Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) (32 page)

I turned my back to the shower still holding the towel up.

“Either of you know what this means?”

Gregory answered me. “Those are symbols of the Morrigan. She is the Goddess with three aspects. Crone, warrior, and healthy young woman. Morrigan, Babd, and Macha. Goddess or goddesses of death and war, prophecies, and love in Celtic tradition. It seems she has chosen to mark you as her avatar.”

“Oh. Fuck.”

He scrubbed his hair. “Not a bad assessment, lass.”

“So what are they?”

“The sword is just that, a sword. If you believe the legends of the Tuatha De Danaan, the sword was one of their mystical objects of power. The crow represents the Goddess herself.”

“Awesome.”

Daniel obtained a bunch of ingredients out of the fridge and started sautéing vegetables in a frying pan for the promised sandwiches. Gregory and I sat at the table, me carefully not looking at anyone and keeping my thoughts to myself.

“Do either of you have something I can put that big ass knife in? Like a holster or whatever?”

“Why?” Daniel used a pair of tongs to poke sweet bell peppers and onions like they were trying to escape.

“The Goddess said I have to take it with me. And I can’t just carry it all the time, what if I need to tie my shoe or something? And since it’s huge, I can’t put it in my pocket…” I plopped my foot up onto the chair.

“I have something that should suffice.” Gregory left the table and came back a minute later with a belt that had a sheath hanging from it. He held it out to me, and I stood up to try it on.

“Did you have this on you when you got here?”

“Aye.” He passed it to me.

“Where was it hidden?” I looked him over and tried to figure out where it could have been. His clothing fit well. Not tight, but not baggy either.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I laughed at him.

The belt was way too big. Even trying to rest it on my hips it was a light tug away from falling off. Gregory threaded the belt tighter through the buckle, made note of where the prong needed to thread through, and removed it. He rooted in his pocket and took out a folding knife. Then he pushed the tip through the leather, wiggling it to make the hole larger.

“I don’t want you to ruin your belt.”

“It’s just a hole, lass. No big deal.” He finished his task and put the knife away. “Besides, now I have an excuse to buy another.”

“Have a little fetish for weapons, do we?”

“Among other things.” His eyes met mine briefly with a wicked glint, and I smiled. At least one of us wasn’t in free fall shock.

“There’s time for a quickie.”

“Oh my God. Just shut up already! Is that all you can think about?”
She was as bad as a fifteen-year-old boy.

“Well, it’s not exactly stimulating in here.”

“So go get some stimulation then. You want some excitement? Why don’t you see if you can find out anything useful about what’s going on over at the mansion since I’m supposed to go in there guns blazing and kill everyone.”

“But…I just got back,”
she pouted.

“I’ll let you back in. I promise. I don’t think I can keep you out at this point anyway.”

Several seconds ticked by. Daniel looked over at me from under his lashes before piling ingredients on bread and assembling sandwiches to go in the sandwich press. I smiled innocently and took the belt back from Gregory. It settled comfortably around my waist, riding the tops of my hips.

“OK. I’ll try. I don’t know how this will work. Don’t have sex without me.”

I rolled my eyes. A tugging started in my forehead that became pain. It stabbed into my eye sockets and the muscles at the back of my neck until I thought my head would explode.

“Let me out, dumbass!”

I groaned.
“What are you bitching about now? All I can feel is something driving a spike into my head.”

“You’re keeping me in. You have to let me go. Let go. I have no idea how you have managed to survive this long. You have the instincts of a diseased wildebeest.”

I closed my eyes and pictured her with her fabulous hair and perky, perfect boobs. An image swam into focus behind my eyelids. She tapped her foot, hands on her hips.

“What the fuck are you wearing?”

“What? This?”
She spun in place.

“Yes. That.”

“It’s pretty.”

“You look like a drag queen.”

“I like the feathers. Besides, it’s not like anyone can see me anyway.”

I thought about her getting out of my head for awhile, and a door appeared to her left. It was plain black wood with a dead bolt, chain, and knob lock. It swung open slowly, and she walked over.

“You’re going to let me back in right?”
The Hunger tugged at one of her opera length gloves.

“Yes. We went over this already, didn’t we?”

“Make sure you close it behind me. Otherwise something else may be able to get in.”

The Hunger squared her shoulders and stepped through. White light flared around her silhouette briefly, and then she was gone. The door swung shut silently, and the locks slid into place with a snick.

“What the hell was that?”

I looked up from tying leather strips into place around my thigh to hold the sheath down. Gregory was tense, his body thrumming with energy even though he was still seated at the table.

“What?” My hair fell into my face. A braid was probably in order. I didn’t have time to blow dry it.

“There was a concussion or something. A disturbance. As though a door opened and closed.”

“Miranda was sending her magic out on a little spy mission.” Daniel looked over from where he smashed a sandwich rather mercilessly.

“I thought you weren’t going to listen in to my thoughts.” My arms crossed over my chest. If I sounded like a petulant child, I figured I had a good excuse. “In fact, you’ve been doing that all morning.”

“You were practically shouting at each other. And since the ceremony you are harder to ignore.” He opened the lid of the press and checked the sandwich within.

“I don’t hear you any better.”

“But that was never one of your gifts to begin with.” The sandwich was deposited on the cutting board with a thump. Steam erupted from the slice he made through the middle. He held a plate out to me, which I snatched, and retreated to the table. The bread was grilled to perfection, and cheese oozed down the sides. Gregory reached for half, and I growled at him and smacked his hand.

“She was whining about being bored and thought I should jump you,” I inclined my head at Gregory, and he grinned with his fangs flashing, “so I gave her something else to do.”

The flavors that hit my tongue with the first bite were moan worthy. I was into the second half of my sandwich when I realized both men stared at me with looks of morbid fascination. Maybe they’d never seen a hungry woman eat before. I took the piece of sandwich to the fridge and found a jar of pickles. Then I really scored and took three beers from the door. Great Lakes Brewery Christmas Ale. The stuff neared legendary in Cleveland, only available at well, Christmastime, and Daniel had it in the fall. The man had connections. Daniel was proving to be pretty reliable in the food department. Even with his lack of microwaveables and Tostinos.

The men continued to regard me. “What?” The word was garbled around the mouthful of sandwich I chewed. Gregory took a plate from Daniel and managed to cram most of a half into his mouth with the first bite.

“Skinny chicks don’t tend to eat.”

“I’m not skinny.” I leaned over and indicated my thighs for emphasis.

Gregory snorted.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman like you,
cara
. You are a surprise at every turn.” Daniel gave me a kiss on the cheek as I passed him to go back to the table. I really wanted a pickle. He won a wink and a smile for being sweet.

The lid of the jar flew across the room when I tried to open it. Granted, I’d grabbed it hard, but I hadn’t expected it to go flying into the wall. Yeah, the strength thing might be problematic until I figured out how to control it. Couldn’t be ripping doorknobs off or trashing the frozen section at the grocery store.

“You are going to have to make some adjustments until you are used to the changes your body is undergoing.” Daniel sat down in the chair next to Gregory and spread a napkin on his lap. The man wore another pair of basketball shorts and no shirt, but he held the sandwich like we were at high tea with the Queen, a linen napkin in his lap and perfect posture. Gregory, on the other hand, had both elbows on the table and finished his sandwich in four or five bites. I pushed the pickle jar at him, and he helped himself to three of them.

My stomach rumbled, but I figured it would be rude to ask for another sandwich while Daniel had just sat down with his. I climbed up on the counter to get to the cabinets above the sink. I thought I smelled candy. I knew the M&M’s in the pantry were all gone, and I’d found his stash up there the first time I’d been in the kitchen. It had been a fishing expedition from the floor, and I hadn’t really been able to see what I rooted for. But I bet there might be other goodies up there.

“You could just ask for help you know,” Daniel called.

“You’re eating. I can get it myself. I know you’ve stashed something good up here.”

The smell of salt, grease, and chocolate hit my nose when the door swung open. From my knees I could see a bag of chips and a flat candy box along with a few cans of soda. Talk about hiding all the goodies in a no-no cabinet. My friend Anna did the same thing. Claimed it helped her refrain from all the bad stuff. Which just seemed stupid. With a candy habit as bad as mine, a bag of chips or a soda meant nothing.

I turned around, sat on the counter, and opened the chips happily. A plate was bumped into my arm, and I dumped about half the bag onto it for Gregory. He wandered back over to the table and plunked down beside Daniel.

“So, what do we do now?” I stuffed three chips into my mouth at once.

“Go to the mansion. Kill the leeches.” Gregory shrugged and popped a fistful of chips into his mouth.

“It would be prudent to have a plan before just busting in the front door.” Daniel wiped his fingers on the napkin and used a bottle opener to pop the top on his beer. “This is a large nest, and there are also the tunnels to consider.”

I licked salt off my fingers. “Well, we know that the one is locked down at least. How many others can there be?”

“One for certain. Possibly more.” Daniel took another bite of his sandwich.

Gregory swigged his beer and gestured with the bottle. “So we close them off from the outside and root the fuckers in the early afternoon. Shouldn’t be too hard. A bit of training, really. You’re getting rusty as it is, old man.”

“Gregory, you seem to be forgetting that we’re seriously outnumbered and I am not a fighter. What am I supposed to do? Fuck them all to death and then hack their heads off with that knife? Stick it in their back when they’re on top of me? Don’t even take into account that there are other Incubi vamps in there that might be able to highjack my power and screw with all of us.” I jumped to the floor, took my beer from the table, and swallowed a healthy gulp. As I wandered back over to the counter I took another pull. My speech had nothing to do with being scared to death. It really didn’t.

“A goddess has given you a quest. Ignore it, and she’ll hand you your ass. I say we go in and just start takin’ heads. The Incubi tend to fuck their way out of problems. Easy pickins. They’ll be weak anyway from feeding the leeches. The leeches will be a bit of a problem, but nothing we can’t handle.” Gregory stood up. “I have to get some things from the room I rented when I came into town. Daniel do you want Whisper?”

“No, I have all I need here. Thank you, my friend.” He stood, and they clasped arms again.

Gregory came over to me and planted a smacker of a kiss on my cheek. “Don’t look at me so, girlie. I’ve been a warrior for centuries. When the gods set you a task, you do it. Or you die.”

“How can you be so blasé about it? Why kill them all? The Incubi have done nothing wrong.”

“They are weak. The weak die, the strong survive. It is the way of things.” Gregory wandered out of the room, and I rushed around the corner. I wanted to see how he left without making any noise. He was already gone, and there was no indication of him leaving.

I stomped my foot. “How does he do that?”

“It is one of his gifts. I don’t know exactly how it works.”

“I thought warriors were supposed to protect the weak.”

“Once upon a time,
cara
. Once upon a time.” Daniel leveled his gaze at me. “Gregory gave you a great honor by volunteering to help with your Blooding. I have never known of him to do it for another. Do not direct your anger at the injustice of this situation at him.”

“We’re all joined now, aren’t we? Through the blood and power we shared.”

“Yes. But I cannot say yet what it will mean.”

The desire for another sandwich flew out the window while I tried to control my gag reflex. I was scared and sickened, alternating between wishing I’d never seen a certain tall, tanned, and blond vampire on the street and being overwhelmingly happy and grateful for it. How messed up were their lives going to be since they’d joined themselves to me?

I thought about calling Anna about it.

Um, hi, Anna, what’s up? Oh, yeah I’m fine other than I have to go kill a bunch of half dead innocents because some goddess has decided to make me her avatar. And I had a threesome with a guy that I barely know and oh! yeah, I’m married, vampire style. Yep, really. I’ve known him less than a week, but I’m crazy in love with him.

If I lived through the next few days, I’d be able to write my own dummies guide to surviving the world of vampires.

Chapter Nineteen

I walked into the living room sickened by everything and figuring that doing something, anything, was better than moping and stewing. I didn’t want to kill anyone. It wasn’t exactly the best defense in the world to say that the first was an accident because I was an out of control teenager. My options for rationalizing going in to kill the Empaths didn’t look much better. “A goddess made me do it” didn’t seem like a reason anyone would buy. I crunched through the mess of herbs and salt leftover from the ritual with Daniel trailing me.