A moan escaped my throat as his hands caressed the skin on my thighs and waist. Any scratches he touched numbed at the warmth of his touch and I dug my nails into his back in an attempt to pull him closer. My senses were on overload as he surrounded me and I wanted him more than anything. I wanted to forget about the soldiers and what they had done, I trusted him, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me intentionally.
I was consumed by desire rather than actually thinking rationally when I reached down between us to try and push down his jogging bottoms. Thankfully though, it turned out that Lucian had some slither of him that wasn’t an asshole because he pulled my hands away before pinning them down on the bed. Rather than say anything about it he just continued to kiss me hungrily as if branding his taste on my lips forever.
It didn’t take long for memories not so distant in my past to resurface with him holding down my hands. I liked being beneath him like this, but thoughts of what might be coming at that camp plagued my mind. There was no doubt in my mind that I would once again be restrained and it certainly wouldn’t be as gentle as Lucian was doing it.
My lips slowly stopped responding to Lucian’s, he noticed immediately and pulled back with a frown. He probably thought that I was pulling away again and refusing to accept my feelings, but then a tear escaped the corner of my eye and ran down my cheek. His eyes softened and he kissed my cheek where my scar was before kissing my tear away. He seemed so tender and caring when he was like this that I could almost believe that he had real feelings for me too, but I knew he just wanted me for a one night stand, which made it a little confusing that he had stopped me tonight.
The illusion of someone actually caring that much for me only made more tears fall because I knew it would never happen, I was too broken. I should have held on to my emotions like I usually did, but I felt so vulnerable and safe in his arms that the dam just broke without any kind of permission from me. Part of me wanted him to just go and leave me to it, but the bigger part of me wanted him to stay and hold me, which was exactly what he did do.
He moved up to the headboard and sat with his back against it before pulling me into his arms. I pressed my face into his bare chest and cried, not the girly little sniffles either. It was full on body shaking sobs, that reaction after the thought of what may happen at the camp alone made me wonder if I really was strong enough to go through it again. I really doubted my strength that night, but I knew I would go through hell to make sure that, that little girl didn’t experience any of that shit.
Lucian ran his fingers through my blonde hair and down my back silently, I was thankful that he didn’t lie to me by telling me everything would be alright because he knew as well as I did that if I was going in there the chances of everything being ok were extremely low.
When I finally stopped crying my eyes were heavy and I felt exhausted, but before I could fall asleep Lucian moved and slid his hand into his pocket before pulling it back out.
“Whatareyoudoing?” I grumbled out, too tired to even do such a simple task as separate words in my speech.
He chuckled before saying. “Give me a few minutes and then I’ll let you sleep.”
I grunted in response and looked at his fisted hand that he had removed from his pocket, clearly he was holding something.
Instead of opening his had he said. “It’s a necklace, it was my Mum’s and I want you to have it.”
I frowned. “Why would you want me to have it?”
He smirked. “I can’t exactly wear it and she loved you like a daughter, so I think it’s only right you should have it. Besides, it matches your eyes better than mine.”
I shook my head. “I can’t take something that was your Mum’s, you should keep it and like give it to your daughter or something.”
He smiled and grabbed my hand, held it palm up and pressed his fisted hand over mine before dropping the necklace into my hand. “It’s yours Mckenzie.”
I looked down at my hand to find a silver star shaped pendant with a blue sapphire stone in the centre, which was the exact shade of blue as my eyes. It wasn’t very big and despite the simple design it was really quite beautiful.
“I can’t take this.” I tried one last time.
He sighed before picking it up out of my hand by its silver chain and fastening it around my neck leaving no more room for argument. I couldn’t help the shivers that ran through my body as his fingers stroked the back of my neck gently when he lifted my hair out of the necklace chain.
“So how did you get this, because you weren’t at the house when it happened?” I asked to distract myself from his touch.
“I went back to the house as soon as I could, when I reached it you were already gone. I knew she loved this necklace and I wanted to take something of hers just in case I never saw her again.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.” I murmured as I hesitantly leant my head against his chest unsure if I would still be welcome to now that I stopped crying.
“It’s not up to you to save everyone Tink, but I really wish someone had been there to save you.” He whispered as he wrapped his arms around me and held me close.
“Me too.” I admitted around a yawn.
I felt him kiss my forehead before he murmured against it. “Get some sleep Blondie.”
As if my body was programmed to do exactly what he said I felt myself falling asleep as soon as the words left his mouth. That night I fell asleep in Lucian’s arms and I had never fallen asleep feeling so safe since the apocalypse. I knew that nothing would get me in my sleep with him there to protect me.
Chapter 13
We were both woken up at the same time by the knock at my door. Our limbs were tangled with each others and I was half draped over Lucian’s still bare chest. Despite the strange position we were in it was really comfortable and I didn’t want to move.
“Get the door.” Lucian grumbled, his mouth against my ear when there was another knock.
“You get it.” I muttered against his neck.
“It’s your door.” He grunted.
The door knocked again and I groaned.
“Idiot.” I mumbled before hitting him in the chest and reluctantly getting up.
He chuckled and rolled over onto his stomach when I had disentangled myself from him and climbed off the bed. I rubbed my eyes as I stumbled across the room and pulled the door open to find Danielle standing there.
“Hi.” I said slightly surprised to see her at my door.
“Hello Dear, sorry did I wake you?”
“No, it’s fine.” I mumbled around a yawn.
She raised her eyebrows so I added.
“Well, yeah you did, but it’s ok.”
“Ok, well I’ll get straight to the point then. Me and some of the other girls were talking and we wandered if you would teach us to fight. I mean the men are learning, but we need to know how to defend ourselves too.”
I smiled at her, glad that they were willing to take a part in it. “Of course I’ll teach you, have everyone who wants to learn in the lobby in an hour, I’ll be there soon.”
She hesitated before adding. “We aren’t going to fight the zombies yet right? I mean most of us have never even picked up a weapon.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry Dani, no zombies yet.”
She relaxed and nodded. “Ok, I’ll have the girls there. I’ll see you soon.” She grinned then before raising her voice and adding. “Bye Lucian.”
“Bye Dani!” He shouted back his voice sounding muffled as if his mouth was against a pillow.
My mouth hung open as she walked away. How the hell had she known that he was in here? She always seemed to know too much about the situation with me and Lucian. I closed the door before turning back to find Lucian still on his stomach breathing steadily with his face shoved into a pillow. Shaking my head at the fact that Lucian Adams was in my bed I walked over to the wardrobe, grabbed jogging bottoms and a vest top and headed into the bathroom. I didn’t bother with a shower since it h
adn’t really been that long since I had, had one when it was almost morning and it was now early afternoon.
The scratches weren’t as sore today, my bruises only hurt when I touched them, my hand felt mostly better and the cut on my stomach seemed to be healing quickly despite the itchyness so I was in much better shape than I had been yesterday. After exchanging my t-shirt for the clothes I had retrieved from the wardrobe I walked back into the bedroom while tying my hair up.
“Leaving so soon Tinkerbell?” Lucian asked, he was now sitting up in the bed.
I smirked and pulled my boots on. “Some of the girls want to learn to fight. Are you coming? Some of your fighting skills could do with improvement Adams.”
“My fighting skills are just fine Mckenzie.”
I grinned and continued to tease him as I walked past the bed. “Whatever makes you feel better.”
Before I had a chance to dodge him he hooked an arm around my waist and yanked me towards him.
“Hey!” I shouted, but it came out more like a squeal.
Quicker than I thought possible I was beneath him and he was running his lips across my neck. My previously even breathing turned into pants as he nibbled and licked my neck and jaw.
“I have to get downstairs.” I gasped out.
His mouth moved up to capture my lips before he whispered against them.
“You said an hour, I’d say that gives us a few minutes.”
Knowing he was right I slid my tongue into his mouth and kissed him like my life depended on it. His hands explored my body through my clothes and my hands explored his bare back.
It felt like only seconds had passed, but it was at least ten minutes when he finally pulled back and stared down into my eyes with his almost black ones. We were both breathing heavily and neither one of us seemed willing to look away first. He gave me another deep kiss before finally moving his body from mine leaving me feeling cold without his weight pressing down on me.
“Be careful Blondie, if you need me then yell, I’ll be there this time.” He said gently tugging on my ponytail before I stood up and straightened it out, then strapped my weapons on.
I chuckled. “We are training in the lobby without zombies, I don’t think I’ll be in that much danger Adams.”
He shrugged and smirked at me. “You never know, women can get a little crazy, sometimes I think I’d rather face the zombies.”
I snorted and walked towards the doorway mumbling. “Yeah, well have fun kissing the zombies.”
“I heard that!” He shouted just as I opened the door and stepped out.
“You were meant to!” I yelled back before closing the door behind me and heading to the stairs thinking they could be a good warm up.
I started of jogging on the spot for a few minutes at the top of the stairs before I ran down them with ease.
When I reached the lobby a few minutes later it was to find a group of women in the centre with Dani, but they weren't the only people there, it seemed that everyone else was going to stand around to watch the training session.
Dani beamed when she saw me coming and walked over to me quickly. “Sorry about the audience, but everyone wanted to watch. I got Gordon to bring us some training swords since it probably wouldn’t be cleaver for us to use real ones yet.”
I smiled at her. “Good thinking.” When I reached the group of people I addressed all of them. “Ok, if you’re here just for a bit of fun then drop out now. I’ll work you hard and I won’t take excuses, it might sound mean, but if you really want to fight these things then it has to be done. You will start fighting zombies at some point and if you don’t think you can do that fine, but don’t mess me around now.”
They all looked at each other and I noticed that Elizabeth was standing on the sidelines rather than fighting.
“Are any of you leaving?” I pressed.
When no one walked away I looked towards the pile of wooden training swords before nodding at them and saying.
“Everyone pick up a sword and partner up.”
When there were groups of twos spread around the lobby I shouted.
“One of you is going to be the attacker and one is going to defend, decide which is which.” When they had sorted that out I added. “Attackers, I want you to try as hard as you can to touch your partners with your swords. Defenders, don’t let your partners touch you. Everyone understand?”
They all nodded and faced each other as if they meant business before I shouted. “Go!”
At that stage I was thinking that this whole teaching thing was a piece of cake, but of course I was wrong. There were more disagreements than I thought possible, some would claim their partner was cheating. How could they possibly cheat by hitting them with a sword? Others would complain that their arms were aching after a few swings to which I asked them if they thought zombies would care about their aching limbs. They shut up about their arms after that and continued to fight, at first their moves were clumsy and a lot of them would over swing their swords causing them to overbalance. As I had suspected though the longer they were at it the less mistakes they made. Some would have thought it would be better to teach them the moves, but having taught myself how to fight I decided it would be better to let them make their own mistakes and figure it out for themselves, it was all part of the learning process.
They were all getting tired, but I insisted they keep going, working hard was the only way you could master this stuff. All of them probably hated me by now, but they would get over it when they realised how much they had improved. The onlookers wandered off every now and then, but there were always a few people watching at least. Lucian came to watch a few times, but never for longer than a few minutes. Every time he left he gave me a wink before disappearing again to do who knew what.
Finally unable to hold it anymore without my bladder bursting I excused myself to use the toilet asking Gordon to keep an eye on them for a few minutes. I was washing my hands when I heard a bang followed by a scream and a yell. With a groan I finished off and strolled back into the lobby thinking that there had just been another argument, but I was proved wrong by the sight of ten soldiers charging through the door. They had somehow shoved it open before the guards could do anything and now two soldiers were holding girls by their throats with daggers pressed against them. How had they managed to get through the door?
Who I assumed to be the leader of the group shouted out. “If anyone moves these girls die.”
Everyone who had been trying to find the exit stopped immediately and all stared towards the soldiers in fear. When he seemed sure that he had everyone’s attention he continued.
“We have information that a Taylor Mckenzie is located here. Hand her over and no one needs to be harmed.”
Before anyone could say anything Jack answered. “We have no one by that name.”
“Our sources are very reliable, you will hand her over.”
“I guess you should take another look at your sources.” Gordon added.
“If you can’t hand her over, these women are coming with us.” He said nodding towards the girls being held hostage.
I groaned before marching towards them and growling out. “If you want to make it out of here alive you’ll let them go now.”
Everyone turned their attention towards me and the soldier yelled out. “Aha, you do have her!”
“Congratulations buddy, now let the girls go.” I said walking right up to him. He was a lot taller than me, but he was pissing me off.
He looked down at me and laughed. “Why would I do that?”
Quicker than he could realise that I wasn’t someone to be messed with I kicked him in the stomach catapulting him away from me and straight into the wall before unsheathing my sword and pressing it against his throat.
“Because if you don’t, you’ll be leaving this place in at least two pieces.” I hissed.
He swallowed and stared down at me as if to assess if I was serious. It seemed that he knew what the death stare I was
giving him meant because he said to his men. “Let the girls go.”
The minute the girls were released and they scurried away I pulled my sword away from his throat and put it away before taking a few steps back.
“What do you want with me?” I asked.
He swallowed again eyeing up all of my weapons. “We have orders to take you back with us.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Is that right?”
He nodded. “Yeah and if we can’t get you to come with us we are to burn this place down.”
“Is that right? Well, wouldn’t it be just tragic if you were all killed before you got the chance to do that?”
He snorted. “You can’t take on ten of us little girl.”
I smirked. “I can shoot at least five of you with this bow in under two minutes, I have four daggers, all can hit a target in under a minute and you’re standing right here in front of me. I can have your head removed before the daggers even hit their targets.”
He gulped. “Ok, we won’t burn the place down, but you need to come with us.”
“And where would I want to go with you?” I hissed.
“She is not going anywhere with you!” Lucian’s voice boomed around the lobby before I felt him grab the back of my waistband and tug me backwards until my back hit his chest.
“She is coming to the trading camp with us.” The solider growled seeming frustrated that the task of getting me there was becoming so difficult.
The words “trading camp” snapped me out of the need to not go with them though, it was a way in to get to Cora without being under suspicion.
“If she doesn’t come of her own free will we will have to take more drastic measures.” He added.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Ok, fine I’ll come, but you have to swear that no one here will be harmed.”
“You what?” Lucian growled in my ear low enough for me to be the only one that could hear.
Demon Hotel (Zombie Apocalypse Series, Book 1) Page 16