Eternal Prey (9 page)

The fae prince stilled. Utah tensed. He didn’t fool himself. Kione would have him before he had a chance to free his beast. He wished he knew what the damn fairy was thinking.

The moment stretched on, the silent promise of death interrupted only by the vampire’s terrified whimper.

Lia broke the silence. “Maybe you’ve forgotten why we’re here. If you guys tear each other up, then I’ll have to hunt down this rogue vampire by myself.” She didn’t look as casual as she sounded. She still held her gun ready. “I’ve already had to get his name for you.”

“What?” Utah and Kione spoke in unison.

“His name is Chris.”

She’d taken on a vampire and gotten a name from him? “How?” Utah knew his eyes were wide with shock.

“I met a vampire in the bar near where the car is parked. We talked. He told me.”

Utah’s stare promised he’d have the whole story later.

Kione took a deep breath, and the tension eased. “I don’t understand all this passion over one vampire.”

“I’m human now, but pretty soon I’ll be like Dan here. That won’t change the essential me, though.” Lia lowered her gun a little.

“Are you sure?” Kione looked doubtful. “I’ve seen what happens to the old ones. After a few hundred years, you won’t remember your humanity. Humans will be merely a food source.”

“Don’t count on it.” Lia sounded pretty definite about that. “I don’t think Dan was a bad human, and I’d bet he’s not a bad vampire either.” Lia leaned forward, her expression intent. “Vampires are individuals—some bad, some good. Maybe you should find out which before killing any more.”

Kione looked down at the vampire. “He’s not worth drawing blood over. I’ll wipe his memory and give him a new one. I’d rather not have Adam know I destroyed one of his people. It might damage his image of me as his helpless tool.”

Kione went down on one knee beside Dan. “Look at me, vampire.”

Dan didn’t try to fight him.

“None of this happened. You split from your friend. You never saw him again. And you don’t remember ever seeing any of us. You met with a strange vampire who attacked you. You managed to escape.” He stood and turned his back on the vampire.

He walked over to the human who was still somehow conscious. “I suppose you want him saved too.”

“Yes.” Lia scanned the area. She slipped her gun back into her pocket. “Then let’s get out of here before someone sees us.”

Utah watched Dan roll over and crawl into the shadows. It wouldn’t take him long to heal enough to make it back to the tunnels.

Kione reached down and cupped his hand over the human’s torn throat. The wound closed before disappearing. Then he placed his palm on the man’s forehead. The man blinked and sat up.

“What the hell happened?” The guy got shakily to his feet. He stood swaying as he stared at them. “God, I feel dizzy.” He glanced down. “Where’d all this blood come from?”

Kione locked gazes with the man. “I suppose you had too much to drink. I wouldn’t know about the blood. Perhaps you’d better hope no dead bodies turn up around here. We were passing by and saw you lying here. Can you make it home on your own?” Kione couldn’t quite twist his expression into something that resembled human caring.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He braced himself against a tree. “Feel sort of funny. Uh, thanks for stopping.” Then he pushed away from the tree and staggered toward the street.

“You have no idea how thankful you should be.” Kione’s whispered comment didn’t reach the man.

“Wow, I’m impressed, prince. The healing, the mind wipe, all powerful stuff. I wonder what else you can do.” Lia might be telling the truth about being impressed, but she didn’t look friendly while she was saying it. “Too bad you enjoy killing so much.”

Utah noticed that she’d put some distance between Kione and her. He could tell her it didn’t matter. Kione’s sexual compulsion had a long reach.

Kione’s smile was a mere baring of his teeth. “It’s ‘too bad’ that you don’t understand the true nature of vampires. They deserve killing.”

Well, what do you know. Someone who hated vampires as much as he did.

Lia interrupted Utah’s thoughts. “Just got a mental bulletin from Adam. He wants us to report back to him. Now. Oh, and he wants you guys to drop your shields so he can reach you in an emergency.”

Interesting. Utah couldn’t keep Kione out of his head, but his wall must be working with Adam. Good to know.

Lia looked as though she was listening. “One more thing. Adam says to move your asses because it’s almost dawn.”

“Almost dawn? How time flies when you’re spreading pain and destruction.” Utah hated being ordered around.

“Do you think he’s going to make us sleep in that tunnel?” Lia looked creeped out at the thought.

“I sleep where I choose.” Kione started to walk back toward the car.

Utah glanced at Lia. Given a choice, he knew exactly where he’d “choose” to sleep.

L
ia worked on her impulse control as she drove back to the tunnels. She resisted the compulsion to slide her gaze across to where Utah sat in stoic silence. Was she the only one about to explode into a shower of erotically charged particles? Looked like it. Well, no way would Lia admit she was more susceptible to Kione than he was. And double no way would she allow Utah to know that her heat-seeking hormones had attached themselves to all the interesting places on his body.

She’d been strong all her life. Had to be if she’d survived as Katherine’s daughter. Fine, so this wasn’t like the other challenges she’d faced. This one came wrapped in the promise of pleasure. She’d identified the threat, and now she’d defeat it.

Kione gave what sounded like a fair approximation of a human sigh. “Your thoughts are no fun when all you think about is sex. And no, I won’t stay out of your minds. I need
some
entertainment. But I do feel an obligation to explain something to both of you. What you’re feeling has nothing to do with me. You have to be
looking
at me for it to happen.”

Without thinking, Lia glanced at Kione in her mirror and almost took out an innocent garbage can sitting by the curb. She gripped the steering wheel, trying to stay on the road, trying not to abandon her driving in favor of flinging herself onto Utah and . . . She stole a quick sideways glance at him that dropped, and dropped, and dropped until it reached . . . Hmm. Lia allowed herself a purely self-indulgent smile. Mr. Stoic wasn’t as detached as he looked. Body parts didn’t lie.

She tore her gaze from Utah as the car wandered dangerously close to a streetlight. Then she took a few steadying breaths. “It must be hard for your friends not to be able to look at you.” Lia tried to process what Kione had said. He couldn’t be telling the truth.

“Then maybe it’s lucky that I don’t have any friends.” There was no inflection in Kione’s voice.

No friends? What good was immortality without someone to share it with? Lia tried to imagine a life with no family, no friends. She couldn’t. Maybe she needed to cut Kione some slack. You didn’t get much chance to practice your people skills when you were always alone.

“Must be tough.” Utah kept his attention fixed straight ahead, but a strand of sympathy seemed to run through his comment.

It amazed Lia that Utah could feel any sympathy for someone else when he was so focused on avenging his brother. And he’d actually spared Dan’s life. If she wasn’t careful, she might even start to believe he had a few normal human emotions other than anger.

Kione’s laughter was a harsh rejection of Utah’s sympathy. “You think that no one ever looks at me? Think again, raptor. I have my own army of stalkers, beings that can only feel sexual excitement when they’re looking at me. I’m not always the user.” Bitterness laced his last sentence.

Lia didn’t know what to say to that. Evidently, Utah didn’t either, because no one spoke again as they drew near Adam’s underground headquarters.

During those final moments, she puzzled over why she reacted so strongly to Utah when she
wasn’t
looking at Kione. Sure, he was great-looking, but she’d been around beautiful men before, and her sex drive never drove
her
. Add to that the conflict-of-interest thing. Vampire lover versus vampire hater. Not a good mix.

It had to be the power of suggestion. She’d
expected
to feel lust when she was around Kione. So, she’d felt what she expected. No big deal. Now that she knew better, the unwelcome emotions would go away.

Lia parked Jude’s car in its original spot and climbed out. She considered whether to bother bringing in her bag, but decided against it. She refused to sleep in that tunnel surrounded by Adam’s vampires. Utah didn’t retrieve his stuff either. Good. Kione didn’t have anything.

“Kione, did you bring clothes with you?” Stupid question. No one appeared in the middle of a summoning circle trailing a rolling garment bag. She joined the men as Reed detached himself from the shadows beside the door.

“No. I’ll find something tomorrow.” Kione looked surprised that she’d asked.

Now, that was just sad. Not that he didn’t have anything, but that he didn’t expect anyone to care.

“I have a couple of changes of clothes if you need something to wear. Just take whatever fits you.” Utah seemed to be trying for casual a little too hard.

The two of them were a lot more alike than they’d ever want to admit. Utah sounded uneasy with his own attempt at kindness. But then how much kindness had he experienced in his previous life? He must be struggling with all his shiny new human emotions. For maybe the first time, she stopped her headlong rush to be vampire long enough to appreciate being human.

Kione paused as though searching for a response he’d long ago forgotten. “Thanks.”

Something about Utah’s offer made Lia feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Uh-oh. It was hard enough to deny her sexual attraction to him without starting to like him as a person. She quickly dismissed the thought and turned her attention to Adam.

Lia decided Reed wasn’t into exercising his vocal cords as he nodded and waved them into the building. They walked down the stairs and just like last time, someone opened the door to the tunnel before they could knock.

This time it was one of Adam’s men. He simply stood aside for them to enter. Adam’s guys were a talkative bunch.

She followed Utah until they reached Adam, and then she moved up to stand beside him. Kione stopped behind them. Adam still sat in the middle of the tunnel, but most of his people were missing. Probably out hunting. They’d be trickling back soon. Wouldn’t want to be caught by the dawn.

“Any luck?” Adam didn’t invite them to sit down.

Utah glanced at Lia.

“Chris. That’s all I got.” She shrugged.

Adam frowned. “Chris is a common name. No last name?”

“You were right about the mind control. The vampire who gave me the name couldn’t get anything else out. He suffered for giving me that much.”

Utah glanced around the area. “Where do you expect us to sleep?”

Adam shrugged. “There’re plenty of cots. Choose one.”

“It’s too cold here.” Lia shivered. “Call me wildly self-indulgent, but I want to sleep in a room with heat, a real bed, and a bathroom.” Definitely a bathroom.

Adam didn’t look impressed. “You sleep down here. And I want to know how you intend to find the damn vampire who’s stealing my people.”

“Since you didn’t give us any clues about where to find this vampire, we’ll just have to spend time canvassing the city until we come up with something that goes with Chris.” Utah narrowed his gaze. “And no, we’re not sleeping down here.”

Whoa. Lia was impressed. Utah was challenging Adam. Brave but incredibly dumb. Could she love this guy any more? Fine, so sarcasm wouldn’t help the situation.

She jumped in to soften Utah’s declaration. “Think about it, Adam. You’re vampire. You don’t feel cold. But all of us do.” She didn’t know about Kione, but she included him anyway. “And I have to be near a bathroom.”

Adam’s expression said he didn’t know why she couldn’t just pee in a corner somewhere. “And if I insist?”

He sounded merely curious, but Lia suspected this was a defining moment in their relationship with Adam.

“Then that would make me mad.” Utah didn’t even try faking regret. “And when I lose my temper, my beast isn’t too reasonable.” He glanced around. “I’d pretty much fill up this space.”

Adam still didn’t look angry. “I’d be able to take you down before you could do anything.”

Something in Utah seemed to grow and expand right in front of Lia’s eyes. His threat was the complete silence of the forest right before the predator struck, the eyes shining from the darkness, the low rumbling growl that froze all who heard it. He was death, and thinking that thought didn’t even seem over the top to Lia.

“Don’t underestimate me or those who stand with me, vampire.”

Utah’s voice had changed in ways Lia couldn’t pin down. Then she realized what it was. His voice had lost its humanity. She somehow knew she was listening to the voice of his beast. Not a comforting sound.

Kione moved to the front of the pack. “I side with Utah and Lia. This might be a safe vampire haven, but it really sucks in the comfort category. Don’t try to make us stay. That would upset me. I do things when I’m upset. Like bringing the tunnels down around your head. No more hidey-hole, and the city won’t be happy when a bunch of their buildings fall down.”