Page 66 of Stripped

My heart stuttered, and I worried for Rixton. Later, I would feel sorrow for Jeremy and Melanie, but at the moment all I could feel was fear and an odd numbness. “They're dead?”

He nodded. “You have friends in strange places, Abby. Or you did.”

“What about Alice? Is she here?”

He sighed, pursing his lips in a false expression of sadness. “Such a beautiful woman. Very weak, unfortunately. I'd had such hopes for her.”

“She's… She's dead?” My heart twisted. Had I come here for nothing? He'd already killed her? Killed her just because she was someone in my orbit?

“She couldn't handle my needs,” he said. “I have a voracious appetite.”

Bile rose in my throat, but I pushed it back down. Grief and fear would do me no good here. If I couldn't save Alice, I could at least make Leopold pay. Okay, I probably couldn't make him pay, but maybe I could get information for the pack. If I managed to get away from him alive, I'd be able to tell them what he was up to. It was a long shot, but the only plan I had. I straightened and faced him. “She was my friend.”

He shrugged. “And now she's dead.” He leaned in and met my gaze, his eyes boring into me. I felt the compulsion taking hold, felt it latching on, but I also felt my body rejecting it, fighting it, my stomach roiling, my limbs shaking. I let my expression go slack, hoping to convince him I was under compulsion before I really was. He sat back, smirking. “Tell me everything that happened from the time you left me until this moment.”

I opened my mouth and spoke as though I had no control, but I managed to hold some things back, to lie about others. The compulsion was there, stabbing my guts and giving me a headache, but it wasn't controlling me completely. I told him the wolves hadn't trusted me, had kept me in a cage. I told him they were in a bad way and were talking about leaving Mule Creek. I told him the wolves thought the vamps wanted to take over the pack territory because they were no longer able to fit in among the humans, that vampires feared the humans. I played against his narcissism.

Leopold listened to my story, rapt and grinning, until I got to the part about the wolves' opinion of the vampires. Then his expression became angry, disgusted, hopeful. “Those wolves are idiots,” he said, pacing. “We're going to make that territory into a temple, a capital, a promise land for all vampires.” He grinned. “But their opinion might suit our plan, might help us destroy their little pack.”

“Why do you want it?”

“Because of the water,” he said. “There is water there that can make vampires stronger than we've ever been before, it can make us unstoppable.”

“That's amazing,” I said, wide-eyed. “And the wolves don't even know what they have? You'll chase them off the land and you'll become the most powerful vampire in the world.”

Leopold rubbed his hands together and smiled, his gaze distant as he considered his future. “Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Drinking the water directly from the village well does nothing. When I found Alice in the woods, I thought I might be able to get it through her blood, but I drained her dry and nothing.” I had to work to keep my expression wondering and awed at those words. “The only way we can get the full benefit is through the wolf blood. The blood of wolves who have drunk from the village's water supply.”

“How did you find out?”

“Completely by accident. When the packs split and some wolves moved from Mule Creek to Aspens Whiten, we had the pleasure of partaking of their blood and we discovered it gave us untold power. For a while, we sent Alpha and his pack to drink the water of Mule Creek, but Axel got suspicious and Alpha was too chicken to keep sending his wolves there. We've managed to convince wolves to leave Axel's pack from time to time and lured the ones who've left on their own, but it's not enough.”

“So, once you have it, you're just going to share it with all the vampires of the world? Whoever comes to Mule Creek?”

Leopold sat next to me, taking my hands in his. “Not at all, dear. My coven and I are going to keep it to ourselves. The wolves will be the source of our blood and our power and they will be our servants. They will serve us and we'll rule over all the vampires in the country. We'll be the enforcers of the vamp world. There are some bad elements among our kind and the council wants them rooted out and destroyed before they cause more trouble.”

“You'll be a king,” I said, my voice breathy like I was impressed and not disgusted by that idea.

He nodded. “I'll be the emperor and you will be my consort. You aren't a vampire, so you can't be my queen…” He stopped and looked me over. “But you're not human, are you? Your blood tasted so strange, unlike anything I'd had before. What are you?”

“Part siren,” I said, the words mechanical as though I were still under his compulsion.

“Really?” He leaned in and sniffed me. “I wonder if your blood might carry the effects of the Mule Creek water.”

I shoved away from him and tried to get up, but his arm shot out and he caged me in with one hand on the armrest of the couch. His gaze met mine, but I pinched my eyes shut. “Open your eyes,” he cooed. “I want to see your pretty eyes, Abigail.”

I pulled the wooden stake I'd carved, during a pit stop on my way to Leopold's place, out of my purse and shoved hard against his arm. He must not have been expecting me to fight back, because his arm gave and I broke free. He toppled forward and I lunged with the stake, aiming for the center of his back.

He moved so fast, I couldn't track him. One moment he was falling forward on the couch, the next he'd twisted, lifted me, and tossed me against the wall. I slammed into the wall, the air knocked out of me, and then hit the floor almost as hard. I tried to focus on Leopold as he stalked across the room toward me, but my vision was blurry and I hadn't caught my breath. Fear was making my heart race and my breath harder to find. I remembered what Julie had told me, fear was my biggest enemy. If I let fear win, I was dead.

I pulled in a deep gasp of air and my vision cleared long enough for me to see Leopold's hand shoot out, aiming for my neck. I rolled to the right and stood, stake in hand.

Swaying on my feet, my back screaming for me to just be still, I held that stake out in front of me and, when Leopold came for me again, I thrust forward hard. I felt the stake hit and I lunged into Leopold's attack, pushing against the stake with everything I had.

He laughed. “You think that puny splinter can hurt me? I'm a god compared to you. I can snap your neck as easily as I take a breath.”

He allowed himself to be impaled on the stake, moving toward me and wrapping his arms around me. I must have missed his heart by a mile.

I fought against his grip, but his teeth pierced my skin in a painful jab and then he was sucking the blood from me, each pull on my veins more painful than the last, like liquid fire was being injected into my veins with his bloody kiss. It hadn't hurt so bad the first time he'd bitten me, but maybe he'd been gentler. This time, he was sucking blood from my body like someone trying to suck a too-frozen milkshake through a narrow straw.

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