Hunter by Night (8 page)

What in the goofy hell was that about?

Against her, Lee turned into granite. “I suppose. Your father did help to kill Haig once.”

It kinda seemed like Lee was trying to ruffle the big wizard’s feathers, but Petros only smiled. “I am not my father. Or my siblings. What I am is practical. Haig’s magic long predates ours, and if the plague takes root, it will kill our kind faster than yours. So.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “I propose a truce. Until Haig is no more. Does this squeak your rubber ducky, Commander?”

A snarl rumbled in Lee’s throat. Alexia didn’t figure this angry vampire’s ducky would be squeaking any time soon. “Petros. He’s mine,” Lee said.

“Of course.” Petros stepped backward into the shadowy dark portal from which he’d arrived. “Unless I kill him first.” Then he was gone.

“What a weird asshole.” Dull pain smacked Alexia all at once, as if she’d been walloped by a brick barricade.

“Fuck!” Lee went down on one knee.

“Lee, what’s wrong?”

He gripped her arm. “Don’t tell anybody.”

Lee could hardly understand Alexia as they trudged to the cave opening she’d located nearby. Had she been gargling marbles?

“You know, I’m all for equality but you’ve got like two hundred pounds on me. This is worse than trying to hoist a half-conscious and pregnant queen.”

“Sorry.” He allowed himself to ease onto the stone floor of the cave once they got inside. “Jesus, Lexi.” The opening was deeper than expected, but he did not like tight spaces.

“What’s wrong?”

Hell, now her hands were all over him. Sliding over his jaw. His neck. A frisson of heady arousal bolted through him when her fingers dusted over one nipple on their way to check a scrape by his collar. He should have kept his mouth closed.

“Are you okay?”

He groaned quietly. “Blew my powers. Couldn’t let it show in front of Petros.”

“I suppose I can understand. What was all that shit about? What was that explosion? How’d you knock all those guys down at once? I can’t believe he didn’t get pissed.” The questions fired in rapid succession.

“I’m sure it was intended.” Slow, deep breaths. “He probably set those guys up as pawns so I’d be too weakened to attack him when he approached us with his little deal.” Fuck’s sake. Not for a second did he trust Petros. But this was the hand they’d been dealt, for now. “The wizard with the ability to channel lightning, I used his power against him. Instead of blocking it with my shield, I amplified the energy. Kept it building until it overloaded. Made them all eat dust.”

He chuckled slightly. “Actually worked very well.” Best effect he’d ever gotten. “Except for the backlash.” His head spun, his chest thumping hard. “But nobody knows I can do something of that magnitude. I’d rather it stay under wraps. Please.”

She stopped with her hand on his shoulder, near his neck. One thumb rubbed near his pulse point. “Not even Thad?”

“Not even Thad.” It took a great deal of blood to create that kind of power boost. Lee had worked hard to rein in his bad habits. But letting anyone know this was an issue, especially the king? It would cause unnecessary worry. Jeopardize his position.

She shook her head. “You can’t honestly trust the wizard leader.”

He closed his eyes and the world tilted. “No, but they fear Haig. His magic predates theirs.” Agony lanced through Lee’s arm. He closed his eyes against the pain. “Haig was the first to divine how to create the magic that the wizards use today, by using blood. In the name of God, so he claimed, but his love of the Lord turned into something sick and twisted. He and Petros’s father were friends before they turned on one another. If anybody wants him dead more than we do, it’s Petros.”

“The magic in their blood. That’s how you can make their bodies disintegrate when they die?”

Lee nodded carefully. “Like wizards, their blood destabilizes as they age. Particularly if they have consumed vampire blood to enhance their magic.”

Lee waited for more questions. Or one of Alexia’s finger-wagging rants. What he got instead was her tight human body pressed against his chest like a second skin. “All right then, buddy. Let’s get this over with.”

He didn’t have to ask what she meant. Her neck hovered by his mouth, and his fangs shot out at the mere suggestion. “Alexia, you’re—”

“Okay, look.” Her hands pressed against his chest. “Don’t even start with that whole ‘You’re human, so your blood isn’t good enough’ business. It kept Isabel partying like a rock star for two whole years while she and I were roommates. No, she wasn’t a fighter, but this is an emergency. Right now I’m the safety net you’ve got.”

She pulled back, he supposed to give him a stern look, but her nose rubbing against his negated such an effect. “I assume the goal is to get you vertical and get out of here fast. We don’t know where Petros went, and I don’t see how we get anywhere unless we’re going to just hang out here and wait for your energy to return.”

Lee nearly bit through his own tongue. He hated that she was right.

“You’re hating this, aren’t you?”

He didn’t answer. His blood flowed in her body now. She could sense his emotions. And he didn’t have the energy to keep a lid on them in his present state.

“I’m sorry you have to trust me with your secret, and I’m sorry you have to put up with using my inferior blood, but let’s both be adults.”

He nodded. She had no idea. No idea at all what trusting his life to a human cost him. What humans had once cost everyone he loved. He’d made it seven centuries without consuming one drop of human blood.

That’s only true if I discount the blood I cleaned from her wounds back in that barn. I cannot ignore the fact that it tasted better than anything I can remember in my life.

He could not justify sitting on his hands in a cave waiting to heal when Alexia’s blood could help him regain his strength. It might not be as potent as blood from one of his own kind, but right now blood was blood. Hers would get him back on his feet long enough to deliver her to the queen. They could not afford his pride.

Admittedly, her blood had been so sweet.

He lifted a hand and swept her wet hair from her face, rubbing a thumb over one dark eyebrow. Such a stark contrast to her honey and almond hair. “Why don’t you let your hair go back to its natural color? I imagine this ebony of your eyebrows would look lovely with your olive skin.”

Her lips curved slightly. “Make it through feeding from me without tossing your cookies, and maybe I’ll tell you.”

She did have quite a way with words.

Her hair slipped silky and damp through his fingers. Her chin tipped. He hardly knew he’d struck until her skin touched his lips. The familiar scent of her filled his nostrils even though the cave was musty. Her blood was thinner and warmer, and the flavor of honey and tea burst on his tongue. So delicious.

These days he fed from whatever unmated vampire came courtesy of Blood Service. Feedings could get intimate and sometimes arousing, but he never crossed lines. Never took more than the necessary life-giving fluid. Out in the field was different. Emergency care.

This… this was Alexia.

His pulse rushed, and the horrible tightness around his chest released as her blood flowed into his body. More. Yes.
More…

He hardly noticed the moment when he pulled her into his lap. Her skin burned so hot. She provided warmth and comfort, and he was too tired to fight.

She squirmed against him. The peaks of her breasts brushed gently through wet layers of clothes. His nerves and veins roared to life with surprising power as he drank. The tangy, coppery elixir with hints of honey slid down his throat so easily that he completely forgot himself. Lee burned with the urge to lay her out on the stone floor and taste her from head to toe. Any amount of money, guaranteed, she tasted this delicious everywhere.

He needed to stop. This had already gone too far.
Where’s your control, Lee?
He’d left it out in the woods with all their dead fucking enemies.

For weeks, months, he’d ignored this craving for Alexia. And God, this blood. Her blood.

Lee’s growls and snarls filled the cave. Feral noises that reminded him of who he was deep inside. Inhuman. Animal.
Stop.

Alexia whimpered, high-pitched and needy. Her thighs clasped firmly around him. Fingers splayed across his chest. Her thumbs stroked his nipples through the soaked fabric of his shirt.

A strange sensation came from Alexia’s hands, a gentle throb against his chest. He pulled back, licking closed the punctures on her throat. “What are you doing?”

Her breath shuddered, deep and heavy. “What do you mean?”

“Your hands. That… pulse. What are you doing?”

“Oh.” She wiggled her fingers. “I’m not sure, to be honest. Agnessa did this weird thing a couple of times, some sort of energy transfer I think, and ever since then—”

Nessa. She’d gotten her hooks into Alexia somehow? Lee should have known. For God’s sake, nothing in Lee’s life was sacred to his scheming, conniving ex. “What sort of energy? What did she do to you?”

Alexia shook her head, suddenly eyes wide and body frozen in Lee’s lap. “I—I don’t know. It seems to relax me. I could tell you were in pain, so I thought maybe it could… I don’t know, help I guess.”

Shit. Lee’s head clunked the rock behind him. Whatever it was, anything to do with that bitch was tainted. Lord knew Lee himself was fucked in the head, thanks to his ex.

Thinking of Nessa dumped a bucket of cold water on Lee’s head. A reminder of what happened the last time he’d allowed himself to get involved with someone not of his own species. He put his hands on Alexia’s shoulders, nudging her off him. “Come on,” he said. “We need to get going.”

***

Siddoh carried Elder Esmerian’s lifeless body to the king’s mansion. The old male’s home sat a ridiculous trek across the estate. He’d gathered his uncle, surprisingly hefty as a heap of unconscious vampire, and shouted for everyone to follow. “The guest room next to Alexia’s room is free. I’ll put him in there.”

The doctor ran ahead of them into the front hall. “Good. We can move him once he’s stable.” He motioned toward the rest of the group. “I need one of you. Everybody else, give me space.”

Ivy, Thad’s property manager, rushed up the hall as Siddoh backed out of the room. “Is everything okay?”

Siddoh caught her arm. “Lee called a quarantine. What are you doing here?”

“I was out running errands. Once I found out about the lockdown, I figured it was too late so I might as well stay and get the house in order for when the king and queen return.”

Fuck. She should have been sealed in the storm cellar with the other women and children. He studied her face. Dark skin, dark hair. Very sharp fangs. He didn’t know Ivy well, but it was Siddoh’s understanding that she came from a traditional family. Old, pure bloodlines. “You don’t have any human blood?” For those with pure vampire blood, the threat from the guardians held less concern. With the perimeter secured, Ivy probably hadn’t risked as much as Alexia risked now, being out there who the fuck knew where.

Ivy rolled her eyes, which took Siddoh by surprise. She’d always struck him as… proper.

He turned and snapped at one of the other soldiers. “Go with Dr. Brayden. Also, try calling Lee so he knows the fence is back online. Text me with a status if you get through. The rest of you, pair up with the newbies and patrol the perimeter. If this new defense is doing its job, we shouldn’t see any guardians. Just the same, keep your eyes peeled,” he said quietly. He nodded to Brayden as the doctor slipped through the door.

After a moment of mumbling and shuffling, Siddoh and Ivy were alone in the hall. “No,” she said softly. “No human in me. One hundred percent, gold star vampire.” Something strange lingered in her eyes. In a case of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, she went from something that seemed like humor to shrewdly assessing him, eyes narrowed and cold.

“Excuse me?”

“Poor joke.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Can I get you anything, sir? Coffee? Tea? Gauntlets of almighty power?”

What
a
strange
young
female. Alexia says strange shit on occasion, but I figure it’s her humanity, right? Or all that partying she used to do. I honestly have no idea how to respond to Ivy right now, and I don’t know when I was last at a loss.

It hit Siddoh then: Ivy’s father had been put under house arrest for crimes against the king, and Siddoh had been instrumental in sentencing and locking up the elder male. In spite of her father’s crimes, Ivy remained a trusted member of Thad’s staff, but the logic certainly followed that she would have her issues with Siddoh.

Perhaps that explained the sarcasm and the strange undercurrent of hostility. The just plain strangeness.

“I’m… all stocked on gauntlets. Thanks.” Strange. Unspeakably so. Siddoh turned toward the kitchen anyway, dying for a stronger drink than he’d find there. He was surprised when she followed, given her apparent aura of hostility. “Hungry?” He flipped the light on. Given the slights she perceived he’d committed against her family, the least Siddoh supposed he could do was make the young lady a meal.

“No, thank you.” Her body remained stiff and stilted, her eyes narrowed as if she were picturing his head above her mantel. Sure. In a way, he was the bad guy. Made sense.

He put the kettle on for tea without asking. Not many things a hot mug of tea wouldn’t fix. He’d bonded with Alexia over many a late-night cup of tea and good conversation. He stayed away from that newfangled electric kettle she used. Hell, if he could, he would do this over the fire pit in his backyard. Nothing like cooking outside. Modern kitchens were one thing Siddoh had never embraced. Or boxer shorts, for that matter. Dammit, his boys needed a snug fit.

“Have a seat.” He steered her toward one of the bistro chairs on his way across the kitchen.

“I’m not sure I’m in the mood for tea.”

“Well, then. If you followed me in here because you have devious plans to come after me with the cutlery, I suggest that big French chef knife. Maybe the meat cleaver.” He pulled out a box of something Alexia kept in the pantry called “Calm.” Highly ambitious claim for a tea to make, but what the hell. He tossed Ivy a fangy grin, the kind that often pissed folks off because it gave the impression that he wasn’t taking anything seriously. “I should warn you, though. I’m fast.”

This time he was rewarded with a weak smile on his return trip with his tea bags and Alexia’s gallon-sized jar of raw honey.

“I suppose I could have a cup of tea,” Ivy murmured. Letting her anger slip, she rested her cheek on her arm, showing her fatigue. Poor thing. Until tonight she’d always come off as so easygoing. Mellow. Was she like him? Always struggling to hide herself? Helping to run the royal estate had to be exhausting. And having her father in trouble with the king…

Siddoh shook his head. He found himself wondering inappropriately what she did for blood. Why such a beautiful female was single. She was young, but old enough to have been mated by now. Asking would be rude. Right? Right.