I sat down in one of the chairs by the door and toweled my hair. “That dog looks pretty. I bet she’s into long walks on the beach.” He threw the phone book at me and I broke out into giggles.
“I’m not a dog,” he said defensively, and I remembered what happened in the car.
“Sorry.” Great, now I’m protecting a Lycan’s feelings. “Since we’re on the subject of labels, I’d prefer to not be called a bloodsucker or any other cute slurs you can come up with.”
He raked a hand through his dark hair. “Fair enough.” He laid back on the bed and put a hand over his eyes. “I’m surprised you’re not complaining about the dog smell. I hear that from vamps often enough.” I was surprised he’d met enough of us to comment on it and was still alive. Maybe he’d lucked out and only encountered the less prejudice of us, though that was a rarity in and of itself, my own self not included.
“I didn’t notice.” That was a lie. I had more than noticed.
“So my smell doesn’t repulse you?”
I cleared my throat and started putting on some tanning lotion. “Quite the opposite.”
He raised his eyebrows at me and the corner of his mouth quirked up. “That must’ve been why your scent got really intense while you were in the tub.”
“You smelled that?” My cheeks flamed and I turned away so he wouldn’t see. “I don’t like being teased.”
“Hey, calm down. I’m still a gentleman. Sorry I teased you.” God, I needed to be more careful. His nose was better than mine. I would’ve never smelled someone’s arousal like that. “Hey,” he said again, and I jumped to see him beside me at the giant hotel mirror. “What’s with the lotion?”
I had only done one arm, so the other one was my normal pale tone. “Trying to appear more human,” I told him.
“You’re not as pale as I thought you’d be.”
I continued rubbing the lotion in, the conversation reminding me of many discussions I’d had with my protégés. “You’re thinking of the turned.” Knight didn’t know there were two races of vampires and continued asking me various things on the subject. The legends only mentioned the turned, so it was normal that he didn’t know about Born vampires. I figured he was beyond bored if he wanted to know so much about his natural enemies.
All of the sudden, I smelled lilac and felt a whoosh of air. Balthazar appeared in the hotel room, dressed in his normal stylish suit. When he saw Knight, he brandished his cane like a sword.
“If you are here to kill my Lisbeth, you will die before your next breath empties your lungs,” he said in a dramatic tone, though I had no doubt he meant it.
“Where have you been, you little shit?” I demanded. He’d never been away from me for this long, and I was slightly miffed about it.
“Copenhagen,” he replied like it was completely obvious.
“Holy shit, where did he come from?” Knight looked slightly afraid of our visitor. Vampires that ate food he could deal with, but a being that could appear out of nowhere was apparently his limit.
Balthazar shoved his cane towards Knight and pressed it against his nose. “I reiterate the aforementioned killing should you attempt to harm my Lisbeth.”
“He’s cool. You can put the cane down,” I told Balthazar. Well, I say cool.
He lowered it and studied my traveling companion. “You’ve grouped up with a wolf? And one of the marked at that. Honestly, Lisbeth, didn’t I teach you better?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like we’re doing the horizontal tango. We’re just traveling together.”
Knight gave me a weird look. “You use a lot of slang for a vampire.”
“I like to broaden my horizons,” I told him with a smile. Plus, humans tended to look at me weird when I used the word ‘copulate.’ I tried to keep my lingo as modern as I could.
Balthazar didn’t appear to enjoy us talking to each other. “Great. Now you two are chummy.”
“Yeah, I think not,” I declared.
“That is so gross,” was Knight’s response.
“See? Even he agrees with me.”
“I don’t like sharing,” Balthazar said as if I was his pet. “Maybe I should come with you.”
“That’s not happening,” Knight argued firmly. “I don’t even know what he is; what the hell is he?” That was directed at me.
“An Incubus. They father vampires.” I told Knight all the details and his face shifted from confusion to outright horror. This constant explaining was making me tired. I was spoiled on people that didn’t need to be told things like this. “An Incubus finds a human female, they…. Fuck, make love, whatever. She becomes pregnant, even if she was already pregnant or barren or dying. It doesn’t matter. Nine months later, a vampire is born. A Born vampire. Like me.”
Knight’s caramel skin looked a little green. “Even if she’s already expecting?”
Balthazar tapped his cane against his shoe and wouldn’t look at us. “Yes. Even if she’s already expecting.”
The unasked question was there on Knight’s face, and I almost wished he wouldn’t ask it. He did. “What happens to the human fetus?”
“What do you think,” Balthazar said quietly. He looked upset, an emotion I rarely saw on him.
Knight muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “What the fuck is this shit?”
“You okay?” I asked Balthazar. “I don’t have to travel with the wolf if it really bothers you.”
Thankfully, he shook his head. “No. It’s safer for you to be with him. I’m simply lost in a memory. The years before you arrived were dark and empty.” He disappeared without another word, leaving us slightly confused.
“Is he always like that?” Knight asked.
“Pretty much.” My cheeks flushed and I remembered what we’d been discussing before Balthazar arrived. I went to bed and pulled the covers over my head.
Nine
The next morning, Knight and I sat at a diner mapping out our route across the country. His plate was loaded with enough cholesterol to stop the heart of every human in the diner. The scent of his blood called to me and my stomach was rumbling for more than just pancakes.
“I think we should route through Nevada and curve down towards Mexico before we hit Texas,” he said around a mouthful of hash browns. He was still chewing when he spoke again. “If your Hunter friends are as skillful as you say, all this hopping around should throw them off.”
I took a sip of my coffee and focused to drown out the scent of all the blood around me. “You eat a lot, you know that?”
His mouth curved to the side in annoyance. “I’m a wolf. My metabolism is like 50,000. I don’t eat, I fall asleep. Plus, it’s not like I have a beer belly.” He lifted his black shirt to expose his washboard abs. Holy mother of all that is good and right in the universe. Frozen, I sat staring at that sliver of perfection with my fork halfway to my mouth. He chuckled at me and lowered his shirt again, hiding heaven behind a curtain of fabric. “Your eyes are ginormous right now. I’m not sure how I feel about a vampire checking me out.”
I coughed loudly and put the bite of food in my mouth from my suspended fork. “I was not checking you out, you hush your mouth. Plus you’re the one who exposed yourself, so don’t complain if people like what they see.”
That grin appeared on his face and god, my cheeks flushed. “I thought you weren’t checking me out.”
“Shut up! I asked you not to tease me.”
Still grinning, he took another bite of his food. “My apologies. It’s just very entertaining to see you flustered. Your cheeks are all pink.”
I pointed my fork at him. “I will steal your plate and eat all of your food, sir.”
His mouth curled just a bit, and I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t trying to be serious. “Touché, madam. Touché. I’ll choose my moments carefully then. Mostly when there’s no bacon involved.” He looked back at the map and I pointed with my finger to another highway.
“We should make this an altern
ate route, just in case.” He frowned and checked my face before marking it with his pen. I was leaving the option open for us to split up, and he most likely knew it. He remained silent after that, so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking on the subject.
After another fitful night at a roadside park, I pulled my blood bag from my cooler and squeezed a small mouthful from the plastic. Knight was watching me in-between looking at the road. The blood was heaven on my mouth and I almost didn’t want to swallow so the taste wouldn’t go away. I did, and mourned the loss so much that tears came to my eyes.
I was so thirsty.
I put the bag back into the cooler and wiped my nose with a sniff. The bag only had about a week’s worth of blood left at my current ration, and I was drinking the barest of bare amount needed to keep me from a frenzy.
“You okay?” Knight asked when I had to wipe my cheeks. I shrugged and tried to adjust myself so I could take a nap. Sleeping was better than being awake when I was this thirsty. “We should get you another bag.”
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. “I thought drinking blood was gross to you? Why would you help me get more?”
“I’m allowed to change my opinions,” he retorted moodily, and he reached a hand up to get the hair out of his eyes. “Sorry, just… Maybe I was wrong about you.” Chunks of his hair fell down covering his vision again and he sighed. “Stupid hair. It’s not long enough to be in a ponytail but it’s long enough to be annoying.” I laughed and reached in my pocket for a hair band.
“I like your hair,” I commented and sat up to reach my hands towards his black locks. “Most men these days don’t wear it long, or if they do, it looks scraggly.” I gathered most of his hair into the hair band. It was so soft and plush, I wanted to sink my fingers into it for hours. Clearing my throat, I sat back in my seat.
“Thanks,” he offered with a smile. “So about the blood thing. Maybe we could host a fake blood drive, or… Damn it.”
“Still weird?” I asked him. He didn’t answer for a few minutes as we pulled up next to a park. He turned the car off and played with the keys, then he looked away.
“Still weird.”
My stomach growled and I told it to shut up. “I’m a tough girl. I can stick it out a little longer.”
“Yeah, but,” he said, and sighed. “For how long?” The question hung in the air, and he got out to grab the lunch we’d bought while I stayed in the car, motionless.
In a few more days, I could risk stealing another bag of blood and then just…suffer. Forever. Damn it. I almost started crying when I realized the truth of that thought. When would I ever have a full belly of blood again? When would the thirst stop haunting my every waking moment?
“Hey!” Knight shouted once he’d set the food up at a picnic table. “I’m going to eat your sandwich if you don’t get out.”
I forced myself to open the door handle and step out of the car. I had to take this day by day. If I was constantly reminded that this was now my reality, I would break. Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths.
“Giving birth?” Knight asked me as I continued to breathe deeply on my way to the picnic table.
I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “I’m just… really fucking thirsty.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” I sat down opposite him and noticed he’d given me one of his extra sandwiches. That broke the damn, and I started sobbing. “No, hey, it’s okay. Don’t do that. Ehh, tears.” Something crinkled and I opened my watery eyes to see he’d given me one of his twinkies too. “No cry. I’m here to protect you, and that means blood too. We’ll figure something out.” Before I could respond, his nostrils flared, catching a scent I couldn’t smell yet. Or just couldn’t smell at all since I was weakened. He jumped up from his seat and started gathering up the food.
“What’s wrong?” I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“There’s a pack coming,” he said quickly and zipped up the lunch cooler once he’d put all the food in it. “We have to leave. Right now.” He stiffened again and made a growling noise in his throat. Now even I could hear a group of footsteps rapidly approaching, and in seconds, the park was flooded with a pack of about fifteen wolves, male and female. They were all dressed like bikers in leather and old jeans. I could smell…. was that blood? Animal blood, I corrected. No matter how weak I was, I could always smell fresh blood. Knight grabbed me from my seat and pushed me behind him in a protective maneuver. Normally, I would’ve been offended, but I was no match for all these wolves. I peeked through Knight’s arm to see them.
“Well, well, well,” one of the wolves said in a raspy voice. His tone carried power. The Alpha male. He had dozens of tattoos up and down his arms and looked like someone who kicked kittens for a living. “Looks like there’s a wolf without a pack. Ain’t that a rare sight?”
“We don’t want trouble,” Knight told him.
“I’m sure you don’t,” the Alpha said firmly. The wind changed and I could feel the pack’s collective emotion shift as they caught a whiff of my smell. The mask of Knight’s scent must not be fooling them. “Why are you with a vampire slut?” Well, that was offensive.
Growls tore from the wolves’ throats and their claws clinked together as they prepared to face the threat: me. They were ready to charge at us, I didn’t have to see it to know, when Knight pulled me in front of him and presented them with my arm. Specifically, the bracelet on my arm. It kept coming back to this tiny thing. The pack relaxed a little and the Alpha stared at me in absolute confusion.
“You have an Alpha’s protection?” he asked me skeptically. “Why the fuck would an Alpha want to shield a vampire?”
Knight patted my shoulder. “Now would be a perfect time to share that. Please do.” I could tell he’d been dying to ask but would’ve never dared to.
“I umm…” There were so many eyes staring at me. What if they judged me, even though I’d been kind to one of their pups, and ripped me to pieces right then and there? The protection of the bracelet seemed absolute, but they could just as easily treat it like a onetime pass and steal it from me. Then all bets would be off. I decided to take the risk and just tell them. “I… There was a Lycan pup that accidentally passed the Vampire border around my home.” Every single Lycan in front of me had a reaction to that statement. Mistrust. Anger. Some were simply pensive, waiting for me to finish. Even Knight’s hand tensed on my shoulder. “I might be a Vampire, and my hands have taken lives. But I don’t kill children. Not even pups.”
The Alpha was still regarding me, trying to figure me out. “You let him go. You spared him.”
“Yes.” There was no need to embellish what I’d done.
The Alpha stepped towards us and gestured to Knight. “Is it his bracelet?” I shook my head. Did it matter? “It’s an ancient tradition among us that the one who holds the bracelet of an Alpha is under his protection. No one really knows where it came from, but it’s generally understood that the Alpha who gifted the bracelet is who protects the one wearing it.” He looked up at Knight. “You’re an Alpha,” he stated, not even asking. “It’s not obvious at the first glance, but shit, there’s something off with you.” So I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed something off about Knight. While I’d never have guessed he was an Alpha, it wasn’t much of a stretch. Kind of made him more adorable.
Shut up, brain.
“She’s under my protection now, since her Alpha isn’t here,” Knight told him. Well. That explained why he’d let me tag along with him. Though, since I held the money, technically he was tagging along with me.
The Alpha’s mate walked up to stand beside him. “He’s an Alpha, Jesse?” She made a noise like she was having a hard time believing it, and then she got serious. “Ah. I can see it now. Where’s your bracelet, Alpha?”
“I don’t have one,” Knight responded.
Well fuck. Even I was shocked. From what I could tell about the bracelets, they were a symbol of status, showing everyone who could see that you and
your pack were strong enough to slay Vampires. The Alpha of this pack had at least thirty fangs on his bracelet whereas mine only had about ten. Talk about a virtual penis. Knight might not be in a pack, but he was almost twice as big as the Alpha in front of us. Of course, I’d never seen Knight wearing a fang bracelet, but I just assumed he kept it hidden since he didn’t have a pack to back up his claim of strength. I turned around and looked up at him, suddenly only thinking of one thing to ask him.
“Why not?”
He glanced down at me and said simply, “I’ve never killed a vampire.”
Oh.
“A Lycan that doesn’t kill Vampires and a Vampire that spares Lycans,” the Alpha, Jesse, said with a chuckle. “What a fucking pair.”
“I’m not sure he’s a Lycan,” the Alpha female said suddenly. She’d been studying Knight for several minutes, apparently noticing things that I hadn’t. Not a Lycan? Of course he was a Lycan! What else would he be? A hippo? “I’d call him a werewolf, but that would be impossible.”
The fuck?
“Aren’t they…you…the same thing?” I asked her. Apparently, it was the wrong question to ask because they both got offended.
“What the fuck, it is not the same thing! Werewolves turn with the full moon,” the Alpha female said with a haughty sniff. “They’re wild and uncontrollable when they shift.”
I felt Knight grow rigid as they talked. The Alpha female dismissed her observation as a random thought and dropped it, but she kept eyeing Knight with suspicion. We left the pack after they shared some barbecued deer with us and Jesse gave us his number with the promise they’d help us if we needed it. I suspected the offer was more for Knight than me.
When we were miles away, I opened my mouth to ask Knight about what the Alpha female had said, but he quickly turned the radio on full blast to drown me out. So, he was okay with protecting me, but not okay with me asking about how everyone kept mentioning that there was something weird about him. Whether or not he felt like sharing whatever he was hiding, if what the Alpha female said was true, he only had a few days until the next full moon. If I royally pissed him off and he didn’t shift, I’d have my answer.
Knight of the Hunted (NSFW Edition) (Born Vampire Book 1) Page 7
