by Pace, Pepper
I turned to the sound of Paul’s fight.
Paul had felled another were, but other werewolves were taking potshots at him.
I leaped onto the back of one as he gripped Paul in a chokehold. My sharp teeth slid easily into the space at the back of his spine. I snapped my jaw shut and heard him shriek. I crushed his spine between my teeth, and he collapsed in spasms to the ground.
Paul swung a thick arm and knocked the last Werewolf back six feet. We double-teamed him. While Paul went for his neck, I went for his underbelly. He was dead in seconds.
The forest became abnormally quiet.
Paul collapsed to his side. He seemed too tired to hurt me, so I quietly eased up to him. He glanced at me with hooded eyes. I could see half a dozen terrible bites and claw marks on his body.
God, what a sight we made. At least the blood and Yosef’s heart had helped to heal me.
Then I remembered Monica and my need to get back to my home. I turned to leave, but Paul reached out one taloned paw and gripped my ankle.
I tried but couldn’t break his grip. “Let me go, Paul,” I said in a husky voice. “I have to get home. I have to help the others.”
Paul’s mouth moved, and the sound I heard wasn’t so much a voice as it was a rough growl that sounded vaguely like the word “dead.”
I shook my head. “No. I need to go back and save them.“
“Dead,” he grunted.
I shoved his paw away and ran back to my house—
Something big hit me from the side, and I rolled and skidded into the dirt.
Paul’s massive Werewolf arms gripped me tightly.
I tried to wrestle out of his grip but felt as if steel bands were holding me down.
“Let me go!” I screamed. My body was bigger in this monstrous state but not nearly as big as Paul’s. I kicked and growled and snapped at him.
He slammed me roughly against the ground jarring my teeth.
I felt my creature’s rage directed at Paul, but I forced myself to stay motionless and glared into the distance.
Paul’s grip loosened but not by much. I still didn’t move.
I felt him begin to lick the back of my neck. He was vibrating, and I realized the rumble from deep in his chest resembled a kitten’s purr.
Paul’s purring soothed my creature, and I felt my rage melting away.
Even though we had both changed, Paul and I didn’t look the same. I don’t know exactly what I was, but I wasn’t like Paul. I didn’t have the additional hair or a canine nose. But my arms were roped with muscles, and I was so bulked up I didn’t even appear human. Little good our individual monsters had done my friends.
Panic rose in me. I needed to go home. I needed to see with my own eyes!
I bucked against him and leaped up again.
He held me by the remnants of my clothes until those tore away and left me completely nude. He clamped his teeth into the back of my neck. The pain was immediate, but the weight of his body and his teeth on my neck let me know that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Let me go! Let me go!” I screamed in my alien voice. I cried and writhed and tried to claw my way out of his grasp. For nearly half an hour I tried to break free I collapsed, exhausted and in tears.
Paul’s Werewolf stood. I couldn’t have moved if a pack of werewolves were at my heels. He picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I hoped he was going to take me home. He began to run but not toward the house.
Hurt and wounded, Paul had overpowered my creature. As a creature I was stronger than most Vampires, but Paul’s Werewolf had me beat. Could he defeat the average Vampire?
I knew I wasn’t going back to the house, at least not now. But what was he doing? I didn’t smell any more werewolves in the vicinity. Upside-down and moving at a fast pace wasn’t the most comfortable feeling. I heard something moving ahead of us and darting through the woods. Paul sped up. I couldn’t believe how fast we were moving! I hung on for dear life fearing that I’d get knocked in the head by a passing tree. I gripped the fur at his lower back and hung on until the nightmare ride could end.
Paul leaped, and I felt as if I was on an amusement park ride. We landed with a painful thud on a moving creature. I couldn’t see what it was, but Paul struggled to hold onto it and me until I was being slammed against the thing.
A deer.
Paul had dropped a deer!
For a moment he let me fall to the ground as he tore the throat out of the poor creature. It was still kicking when Paul began to feed. I closed my eyes, but I felt his hand grip the back of my head.
It hurt where he gripped my hair and scalp, but I understood he wasn’t trying to hurt me when he pressed my face into the deer’s open wound. I clawed at the dying deer in horror. Its blood was in my nose, eyes, and mouth—and then down my throat. My teeth were chewing before I realized what I was doing. Paul and I ate and ate. I drank and chewed the still hot flesh and blood. It was like filet mignon cooked to perfection. It was the best thing ever to go down my throat.
My head was buzzing and I was coming awake, coming alive. With one loud belch I backed away from the carcass. There wasn’t much left—only head, legs, and fur.
The world looked strange as I blinked rapidly. In and out of focus, I could see leaves a mile away. I swayed on my knees.
Paul’s golden eyes watched me. He gripped my arm more tenderly than he’d touched me thus far. He used the back of his hand to stroke my face. He sniffed deeply then his tongue came out to roughly lick at my still split and injured skin. His tongue felt good against me as he cleaned me. I didn’t move while he did this. He took his time, but when his tongue ran across one of my nipples, I jerked away from him.
I didn’t want the Werewolf turned on. Sex with a monster was too much for me.
Ten minutes into his cleaning, I realized that I should be the one licking his wounds because I had anesthetic in my saliva.
Tentatively I leaned into him and touched his arm with the tip of my tongue. I don’t want the beast to think I was trying to be aggressive, so I moved as slowly as my creature allowed. His worst wound had healed some and was no longer to the bone, but the skin hadn’t completely mended.
As soon as my tongue touched him, the saliva in my mouth worked overtime. I probed the wound with my tongue, and the Werewolf seemed to enjoy it. His breath rumbled soothingly in his chest.
I expected him to smack me across the forest, but he only watched me as I worked the wound with my tongue. After a bit, I moved to his chest, but when I moved to his neck, he nudged me away.
His paw reached out to stroke my breast.
I didn’t like it. “No, Paul! No.” I sounded as I was talking to a bad dog.
Ignoring me, Paul’s Werewolf leaned over and lapped at my breast. I pushed him away, but he gripped my wrist and yanked me against him.
Oh shit!
Nothing about this situation was enticing, not even knowing that this monster was my husband beneath the hair and the deformed body. When he pushed me away, I thought he was going to stop.
I was wrong.
I landed on my belly and tried to scramble to my feet, but Paul covered me with his massive and heavy body. He had me completely pinned.
He was going to rape me!
“Paul …” My heart leaped to life and pounded against my ribcage. “No!” I yelled.
I could feel him hard against my rump and hear the low growl of passion rumbling through him. I knew werewolves mated for life, and there was nothing unnatural about this at all. He had protected me, fed me, and had cleaned my wounds, and now he meant to mate with me.
Only I didn’t want to fuck a Werewolf!
I had to get out of his grip and get away. Could I flash? I tried. The vertical feeling was back, but I was at the mercy of Paul’s Werewolf. I could feel his hairy pelvis rubbing against my backside. No!
He rose up a bit, probably to enter me, and I scurried away into the trees.
Paul loped after me on all fours
like a dog. He caught me easily, and I had no choice but to fight hard or be raped by my husband’s Werewolf.
I punched him in the face with all my might.
His head went back but his eyes were stilled filled with lust.
My hardest punch had changed nothing.
Or did it? Would a punch be considered foreplay and the pain an aphrodisiac to a Werewolf?
Paul leaped on me and slammed me to the ground face-first. Dirt filled my mouth and nose. His claws gripped the back of my neck and held me in place. His other hand gripped me around the middle and held me against him. Even kicking and squirming I couldn’t get away. I couldn’t get away from him as hard as I tried!
Maybe if I had let it happen, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But where was my lust? I couldn’t stir up any of my usual passion. Frightened, frustrated tears glided down my cheeks, but then a sense of control I couldn’t find a source took control of me.
I pushed a harsh thought at my Werewolf-husband: “Rape me and I’ll kill you! Do you understand me, you fucking mutant dog? I’ll hate you for the rest of my life!”
I meant it with every fiber of my soulless being, and I would forever hate the monster as well as the man.
Paul didn’t move. He didn’t enter me or release me.
“You understand me, don’t you?” I growled. “Let me go or I swear I’ll never forgive you! Ever! You don’t take what I don’t give freely!”
Paul released me.
I scurried away from him and crouched ready to fight.
His eyes were blank. I didn’t see my Paul behind those eyes, but that Werewolf understood that I wasn’t lying.
He began to run grooves into the ground with his nails as he stared at me. Instead of relief, I felt tenser than ever.
I watched his naked form and tried not to focus on his huge erect penis. “Huge” was an understatement. It was the size of a one-liter soda bottle.
So not happening!
The Werewolf seemed to understand the concept of rape—or maybe the concept of forgiveness, I don’t know—but his erection faded and he started walking in the general direction of the house.
I kept my distance, and by slow degrees my creature began to fade. It wasn’t by design. If I had my wish, I would have kept the creature around in case Paul’s Werewolf got horny again. I also might need my creature in case there was more mayhem at the house.
So I was only a Vampire walking nude in the woods with countless rips in my skin and blood splattered over me in places that Paul’s tongue hadn’t cleaned.
He sniffed and looked at me over his shoulder. I think my transformation confused the Werewolf. While the Werewolf could understand me, Paul wasn’t completely there. The Werewolf tilted its head at me, and I covered my nudity with my arms and prepared for the worst.
He turned back to the forest ahead of us and set a steady pace.
Transforming back to my true self had drained me.
Although I hadn’t been under the light of the sun in forever, I couldn’t enjoy it. My mind was preoccupied with what would greet me when I reached the house.
I wanted to make another attempt to contact my human family who hadn’t been at the house, but I was faced with the dilemma of what to tell them even if I did make contact. Did I have them come and face another Werewolf attack?
I groaned anxiously. Please let this nightmare end. Tears of frustration fell down my cheeks. Please don’t let me be faced with the massacre of those I love …
~***~
When the house was in sight, Paul’s Werewolf tensed, growling low in his throat. There was still danger then.
I couldn’t bring the creature back, but I did drop teeth.
Paul leaped up onto the second floor balcony. I jumped, too, but because of my fatigue I barely made it. Paul gripped my forearm and swung me effortlessly up and over the railing.
This was Monica’s suite. I rushed to the French doors that had been ripped from their hinges.
Blood was everywhere. I swooned and weaved on my feet. The Werewolf brushed past me into the room. I braced myself and searched for any signs of life … or just any signs of Monica.
She wasn’t a fighter, not the way Julie, Tyler, and I were. Monica’s job was to assist me in my many legal and business endeavors and to be pretty. That’s all she knew how to do. When it came to protecting herself, she wouldn’t have been able to bleed anyone this bad—it would have been her who had done the bleeding. My nose confirmed the truth. It was her blood and not Werewolf’s blood that had sprayed this room.
When I came to the bed and saw a pool of blood, I fell to my knees and vomited. What was left of the deer came up in hunks of undigested gore.
Paul knelt beside me, and his tongue bathed the back of my neck.
“Monica …” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
I stood. There was still Tyler, Julie, and Tige to find. I hurried from room to room with Paul allowing me to lead this time. Each room had been ransacked, but it wasn’t until I came to the third spare room that I found more blood. I could smell Tyler the way a mother could smell her newborn’s individual scent.
Tyler’s blood was everywhere, and it was mixed with Werewolf blood. Her bloody handprint scarred the door as if something had dragged her away. I put my fingertips on her handprint then ran out of that room.
I ran down to the underground quarters. I ran faster than I could ever remember running before. Paul kept one pace behind me although he probably could have outrun me. When I reached the cellar door, I shoved it until it lay in splinters. I hurried down the next set of stairs so fast that I almost fell.
I skidded to a stop.
Ash was scattered all over the floor.
Oh God …
Tige.
Julie.
My world went black.
CHAPTER 16
Nothing could have broken me as completely.
Punishment by fire, losing my lovers, and losing my life hadn’t broken me.
Losing the only remaining family I had did what nothing else had.
The fruitlessness of the things I had previously valued flooded me, and the new awareness left me tingling as I stood in that dark cellar. I stared at the ash for a long time. When I finally looked up, it was because Paul’s Werewolf was pacing anxiously.
My pet. That was my first complete thought. My pet was strong, and I needed strength to wreak my vengeance.
I took the stairs one step at a time. How long had I been there? It was almost fully dark.
The Werewolf followed me soundlessly.
I stopped and turned to him. “We will kill them all.”
I vanished. My strength had returned with the coming darkness.
I flashed myself to Tony’s house, my first home as a Vampire. I would need his alliance if I was going to succeed with my mission. I ignored the front door knowing that he would be in his oversized bedroom at the top of his condo. I materialized in his bedroom and walked to the oversized bed sheathed in black satin sheets.
Tony was in the grips of the otherworldly sleep.
In his arms was a beautiful brown woman—who wasn’t Kaniji. Her mane of black hair flowed over the pillow, and Tony’s head rested on it.
I’d never seen her before. She was likely some Master from his territory. I could still smell the evidence of their lovemaking in the air.
I watched them without emotion. It didn’t surprise me that I didn’t care. That’s how cold I had become. I cared about one thing, and that was revenge.
It could have been a minute, it could have been an hour, but soon Tony’s eyes opened. He stared directly at me then he sat up quickly.
I forgot. I hadn’t cleaned up. I was nude, dirty, and bloody, with skin split open in places. I’m sure my hair was a mess, but I didn’t care.
“What the?” Tony threw the sheets off of him and leaped out of the bed, his handsome face twisted in horror, his handsome body completely nude. He rushed to me. “What happened?”
�
��The werewolves came back.” My voice was foreign to my ears.
“You’re hurt, Kim.”
“Tige is dead, Tony. As is Julie, Monica, Tyler … and everyone.”
He gasped but gently took my arm and led me to his bathroom.
“The werewolves killed everyone,” I said. “They ate Monica, and then they destroyed my Vampire bodyguards. There’s just blood left. Blood and ash.”
Tony reached into the shower and turned on the water. “Come on.” He guided me under the hot spray and stepped in behind me, using cupped hands to pour water over my bloody body.
“Baby,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“I’m going to kill them,” I said.
Tony nodded. “Yes.”
He cleaned my body and washed my hair. He even probed some of my worse wounds with his tongue to help heal them.
When he was drying me, the woman from the bedroom entered the bathroom, her eyebrows wrinkled, her eyes narrowing as she looked from Tony to me. “What the hell is this?”
She had a Caribbean accent, and she was beautiful.
I stared at her without emotion.
Tony put the towel over my nude shoulders and then left me to lead the woman out of the bathroom.
I could hear them talking in the other room.
“You said you were done with her,” the girl said.
“You saw with your own eyes the condition she’s in, Natalia,” Tony said. “She’s a Council member. This is Council business.”
“Well, why did she come here?” Natalia asked.
“Natalia, this is not the time, baby. Tige is dead, and so is Julie and everyone else that would have been in her house.”
Natalia sighed. “Will you keep me in the loop, Tony?”
“Yes. Now go home.”
“I still don’t trust this.”
Tony returned to the bathroom alone. “She’s gone.”
I nodded.
“Have you fed? You look exhausted.”
He led me back into the bedroom and started searching his drawers for clothes. He found me a jogging suit that billowed around me. “Follow me back to the house.” And then I vanished.
