Must Love Fangs

Chapter Fourteen

The sedan pulled up to a posh brownstone in an exclusive part of Southlake Town Square.

Not exactly what I’d pictured for a vampire, but it did scream “money.”

The driver nodded at the house on the end. “We’re here, miss.” He watched me with attentive eyes, his nostrils flaring every now and then to catch a scent, which told me he was some kind of shifter. He was big and burly, like half the shifters I knew of.

“Thank you,” I said quietly and opened the door, stepping out onto the curb. I moved to the steps of the brownstone, studying it. The exterior was neat and well maintained, with a box of white flowers hanging at one window. Very homey.

It didn’t scream vampire, but maybe that was the point.

I knocked, feeling anxious. What if I turned around and Josh was there to try and “rescue” me from the situation again? What would I do then?

But the door opened, and a smiling, beautifully dressed Andre gestured for me to enter. “Welcome, Marie. I’m so glad you could make it.”

I smiled brightly and stepped inside, feeling a bit like a fly that had stepped into the spider’s web. But that was silly, of course. I’d told him I’d wanted to be turned, and now I was here at his place. This had to be leading to something.

The interior of the house was just as elegant as the exterior, reminding me of something from an English painting—heavy, ornate, and austere. Deep cherrywood floors complemented the mahogany furniture. An oil painting hung on the far wall, and it looked like Andre in old-fashioned clothes, his hair in a long queue. That was . . . weird. “Nice place,” I said, since he was watching me expectantly.

Andre inclined his head at my compliment. “I appreciate fine things.”

I nodded again, unsure what to say to that. “I’m glad you wanted to see me again.”

“I did,” he agreed. His smile seemed a little more toothy than usual, and alarm bells went off in my head. “I am glad you could come tonight. Did you have to change your plans?”

I glanced around at his immaculate, barely-lived-in-more-like-a-museum home. “Actually, I had an opening in my schedule.”

“So no one is expecting you back?” he asked, moving toward a bottle of wine on the dining room table.

There went those alarm bells again. I followed behind him, hesitant. What to say? Did turning take a while? Was that why he was asking? “Well,” I hedged. “Actually, a friend is waiting for me. He wasn’t happy that I left, but you are my priority.”

“Oh? He?” Andre’s lips thinned.

Damn. “Just a friend,” I said quickly. “No one important.”

“He must not be, if you came to be with me in the middle of the night,” he said slowly, as if measuring out the words. “This pleases me.”

I didn’t care if it pleased him or not. “You said you had a surprise for me?” Might as well cut to the chase.

Andre grinned, and his teeth were definitely elongating. He poured me a glass of wine and held it out. “Shall we enjoy a nice drink first?”

I took the glass, and when he gestured toward the couch, I sat, still uneasy. To my surprise, Andre sat next to me. He didn’t have a wineglass. “I thought you said you wanted a drink?”

“Oh, I do.” He reached out and brushed a curl of my hair off my shoulder.

Skitters of alarm raced through me. This is what you wanted, I told myself. It’s what you wanted. What you wanted. I downed a big gulp of wine, feeling it burn in my throat. He was staring at my neck avidly, and I realized . . . that I didn’t want to feed him. The thought made my skin crawl with revulsion.

When he leaned in, I flinched away.

He pulled back, frowning at me. “Do you not want to be here with me, Marie?”

I set the glass down, wanting my hands to be free for some reason. “Not at all. I just . . . ” I forced a vulnerable look to my face. “It really hurt the last time. I’m a little frightened.”

A lot frightened.

He puffed up with pride, a pleased-with-himself smile curving his fanged mouth. His teeth grew to an enormous size, and he ran a finger down my bare shoulder, as if eyeing a tender morsel. “Then shall I lick you this time, my pet? I assure you that it won’t hurt that way.”

Oh, ugh. When he leaned in, I leaned away again. “May I know what my surprise is first? Or is the bite my surprise?”

He gave me a confused look. “The bite?”

“Are you going to turn me?” I asked baldly.

“Ah.” He barked a laugh. “No. Here it is.” He pulled a long velvet box out of an interior jacket pocket and offered it to me.

A necklace? I stared at the box, disappointment crashing through me.

“Perhaps if I enjoy tasting you again, we will move on to other things,” he continued. His tongue flicked out between his fangs, as if licking his lips.

Other things? Like . . . sex? And then what? If I had sex with him—ugh ugh ugh—and kept feeding him, then maybe he’d eventually decide to turn me?

“Do you plan on turning me at some point?” I asked softly.

He arched an eyebrow. “You do realize that vampire law states that any vampire who turns another must give away half his fortune to his fledgling? I’d have to like someone quite a bit to turn them.” He chuckled humorlessly, his cool hand skating down my arm. “That doesn’t mean I don’t like you, of course. It just means that I need to get to know you better first.”

He’d had four hundred years to get to know other girls, and he’d never turned anyone.

And he wasn’t going to turn me. I was just a convenient drink that he’d keep dangling the carrot in front of until one of us got bored. He’d give me a few more baubles and then call it a day, moving on to the next girl.

I wasn’t a potential mate, as Joshua had feared. I was the vampire equivalent of a booty call.

And now I realized the biggest flaw in my plan. Since there was a hefty fee associated with turning a vampire, someone would really, really have to be in love with me to turn me.

And I was in love with Josh.

The surge of disappointment made me want to throw up. I wasn’t going to be turned after all. There wasn’t going to be a Get Out of Jail Free card. I was done. I was dying.

I was dead. It was just a matter of time.

Tears pricked at my eyes and I swiped at them, getting up from the couch. “I . . . don’t think I can do this.”

“Do what?” Andre got to his feet, his eyes taking on a menacing gleam.

“Feed you. So unless you want to turn me right now, this drinking fountain is closed for business.”

“Turn you? Tonight?” He laughed hard. “I’m afraid that I’d need a bit more persuasion before thinking along those lines, my dear.”

And there was that carrot again. “I need someone to turn me,” I told him through clenched teeth. “I’m dying.”

“Then perhaps we can come to an agreement,” he said in a silky voice, taking a step toward me. “You feed me, and we’ll . . . talk about it.”

Yeah, right.

I shook my head. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re making a mistake,” he said warningly.

“This entire thing was a mistake,” I told him, my throat raw with unshed tears. My entire life was crashing down before my eyes. I’d been fired from my job, the only access that I had to the Paranormal Alliance. The one vampire that stood a chance of turning me was just using me, and the man I loved had asked me to trust him and I’d run away.

And I was still fucking dying.

“Good-bye, Andre,” I said, heading toward the door.

“Marie,” he warned, walking quickly behind me. “I’m not going to like it if you try to leave.”

Alarm raced through me. That sounded ominous. Even worse, it sounded like he was enjoying it. Vampires are predators, Josh had told me. They like to chase down their prey.

And here I was, running from him.

I picked up my pace. I just needed to get down the steps. He wouldn’t attack me out in the open.

But when I put my hand to the door, the knob wouldn’t turn. I jerked at it, confused. “What—”

Andre’s heavy body crashed into mine. He wrapped an arm around my neck, cutting off my air, and hauled me up against him. He was incredibly strong. My feet lifted off the ground and I kicked in alarm, realizing I couldn’t breathe.

“I told you I wouldn’t like it, little pet,” he said, and sank his teeth into my bare shoulder.

I screamed, but it came out as a gurgle, his arm was so tight around my neck. I couldn’t breathe. There was no air. Panic shredded at me as his teeth sank deeper into my skin, like claws ripping at my flesh. He sucked hard, blood running down my shoulder.

I twisted violently against him, but it was no use. My lungs ached and panicky lights began to flash behind my eyes. It wasn’t going to end like this, was it? Choked to death by a feeding vampire? I kicked feebly.

The world began to edge with black, and I dug my fingers at his arm, trying desperately to free myself. I . . . couldn’t . . . breathe . . .

Then everything went black.

• • •

A hand patted my cheek. “Are you okay?”

I stirred, my head throbbing, my throat aching. My shoulder felt like it’d been scraped raw. I opened my eyes into a dark room, lit only by a small night-light on the far side.

At my side, the person scuttled away and I sat up, turning to look at her. As I did, chains clinked and I frowned, putting my fingers to my neck. There was a metal collar around it with a chain attached. I looked over at the woman. “I’m chained?”

“We both are,” she said, and moved into the light of the night-light.

It was a human woman, her hair hanging about her in a tangled cloud, and what I could see of her face was hollow and unhappy. She wore a metal collar and a dirty bikini top.

She smelled, too. Like unwashed skin. I wrinkled my nose and scooted backward, hissing at the waves of pain the movement sent through me. I gingerly touched my shoulder and winced. “Asshole,” I muttered, trying to examine it in the low light. It felt raw as hell, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was. “Where are we?”

“In a wine cellar,” the woman said. The dim glow of the night-light revealed the long chain attached to a hook in the wall. “He keeps his meals down here.”

“Meals?” I repeated stupidly. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lily Faust.”

The name didn’t ring a bell. “Is Andre keeping you here . . . to turn you?”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “No. I’m his lunch when he can’t find anything else.” She raised one arm to the dim glow of the night-light, and I saw that her arm was riddled with bites. Big, ugly ones.

“Oh, my God,” I said. “He’s going to keep us chained in here?”

“For a short time,” she said softly. “Then I imagine he’ll get rid of one of us. He’s brought a few others down every now and then, but . . . I never see them after he takes them away. I don’t know if he lets them go, or something worse.”

Considering he kept a girl chained in his basement to feed on? I was going to go with “something worse.”

I stared up in the darkness. A crack of light upstairs told me that a light was on somewhere. “Are we . . . still in his house?”

“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “I went out on a blind date with what I thought was a nice guy, and the next thing I knew, he was choking me. I woke up here. I’ve been here for . . . a while.”

I swallowed hard. “How long is a while?”

“What month is it?”

Oh, God. “May.”

She shuddered. “Six months. I suppose I should count myself lucky. The others never even last a few weeks.”

I didn’t have months, and an hysterical laugh bubbled in my throat.

“What’s so funny?” Lily stared at me.

“I’m dying,” I choked out. “Fatal disease.” When she scooted away, I added, “Not contagious. I just find it ironic that he kidnapped a dying woman. Guess he’s in for a rude surprise.”

“Is there anyone who’s going to come looking for you?” she asked. “My family’s dead. I don’t have anyone, and I was at college. I think that’s why he snatched me. Easy pickings.”

I thought of Josh. His look of betrayal as I’d run away from him tonight. God, I was an idiot. He’d known something was suspicious about Andre; he’d warned me not to go.

Just trust me. We’ll find a way.

And I’d thrown that trust in his face. I totally sucked at this relationship thing. “I don’t know if anyone will come looking for me.”

She sighed heavily, and I felt like echoing it.

“When will he be back?” I asked.

“He comes every day,” she said dully. “I guess when he’s hungry and needs something to snack on.”

I tugged at the collar around my throat, then looked up at the crack of light up the stairs that led out of this place. “Someone will come looking for us,” I told her, forcing bravery into my voice. “We can’t just go missing.”

Except my dad wouldn’t know where I was. Ryder, either. Bath and Sara would just assume I was avoiding their calls, since I’d been fired from the agency. If Josh didn’t come looking for me . . .

I stopped that line of thought. He had to come.

Had to.

I extended a hand in the darkness toward Lily. “We’re going to get out of here.”

She clasped her hand in mine, and I noticed how thin and fragile her hand was. “You don’t have to try and cheer me up. I’ve been here for six months. I know what our odds of being rescued are.”

• • •

A voice called my name, stirring me out of the darkness. “Marie,” I heard. “Marie!”

Hope surged in my chest. Josh!

But Lily still slept undisturbed, huddled against me. Was . . . was it just a hallucination? I’d had several of them since being chained down here. I didn’t know how many hours had passed. Endless, tense hours, waiting for Andre to return.

“Marie!” he bellowed.

I licked my dry lips. Maybe this was real. “I’m here,” I called, my voice faint. I was thirsty and hungry, and weak from the loss of blood. When I tried to struggle to my feet, it was extremely difficult.

There were footsteps somewhere upstairs, then I heard a hand try the doorknob.

Lily woke up and gasped, scuttling into a shadowy corner of the room in terror.

A large body slammed against the door. Once, twice. Then it crashed open.

“Marie?” Josh asked, and I saw his glorious, wonderful silhouette, haloed by the lights.

“I’m here!” I said, still struggling to stand up. The chain at my neck felt as if it had weighed a hundred pounds. “Josh, I’m here!”

“Thank God.” He fumbled for a light switch, then cursed and moved down into the darkness. His eyes gleamed like a cat’s in the night, scanning the room. They lit on me, and I heard a feline growl start low in his throat. “Baby. What did he do to you?”

I was enveloped in warm, strong arms. I clung to him, burying my face in his chest as he kissed my hair, stroking it back from my face. I even cried. “You came after me!”

“Of course I did. Are you crazy? I’ve been worried sick about you.” His hand went to the collar at my throat, and the low, ominous growl started in his throat again. “What the fuck is this?”

I couldn’t seem to stop shivering, even with his warm arms enveloping me. I was so tired and cold and weak. “He’s keeping us down here. Like snacks.”

He lifted his nose and scented the air. “I thought I smelled someone else. Who’s here?”

“Another human girl,” I told him.

In the darkness, I heard Lily whimper. I didn’t know if it was a whimper of fear or a whimper of acknowledgment.

“I’m getting you both out of here,” Josh said roughly. He pressed a quick kiss to my forehead, then grasped the chain again, eyes gleaming in the darkness. “Where’s this linked to?”

“The wall,” I told him as he began to follow it.

He grasped the chain where it was attached to the wall. I knew Josh was strong, but was he that strong? His muscles bulged and I heard him groan . . . and then I heard the brick crack. A second later, the hook in the wall ripped free and the chain fell limp to the floor.

“That was amazing,” I breathed. “Josh, you’re wonderful!”

He cast a flashing glance back at me. “If that was all it took to get you to finally acknowledge my awesomeness, I’d have done feats of strength for you long ago, baby.”

I gathered my chain, rushing forward. “Now get Lily’s. Hurry!”

As he tugged at it, I moved down the length of chain to the deepest shadows of the room. I held my hand out to Lily and was relieved when she took it, her own trembling.

“He . . . he’s not human—” she said quietly to me, clearly afraid.

“No, but he won’t hurt you. You’re going to be safe and free.”

She clung to my hand as her chain ripped free from the wall.

“Let’s go,” Josh said, extending his hand.

I walked toward him, my steps weak and slow. Lily clung to my side, shaking with terror. I wanted to tell her to buck up and be brave, but she’d been held captive and feasted on by a vampire for the last six months. I was guessing that trust didn’t come easy to her.

“Are you okay?” Josh asked, coming to my side. His glowing eyes flicked over me, studying me in the almost darkness. “Do you want me to carry you out—”

The floor creaked upstairs.

We froze. Lily sucked in a breath.

The growl started low in Josh’s throat.

Terror flashed through me. “Josh,” I whispered.

“I’m going to change, baby,” he said softly. “Don’t be frightened, okay? I’m going to change and take care of him, and then we’re going to get out of here.”

I nodded, tugging Lily tighter to me. This was going to be difficult for her to see and hear.

Josh dropped to all fours, and I heard the sudden, violent crack of bones as Josh’s growl continued. Alarmed, Lily slid behind me. I had to pretend everything was okay, even as I strained to see Josh. How long would it take?

I heard a rustle of movement. Something wet and raspy licked my hand, and then I watched the big cat step into the light flooding down the stairway.

“Be careful,” I whispered. “Please be careful.”

He climbed the stairs and into the light.

Almost immediately, we heard the sound of snarls. Something heavy slammed up against the door, banging it shut, and Lily and I jumped with alarm.

Josh was strong. He was a bodyguard. He knew a lot about vampires. He’d be just fine.

I repeated this mantra as the sounds of fighting continued upstairs. Lily’s fingers dug into my arm, and I forced myself to disentangle from her death grip. “I need to see what’s going on.”

“No,” she begged me. “Stay with me. I’m scared.”

I shook my head. “He might need my help.”

He probably needed my help like he needed a hole in the head, but I wanted to be ready if he did.

I climbed the stairs slowly, my long, dragging chain in one hand, the banister clutched in the other. Just climbing the stairs was killing me; it was alarming how weak I was.

To my surprise, Lily was at my side, helping me push to the door. I turned the doorknob, then eased it open a crack.

The room was in shambles. A white couch was tipped over in the center of the room, the wooden tables overturned. Broken vases littered the floor. A picture was askew on the far wall, and a rug was rumpled up against the fireplace. An enormous tan mountain lion streaked past, its claws digging into the hardwood floor. It pounced, knocking something—or someone—out of the way.

Then a man’s shadow approached from the hall, and I realized that Andre wasn’t alone. A bodyguard? Maybe they’d know Josh!

The mountain lion growled, and Andre bit out a curse.

“Get off of him,” a voice called from the hall. An enormous man came into sight; his skin was pale, like a vampire’s. Oh, no—this was bad. Josh wouldn’t stand a chance against both Andre and that vampire behemoth.

I glanced back at Lily and raised a finger to my lips, indicating silence.

She nodded.

I eased the door open, clutching my chain against my chest so it wouldn’t clink and give me away. I tiptoed out just in time to hear Josh’s yowl as the second vampire landed on top of him.

“Snap his neck,” I heard Andre shout. “Kill him!”

Fuck that!

Josh gave a snarl of pain and I heard something crack hard, spurring me forward.

“Get off of him,” the vampire bodyguard growled again.

I had to do something. I stared at the chain in my hand, then moved closer until I was in striking distance. No one had noticed me yet.

The bodyguard was still yelling at Josh. “Get off of him!”

The cougar gave a low, muffled growl, his teeth sunk into Andre’s throat, making him writhe on the floor.

The bodyguard raised his nightstick to strike Josh again, and I lashed out with my doubled-over chain, snapping it against the back of his head.

It cracked loudly; the vampire groaned and fell to the floor, unconscious.

I slid weakly to the ground, unable to remain standing anymore.

Distracted, Josh turned his attention to me, and Andre heaved his body, bucking off the cougar in a last burst of strength. The cougar dug for traction and flung himself back at Andre, but the vampire blocked him, sending him into a nearby table, where his head hit the corner.

He went limp.

“Josh!” I screamed, crawling forward.

Andre brushed at his bleeding lip, panting hard. As I stared, he drew out a gun.

No! I tried to move forward, but my movements were sluggish and slow. I had to do something, though; Josh needed me!

A small, dirty figure flew forward, something raised in her hand. Lily held it high and then stabbed downward, straight through Andre’s heart.

He gasped, clutching his chest, and toppled.

I stared. A thick pencil jutted out of his back. No—three pencils, rubber-banded together to make a thick makeshift stake. They must have been sharpened to a deadly point.

Andre didn’t move.

Lily dusted off her hands, then leaned over the vampire to examine him. When she was satisfied he was dead, she spat on his fallen body. “I’ve been holding on to those pencils for months in the hopes that they’d work. They went through his skin like butter.”

“Thank you,” I said weakly, and collapsed to the floor.

“Are you okay?” she asked, rushing to my side.

“Josh,” I said, all my concern for him. He was so still. Fear clenched my body. “Is he . . . ?”

She crouched next to him, pressing her fingers under his nose. “He’s breathing. I think he conked his head pretty hard.” Her fingers hesitated, and she touched his fur. “He’s a . . . cat?”

“Shapeshifter,” I said tiredly. “I’ll explain later.” At her frightened, uncertain look, I decided I needed to explain a little more right now. “There are a lot of creatures that hide their true nature. Josh is one of the good ones. We’re safe with him.”

She nodded uncertainly, glancing down at his still body. “So . . . what do we do with him?”

I didn’t know.

I stared at his unconscious form. At the bodyguard who was equally unconscious. At the dead vampire with the pencil sticking out of his back. We needed help.

I thought about calling Ryder, but she was at work. If I called her to help me dispose of a vampire body, she’d get fired for sure. And this was my problem.

I needed someone I could trust, who wouldn’t ask too many questions. Who would help without blaming.

I spotted a table nearby and a phone atop it, and I moved toward it slowly. “I know someone who can help.”

Lily nodded, biting her lip anxiously.

“Go find some rope and tie up the guard,” I told her. “We don’t want him attacking us when he wakes up.”

She nodded and raced off, her chain dragging on the floor. I finished dialing and waited for the phone to ring.

Five rings, and then a sleepy voice picked up on the other end. “Hello?”

“Daddy?” My voice cracked a little.