Existence

by Mel Teshco

  My gasp gave us away even without trying. Daryl charged toward us, quicker than a striking snake. “I’ve got them!”

  Alexander shot his arm out, his clenched fist thumping Daryl’s jaw. The brother flew back and landed on his ass with a muffled grunt even as I saw the glint of Rory’s knife. I grabbed Alexander’s arm and said hoarsely, “Let’s get out of here.”

  He nodded and we leaped over Daryl and sprinted through the door, our tread snapping across the leaf-littered pathway before we raced out of the front yard and along the sidewalk, past dingy houses. My pulse jerked erratically as the roar of a loud engine started up behind us.

  Alexander cursed and grabbed my hand, pulling me into a driveway and all but dragging me past a dilapidated, fibro house. He jumped a wire gate and I managed to stumble over it. He caught me and guided me behind the dirty house, where a weedy yard showcased an aged hills hoist with clothes hanging limply from its lines.

  A black Rottweiler trotted around the corner, his big silver collar glinting along with his bared teeth. The dog moved slowly toward us, growling and nervous, his undernourished body giving him a dangerous edge.

  The brothers’ car roared past, its engine subsiding fast into the distance. I held out my hand and called the dog to me. I needed to calm the animal. I had no doubt the brothers would return, and any barking or vicious growling at this early hour might alert them to our whereabouts.

  But the dog didn’t move. His chest rumbled with a menacing snarl before a succession of deep woofs sounded like a neighborhood alarm.

  The back door of the house banged open and a skinny, stringy-haired, older woman dressed in flannel pajamas, yelled out, “Shut the fuck up, you stupid dog, or Freddie will beat the shit outta ya again.”

  I gritted my teeth as the Rotty slinked low, his fear apparent. The dog was only doing his duty. The owner was clearly the stupid one when she didn’t even glance our way before she slammed the door shut and stomped back inside.

  “The poor dog,” I whispered. Not only was it starved, it was beaten too.

  Alexander nodded, but I noted he was more preoccupied by the desiccated clothes on the washing line. The sorry-looking shirts, pants and underwear appeared to have been pegged up at least a month earlier.

  I called the Rotty again, and he watched us with unblinking, assessing eyes before he finally slunk toward us. He snuffled my hand, then whined when I gently stroked his head. “Good boy,” I murmured, my heart melting for the dog that’d probably never known a kind word in his life.

  I opened my backpack and fed the dog my energy bars even as Alexander stalked toward the washing and unpegged two shirts and a jacket. Carefully unclasping the dog chain that’d been secured to the hills hoist, he moved back to the house and away from its windows.

  His eyes gleamed as he handed me a shirt and jacket. “Put these on.”

  I nodded. “Good plan.”

  After he’d unlatched the gate and carefully opened it, I snuck through with the dog on his lead, our backpacks abandoned so as not to give us away. Ten minutes later we were walking down the street, the Rotty dragging against his lead with an eagerness that belied his starved condition. The energy bars were probably more than the dog had eaten in a week.

  I pulled my borrowed jacket around me even as Alexander adjusted the hood of his red and black checkered shirt. His face was shadowed in his hoodie, and I fell back a little to conceal myself next to him.

  The brothers wouldn’t be looking for two poorly dressed people out walking their dog. I grinned at Alexander. His tall body was at least one size too big for the shirt and pants, while my pants were loose around my waist and tight on my ass, the jacket a couple of sizes too large.

  He raised a dark eyebrow. “We look like hobos.”

  I nodded. “Good.”

  I stayed in his shadow when the brothers’ sedan throbbed past twenty minutes later. Not one of the passengers or the driver looked at the down-and-out couple walking their half-starved mutt.

  We turned a corner of the block and my breath whistled through my teeth. I bent and ruffled the Rotty’s ears. “Good boy…Jasper. I’m going to buy you the biggest bone I can find.”

  “Jasper?” Alexander queried with a wry smile.

  I shrugged. “I can’t keep on calling him dog or Rotty.”

  Alexander tightened his arm around me and I rested my head against his shoulder. “You did great.”

  I smiled up at him. “The clothes and dog worked a treat.”

  “They did. Now we just have to keep out of sight.”

  In unspoken agreement, we headed to the doctor’s house. It was risky, but we were certain the brothers would have looked there already and discovered we didn’t live there. The doctor would have set them straight.

  I looked up at the man I craved to be with more than anyone else in the world. If my wish had half a chance of coming true, now was a time to think clearly. I blinked, ignoring the sexual thrill pulsing through me. This tough, smart, gorgeous man had been my first ever lover. I couldn’t have chosen better if I’d tried.

  I cleared my throat, forcing my mind back on survival. “You’ve lived with that vampire leech for forty-six years.”

  His lips tightened. “Yes.”

  “Aside from sunlight, does he have any other weaknesses?”

  He shrugged. “Everything has a weakness.” He drew a hand over his face. “Our strain of blood is extremely rare. And he’ll grow weaker every day that he doesn’t drink.”

  “Until he finds us or another donor,” I finished for him. “What are the chances he’ll find someone else?”

  “Slim to none. It’s why he’ll do whatever it takes to get us back. It’s also why he spends so much time looking through his telescope. He can see the auras of people, and different blood types show different auras. Our blood type gives off a distinct aura all of its own.”

  I stored away the information, not even thinking beyond the fact that other vampires might well see that same aura and kidnap us. “In all the time you were in the nest, how many donors did the vampire procure?”

  Alexander didn’t hesitate. “Twelve.” Clearly those numbers were branded into his head, no matter how much he undoubtedly wished he could forget every one of those women.

  “So, fourteen, counting you and me?”

  “Yes.”

  I did the calculations. “In the forty-six years of searching for donors every night, he’s only found one suitable candidate every three years.” I stared up at him. “If he found no more donors with our blood type, would he survive?”

  He shrugged. “For as long as I was in the nest, I was always his main blood source, so I have no idea how long he’d survive without me.”

  Hope swelled inside. “If you were his primary food supply, what were the women? His appetizer? His dessert?”

  I couldn’t think about those same women also being Alexander’s sexual release, not if it replaced hope with despair and bitter jealousy.

  His face drained of color. “Yeah. I think keeping the women in the nest was his insurance against me dying. Those women prolonged the vampire’s need for my blood. If something happened to me, then his own mortality was at risk.” He blew out a slow breath. “But you were different. The vampire was excited about you and I think…”

  “Yes?”

  “I think your blood might be as pure as mine. A perfect and potent vampire food.”

  I frowned, my mind spinning. But I wouldn’t be distracted by the shudders of revulsion filling me, knowing I was a vampire’s ultimate meal ticket. Instead I concentrated on the possibilities to outmaneuver the vampire. “So he’ll be expecting us to run and hide. He’ll also expect our own hunger will flush us out long before he starves.”

  Alexander scraped a hand over his face. “Without a doubt.”

  I pulled on his arm and he stopped before turning to face me. Jasper snuffled in the grass beside the sidewalk while my pulse galloped like a runaway train, my squeaky voice giving
away my excitement. “So the leech wouldn’t contemplate the idea of us going back to his nest to destroy him?”

  Alexander’s eyes widened even as he compressed his lips. “Bad idea. I watched one woman in the nest commit suicide. There’s not a chance in hell I’ll let you die too.”

  I squeezed his hand. “We’re in this together. You won’t let anything happen to me, just the same as I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He blew out a harsh breath. “You don’t understand what we’re up against. Fighting the vampire is like trying to injure smoke. It’s just not possible.”

  It was my turn to shrug. “So then we suck the smoke into a vacuum and never let it out again.”

  Alexander’s eyes crinkled at the corners despite his stern look. “We talk to this doctor again first. Only then do we even consider the idea of returning to the nest.”

  I nodded, my belly churning with what we had yet to face. “Deal.”

  Chapter Nine

  I approached the front door of the doctor’s house with far more caution this time around. Who knew what the brothers and their mates had threatened the man with when they came here looking for us? Because of them, Charley and I might get the muzzle of a gun in our faces.

  I rapped on the door and yelled out, “Doctor Newry. Sorry to disturb you again, but we really need to talk.”

  No sound came from inside, but Jasper whined, as though sensing something amiss. I tried the doorknob, shocked then wary when it turned and the door swung open.

  Charley seemed just as surprised. “The doctor wouldn’t leave his door unlocked.”

  She didn’t need words to voice the rest of her thoughts. The doctor was profoundly paranoid and suspicious of just about everyone. He’d have his house locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

  I stepped inside, the dog slinking to one side of me and Charley gripping my hand on the other. The floorboards were dull and echoed woodenly underfoot, the walls a faded dirty cream. The house was musty and smelled of damp and cat. My voice echoed as I called out, “Newry, are you home?”

  A wind chime tinkled lazily in the screened kitchen window, the sound eerily loud in the thick silence. Charley tightened her grip as she whispered, “I don’t like this.”

  “Neither do I.”

  A cat hissed in the corner of the shadowy kitchen, its ginger fur raised into hackles and its green eyes almost luminous with dislike. Probably as much because Jasper was straining on his leash and vibrating with excitement because there were human intruders.

  Another cat, a big tabby, bounded off the kitchen table and slinked underneath one of the vinyl chairs. I strode toward the stove and lifted the lid on a saucepan of congealed soup.

  I exhaled heavily and turned to Charley. “It looks like our doctor left in a hurry.”

  “Do you think the brothers took him?”

  I shook my head. “No. Their only goal is to find us. The vampire has planted that suggestion in their mind and nothing else matters now.”

  “But Daryl wasn’t—”

  “He knows we saw his lab. That’s more than enough motivation for him to come looking for us.”

  “So where’s our friendly doctor then?”

  I looked around, a little sick inside. “The brothers gave the vampire this address.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, curling her hand in mine. “I hope he’s okay.”

  I glanced at the untouched saucepan of soup. “I’m sure he is. He hadn’t eaten dinner, which means he left before the vampire visited last night.”

  The tabby crept toward us, meowing pitifully. Charley squatted and encouraged the cat closer. When he pushed against her legs, purring in ecstasy, she looked up at me and said, “These cats will starve if we leave them like this.”

  I nodded, the cogs turning in my mind. “Then we stay here. At least until we can think of a better option.” The house had also supposedly been safeguarded against vampires.

  “And if the doctor’s daughter turns up?”

  I shook my head. “He lives the life of a hermit. I imagine even his own daughter visits on only on rare occasions.”

  I wouldn’t think about the fact his other daughter would never come home again.

  She nodded, then released her grip on my hand to look in the pantry. After retrieving can of cat food, she released the tab and poured the meat into a dish. Two more cats, a white long-hair of undetermined breed and another tabby, came out of hiding. All four of the felines circled Charley’s legs, squawking as though they hadn’t been fed for a week.

  When Jasper whined and licked his chops, Charley grinned at him and said, “I’m sure I’ll find something here for you to eat, Jasper.”

  I unclipped his chain and he trotted forward, ignoring the cats now, to focus on begging for food. The cats were of the same mind.

  I laughed at the comical sight of Charley surrounded by adoring and hungry animals, and she looked up with a grin and asked. “What’s so funny?”

  “You. Us. And our readymade family.”

  “Not to mention our readymade house. Let’s hope Doctor Newry doesn’t get too upset with us—”

  One of the cat dishes dropped to the floor, all four cats scattering as Charley pushed a hand to her belly and folded over, gasping for breath.

  Shit. I raced toward her. It’d been so long since she’d had any cravings for vampire blood, I’d almost forgotten it would happen again. I’d yet to experience it myself since leaving the nest. In fact, for the first time in forty-six years, I felt almost normal. Human. Not the blood whore I’d become.

  I turned her to me. “Try to relax, go to another place.”

  She looked up, her face pale and her eyes glittering almost maniacally. “You need to help me forget again.”

  My dick shouldn’t have instantly hardened in agreement, but the invitation was more than enough to remind me of the passion we’d shared. And if our lovemaking got rid of her pain, I was a selfish enough bastard not to want to take that away from her.

  I nodded and took her hand. Jasper was busy licking the floor clean of some kind of seafood mix. He’d be fine for a little longer.

  When Charley struggled to straighten, I bent and lifted her into my arms. Striding down the dingy hallway, I ignored the obviously rumpled bed of the main bedroom and stalked into the guest room, which looked quite a bit cleaner than the one the doctor used.

  I laid her onto the bold red comforter and followed her down. Already her eyes glinted with need as much as pain, her breathing still heavy, but for a far different reason.

  I removed her too-big clothes with quick hands and removed my own clothes in record time. My dick was harder than steel at seeing her naked in full daylight, her breasts luscious and her waist trim. Her long legs quivered, drawing my eyes to her gorgeous little pussy with its fine strip of dark hairs. She drew her belly in before she splayed a hand across the taut flesh.

  There was no time to enjoy the scenery, or even to ask her to take her hair down so I could see it fall around her shoulders and breasts. I needed to take her pain away.

  “Just fuck me,” she whimpered.

  I climbed over her, my cock throbbing in sync with my racing heartbeat. I wanted Charley more than anything else in the world, but I’d have to save making love to her for another day. Right now, hard and fast was her only stipulation.

  “Please,” she gasped, compressing her lips as her eyes glazed over with pain.

  I kneeled between her thighs, pushed her legs up and over my shoulders and guided my cock to her beautiful pussy. I sank balls-deep into her tightness with a deep groan.

  I didn’t give her time to adjust to my size. I rocked in and out of her without any preliminaries, ensuring her mind focused on the sex, and on the chemistry that burned between us hotter than a lightning strike.

  Her eyes glinted, her pain evidently fading as moistness covered my shaft. I stroked harder and faster. Her head fell back, her neck arching as she gasped and moaned.

  I growled,
my balls tightening painfully. I wouldn’t come until she’d gotten off first. No way in hell.

  She jerked, and I sensed a hunger pain had coalesced into a fiery climax. She cried out, her muscles clamping like a fist around my cock. I pumped one last time and roared as my seed gushed out, flooding inside her and leaving me drained.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, needing to shield my visual of Charley, who’d softened my heart and hardened my cock to steel without even trying. I’d fought for so many years against my blood craving, yet I had zero willpower against this woman. I wanted her with a greater hunger than I had ever had for anything the vampire could offer me.

  Her legs fell from my shoulders and I opened my eyes and disengaged from her wetness. Moving to lie beside her, I then gathered her close.

  “Thank you,” she said hoarsely, her eyes glinting with moisture. “Whatever you’re doing works. Most of the pain evaporated the moment you slid inside me.”

  I stroked over her hair, my skin warm with the afterglow of sex. “I’m thinking we should try it once just because we’re in the mood for it.”

  She brushed a hand down the side of my face, her lips curling at the corners. “We should, shouldn’t we? Luckily, I wanted you from the very start.”

  Euphoria pushed through my system, leaving me lightheaded and incapable of speech. Instead I leaned forward and kissed her, a tender merging of lips that conveyed so much. I pulled my head back, my voice cracking with emotion. “I wanted you from the start too.”

  She smiled. “I know.”

  I pushed some loose strands of hair behind her ear, wondering absently how anyone could be so beautiful, inside and out. “My feelings are…intense considering I’ve learned so little about you.”

  Her smile dimmed, even as she said brightly, “Maybe it’s my mystique that attracts you.”

  I cocked my head to the side, my gaze holding hers. “Seriously, I’d love to learn some more about you, Charley.”

  She blinked. “I’ve told you my real name. It’s more than I know about you.”

  I exhaled softly. “I was Jake Reynolds a lifetime ago, but I’ll always be Alexander now.”