Noose (Road Kill MC #1)

by Marata Eros

  Why she was in her underthings remained a mystery. She had better not have been tried, he thought, signaling the Reapers to flank the group.

  *

  Cole brought Rachel in closer to his body and with one arm put a restraining palm on Nathan.

  “No!” Cole yelled, straining against Nathan's charge. Nathan whipped his head around to Cole and said, “She is mine! I found her, she is not for the rogue!” His eyes were wild and pinned on Holly.

  “Look with eyes not consumed by lust!” Cole shouted. “They are a true, mated pair.”

  Holly slammed into Zach and got up on her tiptoes and began to kiss him, touch him. The blood on his face was inconsequential to her. She could not get close enough to him. He groaned into her mouth and wrapped her up in his arms, picking her up against him, even as his eyes took in the leader of their enemy coven.

  Zach felt every protective instinct he possessed fire up and come together into a pure rage, focused at the threat at hand. He watched the Reapers spread out and surround their group.

  He turned with the young Druid in his arms, assessing where his vampires were and saw that the match was even, their bodies already poised for battle.

  He let the girl slide down his front and felt a loss at their parting.

  Holly whimpered to the man that held her and clung to him. She knew that she shouldn't feel like she did but every fiber of her being screamed for him.

  Zach stroked her hair, pressing her face against his chest, hissing at the newcomers.

  His fangs dripped toxic venom onto the snow.

  *

  Alexander entered the deepest part of the clearing, taking in the two Reapers that appeared weary, the rogue that had been beaten and had all the protective hallmarks of a mated vampire. His eyes flicked to the girl pressed against him, mewling and whimpering in the first throes of Impression. If that rogue fucked her, she would be unable to bear offspring with another.

  Worthless.

  Alexander made up his mind quickly. “Take the Druids, kill the others.”

  He did not need Reapers in his coven that did not follow orders. Or who took a female breeder he wished to have for himself.

  Cole barely had time to lay Rachel down on the cold ground, her breathing shallow, her skin freezing in front of him before the first Reaper was on him.

  A Reaper he had been paired with before in battle, against others, who now fought him as an enemy.

  Nathan fought by his side, as before. Cole stayed in front of Rachel and the other Druid. Even though it was clear he could not have her.

  Duty prevailed. Protect the breeders.

  Zach moved Holly behind him protectively. “Stand back, little one,” he said to her, caressing her cheek with the pad of his thumb. She wrapped a small hand in the back of his shirt and clung to him. He turned and removed her hand. “I cannot protect you while we are under siege.”

  “Look out!” Holly screamed and Zach ducked as the swipe of a hand ending in talons narrowly missed where his head had been. He turned and launched himself at the Reaper, his own talons punching out of fingertips that had lengthened to accommodate them.

  Holly got low to the ground, crawling to the woman that lay there in the center of the firestorm of fighting. Immediately Holly saw that she was slowly freezing to death and took off her own shoes, putting them on the woman. She took off the parka she wore over another jacket and wrapped the woman's bare legs in it. It was the best she could do and not freeze to death herself.

  She covered the woman with her body and watched as the vampire she could hardly breathe without pummeled the other that had come to take her. Holly saw a large vampire advance on her and the woman and she burrowed in deeper beside her, making herself smaller. He looked bad. Worse than the one named Nathan.

  Nothing like the one that defended her.

  Cole watched Alexander advance on the women and redoubled his efforts to dispatch the Reapers. Nathan and he worked in tandem very well.

  It was no different now. Nathan got a strangle hold on with one Reaper, the breath torn from his body and Cole stabbed him in the skull with a talon, twisting it at the last moment, so the brain was scrambled, its signals--gone. The Reaper's body imploded into a pile of ash, as effective as removing the head. He and Nathan turned in time to see Alexander grab the young Druid and she shrieked.

  For the rogue.

  The rogue turned from the body of a Reaper he had just decapitated, dumping it like trash at his feet and flung himself toward Alexander. His Druid's blood made him choose rashly, impulsively. For Alexander was a thousand years old and this rogue was no match for his stealth.

  Cole could see the killing blow blossom from Alexander's hand.

  And then Nathan threw himself in the path of it. Committing suicide, saving the rogue, giving Cole the chance he needed.

  His chest tight, Cole attacked Alexander even as the last of his Reapers fell, a remaining rogue standing in triumph over the body, his face a bloody mask in the moonlight.

  Cole pierced Alexander from behind, his talons sinking deeply into his back and with a gurgled yell he flung the girl at the ground and Zach scooped her up against him, sprinting away from their fight.

  Powerless to stop it, Cole felt Alexander shift to heal his wounds, Cole's hand in the middle of it.

  Then he was away, his huge wings taking him into the air and over their heads. Eyes that glowed red looked down on the group for one--two heartbeats. He sailed off, swooping over the tops of the trees, splattered blood on the snow the only sign that Cole had pierced a lung.

  Alexander had escaped.

  Cole looked for Rachel, took in her strange wardrobe and scooped her up against his chest. Her life was held by the most fragile tether with the blade of the elements against it.

  Ready for severing.

  CHAPTER 8

  Cole stood over the frozen ground, the slight hump of the dirt the only marker that his friend, his comrade, Nathan lay beneath the dirt. Not in rest.

  In death.

  He turned from the hasty grave, the tightness in his chest loosening. His sacrifice would not be in vain. He would take the Druid women and they would flee.

  He came into the structure of the rogue, a fire blazing in the heart, shutters that kept sunlight out of the interior completely, open for an hour longer. Dawn was approaching. He could feel it pressing at the edges of his consciousness like a warning.

  He looked at where Rachel lay, a full grown woman swaddled as if she were a papoose. Still, she would need his blood.

  Again.

  The third time she had his blood would be the last. Their bond made unbreakable. Only sex, true penetration, would cement it sooner. Right now, to save her extremities he would have to give her blood.

  He had also needed to trust the rogue. Zach. It went against everything that Cole had been taught in his home coven. But the realization of Alexander's treachery was a fresh and rotting taste in his mouth. Nathan's death motivated him to trust those that before, would have been an impossibility.

  He could still smell Zach on her body. He knew they had been together intimately. He seethed. But Cole also knew the hold a mixed blood could have over a Druid. And their final act had not been consummated. It was a breach of trust which struck deep, causing every territorial urge to roar, to scream to take her now, before another could claim her. But as he looked at her fragility by the fire, he was unable to do it.

  He would feed her, then they would settle this unrest between them. As it stood now, watching Zach with the new Druid, Holly, curled up in a sleeping ball on his lap, that one would not be after his potential mate. His perfect mate had been handed up to him on a silver platter moments earlier.

  They regarded each other across the room. Both unsure of the future of the other.

  Could they reconcile their innate differences? Overcome them enough to flee together, begin anew somewhere else? Cole's eyes narrowed on Zach. He did not know.

  The rogue clutched th
e small Druid closer, stroking her hair and she made a sound in her sleep, her hand balling into the material of his shirt in a fist, burrowing in closer against him. His eyes darkened in response and he pressed her ever nearer.

  I opened my eyes, sweating lightly. My arms were pressed against my sides and when my vision cleared I could see Cole, his intense eyes black in the firelight. Guilt swept over me. I'd let my captor ravage me. I'd responded and all the while Cole had been making his steady way toward me.

  Never faltering.

  I closed my eyes against the rush of emotion. Tears escaped, leaking out the sides of my eyes.

  Then he was there, his arms grasping my shoulders. “Rachel,” he said in a low tone of inquiry.

  I opened them and what I saw there was acceptance. Not happiness, not yet, but hope.

  “I'm sorry. I was confused. I thought I would die... then Erik tried to...” I turned my face away and he brought it back.

  “You did nothing wrong. I know how the rogue progress. He would have been a fool not to try and mate you. You could not have known what had become of me, where I was.” He looked down for a moment and when his eyes locked with mine again, they flashed silver with anger and I shrank back against the fierceness they held.

  He unwrapped me from the heavy woolen blanket and when he sat me up, he grasped my shoulders, giving me a small shake. “But you are mine. And soon, we will make it permanent.” His eyes searched mine and saw a mirror of his own, uncertainty, hope and fear in a confusing mix.

  “I will not force you, but you realize it would be one group or another after you constantly, no matter where you were. You must be mated to cease their pursuit.” He rolled up his sleeve and tore into his own wrist.

  “Drink,” he commanded. I shook my head.

  “If you do not, you may lose the use of your hands, feet,” he indicated with a sweep of his arm.

  I knew that the more blood I had from him, the tighter the pull... bond, whatever the hell he called it, would become. I didn't want to be owned by someone, no matter how they made me feel. I looked at my hands, white even in the firelight and knew he spoke the truth.

  I grasped his forearm with both hands, unable to get around the girth of it and pressed my lips to what was offered. It was tangy and sweet, an exquisite assault to my taste buds. Not like the salty taste of copper when I'd bite my lip. I rolled my eyes up to meet his and he moaned his pleasure at my drinking from his vein. The harder I pulled from him, the more I wanted. It frightened me. The neediness.

  My greed.

  Gently, he extracted me, his hands slightly shaky. “Enough.”

  He pulled me next to him and with a final look at Zach, and the Druid sleeping against him. He fell asleep with one eye open, staring for a beat at the remaining rogue, guarding the door while we slept.

  The Vampire, one of the rogue and one of the coven of Alexander, shook off the bruises and scars of battle while they slept, their bodies repairing themselves for their next endeavor.

  Escape.

  EPILOGUE

  They ran but remained one step ahead of Alexander.

  Throwing themselves across the frozen terrain of Canada they slept were they could, fed on the criminals that were so plentiful, and gathered human food for the women.

  Little progress was made in their romances. Their matings. It was primarily about survival.

  Cole had a goal. He and Zach had become tight conspirators together. He ruminated on their conversations.

  *

  Cole pointed to the map, tapping the route and Zach interrupted him. “No, I believe White Horse Crossing is the very best straightaway.” He met Cole's eyes. “The cattle will mask our scent, Reaper.” He narrowed his eyes on Cole and he realized that Zach held him partly responsible for Alexander's pursuit.

  Zach had a short memory. After all, it was he that had taken Rachel from Cole. His Intimate the one who had perpetuated the worst betrayal. No, if blame was to be meted out, he would share equally.

  Zach thought about his next words carefully. “You propose we move toward Seattle, a low-light area.” He shrugged. “That latitude, although not ideal, will be enough.” Cole nodded. Hopefully, he would see reason. They needed to put their differences aside in the hope of a unified protection of the Druids. Their mates. That is what they would be shortly. When this tireless running stopped.

  Cole planted his large hands on his hips, smelling Rachel approach even before she made noise of it.

  She came from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning her head against him. Cole drew her into his body, smelling the hotel shampoo in her hair, thinking it lovely. But it was Rachel. Everything about her moved him. Her fragrance, that which she applied and what was intrinsically her. Something he never tired of.

  Holly also came to Zach, their relationship different. She was extremely young. Zach may have deliberated the taking of her entirely because of her age, earmarking her acquisition for the future. Nathan had obviously been overcome, beaten and tortured by Alexander, in the insatiable grip of blood lust, he had taken a Druid that was not yet ripe.

  Cole had to give grudging admiration to Zach, who as Holly approached, took her tenderly, stroking her jaw, cupping her face like a fragile egg. It was obvious to Cole that the Imprint was true, only their sexual communion needed to finalize it.

  Rachel began with her nightly wheedle of him. He understood her need for some human contact but it was dangerous. It was the very thing he wished to avoid.

  “Please Cole,” she implored. “Just take us to a bar. We'll blend, I swear it.”

  Zach chuckled. “Yes, our females blend so well.” His sarcasm spread thick like jam on toast. Cole gave a grim smile and seeing it, Rachel sighed. He was always so serious. It had been weeks since the threat of Alexander. She crossed her arms across her chest, cradling her breasts.

  Cole tried to tear his gaze away from her ripe breasts with an effort. Sleeping together and light kissing was all they'd managed. The four of them needed to find a safe place to land. And it was not here. In this time. It would wait until Seattle.

  Holly gave Rachel a grateful look.

  “Very well, we will escort you to the human bar. We will eat...”

  “We'll eat,” Holly giggled and Rachel smiled. The vampires would get their meals outside. In the cold. On the hunt. Rachel knew and shivered. Knowing their victims were the criminal dregs of society didn't make it any easier to justify.

  Although, when Cole had relayed the type of blood victims he picked, I couldn't get too worked up about them. Date rapists? It was a kindness that they didn't castrate them. Jerks.

  They got bundled up and the vampires went ahead of Holly and I, doing a careful reconnaissance before circling back around to pick us up. It had been three minutes but I had felt uneasy about Cole's brief absence. How fast I'd gotten used to him in the role as protector. I felt like a weak female, a role I wasn't accustomed to. But that was before creatures of the night began popping up all around me out of the weird-ass toaster of my new life.

  “Where are they?” Holly asked impatiently.

  “They'll be here, they're just checking to make sure it's safe.” I liked Holly but sometimes our almost ten year age gap made an appearance.

  Zach didn't seem to mind. They were some kind of “mated pair.” Like some preordained thing. I was trying to wrap my head around the existence of vampires.

  Check.

  I'd done that. Then I was trying to further believe that some strange witch’s blood concoction running through my veins made me a viable breeder for vampires.

  Blood suckers, creatures of the night.

  Check.

  But this? That there were certain Druids that were perfectly suited... no, only suited to one vampire of mixed descent. It was almost too much.

  Like winning a damn lotto ticket or something. I stifled a giggle. It was almost funny.

  But then I saw them with my own two eyes and it was the most obvious and natura
l pairing I'd ever seen. It gave credence to that old saying, “meant to be.” Zach hardly let her go to the bathroom without him there.

  And now they had not returned. I kept a neutral expression as Holly began to pace.

  When it became ten minutes since we'd seen them I went to the hotel door, a room bought from the spoils of the vampires.

  Their blood kills.

  Cole's voice echoed its warning even as I cracked the door.

  Don't ever open it. Don't advertise your scent, your whereabouts.

  I wasn't worried.

  I opened the door about two inches and met the victorious face of Alexander.

  I slammed the door and it burst inward, clipping my injured shoulder. I fell on my back as Holly screamed, running to the bathroom, a vampire behind her in a blur, he ripped her off her feet, covering her mouth.

  But it was Alexander that I couldn't take my eyes off. I scuttled backwards from him but he advanced on me.

  Hunkering down next to me he whispered, “Where is your precious Reaper now, Druid?”

  He lifted a chunk of my hair, smelling it the same way Cole had. But it was so different.

  Utterly different.

  I wanted to be sick, impotent rage filling me. It beat like a deadly pulse inside my body.

  I slapped his smug face.

  His expression darkened, my handprint made a livid mark on the paleness of his cold skin.

  He backhanded me almost playfully and my head spun. I fell on my back, stunned. My face went numb where he'd struck me.