Deceptive Changes: Kat LaMond Book 1 (11 page)

We drove until the sun set and I still had no idea where we were going.  He took me on a number of back roads and then told me to turn into a field, which I found was actually an overgrown driveway.  He had me stop about two hundred feet from the house.

He pointed his gun and said, “Get out but don’t try anything.”  I slid out of the seat slowly, and he followed with his gun. 

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Not your concern.  I’ll be collecting that bounty shortly.”  Ah, a bounty hunter. 

“Are you a vampire?”

He looked at me as if I were insane.  “You mean those fictional characters?  Are you crazy, lady?”  He waved the gun and I started moving. 

“Do you have anyone else that you share the bounty with?”

“Are you crazy?  I’m not sharing a million and a half with someone.”  We entered the house.  I couldn’t hear anyone but us in the house.  “I hope Jack gets here soon.”  He went from foot to foot.  Why was he so nervous? 

“Who’s Jack?”

“Nobody you need to know about.”  He glared at me but kept the gun aimed at my stomach. 

“I was just making conversation.”

“Well, stop.”  He waved the gun and we walked into the living room, where he made me sit in a chair.  He pulled another chair close to me and kept the gun aimed my way.  He wasn’t getting distracted for anything. 

It was almost too hot in the house.  I wanted to take off my jacket but if I did I’d show off that I had weapons.  I was surprised he hadn’t checked me for weapons immediately.  Maybe he wasn’t all that good of a bounty hunter.

I heard a car pull up and doors open.  For the first time since the bounty hunter had gotten me out here I didn’t know if I would get out of this alive.

The bounty hunter made me stand up.  I stood and looked at the door.  Two beefy black men with bald heads walked into the room and held position just to the sides of the door.  They clasped their hands in front and looked menacing. 

A short man walked into the room.  He was balding and sported a moderate beer belly, though his belly was cleverly hidden behind a well-tailored suit.  “You must be Ms. LaMond.  My name is Jack.  I hope we haven’t kept you waiting long.”  I just stared at him. 

The bounty hunter said, “Where’s my money.  I delivered her to you.”

“Oh, yes.  You’re reward.”  He flicked his fingers and one of the beefy guards took him aside and ripped his throat out with his teeth.  Vampire.  Why didn’t I see that?  I guess I was focused on the bounty hunter being human. 

“Are you a vampire, too?”

“No, dear lady.  I’m just here to bring you to the one that wants you dead.”  He stared up at me.  I wasn’t that tall, five-five, so he must have been about five feet or five-one.  “Don’t think about killing me, dear lady.  I’m an extremely important individual.  If I die, things can get bad very fast.”  As if I didn’t know.  The two bodyguards dropped the body of the bounty hunter and looked at me.  Blood and other things were smeared all over their mouths.  I shuddered.

“Come with us, dear lady.”  The bald man, Jack, turned and walked out of the room. 

The two bodyguards waited until I walked forward.  They flanked me until we got to the door.  The first one walked out and to the side of the door.  I walked through and was stopped until the other bodyguard came up beside me.  They didn’t touch me, thankfully. 

I thought about what Jack had said.  They didn’t want me dead yet. 

The guards brought me to the waiting limo.  The first guard got in; I was shoved into the car by the other one.  How was I going to get out of this?  I couldn’t think of a way to kill both vamps and Jack without risking serious injury, an injury that I might not survive.  I had to do something, though.

I clutched my stomach like I had pain and slid my hands inside my jacket sleeves.  I grabbed the hilts of the knives and slowly took them from their sheaths.  Jack was looking out the window and the two guards were watching me. 

The car slowed for an instant and the guard to my left flicked his eyes out the window.  I pulled the knives out and stabbed the guard to my left in the throat and simultaneously stabbed the guard to my right in the heart.  I twisted the blade in his heart and pulled the knife out.  I twisted as I pulled the blade out of the second guard.  Blood gushed out of his neck wound.  His hands started to reach for me.  I threw one knife at Jack and caught him in the throat.  The remaining vampire, though injured, tackled me and bit my left shoulder.  I screamed as he dug his teeth in further.  I still had the one knife, thank fuck.  I stabbed his hand and used every ounce of leverage I had until it bit into the car floor.  He pulled his teeth from my shoulder and growled at me.

He climbed off me and pulled his hand and the knife from the car floor, making a sickening slurping sound.  I crawled to Jack and pulled the knife from his throat.  A long string of blood arced onto his legs and my arm. 

The vampire was on me in seconds.  I fell against Jack and tried to stab the vampire.  He caught my hand and threw the knife to the side.  He grinned at me, my blood smeared across mouth and teeth.

“You’re tough, chickie,” he said, his voice low, deep. 

“I try to be,” I said flippantly.

The car stopped and the vampire pulled me with him to the door.  I was out of weapons and I was going to face my doom.  The door opened and the vampire pulled me roughly out of the car.  I stumbled and tried to stand up but was being pulled and dragged for my failed efforts.

He dragged me into a cabin and threw me on the floor.  I looked up and saw a tall, thin man standing at the back.  He had several vampires with him that were flanked around him.  I tried to stand up but the vampire that had dragged me in stepped on my back and kept me lying flat, like a squashed bug.

“We lost one vampire and Jack.”  The tall man nodded and waived his hand.  The foot disappeared from my back.  I stood up, this time no foot came at my back.  I looked behind me and found that the vampire was gone.

“You are so much trouble, Ms. LaMond.”  I swung my eyes to him.  He had a slight accent that I couldn’t place.  Maybe German or some other European accent.

“Who are you?”  I clenched my fists and he laughed. 

“My name is Cyril.  I’ve been waiting to meet the slayer of our dear king.”

“Are you going to kill me?”  I had to ask. 

“I will,” he said with a  nod. 

“Will you make it a fair fight?”

“I’ll make it fair if you can kill one of my vampires.  If he bites you and tastes from your neck, then I just kill you.”  My heart thudded in my chest. 

I nodded.  “First, before we start?”  He chuckled and nodded for me to continue.  “Why would you send one of your vampires to die?”

“I don’t believe you can do it, slayer.  I know that you had quite the affair with our king, but that doesn’t mean you can kill my vampire.”  He tilted his head and flicked his hand. 

One of his guards came to the front.  Cyril whispered something and the vampire looked at me.  I quickly surveyed the room.  Not a whole lot of options.  I patted my pockets and found keys, not from the rental agency but for Todd’s truck.

I pulled the keys out and fisted them in my right hand, keeping the long key between my fingers.  The vampire circled me and I circled him.  He lunged at me.  I took the blow and allowed him to carry me in a flip.  I punched him in the face and took out an eye with my key.  He howled in pain and threw me off him.  I landed against the wall.  My back took most of the impact but my head still hit the wall.  Stars exploded in my eyes.

The vampire came to me and wrapped his hand on my neck.  He lifted me up and started to choke me.  He pulled my face close to his.  “That wasn’t very nice.  I was fond of that eye.”  I kept my left hand on his wrist and pulled my right hand back and punched him again. The key opened up his cheek deep enough that I could see teeth.  He tightened his grip on my neck. 

My vision clouded and I knew I was dead.  He moved his mouth to my throat.  I kicked my legs at him and tried to pull my body away.  I connected with his balls and he reared back.  He grunted and his hand loosened but for long.

He shoved me against the wall harder, and I almost passed out as my head took almost the full force.  He brought his teeth to my neck.  I stabbed his face again with the keys but it was only a scratch.  He laughed and kept his teeth hovering above my neck.  I spit in his face.  He roared at me. 

“Finish her, Jeremy.  If you do not then someone else will.”  Jeremy looked back at me and slowly brought his teeth to my neck.  I choked out a scream.

I didn’t want to die.  I struggled harder and kicked and struck his face with my right hand.  The blows I landed were like flies to this vampire.  Oh, God, please!  The vampire’s teeth ran along my neck and bit in.  He sucked and sucked at my neck.  I could feel my body losing the will to live.  Stay conscious.  As he sucked on my neck he had loosened his hold on me. 

I still had the keys but they were slippery with blood.  I tightened my hold on them and stabbed him in the neck.  He gurgled and pulled off me.  He smiled as blood ran down his mouth and neck.  He dropped me to the floor and left me.  My legs were stretched out in front of me and I was slouched against the wall.

“I guess you lose, Ms. LaMond.”  I nodded.  “You disappoint me.  Take her to the infirmary and get her patched up.  A minimum of three guards with her at all times.  I will not take any chances.”  Two vampires picked me up by my arms and dragged me to the infirmary.  Why would they take me to the doctor’s just to kill me?

A vampire stood outside the door and two watched as the doc patched me up.  “She’s lost a lot of blood.”  He put an IV in me and hooked up a glucose bag.  He must have put a sedative in it because my eyes slid shut even as I fought to stay awake.

I was being moved.  I couldn’t open my eyes but I could hear someone whisper, “It will be all right, Ms. LaMond.  I was sent by a friend of Todd’s.  He asked me to get you out.”  I must have moaned or something because he shushed me.

“I’m taking the prisoner to the doctor, she had some sort of seizure,” the unknown man said to someone in the hall. 

I kept my eyes closed until we stopped.  I looked up and found a medium height man with brown hair and dark blue eyes standing beside me.  He put his finger to his lips.

I nodded and closed my eyes.  When the elevator dinged he wheeled me out, not just out of the elevator but out of the building, too.  It was cold outside.  He stopped the cart and unstrapped me.  “Can you walk?”  I shrugged.  I had no idea if I could walk or not.  “Here,” he said, and offered his hand.  I grabbed it and he helped me from the gurney.  I slid off and promptly fell to my knees.  He sighed and said, “We don’t have time for this.”  He picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder.

He ran quickly into the woods.  He was a vampire.  I tried to yell but my throat was dry and it came out as a whimper instead.  I tried to shrink from him but I was over his shoulder and there wasn’t much I could do.

He ran for several miles, then put me down.  I looked up at him and cringed.  “Stay away, please,” I whispered and held out my hand.

“I’m not here to hurt you.  I rescued…”  He looked at me and shook his head.  “Never mind.  We don’t have time for this.  I have to get you to the airport.  I’m taking you home.”

“You aren’t going with me, are you?” 

He nodded.  “Todd asked me to bring you home.  And that means that I go to the house and drop you off.”

“What’s your name?”

“Sven,” he said, and surveyed the area. 

I chuckled and asked, “Are you serious?”

“At the moment, my name is Sven.  Anything else is none of your business.  Let’s go, we’re wasting the night.”  He picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder again. 

He took off quickly and stopped when we came to my car.  I looked at it in surprise.  “How did you get my car?”

“I ran to Koblenz, Ms. LaMond.  Get in and I’ll drive you to the airport.”  I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, so I ignored the comment.

The vampire guided me into the passenger seat and appeared in the driver’s seat before I processed the clicking of the belt.  He started the car and took off like hell was chasing us.  Maybe it was.

><                            ><

We got to the airport.  He pulled my bag from the back seat and tossed clothes at me.  “Put these on.  You’ll stand out if you wear that hospital gown.” 

I looked down and realized that I
was
wearing a hospital gown.  I nodded mutely and started to take my gown off. “Uh, could you turn around?”

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” he said, a blasé tone to his voice.  I continued to look at him.  He sighed, shrugged, and turned away.  I put the shirt on, then wiggled into jeans. 

“Okay, I’m ready.”  He heaved a groan and nodded.  “What’s wrong?” I asked, as he helped me out of the car.

“I don’t like to fly.”  I raised an incredulous eyebrow.  “I wasn’t born in this century.  Planes make me nervous.” 

I hooked an arm through his and said, “Come on, vampire, I’ll protect you.”  He looked doubtful. 

I chuckled as we walked into the airport, arm in arm.  We wanted to appear like we were a couple, at least that’s what we discussed on the way, and though I didn’t want to be near any vampire, I agreed that this was the best possible way for us to blend in.  Nobody looked twice at us.

We walked up to the Customs official.  I felt my already pale cheeks splotch with color.  I couldn’t remember where I put my passport.  “Here’s your passport, darling.  You left it in the car.”  He handed both our passports to the official. 

“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Carter.   Have a nice flight,” the woman said, her accent pleasant even if her firmed jaw belied the kindness of her words.

We boarded a non-chartered jet and sat in First Class. 

><                            ><

When the plane was leveled off, I asked Sven, “Mr. and Mrs. Carter?”

“It’s a contingency plan that Todd has in place.  It was supposed to be him that came and got you but we didn’t have time to do both.  Cyril was going to kill you.”  He kept a death grip on the arm rests. 

“Sven, you may want to loosen your grip or you’re going to break the chair.”  I pointed to the indents on the arm rest. 

“Oh.”  He loosened minutely. 

“Here,” I said and held out my hand.  “Hold onto me.  I love to fly so maybe you can get some good vibes from me.”  He removed his hand ever so slowly and gripped my hand.  I hissed in pain as he put the same death grip on my hand.  I patted his hand.  “It’ll be okay, Sven.”

“Why did you laugh at my name?” 

I smiled and said, “You just don’t look like a Sven to me. I always pictured a Sven to be bulky, eight feet tall, blond hair, and light blue eyes.  Not someone with medium height and build, brown hair and dark blue eyes.”

“I could color my hair back to blond but it clashes with my eyebrows,” he said, chuckled, and finally started to relax a bit. 

“Can you drink alcohol?”  He nodded. 

I pushed the button to call an attendant.  The stewardess came over and asked what we would like.  I ordered two glasses of champagne and two whiskeys.  She didn’t even bat an eye at the request. I guess she got a lot of nervous fliers.

She came back with our order and handed them to us, then left us alone.  “You’ll break the glass if you continue to hold a death grip on it.  Personally, I don’t want alcohol on me.”  He nodded and downed the whiskey.  He set the glass on the tray and started on his champagne.  I drank the whiskey a bit at a time.

We finished our champagne at a reasonable pace.  Sven started to loosen up a bit more.  I knew it wouldn’t last.  His metabolism wouldn’t hold the liquor for very long and we still had six hours to go.  I had an idea but I was afraid of the consequences. 

I leaned into Sven.  “Do you think some of the alcohol in my blood will help?”  He seemed startled by the offer.  “I assume you won’t kill me if you take a taste of my blood?  Antreas…” I cleared my throat.  “Antreas would take a sip or two while we were together.  It always felt nice.  If it will help, take a few sips.”

“I won’t kill you but you really shouldn’t offer so freely.” 

I looked at him and knew it would be okay.  “I figure you saved my life, the least I can do is give you a little blood to help ease your discomfort.” 

“We can’t do it here.  Not that I’m a messy eater but I like to have privacy.”  He stood up and held out his hand. 

We walked back to the galley and, with a soft, though firm, command, he told the stewardess to leave.  A glance at him and she was gone.  He closed the curtains and hugged me to him.  I patted his arm, “You’re killing my oxygen supply.” 

He let me go with a heavy sigh. “Oh, sorry.”

“How did you want to do this?”  His eyes started to shine.  I closed my eyes and bared my throat. 

Instead of going for my throat, he grabbed my wrist in his hand.  I cringed as I saw his teeth move closer to my wrist.  Oh, God, I can’t do this.  I started to pull away but his hand tightened around my wrist.  I felt his teeth slide in and then pleasure filled me.

Sven pulled me closer, wrapping his arm tightly around my waist.  I leaned against his slim chest and surrendered to the delightful feelings running around inside me. 

A few moments’ later, he pulled his teeth out and licked the wound to seal it.  I hadn’t expected him to be finished so quickly, but he was. 

We ended up on the floor, and sat there for a few moments, just letting everything settle. 

He pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head and said, “Thank you.”  I nodded because I couldn’t speak. 

We stood up and made our way back to our seats. 

I ordered another glass of whiskey when the stewardess came back around.  Sven declined and I could understand why, his cheeks were rosy with borrowed blood. 

“I’m glad you liked it.  Don’t expect it again,” I said.  This couldn’t happen again, not with the feelings running inside me the way they had. 

“I would never.  I do have to say I was hesitant to drink your blood.  I heard tales of the enforcer having power over vampires.” 

I looked at him and grimaced.  “Do you feel an overpowering urge to be with me?”  He laughed and shook his head.  “Okay, then.  I guess it’s not true.”  We stopped talking when the stewardess brought my drink, gave one quick look around, and let us be without a word.

“Tell me about your life?” I asked. 

“There isn’t much to tell.  I’m 210 years old.  I’ve never been married, I live life to the fullest, and I try to stay out of disputes over power.  How I got roped into this one I’ll never know.”

“Well, thanks again for saving my life.  I owe you one.”

“No, you don’t, I owed someone a favor,” he said, sounding mildly morose.  Well, now we both knew how he got roped into helping me out of an awful situation.

“You took an awful big risk.  What will you do after you drop me off?”

“I’ll disappear.  You won’t hear from me or see me again, if that’s what you’re asking.”  I nodded.  I could understand the desire to disappear.