Feral Instincts (The Feral Series) (5 page)

Ava
screamed as Salvatore suddenly lunged for her, snarling. Seeming to move faster
than any human could. His rough hands pulled her to his chest and he fisted her
hair in his hand, painfully jerking her head to the side. Violently he bit into
the side of her neck, tearing delicate flesh and sinking his fangs deep into
her tender skin.

His
bite was savage, demanding and relentless. Ava pounded his shoulders with her
fists trying to get away but it was too late. There was no escaping his deadly
hold on her. The pain in her neck was excruciating. She could feel him pulling
deeply from her neck and faintly registered a trickle of blood running down her
chest.

Salvatore
growled his pleasure as he drank deeply from her. Her taste was more exquisite
than he could have hoped for. He felt the demon inside of him begin to take
control. For Ava, time seemed to slow down. It seemed he would never stop. It
seemed she fought him for and eternity, trying to break free of his hold. She
began to feel weak and cold and could no longer raise her fists to fight him. Her
mind was becoming fuzzy and her breaths became shallow. Somewhere in the back
of her mind she realized she was dying, drained of her life’s very essence.

She
was so tired and just wanted to give into the darkness that was calling to her.
All she had to do was let go and sink down into the comfort it offered and all
the pain and horror would go away. Everything around her faded into the
distance, everything except the beating of her heart. She listened as the
thundering of her straining heart slowed to a quiet flutter.  There was
one soft beat… then one more and then a peaceful silence.

Hearing
her heart take its last beat, Salvatore struggled for the strength to pull away
from her neck. Battling against the dark demon that screamed at him to drain
her down to her soul he released her fragile neck.

Quickly
he sank his teeth into his own wrist and then pressed the bleeding wound to
Ava’s lips. The dark liquid slid down her throat, unwelcome, forcing its way
into her body. Just as Ava felt the sweet pull of darkness wrapping around her,
pulling her under, she was ripped away as Salvatore's blood burned through her
body.

It
felt as though someone lit a fire in her veins. Ava’s battered body pulled in a
deep breath and she screamed, as she was pulled back from the edge of oblivion.
Her back arched as every muscle in her body clenched as she burned with the
invasion of Salvatore’s blood.

Following
her death, her rebirth had begun and his blood quickly began to transform her.
The pain intensified, shooting through every cell in her body and burning
through her veins until she was completely overcome by it. Nothing existed
outside of her world except the all-consuming pain. Blessedly slipping into
unconsciousness, she didn’t feel the kiss he placed on her lips as he carefully
laid her on the bed.

“Rest
for now my sweet Ava. Feel my blood becoming a part of you, joining the two of
us as one. Finally my search is over. When you awaken we can begin your
training as my consort.” His eyes glowed bright with his excitement. Gently he
smoothed her hair from her face, caressing her pale cheek. “You belong to me
now.”

Night
had just fallen as Teagan and Daniel waited at their post on the roof of the
old abandoned hotel on the outskirts of town. Several of Victor’s men waited on
the roof with them and the rest were positioned strategically on the ground
level. As clan chief, Victor had his own private guard. They were handpicked by
Victor himself and classified as Breed Guardian’s. Teagan had never worked this
closely with any of the Guardians before but they seemed highly organized and
well trained.

With
Teagan and Daniel’s help they had managed to track a large number of rogue’s to
this location. This was going to be one of the largest raids they had made so
far. With any luck Salvatore would be among them this time. They had been
getting closer but each time he had somehow managed to slip away from them. The
frustration was beginning to get to all of them.

Salvatore
was proving to be a slippery little bastard. He was one of the most clever and
skilled rogues Teagan had seen in a long time. Teagan couldn’t help but be
impressed that he had been able to control such a large rogue rebellion.
Vampire rogues were usually rabid, bloodthirsty monsters that were impossible
to control. Lacking any formal leadership, they were usually rather predictable
and easy to hunt down. Not so with this nest.

Salvatore’s
power over the rogue’s was astonishing and frustrating as hell. Being a
descendant, his power as a sire was very strong, even more so since most of the
rogues were newly turned. The sire bond tended to fade over the years. Since
most of the rogues in his army were newborns he was able to maintain quite a
bit of control over them.

“Everyone
stand by.” Ethan, the guardian’s general, said over the comm unit.

“It’s
go time!” Daniel said with grin on his face. He was clearly looking forward to
the raid. His medallion glowed as he began his shift into his Lykan form. The
guardians on either side of him gave each other a look and quickly took one
step away from the enormous shifting werewolf.

Teagan,
Daniel and four guardians waited on the roof while the explosives went off,
rocking the building and shredding the front and back doors of the old hotel.
Several more blast followed as more explosive were thrown in the windows and
through the now open doors.

“Move
out! Go! Go! Go!” Ethan shouted.

Guardians
began to rush into the building from the ground level while Teagan and Daniel’s
group moved in from the roof of the five story building. Teagan began to shift
into his beast form. His eyes glowed a bright blue as he let his beast take
over. The muscles of his shirtless chest became larger and more defined. He
felt his fangs lengthen and his face become more chiseled and lupine. The
dusting of dark hair on his chest became more pronounced and spread to the tops
of his shoulders and arms. The nails on his hands lengthened into razor sharp
claws as he descended from the roof stairway and onto the fifth floor.

Daniel
took off with his assigned team and the men split up as they entered the now
dark building. The heavy boots of the invading guardians thundered down the
empty hallways of the aging hotel as they moved into position. The air of the
hotel was thick with dust and smoke from the charges they had set off. They
were all relying on their enhanced night vision since the last blast had
knocked out the power and left them with nothing but the eerie red glow coming
from the exit signs. Gun shots began to echo up from the lower levels of the
old hotel.

Teagan
braced himself for an attack as two rogues came out of one of the rooms.
Slamming his booted foot into the closest one, its body was sent crashing into
the wall, embedding him into the plaster. Spinning around, Teagan blocked
several well aimed hits from the second vampire, moving at super human speed he
caught the vampire’s last punch in his hand. Teagan twisted to his left, taking
the rogues arm with him and twisting it until he heard a satisfying snap of
breaking bones. The rogue let out a gurgled scream as Teagan brought his knife
around, stabbing it in the heart and twisting his blade.

He
circled back to the first rogue who had just gotten free of the wall and was
now turning to charge Teagan. The emergency lights in the building stuttered on
and off like a strobe light, blinding for a moment and then casting dark heavy
shadows down the length of the hallway. The dim lights finally hummed to life
only to reveal the rogue’s head rolling across the floor as his still upright
body crumpled to the ground. Teagan’s beast roared with its victory as he
lowered his dark, blood stained claws.

He
preferred hand to hand combat when dealing with vampires, especially in such
close quarters. Guns were not as effective on most of the creatures of the Lore
as they were on humans. He preferred the more direct kill by either taking
their heads or their hearts.

Moving
down the hall, the guardians on Teagan’s team finished off the last remaining
rogues in the hallway. The men quickly went through every room in the fifth
floor. They needed to move quickly if they were going to get to Salvatore
before he had a chance to slip away yet again.

Teagan
and a few of the guardians on his team made their way down the stairway to the
fourth floor. It was eerily quiet. Most of the rogues had run to the lower
levels trying to escape the wrath of the guardians. Suddenly a red eyed rogue
bolted out of the room in front of Teagan raising his gun and firing several
shots directly at him. One of the bullets found its target and ripped through
Teagan’s shoulder. His beast roared in rage, the slight injury fueling his
beast’s aggression. Teagan jumped on the rogue throwing him to the floor and
slamming his knife into his heart with such force that it was imbedded in the floor
below him. Coldly pulling his knife out he wiped it on the rogue’s shirt and
continued down the hallway checking every room until he reached the last door
at the end of the hall.

This
room was separated from the others and it was the only door that was still
closed. Raising his booted foot, Teagan kicked the door in, somersaulting and
crouching low, prepared for a rogue attack. He was greeted by silence. Teagan
scanned the room, sensing that someone was there but not seeing anyone. He
began a closer inspection of the room when out of the corner of his eye he saw
something on the bed move. Cautiously he approached the bed with his blade in
hand.

Thinking
it could be a trap he approached the bed slowly while continuing to scan the
rest of the room. His battle ready brain struggled a moment to process what he
was seeing. What he found lying on the bed wasn’t a rogue, but an angel. She
was chained to the bed with some sort of collar and was restlessly tossing and
turning on the mattress. The rumpled peach dress that she wore clung to a
petite and curvy body. Her restlessness brought the hem of her dress
dangerously high, revealing shapely legs and pale thighs. The female seemed
unaware of his presence. Her face was unnaturally pale and her ebony curls lay
tangled on the pillow.

The
tiny female moaned turning her head in his direction and opened her eyes. They
were a brilliant blue and it seemed to take her a moment to bring him into
focus. Her eyes widened in shock and fear as she saw him standing next to the
bed. For a moment he considered backing up so he didn’t scare her as bad but he
couldn’t seem to make his feet cooperate. He could imagine how he looked
standing there in his beast form, covered in blood, both his own and the
rogue’s he had slain.

Fearfully,
Ava watched the dark beast. His eyes glowed an eerie bright blue in the
darkness of the room. She watched as his broad chest heaved as he caught his
breath while watching her cautiously. Thick muscles rolled in his massive arms
as he fisted a menacing looking knife.

Ava
wasn’t sure how many hours had passed since Salvatore had stripped her life
from her, replacing her very essence with the burning invasion of his dark
blood. She had regained consciousness with a horrible fire burning through her
body. She didn’t know that one small body was capable of experience that much
pain. She had no idea that the human body contained such an endless amount of
nerve endings and pain receptors. Just when she thought she would go insane
from the fire consuming her body the pain had eased and she was left with a
coldness that had settled deep in her bones.

She
had never known exhaustion like this and it felt as though every part of her
body ached. It seemed as though she would never be able to get warm again as
the cold seemed to settle into the very depts of her soul.

 Ava
knew that she had died. Salvatore had killed her. She had awakened… changed but
she didn’t understand how. She was infected, the monster’s blood was inside of
her. She felt violated, victimized, and completely terrified of what she was
becoming. How she just wanted it to stop. All hope gone, she wished she could
have remained dead instead of awaking to this horror.

Salvatore
had come back briefly and had laid at her side, stroking her hair and staring
at her as though she was some kind of new pet. She had been too weak to even
curse at him, so she had feigned being asleep praying he would leave. There had
been a horrible booming noise coming from the depths of the building and
Salvatore had left quickly to investigate with a promise to return shortly. His
touch disgusted her and she dread what his intentions would be when he
returned.  

Through
the quicksand surrounding her brain she knew something big was happening and
she tried desperately to stay awake but exhaustion held her in its grip and she
had drifted to sleep for a few moments until something had woken her. Opening
her eyes and looking through a dream like fog she saw the beast looming over
her beside the bed.
Is he real? Perhaps I am still asleep. Perhaps I’m awake
and I really have lost my mind and this new beast isn’t really here.
Did it
really matter? She was pretty sure she was insane anyway. Surely she wasn’t
really here but locked away on some padded room somewhere hallucinating all of
this. For just a moment Ava struggled to reassemble the fractured bits of her
mind, and failed.