Page 22 of The Vampire Kingpin (The Vampire Syndicate #7)

“Stop it!” A furious blue lit up around Lark’s green irises. She glared at me, hands clenched, a streak of red on each of her cheekbones. “We were just talking, you jerk. He’s my cousin, for Luna’s sake.”

“That’s what I told him,” Grimclaw muttered.

I silenced him with a look. To Lark, I said, “I heard you, you little hustler. You told him you could get the money, that you just needed a few days to work on me.”

She took a long breath. “Okay, I admit that looks bad. But I didn’t mean?—"

Lark gasped as Troll emerged out of the shadows behind Velma, a silver blade raised high. He slashed it down toward her nape, aiming for that spot beneath her skull that would severe her spine.

My heart lurched. Even a vampire can’t recover from a blow like that.

“Velma!” I shot forward. “Behind y?—!”

But I was too far away, and to get to Troll, I’d have to go through Velma first. The silver arced through the air and I realized sickly that I wasn’t going to be able to reach Troll in time. My only hope was to knock Velma to the tracks.

Lark was right beside Velma, though, and she moved at the same time, screaming Troll’s name as she gave him a hard shove, knocking him off-balance. He stumbled, his knife slicing into Velma’s right shoulder instead of her spine.

A split second later, I slammed into Velma, taking her down to the berm beside the subway tracks.

I rolled with her, taking the brunt of the impact, then leapt to my feet to find Lark facing down Troll with the switchblade I’d allowed her to keep.

It was only a matter of time before he got through her defenses.

My stomach dropped to my boots. I was dimly aware of Jacko pinning Grimclaw to the wall, but I was already in motion.

I didn’t care that Lark might be an empty box of lies tied up with a pretty, witchy-eyed, black-haired ribbon. The primal thing knew she had to be protected.

I hurtled across the tracks, grabbing her by the waist and carrying her past Troll. His blade flashed in the dim light. The motherfucker had nearly skewered her.

I set Lark on her feet and turned to Troll. “You’re going down,” I said in hoarse tones I barely recognized as mine.

“No.” Velma’s voice. “The sucker’s mine.”

She’d gotten back on her feet. Her right arm was useless, but she’d taught herself to fight with either hand. She stalked toward Troll, murder in her eyes.

For a big man, he moved fast. He dodged left, and Velma missed his chest but slashed open his bicep to the bone. His blade clattered to the subway track. He swept it up with his good hand and took off running, leaving his alpha to face us on his own.

Like I said, the man was a coward.

Velma took a few steps after him, then turned back, a hand clamped to her bleeding shoulder. She slumped against the wall, chest working. “Can’t,” she muttered through pale lips.

Monster raced up, his gaze taking in Velma’s injury and a white-faced Lark. “What the fuck?”

“Get Troll,” I barked, pointing down the track.

“Text Zayne,” I ordered Velma. “Tell her we need help. And you.” I pointed a finger at Lark. “Don’t even think about moving.”

Her breasts heaved. “Whatever.”

Jacko had Grimclaw cornered, but as soon as he released him, the man tried to fade. Jacko swore and grabbed his arm, anchoring him in the physical world.

“Enough.” Shooting forward, I wrapped my fingers around his face and slammed his skull back against the tile behind him. The thud echoed dully in the tunnel.

“Help Velma,” I told Jacko. “I can handle this mofo.”

Zayne skidded around the corner, blades out.

“Secure Lark in the Cavern,” I ordered her without releasing Grimclaw.

Zayne frowned at my rigid, tight-lipped thrall. “What d’you mean, secure Lark?”

“I mean throw her into a goddamn cell. Something’s funny, and until I know she’s not some kinda plant, I want her under lock and key.”

Zayne seemed frozen in place. She glanced from Lark to Grimclaw to me.

“Oh-kay,” the red-haired dhampir said.

“No!” Lark’s eyes begged me to listen. “I’m not a plant! You’ve got this all wrong.”

“Zayne.” My head was buzzing again. My back teeth clenched. “Get her out of here. Now .”

Zayne swallowed audibly. Then she grabbed Lark’s arm. “You heard the alpha. Move.”

Lark sent me a last look over her shoulder, eyes shimmering with tears. Then her mouth hardened. She dragged the back of her hand across her eyes and left.

The buzzing in my head increased, and I knew who was going to pay for it. I released Grimclaw’s face to pull out my dagger.

His eyes bugged in fear. “Hey, take it easy.”

My smile was more of a grimace. I dug it into his throat, taking satisfaction in the blood that welled up along. The burning odor of the silver scorching his skin just made me happier. “You should’ve got outta New York while you had a chance.”

“You got it all wrong, my lord. Lark sent for me.”

“That’s a lie!” Lark called out from down the tracks. “They were waiting for me.”

Zayne pulled her around the corner.

Grimclaw licked his lips. Even aside from his burnt-skin odor, the man smelled rank, and he looked worse. “Look, you can have in on this if you want. Lark’s got a line on a buttload of cash.”

I poked him with the blade. “Explain.”

Greed sharpened his face. “What’s it worth to you?”

“Bloody Hades,” I said in disgust. The man was the worst sort of rat. “She’s your goddamn cousin.”

His eyelids flickered. “Or we can split the cash. No problemo. I owe you anyhow.”

My fingers tightened on the dagger’s handle. I wanted to end Grimclaw so bad I could taste it. “What cash?”

He considered me, then his face closed up. “I need some assurances first.”

“You don’t get to ask for assurances, punk.” I unbuttoned the coat of his beige leisure suit and tore a hole in his ratty white shirt with my dagger, baring his chest to me. “The three of you were having a convo and I wanna know what about.”

He worked his jaw from side to side. “Benjamins,” he spat at me. “That’s what she always wants. I bet she took you for a few grand, right?”

More like twenty-five grand.

“Thought so,” he said with a knowing, man-to-man smile that made me want to slice his lips off his face. “Well, you must not have coughed up enough because she wanted to know what we’d pay for the code to your lair.”

I stilled. Lark wouldn’t.

But how did Grimclaw know she had the code? Unless he’d been in the shadows watching when I’d shown it to her…

“Huh.” He eyed me pityingly. “You think she should be loyal to you ’cause you stuck your magic dick in her? She’s out for herself, dude. Always has been. Always will be. For enough money, she’ll do anything, including let us pick you all off while you’re still half awake.”

What if he was telling the truth?

He’s not. Lark wouldn’t do that.

“Like fuck she would.” That was Velma from her seat on the ground where Jacko was examining her wound.

Grimclaw shot her a glance and flinched. He tried to hide it, but I saw and so did Velma, judging by her rusty chuckle.

“Lark’s no angel,” my friend added. “We dug up enough on her to know that. But doing us like that isn’t her style—she’s not the violent sort. Besides, she’s happy with us. Anybody can see that.”

“That’s what she wants you to think,” Grimclaw retorted.

I dug my dagger into his solar plexus. The silver seared another hole in his skin, and he whined in pain. I left it there another few seconds, then eased off on the pressure without removing it completely.

“I’m not interested in your opinion of your cousin,” I told him. “Although if that’s what you think of her, no wonder she wants out of your lair.”

His face set. “Yeah? Well, stop poking me with that blade or I’m not tellin’ you nothing. And I want a guarantee I walk free.”

“A guarantee? Sure, you got it.” I said without saying what I’d guaranteed, which was nada. “Now talk.”

“The dagger,” he reminded me tightly, and I pulled it back an inch, keeping it pointed at his chest.

“So which is it?” I prompted. “The woman needs cash so bad she’s gonna sell out my entire lair? Or she’s got a buttload of cash?”

His eyelids flickered. Yeah, the punk was definitely playing me.

“She has money,” he said, his lower lip sticking out like toddler’s. “Somewhere. I know she does. Her parents were loaded. So where is it now? I figure you can make her tell us.”

“Do you?” I said softly.

He gulped, but didn’t back down. “Yeah. The bitch told me it had all been lost in some big bet that they didn’t pull off.”

He seemed outraged that Lark might’ve held out on him, even though it was clear he would’ve relieved her of any money in the blink of an eye if he could’ve.

I considered him, contemplating whether squeezing any more info out of him was worth the effort. The man wouldn’t know the truth if it morphed into a Rottweiler and bit him on his bony ass. He was playing me, flipping his tale every time it left his mouth.

That didn’t mean there wasn’t a kernel of reality buried somewhere in there. But I could get that from Lark or Troll.

He shifted uneasily. “Are we done here?”

“Yeah,” I said and punched the blade into him, angling it upward so it went deep into his heart. “That’s for jerking me around.” I gave the dagger a twist. “And that’s for treating Lark like a fucking slave.”

His mouth opened in shock. He grasped the handle, tugging weakly, but he couldn’t dislodge it. “You stupid bastard,” he grated, blood bubbling from the corner of his lips. “She’s worth money, I tell ya.”

“I don’t need her money.”

“Yeah? Well, you don’t know who you’re dealin’ wi—” His eyes rolled up in his head and his breath rattled out. He groaned and, mercifully, went silent.

“Yeah?” I jerked the blade from his chest and wiped it on his leisure suit. “From where I’m standing, you forgot who you’re dealing with. Because you seem to think I’m a weak-ass alpha—like you.”

I stepped back, watching as he staggered sideways, then stumbled into the wall and slid to the tunnel floor, his body smoking. A few seconds later, his chest burst into dark flames, consuming him from the inside out. The tunnel filled with the rank smell of charred flesh.

I turned to Jacko, who’d been doing his best to keep Velma from jumping to her feet to help me. “Velma okay to move?”

She answered me herself. “Please,” she said with a look of disgust at Grimclaw’s disintegrating body. “Get me outta here.”

Together, we helped my injured lieutenant to her feet and to the Cavern door. Inside, I took over, guiding her to a couch with an arm around her waist.

“I’ll clean her wound,” Jacko volunteered, striding to the kitchen for supplies.

“You sure you’re alright?” I asked Velma. “Because I need to talk to Lark.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s just a scratch. But come here.” She beckoned me closer, and when I bent down, she hissed, “Chill, big man. Before you do anything, ask Lark why she met up with those two asses.”

My mouth turned down. “I know why. She’s his cousin. I’m the dude who’s paying her to have sex with me. Guess who’s side she’s on?”

“She likes it here, you idiot. There’s something we don’t know.”

“Maybe,” I said.

The conditions Lark had been living in flashed into my mind, piercing the rage and disappointment that had been driving me ever since finding her with her cousin and his lieutenant.

Why would any sane person pick Grimclaw over me?

Added to that cryptic comment Grimclaw had made about Lark being worth money and Velma was right.

Something was very off. I’d known all along Lark was keeping secrets. I’d even suspected she was on the run from whoever had staked her parents.

Well, she wasn’t getting out of that cell until she told me everything. Like it or not, she was under my protection now, and if her secrets had landed her sexy ass in danger, that was unacceptable on every fucking level.

I crouched next to Velma, running a practiced eye over her injured arm. It had stopped bleeding, but the silver blade had left a nasty gash. “You sure you’re okay?”

She leaned back against a cushion. “What, am I some fragile flower? Go to her already.”

I picked up her hand. “If you promise you won’t get up the second my back’s turned.”

She wrinkled her nose at me, but I could tell she was touched that I cared. “Fine. I promise, alright?”

“Good.” I squeezed her fingers and strode off.

By then, word must’ve gotten out about the attack because most of the lair had gathered in the Cavern’s great room. But as I made my way through the small crowd, not a single person tried to stop me.