Chapter
24
Kaitlyn stared at Zack.
“What?”
“You heard me. Let’s go hunting
together.”
She stared at him, speechless. Was he
serious? A part of her was excited by the idea, another part was
repelled. It was one thing to share blood with Zack in the intimacy
of their relationship, quite another to feed from someone with him
there, watching. Aside from sexual intercourse, which she had not
yet experienced, she couldn’t imagine anything as intimate or
private as hunting.
“Come on,” he coaxed, tugging on her
hand. “It’ll be fun.”
“Fun!” she exclaimed. “You think
hunting is fun?”
“Don’t you?”
She shook her head. It was necessary,
it was satisfying, but it had never been fun.
“Have you ever gone hunting?” Zack
asked. “Aside from those times with your father?”
“Rarely. It seems so . . . undignified.
So . . . feral.” Truth be told, it embarrassed her.
He laughed softly. “Feral? Yeah, I
guess hunting does tend to bring out the beast in me.” He stroked
her cheek with his forefinger. “You don’t like that feeling of
power, of being in total control?”
“Well, I’ve never really thought of it
like that.” Hunting with her father had been remarkably
civilized.
“And you call yourself a vampire!” Zack
chided gently. “Come on, Katy, give in to your wild
side.”
Hunting with Zack. How could she
refuse? Just thinking about it awakened something buried deep
within her, something that had been dormant for far too
long.
He grinned, seeing the excitement in
her eyes. “Stay close, Katy darlin’.”
“Zack, wait.”
“Come on, don’t tell me you’ve changed
your mind?”
“What if . . . what if I can’t control
myself? I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“Trust me. I won’t let that
happen.”
“Some vampires turn into savage
killers. How do I know that won’t happen to me? Alcoholics don’t
know they’re going to be alcoholics until they take that first
drink.”
“Believe me, Katy, you’re not the type
to turn into some ravenous monster. For one thing, you’re only half
vampire. I don’t think you were born with a killer
instinct.”
“When I drank from you, I didn’t want
to stop.”
“That was different. You’ll see.” He
squeezed her hand again. “Are you game?”
“No, I’m the hunter.”
He laughed. “Great. Let’s
go.”
Still uncertain she was doing the right
thing, she trailed behind him as he moved through the meadow, as
silent as smoke. She had expected him to head for the houses
clustered in the valley, but he glided past them and moved
on.
It took her a moment to realize he was
headed for the small town located a few miles away.
“Open your senses, Katy. Feel the
darkness around you. Let it become a part of you. Smell the trees,
the grass. Listen to the heartbeat of the night. Do you hear that?
There’s an animal in the brush just to your left. Can you hear its
heartbeat?”
Katy did as he said, surprised at how
different the world was when she concentrated on using her vampire
senses. Her preternatural power was something she had never fully
tapped into, preferring to think of herself as human.
It was as if someone had removed
blinders from her eyes and unstopped her ears. The world was alive
with sounds and sights and smells she had never truly appreciated
until now. Everything seemed brighter, more alive. She saw things
more clearly—each individual leaf on the trees in front of her,
each blade of grass beneath her feet, each rock, the cricket
chirping on top of the rock. Even the air seemed to smell
different, fragrant with the scent of foliage and earth and meadow.
Why had she suppressed this side of herself for so long? Why hadn’t
her father told her it could be like this?
Lost in thought, she was surprised to
see the town ahead. Only then did she realize how fast Zack had
been moving, and how easily she had kept up with him.
“Close your eyes and concentrate,” he
said, slowing to a stop. “What do you hear?”
She frowned at him, but did as he
asked. “I hear a dog barking. A man snoring. A baby crying. Music
coming from down the street . . .” She licked her lips. “Hearts
beating,” she murmured, and felt her own speed up with
anticipation. Why had she never noticed before how seductive that
sound was? The scent of fresh blood moving through veins and
arteries, the rhythmic beating of hearts, jolted through her like
electricity.
Opening her eyes, she stared at
Zack.
He grinned at her, as if he knew
exactly what she was feeling. And maybe he did.
“Come on.” Taking her by the hand, Zack
led her down the dark streets. With each step she took, the steady
thrumming grew louder, stronger.
“Where are we going?” she
asked.
“There’s an after-hours nightclub on
the next block. Easy pickin’s.”
They were passing by an alley when Zack
came to an abrupt halt.
“What is it?” Kaitlyn
asked.
“Hear that?”
She cocked her head to the side.
“Someone’s crying in the alley.”
Zack nodded. “It’s a
woman.”
“We’ve got to help her,” Kaitlyn
said.
Before he could stop her, Kaitlyn
darted into the passage.
With a shake of his head, Zack followed
her.
The woman was curled up in a ball in
front of two Dumpsters about halfway down the alley. Judging from
the smell, neither Dumpster had been emptied lately.
Kaitlyn hurried toward the woman. “Are
you all right?” she asked, kneeling beside her.
“He beat me up,” the woman
sobbed.
Kaitlyn looked up at Zack. “We have to
do something.” “Yeah.” Zack darted forward, one hand closing around
the throat of the man who had stepped out of the shadows behind the
nearest Dumpster, his other hand plucking the gun from the man’s
fist.
The woman sprang to her feet and took
off running.
“Get her!” Zack said.
Kaitlyn stared at Zack, speechless.
“What?”
“Go after her.”
With a grin, Kaitlyn broke into a run.
The woman was fast but she was no match for a vampire. Kaitlyn
passed her easily, then stood in the mouth of the alley, blocking
the way. The woman shrieked and began backpedaling.
Not certain what to do, Kaitlyn grabbed
the woman’s arm and led her back to where Zack stood.
“Dinner is served,” he said,
grinning.
Kaitlyn glanced at the woman, who
stared at her through wide, frightened eyes. “You mean . . .
?”
He nodded. “Which do you want? The man,
or the woman?”
Kaitlyn blinked at Zack. Did he mean
for them to feed here, in the open? “What if someone comes
by?”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll hear
anyone coming long before they see us. So, the man or the
woman?”
“The man.” He was of medium height,
with short blond hair and brown eyes. And he was AB
negative.
With a nod, Zack took the woman into
his arms. She murmured, “Don’t, please don’t,” as he brushed the
hair away from her neck.
He stared into the woman’s eyes.
“Relax,” he told her, then looked at Kaitlyn. “I mesmerized the
man. He won’t fight you. Just do what comes naturally, Katy. You’ll
know when to stop.”
She couldn’t stop watching Zack,
noticing how gently he held the woman, how he spoke a few
reassuring words to her before he bent his head to the woman’s
neck.
The scent of fresh warm blood drifted
in the air, making Kaitlyn’s mouth water.
The woman’s eyelids fluttered down and
she moaned softly, not with pain, but with pleasure.
A sharp stab of jealousy pricked
Kaitlyn’s heart. Suddenly angry, she took the man in her arms, her
nostrils filling with the smell of his after-shave. Taking a deep
breath, she took Zack’s advice, closed her eyes, and did what came
naturally.
After the first taste, she knew she
would never be satisfied with bagged blood again.
“So, what do you think?” Zack asked as
they walked back to the Fortress. Earlier, he had wiped the minds
of the man and the woman and sent them on their way.
“It was”—she spread her arms
wide—“amazing. I never knew it could be like that. I never knew I
could feel like that.” She twirled around, her arms still
outstretched. “I feel like I could fly.”
“Maybe you can,” he said,
laughing.
“You’re making fun of me.”
“Never.”
“I could read his mind, only it wasn’t
like other times. I’ve always been able to read minds, but this was
different. I knew what he was feeling, thinking, what he was afraid
of. Is it that way for you?”
“Yeah. This is probably going to sound
weird, me being a vampire and all, but I’ve saved a few lives in my
time by planting suggestions in the minds of my prey that they
didn’t want to kill themselves.”
“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“That’s amazing.”
He smiled, remembering the girl, Alice,
who had hopes of becoming a Hollywood star. She hadn’t been
suicidal, just lonely and depressed. Hopefully, she had gone home
and reunited with her family.
“Do you think the reason I can’t
dissolve into mist or do some of the other things my father can do
is because I’ve rarely fed on humans? Maybe I’d be stronger if I
fed more.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It makes sense. I
mean, you can’t expect to be at your full power when you’re denying
a basic part of what you are.”
“I guess you could be
right.”
“I’m always right, Katy.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I
don’t know why, but I’ve always been reluctant to embrace that side
of me,” she murmured, speaking more to herself than to him. “I
always knew what my father was and I accepted it as normal, you
know, the same way I knew and accepted what my mother was.” She
frowned. “Maybe I played down the vampire part because I wanted to
be more like my mother, because I knew my father had chosen a
mortal woman for his wife, and I wanted him to love me,
too.”
“I’m sure he loves you.”
“Oh, I know he does. But maybe, deep
down, I thought he’d love me more if I was mortal, like my mother.”
She laughed self-consciously. “I guess I’m being
silly.”
“Not at all. We all want our parents’
approval.”
“Did you?”
“I would have, if I’d known them. My
mother died in childbirth. My father refused to have anything to do
with me.” Zack snorted softly. “I was raised by nuns until I was
twelve, and then I ran away. I’ve been on my own ever
since.”
“Oh, Zack, I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.” Over six
hundred years, he mused. But it still rankled that his father had
dumped him off at a convent in the middle of the
night.
They walked in silence for a time. Lost
in her own thoughts, Kaitlyn wasn’t immediately aware that Zack was
no longer beside her.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw him
standing as still as a stone, his eyes narrowed, his nostrils
flared. “What is it?” she asked, starting back toward
him.
“Shh. There’s another vampire nearby.
One of your kind.”
Kaitlyn glanced around. Had her father
followed them? But no, it wasn’t her father. She didn’t stop to
wonder how she knew it was someone else.
She gasped when Zack grabbed her by the
arm and pushed her behind him. Before she could ask what he was
doing, she caught a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye.
A moment later, a tall man wielding a sword materialized in front
of Zack.
“Give me the woman,” he demanded, “and
I will let you live.”
“No way.” Zack rocked back on his
heels, his gaze intent on the other man’s face.
“You can give her to me,” the man said,
“or I will kill you and take her.”
“You can try to take her,” Zack replied, “or
you can die
now.”
The other man’s eyes
narrowed.
It was obvious to Zack that the
stranger had not expected any resistance. And just as obvious that
he didn’t know Zack was also a vampire.
The other man didn’t waste time
arguing. He lunged forward, his sword making a swishing sound as it
sliced cleanly through the air.
Kaitlyn watched in horror as the blade
cut through the place where Zack had been standing mere seconds
before.
Only Zack was now behind his attacker.
Kaitlyn whirled away as the stranger lunged toward her. He hadn’t
taken more than a few steps when Zack snatched the sword from the
other man’s hand and drove it through his chest.
The man staggered backward, his heart
pierced, front and back, by his own weapon. He stared at Kaitlyn,
his expression faintly bemused before he toppled to the
ground.
Kaitlyn let out the breath she hadn’t
realized she had been holding, felt her stomach clench when Zack
pulled the sword from the other man’s body, and lopped off his
head.
She turned away, sickened by the
sight.
“Katy, we need to go. There may be
others.”
“The . . . the body. We can’t just
leave it. . . .”
“Yes, we can. I need to get you out of
here.”
Feeling numb, she started to walk. She
had gone only a few steps when Zack swung her into his arms. She
felt an odd sensation, as if she was flying.
When the world righted itself, they
were in her room in the Fortress.
Zack set her on her feet, his hands
folding over her shoulders to steady her. “Are you all
right?”
She stared at him, her face pale, her
body trembling. “You could have been killed.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t. Are you all
right?”
“No, but I will be.”
“Did you recognize that
guy?”
“He was one of us, wasn’t he? I mean,
like me. A Romanian vampire.”
Zack nodded. It seemed odd that he
could sense her kind when she couldn’t. Of course, he hadn’t been
able to detect them, either, until he identified their particular
scent, which made him wonder why Kaitlyn couldn’t detect it. The
only thing he could think of was that her human blood somehow
blocked it.
Kaitlyn blinked, her mind clearing as
the initial horror faded. “We need to tell my father about this
right away.”
She didn’t wait for Zack’s reply, just
took his hand and hurried out the door.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he
muttered as they went to find her father.