Awakened Desires (20 page)

The door opened and I looked toward it. The emo lass was standing there staring at me, not a single possession in her arms. “Are you all set?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She walked out the door and closed it.

“You aren’t bringing anything?”

“I have nothing worth taking.” I nodded in understanding. We started walking toward the gate.

“I just have to ask one favor before I can take you with me.”

Her jaw dropped. “I knew it! I will not do sexual favors, you disgusting pig!”

My eyes popped out of my head. She turned around and ran back to the basement door.
Uh…what just happened?
That absolutely wasn’t what I meant. I would never hit on a lass so young. She was definitely younger than Carly. She had to be.

“No. No, wait. That’s not what I’m asking.” She stopped, but didn’t turn back around to face me.
Bloody kids with attitudes. No respect, I swear.

“Then what exactly
are
you asking?” Her fists were clenched at her sides as she growled at me.

I smirked at the little spitfire. “All that I would like to do is take a sampling of blood from you to make sure you aren’t a carrier of the virus.”

She looked over her shoulder at me. “What virus?”

Could she possibly be that daft? “The one that makes you like that.” I pointed down at the naked true dead.

“What the fuck are you?” she growled again. “Some sort of fucking British Rambo scientist?”

I chuckled at her. “I suppose you could say that. I just want to make sure you’re clean. I don’t want to bring the virus back into my camp.”

“How do I know
you’re
clean?” She narrowed her eyes at me.

Cheeky little bugger. “Ah, yes.” My lips curled into a half-smile. “That’s a brill question. You will just have to trust me.”

The lass laughed. “Whatever, dude. Are you going to give me food and water?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I have a few packs of snacks and an extra bottle of water in my truck right now. You can sit down and have a snack while I perform the draw.” Just hearing myself say those words caused excitement to ripple through my body.

She licked her dry lips. There was no way she would say no. I was trying to will her my way. I know the thought of food in her body had to be a one-way trip to euphoria. She walked toward me, signaling that she was going to come with. Relief swept through my body, but I kept it hidden. “Okay,” she said with a nervous twitch.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything you want from your house?” Again, she looked back at her family home, then back at me. The sadness enveloped her dull brown eyes.
Christ, I gave her that sadness.
I did my best to keep my composure.

She jammed her hands into her pockets. “No. I have everything I need right here.”

“All right then. My truck is just right out front.” I turned around and headed back to the gate. The lass walked a distance away from the already rotten corpse as she followed me.

We reached the truck, and I opened the liftgate. “Have a seat.” She hopped up while I rummaged through my pack. “Here’s a bottle of water. Drink up so the draw will be easier.” Greedily, she grabbed it out of my hands. In a flash, she had the bottle open and was guzzling its contents. “Whoa, love. Take it easy. I don’t want you getting sick on me.”

She choked. “Sorry,” she said, coughing. I rummaged some more and found a couple of bags of crisps.

“Now, take it easy and only eat a bit at a time. It won’t turn out well if you eat like a maniac.”

“Okay,” she said, shoving a handful of the greasy snack into her mouth. I readied a couple of large vials and a butterfly needle. I pulled a small dropper bottle out of my pack.

“What’s that?” she asked with her mouth full, pointing to the bottle with her chin.

Cool as a cucumber, I already had all of the answers to all of the possible questions. “This little gem is the chemical that will tell me if you are a carrier.” She nodded. Little did she know, it was just water.

“Where did you get that?” she asked.

“I know people in high places. Knew, I should say.” She paused and I could see her wondering who and what I knew. “Ready?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

I opened an alcohol pad and swiped the crook of her arm. My fingers were shaking because my body was more than ready for the donation. I pulled off my belt and wrapped it around her upper arm. When my jeans slid lower on my hips, she raised her eyebrow. It creeped me out a little because I was old enough to be her father. Waiting for the pinch of the needle, she closed her eyes, but the only thing she felt was my icy cold touch. Her eyes popped open.

“Why are you so cold in this heat?”

“I have poor circulation in my hands.”

She eyed me carefully, then nodded. Closing her eyes again, she waited for the needle to be shoved in, but she didn’t feel a thing. When she opened her eyes, I was holding the vial while it slowly filled. She seemed impressed by my finesse and gentleness.

“You’re a bit dehydrated so this is going to take a little longer than normal. Keep drinking.” She nodded, still eating at a rapid pace. “You still haven’t told me your name. Now that we are going to be hanging out together, I think I should know it.”

She finished her mouthful, pulling open the next bag with her teeth and free hand. “Josie. Josie Patterson.” I smiled at her. I readied a second vial. “You need two? And that big?”

“Sadly, yes. Sorry. It’s for comparison.”

“Okay, I guess.” So young and very naïve. Josie seemed annoyed, but she must have understood that it could be the only way out of her tough situation. “Can you hurry up and finish?”

“Working on it, love. I cannot control your blood flow.” I untied my belt from around her upper arm, pulled the last vial off and the needle out, holding a gauze pad to the area. I began salivating. “Just hold this for a minute, please.” Josie put mild pressure down on the gauze.

I pulled up my shirt to put my belt back on, exposing my cut abs and that thin trail of hair leading to places she shouldn’t have been thinking about. But she was watching. I turned sideways so she wasn’t looking directly at me.

I turned back to the truck and popped the top off one vial. My hands shook from the fight not to put it right to my lips and dump it back. I twisted the cap off the dropper bottle and she watched me add three drops to the one vial.

“What is it supposed to look like?”

“Like blood.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” she said with an eye roll.

I laughed at her attitude. “If you are infected, it will turn to a sludgy dark color.”

“How long does it take?”

“A minute or two.” I shook the vial to make it look good. The warmth in my hand was crippling me with need. I had to find an out so I could dump them back.

“Okay. I’m going to go out back and go, umm…use the facilities. Don’t leave without me, please.”

Ding, Ding, motherfucking ding!

I did my best not to look excited. “All right then. Be careful and stay away from that corpse,” I ordered. Josie nodded.

As I watched her walk away, I looked around to see if anyone was watching. I popped open one of the two vials and poured it back. The smooth, salty taste sent me into the small rush that I needed and desired.

My breath hitched in the back of my throat. At times, I thought the high was better than sex. My head was already clearing up. I quickly popped the cap off the second one and dumped it back. I took off my aviators to rub my eyes and had to grip onto the truck so I wouldn’t fall over from my glorious, short-lived euphoric state.

My body shuddered and my spine felt limber. Enjoying the movement, I tested my neck. It had become looser. The anger that was bubbling up had subsided.

Josie walked back toward me, so I slipped the empty vials into my pack. “Well?” she asked.

“Perfectly normal.” I smiled.

“Right. Okay, well…”

“Hop in.” I opened the passenger door for her. She hesitated. There was nothing left for her there, though. Everyone she knew was gone—thanks to me.

Her eyes grew large when she looked into mine. They were obviously a color she had never seen before. They were mesmerizing. All women thought so. Then Josie’s eyes traveled from my face down to my physique again. Even though I was much older than her, it was apparent she had a slight attraction to me. I could feel it and I didn’t like it one bit. She blushed and looked down.

“If you are going with me, we need to get moving.” I waved her into the truck.

“Right.” Josie hopped in and I slammed the door shut. When I opened the driver’s side door, she was looking around at all of the artillery and survival supplies, then she saw a picture of a beautiful little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl taped to the dash. New addition before I pulled out of the driveway back at the house.

It was a photograph of Sophie Jackson. I took it when she was out on the streets in London. We kept her on our radar until she was fourteen, then I recruited her. In the picture, she was around twelve-years-old. I found it in between my paperwork when I moved to the States. I decided to keep the photo because it might become useful at some point. And so it had.

Josie leaned over to look at it more carefully. Purposely, I paused before getting in. I felt overjoyed inside, thinking my whole gimmick was working.

“Is this your daughter?” she asked.

I took a deep breath, then got into the truck. While rubbing the picture with my thumb, I forced tears into my eyes and pushed out a response, “Yes.”

“Is she…?”

I interrupted her, “Look, let’s make a deal. You don’t ask me about my family, and I won’t ask you about yours.”

Josie agreed to the terms. I hoped it would stop her from asking too many questions. It was obvious she felt bad for even acknowledging the picture. I pulled it off the dash and put it in the center console. It wasn’t spoken about again.

Heading back to the front of the development, she peeked over at me and I could feel the questions coming. I really wasn’t keen on answering too many and hoped I could nip it in the bud before it got out of hand.

“So you aren’t from around here?”

“How did you guess?” I winked at her. Her icy exterior melted a little as I earned some trust from her. She smiled.
Job well done, mate.

“Oh, I don’t know. It could be your accent.” She worked hard not to giggle.

“Bloody hell, you figured me out. I’m from Germany. Born there, actually. Then I moved to England shortly after birth. And now I’m here in the great U.S. of A.” At least
that
information was true.

I had to be careful not to say too much, though. What do they say? Loose lips sink ships. I was not about to let my ship go down in flames.

“What brought you to the States?”

“Work.” True, but I left out quite an array of details.

“Okay.” The conversation was going nowhere, which was precisely how I wanted it. “What kind of work do you do?”

Time to shut it down. “Isn’t it obvious?” Josie cocked her head to the right and looked at me, confused. “I’m some sort of fucking British Rambo scientist.” She rolled her eyes and sat back in the seat. I chuckled.

“Right.” She was slightly miffed that I poked fun at her.

“The youth—so cynical nowadays. And, seemingly, they have
no
sense of humor,” I mumbled to myself, but loud enough for Josie to hear. I made a left turn out of the development and headed back to the house.

When we rolled into the driveway, Gage was keeping himself quite busy with the utmost of important tasks…throwing rocks. If I could have willed one to hit him in the fat melon, I would have.

“He looks obnoxious,” Josie quipped.

“You have no idea, love.” I jumped out of the truck and she followed behind me. “Gage, this is Josie. I found her battling an undead. Quite well, actually.” A grunt came from Gage. I turned and looked at Josie. “You will have to excuse Gage. He only knows two languages: Grunt and Tough Guy.”

“Fuck you, asshole.”

“See. Now you’ve heard both.” Josie sidestepped behind me. “Don’t worry about him. Come on in and meet Quinn. I think you’ll like her. I’m rather sure she will take to you kindly.”

I opened the door and Quinn was sitting on the couch, reading one of the books I picked up. She looked up, standing slowly. A gentle smile spread across her face.

Oh god, she was stunning. Every time I saw her, my breath caught in my throat and my heart did some weird pitter-patter thing. I cleared my throat. “Quinn, this is Josie.”

“Hello, sweetheart.” Josie waved at Quinn. “Are you all right? Do you need food or water?”

“I gave her two bags of crisps and a bottle of water. But I’m most certain she would love to eat more.”

“Yeah, I’m still hungry.” She away from Quinn like she was embarrassed.

“Well, come on.” Quinn grabbed Josie’s hand and escorted her into the kitchen. I followed behind.

“Thank you so much.”

“You are very welcome, sweetheart. Were you alone when Gunther found you?” Quinn pulled out a chair for Josie.

“Yeah, sort of. I was trying to fend off one of those…undeads?” she questioned and looked at me while I sat down.

Quinn opened a couple jars of fruit and pulled out a bag of jerky. She handed a spoon to each of us. “Let me go out and see if Gage wants anything. He hasn’t been inside since you left.” She raised the same brow at me that I had seen a few times already. I shrugged. She walked past me and my eyes followed her amazing arse.