Eternal Hunger

by Cameron Dean

I shook my head. “Not as far as I can tell.” Abruptly, I felt tears threaten. Blinking to hold them back, I gave one of the ruined sofa cushions a jab with my toe. If I could stay mad, maybe I wouldn’t give in to my sudden impulse to fling myself into Carl’s arms and cry like a baby. “I can’t promise for sure.”

  Carl was silent for a moment. I could feel his eyes studying my face. “They tore up the cushions pretty good, so I guess that means they got your stash of heroin.”

  It was the right, and the wrong, thing to say, all at once. I felt myself give a spurt of laughter in pure relief. The next second, the tears began to flow.

  “Dammit!” I said. “Now look what you made me do. Dammit all straight to Hell, Carl.”

  “And back again.” He pulled me toward him, tucking my head into the crook of his neck then wrapping his arms around me to hold on tight. “You know, sometimes it’s better if you just cry and get it over with. Let it all out.”

  “I hate crying,” I wailed, then laughed. If I’d ever sounded more petulant and ridiculous, I wasn’t sure when.

  “I know you do,” Carl said soothingly. “I know it, sweetheart.” He turned his head, pressed a quick kiss to my temple. “Do it anyhow.”

  “Being nice only makes things worse, you know.”

  “Well, damn,” Carl said, entirely without heat. “And here I’ve left my billy club in the car.”

  I gave a watery laugh, leaned back so we were face-to-face.

  “Carl, I…”

  I saw the second the need flashed into his eyes. Potent, outrageous desire. Long withheld, maybe even long-suffering, but never entirely gone. His arms went rigid. I saw his eyes flick down to focus on my mouth.

  “You are hurt,” he said. “Candace, there’s blood on your mouth.”

  I lifted it up. He brought his own down to meet it.

  Sweet, sweet Jesus, I thought. But it feels good to kiss you, Carl. Gently, at first, as if he feared to hurt me further, then with growing intensity, Carl’s mouth moved against mine. Warm, vital, alive. I parted my lips, deepening the intimacy, and met the insistent probing of his tongue with my own. My hands curled against the base of his neck, where my head had rested just moments before. And I felt it then, the quickening beat of his pulse.

  I groaned into Carl’s open mouth, felt the instinctive tightening of his arms. This, this is what I want, I thought. This sweetness. This strength. I let my mouth leave his to wander across his jaw, down the side of his neck, until I could bracket that pulse with my open mouth. This life, I thought.

  I put my tongue against Carl’s neck. Felt the beat of his pulse, running high now. I heard his quick breathing, felt his hands at my breasts, and knew that I could take the thing I wanted and he would never know what hit him.

  Blood. Now and forever, it is always about blood, I thought.

  Although the sight of Randolph’s blood had horrified me, here with Carl so close, so vulnerable, I was beginning to understand the power of the bloodlust. So many possibilities. So many desires, just waiting to be explored and satisfied. I could feed on Carl Hagen until my mind hazed high and hot and red. Strong and fit as he was, he would be powerless to fight, powerless to stop me. I began to writhe in his arms, and then, without warning, I heard Ash’s voice.

  “Candace!” he said, his voice like the crack of a whip.

  Carl was on his feet in a blur of movement, pushing me backward, shielding my body with his own. His gun appearing in his hand as if by magic. Ash stood in the living room doorway, staring down the barrel of Carl’s gun. Neither man moved a muscle.

  “Carl,” I finally said, as quietly and calmly as I could. “This is my friend, Ash. You remember, you met the other morning.”

  For an endless second, I thought Carl was going to deny the knowledge. Then, with the kind of quick, economical gesture I remembered so well, he pointed the gun away and holstered it.

  “Of course I remember,” he said. “Great to see you again, Donahue.”

  I might have laughed then, if the situation hadn’t been so dire. I hadn’t reminded Carl of Ash’s last name; he’d remembered. Carl was a cop. Collecting and assembling details was what he did for a living, and I knew for a fact he was damned good at his job. Not only did he remember everything about that first meeting with Ash, he had probably run a background check on him.

  “I was going to ask if you had a safe place to go tonight, Candace,” Carl went on, the faintest tone of bitterness at the back of his voice. “I assume that’s not necessary now.”

  “It’s not,” I said, rising to my feet. “I’m sorry, Carl.”

  He gave a mirthless laugh. “So am I. The trouble is, we’ve both been sorry before, haven’t we, Steele? You want the truth? This is starting to bore the hell out of me.”

  He stepped toward the entry hall, and Ash moved aside to give him room.

  “I’ll check in with the patrol car,” Carl went on. “You’ll probably need to come down and file a report, but I think you’re good to go for tonight. You need me for anything else, you know where to find me.”

  “I do,” I said. “Thank you, Carl.”

  He started down the entryway only to turn back, his eyes on Ash this time.

  “And I know where to find you,” he said quietly. “You might want to remember that.”

  Then he turned and was gone. Ash and I stood, facing each other across my ruined living room.

  Neither of us spoke. If Ash was jealous or angry, he kept his control. I flinched first.

  “I have to get out of here,” I said fiercely.

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “Someplace where I won’t have to face what I’m not anymore.”

  Ash held out a hand. I stepped forward until I could place mine into it. Together, we went to find the other vampires.

  Ten

  Ash drove fast, the perfect match for my mood. I neither asked nor cared where we were going. My body was a raging fire of need. Desperate to satisfy some portion of the craving that rode me, I stroked him as we drove. Running my fingers along his shoulders, down one arm. Dancing my fingers across his legs to slide up and down the length of his crotch. Utterly without warning, he jerked the car to the curb, bringing it to a halt with a squeal of brakes. Then he captured my questing fingers in his.

  “We’re here,” he said, his voice tight. “Get out of the car.”

  “Here” turned out to be a gorgeous, sprawling house, the dark windows facing the night like sightless eyes. But inside, I thought I caught a flicker of movement and of candlelight. Ash and I strode up the front walk, Ash knocked, the door opened. After a brief exchange, we were ushered inside. Ash had a low conversation with the young vampire who had admitted us, a male wearing a well-tailored suit, then beckoned me forward. Without a word, the vampire led us through the darkened house. We passed through what I assumed was the great room, until it opened into a series of vast, open chambers. Archways led to smaller rooms on the sides of these, but I could catch no more than glimpses of the activities in any of the rooms we passed.

  We climbed a short flight of stairs, and our guide gestured to a room on the right. A filmy curtain of midnight blue hung across the doorway. I parted it and stepped inside.

  Inside, the walls of the room were the same deep blue as the door hanging. A plush red carpet covered the floor. Cushions and low divans were scattered across it, most of them occupied. In the center was a couch of black velvet. On it, a vampire couple was making love.

  The female sat astride the male, head thrown back, breasts straining forward as she rode him. Then a second male suddenly materialized behind her, his body rising up then flowing like liquid over the side of the couch. He knelt just behind her, knees on either side of the first male’s legs, his hands reaching around to gather in the female’s breasts, thumbs stroking. Instantly, her nipples formed hard, stiff peaks.

  Ash and I stood silent, watching as the male behind her tilted her head back farther, claimed her mouth with his own. His hand
s stroked her breasts to the same rhythm her body had set, his tongue plunging in and out of her mouth. As the climax took her, I felt a hand slide along my arm. Startled, I cried out even as I felt my own body tighten in response. Standing before me, her hand grasping mine now, was a young female vampire. She was completely naked, her body glistening with scented oil.

  They’re all naked, I realized.

  “You’ve come to join us,” she said. “How nice.” She cocked her head, as if considering. “But I think you have on too many clothes.” She gave a laugh like the chime of silver bells. “I can help you with that, if you like,” she offered.

  She began to walk backward, toward the center of the room. The vampires on the couch, sated for the moment, lay in a tangle of arms and legs, but I saw the way they still stroked one another. As if this was only a lull, a quiet feeding of never-ending arousal. I let the female vampire pull me two steps, then four, then realized Ash was no longer behind me. I glanced back over my shoulder. He was still standing near the doorway, his silver eyes gleaming in the dim light.

  “Don’t worry,” the female vampire said. “We won’t forget about him.”

  Music began to whisper through the room, the lonely croon of a saxophone. The young vampire began to sway. She was holding both my hands now. Stepping in close, she eased them above my head, ever so slowly, as if testing how far I would go, then ran her open palms down the length of my uplifted arms. She slid one leg between my own, leaning in hard, pushing against my crotch. I pushed back, rubbing myself against her in time to the music. She made a sound of pleasure, deep in her throat.

  With her hands, she reached for the loops of my jeans, used them to jerk my torso forward. The music was faster now, the two of us moving together like one body. From behind, I felt hands grasp the hem of my shirt, draw it up and off. I leaned back against the hard male body behind me, arms twisting back to wrap around his neck, as those same hands quickly moved to cup my breasts and release the front clasp of my bra.

  As soon as my breasts were free, the female darted forward, flicking her tongue across my nipples. I gave a cry. The air in the room felt scorched with heat. And like my body, it throbbed.

  Without warning, the female released me. I felt myself being spun around. She eased my arms down, slid the bra straps off them. Even as the male leaned down for an openmouthed kiss, I felt the female’s tongue against my back, just between my shoulder blades, as her hands reached to stroke my breasts once more. Then her tongue began a long, slow glide straight down my spine, her hands moving lower at the same time as her mouth. With agile fingers, she made quick work of the fastenings of my jeans, then slid them down my legs, easing my panties down as well.

  Before I could lift my leg to step out of the jeans, I felt myself being lifted, carried aloft on my back. There were more hands than I could count now. More open, seeking mouths. Stroking along my naked skin. Stoking the fire that burned inside my blood. I felt my legs being spread open, wide; knees slightly bent; pelvis tilted up, as if I were being offered as a sacrifice to some unseen god. And then I felt a tongue glide along my clit like a single slide of velvet. My body spasmed upward as I cried out.

  And then, suddenly, Ash was there, naked, as I was. His silver eyes gleaming in the dim light, his cock jutting forward with the force of his own arousal. He reached for me, and the vampires who held me slid me forward into his arms, supporting me so that Ash filled me in one long, deep stroke. I moaned aloud. Wrapping my legs around his back, I gave myself up completely to the feel of Ash’s body, moving inside mine.

  Faster and faster Ash moved within me. Deeper, harder. The vampires around us were all but frenzied now. Hands and mouths stroking against my skin, against Ash’s, urging us both higher and higher.

  I am flying, I thought.

  “More, Ash,” I gasped out. “I want more. It’s not enough.”

  “Blood, Candace,” I heard him answer. “The only thing more is blood.”

  He kissed me then, pulling my tongue deep inside his mouth. I felt the climax sweep through him as he bit down. Blood flooded both our mouths. I swallowed, felt its hot glide down my throat. And then I was coming on a wave of pleasure so great it seemed to me I left my body behind. It was only the passion that drove me. Passion for Ash, for all he offered. A passion as hot as fire, as red as blood.

  With Ash’s arms tight around me, I surrendered to all that drove us both, and lost myself.

  When I came to myself again, I was lying on the floor. Alone, except for the female who had first enticed me. She was reclining on the velvet-covered sofa, still naked. Beside her, in a neat pile, were my clothes.

  “Your companion is waiting for you,” she said. “I told him I would bring you to him when you were ready.” She gave me a smile full of sharp, white teeth. “Unless you’d like to stay a little longer, of course.”

  I got to my feet. “Thank you,” I said. “But no.”

  I dressed quickly, aware of her eyes upon me the entire time.

  “I’m ready,” I said. “I’d like to go now.”

  She gave a disappointed look then a shrug. “Oh, very well.”

  She walked ahead of me, her body moving lithely, out of the room of midnight blue, down the short flight of stairs to the main level of the house, then toward the front door. Just as we reached the last of the great rooms, I heard a sudden cry. In the next moment, a young woman burst through a beaded curtain that covered one of the side arches. She staggered, then fell to her knees, blood streaming from a wound just above her left breast. A bite mark.

  She’s human, I realized.

  Before I could even understand what I felt, the vampires in the room she had fled were upon her. Capturing her by her ankles, they dragged her backward into the room, the beaded curtain clacking like dead tree branches in the wind as she struggled. She splayed her hands flat against the hardwood floor, desperately trying to pull away. Her wild and terrified eyes looked straight up into mine.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Help me.”

  Then, with a yank that left a wide streak of blood on the floor, she was gone. From inside the room, there came one final shriek of horror and pain. Then nothing. No sound at all.

  The young vampire who was my guide knelt down, ran her fingers through the blood on the floor, then brought them to her mouth. Then she grinned at me once more, her teeth stained bright red.

  “They always taste better if they put up a fight.”

  And then, suddenly, Ash was there. I flung myself into his arms, pressing my head against his chest, shutting my eyes, and I let him lead me out into the night.

  Eleven

  Neither Ash nor I spoke as he piloted the Mercedes through the city toward his house. I leaned my head back against the headrest, listening to the way the engine purred, feeling the way the tires gripped the road. And slowly, as if Ash had created a cocoon, a cone of healing quiet, I realized the horrible need that had driven me since I had stepped out of the elevator into Randolph Glass’s penthouse was altogether gone. But in its aftermath was the truth I had tried so desperately to stave off.

  “There’s no escaping it, ever, is there?” I asked quietly. “It will always be with me, this craving for blood.”

  Ash remained silent as the Mercedes took a corner. “Blood is the constant of a vampire’s existence, Candace,” he finally said. “No matter what kind of blood we take, it is the one thing we must have to survive. So the answer is no. Being undead can free you from many things, but never from that.”

  The gates of Ravenswood came into view. I could see a car parked there, heard some sort of commotion.

  “That’s Bibi,” I said, sitting up a little straighter.

  “So I see,” Ash replied.

  He pulled the Mercedes up to the gatehouse, behind Bibi’s car. “Good evening, Charlie,” he said to the guard as his window slid down. “Is there some sort of problem?”

  Before the guard could answer, I heard Bibi’s voice. “I want to talk to Candace
, Ash,” she said. “Right now. I’m not going away until I do, so you might as well get this rent-a-cop to let me in.”

  I rolled my own window down. “I’m right here, Bibi,” I said. “Is everything…”

  “Not here,” Bibi said, cutting me off.

  “Charlie, please pass Ms. Schwartz through,” Ash said.

  “No problem,” the security guard replied. “You folks have a good night now.”

  A moment later, the gates swung open. Bibi drove through first, then pulled over. Ash and I drove past her, and she pulled in behind us. The lights from her car were bright in the rearview mirror.

  “Thank you,” I said quietly.

  “There’s no need to thank me,” Ash said at once. “Whatever Bibi’s feelings for me may be, or mine for her, I know the two of you are close. I only hope her visit here doesn’t mean things have gone even worse for Randolph Glass.”

  “You think Sloane’s the one who went after Randolph, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you?” Ash replied, and I heard a sudden bitterness in his voice. “Sloane is ruthless. He’ll do anything to get what he wants, but not even I expected him to do this.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Ash,” I said. “What happened to Randolph is not your fault.”

  “No, it isn’t,” he agreed at once. He took the corner of the street that led to the house. “But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have been more on my guard. The thing is, I can’t figure out why Sloane went after Randolph. He might have been angry that Randolph won the auction, but there’s nothing to gain by the attack as long as the scarab is still at the auction house.”

  He parked in the drive. By the time I was out of the car, Bibi was already standing on the sidewalk.

  “Come inside,” I said as Ash unlocked the front door and held it open for us. Bibi walked past him with a defiant toss of her head, but I saw the way she gave a quick, involuntary wince as the front door closed.

  The lights in the entry and living room were motion sensitive, keyed to come on low. Ash moved to the panel that controlled the lights, dialed them up another few notches. The stark and lovely living room came into focus.