A Kiss of Blood (Vamp City #2)(64)

Hearing nothing through the closed door, Quinn opened it slowly, wishing to hell she still looked like Neo’s sister, then slipped into the pantry and closed the door behind her. The torch holder sat on the wall just across the hall, taunting her. Because as long as she held the torch, there was no hiding.

Squaring her shoulders, she stepped into the hallway and nearly ran into two passing vampire guards. Dammit.

“Who are you?” one of them demanded.

Quinn froze, heart pounding as she debated her options and came up with not a single decent one. Throw the torch at them and run? Right. Vampires were lightning fast. She could demand to be taken to Arturo, but admitting she’d been hiding behind a glamour, that he’d had the sorceress with him all along, would, best case, get them thrown out of the castle. Worst case . . . she didn’t even want to think about it.

Going with instinct, she threw the torch at the nearest guard and pulled her switchblade. In the blink of an eye . . . a human eye . . . the torch was back in its holder, her blade was gone from her hand, and her wrist was caught tight in a vampire’s hold. Too damn fast.

The vamp who held her began to smile. “She’s a freshie, Bill. What’s a freshie doing sneaking around our pantry?” He leered at her. “Trying to steal food from us, girlie?”

Quinn’s heart began to pound. Magic started to tingle beneath her skin, but not quickly enough.

The guard turned to the hallway she’d first come down and pulled her along with him, striding fast and sure as if he knew exactly where to take her.

Her mind grasped for ideas even as she worried that Arturo would feel her emotions, her fear, and come for her, giving himself away. There was no fighting the vampires to get free. And she could think of nothing she could say that would help her. With dismay, she realized where the guard was leading her seconds before they entered the orgy dojo. The smell of sex hit her hard, along with the coppery scent of blood. Almost every vampire in the room had his fangs in someone, if not his cock.

Including Arturo.

She found him on the chaise where they’d metaphorically blown the roof off with their orgasms, a naked woman draped across his lap, his arm around her waist as he drank from her neck. He, at least, was fully clothed and appeared to be doing nothing but drinking.

Though he continued to feed, his eyes lifted as she entered the room, spearing her. She felt, rather than saw his surprise and his frustration with her. If she’d stayed in the room where he’d left her, losing her glamour wouldn’t have mattered. No one would have seen her. But that was water under the proverbial bridge and she was in a boatload of trouble.

Though Arturo continued to watch her, he made no move even to acknowledge her. And he wouldn’t, she realized. He couldn’t without implicating himself.

The guard steered her around the edges of the room, toward the dais, where Fabian was being straddled by two women—one over his groin, riding him, the other over his mouth.

At the base of the dais, Quinn’s captor stopped, silent and waiting for his master’s attention. After less than a minute, the woman straddling Fabian’s face began to sway, her skin looking alarmingly pale. With horror, Quinn realized Fabian had been eating her in the truest sense of the word, his fangs sunk deep between her legs.

Fabian gripped her tight, holding her against his mouth even as she collapsed, unconscious.

He was draining her dry! With his fangs sunk into her femoral artery, he would, within minutes, if he could drink that fast. It reminded her of the way some of the kids used to shotgun beers in college, opening a hole in the bottom of the can so that it poured quickly down their throats.

Fabian, she thought, stomach turning, was into shotgunning humans.

As she watched in horror, he tossed the woman onto the floor, like the empty vessel she now was. Blood running down his cheek, he grabbed the hips of the woman who f**ked him, driving into her vampire-fast. But as he caught sight of Quinn, he slowed, then stopped.

Raising himself up on one elbow, he glanced at her guard.

“Who have we here?”

The magic beneath her skin began to sting.

“We found a freshie raiding the pantry. She must have snuck in from outside.”

Fabian’s smile bloomed slow and dangerous. “Steal from me, would you?” He waved his hand at the woman still attempting to ride him. “Go.” Without hesitation, she pushed up and off him, moving away from the chaise.

Fabian sat up, his erection still thick and hard. “Bring her here.”

Quinn’s breath caught, the magic bubbling. If she didn’t get control, her eyes were going to glow, and the gig was going to be up. The sorceress revealed.

His fingers tight around her arm, the guard pulled her up the stairs to stand in front of the pale, skinny Fabian. The vampire master rose to his feet as she approached, his hand reaching out to stroke her hair with surprising gentleness, even reverence.

“Beautiful. Like spun gold. Your skin like porcelain. Take off your clothes, lovely. I’ll finish inside of you.”

No way in hell. Her pulse tripped, escalating fast and hard as she considered her exceedingly limited options. This was the reason she should have held on to her stakes.

“Now, woman,” Fabian snapped.

“Go to hell.”

The hand in her hair tangled and jerked, and he pushed her head down toward his erection.

“I prefer pleasure to pain, but I will have obedience. Either you submit to me here, or I’ll hand you over to my guards, to be taken away and used in any way they wish. Most of my guards are pain-feeders, in case you’re wondering.” He jerked her head up again, making her cry out from the ripping sensation along her scalp. “Submit.”