Bite Me (London Undead)

by PJ Schnyder

  “I’m done for. I’ve been bitten. Get out while you can and I’ll cover you. There’s a family, Mrs. Wells and her children. Help them!”

  He bared his teeth, long canines in his partially shifted form. His jaw and cheekbones had lifted and pulled forward, making his growl even more effective.

  “I won’t leave you here.”

  Seth barely noticed the scratches as a zombie clawed at his back. Maisie cursed and emptied whatever she had left in her handguns into the mass of arms and heads straining to get out the window. Before she could use her last bullet to carry out her threat, he scooped her up in his arms and leapt off the balcony.

  Only one story, and he had no trouble keeping his feet as he hit the pavement. He bent his knees to take the shock and kept her carefully pressed against him.

  More werewolves were on the scene as Danny arrived with backup.

  “Danny!” The name came out as more of a sharp bark than a word, but the pack medic instantly responded, sprinting to him. The others came at a run to flank them.

  Walking fast to get clear of the building, he ignored Maisie’s muffled protests.

  “Any others in the building?” Danny asked.

  Seth shook his head. “One family escaped, woman and a couple children. Send a pair of wolves to get them to safety. You need to see to Maisie, now. She’s been bitten.”

  Danny’s face stilled. “Put her here, Seth, on the corner. Let me see.”

  A brief, fierce battle warred inside his chest as he put a leash on the urge to protect his woman. Danny gave him space to decide and shouted orders to the other werewolves in the meantime. When Seth opened his arms, setting his precious Maisie down, her face had already gone pale, her skin clammy.

  She shook her head. “Too long. There’s not enough time.”

  The rot was taking over her leg. Blood vessels darkened under her grayed skin and the torn flesh around the bite had already turned a sickly green-black.

  “We didn’t put a tourniquet on it this time.” Maisie’s voice came in a whisper and her eyelids fluttered.

  “She’s got a high fever, Seth. Is she serious? This isn’t the first time?” Danny had his kit open, using forceps to remove the grisly teeth and trying to clean the infected skin. “It’s spreading faster than I ever saw it before. Her heart’s racing, accelerating the infection’s progress through her circulatory system.”

  Seth’s mind raced, searching for a solution. “Her friend, Brian, he cut away the dying meat the first time.”

  “And he used a tourniquet to slow the blood flow?” Danny spit out several curses of his own. “Bloody brilliant.” He moved to do the same. Even as he got the tourniquet on he shook his head. “It won’t work, Seth. It’s spread too fast.”

  Something. Something about what Brian said. Werewolves were immune. The vectors of infection weren’t compatible.

  Maisie had lost consciousness, her head lolling against his shoulder. He cradled her in his arms, turning her face away as he stared at her slender neck.

  “Forgive me.” He whispered the words and then bared his teeth.

  “Seth! What? No!” Danny shouted in horror.

  Seth sank his teeth into her neck and shoulder, biting down through skin and muscle until the delicate artery burst. Immediately he withdrew, licking at her neck.

  “Are you mad?” Danny shoved his face out of the way, pressed a folded pad of bandaging against her neck and applied pressure.

  If Danny hadn’t been a healer, Seth might have removed Danny’s arm from his body for touching his girl.

  “I needed to infect her faster.”

  Danny stared at him with wide eyes, comprehension gleaming. He slashed her slacks at her thigh. “Bite her one more time, here above the tourniquet, at the femoral. Quick, now, before the infection makes it the rest of the way up her leg.”

  Growling, Seth bit her again, his teeth cutting deep past her muscle. Her blood still ran clean in his mouth. Relief flowed through him.

  “Enough. You’ve mauled her bad, Seth. More than we do for the voluntary candidates.” Danny wiped the back of his hand across his brow, leaving behind a smear of Maisie’s blood. “We’ve got to get her back to the den and get some fluids into her. If she’s going to survive, we need to help all we can.”

  Gathering her up in his arms, Seth stood.

  “But if she doesn’t Change, if the zombie infection takes over first...”

  “I’ll kill her myself.” He could at least do that for her.

  Chapter Eight

  Maisie hadn’t ever believed the bollocks about following the light.

  Course when she started to come to, blinded by a bloody bright one, she wondered if she might have to amend her belief system.

  Then the memories came crashing back and she bolted upright.

  Or rather, she tried.

  “Easy there.” A familiar voice, comforting tenor. “I’m right here. Don’t do yourself any harm.”

  Heavy leather straps held her at the wrists and upper arms. Her legs too. “Seth?”

  Her throat ached and she croaked more than called his name. Fear drove her to struggle against the bindings.

  “Pupils are dilating fine. Blood is testing negative for the zombie virus. She’s in the clear.” The unfamiliar voice reminded her of Brian. When the speaker finished his assessment, the awful light disappeared. “Come calm her before she hurts herself.”

  “Easy, there, Maisie. I’m here.” Seth’s voice.

  A familiar touch on the side of her face. Relieved, she lay still for a moment.

  “Where?”

  Seth sounded as if he were just beside her. “Safe. You’re in my home. We set up an exam table for you in my room. We’re taking care of you.”

  Blinking hard, she tested her bonds again. As happy as she was to hear his voice, she was about to spit curses about the bindings. What was going on?

  His silhouette came into focus as she scowled up at him. Was he grinning? Bastard.

  “Such a face.” A chuckle. “Hold still, just for another minute.” Seth’s words ran over her, sending a delicious shiver down her spine.

  How did he make a simple request sound so intimate?

  A slight tug at the straps over her right arm and they came free. In moments, all of the cuffs were removed and Seth had slipped an arm around her shoulders to help her sit up.

  She stared at her legs. Someone had removed her trousers. Her right leg was still as she remembered, twisted and badly scarred. But her left...

  Experimentally, she wiggled her toes. Perfect set of five. No scars or muscle missing. Her left foot wasn’t misshapen or twisted. Yet she remembered the zombie sinking its teeth into her left leg, leaving teeth behind. Not a bite mark anywhere. Well, except on the inside of her thigh.

  What?

  “All right there, Maisie?” Seth’s concern brought her back to the present.

  “Am I dead?”

  “No.”

  “Should I be?”

  Silence. A grimace.

  More memories flashed through her head and she stared hard at her left leg, specifically at the spot mauled by a zombie that should have had teeth still buried in the flesh.

  “I’m...hungry.” The admission frightened her.

  “That’s expected.” The stranger spoke up again. “You’ll have more of an appetite now, and a higher metabolism. It’s important for you to get proper nutrition in the early days around your Change.”

  Fear stabbed her heart.

  “Well, I’ll give you two some privacy.” Despite the short words, the man’s voice had been gentle. Understanding. “I’ve got a different sort of visitor to attend to.”

  She straightened, wincing as she tried to see beyond the two males hovering before her. Mrs. Wells? Brian? “Who?”

  Seth’s voice came to her, gentle, but anger simmered beneath the surface tone. “Your landlord. He’s got a lot to answer for. We’ll be keeping him here for questioning before we turn him over
to human authorities.”

  “Oh.” She wanted to care. She should. All she could do was stare at her good leg. Still good.

  She barely registered the sound of a door opening and closing.

  How had she changed? Why was Seth allowing her to live? If she was alive... She couldn’t believe he’d allow her to become a danger to anyone else.

  “Maisie.”

  Panic took hold. How was this her? Her legs didn’t look right. Zombies didn’t have whole limbs. They rotted and fell apart.

  “Maisie! Look at me!”

  The force of the command snapped her head around and she couldn’t help but look into Seth’s blue eyes. For some reason, she was annoyed about it.

  His lips spread in a slow, cocky grin. “That’s my girl.”

  “What’s happened, Seth? If I look in a mirror, will I still be me?” Taking another look at her legs convinced her he’d swapped her with somebody else.

  A chuckle rumbled up from his chest as he reached over to a nearby counter and handed her a round mirror. “You’re still you—” the chuckle ended, “—and you’re different as well.”

  When she looked into the mirror, she saw her own face. With trembling fingertips, she touched the scar at the place where her neck and shoulder met. Other than the new scars, she seemed to be better than she’d ever been. She felt stronger, steadier. One at a time, her senses fed her a flood of information and then, her mind caught up with what it all meant.

  How was it one became a werewolf again?

  “It was the only way I could think of to save you,” Seth told her in a gentle voice. “Your friend, Brian, gave me the idea with what he said the night we met, about shape-shifters being immune. The zombie virus was spreading too fast to save you the same way he did the first time. You’d already fainted with fever. I couldn’t ask you.”

  A bite, or clawing, infected a human with the lycanthropy virus.

  “You bit me.”

  He slipped a hand under her jaw, holding her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m not sorry.”

  It’d take a lot to process, and she wasn’t all sure she was ready to admit she wasn’t human anymore. But one thing stood out in her mind. “I wasn’t ready to die.”

  “No. You’re a fighter.” He nuzzled her temple.

  So close, he smelled of a hundred different things. Blood and rotted things, streets and pavement, but also of soap and aftershave, grass and his own earthy musk.

  “Why?”

  He pulled away just enough to gaze directly into her eyes. “I wasn’t ready to let you go.”

  The kiss he pressed to her lips started gentle, but quickly stole her breath away.

  “I wanted to take my time courting you, give you time to decide.” He murmured his explanation against her lips, his hands gently stroking either side of her face. “But there you were, dying in my arms.”

  His hands tightened and he kissed her again, and she responded with everything in her. She wanted to reassure him, both of them, that she was still alive.

  And wanted him.

  When he pulled away a second time, he pressed his forehead to hers, his hands trembling. “The only choice I have left to give you is whether you want to stay with me or no. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. The pack will provide for any need and I’ll leave, give you your space.”

  No weakness in evidence in any aspect of this man, none at all. Yet somehow, he’d bared his throat and his heart to her simply by giving her a choice.

  “Brian. He’s safe?”

  “My wolves cleaned up the zombies in the building. We stopped Brian going in until it was all clear.” Seth choked out a laugh. “You’d locked up the dogs and cats so tight, the zombies couldn’t get into those rooms. All of them are safe.”

  “What happened to Mrs. Wells? Her children?” Struggling to gather her thoughts, she latched onto a neutral topic first.

  “Hale and whole. They’d run rabbit down the street when my men found them. We’ve put them up in a decent shelter until we can find the mother a job.” Seth’s voice sounded strained. “You don’t have to answer now, Maisie. But if you tell me to go, I will.”

  Even imagining him gone, never seeing him again, caused Maisie’s chest to tighten until she thought she might not breathe. She placed one hand over his chest, feeling the strength of his heart beating beneath, and closed her eyes.

  She leaned into his hand buried in her hair and turned her cheek to his palm, savored the warmth of his touch.

  For a moment, alone in that abandoned apartment building, she’d thought she’d go down fighting with no one at her side. No one to help her protect friends and dear ones. But he’d come to her.

  He’d fought a virus to give her a chance to make a choice.

  “Love me, Seth. No stopping this time.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, not breathing, his heart a staccato beat under her hand. Then he covered her mouth with his in the most possessive kiss he’d given her yet. His tongue explored in long, lazy sweeps until he withdrew to nip at first her lower lip and then her upper lip. Every nip was followed by a gentle suction as he tasted her mouth and whispered endearments against her lips.

  His hands caressed her gently as he continued to kiss her, framing her face and then wandering down her neck. He cupped one of her breasts in his hand and she gasped as he brushed her nipple to a hard point with his thumb.

  For a moment, he withdrew his hand and she almost protested, but claws flashed. Her shirt lay to either side of her, neatly shredded to expose her.

  “What?” Startled, she instinctively moved to cover herself, but he stopped her with a gentle yet firm grip on one wrist.

  “No stopping?” His voice had dropped an octave, husky with desire.

  Hesitating, she didn’t pull her wrist free and he loosened his hold. When she didn’t protest, he extended a single clawed finger to the center of her cleavage. As she watched, he sliced the tiny bit of fabric holding the front of her bra together. The pleased sound he uttered as he viewed her naked breasts made her blush. Still, she didn’t try to hide from his regard.

  Setting her free, he stood and undid his denims. No briefs, again, and his arousal stood out as he dropped his pants to the floor. Stepping out of them, he climbed directly onto the bed until he was crouching over her.

  She shivered with excitement and anticipation in equal measure. He didn’t cover her immediately.

  “You said no stopping, but you didn’t say how fast.” He grinned as he stared up the length of her body.

  Cheeky bastard.

  * * *

  Seth loved the way her cheeks, and other interesting bits, blushed deep red when he got her riled up. Oh and he planned to make up for it, no doubt there. He waited only another couple of moments to enjoy how beautiful and alive she was, lying in his bed.

  Dipping his head, he dropped a light kiss on her big toe and then another on the graceful arch of her foot, making his way up her ankle and calf to her knee. Taking his time about repeating the gestures with her other, scarred leg.

  “I—” She gasped and he looked up to see her fingers fiddling with the edge of the pillows. “It’s been a long time since I’ve properly felt anything there.”

  He smiled and caressed her perfect left foot, the one she probably expected to be as damaged as her old injury. “The zombie infection took over most of this leg, Danny said. When the lycanthropy virus, the factor that turns us to werewolves, took over faster, it healed your leg from the inside out. He said something about genetic map and stem cells and things. Either way, the only scars we have as werewolves are the original bites that made us. Usually.”

  He kissed her foot again, then ran his claws lightly along the underside. She twitched, ticklish, and he laughed.

  She cursed at him and he laughed harder.

  But he didn’t lose focus, oh no. His Maisie still had her panties on and he intended to remedy that in short order.

  He ran his hands over h
er legs in soothing circles, enjoying the way her skin heated under his touch, placing a kiss here and there, on her knee, on the inside of one thigh, in the crease of her hip.

  By the time he hovered over her panties, he was half drunk on her scent. When he blew gently over the thin cloth, a hint of wetness spread across the fabric.

  Almost ready for him, and he planned to be sure she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her.

  Lifting the side of her panties, he started to slice the fabric with a single claw, careful not to damage her creamy skin.

  “What am I going to do for clothes?” The words came out a little breathless.

  He tossed away her panties, admiring her naked body under his. “Oh, you won’t need them for the time being.”

  Covering her with his own body, he pressed his hips snug to hers, the length of his erection hard between them. She placed her hands on his shoulders, the hesitation in her touch reminding him he’d wanted to go slow, give her time to get used to him.

  So he took his time. He kissed her breathless and nibbled at her neck until she giggled. He ran his hands over her body, along her sides. Her breasts were a perfect fit for the palms of his hands and he enjoyed kneading them, teasing her nipples between thumb and forefinger, and then suckling them until she moaned.

  Once she writhed under him, gasping and pulling him against her, he slid his knee between her legs. She pressed kisses over his shoulder and drifted them across his collar bone, whispering against his skin, “Please.”

  He couldn’t, wouldn’t deny her anything in his power to give.

  “Please, Seth. I’ve got to have you, now.”

  And now, he wasn’t as likely to hurt her, not when she was a werewolf too.

  Bracing himself on one arm, he used his other hand to guide himself between her legs. As he pressed the tip of his cock to her entrance, he found her hot and slick and ready. Gritting his teeth for control, he nudged inside her, just the tip, teasing her tight entrance until she angled her hips upward. He gave in then, sliding into her, stretching her as her inner muscles clenched around him.