I groaned. Of course the big bad mob boss wanted to talk to us. Or worse. Eat us. What a mess.
I took a breath and tried to sort through the last few hours of my life. In that time I’d been in a motorcycle chase, been interrogated by a werewolf, run from gunfire, and been kissed by a vampire. A girl vampire, no less. As if picking up my thoughts, Dahlia grinned into the rearview mirror. “I didn’t swing both ways before. But that’s part of being a vamp. It ramps up your hormones like crazy, makes you irresistible. Which is why we’re supposed to stay away from the humans.”
I thought for a minute. “What did you mean when you said you rolled Tad?”
The other passenger glared at her. “Yeah, what did you mean by that?”
She didn’t shrink in her seat, only shrugged. “I’m still learning, Max. You know that.” Her eyes went to me again. “Basically means I made him a bit of a pet. It’s temporary, but the more you do it the harder it is to undo it. Right?”
“But not with me?”
“No, I tried to roll you. I couldn’t.” She stared hard at me and I stared back.
“You look like you’re bunged up and trying too hard to push to squeeze a poop out.” I leaned back in my seat. Tad let out a groan, stirring, but not waking.
Max burst out laughing. “Oh shit, Remo is going to like her.”
Dahlia nodded. “Yeah. I’m thinking he might too. I just can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.”
Max shrugged and smiled over at me. “If Remo likes her, we all have to.”
The vampire was handsome; I’d give him that with his dirty-blond hair and dark-brown eyes that seemed to be full of mischief. “How long have you been a vampire, Max?”
“Ten years.”
That was before the Aegrus virus had appeared on the scene. He grinned at me. “Yup, I did it just because I wanted to. I loved the idea of never seeing the sun again, my family, or the world I’d grown up in.”
Shame flickered over me. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t assume—”
“Everyone does it, kid.” His smile softened. “Especially in this world. Are you human? Are you a Supe? Are you a monster or a magician? I didn’t become a vamp because I wanted to. My wife was dying and I tried to save her, selling myself to the highest bidder to pay for her chemotherapy.” He shrugged again. “So am I still damned to hell, or am I a hero wrapped in monster clothing?”
His words hung in the air between us. “I don’t know.”
He turned away from me. “I do. I’m a monster. Just ask my wife.”
Oh, God. The pain in those four words all but resonated in my chest.
Tad woke up but kept his eyes down as he squirmed underneath me, breaking the silence. “Why did you go with them?”
“Not like we had a choice,” I said. “Besides, Dahlia’s my friend. I trust her.”
She grinned at me and I grinned back, though it was a strain after what Max had revealed. “We almost died together. Now here we are, being chased by the SDMP. Together again, just like old times.”
“Exactly.”
The SDMP gave up faster than I thought, their lights fading behind us as we drove out through the valley toward the mountains. Dahlia didn’t slow the Hummer down, though. We drove for over two hours, out of the city and into the lower floodlands that met with the base of the coastal mountains. Dahlia and I laughed and talked. I told her about how the nurses all thought she’d died, and Max kept looking at me oddly. Like he couldn’t decide what to make of me.
I didn’t care. We were safe and with a friend.
Only . . . One of those wasn’t right. We weren’t safe at all, not if we were going to meet a vampire mob boss.
“Why were you guys at the detachment?” Tad asked.
Dahlia shared a look with Max. “Looking for something the boss wanted.”
“Did you get it?”
They shrugged in unison and said no more.
Dahlia pulled the Humvee off onto a dirt track that bounced us around, our heads brushing the low ceiling of the vehicle. The road twisted and turned, and around a sharp right-hand turn we came to a stop. “Here we are.”
I peered out through the windshield. “Tad, look at this place. It’s huge!”
That was an understatement. It looked like a castle had been plucked out of Europe and plopped in the middle of the floodplains. Right down to the moat circling around the place and the drawbridge that lowered as Dahlia crept the Hummer forward. I counted at least seven spires curling up into the sky.
“Shit. We can’t go in there, Lena. We’ll never get out.”
I glanced at him. “Really? Never? Never ever, never, never ever?”
Dahlia giggled and high-pitched her words. “Never ever ever?”
“You two are unreal,” he muttered, and Max grunted in what I assumed was a form of male agreement.
The four of us slid out of the Humvee as the other two armored trucks pulled up on either side. No one came to greet us, but vamps spilled out of the other vehicles. I wanted to press against the Hummer and lower my eyes. But . . . Tad was vulnerable. I wasn’t for some reason, which meant I had to do this for both of us. I thought about the last meeting I’d had with a banker who’d thought he could charge me a higher interest rate on my loan because I was a woman. I didn’t let that happen then, and I wouldn’t let either of us get taken here any more than I would let that banker take me for a ride.