Deadrise (Book 4): Blood Reckoning

by Brandt, Siara

Cayla might be inexperienced but she instinctively knew the effect she was having on him. The knowledge that Dalin wanted her, in spite of his protests to the contrary, opened the floodgates of her own desire. Her untapped sexual appetite grew like a gathering storm. One that was about to open up on them both.

  She felt his breath light as a feather on the sensitive side of her neck as he leaned closer. Without touching her, his breath warmed the line of her cheek to her chin. She tilted her head back, resting it against the wall, giving him better access. She reveled in the heady sensation of his mouth hovering so close to her. But still he held back for what seemed an eternity. Was he waiting for her to stop him? Was he hoping against all hope that she had more strength of will than he had?

  Something changed. She felt his hand slide down the length of her back, slowly and seductively. His hand caressed the swell of her hip, then lingered possessively at the curve of her waist, while his thumb lightly stroked the sensitive flesh over her ribs.

  “Is this what you wanted?” His voice was warm and husky and it sent arrows of heat shooting straight to her feminine core.

  “Yes,” she breathed so softly that he wasn’t sure she had even spoken.

  “You’re playing with fire, Cayla,” he warned, even as his mouth traced a slow and sensuous trail along her jaw, came close, so very close, to her parted lips. But he didn’t kiss her yet, even though his breath mingled with hers. He took her face between his hands, not ungently. He released a slow breath and shook his head, still fighting this thing between them, but it was his last stand.

  He leaned his forehead against hers. Maybe he thought he could frighten her away when he said, “I don’t think you know how hot I am.”

  “Then you should enlighten me,” she whispered back, rising on her toes and reaching with her mouth to taste him, driving him to the edge of madness when she ran her tongue lightly across his mouth.

  His eyes opened suddenly and he stared down at her in disbelief, his gaze growing more focused now and his breath coming much deeper.

  He angled his dark head, hesitating only a moment longer. His gaze stayed locked with hers. And then there followed a passionate mating of mouths of want and hunger and incredible sweetness.

  Cayla lost herself willingly in the whirlwind of heat and fire that his kiss ignited in her. She was aware of every detail as the kisses went on and on. The feel of her breasts against his chest, the intoxicating taste of him. No one had ever made her feel the things she was feeling now. No one had ever come close. She wanted, no, needed him to erase all the bad things that had happened in the past. And all those things that might happen in the future.

  And there was no holding Dalin back. Not now. His strong arm wrapped tightly about her waist, drawing her against him. As his kisses deepened, the exquisite sensations spread through her like wildfire, grew even more in intensity. She felt his arousal press against her. He wanted her. He couldn’t hide that any longer.

  “Enlightened?” he whispered as he drew back for air. He held her captive with eyes so full of emotion that she felt she might drown in those dark and sultry depths.

  Nothing had prepared her for this. Nothing she had ever imagined could be so thrilling or so consuming.

  “There’s- some protection in one of the bedroom drawers,” Dalin panted, eager now and not bothering to hide it from her. “I saw it earlier. Let’s be smart about this.”

  “Okay, Dalin. But aside from that, don’t think about being smart for the rest of the night.”

  As if they were both caught in the same moonlit spell, passion overtook them. But even the passion was tempered with a sweetness that took them both by surprise. For Dalin, it was a sweetness that he had never known before. It stole deep inside him, changing him, thawing a heart that had been cold for a long, long time.

  They lost themselves and found themselves again among the stars. And discovered something they couldn’t have anticipated. That there were still good things to find in a world that had lost its way.

  Chapter 9

  There was a small group standing inside the fence listening to Beck. “These gates stay locked.” Beck said as he pocketed the only key. “If anyone goes outside without permission, they stay outside. That’s the new rule.”

  “Matthew is still out there,” a man named Preston Timmel spoke up.

  Beck didn’t respond.

  “What about Lathan and Addy?” someone else asked. “And Macayla. They’re still out there, too.”

  “And they’re obviously not coming back,” Beck finally said. “Matthew knew what he was getting himself into. He knew the danger out there, but he went despite my orders.”

  Parisa showed up. She stood in the street and asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Matthew went out earlier and he hasn’t come back yet,” Preston told her.

  “When did he leave?”

  “A long time ago,” Preston replied. “How long ago was it?” Preston directed the question at Beck. “You went with him.”

  “How the hell do I know,” Beck growled under his breath.

  “You mean you left together?” Parisa asked Beck.

  First Macayla. Now Matthew.

  “Why didn’t you come back together? Shouldn’t you have kept track of each other?” Parisa voiced the same question they all had on their minds.

  “I’m worried about Matthew,” one of the men said out loud. “He’s always back before dark. He wouldn’t stay out there alone all night unless something’s wrong. Maybe we should look for- ”

  “No one is going out there tonight,” Beck interrupted him. “It’s too risky.”

  “What the hell is that?” It was Preston who suddenly asked the question as he stared hard past the gate.

  “That’s no hunter,” another man said as he leaned closer to the iron bars.

  “Is it Matthew?” someone else asked, straining his eyes to see into the deepening shadows.

  “No,” Preston answered. “It’s- hell, it’s a woman.”

  “We’ve got to turn her back before she gets to the gate.”

  Everyone turned to stare at Beck who had made the startling statement.

  “Turn her back?” Preston echoed, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “She can’t be allowed inside,” Beck went on as if the others should have already come to the same conclusion.

  “You mean you want us to just leave her out there?” Preston queried incredulously.

  “We don’t let anyone in unless we’ve watched them for a while to make sure they’re safe,” Beck said.

  “Yeah, but she could die out there before that happens,” Preston said.

  “You’ve heard of Trojan horses, haven’t you?” Beck asked them all. “She could be part of that death cult. No one gets inside unless they’re invited. After we’ve watched them for a while.”

  “And you can live with turning people away?” Parisa wanted to know. “Even if you know you’re signing their death warrant?”

  “It’s the only way we can live,” Beck answered. “What if we do let her in with no questions asked. And then some night we’re all asleep in our beds and she opens the gate and before we can do anything about it, we’re overrun.”

  “But there’s a kid out there with her,” Preston said.

  “They’ve survived somehow for this long,” Beck said with no display of emotion. “Right now we don’t know how. That alone should raise alarms.”

  “If that’s your new policy- ” Parisa began.

  “It is,” Beck cut her off. “Because we’re going to have to deal with these kinds of threats more and more. So, yeah, that’s our new policy. This could very well be a set up. She’s not what she appears to be. She’s hiding something. I’d bet my life on it.”

  “Look,” Preston whispered tensely. “There’s hunters trailing them in the darkness.”

  “All the more reason not to open the gate. I’ve already made my decision,” Beck said. “And since I have the only key, that’s all
there is to say about it.”

  With a tone that brooked no argument, Beck turned his back on all of them and walked down the street.

  Addy’s clothing was wet from the rain. Her hair was dripping and her teeth were chattering. All they had was the overhanging ledge of rock that created a small cave for shelter. They’d barely made it here before the rain began to fall in a drenching downpour. Rain was still falling over the projecting edge of rock above them, making a grey curtain of rain before her.

  It wasn’t much, but it was dry inside the small cave and they had blankets to keep them warm. She had spent cold, uncomfortable nights exposed to the rain before and she had no wish to do so now. Both her arms were wrapped around her knees which were drawn up to her chest. Her gaze was fixed on the vast stretch of landscape far below them where the waterfall of rain did not block her view.

  They had found the cave by accident. With darkness almost upon them, and the threat of rain, Gage had decided they would spend the night here. It wasn’t an ideal place, but they’d learned that buildings were just as likely to hold trapped hunters as not. And it was going to be as cold as it was last night. Stumbling around blindly in the freezing dark, especially in the rain, there was no telling what they might run into. He was worried about the woman and the child, Anna and her daughter Emily. He knew they’d reached their physical limit before they’d even reached the cave. They clung to each other as they rested in their blankets on the ground. Who knew what they had been through already? Who knew what their losses were? He knew that Addy had been through a lot, too. At the moment she looked like she was done in herself. And he? It wasn’t long before exhaustion claimed him, too.

  Bertram Mengle glared up at the seething heavens, at the dark cloud masses lit by the fitful talons of lightning. He threw his head back in exultant defiance, mentally shook his fist. And he cursed. Profanely. Passionately. Blasphemously.

  After the last audible syllable left his lips, a wave of engulfing madness seemed to infuse him, like ink indelibly staining the ragged remnants of his old self. The same madness that had steadily been eating away at his soul. He stood poised on the brink of something that could send him plummeting into the darkness forever, a chasm from which he would not be able to return. But he let it overtake him.

  The pillars to his new domain were ghastly columns of skulls, all of them victims, all of them reminders to anyone who saw them that he was in control of both life and death as no one else in this new world was. He was constantly adding details to both the interior and the exterior of the sprawling complex that had become his headquarters. Details that tended to border on the macabre. Things that would inspire fear. Which in his mind, at least, was the same thing as respect.

  Not only had his surroundings undergone dramatic changes. His own appearance had, as he called it, evolved. He had plucked his eyebrows out completely, and then he drew them in again in more severe lines so that they gave his face a fiercer, more menacing expression. He had also painted his lips black. That made him look more sinister, too. Soon everyone would be doing the same things. Everyone would be imitating him, because they wanted to be just like him.

  He finally placed the crown on his head. It was made from the filagreed rim of a metal waste basket. But no one else knew that except the man who had crafted it. The crown transformed him. Who would not recognize his authority now? The gold circlet had been adorned with jewels. They were fake, of course, but they sparkled nevertheless. They would dazzle the people when he moved his head in any way at all.

  The new look transformed him. It fitted his true personality, he decided, until even he was impressed.

  Immensely pleased as he continued to stare at his reflection in the mirror, his laughter was almost demonic. It rang into the void of blackness that surrounded him, echoing like a death knell from the walls of the place he now called his fortress. So virulent were his passions that he gave himself over to them completely. So strong were they that he trembled and felt a surge of energy like nothing he had ever felt before as the darkness swallowed him whole, injecting his bloodstream like a dark and addictive narcotic. He leaned forward, his muscles straining, his nerves singing as he panted like a rabid dog. He felt powerful, invincible.

  He bowed his head. When he raised it again, the blackness of hell was reflected in the depths of his eyes. Like a beast let loose from a cage and ravenous for prey, he spread his arms wide, practicing for his followers, and shouted, “I am Meng.”

  He felt invincible. He felt worshipped. He felt like a god.

  While Meng was admiring his own reflection, Parisa approached Preston in the darkness.

  “What are you doing?” Preston asked her. He saw how she was dressed. He saw the weapons.

  “I’m going out there,” she told him. “I’m going to find that woman and that child and let them in here.”

  “How?”

  She held up a key. “Beck was wrong. He didn’t have the only key. I’ll bring them to the gate. You hide them here until I get back.”

  “What do you mean when you get back?”

  “I’m going out to look for Matthew.”

  “You’re going out there now? In the dark?”

  “Have you forgotten that I survived out there on my own for a long time? I can take care of myself.”

  “I can’t let you do this. It’s too dangerous.”

  “You can’t stop me.”

  “Parisa- ” he began.

  “Listen. I know of only two places nearby where Matthew could be hiding. I’ll check them out and I’ll come right back.”

  “I don’t feel right about you going out there,” Preston continued to argue.

  She bowed her head for a moment, struggling with something. “I know you’re thinking the same thing I’m thinking. You’re asking the same questions. If Beck went out with Matthew, why did Beck come back alone? Why would they split up? And why couldn’t Beck give us any straight answers? I have a bad feeling about this. You didn’t see what I saw. Beck had Matthew’s gun. I don’t know how that happened, but if Matthew is out there weaponless-

  “I have to go, Preston. Matthew would do the same for any one of us. And we’ve lost enough people already by doing nothing. You know that.”

  “We can go together.”

  “No. You have to stay and watch things here. You have to keep that woman and child hidden. If you leave the gate unguarded, it won’t be long before Beck finds out about it. This is the only way.”

  “And you won’t consider waiting till morning?”

  “If I wait till morning,” Parisa said grimly. “There may not be anything left to find.”

  There were hunters, about a dozen of them, headed right for them. Where they came from, Dalin didn’t know. They seemed to appear out of nowhere.

  “Get in that truck,” Dalin said as he grabbed Cayla’s arm and steered her towards a vehicle parked about twenty feet away.

  While Dalin breathed his gratitude at finding that both doors were unlocked, the rusted hinges creaked loudly. They got into the truck and slammed the doors at the same time. Hunters immediately surrounded the truck. They were definitely hungry for their next meal.

  “What do we do now?” Cayla asked.

  Snarls and growls almost drowned her out. Soon they would draw attention to other hunters.

  Dalin looked around. “We need to cover the windows. If they can’t see us, they’ll probably wander off after a while.”

  They looked around for something to put over the windows. But there was nothing. Not a stitch of material anywhere.

  “I should never have gotten you into this situation,” Dalin muttered, narrowing his gaze at the huntr that was staring at him through his window as if he could intimidate it that way. “I knew better.”

  “We’ve been in worse situations,” Cayla said. “Anyway, you tried to keep me from following you.”

  “I should have tried harder. I don’t like taking chances with you.”

  He would do anyt
hing to protect her. Give up his own life if it came to that. She had come to mean that much to him.

  They were able to cover the front window with the floor mats, but it was not enough. Then Dalin said, “Take your clothes off.”

  She looked at him like he had lost his mind. “What?”

  “We’ll cover the rest of the windows with our clothes,” he explained.

  It was the only plan that might work. She couldn’t think of anything better. Soon they were both stark naked in the semi-gloom of the cab. The windows, at least, were completely covered.

  Cayla jumped every time a hunter slammed into the glass. Dalin slid closer to her.

  “You think this is going to work?” she asked nervously as she made an attempt to cover herself with her arms.

  “I don’t see why it won’t,” he tried to reassure her.

  “I don’t want to die while I’m naked,” she whispered.

  He shook his head. Like that made a difference.

  She looked up at him suspiciously when one corner of his mouth drew back into a half grin.

  “What?”

  He looked down at her. “I was just thinking that this could be a good way to get a girl out of her clothes on a first date.”

  “If this is your best idea for doing that, you probably won’t have too many second dates.”

  A hunter scraped his nails along the glass. Cayla cringed and scooted farther away from the door.

  Dalin jerked his chin slightly towards the sound. “I’ve been thinking about ways to take your mind off of that.”

  “You’re not seriously thinking about- ” Her eyes widened as he lifted her and pulled her onto his lap. “Oh. You are.”

  “Why not?” he breathed seductively. “We’re alone and we’ve got nothing better to do. We’re probably going to be stuck here for a while.” He held up one hand. “Listen. They’re starting to go away already.”

  She looked doubtful, but the snarls and thumps were definitely diminishing. “You have protection?” she asked.