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 hands 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 daze.
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.
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 th
is 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 lying 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.
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