Terry Spear - Vampire

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Terry Spear - Vampire Page 18

by Killing The Bloodlust (Triskelion) (lit)


  “You’re not safe with me. Kissing me in front of him was the wrong thing to do.”

  Robert’s smile broadened. “He thinks he’s claimed you...but only a hunter can truly have you. We’ll deal with him later. Enjoy your sundae before it melts.”

  “Then you’ll join me in bed?”

  He glanced back at the window. Worry etched across his wrinkled brow. “Yeah.”

  She assumed he didn’t trust her to attempt to see Nicolai again if he left the room.

  “I’ll tell my brothers we’re going to watch a movie.”

  “And then you have to chase my nightmares away.”

  He chuckled, tickling her. “I’m not giving them any excuses. I’m staying with you the night, and that’s that.”

  “I love it when a man resolves to do what I wanted him to do in the first place.”

  He laughed.

  After Crystal finished her ice cream, Robert hesitated to take the bowl back to the kitchen.

  “I promise, I won’t leave the bed again.”

  He leaned over, and kissed her cheek. “I just don’t want you passing out and causing yourself further injury.”

  “Yes, Robert.”

  “I’ll be right back. Need anything else?”

  “Just a movie.”

  “Right.” He turned on the television then handed her the controller. “I’ll be just a moment. I’ll let my brothers know what’s up.”

  She glanced down at his trousers.

  He grinned at her and yanked one of her curls dangling over her shoulder. “Doesn’t take a mind reader to know what thoughts are going on in that pretty head of yours.”

  He rose from the bed, then exited the room.

  Before he returned, Tom knocked on the doorframe.

  “Yes?”

  Tom ran his fingers through the graying hairs at his temples. “Robert said you were looking for someone to chase your nightmares away.”

  “Yes. Robert finally reluctantly agreed to take the job.” She smoothed the comforter over her lap.

  “He says you mentioned Mark, but he couldn’t handle you.”

  She smiled. “Well that was only when Robert seemed hesitant to help me out.”

  Tom leaned against the doorframe and stuck his hands in his pockets. “He said you mentioned me.”

  “Well, Samuel too, but Robert insisted that wouldn’t work either.”

  Tom’s face brightened. “And then there’s me.”

  “Yes, well Robert agreed--”

  Robert slapped his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her. I’ll take over from here.”

  She frowned at Robert. “You had Tom serve as security?”

  “Only so you wouldn’t climb out of bed without one of us helping you.”

  “If you find she’s too much to handle, let me know, and I’ll take over for you.” Tom winked at Crystal. Her face instantly warmed.

  When he left the room, Robert stripped down to navy blue silk boxers. “When I mentioned I was staying in here the night with you, my brothers weren’t much surprised.”

  Crystal smiled, then closed her eyes. “Well, unfortunately, I think the medicine, injury or something has suddenly made me tired.”

  He climbed under the covers, then pulled her close. “Too tired to watch the movie?”

  She nestled her head against his silky skin. “Watch whatever you’d like. It covers up the sound of Nicolai’s scratching. I just wanted to hear the sound of your heart beating, smell that delectable woodsy scent of yours, and feel your hard body beneath mine.”

  “You talk much more like that, and it’ll get much harder.”

  She chuckled.

  After leaning down, he kissed the top of her head. His hand stroked her back. The sensation warmed her through and through. She sighed deeply and snuggled with him more.

  “We’re not sure you’ll be completely healed by tomorrow, Crystal. My brothers talked about searching for Nicolai’s house again, but we can’t leave you home alone and we don’t want to split up our forces.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “You might not be able to use your arm yet. I can’t allow you to be injured further.”

  “I’ll stay in the vehicle. Then I won’t be far away and if you need my help, you can just whistle.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t whistle.”

  “Never? Comes in handy if you own a dog.”

  His arm tightened around her waist. “Hmm, that’s an idea. I could get you a guard dog.”

  She yawned. “Or lots of garlic.”

  His hand stroked her hip, the silky shirt sliding with the motion. “The lasagna was loaded with it.”

  “Hmmm, that’s what made it soooo good.”

  She shifted her leg over his. He reached over and ran his hand over her bare skin. “Hmmm, honey, you shouldn’t be so mean to me. Getting me all worked up, but you’re too injured to do anything about it.”

  Her laugh deepened.

  * * *

  About ten the next morning, Crystal opened her eyes and found Robert gone. She sat up quickly, relieved her senses had returned to normal. No dizziness, no spiraling head like a washing machine in the middle of its spin cycle. She climbed out of bed, still careful not to use her right arm. The ache had disappeared, but only if she didn’t move it.

  She gritted her teeth and tried to move her injured arm slightly back and forth. Happily, the excruciating pain had gone. Only a soreness and stiffness remained. Another reason to be grateful for being a huntress and not a human.

  With the right motivation, she figured she could wield the sword again this morning. She headed for the bathroom, a shower, and a totally fresh outlook on life. Time to put an end to Nicolai’s stalking.

  When she had dressed in a black spandex shirt and a fresh pair of black jeans, she headed out of the room. The house remained surprisingly quiet. The men couldn’t be asleep still. And where was Robert?

  She stepped into the living room. Not a sign of anyone. And no indication that the brothers had made the room their bedroom for the night either.

  She strode to the kitchen. Not a dirty dish, not a speck of mess anywhere. If Robert and his brothers had left her behind, she’d...she’d...

  Her head pounded with the tension building up there.

  With her left hand, she yanked the door open to the garage. The white convertible sat in the garage.

  She hurried to the front window. Jerking the curtains open, she saw Tom’s SUV had vanished. They had left without her. Now she was really pissed.

  She paced across the floor, her arms folded. She rubbed her tender shoulder for a moment, then headed for the umbrella rack. There, her favorite new weapon sat. The loaded cane. She grabbed it, then headed for the garage. Keys. She didn’t have his car keys. Damn.

  Pausing, she stared into the kitchen. He’d have a spare. But where would he keep it? She stepped into the kitchen and yanked the drawers open. No keys.

  She dashed back into the office. Searching through his desk and file cabinet revealed no sign of them.

  After returning to his bedroom, she yanked at the drawers to the bedside tables. In one, she found a set of keys. The label attached to the brass key ring indicated they were the spare set to his car.

  A slight smile crept across her face, though her cheeks had to be blistering red and her stomach broiled in anger that they’d left her behind.

  She rushed through the house and retrieved the cane before she entered the garage.

  When she pulled the car out of the garage, she noticed a small black car parked curbside halfway down the block. Her skin instantly crawled with anxiety. And yet, she couldn’t tell if anyone sat in the car, its windows were so darkly tinted.

  The vehicle’s headlights turned on as its engine switched on with a roar. She hesitated. The car drove past Robert’s house at a crawl. Was the driver a human host? Did the host want her to follow him like Kostya had the first time? Or was the driver just a harmless visitor
to the neighborhood?

  She backed down the driveway, then turned in the direction of the black car. He paused down the street, the brake lights reflecting off the black asphalt. He waited for her.

  As she grew closer, he drove off.

  She pulled the convertible to a dead stop.

  For weeks she’d had to deal with the vampires on her own. So what was so different now?

  She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. The black car pulled to the curb again and parked. Which vampire’s lair did he intend to take her to? Nicolai’s? Had to be. And what would she find waiting for her there until he woke?

  Yet, a twinge of guilt tugged at her heart. She owed it to Robert to let him know where she’d gone. Just like he’d let her know. Yep. She slipped her foot from the brake to the gas pedal.

  As she drew nearer the black car, he pulled out again. Just like Kostya, he ensured he didn’t lose her on the back roads. They ended up on the main artery shooting down from Dallas to San Antonio and then headed north. Where in the world was he taking her?

  He slowed at an off ramp. Tulenberg. She followed the car down the main street, then into a warehouse district. Not a home this time? Nicolai couldn’t be sleeping in a crate.

  The black car pulled up to a warehouse door cut into the redbrick building. It rolled open, and he drove in. She parked the car across the street. No way was she taking her car inside there. She wanted a fast getaway should she need one.

  She chewed on her lip. For a moment she wished Robert and his brothers accompanied her. But then again, they didn’t want her to be with them. Alone was the only way she could ever work. She only hoped none of the hosts were armed this time. She really hated injuring them. They couldn’t help that they could so easily be controlled by the bloodsuckers.

  She pushed the car door open, then reached back inside and grasped the cane. With a deep breath, she shut the door and darted across the empty street.

  The brick building filled a block square. High above, black paint covered a row of windows.

  She walked up the gray sidewalk toward the building. The adrenaline racing through her body readied her to face her next challenge. When she reached the open doorway, she peered inside.

  Crates reached fifteen feet high forming a maze of wooden walls. She counted twenty male hosts watching her from scattered positions in the building. Even with her superior strength, an overwhelming number of male hosts could still overpower her. If she could see as many as twenty, how many more hid behind the wood-slatted walls?

  “I came to see Nicolai.” Her voice demanded with authority as her heart beat rapidly in her chest.

  One of the men motioned toward a makeshift hall.

  This was a mistake.

  She backed out of the doorway, her cane ready to do battle.

  Doors slammed to a vehicle parked curbside across the street, one, two, three, and four. Running footsteps approaching her made her whip around to face the new threat.

  Seeing Robert and his brothers dashing toward her, filled her with a wash of relief. Robert grabbed her arm, to her annoyance, and pushed her toward the car. “Wait for us in the vehicle, or return to my house.”

  Without another word, he and his brothers darted into the building before the hosts could shut the warehouse door. Crystal followed behind them and when the men fought the onslaught of hosts, she dashed down the hallway she’d been directed toward initially.

  The blood pounded in her ears as she crept down the narrow passage, crates stacked ten feet high. Her boots kicked up packing straw scattered on the cement floor when she headed first right, then left, then straight ahead.

  The hallway suddenly dead-ended.

  “Now!” a male shouted.

  Looking up, she saw five hosts spreading a fishing net ten feet above her head. Before she could avoid it, two hosts blocked her exit from the passage.

  She pulled out the sword and slashed at the web of hemp mesh covering her.

  “Grab her!”

  “Not the way she’s swinging that sword.”

  She sliced through a section and freed herself, then pointed the sword at the two men. “Back out of here and I won’t hurt you.”

  When they didn’t move, she sheathed the sword in the cane, then swung it at the older of the hosts nearest her. She struck his shoulder with such force, he cried out, and dropped to his knees.

  “Where’s Nicolai?”

  “He’s not here. He’s never to be disturbed during the day...ever.”

  “He disturbs my sleep. I’ll disturb his back.” She swung the cane back and forth and the younger man backed down the hall. “Whose lair is this?”

  “No one’s here right now. We were to bring you here, then take you to see Nicolai afterwards.”

  “Once I was unable to harm him. Is he that afraid of me?”

  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go to him, before he loses patience with you.”

  “Take me to him, now.”

  “I can’t.”

  She poked the cane at his chest. “Why not?”

  “None of us know where he sleeps, except for those who are with him.”

  “So call those who are with him and tell him you’ve caught me. Then ask where you’re to take me.”

  “The vampires can read my mind. If one told Nicolai you were caught, and he discovered you weren’t, I’d be a dead man.”

  “Living as a human host...you already are.”

  The sound of a vampire screaming in its death throes made her raise her brows at the man. “No vampires are sleeping here?”

  She poked at him again, encouraging him to move faster. He turned and ran. She dashed after him, finally exiting the makeshift hall.

  Robert and his brothers had resorted to killing the human hosts, through no choice of their own. Two vampires lay dead. Were there more? Two hosts headed for her as soon as they caught sight of her. She ran for the outer wall and the wooden ladder that would allow her to climb up the crates...and give her access to the blackened windows.

  But as soon as she climbed four feet off the cement floor, a host yanked at the ladder trying to unbalance her. She jumped to a crate, then began the climb to the next.

  “Get her!” Panic laced the man’s words and spurred her on. They assumed she’d let the sunlight into the building, meaning, more vampires slept in the warehouse.

  By the time she reached the first window, three hosts had made it to a crate just below where she stood. She raised her cane to strike the glass pane.

  A flapping sound behind her stilled her heart.

  “Crystal! Behind you!” Robert yelled from the base of the crates.

  Chapter 13

  Crystal twirled ballet-style and swung her cane. The dark-haired male vampire stood behind her on top of the wooden crates, only feet from the blackened windows of the warehouse. Before he could react, the cane struck his shoulder and knocked him into the glass.

  With a crash, he fell through the shattered windowpane outside into the sun-drenched street. His scream ceased abruptly when he turned to ashes. The remains floated to earth like large gray snowflakes.

  She glanced down at the hosts who stood momentarily paralyzed on the crate below her. Then she stormed to the next window and struck it with the cane. The glass crackled and crumbled letting in more sunlight. Her hands shimmered with sprinkles of glass that glittered in the light.

  Another vampire screamed below when Robert struck it once, then twice, the second time cleaving the vampire’s head from his body, momentarily distracting Crystal.

  Two of the hosts scrambled atop the crate she stood on, instantly garnering her attention.

  She struck another window before they reached her. Then she turned to face them. Her boots crunched on glass shards as she spread her feet slightly apart, preparing for their attack. The adrenaline coursed through her blood. Her breath came quickly. She was ready to fight them if they pushed her. Still, she had to try to dissuade them. “Long ways down, b
oys. Back off and I won’t have to hurt you.”

  They ignored her and drew closer.

  She swung her cane and struck the one in the shoulder so hard he screamed out and dove to his face on the top of the wooden crate to avoid being hit again.

  The next bared his teeth at her. The canines only extended slightly. His green eyes glared at her like burning embers ready to devour her in a burst of flame. The vampires had turned him in part. This one was a weak vampire, but if left to feed off more humans, he’d become as powerful as Nicolai some day.

  Could he fly if she knocked him off the crates? Or was he too recently turned? Would he fall to his death instead like any normal human?

  The sunlight from the windows poked inside, but not far enough for her to draw him into it.

  When he lunged at her, she dodged toward the sliver of light. With darkened eyes he considered the rays. Then he shifted his attention to her eyes. It didn’t matter to the vampires that she was a huntress. Their natural instinct was to attempt to will her to do their bidding.

  “If you wish me to step away from the sunlight, I won’t do it,” she cautioned.

  Another host joined the vampire. He bared his baby canines at her too. Were the others turned also?

  She hollered down to Robert, “These hosts have been newly turned.”

  “We know, Crystal. Why do you think we’re killing them?” His breath came in spurts as his sword struck another.

  That’s why Robert and his brothers had been killing the hosts...the men were no longer hosts, but weaker vampires, blood bonded. She pursed her lips.

  “If you’ll go quietly with us, we won’t hurt you,” the blue-eyed vampire said. His eyes bore into hers.

  “Would you take me to see Nicolai now?”

  He turned to the other who nodded.

  “We’ll take you to him.”

  “You can’t. Not until the sun sets. If you were a host, you could take me to his...home now.”

  The blue-eyed vampire’s mouth dropped open. “He’s awake.” The words slipped off his tongue...a mistake, most likely due to his being so newly turned.

 

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