by Eros, Marata
CHAPTER 12
Cole ran with me in his arms. It was graceful considering the awkwardness of the hold and him taking every back trail in existence. Finally we were skirting around the city and he set me on my feet where the woods ended and suburbia merged with the perimeter.
I swayed where I stood, my shoulder a throbbing wasteland of pain. I bit my lip to keep from crying but useless tears fell as I stood there.
Cole brought me into his body. “We need to make haste to your dwelling and assemble your belongings to take with us.” He looked at the neat lawn of a human's backyard and returned his gaze to mine. “I think there may be something I can do to ease your suffering, heal what was done to you. I am sorry I could not stop it.”
I shook my head, negating his guilt. “You killed them so they couldn't take me.” I swiped a tear away using my good arm. “If it hadn't been for you, I'd be with them even now. I'd be going from the frying pan to the fire.”
I twisted in his arms to look into his face and he cocked an eyebrow.
I smiled. “I'd go from one bad situation to another.”
“Ah.” He nodded in understanding.
He gathered me to him again like a precious commodity.
*
We made our way to my apartment, which was located on the top floor. When we arrived at the door I saw the bright yellow crime scene tape barring it like a sad ribbon.
I frowned, remembering my text with Michelle. So, the cops had crawled all over my apartment. I let out a breath and looked at Cole.
But he only had eyes for our surroundings. He was scanning every dark corner of the hall. Expecting the devil to spring out like a jack-in-the-box.
He tried the knob and it was locked. He gave a vicious twist and it snapped apart and the door swung soundlessly inward.
Moonlight filled the inside of the apartment and I swung my good arm to hit the light switch but Cole grabbed my wrist softly. “Do not.”
Right, don't alert the troops I'm back. Duh. I let my arm drop to my side and went straight to my medicine cabinet. I caught my reflection in the mirror. Startled pale blue eyes floated above what looked like bruises from the combination of lack of sleep and pain. I opened the cabinet quickly and grabbed the Ibuprofen. Grabbing three, I slugged them back with some water, gulping greedily. My nose felt cold and my hands shook with the effort to not go into shock, get warm, stay sane.
I shut the cabinet and Cole was in the reflection behind me. I yelped and dropped the bottle.
“I did not mean to startle you,” Cole said, putting a hand on my shoulder and I winced.
His eyes met mine in the mirror and he moved his hand up my neck while bending down until his lips met where his hand had been. I sighed, loving the feel of his palm on my flesh.
I turned into him and he kissed the fragile length of me, his lips moving to my jaw and working their way until they were pressed against my mouth. He worked over the top of them, lifting and feeding off them until they felt almost swollen.
He pulled me into his arms and lifted me. He took me to my bed and laid me down. His large hands brushed the few hairs that impeded his kisses away.
But he did not kiss me, instead he said, “I will heal you now.”
He removed my parka, which was a terrible struggle made even more so with the slowness necessary to keep the arm immobile. I bit my lip and whimpered. I hated my weakness but couldn't help it. He lowered his head to kiss me, raining soft pressure on my face, cheekbones, everywhere his mouth touched he worshiped me with it.
Finally, when Cole thought that he'd given me enough of a reprieve, he removed the most difficult part and I screamed my pain and he captured it with his mouth, gently pushing me back onto the bed.
His warm mouth left mine and he got a pair of scissors and cut off the shirt so my bare skin was revealed. As was the delicate lace of my crimson bra. His eyes held mine then traveled across my breasts and finally to the wounded shoulder.
He placed his palm on my shoulder and I gasped. His flesh felt feverishly hot. I started to pull away and he looked at me. “Keep still, Rachel.”
I stayed where I was by sheer willpower. The heat radiated from the point of contact and spread throughout my entire body. At once the shoulder ceased its endless throbbing, which was replaced with heat. The warmth radiated and as the pressure increased from his hands there was an interior explosion of pain and my body bucked, fighting the sensation.
I looked up at him with frightened eyes. He reassured me, “Your body is mending the wound.”
“Why does it hurt?” I asked in a small voice.
Cole shrugged and the leather he wore rubbed against itself, making a pleasant crackling sound I'd always associate with him.
It went on forever but when I glanced at the clock it had only taken twenty minutes. It was nearly five in the morning.
Daylight was coming.
Cole saw me look at the clock. “Almost... there,” he said, his hands easing on my shoulder. They began to make lazy, light circles in the injured area and I clenched my fingers as he lifted his hands from me.
I sat up and rotated my shoulder, lifting it to my ear in an exaggerated shrug then letting it fall.
A stupid grin filled my face.
I watched Cole grin at me for the first time, his fangs glowing softly in the faded moonlight that speared my room.
A feeling of happiness burst within me for this man.
The vampire.
Some of the worst of my tiredness began to fall away as the pain left. I got to my knees and hugged him around his neck. His arms wrapped around me instantly and I breathed into his ear, “I want to be with you.”
He pulled away and it was the only time I'd seen his face soft. “And I you. Had you stayed, I could have helped you. Do not run again.”
I laughed. “I don't think you have to worry about that.”
We gazed into each other's eyes, making an unspoken commitment.
My breath caught in my throat as Cole stiffened in my arms, his eyes widening.
I looked over my shoulder and there stood Erik with a gun.
The creeper from my work.
Cole pushed me violently away from him and turned to Erik and that's when I saw it. A dart stuck out of his back like an evil exclamation point.
Zach filled my doorway and saw me laying on the bed.
Cole staggered into Erik, trying to get the gun and Erik shot him again.
I jumped off the bed and Zach calmly walked around the bed and pointed a gun to my chest.
I threw my hands up and screamed, “No!”
Too late, Cole, drugged and slowed, threw his fist into Zach's temple. But the force was too little. Zach turned and used both hands to shove Cole halfway across the room. He landed against the wall, dazed. A huge dent caved in where he'd hit.
Erik said, “I want to fuck her bad.” His eyes swung to the bed as I rushed to where Cole lay. His head lolled to the side and his eyes were glazing over.
Zach gave Erik a look and he cringed away from him. He stalked over to us and crouched down to face Cole, their faces inches away from each other. He grabbed a fistful of Cole's black shirt and jerked his face even closer. “You should have killed me when you had the chance, Reaper. Know this... she will be mine within the week.”
Cole struggled weakly and tried to grab me to him but Zach chuckled, wresting me away from his weak grasp.
“I gave him enough tranquilizer to put two elephants to sleep. He'll be out when the sun rises; a crispy critter in three hours,” Erik said with smug satisfaction.
I was wrapped in Zach's arms and didn't struggle, my heart felt like a dead lump in my chest.
The first, hot tear made its way down my face. It trembled on my jaw then fell onto the hands that held me captive. My eyes never left Cole's. He shook his head like a dazed bull, trying to rid himself of the fog that he found himself in.
Struggling to stand, Erik came to Cole and slammed the butt of the tranquilizer
gun into his temple.
I screamed as Cole staggered back against the wall.
“Enough,” Zach said. “You have your uses, Intimate. Don't make me rethink them.”
Erik was breathing heavily, I could see he wanted to lay into Cole but Zach was his master here.
Erik looked at me. “You're so stupid. The rogue used me for months to spy on you. They were just waiting for the perfect opportunity to take you from underneath their noses,” he said, gesturing with the gun at Cole.
“You talk too much. Your singular job is to watch the Reaper. If he moves, shoot him.”
“He ain't gonna move. He has two darts stuck in him!”
Zach's hand lashed out so fast I couldn't track it but Erik's head rocked back and he stumbled. A spot of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Do not underestimate the Reapers. They are the elite of the Vampire. He will try to reacquire this one. It appears that he has bonded with her. Fool... do you not understand what that means?”
Clearly, Erik did not but continued to give Zach his sullen regard.
“As long as he lives, he will seek her.”
“Then let me do him right now!” Erik said in frustration.
Zach shook his head. “It is best to leave him. Let him live or not. Let the others deal with him. He is as sought as us now. He cannot return after he has bonded with this female. He is obliged to share in his kiss. Correct?” Zach swung his gaze to Cole.
Cole just stared back at him.
Zach dragged me backwards and Erik trained the gun on Cole. Cole's dull eyes were full of rage and grief as they flicked from the human that held the gun on him to mine, anguished.
Zach laughed at Cole's look and he surged forward.
To rescue me.
I watched in slow motion as Erik depressed the trigger, the meaty sound of the impact striking through the inky cloth of Cole's shirt.
The light died in his eyes, as he slid down the wall.
Erik looked at me with triumph and turned to Zach.
I struggled to get away, to go to Cole, to be away from Erik and the rogue.
It was futile. I was tossed over his shoulder as they moved down the stairs. As we exited the stairwell I saw the long black SUV waiting at the curb.
Smoke from its exhaust curled lazily in the chilled night air. Erik opened the door and from my view it looked like a huge mouth waiting to swallow me whole.
I beat at Zach with my fists and he held me to him so tightly I couldn't breathe. Finally when he tired of my struggling he looked at Erik. “Give it to me.”
An evil smile overcame his face from the front seat and he handed back a cloth soaked with something foul. Zach covered my face with it and my last thought was of Cole. I was in the hands of the enemy.
The rogue.
I saw, as if through dark water, a huge figure stagger down the staircase, a blurred silhouette in black.
Zach saw him too and a smile curled his mouth. With two fingers he pointed them ahead of the car and said to the driver, “Go... now.”
Cole rushed the car as it sped away and the last words I heard before consciousness left me was, “You did not use near enough tranquilizer.”
Cole's howls followed me down into the endless spiral of unconsciousness and I knew no more.
#
Bled
Novella Two of The Druid Breeders
by Marata Eros
Bled
Copyright © 2011 Marata Eros
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All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved.
Edited by Hazel Novak
CHAPTER 1
I awoke with the feeling of an iron spike being driven through my right eyeball, my throat a parched desert. I cracked open an eyelid. Being careful not to move my head too quickly I took stock of my surroundings.
It was déjà vu for sure. I was back in another room, but there was no stone on these walls. It was homey and comfortable. There was just one problem.
Erik.
The putz from work was leaning up against the wall, one heel propped up behind him. He pushed off when he saw that I was awake and sauntered over to the bed. A satisfied smile proclaimed his smugness.
“Hey sleepy-head. Finally, you're awake,” he said, reaching out as if to touch me.
“Don't touch me dickhead,” I said through my teeth.
“Brave words, considering your position here.” He indicated my hands that were bound behind my back.
I tugged and felt the material bite into my wrists, my feet were unbound.
“I bet ya your vamp boss won't like you working me over when he's not around,” I said, raising my chin defiantly.
His smirk fell away. “He's left it up to me, I'm in charge of you while my master's away.” I watched his hands flex and clench.
Creepy Erik didn't like that.
Good to know.
“Why don't you be a good little slave and fetch me some food?” Maybe he'd do something to me I could survive but would get him off watchdog duty. It would be great if he wasn't around. I didn't trust him, he made my skin creep off my body.
He whipped his slicked back hair off his face and leaned down close to me, his rancid breath preceding his words, “Watch it, I can do what I want with you while the Master isn't here.” He reached out and grabbed my breast.
He gave my tit a painful crank until he got the reaction out of me that he wanted. I whimpered and he released me, my breast felt like it was on fire and a heat rose to my face. I wasn't embarrassed, no way. Any man that would grope a woman, a bound woman, was a coward.
I was steaming pissed.
“If ya don't want more of that, you'll keep your smart yap shut.”
I waited until he was leaning away, a little off-balance and swung my leg into his ugly retreating face, smashing the side of my foot into the bridge of his nose and blood sprayed out in an arc, splattering me.
“You bitch!” he hollored. One palm smashed against his nose to stymie the flow, his other balled into a fist. He moved toward me and I turned my head at the last critical moment as his fist rose above me like a dark moon. I squeezed my eyes, anticipating the blow.
Some small sound alerted me and my eyes flew open.
Zach stood there, the fist that had been raised to abuse, held in a hand that was twice as big, his onyx eyes boring into mine.
“Argh...! Let me go!” Erik screamed in agony.
“You do not strike the breeder. She cannot breed if she is beaten, fool,” Zach said reasonably, the hand that held Erik's fist squeezing slowly.
He was crushing Erik's fist. Sweat popped up on Erik's upper lip, his eyes widening.
“Please Master...” he wheedled.
“Please what, Intimate?” Zach asked coolly, as if he wasn't crushing a man's hand in his.
“I will not discipline the breeder.”
“Why? Tell me why?”
“Because... because,” his Adam's apple bobbed as he took a hard swallow, “I don't have the right,” Erik finished in a miserable tone.
“You are not Vampire. You will not
touch her again. If you do...” Zach opened his mouth wide and his fangs elongated, filling the space of his mouth. He leaned forward and put the tips delicately against the tender part of Erik's neck. “I will tear out the vein which pulses so strongly here.”
My eyes unnervingly sought and found the pulse under those fangs where it beat frantically like a trapped animal.
“And worry at it like a canine with his favorite bone,” Zach said with dark promise.
A terrible smell filled my nose and I looked down at the floor where a puddle was developing.
Erik had pissed himself.
*
Zach had made Erik clean his own pee off the floor while I watched.
I looked into his eyes as he watched me and Erik was bent over the task at hand.
“Very good. Now be about something else,” Zach said, dismissing him neatly.
Erik scuttled away like a good submissive, backing away until his ass hit the door.
I was relieved to see him leave. My eyes flicked to Zach's and he had his obsidian stare trained on me. I couldn't read his expression. There should be a law against eyes that dark. Things were looking down, Erik gone, the rogue vampire alone in my room.
Trapped.
He eased down on the end of my bed. “I do not think we were properly introduced,” he began.
“Oh, yeah, we were. Totally. Introduced,” I said.
He smiled, the fangs flashing briefly in his pale face.
“I think you've got me mixed up with some other chick. I don't have anything special... you can just drop me off... wherever,” I said with the straightest face I could manage.
Zach held up a hand. “Do not. We can smell what you are. Our intimate...”
I gave him a puzzled expression.
“The one whom you call Erik?” he cocked an eyebrow, confirming his identity.
