The Cold Kiss of Death

Chapter Twenty-One

The dimly lit bedroom was larger than the lounge, and decorated with so much blood that it looked like an artist’s rendition of a murder scene; bright red arcs sprayed up the dusk-blue wall behind the king-sized bed, blotted the white silk sheets and splattered dark trails along the thick blue carpet. Malik and Darius lay spooned together on the bed in a tangle of pale, blood-drenched naked bodies. A cacophony of conflicting emotions—desire, hunger, jealousy, anger and shock—cascaded over me and my dialled-down vampire senses sprang back to life. My heart thudded in my chest as I inhaled the strong tang of copper, saliva pooled in my mouth and my stomach rumbled with emptiness. Listening carefully, I could make out two heartbeats, both slow, but both steady. He hadn’t killed Darius. Then the urge to crawl onto the bed and join the two vamps exploded in my mind, not to satisfy my hunger, but to rip their throats out, tear them limb from limb and bathe in their blood, just for the pure gleeful fun of it.

I took a step forward, and another, following the urge, my feet and the chain I was dragging, scuffing over the carpet, then I swayed, dizzy, as I made myself stop. Damn! Looked like the imp-imparted psychosis thing was true, then! The imps don’t only consume their host, they infect them with their irresistible enjoyment of chaos and violence.

And fuck, was Malik a messy violent eater or what?

The thought brought an edge of hysteria to the laughter rising in my throat. I strangled it before it could escape—much as the imps wanted me to do to Malik. I looked around the room for anything that might help me: pale wood desk, plasma TV, a laptop, its screen dark, a half-open door to what had to be a bathroom, and the same wall of glass as in the lounge overlooking the dance floor—but no handy priest or bottle of Holy Water in sight. I was going to have to complain to the Blue Heart’s management for their lack of foresight. After all, the nearest church was a five-minute run away ... an idea almost formed in my head—

The spike-sharp pain in my left kidney prodded my attention back to the bodies on the bed and my allotted task.

‘Well, this is cosy, isn’t it?’ I drawled, my voice calm enough to conceal the horror eating through my body. ‘Shame I’m going to have to break up your little blood—and love-fest, Malik, but I’ve a present here with your name on it.’ I snapped a length of the chain between my hands; it made a loud chinking sound. ‘And the hell-heated coals I’m dancing on are getting impatient.’

Malik raised his head to look at me over Darius’ shoulder, his eyes half-lidded, his expression sleepy ... but nowhere near soft. He took in my costume. ‘Hallowe’en has come early, I see,’ he murmured.

‘Apparently it’s old Liz’s favourite film.’ I did a twirl.

‘The disguised princess chained to the monster.’ He quirked his mouth in a mocking smile. ‘Subtlety never was Elizabetta’s strong point.’

‘So. Are you finished here?’ I jerked my head at the almost comatose Darius. ‘’Cos I’m feeling a lot impish and I think we should get on with the killing part of the evening now before it gets too late.’

‘Impish?’ He frowned, shifting to prop himself up on his bent elbow.

‘Yep, that old demon magic thing.’ The chain bit into my palms as my hands tightened around it. I eyed Malik’s long narrow fingers, which were resting against Darius’ impressive bloodstained six-pack; did Malik have to look as if he’d enjoyed himself quite so much? And why was I feeling antagonistic towards someone who was supposed to be no more than a necessary evil in my life? After all, it wasn’t like I really wanted that sort of relationship with Malik myself ... or did I? Or was that just Rosa or the imps influencing my desires again? I shelved the questions for later. If there was a later.

‘Of course,’ I carried on, ‘I still have choices and consequences, ’ and conscious of any listening ears, I spoke the next words in my head, hoping he’d hear them: ‘They come down to you or Rosa’s body, in fact, because once the sun rises over the horizon, I’m back in my own—body, that is.’ Gnawing pains around my knees accompanied my thoughts and my legs almost buckled. ‘So unless you managed to get ordained at some point during your last half-dozen centuries—any faith will do, neither the imps nor I are fussy—or can come up with a quick liquid solution, preferably one that’s been blessed’—I raised my eyes to the heavens—‘the bell’s about to chime for Round One.’

‘Time will wait for this, I think,’ he said. Blue fire lit his pupils and cast a peaceful glow through the dim room. He brought his inner arm to his mouth and bit into it, then, cradling Darius’ head, he offered his bleeding wrist. Darius didn’t appear to notice. His eyes were still closed, his face slack and sated, then Malik lowered his lips to the other vamp’s cheek, the dark silk of his hair half-covering their faces, and murmured something too low for even my own enhanced vampire hearing to make out. Darius opened his mouth and latched on to Malik’s wrist, sucking greedily like a babe at a teat, his body responding with evident pleasure. I watched, mesmerised, the spicy scent of Malik’s blood teasing me, the harsher scents of copper and liquorice, and something else, something that my mind was struggling to recognise: a bitter-sweet smell like fermented flowers ...

A popping sound brought me from my reverie as Malik worked his finger between Darius’ lips and disengaged him from his arm, and a vague memory that I’d experienced something like this before brought my brows together in a frown.

‘My apologies, Genevieve,’ Malik said, his voice sounding regretful in my mind. ‘Whilst Elizabetta’s plans are not a surprise, if I had realised how Hannah might choose to augment them, I would not have accepted her offer of sustenance.’ He sat, pulling the sheet up over Darius. ‘You must make every effort to do as she wishes, and I will attempt to minimise the damage to us both.’

‘Easy enough for you to say,’ I muttered, scowling, as I tried to figure out where my uneasiness was coming from, then winced as another jagged pain speared through my solar plexus and wiped the thought from my mind.

Malik slid gracefully off the bed and strolled naked towards the wardrobe. My gaze followed the fine line of his back as it tapered from his sculptured shoulders down to his waist, then on past the taut, hard curve of his butt and down the long muscles in his thighs, watching as they flexed and stretched and the dimples at the back of his knees creased with each silent lift of his elegant feet. The sight had lust coiling tight in my belly, pooling with enough heat to drown out the prickly irritation of the imps scratching inside me. Then I blinked as he stood facing me, the silk triangle of dark hair on his pale chest arrowing down past the rose-burst scar to the black leather trousers he now wore low-slung on his narrow hips.

‘Now you may try and kill me,’ he said. There was a patient, almost amused edge to his smile, as if he’d been standing there, waiting for some time.

I clenched my fists round the chain. What was going on here? I might be distracted enough by eye-candy to not notice time passing, but the imps, not so much, I’d have thought. Ignoring the shooting pains in my biceps that forced me to lift the chain, I glanced at Darius, then back into the flames that flickered like blue gas jets in Malik’s eyes.

‘Your eyes usually glow red, not blue,’ I said, tilting my head speculatively to one side as I added two and two and got rather more than four. ‘Darius is of the Blue Heart blood-family. And the Earl had a habit of stopping time; it was one of his favourite tricks’—except the Earl’s eyes hadn’t lit up; his skin would just turn blue, like fine porcelain, but hey—‘so I’m guessing you didn’t just feed off Darius, you somehow managed to gain some of his bloodline’s power?’

Malik’s smile widened, letting me glimpse fang. ‘Feeding off other vampires has its compensations.’

‘Great,’ I said through gritted teeth as claws raked along the inside of my hip. ‘Any chance you can keep me and the imps suspended until dawn, then let me catch up or something?’

‘The effects are not long-lasting, but it would be possible.’ He stepped towards me, a smooth, careful motion that wasn’t meant to spook me but nonetheless made my heart up its beat. ‘But I do not have until dawn, so we must see how this trick can benefit us now.’

‘Why don’t we have until dawn?’

‘Darius’ blood was poisoned; half an hour is the most time we have.’

Fermented flowers—Nightshade! ‘Fuck, so that’s what Hannah meant when she said she’d evened up the odds.’ His vamp-healing would eventually clear the poison from his body, but not before the poison knocked him unconscious while it worked its way through his system, which is never a great option when someone is looking to wrap a chain round your neck and use it to decapitate you.

‘What about him?’ I jerked my head at Darius.

‘I have removed enough of the poison that it now only incapacitates him; it will not be fatal.’

Maybe Malik wasn’t such a messy eater after all.

‘I take it you’ve got a plan?’ I asked, almost doubling up as the imps sent a wave of sharp-teethed pain through my stomach. ‘Because I’m not sure I can hold off from trying to kill you for much longer.’

‘Of course.’ He inclined his head, an amused smile crossing his face. ‘We shall give them all what they want: a show.’

‘Okay,’ I said doubtfully, ‘except I’m not sure there’s going to be much “show” on my part.’

He spread his hands, his mouth quirking. ‘Ladies first.’

I swung the lighter cuff end of the chain, twirling it in short circles around my head, getting its momentum up, then snapped it out with a flick of my wrist, the movements as automatic as if I’d performed them a hundred times before ... which maybe my body had, just not with me in it. The chain snaked out lasso-like and thudded around Malik’s neck—

—or actually, rattled into empty space and thudded on the carpet.

Malik was standing three feet to the left, his arms loose and easy at his sides, his gaze steady.

I yanked the chain back, whipped it low behind me and lashed out again. He shifted and raised his arm, catching the chain and holding it firm while I started to pull, using all my vampire strength. I might have been trying to heave a mountain. He laughed, the sound shivering over me like a teasing spring breeze with just a hint of the heat to come, then let go, and I stumbled back, crashing into the desk, sending the laptop bouncing to the floor. I screamed with rage and the imps inside me jumped with excited glee, egging me on. I hefted the chain, reversing it so I was swinging the collar like a mace. The weight of it felt wrong, lopsided, but I let it fly, aiming for his chest, willing it to keep straight and true. He dodged, but it caught him a glancing blow in the ribs, and the sound of them cracking was as loud as breaking ice. Inside me the imps cheered as he staggered back, nostrils flaring, blue fire blazing in his eyes.

‘A lucky hit,’ he said softly.

‘Maybe not,’ I said, just as softly, remembering how he’d opened the bedroom door earlier. ‘Isn’t Rosa your blood, and don’t you have some sort of kinetic powers?’

‘Rosa is of my blood, but she did not inherit all my abilities.’

‘Don’t bet on it.’ I said as I pulled the chain back and swung it round, all in one easy movement, then let it loose again.

Malik moved like a pale blur over the bed, but I was ready, using my will to guide the chain, aiming for his head. He dived and rolled, and the collar connected, though it hit his shoulder blade instead of his skull. He rolled again, coming up hard against the window, and I flicked my wrist, the chain snaking out towards the larger target of his torso.

But before it hit he was rolling again, regaining his feet and lunging at me. His shoulder thudded into my stomach, lifting me up and driving me back.

My back hit the wall first, then my head, and the plaster gave way, debris exploding everywhere. I dropped the chain and grabbed for Malik as it clanked to the floor. I screamed, digging my fingers into his back and scoring my nails down his skin.

Hissing in pain, he heaved me up and over his head, throwing me into the glass wall. It cracked with a sound like a thousand gunshots, bowed outwards ... and gave way, and I stared down into the empty air, feeling the music thumping like a giant’s heartbeat in my head as tiny chunks of glass fell like sparkling ice cubes towards the oblivious dancers thirty feet below.

I hung suspended, my toes balanced on the edge, my arms windmilling back, desperately trying not to fall.

It would hurt, a lot, but it wouldn’t kill me; Rosa’s body would heal the damage.

But the crowd of humans below? Their bodies were way more fragile.

The imps chortled with glee while, panicked, I tried to force myself back—

Then relief washed over me as I realised I was suspended, in time as well as space; I wasn’t going to fall.

Malik’s arm encircled my waist and the hard edges of the gold-metal bikini dug into my back where he pulled me hard against him. Then the gold collar closed round my neck and his voice shouted in my mind, ‘Now we fly, Genevieve!’

My pulse started speeding, the imps squealed in ecstasy and he stepped out and launched us into the air.

‘But vampires can’t fly,’ I screamed, the sound lost ...