Eternal Prey (23 page)

Now was as good a time as any to ask Seir a question. “What did you mean when you said Lia and I weren’t supposed to be taken?”

Seir shrugged. “I figured Fin couldn’t resist coming, and I knew Christine would make an appearance. When she showed up, Fin would toss her butt back out into the cosmos. Then he could move on to another city. Didn’t shake out that way. I was hanging around because, well, it was my show. But big brother was so worried about what I would do that he missed his chance.”

“Truth?”

Seir finally looked at him. “Maybe, maybe not. It’s whatever you want it to be.”

“Yeah, figured that. Well, at least you know Zero values you. He’s giving up Lia to get you back.” Utah didn’t know why he bothered to say anything nice to the jerk.

“No one values
me
, raptor. They value my power. I haven’t mattered for a long time. I’m just a tool.” He smiled. “Like you.”

Utah’s patience was fading fast. He turned to leave.

“One more thing.” Seir was back to staring at his drink. “Zero and Fin will probably give each other a wide berth at the exchange. But if you ever see the three of us together, I mean
touching
close, run like hell.” He paused.

Come on. Utah wanted out of here.

“Doomsday stuff happens when we’re together.” He didn’t smile as he said it.

The cold, clammy hand of premonition rested on Utah’s shoulders all the way back to his room. But as he closed his door, he purposely shut out all thoughts of Seir. He had other things to think about.

A short time later, Utah lay in bed. He couldn’t stop his personal Rolodex of reasons he hated vampires from flipping over and over and over. They were cold-blooded killers. They were freaking parasites. They couldn’t be trusted. The reasons went on and on. Yeah, some of them were just hearsay, but he was willing to believe any vampires-are-the-devil claims he heard because . . . He wanted to. And if some of those claims also fit him, well, he chose to ignore them.

What about Lia? How would he feel about her? For the first time he actually tried to decide why he even cared. Fine, so he thought she was as sexy as hell. But that was only part of it. She was smart and brave and . . . flawed. Flawed like him. He felt a kinship. Most of all? Lia treated him like a person. And as much as he thought that vampires weren’t people, he
knew
that he wasn’t.

He fell asleep with all his questions unanswered.

This was just weird. Utah couldn’t believe they were doing this in a damn rose garden. There was something strange about the place. It was February, cold, and rosebushes shouldn’t have leaves or flowers. These did. And it wasn’t cold
here
. In fact, he’d taken off his coat.

“Christine is doing this. She always brings the heat. She’s a life freak. She’d try to grow stuff in the middle of Times Square and water it with tourists’ blood.” Seir’s mockery was back. “She’s bought completely into Zero’s out-of-death-comes-life crap. Kill the human polluters, and Earth will bloom again.”

Utah was keeping Fin’s brother close. It would sort of ruin the trade if one of the major players disappeared. He looked around. As far as he knew, Fin and Zero were patrolling the perimeter to make sure no humans noticed what was happening. The good guys were on one side of the field with rows and rows of rosebushes separating them from the bad guys.

Only the good guys weren’t all good. There were good guys Kione, Ty, Spin, and him. Then there were Adam and Jude’s five vampires. Not so good. Too bad Jude wasn’t here to help control his men. Utah saw Adam’s hand in that. He hoped Jude was okay.

And considering the black looks passing between the vampires and Kione, he hoped they’d hold it together until after he got Lia back.

Across the rows of rosebushes stood the bad guys. Utah recognized only one of them—Seven. She had Lia with her. But he hadn’t gotten a good look at Lia because the rest of Seven’s legion of darkness had clustered around her.

“Christine’s brought an interesting mix with her.” Seir wasn’t about to shut up. “Some vamps, a few demons, werewolves—”

Adam appeared beside them. “It’s time to make the trade. Seir has to come with me.”

The vampire looked so smug that Utah wanted to rip his head off. Of course, that’s what he felt like doing to every vampire. Lia was
his
partner, so he should’ve been the one going into the middle to do the exchanging. But Adam had pulled rank. Jerk. Adam didn’t care about Lia, he just wanted to be seen as the big freaking cheese of the vampire nation. Utah wouldn’t be surprised if one of Adam’s people whipped out a camera and turned this into a photo op for the son of a bitch.

Wait, something else occurred to Utah. Where was Adam’s rage? Why wasn’t he royally pissed at Seven for siphoning off a bunch of his vampires? Utah narrowed his eyes as he watched Adam and Seir stepping over rosebushes on their way to the middle of the field. The vampire wore a strange expression as he watched Seven come forward with Lia.

Utah’s heart pounded, his breathing quickened. Had Zero treated her okay? She looked the same. He took a deep breath to relax the tightness in his chest. What would she say? What would
he
say?

No words were exchanged as Lia followed Adam back to their side of the field and Seir walked away with Seven. Then Seven’s people faded into the darkness and were gone.

Utah’s rush to meet Lia came to a sudden halt as someone spoke.

“The time has come for you to die, fae bastard.”

Aw, shit. Utah turned to look at the five vampires. They’d formed a semicircle around Kione. The unseelie prince was standing his ground, though.

“Your curse wasn’t enough punishment? No one can say that you don’t know how to hold a grudge, bloodsuckers.” Kione smiled, and a distant rumble of thunder disturbed the silence. “But then so can I.”

Utah crouched, ready to free his beast. He saw Spin and Ty do the same.

Lia looked dismayed. Adam didn’t.

Utah figured Adam probably thought of this as a win-win situation. If Kione died, Adam got rid of an annoying minion who couldn’t be trusted to always follow directions. And if Kione destroyed the five vampires, Adam would have a clear shot at Jude if he wanted it.

With everything at stake, Utah was surprised to see Adam turn to leave. What the . . . ? You’d think Adam would at least make a show of caring what happened to the five vampires. Or maybe he wanted to be able to tell Jude that he couldn’t help them because he wasn’t there.

And what about Lia? Adam wasn’t taking her with him. You didn’t just leave a new vampire standing alone. She’d need blood and others of her kind around her. Utah started toward her, but before he could reach her side she waved him off.

“Stay away. Don’t come near me.” She put her hand over her mouth and stared at him with . . .

Hunger? Not what Utah had hoped to see. He looked closer. Not just hunger, but full-blown bloodlust with a side order of shocked horror. He cursed himself for actually hoping. Had he really thought she might come back unchanged?
Get over it.
She was vampire, and she’d never again . . .

Utah wasn’t ready to complete that thought. Not now. He’d think about this after he helped Kione kick some bloodsucker butt. He turned away from her to focus on Kione and the vampires.

The vampire in the middle stepped forward. His long black coat snagged on one of the rosebushes, but he yanked it free. He pointed one finger at Kione. “No punishment will ever suffice to wipe away what you did to our clan. The curse merely filled the time before we could find and destroy you.” A twitch of his lips passed for a smile. “Rejoice, because after this night you need never suffer the curse again.” He pushed his coat aside and freed his sword. The four behind him did the same.

Utah was impressed. All five were big men with faces carved into hard lines. He’d bet none of those lines came from laughter. Everything about them was black, from their identical long coats, to their black fingerless gloves, to their eyes. Hate and rage lived in those eyes. Power surrounded them. It wasn’t a benevolent power. It reeked of blood and reached out to touch him, promising that he too would die if he decided to interfere. It was an old power, forged from earth and fire, polished by ice and stone. They were one step removed from elementals. Or maybe they just felt that way.

But Utah was still putting his money on Kione. And if Kione needed his help, Utah would have his back. Utah beckoned his beast from its cave.

“I’ve waited centuries for this moment.” Kione began to glow. “I’ve suffered with your fucking curse, and I added every moment of agony to what you owe me. Tonight your bill comes due. I hope you die hard.” His smile would send grown men screaming into the night.

The moment following Kione’s last word stretched on and on and on.

Lia looked uncertain.

Not unexpected. The vampires were her people, but Kione was her partner. Utah hoped she had enough sense to stay out of this. She might be vampire now, but these guys were way out of her league.

Ty and Spin moved apart, ready to free their souls.

Utah sensed violence a second before the vampires struck. And as the rose garden became a blur of motion, death stalked the darkness.

Utah took a deep breath and . . .
didn’t
free his beast.

T
here were enough monsters in the rose garden.

Ty and Spin had put lots of space between each other, but still their beasts filled the field, crushing rosebushes and dwarfing everything around them.

Utah didn’t often get this perspective because he was usually one of the monsters. But wow, as ancient predators went, Ty and Spin were pretty impressive. He hoped they didn’t get so caught up in the killing that they forgot to stop.

He’d stay human as long as possible. He wouldn’t be able to marshal all his reasoning powers in his animal form, and at least one person here shouldn’t be lost to the bloodlust.

He glanced at Lia. So far, she was just standing there staring.

Everyone that wasn’t a T. rex or a Spinosaurus backed up. Kione and the five vampires might fling around all kinds of flashy power, but it all gave way to the sheer physical presence of two predators, each fifty-plus feet long, supplied with all the equipment necessary to kill and to keep on killing. Especially when the supersized killing machines were just about invulnerable in their present forms.

“You would interfere with a fight that is not your own?” an outraged vampire shouted at Utah.

“Doesn’t look like the odds are exactly even, bloodsucker. Five of you. One of him. Nope, not even.”

Lia seemed to have forgotten him as she stared at Ty and Spin, so Utah edged a little closer to her. Even as vampire, she couldn’t compete with the players already on the field. He’d stay nearby in case she needed him.
Face it, the only thing she needs you for now is a quick energy drink, a bloodsucker’s caffeine substitute.

The five vampires needn’t have worried about anyone interfering. Kione and the vampires moved so fast that no one could even see them. They were simply shadowy blurs in their dance of death. Yeah, there was blood, but you couldn’t tell who had shed it. Ty and Spin stood motionless, ready to grab a vampire if one became visible. Lia still looked dazed.

Utah along with Lia, Ty, and Spin waited, trying to get a feel for how the fight was going, and seeing nothing as the battle raged on and on and on. Utah didn’t think he could take it much longer. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t see Kione or the others, but it was too quiet. A life or death struggle should be filled with shouts, screams, and cries of agony. But there was nothing, just the occasional rumble of thunder. What the hell were they doing to each other? It wasn’t natural.

Then everything changed in an instant. A booming crash of thunder shook the ground as five jagged spears of lightning lit the night sky. The sizzle and crack of the lightning as it struck mixed with the scent of ozone, burned flesh, and cloth. When the smoke cleared, the five vampires lay on the ground. They weren’t dead, but they were definitely down for the count. Bits of their charred coats still smoked, and each had an impressive hole in his chest. They lay on their backs and stared up at Kione. And once caught in the fae prince’s deadly gaze, they seemed helpless.

Everyone
stared at Kione. Utah shielded his eyes against the fae prince’s brilliant flare. It hurt his eyes, but he couldn’t look away, couldn’t even shut his eyes to block Kione out.

There was nothing subtle or even remotely human about the dark fairy. He was a blaze of white light so intense that Utah could actually feel it crawling over his body, sinking into every cell, burning him up with its deadly compulsion.
Sex
.

Kione had told them the truth. He wasn’t ramping up the sex with them before.
This
was ramping up the sex. Not the fun part of sex, either. Utah’s cock was so hard it hurt, the agony building until he doubled over and dropped to his knees. His breaths came in tortured gasps. If he could only breathe he’d scream. He ripped open his jeans and wrapped his fingers around his staff, tried to bring relief, but touching himself brought only more agony.