Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) (12 page)

“No, but you might become real dead,” she hissed as she rocked to the rhythm of his beating heart. He turned his face and exposed his neck to her. She hissed again as the vein at his neck pulsed, calling out to her. “Jerry,” she whispered as she went to him against her will.

She ran a feather light hand over his neck and down his chest. She purred as she rubbed her face along the side of his. Her face was back to normal now that the sun
wasn’t threatening her. He shivered beneath her touch and it set her blood on fire.

“Take what you need. I trust you not to hurt me.”

She shook her head as her arms snaked up and around his shoulders pulling him closer. “Mon cherie. There is never any pain, not with your ole buddy Al,” she whispered soothingly in his ear.

It was her but it was not her. She lifted her lips to his neck and let her tongue dance over the precious vein for just a second. She could feel his efforts to relax, but the harder he tried, t
he harder his blood pumped. She wanted to pause to reassure him that everything would be all right. It was too late. She was too far gone to do such a thing. Her fangs descended but not as far as they would if she were preparing for a fight.

The puncture was quick and her fangs disappeared as she latched on to him. He tasted more wonderful than she could have ever imagined. She took a deep draw off of him and felt his shuttering response as he moaned and said her name. Just as she had thought they would, those strong arms came up and clamped around her as she took another deep draw of him. She could feel
his essence draining out of him and into her and her head spun it tasted so good. It was like sex and chocolate and fire all wrapped up into one.

She had been doing this for eight years but none of the men she’d
had had ever tasted this good. A fire started up low in her groin. She felt like she had too many clothes on and he had too many clothes on. She wanted more than anything to be riding him right now as she drew him deeper and deeper into herself. She wanted to take all of him, in every way he could give himself to her.

*

It wasn’t like anything he expected. The initial bite was, but this... As she drew on him, took him into her body, he felt himself grow harder and harder. It was probably the most erotic moment of his life and all he could do was hold on to her slender frame as she took from him what she needed. She drew again and his world tilted on axis. It was all he could do not to fall to the ground in ecstasy.

It was as if they were all wrapped up in each other and he wished that they were both naked for this moment. She drew on him again and he did fall to his knees as he came in an explosion of fireworks. He held on to her as she took him to a high he’d never felt before. He felt himself leaving… floating away on a cloud.

“Alicia,” he murmured from a distance. She was draped across him where he lay on the tile floor, still latched on to his neck. “Alicia, come back sweetheart, come back. I know you won’t hurt me,” he said before his eyes drifted closed and his cloud drifted off higher and higher.

There was nothing anchoring him to this world anymore but her
, and that line was getting thinner and thinner until it was little more than a wisp of air. He was beginning to forget why he should hold on to it at all. He had a feeling where he was going there would be no pain, no heart ache. He heard himself sigh as his spirit left his body.

“Alicia,” he said again, but this time it was like saying a prayer, like a relief, like a release.

*

Alicia felt like she was flying high in the air wrapped up in his embrace. She hadn’t felt this fre
e since before she’d lost everything that meant anything to her. Taking Jerry into her was like taking life, taking love, into her very being. They floated in and out of each other in an ecstasy that she hadn’t ever known. And he had given her this gift so freely, with no thought to himself. She felt so grateful that all she wanted to do was take more and more of him into herself. All of the men she had ever fed from told her how good this felt to them and she heard his moans of bliss. He wasn’t feeling any pain and she felt so so good.

He tasted like heaven and instead of feeling satisfied, tasting him only made
her want more and more. She knew that she should pull away but something had taken a hold of her and urged her on and on. How would it feel if she just took all of him into herself? She would be with him forever and forever. They would never be apart again. She could just live here with him. There would be no more loneliness. There would be no more pain. This was as close to heaven as she would ever get.

Yes. She would do this. She would take all of him into herself and he could live in her heart and she would never be alone again. He whispered something but she didn’t hear him. All she heard was the mantra in her mind. Take him. Take all of him. Let him live inside of you.

“Alicia. Come back sweetheart, come back. I know you won’t hurt me.”

She heard the words and briefly realized that they had floated to the floor and she was
lying across his rock hard body. His chest rose and fell beneath her and she felt the heat of him. She fought against the beast inside of her and it bucked hard against her. She was walking a fine line and something in her was forcing her to do what she’d never done. Take an innocent life. He was on the brink. His heart beat was nearly non-existent. One more pull was all it would take to stop his heart and the thought consumed her with desire.

“Alicia,” he whispered one last time
, and with that gave her the will to pull away. She took her mouth from him and jumped to her feet. She caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink. In the dark she looked like nothing more than the beasts outside. Her eyes were glowing red. She closed her eyes and backed up until her back hit the wall and her heart slammed against her ribs. She struggled to catch her breath.

It had never happened to her like this before. She had always been in control of it. It had lurked in the corners of her mind and she had called herself a monster more than once, but this… The thought came to h
er that she had nearly killed him and it brought her back to herself. She clicked on the bathroom light to see what she had done.

She was back a
t his side instantly. He was pale and his body was limp as he lay with his head turned to one side. The area where she had bitten him was still red with his blood and remembering it now she felt awful. She had been like a drug addict unable to control herself at all.

“Jerry,” she said breathlessly as she slapped his face.

He moaned and his eyes fluttered but didn’t open. She scooped him up and carried him out into the main room, his blood giving her unbelievable energy. The air was starting to turn hot and she knew that as soon as the bugs smelled the blood they would come in through the gapping holes in the wall and front window. She laid Jerry on the bed and went to wet a towel she found in the bathroom. She did her best to clean him up like she had done with all the others. The saliva from her mouth would heal him quickly so there was no need for a bandage.

She felt his blood humming through her veins like a hurricane. She had never ever
drunk so much from one donor. She had never needed to. Once a month was all it usually took to get her going, and then she only took enough to make their head spin a bit with the pleasure. She would whisper in their ears of all the great things they had done and then leave them with a satisfied smile on their faces.

Bateman had chastised her time and again telling her that she needed to eat at least once a week to be sure that she didn’t get too low, but she didn’t relish the thought of doing it that often. Hell, if she could stop doing it all together she would. She had tried it to see what would happen. She had thought that maybe that would end it. Nothing had happened.

She had simply gotten to a point where she stopped moving. The sun had baked her like a brick until she was as hard as a statue. Day after day she couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk, and she’d burned when the sun came up. Bateman had found her near her motorcycle in the woods and she was glad it was him and not the wolves.

He’d given her an IV to get her started but the blood was old and stale and made her vomit for days afterwards.
He’d pumped her full of the stuff so that when she actually did feed again she wouldn’t go crazy, which was what had happened this morning. Jerry’s lips were nearly blue as were his fingers and toes. She shook her head. What the hell was wrong with her, all that he had been through already, it was a wonder he was still alive, no thanks to her.

She went to the cupboard and scrounged around. There were various utensils, a jar of year old peanut butter that had begun to separate, a pack of ketchup, and more power bars. She moved the twelve pack of bottled water aside to find a box of flavor mix to add to the water. They were the individual powder packs and she pulled one out, ripped it open and added it to a water bottle.
Orange would have been best but lemonade would have to do.

She took it to him where he lay on the bed and she sat next to him, holding his head up. His eyelids fluttered again. She scooted up onto the bed so that his shoulders were resting on her thighs and she could give him the lemonade. He didn’t open his mouth so she shook him a bit.

“Come mon petite. You must drink this now,” she cooed in his ear as she tried to get him to wake. His breathing evened out as he slowly cracked one eye to look up at her. A smile crept across his lips and the relief was so sudden that she nearly got up and did a little dance.

“What are you grinning about you fool. I told you to get out of here. Why do you continue to put yourself in danger, I could have killed you the way I was,” she railed but her heart wasn’t in it
, and he could apparently tell since his smile got wider. She could just kiss those sweet lips right now.

“That would have been the best death I could have,” he said hoarsely.

She made a disappointed sound in her throat as she held the water bottle to his lips. “You stupid man. Why did you stay here when I told you to go? I told you that you have to listen to me when I tell you things like this.” Her Creole was heavy with her anger and she spoke a few curses in French.

“I don’t know what you
’re saying, but feel free to keep on sayin’ it sweetheart. It is music to these old ears,” he said with a smile after he finished the lemonade.

“I said you are stupid,” she replied again.

“Well you already said that in English. It sounded prettier when you said it the other way. Say it again,” he said with a grin.

“
Cher. You lost too much blood. You are soundin’ ridiculous.”

She pushed him off her as she went to get him another power bar and some more lemonade. She brought them back to the bed and sat down to watch him eat it. He made short work of them and still his stomach growled. She retrieved the beef jerky and brought it to him and he polished off the bag.

“I guess you eat a lot as big as you are. I don’t know how you keep any food in your house.”

“Have you ever seen my refrigerator? A tumble weed could blow past in there when you open the door. Cherish used to always…” He cleared his throat and diverted his gaze from hers.

“Cherish?”

“My ex-wife used to say it was like having a full grown bear living in the house.”

She blinked a few times to process this
information. “You were married?” she asked feeling a bit shocked.

“Yes. I was married. Now I’m divorced
.”

He didn’t seem to want to say much more on the subject so she shrugged. She did ask one more question though. “Any kids?”

This made him even more close mouthed except to say, “No.”

She nodded and went for another bottled water. That was when it hit her. Her head began to spin and the room went out of focus. She fell to her knees. Fatigue went all the way to her bones as her head dropped between her shoulders. She heard him coming and tried to stop him but couldn’t manage to lift her head.

“Alicia. What happened? Is it happening again? Do you need more blood?”

She did manage to look at him then, amazed. She had nearly drained him of his life and he was ask
ing her if she needed more. It nearly broke her heart. She saw in his eyes that he fully intended to offer her everything within him. He looked at her critically.

“You’re not hungry. You’re tired. Didn’t you say something about needing to sleep to heal yourself?”

She could only nod. He took her arm over his shoulder and had to drag her to the bed. She had no idea how he managed it as weak as he had to be. They both slammed to the bed and the most he could do for them was reach down and pull the light knitted blanket over top of them to keep the bugs away. He closed her up inside the center of him and the last thought to go through her mind was how nice it was to be in his arms. Then, nothing.

*
                            *                            *

Jerry heard something stir outside their cocoon and came instantly awake. He was fully alert and threw back the covers to scan the room. There was a crow sitting on the edge of the table pecking at an empty power bar package. He got up an
d shooed it out of the room. It took the package and flew off in a flurry of wings. He gripped the edge of the table and waited for the room to stop spinning. He’d been on heavy meds, had stitches, been knocked unconscious, been thrown up against a wall breaking a few ribs, and had nearly been drained of all his blood in the last twelve hours.