Blood Curse (Pulse #8) (6 page)

         
What's happening to you, Kal?

           
Once she had been a normal sixteen-year-old girl, a girl like every other. A girl in full control of her faculties, of her mind, of her body. Once she had been so strong. She'd gotten straight A's; she'd been a runner, capable of making her muscles do her will. But ever since the Life's Blood had awakened within her, she'd become another creature entirely. One whose needs, wants, wills, were secondary to her desires, her lusts, the demands of her body. All she could think about now was sex – of her hunger, of this need for satiation. It was like a drug…this addiction.

         
Can't you be stronger, Kal? Can't you just get over it?

           
She had to fight through this desire. She had to fight through this pleasure. She had to use her mind and not her body, to figure out what Nereti was up to, to stop her before more Carriers were slaughtered or drained dry by Nereti's vampire army. She had to work harder – to be
better
. She had to regain control over herself.

          Still, she shuddered beneath Octavius’ tongue, Nereti's body and her own fusing as one. Still, she screamed with delight when Octavius thrust into her, spreading apart her thighs and making her take all of him on. Still, she moaned his name over and over again.

          And then one day, at last, she received an image – an image as clear as a photograph. Nereti and Octavius were lying in bed together –
she
and Octavius were lying in bed together – and they were talking idly of the plans they had for one another.

          “The vampires are not all one,” Nereti was sneering. “They have not yet all united under my banner. They are not in accord, with one mind. This troubles me.”

          “They will come, my Queen,” Octavius murmured. “I swear it. They will come and worship you, just like before.”

          “But are you so sure?”

          “I know that one day you will conquer all, my lovely Queen. I know that one day human and vampire alike will quake beneath your feet.”

          “But we still have enemies.”

          “Those that will not bend their knee and neck to us, we will smite,” said Octavius, kissing her shoulder roughly, tracing the smooth skin with his light fingertips.

          “But whom shall we smite next, my Consort, my love?”

          “I have heard tell of one rebel tribe,” Octavius’ voice grew tight. “One tribe that will never swear allegiance to you. Stubborn insects, they are. Impudent ants. Deserving only of slaughter. Deserving to be stepped upon, pulverized, crushed and crumbled into dust.”

          “Where, my Consort?”

          “They are in South Africa. They are strong – but they are too willful for their own good.”

          “There are many who have not yet bent the knee. Why them?”

          “These are a stubborn kind. They will never pledge allegiance to you – my spies have told me that much. Better to destroy them as soon as possible – to annihilate them as a warning to the others. Those who would defy you must see your wrath, so that they will know what is the fate of the betrayers and those who do not submit. They must know your power so that they might fear it, my lady Queen.”

          “Yes,” Nereti was nodding slowly, taking pleasure, savoring the cruelty in his words. “Yes, my ruthless General, yes. We must send an army upon them, and if my power is as strong as I know it to be, they shall exist no more to blight the world with their betrayal. By tomorrow night, they shall be as nothing. And then the world will know how Nereti treats those who do not do her bidding. I am sure of it.”

          Octavius kissed her – deeply, richly. Kalina could feel his familiar taste – that taste of dark chocolate and hot chili pepper, of musky sweat and smoke. The taste that automatically made her mouth water in hunger. She tasted it and longed for his scent to linger upon her lips and tongue. She tasted it and desired him all the more, even as she felt her heart constrain and break within her chest.
How can he be kissing her so passionately, so fully? This can be no glamour. He believes it – all of it. He believes in her. He loves her. He loves her – not me...

           
No, she could not give into this despair! She had to keep her eyes and ears open, to foretell the plan, to forestall this destruction...

          “I should be able to send a few of our best fighting vampires out there,” Octavius’ voice was so cold, so untroubled in the face of death. “No need to send an entire army. If these rebel vampires are but few, as I know them to be, then we need not spare too many of our finest to eliminate them utterly.”

          Nereti nodded again. “Yes, yes,” she cooed. “Good, good, my general. We must conserve the strength of all our vampires for the great battle, the one that is to come. These smaller missions, vital though they must be to consolidating our powers, must not require the expenditure of too many vampires.”

          “Agreed, my Queen.” Octavius bowed down low, so that his lips were level with her thighs. He kissed her there, nipping lightly at the copper-tanned flesh. “You are indeed a wise and intelligent Queen, and it honors me to serve you...in all ways, always.”

          Nereti ran her fingers through his long dark hair, twisting and pulling it between her tapered, slender fingers. She pulled him up to face her, fixing her intense gaze upon him, letting him see the pride and arrogance in her desire for him. “You understand me perfectly, my General,” Nereti said. “Stay and lie with me. I command it. You must stay and lie here with me while we dispatch our vampires to the rebel tribe. There is no need for me to be deprived of the pleasure you give me, just to step upon these minor bugs. It is my wish that you remain here – that the services you
render
me be performed here. Your advisement pleases me greatly, my good General...”

          Kalina could feel Octavius running his hands and tongue once more upon her skin, burying his mouth in her, giving himself up with utter conviction to the desire he felt for her, the overwhelming need that gave force and fire to all that he did. Yes, Octavius was overwhelmed with desire – and so was she, feeling the tingle of his flesh upon her own. Overwhelmed with desire...for another.

          Kalina swallowed down her rage, her pain, her pleasure all at once. She forced herself out of the trace, coming to with a start, once more in her hotel room in Morocco, once more surrounded by silks and fine fabrics. Samson, Jaegar, Justin, and Max were sitting all around her.

          “What did you see?” Justin asked urgently. “What did you discover? We heard you making these noises...”

          Jaegar looked to the floor, clearly embarrassed.

          “Uh, nothing...” Kalina could feel her face flush. “I mean...I'm fine. I heard Nereti's plan.”

          “What is it?” Max leaped over to Kalina's side. “What is it, honey?”

          “There's a rebel vampire tribe in South Africa...Nereti says that they'll never bend the knee to her, so she wants them eliminated. She's sending a small contingent over there – not her whole army. She says she wants to conserve as many men as possible for the “battle that is to come.””

          “What battle?” Max furrowed her brow.

          “She didn't say. She said that right now she's sending a small group of vampires – not Octavius – to pick off this tribe in South Africa. To send a message to the other vampires who don't want to submit to her: that she will never be defeated.”

          “We can't let that happen,” Samson gritted his teeth. “Nereti's reputation is almost as important to her as her military power. If this tribe gets wiped out, who knows how many other rebel tribes will bend the knee in fear and cowardice?”

          “We can't all be as noble as Octavius was,” said Jaegar, and Kalina could detect a slight bitterness, a slight sarcasm in his voice. “They will bend. Or else they will break.”

          “Then we have to stop them!” Kalina's voice was stern, insistent. “We have to go to South Africa – now!”

          “If neither Nereti or Octavius is going, they shouldn't be too hard to pick off,” said Samson roughly, and Kalina knew that he was hankering for revenge – after all, a horde of Nereti's foot soldiers had nearly seen him baked alive under the sun.

          “Then it's time to fight,” Kalina said resolutely. “It's time to go. We must not hold back.”

          “Very well,” Jaegar assented. “That is our next step. We must head to South Africa in search of this tribe. And we must fly!”

Chapter 7

         
S
o they flew south, crossing the continent. Kalina felt her blood boil as she followed Jaegar across the wind, feeling the grains of sands whipping against her skin, as hard and lacerating as diamonds. It was almost painful, she thought, these rough breezes, but she welcomed the pain. Her body was in such a state of tension, such a coiled state of desire and need, that she felt as if even pain were some relief, however small, from the flooding intensity of her desire. How could she bear this? Kalina bit her lip and looked over to Jaegar, flying through the sky just ahead of her, hoping that neither Max, nor Samson, nor Justin would catch the gleam of desire in her eye. This feeling was overwhelming. She'd felt desire before, of course – desire so strong she hadn't been sure she could bear it. But this was something else entirely. This need was new. Kalina's longing for Jaegar, for Octavius, for
Stuart
, even, when she thought of Stuart, now living so peacefully in the Greystone Winery, was like bloodlust. Is this what vampires feel when they crave what they are forbidden to have?

This cursed desire to have that which will cause our fall?

         
Pull yourself together, Kalina
, she snapped at herself.
Focus.
But how could she focus, when Jaegar's perfect muscles were rippling, glimmering in the dusky pink of twilight, catching every ray and refracting it back at her? How could she focus, when she looked at his dark lips, the colors of fresh rosebuds, and imagined him once more pressing those lips between her thighs, probing her inwardness, making her moan aloud with the sheer force of her need. She felt a shiver pass down her spine, trailing between her legs, as she thought of it.

          Not even her fantasies had been able to sustain her. The experience of being inside Nereti's mind, of feeling Octavius deep within her, thrusting so powerfully she thought she would break open, had been a heady one. But if she had thought that it would be a way to expend this excess sexual energy, she was wrong. This desire was a thirst that could not be slaked, a drink that only increased the thirst with every tantalizing drop. No wonder why vampires are such sensual creatures.

          “Funny,” Kalina said softly as they flew over the deserts, watching the sands swirl beneath them. She leaned into Jaegar's ears. “Is this what bloodlust is like for you?”

          “What do  you mean?”

          “This distraction. This hunger. This inability to do anything except think about...what you want?”

          Jaegar grinned wickedly. “And what do you hunger for, my love? Not blood?”

          “You know.”

          He laughed. “You're insatiable, Kal.”

          “
Is
it me?” Kalina's voice faltered as the memory of that other face came back to her, chilling her blood. “Or is it
her
? This aggression, this need for consummation, this control...it can't be good, can it?”

          “It certainly isn't bad for
me
!” Jaegar's smile was infectious.

          “Before,” Kalina said softly, “in my old life. I was always in control. I was always on top of everything. I never doubted that I could achieve whatever I want. I never doubted that my emotions were second to my will. But now I do. Now I know that no matter what I
will
, there's a part of me that is so close to losing control, every second. I'm not my own master, anymore. Or my own mistress.”

          “You could be
my
mistress.”

          “I just keep thinking...what happens if I can't control it? What happens if one day I completely give in, find myself unable to stop...that'll ruin everything, won't it? My status as a Carrier? My Life's Blood?”

          “That won't happen.” Jaegar furrowed his brow. “You're strong. We're both strong. And if you ever decide that one day I'm the vampire you want to turn, the vampire you want to change, your true love for the rest of our human lives....then we can give in together. But until then, I know you won't. You're stronger than you think you are. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. But deep down, Kalina, my love. I see the real you. I see the you that you don't always see – when you're so busy being hard on yourself.”

          They began to see the deserts recede in the distance, giving way to new terrain: cities, townships, new formations in the sands.

          “We're getting closer,” Samson said. “I can smell it.” He nodded. “These vampires are strong. Rebellious. They're the good guys. We need to protect them.”

          Max nodded. “It isn't easy for vampire communities to stand up to Nereti. Many have fallen already – reduced by cowardice to her puppets. But not these guys.”

          A series of caves appeared before them in the distance, shimmering with the night air. Moonlight flooded the view before them, like white milk poured out across the whole landscape.

          “It's beautiful...” Kalina whispered.

          “We must keep them safe,” Max said again. “We owe it to them. To all the vampires left who follow the Consortium. Who fight the good fight.”

          “Let's go,” said Samson.

          “Who goes there?” A warrior vampire stepped forward, his dark skin gleaming in the moonlight. He took another step forward, sizing them up. “Samson?”