Lucy
“I knew you’d make good bait.”
The not so dulcet tones of my uncle come from behind the door. I look up at Dominik.
“I am not bait.”
“I would say you make very pretty, very edible bait,” he rasps, fangs extending as he licks his lips. “If you’re bait, do I get to taste the merchandise?”
He dips his head and scrapes his fangs up my neck, over the area where he marked me, and it makes my body turn to jelly.
“Only if you do it in front of my uncle.”
“Kinky,” he growls against my skin, his tongue lapping over his bite. “I like it.”
He releases me, one hand still resting on my stomach as his heated gaze trails over me.
“Did he hurt you?” he asks, jaw tight.
“Damek? No.”
“And your uncle?”
“Not this time.”
“But he has before?”
I nod, my throat tight, my insides doing a fandango because adrenaline is coursing through me.
“Right,” Dominik says. “It’s time to end this.”
I grab his hand. “He staked you. What makes you think he won’t do something worse? I can’t lose you.”
“He can’t win. I won’t let him.”
“He’ll want to win at any cost.” I’m shaking. I can hear it in my voice.
“Van Helsing had his chance to end me, and you only get one of those with a Király,” Dominik growls. “If he thinks he can take my mate, if he thinks he can keep her from me because she is bait”—he balls up his fists—“he is wrong.”
“He will use everything he has to end you.” I keep hold of Dominik’s hand as he pushes at the door. “Including me.”
“You would be the only reason I would finally let the reaper take me,” he says with a flash of his fangs. “I would go to dust happy because you and I were one.” He returns his hand to my belly. “But given I have a family to provide for, I am not going to my end just yet.”
“Yes, but…”
Dominik holds up the assault rifle. “Do you know anything about this?” he queries. “I found it at the bottom of the stairs.”
Something crackles beneath his ruined suit jacket. Dominik presses against his ear and says something in Hungarian.
“It would appear these are all over the place, like presents for my guards.” He raises his eyebrows at me. “From a recent shipment which went missing by all accounts. You know anything about it?”
“Damek,” I say. “He must have left them.”
“And why would my brother suddenly be helpful?”
“He doesn’t want to open the vault, Dominik. He wants to find his mate,” I respond. “Perhaps this is his strange way of proving what he is.”
Dominik growls under his breath. “I’ll deal with my brother later. In the meantime, it would appear we have a collection of vampire hunters to deal with.”
“I do hope you’re not including me in that description.”
Dominik captures me with another devastating kiss. “You are my favorite vampire hunter.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
He grins at me, all fangs. “It’s about time your uncle found out what it’s like to challenge a real vampire.”
I shake my head at his arrogance.
“He’s been killing vampires a lot longer than you’ve been dealing with vampire hunters.” I fold my arms. “I hope you have something more than a few assault rifles up your sleeve.”
“I do.” Dominik’s grin widens. “I have you.”
“I’m bait, remember?” His enthusiasm, his desire to live, despite the fact he isn’t living, fills me with a confidence I can’t recall ever having in the face of my family.
But then I didn’t have a feral vampire king on my side.
“The best bait a vampire could ever be offered,” Dominik growls.
“I’m waiting,” my uncle’s nasally voice rasps from outside the stairwell.
“He’s waiting.” I raise my eyebrows at Dominik.
“Perpetually,” Dominik rasps and steps out into the wide, vaulted corridor beyond. “Do vampire hunters ever bother with bullets?” he queries.
Now I’m the one grinning. “No.”
“Commander Raynes,” he calls out. “Or should I say Baron Van Helsing?”
“You survived,” my uncle’s voice rasps back.
“I did. As you intended.”
“I didn’t know for sure,” my uncle says with some satisfaction. “But vampires are like cockroaches. You can stamp on them, and they will still crawl out of the darkness to foul somewhere pure.”
I peer out from behind the door. Potentially, I should be safe, if indeed my uncle is telling the truth and not only am I bait, but he, at the very least, wants my child, which means I need to be basically alive.
“And what does it say about vampire hunters that you follow us into the darkness?” Dominik says, but I can tell he’s not interested in bantering with my uncle.
As always, with Dominik, he has a job to do, and he will execute it.
“It says we want to bring the light.”
Dominik groans under his breath. “One of those,” he grumbles as he looks over his shoulder at me.
I shrug. “Yep.”
“Do you want your bait?” he calls out. “Or do I get to keep the tasty morsel in recompense for the damage to my suit?” He gives me the dirtiest wink I think I’ve ever seen, his tongue licking over a fang.
“You will surrender my niece, and you will prepare yourself to be stripped.”
“Is all your family kinky?” Dominik says to me.
“Trophy pants,” I respond.
“Trophy pants?” Dominik rubs his chin. “Probably doesn’t qualify as kinky, I suppose.” He checks over the weapon in his hand. “Stay here. I’m bored with this conversation now. It’s time to hunt the vampire hunters.”
Before I have a chance to say anything, he strides out, down the passage, and starts firing into the air.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he calls out, tossing the rifle over his shoulder and turning on his heel as he scans the area for hunters.
A crossbow bolt zips through the air, but Dominik easily avoids it. A volley of the things come at him, and he dissipates into mist before reforming just as he was.
“I think you’re going to have to do better than that,” he calls, his strong accent, deep voice, and complete assurance with himself curling my toes.
“Yes.” A hand curls around my throat. “I am,” my uncle says into my ear. “I’ve missed you, my dear.”
“I haven’t missed you,” I respond, feeling the prick of a knife in my skin.
“It’s time to end your vampire and for you to return to the fold,” he says. “I guess you’ll be ready to pop in another month, and I’m looking forward to having a new protege.”
“Over my dead body,” I snarl.
“Over his dead body, I think you’ll find.” His lips are on my ear, and my skin wants to crawl off my body. “Or the alternative is, he lives, or whatever the vampire equivalent is, and you come quietly. Your choice, Lucy.”
A hand flops over my shoulder, a heavy black pistol gripped in it. It’s pointed directly at Dominik who is still calling out for some action.
“So, what’s it going to be?” my uncle says wetly into my ear. “You…or him.”