Hellbourne (6 page)

Sliding off his stool, he took one step from the bar before Sheila’s hand wrapped around his arm. “No, you don’t. If I lose you, the master will be angry with me.”

Luc shrugged, knowing he wasn’t going to get away from her any time soon. “Then come along.”

They walked through the crowds, avoiding the mass of bodies in their trek to the darkened doorway. Once they passed through the entryway, the quiet was so intense Luc thought he’d gone deaf. Magic filled the air but he could still feel the screams in his mind. Someone was suffering.

Someone he knew.

A long dark hallway spread before them with doors on both sides.

“The rooms are soundproofed for added privacy,” Sheila whispered as if not wanting to disturb the unnatural quiet.

Even the feel of the air was different here. Instead of the honest odour of heat and sweaty bodies whipped about by overhead fans, the air was still, almost hushed with absolutely no scent. It was like walking into a bubble, the entire area purged of sensation.

Luc pulled Sheila behind him. If she insisted on going with him, she wasn’t going to go first and there wasn’t room for them to walk side by side.

As they passed each door, Luc held up his hand, sensing the occupants hidden inside.

The third door was the one. He could feel the pain rumbling through his bones.

Sheila grabbed his wrist as he reached over to open it. “No.”

Luc turned to look at her. “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean, I know the guy who rented this room and he’s an old vampire, deadly. You don’t want to mess with this guy.”

“On the contrary, my dear,” Luc replied with a smile. “He doesn’t want to mess with me.”

As he opened the door, the first thing that hit him was the smell of blood. It soaked the air like a thick, wet fog trying to seep into his skin. The lights in the room were so dim Luc had to blink a few times for his eyes to adjust. It was a bigger room than he’d expected and the lack of light made it difficult to see.

There was a cracking sound followed by a scream of pain.

Turning towards the sound, Luc was amazed to see vampires filled the room. They draped across couches, chairs and even on the floor—more vamps than he thought belonged solely to Nikko’s tribe. All eyes were turned towards the ceiling.

Luc’s heart leapt into his throat. From his vantage point he could see a skinny, naked male dangling from manacles in the ceiling while a tall, muscular vampire stood with a bullwhip slashing away at the pitiful creature.

The mental feel of a room full of vampires washed over Luc like a cool wave, but over the slightly metallic feel of the vampires, was the scream of piercing pain from the body in the centre of the room. Cuts slashed the pale skin, traversing the entire body in bloody lines like a horrible street map of torture. It took him a moment to realise that the bloody mess was his favourite cute blond waiter with the puppy dog eyes. Jerrod.

That asshole was whipping
his
waiter.

None of the vamps standing around were doing one damned thing. They all wore varying expressions of disgust, horror or plain fucking indifference.

Luc used the voice of authority he’d learned from his father. “What’s going on here?”

The vampire with the whip snapped his head around, baring his fangs. “Stay out of this thrall or you’ll be under my whip next.” The vampire’s voice was breathy and his face had that skinny skull-like definition, like someone who hadn’t seen a good plate of food since the dawn of time.

So, not attractive.

If Luc wasn’t so pissed, it probably would’ve been frightening, but he was beyond angry. He’d lost his home, his former lover and now this fucker with a whip was harming his waiter.

Righteous anger shot through Luc’s body, causing hellfire to crackle through his veins, burning his bones from the inside out.

The vampire continued to ignore him confident Luc was frightened away. Pulling back his whip, the sadistic bastard wound his arm up for another slash. Without conscious thought, Luc shifted through time and space to appear behind the whip wielder.

Taking advantage of the vampire’s distraction, Luc grabbed the vamp’s whipping arm at the wrist. Using all his weight, Luc bent back the vamp’s arm and snapped it. The sound ricocheted in the room as the vampire screamed with pain.

“I’ll kill you,” the vamp shrieked.

Luc laughed. A sound that was scarily reminiscent of his father’s laughter.

He couldn’t be killed.

Beaten, yes.

Tortured, yes.

But not killed.

“Good luck with that, buddy.”

Unimpressed by the vampire’s struggles to be free, Luc did the only thing that would keep this asshole dead. With a soft whisper, he let the hellfire burning through his body free. In his peripheral vision, he could see the runes glowing red on his arms. Releasing the vampire’s arm, Luc gripped the sadist’s head with both hands and freed the flame rushing through his body, sending hellfire straight through the vampire’s skull.

Screaming, the vamp wrenched out of Luc’s grip and dropped to the floor with a thud. Burning alive, his inhuman cries filled the room. Within moments, the corpse disintegrated into a pile of grey ash.

Did bad vampires go down to his father or were their souls lost during conversion? A question to answer another day.

Looking up, he saw that there was finally some emotion on the onlookers’ faces. Complete and total horror.

Served the fuckers right.

The dangling boy let out a whimper, drawing Luc’s attention away from the others. “Hey, hey, it’s all right, sugar. Shh.” Jerrod was making low frightened sounds like an animal in pain.

Anger towards Nikkolai burned through him. How could the master vampire let this happen in his club? This was not the sort of man Luc was looking for as a lifemate.

Not to mention his life was a fucking long time.

With a snap of his wrist, the cuffs crumpled, releasing the waiter into his arms. Carefully, he lowered the kid to the floor, mindful of his wounds.

Luc crouched in front of the injured vamp, making soothing nonsense noises. Using both hands, he scraped the hair back from the face to get a good look at the waiter.

Wow, beautiful.

Frightened
. Big blue eyes filled with tears.

“Shhh. Shhh.” Luc ran a hand down Jerrod’s head in a soothing gesture he’d learned while living with the weres. “It’s okay, honey. I’ve got you.”

“T-thank you, L-Luc,” the damaged vamp said in a sad, shaky voice while tears dripped down his blood-soaked cheeks.

“Shhhh, it’ll be all right. I want you to stay still. I’m going to heal you now. I’m not very good at this, so don’t move.”

“Luc, what are you doing?” Sheila asked behind him. Her voice held a tremor of fear that wasn’t there a moment ago. Maybe burning vamps alive in a nightclub wasn’t the best way to make a good impression.

“Make yourself useful, honey, and find the kid some clothes.”

Sheila snorted. “The
kid’s
much older than you are.”

“Well, then get some clothes for the old man. Just go.”

Sheila went while Jerrod gave a soft laugh. “Old man?”

“She left, didn’t she? Now stay still. I’m going to move a little healing energy through you to encourage your speedy recovery.”

Jerrod tried to be still, but Luc could still see small uncontrollable tremors shaking his skin. Obviously someone used to taking orders.

Luc had dealt with the pack omega before, so he knew all about submissives. If the whipper had been this kid’s master, Luc was going to make sure he got a better one the next time around. He didn’t care if he had to fucking interview them himself.

He was so going to kick Nikko’s ass.

“Heal,” Luc said, his voice not much louder than a whisper. He felt golden seraphim magic pour out of his fingertips. While he might be the devil’s son, his soul wasn’t damned and he could still call upon the magic of the angels. Wherever his magic glowed, the boy healed instantly, whip marks sealing in a flash of power.

The look of wonder in the boy’s face made Luc question whether anyone had ever sent Jerrod to a healer before.

Seeing the boy start to shake harder, Luc wrapped up the healing, unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it off and settled it around the blond’s shoulders. It didn’t really cover much, but it stopped the worst of the tremors. The vampire was more in shock than injured at this point.

Pulling Jerrod onto his lap, Luc treated him as if he were a frightened pack member, with long soothing strokes along the head and back.

Until fire shot through his right hand, stinging like a burning brand.

“Shit,” Luc screamed. Flipping over his hand, he saw there was now an imprint of a pair of golden wings glowing on his palm. “What in the ten hells is this?”

Jerrod’s face took on a look of wonder and for the second time that night the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Sliding off Luc’s shirt, the waiter exposed his upper arm to him. A perfect set of wings was branded there. A beauteous smile crossed Jerrod’s lips. “I belong to you now.”

“What?” Luc jumped up, unceremoniously dumping the vampire on the floor.

Tears filled those sad blue eyes. “D-d-don’t you want me?”

Torn with indecision, but not wanting to hurt the vamp further, Luc sat back down and cradled the waiter “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out. Just stay calm.”

It was good advice. He just hoped he could follow it. Being responsible for another person wasn’t on his list of things he wanted to do. He’d have to figure out how to transfer Jerrod to someone else—preferably a vampire who didn’t enjoy whipping him for fun.

Sheila returned with a stack of clothing. “We usually have stuff on hand for when things get a little rough. These should fit him.”

Snapping out of his reverie, Luc helped the other man to his feet.

With the supernatural grace of a vampire, Jerrod dressed quickly.

“Where do you live?” Luc asked the vamp once he was clothed.

Jerrod’s face fell and Luc could sense tears in his voice. “I was living with Mal.”

Luc took from his expression that Mal was the guy he dusted.

Oops.

“Hey, don’t worry, sweet.” He rubbed a hand across Jerrod’s back. “We’ll find you another place to stay. Maybe you can stay with Nikko. It’s the least he can do.”

“What’s the least I can do, darling?” Nikko’s smooth baritone rubbed across his senses like warm cream.

Despite his anger at the vampire, Nikko’s voice still sent shivers of need down his spine as memories of their night together flashed through his head like a high definition porn video.

Jerrod shook beneath Luc’s hand, snapping Luc out of his thoughts and reminding him how angry he was with the master vampire.

“I came downstairs and found your club room rented by a fuckin’ psychopath who was whipping your waiter. And not one of your damned vampires did a thing to stop it.”

Nikko’s eyes swept the crowd. “Is this true?”

A red-haired vamp came forwards. “Yes, Master, but it was Mal. He would’ve killed us, and since it was his boy, he was within his rights.”

“Fuck rights,” Luc screamed. “How about decency?”

Nikko held up his hand. “Calm down, Luc. You’re new to the vampire society so you don’t know all the rules. It’s illegal to interfere with a vampire and his people. To do so is to invite a duel to the death and Mal’s one of the strongest vampires in the state. Where’s Mal now?” Nikko’s gaze swept the crowd.

Luc tried his best to look innocent.
 

The redhead cleared her throat. “Your boy killed him.”

Nikko laughed. “No, really, what happened?”

The vampires just looked at each other. They weren’t prepared for complete denial.

Luc decided distraction was the way to go. “Nikko, I am very angry with you.”

“Angry with me? What did I do? Even if I was here, there wouldn’t be much I could do if Mal was disciplining his boy.”

“He wasn’t disciplining,” Luc argued. “He was torturing.”

Nikko shrugged. “He looks all right to me.”

Luc stared at the vamp. He could feel the vein throbbing in his forehead. He wondered idly if his head could be seen from space, exploding like one of those cartoon mushroom clouds.

“Jerrod was almost beaten to death in your own club, a man who works for you, and you don’t even ask how he is doing?”

“He’s doing fine,” Nikko said, flashing a fang at the other younger vampire, “or he wouldn’t be standing there touching you.”

For the first time, Luc noticed a tentative hand rubbing his back in soothing circles. He tilted his head and Jerrod gave him a shy smile.

He could get to enjoy this treatment.

What he couldn’t stand was a man who’d let someone be injured under his roof and do nothing about it. He could tell by Nikko’s behaviour that even if he’d witnessed the scene he still wouldn’t have interfered.