Nightshade

by Michelle Rowen

  “My blood is poisonous to vampires,” I managed. My heart pounded in my chest as panic grew inside me. “You’re half-vampire. If you bite me, it could kill you.”

  “No, Jill.” He drew me closer, his expression strained. “It’s not blood I want from you tonight.”

  He crushed his mouth against mine, letting go of my wrist so he could tangle his hand in the length of my hair. His other hand reached down to my ass and he pulled me tightly against him, tight enough that I could feel the hard length of his erection press against my stomach.

  This is what the serum helped prevent. This dark lust he’d warned me about during our drive here. The one he said stopped him from tearing my clothes off and burying himself deep inside me.

  The kiss may have been hard and rough and deep, but it wasn’t long before I returned it, feeling desire ignite inside me, the same desire that I’d begun to feel for him during our journey here.

  I tried to pull back from him a little. “Declan ... wait ...”

  “You see?” he snarled. “This is what I am. Just like my father.”

  “No—”

  I couldn’t finish what I was going to say because his mouth was on mine again. I wasn’t going to say no and that he should stop. I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted to tell him he wasn’t his father. His mother had been a victim, but I wasn’t.

  I wanted Declan, too. So much. But he was out of control, beyond reason—that was obvious to me as he tore at my clothes, roughly pulling at them to bare my skin underneath. If I was right about Declan’s sexual history, well, that meant he didn’t have one, thanks to the serum. It was even more evident in his clumsy attempts to undress me.

  But when he slid his hand under the edge of my loose jogging pants and down between my legs, I stopped thinking quite so logically. I think I cried out softly as his fingers brushed against me, a sound Declan seemed to take as a cry of protest.

  “Does this finally prove it to you?” he whispered harshly against my ear as he boldly stroked me and I dug my fingers into his arms. “Without the serum, I’m a monster.”

  If I could speak I’d tell him he was wrong. That I wanted him so badly. That his hand on me was enough to render me speechless and very, very willing to let him do whatever he wanted.

  Also, the fact I was kissing him back should have been a big clue to how I felt.

  But I couldn’t speak, and even if I could I would have been interrupted. A siren began to blare, sharply cutting through the otherwise silent room. Declan’s hand between my legs froze and his gaze shot to mine. It was as if someone had thrown a cold glass of water in his face as clarity returned to his gray eye.

  “Fuck ...” he said. “Jill.”

  Well, yes. That was the general idea. But unfortunately it seemed as if he’d stopped. He pulled completely away from me.

  “I’m so sorry,” he continued, now averting his gaze.

  “What is that?” I asked, breathlessly, referring to the siren.

  The guilt in his expression was severe and soul crushing. “Something’s wrong. I have to go.”

  I adjusted my clothing. Since I was still fully dressed it didn’t take long to put everything back in place; I rolled down my T-shirt over my stomach and pulled up my jogging pants, retying them at my waist. My body felt like it had been lit on fire and left to slowly extinguish all by itself. There was an ache now inside of me, a needy emptiness that desperately wanted to be filled.

  I heard a sound then other than the loud siren. A ringing. Declan reached into the pocket of his jeans and withdrew a new cell phone, placing it to his ear.

  “What?” His raised voice was shaky. But then his back straightened. “Just now?” A short pause. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He closed the phone and put it away. Without looking at me he said, “The dhampyr has broken free and killed two guards. You need to come with me so I can get you somewhere safe.”

  The dhampyr had broken free? “But ... isn’t it safe here?”

  “This room is mostly to keep you in, not to keep something like that out. Carson worries that it may scent you and come after you.”

  Fear slithered through me. “But if it got a taste of my blood, wouldn’t that kill it?”

  “Trust me, Jill. You don’t want this thing’s teeth anywhere near you. It would tear your throat out before it even started to feed on you.”

  “Jesus.” I shuddered. “Okay, where do we go?”

  He went to the door and opened it, moving so quickly that he seemed more than human. Which he was, of course. He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him.

  “I need to get you next door. There’s an iron cell there, similar to the one the dhampyr was being held in.”

  “But it escaped that.”

  “True. But it won’t be able to smell your blood if you’re in there.”

  “And then what happens?”

  “Then I come back and I kill it.”

  “You don’t think you can capture it?”

  He looked at me, his expression tense. “Carson wants it killed. It can’t be reasoned with. It’s not even remotely human.”

  “But part of it is. It’s half-human, just like you.”

  We were outside now and he pulled me alongside him so fast I nearly tripped.

  A horrible screeching sound filled the warm night air. Declan froze in his tracks.

  “Fuck,” he said under his breath, craning his neck from side to side. “How the hell did it get outside? Carson said they’d contained it downstairs, but it must have slipped free.”

  “Have they escaped before?”

  “Not often, but it happens. There just aren’t enough guards to deal with them here. Dhampyrs are unpredictable. When the door opens, you don’t know what’s going to happen. I wish Dr. Gray would stop these fucking experiments once and for all. How many people have to die for her to see it’s not worth it?”

  The screeching sounded out again.

  “It’s close,” I managed.

  He let go of my hand and reached for the knife at his belt. “Just stay behind me.”

  “But what if we—”

  “There’s no time.”

  He was right. We had no time to get next door because suddenly there it was. The dhampyr.

  It slowly moved out from behind the edge of the house.

  Noah had told me it was only a baby, but it had grown rapidly. I hadn’t known what to expect. Maybe a small child with sharp teeth and red eyes.

  I’d been wrong. It didn’t look like a child. It didn’t look human. Large black eyes stared at us. Its completely hairless skin was so white, it seemed to glow in the darkness. At most, it was five feet tall with a hump on its back. It wasn’t wearing any clothes, but I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, as pockets of loose skin hung down over its genitals—if it even had any. Its stomach was concave, its ribs easily seen through the pale skin. Dark blue veins just under the skin appeared as if they were a spiderweb over its entire body. Its thin top lip curled back from sharp teeth. The dhampyr didn’t have fangs per se, but every one of its teeth was razor sharp. Its arms and fingers were thin and long, its legs short.

  It looked like something from a horror movie. Inhuman and hideous.

  It was a monster. A dhampyr.

  Like Declan.

  No, it wasn’t like Declan. This thing was nothing like him.

  The dhampyr hissed and stepped closer, appearing to smell the air. It could smell me. Carson was right. It was drawn to the scent of my Nightshade-infused blood—like a moth to a flame. I dug my fingernails into Declan’s arm.

  “Stay back,” Declan hissed. He was talking to me.

  I eyed his knife. “No gun?”

  “Didn’t think I’d need to carry one tonight. An oversight that won’t happen again.”

  Translucent white eyelids slid over those big black eyes and the creature cocked its head as if listening to our voices.

  “Deccclannn,” it said, its voice sharp-edged and nearly incoherent
. It raised a bony arm in our direction.

  “It knows your name,” I said shakily.

  “Looks like.”

  “It spoke. It said something. Maybe ... maybe Carson’s wrong. Maybe it can be reasoned with.”

  “It can’t. You think this is the first dhampyr like this we’ve studied?”

  “What happened to the others?”

  “What do you think?” He pushed me back and switched the knife to his right hand.

  “Noah said there’s another one downstairs.”

  “And a pregnant victim in observation right now about ready to give birth to another one of these monstrosities. It’s like a nursery from hell down there. Dr. Gray’s positive her research on vamp/human hybrids will help kill vampires. I’m not as convinced.”

  The dhampyr kept its gaze fixed on me, raising both its arms now as if it was reaching out to me.

  “It’s just a baby,” I said, pity for this strange, ugly thing incomprehensibly welling up inside of me.

  “A baby that’s killed two guards already and has the taste of human blood on its tongue. It’s in feeding mode now. Go back inside the house and find Carson. I’ll hold it off.”

  My empathy for the strange creature didn’t last long. The next moment it launched itself through the air as if it could fly, knocking Declan aside. I screamed as it grabbed me by my shoulders, pushing me off my feet and I landed hard on my back with it on top of me. I felt a couple of its talons press painfully against the skin on my arms.

  White lips peeled back from those horrific teeth, saliva dripping from its black tongue as it dove toward my throat.

  15

  DECLAN GRABBED THE MONSTER BEFORE IT HAD A chance to sink its teeth or talons into me and pulled it backward. It seemed frail, but in reality it was fast and strong. It screeched, an earsplitting sound, as I scrambled crablike back from them.

  I was worried Declan might be hurt by it, that it might get the upper hand, but it only took a moment before I saw the arc of silver move through the air and Declan pierced the blade through the dhampyr’s chest. The creature screamed, a sharp, horrific sound like nails on a chalkboard, and then it was silent. It didn’t burst into fiery ash as a vampire did, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was dead.

  Other people suddenly approached us, accompanied by Carson.

  “Well done,” he told Declan in a frustratingly calm voice. His gaze flicked to me for a moment. “Take her back inside. We’ll clean this up.”

  Declan nodded and stood up from where he was crouched over the dhampyr. He left his knife where it was in the creature’s chest. Then, taking me by my arm, he directed me back into the house, along the hallway, and up the stairs toward my room.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him shakily.

  He didn’t answer me, but his breathing was labored as if he’d run a marathon. Considering how in shape he was, I found it difficult to believe he’d been winded by killing the dhampyr. I pulled him around so I could see his face. His eye was focused on the ground.

  “I need to go,” he said. There was pain in his voice.

  “Declan, what is it?”

  His brow wrinkled and he raised his gaze to mine. “I don’t like feeling like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “That thing. I killed it. I killed it without a second thought, even though it was a dhampyr like me.”

  “You said yourself it was nothing like you.”

  “A few degrees of difference. Human mother, vampire father. Same as me. Only that creature ended up on the end of my blade, and it wasn’t the first time I had to do something like that. And I hate that I’m doubting myself now.”

  “It had to be done.”

  “A mindless creature that only wanted to feed, driven by its dangerous hungers. Sounds exactly like what I’m turning into.” He shook his head. “Carson warned me. I never should have stopped taking my serum. If it makes me feel like this, I have to agree with him.”

  “You mean, makes you feel guilty for killing something like that dhampyr?”

  “That’s only part of it.”

  “You prefer to feel like a robot programmed to kill and not feel any remorse?”

  “Yeah, I think I do.”

  “Only because you’re used to it. But that doesn’t make it right.”

  “Carson wouldn’t have given me a drug that wasn’t necessary.”

  “Carson reacted to what you are by medication overkill. It’s good that you’re off the serum. It gives you a chance to actually live instead of only existing.”

  He shook his head. “You’re wrong. I have to fix this while I still have the chance.”

  He dug into his pocket and pulled out a case identical to the one the blood servants took the other day. I snatched it away from him and he looked at me with surprise.

  “Give that back to me.”

  “No.”

  “Jill—”

  “Do you know you were calling me Jillian before?”

  He glared at me. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I told you shortly after our unusual meeting that my friends called me Jill. You called me Jill until you went back on your serum.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “My point is ...” I clenched my jaw. Was I trying to tell him I wanted him to think of me as a friend? Despite everything that had happened? “Damn it. I don’t know what my point is. But I don’t think you should start up with this serum again. I think you should give yourself a chance.”

  “A chance to turn into a monster like the one that nearly just killed you?”

  “You’re nothing like that thing,” I said firmly.

  “An ugly, bloodthirsty dhampyr that wants to devour you. Actually, I think that thing and me are a lot alike.”

  “You’re not ugly. And we can deal with the devouring issue.”

  His eye narrowed and he held out his hand. “Give me back the case. Now.”

  “No.”

  “I can take it from you easily.”

  “I’m sure you can. That’s why you have to agree not to take this medication all by yourself.”

  “Stop it, Jill. I have no patience for these games.”

  “This isn’t a game to me.”

  But he wasn’t listening to anything I had to say. He grabbed hold of me and took the case away like taking candy from a baby. He had all the upper body strength, after all.

  “If I take this I won’t try to hurt you again,” he said.

  “Hurt me?” I frowned. “Are you talking about what happened before the siren went off?”

  His expression shadowed. “It’s only more proof that what I’m saying is true.”

  I shook my head. “Honestly. You don’t give yourself any credit at all, do you?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  I stepped closer to him and placed my hands flat against his chest. It made him tense up and take a step back until the closed door pressed against his back.

  “You are a very frustrating man, Declan Reyes,” I said. “Do you know that?”

  “Jillian . . .”

  “It’s Jill. Okay?”

  “Touching me is dangerous.”

  “For you or for me?”

  “For you.”

  “Then why are you the one who looks scared right now?”

  “You know what I tried to do to you earlier. If I hadn’t been interrupted by the siren ...”

  “Right. That.” I could feel his heartbeat speed up through the thin material of his T-shirt. It was going almost as fast as my own. I put the image of the dhampyr from outside out of my mind and focused on the frustrating but much more appealing one right in front of me. “Is it true you’ve never been with a woman before?”

  His Adam’s apple shifted as he swallowed. “It’s too dangerous. My serum—”

  “Your serum is a great excuse for keeping your distance from other people. So I’m taking that as a confirmation?”

  He looked
pained. “Noah has a big fucking mouth.”

  “Already established.”

  For a split second, I thought I saw a blush come to his cheeks. “There are more important things to deal with at the moment, Jill. I need to take my serum now.”

  “Fuck your serum.” I took the case out of his hand again and tossed it to the side. “And I agree, there are more important things to deal with, like what you mentioned the other night in the car.” I cast any doubts I had aside, and slid my hand down the muscled planes of his chest and abdomen and over the substantial bulge at the front of his jeans. “I think you mentioned something about burying your cock inside of me?”

  He hissed out a breath. “Jill, please ...”

  “You really shouldn’t say something like that to a lady when she’s feeling vulnerable, you know. We tend to obsess about things like that, especially when we’re locked in a room for a couple of days all alone.”

  “You don’t have to feel sorry for me, if that’s what this is. You don’t have to do charity work and let the ugly bastard touch you.”

  “Ugly bastard,” I repeated. “I said that, didn’t I? When I first saw you, yeah, you scared the shit out of me. You don’t exactly look like the boy next door, do you? But let’s just say, your looks have definitely grown on me. Your scars are marks of bravery and courage. They’re heroic. And that makes them very beautiful. It makes you beautiful.”

  I pulled the edge of his T-shirt up to bare his flat stomach, which bore the thick scar from a vampire that had tried to gut him. I trailed my fingertips over it before leaning over and running my lips lightly along the length of it.

  He exhaled shakily. “Jill ... we can’t do this.”

  “I disagree. Rather strongly, in fact.”

  “You don’t know me. You only met me a few days ago.”

  “You’re right. But I know you better than you think I do. You went off the serum so you could feel something, even though the thought of it scares you. Am I right?”

  He frowned as if he were in pain, then nodded once without speaking.

  “Then feel something.” I pressed my lips against his, my hands on either side of his face.

  He raised his arms so I could take off his T-shirt, baring his scarred but lean and muscled torso, and looked down at me cautiously as I began kissing everywhere he’d been hurt in the past—as if I could take away his pain with the power of my lips.