Page 3 of The Vampire Kingpin (The Vampire Syndicate #7)

Spider

L ark’s eyes widened. She pushed at the arm I had clamped over her throat. “Owns me?”

I eased up on the pressure, and she gulped in a breath. “For the next month,” I confirmed in a stony voice.

The deal with Grimclaw had been for three nights, but that was before Lark had stolen my favorite dagger, the one forged for me personally. When I’d chased her down, I’d still planned to use her, then send her back to her cousin…minus a finger.

Yeah, she was fetish-sexy in the short black dress and Mary Janes, her shiny dark hair in braids framing a fairy-like face and long-lidded, witchy green eyes. It would be a crying shame to mar that beauty. But nobody stole from me and got away with it.

Then she tried to carve a piece out of me, and damn if everything masculine in me didn’t sit up and take notice.

Sexy and spunky? Sign me up.

“For a month?” A mixture of shock and defiance battled on her face. “You must be joking.”

“No joke.” I sat up, still straddling her, and retrieved her switchblade.

When it was safely in my back pocket, I fingered her oversized white collar.

I recognized her costume now, but the buttoned-up dress and short skirt had a naughty schoolgirl feel that had my dick hard as baseball bat.

“I don’t joke about things like this. And I could use a new thrall. ”

Actually, I hadn’t kept a thrall in years. But for Lark, I’d make an exception.

Her pointed chin raised a notch. “I’m nobody’s thrall. I know my rights—you need my consent.”

I eyed her. Was she really that na?ve? But no, her tense shoulders told me this was a last-ditch effort to save herself.

“You must be confusing me with a syndicate primus. Down here, I’m the law. If I say you’re my thrall, then you are.”

The vampire syndicates had inked treaties with the humans to keep the peace and secure a steady supply of thralls for the blood and sex we all crave. The syndicates were big enough and visible enough that they’d had no choice but to negotiate with the humans.

The Underworld, however, was a whole different beast. The vampires down here were outcasts who didn’t fit into the syndicates’ strict pecking order.

Lark’s thick black lashes fluttered. For the first time, I saw fear, quickly concealed.

“But I’m not a human,” she said, like that made a difference.

“I know.” I brushed bits of gravel from her cheek. “You’re a dhampir, and you steal for your cousin Grimclaw. And I can drink from you same as a human thrall.”

Actually, a dhampir’s blood was superior, the magic in their veins making it more potent. I leaned closer. “And I can fuck you,” I added, slowly and deliberately, “same as a human thrall. You stole from me, woman. Now you have to accept the consequences.”

“But I don’t—I’m not a thrall.”

“So I’ll be your first.” I ran my finger down a shiny braid. “I’ll take good care of you. You won’t have to risk your life like you do working for your cousin.”

Who obviously hadn’t informed her of the deal he’d made with me. The man was even more of an SOB than I’d realized.

“But what I do for Grim is my choice,” she said. “Maybe I’d rather risk my life than be your toy .”

She lobbed that last word at me like it would bother me. Instead, it made my dick twitch. Lark as my toy? The word tugged at something primal in me, the part that liked the idea of owning her.

“You should’ve thought of that before you broke into my lair and helped yourself to my favorite dagger. Now your ass is mine.”

She looked a little sick. “I’ll give it back then, and we’ll call it even. Alright?”

I gave her braid a hard tug. “No.”

“Then I’ll steal for you, okay? There must be something you want, and I can get just about anything if you give me time.” When I shook my head, she said, “Please. I mean it. I’m good. I was trained by the best there is.”

“Trained by who?”

A flare of pain crossed her face. “You wouldn’t know their names. They were that good.”

I frowned down at her, wondering if she meant her parents.

When she’d first joined Grimclaw’s lair, we’d run a quick check on her, enough to know she’d been raised out West, a part of the syndicate world without ever joining one in particular.

Her parents had disappeared six months ago, right before she’d showed up in New York.

However, once I’d determined Lark Nightstar was harmless, I’d had Velma stop looking.

Down here, we were all hiding something.

As long as Lark wasn’t a danger to me, I didn’t care what the fuck she’d done.

That explained why she was with Grimclaw, though. She must’ve had nowhere else to go. And yeah, it bothered me some to realize how alone she was, how desperate.

But I hadn’t gotten where I was by being a nice guy.

“I don’t need you to steal for me. I have a half-dozen lairs paying tribute.” Not to mention my business investments. “So, no. I’ll take you.”

“But—” She squirmed on the asphalt, reminding me we were still on the hard ground.

I almost apologized for keeping her there so long. My mama, the gods bless her soul, would be rolling in her grave. I muttered a curse and rose to my feet, holding out my hand to Lark.

She ignored it to get up on her own, her right hand held to her side.

I glimpsed the red gash bisecting her palm and grabbed her wrist. “Lemme see that.”

“It’s okay.” She curled her fingers in. “The bleeding stopped.”

“I still want to see it.” I turned her hand over, examining the palm.

She was right, the wound had closed, but I could tell it had gone deep. I scowled. She shouldn’t be risking her life and freedom like this. If she were mine for real, I’d tie her to my bed for a week for a stunt like that.

And that cousin of hers who’d sent her to steal from me? He deserved to be staked.

I released her wrist. “You cleaned it?” The faster you washed out the silver, the less entered your bloodstream.

A nod. “That’s what slowed me down. You would’ve never caught me otherwise.”

“Good.” I backed her to the wall and slapped a hand against the bricks beside her head. “But just so we’re clear, I would’ve caught you. There’s nowhere in this city you can hide from me.”

“Whatever.” She slumped against the bricks, her face weary beneath the pale makeup. The silver poisoning must be hitting her hard now.

My jaw tightened. Then some Good Samaritan impulse made me press my wrist to her mouth. “Drink, damn you.”

Her eyes rounded. Then she took hold of my arm, her fangs sliding out against my skin. She reared back a few inches, then plunged them into my wrist.

An electric current shot straight to my balls. Sex and blood for us is interlinked. Drinking enhances the pleasure of fucking, and vice versa, especially when Lark hummed low in her throat and sucked harder. My heart gave a thump and my already hard dick started pounding with need.

She felt it, too. Her hips rocked forward, brushing my aching flesh, and her salty musk filled my nostrils.

I was a goddamn saint, because I didn’t take her against the wall right there. Instead, I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that she needed to heal from not just the wound but the silver poisoning before we did anything further.

Her sucking slowed. Then she lifted her head and retracted her fangs, lapping at my wrist like a kitten to close the tiny holes she’d left in my skin.

“Thank you,” she said. Her color was better, her eyes brighter.

I moved a shoulder, uncomfortable with her thanks, even though it was almost unheard of for a vampire with my dominance to let a dhampir—or anyone, for that matter—drink from me.

“Don’t be. I need you in good shape.”

“Right.” The gratitude on her face faded, leaving me with a hollow feeling in my chest.

“Let’s get outta here.” I stepped back, glancing up and down the alley. When I looked back, I realized she’d edged sideways.

Maybe I shouldn’t have fed her until I had her safely back in my lair.

“Don’t. Run,” I rapped out.

She straightened to her full height, which was still a good eight inches shorter than me. But the woman had tall energy, I’d give her that.

“Why not? What are you gonna do to me?”

I cupped her throat and pressed her up against the bricks. “Anything I want, little thief. And you’ll let me, is that clear?”

She swallowed, the muscles of her neck moving beneath my fingers. The heavy beating of her heart sparked an answering rush in my own veins.

Her gaze dropped, unable to hold mine, but she gamely fought on. “Then I might as well run.”

I gave her throat a light squeeze. “Try it.”

But I couldn’t help admiring her spunkiness. I couldn’t think of another dhampir except for the three Kral brothers—and they were high-ranking dominants—who wouldn’t have caved in by now.

“Look,” I said, stroking my thumb over the soft skin beneath her jaw. “Maybe we can work something out.”

“Like what?” she asked warily.

“How about you return that dagger you stole along with an extra ten grand for inconveniencing me, and we’ll call it even?”

I was pretty sure she didn’t have that kind of cash—as far as I could tell, Grimclaw kept her like some kind of fucking Cinderella, paying her only a minimal wage—but at least she couldn’t accuse me of not giving her a chance.

And yeah, I was being a prick, but if she were anyone else, she’d already be in her final grave.

“Ten grand?” Lark’s jaw dropped. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“So you don’t have it?”

“Of course not.” Her chest heaved. “I don’t even have a thousand. Grimclaw takes everything I—” She bit her lip and shook her head.

“So he was the one who put you up to stealing my dagger?”

She briefly closed her eyes. “Yeah.”

I grunted. Grimclaw must’ve realized Lark would never agree to be my thrall in return for his debt, so he’d come up with this steal-from-Spider scheme instead, knowing I’d catch her.

Too bad for Lark, but that didn’t mean I was letting her walk. Like I’d said, I hadn’t gotten where I was by playing nice.