by Michele Hauf
The desire-ridden brain-fog swirling in her mind left her incapable of understanding or caring what it was he wanted. In a movement of extreme speed and dexterity, he was lying on top of her, the weight of his body pressing down on hers. She pushed her hips against him, grinding slightly, trying to find some release to the pressure that was just beginning to subside.
She lost herself in the black pools of his eyes, and knew she was his. Right now, she would do whatever he wanted.
He licked the skin behind her ear, tasting, smelling. “Why didn’t Cayman tell you? Did he not trust you?” He pulled the sensitive lobe into his mouth, loving it tenderly with his tongue.
The burning within her grew again, building until she felt she’d explode if he didn’t kiss her.
She made soft mewling noises as his tongue slipped from behind his teeth and circled her lips. She arched her back, trying to get closer, trying to draw him into her.
“More,” she demanded. She pushed her tongue into his mouth, kissing him hard, tasting, devouring, conquering.
He pulled back. “No.”
She looked up at him, trying to catch her breath as mortification set it. She wanted him. She’d begged him. And he’d said no.
“Oh, God,” she squeaked.
“Don’t worry, darling. You couldn’t help yourself. You’re only … human, after all.”
He left her and started toward the door. “Wait. You can’t leave me here like this.”
“Like what? Wanting? Lusting? Craving?” Yes, craving. “Tied up,” she said, her voice barely audible.
“Oh, but I can. And I will, until your brother brings me what I want.” “And if he doesn’t?”
“Then you need to think about exactly what you’re going to do to help me find him.”
“Why would I help you?”
“Because it’s the only chance you will ever have to see him or anyone again.”
“Great,” she muttered as he walked out the door. She pulled her leg against the silk bind that had come loose, and pulled her foot free. She glanced quickly at the door, then tried with the other leg. It didn’t budge.
“Great,” she muttered again and closed her legs. “Happy birthday to me.”
CHAPTER THREE
LEAVING the delectable Miss Xana, Marius walked into the kitchen for a bag of blood. She’d responded to him much more strongly than he’d expected, but what truly surprised him was the way he’d responded to her. It had been a long time since he’d felt such an intense pull toward a woman. Any woman, and a human woman at that. But there was something about the bright spot of crimson on her silky white panties and the smell of her desire that stuck with him, and fueled the rock-hard erection that was pushing uncomfortably against his leather pants.
He should go back in there and give her what she wanted. What they both needed. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He needed her to trust him, to help him figure out what Cayman was doing in that warehouse.
His cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.
“There’s a problem at Crank it Up.” Jaz, his first sergeant in control of District 3, almost never called. He liked to handle things on his own, and Marius liked to let him. Sometimes. But after what had happened with his three brethren last night, and then not finding the formula at the warehouse tonight, he didn’t want to hear any more bad news.
“What kind of problem?”
“A few of our own are out of control.”
A few? “Can’t you handle it?” Marius barked, clearly annoyed.
“Maybe. There are a lot.”
Marius stilled. “How many?”
“Last count … at least six. But more are coming in.”
Damn it. What was going on in his city? “All right. I’m coming.”
But he wouldn’t be going alone. Miss Xana needed to see for herself what they were up against and what the stakes would be if she didn’t help him find her brother and that formula.
He gathered up her clothes, walked into the room and threw them on the bed, then quickly untied her silk binds. “Get dressed. We’re going into the city.”
Instantly, she pulled her clothes in front of her using them as a shield. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Do you really think you have a choice? You can either come of your own free will, or I can make you. Now which would you prefer?”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I don’t have time for games. The Alliance has waged war against us.”
“I don’t even know what this Alliance is.”
“Your brother does. If he kept it from you, that’s your problem. You are going to help me find out exactly what he and this Alliance are up to.”
“I’m not helping you do anything,” she hissed and sputtered, as if she were a wet little kitten. He could almost smile, if he weren’t so damned annoyed.
“Fine, then stay here tied up in the dark and maybe I’ll come back for you. Or maybe I’ll just leave you here to rot.” He picked up a silk scarf then grabbed her ankle and yanked it toward him.
“No. Wait. Don’t.”
He continued tying her other ankle and her wrists. “You’re not serious,” she asked, her eyes growing wide.
“I don’t have time or patience for your silly antics.” He walked out the door, flicking off the light as he did. “Wait!” she screamed. He hesitated, opening the door a crack. “All right, I’ll help you. Just don’t leave me here.” Within seconds, he had the ties off her ankles and wrists, and then he tossed her naked body over his shoulder on the way to his car in the garage.
“Put me down,” she yelled, as she beat on him, her small pert breasts bouncing against his back, her lovely round backside up on his shoulder next to his chin. For a second he was tempted to take a small nip, but he didn’t. Not now. But he would have his pleasure with this woman and her mass of blond hair before the night was over, of that he was certain.
Anger and humiliation burned through Xana as Marius’s hand slipped over her bare butt. As soon as she got away from this monster and back to her house, she was going to burn every one of her thongs, and then she’d come back for him. She’d make him pay for this if it was the last thing she did.
If she got out of here.
“Damn you, Cayman,” she gritted under her breath. Why the hell would he arrange to meet Marius at the warehouse, then run off and leave her there?
Marius dumped her into the backseat of the Jaguar and tossed her clothes on top of her. “Get dressed.”
“Why? I thought you liked me naked?” she snapped.
His eyebrows quirked and she thought she saw the corners of his mouth lift before his face became impassive again and he looked once more like what he was—a stone-cold killer. A monster.
Xana sat in the back of the sleek Jaguar as it roared down the winding mountain road toward Highway 101 and into the city. She pulled her cami over her head, then quickly buttoned her blouse over it and wiggled into her skinny jeans. She cringed as the denim scraped against the bite marks on her upper thigh.
Hate and revulsion flooded through her, filling every molecule of her being. She’d kissed him. His bite put some kind of twisted disgusting vampire spell on her and she’d wanted him to kiss her back. To touch her. Hell, to screw her.
Damn, she wanted a shower. A long, hot shower with a stiff brush. But no. She was stuck in this plush car going with him to God knew where for God knew what. Chances were she’d never see a shower again. Or Cayman. The desperate thought crept unbidden into her mind. She pushed it away. Cayman wouldn’t have left her there with Marius. He couldn’t have set this all up. Vampires lie. They cheat and they manipulate. And they hypnotize women into kissing them and Lord knew what else. She thought of Marius’s hand touching her body and shivered.
“Where are we going?” she blurted, trying to get the thought out of her head.
“Into the city,” he answered as they raced through four full lanes of traffic t
oward the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to see firsthand what the Alliance is doing.”
“I’ve already told you I don’t know anything about this Alliance.”
“Then your brother has done you a great disservice.”
Has he? They drove in silence as they entered the city, following the freeway onto Lombard Street then dropping down Van Ness toward the Tenderloin District. Oh, this wasn’t good. He pulled to a stop near Seventh Street, outside of several dark and dilapidated warehouses. She looked around, desperately searching for a way to escape, a way to disappear. But here, a woman on her own was easy prey. And not just to vampires.
Especially a woman without her gun.
“What are you hoping to show me?” she asked as he cut the engine.
He didn’t answer, but got out of the car. Before she could blink, her door was opening. “Let’s go,” he said.
“Lead the way.”
She walked next to him through the darkness, where the red tips of burning cigarettes were the only signs of life lurking in the shadows. Drug addicts and gang members waiting to accost anyone with a quarter in their pocket filled the dark corners where graffiti covered chipped and peeling paint. The smell of vomit and urine tainted the air, and bundled lumps of humanity forgotten and ignored lay in inebriated clumps against the walls and along the sidewalks of the abused and neglected buildings.
They sidestepped the large grates in the cement where fog billowed up, its tendrils wrapping around and swallowing their legs. She walked quicker, following Marius into an abandoned building that practically hummed with the vibrations of the grating music playing within. As she passed through the darkened door where only flashes of multicolored strobe lights lit the room, Xana knew instinctively that she didn’t want to be in there.
The air was thick with the smell of cigarettes and marijuana. She slapped a hand against her nose and mouth to keep from coughing. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their faces full of gleaming metal exposed in jagged harsh pieces as the light bounced off their kohl-darkened eyes, white powdered skin and hair cut at choppy angles. Yep, exactly what she would expect to see in a place like this. Even gang members might not mess with some of these freaks.
Marius grabbed her arm and dragged her quickly through the room to a long bar in the back. She had to get away from him. But how?
On a stage a band clad in black leather screamed about the glories of suicide and she had to wonder if it was so great, why didn’t they do mankind a favor and get it over with already? Marius exchanged a few whispered words with a vampire behind the bar then pulled her toward a staircase in the far corner and ascended into the darkness. She hesitated, not wanting to go up there, but he yanked on her arm, dragging her after him up the stairs and down a long corridor to another room in the back.
Her stomach rolled in protest as a sickly sweet odor reached her. She tried to pull away, but Marius’s grip tightened.
“Let me go,” she insisted. But it did no good. He continued forward, practically pulling her after him. When they reached the room in the back, she was horrified by what she saw through the gloom of several thick candles in iron stands and sconces around the room. People were laying on chaise lounges, on couches and on the floor in various states of undress. Making out, making love, slobbering all over each other—a sick, virtual orgy of twisting bodies.
But not everyone was moving. Or moaning.
Apprehension twisted in her gut.
“I want out of here,” she said and pulled away, trying to wrench free from his grasp. It was no use. Trying to move him was like trying to move a tree. And not just any tree, a giant sequoia.
Marius ignored her protestations and approached the couple closest to them. The man pulled up from the woman’s neck and looked up at him, blood covering the bottom half of his face. The woman was dead, her neck half-gone. Xana froze. The vampire wasn’t just drinking her blood, he was eating her flesh.
Revulsion ripped through Xana, turning her stomach. She took an immediate step back. The vampire followed her movement, his eyes glowing an odd shade of reddish-amber. Marius thrust something into the man’s heart. Surprise filled the vampire’s face seconds before he exploded into an obscure puff of ash.
Xana sagged with relief, but it was short-lived. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom and as she looked around her, she realized the room was full of vampires and, by the sickly sweet odor, blood. They didn’t seem to just be taking drinks. They were actually feasting. She faltered, falling back against the wall. She couldn’t stay here. Terrified, she looked at Marius and started backing toward the door.
In two strides he was on her.
Marius took Xana’s stakes out of his inside pocket and thrust them into her hand. Her eyes widened with surprise. “Don’t let them near you,” he said then moved into the heart of the room.
He saw Lewis, his old friend from back when he’d first come to San Francisco. Lewis was old-world French and an aristocrat. But more than that, he was a gentleman. A man of sophistication. The animal Marius saw before him tearing into a human like a wild dog was not his friend. His friend had been stolen by the virus.
Fury tightened Marius’s grip on the stake as he plunged it into Lewis—doing what he had to do, doing what Lewis would want him to do and what he’d want Lewis to do to him if their roles were reversed. He put Lewis down like the rabid animal he was.
This virus the Alliance had infected the vampires with was spreading. He had to put an end to it and eradicate those responsible now, or soon there might not be any sane vampires left. Which wouldn’t be good for any of them. As quickly as he could, he moved through the room, staking one rabid vamp after another.
Until they became aware of what he was doing.
The vampires stood, rising off the corpses and moving toward him. The darkened room glowed with candlelight bouncing off the reddish-amber sheen of their eyes.
Behind him, Xana gasped. As if frozen, she’d been standing against the wall watching with shocked eyes, but not moving. She moved now, as if someone flipped a switch inside her, and started doing what she did best—killing vampires. Though he doubted she’d ever been faced with so many at one time.
He fought with the speed and strength far superior to many of the vamps in the room, who were at least a century younger than him, and by the time he and Xana were done, there was nothing left but the mangled bodies of the victims.
Sickened by the scene before him and by what he’d had to do to his followers, his vampires from his city, he walked slowly around the room, making sure they were all gone. Xana stood by the far wall, breathing heavily, her hand shaking.
“What are we going to do now?” she asked.
“The human bodies will have to be destroyed. No one can ever know who they were or what had happened to them here.”
“It’s just so …”
He placed a hand on her arm. “We have to make sure this never happens again. We have to stop them.”
Looking somewhat shell-shocked, she looked up at him with wet luminous eyes, her mouth opening as if to form a question, but in the end, she just nodded.
Without saying a word, Xana followed Marius out of the chamber and down the stairs to the room below, where people danced and drank and laughed and had no idea of the horror going on above them, or how close they’d come to becoming meat for the monsters around them.
But they were all gone now. Dead because of Marius. She watched him as he whispered in the ear of a bartender, telling him how to dispose of the bodies, she supposed.
The vampire nodded, his face looking grim. Then they were out of the warehouse. She took a deep breath of the night air, which now seemed suddenly refreshing. She stopped herself from running down the street toward the docks, where the icy wind and briny, oily smell of the bay could wash her feverish cheeks and clean the scent of death from her nose.
But she knew she would never forget the stench of it.
“What happened back there?” she asked, her voice sounding weak and broken.
“The vampires were infected. They had to be put down.”
“Infected?” Uneasiness squirmed through her.
“By a virus created by the Alliance.”
She didn’t understand. How could a virus cause this kind of horror? What would Cayman know about any of this? Why would he ask Marius to meet him at the warehouse only to blow it up and disappear? And leave her behind?
Suddenly, Marius stopped and turned to her, his dark angry gaze locking onto hers. “Why don’t you know anything about this? I thought you and your brother were a team. A vampire-killing, monster-stomping team.” His words were loud and mocking. They made her cringe. But he was right. She and Cayman were a team. So, why the hell was he working on this without her?
“I think it’s time you tell me everything,” she said.
Obviously, he was upset. He’d been telling her the truth. She knew that now. And more than that, she knew she had to help him. What she’d just seen could never happen again. If there was a virus, then it had to be found and it had to be stopped. Obviously, Cayman believed that, too. So where the hell was he?
“In the last couple days, there have been reports of vampires out of control. Killing without regard to detection and eating pieces of their victims.” His mouth hardened as he said the words. “This is not normal vampire behavior.”
Her uneasiness grew to full-blown anxiety. “There is normal vampire behavior?” she asked before she could stop herself. Then could have slapped a hand over her snarky mouth.
Marius turned away, moving quickly up the street toward his car. She ran forward and grabbed his arm. “Wait. I’m sorry. Please, continue.”
His anger, thick and deadly, rolled off him. She dropped her hand and took a quick step back.
“I’d discovered the Alliance has been working on a virus made of vampire DNA that they’ve been giving to humans.”
“Why?”
“Because they want our strength, our speed, our agility.”
“Without the blood.”