Blood Ties (5 page)

Her feet were rooted to the spot by a rush of
cold panic. She opened her mouth, fighting the urge to beg him to
stay. This wasn’t what she’d thought would happen when he’d offered
her life as a vampire! “You promised you’d take care of me,” she
whispered, remembering his words in that dark tunnel as they’d fled
the destruction of his home. “When you turned me, you said you’d
take care of me. You didn’t say you’d abandon me to fend for
myself.”

His face hardened. “I am taking care of you,”
he shot back, every word a bullet of anger. “You’re alive, aren’t
you? Have I not fed you when you were hungry? Did I not teach you
to control your bloodlust last night? You can use sex on anyone,
not just me. Tonight you will. Now get your ass in gear, Kira. Dawn
waits for no one.”

“No.”

The word
was out before she so much as thought it but she didn’t take it
back. Hurt feelings or not, she wasn’t the begging type. Crossing
her arms over her chest, Kira raised her chin. His dominant
behavior last night had been a sexy, kinky game, but this was
pushing her limits. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with
him but he’d never spoken to her like this and she wasn’t going to
start taking it now. “Your attitude sucks, Orion. I didn’t
use sex
on you and you fucking well
know it. Find another tone when you speak to me or you can take off
for wherever you’re going without me.”

Forget the terror that waited to swamp her at
the thought of fending for herself alone. She’d rather do that than
allow anyone to demean her.

He took a menacing step forward, then
stopped. Their gazes clashed for a long moment before he sighed
harshly and let his head drop back, eyes closing. “All right,” he
said, the hard anger vanishing from his voice to be replaced by
weariness. “All right. You’re right and I’m sorry. Kira, please
come here. I need to get out of here and I’m not leaving without
you.”

That was better. She uncrossed her arms and
took her time walking to his side. “You’re not usually a bastard,”
she said when she stopped beside him. “Want to tell me what crawled
up your ass and died, or do I get to guess?”

Finally he met her eyes again and she was
relieved to see the old Orion looking down at her. He shook his
head at her language but she was sure she saw the hint of a smile
at the edge of his mouth. “I should know better than to bully you,”
he admitted. “Let’s just get out of here first. We can talk
outside.”

“Whatever.” But this time she followed when
he started down the stairs.

The bass beat still hammered, getting
progressively louder the closer they got to the bottom. The already
faint light dimmed further, then was replaced by black lights.
Orion surprised her by taking her hand when they turned the final
corner.

They emerged into chaos.

Even when she’d dated Barrett, Kira had never
been inside Club Nighthawk. Now she knew why both men had warned
her away from it. A seething, writhing mass of humanity filled the
huge club, surging to the beat of the heavy metal band on the
stage. Every dark corner held a couple -- or more -- and the scent
of blood and sex was heavy in the humid air. Without understanding
how she knew it, she sensed the presence of vampires throughout the
crowd, inciting the humans’ desires, feeding their own bloodlust
and taking what they wanted without the slightest regard for mortal
life.

People would die here tonight. The certainty
of death was as clear as the pounding beat of the music. The only
uncertainties were how, and whom.

Orion squeezed her hand in reassurance as she
involuntarily cringed. “Have no fear,” he murmured, his words clear
to her despite the raucous music. “No one will bother you, Kira.
Come, the exit’s just over here.”

She held
tight to him as he made his way effortlessly through the crowd.
People parted before him like magic. She supposed it
probably
was
magic.
Fixing her eyes on Orion’s back to avoid the enthralled,
already-dead gazes of the dancing humans around her, she’d never
been so glad to see anything in her life as she was to see the
double doors of the exit before them.

Just as they reached them, a pair of vampires
stepped from the shadows and blocked their path. Orion stiffened as
they stepped into the dim glow of one of the few lights. One fair
and one dark, they practically oozed menace.

“Leaving so soon, Orion?” the blond vamp
said, giving them a feral little smile. “You haven’t asked your
Master’s permission to leave.”

“I don’t have a Master,” he growled.

“Don’t you? I don’t recall freeing you,” the
dark-skinned one replied, and although he spoke second, there was
no doubt in her mind that here was the real power in the room. This
was Gregori, the Master of Clan Nighthawk. His gaze raked over
Kira’s body with wicked interest and she felt the tension in
Orion’s body coiling yet tighter. “We thought you’d make more of
your long-overdue homecoming. You have fed, but your pretty little
fledgling hasn’t tasted the pleasures of her Clan yet. She hungers
-- surely you feel it. Would you deny her the chance to drink her
fill before you take her away?”

Kira’s
mind reeled.
Orion was a Nighthawk?

His hand was the only thing that kept her
from swaying with shock. She heard his snarl an instant before his
reply. “She is an outsider’s offspring, of no interest to you or
your Clan. Now move aside or I’ll move you myself.”

“You presume to decide where my interests
fall?”

Orion shifted slightly, hiding her still
further behind his shoulder. “Why should a Clan Master bother
himself with a mere fledgling?” he returned, everything in his
manner polite as he radiated distrust and hate. She could
practically see the undercurrents flowing between them and hardly
dared to breathe.

“She must be worth the bother or you wouldn’t
have turned her,” Gregori replied. “I can recall another that
didn’t merit such attention from you. I’d be a fool not to be
interested by a woman who shows such promise.”

That was the last straw. Orion snarled,
dropping the façade of civility entirely. Rage and power rolled
from him in waves, a tsunami of aggression. Even knowing Orion as
she did, his strength and power astounded her. “This one won’t be
corrupted,” he growled, every muscle primed to fight. "Not even by
you."

Gregori smiled and spread his hands in a
gesture of peace. She didn’t trust it one bit. “Corrupt? I’d never
suggest such a thing,” he demurred smoothly. “All Nighthawks are
free to find their own path within the Clan. No vampire is forced
to do anything they do not wish.”

Then his eyes met hers and she just barely
stopped the shudder that wanted to make her look away. Gregori’s
eyes were black as ice, but it wasn’t the lack of color that made
them terrifying. Those eyes were cold and dead and yet they danced
with a hideous light. There was power in this man, awesome power.
Even new as she was, her vampire senses vibrated with awareness of
his strength and age.

This was not a man to take lightly.

“Aren’t you hungry, young one?” Gregori
asked. The concern in his voice sounded as genuine as his motion of
peace. “I offer you a feast. Come, partake.”

Orion’s grip on her hand was almost painful.
”No!”

“You will not let her decide for herself,
then? Perhaps you are not as sure of her as you claim.” Gregori
raised an eyebrow, still looking at Kira. She refused to be the
first one to break eye contact. “And what say you, little girl? Do
you wish to live as an outsider, without the protection and benefit
of your Clan? Has he even told you what you’ll forfeit should you
turn your back on your own blood, as he has? Will you allow him to
make this decision for you, or will you speak for yourself?”

Orion
started to lunge for him but Kira wrapped her free arm around his
waist and held him back.
I can handle this. Don’t give him the satisfaction
of making you lose your temper, Orion. Trust me.

When he went still, Kira released him and
stepped out from behind him. Two steps brought her almost
nose-to-nose with Gregori. “I can speak for myself,” she said, her
voice as calm as his had been. His power rolled over her and it was
all she could do to pretend she didn’t feel it, that it didn’t
intimidate the hell out of her. “I don’t want your feast, Gregori.
I may be a vampire now, but I will never forget what it is to be
human. Killing them like cattle holds no appeal for me.”

“Ahh, but you haven’t tasted the pleasures
you so easily dismiss,” Gregori replied. “Won’t you give us this
one night to show you what you’re missing?”

Kira shook her head firmly. “I don’t need to
dance with the devil to recognize his evil. Hearing the music is
enough for me.”

He shook his head, sending his waist-length
dreadlocks swaying. “What a pity,” he murmured. He held her eyes
for another long minute before stepping aside with a little bow.
“Should you wish to embrace your Clan, little girl, we will welcome
you with arms open wide. I call you kin, not outsider, not outcast.
But, go now. Go with the outsider and taste the life he can give
you. When you tire of running and the stale, tasteless bags of
blood your sire provides, return to us.” He gave her a wink and
grinned, displaying his fangs. “I’ll be happy to train you
myself.”

She longed to shout that she’d never submit
to such a thing, but now that the exit was clear, she didn’t dare
rock the boat. “I’ll… keep that in mind,” she said instead, and let
Orion pull her out the door.

The cold night air was a welcome relief after
the saturated atmosphere of the club and she drank it in
gratefully. Orion didn’t slow as he led her down the alley and out
onto the busy street. “What the hell were you thinking?” he
snarled, dragging her along. “You practically challenged him, Kira!
Gregori is not someone you want to fuck with, and you throw down
the gauntlet without so much as --”

“
Well, it
might’ve helped had I known you were a Nighthawk before five
minutes ago!” she snapped back, matching his fury. “How was I
supposed to react? You’ve warned me about them time and time again,
and now I find out I’m tied to them through
your
blood!”

That stopped him in his tracks. She ran into
his back, so abrupt was his stop. “I am not a Nighthawk,” he
growled. “And neither are you. Never say that again. I forbid you
to --”

“Fuck your ‘forbid’, and fuck you too,” she
cut him off, returning his growl just as fiercely. She shoved his
shoulder until he turned to face her. “I didn’t appreciate going
into that blind, Orion. I want an explanation from you and I want
it now. Start talking or I swear to God I’ll walk back there and
get my answers from Gregori.”

His jaw clenched and his eyes blazed, but she
hadn’t let Gregori stare her down, and damn it, she wasn’t going to
let Orion do it, either. She crossed her arms over her chest and
waited, matching him scowl for scowl.

Finally he drove a hand through his hair and
dropped his eyes. “Not here,” he said stiffly. “Let’s go to --”

“Here and now, fang-boy. You had your chance
to explain in private before we left that room.”

His eyes flashed red. “I’m getting tired of
you interrupting me, fledgling.”

“
And I’m
getting tired of listening to you dance around my questions,
sire
,” she shot
back. “I died for you and trusted you enough to give up my humanity
for you. The least you can do in return is answer one fucking
question.”

“Fine.” She could hear his teeth grinding as
he growled through them. “Gregori is my sire. He made me four
hundred years ago. It was nothing like your change, Kira -- I knew
what he was and I asked for it. I wanted the power of it. Yes, I
lived with the Nighthawks, and I participated in their blood
feasts. I spent two hundred and fifty years in utter depravity, no
different from them. I murdered, I fucked, I took what I wanted and
didn’t bother to ask permission or forgiveness. Does it please you
to hear me say it? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

She held his tortured gaze steadily, this
time refusing to react to his anger. “And what changed you?”

His fists clenched and she knew it cost him
an effort to answer her. “A human,” he ground out. “A human, a mere
mortal, showed me what I’d become.”

Unexpected jealousy shivered through her
thoughts. Kira forced it aside. “Who was she?” There was no doubt
in her mind that the human had been a woman, that she’d been his
lover instead of his prey.

She
hadn’t expected the knowledge that he’d loved another woman to hurt
like this, though.
Get real, Kira
,
she told herself fiercely.
She lived and died long before you were ever born,
and you have no claim on him now, either.

His eyes were closed now, and if any of her
thoughts had shown on her face, he’d missed it. “I saw her first
and knew the others would want her. I’d shared often enough, but
something about her made me want her to myself. I hid her at my
lair, a place the Nighthawks didn’t know I had,” he said, his voice
softening with memory. “Rather than fearing me, feeding my
bloodlust with her terror, she spoke to me. Told me of her family
and her life. I couldn’t kill her, though I fed from her. I… I came
to care for her.”

Then his
eyes opened and she flinched from the fury in their depths.
“Gregori took her from me,” he snarled. “Used one of his
bloodslaves to take her during the day when I couldn’t help her. By
the time I found her, she was already turned.” His voice hardened
with a hate so strong it made her shudder to hear it. “He’d turned
her and already forced her to make her first kill. She was his
creature, laughing when I offered to save her from him. One night,
Kira.
One
night
with him was all
it took to kill her soul and leave her addicted to the pleasures he
gave her.”