A Vampire’s Mistress Page 2

  Rather than fight for her, and against the obvious preferences of the High Council, Gabe had simply disappeared. But now he was back and she knew that it wasn’t her weakness that had her senses reeling, it was Gabriel.

  He settled her back on the cot, like a fragile doll. At one time, she’d been afraid she might harm him, her desire for him dangerous to his mortal state. Ironic really, considering how his leaving had flayed her open emotionally.

  “Looks like we need to go to plan B,” he said simply.

  “What was plan A?”

  “Phase a key and walk out.”

  She pushed herself with her forearm to sit upright. “And plan B?”

  “Your cell is toward the front of the guards’ hourly check. Mine to the back. If we can dispatch your guards, we’ll take their keys and I can carry you out.”

  “Who said I was coming with you?” Just because he wasn’t on Nick’s payroll didn’t mean she trusted the High Council, either. The only way Nick could have gotten away with any of his business was if one or more of the council had turned a blind eye to it and helped him secretly. She didn’t know how far Gabe’s loyalty to the council extended. Was it enough for him to kill her if need be?

  Gabe glared at her. “You’d rather serve as an ichor cask for them to tap?”

  “No. But if you’re telling me the truth and you’re not working for Nick’s partners, then what advantage do I have in leaving with you? The High Council hasn’t protected me all this time, and there’s no reason to think they would now.”

  “Because it’s me.”

  Marina gave a derisive snort. “You left me to fend for myself with Nick when I needed you. How do I know you won’t just leave me behind if I can’t keep up?”

  Gabe moved so swiftly that she barely had time to blink. He was definitely a fully fledged vampire now. The power rippled in the air around him like a heat mirage as he knelt before her, grasping her arms in his large hands.

  “I’m not going anywhere without you.” He crushed his mouth to hers. Marina tried to resist the pressure, the feel of his warm lips on hers. She was determined to keep her defenses against him firmly in place.

  He grasped her hand, wrapping it around his neck, holding it there. The woodsy scent of his skin soaked into her, muddling her common sense. His broad chest, a wall of muscle and strength, was too tempting. Her fist slowly released, her fingers brushing the warm hair at his nape. Gods, he felt divine. Like immersing herself in a tub of hot water that never cooled and soaked away every care.

  Her mouth softened as did her body, defying her mind’s orders to stop, to pull back. But it had been too long. She needed the clam, steady strength he offered her just as much as the ichor he’d given her.

  The ichor.

  Marina snapped out of the haze of sensual warmth he’d so easily wrapped around her. It had to be the reason she found it so hard to resist him. Nothing else made sense.

  “Stay back, Gabe.”

  His mouth bent in a crooked smile that made her heart flip, his eyes warm and inviting. “You can only resist what’s meant to be for so long. And I’m like the ocean, sweetheart. I’m infinitely patient. In the end I’ll wear down your defenses.”

  “You’re welcome to try once you get me out of here.”

  “Deal.” He held out a hand, waiting for her to shake on it.

  Marina stared down at his hand. He wouldn’t harm her, unlike those vampire hunters who were only interested in keeping her for ichor production, or Nick, who thought her disposable. And once Gabe got her out she could escape him and the High Council and go somewhere that Nick’s business partners couldn’t find her.

  She slipped her hand into his, a long-forgotten but familiar electric spark arcing between them.

  Marina gasped. Gabriel had the temerity to grin a heart-stopping smile that could make any true angel jealous as hell. “I didn’t say I played fair.” He pulled her into the unyielding wall of his chest, kissing her again, stealing her ability to think beyond the circle of his arms.

  Chapter Two

  Gabriel was so wrapped up in the sensation of her pressed against him for real after all this time, that he paid no attention to anything else besides the soft warmth of her orange blossom–scented skin and the temptation of her lips.

  A low wolf whistle and the slow clapping of a single pair of hands made both of them turn toward the doors of Marina’s cell. The mortal guards leered at them from the opposite side of the door. The guard who’d been clapping blew a kiss to Marina, while the other pointed a dart gun at her. She shuddered. Gabe stiffened against her, strength coiling inside him waiting to spring.

  “Hey, buddy, when you’re done, how about you share?” The ribald laughter that followed flowed slick and oily through Marina’s stomach.

  Gabe growled, low and deep. The vibration of it resonated through her. In one instant he was in the cell with her. The next he had fluxed and disappeared into nothingness, only to reappear on the other side of the bars behind the guards. With movements so swift only another vampire could see, he ripped out their throats with his bare hands, causing them to fall to the floor in limp heaps. The dart gun clattered to the stone floor.

  He crushed the dart gun with a twist of his heel, then swiped the key ring from the hip of the nearest fallen guard. He wiped the gore off his hands on the man’s uniform and used the key to unlock her cell. The ancient tumblers in the barred door clacked and grated as he opened it and motioned with his hand for her to come to him. The radio on the fallen guard’s belt crackled.

  “Antonio? Antonio, che cosa? Resoconto.”

  The guard broadcasting from the other end waited for an appropriate response. Marina stumbled, her feet far heavier than she remembered. Gabriel caught her, pulling her close into his chest, his arms bands of muscle holding her tight as he lifted her off her feet and ran like hell.

  Above them the scuffling of booted feet told them they had company. Ten, perhaps fifteen, guards had been alerted and were on their way from the floor above. Time had run out.

  Damn. He’d hoped the ichor would work faster to regenerate her. He could easily carry her, but doing so through the warren of cells and offices at a run was another matter. She was still hurt. More fragile than she realized. He didn’t want to risk hurting her further.

  Marina groaned.

  “Hang on, sweetheart. We’re almost out of here.” It wasn’t the truth, not by a long shot, but it was the best he had at the moment. The truth was, he wasn’t exactly certain how they were going to get out if he couldn’t phase them.

  “I could always tell when you were lying,” she muttered, her words warm against his chest. They pierced through him to the heart. He hadn’t wanted to lie to her. He’d told her he wasn’t interested when he’d walked away because he’d honestly thought she’d chosen Nick over him, and was a good enough man to know when to step away. Making a woman who didn’t want you miserable wasn’t the recipe for a successful relationship. Taking a woman from a royal was a recipe for disaster.

  “I’ll get you out of here. That’s not a lie, it’s a promise.”

  Marina sighed. “I’ve heard promises before.”

  “Not from me.”

  The air grew warmer, drier, as they approached a set of stone steps leading upward. Gabe took them four at a time, barely skimming the treads as he raced away from the guards fast on their heels.

  “Andiamo!” The clatter of running feet echoed against the stone walls and floors, then briefly stopped as they came to the downed guards. Then the sound of men running started again, colliding with their loud cursing in fluent Italian.

  She flexed in his arms. “Put me down. I think I can run.” He hesitated. While he knew he was capable of outrunning the guards, he wasn’t positive Marina was strong enough. Any lost time at this point was going to get them caught. He couldn’t afford her weakness slowing them down. The High Council would not forgive such an error and would eventually send assassins to behead them both if t
hey were caught.

  The air changed, the smell of live mortals growing more pronounced and the thrum of their heartbeats a drumming orchestra. “We’re almost at the barracks,” he said more to himself than to Marina.

  But at the top of the stairs, a wooden door, banded with thick black strips of metal, barred their way.

  Marina squirmed. “Put me down.”

  Gabe waited a moment after her feet hit the floor to be sure she’d be stable enough to stand, then threw his weight against the locked door. It groaned against the assault, pulling free of its hinges with a resounding crack and crashing to the floor. He whipped around and grabbed her hand, his eyes flicking to hers.

  Marina nodded, and together they ran.

  Guards shouted, leaping to their feet as they bolted through the barracks, no more than a blur of movement as Marina recovered her vampire abilities more each second.

  Pop. Pop. Pop. A series of darts whizzed through the air, brushing her hair at her nape, and landing to quiver in the wall as the weapons barely missed their targets. One huge guard stepped into their path, blocking them. Gabe thrust his hand out as they ran full speed ahead, sending the giant man sprawling, his chest caved in from the force of the blow.

  They raced up the stairs and down a vaulted, whitewashed plaster tunnel. Bare bulbs gave off a meager light. At the end, another wooden door, banded in black iron, waited for them.

  Marina glanced over her shoulder, only to find they were utterly alone. “Why aren’t they following?”

  Gabe paused at the wooden door, listening. “Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m getting you out of here.”

  They opened the door and found themselves in an enormous crypt. Row after row of mummies, their skulls mostly chalky-white bone, stood shoulder to shoulder against the whitewashed curved walls of the catacombs. Some were only skeletons draped in ancient rough-woven dark brown cassocks. Others were wrapped in sunken dried skin and expensive period clothes more than a century old, down to the fine kid-leather gloves covering their bony fingers and the ribbon rosettes on their frilled bonnets. Dust and the musty smell of decay permeated the air. Gaping empty eye sockets seemed to follow their every movement with silent interest.

  Marina shivered. “Where are we?”

  “Looks like the Capuchin catacombs.” Which explained why the guards weren’t in a hurry. “They’re banking on the crowds of tourists to slow us down enough to radio ahead and have a welcoming party waiting to get us at the exits. Keep moving.”

  The hall twisted, branching off yet again. Still more mummies, this time on narrow stacked shelves carved into the walls, their families unable to continue paying to have them on display, lined their passageway. Voices echoed off the vaulted ceiling above them, growing louder.

  “Left or right?” Marina paused, her free hand pressed to her side.

  Gabe glanced around trying to decipher the direction from his other senses. The traffic was louder toward the right. Only a limited amount of tourists were allowed in at a time to keep the moisture controlled in the catacombs. The entrance must be there somewhere.

  He grabbed Marina’s hand in a death grip as they jogged through the thickening crowds of tourists clumped together in a group as they followed a radio tour on headphones. They talked amongst themselves as they stared at the children’s section where the miniature mummies lined up along the high ledge.

  A skeleton of a little girl in aged off-white satin and lace sat in the lap of a little boy dressed in faded navy velvet knee breeches, the pair nestled together in a rocking chair. Even in death the little boy protected his sister, just as Gabriel had vowed to protect Marina, even after his death as a mortal and rebirth as a vampire. Her rejection of him didn’t matter. A vow in his book was a vow.

  Gabe turned right again, pulling them into the thickening crowds. He could smell the exhaust from traffic growing stronger, the sweat from the tourists and the unmistakable scent of salty sea air curling in on the currents as the crowds entered the catacomb tour. Their combined heartbeats roared liked ocean waves, a constant ebb and flow difficult to ignore.

  “Almost there.”

  A shout rose up from directly behind them as tourists were shoved out of the way by a uniformed guard. “Arresto! Al ladro!”

  Marina whipped around. Thieves indeed. She was the one they’d been stealing from. The tourists crowded together more tightly, the guard’s voice drawing their interest like fish to bait.

  Gabe squeezed her hand. “Do you think you can flux?”

  She didn’t waste words and went invisible, still holding tight to his hand. Gabe followed. Around them the crowd gasped, followed by shouts.

  “Madre di Dio!”

  “Ghosts!”

  The crowd began to panic pressing for the exit. Gabe and Marina were pulled along, invisible among them as the mass of humanity screamed and shouted.

  Not ghosts, Marina thought, her mind becoming clearer now that the dead man’s blood in her body was beginning to dissipate, but something they probably would fear far more if they had any idea vampires were real.

  All she knew was the moment they were out of the catacombs she didn’t plan to stick around and find out what had changed Gabe’s mind about coming back. He’d hurt her once when she’d put her faith in him, and she’d be damned if she was going to let him do it again.

  They spilled out of the entrance at the edge of the monastery into the busy streets of the city. The sidewalks were crowded and the evening traffic bumper to bumper as it wound down along Via Cipressi to join the Via Giuseppe Pitrè leading like an artery to the heart of Palermo. Marina was too exhausted from fluxing to maintain it any longer and became visible again at the edge of the tourist crowd.

  An invisible hand manacled around her wrist and she knew from the electric slide of it on her skin it was Gabe’s and not another vampire lying in wait for her.

  “Let me go,” she muttered, her tone low and grating.

  “Not when Nick’s men are waiting across the street to snatch you up and haul you back down there.”

  Marina’s eyes narrowed. He was right. There, across the street, were four of the goons Nick’s business associates employed to enforce their own brand of rules on everyone else. Her stomach shriveled out of sheer terror.

  She’d found out the hard way that Nick had no compunction or morals when it came to taking what he wanted. A spoiled vampire prince through and through, being undead had only encouraged him to use his power to get what he wanted, when and how he wanted it.

  Nick handed her over to the vampire hunters to sweeten the deal he’d cooked up with his business partner Vane to sell ichor internationally as the new wonder drug that would revolutionize medicine. Never mind that the poor saps using it didn’t have a clue that overusing it would turn them into vampires. Or that eventually being drained of their ichor would kill the vampire host.

  The sight of Edgar, Onslo, Victor and Palo, Nick’s four horsemen of the apocalypse, made her take an involuntary step back, causing her shoulder blades to dig into the plaster wall behind her. A firm hand settled at the base of her spine and she gasped when she fluxed back to invisible, as Gabe channeled his powers through her.

  Being invisible wouldn’t stop the four horsemen. Nick kept them on a steady diet of ichor, not enough to transform them into true vampires so they could still be his loyal Shyelds, but enough to give them amplified awareness of the vampires around them and hunt them down.

  The instant she vanished, they started across the street, snaking between traffic.

  “Looks like we’ve got trouble.”

  “You have no idea,” Marina muttered in reply.

  Gabe chuckled. “You forget. This time I’m the vampire and I know all the tricks to being a Shyeld.”

  She glanced in his direction but saw nothing. He squeezed her hand twice and it went all the way to her heart.

  “Trust me.”

  It wasn’t trusting him that was the problem; it was being able to trust herse
lf. She’d been wrong so many times she’d lost count. Being wrong once more would just about break her.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Transport us where they can’t follow.”

  She sucked in a breath, starting to shake as she weighed her options. If she didn’t tell Gabe the truth, he wouldn’t understand how deep the shit was about to get, and he wouldn’t be able to protect her. Then again, once she told him, would he still want to?

  “Gabe, I’ve gotta tell you something.”

  “Not now.”

  The familiar sucking and pulling sensation of a transport began to loop about her middle. She clung to his hand, not knowing where he was taking her, but too afraid to let go. Inside, something screamed at her to tell him and tell him now.

  Her words faded into nothingness as the transport took her. “Nick’s not really dead.”

  Chapter Three

  The scent of salt and brine and the whisper of waves filled the air as they materialized in the cool, star-studded darkness half a world away. Over the water the distant snowcapped peaks of a tall mountain range glittered like icing-topped cakes under the moonlight.

  Standing at the water’s edge on a wooden wharf formed from wide planks, Marina shivered at the sudden drop of temperature and glanced back at the city, tracking the skyline for something familiar to figure out where she was. The saucer-like disk and spire of Seattle’s famed Space Needle glowed white against the inky dark night sky.

  “Seattle?” Rubbing her arms for warmth, she glanced up at Gabriel. “Why here?” Not that she wasn’t grateful to be away from Italy and Nick’s goons, but a world away seemed a little extreme.

  Gabe’s face was hard, his eyes so dark they looked nearly black in the glow of the moon. The smell of pepper in the air— hot and fiery—indicated he was pissed. He grabbed her upper arm in a steely grip. It didn’t hurt, but his hold was implacable.

  “What do you mean Nick’s not really dead?” he said dangerously, ignoring her question for one of his own. “He was beheaded. That’s about as dead as a vampire gets. I was at his damn funeral.”