Blood Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  “What exactly do you think these people are building?”

  “Prisons.”

  Sylvan’s fury reached out to Becca over the phone lines and chilled her heart. She imagined how she would feel if anyone attempted to harm Jody, and the rage settled deep inside her. She didn’t have the physical strength of the Weres or the mental power of the Vampires, but she had her brains, and she had her will, and she knew how to fight. Now more than ever, she had something—and someone—to fight for. “Don’t worry, Alpha, I’ll have the information for you by nightfall.”

  “Once Jody rises tonight,” Drake said when Sylvan disconnected the call, “she may be able to access additional databases through police headquarters.”

  “Yes,” Sylvan said. “I think we’ve done all we can for now. In case Becca can’t help us narrow the possibilities down to a specific location by pinpointing which facility has been modified, we’ll put surveillance around all three of them today. If they’re operating a clandestine research lab with living subjects, they’re going to need a lot of supplies and extra personnel.”

  “You may have to get someone inside to be sure.” Drake assumed Leo and Nadia could hear their conversation, but the two scientists appeared to be engrossed in conversation on the far side of the lab. “Their security is going to be tough to breach.”

  “We’d need someone with enough scientific expertise to be able to identify what we’re looking for.” Sylvan sighed. “Sophia would be our best choice.”

  “I could do it.”

  “No.”

  “Sylvan, you can’t expect me to sit—”

  Sylvan was in her face so quickly Drake sucked in a breath of surprise. She narrowed her eyes and thrust her chin forward. “What was that for?”

  “I will not place you at risk.” Sylvan grumbled, but backed up a step. “You are as important to the Pack as I am. You have to learn to accept that.”

  “You put yourself in danger every day without concern for your position in the Pack.” Drake clenched her teeth to keep her voice down. She’d fought her way out from under the weight of double standards when she was ten years old. She wasn’t about to embrace them as an adult, especially when her mate put herself in danger every time she left the Compound.

  “My position in the Pack is to go to battle for them,” Sylvan said. “Yours is to preserve order and stability by showing you trust my judgment.”

  “That’s convenient,” Drake snapped.

  The corner of Sylvan’s mouth flickered. “For me, it is.” She traced a finger over Drake’s lower lip. “You’re a warrior, I know that. But not every battle is fought with tooth and claw. The Pack needs more than I can give them. A calm center. Unwavering strength. You are our heart now, Prima.”

  “Damn you,” Drake whispered. “You are my heart.”

  “And you are mine.” Sylvan kissed her. “I promise, when the time comes for you to fight, I won’t stop you. But this is not that fight.”

  “You make it hard for me to argue.”

  “Then don’t.” Sylvan grinned. “All I do, I do for you and the Pack.”

  “I know. And that needs to include staying safe.” Drake gripped Sylvan’s shoulders and drew Sylvan’s gaze. She was the only one who could look into Sylvan’s eyes and see all that she was—defender, protector, fearsome fighter, tender lover. “I love you.”

  Sylvan stroked her face. “I love you.”

  “Let’s go home,” Drake said. “We’re going to be busy tonight.”

  “Yes,” Sylvan said, her eyes flashing with wolf. “Our females are not going to spend one more night in captivity.”

  Drake kept her silence as they strode into the airlock. Regardless of how Sylvan saw their roles in the Pack, she would never let Sylvan stand alone. She would risk Sylvan’s ire, she would risk anything, to keep her safe. Tonight would be soon enough to wage that battle.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Francesca pushed the blinking red light on her office answering machine, scrolled through the messages, made notes for her aide, and replayed the fourth one.

  “Good evening, Viceregal, I hope you slept well,” the sensuous female voice began. “I have need of assistance, and I immediately thought of you. I’d like to borrow one of your trusted Vampires for a few hours tonight. I promise they’ll enjoy themselves. Call me.”

  Francesca pressed Erase. She knew the return number. Veronica Standish was an interesting human. If she’d been a Vampire, Francesca might have been worried about her motives, but even for a human, Veronica wielded too much power to be underestimated. Francesca didn’t trust the scientist, but then she didn’t trust anyone, except Michel and the wolf Alpha. Michel had been by her side longer than any Vampire, knew more of her secrets than any other creature, and her loyalty was unassailable. And Sylvan. Sylvan was honest to a fault. Someday, Sylvan’s honesty and integrity would be her downfall. When that day came, she would be sad—she was very fond of Sylvan. But sentiment did not keep one in power.

  She dialed the number. “What can I do for you, darling?”

  “I take it this is confidential?” Veronica said.

  “Isn’t everything between us?”

  “I need one of your Vampires to assist me in a study.”

  “That sounds wonderfully mysterious. Assist you in what way?”

  “I’ll skip all the very boring parts and get right to the summary,” Veronica said, as if her experiments were of no real consequence. “I want to quantify the effects of the Vampire feeding hormone in a Were.”

  “Is this the study I’m not supposed to know about? You have Were subjects?”

  Veronica laughed. “The secrecy was never my mandate, so I have no problem ignoring it for you. Yes, some of the work I’m doing for the group involves Weres.”

  Sylvan’s missing females, no doubt. These humans were very foolish. Francesca murmured, “I can’t see you ceding authority to any master.”

  “You’re my role model in that,” Veronica said playfully.

  Francesca smiled. She wasn’t susceptible to seduction by humans. They were satisfying to feed from, nothing more. “You flatter me.”

  “Not at all. I think we both know if we allow the males of our species to control us, we are no better than the animals we study—controlled by biology rather than our higher faculties. Don’t you agree?”

  To Francesca’s way of thinking, every species with the possible exception of the Weres was inferior, but that didn’t mean she could ignore their potential threat. “Of course I agree. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Let me see if I understand. You want a Vampire to feed from a Were while you—what? Study them both?”

  “Actually, I’m interested in analyzing the Were emissions during orgasm. I’ll only be collecting samples from the Were. Your Vampire can take as much blood as they want, short of death, of course.”

  “Naturally. I’ll give it some thought and get back to you.”

  “I’ve moved my test up from tomorrow to this evening to accommodate your nocturnal needs.”

  “How thoughtful.” Francesca disconnected and considered the request. She had yet to see the research facility, and sending someone inside would be to her advantage. Veronica said she wasn’t interested in studying Vampires, but even if the scientist was telling the truth, she could easily change her mind in the future. Any Vampire Francesca sent must be capable of guarding critical secrets about the Vampire species. There was only one Vampire she would trust with such an assignment.

  Senechal.

  A moment later her office door opened, and Michel entered. “You have need of me, Regent?”

  “I have a job for you I think you’re going to enjoy.”

  Jody opened her eyes, fully conscious, with no transition from deep somnolence to total awareness. Usually the soldiers escorted the selected hosts from the safe house to her lair just before sundown, securing the tunnel entrance and remaining on the doors until she was awake. Her hosts often waited be
side her in bed for the moment when she arose, knowing her hunger was greatest after the long period of daytime unawareness. The body beside her was not a host. She rolled over and pulled Becca into her arms. “You shouldn’t be here right now.”

  “Why?” Becca kissed her.

  Becca smelled fresh and alive, a hint of shampoo still clinging to her hair, her natural scent unmarred by any other fragrance. Her body was warm from the shower, her skin soft and flushed with the rush of her blood beneath her skin. Becca’s blood pumped strong and hot, and Jody’s mouth filled with feeding hormones. She wanted to taste her. She wanted to drink her.

  “My hunger is greatest right now, and my control is the weakest.” She nuzzled Becca’s neck. She couldn’t help herself. Her body tightened, her entire being focused on the promise of strength and power flowing mere millimeters from her mouth. She groaned. “Becca, please. You must go.”

  Becca pushed Jody over onto her back, something no host had ever done. When Becca stretched out on top of her, Jody’s sex did not respond—she didn’t have enough replenished blood circulating for that to happen—but she felt arousal just the same. Not bloodlust, desire. The reaction was so foreign, she was able to ignore her hunger long enough to gather the threads of her control. She brushed her fingers through Becca’s black curls. Becca’s eyes were so bright, her lips so full and moist. Jody ached for her in her mind, in her heart, in her depths. “I want you.”

  Becca grinned. “Why do you sound so surprised?” She moved against Jody’s leg, coating her skin with the slick, hot evidence of her desire. “Feel that? I want you too. I thought I’d combust before you woke up. I’m glad you didn’t call a host, because I’m not sharing this time.”

  Jody frowned. “You don’t understand. I want you. Not just your blood.”

  Becca’s eyes widened and then grew impossibly soft. “Really.”

  “Yes, but I—”

  Becca leaned down and kissed her, playing her tongue over her lips. Becca tasted hot and sweet, and Jody chased the promise of pleasure with her tongue, sweeping inside Becca’s mouth. When Becca’s hips sped up on her leg, Jody pulled her head away, cursing.

  “What?” Becca braced herself on her arms, her breasts swaying teasingly over Jody’s face. “Why are you aggravated?”

  Jody looked down the length of their bodies, hers so stark and hard, Becca’s a dusky gold suffused with the faint rose of healthy blood. “I can’t respond to you the way I want to. My body can’t—”

  “Your body needs blood, doesn’t it?” Becca murmured. “For you to become physically aroused.”

  Jody turned her face away, embarrassed. “Yes. Without it, I’m not able—”

  Becca stopped her confession with her mouth, sliding her tongue over Jody’s incisors as she moved on her again. Becca moaned into Jody’s mouth, her hips thrusting steadily. Jody jerked, excitement surging through her, not the way she was used to, not the involuntary orgasm that accompanied her feeding, but intense, aching arousal rising from every corner of her awareness. She rolled Becca over, under her. Becca’s excitement was real, and so was hers. She answered Becca’s passion with a hard, demanding kiss and slid her hand between their bodies. When she stroked through the wetness between Becca’s thighs, Becca gave a shocked cry. Starving for her, Jody pushed herself down the bed and kissed Becca’s stomach.

  Becca twisted and pressed against her mouth. “Oh God, Jody. I want you so much.”

  And that confession, offered freely, with no thrall, no plea for her bite, no mindless addiction to the feeding hormones, gave Jody the strength to hold her hunger at bay for a few more minutes. “I want you too. I want you, Becca. All of you.”

  Becca’s hands came onto her shoulders, pushing her lower. “Please. Take me in your mouth. Make me come, and when I do, bite me. God, Jody, bite me then.”

  “No,” Jody groaned. “You’ve already given me blood today. I don’t want to take more.”

  “I need you to. Please. Let me feel it like this.”

  Jody couldn’t fight both Becca’s need and her own. She kissed the insides of Becca’s thighs, her moist lips, her hard clitoris. She tasted her, drank her, and finally took her into her mouth. Becca’s shoulders jolted off the bed, and her fingers dug into the muscles of Jody’s back.

  “Please, yes, please, yes,” Becca gasped, over and over again.

  Jody was helpless to deny her. She sucked her, licked her, and pressed inside her. Becca stiffened, shaking uncontrollably, and climaxed.

  “Oh please, now,” Becca moaned.

  Jody’s incisors slid down, and she carefully, gently, pierced the wide vein running on the inside of Becca’s thigh. A flood of power and pleasure stormed through her. She released the erotostimulants with every pull.

  “Oh my God,” Becca cried out, jerking against Jody’s mouth.

  Jody drank until she was strong enough to break free from the bloodlust and slipped out, sealing the wounds in Becca’s thigh with several slow swipes of her tongue. Gasping, she collapsed, her cheek against Becca’s stomach.

  “I love you, Becca,” Jody murmured.

  Becca laughed softly, weakly stroking Jody’s face. “Oh, Vampire, oh, you surely do.”

  The bedroom door opposite Niki opened, and she went on high alert. Jody emerged wearing pressed dark trousers and a pale gray open-collared shirt. Her gaze was sharp, and her skin glowed. The Vampire had fed, but Niki hadn’t seen any hosts since the guards had escorted the man with the dark hair to and from the bedroom early that morning. Jody must have fed from the human. Niki pushed aside a swell of jealousy. She wasn’t there for her own pleasure, she was there to carry out the Alpha’s orders. Safeguard Lara. And the Vampire. And the human. During the long hours of standing guard, she’d managed not to think about who would feed the Vampire when she awoke hungry, but she hadn’t been as successful controlling her body. Watching the host arrive that morning, hearing the groans and cries of ecstasy, had brought on a frenzy almost as intense as running with the Alpha. Just seeing the Vampire ratcheted up her need.

  “Lara hasn’t stirred yet,” Niki reported brusquely.

  Jody nodded. “She will any moment. How are you?”

  “I’m fine.” She wasn’t, but she could hold. The Vampire was powerful, and her need permeated the surroundings. Being inundated with the pheromone-laden air in the underground lair had Niki full and ready. But she had plenty of practice absorbing that kind of stimulation, and she would not admit to this Vampire that she throbbed for release.

  “Let’s see to Lara, then,” Jody said, passing Niki without commenting on the damp sheet of sex-sweat coating her body.

  Niki appreciated the Vampire allowing her to preserve some dignity, and stepped aside so Jody could enter first. She followed her into Lara’s room and secured the door behind them. Lara was as she had left her, curled in the center of the bed, naked, covered by just a sheet. Niki ached to see her so alone.

  “She should be with Pack,” Niki grumbled.

  Lara turned her head, and Niki’s heart jolted. Lara’s eyes were a clear, bright amber. All wolf, healthy and sharp. “Lara?”

  “Niki,” Lara whispered. Her gaze flicked to Jody, and her face hardened. “And what should I call you? Master?”

  “You may call me Liege,” Jody said, bending over the bed. She grasped Lara’s chin in her hand, and Lara quivered.

  Niki tightened, her wolf bristling at the affront to her Packmate. The Vampire was rolling Lara’s mind, enthralling her, and to her wolf, that spelled danger. Danger meant fight. Niki held her place, waiting, wary, watching.

  “You are strong, young Vampire,” Jody murmured, straightening.

  Abruptly, Lara sat up and shook herself vigorously, as if throwing off rain after a hard run through a thunderstorm. Her naked body looked hard and lean and hungry, like that of a lone wolf who had hunted for days and had yet to find prey.

  “I still hurt.” Lara grimaced and rubbed the center of her chest. “Will it always be
this way?”

  “Yes, but you’ll notice it less as time goes on. Right now, you need to feed.”

  Lara shuddered and her incisors abruptly extruded. “Yes. Yes. Now.” Her gaze shot to Niki.

  Niki’s stomach tensed and her sex pulsed. “Let me feed her.”

  “It’s after dark,” Jody said, “and the threat to us is less now that I am awake. But if you feed her, you will be weakened, and your Alpha may need you tonight.”

  “I am a Were,” Niki said, never looking away from Lara. “I can feed her and be recovered by the time we leave this place.” She didn’t want to beg, but she was close to it. She needed her connection to Lara, to Pack, and she needed the release Lara’s Vampire bite would give. “Lara needs a wolf tonight, not a human.”

  “All right,” Jody said, stepping back to the door. “But I’ll need to stay. Lara is not yet ready to feed alone.”

  “Then stay. You’ve seen it before,” Niki said bitterly. Her weakness—everyone had seen it now. She’d always prided herself on her control, on being able to absorb the strongest of the Alpha’s call and still stand strong. She couldn’t any longer. She was already on the verge of bursting, and she could not defeat her need. With a groan, she leapt to the side of the bed and ripped off her shirt. Panting, she shredded her pants.

  “Now,” Lara snarled, crimson bleeding through her amber eyes.

  “Yes, yes,” Niki whispered.

  Lara grabbed her with more strength than Niki had ever felt from her and pulled her down onto the bed. And then she was under Lara, where she would never have gone for any wolf but the Alpha, and she was willing. Willing to be taken, open and needy.

  “Please,” Niki moaned.

  “Niki.” Lara’s grip gentled and she kissed her. “I’ve missed you.”

  Niki scented wolf, scented home. She lifted beneath Lara, and Lara’s sex pressed to hers. The pleasure was only that, no pain, no humiliation, no domination. This was Lara. She was Pack. Niki closed her eyes, felt pine needles under her pads, the cool mountain air rushing through her pelt, her heart thudding in her ears as she hunted free. She was wolf. She was strong. When Lara’s teeth slipped into her neck, all she knew was joy and the contentment only Pack and a wolf who loved her could give.