Dark Fire by Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 6

“What was left of them can be claimed from the local morgue,” Darius answered, unconcerned.

“I suppose my other men are also destroyed,” Wallace ventured.

Darius sent his mind seeking throughout the house, then smiled in satisfaction. “I must admit, they seem to have been in very poor health. You should choose your companions more carefully, Mr. Wallace.”

Wallace’s faded eyes flashed with sudden malice. “I see that you yourself have not gone unscathed. You are bleeding.”

The white teeth gleamed again. “It is nothing, a mere scratch. My body will heal without difficulty, but thank you for your concern.”

Wallace hissed between his teeth. “You mean to kill me.”

The glowing red eyes poured over him like molten lava. “With great pleasure, Mr. Wallace. I protect my own. I allowed you to go free after the last threat you made to my family, but you insist on asking for release from your miserable life. I can do no other than oblige you.”

“I will go back to Europe, leave you alone.”

Darius shook his head slowly. “You had her touched by your filthy servants. You intended to rape her, torture her. Not because you thought her vampire but because it would bring you pleasure. You wanted me here, Mr. Wallace, and now you have the very thing you wished for.”

Wallace glanced at his young companion, the one he had chosen to groom as his protégé because he had found the same deviant nature in the young man as was in himself.

Darius had easily picked thoughts of starring in a snuff film with Tempest out of the younger man’s head, knew he didn’t believe in vampires but was attracted to the violence and sexual rush the vampire-hunting society promised to provide. His black eyes bored into the young man while he contemplated the evil that existed in both his world and the human world. He released the young man from the thrall. Instantly the youth launched himself at Darius, seemingly too dense to understand that Darius had been controlling him.

Darius stood so still that he seemed to be a part of the room, of the earth itself, silent, watchful, unmovable. At the last second, just as the man was about to lay hands on him, Darius shimmered into vapor, dissolved, and reappeared behind the young man.

“Daniel, behind you!” Wallace warned.

Daniel tried to drag the gun from out of his waistband as he turned. Even as he caught sight of the intruder, the vampire’s face rippled, contorted, and lengthened into a long muzzle. Teeth burst forth, razor-sharp, jaws rushing forward to bore straight into Daniel’s chest, tearing a hole to reach the pounding heart.

Wallace leapt out of his chair, knocking it over as he tried to get to the door. The elegant figure moved, a gliding blur that cut off his line of retreat. Once more Darius looked like a handsome man, black eyes impas­sive, mouth set and cruel. There was not a stain on his immaculate shirt, although a puddle of thick, sticky blood pooled around Daniel’s body. He looked like a rag doll lying in a heap on the floor.

Wallace froze, not daring to get any closer to the ter­rible fiend that threatened him. “Don’t you see?” he hissed. “I’m like you. I could serve you. Make me like you are-immortal.”

Darius lifted an eyebrow. “You flatter yourself to think we are anything alike. There are those of my people who have become evil and twisted, rotten shells as you are. They might grant you a short stay of execution, allowing you to live for a while on the meat of the dead while you serve their dark purposes. But that is not who I am.”

“Who are you, then?” Wallace whispered. He could hear something else now. Not the silence that haunted this house of death. Not the sound of his men coming to his aid. But low, insidious whispers assaulting his ears. He tried to repress them, not understanding the language but knowing there were more creatures near than the one he was facing. They waited, calling to this one to finish Wallace, to come to them.

“I am an instrument of justice. I have come to send you from this world to another, where you must answer for your terrible crimes against mortals and immortals alike.” Darius said the words softly, almost gently.