On Pins and Needles: Sierra Fox, Book 3 (29 page)

My thoughts were crushed when I spotted Conrad bleeding on the floor, and his former friend standing over him.
 

Cam turned his focus my way. “Oh, looks like we’ve got a celebrity here tonight.” He stepped up to me, his eyes glaring right into mine. I looked away, remembering what he’d done to Ebony.
 

I might not know if it was his blood or his gaze that had made her a willing slave, but I wasn’t prepared to go the same way.
 

He ran a finger over my cheek. “Maybe I’ll turn you. Wouldn’t that be fun—to have one spook catcher turned into a vampire and another as my personal sex slave?”

I confronted him long enough to spit in his face, and he slapped me so hard my ears rang.

Papan growled from across the room, but I couldn’t concentrate on him. I could already smell the sickening stench of burning flesh inside this claustrophobic room.

Cam wiped his face and turned to Conrad, who was back on his feet. Two vampires held him by an arm, stretching him wide. “You should’ve left her. Why waste your time trying to rescue an easy little whore?”

“I’m going to enjoy staking you
so
much,” Conrad said with a wicked grin. He spat blood and a tooth on the ground.

“From where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like you’re going to be doing much of anything. But thanks to you, I have a new chew toy, a catcher I’m going to convert, and a wolf to command. I should thank you for being so resourceful but I really don’t want to be gracious about anything.” Cam smiled. “You had this coming.”

Conrad sighed. “Fine, you’ve got me. If you want to kill me—do it. But let the others go. They haven’t done anything to you.”

Cam closed the distance between them and laughed. “I don’t give a fuck about whether they’ve done something to me or not, they’re
all
mine now. It’s just too bad you’re going to be dead and won’t see any of it. Strip his weapons.”

Another vamp stepped in front of Conrad and patted him down, removing his bandolier—burning his skin in the process—followed by a bunch of holy water bottles. The vampire threw the weapons onto the stage, then made his way towards me.
 

The vampire restraining me lowered my feet back to the floor so I could be searched. The new guy searched my pockets, copping a feel while he was at it and smiling about it. What was with these perverted assholes? He stripped off my jacket, but even after frisking me with his long-nailed hands, he didn’t find the dagger.

When he moved away, I couldn’t help but smile. The same thing had happened last month when Mauricio had taken me hostage. It looked like I’d been wrong and the shrouding incantation was still active.

My vampire captor only had me by one arm now, so I would still be able to at least stab this brute.
Not yet.
I held my breath. I needed to wait for the right moment.

“Why are you doing this?” Conrad asked.

“The reason has always been the same. You need to die for what you did to me.”
 

Even while struggling, I overheard the parallels to a woman I’d once known. Jackie had been my childhood friend and she’d hated me for what I was too. In fact, she’d helped Mace. It was amazing how far crazies were willing to go to eliminate what they coveted.

In his cocky confidence, Cam stepped even closer, and Conrad kicked the arrogant vampire in the balls.
 

Cam staggered back and Conrad smacked his forehead against his—hard. Conrad dragged his arms down, taking the two vampires with him. His muscles strained and he shrieked as he forced them against each other until their skulls collided in a loud thump.
 

Cam yelled for the other bloodsuckers to stop Conrad, but no one moved.
 

Vamp Boy didn’t disappoint and before anyone could stop him he had a wooden stake in each hand, which he simultaneously shoved into the vampires lying at his feet.
 

I couldn’t believe his strength, but wasted no time responding. I swung my free arm in an arc across my own body, surprising the vampire holding me so much he released me. I ducked, clutched my silver blade, and stabbed him in the eye with my upward motion. The blade’s impact made a sickening squishy sound.
 

He screamed in surprise, making a grab for the dagger which was embedded so deep into his eye socket I hadn’t yet pulled it out. But he couldn’t get a proper grip, and it had nothing to do with the hilt and blade being silver. No, it was because he couldn’t see it.
 

The idiot smacked at the hilt like he was trying to bat away bees and slipped off the stage. I ran down the short stairs, catching up to him just as he hit the ground. I yanked my dagger from his eye and stabbed it into his chest, barely missing the gunk as he exploded.
 

I raced back onto the stage and speared one of the vampires before he could jump onto Conrad’s back. I plunged the silver so deep he collapsed in a heap.

I pulled the blade free and met Conrad’s gaze, both of us sprayed with blood and ash by the vampire between us. He inclined his chin before turning around to face his nemesis.

The two stood across from each other, bleeding and filled with a rage so potent it sizzled in the air. When they collided an audible thump echoed around this room of torture and death.

The hungry vamps were still nibbling on Ebony, but she was unconscious again. It didn’t look like they were going anywhere, so I swung around and headed for Papan. The chain around his neck was now clipped to the wall and two vamps were watching over him with crazed eyes. They didn’t seem sure of what to do next.

I darted for my jacket and pocketed the spikes before taking as many holy water bottles as I could hold. I clutched two in each hand and ran at full pelt for the vampires standing in front of Papan. Not bothering to pull the corks off the tops, I smashed both handfuls of holy water against their faces, crushing glass into my palms and their skin.
 

They fell to their knees, screeching and clawing at themselves. I could feel the others closing in.
 

“Watch out,” Papan whispered, but I heard him clearly enough to duck as claws made a grab for where my head had been.

I kicked my foot out behind me, and managed to sweep the vampire bitch off her feet. I stuck a spike into the middle of her chest, clearly missing her heart. Blood gurgled from her mouth but she didn’t turn to ash and gunk, so I decided to leave the spike in there since it seemed to keep her in place.

“Papan.” I dropped to my knees beside him. The chains hadn’t been secured with a lock and key—were just attached to the wall. I unhooked the length with shaky fingers, slowly unwinding the chain from his neck, sending smoke sizzling from his skin with every turn. I had almost taken the last round off when something struck the back of my head.

I fell onto him and he winced. I hated to use his wounded body to push off, but it was the quickest way to get to my feet. I whirled around and stabbed another spike into the first place I found, which happened to be a thigh.
 

The vampire cried out but I knew that wouldn’t hold him. So I yanked my dagger from its scabbard and killed him. I was getting good at this, but couldn’t avoid the gory mess.

I turned back to Papan and uncoiled the last of the chain length from his neck. I could see it hurt him, but I’d done it as fast as I could.
 

“Thanks, Foxy,” he said, grimacing. “Now, let’s take care of these fuckers and blow this joint.”
 

I helped him to his feet and doubted he would be able to do much of anything, but to my surprise he took a shaky step back and kicked off his shoes before stripping off his tee and jeans. One second he was a man and the next he was on his hands and knees becoming a wolf.
 

His spine curved, making cracking noises as bones stretched and realigned, shifting him into an animal. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, watching his gorgeous face turn into a muzzle, and cream-colored fur sprout all over his body.

His green eyes shifted to amber and he stared at me.
 

I absently ran my fingers through his fur before he took off like a bullet. The wolf raced around the room, taking down all the vamps he could get his paws and teeth into.

By the time he reached the stage, Cam was the only vamp on his feet. His face and clothes were drenched in blood, he was missing several fingers on his left hand, and a jagged wound on the side of his neck dribbled red like a running tap.

“You’ll never beat me,” Cam spat.
 

The twisted asshole looked beaten enough to me.

“She’ll never be yours again…”

Conrad stabbed the end of his pointy wooden stake into the vampire’s heart, holding him close with his other hand as the creature screeched and slowly dwindled to dust and a puddle of bloody gunk.

The vampire hunter looked defeated in a way I’d never seen. He might have killed his former friend, but Cam
had
beaten him.

I looked around the room at all the littered bodies. Most weren’t moving, but a few had limbs still twitching.

“We need to stake them
all
,” Conrad called. “I don’t want any of these assholes to survive.”

I nodded. Papan sidled up beside me and he was back to being a man. A very naked man, but at least he was okay.

“Do you have a problem with that, Wolf?”

He shook his head and held out a waiting hand.

Conrad handed him a stake and then threw another one at me. “Let’s get a fucking move on. I want to get the fuck outta here
right now.
”

“We need to get Ebony free,” I said, taking a step.

Conrad raised a hand to stop me. “No, leave her to me.” He kneeled down and went about searching through what was left of Cam until he pulled out a shiny key and dangled it from the tips of his fingers. He met my eyes and couldn’t hide his haunted expression. “What the hell are you two waiting for?”

I opened my mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, I turned away from Conrad’s pain and let him deal with Ebony. At least Papan had already taken care of the greedy sloths that had fed on her while we battled for our lives.

I was pushing the sweaty hair away from my face after my third stake, when the door opened.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” The blue-haired barmaid wandered into the room, her gaze roving wildly. “Rad, what happened?”

“It had to be done. He wasn’t going to give Ebony up.”

“Holy fuck, this is going to send quite the message.”

Conrad looked thoughtful. “Yeah, it’s going to ensure no one ever dares to challenge my authority again. I swear to God, if I ever catch any bloodsucker trying to undermine me, I’ll chop their head off and hang it in the middle of Sydney.” Conrad had already removed the padlock keeping Ebony’s body against the pole, and the one holding her wrists steady. He was sitting with her in his arms. “No offence.”

“None taken,” Narelle said with a grim look on her pretty face. “Do you want me to leave it like this so I can pass on the message?”

“That sounds like a brilliant idea. You do that!”
 

“You need anything else?” the female vampire asked.

“Yeah, come here and help seal these bites.”

As Narelle passed by Papan, she looked him up and down with an appreciative glare that made me want to pull her hair. Strange, I’d never been the jealous type, but seeing someone eyeballing him like he was a tasty meal—even if he
was
naked—really rubbed me up the wrong way.

“Here,” I said, holding out his jeans.

Papan took them before pulling me into a bear hug so fierce I could barely breathe. The musky smell of his fur still lingered on his smooth skin and I relaxed into his embrace.
 

“Thank you,” he whispered into my hair.

“This is what we do.”
 

He kissed me hard on the mouth then stepped into his jeans, never taking his eyes off mine.

“I can only heal the new bites—the others are going to scar,” Narelle said.

Papan finished getting dressed and we stepped closer to find the female vamp slumped over Ebony’s body. She ran her long tongue over the multitude of bites just about everywhere and didn’t seem to mind. I was glad Ebony wouldn’t look like a human pincushion forever.

“Are they all staked?” Conrad said, meeting my eyes.

“Mostly,” I answered, turning my attention to the vampires I’d taken down. I wanted to reclaim my spikes, and staking them would do just that.

“That feels so good,” Ebony whispered. “Don’t stop…”

A stabbing pain hit me in the chest when I turned my attention back to Ebony. Knowing Ebony ended up in this situation willingly was making me sick. How desperate was she to forget what happened in the Spook Catcher Council? In the process of wiping away her pain, she’d been brainwashed. Now that Cam was dead, would she remember Conrad?

“Ebony, relax.” Conrad touched her cheek and she winced.

“Who are you?” she asked, barely opening her eyes.

“It’s okay, everything’s going to be okay,” he murmured. I’d never heard him sound so uncertain.