Holiday with a Vampire 4: Halfway to DawnThe GiftBright Star (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Susan Krinard

  “We all act according to our natures,” she said. “Human or otherwise. Your nature is to seek blood by any means possible, and ours is to trust those who have proven themselves our friends.”

  “You place your trust foolishly, human. Do you think he won’t turn on you if he has need of blood?”

  “He’s already taken what he needs.”

  “But he has been badly burned. He will require more blood to heal, and you are the only human there.”

  Fiona cursed. They knew how badly Kane was injured, how little help he could be to her in a fight. It was only a matter of time now until the first Nightsider soldiers came charging into the hangar.

  If they wanted Kane, they would have to get past her first.

  “Listen to me, human,” the Nightsider said. “We will give you two hours to surrender before we come after you.”

  Two hours. Two centuries wouldn’t make her change her mind, but at least she could be with Kane a little longer. Even if he didn’t know it.

  Every sense alert for the first sign of attack, she settled in to wait. When she heard the sound of scratching and the creaking of bending metal behind her, she spun around, ready to fire.

  Alfie pushed his head through the opening he had punched through the hangar wall, his fingertips bloody and his face split in a wide grin. “Would’ve been easier with a can opener,” he said.

  Fiona lowered the rifle and spoke softly. “Alfie, how did you make it through?”

  “Kane ’n’ me, we learned in the Great War ’ow ta move across battle lines without bein’ seen. We di’n’t lose them skills when we was converted.” He glanced down at Kane, and his grin vanished. “Bloody idjit. ’E ’ad to get ta ya, knowin’ ’e’d kill ’imself doin’ it.”

  “He’ll get better,” Fiona said fiercely. “Right now you have to get back to the house and warn the others. Just remember that Goodman will try to kill you, and be careful. If they’ve already moved on, I know you can find them.”

  Releasing an explosive sigh, Alfie pushed the metal flap back into place and sat against it. “Can’t go now. Them scouts’re patrollin’ the area, ’n’ I’m gonna have ta wait a bit.”

  “How many are there?” she asked.

  “’Round ten, I think. Usual scout patrol.” He looked toward the hangar door. “Prettiest snowfall I ever seen. Snowed sometimes in Lunnon, but never so nice. Peaceful. Like Christmas should be.”

  Fiona resumed her position at the barrier. “How did you and Kane meet?”

  “Kane joined up early. Not too many Yanks enlisted back when it started in the summer of ’14. Adventurous, ’e was, and one o’ the most ’onorable men I ever known. He joined me Division, ’n’ we went over ta France ta fight the Hun. The Germans.”

  “So, the two of you were together in the war until...?”

  “Until we was taken by the Bloodmaster,” Alfie said. “More ’n’ a few o’ us, though most o’ the others we never saw again.” He blinked, and Fiona saw tears in his eyes. “I don’t like ta talk ’bout them days, what the bloodsucker made us do, no matter ’ow much we tried ta fight ’im. But we’d seen most everythin’ that could ’appen on a battlefield even before then. Bad things.”

  Bad things always went with war, she thought. “I’m sure you would have stopped it if you could,” she said.

  He wiped at his face with the back of his hand. “Funny,” he said. “There was one good thing that ’appened, one day we never forgot. The day of the Christmas Truce.” He smiled, his eyes focused on something Fiona couldn’t see. “It were cold that day, too. No snow. Just ice ’n’ fog. But it weren’t like no day I ever seen, before or since.”

  She looked down at Kane’s face. “Tell me,” she said.

  “Christmas Eve,” Alfie said, “the Germans started out by puttin’ decorations with lights at the tops o’ their trenches, and then in the trees around ’em—them trees that still ’ad branches. They sang ‘Stille Nacht’...‘Silent Night.’

  “Well, we didn’t know what ta make o’ it at first. Then someone on our side started singin’, too. Before ya knows it, we was all yellin’ ‘Happy Christmas’ ta each other, ’n’ pretty soon some o’ us was out in No Man’s Land, givin’ each other snouts—cigarettes to you Yanks—and chocolate. We gathered our dead ’n’ read verses over ’em. Not one bullet, not one cannon, was fired all that night, nor Christmas Day, neither.”

  “A miracle,” Fiona whispered.

  “That night, we knew all men was brothers, no matter what ’appened after.”

  Men. Not men and Nightsiders. But as she gazed over the crates at the softly falling snow, she wondered. Most of the Opiri out there had probably been human—if not recently, then sometime during the centuries when the Bloodmasters had walked the earth, preparing for the Awakening.

  Would these Nightsiders recall a time like Christmas 1914, when men had remembered they were brothers?

  She didn’t speak the thought aloud, and she and Alfie lapsed into a waiting silence. He cocked his head, listening to sounds she couldn’t hear. Kane lay still.

  “What can I do for him, Alfie?” she asked when the stillness had grown too deep.

  The Englishman met her gaze. “I think ya knows, Cap’n. But ’e’s very sick. Ya don’t know what ’e’ll do or what’ll ’appen to ya when the thing’s finished.”

  “I’m not afraid. If he dies, I won’t much care what happens to me.”

  “Awright.” Alfie hesitated. “’E ain’t up to doin’ it ’isself. Ya got a knife?”

  Slowly Fiona pulled her knife from the sheath at her belt. Alfie touched the side of his neck, above the external jugular vein. “Right ’ere,” he said. “But ya gots ta be careful. Best let me do it.”

  She held very still while he crouched beside her. “Don’t move,” he said and pressed the sharp point into her neck.

  He was so gentle that she hardly felt the prick, but the blood begin to flow almost immediately.

  “Now,” he said, “lean down. Yeah, like that.”

  Closing her eyes, she bent over and rested the small wound against Kane’s lips. He reacted almost at once, his body jerking to life, trembling violently.

  “Just stay there,” Alfie said. “Let ’im take what ’e needs.”

  While she knelt over Kane, Alfie took her place at the barricade. She felt Kane’s mouth open, his lips close over the cut, his tongue slide over her skin. There was no pain, no discomfort. She lay down beside him, careful not to press him too hard.

  She could not have said when she began to feel his strength returning. Perhaps it was the growing tension in his body, his muscles hardening, his mouth demanding more. His arms closed around her, holding her immobile, his fingers lacing through her hair and loosening it to fall around her shoulders.

  All at once she was back under the tree where the rogues had bound her, slowly coming alive again under the caress of Kane’s lips on her throat. This was a hundred times more potent. He wasn’t saving her life. He was exchanging something incredibly precious for her blood, mingling the very essence of his being with hers.

  When she lifted her head to look at his face, the burns were nearly gone. His breath was coming fast, but not because he was ill. He rolled onto his side, and she could feel the hard length of his erection against her thigh.

  Her own breath quickened. They didn’t dare risk it. He wasn’t strong enough. Over an hour had passed since the Nightsider scout leader had set the deadline for her surrender. And Alfie...

  Alfie was gone. He had slipped out while Kane was feeding, closing the hole in the wall behind him.

  He had left her alone with Kane. He had known it would be all right.

  More than all right.

  Kane took her by the arms and shifted her gingerly, pulling her face to his. He kissed her lips as he ran his hand over her stomach to her breasts, working at the buttons of her shirt. His fingers found her nipple, erect beneath her undershirt.

  Fiona didn’t know if he was ful
ly aware of what he was doing. She only knew he was still in need—in need of her—and she wouldn’t deny him. If he could find strength in joining their bodies, there was nothing she wanted more.

  If they were to die in this place, first they would share everything life had to give.

  Without waiting to remove her undershirt, Kane lowered his mouth to her breast and sucked at her nipple until the material over it turned transparent. She gasped and arched into him, tangling her fingers through his hair.

  But soon it wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel his mouth and tongue on her naked skin. She urged him to pull her undershirt above her breasts and whimpered as he teased her nipple with the tip of his tongue. She began to ache almost unbearably, growing wet with the need to have him inside her. She gasped as he loosened her pants and slipped his hand past her belly into the nest of curls below. When his fingers found her most sensitive area and began to circle around it, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to control her response.

  Somehow, though, she did. She undid the buttons of his shirt and pushed it away from his chest. His skin was warm and firm underneath. Somehow between them they managed to remove her shirt. He slid his hand back up over her belly and ribs, and pressed her breasts together, burying his face between them, then began suckling. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and bent her head back, urging him to take her blood again.

  His mouth moved to her neck, but he didn’t bite or attempt to open the wound that had already closed. He braced himself on his arms and looked down into her eyes.

  “Be sure, Fiona,” he said hoarsely. “Once I begin...”

  “I don’t want to stop,” she whispered. “I want you.”

  He hissed through his teeth and closed his eyes as she reached between them and cupped his erection.

  “I can make you pregnant,” he said abruptly.

  She laughed without meaning to. No one had ever seen a child of a Nightsider and a human. No matter what he thought, it couldn’t be possible.

  But even if it had been, it didn’t matter. This was their one and only chance to be together. With growing urgency, she shimmied out of her pants. Kane shed his. The length of his body covered her, his cock nestled between them. She opened her thighs and wrapped her legs around his waist, too hungry to wait a moment longer.

  She didn’t have to. He eased into her, almost as if he were afraid she had never been touched before. She moaned, feeling him hard and full inside her as he began to move. At the same time his mouth came down hard on her neck, and she felt the slight prick of his teeth as they punctured her skin. She clawed at his back, feeling the flex of his muscles as he pushed deep inside her and began to drink her blood in an ecstatic rhythm of erotic bliss. His own hunger seemed to consume her, burning outward from the very core of her body along her sensitized nerves to her neck and back again.

  She knew he could have killed her then if he’d chosen to, and she would not have fought it. This was the peak of her existence, a pinnacle of joy that could never be reached again.

  But she was wrong. A great wash of overwhelming sensation began where their bodies joined, shuddering, quivering, forcing her to cry out as the wave engulfed her. Kane groaned as she pulsed around him, and a moment later he stiffened and reached his own completion. His teeth closed on her skin once again, a slight pinch she hardly felt in the midst of her euphoria. A healing warmth flowed into her as he withdrew, easing her down from the heights.

  He kissed her lips, her forehead, her chin, her cheeks, her eyelids, murmuring her name. Contentment she had never known erased every fear, every doubt she had borne since she had met him. He rolled onto his side, carrying her with him. She tucked her head into the crook of his arm, and he held her close.

  It was part of the miracle of that special night that nothing interrupted them until, by unspoken agreement, they gathered their clothes and dressed again. They both knew that nothing had changed outside the hangar walls; the only difference lay within themselves.

  Kane, his skin unblemished and his body strong again, crouched behind the crates and stared toward the door. The snow continued to fall peacefully.

  “They’ll be coming soon,” he said.

  “I know.” She knelt behind him, resting her cheek against his back. “Let’s make the most of the time we have left.”

  He turned to meet her gaze and smiled. They knelt facing each other, and he took her face between his hands. He didn’t speak, but his eyes told her everything he couldn’t say aloud.

  Fiona kissed him. “I love you,” she said.

  Chapter 7

  Kane and Fiona lay together, their bodies entwined as the snow drifted down, piling up around the hangar entrance like a mother wrapping her child in a blanket of white.

  He took a deep breath, holding her scent in his lungs as if he would never need to breathe again. It was no more than an hour, maybe two, until dawn, and he knew the Opiri forces would have to attack soon.

  Why they hadn’t done so remained a puzzle to him. Fiona had told him of the scout leader’s offer after they had made love, but the two hours had already passed.

  If Alfie had escaped, he might still reach Fiona’s team. But there would be no rescue. Two lives meant nothing against the hope of an enduring peace.

  But if those two lives could be put to good use by continuing to distract the enemy...

  Maybe one life would be sufficient.

  He bent over Fiona, who was just beginning to stir. She reached for him with a sleepy murmur. He pulled away carefully.

  “Kane?” she said, opening her eyes.

  “Forgive me,” he whispered. He bent over her, sank his teeth into her neck and altered the chemicals in his body just enough to achieve the necessary effect. Her head rolled to the side. He covered her with his jacket and kissed her forehead, begging her silently to understand.

  “Human!” a voice shouted. “Your time is up!”

  Kane walked out the doorway and stopped. He could see several Opiri waiting a few yards away, their pale daysuits almost blending with the carpet of snow. One of them had marks of rank on his helmet, the insignia of a Freeblood scout dekarchos, a leader of ten.

  Kane held up his hands to show them empty of weapons.

  “Where is the human?” the officer demanded.

  “Dead,” Kane said. “I killed her.”

  The dekarchos looked past Kane to the hangar. “Why, when she seemed so eager to protect you?” he asked.

  “For mercy,” Kane said. “To spare her a life of servitude.”

  “The life you have tried to escape.” The leader shook his head. “You should have killed yourself, deserter.”

  So the Opir knew who he was. Perhaps he’d been told to look out for a vassal matching Kane’s description.

  “While you were occupied with us,” Kane said, “my comrade has gone back to the humans to warn them.”

  “Your fellow deserter? Did you think he actually escaped us? He is leading your ambassador to us.”

  Kane laughed. “If you expect the humans to come to you, you badly underestimate their intelligence. They won’t endanger their mission for their captain’s sake, and certainly not for mine.”

  Or at least so he and Fiona had believed. But he knew he didn’t dare assume anything now. All he could do now was prevent the Opiri from entering the hangar and finding Fiona while she was unconscious.

  “What will you do with me?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  “It seems the Bloodmaster Erastos took a particular interest in your disappearance,” the dekarchos said. “He promised a substantial reward for your capture and return.”

  “I’m honored by his interest,” Kane said. “What am I worth? A few prized serfs? Elevation to Bloodlord?”

  The leader removed his helmet. Kane felt a moment of utter disbelief. He knew this man. Not his name, nor anything about him save that they had once faced each other across a field of mud and blasted trees over a century ago.

  �
�You were once a fine soldier, Kane,” the Opir said. “I regret the necessity of taking you back to die in torment rather than on the battlefield.”

  “I remember you,” Kane said, swallowing his shock. “Were you taken during the War or after?”

  The Opir’s sharply cut face revealed nothing. “Does it matter?” he said.

  “It can’t have been long after,” Kane said. “You’re no vassal. You must have served your master well to have won your freedom.”

  The Opir’s mouth thinned. “One does what one must to survive. Apparently you did not serve well enough. If you were a Freeblood, you would have had some control over your own fate.”

  “Would I?” Kane smiled wryly. “I’ve seen the rogues, like animals squabbling over any human they can find because they see no reason to serve any lord. I’ve made the same choice, but I’ve elected to keep my dignity and strive honorably for what I want.”

  “Like the female?” The leader cocked his head. “Did you not pause in your flight to help her and her kind, when you might have obtained your freedom by moving beyond the bounds of your Bloodmaster’s influence? Why would you sacrifice so much for humans?”

  “The strange thing is that I continue to remember what it was like to be human. To fight for what you believe in, no matter what the odds.”

  “You have fought and lost,” the leader said. “And if other humans come, they will quickly find themselves surrounded.” He nodded to his followers. “Take him.”

  “Stay where you are!”

  A blinding streak of light cut across the ground between Kane and the Opir like an ancient warrior’s blade. A human soldier appeared, the light blazing from the top of his helmet. Two others came up behind him, weapons trained on the Opiri. Kane didn’t need to see their faces to recognize that one of the humans was Commander Goodman.

  They had come after all. And they had walked right into a trap.

  * * *

  Fiona woke alone and shivering under the weight of Kane’s jacket. She touched her neck, aware of a faint throbbing under the skin, and shook herself out of her stupor.