Blood Crave

by Jennifer Knight

  I forced myself to ruin the mood, yet again.

  “I have another confession,” I said.

  Lucas groaned.

  I ignored him and went on. “It’s not a big deal. Well, no. It is.” I fixed my gaze on the window again and said, “I went on that ski trip with Derek to find out why the vampires are building an army.”

  I heard Lucas let out a puff of air. “You’re not nearly as smooth as you think you are, babe.”

  I frowned over at him.

  “I knew that,” he said. He laughed at my shocked expression. “You’re a really bad liar. Maybe the worst in history.”

  “You would know,” I grumbled.

  “How else do you explain me following you there?”

  “I just figured you didn’t trust me with Derek.”

  Lucas nodded, raising his eyebrows. “Well, yeah. There was that, too.”

  “So if you knew I was lying the whole time, why’d you even let me go?”

  “I didn’t want to be an overprotective asshole who doesn’t let his girlfriend out of his sight. But at the same time I knew the vampires would be there, and I wasn’t about to leave you alone with them. And I knew you were up to something insane, as usual. So I followed you.”

  “But how?”

  “The vampires aren’t the only ones with private jets. I just left from a different airport so you wouldn’t see me hanging around.”

  I glowered at the dashboard, angry that my awesome plan had never been all that awesome, and then said, “Well, don’t you want to know what I found out?”

  He glanced at me sharply. “I figured you didn’t find out anything.”

  “Why?” Did he really think I was that impotent? It hadn’t been a total wash, after all.

  “Because you didn’t tell me anything,” he said.

  “Well, I didn’t really get the chance to, did I?”

  Lucas ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up in funny directions. “You gonna tell me?” he grunted.

  “I found out the name of their leader. Arabella. I think she’s the leader, anyway.”

  “The monarch,” he corrected. “Anything else?”

  “Calvin and Silas talked a lot about the Ancestors. Do you know about them?”

  “Bits and pieces. They’re pretty clandestine.”

  “Well, from what I got, there are like, two groups of vampires. Ones who worship the Ancestors and ones who think they’re a bunch of crazies. Calvin was with the latter, and Silas got mad that he was committing treason by making fun of them, or whatever. Anyway, Calvin and Silas said that the Ancestors are planning something—something big, I gather—and that Arabella is helping them. Calvin said she needed stuff. Literally, he said stuff. And that it would somehow help them with the younglings leaving dead bodies all over the place. But I don’t know what stuff they were talking about or what the plan is. I’m guessing it’s like we thought—the uprising against the werewolves.”

  “Makes sense,” Lucas murmured. “Damn it, I wish I knew what they wanted, though.”

  “Well, we know they want Derek, but that doesn’t explain what the stuff they were talking about is.”

  “If it was Derek they wanted, they coulda had him ten times over by now.” He shook his head with a dark glower. “No, I think they’re up to something else. Derek is just a weapon—he can’t help them with hiding the dead bodies. They’ve got something up their sleeves, and I’ll be damned if I know what.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have tried harder to get more out of them.”

  Lucas gave me a flat look. “You know that’s not what I meant. It’s just frustrating. Vampires don’t usually do things like this—scheming against us and killing so obviously. They’re usually real quiet about it, stick to skulking around in the night and hiding from us. Their sudden boldness is really unnerving the werewolf community, even outside the pack.”

  “Really,” I gasped. “So Rolf finally alerted everyone?”

  He snorted. “Hardly. But rumors are flying, and he’s been getting a lot of heat from the other pack masters, especially the more powerful ones in Canada and Germany—not to mention my old buds in Russia.” Something in his tone said he had one of his macabre stories to accompany that statement, but now wasn’t the time to ask about it. “They’ve all been exchanging info. Seems that this type of organized killing has been happening in other places. Small towns—remote areas where stuff gets overlooked. But when you piece it together, it’s clearly the vampire broods. And now with what you’re telling me about the Ancestors, it only reaffirms our theories. They’re organizing worldwide. Gathering numbers for the revolution.”

  I suppressed a shiver. “So what do we do?”

  “You don’t do anything. You keep yourself outta the way.”

  I made a face, but remained quiet. He was right anyway—I was just going to cause trouble if I interfered.

  “This little vendetta the vampires seem to have with you will disappear once we eliminate the Denver brood,” he continued. “And then ... well, depending on what Derek does with school, I might have to return to pack duty.”

  “If he drops out and turns vampire, you mean?”

  “Yep. I’m only assigned to him while he’s at school. If he drops out, I’ll have to go back to Gould.”

  I frowned. “But . . . all this time, you haven’t been watching him.”

  Lucas remained silent, his vibe going haywire beneath his calm exterior. Jealousy. Hurt. Heartache.

  It hit me in an instant.

  He knows.

  He knew about Derek and my fling. He’d been keeping watch over Derek—and me—this whole time and I never knew. My throat suddenly seemed like it was stuffed with cotton.

  “I’m . . . so . . .” I wanted to say sorry, wanted to erase that night with Derek.

  “Don’t,” Lucas rumbled. “We were broken up. You had every right to ... to do what you did. It’s none of my business.”

  My heart was shattering. I hated this—that he knew.

  “Lucas, I—”

  “No.” He didn’t look over, but his voice was pleading. “It’s over.”

  We collapsed into uneasy silence. After a while, it was Lucas who broke it.

  “I might have to leave Colorado if Derek quits school,” he murmured.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, jolted. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “To the other packs that are having this vampire problem. We have to get this uprising thing taken care of before they get too far.”

  “You mean the packs in Canada or Germany?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you expect me to stay behind, I take it?” I kept my tone light, but he must have heard the clip at the end. Lucas didn’t say anything, so I took that as a yes. “If you’re going someplace I’m coming with you.”

  “Like hell you are,” he growled deeply. “You’re staying here. In school. Where it’s safe. End of story.”

  I gave him a meaningful stare. One that said, we’re not done talking about this, but decided to move on. It wasn’t happening now, and there were too many more pressing matters to discuss.

  “So do you think what I found out from Calvin and Silas will help you guys find the lair?” I asked.

  “Not to dampen your glory, but probably not.”

  I deflated into the seat. “Well, do you know who Arabella is? Maybe if someone knows the name then they can remember around where they saw her ... or something.”

  Lucas smiled down at me endearingly.

  “I’ve never heard of her,” Lucas said. “But I bet Rolf has if she’s been here any length of time. We’ll talk to him about it when we get to the house.”

  I gazed out of the windshield again, watching the sun set.

  “How long will that be?” I asked.

  “About forty minutes.”

  “We won’t make it before dark.”

  He didn’t respond.

  We drove into the night and up through the
mountains, snaking along the desolate, dark roads that led to the werewolf mansion. It was about half an hour past sunset, and we were minutes from our destination when I heard a loud rumbling from behind us. I turned around in my seat and saw two bluish headlights approaching us as breakneck speed.

  I assumed they were drunk drivers, since nobody in their right mind would be going that fast at night where there were no streetlamps.

  “Lucas,” I said. “There are idiots coming up behind us.”

  His eyes flickered into the rearview mirror and then shifted silver. He cursed savagely and slammed on the gas. My heart careened into my throat as I became pasted to the seat.

  “What is it?” I gasped, clutching the ceiling handle in a vice.

  “Vampires.” He cursed again, punching the dashboard so hard it dented the plastic. “I thought this might happen. Shit!”

  My mind reeled, trying to make sense as we rocketed around a corner.

  “How do you know it’s them?” I asked, wincing as Lucas shifted gears and charged faster.

  “I saw someone tailing us for a while when we left campus, but they disappeared. They must have stopped somewhere and let the vampires pick up the chase at nightfall. Damn it, I knew this was going to happen.” He continued to blabber profanities and murderous grumblings. “We’re almost to the house,” he muttered. “Almost there . . .”

  I watched the speedometer climb to ninety, a hundred ... higher.

  I spun in my seat, but all I could see were the blinding white lights of the car behind us. They were already on top of us, so close I could have reached out and touched the hood.

  “Sit back!” Lucas yelled as the car sped ever faster.

  Another car drove up beside us, a little black one with tinted windows. The passenger’s window rolled down, and Melissa’s perfect face appeared. I saw another vampire driving.

  “Oh, God,” I whispered. Melissa had survived the fight. Terror ravaged my brain. “Oh, God . . . Lucas. Go faster!”

  “I am!” He hit it harder, and we blasted forward. The vampires were right with us.

  Melissa laughed and made obscene gestures at us. Then she licked her long, pointy teeth and made an uh-oh face. She held the top of the car like she was bracing herself.

  “Lucas!” I screamed. I tensed, readying myself.

  Lucas’s arm shot out in front of my body, and he shouted something I couldn’t understand.

  Then the vampires rammed their car into ours.

  30

  BROOD

  First there was the jar of the impact. It slammed us sideways, and we flew into the air. I heard myself screaming. Glass stung my face.

  Then we hit again. The ceiling caved in; the windshield cracked. Lucas’s arm went limp. We rolled, over and over, and finally stopped when we were upside down. I hung there, still rolling around on the inside.

  My ears buzzed, and my vision faded to black, off and on. I blinked and managed to turn my head. Lucas was hanging beside me. Unconscious. There was a large gash in the side of his skull, pouring blood onto the roof. Beneath it all, I saw the dull white of bone.

  Heat hit me next. Intense heat, licking my face and my feet. The front of the car was on fire.

  That’s when I really woke up. My breath felt like waves of nausea, torturing my insides, and I couldn’t stop coughing from the smoke. Three forms materialized in front of the hood, flames licking their shadowy forms like demons from the underworld.

  I began shaking Lucas, yelling for him to wake up, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.

  And he wasn’t waking up.

  I tried to unbuckle myself, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t work the buckle. I started crying, which only made things worse. Then the side of the car ripped off, and I turned to see Melissa standing there, smug as ever. She tore the seatbelt from my chest and watched me fall in a heap on the roof of the car.

  I wriggled around and watched the same thing happen to Lucas, only he wasn’t moving.

  I fought to get to him, but two iron hands took hold of me and yanked me away. I yelled and kicked, ignoring a tremendous pain in my right side. I was pretty sure something was broken in there.

  Melissa threw me to the ground and cursed. Her eyes were coal-black with the crave. She was going crazy for the blood covering my body. Frustration welled in her vibe like a tsunami. She whirled around, stamping her foot.

  “Stop, damn it,” she snarled. She wedged her hands into her head.

  One of the other vampires shouted at her from across the car. “Get a grip, Melissa!”

  “I am!” She shrieked and her eyes faded. She rounded on me. “Come on, tramp, this time I’m not letting your blood get the better of me. I’ll bet it tastes like garbage anyway.”

  I tried to squirm away, but Melissa dragged me by my underarms to the street. There were no cars to see us, no werewolves to help us, but I screamed for help anyway.

  The other vampires tossed Lucas’s body, lashed in silver chains, into the back of the other car and then approached me holding a rope and a leather bag.

  “Am I going to have to use these, sweetheart?” one asked me.

  “Screw off!” I yelled and tried to kick him in the groin.

  He dodged me easily, clucking his teeth. He snatched up both of my legs in one hand and lashed them together without effort. Shrieking, I writhed as he tied my arms behind my back, and the other vampire shoved the bag over my head.

  I continued to scream as they tossed me into the back with Lucas.

  “Shut up!” Melissa hissed.

  I ignored her, yelling louder just to piss her off.

  She must have hit me then, because there was a blinding pain above my left temple and then ... nothing ...

  I was thrown onto something cold and hard; I assumed it was the floor. I felt my arms and legs become free. The bag was jerked off of my head and then I could see.

  Only I wished they had kept the bag on.

  I was inside the vampire lair. I had to be.

  The room was hexagonal in shape. It wasn’t particularly big, but it was dark. The only lights came from candelabras burning against the black walls. Wax dripped from the votives, pattering on the floor like the sound of trickling blood. I could hear talking, low whispers and murmurs, words too fast to understand.

  I rose to my feet, quivering. Vaguely, the pain in my side twanged, but I was too terrified to worry about it. Something smelled charred in the air, like something was cooking ... flesh. Bile climbed up my throat, and I just barely swallowed it down.

  Vampires huddled along the walls in cliques; Melissa was off to the right side with my abductors, and I spotted Calvin standing alone in front of what seemed to be the centerpiece of the room.

  It was a chair. Not a big throne thing with jewels and gold and filigree. No. It was just a small iron chair.

  It was empty for now.

  I tried to get Calvin’s attention, wanting him to see the hatred I held for him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He seemed strangely subdued. His signature cocky smirk was gone and his indigo eyes were cast to the floor.

  I think it was this fact that scared me more than anything.

  I turned away from him to glance behind me and found Lucas was there—chained in silver. He was unconscious, bleeding out onto the cement floor. His blood seeped toward me in a river of red gore; he should have healed by now, but the silver chains were impeding his regenerative powers. I started toward him, wanting to staunch the blood flow, but the room hissed, and I stopped. Every dead-cold eye in the room was on me, daring me to try and move again.

  I restrained myself, glancing around, instead, to try and see a way out. I got the feeling we were underground, which made sense if we were in their lair. Was that water rushing behind the walls? I looked up and saw a small wooden door on the ceiling above Lucas’s head. What in God’s name is that used for?

  Quickly, I counted the vampires: ten. More than enough to kill me, but I couldn’t dwell on that. Two gua
rded Lucas’s broken body. Three stood on one side of the room, four on the other. Calvin stood alone at the front.

  Then two more vampires entered. All eyes focused on the chair at the front of the room as an invisible door creaked open. A lethally beautiful woman entered, followed by a man in a long black cloak. The collar was popped, and he kept his head bent low, shading his face. But I knew that man. I knew that man with every inch of my body.

  It was Derek.

  Hatred exploded in my chest—complete and total loathing. I felt my lips wrinkle into a snarl as I watched him glide into the room and stand opposite of Calvin like a pair of undead sentries. He refused to look at me.

  Then the woman lowered herself into the chair. Her face was flawlessly beautiful, and she had slanted features, as though her entire face had been pulled up at the edges. She wore a long, flowing gown, black and sparkling in the low light of the room. The top was corseted, and there was a spidery necklace over her décolletage. Her big gray eyes fell on me, amused and slightly expectant—like she was waiting for me to do a flip or something.

  All of the vampires had gone silent. The only sound remaining was the pattering of the wax and that gentle buzzing in the background.

  Then a groan came from behind me and I turned. Lucas was stirring. Thank God he’s alive!

  “Do you know who I am, human?”

  I spun back around and realized that the dangerous chick was talking to me.

  I decided to take a wild guess and go with, “Arabella.”

  The woman’s pencil-thin eyebrows twitched up and she nodded slowly. “You have been well informed,” she said with a voice as clear and crisp as a glass of champagne. “Do you know where you are?”

  Lucas moaned deeply and I heard the silver chains jingling.

  I swallowed as my stomach wriggled uncomfortably. Please, be okay, baby.