Captiva Craving - Vampire Werewolf Menage (Six Feet Under Series Book Two) (20 page)

At Adam’s gargled groan, Kash replied casually, “Now see what you made him do.”

“You think I cannot scent what’s mine?” He dragged his nose across Adam’s throat. “You think I cannot match your scent with one I found in a bedchamber down the hall? The very place where you must have abducted
my wife
,” he hissed the same as a thousand pygmy rattlers, wielding electrical surges throughout the Sanctuary by sheer force of will. Lights flickered on and off, but that didn’t matter when they all could see just as well in the dark. And as quick as any deadly snake, Adam bit him, administering lethal poison that still had Dr. Holt flat on his back. Sixten pulled back, laughing. “Ah,
Poison
is your daddy, small world.”

“It won’t take long for it to truly hit your system, and you’ll be out for days,” Adam said with a sneer, so Sixten ripped out his newly regenerated heart, tossing that one next to his first.

“I find a twinge of pain
comforting
. It reminds me not to get too
comfortable
.”

“Just ask your doctor, Vojak,” he coughed to hide the pain. “Healing is a slow laborious process.”

“Or I could just do this.” Sixten nailed him on the throat. Sucking and sucking and sucking until he left less than half a pint inside Adam’s body. He didn’t want him to die this quickly, but he was getting nowhere with his questioning. “That’s what you call,” he said, wiping his mouth, “anti-venom. Cart him to the doc and let him have the rest. Shifter or not, Adam won’t regenerate that heart of his without any blood to fall back on.” He said over his shoulder, leaving Kash and heading for the door.

Was Poison conspiring with the freed group his son claimed to lead? Sixten highly doubted it. They were street stupid, too naive. No one had instructed them. Nevertheless, Adam clearly had the funds to finance a new faction. Maestru had counted thousands on him and that was simply pocket change. Yeah, someone was pumping the green Adam’s way. But for what?

Qudir stopped him in the corridor, heading to Adam’s makeshift cell. “You look different, Six.”

“I need a day at the spa. What’s
your
look about?”

“I’ve, uh, got a tip.”

“Don’t get me excited, Qudir.” Unrewarded anticipation devastated. “When it comes to Blythe, I can’t fall another inch.”

“Since you left my office, I’ve been non-stop, phone call after phone call. After a myriad of negotiations with this female clerk inside the Dynasty Russian headquarters, I’ve been told on the QT that our very own prince has suddenly left Russia to fly to America.”

“Where, exactly?” The vampire prince would have nothing to do with Blythe unless.... “Is he meeting Maestru?”

“No.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maestru is baffled with all this monarch action, man.”

So was Sixten. “During any of those conversations, did you find out who Blythe’s Dynasty Vampyr was?”

“Not yet, Italy still won’t talk, though we can count out the prince. He doesn’t even own a vacation home in that country, and my connection went through the prince’s list of Donors. Blythe was never on it. Now, she’s trying to access Italy’s records from her computer to see if she can find Blythe’s match for us.”

“Does she have an idea why there were hunters here?”

“She was as shocked as we were that they hadn’t filed for clearance.”

“The prince wouldn’t come to North America on holiday. So if he isn’t coming here to meet with the North American Coven Master, then why?”

“That’s just it, Six. Another common courtesy shunned. Protocol says his security alerts any Coven Master prior to arrival on his perspective continent.”

“But he hasn’t,” Maestru said, gliding up next to them. “Lovec were here without our knowledge. The prince would be coming without our knowledge if Qudir hadn’t used his invaluable resources.”

“What payment is required, Qudir?” Nothing went unpaid in their world. “She risks torture for speaking to you, maybe death.”

“Don’t ask.”

Sixten opened his mouth to say
that
would not be happening. “Fuck,” he groaned instead. He’d do
anything
to save his wife, and females flocked to Vojaks for only one reason: to lie beneath a warrior’s body. “I can force the blood there, get hard for this female, but I can’t stop myself from throwing up no matter how hot she is.” Just the thought of touching another tied him into knots.

“I’ll do it,” Kash offered, settling next to them. And he sure didn’t look happy about it.

“I didn’t ask either of you.” Qudir blew out a long breath. “Any commander worth his salt makes payment on his own intel.” He didn’t miss a beat. “Is Adam still with us?”

“I give him a half hour tops,” Kash said flatly.

They’d failed miserably with Adam’s interrogation. Sixten was wiping the shifter’s blood on his pants’ leg when something made obvious sense. “Then again, maybe we haven’t.”

“What?”

“Adam finds no fear in death, though not because he’s fearless.” He met Kash’s eyes, watching as it sunk in. “My own death wish will come if Blythe doesn’t return to me.”

“He’s lost a female.” Kash smiled evilly. “One he thinks is his.”

“We’ve proven there were no females bred at that shithole facility,” Qudir argued, “only female
Donors
supplied for feeding.”

“Then a specific Donor is who he wants.”

“What are you saying, Six?” Maestru hissed. “I’ll give him no one.”

“I’m full of his blood.” Sixten headed back to Adam. “He’ll never scent my lies.” He spoke over his shoulder to Qudir, “You still have that Donor’s list we found in the facility, right?”

“On my desk, but I have the names memorized.” He was right behind him. “Only a dozen females listed.”

“Adam awaits.” He reached the door, opening it wide. “
This game
, I’m winning.”

Twenty minutes later, Adam neared his dying breath while Qudir continued, “Sarah? No. Hmmm, could it be Libby?”

“Go…to…hell.”

“Last on the list is
Amy
.” Qudir smiled when Adam’s eyes shifted, glittering as the noonday sun in Dubai.

“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.” Sixten said with a smile, placing his booted foot on his chest since Adam was now flat on his back. He leaned down, resting his forearm and pressing his bodyweight on his knee. “It just so happens, Amy is down the hall from Dru, healing from her injuries quite nicely.”

Adam tried to shift, though between Maestru’s runes and his eminent death, he would not make it. “Stay …away from her.”

“Oh, is she yours?” Sixten taunted. “Do other males not agree? Frightening how someone as dangerous as me would find the irony in your predicament. I’m sure, by now, you realize
Amy
is addictive to those not of our Dynasty.” His voice dropped to a murmur. “As we speak, she’s sitting in the middle of a horde of vampires. Some will wait patiently for their turn. Others?” He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Not so much. Imagine males putting their hands on her…touching…their
fangs
in…feeding. Still, in this perilous world, Vojaks protect all females. Not all is lost for Amy. Perhaps, since you refuse to cooperate, our Coven will alert the hunters. They can oversea Amy’s assimilation into the monarchy, protect her. Keep poor Amy from becoming an underground blood slave. It’s what their trained to do.” He released a slow breath. “Ah, I’ve forgotten. You already know about them, don’t you?”

“Stop.”

“Hush, now,” chastised Sixten, shaking his head. “The beginning of negotiations does not start with the word stop, now does it? Adam, you of all males, understands when a vampire possesses someone, takes her, and shares utter communion you’ve never had with another; that she’s yours. My Blythe is that to me. Presently, who is protecting her from the unthinkable? Not me. I’m here with you.” Sixten lifted his foot off Adam’s chest, delivering an unmerciful blow to his ribs after he stood. “Obviously, you understand that if we hand Amy over to the Dynasty, she’s lost to you forever.” He stared down into Adam’s eyes. “Two sides to a wicked coin. When I toss it,” he asked, holding his hands out in grand gesture, “where will it land, shifter?”

“I…don’t…believe.”

“What should you? Usually, I’m a lying bastard. But today, conveniently for you, I’ve mended my ways,” he said, pulling out his favorite blade and slitting his own wrist to drizzle blood above Adam’s lips. His plan was to keep him alive a few additional minutes and extract what he could. Adam opened greedily, taking a few ounces before Sixten licked himself closed.

“You took my wife,” Sixten stated simply. “For that you will pay. Losing a couple of hearts is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you.” Without preamble, he started peeling the flesh from Adam’s face rather clinically. Skin curled around his blade as if it were an orange peel. “Find the words to tell me where Blythe is or I will do this to beautiful, kind Amy,” he whispered calmly after Adam stopped screaming. “And if you think I’m still lying, I’ll bring her right here, make you watch.”

“I know you’re… going to kill me anyway…but don’t hurt her,” he gasped. “She… was treated as an animal same… as any of us.”

“I really don’t care how Amy was treated by her captors. For the simple reason that my mate is more important to me than yours is.” He stood up, wiping his blade on his pants. “I’m running out of time. Next stop will be a lot more sensitive than your face.” He twirled his dagger between his fingers, moving his eyes down Adam’s body.

“Poison…overthrew.”

“I get it by now. Your daddy was the mastermind. Move on to Blythe.” He nodded at Qudir. “A little drizzle for Adam, would you please? He doesn’t need to refill with more Habaline blood.”

Qudir bit his wrist, dangling it over Adam’s mouth and watched him swallow. “Talk fast,” warned Qudir, pulling his wrist away and licking it closed the same way as Sixten.

“A human liaison,” Adam’s voice came back faster than his face, “met with Poison when Rave was away. Many times.”

“Male or female?” Sixten leaned against the wall, weary though Adam’s powerful blood rushed his veins.

“Male.”

“Did Poison say who this human was?”

“Just a liaison…Rave was building an army to overthrow-”

“I know…I know to take over the world. All the criminally insane do in this realm.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “Tell me something I don’t know, Adam.”

“Not to take over the realm, but the Habaline’s monarchy.”

Okay, that wasn’t a surprise, just a side road he couldn’t drive on right now. “Back to Blythe.”

“She is a Donor.”

“Still facts I already now, shifter, move along.”

“The hunter said he was saving her.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “So after Poison arranged this upheaval inside your underground, uh, facility, you went straight to Blythe?”

“Many took off toward downtown Fort Myers. All Rave’s guards were turncoats. He had no one. So a group of the escaped made those distractions on the streets, keeping Rave and your kind occupied. He couldn’t fight us all, and eventually,
you
killed him.”

“I was there, go on,” Sixten snapped.

“In the meantime, I led,” he stopped, looking at Sixten dismally, “the group that blew through this place while using Vojak weapons and took your female.”

“Why didn’t you kill?” Qudir jumped in.

“We never wanted to kill, apart from Rave, in the first place. The hunter specified those weapons were to be used and not to kill unless forced to. What choice did we have? We had a debt to pay for our freedom. The only payment required was his female Blythe.”

“Let me get this straight,” Maestru clarified, while Sixten stood with his mouth agape. “The only payment required for you and countless others to be freed from your prison was to capture one female Donor?”

“Yes. We were to make it look like a riot and take her. We were supposed to take weapons, make it look clean, like rogues on a mission,” he spoke quickly. “But none of us wanted to risk any more time spent down here. We wanted to see the moon, feel the air, and never lose it again. So we hurried.”

“And you took Blythe to the airport?” Sixten’s voice sounded strange, knotted, strained.

“One hunter met us,” Adam said, staring at the ceiling. “He gave Poison handled cases filled with cash before putting her on a small plane.”

“Any idea where-”

“No. I have no idea where she went from there, or even why.”

“Did any of your men touch her,” Kash asked, toeing Adam’s raw cheek.

“No. They tried. I told them not to. The hunter had threatened me, but more than that, I didn’t want her to go through what…Amy did.”

“Back to the human male slumming in your prison,” Kash said, “dark hair or light?”

“Dark.”

“Skin?”

“Light.”

Kash stared at Sixten, both remembering how Poison killed Anthony before they could fully interrogate him. He hid loads of cash at his squatter house on the island, along with that hard drive. Always better prepared, Kash reached into his coat and pulled out several papers, then meticulously unfolded one. A snap shot he copied from Sixten’s house, one showing Blythe and Anthony dining at the The Blue Pelican on Sanibel Island. Both appeared younger, though they still had not aged much for humans.

“Is this the human, Adam?”

Adam studied the black and white copy, nervously flicking between Blythe and Anthony, and then back to Sixten. “It’s both of them. He had cancer.”

“He lied about having cancer,” Sixten retorted irritably.

“No, he really did,” Adam said earnestly. “He was a mess when he first started coming around. Poison helped him.”

“Our kind doesn’t heal cancer,” Maestru said skeptically. “Unless a Species made him Undead.”

“Then you’d better find out what Poison is up to with your female’s brother.”

“Poison killed her brother.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Adam retorted, “he’s more volatile than Rave, even more controlling after we escaped. That’s why I wanted our own faction away from him. All we want is peace, but he refuses to leave us with it. My males are injured by fighting him.”

“I’m going to let you live,
for now
. Amy will be kept safe,
for now
.” Sixten said. “And after you feed, you will remember a hell of a lot more. Or I’ll stop playing the gracious host and do what I do best.”