He didn’t know where she was going with this, what her intentions were, but it didn’t matter. Right now, he had her, and she most definitely had him. He was done for, there was no question. She just kept reaffirming that for him. It didn’t matter what she wanted or what she needed. From now on, he would be it.
Her eyes fluttered closed and she nuzzled closer, a soft moan escaping her throat at how good it felt it to be held by him.
His hand came up and gently pushed a stray curl from her face.
How did I get in this deep?
Her breathing became more even, and he could hear her heart rate slow slightly. How had this small, sweet, beautiful girl gotten to him so quickly? He leaned forward and gingerly pressed his lips to her forehead.
Right then, it didn’t matter.
Chapter 19
Rayne sat up in her bed, her vision blurred in her sleep-fogged state, and was surprised to see that she was in her own room again. Her hand went to her forehead, and she closed her eyes to help her recall why she was here.
Oh, that’s right. Dr. Brennan.
The bed beside her was empty, and she felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach, as if whatever had filled it before had left with the occupier of the bed. Throwing back the comforter, she swung her legs over the bed and stretched before attempting to stand.
She felt well-rested, as if she’d been asleep for hours on end, but she found it odd that it was still dark outside. She pushed the sheer curtains aside and peered out. Pitch black. She was able to see nothing beyond the window, not even the street light that usually lit the corner nearby.
That’s weird.
She shook her head and turned to make her way to the bathroom, only half-wondering where Camden had gone. She couldn’t imagine that it would be very fun watching someone else sleep when you yourself didn’t have to, and assumed that he’d simply gone to do other things in the middle of the night.
It’s still the middle of the night,
she reminded herself.
Silently padding out into the hallway, she crept toward the living room area and paused, listening intently and straining her eyes to see through the darkness. She could see nothing, but she could hear something. It was an odd, rhythmic sound, like a muffled crunch, or possibly a thudding, even. Every so often she would hear labored breathing or a grunt mixed in with it.
“What the…” she said quietly to herself.
There was a quick rustling, and the noise stopped all together. She froze, afraid to move. Her heart pounded almost painfully in her chest, and she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she backed up a few steps to ready herself for a quick getaway.
A few moments passed, and nothing happened. No more noises, no movement, just complete silence, and the blackest darkness that she’d ever seen.
She inched forward, craning her neck and peeking around the corner into the kitchen. Before she knew what was happening, a tall, gangly figure half-stumbled half-bolted toward her. It gave off a putrid, disgusting smell, and it moaned or maybe growled as its rotting arms reached out to her.
Rayne stumbled backwards and hit the wall. The groaning tower of rotting flesh lunged forward. Her arms bolted out and sunk into the putrid mush that once had been the thing’s chest. It leaned forward, mouth open wide and snarling as it tried to sink its nonexistent teeth into anything it could reach.
She turned her head to the side and screamed, closing her eyes as she dug her fingers into the goo, clawing and scratching, trying anything to deter its onslaught. “Camden!” She gave a high-pitched screech.
“Rayne!”
She heard his deep voice, but she couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from, and she was too afraid to open her eyes.
Her nails went deeper until she felt something hard and cylindrical. She wrapped her fingers around it and ripped it away. She could feel pieces of its flesh caked beneath her fingernails, and her stomach churned. The creature gave a snarling bite, completely unphased by anything she did.
“Rayne!” Camden’s voice grew louder, and she could easily detect the worry laced within. “Rayne! Wake up!”
His words somehow registered through the horror before her. “Wake up!” she heard again.
Her eyes sprang open, and she realized that strong arms were restraining her. Gasping for air and with her heart pounding out of control, she pushed and struggled to get away as she screamed.
“Rayne! Stop! It’s me!” The sound of Camden’s voice made her stop fighting immediately. She looked at him with wide eyes that still were full of fear.
She was on the verge of hyperventilating, and the fight-or-flight adrenaline was still pumping through her body, but she managed to still herself.
“Shh. It’s ok. It’s me. You were dreaming,” Camden soothed, his strong arms embracing her and pulling her against his chest.
She was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and her auburn curls were a tangled mess, but she couldn’t care any less. Rayne tried to focus on the feel of his arms wrapped tightly around her and willed herself to calm down. It felt as if they stayed that way forever, at least until she’d managed to stop panting enough to form actual words.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and sat up enough to look into his bright blue eyes. “I was dreaming about the stupid zombie from Madam Laurie’s basement.” She pushed away some of the hair that had plastered itself to her forehead and managed a soft laugh at herself. “The damn thing was trying to eat me.”
Camden forced a small smile, but the worry still was evident on his face. His hand came to rest on her jaw and the pad of his thumb gently rubbed the soft patch of skin there.
Rayne pushed herself up into a sitting position and leaned against her headboard, closing her eyes and trying to control her racing heart. She smiled when he mimicked her position.
They sat in silence, neither feeling the need to speak, only letting the moment of intense fear pass.
She wasn’t sure what was happening to her. At first it was the nightmares about the creeper in her room watching her. However, those went away soon after spending time with Camden. Now it was zombies. What would she be haunted by next?
Slowly and even somewhat cautiously, Camden slid his hand across the small space between them and grabbed hers, interlocking their fingers.
Rayne’s heart rate sped yet again, but this time, it had nothing to do with zombies or bad dreams. Her eyes drifted to their connection, then up to his face, which held a thin-lipped smile.
“You ok?” he asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just a bad dream.”
A dream. A nightmare so real, she could still feel the rotting flesh beneath her fingernails. She glanced at her hand and immediately realized that there was something under fingernails. It was dark red and strongly resembled blood.
She jerked upright and looked at Camden, noticing for the first time the three long scratches across his chest, but they didn’t look fresh. They were faded and almost looked like scars with just a slight tint of red at the edges.
Her hands covered her mouth, and she gasped. “Oh my god! Did I do that?” she asked, fear lacing her voice.
Camden chuckled. “That’s quite a grip you have.”
Rayne backed away from him. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I…it was…”
Camden held up his hand to calm her and reached forward to pull her into his arms again. “It’s ok. It’s just a scratch,” he said. “And besides, look. It’s already almost gone.”
Rayne looked at the marks on his amazingly beautiful chest. He was right. They barely were visible at all now.
She couldn’t believe what just had happened. Nightmares themselves were brand new to her, and now it was escalating to sleep attacks?
What would happen next
?
Sleepwalking
?
Why? Why is this happening?
She shook her head, rather embarrassed by her actions, and sat up. “What time is it?” she asked.
Camden reluctantly let her slide out of his arms and watched the cute way her cheeks flushed with color.
It really was only a scratch. A deep one, but just a scratch. His advanced rate of healing had already taken care of the problem, so he wasn’t worried about it. However, she obviously was. He could see it on her face.
“Almost five,” he said, and pushed himself up to swing his legs over the edge of the bed.
She nodded and scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to wipe away the remnants of her dream. That, and her embarrassment. “I’m going to go shower,” she said, and stretched as she stood.
The tank top she was wearing rose with her arms and exposed her midriff. Camden smiled at the sight of the smooth, creamy skin, but quickly looked away. Though captivated by her, he was going to allow things to happen on her time. He wouldn’t push the subject or try to make her uncomfortable. They’d already had their tongues down each other’s throats, snuggled on more than one occasion, slept together twice now, and flirted constantly, but still, he was going to let her set the pace, no matter how much or how fast he wanted things to escalate.
Rayne yawned, pulling him from his thoughts, and moved around him to disappear into the hall and shut the bathroom door behind her.
Camden stood and left the room. He had to drink his last bag of treated blood if they were planning on getting home later.
The young, blonde-haired vampire sat in the driver’s seat of the Camaro, his bulky companion scrunched into the seat next to him. He reached into the backseat, grabbed a small white bottle, and gulped down his third batch of treated blood in the last two hours.
The two of them stared out the windshield at the row of brick apartment buildings ahead.
“This shit is getting weaker and weaker,” the burly vampire said with a grunt, and tossed his own bottle over his shoulder into the backseat.
Christophe gave him a side glance. His new partner was somewhat rough around the edges, and the six hours they’d been sitting together in the vehicle hadn’t helped him grow accustomed to his crudeness.
However, his personality seemed to fit his whole outer look. While he somewhat resembled Mathias in build, his pitch-black hair and goatee was the opposite from the former’s dirty blonde. Just looking at them, it would have been difficult to guess that they were brothers.
“Well, we’re on our fourth host. If everyone had a little more self-control, we could still be on the first, and not have to drink every half hour.”
Ed shrugged. “Ain’t my fault. We were on two when I started, and three didn’t go until after I came here.”
There was a short silence before he spoke again. “I was watching this chick for a few weeks before she up and left to Louisiana. Nothing spectacular.” His mouth widened into a sleazy grin. “She ain’t too bad to watch in the shower, though.”
Christophe rolled his eyes. There were about a million other things he could think of that he would rather be doing than sitting in the car with this ape. In fact, he would rather be doing ANYTHING other than being mixed up in the mess he was in now.
When Mathias had found him holed up in an abandoned warehouse in the heart of downtown Alexandria, he was in the process of getting his new life as a vampire together. The first eight years, he did as he supposed most new vampires did: He stayed hidden, fed when required, spent most of his time getting used to his new body and physical abilities, and all of his time despising his existence as an inhuman entity.
It wasn’t natural. People weren’t meant to become immortal and feed off of one another. However, he’d finally come to terms that this was who he was, and that there was no going back. He eventually figured out how to make money, in underground fighting, without anyone knowing his true state.
His small frame and young appearance had everyone betting against him. When he stepped into the ring and defeated everyone he went up against, it was a no-brainer that he’d found his claim to fame.
He had a fair amount of cash saved up, and was thinking about purchasing a house instead of staying in the rotting warehouse, but that was when he met Mathias. He’d been given the scoop on an elixir that could change everything for vampires. It sounded like something he wanted to be a part of, so he agreed to sign on. It wasn’t until six months after he’d been recruited that he found out the whole story.
Their “master,” as he was to be called, was bent on world domination. There would be no peaceful existence between vampires and humans. He wanted vampires to be feared, hated, and ruling over anything that was not one of them.
By then, it was too late. He was in, and the only way out now was death. Christophe sighed and stared ahead blankly, his blue eyes shielded by his dark shades. They both sat in silence, something that Christophe was thankful for. He wasn’t too keen on listening to the filth that spewed from Ed’s mouth.
“Here we go,” Ed said, and leaned forward, squinting his eyes.
Christophe shifted in his seat and watched as a taxi pulled up outside of the first row of apartments. Just a few seconds later, the front door opened and two people stepped out.
The first, a tall male with black hair, he recognized as one of his kind. He wore a leather jacket and shades, and glanced about cautiously before being followed by a slender woman.
He removed his shades and squinted to allow his advanced vision to zoom in. They looked oddly familiar.
Where have I seen them?
Then it hit him: They were the ones at Madame Laurie’s a few nights ago when he was following one of the bodyguards.
Ed saw the look on his partner’s face and immediately knew something wasn’t right. “Something wrong?” he asked in his gruff voice.
Christophe sat back and exhaled forcefully. “I think the game plan just changed.”
Ed cocked an eyebrow and glanced back at the two climbing into the back of the taxi. “What do you mean?”
He started the engine and put the Camaro in drive, slowly inching forward, so as to not arouse any suspicion. “I was following the bodyguard a few nights ago back in Louisiana. Those two were there. I know they saw me; they looked right at me a few times. If we follow them out in the open, they’ll know it’s us coming.”