He didn’t need human blood to survive because he hunted for prey at night when he was in his hawk form, but he’d warned me that I didn’t have the luxury of thriving off animal blood. But since I was a Winterborne, my immortal genes were dominant, so my need for blood would be infrequent. He also assured me that when I did need blood, I could get it from humans who were more than willing to offer it to me. I guess I was about to find out.
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
He looked at me incredulously. “Are you kidding me? You had your uncle against the wall when I walked in. All it took was one look at the blood gushing from his wrist and you were ready to drain him.”
Oddly, I couldn’t remember much of how it felt. I remembered holding Samuel against the wall and Hawk talking me down, but I had no recollection of the actual bloodlust. The second time he provoked me was a blur too. “Why can’t I remember what it felt like?”
“Because you’re a virgin.”
I snickered. “Well, I think we both know that’s not true.”
“A blood virgin. You haven’t had your first drink yet. Your senses will spike after that, and you’ll remember everything from here to eternity.” He chucked quietly, shaking his head. “Sometimes you’ll wish you could forget.”
“But I have. The blood Ryker forced me to drink that started this.”
“That was different. The blood he gave you triggered your transition. It wasn’t for sustenance. When you feed yourself for the first time, you’ll experience what true euphoria feels like. The tricky part will be to resist wanting to do it every chance you get.”
What he was saying contradicted what he’d told me after we left Ryker’s apartment that night. He and Jakob both had assured me my immortal genes were stronger. They’d made it sound like blood would be a rare yearning, like craving an occasional glass of wine. It was going to be hard enough to hide my vampire side from the clan without having to also hide my frequent lust for blood. How was I supposed to join the hunt and not lose my shit every time a little of it splattered across the room? I was basically fucked.
“That brings up another question. Am I supposed to hunt for both teams now? It sounds like the twins are.”
Hawk rubbed his forehead. “One fire at a time, Morgan. Let’s just get you fed first. Once we see how you react to it, we’ll have a good idea of what we’re up against.” He nodded to the bottle of scotch on the table. “Do you want a drink to settle your nerves before we leave? It might help.”
I shook my head, still feeling queasy at the thought of alcohol, which was very strange for me.
Hawk shrugged and headed for the table. “You may not want one, but I could use another drink.”
“You’re not helping,” I said as my stomach began to do flip-flops. “You’re supposed to be the steady one here.”
He poured a shot and downed it before heading for the door. “I’m fine now. Let’s go.”
“Wait!” I was suddenly getting cold feet. “Do we have to do this in one of these dens? We obviously can’t do it here, but why can’t we bring a blood donor to your place?” Which would serve two purposes—I’d get the blood I needed in a more comfortable environment, and I’d finally get to see where my boyfriend lived. I didn’t think that was too much to ask.
He stopped but didn’t turn around.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me why you won’t show me where you live, Hawk. So either tell me or leave.”
“I don’t live alone,” he said, still refusing to turn around. “I live with a woman.”
I felt like he’d kicked me in the stomach. Like the air had been knocked out of my lungs. “A woman?” Of all the men I’d been involved with over the years, I never thought the one who stole my heart would be so quick to rip it out too.
Finally turning around to face me, he stepped closer but thought better of it. “It’s not what you think. Selene was all I had when my mother died.”
“Selene?”
“She’s twice my age, Morgan. She was a friend of my mother’s and gave me a home when I had nowhere to go. There’s nothing romantic between us.”
I nodded a few times and calmed down. “You could have told me. All this time I thought you weren’t sure about us. I thought you didn’t want to take me there just in case it didn’t work out between us.”
His face softened. “Sure about us? Morgan, you’re the only thing I’m sure about.”
I stepped closer to him and gazed at his golden eyes, which had started to turn a shade of amber. “I’m scared, Hawk. I’m something completely different than I was a few days ago, and it scares the hell out of me. I love Jakob and Samuel, but you’re the one who’s keeping me sane right now. If you leave…”
He pulled me against him and whispered against my cheek. “I’m yours. The only way I’ll leave is if you tell me to.”
After a moment of enjoying the feel of his arms around me and his warm chest pressed against mine, I unwrapped his arms from my waist.
“I’d like to meet her.” I gave him a slight smile, but I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling I had about this Selene he lived with. I had a dozen questions, but I didn’t want to find out where that conversation would lead. Now wasn’t the time, and I was afraid I’d come across as a jealous girlfriend.
“Are you ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
I pictured us walking into some seedy hotel downtown, not some posh Upper West Side brownstone that looked like someone’s home. The address screamed money.
“Who owns this place?” I asked.
“Some rich asshole who gets even richer off desperate people.”
“Obviously, but who is he? You have to remember who I am, Hawk. My family knows everyone in this city, and it won’t go over very well if I run into someone I know.”
I was wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses I’d grabbed on the way out, and my long red hair was tied in a bun and shoved under a hat, but I was still nervous about being seen. When your family is highly recognizable, especially right after your famous family matriarch dies, you have to be smart about indiscretions.
“I don’t know who he is. No one does. But this place is safer than some of the others.”
How the hell had he become so familiar with a den of vampire groupies and their clientele, especially since he didn’t partake in it himself?
“Who did you bring here before me?” So much for not sounding like a jealous girlfriend.
“Someone who couldn’t be helped.” He took my hand and headed for the door. “Don’t let go of my hand, and if you feel like you’re losing control, grip it tighter.”
There was a guy on the other side of the door who looked like he needed a little blood himself. His skin had a gray cast to it, and his eyes were red and swollen. His fingers trembled as he reached out and took the bill from Hawk’s hand.
“How much did you give him?” I was pretty sure a fifty-dollar bill had passed between them. Fifty dollars I intended to pay him back.
He seemed to debate whether we should go down the first-floor hallway or up the steps, but when a woman taller than him stepped out from one of the rooms and grinned like a Cheshire cat, he stopped and turned toward the stairs.
“Where you going, baby? Long time no see.” Her voice was deep and hollow.
Hawk practically pulled me up the staircase. When we reached the top, she was at the bottom, starting up at us, leaning on the rail with her fist nestled in her side.
“You know that woman?”
“Yeah, we’ve met.” He gave her a nasty look and led me down the hall.
The first door we passed was slightly ajar, and I caught a glimpse of what was going on inside. There was a man on a bed with two naked women on either side of him, and they were doing a lot more than donating blood. One of the women glanced up when she spotted me watching through the crack. She spread her legs wider and grinned at me.
I looked away and pulled my hand from Hawk’s. “What the hell is
this place?”
He glanced through the crack in the door. “People like to share blood in different ways. It’s no different than any other fetish. I’m taking you to Annie’s room.”
I just stared at him for a moment. Annie? He was on a first-name basis with these people? Now I really wanted to know whom he’d brought here before.
“You need to trust me, Morgan.”
I took his outstretched hand, and we continued down the hall. When we reached the last room on the right, he knocked on the door.
“It’s open.” The female voice was soft with a slight Southern accent.
When we walked inside, there was a young woman sitting on a king-size bed. She had short blond hair and the biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen. Her face lit up when she saw Hawk. “Well, fuck me! Hawk!” She climbed off the bed and ran across the room, practically jumping into his arms. “Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you since—”
Annie went quiet and gave him a warm smile. “You look great, Hawk.”
“So do you.”
She looked away and shook her head. “That’s nice of you to say, but it’s bullshit. I look like hell.” Eventually noticing me standing behind him, she backed off a little. “Who’s your vampire friend?”
Is it that obvious?
“Annie, this is my girlfriend, Morgan.”
She studied me for a moment and cocked her head. “You need some blood, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes.” Then she sat back down and held out her wrist. “Go on. I won’t bite back.”
Hawk ran his hand through his blond spikes and then scratched the back of his neck. “This is her first time.”
She lost her playful smile. “That’s okay. Most vampires like to dive right in, but we can take it slow.”
By the disturbed look on Hawk’s face, I couldn’t tell which of us was more nervous. He finally spit it out. “This could get dangerous. Morgan’s father is no ordinary vampire. She’s also half immortal and a witch.”
She just stared at me without blinking. “Can’t say I’ve ever worked with a witch before, but most vampires are immortal, and I have worked with a few mean ones.”
“Different kind of immortal,” Hawk said. “But it’s her vampire lineage I’m more concerned about.”
“I’m not a monster, Hawk.”
“Of course you aren’t, but you’re wicked powerful. And since this is your first time, I don’t know how you’ll react to Annie’s blood.”
Annie leaned back on her elbows and extended her arm. “I guess there’s only one way to find out. I’m not worried. Hawk will protect us both.”
I sheepishly took her outstretched arm. “Nothing personal, but I’d prefer a glass if you wouldn’t mind.” Friend of his or not, I didn’t know this person. I never was the type to wake up in a stranger’s bed. And though we weren’t about to have sex, it felt nearly as intimate.
Hawk was about to say something, but Annie beat him to it. “No, darlin’. That’s not how this works. You need to sink them teeth into me. You get your blood, and I get the ride of my life. Better than heroin.”
Hawk seemed a little awkward. “It’s a blood-donor thing.”
“I ain’t too proud to admit what I am,” she said to him, smiling sweetly. “You can say it.”
“A blood-junkie thing. They take pleasure from it. There’s a small amount of venom in a vampire’s bite that acts as a drug to the donor.”
“Here,” she said, “let me help you.”
Before Hawk could warn me, Annie grabbed a razor blade from the nightstand and nicked her wrist to draw a few drops of blood. It was enough to set me on fire with cravings and bring my fangs out. I felt them click into place and descend to the edge of my upper lip, nearly piercing my tongue as it rolled over the sharp tips.
Annie lay back on the bed and waited for me to strike, that seasoned grin on her face growing wider as she watched me slip away under the weight of the vampire within. That’s all I remember before rolling on my back against the mattress some time later and feeling Hawk lift me up and nestle me into his lap.
“Is it over?” I whispered as the world spun around me. I hoped the feeling would go on forever, the hunger no longer gnawing at me.
Hawk swept the hair from my eyes and bent down to kiss my forehead. “It’s just beginning. Relax and let go. I’ve got you.”
It wasn’t like the first time. The blood Ryker forced down my throat took me to a dark place that terrified me. But there was nothing terrifying about where I was now. The weight of the world was gone, and I was light as a feather and surrounded by light. All sound disappeared, and I was left floating in a sea of peace and quiet.
As I lay there with the dazzling white light filling my head, I saw something in the distance. A black speck moving toward me. The closer it got, the darker the light became. Its wings opened wide, and I found myself smothered by its black feathers, fighting to get air in my lungs.
Wake up, Morgan Winterborne!
I scrambled off the mattress and hit the floor, backpedaling toward the corner of the room as Hawk jumped off the bed and came toward me. A downy black feather whirled in the air in front of me as I hit the wall.
“Morgan, calm down!”
I gazed at Hawk as my heart pounded painfully. “It was the crow. He came for me.”
Hawk pulled me to my feet and wrapped his arms around me to keep me steady. “The crow, huh?”
Annie was sprawled on the other side of the bed with her eyes barely open. She turned her head toward us and let out a weak laugh. “That was fucked up,” she mumbled, half out of it. “Where’d the bird come from?”
Steadying myself, I pushed Hawk away and tried to recall the experience before it vanished like a nightly dream.
“He’s your familiar,” he said. “It’s his job to navigate when you need a little guidance. I’d say what just happened to you qualifies as one of those times. Did he say anything?”
“Yeah, he told me to wake up.”
Hawk walked around the bed to check on Annie. “Those fangs of yours must pack a pretty big punch. I’ve never seen her like this before.” He pulled the thin blanket over her and lifted her head to put a pillow under it.
“How often do you come here?” My curiosity was turning to suspicion.
He pulled some money out of his jacket and stuffed it in the pocket of her jeans. “She’s okay. Let’s get out of here.”
When we were out of the house and halfway down the block, I stopped and looked at him. “Tell me the truth, Hawk. How often am I going to have to come here?”
“Once a month if you’re lucky. But that depends.”
“Depends on what?” I had a bad feeling about the way he was looking at me, like I’d done something wrong.
“On how much you like it.” There wasn’t an ounce of humor in his voice. “You asked me who I used to come here with. Her name was Mia. Annie was her usual donor, but that thing at the bottom of the stairs used to jump right in when Annie wasn’t around. She used to tell Mia to come back alone and encouraged her to take more blood than she needed. I don’t know how it happened, but Mia got addicted, and it eventually got her killed.”
The golden color of his eyes faded, and I knew I’d unearthed something worse than just a memory. “This Mia, did you love her?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding as he started to walk again. “She was my sister.”
Chapter 3
Hawk had shocked me with the news that his sister had died from a blood addiction. I didn’t even know he had a sister. My delicate attempt to talk to him about it only drove him deeper into the state of moodiness that had rolled over him the second we walked out of Annie’s room. The strange-looking woman on the first floor—the one he’d called that thing—had been waiting by the door, and the look she gave Hawk as we ran past her sent chills up my spine.
I shook off the memory of the night before and focused on the task at hand. Wandering through rows of junk wasn’t how I’d pictured our afterno
on field trip. There were stacks of musty books to my right and wooden produce crates filled with record albums to my left, the one in the front being a vintage Rolling Stones album that might have had some value if it weren’t for the crayon scribbles desecrating the cover. A toddler’s scribblings, I assumed. The floor was an obstacle course of boxes and miscellaneously dumped merchandise, and I use the term merchandise loosely.
Samuel had headed for a door at the back of the shop while I went down the aisle. It would be a miracle if we found one of the other missing boxes in this dust trap, but this was where my mother had found the one she’d sent me containing her journal. The day she found it, she’d called Samuel. She’d come here to see another box that turned out to be nothing but junk, then walked right past the authentic one on her way out without giving it a second look. But something caught her eye, a patch of golden wood grain under a layer of grime from sitting on a shelf for God knows how long. Only a trained eye would have noticed it. The trained eye of someone who’d spent years ferreting out rare and valuable objects at Winterborne’s.
I accidentally kicked a pile of books that someone hadn’t bothered to put back on the shelf, and a cloud of dust filled the air, causing me to cough violently.
“You gonna make it, or should I call an ambulance?”
There was a man standing at the entrance to the aisle when I turned around. He had straggly gray hair that touched his shoulders, and his chin was stubbled with white. His eyebrows were thick and bushy but only reached halfway across the width of his eyes.
“You work here?” I asked.
“I own the place.” He glanced out the window at Samuel’s car parked out front. It was a fully restored 1956 Jaguar that he’d kept covered in the Winterborne Building garage since the day he left for Edinburg. “Just window-shopping, or is there something in particular I can help you find?”
Samuel stepped up behind him and handed him a photograph. “You can tell us where you got this box.”
The man took the picture and examined it briefly before handing it back to him. “Does it look like I deal in this kind of stuff? You want a fancy box like that, you’re on the wrong side of town.”
Savage Sons (House of Winterborne Book 2) Page 2