Chapter Eighteen

Erica floated to consciousness with the eerie awareness of a presence above her.

“Max?” His name left her lips on a contented sigh. She stretched and reached toward the blurry figure standing near the couch.

“He’s not here, little one. He left you alone ... unprotected.”

Erica struggled to fit a name to the cooing, feminine voice. “Vera?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’ve come to take you home.”

“Home?” Erica blinked, but her blurry vision cleared only marginally. She felt heavy and warm, weighted into the soft cushions of her sister’s couch by an invisible force.

Vera hovered above her, her lovely features distended and indistinct.

“What’s happening to me?” Erica’s question came out breathless. She was too tired to force the words out.

“You’re just resting now, my sweet. When you wake up again, you’ll feel better, stronger. You’ll be ready to begin your new life.”

Somewhere in her foggy brain, a warning bell sounded. Panic slithered through her ribcage and clutched at her lungs. Where was Max? Why had he left her?

“Please...don’t turn me,” she said as her leaden eyelids drifted closed. She felt Vera’s cool fingers on her forehead, brushing strands of hair from her face. A moment later all sensation left her body and she drifted into blackness.

* * * *

“We’re going to need more backup,” Lucas said as Max turned off the highway and headed into the rich section of town. Here, the mansions sat well back on manicured lawns and iron gates blocked the entrances to rolling driveways. Benton Carlisle’s estate loomed into view before Max answered.

“If we go in with a posse, who knows what Carlisle will do to Erica. We’ve got our insurance policy. That’s enough for now.” Max jerked his thumb toward the back seat where Kyra lay unconscious, he wrists bound behind her with strips of crimson bed sheet.

She’d put up quite a struggle when Max had suggested she come with them to retrieve her sister. Knocking her out hadn’t been easy and Lucas had vibrant scratches across his chest and jaw to prove it.

“Do you think Carlisle cares enough about Kyra to bargain for her?”

Max glanced at Lucas as he turned the car off the main street to circle around to the back of Carlisle’s property.

“I don’t think he gives a crap about Kyra. But I think he’ll care about getting a chance to keep all this secret from Beaumont. An even trade--his secret for Erica’s life.”

“Guys like Carlisle don’t like compromise.” There was a dangerous glint in Lucas’s eyes and Max remembered why this man was his closest friend.

“But we’re going to make him like it.”

* * * *

Erica awoke gasping. She clutched at her neck searching for new bite marks but found none. She struggled to sit up and take in her surroundings. The dark paneled walls seemed to close in on her and the cloying smell of cinnamon and clove drifted from the dozen or so red candles that adorned the dark wood tables and shelves that decorated the room.

She lay on a narrow bed, swathed in white sheets. Leather-covered handcuffs hung from the high brass bedposts and across the room other chains and cuffs dangled from pegs on the walls.

This was Benton Carlisle’s home and it was just as she’d suspected. Nevertheless the décor in the tiny room sent chills through her.

She rose from the bed, grateful to find her clothing intact, and tried the door.

Of course it was locked. Why would she have suspected otherwise?

Panic tickled the back of her throat. She swallowed the strange sensation and tried to take deep, calming breaths.

She was practically hyperventilating when the door finally opened.

Benton Carlisle stood in the doorway. He wore a modest, dark suit and a power tie. He leaned against the door jam in a casual stance and adjusted the diamond cufflink in his right sleeve.

“How are you feeling?” He sounded as if he were speaking to a coworker rather than a captive.

“Scared shitless,” Erica replied. Why lie? False bravado would get her nowhere.

Carlisle laughed, flashing fang for an instant. “My dear, I love your honesty. Of course you’re scared. But you have no reason to be. I have no intention of mistreating you. I promise.”

“Can I get that in writing?” Erica inched her way backward toward the bed as she spoke, her eyes on Carlisle. His wide shoulders filled the doorway, leaving no room to slip past him.

A glowing candle full of molten wax flickered inches from her fingertips. She could hurt him, distract him and run. Something inside her turned cold with the realization that she probably wouldn’t leave the building alive, but it didn’t matter. As long as she didn’t submit to him, didn’t allow him to win. Death would be a reward at this point.

“I could most certainly put all my promises in writing. If that would ease your fears. I would be more than happy to solidify an arrangement with you and I guarantee it’s one you’ll be satisfied with.”

“I doubt it.”

“Would you care to talk to Vera? She’s quite pleased with the relationship we share. She enjoys a wonderful life, and you can, too.”

“Do I have a choice? Waking up here after passing out at my sister’s house sort of gives me the idea that I don’t get a say in the matter.”

“If you’re willing to negotiate terms with me, my dear, you’ll be surprised how many choices you have.” Carlisle sobered and his dark eyes bored into hers.

“What’s to negotiate? Why am I here after all? You want to own me. You can’t.”

Carlisle took one step forward into the room and Erica backed up. Her fingers rested on the edge of the bedside table behind her, glided toward a fat red pillar of dripping wax.

“Let’s talk about what I want. And what you want. You want your beloved sister to be happy, don’t you?” The tone of his voice changed then, and Erica’s flesh tingled uncomfortably.

“You turned Elena. She couldn’t have wanted that.”

“Of course she did. Begged for it, in fact. I wouldn’t have obliged her under normal circumstances. She was a junkie. Not worthy of being a feeder and certainly not worthy of being a vampire. I had her thrown out of After Dark one night--about six months ago. Vera felt sorry for her so we gave her bus fare and followed her to make sure she actually got on the bus. She didn’t--you came to get her.”

“I remember. That night was the first time she talked seriously about joining AA. She almost convinced me that she wanted to sober up for good.” Almost, Erica thought. Was I already too jaded to believe her?

“She did want to. She wanted to be part of this world. I told her she had to straighten herself out or no vampire would want her.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“I saw you that night. You wore a gray herringbone suit and a white blouse. You had your hair up and your collar unbuttoned showing off that beautiful neck. I’ve been watching you since then.” Carlisle’s smile made Erica queasy. She heard the candle crackle behind her and tried not to react.

“When Kyra came back to us, sober and eager to please, I asked her about you and she told me who you were. She said you were the good twin. The responsible sister with a firm grip on reality and normal life, a boring job and a knack for being there when she needed you. I told her how she could kick her addictions permanently and take away all the pain, the meaningless desire to hurt herself and punish you for being better than her.”

“I’m not better than her--”

Carlisle held up one finger as if scolding an errant student. “Yes you are! And Kyra knew that her whole life. You were the pretty one. She always hated that you didn’t look exactly alike. She wanted the blonde hair, the healthy glow. She was always the thin, pale one. You were smarter, more popular, stronger. She loved you so much--and she hated you. She hated herself for wishing she was better than you.”

“Stop it! Stop it!” Erica fought the urge to cover her ears and drown out his words. “How do you know so much about my sister? How do you know things I don’t?”

“I know because she wasn’t afraid to tell me. I offered her something you couldn’t. An end to her problems.”

“That’s all I ever did! I tried for years to get her help, to give her a reason to want to get better. And then you came along and offered to make her into a vampire and you took it all away over night.” A bout of shivering wracked Erica’s body. She inched closer to the candle flame.

“Yes. We took away your purpose. I’m sorry for that. Elena was your project for half your life. Fixing her was your .... career, for lack of a better term.”

“My curse.”

“Yes! Exactly. That’s over now. The curse is lifted. Elena is gone and all her problems are gone, too. She’s become something else. Something invincible and immortal. In a way, you made that possible.”

Erica rolled her eyes. Her sarcastic laugh made Carlisle smile. “How’s that? By letting her sell me to you? By becoming your playmate?”

“How bad would that be? The humans who live in the vampire world fare well. You’d have everything. You could move freely in Kyra’s world and maybe even get to know the person she’s become.”

“She’s become a slave trader. I have no desire to know her.”

“What do you desire? Name it.”

“Nothing you have to offer.”

Carlisle shook his head at her vehement response. His right foot slid forward and panic lanced through Erica’s chest again. Her throat closed as her fingers found the soft, warm cylinder of wax.

Carlisle grinned, bearing his fangs and in that instant Erica hurled the candle at his face.