Blood: Under the Skin Book 1

by K. B. Ladnier

  I watched her jump in and start it up as Sloan and I slid into his. When I say slid, I meant it. The water against his leather seats almost made me lose balance as I slumped inside, slamming the door behind me as the harsh winds kicked up.

  Sloan did the most dog-like thing when he closed his door and shook out his hair, splattering an already soaked me with even more water.

  “Oh! Come on! Really?” I eyed him irritably.

  He chuckled and started the car, pulling out of the parking spot to follow Randi.

  “This night went to shit. First this damn storm and now fucking drugged up vamps attacking an entire block? This is getting bad, Luce.”

  I agreed. “Is that why I’m staying with you? What about Claudia and the fact you don’t have a coffin for me to rest in?” I asked him curiously.

  “Yeah. Hollis called me to tell me to look at the news, then get to you. He was one of the agents there. And don’t worry about Claudia. Abraham got into town a bit after you got to work. She’s staying with him at the apartment he’s renting out.”

  “Is Hollis okay?” I asked with worry, my hands immediately reaching for my phone to call him. Sloan reached over and stopped me.

  “He’s fine, Luce. He can take care of himself. He said he’d shoot you a text when things calmed down. He wasn’t part of the group in the video but in another spot on the other side of one of the buildings. There were twenty vamps in all and some were wrangled into an alley out of shot. What you were seeing was what was left.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. How had everything gone to shit so fast?

  “Oh! And as far as you needing a coffin, I picked up yours and brought it over to my house. On nights I’m working, you’ll stay with him.” He smiled proudly at me.

  “How the hell did you transport my coffin with this car? It’s huge!”

  He laughed loudly, “Why, thank you! A wolf always likes being complimented on the size of his manhood.”

  I slapped his arm. “You know I meant the coffin, dummy! Seriously. How?”

  He gave me a wide grin and pointed to the roof of the car. “I strapped it down to the roof.”

  My jaw dropped. “Really? Wouldn’t that scratch your baby, though?” Sloan loved his car. I once saw him close to tears when a rock that was kicked up from a car in front of him nicked the hood.

  “You know me better than that. I wrapped it in bubble wrap.”

  I burst into laughter, picturing a bubble wrapped coffin on top of his small sports car driving down the road. I could only imagine the looks he got. It felt good to laugh after such a bad night. I needed it.

  But, of course, the laughter was short lived when Sloan decided to broach the subject of our relationship again.

  “So … thought anymore on starting your own harem?”

  I gave him a side look, showing I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. He sighed.

  “You have to talk to us about it sooner or later. It’s been weeks. I get you needed time to think, but come on, Luce. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be around you, looking at you and smelling you and not know if I’ll get to touch you again in a more intimate way?”

  I moaned and put my face into my hands. “I know it’s hard for you Sloan, but I’m just not ready to talk about it yet.”

  I felt the car slow and looked up, seeing that Randi had made it home. She gave a quick wave as she rushed through the rain into her house. Sloan pulled away and headed to his place.

  He stayed silent the rest of the trip home, a look of aggravation set on his face. Which honestly only made me angry, the sulkier he got as we neared his apartment.

  Why couldn’t he understand that this wasn’t easy for me? Yes, I cared about them both; Hollis a little more than I should for someone I barely knew. But this decision would affect all of us. I was still concerned about Sloan’s future and the chance Hollis and I would end up not working anyway. A relationship must be based on more than just physical attraction. I liked Hollis as a person from what I’ve gotten to know these past few weeks, but our relationship had such a dramatic and abrupt start. Was that enough to choose him over Sloan or to even be involved with on the level they were asking of me?

  Sloan getting out of the car and slamming his door snapped me out of my contemplative state. Now I was really angry. What right did he have to be angry at me for being indecisive?

  “Hey!” I yelled at him, the rain and crashing thunder drowning out my voice as he sped up to the door of his apartment. I rushed after him, my clothes sticking to my skin and dreads falling in front of my face as I pushed through the stinging rain that pelted down.

  “What the hell is your problem?” I shouted as I reached him. He’d stopped at the door to wait for me, his glowing eyes greeting me when I met his piercing stare. I stopped a few feet from him, knowing that I would be in real trouble if he shifted and I was too close.

  His place was on the first floor and had no covering to protect us from the storm, so we were both just standing there getting sopping wet.

  “My problem?” He shouted back, gesturing at himself. Steam was rolling off him from the chill of the water meeting his heated flesh beneath his soaked clothes. “I love you, that’s what my problem is!”

  My jaw dropped. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I didn’t ask you to love me, Sloan! This is a hard situation!”

  He stalked closer to me, halting only when his chest hit mine. He grabbed my arms and squeezed. Not tight enough to hurt, but enough to keep me from moving.

  “I know you didn’t, Lucy, but fuck if I didn’t fall for you anyway! You are the one making this difficult! This is actually a very fucking simple situation, because guess what? Hollis and I have given you the easiest damn solution to all of this. You’re just being too chicken shit and not grabbing on to what we’re offering!”

  I was about to retort back, but he placed a hand over my mouth and shushed me. I glared at him in response.

  “Oh, hell no. I gave you the chance to talk and you passed on it. You had your opportunity the night you were attacked. Well, sweetheart, it’s my turn now. So, you’re going to just shut up and listen to me. I. Fucking. Love. You. I don’t give two shits about any of your concerns about my future, because, Baby, you’re it for me. I’m willing to share your stubborn ass with another man I’m only just now starting to tolerate. I’m doing that because I’d rather have at least half of that fucking beautiful ass heart of yours than none at all. I will never stop loving you and I will never stop pursuing the chance to be with you. So, you need to get all those little concerns out of your head and just let me love you the way I fucking want to! The way you want me to! The way we want to love you!”

  I hated saying it, but damn that was the hottest profession of love that’d ever come out of his mouth before. And as I stood there, one of his hands had slipped from my arm to my waist and the other was slowly pulling away from my mouth, it clicked into place.

  I was finally seeing what he’d been wanting me to see since the night I quit us. That no matter what I thought he needed, it wasn’t anywhere near what he actually did need. He didn’t want kids if it meant losing me. He didn’t want the sun if it meant not spending his evenings with me. No matter how hard I continued to push what I thought he deserved on him, he would not bend.

  I’d finally heard him in that moment.

  And I needed him like my body needed blood to survive.

  I didn’t know if it was the look I must’ve been giving him or the way my body began leaning into him, but he saw every thought that rushed through my head and the conclusion I’d come to. Because one second we were standing there, the next he had me pinned up against the door to his apartment, ravishing my mouth with his.

  The kisses were wet and slightly sloppy from being drenched, but fuck if we cared as we tore at each other.

  His hands grabbed the back of my thighs just beneath my ass and lifted me, instantly making me wrap my legs around his waist as he claimed the column of my
throat. I gasped as I felt his need press against me.

  “Door. Unlock. Open,” was all I could manage to get out as his teeth grazed my throat and fingers dug into my lower back beneath my shirt.

  Somehow, he heard me and managed to maneuver around me and get the door open. The second we were inside and he’d kicked the door closed, we were peeling each other out of our clothes.

  I reveled in the feel of his hot, slick skin as his shirt disappeared, my hands sliding up and down his chiseled torso. His mouth never left mine as we fumbled to lose every scrap of fabric that was obstructing complete skin-to-skin contact. He growled in annoyance when my skinny jeans got stuck to my legs and knelt in front of me.

  I gasped when I heard the ripping sound and felt the air-conditioned air hit my bare legs. “Hey, now! I loved those jeans!” I complained, as I watched him continue to rip them down the front, using his shoulders to balance myself as he tore them from me.

  He chuckled a deep, sensual chuckle before grabbing my hips roughly and licking from my belly button, up my stomach and between my breasts as he slowly stood.

  “I’ll buy you new ones,” he whispered seductively into my ear before grabbing me to wrap my legs around him once again and stalking towards his bedroom.

  I was tossed onto his bed and immediately covered by his gloriously naked body, my wet dreads splayed across the pillows, soaking them. He wasted no time and sheathed himself deep within me, barely giving me a second to prepare myself.

  “I have wanted to feel this perfect body beneath me for weeks. I was worried I’d forget what you felt like.” He said against my neck as he kissed his way from one side to the other, moving his body in agonizingly slow movements.

  “Trust me. It wasn’t easy to control myself either,” I breathed out shakily through the pleasure he was giving me. God, he felt amazing! “but now that you have me, what are you going to do with me?”

  He lifted himself onto his elbows, each resting on either side of my head, and swiped a finger softly from the end of my brow and down my cheek. His gaze held a mixture of hunger and love, consuming me so much my heart could barely take it.

  “Well, Lucy Bryant, I plan on having my way with you here,” he replied with a smirk. “Then I’ll move us to your coffin where I will have my way with you several more times before you have to rest. Hollis will be by to get us come sunset, so I’m going to get all the time I can with you before I have to start sharing.”

  I liked the sound of that.

  “Then what are you waiting for?” I asked coyly, bucking my hips to draw him in deeper.

  He growled with pleasure, his wolfish eyes flashing once before he lowered his lips to my ear and whispered, “For you to scream...”

  And scream I did, as he pulled back and thrust into me with all his might.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Hollis arrived not ten minutes after I’d risen from resting and showered off. I’d only just put clothes on when he knocked at the door.

  Sloan answered as I started the coffee pot, yawning from the lack of rest. Sloan hadn’t been joking when he said he hadn’t planned for me to get much sleep. I had no idea what Hollis had in store for us tonight, but no amount of Blood coffee was going to be enough.

  I gave him a smile when he walked into the kitchen, Sloan coming in right behind him.

  “Evening, Lucy. You look a little tired.” Hollis said as he walked over and kissed my temple.

  Sloan snorted at the comment, knowing full well why I looked like shit. I gave him a quick glare in admonishment.

  “Yeah. I didn’t sleep much.”

  I didn’t know how to broach the subject without feeling awkward. Last night, it seemed like such an easy thing to accept. Of course, now that the lust for Sloan wasn’t clogging my brain, I was nervous about being in the same room with them both. It didn’t help that Sloan smelled like freshly cleaned male, his dark curls still dripping with water. Or Hollis looking extra yummy in his STF uniform, hugging all the spots of his body. It was intimidating, really.

  “Well, hopefully you won’t be too tired for tonight,” replied Hollis. “We have a solid lead on a place where Viper and his crew might be holed up in. We’re going to stakeout the place and hopefully get an eye on Viper.”

  The coffee pot dinged and I went about making my coffee. Adding in an extra bit of blood just in case from one of the several bags Sloan kept stored for me.

  “We? I get that Lucy will be there to point him out, but you haven’t explained what my role in this is,” stated Sloan, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed.

  “Back up. I’ll have several of my men scattered around the area. You won’t see them, but they’ll be there in case this goes sour. I may need to go rushing in and leaving Lucy alone in the car is asking for trouble. You’re there to guard her.”

  It was quite humorous the way Sloan’s chest puffed out with manly pride at his assigned role. I smiled into my coffee as I sipped it.

  After I was good and caffeinated, the three of us piled into Hollis’ Camaro. We were to report back to the station until the team was ready to go. Hollis wanted us to meet his team members before they assumed their positions. Just in case one tried to take me away from the area, he wanted me to make sure I memorized who worked for him and who didn’t.

  I’d seen the outer part of the STF station many times, but being inside was a bit terrifying. I trusted Hollis bringing me here, but I couldn’t help feeling uneasy stepping foot in a building that most supernaturals never stepped out of.

  The station was on the outskirts of the city, with the back facing the Hudson River and the entire building stretched a mile long. The cells that supernaturals were placed into were attached to the station as its own separate prison from the human jails. Human government felt it was safer that way. I honestly didn’t blame them.

  When we got inside, Hollis ushered us into the elevators and up to the third floor. When we stepped out, it looked like any other police station. Some cubicles along the walls and desks scattered throughout the middle of the room. The floor was a rough, grey carpeting and the walls were made of stone and painted white. At the back of the room, stood one of the many teams that resided in this precinct. They were the only ones armored up, giving me the notion they were the team members Hollis wanted us to meet.

  Sloan grabbed my hand and winked down at me with a smirk as we got closer to the group. It made me feel just a little bit better. Especially with Hollis’ hand positioned lightly on my lower back to urge me forward.

  When we approached the agents, they all stopped what they were doing and faced us, straightening their backs and clasping their hands behind them. I could immediately tell which ones were vampires and decipher two of them as Weres. The rest were human, albeit very large humans. There were ten in total, with Hollis making eleven. But I remembered him telling me one time he had twelve men all together.

  “Men, this is Lucy Bryant and Sloan Jenkins. They’ll be riding along with me at tonight’s stakeout. There’s a real possibility that this could go south. While capturing Viper and confiscating any paraphernalia is top priority, making sure these two get out safely is next on the list. Agent Brody’s last message from the inside stated he was positive Viper would be among the men at the warehouse and to look sharp.”

  Ah, there’s the twelfth. He must have a man undercover.

  “Sir, yes sir!” They all replied in unison.

  The deep baritone of their voices made me jump a little, causing Sloan to shake in silent laughter. I elbowed him for being an ass.

  Hollis went down the line saying their names, each nodding at me respectfully as he went. I doubt I’d remember any of them, but I at least tried to memorize their faces. After a quick debriefing of the plan, they all loaded up on weapons and began filing out of the room.

  As Sloan and I went to follow, Hollis stopped us and handed us both a large gun.

  “These are filled with wooden bullets that have a silver core. Since y
ou’re a vampire, Lucy, I’m sure you’re aware to aim for the heart.”

  I nodded, looking wide-eyed at the heavy, metal weapon in my hands. I’d never fired a gun in my life. I was all about peace and love, having grown up in the Seventies. Guns terrified me. I glanced at Sloan and held back a smile. He was testing the weight and holding it up, practicing his aim like this was nothing. Something told me he hoped this went badly just so he could shoot that thing.

  Hollis’ hand touched my chin. I looked up at him and relaxed under his gentle expression.

  “This may be a stake-out recon mission, but if we see what we’re hoping to see, then things will get ugly. I want you to stay alert and not get out of the car or leave Sloan’s side unless I tell you to. Do you understand me?” His tone was firm, but soft, showing me that his head was in the game now. If I strayed from the plan in any way, I know he’d fight to save me before he fought to save himself.

  I had no intentions of fucking this up. I was honestly perfectly happy just hanging out in the car.

  “I’ll stay in the car. I promise.”

  He grinned then leaned down, giving me a chaste kiss before continuing back towards the car. I quickly looked at Sloan, but he was completely unaffected by Hollis’ kiss. He just smiled and looped an arm over my shoulder.

  The warehouse in question was located in a portion of Harlem that the usual human gangs frequented. Most of the block it sat on was abandoned by humans entirely. Only vampires frequented here. And not the ones like me.

  As we neared a portion that looked like a bunch of industrial buildings, Hollis slowed the car to a stop and shifted into park before turning off the ignition. About a block or so in front of us was a large semi-truck. Three vampires were loading it up with wooden crates as five others walked back and forth along the perimeter.

  “Looks like Brody was right. Definitely Vipers men. I’ve seen a few of them in past stakeouts. This is a large shipment, so odds are that Viper is here.” He grabbed a walkie-talkie from his dash and held it up.