He rested his hand on the wall and steadied himself before staggering over to the couple and falling to his knees beside the man. He placed his hand over the man’s mouth and leaned forward to sink his fangs to his shoulder. This time, the man didn’t twitch as Lucien began to feed.
He didn’t know what the man was on, but Lucien almost recoiled at the acrid taste of his blood. However, as he was considering retreating, his body begged for more, and he couldn’t deny it the sustenance it so desperately required.
When he’d taken enough to make sure the man continued to sleep for another day, but not enough to kill him, he released his bite. His vision blurred as he placed his hand over the woman’s mouth and dragged her forward.
The room spun, and he felt out of control, but he couldn’t stop. Now that he was finally feeding again, nothing would stop him.
The woman came awake when his fangs pierced her throat. For a second, her hands brushed his chest before she went still. He didn’t sense any discomfort from her as the drugs in her system pulled her back into unconsciousness.
He had no idea what either of them were on, but the drug’s effects were seeping through his body. His limbs became heavier and more difficult to move. A part of his brain whispered at him to stop, but a more primal piece wouldn’t be denied blood anymore.
When he released his bite on her, he rose and almost fell over. Staggering to the side, he held out his hand and braced himself against the wall. He stood there with his shoulders heaving, his vision blurring and snapping back into place before blurring again.
When he was confident he wouldn’t fall over, he stepped away from the wall and swayed toward the fourth woman. The toes of one of his feet caught on the ground, and he nearly went down. He lurched forward and somehow managed to keep his balance as the earth rolled like a ship on a storm-tossed sea.
Callie reached for him but pulled her hands back when he caught himself. He stood with his head bowed and his shoulders heaving. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Lucien didn’t reply as he closed the last couple of feet between himself and the remaining woman. His knees cracked against the wood when he fell beside her.
Callie stiffened; what she’d watched him do in this room was awful, but seeing him do it to that woman was different. Somehow, she seemed more vulnerable than the others.
Unable to watch, Callie turned away when he rested his hand over the woman’s mouth. She focused on the graffiti-covered wall in the hallway as she tried to drown out the sounds of his feeding.
How had she gotten here? How was it possible she was standing in this room, listening to a vampire consume the blood of his victims. Last night, she was celebrating her freedom with her friends, laughing, dancing, and embracing the next stage of her life. Now, that life was unrecognizable.
How could things have changed so drastically in such a short time? She was well aware of the precariousness of life, and though she’d faced many twists and turns before, she never could have seen this coming.
Even if she could regain a life somewhere else in the world, how could she pretend to go about her days as if a group of crazed vampires wasn’t out there?
Callie clenched her hands as she tried to drown out the sound of his feeding. No matter how bad her life was right now, it could be worse—she could be dead, or she could be that woman.
However, she had to admit that none of them seemed to have experienced the same sort of torment she did from his bite. Maybe he was telling her the truth about that, but she didn’t ever plan to endure it again.
Or at least she hoped she wouldn’t. She shuddered at the possibility he might try to feed on her again and clasped her elbows as she hugged herself.
Lucien released his bite on the woman. Unlike the others, he hadn’t tasted anything in her system, and when she came awake, he felt her distress before he shut it down with his mind. He still wasn’t up to full strength, but at least the blood had replenished him enough to help him regain part of his ability to control another.
The effects of the drugs and alcohol lingered, but her blood helped ease some of them. He placed his hand against the wall and rose. He braced his legs apart when dizziness assailed him. They had to get out of here, but he wasn’t sure he could make it far.
Swaying toward Callie on wobbly legs, he leaned against the doorframe beside her and clasped her elbow. She was rigid but didn’t fight him as he drew her closer.
The feel of her silken skin beneath his palm caused a thrill to course through him. He hadn’t experienced this sizzle of excitement before, but then, he’d been too lost in his need to get away, keep her safe, and feed to notice anything else.
Now, rational thought was returning, and so was a feeling beyond starvation. Or at least he was processing as much rational thought as he could while drugs and alcohol were still battering his mind and body.
CHAPTER 12
“We have to go,” he said, the words coming out slurred. He tried to repeat them normally, but his tongue felt swollen and heavy in his mouth, so it came out worse.
“Are you okay?” Callie asked.
She hadn’t considered it possible, but he looked worse than before. His ruby-colored eyes were heavy-lidded, his words slurred, and he swayed as he led her toward the door. They were almost to the door when he lurched to the side and bounced off the wall. The impact caused broken bits of plaster to rain down from the ceiling.
“I’m fine,” he muttered.
“No, you’re not.”
The last thing she wanted was to be in the company of a vampire losing control of his bodily functions. Being cut open and tossed into shark-infested waters was probably the safer option.
“Too much… too many… drugs… and alcohol,” he said. “Normally, it wouldn’t. Normally….”
He couldn’t find the right words. Talking took too much concentration, and he focused on getting them somewhere safe because he wasn’t going to make it far.
“Normally?” Callie prodded, but Lucien didn’t reply as he led her out of the house.
Like Frankenstein’s monster, he lurched his way down the sidewalk. By the time they arrived at the end, she had to wrap her arm around his waist to help keep him steady. She should let him go and run; he’d never catch her in this condition, but even as she pondered it, she knew she couldn’t abandon him in such a way.
He’d hurt her, the fact he was a vampire was unnerving, but she was alive because of him. She couldn’t repay him by abandoning him while he was weak and drugged out of his mind. Her mind reeled at the complete insanity of helping a drugged-out vampire walk down the street. Shit did not get more surreal than that.
Then another possibility hit her. Maybe she was the one hallucinating all this. Maybe they’d given her something when they took her, and she was on some kind of trip that made Wonderland look sane. Or maybe she’d hallucinated her capture and she was really at home, passed out in bed, and dreaming this.
However, no matter how vivid some of her dreams had been, she’d never experienced anything this real. And she was pretty sure she would have woken up the second he bit her.
“We have to…. We have to find someplace to stay… to… to hide,” Lucien said and hoped she understood his words.
His vision was getting smaller and smaller. He could barely see more than ten feet in front of him. The final woman’s blood helped dilute the drugs and alcohol in his system, but not enough to keep him going. His head kept falling before jerking up as he struggled against the pull of unconsciousness.
At the end of the road, he turned to the right, but he had no idea why. Blinking rapidly, he tried to push aside the effects of the drugs as he searched the street. He was no good to her right now. In fact, he was more of a detriment to her safety than a help, but he couldn’t tell her to run and hide. They would find her, and without him, she didn’t stand a chance.
She didn’t stand much of a chance with him either, but at least he could offer her some protection, and he had experie
nce with what they were facing. She was like a babe in the woods when it came to the Savages.
He needed to sleep off the drugs; when he woke, he would be stronger, but until then, they were both extremely vulnerable. And soon, the Savages would start hunting them again.
They traversed a couple more streets that led them into more of a warehouse and business area of the city before coming across a chain-link fence surrounding hundreds of storage units. When he tipped his head back, he almost fell over, so he lowered it again.
When he staggered to the side, Callie braced her legs apart as she tried to support his weight. He was skin and bones but far heavier than she expected.
“We have to… to…fin… find a way in,” he slurred.
Callie searched the fence, but she didn’t see an opening, and spirals of barbed wire covered the top. “There is no way in, and there are cameras on some of the fence posts.”
“Stay away from them.”
“That might be impossible,” she muttered as she led him to the left.
She tried to keep them away from the cameras, but she had no idea if she was doing a good job of it or walking straight through the video feed of every one of them. The fence bordered the street until they arrived at an area where it ran along the back of a couple of large warehouses. When they turned the corner, an opening in the fence came into view, as did a guardhouse.
“There’s a guard up ahead,” she said.
Lucien had taken control of that woman’s mind while he fed on her, but she’d been mostly asleep and more malleable. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to control someone awake and capable of fighting against him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any other choice.
“Let’s talk to the guard,” he said.
“Yeah, fantastic idea; you’re talking so well now.”
If he were capable of doing so, he would have chuckled, but he barely felt capable of standing right now. Still, he gathered the scattered pieces of his mind and focused his attention on the guardhouse. He had to do this; it was the only way they would survive.
The guard looked up as they approached, set down his paper, and frowned at them over the edge of his glasses. His gray hair and lined face said this was most likely his retirement job, but the look on his face made it clear he wouldn’t take any shit from anyone.
The booth was tucked securely behind a rollaway section of the fence. It had a metal bottom, and plexiglass windows surrounding the top so the man could look out in all directions. Parked next to his booth was a golf cart, but Lucien didn’t see a car. The man had to have one somewhere.
“Are you okay?” the man asked Callie as he stared warily at Lucien.
“Yes,” Callie said.
“Is he okay?”
“I’m fine,” Lucien said as he focused his attention and power on the man. The effects of the drug still had such a powerful hold on him that he couldn’t tell if it was working, but he held the man’s eyes. “Let us in.”
The man blinked at him before laughing. That laughter broke through his drug haze and sent a bolt of fiery rage down his spine. He was tired of being weak and useless. He needed his strength and abilities back to keep her safe.
“Let us in,” he said more sharply.
The man’s laughter abruptly stopped; he blinked at Lucien before shaking his head as if he were trying to shake off Lucien’s words.
“You’re going to let us in,” Lucien stated.
The man’s eyes took on a glassy stare Lucien recognized. It was working but not as well as it should. However, that would come with time, and all that mattered was getting inside this place.
“And once we’re inside, you’re going to forget our existence,” Lucien continued.
The man didn’t blink as he stared at him. Then he stepped out of his booth, grasped the edge of the rollaway gate, and pulled it back to allow them entrance.
Callie was so astounded by this turn of events that for a second, she couldn’t move. She had no choice but to move as Lucien started forward, pulling her along with him. He seemed stronger and steadier as he stopped in front of the man.
“You’re also going to go through the camera footage. If you find anything with us on it, delete it,” he commanded.
The man’s eyes remained glassy, and his mouth parted as he nodded.
“Repeat to me what I just said,” Lucien demanded.
“I’m going to delete any footage with the two of you on it,” the man said.
“And you’re going to forget all about us.”
“And I’m going to forget all about you.”
“Good. Where’s your car?”
“At home.”
“How did you get here?”
“The bus.”
Lucien’s teeth ground together. Once he got some sleep and healed, he would find a car, but it would have been much easier if he could have taken this man’s car.
“Close the gate,” he commanded.
The man shut the gate behind them, and Lucien led her into the numerous rows of storage units. Trying to process what she’d witnessed, Callie walked numbly beside him until they were halfway down the first row of units. He tripped and went to the ground, pulling her with him.
She muffled a startled cry when her knees hit the asphalt. Whatever reserves of strength he’d dredged up were fading as he knelt with his head bowed and his shoulders hunched forward.
She had no idea what she would do if he couldn’t get up on his own. She wasn’t strong enough to drag him through the rows of closed and padlocked doors, and she couldn’t leave him here. She didn’t want to spend any more time with the vampire than necessary, but he hadn’t left her, and she wouldn’t leave him.
“Lucien, you have to get up.”
“Okay,” he slurred, but he remained on the ground.
Bracing herself, Callie kept her arm around his waist as she strained to lift him. She gritted her teeth when she almost fell over, but he caught her, shoved himself to his feet, and leaned against her.
They stood in an awkward embrace as he leaned heavily against her and she tried not to fall on her ass. Then he peeled himself away but kept his arm draped over her shoulder as she held onto him with both hands.
Together they walked to the end of the row, but Lucien was aware he was leaning on her far more than he should. However, he had no other choice as his legs felt as sturdy as a deck of cards in a hurricane.
They could stop and break into any one of these units, but he was trying to get far into the maze of storage containers before stopping.
“There’s a bathroom,” she breathed.
He tried to locate what she was talking about, but everything blurred around him. “Do you need to use it?”
“Yes.”
Callie led him toward the concrete building with the bathroom sign reading “employees only.” She searched for another guard patrolling the lot before recalling the golf cart by the guard booth. It was more likely that, every once in a while, he would drive it around the area to make sure everything was fine.
She leaned Lucien against the wall outside the bathroom. “Can you stay up?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated, but the pressure in her bladder was becoming too strong to ignore. If she came out and he was lying face-first on the ground, she would deal with it then, but she preferred not to piss her pants.
Callie pulled open the heavy metal door, dashed into the bathroom, and used it as quickly as she could. When she finished, she splashed water on her face and scrubbed her arms as she washed away the blood clinging to her.
She studied the dark circles under her eyes and the lines around her mouth while she worked. She looked a good ten years older than her twenty-six years, but at least she was still alive.
She wanted to stand at the sink and spend the next ten hours scrubbing herself, but she didn’t take anywhere near as long as she would have liked to clean herself. Maybe later, when Lucien was stronger, she could return.
And she
assumed he would get stronger; he had to after the amount of blood he’d consumed. The blood had made him unsteady, but eventually, the drugs would make their way out of his system. And then what would happen?
She’d be left with a stronger vampire to deal with, and she had no idea what he would do with her.
Callie buried her apprehension over her uncertain future, tossed the paper towels into the trash can, and rushed out of the bathroom. Lucien remained leaning against the wall where she left him, but now his head was back and his mouth hung open.
Had he passed out? That would be as bad as if he hit the ground.
“Lucien,” she hissed.
He jerked as if she’d pinched him and blinked at her like he’d never seen her before.
“We has ta go,” he said.
His voice was more slurred than before. She draped his arm around her shoulders and encircled her arm around his waist again.
“We have to stop and find someplace to stay,” she said.
If they didn’t stop, he would drop, and she’d be screwed.
They staggered into another row of units, and he led her over to one in the middle. He lowered his arm from her shoulders and, kneeling on the ground, tore the thick padlock free.
“Why this one?” she asked.
“I’m not… not making it… any further.”
That was as good a reason as any, she decided as she knelt and grasped the bottom of the door. The metal door rattled as she lifted it to reveal the contents within.
Against the walls were rows of clear containers stacked to the ceiling. Black marker neatly labeled each of the boxes, and through the plastic sides, she saw they contained the contents of someone’s house. The left wall held the kitchen, bathroom, and office. The back wall was the living room and bedroom, and the wall on her right was another bedroom or two.
Propped against the row on her right was also a mattress and box spring. She led Lucien inside and set him on the ground before hurrying over to lay the bed on the floor. He crawled onto it as she pulled the door down.
The darkness that descended on the small room was so complete she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face as she stood behind the door. She longed for a light or her phone or something that would penetrate the eternal blackness, but there was nothing.
Bound by Danger (The Alliance, Book 6) Page 7
