Hunger Untamed H3 (17 page)

“Locke!” His voice, hoarse with pain and grief, echoed around the empty street. “Leave me the fuck alone, and I won’t take down any more of your people.”

God, his arm. The back of his head throbbed too. Might have hit it at some point.

“You hear me, Locke? Leave us the fuck alone!”

No one answered, but he couldn’t hear any further movement either. That had to count for something. Maybe the werewolf leader was around or maybe his people had decided he was too much work. He’d take whatever advantage they tossed his way.

Not daring to look into the face of the woman raggedly drawing breath, he stumbled forward. His legs refused to function the way they should and he dropped to one knee, almost spilling her in the process. Staggering, he labored to get upright and away from the immediate location. When the cops arrived, he didn’t want to be there to explain the overlarge werewolves still in the process of healing. From what he knew, by morning they’d revert back to their human forms, sending the local police into conniptions.

He almost dropped her twice more, but Victor made his way into a side street unaccosted. After the second time when she didn’t make a sound despite his rough handling, fear gripped his throat. He hoped the lycans had abandoned him to retreat. Maybe to try another day. She needed him now.

Every time he scraped past a car, he lifted the door handles, silently begging for one of them to allow him entrance. By the third car, his energy flagging and his hope waning, he started to look for another plan. Maybe lurch into one of the shops, demand shelter until he could heal. But Lucy was on borrowed time. She needed to get to a hospital or at least a doctor. As much as he didn’t trust either, they would be able to provide care he couldn’t.

A gold sedan unlatched. Startled by the swinging door, Victor stumbled before realizing the victory for what it was. Carefully, so very carefully, he lowered Lucy into his arms, grimacing at the sight of his blood dragging across her skin. A flare of pain where they connected brought tears to his eyes, but he blinked them back to focus on her careful management. With one numb arm, the other trembling with fatigue, he did his best, apologizing to her softly the entire time. He hurt, but he was hurting her more.

The car must have belonged to a teenager with a heart or asthma condition. The number of burger wrappers and French fry containers on the floor created a mountain a small child could have hid in. Not only that, the layer of dust would be perfect for starting a potato farm. Cigarette burns in the driver’s seat created interesting textures and probably necessitated careful position of the driver or risk being scratched. It wasn’t an ideal locale, but it kept them off the street for a few minutes. It would do.

Victor brushed a few Snickers wrappers onto the floor before getting Lucy inside. When he got her propped in the backseat and saw the damage the lycan had done, he swallowed down a roar of frustration. “Lucy, doll? Talk to me.”

She’d been dragged by the lycan, her skin abraded and bleeding. It had bitten her at least once and even in the dark car, he could see the spread of her blood saturating her T-shirt. She’d gone sallow, an unnatural color, making her paler than him. Her chest rose and fell in choppy movements, and it was obvious her breathing couldn’t sustain her for long.

“What do I do?” he whispered. Leaving her to get help meant he could move faster, but at the same time, it felt like abandoning her too. He rejected the thought. “I have to get you to a hospital.”

He scrambled over the backseat, biting back a scream when he jarred his bad arm. In the movies, they made it look so easy to jump start a car, but he stared at the steering wheel, at the empty key slot and had no clue what to do. He could break into a building and kill a man barehanded, but jacking a car went beyond his skills. Yet, if he didn’t get her to help soon, she was going to die.

She moaned, and Victor whipped his head around to study her. Her closed eyelids fluttered until at last they opened, barely slits. “Help me.”

Victor scrambled to his knees and peered at her from the front seat. “Beautiful, I’m here. I’m
here
. I’m going to get you to help.”

She swallowed, and the grimace of pain that spilled across her face became more evidence of her discomfort. “No.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Victor looked around, trying to figure out how the hell he was going to do this. He could take her back to the humans, and they’d get her help. There’d be more questions than answers. He’d most likely be incarcerated, but whatever—doctors and nurses could start patching her up. Maybe he’d been selfish in taking her away in the first place, but he hadn’t been thinking. He’d gone on instinct and for the first time, maybe his instinct had failed him.

“I’m dying,” she said in a voice so soft even his vampire hearing strained to pick it up.

“No, you’re hurt, but you’re not dying.”

Her lips twisted into a smile. “Liar.” She coughed, her back arching as she choked on air and fluid. Almost imperceptible droplets of blood landed on the back of his hand. He pretended he couldn’t see them while his heart spasmed in alarm.

Too much time passed as Lucy fought to regulate her breathing. Her hands clenched the armrest, and it killed him to see her suffer. “I’m going for help,” he said after the attack had subsided.

“If not the wolf’s bite, then spice. I’m dying,” she insisted.

Fuck. What did she want him to do then? They’d talked enough for him to know how much the poison in her system pained her. The respiratory distress she’d suffer until she couldn’t stand breathing. When he got her help for the damage the lycan had inflicted, she’d still have to contend with the poison in her system.

No matter how he tried to deny it, she was right. She was dying.

Victor squeezed his eyes shut. Indecision ripping a hole in him.

Death wasn’t the only option for Lucy.

“Kill Sage for me.”

He shot his gaze to her face. “That’s your task, what you need to do for yourself. I’ve got to get you to a doctor so you can handle your business the way you want it done.” Pain blossomed in his chest. “You need to do this for yourself and for Cindy. Stay alive to see it through.”

She coughed, and a full minute passed before she could gasp for air again. Although she tried to cover her mouth with her arm, she abandoned it to brace her chest.

He swallowed hard. “What if...”

Victor scanned their surroundings. That final lycan could be anywhere. The human authorities were no doubt on the scene and canvasing the area for the shooters. Taking stock of the casualties. The sedan made a good, fast shelter, but wasn’t the ideal place to be for more than a few minutes.

A dozen thoughts assaulted him at once, none of them important to what weighed heavily on his mind now. They served as distractions and nothing more.

The consequences for the thoughts running through his head right were astronomical. If anyone in the vampire nation found out...

“
Promise.
”

“Lucy. Death isn’t the only way. It doesn’t have to be. You can finish what you started with a little help.”

“I didn’t think I’d die like this,” she whispered.

Victor climbed over the backseat for the last time. He wrestled with the decision to tuck her into his arms, but for this, he had to be certain. Based on her shallow breathing, Lucy probably didn’t have much time to spare either. Her limbs were cool to the touch, and up close, he realized her lips were tinged with blue.

“I can t-turn you,” he said, his voice catching. “You don’t have to die.”

The consequences for an unauthorized creation of a vampire were astronomical. Once the vampire Council discovered a newly turned vampire—and they always found out—they’d dispatch an executioner to kill both sire and progeny. He couldn’t say if they would be buying her another week or another decade. He’d given her the highlights of this during pillow talk, but how much she understood, he couldn’t be sure.

But one more week with Lucy would be worth it. A chance he would willingly take.

“Tell me it’s okay and I will. If not for yourself, then do it for your sister. She’d want to know you made it out okay.”
Please.

Lucy began to gasp for air. Her heartbeat slowed. Slowed.

She rolled her eyes toward him, but he needed to hear her say it. Her feelings for vampires were strong, and he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to become one. He offered her a chance at life though. A way to get at Sage and live. After the life she’d led, no one else deserved it more.

“Say it,” he demanded.

Her fingers dug into the armrest when she began to cough again. Victor watched her face for a sign—just one—that gave him the permission he desperately needed. He couldn’t tell if she heard him anymore. She was desperate for oxygen. Suffering for it.

He didn’t think she had the strength left to talk. Nor the time.

“Blink twice, and I’ll know you want this. Damn it,
blink twice
.”

Victor watched the life leaving her face.

Then she blinked. Twice.

Chapter Eighteen

Victor’s hands trembled as he scrubbed them clean.
He couldn’t get the smell off
,
though.
The stench of unnatural death.

He kept his gaze on the task at hand
,
refusing to look at the poor animal’s carcass lying on the tapestry.
He didn’t want to see the reminder of what he’d been reduced to.
What Margeaux had forced him into doing just to stay alive.

Alive.
It lost its meaning a long time ago to be replaced by a disdain Victor could scarcely hide.
He loathed to touch her
,
to kiss her.

The weight of her stare followed him now
,
witness to the way he stroked over the flaccid side of his face.
Streaks of blood coated his hand
,
requiring him to wipe it against his trousers.
Margeaux didn’t have much to do with him these days
,
beyond sex and feeding
,
but vowed to end his miserable existence if his carelessness drew attention to their activities.
A
scant amount of blood observed by the wrong person could raise questions.

“
I
used to think you the most handsome of men.
Now look at you
,”
she tsked.
“
Ruined for the rest of time.
”

The same speech every time she saw him.
The same lament that for some reason
,
his transformation hadn’t cured the palsy as she’d expected.
The same threat to just end him and be done with it.

“
I
thought to keep you at my side
,
but I see now that won’t be possible.
”

Victor whirled on his feet
,
surprised by this new proclamation.
He’d assumed she’d never let him free
,
not when his monetary debt to her amounted to a fortune.
With no skills and his family’s estate squandered
,
repayment would be near impossible.
“
Madame?
”

His heartbeat began to speed and he prayed she wouldn’t hear the excited betrayal of his body.
After a year of servicing her needs
,
he hadn’t considered she would ever release him.
He now had to wonder at cost this would come.

“
I
need a companion.
And you...you were never mine
,
even when I turned you.
When I changed you
,
you kept your mind and heart from me.
”
She sipped her morning tea while dressed in a modest gown.
No one who looked at her now would have believed the way she’d drunk from his vein the night before
,
caring little for the damage she’d wrought.
Never—not once—did she allow him to feed from her.
“
If you had
,”
Margeaux continued
, “
your palsy would have lifted
,
don’t you think?
”

Was she suggesting that the paralysis of his face resulted from his mental state?
Was that even possible?
He would have to consider whether there could be some truth in this.

“
What would you have me do?
”
Victor asked.
Whether he liked it or not
,
he was dependent on her for funding.
He’d find it hard to survive if she turned him out now.

“
Leave.
”
Her gaze went to the animal carcass.
“
As distasteful as you might find it
,
you know how to feed yourself.
That’s what matters most.
”

“
Most?
What about shelter?
Money?
”

Margeaux shrugged.
“
You’re resourceful.
You’ll figure out something.
Go now and be thankful for the gift of extended life that I’ve given you.
”

Victor stared at her as she rose to standing and then exited the room without another word.
In her palatial home
,
she moved like a queen
,
walking away as if unconcerned that he might accost her for the way she’d discarded him.
Little did she know that he curled his hands into fists to keep from rushing to her and throttling the life from her miserable body.

She’d left him like this—a vampire demon.
Permanently disfigured.
Without friends or family.
No place to go.

How would he survive?

Chapter Nineteen

Oh
,
God.

Lucy jerked awake, a new type of agony crushing her beneath its weight. She writhed and stretched, trying to break free from the exquisite torture holding her beneath its weight. Her eyelids fluttered as she fought through the fog of sensation, struggling to reconcile it with her last memories.

Her naked skin met the cool sheets of a bed, her head resting on a pillow.

There had been pain then, but different than this. Before, she hurt, but this...this was
bliss
. The blanket surrounding her brought agony, but she reveled in it. Between her thighs pulsed, forcing her to twist and add friction so she could elongate the pleasure-pain.

She startled when someone pressed a cool cloth to her forehead and began to tenderly wipe at her face. “You’ve been out for almost three days,” he said.

Victor. His soothing voice. Like molten honey. She wanted to kiss the sound.

She wanted to kiss him.

“The worst of it’s probably out of your system, but there’ll be some lingering effects. Do you smell that?”

Lucy brought her hands to her breasts, heavy with the need to be touched, and dragged her fingers over the sensitive tips. She hissed out a breath as the sensation made something low in her belly flare out with wild desire. Then the scent of cinnamon drifted over her, and Lucy inhaled it into her lungs. “Someone’s baking,” she said softly.

He chuckled. “No doll, that’s you. It’s designed to attract older vampires to you.”

The smell didn’t matter. All that mattered was this delicious feeling flowing over her. Somehow it combined until she loathed it and yearned for more. It was the precipice before falling headfirst into orgasm. The momentous build right before the explosion. Such erotic hurt.

“Sip this,” he said.

She opened her eyes to find a straw hovering near her mouth. The cool liquid went down easily, soothing a parched throat. It didn’t stop the sensation swirling through her belly though. “Victor, I need...”

Putting what she wanted into words eluded her. She searched her mind for a way to describe the need crawling through her. Like chasing the dragon.

“I know what you need.”

He brushed his mouth over hers, and Lucy explored the sensation. She needed more.
More.
Unafraid, unashamed of taking from him, she pushed her tongue into his mouth and teased him with tentative licks. Their tongues touched—a brief caress—then tangled as their kiss heated into a ravenous claiming.

Something in the back of her mind reminded her this wasn’t a good idea, but damn if she was going to listen. Having him close to her, their bodies touching, his hand thrust into her hair, felt too good. As if he heard her thoughts, Victor curled his fingers tighter, forcing her head back and baring her throat.

The frisson of fear that jettisoned would have paralyzed her in the past, but Lucy arched for it, exposing her carotid. It pulsed with a hard tattoo. He must have heard its rapid beat, for Victor put a finger over the thump. His mouth left hers to brush along the fragile skin. Goosebumps rose in reaction, but her pussy moistened.

The ache went viral. She had this incredible
hunger
that needed to be sated. Something rooted into her soul told her only Victor could bring relief. She possessed a carnal thirst for him. It could only be relieved after he branded her with his kiss and himself. Her body craved his thick cock pushing inside her, his body claiming her in the most primal of ways.

He skimmed his hands over her shoulders, her breasts and her belly. She parted her legs for him when the hand traveled lower and slid between her thighs. Their mouths connected the moment his fingers dipped into her pussy, swiping at the gathered juices there. Victor’s thick fingers pushed deeper, deeper inside, and Lucy moaned into the kiss.

She gripped his shoulders, pulling him closer because she couldn’t stand this teasing. On any other day, she could have taken it slow, relished the delicate touches, savored the way he explored her body with a lover’s careful attention. Today she needed him hard, fast and deep. “Please, Victor.”

“I’ve got you...I’ll always have you.”

Lucy clung to his words and kissed him with a furious passion. She felt so many conflicting and frightening things for this man. He aroused her in a way she’d never before thought possible. The untamed hunger might destroy them both if he didn’t subdue it with his ardor.

Victor crawled between the cradle of her thighs, and Lucy wanted to weep with thanks. His welcome weight brought her comfort.

He pushed into her, and she cried out as the sweet sensation sent her into an instant rapture. She pulled her thighs high on his waist, rocking her lower body, silently begging him for more, more, more. Her toes brushed his muscled thighs as he elevated on one arm and began to thrust with renewed vigor. His corded muscles bunched beneath her grasp.

The scent of him, wild and masculine, mingled with the fragrant cinnamon smell coming from her, and she wanted to lap at his skin. Tasting him with her tongue until she’d memorized the uniqueness of Victor. The sound of his heartbeat, the way her mouth watered, the smell of their sex...all of it conspired to send her to a euphoria steeped in pleasure.

His mouth moved over her lips, nibbled on the skin of her neck before he dipped his head down and found the tip of her breast. Her nipple beaded at the attention, sensation zipping between her legs. Her mind fractured under the assault of being loved thoroughly by this man’s intense efforts.

The hunger burned higher and brighter, drowning her thoughts. “Victor...
Victor.
”

“That’s it, do it for me,” he whispered hurriedly. The strain in his voice signaled his nearness, his desire to wait for her to tip over an abyss. “Let go.”

He put his hands on her hips and tilted them up, opening her wider for him. The new position put her clit beneath his pelvis, and every thrust brushed against the oversensitive bundle of nerves. Lucy rolled her hips too and within moments, she had to slam her eyes shut as it became too much, too much for her to process and bear.

Just when she thought she would shatter beneath the pleasure, she opened her eyes and found Victor’s brown eyes—gone midnight black—staring down at her. Her gaze skimmed over to the ropes of vasculature streaking down his neck and her vision narrowed to the plumpest vein. She teetered on an edge, but the hunger demanded more.

Lucy reached up, grasped his head and brought his neck closer. He cried out the moment her mouth opened over his skin and she punctured it with her teeth. The taste of his savory blood poured out of the wound, and the first taste rocketed her into bliss. Beneath her grip, Victor shuddered as he met his own race to completion. Every spurt caused him to make a low groaning sound, one that wrapped around her heart and fill her with satisfaction. Her body accepted it greedily, her pussy clenching around his cock.

This was nirvana. This was perfection.

The more she drank from him, the more her appetite for him grew. She gulped down his offering, drunk on the high it gave her. While she would have continued to take from him, Victor gently eased his neck away. “That’s enough. Lick it over so it’ll seal.”

She blinked at his instruction but did as requested. It wasn’t until she looked at the ravaged area, and felt Victor slowly withdraw his semi-hard cock, that the last several minutes came rushing back to her. The craving for his sex, the unnatural hunger and the supernatural thirst she’d sated.

Her hands shot out and she shoved him away as revulsion crawled over her skin. “Oh my God...am I...am I a
vampire
?” Not waiting for an answer, at last she looked around and saw the familiar little room they’d spent so many intimate moments together over the course of the past week. Memories from the last time she’d seen Victor flooded back in, and she gasped, remembering the final seconds when she’d been at death’s door. The taste of blood lingered on her tongue, and she hated that she still wanted more.
Hated.
“You tricked me,” she cried. “You used my death as an excuse to turn me into a vampire. After everything you know about me, everything I’ve been through, you’ve turned me into one of you!”

Victor’s eyes widened. “You were dying. I held you in my arms and felt the life slipping away from you. How could you expect me to let you go like that?”

Lucy crawled from the bed, left the place where she’d been warm and content and in his arms. On legs made of rubber, she made it to the middle of the room and tried to wrestle with what all this meant. “I’m changing...” she whispered. “Changed.”

“Lucy, I care for you. A lot. I did this with the very best of intentions. And I wouldn’t have done it without your permission. Do you remember that? Do you remember giving it to me?”

Now wasn’t the time for sudden declarations of his feelings. Not now. Not after he’d done this to her. If she’d given permission like he’d said, the details were fuzzy. She grasped at memories, but they remained annoyingly out of reach.

She had a sudden realization. “What about the spice in my system? Does this mean I’m going to have to live with the consequences of my exposure for the rest of my life?” However long that might be.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Her already unstable legs might not support her anymore. Lucy reached for the closest chair, sliding it closer when she didn’t trust herself to get there instead. She all but collapsed into the seat.

“Vampire physiology should heal you from all ailments. Remember that bite on your neck? The lacerations in your side? They’re all gone now.”

For the first time, she took inventory and besides the lingering sexual satisfaction, she had to admit to feeling better. Perfect, in fact. He’d done a horrible thing to her, but Victor had given her something she’d never thought she’d have again. Her health. She could breathe again. One day would stop breathing altogether, the oxygen no longer needed by her transformed body. The miracle she’d been seeking.

“I—I don’t know what to think. How to feel.” She had a second chance at living a normal—well, semi-normal—life.

“I can’t tell you what to think or what to feel, but if I had the chance to do it a second time, I would. I know you want me to be sorry that I saved you, but I can’t be. Not when it means I get to spend another minute, another hour or another day with you.”

Oh, God. What was she supposed to do with that kind of sentiment from him? Especially when similar feelings muddied her thinking.

Her teeth pulsed. The same teeth she’d used to drink from him in the way so many others had used her in the past. She’d just become the same creature who’d used her, only to toss her aside when she was no longer convenient entertainment.

She could now avenge Cindy. Time no longer a precious commodity running out on her.

More time with Victor.

A vampire.

Minutes passed as she sat in silence, the indecision and consequence of her new iteration swirling through her mind. Finally, she sat back and opened her eyes. Although her heart clenched at her final judgment, she found Victor’s turbulent gaze and held it. “I’m sorry, but I would have never agreed to this under any circumstance. None. What you did was completely selfish.” She held up a hand when he moved to interrupt her. “I don’t remember what happened, how we ended up here, but I know that I don’t think I can forgive you for doing this to me. I think we should finish our business...and after that, just go our separate ways.”

Victor sat on the edge of the bed and listened to his world crumble around him.

Had he somehow seen something he’d
wanted
to see when she’d blinked at him, giving him permission to turn her? They’d been running out of time and the sands of her life were spilling faster than he could have ever thought possible, but he’d been so sure of his decision. Sure she’d awaken during transition and if not grateful, be at least accepting of this next phase of her life. He’d done it because he was falling in love with her.

Which made her right. He’d done this for himself. Not for her.

A woman who despised vampires turned into one.

How did he now tell her that not only had he made a colossal mistake in turning her, but now she got to look forward to a lifetime on the run, where other vampires might be out to kill them both because he’d made an emotional decision instead of a smart one?
Fuck
. How did he fix this? He’d been terrified that she wouldn’t survive the transition, that she’d end up still broken, like him. Maybe not surviving would have been better in the end.

“Wait here, but if you need anything, just yell. I’ll hear you,” he said to her, the words heavy. His gaze slid over her naked form, his abdomen pulling hard as the woman he desired shot him a look of pure disdain.

It took him less than a minute to slip on a pair of sweats and then grab his phone. He left her alone with her thoughts while he went outside to make a call to the only person who might be able to offer a minute amount of advice.

The call rang twice before going to voice mail. Yeah, like he believed that.

He stabbed the send icon again. Voice mail.

A third attempt.

“Fuck—what do you want?”

“Cicero,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even, “I want to ask you something.”

Silence greeted him from the other end at first. “People in hell want ice water. Since you’re gonna keep blowing up my phone, might as well get this over with so I can get some peace.” He sighed. “Go on, but know there’ll be a price to pay sooner or later.”

He’d figured as much. “I need to know how much you know about the Council’s edicts.”

“What? Hell, vampire, my job is to protect them, not concern myself with their politics.”

“Yeah, but surely you’ve been able to listen to some of the stuff they talk about. What kinds of things they let slide and what they go after with an iron fist. I mean, they won’t go after every jaywalker, but they might go after the murderers, you know?”

“No. I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.”