Silent Cravings (13 page)

“I mean, Jo-Jo is a five-year-old Were in my pack, and he complained about being sent to his room, so Ashi kicked him. Like,
kicked
him. Jo-Jo is
five
.”

Ashi had none of his Were agility, but he was still fast. He tried to duck and weave around John, who was matching his speed easily. Analie couldn’t help but think of a cat with a mouse.

“I complained to someone in front of him, and he saw fit to mash me into the ground. Freddy, poor guy, chose his first meeting with Ashi to also be the first time he stood up for himself. Ashi smacked the shit out of him and threw him into a wall.”

John was slowly advancing as Ashi tried to get around him. Analie glared at the collared Were.

“He
knew
Freddy couldn’t heal as fast as us. And he still beat him up. I know he’s my packmate but, damn it, he’s—he’s—a total fucking prick!”

“Language,” Christoph mumbled.

“Don’t pull a Gavin on me,” Analie muttered.

Ashi was now backed into a corner. “
Christoph!
”

“Go fuck yourself,” Christoph answered.

John was enjoying himself immensely. The fear Ashi was radiating only made him smell sweeter, more enticing.

More like food.

The vampire was positively salivating at the idea of such an easy, free meal. He didn’t have to work at making him comfortable or safe, or like he was loved and cared for. He didn’t have to pretend to be kind or restrained. He could truly be the glorious predator he was, and no one here would stop him.

Not even Ashi’s packmates.

Mouse casually snagged Analie’s shirt collar and dragged her close enough to cover her eyes when John finally pinned Ashi in the corner, one hand under his jaw to bare his neck. John didn’t delay. Fangs laced with pleasure-inducing neurotoxins sank deep into Ashi’s throat.

After the first prick of needle-like pain, Ashi discovered that the worst part about being so helpless while his blood was being taken was the fact that it felt so good.

Analie shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut behind Mouse’s hand. This was something she would
never
get used to, no matter how nice the vampires were. Even Christoph had turned away and Analie could feel his shudder through the couch. As bad as she felt, Christoph must be feeling worse. He’d be the tasty snack soon enough, too.

She didn’t feel too bad for Ashi. She
had
expected him to be making a racket, however. Hollering, kicking, grabbing for a weapon—anything to get John away from him. His silence was unsettling. He wasn’t even moving.

Christoph was mumbling the Goliath fight song again. Analie couldn’t help but give a weak smile, but she certainly didn’t join in. How long did it take for a vampire to suck up enough blood? How much was enough?

This was
not
something to text to Freddy.

Both she and Christoph looked up sharply at the sound of a thump, though Analie had to pull Mouse’s hand away to see what happened. John had backed off. Ashi was sitting in a boneless heap in the corner, not looking at anyone, one hand pressed against the side of his neck. He was shaking.

Christoph looked back at Analie but didn’t say anything. Analie quietly slid off the couch and skulked to her room.

John nudged Ashi with his foot, smirking as he licked the last remaining drop off the corner of his lips.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he mocked. He hadn’t taken that much, technically speaking. For John, it was a little like that small bowl of ice cream after a big meal of steak and potatoes. Not a lot of food, but ultimately a satisfying end to top off the feeding he’d had earlier in the evening. Enough to sate his curiosity.

For Ashi, aside from the lingering tingle of pleasure around the bite, he was lightheaded, and his pulse sped up to accommodate the blood loss. His pride was hurting more than anything else.

Mouse turned away, settling on the couch next to Christoph. John sauntered to the door.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to see if Thad will room with Sebastian for now so we have a place to put those two.”

Mouse stared at him in angry silence as he walked out the door. She was mostly peeved that he’d been so cruel and heartless in front of Analie. She felt little pity for the Were shivering in the corner, but John had no reason to be such a dick in front of their young guest. She also worried that Christoph might now be afraid she would be as cruel and thoughtless to him. She had every intention of feeding on him eventually, but not like that. Not like that at all.

Damn John and his hedonism. If he tried to lay a hand on Christoph, she’d tear it off.

Analie wrapped herself up in a blanket cocoon and squished herself into the corner of her den-bed. She wanted to tell Freddy about Christoph and Ashi showing up, but she was afraid that she’d end up blurting out what happened with Ashi and John.

“That is messed up,” she muttered.

It certainly drove home how good she had it here.

Christoph, for his part, was woozy and tired. He looked at Ashi, still in the corner, and tried to think of something to say.

That’s what you get for popping off my kneecap.

Sucks to be you.

Boldly going where no Goliath has gone before.

Was it good for you, too?

In the end he settled for, “And on top of that, you left your wallet back at the motel.”

Ashi looked up at him and bared his little teeth. He tried to snarl, but ended up wheeze-snorting. Christoph laughed at him, but noticed that the usual growly quality to it was gone.

“Laugh while you can,” Ashi spat. “You’ll get the same.”

Christoph gave Ashi the bird, but he carefully avoided looking at Mouse. Ashi had been dodging around like a monkey, quite agile despite his collar. Christoph, on a good day while he was Were, had all the grace of a semitruck. He was good at zipping around obstacles, but nothing like Ashi had been doing. And with his injured knee, he didn’t have any chance of avoiding an attack like John’s.

“Hey, I have a question,” Christoph said. He stole a glance at Mouse. So far, she was not what he expected a vampire to be like—at all.

“What?” Ashi muttered.

“Is that what it was like being a stray?”

Ashi blinked, then thought about that. “Yeah. Kind of like that. Only I escaped every time.” He glared at Christoph. “Why?”

Christoph’s head lolled back. “I dunno. I had this really good joke about a dog catcher that was very demeaning toward you, but my head’s feeling too fuzzy to remember the details.”

“Oh,
fuck
you.”

“Nay, I shall not come between you and your new paramour.”

“
Fuck you!
”

Mouse sighed at their banter. At least Ashi wasn’t too traumatized to talk. She wished she still had her voice so she could find the words to explain to Christoph that she had no intention of treating him like John had Ashi. She didn’t think it would come off very well on paper, so forewent any attempt at soothing Christoph’s fears.

Ashi looked so vulnerable curled up on the floor in the corner like that. It teased at her predatory instincts, but also messed with that broken part of her mind that remembered exactly what it was like to be in the position he was in right now. She was torn between thinking he deserved exactly what he got, and feeling unreasonably sorry for him because John was such a callous prick—just like Max.

Spurred more by that thought than actual sympathy, she launched herself from the couch and found a blanket, shaking it out and striding over to Ashi, perhaps a bit faster and jerkier than she needed to be. She did not miss that he shrank away from her, and felt a twinge at seeing it, but did little more than drape the cloth over him and retreat back to the couch. She didn’t sit very close to Christoph, tucking her feet under herself and looking away. She was sure he must be afraid of her now and felt too much like she
held the threat of power over them—even though she had no intention of hurting them—to relax. The thought that either of them might feel that she bore any resemblance to Max Carlyle made her stomach lurch.

Then the most horrifying thought of all crossed her mind. What if
Analie
thought of her that way now?

Christoph looked at Ashi, then Mouse, then back toward Analie’s door.

“Okay, we have three Weres, one of which is hiding, another who has a concussion, and a third who is trying not to break down crying like a little girl—”

“Shut up.”

“—and a vampire who could turn us inside-out with her pinkie. How is it that
I
am the most calm and collected right now?”

“Your fate hasn’t sunk in yet,” Ashi muttered. “And you haven’t been bitten.”

“You’re griping, but I didn’t hear a peep out of you while you were getting up close and personal.”

Ashi hugged the blanket closer to himself. “I couldn’t.”

“I know you’re permanently pink right now, but you could have sucker-punched him.”

“No, I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I
liked
it.” Ashi hung his head.

Christoph’s stomach twisted up. Oh, that was
not
a happy thought at all. A moment later he jumped as Analie hopped on the back of the couch next to him. She jumped back, fell off the couch, and looked around.

“What? What’s wrong?” she demanded.

Christ, he felt like a low-rank again. “Uh, I didn’t hear you coming.”

Analie stared at him, then stifled a laugh. “Wow. You
really
are pink.” She climbed onto the couch again. She couldn’t quite see Mouse. “Christoph, this is Mouse. Mouse, Christoph. I guess we all know the loser in the corner is Ashi.”

“Shut up.”

Christoph cleared his throat, trying to suppress the severe heebie-jeebies he was feeling, and said, “Thanks for the blanket.”
And the boob-to-face squishage.

Thank God that hadn’t come out of his mouth.

Mouse watched Analie’s antics with relief. So, she wasn’t afraid of her after all.

When she was first turned, Mouse had enjoyed being the terror of humans everywhere, just like John. As she aged, she grew bored and, later, horrified with herself for the monstrous things she had done. Particularly after Max made it abundantly clear how cruel and frightening it was possible for a vampire to be. She’d taken pains to be useful to Alec for saving her, but was useless to him when it came to command as she often suffered panic attacks or pangs of conscience, and wasn’t always able to carry out necessary actions once a battle was won.

Oh, she had no problem with immersing herself in the moment and fighting pitched battles against enemies. It was the aftermath, once captives were taken, that blunted her usefulness to Royce. Her over-protectiveness of Christoph and acts of compassion for one who didn’t deserve it were only some of the ways in which she had been altered by Max’s attentions, and ones which she recognized in herself but seemed unable or unwilling to control.

As Analie made the introductions between her and Christoph, she finally dragged herself out of her momentary slog through the land of self-pity and forced a close-lipped smile for the Were. She held out her hand to him.

If he flinched away, it might very well break her.

John chose that moment to poke his head in the door, grinning widely enough to show his fangs. “Thad’s pissed, and Sebastian’s not happy, but they’re moving their stuff around now. Sebastian will come down in a bit to get them.”

Mouse’s expression hardened slightly, and she gave a sparse nod to let him know she’d heard.

John glanced over at Ashi, still huddled in the corner, and gave him a wave and a sly, mischievous grin. “Cheer up. I’m sure Sebastian won’t take too much more than I did once he carts you upstairs.”

Mouse looked very much like she wanted to fling herself at John but was only barely restraining herself.

Christoph didn’t give a good god damn what happened to Ashi. He didn’t care at all about the politics of a vampire pit. He wasn’t particularly disturbed that Mouse was obviously not comfortable around John. But he
did
care that he was very squishy and pink right now, and that Mouse looked like she was about to go on a rampage.

“Hey, did Analie tell you about the first time she met me?” Christoph blurted to Mouse.

The vampire blinked at him.

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Analie wailed. “Why do you keep bringing it up?”

“Because it’s funny. I was delivering something to Freddy’s caretaker’s house and Analie was jumping from one jungle gym to the other in the yard. She looked down at me and said, ‘Watch this!’”

Analie dropped her face into her hands, groaning.

“So she backs up a bit, takes a flying leap, and overshoots the damn jungle gym. She nearly brained herself on the swing set.”

Ashi burst out laughing. He sounded slightly hysterical, but at least he was laughing.

“So she gets up, all woozy and shit, points at me, and says, ‘Bet you can’t do that!’”

Analie got up. “I’m not taking this abuse.” She stormed to her room, but she was trying not to smile at the same time. She hated to admit it, but she was secretly pleased having Christoph here.

Christoph smiled at Mouse, ignoring how much his head hurt. “If you ever get the chance to see Analie try to pull off anything involving agility, you’re in for some comedy.”

“Similar to that idiot, Freddy,” Ashi commented.

The light-hearted atmosphere evaporated.

In the next half-second, the door to Analie’s bedroom was nearly blown off its hinges as she came barreling out.

And in the half-second after that, Ashi was off his feet and against the wall, held there by Analie. Granted, his feet were only a couple inches off the floor, but it was still impressive.

“Say
one more word
and I
will
kill you,” Analie snarled around growing fangs.