Page 78 of Starved Until Sunset

He also realized that his current situation was apparently a dump truck’s worth of karma being dropped on him from about fifty thousand feet up.

But guilt would have to wait. At that moment, he needed to first get free, and then get out of the basement.

Sounds from the top of the stairs made them all stop their steady attempts to escape. A lock disengaged and, with a squeal of hinges, the heavy metal door swung open. The squealing hinges almost sounded familiar to Cody, but then Lucia started shouting.

“Help! Help us! Sheriff’s Deputy Durant and others are being held down here! Help us!”

Figures appeared in the murky shadows at the top of the stairs. One carried another over its shoulder as if its burden weighed no more than a pillow. The door slammed shut behind them, a deadbolt turned with a final-sounding click, and then one of the figures descended the metal steps.

The light from the bulb revealed Aldrik, still dressed in his modern clothes, dark hair in a ponytail, and a smug expression on his handsome, pale face. A woman was draped over his shoulder, unmoving, and Cody felt more than a little queasy at the sight.

“You can shout all you like, Deputy,” Aldrik said in that smooth, accented voice that contained just the slightest blush of menace. “There’s no one around up there to hear you. Not after closing time in your small town.”

Closing time? So, they were obviously in the basement of a business still within Parson’s Hollow. But where? And why did Cody feel like he should be recognizing things around him?

Aldrik carried the figure across the room. Her dark hair hung down, swaying and obscuring her face as he moved. But Cody thought he recognized her.

“Tracey?” Zenona’s voice was quiet, more a personal affirmation than a greeting.

A chill of shock went through Cody as he realized she was right. Aldrik carried Tracey Mumm, Parson’s Hollow librarian and knowledge keeper of many things paranormal. Cody wondered what the end goal was for all of this.

And what he had done in a previous life to be abducted by a vampire and held captive with a number of his ex-girlfriends after having had an argument with his husband mere hours before about his need to save everyone from monsters.

Aldrik brought over a chair from the shadows across the room . Cody again had the feeling he’d seen these chairs somewhere recently, but his brain was too overloaded to put a finger on it. They were older style, probably considered vintage now, with metal frames and wood seats with wood bars across the top and bottom of the backs. He watched Aldrik place the chair to Zenona’s left, then easily lower Tracey on the seat. Her head rolled loosely, and Cody felt a combination of anger and fear at the sight of dried blood on the side of her neck and the collar of her sweater.

“What the fuck did you do to her?” Lucia’s voice was low and threatening.

“Oh, she’ll be fine.” Aldrik squatted easily before Tracey, and a small, bitter part of Cody hated the vampire even more for it since within the last year his own knees had started protesting whenever he performed the same move. Aldrik pushed her head up and back, tipping his own from side to side as if studying her.

A frightening thought burst to life in Cody’s head, and he couldn’t stop himself from practically shouting, “Don’t you fucking bite her!”

Aldrik turned to him with raised eyebrows. “Are you possessive of this woman? Does she hold special meaning for you?”

“No. I mean, yes, of course.” Cody grunted and struggled against his bindings, but the tape was still tight around his wrists. “She’s a person, goddammit. And, yes, I know her. I’ve known all three of them for years. Let them go and keep me. It’s me you came here for, isn’t it?”

Aldrik’s eyebrows went up even higher. “You?” He laughed. His laughter built until he had to sit on the floor with his head back and a hand to his chest. His fangs were on full display, and the overhead light gleamed off the wicked points.

Cody’s face burned and humiliation swelled within him. His words had slipped out before he’d been able to consider them or how they might sound. In the past, some of the monsters they’d faced had come with a personal vendetta against him and Demmy. This time, it seemed other things were in motion behind the scenes. And yet, here he sat, duct taped to a chair in one of the creepier basements he’d ever seen.

The laughter quieted, and Aldrik leaned back on his hands, legs stretched out before him, crossed at the ankles. It was a relaxed and casual pose, as if they were all just hanging out together and trying to decide their plans for the rest of the night.

“Ah, the fading high school jock, still so certain everything is about him.”

The heat in Cody’s face was pretty much the same temperature as the surface of the sun. He looked away and continued to struggle against the duct tape. Now that he’d gotten himself into a corner, he didn’t want to say anything more. The last thing he needed was to be verbally emasculated in front of his ex-girlfriends.

Aldrik nimbly got to his feet, adding another irritation in Cody’s lengthening list. Murdering, blood-drinking monster, with a depthless lack of empathy for people, hundreds of years old, and able to move more easily than Cody could in his thirties.

Fucking vampires.

Pulling Tracey’s glasses from his pocket, Aldrik leaned in and carefully, gently, placed them on her face. He adjusted them slightly, leaned back to assess their positioning, then nodded to himself. In a sudden blur of movement, he zipped around the open space, moving faster than Cody could track. He suddenly appeared directly in front of Cody, startling a grunt of surprise out of him. Cody saw that Aldrik had used duct tape to secure Tracey to her chair and was now smiling fiercely down at him.

“None of this is about you, Mr. Bower. You are simply… “ He looked off to the side as he thought. “How should I say it? The icing on the cake. But these women? Well, you don’t understand the full depth of the secrets your town holds close to its chest. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to pay a visit to my bothersome brother and your little gang of friends who think they can stop what’s been in motion for longer than any of you realize.”

He started to turn away, but with a breeze of movement and an ice cold touch on Cody’s skin, Aldrik whirled back and sank his fangs into his neck. Cody cried out and closed his eyes. The pain was immediate, followed swiftly by a terrible kind of pleasure. He tried to pull away, but Aldrik’s icy and strong hand against the other side of his head held him in place. Shouts and screams from Lucia and Zenona sounded distant, as if they came from another room, and all Cody could do was think he should be able to do more to get all of them free as he surrendered to a beautiful and terrible darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Demetrius drove slowly through town. It was only Mischief Night, not even Halloween yet, and the sidewalks were packed with people. He’d never seen so many people in the downtown area before. Well, so many people he didn’t recognize.