Blood Trails

  Jeremy didn’t just want Hailey’s breath. He wanted all of her—her soul. He snatched her up in his arms, desperate to hold on to her even while he felt her slipping away. Jeremy kissed her in a frenzy of need, and the small sound she made, almost a sob, tore at his heart.

  She touched him softly. Brushed her fingers through his hair, gently. Where before she’d clung to him, scratched and demanded her due, now she was still in his arms, caressing him almost as if to soothe him. When she was the one so hopeless, so in need of solace and safety.

  Jeremy realized then that was exactly what this world was.

  Her sanctuary.

  Where she needed to be so desperately, where she was safe, and warm, and loved.

  Jeremy broke the kiss, touched his forehead to hers. “Christ, baby, don’t do this. Don’t leave me.”

  “I’m right here,” she whispered. For now. She didn’t say it, didn’t want to acknowledge it, but it was there, all around them, an hourglass turned upside down, sand quickly trickling away, time running out.

  Jeremy drew back. “How long do we have?”

  Again Hailey smiled sadly. “All the time in the world.”

  “Then let’s make it count.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Hailey felt the lie all around her. She embraced it, gave herself up to it. The strap of her dress slid off her shoulder. She pushed the other one down as well, letting the garment slide to the ground at her feet. She was bare beneath it. Exactly as she was, flaws and all.

  Because that was what Jeremy wanted.

  Her.

  Not an illusion of her, not some airbrushed model, just Hailey.

  She felt his gaze on her skin and it made her shiver. Faint rosettes bloomed all over her body, a scattering of spots she’d used to hate. In his eyes she saw his reaction and softened. They were beautiful, because he thought they were.

  “Ah, Hailey,” he breathed, almost like a prayer.

  Hailey choked back tears. “Touch me,” she whispered. If tomorrow never came she wanted, needed, to have at least this night.

  Jeremy came to her slowly, put his hands on her with reverence. He didn’t treat her as if she was fragile. He touched her the way every woman should be touched. As precious, and worthy, and beautiful. He brushed her hair back over her shoulder, sifted his fingers through it and watched it glimmer in the sun. It was like snow, or angel wings, shimmering with magic.

  She’d never looked at it like that before.

  With suddenly nervous fingers, she set to work on the buttons of his shirt. Jeremy didn’t rush her. He let Hailey take her time while he nuzzled her hair and caressed her skin. He was close, always touching her and with each pass of his hand, Hailey felt herself relax a little more.

  Finally his shirt fell away. His pants followed, and then he pulled her against him skin to skin and kissed her deep. Hailey clung to him, matched her tongue to his, gave herself up to it and let him oh so slowly stoke her passion.

  This wasn’t anything like their last time. Where before they’d been wild for each other, now every touch and kiss meant so much. The sheer intensity of it stole Hailey’s breath away. When Jeremy looked at her, she felt on fire. When he touched her, he left trails of molten lava in his wake.

  The world spun as he laid her in the soft grass, the sun above blinding her; but then Jeremy was there, shielding her from it, kissing her, stroking her. Hailey trembled, eager to go faster but somehow knowing he wouldn’t allow that. He’d meant it when he said they’d make this time count.

  She brought her knee up to cradle him and Jeremy rocked against her, teasing. Hailey could hear his heart beating faster. He wanted this as much as she did. Why was he stalling?

  She braced her foot and pushed until they rolled over and she ended up on top. She smiled down into his eyes, the color of dark sapphires in the sunlight. “This is my dream,” she said. “And in my dream, I want to play.”

  Jeremy blinked, uncomprehending until she wriggled down his body to settle between his legs. His shaft pulsed, hot and hard. Just looking at it made her mouth water for a taste and her body clench to feel it inside her. Jeremy said nothing, but when she grasped him and squeezed, he cursed on a groan and his head thumped back on the ground. He was up a second later, watching her.

  Hailey liked his gaze on her. It made her feel wicked. She licked the underside of his cock from base to crown and then swirled her tongue around the head before she sucked it into her mouth. His hips shot up but she held on to him, pumping her hand and using her mouth at the same time. Another string of harsh curses made her laugh around him, eliciting a deep moan of pleasure.

  He tunneled his hands through her hair, guiding her movements. She felt the growing tension in him, knew he was close even before he bit out, “Hailey, you have to stop.”

  But this was her dream. Her rules. Hailey took him deeper and his hands fisted in her hair but not to pull her away. Jeremy hesitated just long enough for Hailey to do it again. He shouted her name when he came, spurting into her mouth. She lapped at him, taking all of him, any way she could. Hailey was greedy for this man.

  In the next instant she was on her back again, Jeremy’s eyes scorching her. She gasped when she felt him hard against her again. “It’s my dream too,” he informed her.

  *

  Jeremy never wanted to wake up. Hailey smiled at him in challenge, wrapped her legs around him, and tilted her hips up in invitation. But if she got to play, he wanted to as well. He matched her smile with a devilish one of his own. “Turn around,” he said.

  Her eyes flashed silver and she slowly unlocked her legs, taking every opportunity to touch while she did as he told her. Jeremy leaned back to watch her pull her knees up and lift her ass up in the air, back arched like the cat she was. His cock throbbed to get inside her.

  He gripped himself with one hand and the swell of her hip with the other, coming up to kneel between her thighs. Hailey made a mewling sound when she felt him, reaching back to make him hurry. Oh, no. He wanted to take his time; wanted to tease her, drive her out of her head with lust.

  He wanted to see that incredibly soft fur he’d felt along her spine before, wanted to rub his face in it. She’d never be this open, this free with anyone but him, he vowed. Jeremy would be the only one who ever got to see her in such wild abandon.

  Hailey turned her head to look at him askance. The flicker of silver in her eyes nearly made him spill again. He teased the head of his cock against her entrance and shuddered. “So wet.”

  Hailey hummed in answer, rocking her ass to try and coax him closer. Jeremy resisted. Just barely. Reaching around her to her front, he stroked through her folds to her clit, reveling in the sounds she made. Jeremy leaned over her and kissed her spine, pushing slow and deep. He felt her tremble and, Ah, God, yes! There was that downy fur, the rosettes standing out stark against her pale skin. Not everywhere, but in swirling patterns. Artwork worthy of a master.

  Hailey arched her back more, pushed against him, drove him with silent commands to go deeper, faster. He couldn’t resist if he wanted to. He thrust into her, skin slapping against skin, feeling her squeeze like a fist around him. It felt more real than anything else outside of this illusory world.

  She cried out, her words muffled against her arm. Shock made him still, deep inside her. “What did you say?” It couldn’t be.

  Hailey pushed back against him, demanding he move. And she said it again.

  Hell no! Jeremy pulled out, flipped her onto her back and fell over her, bracketing her face with his hands. “Look me in the eye and say it.”

  She was panting, eyes unfocused, too far gone into her lust to guard her words. Even while her body strained again for him, she gasped out, “I love you.”

  He could have happily strangled her. “You’re only saying that because you think you’re going to die.”

  Hailey met his gaze, an inferno blazing in her liquid silver eyes. Instead of answering she pulled him down and kissed him hard. No
holds barred, no tender touches, it was all tongue and teeth, wild and hot.

  And so clearly a stalling technique.

  Jeremy broke away and buried his face in her shoulder. The scent of her clean, hot skin made him dizzy with want and he couldn’t keep from rocking against her. He wanted to believe her. Was desperate for her to mean it. “Fool is he to love the wind,” he quoted from an obscure text he’d found years ago. “That’s what sucks most about this, you know.”

  He raised his head to watch her face when he pushed into her again. He wasn’t gentle. “I love you so much it’s all I can think about,” he growled and thrust again, even harder. “I wake up and you’re there, even when you’re not. I look out the window and wonder if you’d like the view. I play music and wish you were there to hear it, too.” His words were punctuated with each slam of his hips and she gasped. “But to you I’m just a last-minute hot fuck.” One more time and she cried out, clutching his shoulders, claws digging in. “Well, you get what you asked for this time, babe.”

  He fucked her exactly the way she wanted him to, took out his frustration on her, but never hurt her. Even if this was a dream, he could never hurt her. She might wake up in the morning and recall nothing more than a hazy illusion, just like all the other times. She might not even remember she’d said those words to him.

  But he would.

  And for that, too, he wanted to make her pay.

  Hailey matched him, took his aggression, reveled in it, loved it. She’d wanted this and wasn’t shy about enjoying herself, thoroughly oblivious to the arrow she’d just shot straight through his heart. He felt her near her peak, then reached between them to stroke her clit and send her over. She screamed, claws scoring his back and making him follow right along with her.

  Jeremy hated her for making him feel this way. For making him love her, and despise her, and want to take care of her, and punish her all at the same time. She was driving him insane and there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, tunneling her fingers through his hair.

  Jeremy tightened his arms around her, furious, terrified that he’d already lost her. Even now, with their minds entwined so completely that he couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended he couldn’t shake the feeling that none of it had mattered. Deep in his gut, he somehow knew he might never see her again.

  Resentment coiled in his stomach. She’d never promised anything, had gone out of her way to let him know this was all she would ever allow him to have of her. His own fault for not listening. He’d chased this storm, let it sweep him up and give him wings, heedless of the wreckage it left behind. And the pathetic thing was, even as he crashed down, watching the storm move on, he still wanted to get up and chase after it again. Just to feel the wind beneath his wings one more time. Jeremy was sick of it.

  The sky began to bleed like a canvas doused with water; blue rained down onto the green grass; colors mixed and swirled, diluting and darkening, pulling them apart. He didn’t fight it, let the illusion crumble with a morbid feeling of satisfied relief that it was finally over and he could let his shattered heart die. He didn’t even look at Hailey again until it was almost gone.

  She was crying, her quiet good-bye.

  And he felt like his soul just got ripped out of him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Hailey was shivering when the alarm woke her. And it had nothing to do with the curl-your-toes, turn-your-world-upside-down erotic dream she’d just had.

  God, if only.

  She was freezing and the chills came in waves, sweeping though her body deep into her bones. The temperature in her room was seventy-five degrees. It was a bad sign. Hailey reached blindly for the syringe on her nightstand, nearly dropped it, her hands shaking too much to get a good grip on the small thing. She jabbed herself in the arm and collapsed back on the bed. The ceiling was spinning. It made her queasy to look at it, but closing her eyes was even worse.

  No regrets, Hailey had told herself a few months back. Then, as now, she’d been holding a syringe to her vein. No regrets. Such a simple concept and still she couldn’t wrap her brain around it.

  No regrets?

  She’d changed her body past the breaking point – literally. She’d completely altered the course of her life and it wasn’t exactly for the better. Maybe Amelia had been right about her all along. Maybe Hailey really was a reckless idiot for doing this to herself. It wasn’t as if she’d done it for some noble cause, for the betterment of humanity or some such crap.

  She’d done it to prove that she could. To show Amelia once and for all that she wasn’t in any way special, or better than Hailey. All through college, when Amelia had been working on her MD and Hailey had been living life to the fullest, beach hopping and sampling local brews, it had been so obvious to Hailey what a disappointment she’d become to her sister.

  Squandering her potential. Not taking responsibility for her life. Being the lazy, good-for-nothing brat who never worked for anything in her life.

  And Hailey had let her think that because she’d always known one day all of it would change. One day she would do something so phenomenal and amazing – without Amelia’s help or support – and then maybe she would regain some modicum of respect.

  Was it too much to ask for her sister to not judge her lifestyle? The fact that she’d been “squandering her potential” meant there was potential to squander. But somehow Amelia had never managed to see Hailey’s past her own. She’d been living in the spotlight so long it had blinded her to everything outside of it.

  So who was the bad one?

  Hailey sighed and sat up. It didn’t really matter in the end. Truth was, both of them had screwed up majorly. Amelia might have a stellar career, but she was a hermit because of it. If she had any friends Hailey didn’t know about them.

  And Hailey…

  Well, her current state was testament enough as to how messed up she really was.

  She wrapped the blanket around her when she stood and went to the bathroom. The floor was so cold it felt like stepping on ice. She turned the shower on all the way to hot, something she hadn’t done in months, and stepped into the spray. Hailey had to touch the wall to steady herself. She wasn’t leaning – yet – but the contact helped anchor her; otherwise she’d sway on her feet and probably bust her head open on the tile.

  Hailey waited to see whether her condition would worsen. It wouldn’t get better until she got the last injection, but if it got drastically worse, it would be in the next few minutes.

  Nothing happened.

  Not quite progress, but she would take anything at this point.

  At least the hot water stopped the worst of the shakes.

  Hailey dried herself and dressed in layers of clothing; it was the best she could do here. She put on three pairs of socks, but didn’t bother with shoes. She liked feeling the ground beneath her feet.

  “Startup medical equipment,” she said. The computers here were all voice activated.

  “Medical equipment ready,” the automated voice replied. Strange; it usually took a few minutes.

  “Locate. Dr. Amelia Chase.”

  “Locating. Dr. Chase is in the chemical lab.”

  “Is she messing with my stuff?” She better not be.

  “Dr. Chase is in the chemical lab,” the computer repeated. It did that when it didn’t understand the question.

  “Yeah, I got that, thanks.” Hailey headed in the opposite direction to the kitchen. She wasn’t hungry at all but she had to try and eat something. All the power in the world contained in thought, Hunt had said. Maybe if she just told herself she wouldn’t get sick it would work.

  Amelia came to her there just as Hailey was sitting down with her bowl of fruit salad. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Never better,” Hailey said. Ask a stupid question…

  “I went over your notes.”

  “Oh, God, here we go. You couldn’t have waited until I finished
eating? As if I’m not sick enough already?”

  “I was impressed,” Amelia said.

  Hailey almost dropped her fork. She stared up at her sister, waiting for the punch line. There would be one any second now.

  Any second…

  “May I sit down?”

  “Uh, yeah.” What was this, some kind of trick?

  Amelia sat and adjusted her glasses. “Listen, I’m … really sorry about yesterday. I handled the situation badly. I just… I got scared. But I want to help, Hailey. Any way I can.”

  Hailey put her fork down carefully. “Why? So you can put it in one of your medical journals?”

  Amelia nodded. “I deserved that. No. I want to help because you’re my sister and I love you.”

  “Well, that’s great that you had this epiphany, but you were right yesterday. There’s really nothing you can do.”

  “That’s not true. You haven’t finished the course of injections. We can still alter the last one.”

  “To do what, exactly?”

  Some of Amelia’s enthusiasm faded. “I haven’t really thought that far ahead. The truth is, you actually did a really good job with the virus this time. Under the circumstances I don’t think anyone else could have done better.”

  “Amazing how a death sentence can motivate you.”

  Amelia blew out an exasperated breath. “I am trying to make amends here. It would be nice if you could meet me halfway.”

  Okay, that did it. “Meet you halfway?” she repeated. “Where the hell have you been since Mom died? I’ve tried for years to reach you. I invited you to every outing I went to until I moved out. You never even looked at me. You just kept on typing on your computer and told me to go and have a good time. And now suddenly when I’m dying you have a change of heart and I’m supposed to meet you halfway? There is no way between us anymore, Ams. You burned all the bridges a long time ago. You left me on my own because you couldn’t deal. Well, I can’t be there to console you now. I’m too busy fighting for my life.”