First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World #1)(71)
Author: Jeaniene Frost

Denise was almost within Web’s reach when the smile slipped from his face. A hiss came out of him and his eyes turned green.

"What is this?" Web grated out. His hand slowly lifted from his side as if being pulled on by a great weight.

Behind her, Denise heard Cat grunt. She glanced back, seeing Cat’s hands extended outward and green blazing from her eyes.

"Mencheres sends his regards," Cat growled.

"Run!" Spade snapped to Denise, drawing several knives from his sleeves.

Shouts erupted from the dark, and the empty-looking harbor was suddenly awash with movement. Denise grabbed Nathanial’s arm and they ran down the pier, almost colliding with a vampire who appeared as if out of nowhere. When the vampire went to grab her, though, his reach slowed, like he was moving under water. Before he could touch her, Bones hacked a silver knife through his heart.

"Go," Bones ordered.

Several more vampires tried to stop her, but they swayed almost drunkenly, as if they’d lost coordination in their limbs. She and Nathanial managed to duck under their grasping arms and kept going, toward the parking lot and the SUV.

"Hurry," Cat called out, her voice sounding strained. "I can’t hold them much longer."

Oliver appeared, running toward them, slashing and hacking with gruesome efficiency at every vampire he came across. With their movements reduced to that of a sluggish human and Oliver hyped up on vampire blood, Web’s people were almost helpless.

"Quickly," Oliver said. The three of them ran to the parking lot, jumping into the SUV and speeding off before Denise caught her breath.

Web struggled to pull out a knife as Spade approached, but he couldn’t move his hands to his jacket in time. By Christ, she did it, Spade thought. Cat hadn’t absorbed Mencheres’s power to immobilize people, or she didn’t have time to learn to wield it like his sire did, but she’d gained enough from drinking Mencheres’s blood to reduce Web and his men to slower than human speed. Thankfully, she’d managed to deflect it away from him, Crispin, Nathanial, Alten, and Denise, which had been their biggest concern. If none of them could move, the power would be useless. But with only Web’s people affected, no matter how many of them there were, they didn’t stand a chance.

He’d almost feel sorry about killing them when they were so hampered, except for what they’d intended with Denise.

Spade looked into the Web’s eyes as he held his knife to the other vampire’s chest. And smiled.

"You will never use her," Spade said before ramming the knife into Web’s chest. No Kevlar hindered its path as it sank to the hilt. Web truly had expected his trap to be sufficient.

"Don’t," Web whispered.

Spade ignored that. With two hard jerks, he twisted the knife, shredding Web’s heart. When he yanked it out, Web was lifeless on the pier, his skin starting to shrivel in the way that all vampires did once they experienced true death.

Cat was on her knees, her hands extended out, waves of Mencheres’s borrowed power emanating from her to cast a net around the harbor. Her bright green gaze met Spade’s.

"Hurry. I can’t hold them much longer," she said.

Spade looked behind her, seeing Oliver, Denise, and Nathanial jumping into the SUV. Relief coursed through him. Oliver would take them out of the city, where Mencheres and Ian waited on the outskirts. Denise would be safe.

Spade joined Crispin to move lethally through Web’s people, cutting them down with precise, swift slashes of his blade. He showed no mercy. Each vampire of Web’s was a threat to Denise, if Web had revealed what was in her blood. Nathanial’s words rang in his mind. You don’t know what normally happens when someone pounces on me while I’m asleep…Even the guards, who were forbidden from tasting me, constantly snuck sips. That’s what these vampires would have done to Denise. All of them deserved to die for it.

With a loud cry, Cat’s power over the vampires snapped. Roars of rage tore through the harbor as Web’s remaining men fought back with all the speed and power of their vampire heritage. Spade’s hands tightened on his knives as he released his own roar of rage into the night.

He didn’t care if they were still outnumbered, he wasn’t going to run. Let them try to take him down. He wouldn’t stop fighting until all of them were dead.

Oliver drove at speeds that would have normally frightened Denise, but she said nothing. Master vampires could run better than sixty miles an hour. Some could fly that fast – or faster. Oliver had reason for hammering the pedal down on the accelerator.

"I think he killed him," Nathanial murmured. A smile lit his face, making him look heartbreakingly young, even though Denise knew he had to be decades older than she. "I think the f**ker’s finally dead!"

"I’m sure he did kill Web," she said, remembering the expression on Spade’s face as he’d approached the other vampire. Denise repressed a shiver. If she ever saw that look on someone’s face, she’d know death would soon follow.

"I’ve hated vampires for more than seventy years, but I love a few of them tonight," Nathanial said. His voice held such a savage satisfaction that it vibrated. "I hope he kills them all. Every last f**king one of them."

Denise didn’t say anything stupid like, Was it really that bad when Web had you? Of course it was. If nothing else, at least Nathanial could feel avenged tonight.

But she couldn’t help but ask one thing. "Why did you do it? Why did you make that deal with Raum?"

Oliver gave her a censuring glare in the rearview mirror. "You shouldn’t talk to him," he muttered. "Spade said he didn’t want you to."

Nathanial stared at her, his face paling. "What did you say?"

"Why did you make that deal?" Denise repeated, ignoring what Oliver said about not talking to him.

Nathanial still stared at her like she’d somehow sprouted horns and a tail. His mouth opened and closed several times before he managed to speak.

"You know his name. I never told anyone the demon’s name. How do you know his name?"

"Don’t talk to her," Oliver all but growled from the front seat.

Denise drew in a deep breath, meeting Nathanial’s shocked hazel gaze. As she stared, she could almost see the knowledge forming in his eyes. Could almost feel the horror emanating from him as he pieced together the answer to his question.

"He sent you after me," Nathanial whispered. "That’s why your boyfriend stole me from Web’s. Not to help you control the power in your brands, but to return me to him."

Chapter Thirty-four

The sound that came out of Nathanial’s throat would haunt her. It was a cross between a sob and the most despairing laugh Denise had ever heard.