Night Bites Read online

  “It feels like you have died,” Sebastian says strangling out another sob. I always knew the guys felt the connection more than me, but I didn’t know it was this strong. I love Sebastian and all, but he is still here. It isn't like one of us really fell off a cliff.

  “But I didn’t,” I say walking over to take his hand. “I am still here and we still love each other. Even if the bond doesn’t come back on its own, there has to be a way to reconnect. You are the scholar amongst us, so hit the books. I am sure between all of us, including Demon Boy, we can find something that will reconnect us. Until that time comes, you are not going to mope around punishing people that don’t deserve it. If you want vengeance, take me to Tommy and we will kill him nice and slow. Marcus doesn’t deserve all of this.”

  I watch as thoughts cloud his eyes. Evidently, it isn’t a simple decision in his mind. Eyes finally cleared, he nods his head and walks over to Marcus.

  “You will not leave her alone again, ever. She is your savior now and as such you will worship her,” Sebastian says and the words seem to have a power behind them.

  “By my blood I swear,” Marcus answers swiftly. It seems a new blood oath is in place. I don’t know how I feel about the worshiping part of the deal, though.

  “And so it shall be,” Sebastian states ending their little ceremony. He pulls a lever that slowly relaxes the rack back into place. I don’t imagine you want your bones all crashing together at once.

  Alex walks over and starts helping to unstrap the vampire. Marcus is going to need some food soon, as the red in his eyes indicate. I wonder if they have anyone on hand. I have seen black vampire eyes before, but have never been around one that is this far gone.

  Once he is let loose, I am amazed to see he stays on his feet and makes his way to me. Up close, his wounds aren’t any better, but at least they look to be mostly closed and he will heal quickly.

  He drops to his knees at my feet and bows. “My life for yours, my queen.” I totally don’t like the way that sounds. Things are getting a little bit too formal in here.

  “I am hard to kill, so I hope it will never come to that,” I tell him. I bend down to try to help him to his feet, but he is basically dead weight. “Do we have blood available for him?” In his weakened state I am a little worried for the donor, but he needs to eat now.

  “Send Doreen in,” Sebastian says to no one in particular. With the super ears in this place, I am sure the right person heard his command.

  Further proof of this is evident when a large woman appears in the cell. Large, in the fact that she towers over me. She isn’t exactly husky, but she hasn’t been missing meals either. She has short spiky pink hair that seems to glow in the dark.

  “Oh Marcus,” she sighs and rushes to the man now limp in my arms. “Here you go, love.”

  She takes her wrist and quickly slices a cut with a knife she pulls from an ankle sheath. With her blood flowing freely she forces her wrist to his mouth trying to work some of the stream down his throat. It doesn’t take long for him to come alive and aggressively start feeding.

  The feeding reminds me of the one Sebastian and I just shared. There is pleasure in the gift of taking her blood, but no sparks. Her being human clued me in that they weren’t bonded, but she did call him love, so there must be some emotional exchange. Or, of course, she may just be delusional.

  As his pulls start to lessen and he loosens his grip, Sebastian says, “Thank you, Doreen. You can go now.”

  Marcus lets her go and smiles a little at the pout that forms on her face. “Thank you for coming,” he tells her trying to stand on his own.

  He makes it up and seems to be in good shape. All of the wounds are for sure closed and I imagine if he washes the blood off, things won’t look too bad.

  “Now that that is taken care of, you can guess that I have some questions I want answered. Can we head back up to the apartment so we can begin the interrogation?” I ask bringing myself off the ground and dusting off my pants. I still cannot believe the guys actually dressed me in my normal clothes when they had me lying there naked.

  “That is probably a good idea. We may have questions of our own, so it will be good to get them out of the way,” Alex replies leading the way out of the cell.

  Sebastian takes his place beside me again. This time he wraps his arm around my waist. I think, at least for a while, he is going to be really touchy. I will have to get used to it, or potentially strangle him. In the early stages, either possibility still has a fifty-fifty chance.

  Marcus ends up falling in behind us, the effects of his torture not evident in his step. It’s a good thing I woke up when I did, otherwise I don’t believe he would still be breathing.

  We make our way in silence and it takes every bit of willpower I have not to ask them to take me to where they are holding Tommy. They want to question him, which is fine, but they better not take their time about it.

  I still want his head on a pike and I want it there soon.

  Chapter 3

  Answers to all the questions a mush mind can come up with

  When we enter my living area, Jake sees us first. “Whoa, Marcus man. I think you have seen better days.”

  Rude much? I look for Jonas to verify that he isn’t somehow disfigured for being taken out on the job. On the surface everything looks okay.

  “His penance is self-imposed and I have accepted it,” Alex informs me.

  “What is it?” I think back.

  “Not something I will share. If he wants to, he can, but as I said it was his idea so it is up to him to say who can know.”

  I hope whatever it is, it’s not that bad, like cutting off one of his nuts. Tommy is a sneaky bastard and could have got by any of us.

  I settle onto the couch with Alex and Sebastian surrounding me. Jonas, Jake, and Smitty take up the other couch and Marcus sits on the ground in front of me. I don’t want to get into it with him right now, so I stay quiet on that account.

  “Before you start, can we get you anything solid to eat?” Alex asks. “You haven't eaten in a day so I expect you should be hungry.”

  I think about it for a second and find I don't feel hungry at all. Not even for some bacon, which I could usually eat all day, every day. That being said, or at least thought, I remember feeling a little bit queasy from the drugs and don't think adding solid food would be a good idea.

  “No. I think I am good. Sebastian must have been extra satisfying today.”

  Said person, leans in next to me and rests his head against mine. From shoulder to knee he touches me everywhere. Yup, definitely touchy.

  “The first question I have is how much time has passed?” I ask.

  Please don't say months. Wait, maybe that wouldn't actually be a bad thing. We might have zoomed right past January, so I have a full year before the whole mating with Alex thing has to be done.

  I know it is just a pipe dream. My father isn't here and it sounds like he is going to be around for my birthday, which just happens to also be in January.

  “It is the next night. Alex kept you sleeping calmly to hopefully halt any other side effects of the drug,” Sebastian claims.

  “Okay. How about the witch that lured us in? Was she working with Tommy, is she still alive?” My brain is trying to start working and it is flashing questions at me rapid fire. Too bad half of them aren't getting through the fog because my brain isn't totally back online.

  “Tommy did pay her to get you in off the street. When she saw your mark she panicked, though, and eventually sent up the bat signal that alerted Ben to her whereabouts,” Alex says. “When he showed up, he wasn't expecting to have to rescue you. He just thought he was getting back something that he had misplaced over the years.”

  “It seems that Helen knows Ben pretty well. Fifty years back, she sold her soul to him for a power boost. She has been in hiding ever since and freaked when she saw his mark. He showed up when she started thinking about him and found Jonas coming to and us not far fr
om the scene,” Sebastian adds.

  “And with my mark he could pinpoint my location without difficulty.”

  “Yup. He locked onto the closest person and took over,” Alex says.

  “What about Phee. How is she doing?” I ask. I warned the girl it was dangerous to hang out with me, but I didn’t think she would get proof of the statement so quickly.

  “She left here not that long ago. We actually had to force her to go. I think she is okay now that you are back from enemy hands. When we first got to the shop she was curled up in a corner,” Sebastian tells me.

  “She cleared her scans, just so you know. You can start training her for real whenever you feel up to it,” Alex adds. “It is obvious from her reaction, your work is not going to be easy. I have never seen a wolf so traumatized, or one that doesn't know a lick about defending themselves.”

  “You really think she still wants to learn from me?” In her shoes, I would stay as far the fuck away from me as possible.

  “I am sure of it. She seems more determined to learn how to use her new knives. The only thing that has kept her from practicing is the fact that Jonas reminded her she promised not to do it when you weren’t supervising. In addition to her, I was wondering if you would be willing to take on more students.”

  “It would really depend on who the student was. I don't think I can deal with more than one teenager at a time,” I reply. Working with two Phees would cause me to yank my hair out.

  “The other for the current class you have would be male. He isn't a novice, so you wouldn't have to start from scratch with him,” Alex claims.

  “Do I know this person?”

  “You have met and it was actually your idea for him to get some training. It is Sam, the Collective agent we have sitting on ice in a cell,” Sebastian supplies.

  I guess that was my idea. Hmm. Working with someone with at least a little experience might help counter being driven crazy from Phee's total lack of any.

  “We can give it a try. If it doesn't work out, I will ship him off to someone else. I can give them full evaluations tomorrow and see what I have to work with,” I decide. “Speaking of tomorrow, our bond gave you a few extra benefits, Sebby. Are they gone, too?”

  “I don’t think I will be eating real food, for now. The only other thing it gave me was a little extra boost in the sunlight, but I have been able to stand the sun, for the most part, on my own for a while now. I went out earlier today and didn't feel any difference.”

  That’s good. We can still appear strong in front of the Collective. As far as they go, I don't want them to know anything special has happened. “Back to the witch, where is she now and did she receive any punishment for her part in this whole thing?”

  “Like it was mentioned, she had tried for years to stay off of Ben's radar. When she saw him face-to-face she tried to make a run for it while he was distracted finding you. He wasn't all that distracted, though, and waved his hand through the air causing her to disappear. We haven't seen her since,” Sebastian says.

  I am not really sure how I feel about that. Yeah, I am pissed that because of her, Tommy got to me, but what exactly has Ben done with her. If I want to punish a person, I do it and get it over with. I am hoping he isn't making a new sculpture for the entryway.

  “What else was I going to ask? My brain feels all mushy and my thoughts seem to be dripping out my ears.”

  “I think you are probably all caught up. We were hoping that maybe you will take a day or two off from work, but know we are pressing our luck. There is also the... um little side assignment you were supposed to come talk to me about yesterday after your training was over,” Alex tells me.

  “Really? You are ready for me to just jump back into things? That is nothing like you,” I remark. I thought this little experience was going to cause a monsoon of yelling when I told them I was planning to get back to work immediately.

  “Let's just say we feel a little more comfortable with you being out and about now that we know you have a demon at your beck and call,” he replies.

  I am glad someone feels happy about that because I sure don't. No sane person wants a demon just popping in whenever they feel like it.

  “So, this assignment from you, who, what, where and when?” I ask not even bothering with the why. It has to be someone bad for them to want to send me after him. I find that I trust their opinions whether the crime is punishable by death. Isn’t that funny, me actually trusting someone.

  “I will tell you more about it on the way to a meeting we have regarding it tomorrow,” Sebastian informs me. “Marcus and Jonas will be your guards slash backup and I will be along because I cannot be away from you at the moment.”

  Okay. Sounds a little secretive to me, but it is action so I am all for it. I hope my knives haven't gone dull during my day of rest.

  “Why we are handling it this way will be revealed when you leave tomorrow, and if your brain wasn't still mushy you would probably figure it out. The mission is twofold and may not be easy. Marcus has an iron tight blood oath to you and Jonas would never betray us, so we can trust them to go along with you. You may need their assistance at some point. Also, I don't think you are going to be going anywhere for a while without Sebastian. So you better get used to your new shadow,” Alex whispers to me.

  As much as I love Sebby, him following me around is going to get old fast. I might be able to live with it for a day, or two, but that is about my limit. That means I have forty-eight hours to get this fixed.

  My hope is that they are right and this is just something that will eventually wear off. I cannot rely on that, nevertheless, so that means I have to do some research of my own. Hitting the books has never been my thing, plus I doubt I could find something there that Sebastian didn't already know.

  I need to talk to people to figure this out and there is only one person that I know that would possibly have this kind of information. The tricky part will be talking to Ben without having Sebastian present. I hope Ben is up for sharing dreams tonight. I know we just did one the other day, and I was dead set against ever doing it again, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

  Believe me, you wouldn't want a mopey, love sick vampire following you around twenty-four seven either. Just the last hour or so has made me start to itch. I seem to be getting rashes a lot lately. I should probably get that checked out.

  Wanting to talk to Ben as soon as possible, never thought I would be thinking that, I claim exhaustion from my ordeal and head towards the bedroom. Sebastian tags along and Marcus moves to position himself outside my doorway.

  I guess better outside than in, but still it is a tad bit creepy. I think we are going to have to discuss the changes in our relationship. When Alex first sent Jonas and Jake to me, we had to have a similar discussion.

  While Sebastian strips down to his boxers, I change into some boy shorts and a tank to sleep in. I should take a shower to wash Tommy germs off my body, but I was unconscious when he touched me and as long as I don't think about it, I can pretend he didn't.

  “You aren't really tired,” Sebastian says as he curls up behind me as I relax into bed. I snuggle into him and feel the hard planes of his thighs against mine.

  “Sure I am, I went through a very horrible ordeal and I need to rest,” I reply.

  “You know that might have been one of my favorite parts of our bond. You couldn't lie to me and I know you are now. I don't want to personally ask him for help, but if he has any idea how to fix this, I will take any help I can get.”

  Even not connected, he can read me like a book. “I figure meeting in my dreams is safer than in person.”

  “I wouldn't say that, but it is more private. Anything he does there can become true in the real world if he wants it. He wants you alive, though, so I don't worry that he will actually do harm.” I personally wouldn't count on that. My mouth has been known to get me in trouble before and I don't tend to be civil towards the demon.

  “He initi
ated the dream last time, do you think he will tonight? Is there any way I can assure he will meet me?” I ask.

  “I would guess he has his radio frequencies tuned to you, so just think of him as you fall asleep. He should pick up on your train of thought,” he instructs.

  I am pretty sure I promised myself not to actively think of Demon Boy. Shoot, I didn't even think of him at all when I was faced with torture by forced mating. I guess we really do what we have to do.

  “Okay, I will try. I love you, Sebastian. I will find a way to make things right.”

  “I love you, too, and if anyone can find a way to fix this, I know you can,” he replies while he takes a deep breath smelling my hair and then kisses the top of my head.

  Chapter 4

  A gift that needs a handbook

  When you are trying to force yourself to sleep, it is easier said than done. I make it through two thousand jumping sheep before I move on to multiplication tables. If that doesn't work, I am on to picturing paint drying.

  I guess being knocked out cold for about a full day isn’t helping matters, but I really need to talk to Ben and I would like to do it before the cows come home. See, I am thinking his name. Ben. Ben. Ben!

  “You know, Buttercup, if I knew your intent sooner, I could have brought you under after only five sheep,” Ben says from his chair in his secret room. Somehow, I was immediately transported to the scene without having to reawaken here.

  I am not sure I like the fact that he just insinuated that he could make me go to sleep whenever he wants. I seriously hope I don’t develop a case of narcolepsy. I might need to let the guys drive me around for a while.

  “I am sure you have realized by now that I don't exactly believe in doing things the easy way,” I retort from my position on the leather chaise.

  “No. That most definitely cannot be said about you,” he says with a half laugh. “I can assume you are here for the fangy one. It was a most surprising outcome, one I have already voiced my displeasure about.” I vaguely remember hearing him say something about wanting a bond to stay intact. I think I passed out from pain five seconds later, so the exact words are lost to me.