First Drop of Crimson

valuable. But she and Nathanial were the only ones Web intended to survive this evening.

She thought she’d throw up.

Spade’s face cleared of all expression as he took her arm in one hand and Nathanial’s in the other. Her relative hadn’t spoken at all, either on the plane ride to Monaco or the car ride to the harbor. Denise knew Nathanial had been apprised of his role tonight, but she wondered at his silence. Was he afraid of being captured again by Web? She certainly would be, if she were he, though what she intended for Nathanial was so much worse than that…

Denise reminded herself that she had nothing to do with Nathanial making the bargain with Raum in the first place, but the rationalization felt hollow. She glanced at the tattoos covering the brands on her skin. If only there was another way to remove them.

Her attention was snapped away from that when Web appeared on the end of a pier. He must have been there the whole time; that was where Spade had been walking, but not until she was on the pier did she notice him. Web’s tousled sandy hair was visible in the darkness, but those scary cobalt eyes were still too shadowed for her to see.

“Good evening,” Web called out, as if this were a social call. Then he spoke into his phone. “Are we good, Vick?”

Denise didn’t hear the reply, but when Web’s casual stance relaxed even more, she could guess what it was. Yes, only the six of them had come to Monaco, just as agreed, which must be what Web’s spies relayed to him.

“Don’t you trust me?” Spade asked, a hint of amusement in his tone.

Denise didn’t know how Spade could sound so coolly unaffected. She was almost quaking at the circumstances, and she was the safest person on the pier aside from Nathanial.

“Just being cautious,” Web replied lightly. “You were a bit rude during our last encounter.”

Spade chuckled at that, letting go of Denise’s arm. “I’m sure you’d have acted the same way, were you me.”

Now Denise was close enough to see the gleam in Web’s eyes. “Very true.”

She’d known it, of course, but seeing Web’s eyes flick behind them with false nonchalance hammered home that this was a trap. Web had no intention of letting Spade, Bones, or Cat walk off this pier. Her heart started to beat faster. What if this didn’t work?

“You see I’ve brought the girl,” Spade said, not looking away from Web. “Now, show me the knife.”

Web pulled out a thin black case from his jacket, similar to a jewelry box for a bracelet. Denise blinked. Was the knife really that small?

Web opened the box, revealing a pale blade that was all the same cream-colored substance from sharp tip to thicker etched handle. Demon bone.

“Slide it over,” Spade commanded. “And then I’ll send you the girl.”

Web didn’t argue, which made Denise even more nervous. They must really be surrounded for him to feel so confident. He closed the box and then slid it along the pier, watching them with a glinting smile.

Nathanial went and picked it up, taking the knife out and holding it up in the moonlight. He nodded.

“This is it.”

“And now the girl,” Web said silkily.

Denise cast one last look at Spade before she walked forward, slowly. Web’s eyes slid over her in a way that felt like footsteps on her grave. Package deals. Blood selling. His plans for her would make her life a living hell, if he succeeded tonight.

Denise was almost within Web’s reach when the smile slipped from his face. A hiss came out of him and his eyes turned green.

“What is this?” Web grated out. His hand slowly lifted from his side as if being pulled on by a great weight.

Behind her, Denise heard Cat grunt. She glanced back, seeing Cat’s hands extended outward and green blazing from her eyes.

“Mencheres sends his regards,” Cat growled.

“Run!” Spade snapped to Denise, drawing several knives from his sleeves.

Shouts erupted from the dark, and the empty-looking harbor was suddenly awash with movement. Denise grabbed Nathanial’s arm and they ran down the pier, almost colliding with a vampire who appeared as if out of nowhere. When the vampire went to grab her, though, his reach slowed, like he was moving under water. Before he could touch her, Bones hacked a silver knife through his heart.

“Go,” Bones ordered.

Several more vampires tried to stop her, but they swayed almost drunkenly, as if they’d lost coordination in their limbs. She and Nathanial managed to duck under their grasping arms and kept going, toward the parking lot and the SUV.

“Hurry,” Cat called out, her voice sounding strained. “I can’t hold them much longer.”

Oliver appeared, running toward them, slashing and hacking with gruesome efficiency at every vampire he came across. With their movements reduced to that of a sluggish human and Oliver hyped up on vampire blood, Web’s people were almost helpless.

“Quickly,” Oliver said. The three of them ran to the parking lot, jumping into the SUV and speeding off before Denise caught her breath.

Web struggled to pull out a knife as Spade approached, but he couldn’t move his hands to his jacket in time. By Christ, she did it, Spade thought. Cat hadn’t absorbed Mencheres’s power to immobilize people, or she didn’t have time to learn to wield it like his sire did, but she’d gained enough from drinking Mencheres’s blood to reduce Web and his men to slower than human speed. Thankfully, she’d managed to deflect it away from him, Crispin, Nathanial, Alten, and Denise, which had been their biggest concern. If none of them could move, the power would be useless. But with only Web’s people affected, no matter how many of them there were, they didn’t stand a chance.

He’d almost feel sorry about killing them when they were so hampered, except for what they’d intended with Denise.

Spade looked into the Web’s eyes as he held his knife to the other vampire’s chest. And smiled.

“You will never use her,” Spade said before ramming the knife into Web’s chest. No Kevlar hindered its path as it sank to the hilt. Web truly had expected his trap to be sufficient.

“Don’t,” Web whispered.

Spade ignored that. With two hard jerks, he twisted the knife, shredding Web’s heart. When he yanked it out, Web was lifeless on the pier, his skin starting to shrivel in the way that all vampires did once they experienced true death.

Cat was on her knees, her hands extended out, waves of Mencheres’s borrowed power emanating from her to cast a net around the harbor. Her bright green gaze met Spade’s.

“Hurry. I can’t hold them much longer,” she said.

Spade looked behind her, seeing Oliver, Denise, and Nathanial jumping into the SUV. Relief coursed through him. Oliver would take them out of the city, where Mencheres and Ian waited on the outskirts. Denise would be safe.

Spade joined Crispin to move lethally through Web’s people, cutting them down with precise, swift slashes of his blade. He showed no mercy. Each vampire of Web’s was a threat to Denise, if Web had revealed what was in her blood. Nathanial’s words rang in his mind. You don’t know what normally happens when someone pounces on me while I’m asleep…Even the guards, who were forbidden from tasting me, constantly snuck sips. That’s what these vampires would have done to Denise. All of them deserved to die for it.

With a loud cry, Cat’s power over the vampires snapped. Roars of rage tore through the harbor as Web’s remaining men fought back with all the speed and power of their vampire heritage. Spade’s hands tightened on his knives as he released his own roar of rage into the night.

He didn’t care if they were still outnumbered, he wasn’t going to run. Let them try to take him down. He wouldn’t stop fighting until all of them were dead.