Ancient Blood: Infernal

by Kate Hill

  * * * * *

  Dulcie, wearing one of Matthew’s blue plaid dress-down shirts that dangled to her knees, stood at the kitchen sink, washing acrylic paint from several brushes. She cursed softly as the rolled-up sleeves slipped and she tried pulling them up with her teeth. Matthew had been at the center since two nights ago. Though accustomed to his crazy hours, she really missed him. The new center seemed to have an even greater hold over him than the hospital.

  She heard the familiar sound of his car in the driveway and caught his scent as he approached the front door. Her belly tightened with excitement and she smiled. Still, she forced herself to remain by the sink, unwilling to let him see how much she had longed for him.

  His footsteps were silent, but she felt him enter the kitchen. His arms slipped around her waist, and the petals of the bouquet of red roses he held tickled her chin. His lips brushed her cheek.

  She touched the flowers. “What are these for?”

  “You like red roses.”

  Turning in his arms, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him. She loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. “How’s everything at the center? You look a little tired.”

  “I’m sorry I’ve been spending so much time there. There’s just so much to learn.”

  “It’s okay. I never complained about your hours before, so I’m not about to start now. Just as long as you’re happy there. Are you?”

  He smiled. “Yes. Very. I didn’t think I would be this happy.” He traced her throat with his fingertip. “Isn’t that my shirt?”

  “You’re sharp tonight.” She slipped from his arms and walked to the refrigerator. “Are you hungry?”

  “Why don’t I take you out to dinner?”

  Dulcie folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “You don’t feel like going out to eat. Why don’t we stay home and relax and go out another night?”

  “Why don’t we make a date?” He drew her into his arms.

  She laughed sarcastically. “So you’re going to pencil me in like one of your patients?”

  “I meant make a date, like before we were married. Pick a night, get dressed up, go to dinner, then a museum or a play. Then I’ll see if I can get you to go to bed with me.”

  “I’m not that kind of girl,” she teased.

  He growled against her shoulder. “Not from what I remember. So will you date me or are you going to turn me down? I’m very fragile and your refusal will shatter my ego.”

  “It would take a nuclear bomb to shatter your ego, Matthew Peter Winter.”

  “Is that a yes or a no?”

  “Well, what day were you planning on? I’ll have to check my calendar.”

  “What night do you want?”

  “But what about the center?”

  He shrugged. “I’m the boss, remember? The only one over me is Jay, and my making plans with you won’t affect him at all.”

  “How about Friday night?”

  “Friday.” He nuzzled her throat, his tongue sweeping lightly over her warm flesh before his teeth pierced it. Dulcie gasped, her eyes slipping shut as she clung to him. The pleasure of his bite seemed to pierce her with desire from throat to breast to clit. Her nipples hardened beneath the shirt, and she clung to his neck, pulling his head closer as he lapped her blood. He picked her up, still drinking deeply, and carried her to the living room. As he dropped to the couch, she straddled his lap and unbuttoned his shirt. Splaying her hands across his chest, she clutched the lean muscles.

  When he’d finished, he kissed her throat.

  “You were thirsty.” Dulcie half-smiled, her cheek resting against Matthew’s shoulder as they sat, entwined, on the couch.

  “I’ve never tasted blood as sweet as yours.”

  “Glad you like it.” She nuzzled his neck, her incisors lengthening. She pierced his throat but didn’t drink deeply, as he had. She’d hunted earlier and quenched her thirst, but she just wanted to taste him. Though it had only been a couple of days, to her it seemed like forever.

  Her tongue licked his neck, loving the smoothness of his skin and the saltiness of his flesh. One of her hands rested against his chest, feeling it rumble as he growled, a low, sexual sound. His cock stiffened, pressing against her clit. She tugged up the shirt a bit so her soft mound covered in silk panties pushed close to his straining staff. Her love juices seeped through the silk and it clung damply to her most sensitive parts.

  After a moment, she lifted her head and licked her lips. “I’ll make something for dinner.”

  He swatted her behind as she left the couch, picking up the television remote control.

  “…the drug did not cause the death of the men and women across the country. Still, the question of ethics and money, such as in the case of Dr. Matthew Winter, remains a serious problem in the—”

  Dulcie switched off the television. “Did you know about that? The treatment didn’t cause the deaths. See, it wasn’t even your fault.”

  “That’s a relief. Now all I have to do is prove I never had investments with Fretis Company.”

  “I don’t know what the problem is. It’s insanity. The drug company has a record of investments under your name, but you know nothing about it. Have you thought about changing your lawyer? It’s costing us a fortune, and he’s still done practically nothing.”

  “If not for the principle of the situation, I wouldn’t even care anymore.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It makes me so damn furious.”

  Dulcie bent and kissed his forehead. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” He touched her cheek before she disappeared into the kitchen.

  Dulcie made salad and broiled chicken. When she’d finished, she called Matthew for dinner, but he’d fallen asleep on the couch. She half-smiled as she watched him. He is so adorable.

  Though she disliked Jay, she was glad Matthew had decided to work at the center. It had gotten his mind off his problems, and he seemed very happy with his new position.

  Dulcie tugged off his shoes and covered him with a black quilt before retiring to her studio to touch up her most recent painting.

  * * * * *

  The following afternoon, almost every hybrid in the center had dispersed for the day, leaving Matthew alone in his lab. In spite of his discreet questioning, neither Amanda nor anyone else at the center provided information about anything out of the ordinary. Still, he sensed something being hidden from him. If only he had Adam’s telepathic abilities! Without the most traditional gift of vampirism, he’d have to investigate by more human methods.

  Leaving the lab, he walked down the empty hallway to the elevator. He pressed the button for the basement. It seemed logical to search the center from the bottom up. Though he’d been given a tour on the first day, taking another thorough walk around the place would ease his curiosity.

  The basement was even darker than the upper floors of the center. Though the entire building had lights, they were seldom used and mostly for show in case of visits by mortal strangers—building inspectors and such. Only the glow of equipment and a bit of sunlight bleeding through thick blinds provided extra light.

  Even the janitor was a hybrid. Though young in years, Max appeared to be a portly, middle-aged man. He knew everyone and everything that went on in the center. As he searched through the storage and waste rooms, Matthew hoped Max was somewhere on the upper floors.

  With gloved hands, Matthew searched through trash until he caught Max’s scent. Cursing softly, he bundled the waste and tossed the gloves.

  “Dr. Winter, how ya doin’?” Max smiled broadly, revealing sharp little fangs and dimples in his plump cheeks. “What brings you down to the dungeon?”

  “Just wanted to have another look around the center. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the labs.”

  Max laughed. “That’s what you do, right? What do you care about the junk down here?”

  “You’ve worked with Jay for a long time, Max?”

  “Sure. We go back decades. He’s a
helluva guy.”

  “Yes,” Matthew murmured, “a helluva guy.”

  “You’re like me.” Max smiled again, rubbing his hands together. “You hardly ever go home. There’s always something to do around here. I got here at four last night and washed the hallways on floors one through ten. Then I dumped all the waste baskets. Did you ever notice how the trash in the ladies’ rooms is always worse than the men’s?”

  “No, Max. I never noticed.” Matthew thought of what the bathroom looked like after Dulcie finished fixing her hair and makeup and added, “But I’d believe it.”

  “After the trash, I scrubbed graffiti off the wall outside. Damn kids. They have nothing better to do all day than ruin other people’s property.”

  Matthew edged his way back to the elevator as Max followed, still reporting his night’s work.

  “Glad we had this talk, Dr. Winter.” Max stuck his foot in between the elevator doors before they closed. “Maybe we could do it again.”

  “Sure.” Matthew forced a smile. “Max, I really have to get back upstairs.”

  “See you later.” Max gave a mock salute and removed his foot so the doors slammed shut.

  Matthew sighed with relief as the elevator dragged upward.

  “And I thought Vincent was annoying. Max is a nice guy, but wow. Instant migraine.”

  Matthew searched the next ten floors and found nothing unusual. As he reprimanded himself for his paranoid behavior, he noticed a blank elevator button just below the one for the tenth floor. Feeling silly, he pressed it. The elevator stopped, and Matthew stepped out.

  He’d been told Jay had a private lab, but hadn’t considered where it might be. The corridor was long and gray, like the others, but carpeting covered the floor and the atmosphere seemed eerie. Only two doors stood at either end of the hall, and as Matthew walked toward the nearest one, his pulse raced. He hadn’t felt such doom since he, Adam and Vincent had fought the First Father.

  Like several of the labs below, the door was protected by a voice-sensitive security system.

  “Winter, Matthew Peter,” he stated, and tried to turn the doorknob. It remained shut tight and a message flashed across a tiny digital screen. Winter, Matthew Peter. No Clearance. He narrowed his eyes and repeated his name. The same message appeared.

  “This makes no sense. I was told I have clearance everywhere in this building. What the hell does it mean, no clearance?”

  He tried the other door, but it was also secured.

  Aggravated, Matthew’s grip tightened on the doorknob. He could force the door open.

  No. The best thing would be to approach Jay. Then if he didn’t like the answer he got, he’d consider breaking and entering.

  As he returned to his office, the curiosity about the restricted eleventh floor gnawed on him. Jay wouldn’t be in at least until dusk, and it was only eleven-thirty in the morning. What was Jay hiding in his private lab? Why couldn’t Matthew shake the feeling of doom?

  He worked for another hour, then decided to go home. The curiosity was driving him to madness. Maybe after getting some fresh air, some blood and talking to Dulcie, he’d feel better.

  * * * * *

  Dulcie jumped awake, her heart pounding. She squinted at Matthew, who stared at her from where he straddled the chair at her vanity.

  “Matthew, what is it?” She shoved long, tousled hair from her face and pushed herself to her knees. “It’s the middle of the day.”

  “I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “What are you doing home? Are you sick?” She walked across the room and touched his forehead.

  He laughed wryly and stood, pulling her into his arms. “No. Do I really spend that much time away?”

  “Yes. What’s wrong? I know something’s bothering you.” She walked to the bed and sat, watching as he undressed and slipped beneath the sheets with her.

  He tugged her against the length of his naked body and kissed her hair. “I think there’s something weird going on at the center.”

  “Weird how? Matthew, we had enough trouble eight years ago with the First Father. We don’t need any more.”

  “I know. It’s just a feeling I have. The other day, one of the hematologists said I didn’t know the half of what was going on there. Another scientist shut her up. They wouldn’t say anything more. Today I searched the building from bottom to top—”

  “Matthew—”

  “On the eleventh floor there’s a room I can’t get into. I think it’s Jay’s private lab. I was told I had security clearance throughout the center. Not there, it seems.”

  “What do you think is going on?”

  “I don’t know. We do most of our research on hybrids and Immaculates, but we also use human samples at times. I assumed he wasn’t killing anyone to get them.”

  “You think he’s murdering people?”

  Matthew shrugged. “I don’t know. I wanted to work at the center so badly, but I still don’t trust Jay. I hope I haven’t made the wrong decision.”

  Dulcie turned and took his face in her hands. “There’s probably nothing going on, but if there is, you’ll do what’s right. I have no doubt about that.”

  He brushed his lips across her forehead. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  “Why don’t you show me?” She licked his throat, her nails raking his biceps.

  He growled, his arms like steel bands around her waist as he rolled onto his back.

  Feeling his hard body, smooth in places, hair-roughened in others, against hers sent thrills of desire through to her soul. Her legs slid down the length of his, her feet caressing his calves. Staring deeply into his sapphire eyes, Dulcie leaned closer and took his lower lip between her teeth, sinking her fangs into the tender flesh.

  Matthew groaned, his eyes slipping shut. Clasping her buttocks, he rubbed his erection against her. Claws slid from beneath his human nails and he gently scraped them down her back. Dulcie uttered a guttural sound, the heady combination of lusty woman and feral cat. She licked his lips and kissed him, thrusting her tongue against his before sitting up. Her satiny bottom perched on his thighs, she clasped his cock in both fists, rubbing the velvet skin along the steely rod.

  Desire for him pulsed through her. Her nipples and clit ached with delightful torment. She loved it when he touched her, adored him deep inside her, but something about touching him turned her on like nothing else. The texture of his skin and ripple of his muscles beneath her hands and lips, the pounding of his heart against her palms made her libido sing.

  Sliding a bit farther down his legs, she bent, her long hair dusting his stomach, her lips hovering over his cock head. She breathed on it for several moments, then used the very tip of her tongue to caress the head and the tiny eye. She laved the underside, tracing a particularly thick vein, then took the head between her lips and sucked. It slid along her wet lips, in and out, in and out, until he growled with need.

  Usually a man of so many words, when Matthew made love he usually relied on animal sounds to communicate. It was as if he lost all reason and became a completely wild vampire, a creature of pure feeling. Dulcie loved the way he poured his entire soul into lovemaking.

  Grasping her shoulders, he tugged her upward, his eyes glowing lavender as she positioned herself atop him and slid onto his cock, her drenched pussy swallowing it inch by inch.

  While she rocked upon him, he caressed her breasts, squeezing the globes and pinching the nipples hard, the way she often preferred. He always seemed to sense exactly how rough or tender she wanted it. Usually she liked it hard. Really hard. Power excited her, particularly the raw power of an alpha vamp like Matthew.

  In a swift motion, Matthew flung her onto her back. His body stretched upon hers, he grasped the headboard, his hips bucking in time with hers as their fangs teased each other’s flesh while orgasms washed through their straining bodies.

  Chapter Ten

  That evening, when Matthew entered his office, Jay awaited him in one of
the plush chairs across from the desk.

  “Matthew,” he stood, smiling. “I let myself in. Knew you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Of course not.” After all, it was his building. Still, Matthew felt his feathers ruffle.

  “You were on the eleventh floor this morning.”

  “Yes.”

  “What were you doing there?”

  “I’ve been here a couple of weeks, but I scarcely leave my own labs. I thought I should be more involved in the other sections.”

  “That’s a half truth.” When Matthew didn’t reply, Jay continued. “The studies I conduct upstairs are very personal, but perhaps more important than any others in this center. I trust you to a point, Matthew. I trust your professional judgment. I trust your skill, and I trust your dedication to science and medicine.”

  “But?”

  “But I know little about your sense of justice, about what you view as right and wrong. I don’t know quite how far you’d go for your research.”

  “If this is about that rumor from Fretis Company—”

  “Of course not,” Jay scoffed. “I said I believed you, and I do. Especially now that it has been proved the drug you tested had absolutely nothing to do with the deaths. All those people happened to have been taking another drug. What a coincidence.”

  “Funny it wasn’t picked up right away.”

  “Yes, but life is like that, Matthew. You and I are doctors. We realize nothing is picture perfect. You should know more than anybody, after all you and your family went through with the First Father.”

  Matthew walked to his desk and sat, leaning back and watching Jay carefully.

  “You must really hate the First Father.”

  “There’s nothing left to hate. He’s dead, remember?”

  “But suppose there was another like him? You agree it would have to be destroyed.”

  “There are evil vampires in the world just as there are evil mortals.”

  “And it’s also been no secret how interested you are in the Originals.”