Blood and Bite (7 page)

“You can call me…John.”

She lifted an eyebrow.
“Yeah.”

His arm brushed her shoulder as they walked. He was around
six feet tall, and his body was lean beneath the thin jacket.

She didn’t want to take him back to her room, didn’t want
him seeing her car. She wanted nothing but to feed.

She shoved him into a dark alley and hated herself a little
for her desperation.
A fucking alley?

But it was all she could do.

She pushed him further in, where the streetlights barely
penetrated the black of the night.

He didn’t resist. He leaned back against the side of the
building and stared down at her. His eyes were dark beneath the brim of his hat
but finally, she saw a spark of curiosity in his gaze.

The rain misted her skin, leaving a cold coat of moisture.
She smiled. Her stomach muscles tightened in anticipation and she could control
herself no longer.

Her fangs dropped and she had a second to see his eyes go
wide before she struck.

But she found only air where a moment before the cowboy had
stood—and because of her slowed reflexes could only stare in shock as the fucking
berserker flung the man into the street.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Strad
ordered,
his voice growly and full of doom.

The stranger, after a lingering look at the shocked Rune,
inclined his head and walked away.
Smiling.

Freak.

“Fuck you,” she screamed at Strad, when she could speak. She
would have hurt him then, if he hadn’t simply scooped her up and with a big
hand at the back of her head, shoved her mouth against his throat.

“Do it,” he said.

His scent, his warm skin, his deep voice…she could not
resist.
Didn’t, at that moment, care if he had
three
fucking wives.
She had to have his blood.

He groaned as she parted her lips against his neck—his groan
would have been the same if he’d been fucking her, she was sure—it was sexual
and full of a deep, hard desire, and that sound pushed her over the edge.

She took what he offered. She could do nothing else.

He smelled incredible, warm and spicy and male. She
punctured that deliciousness with her little fangs and clenched her fingers
into his shoulders as his hot, sweet blood filled her mouth.

So good, so good…

As she sucked she felt every inch of his hard body, heard
every breath he took. Her senses heightened with each swallow. She was aware
when his hands became caressing.

“Rune,” he
murmured,
his voice raspy.

As though he’d needed her exactly as much
as she’d needed him.

He slid his hands down her sides and gripped her ass,
squeezing. They’d never had sex, nothing beyond a kiss, but feeding was just as
intimate, just as raw.

And she wanted him.

She wanted—craved—the fucking berserker.

His blood filled her, satisfied her,
made
her more than she could ever be without it. As she regretfully retracted her
fangs she left her lips against his neck, her eyes closed, and slipped her
fingers with excruciating slowness over his chest.

His blood sang through her veins, lightened her mood,
made
her strong.
Made her invincible.
Made her body wake up and want…

“More,” she said.

She slid her lips over his jaw, across his cheek, and
finally, to his mouth.

He stayed as still as a stone, rigid and barely breathing.

She moved her lips against his, just slightly,
then
opened her mouth.

Tasting, testing…

He groaned again, into her mouth. This was not the groan of
passion, but a groan of wretchedness, of regret.

He peeled her off his body and set her gently on the ground.
“You’ll hate me enough for the blood, Rune. I won’t have you hating me for the
other.” His voice was hoarse and raw and scraped over her nerve endings like a
physical touch.

And the look in his eyes was resolute.

She could hardly hold still. She wanted to run, to fight,
to
play. She reached up to stroke his face, knowing he was
right but too high on his blood to care. “Damn you, Berserker.”

He grinned, but his eyes were serious. “Hardest thing I ever
did in my life.”

Unable to resist, she trailed her hand over his chest, his
ribs, and to the front of his pants—wondering if he’d stop her, almost hoping
he would.

He didn’t, but he clenched his fists and threw back his head
when she squeezed his erection.

She felt the heat of him through the heavy fabric and closed
her eyes for a second as she let herself imagine that hugeness inside her.

His entire body shook with the effort of holding himself
still as she explored his body. Finally, she took her hand away and stepped
back.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she was. “I’m kind of a bitch.”
But damn, his body.
His hardness.
His
heat.

He’d done what he knew she’d want—in the long run—and had
stood strong as she’d tempted him further.

But what was the difference, really, in feeding in a dark
alley and lying naked in his arms in a soft bed? What?

She swallowed hard and stepped farther away, knowing she had
to leave before she convinced herself.

Because as he’d said, she’d hate him for
it.

So using the speed his blood gave her, she got the hell away
from him.

She didn’t bother getting into her car. She was too amped
up. Instead she roamed the streets on foot, searching for vampires. They’d be
awake and hungry but afraid and cautious, as well.

This was the second time she’d been ordered to kill Llodra.
This time, she’d do it. She just had to find him.

She sucked the cold air into her lungs, reveling in the icy
burn. She could barely remember the despair she’d felt earlier. Worries over
madness and the depression that hit her hardest when she was hungry had fled,
and all that remained was euphoria.

If she went mad, as vampires tended to do, even blood
wouldn’t restore that elation—the despair would be constant and
all-encompassing.

She ran through the night, her senses on high alert,
listening, looking, and hoping for vampires. She searched Club Kiss, a favorite
nightspot of Llodra’s, and every abandoned house she passed.

There was no sign of the River County vampires. Llodra had
gathered those who remained into a tight little knot of undead and had
disappeared.

And he still had Blood and Fire. She wanted them, wanted
them even more than she wanted Llodra’s head. Not for herself but to free them.
Their captivity was just…wrong. Horribly wrong.

The rain began to come down with a little more force,
plastering her hair to her head and jabbing her face with freezing needles.
Even for a badass half
Other
who had just fed, it was
uncomfortable.

She’d ended up back in Spiritgrove without even realizing
it. The speed from feeding had slowed but not enough to make her want to get a
cab back to the Moor. As she retraced her steps she continued to watch for the
vampires, but they were well and truly hidden.

But she did see Ellis.

A popular gay bar spat him out onto the sidewalk not twenty
feet in front of her, and he wasn’t alone.

Before she could yell his name the guy with Ellis shoved him
up against the side of an old car and hit him in the face.

Rune dropped her fangs and shot her claws through the tips
of her fingers—a fucking painful thing to do—and started toward them. Her rage
made her forget the rain and the vampires. Her lizard brain took over. She
would kill the asshole who—

But then a man jumped out of a truck parked across the
street from the bar and sprinted toward them.

Levi?

He didn’t bother to slam the door shut behind him, just
raced toward Ellis and did what Rune had been eager to do—he began to beat the
fuck out of the stranger.

She couldn’t help but wonder why he’d been watching Ellis in
the first place. If Ellis had been in danger and was keeping it from her, there
was going to be trouble. But why else would Levi have been shadowing him?

Rune stood still, allowing her claws and fangs to retract.
Ellis didn’t need her help—Levi was taking care of business.

Ellis leaned over and tugged at the arm of his rescuer, and
Rune slid silently off the sidewalk to watch. The men were spotlighted by the
tall streetlight, and the few pedestrians out that late gave them wide berth.

The rain had slowed, finally, and the pavement gleamed with
a glossy wet shine. If it’d been a few degrees colder, the wet streets would
have iced over.

At last Levi allowed Ellis to pull him from the downed man.
The dude lay like a slug, and Rune didn’t know if he was unconscious or playing
dead. She grinned when Ellis pulled back a booted foot and kicked the guy on
the shoulder.

But her smile disappeared when instead of giving each other
high fives, Levi and Ellis faced each other silently. Levi’s spine was ramrod
straight and even with only streetlights to chase back the shadows, Rune could
see his glare.

He clenched his fists, reminding her of Strad, but she
pushed that man from her mind as quickly as he’d appeared. She did not want to
think about the berserker.

What the fuck is going on here?

Ellis crossed his arms, angry, and turned his back on Levi.

Come on, Ellie. He saved your ass. Don’t be like that.

She could almost see Levi sigh. He said something and walked
away, heading to his truck. But when Ellis didn’t follow, Levi went back and took
his arm. He wasn’t going to let Ellis stay there alone.

Ellis shook off Levi’s hand, his voice not loud, but loud
enough for her to hear.

“Just leave me alone, Levi.”

“You’re being a little stupid, Ellis. I’m not leaving you
here to be picked up by some other fuck.”

“I’ll do what I want.”

“What you want is to pick up strangers and get your ass
kicked?
Rune rubbing off on you?”

Hey now.
That stung a tad.

Ellis pushed Levi, hard, and Levi stumbled back a couple of
steps. “You don’t know anything.”

Levi held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said
that. But
fuck,
man. Just…come on. I’m not leaving you here.”

“I’m not your concern.” Ellis wrapped his arms around his
shivering body and Rune saw that he was dressed much too lightly for the cold
night. That boy needed a keeper.

She had a feeling those two wouldn’t appreciate her
spying—and it was finally occurring to her what was going on.

“You’ll always be my concern.”

Oh fuck. How could she not have known?

Levi was the man Ellie had fallen in love with.

Levi was the one who couldn’t return Ellie’s love.

She closed her eyes for a second, aching for her best
friend. How terribly painful to love someone who could never be what you needed
them to be.

It was time for her to show herself. She stepped out from the
shadows and strode toward them, thinking only to wrap her arms around Ellis and
somehow comfort him.

But again, Levi did exactly what she’d intended to do.

He wrapped his arms around the smaller man and pulled his
resisting body against his chest. “God, Ellie,” he murmured.

Once again Rune stopped dead in her tracks.

Ellis began to cry and finally, he let Levi lead him to his
truck.

After he put Ellis inside, Levi walked to the driver’s side.
But before he climbed inside he looked over his shoulder, directly at Rune.

He’d been aware of her all along, exactly as a Shiv Crew
member should have been.

They stared across the street at each other for a long,
silent moment. At last, Levi sent her one curt nod, climbed into his truck, and
drove Ellis the fuck out of there.

Love was a cold son of a bitch.

But Ellie was safe.

The dude Levi had fucked up crawled a little way down the
sidewalk before getting to his feet and tottering away. She let him go.

She tried not to think about Strad, but by the time she
finally got back to her room he was
all
she could think about.

She couldn’t blame herself for wanting him—that was
understandable. Any woman with a pulse would want him. But she shouldn’t have
let him know she wanted him—how incredibly badly she wanted him.

It would be hard to face him and his knowing gaze.

He belonged to someone else, and Rune Alexander was not a
sharing kind of woman.

She took a hot, hot shower and fell into bed with wet hair,
remembering to take her phone off vibrate.

She groaned, punched her pillow, and fell asleep.

What seemed like two minutes later, her phone screeched,
dragging her from her dreams. She squinted at the clock. Five a.m.

“What?” she muttered, too bleary-eyed to actually read the
display.
This better be good, fuckers.

It was.

“Rune,” Tina Matheson screamed, “they’ve taken Matthew.
They’ve taken my son.”

Fuck me.
“I’ll be right there.”

She dressed in record time, grabbed her guns and a handful
of shivs, and went to deal with a horror that wasn’t going to have a good
ending no matter what happened.

She wasn’t being pessimistic—she just had a bad feeling.

Her gut rarely failed her.

And that was just too bad.

DESTRUCTION

In two weeks they’d torn River County apart. They’d swept
the river, combed the woods, and questioned dozens of people.

They got nothing.

The child had simply disappeared.

But no one was going to give up looking. Not Spiritgrove law
enforcement, not the FBI, and most of all, not Shiv Crew.

“Okay, guys. You know the vampires can wake up and if Llodra
is somewhere in this mess…” Rune looked around at the demolished farmhouse and
frowned. “Then we need to be extra cautious.”

Her crew nodded soberly and started digging through the
rubble. There was a basement buried somewhere under the clutter, as well as the
sad remains of an ancient outdoor cellar. They’d search both spots and hope it
netted them some vampires.

Two weeks of no kid and no master vampire was making her
worry. Her stomach roiled and gurgled and her gut screamed at her almost
constantly. She was missing something and didn’t know what the fuck it was.

“You okay, Rune?”

She stopped rubbing her midsection and glanced at Raze.
“Yeah.
Just…the last few days have been a son of a bitch.”

Raze hadn’t stopped working since he’d left jail. “Being in
county lockup makes a man appreciate his freedom,” he’d told her.
“As well as a good steak dinner and a cold beer.
I might
have to learn to love the rats.”

She’d laughed but there was no doubt in her mind that he was
completely serious. She also didn’t doubt his feelings for Lex. He might have
hidden it well, but now that she knew, it was so obvious she felt like an idiot
for not realizing it to begin with.

Even now he watched Lex, his brow knitted, as the girl
picked her way carefully through the old boards and glass and garbage.

Rune smirked, but Raze was too busy staring at Lex to
notice. He’d tied his long, dark red hair back into a ponytail, and his big
body was crisscrossed with a dozen belts loaded with stakes, vguns, and shivs.
He’d holstered a semi-automatic at his hip.

They’d
all
loaded up on extra weapons and ammo.
Llodra’s madness was nothing to take lightly.

“Found the entrance,” Levi called, and they walked to where
he stood.

“Cellar or basement?”
Rune asked.

“Basement.”
He peered down into the
hole he’d uncovered. “How are we going to get down there? I don’t see any
steps.”

Rune turned her flashlight toward the hole. Half of the
opening was still covered over by rotting boards and God knew what else, but it
was large enough for even Raze to slip through. She squinted. “Me either.” She
pointed at the case Jack had carried to the site. “Somebody grab a rope.”

Denim opened the case of supplies and brought her the long,
thick rope. She motioned for Z to help her tie it around her waist. “Raze,
lower me down. If there are bloodsuckers down there I’ll send the rope back up
and one of you can join me.”

Z hesitated. “Rune…”

She stared at him.
“Yeah?”

He sighed. “Just be fucking careful, will you?”

She raised her eyebrows but gave him a smile. “Of course I
will.”

Lex began vibrating hard, her eyes dancing crazily.
“Something is down there.” She grabbed Rune’s arm. “Send someone else.”

Rune patted Lex’s hand and gently moved her fingers off her
arm. She gave the rope a tug. “I’ll be fine, baby. Do you sense vampires, or
what?” If anything was down there, it had to pretty much be an
Other
of one flavor or another. If today was her lucky day,
it’d be Llodra, sleeping the sleep of the dead.

Lex shook her head. “I don’t know.
Just
something.”

The girl had become clingy since Rune had returned from the
clinic, but Rune didn’t know how to address the issue. Ignoring it and hoping
it’d go away wasn’t doing any good. They were going to have to have a talk.

Raze took Lex’s arm and pulled her away from Rune. “We won’t
let anything happen to our captain,” he told her.

Lex’s frown stayed in place. “I guess.”

Rune put her night vision goggles on,
then
sat at the edge of the gaping black hole of nothingness in front of her.
Mustiness, the scent of a rotting carcass, and earth rose up to greet her
nostrils.

And something else.
Lex was right.

There was something down there. Rune could smell it.

She gave Raze a nod. “I’m ready. Don’t bounce me off any
walls, baby. If they are down there, I don’t want to wake them up.”

He grinned. “I’ll do my best.”

She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the fact that she
was a little on the claustrophobic side.

It was like being lowered on a string into a clogged drain,
looking for a lost ring. She held on to the rope, and the farther she went into
the darkness the more disoriented she became.

“Still good?”
Z’s voice floated
down to her and she grasped onto it gratefully.

“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Fucking awesome.”

It seemed like she dangled from that rope for a solid hour,
but finally her booted feet touched solid ground. She kept the rope securely
around her and gave her green-tinged surroundings a quick check through the
goggles. They were bulky and ugly, but they let her see better in darkness.

At first she saw nothing other than a half caved-in
basement, full of unidentifiable scents and shapes. Nothing moved, nothing
breathed.

But then…

“Bingo.” She carefully slipped out of the rope and gave it a
tug, and it was pulled noiselessly from the hole.

The place was full of vampires.

Light wouldn’t wake them, so she pushed the goggles to the
top of her head and pulled her flashlight from her belt.

She glanced up. One of the men was being lowered to join
her—probably one of the twins or Z as they were so much smaller than Jack and
Raze. She’d be glad of the company.

The hole in the ground was cold and grim, made worse by the
few sleeping vampires. When she flashed her light over the white faces with
their closed eyes and unmoving chests, she had to force away insidious thoughts
that even now, the insanity Llodra had surely passed on to his children could
be somehow passing to her.

“That’s just fucking stupid,” she muttered, and forced the
fear away.

What was the madness going to do, seep out of the vampires’
brains and crawl across the floor like a crab?

She scoffed.

Moving carefully, she put her vgun to the first vampire she
came to and pulled the trigger.
Thwack!

The vampire’s eyes popped open and for a second there was
just a realization of death.
And something close to grateful
relief.

Or maybe that was just her imagination.

She pulled a long, razor-sharp knife and took the vampire’s
head, then went on to the next one. She looked up when she felt one of her men
beside her, long enough to give him—Z—a thumbs up.

He nodded and flipped on his own flashlight.
Couldn’t have too much light when you were in the dark with the
vampires.

They’d get the job done and take one step closer to Llodra.
She had a feeling he wasn’t in the basement. He wasn’t going to be that easy.

But soon enough, his mad ass would belong to her.

They cleared the basement and were out of the hole in less
than twenty minutes—it had gone so smoothly she was pretty sure that later
there would be hell to pay.

Lex slid close to Rune. She didn’t say anything, just stood
near her and waited for Rune to get the rope off.

Z had gone up first and was busy cleaning his gory blade.
Levi and Denim watched Lex, both with frowns. They didn’t know what was going
on with her either.

“Now,” Rune said, glad to be out of the dank basement,
“let’s see if the cellar holds any surprises.”

Elizabeth had sent them to the farm that morning with little
hope they’d actually find something. The successful mini-purge was going to put
a gleam of joy in her eyes.

The cellar was an ancient root cellar built into the side of
a hill. Jack pulled open the door. Raze, ducking his head, went first into the
room. The rest of the crew followed single file, but there was barely enough
room to hold them all.

There were no more sleeping vampires in this room, but
Llodra had left them a note. They stared at it for a long moment and dread gathered
in the pit of Rune’s stomach. This was not going to be good.

She pointed her chin at Denim. “Read it out loud.”

He nodded and gingerly picked up the paper, an ordinary
piece of lined notebook paper, and began to read the cursive script.

“
If you’re reading this I will assume you’ve found my
children. To add to the entertainment, I’ve decided to kill a human for each
vampire you have staked this day. My darling Rune, I hope your doctors have
helped you. The guilt you will carry for murdering the humans will surely
devastate you.

PS: Because you have
a softness
for children, a boy child will be the first to die. Can you guess which one?”

“Shit,” Rune whispered. “Shit.”

 It had taken two long weeks, but now they knew.

Llodra had Matthew.

She could only hope the child had died quickly.