A Grave Hunger (23 page)

"You haven't been a hybrid long. Everything is new to you. You said that you couldn't even be around humans when you were first turned, and now you can be around fresh blood without it bothering you. You have come so far since then. This is just something else you need to work on. Something for us to practise." She smiled so seductively that I almost agreed.

"Do you think I would take that risk with you? Can you imagine what it would do to me if I hurt you?"

She was silent so long that I thought she wasn't going to reply. "You could never hurt me, Finlay."

"You have too much faith in me."

"My faith in you is deserved. You have proven to me more than once what kind of man you are, and I have no doubt that you will overcome this because that's the kind of person you are."

"This is instinctual. You can't overcome what is ingrained in your body. It's like telling a human to overcome the need for oxygen." I sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted. My head pounded and every bone in my body ached. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, and rested my head in my hands. My headache had worsened. It had spread from my temples to surround my entire head. It felt as though a brass band had taken up residence in my skull.

"We can talk about this later. You need to rest. Come on, I'll help you back into bed." Hearing her voice, I looked up. She stood and offered me her hand, pulling me to my feet. Ducking under my arm to take my weight, we made our way back upstairs. She helped me back into bed, gently pulling the covers over me.

She hovered beside the bed, looking sheepish and shifting her weight from foot to foot. Her face flushed as she spoke. "Do you need me to get you any blood? You probably won't heal properly until you feed."

I felt conflicted. It would be wise to feed since I was going to be around Leah, but I was reluctant to involve her any further in this. In the end, it was common sense that won over self-preservation.

"Yeah, I need blood."

"Ok, I'll get some at the butchers when they open. Good night," she said as she closed the door behind her.

Chapter 38

I awoke with a pounding headache and a feeling I had slept too long. What time was it? I groped for my watch that I had left on the bed side table.

I cursed out loud. I had slept to 3pm. Bright sunlight was streaming in through the cracks in the curtain. The air was stifling, the room stuffy. Another hot day in the city. I pulled myself from bed. The pain had not receded since last night. In fact, if anything, it was worse. My muscles felt stiff from sleeping too long, and sharp, white hot spears of pain shot threw my torso with every movement.

I shuffled over to the mirror. Time hadn't helped my appearance either. I looked like I was wearing a Halloween mask. My left eye was so swollen that I couldn't open it more than a few millimetres. Deep purple, mottled skin darkened each eye. My broken nose was swollen to twice its normal size. Yeah, I would definitely scare some kids looking like this.

I heard the floorboards creak as Leah made her way up the stairs. She knocked at the door moments later.

"You awake?" Leah whispered as she popped her head around the door. She winced, face pulled into a grimace when she saw me. "I'm not going to ask you how you are feeling. You look like you have been run over by a steam roller."

"Thanks, you know how to make a guy feel good about himself." I laughed, regretting the action instantly, as it shot a further flash of pain round my body. I may have looked like hell, but Leah certainly didn't. I felt the usual stirring of desire as I looked at her. She was so beautiful that it sometimes took my breath away. Feeling the heat from the hot weather, she had on very little: a short sun dress that hugged her curves and showed off her toned body. The tight material clung to her chest, luring my gaze to her cleavage. I fought against the urge to run my hands over the curves of her breasts. I made myself to look elsewhere.

"Back to bed," she ordered, pointing a finger to the bed. "I'll bring you some food."

"Yes, ma'am!" I saluted as I shuffled back to bed. "I could get used to this treatment."

"Don't get too used to it." She laughed. "I'm going to have to change your dressings as well."

"You gonna give me a sponge bath, too?"

"If you're good, I might just do that." She flashed me a smile so seductive that it left me panting for breath, and my heart pounding in my chest.

Leah appeared twenty minutes later carrying a tray filled with food: an omelette, fruit with yoghurt, orange juice, and an ominous looking package encased inside a brown paper bag. She had been to the butchers then. Even through the sealed container I could smell the blood. I felt the familiar ache in my throat, the knotting in my stomach, the watering of my mouth. I fought against the instinct to transform.

"I can't believe you made breakfast. In all the time I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you cook anything." I screwed up my face in a look of disgust. "You're not going to give me food poisoning are you?" I flashed her a grin to show that I was only joking.

The impact of her scowl was betrayed by the smile pulling at her lips. "Hey, don't think I won't kick your ass just because you’re hurt."

"This is great, Leah. Thanks."

"No problem. I've been to the butchers too." She sat the tray on the bedside table. "I'll leave you in peace to eat."

I was relieved for the space that she was giving me, not wanting her around for what would happen next. I reached over and pulled out the glass container from the brown paper bag. Opening the lid, I felt the familiar feeling of my teeth descending. I quickly chugged down the contents, not stopping to perform my usual self-deprecating routine. The moment the coppery liquid touched my lips, I instantly felt better. I could almost feel the strength return to every cell of my body. As the blood made its way into my blood stream and around my body, it healed and repaired each cell. I got out of bed and crossed to the mirror. Already my injuries were looking better. The bruising under my eyes was turning from a deep purple to light lavender. I tentatively touched my broken nose. It was still tender, but the searing pain and the swelling had subsided.

My stomach growled, and I realised I was starving. Returning to bed, I devoured the omelet that Leah had made. Now that I was fed and watered, I felt pretty good. The pain had now almost completely disappeared. Leah appeared back in the room thirty minutes later. She stopped short when she saw me.

"My god, you have almost completely healed. Thirty minutes ago you looked like hell, and now there's barely a scratch on you." She came closer to get a better look. She ran her fingers over my quickly fading black eye. My skin tingled deliciously under her soft touch.

"How do you feel? Any pain?"

"A bit of tenderness and my back feels pretty stiff, but I feel pretty good all things considered."

"The blood heals you quickly. Strange." She muttered the words under her breath. "What about your other injuries?" She dropped her hands and started slowly peeling off the dressings on my chest, throwing the soiled, blood-stained bandages into the nearby bin. She turned me around and repeated the process on my back.

"Amazing. These wounds look like they have been healing for at least a week." Her fingers continued to trace the faded scars on my back, gently running her finger tips over my skin in patterns. I lost myself in the sensation. Her fingers drifted to my lower back, where her thumbs kneaded the muscles firmly in small circles. I low groan escaped my lips. I didn't protest as she pulled me over to lie face down on the bed. I felt her straddle my waist and lean over me, her hands sweeping over my skin, massaging and kneading my tight muscles. I felt the tension of the last few months ebb away under her skilled touch.

"Better?"

My answer was a satisfied grumble. Her hands glided from my lower back up to my shoulders, her body pressing against my back as she did so. Shivers of desire flashed through me as she kissed from my neck down my spine. Hot waves of need flickered down to my groin as she traced patterns on my skin with her tongue. I rolled over onto my back, so that I could face her.

"Leah, we can't." She ignored my comment, leaning over to silence me with a kiss. I pushed aside my worries and concerns for a moment, enjoying the kiss. My hands reached to tangle through her hair, pulling her closer.

"Leah, please." I groaned as she broke off to kiss down my neck and chest.

"I need you, Finlay. You have no idea how hard these last few months have been being away from you," she said in between kisses.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her upwards so I could look into her eyes. "Leah ...." The words stilled on my lips. She was so close to me, I could feel her warm breath skate across my skin. Her lips were so close to mine that I couldn't stop myself from touching them. I gave in, surrendered to it all. There was a flash of insanity where my body ruled over reason. I felt a rush of ecstasy as I pressed my lips to hers. The action sent every nerve alight. She tensed and pushed herself hard against my body as my tongue explored her mouth. I heard her breath hitch, as my arm wrapped around her body, rocking her harder against me. Blood pounded in my temples as the sound of her heartbeat rushed through my head. I clenched my hands into fists, trying to stay in control as our lips became more insistent, more forceful. A white, hot fire blazed in my veins, and I fought against the familiar feeling of my teeth beginning to descend in my mouth. I was beginning to lose control.

I roughly pushed her away from me.

"Leah, stop!" The words came out as a snarl. She stared at me, eyes wide with shock. I drew a long breath and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself. I wanted her so badly, hungered to feel her under my fingertips, to be inside her. It was more than just sex. I wanted to take comfort in her, be as close to her as humanly possible. But I wasn't human. I would hurt her, or worse. I had never hated myself as much as I did at this moment. "I can't do this."

I rose from the bed, avoiding eye contact and crossing to the wardrobe. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweater and quickly dressed. I took a deep breath and turned to face her. She tried to hide the hurt that my rejection had caused, but tears shone on her lashes.

"Leah, it’s too dangerous for us to be together. I could kill you." She didn't answer. She nodded solemnly, her shoulders sagging forward.

A loud pounding at the door broke the tension between us.

"I'd better get that." Not able to stand seeing the hurt in Leah's eyes any more, I rushed to the door. The pounding continued. Whoever was outside was relentless. Pulling open the door, I was met by a sight that had my senses on alert and sent my heart racing.

Chapter 39

I instantly tensed seeing the machete in Calhoun's hand. He had been there when I was turned, and knew what I was. Was he here to kill me? A part of me knew Calhoun, Ryan and Luke must be looking for me. It was their job to hunt down creatures like me. Calhoun couldn't have known that I was a hybrid and didn't hunt humans. As far as he was concerned, I was a monster, and he couldn't have an animal like me on the rampage.

Calhoun looked nervous, running his free hand over his scarred chin. Couldn't be easy for him here to kill one of his friends, and I almost felt sorry for him. Beside Calhoun stood a woman. She appeared as tense as Calhoun, and her hand hovered over the gun that was holstered on her hip. They both watched me carefully, gauging my reaction.

"You here to kill me, Calhoun?" I worked to keep my voice level.

"If we have to." It was the woman that answered. "That really depends on you, Finlay." Her voice could have frozen water.

"Well, it appears that you know who I am. Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Calhoun?"

Calhoun shuffled his feet nervously. "This is Sarah, we ... work together."

"And here I thought you had retired, Calhoun. Came out of retirement just to kill me?"

"Not quite. May we come in? I'll explain everything."

I pulled open the door, gesturing silently for them to enter. The woman never took her eyes from me, never letting her gaze drop from the threat.

"Leah, we have visitors," I said as I saw her appear at the top of the stairs. She picked up on my tone and was instantly on alert, eyes darting nervously. Knowing Leah, she was looking for the nearest weapon. I didn't blame her. We might need weapons depending on how this went. Although I was disgusted with what I had become, I wouldn't go down without a fight. I wouldn't leave Leah now that I had just got her back in my life, no matter how complicated things were between us.

We all shuffled into the living room, Sarah and Calhoun sitting on the couch, Leah and I facing them, sitting on the wooden coffee table.

"I think everyone needs to take a breath," Calhoun spoke first. The tension in the room hadn't escaped Calhoun's notice either. "We aren't here to kill you Finlay, we're here to help."

"You always feel the need to bring along weapons for a friendly chat?" Leah's voice had a hard edge to it.

"These are for our protection. We weren't sure what ... frame of mind Finlay would be in," Sarah answered, equally as icy. The two women glared at each other.

"Let's cut the crap. If you aren't here to kill me, why are you here?"

It was Calhoun that replied. "I know what you are Finlay. You're a hybrid."

"What do you know of hybrids?" I was starting to think that hybrids were common knowledge. Everyone seemed to know about us.

"I've known about hybrids for close to twenty years. I saw you back at the cave. You fed on animal blood, so you turned into a hybrid."

"Why didn't you say anything to me? Why didn't you tell me?" Leah's voice had become a shout. "You son of a bitch. You let me think he had turned into a bloodsucker, that he was one of them." Her body had begun to tremble, and pure fury rolled off her.

"I couldn't tell you, Leah. I didn't know if he was a danger. Hybrids are just as dangerous as vampires. They can't control their blood lust any more than a vampire can. I didn't want to confuse you or give you hope in case I still had to kill him."

"And what do you know of his blood lust?" Before I could react, she had bent forward, pulling a dagger that had been taped to the underside of the table. I grabbed her around the waist, thinking she meant to use it to attack Calhoun, but she surprised me. She dragged the blade swiftly across her forearm, and a thick stream of blood oozed from the wound. The scent hit me hard. I fought against the monster that was jubilant at the prospect of being released from the carefully constructed cell I had been keeping him in.

Sarah and Calhoun reacted quickly, both pulling their weapons, aiming them at me. When I didn't attack, they both looked at me, shocked.

"I wish you would have given me a warning before you did that." I forced my voice calm, placing a false smile on my lips. My hands clawed into fists, the knuckled strained and white, as I willed my body to calm.

Leah must have felt my tension. She looked at me, horrified, realising what she had done. She grabbed some tissues from the box behind her on the table, and pressed firmly on the wound. It did nothing to alleviate the scent of her blood, which was still thick in the air.

"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Sarah asked, looking to Calhoun. He shook his head mutely. "How can you control yourself around blood? I've never seen a vampire or hybrid able to do that." This time her chocolate brown eyes were fixed on me.

"I'm not saying it's easy, but I manage." The faux smile stayed firmly upon my face.

Calhoun and Sarah’s shoulders  relaxed and their heartbeats returned to their normal rhythm. They holstered their weapons.

"What did you mean when you said you were here to help?" I asked Calhoun.

"What do you know of hybrids?" Sarah asked, gaze skipping from me to Leah.

"Absolutely nothing. I thought I was the only one until I bumped into some vampires that told me of a supposed alliance that hunters have with them. Are you hunting with them?"

Sarah shook her head absent-mindedly. "It's not so much an alliance as an understanding. We agree not to kill them, if they agree to participate in our ...cure."

I stared at her, images of Robert's experiments flashing through my mind. People writhing in pain, begging to be put out of their misery, only to have it end in a horrific death. Robert's cure never worked, not for my dad, not for the other poor bastard that he had kept in the basement. There was no cure. A sudden synapse fired in my brain, as a thought occurred to me.

"It was you that told Robert about a cure." I spat the words out with contempt, directing them at Calhoun. He had been the one to put the idea into Robert's head that a vampire could be cured. It was his fault that Robert had tried and failed to save my father, his fault that I had to kill my father when his little experiment failed. Pent up resentment started to erupt. I felt Leah's hand gently squeezing my thigh, a silent gesture warning me to calm down. I pushed aside the feelings of rage, not wanting to lose control around her.

Calhoun looked dejected. "Yeah, I told him, but what I didn't realise at the time was that I only knew half the story. There is a cure for hybrids. If you come with us, we can show you how it works. You can see someone going through it."

I felt torn, my head shouting at me that this cure was bullshit, that it couldn't be done. I had seen the proof after all, seen what had happened to my father. But another part, a stronger part of me, was so desperate to have a proper life with Leah that I would try anything, regardless of the outcome.

"What's the catch?" Leah asked suspiciously.

"The process can be quite traumatic on the body, and some don't make it," Calhoun replied.

"How many are some?" I could hear the panic in Leah's voice.

"About half don't make it."

"Finlay, no." She turned to grab my hands. "It's not worth taking those odds." Her eyes were wide with alarm.

Not taking my gaze from Leah, I replied to Calhoun. "Can you give us a minute? I'll meet you in the car."

"No problem, take as much time as you need." I heard the door close behind them as they left.

"No, Finlay. Half the people die. You don't need to do this." Tears lined her lashes.

I took her face in my hands and kissed her gently. She closed her eyes, and a single tear escaped, running down her cheek. I wiped it away with my fingertips.

"I have to at least find out more about this cure. It might be B.S., but I owe it to myself to at least find out about it. I owe it to you. Even if there is the slightest chance that this could work, I've got at least try. What kind of life could we have together if I'm like this? I can't even make love to you."

"Don't do this for me. It doesn't matter that we can't be physical. I'm sorry about earlier. I won't push you again." She was in hysterics now, tears streaming down her cheeks, her body trembling. I pulled her close, my hands stroking her hair.

"Leah, please. It will be ok. I'm just going to check out what this is about. I haven't decided to do anything yet."

She scoffed. "Finlay, I know you. You have already made up your mind."

"That's not true. Please stop crying. I promise I won't make a decision without talking to you first."

She sniffed loudly, pulling away from me to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "Please don't leave me again, Finlay."

"You can't get rid of me that easily," I joked. I slid my hands around her back and pulled her toward me. She fell against my chest, her head resting under my chin. I shuddered, feeling her warm breath on my neck.

"Come on. Let's hear what Calhoun has to say."

In the car, Leah was too quiet, barely moving. She stared silently out of the car's window, not participating in the discussion. Her tension and worry for me was palpable.

"How did you know where I was, Calhoun?" I asked, the thought suddenly striking me.

"I've been hoping you would show up here. We have been watching the house for a couple of months now. We arrived last night, just in time to see you take out the vamps. Thought that we would give you the night to recover before turning up at your door."

I was pleased that they had been keeping watch, protecting Leah, even if it was from me.

Calhoun pulled the car into an unused industrial estate, filled with factories and other out buildings. The car bounced over the uneven wasteland, the road barely discernible from the rest of the landscape such was the state of decay. It had once been a car factory, and all around, littered across the grounds, were the remnants of its former glory, half sunk into the dry mud, now little more than piles of rust. He put the car in park in front of a building with a rusted sign which read, "Industrial Solutions." We exited the car and followed Calhoun as he led us to the front entrance of the building.

To the casual observer this place looked like any other abandoned factory, but on closer inspection you could tell there was something more going on here. Calhoun reached into his pocket and retrieved a key ring with at least ten keys looped together. He systematically unlocked each of the ten padlocks on the door. This place looked harder to get into than Fort Knox. Whatever this place contained, they were trying hard to not to let anyone unwanted in...or out.

We entered a small, dark passage way with grey cinder block walls, and were led to another heavy metal door, bolted with four locks. We followed Calhoun through a labyrinth of dank passages until we reached what must have once been a reception area. In another example of the extreme security measures, it was now converted into a security checkpoint of sorts. Behind a desk sat a man in white, his face serious as he regarded us. Off to the left was a room filled with monitors and more watching figures. Of course, such an operation would require the utmost in secrecy, and should that fail, at least they would have the security to forewarn of any approaching danger, human or otherwise. Seeing that put me at ease. The last thing I wanted was for the makeshift hospital to be attacked whilst I was strapped to a hospital bed.

Calhoun ushered us into a small room. Red plastic seats were placed in a square shape around the outside, pushed against the wall. In the centre sat a wooden coffee table with a variety of entertainment magazines haphazardly scattered on top. Sarah excused herself, and left us and Calhoun to talk.

"What is this place?" Leah spoke for the first time since leaving Robert's.

"Five years ago I was approached by a man called David Sotto. David had been a doctor when his wife was turned into a hybrid. He had dedicated his life to finding a cure for her. He started capturing vampires and hybrids and experimenting on them, trying various techniques to see if it was possible to reverse the transition. Long story short, after many years of experimenting, he managed perfect a cure for hybrids." He paused, letting what he had said sink in. "It has mixed results. The success rate seems to depend on how long ago the transition took place, and how much blood you have consumed. The good news for you is that you haven't been a hybrid long."