When his warm breath swept across the back of her neck, she gasped and froze, panic ramming in her chest.
“Wh-what are you doing?” She gripped the apple, her voice barely a whisper.
His arm moved around her waist, holding her still as his other hand swept her hair away from her torn skin.
Ariel quickly pulled her hair down the side of her neck, covering the birthmark that resided right below her hairline on the back of her neck. It was such an odd crescent-moon shape people had always commented when she’d pulled her hair up in a ponytail as a child—and she’d become self-conscious about it.
“I’m closing your wound,” he said in a husky tone right before his warm tongue swept across her exposed flesh.
Chill bumps formed on the surface of her skin and her belly tightened at the strange sensation. Her grip on her hair relaxed and she forgot about being self-conscious when the skittering and fluttering in her stomach grew stronger. The history books never mentioned vampires closing wounds, just causing them.
As if he’d read her thoughts, Jachin said, “My saliva has a healing agent in it. How do you think you recovered from all your other injuries so quickly?”
“I haven’t had time to wonder,” she lied, resisting a shudder at his comment. He must’ve closed her wounds while she’d been unconscious. Heat flushed her cheeks, and she swallowed hard at the thought of all the places he had to have run his tongue across her naked body to heal her. He could’ve bitten her then.
“You must trust me.” His voice sounded almost hypnotic.
“Said Eve to Adam,” she said in an unsteady tone.
“Are you saying I’m in league with the devil?” His tongue ran across her wound once more, this time in a slower, leisurely sweep. Before she could respond, he turned her in his arms so her back leaned across his biceps. “I’m not in league, Ariel, but it’s in your best interest to remember everyone has an agenda.”
His gaze locked with hers and for a second she thought she saw his pupils dilate. How was that possible for her to see? His eyes were as black as his pupils, weren’t they? She blinked, and as if she’d imagined it, the imagery was gone. His stare was as dark as sin once more.
Ariel’s breath caught as he lowered his head to her throat. His clean-shaven cheek brushed hers, silently telling her to give him access to her neck.
Her heart thundered and her pulse raced as she gripped his arm. The man was pure muscle, a murderous killer. She’d never felt more vulnerable in her life. Yet, if it weren’t for him, she probably wouldn’t have survived her biggest fear: being attacked by a vampire. Make that two vampires.
She closed her eyes and held her breath as she tilted her head back and waited in tense silence.
His heat enveloped her while his musky, seductive scent surrounded her. Anticipation curled in her stomach as his warm breath bathed her neck.
She held back a gasp when his tongue slid up her neck. He applied pressure along with another swipe of his tongue and the tension within her changed. Tingling flooded through her, slamming into her sex in aching waves of desire.
Her reaction shocked her, causing her heart rate to jumpstart in excitement. She held herself perfectly still, refusing to acknowledge her swelling breasts or her hard nipples. This wasn’t happening. She didn’t want this.
I don’t want him. He’s a vampire.
His hand slid up her waist until his thumb came to a stop between her breasts. “You must breathe or my efforts will be fruitless, Ariel.”
She released her pent-up breath in a quick gust and then held it again at the sharp desire that coursed through her.
His fingers tightened around her ribs as he ran his tongue along her wound once more. He couldn’t be feeling what she felt—aching, unbidden arousal.
Right now he should feel ill.
“Won’t my blood make you sick?” she asked, hoping to redirect her physical response.
She’d claw his eyes out if she knew what he was thinking. That he wanted to sink his fangs deep and savor her sweet blood. How much he wanted to taste her body, to run his tongue along every single inch of it, even down to that deep red crescent-moon birthmark on the back of her neck.
Ariel’s wit made her an intriguing creature, while her ethereal package of flowing white-blond hair, defined cheekbones and full lips made him ache. He’d never been more turned on in his life. Jachin set his jaw and met her gaze, his grip tight on her waist. “It’s not enough blood to kill me. My goal is to keep you safe.”
She pulled out of his hold and crab-crawled away from him. “So you can deliver me to another vampire named Braeden, right? Who is he? Your leader?”
His jaw hardened at her accusing tone. “Where did you hear that?”
She continued backward until she leaned against the cave’s stone wall opposite him. The apple forgotten on the ground, she pulled her knees against her chest and crossed her arms over them. “From your two vampire buddies who thought I’d make a good gnawing post.” She tilted her head to the side, her eyes slitting in suspicion. “And why would your own kind want you dead?”
Jachin let out a deep sigh, both regretful and thankful the sexual tension between them was broken. He refused to go down the same road that put him in this living hell in the first place. He’d learned a long time ago—a good sexfest wasn’t worth it.
“What did Sethen and Thad tell you?” He contemplated how much to divulge to her about the Sanguinas vampires’ pasts. She was a necessary piece of the puzzle, but she didn’t need to know all the bits that put her there.
“Why does this Braeden want me?” she countered.
He noted the set of her mouth and realized she wasn’t answering his question until she got answers of her own. Stubborn woman. “Braeden is the Sanguinas leader. I told you before. You wrote a book.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Give me a break! I’m not buying the fact that I put pen to paper as the reason I managed to draw the short straw.”
Jachin suppressed a smile. He liked her quick wit. It would serve her well as Braeden’s mate. Braeden might be inflexible at times, but he’d believed in the prophecy as much as Jachin had.
“There’s more to it than that. You fulfill other parts of the prophecy.”
She let out a frustrated breath. “Let’s just say I believe this fairy-tale stuff you’re feeding me. What makes you think I’d do anything to help the bloodthirsty creatures—” her words hitched before she continued “—come back to terrorize my people?”
“Because we’re your people, too,” he shot back in a biting tone. He didn’t give a rat’s ass if he shocked her. She wanted the truth. Let her stew on that one.
Her eyes widened for a couple seconds and then narrowed. “You’re all inhuman.”
“Who do you think created us?” His voice cut across the narrow space between them, harsh and unforgiving.
“You’re lying!” She jumped to her feet, her hands fisted at her sides. “There is nothing in the history books about vampires being created by humans. Nothing!”
“Why would the government admit to genetic tampering on human subjects?” he challenged, his dark eyebrows drawing together. “It was illegal. They broke every code in the book of ethics without batting a lash…all in the name of scientific advances.”
She ran shaky hands through her disheveled hair, disbelief in her expression. “Why would our government create creatures that preyed on their own kind? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“They began the Scions project sixty years ago in an effort to create the ultimate superhuman. With the past biological attack on the paper monetary system, the government might’ve moved to a credit system to appease the general public’s fears of a potential repeat attack, but National Security had been secretly working on the Scions project for decades. They knew that biological warfare had been used repeatedly throughout history for a reason—enemies would see it as the swiftest method with the most devastating results.”
When he s
aw Ariel start to shake her head in denial, he said, “The word scion has two meanings. The first one is descendant. And the second one is a shoot or sprout of a plant used in grafting. The vampires are both in a way, hence the name of the government project.”
As an inkling of understanding dawned in her expression, he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck and continued, “The project’s goal was to create humans who could resist disease. They created us with greater strength, the ability to heal quickly and, as a side benefit, we age much slower.” His gaze locked with hers. “We were bred to be survivors. Our fangs were a surprising genetic anomaly they hadn’t anticipated, but they made sure to give us a weakness, too. Just in case.”
“Vampires’ aversion to sunlight,” she murmured, supplying the answer.
He gave a curt nod. “They were playing God until the very end—and they royally screwed up.”
Ariel sank down to her knees, her shoulders hunched. Something in his tone must’ve told her he spoke the truth. “Why would these superhumans attack their own kind then? Why bite the hand that fed you?”
Jachin smiled, allowing her to see his fangs before he retracted them back to their normal size. “There was a first generation—human turned vampire due to genetic alteration. The offspring were pure vampire. We were physically stronger than the first generation and we developed at a rapid pace until we reached adulthood, where we aged like our parents—much slower than humans. We were a new, developing race.”
The optimism in his voice disappeared and his expression hardened. “Not only did the scientists breed us to survive, they bred us to do so no matter the cost. Their tests were cruel and vindictive. They treated us like creatures without souls. We had no life but the one they designed us for, even for those who wanted something more.”
His tone turned flat. “But someone high up decided to shut the project down, which meant get rid of all the evidence. A revolt was an inevitable outcome. The vampires eliminated all the scientists running the program and destroyed the facility, too.”
Ariel shook her head in disbelief. “That doesn’t explain why the program subjects attacked innocent humans once the facility was destroyed.”
“At first, it was just revenge against all humanity, plain and simple. Then, over time, things started to change. Many vampires wanted a life…or at least one as similar to humans’ as possible.” His gut knotted at the memory of the infighting that went on between the vampires, the splintering of ranks with varied views. “Many had begun to move forward, to back off from the severe violence against humans, when suddenly dozens of our kind got very sick and began to die.”
“Pity for you,” she smirked, her gaze unsympathetic. “According to history, when humans realized their blood was poisoning the vampires, they thought it was nature’s way of taking care of the problem…kind of a defensive evolution.”
Jachin knew different, but he refused to debate the subject. Ariel didn’t need the whole sordid past. She thought they were monsters already. There was no need to fuel the fire of her prejudice.
His tone went cold. “I told you this so you would understand that there is another side of the story.”
“Do you think your explanation justifies what the vampires have done to—” She set her lips in a firm line, crossed her arms and sat down against the wall once more. “Think again.”
Ariel had paused in what she was going to say. Did her vehement prejudice spring from something personal? The need to know drove him. “Then why write about such ‘horrific beasts,’ Ariel? Why give us our own history, create characters with life issues that humans might actually identify and sympathize with?”
She gave an indifferent shrug. “It’s fiction. If I wrote about you the way you really were, no one would want to read the book.”
It was a logical answer, but his instincts told him that was just a surface response. “You’re not telling me everything.”
They stared across the cave, each challenging the other with slitted, distrustful gazes.
“When you decide to tell me the truth about your book, we’ll talk more. Now get some rest. We’ll head out as soon as it’s dark.” He pulled the gun from its holster and set it on the ground next to him, then straightened his legs and crossed his ankles. Opening his backpack, he withdrew the silver case and retrieved another vial of lukin.
Ariel scowled at the vampire. He never did tell her why his own kind were trying to kill him. Her intuition told her Jachin had relayed the truth about the vampires’ past, but she meant what she’d said—the past didn’t excuse their brutal treatment of the human population for ten years.
Nor would she ever forget the vampires’ role in the devastation of her family.
Did he really think she’d let him take her to his leader to fulfill some prophecy she’d made up in a book? Sheesh, the man seemed smarter than that. So what if he’d finished her lines while she’d recited the prophecy? Maybe she’d mumbled them while she’d slept at his house.
As angry as she was with him, she couldn’t help her curiosity as she watched him open a chamber on the side of his gun and insert the vial. Apparently he wasn’t a drug addict. “What does the lukin do when added to your pulser gun?”
He closed the chamber on the gun and glanced at her. “It creates a concentrated dose of UV light.”
“That’s the catalyst you mentioned.” Smart vampire. If only the government-sanctioned vampire hunters known as the Garotters had had that weapon to use against vampires a few decades ago, she might not ever have had to learn what it felt like to be so alone, always looking over her shoulder…wondering when she was going to be attacked.
Fury knotted her stomach over a past she couldn’t change. She needed space, not to mention her cramping stomach made the need to urinate that much stronger.
When she stood up, his gaze followed. “Where are you going?”
Ariel rolled her eyes. “To pee, if you don’t mind.”
He jerked his head toward the back of the cave. “Go back there and relieve yourself.”
She curled her lip in disdain. “I’m not going in the same place I have to stay. Forget it!”
He set the gun down next to him. Folding his muscular arms over his chest, he leaned against the stone wall and closed his eyes. “Then don’t go. It’s your choice.”
Jachin heard Ariel sit down with an exasperated huff. He needed sleep to help his wounds heal. The additional loss of blood from the wreck didn’t help his lack-of-food situation. He knew he could go a couple more days without blood as long as he didn’t sustain any more wounds. But soon he’d need to eat or his strength would diminish—not an option when facing Sanguinas like Vlad and Aaron and any other vampire out there hunting them. They wouldn’t give up their pursuit of Ariel.
The Sanguinas might be weaker than him, due to his steady diet of sterilized human blood, but they sure as hell outnumbered him. When he was cast out from the clan a decade ago, the Sanguinas’ population stood at one hundred and twenty-five strong. How many were there now?
Ariel squirmed around as if she really had to go. Jachin took deep breaths and focused on her. You’re tired. Sleep now. When you awake you can relieve yourself.
Through a hooded gaze he watched her eyes begin to droop. When she jerked her head up to try to keep herself awake, he pushed on her consciousness harder. Sleep, Ariel. She finally yawned, then stretched out on her side, closing her eyes. Satisfaction rippled through him.
He stared at her fey face for several minutes, unable to look away. She was definitely attractive…for a human. Her willful personality made it easy for him to forget she was only thirty or so. He might look and feel as though he was in his mid thirties, but Jachin was a good twenty-five years older.
A long time ago he’d made it a personal policy never to take blood from humans so much younger than him. He knew Mira had been a driving factor. Her youthful blue eyes, normally full of wonder and excitement, had stared at him with deep sadness when he left the Sangui
nas. Her well-being had weighed heavily on his conscience these past ten years.
Yet now, even with his hunger at bay, he stared at Ariel like a man starved. It disturbed him how much he ached to feel the texture of her blood on his tongue and her warm, soft body underneath him while she moaned in ecstasy.
He dug his shoulders against the rocks’ rough texture behind him, needing the pinch of pain to clear his head. He stared at her with narrowed eyes, reminding himself of his long-established disdain of her kind.
Humans should never be trusted.
Jachin closed his eyes and sought a healing sleep.
Ariel came fully awake with the need to urinate. The sensation was so strong her stomach cramped. She cast her gaze in Jachin’s direction, relieved to hear his breathing deep and even in sleep, and crept out of the cave.
Once she’d relieved herself behind some bushes on the side of the road, she cast her gaze to the sinking sun and tried to decipher the time, since the river had ruined her watch. Her best guess was that she had about an hour of sunlight left, maybe less. That wouldn’t be enough time to get back to Manhattan, but she should be able to make it to a smaller town along the way if she could find the car.
Her adrenaline pumped as she walked around the outside of the cave, looking for the vehicle Sethen had told Thad to hide. When she spied the car’s deep blue finish shining through some foliage, her heart raced in relief. She quickly pulled the tree limbs back to uncover the car, while she hoped and prayed the keys were still in the ignition.
Tossing the branches aside, her hands shook as she pulled open the driver’s-side door. When she didn’t see the keys in the ignition, disappointment rushed through her, making her stomach knot.
“Too bad hot-wiring a car wasn’t part of Home Economics 101,” she mumbled as she sat down in the driver’s seat and opened the glove compartment.
No keys.
Saying a silent prayer, she flipped down the visor and jerked in surprise when a set of keys landed in her lap with a quick jingle. Hope swelled, overcoming her tense stomach.
Scions: Resurrection Page 6