SURVIVAL

by Karen Payton Holt

  “Human quick?” she whispered, her lashes drifting closed, veiling her brown eyes as Connor peeled away her blouse. His own eyes melted to black pools as his fingers stroked over her breast, and the rush of pleasure which moved her body into his was almost his undoing. Connor’s jaw tightened as he walked the tightrope of his control. I can do this.

  He would suffer this a hundred times over to feel this alive.

  Tugging her lips gently with his own, he breathed, “Not today, honey.” He worked to suppress the sneer pulling at his mouth, wanting to bite, to taste, but he was determined to resist the thickened pulse that tortured him. As he pushed the jeans down, he returned up the inside of her thighs, teasing her damp heated flesh. He grinned as she wriggled her hips.

  Rebekah sighed, lifting her knee to invite him in. “Vampire slow is feeling pretty good,” she breathed.

  “Oh, it gets better.”

  His gaze sharpened to predatory as it skimmed her body, his vampire vision chasing the blushing tide as the rose bud tip of her breast hardened between his fingertips and with a sigh, he leaned forward and flicked his tongue over it.

  As the tide of warm nectar throbbed beneath his lips, flooding her senses with anticipation, he rolled his solid body over hers. Entering her in a slow sensual movement and chasing pinpricks of light through her nerve endings, he melted her doubts away. He locked his pleasure inside his chest and forced himself deeper into revival sleep, tempering every movement with achingly painful care. Maybe today, I won’t bruise her. But he knew he would.

  Rebekah held her breath, savoring the tension shuddering through his frame with each undulating movement. He smiled into her neck. He knew she was waiting for the moment when he would move away, and, take her over the edge with his cool touch. But not today.

  He found the sweet spot deep inside her, his body trembling as he matched her desperate need.

  Staring into her wide pupils, his heart ached when he saw her confusion shatter and her climax shook her. She dug her nails into his shoulders, and, when he could hold back no longer, Connor’s desire flooded her body in a delicious cool tide.

  “Hey.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I said it gets better.”

  “You stayed,” she breathed, her delight illuminating a stunned smile.

  “I found out that it’s safe.” His face was serious, and his eyes glinted with male satisfaction. “I can love you as I’ve always wanted to. You do know I would stay here and never leave your side if I could?” He frowned as she went to speak. “No. Not because I think you need reassurance, but because my heart is tied to yours.” His fingers traced her features from eyelids to cheekbones, pausing over her lips before finally he settled his thumb onto the pulse in her throat. “I could fill my vision, my heart, with this image every day, and still, it would never be enough.”

  He frowned fiercely as he dragged his lips over hers, making himself stop at just one taste.

  Much later, they lay still entwined as Rebekah fought the clouds of slumber trying to steal the precious moments she still had left in his arms. Stirring, she mumbled, “Connor? Doing the hot thing... how does it feel to you?” She rested her cheek on his chest and traced her fingers over his stomach, drawing circles in the downy hair which marched down to his groin.

  Connor was in hell. He hated this part as much as he loved it. Vampires never linger, they take physical satisfaction and were gone. He loved her. His arm cradled her to him, and as her heart beat a tattoo against his ribs, he had every muscle clamped down. He fought the violent need to take her again in every sense, to embed himself inside her softness, and in the same moment finally surrender to his compulsion for her intoxicating cocktail, and drink his fill. An act that if unleashed would crush her fragile frame to dust.

  He wrestled his thoughts back into order. Focusing on her words, he raised his head to look at her face. “Well, bathing in boiling water and lying on a bed of hot coals were both painful experiences I’d rather not repeat.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought,” she whispered.

  “Although, losing control when I did not know we were safe was more painful. Risking your life.” His low laughter lightened the mood. “Remember, we said we’d save the hot sex for anniversaries.”

  Drowsily, she mumbled, “Only three of those, if we count my final birthday. We’ll be the same once I am twenty-four and you turn me.”

  Connor said nothing. He was placing his fingertips over the faint bruises he had made on her body. Vampires and gentleness are uneasy bedfellows. Her words reminded him that at twenty-one, their pact gave her only three more human years. He never intended to renege on that, but as Julian was quick to point out, vampires were doomed if humans did not breed. I will not turn her only to watch her die twice. While there is a chance she will live longer as a human, I will wait.

  Chapter 7

  Sebastian squatted down and brushed his fingertips over the road. Lowering a knee onto the wet ground, he inspected tracks where tires had pressed onto the tarmac and the moisture moved aside had not yet seeped back. Invisible to the human eye, they were as clear as day to his. Standing up, he grinned. They left barely an hour ago.

  Emily’s scent was delicate. It was a flavor of aniseed which stroked the back of his tongue, rather than an aroma riding the still night air. A trail bike, so they are off-roading through the fields. His satisfaction stirred and Sebastian held tightly on to the leash. Best not count my chickens, but...

  His eye was drawn to the imposing Edwardian house casting shadow over the sidewalk. The impressive gravel driveway glinted with a carpet of amber and golden pebbles. The many stone chimneys transformed the pitched and gabled roof into a confusion of shapes in the darkness. Definitely a glowering monster. And a green monster of his own answered its call.

  I bought the crap about Doctor Connor shunning material things. He’s taking us all for fools. When Sebastian first arrived in London, hungry to affiliate himself to the force of nature which was Doctor Connor, it appeared that the doctor spent his life at the hospital. And rumor supported that. When vampires shared out the spoils as humans were rounded up and shipped to the farms, Connor turned down a penthouse at the London Hilton Hotel.

  That Doctor Connor owned such a prestigious property, and yet kept it hidden, added fuel to Sebastian’s pyre of hatred. With every revelation, it burned brighter. For vampires, houses were merely status symbols. After all, we don’t live in them.

  Burying the stone of jealousy inside, Sebastian set off at a lope. He honed in on Emily’s scent, but gathered the visual clues as reassurance that he was heading in the right direction. On the road leading out of London, he lost the scent when the riders doubled back over their own trail. Pressing his nose into the square of linen stained with Emily’s blood focused his palette, and he recovered the trail quickly, confidently diverting into the sprawling woodlands.

  When he found the first clustered patch of poppy seeds on the moss covered ground, his arrogance grew. Not that he needed them, although they would make it easier, but because it let him see through a window into Emily’s mind. She’ll be easy to manipulate. Poppy seeds were an inspired, choice. Connor would have no idea Emily, or Annabelle as they knew her, had laid a trail.

  By early dawn, Sebastian was keeping vigil in the woods, standing on the spot where Emily’s scent left the trees. Looking out over the pasture, he could see a dark scar in the rolling green hillside. So, this is it. Weak rays of sunlight slanting across the meadow revealed a tract of flattened grass which, once the dew evaporated, would spring back again.

  Beneath the dense canopy of English oak trees, Sebastian took in a deep breath of stagnant the moist air which would feel suffocating to humans. He felt relaxed and back in control.

  Someone had gone back through the woods, erased the tire tracks, and laid a false trail by lumbering through the undergrowth, creating a swathe of snapped branches, torn and bleeding sap. But they had not figured on me being here so soon, and the crushed gras
s was a gift they cannot take back.

  He did not move for fourteen hours, and during that time he constructed a fully formed plan. His contemplations ended abruptly. Reacting like an owl hearing a mouse’s step, Sebastian’s head jerked around at the delicate whisper of ruffling grass.

  He concentrated on the direction of the sound and he was rewarded. There’s Doctor Connor, and his accomplice is here too, although it makes sense. Sebastian could not ask Serge about the identity of the blond vampire because, as far as the councilor knew, his guardsmen never reached the human nest.

  Sebastian’s plans moved from a gamble to a certainty when, after pausing to listen and scan the wood, both vampires took off in the direction of London. Maybe they are both doctors with appearances to keep up. I have no such obligation. I have as long as it takes for Emily’s fear of my retribution to overpower her, as it will. The poppy seeds had told him that.

  As a rabbit pokes a twitching nose out of the burrow, lacking the courage to make a run for it, Sebastian caught a glimpse of Emily the following day. Her yellow hair flashed like a beacon in the sunlight. She was with a thin boy, and, although she could not know he was there, her nervous gaze flicked in Sebastian’s direction. She doubled over, sinking down to sit on the ground. The thin boy seemed agitated, dancing from one foot to the other with half his body staying inside the tunnel.

  They were much closer to the woods than Sebastian expected. The main entrance was disguised by the undulating dips in the landscape, mimicking a natural feature of soil erosion, while this exit emerged where the undergrowth and dappled shadows camouflaged it well.

  Clever girl, she has found a back door. It’s funny how desperation always finds a way. Sebastian embraced the buzz of triumph as he tuned into their conversation.

  “Please, Annabelle, we must go back. We’ll get into trouble if Connor finds out.” The boy’s whisper was as thin as his frame.

  “Just one more minute. I’ll be fine in a minute.” Emily’s breathing was fast and shallow.

  Sebastian was amused. And she’s faking it.

  “We shouldn’t be out here. Please, c’mon back inside.” The boy was whining now.

  Emily staggered convincingly to her feet. “I won’t tell anyone you showed me the tunnel, you can trust me.”

  “Bravo, Emily.” Sebastian grinned with malice as he detected regret on Emily’s face. Not much longer now.

  Sebastian was happy to wait. He leaned against his adopted tree, careful not to let his idle fingers scar the bark. They’ll know I was here, but, how long I waited and how determined I am, they will only be able to guess at. He waited two days, and three endangered gray squirrels who ventured too close, died. He was a hunter and patience was easy for him. All I have to do is reel Emily in and back her into a corner.

  “Connor’s woman,” he mused aloud. I look forward to learning her name.

  Tracking the human lumbering through the trees, he turned and waited. “Emily, you made it at last. Or should I call you Annabelle?” Her flesh crawling at his oozing tone amused him.

  The marks on her body had faded since her escape to the human nest. He smiled as he remembered Councilor Serge yanking at her clothes, exposing her flesh and pressing himself against her. Her revulsion had thrilled Sebastian, and as he smelled the bile burning the back of her throat, he knew she was remembering it, too. She knows that being my pet would be worse than Serge’s attentions, worse than death.

  “I saw you with a human boy before. You seemed close?” Sebastian began the game.

  “He’s nobody. He’s young and smitten. A pawn.” Emily met his gaze reluctantly.

  Sebastian nodded. “You faked a panic attack and tricked him into showing you the back door, but he likes you. So he could be useful?”

  Emily looked shocked at Sebastian already knowing her movements. “Thomas doesn’t know anything,” she said quickly.

  “And what do you know? How many, and how long are they staying?” Sebastian couldn’t care less. Councilor Serge may want them all, but I want only one.

  “About twenty, I guess. And they are staying a while.” Her shoulders sagged in defeat and she broke out in a cold sweat. Sebastian’s sharp hazel gaze skewered her as though he could read her mind.

  “And Doctor Connor? When will he be back?” And there it is, the defiant spark, the evidence I need. She likes him. It should have made him happy, but jealousy flashed a green filter of jealousy over his thoughts. God. Does every girl fall at this vamp’s feet? No matter, I will come out on top. Now, to reel her in, and when she thinks she has it all, I’ll take Connor from her and break him. Sebastian moved up a gear. He knew how she would react to the idea of destroying Connor, and seeing him on trial. She will give up the good doctor’s woman to avoid that.

  “He must be coming back to see his woman. After all, he loves her.” Sebastian buried the knife in her chest and waited.

  Emily bristled at his words. “She’s nothing special, just a bit of human on tap, I’m guessing.” She fought hard to be casual, but her resentment showed.

  “Oh, that’s a pity.” Sebastian enjoyed the smell of her wounded heart. They all smell so different. But he liked the spectrum of pain best. Her aroma was bitter. How fitting. “I was thinking of taking her for myself, as a punishment for Connor to bear.” He shrugged eloquently. “But if she means nothing-”

  Sebastian watched the battle inside her. Will she do it? Sacrifice her? Or will her better nature prevail? It will make no difference, but still.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say she means nothing. Rebekah’s just his pet, but he’d still be angry.” Sebastian knew she was lying, and as she looked into his triumphant muddy-green eyes, he saw that she knew it, too.

  Rebekah. That suits her.

  Sebastian’s eyes were hooded. “Well now, I’m feeling generous.” He waited until she looked at him. “How about a straight swap, I take-” He inhaled deeply. “Rebekah off his hands. And you get to comfort him.”

  Sebastian’s eyes glinted with sadistic anticipation, enjoying the picture in his mind of Rebekah contorted in pain. He felt Emily’s heart stutter in her chest. “I lied,” she said hastily. “She really is just blood on tap. He really wouldn’t care,” she protested in a whisper.

  Before she could take a breath, Sebastian’s arm closed around her and pulled her up against his chest. He gripped her hair and pulled her head back, exposing her throat. “Too late, Emily, I know he would care.” He leaned over her, twisting her hair in his fist until her scalp burned. “Now I know where they are, I could drain you and leave you here, and no one would ever know. No one would care. Now... about Rebekah,” he breathed. As his grin widened he let his venom flow. Wetting his lips with a lap of his tongue, a deliberate string of saliva dripped down the front of Emily’s shirt. “When can I... see her? When will you bring her to me?”

  <><><>

  Three hours after the council hearing adjourned, Principal Julian was still pacing around his house. Entering his study for the umpteenth time, he glanced at the brown wing-backed reading chair which connected him to his mortal life. Its leather skin was worn and crazed, but the care Julian lavished on it held the fatal cracks at bay. The leather motorcycle jacket hanging on the back of the door would have the same elevated status and care as a souvenir, of sorts.

  His mind and body still simmered with the excitement of racing the motorcycle against the breaking dawn. At least, that was what he told himself. He sat at his desk shuffling papers, and pretending that he was not reliving his latest encounter with Leizle, frame by aching frame.

  Well done Julian,” he said sarcastically. His instinct was to stay away, but he was discovering that he could not.

  He had little sympathy for the addict. Be it the friends of his mortal wife, Eva, who depended upon laudanum and smelling salts to provide color, or relief, to their lives, or the Avant-garde of nineteenth century London, who believed that the oblivion of ingesting opiates held the key to their creativity. Addiction is a
weakness. More fool me.

  His eardrums reverberated as a sudden boost in the air pressure inside the room signaled that a vampire was approaching at speed. Connor? I thought he had a forty hour shift at the hospital. Julian, grateful for the distraction, crossed the room to greet him before he materialized.

  Connor burst into the confined space, and his wake threw the heavy brocade curtains into disarray, and the decorative coal scuttle in Julian’s fireplace was felled by the shockwave.

  Julian’s ears were still ringing as he took in Connor’s stony expression. “What’s happened?”

  His friend’s urgency suddenly deserted him. His wet greatcoat settled around his thighs and the dusting of raindrops glistened like pearls on a frozen statue.

  Julian tried again. “Connor, what is it? Is it the eco-shelter? Rebekah? What?”

  Rebekah’s name released him. “Damn it. Every time I relax for moment, I’m filled with dread as her heart scrambles in her chest. And then, I live in fear until I have her in my arms again. Why didn’t I just turn her, Julian? Why didn’t I?”

  “Why?” Julian thought of Leizle. “Because you didn’t choose this.” Julian’s hand indicated the length of Connor’s awkwardly posed frame. “We know the reality. It is not glamorous, it’s a battlefield.” Julian’s face was serious as his own tortured thoughts colored his expression. “If there was another option, for you to become human again. I think you would choose it. I would, in a heartbeat.”

  The emotional storm abated and Connor whispered, “I’m losing her again.” His gray eyes melted from determination to despair. “I went out to Swanley to check on her, to pick up on the rhythm of her heart, but she wasn’t there. Greg was waiting at the meeting point. She’s been taken. Shit, Julian.”