The Feeder (5 page)

Thayne

I found Eve huddled in the corner of the upstairs apartment she lived in, curled into a small ball, her mouth open in a now silent scream as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. I didn’t need to ask her what was wrong; I could smell it.

Following my nose, I moved over to the open door on the other side of the room, Eve’s tantalising scent faintly coming from within, telling me that this was her bedroom, but it was barely noticeable under the overpowering stench of blood and death.

Stepping into the room, I gazed down upon Pippa’s broken body and my heart ached. Her hands were tied to the headboard above her, her legs bound together. Her chest was cut open, her blood soaking into the sheets below. She didn’t deserve this.

Moving closer, I took a deep breath, pulling in all the scents in the room, trying to detect any that didn’t belong to Pippa or Eve. But I found none. I didn’t scent any hints of sex – which was a relief – but that didn’t help with the question of why?

Pippa was a regular at the club, one that had actually been very close to being turned if the rumour mill in this place was correct. Why would somebody do this to her? And why here in Eve’s bedroom?

Hearing the fast approaching feet of others, I made my way out into the main room and moved over to stand by Eve, placing my hand lightly upon her shoulder, relieved when she didn’t bulk at my touch. She was in shock; there was no telling how she would react.

Gideon skidded to a stop in the doorway, Reese right behind him, nostrils flaring as the scent of blood hit them. Cutting his eyes to Eve, a frown marred his face. “What’s happened?” he snapped glaring at me, his amber eyes full of suspicion.

All vampires had abilities. The ability to move at high speeds and that of great strength came with the name, but there were others that not every vampire acquired. The colour of a vampire’s eyes could give you a hint of the power held within their body. Amber was the most common, the colour of your average everyday vampire. The fact that Gideon had amber eyes only made me more suspicious about how he became a bloody Master. He shouldn’t have been powerful enough to defeat Denton, but I could sense the strength in him.

After amber, there was emerald, a sigh of even greater power and speed than the average vampire. The colour was very common among the vampires in my kind of work. Then there was the crystal blue of my eyes, the one that hinted physic abilities. It could be anything from mind reading to creating images in the minds of others. Then there was violet, a rare colour that primarily means ‘you don’t want to fuck with me.’ Then, the rarest colour of all… blood red. And only two vampires were known to have eyes of that colour. And believe me, I was definitely glad to be able to call them friends and not enemies.

My abilities, while not the strongest of my group, were simple. Every vampire was able to feel the emotions of others, but we were also splendid at hiding them, meaning that it was very hard to get a read on another vampire if they did not want you to… unless you were me. I could pick up on emotion so much easier than others. So much so that it was near impossible to shield an emotion from me, but not entirely. I needed to have skin to skin contact for me to get a truly clear reading of some, but I could still pick up a vibe or two that would give me a clue as to where someone’s thoughts were going. And with Gideon, if I wasn’t mistaken, there was no sense of worry, hurt or sadness for the death he could scent in the room he’d just entered. No, all I sensed coming from him was a great bout of frustration and impatience… all aimed at Eve.

“Pippa’s dead. Her body was stripped and bound before being left upon Eve’s bed for her to find,” I explained. If I had expected any emotion to appear on that news, anger that someone had killed a human, a familiar within his club and left the body in the manner that they had, I had been wrong. With a brief glance at the door leading to the bedroom and the body of the poor girl, he clipped, “Deal with it,” before turning and walking back down the stairs to his office.

Anger burned through my veins. How the fuck that bastard ever became a Master I did not know, but I would be damned if he was going to stay in that position for long if this was his attitude. Realising that someone needed to take hold of the situation, I began giving out orders as the crowd gathering on the stairs began to grow. “Reese, check out the body. Look for any clues as to who the hell did this. Chad, get back downstairs and check all CCTV footage and see if you can find anything. Trent, arrange for the removal and disposal of the body.” When the others burst into action but Trent refused to move, I asked, “What?”

“Someone needs to tell Dean.”

“I'm sure he will hear about it soon enough.” The vampires in this place were almost as bad as the old ladies that had gathered on the corner of the street by the post box every day during my childhood, gossiping about everyone and everything.

“No, I think someone needs to tell him in person before it gets back to him.”

“Why?” I asked, though, I had a terrible feeling that I already knew why. My first night here Pippa had been pretty cosy with Dean, cuddled up to him most of the night, and a few nights since then if my memory was correct.

“They were together. He was going to turn her, told her so just last night.”

Fuck!

“Okay, get him out from behind that bar and into Eve’s office as quick as you can. I’ll be down shortly to talk with him.” Not something I was looking forward to doing, and something I shouldn’t have to be doing.

It was Gideon’s job, damn it! He was the Master vampire around here. It was his job to deal with shit like this.

Trusting the guys to do as I had asked, I looked down upon the small, shaking form of Eve. There was something else I needed to do first before I could move on to telling Dean that the woman he had decided to turn, the woman I was sure he had fallen for as that was the only reason anyone ever turned another – except for being psycho – had been murdered. I needed to get through to Eve, break through the panic and terror to the woman beneath and bring her back to the surface.

“Thayne?” I heard Trent yell from the bottom of the stair before I could even make a move to helping calm her.

“What?” I shouted back just as the music downstairs shut off and screams rang out, followed by a large crash.

“Dean knows!”

No shit!

It took almost an hour to halt Dean’s rampage. The bar he loved so much? Smashed to pieces. The people in the club? Fled, screaming in fear. Dean was now out cold in Eve’s office and hopefully would be for some time. I’d left Reese in charge of watching him after we had finally managed to get enough of the sedative in his large frame to knock him out.

All that time Eve had remained balled up in the corner where I had first found her, shaking more and more every time someone had tried to approach her.

I hated seeing her like this, so broken and scared. We needed to get her out of here so that we could conduct a thorough search of the place and remove the body. That was something she did not need to see.

“Eve? We need to get this place cleaned up. Come on, sweetheart,” I said, reaching out for her hand when she didn’t move at my urging. I was expecting her to scramble away from me like she had everybody else that had approached her during my absence, but she didn’t.

Placing my hand upon hers - that was wrapped tightly in her hair as she rocked back and forth, her eyes forced shut - I was surprised as hell when she suddenly grasped my hand and held it so tight that if I wasn’t a vampire, I was sure it would hurt. Taking that as a good sign, I moved to sit down beside her, once again shocked as fuck when she practically dived into my lap and held on for dear life.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” I whispered in her ear as I rocked her in my arms. Her scent surrounded me, my throat burned with thirst, but somehow I managed to hold myself back. The last thing she needed after witnessing this was me trying to take a bite.

“Why?” she cried. “Why would someone do this to her?”

Why indeed?

“I don’t know. But I promise you I will find out.” And when I did, there would be hell to pay.

It was almost another hour until Eve finally calmed down enough to rest, falling to sleep in my arms. I’d dreamed of holding her like this but never had I wanted it to be under these circumstances.

I needed to go to Gideon's office and fill him in on the situation with Dean and the reason the club was in desperate need of repair. When I tried to pass her over to Chad to hold for a moment, her grip on me tightened. She refused to let go of my shirt as if she sensed what I was trying to do and didn’t want me to leave.

I have to admit that while being a little inconvenient, it made me smile. I was a little reluctant to let go too.

Deciding it would be easier just to take her with me, I carried her down the stairs and into the office, taking a seat across from Gideon with her on my lap. He did not look happy.

“First dead bodies, then my barman going berserk and destroying my fucking club, and now I find my… I find Eve, asleep in your arms. Care to explain what the fuck is going on?”

His what? What was Eve to him? I knew for a fact that there wasn’t anything sexual be-tween them; I would have scented him on her if there was. There was also the fact that I knew from our talks about the club and the problems with Gideon’s management of it that she hated the bloke. She wouldn’t come right out and say it, but she did.

“Dean was in a relationship with Pippa, had offered to turn her just last night. As you can imagine, he was a trifle upset by finding out that she was dead.”

“A trifle? That bastard destroyed my damn club!” I had to bite my lip not to inform him that he was doing a pretty good job of that himself. “Any idea of who killed her?”

Shaking my head, I tried not to let my anger show. I was pissed, majorly, at him. “None. With the CCTV system not recording, we weren’t able to find anything. And whoever it was covered their tracks well… too well.” When I had discovered the system set up had no way of recording any of the footage I’d barely been able to control my rage. If it weren't for the precious bundle in my arms, I would have raced straight to Gideon’s office and beat the fuck out of him that instant. Did Gideon not care about this place at all?

After filling him in on what we knew had happened from talking to the other familiars – which was basically nothing – the conversation quickly turned back to the club. “I expect this place to be open as usual tomorrow. As soon as she wakes, have her organise the clean-up and inform her that I expect her to get all the paperwork I asked her to do completed and organised before the week is out.”

“Not going to happen,” I snapped. “She’s been through a traumatic experience. It took forever to calm her down. There is no way she is up to doing anything but resting.”

“She will do as I say. And where exactly is she going to rest when her bed is stained with the blood of that slag?”

Okay, if it weren't for the fact that I was here undercover, Gideon would be dead now having uttered those words. I hadn’t really known Pippa, but I did know that she was no fucking slag. She had loved Dean and had been loyal to him since the day they met. He was damn well lucky that Dean was no longer conscious or in the building; otherwise, I was in no doubt that he would have taken the bastard out himself. But he did have a point about her place, and judging by how she still had her hands fisted tightly in my shirt, she wasn’t going to be letting go of me anytime soon. Not that I was complaining about that.

“She’ll sleep with me.”

“Like fuck she will!”

And that started a whole new round of arguments, Eve remaining silently asleep in my arms the entire time. In the end, with the sun quickly approaching, Gideon departed, but not before grabbing a large pile of papers and dumping them in Eve’s office.

His precious paperwork would get done, even if I had to do it myself, but Eve wasn’t going to be the one doing it. She needed to rest. Not just because of what she had been thought tonight, but because she was exhausted. 

I wasn’t stupid; I knew that she hadn’t been sleeping well. I just didn’t know why.

Eve

I couldn’t move. Didn’t want to. The image of Pippa lying there, dead on my bed, was burned into my brain and didn’t seem to want to go away anytime soon. I’d seen dead bodies before, quite a few of them. But here, in my own home, it seemed to hit me the hardest.

Everyone had been running about, shouts and screams ringing out through the building. I vaguely remembered hearing someone say that Dean knew. He and Pippa had been getting pretty close over the past few months; he had grown quite fond of her. I dreaded to think how he must be feeling right now.

Every so often someone would come up to me, try to coax me out of my corner, but I flinched away from their touch every single time. I couldn’t stand to let a vampire touch me on a good day, never mind after this had happened. But when it came to Thayne, I had gone willingly, desperately clinging onto him throughout the entire meeting with Gideon, not truly asleep but not listening to a word of it. I just wanted to bury my head in Thayne’s chest and never let go.

I felt safe with him, secure. What it was about Thayne that made me feel this way, I don’t know. Well, I do, but I’m going to deny it every chance I get. He was different, nice. And the fact that he was the hottest, sexiest man I had ever seen.

Vampire, Eve! You can’t forget that he’s a vampire! 

As Thayne carried me out of Gideon’s office, he didn’t turn the way I expected. Instead of heading back upstairs to my place, he entered the club.

Where are we going?

Lifting my head, I forced my eyes open for the first time in hours. The place was a mess, destroyed. The new bar that had recently been fitted was split down the middle as if someone had hit it with a sledgehammer… or a vampire’s fist. Bottles were smashed. Drinks spilt. This mess wasn’t going to be easy to fix. Getting money out of Gideon for maintenance was hard enough on a good day.   

As Thayne stepped around the corner of the bar, I realised where we were headed. The cellar. And more importantly, Thayne’s room. “You can sleep in my bed tonight.”

His bed?

No, that wasn’t a smart idea. That was a dreadful idea. What if he got hungry and decided I would make the perfect snack? What if my scent got too much and he took a bite? I knew from experience that prolonged exposure to me could send a vampire’s thirst to uncontrollable levels.

No, sleeping in Thayne’s bed was definitely not a good idea.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, my voice coming out shakier than I wanted. “I can sleep in my own bed.”

“I don’t think you would want to right now, sweetheart. There has been a dead body in it, remember? And while Pippa's body has been removed,   the bed is far from clean. I promise you’ll be safe down here with me.”

With him? Meaning that he wasn’t planning on leaving me down there alone. My body tensed up at the thought. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “You can have my bed, and I’ll kip on the floor. Unless you want to share?” he asked, a light teasing tone in his voice.

I couldn’t help it. No matter what I had gone through tonight, the horror that had taken place, I couldn’t help the laugh that burst out of my mouth at his terrible line.

“See. That wasn’t too hard.” He smiled down at me, his eyes softening. “You’re even more beautiful when you smile.”

Entering the small room in the cellar, Thayne strolled over to the bed and deposited me on it gently. He made to stand, to move away from me, but my hands refused to let go of his shirt. My fingers fisted so tightly in the fabric that I didn’t think they would ever be able to release. I didn’t want him to go, didn’t want to be left alone. “Don’t leave me.”

“I'm not going anywhere. Just let me get you an extra blanket. It’s freezing down here, and while the cold doesn’t affect me, I don’t want you getting ill.”

Nodding, I forced my hands to relax, allowing him to slip away from me.

My panic started to rise the moment he left the room, my breaths coming in short, fast pants, but only for a moment. Within seconds he was back, his arms bundled with blankets and pillows for me. After making sure that I was warm enough and comfortable, he set to making his own bed for the night upon the floor. I wanted to say something, tell him not to do that and just get into the bed with me, to hold me. But I couldn’t. He was attractive and kind, and over the week since he started here we had gotten to know each other a little. But that didn’t change the fact that he was a vampire, someone that I could never get close to. But fuck did he make it hard to remember that at times.

“How are you holding up?” he asked lying on his side, his chin rested upon his hand.

“Okay, I guess.” A shiver running through my body as the images flashed through my mind once again. “I just can’t believe this happened. I mean, why would somebody do that?”

“I was hoping that you could tell me. It is obvious that whoever killed Pippa left her body in your room for a reason. Any idea what that reason might be?”

“No. What reason could anybody possibly have for doing that? Why would anyone want to hurt her?” I cried. The thought of someone binding Pippa and harming her so violently was just insane to me. She was such a sweet girl. She didn’t deserve that.

“I don’t think it was her that mattered,” Thayne said, pulling me back to the conversation.

“What? Of course she mattered! How could you even say that?”

Raising his brow, he held up his hands. “That is not what I meant. Of course she mattered. She mattered very much. What I am trying to say is that she didn’t matter to the killer. Whoever this was wasn’t concerned about Pippa, otherwise, he wouldn’t have left the body where he did. He was concerned about you.”

“Me?”

“I think… No, I know, that the body was left for you. The killer wanted you to find her, to be scared.”

“Well, it’s worked. I was already pretty scared as it was, and now… I'm terrified.” At Thayne’s confused expression I wanted to fill him in on the strange feelings I’d been having lately, the sense that someone had been watching me, following me, but I couldn’t.

“I’ll find them, Eve. I’ll find whoever did this and make them pay.”

“I know you will,” I whispered. For the first time in my life, I was beginning to trust a vampire. Even if it was against my better judgement.