Aiden shook his head.
“What?” Cara asked him.
“I can show you better than I can tell you.” He hit a sharp u-turn and made a left when he should have been making a right to continue in the direction of her apartment.
“Where are you…”
“To educate you.” Aiden cut her off before she could finish the question.
“And what if I don’t want to be educated?” She did not like surprises or unknowns.
Aiden shrugged his infuriating shoulders. She was growing damned tired of him doing it. “Too bad…unless you want to try your luck jumping out of a moving car at three hundred and eighty miles an hour. You may be good, but you’re not that good.”
“You don’t have to exaggerate your speed to get me to stay put. I may be reckless at times, but I am not jumping out of a moving anything, regardless of how fast it is going.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “I was not exaggerating.”
“Bullshit. This car tops out at two hundred and forty miles per hour.”
“Really?”
“Really. I may be a woman but I know cars as well as I know bikes. Call it a hobby.”
“Then you should know that if you have enough money and pull, max manufacturer speed doesn’t mean shit.” His lips turned up into a full on patronizing, egocentric, condescending, smile. Then he revved the engine and increased the McLaren’s speed to God knew what.
He did not flinch when the dagger buried itself in the soft leather beside his head. But his eyes glowed gold again in the darkness of the interior of the car and Cara could not miss the bulge that swelled in his pants even if she had wanted to.
Damn him. That was not the effect she was looking for. She wanted to aggravate him as much as she was aggravated. She wondered what it would take from her to get a true rise out of this vampire. Considering the reputation that preceded him and what she saw him do to Michaelson without so much as an ounce of remorse or hesitation, one would think she would think twice about trying to provoke him. But level headedness and self-preservation were not her strong suits. She was reckless at the best of times and operated with an outright disregard for her own conservation at the worst. Cara sighed then sat back in her seat and crossed her arms for added measure. She knew it looked childish but she didn’t give a shit. The vampire beside her was an arrogant, obnoxious, prick.
Ten
Cara stood in a rigid stance outside of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse in the Meat Packing district. The innocent passerby would take the shoddy old brick building at face value for just that. However, Cara knew better. Like the blades she carried, her skill at sensing and tracking vampires was well honed and sharpened to a razor’s edge. Her feet might as well be cemented to the street because there was no way in hell she was moving another inch toward the building. She may behave as if she had a death wish from, but there was bravado and then there was stupidity. Willingly walking into a nest of unfamiliar vampires was the latter. Prince of Darkness at her side or not, she was not budging. She told Aiden as much and he of course thought it was all rather amusing.
“My accompaniment is all the protection that you need. Though you would be okay without me. I think you will find that the vampires inside have more… colorful concerns.”
There was an amused glint in his eyes when he said that last part that did not sit well with Cara. It was as if he knew of a joke she was unaware of but was about to become the butt of. Do not punch the heir to the vampire throne in his face. Do not punch the heir to the vampire throne in his face, Cara pleaded with herself. A day ago she feared doing so would result in a painfully slow and brutal ending to her life and all out war between the Hunters and the Vampires. Reiya would never let her death go unavenged. Now she feared it would do nothing more than arouse the vampire standing on the sidewalk beside her. The latter outcome disturbed her more.
“Is the big fierce hunter who fancies herself a badass with a cause afraid to walk into a warehouse with a handful of vampires,” Aiden mocked her.
“I am not afraid,” she snapped. She hated being mocked. “I would just prefer to get through the night without having my blood sucked dry by a nest of vampires.”
“I was unaware you actually had any sense of self-preservation,” Aiden responded in false astonishment.
“I do when it is not on my own terms.” Cara turned away to leave, the ride home he offered her be damned. She had yet to make it there anyway and even if it was the middle of the night she was in the heart of one of New York’s most happening social scenes. There were endless cabs in the area milling around, waiting to be of service to the multitude of club and bar patrons.
A steel cage locked around her preventing her from walking away. “I give you my word Hunter, nothing or no one will get a taste of you before I do. I will rip the heart out of anyone who dares attempt it.”
The words were whispered into her ear but they struck directly at her core. Cara felt as if a million tiny butterflies were fighting to escape her belly at once. Heat rushed to places she felt guilty even acknowledging. Cara pasted on her best unaffected smile. “Seeing as how that will happen never, I guess I do not have any reason to worry. Let’s get this detour over with Your Darkness so that I can finally get home.”
The outside of the building may have looked like a neglected, abandoned warehouse but the inside was something else entirely. Luxury and extravagance coated every inch of the it from the moment they stepped through its doors. The entry level was fashioned after a lounge setting. There were plush black leather booths scattered throughout and Persian rugs the color of crimson lined the floors. In the far corner was an open bar stocked only with top shelf liqueurs. An urbane-looking well-dressed vampire leaned over the bar polishing a crystal wine glass. Curiously the entry level was empty except for the bartender and the burly bouncer of a vampire that approached them when they entered. He recognized Aiden at once and bowed to him, acknowledging him as Your Grace. He directed Cara and Aiden to an elevator off to the right marked V.I.P Entrance.
“Did you take me to an underground vampire club?” she asked incredulously.
“Of course not. Vampire clubs are for the common among us. We are at a private sangue party.” Aiden entered the intimate elevator and held the doors open for her to follow.
Cara’s grandparents both had French roots. Her grandfather was the son of French immigrants and her grandmother grew up in Martinique before coming to the States at eighteen to attend college. As a result they insisted their children and grandchildren spoke it fluently. She did not know Italian, but the two languages were similar enough that she knew the word sangue meant blood. She hesitated outside the elevator doors. She was not sure what a blood party was but she could just about guess what it entailed. It was something she wanted no parts of.
Aiden sighed as if reading her thoughts. “I did not bring you here to be a participant. I only mean for you to be an observer.” His words made her suspicious about if he had slipped past her mental barriers again. It would certainly explain why she was considering joining him in the elevator.
“Think of it this way,” he hedged, “I offer you the chance to experience a part of vampire society most hunters never have. How does the saying go? Know thy neighbor but know thy enemy better.”
Cara could not argue with Aiden’s reasoning. Hunters had been trying to gleam in depth information on the inner workings of vampire society and culture for decades. The better you knew your enemy, the better you knew their weaknesses. However, vampires were a notoriously secretive and close-knit group. They took paranoid to a whole new level and kept more secrets than the C.I.A. The hunter in Cara would not allow her to pass up on the opportunity to potentially learn something new about vampires, even if it meant walking into a den filled with predators. Cara shook her head and walked into the waiting elevator to stand beside the vampire beckoning to her from inside. As the doors closed an echo of her early thoughts looped through her mind. Bravado or
Stupidity? She asked herself which one applied to her at the moment.
The elevator peeled open and Cara instinctively unsheathed the twin daggers she religiously carried at her back. Aiden knew she would have this initial reaction. He stilled her hands with his own and shook his head, using his eyes to bargain with her not to act too hastily.
“Right now you are viewing the scene before you through the biased eyes of a hunter. You see vampires and you see humans in the same space. Some of those humans are being fed on by vampires true, but look around Cara and really see what is going on. Do any of the humans here seem like unwilling participants? Do they appear to be coerced, forced or harmed?”
Cara moved out of the elevator to get a better view. She saw vampires engaging humans, but not in the initial manner she thought. To her left were a couple, vampire and human, huddled closely together in a booth. They were speaking in hushed, flirtatious whispers. The man, a human, said something that made the woman, a vampire, blush ruby red. She let out a throaty laugh and invitingly rubbed her thigh against his. He inched his hand up her skirt until his fingers sank into the heat they were seeking. She threw her head back and moaned, her fangs lengthening with her arousal.
Cara shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. She diverted her eyes, but they landed on a site that was not any better. In the far corner of the room stood a burly male vampire looming over a petite brunette. He caught her up in an ironclad hold and her body turned to jelly in his arms. She brushed her hair off to the side and tilted her head, her exposed neck a freely given offering waiting to be accepted. The vampire kissed the tanned flesh gingerly before allowing his incisors to lengthen. He pierced her flesh and the brunette let out a low, feminine moan. She tangled her hands in his hair and pressed his head down, urging him deeper. She spread her legs on her own accord and the vampire hoisted them up and around his waist. She undid his zipper, freeing his cock from the confines of his pants. He pushed her midnight blue dress up higher around her waist and tore the small triangle scrap of fabric underneath it away. He kept his fangs buried in her neck as he buried his cock in her core. She tightened her legs around him as he pumped in and out of her.
Cara had never witnessed someone engage in sex in public before and had sure as hell never done it herself. She was not necessarily a prude, but there were some lines she refused to cross. Still, looking at the scene before her she felt the spot where the carotid artery pulsed in her own neck begin to throb and ignite a slow burn. It traveled down the length of her, coalescing with her core until there was a burn between her legs that throbbed in sync. She covertly tried to squeeze the muscles in her legs together to quell the sensation. It was a failed effort. The action only made her snug-fitting jeans pants rub against the very spot that was throbbing and the friction increased the sensation. Then she found herself wrapped inside a steel cage once more. Only this time she noticed the warmth radiating off Aiden’s body that seemed to permeate into every pore in her own body. She noticed the rock solid foundation of his chest and wondered what it would be like to run her hands across it. She also noticed the steel cage had biceps that would make any woman faint. A hard bulge of impressive length pressed into her backside and her body pressed back on it of its own volition. To her utter embarrassment warm moisture began to pool between her legs. It was a smoking gun of her arousal to a vampire with heightened senses.
Aiden brought his lips to her ear and whispered, “What do you see Hunter? Are these humans prey?”
She shook her head no. She did not trust herself to actually speak, fearing her words would escape on a breathy whisper, or worse a moan, further betraying the embarrassing arousal that was blooming. There were human and vampire couples scattered throughout the room engaged in acts as innocent as flirtatious banter to acts as sinful as the one unfolding between the brunette and the burly vampire. But none of them appeared to be coerced. They were willing participants seeking what any individual might seek from another they were sexually attracted to.
“Our bite does not have to be brutal or inflict pain or even result in death. Over the centuries we have learned that it is much more efficient and enjoyable to seek out willing flesh and feed through pleasure versus kill bites.” Aiden moved his lips from her ear and trailed them down the length of her neck to the base of her throat, further stoking the burn she felt within. “Would you like to stay? I can get us a booth,” he purred into her throat.
The vibrations from his spoken words sent jolts of lighting racing across her body. She knew the answer should be an immediate and adamant no, but her mind was more than a little clogged with lust and the twin pulses in her neck and between her legs were becoming more insistent by the second. The throb had intensified from a slow burn to an unbearable ache that could only be relieved by the double penetration of the vampire whose arms she was encased in. Visions of herself bent over one of the empty tables with Aiden sinking his fangs into her at the same moment he buried his cock to the hilt danced through her head. Her body begged her to consent to the release it so intensely desired but her mind, however lust-filled it may have been, would not wholly concede. Still not trusting herself to speak, Cara shook her head no, both to communicate her answer to Aiden and to attempt to clear her head of the image. He reluctantly released her from his hold.
They were about to turn to leave when a tall vampire to their right who had been preoccupied with a pretty coffee colored companion suddenly noticed their presence and abruptly pulled away from the striking beauty. She contorted her lips into a pout at his actions, which only served to make her look even more like a supermodel. As Cara peered more closely at her she realized that she was in fact a supermodel. Her name was Kinneth and she had appeared on the New York fashion scene a little over a year ago. Her story was one of a small town southern girl moving to the big city and taking it by storm. The fashion world, design houses and press alike, loved her. She was thought to be the latest bit of freshness and eccentricity that the industry needed. Cara knew this because while she spent the majority of her time in jeans or leathers kicking vampire ass as a hunter, she also had a weakness for beautiful clothes. Designer clothes and trendy fashions were one of the few superficial indulgences she allowed herself.
The vampire that approached them was as strikingly beautiful as the supermodel was. In fact, he could have been one in his own right. His olive complexion along with the full black curls that fell into mesmerizing amber eyes spoke of a Latin American heritage. He was beautiful; Cara would give him that. However, his beauty was a tamed and classical sort whereas the vampire who had yet to move from behind her and was still rather temptingly pressing into her backside, possessed a cruel sort of beauty that screamed raw, masculine power. Aiden’s skin was just as tanned but it radiated a bronze undertone that spoke of long days under the Mesopotamian sun. His jaw line was strong, harsh and commanding. Aiden’s hair was dark but cut low in favor of modern standards of masculinity and to liken his eyes to emeralds would simply be unfair to the emeralds for his eyes shone brighter and were more flawless than even the most rarest specimens of the gem. And yet for all their brightness there lay a dark force lurking just beneath their surface. His eyes radiated that darkness just as clearly as they shone with brightness. It was a darkness that made you think twice about crossing him and promised immeasurable pain and unspeakable cruelty if he unleashed it. It all had the combined effect of culminating in a frighteningly beautiful package that was just as mesmerizing as it was deadly.
The vampire was now standing directly in front of them. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “Liege.”
Aiden’s body tensed and he growled beside her. Clearly something the vampire did agitated him. “The next person who does that, you, Dorian or Asad, I swear to the Gods I am going to impale.”
The vampire grinned but swiftly got to his feet. “Just following protocol,” he said, the picture of innocence.
Aiden raised his eyebrow. “Protocol also permits me to rip the hea
rt out of all those who annoy me.”
The vampire shrugged his shoulders, unaffected by the threat.“ You could, but you wouldn’t. You’d miss me too much. Admit it.”
“I am sure I could make do,” Aiden good-naturedly bantered back.
This was a new side of the Dark Prince Cara had yet to see. She was sure most people never would. Even when flirting with her he still retained an air of absolute power and threatening authority about himself. Even though he seemed to suppress the monster when interacting with her, it was always there and visible just below the surface. With the wrong word, the right provocation, or the unforgivable offense Cara was sure he would release it without hesitation. She knew how frightening a monster it was from their very first interaction and she had no wish to ever have it directed at her again. Cara knew with every fiber of her being that she had only escaped with her life by some unexplained twist of fate that made him think she served a purpose better alive than dead. Cara also knew that if they ever found themselves in that same situation again, there would be no walking away in a draw a second time. Only one of them would leave alive. This knowledge did nothing to diminish the desire she felt for Aiden. It may have even contributed to it. As a hunter and the best there was, Cara did not come up against many men who were truly her equal. She was always stronger, faster, more powerful, more resilient. It did not lend itself to a long standing positive relationship when most men’s egos would not let them accept a woman who could best them. As a result, while Cara was no virgin, she had not had many meaningful relationships either. Most of her experiences with men over the years consisted of casual flings that fizzled out just as quickly as they started.
Cara curiously wondered who this newcomer was. As if on cue his attention turned to her. His eyes traveled the length of her body as he took her measure. He did not bother to hide his disdain as the knowledge that she was a hunter dawned on him. It was not hard to figure out if you knew what to look for. Upon successful completion of intake training all initiates received their hunter’s mark. The mark was different for each hunter as they chose it based on the one principal they held above all else and drove them to become a hunter. But it was always tattooed in the same place, arguably in the most painful spot their was to receive a tattoo, on their right collar bone. Cara’s mark was an ancient tribal pattern of intricate swirls and long forgotten hieroglyphs that meant vengeance. She remembered every painful dig of the artist’s needle into her bone, but she sat in the chair without batting an eyelash. She simply stared stone-faced ahead and repeated the same mantra over and over in her head: I will have my vengeance. The neckline of the cotton sweater she wore beneath the open short-leather jacket was low enough that her hunter’s mark was easily observed.
Born In Blood (Born Hunter Book 1) Page 6
