Fury Calls by Caridad Piñeiro Page B

short as the blood-crazed vampiress strapped down to the love seat grew even more hostile. She yanked at the ties on her wrists and ankles, and the legs of the love seat groaned from the pressure she exerted in her quest for freedom.
    When she saw Stacia, a wild guttural cry spilled from her lips and was immediately followed by the snap of her jaw, over and over again as if she was anticipating feeding from the elder.
    â€œThis is not good,” Stacia said. She slowly walked closer to the young woman, then stopped and kept her distance, pacing back and forth as she considered the vampiress and her actions. Stacia raised her hands and closed her eyes as if to experience the primordial beat of her vampire energy that they had all previously sensed.
    The young woman stilled for a moment, but then renewed her attempts to escape, her actions even more frenzied than before until it seemed as if she was having a seizure.
    Ryder and Diego flew to her side to keep her down as the love seat started to buck from the force of her wild movements. After a minute of the nearly panickedseizures, the vampiress arched her back off the love seat, her body spasming into a tight knot before she fell back against the cushions, her body limp.
    She was dead.
    The raw and unbalanced power they had sensed earlier instantly evaporated.
    Stacia finally neared the dead woman, her earlier reticence gone. With one finger she tilted up the dead vampire’s head and urged it back onto the edge of the love seat. That position exposed the blood oozing from her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. As Stacia gingerly pried open the lids of one eye, it uncovered the shining neon glow of the vampire’s iris swimming in a sea of blood. Nothing remained of the white of her eye.
    â€œCreepy,” Blake said, as he shivered, unnerved by the sight. He had never seen anything like it before—and judging from the looks on Ryder’s and Diego’s faces, neither had they.
    â€œDangerous,” Stacia replied, and shifted her gaze up to Diego and Ryder. “I haven’t seen this in nearly two millennia.”
    â€œSeen what?” Diego pressed, sliding his hand beneath Stacia’s to close the one damning eye of the dead vampiress.
    â€œ Sanguinarium coitus prohibitum . It’s the equivalent of vampire Ecstasy, but the drug’s effects are deadly and uncontrollable. It’s why the sanguinarium drug was outlawed by the vampire elders close to a millennium ago. The entire supply was supposedly destroyed at that time,” she explained.
    â€œSo how did she get an outlawed thousand-year-old drug?” Ryder asked, as he bent and started to undo the bindings.
    Stacia stayed his hand. “I wouldn’t rush it just yet. Some vampires have been known to revive and try to satisfy their bloodlust.”
    â€œSo what do we do?” Ryder asked, moving away from the body.
    Blake chuckled harshly. “First thing is we make sure the chit is dead. Second thing is for you find out who’s got a beef with you.”
    Diego shook his head, frustration and concern on his features. “Why would you think someone has a beef with us?”
    Once again, Blake let out a rough laugh. “You’ve got three dead vamps in less than a month and Bloodzilla here. Seems to me that’s too many things to be just coincidence.”
    In unison both Diego and Ryder glanced at Stacia, who slipped her arm through Blake’s and said, “For once I think he’s right.”
    â€œIs he now?” he heard from behind him and turned to see Meghan walking into the room. When she looked up from their entwined arms to meet his gaze, the chill in her emerald green eyes was foreboding. Her lips thinned into a tight line and a small part of him was pleased that she seemed just the tiniest bit jealous.
    Another part of him worried that Meghan in a fury was probably worse than Bloodzilla had ever been that night. He braced himself for what she