Sanibel Seduction - Vampire Werewolf Menage (Fanged Romance Series Book Four) (8 page)

She watched him settle behind the wheel, putting on his practically retro wayfarers before starting up the engine. “It’s a lost cause,” she offered softly. “I don’t know who he is, and neither did Mom.” In later years, when Azure hit her twenties, her mother admitted she’d been binge drinking when Azure was conceived and had no clue whom her sperm donor was.
Sperm Donor!
That still smarted. “Even if Mom did, she sure kept it one hell of a secret.” One she took to the grave.

Although she couldn’t see his gray eyes behind his shades, she knew they were stormy, and his look of concern wasn’t hidden by the lenses. Translation: He wasn’t dropping this topic anytime soon. “Buckle up,” he sighed softly. “A fried grouper sandwich for me, fish tacos and key lime martinis for you - I’ll drive you home after dinner.”

“Music to my ears and a balm to my grumbling stomach,” she said with relief. Glad he changed the subject. “Let’s go.”

“It would be so, Ancient One,” Health said tightly.

“If you call me that one more time,” he growled until the window next to him made a telltale tinkling sound. Apparently, bulletproof glass couldn’t hold up against his temper. “I’m going to cut your fucking tongue out.”

“Since you outrank me, I suppose I’ll have to let you,” he muttered vaguely, making a smacking sound with his lips. It would seem as though his mind was on other things. “But I wouldn’t mind a taste of
her
first. Might you postpone my torture so I can put my mouth on a bonny lass? A male’s dying wish and all.”

“Death by mutilation? Hardly. Like you wouldn’t grow your tongue back,” Gage snapped irritably, his head throbbing behind his eyes. “And
all
lasses are bonny to you. You said so yourself.”

“Aye, they are. All shapes, sizes, and colors. God’s painstaking creativity shows in every female. But I must say this one’s different. Mmmmm,” a heady rumble eased up his throat. “Wakin’ my Beast a wee bit. Thinkin’ he could fuck as the animal that he is with her takin’ a wild ride underneath him. Luscious body is a playground for my inhuman side.”

“But you’re entirely inhuman.” Gage didn’t want to talk. “I don’t scent a drop of human blood in you.”

“Just seein’ if you’re listen’.”

“Heath, when I fuck, I am an animal. One with a single-minded intensity who gives into the Beast or I don’t do it at all. I’ll be damned if I’m taking it easy on any female when I hurl us into the carnal apocalypse. I never back away from a religious experience, such as that. Believe me, if there are two pussies in my bed, one of them sure as hell isn’t me. ” Gage’s skin stretched across his bones right as he heard the car in question drive by. Hardened cock slammed against his straining zipper. He jumped up, tearing off his glasses, reaching a trembling hand for the door.

Three breaths in, one dangerous breath out.

A powerful arm pulled him back, curling around his throat, only because he allowed it. “Goin’ out in daylight when you’re no’ decent. Again. Forgettin’ there’ll be humans around?” Silver eyes flashed, canines dipping down over Heath’s chin. “What’s your hurry, Beast?”

Gage turned away, blanching as he caught a glimpse of the door. Claw marks ran deep and jagged until they hit metal. Fucking clawed the door as if he were a pup hitting puberty. After a few steadying breaths, he retracted nature’s weapons and waited for his canines to recede. Only after he settled his breathing did Heath pull himself back to his human facade.

“Very good, then,” Heath’s voice lost its warning edge. “Can we sniff around Sayer’s den or are you more likely to take a run?”

“Now,” Gage whispered. “We hit it now, and we hit it quickly. Or I’m out.”

“No’ without me,” Heath admitted as they left the vehicle. They walked across the road with as much casualness and two oversized males could pull off. A man walking his dog pulled to the left, avoiding them at all cost. A common occurrence they dealt with daily. Though humans found them attractive, they were afraid of them. Years of practice spent assimilating, mingling in with the weaker species, couldn’t change their minds. Fear fed fear. And when a predator passed them, they knew it.

“Not without you?”

“Alpha has me on your arse.”

“I’m the one that rides ass, not the other way around. You’re not shadowing me, Heath. Get that thought out of your head.”

“You were face-down when the Alpha found you, said he’d never seen you that way before.” He entered Sayer’s code, unlocking the elevator so they could head up. “Though you were left alive by your attackers, anythin’ could’ve killed you in that state, includin’ humans.”

“Attackers? You mean a pack of scent-free, immortal-fire-wielding leeches,” Gage corrected in a bored tone. He found it hard to believe that vampire rogues randomly attacked him. It felt as though it were a calculated warning. And bits and pieces in Kash’s report told him nothing.

“Did you really defang the Coven Master?”

“He went dental on Tatum. Practically shredded her throat, so I showed him what I thought of that.” Gage looked over his glasses, daring him to continue this conversation. Heath decided not to push it. Wise choice. The mirrored doors split, and they rounded the corner to investigate Sayer’s apartment.

“Again, I ask you,” he hissed in the way vampires do. “Why were you chasing the female mixed-blood?”

“Or your assembly is going to descend again with your tire irons and immortal fire?” He asked, turning to face his captor. Half of his face remained burned. The tire irons he could endure. Fires of hell were another matter altogether, the
only
thing that managed to keep him from going back for his female. He refused to touch his face in front of them, refusing them their sadistic pleasure, but he imagined the freak he now was. Something Azure wouldn’t want to look at unless he healed first.

“You must want more of what you’ve already gotten. Last chance to answer before I burn more than your pretty-boy face,” Tare warned.

“Again, I answer you with the same response I’ve given countless times since being here.”
Because she’s mine
. “I wanted to get laid. In regards to powerful fucking, a mixed-blood’s body is more tolerable than a human is, and full-bloods are such a rarity, so there’s no room for pickiness in matters of the cock. She enjoys hard grind. I intended on delivering. We hooked up.”
“Frolicking in the swamp?”

“Nasty roughness was all we wanted. Something a full vamp like you wouldn’t appreciate without gallons of blood dripping from your dick.” A dangerous smile split Sayer’s face. “Being part Lycanthrope” – he patted his chest – “has its advantages.” His words echoed starkly in his stone enclosure. At Tare’s scoff, Sayer added just for fun, “By the way, only the elderly use the word frolicking anymore. Should brush up on your dialect,” he said with faux concern. “Fitting in with the present century is a must. Or don’t you want to do that.”

“And you prove that the young remain blindly stupid.”

“I suppose so since I’m still wondering why I’m here locked away by you.” He ran a fingertip down some loosening mortar anchoring less than solid stones. Apparently, the Captiva Coven didn’t run this operation. Maestru wouldn’t have such shoddy prisons erected. He did it right, or he didn’t do it, at least structurally – not so much ethically. “Talking about crossing lines you shouldn’t.
Really
shouldn’t.”

“Monstrosities like you shouldn’t walk the streets.”

“Said one species to another,” Sayer said carefully, weighing his words. “When in glass houses, how can one monster throw a stone without hitting the other?” Even humans could be monsters, especially against their own young. Where was his captor going with this? Unless. “Ah, monsters that you call aliens.”

“Aren’t you?” He said turning slightly as the one called Collin entered. “An alien, I mean.”

“Oh, now I’m feeling stupid,” he laughed mechanically, pressing his forehead against his palm. “I thought I was dealing with some dark vendetta between our factions when all my imprisonment amounts to is a simple case of bigotry.” Therefore, he would die painfully unless he escaped.

“Bigotry doesn’t count when dealing with aliens,” Tare sneered while Collin remained deathly quiet. “You are an abomination, not a race. Your kind will be stamped out and soon.”

Apparently, Tare didn’t read his history tomes. Toppling a race never worked out for those doing the toppling. “You’re keeping me here to find out if there are other Habalines wandering before you kill me, then?” Nothing made sense. Habalines were everywhere.

“Not pure Habalines. That’s a wasted effort. But Habalines bred with Species Vampires. You,” he said while wagging his finger. “You’re even worse. Throwing in werewolves with your genetics makes you the most dangerous: part Species Vampire, part Habaline Shapeshifter and part werewolf. You were cultivated by a modern-day mad scientist.”

Sayer couldn’t argue with that. Growing up in a breeding camp wasn’t something he wished on his worst enemy, until now. “I’m told the mad scientist is now dead,” he muttered absently, “killed in Fort Myers.”

“You’re a freak of nature,” Tare continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Volatile and easily enraged, this world doesn’t need your kind prowling the streets and reproducing.”

Still wasn’t making sense. But he refused to ask what made this vampire the judge, jury, and executioner of Habaline mixed-bloods everywhere. Tare’s adrenalin was spiking and now wasn’t the time to push. “So long as you’ve got it all worked out,” Sayer said, settling on the bare mattress making up his bed. Imprisoned by a lunatic with a hard-on for killing those of his kind, what more could he ask for? He hadn’t scented his Azure anywhere close by, so he didn’t think she was a captive here, and he refused to ask Tare about her. Why give him any more ideas where she was concerned?

“Habalines pack hunt. More of your kind – those mixed that shouldn’t be – will come out looking for you. You are
bait
.”

Creatures had called Sayer worse. “I belong to the North American Werewolf Pack. All members voted me in, accepted me with open arms when I was freed from a breeding camp in Scotland.” He’d spent the first twenty-one years of his life fighting an isolated, lonely existence. When he finally found his female, vampires knocked Sayer off course before he could sink into her, claiming her for all time.
I will get back to you, my blessed Azure with the golden eyes.

“I always say werewolves are fools. Think with their dicks and brawn on most occasions.” Tare tacked on, “Scarcely with their brains. You stand before me proving that. They should have put you down.”

Sayer wouldn’t continue this conversation unless his life truly depended on it. He had to maintain what was left of his health for Azure’s sake. Get to her when the moment presented itself. And arguing with the deranged was dangerous for one’s health when in a weakened state.
I need to feed.
“Perhaps you are right,” Sayer said softly, leaning against the wall, sensing the minute vibrations, which further indicated an unsound structure. Wobbly prisons didn’t make for good cages, especially for
abominations
such as aliens.

Tare gave him a hard look before turning on his heel and speaking to Collin in a rare, Slovakian tongue some vampires adopted. However, Sayer’s alien side translated most languages easily. Tare said minimum food and water, but no blood. They’d maintain his weakened state. Typical. Food he hated. Blood he longed for. So, considering the painful burn on his face, things were going to get worse, especially if they decided to spend more time torturing him in their lazy way with their tire irons.

His captors walked away, locking mechanisms sounded in their wake, leaving him alone in a grey existence. One fabricated to look ancient, but Sayer was too smart for that. They had made this prison recently, and it was an embarrassment at that. He was also too smart to believe he was bait for other Habaline mixed-bloods. A stupid ruse he couldn’t accept as true even if he tried. So exactly what were they after? “By God, Azure, I hope it has nothing to do with you.”

“Yes, indeed,” he replied with a flush of anger. “Why are you now questioning my causes?”

“What was it to you that I wanted to claim her?”

“I know your Bride died centuries ago, just as mine did.” In an attempt to save Collin’s Bride, vampires made the female Undead. A human turned vampire – created, not born of the Species. Through the secret process, she became insane, arising and killing everything within her immediate radius until Collin himself had to deliver final death. He still wasn’t over it. Never would be. “There are circumstances which I am not at liberty to discuss,” Tare said as if that settled things.

It didn’t. “I stand by my earlier declaration. The Habaline named Sayer wasn’t hurting her,” Collin said, stabbing his finger at the iron door sealing Sayer inside his cell. “Neither was that werewolf we beat within inches of his life. What exactly are you saving her from? What good comes of getting between Beasts and their mates?” He shuddered. “How’s that going to work out in your favor in regards to her?”

“Why are you insisting this is solely about the woman?”

“Because it is,” he answered without hesitation. “Lie to everyone else, mind you, but, not to me.” Collin’s irises were bleeding into his whites the way incensed vampires do. He tried to blink them back, but it was of no use. “We are brothers. Everything you say is contrary to what you are doing. Relations or not, has it ever occurred to you that I risk my life daily when in your presence? Refer to the mastermind behind these sick breeding camps as a lunatic all you want to. You walk that line. You,” he said fiercely, getting in Tare’s face, “make enemies where there should be none.”