To Catch a Vampire (22 page)

I lace my fingers with his. “Hey. No. Don’t do this to yourself.”

“Bea, I’m the leader. I’m responsible. The successes, the failures—they’re all on me. I
failed
her.”

“No.” I take him into my arms again, but he doesn’t hug back this time. “You listen to me, okay? The only person responsible for her death was the vamp who bit her, and he’s paying for it. We got them. They won’t hurt anyone else ever again. We did good.
You
did good.” I squeeze harder. “And for what it’s worth, you saved my life. I’d be dead twice over if it wasn’t for you. No question. So, thank you. Thank you for my life, Will.”

My words have the desired effect. He takes a deep breath and his body relaxes a little. Better yet, his arms encircle my back, hugging me, pulling me in as close as possible. We don’t speak for a few seconds. He smells of smoke and musk, which I inhale greedily. He could smell like dung and still have an effect on me. No doubts, no darkness can touch me as long as I’m in his arms. If God struck me dead at this moment, I wouldn’t even mind. I wish I could read his mind. I wish I could lead him to the gurney, shed our clothes, and really touch. No man has ever made me feel this way. Not even Oliver. This is different. When I’m near him all reason, all logic vanishes and I just want to do this.

I don’t know what it is about this man. I’ve felt it the moment I first saw him. You hear about it. Electricity, sparking something inside you, changing you. That’s what I feel every time I even think about him. Alive. But when he’s touching me like this, it’s as if a nuclear explosion moves through me. It’s unnerving, petrifying, and the most exhilarating experience of my life. I’m addicted. I never want it to end.

I find excuses to be near him. I eat at the same time so we can chat. I volunteer for whatever he’s doing in the field. I’ve read half a dozen books on the Navy, his favorite topic. I suffer through intense physical training just so I can touch him. But this is the first time that touch has been deliberately loving, and it is … divine.

But cut short. The curtain flies open, darn near giving me a heart attack. Agent Chandler takes one look at us, and his mouth droops open with embarrassment. Will and I uncouple, each of us turning red enough for it to show through the burns. “Um, sorry,” Agent Chandler says. “Um, they, just found another body in the field. There’s some issue over where to take it.”

“Yes. Okay. Thank you,” Will says.

Agent Chandler nods, then closes the curtain. Neither Will nor I can look at each other. “Uh, you better get over there,” I say.

“Yes. I should,” he says, eyes jutting everywhere but toward me. He starts backing up to the edge of the curtain. “Carl’s on his way to pick you guys up. Take you back to the hotel. I’ll just—I’ll call Oliver and tell him you’ll be there soon.”

“Okay.”

With an awkward smile he opens the curtain. He takes one step, then suddenly spins around, face filled with bafflement. “Uh, um, thank you. For …” He can’t say another word. He just smiles nervously, then shuts the curtain. I take a deep breath.
Okay butterflies, he’s gone. Stop fluttering in my stomach
.

God, what kind of person am I? My friend just died, and I’m about three seconds from jumping Will’s bones. Why do inappropriate moments bring out the slut in me? I sit back on the gurney, but leap off a second later. I’ve suddenly got a case of the wiggles. Staying is no longer an option. I toss open the curtain and walk over to the nurse’s station. “Bathroom?” She points down the hall.

I’m stepping into the bathroom when a man behind me says, “Beatrice?”

I spin around.
Oh, crap
. The vamp bartender from Poison Ivy, dressed in blue scrubs, stands a foot away. Before I can do anything, he’s got a rag over my face coated in a chemical, and his other hand presses me into it by the neck. A few seconds of confused panic fades into oblivion, just like everything else.

I really hate Texas.

Thirteen

With or Without You

I emerge from the
darkness of unconsciousness to, well, darkness. I know I’m awake because I hear someone behind me shuffling papers around. I try to move my arms and legs, but something—rope, judging from the scratchiness—binds them in place. Great, I’m tied to a chair and have apparently gone blind. No; tape covers my eyes. I swear I must have been Stalin in a past life to deserve all this.

“Excellent. You are awake.”

I’d know that British accent anywhere.

The paper shuffling ceases, and a chair moves. Footsteps come closer until I feel him next to me. I’m sure if I wasn’t so tired I’d be afraid, but I can’t muster it. Hurrah for exhaustion. “I will remove the tape, but only if you promise not to use your gift against me. You have my word that I will not harm you, unless you make me. Do I have yours?”

“Sure,” I say reluctantly.

His cold fingers graze my face as he slowly pulls the tape off. I blink a few times before the spots and blurs disappear. Freddy grins, fangs in full view. He’s in black slacks and a light gray dress shirt. All dolled up for my kidnapping. We’re back in his study, and I am in fact tied to a chair facing the door. I glance around and the only thing that’s changed in his office is the pulley and rope hanging from the ceiling. “If you attempt to escape, just know, I can snap your neck before the furniture lands.”

“I know.”

“And I do apologize for any discomfort. Given the choice, I would have had Judd capture your mind and force you to remain motionless on the couch. Chloroform is so barbaric.”

“You know I’m immune?”

“I attempted to dull your pain last night when I was strangling you. It did not work.”

“Oh. Thank you?”

He shrugs. “In all my years, I have only encountered a handful of humans with immunity. Did your mother ever mention waking one morning with an unexplainable bruise while she was pregnant with you?”

It would not surprise me if my mother tangled sheets with a vampire in her day, what with her being a “free spirit” and all. But I’m not sharing anything with this creep. “None of your business. What do you want, Freddy?”

“You seem a clever woman. I believe you already know the answer to that.”

I do. “He’s not that stupid. It’s obviously a trap. He won’t come.”

“You do not think he cares enough for you to risk his life?”

I don’t know
. “He’ll know what you have planned. He’ll send someone else, most likely one of my fellow
federal agents
. If you let me go right now, maybe the men with guns
won’t
storm this place and shoot you on sight.”

“I am well aware of your affiliation with the F.R.E.A.K.S., Agent Alexander,” he says with another smile. “However, if you recall your vampiric law, by assaulting me last night during a legally sanctioned duel, I can by all accounts shoot
you
on sight and your organization could not lay a finger on me. I have no desire to harm you, mind you, but I will if your lover does not show his cowardly hide here this evening. Once again, I ask: Do you think he will?”

The exhaustion isn’t strong enough to mask the fear anymore. My heart rate doubles. “I really don’t know.”

He’s satisfied with the answer, giving me a half smile. “He was always selfish. Never gave any thought to others, your lover.”

“For the nine hundredth time, he isn’t my lover,” I say through gritted teeth. “We’ve never even really kissed, okay?”

Freddy pulls up a chair to sit beside me. He crosses his legs and folds his hands on his knee. “And yet he showed such devotion last night.”

“We’re friends. That’s what friends do for each other. You should get some.”

“I learned the heart-wrenching way what closeness with others brings,” he says coldly. “Misery. Contempt. Even those we hold above all others, whom we never thought could harm us, are not above betrayal. I choose mine carefully now. And as this current situation shows, you should have as well.”

“They really hurt you. Oliver and Jules.”

“Oh, yes,” he says, eyes haunted. “More than words can express.”

“Oliver told me a little about it. They ran off together?”

“Yes. He swanned in and seduced the love of my life in less than a fortnight. I thought I could trust them, my blood brother and lover.” He wrings his hands. “Jules paid for that betrayal at the hands of executioners, and now two hundred fifty years later, so will Oliver.”

“It was forever ago,” I say. “How can you still be—”

“If you knew the first thing about true love, you would not make such an asinine statement. I ache for Jules every day. Part of my soul died when Jules did,” Freddy says, as if each word physically hurts.

“I’m sorry,” I say, meaning it.

“Thank you,” he says, patting my bound hand. “I would have understood if they were truly in love, but Oliver just used him as he does all. Poisoned him against me. He—”

Huh? What? Did he just … “Wait,” I say, holding up my hands as high as they can go, being tied down and all. “Whoa. Did you just say
him
? Who is
him
?”

“Jules. Julian.”

If this were a cartoon, my head would spin around with steam coming out of my ears. “Jules is a dude?” I ask, flabbergasted. “Oliver stole your
boyfriend
? A man? With a …” Holy heck.

“You seem surprised,” Freddy says, puzzled.

“Um, yeah! He hits on anything with boobs! I’ve never see him even look at another man that way. Women, yeah, like … all the time. Nonstop. It’s just … huh.” Oliver’s bisexual. Didn’t see that one coming, and I’m from Southern California.

“He always favored women over men. That was why I thought nothing of a minor flirtation between them. The many times I have looked back on it, I suppose I should have suspected, especially after the night we were all in bed together. He and Jules—”

“Wait! Whoa. You two
slept
together? All three of you? At the same time? How does that even work? Where does everything go? Who—”

Freddy chuckles. “How innocent you are, Agent Alexander.”

“Stop laughing! I just found out one of my good friends is bi and into threesomes! It’s a lot to take in!”

Freddy continues chuckling. “You know, I finally do believe you and Oliver have not made love. Quite a shame. I will say one thing in his favor, he was quite a lover. Tender, yet rough all at once. I am sorry you will not have a chance to experience it before I gut him.”

Freddy stops smiling, as do I. Vivisection is a terrific mood killer. We both look away from each other, staying silent for a few uncomfortable seconds. I don’t know what to say, but my mouth takes over. “I am sorry about your boyfriend,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry you’re in so much pain. But killing Oliver won’t bring him back. It might not even make you feel better.”

“It certainly is worth a try.” Freddy rises, peering down at me with another smile my way. He walks back to his desk and sits. I try to scoot the chair, but can’t. “Two hundred fifty years of plotting and planning, and the night is finally here. I cannot tell you how many scenarios have crossed my mind. Staking him outside naked as the sun rises. Burning him alive. The rack. I … I am almost happy for the first time in centuries. The only thing that vexes me though, and perhaps you can shed the proverbial light on it, is why would he even dare to come here? Why risk venturing into my territory?”

“Because it’s his job. You don’t understand. He’s a changed man. He doesn’t hurt people anymore, he helps them. He has for thirty years.”

“So it was JR’s antics that brought the fly to the spider,” Freddy says while I’m sure doing the diabolical hand gesture popular with James Bond villains. “If the boy was not dead, I would thank him.”

“Did you know what he and his pals were doing?”

“Of course. JR and I have what you might call a past. I could not hurt him, and he would never stand by and let me punish any member of his little family. There was no real problem with it. They cleaned up after themselves, though not as well as they should, seeing as they are now dead. I suppose I should thank you for that as well, doing what I could not.”

“Huh?”

“I could have warned them, I suppose. I almost did, but thought better of it. I had no idea where you and Oliver were hiding, but I knew if I waited long enough you would surface to do what you came here for. I am glad it was sooner rather than later.”

“You used your old boyfriend as bait?”

“Two birds, one stone. And you took care of several thorns in my side and are now helping me fulfill my wildest dream. I am so very glad our paths crossed, Agent Alexander. I should like to do something for you after all this unpleasantness is over.”

You can die, you psycho creep.

There’s a knock on the door. Anton steps in. If he’s surprised to see me tied to a chair, it doesn’t show. Once again he’s dressed in a dark blue suit, white shirt, and matching silk tie. “Cameron has just arrived with Susan and Jamal.”

“Excellent. I do hope they wish to stay for the show.” I hear the chair move as he stands. “I will go greet them.” He walks up to Anton, putting his hands on the man’s shoulders. “This is a good night, my friend. I am glad you are here to share it with me.”

“As am I,” Anton says with a nod.

“Watch her.” He looks back at me. “Now, be a good girl. If you attempt to flee, Anton has my permission to harm you.” He smiles at me before walking out. Thank God.

“Your friend is insane,” I say.

Anton moves beside me. “I know.”

I look at the vamp. “There’s no chance you’re going to help me, is there?”

“None. If you attempted an escape, you would not leave the building alive. And I would be punished, or worse. It would serve neither of our purposes. I do apologize for this. I did not think it would go this far when I phoned Oliver.”

“I knew it!” I say. “I knew it!
You’re
the tipster.”

“Oliver did not tell you?”

“He doesn’t tell me a lot of things, apparently.” If we survive the night, he and I are going to have a long talk about sharing the important stuff. “Why did you call us? Why rat out your friend?”

“To take over, of course,” he says matter-of-factly. “If he is removed from power due to negligence, I would immediately ascend as appointed successor.”

“What?”

“He has grown weak over the years. More volatile. Our business ventures are suffering. It cannot stand.”

“Then why not just duel?”

“He would defeat me. And by having a third party—a powerful third party—remove him, not only would my hands be clean, but I would retain the devotion of the F.R.E.A.K.S. for reporting the crime.”

“In other words, all of Freddy’s loyal subjects wouldn’t blame you and then come after you for betraying him,
and
we’d cut you some slack in the future? Someone’s been reading their Machiavelli.”

“At least twice a year,” Anton says without an ounce of humor. “But Freddy was not supposed to discover Oliver’s presence.”

“Well, he did. And now he’s going to kill him. We have to do something.”

“I have spent all my waking hours since last night attempting to arrive at a solution, but none has presented itself. Oliver will come. He will die. Your organization will return to kill Freddy for complacency in multiple murders, and I shall ascend.”

“And you don’t care he’s going to torture and kill Oliver?”

“Not particularly.”

Jesus Christ, this guy scares me more than Freddy.

“And if Oliver doesn’t show up, then what? He’s not an idiot, you know. He knows what’s waiting here for him.”

“I saw the way he looked at you last night. There is not a doubt in my mind he will come. Not one.”

_____

Around the time they put the tarp down to cover the rug, I got shaky. I haven’t a clue how long I’ve been tied here, but every minute feels like an hour. My neck hurts from all the times I’ve twisted it to see what they’ve been up to. The pulley and rope were just the beginning. Men and women continue to arrive with the oddest things. Tool box, shackles, and then a silver cage they assembled with gloves on. They built the darn thing in front of me. Strangely, the woman in black leather everything, Greta, seemed to be the only one who knew how to use the tools. The cage she put together was almost flat with just enough space for a human—or in this instance a vamp—to lie down in. They hoisted it onto the rope and pulley. Then came the tarp. For the blood.

As Freddy’s minions anchor the tarp with paperweights, Anton returns with a brown leather satchel, which he places on the end table next to the tarp. Freddy smiles, as he has done with the arrival of every piece of equipment, and opens the bag. He pulls out a huge knife, followed by a smaller one. Then he draws out an Indiana Jones–type whip. I look away, biting on my lower lip to stop the oncoming panic.

“Is this all of them?” Freddy asks.

“I brought one of each,” Anton answers.

“Good. Let us just have hope that I have the opportunity to use them all before he expires.” He pauses. “I do grow impatient. Where is he? No manners.”

“Perhaps we should phone him,” Anton says. “They might not know she is missing.”

“We shall wait fifteen more minutes. Let him think I have already disposed of her.” The whip cracks mere inches from me, loud as a firecracker. I scream and jerk in the chair. All the vamps in the room chuckle, but I don’t care. I slow my breathing to stop the oncoming heart attack. “I am sorry, Agent Alexander,” Freddy chuckles. “I did not mean to frighten you.” He steps in front of me, whip still in hand. “You have been the most agreeable hostage. I do appreciate it. As a token of my esteem, I believe I will abandon my prior plan of slitting your throat in front of Ollie. You have won me over with your charm and obedience.”

“Stop this, please just stop this,” I whisper. “Just let me go. We’ll leave tonight. You’ll never see him again.
Please
.”