Blood Hunger (An Adult Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series #1) (3 page)

   
 
Aiden nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. “Well, that would explain why she hasn’t gone after her sister yet. I’ll ring up the guys and tell them to prepare.” Aiden turned back to grab his cell, “And then you and I need to get some rest mate. I don’t know about you, but I’m bloody knackered. And we’ve a busy next few days ahead of us.”

    
Emma got to work at 7:55am on the dot, just like she did every morning. And like every morning, she walked through the reception area with a “Good morning!” to Linda, used her badge to get through the door and into the office area, strode to her cubicle, locked her purse in her desk drawer, and sat down to boot up her computer. She took a sip of her soy latte while she waited for the outdated thing to wake up, and let her gaze roam around the windowless room.

     There were about twenty cubicles, broken up into four rows of five cubicles each. Everyone in the office worked in a cube, except Mark, their supervisor, who had his own office towards the back, and Linda, who sat behind her desk in the receptionist area.

     She worked for an independent furniture company, in their accounting department, in a typical small northern town about a twenty-minute drive south of her house. Not the most exciting career, but it suited her. She liked accounting. The work was routine, with very few surprises, which was exactly how she liked her life. Or so she told herself.

     At 8:00am exactly, her boss arrived at the office. Smiling broadly, he stopped by Emma’s desk. “Good Morning, Emma! You look especially nice today.”

   
 
She glanced down at her clothes. She was wearing her usual work attire - black pencil skirt, silk hose, black, 2-inch heels, with a forest green blouse buttoned up to her neck. A black sweater thrown over her shoulders completed the ensemble. Her wavy hair was back off her face, and she wore minimal makeup.

     “Um. Thank you, Mark,” she thanked him awkwardly.

     Mark beamed at her like he’d just won the lottery. “I have some meetings this morning, so I’ll probably be here late tonight catching up on the regular stuff. Let me know when you’re leaving and I can walk you to your car.”

   
 
“Sure. Thanks.” Truth was, Mark walked her to her car almost every night since she’d started working here a year or so ago. She often stayed late; preferring to get ahead on her workload over going home to an empty house, and hardly ever left the office before six or seven.

     “I’ll see you then.” Mark rapped her desk once with his knuckles and continued on to his office.

     As she sipped her latte and idly watched him walk away, Darlene, her co-worker in the cubicle across from her, leaned her chair Emma’s way and gave her a smirk. “He likes you, Emma.”

   
 
Emma furrowed her brow at her and whispered, “Mark is nice to everyone, Darlene.”

   
 
“Yeah, he is. However, Mark doesn’t stop and say good morning to everyone, or compliment what they’re wearing…or offer to walk them to their car every night.”  With a knowing look, Darlene turned back to her computer.

     Emma frowned at the back of her grey head. Darlene was pleasant to work with, but she was also the office gossip. In her late fifties, she lived a quiet life at home with her husband and her Pomeranians. Her one child was grown and had a successful career in New York City, so Emma supposed she gossiped more from the need to have some excitement in her life rather than from maliciousness.

     She decided to ignore her comments and turned back to her computer, which had finally gotten to the log in screen, to start her day. After all, Mark was in his late forties, though still a nice looking guy, with a kind of Kevin Costner look going for him. He was also married, with three kids. She seriously doubted there was any truth to Darlene’s observation. He was just a nice guy who was gentlemanly enough to walk her to her car after everyone else was gone.

     Besides, she didn’t date. Not since the “bear attack”. Well, other than that one small fling she’d had with a Marine who’d been home on leave, she hadn’t been out with anyone since Keira disappeared. And that was just fine with her. She liked her life the way it was. It was orderly, unexciting, and peaceful…and yeah, sometimes a little boring.

     OK, a
lot
boring. But she didn’t have to worry about anyone else but herself. She did what she wanted, when she wanted, and she didn’t have to explain herself to anyone else.

     She gave a heavy sigh. Not like she ever really did anything except work and exercise. And on the weekends she spent her time volunteering at the Women’s Center, helping victims of abuse learn skills to be able to take care of themselves and their children. Anything to keep her mind off of her lack of a sex life, and the reason behind it.

     Darlene handed her some purchase orders, pulling her from her thoughts. “Are you going to sit there staring into space all day, girl?”

   
 
Emma felt her face flush. “No. Of course not. Sorry.” Shoving her personal problems out of her mind, where they belonged while she was at work, she logged onto her computer and started her day.

     Nik woke instantaneously right as the sun was about to drop beneath the horizon. That was the thing with Vampires. One minute you’re dead to the world, almost literally, and the next you’re completely alert. It was kind of cool actually. You never felt groggy or hung over. Plus, there was the added bonus of expedited self-healing. A little blood, a good day’s rest, and you woke up as good as new.

     He stood up in nothing but his sweat pants and twisted his torso around to crack his back. Holding out his arms, he checked out his regenerated unburned skin.

    
Cool.

     Across the RV, he saw Aiden sitting cross-legged on his bed, dark head already bent over his laptop. Aiden glanced up briefly, eyeballing his friend’s half-nakedness, “You know mate, I really think you need to start exercising more. You’re getting downright plump with all of this inactivity.”

   
 
Nik barked out a laugh, throwing his pillow at him. He missed the head he was half-heartedly aiming for, hitting the bulletproof shutters over the window above the bed instead. “You
wish
you had a body like mine, man.”

   
 
Actually, although Nik was slightly taller and bulkier, they were both built like MMA fighters. And they loved to fight like them too. Plus, you know, Vampires…hello? Physical appearance never changes.

     He returned Aiden’s once over, “I guess we could both probably use a little exercise. That is, if you think you can keep up with me.”

   
 
“Pffft. With that potbelly you’re getting? I’ll run rings around you, Nik. Just let me check in with Dante and make sure everything is on schedule, then we can squeeze in a quick match before you go meet up with Emma, yes?” Aiden didn’t wait for an answer, strutting off in his boxers towards the area of the RV that served as his mobile recon center. 

     Nik grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over his head, then strolled over to the fridge to grab his breakfast. What shall it be tonight? O Positive? B Negative? Didn’t really matter. They all tasted like shit. But satisfied his nutritional requirements, for the most part. He did need to drink more than he would if he took straight from the vein, but he had a great delivery service set up from one of the local blood banks, so that wasn’t a problem.

     He got ragged a lot by the guys, and especially his brother, for his diet choice. But they could all kiss his ass. If he wanted to drink bags of plastic-flavored blood, that was his business. And at least he didn’t accidentally kill anyone.

     Not anymore. Fucking never again.

     Throwing his breakfast in the microwave, Nik propped himself against the counter to wait, drilling holes in Aiden’s back as he talked to their head Hunter. “So what’s up, Aid? Everything in place?”

   
 
Aiden raised his hand and waved at him to hang on, or to shut up, or both, and finished listening to what was being said on the other end of the line. “Alright commander. Sounds good, mate. We’ll see you there.”

   
 
He threw his cell back on the table and turned his chair around to face Nik, who reminded him, “You know Dante hates it when you call him that.”

   
 
Aiden grinned. “So he says. I think he secretly loves it. Anyway, all is good! In three days, they’re going to be surrounding the bitch’s lair. That will give us a little time to get Emma filled in and on board. We’ll meet up with Dante, Shea and Christian so they can catch us up on what they’ve found there, and we can get a plan of invasion together.”

   
 
Nik chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered the time frame. “We’re going to need more time to work with her. If she is, in fact, clueless…and I’m pretty convinced that she is…then she’ll have quite a challenge ahead of her to be ready in three days.”

   
 
“There is that.” Aiden leveled a cautious look at his friend. “You know Nik, I’m thinking, maybe we should keep her out of the actual fighting,” he suggested. “Although having some witchy power on our side would be beneficial to our cause, we really only need her to keep her sister out of our way while we get Luukas.”

   
 
Mulling it over, Nik had to agree. “Yeah, you may be right. If she’s as ignorant of us as I think, I don’t know that she’d be any good to us anyway. She won’t be ready.”

   
 
He blew out a frustrated breath. “Fucking Luukas! I knew when he walked out that day that something like this was going to happen. I tried to get him to stay, to take someone with him. I
told
him she was up to something. But he and his fucking ego think they’re invincible. And now Leeha’s got him, and we have to babysit an untrained witch.”
Even if she
is
a total babe of a witch.

     Pushing his hair back off his face, he voiced his worst fears, “I can’t even imagine what she’s doing to him…or fuck, maybe I can.” He grabbed his bag from the beeping microwave, but he’d lost his appetite.

     “He’s still alive, Nik,” Aiden insisted softly. “She’d be daft to kill him. It would muck up all of her plans for world domination. And, she’d have no leverage.”

   
 
“But if she can kill him she wouldn’t need any, Aid.” Nik’s face was uncharacteristically somber as he looked to his friend. He didn’t know what he’d do if Luukas was gone. Luuk was the Master Vampire, the most powerful of them all and leader of their council. If anything happened to him, that responsibility would fall upon Nik as next in line. No damn way he was ready for that.

     Although, if Leeha could manage to capture and contain
Luukas
, and it seemed she’d done exactly that, the rest of them were thoroughly fucked anyway.

     They really should’ve burned her when they’d had the chance.

     Aiden came over to stand in front of Nik. “Look at me, Nikulas.
Look
at me.” Nik lifted his head. “If anything happened to your brother, we’d feel it. All of us. You know that. Luukas is still alive.”

   
 
Nik’s voice was strained with the effort to contain his emotions. “It’s been years, Aiden. She’s had him for almost seven fucking
years
.
”

   
 
Aiden squeezed his arm. “But he
is
still alive, Nik.”

   
 
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
But will he still be sane after all this time?

    
Scratching his head, Aiden pondered aloud what they’d all been thinking the last seven years. “What do you think her point was? Taking him? She hasn’t contacted us. Hasn’t started a war. Hasn’t asked for any kind of ransom, or a deal, nothing.”

   
 
Nik shrugged. “I don’t know.” He paused. “But she can’t
have
him anymore.”

   
 
“Then stop with all the gloom and doom, and let’s go get him. I’ve been waiting for ages to see Leeha again.” He glanced around, looking for nonexistent eavesdroppers before confiding in a stage whisper, “I kind of fancy her, you know. “ Aiden grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Nik’s shocked expression. 

     “You are one fucked up vampire, Aid.”

   
 
“We established that when we met, Nik, I don’t know why you still act so surprised.” Aiden headed towards the back. “Finish your bag and let me throw some clothes on. I’ll meet you outside in five.”

   
 
Nik really didn’t know if he could stomach anything after
that
particular confession, and so sipped at his breakfast cautiously as he thought back to the day he and Luukas had come across Aiden.

***

     They had met Aiden in 1712.

     The brothers were traveling from their home in Estonia, where the population was being culled severely by the Great Northern War, thereby culling their meal opportunities, to start a new life in a new land. Looking to make their way to the New World, they were planning to establish their own “colony”, and were searching for others to join them.

     He and Luukas were scanning for survivors after a particularly bloody battle in Wakenstädt, of what is now modern Germany. Having been vampires already for over 350 years, they found the war offered not only plenty of entertainment, but also provided an excellent recruiting opportunity for Luukas.

    
They’d run across Aiden laying in the midst of the dead and dying, holding his own guts in place with filthy hands, and singing a dirty ditty to himself.

     He gave them a toothy, if bloody, smile as they approached him. “Evening, gentlemen. How are you this fine *cough* evening?”

   
 
Luukas, amused with his cheerful disposition, answered him. “We’re doing well, sir. You, however, seem to be in a bit of situation.”

   
 
Lifting his hand, the soldier glanced down at the tangle of raw meat bulging from his torso, steaming in the cold. “So it would seem. Think you could give me a hand here?”

   
 
Luukas and Nik glanced at each other, and then down at the fallen soldier with increasing interest. He was covered in mud and gore, and in obvious pain, but his grey eyes were clear.   

     Luukas said, “We saw you fighting, right before you were so rudely disemboweled. You fought quite valiantly. You must be very dedicated to your country and its cause.”

   
 
“The cause?” The soldier furrowed his brow as if just considering it. “Uh…not really, to be completely bloody honest.” He closed his eyes together tightly and winced as a wave of pain hit him. When he opened them again, it was to gasp, “How did you two manage to come out of this unscathed?”

   
 
Nik squatted down by him and poked lightly at his injury with his index finger, ignoring his hiss of pain. “Oh, we didn’t actually participate in the battle, we just like to watch.”

   
 
“That would have been the brighter idea, I think,” he grimaced again, glancing down at the raw injury still being probed, “though not nearly as fun I say…so, about that favor?” He shot Nik a dirty look until he stopped poking at him. “Would you be so kind? Fix me or kill me. Either one will work, and I would be eternally grateful.” He gave them another bloody grin.

     The brothers studied him, calculating the odds of him surviving the change. After a moment, they nodded at each other in accord.

     The soldier looked back and forth between them, his forehead scrunched up in confusion, until Luukas smiled. “How would you like the first option?”

   
 
The soldiers eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re saying you can fix me?” Luukas made a sound of affirmation. “Really?” Luukas nodded again. “That would be lovely…” He looked them both up and down…”but I don’t see how you’re going to go about it. Are you witches?” His gaze was drawn to the piles of bodies all around him, “Or is this some cruel illusion brought on by my impending death?” He gasped suddenly, his expression screwing up in a grimace, as another wave of excruciating pain rolled through him.

     Luukas squatted down alongside Nik, catching the soldier’s gaze and holding it. “I have something even better than witchcraft, and I can save your life, but in return, I will need that eternal gratefulness you spoke of.” He paused. “What is your given name?”

   
 
“Aiden,” he whispered. Caught in the vampire’s spell, he felt himself falling into the fathomless depths of his luminescent green eyes, until the horror and everything around him faded into the background, unimportant.

    Luukas lowered his hand to his brow, peeling the sticky hair off of his forehead. “I can give you eternal life, Aiden, if you so choose. A life where you will have strength and not weakness. A life where all you’ll need to survive is blood, but not in the way you think, and I will require nothing in return, other than your complete and utter loyalty. Will you be able to do that?”

   
 
Without hesitation, the dying soldier asked in all seriousness, “Will I still get to fight and fuck?”

   
 
“Yes,” Luukas answered, chuckling lightly, “yes, you can do both. At the same time if you’d like. Just ask my brother.”

   
 
Nikulas gave him a thumbs up and a lewd grin.

     A delighted smile broke out across his face, and he instantly agreed to the terms, “Alright then. Do your magic.” He winced again. “Just hurry along, if you will.”

   
 
“Is that the only question you have then? Wouldn’t you like to know more?” Luukas had never come across such a willing participant.