Predatory

by Alexandra Ivy

  “Good. I don’t think I’d survive a long wait.” She paused. “Can all vampires read minds?”

  He slowed down a little as they got closer to the funeral home, his senses alive to any enemy who might be nearby. “Most can read human minds, but nonhuman minds are tougher. A maker is always able to access the minds of those he created.”

  She smiled. “Well, at least you didn’t shatter all of my illusions about the children of the night.” Cassie stared into the darkness. “We must be close.”

  He nodded.

  She opened her purse and rested her hand on the gun inside.

  Ethan leaned down until he could whisper in her ear. “I’ll keep you safe tonight. Trust me?” Stupid question. He was a vampire.

  “Yes.”

  He released her and beckoned her deeper into the shadows. He put his finger to his lips. They crept from building to building until they finally worked their way around to the back of Eternal Rest.

  Zareb glided from the darkness. Ethan could see the silhouettes of the four other vampires who would go inside with them. He only hoped crazy Darren wasn’t one of them.

  Zareb’s whisper was brief. “Ethan, Cassie, and I will go in the back door. The rest of you will go around to the front. If everyone else did their jobs, the outside guards should be gone by now.” Zareb watched the other vampires fade into the night. He avoided meeting Ethan’s gaze as he nodded at him. “Let’s go.” He didn’t even glance at Cassie. “Oh, and the door’s locked.”

  Ethan turned his head away as he spoke to her. “Don’t hesitate to kill.” He took his place in front of her and faced the back door. “And whatever you do, don’t look at my face.”

  He pulled the hoodie from his head, took off his glasses and shoved them into a pocket, then lifted his foot and kicked in the door.

  Chapter Six

  No plan? Just kick down the door and wing it? Where was the damn plan? Cassie’s heart was beating so fast she thought it might explode from her chest. That would pretty much put a kink in their covert action. Covert? Hah.

  She gripped her gun as she wondered how Zareb would even know if his outside vampires had gotten rid of all the guards. No sounds of a struggle, no screams, no grunts or triumphant whoops. Cassie didn’t want to think about fanged shadows moving silently through the night.

  Then she remembered what Ethan had said about a vampire’s power to read thoughts. Zareb would be connected mentally to all of his children. He was probably in her mind right now too.

  A soft chuckle from behind Cassie shivered up her spine.

  “Why would I not be there? Your mind is a delight, Cassie.” Zareb’s whisper seemed way too close. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m in everyone else’s mind as well, even the enemy’s. My only limit is distance.”

  She forced herself not to respond. Instead, she stared at Ethan’s back as he strode down the hallway. He was all power and smooth deadly grace. And even in the midst of her panic attack, his presence did weird things to her nervous system.

  Zareb spoke softly. “If I’m not mistaken, four of them are heading our way right now, and they’re extremely pissed off.”

  The sound of running footsteps snapped her attention back to the hallway. Four men rushed toward them, guns in one hand and swords in the other. Swords? Really? They looked human to her—no fangs when they snarled—but they moved faster than a human would. What were they?

  The need for action was almost a relief. Cassie pulled her gun from her purse. But she needn’t have bothered.

  Ethan waited. The men facing him slid to a stop and then just stared. They dropped their weapons. Their expressions slowly shifted from fury to something so creepy that it made Cassie shiver. They looked as though they were in some sort of ecstatic trance—eyes half closed, mouths twisted in grotesque travesties of smiles. They stayed frozen like that while she held her breath. Then they simply collapsed. She exhaled. She recognized death in their loose-limbed sprawl.

  Don’t shake, don’t shake. Whatever those men had seen in their last moments had killed them. For the first time, the Second One became real.

  “But they died happy. How many of us will be able to say that?” Zareb’s voice in her head sounded mildly amused.

  Cassie tried to control her horror. She’d seen enough violent death today to fill several lifetimes. Zareb’s attitude shouldn’t shock her. But it did.

  “When you live thousands of years, Cassie, death becomes an old friend.” Zareb spoke aloud as he watched the vampires he’d sent around to the front entrance coming toward them.

  Ethan pulled his hoodie over his head again. He hadn’t spoken or looked at them since they’d entered Eternal Rest.

  Cassie couldn’t stop the questions flooding her mind. If the Second One was in control, did it recognize her? Did it care about any of them? The thought of a cold emotionless entity crouching inside Ethan’s body not only terrified her but also made her incredibly sad. She forced her gaze from him.

  Zareb didn’t ask the others if they’d cleared the front of the building. The fact that they were standing here proved they had.

  Cassie tried not to stare at the bodies. “Those were humans, weren’t they? Then how were they able to move like vampires?”

  Zareb looked thoughtful. “I don’t know, but I intend to find out.” He walked to Ethan’s side. “What do you think about getting into the basement?”

  Ethan kept his head turned away. “If anyone is down there, they can nail us as we get off the elevator. Let’s look outside. They wouldn’t want to get trapped with just one exit. I’m betting on a trapdoor and stairs.”

  “Wait.” Cassie held up her hand. “When I used the elevator, there were three buttons. The top one was ground level. I hit the bottom one and it took me to where Ethan was being kept. But there was a second button in between the other two.”

  Zareb nodded. “The place probably has a sub-basement.” He looked at the vampires who’d entered by the front door. “Two of you stay here to stop anyone coming up on the elevator. The other two check out the second button. When I call for you, come down to the bottom floor.” Then he waved for Ethan and her to follow him.

  Once outside, Cassie stayed close to Ethan’s back. The darkness closed around her. The brave words she’d spouted to Ethan were all lies. Fear was a scalding acid eating its way through her. Her legs shook, but she forced herself to keep going. She owed this to Felicity.

  Ethan worked his way around the house, his gaze fixed on the ground. She couldn’t see anything but grass in the darkness. Finally, he stopped. He bent down and lifted a large square of what must be fake lawn. It looked exactly like the rest of the lawn to Cassie.

  Then everything happened almost too fast for her to follow. Zareb stepped around her and carefully raised the trapdoor hidden beneath the grass. It didn’t make a sound. Light spilled from the opening, revealing stairs. He stood aside so Ethan could descend first.

  Once again Zareb was in her mind. “Stay out of the way. I’ve called the others down. We have to do this fast and get out of here. Reinforcements will be on the way.” Then he leaped down the steps in a blur of motion.

  No way would Cassie be left standing by herself in the dark. She took a deep breath. Oh, what the hell. She pulled the knife from its sheath and the gun from her purse. With a weapon in each hand, she admitted that her grandfather had done one thing right. He’d taught her to be comfortable fighting with either hand.

  Cautiously, she followed the two vampires. There was no need for quiet, because as soon as Ethan and Zareb hit the basement floor, shouts and gunshots exploded.

  Just as she took the last step down, silence fell. Cassie suspected what she’d find when she looked around.

  Six humans—at least she assumed they were human—were caught in the Second One’s deadly web.

  Zareb was busy in the corner of the room where three glass coffins rested on gurneys. A naked man lay inside each of the coffins. She shuddered. Déjà vu. The
re were no signs of any headstones. She’d bet that the six men had been getting ready to move the coffins out of Eternal Rest.

  Cassie turned her attention to Ethan. She didn’t hear the man silently descending the stairs behind her until he shoved her to the floor. She fell to one knee and lost her grip on the gun. It slid under a nearby cabinet.

  Cassie looked up in time to see the man step behind Ethan. He raised the sword he carried over his head.

  Ethan’s attention was focused on the men in front of him. Even as she watched, the men started to collapse. Zareb was turned toward the coffins.

  With no conscious thought, just the lessons drilled into her by the man she’d called Grandfather, Cassie raised her knife in one smooth motion and threw it. If her target was human, he was dead, because the knife was buried to the hilt in the left side of his back.

  He fell and his sword clattered to the floor.

  She might never have wanted to see or think about her grandfather again, but right now she was glad she hadn’t stopped practicing with weapons. Cassie had promised herself that she’d never be a victim again.

  She stood up, unable to look away from the body of the man she’d killed. Bodies, so many damn bodies. She tried to close her eyes, but she couldn’t blink, couldn’t turn from the man.

  Luckily, others were capable of movement. Ethan put on his sunglasses and yanked his hoodie over his head before turning around. He took in the situation at a glance. He didn’t get a chance to say anything because at that moment, the four vampires that Zareb had left above burst from the elevator.

  Ethan didn’t rush over to help the others get the men out of their coffins. He moved to Cassie’s side, still keeping his face turned from her. He didn’t speak.

  She needed him now—his strength, his solid presence standing between her and the body of the one who would always be her dead man, between her and the six bodies sprawled in the middle of the room. She knew she was swaying. But she didn’t move toward him, didn’t know how to relate to the Second One, wasn’t sure she even could.

  And just when she thought she’d turn and run screaming up the stairs, Ethan moved. He simply took her hand and pulled her against him.

  His words were almost a whisper. “Thank you.”

  That’s all. But that’s all she needed. Those had been Ethan’s words. And if she was wrong, then she’d just hold on to her illusions.

  Zareb moved quickly toward them along with the rest of his vampires, who were holding up the three semiconscious men they’d rescued. “We have to get out of here. I sense others coming. This isn’t the time for a stand.”

  Ethan didn’t argue as he scooped her into his arms and then moved with preternatural speed. They were a blur as they all rushed up the stairs and into the darkness. Once hidden by the night, Ethan set her down.

  Zareb allowed the others to scatter, but put up his hand to signal that Ethan and Cassie should wait. “I’ll destroy Eternal Rest before I leave. You head home.”

  Before his words could even sink in, the funeral home exploded in flames. Cassie only had a moment to be thankful that no other buildings were close by, and then Ethan dragged her away.

  Zareb disappeared in the opposite direction.

  Cassie remained silent as Ethan drove. She was tired all the way to her soul, but she knew sleep would be tough tonight. If she’d thought that seeing lots of bodies would desensitize her, she was wrong. She’d killed two men today. They would follow her into her dreams and beyond.

  Ethan spoke just before they reached Zareb’s place. “Those three vampires are the friends who were staying with me.” He allowed the silence to build. “I’m thankful that we reached them before Garrity’s new binder did.”

  “If the binder had already put the headstones by them, would destroying the headstones have broken the binding?” Nightmares or not, she needed sleep so that she could think clearly. Right now everything was just a tangled web of confusion.

  “You didn’t get a good look at me when I was in that coffin. If you had, you would’ve noticed the same scene that was on my headstone burned into my chest.”

  “That’s just sick.” She frowned. “Wait, I saw you right after you escaped from the coffin, and all you had were cuts from the glass.”

  He nodded. “No one burned that into me. It just appeared at the same time the binder put the headstone next to my coffin. At the moment he died, the image disappeared from my chest. I think that even if someone had destroyed the headstone, as long as the binder was still alive, the image would have stayed on my body.” He seemed to think for a moment. “And the binding would have held.”

  Cassie didn’t have time to comment on that because they’d reached Zareb’s warehouse. She climbed from the car and headed for the door. Ethan put his hand on her arm to stop her.

  “I wanted to tell you how amazing you were back there. I’d have gone to my final death tonight if you hadn’t thrown that knife.”

  She couldn’t see his face, but she sensed his smile.

  “Zareb has a talent for reading what’s inside a person, knowing how to get the most from them. I know why he let you come with us. I think he knew that you were capable of performing ‘extraordinary feats.’”

  Cassie didn’t want to be pleased. Killing a person shouldn’t make anyone feel proud. But it wasn’t the killing that brought her a sense of wonder. It was the fact that subconsciously she’d known that she couldn’t allow this man to die.

  “Thank you.” She took a deep breath and asked the question that had nagged at her all night. “You sound normal. Why aren’t you all primitive rage and savagery with the Second One in control?”

  She could feel his gaze—hot, disturbing.

  “Exactly because the Second One is a primitive force. It only has one focus—violence. When it doesn’t have a target, it subsides.” He paused. “But it’s still there, waiting for the moment it senses anger or any emotion it can hook its claws into. I have to be careful until it fades. Oh, and my face will still kill.”

  “How long until it’s gone?”

  He shrugged. “Not for a while now. I killed again tonight.”

  Cassie swallowed hard. She should leave now, walk into the building, because his closeness was making her forget things she needed to remember—he was a vampire, he had killed ten men tonight, he was a vampire.

  But her feet didn’t move. Everything that had happened today, every moment of emotional turmoil was breaking like waves against the dam she’d erected in her mind. And the dam had sprung leaks. Lots of them.

  Even as she took the step toward him that she knew would change everything, the dam collapsed and her emotions swept her away.

  If she thought he’d be the one to wield some common sense, she was wrong. With a guttural groan, he pulled her to him.

  “You shouldn’t do this to me when the Second One is around. It doesn’t understand limits.”

  Cassie closed her eyes as she reached up to trace his jaw with shaking fingers. “Bring it on. It seems I’m into expanding my limits today. I’m willing to live dangerously for a little while longer.”

  And with a muffled curse, he covered her mouth with his.

  Chapter Seven

  There were moments when people did things they never thought they’d do. This was one of them. She would kiss a vampire.

  It was her in-between time—after Felicity’s death, after she’d killed two men, but before the dreaded instant when she’d have to finally accept that everything she’d experienced today was real. And definitely before she lay alone in her bed and slept, only to live it all again in her dreams.

  This was her moment to forget—no before, no after, just now. And what a now it was. Ethan wouldn’t kiss her gently. Not with the Second One lurking so close to the surface. But that was okay, because she didn’t want kind and understanding right now. She wanted a kiss that would obliterate her memories of the day.

  He pulled her to him, and she savored the anticipation. He was
sexy, masculine, and warm. Who knew a vampire could feel warm? His lips moved over hers—no attempt at seduction, just all hard demand. And she opened to him.

  Let the sensations begin. Or not. Because something strange was happening. She’d prepared herself to absorb the scent, the feel, the taste of him. That’s what you did when you kissed someone. But instead, she fell straight through the hole that must’ve been in the bottom of her box of sensations and hurtled into . . .

  What the . . . ? Darkness, heat, and emotions so strong that they shook her. No up, no down, just feelings—stomach-churning desire and a need that clawed her bloody inside. She was moving too fast, gasping for breath as everything gathering inside her expanded, threatening to fill her universe.

  Every once in a while she’d catch a glimpse of reality in a flash of light seen out of the corner of her mind’s eye—his tongue stroking and tasting, his lips sensual and tempting. But then it would be gone.

  Emotions. So many of them. All struggling to be acknowledged, to be felt. Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore. It was too much, too unexpected, too frightening. What the hell was happening? She opened her eyes.

  For one terrifying second she stared into the reflection of herself in his glasses—wide-eyed, confused, scared. And then he turned his head away.

  “Don’t look at me when the Second One is near. Not even if I’m wearing the glasses.” His voice was a raspy warning. “Unless you have a death wish.” He released her and stepped back.

  Cassie swayed, not sure if she was about to humiliate herself by falling flat on her face. Taking a deep breath, she locked her knees and stood tall. It had just been a kiss. Right. Way to lie to yourself.

  “I don’t understand.” Any of it. Not what he was or why one kiss felt as though he’d changed her on a molecular level.