Blood Entangled (37 page)

Uta grabbed the phone and ended the call. “I afraid you are not knowing half. Kearney is dangerous vampire with appetites…
sjeban
.”

Zoey drew near to Kos, and her concern practically reached out and touched him. “
Sjeban?”

“Fucked up,” Andre replied, stepping to her side.

Kos went cold, and Mason’s wolfish look flashed in his mind.

“What do you mean?” Zoey whispered.

Andre pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “Some vampires abuse their bite. They force humans to do things they would not normally want to do.”

“I should have known,” Kos hissed through clenched teeth. He sank to the floor, his anger at Mason a drop in the ocean of his fury with himself.

Uta kicked him. “Get up. Your girl still alive. Hunters use her to bargain. What they want?”

“My vines,” Andre said.

Kos slowly pulled the dead weight of his own body up off the ground, unable to look at his elders for all his shame.
Krist
, what a disaster he’d created.

“So, it true? The Blood Vine is cure?”

“Yes. And Bennett knows it.”

“So for this human girl, you destroy a cure for all vampires in exile?” Uta asked.

Kos dragged his gaze to Andre, who glared back, his molars grinding. Zoey sagged against him, resting a hand over his heart. No doubt she could feel whatever turmoil was raging inside him.

“You love her?” his father asked.

Kos couldn’t speak, only stare at Andre.

Blood seeped from the corners of Andre’s eyes, and pooled in the dip of lids. Blood tears—like he’d shed for Mila. The tears overflowed, and Andre wiped them with the back of his hand.

“I do not know what to do.” He bent to embrace Zoey, and his body heaved with sobs.

Kos knew exactly what he had to do. He couldn’t let anything happen to Lena, and he couldn’t let Andre destroy the vines. He would trade himself for the safety of both.

With a rush of blood, his paralyzed muscles softened—time to take care of business.

Love for his father overwhelmed him. Zoey would take care of Andre now. He looked away from the pair, saying a silent good-bye.

Curled in his hand was the book of poems. He tucked it under his arm, preparing to stand. But from where he sat on the floor, Uta’s dark gaze drew his. When he met her eye, she nodded. She knew exactly what he was planning.

Hands cuffed and ankles tied, Lena sat next to Ethan in the backseat. Her neck no longer bled, but she hadn’t eaten anything and her brain felt fuzzy. Marin County zoomed by, fancy strip malls with Spanish tile roofs, an A&W, all nestled amidst golden hills spotted with black-green oaks. Life went on for the wealthy suburbanites as Lena’s world unraveled, a pawn in a silent war that none of them knew about.

Gwen hunched over the steering wheel, occasionally glancing back at Ethan. She clearly had questions, and Lena waited for her to ask them. Perhaps she could learn something useful from the disagreement between the two…what? Were they lovers? Yuck. What had Zoey ever seen in this creep? He was even worse than Mason, far more icy and controlled.

He exhaled a long-suffering sigh. “Gwen, you best spit it out. You’re liable to drive us off the freeway if you get any more agitated.”

Lena shifted her weight and listened up.

“You let Mason go.” Gwen’s tone matched Ethan’s chill. “And now you’re going to give her back to those monsters.”

“Both of those statements are true.” His voice was taught and prickly, but he softened it rapidly. “As I’ve said, in the grand scheme of things, this plan is the most effective. The maximum number of vampires will die.”

Gwen faced forward, not turning to speak. “You’re using her.”

“Perhaps, but for the greater good, and not the parasitic way Mason was.”

“But you’re returning her to the same fate.”

Lena closed her eyes and imagined her well-equipped kitchen at Kaštel, or Andre’s brusque feedings, or a chat with Kos over coffee. Hardly the same fate as what Mason had planned for her. She opened her eyes to find Gwen watching her in the rearview mirror.

“Do you want to go back to the estate?”

More than anything, but the cost was too high. So many vampires needed that cure. Lena should care about them, and she did, a little, though Kos mattered so much more. He needed that wine to stay healthy and alive.

“No.” She shook her head. “They hate me there. They think I’m stupid and useless and ugly. Andre wouldn’t even have sex with me. You’re crazy if you think they’ll bargain for me.”

“Did they ever hurt you?” Gwen asked.

Lena shivered, and found arctic golden eyes pinning her. She couldn’t break the stare.

“Answer the question, Ms. Isaakson.”

It was impossible to lie to him. “No. They never hurt me.”

Gwen exhaled a sigh. “That’s good.”

Lena changed tactics, trying to stir up the conflict between them again.

“They aren’t all bad, you know. Mason is the exception. Most vampires are noble and good.”

Ethan glanced toward Gwen, and Lena followed his gaze. She met the woman’s eyes in the mirror again. The corners of Gwen’s were tilted down, turning into half moons. “You poor thing. They’ve brainwashed you. I know how that works all too well.”

Brainwashing? That was just a crazy Hunter myth. Mason may have controlled Gwen’s body with his bite, used it to twist her, even, but he never controlled her mind.

Lena straightened her spine, and the handcuffs bit into her wrists. “I’ll tell you this. Andre and Kos Maras are both arrogant, cowardly, and sometimes stupid, but no more so than human men. They haven’t brainwashed me. I see their flaws clear as day.”

Gwen’s eyes remained sad. She really thought Lena was under some kind of mind control. The pity in them made Lena furious. She shouted, spit flying from her mouth. “What about you? You let this asshole pummel you for fun? You’re the one who’s been brainwashed and used.”

Gwen’s reply was all quiet calm. “I’m sure it seems that way to you, but the truth is, Ethan just gives me what I need. And my needs make me…” She looked away, until she found her words. “Our arrangement is mutually beneficial.”

Ethan’s eyes were feverish, sparking with something cruel and frightening.

“Mutually fucked up, maybe,” Lena muttered.

Gwen’s mouth hardened. Oops, burned that bridge.

Ethan’s phone rang. “Is it finished?”

An unintelligible answer rumbled from his phone.

“Good. We’ll be there soon. Leave the device on the counter.”

Lena shuddered.
The device
sounded scary.

In Petaluma, Ethan said, “Exit here, and take this road to the coast.”

If they weren’t taking her to Kaštel, where were they headed? Silence returned to the car, and she was no closer to a plan. She had to make sure Ethan could not bargain with her life, even if that meant sacrificing herself.

Chapter 28

T
HE
V
AMPIRES
H
UDDLED
B
EHIND
H
IM
as Pedro sprang Lucas from the cell. He smelled good enough to eat, although he was a little ripe. Hadn’t had a shower since—Pedro counted back two days on his hand—Saturday. Still, he would take Lucas as-is.

Kos pulled the Hunter out by the collar of his shirt. “Where will Ethan take Lena?”

“Ugh. I am puking.” Uta flailed her long arms like a windmill. “Three Hunters here? How do you stand smell?”

Pedro couldn’t decide if he liked her. She was a hard-core bitch, but that didn’t make her a bad vampire,
per se
.

“I am wanting to kill them all, faster, and then burn up their rancid blood so I am not smelling it anymore.”

Pedro growled. “He is mine.”

She didn’t back down, crossing several steps toward Pedro. With her finger and thumb, she pulled his eye open wider. “
Tako bizarno
. I am thinking I never will see this.”

Pedro wanted to shove her away, but his blood held him back, some instinct warning that she was a bazillion times stronger than him. Yeah, that totally made her a
bad
bitchy vampire.

Lucas hopped onto the worktable, legs dangling.

“If he plans to bargain with her for the vines, he will force you to lower the shield, and at the same time lure you somewhere else to retrieve her. But, Kos, understand, he doesn’t intend to give her to you. His goal is the loyalty of his men so he can control them. He wants to get the vines, and then give Lena to them as a reward.”

“Fuck.” Kos’s face pulled into a mask of raw pain, and Pedro ached for his vampire bro.

Uta stamped her foot. “I am hating Hunters.”

Pedro’s jaw dropped. She sounded like a whiney seven-year-old. “No shit, lady.”

“No matter how many I am killing, more and more. It is never ending.”

“You kill them?” Pedro stepped closer to Lucas.

“This is my job for the Yousticia. Hunters are aggressing, attacking, besieging, I go. I kill them all, and next day, I do it again. Every day for more than century. I sick of it.”

“What’s the Yousticia?” Pedro asked.

Kos sighed, impatient at the need to repeat. “The Justicia is the vampire council. Ten oldest vampires. Now, can we focus on Lena?”

Mierda.
Uta was one of the ten oldest vampires?

Lucas jumped off the table and went to stand next to Kos. “He’ll lure you somewhere else, so that when Lena is not delivered to you, you will be unable to stop the destruction of the vineyards.”

“But how will that work? Even if I’m elsewhere, I wouldn’t give the go ahead unless I had her safe.”

Lucas shrugged his lean, powerful shoulders. “I don’t know. He’s brilliant, wily, and without conscience. He’ll think of something.”

“Uta, will you come with me, and help ensure her safety?”

Her hands came up in front of her, two loose fists. She wiggled them, working her fingers, as if she were…knitting? She was one weird chick—it must increase with age.

“I am needing to take Kearney prisoner.” She made more imaginary stitches. “But there is a way. Bel’s crew?”

How did she know about Bel’s crew? Kos said they hadn’t seen her in more than a hundred and fifty years.

“Yes. They’re here,” Kos replied, his eyebrows drawn together.

“Bel is still employing the vampire Omar?”

“Yes.”

“He is taking Kearney into custody. I am going with you. In case you getting any crazy ideas.” She pointed her pantomimed needle at Kos. “Where Omar?”

“He usually hangs out in the dining room, feeding the witch,” Pedro replied.

Uta cackled, and then she and Kos were gone.

Finally alone, Pedro turned to Lucas, who watched him intently, his golden peepers staring right through Pedro. Windows to the soul and all that crap.

“You were getting awfully protective of me just now.” Lucas tilted his head forward, and prowled back to Pedro.

Pedro drank in his long legs, his rumpled shirt stretched over lean muscle.

“What changed?” Lucas asked.

Pedro raked his fingers through his hair. “Derek. Ethan. You helping Kos. I guess I get it now.”

Lucas stopped a scant few inches away. “I just couldn’t tell you about the blood. I’m sorry.” He leaned in and kissed Pedro.

The kiss was the real apology, and it tasted like a promise. Lucas’s hungry tongue demanded, sweeping deep into Pedro’s mouth and then across all his teeth. That brought Pedro’s fangs out, and one sharp tooth nicked Lucas’s tongue. He groaned in pleasure, and Pedro sucked, drawing down the drops of blood before the wound sealed itself.

Lucas pulled back and looked at Pedro with half-lidded eyes.

Madre de Dios!
Now he saw what Lucas was promising under those dark lashes.