“But now,” Nikki groaned, “I think I need to get outside or I’m going to burst.”
“I’d like to come with you,” Saul said. “I need to ensure that Leibald’s attack has not had any negative effects on you. The race of vampires to which he belongs are infamous for their warlike personalities. If your blood has too much of his venom in it, I don’t know how it might affect you.”
“What about the sun?” she asked, nodding towards the window where faint lines of sunlight spilled into the dim room. “If I step outside, am I going to get fried?”
“Even if you transformed completely, the sun won’t actually kill you. As you haven’t truly changed, I think you should be okay.”
Satisfied with his answer, Nikki got out of bed and dressed. “You washed my clothes while I was out?” she asked.
“It kept me busy.”
They dressed together and then headed out through Saul’s back door. They made their way into the back yard. Saul watched Nikki look around, her eyebrows lifting in amazement.
He gave her some time to adjust, not speaking a word. There were moments when it looked like she might weep and others that made her look like a child discovering some huge secret of adulthood.
“Is this what it’s like for you all the time?” she asked.
Saul laughed out loud; he couldn’t help himself. It was both cute and hilarious at the same time. “Well, I don’t know for sure,” he said. “What are you experiencing?”
“For starters, I can hear everything. Birds, squirrels, something running through the forests to the east—a fox, I think. And then there are all of the smells. Most of them are awesome: flowers, lots of them. But then there’s some bad stuff, too. Dead animals, I guess. And it’s all coming at once.”
“Yeah, that’s about right,” Saul said. “After a while you start to unconsciously weed it all out. You can take the bits of information you need and easily ignore the rest. It takes some getting used to, though.”
“So,” she said, “I am getting all of the good stuff about being a vampire and none of the gross blood-sucking stuff?”
“It seems that way. Please do tell me the moment you think you might be getting the urge to go for blood, however.”
“How will I know?”
“It’s about one hundred times more intense than typical hunger. Your bones will ache for it. You’ll know it.”
Saul took a seat on his back porch steps as Nikki continued to get accustomed to her new abilities. She laughed out loud on a few occasions and continued to go through a gamut of emotions.
After roughly fifteen minutes, she turned to Saul with a tentative sort of look. He thought it might have been the first time he had seen her show any signs of fear about her new condition.
“So what now?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what do vampires do during the day?”
“Mostly, I rest. I just lay in bed until dusk.”
“Oh,” she said, clearly at odds. “Well, I think if I go back to bed with you right now, there won’t be much resting involved at first.”
“I’m good with that,” Saul said.
He leaped from the steps, jerked her into his arms and cradled her against his chest as he carried her back inside.
6
Like most of his family members, Leibald Greely did not handle defeat well. Although he did not consider himself as having been bested by Saul Benton during their confrontation in his cabin — he had, after all, planned the entire encounter — there was still a burning rage within him to get back at Saul.
Leibald had left Red Creek, but only for a short time. He had gone several towns over, where he had fed on an older gentleman who had made the unfortunate decision to walk his dog late at night. Leibald had swept down upon the man and dragged him and his little dog away into the forests. The death occurred so quickly that the man had been unable to scream. Done with his feeding, Leibald had tossed the body into a culvert pipe on the outskirts of the little Burg and rested in a garage along the backside of an abandoned sawmill.
But now he was back in Red Creek, fueled with a recent feed and many steps closer to bringing the plan of many clans to fruition. And what a glorious plan it was. In fact, Leibald found himself wondering why such a plan had never been formulated before. It seemed to him that it would have been very beneficial in the past. Of course, long ago there were traditions to consider. It was almost unheard of for one vampire clan to war with another.
Well, things had changed as of late now, hadn’t they? The world was a different place than it had once been—back when vampires were packed to the gills in the cellars and caves of Transylvania. But it was more than just the values behind their kind that had changed—vampires themselves had changed.
There was something about the waiting that made the blood taste so much better. But still, going so long without properly feeding was demoralizing. To Leibald, it had always made him feel subordinate to the Guard, like some sort of pet. But now even the Guard understood that the old laws were no longer effective. There needed to be a time of transformation to all of the entities and powers that The Guard represented.
As far as Leibald was concerned, they had chosen wisely when they had selected him to come to Red Creek to start their plan. It had been the Greely clan they had chosen as the most powerful and himself as the most likely member to properly get under Saul’s skin.
The Bentons had been chosen as the clan to be killed off first. There was only Saul and his sister, after all. Their father had been killed suspiciously years ago in an event that Leibald still did not quite understand. He didn’t care about the particulars; all he was concerned with was that his death had knocked the Benton clan down to two members: Saul and his sister, Jillian.
In several weeks, Saul and Jillian would be killed as Leibald’s family and several others came into Red Creek. Of course, he was relying on the assumption that Benali had kept his word in suggesting that Saul contact Jill. When Leibald had spoken with him months ago, Benali had seemed certain that Saul would want his sister there with him.
“He’s been alone for too long,” Benali had said. “He’s going to want the company of his sister—especially if he feels that she may be in danger.”
Of course, Benali had not been able to predict the unexpected involvement of the mortal woman. Leibald’s mind still reeled with the questions her very existence inspired. Had he bitten her hard enough to cause a total transformation? He knew he had broken the skin because he had tasted just enough of her blood to get him hungry. What was it about her that was so special — that had caused Saul to allow her into his life? Even for a clan as unrefined as the Bentons, introducing a mortal so casually into their lives would be considered by most other clans to be sloppy.
Leibald wondered if Benali knew more about this mortal woman than he did. The next time the specter showed up, he’d be sure to ask.
He didn’t think the girl would interfere in their plans. She would either go through a total transformation from her bite, or she wouldn’t. Either way, she would die right along with Saul and Jill.
Leibald returned to his cave nestled in the dense forests of Red Creek. He found the darkest corner he could, curled up, and began to settle himself in for a days-long hibernation of sorts. He was overzealous with the fact that the next time he woke up, it would be time to finally kill Saul Benton. That thought sent him to sleep happy, with high expectations of his future.
But more than that, he drifted into slumber with the knowledge that he had a secret that only he knew about. It was a back-up—a failsafe for any event that might come along to disrupt the original plan.
Whether The Guard’s plan worked or not, Red Creek was on the verge of madness and ruin.
Leibald smiled; blood would be spilled, one way or another.
7
Kara Humphrey woke up screaming. Her own voice tore her awake and as she slapped at her bedside table for the lamp, she was sure there
was someone else in the room with her. Her heart was pounding, eyes scanning the room hurriedly as light chased away the shadows. She was fully expecting the figure form her dreams to be there, standing at the foot of the bed. But her room was empty. Still, this did little to calm her nerves.
In her dream, she had been standing at the top of the driveway to the Red Creek B&B. She had a gun in her hand, her own gun; it pointed at the hooded man that was attacking Nikki Galimore. She fired off three shots, but the man did not budge. She ran closer, ready to pull the trigger again, when the man leaped from Nikki and came barreling straight at her. Kara fired again, this one catching the man in the forehead, but he still kept coming.
The man knocked Kara to the ground and placed his hands around her neck. She looked up into the face of her attacker and saw the face of her ex-husband. He leered down at her and, through spittle-flecked screams, said, “You really thought you could get by without me, you stupid bitch?”
As she fought against him, Nikki strode over like a flirtatious school girl and draped an arm over his shoulder. She then licked the side of his face and started running her hands through his hair.
“Too scared to do anything, huh?” Nikki asked and started laughing.
Her ex-husband laughed right along with her, then pulled his arm and punched Kara in the face – over and over and over again.
That’s when Kara had shot up in bed, screaming. She knew what those punches felt like and even though she had just endured them in a dream, her face stung as if he had been here in the bedroom slugging her like he used to.
Kara lay there for a moment, letting it all sink in. How had she managed to push the enigma of that hooded man away from her mind? She knew she had hit him at least once. And hadn’t Nikki claimed she had seen two shots go in? But the man had seemed unharmed.
It was beyond creepy and made no sense. Maybe it wasn’t Saul Benton she needed to focus on paying another visit, but Nikki Galimore.
With the beginnings of a headache coming on, Kara lay in bed unable to sleep for quite some time. She hated the fact that she so badly missed the presence of a man in bed beside her, but it was an inescapable fact. She’d even deal with her ex-husband if she had to.
Damn, she thought. Really? Is it that bad?
She ended up falling asleep thinking of her ex-husband. She hated to recall her life with him, but it was better than pining for Saul Benton. That was just a fantasy anyway, she thought. Better hang it up.
She slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Still, when her alarm clock startled her awake at 6:00, she opened her eyes quickly and looked around the room for the man in the hoodie.
CHAPTER THREE
1
It had only been a few days, but Saul was getting very comfortable having Nikki in his bed. He pondered this development while he watched the young woman in question dress, then listened to her voice as she called her boss at the Red Creek B&B.
It was comforting to see that Nikki was not anxious around him. She had been far from the bashful schoolgirl when they had first met, but the confidence she exhibited now was a different brand altogether. Leibald’s power within her, however small a portion, had drawn Nikki closer to Saul and his kind. She didn’t care that he was watching her so intently in various stages of undress because she was, in some totally primal way, his.
Leibald’s meddling did not completely explain Saul’s own fascination with the strange girl, however. Saul knew that Nikki did not have a body that the majority of men would covet. Her breasts were small and she was almost too skinny. At first glance, most men would see nothing special about her; yet, he was hopelessly infatuated.
Saul watched Nikki slip her bra on. He watched her breasts disappear and instantly wanted them revealed again. Had he ever been so taken by a female? No…he didn’t think so. Not in this immortal life, and definitely not in his mortal youth.
Saul listened as Nikki explained to her boss that she was sick and wouldn’t be coming into work today. The call did not last long. Nikki sat back on the edge of the bed, watching as Saul started getting dressed in turn.
“Sick, huh?” Saul said.
“Well, it was easier than explaining what is really going on, don’t you think?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
There was a brief silence as they stood on opposite sides of the bed, both fully dressed and not overcome by a need to tear each other’s clothes off for the first time in a few days.
“Maybe we should talk about this,” Nikki said. “About us, I mean.”
“Sure,” Saul said, feeling a slowly growing dread in his stomach.
“This might sound like the damndest back-handed compliment ever breathed,” she said, “but I think the only reason I was initially attracted to you was because you were something unnatural. You were something that made no sense. And that drew me to you. I’ve always been a girl that spit in the face of what was expected of me. I have always gone out of my way to be different—to be something my parents and the people of Red Creek didn’t understand. I thought I had put all of that behind me after high school, but I guess you just brought it back out in me. When I saw the opening to sleep with you, I took it. Don’t get me wrong… I wanted you like a woman is supposed to want a man but… I don’t know… I wanted that taste of the unknown more.”
“That all makes sense,” Saul said. “I had the hardest time figuring out what made you so different… What made you so blatantly courageous to come knocking on my door when everyone else in town has always been terrified to even come down the driveway.”
“But you prefer the solitude, right?”
“I do. I always feared that too much human interaction would give me away. It took you what? Three days to figure it out?”
“Well, I had something of an inside scoop,” she said with a laugh. “Anyway, the point I am making is that now that I have these…these talents or whatever they are, I have this new sort of feeling about you. Before Leibald bit me, I wanted nothing from you. It was just sex. But there’s something in me now, something like – like heat. It’s not love, I don’t think. I’ve been in love before and this is different.”
Saul found himself curious about the sort of boy a younger Nikki would have fallen for. “It’s part of the process,” Saul said. “Most vampires have this sort of inclination to be closer to their own kind. The fact that you and I have had sex makes that instinct more powerful. Vampires who are intimate in such a way start to share a link of sorts. It’s almost like the physical link I have with my sister.”
“So we’re sort of tied together now?” she asked.
“In a sense. If we wanted to venture out and bed other people, we could. But no matter what, the link between us would remain.”
“Do you want to be with other people?” Nikki asked. And then, with a faint laugh, she added: “Or vampires for that matter?”
He grinned at her in a way that made him feel confident and boyish at the same time. “No.” Nikki smiled.
“Good. I’m happy, Saul. You’d think that waking up after having been bitten by a hideous-looking vampire would put me in a funk, but it’s the exact opposite.”
“The euphoria will fade,” Saul told her. “Your body feels like it’s been energized, right? That energy will stay there but the rush you feel now will slowly fade away as your body gets more accustomed to your new abilities.”
“Gee, thanks…buzz kill.” Nikki rolled her eyes. “All the same, it’s weird. Vampire or not, what we have is awesome for now. I don’t want any attachments. I’m good with just the sex. No goo-goo eyes and pining. I hate feeling like that and I don’t want to complicate what we have.”
“So you’re using a vampire for sex?” Saul chuckled.
“Yes. Is that okay with you?”
“Only an idiot would turn down such an offer,” he said, doing an exceptional job of hiding his slight disappointment.
“Exactly,” Nikki agreed.
Saul’s answering smile faltered
. “Listen,” he said. “I was visited by Benali, a member of The Guard, while you were sleeping. He told me that there is trouble coming. There are plans to rid the vampire lineage of my family. Before, when you were mortal, I you might have been spared, even though your life would have been in danger simply because you were involved with me. But now that you’re technically a vampire, you must know and prepare to face whatever is coming our way.”
“What’s coming?” Nikki asked.
Saul told her about the plan Benali had clued him into. He told her about how many of the larger families were planning to eradicate the smaller families, namely the Benton clan. He confided his ignorance of when the plan was supposed to be set in motion, as well as explained how he had contacted Jill.
“So I might get to meet your sister?” Nikki asked in the end.
“Yes,” Saul answered, amused that had been Nikki’s first questions.
“Will she hate me for making your life more complicated?”
“Not at all,” Saul laughed; such a strange woman, Nikki was! “No, no…she may like you that much more for it. You two have quite a bit in common.”
Saul then let out a good-natured sigh. If Jill did show up, how was he going to handle her personality while also getting accustomed to this new confidence-driven bite Nikki was exuding?
Damn these women, he thought with a smile. I’m going to have my hands full.
2
Nikki left Saul’s cabin later in the day. They had managed to not fall into bed again, instead hanging out as normally as they could. They straightened up the rest of the mess left over from the melee with Leibald and spoke offhandedly about the rumors in Red Creek surrounding the Benton clan.
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