He aimed another shot at Bauer’s open mouth, singeing his lips, tongue and throat so severely that he wouldn’t be able to speak until after his regenerative sleep cycle. His vision would eventually return, too.

Luther lowered the gun, then pushed the disoriented vampire down. He landed on the ground, whimpering now in obvious pain, unable to speak.

“Oh my God!” Katie murmured.

Luther shot her a look, ran his eyes over her. She was uninjured. For a split-second, he drank in the sight of her naked breasts and felt a bolt hit him in the groin. She was beautiful. So goddamn beautiful.

“Get dressed.”

Luther averted his eyes and looked back at the vampire on the floor. “Bauer, you know I could kill you, and I will if I have to. It depends on you. Here’s how this works: I’ll take your protective gear and your access card, and you won’t struggle. Resist, and you’ll die. If you understand me, raise one hand.”

The guard lifted his right hand in a one-finger salute, grunting as he did so.

“Big mistake!”

Luther pointed the UV gun at his groin. “I’ll let you guess where I’m pointing your weapon now.” He jammed the gun between Bauer’s thighs.

The guard instantly jerked away, and a second later he raised his hand again, this time without flipping him the bird.

“I’m glad we understand each other,” Luther said and looked back at Katie. Her T-shirt now covered her torso again, and she was putting on her cardigan. “Point the gun at him while I get the Kevlar gear off him. If he tries anything, blast his balls. Just make sure you don’t hit me.”

Katie took the gun from him. “With pleasure.”

It took less then thirty seconds for Luther to liberate Bauer from his protective gear and another thirty to put it on himself. Then he used the silver handcuffs on the vampire’s belt to cuff him to a steel filing cabinet, being careful not to touch the silver with his bare hands, but donning gloves first.

When he was done, Luther glanced around the room until he found what he was looking for: the protective head gear that would shield him should anybody deploy the UV lights in the corridors. It would also help him avoid detection. Dressed like a guard in full battle gear, nobody would be able to tell who he really was. In the chaos of an intruder alert nobody would take much notice of him.

Which only left one slight problem: how was he going to get Katie out of here without anybody stopping him?

“What are we waiting for?” Katie asked nervously.

“Do you think you can do a little bit more acting?”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to pretend you’re a hooker, just like you did earlier.”

It was the only way other guards wouldn’t see her as a threat and look the other way instead. It was an unwritten code in the prison: prostitutes were tolerated and considered a side business for many guards. With some luck, any guard Luther encountered wouldn’t bother him if he thought Luther was simply trying to get a hooker out of the prison before there was a general lockdown.

“You want me to take off my bra?” Katie asked.

“No!” The word shot out of his mouth almost automatically. He ran a hand along his nape. “Just take off the cardigan and the T-shirt. I’ll find you something else to wear.”

He ripped open a closet, then another one. Just like he’d suspected, Bauer kept a change of clothes in his office, like most guards did. It happened often enough that clothes got ripped or bloodied during fights.

“Here.” He took a white dress shirt from a hanger and handed it to Katie. “Put this on, but don’t button it. Just tie a knot at your waist so your black bra will show. It’ll make you look slutty enough.”

Without protest, Katie changed into the shirt. She turned over the sleeves that were too long for her. When Luther saw her transformation, he knew he’d been right.

She looked like sin personified. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, the top of her breasts peeked out from over the black lace of her bra, and at the right angle, one could even see her belly button. Her jeans were tight, showing off her fabulous ass, and her legs were long and slim. Yes, definitely hooker material, though he hated the thought of other men looking at her like that, thinking they could have her in exchange for cold hard cash.

When he lifted his eyes and met hers, he saw something there, saw that she could read him, read the thoughts that were going through his mind as plainly as if he’d spoken them. But she said nothing, didn’t comment on what she saw, didn’t even flinch or toss him a look of contempt, though she had to think that he was just like all the other vampires: lecherous, and unable to control his need for sex and blood. At the moment those two needs were battling for supremacy, and even though he was doing his best to appear calm on the outside, the storm raging in him had to show on his face and body. He could sense his muscles twitch, his nostrils flare, and his cock thicken, just as surely as he could feel his fangs lengthen.