Samantha Moon: First Eight Novels, Plus One Novella (70 page)

A steel, ornamental, security door seemed forbidding in and of itself. I could have knocked, sure. I could have called the police and pleaded my case. With luck, an emergency search warrant might be issued.

Think again, Sam. This is reservation land. Things are done differently here.

How differently, I didn’t know, but I suspected the hotel would think twice, or maybe even three or four times, before upsetting a guest who plunks down $250K on a card game...and then loses.

Yes, I could have done a lot of things differently at this moment, but none of them felt right.

None, that is, except this.

I raised my foot, leaned back, and drove the heel of my foot as hard as I could into the door. Obliterating my expensive high heel, and obliterating the door hinges, too.

The steel slab fell inward, landing with a thunderous crash.

Chapter Fifty-five

I instinctively stood to one side of the doorway. The metallic echo of the falling door continued to reverberate throughout the suite.

Hell of an entrance.

But there was no one directly in front of me, and as I slipped inside, kicking off my worthless high heels, the alarm in my head continued to buzz, stronger than ever.

Something was very, very wrong. More wrong than I had previously imagined. What it was, I didn’t know. Yet.

Maybe I should have called the police. Or at least had a gun.

The suite was opulent. Sickeningly so. No doubt it costs thousands a night, although a guy like Captain Jack probably had it comped.

I’d never had anything comped in my life.

The balcony doors were wide open. Even from the doorway, I had a majestic view of the sweeping southern hillside...and the Ronald Reagan Library.

I had the right place.

Where the door had fallen, it had shattered about a dozen expensive Italian marble slabs. I stepped over the fallen door, crunched over the broken tile, and slipped deeper into the room.

* * *

The suite was designed with two main wings that branched off from the main living room. The hallway to my left led to the back rooms, and a shorter hallway to the right led off to a kitchen space and a billiard room and bar. The bar was big enough to liquor up the entire casino.

So far, I hadn’t seen anyone. Or heard anyone.

But they were here.

I knew it.

Standing just outside the hallway to the bedroom wing, I closed my eyes and searched for them. Or at least tried to. My senses were chaotic, unclear. I needed a clear head to focus, and focusing now was nearly impossible.

They’re in the bedrooms. One of the bedrooms.

I turned down the hallway wing, padding softly over the smooth tiles with my bare feet. There were four doors along this hallway, two on each side. This luxury suite was bigger than three of my houses put together.

They knew I was here. They had to have known. No way that fallen door went undetected. The alarm inside my head continued to sound, a buzzing that surrounded my head like so many wasps.

The doors into the bedrooms were all double doors. Three of the four double doors stood open. The doors at the far end of the hallway were the only ones closed.

They’re in there. Doing whatever it is that they’re doing.

I felt sick, but I continued forward. I paused at each open door, but the rooms, although packed with luggage, were empty.

Now standing at the far door at the far end of the hallway, I heard a little voice whimpering.

Ah, fuck.

I tried the handle. It was unlocked.

I inhaled deeply, took hold of the handle, and threw the door open.

I thought I was ready for anything.

But I wasn’t ready for this.

Chapter Fifty-six

The first thing I saw was a table. A medical table of some type. It was sitting in the center of the spacious room.

The next thing I saw was a little girl on the table.

Maddie.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

She was dead, or close to it.

Red tubes ran from her arms to plastic bags full of blood. Her blood. She was wrapped in a white robe covered with droplets of blood. Her blood. Her eyes were closed and now I could just make out her little chest rising and falling slowly. A single light shone down on her.

What the fuck was going on?

My first instinct was to run to her. But I resisted. My agency training superseded my natural instinct.

She’s breathing; she’s not dead; stay still.

I knew I wasn’t alone. Other than Maddie, I knew someone else was in the room.

Perhaps more than one.

Psychic hits are great. But they only get you so far.

At the open doorway, I paused, listening. I heard nothing. No, wait. I heard breathing from deeper inside the room. Nasally breathing.

Mr. Carl Luck.

So where was Captain Jack?

He’s in here, too. The sick bastard is in here, too. Siphoning Maddie’s blood.

For what?

The answer was all too obvious.

He’s a vampire.

“
You got that right, little lady.”

I couldn’t pinpoint the location of the voice, but it seemed to come from somewhere above. I was also all too aware that the speaker had read my thoughts.

“Right again, little lady. Now don’t be shy, step on in here. We don’t bite.” The voice chuckled.

My head was buzzing. Danger was everywhere. Perhaps at every turn. I looked down the hall. There was nothing. The danger was all in this room.

I had seen only one other vampire in my life, and that was just the other day. The vampire who had attacked me years ago had done so in a blur.

For the first time in a long, long time, I didn’t know what to do.

Meanwhile, there was a little girl bleeding to death.

I hadn’t used a gun in a long time, but I wish I had one now. Carl I wasn’t worried about. Captain Jack was another story. Captain Jack was the enigma. The kink in the chain.

Maddie made a small, mewing sound. I saw something forming around her. A black halo.

Shit.

I considered dashing in and grabbing her, but I knew a recently fed vampire like Captain Jack would be powerful. Not to mention I knew instinctively that Carl Luck was armed...and not with just a traditional weapon, either.

It was the reason my alarm was sounding off so loudly.

He had silver bullets in his gun. I was sure of it.

The moment I thought that, the southern voice laughed heartily from somewhere in the room.

The black halo around Maddie continued growing.

I didn’t know what to do.

It was an ambush, that much was for sure.

And that’s when I heard a noise from behind me. When I turned to look, I saw a sight that was both welcomed and very, very surreal.

It was Aaron King, the old detective from Los Angeles, slipping into the hallway behind me. He raised a finger to his lips to shush me. I nodded.

Maddie needed to be saved.

Now.

I dashed into the room, trusting my instincts, trusting Aaron King, and praying like hell we all made it through this alive.

Chapter Fifty-seven

I had a hard time zeroing in on the vampire, but I knew, could
feel
, exactly where Carl Luck was in the room.

The heavy-set drug dealer—and apparent
blood
dealer—was crouching in the far corner of the huge bedroom, taking aim. I twisted my body just as a shot rang out. The bullet grazed my shoulder, searing it, and impacted the wall behind me.

I crouched and ran forward, sprinting as fast as I could. The room blurred past me.

Another shot rang out. But I was going too fast to turn or duck or do anything. A wicked pain kicked me in the stomach. But I didn’t stop running, and now I was leaping.

Carl Luck screamed and shrank back, and I drove my flattened hand, with its sharp, pointed nails, straight through his throat. Through skin and Adam’s apple, and through his spine, as well, severing it.

He jerked hard and instantly shit his pants.

Blood spurted everywhere as I pulled my hand free. I was already spinning, searching for the vampire, but there was no one there.

The pain in my stomach flared mightily, and I nearly doubled over. I gasped, fought to stay on my feet. It had been a silver bullet, I was sure of it. The pain...nearly unbearable. The searing pain...so similar to the crossbow bolt of a few months ago. Had the bullet gone all the way through? I didn’t know.

Something flashed overhead. A white blur.

I looked up, raising my hand, just as something dropped down from above. A wide fist, like a hammer, that drove my head straight down into the floor.

The force of the blow was unlike anything I had ever felt before. How it didn’t kill me, I don’t know.

I lay there, gasping, struggling for breath, bleeding on the floor from my stomach, shoulder and mouth. My nose was broken, I was sure of it. Perhaps my jaw, too. The force of the punch had driven my face into the tiles, cracking the tiles. Blood flowed freely, filling the cracks like little crimson tributaries.

Someone grabbed my hair, lifted me up. My jaw hung slack. Yeah, it was broken. Shattered, perhaps.

“So who do we have here?” I heard a voice ask from somewhere seemingly far away. It was the same voice I had heard earlier from the hallway. The same southern drawl.

He continued lifting until I was facing him. It was Captain Jack, of course, only this time he wasn’t wearing his huge cowboy hat. No doubt he had lost his hat as he ambushed me from above.

“Can’t talk, huh? Cat got your tongue?” And he slapped me hard across the face. My disjointed jaw swung around like a swing in a storm, nearly hitting the back of my neck. The only thing keeping it in place was the bone and tendons and skin.

Now he gripped me by the throat and lifted. My jaw hung on his hand, bleeding down his arm. “Hmm. I’ve never seen you before. You must be a newbie. Only a newbie would break in on someone feeding.” He pulled me a little closer to his face. My eyes were so blurred I could barely make out the big Texan. “I don’t like newbies. Newbies don’t get it. Newbies try to change everything. I don’t like change.”

I couldn’t talk, but I could think.

You’re killing the little girl.

“Oh, you mean my food source? I suppose so, but food sources know no ages, Newbie, although little girls and boys tend to have a richer, purer blood, which is what I prefer.”

You’re a fucking animal.

“You don’t know me well enough to call me names, little lady. Killing our own kind is looked down upon, but I think I’ll make an exception here. I have a feeling you might make my life difficult if I let you out of here alive.”

Now his hand tightened, crushing my throat. I saw his other hand reaching inside his coat pocket. I knew his thoughts. Hell, I was inside his twisted head.

He was reaching for a silver dagger.

I quit flailing and grabbed his hand at my throat with both of my own. I didn’t know who the fuck this asshole was, but I knew I wasn’t dead yet.

And with all the strength I had, I broke his wrist.

He screamed and dropped me. I landed on my feet and squared off.

“You bitch!”

But I was moving, using all my training and instincts, focusing my fear and hate and anger. I wasn’t a slouch. I knew what I was doing. I hit him hard, repeatedly, driving my punches into the face. Who he was, I didn’t care. How strong he was, I didn’t know. How much damage I was doing, I couldn’t tell.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aaron King standing in the doorway, his own jaw hanging down, holding a stun gun. I motioned for him to get the girl, projecting my thoughts to him as strongly as I could. He looked briefly confused and then moved to Maddie.

My brief pause was all Captain Jack needed. He leveled a devastating punch into my right eye. So hard that I heard my cheekbone shatter.

I stumbled backwards and as I did so, I saw something silver slash before me. His dagger. Amazingly, as it came down on me, all I could think of was my kids. I saw their faces. Their beautiful faces. The dagger sliced down, no doubt heading for my heart. Whether or not that would kill me, I didn’t know, but I suspected it would. I suspected Captain Jack knew exactly what he was doing.

Except I’ve been trained in knife fighting. Trained by the best. I did the one thing we were taught to do when there was no real hope of avoiding a plunging knife.