Hide & Seek: Games and Fangs (Ravana Moon #2), page 8
“Where are you going?” He spun around when my hand touched the door handle.
“You're not talking, and I’m not getting anything done standing here watching you wear a hole in the floor. I’m going to check on Ravana.”
“She’s fine. Give it an hour or two, and she’ll be back to her old spit-fire self.”
“Then what is with the pacing?”
“The hellhounds.”
“What about them? Red said they weren’t just hounds?”
“Whoever is breeding them is doing so to kill her.”
“How do you know that?”
“They have our DNA.”
Ours, as in our blood is running through a litter of hellhounds. Animals that are running rampant through the streets killing families of innocents.
“Does that mean what I think it means?”
“Yes, Mo. There are hellhound-vampires out there. And…I’ll bet you twenty to one that they are not just killing families, but making one.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Those innocent people—. They should just post a neon sign on their grave sites.”
“It’s so obvious we didn’t catch on until Red almost died. This is getting out of hand.”
Emerick finally sat down on top of one of the sterling tables. Something fell to the floor, and a small explosion erupted causing him to land on the floor in the opposite direction. The room was a mess. The table blew in half, the windows shattered out of the frames, and the chilly autumn air wafted through. For nighttime in Seattle, the atmosphere was dry, and when the leaves rustled along in the wind, they made more noise than the explosion.
“What the bloody hell was that?”
A familiar voice came from the doorway, and I was almost happy to see my friend standing there with his mate by his side.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“That red-head of yours said I could pop in anytime. If a certain need came around.”
“Yeah? Like?”
“Like the need I have.”
Emerick dusted himself off and tried to fix the table. Giving up he let it drop back on the floor when Delia entered the room. “What is going on in here?”
“How did they get in?” Emerick asked her, wiping the black dust from his hands.
Delia looked from me to Emerick and back again. “I let them in. He has Ravana’s card.”
“Don’t you think it’s an inconvenient time to be recruiting Order lackey’s?”
“Hey, I’m not here to be anyone’s lackey.”
“No, I don’t,” Delia said, obviously ignoring Nunzio’s outburst. “She would want me to let him in. Seeing what goes on during a crisis is when they know if they can handle the job.”
“Great.” Emerick stomped his way from the room. I could hear him leave the apartment, but wondered if he was going to seclude himself in the lab downstairs or to head back home.
“Seriously, Massimo. What’s his deal?”
“That’s Emerick, the Ancient One. He’s always like that.”
I left them all standing in the lab staring at the mess Delia’s project left behind. She could clean it up since she was the one who left it out in the first place.
I blurred to the bedroom door and walked to the bathroom. When Ravana started talking, I stopped and sat by her side on the bed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Me? With my hands but feeling in my feet is coming back too.” Red tried to laugh, and I only shook my head.
“I’m serious. Your insides were falling out. Now, I know I’m supposed to be some wild beast, but when the woman I love is falling apart, literally...well, let’s just say it’s not an easy sight to see.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Believe me, I would have loved to keep any of that from happening.”
“How do you feel? Really.”
“Fine.”
My eyebrows tilted, and I could feel the scowl on my face deepen.
“I feel fine. Trust me. I don’t know what it is, but from the moment that thing’s fangs slid into me, I didn’t feel any pain.”
“No pain?”
“Nope, none.”
“Wait, you said fangs.”
“Yes, fangs.” She winced as she tried to sit up and I helped guide her, adjusting her pillows.
“So, Emerick is right. Those things are made with vampire DNA.”
“I don’t know what they are made with, but yes, they were turned. It was crazy. I saw it bite into me, but didn’t feel a thing.”
The realization of it set in that the playing field had significantly changed. Not only were we in search of whoever created the animals in question, but we needed to find out what those things were capable of. I’d never heard of a vampire beast before. Though I didn’t suppose anyone had ever tried to create one. Delia was right. Having Nunzio and his mate join on was a good idea. Unless he decided it was too much work to risk his hide.
Chapter Eleven
Ravana
Listening to Emerick and Massimo bicker was beyond the point of nerve-wracking. I couldn’t take it anymore. Being the one in charge seemed to have changed for me once the two of them figured out I was being singled out. I supposed neither of them wanted to see my insides again. I knew I didn’t. However, I did want to test a theory.
As a vampire, I’d come to think of myself as a supercharged human. Since not much about me had changed, except my hair and the fact I needed to infuse myself to keep my blood count high, I didn’t feel much different from when I was living. After the attack, I realized something changed all that.
Massimo finally left my side. Opting to find information the old-fashion way, through direct contact with his known bad-guy friends. Emerick was downstairs in the new lab. State of the art with everything Delia and now Emerick could have asked for. Those two alchemist nerds were in their element. I had no idea what an autoclave was, and not much interested in finding out. I was going to tag along with Massimo, but had been refused the option of going outdoors.
As the head of the Order, it would not do for me to wind up dead only a few weeks after taking over. Besides, I was waiting for a very special delivery. Until it arrived, I wanted to do a little experiment of my own.
I closed myself up in my bathroom and turned the overhead spray on for the shower. If Delia happened to come back to check on me, she wouldn’t walk in on me naked. Of course, now that I knew her sexual orientation, the looks she used to give me felt a bit different. I supposed it was possible she wasn’t upset for my antics at all.
I had to suppress a giggle as I pulled a small box of sewing needles from a drawer in the bathroom. I held one of my smallest diamond studs in the palm of my hand and opted to forgo the disinfectant. I hardly needed it.
With one shove of the needle the hole was open. I took the diamond stud and replaced the needle with it, careful to make sure the backing went on.
“What are you doing?” Emerick waltzed into my bathroom.
“Well, it’s a good thing I wasn’t actually showering.” I placed both hands on my hips to try and draw attention there and away from what I’d just done.
“So, what if you were. I know you’re not modest, Anna.”
I could feel the heat in my face, which had nothing to do with the temperature of the steam rising from the shower, but I reached in and shut off the tap. “I’ve asked you not to call me that.”
“Why not? It’s your name. The name of the woman I fell in love with.”
“It’s the name of a dead girl. What are you doing in here?”
“Wondering why you pierced your nose.”
“Before you walked in without knocking?”
“I’m just checking on you. Am I no longer entitled to worry about you?”
I spun around so I didn’t have to look at him, but it was no use. The mirror covering the entire wall behind the double sinks told me he was still standing there and inching forward. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what? You want me to pretend that you and Mo together does not bother me? That I do not love you anymore now, than when we were married. Goodness, Anna. You’re my wife.”
I turned on a heel and raised a pointed finger to his chest. Poking him as I spoke. “No, Anna was human. A human girl married you, and then you killed her and made her a monster.”
“I didn’t kill you. He did. I brought you back so you and I could be together forever. That was always the plan, but I was going to give you a choice. Liam took that choice away. Not me. And now he has you believing all his lies.”
“His lies? I remember everything, Emerick.”
“Everything? Do you remember him getting so angry that he threw you across a tavern? Your body broke three tables and went through a wall. Your father and I thought you were dead then. It was only a miracle that you were breathing, and your heart still beat.”
“If you had not taken him from me, and made him, he and I would have married. We would have been happy. I would have…”
“Died. A long time ago.”
“At least I wouldn’t be this. You should have let me die that day.”
I pushed him from my way. His body moved through the shower wall and into the next before he stopped. I was in the elevator before he caught up to me.
“Anna, wait.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“It’s your name.”
“No, it’s not. You killed Anna. It was your fault. She died, I awoken. My name is Ravana now. If you don’t like it, then you're free to leave and never repeat it.” I punched the elevator wall, the button to close the doors lit up and he wisely stepped back, letting the double doors slide shut.
Cool air enveloped me as I stepped out of the doors to the Tower. I knew being out meant I was a walking bullseye, but I put up my glamour and headed for the nearest bar with a view. What I got was a small hole in the wall with a picture of an overflowing dumpster. A few bottles of 151 proof rum would make me forget all about the scenery and focus on mental healing. Since my experiment proved to me one thing. I could feel no physical pain, but the emotional…that was stronger than ever.
Who was I kidding? Since Emerick had shown himself, I had been at war with the memories of what happened and the memories of things I still couldn’t remember. Did I recall Liam attacking me in the tavern? I could not focus. By the third bottle, I was slumped low in a booth in the back of the large room filled with smoke and music too loud for me to think. The stench of the filth in the place should have been enough to cover up my sent, but when a hand grabbed my shoulder, I knew it was not enough.
I suddenly remembered something from my childhood. The smell of cedar, and dirt. My father's rough, calloused hands as he picked me up to cradle me in his arms after I’d fallen into a hunting trap. I wasn’t hurt, but I was crying. I didn’t want him to think I was too young, too weak, or too much of a girl to be strong like him and my brothers. I wanted him to train me. To be a hunter.
“Girls don’t hunt,” my brother used to taunt me. He’d been relentless, and to get away from him I had barreled ass into the woods, tears in my eyes and not paying attention to where I was going.
“Little bird, you're going to break yourself in two if you get stuck in a bear trap.”
“Sorry, pa. I just couldn’t listen to Andrew anymore. He makes me so mad. So mad that I…”
“Cry. Just like your mamma. A heart of gold, and hands like silk. You can kill the toughest things with just one touch.”
“Hardly. I need to train. With a real sword.”
He dusted me off and set me down on my feet. Producing a scabbard from his workbench, he held it up. “This is a very dangerous weapon. It belonged to your grandmother. She was a fierce fighter. I expect you will be too, someday.”
When he pulled the sword from the sheath, he twisted it at the handle, and the sword he held became two. “The butterfly. So, you always have backup if you need it.”
“Butterfly.” My own voice snapped me back to the present as I was lowered into my bed. I rolled over and pulled the covers to my head. I looked up to thank Massimo, but he’d already left. I was in the dark of my room, all alone with nothing to keep me company but the memories I had long forgotten.
When I finally woke the next evening, I realized I had wasted away a perfect evening to do a few things. Having a pity party because I was being forced to work with Emerick had never been at the top of my ‘To Do’ list. I shouldn’t have let him get to me.
Several acquisitions had to be taken care of. The France office was having a hard time with the change in management. More so with the accusations against Amanda. I was still having a hard time believing she was responsible for the breach. There was no way she was a PCI operative. Kelly swore as much to Delia, though I doubt I’d get her to speak to the prisoner again. I’d have to do the grunt work and take a walk down to the prison.
When I woke, Massimo was nowhere to be seen. The space in the bed next to me was still warm. That led me to believe he’d only gotten up a few minutes before. After a quick toss up in my closet, I would go in search of him. Looking around the shelves I hadn’t the same feeling for my wardrobe as I had before all of this started. A pair of skin-tight jeans, my signature white blouse and a red tank top underneath was my choice for the day. I grabbed the nearest heels, dropping them along with my clothes on the bed and stalked my way through my apartment in one of Massimo’s t-shirts.
Finding Massimo wasn’t hard. He handed me a fresh cup of coffee in a ceramic mug as I entered the kitchen.
“Where did this come from?” I examined the cup in my hand which read, world’s greatest boss.
“It was in your cupboard. Don’t you know what’s in there?”
“I assumed it was empty. I’ve never had the need for such things.”
“They were left from the previous occupants. The coffee maker, I purchased some years back, but you never liked the coffee I made. The coffee house down the street just seemed easier,” Delia added to the conversation as she materialized from the hall leading from the library.
“Delightful. So, why am I handed coffee from this maker now? If I didn’t like it then, I’m pretty sure I won’t like it now.”
“Easy, I made it. So, you’ll love it. Besides, after whatever it was you were drinking last night, I assume you need a strong couple of cups anyway.”
Considering he had a point I just moved the rim of the mug to my lips and took a sip. It was dark, rich and smooth. All the things coffee should be. I decided Massimo could make me coffee whenever he would like, but I would not give him the satisfaction of telling him that just yet.
“So, do you want to tell me why you ran off last night, and why you went to get drunk? Anyone could have attacked you in that state.”
“Yes, but they didn’t. I’m home safe and sound.”
“I suppose, but the how is still a complete mystery. They could have killed you without a fight.”
“Maybe the hounds don’t like the smell of rum.”
“Maybe but do me a favor and don’t do that again. Not until you're better, and you have backup.”
“Yes, Father.” I stood rolling my eyes and decided he was right as the room spun. Being a vampire, I could have drunk myself silly and felt a mild case of a buzz into the wee hours of the morning. With the semi-human DNA still in my body keeping me half and half, I cannot even recall Massimo lifting me from that booth and bringing me to bed. If the headache I had was any indication of how miserable I would be for the rest of the night, I’d vow not to drink as much ever again.
Still, images of my father from long ago kept swirling around in my mind that I just couldn’t shake. I hadn’t been able to remember him for so long, and now that I could all the memories wanted to surface all at once. I couldn’t remember missing my family more than I did now that I had those memories back. I silently wished they would go away again. It was too late to miss something that had been gone from me for so long. My life was what it was. It was as if a small bit of my humanity had come back to me with each new remembrance of my family, and I did not want it.
No, I wanted the ruthless part of me that didn’t give a damn. I’d gone soft, and that alone was what got me torn to bits. If Emerick hadn’t come along like he always did, I’d be dust. I couldn’t let that happen. Too many people in the company were now dependent on me. I also couldn’t let Emerick get the upper hand by being my savior. Of course, he wouldn’t want anything in return, but this was just one more arrow he’d been there to throw.
I downed the coffee, ignoring the look on Massimo’s face as I stood and headed for the shower. Thankfully he didn’t stop me. Fortunately for me, he began to strip from his clothes as he followed behind. I needed a release. Raw and debilitating.
As his naked form slid behind me in the shower, I let the heat of his body warm me with the hot water. My shoulders squared while I found the feeling I usually kept with me on hunts, and even better, during play time. I knew using Massimo like that wasn’t fair. Knew he wouldn’t even mind it. However, our coming together meant more to him than it did for me at that moment. He had love in his eyes. A feeling I thought vampires couldn’t produce. It was always lust and forlorn sex. Never anything more. I was feeling it. Little by little every time he held me. Though as his hands snaked around my torso and reached up to cup my breasts, I lost that feeling. Only the lust stayed. The need, and desire to be plunged into by a madman ready to take what he wanted. I liked it rough.
Even as his finger began to pinch and roll my nipples, my body bucked back into his. The water hitting me in the face. I looked up closing my eyes to the spray and let the heat wash over me. Massimo’s cock hardened between my ass cheeks, and I pushed back into him. My hand reached behind his head and the other sought out his member, stroking it slowly. As my fingers entangled in his hair, his hands reached down to my core. His fingers spread my lips and dove into me. A slow seductive trail of kisses met my neck with just a slight nip of teeth.
