Page 28 of Fangs for the Memories
“I don’t know.”
“Then make it your business to know. A war on humans is one we’ll all get dragged into, and I’m not prepared to be part of it. Neither is my pack.” I growl. “Sort this out, Dominik, or I will, and it won’t be pretty for him or for you.”
“Your mate is human,” Dominik says as my hand curls around the door handle. “This is as much your fight as mine.”
I’m on him in the single beat of an insect’s wing, my fangs at his throat. Dominik doesn’t flinch.
“Do not even speak of my mate,” I rasp in a voice which is hardly mine.
“So, you do have a mate?”
Damn this vampire…if he wasn’t already damned. I curse as I release him. I’ve played right into his hands, and I will regret it.
“Ferenc Kóbor, alpha of the Kóbor pack, is mated.” Dominik smooths out his clothing. “Will wonders never cease?”
“Deal with your rogue,” I snarl. “Because if I have to assist, my price will be higher than you want to pay.”
I stride out of his sanctum, down the staircase to the external door. The place is filled with vampires, some of which decide to play hard and show me their fangs. None of them are a match for me and I’m not in the mood to kill.
I want to be with Grace. My fur itches under my skin because I’m not by her side. It seems fate has other plans for me than simply destroying vampires.
For tonight, Dominik’s nest is safe.
Grace
The Géllert seems more deserted than ever. There isn’t even anyone on reception as I push through the revolving doors, turning to see how Viktor manages.
He manages by not using the doors, instead shoving his huge bulk through a single door to one side. If he’s surprised at the lack of staff in the hotel, he doesn’t show it, instead ushering me to the elevator and pressing the call button.
As we wait, I inhale the scent of the coat I’m wearing.
“You know, Ferenc hasn’t mated,” Viktor rumbles. “His mother wants him to take a mate, but so far he has refused.”
I shake my head. “I’m human. We don’t mate,” I respond. “We just get our hearts trampled into the ground by treacherous men who think they own the world.”
I’m rather surprised to hear Viktor snort with laughter. He shakes his great stone head.
“Men,” he says. “They’re trouble.”
My jaw goes slack at his answer, but then the elevator chimes and the doors open. Viktor’s wings flare briefly. I furrow my brow and get in. He follows, and it creaks more than usual but operates smoothly after I press the button for the top floor.
“What do you know of men?” I ask as the elevator rises.
“They persecuted my kind almost to extinction,” Viktor says. “Until all we had was the high buildings they built and our ability to withstand time.”
I am silent. There is so much I don’t know about monsters, not in the least their history with humans before they revealed themselves.
The elevator doors open at my floor. Viktor steps out ahead of me and hesitates.
“Everything okay?” I ask, as I nearly get slapped in the face by his wings.
Viktor makes a noncommittal sound but moves forward, and I troop after him to my bedroom door. I slide the key in the lock and turn it. As I do, there is the most tremendous shriek. Viktor flings me to one side, using his wings to batter away the grey shapes which burst from the open doorway. They hit the wall on the opposite side of the corridor as the lights flicker, and I see them attacking Viktor in a series of tableaux framed by the light.
Until one of them is over me. A face, not human, with so many teeth, twisted into a scream which paralyses me completely in horror.
If I thought the vampires were bad, this thing is worse, whatever it is. Foul breath hits me, but there’s no way I can move. It’s as if I’m frozen in position as the thing gets closer and closer.
Until, as if it was nothing, it is ripped in half and disappears. Viktor stands over me, his chest heaving.
