I’ll Be Slaying You

Chapter 8

Simon kicked open the main door at Night Watch. His arms curled tightly around Dee’s limp body and blood dripped on the floor around him.

Her blood and his.

He’d had to bite and claw his way through that gang of vampires. He’d taken as many of them down as he could, then he’d run like hell.

Staying and fighting hadn’t been an option. Not with Dee bleeding out all around him.

The shifter must have caught the blood in the air because Jude Donovan came charging down the long corridor, barreling past the guards who had their weapons up, but who stared with wide, shocked eyes at Dee’s prone body.

Donovan shoved one of the guards out of his way. “What the fuck—”

Simon’s hold tightened around Dee. She was so damn still.

Donovan’s hands reached for her. Simon clenched his jaw and let the tiger shifter take her away. No choice. The vamps would be coming for him. He had to leave her someplace safe.

It didn’t get much safer than a hunters’ den.

Her lashes cast dark shadows on her cheeks. Such pale cheeks.

“Pak!” Donovan bellowed.

One of the guards ran behind the shifter, grabbed a phone, and immediately called for an ambulance.

“Won’t do any good,” Simon said, voice grim. “Doctors can’t help her now.”

Donovan looked up, his teeth lengthening, his nostrils flaring. “What did you do?”

Ah, now there was the problem. He reached out and trailed his fingers down Dee’s cheeks. “Not a damn thing.” Her flesh was warm. No longer chilled as she’d been in that alley.

Life, not death.

Why was it so hard for people to understand?

Footsteps thudded down the hallway. More hunters, coming to the aid of their fallen friend.

His thumb brushed over her lips. Those soft lips were stained red with her blood.

Simon dropped his hand. “Tell Dee…tell her I didn’t do a damn thing.”

Pak rounded the corner. Maybe he’d heard the shifter’s bellow or maybe one of the guards had buzzed him. Pak staggered to a stop at the sight of a limp Dee in Donovan’s arms.

Don’t leave her. Stay. The command came from inside, from the soul he’d all but forgotten in the last few years.

Stay. A temptation that almost broke him. She’d wake up. Confused. Angry.

She’d need him. She’d need—

No. The vamps could track him. They couldn’t track her.

This time, it wouldn’t be about what he needed. Simon met Pak’s dark eyes. “You’ll know how to take care of her.”

Pak flinched as understanding hit. “No…Dee?”

His head inclined in the briefest of nods. Then, one last look. Couldn’t help it. He had to see her once more.

Dee.

Donovan had dropped to his knees and spread Dee out on the floor before him. His hands were at her chest, jerking open her shirt and pressing against the wound.

It wasn’t bleeding, not any longer.

Simon swallowed. The game hadn’t gone according to plan. Not at all.

Fuck.

“Good-bye, Dee.” Simon turned away and went back to the darkness.

The darkness always waited for him.

And now, for her.

Dee opened her eyes and sucked in a sharp, hard breath. A fierce pounding filled her ears. Hard, too loud. A dozen scents assaulted her nose. Perfume, too strong. Cigars. Mint. A wild, animal scent and—

Voices buzzed in her ears. Dozens of them. The buzzing grew, louder and louder, turning into a mad roar—

“Dee! Dammit, Dee, look at me!”

She blinked at the thundering voice and her gaze flew to meet Pak’s glittering stare. Pak? How had he found her? She’d been in that alley, bleeding all over the place—

Blood.

Simon.

Vampire.

“Easy, Dee.” Hands were on her shoulders. Holding her in place. Holding her down? She glanced to the right. Saw Jude, his face white, his jaw clenched. There was something in his eyes as he looked at her, something—

Pity?

“I-I-” She sounded like a freaking frog. A really loud frog. “I was…dying.” Her hand fumbled, reached for her chest.

Her shirt had been cut away and she touched skin. Smooth, unmarred flesh right over her heart.

No, no, that wasn’t possible.

“Breathe, hunter. You’ll still need to breathe,” Pak told her softly.

Well, of course she needed to breathe. Everyone did. She took another hard breath and swallowed and realized that she was thirsty.

Very, very thirsty.

Her teeth began to ache.

“Are you in control?” Pak asked.

Dee could only stare blankly at him. Why am I alive? Did the knife miss my heart? Maybe the wound hadn’t been as deep as she’d thought, but there had been so much blood.

Blood.

The drumming in her ears pounded faster, louder. Her hand rose higher, brushing over the edge of her bra, and her fingers circled her throat. So dry. It hurt to swallow.

“Drink this.” Pak shoved a black mug into her left hand.

Pak had never led her wrong. Dee lifted the mug, and the liquid, sweet and rich and oh, God, good, slid over her tongue and down her parched throat.

More.

Greedy, desperate, she drained the mug in three swallows. “More!” The taste lingered on her tongue. Pak had been holding out on her. He’d never given her anything like this before and—

“Maybe we should give her the whole bag.” Jude’s voice. Deep and booming, except maybe he’d been whispering.

Her gaze slanted to him, and she found him holding up one of those bags, kinda like the IV drips you’d see in a hospital, only—this one was filled with red fluid. No, with blood.

Give her the whole bag.

Dee licked her lips and the mug dropped from her hand, shattering onto the floor.

She vomited then because she knew what they’d just given her. What she’d eagerly taken.

“Fuck! Get towels in here!” Shouted to someone, somewhere, then, “Everything is okay, Dee.” Pak, still trying to be reassuring.

No, everything was not okay. Her head fell back even as her tongue skated over her teeth, caught the too-sharp edge of her canines—

No, Christ, no! “Pak?”

Jude moved toward her, holding that damn vampire takeout, and Dee shuddered. Her hands came up. Her short nails were turning into claws. “What did he do to me?”

Simon.

The vampire who’d held her in her last moments. The lover she’d stupidly trusted. “What did he do?” But she knew. Oh, dammit, she knew.

Jude lowered his hand. “He said he didn’t do anything.”

“Look at me!” She screamed as the voices droned in her head and the smells blasted her nose. “I’m not human anymore! That bastard changed me.” I’ve become what I hate most.

“Dee.” Pak, calm, trying to talk her down. No talking down from this.

The blood—so close. She wanted more.

No, no, she was going to be sick again—

Blood.

Her gaze rose to Jude’s throat. To the pulse that throbbed beneath the skin. Fresh blood would be better. So much better.

His brow furrowed. “Why you looking at me like I’m your meal, hunter? Stay in control, you got me? Stay in—”

She shoved her hand against her mouth. The hunger was so intense she nearly doubled over. A vampire. Just like those bastards who’d slaughtered her family. No. Never this. Never. “Stay away from me,” she growled, and didn’t look at him. Couldn’t, because he tempted her too much.

“You have to drink more,” Pak said, voice smooth as silk. Calm, steady Pak. Acting as if nothing were wrong. As if her world hadn’t just gone to hell thanks to a sexy, lying vampire who’d set her up from the beginning. “The first hunger can be too strong for some. I can’t allow you to attack anyone, Dee. You have to drink.”

She threw out her hand. Another mug was pushed against her fingers. She lifted the cup, guzzled the blood. Keep. It. Down.

I’m drinking blood. Nausea rolled inside her, the human remnants fighting what she’d become.

Empty. She pushed the mug back at Pak. It was refilled almost instantly.

She swallowed the dark liquid. Keep. It. Down.

Again.

Again.

Dee drank and closed her eyes. Her cheeks were wet, but she didn’t care. She’d never cried in front of the other hunters. Never cried, period. But this was different. This was hell.

Her teeth ached. Her stomach knotted. She still drank. Drank until the vicious need pounding through her body eased, until she could breathe without wanting to sink her teeth into Jude’s throat.

Until the monster inside had quieted.

“No more.” Pak took the cup from her. Dee swiped the back of her hand over her cheeks. Stupid tears—what good would crying do her? She glanced at her hands, frowning. Wait, was that blood? She’d cried tears of blood?

Dee’s chin came up. “Where’s Zane?” She wasn’t stupid. She hunted vampires for a living. She’d known that a day like this could come, probably would come, sooner or later. She’d hedged her bets to make sure that she wouldn’t turn into one of those killers who preyed on innocents. So many vampires just lost control and killed…killed.

Because the bloodlust could flare so strongly.

Zane was her safety net.

“He’s with the cleanup team on Bymore.”

She’d been on Bymore, right before the attack. “Ian?”

“Bastard’s dead, and so is some cop, a female who’d been working vice.”

The bitch who’d stabbed her. And she’d been one of Tony’s girls?

“The place is a fucking mess, blood everywhere, dead vamps torn apart—”

“What?” With the hunger slaked, she could think better. “Did Night Watch get there to—”

“Not our kills.” Pak crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. “We found the bodies like that and thought maybe you’d managed to take some of the bastards out.”

She shook her head. “No, no, the cop stabbed me. I was down for the count.” Should have been, anyway.

You won’t touch her. Dee could still hear the rage in Simon’s voice. “He brought me here?” Dumped her. He’d changed her, then dumped her.

She swallowed, aware that the knowledge hurt. The jerk still had the power to hurt her.

Dumped me like garbage. Why?

Because he knew she’d be coming after his ass.

“Chase wanted you taken care of. He knew you’d be safe here.”

But the hunters weren’t safe. She was too unstable. Too—

“You know the first forty-eight hours are the hardest.” Pak, still with those crossed-arms and quiet voice. “We’re going to have to keep you under lockdown until we can make sure you’re not—”

Insane. Driven crazy by bloodlust and power. A freaking killer who would slaughter everyone and everything in her path.

“I know you gave Zane kill orders,” Pak said and Jude sucked in a sharp breath.

“What the hell?” Jude’s claws sprang out.

“But you’re not dying yet,” Pak told her.

“I’m already dead!”

He jerked his head toward Jude. “Lock her up. And, do whatever you have to do, but keep that demon away from her.” A pause. “For now.”

Because if she went bad, if she couldn’t keep her control, Zane would come for her.

He’d given her his word, after all, and one thing about that demon, he always kept his word.

Unlike Simon…I’ll find you. Sooner or later, she’d find her lover and make him pay.

“You don’t smell like a vamp,” Jude said four nights later when he led her out the back door of Night Watch. His nostrils flared a bit and he leaned in close. “Damn, woman, you just smell, hell, like you.”

Dee glanced his way, then turned to stare at the long, dark street. Since the moment she’d awoken, Pak had kept her under close scrutiny. He’d watched her. Fed her. Helped her to focus the chaos in her mind that came from the enhanced senses and the fears.

Just like before, Pak had taught her.

Not how to hunt this time.

How to live as a vampire.

“Pak told me that a vamp’s scent changes,” Dee said, not sure she understood why she wasn’t reeking like a corpse. “Those bastards that hunt and rip apart humans, they stink of death and decay.”

“Because they have no soul left,” Pak’s soft voice, coming from behind them. Dee didn’t glance back. She’d known he was there. It was too easy to catch even his soft footfalls now.

“My grandfather once said that when the Taken lose their humanity, they become no more than the walking dead.”

His grandfather had been a Choctaw shaman, so Dee figured the guy had known a thing or two about the walking dead.

“You still have your soul, Dee. Your mortal life is gone, but you’re still the same inside.”

Yeah, right. She just had a few flashy additions on the outside. New teeth. New nails. New eyes.

Taken. Why had Simon changed her? “Why not just leave me to die?” she asked the night, her hands clenched into fists.

No answer. Dee hadn’t really expected one.

“You’ll hunt now.” Pak sounded certain.

She would, because there was still a job to do.

“For some reason, the Born Master left the city.”

A great stroke of luck for them. Because she sure hadn’t been up to hunting the last few days.

“We can’t risk him coming back,” Jude said, voice grim.

She uncurled her hands and glanced down at her new claws. “He won’t be back.”

“You can’t take him down alone!” Jude snapped. “You’ll—”

“Die?” She finished and gave him a tight smile. “Been there, done that.” Her eyes darted around the street. No sign of Zane. He hadn’t come to Night Watch, not once during her little “stay.” She would have known. Would have caught his scent just as she’d caught all the others.

But he’d come for her, sooner or later.

Just like Tony would be coming. Her time had expired for him, and the little matter of her being undead wasn’t going to stop him from taking her down.

She stepped into the night.

“Never the innocents, hunter. Remember that. Never them,” Pak ordered.

Dee gave a nod. The prey she’d be hunting first, well, he wasn’t innocent.

She doubted if he ever had been.

Sure, she’d track the Born Master. Find him, do her damned best to kill him. But first—

First, she had some personal payback coming.

Her nostrils widened as she scented the night. “Come out, come out, Simon Chase.” I’ll find you, wherever you are.

The hunt was on.

Following the scent of blood was ridiculously easy. Fighting the urge to let her fangs out, to take a bite, not so easy.

But the need for blood had been slaked under Pak’s watchful eye. Control, yeah, she had that now. He’d gotten her through that first mad rush of blood hunger. The rush that drove some vampires crazy and pushed others beyond that thin good/evil line.

She’d survived. She wouldn’t need to feed for weeks now, and when she did feed, the thirst wouldn’t be as overwhelming.

The first time—it was always a bitch in vampire land.

So she had her control. For what it was worth. Once she got her hands on her lying lover, Dee wasn’t real sure how long it would be before that old wall of control started to crack.

The first stop on her little hunt was his place. Not that she expected Simon to still be hanging around town. No, once he’d dumped her ass, he’d probably hit the road as fast as he could.

Why change me? Why? That question had haunted her every moment. Was this some kind of sick punishment? Another way of torturing her? Damn vampire. He’d probably thought turning her into what she hated most was hilarious.

His house stood at the end of the road, lined off by garish yellow police tape. She could see the color of the tape so clearly in the darkness. Could see everything so clearly. The bullet holes in the siding. The broken shards of glass. The front door that swayed drunkenly on its hinges.

Dee hunched down and slid under the police tape. No sign of any uniforms. No sign of anyone. Maybe she’d find something inside to lead her to the vampire bastard.

Getting inside was easy—the front door was pretty much gone. The TV lay smashed on the floor. Stuffing from the couch cushions covered the room.

And to think, she’d actually been happy here, for a brief, stupid moment of time, she’d been happy.

The floor creaked. A groan, more vibration than sound, and she caught the faintest hitch. Breathing. Coming from the bedroom.

Claws out, she sprang forward.

And slammed into her lover’s chest.

Dead lover’s chest.

Dee took him down, hard and fast. Simon’s head rapped against the hardwood. Her hips straddled him and she pinned his arms to the floor. Oh, yeah, vampire strength, baby. Payback was going to be hell.

“Dee.” Why was he saying her name like that? All husky and hungry. Like he hadn’t royally screwed her.

“Asshole.” Her fangs were growing, sharpening, and she wanted to sink them into his throat.

Bite.

The whisper she’d first heard here, with him. She should have known back then what was happening. Vampires were highly psychic. He’d been the one broadcasting that need, not her. Him.

“You should have let me die,” she growled and her fingers tightened around him.

His eyes flashed to black as fury hardened his face. Finally she was seeing the real man. Not the fake veneer. “I did.”

“What?”

He lunged up, breaking her hold and rolling them in a tumble of limbs. In the next second, Dee was on the floor, he had her caged, and his teeth glinted down at her. “Haven’t taken straight from a source yet, have you, babe? That was a mistake. You won’t be strong enough to—”

Dee tried to head-butt him, but Simon pulled back, shaking his head. “Still thinking like a human. You can’t do that, Dee.”

“I told you no!” She knew her fangs were out. Didn’t care. Her words were starting to lisp, just a bit. Still not used to those damn teeth. “I knew what you wanted, at the end.” That part was seared in her mind. “I told you no!”

The memory of his voice rumbled in her mind. “You won’t die. I won’t let you!” Then his bared fangs had come toward her throat. Must have been her imagination, or maybe just the insanity brought on by dying, but she’d sure thought the man sounded scared then. Afraid, for her.

His jaw clenched. “I didn’t—”

“You played me all along. Lied to me! Tricked me! You were the one who set all this shit up, weren’t you?” Her hands jerked against his, but, he was stronger and he wasn’t letting up.

“Thinking like a human,” he muttered again. “Dee, calm down.”

She was so sick of people telling her to calm down, relax, or go easy. She was a vampire for fuck’s sake! She didn’t have a cold or a broken hand—she was a vampire! Dee rammed her knee up and caught him right in the groin. His hold loosened, a moment was all she needed, and she hurled him back.

He flew five feet and thudded into the wall.

Sometimes thinking like a human wasn’t bad.

She bent low and jerked her stake from her ankle holster.

He bounded back to his feet and shook his head. “You didn’t come here to kill me.”

Straightening, she tested the weight of the stake. “I want to know where the Born Master is.” If she had to get physical with him to find out the location, so be it.

A rough laugh burst from his lips.

Her fingers tightened around the stake. “Don’t push me.” Her control had begun to waver the minute she’d seen him.

But the man stepped forward and a hard smile curled his lips. “I made you scream for me. I took you and you came and you screamed for me.”

She’d screamed his name. A growl built in her throat. “The Born Master.”

The smile wiped away. “I got you out of that alley. Those vampires wanted to rip you apart. I got you out. I kept you safe.”

She lunged at him and closed the distance instantly. She shoved the stake right above his heart, not breaking the skin, not yet. But it would be all too easy to go in for the kill. “You should have let me die.” And let me stay dead.

His hands came up, moving in a fast blur, not to push her away, but to wrap around her wrist, and to hold that stake close. “I did.”

He’d said the same thing before, but this time, a shiver worked over her. “Someone else made me?”

His hold didn’t waver. “Don’t get it, do you? I thought Pak would have told you before he sent you out to hunt.”

The stake pressed into his flesh. “Told me what?”

His gaze tracked over her face. “It’s you. You. You were Born in that alley. You died—” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Right in my arms, but then you came back.”

And Simon almost died then because the roaring in her ears blasted her mind apart and the stake was suddenly so light in her hands—

He shoved her back. She should have fallen to the floor. She barely stumbled. “That’s bullshit.”

“No, it’s the truth.” That black gaze bored into her. “In certain circles, the truth about you has been known for a long, long time.”

“Certain vampire circles?” Her stomach rolled.

A slow nod.

“You’re lying,” she spat the words. Had to be. There was no way she was Born.

“What do you hear?” he asked and he didn’t advance toward her. A rivulet of blood ran down his chest. The scent was so ripe and rich, better than the strawberries she’d always loved and Dee wanted to slither closer, to taste. “What do you hear?”

“Your heartbeat.” The myths were wrong. The hearts of vamps still beat. They still breathed. Still fucked. Still did everything that humans did. Because vampires only died for a moment of time, then they came back—they just came back different.

Wrong.

“What else?” he pressed.

“Cars.” Far away. Zooming on the road. “Insects.” Couldn’t focus on them or their buzz would drive her crazy. She’d learned that lesson in the first hour of her new life. Death. Whatever.

“And what do you feel?”

Hunger. Lust.

Looking at him, Dee knew she should hate him, but the need simmered below the surface. He’d lied to her, betrayed her, but the vamp inside looked out from her eyes and lusted.

Blood.

Sex.

Prey.

“You don’t feel the call, do you?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“You don’t feel the pressure.” He sounded certain. “You don’t hear it, right? The nagging voice in your head, telling you to come, to listen, to heed?”

No, there was nothing in her mind like that. Just the lust and the need.

And the strong urge to rip the guy apart.

“The Taken are linked to the Born, you know that.”

Vampire 101. Every hunter learned that lesson early.

“You don’t have a link. If you did,” his hand clenched, “you’d be about to go as fucking crazy as I am because the Born we’re after is calling his vamps to him, calling ’em in a frenzy because the bastard is scared as hell.”

The Born we’re after? She could see the tension in Simon’s body. The faint sweat on his brow. She’d thought that was fear, fear of her. “You’re telling me that you’re linked to the Born who was in Baton Rouge?”

The barest of nods.

Her breath exploded, and for a moment, she saw red. Literally saw him in a wall of blood. Betrayed. Dee attacked. Not with the stake this time, but with claws and teeth.

She slammed into him and they staggered to the floor. She wrenched his hands down and her mouth went for his throat.

Her fangs scraped across his flesh.

It took a moment for her to realize that he wasn’t fighting her. His body was held too still, taut, like a wire, and he was just…waiting.

“Do it,” a rasp and he bared his throat. “This is why I hunted you, why I fought for you.”

Nothing was making sense to her.

“I killed for you, and I would have died. Died.”

The blood flowed so close, right beneath her teeth. Her tongue slipped out, tasted that flesh.

Should have stayed with Pak longer. Not ready for this.

But she’d never be ready for this.

“Bite me.”

The bite gave a vampire power. Why would he want to be weak?

That blood…so close…. She shuddered against him, fighting the beast she’d never known until now.

“I wanted you from the moment I saw you. I want you now. I fought like hell burning for you, don’t you see that? Woman, don’t you—”

He jerked forward and her fangs pierced the skin. Accident! No, she hadn’t meant—

His blood slipped over her tongue. Warm and sweet.

A groan tore from his lips.

Her fangs sank deeper. The blood flowed faster. More, more. Her breasts pressed against his chest and she freed his hands, the better to drag her fingers through his hair and hold his head so she could take.

His hands curled around her hips and yanked her tight against him, the aroused length of his cock shoved between her legs. Thick, hard. She arched her hips, loving that pressure even as she drank from him.

Sex and blood.

“More, Dee, take more!”

Helpless, she did.

His fingers fumbled with the button of her jeans. He jerked the fly open, managed to push his fingers between them and shove down her jeans.

Heat pooled in her sex, and a hungry, vicious need ripped away her reason as she fed from him. Fed, for the first time on a living being.

Addiction.

Power.

Lust.

This was what Pak had warned her about. This was why she’d given Zane kill orders. Dee couldn’t pull back. She wanted her teeth in Simon’s throat and she wanted his cock driving into her.

What he’d done to her, who he was—didn’t matter. She needed, so badly.

Take.

More.

Mine.

Her body began to heat, from the inside out, and a rush of power and euphoria swept through her. She could have anything. Do anything. The world was hers. There was no stopping her. She could take and take and—

Her hands joined his and they jerked her jeans and panties down even as she kicked off her shoes. But Dee didn’t free his throat. No, there was no way she’d stop drinking that wonderfully sweet blood.

His zipper hissed down. Her legs widened. The touch of his bare cock had her jolting, but not stopping. No, not stopping.

She was undead. No protection required. No diseases. No pregnancies.

Just need.

The need that had her sex slick when she should have been horrified. The need that had her nipples tight and her back arching, the need that—

Simon thrust into her and she slammed her hips down on him at the same moment.

“Dee!”

Shouldn’t be doing this. Shouldn’t be. She didn’t trust him. Didn’t even like him.

But the vampire didn’t care.

Blood and sex. A vampire’s wet dream.

Their bodies strained together. His cock was long and thick and every frantic move of his hips had him sliding deeper inside. She was wet, more than ready, and he filled every inch of her core.

Her mouth tightened on him, fangs in deep.

He drove harder, shoving up with his hips, and Dee took every straining inch of his shaft and wanted more.

His fingers thrummed her clit.

Her knees tightened around him. She pushed down harder, wanting to take, take.

She exploded around him as her sex contracted on a wave of pure pleasure that had her trembling, quivering, coming with the best orgasm she’d—

Simon bucked beneath her and climaxed, jetting out the hot splash of his release deep inside of her.

This time, he was the one who screamed. No, more like a roar.

Her name.

Her mouth gentled on his neck. The driving rush of bloodlust began to ease and the haze of red cleared from her mind.

What have I done?

Oh, Christ, what had she just done? She hadn’t come to screw him. Not part of her plan. She’d come to find out what he knew about the Born and to make him pay for changing her.

Two bodies on the floor. Man. Woman. Older. Graying hair and sightless eyes. Blood around them, oozing from their torn necks.

Her hands clamped on Simon’s shoulders. Her claws dug deep.

Simon, running to them, falling to the floor, slipping in their blood.

Dee tried to lift her head. This was wrong. She shouldn’t be seeing—

“Told you there was no choice, Chase. You’re ours now.” A tall, pale vampire. Beautiful and perfect. Laughing as he stared at the dead bodies, blood dripping from his mouth.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Simon’s bellow of fury.

Simon.

His memories. His mind. His blood.

What was she doing?

Linking. The way of the vampire.

Dee jerked her mouth away from his throat. She scrambled away, shaking, the taste of him still in her mouth, on her tongue, and her sex quivering for more. Dee shoved back her hair and she stared at him.

What have I done?

No, no—what have I become?

Blood and sex.

More.

He smiled at her, a sad, painful sight, and said, “Welcome to my world.”