A Dream Forbidden (Lillith Mercury ) (15 page)

When he turned me to face the mirror I didn't even recognize myself. Mason had done a better job with my makeup than I ever could. I looked good with black hair, which surprised me. My lips were painted the same cherry red as his and my hazel eyes were surrounded by dark liner and long fake lashes.

"How do I look?" I purred and I didn't even sound like myself.

"Mmmm, good enough to eat," he drawled in his slow sexy voice. "Are you ready Little Red? It's time to go."

He held out his hand to me and I felt like I was going to have a panic attack.

"Ssshh," Mason soothed as he looked in my eyes. "The band should be setting up now. Let me change pants and we'll go up and see."

Mason emerged from the closet a few minutes later wearing a pair of black vinyl pants and a matching silk shirt. The top few buttons were open, revealing his porcelain skin.

"That outfit looks too good to get blood on," I said.

His smile was at once frightening and endearing. I wasn't accustomed to seeing Mason smile and it promised many wicked things.

He held my hand as we walked back up the stairs.

"They should all be in the room now," he said softly.

Mason had told all the assassins that he was still closely associated with Dracula; however, he was willing to give him up for a price. He told them that Dracula trusted him and he would invite him here tonight in order for them to set up an ambush. He said they had grossly underestimated how many of them it would take to finish the original vampire, therefore they should all be present. So, they were all sitting in the main room upstairs waiting to ambush Dracula. What was actually happening was just the opposite.

When we entered the room the power radiating off the crowd made my skin crawl. There were some seriously powerful vamps in this room. The main room of The Dungeon is large, with tables scattered about. There's a stage with a pole for one dancer and a cage on either end. The stage is large enough for a band, and as Mason led me onto the stage we approached the band that would be playing this evening.

It was Creature Comforts, the band Beau played drums for. He smiled at me as if we'd never met before and I appreciated his acting skills. Johnny walked over and pinched my ass. He would be playing lead guitar this evening. Luckily he already looked like a rocker, so he could pull it off. The entire band was dressed in black and silver. Johnny wasn't wearing his glasses and the blood red of his eyes made him look both frightening and sexy. His shoulder length black hair hung straight and slightly over part of his face. He was wearing his favorite gloves, the ones with the fingers cut out and "GOOD" and "EVIL" written across the knuckles. I knew his custom-made pistols couldn't be far away. The one for his right hand, which said "GOOD", had an ivory handle. The one for his left hand was made of ebony.

I surveyed the band one more time while Mason whispered something to them. They looked like a bunch of psychotic mariachi. I stood around and pretended to flirt with Johnny while two female vamps wearing long trench coats took their places in the cages. Then I caught sight of James Matthew making his way into the room.

He walked with a limp, but that was part of the act. He was wearing a long brown duster to disguise all of the weapons he was carrying. Mason had told them Dracula was responsible for his limp and that he owed James a favor. He said James had requested to watch as payment for whatever debt Mason owed. Seeming to understand the need for vengeance so well, they had gone along with it. James limped forward and took a seat behind one of the vamps near the front. He took in my appearance and his eyes widened in appreciation.

It was funny, but I didn't dare laugh. I felt better having Johnny behind me and James close to the stage. What was I going to do? Well, I was the entertainment.

With all the pieces of our game in play, Mason gave Johnny the signal to start the music. I shot a harsh look over my shoulder toward Mason, because I recognized the song. It was a tune which spoke of a beautiful woman who only came out after dark. It had been played in a movie about a vampire bar just before all hell broke loose and he was a sick motherfucker for selecting it.

But what could I do? If I objected to the music it would blow our cover. So, I strutted onto the stage to do my part. Not only was I going to dance for them, I was going to put them in a trance. Dracula had explained to me that it was possible to unleash my power without using the voice. He said that if I concentrated hard enough I could transfer what I felt to all the members of the audience.

I moved slowly toward the pole in the center of the stage. I let my hips sway with every move as I took a deep breath and let go of my fear. I didn't want them to feel fear. I wanted them to feel sex. There was violence in my movements. Movements which promised both pain and pleasure. I showed them with my smile that I would enjoy causing them pain.

I moved my head in slow circles, causing the black wig to cascade about my shoulders and face. I looked through my hair as I crawled across the stage toward the vamp sitting nearest to James. As I looked into his eyes I knew he was falling under my spell, and so were the others. I could feel it. I could taste their desire on the air as I breathed, almost like candy.

I thought of Dracula sitting naked by the firelight and I let my hands become his hands on my own skin as I moved. I threw back my head and ran my hands over my breasts as I thought of Marco in the shower, hot soapy water falling down his body. I ran my hands up and down my thighs and saw Bade naked against my scarlet sheets. I ran my fingers through my fake hair and remembered Dracula's bite. I moaned involuntarily and the room seemed to vibrate with my power. My voice had never held more magic.

As I opened my eyes to gaze lazily at the crowd I knew that they were now amber. I gasped with pleasure and so did they. At the back of the room a lone dark figure stood in the shadows. It was Dracula, and he was dressed to kill. He was wearing another pair of black pants which clung to his long muscular legs. The tight fitting coat he wore buttoned up the front then parted above the belt line to hang to his knees in back. It was embroidered with intricate stitches along the seams. Around his throat he had tied a long black scarf which seemed to blend with the cape that trailed behind him, caressing him like the shadows that he stood in. His knee high boots glinted in the dim light and I saw a whip attached to the belt that rode low on his slender hips.

They were ready. I had done my part. Now I took hold of the pole as the vamp near James leaned toward the stage. I swung around, kicking my leg high and around the pole. As I fell to the floor I buckled my legs underneath me and leaned back. My shoulders had barely touched the stage when I heard a gunshot.

I looked to my left and looked through a hole in the head of the vampire that had been closest to the stage. Through this hole I saw James Matthew with his "injured" leg propped on the table. There was a long barreled gun strapped to the brace down his leg and while the body of the first vamp hit the floor he spun around and fired five more times.

After this all hell broke loose. I rolled off the stage and onto the floor by James. Unfortunately I had landed on the body of the vamp with a hole in his head and he wasn't dead. He sprang on me and I pulled one of the silver blades from my boots. I stabbed through his ribs and thrust upward into his heart. As I did this Mason fired a shotgun, blowing his head completely off.

Blood and brain matter sprayed across me but I was alive. I wiped at my face as I crawled behind the table James had turned over for cover. He had removed the brace with the long gun from his leg and was now firing with two pistols he'd had up his sleeves. That man was armed to the teeth and he was a damn good shot.

Some of the vamps were armed too and as they returned fire he ducked down beside me.

"Ma'am," he said, tipping his hat with his gun.

After this he went back to shooting and I saw Beau motioning for me to run toward him beside the stage. I scurried on my hands and knees toward him and an arm went flying past me. I paused but didn't recognize the limb, so I kept crawling.

He had some of my weapons stashed behind the stage at Johnny's request, including my favorite blades. I quickly strapped the two sheathes across my forearms. They had some more water guns, but holy water wasn't practical in this crowd. We might accidentally burn one of our own. From the sound of things James was the only one who wasn't out of ammunition.

I pressed the indention in the strap across my palm and extended both my blades as I ran from behind the stage with a yell. I slashed and clawed my way through the crowd as if my life depended on it, because it did. When I paused in front of the stage I heard a horrible rumbling noise.

"What's that?" one of the vampires gasped.

I knew what it was. It was the collective sound of a bunch of werewolves growling behind the stage.

?

Chapter Fifteen

Marco, Bade and several other werewolves came crashing over the stage and into the audience. They were all fully transformed and they were angry. Among them was a wolf about a foot shorter than Marco with dark blond fur. It could only be Elijah. I had never seen his half-wolf form, and now was not the time to stop and stare.

My silver blades were having a much better effect than my claws would have and I turned back to the fight. I saw Dracula in the corner of the room. I looked up in time to see his whip catch one of the other vampires around the neck and snap his head clean off.

It was a blood bath and my stomach lurched as I recalled how he had taken down the horde of barbarians in much the same way. I stood back. Everyone around me was already dead. I heard a terrible howl and looked to see Elijah mangling one of the vampires. The vamp was being held down on one of the tables while Elijah's long claws pulled his insides out like a piece of rope. Bade was going from one fallen vampire to the other and ripping out their hearts. Mason had a long broadsword he was using for decapitating those who still had a head attached when they hit the ground. It was the most awful thing I'd ever seen.

Once it was all done and nothing remained of the vampires but scattered body parts, Mason held his sword high and declared victory as if we were on a battlefield. To my surprise everyone joined in the cry and the wolves howled in triumph. Was I the only one who wanted a bath?

The fight had taken much longer than I'd thought. Marco and the other wolves all turned back into their human forms and put on some old torn up clothes they'd brought with them while we began to clean up. It wouldn't do for people not involved to find a trace of what had happened.

Marco and Dracula both came immediately to check on me. After I assured them that there wasn't a scratch on me, we all started to clean. They worked on the inside and Bade and I started carrying bodies outside.

"Why outside?" Elijah asked.

He seemed oddly detached from the situation and I recognized his cop face. He would do what had to be done and have nightmares later.

"That way when the sun comes up in a few hours these fuckers will burn," Bade said.

"Easy way to hide the evidence," Mason agreed.

But poor Elijah didn't have the stomach for it. He had reached his limit. I helped Bade for as long as I could stand it before going outside to talk to Elijah. I found him throwing up beside Bade's car.

"Oh, my God," he gasped repeatedly. "I can't believe what I did," he said as he started to cry. "I wanted them to suffer. I wanted revenge. But …" He threw up again. "I'm an animal, Lilith. Really and truly an animal."

"No, you're not," I soothed as I knelt beside him.

"I enjoyed it," he said, his eyes widening with horror.

I sighed. "You're a werewolf, Elijah and the beast craves violence. That doesn't make you a monster, it simply makes you a werewolf. You don't have to go around murdering people just because you like violence. That's why the pack hunts on the full moon, it's part of your natural instincts."

"How do you know all this?" he asked, still gagging, but less violently.

"Because I'm half wolf, and I come close enough to the real thing to have the same desires. I'd like to say that part of me didn't enjoy that scene tonight but that would be a lie. I love the rush of a good fight, but I can't tell you how many times I've ended up just like you are right now. I don't want to hurt people, Eli, but sometimes we have to."

"I just didn't know I was capable of that sort of thing," he said. He had now begun to shake and I put one arm around him.

"At least you don't have blood on your butt cheeks," I soothed.

He laughed and for a minute he sounded like his old self again.

"I'll be alright," he said. "And Lilith, I swear I won't hurt anybody. I'm so sorry for the way I acted yesterday, for the way I looked at Kat and hitting Dracula. I'm having a hard time learning to control the beast, but I would never hurt anybody. It's hard enough to control the change without having someone you love murdered on top of it. I'm getting better every day. I promise I won't freak out and eat someone, least of all Kat. She's …" His voice broke. "She's the only sister I've got left now," he said quietly. "I would die for her, Lilith. I just wanted you to know that."

"I know," I said, as I leaned over and kissed his forehead.

He smiled.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm really glad you didn't kiss me on the mouth just now. I'm not entirely sure I didn't eat some of those vampires tonight."

"Do you think you can walk back inside?" I asked.

I had an idea, but I didn't want to traumatize him worse by taking him inside. However, I badly needed to wash up.

Elijah agreed to go back inside and as we walked by Mason I asked, "Can I borrow your bathroom?"

He licked the blood from his lips as he smiled and said, "I could just lick you clean."

I shivered. "Or, you could let me use your shower."

He pretended to pout before handing me his key. I told Marco where I was going and that Elijah was coming with me.