Too bad they didn’t kill each other.
Crystal glanced back out the window, intending to check out the driver of the convertible. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Me too.”
Crystal strode toward the door, figuring Lila watched everything she did. The woman wanted in good with Dimitri and Nicolai, and would undoubtedly report her movements back to them.
Crystal was dying to find out what the man in the convertible wanted too. Did he think she was some blonde bimbo who didn’t see him following her? Or was he trying to unnerve her?
Fighting the urge to check him out in front of Lila, she returned instead to her car. Lila would report the driver of the white convertible back to the vampires anyway. They wouldn’t be happy he trailed her like he did, unless he was under their guidance to do so. If not, let them take care of one of their own.
As she suspected, the car followed her back to her office. Now he knew where she worked and lived, at least for the next night or two.
She parked and jumped out of her car, intent on having a word with him. He sped on past, his tinted windows hiding him from view. Did they keep the sunlight from reaching him? Jeez, maybe he was a vampire.
Taking a deep breath, she attempted to quell the irritation rising in her blood. She needed a different vehicle; then she’d turn the tables on him.
She opened the note from Nicolai and read it as she walked into her office building. “My lovely Crystal, my brother and I had words last night for his having lured you to his party. He assures me he only wished to see if you were good enough for me. But I know him better than that. If he asks you to see him again, don’t. However, I wish to invite you to my home. I will come for you shortly after sunset tomorrow. Forever yours, Nicolai.”
She crumpled the note and tossed it in her circular file by her office desk. The next time she saw Nicolai, she had every intention of using the element of surprise.
After work that evening, she left her office to pull staff duty at the headquarters. Sitting at her post, a long wooden table and two chairs, she began her long night vigil. A night person she wasn’t, and while the redheaded sergeant who worked with her slept on a nearby couch, she tapped her pen on the table trying to stay awake.
For two more hours, she sat, yawning, staring into the darkness, waiting for the night to end. Twice she thought she saw human shadows moving around in the blackness outside. The lights from the building gave off an eerie glow as a fog settled in.
Another call came in, checking to see if all staff duty officers remained on call at their posts. Unfortunately, yes. She answered when her turn arrived, then shut off the radio.
She thought she heard scratching at the back door. Hallucination? Vivid imagination? A chill trickled down her spine. Turning, she looked in the direction where a hallway led to the metal door. Beyond this lay the headquarters parking lot, where her own car waited for her to end her tour of duty.
Taking a deep breath, she rose from her chair. She touched her wrists where the cuffs of her fatigues rested. Now she wished she had her wrist knives. No one but the military police were allowed weapons while on post. Getting caught wearing a huntress’s blade would have been the end of her job.
She walked toward the exit down the long hallway. The gray door grew closer, looming bigger as she drew near it. She imagined the worst. Nicolai or Dimitri waiting to pull her into the dark as soon as she opened the door.
She blinked her eyes, weary from keeping them open against their will. Swallowing hard, she leaned against the wall for a moment. She listened for any further sounds, like scratching...a vampire’s fingernails pressing hard against the metal, dragging up and down.
She shuddered. The lack of sleep was making her go mad.
Except for the rubber soles of her boots swishing on the indoor/outdoor carpet as she inched toward the door, she heard no other sound.
Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, she touched the ice-cold handle.
She twisted it, her nerves raw with deadly expectation. The door squeaked open, shattering the quiet. Her eyes attempted to adjust to the dim illumination of the parking lot’s security lights trying to poke through the thick blanket of mist. The cool, dampness forced a shiver down her spine.
She stood up straighter, not to be intimidated by the nameless disquiet that plagued her. She closed the door tight, and strode back to the staff duty table, guardedly relieved to find nothing amiss.
An hour later, the phone rang and she jumped in her seat. “Ma’am,” an officer said, “Bravo Company must be in the field by zero-five-hundred hours.”
She referred the information to the units that would alert their men and women to grab their gear and head to the field.
Then the back door opened with a squeak. She rose from her chair, trying to calm the dread tightening her stomach into knots. It had to be someone from the headquarters staff. No one else would dare enter the building at such an ungodly hour. No one...who was uninvited.
Footsteps hurried down the hall toward her.
Crystal held onto the back of her chair, again, wishing she had a weapon.
Suddenly, Lila entered the room still wearing the orange shirt and skirt uniform she wore at the fast food restaurant. She crossed the floor to join Crystal, a smile stretching across her face.
Before Crystal could utter a word, Lila said, “Here you are. Nicolai has been waiting for you to return to the hotel all night. I’ve been searching all over post for you, as many others have, then I saw your car in the parking lot out back.”
Crystal’s heart rate increased, furious that the vampire could so easily get his people onto the post without security preventing it. But one look into the vampires’ eyes and the humans were helpless. Lila, on the other hand, worked on post, so would have access anytime she wanted by virtue of her car’s security sticker.
But only those on the headquarters staff had a key to the headquarters. Even Crystal didn’t have one. “How did you get in?”
Lila smiled. “Nicolai convinced the commander’s secretary to give him a key. You know...he can be very persuasive.”
“You can’t be in here, Lila. Nobody is allowed in the headquarters after closing except for the division headquarters staff.” Crystal stretched out her hand. “Give me the key.”
Lila grinned and shook her head. “Nicolai has it.” She turned and walked back down the hallway. Crystal hesitated. Nicolai couldn’t unlock the door and walk in. But damn, Lila could invite him in.
Before Crystal could dash after her, a cold blast of air blew in through the back door and with it, Nicolai’s spicy scent. Her blood chilled.
He stepped into the hall, tall, dark, and dangerously handsome. A smile stretched across his face, softening his square jaw. His dark eyes sparkled with sexuality, their intensity drawing her in.
He had no mind control powers over her and yet his desire for her intrigued her. Nobody had ever lusted for her like he did. A traitorous warmth spread through her body.
“You blush easily, my love. That’s a sign you’re pleased to see me.” He changed topics abruptly before she could contradict him. “I wondered where you were. As soon as Lila located you, I had to come.” He must have been monitoring Lila’s thoughts as she searched for Crystal. He glanced at the sleeping sergeant. “He gets to sleep and you don’t?”
“That’s the way it works around here.”
“But you’ll get off from work tomorrow.”
She shook her head, frantically trying to think of a way to get the vampire out of the headquarters. She had no way to kill him, or protect herself, or the sergeant even, if Nicolai chose to turn on him.
Nicolai chuckled, deep throated and seductively. “Then if you have to work tomorrow, by evening you’ll be exhausted.”
What was that supposed to mean?
He glanced at Lila. She nodded and left the building. Turning back to Crystal, he smiled again. “And he’ll work tomorrow?”
“The sergean
t gets the next day off. It’s not fair, but that’s the way they play the game here. Officers don’t need sleep, they figure.”
He stepped closer. “You need sleep, my love. Your lids are half closed. You can barely stay awake.”
“You can’t use your mind control on me, Nicolai.”
“I don’t need to. You can barely stand.”
She hated when he was right. Folding her arms, she wrinkled her brow. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want.” He touched her cheek, his fingers warm and smooth. “And you’re going to give it to me.”
The notion he was so sure of himself...that she’d give in to him that easily. She slapped his hand away as her cheeks heated with anger.
He glanced down at her naked neck exposed, her hair tucked neatly into a bun above her collar. Tonight she wore her fatigue uniform, no turtleneck.
“You take a bite and you’ll die.”
He grinned at her. “It would almost be worth it.”
A couple of buttons were left undone on his black silk shirt. Her gaze shifted to his skin, white as a swan’s wing, and as smooth as the material in his shirt. A trickle of black hair trailed down his chest, and disappeared beneath his shirt.
“It’s been a while since you saw me last. What, three weeks? Don’t you remember how I look?” He leaned down to kiss her cheek. She pushed him back. He chuckled. “Did you get my invitation?”
“I’ll have to decline. Sorry.”
Nicolai walked over to the sergeant. “He would be so easy to take.”
“Don’t, Nicolai!” She ran in between the vampire and the sergeant. Despite having no weapons on her, she’d fight Nicolai tooth and nail if need be to protect the unwitting sergeant.
Nicolai reached for her shoulders. With lightening reaction, she shoved him away from her. This time he grabbed her arms and slammed her against the wall, his body pinned hard against hers. She gasped. So much stronger than the vampires she normally encountered, he took her breath away.
His aromatic scent overwhelmed her. She stopped her struggles, enjoying the feel of his hard body against hers, the spicy smell of his skin, and the sound of his rapid breathing next to her ear as he worked up an appetite. If he hadn’t been a bloodsucker, and a real man instead...
“Your strength is what makes you so much fun to have. Humans no longer interest me. Too easy to control. But you...” He grinned at her. “I will have you, Crystal. All of you.” He kissed her neck. His warm breath washed over her. The sickening realization he’d fed recently came to mind. If he could, he’d bite her, like the countless others he’d bitten and enslave her to his desires.
His breath came heavy as he whispered, “You’re strong, but not as strong as me. I enjoy you wriggling against me – I prefer having the advantage, don’t you know?”
She squirmed against his oppression, which made his lips turn up measurably. Her actions only encouraged him further, but she couldn’t remain passive under his control.
He licked her neck, his breath rate increasing. His body pressed hers harder. A deep throaty moan escaped his lips while his eyes darkened with desire. The bloodlust rose in his system at an alarming rate.
If she couldn’t distract him, they’d both be dead. Suddenly, his lethal fangs extended, and her heart fluttered with panic. No matter how she squirmed, she couldn’t get free. His eyes closed and his teeth touched her skin, sending a new surge of panic through her system.
“Nicolai!” she exclaimed, attempting to get his attention.
He only gripped her tighter, the bloodlust controlling every bit of his mind and his body, hurtling them toward a precipice of darkness forever.
Chapter 3
Robert studied the one-story, brick building, housing the 1st Cavalry Division’s headquarters offices as he sat in his car. He’d watched Captain Crystal Anderson arrive earlier in the evening, and wondered if she’d consort with Dimitri while she served as staff duty officer. But when Dimitri’s brother, Nicolai, turned up instead, Robert couldn’t understand it. When a vampire targeted a female host, he’d want her exclusively, particularly if he was an ancient vampire. Stronger, and more set in their ways, they got what they wanted.
So why Crystal was at Dimitri’s house one night, and seeing Nicolai the next, confused the issue. She was a bundle of contradictions.
He squirmed in his seat, not wanting to feel anything for the woman who held his thoughts hostage night and day. She’d bewitched him at the onset with that one brief encounter. And since then, he’d been drawn to her like the tide’s strong pull, desiring something he had no business wanting. Existing as a human host, she was a creature to despise, not crave. He gripped his steering wheel tightly, trying to squash the treacherous feelings rising in his blood. She was some kind of a temptress, like he’d never before encountered.
His thoughts turned to when she’d been at the Mexican restaurant earlier. An obvious host passed a note to Crystal. A note that stated Nicolai would meet her while she was on duty perhaps? But why would he give her a message like that? He only had to telepathically transfer the information, the order, rather, to her once she was a host of his.
Robert rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned. These late night excursions in search of Yorovitch, and then duty all day, were taking its toll on him. After he’d located Crystal’s car at the headquarters, he’d slipped off to a world of dreams twice. He had to watch her, get close to her, find out from this woman who was undoubtedly not yet turned, not yet a vampire, where Yorovitch was. He assumed she’d know, as cozy as she seemed to be with Nicolai and Dimitri.
But once he’d seen the woman from the restaurant enter the building and then Nicolai shortly thereafter, he’d had to fight the urge to sneak inside and see what they were up to.
The female host had quickly left the building the way she came, but as far as he knew, Nicolai was still inside with Crystal. And what of the sergeant who served as Staff Duty NCO? Asleep, probably.
Robert’s thoughts drifted to his dark-haired sister, only twenty-five. His sister had been in the prime of life, soon to be married. How could his family’s world be turned upside down so swiftly? He’d vowed revenge despite his family’s concerns. He couldn’t squelch the guilt he still felt...not that he could have stopped her, or saved her, but he wished he could have done something. Even now her dark brown eyes penetrated the gloom, beseeching him to give up his quest. But he wouldn’t.
He didn’t have long before his brothers would fetch him and return him home to Oklahoma. He had to get Yorovitch before that happened. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. No matter what the cost.
* * *
Nicolai wrenched his face away from Crystal’s neck as he still held her imprisoned against the concrete block wall inside the headquarters. Momentary relief washed over her. What was the matter with her? He couldn’t control her mind and yet she had no will to resist him. No, he was stronger than her and she was powerless in his grasp. The notion both tantalized and concerned her as her body reacted to his touch. He couldn’t feel her nipples tighten through her fatigue shirt and the t-shirt beneath it, but she could. The heat pooled between her legs, her body desiring him, while her mind screamed no! He was more dangerous than any being she’d ever encountered.
He nuzzled his cheek against hers. For a fleeting second, she wanted him to take her. Her body, primed and ready, was winning the battle over her mind. His heartbeat still thumped in his chest at a rapid rate as he leaned against her. His breathing was hard. She assumed he was trying to control his raging bloodlust. And here, she couldn’t even reign in her own emotions.
He still held her wrists locked against the wall, their bodies touching in a lover’s embrace. But the feelings she had for him were unconscionable for a huntress, the desire that he make love to her in a cloaked bed like Dimitri wished to do with her. Her own kind would kill her if they knew.
“Who was the man driving the white convertible that’s been following you, Cryst
al?” he asked. His voice had a rusty, hoarse quality both from the bloodlust and desire he had for her, laced with a tinge of anger.
Taken aback at the question, she shook her head. “I thought he was one of yours, spying on me.”
Nicolai stared at her for a moment, his black eyes piercingly intense. “No. He’s not one of ours. Lila says he appeared at Dimitri’s party.”
She was thoroughly confused. “That’s why I thought he was yours or your brother’s.”
“No.” He sounded concerned, maybe angry.
If the man in the convertible wasn’t a human host, what had he been doing there? He wouldn’t have been a vampire hunter. He hadn’t stayed long enough to slay anyone. Besides, he walked straight out through the front door before the killing began. Plus she knew all of the hunters in the surrounding area. A new threat seemed to exist for her. She was bound and determined to find out who he was, and what he wanted with her.
Nicolai took a whiff of her fragrance and smiled. He licked her neck, his tongue warm and soft against her skin. If he’d been human, or a hunter, she’d have loved his attentions, sensual and arousing. But he wasn’t. He was one of the living dead...a bloodsucker. His touching her would only push him over the edge...the bloodlust accelerating until he bit her.
She frowned, trying to squelch the nausea rising in her throat. “You’re working yourself into a feeding frenzy again. If you don’t stop, you’ll lose control. If you bite me--”
“I know. I’ll die.” The notion didn’t seem to bother him as he nuzzled her neck again, his cheek naturally smooth against her skin. Had he no willpower against the attraction he had for her? His teeth extended and touched her neck, then scraped along the skin, not cutting, just touching, the craving to bite her only seconds away from fulfilling the pleasure he sought.
If he alone would die, she wouldn’t have cared, but his biting her could poison her system too...a long, lingering, painful death. She shuddered.
Terry Spear - Vampire Page 4