I can’t stand the tension brewing in the car. I want my vampire back. “Kind of funny, the man named Elon drives the car created by an Elon.”
“Is it? Or did Elon, the creator of said car, have help in creating a vehicle as stealthy as a vampire from a man named Elon?” The side of his mouth rides up in a smirk as he riddles my own words. Ranissa’s still searching, but my need to know is making my ass itch. He’s not ignoring me anymore, so what the hell.
“What’s a Berserker?”
Dusty hiccups in the back seat. Elon’s jaw ticks as his head twist away from the road, landing his narrowed eyes on mine. “Where did you hear that word?”
“Elon, don’t be a wanker,” Dusty admonishes. “Blondie number two back here is seconds from figuring it out. I swear I can smell smoke rolling out her ears from how hard she’s searching. It’s better if they hear it from us. Odin wouldn’t let this nugget of information slip by.”
“Fine,” he huffs.
Dusty taps my sister's knee, snapping her out of gathering mode, advising how she will want to hear this.
“We, as in all vampires, are Berserkers. Warriors who fought at Odin’s side. They were the perfect soldier. Almost impossible to kill, no differentiation between right and wrong; immeasurable strength and endurance and slaves to bloodlust. Ruthless killers without a conscience, loyal to only Odin. As the Viking gods lost importance to Christianity and humans consumed the land, sending all who weren’t mundane into the shadows, the need for Berserkers faded. Odin couldn’t allow them to feast on the very people who worshiped him or continue to kill off what remained of the Wathes. While man and woman welcomed the shifters, wolves, and other regal creatures to share their bodies, no one wanted a bloodthirsty killer. A loyal warrior would rather die than surrender, so with the help of a powerful mage and a Valkyrie, the last remaining Berserkers inhabited humans without their consent. Odin was powerless to stop them without wiping out humanity, so he tagged them with enough self-awareness to curb their need for human blood.”
“Oh God,” Ranissa gasps. My stomach somersaults when I see her hands covering her mouth and her face ashen. “And if the emergence of guilt didn’t stop them, he issued the prophecy about slayers to rid the world of them.”
Silence befalls us while my sister and I process the information. A series of sharp turns later, Elon steers us into a parking lot. Jungle Helpers Biodome blazons in bright flashy eco-green on the digital sign. The building is a simple, single-level house with a full-length oak porch, jade roof, and gray siding. Below the peak is a picture of a momma gorilla holding her baby, reaching a hand to a child in a wheelchair. The words Certified Support Animals arcs under the image.
Behind the structure is a sprawling forest, expanding as far as the eye can see. A flowing bubbling moat-style creek surrounds the property along with a mile-high chain-link fence. Several cars fill the parking spots, but Elon whips the Tesla into a garage around the side of the building. It makes sense for him to park indoors with all the sun warming the lot. His Smurf blue skin is too hard to explain. We exit the car but don’t enter the facility. Elon and Dusty crowd us in a storage room. A scanner lowers from a push-panel in the wall. After a retinal, thumb, and voice scan, the wall slides open and we step into a stainless-steel elevator. Yet another security measure fills the box with orange light. A mechanical friendly female voice says, “Welcome Mr. Ford and Ms. Cain, please identify your guest with a drop of blood on the keypad.”
Elon grabs my hand as Dusty grabs my sister’s, both pierce our thumbs with a fang, adding the spot of crimson to a piece of gauze on the control panel. It happens faster than we can protest. Elon seals mine with a second swipe of his tongue. A scuffle behind us sets my baby hairs on end. I spin, yanking my sister behind me as Elon uses the width of his body to block us. Dusty is no longer standing, but her snarling hiss fills the enclosed space. My eyes travel up the wall, finding her crouched in the upper corner. Hands stuck to the ceiling and feet glued to either wall, she hovers. Wild auburn hair hangs in her face as she snarls. Eyes glowing scarlet and fangs snapping, her monster disfigurement devours her beauty.
Elon snags Ranissa’s hand, sealing the tiny puncture as he did mine. I’d be jealous if it weren’t for his scrunched face and sour head shake. He punches in a quick code before opening another small door in the elevator. His eyes never leave Dusty as he pulls a bag of blood out of the box. My hand on my sister’s, I mentally order her to stay still.
One hand raised in surrender and the other waving blood, Elon scales the wall like Spider-Man shoving the bag against Dusty’s exposed fangs. He whispers words too low for us to hear.
“Identification verified. Welcome, Daughters of Odin,” the computerized voice welcomes. With a slight jerk the box rockets down, reversing gravity so fast my stomach flips. Before I can grapple for a hold we slow, the doors open, and Elon whisks Dusty down a hall.
Geri, Parker, and Lex greet us with another man, too gorgeous to be human, and his white eyes rimmed in red give him away. He extends his hand. “Hi, I’m Trevor Murphy. Guess the blood ID was more than stone-cold Dusty could handle, huh?” He chuckles, looking us up and down. Faster than a blink he’s in our face so close the rugged lines of his tanned face blur.
Lex jerks to block us, but he’s no match for vampire speed.
Nerves on the defensive, I strategize but sense no threat from him. Tall and toned, with shaggy platinum hair enhancing the crimson circling his colorless eyes, he’s surfer dude sexy. His scent of leather and gasoline contradicts his beach bum good looks. Next to me, Ranissa hums about the glorious scent of libraries and old books. My bond with Elon prevents Trevor’s vampy charm from enticing me. Since they can’t turn it off, I’ve got to prevent it from swaying her before she offers herself as an entrée to one of these blue people eaters.
Lex rambles words in what sounds like Latin. The air electrifies as a coil of amber swirls from his palm to Ranissa’s feet, curling up her legs before arrowing into her chest. Her bite me willingness vanishes.
I cock a questioning brow at Lex. He shrugs, “Anti-Vermin incantation I learned the first week of class. Meant to repel lice, ticks, and mosquitoes. Guess it works on all bloodsuckers.” He drapes an arm over my shoulder, pulling me tight to his side. “Pays to have a mage in your corner.”
“Not sure an untrained mage helps anyone.” Elon appears, startling me. He removes Lex’s hand from where it dangles over my boob as I curse his stealthiness. “Come with me. We have a few things to discuss.” His fingers weave with mine. “Trevor give them the ten-cent tour before setting them up in the training room.”
I nod to Ranissa, asking if she’s okay alone with these guys. She replies with her surety over Geri, Parker, and Lex having her back. Trevor leads them down one side of the split hall, while Elon guides me through the one he disappeared in with Dusty.
We pass several rooms with open doors. Inside each, a curious icy-eyed vampire dressed in a white coat watches us pass while they hook IVs to primates. The animals don’t seem distressed, but taking from an animal who can’t give permission rubs me the wrong way.
He key codes us through a heavy steel door at the end of the hall. Inside, Dusty sits on a thick cushioned cream sofa with her head hanging between her shoulders and her face in her hands. Soft beige colors the walls and tinted glass windows sit opposite the door. To one side a pocket door hangs open, revealing a pitch-black room where I can just make out the shape of a bed in the center. Beside it, another opening reveals a bathroom. In the compact living room, a couch, a matching love seat, and wide overstuffed chair sit facing a large television hanging above a fireplace. The sun through the windows provides enough light to fill the room. Though it lights Dusty her skin isn’t blue. When I turn to Elon, neither is his.
“The windows in the facility are bespelled to block the UV rays. Don’t want to scare the human employees with our true nature,” he answers before I can ask. “I don’t entertain those who require susten
ance. I have water and coffee.”
My eyes trained on Dusty, I tell him coffee. Shoes sinking in the thick carpet under my feet, I move to the love seat keeping a suitable distance between her and I. Despite every molecule of air around me being infused with Elon’s scent, I can still smell his innate signature on her.
Without looking up she mumbles, “I’m sorry I lost my composure with your sister. I haven’t succumbed to the bloodlust for decades. Hers was a temptation I wasn’t prepared for. Must be Odin’s influence calling out to me. Since he condemned the Berserkers, we all carry the desire to destroy any part of the man we once adored.”
“How do you go from a sentient being named Berserker to a vampire?”
“Our aversion to light, penchant for blood, and the carnality we live by all needed a label apart from our tie to Odin. When the first monsters took over their hosts, the villages labeled us vampires. The beast face and fangs fit some description from folklore where they lived in Eastern Europe.”
Elon eases down beside me, handing me a steaming mug while passing another with thick red liquid to Dusty. “Where do the primates fit in?”
“Odin’s touch of empathy keeps most of us from drinking from humans. The early immortals tried hunting animals, but once we drink from a person, the bloodlust takes over. Two of us can drain an entire village before the inhabitants even know we are there. Being the perfect killing machine, people offering us their necks is too hard to resist to some. The only exception to what we are is finding our mate. Drinking from you,” his fingers trace the veins in my neck, “makes me more human. Another gift from Odin, once we proved we weren’t all unlovable savages. When I was made, I fought my nature to the point I almost starved to death. Hunting animals is the only thing that kept me alive, but it never quite dampened the desire for a nice fleshy warm body. I traveled the globe sampling varied species.”
“Ape is closest to human,” I murmur, taking a sip of my sweetened to perfection java. “I can’t be okay with you sheltering and befriending only to kill them for food.”
“We don’t kill them, Nicole. My sanctuaries save them. Humans experiment on chimpanzees more than any other animal. Their DNA is ninety-nine percent identical to people. For the same reason they appeal to us, they react the way you would. Yes, my doctors and primatologists gather their blood, but I promise they live a good long life. Some of my best friends swing from the trees in the compound. Plus, in the past ten years we added the companion program to help disabled, sick, or otherwise challenged persons. We do monumental work here and at all our sanctuaries. But there are still some who refuse to live by the rule that humans are friends and not food.”
I chuckle at his Finding Nemo reference. Dusty returns her cup to a counter lining the far wall, where nothing sits but a coffeepot and dorm room size refrigerator next to a single basin sink. “I will monitor the others. Hopefully the wannabe mage knows how to block the influence of the Nodens sisters’ blood.”
I hear the door snick shut but can’t drag my stare from the black swirling contents of my mug. “So something called Ranissa and me forth to kill your kind?”
“Among other things, yes. The first mission fast approaches but that’s not the big question shaking up your brain, is it? Ask me about Dusty.”
“She smells like you. Not in a I hung out in Elon’s bachelor pad for a super-secret Scooby club meeting way, but in the slightly I gobbled his cock way.” He flinches from my vulgarity, but I’m out of fucks to give. I’m not the type to fish for compliments by drawing circles around the parts I dislike. The advantage of having an identical twin is whether I like what I see in the mirror or not, I love her and think she’s perfect inside and out. Knowing we are two halves of the same person explains why we’re carbon copies, right down to the smallest freckle. It isn’t vain to see my sister as beautiful, in turn finding the same beauty in myself. But whatever Dusty is to Elon, I can’t be and it’s a gut-churning kick straight to my lady balls.
“Until you flew from the water landing me in a chokehold, I scoffed at others ideology of matedom. A silly bedtime story created by the human host to the embodiment of sin. Blood made me a monster, blood is the fountain of life, and I’ve spent my immortality protecting the very creation who took over the earth. People in all their simplicity, ignorance, and fragility are the reason the monster inside ate my soul. Once the bloodlust addiction is unleashed, the vampire is a lost cause. My crew tracks others like us who are struggling to fight it. We offer them a sort of salvation and save many humans in the process. Because I drink from animals, blood doesn’t control me, meaning a tiny fraction of man is still alive in here.”
He wills me to understand with his eyes, while tapping an open palm over his heart before he continues. “Dusty filled the ache for companionship, she satisfied the urges of my man, and because I could bite without killing her or setting off a chain reaction mass murder, she quenched the monster’s thirst for an open vein. We’ve spent a century using each other without recourse or strings. I believe the cool kids are calling it Netflix and chill, nowadays.”
Hearing how the man you love has been shagging the same woman for a hundred years rears its own unkind beast inside your belly and heart. The green-eyed, slobbering, piss all over his leg to mark your territory, stitch her vagina shut, pull out her fangs with pliers, and stab her eyes out jealousy beastie. His attempt at modern slang rings funny from his mouth, but I still want to hurt her.
He stands, steps between my legs, and kneels. I force a placating smile, hoping it disguises my sinful envy. Eyes locked on the plain champagne wall, I pinch my lip between my teeth. His hands cup my cheeks, forcing my diverting stare to his white glaciers fringed in sweeping black lashes. “Because of you my heart beats, my skin is warm, and the man wants you more than his next breath. Two days ago, the edges of my world were forever painted crimson because blood is life, but now, I feel my soul and nothing matters more than my next moment with you. There is no before, there is only you and what comes next.”
Holy shit, he’s so full of cheese he needs a cracker, but damn if I’m not devouring it all like a pothead with the munchies. He’s singing a glorious song and my heart is on its feet doing The Floss in celebration. I want to black out reasoning and destiny with a big fat-tipped Sharpie, redacting the ‘we should be doing this’ in lieu of tackling him to the ground. But all this Odin-ness taps inside my skull, reminding me there is a mission and I need to prepare.
I’m supercharged with Viking blood and everyone knows they were a randy bunch of bastards. If I were versed in all things sex, I’d say fuck it and then fuck him. My body shivers at the thought, but my scenes of knocking heads, clanging teeth, and my total bumbling virgin ineptitude warns me to exit stage right. Whatever mystical force deemed us mates deserves a time-out sentence of taking a class in slow burn, learn as you go relationships. This insta-love, insta-wanna-screw, insta-he’s all that and a Netflix subscription is a load of I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.
“Great, yes, got it. Dusty is your prick cushion cock-u-bine. Good to know.” I wiggle out of his hold, worming around his knees to push to my feet. I’m too hot in my skin and my cheeks hurt from the width of my fake smile. “How bout we mosey on out to wherever you’ve stashed the others? Figure it’s best to debrief us together.”
In a flash of vampire speed, I’m draped over his shoulder fireman-style. A slight hiccup leaves my throat from pressure on my abdomen. One breath later, he drops me on his bed. “This is presumptuous,” I blurt, glancing around the dark room.
“No. You need a human minute to pull your head out of your ass, and I need a vampire one to keep from tying you to the bed until you empty all the crazy your imagination is concocting. We’re staying right here for however long it takes for you to get over the petty jealousy and realize we’re permanent.”
Chapter Sixteen
I hear him wearing a path in the carpet. When he first dropped me, I couldn’t see anything in the windowless
room. My eyes adjust and the darkness fades. Like the night in the woods, I can see every nook and cranny with perfect clarity. After a glance at my surroundings, I focus on the man staring a hole through my skull with frustrated pinched lips and unblinking pale eyes.
During my perusal, I noticed Elon’s scent is weakest in here. “Don’t use this room much, huh?”
No, I will not entertain the wonderment of all the areas other than a bed where he fucked the she-beast.
“Dammit, Nicole. Deal with me.”
“Oh, like you did when you ignored me all the way here?”
“Right. We both need to communicate with honesty.” His face grows pensive. “Perhaps we commit to monogamy and back burner our feelings. With the upcoming mission and the training, I don’t want your life endangered because you’re distracted by something I did. What we have isn’t going anywhere. You’re mine. I’m yours. Slowing things down won’t change that. Becoming physical is an extension of us, and it doesn’t matter when, or if, we ever do because this isn’t about attraction or want. The very breath you breathe is my siren call. Each pump of your heart beckons me closer. My soul is interwoven with yours. Holding you, kissing you, connecting on any level will fuel me for an eternity. So, we put on the brakes and when the world doesn’t end, I’ll court and woo you the way a gentleman should. If it’d help, I’ll ask Trevor to wipe your memory of me.”
“The first time we meet eyes again, the bond will reform—”
Worry and loss slows his blinks. “I’ll step away. Dusty, Trevor, and your friends will train you. I’ll use Trevor as the go-between. You won’t remember I exist until after your mission.”
I can’t fathom a power great enough to make me forget he exists. My heart drops to my feet at the very thought of it. I’m uninfluenced by him because of our bond. Ranissa swirled under Trevor and Dusty’s charm, yet I didn’t. The specifics of mates are an anomaly to us both, but I’m not willing to gamble on the intensity of what we share. The universe picked a piece of every romance hero, melded them together, and created Elon Ford before dropping him into my path. From the flop of ebony hair on his forehead to the sexy way his jeans bunch around his ankles, he’s pure temptation without all the vampire extras. His low smoky voice symphonies through my eardrums. He is made for me to love.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 87