Hot Decadent Rising (Breath of Darkness) Page 4

  Eventually, he was able to see through her eyes. He knew the instant she turned the last corner that would lead her to him. He felt her hesitate for the first time as she sensed something powerful and violent calling out to her, drawing her to it. It was him. Her instincts were leading her to run away from him. He couldn’t allow it. Not now. She was too close. He reached for his power again. He found some. It wasn’t much, but he grabbed onto it. Using it, he forced her to continue, even as everything inside her was screaming at her, warning her to turn around and run from him.

  The moment she entered the chamber, Emily looked up at Zack. He knew he looked horrible. He was bruised and bleeding from several gashes covering his body. The vampires were getting closer. His first instinct was to take her in his arms, to shelter and protect her. He looked up at his arms stretched and chained over his head, and then he looked down at her. He didn’t have his full power, but perhaps he had enough to create and illusion and hide her. “I won’t hurt you. Get behind me.”

  Giving him a curious look, she shook her head. “I know you’re not going to hurt me, but I can’t waste time hiding behind you. They’re close behind me.”

  Of course she was right. Getting behind him wouldn’t do much of anything to protect her other than hide her for a few moments. But he was desperate. He started to struggle with the chains, but it was no use.

  She looked up at his arms. “Stay still. I have the key, but reaching your wrists is going to take some fancy acrobatics.”

  The vampires were seconds away from the entrance of the small cavern. “Just get behind me.”

  Obviously ignoring him, she put the key between her teeth and started to climb up his body.

  Within seconds, the room was filled with vampires. One yanked her away from him. Before he could process what he was seeing, the room was empty and silent. The vampires were gone. She was gone. Her scream shattered the silence. It was the most terrifying scream he’d ever heard, but it was not as frightening as the sudden, absolute silence that followed.

  The power and strength of his kind instantaneously returned to him. Along with something else. He felt something new living inside his blood, but he couldn’t identify what it was. It was powerful and unstable. It was dark and deadly. No. He suddenly realized what it was. It was death. Vampire blood. During his captivity, he’d ingested vampire blood.

  Roaring his outrage, his incisors lengthening, he easily ripped the chains from the ceiling. In a matter of seconds he’d pried the shackles from his wrists. He had to move quickly if he had any hope of helping Emily. He already felt the hunger for her blood burning in his gut. He had no way of knowing how long he could control it.

  Without bothering to scan the area to pinpoint each vampire’s position, he focused on her location. He rushed to her using supernatural speed. When he reached her, she was on the ground, cowering in a corner of the tunnel several yards away from the chamber where he’d been chained. She struggled and pulled away from the rough brick wall and got to her feet. Several vampires and ghouls surrounded her. Rage exploded in him.

  He was unable to contain the rage because of the vampire blood in him. The tunnel walls started to shake and crumble.

  Almost instantly, he’d managed to get in front of her. There were too many vampires to fight and keep her safe at the same time, especially when his power was so unreliable and uncontrollable. He created a barrier to hold them back. This would buy him a few minutes to figure out what to do next. It wasn’t strong enough to last. He figured sheer desperation was the only thing allowing him to create the hedge. He bent down and wrapped his arm around her to help her up.

  “Do you know how to get out of here?” He kept his arm around her, because touching her felt so good.

  “Yes.” She pointed down the tunnel. “I don’t know how far it is but there’s an opening in the ceiling down there.”

  He scooped her up. “I’ll carry you so we can move faster.” His head started spin. His heart was pounding. He had no idea what kind of damage the vampire blood had done to him. “Put your arms around my neck.” She did, but when she looked up at him, he saw fear in her eyes. Did she sense the influence of the tainted blood in him?

  “It’s going to be okay,” he lied. He didn’t have any idea how, or if it was going to be okay. Her pulse was mesmerizing him and the scent of her blood was seducing him, but luckily, regardless of the confusion the vampire blood was creating in his mind and body, protecting her was his greatest need at that moment. “Trust me.” He hoped like hell he wasn’t asking her to place her trust in her killer’s keeping.

  “I do.”

  Using supernatural speed, he got to the end of the brick lined hallway in seconds. Looking up, he realized the opening was too narrow for his wings. He bent his knees and jumped instead, heading immediately for the exit. Once he’d taken them outside, he stood on the pier and looked out at the river, still holding her in his arms. The change in him was instant. Getting outside the tunnel and building had restored his power. He shifted to his home in Yakima, Washington.

  “I told you to stay away. Why did you come back?” He waited, but she didn’t reply. He lowered her onto her feet. When she tried to look away from him, he held her face in his hand to force her to look at him. “Why?”

  “I’ve been helping Demetri search for months. He didn’t like that Mary took you from him. And I couldn’t leave you to be killed.”

  “You’ve been with Demetri?”

  “Yes. He’s my friend.”

  He wrapped one hand around her throat and squeezed just enough to frighten her into wondering if he would kill her. “Demetri is dangerous. Do not go near him ever again. I am dangerous as well. You have to stay away from me or you will die.” As he looked into her eyes, his hunger, his need for her blood increased drastically until it became a powerful obsession. Being a demon, he’d never known hunger. From his youth, his body had been a self-sustaining vessel. He’d enjoyed and consumed food on a regular basis, but it was never a necessity. His focus started to narrow in on the sensation of her pulse against his fingertips. He closed his eyes briefly and tore his thoughts from a path he had no wish to travel.

  Though he kept his hand wrapped around her throat, she calmly reached up and placed her palm over his heart. “You’re wrong. You’re just afraid to take what you need from me.” Her gaze never once wavered from his.

  “What do you think I need from you?”

  “My blood,” she whispered, her lips trembling just a little. “You need my blood to survive.”

  “You know what happened to me?”

  A single tear fell from her eye. “I was there. It was my fault. I wanted to stop them. But I was too afraid.”

  He released her throat and gently wiped the tear from her cheek. He knew the instant the warm moisture touched his flesh that her pain would always be his greatest agony. “You don’t have any blame to carry.”

  “Mary managed to steal you from Demetri because I led her to you. She handed you over to a vampire named Jeremy Lang. Demetri was very mad. He searched for you. He tried to force Mary to tell him where they’d taken you, but she wouldn’t tell him anything. She thought Demetri planned to kill you, and she wanted you alive. She believed she could find a way to control you. She planned to use you to kill other demons.” Taking a deep breath and releasing it with a sigh, she looked around. “Where are we?”

  “My home.”

  It happened so suddenly. He was consumed by insatiable thirst for her blood. It was insane. His dragon was roaring at him to fight the thirst for her blood.

  Closing her eyes, she tilted her head to the side to give him access to her neck. His entire body trembling, he hesitated.

  “It’s all right, Zack. Take from me what you need to survive. I’m not afraid.” He felt as if he was under a spell, but he was too powerful to be lost in a spell. “Do it now. Take my blood.”

  His blood turned to liquid fire and rushed through his veins. He felt many sensations al
l at once. His body had never been so entirely aroused. Needing to get closer, he caught her hips and pressed her against his body as his tongue teased and teeth scraped back and forth across her neck. His teeth sank deep. He heard her cry out his name. Fearing he’d hurt her, he almost stopped. But then, merging her mind with his, she shared the pleasure that his mouth drawing blood from her body and taking it into his was giving her.

  As he felt her pleasure, he began to focus on and share his pleasure with her. He was hard and swollen, so in need of ramming his cock deep inside the tight, silky heat of her body. The hot, spicy taste of her in his mouth, the feel of her body moving restlessly against his, and the soft sounds of her moans were pushing him beyond all hope of control. Her knees buckled, reality struck him hard. He was taking her blood. He was killing her. He forced himself to stop feeding on her. He picked her up and cradled her against his chest.

  She frowned. “It’s not your fault. You’ve been without enough for too long. It was how they controlled you. Mary said so. You needed blood to survive.”

  It suddenly dawned on him that she’d already considered that freeing him from the chains could possibly turn into a suicide mission. She’d known that he would need blood and that he would take it from her.

  “Why did you come back, Emily?”

  “I already told you. I couldn’t leave you to die. And it was my fault you were turned.”

  “None of this is your fault.” He didn’t know what remained of his powers, but instinct kicked in and he started to impart healing energy into her body.

  “What are you doing to me?” she asked.

  “I took too much blood from you. I’m healing you. You’ll be fine. You’re going to sleep for a while. When you wake up I’ll be gone. We’re in Yakima, Washington. This is my home. It’s yours now. Demetri is not your friend. Don’t go near him ever again. Stay until I return. You will find all that you need here.”

  “You’re just going to leave me?” she asked.

  Pleased that she understood, he nodded. “For now.”

  “How long do think I’ll be waiting here for you?” Her voice elevated as if in anger. He knew she couldn’t possibly have any animosity for him, because he was protecting her. It had to be his imagination. Yes, that was it. Leaving her wasn’t easy after all.

  “Until I can trust myself to do no harm to you.” He shifted away before he couldn’t find the strength to leave. He returned to the tunnel to look for Demetri. He planned to kill the other demon, and to kill Mary.

  ***

  Nikolas had a tendency of being a difficult demon to deal with. Eli wasn’t sure he would listen to him since Eli’s pack had experienced a pretty bad falling out with another demon, Joseph Payne, over a female not long ago.

  Eli had believed the female Lycan, Mia Harte, was his mate. He’d spent thirty years searching for her after her family was murdered by vampires. Eventually, he learned she wasn’t his mate. She belonged to Joseph. He was sickened by the thought of a pure blood Lycan being with a demon, but he couldn’t change it. He wouldn’t let the dispute stop him from doing what needed to be done to protect his kind. Doing so wasn’t a new concept.

  It was expected. Lycans and demons usually put up with each other, but they never formed personal relationships, though they fought side-by-side in many battles against impure vampires and other creatures of darkness that created chaos among immortals and murdered mankind. Putting aside their differences and joining forces to find Zack was imperative.

  Mary, in cahoots with corrupted vampires, had found a way to harvest and use Zack’s blood, to make tainted vampires stronger and faster. Sooner or later, if they failed to stop Mary, the vampires could potentially be as powerful as demons. They would be unstoppable. Humans would eventually become extinct, and immortals would suffer many casualties.

  “What do you want, Eli?” Nikolas asked.

  “I have some information regarding Zack.”

  “What?”

  “It possible he’s being kept in the tunnels beneath Portland.”

  “I’ve searched them several times. He isn’t there,” Nikolas explained.

  “Perhaps like Demetri you’ve missed something,” Eli said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Demetri claimed that he doesn’t know where Zack is, but he assumes he’s somewhere in the tunnels. He has been searching for him with a young woman named Emily.”

  “How do you know about this?”

  “I heard Emily telling her friend about it. Apparently, Emily believes Demetri isn’t all that bad. She actually believes he’s protecting her as a father would.”

  “She’s a young human. Demetri could easily deceive her into believing anything. He wouldn’t even need to use his power to control her mind. The question I have is why is he bothering with her at all? What use is she to him?”

  Eli shrugged. “You would know that better than I would.”

  “Unfortunately, you’re right. I think I know what’s motivating Demetri to keep her close. He’s using her to find Zack.”

  “I agree. But it doesn’t make sense. We know they have him. They’re using his blood to make themselves stronger.”

  “I didn’t say Mary doesn’t have him.”

  “Mary couldn’t possibly keep Zack without Demetri’s help, could she?”

  “I don’t know but it’s time to figure it out. Come with me to the tunnels.”

  ~Three~

  FROM TIME TO time life had brought about unexpected happenings. The cold hard truth, sitting in the backseat of a car with her hands cuffed behind her back wasn’t an unforeseeable affair. She knew she was in trouble the moment she saw Tom, her husband, at the gas station. She’d come close to begging Eli for help, but guilt stopped her. She knew Tom wasn’t alone. Her father’s men were sure to be close by to make sure she didn’t get away. She couldn’t be the reason an innocent man was shot dead. That’s exactly what would’ve happened. Kara’s father, a formidable and downright evil drug smuggler, had put a hit out on her. While learning that her own father wanted her dead was bad, it wasn’t the worst thing that had come to light. The most awful reality she was forced to face was that he had convinced Tom Borden, the father of her unborn baby, to get it done.

  Tom glanced over his shoulder at her. “What’s the man’s name?”

  “I don’t know. I just met him.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “I’ll find him. Thanks to you he’s a dead man. In the meantime let’s focus on you. I’ve good news. After we make a quick stop in the city I’m taking you to a special little area that isn’t far from your most favorite place in the whole wide world. I’ll take the Scenic Highway. You just sit back, relax and enjoy the sites you love so much for the last time.”

  It was slap in the face like no other. Why had she ever shared anything about herself with him? The answer irritated the hell out her. She’d fallen in love with him. She stewed on her ignorance for a few minutes before she realized it wasn’t all bad that she’d trusted him enough share her love of the place with him.

  At least she knew he was taking her to Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge near Multnomah Falls. Being an avid hiker she knew the area well. He didn’t. If she managed to get away from him at some point she had a good chance of surviving. And that’s when she realized she was wearing flip flops. She was going to die. No matter how well she knew the area she couldn’t survive the rugged terrain and frigid autumn nighttime temperatures in a sundress and flip flops.

  She had to do something. “Please, Tom. Pull the car over and let me go.”

  “I would never consider doing anything to disappoint your father. After all he has done for me, and all that you’ve put him through killing you is the least I can do for him.”

  “I’ll disappear. He’ll never see me again. As far as he’ll ever know I’ll be dead. And you'll be the one who killed me.”

  “I would never deceive him. He has seen fit t
o give his trust to me. I won’t do anything to cause him to doubt my loyalty to him.”

  “He would never know you let me get away.”

  “But I would know.”

  “You can’t kill me. I know you can’t.” Deep down she knew he was capable of doing it. Though begging was a waste of time she had to try. It was the only option left to her.

  “I have no problem killing you.”

  “You can’t kill our baby.”

  “Your baby.”

  “Refusing to acknowledge him as your son doesn’t make him any less yours.” A year ago she would never have believed that the man she’d fallen in love with and married would ever turn on her and their unborn child to gain a chunk of her father’s money. “It won’t be as easy as you think.”

  “After catching you fucking around with that man, I promise you that not only will it be easy, I will live out the rest of my life with no regrets over doing it. You’re getting what you deserve. I never loved you. I never really even liked you. I tolerated you to get close to your father.”

  “I hope you aren’t trying to tell me you have a crush on my dad. He likes having a variety of lovers, but I’ve never seen him show any sexual interest in men. He prefers women.”

  “As do I.” He met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “You know that. You’re just lashing out at me because you’re pissed off. I don’t blame you. Not really. I suppose if some bitch I’d screwed was planning to put a bullet in my head I would be pissed off as well.”

  “Did you just call yourself a bitch?” Her stomach was twisted in knots. She couldn’t believe she’d ever had sex with him. She felt physically ill at the thought of it. “You think you’re safe because you’ve proved your loyalty to my father by agreeing to kill me. It’s only a matter of time until he turns on you. He turns on everyone whoever steps foot in his inner circle. One day, when you least expect it, he will simply decide you aren’t worth the risk of keeping around. He will kill you.”

  “That isn’t true. He loves and respects me. I am the son he never had.”