Blood Instinct (21 page)

S
ophia looked
down at her trembling hands. She touched her brow to feel dampness coat the tips of her fingers. She rubbed the back of her neck to feel perspiration there too.

She’d had the choice of freedom: of abandoning Kane and finding some way to escape further down the tunnel and hopefully out into Blackthorn instead. But there had been no compulsion for freedom when she’d already had prey at her feet. The impulse to act now before they were interrupted – to think later – had won.

It had been hard work moving him. She’d tried looping her hands under his arms and hauling him backwards, but Kane Malloy was solid – a challenging weight beneath his lean, well-toned physique. She’d fallen three times onto her behind before she’d even budged him an inch.

Eventually she’d resorted to ripping the remains of the fire hose out of its encasement a little further down the platform and securing it around his chest, under both arms and around his shoulders. Using the strength in her thighs to assist her, the hose wrapped tightly around her waist, she’d gripped it with both arms and dragged Kane behind her until they were deeper into the tunnel, deeper into its dark depths.

In her gut she’d known it was reckless with whatever had invaded possibly still out there, but her serryn needs had been greater. Like an abseiler teetering on the precipice, the wind in her ears, the ground looming up from below, the rush had been overwhelming, the prospect of scrambling back to the top too much of a loss.

Those needs had fuelled her in dragging Kane’s unconscious body onwards regardless, using the lighter she’d found in his pocket to help light the way.

Each maintenance door she’d passed had been locked. She’d pulled him further and further along the platform, continuing to check each door in turn until one had finally given.

She’d used the flame to find a better light source inside the black abyss, flicking on a switch just beside the door. One of the bulbs had instantly popped, four more failing to do anything, but one in the farthest depths of the defunct maintenance chamber had emanated a dim light.

She’d kicked the door shut behind her and dragged Kane further into the room before resting him up against the pipework. Using the hose, she’d secured his wrists to the pipes either side of his head before tying his ankles to the pipes in front of him with some discarded wire.

Then she’d managed to pull herself away, bracing her hands on an old maintenance desk, her back to him. Despite the serryn being at the helm up to that point, the feeling still lingered that it was wrong – confirmation that she, Sophia, was still there beneath the surface.

And she knew the significance of the consequences of her actions; that this wasn’t like the irrelevant vampire in the alley or those in the subterranean hovel.

Kane wasn’t her enemy. More so, he had saved her life.

And he was Jask’s
friend
.

Jask, who was now some faraway echo of what once was, a voice on a breeze of her memory, a distant vision amidst a more overpowering desire.

Because Kane was not only a vampire but a
master
vampire: the most powerful and potent of all vampires. And his proximity subsequently overwhelmed every sense, the claustrophobia exacerbating and intensifying the sensation.

Leila had been right about the fumes taunting the alcoholic; right about it overshadowing everything. Some compulsions were beyond rational choices.

Hearing boots slide on concrete, Sophia looked over her shoulder to see Kane was gaining consciousness.

He twisted his wrists in her makeshift restraints even before he’d opened his eyes.

When he finally did, he processed his surroundings, their isolation, before looking up at her standing just a few feet away to his left.

And the glare in his navy eyes shot right through her. But within that glare was also a rare hint of trepidation; a glimmer of acknowledged vulnerability that incited the serryn inside her even more.

He rested his head back against the wall with a heavy sigh. ‘
Shit
,’ he hissed slowly. ‘You don’t want to do this, Phia.’

And for that part, he was right: Sophia didn’t want to do it.

She turned away and lowered her head as she braced her arms on the desk again.

But Sophia was rapidly becoming as distant an echo as Jask; as distant as the memory of who she once was.

Instead, the face in the mirror from earlier was smiling deep from within her whilst it coated her lips with sugar and dared her not to lick them.

‘Untie me,’ he said, his voice impressively calm. ‘Untie me now and walk away.’

She flexed and clenched her hands against the desk, her chest tight. ‘I can’t do that.’

The words caught in her throat. Words that felt as if they were coming out of someone else’s mouth.

‘Yes, you
can
, Phia. You need to get out of the room. Being in here with me isn’t helping you. And the longer you stay in here with me, the worse it’s going to get. You need to untie me while you still can.’

She knew he was right, but she could feel it building within her, her desire gradually suppressing her reluctance amidst the silent battle inside her.

She stepped out of sight from him. She interlaced her hands, locking them together in front of her, squeezing them tight as she paced.

She
could
leave. She could keep heading down the tunnel. There was bound to be a way out. She would be free in Blackthorn. She could find her way to Caleb. She could find the Tryan. She could…

The trembling in her hands had got worse. Light-headedness consumed her and threw her off balance for a moment. She crouched next to the nearest pipe, rested her head against it and closed her eyes.

But something more powerful forced them open again.

She peered through the gap in the pipework as Kane twisted his wrists once more, shifting his feet within their restraints. She raked her gaze up his strong thighs, flexing within his jeans; over the taut stomach revealed by the stretch of his T-shirt, the tension in his pecs, his biceps.

And he was hers – hers to do with as she chose.

The sense of power simmered deep in her veins.

She closed her eyes and tried to calm the rush of adrenaline flooding her body. She rolled her head back against the pipe and looked ahead – anywhere but at him – as her last ounce of strength tried to convince her to walk away.

Instead, standing, she ran her fingers along the pipe until she stepped back into his eyeline. As he met her gaze again, she folded her arms and leaned against the cylinder, staring him down. Staring down the vampire who was utterly helpless in her presence.

But Kane didn’t look defeated – far from it. Kane was going to fight for his survival; Kane would always fight for his survival. And the excitement of the prospect sent ripples of anticipation through every inch of her.

Sophia stepped astride him, above his knees, which were spread a foot apart by her bindings.

She looked down at him and he looked squarely back up at her. But despite his composure, she knew he had to be feeling it too. The closer their proximity, the stronger and more rapid the release of her pheromones – pheromones interacting with his own, bonding, melding and intensifying even in mid-air.

Kane Malloy may have been a master vampire, but he was far from immune. Only the Tryan was immune to the compulsion to taste the poisonous blood flowing through her veins.

And whether he was ready to acknowledge it yet or not, his body already wanted her. It was already craving her. It wasn’t a choice for him anymore than it was a choice for her.

‘Leave the room,’ Kane tried again. ‘Walk back the way you came and go to Jask.’

‘This isn’t about Jask,’ she snapped, defensive at the reminder.

‘It needs to be about Jask.’

‘You wouldn’t be so loyal to him if you knew.’

He frowned. ‘Knew what?’

She shook off the compulsion to tell him as soon as she had said it. Instead she stepped away again.

She paced once more, this time visible to him, clenching and unclenching her hands as she did so.

‘You know it isn’t only your presence affecting me, Phia – my presence is affecting you too. You aren’t helping yourself. Come on. We’ve come too far for you to blow it now, Phia.’

‘Why do you keep saying my name?’ she snapped again, spinning to face him.

‘Because I know you don’t want to do this. Because you need to remember who you are.’

Whether he meant to patronise her or not was irrelevant – his assurance was enough to fuel her desire to break him, to spoil that composure he projected.

She stepped over him again, except this time she knelt either side of his thighs.

‘I’m not used to seeing you scared, Kane,’ she said with a taunting lilt to her voice.

A semi-smile reached his lips. ‘Oh, I’m not scared, sweetheart,’ he said, his tone laced with a mild rebuke for the suggestion.

‘No?’ She placed the pads of her fingers on one of his exposed wrists, on his pulse, waiting for the slow beat indicative of the third species. ‘Well, that’s certainly picking up a notch.’ She ran her finger across his temple. ‘And is that a little bit of perspiration there too?’ she asked, holding up her index finger before slowly wiping it down the front of his T-shirt. ‘I know what it takes to get you vampires to sweat. How much energy. Or how much stress.’ She looked back into his eyes. ‘You certainly seem a little panicked to me, Kane.’

His gaze remained unflinching. ‘Maybe I’m just excited.’

She smiled. ‘Why? Because you’re feeling it already: the density of the atmosphere between us? Is it already permeating your skin? Making its way into your veins?’

She stared deep into his eyes as she leaned a little closer.

‘Because we both know I could sit here and do absolutely nothing, Kane, and everything I am will slowly penetrate into every part of you’—she cast her eyes back down his chest until the temptation to look overwhelmed her—‘until you can resist no more.’

She bunched up his T-shirt to expose his honed abs. She tilted her head to the side in approval before looking back into his eyes.

‘
Now
I understand what Caitlin sees in you. Don’t get me wrong – the face is pretty enough but this body is to die for.
Such
a shame to waste it. If only we had more time…’

His smile, or maybe even a snarl, was fleeting. ‘Take
all
the time you want.’

‘Because we both know they’re coming, right? Which is why, unfortunately, I need you not to drag your heels about this, Kane.’

‘No wine? No candles? Sweetheart, I’m not that easy.’

‘Oh, we both know what a slut you are, Kane Malloy. Just as I know you’d like to believe you can resist. You’d like to prove you can survive this, just like Caleb can. You can’t have a master being weaker than him – especially the great Kane Malloy. But you’re
not
Caleb. When it comes to this, you’re like every other weak vampire out there. And resist all you want, there
will
come a point when it’ll no longer be a choice, and we both know it.’

Leaning back, she ran her thumb over the sharp tip of one of the pieces of wire she’d used to bind his ankles. She knew she should have winced with the pain as she drew blood. Instead it was liberating embracing the discomfort.

‘But like I said’—she turned her thumb upside down, the first droplet of blood landing on Kane’s jean-clad thigh—‘I don’t have much time. And we both know I don’t need to make you bite,’ she said, her gaze snapping back to his, ‘to get the outcome I want.’

His eyes flared slightly, no doubt as much from apprehension as a notch up in anger at the threat.

‘But where’s the satisfaction in that?’ he asked.

She eased completely onto her haunches. ‘I couldn’t agree more. You know, when I worked for The Alliance, the Dehains were gold dust, but you – you were
always
the platinum prize. I used to dream about bringing down the elusive Kane Malloy; succeeding where the TSCD failed time and time again. And now here we are.’

She trailed a line of her blood down the centre of his chest, feeling the power beneath entice her touch like a pool of warm water.

‘But this is about so much more now,’ she said, cupping his throat with both hands and sliding her thumbs tauntingly down his windpipe. ‘I know you intend to kill Caleb, but he’s mine, and I can’t have you intervening. See, I don’t care about the prophecy. I don’t care about the fourth dimension. I don’t care what me killing him instead of Leila will do. I
am
going to find him.’

‘Jask loves you, Phia.’

She exhaled sharply. ‘I keep telling you: this is nothing to do with Jask.’

‘He’s doing what he can to protect you and this is how you repay him? He could have handed you over to me days ago.’

‘And what would you have done with me, Kane? Would you have killed me? Eliminated the option for Caleb to see this prophecy through?’ She eased her whole body forward a little more so he would feel the taunting heat of her sex as she gazed into his eyes. ‘Or would you have given me the same treatment he gave Arana?’

His frown merged into a scowl. ‘What did you say?’ he asked quietly.

And she knew that was it: that was the clincher that would turn Kane from composed and in control to a victim of his own emotions – and malleable in her hands as a result.

‘So Arana really did never tell you? Jask didn’t think she had.’ She leaned closer still, looking him square in the eyes. ‘Your best buddy fucked your sister, Kane. And when I say fucked I mean
fucked
– or that’s how Jask describes it anyway.’ She traced her hands down to the buttons on his jeans. She unfastened the first and then the second. ‘Back when he was bad and screwing whatever he felt like screwing, he had her face down over a table, the die-hard romantic that he is, in some dive bar. He was probably the last lycan she encountered until those other two killed her that night.’

His jaw tightened.

‘Maybe they’d learned from the master,’ she added with a shrug.

‘You’re lying,’ he said on the back of a dangerous whisper.