Vengeance of the Demons (7 page)

He scanned her face and then stood. “I’m going to need to rest, but if you’re gonna run, I’ll stay awake.”

“What are you going to do with me?” Fear crept into her voice. She crushed the water bottle in her hand, cursing herself for her weakness.

“I need to get to the humans. I told you before that we need their help. Or at least their weapons.”

“And I told you that I’m not taking you to them.”

“Then we have a problem.” He stood and unbuttoned his shirt.

“What are you doing?” Her heart thundered like a herd of elephants in a stampede.

He looked down. “Changing my shirt.” He removed the shirt, and she had to keep from moaning at the sight of his strong, lean muscles cut with precision down to his perfectly tailored suit pants. The lines of his sinewy muscles begged for her to touch them, while the dips between each defined ab called for her to run her tongue up and down them. Visions of him underneath her as she licked his salty skin filled her head. His hands tangled in her hair, calling her name.

She coughed and their eyes locked until her cheeks heated and she glanced away. He walked to his bag and pulled out a T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms. She took the opportunity to survey his tight backside. Her fingers twitched with the desire to squeeze it.

Damn. She had to get her crap together before she did something she’d regret. Again.

She turned away before he could notice her staring and the sudden movement made her head feel like it’d been stuffed with cotton.

“I’m going to shower. Are you going to run?”

She should run. She should take off and get back to her people the moment he stepped into the bathroom. But her leg hurt and who knew how well it would hold. She was still hours from California and the only car available was most likely his. Which he would track. Plus whatever pain pills he’d give her were good enough to end her in another ditch if she tried to drive.

“No. Not yet anyway.”

He grabbed the car keys off the dresser and headed for the bathroom.

She hunkered down in the bed and rolled on her side. “What? You don’t trust me now?”

She yawned as a wave of fatigue engulfed her.

He smiled at her. “Never have.”

William exited the shower thirty minutes later, clean but pent up.

“Are you hungry?” He scrubbed his hair with a towel.

Her eyelids fluttered open, but her eyes were like brilliant, blue glass. “I could go for a burger, fries, and soda.”

Good, the drugs were knocking her out. She needed to rest. To heal.

He walked to his duffel bag and unzipped it. Rummaging inside, he grabbed a protein bar and a bottle of water. He walked over, opened the cap on the water bottle, and ripped open the bar for her. He held them out for her to take.

“Wow, for me? Really?” Her words were sarcastic but held none of her earlier venom.

“I don’t have time to go out. The sun will be up any minute. So this will have to do for now. I have more than a dozen bars in my bag. I’ll get you some real food later.”

She took the bar and bit into it. “So what am I supposed to do all day?”

William pulled the covers down on his bed and lay on the scratchy sheets. He stretched out and then relaxed onto the saggy mattress. Man, he missed his bed.

“I suggest you get some rest. You need to heal.” He closed his eyes and tried to let his mind wander. He thought about his bed at the coven house. His gut twisted and he wondered how Neeman was doing.

She yawned loudly. “I’m bored.”

He sighed. “Then go to sleep.”

She blew out a breath and tossed her wrapper unsuccessfully at the trashcan. “You’re a vampyr.”

“Guilty.”

“So you were human once.”

“Also guilty.”

“When were you turned?”

He sighed. “I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the story from all the other humans.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

He turned to face her. Her face held nothing but sincerity. He stared up at the ceiling again feeling his body sink deeper into the bed, willing him to go to sleep. He shouldn’t talk to her. He should shut up, roll over, and leave her to her boredom. He needed to rest and getting her to agree to guide him to her enclave was going to take all the energy he possessed when he woke up.

“I lived in an enclave in the mountains for years. Over a year ago, I went on a supply run with Mason and a group from our encampment. We hit a house we shouldn’t have. A group of slavers followed us. They attacked when we met up with others from our enclave that night. Several of us ran into the mountains in an effort to wait them out till dawn, but they caught up with us.”

“Is that the guy you stuck a knife into?”

“Yeah.”

“So what happened? You ended up in a slave auction?”

“We were there about a week when Lord Danika showed up. She bought me and Mason, and Ike for Lance and Sinya. I became her assistant and we formed a friendship. One night she was overseeing appeals and Neeman brought in a rogue vamp. The girl was out of her mind with bloodlust and she grabbed a gun. She pointed it at Danika. I jumped in the way and was shot.”

“Why would you do that?”

He looked over at her. “What?”

“Why would you do that? Save Danika. You were a slave. Were you in love with her or something?”

His gut clenched and he licked his lips. “Danika was the first person since my mom who treated me like I had potential. In the encampment, I was nobody. Danika may have paid money for me, but she did it because she saw what I could become. Did I love her? Yes, I did and I do. But not the way you think.”

“So you were injured and she gave you her blood?”

“We’d not started the bonding process up to that point, so I’d never had her blood before, and she didn’t know how much to give me.”

“You hadn’t bonded?”

His gut clenched and a savage protectiveness ripped through him. “You really do need to give her some credit. She’s not like other Vampires. She didn’t want to bond with me till I was ready.”

Her brows furrowed.

“What about you? How did you get into the slave market?”

She stared at him for a minute before yawning. “You know, I am getting tired.”

She rolled over. It surprised him that she hadn’t yet asked for a shirt to cover up with. He stared at the soft roundness of her shoulder and slender dip of her waist. The indent of her spine just begged to be licked. He took in every inch of her and wondered what had happened to her before she’d shown up at the coven house.

* * * *

Evan stood in the middle of a beautifully decorated room. Cream carpet tickled her toes as the faint sound of classical music poured through the wall of the adjoining room. A beautiful jade green silk bed took up most of the space while expensive dark furniture lined the rest.

She stared at the white door, her heart racing so fast she waited for it to explode. Footsteps moved closer down the hallway. She wiped her sweaty palms on the white sundress she’d been given and tensed as the knob turned.

A dark-haired, tall Vampire with handsome sharp features and an expensive dark suit smiled at her.

“Hello, Evan.”

She wanted to speak but her voice wouldn’t work. She tried to swallow but couldn’t conjure any saliva.

The Vampire closed the door and walked closer to her. His hungry eyes devoured every inch of her before he offered his hand.

“I’m Travis.”

Her limbs shook as she grasped his cool palm. He caressed the back of her hand with his fingers and she pulled away.

He chuckled. “I’m not going to hurt you. You know why you were bought, right?”

“Yes,” she croaked.

He moved closer and brushed her cheek with his knuckles. “You are so beautiful.”

Every fiber of her wanted to scream, to run, but she’d never make it.

Travis moved till his body pressed into hers. He leaned in close and sniffed her.

“Please.” An unexpected tear slipped from her eye.

He kissed her throat lightly, making her skin pebble. She clenched her fists tight.

“Don’t worry, Evan. I won’t do anything until we know each other better.”

Evan screamed and shot straight up in bed. Sweat covered her body and soaked through the sheet.

A hand fell lightly on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

She struck out and connected with someone. He grunted and the other bed creaked. She scanned the room quickly and, remembering where she was, took a deep breath.

She turned on the light and rubbed her eyes. “Sorry.”

William sat up. “You had a nightmare.”

She dropped her head into her hands and sucked in several deep breaths. She’d never told anyone about what had happened to her. Her burning shame that scorched her daily with the flames of guilt. It was something she tried to hide deep inside. Locking it away with the memory of so many other things she didn’t want to deal with.

“Do you want to talk about it?” His tone was gentle. Caring even.

She didn’t want him to sound like that. Didn’t want him to be nice to her. She could deal with him being mean, cruel even, but nice was something she couldn’t handle.

“You can talk to me. I’m not as bad as you think.”

Her head whipped up. “Can you stop being so damn nice all the time?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Nice. You’re nice all the time. Why? Why are you nice to me? I’ve been nothing but a total wench and yet you continue to be nice to me.”

He stared at her and blinked several times. “I… I’m nice to you because I know the persona you show isn’t who you really are.”

“How do you know who I am? I could just be this way.” Fire burned in her belly. Anger for the things that had been done to her. For the things she’d allowed to be done.

He sat for a minute and didn’t speak. “I’m a man who was bought by a good and decent woman. She treated me with kindness and respect. But I’m not an idiot. I know that I was one of the few lucky ones. Human women have it much worse. You don’t have to tell me your story. I see the bite mark scars on your neck. That combined with the fact that you’re beautiful can only mean one of two things. You were a blood slave, or a breeding slave.”

“Breeding slave,” she said. “Though I’m not sure I wasn’t a blood slave as well.” She swallowed and stared the other direction.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She nodded, memories bombarding her like an air strike and emotions avalanching down on her till she thought she’d suffocate. She refused to cry and instead stuffed everything back down until all that was left was the ever-present empty hole.

“Yeah. Me too.”

* * * *

William wanted to comfort her. He couldn’t imagine the horrors she’d endured. If he’d been bought by anyone else the likelihood that he’d be a lowly slave scraping to survive did not escape him.

“Do you have any family?” he asked.

She looked over at him. “An uncle and a couple of cousins. My parents and little sister died soon into the outbreak. My uncle took me in. He and my cousins were real doomsday nuts.” She chuckled. “Who knew they’d been right all along. Of course they thought the zombies would get us, not Vampires.”

William laughed. “I thought it would be zombies too. Man when people were turning into vamps and they started attacking, I was sure they were zombies.”

“How old were you?”

“About seven. How about you?”

“I was seventeen.”

That couldn’t be right. “How’s that possible? That would make you—”

“Twenty-eight.”

His mouth opened and closed. She appeared to be no more than twenty-one.

“It’s the inoculation I received. I age slower.”

“Where’d you get that inoculation?”

“In the encampment my uncle took us too. They have scientists there working on stuff. When they needed volunteers, my uncle wanted me and my cousins to be the first in line. He swore never to allow what happened to my aunt and others they knew to happen to us.”

“So your aunt…”

“She became a vamp.”

“Did she stay with your uncle?”

Evan looked down at her hands. “No.”

He swallowed, remembering the night his mom pulled him out the window.

“My dad died trying to protect us during the awakening. A vampyr broke into our apartment. My mom got me out barely in time.”

Sadness crossed her features. “I’m sorry.”

“We’re not as different as you think, Evan. We’ve both lost people.”

“But you’re not human anymore.”

“No, but from the sounds of it you aren’t exactly human either.”

“More human than you.”

He shrugged. “Only in biology. I still think the way I used to. Still love the way a human would. Still laugh and cry and desire.”

“And kill.”

His spine stiffened. “I’ve only ever killed in self-defense. Are you telling me you’ve never killed anyone?”

“Not a person.” Her words were pointed and cryptic.

Anger flared within him. “So I’m not a person.”

Silence fell between them thick as a storm cloud.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.” As much as William wanted her words not to stab him, they did. A twisting between the shoulder blades, digging deeper and deeper with every syllable she uttered. It didn’t matter what he did, she still saw him as a monster.

He glanced at the clock. “We should try to get a few more hours of sleep before I find you food and figure out what we’re going to do.

“I’m still not taking you to California.” She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. “Damn.”

“Well, then I guess we’re staying here.” He turned out the light and rolled over. He tried to show no reaction to her words. But inwardly he jumped up and down in a flurry of hallelujahs. Finally he had an inkling where they were headed. California was a very big place to search for an enclave. But it was a start.

* * * *

William awoke several hours later and went in search of food. Evan was still asleep when he left, but by the time he’d gotten back from the store, she had showered and now wore one of his shirts tied off at the bottom and a pair of his sweat pants pulled as tight as possible around the waist. He sighed at the site of her skin all covered up, but it was for the best. She wasn’t for him.