by Shéa MacLeod
She had a point. Problem was that Jack liked to order people around a lot, but he sure didn’t like to share information very much. What the hell. It was worth a try. “I’ll have to catch him later. It’s a full moon tonight and this little Huntress is going to be busy.”
“Need any help?”
This time it was my eyebrow that went up or actually both eyebrows since I’m incapable of raising only one. “You’re offering to help me with vampires?”
“Heck, no, I’ve got things to do. I was thinking Inigo could help. He needs to earn his keep.” She busied herself shuffling stacks of papers on her desk.
I gave Kabita a thoughtful look. I might as well ask. “Is Inigo human?”
She raised one eyebrow, but otherwise her expression was blank. She didn’t show even the slightest hint of surprise at the question. “What do you mean?” Her voice was as bland as her expression, which meant she knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Exactly what I said. Is Inigo human?”
“He’s my cousin. Of course he’s human.” She snagged a file off her desk and flipped it open. “Why on earth would you ask a question like that?” I knew her far too well to fall for her innocent act, but she obviously wasn’t ready to share whatever it was she was hiding.
I sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just … weird things have been happening lately when I’m around him and I thought … Well, I don’t know what I thought.”
Her other eyebrow went up. “Weird things? What sort of weird things?”
“Nothing. Never mind.” I shook my head and started for the door before a thought struck me. “Kabita, what color are Inigo’s eyes?”
She gave me a look that I’m pretty sure you reserve for a crazy person. “They’re blue. Why?”
“Just checking.” I left before she could call the men in white coats.
Chapter Twelve
Sometimes when things were going to shit and life just got too darn confusing, the only thing left to do was pummel the heck out some unsuspecting monster. Hey, it’s what I did. And while I wouldn’t mind pummeling our agency contact, whoever he was, I didn’t really fancy getting arrested for assaulting a government official or whatever.
The century old Pittock Mansion sat a thousand feet above the city up in the West Hills. The breathtaking views and its secluded location among forty-six acres of wooded land made it a popular place for a make out session at night when the museum was closed and all the school kids were home snug in their beds. That meant it also made a very popular dining spot among those that liked to munch on unsuspecting couples. It was a great place to hunt.
When I didn’t have a specific job or I just needed to burn off some energy, I liked to head up there and pose as one of those unsuspecting couples and dust a few vampires. I usually used Inigo for that kind of work. He was great at playing the fake boyfriend but after what happened between us, whatever it was, I was sort of avoiding him. Making out with him for the sake of hunting vampires was so not on the agenda. I supposed I could call my date from the other night. He’d sure gotten all hot and bothered over the whole vampire hunter thing, but seriously, I’d rather make out with Brent Darroch. Ew. Now I needed to go wash my brain out with soap.
I could call Jack. The thought of making out with him sent my hormones into happy dance overload. Problem was that making out with him would be so very distracting. I’d probably end up getting munched on, and not in a good way.
Only one thing to do: hit the hill on my own. There were usually at least one or two couples using the grounds as a Lovers’ lane. Hormones apparently overruled common sense. I could hide in the bushes like some creepy stalker and pounce the minute a vamp showed up. Yep, that’d work. And seriously, I needed to blow off some steam.
And so I ended up lurking in the shrubbery around Pittock Mansion just before midnight, with the old gothic building looming like a ghostly sentinel behind me. I couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like living here one hundred years ago when the place was first built. It had been outside the city limits then, and the roads up the hill must have been an absolute nightmare. Talk about living in the middle of nowhere.
I was feeling a bit edgy, trying to ignore the moans and rather more intimate noises coming from the couple writhing on a picnic blanket just a few feet away. Gods, I felt like such a pervert, but they’d thank me once I prevented a hungry vamp from sucking them dry. Well, probably they’d thank me, if they didn’t turn me in to the cops first. That’d be fun to try and explain to Portland’s finest. Then again, sex on the front lawn of a National Historic site wasn’t exactly legal.
It didn’t take long. It never did. Vampires were drawn to sex as much as they’re drawn to blood, though not for the usual reasons. It was something about all the adrenaline and pheromones and whatnot. Apparently, it made the blood taste better, advertising how delicious you were. Kind of icky, if you asked me.
There were two of them, a male and a female. Not that it made any difference once they’d turned since vamps weren’t interested in sex. The only passions that remained in undeath were killing and eating, and sometimes, power.
They were both gaunt, as though they hadn’t drunk in quite a while, and their skin was nearly translucent with age. Even their hair was scraggy and bleached almost white, which only happened when a vamp was not only seriously old, but dangerously malnourished.
I could feel them with my strange Spidey senses, their energy, the pressure building at the back of my skull. Their age pressed down on me so hard I lost my balance, hitting the ground with one knee. Really old then, over four hundred years, at least, maybe even twice that. Once they got that old it was kind of hard to tell, but if I wasn’t expecting the energy spike that came with a really old vampire it could knock me a bit off kilter. There were two of them, which made it worse.
The male lifted his head and sniffed the air, scenting like a bloodhound. He couldn’t smell me, of course. It was all part of my “gift” inherited from the virus that should have turned me but didn’t. Vampires couldn’t seem to scent me like they could normal humans. Kind of weird, but there you go. I’d take what I could get.
I closed my eyes and forced back the overwhelming pressure as I slid my blade carefully from the sheath across my back. I preferred my gun, but the UV light didn’t work very well from a distance, and while swords may not have been faster than bullets, they were faster than UV guns, and just as effective. Especially since my little baby had a blade edged in silver and anointed with a holy blessing and a couple of magic spells. Overkill? Me? Naw.
I stepped out of my hiding place just as the female vamp made her move. The minute she lunged for the couple on the ground, I swung my sword. I was too far away to do serious damage, but the edge of the blade sliced across her midriff, spilling dark blood down her front. Not fatal for a vamp, but it would seriously hurt. She shrieked like a banshee and lunged again.
This time she went for me instead of the couple. I caught a brief glimpse of their horrified faces as they lay frozen in terror on the blanket before she was on me. I looked into her face and saw nothing but madness there. All instinct, pure rage, she jumped on me, knocking me to the ground. My breath went out of me in a whoosh and I was pretty sure I saw stars.
Damn, she was strong. I hadn’t expected that with how malnourished they were. Her eyes were that same eerie red as Blondie’s had been. Her bony fingers curved into claws as she went for my eyes.
“No you fucking don’t,” I yelled at her. I swung my right fist up to punch her in the side of the head. She reared back with another shriek, this time more of anger than pain, and swiped a clawed hand along my cheek while I twisted my hips under her, trying without much success to buck her off.
A sword was pretty useless in close quarters, so dropped it and scrabbled for my UV gun with my right hand while trying to hold her off with my left. She was strong. Really strong. Even nearly starved, there was no way I could hold her off for long, and while I was focused
on her, I had no idea what the male was doing.
I didn’t have time to think about it. She screamed at me again, her foul breath strafing my cheek, making me gag. Her fangs glistened in the moonlight as she reared back. I so did not need another set of fang marks on my throat.
My fingers finally found my gun just as she struck. I turned my head and twisted my upper body at the same time. Her fangs hit my collarbone instead of my throat, sending sharp pain shooting down my body. I was pretty sure I screamed loud enough to wake the dead, but her bite didn’t scare me. It hurt, and it pissed me off. My right hand closed around the gun and jerked it out of its holster while I grabbed her throat with my left hand and squeezed as hard as I could.
She screamed, this time a strangled, choking scream, her face filled with fury. She really didn’t like me much. She surged for my throat again and I prayed to the entire Pantheon that I could hold her off long enough.
I finally got my gun up and wedged it between our bodies, the barrel pointed against her chest as close to the heart as I could get, and pulled the trigger. She froze, her eyes going wide, suddenly realizing through the rage and bloodlust that something was very, very wrong. She stared down at my gun barrel pressed against her breast and the black mark slowly spreading its way across her body. She threw her head back and shrieked at the moon. This time, there was an edge of fear to it.
Then she burst into a cloud of ash and smoke.
I think I might have been shaking a little, as I slid the gun back in its holster and wiped the ash from my face. The UV had done its work, but I still had the male vamp to deal with. I looked around, a little panicked at the thought of what he could have been doing while I’d been dusting his girlfriend.
He’d been waiting for me. While I’d been fighting off the female vamp, the male had grabbed the couple. The girl was on her knees, sobbing, with the vampire’s hand around her throat. One move and he could snap her neck. He had the boy by the hair, his body twisted at an odd angle so he couldn’t fight. Not that it would have mattered; the poor kid was terrified.
The vamp snarled at me, giving the two a little shake. Their whimpers brought a twisted smile to his face. Shit. He was some kind of sadistic psycho. That was why he hadn’t killed them while I was busy with the other vamp. He wanted me to watch while he killed them. This was going to get ugly.
I snatched up my sword and staggered to my feet. There was no way I would make it on time. The vamp used the boy’s hair to yank his head back, baring his throat. I was running by the time he reared for the strike. Too late, too late, too late.
And then the vamp was flying through the air. I stumbled to a halt, my mind whirling. What the … ? I blinked and Jack was standing by the couple who now lay shivering and crying on their blanket. My brain finally caught up with what my eyes had seen: Jack appearing out of nowhere, ripping the vampire away from the kids and literally throwing him across the lawn.
The vamp staggered to his feet, shook his head and let out a primal scream. Damn, but he was pissed. He flew at Jack, but Jack didn’t even bat an eyelash. He just stepped in front of the cowering kids and waited.
The vamp leapt into the air, but this time I was there first. The Darkness swirled inside me as I moved in a blur, stepping in front of Jack and plunging my sword right up through the vampire’s heart. He had only a second to realize what had happened before he too burst into ash. Gotta love the twin wonders of gravity and momentum. Physics was a beautiful thing.
I stood there for a moment, just trying to catch my breath. I could feel the blood trickling from the bite mark at my collarbone. At least she’d missed my throat. I turned to face Jack and froze at the look on his face.
Hunger. Pure, unadulterated hunger. Not bloodlust. I’d seen that on way too many faces to mistake what I was seeing for simple bloodlust. Jack wanted me. Wanted me bad: my blood, my body. I still didn’t know if Sunwalkers drank blood, but suddenly I didn’t care. I sucked in a breath as my heart started hammering in my throat. I swore the blood from my wound trickled faster.
Jack turned his head slightly and snarled at the young couple who still sat paralyzed on their picnic blanket. “Leave.” His voice was deep and rough and made things down low tighten with arousal. Well, wasn’t this just a nice turn of events?
The kids snatched up their blanket and ran for the parking lot without as much as a backward glance or a word of thanks. Can’t say as I blamed them; I’d have been freaked out, too. It wasn’t every night you nearly got eaten by vampires. Jack never even looked in their direction.
He stalked toward me, slowly, a predator hypnotizing his prey. Except this prey wasn’t scared and she wasn’t even close to hypnotized. OK, maybe a little hypnotized.
I stood my ground and looked him full in the eye. Probably stupid, but what can I say? My libido was seriously running out of control and I no longer cared what sort of weird magic mojo Sunwalker powers he had.
“Jack.” My voice was embarrassingly breathy. “Why are you here, Jack?”
He flashed his fangs at me. They were shorter than a true vampire’s fangs, more elongated canines than actual fangs. “I heard you.” His voice was rough and oh, so sexy.
I frowned. “Heard me? What do you mean, heard me?”
He snarled, obviously annoyed. “In my head. You were in trouble. You called me. I came.”
He was closer now. Close enough to touch. I frowned. “I didn’t call you.” I’d barely had time to think. There certainly hadn’t been time to pull out my cell phone and have a chat with my friendly neighborhood Sunwalker. “Wait, what did you say? You heard me in your head?”
“Enough talk,” he snapped, his ocean eyes swimming with hunger and deeper, darker things. He grabbed me around the waist and hauled me up against him so tight I could feel the hard length of him pressing against my belly. “Enough talk,” he growled against my mouth, his voice barely audible.
So I stopped talking and did what any sensible woman would do in my situation. I kissed him. It was like falling into a deep, warm well. He tasted like chocolate, and sunshine, and sex, and his lips and tongue were soft as velvet. Somebody made a little moaning sound and I wasn’t sure if it was him or me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my hands in his silky hair. His hands were on my backside, pulling me in tight against him so I could feel every solid bit of him. He was happy. Oh, man, was he happy. I rubbed myself right up against Mr. Happy and couldn’t help but grin a little at Jack’s growl.
I’d forgotten all about the bite on my neck and the blood all over my shirt until Jack dipped his head and started kissing my collarbone, nibbling the tender skin behind my ear while carefully avoiding my wound. It was unbelievably erotic and I swear I’d have purred if it were humanly possible. I was completely lost in the sensation of his mouth and his tongue and his touch.
And then all of a sudden Jack went still. He froze, then he lifted his head and as our eyes met I realized the Hunger was gone. Instead was a look of horror. “Jack? Jack, what’s wrong?” His hands dropped limply from my backside and he slid through my arms to the ground, lifeless.
That’s when I saw the dagger sticking out of the left side of his back, angled toward his heart, and Kabita standing behind him a look of determination on her face.
Horror slid through me. She couldn’t have. “What the fuck did you do?” I meant to yell, but it came out a lot quieter than that. Shock must have paralyzed my vocal cords or something.
This couldn’t be happening. Jack couldn’t be dead. I dropped to my knees, my hands on his face, at his throat. Did a Sunwalker have a pulse? I couldn’t feel a pulse. Shit, I couldn’t feel a pulse.
“Morgan,” Kabita’s voice snapped me out of the haze. “We were hired to execute him. He was about to kill you.”
“He wasn’t killing me, he was kissing me, you idiot.” I grabbed the hilt of the knife. You’re not supposed to pull out objects when people get impaled, but Jack wasn’t human. Jack was something else.
I yanked the dagger out of his back. Nothing. “Jack? Jack.” Nothing.
His blood was everywhere, black pools in the moonlight. The thick coppery scent hit my nose and sent my stomach heaving. I tried to stop the bleeding, but there was too much of it.
I didn’t care that we’d been hired to kill him. Killing him had long since ceased to be an option. Apparently Kabita hadn’t got the message. And I was evidently in a lot more shock than I realized.
I felt Kabita tug at me, trying to pull me away from his body, but I didn’t budge. I just held on tighter to the shell that had once been Jack. He’d lived for over 900 years and tonight I’d gotten him killed.
Chapter Thirteen
I’m not sure how long I sat there with Jack’s blood seeping into my shirt, but after a while I started noticing things. Kabita was talking quietly to someone on the phone, her voice a low murmur against the other night noises that had finally returned. My butt ached from the cold ground, but my chest was warm, almost hot, from the blood. Jack’s blood.
I pressed my cheek against the top of his head, feeling the silk of his hair tickle my chin. I honestly didn’t know what to feel. One minute we’d been kissing and the next he was dead. I was used to death. Heck, I was usually the one dealing it, but this was just a little too much.
Kabita put a tentative hand on my shoulder. “Morgan?”
“How could you do it?” My voice felt stuck in my chest. I sounded broken, not angry. “How could you kill him? You knew he wasn’t one of the monsters. I told you. He wasn’t hurting me.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, but he was biting your neck. What was I supposed to think?”
I shook my head a little. “He wasn’t biting me. One of the vamps we dusted bit me. He was just … we were just …necking.” It sounded so ridiculous.
