Authors: Jennifer Knight

Tags: #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Vampires, #College Students, #Juvenile Fiction, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Werewolves, #Dating & Sex, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural

Blood Crave 2 (46 page)

Lucas’s arm shot out in front of my body, and he shouted something I couldn’t understand.

Then the vampires rammed their car into ours.

BROOD

F
irst there was the jar of the impact. It slammed us sideways, and we flew into the air. I heard myself screaming. Glass stung my face.

Then we hit again. The ceiling caved in; the windshield cracked. Lucas’s arm went limp. We rolled, over and over, and finally stopped when we were upside down. I hung there, still rolling around on the inside.

My ears buzzed, and my vision faded to black, off and on. I blinked and managed to turn my head. Lucas was hanging beside me. Unconscious. There was a large gash in the side of his skull, pouring blood onto the roof. Beneath it all, I saw the dull white of bone.

Heat hit me next. Intense heat, licking my face and my feet. The front of the car was on fire.

That’s when I really woke up. My breath felt like waves of nausea, torturing my insides, and I couldn’t stop coughing from the smoke. Three forms materialized in front of the hood, flames licking their shadowy forms like demons from the underworld.

I began shaking Lucas, yelling for him to wake up, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.

And he wasn’t waking up.

I tried to unbuckle myself, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t work the buckle. I started crying, which only made things worse. Then the side of the car ripped off, and I turned to see Melissa standing there, smug as ever. She tore the seatbelt from my chest and watched me fall in a heap on the roof of the car.

I wriggled around and watched the same thing happen to Lucas, only he wasn’t moving.

I fought to get to him, but two iron hands took hold of me and yanked me away. I yelled and kicked, ignoring a tremendous pain in my right side. I was pretty sure something was broken in there.

Melissa threw me to the ground and cursed. Her eyes were coal-black with the crave. She was going crazy for the blood covering my body. Frustration welled in her vibe like a tsunami. She whirled around, stamping her foot.

“Stop, damn it,” she snarled. She wedged her hands into her head.

One of the other vampires shouted at her from across the car. “Get a grip, Melissa!”

“I am!” She shrieked and her eyes faded. She rounded on me. “Come on, tramp, this time I’m not letting your blood get the better of me. I’ll bet it tastes like garbage anyway.”

I tried to squirm away, but Melissa dragged me by my underarms to the street. There were no cars to see us, no werewolves to help us, but I screamed for help anyway.

The other vampires tossed Lucas’s body, lashed in silver chains, into the back of the other car and then approached me holding a rope and a leather bag.

“Am I going to have to use these, sweetheart?” one asked me.

“Screw off!” I yelled and tried to kick him in the groin.

He dodged me easily, clucking his teeth. He snatched up both of my legs in one hand and lashed them together without effort. Shrieking, I writhed as he tied my arms behind my back, and the other vampire shoved the bag over my head.

I continued to scream as they tossed me into the back with Lucas.

“Shut
up
!” Melissa hissed.

I ignored her, yelling louder just to piss her off.

She must have hit me then, because there was a blinding pain above my left temple and then ... nothing ...

I
was thrown onto something cold and hard; I assumed it was the floor. I felt my arms and legs become free. The bag was jerked off of my head and then I could see.

Only I wished they had kept the bag on.

I was inside the vampire lair. I had to be.

The room was hexagonal in shape. It wasn’t particularly big, but it was dark. The only lights came from candelabras burning against the black walls. Wax dripped from the votives, pattering on the floor like the sound of trickling blood. I could hear talking, low whispers and murmurs, words too fast to understand.

I rose to my feet, quivering. Vaguely, the pain in my side twanged, but I was too terrified to worry about it. Something smelled charred in the air, like something was cooking ...
flesh
. Bile climbed up my throat, and I just barely swallowed it down.

Vampires huddled along the walls in cliques; Melissa was off to the right side with my abductors, and I spotted Calvin standing alone in front of what seemed to be the centerpiece of the room.

It was a chair. Not a big throne thing with jewels and gold and filigree. No. It was just a small iron chair.

It was empty for now.

I tried to get Calvin’s attention, wanting him to see the hatred I held for him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He seemed strangely subdued. His signature cocky smirk was gone and his indigo eyes were cast to the floor.

I think it was this fact that scared me more than anything.

I turned away from him to glance behind me and found Lucas was there—chained in silver. He was unconscious, bleeding out onto the cement floor. His blood seeped toward me in a river of red gore; he should have healed by now, but the silver chains were impeding his regenerative powers. I started toward him, wanting to staunch the blood flow, but the room hissed, and I stopped. Every dead-cold eye in the room was on me, daring me to try and move again.

I restrained myself, glancing around, instead, to try and see a way out. I got the feeling we were underground, which made sense if we were in their lair. Was that water rushing behind the walls? I looked up and saw a small wooden door on the ceiling above Lucas’s head.
What in God’s name is that used for?

Quickly, I counted the vampires: ten. More than enough to kill me, but I couldn’t dwell on that. Two guarded Lucas’s broken body. Three stood on one side of the room, four on the other. Calvin stood alone at the front.

Then two more vampires entered. All eyes focused on the chair at the front of the room as an invisible door creaked open. A lethally beautiful woman entered, followed by a man in a long black cloak. The collar was popped, and he kept his head bent low, shading his face. But I knew that man. I knew that man with every inch of my body.

It was Derek.

Hatred exploded in my chest—complete and total loathing. I felt my lips wrinkle into a snarl as I watched him glide into the room and stand opposite of Calvin like a pair of undead sentries. He refused to look at me.

Then the woman lowered herself into the chair. Her face was flawlessly beautiful, and she had slanted features, as though her entire face had been pulled up at the edges. She wore a long, flowing gown, black and sparkling in the low light of the room. The top was corseted, and there was a spidery necklace over her décolletage. Her big gray eyes fell on me, amused and slightly expectant—like she was waiting for me to do a flip or something.

All of the vampires had gone silent. The only sound remaining was the pattering of the wax and that gentle buzzing in the background.

Then a groan came from behind me and I turned. Lucas was stirring.
Thank God he’s alive!

“Do you know who I am, human?”

I spun back around and realized that the dangerous chick was talking to me.

I decided to take a wild guess and go with, “Arabella.”

The woman’s pencil-thin eyebrows twitched up and she nodded slowly. “You have been well informed,” she said with a voice as clear and crisp as a glass of champagne. “Do you know where you are?”

Lucas moaned deeply and I heard the silver chains jingling.

I swallowed as my stomach wriggled uncomfortably.
Please, be okay, baby.

“I’m in a vampire lair,” I said.

“And do you know why you have been brought to my lair?”

Not wanting to give them any ideas about turning me, I went with my second-best guess. “Because someone told you I know what you’re planning.” I made sure to stare Derek down as I said this, but it was like he couldn’t even hear me.

Arabella’s eyes twinkled. “Tell me what I’m planning, human.”

Lucas’s hoarse voice came from behind me. “Don’t . . . say anything.”

I turned and saw that he was kneeling on the floor. The chains cut into his skin, scorching him, but he was awake, at least.

“Tell me,” Arabella cooed pleasantly, “or your doggie dies.”

“I know that you’re planning an uprising against the werewolves,” I ground out. “That’s why all those girls have been dying. Because you can’t keep your younglings in check.”

To my surprise, Arabella’s crimson lips turned upward in a vague smile.

“Is that what they’re saying over there in the kennel? An uprising?” Her smile widened, and she stood and walked slowly around the room as though floating. Her dress seemed to be made of shadows; it snaked and coiled along the floor in a long ghostly train. My nerves skyrocketed as she stopped in front of Lucas.

She put her silken hand on top of his head and petted him like a dog. Lucas jerked his head away, disgust on his face. But Arabella tugged the chains, forcing Lucas to be still as she stroked his hair.

“Such vanity,” she purred. “Such ego the mongrels have.” She clucked her teeth, petting Lucas all the while. I wanted to jump over there and stab her with something long and wooden. “This is not about you,” Arabella said to him. “I admit that you are partly correct. We
have
been increasing our numbers quite exponentially, which has caused our dear humans to pay a sad price. But a war against the dogs is not our goal. We would
never
want to eliminate you. Not at all.” She bent low to Lucas’s ear and whispered, “You know, I have always taken a fancy to a hint of wolf blood. Some say it is bitter, but I find it exhilarating.”

Lucas’s face tightened as she lowered her head to his neck.

I started forward. “No!” I yelled, lunging. Calvin was on me before my feet left the floor. He restrained me while I writhed around, watching in horror as Arabella sunk her nasty fangs into Lucas’s skin.

He didn’t scream, hardly even flinched as Arabella took a long pull out of his throat. She straightened and shivered violently. Blood continued to gush in red rivers down Lucas’s chest, but none of the other vampires looked even remotely interested.

“Lovely,” Arabella said, licking her lips. She patted Lucas’s head. “You have old blood, dog. Very strong. It’s a shame to see you go. But it must be done. I cannot have you gallivanting around, spoiling our plans.”

She spun to face me, and I found her pupils had widened completely making her look like a walking corpse.

“Bitch,” I ground between my teeth.

Arabella smiled coldly, licking her lips again. “Let her go, Cal, honey. She poses no threat to us.”

Calvin released me roughly and returned to his spot without a word as Arabella resumed her seat. She sighed and regarded me. “I suppose you wish to know what we are planning, but I’m afraid you will have to wait until after you are turned to find out.”

Fear shocked through my body.
Turned? Here? Now?
Was this seriously the reason I’d been brought here? So that they could turn one insignificant girl? What was the big deal about me?

Arabella seemed pleased by my astonishment. “Atonement must be made for the crimes you and your dog have committed against our kind. Vincent Stone and Silas Zircon were two of my oldest and most skilled subjects. Their lives must be repaid.” She turned to Lucas. “Vincent’s life was accounted for when you infected our dear Derek. But that leaves Silas to be recompensed. I think Faith shall do nicely. I do enjoy the pretty ones. They always come out looking so lovely.”

My body went numb as Lucas began shouting curses and struggling behind me. I refused to turn around, unable to watch him in pain, but I heard the chains jerk and he yelped, falling ominously silent.

This couldn’t be how our story ended, with me a vampire and Lucas murdered in front of my eyes. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was so
frustrating
.

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