Fresh Blood (4 page)

She might have left then, but she realized
she needed to sit down more than she needed to flee.

With her hands on the cool surface of the
table, she concentrated on maintaining control. She’d never felt
like this before and she wondered if the sensations were akin to a
drug-induced high. Twinges of electrical current raced up and down
her spine with detours to the sensitive flesh beneath Max’s thumb.
With her pulse racing and the humid air dampening her skin, she
felt close to having a heart attack.

When a waitress finally brought the drink Max
had ordered for her, she reached for the glass and gulped. Only
after she’d drained it halfway did she realize there was little, if
any, alcohol in it. She set the glass down with trembling
fingers.

“Are you all right?” His voice seemed normal
when he whispered in her ear. Before, when he’d been giving her
orders, he sounded commanding in a way that should have made her
angry and insulted. The fact that it made her tremble with
forbidden desires frightened her and made her feel slightly
shameful.

“I’m fine. I don’t see Elena.”

“This isn’t the whole club. What we’re going
to have to do is wait a little while, then on our way out take a
walk through the grotto in the back.”

“There’s something farther back than this
lousy table?” She felt suddenly brave, giddy in fact. She wondered
what exactly was in the drink.

He laughed. “There’s another room around the
corner there.” He pointed to a spot where slashes of orange neon
paint converged in a caricature of a couple in a fevered
embrace.

Erica felt a jolt of anticipation at what
might be back there, and the still-coherent part of her brain
reigned in the aberrant impulse. All she wanted was to find Elena
and get out of here, get away from Max Hart and go back to her
normal human life. At least, that should have been all she
wanted.

She concentrated on keeping her hands steady
as she lifted her glass for another sip. “Drink it slowly,” Max
said.

“What ... what’s in it?”

“Just scotch and soda.”

There had to be something other than alcohol.
Only a drug could explain the way she felt. Her eyes drifted back
to the threesome, just barely visible in the dimness. The woman on
the floor began unbuttoning her blouse and while Erica stared, she
rose and switched places with the other. When the man bit into her
flesh, Erica looked away.

“Why do they do that in public?” she asked
under her breath. She bit her lip as the waitress sauntered by with
a tray of drinks and prayed no one but Max heard her question. His
response was to inch his fingers a little higher up her thigh.

“Careful. Keep your voice down.” He dipped
his finger in the cool amber liquid in her glass and brought it to
Erica’s lips. “Lick.”

She hesitated only a second. Some unknown
force made her desperate to obey him, and she captured the
shimmering drop on the tip of her tongue.

“You’ll think this is amusing, but it’s a
privacy issue. Many vampires lead human lives. They maintain homes
in town, hold down jobs. A very small percentage even have
families....”

“How--” Erica’s question died on her lips
when Max dug his fingertips into her leg.

“Shhh. I’ll answer all your questions. As I
was saying, they have friends and family who may not know they’re
vampires. It’s a difficult existence. They come here to feed
without fear of being seen by someone who doesn’t know what they
really are. They can be free here. Not everyone comes to the bars.
Some find feeders other ways and are able to feed privately. I’d
say most of us envy them.”

Erica lifted her glass, but her mind was on
the position of Max’s hand. She wondered if he felt the moisture on
her inner thigh. She wanted to move and relieve the sudden pressure
between her legs, but that would only draw his fingers higher.

“And yes, some vampires have families. No, we
can’t procreate. But some were turned after they had spouses and
children. There aren’t many. It’s a terrible burden, to know you
won’t die--a natural death anyway--and your children will grow old
while you remain young.”

Erica nodded. The pang of sympathy she felt
concerned her. Why would the plight of a vampire affect her? How
could she have spent more than a minute thinking of something other
than Elena?

“You need to relax,” Max said, dipping his
head close to her neck again. “Your muscles are like bowstrings.
Take a breath.”

She tried to comply but a nervous giggle
threatened. “What’s in the drink?”

“Nothing really.”

“Come on.”

“What would you like me to tell you? That I
drugged you so that you’ll be compliant later? So you’ll lie still
while I undress you and explore your body until I find the perfect
spot to sink my teeth into?”

Erica looked up at the swirls of neon pink on
the ceiling. Her nerve endings were on fire. She should have gotten
up and walked out--run out. But all she could think of was how much
she wanted him to do just as he described.

Oh God. This can’t be happening. I’m not hot
for a vampire. I’m not.

“Finish your drink. It’s time to take a
walk.”

This time Erica had no luck keeping her hands
from shaking. Her drink sloshed a little, and a drop landed on the
table. Max glanced up sharply as the remaining ice cubes clinked
together like old bones. “Take it easy.”

He touched his finger to the glistening drop
on the table then touched the spot just above her exposed
collarbone. The cold jolted her, shot an arrow of fire to her core.
Involuntarily she arched her back when he brought his head down and
licked the spot where he’d just dabbed her skin. The small sound
she made in the back of her throat surprised them both.

“Right there. That’s a good spot. I can drink
from there and you can hide it under your clothes during the day,
but you’ll know it’s there. Every time you see the mark, you’ll
remember I was there.”

“What are you trying to--”

“Let’s go, now.” Again he cut her off. He
withdrew his hand from her leg slowly, trailing each finger from
her aching flesh one at a time, leaving her breathless.

He left a folded bill on the table and pulled
her to her feet. “Can you walk?”

“Of course,” she said with confidence she
didn’t feel. In the time they’d been sitting, she’d forgotten how
to walk, how to talk, how to do anything other than exactly what he
told her to do. Her body rebelled with a dizzy rush and she
swayed.

He caught her around the waist and righted
her, tucking her against his side in a possessive embrace. “You’re
doing fine. But you’ll need to learn some discipline. I’m looking
forward to teaching you all you need to know.”

Club Dead’s grotto was no place for Erica.
Not in the state she was in at the moment, anyway. Max felt her
shaking as he walked her slowly through the narrow corridor that
led to the club’s infamous back room. If he could have left her out
front, he would have, but the way she smelled right now, no vamp in
the place would be able to resist her.

The act he’d put on for the benefit of Club
Dead’s staff and patrons had been a good one. From the delicious
scent of arousal on her skin, Max could tell it certainly worked on
Erica. That surprised him. At some point she’d transformed from a
frightened, naturally defiant ice princess, into the kind of
submissive feeder for which the average vampire would pay double
the going rate. The way she’d taken his instructions, and the way
she’d licked her lips when she watched the couples at the other
tables made him hungry and hard.

It wouldn’t be easy to shake it off and keep
his needs in check until he got her home--and left her there. He’d
not only need to feed tonight, he’d need to sate his sexual
desires, too. If he hadn’t been working, he’d have insisted they
forget the grotto and go back to his apartment. Max was fortunate
in that most of his neighbors thought he was human and it didn’t
matter to him if they saw him bring women home. They would assume
just what he wanted them too, that he was a bachelor with a lot of
dates. The fact that he rarely brought the same woman home twice,
was none of their concern.

As he guided Erica down the hallway and into
the grotto where a low, insistent beat and the sound of gurgling
fountains competed with moans and gasps of pleasure, he reviewed a
list of feeders he could call on to provide more than just a fix
for his hunger. He refused to acknowledge the fact that none of
them would satisfy him completely. He didn’t just want blood and
sex. He wanted Erica, and that was bad news.

“What are they--” He cut off her query by
squeezing her shoulder. When would she learn not to talk so
much?

“They’re all feeding. There are lots of ways
to feed. We’ll try them all, eventually.” The darker voice he
adopted in the clubs reminded him of the early days when he roamed
the streets of London doing as he pleased. Such a long time ago,
after he’d gotten over the shock of being turned. He didn’t miss
those times. The loneliness had nearly destroyed him.

Things were better here in the States where
vampire infrastructure had taken root so quickly over the last half
century. Of course, in Europe, his kind commanded more respect from
humans, but garnered more fear as well. There, he was still
considered a monster. Here, he was ... something else--a member of
a shadow society. A curiosity. Most people who knew vampires
existed preferred to pretend they didn’t. Whether that was better
or worse than being feared, he hadn’t decided.

The back room of Club Dead had been set up to
resemble a city park, with artificial trees and bushes, benches and
rocks, dimly lit lamp posts and bubbling fountains, some of which
oozed cool carbon dioxide mist across the floor. As they moved
through the setting, he gently turned Erica so that she could see
each scene as it took place.

He hoped she didn’t identify her sister in
one of the alcoves. If Elena Talbot was here, lying naked in the
arms of a vampire lover, Max wasn’t sure how he’d get her out
without getting both he and Erica ripped to shreds. They’d have to
stake out the door, no pun intended, and wait until Elena left.

Times like this, Max was grateful his heart
didn’t beat anymore. The adrenaline pumping through his system
would have choked him. As it was, he smelled the sharp scents of
excitement, fear and desire all around him, but most strongly from
Erica. It rolled off her in waves that teased his heightened senses
unmercifully. Why hadn’t he listened to his inner voice when it
shouted at him that this was a bad idea? Was it because he’d been
attracted to Erica immediately? Was it because he didn’t want to
send her back to her safe human world where she belonged if there
was the slightest chance he might entice her to spend some time in
his?

When she stopped mid-step he tensed. “What is
it?” he whispered next to her ear.

She didn’t respond. In the alcove before
them, a female vampire stood naked and chained to the faux
lamppost, her thin arms stretched high above her head. A human male
knelt at her feet working to fasten leather cuffs at her ankles.
She writhed under the ministrations of a second human male who
flogged her thighs with a leather strap.

Max tried to pull Erica along but she stood
frozen, her lips parted and her pulse racing.

When the vampiress noticed her audience she
bared her fangs and smiled. With a tilt of her head she extended an
invitation to join in.

Erica shuddered against Max, and he tightened
his grip on her waist. He shook his head slowly and showed his
fangs, which seemed to satisfy the female. She shrugged her
disappointment and turned her attention back to her own
pleasure.

Max and Erica moved on to the next alcove
where two male vampires fed from a human female. She lay
spread-eagled on a flat rock, her eyes wide and her mouth slack.
One vampire drank from her neck as he caressed her breasts through
the thin fabric of her silk blouse. The other drank from her inner
thigh, one hand hidden in the folds of her short, black skirt. The
woman moaned and bucked against his hand.

“Do you see Elena?” Max rasped as he pulled
Erica forward toward the exit. If he didn’t get her out of here
soon, they’d end up in one of the empty alcoves.

“No ...”

“Good. It’s time to go.”

* * * *

The cool night air shocked Erica’s senses
after the sultry heat of the club. She drew in a deep cleansing
breath and broke from Max’s grasp as the back door clicked shut
behind them.

She didn’t dare look at him right now. After
what she’d seen inside, and the way it made her feel, she couldn’t
face him just yet.

With her arms wrapped around her stomach, she
doubled over and stared at the pockmarked surface of the parking
lot between her feet. A few more breaths, and she’d regain control,
settle the raging river in her blood and start to feel like herself
again. She hoped.

“I told you.” His voice reached her from a
few feet away. When she peered up at him she saw only his back. A
fresh wave of shame washed over her when she realized he couldn’t
look at her either.

“I’ll be all right. Give me a minute.”

“It’s time I took you home.”

She shook her head. “It’s only 4:00 a.m. I
want to go to another club.”

“Sunrise is at 5:03 today. The bars are
closing now.”

She shook her head, hiding a faint smile as
she pulled her hair down from the tight band that held it off her
neck. “Of course you know exactly what time sunrise is.”

“Did you bring a car to After Dark?” he
asked, ignoring her comment. She wondered if it offended him to be
reminded of the limitations of his kind.