BloodlustBundle

by Margaret Carter, Crystal Green, Erica Orloff, Patricia Rosemor

Twining her fingers together in her lap, Linnet fought to suppress the scream that tried to erupt from her. Minute by minute, the panic faded, until she became calm enough to reflect that it was too bad Jodie hadn’t kept a compass in her bedroom. Summer camp had taught Linnet survival techniques for the tame woods of central Maryland, but except for the unlikelihood of meeting Bigfoot, she knew almost nothing about the Pacific Northwest.

  The car headed east on a winding road through Carmel Valley. In other circumstances, Linnet would have enjoyed the glimpses of antique shops and ethnic restaurants, the deceptively rustic houses that probably cost far more than anything comparable in her own neighborhood, the occasional field dotted with grazing horses, and the view of the hills in the distance. Now she could only wonder what Nola’s constant scanning of the road on either side was in search of.

  About half an hour from the coast, Nola turned into a private lane marked by a real estate agent’s faded For Sale sign. Another few minutes of driving brought them to a rambling two-story house with redwood siding, camouflaged by a cluster of pine trees. A detached garage, apparently a converted barn, stood near the house.

  “This looks promising. Get out.”

  Linnet obeyed, snatching up her things, remembering to tuck the water into the carry-on bag. Immediately seizing her hand, Nola dragged her across the overgrown front yard to the porch. The steps were littered with petals that had blown off the flowering shrubs on either side. Dust coated the windows.

  “Good, this should do,” Nola muttered. She led Linnet to the garage. “We’re spending the day here.”

  Rather than struggle with the main entrance, she circled around to the side and forced open the small door. Linnet began to feel like a puppy on a leash. Her fear had shriveled from sheer fatigue, now that the vampire obviously didn’t plan to slaughter her on the spot.

  Inside, she blinked in the dim light and sneezed at the dust. Taking off her sunglasses, Nola steered Linnet to a ladder that led to a loft covering half the upper part of the interior. “Perfect. Climb up.”

  “What?”

  Nola gave her a brisk shake. “You heard me. We’re resting up there.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Move.” The sharp edge in Nola’s voice rekindled Linnet’s fear.

  She clambered up the ladder with the purse and tote bag thumping against her sides. Nola followed. “Yes, this will do nicely.” The loft had a sturdy-looking floor of unfinished planks. A window at one end let in daylight, but the other end lay in deep shadow. Aside from a stale, dusty scent, the place seemed clean.

  To Linnet’s surprise, Nola leaped down to the main floor. As Linnet peered over the edge, Nola removed the ladder and laid it on the concrete. She then unlatched and opened the large front door. While Linnet watched, she drove the car inside and closed the door. With her eyes adjusting to the dimness, Linnet could see Nola taking an armful of cloth from the car trunk. Nola sprang up toward the loft.

  No, Linnet thought, almost forgetting to breathe. She levitated.

  Backpedaling from the edge, Linnet watched Nola unfold the bundle, which turned out to be a pair of blankets. “Here.” She tossed one across the floor. “Close your mouth before flies get in. You seem to think I’m out to torture you. Unlike some of my kind, I don’t think pain makes blood taste better.” She jumped down again. Linnet heard her banging around below. A minute later, she reappeared, carrying a bucket.

  “What’s that for?”

  Nola set the bucket down in a corner. “I don’t see a bathroom up here, do you?”

  Linnet’s cheeks burned at the thought of such a makeshift chamber pot.

  After spreading one of the blankets in the shadows farthest from the window, Nola lay down on it. “I have to get some sleep. Rest over there and don’t bother me.” Apparently confident that Linnet didn’t have any weapon capable of hurting her, she closed her eyes at once.

  Since she had no intention of sleeping, and the thin blanket wouldn’t make much of a mattress anyway, Linnet folded hers into a pad to sit on. Hunkered down next to the grimy window, she thumbed through one of Jodie’s magazines. One gushing celebrity interview later, she tiptoed across the boards to check on Nola. The vampire slept literally like the dead, with no visible rise and fall of breathing.

  Linnet reflected that this would be an ideal time for escape, if any escape route were available. The floor of the garage was a good ten feet below, maybe more. She imagined jumping and breaking an arm or leg, lying on the concrete slab in agony until Nola woke at twilight. Crawling back to her spot, Linnet leafed through the magazine again.

  A few hours later she could have passed an exam on platinum-selling heavy-metal bands. Her head ached from the stuffy atmosphere. A fly buzzing in the rafters had found her and kept landing on her sweaty arms. Though she sipped sparingly from the water bottle, eventually she had to resort to the bucket. Not that she worried about modesty, with her captor in suspended animation.

  Hunched against the rough wall, she caught herself dozing off. The first couple of times her head sagged, she resisted. Finally she decided staying alert was pointless, given the vampire’s strength and speed. She let herself drift into oblivion.

  The sound of a car engine snapped her out of the stupor. At the same instant, she thought she heard someone call her name.

  “Who…?” she whispered. I must have dreamed that.

  Linnet!

  She scrambled to her feet, stifling a yelp of surprise.

  Stay calm, Linnet. Be very quiet. I’ll need your help.

  Max?

  Chapter 14

  Aching all over, Linnet eased onto her feet. She stretched, wincing at the stiffness in her neck. Max, where are you? Her heart raced.

  Outside. Show me your surroundings and Nola’s position.

  How?

  Let me see through your eyes.

  Bracing herself as if opening her mouth for a dentist’s drill, she opened her mind to him. Rather than a rough intrusion, his entry felt as smooth as a hand slipping into a glove. For a second she was tempted to relax into his mental embrace. Resisting the impulse, she scanned the loft. The sun must have just set, for the sky visible through the window had faded to gray. Nola’s inert body looked like a vague lump in the far corner.

  Very well, came Max’s silent voice. Get as far away as you can from her and from the window. And cover your head. Quickly, before she wakes. He withdrew, leaving Linnet alone in her skull again.

  She retreated to the edge of the loft, crouched on her knees and wrapped the blanket around her head. The crash of shattering glass assaulted her ears. She stared at the window, now a jagged hole with shards of glass scattered below it. A streak of darkness shot across the loft.

  With a lupine howl, Nola sprang up. Max, his wings furled, collided with her and knocked her down. Her nails ripped his bare shoulders. The wings melted into his back, but the fangs and fur remained. Dark fur spread over Nola’s face and hands. The air around her blurred, and her nails elongated to talons like his. Her teeth grew sharp.

  Her head pounding, Linnet watched them grapple on the bare wood. They clawed at each other like a pair of tigers. Almost at the edge, Nola flung Max off her and rolled away from him. He dived at her and knocked her down again. In the heat of combat, the fur vanished from both of them. They still had the fangs and claws of beasts, and each one growled when a talon drew blood.

  Red streaks scored their arms and Max’s chest. Over and over he pinned the other vampire to the floor, but she slithered free every time.

  Wedged in a corner, Linnet watched with her hands pressed to her mouth. Nola’s as strong as he is! She had a recent bullet wound, but so did he, and his was more serious. Though both their chests were heaving with labored breathing, Max’s breath sounded harsher. Now he fought more like a bear than a cat. He lumbered rather than pounced, and half his blows swung wild. Nola tripped him, and this time she landed on top. Her hands encircled his neck, the nails gouging his
skin.

  While Linnet wasn’t sure one vampire could kill another with bare hands, she didn’t want to bet his life on her guess. With neither of them paying attention to her, she sidled toward her bag. The hair spray rested on top of the clothes. Linnet grabbed the can, pulled off its lid and edged toward the combatants with a finger on the nozzle.

  She crouched beside the snarling pair. Her own pulse thundered in her ears. She raised the can to eye level. “Nola!”

  The she-vampire whirled toward her with a growl. Linnet sprayed her full in the face. Leaping up, Nola pawed at her eyes. Linnet rolled out of the way.

  Max felled Nola with a blow to the temple and knelt on her chest. He squeezed her head between his hands and wrenched her neck halfway around. Hearing the crack of bone, Linnet screamed.

  Max lifted Nola’s body and threw it to the floor below. He turned on Linnet, who dropped the spray can and backed toward the window. A growl rumbled in his chest, gradually subsiding to drawn-out, rasping breaths. The fangs and claws receded into humanlike teeth and nails. Blood stopped oozing from the scratches on his chest and arms. He took a step toward her.

  She backed farther, her hands splayed on the wall behind her.

  “Linnet?” His voice sounded human, though hoarse.

  “You killed her,” she whispered.

  “No, she’s comatose, not dead.”

  “You broke her neck.”

  “Yes.” He glided closer. When she flinched, a shadow crossed his face. Sensing the tentative brush of his mind against the edge of hers, she thrust it away. “Listen to me, Linnet. She isn’t dead. I haven’t broken the law against kin slaying. She’ll need weeks, possibly months, but she will heal and revive, unless I take precautions. Do you want her to revive?”

  Linnet shook her head. In a mouselike voice that hardly sounded like her own, she said, “What precautions?”

  “Confine her in a small, enclosed space.”

  “Like a coffin.”

  “Not having a coffin in reserve, I have another idea.” He reached her side, and she didn’t cringe from him. “First, let me take you down from here.”

  “Okay.” Without stopping to think, she put her arms around his neck when he picked her up. The strength of his embrace gave her a treacherous feeling of comfort.

  Holding her, he floated to the ground floor of the garage. He set her on her feet and glowered at her. “What possessed you to attack her on your own? We had an agreement. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

  “Wait for dark, when she’d have her full strength? While you were still recovering?” Linnet didn’t think telling Max she’d sensed his buried scruples about killing another vampire would improve his mood.

  “You could have consulted me, explained your reasons.”

  “Yeah, and I’m sure you would have listened and been perfectly reasonable about the whole thing.”

  “You objected to my keeping secrets from you. Then you did the same and put your own life in danger.”

  Since she was keeping her thoughts firmly sealed against his, she couldn’t tell what emotion lurked behind those words. “Why do you care whether I’m in danger? You got what you wanted. You defeated Nola.”

  He ran his fingers through his already mussed hair in a nearly human gesture. “If that’s what you want to believe. Now, I have things to take care of. Will you be all right for a minute?”

  “Sure, why not? I see vampires fight to the death all the time.”

  Ignoring the remark, he guided her to the side of the room, then leaped back up into the loft. When he reappeared, he held Nola’s purse, with a handkerchief shielding the leather from direct touch. Linnet was baffled until he extracted car keys from the purse. Unlocking the huge trunk of Nola’s sedan, he moved two suitcases and an overnight bag into the back seat. He heaved the woman’s body into the trunk and closed the lid. “There. I suspected this vintage monstrosity she drove would have ample room.”

  Linnet noticed how carefully he kept the handkerchief between his skin and Nola’s belongings. “You’re worried about fingerprints?”

  “As far as I know, mine aren’t on file, but why take chances?” He rifled through Nola’s wallet to remove the driver’s license and other cards, tucking them in his back pocket. He hid the purse under one of the seats. “Wait here.” He opened the garage door, settled behind the wheel of the car and backed out.

  Her strength flowing away like water down a drain, Linnet slid to the concrete floor. Braced against the wall, she sat on the concrete with her eyes shut and knees drawn up to her chest. She tried to shape a prayer of thanks but doubted whether the attack of a berserk vampire counted as divine intervention. Her head ached along with assorted bruises.

  She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Max’s footsteps jolted her out of a mental fog. When she opened her eyes, he was leaping down from the loft once more, carrying her purse and airline bag. She pulled herself upright, ignoring the hand he offered. “What did you do with the car?”

  “Hid it in the woods and obliterated the tire tracks.”

  “But somebody’s still bound to find it soon. And her.”

  “Not if I buy the property.” He went outside, and she followed, waiting while he lowered the garage door. “The rental car is farther down the driveway. Can you walk that far?”

  “Sure.” She didn’t want him to carry her again. She didn’t trust her own reaction to that closeness.

  His eyes traveled over her. “Nola fed on you. Damn, I wish I’d done worse than break her neck.”

  “I’ll be all right.” Her legs wobbled, and her throat felt raw with thirst, but those effects would wear off. “She had you figured. She suspected you’d have a change of heart about following her.”

  “What change?” He headed down the lane, with Linnet hurrying to keep up. “I never intended to let that woman escape unpunished, much less leave you in her power.”

  “You could’ve fooled me. Oh, wait, you did.” Anger welled up afresh, making her head throb and her hands curl into fists. “I was a convenience you didn’t need anymore.”

  “That was for Nola’s benefit. Did you expect some kind of signal? I couldn’t give her any clue to my real intention.”

  “You could have sent me a telepathic message, right? You wouldn’t let me read your mind. You shut me out.”

  He halted and turned to her, clasping her hand before she could evade him. “Don’t you understand that I had to? Nola could read your emotions. If you hadn’t believed in my rejection, she wouldn’t have, either.”

  “I see your point.” His fingers encircling hers sent shivers up her arm. She pulled free, and he didn’t try to stop her. “But understanding that doesn’t change how I feel. You could’ve at least contacted me right after you left, when Nola wasn’t around to sense the link.”

  His expression went blank for a second. “The truth is, I didn’t think of it.”

  “Which you would have, if I’d been important enough to you.”

  “Damn it, Linnet, I was too busy thinking about saving your life!”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I had to make her believe you weren’t important to me. I wanted her to let you go, leaving me free to attack her without putting you in danger. I never expected her to keep you as a hostage anyway.”

  “She decided to abandon me in the Canadian woods like an unwanted puppy. That way it wouldn’t be her fault if I happened to die.”

  Max growled a curse. “Fine, if she stays undead until her car crumbles into a heap of rust, that won’t be your fault or mine.” They reached the rental car and got in.

  “You said she could recover eventually.”

  “Not without oxygen or blood.”

  “So she’s as good as dead, but you didn’t kill her.” Linnet belted herself into the front passenger seat.

  “Exactly. It’s in the hands of fate. Nor did I let you kill her. If you’d managed to pull that off, the deed would have given you lifelong nightmares.”
>
  “How do you know?”

  “I know how your people in this time and place feel about violent death. I know how you feel. I touched your mind, remember.”

  “Invaded it!”

  He let go of the steering wheel and put one hand on her shoulder. “You shared in that merging. You enjoyed it as much as I did.”

  “How can I be sure of that?” She shrugged off his touch. “Maybe I was just feeling your emotions all along.”

  “Open your thoughts to me and I’ll prove that isn’t so.” She felt him leaning on the door of her mind, whispering through the keyhole.

  “No.” She clutched the ankh, not because she believed it could shield her against him if he made a determined assault, but to strengthen her resolution to lock him out. “There’s no way you can prove you aren’t trying to control me.”

  With his jaws clenched as if fighting the temptation to batter her with arguments, he started the car and turned it toward the road.

  When they passed the For Sale sign, now barely visible in the gathering dark, Linnet remembered his earlier remark. “You’re actually going to buy the house?”

  “And the land around it, which covers five acres, according to that notice. Judging from the condition of the sign and the building, the listing agency will be more than glad to get the place off its hands.”

  “But won’t they still do inspections and all that?”

  “Most of those procedures are required only for a mortgage loan. I’ll pay in full by cashier’s check. A walk-through tomorrow for appearances’ sake, and closing as soon as I can get the funds from my bank.”

  Linnet could only gape at him in astonishment. “Big spender,” she murmured.

  “I’ll tell the agent I want it as a summer home. Eccentricity and wealth aren’t uncommon in this area. I won’t attract any particular notice. As soon as the property is mine, I’ll lock Nola’s car in the garage and forget about it.”

  The revelation that he could drop six figures on a house just to keep Nola’s “undead” body hidden struck Linnet with the depth of the difference between Max and herself. That level of wealth seemed almost as alien to her as vampirism. Though the terror of watching him fight like a wild beast had faded, the gulf between them felt wider than ever.