She'd picked up their names and their faces as they'd gathered around her to tend to her wounds. Reaper, Topaz, Roxy. And Seth, of course. Seth. Her Seth.
Vixen woke to a soft mattress, thick blankets, fluffy pillows and clean, sweet-smelling sheets. It was warm and wonderful. This part of being human-the creature comforts in which they indulged themselves-was one of the few things she'd always enjoyed, and she let herself luxuriate for a moment. But then there was a disturbance, a mental shout delivered on a wave of energy that reverberated in her head and made her eyes squeeze tight.
Pay attention, you bastards! You'll pay-and pay dearly-if you don't listen to me now!
The threat frightened her so badly that she leapt from bed. "Gregor!"
She looked around, frantic, certain he must be very close, then raced from the bedroom through the hallway and down the stairs, instinctively following her senses to where the others had gathered-in the kitchen.
Vixen thought, from the way they looked-each of them still and attentive, focused on nothing, in a posture of listening-that Gregor's shout must have reached them all: Reaper, Seth, Topaz and any other vampire within range of Gregor's anger.
Even Roxy had stopped what she was doing, a large ceramic mug in one hand, freshly brewed pot of coffee in the other, and cocked her head. "Is something...?"
Reaper held up a hand, and Roxy went silent.
I want my captive back, Reaper! Before midnight, or I promise you, I'll take one of your little helpers in her place.
Seth spotted Vixen across the room, went to her and clamped an arm tightly around her shoulders. Too tightly. He shouted, and the anger in his voice made her flinch and try to pull away from him, but he held her all the same.
"Yeah, come on and try it, you bastard!" he shouted. "Send some of those brain-dead monkeys you had guarding her, why don't you? See how far they get."
"Seth." Reaper put a hand on his shoulder. "Enough. You'll give away our location."
"And why the hell are you yelling, anyway?" Topaz demanded.
"Not to mention crushing the poor little thing in the process," Roxy added.
Seth looked at her, captured in the circle of his powerful arm, and eased his grip. But he didn't let go, not entirely. He seemed to bank his anger only with an effort. "I haven't got the hang of shouting mentally yet. I still have to do it physically to make it work."
The impatience left Topaz's face for just a second, and she stared at him as if he were something cute enough to cuddle. If she said "Awww," he was out of here, he thought.
"I heard that," she said. "See, you can do it. You just have to stop over-thinking it."
Vixen eased herself free of Seth's arm and took a few steps away from him. "It was Gregor," she said softly. "Did you all hear him?"
Reaper and Topaz nodded.
"I didn't," Roxy said. She filled her mug. The aroma coming from the steam was one that Vixen loved. She moved closer, closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of fresh coffee.
"He said," Vixen told Roxy without opening her eyes, "that if he doesn't get me back by midnight, he will come and take one of you instead."
"Ha!" Roxy's bark of laughter made Vixen jump, and her eyes popped open wide as she searched Roxy's face. "I'd like to see him try," the mortal woman declared. "Don't you worry, hon, he's not getting you back, and he's not going to take any of us anywhere, either."
"He'll try," Vixen told her, and she knew it was the truth.
"He'll fail," Seth said, moving to stand beside her again. He didn't touch her this time.
She turned and met his eyes, and she felt something ripple through her. A pulling sensation that tried to make her sway closer to him, touch him. A tingle of pleasure and a rush of sensory memory-the way it had felt to suckle him last night. The power of it. And the way she'd felt since the first time his essence had drifted through her mind.
He was her mate. He was the one.
She liked his touch. But not when it seemed to convey ownership. She was no one's captive. Would never be again.
Still, this man's blood had made her strong, made her well when she'd been weak and in pain. And it had been spilled for her in battle. She fixed her eyes on his. "Thank you for helping me."
He smiled, drawing her gaze to his mouth, and she found she couldn't take her eyes away from his lips. Fascinating, so soft and touchable.
"You're very welcome, Vixen. And I want you to know, no one wants you to leave. You're staying with us for as long as we're here."
"Wait just a minute," Topaz said, verbally shouldering her way into the conversation. "You're presuming a lot, Seth. No one's asked me what I think about that. And the fact is, we don't need any more help here."
"We're not going to abandon her, either. Gregor's gang would get her back before the first night ended," he shot back.
"And that's our problem why?"
"Because I say it is, that's why. She's staying."
As they argued, Vixen backed away from the noise, her attention bouncing from Topaz to Seth and back again, and when she couldn't stand any more she pressed her hands to her ears and closed her eyes tight. "Stop!"
They fell silent, and when she dared open her eyes again, it was to find them all staring at her. She took her time, tried to find the right words to convey her frustration without seeming ungrateful.
"You...helped me," she said. "Seth, you took me from that cage, and you risked your life doing it. But...I didn't ask you to. I didn't ask you to bring me here. I didn't ask you to feed me from your veins to make me well. I didn't ask for that bed, or for Roxy's ministrations. I'm grateful for all of it, but I didn't ask."
"I know that." Seth seemed confused.
"You don't own me just because you helped me."
His jaw went lax for a second, and his eyes seemed uncertain. "I don't...I don't want to own you, Vixen."
"Then why are the two of you arguing over whether or not I'm staying here, when the decision isn't yours to make?"
"I don't understand-"
"I have to run. I have to be free. I don't want to stay here. I'm sorry Gregor is angry with you, but that's not my fault. I'm free. I want to see you again, Seth. But I'm no one's captive. And I'm going my own way now." She smiled at them all, very brightly, and added, "Thank you, all of you, for your help. Goodbye." Then she turned and left the kitchen, wandering through the house in search of an exit.
Seth lunged so fast that he nearly tripped over his feet getting ahead of her, and then he stopped, blocking her path. "Wait!"
She was startled, and a little afraid. Maybe he did think he could keep her against her will just because he'd saved her. Maybe he was going to try, and maybe he was truly no better than Gregor and his band had been. And she had so hoped to mate with him. Disappointment came in waves. She had never felt so attracted to a male before.
"Why, Seth?" she asked softly. "Do you have a collar you want to put on my neck? A cage you want to push me into?"
"No. Hell, no. That's not it at all. Vixen, if you go out there on your own, Gregor's bullies are going to capture you again. If you stay here with us, we can keep you safe."
"I don't want to be kept. Safe or any other way."
"Could I inject a word here?" Reaper asked from behind her. She turned slowly, to see that he and the others had followed from the kitchen.
Vixen met the older man's eyes and nodded, wary. The one called Reaper had a darkness about him. A quality of danger. He held it tightly in check, but she sensed it was a constant battle, and one he did not always win. "Speak," she told him.
"Vixen, Gregor is our enemy. He's an evil man who does great harm."
She nodded. "He is a killer."
"And those with him are just as dangerous," Reaper went on.
"Not all of them," she said.
Reaper lifted his brows in surprise, but quickly set that aside and moved on. "I've been sent here to stop him, to stop them all. But I'm at a disadvantage. I know nothing about him or his band, who they are, what they're capable of. You've been with them. Even as a captive, you would have learned things about them that I need to know. You could help me, Vixen. Not because you have to, and not because you owe us anything for helping you. But just because you want to. If you want to."
She tipped her head to one side, considering his words.
"If you stay, you stay only for as long as you like. You stay as a guest-"
"No," Topaz bit out.
Every head turned in her direction, where she and Roxy stood just behind Reaper. Vixen sensed that Seth was about to shout her down, but she sent him a look that asked him not to. "Let her speak."
Topaz nodded and went on. "You can't stay as a guest. Or as a prisoner, though where you got the idea any of us would stoop to that is beyond me, and frankly, I find it pretty damn insulting. But I suppose you don't know us, and you've been treated pretty horribly, so..." She shook her head, as if shaking that thought aside. "If you stay, you stay as part of the team. You work, like we all work, to put this rogue band out of commission. You help us. We help each other. No one owns anyone, no one holds anyone here. We're all here because we want to be, and that's the only way you can stay. That's the deal."
Vixen bent her brows. The one who most disliked her was the only one treating her as an equal. How very strange.
"And if I wish to leave tomorrow or a week from now or...?"
"Then you leave," Reaper said.
Vixen slid her eyes to Seth, who seemed to be searching his mind for a way to disagree without ensuring that she would bolt right then. But there wasn't one, so she was glad when he didn't try. Finally he nodded his agreement with what Reaper had decreed.
Vixen turned and looked out the nearest window at the fields, the woods, the starry night sky. How they beckoned her. But she supposed Gregor and his band would be a constant threat to her for as long as they existed. If she could help this group stop them, then maybe she could really be free. Free of captivity. And free of fear.
She drew a breath of fresh night air, then turned to face the others. "All right. I'll stay. For now."
"Good," Reaper said. "Now, before we make another move, Vixen, can we sit together and talk? I'd like you to tell me everything you know about Gregor and his gang."
She looked at the people around her and nodded. "Yes, if we can do our sitting and our talking outside, under the stars, and-" she looked up at Seth, right into his eyes "-if you will sit beside me."
She saw his Adam's apple swell and then shrink as he swallowed hard, and then he nodded. "Sure I will."
"Oh, brother," Topaz whispered.
"Hey, wait a second," Roxy said. "Come back this way. Let's go out the back door instead. There's a patio, gardens, furniture. It's a regular paradise out there."
Vixen smiled, turning and nodding at once. "Yes, that sounds better." She closed her hand around Seth's, and when he glanced at her with a surprised expression in his eyes, she only smiled. "I very much enjoy touching you when you're not trying to control me."
He just stared, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "I, uh-I enjoy it, too."
"Good. Then we'll do more of it." She tugged his hand, and quickly followed Roxy through the massive house to the patios and gardens in the back.
"Tonight we plan," Reaper said. "We're going to go over this until we're sure we know the best course of action and the best way to execute it. Agreed?"
The vamps nodded, but Roxy said, "They'll be looking for us tonight. I'm not sure it's wise to wait."
"I think it's a bigger risk to rush into battle unprepared," Reaper said. He kept glancing up-distracted, Seth thought, by Vixen. She was the only one not sitting still. Rather, she was wandering, though staying within human earshot, likely for Roxy's sake. But she was moving about, curious, exploring. She sniffed every plant, paused to watch every bird or rodent that moved in the distance. She stood beneath a set of tinkling wind chimes for ten solid minutes with her eyes closed and a soft smile on her face.
Seth didn't blame Reap for being distracted. He was distracted, too, big-time. Not to mention confused. One minute she was pulling away from him, the next, holding his hand. Did she like him or didn't she?
"You're all adept at shielding by now, what with our practicing on the road," Reaper said.
"I wouldn't presume too much about the newbie," Topaz said, glancing Vixen's way.
Vixen responded right away, which Seth found a little surprising, since she seemed so absorbed in her explorations that he'd begun to think she wasn't listening. "I know how to camouflage my presence. I've been doing it all my life."
"But you've only been a vampire for-how long, Vixen?"
"Mmm, it was springtime. Apple trees were in blossom."
"Maybe a few months, at the most," Roxy muttered.
"How is it you've been shielding all your life, if you've only been a vampire for two months?" Seth asked.
She shrugged, walking in that bouncy way she had, up on her toes so she always seemed to be dancing everywhere she went, to inspect the contents of a hanging basket full of ivy. "Had to. Survival and all that."
Topaz frowned at Seth, who just shrugged, while Reaper went on. "Okay, so we're all actively shielding."
"I can help with that," Roxy said. "I can put up wards around the place, cast a reflective circle, draw some runes at the four directions, that sort of thing."
"I wonder if that's the sort of thing Gregor has done at his headquarters," Reaper said softly. "It's like there's no one there at all, no energy whatsoever emanating from that place."
"I think it would take more than magical charms to be that completely effective," Roxy told him.
Reaper sighed, but shrugged it off and moved on. "Okay, let's begin with what we know. Gregor is the leader, and probably the most dangerous of them all. Jack is likely the second biggest threat. Then we've got-"
"Jack is no threat at all," Vixen said. "He has...there's a goodness in him."
"You are a terrible judge of character," Topaz said. "Jack is evil, through and through."
"He's self-centered. But not evil. I don't think even he knows who he really is. But I do," Vixen insisted.
"How?" Topaz demanded, and she was searching Vixen's face with a dangerous look in her eyes.
Vixen turned away from the hanging flowerpot and flashed her a smile. "He brought me a blanket."
"Oh, well, there you have it, then. Proof positive. A blanket."
"See? I told you," Vixen said, totally missing the sarcasm in Topaz's tone. "And Gregor is dangerous, yes, and evil, but he's not the biggest threat."
"Who is?" Reaper asked.
Vixen's smile died, and her face lost its sparkling animation. It just went still, expressionless, and her gaze seemed to turn inward. "Her name is Briar. And she is the darkest, cruelest creature I've ever seen in my life. She's pure evil."
Reaper averted his eyes, looking genuinely troubled. Seth noticed it, and so, he saw, did Roxy.
"What makes her more evil than Gregor?" Topaz asked. Then she grinned. "I mean, this oughtta be good."
"Gregor kills for personal gain. He has no remorse, takes what he wants, grows richer and stronger. But Briar...she kills because she enjoys inflicting pain and suffering on others. She likes hurting them. She liked hurting me. I could feel it. It fed something in her, some darkness that has devoured her soul and still demands sustenance. Her own suffering can't feed it anymore. There's nothing left. She can't feel pain any longer, I think. She's numb to it. So she feeds that beast inside her with the pain of others."
She looked at Reaper, and he met her eyes, his own seemingly reluctant. "I've never been more afraid of any creature in my life. And I fear very little, Reaper. Briar is the biggest threat. Believe me."
He nodded, but said nothing. Seth felt some kind of turmoil going on in him, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Did he know Briar or something? "Having seen her, I agree with Vixen," Seth said. "She's mean."
"How many others are there?" Topaz asked.
"I don't know. I was kept in the dungeon. But I know there are other vampires. Younger ones, not close to Gregor. Mostly I only saw Gregor, Briar and Jack and my guards." She slid her eyes to Seth's. "I thought there were only two or three guards, Seth. I was shocked when so many came after you."
"We've got to get a handle on how many we're facing," Reaper said.
"I don't know why," Seth said. "The solution is obvious, if you ask me. We burn the place to the ground while they sleep. Wipe 'em out, all at once. Nice and clean. Anyone escapes, they're toast."
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Topaz snapped. Everyone looked at her, and she seemed to calm herself. "I mean, suppose there are other captives locked up in there somewhere?"
"She's right," Reaper said. "Besides, how can we attack by day? We'll be as asleep and helpless as they are."
"We locate shelter near the house." Seth was thinking it through as he went along. "We set everything up the night before, while they're out hunting. We rig a remote-control device, so we can set it off just as the day sleep kicks in."
"Or I could set it off for you," Roxy added.
Vixen stood there, staring at them. Her eyes were wide, black velvet lashes fluttering like butterfly wings. Seth thought she looked close to tears as her confused gaze moved from one of them to the next.
"Vixen, what is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
"You...you're just like they are." She shook her head, backing away a few steps. "You're going to burn them? Burn them alive? All of them? How can you...how...?" Shaking her head harder, she turned and ran.
Seth started to go after her, but Reaper clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Leave her alone. We gave her our word that she would be free to go. You chase her down now, she'll never believe us again."
"But-"
"He's right, Seth," Roxy said. "She'll want to come back-to demand an explanation, if nothing more. And once she sees we didn't try to stop her from leaving, she won't be afraid to come back, because she'll know we won't try to hold her. You see?"
"She really does bristle easily, doesn't she?" Topaz asked. "I wonder what her story is."
"I just hope she gets back before dawn," Seth muttered. And though it killed him not to go after her, he believed Reaper and Roxy were right. So he waited, and he waited.
But she didn't return. And when the day sleep was calling him, and he could no longer resist its pull, Seth told himself he should have followed her. Because now she was on her own, and anything could happen.
"I'm going after her tonight," he said, as he headed to his room. He would have gone then, if it wouldn't have meant certain death at the hands of the blazing sun. "Don't anyone even think about trying to stop me."