Hunger

by Jacquelyn Frank

  This phant was different from the others. Fresher in spite of his wounds. Armed. He fired his sidearm at Halo, and Halo felt the bullets whizzing by his neck. He kept in motion, rolling across the floor and kicking the phant’s legs out from under him. The trouble was it brought them in closer quarters, and the phant was very strong and a very good shot. It wouldn’t take much more for him to shoot Halo through the brain stem.

  The first order of business was disarming him. The two men rolled in a clash of muscle and vigor. Somewhat. Halo was weakening. Growing tired. He had expended all the energy he’d had in reserve. He couldn’t fire another pulse. The same wasn’t true for the remaining phant.

  Halo struck him across the face even as they rolled again. The sycophant pinned Halo onto his back and sent a searing pulse down into his body. Dizzy and disoriented and in a hell of a lot of pain, Halo struggled to keep control of the weapon the phant held. He was bringing it up around his throat, fighting with Halo for every inch. The still fresh phant sent yet another pulse into Halo, slamming his head against the concrete floor. Halo was losing. Desperation was the only thing keeping him in the fight. The muzzle of the gun inched closer and closer into position against his throat. Another inch and the phant would be able to shoot, severing Halo’s spinal cord.

  Then suddenly the phant jerked—a startled movement that allowed Halo to bat the gun away. He was prepared to fight the remaining sycophant to the death, but the phant reared off Halo, clutching at his neck. That was when he saw Felice backing away, her hands covering her mouth and a look of horror in her eyes.

  She had stabbed him, Halo realized with wonder. Felice had retrieved the little plastic knife and had stabbed the phant in the back of the neck. She had missed the crucial point, of course, the knife not strong enough to make it through bone and cartilage. But she had stabbed him badly enough to give Halo the advantage he needed. He struck out with a hard palm, catching the phant in the nose even as he held on to his weapon hand. He hit him again, waiting for his hand to go lax. The phant’s free hand was grappling at the back of his neck, trying to find and dislodge the blade there. But the handle had broken off so there was nothing to grab.

  One more hit in the sycophant’s face and Halo was able to wrench the weapon from him, take it into his own hand, bring it up to his throat, and fire twice in quick succession, making certain it would hit the mark this time.

  The phant collapsed, all of the life leaving him.

  Halo laid there a moment, panting and weak. It was Felice who rolled the dead phant off his body. He was aware of the crackling of energy across the room—the energy of the enemy phants’ bodies disintegrating into nothingness and ether. When a vampire or sycophant died, it was only minutes before his body disappeared in a crackle of energy and light, dissipating into the energy of the world around them. The more charged the vampire or sycophant was, the stronger the energy output was when he died. But Halo couldn’t use that energy. It was bad enough he had taken in tainted energy during the battle. But that had been a necessary evil.

  Now he was left nearly immobile. But Halo forced himself to move. To sit up. Felice was there beside him, scrambling to help him sit up by situating herself behind him. He leaned on her a moment as he panted for breath.

  “What is it?” she asked, worried.

  “I can barely move. It took all of my energy to fight them. I need a minute.”

  “You need to feed. You’re pale and weak. There’s barely any color to your lips, and I’ve never seen your eyes look so dull. You must feed.”

  “I can’t. There’s no one to feed from.”

  He pushed away from her, struggling to his feet by sheer force of will. It took a monumental effort.

  “There’s me. Feed from me. Please! It’ll only be this once. It won’t change you. We won’t let it.”

  “We have to get out of here,” he said, ignoring her. He disarmed the final phant of his knife before he disappeared like the rest. He also stripped him of his black T-shirt and handed it to Felice. He went for the phant’s pants, grateful that the bastard was about his size. He stripped him of them and put them on. Felice followed his example and scrambled into the shirt. It hung loosely on her smaller frame, even around her generous hips.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  He staggered toward the door and she immediately came up to his side and levered herself beneath his arm. She was insane if she thought she could bear up under his weight, but he was grateful for the prop.

  They left the room through the door. It emptied into a corridor and Halo knew there would be other guards posted. They were out of the room, but they were far from out of danger.

  He stumbled and they both went down to their knees. He braced the hand that held the knife against the ground while the hand that held the gun remained against her shoulder. He couldn’t let either weapon go. He needed them both. But his hands were shaking so much from energy deprivation that he would find it impossible to aim either one.

  She was right. He needed to feed. And he needed to do it quickly.

  Halo panted for breath, gritted his teeth. This was not ideal. It was not how he would have wanted to introduce her to a feed. Without hypno it would hurt her more than was necessary. Without time they couldn’t indulge in the experience like he would have preferred. And then there was the fact of her cleanliness. If he fed from her and turned immediately evil, she would be shit out of luck. How could he risk doing that to her?

  “You won’t be evil,” she said, as if she had plucked the thought from his head. “I know it. You won’t give in. But you need energy. Tell me. Tell me how it’s done.”

  Halo rolled onto his backside and propped his back against the wall. Cameras. There had to be cameras watching the hall. There wasn’t time. A decision had to be made.

  “Sit in my lap and bend your neck forward,” he said on a rasp of breath.

  She did so instantly. Trustingly. She sat facing him.

  “Face away,” he corrected her.

  In a perfect world he would have taken her while she faced him, but he couldn’t spare the energy to finagle her position properly. She promptly turned her back to his chest and bent her head forward.

  Without any preamble, he used the last of his strength to sweep her hair off the back of her neck. He shot forward like a striking cobra and sent his teeth into the tender flesh at the back of her neck. Anticipating the feed, his fangs had grown until they were long and needle sharp. Now they fastened onto the knobby bone where her neck met her spine and punctured through flesh and bone.

  She cried out, tensing, flexing with pain. Her spine arched and out of instinct she grabbed for the beast attacking her. He was that beast. But instead of pushing him away she held him to her, her hand threading into his hair, holding his head close. He made a savage sound of approval as the taint of her energy skipped across his taste buds. But there was something compelling about her flavor after a few moments. It seemed somehow richer, more decadent. More sumptuous. He didn’t know if it was because of her taint or because she was Felice or because he hadn’t known such a drain in energy before.

  Regardless her energy flooded his tissues and he immediately felt a surge of strength. His hands came around her chest, holding her back against him as he made a savage sound and drank deeper. She moaned and he knew she was feeling what he was feeling—pain laced with ultimate pleasure. He was soaring high. Again, was it because he was so starved or was it because she was so tainted? He feared not knowing the answer.

  However, he was committed to his course of action and he went into it wholeheartedly. At the moment of a feed he could hear all of her thoughts, feel all of her pleasure. It hardened him, made him want her with a hunger as if he had never had her. It wasn’t the time or the place, but there was no denying the feed.

  His tissues flushed with energy, his body was reinvigorated. Halo had to stop, he was taking too much, but he needed more. He was starved for more. He didn’t want to stop feel
ing the high he was feeling, even though it meant he was draining her of her life force with every passing second. She gasped, her body going limp and lax, her fingers falling from their place in his hair. It was when he felt her hand hit his thigh with a weak thump that he realized he had gone too far.

  He broke from her with a wrenching that tore at her delicate flesh in a way he would never normally have done. He was acting like a savage.

  He was a savage.

  Halo surged to his feet, cradling her limp body.

  “Come on. You have to walk on your own. I need to have my hands free,” he told her, settling her onto her feet. He was being callous, but it was what was needed in that moment. He needed to shock her into responding. He thumped her on the back of her head with his knife hand. “Hey! Wake up. Move it, honey.”

  She came to herself then, her dazed eyes clearing. She took all of her weight onto her own feet and he sighed shortly with relief. Not just because she wouldn’t be a burden as they left but because it meant he hadn’t harmed her irreparably.

  All the while her energy was coursing through him. It was a rush—high and amazing. He felt as though he could fight an entire army. Which was good because he had no doubt he would have to.

  “Take this,” he said, putting the knife in her right hand. “You know how to use it. Just…next time make sure you give it your all.”

  “I had a plastic knife,” she said dryly. “Excuse me if it wasn’t up to your standards. It seemed to do the trick.”

  He chuckled to hear her snapping at him. It meant she was all there. His Felice. Good. He would need her.

  “It did do the trick. But it isn’t easy to make it past all that bone and muscle. It takes years of training to get it just right. All you have is a knife and gumption.” He urged her forward down the long corridor, his senses stretching outward. If there was anyone in the hall at any point, he would sense their personal energy. It was like an early warning system. But if he could sense them, it was very likely they could sense him. There was little chance of sneaking up on them—if they were phants or vampires. It was possible they had resorted to human guards in the halls, thinking there was no way they would ever make it out of that room.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked him, bringing up a hand to rub gingerly at the back of her neck. Her fingers came away and they both saw the bright red streaking of her blood. She was bleeding, but not in a worrisome way. She would take longer to heal for many reasons. The savagery of his bite, the taint of heroin in her blood, the days of captivity—it all added up to lowering her immune system. Slowing her healing processes.

  He couldn’t worry about that now. They reached the end of the corridor, the walls made of what looked like solid steel. But a touch told him it was mostly steel sheeting with a metal skeleton behind it. He looked up at all the seams of the ceiling and there he saw it; tucked into an upper corner was a camera pointed toward the hallway. But like the ones in the room, it had no glow of a red light to indicate it was working.

  They didn’t need cameras, however. Halo could sense three guards at the ends of the corridors that split off from the one they were in now. The corridor to the right had only one guard. The corridor to the left had two.

  Practicality might suggest they go to the right so they met up with that smaller resistance, but instinct told him that they would more heavily guard the way out. He didn’t have the luxury of debating with himself.

  He turned them down the left corridor.

  “Keep an eye out for a window or a door leading out. Look for sunlight.” It had turned to day again while they’d been locked away. “Remember, you have to keep out of reach. If they catch you they can use you against me. It’ll be all over.”

  “They won’t catch me,” she promised, her voice a fierce whisper to match his.

  As they neared the end of the corridor, Halo became aware of the fact that it was one phant and one human and they were both in conversation, not paying attention to the area around themselves. In other words, sucky guards. Roth sure had a knack for picking the wrong guys for the job. Then again, maybe not. Roth had gotten what he had wanted. He had forced a situation where Halo had had to feed from a poisoned well. Maybe this was all part of the plan…maybe it wasn’t. He didn’t know and he didn’t have time to worry about it.

  Halo barreled around the corner, bulldozing into both men, slamming them into the nearest wall so hard the metal pranging of the walls echoed into the corridors. So much for a stealth exit. Then again, the gunfire should have given them away long ago. None of it made sense. Where was Roth? Why wasn’t he gloating over his success at making Halo do exactly what he had wanted him to do?

  No time to worry about it. He shot the human male in the chest, dropping him instantly. The phant male wasn’t as easy. The sycophant immediately sent out a pulse of dirty energy, and this time Halo refused to take any of it in. He couldn’t afford to. He couldn’t keep exposing himself to toxic sources.

  Halo shook off the pain of the pulse, and with a vicious snarl he pounced on the phant. He ringed him around his neck with one powerful arm and yanked him down to hip height, wrenching his neck beyond its natural connection, effectively breaking his neck. But that wasn’t enough to kill the phant. Not unless the cord was severed. However, once the neck was broken it only took a little more twisting before the cord was snapped cleanly in two by the torsion.

  He let the phant fall and disarmed him of the gun he had managed to withdraw from its holster but had never had the opportunity to fire. He handed it to Felice and now she had a weapon in each hand.

  “I can’t fire a gun!” she whispered fiercely.

  “You couldn’t stab a guy in the neck until a few minutes ago either. You’ll learn.” He checked to make certain the safety of the gun was off for her. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably so he took the knife from her and allowed her to hold the gun with two hands. “Remember, aim for the throat or the back of the neck. Preferably the back of the neck. Sometimes the bullets don’t make it all the way through to the back.”

  “It’s worked for you,” she said.

  “I’ve been up close. Hopefully you won’t get that close. Your first choice is still to keep out of the way, got me?”

  “Oh believe me, I’ve gotcha,” she said earnestly.

  “Good girl. Now…I see sunlight.”

  He felt it too. It wasn’t touching him yet, but he could sense the radiant energy of it. He took her elbow in hand after tucking the knife into the pocket of his pants. The pockets were deep so he wasn’t likely to lose it.

  He did have a problem though. He was still pumping blood out of his carotid artery. Granted, it was slowing down, his body having begun to heal already thanks to the fresh dose of energy Felice had supplied, but still…he had lost a lot of blood and it was fucking with his sense of balance. Losing this volume of blood might not kill him, but it burned precious energy to compensate.

  On the plus side, he hadn’t turned instantly evil after drinking from Felice. He hadn’t really thought he would, but he still felt high from the feed. Had she been a clean source, the feeling would have leveled out by then. The way he felt now was highly addictive. He could very easily crave it some more. However, Halo didn’t like not having control over his senses. Sure, he drank from time to time, but never enough to dull his senses completely. Not like this. He didn’t crave alcohol the way he was craving this. Craving her. Not just anyone. Felice.

  He shook off the neediness of that thought, filing it away with all the other alien feelings coursing through his mind and body. He needed to remain focused. He needed to get them out of there. She was counting on him.

  He drew her close to his side, supporting her weakened body as best he could while allowing himself the freedom to move and act. They were coming out of the maze of corridors and there was a vast warehouse at the end, high windows streaming sunlight into one side of the building. Windows too high to escape out of.

  On the plus side, the
warehouse was littered with crates and boxes of all sorts. God only knew what was in them. But it provided cover for them as they searched for an exit. There was no telling if there were functioning cameras in that part of the building. There was no telling when they would encounter resistance.

  Also on the plus side, he sensed very few sources of energy, be they vampire or human. There were men making what felt like regular patrols, walking around the perimeter of the enormous building, but not many.

  Halo finally found what he was looking for.

  A door.

  It was on the sunny side of the room, so odds were it led directly outside. It was also the only source of egress he could see other than the loading bays which were locked up tight. He could probably break a lock, but it would be very noisy opening a bay door even a little bit. And besides, there was a congregation of warm bodies just beyond the bay doors. The opposite side of the building, the side he was heading for, had far fewer obstacles.

  Halo took Felice’s hand in his and drew her behind a large crate. He put a finger to his lips and moved out of her reach. He immediately saw the panic that leapt into her eyes when she realized he was going to leave her there but he also saw her gain control over it. She was shaking as she held the gun up to her chest, ready to fire if she needed to. He highly doubted she could hit anything unless it was up close, but having the weapon must make her feel better on some level despite its alien feel.

  He moved as stealthily as he could to the door, but also quickly. If he could sense them, then a vampire could sense him. The minute he fired the gun in the echoing warehouse was the minute they would have every guard and warm body converging on where they were. He had to be as silent as possible. At the same time he had to fight the taint coursing through his body. It was distracting him, throwing him off his game. There was a sickly sweetness to the pleasure that lingered from his feed. As Halo slowly came away from the sharpness of the first flush of feeding, he couldn’t seem to focus on much more than the way he was feeling from one moment to the next. It took monumental discipline to keep on point. He had to do it. For Felice if not for himself. She was depending on him.