One of them laughed before breaking into a dead blur around him, but Elias fought his shock and found a way to use that speed against him. Breathing, waiting for the perfect timing, he hauled back and wailed on the guy, the impact sending him crashing against the opposite wall.
He shook out his stinging hand. “Who’s next?”
The fight continued for long minutes, Elias in constant motion. The ramped up strength of his opponents found him on his back several times, and despite the steady drain on his energy, he kept staggering to his feet, gesturing for the next one to bring it on, fighting with every ounce of defiance inside of him. Until suddenly Inessa stepped into the circle. “Stop!”
The ring of intruders dropped their fists as if they’d been deprogrammed, leaving Elias panting in the center of the brawl.
“I think this one will be very useful to me.”
Elias spat blood on the carpet. “I’ll be nothing to you—”
A wooden stake was produced from the inside of her cape before he finished speaking, arcing down and slashing through the center of his lips. Pain and shock struck him immobile and all he could do was stand there, staring back at Inessa and dripping blood on to the carpet.
“I don’t fight women,” Elias coughed through his ravaged lips.
“You will,” she hissed, her face contorting in an evil mask. “Soon, darling, you will be so desperate to feed yourself, you won’t have the ability to discriminate. All humans will be blood donors to you. You’ll leave carcasses in your wake.”
“Never.”
At some point during the brawl, his mind had begun to accept that these were not normal, everyday people. They were inhumanly strong. Their fangs shot in and out of their gums as signs of aggression. They moved at a rate of speed his eyes weren’t sharp enough to track.
Holy shit. Was he really believing this?
How could he not? He was seeing them with his own two eyes.
Vampires.
The idea of becoming one of these soulless monsters was so abhorrent, he could no longer stop the fear from taking hold. How could he stop them? He’d fought them with every ounce of skill and spite in his arsenal and barely winded them. They operated differently. More efficiently. If they wanted to make him a vampire or worse, hurt Roksana, he couldn’t stop them. Not physically.
Elias closed his eyes briefly, wishing he had his teammates at his back. Wishing he’d spent a little less time taking them for granted. More time appreciating what they’d given him. Friendship. Security. Acceptance. There was no time to dwell on that now, though. Not with Roksana’s safety in question.
“You claim I will be useful to you. How?”
A hint of a smile curled her brutal mouth. “You will lead them to my daughter. You will be there for the slaughter of Roksana and her friends. I wish her to taste betrayal and heartbreak, the way she has made me feel it, every day since she walked away from her birthright.”
By the time she finished, Elias was so pissed, he was shaking. “Vampire or human, whatever the hell you turn me into, I will never lay a goddamn finger on her and neither will any of you. Bet on it.”
Inessa carefully replaced the blood-covered stake in her cape, her eyes turning thoughtful, calculating. “Let’s not pretend you could stop us, shall we?” She paused, scrutinizing Elias. “But perhaps slaughtering only her friends will drive her back to the fold. I had not considered this. See, already you are useful to me.”
He glimpsed hope in the form of Roksana living and pounced on it. Because Inessa was right. As much as it scored his pride to admit it, he couldn’t stop nearly a dozen inhumanly strong beasts from hurting her. “Spare her and I’ll do anything you want,” he said thickly.
Triumph wove its way through her expression. “I need someone to help train my slayers to keep up with the undead. And of course, the experience needs to be authentic, doesn’t it? Yes, a year of your life should do it.” She waved a hand. “Well, I use the term life loosely. Since technically, we’ll be taking yours.”
Refusing to show weakness, he lifted his chin. “No matter what, I’ll be keeping my soul.”
“That’s sweet, but don’t get your hopes up,” she cooed, before her face hardened and she pointed a long, bejeweled finger in his direction. “Tell my daughter of this bargain and it’s off. I’ll lop her head off in the middle of Red Square.”
“You have my word,” he breathed, banishing that offensive imagery.
She gestured to the vampires still circling Elias.
“Well?” Inessa clapped her hands together gleefully. “What are you waiting for?”
CHAPTER SIX
Moscow, present day
Roksana rolled her carry-on suitcase to the edge of the fountain, dropping down onto the concrete edge and pulling her thin coat tighter to her chest. The high-reaching tower of Moscow State University loomed in the distance, trees clustering at her feet. The sun sparkled, but the air cut into her like knives. From every direction, Russian spilled from the lips of students running to their next class or parked on benches. They lamented the fact that it was Monday while clutching cups of kofe in their hands to stay warm. Such normalcy.