T hursday began as any other day did. I was up early, ate the breakfast Jamie made. Kelly ate with us, nursing a huge cup of coffee. My hands were back in the gloves instead of wraps. Then Jamie took Kelly to school, leaving me alone to do homework, and told me he’d be back a little later because he had a test today. When I checked on Gabe, he was sound asleep, so instead I worked on the charter, getting the basic paper done and leaving sections for citations.
My phone had been turned off this morning when I’d checked it last. And since the few who called me knew where I was, I left it off. Thankfully, some of the tiredness of the past few weeks seemed to have faded.
I made myself an early lunch and threw on cargo pants and a long-sleeved shirt, trying to make it look like I’d done more than sit around all day. Gabe looked so peaceful in bed I didn’t even want to crawl in and bother him. He’d woken really early yesterday, and even vampires needed rest. Watching him sleep after last night’s victory gave me a whole new sense of reality. Who knew love could be so all consuming? Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.
I flipped the tape recorder Gabe had given me on again, recording some ideas on my paper to help flesh out the body of it. The buzzer from upstairs went off. Had Jamie or Kelly forgotten to grab a key? Maybe it was another package. I took a deep breath and pushed the talk button. “Hello?”
“Seiran, it’s Dr. Tynsen. Do you have a moment?” she asked through the speaker.
“I thought we weren’t meeting today?” I asked.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Will you buzz me in?”
I sighed and pushed the button to let her through the door above. Waiting by the elevator, I wondered how she’d react when I told her I didn’t need her silly hypnotism anymore. Gabe and I were having sex again. The ding of the door opening made me turn back that way. Dr. Tynsen smiled at me through the open door. A man stood behind her in the elevator, face and head heavily covered, hands gloved. He held a gun to her head.
My heart pounded, and I wished more than ever that I hadn’t kept Gabe up yesterday or sent Jamie and Kelly so happily off to school.
The man tried to step into the apartment but hit the barrier of the threshold. Obviously, he was a vampire.
“I told you Santini would refresh the threshold every day. I can invite you in again,” my doctor said to the man holding her at gunpoint.
I shook my head. What the hell was happening?
The man pulled the mask off his face, baring not only his identity but his fangs. Matthew. “Invite me in, baby, or your doctor dies. I heard you’ve become quite a little headcase. Do you really want to ride in this elevator every day with blood staining the walls and floor? Bet that would send you for a trip.”
Gabe was less than thirty feet away, but it would take several minutes to rouse him, and I had no illusions that I could save Dr. Tynsen’s life that way. The tremble began in my hands, and I gripped the bottom of my shirt to try to keep Matthew from seeing it.
“Tick tock, baby. Invite me in. You have until the count of three. One.”
My heart beat in a terrible rhythm. Did I have a choice? Did I have any options at all?
“Two.”
“Matthew Pierson, please come in,” I whispered, feeling my heart clench painfully as I uttered the words.
He pushed Dr. Tynsen to the floor and stepped into the apartment. “Nice, digs. But you always did aim high.”
Not true. I came from a rich family but had never been given anything and didn’t expect any of the many lovers I’d had to shower me in jewels and riches. Gabe bitched about the latter all the time. “I never wanted anything from you, except maybe in the beginning when I wanted you to love me.”
“I did love you, baby. Still do.” He flashed his hand out, grabbed my hair, and yanked me closer to him. “I love the way you taste. Been tasting you for weeks. Can’t get enough.”
“Will you let Dr. Tynsen go?” Maybe if he let her go upstairs, she could call the police.
He put his arm around me. “She can leave whenever she wants. But she won’t until I command her.” He glanced back in her direction. “Will you?”
“No,” she said.
“Get up.”
She jerked to her feet like a broken marionette.
“Go home and don’t talk to anyone until I tell you to,” Matthew said.
She turned toward the elevator and waited for the door to open before stepping inside and closing the door.
I watched my only hope of help walk away and suddenly felt helpless again. No way. Not this time. I knew curses and hexes now. I wasn’t a sad little victim like I’d been for Brock.
I leapt for the gun, knowing in all the movies it went off and killed the victim most of the time. But even a quick death had to be better than whatever torture Matthew had planned for me. Not that I had anything on vampire strength.
He slammed his fist into the side of my head and ripped the gun away. I fell to the floor, world spinning as my vision tilted left and I struggled to stay conscious. Fuck! He pressed me to the floor, chest down. His erection rested against my butt, and I stilled beneath him. Praying for a miracle, I thought of the hex that had accidentally killed Brock and wondered if that worked as well on vampires. They had muscles and bones and could feel pain. Closing my eyes, I pulled the earth power toward me, pushed the hex into him, and nothing happened. It was like he wasn’t there. As a vampire he was subject to the same laws as humans in matters of magic. That my power had no effect on him made no sense.
“What’s the matter, baby? I heard you were so powerful now, earth Pillar and all. Guess it doesn’t work on a true Null. An unexpected but not unwelcome side effect of becoming a vampire.” He pressed the gun into my head hard enough to hurt. “Head to the left.”
I tilted my head slightly, and he let me, easing up on the gun. He yanked the shoulder of my shirt down, and before I could even guess what he was doing, he bit into my neck with a serious ferocity. Pain streaked up to my brain, threatening a blackout. My fast heartbeat pumped blood to him, which he swallowed in heavy gulps.
The world vanished into the darkness for a minute or two, because when I next remembered anything he was no longer pressing me down. Instead he was pulling my coat from the closet beside the door. “Put on your coat. Wouldn’t want anyone to see the blood.”
My body jerked and jolted as it responded on its own. I struggled to pull myself up from the floor and fumbled my way to his side to take the coat. The compulsion gripped me like a puppeteer holding the strings of a marionette. My head swam with pain and confusion.
He smiled. “I’ve been calling you for days, and you wouldn’t come. So I had to come get you. Looks like I’ll have to keep drinking your blood.” He hit the button for the elevator. The door opened. I stood frozen, staring at it, trying to regain control of my body. Fuck. Move. Turn around. Call for Gabe. Scream. Anything.
“Get in the elevator, Seiran. Don’t speak.”
I stepped into the elevator, and pressed myself all the way to the side, wondering if I could get my body to respond enough to push the little emergency button. Matthew shoved me away from the panel and tapped the button for the main floor. The door slid closed. I wondered if I’d ever see Gabe again. How much would he hate himself for not being awake when I was taken? Or would he be angry with me? Think that maybe I went voluntarily?
The elevator rose away from everything I knew. Maybe there would be people in the lobby who would think it suspicious that I was leaving with an unknown man. The doorman perhaps, or a neighbor—not that I was social enough to converse with most of Gabe’s neighbors.
Matthew pulled his mask back down over his face and shoved the gun into my coat pocket, then pushed my hand in after it, wrapping both our hands around the trigger. He squeezed lightly. At this angle a bullet would probably take out my lower intestines. And though I hadn’t been a whiz at biology, I was pretty sure that would kill me and hurt a lot while doing so. I wanted to fight him, curse at him, or even just look away, but his compulsion ate at my will. Gabe had never done this to me. Even in the few times he’d used our link to command me, it had never been so imprisoning. If Matthew told my heart to stop beating, I would have died a moment later. Tears filled my eyes, making the inside of the elevator blurry.
The door opened to the lobby. And though I’d dreamed of everyone staring at us when we stepped out, not even the doorman did more than glance in our direction.
“Rou,” he said lightly with a tip of his hat.
We walked by him without acknowledging him. Me, because I couldn’t move my lips, and Matthew, because he was just another asshole who wanted to hurt me. We were halfway across the parking lot when I spotted my battered Ford as Kelly parked it. Jamie pulled his car up beside it and got out. They were both close to the door. Would either of them notice me?
Kelly glanced in my direction and stopped. He said something to Jamie, who turned back our way. Matthew opened the car door as my brother strode across the parking lot.
“Get in the car, Seiran.”
I jerked again, body moving, painfully resistant to his control, but still forced by it. Matthew shoved me into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut, then got in the driver’s side. Jamie was almost to us now. The window in back rolled down.
“Take the gun out of your pocket,” Matthew commanded.
I pulled the gun out, hand trembling.
“Point it out the back window at the muscleman.”
No. No. No! my head screamed while my hand lifted.
“Two hands, baby. That gun has a nasty kick. Sight him down.”
My other hand helped balance the gun. I wanted to shout a warning to Jamie, who was still moving this way. If I could resist even a little and point it at Matthew instead of Jamie…
Matthew reached over and adjusted the gun. “Fire.”
The gun kicked back hard enough to push me into the door when I squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew and I could barely breathe, praying it wouldn’t hit Jamie or Kelly, who was now running up behind him.
“Again.” Bang. “And one more time.” Bang. The ringing in my ears took all other sound from me for a few seconds. Jamie tumbled to the ground, and Kelly dove behind a car, his lips moving like he was shouting something. Matthew started the car, threw it into Drive, and off we went. “Gun down, baby. Put it on the floor at your feet.”
I set the gun on the floor and stared at my own teary reflection in the window. My heart hammered, and I was suddenly really dizzy, nauseous, and light-headed. Probably from blood loss, maybe a concussion—he’d hit me pretty hard. And how badly was I still bleeding? Was Jamie dead?
“Stop crying. He was just a bodyguard.”
He wasn’t. He was my brother. Even though he was overprotective and moody, I still loved him. I needed him like I needed Gabe. I wanted to scream, but couldn’t. I tried to will myself to pick up the gun at my feet and shoot Matthew. Even if it just ended with us both dying in a fiery crash, at least it would be over.
Matthew drove for a while. Unconsciousness took me a time or two for a few minutes only to slam me back into wakefulness when pain jolted through my spine, head, or shoulder. Matthew rubbed his crotch as he drove like some sort of demented madman.
He grabbed a duplicate mask from the backseat and handed it to me. “Put it on.”
My body jerked to comply. Once I’d gotten it on, he reached across and turned it around so I couldn’t see out of the eyeholes. The mask smelled like someone who didn’t wash their hair much.
We drove for a while, and he said nothing. My neck hurt where he’d bitten me. Gabe’s bites never hurt this much. But then his almost always healed right away. I wondered how Matthew could be awake and driving this time of the day. The only other vampire I’d seen out and about during the daytime was Andrew Roman. Was he involved?
The car stopped. Matthew got out. My door opened, and he yanked me out of the car, dragging me several feet to another vehicle. Though this was higher up. A truck, maybe?
He strapped me in the seat, and the door banged shut. A minute later I heard him on the other side of the truck. “I’m going to dump the car. You know where to take him.”
The reply was merely a grunt. Someone else was there. Someone I hadn’t noticed arrive. Fuck.
“I’ll be there soon. Behave,” Matthew said. He suddenly sounded closer to me. “Soon, baby. I can’t wait to fuck you again.”
I tried not to respond. He wanted my fear. And I was terrified. No way could I hide that, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of responding. After a few seconds of silence, the truck started in that loud Hemi way, engine reverberating a pulse through my bones. The truck moved, though my new captor said nothing.
I thought again about that night Brock had taken me. How many times had I wondered what would have been different if I’d asked for someone to walk me to the car? Or even had I been more aware of my surroundings. But I’d panicked then. Gabe had been in danger. Or at least that’s what Andrew Roman had led me to think.
Gabe was safe at home. How long before he woke? What if Jamie was dead? It would be my fault. I’d shot him, even if I’d been compelled to do so. Was Kelly okay? How many more lives could I take?
Time lapsed again. I closed my eyes to focus on my breathing and found myself in a short unnatural sleep. That didn’t bode well for the head injury. I startled awake when the truck finally stopped. The driver got out, slamming the door shut. My door opened with a loud creak, and he leaned across to unfasten my seat belt. Definitely male, probably the owner of the smelly mask I was wearing. He didn’t feel like anything other than human. Not a vampire and not a witch, at least not an earth witch.
“Don’t try anything,” he said to me. He pulled me out of the cab, and I stumbled to try to find my footing. Snow crunched underfoot. Had we gone north?
I reached out for the Earth, asking it for direction, distance, hope. The nearest city was miles away. This place was cut off from the rest, no sign of tar or paved roads. But there was metal and wood. A structure, maybe a house. My power rolled around us, unable to touch my new captor in much the way it hadn’t been able to affect Matthew. Was he a Null too? Nulls weren’t supposed to be that common, and certainly not powerful enough to shield another person from magic. If I survived this, I was going to have to research the topic further.
The keys scraped against the lock, it clicked, and then a door opened before I was shoved through the entryway. He dragged me into the house and pushed me to the wooden floor just inside the door.
“I don’t get what he sees in you.” He pulled at my jacket and ripped the mask off my head, taking a few strands of hair with it. The bright light of the room made me flinch and blink to adjust my vision. When I could make everything out, I sighed heavily. I was so done with school and everyone in it.
Sam Mueller stood before me, gun in his hands, rage on his face.
“What do you want, Sam? A good grade in Curses?” I asked, feeling my mouth loosen enough from Matthew’s command. Maybe distance helped. I tried to weigh my options. We were in a dining room. The house looked like it belonged to old people, the way it was decorated with ivy borders and fake plants everywhere.
“Jacket off,” he commanded.
Not true compulsion, but something close to it. I struggled out of the jacket, my shoulder stiff and filled with pain. He dragged me to a bedroom on the side of the house. He shoved me to the floor beside the old radiator and clipped a handcuff around one of my wrists. I struggled against him, even though I had only one working shoulder, and tried to keep him from clamping my other wrist. I smacked my palm into the side of his head, but it wasn’t hard enough because the angle wasn’t right.
He kicked me hard in the stomach. I gagged as my stomach cramped and threatened to spew. He clamped the other cuff around my wrist, locking me to the radiator.
Sam left the room for a minute and came back with scissors and some sort of electric razor. I got to my knees to lean over the radiator. At least it was warm, but my stomach still rolled.
How much blood had I lost? My shirt was stiff with it.
Sam caught the back of my neck, wrapped my long hair around his hand, and tugged. He pulled so hard and far back I thought my neck would snap. “Does your vampire like you girly like this?” He shook me. “Speak. Answer me.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “He likes my hair long.” It was the main reason I kept it long. Gabe spent hours brushing it or curling it around his fingers while we lay in bed together. He loved burying his face in my hair after we had sex or breathing in the scent of it when he hugged me.
He picked up the scissors and cut off a good chunk, then another and another, until long pieces lay around me like a bad day at the barber. He grabbed the razor and flicked it on, buzzing the hair short around my entire scalp. It reminded me of what my mother had done so many years ago.
This sort of desecration of my appearance had to be more about him than me. Or at least that’s what I tried to convince myself. How many articles had I read after Brock’s attack telling me about the criminal psyche and how their madness wasn’t my fault? I couldn’t control crazy people. And didn’t know why madmen seemed to be attracted to me.
“I don’t get why he likes you. Now you’re not even pretty.” Sam slammed the razor down on the bed and took the scissors away. I set my head down on the radiator and sucked in the warmth. I was so tired. Maybe now that he was done cutting off my hair, he’d leave me alone for a while.
A door somewhere nearby opened and closed. Sam seemed to be talking to someone. I reached through the floor with my power, pulling for earth, but felt nothing. There had to be a nullified object in the room somewhere.
Great.