Page 26 of Saved by the Vampire Goddess (Dark Wine Vampires #1)

Chapter twenty-six

Evelina

Terra’s Tavern—Moments later

A s soon as the door closes, Valroy jumps off the bed and onto me, pinning me against the wall, thrusting his tongue into my mouth. Oh my gosh. His mouth tastes of fresh mortal blood, and like an animal, I lick at his teeth, at his inner cheeks, circling my tongue around his lips.

I want him, dammit. I do. And pressed against me, he’s hard and ready to deliver. But I know something he doesn’t. I open my eyes to glance at my watch over his shoulder— three, two, one —and he passes out in my arms.

Young vampires never have the power to withstand a daytime moonset. I throw him over my shoulder and plop him on the bed, then take off his shoes and strip him to his underwear. We aren’t carrying lots of clothing with us, and I don’t want him to wrinkle one of his few suits.

Fortunately, his erection wilts when his heart stops pumping—or that’d be tempting.

Consent, Evelina .

Yeah, this girl knows better. But I can admit the fantasy of finishing what we started without acting on it. I got morals, after all.

A quick search of the room reveals nothing worrisome. The hotel’s made a decent attempt at luxury. Two wooden chests of drawers, a bathroom with marble counters and running water, and the bed looks comfortable. Even the elevator that swept us up to the seventh floor still worked. Although I felt like I was putting my life on the line when I stepped aboard and the cables creaked the entire time we rose before coming to a clunky stop.

With a sigh, I hang the do not disturb sign on the door, throw the deadbolt, and pull on pajama pants and a tank top. Then I shoot both martinis.

He’s right. Bootleg booze from Prohibition tasted better than this bitter crap.

I crawl onto the mattress next to him and stretch out. I don’t know why I do it, but I take his hand in mine, entwining our fingers. We’ve been on a roller-coaster ride. First he’s mine, then he leaves, then he almost dies, now he’s back, and we’re partners in this crazy mission to keep us all alive. My heart clutches as I stare at our hands. I might sound harsh at times—I’m not accustomed to being responsible for another person—but I like being here with him. Part of me wants Valroy right next to me for whatever comes, even if the other part is afraid to have any faith in him again.

The moonset finally takes me, and two and a half hours later, my eyes open. With the shortened crossing of the moon and the sun, we’ll be awake for a little over twenty-three hours.

I shower and dress casually. He fed before we fell asleep, and it’s my turn to find fresh blood tonight. He won’t wake for a little bit, being a newbie and all. I leave a note instructing him to feed on our remaining mortal blood supply. Then I add in big, bold letters: DO NOT LEAVE. I’ll be right back .

Tapping my daylight bracelet three times to make myself invisible, I walk down a flight of stairs, pick a random room, and press my ear against the door. Only one heartbeat. Excellent. I knock, and the door opens. A guy sticks his head into the hall, looks both ways, and makes an annoyed sound.

I wave at him. He can’t see me.

“Hey, I’m right here.”

He jumps back, and I follow him in, shutting the door behind me. The room’s dark, the curtains drawn, and he’s alone. I run the scanning device over him, and to my surprise, he doesn’t have a crystal embedded under his skin.

Are the Lux getting sloppy, or is Diana’s temple failing to inoculate all New Rome occupants against vampires? Not my problem right now, but I can’t mesmerize him if I’m invisible, so I turn off the bracelet.

His eyes almost pop out of his head, but he freezes, and I sink my fangs into his neck.

Ten minutes later, fed and frisky, I slide the key into our room’s lock, open the door, and cock my head. I don’t see Valroy up yet, so I stride over to the bed, about to yell at him for being a slacker.

Except I pull back the covers to find pillows and not his well-formed rump. I check the shower, look under the bed, then in the closet. He must’ve gotten dressed, as a set of casual clothes is missing.

The Judas. He’s probably run off to rescue his sister, leaving me alone to collect the plutonium. How am I going to get into the emperor’s ball without his help? He’s abandoned me when I need him the most.

But I have a way to fix this. I can yank on the blood bond connection between us and demand his return. I’ve used it lightly on him before this, and have months before the power of being his maker fades away, assuming I don’t renew the blood bond again by continuing to feed on him, like I did during sex.

So I could call him back right now. I could force his return.

But I resist the anger bubbling through me, the desire to force my will on his.

If he wants to abandon me, that’s on him.

The door opens, and I jump, pivoting on one foot to face my attacker.

Valroy .

I stick my fists to my hips. “Where the heck were you?”

He closes the door, the second key hanging from the ribbon around his wrist, and gives me that head tilt my dogs give when they’re puzzled. “Why are you so angry? I woke, you’d left, and I drank the dark wine we allocated for this evening but was still hungry. I went out to feed.”

“Didn’t you see my note?”

“What note?”

I point at where his clodhoppers are standing on top of the big note on the floor. I should have wrapped it around his dick. Then he would have found it.

He picks up the paper. “Didn’t see it.”

My blood pressure eases a bit, and the sense of betrayal lessens. The wound he inflicted by his first attempt to leave hasn’t quite healed, and his disappearance peeled open the scab.

I feel a bit bad for railing at him.

I try to soften my tone, but there’s something I don’t understand. “Why not call for room service? That was the whole point of insisting on free room service, ya know?”

“I, uh, I needed to make a phone call.”

Oh crapola. If the emperor’s people are monitoring the phone lines… “Let me guess. Sister dearest?”

“Yes. I used this”—he pulls the scanner from his pocket and waves it at me—“then mesmerized the front desk clerk. After I fed, I made the call from his office.”

I scowl at him, channeling my ma’s voice as I narrow my eyes. “Did you kill the desk clerk?”

“No!” He looks offended, then a sheepish expression crawls across his face. “But I may have taken a bit more than a pint.”

“ Valroy, ” I growl, having a hard time believing a one-week-old vampire has that kind of control.

“He still had a strong pulse when I left. I checked.”

“ Valroy —”

“Evelina, I left him alive. But listen to me: we have to rescue Tina right now. If we wait until after the dance, she and Maliff will be in a palace suite, guests of the emperor. We’ll never be able to reach her.”

That former shopping mall is a rabbit’s warren. Finding Tina in a palace guest room will be impossible without help. He’s not wrong about that, although he is about his priorities.

“Look, our assignment is to steal the plutonium. Your sister is secondary. You know that. We can’t risk derailing the plan.” He’s focused on keeping his sister alive, but I’m in charge of keeping all of us from going boom . “What do ya think would happen if the emperor uses the Saturnalia celebration to show off his new toy and blows up the dome and all the other domes in the area?”

“He wouldn’t do that—”

“Look. We can ask the Lux to let us return for your sister later as a bonus reward. If we get the uranium out, Ingvar will give you anything.”

“I have a better idea. You and I together”—Valroy points from me to himself—“we could take over New Rome. With your resources and power…”

I laugh. “You couldn’t pay me enough to live in New Rome.

“What’s wrong—”

“Oh my bleeding heart.” I open the closet door. The dress I’m wearing tonight is wrinkled, so I set up the ironing board. “You’ve never known nothing else. I can forgive your ignorance. But when my contract’s done, I get to go to a mixed dome that’s a paradise compared to living under the fascist dictator of New Rome and his oligarch bros like you.”

His face scrunches up in an expression of disbelief. “What’s wrong with me?”

I disappear into the bathroom and fill the iron’s reservoir with water, then pour a bit out, to make sure it’s not rusty inside. Clean.

When I return, he’s crossed his arms and looks pissed.

I plug in the iron, set it to rayon, and face him while it heats. “You want to know what’s wrong? You’re part of the problem that’s plaguing the residents of your dome.”

“But we could take over. Get rid of the emperor. Change things.”

“You’d just be swapping one rich dictator for another.”

“I’d be different.”

I snort. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“I have honor. Something the emperor lacks.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Together…”

“Two against all them Roman guards? We wouldn’t last five minutes.”

“Well, I have friends—”

“And where were your friends when you got kicked out?”

He looks like that last question zinged him right in the gut. “They did nothing at the time. But they didn’t know. We could go to them, stir up revolt…”

“Your oligarch bros are fat and happy.” I test the iron, and it’s warm enough. Then I shimmy the dress over the ironing board and get to work on attacking those wrinkles. “How do ya build rebellion among those who have everything?”

“People always want more power. I could turn them against the emperor for what they did to me.”

“You’re delusional.” I use the iron to point at him, then return to smoothing out the skirt. “I’ve seen it all before. Comes with being a vampire and living a long life. No one cares what happened to you and your sister because it didn’t affect them. They’re blind and in denial—it won’t happen to them, so why should they care? They aren’t the ones affected. Why risk their cushy lives to join your lost cause?”

“But I can’t abandon my sister.”

“That’s a separate issue.” The iron hisses when I raise it to work on the bodice. “World domination ain’t gonna save her. Your sister’s likely to get killed in any power struggle.”

“Something has to change here. The poverty—”

“But you’re not the one to fix it.” I place the iron on its butt, then slither into my freshly pressed formal. I’m glad to hear our trip opened his eyes. “You can’t save people from their own stupidity. Believe me, I know. The emperor has the middle class looking down on the poor, seeing them as the enemy who wants to take their homes and jobs. And they don’t want to fight against you rich guys—they want to become one of y’all.”

“How do you know that?”

“Ingvar’s briefings. Look, I’ll raise the issue with the Lux. I planned to anyway. We need to keep the big picture in mind and stay focused on saving all the arks.”

“Shit.” He glances at the windup watch I gave him because we need to stay synchronized. “The party at the palace starts in two hours. Tina’s expecting us in thirty minutes. If we take a detour now, we’ll still make it.”

I growl again. “Someone who knows you might spot you and rat us out.”

“Maliff gave the house’s servants the day off for the holiday’s celebrations. She’s alone.”

As much as I hate the corner he’s put me in, an idea hits. I scrounge through my backpack, pull out the tech bag Ingvar provided for the mission, and dump the contents on the bed.

God bless him .

No matter how much I complain about my Lux supervisor, sometimes he’s right on top of things. And this time, he included a tracker. I find our barter jewelry and hook the device to a charm bracelet. If Tina wears this, we can find her anywhere in the dome. Even in the palace.

“Fine,” I say. “Iron your shirt and get dressed for the party. I’ll do my makeup and slip on those high heels you insisted I bring. We leave in fifteen minutes.”