the past few months. Either the vampire force far exceeded their own ... or they were foolishly confident and on equal footing.
Another vamp waited inside, leading them down corridors into the belly of the earth.
He did not bind their eyes or dowse the lights.
The vampires didn’t expect the Lycans to leave.
He caught the faint scent of old blood. For decades, victims had been lured to the Devil’s Belly, never to see light again. The cold stone was oppressive. The stink of vampires permeated the walls, like the dried husks of roses--a sickly sweet stench, unnoticeable by any but the most sensitive.
They were led through labyrinthine corridors of reinforced stone, finally to a throne room, barren of anything save candelabras filled with glowing candles, a raised throne, and vampires. Dozens of vampires.
Gabriel stopped in the middle of the room, his men fanning out behind him, facing the man seated on the throne. “Where is Danior?”
Mordecai smiled thinly. “I killed him. I am master of this city now.”
It explained why the incidents had steadily worsened.
“I’ve come to trade myself for d’woman. Where is she?”
Mordecai inclined his head, and two vamps pushed through a curtained doorway, dragging Jessica between them. Her head hung down to her chest. She was unconscious. The front of her dress was stained with blood.
“I have marked her,” Mordecai remarked, standing.
His vision turned red. Mordecai had fed on her. A violent urge to tear the man apart surged in his veins. “She can’ be turned. She’s one of us.”
“As delicious, as well. Take her back,” he said, gesturing toward the men.
Gabriel stepped forward, growling. “Danior kept his word.”
Mordecai’s eyes glittered dangerously. “I am not Danior.”
He didn’t have to look to know the vampire’s ranks were on the move, closing in.
He tried to block thoughts of Jessica from his mind, worries that she was still alive.
Mordecai grinned, showing his fangs. “I ordered in tonight. Tonight, we feast on Lycan.”
Gabriel unleashed the beast with a furious howl, answered by his brethren in chorus.
They launched at their enemies, ripping clothes, human flesh replaced with fur and fangs and razored claws.
Mordecai launched himself from the dais, straight for Gabriel.
Something called Jessica, reached into the corners of her mind with urgent fingers.
Howls filled the air, a haunting chorus of bloodlust answered in her soul. She sank deeper into the darkness, blinded, pain scalding her muscles. The pain was everywhere, on her skin, in her bones, spurred on by the incessant howls. Molten oil coated her like tar, oozing over her flesh, sticking to her skin, burning a path over her body.
She screamed, clawed at herself, but she was frozen, unable to move. The pain changed suddenly, mellowed. Ripples of energy rubbed inside her, spreading like tingling waves of ecstasy. Her body jerked involuntarily, seized with rolling, mingling agony and bliss. Senses that could only have been dead before came alive, so clear and sharp, they stabbed her brain with piercing clarity. She smelled blood, buried in the walls, fresh from cut veins; damp stone and flowing water; the burning of candle wax and wick; fear and sweat.... Her ears prickled with thousands of sounds, with grunts and groans; the rip of flesh; the splatter of blood; teeth gnashing; moans of pain.
A canine cry pierced the cacophony, sending instant alarm racing through her heart.
It broke off abruptly. Her eyes flew open.
Gabriel. He needed her, needed her help. Jessica rolled off her back onto her hands and knees.
Something ... was ... wrong.
Her hands were no longer there.
Jessica could not tear her eyes away. Fabric pooled around her feet, her torn and bloody dress and a satin robe. She flexed her fingers, watching the claws distend and retract from the blunted tips. The sounds of fighting faded, drowned out by the roar of blood in her ears.
Fur coated her arm, supple black dusted silver that extended up as far as she could see. Her hands were no longer hands--they were paws.
She’d become a wolf.
The realization exhilarated her. She stretched, feeling power move through her limbs. Everything Gabriel had told her was true. She was Lycan born, of his people.
A savage growl caught her, drawing her attention to Gabriel. He fought the man who
’d bitten her, Mordecai.
Part wolf, part man, shadowed by black hair--she knew it was Gabriel, felt it by some heightened, inner sense that connected her to him.
They were locked together, tearing at each other with their hands. The vampire had changed somehow, grown until he dwarfed Gabriel. Her heart leapt in her throat as Gabriel was forced down to his knees. He arched his back, groaning in pain and fury. Mordecai kicked him, sending him sprawling on the floor.
Jessica yelped, a canine cry--her voice gone. Mordecai’s head snapped up the instant she called. He turned toward her and smiled, red rivulets streaming down his face and hands.
In a lightning fast move, he rushed her. Before he could reach her, Gabriel raised from the floor and grabbed him, pulling him abruptly back in a flip with sheer strength. Mordecai screamed and whirled in the air, landing on the ground, Gabriel atop him, his hand poised to rip the vampire’s heart from his chest.
“I yield!” Mordecai yelled, holding his hands up to defend himself from Gabriel’s claws.
Gabriel regarded him warily a long moment, still caught in the blood lust of his beast, torn between the urge of the beast within and the human side that told him truce had been offered and must be respected. Finally, he stood, releasing the vamp leader. The others had ceased their battles, as well, at Mordecai’s words. The room was still, waiting.
Gabriel turned and faced them, gazing around at the carnage. They had lost two of their brethren, but decimated the vamps by more than half. A sense of triumph raced through his blood, quickening the beast. It was the beast that warned him, that sensed that Mordecai had risen behind him, warning of the threat inherent in turning his back on any vamp, particularly one who’d shown he could not be counted upon to keep his word.
Too late, the subtle change in the air warned him of the vamp’s underhanded ruse.
Even as he turned to meet the death strike of the vamp, he heard the call of his mate.
Jessica leapt through the air, driving her claws deep, ripping Modecai’s heart from his chest with her claws, shredding it before she’d even landed on the ground.
With a thought, she shifted back into human form and faced Gabriel. Gabriel gave her an appreciative look, glanced at Mordecai’s lifeless body, and then looked back at her with a frown.
“That was no’ honorable, cherie. The vamp had called a truce.”
Jessica shrugged. “I’m a woman. I’ve no use for honor when it comes to dealing with the likes of him. Besides, he would’ve killed me and you both if given the chance.”
He held out his hand. She glanced at it, but shook her head slightly, smiling faintly.
Returning to the place where she’d been held, she scooped up the abandoned robe, covering herself. This time when Gabriel, who’d followed her curiously, offered his hand, she took it.
Unhindered, they left that place of death, leaving the remaining Lycans to watch over the surviving vampires. Deron would come and arrange terms with the survivors.
By uniting at last to face the threat, the Lycan had ensured that the war that had raged in New Orleans for one hundred years was finally over.
Chapter Ten
