NINE

Samantha found herself escorted by two hulking vampire guards down the stone corridor. They stood close, but neither dared grab her arm. She was too senior of a warrior to them—they would never cross such a line of disrespect. Despite their size, despite the fact that they were male, she was a much more powerful warrior than both of them—and they knew it.

They led her down and down, deeper into the bowels of their coven, towards Sam’s chamber. They descended another flight of stone steps, the sound of their hard, leather boots echoing off the walls. It was getting darker and darker as they went, the vaulted corridors lit only by a sporadic torch.

Samantha was furious as she walked. She wanted to kill these two guards on the spot, but she couldn’t just yet. She needed them to lead her to wherever it was they were hiding Sam. She needed to rescue him.

How stupid Kyle was. Did he really think that she cared so much about her own life, about her own honor, to bring Sam back, and to kill him in front of everyone? He must have thought her as much a pawn as the others. He had a lot to learn. She was different. Very different. She had not survived for thousands of years by deferring to other people. She did what she wanted, when she wanted. And sometimes, that required bold action.

They turned down yet another corridor, this one deeper and darker than the others. The chambers beneath their coven in City Hall were endless. One could get lost wandering them for years. It made a very convenient place to keep prisoners. In fact, there were some legendary vampires still rumored to be kept in captivity under here, some who had been here for thousands of years. Few really knew the depths, or the extent, of where these chambers went, or of the thousand-year vampire history stored amidst its walls.

Finally, they stopped before an arched wooden door. One guard grabbed her by the arm, while the other reached into his pocket and extracted a huge ring of skeleton keys. He inserted one and turned.

As soon as Samantha heard the click, as soon as she saw the door start to move, she knew the time had come.

In one swift, decisive move, she swung her arm, throwing the guard’s hand off of her, and then spun and threw the heel of her hand right into his throat.

It was a perfect strike.

He dropped to his knees, eyes bulging wide, reaching for his throat with both hands. He was trying to open the air channel. But he wouldn’t. 3,000 years had taught Samantha how to throw a perfect throat strike, with just the right force to bring the biggest man to his knees. Within seconds, as she predicted, the big man keeled off to his side, his head hitting the stone as he passed out. He was a vampire, so it wouldn’t kill him completely. But it would immobilize him for a very, very long time.

Before she could turn, she felt two huge, muscular arms grab her in a choke hold. It was the other one. He was quicker than she would have guessed. He grabbed her tightly, squeezing.

But he was not as agile as she. She could feel that he was strong, but lacked finesse. A young vampire, without half her experience. Probably why he had been assigned to guard duty.

She dropped to her knees, stepped to the side, swung her leg around behind his, and when she stood, he went flying backwards, she using his huge weight as leverage against him. He flew back over her shoulder, landing on his back on the stone. She could see that she had knocked the wind out of him, and before he could get up, she had already stepped on his throat, crushing it with the heel of her boot. She held her foot in place, pushing and squeezing, harder and harder, until finally, he stopped struggling, and he, too, passed out.

Samantha turned for the door. She checked both ways down the corridor, saw that no one was coming, and quickly went inside, closing and bolting it behind her. More guards would follow soon, she knew. But for now, she had time.

There he was. Sam. Seeing his face made it all worth it. He was chained against the far wall. Poor kid: he had probably been chained more in the last few days than he had in his life. He looked very pale, even for a human, and it was clear that he was in bad shape.

More than anything, he looked scared. His eyes opened wide at the sight of her, and he struggled against his chains, trying to speak, but prevented by the gag in his mouth.

Samantha hurried to him and removed the gag. He immediately started talking.

“Samantha, what the hell is going on!?” he asked in a rush. “Is this for real? Were those people really vampires? Are you a vampire? Are you going to kill me? Tell me I’m dreaming.”

Before she removed his chains, Samantha reached up, took hold of his cheeks with both her hands, leaned in and kissed him. It was a long kiss. At first, he resisted, scared, but then she felt him soften, and kiss her back.

The longer they kissed, the more she felt it. He still loved her.

That was all she needed to know. Her mind was made up.

“Samantha, please,” Sam said. “Unchain me. Get me out of here. I want to be with you. I want to get out of here. Please—”

“Shhh,” she prodded, holding up one finger. “There’s no time to explain. I want to be with you, too. And we have little choice. There’s no way out of here. All exits are blocked. There are thousands of new vampires in here now, and there’s no way out. We have to go along, at least for now.”

“Go along with what? What are you talking about?”

“Sam,” she said, stroking his face, “I love you. I need to know if you feel the same.”

Sam looked directly at her, with a mix of fear and surprise.

“I love you, too,” he said. “I’ll go anywhere with you. Just get me out of here. Please. I don’t care if you’re a vampire or whatever. I just want to be with you.”

Samantha smiled. She felt her heart swell with an emotion she hadn’t felt in thousands of years. He felt the same way she did.

“OK,” she said, “then you have to trust me. There’s no other way. We can’t escape. If I bring you up there, like this, he’ll kill you. I want to save you. But there’s only one way.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Who will kill me? Why?”

“Sam,” she said urgently, “there’s no time. You just have to trust me. Do you want to be with me forever? Really think about this. I’m not just asking. I really, really mean it.”

She stared right into his eyes, his green eyes reflecting off of her blue eyes. He seemed speechless.

She asked one more time, slowly, with all the seriousness she could muster: “Do you want to be with me forever?”

He finally calmed, slowed his breath, and looked right into her eyes. He must’ve felt how serious she was.

“Yes,” he answered, confidently, with equal seriousness. “I want to be with you forever.”

She smiled.

“You might be mad at me at first, but I want you to know that there was no other way. Without this, you wouldn’t live. In any form. We would never see each other again. I’m doing this for you. For us. I believe that you have a power that none us of us have, and that that will save you.”

Samantha leaned back, and let the desire flood through her. She flooded herself with the smell of his skin, breathing deep, and as she did, her fangs grew long—impossibly long.

She could see the boy’s eyes opened wide with fear, as he suddenly realized what she was about to do.

He opened his mouth to speak, but it was too late. She couldn’t let him ruin the moment.

She wanted him.

Forever.

And before Sam could cry out, Samantha was already leaning in, with all her force. She felt the delicious, exquisite, salty taste, as she plunged her fangs deep into the boy’s throat, drinking like she never had before.

Yes. Now forever could be theirs.