Primal Cravings

by Susan Sizemore

  Their destination was to the north. Jake heard helicopters circling overhead. Media? Military? Rescue? He knew one of them wasn’t a copter sent by the Dark Angels to get him and McCoy out of the earthquake zone. A little thing like a natural disaster—if it was natural—wouldn’t get them rescued or called back to base.

  “We’ll make our own way,” he told the man. Leave now, he telepathically ordered.

  The man went.

  Jake closed the door. He kept his back turned to the woman when she came out of the bathroom. He heard her open her go bag and waited until she was dressed before turning to face her.

  He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to—

  They needed to get back to their assignment.

  “Our plans to return to Los Angeles have become a bit complicated,” he said.

  “So I heard. Perhaps we should—”

  Her voice trailed off as Jake glared at her. It didn’t take telepathy to know exactly what McCoy was about to say. “It is not in the interests of our assignment to volunteer our help to pull quake victims from the rubble. Worry about mortals at your leisure, but we have our orders.”

  McCoy bit her lower lip. Jake knew the gesture was her way of stopping herself from making a hot, hasty retort while she considered the situation. But to him, seeing white teeth on soft pink flesh was an absolute turn-on.

  Perhaps this attraction was what caused him to offer a sop to her conscience. “We’ll be more help to humanity if we get on with our job. I suspect the earthquakes are caused by the magic we’re supposed to stop.”

  Her eyes widened. “Come on, Piper! It would take a hell of a witch to—a Cave Witch! We’re dealing with Cave as well as Tower magic? Not a good combination. Maybe that could be causing quakes—but what makes you think so?”

  “You had a vision of an earthquake,” he reminded her.

  She put her hands on her hips, and asked skeptically, “Now we’re calling it a vision? I thought it was a hallucination.”

  “Not after our personally experiencing a four on the Richter Scale.”

  “They don’t use the Richter Scale anymore,” she said. “The modern—”

  “I don’t care.”

  McCoy took a deep breath, and got back to business. “Since we can’t use the resources we discussed in LA, we do have an alternative group we can use in San Diego.”

  Jake knew what she meant, but he didn’t want to hear it. “There are bound to be routes that aren’t blocked by—”

  “We helped Laurent Wolf’s team. I’m sure they’d be happy to return the favor.”

  He wanted nothing to do with Laurent Wolf. He especially didn’t want McCoy anywhere near another Prime. Especially the insouciant Clan Wolf Prime.

  It took Jake a moment to recognize that his emotion was raging jealousy. Once he’d clamped down on that nonsensical feeling, he conceded that McCoy’s suggestion for a base of operations had some merit.

  “All right. How do we go about contacting this detective agency?”

  “That’s easy. Laurent slipped me his business card.”

  The raging jealousy tried to rise, but Jake forced himself to be calm. He managed to only sound sarcastic when he said, “Of course he did.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “I did not cause an earthquake with the Burner spell. And what does it matter if I did? It worked. I’ve found my brother. Why are you bothering me?”

  Leviathan absolutely loathed the tiny telephone he held to his ear. He hated that he’d agreed to the mad Cave wizard’s insistence he use this thing for communication. The wizard was adamant that telepathy distracted him—upset the balance of his humors, as the mortal put it.

  Leviathan looked forward to the night he ate the Cave magician, humors and all. Draining the mortal’s blood alone would not be enough to avenge the insults he visited upon Leviathan’s pride and honor. But for now he needed the madman. And the madman needed Leviathan, which kept him from being even more arrogantly obnoxious than he could be.

  Leviathan gave a thin smile, acknowledging that he was no different from the mortal. But as a Prime he had the strength to be as arrogant as he wished.

  Leviathan sat within the sheltering darkness in the back of a windowless van. During the earthquake his driver had run away screaming from the rocking vehicle. Leviathan did not blame the mortal mind slave. He’d call her back to his side later. She better be calm enough to drive by then. He might not even punish her for abandoning her place by his side, but he probably would. It was important for mortals to be more frightened of Primes than of anything else in the world—even if the world was opening beneath their feet. Better for them to get used to the near future, when the universes melded and mortals would fall.

  But in the meantime he was stuck dealing with the Cave wizard as an equal partner.

  “Why did you call?” Leviathan demanded.

  “Why did you take so long to answer?” the mortal complained.

  “I was working.”

  Leviathan had been concentrating on inserting his own thoughts into his younger brother’s mind. He’d been coaxing, testing, working his way through Yakov’ s strong shielding. He’d discovered that the youngest of the Leviathan Tribe seemed to have accepted the brainwashing the Family Piper telepaths had inflicted on him. Yakov was conditioned to think like a weakling, but so deeply that he saw the weakness as strength. Getting through to him was difficult, and an intermittent process at best. It did not help that Yakov was consumed by lust for a mortal woman. The fierceness of the young one’s concentration on the female also blocked Leviathan’s psychic efforts.

  Well, touching the true nature buried inside his little brother would get easier in time. He would bring Yakov back to the Tribe. Just as he would bring Melchor back from the dead.

  “If the spell worked you don’t have to linger in California. I need you back here.”

  “I promise to bring you a proper sacrifice when the time comes. Leave me alone until you’re ready.”

  “I need you for security. How can I concentrate if I have to watch the prisoner all the time?”

  “He isn’t going to escape.”

  “But he could be rescued. His people are looking for him. You underestimate the power of mortal magic.”

  “Do you want me to spend my time standing guard over him?”

  “Just be here. A vampire makes a good psychic shield against mental probes. Besides, I need you around to chase off the tourists.”

  As much as Leviathan tried to ignore the inevitable immersion into anything to do with the mortal world, he did know what a tourist was.

  Their base of operations had been chosen carefully. It was one of the rare places where walls between realities were thin. Where energy leaked from strange sources. The right people could manipulate it. Ordinary mortals flocking to the place made no sense.

  “You said tourist season was over,” Leviathan said.

  “There are always a few around, even in December. Your mental energy will keep anybody from discovering my cave.”

  “Protect your own territory. Kill anyone who comes near.”

  “I don’t have time for that,” the mortal whined. “Do you want the Walls shattered or not?”

  He did. And soon.

  He wanted to end what little power the Cave magician had over him.

  “I’ll return tonight,” Leviathan said.

  But he didn’t plan to stay long. He had so much more work to do with Yakov.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “They know we’re coming,” Dee said about the people at the detective agency in San Diego. It felt reassuring to have cellular service restored. It gave her people to talk to.

  Her comment were the first words spoken to Piper since they’d driven away from the motel nearly an hour ago. Piper didn’t answer her, or even act like she was there. She looked up briefly from her cellphone screen. Piper’s muscles were tense, his expressionless face looking at nothing but the road. Not only did he pretend she was
n’t there, he put off vibes telling her he found her company completely distasteful.

  He certainly hadn’t complained about her taste when he was drinking her blood.

  Fine. Let him sulk, Dee thought. She continued checking voice mails and texts, intending to report only what Piper needed to know to him. Since all she could make out from furtive glances at him was indifference, she decided Piper would only have a need to know anything from her if the Zombie Apocalypse was heading their way.

  And why was she being furtive about even looking at the moody Prime, anyway? She hadn’t done anything to feel sorry about. Or embarrassed, either. It had just been consensual sex between consenting adult paranormal people.

  There would be teasing when the rest of the Dark Angels found out—and she had no doubt they would somehow find out—but there was still no need for embarrassment. Or, Goddess knew, regret. She’d enjoyed every moment of it, up until the end when Piper got all bent out of shape over a little love bite.

  Vampires were weird.

  Dee could use suffering a residual twinge of the nasty sex spell as her excuse for the fact that she wanted to have him again. Right now. In the back seat.

  It was very likely he knew what she was feeling, if not thinking—maybe even what she was thinking.

  After one last text she finished with her phone and plugged it into the dashboard to recharge. When a small aftershock shook her around in her seat, she didn’t let on she felt it. Maybe it was only her imagination. Piper drove on without giving any indication he felt anything.

  He’d looked like this all the time a week ago, she remembered. This was the way he’d carried himself the whole time she’d known him. She hadn’t liked it then. She hated it now.

  * * *

  He’d tasted her blood. There was no denying his need for McCoy now. Jake had not denied it in the first place, not to himself. But now he had to back off, put some distance between them, build barriers against the craving that—

  “Oh, my goddess!” she shouted, sitting forward so quickly she strained against the seatbelt.

  He’d been able to keep the SUV moving straight on the road during the aftershock. Now, Jake swerved. Worry for her twisted his gut.

  He kept his voice toneless when he asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re a vampire!”

  A quick sideways glance McCoy’s way showed him she was touching her throat. On the spot where he’d bitten her. He’d hoped she’d forget about that intimacy. The memory of tasting her would be part of him for the rest of his life. Along with the urge to taste her again and again.

  “It was established some time ago that I am Prime,” Jake said.

  “You bit me!”

  “And you bit me!” The furious words snapped out before he could stop them. How dare she—!

  “I didn’t even break your skin.”

  You wouldn’t be alive if you had. Jake just barely managed to keep those words to himself.

  “Apparently I did something rude by biting you back,” McCoy said.

  He gave a curt nod. His hands gripped the steering wheel nearly hard enough to shatter it. Fury boiled through him. And shame. And if he wasn’t confused about why he was so upset he might be grasping her throat rather than the wheel.

  “We know lots of vampires and mortals who bite each other all the time,” she reminded him.

  “Dark Angel Primes are notoriously enthusiastic when it comes to inter-species dating.”

  “And apparently vampires and werefolk are doing it now. Sometimes even vampires and vampires taste each other. What’s wrong with equal opportunity bloodletting?” After he didn’t answer for a while, she added, “Aren’t I good enough for you?”

  “Everything is not always about you.” It was.

  “Then what’s wrong with you?”

  “You are a mortal female.”

  This time she didn’t answer, but he was still caught in the emotional blast of her fury and humiliation. A twinge of guilt for causing this turmoil cut through his own disconcerted reactions.

  “I have never—shared my blood with anyone, of any species. To do so is a weakness among Tribe Primes. A perversion, even.”

  He’d never shared this with anyone. Sharing it with McCoy was important to him, even if he shocked himself by doing so.

  “You’re not a Tribe Prime,” McCoy reminded him. “At least that’s what you keep telling everybody.”

  Her voice had returned to the same cold tone she’d always used when she had no choice but to speak to him. Had that been only a couple days ago? Yesterday? He’d gotten used to her being more relaxed and friendly with him. Even sympathetic and teasing sometimes.

  Her words caught him off guard. “I am Prime of Family Piper.”

  “You say it, but do you believe it?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Who and what he really was was a whirling battle in his head. He hadn’t felt any doubts about his decision to join Family Piper in years, and now all of a sudden—

  And what possessed him to constantly blurt out the truth to this woman?

  He knew there were some who would say that his emotional softness toward McCoy was part of the initiation of a bond between them. They were right. He rejected the whole holy grail notion of acquiring a bondmate, but what good would simply saying I don’t wanna do if the thing took on the inevitable momentum the experts claimed?

  What’s wrong with having a bondmate? he wondered.

  Only to have a blaze of pain go through his head as he recoiled from the idea. He wondered how he could be punishing himself for a mere thought.

  “What was it that alarmed you earlier?” he asked.

  “Everything about you alarms me,” she snapped back.

  He couldn’t stop a smile, though he tried. “No wonder the rest of the Crew calls us the Bickersons.”

  “Do they?” She was indignant. “But we haven’t bickered in front of anybody. Have we?”

  “I think they feel the things we aren’t saying. Don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” she grudgingly admitted. Her shoulders hunched with embarrassment. She looked out the windshield, her gaze on the world going by beyond the uncomfortable closeness inside of their metal box.

  They lapsed into silence, which Jake knew he should let go on. But he couldn’t leave her alone. “You dramatically clasped your throat as you called upon the goddess.”

  She looked at him, rubbing her neck as she did. She had no idea how sexy he found the gesture.

  “You drank my blood. Does that—give you power over me?”

  “Oh, yes. I am now your master. You are my sex slave. Forever.”

  When he glanced her way McCoy’s expression was skeptical.

  “Was that a lame try?” Jake asked.

  “Completely. I’d prefer a more clinical answer. For example, did your fangs inject me with some sort of chemical toxin?”

  “You came, didn’t you?”

  She blushed so brightly her freckles practically glowed. A soft spot deep within his dark primal soul found this adorable.

  “There’s no need to put it so crudely,” she said.

  “We’re both soldiers. Crude comes with the job.”

  She ducked her head, then gave him a sideways glance. There was a tiny hint of humor in her aura. “There were multiple orgasms. I wont deny that. And only some of it was from the spell energy. It doesn’t mean we’re engaged, does it?”

  “I basted you with sage. That doesn’t mean we’re engaged, does it?”

  “No, it just makes you an apprentice witch,” Dee answered.

  “Do I get a pointy hat?”

  “Not until you graduate.”

  * * *

  Were they flirting with each other? Dee was half-convinced every conversation they had was downright crazy. Crazy or not, information was shared. She still wasn’t satisfied with what he’d told her about biting her.

  “You’re not hungry anymore, right? You don’t need more of my blood?”<
br />
  “Need it right now? No. Want it?” he hesitated, muttered, “Let’s leave that alone.”

  He did want her!

  The knowledge made Dee’s heart race. She wanted his teeth sunk in her flesh again. She hungered for the passion, the rush of danger and lust.

  She hoped her next questions embarrassed Piper as much as they did her. “Am I going to want to become your sex slave? How do you make a sex slave, anyway?”

  “I don’t know how it’s done! I’ve never been involved in anything like that. Never saw it done.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course, really. I know about it because I’ve been in that Tribe bar. I guess it’s done with a lot of biting and brainwashing. There was a whole lot I didn’t learn about being a Tribe Prime before the Pipers took me in.”

  Oh. Okay. Maybe she should believe that his being born a Tribe Prime didn’t make him automatically evil.

  Then again, just because he didn’t know his folks’ evil ways, didn’t mean he didn’t want to learn given the chance.

  Trust him, Dee told herself. But watch your back.

  But her wariness was weakening as her attraction grew. She didn’t know how she was going to stop that.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Eden Wolf had never in her life been afraid of a vampire or werewolf. However, at the moment, trying to stare down a normally mild-mannered mortal psychic historian, fear niggled at her mind. It tried to spread, to knot in her stomach and make her knees shake. She wasn’t going to let it.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, Daniel Corbett?” she asked the blond man standing on the other side of the desk. His blue eyes were not glowing, she was almost completely certain of that, but there was something strange…like the sparkling bright pupils were made of shards of glass or ice.

  “Stop treating me like a boy! Like I’m useless and faintly ridiculous.”

  The words came out as an angry snarl. Every sound that came out of Daniel since he unexpectedly walked into the office had been a snarl. And he’d been pacing around like a hungry werewolf. He was unshaven, disheveled. Not like himself at all. Daniel Corbett was mortal, human, born of a mortal mother. His father was a Clan vampire, but children born to vampires and humans invariably came out human. Well, there were occasional exceptions for daughters of vampires. And there were legends about —