“Still bored.” Danny yawned.
“Remember how you nailed your hand to the wooden board with the nail gun? I still remember how much you screamed. Woke us all up and scared the living shit out of Mom. She still has that nail.”
“That’s pretty disgusting,” one of the vamps added.
Dante shrugged and continued. “She has a lot of your stuff still, like your running shoes and your toothbrush, just to mention a few. She kept them all and tucked everything she could of yours into one cabinet and every year on the anniversary of your disappearance she’d sit out there after everyone went to bed and go through your things.”
“Aw, now that’s a touching story.”
Dante ignored the vamp beside his brother’s cage and continued. “She blames herself for your disappearance. It would ease her conscience to know you’re still alive.”
“Have you told her I’m alive yet? Didn’t think so,” Danny replied when Dante didn’t answer. “And why? Because you don’t want Mommy dearest to find out her baby son turned into a vampire. So save the sob story and leave me the hell alone.” Turning his back, Danny returned to his cot.
It was the truth that he hadn’t told anyone in his family that Danny was alive, but not for the reason Danny thought. Dante didn’t want to get their hopes up by telling them, thinking that Danny would actually care to see them when he knew he wouldn’t. “What are you going to do, Danny, when we finally take Chaos out?”
Danny lifted his head from his lying position on the cot, and shrugged. “I think the better question would be: What will you do when Chaos rules the world?”
“It’s a big world. He’s having enough trouble ruling one small city. I’m not too worried.”
“You should be. Catch you later, bro.” Putting his head back down, Danny pulled the pillow over his head and ended their conversation.
Dante sat there for the three hours he was on duty and simply watched his brother sleep.
***
Raven woke to the gentle sounds of snoring in her ear, and an arm across her chest. She didn’t bother to move it, simply because she liked having it there. As a matter of fact, she liked lying next to Jonah, period. Even in his sleep he was beautiful. She wanted so desperately to touch him, to caress him, to kiss him. But she knew better than to push him. He had, after all, just lost his wife.
But it had been so long since she’d lain next to a man that she found herself snuggling even closer to him. He stirred, pulling her closer, and nuzzled her neck. God, how she wished he could be hers.
The sting in her arm reminded her of the bond she’d shared with him. He’d drank from her, taken her blood into his system. So even if she couldn’t have him, at least she would be a part of him. And that really sounded desperate and sad.
She was a sad person.
His hair brushed her cheek when he shifted his head and it felt as soft as satin. She loved the way it fell across his brow and she wanted to brush it back but knew it would most likely wake him. So instead she lay there watching him sleep.
“Oh Ariel,” he whispered in a sleepy voice.
She closed her eyes and willed away the hurt. He thought he was holding his wife. Would it be so bad of her to make him believe she was his late wife? She could kiss him then and he’d think he was kissing his wife.
Then he’d wake up and realize she wasn’t the woman he loved.
With a heavy sigh, she gave up on that thought and just listened to him breathe. But when his hand slid up to cup her breast she found it very difficult to let that one go.
“Mm, nice.”
Raven felt herself moisten when he squeezed her boob. She wanted more than anything for him to slide his hand down between her legs and soothe the ache he was beginning to produce.
“I want you to kiss me, Jonah,” she murmured, turning her head to face him. And when his hand cupped her chin, she closed her eyes and let him take.
His lips were soft, warm, sweet, and he kissed like a dream. She never wanted it to stop.
She turned on her side, angling her head to allow him to take the kiss deeper, and when his hand slid to her waist, then under her shirt, everything inside of her came alive. It had been so long since she’d felt alive.
“I love you,” he proclaimed against her lips, then cupped her breast in his hand again.
“Oh, Jonah. I only wish.”
His eyes opened and the instant he saw who she wasn’t, he yanked his hand away and pushed himself back. “Raven?”
“I wish you hadn’t stopped.” But she knew now as she had all along, it wasn’t her he’d been with.
“Oh man, oh…boy. I…uh, I…”
“You don’t need to say anything. I understand. You thought I was your wife.” She sat up, pushing the blankets aside, her heart breaking. And that was when she noticed it. “You have a hard-on.”
“What? Oh my God, I do,” he gasped, glancing down at the tent in his pajama pants, then quickly grabbed the blanket in an attempt to cover himself.
“Don’t. It’s good. You can get it up. That really means your body is coming back to life. Can you feel it throbbing?”
“Jesus, Raven!” He shifted himself.
“I know how that sounded, but it was a clinical question. If you can feel it, then your sensory nerves are beginning to regenerate. This is wonderful progress!”
“More like an extremely awkward moment. I’m sorry if I did anything—did I do anything to you?”
She shrugged. “Nothing too severe. I enjoyed it, I’ll tell you that, and don’t be embarrassed by it. I’m not.”
“Oh man.” He ran a hand across his face.
“I want to check you out.”
“What?” his hand came down fast and his eyes went wide.
“See what other feeling you have. Where did I leave that needle?” She hopped off the bed to scan the room for the pin.
“Raven—”
“Ah, there it is.” She grabbed it off the night stand to the right of his bed then yanked the covers away from his legs.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Tell me if you feel this?” He yelped when she pricked his left heel. “Good. Great. Now this one.” She did the same on the right and once again he yelped but this time, he also flinched. “Wonderful. How about your legs?”
“Yes, I can feel that. I can feel that,” he exclaimed joyfully as she pricked his ankle.
With a smile on her face she continued up his leg. “This.”
“Yes.”
“How about here?” She poked just above his knee.
“Yes.”
“And here?” She tried the other leg.
“Yes. I can feel it, I can actually feel it.”
“I think all you needed, all your body needed, was to feed. To draw strength. You need to feed again.”
“Not from you.” He held his hand up.
“Fine. I’ll see if they left us anything. I’ll be right back. This is so exciting.” She hurried from the room, as excited as if it were her own legs she were just beginning to feel.
He’d felt the needles pricking his skin. What a wonderful feeling. Jonah found the smile on his face didn’t seem to want to leave. Then he noticed the bulge in his pants and he was reminded of why it was there. He’d gotten hard thinking he was touching his wife when in reality he’d been touching someone else.
How could he have done that? How could he have not known, even in his sleep, that the woman he was touching was not his own. There were distinct differences between Raven and Ariel. Raven was more petite where Ariel was— had been bulkier. Her breasts had been full, filling her C cups completely. Where Raven’s were more of a B. And what the hell was he doing comparing his deceased wife’s breasts to Raven’s?
He was appal
led with himself and apparently, so was his dick. It was as limp as a noodle now. But it had been hard, and that meant the world to him.
He jumped when the door flew open then drew in a deep breath when Raven rushed into the room.
“They didn’t take it all.” She held the plasma bag up, laughing.
He noticed his shirt was missing from her arm and in its place was a huge white bandage. “How is your arm?”
“This?” She held it up, gave it a shake. “As good as new. How do you want to take this? In a cup or right from the bag?”
“Cup.” He was not going to resort to sucking blood from a bag. The fact that he was sucking blood in the first place was bad enough. But life had dealt him that nasty card and he had no choice but to play it. “Is it healing up then?”
“I dabbed some glue on it to seal it up. It’ll be fine in no time. Here you go.” She handed him the cup of blood she’d just poured. “Drink up.”
He took the cup reluctantly and glanced inside. He hadn’t hesitated when she’d held her arm to his mouth, yet taking it from the cup he was having a hard time doing.
“Would you rather drink from me?”
“No!” He put the cup to his lips, closed his eyes tight and drank. And before he knew it, the cup was empty.
“Not so bad after all, huh? Let me fill it up with more.”
He gladly gave her the cup. It had gone down like water. Which utterly surprised him and when she handed him the second cupful, he downed that one as well.
“That’s great. You’ll be back to your old self in no time. I just know it.”
He pulled the cup from his lips, empty and set it down on the pullout table beside his bed. “Only being my old self didn’t include drinking blood.”
“True, still… It could be worse. You want to try eating something now?”
How much worse could it get? “I suppose.” Truth was, he was starved.
“Goodie. You are really getting better. Still want to take that stroll down to the cafeteria? Maybe there’s something down there I could cook up for us.”
“Sure, why not.” It might be nice to get out of the room he was cocooning himself in.
Chapter Seven
“How long do you plan to keep your brother locked up?”
Dante glanced up at Trinity who was standing in the doorway to the stairwell leading up. “I didn’t realize we’d decided to let any of them go yet.”
She stepped aside to let him pass then followed behind him. “We hadn’t, but every time the discussion does come up, you insist your brother be left where he is. What do you think you’ll accomplish by keeping him locked up? He’d not going to come around as long as you keep him locked in a cell.”
“I think you should mind your own business.” He pushed through the door with a great deal of gusto.
Undaunted, Trinity continued after him. “You can’t make a person feel something they don’t feel.”
“You’re pissing me of, Trinity.”
Taking his arm, she stopped him in his tracks and ignored the snarl on his lips when he turned. “You’re only hurting yourself by hoping he’ll come around.”
“Are you telling me to give up on him? Are you willing to give up on Jonah?” Trinity’s eyes narrowed. “Didn’t think so. Now back off.”
She let him go deciding it wasn’t worth the fight. She had more important things to deal with. Like finding Jonah. Not knowing where he was being held or how he was holding up was killing her. Stalking off to the kitchen, she decided to drown her frustrations in food. Thank God Cooper had a fully stocked pantry and freezer, but still, with the power out in the city, getting food from the closed down grocery store was going to pose a problem. She was thankful Basil had an emergency back-up generator that was powering the house. At least the food was going to keep in the coolers.
She grabbed the leftover fried chicken she hadn’t wanted for dinner the night before, and the block of cheese from the fridge. Setting them on the table, she searched the cupboards for crackers and came across a delectable chocolate cake that Cooper had apparently made earlier. Might as well have some of that as well. Carrying it, along with the crackers, she set them on the table, then grabbed a plate. She broke off a hunk of cheese, pilled some crackers on her plate then grabbed a drumstick and sat down to eat. Maybe she shouldn’t have skipped dinner and breakfast after all. She found she was rather ravenous now.
Twenty minutes later when Basil walked into the kitchen, she’d polished off most of the chicken, all of the cheese and half the cake. She was leaning back in her chair, one hand on her overfilled belly, feeling more than stuffed.
One dark eyebrow lifted as Basil examined the table. “Hungry were we?”
“Partially. I was also drowning my frustrations with food. I feel sick.”
“Was that a full cake when you began?” he asked, sliding one long finger over the rich dark chocolate icing on what was left of the cake.
“Yeah,” she moaned. “And at least six pieces of chicken and half a block of cheese.”
He simply shook his head as he walked to her. “There are other…healthier ways of relieving frustration, my love.”
He kissed her head, then rested his cheek on the top.
“I didn’t feel like having sex.” He gasped and she laughed. “I think I might go crazy. I want to do a door to door search.”
Basil took a chair beside her then took her hands in his. “We don’t have the man power to search door to door.”
“I could do it on my own. With my abilities, I could zap in and out just like this.” She snapped her fingers.
“And be a sitting duck for Chaos or his men to take you out. It’s just not logical, love.”
“Well, what else can I do? Sitting here doing nothing isn’t bringing Jonah back.” She scooped a handful of cake but Basil grabbed her wrist before she could put it to her mouth.
“You’ll thank me later when you’re not throwing it up.” He ate it from her palm then handed her a napkin to wipe the remainder from her hand. “I’m as frustrated as you are by this. I feel useless sitting here doing nothing, but I don’t know what else to do to find him, or Chaos.”
“What if he’s turned him…” Trinity sighed. “We both know it’s a possibility. Or worse, using him as a blood slave. I hate knowing he’s being held by Chaos and not knowing what’s happening to him. Damn it, I wish we knew where he was!” She slammed her fist on the table hard enough to rattle the dishes.
“I know, love. I know.” He took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “Dante and I will set out in a bit and do a patrol. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find someone who knows where Chaos is staying. But you have to promise me something.”
She pursed her lips. “What?”
“No more stuffing your face. This sickly green is not a good color for you.” He touched her cheek and made her smile.
“I don’t think my belly could handle anything more.”
“Good. Now come on. I’ll run you a hot bath and you can ease your sore belly and your tense muscles in some lavender bath bubbles.” He always knew just what she needed.
***
Cooking had never been her strong suit. Then again, as a nurse, she really hadn’t had time to do much cooking with her hours being so long and screwy. And really, what was the point to cooking a big meal for herself? Ricky certainly hadn’t cared less. He was happy with hotdogs, macaroni, or spaghetti.
The back-up generator in the cafeteria were keeping the coolers cold enough to protect the food from spoiling. That was a good thing because who knew when the lights were going to come back on.
“What do you feel like having?” she asked, perusing through the coolers.
“They got any steak in there?”
She laughed as she poked her head out the coo
ler door. “In a hospital? Not likely. I did find a huge can of pre-made stew. How’s that sound to you?”
“Not as good as the steak but it’ll do.”
“It’s pre-made and all it needs it to be reheated so that makes me happy. You would have been screwed with the steak even if there had been some. I’m a terrible cook.”
“I love to cook. I usually did the cooking in our house. Ariel used to say—” He stopped cold and became very still.
“What did she say?” Raven coaxed him on. It was good to talk about her.
He drew in a breath before continuing. “She used to say my hands were multi-talented. I could manipulate any electronic object to my desire, cook like a gourmet chef and please her with the gentlest touch.”
“You love her very much.”
“I do, and thank you for not making that past tense. My love for her didn’t die when she did.” He let out a long sigh before continuing. “What can I do to help you?”
It wasn’t easy for him to talk about his late wife, but at least he was talking. “Do you want potatoes or a salad with it?”
“I could go for potatoes.”
“Then I’ll see if I can find some. What was she like? Your wife,” Raven prompted as she searched the huge kitchen. A person could get lost in this room.
“Ariel was a kind woman, but if you pissed her off, she let you know it. She was meticulous. Nothing was ever out of place in our house. She liked order, hated when things were in chaos. She hated being at Basil’s place but she was a trooper and stuck by me. I should have sent her to stay with her parents in Minnesota.”
Raven set a bowl with four potatoes in front of him on the table. “Why did she hate this Basil person’s place?”
“She said it was too cold, too ancient, too big. He lives in a castle.”
She stopped abruptly in her search for a knife. “A castle? As in the one just outside the city?” There was only one castle like house near Jacob’s Cove.
“Yeah, that’s the one. You’ve seen it?”
“Hell yeah! I used to drive by it just to admire it. Man, you know the queen and the guy who lives in that gorgeous castle. I feel like I’m in the presence of royalty.”
Shiela Stewart - [Darkness 03] Page 6
