Hunted by the Alien Vampire

by A. M. Griffin

  He was right. They weren’t going anywhere at the moment. She released the death grip she had on Adam and loosened her hold on Lexi. Lexi grunted, then her face turned red. Miranda pushed back to where the diaper bag was and gathered the supplies she needed to change her diaper.

  “I didn’t think you could survive that. It went on forever.” She unfolded the changing mat and laid Lexi on it. She glanced at Fanian as she undressed Lexi’s bottom half. His skin tone's blueness was dull, and there were age lines etched in his face that weren’t present the day before. “You didn’t come out of it unscathed. You look terrible, by the way.”

  Fanian ran a hand down his usually smooth and perfect skin. “Each evening, at the sound of the alarm, the pods find the hunters—wait, are we saying hunters or robots?”

  “Robots or hunter robots,” Miranda confirmed.

  “Wherever robots are in the arena, the pods find us and take us back to the lodge. If a robot isn’t available, the robot is punished by a shock through the collar until the robot returns to the pod.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault that a pod couldn’t reach you. I guess I assumed it was an honor system. That if you couldn’t make it back, you wouldn’t hunt.” Miranda finished cleaning Lexi and wrapped her in a diaper. She only had two left. They needed to leave soon. She put the soiled one in the bag for cleaning later, if there was a later. “I don’t know. It sounds stupid now that I’m saying it out loud.”

  “There’s no honor system in The Hunt.” Fanian fingered his collar. “These make sure we obey all rules, or we suffer the consequences.”

  “Near-death.”

  “Until death. It’s meant to punish until I comply, but since I couldn’t, it stopped when I registered as dead.”

  “A girl can only dream.” She sighed. “Yet again, here you are. Not dead.”

  “Sorry that I didn’t die. My system did shut down, though. When that happened, the punishment stopped. It took some healing, but once my cells regenerated, I was able to wake up.”

  “So that’s it? Now you’re one-hundred percent back?”

  “Don’t sound so disappointed,” he laughed but the sound was rough and cracked.

  She eyed him carefully. He looked tired and haggard, like he’d been raked over the coals. “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you. If you can’t get out of here today, you’ll be in for another round of punishment tonight.”

  His face twisted and he rubbed the back of his neck. “While it didn’t kill me, I don’t want to have a repeat of that experience. It was...painful.”

  She let out a hard breath. “So have you figured out how to get us out of here?”

  He turned his attention back to her. “Us?”

  “Yes, us. You’re still planning to take us to your buyer, right? Or did you give up, and now every man is for himself?”

  His eyebrows pulled together. “You’re not a man.”

  “It’s an Earth saying. It means everyone is taking care of themselves.”

  “But you have children to take care of,” he said slowly as if she was a dunce. “You’re not going to leave them to fend for themselves, are you?”

  “What? No. Jesus. Did you come up with a plan to get us out of here or not? That’s the question. Focus on that.”

  He eyed her cautiously. “Why are you now in such a hurry to be given to Az’ud?”

  She waved her hand around. “Look at my choices, Fanian. We could stay here, eventually run out of food, water, and die, or we can get out and take our chances with this Az’ud guy. I choose the latter against the certain death scenario.”

  He nodded. “I have to admit I’m surprised you finally understand that you can no longer run from your fate.”

  “I understand it’s unavoidable, and if it means saving my kids, I will do anything to keep them safe.” Even lie.

  “Anything?”

  She glared at him. “I have my limits. I’m willing to go to your buyer, but if you want me to perform some deviant sexual act, I will kill you, and if you come back to life, I’ll be sitting over your body waiting to kill you again.”

  “Mishka, believe me, if I wanted you for a deviant sexual act, you would be a more than willing participant,” he drawled in a voice that sent a plethora of pleasure down her spine. “But no, that’s not what I’m getting at.”

  She straightened her back, trying not to think of his words. “Then tell me what you meant by your ominous, ‘anything’ comment?”

  “I have a plan to save us, but I need to drink some of your blood.”

  She reared away. “Say what now?”

  Fanian expected the horrified reaction. It was the same reaction most would have after he asked to drink their blood. Not that he ever had before. Givveks had lived off synthetic blood for as far back as even his father could remember. Changing the practice had gone from others viewing them as hungry parasites, to strong leaders in their sector.

  After he’d awakened from being tortured due to the broken rule, he’d known he couldn’t spend another night in such pain again. It had been unimaginable. It hadn’t killed him, but he’d been dangerously close to death. Too close for comfort.

  He could go five days without feeding under normal circumstances, but after any kind of near-death experience, his body needed sustenance to repair fully. As weak as he was now, he wouldn’t survive another punishment.

  Since waking, he’d run every escape scenario through his mind and came up with one, but it required the nourishment he lacked. Without a food processor, there was only one other way to get what he needed, straight from the source. He could’ve taken what he needed from Miranda or the children. It would have been easy to drink while they slept. But that act of cowardice seemed reprehensible. Despite what others thought of contract hunters, he wasn’t an animal or a monster.

  So he’d waited patiently for Miranda to wake. He went over what he’d planned to say, thinking of the different scenarios and reactions, and role-played them in his head. He needed her to go along with this plan because he didn’t have another option.

  Miranda reached inside the bag and tossed him a protein bar. “Take this because it’s all you’re getting from me, buddy.”

  He caught it mid-air and tossed it back to her. “I can’t eat that. My digestive system isn’t like yours. I need blood to live.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Very.”

  She pushed a pink tongue between her lips. Had her tongue always been so delectable? “Gross. So you run around like some kind of alien vampire drinking blood at night? Now I understand the whole hard to kill, and regeneration thing. So cliché.”

  He shook his head, trying to dislodge thoughts about her tongue and suddenly wanting to taste it from his thoughts. “I don’t know what a vampire is, and I don’t run around. I use the food processor to order my food like any other hunter—er, robot.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “No.”

  “You would rather we die, your children included, than to give me some of your blood? Because at the evening alarm, I will die. Without the needed sustenance to repair last night’s damage, I won’t survive tonight. That information might make you gleefully happy, but know this. There aren’t as many hunters in Level Two as there were in Level One.

  It costs hunters more to follow prey to this Level, and with most of the humans still in Level One, there’s no need to come here just yet. The odds of another human or hunter finding you before you run out of protein bars and water are not in your favor.”

  She sighed then let her head fall back to watch the sky. “I hate even to admit it, but you’re right. We could spend a few more days here and be miserable for sure, and after that...” She straightened and shook her head. “I don’t want to think about it. Putting my trust in you is like a bad dream. But what choice do I have?”

  He nodded in her direction. “Understandable.”

  “You drink my blood, then what? That keeps you living, but how do we get out of here?”<
br />
  “With my energy returned, I can climb the wall.”

  She ran her hand across the wall nearest her. “It’s too slippery and too steep. Unless you can punch through thick ice, which you can’t because you would’ve done that last night to get to the pod, we’re stuck.”

  “I can use your sharp weapons to help me scale the wall. It’ll take a long time, a lot of effort, and I’ll have to make two trips with you and the kids, but I can do it.”

  “Why didn’t you do this yesterday, then?”

  “First, I was sure the evening pod would reach me, and secondly, would you have allowed me to rescue you and your children in two separate trips?”

  If Fanian had approached her with his idea, she might’ve laughed in his face and tried to shank him again.

  “Great points.” She eyed the wall and chewed on her lower lip. There was really only one option if they wanted to escape. “How much blood do you need?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I’m crazy for even going along with this.

  But if it meant saving her kids. She had to do it.

  “Is it going to hurt?”

  He shrugged, unconcerned. “Sorry, that I don’t know. I’ve never fed directly from a source before.”

  Miranda pursed her lips. “I guess it was a stupid question anyway. Of course, it’s going to hurt. You’re going to use your...show me your teeth.”

  He pulled back his lips for her, revealing teeth sharp teeth.

  Yeah, this is going to hurt. “Great. You’re going to chew on me to get to an artery.”

  As she watched, his canines elongated to hang over his bottom row. Her heart dropped. “Well, that just freaked me the hell out.”

  His lips twitched. “I can hum while I do it. Hopefully, the sound of my voice will help to take away your anxiety. I can’t do anything about the pain, though.”

  “Hey, I just noticed that I haven’t been feeling all fuzzy and woo-woo when you talk to me anymore.”

  “My voice only helps to calm and relax you. If you’re determined to fight through the effects, I can’t do anything about it.”

  She took a deep breath. I can do this. I have to do this.

  Miranda pulled down her hood and moved her hair to one side. She touched her ear to her shoulder. “Here.”

  As he inched toward her, her heart slammed against her ribs.

  “Wait,” she said when he was near. She turned to Adam and pulled one of his picture books from the bag. “Here, honey. Can you read a story to Lexi while I talk to the robot for a few minutes? We need to come up with a plan to make it to Santa’s workshop.”

  “He’s on our side now?”

  Miranda nodded because she couldn’t open her mouth to tell him another lie.

  Adam laid on the sleeping bag on his belly in front of the book. “Do you see this train, Lexi? He needs to help his other friends get their haul to the next town.”

  Miranda turned around and took a deep breath. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. “I’m trusting you not to kill me. Okay?”

  Fanian’s eyes were glued to her neck. “I promise to stop.”

  Was that good enough? It had to be. She gave Fanian access to her neck again and shook both of her hands in front of her. “Hurry up and do it before I lose my nerve.”

  He reached over and plucked her from the ground as if she weighed nothing. She let out a surprised cry but didn’t fight him when he sat her on his lap, her back resting against his chest. He swung them around, so they faced the opposite wall giving his back to the children.

  “I think this is the best position for you to relax. The more relaxed you are, the less painful it might be.”

  Something stirred in the pit of her belly and between her legs. She shouldn’t be feeling tingling and hot sitting on his lap, braced between his powerful thighs. She shouldn’t like the way his arms felt wrapped around her. She shouldn’t be excited that his lips were brushing against her ear.

  And she definitely shouldn’t be wondering about the length and thickness of the bulge pressed nicely against her butt.

  “Think of something peaceful. You’re breathing too heavy,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I’m scared.” Horny too, but she kept that to herself. Why was she having these feelings right before he was going to chew on her?

  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

  “I know.” With his free hand, he gently tipped her head to the side again.

  Miranda closed her eyes, expecting pain at any second. What she hadn’t expected was his nose on her neck and a deep inhalation from him. He nuzzled against her and hummed. Within seconds her shoulders dropped, and her jaw unclenched. She let out a long breath, releasing the pent-up anxiety from her lungs and sagged against him. Oddly she felt safe in his arms.

  She told herself it was the effects of his voice, and had nothing to do with the way he smelled or how warm and comforting his embrace felt.

  I’m feeling this way because of his alien mojo. She was not getting off on this while she and her kids were in danger. She had to believe that.

  When the prick against her neck finally came, she welcomed it. Pleasure swirled around her neck then down her spine. She let out a long-suppressed moan. Fanian’s light slurping sounded a million miles away. Suddenly she wanted to watch him feeding on her. She wanted to see his lips on her skin.

  “Oh, God, Fanian,” she breathed out.

  Fanian clutched a handful of her shirt, brushing against her nipples. He groaned and tightened his hold. Miranda wiggled against his growing hardness pressed on her back. She reached behind her head and held onto the back of Fanian’s, encouraging him to drink more, to take more.

  “Yes,” she moaned.

  Her breaths grew shallow. Each one was more painful than the last. Sensing the danger and hearing the warning bells in her head, she still wanted him to take every last drop. She never wanted this feeling to go away. She was about to tell him that when darkness overtook her.

  FANIAN HELD MIRANDA tightly in his arms. Guilt rocked him. He’d taken too much and almost killed her.

  “When is she going to wake up?” Adam asked. He was on his knees, hovering over his mother.

  “In a little while,” Fanian told him for what he thought was the millionth time. He hadn’t been around any children since he’d left Naahrex but didn’t remember them asking the same question over and over again.

  “I want her to wake up now.”

  “So do I.”

  He stared at Miranda’s face again. She looked so peaceful, rested...and dead. Anxiety coursed through him.

  She’s not dead. He told himself over and over again.

  She was breathing. It was soft, but there. Her heartbeat was also there, faint though. He’d stopped the blood seeping from the bite. That wasn’t the hard part. The hardest part had been forcing himself from her neck.

  Nothing had prepared him for the experience. There hadn’t been a need to drink from a source in the past, not when blood was easily manufactured and had all the nutrients his kind needed. He’d always been taught feeding from the source was an archaic and barbaric practice, and it wasn’t beneficial for either participant. Either his ancestors had lied, or they’d never known the bliss he’d just experienced.

  And bliss it had been.

  It was like a million orgasms at once. Although he couldn’t ask Miranda how the experience had been for her, if her body language was any indication, she’d felt the same. Her moans were like the softest waves against his ears. A language he wanted her to only speak to him.

  She’d gyrated against his cock, making it swell painfully hard. When she’d scraped her nails across his scalp, he’d wanted to turn her over, strip her, and thrust inside of her, giving her his full length over and over again.

  If she hadn’t passed out, Fanian wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have done just that. He’d forgotten about the kids until Miranda had slumped against him. If that hadn’t been enough to snap him out of his blissful s
tupor, Adam’s screaming had.

  Fanian had made up a story about how it was his robot blood leaking from his mouth, and Miranda had decided to take a nap. Though she apparently never took naps, that fact provided by Adam. Then he’d held her, refusing to put her down for fear if he did, she would never wake up again. He couldn’t let her go.

  He wished he knew how long it would take for her to recover. Human anatomies were so much different than his.

  An hour into her sleep, she began to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she focused on him. Fanian knew the minute she realized who held her. The look in her eyes went from confusion to panic in a blink. She pushed from him and scrambled back, knocking over Adam in the process.

  “Where’s Lexi?” she rushed out as she fumbled to steady Adam.

  “She’s sleeping. She was tired after her bottle,” Adam said.

  Miranda maneuvered on her knees to find Lexi in the sleeping bag while simultaneously dragging Adam close to her.

  “The children are fine,” Fanian said.

  It pained him to find Miranda repulsed by what he’d done. He’d thought they’d shared something. He was wrong. He hadn’t known what he expected when she woke up. She surely wasn’t the type to profess she’d enjoyed him feeding on her or let him know if she’d had an orgasm as he had. He would have settled for something more than what he’d seen in her eyes.

  He stood and retrieved the weapons he’d taken from her from the back of his waistband. She clutched her kids as she always did and watched him with a fearful gaze.

  “Well, are you going to sit there, or are you going to prepare for our escape?” His voice came out harsher than he’d intended.

  “You’re strong enough now?” she asked.

  He nodded. In fact, his vision was better, his hearing was spectacular, and his smell was more acute. All of his senses were heightened. “Who am I taking up first? You or the kids?”

  She chewed on her lip and frowned. “If you take me first, you might decide that you don’t need them. They’ll be left to die here.”