Blood Hunger (An Adult Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series #1) (9 page)

   
 
He sat very still. “What are the nightmares about, Em?”

   
 
Speaking very quietly, like she was afraid they’d hear her, she stared out the window as she told him, “They’re always the same. I’m with Keira, and we’re leaving the carnival. They hit all the little towns around here every summer, you know. It was a perfect summer night, and we’d had so much fun. We rode all the rides, played all the games, and ate every greasy thing we could find…and for once, no one had bothered us.” A wistful smile played around her mouth as she remembered the last time she’d been with her sister. “It was getting really late, so we decided to leave. We were chasing each other through the field, running to our car. We were laughing…”

   
 
She stopped talking, lost in the memories that she’d tried so hard to forget, yet had so rapidly returned to her tonight. Intentionally recalling the details for the first time in years, her mind was recoiling against remembering what had happened next, trying to go back into self-preservation mode.

     But she struggled through it, and continued, “Keira suddenly stopped running, and I turned around to see why. She wasn’t looking at me, but past me towards where our car was parked right at the tree line of the woods. She was completely terrified. I thought maybe it was a bear or something; we have them around here sometimes. So I turned around very slowly to see for myself…”

***

     She paused, and tears started running unheeded down her face as her hands started shaking again. Nik could feel her chaotic emotions, the main one being terror. It radiated from her, across the space between them, and hit him right in the center of his chest.

     He didn’t want her to be afraid. Ever. The urge to go back in time and slowly, painfully, kill whatever it was that was making her feel so scared rushed through him without warning.

     His fangs slid down, and his lips pulled back in a sinister snarl. Emitting a low growl deep in his chest, his muscles tensed and thickened, instinctually preparing for battle. He knew his eyes would be glowing from the emotions rolling through him.

     Emma must have heard him, for her eyes flickered over to him from the window she’d been staring out of. She raised her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, and he jumped up from the table before she could clear her vision, not wanting her to see him as he was.

     With a muffled, “Be right back,” he disappeared from his seat, rushing down the hall to the bathroom and locking the door behind him. In the state he was in, he’d forgotten to keep it at a human pace. He hoped he hadn’t startled her.

     Standing in front of the sink in the small half bath, Nik took several slow, calming breaths and tried to get a grip on himself. What the fuck was wrong with him? He’d finally, finally, gotten her to talk, and he had to go all Neanderthal just because he felt she’d been afraid seven years ago.

     Seven. Years. Ago.

     Hopefully, his little
Flash
imitation hadn’t startled her too much. She was dealing with enough tonight as it was. Upsetting her more was not going to accomplish anything. He had to find out the details of her sister’s abduction, if that’s what it was.

     Also, why had Emma been left alive to bear witness?

     When the news of Luukas
’
capture had reached them, debilitating shock had rippled through the Council. There was no way anyone could overpower a Master Vampire, at least no one they’d ever known. And, unfortunately, they definitely knew Leeha. It was impossible for her to have overpowered him on her own.

     But shortly after Luukas had gone MIA, one of the guys had heard about Keira and brought it to Nik’s attention. Putting two and two together, he knew having a witch on your side was the only way to keep Luuk anywhere he didn’t want to be. A witch, if powerful enough, is the only other being who can overpower a Master Vampire. And Keira, he’d discovered, was a very powerful and practiced witch.

     Had she really been taken against her will? Or had she been in on it the entire time?

     Maybe they could’ve answered those questions if they could’ve found any trace of them all. However, Leeha had pulled the greatest disappearing act she’d ever done. Until now.

     One thing was for sure; his Emma was an innocent victim in all of this. They hadn’t even known she existed until just recently when they saw one of her missing person alerts. The Council wasn’t certain how that had happened, as they kept track of all the witches in their area. How had they missed knowing about a Moss witch?

     But their focus right now was getting Luukas back. They’d worry about the information slip up later.

    
His Emma
. He really needed to stop thinking like that. She wasn’t his. And she never would be.

     Turning on the faucet, he splashed some cold water on his face, and checked himself out in the mirror. Back to his normal self, he was eager to return to the kitchen. Hopefully she hadn’t freaked out and withdrawn again. He didn’t know if he’d have the patience or the time to get this story back out of her of her own free will.

     He wasn’t lying earlier when he said he could mess with her head, he totally could. Human minds were easily manipulated when need be. But he also wasn’t lying when he told her he’d rather not do that. He didn’t like playing with people’s heads.

     If the guys ever became aware of how he felt about it, they’d hand him his balls on a platter. It’s bad enough that they busted him about his feeding habit.

     Opening the door, he made his way back to the table, at a more human-like speed this time. “Sorry about that. I, uh…needed a minute.” Pulling out his chair, he sat down, and pushed his hair out of his face. “Please, continue. What was it that you saw?”

   
 
When she didn’t seem inclined to answer him immediately, but just continued to stare out the window, he tried to prod her along. “
Was
it a bear?”

   
 
“A bear?” she repeated. “Um, no. It wasn’t a bear. It was, um…” Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “It was…” She rubbed her temples, like her head hurt just trying to think about it. “It was…I can’t…”

   
 
Dammit, what the hell had happened to her that night? Moving very slowly, he pulled out the chair between them and slid over next to her. He figured this move would go either really good or really bad, but he wanted to try to comfort her if she would let him.

     She lowered her hands and wrapped them around her teacup. She was shaking again, so hard he was afraid the porcelain was going to bust apart on the table. He carefully covered her cold hands with his to still them. “Emma, you’ve got to stop this. You’re going to rattle the skin right off your bones.”

   
 
At his gentle teasing, she sniffed and looked down at his large hands engulfing hers. “I’ve just blocked out these memories for so long… It’s hard to revisit them.” She didn’t pull away; giving him a grateful, if brief, smile.

     He left his hands around hers, and smiled encouragingly until she continued, “It wasn’t a bear. It was...they were…monsters. I don’t know how else to say it. They attacked us.”

   
 
“Monsters,” he repeated. What in the world could she be talking about? Werewolves? The bitch that had his brother was most definitely a monster, but if you didn’t know her, all you would see is a beautiful woman. Her minions were all normal looking “people”, like him. He didn’t think “monster” was a word someone would use to describe them physically.

     “Can you tell me what they looked like?” He squeezed her hands just slightly, careful not to hurt her.

     “Um…” She glanced up at him for reassurance and then back down at their hands. “They were like something out of a horror movie…very tall and thin, yet muscular, with long arms…” Her voice started to quiver, but she pressed on, “greyish, rotting skin. Red eyes. They had a mouthful of sharp fangs, and they wore no clothes…”

   
 
Clearing her throat, she raised her eyes and asked, “Why is this so important for you to know?”

   
 
Nik furrowed his brow as he tried to picture what she was describing. One of the local guys he’d had watching Leeha’s lair up north had mentioned seeing something that sounded similar just recently. That’s how they’d found out Leeha was back. He’d been following the thing, he said, and it took him right to her hideout.

     He thought the civilian must have been mistaken. That he’d seen an animal or something. If beings such as these existed, he wasn’t aware of them. And as he had no doubt Emma was telling the truth, he found this very disturbing.

     “And these things took your sister?”

   
 
Emma nodded.

     “Are you sure your sister was taken by force? She didn’t go willingly?” Realizing how that would sound to her, he added, “I’m only asking because the female who has my brother would not have been able to overpower him without a witch helping her.”

   
 
She caught on quickly. “And you think my sister is that witch.”

   
 
“I believe so, yes,” he affirmed. “She’d been gone just a few days before the night my brother went to meet the bitch who’s holding him.”

   
 
“Keira was taken by force.” Emma told him defensively. Pulling her hands out from under his, she sat back in her chair.

     “How can you be sure?” he asked. “I know that’s what you believe, but think about it, Em. You didn’t even know that your sister is a witch. Isn’t it possible that there are other things you don’t know about her?”

   
 
“Yes,” she admitted. “I suppose that could be possible. But whether or not she was abducted against her will, I have no doubts about that,” she insisted stubbornly.

     “How do you know?” he asked again.

     Gritting her teeth, she said, “Because I was there. And because of this.” She grabbed the neckline of her purple sweater and yanked it down below her collarbone, revealing a 3-inch area of shiny, puckered scar tissue.

     Nik stared at her ruined skin, swallowing hard. It looked like she had been ripped open. No vampire would have left a mark like this, not even a young, sloppy one.

     His voice shaking with emotion, he asked her, “They did this to you? The monsters?”

   
 
“Yes,” she whispered. Letting go of her sweater, she let it cover her again. “Keira may not have wanted me to know if there was something dangerous going on with her, but there’s no way in hell she would have let anything hurt me. Especially if she had some kind of powers that could have stopped it.”

   
 
Dropping his voice down to match hers, he whispered, “What else did they do to you?”

   
 
She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. The rigid way she was holding herself spoke volumes. A buzzing noise started up inside his head. He wanted to reach into her mind to see these things for himself…fuck what he’d told her before…But he stopped himself. He needed to be here right now, not off on a killing rampage, which is exactly what would happen if he groped around in her memories. He was dangerously on the verge of losing it as it was.

     He didn’t even question his reaction. He
would
kill them. He would hunt them down and fucking kill them. After he played with them a bit, like they had done to her. Every single one of those things that had dared to lay a finger on her.

     If he thought his earlier response was bad, seeing her beautiful skin marked like that was much, much worse. And if Leeha was involved in this as he suspected? Nothing would save her this time. Burning would be too good for her.

     “Nik? Are you alright?” she asked, bringing him partially back to the here and now. Her eyes were wide, captivated.

     He knew he was entirely vamped out on her. He couldn’t control it. His fangs were fully extended and razor-sharp, his lips pulled back as he let out a long, slow hiss. His facial features had grown sharper, harsher, the skin pulled taut across the bones. And his blue eyes were glowing almost silver.

     He stared right at her, but it wasn’t her face he was seeing. Tensed to attack, his hands were clenched into tight fists, his muscles seeming to enlarge before her eyes. A terrifying, mythical creature sat in front of her, yet she didn’t seem afraid.

     “Nikulas?” She actually sounded concerned.

     Through the red haze of his rage, Emma’s voice came to him as if through a fog. With some difficulty, he refocused his full attention onto her, and became aware of himself in the process.

     Fuck. He could just imagine what she was seeing, and it was too late to run off to the bathroom again. He dropped his head down, trying to calm himself. This was bad. This was very bad.

     Mentally kicking himself, he was just about to move away from her when a gentle stroke on his hair whipped his eyes back up to hers. She was touching him? There was no fear in her eyes anymore, just a curious fascination.