I dub thee Excalibur.
While munching on some churros, I used the map to plot a route to the safest place I could think of. Texas. It was mostly pack territory, and that worked to my advantage. I didn’t know exactly where the packs lived, but I would know when I got there. They mark their territory, and I’m not using an idiom. They literally piss on it. Yuck.
And even though I was nervous, scared, and self-doubting, I still felt oddly excited. I’d been living in luxury for more than a century, so using my wit to survive wasn’t needed. Even before then, I’d always relied on other vampires to make the decisions for me, except for my sabbatical when I was still a fledgling. That didn’t really count though, because right after leaving my home in England, I’d met Olivier and then followed her around for decades. It’s a good thing she stopped thinking I was annoying.
Maybe I’d just been waiting for something like this. Something to finally rip me from my mundane life and force me to start living in the moment. Show myself, not just Arthur, that I wasn’t stuffy.
Being on the run was invigorating. I’d forgotten how good it felt. The danger of it all seeped into my veins and I felt like I was drowning in adrenaline. As much as I was loving it, I still missed my simple life at the Order. I missed spending time with Cameron. It was comforting to know he was safe, though. I tried to put him out of my mind. I tried to picture him living a normal human life. Getting a job. A house. A wife. He’d finally belong. That was all I wanted for him.
My new car was adorable. Sleeping in it was not. A quick purchase of a down sleeping bag made the small trunk more comfortable, though my long legs didn’t thank me for it. I slept at highway truck stops and applied the tanning lotion every morning.
That became my schedule. Wake up, drive. Eat food, drive. Eat again, park somewhere hidden, sleep. Repeat.
The one thing Olivier hadn’t provided for me was blood. I was starving for blood, but I couldn’t feed. Finding a human wouldn’t work because a human’s first vampire bite took days to heal. If I stole disgusting bagged blood from a hospital, the Hunters would find out. Any blip of stolen blood on a hospital record and they’d be on that hospital like a swarm of bees. It was on the list as things to avoid doing, but I needed blood. If I didn’t feed soon, I’d go into a frenzy, and that was a shit storm I’d never escape from. I stopped at a large city that I could blend into and scoured it until I found a blood drive. It was at a large Catholic church in the parking lot. Groups of old people and families stood outside the little trailer, all sipping juice and eating cookies as they talked amongst themselves.
The lady at the sign-in table was wearing pastel cashmere and a big smile that silently promised it would try to convert me later. Not gonna happen, sister. I signed a fake name and went into the trailer when it was my turn. A nurse stood inside and showed me where to sit. There was an old man next to me who had fallen asleep in his chair. His blood bag was almost full. I tried not to stare at it.
The nurse tried chatting to me in a friendly way as she gathered some paperwork for me to fill out. I saw an open ice chest of filled blood bags on a tray in front of me and saw my chance.
I stood up and pretended I was off balance. “Actually, I don’t feel so good. I’m really squeamish, and I was trying to face my fears, but I just-” I dry heaved and put my hand on the side of the ice chest, purposefully knocking it over. “I’m so sorry!” I pretended to try to pick them up, and ‘accidentally’ stepped on a few until they popped. The smell of dead blood shot up my nose. I felt equally sick and hungry.
I almost felt sorry for the human nurse, having to deal with me standing in a pile of half busted blood bags and heaving like I was about to throw up. I repeatedly told her I was sorry and made sure to look as pathetic as possible. I helped her gather the bags back into the ice chest, and told her I’d throw them away.
As if.
I went out the back door of the trailer, where the happy humans couldn’t see me with blood all over my hands and shoes, and ran in the other direction. I hid behind the dumpster and took stock of what I had to work with.
Out of four bags, three were busted and only had a small amount of blood left in them. The fourth bag was fine. All that effort for one bag of blood. It figured. I left them there, dropped the ice chest back off behind the trailer, and went back for my bounty. I stuck to the shadows on my way back to Excalibur, sucking on the busted bags until they were dry. I found a puddle to wiggle my shoes in to clean them. I saw myself in the reflection, blood all over my arms. As much as it disgusted me, I licked myself clean. Every drop was ecstasy.
Mission accomplished. Score for Lisbeth.
7. Frenzied
Bagged blood is revolting.
It’s like having a mug of tea that smells like tea and looks like tea, but when you sip it, it tastes like dog piss. My brain constantly reminded me that this was not what blood is supposed to taste like. Not to mention it made me feel sick. Never throw up sick, but a headache and general lethargy were the main side effects. I honestly had no idea how the turned could live on this stuff, but they could. Lucky fucks.
After a week of zigzagging, backtracking, carefully timed slow poking, occasional sitting around for hours, and swearing so loudly I was sure the humans were going to call the cops, I was in Kansas. The bagged blood was making my temples throb. I’d rationed myself to one sip a day, but I was paying the price. Weakness was spreading throughout my body, a paralyzing weakness that sometimes hit me so hard I couldn’t move my arms to get the blood from the cooler in the morning. I was also losing weight, and my eyes were constantly bloodshot like I was drunk.
After passing the Kansas state sign, I was sitting in Excalibur at a roadside park, carefully forcing myself to sip some blood from the pack after fumbling with it for a few minutes because my fingers refused to work. God, it tasted foul. My mouth scrunched up and I gagged, like a human taking medicine. Nasty gross ‘please leave my stomach’ medicine.
‘Heat of the Moment’ came from the backseat. Why was my car playing music? It started playing again, and I realized it was coming from the duffle bag. Hidden in one of the numerous side pockets was an old-fashioned burner phone and one of those wireless chargers that ran on batteries. Amazingly, the phone still had a percentage on the battery and wasn’t dead even though it had been sitting in my car for a week.
As the song started a third time, I answered the phone.
“Hello?” I had no idea who would be on the other end. Arthur? He would. Maybe it was a booty call? Arthur booty calling me. Nah.
“Bonjour, Lisbeth.” Renard.
I sighed with relief. I wasn’t in the mood for sexy talk. “Renard! Why are you calling me? I’m on the run!”
“I know. It was Olivier who was going to call you, but…” He trailed off and his silence was deafening. I immediately thought she’d been killed or punished for helping me, but then he wouldn’t be there to call me. “All Hunters have been recruited to find you. Including former Hunters,” he added.
Oh. Olivier hunting me? I mean, she’d been helping Arthur at the castle, but hunting me in the open was completely different. That was the least amount of comforting information I could’ve ever gotten. My hands shook and I almost dropped the phone. “If she leads them off my trail for too long, they’ll know she’s helping me.”
“Oui.” He sighed and struggled for words. “I do not wish to compromise your safety by asking this, but please… protect my lady.” My heart broke for him. To protect her, I would have to use a different tactic, and that meant I could become vulnerable. Fuck it, I was smart. I could figure it out.
“I’ll do my best,” I promised him.
“How are you doing without blood?”
I swallowed and took some time to answer. “Fine,” I lied. Lying was stupid, and I knew it. I could hear him silently calling me out on trying to bullshit him. Renard had been with us for a long time. While he’d never seen for himself the side effects of our hunger, he knew well enough from stories w
e’d told him. Before I could speak, he had to hang up and get back to the castle.
So. I had to come up with an entirely new plan, one that would protect both Olivier and myself. I took a break from eating gas station food and went to a country café. They had some maps of Kansas and the nearby states, so I bought one of each. While I ate a greasy hamburger with fries and a red soda (it wasn’t blood, but the color was comforting), I plotted out a new route and made new plans. The constant planning and sneaking around was wearing me out, even without the bagged blood sapping all my energy. Olivier probably knew that and would inform Arthur, so continuing with my path was the best option.
The next night, I was at another rest stop finishing up a few sips of vile blood when I smelled vampires.
Shit on a stick.
They’d found me. I knew it. My stupid plans were for shit and now I’d be captured. I pushed my senses out and caught the scent of leather and steel. Definitely Hunters. They weren’t close enough to be able to smell me as well unless they were paying attention. I drove away in Excalibur and found an unpaved driveway that lead to an empty house with a rundown barn. I parked Excalibur inside the barn and doused the car in a spray that would mask my scent (it was in the duffle bag), then I started running. I ran as fast as I could and my senses widened automatically without me having to use energy. Running was taxing, and my feet stumbled every other step. I couldn’t keep it up much longer. My senses were starting to close back in from my lack of blood. I started tripping and struggled to focus. Blackness came up on the edges of my sight. Then I smelled it.
Blood.
Sweet, fresh blood flowing in a human’s vulnerable papery veins. I could’ve wept with joy at my discovery. Why did it smell so weird? Humans didn’t smell like that. My need overrode my sense of smell, and a frenzy swept over me. In the days before companions, this kind of frenzy was commonplace, and we did our best to avoid it. There was no stopping me. I would be drinking from this food source whether it fucking liked it or not.
Closer and closer to my prey, I found myself creeping up on a small alcove carved into a rock formation. The oddly smelling human had made a camp inside the alcove, complete with a fire and a rabbit cooking over it. I had lost most of my control and was behaving with a primal edge. My canines dropped and I growled low in my throat. My prey was instantly alert, somehow hearing me.
I charged and threw myself onto my prey, snarling with elation. The human tried to pull me off, but I’d sunk my claws into it. Him. The human was male. He smelled so fucking good, I couldn’t control myself. He backed up and slammed both of us into the wall of the cave. Pain crashed into me and my instincts gave me one final push.
I sank my fangs into his neck and moaned as his essence filled my mouth. Gods above, yes. Finally, blood. Tasting it after so long was almost erotic. He groaned and stopped trying to buck me off, going still under my fangs. His blood didn’t taste normal, but it wasn’t a bad taste. It was like eating venison. If I’d been saner during that precise moment, I’d have been horrified about comparing humans to food. Wild Me didn’t care. I drank four times the amount of blood I normally needed. It was only then I regained enough control to pull away and drop the human on the ground.
He wasn’t dead, I hadn’t drunk that much. He also wasn’t moving, so that wasn’t a good sign. He had thick black hair almost to his neck and his skin was one shade darker than a really good tan. He definitely had Native blood. My senses returned and my head stopped hurting. It was then I noticed one crucial detail about my prey I’d been too frenzied to notice before.
He was a Lycan.
8. An unusual pairing
Of all the fucking gin caves in all the world, I had to pick one with a fucking Lycan. In my defense, this particular Lycan smelled different than others I’d encountered. I mean, yeah, he had the dog smell. No denying that. But it wasn’t all dog. There was human mixed with it. And the more I studied him, the more human he looked. A very attractive human, I noted. Maybe he’d picked up the smell from someone else. Why did I think he was a Lycan? Maybe the starvation had messed with my head. I should’ve been instantly alerted to his species, even during a frenzy. I’d only been staring at him for a few minutes when he stirred and instantly jumped away from me.
“Who the fucking hell are you?” he demanded. His hand went up to his neck and he found the puncture wounds. I hadn’t left any blood on him. Call me greedy. “You… fucking bit me!” He lunged at me in anger and slammed me into the wall. “God damn blood sucking harlot, I should kill you right now!” His arm was pressed against my neck, cutting off my air. I slapped at him to get him to lay off, but he refused.
“Watch with the name calling, fuzzy butt,” I got out between breaths.
“Shut up, bloodsucker! You have five seconds to tell me why I shouldn’t slit your throat right here.” I lifted my hand again to try and pull his arm off my throat. The bracelet jingled and he went very still when he saw it. “Where’d you get that?”
My throat was starting to hurt from the abuse. “You take your arm off my neck and I’ll tell you.” He lessened the pressure slightly. “Thank you. I’m Lisbeth by the way. What’s your name?” His dark brown eyes were eyeing me with caution, and I reminded myself that he was a gross Lycan. I was a sucker for brown eyes.
“Knight,” he offered stoically. “Tell me the truth, bloodsucker. Did you kill the Lycan that owned the bracelet?” I shook my head and he pushed off the wall, taking a few steps back so he wouldn’t have to be so close to me. I coughed and felt my throat for a bit, wincing at the pain. “I think I bruised you,” he observed, peering over at me.
“Yeah, thank you for that.” God. He didn’t have to hurt me. I mean, I did drink without asking. I guess I would’ve done the same.
“Let me see,” he said quietly and held up his hands to gently probe at my neck. “They’re going away. I’m uhh… sorry.” He stepped back and I observed him cautiously, slightly scared he’d hurt me again.
“To be fair we are enemies,” I noted, finding a smile despite the pain. He smiled back and I felt the air leave my chest at the sight of it. Before I could contemplate why I was staring at him like he was a bar of chocolate, Knight quickly grabbed me and clamped a hand over my face. Fuck, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.
Knight’s skin was very warm, almost too hot, and dirty. Gross. I made a small noise to complain at the state of his hand, but he shushed me and pulled me further back into the cave, my backside against his front.
Was that a phone in his pocket? Please be a phone.
“Answer with a nod,” he whispered into my ear. “Are they here for you?” By ‘they,’ he meant the Hunters that I’d been trying to avoid, who had somehow followed my trail here. Damn it! I’d been so careful! Did I have to spray myself with human sweat? I nodded to him. Knight quickly pushed me onto the floor, covered me with his sleeping bag, and sat on top of me with his probably hairy Lycan ass.
My voice was muffled by the sleeping bag, but I managed to get out, “I’m going to fucking murder you!”
“Not with my stolen blood in your veins you’re not!” We both grew silent when the Hunters approached within hearing range. I couldn’t see them from under the sleeping bag so I waited patiently, trusting this wolf with my life. If he betrayed me, I’d have to slice that handsome face open. A shame, really.
“I didn’t know there were bitches in this neck of the woods,” one of the Hunters remarked as he drew closer.
“You sure it’s a dog, Mal?” a woman said, her voice jeering and taunting. “He doesn’t smell like a dog.” Speaking of smell, why hadn’t they caught my scent? Hiding under a sleeping bag wasn’t going to stop them from smelling me. Unless Knight’s scent was blocking mine. His sleeping bag was soaked with his odor.
“He smells delicious,” a third Hunter drawled out. She sounded like she wanted more from Knight than his blood. Good. I wasn’t the only vampire smelling that scent.
Blood! They’d see the bite
mark on his neck! They’d know I was here! I must’ve stiffened because Knight moved his hand to cover my shoulder. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be reassuring, or didn’t want to blow our cover.
“What do you want, bloodsuckers?” Knight’s voice was smooth and warm, the opposite of Arthur’s icy blandness.
The male Hunter spoke with authority, and apparently was used to being called a bloodsucker because he didn’t complain. “We’re searching for an outlaw. One of ours. I’m guessing you haven’t seen any of us pass this way?”
“If I had, your search would be over, and you’d be bringing back a dead body. Well. A dead undead body.”
Rude.
“We’re not dead, asswipe,” the second Hunter protested. “That’s the turned.”
Knight sighed like they were boring him. “I don’t give a rat’s ass. Are you done? Your scent is making me feel sick.”
“Let’s leave this bitch to his humping.” The Hunters left as quickly as they’d come. Knight didn’t move off me until I couldn’t smell them anymore. Once he’d slid off me and onto the floor, I pulled the sleeping bag off my face.
“Do I look undead?” I asked him moodily. I wasn’t exactly pale anymore.
He chuckled at me with that gorgeous grin. “Lycan humor.”
“Hilarious.” I sat up and leaned closer to study his neck. My bite wasn’t there anymore. All traces had already healed. Staring up at him, I realized I owed him my life. A Lycan. “Thanks for that. You umm… saved my skin.”
He shrugged to seem non-committal, but I could tell he hadn’t done it out of the goodness of his heart. “One last question. Did you steal that?” He pointed at the bracelet. I shook my head, and he waited a few seconds to discern if I was lying. It’s not like I’d willingly have vampire teeth as a fashion accessory. “You have an Alpha’s bracelet, and therefore his protection,” he continued, and I remembered that the Alpha had said as much. “I’m honor bound to see that no harm comes to you. Though, I’m not in a pack, so technically I don’t have to.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 6
