When they reached the bottom she blinked and narrowed her eyes, trying to make out shapes in what was an enormous basement. She frowned. It looked like rows and rows of coffins. A few steps away one of the coffins was open. It was white with pink satin lining.
“You have coffins.” Amazing how the agency had taken this to another level, she thought. She played the game. “Why do you have coffins? What is this? It’s beyond freaky.”
The male’s fangs gleamed white in her vision as he grasped a handful of her curls in his fist. She gasped as he brought her hard up against him and yanked her head back by her hair.
“What self-respecting Vampire wouldn’t have coffins in his basement?” he said with a devious smile.
He moved so fast Monique never had a chance to think about what was happening. She gave a cry as he sank his fangs into the artery in her neck.
Her mind spun. She wanted to fight but she couldn’t. She felt frozen, unable to move. Instead of the sensual, sexual feeling she’d experienced last night with this lover, she felt light-headed. As if she was truly being drained of her blood.
As if this was real.
Monique went limp in his arms. He continued to suck from her, drawing her lifeforce from her through the fluid that gave all beings life.
She tried to summon her magic to protect herself, but it was a vague attempt. As if she was poking at the male with a stick and hitting stone instead of a flesh-and-blood being.
The room seemed to spin as he raised his head and smiled. Blood coated his fangs. Real blood. Her blood.
“What …” The words came out as a forced whisper “ … did you do to me?”
“My lovely Monique.” The male spoke her name as if it were a beautiful treasure.
Confusion piled on top of confusion. “My name … how do you know?”
“I know much about you, Monique,” he murmured as he nuzzled her hair and breathed in her scent.
Her skin felt cold and her mind numb, as if she were trapped in a fall of snow, her body heat evaporating with every minute that passed.
“I do what I must for the survival of my people.” The male kissed the skin along her jaw. “You have now been bitten twice. With the second bite, you become one of us.”
Realization came to her but it was far too late. “You are a real Vampire,” she said slowly, her tongue feeling almost too thick to speak.
“And when you wake, so shall you be.” He raised his head and smiled. He still supported her limp body with one arm. He ran his fingers down her neck with his free hand. The place he’d bitten her tingled and burned. “A powerful Elvin Vampire, like no being ever known before.”
“Elvin Vampire.” The desire to giggle rose up inside her but she was too weak. “There is no such thing.”
“In ten days there will be.” The male scooped her up in his arms.
Her head lolled to the side as he cradled her to his chest. He carried her the short distance to the white coffin with the pale pink satin lining.
She thought she caught the scent of a human—but that was absurd. Why would a human be with her and her Vampire lover?
Dimly she was aware that he was setting her down inside the coffin. When she lay on the plumped satin, her head resting on a small pillow, she stared up at him. “Who are you?”
Triumph mixed with malice flashed across his striking features as he crouched beside her. He gripped the lid of the coffin. “My name is Volod,” he said right before he slammed the lid shut.
Volod. The name was familiar to Monique’s fuzzy mind. But then it didn’t matter anymore as she passed into oblivion.
ONE
“Another Tracker is missing.” Rodán set his wineglass on the white tablecloth of our table for two in the exclusive paranorm hot spot Some Other Place. “Kennedy appears to be gone.”
The hum and buzz of the restaurant and bar filled the pause as I digested Rodán’s statement. Another Tracker?
A busboy stopped by our table and cleared our dinner dishes after asking if we were finished. I waited until he was gone before I responded to Rodán.
“Kennedy, from Seattle?” I frowned as I spoke. “Any idea what happened to him?”
Rodán slowly shook his head. “The Proctor Directorate’s investigation teams have found nothing.”