As Shadows Fade (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles 5)

And Lilith. Red eyes… not pink ones. Beauregard had pink ones.

Victoria tried to blink, felt the strong rough hands pressing on her and something linking around her wrist. Metal, cold and heavy, and she thought suddenly, clearly, of Max, and how he’d worn manacles when Lilith had had him in her presence. She kicked out blindly, catching something soft, but she couldn’t see, for the red eyes had her again.

They had her… trapped, lulled, loose, and murky.

Hands on her clothes, pulling them away from her neck, tearing the cotton away from her chest. Her cross was gone, torn off during the fight with the Guardian. She felt the heat of the room on her damp skin, felt the brush of wiry copper hair over her throat and cheek, then the smell of roses stronger.

She couldn’t move. Her legs were held by a heavy weight. Hands grasped her head, pinning it still to the cushions beneath. One hand held by a heavy cuff, attached above her head; the other hand left to flail free, to catch at Sebastian’s soft curling hair and vainly at the stone wall… A bit of a tease, she thought sluggishly, leaving one hand free to try to fight.

Vaguely, she realized this was important… She tucked her hand under herself in an effort to keep it free, to hide the fact that it was loose, make them think it was trapped beneath her.

But then the rose smell, and the intense heat of the room clogged her nose, slowed everything along with those hot red eyes, burning, lusting, in a face that had been dear… was so dear.

“Sebastian,” she cried. “No.”

“Oh come now,” whispered a voice near her ear. Not Sebastian, but Lilith. Crooning lovingly into her flesh. “You will enjoy it, Victoria Gardella. I understand you know Sebastian quite well. And he is very hungry. He has refused to feed since he drank from me, the poor darling.”

Victoria twisted powerfully, freeing one leg from the weight on it, using the hand beneath her for leverage, and slammed her foot into something living that she couldn’t see. It might have been Sebastian, for he was right behind Lilith. His red eyes showed the jolt from the impact of her foot.

He refused to feed.

Thank God. Still a chance.

She bucked and twisted again, and then that heavy weight came on her legs once more, and there were hands smoothing the hair away from her face, scraping it back harshly so that her skin spread taut beneath those skeletal fingers.

And then Lilith moved closer, and Victoria felt the leap of her veins as the fangs came out, came close, and the warm hot breath. She struggled, looking up beyond the coppery hair coming closer, trapped by the red eyes, hot red eyes… lustful and needy.

No, no, not Sebastian, please…

The fangs slid into her skin, and she jerked at the sudden pain… then a rush of horrible pleasure. The blood burst from the wounds as if freed from its confines, and she felt the horrible sensation of one cold, one warm lip suctioning on her flesh. Lilith’s warm breath on her skin, the proximity of her body, her hands pushing the hair away, positioning her head, holding it harsh and in place as Victoria strained beneath her.

Victoria smelled the blood, and there beneath the thrall, she saw the craving leap in Sebastian’s eyes. She saw them narrow, and his fine nose flare, the beauty of his face still as angelic as before… except for those eyes. And the slender fangs that tipped gently into his lower lip.

No.

She felt the warm blood draining from her, and deep inside she pulled all of her energy, gathering it into her belly, imagining it settling below her strength amulets, drawing from them. She had to fight free.

Please, God.

She marshaled all her power, let her free hand shift under her, into the back of her trousers. She might… She gasped, hesitated, as Lilith sucked harder, suddenly, and she felt the awareness begin to drain from her.

No. I am Illa Gardella.

Victoria slipped her hand from beneath her, moving as though she were underwater, as quickly as she could but oh so slowly… to the duo of vis bullae beneath her torn shirt. She touched the holy silver, and felt a jolt of strength blast through her. She breathed deep, pushed away the scent of blood so close to her, the feel of lips on her skin, fought to sever the connection with those hot red eyes burning behind Lilith’s head.

That wasn’t Sebastian anymore. Not the Sebastian she knew.

Like Phillip.

Anger roared up from beneath the thrall, the sluggish red world, and galvanized her. Giving a great, last, harsh buck and twist, she managed to slip her hand beneath and under her hips, scrabbling for the stake behind there as Lilith forced her back into place. Her only chance… Had the demon spoken the truth?

Victoria’s fingers closed around the wood of the ash stake, made from a fresh branch on the mountain only a short time ago, and relief surged through her when she slipped it free of her waistband. The bark and point scraped against her skin, already raw from claw marks, as she forced it from beneath her prone, weighted body, sidling it under the edge of her hip.

It seemed to take forever for these little movements, and Victoria felt the strength draining from her as the blood coursed from her veins, straining for relief, for release.

Then Lilith stopped. She gave one last, gentle, sensual suck, then withdrew her fangs. Settling back, she looked down at Victoria, whose chest rose and fell as though she’d been running. She could barely focus. The red eyes lulled. The heat pressed down on her… She felt warmth trickling from her neck, leaking down, iron-scented, into the crease of her shoulder and seeping into the fabric beneath.

“There, now,” Lilith said in a husky voice, looking back at Sebastian. “See how I’ve prepared her for you. The fight is gone from her… Perhaps now you’ll not be so reluctant to feed.”

He didn’t speak, but through the fog, Victoria saw the need… the deep lust and craving in his eyes. His nostrils flared wide, as though drawing in the scent of blood like a man draws in oxygen, and he was breathing just as harshly as she was. His lips, as full and sensual as they’d been when he wooed and coaxed her, parted.

No.

Sending up a last prayer, she drew in a deep breath and tore her eyes fully from Sebastian’s enthralling red ones. It was a physical break; she felt the ties loosen, but not completely disappear, as she pulled away. The incessant tug eased… The stake in her hand rose, flying up as if of its own volition. She saw it as if from underwater, from a distance: slow and foggy… the point slamming into the white skin in front of her.

Lilith jerked aside in time, and the stake pierced, not her heart… but the soft part above her collarbone, slamming in deep. Victoria cried out in frustration as the vampiress froze above her.