by Eros, Marata
“Wait... you are what... getting women all the time?” I asked. Wondering about this faction of vampires that did not live with them. That were outcast, that disobeyed rules.
He nodded. “It is what Nathan and I do. We scout.”
“Reapers...” I whispered, my comprehension complete.
He saw my expression and nodded acquiescence. “We harvest.”
And with that, he walked away, his leathers marking his progress in the hollow emptiness of the hall.
CHAPTER 10
I lay awake in my small bed while the moonlight illuminated the bones of the furniture that stood at stark attention in the shadowed corners. Eve had elaborated about the rogue. They did not believe that Druids should be shared, they wished to not follow the “old ways.” But, Eve warned, they also took Druids, and mated with them... and forced them to stay with them. They killed whatever vampires that stood in their way. Vampire scouts like Cole and Nathan would be killed on sight and a small battle would ensue to ascertain their success. The scouts were at their most vulnerable after they'd acquired a Druid. The chance of a rogue on their tail was high.
I deliberated. That was why I had hardly been at the police station for any length of time. If they'd scented me out, the rogue would not have been far behind. Effectively shadowing the trail left by the Reapers.
A soft knock sounded at my door and a female vamp walked in. Taller than I at almost six foot she approached the bed and I warily scooted back against the wall, the pillow between cushioning me from the coldness of the stone.
She held up a palm in placation. “Fear not, Druid. I wish to help you and thereby help myself.” She attempted a smile but when her fangs were revealed I cringed at the sight and the smile faded.
Her lips were terribly red and my eyes latched onto them as my heart beat harder.
She exhaled a shaky breath and I realized that she was fighting her thirst.
She began without preamble, “I desire to be with Cole. I have mixed ancestry and may be able to breed.” She seemed to need an answer so I nodded slowly. The crazy bitch. Who was I to argue?
She took my silence as acceptance and went on, “I have brought some things for you to wear to help you escape this place. You will be unable to return to your rightful home. They will try to reacquire you there...”
She trailed off and looked at me.
Hope glowed in my eyes that was impossible to dim. I so wanted out of here and here she was handing it to me on a silver platter.
An image of Cole entered my mind and I shoved it aside. Stick to the plan, Rachel, I chanted to myself.
She leaned forward and from behind her back she slowly pushed clothing and a small pack onto my lap. I was so thrilled with the prospect I missed her hand as it snaked out, coiling around my throat. My neck felt like a flower stem that had been caught in the mouth of a lion. I didn't move as her mouth lingered over mine and issued the warning, “Do not return, Druid.”
I moved my chin up and down and she released me. Her long fingers trailed softly along my collarbone as she moved away.
It stole my breath.
She backed away from me with her hand planted over her nose. When she reached the doorway she paused with her other hand on the frame.
“Change and go to the furthest door at the end of the hall. It will be unlocked. After you pass through, follow the wall at your left and there will be a gate at its end.” She looked into my eyes and I could feel her pressing her will on me.
It was ineffective because I was a pureblood. I did a mental eye-roll.
She huffed her frustration. “It will be unlatched as well.”
“Wait,” I called after her bravely.
She turned and her pale eyes glittered against the moonlight reflectively and I flinched, thinking again of a lion. “Why do you want him?”
She smiled and it was menacing, not happy. “He is a fine warrior and will breed true, every female wishes to mate with him. He is not like the others.” Her expression changed. She was reconsidering my rescue and maybe substituting it with my death. I saw her mind mulling it over.
I interrupted her thought process, “I'll go.”
“Self-preservation. Very good.” She turned on her heel and silently left the room.
****
I slunk down the dark hall dimly lit with sconces that flickered with candlelight. I knew that every vampire in the compound must be awake but not one was anywhere to be seen.
I let out a shaky breath and continued, the moonlight streaming through the windows lighting the path before me. My hand glided down the wall and the rough texture of the stone tore softly at the flesh of my palm as I neared the door.
Once there I could not see a handle or latch and felt around until I found a cup-like indentation carved along the side where it met the frame. Scooping my finger inside it I pulled.
It didn't move.
I pushed and it slid open soundlessly. The night air rushed in and robbed me of breath. It was so cold that I stood stock still. Huddling inside the parka that the female vampire had given me, I made my way along the outside wall, using my left hand to space myself and the moonlight to secure my steps.
As I came to the end of the wall I saw the gate, slightly ajar and standing in a sea of stone that was a wall ten feet high.
I moved to the door and gave it brief examination as I slid through. It would not have been something I could have moved. It reminded me of stories I had heard about castles with moats and such, it was formidable, tall, rough-hewn and too heavy to swing.
She had left it open, my mind supplied unhelpfully. Better not to dwell on the strength disparity between she and I.
In fact, maybe I should hustle my ass along before she changed her mind.
I did, making my way into a wooded glade with only the moonlight to guide me.
CHAPTER 11
I felt like I'd been walking for miles (I probably had). My feet screamed and I decided that I'd made enough distance that I could safely rest and inspect my pack.
There wasn't a lot I noticed, rummaging around. I had a bottle of water and a sandwich. I was sure it was whatever had been left over from the elaborate banquet. A feeling of unease stole over me as I thought about the female more. She had packed hardly anything. Yet, she hadn't killed me. It was puzzling and my mind felt as if it was circling the answer but hadn't reached the center of the maze yet.
I ate half the sandwich and was recapping the water when I stood and stretched, throwing the pack on my back and readying myself to locate a road. Distantly, I could hear traffic. I'd walked for, I looked at my watch and figured two hours; maybe five miles or so?
A small noise startled me and my heart sank when I saw five vampires exit the woods in a loose circle around me.
None of them looked familiar. But I knew they were Vampire, my body tingled in recognition. Their clothes, bearing, everything was different from the compound I'd just been in.
Their eyes shone like onyx in the moonlight.
That's when it hit me, their irises were not silvered like the others, but shone like blood does in the dark.
Black.
The rogue.
I ran.
The backpack bounced on my back as I fled, the branches crashing and whipping at my body as I pushed through the dense tree cover, the cold biting my hands, nipping them painfully.
I was roughly pulled from behind by my hair and I yelped before a hand covered my mouth.
Pulling me in against his body a vampire said, “Quiet, breeder. We have lost your trail only to be reunited.”
“Zach, can you believe our luck?” another one said off to my right.
“Actually, I cannot,” he said, running his fangs up and down my neck as he kept it taut and long, using my hair to turn me as he wished.
I realized the female vampire hadn't been so crazy after all. She sent me out here as bait. She knew the rogue would be after me like sharks in the water, scenting blood. She could wash her hand
s of my death, feign innocence when asked and know I'd been dispatched. I was out of her hair and she could have Cole.
I despaired.
*
The one they called Zach released me abruptly and I stumbled, pinwheeling my arms as I almost fell. I rubbed my head where it was sore from his treatment and tried to keep the remaining four in sight.
For all the goddamn good it would do. They were fast and unbelievably strong. If they wanted to play cat and mouse, I was sorta out of options.
“We almost had you...” Zach said, coming toward me slowly, his saunter showing me he was in charge and there was no escape.
No options. I squelched my feelings of hopelessness. I had never given up on anything in my life. I wasn't going to give in without a fight.
Where was the sun when I needed it? That'd fry their asses. I looked at the moon, riding full and high above me and scowled as I massaged my scalp.
He laughed and the other vamps did with him, the eeriness of it echoing in the openness of the meadow that was surrounded by trees. “It will not be daylight for how long...” he tapped his finger on his head with the beat of my heart.
He whirled on me and my heart skipped a beat while he laughed again. “I do hear it, Breeder.”
My heartbeat. He was listening to it.
I backed up until I could feel the tree biting against my back, the sharp bark a comfort against me.
“Two hours more until dawn. We will squire you away safely by then,” another said.
Zach's face grew serious as he said, “Have they had you yet, Breeder?”
I could feel the blush rise to my cheeks, the heat of it a burning torture. Was there nothing I could have that was private? I thought of Cole, he would have been a safer bet than this group.
I sighed. “No.”
One of them cackled in delight and another male said, “Alexander must have had to put it in a knothole to keep it out of this one!”
Charming. The whole group. “You jerks must be the rogue,” I said with a bravado I didn't feel. The one that had just made the crack narrowed his black eyes to slits and in a rush was up against my body, his hand latched to my breast. I cried out, I couldn't help it.
“Not so brave now, Breeder, with my hand feeding on your tit,” and for emphasis he squeezed it just on the good side of pain and I whimpered. He smiled as his other hand went for my crotch.
“Leave her,” Zach said dismissively. “There is plenty of time to partake of the breeder upon our return. Besides, where she is, they will follow.”
Reluctantly he took his hands off my body and placed them above my head on the tree bark. He went in to sniff my neck and I leaned away from him.
“This one smells of something different,” he said. Serious now, where before he'd been playing games with my raw nerves.
Zach was near me in record time, his dark colored clothes a gray blur as he moved. I closed my eyes and moved my head to the side, both vamps at either side of my neck, skimming the flesh with their faces.
Finally Zach raised his head and the other vampire said, “What is it?”
Zach shook his head. “It cannot be. But it is,” he leaned forward and ran the length of his fangs along my neck, piercing it with the barest of strokes.
A single drop of blood flowed down my neck and his tongue flicked out and captured it as my tears fell down my face. They trembled at my jaw and fell on his cheek as he came away with his blood prize.
*
Zach's eyes flicked to my face as I stood staring up at him. He straightened, a small fleck of ruby on his lip, looking like a black dot in the night.
“Pureblood,” he said.
The others crowded around me but he held up a hand. “We need to exit this place immediately.” He looked around at each face gravely. “They will never stop hunting for this one.” He grasped my chin in his hand and moved my face from side to side. “Matthew,” he called softly, never looking away.
“Yes?”
“Let her ride on your back, we will run.”
I broke free again, taking them by surprise but they were on me in a flash and I struggled underneath the one that had pawed my body.
Finally I screamed, “Get off me!” in his face and he backhanded me playfully. It made my ears ring and I saw stars.
And it had been a light touch.
“You heard her, viper, get off.”
Cole.
I hiccuped back a sob of gratitude so loud that it echoed in the meadow, the silence swallowing it whole.
They backed away from me, all except the one that had been on me. He fisted his hand in my hair and dragged me after him. I screamed. It felt like pinpoints of fire bursting all over my scalp.
I was vaguely aware of something flying over my head, coming over my body in a wash of muted color and then my hair was released, leaving my scalp to throb to the beat of my heart.
I heard a protracted gurgling behind me and cautiously opened my eyes and saw Cole, his thumbs buried to the connective tissue through my attacker's throat. The remaining group surrounded him.
“Cole...” I rasped, “look out!”
He stood, all lean and heavily muscled grace as Zach, Matthew and the two which remained closed in around him. I scuttled back against a tree to watch.
Zach came at Cole and the two collided, each grappling for the other. Matthew put a choke hold on Cole and the two others began sharp jabs at his torso.
Cole head butted Matthew from behind and he stumbled away, blood spraying from his nose. Cole punched Zach in the jaw with his free arm and he staggered while Cole tore the arm off the one holding his arm with a wet pop. An arterial spray of blood shot up in the night sky like black oil. I began to feel shocky as I watched it all unfold. Like I was having an out-of-body experience. I could hear this strange wheezing sound and I belatedly realized it was me.
Zach began to savagely jab Cole in the side while the other vampire came for me. Waking out of my stupor I leaped up and flung myself behind the tree but he was faster. He lashed around with his wrist and grabbed my arm, pulling me with such force I gasped at the pain, so much more than anything I'd ever experienced and he jerked me to him. I came easily into his embrace, all loose limbs and in a haze of pain that stole my strength to scream.
Cole heard me. He laced his hands together and drove them into Zach's face and he slumped forward. Cole caught him, pushing him away from his body like so much trash.
Those silvered eyes fell on the vampire that held me. They flashed with fire and rage and I felt his arms stiffen about me as he debated on the merits of my life versus his.
His won.
He let me slide down his body and with a moan I lay at his feet, my shoulder a throbbing nightmare. At this point I didn't care if they killed me. I hurt so bad and my arm was numb from wrist to shoulder.
I watched Cole come for him. He tried to fight him off but Cole was the superior fighter and finally the ratio was fair. Cole dispatched him by slamming his head on the tree so hard his skull split and his brains splattered on the trunk where my body had been.
As if in a dream, his face appeared above me. His buzzed head and curled tattoos winding alongside his neck looked like black claws. His eyes held mine as he tenderly ran a finger down my jaw.
“Why did you run, Rachel?” his voice asked, sounding like grinding rocks.
I shook my head. It didn't seem like he'd kill me but... “A female...” I sucked in a breath and continued, “she told me to leave, she wanted you. And I wanted to get out of there. I don't want...”
“Shh...” he said and looked at my shoulder, frowning.
“He has torn some ligaments and muscle,” he observed as he probed my shoulder and I shrieked in agony.
“I am sorry.” He looked behind him at where Zachary lay then turned to me. “He is not dead and we must go. It will feel terrible to move you but we need to make haste before sunrise.”
I nodded. Anything to make the pain end, I thought in a daz
e.
He gently pushed his arms underneath my body and lifted me like I weighed nothing. Of course, the vampires could bench press small cars, my weight probably didn't register.
Nathan came into the clearing and they regarded one another.
“How does she fare?”
“She is damaged, they have hurt her shoulder...”
“Did they...?” Nathan cocked an eyebrow.
“No. Insufficient time. They will not again.” Cole shook his head. He had made sure.
“You can't come back, you know,” Nathan said.
Cole nodded. “I know. But they will not have her. I cannot abide...” he sighed in frustration.
Nathan held up a hand. “I understand, my brother. Fear not, I will say only what I see here.” He looked at him steadily. “I will miss you.”
“And I, you.”
They looked at each other, then at the sky, which was a soft black. It heralded the day to come.
“Where will you go?”
Cole shrugged. “Somewhere unknown.”
“He may hunt you. And then, there is the rogue...”
“Let me concern myself with Alexander and his. The rogue is another matter entirely.”
“You know how to meet me should you wish contact,” Nathan said.
“I do. Thank you, Nathan.”
“You are most welcome.” Nathan walked over to me and I stared at him with wide, pain-filled eyes. “She is a gem,” his eyes flicked to Cole's. “Take care of her. She may be our future.”
Cole replied, “She is. My future.”
I listened to them through my pain and knew that my life was forever changing. I thought of Michelle, my job, my life as I'd known it-- gone. I was captured by this man, this vampire. Born of blood and thirst and myself with an uncertain genetic code that mastered my destiny into what it had become.
Nathan looked at me one last time and then turning, he melted into the dark forest.
