Almost Human (4 page)

I shook my head to clear it. Maybe that blow
had caused a few brain problems. If it hadn’t, then my libido had
piss poor timing.

And then I noticed the hole I’d put in his
chest. It was rapidly shrinking. The initial slice I’d made was
long gone. There wasn’t a mark left to show it had ever existed. I
couldn’t pick my jaw up off the floor fast enough.

He flashed an evil half smile. “I’m not done
fighting. I feel fine. Better by the second, in fact. I might not
have fed in a while, but I can still go another ten rounds. And if
I let you go, you’ll come back in force. I say we finish this
now.”

Casey stepped in front of him and put her
small, feminine hand on his chest. “Alaric, please. Let her
go.”

Alaric picked her up under her arms as if
she were an errant toddler and deposited her behind him. “Nope,
can’t let her go. She’ll be back to kill you.”

He retrieved his knife from the floor. He
must have dropped it when I stabbed him.

Casey grabbed his arm, tears in her eyes.
“Alaric, please don’t kill her. I’ll do anything to convince you
not to kill her.”

He growled low in his throat. “Fuck.” He
tossed the knife on the ground. It thrummed as it struck and stood
upright in the hardwood floor. “Fine. I’ll knock her out. Not that
she would pay me the same courtesy.”

I grinned tightly. “Nope. Sure won’t. You
already have the advantage. I won’t give up my knives.”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s all right. This
little fight is going to come out of your blood. Witch blood is
some powerful shit. I can’t wait to get my hands on you.”

I eyed his chest again. “Damn. If you didn’t
mean that in a blood-sucking fiend way, I might let you. You’re hot
for a dead dude.”

He shook his head. “For a hunter, you’re
very ignorant. I’m not dead.”

“Blah, blah, blah. My sister tried to feed
me the same line. Drop it. The longer we discuss this crap the more
blood I lose. I need to beat the shit out of you and get out of
here so I can stitch myself up.”

He smirked. “Awfully confident considering I
healed before your eyes. And you’re hurt.”

He was right, but I’d win. I always won.
There was only one time I hadn’t, and it was time to finish that
bit of business. I rolled my eyes. “Are we done talking?”

The smirk disappeared. “Yeah, we’re done
talking.”

He slinked toward me, looking for a
weakness. I braced myself for his attack.

“Alaric.”

I jumped and glanced at the door. The
vampire who led Astra from the party stood in the doorway. He was
injured in several places. A shiver of fear went through me. He was
injured, not dead, which didn’t bode well for Astra. I prayed she
was alive.

Alaric rushed me, taking advantage of my
distraction. I rolled out of the way, barely avoiding two hundred
pounds of muscular, pissed vampire.

“Report, Jairdan. And make it quick. I’m a
little busy here.”

“All the hunters are dead except this one,
and the one I was fighting, but she’s pretty banged up, so it might
be a matter of time. They got a few vampires before we could kill
them all. Nyx was nice enough to help. I think he came here looking
for a good brawl.”

I stumbled and almost dropped my knife.
Shit. I’d gotten them all killed. God, my friends…and Astra was
hurt. I needed to end this quickly and get out of here. She
probably needed a patch up.

“Misha? Jason?”

“They’re fine.”

I rushed forward and slashed for Alaric’s
throat. He cursed and jumped back.

His hand went to his throat and came away
with blood. “Damn, you’re faster than I remember.”

I sneered. “I was feeling my sister die in
that alley. That’s why I lost. It’s time to end this. Astra needs
my help.”

He smirked, grabbed my knife hand, and
slammed it against the wooden bedpost. I howled as something
snapped. The knife slipped from my grip and tears blurred my
vision.

“Well, she’s not going to get it.”

I slammed my other fist into his chin. He
fell on his ass with a curse. I aimed a kick at his head,
envisioning knocking it off his body. He rolled out of the way.

I bent to retrieve my knife with my left
hand. I trained with both, but the left always felt a little
awkward, no matter how many hours I practiced.

Alaric rolled to his feet and ran a hand
through his sweaty hair, slicking it back from his face. God, that
was hot. It was such an inappropriate thought to have. My hormones
had apparently kicked into overdrive and sent my brain out for
lunch. Then again, the pain from my broken hand and the blood loss
had left me pretty dazed anyway. Or all of that was enough for this
vampire to slip inside my head and play with my mind. It wasn’t
impossible. It had happened before.

I blinked to try to clear the spots from my
vision and stalked toward him.

“Goddamn. You vampire hunters are willing to
take a lot of abuse. I can’t believe there are so many of you out
there. One look at you all beaten to shit is enough to make anyone
quit.”

I swayed and almost fell over. “You
underestimate our resolve. Most hunters want to kill your kind
because you’ve killed someone they love.” I glanced at Casey. “This
fight is a perfect example.”

Alaric licked his lips and relaxed his
fighting stance a bit. “Casey’s not dead. You could even spend some
time with her, if you weren’t so blindly determined to kill
her.”

I thrust for his heart with my blade. He
dodged and delivered a staggering blow to my solar plexus. I
dropped to the ground gagging. Shit, way too slow. But I’d managed
to keep a hold of my knife. I wondered if he’d obliterated any
internal organs.

Fuck winning. I just needed to do enough damage to
get the hell out of here. I glanced at the door. Sometime during
the fighting Misha had arrived. One vampire I could probably have
taken care of, but three? And more waiting downstairs? Things were
not looking good.

I laid my head on the carpet and feigned
death, or at least passing out. Which wasn’t hard to do in my
condition, and actually quite tempting.

Alaric wrapped his hands in my hair and
lifted my head off the ground. I slid the knife into his belly.
Blood rushed over my hands. He roared in pain. I didn’t even see
his fist coming.

I woke to someone playing the piano softly.
I was trying to identify the song when the blazing pain in my skull
obliterated everything. I groaned and tried to push myself up in
bed. My hands wouldn’t move, and then I felt the cool metal against
my wrists. I rolled my head back so I could look at my arms. The
ice pack that had been resting on the back of my neck fell
away.

My wrists were firmly secured to the
headboard, and I had an air cast on my aching hand. At least that
was taken care of. It would heal quickly thanks to my magic.

I glanced at the nude figure with his back
to me playing the piano. “Handcuffs. Kinky.”

Alaric laughed but didn’t stop playing. “You
wouldn’t want to sit up anyway. You think the pain in your head is
bad now. Imagine if you tried to be upright.”

He had a point, but I didn’t say it out
loud. I wasn’t up to agreeing with the vampire.

“Thanks for the ice pack, by the way. Though
I don’t think one ice pack on the back of my neck is going to help
with the massive brain trauma you gave me. You probably would have
killed a human.”

“I know. I was half worried you wouldn’t
wake again.”

“Because you’d feel bad about killing
me?”

He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t want Casey
cross with me. She’d get over it, but it would take a century or
so, and probably a lot of kittens.”

I almost gagged. “You eat kittens.”

He faced me. I could feel the stern frown,
even though I couldn’t see it in the darkened room. “Seriously? No.
Animal blood doesn’t sustain us. Casey likes animals.”

I snorted. “Yeah, she always did. She
brought home every animal she came in contact with. Even wild ones
would follow her home. We had a doe spend the winter in our
backyard once.”

“She is a goddess.”

I frowned at him. “Do you love her,
too?”

He shook his head and faced the piano again.
“Not in the way you’re thinking. She’s made my brother ecstatically
happy, and she does have that ethereal quality that seems to win
everyone over.”

He was right. Casey could soften the hardest
of hearts. I hated that he seemed to know my sister so well. This
monster shouldn’t have been allowed near her.

I eyed the curve of his nude hip. The only
place the moonlight hit him. “Why are you naked?”

His booming laughter filled the room. “I
sleep like this. We won’t be having sex, if your virtue is a
concern.” He glanced over his shoulder and his teeth flashed white
in the darkness. “Unless, of course, you want to.”

I glared at him. Oh, if looks could kill.
“Not even in your wildest dreams, buddy.”

“You say that now, but I saw how you looked
at me when we fought. You could see yourself under me.”

“Actually, I like to be on top.” Oh yeah,
great comeback.

“I’m sure I could arrange that, too.”

I shook my head, but stopped when pain lit
up my brain. “No, there will be no arranging.”

He turned around and stepped toward the bed.
My protests died in my throat. God, every inch of him was perfect.
He was all lean, hard muscle. His erect cock was thick and
gorgeous. I had the vivid image of sliding it past my lips before I
slammed my eyes closed.

The bed dipped under his weight, and it took
all my willpower to keep my eyes firmly shut. He stretched out next
to me. His erection pressed insistently against my thigh.

He took a deep breath in through his nose.
“God, you smell like you want me. I love that smell. I can’t wait
to taste you.”

I opened my eyes to glare at him and met the
bluest gaze I’d ever seen.

“Have you ever been bitten by a vampire,
Kori?”

My confused brain tripped over itself, first
to decipher what he said, and second to answer him with something
other than babble. The “no” finally popped out of my mouth. “It’s
kind of my job not to get bitten.”

“Then you have no idea how erotic it can be,
for both parties.” He trailed a hand down the side of my body. Part
of me begged him to touch me more, and another part recoiled at the
idea. His magic hummed along my skin, heightening the pleasure.

“I’ve never had a vampire touch me and not
have it be uncomfortable.”

One side of his mouth curled into a smile.
“You touch most of us in violence. And even if you didn’t, most of
us don’t have the control I have. I’m very good.”

To prove his point, he ran one finger
between the valley of my breasts and down to my navel. I shuddered
and gasped. My nipples hardened and goose bumps sprang up all over
my body. I could only imagine the reaction he’d get if he put those
fingers in other places.

He ran his hand lightly up my neck and
pushed my head to the side. He lowered his mouth to my throat. I
felt his breath on my neck and tensed. I tried to turn my head back
to block him, but he grabbed my jaw and easily kept me in
place.

I struggled against the handcuffs. This game
he was playing had gone too far.

The image of my father with his throat torn
out came to mind. It was seared into my brain. The wound was raw,
and gaping. What little blood he had left seeped onto the wooden
porch as I’d tried futilely to stop the bleeding.

The stain wouldn’t come up. Mother had to
rip out the whole porch and replace it. As stone cold as she was,
she couldn’t bear to see her husband’s blood every day as she left
the house.

“Let me go,” I shouted as I strained harder
against Alaric.

He put some of his weight on me to try and
stop my struggles but released my chin.

I snapped my head around and met his
concerned gaze. “Get off me.” I gasped. “I need space.” My heart
pounded in my chest, and I couldn’t breathe.

“Take a deep breath. I’m not going to hurt
you. Breathe.”

I managed to suck in air. He laid his head
on my chest as I started to breathe normally. “Boy do I know how to
kill the mood.”

“Actually, listening to your heart pound is
pretty erotic to me.”

I glared at him. “Horn dog.”

“Pretty much.” He raised his head to look at
me. “Want to tell me what the freak out was about?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Hell no. Just because
part of me wants to fuck you doesn’t mean I want to share my inner
secrets with you. You’re not my therapist, vamp.”

“All right. I didn’t want you to freak out
when I try to bite you again.”

I growled and bucked my body to throw him
off of me. “Why don’t you forget about taking my blood?”

He smiled. “Well, that doesn’t sound fun to
me.”

“Too damned bad.”

“Really? Because I seem to have the
advantage.” He brushed his lips against mine.

“I’d like you to leave now.”

“But I’m having so much fun.”

He pressed his lips to mine again. His
tongue stroked my bottom lip, begging for entry. I opened my mouth
and his tongue slid inside. He tasted like honey. I groaned as his
tongue tangled with mine.

He broke away and kissed his way down to my
throat, while carefully shifting my head to the side. I tensed
again, and he glanced at me.

“It doesn’t hurt. I promise, and I don’t
plan to kill you.”

“I still don’t want you to bite me.”

His warm, wet tongue traced a path up my
throat and he rubbed a thumb across my clavicle and down my
shoulder, using his magic to heighten the pleasure. I shuddered. He
was certainly persuasive.

His fangs slid into my throat with the
slightest prick of pain, and then an intense pleasure radiated from
the wound, sending shivers down my spine. Heat curled through my
womb. I wanted him to fill me. It didn’t matter that he was a
monster. I needed him to touch me.