by Eros, Marata
“Your body speaks for what you want. It speaks for what you are.”
“Oh?” I arched my eyebrow. “What is it that I am?”
“It is what is in your blood, you are of Druid blood. They are the only humans that may breed with us.”
Druid? What the hell was that?
Okay, next question:
“What are you?”
They looked at each other. “We are Vampire, witch,” Cole said as if that should have been obvious.
Witch? Had the conversation divolved to name-calling at two a.m.?
“Do you know of your people?”
I couldn't believe I was standing out here in twenty degree weather talking to a couple of guys claiming to be vampires. I felt incredibly stupid to have kissed the one... Cole.
“Ah, no. I'm adopted. Okay, while all this is interesting, it's time to go.”
I turned to Michelle, who had a spot of drool coming out of her mouth. God, what did they do to her? I walked over to her, grabbing a limp arm and started dragging her to my car.
Suddenly, they stood in front of me.
“Would you stop doing that!” I said, fear choking me.
A smile spread over Cole's face. “Doing what?” His fangs were smaller now that he wasn't trying to french me.
Sirens began in the distance and we all looked in their direction.
“The human police,” Nathan said.
“Yes.”
“Another time, breeder,” Cole said. He licked his finger and touched it on my forehead. “I mark you for another time, very soon.”
They disappeared into thin air and I was left with Michelle, the approaching cops, and a pulsing core that wept for the vampire that was now gone.
CHAPTER 4
My eyes felt like they had crushed glass in them but I wasn't going to bed any time soon. These assholes had made me repeat the same answers to the same shit about two hundred times. I was getting pissed. Poor Michelle was curled up, sleeping on the couch, a rape kit finished and being processed.
“Okay, Miss Collins, I want to ask you one more time,” the detective ran slim hands through his hair, making it whack out in all different directions. Its honey-colored goodness would have been fun to look at had I not been at the Anchorage Police Station at going on four-oh-hell in the morning.
“You claim your friend,” and he threw a look at Michelle, who was a small mound under the gunmetal gray blanket they'd thrown over her on the lumpy precinct couch, “was attacked.” He looked down at his notepad, scrolling down with his finger until he found the detail he was looking for, “...by two men, claiming to be vampires. That, inadvertently,” he made airquotes here, “saved you from the attackers.”
I wanted to punch him in the snout, he was just that condescending.
I was so done here. “Listen... Detective...”
“Jewel, Christopher Jewel.”
Fine. “Anyway, my friend just got a fun rape kit done, and you have three bodies without any blood... right?”
He tapped his pen on his notepad. “Actually, we have evidence that suggests there was an incident at that location, but there has not been any bodies recovered.”
Wow... the vampires had done away with the evidence. My heart sped thinking about how fast they'd had to been to go back to the scene and get rid of three men before the police got there.
“And the vampire story...” he looked at me like, you really expect me to believe this?
“That's what they told me,” I replied.
“That is a myth, there are no such thing as vampires. However, I know from the minute that you came in here I have not been able to get touching you out of my mind.” His eyes stared into mine and I got up so quickly from the chair it fell over with an echoing clatter of metal against tiled linoleum.
He walked over to me as if he was in a fugue. “You smell,” and he leaned in as I leaned away, “very good.”
Okay, now things were getting weird. Mr. Professional Cop was coming on to me in the middle of the police station when he should be getting my statement.
“It says here that, 'he was kissing me, then heard the police sirens and he and the other vampire left',” he resumed his questioning.
I nodded. Maybe he'd get off all the personal weirdness then. I covertly looked around in the hopes of spotting another cop. There was only Michelle on the couch and a lone secretary waaayyyy down the hall.
Shit.
As if on cue, he walked over to Michelle. “She smells fuckable too,” he said and with that, he whipped off the cover and spread her legs.
She stirred in her sleep when I yelled, “Hey!” This couldn't be happening. Where was everyone? What-the-hell?
What the blue fuck was wrong with him?
But he'd already put a finger inside her, and started pumping it back and forth. “Yeah, she's still really lubed up from all that cum that got dumped in there.”
I ran over there and shoved him and he turned, my friend's crotch spread to the world. He backhanded me and I spilled on the floor as he all but ran over to the door, closing it and locking it in place. My face stung unmercifully having just been hit in the same spot a couple of hours before.
It felt like days.
Where the hell were all the other cops?
I tried to scramble to my feet but he tackled me, tearing at my skirt and ripping down my panties. I responded with a knee to the crotch, my jaw on fire.
As if from a distance, I heard a crash and glass shattered behind me, falling like crystal rain all around us, my arms shielding my face.
I didn't open my eyes as Detective Jewel was torn off me. I became aware of the fact that there wasn't any more noise and cold air was rushing in and... I had no clothes on.
I closed my legs all the way and threw my hands down to cover the apex of my thighs.
I opened my eyes and there were Nathan and Cole, the vampires were back.
“Has she been... violated?” Nathan asked.
Cole bent down, putting his nose right above my crotch and I flinched, he laughed. He shook his head. “No, there is no human taint upon her.”
He jerked his head in the direction of the secretary and said, “Take care of the human female and all that you encounter in the interim.”
Nathan nodded and sped down the hall, a blur of gray, the black softened by the motion of his body.
Cole swung his gaze back to me. “Are you alright?”
I nodded stiffly, his voice was like velvet gravel and I became aroused again. I was instantly furious with myself. I had just about been raped by a police officer for shit's sake and here I was: ready-to-hump a stranger that wasn't even human. I started shaking from shock and cold.
Perfect.
“I'm fine,” I said, getting up unsteadily and searching for my skirt without a shred of dignity. Difficult to have any when you were wearing a top, thigh-highs and nothing else.
Cole-the-vampire held out my skirt, which dangled from a finger but the panties were beyond repair. I grabbed it and threw it on, hopping twice to get it zipped up. As I'd been getting the skirt on Cole stared at my body, his eyes missing nothing. I was still flushed by the scrutiny and feeling vulnerable. There was no place that was safe. The police station was not safe, obviously, and the dangerous vampires were back. Their motivations were suspect.
Nathan burst back into the grim interrogation room and nodded at Cole. “It is done.”
Cole looked at me. “Time to go.”
“No,” I said, backing away.
“It is not safe for you here. The human males smell us on you... on her.” He gave a dismissive glance at Michelle. “They will try to take you by force.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Nathan shrugged. “They are little more than the basest animals. They smell vampire pheromone and it causes a territorial urge that they can't intellectualize away.”
“They wish to mate with any female that comes into close contact with one of our kin
d. It is primal. They think if they can impregnate you, then we obviously... cannot.”
Made a warped kind of sense. I had a sudden thought. “But Michelle isn't a 'breeder'.”
Cole smiled, turning to Nathan. “I told you the Druids were superior. It is more than just bloodline. It is many things.”
Nathan grunted. He didn't sound convinced.
They looked at me and I stared back. Finally, I shook my head. “I'm sorry, I don't know you and you're obviously dangerous... I have a life here,” I said by way of explanation.
“We know of your life, Witch,” Cole said.
“It's Rachel.”
“Rachel,” his voice caressed each syllable and I was so into that sound, like spoken velvet caressing things down low in my body. I had to shake my head to get rid of the urge to undress right there.
Nathan laughed. “She is ready for you, Cole.”
“Yes.”
That was so unflattering. What? Could they smell my arousal?
Nathan nodded, interpreting my expression. “We know when you are ripe, female. We must. How many breeders are in existence for us?”
“Too few,” Cole responded.
Jewel was coming to his senses. He swung his head from side to side, trying to clear it. He got up from all fours and started to come for me and Cole turned to him. “Not her,” baring his fangs with a hiss.
Jewel looked bewildered but only for a moment, then his gaze fixed on Michelle and he walked toward her.
“No!” I yelled. “He can't rape her!”
But Cole and Nathan shook their heads, holding me back from saving my friend.
“We need him to be distracted from taking you. He will not remember. He will fuck the human female and they will be caught up in dealing with him and... her.”
I watched in muted horror as Jewell dropped his pants, inserted a finger inside her and with a satisfied nod, he pushed his shaft in deeply, working it in and out, never even glancing our way. Michelle's eyes flew open and she started to holler and Nathan stalked over to her, looking deeply in her eyes he said, “You're coming.”
Michelle began to scream in a whole different way, her core grabbing onto Jewel's cock as he ground it into her. He sped his pace as we all watched, tears silently streaming down my face. My friend used a pawn on the chessboard of everyone else. As Jewell finished up, his balls slapping her ass, he groaned, “Ah, yeah...” and with several quick thrusts, he collapsed on top of her.
“I can't do this,” I said, backing away from everyone. I couldn't help Michelle as Jewel flipped her over on her stomach.
“What's he doing?” I nearly yelled.
“Her ass, I think,” Nathan said casually.
I ran then.
I ran down the hall, past people that stood in a stupor and didn't see me. I rushed outside in a ripped skirt, heels and a torn blouse moving swiftly to my right, heading straight for the first building I could see.
I could get help, I thought.
Suddenly, a large hand clamped on my shoulder and whirled me around.
It was Cole. “You will come with us.”
He put a bag over my head and Nathan tied my wrists together. A feeling of weightlessness overcame me, causing me to feel at once heavy and light. My vision receded to a small point of light. Then... even that went black and I knew no more.
CHAPTER 5
I cracked my eyelids open and looked around at where I was, disoriented and flushed, my first vision was of a stone ceiling.
Where was I?
Shit! Remembering the last twenty-four hours made my head ache. The memories came crashing down on me like rain on a tin roof.
I sat up slowly. My wrists were now unbound and the bag that had covered my head lay on top of a thick and solid wood bureau that sat underneath a leaded window, diamonds fracturing the light as it came through the glass.
I stood up on feet without heels, my skirt a tangled mess and walked over to the window. I looked through the molded panes. The warped glass offered a view of extensive grounds that rolled off into the distance, covered by a glittering white carpet of snow. Spruce trees danced in the wind at the perimeter of the compound.
Because that was what this was, I was sure, seeing the outline of a great stone wall that followed the forest border. I turned, taking in the surroundings of my room. Aside from the solitary window, there was a bed, the dresser and a large mirror. It was so large it took up a third of the wall. That was strange, I thought, approaching it.
I stood in front of the mirror, gazing at my reflection and noticed the crimson blouse was worse-for-wear, the black skirt ruined, the thigh-highs from Italy, torn. But it was my face that looked different; absolutely pale like alabaster. Purple smudges underneath my blue eyes like bruises, my lips a deep pink in a sea of pale flesh. I shuddered, looking down at where my watch usually was... it had vanished. My disquiet deepened, I didn't know what day it was, what time it was and my stomach ached from the need to eat.
I walked back over to the bed and sat down, dejected.
I guess I had more to worry about than losing my crummy cubicle job. Like, where the blue hell was I? Was I going to live? Was this the rest of my life... a life where I was a “breeder?” I didn't even know if I wanted children. I'd never dated anyone I could imagine that life with.
It sure wasn't a vampire. That whole concept didn't compute. And what about all that talk of being of Druid blood? Being a witch. I wasn't anything... really. My adopted family had been atheists and I'd just swung along in their non-religious ocean. I sighed.
Answers, I needed answers.
Just then, the thick wood door surged open and I leaped up, instantly finding the wall with the back of my hand.
It was Nathan, the vampire that had let Detective Jewel abuse Michelle. He looked different in this context: the context of me being alone in a bedroom with him.
I assessed him as a male, so different than Cole but eerily the same. His icy-blue eyes, exactly the same color of Cole's, gleamed underneath a strong brow with golden blond hair that was so pale it was almost white. His shoulders were broad and tapered to a trim waist. He was an enormous man, at least six foot four. Even so, Cole was even taller.
My eyes narrowed; I was pissed at him. He'd left my friend with the creeper-cop and now I was here against my will. They'd have a fight on their hands. I wasn't just going to roll over and let them scratch my belly.
He moved forward and I shrunk against the wall. “Stay over there, freak,” I said.
He smiled, never pausing his strides, coming to stand an uncomfortable foot or so away from me. It would have been easier to touch me but he hovered, not committing to tactile just yet.
“We are at the top of the food chain, Witch. Humans live by our sufferance alone.”
I nodded, right. He was obviously insane.
“Doesn't look like you're keeping things under wraps too well. Judging by the psychos that are running around raping and bleeding out everyone of late.” I folded my arms across my chest, going for nonchalant know-it-all.
His eyes bored into mine. “Those are rogue Vampire. We were trailing them when we came upon you and the human female.”
“Excuse me! I am a human female!”
“Not exactly,” Nathan said, leaning in to smell me. His hands were on either side of my head, his nose hovering above my neck. I ducked, moving under his arms and he was right in front of me again, moving so fast I hadn't see him and I yelped. He hissed in response, his fangs punching out of his mouth, the tips glistening in the low light of the room.
My heart sped, I tried to make myself smaller against the wall but I was effectively trapped and at his mercy. That just pissed me off more, my anger eclipsing my fear.
“Nathan!” a voice said from the door.
He leaned back from me slowly and I moved into the corner and looked at who had spoken.
It was Cole, looking like he had the prior night, all-black and menace.
He looked espec
ially menacing right now, hadn't even bothered to look in my direction, his eyes were all for Nathan. And those eyes were boiling with rage.
“You are cognizant of the rules, stay away from her.”
“You just want to be first with her.”
They stared at each other for a swollen moment. My heart was in my throat. Here were a couple of vampires, casually discussing who would have sex with me first. Like I was a commodity.
Swell.
“Hey boys,” I waved my hand so they'd notice me in the corner.
“Maybe I don't want either one of you, hmm?” I smiled.
Cole moved so fast it was that blur of gray again and I steeled myself. I kept chanting in my mind that there'd been ample opportunity to kill me if that had been their intent. But having six-foot five of fast and pissed male vampire pressed up against my body was a whole different thing.
My pulse raced in fear as my body responded in anger.
He dragged a finger down the side of my neck, leaving a burning trail of heat and stopped at the thrumming and jumping pulse in the hollow of it. “I think you speak prematurely, Witch.”
“It's Rachel, freak.”
He snatched his hand away. “We are not freaks. We are superior to humans in every way.”
I shoved him with both hands but he was like an immoveable wall. “Good, then you should have no trouble letting me go since I am an inferior human.”
I was all fake bravado but maybe that'd work.
It didn't. He pulled me into his arms and I struggled to get away as he crushed his mouth to mine. Those fangs of his pierced the tender inside of my mouth and a few drops of blood filled my mouth from the force of his kiss.
The scent of my blood bloomed in the room and suddenly Nathan was there, ripping Cole off me. They turned on each other hissing as Cole shoved me behind him.
Unbelievable, I thought, licking my lip and tasting copper.
Nathan watched my tongue flick over the small wound Cole had made like a starving man.
Starving vampire.
Cole forgotten, Nathan lunged for me and Cole barreled into him, both of them crashing into the stone wall.
