The plane was a light aircraft, a modified Piper with props on each wing and both skis and wheels. It looked so normal and warm that Amber hugged Valerian in relief.
Her relief was short-lived. The door lowered to form a short stair, and three tall men descended and began to move toward them. Amber caught the metallic tang of death magic, saw the men’s silhouettes, and knew she and Valerian hadn’t been rescued by friendly ice fishermen, patrollers, or environmentalists.
They weren’t human at all, they were vampire.
* * *
Adrian fought a losing battle, and he knew it. The demon was far stronger than he ought to be, and Adrian needed to use part of his magic to keep Amber from dying. He sensed her shrouded in the small circle of air, a glowing point of her life magic like a candle in a close, black room.
Her anger when they’d figured out the demon had used using both Amber and Susan to trap Adrian matched his own. He’d tasted Amber’s grief, and knowing the demon had deliberately caused that grief to make her act, made Adrian’s fury grow.
And with it, his magic. He could take apart this frozen ocean and bury the demon in it, but first he had to get Amber free.
Tain had been in the frozen cave, he knew it with every sense. Tain had been there, and he had suffered, and he’d been taken from this place when the demon decided to draw Adrian toward it.
He half heard Amber chanting in her circle then felt the presence of Isis like a weak projection across a distance. Though she’d arrived only as a vision, Adrian sensed her power and comfort, which made him take heart. Isis would help Amber, and Adrian could focus on the demon. Adrian had discarded Ferrin already, knowing the demon might damage the sword-snake irreparably, and Ferrin didn’t deserve that.
Adrian felt the cave begin to collapse, ready to bury Amber, then the bright hot life magic of the dragon that roared in and snatched Amber out just in time.
The demon snarled, unhappy that he couldn’t kill Amber. He opened a black portal with his fist. Adrian felt the demon dive through the portal as water roared past him. At the last minute, Adrian grabbed him, muscles straining, and let the demon pull him through the portal and into darkness.
* * *
The vampires advanced on Valerian and Amber, who waited together, hand in hand. The fire spell had drained the last of Amber’s strength, and Valerian looked weak and ill. Amber wasn’t sure she could work up even a spark of magic, and Valerian might pass out any minute.
One of the vampires walked ahead of the other two. He was well built, with a raw sensuality that reminded her of the vampire Bryan who’d danced behind Amber at the club. Vampires seduced and fed; they had no other motivations.
These weren’t Old Ones, like Septimus, they were everyday vampires, which meant they were only about ten times as strong and dangerous as the average human being.
The lead vampire stopped in front of Amber and looked her up and down. In spite of the time of night, he and the other two wore sunglasses that obscured their eyes with opaque black lenses.
“Septimus told us to come and get you.” The growl in the vampire’s voice indicated he’d rather be having his tonsils pulled out without anesthetic.
“I see,” Amber said stiffly. “That was nice of him.”
“About time,” Valerian muttered. “Take us back to that crappy motel.”
The vampire smiled a nasty smile, making sure his fangs showed white against his lips. “Anything you say, lizard-man.” He turned abruptly, made a curt motion to the other two vamps, and started back to the plane.
Valerian could barely walk. Amber slid her arm around his waist and let him lean on her as they hurried to keep up with the vampires.
A human pilot sat in the cockpit, headphones in place, and the vamp that had spoken to Amber and Valerian slid into the copilot’s chair. The other two vampires waited at the door to assist Amber and Valerian into the plane.
The fact that they wore sunglasses to keep humans safe from their gazes didn’t mean they didn’t look at Amber. The vamp who helped Amber climb the stairs gave her the once-over, his gaze sliding suggestively over her body, resting longest on her neck. She did her best to ignore him.
As soon as Amber and Valerian sat down and strapped in, the two vamps secured the door and resumed their seats, and the plane took off.
This plane had no windows, so Amber couldn’t look back for any sign of Adrian. They rode in a sealed box that enabled the vampires to travel anywhere at any time, as long as a human flew the plane during the hours of daylight. Amber knew vamps could easily entice a human pilot to fly for them, either as a blood slave or simply by paying a generous fee.
The vampires had found the bikes and what was left of Amber and Adrian’s gear scattered far from here, and they’d picked it up and stashed it in the back of the plane. Valerian had already closed his eyes and dozed off.
Amber sighed and scrubbed her hands through her hair. After a moment, she felt the scrutiny of the vampire who’d helped her in. He watched her from across the aisle, his gaze behind his flat sunglasses making her feel slightly soiled. She frowned at him and turned away.
Now that the immediate worries about freezing to death or dying on the ice had been alleviated, her worry over Adrian returned. It hit her full force, threatening to unknot the tension inside her into breathless sobs. Only the vampire’s continued scrutiny kept Amber from falling apart. She’d not go to pieces in front of him.
The demon had Adrian. Her confidence that she’d be able to find him with her spells ebbed. He could be anywhere, and not necessarily still on this earth.
She had a thought, and peeked into her jacket at the inside pocket. Ferrin was coiled into a tight ball, asleep. She wondered if the snake would be able to sense Adrian or be drawn to him, no matter how far away he was. She’d rarely ever seen Ferrin more than a few feet from Adrian.
Amber thought of Adrian’s body hard against hers as they’d made love in the tent. And before that, in his bed in his house, tangled in sheets. He’d rested his body over hers, fingers gently touching her hair. His eyes had been soft, his mouth relaxed, a man content with loving.
The picture filled her mind, and she closed her eyes to keep her tears inside. She’d finally found a man who could make her forget everything that had ever hurt her, everyone who’d tried to harm her in the past. A man with whom she could be happy.
And he has to be a five-thousand year old warrior with sibling issues.
Amber’s blissful vision warped, like a beautiful melody suddenly discordant. Instead of Adrian stroking her hair, it was the vampire who watched her. In her dreamlike trance, Amber turned his way, and he lifted the sunglasses so she could look directly into eyes that were startlingly green. Amber had the sudden desire to lift her neck to him, wanting to feel his fangs in her skin.
She snapped herself all the way awake, and the vision shattered. The vamp across the aisle had his sunglasses firmly in place, but he smirked, lips parted to reveal his fangs.
“Stop that,” Amber glowered, then leaned against the bulkhead and focused her concentration on the wood paneling of the plane to shut him out. She heard him laugh softly.
The journey took only a few hours, but the sky had become gray by the time they landed at the tiny airport outside the town where she and Adrian had begun the journey. The vampires quickly offloaded the bikes and packs, glancing nervously at the horizon.
Now that they’d landed safely, Amber could feel some gratitude. The vampires had made a dangerous journey to rescue them, following orders they hadn’t wanted to follow. As Valerian started packing up the bikes, Amber turned to the vampire who had so thoroughly scrutinized her.
“Thank you for helping,” she said stiffly. “If you ever need a spell or something . . .” She trailed off, not wanting to promise too much to a vampire.
A cold smile spread across his face. “I could use a blow job.” When Amber gave him a look of disgust, he laughed. “Hey, you asked, little blood donor.”
>
“Piss off.” Amber tried to make her tone menacing, but she was so exhausted the words came out a croak.
The vamp leaned down to put his face close to hers. “If it were up to me, you’d be back on that plane, your legs spread and my fangs in your neck. You’d be begging for it. And for my friends to take you while I watched.”
His arrogance made her furious. The fact that Amber was too weak, tired, and worried to do anything about it made her angrier still. She unzipped her parka.
The vamp grinned. “Ready for it, are you?”
Amber pulled open the jacket’s flap. Ferrin was already rising from her pocket, his neck flaring into a hood.
“I want you to meet a friend of mine,” Amber said. “This is Ferrin, a cobra. His venom is so strong, one bite will make you too sick to feed for months. Wonder what that would feel like?”
The vampire recoiled. He snarled swear words, grating out the vilest things he could say about a woman before he turned on his heel and stamped away.
Amber let out her breath, her muscles unclenching. He could shout whatever abuse he wanted, as long as he got on that plane and flew away. Ferrin, with a satisfied look, retreated to Amber’s pocket.
The first rays of sun streamed over the horizon as the vampires shut themselves into their windowless airplane. The pilot taxied away and took off, leaving Amber and Valerian alone in the strong morning wind.
Chapter Sixteen
Air whooshed from Adrian’s lungs, and he found himself flat on his back in snow-covered woods, alone. He hoisted himself to his feet, looking around warily.
The last thing he remembered was grabbing the demon and letting him drag Adrian through black denseness of a void. But the demon was gone, the taint of death magic nowhere near this place.
The demon had dropped Adrian off here. But where was here and why had the demon thought this a good place for Adrian?
The weather was slightly warmer, wherever he was. Adrian divested himself of his ultra-cold weather gear, most of which was dripping from the watery prison. The air smelled fresh, the woods clean and teeming with wildlife. He had no idea where he was—from the looks of it, somewhere in Canada or the northern United States.
He zipped up his parka, regretting the loss of his compass and GPS positioning device, which were back on the ice. Amber needed them more, though. Mortal, she would die quickly if Valerian didn’t get her to shelter. Adrian would not die in the technical sense, though he could conceivably fall through snow pack and get trapped for millennia. He’d wake up when someone dug him out, snarling and bored out of his mind, scaring the crap out of whoever found him.
Adrian started walking. The snow drifts flowed to his knees, powdery snow leaking through the tops of his boots. There was no path, only faint openings here and there in the dense trees, filled with scrub and fallen branches.
Adrian kicked brush aside in annoyance as he made his slow way through the woods. He knew he could use magic to blast himself a path, but he thought it a good idea to lie low, magic-wise, at the moment.
He hoped to Isis Valerian had gotten Amber to safety, and that the demon hadn’t dumped Adrian in the woods in order to pursue Amber. Valerian was strong as a dragon and even as a human, but he had his limitations, and he was mortal. The magic protection of Adrian’s house in California would last a while even without Adrian there to renew it, but it was a long journey between these snow-covered woods and the city heat of Los Angeles.
Adrian stopped to catch his breath, letting the silence of the woods fill him.
In that silence, he craved Amber. He wanted her with every breath. He wanted her laughter and the outraged look she got when he’d repeated to anyone within hearing that she belonged to him. His blood hurt with the wanting; his body needed to wrap around hers, to feel her opening to him, welcoming him.
Everything about her was beautiful—her softness, her sweet scent, the way her brow puckered when she pondered something. The little moan she gave just before she came, the languid look in her eyes as they rested together afterward.
Adrian knew he never should have made love to her. When he’d begun the flirtation in Seattle, he’d thought it would end as had his other sexual encounters—enjoyment, then good-byes, and no regrets.
Adrian started walking again, scowling at the trees that blocked his way. He shouldn’t have fallen in love, no, but he’d done it.
For now, Adrian needed to focus on the problem of returning to L.A. and finding not only Amber, but Ferrin. He’d seen the snake take refuge in Amber’s coat as Adrian had told him to—Adrian had known Ferrin would never survive the cold or the battle with the demon. Adrian would need Ferrin back soon, though, because Adrian was weaker without his weapon.
He walked for a long time, going over scenarios for retrieving Ferrin that didn’t involve taking Amber to bed, and wishing he had better transportation than his own feet. It might not be as cold as an ice floe out here, but it was still bone-chilling, and wet too. This boy from the Nile hated the cold.
By the time Adrian finally stumbled into a clearing, it was dawn. He stopped, shakily catching his breath. He needed time to sit quietly and heal—quietly was the operative word. No demons, no fights, no nightmares.
The vampire that stepped out from the other side of the clearing in a black leather coat, his eyes shielded by sunglasses, probably wasn’t here to help him find healing and peace. Faint dawn light edged into the clearing, but the vampire seemed unbothered by it.
Adrian slowly crossed the clearing to him. The vampire could have found him in a number of ways—he was one of the most powerful vamps alive—but the most obvious way made Adrian tighten with anger.
“The sun is rising,” Adrian pointed out as the two met in the middle.
“I’m an Old One,” Septimus replied evenly. “I can take a little more sunlight than younger vampires can. Why didn’t you head the other direction when you saw me?”
“I figured there was no point.” Adrian eyes narrowed. “Amber had better be safe, or I’ll pull your head off.”
Septimus gave him a slight nod. “She is safe. I have no quarrel with her or the dragon. They are resting in that rundown motel, and my vamps will make sure nothing evil comes near them.”
“Nothing evil besides your vampires, you mean.”
Septimus gave him a smooth smile. As usual, he was well dressed, his leather coat designer-made and expensive, his neatly bound hair tucked inside his collar. “Amber and Valerian won’t be touched,” he promised. “They are off limits.”
“Whereas I am not,” Adrian said. “You made a bargain with this demon, didn’t you? You had him drop me here, so you could meet me and carry out whatever nefarious plan is floating in your vampire brain to get rid of me.”
Septimus shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice. Much as I hate to break a promise to you, he has the power to snuff out my life with the flick of a finger. My club wall was nothing. He came to me after you left for the great white north and made me agree to this bargain.” He removed his sunglasses and let his dark gaze slide to Adrian’s neck. “I’ve always wondered what the blood of an Immortal tastes like.”
“I don’t intend to give you the chance to find out.”
“You will, for Amber’s sake. She’s safe now, but it would be easy to send my vampires after her, and the dragon is too tired to protect her. He said I was to bring you to him, preferably not in a healthy state.”
“If the demon wants me, healthy or unhealthy, he didn’t need to drop me here. He had me trapped and was doing fine beating me to a pulp on his own.”
“I wasn’t talking about the demon,” Septimus said.
Adrian stilled. “Then who is the he who wants me?”
“I think you know.”
They regarded each other in silence. Adrian could look straight into a vampire’s eyes and not be entranced; their glamour had no effect on him. He read in Septimus an arrogance that was not conceit, only a quiet knowledge that very few were stronger
than he. Adrian also sensed regret that he’d been force to break his truce with Adrian, and sorrow. But he wouldn’t back down.
“I’m touched you care,” Adrian said.
Septimus raised his leather-clad shoulders in another smooth shrug. “I’ve come to count you as a friend, or at least an enemy I can trust. You’ll heal, Adrian. I wish I could tell you it won’t hurt, but I promised I’d make it hurt.”
Adrian’s anger stirred, waking magic deep inside him, magic that could wipe Septimus from this mountainside, and every tree and rock with him.
“Don’t do that,” Septimus said quickly. “Amber will suffer if you use any magic or fight us, I guarantee it. Besides, I know you truly wish to see your brother again.”
Adrian allowed his magic to fade, but his anger remained strong. “Take me to him, then.”
Septimus raised his hand and gave a signal. From out of the woods behind him came a score of demons covered in tatts, who could make the most hardened motorcycle gang break apart and flee. Demons had no fear of sunlight, and they easily surrounded Adrian and dragged him under the deep shadows where Septimus and his vampires waited.
The overhead canopy of branches was so dense that barely any sunlight leaked through. Demons and vampires never got along, but this morning they laughed in common cause as they threw Adrian to the ground and beat on him with clubs, knives, and fists. A demon thrust a fat sword through Adrian’s back, and bright blood filled Adrian’s mouth.
Once they had him subdued, the vampires carried Adrian to a Hummer-like vehicle whose windows had been replaced with metal sheets. One of the demons took the wheel while the other vamps and demons hoisted Adrian into the back, which was devoid of seats. They piled in after him, beating and stabbing him to keep his easily healing body from gaining strength. Then they laid him down flat, pinning his arms and legs with heavy, spelled chains.