Dark Stranger

by Susan Sizemore

  “And are they buying it?”

  A low rumbling and hissing went through the crowd of Asi. None of them looked toward the human remains.

  “I don’t think so, sir.”

  “I figured that out.”

  Several of the larger aliens moved closer to him through the crowd. Their claws were raised high and open in an unmistakably hostile way.

  “I think we should try to leave,” Zoe suggested.

  He didn’t tell her about the Asi sidling around behind her, and he didn’t show his fear for her.

  “Too late to leave.” Doc sighed, knowing what he had to do to get Zoe out of here. “Tell them that I understand their appetite for blood. That it is my honor to provide it.”

  He ran his tongue over his teeth, stimulating his canines to extend. Once his fangs were out, he raised his left arm to his mouth.

  “Raven?”

  He ignored the almost hysterical worry in the Porphyrgia’s tone as he bit deeply into his left wrist and allowed the hot iron-sweet blood to pour out onto Jazoan’s corpse. He ignored the sound of Zoe’s concerned voice in the distance. Or maybe the voice was in his head.

  The Asi waited until he was dizzy from blood loss and had dropped to his knees before they gathered around and began to feast on the blood-soaked body of Jazoan.

  When the dizziness hit Doc knew he’d carried this gesture a bit too far. As the world started to fade to black around him, the last thing he managed was to meet the concerned gaze of the woman who’d followed him into danger.

  “Go,” he barely managed to whisper. “Get out of here.”

  “Not without you,” was her stubborn answer.

  “That’s an ord—”

  He was too weak to finish, and didn’t know if she obeyed. He lost sight of her as he fell slowly forward onto his face on the cold stone floor.

  She’s worried about me. I’m worried about her. Aren’t we a pair? was his thought before the world went completely away.

  24

  “Raven!”

  Zoe let out one panicked shout as he fell. It seemed like forever before she was able to grasp hard onto the self-control that had been so carefully trained into her. Never mind that she wanted to fight her way through hard shells and razor claws of milling Asi to get to Matthias Raven’s side. Never mind that her impulse was to throw herself over him and protect him with her body.

  “Melodrama,” she muttered. She took two deep, calming breaths. Melodrama never did anybody any good.

  Instead of responding on impulse, she ignored her racing heart and the tears that threatened. She didn’t whine over problems, she solved them. She kept her gaze on the big man lying among the feeding Asi and folded her arms at her waist.

  “Now what am I supposed to do?”

  She clutched her sides to keep from shaking. Her sarcasm masked the fear that he’d killed himself when he cut his wrist.

  Had he done that trying to save her? The dear idiot.

  She masked the worry that the Asi would attack Raven when they’d finished with Jazoan. She refused to pay any attention to the horror of knowing a human was being eaten by aliens or the nausea from the sight and scent of blood.

  She stopped staring at Doc and scanned the crowd until she found the Asi leader. Once she had him in sight, she abandoned caution and wove her way toward him, shouting and pointing as she approached. He soon got the idea and an Asi guard detail formed around Raven. Once she was sure Doc was safe from attack, she began to explain to the leader what was needed. The leader ordered several Asi to pick up and carry the large man away from their territory. Zoe followed close behind and gave them directions on where to go.

  Once she had them set Doc down safely inside a shallow cave at the edge of human territory, Zoe wasn’t sure what to do next. She settled beside him and wondered if she should go get Alwyn or Arco.

  She touched Doc’s forehead and felt at his throat for a pulse. She found a very slow heartbeat but didn’t know if that was normal or not. How did you tell if a vampire was sick? Did Raven need medical attention?

  Could she risk the interest and rumors that would be generated if Doc Raven needed medical help? People trusted in his being there, always protective and in control. He was the camp commander, the one everyone trusted to care for them. His being incapacitated would sow fear in the already stress-filled prison.

  “No,” she said aloud. She’d take care of him herself. Somehow.

  She settled down on the cave floor with Doc’s head in her lap and considered the situation further. Could they afford to let anyone else know about Jazoan? Or to let rumors of another incident with the Asi get out?

  “No,” she said again.

  How many people knew Raven was a vampire? How many did he want to know? Suprahumans kept low profiles when they lived among humans. The information was in his service record, of course. She could access that record anytime she wanted to through the data implants in her head.

  No, she reminded herself. She could access it anytime she needed to, but curiosity gave her no excuse to invade privacy.

  “Damn it. Being ethical is such a bitch sometimes.”

  Mind your language, Doc’s voice sounded faintly in her head.

  I can’t help it, she replied to the imagined voice. I’ve been hanging out with marines.

  All the while her fingers stroked Doc’s skin from the smoothness of his temples and forehead to the rough hint of fuzz covering his shaved scalp. She wondered what color his hair was, and what texture. Touching Matthias Raven brought her far more pleasure and comfort than she could have imagined an hour before.

  An hour before, she’d been terrified of him. She’d watched him feeding. She’d watched him kill.

  She’d watched him bleed as well as kill, and knew he’d done both for her.

  Had Doc done it for Zoe? Or had General Raven done it for the Porphyrgia?

  Why did it matter? Why did it make a difference?

  And why had she really been afraid of him?

  She shook her head. Oh, no, I don’t want to analyze that!

  “My leg’s fallen asleep,” she informed the unconscious man. She thought his eyelids fluttered a bit when she spoke to him, but the shadows could be playing tricks on her.

  How did one treat an ailing vampire? She’d ask the doctor, but he was out. Besides, she knew the answer to that already.

  It took her a few moments to realize that her lips were drawn back in a jealous snarl.

  She suddenly understood how Barb Langly acted.

  Maybe she should get Barb for him.

  “The hell I will.”

  Every fiber of her being rebelled at the notion of finding one of his numerous female donors to sate his need. Despite the darkness her vision went red and then deep green as visions of Doc’s fangs sinking into the silky throats of Barb and Maria and Celestine and however many others he kept in his harem sailed across her imagination.

  Wanting him set her on fire. The shock of sudden wild need was merciless and maddening.

  The hunger racing through her blocked out all of her training, all of her logic, all of her caution.

  Zoe grasped tightly onto Raven’s bare shoulders. “I know what you need,” she told him fiercely. “And this time you’re getting it from me.”

  “Here. Drink this.”

  The voice was calm, but the emotions behind it were not. Excitement rippled all around him. His cheek touched soft female skin. The tangs of arousal and blood scented the air; mingled; became one and the same.

  He wanted to open his eyes, but all the other sensations overwhelmed him.

  His head ached.

  Who was he?

  Doc Raven, he remembered. Matthias Raven of House Domini, Clan Corvus, Solsangre System.

  He asked. “Where am I?”

  Why did his voice sound so hollow and weak?

  “I’ve heard that people who faint are frequently disoriented when they wake up.”

  He recognized the voice as
Zoe’s. The sound was sweet, the humor dry, if a bit forced. The warm softness supporting his head was her lap. The delicious scent of arousal-spiced blood was hers. Her wrist was pressed against his mouth, her pulse beating sensuously against his teeth. Warm, tender flesh against sharp hardness. His tongue automatically slipped between his lips. It took only the taste of one sweet drop of blood from a small cut to make him let out a long, shuddering moan.

  He tasted her excitement when another drop slid across his lips. The spice of her desire gave the blood a flavor that was uniquely Zoe’s. Addicting.

  His mind did not want to focus. He simply wanted to feed. She was delicious. All of her would be delicious—her body, her mind, the living essence of her blood. Need burned and built in him.

  Focus, he told himself. Focus.

  He turned his head, a weak effort at denial, and his cheek grazed Zoe’s arm.

  Skin so soft. She smelled so good!

  “What happened?” He wasn’t sure if he spoke out loud or sent the thought to her.

  “You made a brave, if somewhat dramatic and thoroughly icky, gesture toward our Asi comrades.”

  Her voice was calm, but he was aware of the strain under the surface. She shook ever so slightly, a mixture of fear and desire. Her temperature was up, and, oh, the ripe-and-ready scent of her!

  “Here.” She pressed her wrist harder against his mouth.

  He wished she wouldn’t do that. Any of it. Even the reactions she couldn’t help. He wanted her too badly.

  Then it all came back to him, though he still didn’t know where he was or how he’d gotten here.

  And he was hungry. Famished.

  As only one of his kind could be.

  She was the only one who could sate every need that burned through him. Blood. Body. Soul.

  “Leave.” The word came out of him in an aching rasp. “Now.”

  He didn’t want her to go. He didn’t know if he could keep from stopping her if she tried.

  “Nonsense,” was all she said.

  Her trembling fingers stroked his forehead, and her wrist pressed harder, stimulating his canines. The blood flowed hot beneath her skin. He needed. Wanted. He was starving.

  And she was there.

  For him.

  Because she wanted to be.

  “Because I need to be,” she whispered.

  Some chivalrous part of him wanted to tell her that she didn’t know what she was doing. He didn’t know if he respected her too much to pretend that was true, or if she didn’t really know what she offered and he was too selfish to care.

  He hadn’t quite come completely to his senses before he lost them.

  25

  Raven was on her like lightning out of the darkness. Huge hands closed around her body. Hard muscles bore her down. A heavy body pressed against her. His insatiable mouth covered hers in a demanding kiss.

  For an instant Zoe’s reaction was one of overwhelming terror. This wasn’t a man, this was a storm.

  Not human!

  Suprahuman. More than human. Vampire.

  He was hers and nobody bloody else’s!

  Holding her. Caressing her. His skilled lips and tongue ravaging her mouth, setting her on fire.

  Stoking the fire he’d lit in her weeks ago even higher.

  She was being kissed by Doc, who she had wanted more than anything else in the world from the moment they met.

  I always knew it. Always wanted—didn’t know it could be so—

  Wonderful.

  Desire overwhelmed terror, though a tendril of fear remained. Awareness of what he was permeated her growing passion and added to its sharp, urgent edge.

  She kept her eyes closed and let all of her other senses take the lead. His palm covered her breasts, sending sensation pouring through her. Her fingertips traced across his broad shoulders, learned the sculpted contours of his back, and down his buttocks.

  Her hands cupped his ass, something she’d been wanting to do since she’d gotten her first view of the brawny general’s backside.

  She arched against him when his lips moved to her throat and trembled with the awareness of the hardness pressed against her thigh. The tips of a double-pointed knife slid sensuously across her throat and she forgot everything else for what seemed like forever.

  Then—

  Pain, bright and sharp and searing, rushed through her. Zoe opened her mouth to scream, but the sound turned to a moan of absolute pleasure. Her back arched and her head fell back, and all the darkness around her burst into light.

  The light dazzled her. White and blue and red incandescence surrounded and flowed through her in building waves of ecstasy.

  After a long time the waves changed into a slow, steady thrumming, and light faded into sound, though the sensation was no less pleasurable. The thrum turned into a drumbeat, and she eventually became aware that the sound was the strong, steady rhythm of two hearts beating in exact synchronization. The sound was beautiful, precious, and she clung to it as it began to fade.

  “No,” she whispered, aware that she was becoming herself again, and lonely.

  She found that her face was pressed against a hard-muscled shoulder. She breathed in the masculine tang of sweat, and tasted the salt of tears. Hers? His?

  “Damn,” she muttered and lifted her head. She wasn’t even sure what she was swearing about.

  “I know,” Doc said.

  When she looked questioningly up at him, he kissed her. Gently this time, his lips soft on hers.

  This human desire felt just as good as being bitten by him. Maybe better, because she could kiss him back, the give-and-take was as wonderful as being taken.

  She lifted her head from his. “That was—amazing.”

  He grinned, bright teeth but no fangs showed in the faint light. “You’re amazing. Is it because your blood is blue?”

  She pushed against his chest. It was like pushing against a mountain. “Oh, stop that.”

  He chuckled, and licked the spot where he’d bitten her. “This will make it all better.”

  “Are you sure you’re a doctor?” she asked.

  His lips moved to nuzzle her ear. Want me to show you my degree?

  I want you to show me more than that.

  His laughter rippled through her, sexy as hell, full of sweet promise.

  Gladly.

  She vaguely remembered that they were in a shallow cave where a couple of Asi had helped her drag Raven after he passed out. He’d been drained and weak, and she’d been trying to help him so they could get back to the human sector. They had work to do and—

  She didn’t care.

  Even after all the pleasure he’d already given her, all Zoe wanted was to make love.

  She wasn’t sure when he’d pulled up her uniform shirt but her nipples were delightfully hard between his massaging fingers. Flames licked through her, adding to the growing fire deep inside.

  She had a moment of awkward fear where she wondered if their physiologies were compatible enough for physical intimacy.

  Then she felt his erection pressing between them once more, and she threw back her head and gave a lusty laugh.

  She stroked the bulge in his trousers, reassuring herself that Doc Raven was very much a living, potent male. The way he sprang hard and heavy into her hand when he undid his trousers showed her a hunger that had nothing to do with being out of legend and myth.

  She found the man even more exciting than she had the vampire.

  They shed their clothes and explored each other’s bodies. She marveled at the texture of his skin, at the sculpted shape of his muscular body, the dark fuzz on his broad chest—she loved the feel of it against her cheek. She kissed every inch of him. She closed her eyes and memorized him with her fingertips and mouth. She learned the taste of him and breathed in his scent.

  “There’s so much of you!”

  “You’re such a little thing!”

  His mouth and hands learned her body just as eagerly. His touch was more
arousing than anything she’d ever known. Her body memorized the feel of him and already knew that nothing else, no one else, could bring her such aching pleasure.

  At some unbearable moment, when Zoe was already on the razor’s edge of bliss, Doc whispered, “Now?”

  She somehow managed a panting, “You better!”

  On a shared laugh they moved together into a very human act. The ultimate human act—full of passion, desire, sweating, straining flesh, breathless whispers, and laughter.

  She hadn’t known how much she missed sharing laughter.

  It was some silly whispered joke that triggered her first orgasm. From that point on she lost count.

  26

  When they were completely sated and totally exhausted, he collapsed on top of her with a muffled “Oomph.”

  Even the heavy weight of him covering her was wonderful; warm and reassuring.

  She held him close and ran a hand over his shaved head and down his back, thinking, Making love to this man is the only mistake I haven’t made lately.

  “Oh, it’s a mistake, all right,” he answered her thought. “Not that I regret it,” he added before her heart could sink. And then he yawned loudly. And fell asleep instantly.

  “Men,” Zoe complained. And smiled into the darkness.

  Her man.

  Her vampire?

  She was embarrassed now about her initial visceral reaction to discovering his ethnicity. It had been a primal response fed by all the old myths and misconceptions bubbling up from her subconscious along with the fear that drove those myths.

  Fear and fascination. She was still powerfully drawn by the fascination—

  But fear?

  She stroked her hand down his back, the gesture completely comfortable, completely possessive.

  He’d told her he was from a Dark Star world, a pleasure planet. Now she was certain he’d meant Solsangre.

  Solsangre. It was a beautiful word; it meant “Blood Star.”