Sweet Last Drop. Melody Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ my nod but eyed me carefully as I walked away. I could feel the heat of his gaze as I walked toward Walker’s truck. Had he been Greta or Officer Harroway or nearly any city cop, I would have cajoled my way into squeezing more information about the case, but I didn’t have the clout or notoriety here that I had in the city. In fact, if Officer Montgomery’s treatment was any indication, I was starting from the very bottom of the totem pole, lower even than when I’d started in the city simply because I was from the city. But if I could write a book about anything, I could fill page after page about how to claw my way back from the bottom.

      Walker had rejoined his conversation with Sheriff Pitston and Berry. I waited until Officer Montgomery turned back to Alba. He knelt in front of her, giving her his undivided sympathy and affection. While everyone else was distracted by other conversations, I ducked behind Walker’s truck and into the shadowed overpass toward the police tape. I squinted into the darkness beyond the police parameter, scanned the surrounding trees, and waited.

      After a minute, my gaze caught the glint again. My eyes were drawn to it, and I could feel the deep, wrenching pull of its mind connecting with mine. Its strength couldn’t compete with anything I’d experienced with Jillian or Dominic, but nevertheless, it rooted deep inside me, shaping my will. It wanted me to step toward it. I could feel the force of its desire stimulating the synapses in my brain to move my legs, one foot in front of the other, to walk toward it.

      The force of its command was light and coaxing. I could resist if I wanted, but if I resisted now, I wouldn’t have the advantage of surprising it with the depth of my own strength. From experience, that slight advantage could make the difference between bleeding and surviving.

      Vampires were willing to sacrifice anything, even their own anonymity, to get what they wanted, and at the moment, with dozens of police officers and emergency personnel to choose from, this vampire wanted me. As prejudiced as Officer Montgomery and the rest of Sheriff Pitston’s team might be, they didn’t know the dark like I did. I could talk a good talk to Walker about being here to report the facts, not to save lives, but when faced with the reflective double glint of a vampire’s eyes staring at me, staring into me, I was glad that mine was the life on the line. I didn’t want anyone else getting caught in the kill zone between me and the vampires.

      I took one halting step and then another into the woods, away from the illusion of protection that the police provided, and toward the vampire.

      * * * *

      A heavier, denser darkness lived in the woods compared to the train overpass. Its thickness was like trying to see underwater; just when I thought I’d approached what looked like a boulder or tree branch, I’d reach out to catch my bearings and touch nothing but shadows. The reflective glint was only a dozen yards away now. I stumbled uncertainly, and my heart leapt to pound on my eardrums.

      The musk of damp dirt, leaves, and pine thickened the air, and for a moment, I inevitably thought of Dominic. As frightened as I was of his power, influence, strength, and intentions, I realized that his presence in the city had also given me a measure of security. Not one vampire had attacked me in three weeks, and I knew it wasn’t because of my own muscle. Dominic’s loyal protection—albeit motivated by his own selfish desires to control me—ensured that I survived the night. Now that I was facing the creatures that bump in the night alone, I appreciated his ability to bump back. I could feel the void of his protection like a tightrope walker performing without her net.

      The glint, which had flashed a few yards to my left, streaked mere feet in front of my face. I stumbled, but before I could fall, my back bumped flush against something tall and bone cold. Arms wrapped around my body, but they were distinctly not human. Its knobby joints protruded under its rough, gray skin, like bat claws. One hand bound around my waist, clamping my back to its front. The other gripped my neck, tipping my head sideways with the unbelievable strength in its fingers. I could feel the cutting pressure of its talons rake against my stomach as it held me, but unfathomably, I also felt its reserve. The talons didn’t slice my skin. Its grip hadn’t torn my muscles or broken my ribs. I was still unharmed and whole.

      I was playing the human, a performance that had saved me on previous occasions. I knew I needed to act unaware of anything but the smooth, calming limbo the creature was trying to flood through my mind, but I couldn’t help the deep tremble that shook my chest and vibrated through my body like a swift, deadly undertow.

      Lips—if you could call the thin skin stretched over its massive fangs lips—kissed the skin beneath my ear. “Be calm, little one.” He spoke and the growling timbre of his voice belied the meaning behind his words.

      The swift boil of my anger at being called “little one” helped douse some of my trembling. I deliberately slowed my breathing, so he would think I was under his influence.

      He rubbed his cheek against my cheek. “Hmm,” he murmured on an inhale. I felt a tremble course through his body. His talons tightened just short of breaking the skin as he composed himself. “Lovely.”

      The slick slide of his tongue flicked out in a hot swipe over my neck. I almost lost my nerve. I clenched my teeth to stop myself from jerking away when his mouth clamped over my carotid in a punishing, penetrating lock. Fangs pierced through my skin, and my knees gave out as he sucked a long, fiery gulp of blood.

      Pleasant, soothing pleasure kneaded my body in pulses. Unlike Dominic’s bite, which could blow my mind in orgasm, and Kaden’s bite, which tore through flesh like a rabid dog gnawing its bone, this bite massaged around my body like a cloud. It wasn’t overwhelming or violent, like the other bites I’d experienced. It soothed my aches and worries. I floated in oblivious bliss, and perhaps this bite was more dangerous for its gentility because despite having kept my will, I didn’t want to pull away.

      The vampire released the pressure on my neck, healed the wound with a quick, efficient lick, and stepped back from me after only one swallow. I slumped to the ground. From my prone position, I could finally see the vampire behind me. He hadn’t fed yet besides the one swallow of my own blood, but that one swallow hadn’t been enough to transform him back from his gargoyle-like form. His ears stood at attention. His nose was flat and flared, and although his canine teeth were fanged, every tooth in his mouth came to a sharpened point.

      Like all the other vampires I’d seen in this form, his body was slim, nearly skeletal, and his legs, which I had to focus on not seeing, were jointed backwards. Vampires were difficult to differentiate in this form, but I noticed a slight difference in his. This vampire, unlike Dominic and any other vampire I’d known, had webbed fingers.

      The vampire stared down at me, incredulous.

      “You’re a night blood.”

      I blew out a long breath. “What gave me away?” I asked sardonically. The jig was up the moment he’d tasted my blood.

      He cocked his head, and after a suspended moment, he shot me a smile. The smile would have been reassuring if not for the rows of needle-sharp teeth.

      “Humor,” he said. “It’s been a while.”

      I tensed to move from my prone position. The vampire disappeared and was suddenly beside me, scooping me from the ground and carrying me in his arms deeper into the woods. He dodged between trees and flashed over logs and catapulted over what looked like a small river dividing the forest, moving at that nearly invisible speed that they could all move. The few times Dominic had carried me as he moved at that speed, I tried to focus on something central, like the freckle above his collarbone, to keep my bearings, but focusing on this vampire was more sickening than the world warping in a dizzying blur around us. Focusing on him meant staring at the rough grayness of his chest, the five-inch talons curved under СКАЧАТЬ