Chapter 25

Leandro

An hour had slipped by and I still had no idea where Butch was supposed to be going or what he was supposed to be doing. All I knew was that Butch wasn't talking. I had tried everything I could think of so far, and still Butch had held on. He was close to passing out and even for a vampire he was being pushed to his limits.

I tried to think of more I could do as I studied him from behind. The vampire was barely alive and I had needed to take a break to give his body a chance to recover. This wasn't how I had wanted this to go and I knew I had been away from Anais for a long time.

Given Ludis, I had no doubt that he would be finishing up with his enthralled, if he wasn't already. I was sure that he would then turn his attention on my enthralled.

The longer I was away, the more of an excuse I would also have to come up with for Ludis to believe me. Especially if I still didn't have answers. On top of that, I was fairly sure that Ludis would notice his favorite vampire was dead and he wasn't there to do the commands of the jumped up turned.

I stifled a sigh of frustration and considered my options again. After a short while, I grabbed a glass of water and chucked it onto Butch's face. It snapped him out of a sort of exhausted doze and brought him back around.

"All right," I said. "I want to know where you're going, who you're meeting and why. And I'm out of patience. I know there is at least one other vampire who knows and if you won't tell me, I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to go ask them. I'm done with this whole situation."

Butch chuckled again, something he had done several times. It was clearly to antagonize me, but I wasn't about to let him have his way, even at this point in the conversation. I was sure that was what he wanted.

Of course, he was in so much pain that at this point it might be a blessing to him to die. I had no doubt this was more pain than he had ever been in.

"I'm not telling you anything." Butch glared at me, the resolve still there. "Nothing that you don't already know. But you might want to go find that enthralled of yours."

"My enthralled?" I asked, figuring that at least he was talking for once.

"Yeah. By now Ludis will probably have finished her off. He knows. Knows you're not really called Drew and she's in this with you."

"In this with me? She's a girl I picked up in Vegas," I said, knowing that there was almost no chance it mattered, but I found myself defending her anyway.

This time Butch laughed. "He's killed her by now. She's not anyone's anything. Of course, he plans to at least enjoy her once before. Just to find out what you see in her."

I let out a growl, knowing that I couldn't let that happen, but Butch seemed very convinced that it had already happened.

I got up, knowing that I had promised Anais I would keep her safe. If Ludis had gone after her and Butch knew, then he would have gone after her the moment I walked out of the door. Although it was also possible that Butch was saying this to get me to act rash, to get me to end this or just leave and go to save Anais.

Maybe even give the game away.

There was no choice, I had made Anais a promise. I couldn't take the chance that Butch was telling the truth and she was in danger.

"We're done here. You're not going to give me what I need." I grabbed Butch and then one of the knives I had strapped to my side. As Butch looked up at me I cut his head off. As soon as I'd removed one from the other I quickly freed his arm and grabbed the body as well.

The balcony was unlocked but it still took me several seconds to get it open and chuck Butch's body over and into the water. It was dark enough and late enough that I knew no one would see that this happened and I also knew that no questions would be asked of me. As long as I cleaned this room up.

For now that wasn't a worry, however.

I hurried out of the room before I looked down and noticed I had a few blood splatters on my clothes. I quickly shifted my jacket and buttoned it in place to cover as many of them as possible. Thankfully, it only left a few very small blood splotches and if Ludis noticed them I would be very surprised.

The lounge felt as if it was forever away, but I made my way there as quickly as I could, sprinting until I was right outside the door.

Just in case Butch had been lying and he wasn't suspecting a thing, I slowed and took a fraction of a second to compose myself before I strode into the lounge with the usual confidence I had.

As I turned to where I'd left Anais, I let out a growl, Ludis had her tied up across a chair and her chin in his hands as he threatened her.

I raced toward him and grabbed him from behind before he even knew I was there. Thinking only of protecting her, I shoved him to one side.

"What are you doing to my enthralled?" I demanded as I let go of him. I hoped that would be the end of it, but Ludis got to his feet and rushed at me.

I braced myself for the impact and prepared to defend myself and Anais, but my words and Ludis coming back at me also drew the attention of all the other vampires in the room. And Anais was incredibly vulnerable.

As Ludis came toward me, it took all my skill and speed to dodge to one side and deflect his attempt to knock me off my feet. Ludis came past, but I grabbed hold of his arm and swung him.

It gave me the upper hand and it should have been enough to let me punch Ludis hard and slow his fight. Instead the vampire moved with more strength and speed than I had been expecting and dodged out of the way.

I was suddenly on the back foot as he swung at me. I blocked a couple of times, but again, he was hitting harder than he ought to have been able to and with greater speed.

While Ludis had not been a vampire I'd intended to underestimate, he shouldn't have been able to hold his own against me this well and it explained why Anais was now tied up and helpless.

Thankfully, Ludis had given me his full attention and so far none of the other vampires in the room wanted to get involved.

For a few minutes we ducked, weaved and kept out of each other's reaches while both of us growled. To any outsider looking in, it might have looked like some sort of strange dance or a friendly play fight of some kind.

Of course, I knew that Ludis was at his highest level of rage. But I didn't think I could kill him. Until I knew where he was planning to meet someone and what he wanted to get, there was little I could do. It didn't help that my own contact hadn't got back to me yet either other than to say they would look into it.

Ludis grew more angry as I managed to dodge and keep to my feet. He didn't know I was true-blood yet as far as I was aware, but no doubt he would be beginning to work it out. The only way I could have underestimated Ludis this badly was if he was using some kind of relic or magically enchanted gear to make himself stronger or faster and it would make it clear that I had to be true-blood or using the same.

As Ludis pulled a blade, growing more and more impatient, I was forced to focus. Twice he ran at me and twice I managed to move out of the way at the last minute.

I tried to block the next attack in such a way that it turned the knife out of his grasp and he'd drop it, but Ludis anticipated that and sliced the other way at the last minute.

Although I reacted in time to not have him cut through my midriff and spill my innards, I took a slash across my stomach enough it cut my jacket, shirt and blood splattered. I hissed in pain, knowing I would live, but it would make the fight harder.

Anais let out a frustrated noise of her own having knocked her chair back slightly in her struggles to get out of being tied to it. She couldn't get free and she was making her arms and legs bleed where the bonds were cutting in as she tried to get free.

The blood, noise and more obviously truly angry fighting was finally drawing the attention of the other vampires in the room.

Seeing me take the first hit had put the other vampires at ease in terms of seeing Ludis doing okay, but they were coming closer, I knew that any one of them might try to aid Ludis in the hope that finishing me off would win them favor with him.

This fight was going to get harder before it got easier.

I considered breaking off the fight with Ludis as I dodged again and tried to look for an opening to attack him. If I took out one of the other vampires it might bring the others into the fight on my side. But I knew it could as easily bring them into the fight against me. Right now they didn't seem to know who to choose.

As long as they also left Anais alone, I knew there was a chance she would get out of this. She was beginning to move herself and I had to hope that either the chair would break or she would get a bond loose enough.

Ludis caught his foot on the edge of another chair by a small fraction and it gave me an opening while he was far enough away that I could also pull a blade and consider going on the offensive again. Pain flared in my stomach as Ludis lunged again and I was almost too slow to get out of the way.

My stomach wasn't happy, even if it was a wound I could heal from. It had been a long time since anyone had injured me at all and I had almost forgotten what it was like to have to fight through the pain.

"Come on and fight me properly," Ludis called out as I managed to stab toward him as well. I didn't do much more damage than scratch his arm.

"I am fighting you properly. You've betrayed the laws of our kind by trying to harm my enthralled. You didn't have permission to touch her." I knew it wasn't a rule that anyone upheld fully, but it would make the other vampires hesitate again, and that was all I needed. They might even see this as a reason to help me.

"You speak of rules when you've been keeping secrets." Ludis spat, but he also paused for a fraction too long as if he thought we would talk for a few seconds.

I stepped in, blocked the half-hearted attempt at a defensive stab and then drove my knife deep into his shoulder. He screeched his pain, no doubt in agony.

Somehow he managed to focus enough to attempt another defensive thrust toward me, but for now I had the upper hand at least. I blocked his next attempt to hit me with his blade, mine now buried in his shoulder and looked for another opening to try to get mine back or find another weapon.

This wasn't going to be easy to win, even now, and Ludis wasn't giving up either. I needed to either get his blade or mine.

As he tried to attack again he slipped on some of the blood on the floor and I grabbed the wrist holding his knife. I quickly slammed at the hand to get him to drop the blade and it went flying.

For a fraction of a second I couldn't move as it went toward Anais. It landed on the sofa her chair had fallen into not far from her.

My distraction cost me my advantage in the fight as Ludis yanked my own blade out of his shoulder and came at me with that as well. I had to shift hard and this time I was the one to lose my footing. I tripped and went down in front of one of the other vampires.

The vampire lunged at me, taking a side, but it was slow in comparison. Even on my back it wasn't hard for me to grab the vampire's head and slam it into the leg of a chair. I used so much force it broke his neck. Without any resistance from the vampire I put all my strength into it and ripped its head off.

As I pushed back up to my feet I dropped the body part to the ground. All the other vampires backed off and I turned my attention back to Ludis. He was staring at me in astonishment.

I'd now killed two turned vampires in less than an hour and I was about ready to kill another.

"You can't be turned," Ludis said as he backed up a step, understanding beginning to dawn on him.

"I'm not. And you're going to tell me everything that you've been doing and are planning to do," I said, hoping that this might be enough. I took a couple of steps closer, but Ludis shook his head.

"Look out," Anais yelled, staring over my shoulder as she did.

I turned just in time as another of the vampires came at me. They had some kind of weapon on their hand, but I moved faster than my eyes could take in and punched the vampire in the throat as they came at me. I collapsed his windpipe. It didn't kill him. Vampires didn't need to breathe. At least, not turned vampires. But it was enough of a shock it knocked him on his ass.

Not wanting to have my back to Anais unless I was right by her and between her and danger, I left the vampire there and hoped that he'd learned his lesson. To my surprise Ludis had lost his taste for the fight and was rushing out of the lounge.

It seemed this fight was over for now.