Marked by the Vampire

by Cynthia Eden

  She’d seen Shane. He’d been in her mind all night long.

  He mentioned Pate…Shane knows that Pate sent me in to Purgatory.

  “I’m not your escort, doctor. I’m here to make sure you stay in the room you were assigned to.”

  Wait, what? Olivia shook her head. “I’m not a prisoner here.”

  He just stared back at her.

  “The federal government sent me in here!” The freaking FBI! “I’m supposed to be interviewing the inmates!” She hurried forward.

  He blocked her path. “I’m sorry ma’am, but Warden Killian sent me here. You aren’t to get past me. You’re to stay in your quarters until the ferry comes back on Friday.”

  That was days away. “You are kidding me.”

  “He said your assignment at Purgatory is over.” Sympathy flashed on his face, but his tone didn’t soften. “So until the boat can come back for you, I’m afraid you don’t get to leave this area.”

  The hell that would happen. Fury pounded through her body. “Get your warden on the radio. Now. I have connections that man can’t even dream about.” Such a giant lie. She had one connection, but she would sure use it. “How does he think I got here in the first place? And if I do not get to continue my job, Warden Killian and you are both going to find your asses facing questions from the FBI.”

  The guard swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously. He hesitated a moment longer.

  “Get that radio!”

  He snatched up his radio.

  Olivia’s wound throbbed. Something is wrong here. Very, very wrong at Purgatory. Every instinct she had was screaming at her, and Olivia only knew one thing with certainty.

  She had to see Shane, immediately.

  “I wish you’d get out of my way,” she snarled at the guard. “Just—move.”

  His face went slack with shock, and, surprisingly, he did.

  She took that opportunity, and Olivia ran past the guard as fast as she could. I won’t be locked up like the prisoners.

  Because she wasn’t one of them.

  ***

  Shane’s head whipped up. His heart drummed even faster in his chest. He could hear the sound of frantic footsteps coming his way. He inhaled, catching the scents around him—

  Just as the footsteps turned and started running in the opposite direction.

  “Olivia.” Her name escaped from him as a growl. He grabbed for the cell door, and he yanked the thing right off its hinges.

  The vamps in the cells around him began to yell.

  “Get me out, man!”

  “Break my fucking door!”

  “He’s out, he’s out!”

  He ran past them, following the sounds of those fleeing footsteps. The steps weren’t heading toward the vamp wing any longer. They were rushing toward the part of the facility that housed the werewolves.

  He sped faster after her—and it was Olivia he was pursuing. He’d taken her blood, and now…hell, now he could track her any place. Any time.

  She’d never escape him.

  He rounded the corner and saw her just before she could disappear into a long corridor.

  Shane snagged her wrist, and his fingers slid over the white bandage that covered her wound. She spun around, her hands tight, little fists, and one of those fists drove straight into his jaw.

  Work on that hook, doc. Work on it.

  “It’s me,” he whispered. Video cameras had to be watching, and he had pretty much screwed his cover to hell and back, but maybe he could still make this work…maybe…if he played things just right.

  He pinned her against the nearest wall. Caged her with his body.

  “What are you doing?” Olivia demanded, her voice high and sharp.

  His body pressed to hers. Desire surged through him when he felt her curves against him. And when she twisted, rubbing her soft body against him…a groan broke from Shane’s lips.

  “I need your help!” Olivia said. “I need—”

  He kissed her. For two reasons. Reason one…because he had to stop her from talking before the woman shredded his cover by saying the wrong thing.

  Reason two…he fucking wanted her mouth.

  Her lips were open, and he liked that—oh, but it made things easier. His tongue slipped over the edge of her lips, slipped right inside her mouth, and she gasped.

  His body pressed ever closer to hers. Her hands were against the wall, held captive by his grip, and her mouth—she was kissing him back.

  The desire he felt surged ever stronger within him. Her mouth opened more for him, and her soft lips moved lightly against his own.

  He would have fucking kissed her forever…if he wasn’t sure they were about to be in some serious danger. So, hating it, Shane pulled his mouth from hers. But then he kissed her jaw. Her stubborn and damn adorable jaw, and then, with his mouth close to the shell of her ear, he whispered, “Surveillance—audio and video. Watch what you say.”

  He could hear the thunder of her heartbeat.

  “Dragon…” He barely breathed that word, but he knew she needed the reassurance it would give her. He’d tried to clue her in yesterday, but, this time, he needed her to fully know that she could count on him.

  Her body trembled against his. “I knew…last night…”

  He licked her ear. Just for the hell of it. The ear was there, he liked the delicate shell, so he licked it—and she trembled again.

  His cock stiffened even more. And her pulse was so close. Racing. If he just bent down and kissed her neck that frantic pulse beat would be beneath his mouth.

  “Something is wrong here…my…my silver remote didn’t work yesterday. And it took the guards too long…to help me.”

  He pulled back, just a bit, to study her. In the distance, he could hear the sound of metal doors clanging. Security was coming. But they’d been too slow about it. The guards must have seen them on the video camera, and they’d just left Olivia alone in the hallway with a monster.

  “I think they wanted me vulnerable. And—and Case is trying to keep me locked up.” Fear flashed in her eyes. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t understand—”

  “Why the hell do you keep going after her?”

  Shane had known the warden was leading the march toward him. Instead of answering the warden, he leaned down and pressed a hard, hot kiss to Olivia’s lips.

  The guards grabbed him and hauled Shane back. He broke free of them, and squared off against the warden. “Why? Because I fucking like the way she tastes.” And he still hadn’t recognized her taste. He’d never encountered it before.

  She’s half human. Has to be. She smells like a human.

  What was her other half?

  Case’s eyes blazed with fury. “Tranq him until he can’t move.”

  “No!” Olivia cried out as she leapt in front of Shane. “Don’t do that, he’s—”

  Shane caught her shoulders and yanked her around to face him. He made sure his fangs were out as he drove his head toward her throat.

  The tranqs hit him. Thuds in his back. His sides. He lost count of how many hit him.

  He could feel the drug coursing through his blood.

  “Don’t…tell…” he managed to whisper. He hadn’t been going to bite her. Not there. Not with her fear in the air around them. When he bit her, she’d ask for his bite. Beg for it. His attack had been faked so that he could get close enough to whisper to her.

  His knees hit the floor, and his hands locked around her hips as he stared up at Olivia’s face.

  Don’t tell.

  She gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  And more fucking tranqs hit him.

  “Drain him,” he heard Case order as Shane’s eyelids sagged closed. “Let’s see how strong he is once most of his blood is gone…”

  Idiot. Shane would still be strong. Just as strong and damn hungry.

  ***

  “Sooner or later, the Paras here learn that we’re stronger than they are.” Case’s voice was smoo
th. Calm.

  But he was pacing around his narrow office, and his pacing was sure the sign of a nervous man.

  Olivia watched him from her seat. “You drain vampires… regularly?” That was torture to her mind.

  He whirled toward her. “What the hell else do you want me to do? I use sunlight on them when I can, and that keeps most of them weak, but then we get the alphas in here. Alphas like your friend, Shane, and when they’re ripping the freaking doors off the cells, we have to use any means that we can in order to control them.” His breath heaved out. “So don’t sit there and judge what we do. My men do the best they can, in a situation that no man should ever be facing.”

  Her stomach knotted. “You think this prison is failing.”

  He gave a bitter laugh. “I know its failing. Hell, I was sent down here to clean up the mess that the last warden made, but there’s no cleaning up some things.” Case had stopped pacing. His grim stare leveled at her. “This place was a mistake. They’re too powerful to be kept here. Most of the time, I feel like we’re the prisoners, not them.”

  “If they shouldn’t be locked up,” Olivia began carefully, “then they should be—”

  “Dead. It’s the only way to keep humans safe.”

  She leapt to her feet. “That’s not true. We can learn why they’ve killed. Why they’ve hunted—”

  “It’s because they don’t have souls! They’re monsters!” He shook his head in disgust. “After what happened to you, hell, lady, you should know that.”

  She tried to calm her racing heartbeat. “Harold Bath.”

  “Who the hell is that?”

  “A banker from Maine.”

  “What?”

  “One day, Harold came home from work. He shot his wife. His neighbor. Went on a rampage and hurt ten people before the cops arrested him.” She could see Harold in her mind. His slightly balding hair, his stooped shoulders. His flat voice as he said he’d just gotten tired of hearing his wife talk. “Most people would say he was a monster, but he was just a human. Twisted, but human.”

  Case stepped toward her.

  “Lindsey Jones.” Another image flashed before her. A pretty red-head with wide-set, blue eyes. “Female serial killers are rare, but Lindsey killed five men last summer along the Florida coast line and she was—”

  “Let me guess,” he interrupted, voice tight, “human.”

  Olivia nodded. “Monsters are everywhere. We have to learn why they kill, why they break, if we truly want to protect the innocents out there.” He had no idea how personal this was for her. Why? Why? That single question had haunted Olivia for most of her life. What made some people crack—what pushed them over the line and turned them into killers?

  And will I be like that one day?

  She slammed the door shut on that thought immediately. The way she always did.

  “Maybe they’re just psychotic, did you think of that, doctor?”

  “Sometimes, they are.” But the cases were often about more than just a chemical imbalance or some brain defect. They were about so much more. “My job is to find out why. I’m here because I want to save lives.”

  “Even if you lose your own in the process?”

  “I don’t want to die.” She’d never had a death wish.

  His laughter was rough, a bit cruel. “Do you even realize how close you came to death yesterday?”

  “It’s not the first time a test subject has tried to hurt me.”

  Shock widened his eyes.

  “I know the risks of my job. I can handle them.” She kept her voice calm with an extreme effort of will.

  “You have an alpha vampire who wants nothing more than to sink his teeth into your neck and a werewolf who nearly killed you.” Case put his hands on his hips. “You actually think you can ‘handle’ them? Because I sure as shit don’t believe you can. I don’t believe—”

  A shrill alarm cut through his words.

  “No,” Case whispered. He whirled for the door. “No!”

  The alarm grew even louder.

  “What’s happening?” Olivia asked as fear pumped through her.

  He yanked open the door. A guard stood there. “Sir, the prisoners—”

  “Someone’s trying to escape from the facility. We need to get this place locked down, now,” Case snapped back to the younger man. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Get her back to her quarters. Go via the south side of the facility—”

  The guard’s blue eyes widened. “That’s where the werewolves are.”

  “I damn well know where they are.” Case grabbed a weapon from the cabinet near the door. “Right now, we need to keep her away from a certain vampire, so that’s the safest course. Get her back to her quarters, now.”

  The alarm was still shrieking.

  Then Case was gone.

  ***

  She could hear the growls. The corridor was dark, too dark, and it felt as if she were walking right into a cave. The growls echoed all around her. The alarm had finally stopped, and maybe that should have made Olivia feel better. It didn’t.

  “Why did you want to talk to the monsters?” The guard asked, glancing back at her. Evan. He’d told her that his name was Evan Jurant.

  “It’s my job.”

  He grunted, then turned back around. He pulled out a keycard and unlocked a door with thick, steel bars. He opened that door, swinging it so that it opened back toward them. He raised his hand, indicating she should go through first, but she hesitated.

  Evan frowned. “Doctor?”

  “This route will take me to my quarters?”

  “Of course.” He eased back, making even more room for her to go first.

  She pushed back her shoulders and advanced. I need to find Shane. She’d taken about four steps when she heard the door shut behind her. The sound was overly loud. Strangely final.

  “You’ll have plenty of time to talk with the monsters now.”

  Olivia spun around. Evan hadn’t followed her—he’d closed that door and he was locking it again. “No!” Olivia grabbed for the bars, but it was too late.

  Evan looked as if he were barely twenty years old, but his brown eyes were so cold as they stared at her. “You’re not gonna get out, doctor. They’re gonna want to keep you.”

  The growls had died away. Goosebumps rose on her arms. She could almost…almost feel others closing in on her, but Olivia was afraid to look over her shoulder. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I was paid, very well, for you.” He took a few more steps away from the bars. “You’re in the maximum security area, Dr. Maddox. Locked in with the most dangerous werewolves. I hope you enjoy your talks with them.”

  Then he turned. Started walking away.

  “No!” She screamed after him as Olivia jerked on the bars. “You can’t do this! The cameras—”

  “Have all been turned off.” He paused. Glanced back at her. The corridor was so dark around him that she could barely see his face. “An escape is in progress. The Paras have sabotaged some of our equipment, and by the time all of our machines are back online, well…it won’t matter for you.”

  Footsteps rustled behind her.

  “Don’t do this,” Olivia whispered. “Please.”

  His voice was hard as Evan said, “It’s survival of the fittest here…sorry.”

  Survival of the fittest.

  Behind, those footsteps drew closer. And even before she turned to face those stalking her, Olivia knew who would be leading the pack.

  “Hello, again, Dr. Maddox…”

  David’s voice wrapped around her as a hand curled around her shoulder. She looked down and saw his claws.

  Then she did the only thing she could. Olivia screamed, “Dragon!”

  Because Pate had told her…If hell breaks loose, look for a dragon. He might be able get your ass to safety.

  Hell had broken loose. And if help didn’t come, her ass would be dead.

  ***

  Shane’s eyelids flew open.
He was on a table—an operating room table, and some bastard in green scrubs was holding a bloody knife above him.

  “He’s awake!” The words were a desperate gasp from behind the bastard’s facemask. “Dose him again, dose him—”

  Shane grabbed the knife. Broke the fool’s wrist. Took the weapon and hurled it at the other idiot who was trying to come toward him with a tranq.

  The knife sank into the man’s arm and he fell, screaming.

  Humans…always so weak.

  Just as I’m…weak…

  Shane glanced down and saw the blood that soaked him. There were long slashes on his chest. His arms. Fury pumped through him. “What. The. Fuck?”

  “I-I was just following orders,” his soon-to-be-snack stuttered. “Just—”

  Shane sank his teeth into the man’s throat. Blood poured onto his tongue and some much needed power pulsed within Shane.

  “Dragon!”

  The cry reached him, so very faint, and he yanked his mouth away from his prey. Olivia?

  He strained, but heard no more screams.

  His prey whimpered within Shane’s grasp. “Give me weapons,” Shane growled at him. “Give me your access codes…”

  The man stared at him, his eyes widening as the fellow seemed to go slack within Shane’s grasp.

  I have his blood. I can control him. He’d been controlling humans for centuries. “Give me everything I need,” Shane commanded.

  His prey nodded.

  ***

  David laughed. “Dragons? You won’t find them here, pet, just wolves and bloodsuckers.”

  Olivia could see at least six other men behind him, all crowding in on her. All wearing collars that should have controlled them, but their claws were out and their teeth had lengthened and seriously sharpened.

  “I thought they were putting you in solitary,” Olivia whispered to David.

  He smiled at her, and the sight made her stomach knot. “You also thought they were keeping you safe.” He leaned toward her. David trailed a claw down her cheek. “Are you tired of being wrong yet?”

  She nodded. “I really am.”