“You’re not being very reassuring considering you’re the only person I’ve ever told.”
I was about to ask him more when he opened the door between our rooms and walked in wearing pajama bottoms, carrying pillows and a comforter.
I pulled my blanket up to cover my chest, even though I wasn’t the one who was topless. I could be, easily. “Uh…. what’s up?”
“Your scent gets stronger when I’m too far away,” he said simply, and deposited his pallet on my floor.
“You’re in a lady’s bedchamber,” I told him. He lifted an eyebrow at me, silently reminding me we’d been sharing a room for a while now, not to mention what had happened at the pool, and continued adjusting his comforter.
When he laid down, he said in a sarcastic tone, “I’ll try not to pleasure you in my sleep.”
Disappointing.
The next day we traveled through a town that grew fruit, so we decided to stop early and get a room at a bed and breakfast. We’d been traveling together for about two weeks, and I’d been running for even longer, so it was time for a tiny break. The bed and breakfast we’d decided on was part of a peach orchard. Fruit trees dotted the acreage around the old white house, most of them peach, but several were apricot and plum. As part of our room deal, we could pick a bushel of fruit to take with us.
Knight picked the fruit expertly, knowing which were ripe, too ripe, and not ripe enough. He could reach the branches without a ladder, so I stood next to him with the bushel. His face was so excited, it was becoming contagious. After placing another fruit in the basket with an enormous grin on his face, I gave him a questioning look.
“I didn’t realize you loved fruit this much Mr. I’ll-take-the-largest-fucking-burger-you-have.” I’d never seen him eat vegetation that wasn’t between sesame seed buns or deep fried in oil.
He shoved me playfully and almost made me drop the basket. “I grew up on an orchard, almost exactly like this one, in fact. It was before the war.” By war, he meant the Civil War. “The trees were so stunning in the spring. Pink peach blossoms are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen. It made me wish I could paint them just to capture their beauty.” He gave a mournful grin and tossed another peach into the bushel. “That was a long time ago. I came back after the war to run the orchard with my mother, but a plague of locusts came. Those fuckers ate everything green and beautiful. Then when everything green was gone, they chewed the wood on the house, the clothes we left out to dry, the rope on the fences. It was a shit storm.” He sat down and played with the peach in his hands. I could easily picture him over a hundred years ago, seeing everything he’d ever loved being destroyed.
“I was in Japan around then,” I said quietly. “We had to escape in case anyone found our castle during the war, so we all went to different countries. They have cherry trees in Japan. Have you ever seen one?” He shook his head, still lost in the past. I started picking peaches from the lower branches and had to use a step stool.
“Sorry,” he said after several minutes of me struggling to reach the fruit. I usually wore heels to make me taller, since I was only average height, but right now I was sticking to hipster sneakers and sandals.
“Sorry for telling me all that or sorry you’re cruelly reminding me that you’re over a foot taller than I am?” He laughed then and the past was gone from his face. “A little help?” I asked him and pointed to some peaches I couldn’t reach.
“You’re doing fine,” he answered with a mischievous grin.
“Ass.” I threw a peach at him, but I should’ve known better because he started a fruit fight with the bruised peaches that lay on the ground. I wasn’t that good of a throw since I wasn’t at top strength, but I held my own. Hiding behind a tree, I picked up a few peaches to throw and searched for him. I couldn’t see him, and I couldn’t risk using energy to push my senses out. My sense of smell was very limited this low on blood. “Stop hiding, butthole,” I shouted. “You know I can’t smell you right now.” He dropped down from the peach tree and I screamed, dropping the fruit onto the ground while he laughed at me. “Asshole!”
The sight of him laughing took my breath away, and I didn’t stop him when he leaned in and pressed my back against the peach tree. The sticky bark was rough under my hands, my nails dug into the wood when Knight reached up to pull a twig from my hair.
Would he kiss me? Of course he wouldn’t. He said he found me repulsive, and rightly so. “That is so gross,” he’d said. Those four words repeated in my head until I had to look away from his gaze.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, studying me so closely, I felt my knees wobble. You’re a tease, that’s what’s wrong. And I shouldn’t have been attracted to you, but I was.
“We should get back,” I answered, looking away.
He nodded and stepped away from me. I started towards the bed and breakfast with him beside me, both of us silent. Our mood was further killed as we came closer and saw a police car sitting in front of the house. Knight took my hand and we scurried behind a shed where we wouldn’t be seen. The local sheriff was talking to the owner of the bed and breakfast, who gestured to the Impala and then the window of our room.
He was here for me.
Knight tugged on my hand, making my stomach flip over, and put a finger to his lips, then gestured he was going to get our bags from the room and I needed to stay here. He left, and though I knew it would use up most of the blood I had left, I pushed my senses out to listen in on the sheriff and the proprietor. It was extremely difficult, but I managed to keep it up for a few minutes.
“…so she didn’t look suspicious?”
“No! I can’t believe she killed a little girl!” What? What was she talking about?
“What about the man with her?”
“He was… well, he’s a big man, but he wasn’t rude. Just being near him was enough to make you piss yourself.” I tried not to laugh. Knight was extremely intimidating, with just his height alone. Good thing he hadn’t flashed his pointed teeth. Ooo. I’d like to see that.
“He must be an accomplice,” the sheriff concluded, unfairly.
I gasped as my senses pulled back in. I felt even weaker now. Knight was there before I noticed he was near, carrying our bags over his shoulder. He took my hand again and said one word:
“Run.”
A month ago, running would’ve been so easy and so much fun, but weeks of drinking bagged blood had turned me into an invalid. Only a blood frenzy would strengthen me now, or just, you know, drinking from someone. I wasn’t even sure a frenzy would work at this point. So, when Knight grabbed me and told me to run, I failed miserably. I ran for about two minutes, but then my legs stopped working properly and I started tripping over my own feet.
“God damn it,” he cursed, and then he adjusted the bags, picked me up, and kept running. With my legs wrapped around his waist and his arms holding me against his chest, my mouth was right on his neck. His warm skin was an invitation, not just to drink, but to indulge the feeling building inside me at being so close to him, just for a few minutes.
Knight ran across the Texan countryside for over an hour, not slowing and not even winded. Every minute or so he adjusted his hands on me to make sure I was still there and not falling off him. My arms were too weak to even anchor myself on his neck. He finally slowed down and stopped for a few minutes to rest, though from the way he was breathing, you’d never have known he’d just run that far carrying a vampire and two bags.
He sighed like he was about to speak, and I stilled, waiting for him to complain or maybe grab my ass. “My car,” was all he said. I giggled and he laughed too, the movement shaking my head.
“Call Jesse, he’ll keep it for you.” The Alpha had said to call him if we needed anything. This was anything.
“Text him,” Knight said to me. “Where’s the phone?”
I dropped my head against his shoulder. “I don’t think I can make my hand hold it.”
He rubbed my back to soothe me,
holding me closer to keep me from falling. He was so nice to me, and he had no reason to be. “Just wait a little longer.” We were off again, Knight navigating the terrain like a pro until we’d been gone for several hours. The sun was setting when he stopped again. I vaguely registered the sound of him stepping into a pool of warm water, and then he set me down on the stone floor of a cave. Behind him was a waterfall, and we were slightly hidden in the curtain of water. He sat down at my feet and we both rested. The water was a natural hot spring, the steam of it made the cave air warm.
After a few minutes, he glanced over at me. “I think your lotion is all rubbed off.” I certainly felt pale, so I was probably a lot whiter than normal. I started sliding down the wall since I couldn’t hold myself up, but Knight was there to catch me.
I let him guide me onto his lap, I was kind of powerless to do otherwise, but when he tilted his head to the side to expose his neck, I froze. “What are you doing?” I asked him with trepidation, though I knew full well what he was offering. A small part hoped he wasn’t just offering blood.
“I heard the humans back there. Your kind has involved their law enforcement to find you. The hospitals will probably be on alert as well. Stealing blood was already risky. Now it’ll give us away.” He swallowed, met my eyes, and his hand came up to grip my arm. “I’m offering this willingly. I told Jesse I would protect you, and I meant it. Now drink before I change my mind.”
My fangs almost hurt from lack of use as they slid down. I didn’t need them when I drank bagged blood, so they’d been pushed up for weeks. With them down, my senses opened slightly and Knight’s scent washed over me, and it was so amazing, I could’ve wept, but he also smelled different. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
He put his hands on my waist, so I leaned in and gasped when my teeth sunk into him. I think he moaned, but I didn’t notice. All I could focus on was his blood. It tasted so good. It was like almost dying and feeling life pour into you again, which wasn’t far from the truth considering how weak I’d been. I drank deeply and freely. I was surprised I wasn’t draining him. Normally, my companion stopped me when they started to feel weak, but Knight let me go as long as I wanted to. As soon as I felt stronger, I restrained myself and pulled away. Knight’s hands were fisted in my shirt, so I stayed still until he relaxed. As I watched, his neck started to heal until my bite marks were gone, as if they’d never happened.
Timidly, I put my arms around his neck and held him close. He owed me that. “I drank too much.” If I weakened him, we wouldn’t survive.
“No, you didn’t.” His voice was muffled by my shirt. “My body will make new blood, so always drink however much you need.” Always? I tried not to read too much into his choice of words. “Move that ass, I need some water.” I stood and found a spot against the cave wall to watch him take a drink from one of our bottles of water. I shivered, but I was the furthest thing from chilly. He looked over at me and noticed. “Are you cold?”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly. Getting enough air was hard with my teeth starting to chatter.
“Let’s go for a swim.”
Yes, please.
He reached a hand out and when our fingers touched, I felt a jolt of electricity go up my arm. So warm. He was so warm. He led me down to the hot springs and slowly the warm water chased away all the ice. Or maybe it was holding his hand. I couldn’t say.
Once we were in the middle of the pool, the water came up to my armpits. Knight dunked his head and resurfaced, shaking his head to get the water out of his eyes. Water droplets sprayed on me and I yelped to get away, then dunked my own head underwater so it won’t matter. He laughed and went below the surface again, only to come back up right in front of me. I stumbled backward and he caught me with a hand around my waist.
“I have a question for you,” he began, his breath coming in visible bursts. The hand on my waist pulled me closer to him, so close his foggy breath was on my face. I was very certain I wouldn’t be able to articulate an answer to whatever he wanted to know. “If I hadn’t promised to protect you…” His other hand came up to wipe a bead of moisture off my bottom lip. “Would you still want me to be with you?”
“I uhh…” I swallowed and tried not to focus on his eyes, or his lips. “I have a question for you.”
A crinkled formed between his eyes. “Okay.”
“How can you be this close to me if I repulse you?”
Something in his face changed, an edge of sadness, of disappointment, and I felt like a fool for ruining whatever he’d been trying to do.
“We don’t have long,” he said, trying to move his hands away from me. His body had gone rigid. What had I done?
“No, don’t.” I stopped his hands with my own and held them around my waist. “Why don’t we have long?”
“Lisbeth,” Knight breathed in warning. I was so distracted I almost didn’t hear the inflections in his voice. His hands started crushing into my hips and it was hurting me.
“Knight, what’s wrong?” I asked him, reaching a hand up to his face. Over his shoulder, I saw the clouds part and the moon came out.
Let me say that again. The full moon came out.
The moonlight hit Knight like it was searching for him, and his body stiffened in response. His eyes were usually dark brown, but now they were glowing bright yellow. He met my gaze, and I’d never seen so much terror in someone’s eyes before. I took a step back from him, all the heat gone from my body and replaced with white cold fear.
Under the moon’s grasp, Knight started shifting. His hands lengthened into long claws, his muscles grew even bigger, and his face contorted into a snout. Hair sprouted on his body, so where he used to be mostly hairless, he now had black wispy curls. His scent turned acrid and almost made me choke because I was standing so close to him.
When he was fully shifted, he looked like a wolf-human hybrid, not the dog-like wolf I’d expected. That’s when I knew the Alpha female was right.
Knight wasn’t a Lycan. He was a werewolf.
The werewolf with Knight’s eyes growled low in his chest and threw his head back to howl at the moon. My ears rang at the sound.
“Knight, are you okay?” I stepped close to check on him, but it was a mistake.
This creature wasn’t Knight anymore. While the moon held him in her grasp, Knight was gone, and what had taken his place was a bi-pedal wolf that saw me as its mortal enemy. He swung his arm at me so quickly, I couldn’t move away fast enough, and he sliced my stomach open with his enormous claws. The werewolf’s other hand came up and broke my neck in a swift punch.
Then he howled at his precious moon again, and left his enemy to bleed out and die.
11. On the prowl for blood
I woke up several hours later, floating in the pool of water. My wounds had healed and my neck wasn’t broken anymore, but it had used up most of the blood I’d gotten from Knight to repair what’d he done to me. Thankfully, I had enough strength left to push my senses out and see where I was. Knight had been overly cautious, it seemed, as our campsite was far from the nearest town. I hobbled back to the cave and put some clothes on.
Fucking fantastic. This was how he treated girls. He holds them close and then breaks their necks. Not my idea of romance, but maybe that’s just me. Sure, he looked like he wanted to kiss me, but in the end, I was still his enemy. I was so fucking stupid. He’d never want me, not ever. I couldn’t believe I’d trusted a werewolf.
Once I was dry, I ate dinner and curled up in his blanket to fall asleep.
When morning came, Knight wasn’t there. Waiting all day did no good. He didn’t come back. After the third day of sitting in the cave, literally dying of thirst, I got up and shouldered my bag, leaving Knight’s things in the cave. I couldn’t survive without blood, and if he wanted to find me he could. I walked the long distance to the human town and couldn’t help but notice how lonely and quiet it was.
Lonely and quiet without him.
The town was small enough
that my picture wasn’t being circulated, and no one was talking about me killing an innocent child (I was still pissed about that). Knight’s scent wasn’t around, so I tried to relax. Darkness was already falling, the last night of the full moon, and while this town was very small, it had one redeeming factor: a nightclub.
I found a used clothing store still open and bought something that reminded me of Olivier: a black leather dress with pockets and a million zippers. To go with it, I found some clunky black boots decorated with belt buckles. The cashier looked at me weird since I was dressed like a beach girl and buying gothic clothes. I changed in an alley and stashed my bag beside a dumpster after arranging my hair in messy curls and applying some makeup from my purse.
The vampire was feeding tonight.
I channeled my sensual side as I walked up to the club. The heavy closed doors held in loud pounding music that oozed from the large warehouse. The sound was muffled to those on the street, but for me, it was like I was already inside. I passed the waiting line of teenagers with fake I.D.’s and went right up to the bouncer.
It should be noted that I’d never actually been to a club, so I was acting out what I’d seen on television. The hot girls always kiss up to the club bouncer, and if he’s straight, he lets them in ahead of everyone else.
My heels clicked on the pavement until I stopped at the front door. The bouncer was stacked with muscles and looked like that guy from the racing movies Cameron liked to watch. Knight’s muscles were just as impressive. I smiled sweetly and waved at the bouncer when he noticed me. His eyes swept my body and I could tell he liked what he saw, but apparently it wasn’t enough to get me in the club.
“Back of the line with that sweet ass, baby.”
Seriously? Okay, what would Olivier do? That was easy: she’d deck him and use his body as a rug to walk into the club. I racked my brain for an idea.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 9
