Blood Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  Before the Exodus, she’d understood her place in the world, in the Pack. She was born to protect Sylvan, the Alpha, the heart of the Pack. She was needed, she had purpose, and she was proud of who she was. Now she was riding in a limousine with a Vampire, a human, and one of her Packmates who had somehow been changed—not taken from them, but made other all the same. The Alpha was mated to a mutia, something not forbidden, but something that would soon become a problem. Suddenly, everything she thought she knew about life, about her duty, about herself and her own value, had changed. But one thing she knew with absolute certainty. Her heart would always belong to Sylvan, to the Pack, and to her Packmates. She would die for any one of them. She reached across the space separating her from her Packmate, pulled Lara close, and kissed her.

  “We’re going home, centuri. We’re going home.”

  “Be careful tonight, darling,” Francesca said, watching Michel get dressed. “I don’t like you going in alone. I don’t like Standish sending a car for you either, but if I insist on having guards accompany you, she’ll think we fear her power.”

  Michel tucked her blood-red shirt into her tight black pants and pulled on knee-high black boots. She looked like a bloodied blade, sharp and dangerous and beautiful. As she slipped a silver cufflink into her sleeve, she crossed the room and kissed Francesca on the mouth. “We don’t fear her, we will never fear humans.”

  “Let me do that,” Francesca said, taking the second cufflink bearing her crest from Michel. “Roll up your sleeve, darling.” Michel complied, and Francesca strapped a sheathed stiletto to her forearm. “You’re right, of course, humans are not our equals, but even a pack of jackals can take down a lion if there are enough of them and the lion is alone. I will not have you harmed.” She inserted the cufflink, slid her fingers into Michel’s hair, and kissed her deeply. “Eternity would be so very boring without you.”

  Michel stroked Francesca’s face and laughed. “Regent, I don’t believe your heart or your bed would be empty for very long without me, but I promise you, as long as you call, I will be there.”

  Francesca tapped Michel’s mouth with a scarlet-tipped finger. “See that you come back undamaged.”

  “What do you think the human really wants?”

  Francesca shrugged. “What everyone wants. Power. Humans mistakenly believe their numbers provide them the strength to control us. They only admit to wanting dominion over the Weres, but I am sure they feel the same way about us. They’ll be looking for our weaknesses. Take care not to show them any.”

  Michel shrugged. “What do you think I would reveal while feeding from a Were?”

  “One of the reasons I’m sending you is I know you can think through the bloodlust. For those few seconds when we are lost in the lust, we are vulnerable. Take care that doesn’t happen tonight.”

  Michel’s eyes narrowed. “Regent, it’s been centuries since I lost myself to bloodlust. Since I hosted for you, before my turning.”

  “Do you regret it? That you didn’t remain blood-bonded?”

  “If I’d thought you loved me, I would have remained your bonded host for as long as your power allowed me to survive. But you didn’t, so I chose eternity at your side instead.”

  “Should I say I’m sorry?” Francesca said, stroking Michel’s breast beneath the scarlet silk.

  “No, Regent.” Michel caught her hand and kissed her palm. “I am pleased with my existence, and honored to stand as your second.” She laughed, but the blue of her eyes darkened for a second, and Francesca felt the wave of sadness Michel usually kept buried.

  “You’re a romantic, darling,” Francesca said, “though you hide it well. You should take a lover—a human, perhaps, who would shower you with devotion.”

  Michel shook her head. “I have the satisfaction of feeding at your side, of sharing your body when we share hosts. I have the honor of pleasing you. I am well contented.”

  Francesca nodded, believing Michel believed her own words. Believing also that a day would come when Michel would want what she had never been able to give her. When that day came, she would have to decide if she still held Michel’s allegiance, because Michel knew far too much were that not the case.

  She kissed the only being with the knowledge to destroy her. “Take care, darling, and at sunrise, I promise you we will celebrate.”

  The three guards came for Gray and Katya as they always did, laughing, sneering, taunting. Gray had no idea what day it was—without windows, without sunlight, without air, she couldn’t judge where she was in the world, and without contact with the Pack, she had no way of finding herself.

  The guard, Martin, did not look directly at her as he released the shackles on her wrists and legs, but he kept his body between her and the other two guards. The thin one who smelled like rotting prey, the one who liked to stun her until she twisted on the floor in her own fluids, reached around Martin and gripped her breast. Martin shoved him aside.

  “Damn it, Elliot, don’t rile her up. You heard what the supervisor said. He wants her delivered pumped up and ready to go. You get her pissed off enough, we’ll have to stun her, and then we’ll pay for her not performing in the lab.”

  “Oh fuck,” Elliot sneered. “They’re just gonna do the same thing in there to get her juicing. A little poking, a little jolt. We might as well get a head start. Fucking job doesn’t have any other perks. We get treated like we’re the prisoners. Scans and body searches. Fuck.”

  “Look,” the third guard said, “the money makes my old lady happy. And when she’s happy, I get more pussy. So leave this one alone. I need the job.”

  “Fine,” Elliot snapped. “I’ll go get the other one ready.”

  Gray didn’t want Elliot molesting Katya. She snarled and thrashed and snapped when they tried to collar her.

  “Damn it—Ames, get that collar on her,” Martin said. “Elliot, hit her with a low dose. I mean it—low.”

  Gray roared when the current arced over her skin, but she stayed standing. The jolt left her teetering on the edge of release, but she held herself together. Ames clamped the electric shock collar on her neck.

  Martin snapped, “I’ll get the other one.”

  A minute later, the guards dragged her and Katya down the hall through murky air that stung her chest and shoved them through the metal doors into the harsh glare of the laboratory. She blinked and tried to clear the fog from her eyes, but her vision was worse than it had been earlier that morning, and much worse than the day before. The glaring overhead lights were ringed with smoke, and the faces of the men and women who tugged her to the cold steel table and tied down her arms and legs with metal restraints that burned her skin swam in and out of focus. She strained to see where they had taken Katya and saw her only a few feet away. A loop of thick black cord wrapped around her wrists and suspended her from the ceiling. Her body was stretched upward in a tight arch. Their eyes met for a second, and Katya’s green eyes flashed bright with wolf. Gray’s wolf started to prowl.

  Somewhere a door whooshed open, and the low murmur of approaching voices penetrated Gray’s dazed mind. She recognized the scent and the low sultry voice of the human female who had stood outside her cage and taunted her with her body and her words just… When? The day before, the week before, an hour ago? Gray wasn’t certain how many times the human had come, how many times she had been baited into losing control, and the rage swelled again. She snarled, her vision flattening, sharpening, as her wolf clawed to the surface. And this time, Gray let her come.

  “This one,” Veronica Standish said, pointing to the blonde suspended from an overhead pulley, “is dominant, but less aggressive. The other one would not be as much to your liking.”

  Michel surveyed the two Were females. Both were underweight, both appeared dazed and disoriented. The one in four-point restraints on the table already showed signs of shifting. She wondered if the humans recognized how close to going feral that one was. A thin line of dark pelt bisected her tight, hollow abdom
en, and her canines protruded. Her lips were drawn back in a snarl, and blood tinged the tips of her fingers where her claws extended. That one would shift before long, and when she did, those restraints were not going to hold her. The one they had prepared for her, the one the human called Katya, was full-breasted and well-muscled even though thin, and young. Just barely beyond adolescence. Not virginal, none of the Weres were inexperienced once past early adolescence, but Michel doubted this one had ever experienced thrall. Even physically depleted, her Were blood would be invigorating.

  “You’re right,” she said to the scientist, smoothing her hand over the Were’s face, down her neck, over her chest. “She’s quite appealing.”

  The Were snarled and tried to pull away, but with her arms extended over her head and her feet barely touching the floor, she had no purchase, no way to escape. Michel ensnared her mind, projected the scent of forest and mountain breezes to soothe her. If the Were fought her, she might hurt her when she fed, and that was of no benefit to her task. The Regent requested she study the facility, and thus far she’d learned some valuable new information. The extensive underground facility was accessible by a single elevator, keyed to the scientist’s retinal scan. She couldn’t tell how many subjects might be held underground, but she’d seen half a dozen windowless, computer-locked doors that could easily lead to holding pens. Holding areas that might have been built with Weres in mind, but which could just as easily be adapted for Vampires. If there was an enemy in this room, it was not these Weres.

  “How can I help you, Dr. Standish?”

  Veronica studied the Vampire who always seemed to be by Francesca’s side. Michel was beautiful in her androgyny, exciting in her aloofness, dangerous by nature. Veronica found nothing more arousing than danger, and danger combined with beauty was even more appealing. The combination stirred her mind and excited her body. She was wet, and that fact alone was a challenge, considering Vampires enthralled their prey with sexual allure. How very exhilarating. She imagined the Vampire could scent her arousal, and she didn’t mind. She wasn’t a victim of her desire, not when she could control it and use it to control others.

  “I want you to feed from her and ensure that she orgasms. We’ll collect specimens throughout. You, of course, are free to enjoy yourself in any way you desire.”

  “And if she’s not enough for me?” Michel slowly smiled at Veronica Standish and loosed her thrall. The Regent had not expressly forbidden her from engaging the human, and what better way to determine a human’s secrets than in the throes of passion?

  The Vampire’s scarlet gaze cascaded over Veronica’s body, heating her skin and tightening her sex. She shivered. So, that was a little taste of Vampire thrall. Definitely powerful. No wonder the species was so resilient despite their small numbers. Veronica had never been with a Vampire, but she would certainly find the opportunity to do so now. “Perhaps when we have completed the experiments, you and I can retire somewhere a little more private and discuss the outcome.”

  Michel slipped her hand around Veronica’s arm. “Let’s finish this part, then, so I can spend my time with someone more worthy of my attention.”

  Veronica smiled and let her fingers graze the Vampire’s chest. “Indeed, I couldn’t agree more.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Max parked the Rover on a forested ridge overlooking the Green Mountain research facility—an easy run through the woods in pelt. While he and Niki scouted the route down, Sylvan and Drake found a clearing in the trees and scanned the grounds and surrounding woodlands with a night scope. The sprawling facility was surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with razor wire. A deterrent for humans, but easy to leap over for Weres. Covered kiosks at regular intervals marked sentry points. In addition to the perimeter security, the trees had been clear-cut for twenty yards beyond the fence in all directions, leaving no cover and preventing a stealth approach.

  “This is no research facility,” Sylvan said. “This is a paramilitary installation.”

  “How can they keep something like this secret?” Drake asked.

  “Money,” Sylvan said. “And political connections.”

  “We need to find out who’s behind this place,” Drake said.

  “We will,” Sylvan said, “after we find our young.”

  “We need to send a message,” Drake said, “that our wolves will not be victims.”

  Sylvan showed her teeth, and her eyes flashed gold in the silver moonlight. “We will.”

  Drake caressed Sylvan’s bare shoulder. “Good.”

  “Sentries in the woods at twelve, three, six, and nine,” Sylvan said, handing the scope to Drake.

  “Perimeter guards walking post, also,” Drake grumbled. “They don’t move like humans, but they don’t look like wolves either.”

  “I don’t think they are,” Sylvan said darkly. “I think they’re cat Weres. Probably mercenaries. It makes sense if the humans are trying to keep what’s happening here a secret. The fewer humans they involve, the better. Especially guards.”

  “How do they fight?” Drake asked.

  “They’re quick, and they go for the eyes and the belly. A big cat can take out your throat with one quick slash, so don’t hesitate on your approach.” Sylvan caressed Drake’s back. “We have strength on our side. Go in low, use your body weight to take them down, and clamp your jaws on the throat.”

  Drake nodded, still surveying the installation through the night scope. “Getting to the sentries in the woods shouldn’t be difficult, but the guards on that perimeter fence have the advantage. Crossing that no-cover zone will be difficult, even in pelt. They’ll see us coming.”

  Sylvan laughed softly. “Not true for our Vampire friends. Their speed renders them nearly invisible.”

  “Then it’s a good thing they joined us,” Drake said.

  “Not something I plan on telling them,” Sylvan muttered.

  “There’s no way we’re going to breach these defenses without bloodshed,” Drake said.

  “Are you prepared for it?”

  Drake kissed her quickly. “Yes.”

  “Stay close,” Sylvan said.

  “Always.”

  They returned to where Jody leaned against the right fender of the Rover. Her soldiers, Rafaela and Claude, stood a short distance away, automatic weapons slung over their shoulders. Niki and Max appeared out of the woods.

  “A dozen outside,” Niki said. “The facility is isolated inside some kind of much larger complex. If we can cut the communications from that building before we go in, we’ll buy ourselves time.”

  “We should be able to eliminate the guards in the woods without the perimeter guards being aware of it.” Sylvan glanced at the Vampire. “Can you take out the sentries on the fence quickly enough to prevent them from alerting anyone inside?”

  “We are four,” Jody said. “Six humans is no challenge.” Jody glanced at Rafaela and Claude, the two Vampires in combat gear, and the driver, who had shed his suit coat for a black windbreaker. “Silent approach. No weapons fire.”

  “Yes, Liege,” they all said at once.

  Sylvan turned to Max. “I want you to disable the hard lines and jam wireless communications.”

  “Yes, Alpha. It would help if I could see a grid of the area.”

  Jody said, “Becca can pull that up for you.” She handed Max her cell phone. “She’s ready to relay images. Press One on the speed dial and tell her what you need.”

  “Go with the Vampires,” Sylvan said to Max. When he started to protest, she growled at him, and he ducked his head. “We need you to block their communications and disable security on the door. When we arrive, I want to be able to get in immediately. The Vampires will clear the way for you.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Max walked a few feet away and spoke into the phone.

  Rafaela glanced at Niki and winked, her incisors sparkling like shards of glass in the moonlight. “Should be fun.”

  Niki grinned.

  “Good hunti
ng,” Sylvan said as the Vampires misted into the darkness. She turned to Niki and Max. “Research facilities do not require armed guards. There are no innocents here. Take them down, and if they resist, kill them.”

  “Yes, Alpha,” Niki and Max said.

  Sylvan let her wolf rise, flooding the clearing with her call. Niki shuddered and tilted her face to the sky, shifting effortlessly in a flurry of red and gray. Sylvan glanced at Drake.

  “Are you ready, Prima?”

  Drake breathed in, absorbing Sylvan’s power, and let her own power flow. “Yes, mate.”

  They shifted together, silver and black, lethal and wild. Niki took a position on their flank, and Sylvan led the war party into the night.

  The moon was nearly full, and Drake felt the strength of the Pack gather inside her in a way she never had before, not even running with Sylvan at the height of their breeding frenzy. Cool air redolent with life flowed in and out of her lungs. Her heart pumped and her muscles churned. She had never been as strongly attuned to her wolf as she was then, cutting through the trees by Sylvan’s side, swift and sure and strong. Sylvan tilted her muzzle into the air, sniffed, and nudged Drake with a snap of teeth. With a low growl, Sylvan inclined her head, gold eyes glinting, indicating prey off to their right. Drake pulled back her lips and showed her teeth in understanding.

  Be careful, Prima.

  You too, love.

  Drake cut away into the denser forest, and Sylvan led Niki on. Drake slowed, padding softly through the thick layer of pine needles and crushed leaves on the forest floor. She stayed downwind of where they had sighted the first guard from the ridge above. A cat Were’s senses were as acute as a wolf’s, and she needed surprise on her side.