In the Company of Vampires (28 page)

I looked at him in surprise. “No. I don’t . . . I’m not big on guns and things. I have the Vikingahärta, but it’s not a weapon. At least, I don’t think it is. It protected me from Loki once, but that could be due to some other circumstance.”

De Marco had strolled into the center of the ring by that point, followed by the slight man who reminded me of a nervous ferret. “I hadn’t thought it was possible, but now that you bring it to mind, it would be a good experiment.”

“Experiment on someone else,” Ben growled, snatching up his shirt. “I am no one’s guinea pig.”

“Do you know what experiment they’re talking about?” I asked David softly, holding on to his arm as we leaned forward to hear.

“No. But if that little man is a necromancer . . .” His voice trailed off as he eyed de Marco.

“They raise the dead, don’t they?” I shivered at the implication.

“Yes.”

“But Ben is immortal. They can’t kill him.”

“So is Luis, and yet they have destroyed countless therions over the last decade. Immortal simply means we’re harder to kill than mortals. It can be accomplished.”

“Not so fast,” Isaak said, jerking a gun out of a backpack that lay beneath strewn clothing. The sight of a naked man holding a gun on Ben might have struck me as amusing in another circumstance, but I wasn’t laughing.

Ben did, though. He gave a short, harsh laugh. “Do you really expect me to feel threatened by a gun? I’ve been shot more times than you can imagine, mortal.”

The gun in Isaak’s hand wavered.

“Oh, for god’s sake . . .” Naomi stomped over to where she’d left her clothing and bag, marching over to Ben with a glinting dagger about twelve inches long. She thrust it toward Isaak. “I swear, if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Here! Take this. You can slit his throat with it, or cut out his heart, or whatever, but just do it!”

“Right. That’s enough for me. How good of an actor are you, David?”

He looked confused. I didn’t waste time explaining, I just marched forward until I reached the lights, hauling a softly protesting David with me. The second we became visible, I switched my determined stride to a stumbling stagger, leaning heavily on David as if my legs couldn’t hold me up. “That was the besh party I’ve ever sheen. Washn’t it the besht? I gotta say, theshe Germans know how to throw a shindug. Digshug. You know what I mean. But man, I gotta pee. Back teeth are floating. Oh, look, a blanket.”

I came to a stop near the sated orgyists, who quickly scrambled to their respective feet.

“David!” I said in a faux whisper, cupping my hand around his ear but not turning my head into it. “Peepsh! They’re having a naked party! We should totally join in. Do you naked peoplesh have a Porta-Potti around here? Gotta pee.” As the surprised faces of Naomi’s group turned toward us, I staggered to the side, pointing. “David, look! It’s that evil Naomi! And Ben! You bastard!”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Naomi demanded to know of Ben.

Fortunately, he looked as genuinely surprised as the rest of them, which gave me just enough time to do my best drunk walk over to him, waving my fist as I did so. “I am sho gonna punch you! I’m your Beloved, bushter!” I unguarded my mind just as I reached him.
Hello. Would you duck, please?

I drew back my arm and swung in a huge circle. Ben obligingly ducked, which left Naomi the only body in the way of my fist.

I’d also like to know what the hell you’re doing here!
he thought furiously at me
. This is no place for you, Francesca!

She screamed and leaped toward me.

Isaak and Micah jumped into the fray as Ben jerked Naomi to the side, roughly pushing her away from me.

No. I thought you would trust me to uphold my promise to you.
There was pain behind his words.

David roared, actually roared as he shifted into lion form. He leaped onto Isaak, knocking the man to the ground.

“I want him!” de Marco said, pointing at David’s lion form. “And the vampire. I want them both, along with the other therion.”

The two women whose names I never did hear looked at each other, then turned and grabbed their clothing, disappearing into the night. Luis stood watching the men fighting, looking confused and unsure of himself.

“Are you Alphonse de Marco?” I asked the man who was now yelling at Isaak to hurry up with it. “And did you once know Miranda Benson?”

He stopped shouting long enough to shoot me a piercing look. “Just who are you? Why do you keep interfering in my plans?”

“I’m his Beloved,” I said, pointing at Ben. “And you can’t have him. He’s mine.”

Ben and Micah had been duking it out until Ben sent the latter flying a good twenty feet. He turned toward me, his face a picture of shock.
Did you just say what I think you said?

Look out!
Naomi, with a bloodcurdling shriek, threw herself at him, slashing at his torso with the knife.

It was my turn to scream, and scream I did. “You bitch!”

Ben twisted her arm just as I ran toward them, intending on pulling her off him, which sent the dagger flying. Naomi suddenly seemed to radiate a shock wave of light, knocking back everyone nearest her with a deep compression blast.

I stared in surprise as I got to my knees. She turned on me, a strange black and blue light glowing around her in a corona that filled me with dread. “Now I will be done with you!” she snarled, lifting her hand toward me.

“No!” Ben leaped forward to stop her, but he wasn’t fast enough. A pulse of light shot out from her toward me. Without thinking, I raised the Vikingahärta, yelping when it glowed white for a moment as Naomi’s dark power hit it.

It was her turn to stare in openmouthed amazement as I did a little dance, transferring the burning Vikingahärta from hand to hand until it cooled down enough to hold.

“You . . . What is that . . . ?”

“Luis!” David was back in human form now, Isaak and Micah having been knocked out. Uncaring about his nudity, he jerked his pride member to the side, shaking him and speaking rapidly in an unfamiliar language.

I looked up from the Vikingahärta to Naomi, my eyes slits. “I have had enough of you.” I raised the valknut, but rather than it blasting her with its power, it shifted in my hand, changing form, the three triangles rotating until they all slid into a new position.

“What in the name of all that’s green and glorious . . .”
Did you see that? Did you see what it did?

Are you all right?
Ben was at my side in an instant, one arm around me as he looked not at the valknut but at my hand, before pushing me behind him as he faced Naomi. “Harm her, and you will die.”

I looked up from where the Vikingahärta had settled into a new arrangement, surprised by the threat in Ben’s voice.

“That goes for you, too,” he added, looking at de Marco.

He looked furious. “Your woman matters little to me, vampire. Just keep her out of my way. You, however, I will see again.” Without saying anything more, he spun around on his heel, shoved the slight man out of the way with a rude word, and strode off into the darkness. The second man shot us an unreadable look, and followed. Which left us with . . .

“Naomi,” I said in a sickeningly sweet tone as I turned to face her. “I have a score to settle with you.”

Francesca, do not,
Ben warned me.
She is more powerful than you know.

“It’s not nearly so big as the one I have for you,” she answered in similar style, smiling to boot. Her gaze dipped to the Vikingahärta for a few seconds, her jaw tightening as she lifted her chin and looked down her nose at Ben. “I am not done with you, either, lover.”

I started toward her, but Ben wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his side.

She laughed, and with sublime indifference to the fact that she was still naked, strolled casually over to her stuff, slipped on a discarded robe, and left with her clothing stuffed into her bag.

I looked around at the remains of the orgy. Isaak was covered in blood oozing from deep claw marks and bites, and was half sitting up, groggily touching his chest. Micah was still out. David, who had left off shaking Luis, and had given him a couple of hard slaps, turned to face Ben. “He’s drugged. He won’t come out of it for a while. I don’t know what they used on him, but it’s effectively stripped him of his will.”

I was filled with contrition. “I’m sorry I messed up the tyro,” I said, leaning into Ben.
I feel horrible. Did I ruin everything?

No.
To my surprise, there was laughter in his mind.
On the contrary, I think you progressed us quite a bit.

“You didn’t mess it up. Luis is safe, and although Ben has been outed, I believe that we should be able to learn what we wish to know from Luis once we can counteract the drugs he’s been given. I might have wished for things to turn out a little differently, but no, you didn’t ruin anything. On the contrary, I have much to thank you for, although Ben looks ready to hang me up by my intestines for letting you get involved.”

“Not your intestines. Your balls,” Ben answered with a dark look.

I nudged his side with my elbow. He made a big show of sighing. “When I was young, I used to dream of the day when I had a Beloved who would allow me to take care of her as I was born to do. I never imagined she’d be a woman who spurned that which I had to offer. You may stop looking daggers at me, Francesca. I know perfectly well that you are able to take care of yourself.”

“Just as I know you can’t help being overly protective. What are we going to do about them?” I nodded toward the two men.

“I’m sure David has plans for them.” Ben lifted his head, his body language tense for a moment before he smiled and relaxed when Diego emerged from the trees.

“Oh, yes,” David said, a note in his voice sounding remarkably like the low rumble of a lion. I edged closer to Ben. “I have plans.” He said something to Diego in whatever language it was that therions spoke to each other, then tossed Ben a set of keys. “Take Fran home. We won’t need you any more tonight.”

Ben lifted an eyebrow. “Not even for the . . . interrogation?”

“You’re not going to torture them!” I gasped.

“Torture? No.” David shook his head.

“They will have to be questioned, though,” Ben said.

“And they are bound to resist,” Diego added, smiling as he nudged the still unconscious Micah.

David hauled Isaak to his feet and looped a nylon hand restraint around the latter’s wrists. Isaak was aware enough to protest, but not to put up much of a fight. “Torture implies violence for no particular reason other than to cause pain. Our violence against Isaak and Micah will be for a completely different reason.”

Isaak understood that well enough. His eyes widened and he started stammering out excuses as David, with a cheery wave at us, hauled him down the slope to the parking lot. Diego cuffed Isaak, and since he still wasn’t conscious, simply grabbed his feet and hauled him naked after David.

I winced as Diego purposely dragged Isaak over a prickly looking bush. “I really don’t want to know what they’re going to do, do I?”

“No.” Ben took my hand and led me on a diagonal line from the path the two shape-shifters had taken. “But David will not harm them if they tell him what they know. He’s not a vindictive person.” He stopped for a moment, making a little face. “Well, not normally.”

David’s car was parked a half mile away, hidden behind a ramshackle shed that was obviously used to store farm equipment. As we drove back to the Faire, I mused over what I’d seen.

Ben suddenly interrupted the silence that had filled David’s car. “Francesca, I do not like this silent treatment. I know you are angry at me for what you saw, although in my defense, I would like to point out that you wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t insisted on spying on the tyro. I know you are angry about it, however, and I’d much prefer that you yell at me now rather than seething quietly.”

I laughed at the outrageous picture he drew. “Since when have I ever seethed quietly?”

“You’re not angry?” He shot me a quick look before negotiating a busy intersection in the middle of Brustwarze.

“Oh, I’m furious. But at Naomi, not you.” I laughed again at the confused expression on his adorable face. “Ben, I’m well aware that you did everything humanly possible to keep from participating in the orgy. I don’t like the fact that Naomi was all over your private parts with a familiarity that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but I do recognize the difference between her helping herself and you egging her on. You may rest your mind that I am not sitting here seething quietly, not that I think I could even if I wanted to. I’m not the quiet anger sort of person.”