by Eros, Marata
I nodded.
“He is who we use during the daytime for interface.” He shrugged.
“With who?” I asked.
“The humans, of course.”
Oh.
“Not a really great choice. He's a big-time perv and he's violent. Obviously.”
He smiled. “The dumb cattle are the ones easiest to manipulate.”
There's the cattle term again. I scowled at him and he laughed. “What is the look for, Breeder? Do you hold your species in such high esteem? Truly?”
I really didn't but I wasn't going to let King Asshat know that.
I crossed my arms underneath my breasts and scowled at him. “Us mere humans may not be up to your physical standards but we're not racing around bleeding everyone out. So, don't get on your high horse about how civil and superior you are. It isn't gonna wash with me.”
The humor drained from his face as if it'd never been. He was suddenly so close to my face he was blurry. “And humans are so non-violent in their exploits. So restrained, so integrity-driven. Yes, so worthy. You are quite right, I was remiss.”
He tucked a hair behind my ear and I flinched. “You have nothing to fear...”
“Rachel,” I said.
The smile was back but just a small one, the fangs in hiding for the moment.
“Rachel...” he rolled my name on his tongue like sweet candy, “we need to speak about what has happened, your history, why you have come to be with the rogue.”
“Forgive me, Zach, but I'm not buying. You kidnapped me from the 'good vamp',” I made airquotes and his frown deepened, “and then you, the bad vamp, came and took me with the help of your pervy sidekick creep, Erik. That makes you someone I don't need to trust.” I threw my hands up in the air, landing them on my jean-clad thighs with a resounding smack.
“I am not the supposed 'bad vamp,' as you imply. Rather, our history is rich and varies from those vampires which held you in their breeding nest.”
Yuck, I thought, shuddering.
*
“Many years ago the Vampire and rogue were one.” He made an elaborate gesture of dismissal, “But no more. Vampire insist on breeding one Druid to two or more vampires. The rogue follow the human model; a single vampire to a Druid. They have left the ancient ways in their desperation for procreation.”
I cocked a brow in disbelief. Forgive me if I was having a tough time coming to terms with their existence. If you add in the whole underlying faction angle... well, it was utterly unbelievable.
“I see that you disbelieve me,” he stated.
“It is pretty unbelievable.” He opened his mouth to reply, his fangs gleaming in the low light of the room but I rushed on, “I do believe that vampires exist, obviously. But you have to recognize that I didn't know who I was until yesterday. Then I was assaulted by their leader...”
“Alexander?” Zach said, his voice ringing with knowledge.
I nodded. “I supposedly have too much Druid blood to be put under 'compulsion', so he had to...” I gulped back the lump in my throat, the memory of his invasive fingers inside me one that I wouldn't forget any time soon.
Zach's expression darkened. “He forced you?”
My eyes met his black ones. “He tried, but Cole...” it was then that the mention of him brought back the events of the last ten hours. Why was I talking to him anyway? He took me from the one vampire that had actually given a shit. Now I sat here, unprotected, with the vampire that had tried to kidnap me in the glade. I crossed my arms, glaring at him.
“What?” he said, his eyes studying my face with glittering intensity.
“You took me from the one vampire that was actually protecting me! From you!”
“Is that what you think?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yes! After your stupid thug jerked my arm out of my socket, he healed me. Cole did. While you were too busy worrying about taking me to do it without violence.” There, let him chew that and swallow the bitter pill of his choices. How could I believe he meant what he said when the way he had acted yesterday was in direct conflict?
“Of course he healed you. Any of us would have done the same. An injured breeder is not worth anything. How can Druids carry our seed if they are weak or hurting?”
I watched as his pupils dilated, nearly the same color as the iris and started shaking my head.
I backed up on the bed until my spine pressed against the cold metal of the headboard.
“Don't try your effed up mojo on me!”
He smiled, crawling across the bed until our faces were inches apart and I turned my head away, ignoring the pressure that pulsed from him. The need to look at him as he wished for me to. I felt heat flush through my system and he hadn't even touched me yet.
“It is true. Most Druids will respond well to compulsion. But some are most resistant. But I am special. That is why I have been chosen as the acquisition leader.”
My eyes flicked to his and were instantly captured. It was different than with the Vampire... or Cole.
His eyes held heat and a question. I didn't move, I didn't breathe. My head told me he was the enemy, but as before with Cole, before I knew what they were, my body responded for me with a seductive whimper.
His face came closer, hovering briefly above mine. Then his lips pressed against mine, not harsh like I'd expected, but a languid and tender pull begun on my bottom lip. He sucked it in lightly, his tongue entering after his fangs had chewed the softness of my skin without breaking it. I groaned as his tongue moved inside my mouth, my ass sitting on my hands so they wouldn't touch him, and still he pecked and dove, exploring my mouth, his breath a male spice like early fall, cinnamon, apples and cider.
I was lost to it.
Still he didn't touch me with anything but his mouth. I gave up, kissing him back, my mouth moving with his, my hands still buried underneath my weight.
An inner resolve took hold over Zach, one palm cupping my face. It was so big against me it palmed most of my face and his touch electrified me. He put his other hand on the opposite side of my face, dragging me closer and I let him.
Still I held myself in check... until his hand wrapped around the slim column of my throat and his thumb began to move back and forth over the erratic pulse that beat there. I could feel his will pressing against mine and a dam broke. I sat up on my knees and he mirrored my movement, both of us facing each other, he inches taller, his mouth never breaking our kiss, his hand enveloping my throat. My hands became less rigid at my sides, they trembled with the effort not to touch him.
Finally, his mouth left mine and began to travel the hollows of my throat, his large hands moving to the small of my back and pressing our hips into an intimate kiss of flesh. He swept his tongue back and forth over that pulse then pulled back.
His hands latched onto my body were the only things that kept me from falling, I was that moved, that exhausted from resisting him.
“You will respond, eventually,” and he smiled. His eyes traveling my flushed face and soft, ragged breathing.
I stared at him, feeling my resolve like the thinnest thread of willpower, ready to unravel. Once undone, I would collapse on him and I would become the aggressor.
“Take heart, Breeder, you are rare amongst your kind, as am I.”
I took a shaky inhale and sat back on my heels, his hands falling away, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
“What are you?” I whispered.
“I am your foil. I am the one that no Druid can withstand, no matter how pure the blood.”
“Why?” I all but yelled. My misery was acute, knowing that at least I could choose with the others, tears burning the back of my eyelids in frustration.
“I am Druid as well.”
CHAPTER 2
Zach had left with a satisfied smirk on his face. The bomb dropped, he left me to deal with the debris.
I tried to sort through what he'd told me and why it should matter. The bottom line was I was in over my head, at a different place, sti
ll held against my will.
Then there was the problematic attraction thing. It's like no matter where I turned or how I intellectualized the whole shebang, those vamps had it goin' on. Zach was a problem but I could manipulate him. It was Erik that was the wild card. I'd seen the look he'd given me as he left my room.
He'd be back and I'd have to be ready.
I looked around the room, completely different from where I'd been held by Cole's group. It was an old house, the floor boards scarred with a hundred years of use, thick moldings wrapped the lone window and old door, a glass knob winked in the light cast from the window.
Strolling over to the window, I peered out at the yard below that wavered through the old glass like water running over its surface. No fence, I thought. Maybe escape would be easier.
Definitely their numbers were down, I thought with satisfaction, remembering the damage Cole had done to the other rogue. There was no love lost, I shuddered, remembering the one who'd hurt my shoulder. I rotated it tentatively, only a mild twinge proved the injury had ever occurred.
It made me think of Cole. What I'd told him. Guilt assailed me, I had told him I'd stay with him. It didn't matter how circumstances had brought us together. My former life was screwed beyond repair, I'd always be hunted. Better to be with someone that would defend me.
And I did care about him.
I sighed. My eyes caught sight of a pile of clothes on the very top of a free-standing wardrobe against the wall. I approached, watching my reflection as I came nearer, my face pale, purple smudges running underneath the blueness of my eyes. I looked like I'd been set on spin cycle in a washing machine.
Surveying the damage made me ache for a shower. Seeing another door, I reached out, the clothes in one hand and my other touching the solid glass knob. I turned the handle and pushed open the door into a small bathroom.
Maybe a shower would clear my head? Better yet, maybe Cole would somehow find me...? I thought uneasily as I set the clothing next to the claw foot tub positioned underneath a small window. Turning on the tap, I glanced at the water, thinking of Cole, pushing thoughts of Zach uneasily away....
*
Cole
Cole came awake with a bone crusher headache thumping like dull knives stabbing his temple. He laid astride Rachel's bed. It was up on end, he had thrown it against the window as an additional barrier against the dangerous orb of the sun. The bastard rogue had taken her shortly before dawn, it was the best he had managed.
Rage set in immediately. They had Rachel, and that damn coworker of hers, Erik, was a male without honor. He knew that Zach would not harm Rachel. But he would try to bond with her immediately, making it impossible for Cole to be with her, impossible for him to return to his kiss. With Rachel, he would have to share with his brethren. Without her, he would be condemned to a life of servitude for going against vampire law. There was not a single mate for a Druid. It had not always been so. Before their females became sterile, a male could choose who he wanted.
For love.
But no more. Now it was two to three males for one female. And finding a Druid with sufficient blood quantum was difficult. Nay, impossible. Rachel was very rare.
And Zach of the rogue had her.
Cole checked his breathing, forcing himself to breathe evenly. He must feed, then he would find her.
Somehow.
He would contact Nathan. He may have additional intel that would reveal a basic idea of the locale of the rogue.
Cole's eyes flicked to the clock, almost four p.m. But it was his body that told him night was nigh. Like all Vampire, he was finely-tuned to nightfall.
When that invisible switch flipped that told Cole night had fallen like a great obsidian blanket, he slipped out of Rachel's dwelling, snapping open his cell as he did.
He went west, where the car had taken the breeder.
Rachel.
Mine, he thought as he put on a burst of speed, scenting the air for prey.
For blood.
*
Nathan snapped the cell closed, a fine sheen of sweat on his upper lip, his eyes sliding to Alexander's.
“Does he believe you?”
“Why would he not?” Nathan answered.
Alexander walked toward him until their noses almost touched. He struggled against the three that held him, a hiss escaping his mouth.
“How dare you show aggression against me!” Alexander said, clenching his fist and jabbing Nathan in the solar plexus.
It momentarily stole Nathan's breath, but he had seen its advance and tightened up accordingly.
“Hold him, fool. You better have not uttered a code of some kind. I want that Reaper back here by nightfall, apprehended and subdued. He lost us that Druid and I will take it out of his hide.”
Nathan accused, “You just want to breed with her yourself!” his breath coming shallowly from the hit.
Alexander's eyes narrowed. “No single vampire can have a Druid, you know that,” his eyes betrayed his intent, his answer neatly deflecting the question.
“But you will bend the rules for what you want. And it was not Cole that allowed her to escape.”
Alexander grabbed the back of Nathan's head and jerked him forward, his breath like death on him. “Then who was it?”
“I do not know! But it was Cole I came upon in the meadow. It was he who fought the rogue to reclaim her!”
The other vampires that held them shifted uneasily, their gazes lighting first upon Alexander then on Nathan.
“Lies!” Alexander said as his fists rained down upon Nathan, his blood spraying as the signet ring that Alexander wore tore and ripped at his flesh. The ruby in the ring flashed as his fist rose for a final blow and Nathan said in a fierce whisper through the gore in his mouth, “You do not deserve to lead.”
The fist fell like a great meteorite, crashing into his skull and his vision wavered, growing dim, then gray.
Nathan knew no more.
*
Cole kept to the woods, hugging them closely, their shape masking his own. Long ago he had ascribed to the all-black wardrobe, instinctively understanding human's weak sight and all the camouflage that simple decision afforded him. He put himself against the rough bark of a Spruce tree, recounting the strange conversation he had with Nathan but minutes before.
“Nathan?”
“Yes, it is I.”
Cole clutched the cell tighter, his acute hearing picking up on a subtle tension in Nathan's voice. He shifted his weight, thinking.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
Treading carefully.
“The rogue have taken Rachel. They have a dangerous Intimate amongst them. He will have her at the first opportunity. Even now it may be too late.”
“Let us rendezvous.”
“Is Alexander there?”
“Yes.”
“You are going to give me the latest location of the rogue?”
“Yes.”
“He will kill you if he finds you have helped me, Brother.”
“I know.”
Nathan told him the whereabouts of the rogue. Where they suspected the rogue to be. He had also warned him by alerting him to their leader's presence.
Subtly.
Alexander thought to reacquire Cole there. He might even think himself lucky enough to get Rachel back.
For himself. Make no mistake, that bastard Alexander wanted her for himself. She would give him what he was after: a Pureblood Druid.
The prophesy could be true. That a pureblood would be the one to allow vampires to walk during the day.
Daywalkers. A pure vampire and pure Druid mated could mean offspring that would free the Vampire from the night.
Free to live in the sun.
Free.
CHAPTER 3
Zach's eyes bored into mine, his revelation a burning phrase that stood between us. The moment's ticked by as we stared at each other.
Finally I broke the silence, “I know that I
can't hope for the life I had before. My cubicle job with a boss I hated, my friend Michelle... my cat. Gone,” my voice broke on the words.
There was a grief in me for the familiar, the comfortable. It wasn't that my life had been so great before. It's that... it was what I knew. And now, with this stupid Druid blood in my veins, I was a sought-after commodity. That I'd even been comfortable enough with Cole proved that there was something to the biology of it all, whether or not I wanted to accept that reality. It was.
Zach looked at me as we sat facing each other, his hair, maybe red in his human existence, was a burnished copper, so different from Cole.
I watched his jaw tighten on his next words, “We are not without compassion. What do you think the rogue is about? We do not rape, we do not force unions with many,” he said as he rolled his massive shoulders into a shrug. “But, we are not beyond the manipulation of our genetics for the betterment of all Vampire.”
He clenched his eyes closed for a moment, the soot of his eyelashes like black lace against the paleness of his cheekbones. He opened them, momentarily dazzling me with the color of them... a shade of fine Merlot not found in nature.
“What about Erik? How does he fit into the picture? You may not be 'about' the things you just outlined, but he definitely is!” I crossed my arms beneath my breasts and stewed at him.
He smirked. “It is not so easy to procure willing humans. We are vulnerable during the daytime, we must trust who we can.” He looked at me thoughtfully then said, “You are familiar with the phrase 'keep your friends close but your enemies closer'?” When I nodded he continued, “That is the caliber of what we choose. They long only for the superficial that we can provide, never caring for anything of real value. Erik,” he said the name with some distaste, she noticed, “is but a tool. A tool in our acquisitions. It is the same for Cole's kiss.” There was just the barest trace of sadness and I wondered at it. The origin of it a speculation constantly turning in my mind.