Blood Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  Sylvan snarled softly. “You test me, Prima.”

  “Oh, I hope so.”

  Becca slowly became aware of lying on Jody’s bed with Jody in her arms. She swallowed and tasted the dark tang of Jody’s blood. A rush of power and pleasure coursed over her. No wonder humans and Weres flocked to Nocturne. Sex with Jody stirred every one of her senses, and though she doubted any other Vampire could have touched her as deeply or as powerfully, even half of what she’d just experienced would have been mind shattering.

  “I can’t feel my arms and legs,” she whispered. “I don’t think I’ve ever come like that in my life. For a few seconds, I don’t think anything separated us—nothing physical, nothing mental, nothing emotional.”

  Jody rubbed her face against Becca’s neck, her mouth hot as it brushed over her throat. “The blood joined us, Becca. I’ve never…”

  “You must have exchanged blood before.”

  “Yes. Sometimes unintentionally. Sometimes to heighten a host’s pleasure.”

  Becca’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a host.”

  “No,” Jody said softly. “No, you’re not. I’ve never exchanged so much. Never felt so much.” She caressed Becca’s face. “Never lost myself in anyone that way.”

  “Good.” Becca smiled, supremely satisfied, and stroked Jody’s back. Jody’s skin was cool. Too cool. Becca gently pushed Jody over onto her back and leaned up on her elbow to get a good look at her. She was beyond pale. Her hair clung to her neck in wet strands, her breathing was ragged and rough, and shudders racked her body. She hadn’t fed nearly enough.

  “Did you call someone to host?” Becca asked.

  Jody shook her head.

  “Why not?” Becca cupped Jody’s chin and forced her to meet her eyes. “What are you trying to prove?”

  “I don’t want anything between us. Not yet.”

  “You don’t get it, do you, Vampire?” Becca shook her head and kissed her. Even her lips were cold. “Nothing will come between us that we don’t let between us. But I’m not going to watch you suffer because you can’t tell the difference between taking what you need to survive and giving me what I need to be secure and satisfied.” She covered Jody’s heart with her hand. The beat was slow and sluggish. A streak of terror raced through her. Was it possible that Jody could actually die from not feeding? “What I want is in here. If you feel anything for me, if you—”

  Jody silenced her with a kiss so possessive, every thought fled her mind. Jody’s tongue filled her mouth, stroked over hers, and she knew only an unbearable force scorching through her and a wanting so deep she trembled. “God.”

  “I don’t have the right words,” Jody murmured.

  “You don’t need them.” Becca rubbed against Jody, fitting the curves of their breasts and the arches of their hips together until there was no space between them. “Call your host, do it now.”

  “You can wait next door,” Jody said. “I won’t be—”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  A knock sounded on the door, and Jody stared at Becca. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m very sure. I won’t run from what you are. I have no reason to.”

  “Enter,” Jody called without taking her eyes off Becca.

  The door opened and closed, and a gorgeous young man in his early twenties—thick black shoulder-length hair, longish sideburns, olive skin, brown eyes—approached the bed. Handsome. Young and virile, bare chested and barefoot, wearing only loose, dark sweatpants.

  “You called a man,” Becca murmured. “Somehow I thought you would want—”

  “I want you,” Jody said. “I am only feeding from Carlos. I can’t help what happens—”

  “I know that. I don’t expect you to.” Becca didn’t usually go in for public displays of affection, but there was so much she needed to say, and she had no idea where to start. The young man stood patiently a few feet away. She kissed Jody again. “I want to hold you while you feed. I want to be the one to make you come.”

  “You already did.” Jody frowned and looked confused, an expression so rare Becca’s heart nearly melted.

  “Don’t tell me a Vampire as powerful as you is a one-shot wonder,” Becca said, grinning.

  Jody’s brows drew down. “It’s very dangerous to insult a Vampire.”

  “Oh, believe me, I know.” Becca brushed her fingers through Jody’s hair. “Do it now, baby. Do it now.”

  Jody turned her back to Becca and murmured, “Carlos.”

  The young man smiled and stretched out on the bed, facing Jody with a foot or so of distance between them. His eyes were clear but seemed to be focused on something far beyond them. Becca wondered what vision Jody had created for him. What memory she had embellished or what fantasy she had brought to life. Clearly, wherever he was, whatever he was experiencing, he was happy. Happy and unafraid.

  Becca slipped one arm under Jody’s head and the other around her waist. When she fitted herself against Jody’s back, the curve of Jody’s ass nestled against her stomach. Burying her face in Jody’s hair, she stroked her breasts and her belly.

  “Carlos,” Jody murmured, “are you ready?”

  “Yes, please, Liege,” Carlos said softly.

  Becca felt Carlos move closer on the bed and looked down. His hand rested on Jody’s hip. His touch was not intimate as much as familiar. Becca continued to caress Jody’s chest and abdomen as Jody cradled Carlos’s chin and turned his head away from her. Exposing the jugular vein, Jody slid her incisors neatly and cleanly into his neck. Carlos jerked, a gasp of pleasure escaping his throat as his back arched and his pelvis thrust forward.

  Jody’s ass tightened against Becca’s belly, and she groaned. Beneath Becca’s palm, Jody’s heart raced wildly like an animal thrashing in a cage. Jody was holding back, fighting the bloodlust.

  “Don’t fight it. Don’t fight who you are.” Becca caressed Jody’s stomach and slipped her hand between Jody’s legs. Jody was hot and slick and so beautiful. “I want you to come.”

  The instant Becca cupped her, Jody’s hips jerked, and her orgasm burst against Becca’s hand. The thrill of feeling Jody come in her arms nearly set Becca off again. She pressed her cheek to Jody’s shoulder and closed her eyes, battling the arousal spinning through her. She was in bed with a Vampire in bloodlust, and Jody could just as easily take her after finishing with Carlos. She wanted Jody to take her. She wanted Jody’s mouth on her throat. She was desperate for the mind-dissolving eruption of pleasure that followed fast on the shining pain of Jody’s bite. But if Jody took her now, in the mindless throes of lust, she would hate herself for endangering Becca. Her Vampire lover was very complicated. Becca shuddered and kissed the back of Jody’s shoulder. She’s asked to be here, damn it. She’d just have to hold on.

  Jody fed for what seemed like a long time, the only sounds in the room the steady measure of her swallowing and Carlos’s deep groans, as if he were in pain or terrible pleasure. Becca never stopped her caresses, feeling Jody’s orgasm crest over and over again. Eventually, Jody stopped drinking, and her hips quieted.

  Carlos fell onto his back, his eyes closing. He let out a long sigh and slipped into a post-orgasmic daze. Jody turned to Becca, her dark eyes tortured.

  “Becca, I couldn’t stop—”

  “I think you’re beautiful,” Becca said. “I love your power. I love your tenderness. I know you don’t think of yourself that way, but you are. So tender.” She pulled Jody on top of her. “Touch me. I need you to make me come.”

  “I want you.” Jody slipped her fingers between Becca’s thighs and entered her.

  “Oh yes.” Becca’s belly tightened as Jody filled her and slowly worked her way deeper. She gripped Jody’s shoulders, riding her hard until she exploded. “Yes, yes, mine.”

  “Becca,” Jody groaned. “You make me helpless.”

  Becca smiled shakily. “I was rather hoping I would make you strong.”

  “I never knew what true strength was until
you. Without you—”

  Becca feathered her fingers over Jody’s mouth. “I’m not leaving you. Not ever.”

  “Forever is not the same for us.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Becca kissed her. “But I know what matters—I know what I want. I’m yours, and remember this, Vampire—you are mine.” She turned her head and bared her neck. “Take my blood. Give me yours. Make our connection unbreakable.”

  Jody traced a line down the side of her own neck and bright red blood slicked her flawless skin. Cradling Becca’s head, she pulled Becca’s mouth to her throat. “With this blood, I bond us.”

  Becca sealed her mouth to Jody’s throat and drank her in, power and pleasure detonating in her depths. I love you. Oh God, I love you. Too soon, Jody pulled her mouth away and bit Becca’s neck, and Becca was lost in their joining.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Metal scraped on stone, and Gray jerked upright in her restraints. The guards were coming. It must be morning. No light penetrated the depths of her cell from the corridor beyond the bars. The murky air enclosed her like a heavy fog, clouding her mind. Footsteps drew closer. She shook her head, mustering her strength. Shimmering particles danced in the air, hazing her vision. Or maybe her exhaustion had her imagining things. Shouldn’t the air be clear? Somewhere in the ceiling, fans whirred continuously, and constant currents wafted across her bare skin. Maybe they were filtering it or recycling it or poisoning it. Could you poison air? Maybe that’s why she couldn’t control the rage or the frenzy. Her belly rumbled. Hungry. Her stomach cramped, and she started to double over, but the chains on her arms stopped her. Hurt. Belly hurt. Razor blades gouged at her insides. Her wolf. Her wolf was winning. She didn’t care. Too sick and hungry and tired to fight.

  A dark form took shape in front of the cage, and she blinked. One. Only one. Where were the others? Even a single human could best her now. Fury rippled along her spine, and she readied herself. She was a Timberwolf Were. She would not fail the Alpha. She would not fail her Pack. She let her wolf come.

  “Stay quiet.”

  She recognized the voice. The guard Martin, the only one of her jailers who had not tortured her.

  The soft clink of tumblers falling as a key turned, and then the cell doors opened silently, and he slipped inside with her. So, he had finally come to take his pleasure with her. Pelt bristled beneath her skin, and her claws and canines abruptly extruded.

  Claws tore through her fingertips, and her sex swelled.

  Katya’s warning whispered through the gloom, below the range of human hearing. “Gray, no. I know you want to shift, but don’t. Don’t.”

  Gray snarled, her jaws snapping on air as she struggled for freedom.

  “Listen to me,” Martin said, his voice low and urgent. “You understand me, don’t you?”

  Gray growled. Her wolf was close now, so close.

  “I know you understand me. I’m trying to help you.”

  The dark menace of a stun baton glinted in his right hand. Pain. Shock. Pleasure. Release. She thrashed, her head rocking from side to side, her canines ripping at her lower lip.

  “Damn it.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “They’ve got more tests planned for this morning. I’m trying to buy you time.”

  He grabbed her shoulders, something none of them had ever done before. She could rip his arm off if she angled her head just right. Even the restraints would not hold her back. He shook her. “Listen to me. I’m on your side.”

  “You imprisoned us,” Gray rasped, her voice rusty and rough. “You torture us.”

  “I don’t want to! Jesus, I’m not one of them,” he said.

  His scent was different from the others. They always smelled like sex and fear. His scent was a warning call, signaling danger. Different. But she didn’t trust him. She bared her teeth and tried to shrug his hands away.

  “I didn’t know what they were going to do.” He looped the baton into his belt and held his hands up just out of range of her teeth, as if he trusted her not to hurt him. “I didn’t know what this place was. I didn’t know what they did here. When I found out, I couldn’t do anything, or they would’ve discovered I’m a spy.”

  Gray struggled with her wolf’s imperative to destroy him. Think. The Alpha would want her to think. We are not animals, we are Weres. We are hunters and warriors. We are swift and strong and smart. Her chest hurt so much. Her stomach cramped. Her sex pounded with pain. “Who are you, then?”

  “One of a group of humans trying to find out who’s behind these atrocities. To stop them.”

  “Can you get us out?” Gray stopped struggling, but she couldn’t quiet her racing blood.

  His face contorted. “No. Not without giving myself away, and I’d just end up getting us all killed.”

  No one in this place had befriended her, and she wasn’t going to trust a human now. “Tell the Alpha where we are, then. She’ll come.”

  “I can’t,” he said. “I don’t know where we are. They transport us here by bus for our tours. We’re scanned when we enter and leave. No cell phones, no beepers, no cameras, no chance of carrying a tracking device.”

  “Then let us loose. We’ll fight our way out.”

  “You’ll get killed.” He glanced down her body, then into her eyes. The humans hardly ever looked into her face. Her wolf grumbled at the challenge, but she let him examine her for a second. Then she allowed her wolf to show in her eyes, and he averted his gaze. “They’re getting impatient. Stepping up the frequency of the tests. If they don’t get what they want, I’m afraid they’ll go after someone else. You need to delay today’s test. Every hour helps.”

  “How? I can’t do anything.” Gray rattled her chains. “If you let me loose when the other guards come, I might be able to overpower them.”

  He turned his back, his shoulders tightening. Then he spun around. “If you kill them, they’ll just bring someone else in after they kill you both. But if you don’t have anything to give them during the tests, they’ll have to reschedule.”

  “The victus. That’s what they want.” Gray snarled, rage pouring through her.

  “They can’t make you give what you don’t have.” He rubbed his face. “God…Look, I can release your hands. If they don’t have specimens to analyze, they’ll have to delay whatever they’re going to do. Can you—if I free your hands, can you, you know, get rid of it?”

  Gray shook her head. “No. I can’t—not all of it. Not enough.”

  “I can’t risk bringing the other female in here. To help or whatever. Jesus, I won’t watch.”

  “It’s not possible,” Gray said. “That’s not how it happens. We have no need to release that way.”

  “Then at least don’t fight them. Just give them what they want.”

  “No. We will never help them.” Gray didn’t see that she had many choices. If they resisted, their captors might take more females. If they cooperated, they could hurt the Pack. This human was right. Time was her only weapon. If she had nothing to give them, they would have to wait. “Stun me.”

  “What?”

  “Stun me long enough, and I won’t have anything for them to collect.”

  “Oh good Christ.” Martin paced in a rapid circle. “I don’t know if I can.”

  “If it keeps them from getting what they want, if it gives us more time, do it.” Gray wasn’t afraid, not of the bright stabbing pain or the searing electric shock. She knew what would happen when he shocked her. She feared the surge of excitement roiling in her loins and the eager pulsing in her clitoris.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Just do it,” she rasped, her sex readying painfully.

  He pulled a stun gun from his holster and fired. The darts struck her abdomen, embedded deep in her muscles, and a jolt of electricity ripped through her. Her back arched, and her arms and legs flailed. She growled, straining in her shackles. The current escalated, burning through her blood, and her clitoris abruptly exploded. Roaring with ecstasy, hips j
erking wildly, she emptied in heaving spasms until the electricity abruptly disappeared.

  “I’m sorry,” Martin muttered, jerking the electrodes from her belly.

  Gray dangled from her restraints, spent and hollow.

  Drake waited while Sylvan rang the buzzer outside the airlock connected to Leo and Nadia Revnik’s multimillion-dollar Level 4 research lab. Sylvan completed the retinal and digital print scans to confirm her identity, and a closed-circuit camera above the computer-controlled chamber door slowly panned across their faces. The door whooshed open, and they entered a six-foot-wide, ten-foot-long corridor, shed their clothes, and stepped through a portal that emitted low-level radiation to sterilize their skin. Decontamination complete, they pulled scrubs down from the shelf next to the inner door. Sylvan didn’t bother with a shirt. The pressure in the chamber equilibrated, the inner door opened, and they walked out into the lab.

  Leo and Nadia Revnik were alone, surrounded by cutting-edge instruments and equipment, some not even available in government installations. With their unlined skin, clear blue eyes, lustrous blond hair, and athletic bodies, neither looked older than their daughter Sophia. Even in scrubs and white lab coats, they both appeared as strong and lethal as any of Sylvan’s soldiers.

  “Alpha,” Leo said, his gaze moving rapidly from Sylvan to Drake. “Prima. We weren’t expecting you.”

  “Sophia?” Nadia asked anxiously.

  “Sophia is fine,” Sylvan said.

  Nadia sighed. “Forgive me, Alpha. I—”

  Sylvan shook her head. “You’re a mother first. I understand.”

  “Prima,” Nadia said, turning to Drake. “How are you?”

  “I am well, thank you,” Drake said with a surge of affection. Leo and Nadia had conceded to her wishes to take more extensive biopsies than Sylvan might have agreed to, and she was in their debt. They had pushed the limits of their comfort zone in circumventing their Alpha’s orders. “Do you have any results?”

  Leo said, “We have completed most of the assays and have some very good news, Prima. Your muscle biopsies and biochemical analyses are all normal. Your mitochondrial DNA is indistinguishable from any other Were’s.”