Crimson Rush A Vampire Romance (Crimson Book 1) (13 page)

Trinity knelt down and removed a stack of large branches that had been masking a wooden plank door in the ground. As she pulled up on it, the hinges groaned in protest.

Leaning over, I stared down into what was basically a hole in the ground. It was so dark that the ladder seemed to disappear into a black abyss of nothingness.

“He’s down there?” Aaron asked in disbelief.

Trinity nodded. “That’s where you’ll find him.”

Aaron’s brows came together in a scowl. “This wouldn’t happen to be some kind of trap would it?”

Cocking her head to one side, Trinity responded with a voice dripping sarcasm. “If y’all get yerself trapped, it will be your own fault for going down there with those things.”

“I asked to see Jonas … not to jump into a damn hole.”

I could already see their conversation going in circles if I didn’t jump in and say something soon. “Well it’s not likely we’re going to get him to come up here right now, so I don’t see as we have any choice but to go down there,” I told Aaron.

“I suppose you’re right,” he replied after a long hesitation. Stepping onto the ladder, he grasped both sides and quickly disappeared into a chasm of darkness.

Trinity stood up top and watched as we descended the ladder.

“I don’t suppose you thought to bring flashlights?” Aaron asked from somewhere below.

“Nope … didn’t think we’d actually be going into the ground.”

At the bottom, we found ourselves in a tunnel that led in a direction that would put us under the barn. Feeling our way through the darkness, we started following the tunnel. After going a ways, I could see dim light coming from up ahead.

When we reached the source of the light, we found two chambers. The one to our right had approximately eight coffins lined up on the floor. The chamber to the left had a metal table with what appeared to be blood-draining paraphernalia. There was also some lab equipment.

I made a mental note to remember exactly how to get back here. When Uncle Charlie showed up again, I would spill the beans on Jonas for sure.

Killing people to make a drug! It was just so pathetic. I would feel no remorse at all for giving away Jonas’s role in it.

Nudging Aaron with my elbow, I pointed to the chamber with the equipment.

He nodded, but said nothing.

I asked, “So which one is Jonas’s coffin you think?”

He looked as lost as I felt, which didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged.

In that instant, I was practically sent into orbit by the sound of deep - sadistic laughter coming from the darkness behind us.

Reaching beneath my shirt for one of the squirt guns, I whirled around to see who had snuck up on us.

Before I could pull out the gun, Jonas stepped out of the shadows. “You don’t really think I’d sleep in such a hole, do you?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Aaron beat me to it. “This is where the girl told us you’d be.”

“She did as she’d been instructed to do if strangers came calling,” he told us, in a voice drenched with laughter. “As you can see … there is no escape. You’d have to get by me, and I promise you … it won’t happen.”

“We just came here to ask you a question … that’s all. We’re not here to cause you any trouble,” I spoke up, hoping to keep the situation from blowing up in our faces.

He didn’t need to know what I’d been thinking a moment before.

A look of faint amusement crossed his face. “Well if it isn’t the little Marcus groupie.”

“I belong to Luke,” I reminded him.

He moved toward me, and as he did, I backed away. Before I realized what he was doing, Jonas managed to get his arm around my waist and was pulling me so close, I could almost feel the hunger seeping from the pores of his skin.

Refusing to let him intimidate me, I didn’t so much as flinch when I met his dark eyes with my own.

“I smell two vampires on you,” he said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “You must not be so loyal to your Luke.” Now his lips were less than an inch from my face. I could feel his breath against my skin.

I still couldn’t get over the fact that vampires actually breathed, though they didn’t need to.

“That’s none of your business,” I told him in a very definite, don’t screw with me tone. Although I was trying to sound brave, it was impossible to keep my voice from cracking.

As he stared into my eyes, I felt that pull that meant he was trying to compel me. Suddenly my imagination went wild, and I was almost tempted to offer my throat to him - to offer myself to him.

I was getting rusty. Now Jonas was actually able to get into my head. I decided it was time I started practicing my blocking out skill. It seemed I would be running into plenty of situations where I’d need to be able to keep these vamps from controlling my thoughts.

Suddenly, Aaron’s warning about Jonas not being so gentle popped into my mind. In that instant, I wondered what not so gentle might feel like.

“Jonas,” Aaron called from somewhere behind the vampire. “Let’s not do this … please.”

The sound of Aaron’s voice seemed to snap me out of my dazed - sinful thoughts.

Thank God!

I would have to be more careful around these vampires. It was becoming way too obvious that Uncle Basile was right. They could seduce you, even if you didn’t like the vampire doing the seducing, and I sure didn’t like Jonas.

“Well you’re not easy,” he said, a wicked smile playing on his lips. “But you’re also not impossible.”

I brought up one hand and pushed him back. “I’m here on business … not to entertain you.”

Laughter sparked in his dark eyes. “Too bad. It
is
your loss, by the way.”

“I’m sure I’ll live.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his smile a shade darker.

“If I don’t … you might not,” I pointed out, though I wasn’t really all that sure about that.

He offered no rebuttal, but his eyes spoke volumes. In those glimmering pools of night, I saw the possibility of ecstasy beyond my wild imagination, but I also saw bone-chilling darkness.

Clearing my throat, I told him, “We came here to ask you what you know about Rush … and as I can see … you must know a lot.” I motioned to the lab equipment.

His laughter returned. “Maybe. What do you want to know about that sweet nectar … that when made with just the right ingredients … can drive a vampire to the brink of madness.”

The thought of an insane vampire sent chills up my spine, but so did the underlying meaning of his words.

He had to know what I was.

“Well first thing I want to know is how can you live with yourself? Killing people to make a drug … it’s disgusting!” I ranted.

Jonas shook his head. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?  Why kill the cow?”

I gave him a questioning look, prompting him to elaborate. “We have volunteers. There’s no need to do any killing.”

Now I felt a little stupid for getting in his face about killing, but making Rush was still against the vampire code, or whatever they called it.

“How does it affect other species?” I asked.

“Different ways,” he told me with a shrug of his shoulders.

“If someone were to take Rush … and then become comatose or a vegetable … what species would you guess they were?”

Jonas’s threatening manner became subdued for the moment. A thoughtful expression slid over his features. “I’ve heard of that happening with weres?”

“Weres?” I was more than a little confused.

“Werewolves … werecats, creatures like that. If the Rush does this to the weres, it is also a possibility it would be similar for shifters.”

First vampires and now werewolves!

The new reality I was living in wasn’t looking good at all.

“How do you reverse the damage … or can it be reversed?” I asked, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. He was still way too close for comfort.  

“It might be possible. Vampire blood sometimes works, but it has to be a very old vampire, or the blood is not potent enough,” he explained.

My thoughts went to Marcus. As far as I knew, he was the oldest vampire in these parts.

But would he help Max?

“Thanks,” I told him, attempting to slide to one side so that I could step around him, but he lifted both his arms to trap me between them and the cement wall.

“Nothing is free,” he told me.

Well this wasn’t exactly a positive development, though I wasn’t too surprised. “What is it that you want?”

“You.”

I shook my head. “You know I belong to Luke … besides, I would hate to end up like that poor girl you’re keeping in the house.”

Still smiling, he backed away. “That would be a shame for someone like you … to end up like that … wouldn’t it? You might want to think about that before you get too attached to your Luke.”

Though I didn’t really take his warning seriously, his words kept echoing in my head long after we left the Stilwell safe house.

It was well into night by the time we returned to Club Crimson. Marcus was absent, but Grace was there, and by the look on her face when we walked through the door, she wasn’t too happy.

“Well well … look who decided to make an appearance,” she said, her voice sarcastic, adding just enough of a syrupy southern twang to add the illusion of innocence to that sarcasm.

Grace was about as far from being the innocent Southern belle as a girl could get. It was anyone’s guess how much blood she’d spilled over the centuries.

Right away I came to Aaron’s defense. “It’s my fault. I asked Aaron to go someplace with me. He didn’t want to, but I was very persuasive.”

Her blue-violet eyes bit into me, but she said nothing. Instead, she turned her attention to Aaron. “Do you suppose the bartender could use a hand … that is unless y’all have other plans for the night?” she added, this time not bothering to disguise her irritation.

Aaron nodded and headed for the bar. The transformation was amazing. As soon as he was in Grace’s presence, he went from being an assertive - kind of cool guy, to being totally cowed.

“Is Marcus around?” I asked.

“He’s not,” she told me, her voice colder than usual.

“Okay … thanks.” I turned to leave,

Before I could take one step, she reached out with her hand to grasp my arm. “Do not interfere with Aaron again.”

Now I was mad. Vampire or not, she had no right to treat him the way she did. “You know … he is a person, and not just walking fast food.”

Grace’s laughter was deceptively soft. “But he’s my person. Do yourself a favor and don’t forget that little fact.”

Rolling my eyes, I walked away. It was beyond me how Aaron could even care about such a cold-hearted bitch, but he did seem to.

* * *

Seeing how I was wound up as tight as a dollar store watch, I tossed and turned for hours after going to bed. When I did manage to fall asleep, my dreams were full of strange images of snow swept mountains - sandy seashores with white-capped waves, and wind cold enough to bite.

The images gradually changed to visions of his brilliant blue eyes - eyes that seemed to be calling to me from across a vast abyss of time and space. There was hunger in those eyes, but not the hunger for blood that I’d learned to recognize in the vampire. The hunger I saw in those Nordic eyes, reflected a yearning of the heart and soul. 

They were Marcus’s eyes, but there was no bloodlust, and none of the dark suffering that is so much a part of the vampire.

At first I thought the obnoxious honking was just some very strange - random string of my subconscious, invading my already weird dreams, but even after opening my eyes, the honking continued. I likened the sound to a dozen car horns going off outside my bedroom window.

Turns out I was right.

Pushing myself up, I rolled out of bed and made my way to the window. Dusty’s truck was sitting on the side lawn, beneath the window, but his wasn’t the only vehicle parked haphazardly around my yard. Daya was sitting on the hood of Brian’s truck, waving at me as I peered at the spectacle from my bedroom window.

Uncle Basile and his old black Thunderbird were also out there. They were all honking and waving at me, as I watched them from the shelter of my bedroom.

It would have been a good time for my brain to start functioning, but I was still in the grip of sleep haze.

What the hell was going on?

Had everyone I knew gone crazy overnight?

It might have been the balloons tied to Dusty’s truck that finally gave it away, or maybe I just woke up enough to get a clue, but it dawned on me what today was.

My birthday!

How could I have forgotten my own birthday?

True, I’d been a little caught up in the vampire drama I was dealing with, but what kind of nut would forget about their own birthday?

Seeing how I was wearing nothing but a T-shirt, I threw on my robe before running down the stairs to let everyone in.

Daya was waiting on the porch when I opened the door. In one hand she had a bunch of bananas, and in the other, a gallon of ice cream.

“Did you forget?” she asked. “Banana splits for breakfast.”

Half laughing - half crying, I threw my arms around her neck. “Thanks.”

Mom had always made me banana splits on my birthday, and that was something Daya wouldn’t have forgotten. She’d make sure she was at my house bright and early, just so she wouldn’t miss out.

“What are best friends for?” she asked, brushing by me as she headed for the kitchen.

Dusty, Uncle Basile, and Brian were right behind her.

Uncle Basile brushed my cheek with a kiss. “Happy Birthday.”

“From me too,” Dusty said, patting the top of my head like I were some kind of cute puppy.

“Thanks,” I told him, brushing his hand away.

Barefoot and still somewhat dazed from my very strange wakeup call, I followed the rest of them into the kitchen. Daya was already dishing up the banana splits.

“So what’s on the agenda for today?” she asked no one in particular.

“There’s a family party planned for tonight,” Basile told her.

The secretive look that passed between Dusty and Basile made me feel a bit uncomfortable. They were up to something.

“How come I didn’t know about this?” I asked, my eyes resting on Basile.

“Am I invited?” Daya asked, before Basile had a chance to answer my question.

Looking at me, he said, “It be a surprise … that be why you didn’t know about it.” When he’d answered my question, he turned to Daya. “Sure enough child … but it be just for close friends and family,” he told her, his eyes leveled on Brian.

Uncle Basile was making it absolutely clear that Brian wasn’t invited. The old man stood his ground, glaring at Brian - daring him to say something about it.

Daya seemed uncertain. I had to sympathize with her. If she came to the party, Brian would be mad at her, but if she didn’t, then she’d worry I would be offended.

Changing the subject was the only way I could think of to help her out, since I didn’t think there was any chance of Basile changing his mind about Brian.

“So where was y’all planning on having this party?”

“It’s a secret,” Basile answered. “I reckon we can all meet here near about sundown.”

Just then, a crazy thought ran through my mind. I wondered if Uncle Basile planned on kidnapping me to keep me away from the vamps. With him being so against vampires, I had to assume it was a possibility.

Daya handed me a banana split.

Risking a possible brain freeze, I took a huge bite. The brain freeze didn’t happen, but there was still the whispering of my subconscious, warning me that my indulgence was going to mean a few extra pounds. Just for today, I’d ignore the danger of an expanding waistline.

After swallowing the banana ice cream mixture, I asked, “So what are we doing at this party?”

“Ice cream … cake … the usual,” Basile told me, but as he spoke, he refused to meet my eyes.

Something was up.

I decided to ignore it for the moment. They were my family, so whatever they were up to, it couldn’t be all that bad.

“I need another one Missy Daya,” Dusty handed Daya his dish and gave her a wide grin.

No wonder Dusty had been so quiet. He’d been too busy shoveling ice cream in his face.

Daya rolled her eyes. “Dusty DeBlanc … if you don’t watch it, you’re going to roll down the highway better than that old truck of yours.”

* * *

I was in a fix. The plans my family made for my birthday celebration really put a wrinkle in my own plans for the night. Not that I minded, but I had intended to talk with Marcus about using his blood to try and heal Max. With the evening already being planned out for me, I wasn’t sure how to do that. There was always the option of waiting until tomorrow night, but with Max in the hospital on life support, that didn’t seem like such a good idea.

Thinking I might be able to talk Aaron into letting me wake Marcus a little early, I put off getting ready for my party in favor of a trip into town.

Unlocking the entrance to Crimson, I stepped inside. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw Aaron asleep on one of the tables. There was a mop leaning against a nearby table.

Deciding to take a nap in the middle of mopping the floor seemed a little on the strange side, but I supposed that if I were getting my blood drained constantly, and working my tail off to go with it, I’d get a little tired too.

“Aaron … wake up,” I whispered, nudging his shoulder. I had to repeat his name a couple of times before he finally opened his eyes.

He blinked rapidly, but it was a moment or two before his eyes came alive. “Not you again! What is it you want this time?” he groaned.

Pulling a chair down from the top of a nearby table, I sat next to Aaron’s makeshift bed. “I need to talk with Marcus.”

Aaron shook his head. “Come back tonight.”

“That won’t work. I need to see him now,” I insisted.

Aaron sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Good luck with that.”

“Jonas was awake during the day. Isn’t there a way to wake Marcus?”

With a sour look marring his face, he shook his head. “You can if you want, but I think I’ll pass on that one.”

“Well where is he … and how exactly do you wake up a vampire?”

After sliding off the table, he pointed to Marcus’s room. “The door to the basement is in there. Just put your hands on him. The warmth from your body and the scent of your blood will wake him … which by the way, isn’t a good idea.”

“Will he eat me?” I asked, slightly alarmed by the thought of waking a hungry vampire.

Aaron shrugged. “Depends on which part wakes up first, his instinct or his brain.”

It was then that I started having second thoughts. Maybe it could wait another day.

But then the image of Max hooked to all those tubes swayed my decision.

“You sure you won’t go down there with me?” I asked, getting to my feet.

“I’m good.” He waved at me. “You go ahead and have all the fun.”

It figures. All the fire in him totally got doused when it came to Marcus or Grace.

Shrugging, I opened the door to Marcus’s room. Of course it was unoccupied and the lights were off.

That was one thing I could say about Club Crimson. During the day, when there were no people or music, it was as dismal as the grave.

Flipping on the lights, I looked around for the door to the basement. I guessed it would be hidden, and I was right. I finally found it partially concealed behind some large amplifiers Marcus used for practice.

I thought it was overkill, but with no neighbors nearby, having his music that loud probably wasn’t a problem. In any case, with a place like Club Crimson, you’d have to be far enough from neighbors to keep the complaints down.  

When I opened the door to the basement, I found a dark - narrow staircase. It was too dark to see what was at the bottom of the stairs, and I wasn’t about to just traipse on down there and find out, at least not without the benefit of some lighting.

Switching on the light, I started down the stairs. They were a lot steeper than what they’d appear to be from the doorway.

The light from the stairwell only illuminated a portion of the basement; the rest was black.

Waking a vampire in the dark couldn’t be a good thing, so I searched for another light switch. It was on a wooden post at the bottom of the stairs. Once I’d switched on the light, I saw that I was standing in what almost appeared to be some kind of root cellar, but it was empty. There wasn’t a single coffin in sight, though I did notice a small crawl space in the cement wall.

Again I had no flashlight.

I was quickly coming to the conclusion that carrying a flashlight with you, should be standard when dealing with vampires. This was the second time in twenty-four hours that I’d found myself stumbling around in the dark, looking for vampires.

Taking a deep breath, I peered into the crawl space. It wasn’t as dark as I thought it would be, but that could be because it led to another room where I saw the flickering light of candles.

If it were any other vampire, I probably would have turned right around and gone back upstairs, but this was Marcus. Granted, he had his scary moments, but there was something about him that was different - something that drew me to him.

Maybe it was the vampire spell, or the fact that he’d given me his blood? I wasn’t sure. What I did know is that deep down, I trusted him, though no one else seemed to.

Emerging into the second room, I found that what I’d taken for candlelight was really oil lamps.

One of the coffins was fairly standard mahogany, but the other was white with gold trim. I guessed that one probably belonged to Grace.

I had no interest in waking Grace. In fact, I found the thought of waking her distasteful.

Since I had no idea if noise could wake a vampire, I decided to play it safe and be as quiet as possible. After making my way to the mahogany casket, I stood there staring at it for what seemed like an hour, but was really only a few minutes.