Marked: a Vampire Romance (5 page)

She shouldn’t have been surprised when he talked to her, but Gold froze where she stood, hiding behind one of the old oaks that lined the sidewalk around Highdale Park. She clutched a hardened wooden stake in one hand. It was next to useless against humans, but a stake through the heart was the surest way to kill the undead. She’d come here to fight Luther, not to talk.

Every word he spoke on the phone had convinced her that she’d made the right call, despite the dream. Not that she normally based her life choices off of sex dreams. But now, when he talked to her, he didn’t sound like the jaded libertine who’d made the phone call. He sounded like a wary man, full of remorse.

So which was real? Was someone really in danger, or was this a clumsy trap?

She stepped out from behind the tree, but she didn’t put her stake away. Gold tried to think of something to say, but she had nothing. Instead, she cocked her hip to the side and raised an eyebrow.

He wanted to talk, let him explain himself.

Adam waited for her to reply, but Gold kept her mouth shut. Finally, he relented. "There's a girl,” he explained. “Her name is Wendy Choi and she’s being held by a particularly nasty vampire at the old Great West Hotel on Route 30."

Did he really think she was that stupid? "Yeah, it sounded like you were looking forward to eating her." He probably realized that she’d overheard his call, but he’d sounded like he couldn’t wait to sink his fangs into innocent flesh.

Luther shrugged. "Subterfuge." The light from one of the park’s lamps illuminated him from behind, casting light on his shoulders and the top of his head. His hair was pulled back again and Gold’s fingers itched to give it a little tug. It looked so soft. He’d just discussed eating someone and he was trying to lead her into a trap; she knew she shouldn’t find him handsome.

"So what's this?" Why should she trust him now? There was no reason to believe that this conversation was the real one. He was a vampire. Vampires killed people. She should just stake him now and be done with it.

Real frustration peeked through Luther’s voice. "Are we going to fight and let a young woman die, Huntress?" he taunted.

Her duties warred. It was her family’s sacred mission to cleanse the Earth of vampires. But they did so to protect human life. The gauze on her arm was a reminder of what she had to do to Adam Luther, but she couldn’t risk letting an innocent be killed. Even if this was a trap. "If you're lying, I'm going to kill you." Even if he wasn’t lying, she’d have to kill him anyway.

She took off for the Great West Hotel, leaving Luther behind. It had been closed down for as long as she’d lived in Jasperton, the faded sign getting a little more decrepit each year. But it was out of the way and still standing, which made it a perfect place for squatters.

And for vampires.

She pulled into a mechanic’s shop just up the road, the hotel in sight. The shop was closed for the night, but her black car didn’t stand out. Once she put it in park, she opened up her senses, scanning for a vampire besides Adam Luther.

Sickness burbled in her throat as a torrent of blood spilled over her mind, boiling hot and thick. She could smell it in the air around her, and when she opened her eyes, everything was red for a moment. This was the same vampire she’d sensed last night, his mind and bloodlust even stronger than before.

That was the taste of evil. Compared to this monster, Luther felt like a balmy day on the beach when she sensed him driving down the highway.

His car, a red sporty sedan, drove down the road, passing her in a flash. Gold counted to sixty before starting her car and chasing after him. If she was trying for stealth, she would have never driven straight to the hotel. But when facing a vampire, there was little reason to be quiet. They’d hear her coming no matter what.

Just because they’d hear her didn’t mean she wouldn’t exercise caution.

The Great West Hotel had been a cheap little roadside inn and was now a decrepit, former cheap little roadside inn. Half the roof had fallen in on the north side of the building, but the south side was more or less intact. The windows had been boarded up ages ago, but they were no deterrent to anyone who wanted to get inside.

Gold checked her weapons one last time before entering. She’d pocketed her stake and felt the comforting weight of the modified revolver she was carrying. It was armed with steel-core wooden bullets and prone to jamming, but in an abandoned building with little risk of injuring bystanders, it was easier to shoot a monster than to stake him.

She carried one large knife in a sheath on her thigh. It was a silver alloy, less effective for killing vampires, but it would still injure them and just about any other supernatural menace. Any more gear and she’d be weighed down, unable to move quickly enough to fight.

Instead of entering through the front door like Adam, she circled around to the back of the building, where she found a half-boarded up fire exit. She yanked at the loosened wood until it gave with a great
CRACK
, the sound echoing inside the old hotel. If they hadn’t seen her already, they’d hear her now.

Her first priority was to find the girl—if she existed. There was a greater than zero chance that Adam was waiting to pounce on her, luring her out to make disposing of her body a simple matter. Gold cursed herself for coming. This wasn’t smart. In fact, it bordered on suicidal.

But once she made it into the debris-strewn lobby, there was a trail of blood that led up a flight of stairs and into one of the rooms. Tipped over, broken furniture lay everywhere. Gold stayed crouched low and pulled out her revolver before slowly making her way up the stairs. If anything moved toward her, she’d shoot.

The second floor was open to the lobby area, a half-wall blocking the unsuspecting from falling from one floor to the other. Luther and the other vampire were close. She could sense them a room over, but she couldn’t see them.

She followed the trail of blood into the first bedroom on the second floor. A barren mattress was pushed up against the wall, and on it lay a young woman in a bloodied orange dress, her hands bound with rope tied around an old radiator pipe.

When Gold got close, she could see that the girl—Wendy, Adam had called her—was in bad shape. She holstered her gun and took out her knife, trying to saw through the thick rope as quickly as she could. Bite marks covered Wendy’s neck and arms, and peeked out from under her dress. A trickle of blood dripped from her mouth. Gold worried that she was too late, but Wendy’s chest rose and fell as she breathed.

A sick suspicion roiling in her gut, she reached out and ran her finger against the still wet blood at Wendy’s mouth. It was almost black, too dark to be human, and when she held her finger close to her nose she caught a faint hint of moss.

Human blood didn’t smell like that.

The sick vampire hadn’t just been feeding on Wendy. He’d been trying to turn her. Giving a human vampiric blood was one of the first steps to start the transformation. Not knowing how long Wendy had been under the vampire’s thrall, Gold didn’t know how far along the change had progressed.

She reached into the pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out a silver disk with a small ruby embedded in the center. She’d picked up the charm from a witch after one of her first solo hunts. It wasn’t good for much, but it could tell her if Wendy was still human.

Gold pressed the silver to Wendy’s skin and counted to three. When she pulled it back, the girl’s flesh was unharmed and the red gem didn’t glow. Still human. If she’d been turned, the skin beneath the charm would have bubbled and burned.

She went back to cutting the rope, Wendy’s unconsciousness making the job easier. She didn’t need to comfort the girl and save her at the same time. When the two vampires started moving closer, she worked faster.

"You brought your own snack?" That wasn’t Luther talking. This vampire had a nasally American accent, like he was from New York or somewhere like it. She couldn’t see his face, only making out a glimpse of his black hair through a hole in the wall.

"She doesn't know that, Okano,” said Luther. Alarm zinged through her, but she reminded herself that he had to lie. Still, she worked quickly, afraid that her first instinct had been right and that this was a trap.

"Why is she with
my
human?" Okano asked.

"I think she's trying to rescue her.” He sounded amused. “You know those Buffy types. Watch a TV show and they think they're heroes." He put on his libertine voice again.

The one he used when he was playing a role. She couldn’t know that, but it felt so right that she couldn’t stop believing it. Up until Adam Luther, she’d never been tempted to trust a vampire, but with him, it was almost impossible not to.

As she sawed at the rope, she caught sight of the bandage under her sleeve. That was a harsh reminder that it didn’t matter whether she trusted him—she had a duty.

"And you were the glowering hero?” Okano laughed. “Oh, Adam my boy, you play to type."

The rope frayed and broke with a final stroke of her blade, freeing Wendy from the pipe. Her hands were still bound, but Gold was making progress. She put her knife away and loosened the rope around Wendy’s hands until it fell free.

It took a little maneuvering, but Gold’s only real option was to sling Wendy over her shoulder and pull out her revolver. Her aim would be crap and her balance off, but she’d be a sitting—well, hobbling—duck otherwise.

When Gold picked Wendy up, the girl started to groan in pain. Gold hissed out something almost like a hush, though she knew Wendy couldn’t hear her. The vampires already knew what she was doing, but she was running out of time if Adam was really distracting Okano for her.

"I think she's had her fun,” said Okano. “Would you like to do the honors? She is yours, after all."

Here it was, the moment of truth. Gold started to move. Each step that she took was a step she wouldn’t have to fight for later.

Adam clicked his tongue, and sucked in a breath. "Yeah,” he said, “That's not going to work for me."

For two seconds, there was absolute silence as Okano processed his words. "What?" he finally asked.

There was a crash, and a cloud of dust appeared through the hole in the wall. She heard growls and fists connecting with flesh. The mossy scent of vampiric blood soaked the air as the two men fought.

Gold worked in double time, taking the stairs as quickly as she could with a woman slung over her shoulder and a gun in her hand. It was too slow; she knew it with every step, but any faster and she’d trip and face plant, probably breaking her neck in the process, if not Wendy’s as well.

It took too long, but they made it to the bottom, Wendy starting to stir, the incredible pain she had to be in finally getting through the haze of unconsciousness.

“Wharr…” she mumbled, the words jumbled together, not making any sense.

“Shh,” Gold whispered, “I’m here to help.” Her shoulder was killing her, but she couldn’t stop. Not with the front door in sight.

With a crack and a crash, the vampires fell through the half-wall on the second floor, landing in a heap on top of a broken couch. Before the dust settled and Gold could see, Okano was on her, grabbing her away from Wendy, claws like nails ripping at her chest. Blood dripped from the wound before she felt the pain of the tear.

On instinct, Gold pointed her gun down and fired at his feet, rolling away when he yelped in pain as one of her bullets shot through his foot. She found cover behind a pushed over table, but Okano’s pain didn’t last long enough and he was coming toward her again before she knew it. She fired again, two more rounds in his direction. Neither one hit the mark.

He tackled her, kneeling over her, his eyes red with fury and bloodlust. His fangs had grown huge, like a prehistoric tiger’s. They’d rip her throat out in a second.

I’m sorry, Lily. I should have said goodbye
.

She didn’t close her eyes. She wouldn’t meet her fate as a coward. But in the moment she was sure that Okano would strike her down, he disappeared, his weight vanished as if by magic.

She scrambled up and saw that it was not magic, but Adam who had saved her. He was pummeling into Okano, fists moving at inhuman speeds.

Gold raised her gun, trying to get a shot off to take out the evil vampire, but with Adam on top of him she didn’t have a shot. Besides, her hand shook so much from the pulling wound on her chest that she couldn’t trust her aim.

She crawled toward Wendy. It didn’t matter that Gold was getting dizzy from the blood loss. She was getting this girl out of here.

It was a struggle. She couldn’t carry Wendy anymore, not with her muscles ripped open. Gold holstered her gun, leaving her life in Adam’s hands. She hooked her arms under Wendy’s armpits and dragged her, the girl whimpering the entire way out the front door and across the loose gravel to her car.

“Marigold!” she heard Adam scream.

A flash out of the corner of her eye and Okano was on them again, his face even more misshapen and monstrous than before. He couldn’t even stand up completely straight. This time, he didn’t go for Gold, grasping instead for the semi-conscious Wendy.

Gold reached for her gun and aimed, but Okano had Wendy in front of him, unintentionally using her as a human shield as he pulled her in position to drink from her neck.