The Psychic and the Vampire

Chapter Thirty

“Just think about it,” Viktor added as his words were met with complete silence. “An eternal life where you can quell your desires for as long as you like. When you're somebody like me, you never get caught. You never get held to consequences. You can travel the world over. You have a lifetime upon lifetime upon lifetime to make untold riches, to rule over the people around you.”

“You never ruled Tony.” Colin narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. “It was Tony who was the boss of you. Tony who is the damn boss of this town.”

“Is that what you think?” Viktor chuckled. “Do you honestly believe that? Who was mopping up his messes and keeping his fucking ass clean? There was no way Tony was ruling this town. The only reason he got anywhere at all was because I allowed it. Don't you understand?”

He took a step closer, and both men leaned back. “Paranormals are the ones who run this town, we just know better than to be flashy about it. We can take the second place positions and nobody cares. But we never have to do what we're told. We do what we choose to do. We’re not bound by laws. We’re too strong and too long-lived. We can do whatever we want to do. You telling me you two would pass up a deal to have a life like that?”

“Na-ah-ah!” Mike shook his head. “I've heard about that. I've heard about the change process. Bloody Tony was going on about it in his cell about how he wanted you to change him. He told me the side effects.

“‘Don’t get taken in by the vamp,’ Tony told me. You told him that Tony would be begging for your cock for the next hundred years, and how he’d be totally subject to your freaking whimsy. Fuck that, man. Why would we, two independent men, want to do that or take that deal from you.

“We're not fucking stupid. You might think that Tony was and maybe that's why you fucking got this idea in your head that all humans are like that, but we're not. Me and Colin, we know bullshit when we see it.”

“I see. Fair enough. Not a worry.” Viktor barely jumped as he heard Ant’s voice in his head. Just hearing those tones, with the quiet instructions, he was filled with a crushing sense of relief. His mate was still alive, and it would appear Bridget was doing okay enough to be her sassy self. I seriously need to learn more about how magic users do their shit , he thought, as he took a step back and slowly looked around.

“You looking for a way out, vampire?” Mike taunted him. “There isn't one. There’s only one door and we're blocking it. You won’t get past us.”

“Yeah, I guessed that.” Viktor looked for the cleanest spot on the floor he could find. Admittedly, it was still going to be grubby, but frankly, getting a few bits of dust on her already wrecked clothes should be the last of Bridget’s worry.

Making sure she could be kept as safe as possible, he tucked her behind the box that he had pulled her out of. Putting her down carefully, he kept an eye on what Colin and Mike were doing in his peripheral vision, while he took the tape off her wrists and ankles. They seemed more confused by his behavior than anything else.

He laid Bridget on the floor, although much like when he’d laid Ant out on his couch mere days before, he didn’t like the angle of her head where it connected to the concrete. Standing up, he ripped off his shirt, folding it into a soft bundle and sliding it under her hair. “You just stay there a moment,” he said, as he stood up and flexed his bare shoulders.

Turning to face the idiots with the gun, he said, “Right. Now I have my hands free, what were you saying about refusing my deal?” He stalked closer as his eyes turned red, his fangs dropped, and his entire body got slowly bigger as his second half came through.

Viktor's vampire hadn't been out for a very long time. It was not something that was ever considered a good idea among the vampire community. An unruly vampire could cause a lot of harm, and didn’t do a lot for the species’ reputation. But Viktor wasn’t governed by blood lust. He was mated. He had no need to go rampaging on humans, twisting their necks and pouring their blood down his throat. That was not who he was or had ever been.

But there were two men who had their grubby fingers on his mate, and his mate had said they had to go. If Bridget wanted to see him being a badass, then Colin and Mike were the perfect idiots to use as an example of what Viktor could do if he was pushed to do it.

Watching their faces drop and then go pale as he got bigger and bigger amused the hell out of him. Then there was that inevitable “oh shit” moment that showed in the widened eyes and the fear that flooded the air.

If Viktor had the time he would laugh, but his form was still coming through. His hair grew longer, his body expanded in all directions. There was a wince moment because his thighs were straining at his pants, and Viktor really hoped they didn't rip because there were some things those guys didn't need to see. His boots were going to be stretched to shit as well. Suffice to say, every part of him got bigger in his vampire’s second form. And no, Viktor wouldn't go showing Mike what a true dick looked like, especially now he was respectably mated.

“Now then,” he said as his shift finished and he stretched out his shoulders and back. “You were saying something about stopping me from using the door? Go for it. Do your worst.”

It was like watching one of those old cartoons popular in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Both men trained their guns on his chest, frantically tugging at their triggers. The noise was deafening, and Viktor really hated the fact that Bridget had ended up being taken to one of the most remote areas possible. There were no nosy neighbors around who could call the authorities. Not that it mattered. Viktor could take care of what was simply becoming an annoying issue himself.

Viktor stood there watching the bullets ping off his second form without being affected at all, his lips curling into a wide smile around his fangs. Finally, there was an empty click, then another one. Both men had run out of bullets. Viktor looked down at his chest and brushed off a streak of dust. “What else you got?”

“I'll kill him,” Mike said, pointing at Ant with the empty gun. “I’ll kill him and his stuck-up sister, too.”

“You think that's gonna stop me?” Viktor tipped his head back and laughed, narrowly missing the ceiling. “You think it's gonna stop me from tearing you a new asshole? One that goes from your butt to your neck?”

“Look, look, you said you could do a deal,” Colin said. He was backing up, but he was still holding on to Ant, and Viktor needed him to let go of his mate. “You said you wanted a deal. We can deal. We can do this. I don't mind being an immortal, long-lived, eternal, or whatever you called it. I don't even mind worshipping your dick for the next hundred years if that's what it takes. I'll do it. I'll do it if that's what saves us here. Just let me have my little pleasures and I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I’ll take the deal!”

If there was one thing that annoyed Viktor more than anything else it was a whining man - somebody who was pleading for their life when they'd had such callous disregard for anybody else's. Moving forward, it took just two steps, in one swift move Viktor had a man in each hand, their scrawny necks squeezed under the strength of his fingers, as he pulled their feet off the floor.

They automatically let Ant fall and Viktor cringed as Ant’s body hit the floor with a thud. But he kept his upset inside. It was time for these two idiots to realize they’d messed with the wrong mage, the wrong sister, hell, they’d messed with the wrong family, and Viktor included himself in that term too.

“You hurt my mate,” he growled, his shifted form’s voice deep and gravelly as he stared deep into Colin’s eyes. “You took my mate's sister and for what? To set up a murder scene because you wanted to prove I was a criminal. To take revenge for Tony? That useless two-bit piece of shit asshole who's currently cowering in jail paying people to leave him alone because he's so afraid that anyone else’s dick near his will turn him gay. You disgust me. You, what you stand for, and everything else.

“And as for you…” Viktor switched his focus to Mike. “You were worse. You abused Ant's trust. That man you've just dropped on the floor is the kindest, most decent human being you could ever hope to meet, and you tore his trust apart. I refuse to let you hurt or use him anymore. The only thing you two are fit for is worm food.”

It only took a few moments. It wasn't that easy tying two human bodies together in the form of a Celtic knot that would require a chainsaw to break apart. But when a person's dead, the process is a little bit easier. Viktor figured someone in the first responder crew would have some way of cutting them apart before rigor mortis set in, otherwise things could get messy. But he didn't care.

Tossing the bundle of tangled limbs and shocked faces aside, he let the bodies land with a thump, and immediately picked up Ant off the floor. His face was paler than his white-blond hair, and he was barely breathing.

You need to give him blood, Viktor sent through to his other half. Give him a drop of our blood and it will help revive him. The vampire form considered it. He had heard such a method had been used by vampires throughout history. Any injured vampire could be healed by a drop of their mate’s blood. It wasn’t a process that had been used on non-vampire mates very often, although the vampire had heard stories about its effectiveness.

It won't do him any harm. Look at him. He’s completely overwhelmed. Gods know what he’d seen while he was being held by two criminals, but you heard him. Ant said he’d seen their sins, and he couldn’t escape them, held the way he was. You have to give him something.

Carefully pricking the end of his little finger with one of his fangs, Viktor squeezed it and made a blood drop appear. He brushed it on Ant's bottom lip, trying to coax it open. When that didn't work, he pulled down on the slack lip and quickly shoved his finger inside, wiping his blood on Ant's tongue. Hopefully it doesn’t take long to start working.

Still in his vampire form, Viktor went over to where Bridget was resting, kicking the trunk aside, before bending down and scooping up her limp body up with his other arm.

The door frame wasn’t that big when seen from his second perspective. I’m going to have to squeeze through. Stomping up the stairs, he could see Able's tail. The dog was lying flat on the fake hardwood floor, but as he heard the footsteps, Viktor saw a little flicker of the end of the tail and heard a small whine.

Time to make some calls, he thought with a sigh as he carried Ant and his sister outside, laying them on the lawn this time, while he went back to pick up the dog. Maybe one of the first responders could be convinced to bring some food out with them, because you just know they’re going to keep wanting to talk about things and analyze the scene for freaking hours.

With another long sigh, Viktor placed Able next to Ant, and then stroked over his mate’s face. In his shifted form, his fingers were longer than Ant’s head. I need you to wake up now he sent through their bond as he shifted back to his human form. I really don’t have the patience left to deal with authorities.

Calling the emergency number, Viktor gave few details to the operator, and simply told her they needed an ambulance, a vet, and the police before hanging up. When asked for the address, he told the operator to go to the location of Mike’s car. He sat down on the grass, staring moodily at the police cruiser still resting where Mike had parked it.

It’s going to take the first responders ages to get here, he thought, wondering how much extra trouble he could get in for stealing the police car.

It could be considered an emergency, he reasoned. He had two unconscious people and a shot dog who needed attention. But, figuring Ant might not see things the same way, he sat and listened to trees and birds and shit. It wasn’t until he finally heard the distant wail of a siren that he felt Ant stir.

“Hey,” Ant said, his voice still faint. “Hey, Viktor. Are you all right?”

Of course my mate would ask that. Viktor pulled Ant into his arms and held him close to his chest. He genuinely didn’t have words in that moment. It would be enough for him if Ant could pick up his relief through their bond.