“Done,” he said to the girl.
She pouted and stroked his side, running a single finger along the top of his pants. “Come on, Teag. Me too. Please,” she purred.
A quick glance around the booth showed the remaining three girls were eagerly awaiting their turns and would be just as demanding as the one in front of him.
Just do it, vampire, before she makes a scene.
Jeliyah’s annoyed tone let him know he would be paying for his feedings later.
He bit the girl in front of him, feeding a little and then letting her go. He was close to full. Too much blood and he would be too drunk to fight, making him sluggish and uncoordinated.
The last three girls got their nip-and-sucks out of the way and left Teaghan in peace. He went back to watching the three vampires, waiting for them to do something he could claim was threatening so he could take them out.
They were watching him the way he watched them. He had no doubt they were all aware of the situation as it stood. Teaghan had called his necromancer close to him and fed enough to ensure he’d be at the top of his game if a fight broke out. Jeliyah’s rings might be in the car but she had her necklace and he’d strapped his sword to his back as well and had her gun tucked in his calf harness under his jeans.
Since Lee trusted him, Teaghan didn’t have to go through the normal weapon searches as the other club patrons. Teaghan hoped tonight wouldn’t change that. He would hate to stop working with Lee over the issue of protecting himself.
Teaghan cued up a song with lyrics that sent a clear message to the other enforcers—your move.
The two vampires Teaghan suspected were enforcers left the club. Ephraim toasted Teaghan with Jeliyah’s discarded drink and then followed them.
Teaghan didn’t know what was happening. After this, he planned to find out. He glanced over his shoulder at Jeliyah.
She said from her mind to his,
I know. We’re moving hotels again.
Not just hotels. We’re getting the fuck out of town. I’m putting some distance between us and them so we can figure this shit out.
Sounds like a plan.
Teaghan would have to break the bad news to Lee about not being able to do the rest of the week. He planned to say a hunt came up. Lee wouldn’t whine as much with that excuse.
The rest of the night passed with no more than the normal level of club excitement. The enforcers didn’t return but Teaghan wasn’t stupid enough to think they had left. At the end of the night, he offered the bogus hunt excuse to Lee before hustling Jeliyah out of the club and to the car. He’d pulled his earplugs the second the music stopped so he could hear anything and everything. No way was he repeating last night and letting some asshole get the drop on him.
Jeliyah’s nervous fear filled his thoughts though she tried to put up a brave façade. She relaxed once they were in the car and on the highway headed back to the hotel. She asked, “What’s going on?”
“I’m finding out now.” Teaghan pulled his phone, hit the speed dial for Fredrick and then laid the phone on the dash. The ringing filtered through the car speakers.
“Hello, Teaghan. I thought you might be calling me soon.”
Teaghan snapped, “What the hell is this, Fredrick? I’ve got three enforcers sniffing after my ass.”
Fredrick laughed. “You’re not as sharp as I thought if you only managed to spot three, Teaghan.”
He gritted his teeth. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He glanced in the rearview mirror. The highway was the perfect place for a tail to hide. There was no way to spot a car following when they were all going in the same direction. Teaghan took the next exit, deciding to use the city roads instead.
He said, “Why are you after me, Fredrick?”
“I couldn’t care less about you. I’m following orders. The one giving the orders was more than a little put out when you killed that rogue.”
Teaghan and Jeliyah exchanged a glance.
Fredrick said, “I made sure Hirsch chose someone who would pique your interest enough to blow off the hunt in favor of getting in her pants. I underestimated your greed.”
“Tell me this isn’t some fucked-up revenge because Dipshit and Dumbass didn’t get to take out the rogue.”
“No, this is punishment for killing a rogue who shouldn’t have been touched. Didios and Dumas already paid the price for their failure to keep him alive long enough to make a very important meeting. Thank you for that, by the way. However, now it’s your turn.”
Teaghan knew it. A coup was about to happen. He didn’t know the players and didn’t care. So long as the bills got paid, the person in power didn’t matter. From one leader to the next, nothing ever changed.
He said, “Fine. You want me. I get that. Leave the necromancer out of it. No one would miss me but take her out and you’ll have the higher-ups gunning for you and your boss.”
“You’re right, the higher-ups would be quite upset if we killed the necromancer, and that wasn’t my intention. The others wanted to have some fun with her before handing her over but that was all.”
Jeliyah gripped the door handle and her eyes widened.
Teaghan said, “The higher-ups won’t overlook you molesting one of their own.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. They’ve given us permission to do with her as we please so long we return her to them intact.”
Jeliyah yelled, “They would never do that.”
Fredrick chuckled. “Well, hello, Jeliyah. Ephraim tells me you smell of vampire seed and blood. Recent seed. Old blood. I had thought you would hold out against Teaghan much longer given your initial reaction to him. Either I overestimated you or underestimated him.” He made the vocal equivalent of a shrug. “Doesn’t matter since I felt the need to pass on the news of your little indiscretion to Hirsch, who then relayed it to the higher-ups. They are very displeased that a high-middle class such as yourself would give a vampire permission to invade her body. That displeasure graduated to anger when I informed them of the blood sharing as well.”
Oh please, no. No. No.
Teaghan grabbed Jeliyah’s hand in a firm grip to anchor her to the here and now. She clutched at him and stared at his profile. Tears rimmed her eyes. He knew she was holding it together by a thin thread of will. Images of the bleeding chamber raced through her mind. She was imagining herself in the place of the person she’d seen when she was young.
He told her through their link,
I’ve got you, Jeliyah. Nothing’s going to happen.
Fredrick said, “Stop the car and give up. Make this easier for all of us.”
“Denied.” Teaghan released Jeliyah’s hand so he could snatch the phone off the dash and hit the end button.
Jeliyah asked, “What do we do? They want you dead and me—” Her words choked to a halt and she pulled in a shuddering breath. A single tear slipped down her cheek.
He retrieved her hand and squeezed it. “Easy there, necromancer. Don’t fall apart on me now.”
“Why? All you did was kill a rogue.”
“That’s why. It’s a changing of the guard. It happens every few centuries. Family infighting. They involve people from neighboring families who have been promised some little tidbit or other to help the wannabe head take power. It’s a story as old as the vampires. Seems you and I got in the way.”
Teaghan changed his destination. The enforcers probably knew which hotel they’d used by now and might be lying in wait. He steered the car back on the highway. If one family wanted him dead then his only protection was to seek refuge in another family’s territory.
While a risky proposition without petitioning for entrance first, the destination Teaghan had in mind came with a sponsor. He released Jeliyah’s hand once more to bring up a number he hadn’t called in years. He hoped it still worked.
“This is Mekhail. Who is this?”
“It’s Teaghan, Mekhail. I’m calling in my favor.” He tossed the phone back on the dash.
The man sighed into the phone in a resigned fashion. “What do you want?”
“Watch the tone. I want safe passage and a meeting with the family head to seek asylum for me and my necromancer.”
“The head doesn’t like necromancers.”
“He likes them well enough to have two as his bodyguards.”
“They are exceptions.”
“You know what? I don’t give a shit. I told you I’m calling in what’s owed me. Make it happen. We’ll be there in twenty hours or so.”
Mekhail sighed again. “Yes, sire. Safe passage and a meeting. Does that make us even?”
“Depends on if we get asylum or not.”
“I have no control over that.”
“You better get some then. Talk me up to the head or else your ass will be on the line to get us out of the territory and into the next safely. Get me?”
“Yes, sire. Call again when you near the border. I’ll have escorts to meet you.”
“Good.” Teaghan ended the call.
Jeliyah asked, “Who was that? What favor does he owe you that he would vouch for us like that?”
“Mekhail is my progeny. Long story short—I made him after he’d been left for dead. He begged me to give him eternal life and to kill the ones who’d wronged him. I told him it would cost him and he agreed.” He glanced at Jeliyah, meeting her haunted gaze. “He’s in good with the head of the next territory over. We’ll be safe.”
“The vampire head who bought two high-high class necromancers and caused all that controversy. How can he not like necromancers and have two working for him?”
“Ask him when we get there.” Teaghan pushed on the gas pedal, not worrying about cops. If he knew Fredrick and how the man operated, the local law enforcement had probably already been told the situation and warned to stay out of it.
Teaghan was heading west. “We can’t head back to the hotel.”
“I figured as much already.”
He smiled at the annoyance in her voice. Better mad than scared. He said, “Looks like you’re going clothing shopping with me after all, necromancer.”
“What about my money and yours? The jewels are in safe-deposit boxes back there.” She waved over her shoulder.
“You can’t still be worried about retirement?”
“No. But now that I know that money isn’t going to the campus, I want it.”
“Woman after my own heart.” He raised her hand to his lips. “Don’t worry, necromancer. Mekhail isn’t the only one who owes me a favor. Once we’re settled, I’ll call in another solid to get our stashes.”
“Do you put all your progeny in debt to you? You really are a mercenary. If you’d been born a necromancer, you would have made a great higher-up.” She snatched her hand away from him.
“Of the few progeny I have, only Mekhail is in debt to me. Everyone else in my ledger got in debt the old-fashioned way—they asked for a service and couldn’t pay for it upfront.”
“What service?”
“The kind I’m good at, killing people.”
“So how much am I going to owe you for saving my life?” She fixed him with a hard look. “Or are you going to put me down for a future favor?”
“I get that you’re pissed, necromancer, but I’m not in the mood to be your whipping boy. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us. Get some sleep.”
“What about you?”
“I fed deep tonight. I can miss a day or two of rest before I start deteriorating. I can’t say the same for you.”
Jeliyah sat staring out the windshield for several breaths before she opened the glove box and took out her pouch of necromes. She put them on and flexed her fingers. “Activate.”
Teaghan spared her a glance. “What’re we dealing with?”
She closed her eyes. “Two following, though a fair distance back.”
“Looks like we can relax then. If Fredrick really wanted me dead and you captured, he would find some trumped-up charge to slap me with rogue status. He’s doing this on the down low for some reason.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have a friend in a high place, would you? Someone protecting you?”
“If I did, Fredrick wouldn’t be up our asses now.”
“Maybe Fredrick doesn’t care if you’re captured. He’s probably figured out we’re leaving the territory. That might be good enough for him, and the enforcers behind us are making sure.”
“Smart thinking. You might be right. He probably figures we haven’t had enough time to get proper permission to enter the next territory so I would be killed and you would be captured the second we crossed the border.” Teaghan sped up more. “Let’s prove them wrong.”
“Teaghan, are you sure Mekhail can get permission?”
“Owing a debt is more than an honor system with vampires, Jeliyah. We do blood pacts that put our lives at stake. If Mekhail doesn’t do what I want, he’ll die a very painful death by the magic binding us in contract to each other.”
“Oh.”
“Enough talk. Go to sleep. I’ll wake you when I stop for gas so you can get some food.”
“You’re sure the enforcers won’t attack us while you’re refueling?”
“That’s another reason why I’ll be waking you. The blood might have weakened but you still have enough of me in you to put up an impressive fight. The enforcers won’t be so eager to attack when they realize that.” He smoothed a finger down Jeliyah’s cheek and said in a soothing tone, “Go to sleep, sweetness.”