by Ashley Ladd
Luke growled. “I thought your attention was on me.” He pulled out with an anger that alarmed her.
Puzzled, she clambered off the other man and stared at Luke’s receding back. What had he expected in the middle of an orgasm? One he had set up to bribe her.
Furious, she called after Lukas, “Don’t walk away from me. You know I hate it when you do that.” So he still retained some of his human faults. Interesting.
Luke turned around and faced off against her, still gloriously naked, his cock flaccid, but his eyes flashing fire. “And I hate it when you’re so flip. You can’t trample a guy’s ego like that and laugh about it.”
In other words, vampires had feelings, too. Or maybe he was being more basic, and meant that men had tender feelings.
Anchoring her hands on her hips, she swallowed a sigh. “I didn’t mean to trample your feelings. I was just taken by surprise. You have to admit it wasn’t the most romantic of settings.”
Luke grimaced and bared his teeth at the other men who watched them intently, still hoping for a turn to fuck her. His fangs burst through his gums, the situation ripe for tragic consequence, or would be, if the men were genuinely human and not merely dream fabrications. “Get lost, all of you.”
Most of the men had removed themselves as soon as Luke’s eyes started glowing a bright feral red, but the lingerers now made a hasty retreat for the door, their gazes lowered, their boot heels clicking anxiously on the hard floor.
“You chose the setting,” Luke reminded her.
“Not for a proposal.” This was to be their last night together, not their first night.
Luke’s eyes narrowed, flashing with passionate anger. He grabbed her wrist and held it in an iron grip. “You’re planning to make an escape? Some freakin’ goodbye.”
Oh, no! In the middle of all this, she’d forgotten he could read her mind when not clouded by intense emotion. Caught now, she had no recourse but to admit the truth. “I love you, Lukas, but I can’t live like this. I can’t become a vampire and you’ll tire of me after a few years if I remain human and stay with you.” If by a miracle Anika didn’t succeed in killing her.
Luke cursed a blue streak, blistering her ears. “I had promised myself to give you up, let you go, but it’s harder than I ever imagined. We’re meant to be together. Can’t you feel it?”
God, yes!
“Yet you refuse to give it a try.” Bitterness made his voice scratchy.
“And where will we live? In your coffin? Or will you hang out in the back alley by my practice? Perhaps you’ll amuse yourself by turning into a cat and chase rats while I’m tied up with my patients?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’d live in my home—the manor—with our family. I don’t have to sleep in a coffin. In fact, I prefer not to. A bed would be much better…” Seductive suggestion crept into his last words.
Coffin…
There was that word again, bringing her back to harsh reality with a thud. “You’re dead and I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
Luke waved his hands before her face. “Yo! Can a dead man wave his hands in the air? Can he speak his case? Can he make mad, mind-numbing passionate love to you until you beg and plead for more? I just did all those things, ergo, I’m not dead.”
Infuriated, she lifted her chin and glared at him. The chill in the air made her nipples bead, reminding her she was still virtually naked and that this was the strangest, most ridiculous argument she’d ever had. “Undead, then.”
“There are different phases of life. Just because I’m not in the first stage like you, doesn’t make me completely dead.”
“So you admit you’re a little dead?”
Hissing, Luke turned and punched the wall.
“You really need some anger management.” She tried not to recoil or wince, but he had a worse temper than she recalled. Ergo, to use his word, she had another reason to go her separate way. She definitely didn’t need an imbalanced vampire in her bed. But were there any other kind? Not from her recent observations. That Anika was way out there.
“I tire of this discussion.” In the blink of an eye, they were back in the shabby cabin, clothed.
She found herself shackled to the wall. Fury flooded her as she pulled at the chains binding her to the house. “What is this?”
Luke regarded her disdainfully, and answered her literally. “Chains.”
Duh. She knew that. She wasn’t blind. “I meant what is the meaning of this?”
* * * * *
Was the woman daft now? He certainly hoped not if only for her patients’ sake. “You revealed that you planned to leave. I can’t permit that, not until Anika’s been stopped.”
Chloe bared her teeth venomously. Not half-bad for a human, he admired grudgingly. Pity she didn’t want to become a vampire. She’d make an excellent one. “You really expected me to stay as long as you want and go along with your crazy plan?”
“So now I’m crazy?” He thought about that for a moment and shrugged. “Perhaps I am.” What difference did it make? She was still in danger and he’d sworn to protect her ungrateful neck.
He expected to see the repugnance return to her expression, the rational response to what he was, but she seemed to be responding to the man. Perhaps there was a glimmer of hope, much as she denied it. Maybe all she needed was time to get used to the idea. If not for Anika, he had nothing but time.
He cursed the darkness, hating what he’d become, wishing he were mortal again. How did he expect her to get used to the idea when he obviously couldn’t? He growled more at himself than at her, the beast raging inside him.
Chloe tugged at the chains again, muttering under her breath. “Just how long will I have to stay this way? ‘Til I agree to be your lifemate? Or until Anika comes and finishes me off? I’m a sitting duck chained up like this.”
Like she had any powers against the vampire, even unchained? He had to bite back an amused smile lest he infuriate her further, which he was finding was far easier than seven years ago.
His hunger grew sharp and ravenous, and he was beginning to feel weak. He had gone without sustenance too long, and now suffered. He could hear the intoxicating rush of blood through Chloe’s veins, smell it rich and lush just under the surface of her breasts, and it made his gums tingle. His gaze fixated on her creamy cleavage, an agonizing torment.
“I suppose you can ravage me easier this way. Drink your fill and I can’t stop you.” The derision in her words revolted him. She thought him so low, so depraved.
He would find sustenance elsewhere. Although not nearly as appealing as Chloe’s breasts, the swamp was filled with creatures that would slake his thirst. “Stay there. I’ll be back.” He slammed out the exit, the old tattered screen door squeaking on its rusty hinges.
“Oh, of course,” she said mockingly. “My pleasure.”
Infuriated, he flung his head back and howled at the moon, and then transformed into the wolf, all the better for hunting. He was swifter, more surefooted in this form. After a few moments, he picked up on the scent of warm, pulsing blood. He cursed the relentless hunger ever present in his life, as he stalked his prey.
Finally, he caught the small creature, took its life mercifully, and then dined on its sweet blood. It partially helped alleviate his hunger, but did not slake it. He required more sustenance to return to full strength. The need for expediency tugged at him as he’d left Chloe alone in the cabin.
Chapter Six
Anika smiled and applauded herself on her plan to eliminate her rival. She wasn’t so sure she wanted Delaney any longer since he’d made his revulsion for her clear. But he would pay. Revenge would be hers and it would be hers soon.
Neither Delaney nor his bitch deserved to live. But they would suffer before dying, and they would know without a doubt who was responsible. The mortal woman would provide sweet blood in her state of terror, a sweetness Anika craved. Thus she induced it in her victims so she could quench her thirst on the
ir rich, fear-drenched life source.
Her minions were almost in a fever lust to rip out Luke’s throat, so she had to settle them down. She wanted the glory of the kill, but to ensure victory, she must see to every minute detail.
Setting her plan in motion, Anika made a midnight house call. “Gerald, wake up.” Unlike Delaney who crept around in dreams like a sniveling coward, she preferred her victims to be wide awake so they would achieve the full ration of fear that would net her the sweetest blood. However, she didn’t plan to drain this one of all his blood. She had other, more sinister, plans for him, plans she was sure he would go along with for they would benefit him, too. So she would let him think.
Her lips quirked in a smile, she was so devilishly pleased with herself.
She bent over and slashed Gerald’s lips with a whispery kiss, then ran her talon-like fingernail down his bared chest. “Gerald. Can’t you hear me?” She was getting impatient and soon would have to take stronger measures if he didn’t respond.
Gerald jerked up in the bed, his slate gray eyes flooding with fear. He reached for the phone and warned, “I’m summoning the police. You’d best leave now while you still can.”
He was so boringly human, threatening her with such a powerless force. Delaney could tell him all about it…
“You don’t want to do that. I’m here to help you, Gerald.”
The man’s eyes widened. “Do we know each other?”
“I’m a friend of a friend. Well, sort of. I’m really the enemy of an enemy, which means that you and I should be friends. Allies.” The ultimate seductress, she laughed coyly and slipped her hand over his breast. Ah, yes. His blood pumped strongly through his body. She would feed well tonight.
“Enemies? I have no enemies.”
“No? Not your ex-fiancée or Luke Delaney, the man who stole her from you? Tell me honestly, Gerry, do you give them your full blessings? You really, truly harbor no animosity?”
“Chloe?” Anguish glittered in his eyes. “Luke? But he’s deceased.”
Anika shook her head and laughed heartily. “Not really. He’s the undead.”
“Undead?” Gerald stared at her as if he was looking at a monster, then horrific remembrance set in and he jumped out of the bed and backed away from her. “I wasn’t dreaming that time? You’re real? Christ!”
“Jesus has nothing to do with this.” Leisurely, she rose from the bed and followed him.
He made the sign of the cross with his fingers and backed against the wall. “I mean it. Stay away. Leave. You’re not welcome here. You can’t enter my abode if you’re not welcomed.”
Amused by this display of utter ignorance, Anika chuckled and waved away his threats. “Foolish human, you waste too much time watching untruths on TV. We’re Alp vampires. We don’t need an invitation or welcome to enter. Aren’t you at all interested in how I can help you get your fiancée back?”
Gerald gulped, avarice flickering in his eyes. “You can help me? How?”
“We’d have to form an alliance, first. And then I can teach you how to make her all yours for eternity. Would you like that?” Power surging through her, her victory ascertained, she cornered him.
“Well, yes. But how?”
Her incisors burst through her gums, and she unleashed the hunger that could never be sated. Grabbing him, she sank her fangs into his breast and drank her fill. Then she straightened and sank her fangs into her wrist. When blood oozed out, she held it over his parted mouth and let her blood flow into him. “Like that.”
Gerald licked his lips and stared at her in shocked surprise. “What just happened?”
“You’re now a vampire, dear boy. And I just taught you how to make your little fiancée all yours again. Once you bite her and she drinks of your blood, she’ll be yours, if you get to her before Delaney turns her, that is.”
“Then we must find her immediately! There’s no time to waste.” Gerald lifted his hand in the moonlight, gaping at the talon-like nails that were growing rapidly. “Mumsy won’t be pleased.”
Anika rolled her eyes. She could barely remember her mother, an insipid woman who had died several centuries before in the harsh times of the medieval era. “Then don’t tell your mother. Or give her the gift of eternal life, as well, then you can be together forever.”
“Does this mean I belong to you? But if I belong to you, how can Chloe belong to me?” He gazed at her raptly, his brows pinched together. He was experimenting with pulling his fangs in and out of his gums like a small child. In vampire terms, that’s just was he was.
She’d forgotten how very annoying new vampires could be. Maybe she should have just killed him and gone up against Delaney alone. Oh well, too late now.
“Vampires play by different rules. I’m your maker so I can keep you, share you, or let you go.” She wouldn’t make the mistake of letting him know that he could also choose to leave her. Not that she wanted to keep him indefinitely for he was too whiny and sniveling, but she needed him to help her dispatch of Delaney and his bitch.
“So you would share me with Chloe? Or release me once I had her?”
Anika nodded. “But first, we find them and turn her.”
Suspicion flashed across Gerald’s eyes. “Why do you want her turned?”
“I don’t care a thing about her. It’s Delaney I want. But he wants her, and I can’t permit that. So if you help me get her out of the picture for him, you can keep her as your reward.”
“Brilliant! So where are they, mistress? What shall I call you? Do you have a name?”
Of course she had a name! The simpleton was going to drive her batty before they found Delaney. “Anika.”
“What a beautiful name. I’m sure I never heard it before.”
“It’s a very old name, popular in the seventh century.”
The man’s mouth gaped open. “You were born then?”
Assured of her eternal beauty, she treated him to a dazzling smile that had been known to enchant many a man. “I hide my age well, as will you, my sweet. You now have eternal life, not to mention superhuman senses. You’ll enjoy your new existence.”
“Undoubtedly. But Chloe…”
Exasperated, Anika sighed. “What do you men find so alluring about this Chloe woman that you’re all obsessed with her? I fail to see her attraction. She’s pale and weak beside my exotic beauty.”
When Gerald remained silent, she shook her head. “Let’s get this over with. We’ll scry for them to find their hiding place. This is a trick I never taught Delaney.”
* * * * *
Gerald quivered with fear, but it was overridden by his intense hatred of Delaney and his bloodlust for revenge. How dare that bastard steal the woman he loved, how dare he made a mockery of him. And he had him to thank in an indirect fashion for his murder and reawakening as a member of the undead. Everything bad in his life came back to one man—Delaney.
He had to rescue Chloe from the fiend’s clutches.
Strange sensations overtook him as he followed the vampire witch. His gums tingled and ached when his fangs cut through for the first time. They felt overlarge in his mouth and he feared he would lisp when he tried to speak.
Dread and gnawing hunger ate at his belly. What’s more, he could smell blood that he desperately craved. He could hear human hearts pounding and blood rushing through veins. Incredible power surged through his limbs, and his body responded to the slightest stimulus.
Those who called vampires the undead were grossly mistaken. He felt more intensely alive than ever before. He could do far more things than he’d ever imagined. Most importantly, he could destroy that insufferable Delaney and win back his woman.
He wondered if his sixty-three year-old Mumsy would experience the same increase in power if he were to bring her over. She’d be proud of his new abilities.
Better than his mother, his patients would sacrifice their fortunes for immortality and superhuman strength. He would be rich beyond his wildest dreams of avarice.
* * * * *
A few hours later, Chloe was awakened by an ungodly sound that sent chills through her bones. Wolves bayed at the full moon. Then she remembered that Luke could turn into a wolf and calmed herself. It must be him returning from his dinner break. Yet again, she grimaced at this unpleasant reminder of what he had become. Instead of running out to grab a fast food hamburger, her fiancé ran out to hunt prey—field mice, rabbits, whatever had warm blood surging through its veins.
Fiancé?
He hadn’t been her fiancé in more than seven years. It seemed she needed to keep reminding herself of several unpleasant things where Luke was concerned. Not the least of which was how he had kidnapped her and left her chained to the wall, at the mercy of the spiders and only God knew what other creepy-crawlies in this deserted cabin.
Or worse, Anika and her evil band would find her.
Chafing, she cursed Luke for putting her in this foul predicament. He deserved to tangle with a prehistoric alligator, and yet, she couldn’t wait for his return. Her wrists hurt like sons of bitches where the metal bit cruelly into her raw flesh. He was going to get a big piece of her mind for being so thoughtless. Mainly, she worried for his safety, wondering just how vulnerable he was in his various forms.
The howling grew closer, and despite her knowledge that it was probably just Luke letting off some of his excess testosterone, she shivered. It sounded so unholy, so sinister.
“Anytime now, Lukas,” she said through her gritted teeth. He must’ve decided he needed a seven-course dinner he was taking so long. Or maybe he was having too much fun racing about the swamp. Maybe he’d forgotten her existence.
A wisp of wind lifted the damp hair off her cheeks, alerting her to another presence. The cabin had been stifling hot, even though the sun had set hours before and there were several hours left before dawn’s first rays, so she doubted an opening had suddenly presented itself.