A Kiss of Blood (Vamp City #2)(20)

Unfriendly company, if his tone was anything to go by. Beneath the sound of the wagon and their own horses, she heard another rhythmic pounding. Horse hooves.

“Rippers or werewolves?” she asked quietly.

“Neither. Quiet, now.”

Neither meant they were vampires. Emoras. Possibly Cristoff’s men.

Her pulse began to pound though not yet tear out of her chest. A healthy dose of fear wasn’t a bad thing if any of these vamps were fear-feeders. There would be no hiding from them, and a human tied in the back of a Trader’s wagon should be afraid. Very, very afraid.

Her mind spun with options. She still had her weapons. But reaching for one meant untangling her hands from the ropes and giving away the fact that she wasn’t really a captive. Nor could she afford for her power to start glowing in her eyes. If she started the fight, she and her allies might be able to end it, but maybe not before one of these vampires got away to spread the tale that Arturo and Micah were in league with the sorceress.

No, her best defense was to play the role she’d been given—captive—and trust Arturo to do what he did best: lie.

The sound of the horses’ hooves grew steadily louder until it sounded like there must be a dozen of them. But when the dark forms finally coalesced, circling the wagon, she could make out only four. In the faint moonlight, three appeared to be males, or were at least dressed like males. The one in the long split skirt and fancy white blouse was clearly a female.

The Trader called, “Whoa,” bringing the team, wagon, and Quinn to a lurching stop.

One of the vamps climbed off his horse and leaped into the wagon, vampire-fast, sending Quinn’s heart squeezing into her throat and her hand itching to grab for her gun.

Arturo, this would be a good time to make an appearance.

The vamp reached forward and grabbed Zack’s hair, wrenching her brother’s head back, as if baring his neck for the strike.

Quinn, furious, clenched her hands into fists to keep from staking him. A tingling heat flared in her palms and began to crawl up her arms, beneath her skin.

Shit. Her eyes. She squeezed them closed, praying she’d done it in time. If she hadn’t, she’d surely have heard the vampire’s exclamation. Unfortunately, keeping her eyes closed did nothing to calm the growing need to protect her brother. Which only made the power beneath her skin burn hotter.

Beside her, she could hear Zack struggling against the vampire’s hold. Zack sounded mad. At the first sound of his pain, she was pulling her gun, her secrets be damned.

The vampire called to his friends. “This one’s got some height to him, but little muscle mass. Still, he could be of use.”

“Take him,” one of his companions replied.

“These two are already sold,” the deep-voiced Trader said calmly. “I’m just delivering them.”

The female vamp laughed. “Looks like you’re going to have to pay back the money then. Finders, keepers,” she added in a singsong voice.

Quinn fought to calm herself, to douse the power now burning in her veins. Beside her, Zack grunted, and she felt him moving, or being pulled, away from her. The soft thud of Zack’s ropes hitting the wooden floor of the wagon sent a bolt of cold fear shooting up her spine. The creepy tingling beneath her skin grew worse.

The closest vamp began to chuckle. “You were about to lose this one anyway.”

He thought Zack had worked himself free. Of course he would.

Without warning, she felt the hard press of cold hands on her jaw and gasped, her heart leaping until it thundered in her ears. Only by sheer force of will did she manage to keep her eyes closed and her hands behind her back.

“This one’s plain as mud, but serviceable. Open your eyes, chippy.” He squeezed her jaw hard, until her eyes began to water. “I said, open!”

But there was no way in hell she could do that, not unless she wanted to give up the game. Because she knew her eyes must be glowing by now. She could feel the energy surging through her veins, wild and uncontrolled, and a new thought had her head pounding. If her power flew free, the vampires might be tossed away from her. But Zack could get caught in it, too, and hurt.

Her hands began to shake with the force of her struggle to hold a lid on the power. The best thing she could do was calm down, but that wasn’t happening, not with a vampire threatening to break her jaw.

Her whole body began to shake like a volcano ready to blow. Beneath her, even the wagon started to vibrate.

“What the hell are you doing, chippy?” the vampire growled.

The vampires circling the wagon shouted. “Sunbeams!”

“It’s nighttime, you moron. There’s no sun in either world at night.”

The hair on Quinn’s arms lifted, and she knew the worlds had opened nearby. Suddenly, she could hear the dull roar of traffic and that constant buzz of electricity that most were never aware of until it was absent. A car alarm bleated in the distance.

It was all she could do not to open her eyes, to see the world she’d left behind. The power crawled through her veins, cutting even as it burned, seeking a way out. If something didn’t give soon . . .

We are coming, cara mia. Arturo’s voice rang in her head. Remain calm.

Right. Calm. She had a vampire ready to claw her eyes open, and she was shaking so badly from trying to hold back the power that, for a minute, she’d thought she’d caused the earthquake that had opened the break between the worlds.