Knight of the Hunted (NSFW Edition) (Born Vampire Book 1)

by Elizabeth Dunlap

  Olivier pulled herself onto the black marble countertop and inspected her long nails. “You’ve heard of the Black Plague? The sweating sickness?” He nodded, so she grinned widely, showing her fangs. “Vampires.”

  Cameron’s mouth popped back open. “You’re fucking joking.”

  I shook my head and picked up an apple from the fruit basket on the expensive marble countertop that Olivier shouldn’t be sitting on. “Almost every plague was an altered event that involved vampires. Maybe there was an actual sickness that had spread. It was never to the degree of a plague though. The death tolls rose because of us.”

  “That’s what happens when you let turned ass loose before they’ve learned control,” said Olivier in a reproaching tone. “And even though we’re born with control, the Born have been known to break the rules now and then. There was one Born vampire that changed hundreds of humans in an instant. His ass bit hundreds across a city over several months and dropped his blood in their water supply. Then they turned, without any supervision or training. It was a goddamn massacre waiting to happen.” I scraped at my apple’s peel and studied the floor. The past had its ghosts, that much was certain.

  Cameron clicked his tongue, making me look up. “You act so damned repulsed by murder. You can’t tell me neither of you has ever killed before.” I opened my mouth, then closed it, and continued running my nails against the apple in my hand. I felt some peel come off.

  “There’s a difference between killing to feed and killing just to kill,” I said quietly.

  Olivier didn’t feel as bad as I did about that part of our past. “We did what we had to. To protect the masses, and to survive. Don’t fault us for that.”

  “That’s just it,” he said, looking down. “I’m not sure I do, to tell the truth. I guess that’s what bothers me.” He tossed his orange peel into the trash bin and left the room.

  Olivier watched him go then glanced back at me. “What was all that shit about? He’s never been interested in us before.” I shrugged. In the past decade, he’d never asked me about my life before him beyond the occasional crack at our decor. He’d always given me the impression he would be gone as soon as his time was up. There was a first time for everything, I suppose.

  A bloodcurdling scream came from the basement, startling me.

  “Shit,” I swore under my breath. Several of the turned were now wailing at the top of their lungs, and it was only going to get worse. I couldn’t handle this crap today. I needed to get out.

  After a quick trip upstairs to grab my purse, I trekked down to the turned dormitory and walked past the screaming coffins. Not that I wanted to go that way, but it’s the only route, unfortunately. Whoever designed this castle should be shot, seriously. The underground garage was through a side door between two coffins. I had the status to hire a driver and be driven wherever I wanted to go, but I preferred to drive myself. My car was pretty and black and got all the stares in town. I suspected it was expensive, but I had no idea. A car junkie I was not.

  Our large castle was a few minutes outside of the nearest town and it didn’t take me long to drive there. I parked in front of one of the bookstores I frequented and went inside. The smell of books hit me like a relaxing wave and I sighed in relief. Getting lost in the shelves would calm me down enough to face more screaming. Just as I’d found a section to peruse, I felt a breeze and smelled lilac.

  Balthazar.

  I turned to see my oldest friend, an Incubus. He was wearing a handsome dark blue suit, and his lengthy black hair hung in slight waves. He leaned on his cane and gave me the grin I’d seen from birth. The grin that made human women melt into puddles and beg to be seduced by him.

  Gods above, he was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

  “Hello, Balthy,” I said with a smile, trying to calm my slowly heating body. “You can stop giving me the Incubus smolder. It’s not appropriate to turn your friends on in public.”

  “Hmm…remember what I said I’d do if you called me Balthy again….” He wiggled his eyebrows and reached a hand out to me to extract his punishment.

  My smile fell and I gave him a stern glare. “Don’t make me slap you.” He laughed and used his hand to bring me closer for a peck on the cheek.

  Balthazar had appeared for the first time when I was a young child. He said he was a friend of my mother’s, a woman I had never known, and he was going to watch over me. His presence in my life was unheard of. The Bicus, Incubi and Succubi, never had anything to do with vampires and Lycans beyond creating us, which was now banned for an unknown reason. Everyone knew about Balthazar, but it was bizarre to the other Born that he liked to visit me. He’d always been around, popping in every so often, and he usually seemed genuinely interested in me and what I was doing. Though sometimes he would get distracted by a human female, and then it was like I didn’t exist.

  Like right then, for instance.

  He’d been smiling at me, studying my face, when he glanced behind me and suddenly saw prey. I could see the world melt away around him, and all that mattered was the human female he’d spotted. I turned to look at her. She was a little mousy thing, clearly quite pretty under her oversized glasses, but she had no confidence and dressed badly. Underneath the droopy skirt she was wearing, her ass was nice and round. Her golden hair was in a tight bun, the kind men fantasized about pulling the pins out of to see how soft it was as they push her body against the bookshelves. And her lips were so soft and full, you could only guess what kind of sounds would come out of them if you fucked her in the bookstore bathroom. I bet she’d moan like a bitch in heat if you touched her in the right places.

  She was an Incubus’s wet dream. She was any man’s wet dream. Hell, even I was fantasizing about her. I hadn’t had a lover in many years, man or woman. A tryst in the shadows didn’t sound like a bad idea, especially with her.

  Beside me, Balthazar was also fantasizing about the woman it seemed, and fingernails had started to grow into long claws, the Bicus equivalent of an erection. Rest assured, he had one of those too.

  I punched his arm.

  He yelped, and his fingernails retracted as he reached up to rub where I’d hit him. I held my fist out, ready to smack his arm again, but the girl picked up a romance novel with a barely dressed sensual couple on the front and left. He sighed and looked back at me while adjusting his tie and slicking back his hair.

  “Thanks for that. I was two seconds away from breaking the rules and tearing her clothes off right here to fuck her against the stacks.”

  “I was two seconds away from fighting you for that right, but I know I’d lose.” I was a sex goddess, for certain, but he was sex itself. I’d never get chicks with him here. “On the subject, why is banging humans and creating more children forbidden now? You guys have been doing that for thousands of years, and then a few hundred years ago, suddenly, no more sex. Thoughts?”

  He shrugged, being his evasive self. Not that I hadn’t been asking for four hundred years. I’m very persistent. “Lisbeth, my sweet. What shall we do today? I’m up for…anything.” He fluttered his eyelashes at me. Fuuck. I hated it when he did that. I could only be so turned on.

  “Do I have to hit you again?”

  He clicked his tongue and poked me with his cane. “Come. I require sustenance in the form of powdered doughnuts. Only confections can remove thoughts of sex.”

  I picked up a few books I thought looked interesting, including a copy of the sexy book Miss Plump Lips had bought. I paid for them and we left the store. It was unclear to me if Balthazar even needed food, but he usually ate with me whenever he came to visit. As he said, it was the only thing that made him stop focusing on sex. The human women that passed us felt his presence like a sex beacon, each one doing a double take or stopping in their tracks to stare. The smell of their arousal started to fill the air from his aura. It took focus for me to not be affected by him. Maybe one day I wouldn’t care.

  Every woman might’ve been gaping at him, but he co
ntinued walking beside me as if he didn’t notice. When it was clear he wasn’t going to talk to them, the humans started glaring at me, so I pulled a book out of my bag and pretended to be absorbed in it. Ohh. A sex scene.

  “Great. Just what I need, to be more turned on.” I started putting it back into my bag and Balthazar took it from me.

  “What in God’s name are you reading?” He started to chuckle as he flipped through the pages. “They call this making love? Pssh. I’m much better.” I rolled my eyes.

  We arrived at the tea café and walked inside. I took in the beautiful British design the café had as we waited to be seated. The air smelled like strawberry jam and cream with a hint of mint tea leaves. It was the main reason I liked the place. We were led to a table and Balthazar sat down across from me, still reading. The waiter walked up, a handsome male, who obviously preferred the company of men, judging by the once-over he was giving Balthazar. Balthazar was holding the book very close to his face so I couldn’t tell if he noticed the waiter checking him out or not. I ordered doughnuts with raspberry tea and the waiter left.

  Balthazar peeked out from the paperback. “Is he gone?” I nodded, so he exhaled and set the book down. “I don’t have a problem with an attractive man, I just can’t impregnate one, so what’s the point.” I stifled a laugh in my hand because he said it so matter of fact-ly. Balthazar took my other hand when he noticed the waiter coming back with our tea. He left again, taking the hint with a slight pout.

  I took my hand back and poured us tea from the flowery china teapot. “Just be glad he’s not a woman. Do you seriously not notice what happens when you’re around humans?”

  He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Of course I notice, my love. You don’t know how many times I’ve wished I could turn my damned aura off. But no. They’re my prey. I’m designed to drive them wild with passion.” Balthazar sipped his tea after I’d finished adding sugar and milk to it. “The turning was today,” he stated, carefully watching my face.

  My back automatically stiffened, but I tried to be cavalier about it. “You’d think I’d be used to it by now,” I said disarmingly. But the screams. Oh, those terrible screams.

  “Yes. They are quite horrid,” Balthazar remarked quietly, and I realized I’d spoken out loud. “They will be over soon. And then you’ll be too busy to see me. Maybe I’ll have to have that gorgeous woman to myself if you don’t visit.”

  We playfully argued over that for a few minutes, and then we chatted about nothing and everything for hours, sipping fruit-flavored tea and eating powdery desserts. Being with Balthazar was nice. He grounded me in a way my other friends couldn’t. He never reproached me, no matter what I discussed with him, and he never treated me like I was dense when I asked a simple question.

  The only thing I was never allowed to ask him about was my mother and grandmother. I knew he knew them, only because one time during the French Revolution he was drunk on whatever can actually get an Incubus drunk, and he kept talking about how much he missed my grandmother, how he’d never gotten to make love to her, and how much I looked like her. As far as I could find out, no one else knew who my mother and grandmother were. My father was a bigger mystery, one Balthazar didn’t even know. A mystery I’d convinced myself held no interest to me.

  When my stomach had reached its limit, in addition to the blood I’d drunk earlier, we left the tea shop and strolled through a park nearby, recounting old memories in soft tones that the humans wouldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure what the response would be if they overheard Balthazar recalling Nefertiti’s wardrobe choices.

  When morning turned into afternoon, my mobile buzzed signaling a text from Olivier.

  Get your white ass home. We have things to do.

  As soon as I’d finished reading it, I felt a flutter of wind and my walking companion was no longer there. Balthazar enjoyed showing off his incorporeal abilities by appearing and disappearing at will. And that included several occasions when he was suddenly not there as the conversation got boring. God damn it. I’d have to walk back alone. By the time I returned to my car, I was half angry at the state of my hair from the wind blowing it, and half at the fact that I was still pent up from being so turned on earlier.

  I started driving back home, but I felt itchy to move my muscles. Pulling over, I parked my car on the side of the deserted road and got out. I put my hair back into a ponytail and started running down the street at top speed. Trees became a blur, and the smell of everything I was passing hit me all at once. Rain puddles, pine trees, asphalt, and the lingering scent of human, a companion from our house if I was correct.

  My ears could pick up animals miles away; rabbits, mice, and the occasional big game. The sharpness in senses I was feeling only happened when I ran. My brain was processing everything quickly, mapping out in my head what my predatory instincts needed in case I wanted to hunt. The thought of hunting made me slow down.

  There was no denying what I was. I had never been ashamed of being a Born vampire. It was only my centuries of experience that made killing humans so utterly abhorrent to me. They were frail. Their lives ended. One mistake, one decision could end them forever. And then your friend was never there again. Lives were too precious for that.

  “Nice legs, Forest Gump.”

  I looked up and realized I’d already reached the front gate of my home. Cameron stood in the front lawn peering over the tall stone fence with a smirk on his face. I hoped for his sake he wasn’t trampling the hedges.

  “I felt like running,” I said out loud, even though he hadn’t asked me anything about what I was doing.

  “I can see that,” he replied. “And your car is…” I pointed behind me and winced when he instantly looked murderous. “You left. Your sports car. ON THE FUCKING HIGHWAY??”

  I winced again and tried to defend myself. “It’s not like people drive out here, seriously. I wouldn’t be running if they were.” I vaguely wondered why I was making excuses to someone less than a fourth my age, but Cameron’s glare made me feel like a fledgling again.

  “Go the hell back. Pick your damn car up. Carry it home. If there’s a single scratch, I will force you to listen to Justin Beaver.”

  “Who?” I asked dumbly.

  “MARCH!”

  I grumbled and turned around, then went into a light sprint back to my car. Funny how just this morning, I was the bossy older person in this relationship. I didn’t, in fact, pick up my car and carry it back. I might be able to run fast enough so a human couldn’t see me, but there was no way I could hide carrying a car down the road.

  As soon as I got back and parked in the underground garage, Cameron was there swinging around a yo-yo, waiting for me. He walked over, swinging his yo-yo to narrowly miss my face (show off), and inspected my car. “Good girl. You pass.” I flipped him off.

  Our smiles faded when we opened the door leading to the turned dormitory. The screams had died down a little; they’d lost that agonizing tone that made them so hard to listen to. The room felt cold and dreary, and the coffins didn’t help the atmosphere feel less like a death chamber. Cameron’s fingers started twitching so he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  In the center of the room stood creepy face Othello, looking over some paperwork with one of the Born that handled the companion system. A few bigger vampires stood guard among the coffins, making sure the turned didn’t escape. They were locked in, of course, but sometimes a strong one broke out and had to be dealt with. And by dealt with, I mean we beat their ass and put them back in.

  “Ah, there you are,” Othello said as we approached, handing off the papers in his hand, and motioned for the companion supervisor to leave. The other vampire winked at Cameron as she passed. I growled a warning to her to keep her hands to herself. Cameron started coughing into his hand, hiding a laugh. “They should be ready in the morning,” Othello told us, like the turned were baked chickens in the oven. Though it was kind of true, I suppose. He gave me a once-over, stopping at my breasts for a
n appreciative look. That was my cue to leave, before I tore his head off. I grabbed Cameron’s elbow and we left the basement.

  When we entered the larger drawing-room, Olivier was lounging on a divan with a binder in her hands that had a cartoon vampire on the cover. Her companion, Renard, sat next to her and his hand drew lazy circles on her arm and the other holding a goblet of wine. He was a devoted Frenchman, very sexy, and liked to sass his Lady as much as possible. This was his third tenure with her. Age had only made him more handsome. Romantic relationships between vampires and humans were forbidden, but that didn’t stop any of us from looking the other way when these two started flirting. I’ll admit, I wanted them to hook up. A stolen kiss, a tryst in the woods. I’d never tell anyone.

  Renard jumped up and tipped his faded top hat to me, exposing his buzzed red hair. “Ah, ma belle mademoiselle!” he said brightly with a twist of his barbell mustache. “Do not worry, ma Cherie,” he added, turning to Olivier who was ignoring him. “There is no one as charmante as you.”

  “Ass,” she muttered in French before calling him stupid, and a few other things that weren’t so charmante of her. Renard dropped his outspread arms and gave her the stink eye. She smirked, still focused on her binder.

  And that’s what I meant by flirting.

  Renard rolled his eyes and sat back down to drink from his chalice. “The screams have gotten better. Mon dieu. That is a relief on my ears.” He’d been here long enough to have a vampire-like attitude about it, but I could still see circles under his eyes. He downed his wine in one long gulp.

  Olivier closed her vampire binder and sighed. “I can’t wait until tomorrow when we can start getting some fucking work done. God, I hate sitting around.” Before she came here, she had been one of the Hunters, the vampire police. They traveled in a small group, hunting down those of us that broke the law. The vampire law, I might add, not the human’s law. We didn’t abide by their rules. A Hunter’s job never ended, they were always pursuing a subject. Always. I didn’t know why Olivier decided to leave them and come here, and I knew better than to ask.