Lord of the Night Page 18

  He undid the lock, his thoughts straying to that moment an hour ago when he woke up and realized he was resting against Kacie’s nude body. She fit against him like they were made for each other. He imagined he could still feel her full breasts pressed against his back.

  Pulling open the door, he wondered what might have happened if he hadn’t left the room.

  “Erik!”

  Kacie’s scream broke his reverie as daylight blinded him.

  He slammed the door shut just as Kacie rushed up to him. Still unable to see, he felt her hands running over his face, his body.

  “Oh my God, Erik. Are you hurt?” There was an urgent tone in her voice. “Did the sun touch you anywhere?”

  He took a moment to brace himself. How could the sun not have touched him? There was a pain in his hand and he held it out to her. “My hand, I think,” he rasped, blinking rapidly, willing his vision to adjust to the dark so he could see again.

  He felt her cool clasp as she held first one hand and then the other, turning them over several times.

  “Which one?”

  The damage should have been obvious. “The right.”

  “No, no,” she said, relief in her voice. “It’s fine. They’re both fine.” Her hands returned to his cheeks and she stroked them. “I think you got out of the way in time.”

  Slowly, his vision returned and he studied his hands for himself. He did a quick inward check and decided she was right—he was untouched, but confused. In four hundred years, he’d never made a mistake like that.

  “Erik?”

  He saw the worry in her face and offered her a weak smile. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  She hit him in the chest then, hard enough to knock him back a step. “What the hell were you thinking? You almost got yourself fried.”

  He stared at her in surprise and then smiled.

  “Why are you smiling, you fang-toothed moron?”

  He pulled her to him. “Why, Kacie. I believe you actually care.”

  “Of course I do,” she said softly, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

  He stared at her mouth, feeling its invitation. “Are you hungry?”

  Her eyes widened and he heard her breath catch. “Yes,” she breathed.

  He smiled again and let her go, needing to put some distance between them before he did something she would regret. “Then if you’d go to the door and see if the butcher left my order by the door, I can make you something to eat. What do you feel like? Toast? Eggs and bacon? Steak tartare?”

  Feeling a little off kilter at Erik’s sudden change in mood—after nearly getting himself killed—it took her a second to process his words. When she did, she frowned, wondering if she’d heard him correctly.

  “Raw steak?” The thought should have been disgusting, but wasn’t, which bothered her.

  “Not yet?” he said with a smile. “Oh well, it’ll come.” He looked at the face she made and smiled. “Don’t worry, it won’t last. Just a short spell where your diet changes and your fangs come in. After that, it’s back to a relatively normal life—for a changeling.”

  “If you say so,” she muttered.

  “I do. Now get the food,” he gestured to the door. “I’ve had about all the sunshine I care to have, thanks.”

  She made sure Erik had stepped well away from the door before she opened it. There, sitting just outside, was a Styrofoam cooler. She opened the lid and saw that it was filled with containers of blood, eggs, and bacon. She carried it inside to Erik and set it on the kitchen counter. He immediately set to work cooking her breakfast.

  She stood and watched him, gradually becoming aware of a loud scratching noise. “What’s that sound?”

  “Mouse,” he said without turning around.

  “What? You have mice?” She looked around. “Where?”

  “First, all old homes—especially castles—have mice, or rats. And second, nowhere close. They’re in the walls probably up on the next floor.”

  “The next floor. No way, Erik. It’s so loud. I think it must be coming from your cabinets.” She cautiously opened the pantry door closest to her, expecting a rodent to jump out at her.

  “You’ve got hypersensitive hearing now, Kacie. You’re going to start hearing all sorts of noises.”

  She found the thought intriguing. “Really? Like what?”

  He was at the stove and turned to glance at her over his shoulder. “I don’t know. The smallest breeze. Hummingbird wings from across the yard. On a clear night, the dogs from town.”

  “No kidding. What else?”

  “I don’t know. All sorts of things.”

  She turned around and whispered, “What about you? Can you hear me?” She looked back and saw him giving her a tolerant look over his shoulder.

  “Yes. I can hear you.”

  She smiled and walked into the living room, once again turning her back. “Can you hear me now?” She said in a softer whisper.

  This time, he didn’t turn around and she thought he might not have heard her, then she heard a faint “yes,” as if it floated to her on the wind.

  “How about now?” she said even more softly.

  “Yes.” It was almost so soft she wasn’t sure she’d heard it.

  She moved to the farthest corner of the room. “How about—”

  Before she could finish, the phone rang. She glanced around the room and saw the phone on the counter. She and Erik exchanged worried looks right before he answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Erik?” Kacie heard Gerard’s voice coming through. “I’m in Newcastle. How’s Kacie?”

  Erik looked at Kacie and then held out the phone. She went to it hesitantly. The last time she’d talked to Gerard, they’d exchanged hard words. Now, after everything that had happened, none of those things seemed to matter. “Hello?”

  “Kacie.” Gerard said her name like he was heaving a sigh of relief. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Um . . . about last time—?”

  “Plenty of time to talk when I get home,” Gerard cut her off. “I’ll get a car and be home in a couple of hours.”

  About to agree, Kacie saw Erik shaking his head. When he held out his hand, she gave him the phone.

  “Don’t drive out here. We’ll come pick you up. There will be safety in numbers, I think. As soon as it’s dark, we’ll set out. Keep your cell phone on. We’ll call you when we reach town.”

  They said good-bye and hung up.

  An hour later, Kacie and Erik were in his BMW heading to Newcastle. They’d just left Hocksley and were driving along the short stretch of road south of town. The edge of the cliff was off to their left while the forest extended to their right. So far, there’d been no sign of Michael, Carrington, or any other vampire.

  The atmosphere inside the car was tense. Kacie wished she could relax, but there were too many things weighing on her mind. Her body was changing—she was becoming half-vampire and half-human—and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She’d wanted to inject herself with the venom to get some of the changeling abilities, but had never intended to turn herself into a half-vampire. Moot point now.

  Suddenly the full magnitude of her actions hit her. Before she’d gone into the cave, she’d had a choice of whether she wanted to continue life as a vampire hunter or go to the States in pursuit of a normal life. There was no choice now.

  She definitely couldn’t go to the States with Ben. He would be disappointed because they’d already made so many plans. Worse still, she wondered if the two of them could even remain friends. Hi, Ben. Don’t freak out, but I’m half-vampire. Yeah, that would go over well.

  And then there was the small matter of finding employment. There weren’t that many night-shift accounting positions to be found. If she couldn’t find a job, she wouldn’t be able to pay her bills. She could lose her apartment and worse, not have enough money for food.

  She rubbed her temp
les as her head started to hurt and cast a furtive glance at Erik. His attention was focused on the road ahead of them, giving her a chance to study his profile. His face was so familiar to her and yet she never tired of looking at it. He was strength and nobility. She had no trouble envisioning him as a knight in armor. Had she really once thought of him as being evil simply because he was a vampire? He was a good man who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time, turned into a vampire against his will. And when that fate had befallen him, what had he done about it? Preyed on humans because it was the only way he knew to survive? No. He’d learned how to survive without feeding off humans, and in fact had spent his long, lonely nights protecting humans from those of his own kind.

  She’d been so wrong about him. Gritting her teeth against her emotions, she noticed how her two upper canines were loose. It meant her fangs would be coming in soon. She was more like Erik now than ever before.

  “You okay?” He asked, hearing her sigh.

  “Yes.”

  “Worried about seeing Gerard again?”

  “No. I was thinking about you.”

  That earned her a startled glance. “Anything you want to share?”

  “I want to thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For everything you’ve done—for me, for my family.” She gestured out the window. “The residents. I don’t think any of us can ever repay you for all the ways you’ve protected us over the years.”

  “Here now, what’s brought all this on?”

  She smiled. “Guess more than just my body has changed as a result of everything that’s happened.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “Really? Then maybe—”

  A loud popping noise sounded and the car jerked to one side, throwing Kacie off balance. She threw her hands out to steady herself as Erik wrestled with the wheel to bring the car back on the road.

  “Did we get a flat?” She asked.

  There was another popping noise and a hole appeared in the front windshield.

  “Erik, look out!” Kacie shouted and the car swerved dangerously close to the cliff side of the road.

  “Get down,” Erik ordered. “Someone’s shooting at us.”

  “You’re kidding!” Kacie ducked her head down below the dash. “Michael?”

  “Or one of his vampires. There’s no telling how long they’ve been waiting for us to leave town.”

  Kacie felt the car slowing down. “What are you doing? You’re not stopping, are you?”

  A small explosion sounded and the back end of the car fishtailed out of control. Kacie heard Erik’s grunt and looked over. His face was locked in a mask of steely determination and his eyes glowed with the strength of his anger.

  “Hang on,” he bit out.

  She had just enough time to brace herself when the car veered off the road and went into the ditch. It came to a sudden halt and the silence that fell was broken by their combined gasps.

  “Get out,” Erik ordered, already reaching for his door. “We can’t stay here.”

  Kacie climbed out on unsteady feet. She looked around, but despite her improved night vision she couldn’t see a thing.

  Then Erik was there beside her, grabbing her hand and dragging her toward the woods. She’d only taken a couple of steps when the ground beside her suddenly kicked up some dirt. She was several steps past the spot when she realized how close she’d come to getting hit by a bullet. With new determination, she ran faster.

  They entered the woods at breakneck speed. Kacie wanted to ask Erik if he had a plan or if they were running blindly, but she was afraid to hear the answer.

  Despite the thick undergrowth, Kacie moved easily through the woods. They didn’t take a straight path, but wove back and forth, hoping to lose whoever was pursuing them.

  After a few minutes, Kacie noticed Erik was moving more slowly. She tried to urge him to move faster, but with each step he seemed to have a harder time keeping up with her.

  Then he stumbled and fell, face down.

  “Erik!” Kacie hurried to him. “What’s the matter?” She turned him over and stared in horror. His entire left side was covered in blood. She pulled open his shirt and saw the bullet hole in his side. “Shit.”

  “Run, Kacie. Through here into town,” he gasped. “If you hurry, you’ll get there before they do. Take the wooded path to the castle.”

  “Save your breath,” she told him, pulling him to a sitting position. “Can you stand?”

  She thought he’d weigh a ton, but found she was stronger than she’d expected to be. Her muscles ached with the change but she found it easy enough to pull him to his feet. Once he was up, she draped his left arm around her shoulder and then more or less carried him as she started into the woods.

  Behind them, she heard the faint rustle of their pursuer and knew there was no way they were going to make it back to the castle in time.

  “Leave me,” Erik gasped.

  “Shut up and run,” she countered. It was taking all her energy to carry him but she wasn’t leaving him behind.

  She scanned the woods around them as she ran and saw a dip ahead of them. She raced for it, thinking it might offer a place to hide.

  To the left, a fallen tree lay on its side. Kacie hurried them to it. The tree didn’t lie flat on the ground, leaving a small space beneath it. She helped Erik over to it and eased him to the ground behind it. Then she went back to the other side and looked around.

  To a careful observer, their trail could be seen. She needed to cover it. Grabbing a nearby branch, she went back to the point where she and Erik had hit the dip in the ground. Then, dragging the branch behind her, she raced off in the opposite direction. She didn’t want to go too far—just far enough to throw whoever was shooting at them off the trail.

  As soon as she thought she’d gone far enough, she circled back around to where Erik lay. He was deathly still. She was afraid he’d bleed to death, though she wasn’t sure if that was possible. After all, technically, he was already dead.

  Taking the branch she’d been using to help make a new trail, she propped it on the ground in front of them, hoping to provide more coverage. She swept some leaves up in front of it and then went behind the fallen limb to sit by Erik.

  “I don’t know if you can hear me,” she whispered in his ear. “But we need to be quiet.”

  She stroked the hair from his face and leaned over him, wanting to protect him as best she could. When she heard the sound of running footsteps, her entire body grew still in anticipation.

  She watched as three vampires came into view—-Carrington and two others. In his hand, Carrington carried a rifle. The gun ban in England had obviously not affected the vampire population. The weapon looked old—not that Kacie knew that much about guns—but it made her wonder when Carrington had been turned. Had it been around the time of World War II?

  The three men stopped when they reached the dip and looked around. For a brief, horrifying second, Kacie thought Carrington looked directly at her. She tensed for his attack—then one of the other men found the fake trail she’d made and the three were off and running.

  Kacie let out a sigh and turned her attention back to Erik. He was lying so still and quiet, already so weak from his recent illness that she worried he might not even survive long enough for her to get him back to the castle. She’d given him her blood before and it had helped. Would it do the same now?

  “Erik, wake up.” She stroked his cheek and received a faint moan. “Come on, baby. I need you to drink.”

  She lifted him into a sitting position and propped him against her. She had no way of cutting her palm now to get him to drink, so instead, she took his head in her hands and positioned it over her neck at just the right angle. “Drink, Erik.”

  She waited, braced for the pain of his fangs breaking her skin, but it never came. “Damn it. Drink. I’m giving you my blood to heal you, but you have to help.”

  When he still didn’t respond, she gritted her tee
th and pressed his head down, forcing his fangs to pierce her skin.

  Thinking the blood would drip down his throat and slowly revive him, she was totally unprepared when he grabbed her to him, sank his fangs deeper into her throat, and started sucking her blood with a fervor that was too reminiscent of Carrington’s attack.

  This was Erik, she told herself over and over. He would never hurt her. As she fought to stay calm, she noticed that the pain of the bite was already fading. Instead, she was conscious of the warmth of his lips pressed against the side of her neck, sending little tendrils of awareness skittering through her.

  Erik’s hands came up to hold her tenderly, one at her shoulder and the other at the back of her head where his fingers were buried in her hair. Her breasts grew heavy and she arched into him, her breathing ragged. She’d expected this experience to be disgusting or terrifying. Certainly, she hadn’t counted on it being so arousing.

  “Erik,” she whispered. It came out sounding like a plea, but for what, she was afraid to say.

  Almost as abruptly as he’d started, Erik withdrew his teeth, but he continued to hold her in that intimate way. He was breathing hard; she knew he was working hard to control himself. “Kacie . . . ,” he began and then stopped. He rubbed her shoulder and tried again. “Kacie, I . . . thank you.”

  “You had me worried there for a minute,” she told him, trying to make her tone light to cover her worry.

  He stiffened beside her. “Did you think I wouldn’t stop?”

  “No,” she told him softly. “I was afraid you wouldn’t start.”

  She felt his intake of breath. Since they were still sitting so closely together, she couldn’t stop herself from leaning forward to press a kiss against his lips. “You scared me. I thought they had killed you.” The hunger in his eyes had her pulse racing. “Do you think you can stand?”

  He let her help him to his feet and they stood, listening.

  “They went by a little while ago. I don’t know if they still think they’re following us or not.”

  “Then we’ll have to be smarter than they are.”

  They set off through the woods, taking the most direct route back to the castle. They were almost there when they heard Carrington and the other two vampires talking nearby.