Claimed by Shadow Page 0,134
hit him with a suggestion, a strong one. I slapped him, but it didn't seem to help. I tried to catch his eyes with mine, but it was hard to get him to focus enough to get a hold. Vampires have a hard time influencing people who are really drunk, high or crazy, because their minds don t work right. Apparently that goes for those who’ve been hit with a prior suggestion as well.
In the end, I got his attention by throwing his candles and matches into a garbage pail and refusing to let him retrieve them. He woke up enough to notice I was there and along with the recognition went a wince of pain. That was going to get a whole lot worse as his brain unfogged, but for the moment he was just uncomfortable.
"Where's Myra?" I asked. He stared at me as if he was having a hard time remembering English. "Have you seen a girl, shorter than me, weird eyes-”
"The master and Lord Mircea are dueling," he said sadly. I tried repeating the question, but he just stared at me. There was only one thought in his head, and it wasn't about Myra.
"Where is this duel?" I didn't need to find Myra if I located Mircea-she'd find me.
"Onstage.”
"I was just there-it's empty.”
"They have gone to Lord Dracula's rooms for weapons." His face twisted in pain, but I think it was less from his wounds than from the thought of his master in jeopardy. I had never met Mircea's infamous younger brother and wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. But what really concerned me was the fight. Half the Senate was after them, and they were taking time out to duel?
"Why are they fighting?”
"If my lord wins, he goes free-his brother has sworn it. But if Lord Mircea wins, he must go back into captivity, possibly forever!" The big man started sobbing as if his heart would break. I sighed. I should have known. Of course Dracula wouldn't want to go back into jail or whatever asylum the Senate had fixed up for crazy vamps. But while he and Mircea battled it out, Myra and her new buddies would end the dispute by killing them both.
I turned the large man's face towards me. "Why were you burning yourself?”
"Lord Dracula commanded it, for my failure to keep Lord Mircea from learning his whereabouts. He came here an hour ago, and I meant to tell him nothing, but then everything I knew poured out of me.”
"Mircea can be very persuasive.”
"My lord was very generous not to end my life for such incompetence.”
His eyes held the light of a true believer. I didn't even try to convince him that his god was really a monster. "What's your name?”
"Abraham Stoker, lady. I manage the theatre.”
I did a double take. Okay, that explained a lot. "It has to be late. Go home and get some medical attention for your burns. If anyone asks, you were checking on a sauce here in the kitchen and pulled it off on you.”
He nodded but looked torn, so I upped the amp on Augusta 's suggestion. It used up a lot of energy, and I had to resist the impulse to snatch him to me for a quick bite. Being in a vampire body had its downsides.
Stoker started to leave, but jerked violently halfway to the door and came to a stop. His head swiveled around to face me, despite the fact that his body remained facing forward. Another inch and he'd break his neck. "Tell me, if you can, what sort of spirit are you, to so easily possess a master vampire?”
"I told you to go home!" I eyed him cautiously. His voice had sounded funny, lower and more in control.
"And I told him to stay. It seems we know who is the stronger here, do we not?”
I was getting a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Who are you?”
"I am one whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world.”
I blinked. "What?" He laughed, and it was a full-throated, sexy sound, one that I was fairly sure the guy I'd met blubbering over his candles would never give. "Have you forgotten me so soon? When we met only last night?”
"Last night?" It took a second, but light dawned. "You're that spirit from the ball!”
"Incubus, please, my lady." I jerked in surprise. So that's what it was. I'd seen