Monsters Within (9 page)

4

Saul lurked around the house for a while, staying quiet as to not wake Nikki. She slept hard, even letting out light snores on occasion. Saul had the impulse to go to her and stretch her out so that she could at least sleep comfortably, but it somehow did not feel like the right thing to do. With her intrusion on his life, in addition to Kara Humphrey, his sexual urges and bloodlust were both spiking. As far as he was concerned, the less he touched Nikki Galimore, the better off he would be.

When one o’ clock in the morning rolled around and she was still sleeping, he assumed that she would likely sleep through until morning. Had her grie
f
reall
y
taken that much of a toll on her? He would never understand the odd ways a human body worked…particularly something like grief or true sorrow. He didn’t envy humans at all.

He waited around for another half an hour before his own interrupted sleep from that afternoon caught up with him. He retired to bed, oddly satisfied that Nikki was sleeping in his cabin. Before closing his eyes, he checked the foot of his bed. He knew it was stupid, but he felt like he needed to make sure that Benali wasn’t there.

With the sound of Nikki’s soft intermittent snores coming from the living room, Saul eventually fell asleep.

Later, when he was stirred awake, it was still dark. It was the sort of dark that feels soft—the sort that will soon be dissolved by the dawn. There was something in the room with him, something moving towards him.

By the time he sat up, he felt the bed shift beside him. The weight there was not much. And the smell was familiar. Alarms sounded in his head but his body was exceptionally calm as Nikki got into bed with him.

“Is this okay?” she asked him.

“Probably not,” he answered honestly.

She made
a
hmmp
h
noise and then pulled the covers over her body. In the dark, he listened to her body as it shifted comfortably into the mattress.

“Sorry. It was creepy being alone in your living room. And I didn’t want to go back to my place. I’m not sure I could handle being alone just yet.”

“Fine,” he said.

“Saul?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes?”

“What sort of self-respecting vampire can have a defenseless nineteen year-old girl sleeping on his couch and not attack her?”

“A vampire that has spent countless years training himself to ignore such things.”

“Is my blood not good enough for you?”

He could sense that she was joking, but there was an edge of doubt in her voice.

“I’m sure your blood is just fine,” he said. His throat constricted as he imagined her coppery blood trickling down. He also imagined his mouth on the curve of her neck and felt a brief surge of heat spike through the lower half of his body.

Nikki moved towards him and he became very aware of his nakedness. For a moment, he was furious with her for intruding not only in his cabin, but his bedroom. She was pushing his limits and soon he wouldn’t be able to deny himself. He’d have her throat, her blood. She’d die at his hand and fang and it would be her own stupid damned fault.

That thought was pushed away when she pressed her body against his. The room had been dark and he had admittedly been too distracted with preparing himself to resist her blood, so he had not noticed that she was also naked. He felt her bare skin against his. He felt her small breasts along his ribs and the heat of her sex pressed against his thigh.

“I
s
thi
s
okay?” she asked. Her breath was hot and soft on his neck.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

But he did not move. In fact, when he felt her hand grazing his chest, he reached his own hand out and grabbed her hip with just enough force to let her know that if she didn’t stop soon, there’d be no turning back.

She responded by making a soft noise. She slid closer to him and he could actually feel her heart beating through her chest. She was excited but, at the same time, amazingly calm. She slid one leg over his, intertwining their bodies. She stretched against him and then, in one motion, slid on top of him while brushing her lips along the nape of his neck. He arched beneath her though her weight on top of him was literally like a feather.

“Nikki,” he warned, “this is tricky. This could be bad.”

“Does it feel bad?” she asked, grinding her sex against his hips to emphasize th
e
feel.

“No.”

“Then we’re okay. Just don’t sprout any fangs on me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

In the dark, their mouths found one another and their tongues met. When he pulled her down close to him, she moaned slightly. Inside, he felt something springing into life, an energy that had been contained for far too long. He knew what it was and it only intensified when she reached down with her hand and found him hard and waiting. She enjoyed the feel of him in her hand for a moment and Saul did his best to not writhe like a horny school boy.

“How long has it been for you?” she asked. “Out here, all alone. When was the last time you had a woman in your bed?”

“Fifty years at least. But not in this bed.”

“A human?”

She was playing him with expert care. She never stopped the exploration of his body as she asked the questions. Her lips were now on his upper chest, her hand still lightly caressing him below.

“Yes. A vagrant. She was hitch-hiking.”

“So she’d never have to find out about you, right? Because she wouldn’t have to stick around afterwards.”

“Right.”

“Was she pretty?”

“No,” he answered. He was growing irritated not because of the conversation but because he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to take the teasing. If he ended up taking her with his full force, he could potentially hurt her badly.

“Not particularly,” he said. “It was just the need.”

“For what?” she asked with a smile. She guided him to where he was aching to go and pivoted slightly on him, not allowing him inside of her yet. “Fo
r
this?”

“Yes.”

She slowly led him into her and they remained like that, motionless for a while. She was breathing hard and it set that last trigger off within him.

“You’re sure you want this?” Saul asked.

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Let me know if I hurt you. Make me stop, okay?”

“Uh-huh,” she said, although it was apparent that any rational thought was gone and the only thinking was being done by their instincts.

So Saul let that energy out.  He rolled her over onto her back, careful not to crush her with his weight. When he was confident that her moans were of pleasure and not pain, he started taking charge. He held himself above her and did his best to restrain his force. Apparently, Nikki had been expecting more. She raised her hips to him and dug her nails into his side, urging him on.

He gave her what she was asking for. He went harder, faster, and let his body have its way. She writhed beneath him, biting her lips at first but finally giving up and letting out screams of pleasure. Her screams escalated and when she climaxed, she did it hard. She bucked and shuddered beneath him, groaning in a way that was hard to decipher Saul had a moment of fear where he thought he had hurt her.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry,” he said.

“Shut up,” she said “Oh my God, shut up and don’t stop.”

And then, as dawn finally broke into the room through the thin lines of the blinds, he continued to let that energy out. He felt her fingernails digging into his back and his sides and it just spurred him on. She may have come again, but he wasn’t sure. Something about this girl was pushing him to his limits; thought and reasons were long gone as he was inside of her.

When he came, he thought it was probably the most defenseless he had ever been in his life. She continued to work against him until his body collapsed beside her, totally spent.

Afterwards, they both shivered against one another. She kissed him lightly on the mouth and then rested her head on his chest. She placed her hand on his hip and then lay very still against him.

It was then that Saul realized that he was in some serious trouble. Some very serious trouble indeed.

5

The creature stalked through the dusk, weaving through trees and stepping lightly onto the foliage on the ground. There was blood on its face and hands. The rich smell of it filled his nostrils and he could still taste some from his earlier meal, still clinging to his tongue. It walked to the edge of a copse of trees and stood motionlessly, looking out to the tiny clearing within the trees.

A cabin sat there, unremarkable in every way. But the creature could smell several scents coming off of it even from this distance. It smelled the stale scent of his enemy—a smell very much like its own, only slightly sharper. On top of this smell, it could also detect the smell of sex. It chuffed at this. He could smell the human reek of sex but the smell of his enemy easily obliterated it.

The creature stood there for an hour and a half, just staring at the small cabin. It stood there until night fell and then it returned to where it had come from, deeper in the woods of the small town of Red Creek. It didn’t originate from these woods; no, it came from a dark place across the sea, some godforsaken little hole in a jungle that humanity hadn’t been able to venture into and ruin just yet. It had only been in Red Creek for two days and it had already grown to hate the place. How his enemy, Saul Benton, and his wretched little clan had managed to survive out here for this long was beyond its comprehension.

But soon enough, it knew it would be able to leave, to return to its dark undiscovered region until it was his clan’s time to feed again. First, though, it had a job to do. It shouldn’t take long. He was just waiting for a go-ahead from those in charge.

It crept through the forest, almost stopping on one occasion to pounce upon a deer that had traipsed by to the east. The creature ignored the deer. It had already fed quite well and could go without another meal for a few days. Besides—it had enjoyed human blood very recently. The blood of a deer would be like piss in comparison.

It walked further into the dark forests. The smell of Saul Benton was still with it, but it was fainter now, like some stagnant scent on a breeze. It eventually came to a large outcropping of rock that sat embedded into the forest floor. It went to the right side of this rock face and found the small crevice that led further into the ground.

It was a tight fit, but the creature’s body squeezed in easily enough. It took in the earthy smells calling to him from below. It crawled ahead, deeper into the earth. Its eyes grew accustomed to the darkness quickly. He could even see the faint glistening trails of red ahead of him from where he had dragged the bodies down here.

It eventually made it to the area where the passage thinned out. It stood in a large chamber of sorts, almost a cavern. To its right, huddled in the corner like a pile of rags, was the newest body. The creature had nearly taken all of the blood from it. The body’s face stared upwards. It was the pale face of Jason Eastman; his face was frozen forever, wide-eyed with fear.

The creature sat down on the rock floor and waited. It would sit there all night, waiting for the day to arrive. Here in the cave, it was hard to tell the difference between the two but, like Saul, it had a very good internal system that could easily separate day from night.

The creature looked to its left and saw a second body. Taking this body had nearly been an impulse. It had taken this man just before paying Jason Eastman a visit. This man’s expression was blank, as he had not had time to register the horror he was seeing before the creature had twisted his neck and sank its teeth into his flesh.

The broken neck made the head of Lester Dobbs stare off slightly to the right. His eyes looked tired. When the creature had sucked his blood down, it had tasted a strong dose of several types of alcohol. It had been rather sweet and surprisingly filling.

The creature sat there with the two bodies and waited. The smell of the earth filled his senses but he could still smell Saul Benton under it all. It made sure that the smell of his enemy was always present, always at the center.

Because when it got the okay to do so, it would be time to act. And the quicker he could get to Saul, the better.

In the dark, the vampire known as Leibald looked at the bodies it had taken recently and grinned.

1

Nikki dozed for only a few hours before the chiming of her cell phone’s alarm clock blared out from Saul’s living room. She stirred against him, amazed for about the hundredth time in the last few hours when she realized again just how massive he was.  Her head was on his chest and when she peered up to him, she saw that her alarm had broken his sleep, too.

“Sorry,” she said. “Work.”

“That alarm is annoying,” Saul said, sleepily. His hand found the small of her back and caressed her lightly.

“I know,” she said, stretching against him.

She rolled over and faced him. It was the first time since she had come into his cabin swinging her fists at him that she had actually looked in his eyes. Saul smiled at her. The gaze was nice. Warming.

“Can I use your shower?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“I’d ask you to join me,” she said, “but I already want you again and I have to be at work in an hour.”

Saul smiled and realized that he was more than up for another round with her. His hand, until then lightly grazing along the small of her back, trailed down to her naked rear where he grabbed with just enough force to get the point across.

“Don’t try to start something,” Nikki said with a smile, nuzzling against his chest. She made a light purring sound. With a sigh, she rolled out of bed.

Saul watched her as she walked into the living room, towards the shrill noise of the alarm. She’d apparently stripped her clothes off in there last night because she was nude as she left the room. He watched her go with great interest, studying the shapes of her body. She was almos
t
to
o
skinny—he guessed maybe just over one hundred pounds. Her breasts were small but fit her frame well. Her legs were the sort that gave the illusion that they were long but were really average. They appeared long due to the way Nikki carried herself. Currently, she was walking in a way that let Saul know that she was well aware that he was watching her go.

When she was out of sight, Saul heard her let out a light curse and then the alarm stopped. The cabin was tiny so it was easy for her to deduce where the shower was. Saul had purposefully not told her where it was. If she came back into the room to ask him where it was, he was going to pull her back into bed. She could be a few minutes late for work.

He listened to the shower come on two rooms further down and imagined her stepping under the water, lathering her chest and stomach with his soap. It was almost enough to make him get out and join her.

Calm down
,
he told himself.
 
You can’t get carried away. You’re acting like you’ve been crushing on this girl forever. This could get complicated. If you were smart, you’d tell her not to come back ever again the moment she gets out of the shower.

But he then thought about the way she had looked at him moments ago, their eyes locking as if he were a normal man that she wanted as a lover. It was new to him and he had liked it more than he should have.

Saul listened to the water cascading down and stared at the ceiling.

“Damn,” he said, knowing that he had some tough decisions ahead of him.