Chapter Five
Viktor calmly waited on top of the office building, at the corner of Mission Street and Hyack Boulevard, just as the crazy woman had told him to. It was ten minutes until noon. She had said that Conrad’s men would stop in the ally precisely at noon, and he was to collect whatever was inside this car if he wanted to foil his nemesis’s only chance at a Happy Ever After.
He wasn’t quite sure he believed the odd little fairy, but he wasn’t going to risk missing the opportunity either. It certainly wouldn’t cost him anything to sit up here and check it out. The propaganda that vampires would spontaneously combust in the sun was of course just that, propaganda. When the Spanish Inquisition was happening in the 1400s, the Para Council had gotten together and “leaked” all sorts of fabricated species tidbits and weaknesses. The information was intended to help the paranormal beings camouflage better amongst the rest of the mortals when the religious fanatics were torturing and killing people at an alarming rate. It couldn’t have worked better, and most of those same mythologies were alive and well to this very day.
Vampires burned in the daylight? Nah, but Viktor had to admit that his tan was a bit on the sad side. Could vampires only ingest blood? Of course not, but some of the older ones did get tired of eating food when a liquid diet could be so much more convenient on the go. Each species had their own lore, and it had kept most of them from being hunted by the humans, just as it was designed to.
When he spied the black car pulling into the alleyway he was actually a little surprised. Perhaps that crazy drunk chick was telling him the truth after all. In all the years that Viktor had lived as a vampire, he’d never met a Fairy Godmother.
So naturally, he assumed that they were just a myth created by the fairies to protect their own species. Some sort of “don’t kill the fairy because you might not get your happy ending” kind of bullshit. He’d met several run of the mill fairies of course, but nothing quite like her. She’d practically vibrated with magic.
When the front car door opened below him and one of Conrad’s lackeys jumped out, quickly pulling open the back door, he realized that finally, his chance was here to ruin Conrad’s life. He stepped off the ledge and silently dropped to the ground just in time to see a little blonde head come streaking out of the back seat and bend over in front of the dumpster.
“Gosh, guys, I’m sorry. I really thought I was going to puke. Guess I’m just nervous about the ceremony, huh?” A sweet lilting voice washed over him.
Viktor had to shake his head to get his attention away from the rather shapely ass that was bent over in front of him. He needed his focus back to the four thugs that poured out of the car once he stepped out of the shadows and away from the wall.
“Krescech! What do you want?” the largest vamp said as he saw Viktor approach, immediately putting himself between Viktor and the girl, but not before he caught a glimpse of huge green eyes framed with dark lashes.
“I simply want Conrad to get what he deserves … which would be nothing but a painful death,” Viktor answered, taking a step closer, scenting that two of the other guards were also vamps and the third was a wolf. He was already calculating the battle in his head. The only unknown factor would be how the girl would react as he could scent that she was some kind of shifter as well. He was relieved to see her head pop back around the first guard and a smile bloom on her face at his words.
“Get back in the car, girl,” the vamp snarled over his shoulder in her direction as he advanced towards Viktor.
He was a big bastard, and it was clear in the way that he moved that he was a fairly new turn. Viktor had never run into him before, but it was amusing that all of Conrad’s lackeys knew him on sight. They must have a Most Wanted poster of him up in the clubhouse. How cute.
That was the problem with the Coven Master being a complete asshole. All of the older vamps didn’t put up with his bullshit. So they either left the city or became unaligned rogues like Viktor, leaving Conrad no choice but to create a brand new army of baby vamps. This became an issue when they ended up fighting against immortals that had hundreds of years of battle experience in their favor. The newbies still fought like humans, which meant they died just like them as well … quickly.
It was with a satisfying thud that the first vampire’s head dropped to the pavement behind Viktor. The hulk had been going in for a punch to his face, and it was a simple thing to grab Victor’s favorite blade from his waist sheath, back turn and slice the metal clean through his adversary’s neck. Surprisingly, the wolf was the smartest of the remaining three guards. He turned and hauled ass out of the alley into the busy streets beyond as the other two came at him together. While they may have gotten in a few lucky shots, it wasn’t enough to stop him from ending them both within minutes, leaving only piles of ash behind.
“Wow,” he heard in a sweet voice from behind him. “You certainly don’t mess around, do you?”
The woman didn’t sound scared, which was a surprise, but then again shifters were raised in a fairly violent environment so a little death and dismemberment shouldn’t be a reason for her to freak out.
“I mean you no harm, lady. You can go. I’m only here for what’s in the car,” he said slowly walking towards her. She was a cute little thing, all soft curves with golden skin and hair.
“Um, yeah, about that … I’m what’s in the car, Mr. Krescech. You have to take me with you out of here,” she said almost nervously, those big green eyes pleading with him.
Clearly, she was also insane. What was with the women he was running into this week? Viktor had had more than his fair share of groupies throwing themselves at him in the bars, wanting to take a walk on the wild side for a few hours, but this wholesome little beauty certainly didn’t look like the type, so he had no idea exactly what she was asking him for.
“I don’t think so,” he said, moving past her towards the open back door to search the car.
“Seriously, there’s nothing else in the car. They were taking me from my family and my pard to be married to Conrad. I have to go with you to get away from him,” she continued, putting her tiny little hands on her very curvy hips in a way that distracted him far more than it should have.
Interesting, so this little number was a leopard shifter? Viktor hadn’t really had any interaction with the pard in this country, but by reputation, they were a good lot. Why on Earth would she agree to marry Conrad?
“I don’t rescue damsels in distress. I eat them,” he said with a flash of fang. “So run along, little kitten.”
The tiny spitfire threw her hands dramatically up in the air and sighed loudly.
“You just saved me from a life of baby-making slavery. Aren’t you supposed to whisk me away to your super-secret villain lair and ravish me? Sheesh, where’s your follow-through?”
Viktor just stood there and stared at her for a moment. He didn’t know whether to laugh at her ridiculous statement or take her up on her offer and bend her over right here on the trunk of Conrad’s car. He was extremely turned on by the fact that she didn’t seem the least bit afraid of him. He’d always tried to pretend that his reputation in the paranormal community pleased him, that it helped him by keeping the rabble away. But deep down it bothered him that everyone always thought the worst of him. His honor was just yet another thing that Melisandre and Conrad had stolen from him when they took his mortality.
“Don’t you know who I am, woman?” he finally said as she just stood there looking at him expectantly.
“Yes, I know who you are. Who else is capable of keeping me out of Conrad’s douchey hands?” she said sounding a little impatient.
“Don’t you have a family you can go to?” he asked, still wondering why he was even standing here talking to her.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Once she’d said the word “slavery” he knew he couldn’t leave her to Conrad’s tender mercies. Viktor knew more about slavery than he ever wanted to, and no being should ever be held against their will. That and he had seen firsthand what Conrad enjoyed doing to women. It still sickened him to think back to the horrors he’d had to witness as Melisandre’s pet.
“If I go back to my family they’d just have to hand me right back over to him again. My pard owes him a blood debt, and I am the payment. I need this to look like Conrad’s men lost me in the confrontation with you. This needs to be his fault, as otherwise, it will start a war between my family and his coven,” she said, stepping ever closer.
She stood so close now that Viktor could smell the strawberry and coconut scent of her shampoo. Good Gods, she smells good enough to eat.
“Why would you think that I should care whether or not this starts a war for your people? I will not be fighting in it,” he answered, trying to sound like he didn’t care one way or another.
“Because I think that you hate Conrad just as much, if not more than I do, and there’s nothing he wants more than to possess me,” she answered quietly, her huge green eyes staring right into his grey ones.
She was right of course. There was no one on this Earth that he hated as much as he hated Conrad. That’s what he told himself anyway when he ultimately decided he would take the girl with him—whether it was the whole truth about his motivations or not.
“First, tell me how your pard was thoughtless enough to enter into a blood debt with a killer like Conrad?”
“It’s not like we had any choice. My father was jumped one night by a bunch of rogues, and Conrad just happened to be there to offer his assistance … for a price.”
The venom in her voice clearly stated that she suspected they’d been set up. The rogues were most likely paid to attack by Conrad himself. It was a trick the coward had used over and over again.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “You can come with me, but just until we find somewhere to stash you that Conrad cannot reach you.”
“Thank you!” she said with a squeal just before she reached up and hugged him before he could stop her. “I’m Halle, by the way.”
Clearly, his reputation was never going to recover from this if anyone saw him being hugged in the alley, but with her luscious frame leaning against his, smelling so sweet, he had a difficult time finding a reason to care.