by L. E. Wilson
He stiffened, clenching his jaw. “What's wrong? You don’t like to look at me? At my wounds? The wounds you helped them inflict? Am I ugly to you?”
She shook her head. “No! No, you’re not ugly to me. Not at all.” She stared him right in the eye, not looking away, but not looking anywhere else.
Not sure why it even bothered him, he got the bottle, and squeezed some soap onto a cloth, lifting it up out of her reach when she went to take it from him. “I’ll help you.”
She steadied herself against the shower wall as he ran the soapy cloth over every trembling inch of her, enjoying her sharp intake of breath when he ran it slowly over her breasts and between her thighs.
When she was as clean as he could get her, he helped her rinse off. Grabbing a white towel off of the rack, he slid one arm around her waist and lifted her out of the shower, then wrapped it around her.
“Sit and wait.” He pointed at the closed toilet.
Hugging the towel around herself, she sank down gratefully onto the toilet seat.
Luukas washed himself quickly and efficiently. Twice. The soap and water burned his raw skin, but he didn’t care. She was right. It felt good to be really clean.
Turning off the water, he grabbed the matching towel and dried himself off before wrapping it around his narrow waist and stepping out.
He noticed her bra and underwear had made their way into the pile as he washed, and her towel was firmly wrapped around her.
She shivered, her eyes tired as they glanced at him apprehensively.
Clothes. He'd seen clean clothes somewhere.
Leaving her where she was, he walked out into the bedroom and saw two sets of clothing on the bed. Both contained a pair of his drawstring lounge pants and a T-shirt.
He picked a set and strode back into the bathroom.
“Lift your arms.”
She did, and he slid a shirt over her head and torso. Squatting down in front of her, he helped her place her small feet into each pant leg, and then lifted her to a standing position with his hands around her waist. She steadied herself by hanging onto his bare shoulders, and he pulled the pants up her legs, tugging the towel off of her when it got in his way.
He sucked in a quick breath when she was revealed to him for a split second before the T-shirt fell and covered her.
Recovering quickly, he pulled the pants the rest of the way up and tied the drawstring so they’d stay. His clothes were big on her, but at least she was clean and dry.
Picking the towel up, he squeezed as much water from her long hair as he could. He found a brush, and patiently removed all of the snarls as she sat complacently.
Not asking her permission, he picked her up and carried her out to the living area, setting her down on the couch.
“Do we have anything for her to eat?” he asked Nik.
“Yeah. I grabbed some stuff from my place real quick while you guys were in there. I’ll get it ready while you go get dressed.”
Nik headed into the kitchen.
Luukas hesitated a second, then nodded once. Leaving them to it, he went in to dress himself.
Chapter 14
Keira
Keira watched the hot, blonde vampire who’d been with her sister as he rummaged around in the kitchen.
He glanced up with bright, blue eyes and gave her a crooked smile when he caught her staring.
“Hi. I’m Nikulas. Luukas’ brother.”
“I’m…”
“Keira. I know,” he interrupted. “Emma’s sister.”
“Where is she?” she asked him quietly.
He paused, knife in hand, midway through the apple he was slicing.
“She’s on her way back to Pennsylvania, I would imagine.”
Making short work of the rest of the apple, he set it aside.
“Why did she leave?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Please, tell me. I haven’t seen her in years.”
The microwave beeped, and Nik pulled out some oatmeal, stirring it. He brought that, the sliced apple, and some bottled water over to Keira, setting it on the coffee table.
“Do you need help?” he asked her.
She shook her head, and carefully swung her legs off of the couch to sit up and eat.
“Tell me, Nikulas,” Keira insisted.
Falling into the chair opposite her, Nikulas gave her the short and sweet version, “She was angry at me for not trying to ‘rescue’ you from my brother. We fought. She hates me now. I followed her when she ran off and made sure she made it back to the Hummer safely, and then she drove off. I found you two in the hideout right after.”
Keira chewed a slice of apple. It was a Fugi, Emma’s favorite.
Tears filled her eyes. “You did the right thing. Luukas…he needs time to adjust.”
Nik nodded, and a look of understanding passed between them.
“Are you not angry with me?” she asked. “You do know it was me keeping your brother there, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he told her solemnly.
“Then why are you being so nice to me?”
He held her eyes as he told her, “Because your sister swears that you would never be so evil on your own. She thinks you were there against your will, and I believe her.”
“Leeha threatened Emma’s life. Swore to me that she’d kill her if I tried anything or didn’t do as she asked.” She sniffed and looked away, and then back at Nikulas. “I detested every single moment of it,” she confessed adamantly. “I hated doing what I did. But I had to choose - Luukas or my sister. I chose my sister, and I would do so again.”
They were silent for a while, Keira’s crunching on the apple the only noise in the room.
Nik cleared his throat. “I didn’t hurt her.”
“I know.”
“Did he hurt you?”
Keira didn’t need to ask who “he” was. “No, not really.”
“What happened to your neck? That wasn’t him?”
“No. That was another. One of Leeha’s guards.”
“That bite doesn’t look very good. Make sure you keep it clean.”
Keira nodded. “I will.”
“He won’t, you know. He won’t hurt you.”
Keira was confused for a moment before she realized that he was talking about Luukas again. “You sure about that?”
“I am. You’re his.”
Keira stopped chewing, swallowing the piece of apple whole.
“His?” she repeated.
“Yes. You know what that means?”
She avoided answering his question. “How do you know?” she challenged instead.
“I know because he told me. Not in so many words. Actually,” he scoffed, “in just one word. Mine.”
Keira took another bite of apple, her mind racing. She knew exactly what that meant. Her parents had taught her all about vampires and their ways when she was young.
“She misses you,” he told her, changing the subject again. “She’s never given up looking for you, just so you know.”
“How did you find her?” She took a bite of oatmeal. “Why did you find her?”
“We received word recently that you went missing around the same time Luukas had, and we connected the dots. But, we didn’t know if you were taken against your will also, like Luukas, or not. I found your sister and brought her along for leverage in case you proved to be difficult.”
“We?” she asked him.
“Aiden, Shea, Christian, Dante, and myself. They are Luukas’ Hunters, part of the vampire Council here.”
She was well aware of who they were.
“Are they here?”
Nik shook his head. “No. Leeha took Aiden during our rescue attempt, when the wolves showed themselves.” He smiled roguishly. “She hates wolves. The others…I don’t know where they are,” he admitted. “They were supposed to meet us up there when Aiden and I arrived with Emma. We received a call from them right before we left PA, and haven’t seen them or h
eard from them since. Running into the wolves was pure luck. I have no idea what happened, but I need to find out before…” He cut himself off. “They’ve all been acting weird ever since Luuk went missing. Who knows what could’ve happened?”
Keira glanced up sharply. “Weird, you say?”
Nik narrowed his eyes at her. “Yeah, very weird. Why?”
Keira glanced towards the closed door of the bedroom before whispering to him softly. “I may know something about the others who are missing.”
“What?” He demanded.
Keira told him the truth. “I don't know where they are. But...I’m sure you know, Leeha is insanely obsessed with having Luukas for herself.”
Nik nodded. “Yeah, that’s been going on for a long time. That’s why Luuk went to meet her that day, hoping he’d finally be able to talk some sense into her.”
“I don’t think she’s capable of ‘sense’, Nikulas. Trust me on that one.” Keira put the empty oatmeal bowl on the coffee table. “I don’t know where they are. However, I know why they’ve been acting strange. She made me put a curse on all of you.”
“She made you what?” His mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“Curse you. All of you. Except Luukas. I guess torturing him to within an inch of his life was satisfying enough for her,” she said bitterly. “She wanted to throw you off his trail. She wanted you all to be as miserable as she is, wanted me to make it impossible for any of you to find someone to care about and be happy: partly because she’d be jealous, and partly because she’s just a psycho bitch. She knows all of your weak points, and made me expound upon them.”
“What was the curse?”
“She wanted you to believe you were a killer, knowing the guilt would eat you alive. Christian I made into a complete whore. He is physically unable to not have sex, and never with the same person twice. He needs to find multiple people a night to do it with; when all he really longs for is to find one girl he can be with in a faithful relationship. Shea cannot be physically touched by a male, it causes her excruciating pain.”
“That explains a lot,” Nik interrupted. “She used to be so affectionate, until the day Luukas disappeared and she hugged me. As soon as she touched me, she stiffened up and jumped away. I was too distraught to think much about it, and she just played it off. But now that you say that…I can’t even remember the last time she so much as sat within arms distance of any of us.”
Now that her belly was full, Keira felt her eyelids getting heavy. “Dante will always be in darkness, when all he wants is light.” She yawned. “The curses cannot be broken. But I tricked her. I added a little something to each curse, a way out.”
Keira fought to keep her eyes open, but it was a losing battle.
“What way out? Keira? What way out?”
She wanted to answer him, but all she could manage was one word before she floated into sleep.
“Witches.”
Chapter 15
Christian
Christian groaned, slowly blinking his eyes open.
What the fuck happened?
He remembered leaving the apartment building and taking a shortcut through the alley. He’d been on his way to see that cute little stripper he’d been eyeballing, to work off some stress before they left on the rescue mission to get Luukas. But, it appeared he’d gotten intercepted.
So, where the hell was he now?
He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to chase away the headache pounding in his skull as he looked around. He was in an empty box within a larger, windowless room. Granted, it was a large box, more like a small room, but it was a box nonetheless. The box had three walls made of what looked like reinforced steel, and one wall made of glass. The floor and ceiling were made of the same material as the walls.
Glass? Really? Christian smirked as he stopped rubbing his neck. Whoever it was that had put him here was stupid enough to put a vampire behind glass? Thinking that would hold him?
He cracked his knuckles as he walked up to the front wall. The only bad thing about this was that he was about to cut the fuck out of his fist. But there didn’t seem to be any help for it. He sure as hell wasn’t staying in here and waiting around for his kidnappers to reappear.
He looked through the glass, searching the corners of the outer room as far as he could see, but it was just an empty room. There wasn’t even anywhere someone could hide, as there was no furniture other than a tall, leather-covered bench on the one side angled toward him, and a floor-to-ceiling pole in the center of the room. He didn’t see any hidden cameras either.
Good deal. Fisting up his right hand, he pulled back and slammed it into the glass. It bowed out with the force of his punch, but didn’t shatter as he’d expected it too, returning to its original shape.
Christian frowned. He’d hit that sucker pretty good. It should’ve broken easily. Taking a deep breath, he pulled back his fist again, letting it fly as hard as he could.
Again, the glass bowed out with his punch and then returned to the way it was.
What. The. Fuck.
This was obviously no ordinary glass. For the first time since he’d woken up, Christian began to get nervous. His fangs punched down in frustration as he tested each of the other walls in turn, punching, kicking, and body-slamming them until he had to stop or risk injuring himself in a way that would take too long to heal. He didn’t want to be incapacitated in any way when he met his hosts. His nervousness blossomed into full-blown anxiety.
He wasn’t getting out of here that easily.
Out of breath, he sank down into the corner, and tried to calm himself. Tried to think.
He didn’t remember anything after he entered the alley. Was he even still in Seattle? Who would do this to him?
He racked his brain for answers. Had he upset somebody’s boyfriend or husband? It was entirely possible. Christian didn’t ask many questions of the human females he fucked. He didn’t really care if they were taken or not, or where they were from, or what their name was. He’d never see them again in any case. He was only ever with a female once, and once he’d had her, any and all desire he’d felt for her was gone. And then he was on to the next one, and the next, until the rising sun chased him home.
The next night, he would do it all over again. The only time he didn’t follow this routine was when he was fighting or sleeping.
Such was his life since their Master had disappeared, and he had no idea where it had come from, or how to stop it. All he knew was that if he tried to resist his urges to have sex…well, let’s just say it wasn’t good.
He’d only attempted to refrain one time, and he’d managed to go two nights without being with anyone. The next night, when he’d gone to Shea’s apartment to get with her and Dante about how they were going to handle a group of rogue vamps in the area, he’d felt like a strung out heroin addict. He’d taken one look at the female Hunter, and had completely lost it. Dante had had to physically remove him from the premises, before he'd forced himself upon her and raped her, or worse. And that would’ve been bad. Really, really bad. Thank the gods Dante had arrived before him.
So, yeah, there was a very good chance that he’d played with the wrong female, and she’d cried to her male about how she’d been drugged and seduced, through no fault of her own, into cheating on him.
But how would a human male know to put him in something like this box cell? It wasn’t common knowledge among the humans that vampires lived among them. As a matter of fact, vampires went out of their way to avoid them finding out. If they did somehow, they were treated to a good old-fashioned memory wipe and were sent on their merry way, safe again in their ignorance.
Christian jumped to his feet as a hidden panel in the back of the room slid open. His eyes narrowed in on the empty doorway, waiting for his host to reveal himself. But no man ever came into the room. Instead, an ethereal creature glided towards him. A creature dressed in nothing but a gauzy, white camisole, matching short skirt, and slinky heels. Her s
kin was so pale it was nearly translucent. Her lips were a pink cupid’s bow. Her hair such a bright, peachy color, it reminded him of the rays of the sun streaming through the clouds at sunset. As she moved closer, he saw strands of blonde interspersed throughout the peach, only adding to the sunset effect. It was pulled back from her face, with only a few strands left loose to frame her features.
He wanted to pull the pins out of her hair and watch it ripple down around her face like fire.
He walked towards her as she neared him, stopping only when he came into contact with the glass wall. She hadn’t looked at him or spoken to him, yet she completely entranced him. His heart pounded as he watched her come closer and closer still. Her eyes were downcast, and he wished she would lift them so he could see their color.
She stopped at the pole, and he groaned aloud, placing his palms on the glass. She was still too far away from him. He wanted her closer.
Music bled into the room. A smoky, seductive beat that pulsed through his body, and she started to dance.
He watched, mesmerized, as she strutted around the pole, and then gripped it with one hand while she let her body go into a free fall around it, keeping her eyes down the entire time. Finding her footing again, she dropped down into a squat; the pole between her legs, gripping it with both hands. Ass first, she rose up to her full height, only to turn around and slide up and down the pole, her hands above her head as the pole separated her perfectly rounded ass cheeks. Her skirt rode up as she writhed on the cold metal, giving him teasing glances of something white and sparkly and barely there, scarcely covering the mound between her soft thighs.
Christian pressed his forehead to the glass as she started undoing the hooks on the back of her shirt, helpless to look away.
Facing away from him, she let it float down the front her body. Crossing her arms in front of herself, she covered her breasts with her hands, and then teasingly dropped one hand to swing around the pole again.
Through it all, she kept her eyes down and her expression never changed.
His cock pounded in his pants. His fangs ached to sink into her pale skin.