The Naughty Box (9 books in 1 box set)

by Davis, SJ

  I nodded, not really comprehending my task. He opened the sky light and helped me to my feet.

  “I will be behind you all the way, don’t look back, don’t look down.”

  “Ok,” I finally spoke, “thank you?”

  “Horaldo, there will be time for proper introductions later.” He smiled and I felt that strange sensation again, from nowhere. I braced my hands on the edge of the window and he grasped my hips effortlessly lifting me on to the roof. I slipped a little then regained my balance. I could see the lights of the helicopter coming closer and closer and I could see a rope ladder hanging down like something out of a James bond movie.

  Horaldo was right behind me and he swung the window shut quietly.

  “Just grab, get safe, then hold on till we can get to a safe distance and get stationary for you to climb.”

  I nodded with sudden realisation of what I had to do. I was crapping my pants. Then a massive bang echoed beneath our feet and I heard the screams of the undead below. I screamed as one suddenly hooked onto the guttering and pulled itself onto the roof top. With ease and grace Horaldo skidded the length of the wet roof tiles, kicking a few loose and with a swift kick sent the zombie flying through the air, arms flailing madly. Another loud boom, louder closer and I knew then they were trying to get into the loft. The ladder was nearly within reach…

  “Grab!” Horaldo shouted.

  I jumped towards the ladder with every ounce of strength I had left. The rungs were metal and I latched on and then wound my arm around the rope side. When that was secure I did the same with my foot.

  Horaldo nodded saw I was safe and then went to leap onto the ladder too but at that moment a zombie broke through the pane of the skylight and landed on the roof. As Horaldo gripped onto the rope with one hand the thing made a leap and grabbed his other arm, instantly sinking its teeth in.

  I screamed.

  “God fucking damn it!” He shouted. “Mother fucker.” He then cursed a lot in broad Italian.

  He hooked a leg around the rope ladder and looked at me, the thing still holding on with a death grip and chomping on his arm.

  “Hold on tight.” And then he winked… winked!

  Horaldo let go with his hands and he and the creature dropped until his leg bore the brunt of both their weights. I could see the stream of blood pouring from his arm. I watched, unable to look away as Horaldo used his now free hand and he pulled a knife from a strap on his chest. In one motion he drove it into the back of the zombies head and it was still. Lifeless, it fell and hit the street below with an ear splitting thud. Horaldo used his good arm and with a swing gripped a rung near my face and hoisted himself back up. He saw my look of horror and panic as I look at the wound still pouring blood.

  “Do not worry.” He shouted over the whirl of the blade. “I’m immune.”

  I sagged with relief.

  I held on for dear life as we flew a short distance to a more secluded area and the helicopter hovered allowing me to climb with relative ease. Horaldo was right behind me, climbing despite his wound. A man was waiting at the top with the door slid open. I reached up and took his hand and he literally pulled me up and into the chopper.

  “Take a seat miss, fasten your seat belt.” He was wearing a helmet and green army gear.

  He bent down and then helped Horaldo up too. I did as I was instructed and fastened myself in. Horaldo took a seat next to me as the other man pulled up the ladder, shut the door and then joined the pilot.

  Horaldo pulled on a set of headphones with a mic and handed me a pair.

  “Malc, throw me a baggy.” He said.

  “We are out.” Came the reply in my ears.

  “Are you shitting me?”

  “Nope, I’ll radio base and have some waiting.”

  “I might not make it till then.” He laughed.

  “Let me take a look.” I said to him.

  He laughed a little harder.

  “It’s fine, thank you, it will heal. I exaggerate.”

  “Let me at least stem the bleeding, please.”

  I wanted to do something to help the man who had risked everything to save me.

  He sighed and took off his coat. He had on a chest holster with a few knives and two guns strapped to it. His expensive looking white shirt was torn just below the elbow and was saturated with blood. I lifted the material up and gasped.

  “Holy Shit!”

  “I know my fucking cashmere coat is ruined.”

  “Your arm! Half of it is missing.” I wasn’t exaggerating, chunks of flesh were missing from his forearm. I tore a piece of the sleeve away and tied it tightly as I could above his elbow.

  “Horaldo, you need a doctor immediately.” I said panicking.

  “I will be fine. Please sit back so you are safe,” he said, utterly calm.

  Then as I watched I gasped. Tiny strands of muscles wound out like worms knitting back together. I dropped him arm and shot back.

  “What the fuck!”

  I heard laughter from the cockpit.

  “Malachi stop!” Horaldo said half laughing himself. “It’s not even funny.”

  “You’d better explain yourself before she jumps ship and takes her chances below.”

  “What the hell are you?” I gasped.

  “What is your name?”

  “Nila… but what’s…”

  “Nila listen, there is a very good reason why this plague of undead has been dumped on Britain’s shores. It was to destroy us, our pack.”

  “Pack?” really!

  “They were engineered to wipe out our food source.”

  “Okay… what now?”

  “We are vampires Nila and before you say vampires don’t exist neither do zombies… but they do and you know that.”

  And just to further prove his point he smiled and two fangs slid down into place. This should have scared me a lot more than it did. A hell of a lot more.

  “We have set up a refuge, a safe house in the remote highlands of Scotland and we have so far managed to rescue just over ten thousand humans. Each day we go out and hunt for signs of survivors and other parties hunt for food to sustain our growing population.”

  I stared down at the floor, unable to speak.

  Horaldo gasped in pain and I looked up to see him flexing his fingers causing fresh blood to pump out of the wide gashes.

  “How long Malachi?”

  “It’s gonna be a few hours boss.”

  “Dammit.”

  And then it clicked.

  “Oh my God! Baggie! As in bag of blood?”

  “Yes, we heal faster if we are fed. As you can imagine with a population where there are so few humans blood is rationed heavily. I am lucky, I’m older I don’t need to feed often.”

  “How old?”

  “Older than your Christ pretty Nila.”

  “Fuck… off!”

  He laughed, a real hearty belly laugh.

  How could this be real, how could any of it be real. He gasped again.

  “God Damn!”

  “It hurts?”

  “Not the wound itself, but the infection. It doesn’t turn us but it burns like hell till we can fight it off.”

  “Would it help… I mean… it’s the least I can do… you can erm… from me.”

  “Do you have any idea what you are tempting me with there, Nila?” He smiled at me and his emerald eyes twinkled at me. God he was… stop it!

  “No idea at all, but you saved me so as long as you sort of leave me some it’s ok.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “No, but go on.”

  He removed his headphones as I held out my wrist and closed my eyes tightly. He gently removed my set and then took my wrist. I felt him plant a soft lingering kiss on the inside and I could feel my heart hammering wildly in my chest. I was waiting for the pain and the initial piercing of his fangs into my flesh was much like a jab at the doctors but it was instantly replaced with a rush of unexpected desire so strong that I embarr
assingly found myself getting very aroused. My nipples betrayed me and showed through the jumper I had on.

  I felt Horaldo drawing mouthful after mouthful of my blood. I moaned slightly and let my head fall back and rest against the seat. Even more embarrassing I could feel myself being shunted towards… you know where. Without being touched, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, less than twenty four hours after I had killed, yes killed, my long term boyfriend by beheading him with a cleaver.

  What fresh hell was this!

  I cried out a little as my body uncontrollably orgasmed and I desperately fought the urge to cry out again. I was relieved when he withdrew his fangs or maybe I wasn’t. God, I was a whole hot mess of confusion. Then to add lighter fuel to the hot mess Horaldo kissed me… I kissed him back. What the hell!

  Suddenly I was sixteen again all horny and hormonal. I hated it the first time round! I could taste my own blood as our tongues danced a little. Finally he broke away and grinned as I opened my eyes. He raised his eyebrow like he knew what had happened to me. I blushed a nice shade of beetroot red.

  “Look see!” He mouthed breaking the sexual tension and holding up his arm.

  “Holy shit!” I grabbed it. It was perfect. No marks or scars or bleeding.

  “Thank you.” He said with a genuine smile, we both picked up our headphones once more so we could speak.

  “Why don’t you sleep? We have a few hours and I’m going to touch base and find out the events of this evening.”

  I nodded both disappointed and glad that there would be some distance between us.

  He stood and made his way to the other side of the helicopter and disappeared into a seat behind the pilot. I was exhausted. I curled up over two seats and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep for the first time in weeks.

  Chapter 5

  I felt someone lifting me gently from my seat. I felt such a feeling of being safe and at home that I moaned softly and snuggled in. I heard my carrier let out a soft sigh and then I felt myself being laid on a bed. I opened my eyes. I was in a medical bay on a hospital bed. Horaldo smiled when he saw I was awake.

  “What time is it?” I asked sleepily.

  “Dawn, we just made it.”

  I wanted to ask him why we’d kissed. I wanted so badly to bring it up. I also wanted to maul over the whole vampire issue as well. More than anything I wanted to know why, even as we spoke then, I wanted him so badly, more than I’d ever wanted anyone in my entire life. I figured it was the lure of the vampire, must be. What other explanation could there possibly be?

  Horaldo looked almost sad looking at me. In the bright light of the room I could see how truly spectacular and unhuman he looked. He looked of another world, too beautiful to be real.

  “Thank you.” I whispered.

  He smiled and leant in, pausing when our lips were just a fraction apart and smiling ever so before closing the gap.

  I responded right away, like I had no choice. My lips parted and danced with his and his strong fingers wound in my hair holding me in place. His hand left my hair and trailed down to my breast kneading and teasing my nipple in turn. I was on fire. I almost pouted when he pulled away.

  “The doctor is on his way.” He said softly.

  “How do you… oh vamp hearing?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  Seconds later a young doctor came in, grabbed a trolley, and wheeled it over to where I sat.

  “I’ll take it from here sir. Master Vincent requested a full report before you sleep.” The doctor, a young man looked at Horaldo with utmost respect and a hint of fear. Horaldo nodded, gave me a sly wink and left. The doctor turned his attention to me. He had soft features and fair skin, with blue piercing eyes. He smiled.

  “My name is Dr Stewart. I’m going to do a quick medical check and then we will get you settled in.”

  I nodded.

  “Have you had access to regular food, water?”

  “Yes we managed quite well up until… yesterday. Our water supply had run out and we had to venture out. A zombie was hidden under some debris and it attacked my boyfriend, bit him.”

  “Were you injured?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Have you, at any time been in contact with any blood from any infected?”

  “I may have been splattered a little but I wiped myself straight off.”

  Mr Stewart went on to ask about my medical history. The truth was I was as healthy as a horse. I was never ill. He asked some fertility questions which I thought were odd and then came the slightly sinister side of the bargain. The price of my safety.

  “You are aware of the leaders of this safe house? What they are?”

  “Vampires? Yes, Horaldo was badly injured rescuing me and I allowed him to feed from me. Are you…”

  He laughed. “I’m not that lucky. We have managed to rescue just short of ten-thousand humans. We have an area that’s around three square miles fenced off and heavily patrolled and we have managed to set up quite a system within it. We retrieved plenty tents and caravans and such and us humans are quiet comfortable. We expect you to donate twice a month to maintain the vampire populous so I do want to prepare you for that. We extract the blood you are not fed on.

  “I guess a small price to pay.”

  “Indeed. Well you seem to be in excellent health so I will see about getting you a permanent bed.”

  “The vampires… how many are there?”

  “Just shy of a thousand and we have one special breed of vampire too.”

  “Special breed?”

  “Don’t worry yourself. Get settled in and I’ll organise someone to come along in a while and explain the system we got going on here. If you have fed Horaldo we should wait 2-3 weeks for your first official donation. Okay?”

  “Okay… I guess. The whole zombie thing is still kicking in, let alone…”

  “Vampires? Oh yes believe me this is a whole world of mess.”

  “World?”

  “Yup its everywhere now, we managed to radio some vampires in Italy and most of Europe has been wiped out now, Britain is probably the best place to be right now, there’s significantly less activity at night than a week ago. The undead are slowly dying out.”

  A soft knock on the door interrupted us and a small blonde girl in a grey tailored suit came in.

  “I have her a caravan prepared sir.”

  “Thanks Danielle. Can you show her the ropes please?”

  “Sure.”

  She motioned for me to get up and follow her. I rose from the bed and smiled back.

  I warmed instantly to the small pretty blond. She gave me a warm smile and motioned for me to follow. The doctor gave me a pat on the shoulder and a nod and we were on our way.

  Once we were out in the corridor she turned to me.

  “So zombies, huh? How surprized were you?”

  I laughed and smoothed down my filthy jumper.

  “Very, vampires too though.”

  “I knew about those already.” She winked.

  “Really?” I said in surprise.

  “Yup, it’s this whole looooonnnggg story but my bestie is this special breed of vamp and when she was turned she got me a job and I’m sort of dating a vamp too.”

  “Wow, I’ve really had the blinkers on. Is it Horaldo?”

  “I wish! No he’s called Malachi. It’s cool because he’s pretty high up on the chain of command so it means I’m exclusive to him.”

  “I think Malachi was on the helicopter when I was rescued.”

  “Ah so that’s how you know Horaldo. Go wait till you meet the head guy, Vincent. You will cream in your pants. Both he and Horaldo are ancient warriors, so hot.”

  I choked on my laughter as Danielle pulled a mobile out of her pocket. I looked at it in surprise.

  “They managed to get a network working, they picked like THE worst one.”

  She held a finger up as she answered motioning that she’d only be a minute.

  “Hey girl! You b
ack safe… how many did you get? Wow, that’s awesome… Fuck off! NO-WAY. JIMMY CHOO? Happy dance, happy dance. Okies,” Danielle squealed. “Nip by my caravan later k… byeee”

  “You sound happy.”

  “That was my friend I was telling you about. She can go out during the day so she’s on city detail. Cleaning up any zombies she comes across and rounding up stray humans. She’s been in Aberdeen there’s been quite a few survivors in the skyscrapers and flat blocks there. She was in one of the shopping centres and grabbed me a pair of shoes.”

  “Shoes?”

  “I have a thing about shoes.” She laughed. “How do you think we are dressing everyone we have a team of vamps who go out and retrieve food and provisions for us?”

  We had made it to the end of the corridor and walked out a double set of doors. We left the hospital corridor behind and it looked like we were in a stately home.

  “What is this place?” I asked looking at the lavish wallpaper of the second corridor and the old oil paintings.

  “It belonged to Malachi’s family when he was human and he offered it to Vincent because it’s in a really remote location. There’s a church on the plot with a really good underground crypt thing going on so most of the vamps reside here, or they have their own place outside the compound. There are loads of farmhouses and outhouses it’s a really big plot of land.”

  We came to the end of the corridor, which opened up into the main stairway. We descended to the front door and Danielle unlocked and opened it for me. I gasped in amazement.

  As far as the eye could see there was a sea of caravans.

  “Oh… my… God!”

  “Cool huh?”

  “How…?” I could see people moving back and forth and on closer inspection saw some caravans set up as coffee shops and I spotted one serving up food.

  “It’s like a refugee camp only…” I thought for the words.

  “Clean, posh with thousands of motorhomes and caravans?”

  “Yes. How is this even possible in such a short amount of time?”

  “One thing you will learn about vampires is they are bloody organised. They bring more caravans in every day. Some are hunting for food, we even managed to find animals and we have a farm with enough chickens now to supply fresh eggs.”