A Kiss of Blood (Vamp City #2)(48)

“What did you do?” the alpha growled again.

“I didn’t do anything!” Not intentionally, anyway. Could she have done this? And what was this?

She heard the alpha move away, heard him stumble back, swearing. “There are walls all around us. You’ve caught us in some kind of trap. Some kind of bubble.”

Quinn’s eyes went wide, a chill sliding down her spine. A bubble. Wasn’t that exactly what Vamp City was, only on a far grander scale? Was that what she’d done here, duplicated the small space around her? What if this was how Phineas Blackstone had discovered his own ability to create other worlds?

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she began to see shimmers all around her, like black opals. The walls of the bubble, the walls of the magic. Good God Almighty, she had power.

Against that opalescent darkness, a shadow moved, and she felt a hand grip her jaw hard.

“Undo it!”

Not only did she have power, she had leverage. “Untie me.”

He growled. “Perhaps I’ll just kill you.”

“Killing Blackstone didn’t undo Vamp City. If killing me fails, you’ll be stuck here forever.”

Silence. The hand disappeared. “You’ve created an alternate world,” he breathed.

“Apparently so.”

“How?”

Ha. “Magic. Untie me.”

“If you created this place, you can escape it.”

“I can also take you with me. If I want to.” Probably. She’d pulled humans through sunbeams; there was no reason to think she couldn’t pull a werewolf out of a bubble she’d created assuming magic worked with any kind of logic whatsoever. “But first, we’re going to come to an agreement.”

She saw the dark shape of the male move against the black opal background and felt his breath on her cheek. His hard body suddenly pressed against hers, reminding her in a startlingly raw manner that they were both naked. His thick penis brushed her thigh. It was flaccid at the moment, but she suspected a determined male could change that.

A shiver of fear rippled through her, but she pushed it away. She’d waited too long to get the upper hand. She wasn’t about to let him steal it now.

“You’re in no position to negotiate,” the wolf alpha growled.

Quinn snorted. “Au contraire. I’m in a damn good position to negotiate. Now that I’ve created one of these things, there’s a good chance I can make more. The next one might just catch your entire pack.”

He pressed against her hard, his menace barely controlled. “You will release me now, sorceress.”

“Well, here’s the thing, dude. The only way you’re getting out of here is if I take your hand and lead you out. Which means you’re going to release me. Now. My arms are tired.”

He growled low, but a moment later, he was gone and she felt his fingers pulling the ropes from her wrists. The moment she was free, he grabbed her and jerked her toward the nearest wall.

Quinn felt the magic pulling to suck her through, but she pushed against it and felt the male at her side stumble back even as he kept tight hold on her.

“We’re not leaving until I say we are,” she told him smoothly, stifling a smile. She rather enjoyed having the werewolf under her control. For the moment.

The alpha’s fingers dug into her arms, and he jerked her around, pulling her hard against him, letting her feel the erection that now protruded from his body.

“I will hurt you, sorceress.” But he was holding the losing hand, now, and they both knew it.

“See, that’s where your threat goes awry, wolf man. I know what your ultimate plan is, to hand me over to Cristoff. And there is nothing you can threaten me with . . . nothing . . . that is worse than what he’ll do to me if he gets his hands on me again. Besides, we both know you can’t kill me, or even hurt me badly enough to risk it. Because if I don’t renew the magic, if Vamp City fails, you and your pack are toast.”

She felt the rhythm of his breathing change, the menace easing down, the frustration skyrocketing. But the hard grip on her arms didn’t change.

If he were another male, she might try a more diplomatic approach, a bit of stroking his male ego, perhaps, or injecting a bit of friendliness into the exchange. But real wolves responded to authority and power above all, and she suspected werewolves did, too. Any show of niceness would only be construed as weakness, and that was a thing she couldn’t afford.

“We both want the same thing, wolf—to get Vamp City’s magic renewed. You’ve seen what I can do. And I can assure you, my power is growing by the day. I’ve barely tapped into it. I could become a powerful ally. Or I will become a dangerous enemy. Your choice.”

His grip on her tightened, fractionally, revealing his frustration. “What do you mean you’ve barely tapped into your power?”

She briefly considered how much to tell him, then decided she didn’t have a lot to lose by holding back. She had far more to gain by making an ally of this male.

“Apparently, I’ve got more power than I know what to do with, but it’s being hampered by a curse. I need to free my magic before I can save Vamp City, but the only two who can help me are the vampire in your feeding trough and an aging fae who is dying as we speak. I’m running out of time, wolf. And we’re all going to suffer if I fail. You could help me. And I’ll help you and your pack in return.”