Blood Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  “For what?”

  “To see the Viceregal.” Jody held the door open, and Becca followed her out into the hallway. The dim corridor was packed with Vampires feeding from Weres and humans, sometimes two or three at a time. A wall of muted groans, sharp cries of satisfaction, and moans of impending orgasm assaulted her. A wave of erotic heat surged through her, and her legs trembled. She grasped Jody’s arm. “Oh my God.”

  “Don’t,” Jody said, jerking her arm away. “You can’t touch me right now.”

  “You need to feed,” Becca said.

  “Since when did you become an expert on Vampires?” Jody strode into the melee, and Becca hurried to keep up with her.

  “I don’t need to be an expert to know how difficult it was for you to resist feeding in there. You think I can’t see the hunger in your face?”

  “You have no way of knowing what is in my face.”

  “That’s not true. I know you hunger. I know you need. I know you’re hurting right now.” Heedless of Jody’s earlier warning, Becca grasped her hand. Jody’s fingers were cold. Trembling. “You said yourself dawn is coming. You need to feed before then, don’t you?”

  “I’ll manage.” Jody snarled.

  “How? I know I asked you not to, but—”

  “I’ll manage.”

  Becca wanted to argue, but every step was becoming more difficult as bodies crowded in on her from every side. Fingers trailed over her shoulders and back. Warm breath played against her neck. Her nipples contracted and her stomach tightened. She wanted sex in a way she never had before. Mindlessly, relentlessly. She moaned softly, and cool, strong fingers closed around her wrist.

  Come with me, a voice whispered in her mind. Male, female? She couldn’t tell. She didn’t care. The words were a soothing caress calming the blaze eating away at her insides, a soft mouth moving over her sex. She whimpered softly and turned to the shadowy figure drawing her deeper into the darkness. She took a step and pulled up short. What was she doing? She did not want what waited in the dark. She wanted the bright, burning power of Jody’s kiss, not mindless lust. “No,” she whispered, and the magnetic pull evaporated, leaving her weak and panting.

  Jody blurred past her, and in the fraction of a second before Jody grabbed the Vampire who had just held her arm, Becca saw animal rage in Jody’s face. Jody pinned the male Vampire to the wall with his feet off the floor, her forearm crushed across his throat. She pushed her face close to his as she strangled him.

  “She is mine.” Jody’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it shot through the hallway like a whip cracking, and silence fell like a shroud. “She carries my blood. You dare trespass?”

  Becca’s skin prickled with apprehension, but she held back her protests. This was not her world. These were not her rules. She might not get the subtle power games, but she didn’t need a roadmap to know Jody was enforcing some kind of hierarchy. If she interfered, she’d probably put both of them in danger, and they were way outnumbered and surrounded by starving Vampires. When the Vampire Jody had against the wall stopped thrashing and went limp, Jody released him as if he were no more than a discarded toy. He fell to the floor in a boneless heap. He might be dead. Becca couldn’t tell. She didn’t know how Vampires died.

  The Vampires who had crowded around her before drew back amidst a swell of murmurs and hisses, leaving her and Jody alone in the center of the hall. She brushed Jody’s hand. She might have been touching a marble statue.

  “Jody? Let’s go.”

  Jody spun around, her eyes empty of recognition, her lips drawn back in a soundless snarl.

  “It’s okay,” Becca whispered, trembling inside. She cupped Jody’s jaw, letting her fingers trail down her throat. “It’s okay.”

  “He dared to enthrall you,” Jody growled, her voice as foreign as her face. “He would have fed from you.”

  “No. No, he wouldn’t have. He tried, but I felt you. You.” Becca took a shuddering breath. Her connection to Jody might be borne in blood, but it lived in her heart. “He couldn’t pull me away from you. Jody, I—”

  “Come.” Jody took Becca’s hand and led her rapidly down the hallway, the path suddenly clear as figures pressed against the wall as they passed. No one reached for Becca, not a single hand brushed against her. No minds touched hers. More than one voice murmured Liege as they passed.

  “What just happened back there?” Becca asked.

  “A reminder of the rules. Hosts have not always been as plentiful as they are now.” Jody stared straight ahead as they walked. “Clan territories were once clearly delineated and hunting across borders forbidden. Now that the Exodus has exposed us and hosts seek us out, our natural order has been thrown into chaos. The Clan heads must reestablish order, or we will destroy ourselves.”

  “They called you Liege.”

  “I am the Clan heir and carry my father’s mantle of power.”

  “Did you kill that Vampire?”

  Jody glanced at her coolly. “Does it matter?”

  “I’m not sure how I feel about you killing someone to protect me.” Becca followed Jody through one narrow hallway after another, completely disoriented. This wasn’t the way she had gone to Francesca’s quarters the last time.

  “To protect you?” Jody laughed. “You think me so selfless? I am a Vampire. I kill to protect my territory, my Clan, my Dominion. You are part of my Dominion now.”

  Becca snorted. “Since the day I met you, you’ve tried to shock me and alienate me. It didn’t work then, and it’s not working now.” She shrugged. “I can’t pretend to understand what you don’t explain to me. You’re not human, so there’s no reason to expect human rules to apply. I trust you’ll do what you have to do to protect yourself and those who depend on you.”

  “Just like that?”

  “For now,” Becca said.

  Jody’s head whipped around. “Why? What reason do you have to trust me?”

  “Because I know you’re not heartless. I don’t know why you pretend you are. One day you’ll tell me.”

  Jody’s jaw tightened. “You are naïve.”

  “No, I’m not.” Becca stopped in the middle of the now-deserted corridor. A vault door was visible at the far end, opening no doubt into Francesca’s lair. Once they entered, she wouldn’t be able to speak so freely to Jody. She didn’t know what they were facing, but she knew Francesca would try to separate them—one way or another. Suddenly, it was very, very important for Jody to know how she felt. “I saw what you did when Lara was dying and what you’re doing to save her now. You had no reason to save her, but you did. You have no reason to care why someone is killing human teenagers or to discover what’s happened to the Were females. But you do. I know what you’re capable of. I know what it cost you back there in that room not to feed from Tricia in front of me.”

  “You think too much of me,” Jody said quietly.

  “No, I don’t. But I do think of you all the time, and it’s time you knew that.” Becca slid her arms around Jody’s neck and kissed her. “I want this. I want all of this.”

  “Becca,” Jody groaned, pulling her close. Too long, she’d waited too long—to slake her thirst, to feed her hunger. Tricia’s blood had called to her, igniting her bloodlust, enflaming her need, but she’d held back. Like a battered ship on a storm-ravaged sea, she was slowly sinking beneath the inexorable force of her own passion. Becca filled her mind. Becca was all she could see, all she could feel. All she wanted. “Hold very still.”

  “Don’t enthrall me,” Becca whispered.

  “I won’t.” Jody lifted Becca into her arms and carried her into the dark shadows of an adjoining alcove, sheltering her from passersby. Jody kissed her mouth, slicked her tongue over the surface of her lips, played her tongue down the bounding pulse in her neck. The jugular rippled next to the pounding carotid, a siren’s call spearing into her depths and dragging her under the waves. Battling to hold on to her reason, fighting the blind ecstasy of lust, Jody gently pierced
the skin of Becca’s neck, slipping through muscle and connective tissue until the vein opened and hot, thick life flowed into her. The fist of pain lodged beneath her breastbone diminished, and pleasure kicked through her pelvis. She insinuated her thigh between Becca’s and heard Becca whimper. She swallowed, and her hips jerked, tendrils of orgasm wrapping around her spine, teasing the surface of her mind. Her fingers brushed over Becca’s breast, and she swallowed again.

  “Oh my God,” Becca moaned, her hands in Jody’s hair, her back arched. “Your mouth is so hot, so incredible.” She stroked Jody’s neck and held Jody’s face more tightly against her neck. “I know you. Do you hear me? I know you.”

  Jody’s rein on her reason slipped. She needed more, more of life, more of not being alone. More of Becca. She drove deeper, flooding Becca with hormones, and Becca cried out.

  “Don’t stop.” Becca’s fingers twisted in Jody’s shirt and her hips thrust into Jody’s. “God, God don’t stop. I’m there. Oh God, God I’m there already.”

  Orgasm crashed through Jody with every pull at Becca’s throat. Becca shuddered in her arms, caught in the undertow of their shared bloodlust. Some small corner of Jody’s reason demanded she stop. She had to stop. Stop or risk hurting Becca. Groaning, Jody braced her arm against the wall and dragged her mouth away from Becca’s throat. She panted, holding Becca upright with her arm around Becca’s waist, while the ravenous hunger raged for her to take more. To take and take and take. She licked the punctures in Becca’s neck and sealed the wound. Becca’s eyes were closed, her chest heaving. Her nipples strained against the thin fabric of her shirt. Her hands roamed over Jody’s breasts and stomach.

  “Becca,” Jody gasped hoarsely. “Becca, did I hurt you?”

  “No,” Becca murmured, her voice languorous and low. She pressed trembling fingers against Jody’s cheek. “The bite…hurt a little, and then God, so much pleasure. I want you naked. I want you again.”

  “You taste so good,” Jody whispered, resting her forehead against Becca’s. “I could have made it so you didn’t feel any pain. If you want me to—”

  Becca’s eyes snapped open. “No. I don’t want anything to stand between us, not even your mind. Promise.”

  Jody nodded. An easy promise to keep. She could never let this happen again.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Drake kept her hand on Sylvan’s back as the two Vampires led them from the center of Francesca’s lair through a winding passageway and up several staircases. She was driven to touch Sylvan as much as she was compelled to send a signal that Sylvan was hers. The Viceregal’s many thinly veiled threats aimed at Sylvan and her seductive taunting had ignited a fury of possessive rage. The aching pressure in her loins had climbed to an agonizing level during the meeting, and now a searing pain sluiced through her. How much was breeding frenzy and how much the mate bond she couldn’t tell, but even the slightest distance between her and Sylvan made her skin burn as if a caustic solution was being poured over her naked body. She could barely see. Her wolf howled to claim her mate.

  How bad is it? Sylvan telegraphed.

  I’m all right. Just get me out of here.

  You’re strong, but not strong enough to subdue this need. I hurt. Your need is mine.

  How much farther? If she could just get close enough to Sylvan, she could withstand the urgency pounding in her head, in her blood, in her loins. The Viceregal’s sensuous voice played through her mind, and she flashed on the way Francesca had looked at Sylvan, as if she’d wanted her mouth on her. Drake’s vision shimmered and her claws extruded. She tore open the back of Sylvan’s shirt. The scratches on Sylvan’s back bled, and Drake’s wolf howled again, calling to her mate. Sylvan’s canines shot out, blazing white indentations against her lower lip.

  Drake shuddered, a blade of heat sliding beneath her skin, filleting her alive. She moaned softly, and Sylvan spun around to face the escorts who flanked them.

  “My mate and I require your service,” she said.

  The female of the pair nodded. “Of course, Alpha.”

  “A private room.”

  “This way,” the female said, turning down a narrow, nearly dark hallway that branched off the main artery where they walked.

  No, Drake warned. We are without guards. You’re not safe here. Her skin was clammy with sex sweat, her shirt soaked through. I can wait.

  I can’t. Sylvan pushed open a plain, black door and addressed the guards. “No one enters.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” The two Vampires turned shoulder to shoulder and blocked the doorway.

  Sylvan pulled Drake inside and slammed the door. She didn’t bother turning on the light. They could both see as well in the dark as in daylight. She grasped Drake’s shoulders and spun her against the wall. Within seconds, her mouth was on Drake’s, her tongue sliding between Drake’s lips, her hands opening Drake’s pants. Drake’s canines raked over Sylvan’s tongue, and the taste of her own blood in Drake’s mouth brought Sylvan’s clitoris fully erect. Sylvan yanked at her fly with one hand and pushed Drake’s pants down over her hips with the other.

  “Straddle me,” Sylvan growled.

  Gasping, Drake kicked free of her pants and wrapped both legs around Sylvan’s narrow hips. “Oh God, you’re so hard, so hot.” Drake’s head rocked from side to side, her eyes glazing over. “I’m burning up inside. I need you. Now, now, I need you now.” Her stomach tightened, the muscles bunching into hard knots, and her sex readied. “Hurry. Hurry. Oh God.”

  Sylvan plunged her tongue deep into Drake’s mouth, drinking her in, savoring the wild taste of virgin timber and rushing rivers and untamed life. Her loins filled with the essence of all that was Were, and she pumped against Drake’s core, needing to fill and be filled, needing to join.

  “I’m going to come,” Sylvan gasped, burying her face against Drake’s neck, panting and shivering as her hips plunged in an ever-increasing staccato rhythm. Drake’s claws dug into her ass, forcing more and more hormones into her glands. Sylvan felt the bones in her face shifting, felt the wolf running close beneath her skin in a fury to claim her mate. Drake must have sensed her nearing the edge and ripped her shirt open. Their eyes met, gold flaring into gold.

  “I love you,” Sylvan groaned.

  “I love you.” Drake’s hips bucked, and she spilled over Sylvan’s stomach and groin, drenching her in pleasure. Igniting her. Sylvan roared, and Drake slid her canines into Sylvan’s chest. Sylvan’s head snapped back and orgasm scorched through her. Her clitoris expanded, filling Drake’s opening, and her glands pumped furiously, secreting the breeding hormones deep into Drake’s body. She was locked into Drake now, her hips involuntarily thrusting, the crush of their pelvises forcing her glands to empty. Panting, she sagged against Drake while she pumped and emptied, over and over and over.

  Sylvan’s legs gave way, and Drake eased them down to the floor. Drake braced her back against the wall and cradled Sylvan between her spread thighs. She cushioned Sylvan’s head against her shoulder. “I’m sorry I couldn’t wait.”

  Sylvan licked her neck and rumbled contentedly. “Why would you apologize for needing me?”

  “This isn’t safe. None of the centuri are here. Max is going to kill me.”

  Sylvan laughed and caressed Drake’s breast. “Francesca’s guards would not let anything happen to me here. That would look very bad for the Viceregal.”

  “They know you. You’ve been here before, like this.”

  “No.” Sylvan kissed the mate bite on Drake’s shoulder. “Never like this. You are my mate. The only one.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “Why would I mind you wanting to claim me?”

  Drake stroked Sylvan’s hair, aware of how exhausted Sylvan was right after they tangled. Sylvan was vulnerable now. Drake’s wolf bristled, needing to protect her. “Francesca threatened you. I was tempted to kill her.”

  Sylvan nuzzled Drake’s breast and tugged on her nipple through her T-shirt
. “That might be politically inadvisable.”

  Drake’s hips lurched as pleasure streaked through her belly and settled between her legs. “Stop that, or you’ll ready me again, and I think you might need a little more time to recover.”

  Sylvan growled. “Never. I will always be ready when you need me.”

  “I’m all right now. At least for a while. I want to go see the Revniks.”

  “Now?” Sylvan rolled her head back until she could study Drake’s face. “You thought of something?”

  “Something Jody said earlier. The medical examiner said the girls with Were fever looked like they’d been in another hospital before arriving at our emergency room. They showed evidence of multiple intravenous puncture sites, among other things. What if they hadn’t been in a hospital? What if they’d been in a laboratory?”

  Sylvan stiffened. “And you think our females might be in the same place?”

  “The same or similar. The Revniks will know what kind of local facility could handle subjects for a protracted period of time without anyone else knowing. There can’t be many in our area. Places like that are expensive to build and maintain. To say nothing of the security needed.”

  “But that doesn’t explain why I cannot feel my wolves.”

  “I may have an answer to that as well.” Drake gathered her energy and pushed herself upright. She held out her hand, and Sylvan took it, rising beside her. They straightened their clothing, although Sylvan’s shirt was shredded and Drake’s fly wouldn’t zip all the way.

  “You look like you’ve been attacked by a rabid wolf,” Drake mumbled.

  “Not rabid—just the opposite.” Sylvan grinned and kissed her. “Healthy and strong. All breeding females are powerful and…”

  “What?” Drake caressed Sylvan’s shoulders, rubbing the knots at the base of her neck with her thumbs. “What, love?”

  “Something Francesca said.” Sylvan’s eyes glowed wolf-gold in the dark. “She said to look to where our power lies.”

  “Our power lies with you,” Drake said. “Don’t you think it was a warning that you may still be a target?”