Moonstruck (Crossbreed Series Book 7)

by Dannika Dark

  I gave him a bemused look. “Why?”

  “I need a new rug.”

  “That’s illegal, you know.”

  “Not according to the old laws. Not in battle.”

  I stalked past the flames. “If we’re not back by dawn, leave without us.”

  But I already knew they would.

  Chapter 24

  “If your tummy keeps rumbling like that, you’ll draw the lions to us,” Christian remarked.

  “Maybe that’s my master plan.”

  “How long have we been walking?”

  “Three hours.” I tugged his sleeve until he stopped. “Give me your blood.”

  He did a slow turn, and his lips disappeared behind his beard. “I’m beginning to feel like an ATM.”

  “Quit your brooding, Vamp. I want you.” I dropped my dagger and wrapped my cold fingers around his neck, which made him smile. The great thing about Christian Poe was how he could regulate his internal body temperature.

  He encased me in his arms and gently kissed my lips. “It’s better you not have too much.”

  “The power you gave me earlier is mostly gone, and if we run into the lions—”

  “Then you’ll shock them and I’ll destroy. Just as we planned.”

  “Things don’t always go as planned.” I nibbled on his bottom lip, and his fangs punched out. “I need you inside me.”

  Christian pinned me against a wide tree and pressed his hard body against mine. There was a dance involved when taking Vampire blood, especially Christian’s. He wanted it, but he didn’t want it.

  He just needed a little convincing, and I knew exactly which buttons to push.

  “I need it,” I whispered, nipping on his earlobe and trailing kisses down his whiskery neck.

  When I licked his artery, he sucked in a sharp breath. Pieces of bark fell from the tree where he gripped it. While most Vampires were easy to seduce, Christian was particular in how he liked his blood foreplay. I had to make him hungry for me in more ways than one. My fangs lengthened, and I teased him with tiny pricks while pulling his hips to mine.

  Christian was hard like granite, ready to fill me up with more than just his blood. He cradled my neck in his hands. “I want to feast on your body, but not here. Not in the woods like animals.”

  I wanted to invite him in, to feel his hands on my body and his tongue in my mouth. But he was right. This wasn’t the time or place. Was it too much to ask to have sex on a bed for a change? Or at least somewhere less public? Our love life had taken a left turn out of the gate, and as delicious as the sex was, maybe I needed to pull back on the reins a little.

  I sank my teeth into his neck. When my fangs retracted, warm blood flowed past my lips and down my throat. Instead of fisting my hair and grinding against me like a savage beast, Christian tenderly stroked the back of my head with his fingertips and held me to him.

  His blood awakened my Vampire soul, and the power culminated within me. After a final swallow, I sealed the puncture wounds with a single lick.

  When our eyes locked, a connection formed between us like an open channel. We had a bond based on love and respect, but blood linked us in some indefinable way.

  Christian leaned in and kissed my bloodstained lips. The intensity of his gaze made my stomach flutter.

  “What do you taste?” he asked.

  While I could taste his desire, I hadn’t yet learned all the complexities of blood reading. Perhaps my gift was weaker than most.

  “Lust.” I smiled imperceptibly. “Love.”

  “Is that all?”

  I furrowed my brow. “I’m not sure.”

  He tapped my nose. “You spend too much time with Niko learning to be a better Mage. But one day you’re going to have to learn how to read the language of Vampires. In my time, we drank more freely, so we learned faster. Now they frown upon recreational drinking. No wonder the younglings are numpties.”

  I nudged him away with a strong hand. “Watch who you’re calling a numpty.”

  He inclined his head. “Present company excluded.”

  I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and drank in the night. It was clearer than just moments before, the moon bathing the new leaves overhead in a silver glow. “I can only imagine what you see.”

  He admired the view. “I can see every insect in the trees. Your night is my day.”

  “And what’s our day?”

  “My hell.”

  I snorted. “Thank God for sunglasses, huh?”

  We continued our walk.

  “How’s your hearing with my blood?” he asked.

  “Improved, but not by a lot. It’s like someone turned the volume up a notch or two.”

  “Ah. So you can’t hear your stomach rumbling. Shall I fetch you a rabbit?”

  “I’m not hungry. My throat was dry, so I was swallowing a lot. I must have swallowed little air bubbles.”

  “Better you belch them out.”

  “Afraid they’ll come out the other end?”

  He glided ahead of me. “The mortal body is a repulsive thing.”

  “Is that so? I guess that means you don’t want to feast on mine.”

  He spun on his heel and clutched me in his arms so fast that I gasped lightly. “You’re the exception. You bewitch me, Raven Black. Through and through. My soul is dark, but I feel the light when you’re near.”

  I threaded my fingertips through his soft brown hair. It was longish, just enough to cover the tops of his ears. “You’re a pretty man, Mr. Poe. Anyone ever tell you that?”

  When he leaned in to kiss me, I leaned away.

  “We have lions to kill.”

  His eyes stirred with excitement. “I love hunting with you. I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman with similar desires.”

  “One who murders with glee?”

  His gaze darted back and forth between each of my eyes.

  “What are you looking at?”

  “Your soul.”

  I slipped out of his arms. “What do you mean?”

  He shook his head. “It must be the moon talking. Let’s keep moving.” Christian took my hand. “Are you certain we won’t get lost?”

  I lifted my dagger from the ground as we passed by it. “I’ve got a built-in compass. I don’t know the exact location of the cave, but I can guestimate my way back, and you’ll be able to hear everyone once we’re close enough.”

  We penetrated a thin layer of fog. My foot struck something solid, but it didn’t sound like the usual underbrush. I bent over and gripped a smooth wooden handle. “It’s Blue’s axe.”

  Christian lifted a handful of garments. “I found the rest.”

  I swung the axe against a tree and left it lodged in the trunk. “What do you think the compound is like where the kids are going?”

  Christian dropped the clothes by the axe. “If they’re all the way out here, they’re not going to be making regular runs to the grocery store. I wager they have gardens and hunt. Perhaps they own livestock so they don’t have to leave the facility.”

  “I don’t see why they can’t take an extra kid.”

  Christian rested his hand against a tree and leaned on it. “If you’re thinking about Joshua, you can bet your sweet arse they won’t let him within twenty feet of the front gate. An underage Shifter, free to walk about Potentials? That’s a security risk if I ever saw one.”

  “You act like he’s going to sleep with all the girls.”

  Christian strode toward me. “All he has to do is bed one. Teenagers make foolish decisions and aren’t always responsible with free will. They’re emotional creatures who are easily influenced.”

  I sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of. Joshua won’t stop until he finds her.”

  “Assuming he stays behind. If Viktor brings him along, we’ll have no choice but to scrub his memories.”

  “What if he remembers? What if he finds the compound after we leave and they shoot him?”

  Christian lowered his arm and stretched. �
�That’s not our problem. Our job is to deliver three children to a holding camp, not to worry about the fate of two lovestruck teenagers.”

  I took his hand and touched the ring I’d given him. “Have you ever been lovestruck?”

  He looked at me with those arresting black eyes, his dark eyebrows sloping down. “We have lions to kill, and all you can think about is drinking my blood and romanticizing about love.”

  I blinked innocently. “I was just asking a simple question.”

  He caressed my cheek, moonlight glinting off his onyx ring. “Only once, Miss Black.”

  “Tell me about her.”

  “Her eyes were like day and night, her legs as long as her history of killing men, and her hair as black as a sinner’s heart.”

  “How could you love such an evil woman?”

  He drew closer. “Because she wore my heart around her neck.” Christian’s eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “And she never tried to bury me in a pine box.”

  I slowly slinked by him. “Just be sure you keep bringing her coffee in the morning.”

  “Is that a threat?” he asked from behind, amusement in his voice.

  I smothered my laugh.

  “What was that you just said?”

  I smiled. “Nothing. I just had a tickle in my throat.”

  “You hear that?” His tone sharpened, and I spun on my heel. Christian stood like a marionette frozen in place. He did that when isolating a sound.

  I held my breath so he could hear better.

  Then I heard it too. A rustling of something large moving through the forest. “Could be a deer.”

  “Could be a bear.”

  “Perish the thought.” I gripped the dagger with my right hand and turned in a slow circle.

  Christian suddenly covered his ears and grimaced.

  My eyes flicked back and forth between shadows and light as Christian dropped to his knees, blood dripping between his fingers from one of his ears.

  A lion rushed at me with alarming speed, and I had only seconds to formulate a plan. Instead of fleeing for my life, I ran toward him and reduced the distance between us. We both kicked off the ground simultaneously and crashed into each other. I drove the dagger into his neck, and his massive teeth punched through my shoulder.

  When we hit the ground, I shoved him off me with ease. He flew back and struck a cluster of trees behind me. The wound on my left shoulder began to heal thanks to Christian’s blood, and I rotated it in a circle to get the feeling back.

  So this was what it felt like to be a Vampire. Having that small taste of power during a time when I needed it made me feel like a different woman.

  I spotted Christian stalking off. Then I heard the sound of hard plastic being crushed, followed by a few creative swear words. It must have been another sonic weapon.

  The lion swiped at my feet, knocking me onto my stomach. The air whooshed from my lungs. When he pounced on my back, I twisted around and blasted him in the shoulder before wriggling free from his massive paws.

  The lion roared before chasing me as I bolted in the other direction. I veered toward a large tree and kicked my feet off it, cartwheeling over the creature and landing behind him. Niko had taught me that move in the training room, and it was one I practiced repeatedly.

  From my crouched position, I grabbed his haunches and gave him a shock to remember. He convulsed, and as I raised my fist to break his spine, a second lion blindsided me.

  I struck a tree with enough force to break bones. My arm was in his jaws until Christian’s hands appeared in a hurried attempt to pry the animal’s mouth open before it severed my limb. I wrenched free just as the first lion savagely attacked Christian from behind.

  When the lion above me fled into the woods, I sat up and stumbled to my feet to reach Christian in time. The lion had him pinned on his stomach and was about to take his head.

  I flashed at him with impossible speed and grabbed one of the lion’s fangs. With a hard yank, I broke his tooth at the root. The unexpected attack gave Christian enough time to turn and punch the animal in the face.

  The lion crumpled to the ground and shook his head. His long tongue lapped at the blood dripping from his mouth, and his face wrinkled in anger.

  Spying the dagger on the ground by a tree, I jogged around the animal. My foot skidded down an uneven patch of earth, and I fell on my side.

  Dammit, I missed the city. I missed concrete and level floors. I missed electricity and makeshift weapons found in alleyways. I missed fire escapes.

  “Come here, you blundering little shitebag.” Christian stalked toward the lion in the moonlight, but the feline kept his distance. “Jaysus wept. Can we move this to the shadows?”

  I crawled over to the dagger and gripped the muddy handle. Blood stained the blade, matching the crimson on the back of the lion’s neck. A switch had flipped inside me that took me from Raven Black to the Shadow, back to the days when I used to trap criminals and kill them for sport. That part of my life was so ingrained in me that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to erase it from my DNA.

  In that moment, I didn’t care about dying or even living. I only cared about winning.

  When the lion catapulted toward me, I flipped through the air and landed beside him. Our movements were a blur of blood and moonlight. I continually dodged his attacks without using my flashing ability, as if the Mage inside me was gone and all that remained was a Vampire. Attuned to the sound of his body pivoting, I countered the attack each and every time, wearing him out as he struggled to catch me. I hadn’t even realized my fangs were out until I jumped onto his back and drove them into his neck.

  My thighs clenched tight against his thrashing body, and my fingers gripped his mane. With the dagger still in my hand, I reached below his neck and sliced his throat. Warm liquid spilled onto my hand. The lion crumpled beneath me as he surrendered to death. The compulsive need to drink gripped me in the same way the need to breathe does when deprived of oxygen. I didn’t dare crawl beneath him while he was still conscious, so I ripped a large gash in his thick coat to get to his blood. Only then did I sample a taste of pure Shifter in animal form.

  Blood used to always repulse me. The more evil the man, the more vile the taste. Only Christian’s had ever coated my palate like ambrosia, and that probably had to do with his being a Vampire. After recently feeding from Christian, it must have changed how I experienced things. Or maybe it was the fact that I’d never tasted blood from a Shifter in animal form.

  In any case, that blood was so sinfully delicious that I crushed him in my arms.

  More. I need more.

  “Raven!”

  My instinct to hold on to my prey kicked in when Christian attempted to pry us apart.

  “Raven, not when he’s dead.” Christian hauled me off the lion and held me in his iron grip with my back against his chest. “Never drink from the dead.”

  “Why?” I rasped.

  “You’ll get sick. Some go mad. Dead blood is unpredictable.”

  I went limp in his arms. “Where’s the other lion?”

  “Long gone.”

  “We should go after him,” I said drunkenly, the back of my head resting against his shoulder.

  “You were magnificent,” he said, putting a shiver up my spine. “That’s your Vampire nature, Raven. When you fight like a Mage, you think too much. When you fight like a Vampire, you don’t have to think at all. You just… feel.”

  When my feet touched the ground, I turned and looked up at him.

  Christian cast his dark eyes on mine. “What do you feel now?”

  “His power. His anger.”

  Christian ran his finger across my lower lip. “Consider this your first day of school.”

  “University of the damned?”

  “Focus, Raven. Not all Vampires are good at this. Someone should measure your skills. Tell me everything you can read in his blood.”

  I ran my tongue around my mouth and licked up every drop. “It’s d
ifferent than anything I’ve had before. It was like… like I could live in his skin. I wasn’t thinking like a human anymore. I could taste his life like a curse on my tongue, but I’ve had darker. And…”

  “What?”

  I swallowed hard and felt a lick of shame. “I was so lost in his blood that I wanted to drink away his life. I don’t feel sick like I usually do.”

  “Maybe you’re cured of that. Or maybe you can’t taste the sin from an animal because an animal is without sin.”

  I pondered on his theory. Shifter animals listened to the command of the human that shared their body, but they didn’t plot or scheme. They obeyed, protected, and hunted. There was nothing inherently evil about their nature, so maybe this was what it was like for other Vampires.

  My hands were still soaked in blood. Jesus. I probably looked like some deranged monster on the back of that lion.

  I lifted my gaze to Christian, and my breath caught. “How can you still look at me like you love me?”

  Christian took my hand and led me to a small clearing. The moonlight played on his features, enhancing his sharp cheekbones and deep-set eyes. Christian had a naturally rigid posture, but something about the way he stood in front of me was easy and casual.

  I looked between our hands and saw all the blood. It was smeared across my face, but when I reached up with my other arm to wipe it off, he grabbed my hand.

  Christian bowed and then slowly pulled me toward him. Clasping my right hand, he slipped his other arm around my waist and shifted from one foot to the other. The crickets harmonized as the forest created a symphony of music.

  I looked up at him in disbelief. “Are you dancing with me?”

  He twirled me around, and the next thing I knew, we were dancing in the moonlight.

  “The kids are waiting,” I argued.

  He spun me around until I landed against his chest. “Can I have just one irrational moment with my lover?”

  I peered up at him. “We look like demons.”

  When he grinned, the light glinted off his sharp fangs. “Aye, Precious. That’s what we are. Now dance with me, you gorgeous Vampire.”

  I laughed blithely and fell into step. “You’re not lovestruck. You’re moonstruck.”