“She came on false pretense,” Pike said, voice low and oily. “To provide a distraction while Kalamack steals his Brimstone. If I put her before a camera, she will rally the rabble.”
“I see.” Black eyes narrowed, Constance sent her red fingernails to play with her necklaces. “Turn off the television. We will be entertaining ourselves tonight.”
I doubted she meant board games or dice, and I kept my breathing slow as the soft murmur of the TV vanished. More people were excusing themselves until it was easy to pick out the hard-core security detail hiding among the wine-drinking, slit-skirt, power-tie fluff that kowtowed to her, both the living and the dead. Two stone-faced thugs settled in behind Zack, and he scowled up at them, his fingers working the band of charmed silver about his wrist.
More security began closing in around Constance, and as she berated them to stay back, my skin began to crawl. It wasn’t her, and I scanned the lobby for someone not moving. There you are, I mused, finding one of her attending undead watching me, a faint hint of amusement and speculation on his young face. Though in a suit and tie, he didn’t look like the kind who would be attracted to the chaos and blood sport that Constance clearly enjoyed.
Seeing me pick him out, he tilted his head, whispering something to a dark-skinned, hardly clothed woman draped over him. She was clearly a living vampire, and when she scoffed—at me—he dumped her off his lap and stood, tugging his suit coat down as he strode away. The woman shot me an ugly look and hustled after him, her overdone jewelry swaying between her almost escaping breasts. People watched them go, their own fear growing.
“You came to kill me?” Constance said, looking small with three guards behind her.
Pike gripped my arm again, and I let him. I was probably safer that way.
“I’m not here to kill you,” I said. “I’m here to escort you to the city limits. Withholding Brimstone to force obedience shows a complete disregard for the people you’re supposed to be protecting.”
Constance laughed, her fingers playing amid a tray of sweets on the low table. The sound was practiced, but I could hear the madness in it. “Mmmm. We will have so much fun,” she said as she bent low and chose one. “I wasn’t given this city to protect. I was given it to use, and you don’t have the strength to get me to leave.”
My eyebrows rose. “I got you to leave Piscary’s.”
Pike made a soft grunt of dismay as a wave of outrage flowed over Constance, making her ugly until she gathered it to her like a cloak, shifting her shoulders to settle it more firmly about her. “So you did,” she said softly, making me wonder if it had been that great of an idea after all. “The vampires who don’t look to me don’t matter,” she said as she came forward, a chocolate between two fingers. “If they die, they die. That is how the family prospers and the rest fade to nothing.”
She stopped before me, her eyes even with mine as she stood on the top of the low stair that separated us. “There’s no Brimstone to be had,” she said, her high voice hard. “Your lover is fighting for his life, and you are here with me. Would you like a chocolate?”
Zack had gone pale, eyes widening when I looked at him. The guards had tensed when Constance had moved closer, but it was the chocolate he was afraid of. What has he seen? Is this one of her games?
“No, thanks,” I said as Pike’s grip tightened. The candy had a little curlicue of drizzled red sugar, and I stared at it as if it was poison. “Allergies,” I lied.
“I insist.” Constance held it out on her palm. “Joni says I need to learn to share more.” She turned to the woman on the couch. “Isn’t that so, Joni, love?” she added, and the woman buried her face in the corner of the couch, pulling her legs up into a fetal position. More people were leaving, their heads down and their pace fast.
Pike’s grip became ironhard. “Thanks, but no,” I said, not liking the soft shake in my voice. There was a loud and certain click of a door shutting as Constance’s retinue winnowed down to a handful of her followers too frightened or desperate for her attention to leave.
Constance smiled, playing up to those who remained. “You think it’s been tampered with. How quaint.” Small red mouth opening, Constance took a bite, her long, undead fangs showing as she closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure, a hand to her chest. “I have these flown in special. Try one. I insist.”
I shook my head. I wanted to back up, but Pike wouldn’t let me. Zack looked scared.
“Don’t move,” Pike whispered, and fear slid between my thought and reason as Constance leaned closer.
“Open your mouth,” she demanded, and my knees almost buckled when she breathed on my neck. My scar flamed to life, pleasure rippling down my entire side.
“No,” I ground out between my clenched teeth. God, it felt good. It would be unending ecstasy, fire and ice. I would be alive, filled with feeling. But it would be a lie, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to see myself in the black depths of her pupils. “I will not,” I moaned.
“Don’t eat it, Rachel!” Zack shouted, and my eyes flashed open at the sudden smack of flesh on flesh. Zack was staring at one of the guards in hatred, his hand pressed to his cheek.
Annoyed, Constance took a rocking step back, that chocolate between her fingers. “It’s not your fault you failed to bind Morgan,” she said to Pike. “She’s stronger than you.”
I jerked, shocked when her hand flashed out to painfully grip my jaw. “Open,” she said as she pulled me closer. Pike held my arms to my sides. “Open your fucking mouth!” she demanded.
On the couch, Joni sobbed, crumpled and forgotten as she relived something. Zack, too, looked terrified. It hit me like nothing else and Constance moaned when fear swamped me. It soaked into her like a drug as her pupils widened to an unreal black. But I couldn’t help it.
Instinct kicked in. I lashed out with my foot. She dodged it, never letting go of me. Pike hooked a foot in mine, and all three of us went down.
“I’ll do it. I’ll do it! Let her go!” I heard Zack say. I hit the floor hard, gasping as a fist slammed into my middle. My eyes teared, and suddenly my mouth was full of something sweet.
No! I thought frantically, but they were holding me down, Constance’s dark hand forcing my jaw closed.
“Eat it,” she said, black eyes alight as the pleasure of dominating me coursed through her.
I struggled, but Pike forced my shoulders into the flat carpet and I couldn’t move. My eyes never left Constance. Memory swam up and I was nine again, held down on the playground dirt and forced to eat a worm. But, unlike the worm, chocolate melts.
Oh God. It’s made with blood! I realized as a flat, coppery taste filled my mouth. I began to struggle in earnest, grunting in anger. Pike’s jaw was set in determination as he held me there, whispering for me to just eat the damn chocolate, that it wouldn’t kill me. It wasn’t human blood.