Hunger Aroused (17 page)

“I had to lie on my side, and I should have known what they were about to do. But I've always seen it while the patient was under conscious sedation. Always. To remove bone marrow from a person—”

Corin didn't catch his gasp of surprise in time. “Motherfuckers!”

“Oh God, Corin, the pain…” She moaned, her entire body shaking. “The pain was indescribable. I passed out. I came to…the horrible scraping sound…I passed out again…”

“Shh…no more.” He caressed her face. Held her tight. “If I could make you forget all of it…” His words died away because there was not enough comfort in the world to offer her. She would never forget this nightmare.

***

Rocking her gently, he waited with infinite patience for her sobs to die away. After a time when the trembling stopped, he quietly said, “You made it through. You're alive. That's what counts in the end.”

“Yeah, but I fell apart after seeing you again.”

“That doesn't matter. You made it. You survived.” He took a deep breath, deciding to let her in on his fear. “Listen to me, when we leave here, if for some reason I can't be with you, do whatever it takes Jasmine. Survive.”

“But—”

“Go to Ezra if needed. He'll help you. Whatever you do, survive.”

She made a desperate sound that might have been laughter. Red-rimmed blue eyes gazed at him. “Do you really believe we're getting out of this alive?”

“Right now,
mellita.
I'm getting you out of here.” He kissed her swollen lips, sealing his promise. “Are you well enough to travel?” Corin couldn't bring himself to go on, for a furious red haze covered his vision. Jasmine would never again endure such torture. He was going to make certain of it.

“I'm ready.” She placed a comforting hand on his arm.

He studied her face before moving. They had time. He didn't expect Jasmine to be summoned again until the following morning. It was only a couple of hours after sunset. They had all night.

“I'm fine,” she insisted, then stood.

“Do you need to feed?”

A rough growl issued out of Jasmine.
“Titus Corinius Gerulaitis.”

That startled a laugh out of him. “My plan is rudimentary at best, and we'll be making shit up as we go, but let's create a diversion.”

“Like in the movies?” The incredulous inflection at the end of her question didn't make her sound enthusiastic.

“Exactly.” He walked to the bathroom and retrieved the sundry cleaning supplies he'd found beneath the sink earlier. “This stuff is going to make one hell of a fire to draw the guards in. Fortunately for us, they're very complacent. Must have thought their guns worked faster than me with my blade.”

Jasmine squatted beside him as he piled her old shredded clothes into a loose stack near the door. They were doused with cleaning liquids, the odor wafting from them afterward strong enough to make his eyes water.

“But how are you going to get it started? Do you have a match?”

“Don't need one. If you put the right solvents together, voila, chemical reaction that'll spontaneously combust.”

“Really?” This time the uncertainty no longer highlighted her question.

“Really. Now before we get it going all the way, know this. Since you're the valuable one, you're the one they'll focus on first. You're the priority. Got it?”

“Yeah, but what's that matter?”

“Because I'm hoping by the time they get in here, the room will be full of enough smoke to cause some major confusion.” Having said that, he walked over to the sheer curtains and yanked until they tore free from their entrapments. He set them in additional bundles next to Jas's clothes. “There's one thing I'll need you to do to really put fear in their hearts.”

“What's that?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “How well do you think you can play dead?”

The first man rushed in, heedless to Corin standing behind the door. Corin imagined all he saw was smoke and perhaps after that, the bright orange glow of the fire. The flames licked along the wall, a haphazard scorch mark a scar on the previously pristine white canvas. Smoke from the linen curtains clogged the air. For the first time since he could remember, Corin thanked his gods that he no longer needed to breathe. Not so for the human men tending to Sijourn. As soon as the man stepped into the room, he began to cough, his lungs not knowing how to react to the disappearance of clean oxygen.

He brought an arm to his mouth, attempting to use the long sleeve of his shirt to breathe against. When he saw Jas crumpled against the bedpost, he dropped to a knee next to her. Corin waited a split second, itching to strike now, but knowing in his gut he had to time this right. Just when he thought he could wait no longer, after the man started to gather her in his arms, a second man appeared.

Silent, deadly, Corin stepped out from behind the door.

The blade slid through the second man's neck like a hot knife through butter, the only resistance in the form of his spine. Before the lifeless body hit the ground, Corin was behind the first man, about to rise with Jasmine in his arms. A spray of blood arched over her shoulder when Corin slit his throat, as well. Over in a matter of seconds, the kills were quiet, efficient.

Her eyes were round with terror, her face pale, but Jas didn't say anything.

“Let's go,” he said softly, taking her by the hand. “There'll be others soon.”

Corin shut the door behind them after they left. Hopefully by the time someone else discovered the carnage and raging fire, they would be long gone. At last glance, an edge of rug beneath the bed began to smolder. Another spark or two, and it would be contributing to the conflagration. Soon after that, the bed would join in. Sijourn would have a mess on his hands to clean up.

He listened hard for any sounds of more guards moving in their direction. With each peek around a corner, his wariness settled for a fraction of time. While they encountered no one, he didn't expect that good fortune to last. He prayed like hell that the evening hour found most of the men eating a meal or retired for the day. Jasmine breathed heavily next to him, but he was damned proud of her stealth as they made their way to the front.

They stopped at the end of the hallway, the one that opened into the foyer. Corin did a visual sweep, and when nothing appeared amiss, almost stepped forward. But his senses screamed caution. Impatient, almost grinding his teeth in frustration, he scanned down the other two hallways again, still seeing nothing wrong. Jas's hand tightened around his, a silent question. Despite his mounting need to move, he couldn't shake the feeling they needed to wait just a little bit longer.

There.

Fuck, he almost missed him. Would have walked right on top of the man sitting in the small decorative alcove. He lazed in a small chair, one earbud dangling on his chest, the other connected to an iPod and playing in one ear. His foot tapped lightly against the hardwood floor without making a sound. Despite his youthful appearance, the way his hand gripped the gun in his lap, index finger resting just outside the trigger suggested his familiarity with the weapon. That he chose such an out-of-the-way location to tuck himself implied a hunter's wariness.

There wouldn't be opportunity to sneak up on him, not with time ticking away. By now the smoke from the room would have to be seeping from beneath the doorway and into the hallway. Smoke detectors would arouse the rest of the household and put a halt to any chance of slipping away before anyone noticed they were gone.

Corin tugged on Jas's arm, almost gave in to temptation for one last kiss, and started forward. Before he could react though, she darted around him and ran straight for where the man sat. Corin lunged, missed the tail of her shirt by millimeters, and watched horrified as she put herself in the direct line of fire. He had no idea whether or not she'd completed transition. If she had, at worst she'd suffer for a few minutes as her body healed from the wounds. If she hadn't…Corin shuddered and rushed after her.

The man was on his feet in a flash, gun raised. Thank the gods he hesitated, and Corin didn't stop to consider why. It might have been because she was unarmed, or because she was the important one to Sijourn. Either way, the split-second's pause gave Corin ample time to whirl around Jasmine, dropping to a crouch less than a foot away from the man. By the time he thought to swing the gun in his direction, Corin leaped up, driving his blade through the fleshy portion beneath the guard's jaw line, ramming the honed steel through his head. He yanked his arm free of the twitching body a moment later, a stream of blood and other matter spurting from the new hole.

Before the body hit the ground, the piercing screech of a smoke detector echoed overhead. They were out of the door and into the evening air by the time it sounded a second time.

As they ran, Corin took a moment to study the exterior of the home, the street's markings. The signs indicating their current position. He memorized everything. When he came back—and he
would
be coming back—there would be no doubt in his mind whose home he destroyed. It might be no more than a blip in Sijourn's day, but as far as he was concerned, there would be no evidence left of Jasmine's captivity there by the time he was done.

“Where do we go now?” Jasmine asked after they'd stopped running. She was doubled over, arms around her waist, peering up at him as she panted. They were nowhere near far away enough to suit him, but he had to let her rest.

Corin straightened, letting his aching muscles relax, as well. “Not my place for certain. Ezra's for now, I guess.” He watched her, a rush of warmth almost sweeping him off his feet. While he couldn't have been more proud of how she handled herself, anger vibrated through him. “What did you think you were doing back there, Jas?”

“What? That last guy? You needed another distraction.”

“A distraction?” He fought to keep his voice level, but was losing the battle. “Do you have any idea what it was like to watch that? To see you place yourself in danger
for me?
”

“It's no less than you would have done for me.” She started to walk away from him, heading in the right direction to sanctuary.

“Jasmine, don't you ever…”

“Ever what?” She stopped, whirling. “Don't ever be the one to make sacrifices instead of just watching it happen, helpless?”

He'd never stopped to consider that. “It's my job to protect you.”

She stomped away this time. “To hell with that. I didn't make you my personal protector.”

“But you did,” he barked. Grasping her arm, he pulled her to him. “The moment you paired with me, you became my personal responsibility. Mine to possess. Mine to own. Mine. To. Protect.”

“I've never agreed to that. I've never given you that permission.”

“When I'm deep in your cunt, when you're screaming my name, coming so hard you don't know how to handle it, what do you think you've agreed to?” The words had barely flown from his mouth when an invisible wall erected itself between the two of them.

“Fuck you, Corin.” A deadly whisper.

He responded with a growl. “Let's go.”

***

The rest of the way to Ezra's nightclub, Jasmine's face stung. Corin might as well have slapped her with those hateful words. Was this the life she'd truly chosen for herself? She'd bonded with a vampire filled with so much male pride that when she'd finally stepped forward and did something that helped them both, he'd retaliated as if she'd attacked him.

Worse, she now questioned herself. Questioned whether she'd unconsciously given him some sort of right over her. They moved through this romance at breakneck speed, not stopping to consider the consequences of their actions. What it meant for their futures. It was sensation and feeling and impetuous action one right after the other without stopping for a moment's reflection. Just needing and love twisted together so tightly, she knew not where one began and the other ended.

She was tired. With everything they'd been through, everything still happening to them, she missed the simplicity of her old life. She wanted to believe she'd done the right thing with him, that his worry pushed itself between them, but she just didn't know any more.

They made it to a more populated area, where Corin managed to hail a cab. They rode in silence, a news feed playing on the cabbie's radio. Corin sat lost in his thoughts in the front seat next to the driver, while Jasmine rode in back. Entrenched in misery and doubt, she missed their arrival until the car stopped.

They walked in silence down the stairs, the sound of Corin banging on the front door after it proved locked jarring her out of a stupor. Jasmine glanced at her watch, a sinking feeling deep within telling her that no one had yet arrived at this early hour. “Where do we go from here if it's empty?”

He pressed his ear to the door, his eyes closed as he listened. “There's always someone here.” Corin spoke between tight lips, not sparing her a second glance. The thick evening air hung between them, a stranger in what was a cozy couplet. Whatever. So what if the fight was still on? Fine by her. He was being the chauvinistic, macho ass. Not her.

“Even if we get inside for a respite, what happens then?” She hadn't forgotten today marked day three. The day Corin would have killed her.

“When it comes to Sijourn, we have two choices.” He banged on the door again. “A life on the run, or we take a stand.”

“And the Council?”

“There we have no options.” They would run. He'd already told her as much. Run until found.

A muffled voice came from inside the closed door. Approaching footsteps too.

“Jas, before we go inside, look at me.” Corin stepped in front of her. “I shouldn't have said that to you, but I won't apologize for how angry you made me. I've lived a long, long time. I've been doing this for as long. I'll take care of us. Please, don't put your life on the line for me again, especially when I've only just found you. If I lost you…”

It wasn't the chocolates-and-roses apology she would have liked, but the way his voice caught at the end stabbed her in the heart. “I won't ever get used to you taking all of the risks. I can't let you.” He might have been doing this for a long time, but he wasn't infallible. “When you'd been shot, when I thought for a second you wouldn't come back to me, I died inside, Corin. I can't live through that again.”

His eyes studied her for what could have only been seconds, but seemed like minutes, during which he didn't say anything. She'd come so close to losing him. Despite everything he'd told her, despite the years of experience as a nurse, the only thing she could focus on was blood as it pooled around him. Breath that no longer came. A heart that slowed to a treacherous beat.

A bolt slid back from the door, and Jasmine let loose a deep sigh into the silence. He had no plans on seeing this her way, at least not any time soon. Turning to the opening door, she mumbled, “Never mind.”

She jumped when his arms circled her from behind, his mouth brushing her cheek. A chaste sign of affection. “Take good care of me,
mellita.
”

Her lips pushed up at the corners with that little allowance. He always had her back, and whenever the opportunity arose, she would have his. The air, which had seemed so thick and cumbersome before, lightened until she breathed easier, loving how much she loved her man.

Her mood stalled when the door opened to Gregory's hesitant smile. He didn't say anything, just stood back and waited for them to pass. Jasmine wrapped her hand firmly around Corin's. He'd have to pry it away if he expected her to stay alone with Gregory. Then again, knowing him, her hold was the only thing keeping him from shoving his fist down the thin man's throat.

“I didn't expect you back here so soon,” Gregory said. The acoustics in the room caused his voice to sound muffled. An eerie effect. “Jasmine, I hope you can forgive my very childish prank.”

“We need a place to hole up for a day. Where is he?”

Gregory's apology went unacknowledged by either of them. Jasmine squeezed Corin's hand briefly, sensing his tension. In a minute's time, he'd become coiled like a spring. They were supposed to be among friends.

“Ezra isn't here at the moment, I'm afraid.”

Corin stopped cold. “Oh?”

“We didn't expect you.” Gregory continued walking, lithely making his way around the couple. “If we had known you were coming, things would be different.”

She frowned as they started following him again. They didn't necessarily need Ezra to be present. For heaven's sake, Corin's friend didn't seem the kind who would turn them away, regardless if he was physically around to help them. Just because Ezra had left, did Gregory plan to send them away to fend for themselves? Did he need the club owner's permission to help them?

She held her tongue, despite having to nibble the inside of her mouth to do so. Corin had wanted her to remain silent the first time they'd been here, and there wasn't enough money in the world to get her talking right now. Not after the last time.

“It's only for a day,” Corin replied. “Do you expect him back by tomorrow? Or could you call him to let him know we're here?”

Their steps were also muted against the industrial carpeting. Even when they transitioned to a tiled area, Jasmine marveled at how contained the sound felt to her hearing. Overhead, lights that hadn't been on during their previous trip lit the room, making it seem as appropriate to serve as an art gallery with its contemporary fixtures and furniture. A little mood music and the transformation was just short of miraculous. For now, the lighting focused on the pristine bar, leaving the perimeter in shadow.