Kiss Me, Kill Me Read online

  There was no verbal answer. However, the sadness in Alexi’s eyes was telling me things. Things I would not want to hear.

  ‘Please,’ I said on a whimper. Please say something. Please don’t say what I’m convinced you’re going to say.

  ‘Nothing is wrong with Greg.’

  I placed my hand over my heart, almost staggering with relief. ‘Thank goodness!’ I blew out a long breath. Told my heart it was welcome to calm down at its earliest convenience.

  Alexi was still looking at me the same way.

  ‘Alexi? What’s wrong. Are you alright?’

  There was a long blink while he blew out a breath. ‘I’m so sorry, Ana.’

  He took a couple of steps towards me and stopped.

  Bugger me, if he didn’t spill his beans in one second, big buff Alexi was gonna get a slap with my padded glove.

  The freezer door closed behind him.

  While he was facing me, both arms by his sides.

  That did not compute.

  I craned my neck to see around the mountain of man and was met by a sight that had my mouth falling open and my visual organs bugging out of my head.

  ‘He killed you,’ I said. Both the tenor of my voice and the statement were pathetic. It was patently obvious the killing hadn’t worked. And immediately, I was frightened in a different way. Alexi wasn’t here to tell me something bad had happened.

  But something bad was bloody well about to happen. To me.

  Suddenly, even though I was shocked and almost paralysed with fear, my brain pieced together some information. Belated clarity.

  The sneaky little bastard!

  When I’d been lying on Lorenzo’s couch, recovering from the attack by the fanged freakballs in the alley, Greg had quizzed Lorenzo about ways of permanently disposing of a vampire. I now remembered the impression that there was something important I should have been paying attention to. At the time, I couldn’t focus on it. Almost losing my brain out the back of my skull had messed with my thought processes.

  Lorenzo had said beheading or burning would put a vampire out of action. His usual method was to employ both options.

  Greg had asked about staking a vampire in the heart. Lorenzo had said that it stopped them for a while but eventually they would rise.

  I recalled the vampires in the alley. They had risen after being staked. Not because the stakes had missed piercing their hearts. It was because that’s what vampires did. Received a stake to the heart, shut up for a while, and then got the fuck up again.

  Greg had staked his maker in the heart.

  She’d gotten up again.

  And was now standing in my freezer room.

  She stepped forward and stood beside Alexi.

  My gaze bounced between them. What was Alexi doing with her? My face must have projected the question.

  ‘Oh yes. Alexi is mine now. I made him. A fine specimen, is he not?’ She stroked his arm.

  She’d made him into a vampire. WTF?!

  Alexi remained unmoving expect for a tightening around his eyes and a muscle in his jaw that ticced. He didn’t like her touching him. Had she made him against his will as she had done to Greg?

  Nordic Ice Princess, or N.I.P. as I’d dubbed her, smiled. It was closer to a baring of teeth than a smile, actually. Six feet tall, blonde and beautiful, with a cruelty in her eyes that chilled me more than my current environment, she surveyed me. I wished I’d donned that puffy parka.

  While she gazed at me with anticipation, I caught on to what Alexi’s phone call had been about. He couldn’t care less if my gym membership needed to be put back on hold. He’d been fishing to see where I would be. I’d told him I’d be here late on my own. No Greg to protect me. Shit.

  If I was reading the body language correctly, he wasn’t happy to be spying for Desislava (previously known as Alicia, when she’d been Greg’s girlfriend, and no one had figured her for a Bulgarian vampire who was over one thousand years old). That’s why Alexi looked so pained. He was my protector. I’d dubbed him my Knight in Shining Lycra. In my head. I’d never say that to his face, no matter how fond of me he was. He was sorry that he’d had to bring Desislava to do whatever it was that she was going to do to me.

  I was only pretending I didn’t know what she was going to do.

  I shuddered from the cold and from the knowing.

  My phantom neck wounds ached.

  Frack, I was getting so cold. I wanted to kick myself for not pulling on the parka. My pants and thin woollen jumper were no match for standing still in minus-thirty degrees. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms and stomped my feet.

  The old bitch who was looking smug multiplied by one hundred said, ‘I thought to take you in the alley beside this building. When I found you would not be walking past there, I changed my plans.’ She scanned the freezer room. ‘It has worked out even better than expected. More privacy and so many more possibilities.’

  First of all: alleys. And people trying to kill me in them. Was it fate or something? Was it chiselled into a stone tablet somewhere that Kayana Castello Branco must go out of this world slowly and painfully in a skinny street with tall walls on either side? What the fuck was up with that shit?

  Second: What did old N.I.P. mean by ‘so many more possibilities’? Would she make me suffer the cold until I was hypothermic before she sank her fangs into me? My blood would be cold and moving sluggishly. Perhaps harder to suck out. More painful. Ugh! Moving on.

  Third: How the hell had these two gotten into the building?

  ‘How did you get into the building?’ I asked, not going anywhere near the possibilities question. Don’t judge. I was too frightened to find out.

  ‘Quite simply,’ she answered. ‘Alexi pressed the emergency buzzer outside the door. Two lovely young men came to answer it. Voila. Here we are.’

  ‘What did you do to them?’ I gritted out.

  Again with the grin. I was so sick of pyscho bitches, grinning while they planned to hurt me.

  I stared her down, striving for a badass, I’m-not-scared-of-you attitude. As much as I could while shivering and shuffling my feet.

  She took her damn time answering, making me “sweat” it out. ‘Nothing drastic. I compelled them to do our bidding. They will not be interrupting us.’

  That was both a relief and not. The medical students hadn’t been killed. But they wouldn’t be coming to my aid, either. Maybe that was good, too. Unlikely they’d have any beheading or setting-on-fire equipment handy.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ah, man. The sub-zero temperature was really getting to me. I was shivering violently now. I’m not good with cold. I have Dutch, Portuguese and Sri Lankan ancestry. I believe I only received the Sri Lankan temperature-withstanding genes. Even in Melbourne winters, I have a hard time. The cold gets right into my bones. I’m always the most bundled up of anyone I know when the temperature drops. And Melbourne winters don’t get anywhere near minus thirty degrees. While blond and fair Alexi and N.I.P. looked as though they belonged in a scene surrounded with ice, dark-haired, olive-skinned me would be more at home sweating in the sun somewhere. I should hang about near the equator. This is so not my scene.

  Desislava turned her attention to Alexi. It was a relief to have her evil attention off me for a moment. I immediately began rubbing my arms furiously and stomping harder. Blowing into my cupped hands and breathing the warm air back in.

  ‘Alexi,’ she said, ‘have you managed to contact the others?’

  What fucking others?

  ‘Not yet,’ he rumbled.

  ‘Keep trying. Tell them the opportunity came earlier than expected. I want them here to…participate. I think that will be most enjoyable.’

  Enjoyable, my ass!

  Did N.I.P. have a whole vampire posse who were going to come here and get in on the action? Would they take sips and pass me along like a bottle in a paper bag at a gathering of the homeless around a fire drum?

  Alexi followed instructions a
nd used his sausage fingers to fire off a text.

  The minute he placed his phone back in his pocket, Desislava said, ‘Let us begin before our guests arrive. I have been waiting for this for some time. I find I’m quite eager to get started.

  This bitch had set her sights on me from the beginning. Greg had broken up with her after he and I bumped (literally bumped, maybe even smashed) into each other at a conference. He’d grabbed me to stop me from falling over. I’d grabbed him back. We’d held on to each other for a long time. There’d been much stationary yet electric body contact. Much deep, soulful gazing. There’d been want and chemistry. Huge chemistry.

  We’d parted (only because N.I.P. was coming down the corridor), and within minutes he’d had to leave. It had taken eight months to find each other again, and we’d been together ever since.

  N.I.P. had wanted to punish Greg for leaving her. She’d started stalking me, planning to slowly frighten, terrorize, torture and kill me. Then she’d discovered there was a guy from my work (fucking Stewart!) who was also stalking me. When she’d learnt what kind of sick, twisted psycho Stewart was, she’d decided to lurk and watch that business play out, gleefully anticipating the mess Stewart was going to make of me.

  Greg had put a stop to Stewart. Messed him up by breaking most of his bones. Stewart ended up being taken in by the police. He’s currently in jail. Turns out I wasn’t the only girl he’d stalked. I was, however, the only girl to get away with my life.

  This woman in front of me had later taken Greg by force and turned him into a vampire. Greg apparently closely resembled her husband, Lazar, who had been her maker. Lazar had been tortured and killed by villagers about five-hundred years ago. Desislava had tortured and killed the villagers in return.

  She’d wanted Greg to be Lazar’s replacement. Once she’d turned Greg, she’d even started calling him Lazar. Deluded bitch.

  Greg had been missing for months. I’d lost my shit, not knowing if he was dead or alive.

  Obviously, this woman couldn’t take no for an answer. She was also bent out of shape about Greg staking her, escaping and returning to me. She wanted to make me pay for that.

  Desislava: so sensitive. And all about the punishment.

  ‘A little cold, are we?’ she asked.

  ‘Observant, aren’t we?’ I fired back.

  Her eyes flashed. She didn’t appreciate that. I’m sure she preferred whimpering and begging.

  Alexi had his phone out again, presumably checking for RSVPs for the impromptu drinks party that would be happening here tonight. What did I know? Maybe Desislava was hosting this year’s Annual National Suckfest Summit. She’d changed the venue to right here in this freezer. And I was to be the suckee for every Tom, Dick and motherfucking bloodsucker in the country.

  This was going to be sucky in the extreme.

  While Alexi was occupied, and before I became too stiff with cold, I made my move. I burst forward and ran for the door, telling myself if I could just get out, I’d have a chance. I could barricade myself in one of the labs, call for help, scream, toss myself out of a window. At worst, climb into a biohazard cabinet and turn on the UV lamp. I’d get a majorly serious tan, but maybe concentrated UV would prevent the vamps from reaching in and getting to me. And while they screamed with their arms on fire, I’d call Greg for help. Not that he was answering.

  I’ll go for the window.

  I had my hand on the door handle. Close, so close.

  Alexi grabbed me from behind and lifted me up. I kicked and yelled, flailed my arms and punched him. He walked over and placed me back exactly where I’d been before.

  I fisted my hands, wanting to scream and yell in frustration. I’d been perfectly aware that my escape plan was crap, but there was no way I would stand there, waiting for…whatever…to happen to me without putting up a fight.

  ‘You can never leave,’ said Desislava smugly.

  ‘What is this? The fucking Hotel California?’

  She frowned, appearing confused.

  Holy mackerel! This chick who’d lived for over one thousand years had somehow escaped the Eagles. I couldn’t even begin to contemplate how that had happened.

  Desislava shook her head, a short, sharp shake, dismissing my question. She was one of those asshats who went through life not caring to learn anything new. I bet she wouldn’t even Google the Eagles later.

  If she’d asked me, I would have filled her in. Might have even sung a few songs. Perhaps I could have entertained her long enough (the band had enough songs) that I froze to death. Hypothermia: a much better way to go than being sucked on by psycho bitch here.

  You see, I knew a little something about Desislava. Greg had told me that she enjoyed torturing her victims. She tapped into her victims’ worst fears, making them believe they were being attacked by that which they feared most. She also preferred to make the experience as physically painful as possible before savagely killing her blood donors.

  I wasn’t sure which of my fears Desislava would exploit. What did I fear? Spiders were on the list. Being covered in Huntsmen spiders (some of those buggers had leg spans bigger than my face) would scare the crap out of me. I didn’t much care for those big brown cockroaches, either. Snakes were somewhere near the top of the list. What was I most afraid of? Suffocating? Death by drowning? After recent events, death by vampire was also high on the list. The thing that was worse than all the others would be made known to me soon. Unfortunately.

  I started singing. Going for a song that suited the occasion, I chose “Witchy Woman”. My voice shook. I pretended it was only from the cold. I was a few lines in, and as I sang, ‘Woo hoo, witch—’ she slapped me. With vigour. My head whipped to the side. My body spun in the same direction. I caught myself on the shelving unit, clutching the metal upright to stop myself from falling to the floor. Jesus! A good hard slap on icy-cold skin stings like hell.

  I pressed my gloved hand to my cheek. Scrunched my eyes closed. Blew out a breath. Turned back and faced her. Looked into her eyes.

  Those eyes: a pretty shade of blue, ugly with bitterness and hatred. My death was in them.

  The phantom wounds in my neck began to throb acutely. I remembered the agony of fangs savagely tearing into me and drawing blood. The wounds burned hot despite the current temperature of my body. The pain felt real.

  Fuck that noise!

  I was so over being scared and helpless. I buried the feelings. Locked them down tight. Don’t give her your fear!

  Instead, I let anger fill my being; it inflated me and filled me to almost bursting. I was mad at myself for not taking Greg’s offer. It was obvious the universe was out to get me. Maybe I’d been slated to die in that first alley with the rapists. My expiration date was likely stamped on my person in invisible ink. Greg had saved me. Perhaps I’d been living on borrowed time since.

  I should have known. I should have pulled my head out of the sand/my ass and snatched the chance to become immortal. Grabbed the bull by the horns…and the balls and wherever else and taken that leap of faith. I could have lived beside Greg for eternity. So maybe I turned feral like Melanie. But Greg would have locked me up and taken care of me and been patient and taught me and trained me and…fuck, I wanted to kick myself upside down!

  I was enraged by this woman standing in front of me. The deluded bitch who wouldn’t take no for an answer. The one who had gone to great lengths to take my Greg from me. And was now taking me from him. I wanted to kill her gradually (in the tiniest increments), and painfully. And fast and violently. I wanted to smash her freaking brains out. I wanted to murder her in all the ways. How dare she do this?

  ‘Why don’t you bugger off, you sad old twat!’ I exploded. ‘So, you lost your mate. It was a bloody long time ago, and it’s high time you got the hell over it. It has nothing to do with me. Just because Greg looks like him, doesn’t mean he wants to spend eternity with the likes of you. In case you didn’t get the memo, he doesn’t want you. Can’t stand you. Thinks you�
��re a disgusting fucking bitch. So just piss off. And die already.’

  Something flickered in her eyes. Maybe it was surprise. Perhaps a flash of anger. It was fleeting, there and gone in a blink. She gazed flatly back at me for long moments.

  Then she said in an even, almost toneless voice, ‘Alexi, remove her clothes.’

  Damn it! Deep down, I’d hoped riling her up would make my death swift and less painful. The name I’d chosen for this chick before I’d learned about her turned out to be perfectly fitting. Nordic Ice Princess. She was cold, calculating.

  And I was so, so fucked.

  Speaking of fucked. I suspected that once my clothes were removed, she was going to order Alexi to do something terrible to me. As if the draining of my blood and the special Desislava-style killing with much pain and torture wasn’t enough, I would be violated before my departure.

  Alexi came to me, and with sorrow contorting his face, reached out and grasped the hem of my jumper.

  ‘No!’ I yelled. I slapped at his hand and tried to spin away.

  He grabbed me from behind in his huge arms and held me in the air. ‘Please don’t fight me,’ he whispered against my ear.

  I fought him for all I was worth. My arms were pinned to my sides and I was only able to move my legs. Trying to smash his knees to hell, I kicked backwards as hard as I could. He grunted a couple of times.

  I might have some of Lorenzo’s blood still lingering in my body. Perhaps I could actually do a little damage. The idea gave me hope. The hope gave me added strength. I kicked more violently. I smashed the back of my head into his face. I heard something crunch. I was put down.

  I spun around. Yes! His nose was bleeding, maybe even broken.

  ‘Don’t make me hurt you,’ he begged.

  I launched myself at him and punched and kicked and scratched.

  I fought and fought with all I had.

  I battled valiantly.

  I ended up mostly naked. My gloves gone. Everything gone except for my panties, knee-high stockings and shoes.

  My short-lived hope was gone, too.

  ‘Please, Alexi. Please don’t do this.’