Rajmund Read online

  He carried her upstairs, twisting nearly sideways on the ridiculously narrow stairway, knowing the nosy neighbor was probably listening to every step. There were two rooms up there, one obviously an office of some sort. He ignored that one for the time being and opened the door to her bedroom with a gentle kick. A queen-sized bed filled most of the space, a single bedside table in the corner. A jewel-toned Tiffany style lamp sat on a dresser near the door, providing minimal light, but more than enough for his vampire sight.

  He laid Sarah's limp form on the bed, shoving a huge pile of lace-trimmed pillows to the floor. He left her clothes on, although with slight misgivings. Not that he didn't want to see her sweet little body naked—he definitely wanted that—but he didn't want her to wake up wondering what he'd been doing with her while she was unconscious. Especially since he'd denied himself the pleasure of doing exactly those things she would have wondered about. It was one thing to pay the price for one's sins, but another entirely to pay the price without the pleasure of sinning first.

  He tucked Sarah under the comforter, sliding her between the fresh-smelling sheets. She murmured softly, curling onto her side and snugging the remaining pillow beneath her cheek. Raj watched her breathe, in and out, indulging himself with a lingering touch on her pale cheek. He didn't understand what was going on. He had beautiful women lining up to bed him every night of the week. So, what was it about sweet Sarah that had him contemplating mayhem against any male who dared touch her? Had him acting like a raw child panting after the first fresh blood he'd ever tasted? Raj didn't like things he didn't understand, especially not when those things had the power to make him vulnerable.

  He stood and crossed the hall to her office, which was even smaller than her bedroom. There was the usual computer paraphernalia, but mostly, the room was filled with books. Books on shelves, books in boxes, books stacked on the floor. Curious, Raj glanced at the titles. A lot of academic volumes with those convoluted titles the eggheads were so fond of. He moved to the next bookcase and grimaced. Romance fiction, a lot of it vampires. Em read these books by the dozen. She got a real kick out of passing them around to the guys and suggesting they could learn a few things.

  He retrieved one of his business cards from its golden case and tucked it under her phone where she'd be sure to see it, then flicked off the desk lamp. Across the hall, Sarah was sleeping peacefully, her hair a tousle of gold, her long lashes dark against a barely visible pale cheek. Cursing himself for every kind of fool, Raj spun and took the narrow staircase quickly, walking back to the kitchen, where the damn tea kettle was screaming hysterically. He turned it off and stormed to the front door, his mood darkening with every step.

  "Fuck!” he swore and just managed to stop himself from putting a fist through her wall. He had the whole damn night ahead of him, hard as a rock and walking away from the one woman he was aching to fuck. Someone was going to pay the price for his bad mood. Maybe it was time to question a few of the local vampires. He wanted to see some blood flowing and it sure as hell was not going to be his own.

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  Chapter Nineteen

  The blood house where Regina Aiello had disappeared was in the small village of Corfu, well beyond the main city, on a few acres bordered by the colorfully named Murder Creek. Raj had always wondered if that creek had been Krystof's motivation to purchase the property—a house on Murder Creek for the vampires to play in was just too great a temptation to pass up.

  Outwardly, the place looked much the same as when Krystof bought it just after World War II—a nicely maintained, two-story clapboard with a covered porch. The front yard was covered by a manicured lawn, but the remaining acreage had been permitted to grow wild, with tall grass stretching out to either side, providing a buffer of privacy for what was really going on inside that simple white farm house.

  Raj pulled the BMW over to the side of the road. There were no curbs this far out of the city. The house was filled to the brim and more, with people spilling out onto the porch and even into the yard where tables and chairs had been set up to accommodate the overflow. As far as he could see there was no control over who came and went, and sure as hell no one was checking IDs. What the fuck?

  He strode across the uneven grass, his tread heavy on the soft ground. Couples were all but having sex in the front yard, vampires sinking fang in full view of the public road not twenty-five yards away. He grabbed a handful of long hair and pulled one of the offending vampires off his donor de la nuit. The vampire whipped around with a furious roar, fangs fully distended and dripping blood, hands curled into claws.

  Raj gave him a bored look. “Who's in charge here?” he asked.

  "Who the fuck are you?” the vampire snarled.

  Raj didn't say a word. Using a small thread of power, he drove the vampire to his knees and then bent him backwards until the sound of vertebrae popping was so loud it could be heard over the pounding music coming from the house. The vampire could do little more than grunt in pain, but his eyes were wide with fear, gleaming golden yellow as they begged silently for mercy.

  "I believe I asked you a question,” Raj said calmly. He released the vamp without warning, causing him to snap forward with such force that he did a full face plant in the grass before slowly, painfully, raising himself just enough to answer Raj's query.

  "Mick is in charge, my lord,” the vampire rasped. “He'll be in the first room on your right."

  "Thank you,” Raj said cheerfully and walked away. Behind him he could hear the vampire's companion making concerned noises until she was driven away by a vicious snarl of profanity. Raj smiled. His evening was looking up already.

  He crossed to the front porch without incident. Every vampire outside the house had witnessed his display of power and backed off quickly, jerking their humans with them. As he suspected, there was no bouncer at the door—which meant there was not even a record of consent, much less signed waivers. This house was a disaster waiting to happen—and tonight that disaster's name was Raj.

  Once inside, he found Mick easily enough. The fool was lying in the middle of a big four-poster bed, surrounded by women. He was a big man, tall and thick, with a headful of unruly red hair and a broad chest that was as naked as the women who were draped all over him. He had power, too. Enough to control this house and its vampires. But not enough to face down a true master.

  Fortunately for Raj, he was too arrogant to realize it.

  Raj strolled into the room casually, looking like a prospective home buyer checking out the furnishings. Mick's gaze followed him warily, but he didn't move from the bed.

  "There are vampires sinking fang in the front yard,” Raj commented, running his hand along the silver frame of a particularly fine antique mirror.

  "Shocking,” Mick said dryly. His women tittered.

  Raj glanced at him. “And there appears to be no one checking the IDs of your lovely guests,” he continued, giving a little nod of inclusion to the half-naked women who preened under his gaze.

  Mick growled out a command, drawing the attention of his adoring fans back to him alone. “What's it to you?” he demanded. “And for that matter, who the fuck are you?"

  "I didn't introduce myself? How rude. Raymond Gregor,” he said, continuing his perusal of the mostly gaudy furnishings. He paused and shifted his gaze to the big vampire. “Raj to my friends, but I'm afraid that doesn't include you, Mick."

  The redheaded vampire snorted in disdain and began shoving away his unhappy playmates to climb from the bed. Raj was grateful to see the vampire was wearing pants which he zipped with a quick jerk before turning to face him.

  "So you're Raj. I've heard about you."

  "Have you? I, on the other hand, have never heard of you."

  Mick squinted angrily and drew himself up to his full height, thrusting out his chest in challenge, much the same way the human Scavetti had the night before.

  "Mick,” Raj said gently. “You might want to clear the humans fr
om the room first."

  The other vampire looked puzzled for a moment and then laughed. “Frankie,” he said to a short, scared looking vampire standing near the door. “The house is closed, get everybody out. Five minutes ago,” he added with a snap, when Frankie just stood there staring at him.

  Raj waited patiently while the house was closed down and emptied of human witnesses. There was a lot of complaining from the humans, but none from the vampires. They moved through the house in taut silence, hustling their visitors out the door, hurrying them to their cars and shoving them inside. Raj only hoped there wasn't a rash of accidents on the way home. That wouldn't be good for business.

  "So, Raj,” Mick said finally. “Where do you wanna do this?"

  Raj smiled and slowly released a measure of his true power. It was an exquisite rush, as delicious as blood from the most succulent woman he'd ever taken, as sweet as that first slow glide of blood down his throat after a long drought. He skewered Mick with derisive look. “We can do it right here. It won't take long,” he said with an arrogance born of certain knowledge.

  Mick's eyes widened, and Raj saw the first flash of fear, as he recognized the true depths of Raj's power. But he didn't back down. He had to know he couldn't win this battle, but he stood his ground, and Raj decided in that moment not to kill good ol’ Mick. He would need vampires with this kind of courage when he took over Krystof's territory. And he was definitely going to take over the territory.

  Mick attacked first, understanding that it was his only, slim, chance. He aimed a spear of concentrated power at Raj's chest and attacked physically in the same moment, throwing himself across the room. His considerable bulk hit like a pile driver, and Raj grunted with the impact, but repelled it easily, using power alone to toss the other vampire into an elegant armoire that rose almost to the ceiling. Or it had before Mick crashed into it and reduced it to a pile of shattered wood. A shame, really, Raj thought idly.

  Mick stood with a roar and would have attacked again, but Raj—wanting, needing, a more physical violence—crossed the room in two hard strides and caught the big vampire with a roundhouse punch, breaking his jaw and spinning him away to crash into the bed, toppling the canopy and tangling him in a dusty shroud of blue velvet. Mick shook his head—a grotesque sight with his jaw hanging loose—and stood once again, fists bunched at his sides. Muscles strained and veins bulged as he concentrated his remaining strength, throwing everything he had into a last desperate burst of power, his mouth open in a furious howl, as if the sheer volume of his voice could add weight to the attack.

  Raj raised a hand and deflected every ounce of that power and more back on its owner, driving Mick to the floor and pressing down on him until his joints groaned and he screamed in agony beneath the crushing weight.

  "Yield,” Raj demanded softly. “Yield and serve me willingly, or you die right here, right now."

  Mick twisted beneath Raj's greater strength, his face contorted with rage and pain as he fought to the last shred of his power. He pounded the floor with one fist, driving it through the old wooden planks and shattering the bones in his hand before finally forcing his gaze up to meet Raj's implacable blue stare. He ground one word from his ruined mouth. “Master,” he said.

  Raj nodded and released him, and then immediately drew off his jacket and rolled up his sleeve, slicing his own wrist with a slash of his fangs. “Do you come to me of your own free will and desire, Mick?” he asked formally.

  Mick's eyes met his briefly in surprise, but then he nodded, his hungry gaze lowering to the bounty of rich blood so tantalizingly close. “I do, my lord."

  "And is this what you truly desire?"

  "My lord, it is my truest desire."

  Raj lowered his bloody arm to the vampire's ruined mouth. “Then drink, Mick, and be mine."

  Mick closed his mouth over Raj's wrist, drawing the powerful blood into his body with great gulps. Raj could feel the tug not only on his wrist, but on his very soul as yet another vampire became his—his to command, his to live or die. One more stone added to a burden of responsibility that was already too heavy.

  When he felt the bond seal into permanence, he withdrew his arm from his new minion's eager mouth. He didn't bother to wipe it clean. The wound would heal on its own in a few minutes, and there was nothing in this room he cared to clean it with. He rolled down his sleeve, drew his jacket back on, and stood to survey the assembled vampires. Some stared in open-mouthed shock, others seemed almost relieved. It was a testament to the failure of Krystof's authority that not a single one of them protested his takeover, or even made a dash for the exits to report in.

  "This house will reopen in two nights under new management,” Raj announced. He glanced down at Mick who was already beginning to heal with the surge of Raj's blood through his veins. “Mick will see to its proper administration. Won't you, Mick?"

  "Yes, Master,” Mick said fervently. When he looked up this time, his gaze held nothing but respect. “We've been waiting for you a long time, my lord."

  "I know,” Raj said somberly. “But I'm here now.” He spun around and left the house the way he'd come in, ignoring the vampires who knelt in obeisance as he passed. In taking Mick's oath, effectively stealing him from Krystof, he'd openly declared his intention to overthrow the Vampire Lord. It was possible Krystof's mind was so weakened that he wouldn't even notice the loss, or that he'd just write it off to rivalry among his minions. After all, he'd brought Raj to Buffalo to clean up his mess. But whether Krystof appreciated the true significance or not, Raj knew what he'd done. And he knew it could only lead to the ultimate confrontation with his Sire. He also knew he should be reeling in triumph at the ease of his first victory, and a part of him recognized the importance of this night. But all he could feel was a keen awareness of the terrible burden that was about to be his. The burden every vampire lord carried, the weight of thousands of vampires who would draw their next breath by his will alone. He climbed into the comfort of his BMW and turned for the city, trying to remember when he'd ever felt this alone.

  It was nearly dawn when he pulled into the garage of his private lair. He'd meant to drive by the warehouse near the airport and check on Em and the others, but he'd found himself sitting on the docks of Lake Erie instead. He watched as the longshoremen unloaded a single, huge cargo ship, the giant cranes lifting big, metal containers so different from the crates and barrels, and even occasional livestock, that had been the norm when he'd worked these docks log ago. Until a chance meeting had brought Krystof into his life. He'd often thought about that night—if he'd gone straight home after work to the mean, little room he'd rented for far more than it was worth, or if he'd stopped at the bar a block further on instead of the first one he'd come to, feeling flush with money in his pocket on payday. A whim, not even a real decision—such an insignificant thing to have changed his life forever.

  Buffalo, New York, 1830

  Rajmund made his way back to the table, dodging flying fists and stumbling drunks, balancing three mugs of foamy beer which sloshed liberally over his fingers to join the layer of old spills lacquering the filthy floor. It was a seedy place, this tavern, set on the edge of a dark pier and stinking of wet grain from the docks only yards away. But it was one of the few bars that would serve him and his friends, immigrants the lot of them, with accents as thick as a slice of his mother's bread, when they could come up with the American words at all, which wasn't often and not nearly fast enough.

  He sidestepped an Irish headed for the bar and slid into the chair Maciek had saved for him, dropping the mugs onto the table with a thud and a final splash of golden liquid.

  "Easy there, Rajmund,” Maciek said in Polish. “There'll be nothing left for drinking."

  "Raj,” Rajmund corrected. “I've told you, Maciek. The Americans don't have the tongue for Polish names. Call me Raj."

  "Raj,” Zosia said, her voice a low, sultry purr that made him think of dark corners and lifted skirts. Preferably hers. “It ma
kes no sense, Rajmund."

  He shrugged and leaned over to steal a kiss from her luscious lips. “Perhaps not, my sweetness, but the Americans like it, no? And we're all Americans now."

  "Maybe you are,” she said, lifting a shoulder to brush him away. “I'm still Polish.” Rajmund slung an arm around her and grinned, ignoring Maciek's frown of disapproval. His friend's brain was stuck back home in Poland where a proper girl would be spending the evening with her mother, not drinking in a filthy tavern with the likes of Rajmund Gregorczyk. But they weren't on the docks of Gdansk anymore. This was Buffalo, New York. America. And this was their future.

  Maciek drew a long draft off his beer and put it down on the table. He wiped his face with the back of one dirty hand, spreading nearly as much of the thick foam around his scruffy beard and moustache as he wiped off. “I'll tell you what I think,” he began.

  But they never had a chance to hear what Maciek thought. The door flew open with a shudder, as though a storm was blowing off the lake fit to tear the building down around them. The thick wood slammed against the wall with a sound like a ton of bricks hitting the dock.

  Silence. Every head in the place turned toward the empty doorway and stared. More than a few crossed themselves and muttered a prayer to the Virgin. A man stepped into the silence. A rich man. Raj could tell by his clean clothes, his white hands and buffed fingernails, his neatly combed hair. And the disdainful look he was passing over the assembled drunks.

  There were others with him. Strange, Rajmund thought, that he'd not noticed them before, though they'd certainly entered the bar first. There were four of them, two in front and two flanking the rich man to either side, their bulky physiques and meaty fists describing them, just as the rich man's fine clothes had him. They were bodyguards, hired muscle to ensure the rich man's white hands stayed clean.

  The dandy sniffed once, immediately raising a delicate white handkerchief to his nose. “Well,” he said in strongly accented American. “They will have to do."