Cunningham, Pat - Legacy [Sequel to Belonging] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (25 page)

“Okay, saf
er
,” Wallace amended. “They haven’t tracked you here. I check the perimeter every night, and there’s no sign we’re being watched. Anyway, I could be gone for a week or more. It’s gonna take at least two nights just to drive up there. What about that job you won’t give up? All those little kids? You just going to up and run out on them?”

Colleen bit her lip. Jeremy, though, persisted in the argument. “The world won’t end if we miss work for a couple of days. We’ll call it a family emergency. Anyway, who says they’re in Sacramento? The attacks have all happened down here.”

“Because their targets are down here. How much you want to bet any of the girls living upstate have also gone missing by now? Look. I’m going into enemy territory here. I need to know where you two are and that you’re okay. This is our turf, not theirs. This house has defenses against bat invasion. Annie and Gus are close by if you need them. I can track this Preacher guy faster if I’m on my own.”

“Three of us could track him even faster, especially if two of us aren’t vampires.”

“What if you find some other sexy bat in Sacramento and ditch me? No way I’m risking that.” Jeremy snorted. “You’re staying here. End of discussion.”

“You said they’re not watching this place. Maybe they’ve given up,” Colleen said hopefully.

“Not our place, no. They’ve still got a watch on your apartment. Bat stink’s everywhere. I caught one two, three nights ago. Mostly they run when they spot me. Relax,” he headed off her panicky response. “The preschool’s clean. They haven’t been there. They can’t get at you during the day, and no one’s there at night. The kids aren’t in any danger.”

“But they could be,” she said, “because of me, and I’m not even useful to them.”

“Try telling the bats that,” Wallace said. “See how far it gets you.”

She had no retort to that. She feared Gus was right. The vampires would only find another use for her once they determined she couldn’t fulfill her intended function. Of all the things to kidnap her for, the one she couldn’t perform.

Her silence prompted Jeremy to knead her tense shoulders. “If you want to talk about it, we’ll listen.”

“I might as well. Then maybe Wallace will stop staring at me.”

Wallace quickly looked toward the sink. “I wasn’t staring.”

“Of course not.” Colleen snorted a small laugh. “I met David in college. I was there for elementary ed. I was nineteen, twenty. We both loved children. David came from a huge family and wanted a huge family. We used to watch those shows where the couple has a dozen kids and go, ‘That’s us.’

“We had the wedding planned out and the date set and everything, so we decided to get a head start. We tried to have a baby, and I mean tried. We did everything. Positions, foods, taking my temperature, time of day, you name it. Finally, we went to a doctor. Then we went to another doctor. Then I went to two more on my own.

“They all said the same thing. David was fine. He was better than fine. He had a high sperm count, tons of healthy boys. I was the problem. All my parts work—I get my period like clockwork, cramps, PMS, the whole nine yards—but something inside me is off. Sperm hits my eggs and just goes
phhhht
. Like a bug zapper. The doctors figured I had a genetic disorder. Something in my…”

Her voice trailed away as the full import hit her. Her hand crept to her mouth.

“Blood?” Wallace finished bluntly.

“Wallace,” Jeremy said sharply. “C’mon. A hundred years of selective breeding just to produce sterility? What good would that do them?”

“They’ve gotta be aiming for something specific. Even bats don’t stick with a plan that long unless they’re really hot on the outcome. Your, you know, problem might’ve been an accident. Maybe they really are trying for a richer type of blood.” Wallace licked his lips. “I know a quick way to find out.”

“Wallace, no.”

“I know I’m not foolproof, but hey. When it comes to blood, I’m the resident expert.” The look he gave Colleen was kinder than his usual hard-ass expression. “Up to you, sweetheart.”

Instinctively, she pressed closer to Jeremy. “Not the neck.”

He shrugged. “The wrist will do. All I need’s a swallow.”

“And that will tell you what?”

“Any number of things. I won’t know what until I’ve had a taste.”

Colleen stared at her wrist. Paranoia stabbed her. This could be just the excuse he needed to mark her. Make her his, for Jeremy. What could he learn from her blood, anyway, that medical science hadn’t been able to?

Maybe a reason why the creatures from her childhood wanted her back so badly.

She slammed her eyes shut and thrust out her wrist. “Make it quick.”

He took her arm in his powerful hands in a grip that announced he wasn’t about to let go. Too late for misgivings now. Jeremy took her other hand and pressed it reassuringly. It ameliorated the blatant possessiveness of Wallace’s touch somewhat.

Colleen heard a series of quick, soft sniffs, but no puff of breath on her skin. Then a raspy wetness that made her skin tingle and her cunt thrum with want. She cracked her lids for a peek and saw Wallace licking her wrist. She recalled how tenderly that tongue had lapped over Jeremy’s mark and fought against a shiver of arousal.

Nurses, she thought, nurses and needles. Think of a nurse swabbing the skin. Except, no nurse had ever smelled like Wallace, and no pre-injection prep had ever felt so weirdly erotic.

To distract herself, she looked to Jeremy and found him staring raptly at Wallace’s attention to her wrist. His breathing had dropped to shallow pants, like hers. Good Lord, this was getting him off. Did a bite do that to people? Would it do that to her? As she opened her mouth in protest, Wallace suckled on the skin above her vein. The pleasure of the licks abruptly doubled, and her words jumbled up in her throat.

“Here we go,” Wallace murmured. “It’ll only hurt for a sec.”

Colleen flinched before his fangs went in. She couldn’t help herself. The actual sensation, when he finally bit down, wasn’t half as bad as she’d imagined. She’d had a worse time getting her ears pierced. Wallace’s lips fastened onto her wrist. Jeremy made a soft little noise that sounded like an envious sigh.

She didn’t want to watch but couldn’t look away. At least he’d been right about the pain. After that initial pinch, it didn’t hurt at all. It felt…nice. Colleen grew light-headed, as if the blood he drank from her wrist were being sucked directly from her brain. Visions of nurses vanished. This was a vampire, feeding on her blood.

No, correct that. This was Wallace. Wallace wouldn’t hurt her. He had vowed to protect her. A helpless, hungry moan escaped her, echoed by Jeremy. She recalled the bliss on Jeremy’s face when Wallace bit into his neck.

Somewhere, far at the back of her brain, her common sense screamed a warning. This must be how vampires kept their victims passive long enough to drink their fill.

Wallace wouldn’t drain her. He’d promised.

Need seared her veins like fire. She mewed for attention. Jeremy bent to meet her starving, searching mouth. His tongue slid in between her lips as her blood slid out through her wrist, and she became deliciously dizzy all over again. She dragged her free hand up from the arm of the chair to tangle in Jeremy’s hair. Wallace made a low, feral noise that sent a primal thrill through her body.

All at once, and far too soon, it ended. Jeremy broke away from her mouth, and Wallace’s mouth left her arm. Colleen slumped back, on the edge of a faint. Somehow she kept her eyes open, if not entirely focused. She saw Wallace sway just in front of her. He looked as dazed as she felt. Jeremy had his hands on the vampire’s shoulders. Blood stained Wallace’s lips.

My blood, Colleen thought, with a little rush of pride.

“That’s enough,” Jeremy was saying. “You had more than a swallow.”

“I did?” Wallace blinked heavily and stared at her wrist. For a second, Colleen believed he was going to dive back to it and finish the job. Finish draining her dry. All of a sudden, the notion didn’t seem so appealing anymore. Whatever special vampire drugging agent he’d transmitted through the bite must be wearing off. She glanced at her wrist and the blood dribbling off it and felt the first dull stirrings of fear.

“Turn around,” Jeremy ordered Wallace. “Don’t look.” He darted to a drawer by the sink and returned to Colleen with a clean dish towel. He wrapped it around her bleeding wrist. “It should stop in a minute,” he told her. “Bat saliva makes the wound clot faster. I said don’t look.”

“I can still smell her,” Wallace said hoarsely.

“Then leave the room.”

“No. I’m okay.” With her wrist and temptation now covered up, Wallace faced her again. Good God, his eyes! His pupils had blown up to bottomless holes until almost no iris was left. His thoughts blasted her with their raw, open need. He wanted to jump her again, right now, and not for blood this time. A part of her yearned for that primitive assault. She groped for and found the steady support of Jeremy’s living hand. It gave her the strength to wall him out of her mind and press her legs closer together.

Wallace spotted her reaction and managed a shaky smirk. “Jesus H. highjumping Christ. That’s some high-octane fuel you’re carting around. If all your old playmates taste like you, no wonder the bats want you so bad.”

“But my blood’s okay, right? There’s nothing wrong with me?”

“Sweetheart, on a scale of one to ten, your blood’s a forty. Really robust. Chock-full of all the vitamins and minerals a growing vampire needs. Guess they were breeding for a richer blood type after all. They sure as hell succeeded, as far as I’m concerned.”

“But I’m human.”

“You ask me, you’re better than human. Maybe that’s why Douchebag couldn’t knock you up. Your system was too much for his poor little boys to handle. If you don’t mind my asking, what happened to him? Do we have to worry about him, too?”

“I doubt it. I don’t think he even lives in California anymore. After my diagnosis came down, he…we…” She groped for words to match her emotions. The pain had faded a long time ago and left behind only weariness. “We drifted apart. He lost interest in me. Like I was somehow defective. Adoption was never an option for him. It had to be natural or nothing. It ended up being nothing.” She sniffled a laugh. “He left me for a single mom with two little kids. A proven breeder. What a jerk.”

“Douchebag,” Wallace repeated. “I stand by my opinion.”

“Yeah. He was a douchebag, and now I’m a cow. Life’s just bright and shiny.”

“For what it’s worth, you’ve got the best damn milk I’ve ever tasted.” He leered at her modest breasts. “Nice udders, too.”

Colleen glared up at him. “So not helping.”

Jeremy hugged her. “You’re not defective, you’re not a cow, and we’re not going anywhere.”

“I am,” Wallace said. “I’m going to Sacramento. I’ll be as quick as I can. And both of your asses will be waiting right here when I get back. Are we clear on that?”

Colleen and Jeremy traded one of those quick conversational looks. “We’re clear,” Jeremy said reluctantly. “We’ll stay here, and we’ll keep out of trouble. I can’t speak for the vampires. And you, you stubborn jerk, you watch your ass, or we’ll come after you.”

Wallace shrugged. “Fair enough. Where can we rent a van?”

“I think I know a place.” Colleen stood up. The kitchen slewed sideways. She dropped back onto the chair. The room grayed out for a second. She came to with Wallace’s hand on the back of her head and her head between her knees.

“Sit tight for a sec,” he advised. “Scarecrow’s right. I took a lot more than a swallow.”

Paranoia flickered up and settled down again. “You lied to me.”

“Sorry. You tasted so damn good. What goes with blood loss? Whiskey or orange juice?”