Hungry for You (25 page)

He had heard countless tales of the merged mind and joined pleasure that existed between life mates, but it had still taken his breath away to experience it. It made all his other sexual experiences, both with mortals and immortals alike, pale in comparison. They were like the flicker of a lighted match next to a roaring inferno. It was addictive. Even now, his body was crying out for her, part of his mind wondering how quickly he could get her out of her winter coat and clothes and sink himself inside her body when they got back to the house.

Cale sighed as the thought caused a semi-erection that pressed insistently against the zipper of his jeans. He was nothing but a walking, talking erection at the moment, and from what he’d heard, he could expect that to be the case for a good year.

Grimacing, Cale reached down and tried to adjust himself to a more comfortable position, then glanced in the rearview mirror to see that while the pickup had followed him onto the highway, it was now in the passing lane, allowing Alex to steer the rental up behind him. Despite his night vision, all he could make out was her silhouette in the vehicle’s dark interior, and he knew that as a mortal, she wouldn’t even be able to see that much of him.

That thought had barely drifted through his mind when the car he was driving suddenly jolted to the right. Cale gripped the steering wheel, and glanced to the side to see that the pickup in the outside lane had suddenly swerved and rammed into him. Thinking the driver had lost control for some reason or other, Cale tried to focus on him or her, intending to take control and steer the vehicle safely off the highway; but he’d barely touched on the driver’s mind when Alex began to honk her horn.

Cale instinctively glanced to the rearview mirror to see that she was no longer directly behind him but to the side. Cale swiveled to peer out the front window again, gasping as he saw that the pickup had forced him out of his lane. He was straddling the right lane and an off-ramp … and headed straight for the concrete divide.

Cursing, he hit the brakes and tried to swerve off the road, but his vehicle was apparently hooked on something on the pickup. Cursing again, Cale hit the gas instead, wincing at the high shriek of metal on metal as he drove up the side of the pickup. Much to his relief, whatever was holding the vehicles together suddenly released, and he went veering onto the off-ramp, scraping along the side of the concrete divide before managing to right the car. He was free, but Cale now had another problem. He was going too damned fast for the curve.

Thirteen

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Alex half prayed and
half chanted as she slammed Cale’s rental car into park on the side of the off-ramp. Her own car was a crumpled mass ahead, mangled against the dividing rail. There was no sign of the pickup that had hit him. When Cale had crashed, it had gunned its engines and taken off. Probably a drunken idiot fleeing the scene before the cops could show up, Alex thought grimly as she shoved the driver’s side door open and stumbled through the snow toward her car.

She hadn’t been able to believe her eyes when the pickup had suddenly swerved into Cale and begun to force him off the road. Alex had instinctively begun to slow to stay out of the way, but the moment she’d realized that the impact had steered the little car toward the concrete divider and that Cale was staring at the pickup and didn’t yet realize it, she’d laid on the hornof the rental car to try to warn him. Much to her relief, he’d jerked his head around, apparently spotted the problem and managed to pull away from the pickup. But she’d known at once that he was going too fast. Her ears were still ringing from the horrible crash as the car had hit the rail, but there was also a rushing in her ears as adrenaline pumped through her, helping her slog through the snow to get to Cale.

Alex had a terrible feeling she would get there only to find him dead. She just wasn’t lucky enough to be given a gift like him and be allowed to keep it. Her parents and grandparents had been taken from her, why had she thought for even a minute that she could have him?

Tears blurred her eyes, and Alex dashed them impatiently away as she reached the driver’s side door. The front end of her car looked like a squeeze box with the driver’s side taking the worst of the damage. The windows had shattered, and she cut herself on the broken glass chips still embedded in the frame of the door as she grabbed the cold metal to lean in. All Alex could make out was Cale’s still form lying across the seats, his head in the passenger seat. He wasn’t moving.

Despair sliding through her, Alex released the window frame and immediately began to stumble her way through the snow to get to the passenger door. This side had a lot less damage, and much to her relief the door still worked. She was able to pull it open so that she could lean into the car to examine Cale. Alex glanced over his dark form, then opened the glove compartment and reached in for the emergency flashlight she kept there. She flicked it on with fingers nowstiff from cold, and then shined it on Cale, a small sob slipping from her lips when she saw the damage.

His eyes were closed, and he was as pale as death, his chest and face covered with blood. Alex moved the light beam down to his legs and closed her eyes briefly against the sight of metal crushing them against the seat from the knees down. If it was as bad as it looked, they would need the Jaws of Life to get him out, she thought with despair, and reached into her coat pocket for her phone, but it wasn’t there. She hadn’t thought to grab it before leaving to go antiquing, Alex realized. It would still be in her charger at home, where she’d put it after returning from the hospital.

Cursing, she glanced to Cale, and then switched off the flashlight and set it on the floor so that she could lean in and search his pockets for his phone. She had just started on the first pocket when Cale suddenly jolted slightly upward with a loud, deep gasp as if she’d just hit him with defibrillator paddles.

“Cale?” she said with disbelief, her hands moving to his face as he fell back on the seat. “Can you hear me?”

When he moaned and turned his face into her hand, Alex sighed with relief. Tears began to fall down her cheeks in earnest, and she pressed a kiss to his forehead, whispering, “Thank God.”

“Blood,” he moaned.

“Yes, I know baby, you’ve lost a lot of blood. I need to call for an ambulance.” She started to withdraw her hands from his face, but he caught her hand weakly and returned it to his face.

“No … phone,” Cale groaned, nuzzling her hand. She thought she even felt his warm tongue slide across her cold palm, but was more concerned about what he had said.

“You don’t have your phone either? But I thought you called Bricker—you must have used the restaurant phone. I hadn’t realized it was hooked up yet.” Frowning, she turned her head to peer out the front window, wondering how far it was to a building or house where she could use a phone or at least get someone to call for an ambulance.

Pain shot through her hand, and Alex instinctively jerked it away from Cale with an “Ow!”

“Sorry,” Cale sounded as miserable as he was weak, and she sighed and kissed his forehead again.

“It’s okay. I cut it on the broken window when I first came up. It’s a little tender.” She half straightened to peer around again, hoping someone would take the offramp and stop to help. She didn’t see anyone. Traffic wasn’t completely absent on the highway, but apparently this wasn’t a popular off-ramp. She’d have to go for help.

“Cale.” She turned back to him and frowned at the rustling he was making. Picking up the flashlight, she turned it on and bit her lip when she saw the way he was twisting on the seats. He was obviously in terrible pain.

“Oh, God, Cale,” she whispered, and then reached out to touch his cheek again with her free hand, and said in stronger tones, “Honey, I have to go for help. I’ll be as quick as I can but—”

Cale moaned and turned his face into her hand again,and this time she could see his tongue slip out to lick across her bloody palm. Despite the situation, the caress sent a shiver of excitement through her, and that raised a maelstrom of shame inside her. The man was delirious and half-dead, and she was standing there getting turned on. Her attention shifted back to Cale as he suddenly pushed her hand away.

“The trunk,” he gasped.

“Trunk?” she asked uncertainly.

“The rental. A cooler,” Cale got out in hoarse tones.

He was definitely delirious, Alex decided. “Honey, this is no time for a beer. You need help.”

“The cooler,” he insisted, sounding desperate, and then a tearing sound drew her eyes toward his legs and she shifted the flashlight beam there to see that he was trying to pull his legs free of the twisted metal as if to get out and get the cooler himself. Another tearing sounded, but this time she suspected it wasn’t cloth. The man was doing himself damage in his desperation.

“Okay, I’ll get the cooler,” she said quickly, trying to calm him. “Just stop moving. You’re only hurting yourself.”

Much to her relief, he sagged and went still, merely murmuring, “Need it.”

“Okay. I’ll get it. Just don’t move,” she pleaded, and then backed out of the car and straightened to hurry back to the rental. The snow along the side of the ramp was a good two feet deep. Already knowing how hard it was to wade through, Alex risked the ramp itself but found it wasn’t much faster. The road was icy, and she couldn’t move too quickly for fear of slipping and hurting herself in a fall that would stop her from being able to get Cale the help he so desperately needed.

Alex was slowed down again when she finally reached the car. She’d left the keys in the ignition and the engine running in her rush to get to Cale and now had to wade through the snow to get to the driver’s side and the keys. She was panting with exertion by the time she got to the open door. Alex reached in and hit the button on the black fob hanging from the key in the ignition. She then hit it again until she heard all the doors unlock. Straightening, she hurried around to the trunk and opened it to reveal a small cooler inside. Alex grabbed the handle and jerked it out, then slammed the trunk closed and hurried back to her car and Cale.

“Here, I got the cooler,” Alex said soothingly as she bent to lean into the passenger side. She set the cooler on the front passenger floor, and then shined her flashlight over Cale, almost moaning when she saw that he’d continued trying to free himself while she was gone. He’d succeeded somewhat. His legs were half-out of where they’d been crushed against the seat, but it wasn’t pretty. The front of his lower legs resembled hamburger, and she thought she saw bone in a spot or two.

“Oh, God, Cale, I have to get you help,” she moaned, wondering if he’d ever walk again.

“In the cooler … blood,” Cale growled, and she shifted her eyes and the flashlight beam to his face. He looked even paler than he had the first time she’d seen him. He was almost gray from lack of blood, butstill struggling to pull himself across the seat, his eyes now a burning silver and focused on the cooler she’d set down. “Open it.”

The words were almost a snarl, and Alex automatically shifted the handle out of the way and opened the cooler. Her eyes widened when she saw the stacked bags of blood inside. She stared at them with confusion, and then lifted one out to look at more closely. “What—?”

He suddenly snatched the bag from her, and her eyes widened with horror as she saw fangs suddenly slide out of his mouth. When he tore into the bag with them, she took a panicked step back, bumped into the car door, lost her footing, and landed on her butt in the cold snow. But the flashlight beam and her eyes never left Cale. He had closed his eyes, whether against the light shining on him, or with relief or pleasure she didn’t know, but she could see that the bag was emptying, the plastic shriveling in on itself as its contents were removed.

“Another,” he gasped, ripping the first bag away as soon as it was empty.

Alex didn’t even glance to the cooler, but simply stared at him.

“Alex,” Cale growled. “Please.”

“What are you?” she asked shakily.

Cale closed his eyes. “I didn’t want you to find out like this.”

“Find out what? That you’re a
vampire?”
She heard the hysterical note in her voice and snapped her mouth and eyes shut, thinking this then was the flaw. He wasperfect … except for being a bloodsucking demon. Jesus, could she pick ‘em or what?

A rustle and more tearing brought her eyes open to see that Cale had dragged himself a little farther along the seat, doing himself more damage as he did. But then he didn’t have much choice, she supposed. If he was a vampire, he couldn’t afford to have EMTs and firemen seeing him like this.

“Please,” Cale repeated, panting.

Alex hesitated, but when he pulled himself another half an inch closer, she quickly snatched another bag of blood and shoved it at him to keep him at bay. He took the bag of blood but didn’t thrust it to the fangs she could see so clearly.

“Alex, it’s okay,” he said.

A little burble of disbelieving laughter slipped from her lips, and she covered her mouth with dismay at the hysterical sound.

Cale sighed, a sound filled with despair, and finally shifted the bag to sink his teeth into it.

Alex watched, and suddenly wondered if he’d bitten her. She hadn’t seen any marks, but there were places on her body she couldn’t see without the use of a mirror or bending herself up like a pretzel … and he’d given a lot of attention to one specific such place. Dear God, maybe that was why she’d been passing out, she thought suddenly. He wasn’t just licking and nibbling, but biting and sucking as well. She was probably a couple of quarts short on blood right now. Jesus!

She stared at Cale wide-eyed, wondering how he’d managed to keep her from feeling the pain. Man, she’dthought the pleasure he’d given her was like nothing she’d ever experienced. Now she knew why, he must be able to make her think she was enjoying it … which meant he could somehow control her mind, Alex realized. That explained why she’d suddenly gone from scrambling to get her clothes on to blithely going in to take a shower when she’d woken alone in the office.