Chapter 10

Halo watched her slide off the table with lids at half mast, his lashes framing his picture of her. She looked as if someone had hit her with a right cross. He felt bad about that.

Well, no. Not really. He had enjoyed feeling her close to him again. He had enjoyed her heat and her passion. She was quite a good little kisser. Quite convincing. Although, male instincts knew it had not been an act in any way. She was very attracted to him. He could feel it. He could feel it in the hunger of her kisses and the reactions of her body. She had grown so wet. So slick. So hot.

Thinking about it wasn’t helping the all-star erection he had. Just the thought of grabbing hold of her made him hard nearly the moment he had conceived of his plan. An excuse to get near her, he had thought. And excuse to fondle that gorgeously round body and all those equally gorgeous curves and crevices. He wanted more. He would have taken more under any other circumstances, but he had forced himself to stay on task. As much as he loved drinking her in and being that close to her, he needed to protect her. He needed to keep her safe.

He wondered at the fact that they had given them knives. Sure, they were little plastic ones, but in the right hands they could be an effective weapon. And his hands were the right hands. They had to know that. Or maybe they weren’t as smart as they thought they were. Still, what threat would he be if they could still knock him out.

He had actually grabbed both knives when he’d gotten to the table. It would perhaps gain him more time when it came to prying off that grate. He had eyed it in passing, noting that there were two screws holding it in place. He would need to unscrew those screws first. That was a complication when it came to the speed in which he could do it. What he had to hope for was that they weren’t watching the cameras religiously. It was impossible for someone to watch every single move they made without looking away or growing bored. He had to make them grow as bored of watching them as possible.

“Come over here and get some sleep,” he instructed Felice as she stood there awkwardly, apparently not sure what to do next. She hesitated.

“I promise I’ll behave myself.”

She shook her head. “I’ll just sleep in a recliner,” she said, inching toward one as if she were afraid he was going to pounce on her and drag her into bed with him.

“Suit yourself,” he said with a halfhearted shrug. He closed his eyes as if going to sleep, but he was very aware of all his surroundings, including the way she eventually sat down and kicked up the footrest of the recliner. His supernatural senses were aware of every shaky breath she took. Every shiver. Damn it, he should be close to her, sharing his warmth. However, he had to admit to himself that it would look suspicious if she simply jumped into bed with him as if nothing had happened and the argument had been nothing much to either of them.

At least, he hoped she was just acting for whomever was watching. He could imagine she was stunned—and aroused. He had left her needy and wanting more…a fact that irked a part of him. He wasn’t the type to tease.

He slowed his breathing. Calmed himself. No easy task, but it had to be done. He couldn’t sleep, however. He couldn’t let himself be that vulnerable, even if it was burning energy he couldn’t spare.

So he rested and listened. It was almost meditative—and it was very difficult. Halo was a man of action. He didn’t stay quiet and he didn’t like to be trapped and forced into the will of another. He was naked and exposed—in more ways than one. He could handle the no-clothes aspect of this, even when he found himself aroused and hardened by a certain plump and pretty companion in captivity. Unlike her, he couldn’t care less about his nudity. He wasn’t modest or shy. He was everything the opposite of that. But he was vulnerable in other ways. That gas for one. His increasing exhaustion for another. All of it whirled around in his head and made him angrier and angrier until he had to force himself to calm down and think clearly. He couldn’t give Roth an advantage like that. He couldn’t be hotheaded and rash. That wasn’t going to get him out of this.

So he faked sleep, waiting patiently for the moment when the spectator on the other end of the camera, whoever it was, grew bored and complacent and stopped paying close attention to what was—or rather wasn’t—happening on the screen. After about two hours of perfect inactivity he opened his eyes. He grabbed hold of one of the knives and quickly made his way to the vent that allowed gas to enter the room. It was surprisingly easy work to unscrew the bolts holding the grate in place but just as he got it off an ominous hiss began to come from the apparatus he exposed. He took a breath just before a misting gas erupted from the nozzle, blowing into his face. He closed his hand around the nozzle and concentrated. He sent an electrical impulse along the exposed metal and felt the feedback as it fried any and all electrical release valves. The gas blowing into his face reduced by half and then stopped altogether. He resisted a shout of triumph, knowing the room was still half filled with the gas. He quickly got up and moved to the far side of the room, where the air was bound to be clearer, and took a breath. He held it again, hoping there was enough free air in the room to dilute the concentration of the gas. He went over to Felice and checked on her, taking her pulse. She was also on the far side of the room from the gas, but as a human she might be even more sensitive to it than he was.

He took another breath, this one through his nose. He couldn’t smell the funky chemical smell of the gas and he didn’t feel light-headed or sleepy. After several minutes and several breaths, Halo allowed himself to breathe normally. He smiled in wicked triumph. Now they would have to enter the room while he was conscious and awake. Now they would have to expose themselves to him on an equal playing field. Now the possibility of escape had increased a hundredfold.

After a few more minutes he tried to wake Felice. He wanted to know if she had been affected by the gas. He wanted to make sure she was all right. He didn’t know what he would do if anything happened to her. Go crazy, he supposed. Even the idea of an innocent being killed because of some twisted plan Roth had concocted made him see red. And it mattered that the innocent was Felice. She wasn’t just some nameless, faceless junkie. He knew her. He knew how kind she was and how strong. He knew how courageous she was and how clever. He knew how independent she was and how passionate. He knew all these things about her after only a few hours of exposure to her. He wondered if she knew him half so well.

Probably. It wasn’t as if he was some kind of big mystery. He was pretty easy to figure out and a pretty basic guy—when it came to his needs and personality at least. He was far more complex when it came to the hunt. It was where all of his creative energy was focused. It was where his strengths lay.

He wasn’t successful in waking her and he realized she had been exposed to the gas far more than he had thought. His body had rapidly processed the toxin out because it had not overcome him. But again, that had burned precious energy, and he was starting to feel hungry.

His appetite started as an itch. A desire. It was simple now, but it would grow stronger and more intense as time passed. It would grow until he was mad with craving. Until it would be difficult for him to control himself. It took a lot of discipline to choose to go into torpor rather than give in and take from whatever immediate source was available. He had the necessary discipline. The question remained, however. Did he take from Felice and risk a walk on the poisoned side, or did he allow himself to become so vulnerable that anyone could walk up and kill him, which was exactly what Roth would do once he realized he wasn’t going to get his way. He wasn’t going to beat Halo.

Halo would get the better of him.

It started with destroying the gas functions. But there were no guarantees that would last. It might not take much to replace certain circuit boards. That meant his opportunity, when it came, would be short and hopefully sweet. Hopefully, he would have the chance to beat down these bastards in a hand-to-hand situation—a scenario he knew he had a far better chance of controlling.

But there was a wild card.

Felice.

How did he plan an escape while Felice was vulnerable to attack? Sure, he could throw himself recklessly and without fear into any hand-to-hand situation, but that was if he only had himself to worry about. Now he had to worry about Felice. He had to plan what to do with her to keep her from being a liability.

He gathered her up into his arms and moved her to the bed. The air was likely clearer in that corner of the room and Halo wouldn’t be satisfied until he could wake her. He didn’t try again immediately, however. He let her sleep. She deserved a few hours of rest from this situation they were in. No need for them both to be exhausted.

Left to his own devices, all he could do was lie there and think. What would he do with her? Send her to the farthest corner of the room no doubt. He would tell her to retreat there the minute someone entered the room. But that would require her to be awake and alert when it happened.

And it would happen. They had to feed her. That meant entering the room and exchanging the dishes.

Or maybe now they would starve her like they were starving him. He hadn’t thought of that. He could hold out a few more days. How long could she hold out?

Actually, if he were being honest with himself, his choice was coming far closer than that, far faster. He would be forced to choose between poisoning himself or going into torpor long before she would starve to death. Besides, there was some food left over. It would be cold and nasty, but it was food all the same. There were some dinner rolls and some potatoes. Some green beans. Nasty but edible.

His one true vulnerability was Felice. They would use her against him. If they entered the room they would go for her before they would go for him. As much as he liked to portray himself as an unfeeling prick, he knew Roth would understand that protecting an innocent would be the topmost thing on his list. It was one of the uppermost tenets of their society. Protect innocent humans from themselves as much as possible. Protect their food sources because they were so few and far between.

He thought of feeding from Felice, and it made him instantly hard. He huffed out a sigh of frustration with himself and his wayward body. He could hardly help it though. The idea of feeding from her and holding her lush body against his as he did so was more than he could bear.

After another hour he tried waking her again. She murmured groggily and tried to shove away the hand smacking her lightly on the face. Then suddenly she opened her eyes and looked at him, confusion and disorientation swimming in her pretty blue eyes. Seductive blue eyes. They were so compelling, so full of warmth and life. He found himself thinking he could stare into them for a very long time, doing nothing else, and still be satisfied.

“Are you with me?” he asked her, his voice sounding rough to even his own ears.

“What…? Did I fall asleep?”

“Yes. I knocked out the gas system. If they are going to gas us they have to figure out how to do it manually. And if the system was connected to any of their other systems, then that means I may have knocked out the cameras as well. But we won’t know that for a while, if ever. We just have to hope. If they do come in here you can bet it will be in large numbers, so you have to do me a huge favor. If that door opens, you have to go to this corner of the room. Just climb on the bed and huddle in the far corner. Don’t leave it until I call you to me. No matter what happens. Even if it looks like I’m outnumbered and going down. Even if you think they have the best of me and are killing me. I figure if I die, they won’t have a use for you anymore. They might just let you go.”

“But—”

“It’s not the ideal outcome, but we have to face that it might be an outcome. But don’t worry, it’ll take a lot to take me out. I promise you that.”

“What if they fix the gas?”

“It’ll take days for them to rewire the circuits, if it can be done at all. By then the choice will have been made. Feed from you or fall into torpor. No. The gas is the least of our problems now.”

“Can’t they release it manually?”

“I think I fried and melted enough components to keep them from doing that. It was hard to tell but I got some decent feedback from the connection. Strong feedback means a lot of systems were affected. I’m hoping the cameras were included in that.”

He glanced up at the upper corner of the room where the camera was sealed behind a hard casing. He had noticed a red light on each of the cameras earlier, indicating they were on and working. Those red lights were no longer on. It was a good sign. He shared the detail with Felice and watched excitement wash over her. She gripped at his shoulders and wriggled excitedly against him.

“Does that mean they can’t see us any longer? Oh thank god!”

“Easy. I’m not sure what it means. I’m hoping…but let’s not get our hopes up too high.”

“It must mean they can no longer see us! It has to!”

“Like I said. We can hope.”

“Well, I’m going to assume we finally have some privacy. As long as those little red lights are out, I’m thinking we have the room to ourselves.”

“It’s a good bet,” he agreed. However, he would have been happier if he’d seen sparks fly from the feedback loop he’d created. It was clear that Roth had not planned for his ability to fry electronics. Halo didn’t advertise the ability, just like he didn’t advertise his weaknesses. It had been a fatal flaw in Roth’s plans. The sycophant wasn’t as clever as he thought he was. He had thought of a lot, had planned a lot out, but he hadn’t planned for everything. No matter how good a plan was, you were invariably going to overlook one or two details that could throw a wrench into the whole works. Roth had done just that.

Feeling satisfied with his monkey wrench–throwing ability, Halo turned his attention to other things. More immediate things. And those things were packed into a sweet, curvy figure that was pressing chest to chest against him. In her excitement Felice had hugged him close, her ankle coming to cross over his, her calf hugging his. Her hands were on his chest, her fingers tickling through the hairs she found there. She combed and tugged and pulled at them in excited absentmindedness.

“How long does it take before I’m no longer considered poisonous to you?” she asked, her bottomless blue eyes gazing into his.

“About a week from the last time you used. Less if you were clean beforehand, more if you’re an all-out junkie.”

“I was clean beforehand. I wasn’t exactly a health nut but I buy organic when I can afford it. But there’s so little organic food available and so much tempting prepackaged food. I have a weakness for chips and salsa and I have yet to find any organic chips.”

“I’m sure they are out there somewhere. And you don’t have to eat pristinely organic to be considered a clean source. If you did, it would make you the best kind of source. A healthy and delicious treat. However, a vampire can still feed from someone who has the occasional bowl of Tostitos chips.”

He grinned down at her and she laughed. “Oh, I’m so relieved!” she said.

That sobered him. “You say that as if you are planning to be fed from.”

“Oh…well, I…I suppose I am. At least once. Just to see what it’s like. But by you. Only by you. And only if you promise to let me remember it. Otherwise what’s the point?”

“The point is to feed me,” he said dryly. “It’s not supposed to be about how it makes you feel.”

“Isn’t it though? Why would it feel so good if it wasn’t meant to be enjoyed by both sides of the equation?”

It was hard to argue with her basic logic. It all sounded so intelligent and reasonable from her perspective. However, he knew the committee would never allow her to retain her memories of him. She simply had nothing to offer them to make it worth their while to leave her memory intact. The only exception might be if some vampire was willing to marry her. In those rare instances when a vampire wanted to come clean with a loved one, there was a process that allowed them to do so without threat. First the loved one was watched and inspected for mental and physical fortitude. Did they think the person in question would be able to handle the disclosure without completely flying off the rails?

If the person was found to be sane enough and stable enough, the revelation was made. Then the person was watched very closely from that moment until the committee was satisfied he or she would accept the existence of vampires and the fact that they must remain a secret society. All email and correspondences were monitored, as were the person’s calls. The rules and vampire law were explained and the person in question was watched like a hawk to make certain they accepted and followed the rules—and to head off any attempts at exposing the vampires.

Still, all of this was very rare. Vampires seldom—if ever—dated and fell in love with and then married their food sources. Most vampires found the thought revolting or rather obscene. Halo was not one of them. He liked human women. Loved them in fact. They were varied and delightful, tasty and delicious, grateful and gorgeous. Especially women like Felice. So passionate and vital and independent. Knowing their own minds and their own sexual maturity. Not that vampire women were very different, but there could be something stagnant about a vampire female. They had lived so long that they either became very jaded or they no longer found true excitement in their sexuality.

“It’s not up to me whether you will remember it or not. But I promise you this: I won’t be the one who takes the memories away. Okay? Will that satisfy you? And anyway, it’s a moot point. I won’t be feeding from you for as long as you are poisoned.”

“Stop saying that. I don’t like it. I’m not poison.”

“To me you are. It’s a bald fact. I’m sorry if you don’t like to hear it.”

“I may be toxic, but I’m not poison. I won’t kill you.”

“May as well,” he said grimly. “I’d rather die than walk in those tainted shoes.”

“That isn’t practical,” she said.

“Do you believe that given enough time you would become addicted to heroin?”

“Yes. But not after only one time.”

“How do you know that won’t be the case for me? You know nothing about vampires and sycophants other than what I tell you.”

“I just have faith. I believe you will be able to fight it. You are too strong to give in so easily.”

“Perhaps. But I’d rather not take the chance.”

“I understand that. But that means getting out of here before you run out of energy. I don’t see that happening. They are going to wait you out.”

“They have to come in here sometime—if only to feed you. That will be my opportunity.”

“And they know it. They’ll come in force.”

“Which is why I want you as far away from the action as possible. Farthest corner of the room. Got it?”

“I can help,” she argued, twisting her hands together anxiously.

“No. You can’t. Vampire strength is well beyond human strength. And there are dozens of ways you can be incapacitated. The only way they can incapacitate me is to kill me or drain all of my energy.”

“They can do that?” she gasped, horrified.

“I can do that to myself. If I fight them off with pulses until my energy drains. That’s why I’m going to prefer hand to hand.”

“But they will have far more energy than you will. Can’t they just overwhelm you?”

“It’s like I said…every time they use a pulse against me I can take a little of that energy into myself and direct it back at them. Not a lot, mind you. Not enough to make it an endless battle. But enough to keep myself from draining completely if they continue to use pulse against me. But getting beat back by pulse is a real possibility. They could beat me back enough to get in and out of the room. It will all depend on how many there are and how strong they are.”

“This is hopeless,” she said anxiously. “They are bound to have dozens of vampires to your one.”

“Not necessarily. They could get cocky. Come in here with too few reinforcements. Have faith. This can work,” he said, the entire time speaking softly, keeping his voice at a whisper just in case they had missed any bugs. He bent his head to her ear, his breath stirring her dark hair. He saw her shiver again and he pulled her into his warmth. This time she didn’t resist his efforts. This time she cuddled up to him and let him press his chest to hers. He put a hand to the back of her head and held her close, marveling at just how small her head was in comparison to the size of his hand. She was so fragile. So human. He had to protect her. At all costs. He had to succeed at his escape attempt. There was no other choice. There were no guarantees that their captors would let her go once he was out of the picture. He couldn’t know that for sure without knowing why she had been chosen in the first place.

Halo had to figure that out in order to keep her from ending up in the same predicament…or a similar one. He doubted she would be used for the exact same thing.

Then again, maybe she would. Maybe they were kidnapping women constantly, like a human-trafficking ring of sorts, pumping them full of drugs and using them to poison lawful vampires.

Once the thought occurred to him, he couldn’t think of anything else. What if that was really what was happening here? What if this wasn’t limited to him? What if this was a new and sadistic level of crime for the sycophants? Forced recruiting.

That was so dangerous. It meant no one was safe. It meant anyone who was lawful could be and would be turned until there were no lawful vampires left.

Granted that would take a lot of time, but the number of sycophants was increasing. Soon they would outnumber the lawful e-vamps. It was a possibility Simone, their queen, had seen on the horizon. It was part of the impetus that had recently spurred her and other parts of the nation to stop squabbling among themselves and sign a treaty that joined their forces in the hopes that it would allow them to fight back the growing sycophant threat.

But the possibility of forced recruiting…it was a new and dangerous element they had not anticipated. The more Halo thought about it, the more he realized this was a pretty elaborate setup to waste on one single vampire in particular. This cage had taken a great deal of planning. It had no doubt been perfected through trial and error. It was far too flawless to be otherwise. The only weakness they hadn’t counted on was his ability to fry their electrical circuitry through that air duct. Mainly because it was an ability very few vampires had. Most could use pulse, but few could direct that pulse to such a fine degree that they could send electrical feedback through a wired setup. Come to think of it, he could have stripped the wires to the lamp in the room and fried the immediate electrical wiring…but that would only go so far before the breakers would trip and there had been no guarantees those two systems were in any way connected.

No. Going directly for the main panel without showing his hand previously had been his best bet and it had worked in his favor. There had been risk. The pulse could have ignited the gas, causing an explosion…which Halo would have welcomed actually. An explosion might have created an exit. He would, however, have to be satisfied with what he had gotten out of it.

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the scent of her and letting it wash over him calmly. He could smell the perfume of her shampoo, a light coconut scent. Something tropical. But beneath that was the ever-present scent of taint. Heroin embedded itself into the hair follicles. It sweated out of her whenever she perspired. Not that she smelled vile—she actually smelled quite delicious. But his vampire senses picked up the undertones of poison. It couldn’t be helped.

He wasn’t about to tell her that, however. She would become self-conscious, more than she already was. He would just focus on the lighter, more sensual scents of her body and not search too deeply. Of course, that came with its own dangers. It was arousing. Tantalizing. She still smelled of the arousal she had last felt when he had attacked her on the table. It was pleasurable and stimulating. So much so that he had to control his thoughts in order to keep his body from reacting to all of her lush nearness.

It was a losing battle.