Page 11 of Lured

Although the man chuckled and looked at me as if he was surprised I was objecting, he didn't let me go. His grip and the easy tightness of it combined with the cold made it clear that he was a vampire.

As soon as I was around the corner I took in the four other vampires. Ludis was here, smoking a cigarette and standing among the others. Given I had heard talking out here before I had been pulled around the dumpster, they had stopped now that I was present.

“I don't need to know what's going on here, please, just let me go, I'll go back inside and back to my blackjack table and you can all carry on with what you're doing,” I said, hoping that it would help for me to pretend that I thought they were selling drugs or something.

“What did you hear?” Ludis asked, staring at me.

“Nothing.” The man holding me shook me as I spoke. “I mean, I could hear that there was talking, but not what was being said. I swear. I really just wanted some fresh air. I've had some now. Don't need anymore.”

Ludis took another step closer and looked me up and down.

“Want a snack, boss?” the one holding me asked.

I glanced between them, still trying to act the way I thought a normal woman in this situation might. Not that I had much frame of reference. This wasn't a situation I would have gotten myself into if I hadn't been vampire hunting.

“No,” Ludis said after a few more seconds. “She's not tempting enough. Cute, but she could smell better.”

“What?” I asked, sounding as indignant as I could muster. It wasn't hard to fake the emotion. I knew it had been a while since I had showered, but I shouldn't have smelled that bad.

The vampires chuckled and my arm was shaken once more.

“Come on, let me go. This isn't funny,” I added, but this only made the others laugh even more. Ludis looked at me again, giving me a possible idea.

This was probably the closest I was going to get to him in this state. If he didn't want to eat me as a human snack or see any appeal in me as a possible enthralled then my previous plan to kill Ludis was out of the window anyway.

“Can we enjoy her?” the thin vampire with the hockey shirt and far too much bling asked.

“Please,” I said, then I tried to twist to turn to Ludis, correctly working out that he was in charge and showing I knew that much. “I swear I meant no harm. You seem like a nice guy. Fun dresser. Someone who just likes to party. I just want to enjoy being here in Vegas too.”

“You want some fun, do you?” Ludis asked. His men chuckled again as he looked thoughtful and came closer to me.

Although I was surprised the plan was working, it was somehow drawing him to me. But I was going to need to get him closer and get a hand on one of my knives. Because of the arm the vamp had grabbed, I was going to have to pull my knife and either switch it later somehow or kill this guy with my offhand and then go after Ludis.

Of course, I could potentially get myself transferred over to Ludis or one of the others and hope they took a different hand. Maybe even put up a struggle to see if that helped.

“Please. They're all looking at you. I'm sure that you're a good man. And you can see that I'm scared. I don't know if you have some kind of plan or what you might want, but whatever it is, maybe we can talk or figure this out.” The whole time I spoke I directed my words at Ludis.

He still wouldn't come straight over to me, but I was dragged a little closer. It still wasn't close enough.

“I'm guessing you're gay, right? If that's it and this is all just a scare thing, or drugs, or-”

“What did you say?” he demanded.

“That it's okay that you're gay. I mean, from your clothes it's obvious.”

Finally he motioned for his minion to bring me even closer, but they stopped, holding me a few steps too far away. “You don't seem as scared as you make out. Your heart rate is calmer than it should be. This isn't about my sexuality. You're a vampire hunter.”

“I'm a what?” I asked, knowing it was certain death to admit something like that. “Did you just say vampire?”

There was a chuckle from my left, the vampire finding the idea of me not knowing very amusing.

I looked between them all, acting far more scared than I was. Although I couldn't tell if Ludis was buying it, they still hadn't acted and they were studying me. For now, it was good enough. Eventually I looked right at him.

He was in charge and had established that enough I could probably act on it now. “I really don't understand what's going on here. I'm just a girl from Minnesota. I came to have a good weekend. You're really scaring me now, but if you're planning to do more, I'd ask that you do so quickly.”

“Not going to beg for your life?” Ludis asked, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

“My life? I assumed you might want to... uh...” I looked down as if I was assessing my appearance. “Is that not what you want? Are you sure that you're not gay?”

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