by Kaia Bennett
Stark nodded and donned a shoulder holster over his sweatshirt, pulling a coat out to lay on top of his own packed bag.
“You’re not invited, Stark.”
“I didn’t ask to be,” Stark countered. He tucked his nine-millimeter into the holster, knelt and slid a Glock into the holster at his ankle, then reached behind him and checked the knife clipped to his belt. “I’m coming along to make sure she’s safe.”
He gave me a grim smile. With a sweep of fabric, he pulled on his coat and looked like a guy in his late twenties, just looking to take a stroll.
I wasn’t sure if his comment offended me or made me feel like my old self. Not long ago, he’d have been right to want to tag along, to think he had to protect Evie from me.
I missed the days when I had an uncomplicated relationship with witch pussy. Fuck it and sell it. Or fuck it and kill it. Now I demurred, as if hurting Evie had been the furthest thing from my mind, and how dare he think otherwise.
The bond witch reluctantly shoved her arms into the pea coat she brought with her. I preferred her in the leather I’d made her wear for most of our road trip. I missed her in that flower print dress with nothing on underneath, the bounce of her braless tits, and the waft of wet cunt under a too-high skirt. If the wolf weren’t here I’d try my hand at pinning her again, shoving my fangs into her vulnerable flesh.
He’s right to come along. I do want to hurt her.
Maybe not permanently, but that all came down to the mate bullshit. In a little over a week, I’d be my old self again.
“Fine. Join us for a bite, detective. Let’s make sure Evie’s nice and safe while we find someone to kill.”
If I could, I’d kill you, you smug bastard.
“That’s smug heir-apparent to you. I think we’ve already established I have a daddy.”
I grinned at the shudder of anger around her irises, turned and motioned for them to follow me.
We headed down the stairs and out the rear of the closed library. Blending easily into the night, I stalked down Fifth Avenue towards Central Park, the perfect hunting ground. Silence and space grew between us, but I never had to turn around. The scent of wolf and Evie’s heartbeat told me they were close.
About twenty blocks later we turned onto West Fifty-Ninth Street and entered the park where the San Martin Memorial stood guard. I reached for Evie and pulled her under the weight of my arm. She struggled, but a tilt of my head and a quick glance at the humans milling about, made her pause.
Stark fell behind now, trailing us inconspicuously, probably doing undercover cops everywhere proud.
“Relax. Breathe steadily. Prey can sense when you stare, so only look out of the corner of your eye until you spot the one you want. Save the eye contact for when you’re ready to bait the hook.”
“I don’t want to do this. It’s too out in the open. I’m not ready.”
Her shivers said otherwise. We passed two women kissing, giggling and sharing teasing licks, like a game of tongue tag. My mind flashed with memories of Evie’s tongue caressing mine, of Vaughn and Liam sharing the taste of her blood as they fucked her. Evie fantasized about licking the arteries in each woman’s neck and tried to speed-walk past them, but I held her firmly and licked the memory off the roof of my mouth like fresh blood.
“I don’t want to hunt. There has to be a way to get a donor, someone I won’t hurt—”
“There are no donors in the wild. This is what you are now.”
She shook her head rapidly, her heart rate spiking with panic as the hunger took hold.
I leaned in to whispered through gritted teeth. “Calm. The fuck. Down. What you’re feeling isn’t disgust. It’s not fear. It’s the hunt stirring your blood, baby. You can almost taste it, can’t you? Human blood. Not some do-gooder witch offering up a vein, but real live prey you have to take.”
Her breath wavered out of her and I heard the faintest moan of desire, of bloodlust.
My first hunt came flooding back, my father’s hands on my shoulders, and his words of encouragement in my ear.
Women bathed and washed clothes in a lake. Their laughter and their squeals hardened my young cock, newly flushed with maturity. Cries shattered the tranquil image. I remembered them running with all their might and failing to escape me, high pitched screams wavering in the cold Alberta air. Blood splattered my body like the water they’d splashed in. Finally, a hunt, not just prey brought to me. I’d collected this kill with my own speed and I indulged to gluttonous proportions. Crimson ran in Canadian waters and dripped from my fangs by the time I’d finished that hunt. The weight of my father’s hand on my head, the weight of his pride when I’d finished savaging my food, made me feel like I’d earned my name. I’d become a true Oldman.
Please, God, I don’t want to need this. I don’t want to hurt an innocent person.
“There is no such thing as an innocent person, Evie. If a tiger’s starving, the animal doesn’t wring its paws and wonder if a boar is innocent. Neither does the wolf.”
Evie looked behind us, searching for Stark, but I wanted her attention on the hunt. On me.
“Choose your target. Follow them or watch them for a bit, then strike up a conversation. Flirt. Play. It helps keep you calm until you’re ready to reveal your fangs, your eyes. It helps you lure them in, Evie. Something about us hypnotizes them, even when they’re afraid. Like a mouse caught by the stare of a snake.”
“You didn’t lure me.”
Her bitterness coated my tongue. She looked up at me and I stared down at her, my gaze roving her features.
“No.”
You terrorized me.
“I had a hunch you’d put up a good fight. I was right.”
We walked. She waited, and I watched, forcing patience I didn’t have.
“Some of us were born with a conscience.” She stilled once she focused on her prey. The witch bled away, leaving only the predator.
A tall man with dark hair tied in a bun on top of his head took photos of the entrance to Bethesda Terrace. A pricey Nikon hung by a strap around his neck, his black pea coat flapping in the wind.
“Focus on your breaths. Count them out. I want you to mask your eyes until it’s time to feed.”
We approached, and her body shuddered with hesitation, even as she leaned toward him.
“That’s a nice camera.” Evie froze at the sound of my voice, as if I’d blown her kill. I rubbed her shoulder with calming fingers.
Man Bun finished focusing his shot. “Thanks.” The shutter swished closed and open. A bright flash of light flooded the archway. He spared a glance at the shot, nodding with satisfaction when he looked at us. White teeth peeked from behind a full beard, his smile warm and inviting.
“Had to get the settings right for a night shoot coming up. You guys into photography?”
His probing gaze bounced between the two of us. Evie surprised me by answering first.
“A little. I had a Canon I half learned how to use. I was going through a phase. Seems like a lifetime ago.”
She smiled and I observed her, disguising my assessment with the look of a doting boyfriend. No glares of warning telling our prey to run, no tears welling in her wide eyes. Evie’s dilated pupils shuddered beyond her irises when she darted a glance at me. Whatever she saw on my face conjured that strange emotion I couldn’t understand as anything but hesitation. Still, I’d seen everything I wanted to see.
Grinning, I scrubbed my chin against her temple and stared through the walking dead human sneaking a perusal of my mate.
She’ll follow through. She’s wet and her heart sounds like its gonna pop. I hadn’t been sure until that moment, and my cock stiffened with anticipation. We’d feed together on this human, and this time, there wouldn’t be some priestess standing in the way of the kill.
Evie licked her lips and forced a smile that wilted a moment later.
“How about you? I caught the lift of his chin in my direction. “You a Canon or Nikon guy?”
“Kodak. I can still remember how unwieldy those boxes were when they came out.”
“Old fashioned.” He chuckled in surprise. “I respect that.”
Man Bun sniffed in a draught of cold air. I inhaled too, making sure his sniffle came from the chill and not symptoms of sickness.
“Old fashioned.” I returned his grin, the tips of my fangs scraping my bottom lip. Our unsuspecting cameraman retreated a step. When I took a step forward, and tilted my head, he took another step backward, retreating into a shadowy pocket of the archway. “You could say that.”
Pure instinct. Politeness had killed many prey when they’d have otherwise run into the light, to safety.
Man Bun chuckled, though his smile faltered and he realized, a second before he stumbled, that he’d been corralled into a corner. I reached out with my true speed and snapped the thick fabric strap off his neck.
“Now.”
Evie lunged. Man Bun cried out “Shit!” but Evie covered his mouth and shoved him into the wall with a thud that made my cock jerk in excitement.
“I’m sorry!”
She tore his coat away from the fiery lotus blossom tattoos on his neck.
16
His scream sputtered when she shoved her fangs into the pulsing artery at the base of his throat. Her moan made me quiver. The liquid orgasm dousing her bloodlust tingled on my tongue, the vicarious pull of her power and our bond sweetening the hunt.
I tossed the camera and approached, watching his wide brown eyes cringe with pain as I lifted his wrist against his will. The vein tore, splashing my tongue with the first true meal I’d had in over a week. I groaned as his body pumped the chemical that induced fear straight into my blood stream. That sweet spice in the blood.
Evie pulled away with a gasp and whispered, “We can’t kill him,” just when I’d started to enjoy my meal. She dove into the taste of him again while I ignored her stupid exclamation.
Man Bun sobbed against Evie’s palm. Sounded like he didn’t wanna die. Shocker.
“Shhh!” Evie pulled free again. “Be quiet okay? We’re not gonna hurt you more than we have to.”
I rolled my eyes and pulled my teeth out of his bleeding wrist. “The fuck we aren’t! This ain’t a catch and release lesson, it’s a hunting lesson.”
The man redoubled his efforts to escape. I gripped his neck, choking off the attention he could draw to us. Blood coated my hand, flowing from the wounds Evie left in his throat.
“Don’t! You’re hurting him!”
“We’re feeding from him, witch. It’s gonna hurt.”
“It shouldn’t have to! You fed off me without killing me. We can do the same with him.”
At the word ‘killing’, Man Bun clawed the hand I wrapped around his throat, and kicked Evie in the shin. He’d be unconscious in a moment. Ignoring his pathetic efforts, I continued to admonish my mate.
“You were an accident and we have a code. Leave no one to tell the tale. Period! Now finish your goddamn food!”
She licked up the blood dripping from her lips and rubbed her hands over her face.
“There’s gotta be… maybe I can mess with his mind or something? I can try and make him forget us—will you stop choking him!” She punched me in the chest, hard enough to collapse my sternum if I’d been human. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I gritted my teeth, wanting badly to flick my wrist and break Man Bun’s neck, just to prove a point. Any second now, I would, because the witch had to be mad. I’d never heard of any vampire feeding and wiping a prey’s memory. The closest thing would be feeding off a human high on drugs. Even then, we just killed the fucker.
Stark caught my eye. I tilted my head. “Forgot all about you.”
“That was the idea.”
Stark breathed a deep sigh and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “You should take Evie to the apartment now. I’ve got this.”
“Do you, now?”
The detective nodded once, assuring me he’d finish what Evie couldn’t, what she wouldn’t let me finish without causing a scene. Witch covens avoided the code by staying hidden, even though they’d suffered the most for being exposed to humans.
We vampires, though? Our lives depend on our ruthlessness. I’d already made the mistake of bestowing mercy once. I wouldn’t make that mistake again, not when Evie stood at my side arguing with me, and proving why we needed a fucking code in the first place.
I lifted our frightened victim until his toes dangled, and knocked his head against the sandstone. He slipped to the ground in an unconscious heap. Kicking his camera over into the pile I spread my arms in a half-assed bow to Evie.
“There? Is my mate happy?”
“I’m not your fucking mate.” Her grimace and the fire in her gaze answered me plenty. She turned her attention to Stark, who stepped around us.
“Are we just going to leave him here?” I grinned when Stark didn’t answer. Her stoic and heroic detective didn’t want to tell his damsel in distress the truth.
“Can we make sure he gets home? Josh?”
Stark’s head drooped. “Get her out of here, Oldman. Now.”
I pulled her away as the cop blended into the darkness surrounding our unconscious prey. He lifted Man Bun easily, and slung an arm around his waist while pulling a limp arm across his shoulders.
To any onlooker, Stark would seem like he’d been saddled with a drunken friend. He headed through the archway, toward the trees bracketing either side of the terrace.
Evie understood now. She dropped her weight, stretching to look over my shoulder.
“Josh, wait—”
“If you want to make it back to your family alive, you’re not going to say another fucking word,” I growled in her ear. “We’re not the only predators out tonight. They know the code. They know their place, Evie, and you’re going to learn yours.”
She jerked out of my arms, righting her coat and hair while I stormed away from her. I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets and lengthened my stride. She had to struggle to keep up, but I didn’t care. Every moment I spent with her became an apology for how I’d been born, for the world I’d been born into. And for what? The sake of a human?
“You’re wrong, Jesse. This isn’t my place at all. I was born to heal, to feel what others feel, and you twisted that up. You put me here against my will, and now you want me to take lives like it doesn’t matter?”
“Lives.” I shook my head at her. She hadn’t cried this time. Already, she grew stronger. Resigned to her fate. The blood had changed something vital and I relished the change, the healthy glow on her face, the brightness in her eyes, and the redness of her lips. My hands twitched to touch her. I pulled a hand out of my pocket to force her into my kiss.
“It hurt me to hurt him. I know you understand that. You felt that pain when you killed Liam. You felt that pain when you drowned me.”
I gritted my teeth and shoved my fist into my pocket again. I stomped away from her, trying to block out her words with each furious step.
“I saw inside his head while I took his blood, Jesse. He was terrified.”
“That’s the idea.”
She kept pace with me now, her shorter legs refusing to give ground to my longer ones. “A girl will wait for him tonight. He’s all she had, and she’ll realize the worst happened when he never comes home. That’ll be my fault. Because I need to do this for half the month, just to live. It’s not right that I should be able to ruin countless lives to eat one meal.”
I stopped and stared at the skyline, the stillness of the night ruined by her prattle about life and guilt.
“There has to be another way, because as it stands now I’ll feel for every single victim I bleed. Could you do that if you were me?”
I tasted snow, the dark clouds overhead pregnant and grayish-pink with a coming storm.
“You’ve seen what I would do if I were you. I reserve empathy for my family, not for any helpless soul who cries on cue.” I shrugged an
d slicked my bottom lip, tasting what should’ve been a decent meal unencumbered by messy emotions. “Humans are weeds. You think my kind is bloodthirsty and cruel, and you’re not wrong. We’re what we have to be to survive in this world, but humans helped make it this way.”
“That’s a fucking lie and you know it. Are you telling me Vaughn is just trying to survive when he carves his name into a living person’s back?” she spat.
“No, I’m pretty sure he does that for fun.”
This time she marched away from me. I caught up to her easily, raising an eyebrow with mirth.
“You’re disgusting.”
Laughing until my belly hurt, I led us out of the park and slowed my pace some in order to blend with the weaker element around us. “I have my flaws, but at least I’m content to be what I am. Your human cousins, on the other hand, they want to be us. If they can’t be us, they want to kill us, and they’ll use their own kind to bait the hook. Where do you think V-Sep comes from, Evie?” I whispered. “Why do you think the weakest and poorest humans are the carriers?”
Evie skidded to a halt and looked up at me with wide eyes. A few people jostled her as they shouldered between us, but she stood stunned. She shook her head and I wheeled to face her full on, seizing her arm and dragging her towards an alley a few feet ahead. Quiet darkness surrounded us so I could speak freely.
“Yeah. Vampire sepsis is human made, baby. Designed to sit in the bloodstream of humans like a ticking time bomb.”
“You’re full of shit.”
“My kind used to hunt freely. We didn’t have a reason to hide or be afraid. We killed who we wanted, turned who we wanted. The code became a thing because humans wanted to be like us. Like you and me. They captured young vampires and experimented, trying to give themselves speed and strength, and longer lives. They failed. They stumbled onto a disease that made them sick instead. But you know what, there’s always money to be made off the sick. There’s always money in selling a cure.”
Horror twisted Evie’s face.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
The first flakes began to fall, floating sideways along the cold current of wind and into our faces. I watched, hypnotized as one fell and melted in her hair, another on her cheek.