I Hunger for You Page 2

  He’d come to her straight from a very tough operation. Someone had died, and it hadn’t been one of the bad guys. He’d needed her, and she’d taken him to her bed. The sex had been frantic, cathartic, wonderful.

  Now they were out on the balcony, pressed so closely together, naked skin to naked skin, that he couldn’t tell where he stopped and she started. His hands were around her waist; her head was tilted back, resting on his chest while she looked at the moon. He felt her trying to think of something to say or do, to keep his mind from going over and over what had gone wrong.

  He welcomed the distraction, and helped her out by asking, “What are you doing living in a house like this?” The Spanish-style house wasn’t big but it was very nice, with a pool and a half-acre of gardens surrounded by a high stucco wall.

  He knew she was a freelance writer, but she also spent much of her time practicing a lot of dangerous, physically demanding hobbies. She ran, she was into karate and kung fu; she liked target shooting, and competed in traditional archery. She’d told him about the skydiving, the snowboarding; they’d gone rock climbing together. She was female, but not at all soft.

  He liked that she shared some of his interests, and that she competed hard even if he never quite let her win. Competent or not, Mia was a mortal woman, and he wouldn’t encourage over-confidence even if she was never likely to be in danger again.

  She was a major jock, and being a jock on the level Mia practiced took not only time, but money. He’d made sure they didn’t have many personal conversations. He listened to whatever she chose to tell him, but he didn’t ask, and he never volunteered anything. He’d kept everything in the present tense, because vampires had to guard their privacy, and because he wasn’t planning on staying. The less he knew about her out of bed, the better. He shouldn’t be prying into her personal life now, but he was suddenly curious.

  “I inherited this place,” Mia answered. “The house belonged to my grandmother. It’s one of the things she bought when she finally reconciled with her father.”

  “Reconciled?”

  “Long, sad story. I’ve heard a lot about him, and about his side of the family, but I’ve never met the old man. He left my great-grandmother when Grandma was a kid. I hear that my great-grandfather’s richer than God, and has a few years on Him, as well. Grandma was middle-aged, with kids and a perfectly good life, when a lawyer brought her a letter and a check from her long-lost dad. Grandma didn’t use much of the guilt money he dumped on her for herself, but she invested wisely, and left fortunes to my sister and me.”

  “So, you have a fairy grandfather—”

  “Great-grandfather, and he’s more of a—” Mia shrugged, and desire shot through Colin as he felt the movement all along his body.

  He moved his hands up from her waist to her lovely, round breasts and—

  He remembered the sex now—her sharp gasp of pain and pleasure when he sank teeth into flesh; the way the world turned to fire when he entered her—and it was far more vivid and important than any memory of conversation. It wasn’t who she was, but how Mia made him feel that drew him to her like an addiction. He didn’t understand what she’d done to him.

  It wasn’t as if he’d taken much blood from her. He’d done his best to keep the psychic connection between them as tenuous as possible. He’d only wanted her as a bed partner.

  He still wanted her.

  He’d known when she’d returned, knew the instant she was back in L.A. He’d dismissed the knowledge as his imagination, and hadn’t given in to the impulse to just drive by her house for another month. But here it was, three months after the end of a three-month affair, and things were getting worse instead of better. He sure as hell hoped she was heartbroken and emotionally devastated, because he didn’t want to be alone in this hell.

  But she was mortal, a brief candle, a butterfly, a bright burst of fireworks—lovely, warm, and exciting—but ephemeral. How long could something as finite as a mortal creature feel hurt?

  She was doubtless over him. In fact, someone as passionate as Mia had probably had at least one lover since they parted.

  The very thought of Mia in anyone else’s bed set his fangs on edge, and hit him like a hard punch in the gut. But he told himself it was only because Primes were proprietary. He’d unconsciously marked her as his, which was what this returning here night after night was about. It was a sort of instinct.

  It’s really good practice, he told himself. This pallid obsession was a way of preparing for the extreme emotions inevitable when the opportunity for a true bonding with a female of his own kind came his way.

  In the meantime—

  Thoughts of the future disappeared abruptly, and Colin’s whole body tensed as Mia’s garden gate opened across the street. Pounding need drove through him when he saw her step away from the gate. For a moment she was illuminated under the glow of a streetlight, wearing a red tank top and shorts that showed off her toned body. While she was poised like a pop singer under a bright spotlight, Colin couldn’t help but take a step forward, his hands stretched toward her.

  She was unaware of him, of course. His kind had a knack for using shadows to their advantage, blending into darkness as if it was their natural coloration. If he tried, he could use his other senses to measure her heartbeat, the temperature of her skin. Her scent was alive on the breeze. When she turned and began to run, he beat down the hunter’s instinct to follow.

  She’s exercising, you fool! She was a normal mortal, doing normal mortal things. He had no business being here, let alone pursuing her. He threw his head back, bumping it against the bark of the palm tree under which he stood. No business being here at all.

  So he began to walk—not back to where he’d parked his car, but the way Mia had gone. He was not following her—he was just stretching his legs.

  Mia didn’t normally go running on the streets, especially this late, but something about the night had called out to her. The walls of the house had made her feel claustrophobic, and she needed space. Restlessness clawed at her. Surfing the Net hadn’t helped; watching television hadn’t held her attention; listening to a book tape while using the treadmill had bored her. She’d thought about calling her girlfriend Courtney, but her mind was too much on Foxe, and any conversation would only degenerate into another bitching session about “that jerk.” Why go over that ground again, when she was trying to forget him? She must have bored her friends to death with the subject by now—she wasn’t the suffering-in-silence type.

  I’m not suffering, she told herself as she eased her body into the rhythm of running. It was just that sometimes it felt like he was nearby, like she could reach out and touch him, and then—

  Then she’d wake up from a dark, erotic dream, and be alone in her bed, and all the sexual energy was still there, simmering—

  It was bound to wear off eventually. She’d meet someone else. Life would go on.

  Some nights were just worse than others, and this was one of them. Mia figured all she had to do was drive herself to exhaustion; then she could fall asleep without dreaming. So she ran.

  Except for the occasional passing car, the street was empty. The sidewalk was clear of pedestrians. There were lights in a few houses, but the neighborhood was mostly dark. Too dark, she thought after a while, and way too quiet.

  A sensation of dread began to creep into Mia’s consciousness, a feeling that she was being watched, even stalked. That something wanted her to be out here. It wasn’t anything tangible. She didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary, though she slowed down and looked around carefully. It was just there.

  She turned around and headed back home. She trusted her instincts, even if there was no evidence. She knew she was being hunted. She didn’t know if making it back to her house would mean making it to safety, but making it home was the only goal she could reach for as she ran through the darkness.

  And it was getting darker. It was a cloudless night, but the stars seemed to be fading. Eac
h streetlight she passed seemed dimmer than the last. She couldn’t make out any lights in the houses; in fact she couldn’t even see the houses anymore. The trees and bushes lining the sidewalk became dark, menacing shadows.

  Then the darkness moved, resolved into a man-shaped shadow. She thought she caught a glimpse of bright, glowing eyes. The apparition reached for her with pale, clawed hands.

  Colin was running even before he heard her angry shout up ahead. He cursed himself for not noticing the depth of the darkness sooner—that it had solidness, weight, and menace—for not noticing that there was another vampire in the area.

  Motion swirled inside the darkness that spread like a scrim across the sidewalk. Emotion swirled as well, and Colin recognized more than just Mia’s shock and controlled fear. She was putting up a fight. Like a cat playing with prey, the other vampire projected fierce joy at her puny efforts to kick and punch her way out of trouble. No Clan or Family Prime would take his pleasure like that.

  “Tribe.” Colin breathed the word as a curse as he sped forward.

  It felt as if he had to rip through a curtain covering his mind, but he came through it at a rush to find the pair locked in combat in the small space between a tall hibiscus hedge and a parked SUV. Colin caught a brief impression of Mia twirling and kicking, and the vampire’s preternaturally swift feint. The Tribe vampire’s light hair was worn in a long braid that hung down his back and swayed as he moved, silver in the moonlight.

  Colin grabbed the thick braid and used it to haul the Tribe Prime away from Mia. The Tribe spun around, showing a mocking grin, and fangs bared in challenge. When the other Prime grabbed his braid and tugged, Colin let it go.

  “Run!” he called to Mia, and barreled forward to grab the Tribe around the waist and forcibly haul him through a narrow gap in the hedge.

  The Tribe fought his way out of Colin’s grasp, deeply clawing Colin’s arms to do so.

  “Scared to fight in front of a girl?” the Tribe asked when they faced each other again.

  Colin’s own claws and fangs were out by now. He sneered, and gestured the white-haired vampire forward.

  The Tribe laughed, and they crouched and circled, taking on the ritual movements of two Primes fighting over possession of a female. Fangs and claws flashed, bodies moved at lightning speed. Blows were struck and avoided. The object was to draw blood.

  On the other side of the hedge, Mia shouted, “What’s going on? I’m calling the cops!”

  Why hadn’t the fool woman run?

  “I am the cops!” Colin yelled back.

  “What the—Colin, is that you?”

  “She doesn’t sound happy to see you,” the Tribe sneered.

  The mockery infuriated Colin, but he didn’t let it distract him. He lunged forward, and this time he got under the other vampire’s guard. Colin’s claws raked across the Tribe’s smirking face, leaving four thin lines of blood across his cheek.

  The Prime howled and leaped away. He disappeared into the waning night within moments, though cold laughter echoed back out of the darkness. Tribe Primes weren’t known for their honor, but this one seemed to abide by the rules of mating challenge, accepting defeat at the loss of first blood.

  Colin’s first impulse was to howl in victory and take possession of his prize—who was on the other side of the bushes. The emotions emanating from her were anything but simpering delight in having been defended by a champion Prime of Clan Reynard. He’d made the decision that she would never know about vampires when they first met, and he fought off the impulse to change his mind now.

  Colin closed his eyes and took a few moments to calm down. He shook from adrenaline and need, but he balled his fists and wouldn’t move. His body screamed at him that he was crazy—she was so very close—he should drag her down on the grass and take her!

  “Colin!”

  “Go!” he shouted.

  Mia stuck her head through the gap in the hedge, framing her face in hibiscus blossoms. “What are you doing here?”

  He’d managed to draw in his fangs and claws just in time. He slapped his mental shields in place, not wanting to give in to what he felt. He didn’t want to know what she felt, either, not in the vivid way of his kind.

  He stepped forward, relentlessly making her move backward until they were both back on the sidewalk. He could sense the racing of her heart.

  He put a hand on her arm. As dangerous as it was to touch her, he kept hold of her and made her walk with him toward her house. “I told you to get out of here, Luchese.”

  “What are you doing here, Foxe?” she repeated.

  “Saving your ass—as usual.”

  “I was doing fine before you showed up.”

  “I’ve heard that before.”

  “You’re the one who could have been—”

  “Could have been what?” he demanded when she bit off her words.

  She shook her head. “Shouldn’t you be chasing the bad guy?” she countered. “Officer.”

  “I will, after I escort you home. Ma’am.”

  “That isn’t necessary.”

  “No. But I think I left some CDs at your place,” he offered as an excuse. “I stopped by to see if you had them.”

  “Anything you might have left, I burned, or used as target practice.”

  “That’s fair enough.”

  Colin glanced at the sky as they walked. Dawn wasn’t that far off. Most Tribe Primes made a point of perverse pride in not taking the daylight drugs that allowed Primes like Colin to emulate mortal existence. Mia would be safe from dawn until dusk. And by nightfall, Colin would have tracked down the Tribe scum who had dared to try to touch her. He’d have to inform the local Matri and elders right away that at least one Tribe was playing the old games in Clan territory; then he could get on with his own hunt.

  He would not love this woman, but he would protect her.

  It was his fault the Tribe Prime had chosen her as a victim. Though Colin hadn’t shared his blood with Mia, they had shared an intense physical relationship. Though she wasn’t aware of it, Mia was psychic, and they had sometimes touched on that level, as well. The residue of that sharing was what kept Colin coming back over and over, while he waited for the connection to fade.

  That residue must also have been sensed by the Tribe Prime. In the old days, when the Clans, Families, and Tribes fought one another, the Tribes counted coup by stealing mortal lovers from Clan or Family enemies. The world was supposedly a safer and more peaceful place for vampires these days, but the Tribes were still vicious, unpredictable bastards.

  And it was going to be a pleasure to kill the one who’d attacked Mia.

  Mia drew more in on herself with each step, her silence stubborn and angry. She would not glance his way. She suffered his touch, but tried to pretend he wasn’t even there. She certainly didn’t want him there.

  He deliberately didn’t talk about the attack. She hadn’t mentioned any details about it, and if she’d seen anything as outrageous as fangs or glowing eyes, she’d likely put it down to her imagination or stage makeup. After all, this was Hollywood, where anything was possible. And no sane person believed that vampires really existed.

  When they reached her gate, he let her go, though the gesture automatically turned into a caress down the length of her arm. He was too aware of her shiver, and the way her skin heated at his touch. His own breath caught as desire curled through him. They both took a quick step back. His fingers slowly reached to touch her cheek without conscious volition, but at the last moment, she turned her head away.

  “Go away,” she said, voice tight and barely audible. “Just go away.”

  It hurt to hear the words, far more than he thought it could. But he could do nothing but obey her. After all, it was what he wanted, as well.

  Mia couldn’t breathe for a few moments because of the tears that choked her throat.

  How dare the gorgeous bastard show up and save her life again?

  She fumbled at the latch, and n
early fell through to the other side when it opened. She slammed it behind her as hard as she could. The wrought-iron gate shrieked on its hinges, and bounced back to hit her on the wrist.

  She welcomed the sharp pain. It helped clear her head of everything but the memory of his touch, the cocky confidence in the way he moved, the dark red hair that framed his angular face, the heavy arch of eyebrows over the darkest eyes in the world, the way she missed his body covering hers, the sound of his voice, the heat of his kisses.

  The way he’d left her for no reason at all.

  She swore, and clutched the aching wrist in her other hand. “Have to ice this,” she murmured. She went into the house, and made herself think of more important things than Colin Foxe.

  Vampires, for example.

  Vampires were far more important to someone of her ancestry than obsessing over a callous, uncaring, total jerk like Foxe.

  Still, whatever his faults, Colin was a human, and she was glad the vampire hadn’t hurt him. No human deserved to be attacked by a vampire.

  It had been a vampire that attacked her, she had no doubt. The pale-haired monster had been a thing of unearthly beauty, looking rather like Legolas gone bad. It had smiled at her, showing long, bright fangs. It had been overwhelmingly male, and utterly repellant.

  My species, right or wrong, she thought, going into the kitchen.

  She’d known vampires existed all of her life, but she hadn’t known if she’d come into contact with them. Her mother’s family had been vampire hunters for hundreds of years, and passed the knowledge down from generation to generation. But nobody in the Garrison family had actually hunted vampires for a long time. Nobody had staked a vampire’s heart, or cut off its head, since her grandmother’s grandparents, she thought. Mia wasn’t even sure how accurate anything her grandmother had told her was. She’d read some old records and family diaries, stuff that made the exploits in Dracula seem asinine. But the glory days were gone. Apparently there was some kind of truce in effect with the monsters, and most of the hunter families had gotten out of the business of protecting humankind.