Sleeping With the Entity (29 page)

*   *   *

“Bootleggers were simply supplying a need,” Lois said. “The Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution banned the production and sale of alcohol. Prohibition. And with that law came the birth of the speakeasy. Now anyone could get a drink, including women. We weren’t allowed in the saloons but we were welcome in the speakeasies. They were magical places, full of life and music. The Jazz Age. I heard Duke Ellington play when I had my first drink.”

“Who cares?” Tanya said.

“Daniella cares. She likes history. I’m distracting her because she’s afraid of the dark,” Lois said.

“
Terrified
comes closer to the truth,” Daniella said.

“Boo!” Tanya said from behind her, making Daniella jump.

“Don’t be mean,” Lois said.

“Keep talking, Lois,” Daniella said, reaching out to hold her friend’s cold hand. “Were you a flapper?”

Lois laughed. “I was. It was such an exhilarating time. So much newfound freedom. We wore our dresses and our hair shorter. We smoked. Those were the best of times. They ended with the big crash on Wall Street in ’29.” Lois’s voice turned somber.

Daniella’s eyes had adjusted enough to the dark that she could see the outlines of Lois and Tanya. But she hadn’t adjusted as far as her fear was concerned. “When will the lights go back on?” Daniella asked.

“When they need to.”

“I need them to go on right now. Does Nick know they’re out? Does he know I’m down here in the dark?”

“Of course he knows,” Lois said.

“Then he’ll fix this,” Daniella said.

“You sound like you have a lot of faith in him,” Lois noted.

“I do,” Daniella agreed.

“That’s a shame.”

Lois’s words shocked her. “What do you mean?”

“Nick used you to ramp up his vamp skills. It was all very premeditated. Nick told you he was adopted, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not true,” Lois said. “He just said that to make you confide in him.”

Daniella would expect Tanya to say something like that, but not Lois. “Why are you saying this?”

“The truth hurts,” Lois said.

Tanya laughed. “I’ve got to say I’m enjoying this conversation more than the boring talk about Prohibition.”

“Am I really in danger from Miles right now or was that a lie?” Daniella demanded.

“No, Miles is really here,” Lois said with certainty.

As if on cue, a dim light went on above their heads. The rest of the tunnel in both directions remained pitch dark. Lois’s eyes had a strange glow as she reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a vial filled with something red. Daniella didn’t think it was red food coloring in there.

“You must drink this now.” Lois’s voice was grim.

Daniella eyed her and the vial suspiciously. “What is it?”

“Blood,” Lois said bluntly.

“No way! I am not drinking that.” Daniella vehemently shook her head. The rest of her body was already shaking, and her fear had just notched up several thousand degrees.

Lois hissed and shoved the now open vial at Daniella’s mouth. “Drink!”

“Look, I dislike the cupcake maker as much as the next vamp,” Tanya said. “But if she doesn’t want to chugalug blood, that’s her loss. Don’t go all full vamp on her.”

“Stay out of this,” Lois growled.

“Whoa, chill out,” Tanya said. “What’s with the fangs?”

“I told you to stay out of this.” Lois leapt toward Tanya, knocking her down.

Tanya shoved her aside. Her eyes had that strange glow now, too, and both of them showed their fangs. Lois rolled off the tunnel wall and attacked Tanya again.

Girl-on-girl fighting, or in this case female-vamp-on-female-vamp, might intrigue some people but Daniella sure as hell wasn’t one of them. How had she gotten into this mess?

She had no idea what she should be doing. Running away? In the pitch dark? When either vampire had supreme speed and could outrace her in the blink of an eye? And what about Miles? What if he was there in the darkness?

Daniella stood there frozen. Why had Lois turned on her? What had gotten into her?

“Lois, why are you doing this?” Daniella said.

“Miles wants you to drink his blood so he’s inside you.”

“Yuck!” Daniella almost hurled.

While Lois was momentarily distracted by Daniella, Tanya grabbed the opportunity to take off. Lois looked like she was about to chase her when the single dim bulb above Daniella went out.

“Leave her,” a male voice said from the darkness. It wasn’t just any male voice; it was the Satan voice of Miles Payne. She’d recognize it anywhere. “I have what I want.”

Okay, her panic now increased a billionfold. “I don’t suppose you could turn the light back on? No? Anyone have a flashlight handy?”

Miraculously one was turned on and aimed at Miles’s face. “Get that out of my eyes,” he hissed.

“Sorry, sire,” a male vampire said, redirecting the light so it was beneath Miles’s chin. Now he really looked like something out of a horror film.

Daniella dropped the vial onto the floor where it shattered and left a pool of blood.

*   *   *

Tanya burst into the Vamp Cave. Nick had her by the throat an instant later. “It was
you
. You led Daniella down into the tunnels and to Miles.”

Tanya gurgled, unable to speak.

Pat intervened. “Release her, Nick.”

He did but he wasn’t happy about it.

“I was the one who tried to save her,” Tanya said. “And I’m the one who’s come to get help for her. Lois is the bad one here. Miles did something to her. I don’t know if he compelled her or if she’s been a secret cell all by herself for him all these years—but she turned on us. She turned on Daniella. She even tried to get her to drink Miles’s blood so he’d be ‘within her.’ I’m telling you the truth. See for yourself.” She pointed to one big screen, which had just come back to life.

“If I can’t have you, then I’ll have the blood supply from your family’s funeral home,” Miles was telling Daniella as he held her in his grip.

“I already told you that I don’t have anything to do with the family business,” she said.

“I realize that. But Nick does have something to do with it. Isn’t that right, St. George?” Miles called out. “I’ve cleared the security system so you may see us now. Briefly.”

A vacant-looking Lois stood to one side of Miles while a subservient Andy stood on the other. Seeing Miles with his hands on Daniella made Nick wild with rage. But he couldn’t afford to lose it right now. He couldn’t let human emotions get in the way of his vamp powers.

“Let Daniella go.” Nick prayed the sound of his voice would stop Daniella from going into full-blown hysteria. Her face was pale, and he sensed she was in danger of losing it.

Miles’s smile was filled with icy contempt. “I will. As soon as you give me the rights to the blood. In writing.”

“This is between you and me,” Nick told Miles. “Let the cupcake maker go now.”

“Let her go now?” Miles laughed. “Ain’t gonna happen. You’re in no position to be making demands. Don’t bother trying to find us down here in the tunnels. Through the miracle of modern technology this is a delayed feed to your surveillance cameras. Your pretty little friend and I have already moved on.”

Nick could sense that they were still nearby, perhaps closer than ever. Concentrating, he pinpointed their location. “You’re in my bar,” he said.

Power was restored, lighting all the screens and showing Miles still holding Daniella in his grip, only now he had a large knife at her throat as they stood inside the All Nighter Bar and Grill. Nick could see the Blackhawks hockey jersey in the background along with the singing fish on the wall.

Nick’s growl was feral as he went full vamp, fangs fully emerged and ready to rip into Miles.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Pat warned him

“That’s right, St. George,” Miles mocked him. “Don’t do anything stupid because as everyone knows, I never lose.”

*   *   *

One second Daniella was alone with Miles in the deserted bar and grill—and the next Nick was there.

“You’ve heard that joke, right?” Miles mocked Nick. “A vampire and a druid walk into a bar.” His laugh was as Satanic as his voice.

Nick barred his fangs and hissed.

“Take a good look at him,” Miles told her. “Lois told me you’d never seen St. George go full vamp. What do you think of your lover now? Not so sexy, is he?”

Like she was going to think about sex when a crazed deadly vampire held a knife to her throat. Her eyes remained on Nick. She refused to look away or be freaked by his vampire side. He’d saved her life before. She sure hoped he could do it again.

“One last chance. Let the cupcake maker go,” Nick said as he had earlier.

Wait a second,
Daniella thought. Is that all she was to Nick? The cupcake maker? Nothing more? Not
soul mate
? Not
love of my life and afterlife
? Miles had just called Nick her lover yet Nick called her the cupcake maker. Not even
my
cupcake maker.

Not that she should be worried about stuff like that when she had a knife held to her throat. Nick had said yesterday and today were the Days of the Dead. She sure hoped she didn’t end up that way. Dead.

“Cat got your tongue, sweetheart?” Miles mocked her, toying with her as he shifted the knife, nearly cutting her but not drawing blood.

“Why are you doing this?” she gasped. “You’re rich. You don’t need more blood.”

“How astute of you,” Miles said. “Now, now, keep your distance, gentlemen,” he warned Pat and Bruce as they joined Nick.

“Is this another example of your love of making trouble?” Pat demanded. “Like the time you instigated the Chicago Fire? Or the crash on Wall Street? You can’t increase your powers—”

“I know the hybrid druid has already mated with St. George,” Miles said.

“Then you know my powers have increased,” Nick said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Miles said. “You’re no match for me.”

“We outnumber you,” Pat said. “Where are Lois and Andy?”

“They’re in the tunnels. I ordered Andy to decapitate Lois. I had no further use for her. Don’t go fainting on me,” Miles warned Daniella. “I might slit your throat by accident.” Ruthlessly tightening his hold on her, he continued. “Discovering I could compel Lois was a lucky fluke. Mind control usually doesn’t work on vampires. But it worked on her. I could sense that when I saw her working at the bakery on your surveillance cameras, which I hacked into. Maybe it was the fact that she knew me when she was still human. We met in a speakeasy and shared a drink or two. It doesn’t matter. She served her purpose.”

Daniella felt tears coming to her eyes. Lois deserved better.

“Mating with the cupcake-making hybrid may have increased your powers, St. George. But it’s only temporary,” Miles said. “Because you’re no longer immortal. Oh, you’ll live longer than most humans, but from now on you will grow old at the same pace she does. I’ll bet you didn’t know that when you agreed to shag her, did you?”

Daniella remembered Lois’s accusation that Nick had only had sex with her in order to ramp up his vamp skills.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nick growled.

“It doesn’t matter because you’ve fallen for this hybrid, haven’t you, St. George? You’re wrong when you said this isn’t about blood,” Miles told Daniella. “And don’t even think about it,” he warned Nick. “Yes, you’re superfast, but so am I and I can kill her before you get to me. Now, where was I … oh yes. This
is
about blood. About family.”

“We’ve done nothing to hurt your clan,” Pat said.

“I’m not talking about my vamp clan. I mean my
human
family. In Venice. When I was Milo Panetti.”

Daniella saw recognition hit Nick’s glowing eyes.

“That’s right, St. George. I was a human cousin of the clan you destroyed in Venice over a hundred years ago. I wasn’t a vampire at the time; I became one just to get you. But the thing was, I had to wait until the right time for my vamp vengeance.” Miles paused a second before adding, “You like this cupcake maker, don’t you, St. George? You like her a lot. You fell for her big-time.”

She shuddered as Miles licked her cheek.

“If you try to suck my blood, it will kill you,” she said.

“I have no intention of sucking your blood. Instead I’m going to slit your throat and make Nick watch. Just like he had to watch his last love Magdalene being tossed onto the bonfire she deserved after disobeying orders.”

“Take me instead,” Nick said, his voice tortured and harsh. “Let her go and take me.”

“That wouldn’t make you suffer. And I really want to make you suffer.” As Nick moved toward him, Miles warned, “Stay back!” He took a few steps, pulling Daniella with him, until his back was against the wall. “I don’t appreciate you pushing me against the wall of your pitiful establishment. I mean, a talking fish?” He tilted his head toward the decoration on its wooden base. “Come on. Very bad taste.”

As if on cue, the fish started singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” before falling to the floor and shattering. A large shard of wood from its base bounced up into Daniella’s hand. Without even thinking, she immediately lifted it over her shoulder and jammed it into Miles’s chest with all her might.

Chapter Twenty-three

An instant later Miles disintegrated, his clothing falling to the floor in a pile. The clatter of the knife hitting the floor echoed in the deathly silent bar.

Nick rushed forward and tugged her into his arms. “Are you okay?”

“Wha … at happened?” Daniella stuttered. “I was just trying to stake him, not to…”

“Make him go up in dust?”

Pat surveyed the destroyed plaque. “The base is oak.”

Daniella didn’t get the connection. But then she wasn’t exactly thinking clearly at the moment. “So?”

“So remember how druids once locked up vampires in the hollows of ancient oak trees? The combination of angry druid and oak is apparently still deadly for a vampire,” Pat said.

“It’s like in
The Wizard of Oz,
when they throw water on the witch. They changed that in the play
Wicked,
” she said. “I’m in shock and I’m babbling.” She looked at the pile of dust and clothing on the floor. It freaked her out to think a few moments ago that had been a person. Well, not a
person
per se. A vampire. An evil vampire. “You don’t think he somehow got away, do you?”