Guilty Pleasures

Her face paled. “I would not have, regardless.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

Jean-Claude looked at me, beautiful face unreadable. His dark eyes stared into mine. They were still just eyes.

“Go on, master vampire, tell her. See how grateful she is.”

Jean-Claude stared at me, watching my face. “You are badly hurt, a concussion. But Nikolaos will not let us take you to a hospital until this…interview is over with. I feared you would die or be unable to…function.” I had never heard his voice so uncertain. “So I shared my life-force with you.”

I started to shake my head. Big mistake. I pressed hands to my forehead. “I don’t understand.”

He spread his hands wide. “I do not have the words.”

“Oh, allow me,” Theresa said. “He has taken the first step to making you a human servant.”

“No.” I was still having trouble thinking clearly, but I knew that wasn’t right. “He didn’t try to trick me with his mind, or eyes. He didn’t bite me.”

“I don’t mean one of those pathetic half-creatures that have a few bites and do our bidding. I mean a permanent human servant, one that will never be bitten, never be hurt. One that will age almost as slowly as we do.”

I still didn’t understand. Perhaps it showed in my face because Jean-Claude said, “I took your pain and gave you some of my…stamina.”

“Are you experiencing my pain, then?”

“No, the pain is gone. I have made you a little harder to hurt.”

I still wasn’t taking it all in, or maybe it was just beyond me. “I don’t understand.”

“Listen, woman, he has shared with you what we consider a great gift to be given only to people who have proven themselves invaluable.”

I stared at Jean-Claude. “Does this mean I am in your power somehow?”

“Just the opposite,” Theresa said, “you are now immune to his glance, his voice, his mind. You will serve him out of willingness, nothing more. You see what he has done.”

I stared into her black eyes. They were just eyes.

She nodded. “Now you begin to understand. As an animator you had partial immunity to our gaze. Now you have almost complete immunity.” She gave an abrupt barking laugh. “Nikolaos is going to destroy you both.” With that she stalked up the stairs, the heels of her boots smacking against the stone. She left the door open behind her.

Jean-Claude had come to stand over me. His face was unreadable.

“Why?” I asked.

He just stared down at me. His hair had dried in unruly curls around his face. He was still beautiful, but the hair made him seem more real.

“Why?”

He smiled then, and there were tired lines near his eyes. “If you died, our master would have punished us. Aubrey is already suffering for his…indiscretion.”

He turned and walked up the stairs. He moved up the steps like a cat, all boneless, liquid grace.

He paused at the door and glanced back at me. “Someone will come for you when Nikolaos decides it is time.” He closed the door, and I heard it latch and lock. His voice floated through the bars, rich, almost bubbling with laughter, “And perhaps, because I liked you.” His laughter was bitter, like broken glass.

Chapter 10

I had to check the locked door. Rattle it, poke at the lock, as if I knew how to pick locks. See if any bars were loose, though I could never have squeezed through the small window anyway.

I checked the door because I could not resist it. It was the same urge that made you rattle your trunk after you locked your keys inside.

I have been on the wrong side of a lot of locked doors. Not a one of them had just opened for me, but there was always a first time. Yeah, I should live so long. Scratch that; bad phrase.

A sound brought me back to the cell and its seeping, damp walls. A rat scurried against the far wall. Another peered around the edge of the steps, whiskers twitching. I guess you can’t have a dungeon without rats, but I would have been willing to give it a try.

Something else pattered around the edge of the steps; in the torchlight I thought it was a dog. It wasn’t. A rat the size of a German shepherd sat up on its sleek black haunches. It stared at me, huge paws tucked close to its furry chest. It cocked one large, black button eye at me. Lips drew back from yellowed teeth. The incisors were five inches long, blunt-edged daggers.

I yelled, “Jean-Claude!”

The air filled with high-pitched squeals, echoing, as if they were ru

“Jean-Claude!” I beat on the door, jerked at the bars, everything I had done before. It was useless. I wasn’t getting out. I kicked the door and screamed, “Dammit!” The sound echoed against the stone walls and almost drowned out the sound of thousands of scrambling claws.

“They will not come for you until we are finished.”

I froze, hands still on the door. I turned, slowly. The voice had come from inside the cell. The floor writhed and twisted with furry little bodies. High-pitched squeals, the thick brush of fur, the clatter of thousands of tiny claws filled the room. Thousands of them, thousands.

Four giant rats sat like mountains in the writhing furry tide. One of them stared at me with black button eyes. There was nothing ratlike in the stare. I had never seen wererats before, but I was betting that I was seeing them now.

One figure stood, legs half-bent. It was man-size, with a narrow, ratlike face. A huge naked tail curved around its bent legs like thick fleshy rope. It—no, he, definitely he—extended a clawed hand. “Come down and join us, human.” The voice sounded thick, almost furry, with an edge of whine to it. Each word precise and a little wrong. Rats’ lips are not made for talking.

I was not coming down the steps. No way. I could taste my heart in my throat. I knew a man who survived a werewolf attack, nearly died, and didn’t become a werewolf. I know another man who was barely scratched and became a weretiger. Odds were, if I was so much as scratched, in a month’s time I would be playing fur-face, complete with black button eyes and yellowish fangs. Dear God.

“Come down, human. Come down and play.”

I swallowed hard. It felt like I was trying to swallow my heart. “I don’t think so.”

It gave a hissing laugh. “We could come up and fetch you.” He strode through the lesser rats, and they parted for him frantically, leaping on top of each other to avoid his touch. He stood at the edge of the steps, looking up at me. His fur was almost a honey-brown color, streaked with blond. “If we force you off the steps, you won’t like it much.”

I swallowed hard. I believed him. I went for my knife and found the sheath empty. Of course, the vampires had taken it. Dammit.

“Come down, human, come down and play.”

“If you want me, you’re going to have to come get me.”

He curled his tail through his hands, stroking it. One clawed hand ran through the fur of his belly, and stroked lower. I stared very hard at his face, and he laughed at me.

“Fetch her.”

Two of the dog-size rats moved towards the stairs. A small rat squealed and rolled under their feet. It gave a high, piteous shriek, then nothing. It twitched until the other rats covered it. Tiny bones snapped. Nothing would go to waste.

I pressed against the door, as if I could sink through it. The two rats crept up the steps, sleek well-fed animals. But there was no animal in the eyes. Whatever was there was human, intelligent.

“Wait, wait.”

The rats hesitated.

The ratman said, “Yes?”

I swallowed audibly. “What do you want?”

“Nikolaos asked that we entertain you while you wait.”