In the Company of Vampires

off, holding the Vikingahärta tight, sick to my stomach with indecision and anger. I wanted to help David, but not this way. There had to be another way.

“What is to follow? I thought my initiation into the set was the highlight of the tyro. Now you tell me it’s not?” Ben’s voice was filled with arrogance and hauteur, and for a moment I smiled at it. The arrogance, yes, that was him, but he was never haughty, and I knew he disliked being the center of attention as much as I did.

“No, lover, of course your ceremony is to be the highlight,” Naomi said, trying to pull him back when he moved out of her reach. Beyond them, the others were fully engaged in their orgy, little cries and groans filling the night air. “We had an unexpected opportunity to further our experiments for de Marco, that’s all. Just as soon as we’re done with your ceremony, we’ll get on with the experiment, and then he will leave and it will be just us again.”

De Marco? The name rang in my head like a bell. What had he to do with this?

“I do not like how I have been shoved aside for another,” Ben said, getting to his feet, and to my intense relief, snatching up his jeans and pulling them on. “I will not have it. I am a Dark One, not some mortal you can appease with a little sex and then set aside.”

Naomi’s eyes narrowed on him. “Benedikt, you are important to us. But you cannot be one of us unless you complete the ceremony.”

He glared at the man I had summoned, and insight hit me with a flash. Was that de Marco? The man who’d had a baby with my mother?

“I will not be treated in this manner!” Ben snapped. “Obviously, you have some reservations about my involvement, or you would not delegate me to such a lowly status. Until such time as you realize my true value, I will find something else to occupy my time.”

Ben’s performance drove speculation about the mysterious de Marco from my mind. I wanted to cheer him, and kiss him, and lick every square inch of his delicious body. And then I would make him fall in love with me, so we could live together happily, and he would be safe from the wiles of smut-mistresses like Naomi.

“I think, perhaps, it is you who have reservations,” Naomi said slowly, getting to her feet. She had her back to me as she faced Ben, so I couldn’t see her face, but her body language made it clear she was no longer in sex kitten mode. “It is that damned Beloved of yours, isn’t it? She’s leading you around by your cock. I knew I should have taken care of her when I had the chance.”

Ben gave her one of his haughtiest looks. “No woman leads me, Naomi. No woman.”

“Such a shame.” She ran her hand down his bare chest. He stepped back. “You had such potential, too. Isaak?”

I had been ignoring the orgy in order to concentrate on Ben, but when I glanced back, I was surprised to notice that everyone appeared to be finished with their lechery. They lolled around in attitudes of limp exhaustion, their bodies draped over each other with apparent abandon. At Naomi’s call, Isaak pushed Luis’s legs off his stomach and got up.

“I believe in addition to our scheduled event, we have an extraordinary opportunity at hand.” She smiled at Isaak before gesturing at Ben. “Our friend here seems to prefer his Beloved to us. De Marco, have you ever tried a Dark One?”

“Uh-oh,” I whispered, my stomach tightening. “I think things have gone wrong. Not that they were right to begin with.”

“Yes,” David said slowly, his gaze moving from person to person. “I suspect you’re correct. Are you armed?”

I looked at him in surprise. “No. I don’t . . . I’m not big on guns and things. I have the Vikingahärta, but it’s not a weapon. At least, I don’t think it is. It protected me from Loki once, but that could be due to some other circumstance.”

De Marco had strolled into the center of the ring by that point, followed by the slight man who reminded me of a nervous ferret. “I hadn’t thought it was possible, but now that you bring it to mind, it would be a good experiment.”

“Experiment on someone else,” Ben growled, snatching up his shirt. “I am no one’s guinea pig.”

“Do you know what experiment they’re talking about?” I asked David softly, holding on to his arm as we leaned forward to hear.

“No. But if that little man is a necromancer . . .” His voice trailed off as he eyed de Marco.

“They raise the dead, don’t they?” I shivered at the implication.

“Yes.”

“But Ben is immortal. They can’t kill him.”

“So is Luis, and yet they have destroyed countless therions over the last decade. Immortal simply means we’re harder to kill than mortals. It can be accomplished.”

“Not so fast,” Isaak said, jerking a gun out of a backpack that lay beneath strewn clothing. The sight of a naked man holding a gun on Ben might have struck me as amusing in another circumstance, but I wasn’t laughing.

Ben did, though. He gave a short, harsh laugh. “Do you really expect me to feel threatened by a gun? I’ve been shot more times than you can imagine, mortal.”

The gun in Isaak’s hand wavered.

“Oh, for god’s sake . . .” Naomi stomped over to where she’d left her clothing and bag, marching over to Ben with a glinting dagger about twelve inches long. She thrust it toward Isaak. “I swear, if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Here! Take this. You can slit his throat with it, or cut out his heart, or whatever, but just do it!”

“Right. That’s enough for me. How good of an actor are you, David?”

He looked confused. I didn’t waste time explaining, I just marched forward until I reached the lights, hauling a softly protesting David with me. The second we became visible, I switched my determined stride to a stumbling stagger, leaning heavily on David as if my legs couldn’t hold me up. “That was the besh party I’ve ever sheen. Washn’t it the besht? I gotta say, theshe Germans know how to throw a shindug. Digshug. You know what I mean. But man, I gotta pee. Back teeth are floating. Oh, look, a blanket.”

I came to a stop near the sated orgyists, who quickly scrambled to their respective feet.

“David!” I said in a faux whisper, cupping my hand around his ear but not turning my head into it. “Peepsh! They’re having a naked party! We should totally join in. Do you naked peoplesh have a Porta-Potti around here? Gotta pee.” As the surprised faces of Naomi’s group turned toward us, I staggered to the side, pointing. “David, look! It’s that evil Naomi! And Ben! You bastard!”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Naomi demanded to know of Ben.

Fortunately, he looked as genuinely surprised as the rest of them, which gave me just enough time to do my best drunk walk over to him, waving my fist as I did so. “I am sho gonna punch you! I’m your Beloved, bushter!” I unguarded my mind just as I reached him. Hello. Would you duck, please?

I drew back my arm and swung in a huge circle. Ben obligingly ducked, which left Naomi the only body in the way of my fist.

I’d also like to know what the hell you’re doing here! he thought furiously at me. This is no place for you, Francesca!

She screamed and leaped toward me.

Did you honestly think I was going to let you go off and have sex with someone else?

Isaak and Micah jumped into the fray as Ben jerked Naomi to the side, roughly pushing her away from me.

No. I thought you would trust me to uphold my promise to you. There was pain behind his words.

David roared, actually roared as he shifted into lion form. He leaped onto Isaak, knocking the man to the ground.

I do trust you . It’s Naomi that I have issues with. And I’m glad I did, because clearly, you need us.

“I want him!” de Marco said, pointing at David’s lion form. “And the vampire. I want them both, along with