A Week with a Vampire [Vampire Love and Lust 1] (Siren Publishing Menage and More)

by Dani April

  When she saw herself in the mirror, the shock was so great that she had to run to the toilet bowl and throw up.

  Now the sun was blinding her with the first step she took away from the friendly protection of the castle walls. The blindness wasn’t so bad because after a few seconds of adjustment, water filled her eyes and she could see through her tears. What really was alarming about this foray into the daylight was the burning pain the rays of the sun caused against her delicate white skin. This was not just in her imagination. If she stood out here much longer, her skin would start to blister from the exposure, and she hadn’t even been out here a minute yet.

  Ramos held a protective arm around her shoulder. If it had not been for his support, she knew she would have collapsed on the spot. She had dressed herself for a long trip in boots, jeans, and a short sleeve T-shirt. Now she cursed her decision about the shirt. Her arms were already turning red.

  They stood alone in the silent courtyard and waited. It was all she could do to keep her mind focused on what they were waiting for. If she didn’t get out from under that goddamned sun in a few minutes, she would start screaming in agony.

  “I don’t understand.” Ramos sounded worried. “They should have been here in Ian’s blazer waiting for us.”

  “Where do you think they could be?”

  “I’m not for sure.” His voice was halting. He really didn’t have a clue as to the whereabouts of the other two men.

  “You know, I got to tell you something, Ramos.” She felt the need to speak. She was happy that she was going through this terrible moment with Ramos because he was so easy to speak to. “I’ve never been the type of woman to get into hysterics when things don’t go my way. But right now I feel as scared as I’ve ever been in my life.”

  He hugged her tightly to him. “You’re going to be all right, Rebecca. We’re going to get you into the city tonight. And then tomorrow you will be home. This time tomorrow you’ll already be back in your apartment in San Francisco.”

  “I’m turning into a vampire, Ramos,” she told him simply, a shiver in her voice as she spoke the dreaded words. “Whatever Peter did to me last night is pushing me over the edge. I don’t think I’ll be able to last out here in the sun much longer. Look at my arms.”

  He looked down at her arms. They were already badly sunburned and starting to blister. This was from five minutes of exposure.

  “There’s shade over here.” He led her to a corner of two of the battlement walls and helped her to hide in the shadow, using his body to protect her from the harsh light.

  “What do you think could have happened to Ian and Tex?” she asked him.

  “It is still daylight, so I don’t think anything bad could have happened to them yet.”

  “How much time do we have left before the sun goes down?”

  He looked up into the sky with her. The sun was thankfully still fairly high up, but it was past noon and the fireball was starting to make its way toward the western horizon.

  “We still have a lot of time.” He gave her another reassuring hug. “Don’t worry.”

  She reached up to him and grasped him in her arms to force him to look down at her. “If Peter finds out you tried to take me away from him, he’ll be very angry at you. You’ll be in danger. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to any one of you guys because of me.”

  “No, Rebecca.” He shook his head. “I don’t believe Peter would harm anyone. He is a good man. His deep love for you may have clouded his judgment in these matters, but he is still a good man. I can’t believe that any of us would have to fear him.”

  “I believed he was a good man, too. But I think that belief may end up costing me my life.”

  At that moment Ian and Tex arrived. They did not have the Blazer. They were on foot and letting themselves in through the gate of the courtyard.

  “Bloody vampire!” Ian’s curse echoed off the high walls of the castle.

  “What happened?” Ramos called to them.

  “The battery has been removed from Ian’s Blazer,” Tex told them. “Peter isn’t going to let us escape.”

  “Bloody vampire had this planned all the time!” Ian swore. “I should have seen it coming. No wonder he wasn’t worried about you getting away from him, Beck. He had his bases covered. This is my fault! I had a chance to kill the bastard ten years ago. If I had taken it, then none of this would be happening now.”

  Rebecca reached out to him, but the sun burned her hand and she had to take it back into the shadows. “Don’t blame yourself, Ian,” she told him. “Peter is good at fooling people. He had every one of us fooled.”

  “You all wait here,” Tex said. “I’m heading to the garage to check our other two trucks.”

  “And you know what you’ll find,” Ian mocked him. “The bastard isn’t going to make this easy for us.”

  “All the same, I’m going to give them a quick check.” Tex raced away across the courtyard, heading for the castle’s garage.

  “How much time do we have left?” Rebecca asked the two men standing with her in the shadows.

  Ian looked at his watch and then up at the sun. The orb seemed to be making record progress in its trek toward the western mountain range. Ian frowned beneath his beard.

  “A couple of hours,” he told her. “No more. After that…” He didn’t have to finish because the truth of what would happen after that was obvious and painful.

  After another few minutes had passed, Tex raced back from the side of the castle. The look on his face told Rebecca all she needed to know, and the would-be NASCAR driver was shaking his head in frustration.

  “It ain’t pretty in there,” he announced. “The batteries are gone from both trucks, and the air has been let out of all the tires. Also looks like he poured acid under the hoods. Both our trucks are toast.”

  Rebecca brought up her courage and decided to be brave. If ever there was a time for bravery, this was it. She had come to care about all of these guys in the past week, and though none of them had stimulated her like Peter had done, they were her friends, and Peter had now made himself into her enemy.

  “You guys have done enough for me,” she told them, looking each man in the eye as she spoke. “I won’t let you do anymore. I’m not going to allow you to put your own lives in danger for me. Just go back to your rooms and leave me here for Peter when the sun goes down.”

  All of the men were speaking at once in objection to this request. “Beck, if we were to do that, you’d be waking up a vampire tomorrow night. We’re past the point of playing around. If Peter feeds on you one more time, you’ve had it.”

  “But we can’t do anything to stop that now!” she pleaded with them, tears falling down her cheeks.

  “The hell we can’t!” Ian looked out at the desert floor outside the courtyard. Out there it seemed to be an endless expanse of sand and emptiness leading to nowhere. “Yucca Flat is less than ten miles from here.”

  The wind had picked up and was blowing from out of the west. Off on the horizon the first clouds of the day had started to form. The sun was just about to go behind one of the larger ones.

  “I don’t think I can walk ten miles feeling the way I do,” Rebecca told him. “And even if I could, the sun would burn me to death before I made it the first mile. Don’t you see? I’m trapped here now. It’s impossible for me to leave.”

  “One of you boys run upstairs and bring those blankets down here,” Ian snapped. Ramos quickly went running off to get what was required. “We’re going to cover you from head to toe in those blankets, Beck. And you won’t have to walk because I’m going to carry you.”

  “But I’ll slow you down,” she continued to plead with him. “You’ll never make it ten miles in two hours carrying me through the desert.”

  “Maybe not.” This time is was Tex who answered her. “But, baby, we’re sure as hell going to give it a try.”

  The three of them stared out at the bomb-blasted desert. Rebecca knew there
was no way they would ever pass through that obstacle course before sundown.

  * * * *

  A late afternoon storm was brewing, and thankfully for Rebecca, clouds began to cover the sun. The triple layer of blankets that the guys had her wrapped in did not allow any of her skin to be exposed to what little sunlight remained. At times she peaked out from the top of the blankets and up at the big, sure form of Ian, who was carrying her.

  She drifted in and out of her dreams as the men carried her across the desert. After each dream she would wake up and could not remember what it had been about or how she should feel about it. The rest in Ian’s arms and the comfort of the blankets her three lovers from the past week had brought her were making her feel better. She was still weak and afraid of the sun because of her painful experience earlier, but she was starting to feel hungry, and that had to be a good sign. Vampires could not eat human food, and she was hungry for just about anything now, but definitely not thirsty for blood.

  When she peaked up over the blanket the next time, she thought hours must have passed. The three men were still walking her through the desert. Big raindrops had started to fall from the sky now, and off to the west was a loud rumble of thunder.

  “Come on, boys, keep up the pace!” she heard Ian encouraging the other two.

  “You want me to take her for a while?” Tex asked Ian.

  “Doing fine, mate. If I need help, I’ll give a shout.”

  “We should hurry faster.” Ramos called back to them from the lead position. “It will be dark in a few minutes.”

  “We know,” Tex answered. “We’re keeping track of the time.”

  “Do you see anything up ahead yet?” Ian called up to where Ramos’s voice had sounded.

  “I think I see the highway, but it’s hard to be sure. If it is the highway, we have another three miles or so to go before we reach it.”

  Rebecca caught Ian’s glance. “Be honest with me?” she asked him. “How much time do we have?”

  “Not long now, Beck,” he answered her after a long hesitation. “I’m keeping an eye on the sun. It’s about to drop down behind the ridge line. After that, we’ll only have a few minutes before the dusk becomes vampire friendly.”

  “Are we going to make the highway in time?”

  “Ramos thinks he sees it up ahead.” Ian didn’t sound confident. “All we can do is try.”

  Another crash of thunder sounded. This time it was much closer. The rain began to fall at a faster clip. Rebecca stuck her head all the way out from the protection of the blanket. The wind blew against her face. She felt revived by its refreshing, cool tingle. Then she looked off at the ridge where Ian watched and felt a jolt of fear. He hadn’t been kidding about the sun being ready to drop. It was a glowing orb behind the dark storm clouds. It was halfway covered by the ridgeline. They only had mere minutes.

  “Don’t you worry none, Beck,” Ian told her in his best attempt at bringing her comfort. “If the vampire does make it out here to us, it’ll be the last thing he ever does. I’m going to stake him through the chest the next time I see him.”

  She smiled at Ian’s bravado. “You’re good, tough guy,” she told him. “But no one is as good as Peter. He’d make dinner out of you, and wouldn’t bring you back as a vampire either. I’m the only one he loves here.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, love.”

  She laughed. “Sorry,” she told him. Then she squirmed in his arms. The sun was almost down and couldn’t do her body anymore harm. She just hoped what she was watching wasn’t her last sunset. “I’m not a child or an invalid. I think some of my strength has come back. You can’t keep carrying me. I’m slowing us down. Put me down and let’s see if I can walk.”

  “You sure you can keep up?”

  “I’ve got to if I don’t want to become a bloodsucker for the next thousand years.”

  He carefully deposited her back on her feet. She leaned against his muscles and took a few tentative steps. They were cutting across the desert and not keeping to any known path. The terrain was undulating and would have been difficult to walk over under normal circumstances. However, the rain flying in her face and the cool blast of the wind, as well as the knowledge of the approach of the vampire all served to give her energy.

  “I can manage,” she told him after her first few steps. She let go of Ian and started off on her own. Her legs felt like spaghetti, but they were usable and she hadn’t fallen down yet.

  “Let me help you, baby,” Tex said, running back to take her hand.

  “I’m fine,” she assured him. “We just need to all hurry. Look up there at that sun.”

  What was left of the sun could no longer be seen in the sky. The angry clouds of the approaching storm had completely veiled it. But the bright orange outline under the clouds was evidence of the sun’s progress, and it was just about to go down behind the ridge. In fact, as Rebecca stared at it some more, she realized it already had gone down. The “vampire-friendly dusk” that Ian had spoken of was just moments away.

  The four of them broke out in a half jog across the desert. With every step, the wind seemed to fight with them and tried pushing them back. While the raindrops were wet and cool and not unwelcome, the driving force of the rain was picking up and their clothes were becoming drenched. Rebecca placed one of the blankets around her shoulders, shawl-like for protection. She handed the other two off to Tex and Ramos. Ian was left without. He was bringing up the rear. He kept looking back across the valley floor they had already traversed. He was keeping watch for Peter’s approach.

  Up ahead was a giant bomb crater. Rebecca got another good look at one of these monstrosities from the Cold War. It was a perfect circle on the floor of the desert, several hundred feet across and close to a hundred feet deep. As they approached closer, she got to glance over the side of the rim and a chance to gaze at the blackened charbroiled color of its interior.

  Unfortunately for their little party, this monster was in their way, and they had to move around the rim. This would add another couple of minutes to their trek, minutes they could ill afford to lose. To save time, they ran along as close to the periphery of the edge as they could.

  “Don’t look down if you’re afraid of heights,” Ramos advised.

  “I’m not afraid of heights,” Rebecca answered. “Just radiation…and under the circumstances, we’ve got a whole lot of worse things than that to worry about.”

  Suddenly Ian broke into a run. He had caught up with them. He took Rebecca’s hand up into his own desperately. The look on his face behind the thick beard was as if he had seen a ghost. He started racing forward with Rebecca in tow behind him and yelled for the other two men to follow suit.

  “Hurry lads!” he screamed into the storm at them. “The vampire is awake!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  All four of them ran like hell, as if the devil himself was chasing them. Rebecca was no longer tired or made weak by the vampire blood rape of the night before. All of her survival instincts had kicked into high gear, and she was able to keep pace with the men running at her side.

  The dusk had grown into dark in a hurry as it usually did when a range of mountains were handy to block out the final rays of the sun. With the cloud cover and blowing rain the highway that Ramos thought he had spotted only minutes before was now lost to sight in the distance. But it had to be there. They were headed in the right direction. As soon as they got past this last bomb crater, they shouldn’t have much further to run.

  A new encumbrance of the storm was blowing sand, which, combined with the rain and the dark, served to blind them all as they ran forward. At one point Rebecca almost stumbled. Tex stuck out a ready hand and scooped her back in against his side. Below her was a hundred-foot slide down into the radiated bomb crater.

  Rebecca did her best to push down her fear and kept running with the men.

  All three men were grouped protectively around her as they made their way forward. Tex was to the cra
ter side, Ramos on the opposite side to protect her from the unknown in that direction and Ian fast on her heels only a few feet behind bringing up the rear. If Peter had not been so fabulous and almost god-like, she would have felt completely safe with the company of this band of rough and tumble men who were all devoted to her safety. The problem was, her estimate of Peter. After spending one week at his side, she felt there was nothing he couldn’t do if he put his mind to it. The word impossible was not in Peter von North’s vocabulary. He had set his sights on her, and she knew at this moment there was nothing more Peter wanted in the world than to make her his for eternity.

  No man had ever before told her he loved her, and maybe when it came right down to it, that was what scared her worst of all about Peter. She had always been the smart girl and then later, the workaholic. Men never seemed to fall madly in love with that type. Men could have fun with her without falling for her, and many in her past had. But then of course, Peter was no ordinary man.

  She realized as she ran through the desert storm that it was her high regard of Peter that caused her to fear him so much. She believed in him in a weird sort of way. She believed he could do anything he wanted, and at the moment she knew her chances did not look good.

  An unnatural stir fouled the night in the air just overhead. Rebecca looked up but was quickly blinded by the rain and saw nothing. She thought she saw a black blur fall down into the bomb crater as if some demon from hell was diving back into its home. She realized it wasn’t what she could see but only what she could feel that counted here.

  Peter rose up from out of the depths of the crater. He was floating on the air. The look on his face was that of the carnivore.

  Ian pulled her back behind him and in a sweeping motion shoved her to the wet dirt of the ground under his feet.

  “You dare to intrude on my private business!” Peter’s voice was dripping with anger. His feet touched down on the ground, and he strode with purpose up to the four human beings cowered in front of him.