Not Dead Enough: Zombie Paranormal Romance (Project Rebellion: SARA Book 1)

by Mina Carter

  Brett blinked in surprise at the vehemence in Frederick’s voice. After what they’d been through, they all hated Bloods, the Project’s bully-boys, with a vengeance. So he hadn’t expected any of the others to be protective over his sweetpea. Hell, even he didn’t understand this hold she had over him. It was an all-encompassing need to hold her, see to her safety. Claim her. The only thing he’d seen that came close was the way Lycans looked at their soul mates.

  Was that possible with them though…? Could a dead creature have a soul mate? Did they even have souls anymore?

  “She. Is. A. Blood,” Kelwood snapped, the first real fire and animation in his voice since they’d been turned that any of them had seen. “Have you forgotten the ring? What they did to us?”

  Brett caught the shudder of Dom’s shoulders out of the corner of his eye and was abruptly plunged into memory. Sudden and total recall, so clear that he might as well have stepped back in time, was another facet of his new nature. A blessing at times, but at the moment definitely a curse.

  Within an instant, he was back on the Project base, in the underground bunker they kept hidden from the rest of the already top-secret base. The place they disposed of their more wayward creations by making them fight in cages for sport and profit. To the death.

  The Bloods were by far the worst. Sadistic and cruel, they delighted in torturing their opponents. Playing games with them before granting a slow death with their vicious claws. Except SARAs couldn’t die. They just took damage and kept on ticking. They’d been thrown back in to fight time after time. Forced to fight. Forced to kill until they were so beaten down and hungry that instinct took over.

  That was when their nightmare began. When they realized the true horror of what they were.

  Unlike the Project’s other creations, the rest of the base hadn’t been aware of the SARA’s existence, and they’d been taken straight down to the cages. They hadn’t been created as super-soldiers. They weren’t anything as noble as that. They weren’t soldiers and they certainly weren’t the heroes the Project had called them when it wanted them to sign the transfer papers to the base.

  They were something else. They were killing machines. Zombies designed to feast on living flesh.

  “No.” Fredericks didn’t flinch from Kelwood’s hard look. “None of us will ever forget what they did, but killing an innocent woman just because she’s a Blood won’t make it right.”

  The woman in Brett’s arms gave a small moan at Frederick’s words. He wrapped his arms tighter around her and brushed his lips against her temple in reassurance. She murmured and moved closer, as though seeking his strength. His male ego soared. She already trusted him, a little at least.

  His determination increased. He was glad Dom and Fredericks had his back, but the brotherhood granted by their new natures aside, he’d have taken them all on to protect her.

  “Are we clear?” Fredericks demanded, but Kelwood’s gaze had already begun to wander again back to the woman.

  “Jared…. Jared! Eyes on me, man.” Fredericks snapped his fingers in front of Kelwood’s face. “No! Are we clear?”

  Kelwood’s gaze finally latched onto Fredericks and the darkness receded from his eyes. His shoulders slumped, all the fight draining out of him. In front of their eyes he reverted to the broken man mourning the loss of his wife and child. Usually, the living grieved for the dead, not the other way around.

  Fredericks looked over his shoulder at Brett.

  “We good?”

  It took a moment but Brett managed a small nod, then his expression hardened. He looked around, making sure to meet each of his brother’s eyes in turn.

  “We’re good, but know this. She’s mine. And I’ll fight to protect her. Even against any, all, of you. Understand?”

  They didn’t bat an eyelid. Respect flitted over Dom’s face, but Kelwood was out of it again, his eyes unfocused. After a moment Fredericks nodded.

  “Understood. Just make sure she doesn’t wander off, kill any humans, or otherwise jeopardize our mission. And find out if she knows what the Bloods are up to.”

  Brett nodded, turning his precious bundle and urging her toward the back room. “On it, boss.”

  *

  Hard arms around Julia made further resistance impossible. Not human. The words rang in her head over and over. She felt the truth of them in her body, in her limbs and reactions, every time she moved. It was like a drug. One movement swept into another seamlessly, like a finely choreographed dance piece, doling out kicks and punches like a cross between Rocky and Bruce Lee on speed.

  Not human. She grit her teeth, determination flooding her system. She’d use that against them, not caring if she hurt or even killed them. They weren’t human, and neither was she, but one thing was for sure. After Buddy, the asshole vampires and now this? She was so done with being the victim. This time she was going down fighting.

  The first one she’d fought hurtled out of the doorway behind her and she tensed, expecting an attack from behind. Instead, her captor yanked her closer to his body and turned, shielding her in the same movement.

  His scent washed over her and she froze. It was him. The one from her dream-memories. The owner of the t-shirt with the fantastic scent that she’d woken with.

  The fight leeched out of her limbs and she moaned, burying herself as deep into his embrace as she could get. Her thought processes scrambled, all she cared about was getting closer, even ignoring the sound of deep, male voices around her. It sounded like they were arguing, but she didn’t care. He’d found her, and right now nothing else mattered.

  Pressed against him like this, her softer body pressed against the hard, muscled planes of his, the nightmare of the last few days fell away. Regardless of how she’d felt about the one who’d attacked her, the deep, visceral hatred was absent.

  Instead, the darkness inside her that sent a small portion of her brain into hysterics receded and became quiet. As though the very action of his hand moving up and down her back soothingly put the beast to sleep. She moaned in pleasure, content to stay in his arms, but the conversation between the men seemed to be over, and the man holding her moved.

  “Come on, sweetpea. Let’s get you comfortable.”

  She pouted. She was comfortable where she was, thank you very much. He turned her to usher her back through the door, and she got a split-second look at the three others. The one who’d attacked her was at the back, his face turned away, but the others made her breath catch in her throat as hatred surged up again. Her claws punched from the end of her fingers, and there was an ache in her gums as her fangs tried to descend. Ready to fight, ready to defend herself.

  But before she could move, he whisked her through the door and into the smaller room. She stepped away hurriedly, turning to face her companion and study him.

  She swallowed, hard, a thrill running down her spine. He was gorgeous, utterly gorgeous. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had the sort of build that didn’t belong in the centerfold of a glossy magazine, but in that of a serious pro-sports one.

  The fact that he was naked to the waist allowed her to see the hard, lean muscles that rippled as he moved, lifting an arm to run a hand over his close-shaven hair. That brought her attention to his face, and she almost quit breathing altogether.

  Other than his scent, her memories of him were scattered and fragmented. Power. Strength. Gentle touches. A deep voice and a kind pair of eyes so blue that she could drown in them. All that put together in the package in front of her was devastating.

  Heat and need hit hard, almost bringing her to her knees right then and there. She shook her head and backed up. Quickly. It was that, or throw herself at him like some sex-crazed nympho. Where the hell had that come from? She’d never felt such intense, visceral need before. Ever. In fact, Buddy had always complained that she was frigid because she wouldn’t open her legs for him whenever he clicked his fingers. So why did she want to crawl all over this guy and find out what every inch of his skin taste
d like?

  Away from him, her head cleared a little and she could think. Heat of a different kind suffused her cheeks. Holy crap. All he’d needed to do was grab her like some sort of latter-day caveman, and she’d gone all submissive, weak female.

  “Okay. Time out,” she blurted, backing up until her calves hit the overturned couch. “Where am I? Who are you, and which fucking rabbit hole did I fall down?” She lifted her hand and showed him her new claws. “Because the last time I checked, these weren’t on special at the beauty salon.”

  Chapter Seven

  She flashed her little claws at him, and Brett had to bite back a moan. With anger radiating from every line of her delicious curvy body and those claws waving in his face, lust hit him broadside. Male instincts clashed with the deadness in his body, demanding that he get some blood down to his cock, pronto. His heart heard the call and gave a painful lurch all on its own.

  He locked it down and focused on her. She’d asked sensible questions, and despite what she’d been through, didn’t seem to be on the edge of hysteria. Yet, anyway.

  “My name’s Brett.” He nodded toward the couch. “You might want to sit down for the rest though.”

  “Brett. Nice name.” She reached down and upturned the couch, setting it back on its feet in a casual display of strength that made him narrow his eyes.

  Did all Bloods gain control of their new abilities so rapidly? There was none of the Blood-rage he’d heard about on base. All new Bloods were supposed to be subject to an intense, feral need to feed in the first few weeks of their new existence. It was the reason the Blood barracks had been off limits to all but specially-trained personnel. And even they had only dared venture in during daylight hours, when the Bloods were at their most sluggish and lethargic.

  He’d have to ask Dom. Brett had never worked in the Blood section, but the other man had. In fact, the only Blood Brett had seen a lot of was Major Fielding, the female Blood the powers-that-be had often assigned their squad to. She’d turned out to be one of the good guys though, helping a rogue Lycan pack break into the base and help them all escape.

  Trouble was, just as he and the other SARAs weren’t from the same batch as the original Re-animates, the rest of the Bloods weren’t from the same batch as the Major. She was from an older batch, and it seemed the newer one created assholes. Assholes with a habit of kidnapping and turning women, by the looks of it.

  She sat, looking up at him in expectation and he sighed. No putting it off any longer, but how the hell did he explain shit like this?

  “Okay. I’m Brett,” he started, then grimaced. He’d said that already. She’d think he was a complete idiot. He coughed to cover and carried on. “Brett Perkins, and I was a soldier. A year ago I was re-assigned to a base about twelve hours from here.”

  He paused, captured for a moment by the image she presented on the couch. Perched on the edge of the seat, she had her arms loosely folded over her knees. The position pressed her breasts together, and the enticing swell at the neckline of her top made his mouth water. Dragging his gaze up, he focused on her black on black eyes. Blood eyes.

  Better. He could just about concentrate. If he didn’t think about the kiss of those little claws over his dead flesh. His heart flared into life unbidden, his cock hard and thick in an instant. She started, her nostrils flaring as she obviously picked up on his pulse and the scent of arousal that hung heavy in the air. She didn’t look down, thank goodness, but he didn’t miss the little smile that flirted with the edge of her lips. The witch knew the effect she was having on him.

  “Let me guess….” She took up where he left off, prompting him. “Something happened at this base?”

  He nodded. “And then some. The base was Top Secret—”

  A little snort of amusement escaped her. “Why does that not surprise me?”

  He stopped to glare at her. “Okay, who’s telling this story… me or you?”

  She held her hands up, palms out in surrender. “Take it away, handsome. I was just making an observation. Have you ever watched a horror movie? Things always go wrong at Top Secret bases. Well-known fact.”

  He fought back the smile that tried to crawl over his lips. Sass. Even with her world turned upside down and having been bitten by vampires, his sweetpea still had sass. She moved, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face. His vision was so much more acute now since his death, so he caught the fine trembling of her hand. He frowned. Watched her closely.

  The more he did, the more noticeable the tremor in her limbs and the forced element in her smile became. Okay, perhaps she wasn’t doing as well as he’d thought she was. Just as he’d hidden his smile before, now he hid his concern. If she was trying so hard to hold it together, she wouldn’t appreciate him pointing it out.

  “The base is Top Secret for a very good reason. One none of us found out until we actually got on site and realized what the hell was going on. But, by then, it was too late.”

  He sighed and ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. It was a holdover from his days before the army, when he’d had long hair and no worries to care about. But patriotism and the need to have his life actually mean something had reared its ugly head, and look where that had gotten him.

  “Once you’re in the Project, you don’t leave. There are only two ways out. A bullet in the back of the head and an unmarked grave somewhere, or….”

  “You become something else?” Her soft voice finished for him. He snapped his head up to find her watching him steadily.

  She shrugged and smiled, but there was no happiness in the expression.

  “Didn’t take a genius to figure out. Top Secret bases. This….” She motioned to herself, flashing the tip of a partly descended fang for a second. It disappeared as she looked directly at him. “You.”

  He stilled. “Me?”

  “You.” She stood, stalking towards him, and for a moment he wondered who the predator and the prey was here.

  A few minutes ago, he would have said hands down that he was the predator. After all, in the ring, he’d taken down more Bloods than he could remember. In a straight-out fight, he’d bet on a SARA against any number of Bloods. But the way she stalked towards him… he wasn’t sure the playing field was stacked the way he remembered it. She wasn’t reacting like a normal Blood, and that both scared the shit out of him and excited him all at the same time.

  She didn’t stop until she was barely a foot away from him, looking up into his face and studying him. A little line creased her brow, and her lips pursed into a sexy little bow. He bit back a groan, wanting nothing more than to lean down and claim those lips for his own. He managed to hold off and met her gaze. What did she see when she looked at him? A man or a monster?

  “Me.”

  “You already said that.” Her lips curved up at the corners as she lifted on tiptoe to look him in the eye. Not a tall woman, the increase in height made little difference. She wavered a little, putting a hand out for balance.

  He captured it, letting the shiver as they touched race over his skin. Her hand was delicate. Fine bones beneath satin skin that were too fragile for the touch of a monster like him. She bit her lip, white teeth mangling the plump fullness he ached to claim, and his control slipped.

  “Did I?” Her hand under his, he placed it in the center of his chest over the steady beat of his heart. Her gaze flicked down to their joined hands, then up again. Held his. “What about me?”

  “You’re not human. But you’re not what I am. What are you?”

  He leaned down and grazed his lips over hers. The gathering darkness around them added to the feeling of intimacy, and right at that moment, he couldn’t have cared less if they were the only two people left in the world. Her lips were soft, and warmer than he’d thought. A lot warmer.

  She whimpered, the soft sound in the back of her throat so sexy that he wanted to imprint it on his memory forever. She lifted her lips, as though begging for more, and his control shattered. Reaching out with hi
s free hand, he caught her around the waist and yanked her toward him. His lips crashed down over hers. Hard. Hungry. Demanding.

  *

  Oh. My. God.

  The moment his lips covered hers, Julia knew she was lost. Whatever he was, human or not, the guy could kiss. His kisses were hard, but not cruel. Firm lips covered hers, moving over them once… twice, then his tongue swept against the lower one to demand entrance.

  Heat warred with the darkness inside her, and she opened up for him. He growled in approval, the deep sound doing things low down in her body that should have been illegal, and moved closer. He wrapped her up in his embrace, strong arms surrounding her at the same moment his tongue drove deep.

  She slid one hand up around the back of his neck and matched him kiss for kiss. Their tongues dueled in a wet, slick ride of pure sensation as he held her cradled against his chest. She didn’t care what he was, only that he kept kissing her the way that he was.

  The darkness inside her swelled, surging through her veins along with a deep, visceral need the likes of which she’d never felt before. She needed him. Wanted him with a craving so deep it should have frightened her, but it didn’t. It felt right.

  Shifting in his arms, she ran her hands across his shoulders. Solid muscle met her explorations, solid and unyielding, all covered in silky skin that was a little cooler than she expected. His skin warmed as she explored, as though the heat followed her touch. An ache set up in the ends of her fingers and, without warning, the claws hidden there burst free. Before she could yank them away, they caught his skin, and the rich scent of his blood blossomed on the air.

  “Oh my god, I’m sorry!” She tore her lips from his, pulling her hands up into the air to avoid hurting him more. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He shook his head, tipped it back and closed his eyes. When he looked at her again, the tight, near-feral expression on his face sent a thrill through her. Like he wanted to eat her all up. “I liked it. Do it again.”