First Drop of Crimson

And once again, she'd be sequestered safely while that was happening. Denise was so sick of being the person her loved ones fought for, instead of facing the danger herself. If she could have traded places with Spade, Cat, or Bones, she would have done it in a heartbeat. But of course, none of them would let her.

That will change, Denise promised herself. She knew the world she was committing herself to, so she'd learn the best way to live in it. It meant toughening up, but she was ready. In fact, though she hadn't told Spade, she wasn't ruling out becoming a vampire one day. Drinking Spade's blood on a regular basis would be her trial run. She wasn't the same person she'd been before, willing to wait on the sidelines. Or in the basement.

But first they all had to survive tonight.

Denise glanced at Cat. Her friend looked rattled, not that Denise blamed her. All their hopes for victory hinged on an ability Cat didn't fully know how to operate. Bones and Spade were confident that when the moment came, she would rise to it. Denise both feared and envied Cat for that awesome responsibility. When had Denise ever been the person trusted to lay it all on the line for those depending on her?

"All right," Spade said quietly. "Let's do this."

Oliver, the human driver for this event, stayed behind the wheel, keeping the SUV running, but Denise, Spade, Cat, Bones, and Nathanial got out. Denise looked around, not sensing the other vampires that she knew were there. Web's people. They were probably hidden behind every shadow.

The spot on Denise's palm itched even though the small wound healed after Spade rubbed his blood over it. Nothing was visible on the outside, but inside her palm was a minuscule transmitter capsule. Nathanial had one implanted in the same place, too. Just in case we're separated, so Mencheres can track you, Spade had said.

Denise knew the harsher reason behind the trans mitter, even though Spade didn't say it. In case Web wins and the rest of us are killed. Web wouldn't kill her or Nathanial; they were too 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.

Oliver drove at speeds that would have normally frightened Denise, but she said nothing. Master vampires could run better than sixty miles an hour. Some could fly that fast - or faster. Oliver had reason for hammering the pedal down on the accelerator.

"I think he killed him," Nathanial murmured. A smile lit his face, making him look heartbreakingly young, even though Denise knew he had to be decades older than she. "I think the f**ker's finally dead!"

"I'm sure he did kill Web," she said, remembering the expression on Spade's face as he'd approached the other vampire. Denise repressed a shiver. If she ever saw that look on someone's face, she'd know death would soon follow.

"I've hated vampires for more than seventy years, but I love a few of them tonight," Nathanial said. His voice held such a savage satisfaction that it vibrated. "I hope he kills them all. Every last f**king one of them."

Denise didn't say anything stupid like, Was it really that bad when Web had you? Of course it was. If nothing else, at least Nathanial could feel avenged tonight.

But she couldn't help but ask one thing. "Why did you do it? Why did you make that deal with Raum?"

Oliver gave her a censuring glare in the rearview mirror. "You shouldn't talk to him," he muttered. "Spade said he didn't want you to."

Nathanial stared at her, his face paling. "What did you say?"

"Why did you make that deal?" Denise repeated, ignoring what Oliver said about not talking to him.

Nathanial still stared at her like she'd somehow sprouted horns and a tail. His mouth opened and closed several times before he managed to speak.

"You know his name. I never told anyone the demon's name. How do you know his name?"

"Don't talk to her," Oliver all but growled from the front seat.

Denise drew in a deep breath, meeting Nathanial's shocked hazel gaze. As she stared, she could almost see the knowledge forming in his eyes. Could almost feel the horror emanating from him as he pieced together the answer to his question.

"He sent you after me," Nathanial whispered. "That's why your boyfriend stole me from Web's. Not to help you control the power in your brands, but to return me to him."

Chapter Thirty-four

The sound that came out of Nathanial's throat would haunt her. It was a cross between a sob and the most despairing laugh Denise had ever heard.

"I should have known," Nathanial said, still making that awful, keening cackle. "They never let me around you, which I thought was odd since I was supposed to be there to help you. Then they never asked me to tell you about the tricks I'd learned to stop the change, in addition to keeping the baser urges under control. There are meditations, certain herbs you steep together to drink...but none of that matters now, does it?"

Oliver slowed down enough to laser a glare on Nathanial. "Do not speak to her again," he said.

"Stop it!" Denise cried out. "Let him speak."

"Spade doesn't - "

"I know Spade doesn't want me talking to him," Denise interrupted. "But even condemned prisoners get to have their last words."

Then she gave Nathanial a steady look. "You never answered my question. Why did you do it? Do you have any idea what your decision ended up costing me? Raum murdered I don't know how many members of my family looking for you. He threatened to kill the few that were left and branded me to force me to find you. You deserve to talk, but I deserve to know why."

"I don't have a good reason. I was a dirt-poor farmer in the eighteen sixties who stumbled onto the occult after a feverish priest stayed at my home. While he was raving, he talked about demons. It didn't scare me; it fascinated me. I'd always dreamed of being more than I was, and the priest unwittingly gave me the tools to do that. When he got better, I tricked him into believing I wanted to aid his work, but I really sought to learn how to summon and trap a demon instead."

Nathanial paused and sighed. "I was nineteen. Young, stupid, and arrogant. After I summoned Raum and bargained for long life and power, I sent him back to where he came from. I thought no one would be hurt. But then I found out I couldn't control the effects of his brands. I'd wanted to be powerful, but I didn't want to change into monsters from my nightmares. I found the priest I'd deceived and begged him for help. Together we learned how to curb the triggers to transformation and how to control what I changed into, when that still wasn't enough. When he died, he left instructions for other priests to help me. It was one of them who told me about vampires, and how a vampire demonologist might be able to mute my brands in case Raum ever returned. I got the tattoos and I thought...I might be able to live a semi-normal life then. But the vampire who took me to the demonologists knew my blood was different. And after I got the tattoos, he sold me to Web."