and eau-de-testosterone cologne as Luther’s bodyguard.

They did the stepped-on-a-rake, whacked-in-the-face stop too.

I suppressed a grin. Our plan was proceeding perfectly.

Luke and I, in coded words and whispers underneath the slam of the battering ram, had mapped out each aspect, including expected timings. Three seconds for Luke to mist to the lab, thirty to find the poison.

The uncontrolled variable was his time to find my bag. Sure, we could have just dosed Luther with his own poison, but then all he’d have to do was inject himself with his own antidote.

A few extras from my bag would liven things up.

Chances were the bag was in the lab—Luther knew I kept my medical notes on the tablet inside. So, call it another fifteen seconds to find it. Another three to mist to wherever I was, probably back to the torture room since they’d be expecting Luke to try to rescue me. Fifty-one seconds total.

I only had to distract Luther for that time.

Luther ah-oo-gahed, eyes popped, for two seconds, a full second more than our plan called for. I pretended to be startled and pressed a hand to my breasts, really plumping up the cleavage, and got him to tongue-loll for two seconds more. Yay me.

Naturally, that was the last thing to go right.

He clamped his eyes shut and willed down the teeth and the pants bulge. When he opened his eyes again, they were still bright but a golden hazel instead of red.

Two steps brought him within grabbing distance. I started to step back but he was fast. He clamped my wrist in a hand like iron and hauled me toward the doorway.

Crap. I was hoping he’d tell me to put on my clothes first. That would’ve been good for another minute at least.

“Tell me where Luke is.” Luther yanked me out of the room. “Where your friend and her child are.” The minute we were through the door he spun so I was flush with his snarling face. “Tell me, before I let Owun beat it out of you.”

“Do your worst.” I bit my lower lip and tried to look frightened. Yeah, cheesy, but I was playing to his tie-me-to-the-railroad expectations, to keep him from realizing where the true threat was coming from.

He glared down. “You’ll talk after I get the hypnosis enhancer into you.”

Okay, there’s cheesy, and there’s
you gonna go there? Really?
I said, “
Pfft.
Didn’t that backfire on you enough the first time? We MC folk eat your hypnosis enhancer for brunch.”

“Why, you…” His eyes bled rage before he closed them like Luke’s blood search, and then he shoved me down the hallway—not to the torture room, but toward the lab.

I dug in my heels, trying to hold back. The lab? That was where Luke was. Worse, I’d lost track of the seconds elapsed. The plan had imploded and was now about to explode unless he could mist out.

As Luther pushed me through the door I hoped fervently that Luke was clear, but a motion caught my eye, him diving behind a workstation. His misting must’ve gone on the fritz again. Should have forced him to take more blood, although I was a bit woozy. The poison—or at least a vial of something—was in one hand, but either he hadn’t been able to search for my backpack yet or hadn’t found it.

Luckily I’d seen him from the corner of my eye and didn’t give him away by turning my head or reacting. Luckily too the workstations weren’t mere tables, but the solid kind with cabinets underneath that would hide him. And luckily Luther wasn’t using his blood positioning sense to find him in the lab—no, actually that wasn’t luck because I’d distracted him by spinning a knee to his gonads.

It was a bad move for getting close enough later to inject him, but we’d simply have to figure something out. I hate going off-book, improvising, but Luke was apparently right when he said no plan survived meeting the enemy. He’d hold that over my head for the rest of our lives.

If we lived through this, I’d let him.

Luther pushed me away from him. I used the momentum to stumble farther into the room, pulling attention from Luke.

It allowed Luke to scrabble around from workstation to workstation. When Luther strode after me into the room, Luke sneaked out.

Okay. Now I only had to stay alive long enough for Luke to find the kit. Thirty seconds and counting. Twenty-nine, twenty-eight…

The rational solution was to give up Lizelle and Una. Luther couldn’t do anything with the information, because we’d have him where we wanted him in twenty-five seconds.

Twenty-four, twenty-three.

I found myself not wanting to be rational. I wanted to hurt Luther the way he’d hurt my friend and her daughter.

Stick to the plan. Or what was left of it. Nudity had distracted him a few seconds. What would distract him more than sex?

Well, yeah. Talking about himself. He’d be anxious for someone to appreciate his genius.

“So, your experiment with Una—you’re trying to make her a living vampire?” Fourteen, thirteen…

Vampire healing must’ve unfortunately reshelled his nuts. He sauntered nearer in an almost exact copy of Luke’s easy gait, but overlaid with a slimy purpose. One blond brow arched. “Una?”

“Lizelle’s daughter. John Umbras’s daughter.” Ten, nine, eight…

“John,” Umbras spat. “That’s my mundane name. I’m Owun Umbras to the true people.”

Whoa.
True people?
In his own way, he was like vampire rights crusader Zinnia—in a demented, homicidal way.

“Right. People of the night, fight, fight, fight.” I turned from Owun back to Luther. “But what, living vampire, augmented human? All with vampire blood? That’s genius.”

Three, two, one…nothing.

“Thank you, my dear.” Luther took my chin in his fingers, as long and strong as Luke’s, but this strength was cruel.

Plus one, plus two… It took everything I had not to jerk away, but to smile.

He said, “I knew you, with your medical expertise, would appreciate mine.”

Plus four, plus five,
plus where the hell is Luke…?

Pop. He appeared suddenly with my backpack, startling me.

I twitched.

Luther, in contact with me, caught it and started to turn.

“Wait! I’m so impressed with your genius…”

But I’d already lost his attention. Luke barely had time to drop my bag and the poison behind a workstation before Luther saw him.
I hope that’s a plastic vial…
Luke covered the clunk by shouting as he strode toward us, in true heroic fashion, “Release her, you vile monster. It’s me you want.”

Cheesy, but playing to Luther’s expectations. Luther would rise to a one-on-one with Luke, distracting him from me. I’d slip in with my needle…

Luther didn’t play. He signaled his minions. They jumped Luke, who, down on blood and injured, had his hands full.

I was horrified. This wasn’t the plan…except it was. Luther was distracted because he was watching Luke battle five minions at once. I was the female tidbit, useless except as a thing to fight over. With all attention on Luke, I crept toward my backpack.

Only to have John—or Owun to call him by his “true” name—block my progress with an overly intimidating stance.

He didn’t scare me, but that fists-to-hip, jutting jaw stance meant he was primed to get physical. He obviously expected me to cower. The mean glint in his eye meant he’d enjoy it.

And then I thought, well, why not? I couldn’t afford to get hurt so I played into his expectations.

I “fainted”, complete with hand to forehead, “I don’t feel so good” and a twirl before dropping to the floor with a
whump.

To my astonishment, it worked. John/Owun made a disgusted noise and went to join the fight. He thought I was no longer a problem, a non-entity.

Everyone had lost interest in me.

I was able to crawl across the floor unseen, using the workstations to hide my progress.

My medical kit was leaning against the one nearest the door, the vial of poison sitting next to it. Plastic, thank goodness.

Unzipping drew the attention of one of the vampires. But Luke heard or saw and immediately tackled the guy like a football linebacker. He went from defense to offense so fast I’d have been dizzy if I were the bad guys. He was truly magnificent.

I put together a syringe with Luther’s vampire poison. Then, from my own stock, I added a touch of serum that…well, ever heard of the herpes virus? This was akin to the mini-chromosomes left in nerve cells that caused new breakouts and…let’s just say if it worked, Luther was going to be one unhappy vampire.

Now, to get close enough to him to deliver.

Luke was caught between two vampires. A third and fourth were pounding him into the floor.

It was now or never. I stood, lifted my breasts and sashayed toward Luther with a hopefully come-hither look in my eye. “You beat him.” I tried to make that sound like a turn on.

He shot out a palm. “Nope! You’re not pulling that again. I don’t want a knee to the balls.”

I faltered. Now what? Luke was pinned and time was running out, but the situation could still be salvaged if I could just
think…

Owun pointed. “Look, master, she has a needle!”

Luther started for me. “What’s in that syringe?”

And that fast, the plan was lost.

I slumped, hypo hand wilting to my side. Damn it, we’d gotten so close. But now the plan had failed and Luke, me, hell, Lizelle and Una would pay.

“Alexis, quick!” Luke struggled under the vampires holding him. “Stab me. Stab me with the
Ancient serum.
”

Good heavens, that was a brilliant lie. He was amazing and I knew in that instant I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, whatever it took.

“Coming!” I dodged minions to dart toward him. He shook off the vampires, leaped to his feet and dashed toward me.

I actually nearly got the damned thing in his arm. Scared the crap out of me, but I had to make it convincing.

Then I was caught. Whew.

Owun darted in and seized my wrist, wrenching me away with a strength that nearly snapped bones.

“Hey!” I scowled at him.

“Bring her here,” Luther said. “Watch that hypodermic. If that contains what I think it does…”

As the vampires grabbed Luke’s arms and again restrained him, Luke glared at Luther as if he could burn the monster with his gaze.

Luther took the hypo from my hand. I resisted until Owun almost broke my wrist again to make me let go. Luther gazed at it. “An ancient serum? As in, it makes one an ancient?”

“No,” I said. “It makes you stronger but…crap.” I pretended I’d let that slip. If Luther was savvy to the modern woman, that would’ve been too obvious. But Luther underestimated women, and me in particular.

And Luke played it beautifully when he groaned. “Alexis…how could you?”

“I win again.” Luther injected himself.

I pasted on a horrified expression and counted. One, two, three…

His face went gray. “What…what’s happening?”

One of the minions had the empty poison vial and held it up. “Is this it?”

“Master…” Owun swallowed hard. “It’s your poison.”

Luther gasped like a fish, “Your mistake, bitch. Bring the antidote.”

“Yes, master. Right away.” Owun dragged me to a locked cabinet and opened it with a code entered on the keypad, then took out another vial. “Can we use the same needle, master?”

“Imbecile. I’ll drink it. It will go directly into my bloodstream.”

Owun brought him the vial. I pretended to be horrified while again counting one, two three…

“It’s not working!”

“That’s because it’s enhanced.” I let my smile break free. “Unless you shut yourself off, now, you’ll disintegrate in five seconds.”

I didn’t really think that, but he didn’t know for sure I was lying, because he shut down, falling to the floor.

Luke jerked free of the vampires holding him and rushed, not for me, but for the door.

Finally learning he didn’t have to always be the hero. Finally,
finally
trusting me to rescue myself.

Which is the only thing that saved us, because I was rushing for the door too.

We met. He scooped me up and lit out of there.

“What took you so long?” I said as my hair flew and my naked skin rumpled in chill.

“I found the control room. Keypad entry. I just didn’t have the code. But Owun—”

“Entered a code to get the antidote. You think it’s the same one?”

“Let’s find out.” He set me down outside a heavily armored door. The thud of feet behind us meant we had a second or two at most.

If the code didn’t work, we’d be hip deep in vampires and minions.

The code worked.

Sheer adrenaline rushed us both inside. Luke slammed the door shut despite hydraulics, barely in time for goons to thud against metal.

Inside the control room, the same passcode got Luke into the building’s security system. He took the electrical shields down with a particularly vicious poke of the enter key.

I was watching the lobby security camera when two rivers of mist streamed inside. Julian burst from one, reforming shoulder-to-shoulder with Bo.

Another few keystrokes, and Luke had raised the metal curtains and unlocked the doors.

More Alliance must’ve arrived while we’d been locked up inside the building. Nikos and Thor led the charge through the doors. Right behind them were Elena, Nixie and Twyla and seemingly half their combined households.

More of Luther’s vampires were already streaming into the lobby, including the big sail-nosed vamp. They went directly for the humans and my heart rat-a-tatted.