Jason nodded. The gore involved was enough to keep him quiet – a feat in and of itself.
“Maybe it’s an animal,” Fletcher shrugged, avoiding his friend’s eyes and the distant possibility that Jason might see what he was really thinking about. That the military would probably find the house Nora and her clan were hiding in in a matter of hours, and that they would burn them to the ground, taking a handful for study and experimentation.
There was, of course, the possibility that Nora had lied. That she was somehow involved in these killings and that the reason she’d been so quiet, the reason she had missed their date, was that she was part of it all. Six people had been gutted now. Four he’d considered friends, or at least friendly acquaintances.
Fletcher wasn’t sure what he dreaded most: thinking that Nora was somewhere, hurt and unable to reach him, or thinking that Nora was somewhere, safe and just not interested in reaching him. Or that she was somehow involved in these murders.
“Hey, Fletch…” Jason spoke after a moment of heavy silence between them, “do you remember what you told me that night after the bar? The night you met that crazy hot lady and then told everyone that she was some sort of vampire that had attacked you?”
Fletcher froze, nodding his head very slowly.
“What if that’s what’s going on here?” Jason continued without tearing his eyes from the window. “What if you were right about the whole thing and there really is some sort of demon or vampire loose?”
“I thought that was just my Buffy binge sessions playing with my mind.” He tried to tease, repeating what Jason had said at the time, unwilling to give Nora up in spite of all the evidence against her. Maybe for her it was personal, somehow. Like she wanted to see if these other six young jocks could remember her too. The craziest part of it all was that he was actually jealous at the thought of her drinking from anyone else – being with anyone else. It was as strong as the anger he felt about his friends, the sadness in losing them, and the frustration in hearing nothing from her. Fletcher wasn’t sure he had ever been in love before, and he was damn sure afraid this was the real thing.
“No, I know. But look at the facts you know? Maybe you were going to be a victim and for some reason, you got spared. And who knows? I used to think this sort of thing only happened in one of those fucked up horror movies I go see with girls I want to finger-bang at the movie theatre. But maybe it’s not. Maybe you were right, and the police should be looking for vampire lairs or witch covens or werewolves or whatever shit is taking over our campus. Maybe you should tell them about your attack.”
“I was drunk,” Fletcher said without thinking. “I don’t know what I saw, but she definitely wasn’t a vampire. I mean, come on. There has to be another explanation to this, man, and we can’t just drive ourselves crazy with ideas about the supernatural when we should be focusing on keeping our eyes open and catching this evil fucker.”
No matter how much he wanted to free her of all guilt, Fletcher knew that Nora, or at least her kind, were involved in what had happened to the six dead athletes and that, technically, he was sitting on evidence that could help bring their killers to justice. He wasn’t sure that was exactly how it worked, though. He wasn’t sure that anyone other than Jason, who was clearly scared out of his wits, would think that his theory could even be a possibility. The last thing he needed, was to act suspiciously demented when surrounded by so much fear and chaos. For all he knew, coming clean about Nora would only get him arrested for not taking the investigation seriously enough or, worse even, committed for being a damn lunatic.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Jason finally turned his attention back to him, lowering his massive body onto the single bed opposite Fletcher’s. “I’m just tired and frustrated over all the games we’re missing.”
“But not the deaths?” Fletcher smiled, looking at his friend, knowing fully well that there wasn’t an evil bone in his body. That any comments that may have seemed malicious, like putting football over the lives of other students, was something he did without really thinking.
“Shit,” Jason said sitting up, suddenly realizing what his statement had implied and shaking his head vigorously; his hands immediately up in the air, waving his retraction. “No, man, come on. You know I feel awful about them all. Sam’s been my friend since I first got here. I met him during that induction course we all had to sit through the first day. And we had our try out for the team on the same day.” He shook his head. “He was a good dude, man, and even if he hadn’t been - what kind of death is that? Like some fucked up nutcase decided to go all Twilight on our town.”
“That’s a lot worse than what we are going through, so maybe we can take some comfort in that?”
“Yeah.” Jason shrugged. “Maybe that’s all we can really do, right? Just take comfort in the small, silly things, like how I still get to worry about football while our friends are being sent back to their families in boxes.”
Fletch hadn’t even thought about the families; what those calls must have been like or the identification process before they could take their kid back home, to where he grew up. Back to the place they’d all left with a head full of dreams and a heart full of hopes, just like his own when he’d left his parents behind.
He suddenly thought of his dad, with his generous smile and warm disposition. He thought about his mother, always impeccably dressed, her hair never out of place and her smile, so warm in spite of all the years dealing with his vicious aunts and grandmother. He thought of his brother and two younger sisters, all enamored with the idea of their strong, athlete brother taking over the world one day at the time. And he thought of how devastated they would all be if he was the one being sent in a box with a throat ripped out so thoroughly that their heads had almost been detached from the rest of their bodies.
Nora could do that! She’s a vampire. It’s in her nature to do that, whether she is involved with this or not. It was difficult to deal with how deeply he felt for her when he was also so incredibly terrified of what she could do if she got too hungry or too horny to control herself.
Chapter 10
Not all vampire clans want to remain invisible, unobtrusive or humane. Another group had come to town. They found an old mansion on the outskirts of town.
The mansion stood in darkness; just the soft light of street lamps streaming in through the tall windows. Sturdy leather furniture graced the living room, and a fire burned brightly in the fireplace sending off flickering shadows. But the place smelled of dust and decay.
“Can’t we just go to another town and forget these people ever existed?” Jackie, pert-faced and red-headed, sat cross-legged on the massive couch looking at Ben intently.
“Jackie, for the last time, shut up,” Ben said, his voice a low and throaty rasp. His voice was ideal for retelling western tales and talking about the truth behind sad country songs. It was a sexy voice; the kind of voice that books about vampires placed on their heroes.
But Ben was no hero. Ben barely held on to the last touch of humanity within himself. He barely held on with enough conviction to leave anyone that he came into contact with alive. He had no respect for human life, never had. Not even before he’d been turned by a vampire who’d thought immortality would settle all that inner turmoil.
He looked young; younger than most vampires, anyway. He’d been embraced in his late teens. It happened at the same time he walked out of high school at seventeen, only months short of graduating. He had been a smart kid, but there had always been malice in him. His meaness had made others uncomfortable and turned him into a loner. It had been the sad, loner side of Ben that had made Marcel take notice. Marcel was convinced that if his loneliness was relieved his sadistic nature would be overcome. It hadn’t been. Instead of satiating a thirst for blood, it was amplified, and by the time Marcel realized what a mistake he’d made, Ben was gone. A trail of murder and terror followed him wherever he went.
Jackie was a nomad vampire he’d met only a
couple of decades ago, but she was feisty and she was an epic fuck, so he liked keeping her around enough to accept the other five nomads she came with.
Jonas and Murphy were Jackie’s brothers; Ben understood that they couldn’t possibly be actual brothers, so he figured the same fucked-up asshole had turned them and left them to rip each other’s throats out. Which they almost had.
The other three they had collected along the way at different times. Mikey had been found burned up in a dumpster and something in his head had never snapped back into place. Jimmy was smart, but he didn’t care very much about anything at all, so he was difficult to deal with and difficult to get rid of. Leon, Ben’s favorite, had been fourteen when he was turned over a thousand years ago. He needed the rest of them to slip by humans when he felt like it, and he was a great asset. People were so worried about treating the kid right and giving him something to eat they didn’t even bother to notice the ferocious glint in his eye.
Ben had found and talked them into joining him in his little tour-of-terror instead of hiding in the dark and feeding on fat truck-stop drivers, sucking up just enough of that thick, toxic blood before sparing them. They had all been easy to talk into things like murder, theft, and a series of crimes that, given their nature, were extremely easy to accomplish and extremely well paid. They were being hunted all over the world. The problem was nobody knew what they looked like. Nobody knew if they were humans, demons, some sort of wild animal or just really twisted organized criminals, which probably fell closest to the truth.
“I don’t know what we’re still doing here. I’m bored,” Jonas said, slipping into the room. Mickey stayed at the door, leaning sideways against its frame, his arms crossed casually. “We all are. Mickey is ready to kill the whole cheerleading squad just to for a challenge. He’d have to do it in their sleep or while they shower for the ultimate bloody school horror experience, but you keep telling us that a place this size…”
“Can’t handle slaughter of that magnitude. That’s right. And if you can just give it another week, we can burn this place to the ground before we head out somewhere else.”
“So why can’t we burn it to the ground now? What difference does it make?” Mickey asked, proving, once again, that he thought about shooting or burning or killing before he thought about finding out what was going on, or learning why they were shooting, burning or killing. His willingness was useful often enough, but he was terrible at decision-making and, while they all pretended to listen to what he had to say, mostly they listened so that he would shut up and let them decide without complaining about being left out of the loop.
“Because we are waiting for all of their elders to come to town.”
“Ben want’s revenge on mommy and daddy vamp,” Jackie said, teasing him without seeming to realize how fast he could kill her if he chose to. Her humor was not appreciated. “I think you should get over it and we should just move on, hit a big city where having killed a handful of kids doesn’t get us all over the news. Whether they can find us or not, I don’t think we should test our luck.”
“We’re not lucky, Jackie. We’re well prepared. I have a plan and we are going nowhere until I have seen this thing through.” Ben spoke with conviction.
“So they are just going to come to us?” Leon’s voice was soft as he slipped past Mickey into the room, dressed in jeans, black trainers and a tee-shirt. He looked completely out of place; as if he’d just wandered into his father’s business meeting asking for food and drink money.
“They know we are here. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out where we are staying or find a way to contact us somehow.” Ben stood. “When that happens, we can go to them, and I can have a talk with Marcel while you guys take care of everyone else.”
“They have three elders, Ben. Your precious Marcel is not even the most powerful of them all, so I am interested to hear how you think we can take over an entire coven with baby vamps and three elders included, all on our own. Unless you have an army you have been hiding from us. I am pretty sure those kids lying around the residences are all the irreparable sort of dead.”
“We ‘ll figure it out, Leon.” There was no threat in his look, just a plea for Leon to let it go for now.
Leon nodded, raising both hands and backing off. He did so only because he knew that he would get an explanation as soon as he and Ben could steal a moment alone to talk about recent developments.
“I still think we should go,” Jackie insisted, not quite convinced by everyone’s blind faith in what Ben had to tell them. “These are the most notoriously secretive vampires ever. We are going to have our faces on a Wanted list that is just going to make our lives difficult. I don’t know about you all, but I’m not willing to do that just because you want to take revenge on your maker, Ben. I don’t even know what your maker did, you know, other than make you. And if that’s it maybe you need to reconsider how much you love the life you’ve got and just move on. The fact that you are such a sadistic fucker must be punishment enough to someone like him anyway, right?”
“It’s not revenge.” Ben waved a hand. “I just want to show him how much I’ve grown since we last saw each other.”
Jackie knew she was fighting a losing battle. After all, most of their little group of seven believed in Ben’s ability to keep things fun, bloody, and out of the danger of being caught. Jackie believed in it, too. But she also knew that he wasn’t his usual cool-headed self; that this was supposed to be a short visit that had suddenly lasted almost a month. Like Leon, she wanted alone time.
She wanted it for different reasons, though. Alone time for her and Ben meant that she could seduce him: crawl onto his lap, grind slowly, and ask him what he was really up to. He wasn’t stupid and she knew that no information was given unwillingly, but it helped. She knew it had some influence by the way he urgently peeled her clothes off of her, teeth tearing at her throat, her blood pouring into his mouth like a drug mainlined before he tore her skirt off, fucking her with her panties still on.
“Benji, baby,” she began, moving towards him suggestively enough to send the others out of the room, leaving Leon to shut the door as he exited last. He’d always resented Jackie’s ability to sway Ben’s views with the power of her cunt, his own sexual history a frustrated one after spending an eternity as a tween.
Leon’s age was a weapon in many ways, but seduction just wasn’t one of them. He looked too young for most people to be truly comfortable with. It was one of the reasons no young vampires were allowed in most clans. They just couldn’t live up to their full potential. The seduction in their feeding ritual was essential, and by creating young vampires they were denying them that very vital part of being what they were. Leon could take care of himself, but he would always attract attention. People would always wonder where his parents were. Deep down, it wasn’t Jackie he resented. Not really. Not entirely, anyway.
Chapter 11
Fletcher stirred suddenly. “What are you doing here?”
His voice was a whisper, his eyes barely open after he felt her weight on him, moving over the covers and rousing him awake. There she was: Nora. Her dark hair framing her face and spilling onto the covers as she pinned him to the bed. She was naked and pale in the moonlight that spilled into the room through the window.
“How did you get in here?” he asked, glancing side-ways to see Jason snoring in his bed. Nothing seemed to wake him up. At least nothing that Fletch had tried up until now. He figured that maybe moans and groans coming from the bed next to Jason’s would be something that might get his attention, but Fletcher was willing to risk it. More and more so as Nora tugged on the covers to slip under them with him.
His hands were on her immediately. Her skin was cool against his warmth, and he reached for her fine, muscular ass as she began to stroke his cock slowly. He could feel himself getting hard in her hand, his hand gripping her ass so tightly that it made her whimper.
“Suck me off,” he said, fisting the hair
at the back of her head to cautiously push her down. “Put it in your mouth. Let me fuck your mouth.”
Her obedience only made him harder. She slid further down the bed, his body sprawled on the sheets as she took the tip of his shaft into her mouth and began sucking slowly. Her skilled tongue playfully teased him until he began to plead with her to take a little more into her mouth. Then a little more. His grip on her hair was firm, but never too forceful as she swallowed him inch by inch – until all of him was tucked in her mouth and she could feel the pressure at the back of her throat, threatening to make her gag.
“Fuck, yes,” he moaned, his head rolling back against the pillow as Jason’s snores kept steadily on, reassuring him for the moment. They had a little more privacy than he thought they’d have in that tiny dorm room, their walls covered with pictures and memorabilia displayed in the proud colors of the university. Fletch pushed her head down again, his fist tight on her hair, guiding her back and forth; slowing her down or forcing her on him so hard he was certain she’d bite his dick clean off. It felt so damn good, though. Her mouth so cool and wet, the possibility of her just tearing through him was a little bit more appealing than he was ready to admit. He wanted her, wanted to be like her, and the possibility only made his cock harder. “Just like that,” he panted. “That’s right.”
Kindred Souls: Entire Series Books 1 - 5 Page 5
