A Christmas Peril (3 page)

“
What about
your
safety?” Isaiah
asked, tucking the invitation back into his pocket. “I noticed a
few of your members look unhappy.”

So I wasn’t the only one who had
noticed that the Widderstrom grieve wasn’t as peaceful as Hedda
made it out to be.

Hedda’s lips thinned, and
she tilted her chin. “That is
none
of your concern.” Her eyes flashed red before
returning to their ordinary brown.

Inwardly, I sighed. Of course she’d
see it that way. Grieve business was meant for vampires only. I
glanced at Isaiah. “Ready to leave?”

He nodded and took my arm. “We didn’t
mean to crash your party.”

“
No harm done,” Hedda
said. “I wish you both a Happy Christmas.” Then, with a silent
speed that only vampires could manage, she slipped from the
room.

I raised my eyebrows at Isaiah and
grinned. He smiled back, the tension draining from his
eyes.

“
Can we go to Taco Bell?”
I asked as we left the restaurant and waited for the valet to bring
the car around. Now that I was away from the drama, I was suddenly
starving.

He laughed. “Whatever you
want.”

After a few minutes without getting
our car back, Isaiah tugged on his lower lip. “Something’s
wrong.”

My stomach dropped like a lead weight.
I hadn’t come this far to have the night turn sour now! “Maybe he
can’t find it. There are a ton of cars here.”

A moment later, when the valet jogged
up to meet us, my stomach dropped even further. His eyes refused to
meet either Isaiah’s or mine, and he jangled the keys nervously.
“I’m sorry, but there’s been a problem with your car.” He quickly
added, “We’re fully insured, you understand. I’d be happy to call a
tow truck for you.”

Isaiah pushed the man aside without a
word and strode into the parking lot. I scrambled after him,
wobbling in my heels. The Jag was parked along the restaurant’s
wall and partially lit by the light spilling from the windows. The
car was lower to the ground than I remembered, and someone had
scratched words into the paint. With a sick lurch, I read the same,
vicious messages that had been scrawled on the bathroom
mirrors.

Isaiah knelt down for a look. “The
tires have been slashed.” He angrily slapped his thighs when he
stood. “Dammit! Why are people always messing with my
ride?!”

Luckily, Isaiah was too angry to
notice what the words spelled. If he had, he would have marched
back into the party and started cracking heads until he found the
person or vampire who’d written them. Although those insults
burned, all I wanted to do was leave. I’d had enough excitement for
one night.

Isaiah pinched his forehead between
his thumb and forefinger. “I might as well call Perry to pick us
up.”

I grabbed Isaiah’s arm when I heard
the clack of metal heels on pavement. It had to be the same woman
from the bathroom! If she was angry enough to write words on the
mirrors, no doubt she was up to wrecking Isaiah’s car. Those
knifelike stilettos of hers probably caused all the damage. “I
think that’s her. Our vandal.”

“
Get in the car and lock
the doors. I’ll be right back.” Isaiah shoved his phone into his
pocket and strode off after the woman. He wouldn’t hurt her, but
he’d scare her into regretting that she’d ever tangled with us. Or
his car. I would have felt sorry for her if I weren’t so
angry.

Suddenly, something plowed into me
with the force of a freight train. I was thrown over a shoulder and
whisked away so quickly that my surprised protest never reached
Isaiah’s ears.

I’d been abducted by
vampires before, but it’s not something one gets used to. It’s like
traveling blindly at warp speed. One moment, you’re on familiar
turf, and the next, you’re on
their
turf. Before I could utter another cry, I was
deposited in the kitchen of what appeared to be an abandoned house.
Street light fell through the broken windows, giving me a view of
the crumbling neighborhood surrounding us. I had no idea where we
were, only that the warmth and laughter of the restaurant were very
far away.

Facing me was the brunette in the
sheath dress; the one who’d tried to touch me. Her eyes blazed red
with hunger, and the tips of her fangs protruded between her
painted lips.

She shoved me hard against the wall,
pinning me like a wriggling butterfly to a corkboard. I opened my
mouth for one more scream, but then she hooked me with her red
eyes. My protest died unspoken. It was those scarlet irises. I
couldn’t look away.

She loosened her grip a tiny bit.
“Just relax, Cassandra. Relax.” Surprisingly, her voice was soft
and kind. My frenzied struggling slowed down as my body responded
to her suggestion. “This won’t be unpleasant. Enjoy the
ride.”

Her hypnotic stare was like a dose of
laudanum. The dark, abandoned house, the stink of mildew and urine,
the dank, cold air…all of it grew distant. My head buzzed
pleasantly. My body loosened, and my arms grew tingly. My hands
dangled loosely at my sides as if they weren’t connected to the
rest of me. I giggled. “Look, I’m a puppet!” I said, lifting my
limp arms in unison. When my knees wobbled, the vampire tightened
her arm around me so that I wouldn’t fall over.

“
This better be important,
Edith! I don’t like being dragged away from my family like
this.”

I recognized the voice. It belonged to
the vampire with the gray, bushy sideburns who had given Hedda her
gift. “Hello,” I said. I kept my eyes on Edith’s, but offered the
newcomer one of my floppy hands. “Cassandra Jaber. Nice to meet
you.” My lips had grown Novocain numb, so the S sounds came out
like ‘th’. I’d been in better control moments after having my
wisdom teeth pulled.

Scrabbling underneath my preternatural
calm, a scream struggled to break free. Alarm nibbled the edges of
my mind. I should be running away, not acting all civilized and
polite. Still, the red, hypnotic eyes calmed me, making me more
pleasantly giddy than the champagne had.

“
Look who I brought you,
Cornelius” Edith said.

The older vamp started, then took my
hand in his cold one. “Cassandra Jaber.” Awe softened his voice.
“The human who can regrow her soul.” He smelled good: of leather
and cologne with just a hint of pipe tobacco.

The brunette smiled. “She’s a very
special gift. For you.”

He dropped my hand. “I can’t do
that.”

“
Hedda said no one can
feed on her without her permission,” my captor said, “but I’m sure
she wants you to.”

“
Of course I want you to!”
I gave a lopsided grin.

“
You’ve glamoured her,”
Cornelius said. “She doesn’t know what she wants.”

Edith huffed, annoyed. “What do you
care for Hedda’s rules anyway?”

“
I care deeply about her
rules.”

Edith intensified her stare, her red
eyes burning twin holes into my brain. “She really wants you to do
this.”

My mind was now fuzzy at
the center as well as the edges. “That’s right,” I agreed. I
nodded, my head wobbling like an enormous sunflower on a very thin
stalk. “I want you to.”
Wait a sec,
my inner voice cautioned.
Think about this.
Slowly, my addled
brain made sense of my offer. “No. Stop! No, I don’t want you to.”
Didn’t I? I couldn’t remember. “What are we talking about
again?”

Cornelius sighed. “Return her to the
party where she belongs.”

“
You can’t turn this
down!” Edith argued. “Think of how much strength you can glean from
her!”

“
And why would I need
strength at a Christmas party?” His question held a knifelike
edge.

“
To claim your rightful
place, of course.” She whispered, but every word rang clear.
“
You
are the heir
to the Widderstrom grieve. Not Hedda.”

Cornelius didn’t move.

“
She stole what was meant
to be yours on the night she murdered the grieve’s appointed
leader.” Edith rubbed her tongue along her fangs. “But with this
woman’s soul and blood, you’ll be stronger than Hedda. You can
overpower her. Tonight is perfect because she won’t expect
it.”

Edith was so impassioned by her own
vision that she turned to face Cornelius. With the break in eye
contact came an instant release of her glamor. I snapped
awake.

Cold sweat broke out over
my body as I realized what I’d nearly consented to. I had to get
out of here, and fast! But where was
here
? The restaurant was nowhere in
sight. Neither was Isaiah. And without my weapons, I was screwed.
If only I had kept my stakes!

The moment my hand touched the
rhinestone pin on the waist of my dress, my mind clicked. I still
had the holy water! I slipped my hand around the metal spritzer. I
was crazy to think I could fight a pair of vampires with nothing
but a mist of holy water, but maybe, just maybe, it would give me
the edge I needed. At the very least, I wouldn’t go down without a
fight.

“
Doesn’t she smell
delicious?” Edith murmured. She lifted my wrist to her lips. I
shuddered as her cold, wormlike tongue caressed my skin. “If we’re
gentle with her, she won’t remember a thing.”

“
Let her alone!” Cornelius
grabbed Edith’s shoulder and spun her around.

“
Why? Have you changed
your mind?”

“
No! I don’t want you
disobeying Hedda and shaming the grieve.”

Edith hissed, furious. “Coward! If you
aren’t man enough to take what was stolen from you, then I
will!”

She turned back towards me, and when
her cold, slippery tongue tasted my wrist again, I jerked the water
from its hiding place. “Stay away from me, or I’ll spray
you!”

Both vamps hissed and backed up.
Perfect. I slowly retreated, holding out the small, metal canister
as if it were a loaded gun. “I’m leaving now,” I said. “Don’t try
to follow.”

If only I knew where I was! I turned
my head slightly to get my bearings, and that’s when Edith
pounced.

Instinctively, I pressed the button on
the small canister, releasing a blast of pressurized holy water.
Edith flashed a nasty grin as she dodged my only weapon.
Unfortunately, Cornelius had lunged as well; not to hurt me, but to
drag Edith away from my neck. The mist of holy water got him right
in the eyes. He screamed and clutched his face. Smoke billowed from
beneath his hands.

Edith seized my arm so hard the pain
drove me to my knees. “Bitch! You’ll pay for this.” I squeezed my
eyes shut, already saying a final prayer. Instead of biting me,
however, she hauled me to my feet and sped back up the street.
Within moments, she was dragging me through a back door of the
restaurant, up a narrow flight up stairs, and into the crowded
ballroom. I hadn’t even caught my breath by the time she’d pulled
me onto the dais. Her grip was like a steel handcuff.
Unbreakable.

“
I’ve caught an assassin!”
Heads turned in our direction. “This woman attempted to murder
Cornelius!” Edith’s eyes glittered red.

The red was immediately reflected in
the eyes of every vampire in the room. All at once, each of them
was very, very angry at me.

I knew I was in trouble when the human
blood partners were ordered to leave the ballroom. When the doors
were locked and guards posted, I started shaking. The scene had
gone from Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men to Evil Intentions in
under a minute.

Hedda was by my side before I could
blink. “What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded. Luckily, her
wrath was turned against Edith and not me. Even so, my legs
wobbled. I started to reply, but Hedda cut me off with a wave of
her hand. “Explain,” she ordered my captor.

The woman smiled slowly,
exposing lethally sharp fangs. “This
human
blinded Cornelius with holy
water.” She held up the spritzer. I hadn’t even realized she’d
taken it from me.

Hedda drew back. “I don’t believe
it.”

“
It was an accident!” I
protested. “Edith was about to drink from me, and when I tried to
stop her with the holy water, I sprayed Cornelius instead.” I
pressed my hands to my throat as the weight of the vampires’ eyes
hit me. They all wanted a taste of me, and right now, there wasn’t
a damn thing I could do to stop them.

“
You gave him permission
to drink!” Edith said.

“
Only because you
glamoured me into it!”

My heart beat wildly. As if hearing
it, the vampires murmured and pressed closer. Bloodlust honed their
red-eyed stares until I felt like the focal point of a hundred
laser pointers. Any more attention, and I’d burst into
flames.

Where the hell was Isaiah? Surely, he
would have realized by now that I wasn’t locked safely in the car.
I frantically looked towards the door, willing my vampire hunter to
crash through them. Then again, with this much vamp power in the
room, there was no way Isaiah could take them all out. Even Hedda
would have her hands full.