Hunger Within (A Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Novel Book 1)

by Megan Hawke

  "Oh yeah! It was classic."

  They laughed merrily. I think they were mimicking my expression, so they were cold-blooded murderers.

  They stopped to either side of me. One of them nudged my butt with her foot. I didn't move or breathe or anything. Then one of them kicked my legs straight, leaving me face down on the floor.

  "Help me flip her over, Pamela."

  Two sets of small, feminine hands grabbed me at my shoulders and hips. Together, groaning with effort, they flipped me over onto my back. I fought the urge to frown. I wasn't that heavy. That ticked me off as much as the shot in the head and the tumble down the stairs.

  "Wow, she's a pretty little thing," Amber said.

  My eyes popped open. "Thank you."

  My hands shot up and grabbed them both by the neck. They squealed like ten-year-old girls. I flung them into the nearest wall. After regaining my footing, I grabbed Pamela by her long red hair and shoved her face into the wall. She collapsed boneless at my feet. Amber screamed and staggered away, towards the front door.

  I grabbed her before she reached the door. That door faced the rising sun. If she opened it I was dead. Vaporized. We both knew it.

  "Please don't hurt me!"

  Too late. I punched her in the belly. Air erupted from her lungs, leaving her on her knees, bent over, and guppy-lipping for breath around her tears. I kicked her in the head, leaving her sprawled on the floor.

  I dragged both unconscious women back into the family room. I looked down at them and shuddered violently. I so wanted to feed on them. I dumped them on the floor instead. I'm better than that.

  I had to pause a long moment. Rubbing my temples, I glared up at the heavens. I didn't recall the sun being that oppressive while I was in the coffin that Boney provided the previous day. Why was it easier when inside a coffin? I would have to ask him later.

  Making a quick search of the kitchen I found everything I needed. I stuffed washcloths into their mouths, secured them with duct tape, and then used the same duct tape to hogtie them. I didn't want to kill anymore mortals if I could avoid it. I just wanted to kill vampires.

  I headed back upstairs, gathering my weapons as I went. I was more wary, but I didn't find any more humans wandering about or hiding anywhere. Not outside of the four closed bedroom doors anyway. So I went to the first door and listened.

  I could feel one human inside. The thrall's blood was up, surging wildly. Panic? I peeked inside. The room was empty except for a black metal coffin and several steamer trunks. You know, the old-fashioned trunks with the rounded lids? They looked very old. Apparently, these vampires hadn't heard of Samsonite yet. Get some real luggage.

  The room reeked of sex. Of course, most minions stank of desire and need around vampires. All the vampire pheromones that saturated the air didn't help. It was very distracting. A distraction I didn't need, what with the sun trying to crush my very soul.

  I heard strange noises inside the coffin. I eased closer. The feel of human blood was strong there. I could smell him. It was definitely a he, too. I could tell the difference now.

  It sounded like a wrestling match going on inside the coffin. That was unfamiliar territory for me. I wanted to back away, afraid to open the coffin. I wasn't sure of what I would find.

  "No backing down now, girl," I muttered.

  I needed to hear the words spoken out loud. It gave me heart. So with a javelin in my right hand, I used my left to fling open the coffin.

  "Sweet Jesus!"

  It was Olaf and some young man. Both were facing downward, Olaf on top. The vampire was banging the young man hard in the rear. Dangerously hard. The mortal didn't look like he was enjoying it at all. Then Olaf reminded me why I was there. He snarled as he surged out of the coffin. If I was still human there was no way I could've reacted fast enough to stop him. I'd be dead, my throat ripped out, but I lifted the javelin and let him impale himself on it when he charged me. Right through the heart. He had a stupid look on his face, too.

  "Go to Hell, bloodsucker."

  Olaf didn't die right off. He staggered back into the thrall, his dark aura fluctuating wildly. I pulled the katana and stepped towards him, bringing it around in a vicious stroke that took off his head. I kicked the head out the door, and listened to it start bouncing down the stairs.

  I caught the young man with my eyes. “Go to sleep.” He did.

  I went across the hallway and opened the next door. Like the first, it was sparsely furnished. There were two coffins, one a steel gray and the other bright red. The room had two large trunks and a dozen large suitcases. There were two vanities, and women's clothes. I knew Yuri had at least four more female vampires with him. Darcy, Darby, and Petra, and one named Maîtresse Dominique de Courseilles. A French vampire. Go figure. Bone Daddy said she was the oldest of the females. The gray coffin was open and empty.

  Like Olaf's coffin, there was a lot of noise coming out of the red coffin. Grunts and groans, and a woman's soft moans. If anything, it was even louder than Olaf's coffin. And stank of sex even more, though I thought the pheromone level was less. I sensed the blood of two mortals in that coffin, and could hear three racing hearts.

  With trusty javelin in hand, I flung open the lid and found it nearly full of man and woman flesh. Living and undead. A vampiric ménage à trois. It was Petra, with two pale, Gothy looking young men. One on top, one on the bottom, and the vampire sandwiched between them.

  Her eyes popped open and she hissed at me, baring her fangs.

  I thrust the javelin at her chest aiming for the heart. "Die!"

  Petra grabbed the javelin, stopping it inches from her chest. I tried to jerk it back, but she was stronger than me. Then she hurled the man on top of her at me, one-handed, hitting me square in the chest. His greater weight won that battle, and I found myself sprawled on the carpet with a struggling, confused naked man atop me.

  "Off me, you fool!" I flung him aside.

  Petra was standing over me, javelin in hand. She smiled cruelly, and thrust the javelin into my lower belly.

  "Yeeeooow!" I curled up around the javelin head as she held onto it. The silver spearhead burned intensely. The worst pain I'd ever endured. It totally sucked the strength out of me, making me helpless. "Oooh."

  Petra laughed. "Hurts, huh?"

  Her two lovers seized my arms. She pulled the silver spearhead out. I was yanked to my feet between them, my arms pulled back, and my chest thrust forward. Petra smiled cruelly, and stepped to my left side.

  "Now for my favorite dish, Shish kabob titties."

  "No!" I used all my vampiric strength to pull my arms forward.

  The men hung on and were jerked in front of me. Petra had already thrust the javelin, and it penetrated the back of one of the men. He jerked, gasped, and released me. I reached over, grabbed the other's hand, and crushed it. He let go of my arm with a shrill scream, then ran from the room.

  Kicking up and around, I blocked Petra's next thrust with the javelin. She pulled it back quickly, slicing the back of my calf to the bone. I dropped to one knee, facing away from her and reached for one of my pistols.

  "Aagghh." A foot of my own javelin protruded bloody below my breasts. "You have the worst aim." I kicked out. She released the javelin and jumped back, watching me warily. "You couldn't hit a heart if it was sitting on your face."

  "I wasn't aiming for your heart. Yuri wants you alive." She struck an arrogant pose and smiled maliciously. "Besides, this is more painful for you, darling."

  I leaped up and charged her. She met me halfway. We grappled a long moment, then I got an idea. I latched onto her shoulders and started pulling her with me backwards. She wasn't prepared for that, and didn't realize my intentions until I backed into the wall. Well let’s just say the javelin hit first, and was thrust forward, out of me and into her.

  I was a better aim, impaling her heart.

  "Uggh!" Petra grunted, gawking at me.

  I watched as the life bled from her eyes. Her dark
, tainted aura wavered, then flickered, then slowly collapsed. Her knees buckled and she crumpled as her unholy aura faded completely away.

  "Good riddance." I sighed as she slumped into an unbecoming heap. "Whew."

  I pulled the rest of the javelin out of me and dropped to my knees, allowing the radiating pain to subside and go away. I was healed within seconds. Have I mentioned the perks of being a vampire?

  I removed the canteen from around my neck and poured a healthy dose on her upturned face. Petra's gorgeous face, that graced so many magazine covers, that was the face of international cosmetic companies, dissolved in the downpour. I poured some more, and her entire head dissolved, leaving only hair and teeth. She would not be reanimated. I yanked out the javelin and headed back out into the hallway.

  I stared at the two remaining doors. Which one? There were more vampires left than rooms. I opened both doors and peeked inside.

  The room on the left had two white coffins, and two vanities. The room on the right had a single metallic blue coffin and was clearly the master bedroom. There were a lot more trunks here than in any of the other rooms, easily three times as many as the rest combined. It kinda looked like a storage room for steamer trunks. Shouldn’t he be in here? The other room with the matching coffins made me think of the LaFere twins.

  So I went into the master bedroom.

  I checked the bathroom and both closets first. The closets were full of women's clothes. Some fabulous evening gowns, but mostly vampire fetishwear. Lots of latex, leather, and lace. Only one small corner of one closet held clothes for a man.

  This did not look like the room of the vampire family's sire.

  I turned to the coffin. It was quiet. After the internal activity of the others, I was wondering if there was anyone at all inside it. I didn't feel anything. No scent of human blood or sex. But, I heard two steady, calm heartbeats. Sleeping vampires. I smiled.

  Holding the javelin ready to thrust, I flung open the casket. There were two bodies inside as expected. Man and woman. I'd never seen the woman before. She was thirtyish, busty, and had thick lustrous dark, dark brown hair cut in a cute pageboy. Her eyes were so dark they were almost black. She smiled cruelly at me.

  The man was muscular with intense green eyes. He had light brown hair and looked quite pleased. He also had the biggest aura I had seen to date.

  "Hello, Sable Hart, what took you so long?"

  "You!" I cried. "Die!"

  "No." Yuri captured my eyes. It was like a bolt of electricity shot through me. I gasped, and froze in mid thrust. "Put the javelin down, Sable Hart."

  I dropped the javelin.

  "You see, Dominique? I told you she would come to me." Yuri stood up. Six feet even of naked Euro-vamp. He wasn't unattractive, but there was a roughness to him. A cruel cast to his face. He stroked my left cheek. "See how cooperative she is now?"

  Dominique was far less naked than Yuri, but seemed more so due to the sexy nature of her outfit. The corset was covered in red and black vertically striped satin, leaving her heavy breasts exposed. Garters dropped down from the corset, holding up lacy black hose, and her feet were sheathed in shiny black calf boots laced up the front. No zippers. Looked like fun to get in and out of.

  "Of course. You are always right," Dominique said in a thick French accent. She stepped out of the coffin and stalked around me. Her big boobs bounced enticingly, as did her silky dark hair. It was a sexy bob, with the ends flipped up framing her cheeks. She reached out and ran her thumb across my lips. "Chéri, you took too great of a chance with this one. She broke the link between you."

  He shrugged. "She is mine. I knew it."

  I took that all in without emotion or much thought. I understood he had mesmerized me with his eyes, which I didn’t think he could do to another vampire.

  "You have her." Dominique lifted my chin with a finger. "Now what?"

  "Now I train her to be my consort."

  "Sounds like fun."

  "It will be." Yuri looked me in the eyes. I felt the jolt again. So powerful. So profound. I needed to obey him with every fiber of my being. I smelled his pheromones permeating the air, and was instantly consumed with desire. "Sable Hart, do you want me?"

  "Y — No." Good for me.

  "You are wrong, Sable Hart." He gazed intently into my eyes. "You do want me. Passionately. Desperately. You cannot live without me."

  I groaned, feeling my self-control, my free will slipping.

  "No." My voice was hoarse, throaty. My eyes burned into his. "I will kill you."

  Dominique laughed and walked out of the room. Yuri stepped out of his coffin and stood in front of me. I managed to tear my eyes away from him, and glance up. The sun felt so damned oppressive now that I wasn’t actively killing vamps. I frowned at the windows, covered with plywood. The sun was beating on the other side of that plywood, and if I ripped that thin barrier off the window vampire-killing sunshine would flood inside.

  “Remarkably strong for such a young vampire,” he said. He brushed my hair back over my shoulders, looking me up and down. “Lucky for you, I enjoy a challenge.”

  Dominique screamed from down the hallway.

  "Uh oh." I smiled at him. I don’t think he liked the gleam in my eye, since he frowned at me.

  "What?"

  "I killed them."

  Yuri took a second to think about it before I saw realization spread across his face. Have to say, I kinda liked the look.

  "That bitch cut off Olaf’s head." Dominique was still screaming. "She killed Petra!"

  "Holy water." I shrugged. "Dissolved her head."

  Yuri backhanded me. The powerful blow knocked me to the floor, leaving me dizzy and weak.

  "You will pay for that, Sable Hart."

  The LaFere twins came running in, all disheveled and confused. They saw me and smiled, faces full of dark hunger. Yuri seemed relieved they were still alive.

  Dominique rushed back in. She babbled something in French, and Yuri grew grimmer as he listened. When he turned back to me, it was with the most frightening look imaginable.

  "What did you do with their hearts?

  "Whose hearts? The thralls?"

  "Yes, their hearts."

  I swallowed hard. They weren't going to like the answer. I glanced at the window, wondering if I could rip the plywood off before they reached me. Probably not.

  "I put them down the garbage disposal." The female vampires all gasped. I managed a grim smile. "So you couldn't turn them into vampires."

  They stared at me in horror. It felt good to shock that lot of cold-blooded killers.

  Yuri stepped toward me, eyes full of suppressed rage. "Once we get everything cleaned up, Sable Hart, we will start teaching you how to be a good little pet vampire. I certainly hope you do not like pain and discipline."

  “I’d rather die.”

  Leaping to my feet, I rushed towards the plywood to pull it away. All four vamps screamed and charged me. I’d never make it, so I dodged left and headed for the door.

  “Jesus!” I charged between the twins, batting them aside. Out the door I went, and raced towards the stairs. The whole vamp family followed, Yuri commanding me to stop. Like that would happen. I jumped at the top of the stairs, and landed in the entry foyer below with no problem.

  “Wow!” When the other four jumped down after me, I stopped being impressed with myself and headed for the front door. Eastern exposure. All I thought of was opening that door and flooding the entry foyer with sunshine. That would put an end to Yuri and me. In just seconds we’d all turn to dust.

  Yuri proved faster.

  Yuri and Dominique were on top of me, dragging me to a stop just feet from the door. Either one of them was strong enough to hold me. Together, they completely dominated me. I was utterly helpless to do anything but writhe and scream in frustration.

  "You are a dangerous little vamp, Sable Hart." Yuri scowled at me, then glanced at the door. "It cannot wait. I see you are suicidal and a threat to the
rest of us."

  “Breaks my heart that I’m such a disappointment,” I said, struggling in vain.

  Dominique put a hand on Yuri's chest. "Oui, Yuri, place the first Compulsion on her and then let me have her. I will teach her discipline, obedience."

  Compulsion? On me?

  Yuri grabbed my face with both hands, forcing me to face him. "I have no choice. She is out of control."

  "I'll be good." I relaxed, trying to appear unthreatening. "Promise. I'll do anything you ask. No Compulsion needed."

  He squeezed my cheeks painfully. "Never lie to me, Sable Hart."

  I was forced to my knees between them, then pulled back to sit on my legs. Dominique held my wrists crossed behind my back with one hand, and threw her other arm around my neck to hold my head in place. Yuri knelt before me, straddling my thighs. He still held my face in both hands.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, so he punched me in the belly. My eyes popped open, and he had me. He looked deeper into my eyes than I thought possible. I could feel him inside my head. It was cold. Icy. But I wasn't frightened. I was highly aroused, ready, willing. Eager. Yuri owned me, body and soul.

  "Sable Hart." he said. His voice reverberated through my head, my body. I began to tremble. Dominique tightened her hold on me. Yuri's face came closer, until his green eyes engulfed me, became my entire world. So consuming. I quaked before his power and majesty. Fear blossomed again. "I command you. Hear me and obey."

  "Yesss." It wasn't conscious; I just said it.

  "You are mine to command, and I command you to preserve your life at all costs. You do not want to die." Yuri's voice thundered in my head. Each syllable filled me with icy power. I lost control of my body, and felt my back arching and every muscle tensing. So cold. So powerful. I felt myself changing, and didn't even want to fight it. "You will even kill those you love the most to preserve your life. So I have commanded, so let it be."

  "Yes."

  Dominique shoved me towards Yuri. "Oh, that was wonderful. What a waste. Why not abject obedience? That was the first Compulsion you placed on me."

  "You did not try to kill yourself. You wanted to be a vampire."

  "Not the point. With obedience, you could have ordered her not to kill herself. Now you have to wait another twenty-four hours before you can put another Compulsion on her." Dominique stood up and glared at me. "What if she escapes? How do you get her back? She's already proven too powerful for you to keep a link."