by L. L. Raand
Sophia’s breasts heaved and her eyes bored fire into Niki’s. “Damn you.”
“When Lara’s teeth are in your throat and she makes you come, think of me.”
I always think of you. Sophia wrenched away and raced from the room.
Niki slumped back against the treatment table and crawled up onto it. She curled on her side and clutched her burning stomach. If she thought about Lara making Sophia come, she’d want to kill Lara. She laughed bitterly. And Lara couldn’t be killed. She was already dead.
Chapter Nine
Jody went from dreamless oblivion to total awareness the instant her eyes opened. She immediately scanned the surroundings for danger. Her guards were outside the door, an agitated Were paced farther down the hall, and distantly, the life force of the entire Pack beckoned as a single heart beating. Her incisors unsheathed and hunger as endless as eternity seethed inside her. The bed beside her was empty, but Becca was near. Becca’s heartbeat, the steady pulse of blood flowing through her arteries and veins, her soft breaths, eclipsed everything in Jody’s world. All but the need to feed.
Blood barely flowed in her body now, a protective mechanism to prevent complete depletion of the scarce oxygen-carrying compounds between feedings. After she fed, her heart would beat for a short time, her cells would activate, she would be sexually potent. In those moments, she would come as close to living as was possible while still being something other than alive. Her biological drive demanded she feed, and if she delayed, she risked a blood rampage. If hunger overpowered her control, she’d cut a deadly swath through every living creature in her path until she was sated or staked. Need gnawed at her guts, and she focused on the scent of the nearest host. Becca. So deliciously alive.
“Get out,” Jody rasped.
“You’re awake.” Becca spun around from the desk where she had been typing up notes on the details she’d been given of the raid on the secret lab. She wasn’t sure when she’d be able to go public with any of it—but she was used to spending months digging out facts on a story. And no story had ever been more important to her—or as personal. Across from her, Jody lay as she had all day, staring up at the ceiling, her arms by her sides, her sharply handsome face tense even at rest. But unlike when she had been somnolent, now her naked body vibrated with tension. “What do you need?”
“Go,” Jody ordered. “I await a host. Go, Becca.”
“You need my blood, though, don’t you,” Becca said. “Your transition isn’t yet complete, and I am your bonded blood mate. You need the compatible blood I carry.”
One second, Jody was on the bed; the next she was in front of Becca, stalking toward her so fiercely Becca almost took a step back. Jody’s incisors were dangerous spikes glittering against her pale lips, her eyes as bright and hot as purest flame. Her face was knife-edged with need. Becca took a breath, steadied her voice. “Tell me I’m wrong, Vampire.”
“Don’t argue with me,” Jody said slowly, as if each word was a terrible effort. She stopped with her body millimeters from Becca. “I will drain you.”
“No, you won’t. You didn’t last night and you were practically insane then.”
“I have a ready host. You are not needed.” Jody turned her head to the closed door and though she made no sound, a second later it opened and Zahn stepped inside.
“You called, Liege?” Zahn wore a white silk shirt open between her breasts and tight, tapered black pants. She was barefoot. Her nipples were dusky circles beneath the sheer material, and her eyes, fixed on Jody’s face, glistened with anticipation.
“She needs to feed,” Becca said, grasping Jody’s forearm. “And I’m staying.”
Zahn’s surprised gaze flickered between Becca and Jody, but she said nothing. Jody’s arm was a steel band beneath Becca’s fingers, the only outward sign of her struggle for control. Becca supposed if she was smart, she’d leave and let Jody feed from Zahn alone, but she wouldn’t concede to Jody’s fear of hurting her. If they were to have a true relationship, she needed to be part of Jody’s life, including this part. She might not be as strong or resilient as a Were or as acclimated to giving blood as a human servant like Zahn, but she was Jody’s blood mate. And she wasn’t leaving Jody alone with another woman, blood servant or not. Jody was hers.
“You need this,” Becca said, dropping her robe so she too was naked. She grasped Jody’s arm. “Come back to bed.”
“Becca,” Jody said dangerously, her gaze caressing Becca’s nipples until they hardened from the heat of her glance, “you play a dangerous game.”
Becca shook her head, her heart hammering and her skin electric. “Oh no, I’m not playing at all.”
“Always so stubborn.” Jody lifted her so effortlessly Becca barely managed not to cry out in surprise.
Then they were on the bed, Jody hovering just above her, Zahn somehow beside her, their bodies lightly touching. Becca wrapped her arms around Jody’s waist and slid her hands up and down Jody’s back. Her skin was smooth and cold as marble. Oh God, she couldn’t feel even a single heartbeat. She stroked Jody’s face. So very cold. “Hurry, Jody.”
“Zahn,” Jody said without looking away from Becca, “are you ready?”
“Yes, Liege,” Zahn whispered, turning on her side, pressing even closer to Becca.
Zahn’s silk shirt brushed over Becca’s breast like a gentle breeze. Zahn’s voice had gotten slow and lethargic, as if she were drugged, and Becca realized she was. Thrall was very much like a drug. Zahn’s hand drifted to Becca’s hip and Becca didn’t move away. Zahn was giving her lover life—she should not be alone.
“Do it, darling,” Becca murmured, watching Jody’s face, mesmerized by the intensity of her gaze, the hypnotic tone of her voice. “I want to be here with you completely. Don’t enthrall me.”
“You want to see me?” Jody’s eyes became impossibly deep. “Watch.”
Jody slid one arm around Becca’s shoulders and lowered her head. Her lips caressed Becca’s fleetingly before she took Zahn’s throat in a single rapid plunge. Zahn gasped and her breath came out in a long, shuddering moan. Jody swallowed and her hips thrust between Becca’s thighs.
“Oh,” Becca whispered, her body igniting. She wrapped both legs around Jody’s hips and fit her breasts to Jody’s. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to Jody’s shoulder, feeling Jody grow warm beneath her hands. This was Jody’s life. Hers now. She had given Jody this existence with her own blood, freely and without regret. Jody’s orgasm, Zahn’s ecstatic groans, the life pulsating under her hands, pushed Becca close to climax. She groaned and pulled herself back. She wanted Jody. When Jody raised her head, Zahn fell away from them with a sharp cry.
“Oh God, Jody,” Becca moaned. “I need you now.” She turned her head to the side, exposing her neck. “I need you. I love you. Please.”
The world exploded. Pleasure so exquisite she lost her breath, lost her voice, lost her sanity. Fire consumed her, burning her to ash from the inside out. Jody devoured her at the same time as she filled her. Power surged through every cell of Becca’s body.
Becca came back to herself when she felt Jody moving away. She gripped Jody’s hand. “Where are you going?”
Jody leaned down and kissed her. “To see that Zahn is protected while she recovers. I want to be alone with you.”
“Don’t go far.”
“Never.” Jody lifted Zahn, whose head lolled against Jody’s shoulder in post-orgasmic languor. The door opened and a dark-haired Vampire dressed all in black stepped in.
“Liege.”
“Rafaela.” Jody passed Zahn to her guard. “See to her and keep watch on Lara’s room. She is not yet awake. I’ll be there soon.”
“Yes, Liege.”
“Have you all fed?”
“Yes, and well.” Rafaela smiled. “The Weres are most accommodating.”
Jody raised a brow. “And willing?”
“Quite.”
Jody laughed and shut the door. She appeared by the
side of the bed, cupped Becca’s cheek, and kissed her again. Her lips were soft as silk and warm now. Her eyes had returned to the crimson darkness that was normal after she’d fed. “How do you feel?”
Becca laughed unsteadily. “A little like a phoenix—I feel like I’ve risen from the ashes. God, that was incredible. I was burning up and I never want it to stop.”
“No pain?” Jody ran her thumb along the edge of Becca’s jaw and over the fading punctures in her neck.
“God, no.” Becca shivered as electricity streaked from the bite in her neck to her nipples and clit. “I love being with you anytime—any way—but that was…amazing.”
Jody sat on the side of the bed and trailed her fingers down Becca’s neck and over her breasts. “When I feed, some of my blood and hormones enter your body. The longer I feed from you, the more effect I’ll have on you.”
Becca pushed up against the pillows, grasping Jody’s hand and molding it to her breast. She pressed Jody’s fingers into her flesh, wanting nothing between them. She had a feeling these revelations were the things Jody feared would keep them apart. She wanted Jody to know she wasn’t afraid of who Jody was or who they were together. “Is that why you don’t have very many long-term blood servants?”
Jody smiled. “You understand more than most.” She brushed her thumb over Becca’s mouth and Becca caught the tip in her teeth, biting lightly. Jody hissed, her eyes darkening. “Absorbing a Vampire’s essence, their power, imparts power to the host, but at a cost.”
“What power?”
“Heightened immunity, for one thing. As a result, longevity and delayed aging.”
Becca frowned. “How delayed?”
“It depends on the host,” Jody said, “and the host’s intrinsic potential for cell rejuvenation. Some families, like Zahn’s, are genetically predisposed for compatibility with the Vampire species. Their bloodlines are rare, but long-lived.”
“How old is Zahn?” Becca asked, thinking she didn’t look more than thirty.
Jody smiled. “Not much older than me—but others in her line are much, much older. She is likely to live centuries.”
“Are you saying, because we’re bonded, the same thing will happen to me?”
“Possibly.” Jody’s expression became remote.
“What?” Becca grasped Jody’s forearm. “What don’t you want to tell me?”
Jody sighed. “Sometimes, while initially compatible, eventually the host will reject the Vampiric emissions. The host could become ill. Possibly very ill.”
“Or addicted, like so many hosts after a while, right?”
“Yes, although you show no signs of that.”
Becca sat forward to kiss Jody’s throat, the center of her chest, her breasts. “Oh really? Then I don’t think you’ve been paying enough attention.”
“I speak of the blood addiction that leads to insanity.” Jody caressed Becca’s face. “Your need for me is an addiction I desire. As your power grows, so will the pleasure we share.”
“In both directions?”
Jody smiled, her incisors still extended, flames sparking in her eyes. “Oh yes.”
Becca’s breath came faster and her stomach tightened. “I want you again.”
“Are you tired? Dizzy?”
Becca reached up and grabbed Jody’s head, tugging her down. “What I am is hungry. Feed me.”
*
“You’ve been pacing for half an hour,” Drake said, sitting up in their bed. As soon as they’d left the infirmary, they’d come straight to their den and tangled again. Now Sylvan, naked, was wearing a path in the hard board floors. The silver line of pelt that transected her ridged abdomen signaled her wolf was close and restless, and Drake suspected that would be the case until the young were born. The Alpha wolf’s ascendance probably also explained why Sylvan’s sexual need was pretty much constant too. Sylvan was going to throw every susceptible female in the Pack into heat at this rate. Drake didn’t find Sylvan’s call a hardship in the least, since her pregnancy seemed to be heightening her need to tangle too, but an entire Pack in mating frenzy would leave them dangerously vulnerable. She had to settle Sylvan down. “What is worrying you?”
“I have to decide what to do about Niki.”
“What are your thoughts?” Drake said carefully, reaching for a pair of loose scrub pants from a pile on a nearby chair. She didn’t think it was her imagination that her jeans were tighter this afternoon than they had been in the morning.
“I can’t allow an affront to you to go unpunished,” Sylvan growled.
“Everyone there saw what happened, Sylvan. Niki did not attack me. She was frenzied, in the midst of a challenge from Dasha over a female in heat. Under the best of circumstances her control would have been uncertain. Add to that all she’s been through lately—”
Sylvan spun around, snarling. “She is the leader of my warriors. She can’t be undone by pain or frustration or the need to tangle.”
“What about the need to mate?”
Sylvan abruptly stopped and tilted her head, her wolf-gold eyes sharp. “Sophia?”
“I think so.”
“Ah fuck.” Sylvan resumed pacing. “This had to happen eventually, but why now?”
“Biology doesn’t keep to a timetable.” Drake pressed against Sylvan, forcing her to still. She rubbed over her, coating her with her pheromones. Sylvan rumbled and Drake smiled. “Do you object to your centuri mating? None of them are.”
“There’s no edict against them mating, although they often don’t. Their first allegiance is to me, and that often supersedes their desire to mate.”
“The blood bond?”
“Yes.”
Drake nodded, aware of the near-sexual bond all the centuri shared with Sylvan. If that aided in their protection of her, Drake didn’t mind. “Niki’s bond with you is very strong.”
Sylvan kissed her. “I’ve never tangled with her, with any of them. Although that would be natural.”
“I know.” Drake bit her chin. “Now you’ve lost your chance.”
Sylvan grinned. “Even mated Alphas exercise that right.”
“Not this one.”
Sylvan laughed, then her face grew somber. “Sophia may not be open to mating.”
Drake heard reservation in Sylvan’s tone. “And it’s not your place to tell me why? I consider Sophia a friend.”
“I know.” Sylvan sighed. “If I thought you needed to know—for your protection or the good of the Pack—I would tell you. I think Sophia could use a friend right now.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Drake said. “But Niki is of more immediate concern. She needs you.”
“And I need someone sound and strong in her position.”
“I know.” Drake smoothed her hands over Sylvan’s chest and kissed her. “I know you do. And Niki is all of those things. Everyone in the Pack is a little unsettled. You’ve been attacked, you’ve taken a mate, our females have been victimized. It’s a difficult time for everyone.”
“All the more reason for discipline and order.”
“Absolutely,” Drake said. “Your wolves need to know they have a strong and responsible leader. Every single one of them looks to you to lead.” Drake feathered her fingers through Sylvan’s hair and kissed her again. “I know what that costs you. Niki is the strongest of your wolves. You need her. We all need her. Show your Pack that you lead with their welfare in mind.”
“And what if Niki can’t control her wolf?”
“Any Were who can’t control their wolf is a risk to us all. Then, your path is clear.”
Sylvan growled, the muscles in her jaw bulging. “I will put her down if she threatens you once.”
“I understand. So will your Pack, if that becomes necessary.” Drake did not intend to let that happen, but should Niki or any one of them, including her, threaten the well-being of the Pack, there would be no other choice.
Sylvan pulled her close. “I need to see her.”
Drake kissed h
er mate bite on Sylvan’s chest. “Good. I want to see Katya and Gray. Are they up to it?”
Sylvan nodded. “They’re ready.”
Drake glanced at their bed with a sigh. “I guess some things will have to wait.”
*
Becca’s cell vibrated just after Jody left to see Lara. Private caller. She straightened in anticipation. “Becca Land.”
“I talked to you before,” a raspy male voice said. “There’s more you need to know.”
“I remember you,” Becca said, switching on her recorder and plugging it in to the base of her phone. “Please tell me your name.”
“My name doesn’t matter. We have people watching the lab. Something’s happening there. They’re moving out all the expensive equipment and they’ve gone to a skeleton crew.”
“What lab?”
“We think there are more.”
Becca caught her breath. “More Weres? In the same facility? How—”
“The underground complex is extensive. Multiple holding cells in separate wings. There may not be much time.”
“Tell me your name. How can I get a hold of you? Who are you?”
“Friends. Not what they think.”
“Not what who thinks?”
“The females they held captive.”
“You were with them.”
“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt them. The others may not have much time.”
The line went dead and Becca stared at it for a second. More Weres in the lab? How could Sylvan and the others have missed them? She jumped up and ran to the door. She had to find Jody. And Sylvan.
Chapter Ten
Niki sat up as the door to the treatment room opened. When Sylvan walked in, she got to her feet and came to attention, ignoring the pain in her belly.
“Stand down, centuri,” Sylvan said, closing the door behind her.
Niki didn’t move, simply bowed her head once in salute. “Alpha.”