Fury's Kiss Read Free

Louis-Cesare—be careful.”
That was voice number one again, sounding grim.
“I can control her fits, but not until she reenters our world. And the fact that she does not recognize you is a bad sign—”
    “Oh, do you really think so?”
    “Listen to me! The two halves of her nature do not communicate. Therefore the fact that she does not knowyou may indicate that her vampire nature is perilously close to assuming control—”
    “Yes, I have seen it before. I can handle—”
    “You have
not
seen it before! You have seen it nearer the surface, perhaps, but still partly diluted by her human side, which tends to be—”
    “Lord Mircea—”
    “—dominant mentally. But when she perceives herself in mortal danger, her vampire half—”
    “Lord Mircea!” The vamp had somehow managed to croak that out loud, but it didn’t help. The needle was an ice pick now, jabbing merrily around the inside of my skull. I made a sound between a snarl and a mewl, and smashed the vamp’s head into the floor again.
    It didn’t help, either.
    “—can assume full control and it is physically far stronger. It is also ruthless, cunning and
five hundred years old.
You must not—”
    “What I must, my lord, is be able to concentrate!”
    “Listen to him, you arrogant fool!”
the English guy broke in.
“He’s trying to tell you that nobody knows what a dhampir that old can do because they’re always put down before then! But if you’re not careful, you’re going to find out the hard—”
    “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
I screamed, unable to take it anymore. It was mental, because I didn’t have enough breath left for anything else. But it had an effect anyway. I got a flash of a couple dark-haired vamps sitting at a table; one winced as if in pain, while the other let out a curse and stumbled backward, knocking his chair over.
    But the biggest reaction came from the vamp beside me. He went suddenly, rigidly still. I didn’t know if he was dead or just as freaked-out as I was, and right then I didn’t care. I just wanted out of there.
    Fortunately, the door of the cage we were in was hanging half off its hinges, the bars twisted in ways iron wasn’t supposed to bend. I looped the chain around the vamp’s neck another time, and through the sturdiest bar I could find. Then I pulled it tight, smashed it shut and ran like hell.
    I couldn’t see much; the windowless room was dim and there was a bunch of junk in the way—cargo crates, broken pieces of metal and machinery, and tarp-covered cages piled high and stacked like a maze. The only light came from a naked bulb swinging from a wire overhead, throwing leaping shadows against the walls. It would have been an accident waiting to happen even if I hadn’t been staggering about like an old drunk.
    As it was, it took about five seconds to stab myself in the side with something, and to bark my shin on something else. Not that it mattered; even breathing sent burning signals shooting along my nerves, lighting up a constellation of oh-shit points. I grabbed the side of a cage, pulse pounding fiercely, nausea roiling in my gut, and wondered if the light was really fading in and out or if that was me.
    And then I saw it.
    As a door, it left something to be desired. Like everything, since it was just a dark rectangle set into a wall of peeling paint and rot. It would have looked perfect on one of those old B-movie sets, the kind with the dippy blonde edging slowly toward certain doom.
    Only it looked like I was a brunette. And I’d already met the monster. And right now, I’d take it.
    Or, you know, maybe not.
    I pulled up abruptly after a couple seconds, but not because the vamp had caught me. That’s just how long it took to round the side of the cage. And to find myself in the devil’s own operating room.
    The low light glinted off a rusty metal table sitting all alone in a cleared space near the door. It looked oddly like the trash heaps were trying to get away from it. I