Kerrelyn Sparks: Eat Prey Love

They turned their heads toward her and hissed, showing sharp yellow fangs.

She shuddered and huddled closer to Carlos. She hoped she and her friends weren’t breakfast.

“If one of them tries to bite you,” Carlos whispered, “I’ll snap his neck.”

Pat and six men came down to the cargo hold. Sawat opened the vampire cage and bowed as they exited. Pat and the others bowed low. The vampires seized three men and sank their fangs into their necks.

Caitlyn flinched. The men didn’t fight. They quietly submitted, then bowed low after the vampires released them.

“We have arrived in San Francisco?” the tallest vampire asked in Chinese.

“Yes, Master,” Pat responded in the same language. “All is ready at the temple.”

San Francisco? She immediately shot an image of the Golden Gate Bridge to her sister.

“Then it is time for us to go.” The tallest vampire moved toward Caitlyn and her friends.

Pat and his six thugs ran up to the cage. Several pointed handguns at them, while the others grasped the chain connected to Carlos’s silver collar. They yanked on it to pull Carlos toward them. He resisted, but the collar pressed into his throat, cutting off his air. He relented then and let them draw him back. Caitlyn winced when the back of his head hit the metal bars.

With Carlos pinned to the bars, Sawat tugged his T-shirt up in the back. Caitlyn gasped as Pat plunged a syringe into Carlos’s back.

Pat glanced at her. “It’s just a sedative. We need you all alive.”

Sawat smirked. “For a little while.”

Carlos’s eyes flickered shut and he crumpled to the floor. Pat and his thugs did the same procedure to Rajiv, then opened the cage and removed the silver collars from both the cat shifters. The vampires sauntered inside the cage, and two of them grabbed Rajiv and Carlos and teleported away. Soon they were back and teleporting away the thugs and Pat.

The third vampire advanced toward Caitlyn. She stepped back, her heart thundering in her ears.

“When we celebrate the resurrection of Master Han, I will take this one,” he said in Chinese. “I will drain her dry and burn her flesh for my incense.”

She swallowed hard, and sent another frantic image of the Golden Gate Bridge to her sister. The vampire lurched toward her with incredible speed. She jumped back but his long fingernails had curled around her arm. He teleported, taking her with him, and everything went black.

She stumbled when they arrived and fell onto her knees as the vampire tossed her aside. She saw Carlos and Rajiv nearby, lying unconscious on the floor.

She remained huddled on the floor as she scanned the surroundings. They appeared to be on a raised wooden dais at the end of a rectangular room. Beams painted a lacquer red crossed the vaulted ceiling. Bare white walls were trimmed with more red lacquered woodwork. At the end of the room a large brass gong sat between two black doors gilded with gold. Pat stood by the gong, and he now wore a black silk robe with a hood. The six thugs stood along the back wall, armed with large ceremonial swords.

This had to be the temple the vampires had referred to. She spotted the three vampires on the other side of the dais. In the center of the dais there was an altar made of wood, inlaid with gold dragons. On top reclined the body of a tall man dressed in red silk with gold braid.

A chill crept down her spine. The man on the altar must be Master Han.

The gong sounded, and she glanced toward the entrance as Pat struck it again. The entrance doors opened and men filed in, two by two, dressed in black silk robes with the hoods drawn up to cover their heads and hide their faces. Twenty in all, she counted.

The last ones to enter closed the doors, then joined their fellow black-robed monks as they formed five rows with a center aisle between them. Each row had four men.

Pat hit the gong again.

“Master Han!” the monks shouted in unison, then dropped to their knees and bowed forward.

One monk seemed to be slightly slower than the others, Caitlyn noted, as if he didn’t quite know the routine. The armed thugs along the back wall also dropped to their knees. Beside her Carlos and Rajiv stirred.

Pat marched down the center aisle swinging a brass censor that emitted a trail of smoke. Incense filled the air, and the monks began to chant.

Carlos and Rajiv sat up and glanced warily about. Caitlyn figured Carlos was counting their opponents and assessing their chances of defeating them in battle. She didn’t know how well the twenty monks could fight, and there were still six armed thugs, Pat, and three vampires. That made it thirty to three. Really bad odds.

Carlos was one hell of a fighter, and could probably take down seven or eight guys before he was captured or killed. Again. She looked at him and shook her head, pleading with her eyes that he not attempt anything rash.

Pat stepped onto the dais and set his incense burner onto a brass stand. “Guardians, behold your Master!” He lifted his arms as he approached the altar.

The monks sat up and shouted, “Master Han!”

“It was forty-five years ago when Master Han brought peace to the warring factions of the three vampire lords,” Pat announced. “It was Master Han who unified the vampires and their minions to one common goal. It was through Master Han that we grew in power and territory. It was through Master Han that we realized we could take over all of Asia!”

The vampires and monks cheered.

“And then”—Pat’s voice grew sad—“then the unthinkable happened. Master Han and his forces claimed victory over a village in Tibet and requested the most beautiful virgin be delivered to him as a gift. The village sent the girl, filled with poison, and when Master Han drank from her, he fell into a deep sleep.”

The monks murmured their disapproval.

“We rose up to avenge our master,” Pat continued. “We burned the village to the ground and slaughtered all that lived there!”

The monks cheered.

“We brought the Master here to San Francisco, where Dr. Chou is known to have the greatest knowledge of ancient folklore and herbal remedies. For five years we have tried to revive our master.” Pat motioned to one of the monks. “Dr. Chou has long been convinced there is only one way to resurrect our master.”

The monk stood and pushed back his hood to reveal thin, graying hair. “Ancient texts tell us that a corpse can be brought back to life if a cat jumps over it. Not any cat will do. It must be a magical cat of great power.”

“And now we have the most powerful cats in the world!” Pat exclaimed as he gestured toward Carlos and Rajiv.

Caitlyn snorted. That was why they’d been kidnapped? So Carlos could shift and jump over an unconscious vampire? She looked at him and rolled her eyes.

He frowned and shook his head slightly.

And then she realized why he didn’t see the humor in the situation. If he jumped over Master Han, and it didn’t magically cure the vampire, they could be blamed for the scheme’s failure to work. They would probably be executed. And if they fought, they were terribly outnumbered.

Pat pointed at Carlos. “It is time! You will shift and jump over our master!”

Carlos stood slowly, looked around the room, then shook his head. “No, thanks.”

The monks gasped.

Pat flinched. “You do not deny the Master.” He motioned for the six thugs armed with swords to approach the dais.

One of the monks, the one who had moved slower than the others, suddenly jumped to his feet and zoomed toward them at vampire speed. His hood slipped back as he jumped onto the dais, and Caitlyn thought she detected a glint of recognition in Carlos’s eyes.

The vampire monk seized her from behind and pressed a knife to her neck. Her blood chilled with fear.