by Cynthia Eden
This time, it wouldn’t be about what he needed. Simon met Pak’s dark eyes. “You’ll know how to take care of her.”
Pak flinched as understanding hit. “No…Dee?”
His head inclined in the briefest of nods. Then, one last look. Couldn’t help it. He had to see her once more.
Dee.
Donovan had dropped to his knees and spread Dee out on the floor before him. His hands were at her chest, jerking open her shirt and pressing against the wound.
It wasn’t bleeding, not any longer.
Simon swallowed. The game hadn’t gone according to plan. Not at all.
Fuck.
“Good-bye, Dee.” Simon turned away and went back to the darkness.
The darkness always waited for him.
And now, for her.
Dee opened her eyes and sucked in a sharp, hard breath. A fierce pounding filled her ears. Hard, too loud. A dozen scents assaulted her nose.
Perfume, too strong. Cigars. Mint. A wild, animal scent and—
Voices buzzed in her ears. Dozens of them. The buzzing grew, louder and louder, turning into a mad roar—
“Dee! Dammit, Dee, look at me!”
She blinked at the thundering voice and her gaze flew to meet Pak’s glittering stare. Pak? How had he found her? She’d been in that alley, bleeding all over the place—
Blood.
Simon.
Vampire.
“Easy, Dee.” Hands were on her shoulders. Holding her in place.
Holding her down? She glanced to the right. Saw Jude, his face white, his 96
jaw clenched. There was something in his eyes as he looked at her, something—
Pity?
“I-I-” She sounded like a freaking frog. A really loud frog. “I was…
dying.” Her hand fumbled, reached for her chest.
Her shirt had been cut away and she touched skin. Smooth, unmarred flesh right over her heart.
No, no, that wasn’t possible.
“Breathe, hunter. You’ll still need to breathe,” Pak told her softly.
Well, of course she needed to breathe. Everyone did. She took another hard breath and swallowed and realized that she was thirsty.
Very, very thirsty.
Her teeth began to ache.
“Are you in control?” Pak asked.
Dee could only stare blankly at him. Why am I alive? Did the knife miss my heart? Maybe the wound hadn’t been as deep as she’d thought, but there had been so much blood.
Blood.
The drumming in her ears pounded faster, louder. Her hand rose higher, brushing over the edge of her bra, and her fingers circled her throat.
So dry. It hurt to swallow.
“Drink this.” Pak shoved a black mug into her left hand.
Pak had never led her wrong. Dee lifted the mug, and the liquid, sweet and rich and oh, God, good, slid over her tongue and down her parched throat.
More.
Greedy, desperate, she drained the mug in three swallows. “More!”
The taste lingered on her tongue. Pak had been holding out on her. He’d never given her anything like this before and—
“Maybe we should give her the whole bag.” Jude’s voice. Deep and booming, except maybe he’d been whispering.
Her gaze slanted to him, and she found him holding up one of those bags, kinda like the IV drips you’d see in a hospital, only—this one was filled with red fluid. No, with blood.
Give her the whole bag.
Dee licked her lips and the mug dropped from her hand, shattering onto the floor.
She vomited then because she knew what they’d just given her. What she’d eagerly taken.
“Fuck! Get towels in here!” Shouted to someone, somewhere, then, 97
“Everything is okay, Dee.” Pak, still trying to be reassuring.
No, everything was not okay. Her head fell back even as her tongue skated over her teeth, caught the too-sharp edge of her canines—
No, Christ, no! “Pak?”
Jude moved toward her, holding that damn vampire takeout, and Dee shuddered. Her hands came up. Her short nails were turning into claws.
“What did he do to me?”
Simon.
The vampire who’d held her in her last moments. The lover she’d stupidly trusted. “What did he do?” But she knew. Oh, dammit, she knew.
Jude lowered his hand. “He said he didn’t do anything.”
“Look at me!” She screamed as the voices droned in her head and the smells blasted her nose. “I’m not human anymore! That bastard changed me.” I’ve become what I hate most.
“Dee.” Pak, calm, trying to talk her down. No talking down from this.
The blood—so close. She wanted more.
No, no, she was going to be sick again—
Blood.
Her gaze rose to Jude’s throat. To the pulse that throbbed beneath the skin. Fresh blood would be better. So much better.
His brow furrowed. “Why you looking at me like I’m your meal, hunter? Stay in control, you got me? Stay in—”
She shoved her hand against her mouth. The hunger was so intense she nearly doubled over. A vampire. Just like those bastards who’d slaughtered her family. No. Never this. Never. “Stay away from me,” she growled, and didn’t look at him. Couldn’t, because he tempted her too much.
“You have to drink more,” Pak said, voice smooth as silk. Calm, steady Pak. Acting as if nothing were wrong. As if her world hadn’t just gone to hell thanks to a sexy, lying vampire who’d set her up from the beginning. “The first hunger can be too strong for some. I can’t allow you to attack anyone, Dee. You have to drink.”
She threw out her hand. Another mug was pushed against her fingers.
She lifted the cup, guzzled the blood. Keep. It. Down.
I’m drinking blood. Nausea rolled inside her, the human remnants fighting what she’d become.
Empty. She pushed the mug back at Pak. It was refilled almost instantly.
She swallowed the dark liquid. Keep. It. Down.
Again.
Again.
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Dee drank and closed her eyes. Her cheeks were wet, but she didn’t care. She’d never cried in front of the other hunters. Never cried, period. But this was different. This was hell.
Her teeth ached. Her stomach knotted. She still drank. Drank until the vicious need pounding through her body eased, until she could breathe without wanting to sink her teeth into Jude’s throat.
Until the monster inside had quieted.
“No more.” Pak took the cup from her. Dee swiped the back of her hand over her cheeks. Stupid tears—what good would crying do her? She glanced at her hands, frowning. Wait, was that blood? She’d cried tears of blood?
Dee’s chin came up. “Where’s Zane?” She wasn’t stupid. She hunted vampires for a living. She’d known that a day like this could come, probably would come, sooner or later. She’d hedged her bets to make sure that she wouldn’t turn into one of those killers who preyed on innocents. So many vampires just lost control and killed… killed.
Because the bloodlust could flare so strongly.
Zane was her safety net.
“He’s with the cleanup team on Bymore.”
She’d been on Bymore, right before the attack. “Ian?”
“Bastard’s dead, and so is some cop, a female who’d been working vice.”
The bitch who’d stabbed her. And she’d been one of Tony’s girls?
“The place is a fucking mess, blood everywhere, dead vamps torn apart—”
“What?” With the hunger slaked, she could think better. “Did Night Watch get there to—”
“Not our kills.” Pak crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. “We found the bodies like that and thought maybe you’d managed to take some of the bastards out.”
She shook her head. “No, no, the cop stabbed me. I was down for the count.” Should have been, anyway.
You won
’t touch her. Dee could still hear the rage in Simon’s voice.
“He brought me here?” Dumped her. He’d changed her, then dumped her.
She swallowed, aware that the knowledge hurt. The jerk still had the power to hurt her.
Dumped me like garbage. Why?
Because he knew she’d be coming after his ass.
“Chase wanted you taken care of. He knew you’d be safe here.”
But the hunters weren’t safe. She was too unstable. Too—99
“You know the first forty-eight hours are the hardest.” Pak, still with those crossed-arms and quiet voice. “We’re going to have to keep you under lockdown until we can make sure you’re not—”
Insane. Driven crazy by bloodlust and power. A freaking killer who would slaughter everyone and everything in her path.
“I know you gave Zane kill orders,” Pak said and Jude sucked in a sharp breath.
“What the hell?” Jude’s claws sprang out.
“But you’re not dying yet,” Pak told her.
“I’m already dead!”
He jerked his head toward Jude. “Lock her up. And, do whatever you have to do, but keep that demon away from her.” A pause. “For now.”
Because if she went bad, if she couldn’t keep her control, Zane would come for her.
He’d given her his word, after all, and one thing about that demon, he always kept his word.
Unlike Simon…I’ll find you. Sooner or later, she’d find her lover and make him pay.
“You don’t smell like a vamp,” Jude said four nights later when he led her out the back door of Night Watch. His nostrils flared a bit and he leaned in close. “Damn, woman, you just smell, hell, like you.”
Dee glanced his way, then turned to stare at the long, dark street.
Since the moment she’d awoken, Pak had kept her under close scrutiny.
He’d watched her. Fed her. Helped her to focus the chaos in her mind that came from the enhanced senses and the fears.
Just like before, Pak had taught her.
Not how to hunt this time.
How to live as a vampire.
“Pak told me that a vamp’s scent changes,” Dee said, not sure she understood why she wasn’t reeking like a corpse. “Those bastards that hunt and rip apart humans, they stink of death and decay.”
“Because they have no soul left,” Pak’s soft voice, coming from behind them. Dee didn’t glance back. She’d known he was there. It was too easy to catch even his soft footfalls now.
“My grandfather once said that when the Taken lose their humanity, they become no more than the walking dead.”
His grandfather had been a Choctaw shaman, so Dee figured the guy had known a thing or two about the walking dead.
“You still have your soul, Dee. Your mortal life is gone, but you’re 100
still the same inside.”
Yeah, right. She just had a few flashy additions on the outside. New teeth. New nails. New eyes.
Taken. Why had Simon changed her? “Why not just leave me to die?”
she asked the night, her hands clenched into fists.
No answer. Dee hadn’t really expected one.
“You’ll hunt now.” Pak sounded certain.
She would, because there was still a job to do.
“For some reason, the Born Master left the city.”
A great stroke of luck for them. Because she sure hadn’t been up to hunting the last few days.
“We can’t risk him coming back,” Jude said, voice grim.
She uncurled her hands and glanced down at her new claws. “He won’t be back.”
“You can’t take him down alone!” Jude snapped. “You’ll—”
“Die?” She finished and gave him a tight smile. “Been there, done that.” Her eyes darted around the street. No sign of Zane. He hadn’t come to Night Watch, not once during her little “stay.” She would have known.
Would have caught his scent just as she’d caught all the others.
But he’d come for her, sooner or later.
Just like Tony would be coming. Her time had expired for him, and the little matter of her being undead wasn’t going to stop him from taking her down.
She stepped into the night.
“Never the innocents, hunter. Remember that. Never them,” Pak ordered.
Dee gave a nod. The prey she’d be hunting first, well, he wasn’t innocent.
She doubted if he ever had been.
Sure, she’d track the Born Master. Find him, do her damned best to kill him. But first—
First, she had some personal payback coming.
Her nostrils widened as she scented the night. “Come out, come out, Simon Chase.” I’ll find you, wherever you are.
The hunt was on.
Following the scent of blood was ridiculously easy. Fighting the urge to let her fangs out, to take a bite, not so easy.
But the need for blood had been slaked under Pak’s watchful eye.
Control, yeah, she had that now. He’d gotten her through that first mad rush 101
of blood hunger. The rush that drove some vampires crazy and pushed others beyond that thin good/evil line.
She’d survived. She wouldn’t need to feed for weeks now, and when she did feed, the thirst wouldn’t be as overwhelming.
The first time—it was always a bitch in vampire land.
So she had her control. For what it was worth. Once she got her hands on her lying lover, Dee wasn’t real sure how long it would be before that old wall of control started to crack.
The first stop on her little hunt was his place. Not that she expected Simon to still be hanging around town. No, once he’d dumped her ass, he’d probably hit the road as fast as he could.
Why change me? Why? That question had haunted her every moment.
Was this some kind of sick punishment? Another way of torturing her?
Damn vampire. He’d probably thought turning her into what she hated most was hilarious.
His house stood at the end of the road, lined off by garish yellow police tape. She could see the color of the tape so clearly in the darkness.
Could see everything so clearly. The bullet holes in the siding. The broken shards of glass. The front door that swayed drunkenly on its hinges.
Dee hunched down and slid under the police tape. No sign of any uniforms. No sign of anyone. Maybe she’d find something inside to lead her to the vampire bastard.
Getting inside was easy—the front door was pretty much gone. The TV lay smashed on the floor. Stuffing from the couch cushions covered the room.
And to think, she’d actually been happy here, for a brief, stupid moment of time, she’d been happy.
The floor creaked. A groan, more vibration than sound, and she caught the faintest hitch. Breathing. Coming from the bedroom.
Claws out, she sprang forward.
And slammed into her lover’s chest.
Dead lover’s chest.
Dee took him down, hard and fast. Simon’s head rapped against the hardwood. Her hips straddled him and she pinned his arms to the floor. Oh, yeah, vampire strength, baby. Payback was going to be hell.
“Dee.” Why was he saying her name like that? All husky and hungry.
Like he hadn’t royally screwed her.
“Asshole.” Her fangs were growing, sharpening, and she wanted to sink them into his throat.
Bite.
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The whisper she’d first heard here, with him. She should have known back then what was happening. Vampires were highly psychic. He’d been the one broadcasting that need, not her. Him.
“You should have let me die,” she growled and her fingers tightened around him.
His eyes flashed to black as fury hardened his face. Finally she was seeing the real man. Not the fake veneer. “I did.”
“What?”
He lunged up, breaking her hold and rolling them in a tumble of limbs. In the next second, Dee was on the floor, he had her cag
ed, and his teeth glinted down at her. “Haven’t taken straight from a source yet, have you, babe? That was a mistake. You won’t be strong enough to—”
Dee tried to head-butt him, but Simon pulled back, shaking his head.
“Still thinking like a human. You can’t do that, Dee.”
“I told you no!” She knew her fangs were out. Didn’t care. Her words were starting to lisp, just a bit. Still not used to those damn teeth. “I knew what you wanted, at the end.” That part was seared in her mind. “I told you no!”
The memory of his voice rumbled in her mind. “You won’t die. I won’t let you!” Then his bared fangs had come toward her throat. Must have been her imagination, or maybe just the insanity brought on by dying, but she’d sure thought the man sounded scared then. Afraid, for her.
His jaw clenched. “I didn’t—”
“You played me all along. Lied to me! Tricked me! You were the one who set all this shit up, weren’t you?” Her hands jerked against his, but, he was stronger and he wasn’t letting up.
“Thinking like a human,” he muttered again. “Dee, calm down.”
She was so sick of people telling her to calm down, relax, or go easy.
She was a vampire for fuck’s sake! She didn’t have a cold or a broken hand
—she was a vampire! Dee rammed her knee up and caught him right in the groin. His hold loosened, a moment was all she needed, and she hurled him back.
He flew five feet and thudded into the wall.
Sometimes thinking like a human wasn’t bad.
She bent low and jerked her stake from her ankle holster.
He bounded back to his feet and shook his head. “You didn’t come here to kill me.”
Straightening, she tested the weight of the stake. “I want to know where the Born Master is.” If she had to get physical with him to find out the location, so be it.
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A rough laugh burst from his lips.
Her fingers tightened around the stake. “Don’t push me.” Her control had begun to waver the minute she’d seen him.
But the man stepped forward and a hard smile curled his lips. “I made you scream for me. I took you and you came and you screamed for me.”
She’d screamed his name. A growl built in her throat. “The Born Master.”
The smile wiped away. “I got you out of that alley. Those vampires wanted to rip you apart. I got you out. I kept you safe.”