away, he closed the trunk and got in the car. Destroying the child he’d sired would be difficult, but nothing was as difficult as the reason he’d come to Paradise City in the first place.
He felt for the bottle of pills in his coat pocket before he started the car. He didn’t have the alchemist skills of his uncle, but he’d learned enough over the years and Dominic’s laboratory was a storehouse of supplies. What he’d put together should do the trick. All he had to do was convince Hector, which shouldn’t take much. The comar would still be servicing fringe females at Seven if Luciano hadn’t brought him in to supply the mayor with blood after her turning. He drove toward Lola’s house. Starting tonight, he would begin to make things right, because there was no way he was going to ruin his chances of staying here.
Tatiana’s new comar, Aaron, staggered from the room. She’d drunk from him until the ashen hint of death had tinged his blood, taking all he had to offer and then some. Daciana raised a concerned brow, but said nothing. Tatiana tipped her head against the back of her office chair and stared at the ceiling as her heart began to beat. “I know I took—” She gasped as the power of Aaron’s blood gripped her. Icy hot pain coursed through her body. She tensed, bowing up off the chair with the sensation, teeth clenched, muscles contracted. Another gasp and it began to mellow into pleasure. A soft mew of contentment left her mouth. “Amazing. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good.”
She pulled herself upright, almost panting with the life inside her. “I started to say I know I took more than I should have. I won’t do it again. I just needed to renew myself.” Heat suffused her being. “And judging by the power rushing through me, I have.”
“You feel well, then? Enough to call the ancients?” Lines of apprehension snared Daciana’s mouth.
“Yes, but you needn’t be here. I know they are unsettling.” Daci had done so much for her, there was no reason to put her in harm’s way unnecessarily.
“No, I want to be here. I am your Elder.” Daci stood a little straighter. “It’s my duty to be at your side.”
“Fair warning, then.”
“I know what the ancients are like.” Daci nodded. “Call him. I’m ready if you are.”
Tatiana moved out from behind the desk to stand in the office’s open space. Every fiber of her being thrummed with energy. If there was ever a time to call the ancients, this was it. She lifted her hands and called him by name. “Samael, my lord, my maker, please grant me your presence.”
She teetered toward disappointment, expecting him to ignore her again.
Then shadows began to form, leaking out from the corners of her office. They coalesced into a dark, spiraling storm in the room’s center. Lightning flashed over the whirling mass, shattering the blackness with bursts of heat and fire. The musty sourness of brimstone and unwashed flesh rose to an almost unbearable level. With a final crack of thunder, the storm split to reveal Samael in all his squalid resplendence. He wore his usual skirt of undulating shadows, the faces and hands of his victims visible as they failed to escape him over and over. From the waist up, his naked body was the burnished red of a flayed carcass left to dry in the sun.
But unlike the previous times he’d come to her, he was not alone. Another figure stood behind him, this one completely cloaked in shadows so that Tatiana was unable to determine anything except that the second being was closer to her size. A secondary Castus, perhaps? There were legions of them, but Samael was the only one she’d met face to face. The idea of what might lay in store for her with two of them made her stomach turn.
She immediately dropped her gaze and bowed, as overjoyed that he’d come to her as she was terrified. Time spent with him in the past had rarely been pain free. “My liege, thank you for coming to me.”
“I know why you’ve called me,” he growled.
To her side, Daciana was almost prone to the floor she was so low. Tatiana kept her head down but her gaze locked onto the razor-edged hooves visible beneath his shadowy covering. Respect was one thing; carelessness was another. She knew enough to stay quiet and let him speak, so she just nodded.
“You want to know about the child.” A distant, eerie laugh followed his words. The second Castus?
“Yes, my lord.” She lifted her chin a bit, her gaze still averted. As best she could tell, the figure behind him hadn’t moved.
“Tell her,” a high, feminine voice whispered. Definitely not Daci, as it carried traces of power unlike anything Tatiana had heard. Goose bumps rose on her arms.
Her gut reaction was to look up and see who’d spoken. When she did, she found herself staring at Samael. He’d gone oddly still and his eyes were slanted downward as if he was listening to the creature behind him.
Curiosity swept Tatiana like a wildfire. “Please, my liege. I promise I am fit to raise her now. My enemies are behind me. No harm will come to her. I swear it. I need Lilith back. I need—”
More laughter.
Samael regained his stern countenance. “You don’t know what you ask.”
Tatiana stood her ground, making eye contact with a boldness that belied the nerves rocking her core. “Yes, I do. You gave her to me to raise and I let you down. I want to prove to you that I am not a failure. That I am worthy of the power you’ve bestowed upon me.”
Samael was quiet a moment, his gleaming red eyes piercing her in a way that almost made her feel like he pitied her. “You take responsibility for her?”
“Of course.” She straightened. “That is a mother’s duty. That is the duty I accepted when you gave her to me.”
Something like relief flickered over his face. He stepped aside and the being behind him moved forward.
The shadows surrounding the creature were actually a dark cloak. Slender hands reached up and pushed the hood back, revealing a young woman of such cruel beauty that Tatiana instantly felt lacking. Her eyes were the same blood red as Samael’s, her skin so pale that blue veins etched the surface. She smiled at Tatiana, showing off a set of double fangs as wicked as the aura surrounding her. “Hello, Mother.”
Chapter Ten
Creek hung back at the scene of the murder, hiding in the cover of the small crowd drawn by the flashing lights and yellow tape cordoning off the area. From his spot against the wall, he listened with one ear to the detectives, his KM-enhanced hearing making eavesdropping simple. In his other ear was a wireless bud with the running feed from the police scanner app on his phone. Both told him that, as suspected, the police were going on the assumption the killer was a vampire.
He couldn’t imagine the mayor wouldn’t respond to this in some way, but how would the population take it now that they were being led by a vampire? The careful peace that had followed the curfew was in danger of being disrupted.
One of the detectives scribbled something on an e-tablet, then tapped the stylus on the edge as he spoke to his partner. “Could be retaliation for the mayor killing that vampire.”
His partner nodded. “Let’s hope that’s all it is, one and done. City’ll get ugly if we have a killer vampire on the loose.” He glanced at one of the uniformed officers working crowd control. “They’re all over the place now. You know Janokoski in evidence is a vamp?” He shook his head. “Always thought that one was a little strange.”
The other detective laughed. “Explains why he’s so pale.”
Creek had heard enough. He walked back to where he’d parked his motorcycle. He climbed on and fired it up. The mayor wouldn’t welcome his visit, but it was his job as Paradise City’s assigned Kubai Mata to question all known vampires. Might as well start with the newest one.
He hadn’t expected to be let through the gates at her estate, but they opened for him after he showed his face to the security camera. He parked his bike outside the entrance of the house and walked up to the guard on duty. Fringe vampire, but not one Creek had met before.
The guard looked him up and down, probably assessing Creek’s tattoos and Mohawk with the same impression most did. Trouble. Which wasn’t far off if the guard didn’t let him in. “The mayor wants to know if you’ve come to make amends.”
“Sure, that’s what I’m here for.” If it got him in, who cared what she thought.
