Sweet Cravings (7 page)

Darius took a sip of tea ever so elegantly. “Of course.”

Sang gleefully sat beside me and thanked Darius.

The older vamp took another sip of tea and sighed heavily. “I haven’t told you this yet, my dear, so I will tell you now. Each vampire has a different ‘bite’ effect. Take Sang. When he bites you, you feel pleasure, am I correct?”

I really hoped that my cheeks didn’t betray my feelings. “Well, um…yeah, I guess.”

“Other vampire bites inflict pain. Some inflict a narcotic effect. Most vampires can only induce one of these feelings when they bite, and some, very few, can control two. I, however, can control all three; for what reason I do not know.”

I swallowed hard and became tingly just remembering it. The night Darius changed me I had experienced an indescribable pleasure and a lot of pain. I’d also felt as if I were drugged and couldn’t move.

Darius said, “Lily, that night I also manipulated your mind, beside the bite.”

I really wanted to punch him. It was then I noticed Sang’s leg shaking, and his hands sweating.

I let the anger go.

“So, NEXUS can mimic all three of the vampires’ bites?” Sang suggested.

“Yes,” Darius answered while setting his cup on the table.

I asked, “So what are we supposed to do about it? What’s so bad about NEXUS?”

Darius flicked his eyes to Sang, then me. “You both look very personable in those clothes.”

Sang smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Darius continued. “NEXUS is dangerous because of the humans taking it. It’s an injectable drug and very, very addictive. The longer the humans partake in injecting the drug, the closer they are to dying. The vampire virus wants to attack and turn the human, but the other counter organisms in the drug won’t let the vampirism take place, so the human’s cells basically fight each other until the human becomes very sick and eventually dies.”

I intertwined my fingers. Both of Sang’s legs were still shaking. “And you’re telling us this why…?”

Darius combed a hand through his thick hair. “You two, and a shifter I am familiar with, will investigate the factory where the drug is being produced. While you are doing that, I shall further investigate the issue and tend to my
other problems
.”

“Why can’t you go, too?” I was becoming furious, but I didn’t physically show it.

“I am busy enough as it is,” he replied coolly. “Now, my dear, I must ask you to wait by the entrance as I speak to Sang for a bit.”

I grumbled, “Fine.”

As I stepped to the door, Darius said one last thing to me. “I am pleased that you have decided to control your anger more efficiently.” He grinned.

I shut the door and went to wait by the main entrance. Whatever he was talking to Sang about, I had a feeling it wasn’t good.

* * * *

When Sang finished speaking to Darius, Sang walked out and came to me. “Hey, Lily, let’s…” He paused and quickly said, “Wait here for a minute! I forgot something!” He started for the steps, ascended the staircase, and then disappeared.

He came running toward me and handed me a heavy pink trench coat. I put it on and buttoned up.

Sang told me, “You have to wear that, Lily. Vampires have a tendency to freeze in the cold, and newborns have an even greater tendency. I won’t, because I’m used to it. Darius gave me some blood, and you just took some of mine.”

“Why do you do things for him?” I asked. “I’m not staying with him because of my own will.”

He stared at his boots. “He saved my life, so I feel that I’m indebted to serve him. I’ve already pledged my loyalty to him in blood.”

I couldn’t see Darius
saving
anyone, but I believed Sang’s story.

Sang placed his pair of shades on and opened the double doors. The sunlight flooded into the mansion as if it had been pushing to get in. We quickly closed the doors and Sang locked it.

A hard breeze made me shiver, but no snow yet. Vibrant-colored leaves lay strewn over the sidewalk, road, and tops of the cars and homes, and I relished how they crunched like potato chips when I stepped on them.

“Lily, my friend that Darius was talking about will be here soon. He’s kind of a quiet guy, so don’t take it personally if he ignores you.”

I shrugged. “Whatever you say, Captain.”

I bent my head and looked up into the sky at the gleaming sun and swelled-up, looming gray clouds that slowly inched their way across the sky, promising rain later. A crow flew past and cawed, and then landed on the sidewalk right next to Sang.

“Someone’s good with animals,” I joked.

“Hey, Hira. ’Sup?” Sang said as he stared at the crow.

“The wind slowed me down,” the crow replied quietly.

I was so shocked. “Your friend is a talking crow!”

“Oh, no, he’s a shifter.”

I watched in complete disbelief as the crow grew taller, feathers pulsing and morphing into flesh, his beak and tiny head forming into human. The transformation was done in an instant, and standing where the crow had been was a tall, naked man. He had dark red hair that swayed past his collarbone, and tanned copper skin that shone in the sunlight. His face was very masculine, with a sharp jaw and such. He had a six-pack, and his muscles were gorgeous. His face had some silver piercings on his nose and around it, and he had the most incredible cat-green eyes. I almost melted where I stood.

“Hello, I’m Hira.” He introduced himself and held out a hand.

I gave his hand a shake. “Lily.”

He turned to Sang. “Darius turned her?”

Sang gave him a curt nod. “Oh, shit!” He swiftly went to Alice, his Corvette, and grabbed a pile of clothes for Hira. The shifter acted like being naked in public was a normal, everyday thing.

And maybe it was, because he was very fast at slipping on a pair of black jeans, a green polo, and black running sneakers. I was impressed by how quick he was at dressing and how well his physique fit into his clothes.

“Now, I have sad news,” Sang said solemnly. “We won’t be driving Alice today. We’ll be driving Darius’ sedan, which I have taken unto myself to name Benjamin.

Hira laughed and told me, “It’s one of Darius’ cheaper cars to get places.”

I responded with a knowing, “Mmm…”

We all piled into the silver car. I was going to sit in the back, but Hira gestured for me to sit in the front, so he sat in the back, and Sang was deemed the driver.

“Seat belts, everyone, please!” Sang commanded. Before driving away, he spun the tires so smoke rolled from the street, and took off.

“You’re such a reckless driver!” Hira hollered as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Sang laughed like a boy on his first bike. “I know!”

As I was sitting there, Sang pushing the poor car to seventy-five on a fifty-mile-per-hour road, I suddenly thought of something.

What about my work?

I had just gotten the job, and it hadn’t been a piece of cake. I had searched everywhere in town, and everywhere out of town in range. I have a degree in writing and no one would take me, no newspapers or magazines. So I got a huge break when I finally got decent work at the
Beauty Bomb Boutique
—it really wasn’t my cup of tea, but what the hell. I’m also trying to finish a novel and put my writing skills to use. I’ve always dreamed of accomplishing that.

“Sang,” I said loudly as I looked at him. “What about my job? I haven’t been able to tell anyone what happened—not that they’d believe me.”

He answered coolly, “Oh, that thing. Darius used his glamour on them. He told them that you were very sick and would be out for about a month.”

“A month!” I yelled in horror and disbelief.

“Yeah,” Sang said.

“I guess it’s better than nothing.” I sulked.
No money for Lily this month. Sigh.

Sang concentrated on the road and accelerated once in a while, trying to put me off balance—which didn’t work. Hira, however, seemed carsick, and his face looked as though he ate a very sour apple.

Finally, after driving two towns over, Sang parallel parked beautifully and stretched when he twisted out the keys. “Okay, guys, we’re here.
The Factory.”

I unlatched my seat belt and strode to where Sang and Hira stood together. “So, what are we supposed to do?”

“We’re going to go inside and see what’s up,” Sang explained in the simplest way possible.

“Well, no shit. I mean, how are we gonna do that?”

“Simple. Hira will turn into a pigeon and fly through, and you and I will sneak around, use our glamour, and find the head people of the place.”

He made it sound so much easier than what we really had to do.

“Okay!” Sang said, “On the count of three. One…two…” He paused as we heard a shuffling of feet and a low moan.

I expected a person or a worker for the company, but what I saw was something I’d never forget in my entire undead life.

It—or he, or whatever the fuck it was—stumbled out from the back corner of the building and moaned again, a terrible noise which haunted my ears. I finally made out it was, in fact, a
he
, and that
he
had been dead for quite some time.

His eyes were hollow sockets, and his face was shrunken in so much you could see the pale pallor of his bones. The man’s flesh sagged and wrinkled, showing more glistening bone against gray flesh and thin wisps of white hair. His suit was all rags and dirty with soil, and his hands were skeletal, reaching for something, grabbing for anything to steady himself. His one foot was bent backward, so he had to drag it behind him. You could see his rib cage protruding from his jacket top, and his depressed stomach stretched what little flesh he had left across the sides.

I was seeing the monster of my little-girl nightmares.

A zombie.

I was about to scream when Hira gently covered my mouth and shook his index finger
no
. I bowed my head in shame and remembered who the dead guy walking was.

From the purple and pink handkerchief in his breast pocket, I knew he’d been Mr. Zestromi, a good lawyer in town. I’d spoken to him once when he’d stopped by the shop to get his wife a pair of slippers, and I’d asked about his handkerchief, to which he’d replied was a gift from his wife in his favorite colors. He mentioned he always wore it when he went out. He had passed from a heart attack ten years ago.

Hira’s feet shuffled, and the zombie turned in our direction, his flat nose sniffing the air. Then he began to shamble toward us, moaning and grunting with each tiresome step.

Sang was hiding behind Benjamin, the car. His teeth were chattering, and behind his sunglasses his crimson eyes were wide with fear.

I sighed and looked at Hira. “Well, can you do anything?”

He was shaking too. “Let it pass.”

“No,” I said. “He was a good guy and I’m not letting him go on like this.” I rolled up my sleeves and stood right in front of the zombie’s path, determination sparking inside me like some hidden plug had been turned on.

As he came closer, I held out my leg and tripped him. Mr. Zestromi fell to the ground helplessly and groaned. He was on his stomach and struggled to get up.

Tears welled in my eyes. “You were a wonderful lawyer,” I uttered before I lifted my boot and crushed his head with pure force. Blood spattered my boots, arms, and leggings and the ground. The zombie stopped moving. He was dead for good. Ew, ew, ew!

“Who would take a dead man from his grave and do this shit?” I asked my partners.

Sang whispered, “Mrs. Zakora.”

I tapped my foot in frustration. “And who is Mrs. Whatever-her-name?”

He trembled. “Zakora is a witch, a necromancer, who is paid to bring the dead back to life by clients…to you know…say goodbye or ask for legal documents. I don’t know the purpose of this one, maybe to scare us off, but boy, Lily, you’re one tough cookie.”

“Why, thank you,” I said, hoping my cheeks weren’t deceiving my feelings. Sang’s praise flustered me.

Sang glanced at the dead body and shivered. “Rest in peace,” he whispered.

“Are we going to start what we came for?” Hira cracked his knuckles.

“Okay,” Sang said, “One…two…”

“Sang,” a male voice called. “What are you doing out here so late?”

Oh, Jesus fucking Christ, what is it this time?

I craned my neck and saw a man on top of the building! He leaped down and landed a few feet in front of us.

I recognized his voice. He was the person who’d come to Sang’s apartment looking for me after I’d first awakened from being turned. Sang had hidden me in that fucking coffin and shushed him away.

Seeing him now, he seemed like someone from the medieval era. He was clad in breeches and a leather vest with a white, puffy, long-sleeved shirt. He had on heavy black boots and a sword fastened to his left side. His hair was almost as long as Darius’, a light, light blond. The cool thing about him was his eyes. They were mismatched—one blue and one red.

He was pretty.

“Caen, what’s up?” Sang greeted happily.

The other man looked at Sang with a sad face. “Sang,” he began, “Please go back home. Now. I’m not myself. I keep blacking out and ending up in weird places. I don’t want to hurt you. Forget NEXUS. I’ll send you some documents about it to Darius after you leave. Please.”

Sang was so perplexed. “What do you mean, Caen? Are you taking the drug?”

“No.” Caen replied with a grunt. “Something else is happening. Ah, I see that she is the one Darius turned. She’s beautiful, Sang.”

I definitely blushed this time, like hot coals.

“Go now, please,” the vampire begged.

Hira rigidly stood in front of him. “We have an order from our master and must complete it.”

Caen doubled over and bowed his head. “Go! Now!”

I was so confused, but I made my hands into fists and took Caen’s word. “Sang, Hira, let’s go. He said he’d send some documents to Darius. Come on.”

As I started to walk to the car, a strange energy enveloped Caen. Sang and Hira just stood there, dumbfounded. Or maybe not. Maybe they were hypnotized. Shit!

I rushed over and witnessed a dark purple aura surround Caen, and then he fell to the ground and passed out. I inched closer to and touched his cheek. “Caen?”