Blood of the Damned

Jade stepped into the nearly pitch-black room. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The floor and walls were concrete. The ceiling appeared to be constructed of that same ancient steel that comprised the rest of the prison. No furniture decorated the cell. There was nothing at all.

Except him.

The man she sought knelt on the floor, his arms strung out on either side of him and bound at the wrists by thick chains attached to the walls. They’d left his chest bare and his dark head was bowed. Long, straggling dark hair and a beard shadowed his face. They’d put him in an uncomfortable position, obviously designed to punish. Though Jade figured this vamp hardly felt the pain.

“Why is he restrained this way?” she asked sharply of the guard.

“Killed an inmate last week. Some asshole stupid enough to mess with an Embraced.” The guard spat on the floor. “Saved us the cost of executin’ him.”

Niccolo Romano raised his head and let his gaze slowly rove her in the same way the guard’s had earlier. He parted his lips a little and she saw his fangs—white and sharp—in his mouth. She stifled the urge to kick him in the face. Had they been feeding him synth-blood to keep him sated? Or maybe blood hunger had been how he’d killed the inmate. Maybe Romano had drained him.

“Leave me alone with him,” she said without looking at the guard.

“You sure—”

Keeping her eyes on Romano’s face, she ground out, “I said leave me alone with him.”

She heard the guard turn and leave.

Romano just stared at her. His long black hair hung around his well-chiseled face. The darkness of his hair seemed to swallow up all the light around his head, giving her the impression he thirsted for it…or maybe she was just projecting. She’d done her reading on this guy, knew what a hard history he’d had.

She knew a lot about him, but they hadn’t told her what the Embraced would look like. She hadn’t been expecting this. Even dirty and unkempt this man radiated power, strength and overall physical perfection. She let her gaze trace over his muscled legs, torso and arms. The man had to be unstoppable in a fight. She was preternaturally strong, but she doubted she’d be able to take this man in combat. She certainly didn’t want to try.

“Niccolo Romano,” she said, her voice loud in the small cell. “You’ve been remanded into my custody.”

“Have I been loaned out again?” His voice was a deep baritone and smooth, silky dark chocolate. There was just the faintest trace of an unplacable accent. Jade knew his original tongue had been Latin, but he’d sailed through several civilizations since then.

She took a couple steps toward him, her boot heels clicking on the concrete floor. “You’ve been passed around a lot in the last two hundred years, I’ve heard. In and out of different agencies, bartered around for special initiatives.” She shrugged. “But every time they’re finished with you, they throw you back in here like a well-used whore.”

His dark eyes flashed with anger and his huge hands fisted loosely.

So, he wasn’t broken and he still had pride. That was good.

She paced in front of him. “Yeah, you’re being loaned out again, but this time when you’re finished you get your freedom.”

His body went very still and power sizzled through the air, a flare of his glamour brushing against her magick. The powerful force raised the fine hairs on her arms and at the back of her neck. She stopped pacing.

“My freedom.” His voice sounded flat, expressionless. She could get no emotional read on him because he was an Embraced. The man was stoic as a rock, anyway.

Jade crossed her arms over her chest, hearing the creak of the leather she wore. “Don’t you want it? I mean, everyone knows how you allowed yourself to be arrested so long ago. Still, don’t you think three hundred years is punishment enough?”

“What’s the job?”

“You won’t object to it, Romano. Anyway, we wouldn’t be able to keep you if you did.”

Niccolo Romano—that wasn’t the name he’d been born with, of course—had a knack for death, a talent for it. It was what he did best; bring death to those who deserved it. She’d heard all the stories. When this man had walked down the street, everyone had gotten the hell out of his way. On some level, most of them could probably sense that death walked beside this man, that it was an old friend and constant companion of his. Everyone had a little psi ability, a little intuition. This man sent out a danger signal louder than a storm siren. Someone would have to be near brain-dead not to perceive it.

This was a man who’d murdered his way through the centuries. Innumerable men had lost their lives to him. Still, she’d done enough research on him to know that he wouldn’t kill innocents. The vamp wouldn’t aid in senseless destruction. He couldn’t be used as force against the greater good…well, not most the time. If someone had the right leverage on him, he could be forced into it. That was his biggest weakness. But the bottom line was that, even two thousand years since he’d been Embraced, the man was still a protector.

That’s why they needed him.

He said nothing. He only lowered his gaze to her boots.

She raised an eyebrow. He didn’t want to talk anymore? Fine. It was past time they got out there, anyway. She turned. “I’ll get the guard and the keys for those chains.

“How do you know I won’t just kill you and take off?”

She stopped, but didn’t turn toward him. Jade smiled a little. “I know a lot about you, Romano, more than even your closest friends. I know you won’t.”

She tracked down the guard who cast a nervous glance at her before he plied the security code to the release mechanism on the outside of the cell. The hydraulic cuffs released and fell with a ringing clank and chink of the chain. She noticed the vamp’s wrists bled from the rasp of iron against skin. Dried blood marked him from fingers to elbow.

He pushed to his feet with muscles that didn’t seem the least fatigued from the awkward position he’d been sustaining. Romano stood before her dressed in a pair of gray prison pants, a pair of black prison-issue boots and nothing else.

He was tall and he was ripped. She’d seen that when he’d been kneeling. He made her respond like a woman did to a man. Her reaction was instant, primal and wholly unwelcome. This man made her whole body sit up and take notice. He made her heart rate and breathing speed up. He made her cunt cream just a little. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had made that happen. She thought it had all but dried up.

He walked toward her with menace set into his shoulders and his swagger. She had the urge to back away from him, but stood her ground. He stopped right in front of her, so close his breath—the sweet, calm-inducing breath of the Embraced—stirred the fine hairs around her face. The heat of him rolled off and warmed her. Despite the threat in his eyes, her body started a slow burn. Her sex began to throb and nipples became sensitive.

Man, oh, man.

Romano’s eyes were hard and cold, the lines of his face set in a cruel expression. He had a face that could be either beautiful or brutal depending on the light, his expression…or his mood, she’d make a guess.

“Who said I’d agree to help you?” he snarled in a low voice. “Who said I was ready leave this place? Who sent you for me?”

A flicker of apprehension raced through her stomach, but she held his gaze steadily. Goddess, please, sweet Morrigan, I hope we haven’t misjudged this man. “The Council of the Embraced,” she said in a steady voice. “The Federation, the Order of the Morrigan…and Gabriel Letourneau.”

Niccolo’s eyes blinked and unfocused for a moment as she uttered the last on the list.

She took advantage of his surprise, and turned and walked out the door and past the guard. Her heart pounded in her chest. Romano would follow if he wanted out of here.