Purpose (14 page)

“You
are
my business,” I replied,
stepping closer.

They finally looked at me and they all froze.
Even the girl, her face plastered in a grimace of pain as the first
Daemoni still held her by the hair. She looked at me with pleading,
fear-filled eyes, realizing she’d put herself in a bad situation. I
could see why she willingly left her friends and went with them.
The two men were quite attractive, dressed in silk shirts and dress
pants, and they smelled nice—vanilla, freesia, rain, citrus,
cinnamon…. Their looks and even their scents pulled her in.

They were vampires. Although subtle—they
projected themselves as bait, not predators—I saw the unusually
pale skin, the red tint to the irises and the slightly longer,
pointy eye-teeth I knew were fangs. I wondered how she couldn’t see
any of it and then remembered I was specially tuned to them. The
process of the
Ang’dora
had already sharpened my senses
beyond her human abilities. My resolve tightened when I realized
what they would have done to her.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” one sang.
How original
. The female vampire sauntered away from the
girl and closer to me, a smile spreading across her face. She
looked surprisingly unattractive for a vampire, with a head of
dull, pink hair that had the texture of a baby-doll’s, obviously a
wig, and very masculine features. And she stood quite tall, nearly
as tall as the white-blond, her legs long and muscular under her
mini-skirt. Her shoulders were nearly as wide as his, too, her tank
top stretching across a flat chest….
Oh!
She wasn’t a she.
She was a he.
Huh. A transvestite vampire
. I hid my mild
shock behind a stoic face, trying to maintain a calm demeanor.

The third one moved toward me, also checking
me out. He was shorter than the other two and not as muscular. But
he was still dangerous…still a vampire.

The first one, the white-blond, still held
the girl by her hair but had no interest in her. His red-tinted,
ice-blue eyes studied me with curiosity, his full lips twitching
with a smile.

“I think you know
exactly
what you
have,” I said. My heart sped, as if trying to run away, as if it
knew how much the vampires wanted it. The frantic pace probably
excited them. But I acted as bravely as I possibly could, still
trying to keep control of the situation. “So let her go and take
me.”

The blond let go of the girl’s hair and
seemed to pat her shoulder. She fell to the ground in a heap, as if
shoved down by a great force. She looked up at me, her eyes wide
and wild. Streaks ran down her cheeks as tears turned her make-up
into little black rivers. I momentarily wondered what she would
tell her friends…if she got back to them. Which was up to me.

“Are you
insane
?” she whispered to
me.

I chuckled to myself at her choice of words.
If she only knew
…

“Probably,” I said. “But you can go.”

I glanced at the vampires. They paid her no
attention, their eyes never leaving me. They walked slowly toward
me, seemingly hesitant. They had to know something was coming. They
surely weren’t expecting Amadis royalty to simply hand herself
over.
No, there are probably only two of us stupid enough to do
that.
And I was the more ignorant one because I didn’t even
know what I was getting myself into.

I looked back at the girl and she crouched on
the street, still shaking uncontrollably. If they really were
anything like my vampires, they could feed off her fear. I had to
make a move.

“Now!” I yelled. “
Run
!”

The girl moved awkwardly to her feet and
stumbled away. I needed to keep the vamps interested in me so I
took off the opposite way, toward the car. My scheme worked. They
took no notice of her escape, all three chasing me. I could barely
feel the ground under my feet. I ran pretty damn fast now, nearly
flying. I just didn’t know if I would be fast enough. I sprang into
the driver’s seat. They hit the car just as I slammed the door.
Their fingers clawed at the convertible top. I flattened the gas
pedal to the floor and pealed out.
Game on!

The Daemoni kept pace with the car as I raced
through the streets, pulling them into a darker area of town. I
tried to get away from the residential area, but couldn’t find a
way out. Every street I turned down was lined with more houses. I
rounded a corner. A brick wall rushed toward me.
Oh, shit!
I
slammed on the brake and cranked the wheel, spinning the car around
in a one-eighty, tires squealing. The smell of burning rubber
filled the air. The three vampires rushed at me. I could see and
hear people—innocent bystanders—not too far away.
This isn’t
good enough!

I jumped out of the car, bounded on the back
and hurdled the six-foot brick wall. I landed in the backyard of
someone who wasn’t home. No lights shone through the house windows,
dark rectangles staring vacantly at nothing.

But I wasn’t alone.

I straightened up from my crouch. I first
noticed white legs that seemed to never end in a black leather
mini-skirt that would have been a belt on anyone else. Her perfect
breasts practically burst out of the black leather halter barely
covering any of her pale white skin. Her long hair was white-blond,
like the other vampire’s, framing a striking face with red-tinted,
ice-blue eyes that narrowed at me. This familiar blond beauty stood
there as if she’d been waiting for me. I remembered her from the
pub in Cape Heron the night I met Ian…and from the attack in the
Arlington street the night before we moved to Florida, when I was
only eighteen.

She glanced up, behind me, at the other three
standing on the wall, then made a face of disgust, revealing her
fangs, as she looked me over.

“
This
?” she spat, looking at me but
obviously talking to the others. “
This
is what he left me
for?”

I stood frozen as she sauntered around me,
studying me from every angle. I tried to make my heart slow down,
knowing its frenzied pace didn’t help matters. I couldn’t
comprehend at first what she said.

“
You’re
the little cunt Seth has been
dying for?”

I flinched at her vulgarity. But then I
realized the meaning behind her words. She used his old name, his
Daemoni name, and she knew where he was. And she used present
tense—not
died
, but dying. My heart sped even faster, but
now with hope. And the hope gave me courage. I narrowed my
eyes.

“You know where he is? Are you the
cold-hearted leech who’s been keeping him away from me?”

She laughed, the silvery chime both appealing
and frightening at the same time. Her face was serious, her voice
mocking. “If I had
my
way, I would be home with him right
now, doing everything I’ve always fantasized about. Instead, I have
to deal with
you
.”

Her hand suddenly gripped my throat.

“Vanessa!” The transvestite admonished.
“Lucas wants her alive.”

“To hell with Lucas,” she hissed. “I’ve been
waiting to tear her throat out since before she was born, when that
whore of a mother of hers took my Seth.”

Oh, ho, ho. Now you pissed me off
.

Something horrible washed over me,
penetrating into my very core. A sick, cold, hard feeling. One I’d
never felt before in my life. My blood boiled with it. My head
throbbed with it. My eyes saw red through it.

Hatred. Murderous hatred.

It wasn’t jealousy. I knew who he loved. The
feeling came from knowing she was the epitome of the Daemoni—the
whole concept of everything I hated about my life, everything that
had destroyed the normal life I so much desired, everything that
had taken my love, my heart, my soul away—everything wrapped up in
this white-blond beauty. I
hated
her and all I wanted to do
was kick her ass into non-existence.

One of the others—the blond—chortled, the
maniacal sound echoing my own madness. “He was never yours. You’ve
never been right in the head, sis. But, hey, if you want to take
her, I won’t stop you.”

Vanessa laughed again as her hand tightened
around my neck. “You’re damn right I do!”

“I don’t think so,
bitch!
” I grasped
her arm with both hands and yanked her hand away from my neck as I
kicked her in the stomach, launching her back several feet. She
landed with an ass-plant on the grass, astonishment quickly turning
to outrage. I turned to the others.

“I’ll go with you, but you keep
her
off of me.”

She sprang from the ground and lunged at me,
shoving me into the brick wall. My head and back smacked hard
against it. She pinned me with her hand on my neck again. I pulled
my legs to my chest and pushed out, driving her back. I ran for the
middle of the yard to avoid being cornered against the wall. She
lunged at me again.

I ducked and she flew over me, her nails
grazing my back, cutting one of the dress straps loose. Then I did
something I didn’t know I had in me. Something I would never be
able to duplicate if I tried. Bent over at the waist, I twisted my
hips and threw my legs upward as if attempting a new kind of
cartwheel. My feet thudded against her hard body in quick
succession as she soared overhead. My torso followed the spin of my
lower body, bringing me around upright, and I landed on my feet. So
did she. Her eyes blazed, her stunning face screwed into
hideousness with fury. She looked like the monster she was. I
wondered what the hell I thought I was doing, fighting a
vampire
. But only for a moment. That’s all she gave me
before she charged at me again. I wasn’t quick enough. I
wasn’t
a vampire.

We soared across the yard and crashed through
a glass patio table.
Oh, shit! Not glass!
She landed on top
of me and yanked me over onto my back. Her left hand tightly
gripped my throat, pinning me down. The glass shards under me
stabbed through my skin. I gasped for air. Pain shot through my
torso and pierced my lungs.
Something’s broken.
But that
wasn’t the worst problem.

The worst was the blood. I smelled the acrid
iron of it first. Then I felt the wet warmth spreading on my face.
The taste of salty rust filled my mouth.
Blood is so not
good.

The other three suddenly hovered over us,
their tongues swiping across their lips, pulled into maniacal
grins. Their four faces looked down at me hungrily, their eyes
glowing red. Hissing-snarling sounds rumbled in their throats.
Vanessa peeled her lips back into a detestable grin, exposing
razor-sharp teeth and pointed fangs.

“She’s
mine
!” she growled at the
others. And I knew then, for sure, she was the woman in the street
in Virginia. She’d said then I was always
hers
. And now she
finally had me.

The others pulled slightly back but started
crowding over us again, drawn to the blood. Low growls rolled in
their chests.

With her right hand, Vanessa shoved my left
shoulder down against the glass and cement. She moved her left hand
to my right shoulder. Her knee pressed sharply into my thigh. I
couldn’t move. But I could breathe again. I took a choking gasp.
Pain seared through my chest. My vision blurred and dimmed as her
face came down to mine. She smelled like lavender, vanilla and
cigarettes.

I knew this was it. She was too strong for
me. Fear and pain replaced my anger, eradicating any inhuman power
I’d possessed just a few minutes ago. She hovered over my cheek.
Her cool breath slid against my hot, wet skin. She inhaled deeply
and a satisfactory smile overcame her face.

“Ah, at least you’ll be delicious.” She ran
her tongue over my cheek, lapping the fresh blood. “Mmm. Tasty.
Ready to join your man in hell?”

“If that’s where he is,” I whispered, my
voice gurgling with blood.

She bent her head lower, to my throat, her
hair feeling like wisps of silk as it fell on my face. I closed my
eyes, hoping it would be fast. I felt the teeth and fangs cut
through my skin, like a knife slicing into a tomato—slight
resistance at first, then an easy slide through the soft flesh.
Then she sucked. My blood seemed to gush through my body, rushing
through my veins, looking for that outlet into her mouth, as if it
wanted to be drained.

Good-bye, Dorian. You’ll be safe now.
Mommy loves you
.

Just as everything went nearly black, I no
longer felt her weight on my shoulders and thigh.
What happened?
Owen?
I couldn’t move, could barely see, but I could hear the
fighting sounds clearly. Hisses and growls and thuds and screechy,
scraping sounds, like metal against stone. It had to be Owen. And
others. Too much action went on for Owen to be alone.

I wanted to yell at them to stop, to let the
Daemoni have me, to not sacrifice their lives to save mine. That
this was what I wanted and what they all needed. But I couldn’t do
anything but lay there and listen. Then the sounds and movement
suddenly ceased. All I could hear was heavy breathing. I tried to
move, to see what was going on, but I couldn’t. My body felt numb,
lifeless.

“You’re really doing this?” Vanessa shrieked.
“You’re still choosing
her
?”

She heaved the last word.

“You’re damn right. Until death.” The silky,
smooth voice still lovely, even in anger.

“If you think I won’t kill you, you’re
wrong!” Vanessa screeched.

More fighting sounds. All I saw were flashes
of darker black against the gray of my vision.

“Get them
both
!” one of the male
vampires yelled.

“I can’t!”

“He’s too strong!”

Several
Pops!
And then silence.

Except for my raspy, gurgled breaths.