Worth Dying For

by Luxie Ryder

  Amber held it up and looked at it in confusion. “How much are you expecting me to buy?”

  “Get canned food and any personal items you might need. Enough for a few days.”

  “A few days? Bane, I can’t—”

  “You’ve got five minutes. Don’t make me come looking for you. You know I will catch you and you may just get the clerk killed in the process.” His words were intentionally harsh. He had no need to hurt the skinny youth he could see slumped over the checkout, but Amber didn’t know that. Her heart picked up a faster rhythm and Bane saw the guilty flush on her cheeks. She got out of the car, her back stiff, and slammed the door for good measure.

  He got out too a few minutes later as she made her way back over to the car. Bane took the bag and the money from her and pulled her towards the darkness at the edge of the road before the shop clerk had a chance to turn around. He’d already removed an overnight bag, stuffed with the few clothes he had grabbed in her apartment, from the vehicle.

  Amber pulled free. “What about the car?”

  “We can’t take it any further. The police will be looking for it—and you—by now.”

  “How much further is it?”

  “A few miles.”

  “I don’t know if I can walk too far. My head is throbbing and my legs feel like they’re made of lead.”

  “Then it’s just as well that I intend to carry you.” She began to shake her head and back away from him. “Do we have to go through this every time? It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not. Can you stop fighting me over everything for a damned minute?”

  He put a hand out towards her, grunting in thanks as she took it without further protest. Bane swung her across his back and moved off slowly, giving her a chance to get used to the movement and take a strong grip on his shoulders. For the first half mile, she held on by her fingertips, holding her body away from his. That was until he intentionally stumbled on an imaginary rock, and she gave a squeak and threw her arms around his neck.

  They had only run a little further down the road before he heard the quiet sobs she had been trying to swallow. Why wouldn’t she cry? Her world had been turned upside down, her life put in danger and her free will taken away. And it was entirely his fault.

  Bane put his head down and ran faster, determined to get her to the relative safety of his home before dawn. Dumping her car had been essential. The police were not his only concern or the only people tracking her. For those who relied on all of their senses to hunt down their quarry, her scent trail would end back there.

  But by the time they reached the marina five minutes later, her mood had altered. Her racing heart and light, shallow breathing told him she’d begun to find the experience exhilarating. Amber still wriggled to get free as soon as he stopped running. He supported her weight as she slid to the ground, aware that her legs would be weak from clinging to his waist.

  “Thanks,” she said, pushing at the hand that held her steady but Bane kept gentle hold of her.

  The moonlight played across the flush on her cheeks and caught the excitement in her eyes. She had enjoyed the ride. Grateful that her sadness had consumed his thoughts on the journey and kept his mind from concentrating on the way her body had felt wrapped around his, Bane dropped her arm and stalked towards the water.

  Within seconds, he’d crept up onto the deck of one of the yachts dry docked in the wharf and stolen its dinghy. Beckoning Amber, he tossed it off the edge of the boardwalk and helped her in. Handing her the bags after emptying his pockets into one of them, he dove into the water beside the small vessel.

  “Where are we going, and what are you doing?” she whispered, panic making her voice shrill when he surfaced and threw the clothing he had removed into the dinghy with her.

  Bane ignored the first part of her question. She’d figure it out soon enough. It seemed only good manners to explain his nakedness though. “It’s easier to swim this way.”

  “Swim? Aren’t you going to row?”

  Bane slipped the tow rope over a shoulder and across his chest then paddled away from the dock. “Trust me, this will be quicker.”

  He heard her gasp and felt her weight fall towards the back of the boat as he took the first full stroke and cleaved through the calm, velvet blue waves.

  Amber’s mind had stopped automatically rejecting every new thing it was being forced to deal with.

  Travelling at speed across the gulf in a small inflatable boat—propelled only by the power of a superhuman being—was insane enough. She laughed, then cried, then laughed again as she watched his huge arms powering through the water, the moonlight glistening along his wet skin the only reason she could see him at all. The motion forced her to relax and the gentle sway of the dinghy as it glided almost silently across the ocean lulled her to sleep.

  Bane apologised when he woke her up and, despite her protests, refused to let her walk. The terrain they encountered minutes later would have been impassable even in daylight and she found herself admitting that he’d been right to insist on carrying her on his back again.

  A fog had rolled over the hillsides, smothering the ground. It swirled around Bane’s feet and rolled up towards her, evaporating against the heat of her legs and leaving small drops of water instead to soak into her clothing. The trees around them frightened her, seeming like dark, hulking shadows waiting to attack. Amber closed her eyes and clung on tighter. Every night she’d ever spent on this island had terrified her.

  The mist cleared higher up the mountain, disappearing altogether by the time they reached a dense patch of trees covering the entrance to a cave. The foliage rendered the opening invisible from only a few feet away. Bane carried her to the lip and she clutched at him in fear. The mouth of the cave looked dark and bottomless and Amber tensed as he walked towards the edge without hesitation.

  “You’re safe,” he said, as if sensing how afraid the idea of going in there with him made her. “You’ll like it inside. I promise.”

  He stepped off into the void. She screamed and clutched at his shoulders, squeezing her eyes tight shut. A gentle bouncy feeling told her they had landed seconds before he put her down in the darkness.

  Amber suddenly knew what it would feel like to be deaf, blind and vulnerable as she waited in the pitch black. An overhead light came on without warning, causing her to scream again. Bane stepped away from her, a frown on his face as he rubbed his ear.

  “I’ve got really sensitive hearing,” he said when he caught her looking at him. “If you can help it, try not to scream in here. The sound is intensified and it’s agony for me.”

  So, he had a weakness. Amber couldn’t help but relish the fact. She stored the information away for future use, empowered by the knowledge. Bane’s quiet laughter drew her attention back to him.

  “I said it was agony, not that I couldn’t tolerate it, so you can forget whatever you are thinking behind those pretty green eyes of yours.”

  The urge to hit him almost overwhelmed her. Smug…arrogant…domineering. The words raced through her head and she bit her lip against the desire to scream them at him for as long and as loud as she could. Let him be the victim for a change. Let him wish someone gave a damn about how he felt. But he walked away, forcing her to forget the pathetic mutiny she was planning and follow him through a narrow corridor into the living area.

  “Wow. Where’s Ursula Andress?” she muttered under her breath, smothering a laugh when what looked like a secret, underground lair from a James Bond movie came into view.

  The centre of the cave rose cathedral like above the modern, sparsely furnished living area. A couple of leather sofas lined the walls and an entertainment centre with a large flat screen TV dominated another. The opposite side of the room had been turned into an enormous storage space filled with thousands of books. Amber estimated it had to be twenty feet tall by almost as wide, with shelves carved out of the rock face.

  “Sit down.” He didn’t wait for her reply and gave her a ge
ntle shove.

  “This is crazy.”

  “What did you expect?”

  “I don’t know. Bearskin rugs and a log cabin, I guess.”

  Bane snorted. “Like some kind of savage, I suppose?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” Why did she care if he was offended? “I had no idea what to expect. It could just as easily have been some high tech, top secret lab.”

  “Is that what you think—that you and David got caught up in some kind of government experiment?”

  His mocking smile snapped the last of her patience. “Don’t you dare fucking laugh at me!”

  Her voice bounced around the cave’s interior and she remembered that as deafening as it was to her, it must be agony for him. Good. Fuck him.

  “Over the last couple of days I’ve escaped near death, had a friend murdered and seen things I can’t possibly explain, all the while being told that the weird shit happening to me is for my own safety.”

  “As I explained—”

  “What have you ‘explained’ exactly? You’ve done nothing but scare the crap out of me and talk in riddles.”

  He sighed as if being forced to deal with a petulant child. “Do you really have to swear? I’m sure an intelligent woman can express herself without using such profanity.”

  Amber jumped to her feet, any sense of self preservation lost as her anger boiled over.

  “Profanity? I’ll give you profanity, you…you…fucking bastard.” She closed her eyes as she screamed the last word, drawing it out as long and loud as she could, trying to vocalise her frustration, fear and resentment. Her throat burned as her breath ran out and the sound dwindled to a long, painful rasp that ended with a sob. She slumped down onto her knees, silent tears replacing her fury.

  Amber fought the arms that closed around her, upset again that she couldn’t stop him doing anything he wanted. She couldn’t even refuse to be comforted. But Bane wasn’t trying to comfort her. He picked her up and strode through another hole in the cave’s interior, to a room she hadn’t noticed yet.

  The space he took her into had nothing in it besides the biggest bed she had ever seen. Judging by the size of the man who had to sleep in it, Amber wasn’t that surprised. Bane placed her on top of it and stepped away, as if trying not to scare her further.

  “I need answers,” she whispered up at him.

  Bane stared down at her, a kind expression in his eyes, and Amber felt a familiar, deliciously heavy sensation wash over her. “No! Stop doing that to me. I don’t want to sleep.”

  “Just for a little while,” he said, his voice wrapping around her like warm velvet, and she knew she had lost the battle. “Rest now, Amber.”

  When she woke later, she didn’t know whether she’d slept for hours or minutes. Bane stood exactly where he had been when her eyes had closed against her will.

  “What time is it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s almost dawn.”

  “How long did I sleep?”

  “A few hours.”

  He walked from the room, returning with some fruit and a bottle of water. “Here, you need to eat something.”

  Her stomach gurgled, embarrassing her, and she didn’t even bother to argue with him about whether she was hungry or not. Amber devoured the apple then started on the banana almost without drawing breath, before she noticed he was staring. She cleared her mouth with a sip of water and turned to him.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “What”?

  “Stare at me while I eat. And while we’re at it, stop making me sleep when I don’t want to.” For some reason, his smile didn’t irritate her as much as it should. “How do you do that anyway?”

  “I don’t know. I just can.” He turned to gaze at the floor, leaving the answer hanging and letting Amber make what she wanted of it. Maybe now was the right time for more questions?

  “So, why am I here and what exactly did David see that he shouldn’t have?”

  Bane looked her square in the face. “The answer to both of those questions is me.” He raised his hand to silence her. “I am going to explain fully but first, do you need to…tend to yourself?”

  Her cheeks burned and she wondered if she’d given the game away by squirming. The urge to pee was almost painful but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember seeing a bathroom anywhere. Amber nodded, pretending to look for a place to put the banana skin rather than at him.

  He walked from the room, beckoning that she should follow. Bane took her back out towards the entrance to the cave but instead of grabbing her and leaping up through it as she expected him to, he simply pointed to a dark corner. Sunshine filtered into the cavern at ground level, illuminating the top third of the cave and casting enough light for her to see a small gap in the rock. As she got closer, the sound of running water reached her ears and she poked her head through the hole to find a small, underground stream.

  “You expect me to do it in there?” she said, pointing towards the water.

  “We can go outside if you’d prefer,” he offered.

  Amber spun around to see if he was being a smart ass again. She caught her breath as he stepped close enough for the filtered morning light to illuminate his face. Bane’s eyes no longer seemed merely black. They took on the glow of the cave walls turned gold by reflected sunlight.

  She knew she’d been staring at him for way too long when he raised an eyebrow, as if exasperated that she hadn’t answered his question. Amber shook her head, chasing away the unexpected thought her captor was beautiful. The cave darkened, maybe only from a passing cloud, but the spell was broken all the same and a shiver raced down her spine. Amber felt as if the ghosts of all those he had killed had come to warn her not to trust him.

  “No, that’s okay. I’ll cope.” She stepped through the hole, turning back when he said her name.

  “You might need these,” he said, handing her a bag. Inside she found toilet paper, a wash cloth and some soap.

  “Where did you get this? I didn’t think to buy this kind of thing.”

  “I checked through the stuff you bought while you were sleeping and realised how little you had. I went back over to the mainland and picked up a few things you had forgotten.”

  “You swam back again?”

  He nodded. “I had to get rid of the boat anyway.”

  Amber slumped. He would never let her go. “So I’m trapped here?”

  “You can leave whenever you want to, but first you need to fully understand what you will be going back to.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Bane walked away. “Come find me when you’ve finished in here.”

  So, he trusted her not to run away now? Amber laughed when she looked up at the only means of escape, way above her head. Trust didn’t even come into it.

  She bathed quickly in the icy cold water after relieving herself downstream. The frigid water woke her up and her brain started firing on all cylinders.

  She needed answers.

  Chapter Seven

  “Vampire?”

  Bane wasn’t sure which of the emotions he could see passing across Amber’s face would win the battle for supremacy. A small, nervous laugh burst from her and she slapped her hand over her mouth like a naughty child. Her smothered giggles didn’t stop, even as she moved away from him on the large sofa they shared without seeming to notice she was doing it. Her body instinctively acknowledged the threat he posed to her well-being even if her brain hadn’t yet.

  Her infectious laughter made him want to smile but he fought the urge. He knew she would begin to weigh what he had said and soon she wouldn’t be quite so amused. Bane waited.

  “So you’re dead?”

  Her question struck him as a very strange place to start the conversation but it was as good as any.

  “From a medical standpoint, yes.”

  Bane watched for the first flicker of fear in her eyes, but Amber didn’t react—except to bite her lip as if chewing over what he ha
d said.

  “But you’re not cold.”

  “I don’t generate my own body heat anymore but I’m not always cold. Air temperature affects my skin the same way it does yours.”

  “No heartbeat?” Bane didn’t have to reply. Amber sought her own answer by picking his hand up from his lap and pressing her fingers to the place his pulse should be. Her brows drew together in furious concentration, as if trying to prove him wrong. A full minute passed before she looked at him and dropped his arm, her experiment over.

  “Fuck.”

  Bane didn’t wince at her language this time. Her heart rate accelerated and he could hear her breathing getting thin and shallow. Her eyes stayed focused on his and he watched as her naturally inquisitive expression gave way to something more basic and primal. Amber was scared.

  He could almost see her mind working through all the things she had witnessed him do. His unnatural strength, speed and size were not easily explained and he knew once she put these things together with what he had said, she would be in no doubt that he had spoken the truth.

  “Do you have fangs?” She curled her nose as she whispered the words, embarrassed by them.

  “When I need them, yes.”

  Her gaze darted to his lips while her hand moved of its own volition and fluttered to her neck, as if wanting to protect it. Bane suppressed a groan when he felt the venom flood his mouth and his groin harden. His dark nature stirred, rising from the shadows that loomed inside him. Her fear only enticed the vampire in him all the more.

  “You’re in no danger. Well, not from me anyway.” Bane hoped he could at least reassure her, if not himself. Her life could be over before she would ever realise he hadn’t kept his promise.

  “Oh I feel really safe now. You’ve dragged me out here against my will, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies for some reason you refuse to explain, and now you tell me I am alone with a vampire.”

  “I don’t…I mean, I no longer hunt humans.”

  “Don’t you need blood to survive?”