Chapter 14

Lynda's head pounded with every tick of a clock too close to her ear. Road noise vibrated around her. Where am I? Groggy, she shifted, pushing herself into a sitting position. A burly male across from her grinned, and she realized she'd been lying on his arm. His wristwatch gleamed in the passing streetlights of the van’s windows.

“Where are we? Where are you taking me?” She moved toward the van's sliding door, but another goon guarded the way.

Two more sat up front with one man driving. A fifth guy cleaned a Bowie knife in the back of the vehicle. All the seats had been removed, and the carpet floor smelled of blood and urine and gunpowder with an undercurrent of vodka.

“Our leader wants to speak with you.” Wristwatch guy shrugged. “So, we have to keep you alive...for now.”

There were only two reasons she could think of as to why the Russian boss wanted to talk to her. To find out where Andrei, Mihnea, and Pierre were in order to lure Dracula to him and kill them all. And possibly to find out about her data in finding women compatible with vampires to have more offspring. Good thing she hadn't clicked on those other women's names and found out where they lived or phone numbers so the vamps couldn’t pull the information out of her. But the program would have to be reconfigured for the new DNA, and she wasn't going to help these vamps out no matter what they threatened. Aiding them meant harming the three princes she'd fallen in love with.

She glanced around, hoping to find her purse or better yet, her cellphone.

“Looking for this?” The goon that captured her on the street waved her phone from the passenger seat up front. “I've shut it down and removed the battery.” He tucked it into the dashboard. “Don't worry. When we want the filthy Romanians to come, we'll turn it back on.”

What the Russians didn't know was that the three princes had other options. They wouldn't be concerned with her or where she went. They had the information they needed to find their brides.

The car screeched to a halt, and the side door slid open. She kicked as they hauled her out of the van and into a building with tinted windows. She scanned the area for anyone to call for help or where to run if she escaped. Most of the buildings around were boarded up.

A few homeless men begged on a street corner nearby, but when she met their gaze, they turned away as if they didn’t see her. Then again, why would she think they’d help? Between humans and vampires, the latter always won unless wood was handy. Even then, vamps were hard to kill with a stake. They didn’t just wait for the wooden pike to be driven into their chest. And she doubted any of these people on the street had access to a gun much less wooden bullets.

Sunset colored the sky red and orange, and the full vampires would be coming out. Would it be the last time she saw the sun? The Russians would kill her once they realized she was of little value to Dracula and his sons.

Two men carried her by her arms into an elevator. She twisted and jerked attempting to free herself with no luck.

The elevator shimmied to a stop. When the doors opened, she stepped out with the two men gripping her arms.

They marched down a dark hallway to an open office. Inside were a plush leather chair and a huge man who looked like Santa on steroids. A maple desk was before him along with a phone on one corner and a closed laptop on the other. The man reclined in the chair, swirling a wine glass of bright ruby-colored liquid. Blood.

More vampires lined the sides of the office. Twenty in all. She was totally screwed. Even her specialty bullets wouldn't help her against this many, besides the half-vamps had picked up her gun when she dropped it earlier. She had nothing else to defend herself with.

The goons on either side of her dropped their hands, and she rubbed her arms. One shoved a hand against her back, and she staggered forward.

“You know why you’re here?” The Santa wanna-be asked in a thick Russian accent.

“Sure.” She crossed her arms, shrugging. “You want to know where Dracula and his sons are so you can kill them.”

“That's only part of it.” He swallowed down the drink. One of the vamps closest to him dashed forward and took the glass, disappearing behind the office door.

“Do you know the story of the Russian vampires?”

“What's to know? You drink blood, hate the Romanians, and want to dominate the world.”

He smacked a hand on the desk, making her jump and the wood crack. “That is the version Dracula, and his kind, preach.”

Every story had two sides, but she had believed her three lovers. Had she been wrong to trust them so easily? Her heart slipped into her shoes.

“Do you know why we have day-walkers while the Romanians have none?”

She had wondered about that and chalked it up to Dracula and his sons’ DNA being complex. Only a tiny fraction of the population would be able to reproduce with them, and through the centuries, they hadn't found the ones to enable them to sire children. But the Russian’s words made her reevaluate her findings. Five half-vampires had come to collect her, and she was willing to bet they had a lot more than that. So why did Dracula and his people have zero? She didn't believe in curses. Andrei had said the church had damned his father and them. There had to be a logical explanation.

“All right, why are you able to reproduce with humans and they aren't?”

Santa combed through his white beard, smiling. “Vlad Dracula wanted an advantage over the Turks, including revenge on the suicide of his first and only love.”

She knew this part of history. “Right. Dracula swore to remove the infidel Turks from his lands under the blessings of both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Later, the churches excommunicated him.”

“What your history books won't tell you is how he and his sons were cursed.” He nodded and a vampire left the office only to return a short time later with a metal fold-out chair.

After it was propped up in front of the desk, she was pushed to sit down in it.

“Vlad discovered my cousin was a talented Vedma…a witch. She fell in love with Vlad while he was there in the forest, mourning the death of his wife. Her naivety in love made her believe his flattery and declarations that she was his true mate. Pregnant with his child, she improved the vampire strain with her magic as a token of her love for him. When she created the strain, giving Vlad, no weaknesses. Armed with his new abilities, Vlad left her in Russia to conquer his enemies. He promised to return to her and their unborn child after he defeated his enemies and reclaimed his throne.”

Vlad had another child? Not too surprising since many rulers and nobility had mistresses and lovers.

“Let me guess, he never returned.” She shifted in the metal chair.

“Correct.” He steepled his fingers. “Perhaps if she hadn't hidden their affair from her family, we wouldn't have allowed Vlad to trick her. Instead of fulfilling his promises, he married another woman. He had two more sons with his new bride. Devastated, Ekaterina struck a curse and killed his second child. She hoped that would cause Vlad to seek her out. When he saw her and their daughter, he'd realize his mistake and pledge his love and marry my cousin.”

“But that didn't happen, did it?” Lynda asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No. Our family wrote the Catholic and Orthodox Churches about what had happened and how Vlad had sworn to marry her and broke his vow. They excommunicated him, hoping he'd repent and do as he promised. Still, he refused. My cousin, Ekaterina, then altered the gift she’d given him, making vampires anywhere in the world burn up from sunlight and able to die from a wooden stake, in honor of Vlad's favorite execution of impaling. And through the heart, as he had pierced her heart and then crushed it to ash. She thought he would return and beg forgiveness.

“Instead, he showed up with an army to wipe her and her family out. She lied, telling him the child didn't survive the winter. As most of her family lay dead around her, she summoned the magic of her future generations and her mother's family and cursed Vlad Dracula and his remaining sons never to be able to reproduce. But there was a small flaw in her plan. One woman in a million and from her lineage would be able to bear children with anyone from Vlad's descendants.”

The Santa-look-a-like leaned back in his chair. “Vlad killed her and hunted in vain for his offspring, who still carried the complete, untarnished gift of the vampire, but he never found her. At first, he believed the curse only affected him...that his sons would have children and carry on his name. When he discovered the truth, he adopted Andrei to take one of his dead sons’ place. He turned them into vampires thinking that would break the curse, but to no avail.”

“Fascinating, but what does this have to do with me?” The Russians couldn't know about her report or rather the glitch that put her as the best human to mate with the three princes.

The Russian Santa snapped his fingers, and a vampire rushed forward removing a slip of paper from his back pocket, handing the paper to her.

She unfolded it and read the names, her mouth drying. Hers was at the top and circled in red ink. The others were the names she had pulled up from the report only hours ago.

“How...how did you get this?”

Santa laughed. “We have traced and followed my cousin’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren for generations upon generations.”

She glanced up from the list. “But I'm Hispanic, not Russian.”

“But your ancestry starts with Ekaterina, my cousin, and her daughter, Vitaliya.”

“No that's not possible. My family would've told me.”

His expression softened. “Even when Vlad Dracula discovered Rasputin was descended from Ekaterina and him through Vitaliya and finally came to kill him when his minions could not? How your great-great-grandmother had to flee to Spain and then her children to Mexico to avoid Vlad's wrath?” He shook his head. “Why tell you anything when they thought you and your parents and grandparents were safe? That Vlad would never find you.”

Her stomach lurched. “What about the others on this list?”

“You’re distant cousins and an aunt.”

How did she know this was even true, that he wasn't bluffing? “Let's say I believe you. Then what? You've kidnapped me and brought me here against my will, yet you want me to believe you all are the good guys? I saw what your vamps did to Pierre's restaurant. They killed innocent people.”

His brow furrowed. “Sometimes people get hurt. This is war and battles are messy and have bloodshed.”

“Bullshit!” She tossed the paper across the desk. “No one had to get hurt. Maybe Vlad and his sons were the enemy before and did wrong. But from where I stand, they are the only ones trying to save others.” Well, except Dracula. He'd probably had humans for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

“You are in love and can't see the truth just like Ekaterina until it was too late.” He glowered. “Lock her up. Then we will see what Vlad and the princes do. Turn her cellphone on and send them a message if they've tried to contact her. Tell them the price for her release is Dracula and two of his sons’ heads on a spike.”

“No!” she screamed.

They yanked her from the chair. She kicked and cursed, but they hauled her away.