Loud. Louder. The sound of water was nearly deafening.
“Tenzin?” he yelled into the darkness. He couldn’t see her light anywhere. He couldn’t hear her footsteps. His voice echoed off a high ceiling. Where was she? “Where are you?”
“Here!”
He swept his flashlight back and forth three times before he saw her, perched in a corner of the cavern, her head uncovered.
“Where the hell is your helmet?”
She waved toward the ground. “Somewhere. I think I dropped it in the water. Careful.”
Ben unclipped the flashlight from his belt and pointed it at the ground. Running through the middle of the cavern was a deep crevice where the sound of water was loudest. It was only one of the many underground rivers and streams of Camuy. The narrow crevice wouldn’t be hard to cross, but who knew where it went or how far the fall was if he slipped.
“Okay,” he said, carefully stepping to the side of the stream. “Is that why you’re flying?”
“I can smell fresh air.” She poked at the ceiling. “I think we’re close to the surface here.”
“We were walking down.”
“Were we? Passages underground can be deceiving.”
“That’s true.” Ben carefully tossed his backpack and metal detector across the crevice and braced himself on a sturdy boulder before he hopped across. “What do you think? Have you looked at the ground in here? Any signs of disturbance?”
Not that there was likely to be visible disturbance after a few hundred years. With this much water in the cave, erosion was inevitable. He could feel water dripping overhead too. Tenzin was probably right that they were nearer to the surface than it seemed.
Ben looked around the cavern. Rocky walls shaped like an inverse cone led to nothing but darkness. He couldn’t see the ceiling in this section of the cave. It was nearly perfectly round, and the ground was rocky. There was no moss. No light had ever touched it. But signs of life still existed in the pale fish darting in the stream.
“The world is an amazing place,” he murmured.
“Yes.” Her voice was still coming from overhead, but this time from the opposite side of the cavern. “Can you hear the rain? It’s raining above us. I can smell it and hear it. We’re so close.” She let out a quiet grunt.
“Tenzin, what are you doing up there?”
“I’m…” She grunted again. “Testing.”
“Testing what?”
“The rocks.”
“Bad idea!” he shouted. “Stop. Seriously, what are you thinking? You’re pushing on the rocks? Do you want a cave-in?”
“It’s not going to cave in.”
A sliding sound across the cavern caused Ben’s heart to stop. He pointed the flashlight in the direction of the noise and looked, but he could see nothing. Then he pointed it up at the ceiling. Tenzin was poised at the top of the cavern, poking the limestone with the walking stick he’d given her to help navigate the rocky floor of the tunnel.
“Stop it,” he said quietly. “Right now.”
“That wasn’t because of me.”
“Do you know that? You’re suddenly a cave logistics expert?”
“And you are?”
“I’ve studied it more than you!” He tossed his backpack back across the crevice, along with his metal detector. “I’m going back.”
“Don’t be a spoilsport,” she said. “Ben, you haven’t even used your machine. As long as we’re here, you should at least use your machine.”
“Some of us can die, did you forget that?”
She flew down and landed beside him, picking up his metal detector.
“Don’t.” He swiped it from her. “You’ll short it out.”
“Fine! Don’t let me help. I was just exploring. Remember when you liked to explore? Back when you had a sense of humor?”
He turned on her. “Since when have you wanted to explore underground? When did that become a thing? You think this is a game?”
He spun back toward the passage where they’d entered the wider cavern and squeezed into the passageway, not bothering to remove his backpack. He bent to pick up his metal detector, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on a jutting limestone protrusion. He heard Tenzin behind him.
She was stewing and muttering under her breath, but Ben didn’t care. Poking and prodding at a cave? Was she insane? They were going through a section of cave that was more earth than limestone. They were already doing enough damage leaving the marks they were. These caves were isolated ecosystems, delicately balanced; a single new factor could cause…
A rumble that seemed to come from every direction.
Ben’s heart seized.
“Tenzin,” he whispered. “Go back.” Back to the limestone. Back to the fresh air. “Tenzin, go back!”
Too late. The first clump of mud hit him on the left shoulder as he was turning. The second knocked him to his feet as the tunnel began to collapse.
Ben woke with the taste of earth in his mouth. Mud had closed around him, but it wasn’t solid. He could breathe. He wasn’t crushed. He felt for his flashlight but couldn’t find it. He reached for his helmet and found it still attached to his head. With a few shakes, the light turned on.
“Tenzin?” He tried to move his head. He was on the ground and his legs were covered, but he thought he could crawl out with a little help.
Crawl out of the mud. Take stock of your surroundings.
Don’t panic. Your chest will expand and you’ll be more stuck than you were before.
“Tenzin, where are you?”
Dear God, don’t let her be under the collapse. He tried to move his head, but his range of motion was too limited. He carefully shimmied back and forth until he’d freed his legs. He was sitting up and searching for his flashlight when he heard a shifting sound to his right. He moved his head in that direction, only to see Tenzin crawling on all fours. She was coming toward him, covered in mud and bleeding from her cheek. She froze when the light shone in her eyes.
“Shit. Sorry.” He angled his headlamp down. “Are you okay? What happened to your cheek?”
She didn’t say a word.
“Tenzin?”
This was not good.
Ben crawled to her, but her eyes were blank and unfocused. The pupils were dilated and fixed, but she wasn’t growling. She wasn’t panicked. She didn’t seem to be aware at all.
“Hey, Tiny. It’s me. We’re underground, but we’re okay. We’re going to get out.” He reached up and brushed the mud away from her mouth and cheek. He left a hand on her cheek. “Talk to me, okay?”
She turned to him, her mouth dropped open, and a rasping sound left her throat. It kept going and going. Her eyes were fixed and her face was frozen in terror.
Ben’s heart raced when he realized what was happening.
Tenzin was screaming. And it was completely silent.
“Wake up,” he begged her. “Tenzin, please.” His heart ached. Watching her scream was the most powerless he’d ever felt in his life. “Tiny, wake up. It’s me. I’m here. We’re okay. Just wake up.” He pressed his cheek to hers and put his arms around her. “Please. Please.”
The screaming stopped when her skin touched his. She shuddered, then grew still.
She crawled over his legs, straddling him. She pulled back and Ben loosened his hold on her.
“Tenzin?”
She still wasn’t speaking.
Ben didn’t get truly nervous until she knocked his helmet away. He could barely see her in the dim reflected light. A faint growl came from her throat.
Shit.
She’d gone into the cave hungry, and she’d been caught in the mudslide. Her eyes were glazed with bloodlust, and there was no hint of recognition as she stared at him.
“Tenzin?” He swallowed hard.
She leaned forward, smelling his neck. She still wasn’t talking.
She was hunting.
Time to panic.
He reached up and unzipped his coveralls, h
oping his familiar scent would wake her from the bloodlust. He spread the canvas wide, exposing his T-shirt to her. His neck was bare. He could smell his perspiration and her hunger in the mud-filled passage. Ben put both his muddy hands on her cheeks.
Tenzin froze.
“Hey there,” he whispered. “Remember me?”
She paused.
“It’s me. It’s Ben.”
She leaned forward again, filling her lungs with his scent. He felt her lips at his neck. Her nose dragged along the line of his jaw, following his pulse. He could feel a buzz of amnis along his skin.
He tightened his fingers on her cheek. “Don’t use amnis on me. That’s not allowed, remember? Wake up, Tenzin. Please wake up.” Tears came to his eyes when the fingers touching his neck went numb. She wasn’t waking up. She wasn’t hearing him. “Tiny, it’s Ben. It’s me. Don’t do this.”
He tried leaning away from her. Eventually he was lying prone and Tenzin was crouched over him. Trying to escape from her would be useless.
He was prey, and she was a far faster predator.
“Tiny,” he kept repeating. “Tiny, it’s me. It’s Ben.”
His head was swimming. He was dizzy and euphoric at the same time. Tenzin paused, and Ben thought he heard a sound close to awareness come from her throat. It was somewhere between a sigh and a cry.
“Tenzin?”
The cry turned into a low growl, she took another deep breath, then her fangs struck his neck.
“Ahh.” Ben’s back arched. “Fuck.”
The pain of her bite wasn’t what he’d imagined.
It was so much better.
The piercing of her fangs into his skin hit Ben like the onset of the most powerful orgasm he’d ever felt. Her mouth on his neck, pulling his blood like a direct line to his cock. Her body over him, her breasts pressed into his chest. The pleasure so intense it was near pain.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ben arched up and into her, grinding his erection between her legs as she straddled him. His hands moved to her ass, grabbing her curves and pressing them closer.
She was feeding from him, and it was no gentle bite.
It was pleasure. It was pain. It was heaven and hell and she was drinking his blood and he wanted it. He wanted her to devour him. One hand moved from her ass to her breast and he squeezed. He swept his thumb over her erect nipple and turned his head so she could go deeper. His other hand gripped her hair, pulling her mouth from his neck. He could feel his flesh tear, but he ignored it, dragging her bloody mouth to his.
The taste of blood in his mouth conjured a dream. They were locked together, her blood in his mouth. His blood in hers. Their bodies moved as one. In the back of his mind, the image spun as lights flashed behind his closed eyes.
Her mouth was everything he wanted. He cut his lips on the curved fangs. She sucked his tongue into her mouth and bit down, drinking from him as he moaned under her.
Yes.
Take it.
Take me.
I’m yours.
I’ve always been yours.
She released his tongue. His mouth. Ben turned his head as Tenzin bent to the other side of his neck. He gripped her hair tighter, and his arm went around the small of her back, cradling her as she killed him.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. He could feel the blood pooling at his neck even as she drank from the other side. “I know…” His breath caught when he felt her tongue lapping at his neck. “It’s okay, Tiny.”
He swallowed hard. He was going to pass out. Tears slipped from the corner of his eyes, mingling with the rivulets of blood. He smoothed her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear as his fingers went numb.
“It’s okay, Tiny.”
Darkness took him.
Tenzin cradled the body beneath her, the pleasure of the blood near blinding. She lapped at the neck, one hunger sated while the other raged. She was empty and he filled her, but it wasn’t enough.
She wanted more. She wanted to taste his skin and ride the hard erection pressed between her legs. She was blinded by the taste of his blood in her mouth. Familiar blood. Unfamiliar blood. Sweet and hot.
She’d woken in the darkness with the taste of earth in her mouth. She’d risen from the dirt, scraped away the tomb around her, every instinct aroused. She smelled the scent of prey in the darkness. Followed it to the male beneath her.
She drank and she wanted more.
He held her close, and the hands were familiar. The touch of his fingers was gentle at her temple. They didn’t strike. They didn’t grip or break or twist or hurt.
Gentle.
Familiar.
“It’s okay, Tiny.”
Benjamin. She let out a long breath. My Benjamin.
Tenzin blinked and sat up. She could see his pale skin in the darkness, see the pool of blood at his neck and the raw fang marks in his neck. His lips were covered in blood. His blood.
“No.”
His eyes were closed. His pulse slow.
Tenzin tasted the blood in her mouth, felt the sticky iron-rich liquid on her lips.
She sprang to her feet and screamed. “No!”
Tenzin knelt down and put her mouth to his neck, sealing the deep wounds she’d left with her fangs. She poured her blood into the bite marks, cleaning them before she wiped his cool skin with her sleeve.
“Benjamin.”
She would not panic.
“Ben.”
This wasn’t how it would be. It couldn’t be.
No, this would not be.
Her heart thumped twice, and Tenzin took careful stock of how much blood she’d drunk. She was sated, near bursting with it. For her, as old as she was, that meant she’d probably drunk no more than two pints. She lifted the light and looked at the blood on the ground. At most a cup more.
Two and a half pints.
He would not die. There was no reason for him to die. He had passed out from shock, not from blood loss. From the cold. She needed to get him out of the cave and get him warm. After that, he’d be fine.
Fine.
“Don’t wake up,” she muttered. “Just… don’t.”
If she were lucky, he’d remember nothing except her biting him. He’d be mad at her, pout for a reasonable amount of time—at the most, she was estimating two years—and then they could move on.
Tenzin ignored the aching between her legs and the raw sexual hunger Ben had roused. She tried to banish the rich taste of his blood, but it had entered her bloodstream. Her head was filled with the scent of him now. It invaded her mind, tormenting her.
You want him.
Take him.
He will be yours.
He wants you too.
No, it didn’t work that way. Not with Ben.
Another whispering voice taunted her at the back of her mind.
Kill him now.
He is a weakness.
Kill the weakness or it will destroy you.
No.
She was not that creature anymore. She was more. He had made her more. She was a friend. A protector. She was a partner.
“It’s okay, Tiny.”
She’d been killing him, and he’d offered her reassurance. Tenzin swallowed the scream that wanted to escape her throat. She zipped Ben’s coveralls and covered him with the foil emergency blanket he’d stuffed in her pocket.
She walked to the side of the tunnel leading back to the cavern and punched her arm through the mud with all her rage. Her arm went up to the shoulder, but her hand didn’t reach air on the other side. That side was blocked thoroughly.
She walked to the other side. The tunnel was only partially covered on this end. She would go back to the larger cavern and find a way out. She’d smelled fresh air. She could work with that.
She left Ben in the tunnel, covered by the blanket, and flew back to the tunnel holding the headlamp under her arm.
Don’t wake up. She glanced back at the tunnel, knowing he’d be terrified if he woke in the dark. Just
don’t wake up.
Tenzin flew over the rushing stream and up, weaving between the rocks dripping down from the ceiling of the cave. She followed her nose to the source of the fresh air and reached out with her elemental energy.
There.
A channel through the rocks, broken and twisting where the water leaked down. Tenzin floated down below the crack and called the air around her.
Come to me.
You are mine.
Mine to command.
She closed her eyes, felt her body accept the space around and within her, and called the wind to her bidding.
The rocks cracked and groaned, powerless to the rushing currents that beat upward like a hurricane rising from within the earth.
Tenzin lifted her arms, Ben’s blood fueling her, her hair rising upward with the current, as the tiny crack grew wide. Wider.
The earth groaned and a chunk of limestone fell away, revealing a spear of direct sunlight Tenzin had to dart away to avoid. The rocks fell into the bottom of the cavern, crashing into the stream.
She flew back to the tunnel and lifted Ben, dragging him back to the larger cavern. She propped him against a wall, covered him with the blanket again, and sat down to wait for dusk, hoping he’d take a nice long nap. From the angle of the sun, she only had two or three hours to wait.
She glanced at Ben’s pale skin and red neck. She dragged her eyes away from the line of his jaw and the defined muscle where his shoulder met his neck. She still wanted to sink her teeth into it. She closed her eyes and tried to will the image away, but his blood had infected her and it was all she could think about.
Dammit.
She was going to have to call Giovanni.
16
The first thing Ben noticed was the massive headache pounding between his temples. He was lying on something soft and he was warm. He was dry. He could hear a Spanish voice talking on the radio in the distance, and for a moment he was back at his grandmother’s house with the smell of chicken, garlic, and coffee filling the air.
He blinked and opened his eyes to filtered sunlight streaming through the window of a house.
Where was he?
Blood Apprentice: An Elemental Legacy Novel Page 15