But it wouldn’t stop her from taking what he offered. She couldn’t. Once that mouthwatering scent hit her nose, she was hooked. Now she needed it too badly.
He scowled as he handed the bottle into her trembling hand, those green eyes shadowed with grim, angry emotion. Part of her wanted to throw the blood in his judgmental face, but she greedily clutched the bottle in her cold fingers. Just before the rim touched her lips, her eyes flicked to the knife he still gripped in his hand and she smirked. “You’d rather die than do this the easy way, wouldn’t you?”
“I’m sure the knife hurts a helluva lot less than your teeth.”
“It’s too bad you’ll never know for sure,” she murmured, and she could feel him watching her with piercing intensity as she lowered her lashes and drank deeply, letting the warm, succulent liquid flow down her throat, spreading through her body, slipping deeper…and deeper….
And all the while, she tried not to think about the past or the future…or how badly she wanted to sink her fangs into Seth McConnell’s masculine throat.
CHAPTER SIX
Saarbrücken, Germany
4:00 a.m.
IF HELL EXISTED on earth, then Seth had no doubt that he’d found it. They’d checked into their hotel a half hour ago, and all that’d been available was a room with a king-size bed, which meant he’d be cramping it on the love seat for the remainder of the night. But that wasn’t the hellish part. No, the part that had him twisted into knots, pacing the room from one side to the other, was the fact that he was alone with the vamp.
Strange, that in all the time he’d known her, they’d never once been behind a locked door together. Always before, there had been friends nearby. Watching. Listening. Ready to be there if she needed them.
Knowing damn well that he made her nervous, Seth was relieved, if not a little annoyed, when she sat down in the middle of the bed with her backpack, pulled the wavy mass of her long hair over one shoulder, whipped out her laptop and began typing away, doing God only knew what—and completely ignoring his presence. Of course, it gave him the opportunity to simply watch her, his gaze never wavering from the delicate angles of her face as he paced…and paced, the carpet no doubt wearing thin beneath the soles of his boots.
Though he hated to admit it, she looked better for the blood he’d given her, color blooming in her cheeks with a soft, youthful glow. A glow he couldn’t help but feel strangely proud for putting there. He’d used the first-aid kit he always traveled with—in his line of work, the thing was constantly needed—and wrapped a bandage around his arm, but the shallow cut still throbbed, reminding him of those quiet, intense moments in the back of the taxi. As he’d watched her drinking his blood, it’d been impossible to control his body’s reactions. His heart had hammered like a bitch, his cock hardening to the point he felt light-headed. Though his mind obviously had trouble coming to terms with her “liquid” diet, his body had no trouble reacting to the provocative idea of her taking sustenance from him.
Or was he simply experiencing relief at the fact that he’d been able to keep her from going out and finding her meal elsewhere? After all, he knew the Deschanel were hardly without means. They had “feeders” in every city of the world—men and women who gave of their blood freely. Most were from clans who were allies of the Deschanel, though he’d heard of humans filling the prestigious positions. They were more than well compensated for their work, often earning millions a year.
And it wasn’t always their blood that they offered, but their bodies, as well.
If what Raine had said about finding a blood bank was true, then there had to be a reason, and Seth couldn’t help but think that she didn’t want to get close enough to anyone to feed directly from their vein. But if that was true, then why did she take such exception to the fact that he refused to allow her to bite him?
And why am I asking myself this question, when I already know the answer? It’s obviously a matter of pride. She knows I won’t ever allow it, so she makes those comments simply to irritate me.
Or…was it something else entirely? Could she honestly—
No! Damn it, that’s enough!
Knowing he was only going to twist himself into knots if he didn’t get his mind on to a different subject, he said, “So who are we hunting in Germany? Seton?”
She stiffened with a little gasp, her expression so rigid she looked ready to crack as she set her laptop aside. “How do you know about Seton?” she demanded, pressing her back and shoulders against the headboard. “Were you gossiping with the others? God, you’re all like a bunch of schoolkids!”
Seth knew, from talking to Kellan and Chloe, that Seton was the Casus bastard who’d overseen Raine’s punishments while the group had been imprisoned, carrying them out at Westmore’s command.
“We weren’t gossiping,” he muttered, raking his fingers through his hair like he did when he was tense, which seemed to be his usual state these days. “I was just…worried. I wanted to gather as much information as I could.”
Her nostrils flared. “My private life is none of your goddamn business, McConnell. You have no right gathering information about me, and you can’t shove me under a microscope just because you feel like it. I’m not the subject of one of your Collective hunts!”
Narrowing his eyes, he quietly said, “I’m not hunting you, Raine. I claimed that Oath because I’m trying to help.”
“Oh, right.” Breathless laughter shook her chest, while a flat smile twisted the corner of her mouth. “How can I keep forgetting that the vampire killer has had a change of heart?”
Seth stopped pacing at the foot of the bed, his muscles corded with strain as he held her furious stare. “Damn it, what do you want to hear?” His voice was getting harder…grittier, the words ripping out of him against his will, scratching like barbs in his throat. “You want to hear that I’m sorry for what I’ve done? That there’s a part of me that feels like a monster for all the Deschanel that I’ve cut down in cold blood? Then fine, I do. It’s a screwed-up feeling, but it’s one I’ve got to live with. You happy now?”
“Why feel sorry?” The gray of her eyes turned silver, glittering like streaks of lightning. “We vampires all deserve it, right?”
“A lot of them did.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and locked his jaw, forcing the graveled words out. “Others…I can’t be so sure.”
His husky admission had obviously surprised her. Her mouth dropped open a little, her tawny brows pulling together over eyes that were stormy with disbelief, and he actually felt his face start to flush with heat.
What the hell am I doing?
Clearing his throat, Seth turned and stalked toward the window. He braced one hand high on the frame and stared out at the pinkening skyline, the sun finally making its early-morning climb, fighting its way against the darkness, while he wondered why he couldn’t just keep his mouth shut around her. Yeah, he’d lived with things he knew were wrong during his years with the Collective, but he’d made excuses, not wanting to admit that his entire life was built on a steaming pile of hatred and prejudice. But that didn’t mean she was going to understand…or forgive him.
“What’s going on, McConnell?” He could hear the thread of confusion in her soft words. “You still owe me an answer to that question I asked you on the train. Do you honestly regret all the blood you’ve shed in the name of the Collective Army?”
“Not all of it,” he muttered, rubbing his free hand against his stubbled jaw. “But revenge is an ugly thing, Raine. Be ready for what it does to you. Because if you give in to it, you might not like what you become.”
For a moment all he could hear was the soughing sound of her breaths, but he could feel the stormy heat of her gaze burning against his back, and he steeled himself for her response, knowing damn well that he wasn’t going to like it. “I’m sure that’s true, but it doesn’t matter. I’m willing to sell a piece of my soul if it means making the Casus pay for their sins.”
“A piece?�
�� A wry laugh slid bitterly from his lips, and he dropped his head forward, his fingers digging into the wooden window frame with so much force, he was amazed it didn’t crack. “More like the whole fucking package.”
“You don’t think a man like Seton should pay for his sins?”
“I’m not saying that.” Of course the bastard needed to pay. Just thinking about the son of a bitch made him want to rip something apart with his bare hands—but he didn’t want Raine being a part of that. She’d already been through enough ugly crap to last a lifetime. “All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t have to kill yourself to make it happen. Even if it is only a part. You’ve already suffered enough.”
“Yeah, well, I happen to believe that it’s his turn to suffer.”
“So then it is Seton we’re here for?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.
She shook her head, and he could see the exhaustion in her eyes that she was trying so hard to conceal. “Not yet. I’m saving him for the end. I figure he and Westmore will be together, so I’ll be able to take them out at the same time.”
“Can you read him?”
“No. And he knows it.”
AT HIS QUESTIONING LOOK, Raine wet her lips, forcing herself to hold his gaze as she explained. “When they were torturing me, I was asked questions. Ones that I couldn’t always answer with a lie. I admitted I couldn’t read Westmore…or Seton.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know. Bad luck? I hated them the most? Whatever the reason, they’re blank to me.”
“So it’s not only your loved ones you can’t see?” he asked in a gritty rasp, his eyes darkening. “It’s also the people you despise?”
“Sometimes,” she murmured, pulling her knees into her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
He looked back out the window, his posture rigid, and Raine realized what he was thinking. She could no longer read him, so the logical conclusion was that it was because she hated him. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that wasn’t true, but she bit back the words, knowing no good could come from it. Better to let him think what he would. She was already too drawn to him, slipping deeper into dangerous territory with each second that went by.
She shivered, rubbing her hands down her arms, her skin suddenly too tight for her body, and was actually grateful for the distraction when he came right out with his unspoken question, even though it was going to mean admitting things she’d rather have kept to herself.
“Why do you think you can no longer read me?” He took a deep breath, the hand he’d braced at the edge of the window clenching into a powerful fist. “Is it because you hate me after seeing the things I’ve done in the past?”
“I don’t know why I can’t read you, McConnell. But it isn’t because of hatred. I might find it…difficult to accept you, and the things you’ve done definitely make me angry, but…even though I know that I should, I don’t hate you for them.” She lowered her gaze, staring at the swirling pattern of the bedspread, and made an admission that should have made her burn with shame. “To be honest,” she said in a quiet voice, “if I were in your place, I probably would have done the same things. That wouldn’t have made them right, but I don’t think it would have stopped me.”
He turned as she lifted her gaze, his expression mirroring his surprise. “You really believe that?”
With a stiff shrug of her shoulder, she said, “Aren’t I doing something similar now?”
“Yeah, but the Casus are a bunch of evil bastards who deserve to die.”
“And after what happened to your family, you felt the same way about vamps, didn’t you?”
“I did. But do you know what I finally learned?” His voice got rougher, and she could feel the raw force of his emotions blasting against her like a hot wind. “I learned that I can’t hate every vampire for what was done to my family. And no matter how many kills you make, Raine, you won’t be able to change what happened to yours.”
“I know that,” she told him, more than a little shocked by the honesty of their conversation. For two people who hadn’t known each other long, and who had so many reasons to be enemies, they spoke with a candor that was more than a little unsettling. “I’m not trying to change what happened. I’m just trying to find a way to live with it, the same as you did.”
He swore under his breath, and began pacing again, his bristling, restless energy seeming too much for the room to contain. “If not Seton, then who are we here for, Raine? If we’re going to do this thing, I need to understand the plan.”
“There are three more that I want, before Westmore. Seton will be the last of those three, and to find him I’m going to have to find the Kraven. But the next one I’m going after is named Schultz. He’s here in Germany.”
“And what about Spark?” he asked, shoving his fingers through his hair so hard that it would have hurt if the blond strands hadn’t been cut so close to his scalp.
Spark was a Collective assassin who was working with Westmore. The female soldier had once targeted Raine for attack during her imprisonment, but Kellan had managed to turn the assassin’s attention on him instead…and had taken a gruesome beating for it. Just thinking about it made Raine feel sick to her stomach.
Forcing the words past the knot of guilt in her throat, she managed to say, “Spark might be a bitch, but she had nothing to do with Rietta’s death.”
“But she nearly got you raped again.” His tone was so graveled it reminded her of a Lycan. “Kellan told me what happened.”
“But this isn’t about me. It’s about what they did to my sister.”
“Even so, I still think we need to be careful where Spark’s concerned. She’s been holed up in Budapest for months now, but we’ll know if she moves. The Granger brothers are still running personal surveillance on her.”
Ashe and Gideon Granger were two Deschanel vampires who were working with the Watchmen, same as Seth. Watching Spark was a simple assignment for guys of their experience, considering they were Förmyndares—specially trained vampires who protected the Deschanel clan—but the brothers had personal reasons for wanting to get their hands on Westmore and had hoped the assassin would eventually lead them to the Kraven leader.
The Grangers were also wonderfully gorgeous, and infinitely more suited to a woman like her, but Raine wasn’t interested in them. Despite their outrageous appeal, it was McConnell who’d held her attention from the very beginning—which meant she obviously had something wrong with her wiring. Yeah, she had no doubt that he’d make some woman incredibly happy one day—but that woman sure as hell wouldn’t be a vampire.
The soldier came to a stop at the foot of the bed and pushed his hands into his pockets again, his gaze locked with hers, and Raine was thankful that he hadn’t been able to read the direction of her thoughts. “Do you think Westmore knows we bugged her?” he asked, still thinking about Spark.
Before they’d escaped the Wasteland, the Watchmen had managed to capture the assassin. They’d let her get away, but only after they’d tagged the backpack that she always carried with an electronic tracking device. To cover their plan, they’d told her she was being released so that she could deliver a message to Westmore, demanding that he show in two weeks’ time at the Eiffel Tower, ready to hand over the three Dark Markers in his possession. The Kraven leader hadn’t shown, but then, they hadn’t expected him to. But they were disappointed that the assassin obviously hadn’t been allowed to join Westmore at his new hiding place, which would have led Seth and his friends right to him.
“It’s more likely that he’s worried I’d be able to get a read on her and tell the Watchmen where he’s hiding,” she said in response to his question. “Like I told you before, I’m sure that’s why the Casus haven’t been allowed to join him.”
“Could you read her if you needed to?”
“I don’t know. It’s doubtful. I’m using everything I have just to keep tabs on the Casus I’m going after. The easiest way to think of my power
at the moment is like a battery. Every glimpse I steal is draining that battery, and nothing seems capable of recharging it.”
Nothing except for this seething need for revenge burning inside her, which was the only reason she’d been able to clue in to those Casus she was hunting—but she kept that truth to herself.
Lifting his bandaged right hand, he rubbed at the muscles at the back of his neck, and asked, “If it’s difficult for you to see the ones you hate most, like Westmore and Seton, then why can you see the Casus?”
“Every threat doesn’t become a blind spot. You’re looking for logical explanations, but I don’t have any. This isn’t science, McConnell. It’s the supernatural. You can’t apply human reasoning.”
“But you have a theory, don’t you?” The way he looked at her with those piercing eyes, and the sureness of his tone, made her feel as if he was the one who read minds.
“If I had to guess,” she murmured, tugging her knees closer to her chest, “it would be because the orders were coming from Westmore and Seton. The others were just their sheep.”
“So you’re blind to those you sense as a direct threat?”
“Sometimes.” With a wry half smile, she said, “It’s a twisted system, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He kept rubbing at the back of his neck, as if trying to work out a knot. “But I would never… I’m not a threat, damn it.”
“Why does it bother you so much?” she asked, more than a little confused by his reaction. “I thought you’d be pleased to know that for the most part, you’re completely blank to me now.”
He blew out another ragged breath of air and finally stopped rubbing his neck, shoving his bandaged hand back in his pocket. “I’m not saying I want you wandering around in my head,” he growled, the rough words thick with frustration. “But I don’t want to be something you fear, either.” As if he sensed her desire to break eye contact, his dark gaze locked tighter with hers, making it impossible for her to look away. “I want you to trust me, Raine.”
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