Blood Crave 2 (5 page)

Read Blood Crave 2 Online

Authors: Jennifer Knight

Tags: #Social Issues, #Love & Romance, #Vampires, #College Students, #Juvenile Fiction, #Paranormal, #General, #Romance, #Werewolves, #Dating & Sex, #Fiction, #Occult & Supernatural

BOOK: Blood Crave 2
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Then the door sprung open and three of the gigantic men from last night came to take Lucas back up to his room. I followed, and shooed them away once they’d placed him safely in his bed.
I went about cleaning him off, but I didn’t have to apply any first aid to his burns or wounds because they began to heal within minutes.
Once he was cleaned, I put the blankets over him, dimmed the lights, and slipped into bed beside him. I smoothed my hand over his bare chest, loving how the shadows played over the contours and peaks of his flawless body.
I wished I had my camera. I wanted to remember him like this forever. So calm and perfect. I turned my head and kissed his neck. Even in his sleep, I felt the heat surge. I smiled against his skin. Somehow, that made me feel better. I didn’t have much energy left to test his emotions, but what I could get was peaceful—or as peaceful as Lucas ever got. There was a tinge of that old craziness at the edges of his vibe, but I couldn’t tell if the madness I felt was the werewolf inside him fighting to be released or a madness of a different kind.
True insanity.
4
 
THE SENSE
 
I
awoke to kisses—tons of them, on my mouth and down my throat and lower, trailing slowly down my stomach. I smiled, yawning, looking down to see the top of Lucas’s head. I grabbed his hair and pulled him up, wanting to see his face.
But the face looking at me was not Lucas. It was Derek. His lips were dripping with crimson liquid, and he had fangs like kitchen knives. I looked down and my body was punctured with bloody fang marks.
I screamed and sat up.
Lucas sat up too, looking around for danger, but as soon as his eyes fell on me, he knocked me back onto my pillows. He hugged me close and tucked his face into my neck, kissing me everywhere.
I panted, totally freaked out ... and, okay, slightly aroused.
His lips found mine, and I kissed him back.
“Are you okay?” I asked through his lips. “Are you . . . ?” I didn’t want to say the word
insane
.
“You . . . are . . . amazing,” he said, kissing my nose lightly on each word.
“Me?” I asked, confused.
“You stayed with me,” he said, face just inches away. “You kept me sane. I know it was you. I didn’t imagine that, did I?”
“No. I was there. I used the connection. I didn’t know I could do it when you’re human, but it worked. Thank God, it worked.”
“Amazing,” he said again and rolled over on top of me, kissing me. I felt a blush creep into my cheeks. I wondered if he knew he was naked.
“Lucas,” I said. “You, ah . . . you’d better stop.”
He shook his head, catching my lips and kissing me harder.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked, laughing slightly.
“I’m tired of being the only one naked around here,” he said with a little fake pout that made me want to nibble on his lower lip.
“You’re red,” he said, smiling devilishly. “So it’s okay for me to be naked, but not you? I just don’t think that’s fair.” His hot hand wandered to my shirt and slipped it over my head. I gasped as he began kissing my stomach.
“Lucas!” I said. “Stop it. You’re the one who said we couldn’t do that.”
He came back to my face and brushed his lips over my chin. “Well, maybe I changed my mind. Maybe after last night, I think we should try.”
He was actually serious. I sat up. “You know what? I think you
did
lose your mind in there.”
Lucas laughed and pushed me back down. “You kept me sane last night using the connection. So use it now. Make sure I don’t change. Come on, don’t you want to?”
I hesitated. Yes, I wanted to, but ...
“I don’t think now is the best time,” I said delicately.
“What’s wrong with now? I lived through that hell with my sanity intact—thanks to you.” He rubbed his nose against mine. “And Derek is alive, everybody’s okay. And this is the safest time. Right after the full moon. With you keeping me in control, it’ll be perfect.” He smiled roguishly and kissed me so fiercely, I had trouble resisting.
“We don’t know if Derek’s okay yet,” I said.
Lucas stopped and his face slowly settled into a scowl.
Apparently, that was the
wrong
thing to say.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. I put my arms around his waist. “I didn’t mean it ... like that. I don’t know. Just forget I mentioned it.” I tried to pull him toward me, but his back stiffened, preventing me from moving him even an inch. “Lucas, come on, aren’t you exhausted anyway? I mean, last night was horrible for you. For both of us.”
“You don’t gotta tell me that,” he said. “I know exactly what it was like. What I don’t know is why you have to bring Derek up whenever we’re alone together.”
I felt my mouth open and close as I groped for a good answer. “I’m sorry,” I said to avoid a fight. “I promise I won’t do it again, okay? I’m sorry.”
Lucas rolled off of the bed and pulled on a pair of Levis. He cocked his head at the window and said, “It’s nighttime.”
“He must not be here then,” I said softly. “Rolf would have woken us up.”
“Yup.”
Finding my shirt lodged in between the pillows, I pulled it over my head and got out of bed. I hated doing this, but ...
“Will you find him?” I asked.
Lucas’s eyebrows lifted just the tiniest bit. “Of course I’ll find him,” he said. “He’s probably hiding in the woods.”
“Or dead.”
Lucas put his hand on my cheek for an instant and then let it fall. “I’ll be back. If you go downstairs, don’t tell them where I’m going.”
“Thank you.”
Lucas looked at me with this odd, pained sort of expression that made me feel horrible for having asked him to search for Derek, and then turned to leave.
Through the window I watched Lucas run out the back doors. He stripped his jeans, put them in his mouth, and changed in midrun.
As I watched him disappear, I pondered his earlier words. Could I really keep his will to change reigned in? Control his instinct and make him normal? I’d done it last night. It had been grueling, but it had worked.
And I had Yvette to thank for tipping me off. She had seemed to
know
that I would be able to save Lucas. Which could only mean that she knew about my power. And if that was the case, I needed to know how she’d found out and what else she knew. Now.
I straightened and walked downstairs to the kitchen to find a few runts making ice cream sundaes.
“Hey,” I said. “Do any of you know where Yvette is?”
They regarded me coldly. A girl with dirty blond hair said, “She’s usually in the study with Rolf.” She pointed down the hall. “Third door on the right.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed an apple from the counter and headed down the hallway, hearing the runts’ whispers as I went—probably talking crap about me.
I reached the correct door and paused before entering, taking time to lean against the wall and down the apple. I didn’t want to do this in front of Rolf, but I needed to know what Yvette knew. Maybe I could get her to talk to me someplace private. Gathering my courage, I stuffed the apple core into my pocket and faced the door again.
But as I poked my head inside, I realized getting Yvette to follow me out wasn’t necessary. She was sitting alone beside a wall-to-wall window that opened up to the side yard. The snow-laden trees stood in the distance, their colors muted through the glass panes like a watercolor painting.
Yvette didn’t look up from her book when I entered so I closed the door quietly and walked across the room. The study was stacked with books, both old and new, and a mahogany desk stood in the center, cluttered with papers and a laptop computer. I passed it and went to stand beside a gold-upholstered armchair across from Yvette.
She was the only person I’d ever met without a vibe. It had always intrigued me, but now I had a feeling there was a reason I couldn’t read it.
“You know why I’m here,” I said.
A faint smile tugged on her lips. She placed the book down on her lap and finally looked up at me. Her rounded face was tanned and creased around the eyes and mouth; her wiry black hair was pulled into a loose braid that flowed across her chest. She scrutinized me methodically, taking in every inch of my face.
“I never thought I’d meet another one,” she said. Her voice was like the hum of some great machine—low and steady.
“Another . . . what, exactly?” I asked as my pulse began to race. She knew about my power!
But she faltered. “I don’t really know
what
you are. But I do know that we are the same. It’s a form of telepathy—connecting minds, thoughts. Or in our case, emotions.” She leaned in, expression fervent. “What is it like for you? What are your abilities?”
“I can read emotions, like you said. Everyone’s, even vampires and werewolves. Actually, theirs are strongest. And I can control any changed werewolf, even on the full moon. But it’s difficult.”
“And the vampires? Can you control them?”
I shook my head. “How did you know about me?” I asked, sitting down across from her. “How did you know I could save Lucas?”
“I have only met someone like you once before. I knew immediately because I could not sense you.”
“Sense me?”
“Sense your emotions.”
Oh, my vibe.
“I can’t . . . sense you either.”
“I believe it is because our powers cancel each other out.”
“I guess that makes sense. So wait, you said you know someone else like us?”
She looked down at her lap. “Knew. The vampires took him. He is dead now.”
I cringed. “I’m sorry.”
“They thought he could control them like we control the wolves so they murdered him. But it doesn’t work that way. The vampires are undead; their brain functions do not work like ours. We can sense them, but we cannot control them.”
“Can you control the werewolves too, then?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Though, not when they are human. Well, except for Rolf.”
“
Rolf?
” I blurted. He was the last person I’d expect her to be able to control. He’d easily usurped my power over his pack that night at the barn and almost took my connection to Lucas as well.
“Of course,” she said, furrowing her delicate brows. “He is my match.”
“Your match? What is that?”
“It seems that those with the sense—people like us—have an inexplicable connection to the supernatural world. The magic that runs through the blood of the vampires and werewolves—it binds to us as well, enabling us to sense emotions and temporarily control their actions. For each of us, there is a single supernatural creature whose magic is so similar to ours that they are bound to us by an unbreakable bond. They are matched so perfectly that the werewolf can be controlled even when he or she is human.”
Well if that was true, then I supposed Lucas was my match.
Cool.
I wondered what that meant, exactly.
“So can Rolf feel it when you control him?” I asked.
“Yes. He’s the only one. But I rarely do it. Only to protect myself from harm. In fact, I have not needed to use my abilities in over a decade.”
Huh. Must be nice.
We were silent a moment and, suddenly I heard the shadow of Lucas’s voice in my head:
Nobody can ever find out about this.... There’s no way Rolf will let someone with that kind of power live.
A flicker of panic flared up as the gravity of what I’d just done hit me. I’d just told the pack master’s mate that I could control his entire pack.
Real smart. I was so dog chow.
But then again, he’d let Yvette live.
“Why does Rolf let you control him?” I asked. “He’s the pack master; doesn’t that threaten everything he’s about? I mean you could make him do whatever you wanted—human or not.”
“When we first met, Rolf was not the pack master. I stayed with him through many difficult times. He trusts me above anyone else. He would never kill me for what I am because he knows I would never abuse my power over him.”
“But what about me? Did you tell him about me?”
Yvette’s face closed down—a typical werewolf trick she must have picked up from Rolf. It was impossible to read her.
“Yvette, did you tell him?”
“I have not. I wasn’t sure you had the sense, and I didn’t want to endanger your life unnecessarily.”
“And now that you know, will you tell him?”
She scrutinized me for a long while. “My loyalty is to Rolf,” she said and my heart plummeted. “However, you are like me—the only other one I know. We must protect each other.” She fixed her gaze on me, serious and intent. “So I will not tell Rolf what you are. So long as you remain a friend of this pack.”

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