5

Simone looked up and realized that she was not going to make it back to her shop before the sun went down. She’d had to make a run to a client’s office to take a finished dress to her and she’d lost track of time.

She should grab a cab, the streetcar wouldn’t come for a while and even then the trip would take a bit. It would be easier to just grab a taxi and go back that way. Oh Em was going to kick her butt for this—that is, if Lee didn’t do it first. She quickened her pace, cursing herself for wearing the cute heels that matched the dress. Gorgeous blood-red stilettos. They were great for the shop and even on the cab ride over to the client’s, but the walk was unpleasant. To make matters worse, she’d pulled her cell phone out to call the house and have someone come and get her. ‘Course moments later she dropped the damned thing and the battery had come out, rendering the phone useless. Stupid, stupid gadgets!

As she walked, she kept an eye out for a taxi. She was at the far edge of the Quarter, if she cut through it she’d be around a lot of people and it would be quicker, as well as having more cabs for the tourists.

She’d just head for The Grove and call from there. Watching the sun dip below the horizon, she fought back the edge of panic. She could feel it, feel him. Dread washed over her, and a cold sweat broke over her skin.

Despite the filled streets of the Quarter she felt watched, stalked. It was impossible to work out where it was coming from or even if it was close. There were so many people around that their emotions filled the air.

She nearly fainted with relief when she saw the guy from across the way—Kael, Mr. hot stuff Gardener—approach. But he looked pissed off. Supremely pissed off. He grabbed her arm when he got to her. “How could you?” he demanded in a low, urgent voice.

She tried to pull her arm back but he held it tight. “Let go of me! What the hell is wrong with you? How could I what?” Great, he was a nutbag! Crazy evil vampires and nutbags—oh, just a normal night in the Crescent City.

“You have one of them in your family? Don’t you know he’ll kill all of you? They’re all a bunch of animals. Are you one of their daytime servants? Someone to fuck while you lure others for him to kill?”

She reared back and slapped him so hard the contact reverberated up her arm.

“You let go of me now, you crazy prick!” she hissed. “How dare you talk to me like this? You come into my shop and flirt until you find out I’m an empath. Then you run

the other way. What’s your glitch anyway? You’re back here now, looking for me to accuse me of what exactly?”

Kael put a hand up to his face. She seemed genuinely upset. He couldn’t understand it. If she was with the vampires—and the information Jagger found sure pointed to her having one in the damned family—she shouldn’t be so upset. In fact, she seemed afraid. She kept looking around, eyes darting, the fear in them clear. But did she actually sound hurt that he’d left her shop? He hadn’t run! But even if he had, she was with them. He hardened his resolve and pushed her back into the alley behind them.

“Look, I don’t know what this is about but we need to stay on the public sidewalk. There’s something bad out here tonight,” she said urgently.

“Yeah, your cousin’s husband!”

“What? Aidan? Alex? Con? What are you talking about? Are you off your medication or something?” She tried to push him out of the alley but he didn’t budge. Her nose wrinkled as wetness oozed into her shoe. She looked down and saw the damage and glared back at him. “Damn you, I stepped in a puddle of something! These shoes cost me three hundred dollars!”

“You’re talking about shoes? I’m talking about vampires. You’re with them!”

She looked at him openmouthed. “What vampires? I’m not with any vampires. But damn you, stud boy, we’re going to bump into some nasty ones if we don’t get the hell out of here and now!” It hit her, the wave of dread and terror, so hard that it caused her to double over and retch.

The anger in his voice turned to concern. The hard hands at her upper arms went gentle. “Are you all right? Are you running from them? I can help you. I’m a hunter. We can get you out of the city and destroy them and their nest.”

“Are you listening to me? They’re coming!” Panic was choking her, she pounded on his chest to try and get past him. “We have to get out of here!”

“How do you know? Are they following you? We’ll get back to the house, come on.” He spun to take her back out to the street but his way was blocked.

“Well, it’s a hunter,” the vampire at the mouth of the alley said in a menacing purr as he sinuously stalked toward them. He was tall and his deep red hair was long and lifted on the humid breeze. His very being emanated menace and yet sex—a wild thing. Dangerous. He sniffed at the breeze and narrowed his eyes at Simone. “And a witch too. Oh this is rich! I’m betting a Charvez. My, my, my.” He licked his gleaming, needle-thin, sharp incisors. “Oh you’re going to be tasty,” he purred.

“I told you,” she couldn’t resist hissing at Kael, who gave her an annoyed look.

“Well how did you know?” he hissed back.

“God, are you as stupid as you’re good-looking? I told you, I’m an empath. A feeler. I’ve felt this energy coming for a few weeks now. I was on my way to a safe place when you ambushed me and went all tough guy on me. Shoved me into this alley. An alley!

You must be pretty lucky or you’ve never seen a vampire before because I have a hard time believing you’re still alive if you routinely act so dumb!”

The vampire watched them with extreme fascination.

“Dumb? You’re the one related to fucking vampires! How’s that for dumb? Did you think that it would never come to bite you on the ass because you were too pretty to ever suffer the consequences?”

She gasped in shock and turned to him, slapping him soundly on the other cheek.

“You don’t know a thing about me! Too pretty? Ugh! Ego much, asshole?” How could she have been attracted to this Neanderthal? And because of his attitude she was in an alley with some Hannibal Lecter vampire. “This is your fault! Aidan isn’t like this vampire. He would never hurt anyone in anything other than self-defense.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw the vampire moving, and two more stepped to his right and to his left. Great.

Kael knew there were now three of them and he moved to put himself between the siren and the vampires. He’d left the modified sawed-off at the house like a fool but he remembered the Berettas. One sat under each arm, and he had a knife in his boot. Problem was, he could feel that this one was old. If this vamp was Anton Perdue, he was in big trouble. Perdue was the vampire his hunters had been trailing for the last months.

“As fascinating as this lovers’ quarrel is, I’m quite hungry and you’ve made a lot of trouble for my people, hunter. And this tasty piece is going to recharge my batteries in a big way.” He looked around Kael to Simone. “Oh yes, she is. I’ve not had my way with a witch in a hundred and fifty years. I think I’ll play with you a while in front of her, get her nice and terrified.” His voice was poisonous, laced with fear and horror. Kael knew the tricks but still it made him sick in his guts. He fought his muscles when they wanted to tremble.

“Listen to me, when I say run, run,” Kael said quietly, head turned slightly. Simone reached down and slid her shoes off. He could see her nodding her head.

“I’ll get help,” she said quietly, never taking her eyes off the vampires at the mouth of the alley.

“Get down,” Kael said. He dimly heard her body hit the pavement as he dropped and rolled to the side, pulling both guns as he did. He pushed everything else out of his head as he concentrated on head shots. The oldest vamp, clearly the leader of the group, was a blur and a bullet hit the side of the building.

He hit one of the other vamps, but not with a head shot. The special silver bullets would slowly kill him if they weren’t removed but that wasn’t going to be of much help right then.

The third vampire was on him then, hand gripping his throat. His razor-sharp teeth glinted in the yellow light of the streetlamp. That light taunted Kael, the street was so close yet so far away. He could feel the magic from the old one, knew that people would just walk right by the alley without seeing or hearing anything strange.

The vampire held Kael’s right wrist in his free hand. Lucky for him, he was an excellent shot with either, and he smiled in grim triumph at the surprised look the vamp wore as he crumpled to the ground and then began to dissolve. He heard Simone’s scream and wrenched around to see what was happening. Enraged, Kael watched the vampire lean in to taste the blood welling on the swelled lip it’d given her. In slow motion, Kael raised his weapons up to shoot the old one in the head. Before he could get a shot off, Kael was sent sprawling across the alley by the other vampire.

“Come on, hunter, not very sporting of you. You with your guns and me with none,” the vampire taunted as he moved toward Kael’s slumped form. Dimly Kael knew that his left wrist had been broken and the shoulder was dislocated. Simone screamed again, the terror in the sound shot straight to Kael’s heart. In the brief moment that he shifted his attention, the vampire was on him.

* * * * *

Simone could barely breathe through the fear and panic. It was more than her own emotions—she knew she was picking up on the thrall the red-headed vampire was pushing at her. He emanated evil. Dripped with loathing and dread. She’d never felt anything like it before.

She shook off the trancelike state and looked for a way out. The only way was past the vampires at the opening of the alley. Problem was how to get past them. Kael was busy kicking ass so she couldn’t count on his help with that. Plus, she couldn’t abandon him there. Frantically, she dug through her purse, found the canister of pepper spray there and pulled it out, holding it to her side.

“Well hello, pretty. I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself yet. How remiss of me. As you and I will be quite intimate for the next little while, we should start getting to know each other.” His voice was so beautiful, filled with wonderful things. He bowed and held out his hand. “I’m Anton Perdue, it’s my pleasure to meet you. You are a Charvez, are you not?”

Simone stood up and walked a step toward him and then the reality of the situation came crashing through his thrall, bringing her to a stunned halt.

“Ah, yes, you are above average aren’t you, pretty?” Anton purred.

“I’m not your pretty, bucko.”

Anton raised a brow and two things happened simultaneously—his hand whipped out faster than she could see, striking her face so hard her head snapped back with a jolt, and she was overcome with images of death. She grabbed her stomach and bent in two, the canister falling from her fingers. She screamed as she fought, drowning in the misery he broadcast.

She hit the ground, seeing stars as her head cracked against the concrete. Unable to concentrate, she couldn’t hold back the rush of emotions from the city around her, from this monster looming over her.

Death, misery, destruction, anger, violence, rage, hopelessness, fear—all of the most base and paralyzing of emotions battered her, overwhelmed her brain. Her gift couldn’t process it all and handle her own fear as well. She could feel herself begging to shut down, disconnect.

Anton leaned down and when he touched her, she saw inside him and screamed again. She didn’t want to give him her scream, her pain, but she had no way to stop it from hurtling out of her.

He had her by the front of her dress, she heard it rip in his grasp. With a casual movement of his wrist he slammed her back against the ground hard enough that she grunted. Her arm flailed out. She touched the edge of her shoe and grabbed it. He leaned in to lick the blood that had welled on her lip and she connected with the side of his face, the heel breaking the skin. With a scream of rage he yanked her head back and she felt his teeth tear into the tender flesh of her neck. Searing, terrible pain ripped through her body. She heard the wet sounds of his attack and she screamed out loud and long, sending her terror into the night air in the alley. Her scream died as she began to lose consciousness. Suddenly his body flew across the alley and hit the wall. Simone’s last sight was of Aidan, teeth bared in a feral snarl.

* * * * *

Con shimmered back into the house. Simone’s unconscious body was in his arms and she was still bleeding profusely from the wound on her neck. He stalked to the couch and put her down carefully.

“I’ll be back,” he said shortly and was gone.

Lee rushed to her cousin, joined by Em, who looked at Lee with alarm.

“I can’t feel her, Lee. I can’t feel a thing from her!”

Before they could utter another word Con shimmered back holding Kael and deposited him on the other couch, and in two more trips had returned with Alex and then Aidan.

“What the hell happened?” Lee demanded as Aidan rushed into the kitchen to get clean cloths and the healing herbs, returning to Simone’s side.

“The Oathbreaker bit her,” Aidan said tersely, cleansing the wound and then packing it with the herbs.

“Is she going to be all right?” Lee asked anxiously, watching him work.

“I don’t know!” He looked up at her and his pain was clear in his face. “It depends on how much blood he took and whether she ingested any of his. I don’t know what a bite would be like for an empath. He would have flooded her mind with terror as he bit her, to build up her fear so he could feed off it.”