"Fine," I snarled, playing along and pretending I was already beaten. "You may have the winning hand right now, but I'll tell you the same thing I told your man Pete before I dumped his body in the pool. You have no idea who you're messing with."
"Oh, I think I do," Dekes said. "So get rid of your weapons - now. All of them."
I put the silverstone knife I was holding on top of the stone mantel that jutted out from the fireplace, then pulled out the four others I had hidden on my body and placed them there as well. I made my movements slow and exaggerated so the giants wouldn't have an excuse to rush me en masse and also to give myself a few more seconds to think.
I had two choices. I could reach for my Stone magic, use it to harden my skin, smash through one of the French doors, and run like hell. It was the safer option, even though there was no guarantee of success. And of course, I'd have to leave Vanessa and Victoria behind to face Dekes's wrath. Or I could wait for Dekes to move within arm's reach, grab him, blast him with all the Ice magic that I had, and hope that it was enough to cut through his own stolen power and turn him into a Popsicle. A much bigger gamble, since I'd still have the giants to deal with, but the reward was much greater: kill the vampire now and hopefully save the two women from this house of horrors.
Run or fight, run or fight.
I decided to fight.
I put the last of my knives onto the mantel and waited for Dekes to move into range.
"How nice," Dekes said, walking over and picking up one of the blades. "A matching set. I'll have to add these to my weapons collection."
He sidled even closer to me. I reached for my Ice magic and waited - just waited for him to take a few more steps in my direction.
"I collect weapons, you know," Dekes said, not seeming to realize the danger he was in. "I'm sure you saw some of them earlier during our tour. I especially like small guns, dart guns. Like this one."
And that's when the vamp whirled around and shot me.
Too late, I heard something mechanical snap and saw the glint of metal appear in Dekes's left hand. In addition to the elemental power that he stole from his victims, their blood also gave Dekes something else, something that blood gave so many vamps - unbelievably fast reflexes. He already had his gun up and pointed at me before I realized what was happening, and I didn't even have time to create an Ice shield to block his attack or use my Stone magic to harden my skin before he pulled the trigger and a small dart stung my neck. I cursed and yanked it out, but it was already too late. Even as I tried to summon up enough of my Ice magic to blast Dekes to hell, I could feel my limbs going numb.
I only managed to take one step toward the vampire before my legs went out from under me. My last thought before I thumped to the floor was that I'd made the wrong choice, picked the wrong magic - and now I was going to pay for it.
Chapter 16
My arms and legs went dead - absolutely, immediately cold, numb, and dead - but my mind remained strangely clear, and I didn't lose consciousness. No, I was painfully aware of lying there on the library floor, wanting to kill Randall Dekes more than anything else and not being able to do it. I couldn't get any part of my body to work, not so much as a finger to twitch, much less point my hands at Dekes and blast him with my Ice magic.
"Prop her up in one of the chairs, and tie her there nice and tight," Dekes said somewhere above my head. "I don't want any surprises. Quickly now, before the drug wears off."
Hands lifted me up and maneuvered me into a chair in front of the fireplace. One of the giants hurried over to the wet bar and reached down for something hidden on one of the shelves there. He came up with a coil of rope, the kind of thick, heavy, almost unbreakable rope that you'd find on a sailboat, the kind of rope that would be a bitch to slice through, even if I'd still had one of my silverstone knives on me. Not that I could have used them, given how numb my fingers were right now.
The giant stepped forward and quickly tied me down to the chair, looping the rope over my chest, arms, and legs until I was trussed up tighter than a Thanksgiving turkey.
Never let yourself be immobilized by the enemy. Fletcher had told me that over and over again, but here I was, tied down to a chair and about to be tortured for the second time in my life. Fuck.
I managed to loll my head to one side to look at Vanessa, but the Fire elemental lowered her eyes. She didn't want to meet my gaze. Couldn't blame her for that. I wouldn't want to watch what was about to happen next either - especially since there was nothing I could do to stop it. Not one damn thing. For a moment, I wished for the blindfold Mab had used when she'd tortured me by melting my spider rune necklace into my palms. At least then I wouldn't have to see Dekes bite me. But I wasn't that scared thirteen-year-old girl anymore. I was older and stronger, if not exactly wiser. Either way, I'd face my enemy head-on.
Dekes walked around so that he was beside me and leaned forward over the chair, so close I could feel his hot breath brush against my cheek and smell his spicy aftershave. The floral scent made me want to gag.
"Don't worry, Gin," Dekes purred in my ear. "I just gave you a muscle relaxant to make you a little more pliable so my men could get you into the chair right where you needed to be. The effects won't last more than another minute. You should already start feeling some sensation returning to your arms and legs, while your mind remains completely unaffected. You see, I want you to know exactly what's happening to you. I want you to feel every last bit of it. I wouldn't have any fun otherwise."
He was right. The absolute numbness was already starting to fade, replaced by small, painful tingles. I concentrated and was able to move my fingers, but I knew that it wasn't going to be enough, that I wasn't going to recover quickly enough to escape what the vampire had in mind.
Dekes reached down and tilted my head to one side, exposing my throat to him. I couldn't help but look up into his face. Lust blazed in Dekes's green eyes, and his tongue eagerly darted out to moisten his lips underneath his bristling mustache. The vampire smiled a final time, letting me see just how long, sharp, and deadly his fangs were.
Then the bastard sank them into my neck.
There are some folks who think that being bitten by a vampire is sexy.
Some people like that first pop of pain, the dizzying rush of their blood leaving their own body, the weak, languid feeling of having someone else steal away part of them. Some folks even get a high off those kinds of feelings, a heady, electric charge that seems to make it all worthwhile.
I am not one of those people.
Being bitten by a vampire is like being stabbed in the neck with a dagger - two of them at the same time. Dekes's bite was hard, brutal, merciless, and vicious, just like he was. I screamed as he drove his fangs deep into my neck, and I screamed again as he started to suck out my blood in long, agonizing spurts. The last of the numbness from the drug immediately vanished, replaced by pure, pulsing pain. It felt like there was a giant fist wrapped around my neck that was just squeezing and squeezing and squeezing the blood and everything else out of me. The magic, the power, the life.