Page 30 of The Vampire Kingpin (The Vampire Syndicate #7)

Spider

T he first wave of dizziness hit me as I passed a large stone wolf with glowing red eyes.

Vampires don’t get sick. Dragging off my tie, I shoved it into my pocket, loosened the first couple of buttons of my shirt, and kept going.

Why in Hades was my mask so uncomfortable? I readjusted the black mesh over my upper face. The rough fabric scraped against my skin. DeeDee’s new design needed serious work.

Two hard-faced vampires closed in, their gleaming eyes cold and unfeeling. They herded me out a side door into a dimly lit corridor. It stretched before me, endless as a nightmare, the flickering lights casting eerie shadows on the walls.

A second wave of dizziness blurred my vision. My stomach heaved, and bile pressed into my throat. I pressed a hand to my mouth and managed not to vomit up the blood-champagne I’d just drunk.

Each step felt like a struggle, the oppressive atmosphere pressing down on me as I fought to stay upright.

A dull nudge from my brain. Silver poisoning.

Had the champagne been spiked with colloidal silver?

And why was my face on fire? I clawed at the mask.

“Don’t let him take that off,” the guy to my left barked.

They grabbed my arms, pulling my hands away from my face.

That’s when it hit me—the silver was in the mask. The one DeeDee had made to match Lark’s, although Lark hadn’t liked hers, and had changed to another in the limo.

Lark .

Terror iced my gut. What if Lark had been right and DeeDee was the snitch, the person leaking intel to Darkman? And DeeDee knew what Lark was wearing. No wonder the snake had made Lark in the ballroom so quickly.

A surge of fear allowed me to throw the men off me. I tore the silver-laced mesh from my face and flung it away.

“Forget the mask,” the dude on my right snapped. “You take him down. I’ll drag him into the shadows.”

I broke into a run—or tried to. It felt like my feet belonged to someone else.

The other guy tackled me, slamming me to the marble floor. Pain radiated through me as I struggled to push him off. He pinned me down, his weight pressing me into the cold marble, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. My vision blurred again, but I grimly forced myself to focus.

I had to fight for Lark’s sake.

And where was Zaq? He’d sworn he’d have my back, and if I trusted any syndicate man, it was him.

Both vampires were on me now. I bucked against their holds.

I couldn’t lose Lark. Amina’s loss had been bad, but losing Lark would break me.

I had thirty seconds, tops, to break free before they pulled me into the shadows. I fought like a beast.

Without the silver sucking at my strength, I was stronger. I jerked free of first one, then the other, and went for my lucky dagger. But the poison slowed me enough that one of them grabbed me and got me in a chokehold before I could pull it from my vest.

He squeezed my windpipe like a boa constrictor, using his free hand against the forearm around my neck to apply a pressure that would’ve killed a human. Me, he couldn’t kill—not like this—but he could make me lose consciousness and then pull me into the shadows.

And he was winning…

A wave of dread swamped me. All I could think of was Lark and what that fucking princeling would do to her if I didn’t escape.

I slammed my elbow into his groin. He let out a vicious curse, but momentarily loosened his grip on me. Breaking out of the chokehold, I threw him off me and pushed myself up on my hands and knees, sucking oxygen.

I caught a flash of silver and threw myself to the side, scrabbling for my own weapon. An inhuman hiss, and then one of the vampires landed near my head, eyes glassy, a blade sticking out of his chest. From the corner of my eye, I saw the other fall to the floor. He’d been staked as well.

What the ? —?

A hand landed on my back, and I snarled and swung around into a crouch, my dagger in my hand.

Zaq Kral stood over me. He lifted both hands in surrender. “Chill, man. It’s only me and Renata.”

He nodded at his mate, who’d pulled the blade from one of the men and was calmly wiping it off with a handful of cocktail napkins. I’d heard a rumor that Renata used to be a slayer but hadn’t believed it. Now, I believed.

“Lark,” I croaked, and dragged out my phone. It was dead, cracked almost in two from when I must’ve landed top of it. “No!”

I cursed, more afraid than I could ever remember being.

“You can’t track her?” Zaq said as Renata cleaned the second blade as well and handed it to Zaq.

I shook my head and surged to my feet. “No. But Velma can. Where’s Darkman?”

Renata’s lip curled. She tossed the bloody napkins on the smoking remains of my attackers and answered, “Dancing.”

“That was five or ten minutes ago,” said Zaq. “We followed you per the plan. But Velma and Monster have eyes on Lark, right?”

I gave a jerky nod. “Call Velma for me—ASAP. Tell her my phone is broken, that we need her to track Lark.”

Renata already had her phone out. “On it.”

I didn’t question how she had Velma’s number, just took off for the restrooms, shoving people aside in my hurry. I probably would’ve started a mini war if Zaq hadn’t stayed with me, ordering the gaping crowd to let me through.

I busted through the restroom door, Zaq on my heels. In an open stall, a blond vampire in a red gown knelt over a semiconscious DeeDee, about to sink her fangs into the human’s neck.

I did a doubletake. How the fuck had DeeDee gotten into the Midnight Masquerade?

But it was basically a signed confession. She was part of this, damn her.

“Get away from her,” I snarled at the blonde kneeling over her.

“Mine,” she hissed back, baring her fangs at me. “Find your own.”

Zaq stepped forward. “You heard him—get out of the damn stall.”

Her eyes widened. “My lord. This human belongs to you?”

He jerked his chin at me. “Not me. Him.”

“Name’s Spider,” I informed her, and her brows climbed.

“The Underworld’s Spider?”

“That’s me. Get the fuck out of there.”

Her mouth compressed, but she retracted her fangs and obeyed. I stepped past her into the stall and grabbed DeeDee around the neck.

Her gaze slid from mine. Fear and guilt oozed off her like emotional slime.

I gave her a shake. “Look into my eyes, damn you.”

“Go to hell,” she muttered weakly.

I brought my face close to hers and waited until she looked back at me, then slammed a compulsion into her with everything I had. “ Where’s Lark? ”

“With…Jared.”

“And where’s that?”

“Don’t know.”

Despair fisted my chest. It was the truth—she couldn’t lie under a compulsion. “How long ago did he take her?”

“Don’t…know.”

“It can’t have been long,” Zaq muttered. “Five minutes at the most. We can still catch her.”

I nodded, even though, for a vampire, five minutes was plenty of time to have spirited Lark miles away.

“One last question,” I said to DeeDee. “Are you the one feeding intel to Darkman?”

She pressed her lips together, fighting not to answer, but I was too strong for her. “Yes,” she burst out. “But not about you. Just Lark.”

“But Lark is mine,” I told her softly, and squeezed her throat until her eyes bugged out. I thrust her away from me and stalked out of the stall. “Drain the bitch,” I told the vampire in the red dress.

Renata was on her phone. “Hang on,” she told the other person. To me, she said, “Velma’s not answering, but security said they saw her running toward the West Side. No sign of Darkman or Lark, though.”

“He must’ve taken her out of here in the shadows,” said Zaq.

I rasped a curse and took off, hoping to catch them when he dropped back out of the shadows. Renata went with me, and Zaq called, “I’ll grab security and meet you in front of the building.”

I raised a hand in acknowledgment and picked up the pace. Together, me and Renata raced up the marble steps, through the foyer and outside to the nondescript industrial zone above the ballroom.

The only trace of Lark was a single, purply red stiletto teetering on the curb. My heart dropped into my fancy leather shoes.

I snatched up the stiletto. “Any word from Velma?”

Renata shook her head, her full lips pressed into a tight line.

Zaq and a couple of guys in tuxes burst out of the building. Instead of security, he’d brought his brothers. The three might be dhampirs, but they were stupid-powerful, and along with their father, owned this city. I felt a tinge of hope. If anyone could help me find Lark, they could.

“You see where they went?” Zaq asked.

“No.” I grabbed his arm, uncaring of his older brother Gabriel’s frown. “You have cams, right? You can find her. Please, Zaq.”

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d said ‘please,’ but for Lark, I’d drop to my goddamn knees and beg.

“You can’t track her yourself?” asked his younger brother Rafe.

I shot him a quick, despairing look. Why were we standing here discussing this? But I answered, because I needed his help.

“My phone’s busted and we don’t know where Velma is.”

“She was the backup,” Zaq muttered.

The three brothers exchanged a look.

I released Zaq. “The cams,” I urged. “I’ll try Monster. Maybe he knows something.”

Before I finished the sentence, the silver-haired dhampir dashed out of the building, skidding to a stop when he saw me. “Velma texted. Lark’s on the West Side.”

“Where?” I demanded.

“Tenth Avenue, moving north. Velma’s following them—she was in the shadows, that’s why she couldn’t text before.”

Zaq squeezed my shoulder. “Okay, now we have something. And Velma’s with her. She’ll be safe.”

“Unless Darkman’s crew gets Velma, too,” muttered Rafe.

Zaq elbowed his younger brother. “Not helpful.”

Gabriel had his phone out. “We need video on Tenth Avenue ASAP,” he barked.

Monster glanced at his own screen. “Velma just checked in. They’re heading for the heliport on West 30 th .”

My heart leapt. “Tell her we’re on our way, to stall him if she has to. We can’t let him get Lark on a helicopter.”

“Forget the video,” Gabriel said into his phone. “Send a half-dozen soldiers to the West 30 th Heliport.”

The heliport was a little over a mile away. I could cover that in under four minutes. I shot off, knowing every second counted, Zaq keeping pace with me.

With every step, I prayed we wouldn’t be too late. That once again, I wouldn’t fail the woman I loved.

Because yeah, I loved Lark. I felt the truth clear to my toes. My heart reached out to hers, the mate bond questing for its match.

One section of the heliport was lit up like it was noon.

A shiny brown chopper was warming up on a helipad next to the Hudson, its rotors spinning slowly as the pilot prepared for takeoff.

Ten yards away, Darkman had Lark pressed to his front, an arm around her throat, a knife to her chest. She was barefoot, her hair spilling out of that movie-star twist.

Only the thought that he might stake her while I watched kept me from stalking forward and ripping his head from his body.

A blood-tinged blackness edged my vision.

I prowled toward them, my dagger gripped in one hand, a low, continuous growl filling my head that was nearly as loud as the engine’s roar.

It took me a few seconds to realize the growling was coming from me.

“Easy, bro.” Zaq reached out and slapped his palm to my chest, stopping me at the edge of the circle of light. “She’s fine, yeah?” he said under his breath. “We have a little time. He doesn’t want to hurt her if he can avoid it—he’s gone to a fuckton of trouble to get her, right?”

I swung my head to look at him, taking in what he’d said through the roaring in my brain. “Alright,” I said hoarsely. “But he’s mine. I want your word on that.”

“Of course, man.”

“Who’s there?” Darkman squinted in our direction. “Come any closer and I’ll stake the bitch.”

“I’ll talk,” Zaq told me quietly. “You stay in the background.”

My jaw clenched so tight my back teeth hurt. Bloody Hades, I hated feeling powerless like this. It was like Amina all over again.

But Zaq was right. Darkman was more likely to listen to him.

“Alright,” I replied, “but if I see an opening, I’m gonna grab her.”

“And I’ll try to give you that opening.” My friend sauntered forward, hands open at his sides. “Let the woman go, Jared. She’s ours.”

“What d’you mean, she’s yours?”

“Our territory, dude. That makes the lady ours. You hurt her, you’ll set off a blood feud with our syndicate. Your father isn’t going to like that.”

Darkman’s throat worked, his eyes darting nervously around.

Lark, though, stood straight-backed and steady, the wind whipping at her skirt. Her eyes somehow found me in the darkness where I lurked. She smiled, and I felt the weight of the trust she had in me.

It left me both humbled and proud, a fierce love for her churning my insides. I just wished I had half her courage, because for the life of me, I couldn’t bring myself to smile back. Not with my heart on the line. I was too gutted by the possibility of losing her.

Gabriel, Rafe and Renata raced up. I caught sight of Velma creeping in from the other side, and I knew that Monster must be around somewhere, too.

Gabriel sidled up next to me. “I got word to the pilot,” he told me out of the side of his mouth. “He knows that if he takes off, he’ll be dead by morning.”

A wave of emotion smacked me hard. “Thanks, man,” I returned gruffly. “I owe you—big time.”

The tall, green-eyed prince grunted, then jerked his head at his youngest brother. “Rafe, you go with Zaq. Two-on-one will give Jared something to think about. But keep it cool, got it? We don’t want to do anything to set him off.”

“On it,” Rafe replied with a cocky grin and strolled after his middle brother.

To me, Gabriel murmured, “We’ll get your Lark back. Those two could talk a bird out of a tree.”

“I hope so,” I returned…and that’s when it hit me that this time I wasn’t powerless.

That this time, I wasn’t on my own, alpha of a fledgling lair. I was powerful in my own right, and not just because I was the Underworld kingpin.

I had friends now like the Kral brothers. And I had Lark herself, strong and smart and sneaky.

My mouth curved. Jared Darkman didn’t know what he’d stepped into.