CREAM

by Zenobia Renquist

  She didn’t get a chance because he tackled her to the ground a few steps from his car. Gunshots rang out, stopping her from questioning his actions.

  * * * * *

  Teaghan pulled the hotel room door shut and had to stop himself from leaning against it. There would be time to reflect on the night after they got to a new hotel. Until then, he would hold off thinking about the way his heart had started pounding when he caught sight of Jeliyah being choked. He also wouldn’t let the urge to keep touching and holding her—assuring himself she was safe—make him reenter the room.

  He went to the lobby to check out. The woman behind the counter gave him a fake smile while her eyes showed her disdain for his choice in clothing.

  “Checking out. Room 115.”

  “Oh.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Sorry.” Her smile flipped from fake to real and she blinked her eyes several times. “Did you enjoy your stay?”

  “Fine. How much?” He didn’t have time for this. Not that he would have flirted with her if he did have time. She wasn’t his type. And she’d been less than interested in him until she caught sight of his canines. Vampire groupies were high on his list of women to avoid.

  “Your total is eighty-seven dollars and sixty cents.”

  Teaghan flipped five twenties off the wad he’d gotten from Lee earlier and handed them to the clerk. DJing was the only time he accepted cash. The money wasn’t much and it wouldn’t last so demanding jewels was a waste of time.

  The woman took the bills from him, making sure her fingers brushed his. He let her touch him since snatching his hand away would cause drama he wanted to avoid.

  The skin on the back of his neck crawled as someone with active necromes entered the vicinity. He’d told Jeliyah to wait at the car. Why had she come to the lobby?

  The second the question entered his mind, he realized the sensation moving over his skin didn’t feel familiar. Necromancers all had a feel unique to them—the magical equivalent of a fingerprint. After Jeliyah’s barrier spell the night before, Teaghan knew her flavor well. This wasn’t it. That meant another necromancer was near and had his necromes activated.

  Teaghan ran from the lobby. The clerk called after him but he ignored the woman. Dumas was here. Teaghan was sure of it. His necromancer was still alive and Dumas was using the man to hunt Teaghan.

  Teaghan cursed the presence of his marker and his own stupidity for forgetting it. But then he’d never had to hide from a necromancer before, at least not since becoming an enforcer.

  He caught sight of Jeliyah walking to the car at the same time he heard the shot. Teaghan dumped his duffel bag and put on speed to get to Jeliyah first. He slowed himself one second before he hit her so the impact wouldn’t kill her, knocking her to the ground behind the car. The bullet whizzed past her head but it was followed by several others aimed lower. Dumas was trying to hit them through the car. Teaghan would take the repair costs out of Dumas’ ass before taking the man’s head.

  Teaghan sat up, assured the bullets wouldn’t go through the car, and looked over at Jeliyah. “You hit?”

  She felt her arms and chest before shaking her head. “No. You?”

  “No.”

  “It’s Dumas, right?”

  “Has to be. I haven’t pissed off anyone else but you this week.” The gunshots stopped. Teaghan decided not to stick his head out and see why. Dumas might be waiting for that. And it seemed like Dumas wanted to take Teaghan out from a distance. Of the two, Didios was the better close-combat fighter. Dumas was as good as dead when Teaghan found him.

  He jabbed his finger at his shoulder where the marker was located. “Do something about this damn thing. It’s how he’s tracking me.”

  “So his necromancer is still alive then.” Jeliyah rummaged through the pouch dangling from her gun harness. She quickly jammed her rings on and then grabbed his head. “Don’t get any ideas from this.”

  He started to ask her what she meant but her lips landing on his answered the question. Teaghan sat in stunned shock. He came back to his senses when Jeliyah bit his lower lip. She sucked at the wound, tasting his blood, and then he realized what she was doing—besides making him hard when he should be worried about killing the mofo who’d shot up his car.

  Jeliyah pulled back from the kiss. Her upper lip and tongue were stained red with his blood. Her breath came in shudders and her grip on his head tightened as his blood entered her system, amping up her abilities.

  She pulled in a deep breath and then said, “Activate. Recognize.”

  Teaghan’s body hummed along with her necromes but it wasn’t painful or uncomfortable. The sensation could almost be described as soothing, like a tingling massage.

  She shuddered again. “Confusion. Ghost Status.”

  “What’s Confusion?”

  Jeliyah dropped her hands from his head and hugged her arms. In a shaky voice, she said, “Decoys. It gives every vampire in a one-mile radius a beacon that mimics a marker.”

  “Nice.” He stood. “You going to pass out again?”

  She shook her head.

  “You good on your own while I take care of him? We don’t know if Dumas brought someone besides his necromancer.”

  Jeliyah slipped on her bracelets and then pulled out her gun. It started humming along with her necromes. Good enough for him. Teaghan unsheathed his sword. Before he could walk away, Jeliyah said, “My necromes know you now. I can back you up from here without hitting you.”

  “Do it then. Where is he?”

  She closed her eyes. “Chasing shadows. Headed for nine.”

  “Can you track his necromancer?”

  “No.”

  “Keep me posted.” He tapped his head and then ran after Dumas. There were a lot of vampires in this district. It’s the other reason Teaghan chose hotels here. A rogue wouldn’t be able to pinpoint him. That was working in his favor with Dumas as well.

  You should see him. He’s almost on top of you. Jeliyah’s telepathic voice entered Teaghan’s head. She sounded as sweet as though she were whispering in his ear. Focus, vampire!

  Teaghan was always focused but that didn’t stop him from thinking about his blood inside Jeliyah. With it, her abilities were stronger and she could speak to him telepathically. It also meant she could read his thoughts…if he wasn’t blocking her. She could see his surface thoughts but nothing deeper. It was a one-way street unless he drank her blood.

  Not going to happen. Heads-up!

  “I see him,” Teaghan said aloud as an answer to Jeliyah and to give Dumas a one- second warning before Teaghan swung his sword at the man’s head. His sword hit a barrier, which deflected the sword and forced Teaghan back a few steps.

  Dumas turned, grinned at him and raised his gun. “I saw the way you killed my brother. I figured this would be poetic. After force-feeding the necromancer my blood, his Shield will withstand anything you and your necro-bitch toss at it.” He started firing.

  Teaghan dodged every shot but he couldn’t keep this up forever. A man standing off to the side caught his eye. The man had necro-metal cuffs around both wrists—Dumas’ partner no doubt. He stood crying and appeared as though he wanted to run. So why didn’t he?

  “Don’t even think of targeting my Renfield unless you plan to go rogue like me,” Dumas said.

  Fuck.

  Teaghan echoed Jeliyah’s sentiment. A necromancer turned Renfield—the slave of a vampire with no will of his own—was dangerous, so much more so than a necromancer who had tasted vampire blood. A Renfield-necromancer had the limitless energy of the vampire host to draw on, which meant Dumas’ partner would outlast Jeliyah.

  She said, It also means the higher-ups will lock him away for the rest of his life if you manage to kill Dumas.

  “Not my issue, necromancer,” Teaghan snapped as he deflected a bullet with his sword.

  When the hell would Dumas run out? Teaghan felt as if he were in some cheesy movie where the bad guys only ran
out of bullets when it was dramatic, otherwise their guns kept firing forever. And Dumas was getting better at anticipating where Teaghan would dodge. One bullet ripped through Teaghan’s pants, missing his leg. If he’d been wearing fitted clothing, that shot might have hit his shin.

  At least those stupid clothes serve some purpose. Incoming.

  A loud crack similar to a roll of thunder filled the air and Dumas was thrown off his feet. Beyond him, his necromancer clutched his chest before falling to the ground unconscious. Teaghan could still hear the man’s heart beating but it was faint. He would worry about the necromancer later.

  While Dumas was confused, Teaghan rushed him. He planted his foot on Dumas’ chest, breaking the man’s sternum, and then severed his head. Teaghan kicked Dumas a few times to vent his spleen before going to the fallen necromancer.

  He asked Jeliyah, “What did you do?”

  A full-force Break. Without Shield in place, Dumas would have been chunks all over the parking lot. His necromancer, even as a Renfield, was still below my ability. The recoil from his Shield collapsing must have seized his heart. Is he okay?

  “He’s alive. Without a vampire host to supply him, he’s back to human healing. I’m sure he won’t be thanking you later for letting him live.” Teaghan slung the man over his shoulder and rushed back to Jeliyah.

  She was still sitting on the ground behind the car when he came back. She hugged her arms while shivering.

  “You a’right?”

  “I’ve been better.” She planted her hand on the ground and started to push to her feet but lost strength and sat hard.

  Teaghan hooked his free hand under her arm and pulled her to her feet. “Never had vampire blood before, huh?”

  “It’s severely frowned upon. And by frowned upon, I mean a rip is the least of my worries if anyone finds out.”

  “Get in the car.”

  She opened the door and collapsed onto the seat with a tired sigh. “If I had tried a Break that powerful without the help of your blood, I would have been comatose by now.”

  Teaghan nodded at the answer to his unspoken question of why she was in such bad shape. She’d had his blood and should be able to heal at a faster rate than normal. “So you’re out of commission again?”

  “No. If I needed to, I could still do a few more spells.”

  “You don’t need to. Just sit there.” Teaghan laid the necromancer he carried across the hood of the car and then pulled out his phone. His first call was to Fredrick at the reserve. After the man answered, Teaghan said, “Dumas is done. Bring my money, the cleanup crew and an ambulance for his necromancer.”

  “The man is still alive?”

  “Barely. Dumas made him a Renfield.”

  “A Renfield necromancer and you still managed to defeat him? Your new partner is more powerful than I thought.”

  “Yeah, she’s something. Now hurry up.” He ended the call and holstered the phone. “What would happen to you if the higher-ups found out you drank my blood…without coercion?”

  Jeliyah let her head fall back against the headrest with a sigh. “Punishment for a rip is time with one of the campus’s resident vampires. How much time depends on the infraction.”

  “Yeah, I heard ‘bout that from someone who got the punishment—target practice for necro-trainees. He said those who run the campus handed him trainees that broke the rules and then egged him to take his frustrations out on them. Short of feeding, anything he did was kosher. Anything. And those left with him were forced to give an open invitation.”

  She gave a weak nod. “Make the punishment such that no one would ever think of committing a crime. Tasting vampire blood willingly is one step away from becoming a willing Renfield, or that’s how the higher-ups view it. A Renfield with a necromancer’s abilities is dangerous to all other necromancers, which is why they get locked up if they’re caught. To curtail the possibility, anyone found taking vampire blood will be used as the base for a new batch of necro-metal.”

  “Base? What’s up with that?”

  She laughed without humor. “It’s a little poetic that necro-metal is made from blood, considering we use it to fight vampires. High classes donate a few pints a year to create new batches of high-grade necro-metal. Costs a mint. Middle classes like me donate the blood to make the necro-metal we use.” She gestured one hand to the other. “This is me mixed with stainless steel and hematite.”

  “So they bleed offenders.”

  “Continually. Bleed them slow enough that their blood replenishes and they don’t die. The blood is used for necromes that the campuses sell. If the offender is low-middle and below, the necromes are given to trainees. Shortest bleeding term is five years. Longest recorded was sixteen but that was for a longtime offender. Afterward the necromancer isn’t good for much so they serve out the rest of their career until retirement—if they can reach retirement—doing the jobs of a low class—maintaining the campus and teaching trainees.”

  “Why the fuck did you bite me? You want to stop being my partner bad enough to let the higher-ups bleed you?” Teaghan barely kept himself from yelling the words. There were people around. He didn’t need someone overhearing this conversation.

  “The only thing I could think of,” she said in a tired voice. “Dumas was using his necromancer. That meant he might be a rogue himself or a Renfield. Either way, my help wouldn’t have been worth dick without the boost from your blood to even the fight. And I needed my necromes to recognize you so I could help you fight without hitting you.”

  Teaghan started to ask her another question but stopped when the sound of the ambulance siren reached his ears. It was about five miles away, if that much. That meant Fredrick—or whoever Fredrick had sent—and the cleanup crew weren’t far behind. He said to Jeliyah, “Play dead. We’ll pick this up later.”

  “That’s not going to be hard to do.” She closed her eyes with a tired sigh.

  He looked over her face to make sure no trace of his blood was on her. His lip had long since healed. He’d known this woman two days and he was already convinced she was crazy.

  “I’ve been called worse,” Jeliyah mumbled.

  “Shut it. I told you to play dead.”

  “Yes sir.” Her tone was mock militant, which made Teaghan smile. He had something for her smart ass later. First he had to deal with the wrap-up for this hunt and find them a new hotel.

  Chapter Five

  Jeliyah floated in and out of consciousness as Teaghan cleaned up after their latest hunt. She caught snippets of conversation and pieces of Teaghan’s thoughts but didn’t try to make sense of any of it.

  Play dead…or at least play wiped out and recuperating. Which at this point, she wasn’t playing. Jeliyah couldn’t move if she wanted. She hadn’t lied. If not for Teaghan’s blood, her little stunt with Break would have put her in a coma.

  It scared her that she hadn’t questioned her decision to take his blood. But the hum of Leslie’s—she’d recognized the man when Teaghan brought him back—necro-metal had spurred her into action. She didn’t know how far away Leslie had been from her when she felt it, but the power of his necromes had bumped against hers the second she put on her rings.

  She hadn’t felt that when she came up against Leslie, the twins and the other necromancer. She hadn’t felt anything. If not for Dumas and Didios heading straight for Teaghan the moment he arrived to take out the rogue, she wouldn’t have known the twins had necromancers with them. True, no enforcer was supposed to hunt without a necromancer, but it wouldn’t have been the first time an enforcer disobeyed that particular mandate.

  Leslie’s power boost, which put him on level with a middle-high class and announced his presence—though not his exact location—to any necromancer in the vicinity meant he’d tasted vampire blood.

  Jeliyah had put her necromes in full deactivation two seconds after Teaghan decapitated Dumas. She didn’t want anyone feeling her power the way she had felt Leslie’s. She was in no hurry to be b
led, despite what Teaghan might think. Since she hadn’t been in a hurry to die either—and she was sure Dumas would have killed her after Teaghan—she’d decided to do the one thing that would keep them both alive.

  The car door opening jarred her awake. She looked up at Teaghan, who loomed over her. Without a word, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the new hotel room. How long had she been sleeping that she had missed him checking in to a new hotel?

  The sun rising in the distance was her answer. They’d left the club around three in the morning. That meant it was past six. She’d gotten an hour-long nap, if that much. At least it felt as if she’d gotten more. She attributed that to Teaghan’s blood in her system.

  While she could walk on her own, it felt good letting him carry her. She enjoyed the ride as Teaghan climbed the stairs to the second-floor landing of the motel and headed for the room he’d gotten them.

  Teaghan kicked the room door shut behind him and then laid her on the nearest bed. “At least this time you’re not glowing. Let’s not make a habit of this.”

  “I feel the same.”

  “Then again…” His gaze wandered to her breasts.

  Images of Teaghan running his hands over her breasts and teasing her nipples entered her mind. She reared up and smacked him at the same time she brought her other arm up to guard her chest.

  Teaghan didn’t react except to grin at her. “You’re flushed, necromancer. Your heart rate jumped too. My little idea get you all hot and bothered?”

  She glared at him.

  “No? How about this one?”

  A mental picture of Teaghan yanking off her panties so he could run his tongue over her clit invaded her mind. The detail was so vivid Jeliyah felt her pussy twitch in anticipation. Damn the man and this stupid mental connection. It might be one way, but she had access to his thoughts and now he wasn’t trying to hide them. “You can’t do that without an invitation.”

  “So invite me.”

  “Shouldn’t you be going to sleep? The sun is up.”

  “Sun’s got nothing to do with me.” He moved closer, planting his hands on either side of her legs and leaning into her. “Invite me.”