Night Hungers (8 page)

“Zane, love, let me taste you. Let me sip from your vein and taste you. And when I do, I want you to come. I want the spicy taste of your climax in my mouth as it heats your blood.”

Aiden buried his face in her shoulder. Licking the pounding pulse he waited for her to let him drink from her. When she cocked her head away from him, giving him her throat, he didn’t wait to see if she changed her mind, but licked the spot again and sank his fangs deep inside of her.

~~~

The world splintered when he bit her. Colors swirled around her closed eyes and a roaring echoed through her head. Zane wrapped her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer. She needed him anchored to her tight as he fed from her. It wasn’t enough to have him drinking, she needed him. Needed him deep, deep within her. Not knowing how to tell him what she wanted, what she needed, Zane sent him her need.

Suddenly, she was on her back. Aiden looked down at her and it was all she could do not to drag him down on top of her again. She knew that he was as naked as her, the hair on his legs rubbing erotic dances on her thighs. He seemed to be waiting, waiting for her to say what she wanted, what she needed.

“Tell me, Zane. Tell me what you want from me. I want no misunderstanding between us, not now, not ever. If I take you, I take all of you. You’ll be bound to me for all eternity. Is that what you want? Tell me now.”

Is it what she wanted? She wasn’t sure all of the sudden. She hadn’t needed people, not in all her life. She was a loner and she knew that living with him, she’d never have any time of her own again.

“Can’t we just have sex? Why does it have to be all or nothing? What if I don’t like you? What if I can’t...I’m not a nice person. I’ve done things, lots of things that I can’t...I want you, but not like that, not forever. I can’t do forever.”

Aiden rolled off her so quickly that she cried out in alarm. When she looked to where he was standing she noticed he was dressed completely, head to toe. When he pulled his hair back, she watched as he took several deep breaths before he turned to face her.

“I have to leave. I don’t... I will be able to find you if you need me, but I can’t be near you. Not if this is all you want. I want you as my mate, not as my sometime lover.

Call out to me if you change your mind. Good night, Zane.”

When the door closed quietly behind him she sat there for several minutes not thinking about a thing. Nothing, not a thought, nothing entered her mind. When she heard someone stirring in the hall beyond her she closed her eyes and took herself to her own lair. Moving to the sublevels of the house she’d bought and converted, she moved as though she was on automatic pilot. It wasn’t until she was settled into her own dark corner that she thought about Aiden and what she had done to him. His rejection and his hurt with her were like her own. She could feel it run through her heart and head.

When her pager went off, she nearly didn’t get up to answer it. Finally moving to the phone, the only one in the house, she dialed the number. The voice at the other end was female and she knew it as well as the male who normally called to give her the assignments.

“My lady. How may I be of service this evening?” She hated this woman, the Queen of Magic. Zane wanted to hang up, to scream at her, to tell her that it was unfair, but she did nothing but wait.

“You can cut the subservient act, Zane. We both know you have no respect for me. I have an assignment, but first I’d like to know if your wound is healed from today. I was told you were shot.”

Thrown slightly off her guard Zane didn’t at first answer. She wondered for all of two seconds how she had found out, but wondered why she even cared. Zane had been hurt before and had not been asked if she was healed.

“The assignment, if you please. Unless it’s part of my sentence too, to make sure that you are informed of my wellbeing. Is it, my lady?” There was no mistaking the snarl this time and Zane hoped that the queen would get the message.

“It’s always my duty to make sure that my subjects are in goo—”

“Make no mistake, Queen, I’m no subject of yours. I am your slave only. And I will remain so until such a time that I’ve served my sentence or I’m dead. Now, if you would be so kind as to tell me what mess you’d like for me to mop up for you I can get started.”

There was silence at the other end. Zane could feel the tears on her cheeks and refused to wipe them away. She’d thought that she’d cried them all out, but apparently not. Looking at the wall across from her she could see the two dates. The date her sentence began and when it would be at an end. Just two thousand nine hundred and forty-six more years to go of her three thousand year life sentence, a piece of cake.

“Zane, it doesn’t have to be this way. I swear to you if you would just tell me what happened I can—”

“The assignment or I hang up and you can have your other flunky call me. In fact, I would prefer if he did from now on. I believe you calling me would be considered cruel and unusually punishment—even for me.”

The line went dead. Zane laid the phone in the cradle and stood waiting. She knew that it would ring again soon. The man, whoever he was, would call her with a location and she would go. She had no choice. This is why she could never mate. This is why she would never be with anyone for more time than it took for them to find out what she’d done. When the phone rang it was the man again. He sounded...well, amused came to mind and Zane wondered about it. Before she could inquire about it he gave her the next assignment.

“I have a vampire that needs to be taken down. He has killed a number of humans and the Council wants him destroyed tonight. How quickly can you get to D.C.?”

~CHAPTER 9~

Zane had been just seventeen when her world had turned upside down. She’d never been outside the lab, not that she’d know what to do when she got there. Zane had been looking into the minds of the lab assistants for years trying to discover where they went, what they did. None of it seemed all that great. Not that in her cell was any different, but it was all she’d ever known.

The man in charge, Timothy Daniels, was coming down the hall again and he wasn’t alone. He had his usual protégé of four—Scott, Homer, John, and Phillip. She hated him, Timmy, and what he did to them. She thought that he enjoyed the torture much more than anyone did and they all got some rush out of besting them. Zane heard them call the person next to her to the back of his cell and wait.

“When I open this door you’ll do as you’re told or I will make you suffer. You know how much I hate to do this to you. Are you going to cooperate, Zulu Alpha Eight?”

None of the occupants had names. They all went by the numbers just above their doors. Zane had gotten her name from them, Zulu Alpha Nine—Zane. But the humans kept mispronouncing it and had said Zander, so she left it at that.

“Please, I’m injured. I want to just rest for another day. I haven’t been fed today or yesterday. Just one more day.”

Zane had gone to the wall that connected to Eight and pressed against it. She fed him through the connection they all had that they didn’t think the lab boys knew about. She could feel him gaining from it and when she’d given him enough she stepped back and huddled into the corner on the opposite wall. Just as she sat down and drew the shadows around herself someone banged on her door.

“Zulu Alpha Nine, you come out where I can see you now. Don’t make me have to come in there and get you again. I won’t be as easy this time.” She knew that voice.

Scott.

“Come in and try. I’m not bleeding this time and I’ll feed on your hot blood. I could always use a nice snack before I kill you.”

Energy poured into her. Every inmate in the place hated what they were and wanted out. Zane knew that if Scott came in he’d be armed. Well, so was she. She’d found the magic book and had hidden it in her room several weeks ago. She was ready for him and all the others. The tattoos were done and she had enhanced them with the help of the witch across the hall. Now all she had to do was wait.

Zane heard the keys in the lock and smiled. Not a good smile that reached her eyes, but one of anticipation, one of hunger. When Scott stepped into the room with his weapon drawn Zane didn’t move. She’d wait for him to come closer. As he swept the room with his flashlight she shifted. Moving behind him she shifted into herself again and pulled the blade out from behind her.

Just before she touched him she leaned in and whispered in his ear. “You should have stayed outside, Scott. I told you what I’d do.”

Snapping his head back, she sank her teeth deep into his jugular as he started to scream. His blood, tainted with coke and other drugs, hit her system hard. None of it would hurt her or affect her, but it did leave a bitter taste in her mouth.

Zane couldn’t drain him. It was a myth that a vampire could drain a human. There was simply too much blood in a body and it would take a very long time to do it, even with several people. But she could kill him. Pulling away and not sealing the deep, jagged wound, she dropped him to the floor when she’d had her fill, not caring that he was bleeding to death.

Picking up his Taser and his gun, Zane put them next to her body and shifted again.

This time into her panther, and since she had fed well, she was as powerful as she could ever be. As she slid into the hall Zane moved up behind the man closest to her. His scent marked him as prey; fear and terror were sharp around him. As she leapt to John, one of the many lab idiots, he pulled Eight in front of him and Zane couldn’t stop her forward movement, but she could sheath her claws. As soon as both men were down, Zane raked her paw at Eight and pushed him away from her. When she could reach the neck of John, she bit down hard on his throat and tore it away.

With blood still dripping from her muzzle, she started to track the other two with James. Homer, the youngest of them, had wet himself. The odor burned her nose and made her sneeze. Circling around to the right, Zane growled low and deep in her throat.

She was trying to get Homer to run. One less to help them the better, not that she thought he’d be much help.

“You’ll back off, Nine, I’ll kill you if you don’t. I thought we were getting along so well for the past two weeks. Now, be a good girl and go into your cell and we’ll forget this ever happened.” Phillip was trying to herd her and she lunged at him twice before he moved back with the others.

“Just fucking kill her. That’s what you’re supposed to do when they go bad. Kill her and get this over with.”

Timmy could be very brave when he had the other two shielding him, she thought.

When Phillip drew his gun, Zane leapt through the air at him. Her jaws clamped around his wrist and with a hard bite, she took his hand off with the gun still in his fingers. Blood spurted everywhere as she spit the appendage and gun out of her mouth.

Pain hit her hard in the hip. Then again in the ribs. Tim had pulled his gun out and had fired at her.

The scent of blood was causing a frenzy with the others on her floor. The noise was loud and she wanted to scream at them to shut up. But she needed to stay a cat or he’d likely kill her human form. Crouching lower to the floor, she snarled at them. Tim grabbed Homer around the throat and pulled him in front of him as a cover. Out of the corner of her eye Zane could see Six reaching out from his small slot, his hand signing to her to force them his way. Sliding her body along the floor, keeping a close eye on the gun, Zane circled them around toward Six.

Six couldn’t do much but to grab his leg, but it was enough to distract him. When he squealed and turned to see what had touched him Zane jumped. The bullet entered her chest just as she connected with the two men. Pain ricocheted though her, but she didn’t have time to deal with it so she pushed it back. Swiping her sharp claw at Homer she removed his head from his body. Now all that was left to deal with before they could escape was Tim.

Blood poured from her wounds and she could feel herself getting weaker by the second. But if she gave up now all of them would die. Zane shifted and stood before her tormentor.

“You aren’t going to get away with murdering these men, Nine. I’m going to make sure they know that you had to be put down because you killed all of them and all of the occupants of this floor. You aren’t fit to live.”

Zane simply moved to her right and watched as he moved with her. “I’m not going to let you go to tell anyone what happened here today. You are going to be just as dead as them.” She waved a dispassionate hand toward the three dead men in the hall with them.

Tim glanced at the man closest to him and shuddered. Blood poured from his neck and the puddle beneath him was growing. The putrid smell of shit permeated the air around him.

“Maybe we could work out a deal. I have lots of money. When you leave here you’ll need some. I’ll give you plenty. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Lots of money to buy pretty things with?”

“No. I want you dead. That will be pretty enough for me.” Reaching behind her she pulled out the sword and watched as Tim’s eyes widened. “I learned the art of Living Art.

It was easy enough with the book you stole. I have enjoyed reading it and learning it.”

Tim paled as she walked toward him. She didn’t have any compulsion about killing him. She was just sorry it had to be quick. As it was now she could hear the elevators coming down. Soon there would be too many for her to handle alone. She needed to get the other cells open now.

When Tim pointed the gun at her again she watched him. Moving through his mind, she seized it tight. As the gun turned to his own head with a trembling hand he began to sob and beg her. Even as the gun rested at his temple he continued to tell her what he would give her if she would let him live. When his brain exploded on the opposite wall Zane reached into his pocket and retrieved the key card. Taking the smaller blade from her ankle, it peeling away from her skin in seconds, Zane removed his right hand.

Walking to each of the cell doors she swiped his card across the key reader, keyed in his code, and put his severed hand over the reader. Soon everyone was free.