“Dillon?” It was Nikki’s voice. “I told you to go home.”
“And leave you to get ripped to shreds? No way.” The young man’s chest heaved, his mouth sucking huge draughts of air. His gaze zigzagged between Garret’s writhing form and Jake. His eyes widened with fear and disbelief. “You’ve got fangs,” he told Jake.
“I know this looks weird, Dill,” Nikki started.
“Weird?” He shook his head again. “It’s crazy. A vampire. Here.”
“He’s a good vampire,” Nikki told him. “So long as you don’t make him mad. Holding a screwdriver on him will definitely make him mad.”
“Put it down,” Jake said, his voice dark and quiet and compelling. The man’s gaze locked with his and he saw the fear fade. “Now.”
“Please,” Nikki added. Her voice seemed to break the spell Jake had cast and the man shook his head again. Determination fired his expression.
“Like hell. You think I’m crazy?” Dillon’s head bobbed from side to side again. “I may be a geek, but I’m not a stupid geek. And I’m not a coward. Get away from him, Nikki.”
“She’s not going anywhere.” Jake stepped forward.
“If you think I’m going to leave her here to get her blood sucked, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“I’m not going to suck her blood.”
“You got that right. I know how to do more with this screwdriver than just fix computers.”
“Stop it.” Nikki slid in front of Jake and faced Dillon. “Put the screwdriver down before you hurt yourself—”
A fierce growl drowned out the rest of her words.
Before Jake could blink, a crazed Garret leaped from behind and grabbed Dillon by the neck. And just like that Garret pinned him to a nearby wall and sank his teeth into Dillon’s flesh.
Jake rushed forward, but Garret was too fast. Too hungry. He devoured the young man in less than a few seconds and then thrust him aside. Garret stumbled backward as the hunger seemed to ease. Realization hit him as he stared down at Dillon’s lifeless body.
“No,” he said, the word a raw, defeated sound that rumbled from his bloody lips. He fell to his knees. “No!”
“Garret.” Jake’s voice drew the older vampire’s disoriented gaze. “Go. Take the cooler and feed.”
“I…” Garret shook his head as if trying to make some sense of what had happened. “I didn’t mean to…”
Jake grasped him by the arm. “Control the hunger,” he told the vampire, “or it will control you. I’ll take care of this.” Garret looked hesitant as he stared at the limp body, but then his gaze shifted to Nikki and a hungry light flared in his eyes. He nodded and shrugged away from Jake. He snatched up the portable cooler and disappeared into the night.
“I’m so sorry,” Nikki murmured to Dillon as she lifted his head and eased it onto her leg. She glanced up at Jake. Tears swam in her eyes. “This isn’t fair. He was just trying to help me.”
“It’s going to be okay.” Jake touched her shoulder. “Let me have him.” She turned knowing eyes up at him and he nodded. “Let me have him,” he said again.
Jake waited for Nikki to move away and then he knelt down beside the man and did the only thing he could do—he gave him his life back.
HE WAS LEAVING.
The truth haunted Nikki all through the next day as she went about her normal Monday routine.
But nothing about her life was normal anymore.
Not that it ever had been in the first place.
But she’d pretended for a while.
Still, a dysfunctional relationship with her mother and aunt and a loser cycle when it came to men paled in comparison to the real truth—she was in love with a vampire who had a best friend who was a vampire who’d turned her computer technician, who just happened to be her nail technician’s brother, into a vampire.
Unreal.
At the same time, it was very real.
She stared through the windows to Dillon’s repair shop. It sat dark and silent. Before sunup, Jake had reassured Nikki that Dillon would be okay and then he’d left her to take the man home.
Nikki hadn’t seen him since.
She’d called and she’d gone by Dillon’s house, but no one had answered the door. There’d been no sign of Jake, either.
He hadn’t left yet.
She could feel him. He was somewhere close. But not for long.
The knowledge sat heavy in her chest as she tried to go through the motions and pretend that everything was okay. Especially around Cheryl Anne. The girl hadn’t talked to her brother in a few days and she’d looked somewhat alarmed when she’d discovered that he hadn’t opened up shop. Nikki had made up an excuse that she’d seen him out on a date the night before. While Cheryl Anne had been surprised, she’d also been happy.
“Maybe he’s finally breaking out of his shell,” she’d said. And then she’d called to tell her parents, who’d been even more excited. It seemed that the town had been placing bets on his sexual preference right along with Nikki’s.
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind anymore, however. Jake had branded her his in more ways than one.
She touched the now-smooth skin of her neck and called out to him again. Uselessly. He wouldn’t answer.
Because he was leaving soon.
But not until darkness fell. Which meant she still had time to find him.
JAKE GLANCED AROUND the abandoned service station one last time. He touched a wall and let his gaze linger near the office. He tucked his dream down deep and turned away. And that was when he saw Nikki standing in the shadows.
“What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you. I felt you.” Her gaze collided with his. “So that’s it? You’re just going to walk away?”
“I have to.”
“Why?”
He shook his head. “Are you kidding? It didn’t happen. I didn’t kill Garret. I won’t. Which means I’m still a vampire.” He turned away, eager to avoid her disappointment. He’d failed her just as much as he’d failed himself. “I’m staying this way unless I can find Garret’s sire. Then I can take him out and we’re both free.” He shook his head. “But that could be a long, long time.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Christ, we don’t even have a name. No specifics. Nothing.”
“You’ll find him anyway.”
“Don’t do this, Nikki.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend that everything will be okay. I’m not what you need. I’m no good for you.”
“Why? Because you’re a vampire?” Before he could answer, she rushed on. “You’re also kind and giving and trustworthy. You have more honor and loyalty than any other man I—”
“I’m not a man,” he cut in. He shook his head as he fought against the urge to reach out to her. To pull her into his arms and never let go. He couldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t.
“You don’t love me,” she stated. “That’s it, isn’t it? I thought you didn’t say the words because you didn’t want to hurt me, but that wasn’t it, was it? You don’t feel anything for me.”
His gaze met hers. “Is that what you really believe?” Even as he asked the question, he knew it was as far from the truth as it could be.
Emotion glittered hot and bright in the whiskey depths of her eyes. She knew. Deep down in her soul, where it mattered most. “I believe in you,” she told him. “In us.”
He wanted so much to latch on to the words. To never let them go. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t ignore reality because it would only slap him in the face later on. “I can’t be the man you need, Nikki. Maybe one day…But maybe not. Right now, I can’t give you the morning after or the morning after that.” He shook his head. “I can’t give you fifty minutes, let alone fifty years.”
“Who cares about a measly fifty when I can have forever?”
“What are you saying?”
Her gaze met his, so steady and sure. “That you drank from me and now it’s my turn to drink from you
.” She crossed the distance to him, leaned up on her tiptoes and touched her lips to his. “I want you, Jake. Now and forever. I want to spend eternity with you. I love you.”
Doubt rushed through him, followed by a sense of joy so profound that he knew he could never turn and walk away from her. Not now. Not twenty years from now. Not ever.
What’s more, he didn’t want to walk away. To run. To keep running.
As he stared into her eyes, he stopped worrying about the uncertainty of his future. As a man or a vampire, he didn’t know. He didn’t care. A strange sense of peace stole over him, and for the first time in his existence Jake didn’t long for his freedom.
Because he already had it.
Real freedom was loving and being loved.
It was right here. It always had been.
“I love you.” He said the words he’d felt for so long but refused to acknowledge. “More than anything.”
“Then stay with me.”
“For better or for worse,” he told her as he took her in his arms and held her close.
“I’d say till death do us part, but there’s no such thing for us,” she murmured as she smiled up at him. “Just life.” She touched her lips to his. “An eternity of it.”
Epilogue
SOMETHING WAS definitely up.
Dillon Cash stared down at the massive tent of white cotton that sat smack-dab over his groin. He lifted the edge of the sheet and peeked beneath. His penis stood tall and proud and huge.
What the hell?
Sure, he woke up with the occasional boner. He didn’t have a girlfriend and he wasn’t particularly fond of whacking off, and so he had more than his share of wet dreams.
But this…this was different.
His gaze shifted to the alarm clock perched on the nightstand. Midnight. Only a sliver of moonlight sliced its way past the drapes, into the room. Yet Dillon could see every detail, from the pencil that sat on the corner of his dresser to the cluttered desk covered with leftover computer parts to the silvery spider web that dangled in the far corner—a web so tiny that he’d never noticed it in the daylight, much less in the middle of the night.
The hair on the nape of his neck stood on end as sounds slid into his ears. The hum of the air conditioner. The creak as the wind whispered through the cracks of the house. The soft play of a radio somewhere in the distance. Voices from a late-night talk show.
But the nearest house sat a good quarter mile up the main road.
Denial rushed through him as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed to his feet. He walked over to the window and shoved the drapes aside. He stared at the endless stretch of pasture. He saw a rabbit dart across the lush grass and disappear into the trees.
He blinked and realized that he wasn’t wearing his glasses. His hand came up and he whirled. Sure enough, the black wire frames sat on the nightstand in their usual spot. Close enough that he wouldn’t bang his head groping for them before he crawled out of bed. He’d worn glasses for over twenty-five years. Since he’d turned four. DocWills had said that he would have to wear them for the rest of his life—
The thought slammed to a halt as a memory rushed at him. Nikki. She’d been tied up in the barn and then she’d been attacked by a vampire and then she’d been in the middle of two vampires and then—
Hold it. Just freakin’ hold it!
A vampire?
No such thing, he told himself. It was just a legend. A way to sell movie tickets and Marilyn Manson CDs. They didn’t actually exist.
Yet he’d seen one. Up close and personal.
An image rushed at him. A tortured face. Lethal fangs.
Dillon closed his eyes as he remembered the jagged stab of pain. The frantic fight for each breath. The frenzied flash as his life had passed before his eyes.
And then?
Then he’d found himself back in his bedroom with a killer hard-on.
A vampire?
The possibility followed him to the dresser, where he stared at his reflection. He definitely had one, but it seemed different. His eyes appeared greener than usual, his muscles bigger, more defined. His hair looked thicker, shinier. The two zits he’d had on his chin were completely gone. As if they’d never existed.
The energy drinks, he told himself. He’d been sucking down Rockstar like it was water, and now it was paying off.
He struck a pose, marveling at the bulge of his biceps. He was definitely sending in before-and-after shots to the manufacturer. He turned and puffed out his chest. Yep, he was sure to win something for this transformation.
Then again…
He opened his mouth and eyed the incisors that gleamed in the moonlight. His gut clenched and a strange tingling vibrated through his body. His image seemed to shimmer and his eyes gleamed a bright, hot purple.
A vampire, all right.
That’s what his gut told him. But his head…
No freakin’ way.
Denial rushed through him, but it couldn’t erase the truth. It stared back at him, and he could no more ignore it than he could have turned down Susie Denise Wilcox for a date.
Not that she’d ever asked.
No one—females in particular—had ever asked Dillon Cash for anything that didn’t involve a hard drive or a motherboard. Not back in high school, when he’d been the all-state programming champion and not now that he owned the only computer repair shop in town. He’d never been a heartthrob. No women panting after him. No steady girlfriends. Not even a sex buddy.
Especially not a sex buddy.
No, the only girl who called him on a steady basis for something other than a quick computer fix was Meg, and she didn’t really count because they were just friends.
Not that he was a virgin. He’d done the deed. Three times, as a matter of fact.
Three measly times in twenty-nine long years.
He definitely had much bigger problems than waking up with fangs.
He stared at his reflection again—the shiny hair, the vibrant eyes, the biceps, the hard-on.
A smile tugged at his lips.
Being a vampire definitely had its perks.
KIMBERLY RAYE
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
1
IT WAS THE BEST SEX she’d had in months.
The only sex.
Which wouldn’t have been such a bad thing except that the elusive O came courtesy of a red fluorescent vibrator called the Big Tamale rather than some hot, buff cowboy with a slow hand and an intoxicating smile.
Margaret Evelyn Sweeney, aka Meg, hit the three different Off buttons—vibrate, swivel and aye carumba—and stashed Big in its matching red case. She drew a deep breath, swung her legs over the side of her bed and got to her feet.
Five minutes later, she stood in her kitchen and leaned over a hot-pink three-ring binder—her own personal Pleasure Manual—to document tonight’s results. She flipped to page fifty-eight, which included a quick summation of last Tuesday’s class entitled Masturbation Mania and a worksheet for homework. She scribbled in the date and tackled the questions.
Intense sensation? Check.
Spontaneous groaning (the good kind)? Check.
Uncontrollable moaning? Check.
A full-blown scream? Check.
Overall level of satisfaction?
She eyed the scale that ranged from one to ten, zip to zowee, and finally circled seven before moving on to the last question.
Did this sexual experience include a partner? She ignored the crazy urge to jot down a big fat yes. This wasn’t about soothing her fragile ego and saving face with the other women in the painfully small town of Skull Creek, Texas.
The whole purpose of attending carnal classes with a certified carnal coach was to invest in her future. Sadly enough, she was thirty years old and she could count on one hand the number of romantic entanglements she’d had in her lifetime.
Actually, she could count them on two fingers. Three if she included her encounters with her good buddy and childhood friend, Dillon Cash. While Meg had been a mega tomboy, Dillon had been a major geek. Either way, they’d both never really fit in with the opposite sex—not romantically—and so they’d turned to each other back in the ninth grade when they’d realized that they were the only ones—with the exception of Connie Louise Davenport, Reverend Davenport’s daughter—in the entire freshman class who hadn’t known how to French kiss.
Okay, so they hadn’t known how to kiss, period. No quick pecks. No slow, lingering smooches. No open mouths and plunging tongues. They’d been fifteen and very green, and so it had seemed like a good idea to work out the awkwardness with each other.
Several hours, a bootleg copy of a Nine 1/2 Weeks video, and a dozen clumsy attempts later, they hadn’t been any more skilled than when they’d started.
In fact, the entire experience had solidified what she’d known from the get-go—Dillon was and would always be just a good friend. She hadn’t liked him like that.
No heart stutters. No tummy tingles. No rip-off-your-panties-and-go-bonkers lust.
Which was why, despite the experimental kissing, she felt inclined to leave him out of the tally when it came to her sexual past.
That left Oren and Walter. She’d lost her virginity to Oren, aka the Orenator, at the ripe old age of eighteen. He’d been the best defensive end the Skull Creek Panthers had ever seen, and he’d taken them to the state championship during his senior year. And he’d actually liked her, enough to ask her out for Homecoming. They’d gone to the school dance, and then they’d gone parking down by the river.
Love at First Bite Bundle Page 19