Chosen by Blood (29 page)

After a brief pause, Hunt raised his hand. “Just a small little detail, I’m sure, but how are we getting out?”

The others laughed nervously, as if they couldn’t believe they’d forgotten means of exit.

“Teleportation,” Knox said.

Hunt cocked a brow, looking a little like his old ass-were self. “Excuse me?”

At the same time, Felicia whispered, “What?”

Knox refused to look at her. She’d be angry because he hadn’t discussed this part of the plan with her. She’d be angry either way. Talking would just have caused more conflict between them, which he’d wanted to avoid as much as possible given their short time left together.

“We’ve all agreed that this mission has two objectives, each one of equal importance. Retrieve the antidote and extricate any Others being held against their will. We’re talking about an unknown quantity of Others,” Knox explained. “There’s no way we’re going to be able to devise a traditional exit strategy given that fact.”

“ And that means what?” Hunt asked. “That
you’re
going to teleport all of us out? As a group or singularly?”

“Teleportation is tricky enough when I’m traveling with one passenger.”

“Tricky?”

“Distance does play a factor in timing. The farther away, the more time to get to point X and then back to point Y.”

“You’re not going to tell them what else is a factor?” Felicia hissed.

“Felicia,” Knox said warningly.

“Tell us what?” Hunt asked suspiciously.

Felicia continued to stare at Knox. “Who gets to come back first? The team? The imprisoned Others? Because what happens if you’re too drained to bring back the rest?”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“You’re not strong enough to accomplish something like this, Knox. Last week, you were so fatigued, you almost passed out—”

“What?” O’Flare asked. Suddenly, Knox felt all eyes on him. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

“Because it wasn’t something you could do anything about. I needed to feed. I did. I’m better.”

“My blood isn’t enough—”

“I received pure blood since then, Felicia.”

That shocked her quiet for several moments. When she spoke, her hurt was obvious. “When? From—from who?”

“From an immaculate.”

“A female?” she spat.

“Yes.” He could tell she didn’t like the idea. Hell, neither did he. She would know that it hadn’t been sexual, that it had been about survival, but given what they’d been doing when he’d taken a bite out of her, he knew it would be a difficult distinction for her to make.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.

Everyone in the room tried to look like they weren’t listening.

“Felicia—”

Abruptly, she shook her head. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked. Shouldn’t care. The point is, think about what you’re asking of them, Knox. You might be stronger with the pure blood now, but you’ve never attempted something like this, have you? Certainly not under these circumstances.”

“We have no choice.” Knox turned and assessed the team. “But Felicia is right. You are taking a greater risk, in some sense, by having to rely on me to get you out. It’s a risk I’ll be taking right along with you, but if you don’t want to take it, if there’s anyone here who thinks I’d leave anyone of you to die without me being right there beside you, this is your chance to back out. I won’t think less of you if you do.”

No one spoke.

“Final chance,” Knox warned. Then, when silence continued to be the only response, he nodded. “All right. I thank you and my clan thanks you. Now let’s get ready to show the world what a Para-Ops team can do.”

 

 

Felicia finished packing by pretty much throwing her things into her bag; the whole time, she imagined she was throwing them at Knox’s head. When he teleported in next to her, she snapped, “You should really save your strength for the mission.”

He took her arms and turned her toward him, easily overcoming her stubborn resistance. “It’s the only way, Felicia.”

“It’s not the only way.”

“Then give me an alternative.”

She struggled to think of something. “A stealth submarine—”

He shook his head. “Even if it’s not spotted on the way there, how do we get from the compound to the water? Forget about travel time when we’re all healthy, but how do we account for the condition of the Others? And then how do we escape in the sub once they’re already after us?”

“Then a cargo plane,” Felicia countered. “Or a Blackhawk helicopter.”

“Neither of which would be allowed into North Korean airspace. Why do you think we’re going in spy planes? We need to be high enough to avoid detection.”

“More vamps, then,” she said desperately. “You bring in other vamps to help you. You work as a team to teleport people out. Yes,” she insisted when Knox shook his head. “Why should it just be you?”

“Because I’m the only one who signed up for this. There are few enough healthy male vamps as it is. I’m not going to risk them. If something happens to me, then—”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. Don’t even say that.”

“Felicia.”

“No. Nothing. Nothing is going to happen to you, do you hear me? I won’t allow it. You won’t allow it!”

“No,” he agreed. “You’re right. I won’t. Come here.”

He pulled her into his arms and she went willingly, hugging him tight.

“Shhh, baby. It’s okay. I’m going to be okay.”

She pulled him in closer, burrowing herself into him as if that could somehow keep him with her. “The female you drank from—”

“She doesn’t matter, not where you’re concerned. She’s someone I’m grateful to, someone who visits the Dome at times, but it’s no more than a medical procedure would be, Felicia. I promise.”

Of course she believed him. If he said it, it was true. Frantically, she reached up to kiss him, opening her mouth wide and rubbing her tongue sinuously against his. He tasted intoxicating, like dark chocolate mixed with mint. Moaning, she urged him on, lowering her hand to cup him through his pants and gasping when he nipped at her lips in return.

“Felicia. Wait.” He tried to slow down the kiss. Gentled the touch of his mouth on hers. She wouldn’t let him.

“Now,” she moaned. “I need you now.” Frantically, her fingers plucked at his fly, wanting to get him undressed and inside her.

With a growl, he walked her backward until her back hit the wall. Their arms tangled as he undressed her, each of them fighting for dominance—a dominance he ultimately wrested from her as soon as they were both undressed.

Knox grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her up until her legs wound around his hips. He didn’t look away as he entered her, his thick cock pushing past her plush, tight muscles with relentless intent. “Look at me,” he said. “Just me.”

He moved his hips in slow, shallow thrusts.

Felicia bit her lip to control her moans, but cried out when he hit a particularly sensitive spot. He spread her thighs even wider.

A faint noise drifted in from outside, causing her to flinch. Could anyone hear them? Guess what they were doing even as her heart was breaking?

“Look at me, Felicia,” he said.

Even though her feelings were so intense, part of her wanted to hide. Yet she did look at him. Desire danced in his eyes, opening its arms and beckoning her to give herself over to him.

“You’re so amazing, Felicia,” Knox said. “I’d fuck you all day and all night if I could. But I don’t want to fuck you. I want to make love to you. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

He grasped her face and kissed her. Worshipfully. Adoringly. As he’d said, he made love to her. Despite the fact that they were leaving one another and he would be traversing into dangerous, enemy territory, with no guarantee of coming back. Despite the fact that he had her up against a wall and that part of their urgency was clearly edged by anger as well as desire.

Despite those things, he managed to make her feel as he always did: beautiful. And sexy. And loved.

Felicia felt bombarded by sensation, emotional and physical. She no longer knew where she was. The world ceased to exist. Only Knox was there. In her mind. In her heart. In her body. She felt a familiar pressure building inside her, but didn’t fight it.

She embraced it.

Welcomed it.

When she came, she couldn’t hold herself back any longer.

Looking into Knox’s eyes, she trembled and whispered, “I love you. I love you so much. Come back to me. I love you.”

F
our days later, Knox was sitting in a C-17 airplane trying to focus on the turbulence, the rattling vibrations that even his helmet and oxygen mask couldn’t drown out, and the cold that made his fingers ache and his breath cloud in front of his face.

It didn’t matter. Just as they often did, memories of Felicia were pressing in on him. This time, they were memories of their last time together.

Closing his eyes, he surrendered to them. After taking her against the wall, they’d dozed lazily in each other’s arms. He pictured the way her hair had strewn across the sheets like a river of molten lava, heating him from the inside out, driving the beast inside him to touch every inch of her. He’d crawled on top of her again and buried his face in all that rich silk even as he’d buried his aching shaft into her hot center, pumping into her and licking the side of her neck until she’d breathed out those words again, “Bite me.” And he had, this time without hesitation, piercing her with his fangs and sucking the blood from her veins, rejoicing in the feel of her entering his body even as he entered hers. Afterward, instead of feeling spent as he should have, he’d felt energized. Pumped up. Stronger than he had in years. And he knew it was because of her and what she’d brought to his life. Not just hope, but purpose.

A reason to exist that had nothing to do with duty or basic survival.

Something just for him and him alone. Something that, like the clothes he wore or the car he drove, was his simply because he wanted it to be.

Now that he’d had her, he couldn’t imagine living without her.

She was already his, but he wanted her to be part of his life and part of his family. All he had to do was pledge her his fidelity during her lifetime. The fact he’d resisted doing so now amazed him.

Of course, he wanted more than that. He wanted to
marry
her, to pledge his body, heart, and soul to hers. But the Vamp Council would use such a marriage as a weapon, reminding the clan what had happened the last time a member of the royal family had married a human.

No, it would be far easier to keep the issue of Felicia’s humanity, and all the suspicion that came with it, separate from Jacques Devereaux’s by avoiding marriage. At least for now. As for Michelle Burgeon, perhaps a union with another male in his clan could be arranged in order to ensure the international unification of vamps over the next few years.

Be that as it may, he would always lead his clan to the best of his ability.

He would just do it with Felicia by his side. Now all he had to do was find the antidote, save his clan, and get past her fears.

Piece of cake, right?

“ All right, this is it,” O’Flare’s voice sounded through Knox’s earpiece. “I’m going to do a final assessment and then we’ll be at the drop point in just about twenty minutes. Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Hunt growled, obviously trying to work through the negative effects his body was encountering when flying at such a high altitude. “How come you’re so damn cheery and I feel like I’m about to pass out at any second?”

“We’re close to thirty thousand feet up. Most people are going to feel that way.” O’Flare jerked his thumb at the masked woman at his side, who was jotting down notes on a clipboard. Melinda Murphy was a part of Team Blue, the FBI’s HRT team that specialized in air missions. She’d helped O’Flare prepare the team for this very moment. “Like Murphy, I’ve done this before. You’re uncomfortable, but you’re doing fine.”

Snorting, Hunt shook his head. “Tell that to my stomach.’Cause it’s not so sure. Plus my skin’s tingling and I’m feeling a little too happy for my own comfort given that it’s fucking freezing in here.”

Knox smiled slightly, even though his own stomach was feeling a little jittery. Despite the chilling cold in the plane’s interior, he was wreathed in sweat. But come on, vamp or not, he was about to throw himself out of a moving airplane with nothing but a bat suit and a few days’ training to save his ass. He and Hunt would be crazy not to be feeling a few butterflies. Although he’d been feeling a bit of the euphoria and tingling that Hunt was speaking of, it had thankfully passed a few minutes before. Knox chose to think of it as an adrenaline rush rather than one of the symptoms of decompression illness O’Flare had warned them about.

“How about you, Wraith? You doing okay?” O’Flare asked.

Knox looked at Wraith, who was strapped into a jump seat with her eyes closed, looking remarkably calm. Through her mask, Knox saw her open her lids and stare at O’Flare. The “fuck you” was implicit in their cold depths before she shut her lids again. O’Flare clenched his jaw and notched it at Murphy. “Check her and Knox. I’ll take care of the others.”

Murphy nodded and, steady on her feet despite the jerky movements of the plane, made her way to Wraith. Almost an hour ago, while still below ten thousand feet, they’d all done their prebreathing of 100 percent oxygen in order to purge nitrogen from their bloodstream. It would, O’Flare said, eliminate 90 percent of the effects of decompression sickness. If what Knox was experiencing was 10 percent of what he normally would be otherwise, he wished he’d sucked oxygen for a whole lot longer.

It hadn’t just been the jump team who’d taken the oxygen; all of the crew had, including Murphy; Leo Masterson, the aircraft commander; and Gerald Sumner, the jump master. Now, as O’Flare checked over Lucy, whose pale, pinched features reflected her fear but who was managing to keep everything together, Knox yelled, “Hey, Lucy!”