Blood Lust (6 page)

“Wait!”

Jericho’s voice cut through the sounds of battle with
amazing clarity, and the teeth against my neck stilled.

“Wait,” Jericho said again, and his voice was calmer. I
tried to look at him, but could barely make out his silhouette from the corner
of my eye. I was afraid to move, scared of provoking the wolf that was pinning
me down. The black wolf stood in front of me, staring coldly at Jericho. Blood
dripped from where I’d bit him on his muzzle.

“She is a new member of your pack,” Jericho told the black
wolf, and his voice was low and dangerous. “She has done nothing to warrant
this kind of attack. Let her go. It’s me you want.”

The black wolf’s dark eyes glittered as it shook its head,
but then it glanced at me and jerked its head up, seemingly communicating with
the wolf that had me pinned down. The pressure let up on my neck, and I
immediately scrambled to my feet, spinning and backing away from the wolf that
had attacked me.

Its fur was gray, with a white face and white socks. It
looked like me- well, like as much as I could see of myself, anyway. Its eyes
were green, but I knew it wasn’t the same wolf that had attacked me the night
before.

I bumped into Jericho, and glanced at him, flattening my
ears against my head. I didn’t know what was going on, but he offered me a
slight smile, reassuring me. It wasn’t ideal, entrusting my life to a man I’d
only met once before, but I had little choice in the matter.

Looking around, I saw that there were four wolves surrounding
us in a lopsided square. Perhaps I should have been more afraid than I was, but
with Jericho beside me, I felt an unusual sense of calm.

“They want to know why a vampire would take any interest in
a wolf,” a clear, musical voice rang out.

I started, and turned towards the voice. A woman emerged
from the darkness, stepping into a moonbeam so we could see her more clearly.
She was tall and curvy, wearing figure-hugging jeans, with her raven hair loose
about her shoulders.

I was upwind of her, but I could still hear the pulse
beating delicately in her throat, smell the blood coursing through her veins. I
fought the urge to lunge at the woman, desperately trying to contain my thirst.

Jericho placed a hand on my back, offering silent support. “Are
you their witch?” he asked, and his voice was stiff, like it was taking a great
deal of self-control to speak civilly to the woman.

She raised her chin. “I am. Who are you, and why do you care
about this wolf? No vampire I know would waste their time with such
trivialities.”

“There is no sport in watching your pack slaughter an
innocent. She has done nothing wrong,” he replied. “Are their actions not in
violation of pack laws?”

“Laws are specific to each pack,” the woman answered, “and
there have been several attacks over the last several months. We have been
looking for this nomad for some time.”

“Then you should keep looking. This girl was only turned
last night.” He was making assumptions- he must have known I was human when we
met at the carnival.

“Impossible,” she retorted.

“It’s true. She’ll tell you herself, once she’s human
again.”

The woman looked at me with renewed interest, and I
swallowed hard, trying my damnedest to look like I wasn’t fantasizing about
quenching my insatiable thirst with her sweetly-scented blood.

“No one shifts so quickly after an attack,” she said, almost
to herself. Then she looked back at Jericho. “There hasn’t been one of your
kind in the Black Hills in over a hundred years. You must know that your
presence here is forbidden.”

“I am aware of that,” Jericho conceded. “I’m…looking for an
old friend. I have no intention of staying once my business is complete.”

“Perhaps you should have considered that before you
trespassed.”

Jericho held up his hands. “Surely you wouldn’t ask a pack
of only four to challenge me.”

She said nothing, but I could see that his words rang true.
Whatever Jericho was, he was powerful enough to give pause to this woman and her
wolves. “I cannot let you leave,” she said at last.

“I will go with you willingly,” Jericho said, shaking his
head, “on one condition. Let the girl tell your alpha her story, once she is
human again. Do not harm her.”

She seemed to weigh his offer, and I glanced at the wolves
surrounding us. They were poised, ready to attack despite the obvious danger
that Jericho presented. I braced myself, preparing to fight if the need arose.

“We have no alpha,” she told Jericho.

I had no idea what she was talking about. Jericho was
nonplussed. “Your beta, then.”

She nodded. “And you will come with us without resisting, if
we agree to these terms?”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Jericho was
clearly a force to be reckoned with among these wolves and their witch, but he
was negotiating with them- in exchange for my freedom. Was he allowing himself
to be captured? What would be his fate as a result of this bargain? I wished
fervently for the ability to speak freely, but at the moment it was all I could
do to refrain from tearing this woman’s throat out. My bloodlust was close to
overwhelming me, and I trembled, trying to keep it under control.

“Done,” the witch said finally, and turned, beckoning with
her long, graceful hands for us to follow. The white wolf that Jericho had been
fighting sidled up to me, growling as it jerked its head towards the woman. It
was indicating I should follow. I swallowed, and wondered just how close I
dared to get to a human right now.

“I’ll go first,” Jericho said to me, and stepped forward so
that he was between me and the witch. The relief was almost immediate; even
though the woman had been standing downwind of me, her scent had still reached
out to me, enticing my senses. Although I could still smell her, Jericho’s
scent was more prominent now, and I could breathe a little easier.

I followed behind him, flanked by the white wolf on my
right, and the black wolf on my left. Clearly they had no intentions of letting
me out of their sight.

We padded silently through the forest, and I held my breath
for most of the way, trying to focus on the trees…the grass…anything but the
witch who walked in front of us, oblivious to my ever-growing bloodlust.

We walked for what seemed like hours, and though I was
loathe to admit it, the wolves on either side of me did make it significantly
easier to ignore the occasional rabbit or deer that popped out from behind the
trees. I wondered if they had anticipated that, and positioned themselves
accordingly. I sneaked a glance at the black wolf beside me, and was surprised
to see that he was looking right at me, his brown eyes glowing in the faint
light. I wondered if mine had the same otherworldly gleam. Was it the mark of a
werewolf? The wolf I’d seen last night had had bright green eyes.

Thinking about that wolf made me shudder involuntarily. It
didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened. I’d been
attacked by a werewolf. There’d been no danger of a rabies infection- but now I
was a wolf, too. Was this permanent? Would I transform every full moon for the
rest of my life? Was I immortal? Modern fiction and fantasy portrayed so many
different theories for werewolves, so there was no way to be sure.

Well, except for one thing. Obviously I looked nothing like
Michael J. Fox’s basketball-dunking
Teen
Wolf.
Outside of our larger-than-average size and glowing eyes, my captors
and I could have passed for normal wolves.

We emerged from the wolves beside a somewhat nondescript,
single-story house. I looked up at the stars, trying to figure out where we
were based on their alignment, but they offered no clues to our location.

The witch led us to a door at the back of the house, and as
we rounded the corner, I realized that the house was actually two stories,
built cleverly on a hill so that the second story was concealed from the front.

Jericho entered without hesitation, but as I stood before
the door, all I could see were steps leading down into darkness. I couldn’t see
Jericho at all, and my throat tightened. I smelled human blood. It wasn’t
fresh- it was old, but the scent still lingered. What had transpired in this
cellar?

The white wolf growled behind me and nipped at my leg. I
scooted forward, a response rumbling in my throat, but still balked at
entering.

Jericho appeared from the darkness. “It’s okay, Eve,” he
told me, and his unshakeable calm did ease my mind somewhat. “Come in.”

I followed him down the steps, and it occurred to me for the
first time to wonder why I was placing my trust in this man. He seemed intent
on keeping me safe, but what were his reasons? We barely knew each other; our
only encounter before this had been at the festival, when he’d walked me to my
car.

I shivered, remembering the electricity in his touch, and
was briefly surprised that I could still feel that sort of lust in this wolf
form. In fact, it was a little surprising that I’d retained all my memories as
well. Most werewolf stories centered around the fact that the infected human
lost all control while in animal form. If this was my new life, it was a relief
to know that turning into a giant wolf didn’t necessarily mean losing all my
human faculties.

Jericho stopped in front of a line of barred cells along one
wall. The witch stood beside an open doorway, her hand on the iron gate. She
motioned for Jericho to enter, but he didn’t budge.

“Let her go in first,” he said after a tense pause.

The witch shrugged. “As you wish. You’ll be in separate
cells, regardless.”

I looked up at Jericho, not comprehending what he was trying
to do, and he nodded towards the cell. He wanted me to go inside. He wanted me
to willingly trap myself behind iron bars? I didn’t understand- and I wasn’t
too keen on the idea, regardless. I shook my head at him.

His expression darkened. “Eve. Go inside.”

I shook my head again.

The white wolf bit my flank again, and I spun, snarling. She
leapt forward, trying to force me back, but I held my ground and met her
charge, ducking down so that her jaws snapped above my head. I was about to
clamp my teeth on her throat, but then I felt strong arms wrap around my
midsection. With a yelp, I was lifted into the air and carried. I scrabbled
uselessly with my paws, trying to twist and bite whoever was holding me, but
then I was tossed into the cell, and the witch slammed the gate behind me.

I glared at Jericho, stung by his betrayal and also shocked
at the brute strength he’d displayed by picking me up. If he was that powerful,
it was no wonder the witch had elected to accept his proposal.

He walked into the cell beside me, not bothering to look my
direction, and the witch locked him in as well.

“We’ll speak with you in the morning,” she said to me, and
turned, the wolves trailing after her as she climbed the stairs. When she
reached the top, she flicked the light switch, plunging us into darkness. The
only light came from the moonlight streaming through the barred window in
Jericho’s cell. I could see that the ground outside was level with the bottom
of the window.

I backed into a corner and lay down. I didn’t take my eyes
off Jericho. This situation suddenly seemed much more serious than I’d
originally thought. I didn’t know who Jericho was, or even
what
he was, but we were both trapped now, and I had no idea how we
were going to get out.

Chapter Four

I was cold when I opened my eyes the next morning. Cold and
stiff, and whatever I was laying on was itchy, too. I stared at the ceiling,
taking a moment to process everything that had happened the night before.

“Good morning.” Jericho’s voice.

I sat up, brushing at the straw that clung to my bare skin,
and immediately realized I was stark naked. I crossed my arms across my chest,
searching the cell for something substantial to cover myself with.

Jericho was standing at the opposite end of his cell,
leaning casually up against the bars. Had he been watching me sleep? My cheeks
flamed. There was nothing in my cell that I could use as clothing- there wasn’t
even enough straw to bury myself in, if I’d been able to stand the scratchy
feeling of the stuff against my skin.

Jericho, obviously noticing my discomfort, pulled his
sweatshirt over his head. Relief flooded through me. Thank God his chivalrous
moment the other night hadn’t been a total fluke. Doing my best to cover myself
with my hands, I struggled to my feet and edged towards him, taking tiny steps
in a pathetic attempt to preserve what little dignity I had left.

He held out the sweatshirt through the bars, averting his
eyes from my nakedness. I struggled for a moment, trying to decide which hand
to use to reach for it. After some deliberation, I turned sideways and crossed
my legs, then snatched the article of clothing from him hurriedly. The movement
pulled his hand down slightly, angling his fingers into the thin beam of
sunlight stretching towards the bars from his window. He jerked his hand back,
but not before I heard the sizzle of burning flesh and saw a thin plume of
smoke rise up from his skin.

Ah.

Everything made sense now.

I pulled the sweatshirt over my head, and was glad to see
that it hit about mid-thigh on me. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he was a
vampire- after all, he understood my bloodlust, was strong enough to overpower
four werewolves, and clearly wasn’t human- but it did.

Despite myself, I giggled, and Jericho glanced up at me. “Is
something funny?”

“No. I mean…are you okay?” Why had he taken an interest in
me that night at the carnival? What was so appealing about me that a vampire
would take notice? I suddenly felt very stupid for commenting on the spark that
I’d felt when he’d touched me. That explained why he hadn’t answered my
question in the parking garage, at least. All human women probably responded
the same. Weren’t vampires supposed to be skilled at seduction? Undoubtedly
Jericho was no different from the vampires of raunchy romance novels.