Annie Nicholas - Catch

Something in my expression made him frown. He stood and carried me in the direction Gwen went. We found her standing in a doorway, her back to us, watching what went on inside. Her muscular, thin arms crossed over her chest.

A beast growled and screeched from the room. My heart skipped a beat. Its cry awoke my primal instinct to run. Instead, Rurik pushed past Gwen and carried me inside.

Crouched on the floor a vampire twisted the rod loose in Tane’s flesh. “Brace yourself, Master.” Long brown hair hid his face as he knelt.

Tane stood above him doing his impression of a pincushion with the four rods sticking out of him. He widened his stance and grabbed onto an unfamiliar Nosferatu warrior.

I scanned the room and saw another securing Luckard’s accomplices. Fear gripped my gut. How many of these ubervamps were there? I barely survived two in Budapest and in the last twenty-four hours I’d seen four. An empty foreboding made me hug Rurik closer. My grandmother used to call it a shadow passing over your grave. I believed her.

An inhuman scream came from Tane. His fanged mouth opened unnaturally wide as the long haired vamp slid the bar from his master’s body.

The paint on the walls should have curled from such a sound, I knew my ears wanted to, and I covered them with my hands.

Then the pain hit.

Rurik almost dropped me as the shock flung me into a spine-cracking arch. It burned.

It tore. It hurt . Agony was my only focus. From my shoulder across to my side, almost as if they tried to pull the steel bar from my body instead of Tane’s. My arms flung out as I joined my howls to his screech.

Like a floodgate crashing closed, the pain stopped.

My throat ached from my cries, all I could manage was a whimper.

Rurik gathered me into his arms and hugged me tight. “What’s wrong?” I’d never heard my lover so close tears.

A metal bar clanked to the floor and Tane gasped. “What is she doing here? Gwen, I sent you to get her out.” His voice cracked with strain. “I’m trying to shield you, Rabbit.”

I twisted around to face my personal demon. The vampire at his feet stood to face me. Handsome features and intelligent eyes made me think of Rurik. They could be of the same clan.

“Rurik took over the search and brought her here.” Gwen spoke from behind me, her statement a matter-of-fact.

Thick, dark blood oozed from the closing wound in Tane’s side. I could smell it.

Like buttered toast, it made my mouth water. Our eyes met and without speaking, I knew he understood how I hungered.

The loving arms around me tensed.

I turned to see betrayal and rage surge over Rurik’s face as he glared at Tane.

“You—” A growl built in Rurik’s throat. “She’s bound to you?” The despair carried in his question echoed my own feelings.

“Take them to the house, Gwen. Archios will help set me free.” Tane signaled to the vampire next to him, who appeared lost in his thoughts.

He stared at me then blinked before bending to work on the next bar.

Gwen placed her hand on Rurik’s shoulder. “Follow me.”

He shrugged her hand off. Anger radiated from him in waves. I half expected him to toss me to the floor.

“My flesh has melded to the metal,” Tane snapped. “I can’t block the pain forever.

Not in my state. Stay if you want to make her suffer more.”

In a nebulous silence, Rurik spun and led Gwen from the room, pressing me to his dead heart.

Naked, I knelt in a deep marble tub filled with a few inches of bloody water. Rurik had cut the last strap from my dress and we’d left the scraps on the bathroom floor. His skin had taken a waxy hue.

He refilled a large plastic cup from the tap and poured it over the lash wounds on my back again.

I hissed at the sting. “You need to feed.”

“That’s usually my line.” He refilled the cup. Since the injuries weren’t healing he wanted them clean. The effort to block some of my pain painted his face. “Maybe if you take some of my heart’s blood you’d mend.”

“No!” Twisting at the hip, I glared at him. I didn’t have a clue what he was offering but I wouldn’t take anything more until he fed. “Gwen?” I called her name. She’d parked her ass in a chair in the bedroom connected to this bathroom.

“You hollered?” She poked her head around the door and grimaced. “That’s nasty.

We should get her a doctor.”

Worry filled Rurik’s eyes as he glanced from me to Gwen. “Is one available?”

“Master Tane keeps one on retainer for the mortals.”

I’d recognized Gwen wasn’t vampire—her word choice, saying mortals instead of humans, set off a little alarm in my head. Over the past few years I’d learned to not ignore it.

“Send for one.”

Gwen nodded and began to leave the room.

“Wait. Take Rurik with you and get him…” What? Someone to eat? “Uh, nourishment.”

“I’m fine.”

“You won’t do her any good if your powers wane.” Gwen signaled for him to lift me out of the tub. “Come on, now. Place her on the bed. We have plenty of volunteers to drink from. Unless you want me to send one in here?”

We both answered. “No.” Watching Rurik take sustenance from someone else would be as pleasant as a root canal.

Gwen chuckled. “Let’s go.” She left.

Using the edge of the tub, I stood. My legs wobbled, but he steadied me. One slow motion at a time, I stepped out of the black, shiny tub. A small family could have bathed in it.

“I wish I could block more of the pain.” He assisted me to the bed and lifted me onto it. Even uninjured, I’d need a stepladder to get on it.

I bit my lip and grimaced as a sharp ache shot across my abused flesh from the sudden movement.

“Sorry.” He looked ready to chew nails. “I hate this.”

“Call the doctor then feed. Come back to me refreshed.” I lay prone on the thick, chocolate brown bedding. What happened to yesterday? We played in the gardens and enjoyed life, carefree…happy. Today a new chapter in our life opened, a terrible one, which starred Tane. “I’m going to need you.” Those words would have killed me to say a year ago, yet I’d grown. He’d helped me understand the difference between standing alone and standing together. With him at my side, I could weather anything. Even this.

I watched the door close and sighed. Nobody wanted me to look at my back. It hurt too much to twist and examine it in the mirror, however with a handheld one I’d at least get a glimpse. One sat on the vanity. I edged off the bed and waddled over. The small, silver mirror felt heavy in my hand. I turned and faced away from the larger mirror. With a little aim, I finally witnessed the carnage.

They did put me through a meat grinder. Did I have any skin left? The doctor would need to work a miracle to sew me back together. There’d be one huge scar once he was done. No more of those backless dresses Rurik loved, and no more bathing suits. A lump swelled in my throat as I fought back the tears.

Was I vain? Sure. My looks helped me through some rough parts in my life. I didn’t rely solely on them, still they helped. Would Rurik have been attracted to me in Budapest if I had looked different?

The door opened and a Nosferatu vampire stepped into the bedroom.

I dropped the handheld mirror. It tumbled to floor and shattered, just like my life. I tried to cover my nakedness with my hands. To say the least, my efforts didn’t accomplish much.

Tane entered with two others of his clan and glanced at the broken shards on the floor. “Don’t move. You’ll cut your feet.” He turned to his entourage. “Leave us.”

They left without comment except the one who entered first did smirk in my direction before following his commrades.