Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(90)
She did. It was a shrill version of “We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place,” and the vampire actually chuckled as if they weren’t facing Slayer Armageddon.
“Send word that the vampire escaped the dungeon!” one of the Slayers shouted.
“They already know,” he replied calmly. “Well, those I left alive, anyway.”
Aleksi pulled Claude close and whispered in his ear.
When the first three Slayers began to advance, swords raised, the vampire moved within inches of Elena. “Touch me. Do it now. You must choose to come, or it doesn’t work.”
Without hesitation, she did as he instructed, and the moment her fingers met the cool skin of his arm, everything blurred and the pressure of teleportation wrapped her body like a cocoon. She had no idea where the vampire was taking her, but wherever it was, it beat the hell out of a barn full of angry Slayers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Elena solidified from teleportation with more discomfort than usual. Her knees buckled, and the vampire caught her before she hit the floor—the very elegantly appointed floor covered in an Aubusson rug.
“Nadia,” the vampire called. A square-shouldered woman with high cheekbones and full lips rushed to them from across the huge stone room. They appeared to be in the great room of a castle or fortress of some kind. Expression neutral, the woman called Nadia stood silently as if running over to wait for his command were a normal thing. “Please escort our guests to rooms and provide them with baths.”
Guests? Elena swung her gaze around to find Claude on the other side of the vampire, still clinging to his tattered, filthy shirt. The vamp was a fine one to order baths when he had the dungeon grunge working. She met Claude’s gold eyes. “You were supposed to stay behind with Aleksi.”
“This wasn’t my doing,” he replied. “Aleksi ordered me to stay with you.”
“Nadia, they are not to leave their rooms until I return, are we clear?” the vampire said. “I have work to do.”
“Yes, sir.” She took Elena by the elbow, grip firm, and started to lead her away.
Jerking her arm out of the woman’s grasp, she suppressed the urge to zap her. “Wait a minute. I need to do some things. You can’t just lock me up, Vl… Whatever your name is.”
Dozens of people had entered the cavernous room, servants or friends perhaps… Did creepy vampires even have friends? Most of them wore hooded capes in a dark brown, leaving their faces only partially visible. None of them reacted to her outburst; it was as if someone had flipped an emotional off switch on the entire population of the place.
The vampire moved close. So close she could see the variations in the shades of red in his eyes. “Keep your voice down and your emotions in check, and never again tell me what I can or cannot do in my own home. I can do whatever I wish. I can slaughter every living creature in this castle in the matter of minutes, and no one could do a thing to stop me. Not even you, Elena Arcos.” He calmly turned and strolled toward the gaping mouth of an archway at the other end of the room where several women wearing long, drab dresses stood in a cluster. “At least, not yet,” he added over his shoulder. At the snap of his finger, the women stood shoulder to shoulder, and he pointed to the tallest of them. She smiled and approached him, no fear evident in her features despite his ominous threat to butcher everyone in the castle.
Stopping right in front of him, she appeared totally relaxed as he removed whatever held her silky brown hair in a tight bun on the back of her head. He ran his fingers through the strands, fanning them out over her shoulders in an affectionate caress. “It has been so long,” he murmured, brushing the hair to one side to reveal her neck and bare shoulder. “Too long.” The woman, still showing no fear, tilted her head to expose the bare column of her long neck. “The things we do for love,” he said as he ran his fingertips over her skin and she closed her eyes.
Surely, he wasn’t skeevy enough to bite that poor woman, no matter how willing she appeared, in front of all these people.
His rumbling chuckle stalled her heart for a moment. “Skeevy is not a word with which I’m familiar. And, yes, I am…not skeevy, based on context, but planning to bite her. Stop thinking like—”
Like a human, yeah, I know.
“And hum or sing in your head when you don’t want your thoughts to be heard. In fact, for my benefit, do so now, so that I can concentrate on refueling rather than refuting.”
Too bad his personality and manner weren’t as good as his looks.
He straightened and glanced over his shoulder at her, a wide, cocky grin exposing his fangs.
Shit, shit, shit. She launched into the chorus of the old Carly Simon song her mom used to play when she cleaned house, “You’re so Vain,” and he chuckled again before returning his attention to the woman in front of him.
Still singing the song in her head, she took in the reactions—or lack of reactions—from the others in the room. They watched him bite the woman’s neck with complete detachment. The only ones who reacted were the vampire, who made a yummy sound, the girl who moaned as if being bitten were pleasing, and Claude, who turned away in disgust.
The woman he’d called Nadia took Elena’s elbow and pulled. Another person, a guy much taller than Claude, did the same to him, and they were led through a doorway at the opposite end of the room. When the girl made a louder, clearly erotic moan, Elena sang out loud, wishing she remembered more than just the refrain.