Venom & Vampires: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by Casey Lane

  Brody turned and left without another word, leaving Theo wondering what the hell he’d been talking about as he collapsed back onto the bed. Sleep wasn’t something vampires usually needed, but his weakened state let it claim him and he submitted to it without complaint, praying silently that this was the end.

  Chapter Three

  Skye wandered the cell, folding her arms as she considered every detail of her prison. There wasn’t much to see, truth be told, but she had to keep her attention off her impending doom. Death by vampire. Definitely not the end she’d expected for her life. Accidental death, maybe, death by misadventure.

  “Does this even fall under misadventure?” she muttered to herself as she paced.

  Her feet were getting used to the cold, damp floor. But her hangover was starting to crave the high fat breakfast foods she usually fed it. If she didn’t eat soon, her stomach might revolt and decide to empty its contents all over the floor. She rubbed at her stomach, trying to tell herself not to think about it. The longer she could ignore the hunger, the better for her general well-being. She did not need to be trapped in this prison with the smell of vomit lingering in the air. She dry heaved just thinking about it.

  The sound of footsteps in the dimly lit room swiped her attention. She moved to the bars and peered out until the shape of a muscular man came into her sight. The closer he got, the more she recognized him. Her mouth dropped open.

  “It’s you!” Her grip tightened on the bars as he got closer.

  He smirked slightly as he jangled the keys in his hand. “You remember?”

  “I remember you were coming on to me last night,” she said, wanting him to come closer so she could slap him. “But I’m guessing you had ulterior motives.”

  He laughed as he reached out and unlocked her cell.

  Her heart pounded as a plan rushed to form in her head. She’d gouge out his eyes and run as fast as she damn well could to get the hell out of there. She withdrew her grasp from the cell door and ran her nails across her palms. They were sharp enough to do some real damage.

  “You’re going to follow me and do exactly what I say.” He opened the door.

  She attempted to lunge at him, and he stepped back.

  “You’re not going to attack me.”

  She made a second attempt and gasped as she found herself entirely unable to move. What the hell? She wanted to lash out, but it was as if she was paralyzed, suddenly and completely. Fear shuddered over her, making her quiver.

  “That’s better.” He snatched her by the hand and pulled her close. Closing the cell door, he locked it and shoved the key into his pocket.

  The usual warm, fuzzy feelings of being so close to a good-looking man rushed through her before she managed to remind herself this guy was a complete asshole, a criminal and something else she couldn’t even name. He’d stopped her from attacking him somehow. He held some kind of power over her that she didn’t comprehend. Was he a vampire?

  She grabbed her hand out of his grasp. “What the fuck is going on?”

  He smiled. “Oh, yeah. He’s going to love you.”

  She frowned at him. “I can’t believe I thought you were hot.”

  Hindsight was all well and good. Had he really been attractive enough to wind up in this kind of mess over? Was any guy that hot? He turned around.

  “Follow me.”

  She moved after him, his gaze drifting. Oh, he’d been worth it. Or he would have been if they’d gotten anywhere before this turned into a nightmare. She couldn’t deny how good looking he was. If she’d gotten warnings about him, she’d have brushed them off. He was exactly her type. It wasn’t her fault he’d turned out to be some kind of freak.

  “Who the hell is this ‘he’ you mentioned?”

  “You’ll find out.”

  Shit. She couldn’t seem to make herself run away. He’d asked her to follow him and she couldn’t stop herself. “What are you?”

  He stopped at a closed door and turned to her. “Just call me Cupid.”

  She snorted and her stomach grumbled. “Don’t I get any last requests?”

  He pushed the door open and she gazed inside. The lighting was dim, but it looked like a nice hotel room. “Go in.”

  Her feet moved at his order. He closed the door when she was inside the room. She heard it lock, and her panic flared. Running to the door, she fumbled with the handle. It turned, but she couldn’t pull it. It was locked. She was trapped.

  Turning as her heart-rate accelerated, she scanned the room and gasped at the figure on the bed. He was pale and muscular. Exactly how she would picture a vampire, though probably wearing less clothes. His face was planted in the pillow, jet black hair contrasting starkly against his skin. She watched him closely, but he wasn’t moving.

  Holding her breath, she approached the bed. Her hand reached out to touch his back. It was icy cold. She shivered as she moved back, folding her arms. Her gaze refused to leave the half-naked mystery man on the bed. He was something she’d only just found out existed, something she wanted to know more about, but he was also dangerous, someone who could want to hurt her. She knew nothing about him. Forcing her stare away from him, she glanced around the room looking for an alternate escape route. There had to be a way.

  No windows, she realized, rolling her eyes. Of course. Why would there be? Vampires were hardly the sun-worshipping type.

  She spotted another door and rushed to it, glancing back to the bed only once. He hadn’t moved. She hoped he never woke up. At least not until she found some kind of weapon.

  The bathroom was nothing unusual. She did a quick check through the medicine cabinet, finding painkillers alongside packets of toothpaste and brushes in their wrappers. A fit of the giggles hit her after she popped a couple of ibuprofen. She supposed vampires needed to brush their teeth as much as the next person, but the thought of it made her laugh a little too loudly. Her hand clamped over her mouth and her gaze drifted to the door. She hadn’t found a weapon yet. Waking the vampire would be a bad idea before she did.

  She rushed to the door and breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she confirmed he still hadn’t moved. Maybe he’s dead? She slapped her palm against her forehead. Getting drunk really didn’t help with her blonde moments. Of course, he’s dead, dummy; he’s a freaking vampire!

  Her gaze drifted across the room. There were no obvious weapons just lying around, not that she really expected there to be. She’d do anything for a nice fireplace poker right about now, but there didn’t seem to be anything like that in the room. Sighing softly, she stepped quickly over to the wardrobe. Her only chance might be finding the right kind of clothes hanger…

  A muffled groan made her stiffen as she opened the door. Glancing back, she reassured herself he was still asleep before she reached in and yanked out a hanger.

  “Damn it!” She looked at the shitty plastic thing in her hand and tossed it to the carpet. The wardrobe was full of the same damned hangers, some of them holding clothes no doubt belonging to the vampire. The suit she found had a fine layer of dust on it. Clearly, he didn’t get out much.

  She contained an irritable noise of disgust and headed back into the bathroom. Worst came to worst, she could lock herself in there until she could think of a way to turn one of the spare toothbrushes into a shiv.

  As she closed the door, she realized that plan wasn’t going to work either. There wasn’t a lock. She cursed under her breath, felt her bladder moan at her and decided at least she was in the right room for one thing.

  Chapter Four

  Theo walked the same street he always found himself on when he slept. He glanced up at the moon as he waited, wondering if it was true that the crazies came out whenever it was full. He’d come down this same path every night for weeks, leaving the car in the parking area at the bottom of the hill. At nine, Leah’s class would end and the handful of dance students would exit the old school building, chatting and giggling together and meeting their parents in the car park. He wal
ked past the teenagers, their usual exuberance making him smile. There goes Leah’s boyfriend. Wonder when he’s gonna propose. He caught snippets of their conversations. At least once every couple of weeks he heard something about himself. It usually made him laugh. Tonight he was too preoccupied to do much more than crack a smile.

  Leah’s brother had found something out. Something that Theo couldn’t help worrying about. Mo wasn’t usually prone to exaggeration, but he wasn’t a shit-stirrer either. That didn’t make every word that fell out of his mouth the god’s honest truth. It just meant Theo had to be careful. He had to find out what the truth really was.

  Leah wasn’t a good liar. It didn’t mean she couldn’t hide something this big from him if he never directly questioned her about it. It didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of hurting him. He paused outside the door to the building. The kids were gone from sight, down the hill into the car park.

  The air was crisp, just cold enough to make him put his hands into his pockets.

  His guts twisted up as he tried to imagine asking that awful question. He’d know if she tried to lie in her answer. He’d know the second he asked. His whole world was about to change. He couldn’t shake the feeling of that. The lying he’d done to himself on the way over, the insistence in his head that everything was going to be okay, all of that had just been trickery to get himself to come here and do what had to be done.

  There was no use waiting another second. He walked into the building. The hallway was well lit, only the rooms with their dark windows in the upper quarter showed that most of the building was empty tonight.

  He followed the corridor down to the dance hall, listening out as he walked. Was it here? Had she met him here? Was he one of the parents? Or the guy who locked up the building when she was done? Thinking of that was going to drive him insane. He had to stop wondering. It didn’t matter who he was. It only mattered if he existed.

  The door to the studio was open. He stepped inside and looked around. Leah wasn’t in the room, but the door to the changing room was open. He could hear something.

  He moved quickly toward the sound before he could stop to think about it.

  “Leah?” He called out her name as he stepped into the room.

  The sight of his girlfriend half-dressed and straddling someone froze him in place. To be told something and to see it were two very different things. Anger rushed through him, but he was too stunned to do anything.

  The man she was writhing on was kissing her neck. Her eyes were closed, and she was moaning and grasping at his shoulders.

  Finally, the shock loosened its grip and Theo left the room, afraid of what he might do if he stayed and confronted his cheating girlfriend and the sleaze she was screwing.

  The wall of muscle that knocked him to the ground as he got to the dance studio exit door knocked the breath from him. As soon as he managed to get it back and suck in some air, he winced at the pain in his chest.

  “What the hell?”

  “You owe the family,” the big guy told him, grabbing him by the ankle and dragging him across the floor.

  Theo didn’t know what the fuck was going on. His world was breaking apart, and he was about to take punishment for something he didn’t understand. Nothing made sense anymore.

  “What the fuck…” He kicked, but the guy had an iron grip on his ankle.

  “Wondering what’s going on?” He snorted. “I’ll bet you fucking do. Bet no-one ever told you what a fucking slut that little bitch of yours was.”

  Theo struggled to catch his breath as the guy dragged him along the ground. Twisting and struggling against him didn’t work.

  “Leah was given to my brother years ago. Then you came along and her family tried to renege on that arrangement. No-one screws the Blackburns out of what’s rightfully theirs.”

  He tried to wrap his head around what the guy was saying, but he didn’t understand any of it.

  “Wait, what do you want?” Theo asked, getting ready to fight back as the guy let go of his ankle. It throbbed, and Theo wondered if he’d broken it. The damn thing hurt enough for that to be true.

  He smiled as he crouched down and grabbed Theo’s hands in his right fist. “I want for you to really see what it means for a woman to be owned by us. What happens tonight is on you. All of it.”

  Theo kicked at the guy, but he couldn’t free his hands and any strikes he managed to land didn’t make any impact. He growled in frustration as he tried to get out from under the grasp of the bruiser. A gasp pulled from him as the guy’s eyes glowed amber, blindingly brightly. The sharpness of his teeth as he opened his mouth had to be an illusion from the light. The light that Theo couldn’t really explain. It couldn’t be coming from his eyes. It had to be someone behind the guy, shining a torch right at Theo.

  The pain of something cutting into his neck made him stiffen under the monstrous man. He was seriously in danger right now. He was going to die if he didn’t so something to stop it.

  He couldn’t move. The pain started to blur his vision. His body numbed as his eyes fought to stay open. This was what dying must feel like.

  It seemed like seconds between losing consciousness and regaining it. Theo found he could move; he wasn’t hurt or being pinned down any more. He touched his neck and looked at his hand. Nothing. He hadn’t been harmed. It all must have been a dream.

  Except he was still inside the dance studio, only now, he realized as he moved that he’d been chained to the ground. The hoop on the floor was meant for securing equipment for gymnastics classes. It was solid. He yanked at the chain, a feeling of dread falling over him as he raised his head and his gaze fell on Leah.

  She was standing in front of the man he’d seen her with, in the changing rooms. Her stare was empty, and she did nothing as the man’s hands gripped her neck.

  No! He was hurting her. Anger swelled inside, instinctive, and Theo’s mouth opened but his thoughts tangled and he couldn’t speak. He pulled at the chain, hauling himself closer. Leah made a strangled sound as the guy levelled his gaze at Theo. He was almost as imposing as the one who’d pinned him down before. It didn’t matter if he thought the guy was likely to smash his face inside out if he attempted to attack him. They were too far out of his reach to do anything.

  “Let her go, you goddamned piece of shit!” Theo’s thoughts sharpened and exited his mouth viciously. “Let go of her before I make you regret it. Fucking put her down, now!”

  The man’s eyes glimmered dazzlingly, stunning Theo as he remembered the other guy’s eyes doing the same. His stomach turned as his rage grew. Something was really wrong. This whole thing was messed up in the extreme.

  “Enjoy your first meal. You’re ours now.”

  The cracking sound before Leah’s body fell to the floor echoed through his head. Her blank gaze settled on him, her head slumped awkwardly.

  Theo’s rage had him pull at the chain again as the man who’d just murdered his girlfriend left the room. He screamed into the hall, the sounds reverberating around him in fury. This couldn’t be happening. He hadn’t just seen what he had.

  She was close now, enough to touch. He fell to his knees and reached out to stroke her hair. The warmth she exuded tricked him for a moment. She couldn’t be dead. There was no way.

  The deception was what broke him. He wept over her body in agony, inconsolable over her loss. She hadn’t cheated on him. She’d been hurt more than once by those creeps, and he was going to make sure they paid for what they’d done. They’d never get to hurt her again.

  He pulled her into his arms to hold her one last time. And that was when the whispering inside his head began.

  Feed from her. She’s all yours. Better be quick now. You won’t like the taste when she’s cold.

  The mocking, suggestive tone quickly changed into something more commanding, more solid. Theo shuddered as he lost control of his body. He watched himself pull Leah closer and yank her dark hair back from her throat. The way her skin glowed before
him made panic spike inside, but he still couldn’t move. He was locked away inside himself, a helpless spectator.

  The feeling of biting into her flesh was horrifying, though the odd grumblings of his stomach were calmed at the coppery taste of her blood filling his mouth. He drank with a rush of conflicted emotions washing over him. He screamed inside his head, willing it all to stop.

  A presence inside his head started to laugh. He knew then that this was just the start of a nightmare that would never end.

  Chapter Five

  The groans from the bedroom were becoming more frequent, which was really starting to freak Skye out. It couldn’t be too much longer before he was awake, and that was not going to be good news for her life expectancy. She was getting seriously pissed off at her inability to fashion a weapon to use against the vampire when he woke up. Trying to snap a toothbrush in half to end up with something sharp and pointed was just not working. The damn things were too flexible to break.

  “What the hell are these made of?” She tossed it into the sink and tried another from the same pack. Maybe the blue would snap easier than red. That could be a thing. She sighed as she gave it a try and realized she was being overly hopeful. Dropping it, she sat down, ready to admit defeat for the moment or at least not to obsess over it. She could worry once the damned vampire in the other room actually woke up. Maybe panic would be the mother of invention.

  Sitting on the edge of the bathtub and staring down at her blue painted toenails, she started to wonder where the hell her shoes and bag were. Not that wedges and a soft leather clutch would be much good to her right now, but they would be better than nothing. They might not do much to dissuade a hungry vampire, but there was a cereal bar in the clutch at least. Her stomach grumbled at her the instant she thought about food.

  “Stop thinking about it,” she mumbled, beginning to salivate at the thought of her usual hangover cure breakfast. Was there anything better than bacon on the entire planet? She didn’t think so. If anything was worth making it through this, a big breakfast overloaded with strips of crispy bacon was at the top of the list. She had to survive just to taste it again. Her resolve began hardening anew.