Captive By Night: A Dardanos, Co. Taken Collection

by Calle J. Brookes

  He expected a scream, a rush to cover herself with a towel. Even demands to know who he was and what he wanted.

  He got nothing. He’d taken easy control of the canine in the corner. The small dog sat watching him with a glazed, if unworried, expression. It was an ability he’d held for nearly six hundred years—the capturing of creatures’ minds—and he did so effortlessly. He tried speaking again. “Ignoring me will not make me leave you be. I am taking you with me. Then we shall feast together.”

  Her eyes didn’t open. It gave him pause. Had she not heard him? He snapped his fingers, the sound cracking in the silence. Still nothing.

  He slipped into her head effortlessly, getting tangled in a complex feminine brain within half a second. There were no true sounds, just a type of humming stillness that he had encountered before. Deaf, then.

  Interesting.

  He settled in her mind for a few moments, learning of her what he could. She was Jocelyn, daughter of the youngest son Jason. A doctor, educated at Johns Hopkins. She worked for Taniss Industries like all the rest of the Taniss filth.

  He’d never despised anyone the way he did Leo Taniss and his issue. The older human was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Dardaptoans. The ancient vampiric race had few enemies amongst the humans, but those with the name Taniss topped that list.

  Leo Taniss had taken Dardaptoans to his lab in Boulder and done horrific and deadly experiments on them. Most died; only three out of the known thousands taken had survived—Cormac’s only sister, her brother-in-law, and his adopted niece, Jierra. Ji had been only a three-week-old babe when Cormac had found her lying amongst the rest of her dead family. Two years after he’d found his sister Kindara rocking the dead body of her Rajni, or mate, Iavius. Iavius’s teenaged sister lay beside him, gone forever. Erastine had been a beautiful child with a bright future. No more.

  And it was all that sociopath Leo Taniss’s doing.

  Tonight Cormac would wreak his vengeance upon the man’s granddaughter. His friends—Rydere, Aodhan, and Theodoric—were doing the same against three other Taniss grandchildren. The women would disappear forever, and then they would take Leo Taniss to show him the tortures the women would have endured before finally being drained dry at Dardaptoan hands.

  Taniss blood feeding Dardaptoan. It was only fitting.

  He sank deeper into her mind as he stepped closer to the tub. He reached for her, his hand settling atop thick, soft blonde hair. He pushed her beneath the water before she’d fully registered he was there.

  Her scream echoed through the room and through his mental connection with her. He’d rarely seen such terror in a mind. She tried to fight his hands, but he held her under the water as long as he felt necessary. When she was limp and docile, he pulled her from the water and dropped her to the thick rug. He grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her skinny shoulders.

  He bent, ignoring the confusion and terror coating her mind, and lifted her wet and naked body over his shoulder. His hand gripped a curved ass cheek and he resisted the urge to squeeze, test it out in his hand.

  She was dirt. The enemy. He would have to remind himself of that.

  He might be a killer by her standards, but he was not a damned pervert.

  ****

  Josey trembled as the man, the monster, carried her from her bath into her room. He might think she was subdued, but she would not let him rape her easily. Where was Free? Had he killed the dog already? Was that why she wasn’t trying to bite him?

  She pushed the grief away. She couldn’t deal with the loss of the dog now. Not if she wanted to get away from him. His hand curved around her butt cheek, burning her flesh. She had to get away from him.

  She’d screamed earlier, but she didn’t know if anyone had heard her—she had no clue how well sound carried between her house and her cousins’.

  Had the monster said something? She felt vibrations against her stomach—was he talking? Threatening her?

  Did he intend to kill her?

  Ultimately, yes. I do plan to kill you, but first you will feel great pain at my hands. It is only fitting and fair. You will soon understand your fate.

  The words bounced around inside her mind with accompanying pain. She’d not heard another human voice in nearly twenty years—how was this even possible?

  I am not human. He dumped her on her bed and smiled at her. More intense pain shot through her skull, and Josey took the only escape she could. Darkness and pain consumed her.

  ****

  Her body went limp beneath his hands as he dried the excess water from her skin. She was quite pale, several shades fairer than him. Her hair was soaked and tangled from his dunking her. He dried it as best he could. His car seats were leather and he didn’t want her hair ruining them. He opened her drawers and pulled a pair of denims and a sweatshirt out. The top drawer held a mess of feminine lace, and he picked a scrap of red free.

  He’d dress his captive and get moving. He didn’t have much time, but he was not going to take a naked woman for a drive through Denver. He had not the time to deal with human authorities tonight.

  He enjoyed slipping the scrap over her long legs more than he would admit, even to himself. He almost hated to cover her skin with the denim, but he did it.

  The dog whimpered from her spot in the corner. He’d almost forgotten her. He considered leaving her behind, but the dog was a Border collie, his favorite breed—a smart dog, he could easily see that within the beast’s head. It had been many years since he’d had pups around his wing. The dog’s leash was right where the woman had hung it by the bed. He leashed the bitch and turned back to his Taniss dinner.

  She was starting to stir on the bed, the migraine-like pain in her head having faded some. He had not intended to hurt her by speaking in her mind and a moment’s remorse hit him. But only a moment’s. It was an unexpected result that had not occurred before when he had spoken within a being’s mind. Just hers.

  She rose to sit, her green eyes wide and frightened. Taniss eyes that on her were remarkably beautiful.

  He was inside her mind the moment she realized this was not a bizarre nightmare. She thought him a serial rapist or killer and that amused him. Terror warred with determination in her and he momentarily considered playing with those emotions. He discarded the ideas—Rydere, the Dhar or king of his people—had given strict orders that they were not to remain on the Taniss Compound any longer than necessary.

  Besides, he would have plenty of time to toy with her once he had her back in his suite. He would make this blonde flower pay for all her grandfather’s sins and he would make that payment last for several days before he called it even.

  If he ever did. How could he put a price on the souls of his sister’s family? Of the babe she’d lost before its breath, his death coming at the hands of this girl’s own grandfather?

  His thoughts momentarily consumed with grief, his hold on her mind lessened. She must have somehow known—she rolled from the bed and grabbed the brass alarm clock. She heaved it at him, screaming as she ran for the bedroom door.

  For a damned human girl, she was quicker than he expected.

  She should not have run—it only aroused the hunting urge in him. And Cormac was first and foremost a hunter.

  ****

  He was steps behind her as she ran into the living room of the small house. It surprised him how small it was; he would have expected a woman of her wealth living in a much larger home. This place was cozy and intimate, too small by most standards.

  She tripped, terror making her clumsy. He almost winced at the sound her shoulder made as it rammed into an end table. If she lived long enough, that injury would make a bruise.

  He grabbed her by the blonde hair falling down her back. His other hand, he wrapped around her stomach. He pulled her back against his chest. Shhh, little rabbit. It is foolish and useless to run from me. I will have you no matter how you protest.

  Her struggles only increased at his sil
ent words. She had ruthlessly pushed her terror at his ability to speak to her away, but it threatened to resurface. He considered using his powerful skill to pull that terror free and let it consume her. One feminine hand reached back and slashed across his cheek. His face burned where her nails damaged his skin.

  He wrapped the hand he had buried in her hair around her wrist and clenched. She cried out again. He tightened his grip, wanting to bruise her deliberately so that she would learn and understand her place. Understand what he expected her to do.

  He turned her to face him.

  She closed her eyes, drew in a shuddering breath that pressed her chest to his much larger one.

  His gut heated as he felt her soft curves mesh with his harder body. He loosened his hold on her wrist, pulling that arm behind her to meet her other. He held her wrists behind her with one hand and used his other to tilt her head back so that he could see those damned Taniss green eyes.

  She opened those eyes and looked straight into his. A tear slid from her left eye and landed on his shirt. A second quickly followed. He used a gentle hand to wipe it away. Her lip trembled, suddenly reminding him of his niece, Jierra. So young. So vulnerable.

  Please, don’t…

  The sweet feminine voice that sounded in his head completely shocked him and had his own eyes widening. No one had ever been able to respond to him on the channel he used to read others’ minds. He'd never actually conversed with someone inside their heads.

  Why her?

  He stared down at her for long moments, caught by the green of her eyes. The same color as his House colors. Her lips trembled as a tear slipped out of one eye.

  His grip on her eased. He cursed the gods and goddesses. He could not do it, could not kill her for her grandfather’s sins.

  He dropped his head and covered those trembling lips with his own. Her gasp echoed in his head as she tried to pull away. He would not let her; she was his to do with as he wished. He kissed her for a long moment before raising his head.

  You have two choices, girl. You can do as I wish and live, or I can kill you this night. What will it be? Live or die?

  ****

  Josey trembled against the man, feeling small and powerless. He had to be at least a foot taller than her five and a half feet. And he was huge. The body pressed against hers was riddled with thick muscles and he had lifted her so easily. Did she have much choice? Maybe she could escape if he thought she was cooperative?

  His hand rose to encircle her neck. His finger found her pulse and pressed slightly, then rubbed against the beat. Choose.

  Live. Please don’t kill me!

  Josey bowed her head in both supplication and shame. How could she have given in so easily to him?

  Her cousin Mallory’s face popped into her mind and more tears flooded Josey’s eyes. What would Mal say about her easy capitulation if she knew of it? Mal would urge her to fight as Mal had so many years ago when attacked in the parking garage at Taniss Industries late one night. Mal wouldn’t have just bowed her head and given into the monster holding her.

  Josey struggled again, but the man jerked her arms up behind her even higher, forcing her to bend against him. Do not be stupid, girl. You think me a mere mortal man? I could kill you so easily, how is it you think to escape? I am the monster from your nightmares and I will act upon those nightmares if you fail to cooperate even once.

  Josey forced her breath to steady, forced herself to keep her head bowed, forehead resting against the broad male chest. She refused to acknowledge that he claimed he was not human.

  Nod if you understand what I am saying to you, girl.

  Josey closed her eyes, defeat filling her. She nodded.

  His hand loosened on her wrists. His other tangled in the hair beside her left ear. He pushed the hair over her back, exposing her neck.

  Chapter Two

  He ignored the woman’s tears. They mattered little to him. She was being allowed to live, was she not? His original plan had been to kill her, after all, and he had done little to hide that fact from her.

  Her neck was close to his mouth and he lowered his head the final few inches until he could graze her skin with his lips. She jerked but did not pull away.

  She whimpered. But she stood still against him.

  His body tightened in anticipation. What would Taniss blood, the blood of his enemy, taste like on his tongue? Would it be bitter like such evil demanded, or would it be a sweetness like candy?

  Was she as innocent as she appeared? Would that innocence have its own particular taste? He ran his tongue over his fangs, then over her pulse. It increased and he laughed.

  Regardless of her taste, this moment was so good.

  His teeth sank deep and her taste exploded in him.

  She was sweet. She was hot. She was right.

  She was his damned Rajni.

  ****

  He had wrapped the cord—from a lamp by her bed—around her wrists, securing her tightly. She would not escape him; he needed the time to think things out, to determine what to do with her. His Rajni could not be a human, and a Taniss. The goddess could not be that cruel.

  The girl trembled in the passenger seat of his Viper, terrified of him. Exactly what he had wanted. What he had worked for. She seemed to shrink in on herself, huddled in the University of Colorado sweatshirt he'd pulled over her while she was unconscious. Her damp hair put wet spots on the shirt. A trickle of blood ran down her neck to soak into the gray material. The small Border collie huddled at her feet.

  The girl looked completely defeated.

  It was a look he had seen on his sister's face many times over the last thirty years. Put there by the actions of this girl's grandfather.

  How could he take this girl to the home he shared with Kindara and Jierra? They were two of the only three survivors of Leo Taniss's murdering of their people. More than a thousand Dardaptoans had been taken to the old bastard's lab one hundred miles away from the home this girl lived in. Those Dardaptoans had died, victims of vicious experiments the likes of which still sickened him.

  How could he subject his sister to her?

  But a Dardaptoan got only one mate, one Rajni, and he had lived 612 years without his. This girl was it. How could he let her go?

  He cursed, the words low and harsh. She could not hear him, but she still flinched. Had he echoed the words in her mind?

  He did not think so, but he might have.

  He wrapped his hand around her knee, not wanting to comfort her so much as feel her beneath his hand.

  His Rajni. She was real.

  He had much to think about this night, least of all how to explain her to his family and his king.

  ****

  He pulled her from the car and over his shoulder. She felt so insubstantial. His hand settled on her ass and he held her in place. Her whimper was silent and only heard in his head. He led the dog with his other hand.

  He could not carry her into the wing he shared with Kindara, not without deciding how to tell his sister about Jocelyn. He took her to the king's recreation room instead.

  Dhar Rydere waited inside. He was not alone; a small brunette female was huddled on a couch, looking confused and frightened. She had the same eyes as his Jocelyn. A cousin or sibling, then. Cormac dropped his captive on the couch beside her.

  He barely listened to the words his king spoke over the next ten minutes. He slipped his captive over his shoulder once again. She whimpered but did not try to pull away. “I’ll deal with the dog in the morning. Can you have Jambu take her to his room for now?”

  ****

  Josey screamed inside her head when the man pulled her away from her cousin.

  No! No! Leave me alone! Please!

  The man slapped a hand against her backside. Stop.

  Why are you doing this? How are you doing this talking inside my head?

  Because I am not a human male. I have gifts that your Kind does not have.

  My Kind? What are you?

&n
bsp; Dardaptoan. You will learn of my Kind soon enough.

  Why have you done this, to me, to Emily? We have done nothing to you.

  He carried her down a long hallway, and she made a point to remember the turns he took and significant decorations. She would somehow find her way back to Emily. She had to.

  Do not plot against me. I know what you are thinking, always. You must remember that; at all times, I know you.

  So you do not plan to kill me then?

  I have yet to determine what I will be doing with you. He opened a door and carried her into a suite decorated with green and white. The suite was at least as big as her bungalow. This is where you will stay, unless I tell you differently.

  For how long?

  He put her down on a couch next to a large bed covered in what looked to be silk and satin. Josey watched him for a few moments as he moved around the suite.

  He was even taller than she first thought, probably more than six and a half feet. His skin was dark, shades darker than that other man. The one who had Emily. His hair was longish and waved over his head.

  His eyes were a dark gold. Josey's breath caught—they were not human eyes. But...what was he?

  This was just a nightmare. That's what it was. She would wake and be home in her bed, with Free cuddled against her.

  He was an apparition that she would forget about.

  He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing a strong, muscled chest with a complex series of tattoos covering it. She'd never seen anything like them.

  He stepped over toward her, dressed only in dark cotton trousers that were different than any she'd seen before. He grabbed the cord still wrapped around her hands and pulled her to her feet. It's up to you, girl. Sleep in your jeans or I give you something else.

  Just sleep? Josey asked, more boldly than she thought possible.

  He hadn't killed her yet. That was a good sign, right? Was he just toying with her? Emily was still alive; they obviously wanted something from their family. Maybe he would keep her alive long enough that she could find Emily and find a way out of this.