by C. L. Quinn
“Food. And decent food, not that hotel FP stuff. Will one of you vampires come with me to get something palatable?”
Gently pushing past her, Jack went to the front of the room. “You aren’t going out, San. I’ll go, with Kwano. We can expect an attack from any front. Although, I doubt we’re safe in here either.”
“Yes, we are,” Kwano said. “I’ve spelled the room. Only a first blood would know we are here.”
“Oh, shit, you gotta stay with us, Kwano. Any chance Xavier would let us keep you?”
Kwano laughed, his deep voice attractive in a full laugh. “No. But I am here until this hunter and rogue vampire situation is resolved, and it looks like it may be a while. Working directly with this team seems like a wise idea. I will take it to Xavier.”
Jack pumped him on the back. “Thanks, man. I guess we’d better go.”
Saul called out from the bathroom, “All right. Get plenty.”
Back out on the street, the crowds winding down some now, both Jack and Kwano searched for the face they wouldn’t soon forget. Nothing, nowhere.
“What a messed up night, Kwano. I really didn’t think he’d know we were on to him.”
“Survival makes a man clever. He’s probably been around a long time. I didn’t get enough of a read on his lifeforce to tell his age.”
“You can tell a vampire’s age?”
“Not quite, but you can get a sense of years. If a vamp is very young, you’ll be able to tell.”
“Naiveté?”
“Somewhat, but mostly in their lifeforce. It’s not an easy thing to teach, but you’ll get it.”
“I hope so. Life as a vampire is so different than human. And it’s far beyond the no daylight rule. My connection these days to the human race is less than it is with you guys. Is that normal?”
“It is. It’s your body and mind telling you that you must move on. It’ll be all right, Jack.”
“I appreciate the sentiment. I hope it’s true in the end.”
Leaning over a stand on the end of the street, Jack looked up into a shiny glass window that spanned the bottom of a retail building made mirror by the darkness and opposing light. Surprised to his core at what he saw, he did everything possible to remain easygoing as he touched Kwano on the arm.
“Don’t look around, but the target is behind us. About fifty paces. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t seen me yet.”
“Stay still, Jack, keep that smile. I’m going to turn and freeze him if I can across this distance and sea of humanity.”
“Do it, Kwano, before he realizes we’re here.”
Jack kept his gaze on the glass, watching the man who’d killed him advancing toward the eatery. His ultimate joy would be to punch him in the face so hard his eyeballs would fall out, but this opportunity would not come again.
It all happened at once. Jack continued to watch the vampire slayer weave his way through the crowds, scanning faces with barely concealed interest. Jack caught Kwano’s gaze, and knew he saw it too.
The vampire was hunting. Time to stop him forever.
At that same moment, he lifted his head abruptly, still scanning, but alarmed, his motion frantic. It was apparent that his vampire sense was aware that there were other vampires near. He made the mistake of staying to try to identify who it was instead of escaping at his quickest pace.
Kwano had him.
Frozen, locked in place, he was left conscious with only eye movement possible.
As Kwano and Jack approached the immobilized vampire, wide searching eyes let them know he was terrified.
Jack got right in his face. “You should be.”
Kwano moved behind him. “I’m taking him back to the hotel using hyper speed. We’ll move so fast, we’ll be unnoticed by the shoppers. Get back as quickly as you can.” Kwano grasped Jack’s forearm. “Watch your 360. Odds are, he isn’t alone.”
Kwano and Jack’s would-be murderer were gone, and while he was careful to do as Kwano suggested, and watch for anyone beyond the ordinary, to seek any sense of vampire presence, during the entire walk, at normal human pace, he felt calmer than he had for months.
He paused outside the door of the suite before he entered as a true smile struck him. Pushing through the door moments later, he closed it and rested his weight against it.
There, in the center of the room, still unable to move, was the man, vampire, who had tried to kill him, who had changed his life forever. A vile creature who thought himself like a god that he had the right to decide who gets to live or die. He would leave this world tonight. Justice would be done.
Saul glanced at him. “Jack, come in. We’ve begun interrogation. Kwano has compelled him.”
“Get anything yet?”
“We wanted to wait for you. Figured you’d want to see this.”
“Yeah.” Jack pushed away from the door and approached the dark-haired, dark-eyed vampire, handsome like most, but there was something in his expression. If you looked close enough, it gave him away. He really did think that his vampire nature made him lord over all lowly humans who walked this earth. One of what Xavier called a rogue.
“His name is Buck,” Kwano supplied.
“Buck. What a nice common human name.”
Buck was compelled to answer any of Kwano’s questions, but he was still aware of who he was and where he was. “Nothing common about me. Certainly nothing human.”
“Arrogant bigshot. You’re nothing but common, but I agree with you on the second point, there isn’t any humanity left in you. And I’ve learned recently that vampire doesn’t mean you lose it. Being undeserving and alive on this planet, does.”
Jack moved closer. “We’re gonna fix that tonight.”
Then he stepped back to let Kwano do his job.
“Why did you attack Jack? Then Plato? Why have you targeted this group?”
Buck spat at Kwano, but missed. “They showed up here to fuck with a hunter’s group that killed two of my boys. And my favorite make. Those hunters were mine. I had slicing and dicing planned for them, but these assholes got in the way. So when you dickheads left them, I killed all five you came into town to help, whatever the fuck that was about. Yeah, assholes, they’re all dead. Epic fail on your part. So now you’re giving me four more pissin’ and moanin’ hunters to kill. Wasn’t about to leave any of you alive either.”
Sick at his stomach, Jack nearly lost it. Buck had killed all five hunters here in Kansas City that they’d purged and built new lives for? He started to reach for a nearby machete to take Buck’s head off right then, but a hand on his arm stopped him. He looked down to see Sanquinetta’s ringed fingers wrapped around his wrist.
“No. We’ve got him, he’ll die tonight. Let Kwano finish.”
After swallowing hard, grateful for her touch, he stepped back.
“Who is working with you?” Kwano demanded.
“No one.”
“You didn’t do all that by yourself.”
Buck spat again and sneered. “I was motivated.”
“I ask you again, and you must answer, were you or are you working with anyone to hurt hunters?”
“No. I had the two guys and Marissa that those hunters killed. They were my posse, man. I didn’t have anyone else after they were decapitated.”
Kwano looked at the Jack. “He can’t lie. He had to be alone. Guys, San is right, we have him. Let’s carry him out and smoke him. You know where the oven is they used around here?”
“Yeah, we do. Let’s just get this done. I want to get home.”
Realizing he was frozen, unable to defend himself, and that they were going to kill him soon, Buck started screaming.
“Goddamit, you’re just like me! Why are you doing this? We could have so much fun…come on, motherfuckers…”
“Sleep.” Kwano grinned. “That’s my favorite command.”
When it came time to move Buck later, Kwano once again used compulsion, which Buck tried and failed to overcome, and made him walk out of the
hotel, get in a car, and ride silently to his death.
Waiting across the street in a sidewalk café with full view of the hotel exit, Buck’s recently hired four horsemen watched, keeping safe distance lest someone read their vampire lifeforces. They watched the hunters carry out the man who had brought them to Kansas City to eliminate a threat to “vampire life.”
Fingering a tall glass of a fine wine, Quattro couldn’t take his eyes off his quarry.
“So they got him. Well, they’re good. It was wise to use compulsion to make sure that Buck kept our existence to himself. Still, we have a job to do. It will be a pleasure to play with them. Worthy opponents for monsters of legend like us.”
He lifted his glass high in a mock toast.
“Hello, my friends, we shall meet on the battlefield soon.”
Fourteen
“Jack, we won. We can’t be responsible for everything that happens in our world. That asshole would have killed them whether we were there or not! Jack, are you listening to me?”
“I’m listening, ma’am.”
“You’re still packing.”
“Because I’m leaving, San. You know why.”
“You’re disheartened by our failure to protect those hunters in Kansas City.”
“It’s one reason I’m leaving, sure, this life is tearing me up. It would tear anyone up. But it’s not the major reason.”
“You’re really in love with her, aren’t you? Are you gonna marry her?”
“I don’t know if vampires marry, but whatever they do, I need to see her, I need to be with her. I know you care about me, I care about you too. San, you’re family. But you’ve been right all along. I’m in love with that beautiful vampire.”
Sanquinetta looked out at Jack’s ocean view from the house he’d bought because he loved it so much. With a setting moon, the night view was spectacular. He couldn’t live in it anymore, at least, not unless he did some major renovations. Right now, it was nothing but exposed glass.
She was on his bed, and looked down at her body lying across his sheets. Right where she’d always dreamed she would be. Only not the way she wanted.
He was going to another woman she could never compete with. Not because Ife was vampire, but because he was in love with her.
Love was the one thing she couldn’t overcome.
“I’m happy for you.” She meant it. Her love for Jack would be shit if she couldn’t be happy that he’d found the woman he was meant to be with.
Surprising her, he dropped beside her and took her face in his hands, kissed her eyelids and cheeks.
“You are a glorious warrior. I was never the right man for you. Someday he’ll come and he’ll blow you away, exactly as you deserve. I do love you, Sanquinetta Marianas. Never doubt that.”
“How could you not?” Tears overflowed now, washing away the touch of his lips on her cheeks. “I’m glorious.”
“You are. I’ll be back, San. I think. But I have to see where Ife and I go from here.”
“Then get on that plane, vampire. You don’t want to see that sun rise, do you?”
“No. Xavier’s provided me with his UV protected jet. These first bloods are not living paycheck to paycheck like we always have.”
“I guess not. I better ask for a raise.”
“Take care of the crew while I’m gone.”
“Yeah. Just. You take care of you.”
Two nights later at Ife’s Compound in Brazil
It had been raining for two days and, although it had stopped, the ground was sodden. Another squall earlier in the day had left inches of additional rainfall loosening the grip of new roots in the soil.
Surveying the damage, Ife lowered herself down to the ground, tender fingers tucking exposed roots back into the soaked soil.
“Bad timing,” she whispered out loud. This area would need a lot of TLC to survive. She’d get everyone out when they finished first meal to begin to repair the damage.
“You’ll be all right, my little ones,” she told the tiny trees. “I won’t let you fall.”
Standing, she looked out over the project that had begun so perfectly. All it had needed was proper care to thrive. She had planned to leave her team to take care of it while she took a little trip back to the states. Now, that trip would have to wait.
Ife looked up the steep slope. Perhaps it had been a mistake to plant this valley, but it was so fertile here. No, it was a good choice. Vampire skills combined with the incredible magic of Scottie and Crezia would fix this. It was just heartbreaking to see her healthy little trees falling over in the unfortunate deluge.
Time to go in and see if anyone was ready to join her out here. Reaching for her crystal lantern, she started back up the slope when she saw a tall figure at the crest. He cut a striking silhouette against a moonlit sky. Vampire, although she couldn’t see who.
Lifting her light higher, she tried to make out a face but he was too distant.
“Hi,” she called out.
The man started down the slope, sliding some, recovering, sliding again, until he was near enough, she started toward him, using the lantern to see his face.
Shocked, Ife couldn’t move. “Jack?”
She lowered the light to cast him back into darkness.
It couldn’t be. First, he wouldn’t be here in Brazil. And second, the man on the hill was vampire.
Seconds passed and she lifted the light again to see him smiling, that charming smile that had won her right away back on the Oregon coast.
“Hello, beautiful naked lady.”
Surprised that Jack really was here, Ife lost her footing. Even vampire speed didn’t help, she was so distracted, she tumbled down the soaked incline, rolling, rolling, until she was stopped by a row of older saplings. Her lantern cast a hard light uphill as it lay on its side nearby.
Controlling the rest of his descent, Jack was there just as Ife struck the small trees. He scooped her up into his arms.
“Didn’t mean to knock you off your feet.”
She stared at his face, aware more now at this moment than she’d realized how deeply she’d missed him.
“Jack,” his name came again on a soft breath. “You knocked me off my feet that first night you came down the beach to me. It seems nothing has changed.”
“So you’re happy to see me?”
She shook her head, her arms around him, her face buried next to his. In the understatement of the century, she calmly said, “I’m happy to see you.”
Moments passed as she let herself inhale him, his scent, his strengthened scent.
“Jack, you’re vampire.”
“Yes. Stories to tell.”
He looked her over, nearly every inch of Ife’s face and body covered with mud.
“You’ve never looked more beautiful.”
Ife laughed. “Neither have you. How did you find me?”
“Ben told me how find your compound. It’s an amazing place. One of your friends told me how to find you.”
He tried to brush some of the mud from her hair and gave up. “Why don’t I get you back at your place and both of us into a shower?”
“No.”
The word startled Jack. No? She didn’t want to go with him? Had he been wrong? She’d seemed happy to see him.
“No,” Ife repeated, and wiggled free to drop effortlessly to the wet earth. Grabbing his shirt, she pulled him down into the mud with her.
“No, I can’t wait until we go in.”
He watched, stunned, as Ife pulled her shirt over her head, then reached for his. Her fingers curled over the tail and yanked it up and off.”
“Here. Now.”
Yes…!
Eyes locked on each other’s, they pulled off their pants at the same moment, shoes gone before, and stood, naked, even in the low light, they could see each other clearly.
“How is it possible you are even more beautiful than I remembered?”
Ife didn’t answer, moving close, her hands on his chest, star
ting at his pecs, against the mud-slickened skin, she slid them down his body, over the flat belly, lingered there to caress the hard muscle, before she lowered a hand to what she’d missed most. The physical link, the deepest connection possible, when he was buried in her, moving inside her, touching where nothing else could touch.
He was vampire now, and bigger, her hand curving and twisting over the thicker organ, the head bigger, and oh Gods, she couldn’t wait to plunge down over him.
Vampire, he was more durable, good, because she needed, needed, him after so long apart, so she shoved Jack with vampire force, and he went down hard, buried in thick mud.
She stood over him, staring down, appreciating this man, this vampire, who had come for her, who she now knew loved her as she loved him.
“Jack,” Ife whispered, feeling like that was the only word that meant anything to her right now, as she lowered herself to slide, controlled, slow, onto Jack’s engorged cock. She settled, unmoving, for moments, before she lifted to his strangled groan.
“Oh, fuck, Ife, you feel…”
Jack couldn’t think of a word that fit, or was it that he couldn’t think of anything at all with Ife clenching him so tight. The groan came again as his hands went to her thighs.
Moving up and down now, after a deep graveled sigh, Ife spoke. “Who made you?”
It took a moment for him to realize what she asked, his mind so fractured by what she was doing to his cock. “Uh, it was Saul.”
Up, down, savoring, Ife leaned down, her nipples grazing his, her fingernails digging holes in his chest, Ife clenched harder.
“Were you…ahhhh!”
Her speed increased, mud splattering, especially when he confirmed what she’d feared. He’d been dying.
“Yes…”
Faster, all the way out, to feel the head when he entered again, she’d nearly lost him!, faster, harder, riding Jack as he grabbed her thighs, thrusting, ready to come, ready to drink from her for the first time.
Mud covered both as they got slicker, both tightened their grips, Ife now lying on Jack, the orgasms finally hit, Jack exploding into Ife, her cries uncontrolled, as she felt Jack, her mate, come inside her. Oh, Gods, yes, he was love to her, home for her.
