Eternal Craving (14 page)

Al nodded.

Katherine leaned back in her throne. “Then it looks like I have a choice to make. I can support you and your leader, who’ve offered me no incentive to join your cause, or I can throw my power—and I control most of the vampires in this country—toward these immortals.”

She tried on a benevolent expression. It didn’t work.

“Before I make my choice, I’ll allow you to return to your leader so you can tell him that I would make a powerful ally or a deadly enemy. It’s his decision. Kenny will contact you with the time and place to meet me again. I’ll expect a generous offer.”

Fin was still in Al’s head, and he’d already decided.
“Your leader will offer her a kick in her self-important ass.”

Al risked a quick glance toward Jude. The vampire looked more than pissed at Katherine’s claim to national dominance. Al wondered if Katherine was too puffed up with her own importance to realize how dangerous Jude really was.

She evidently decided to end her pre sentation by demonstrating her power. Turning her head toward the hapless vampire, she snapped her fingers. He immediately burst into flame. No screams, so he was dead or unconscious.

Then she returned her attention to Al and the others. Al didn’t need to read the expression in her eyes. He could see the hunger and greed in the twist of her lips.

“And as proof of my good faith, I’ll tell you that our dearly departed friend said the immortal operating in this city calls himself Stake.” She scowled. “A rather insensitive name. I’ll have to suggest he change it.”

Spin spoke up for the first time. “What do
you
want?”

Katherine slid her gaze to Jenna, and Al knew what she’d say before she said it. He allowed his soul to crawl a little farther out of its cave.

“Leave the woman with me as a token of
your
good faith. I’ll return her to you when you deliver the offer from your leader.”

“Bitch.” Jenna said it loud enough to carry to the queen.

Katherine smiled. “Spunky. I like that.”

The vampire was a coward and a liar. Al knew Jenna would be dead or worse ten minutes after Spin and he left the church. And Katherine had made it clear she didn’t want to meet Fin in person. She wasn’t taking any risks with her royal person. Her mistake was in thinking that Spin and Al weren’t powerful enough to threaten her.

“Sorry, Jenna stays with us.” Al made sure Katherine saw that he wasn’t sorry at all. “And you might not want to hold your breath waiting for our leader’s offer. He doesn’t hire mercenaries. They can’t be trusted.”

Katherine’s face twisted into an ugly glare. As vampires went, she was an unattractive specimen. She stood, her gaze fixed on them.

Then she turned to her followers. “Kill them. Stake will reward us when he finds that we eliminated two more of the Eleven. In a few minutes, they’ll be the Eight.”

She’d made a fatal mistake. She’d said too many words. She should have stopped after the first two. All the extra babbling gave Spin the time he needed to turn his soul loose.

Al grabbed Jenna and dived for the door.

“Aren’t you going to help?” Jenna didn’t take her gaze from Spin, who stood facing the queen. “God, he’d better change before she can snap her fingers.”

The only thing I’m going to do is keep you safe.
“Only one of our souls will fit in this room, and she won’t snap her fingers. She wants her followers to rip us apart. I see someone with a camcorder back there filming this. A bunch of vampires ripping three people apart makes for great footage.” Besides, Spin was fast. By the time she thought about snapping her fingers, it would be too late.

Al stopped talking as Spin’s soul burst free. For just a moment, a random thought hit him. He didn’t remember ever seeing a Spinosaurus when he’d last walked the Earth. And Spin was distinctive enough that Al wouldn’t have mistaken him for anything other than what he was.

Spin was an impressive sight. Over fifty feet long, he had freaky skin-covered spines sticking up at least six feet from his backbone. And even though he had the same powerful hind legs and short forelegs as an Allosaurus, his head was something else. Spin had a long narrow snout with equally long sharp teeth.

And Spin put those teeth to good use. He was probably thinking about Katherine and her snapping fingers too, because before the screaming could even begin, he leaped on the vampire queen and tore her head from her body. Then he turned on her followers.

Except her followers were gone. Or at least in the act of leaving. They’d evidently taken one look at the massive dinosaur filling up most of the church and decided not to stick around to see if they could take it down. And with their queen dead, they were left rudderless. In the ensuing confusion, Spin had no trouble picking off the stragglers.

Al fought his soul. The scent of blood, the battle, the dying tore at the thin tether connecting him to his human body. He wanted to roar his challenge and lose himself in the slaughter. Gritting his teeth, he held it together as his soul shredded his insides with its need to be free.

Then he glanced at Jenna. She stared at him, horror in her eyes. He knew exactly what she was seeing—all the bloodlust of an ancient predator trapped behind the eyes of a man. Not something she’d soon forget. He tried to convince himself that he didn’t give a damn what she thought of him.

Within a few minutes Jude was the only living vampire inside the church. But the danger wasn’t over. In their rush to escape, the vampires had knocked over the candles. A healthy fire was feeding on the old wood of the building.

“Let’s get out of here.” Al grabbed Jenna’s hand as they fled back down the corridor, Jude and Spin—back in his human form—close behind.

“Use one of the windows,” Al shouted over his shoulder. If any of the surviving vampires felt particularly brave, they could be waiting at the back door to try a surprise attack.

Al guided Jenna into the first empty room and then kicked out what remained of the window. Spin and Jude went out the windows of other rooms so they wouldn’t be caught all together.

“Someone’s probably called the fire department by now.” Jenna didn’t sound as though she was about to fall apart.

“Yeah. We need to be away from here when the trucks arrive.” He edged along the outside wall toward the back of the church.

By now most of the building was blazing, and the heat was growing unbearable. When he finally got close enough to see the parking lot in the back, the only ones there were Spin, Jude, and Kenny. But there was also a car. That was important.

Jenna said it for him. “Kenny?”

Al didn’t have time to puzzle over the presence of the vampire queen’s husband. He ran toward the group. “We need to get out of here right now.”

Kenny nodded. “That’s my car. Climb in.”

“Why would you help us?” Jenna was learning fast.

Kenny wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t look devastated either. “Hey, I don’t hold a grudge. Katherine liked to throw her power around.” Something in his expression said he’d been the recipient of some of his wife’s power blasts. “And after what I saw to night, I’m throwing in with you guys.” His gaze slid to Jude. “And whoever the new leader is.”

Jude must’ve seen Al’s hesitation. “From what I’ve heard, Katherine wasn’t a beloved ruler. She wouldn’t have allowed Kenny to walk away even if he wanted to.” He glanced at Kenny. “And I’m guessing he wanted to.”

Al didn’t sense any danger from Kenny, so he got Jenna into the car and climbed in beside her. The others piled in, and Kenny didn’t waste any time peeling out of the parking lot. They heard the sirens when they were a block away from the church.

“Where’d you leave your car?” Kenny aimed his question at Jude, who sat in the front passenger seat.

Jenna was squished between Al and Spin in the backseat, but Al was enjoying her closeness. The only bad part was that Spin was probably enjoying it too.

Within a few minutes, Kenny pulled up beside Jude’s white Lexus. “Umm, when you want to get everyone together, call me.” He pulled a smudged card from his pocket.

Jude smiled. “I’ll remember your help, Kenny. Sorry about your wife.”

Al didn’t think anyone was sorry about Katherine, especially her husband, who was looking pretty liberated at the moment.

Once Jude pulled out into traffic, Jenna spoke. “What was Katherine’s official title?”

Jude glanced in the rearview mirror. “She was in charge of a ten-state area like I am. Only it seems she liked to think of herself as a lot more powerful than she was.” He shook his head. “Not too smart. Only someone stupid would meet with strangers without a lot more protections in place. Only someone stupid would underestimate you guys. She didn’t deserve those ten states.”

“Who does deserve them?” Spin sounded like he knew the answer.

Jude’s smile was wide and for once sincere. “I guess I do, for the time being. But as much as I like the power trip, I don’t want the added responsibility. So I’ll give it up as soon as someone can take it from me.”

“Take it from you?” Jenna wiggled her behind as she worked herself into a more comfortable position.

Al’s body reacted to the stimulus in a predictable way. He suspected, though, that Spin would have a similar reaction. Bastard.

“We earn leadership over an area by being stronger than everyone else.” He shrugged. “So when someone stronger comes along, they can have Pennsylvania and the other states.”

“How do you decide who’s stronger?” Jenna wasn’t going to leave it alone.

“We fight.”

That silenced Jenna. Her expression said the whole idea was barbaric and she’d thought better of Jude. Personally, Al’s opinion of Jude had just gone up. Call him primitive and savage, but Al respected a man who fought for his territory, or his mate. He sent a glare in Spin’s direction. Mate? He’d better lose that thought fast.

When they finally got back to the condo, Fin was waiting for them in the media room. Jenna took the decision of who would sit next to her out of Al’s and Fin’s hands by dropping into a leather recliner. She sighed her relief.

Al masked his disappointment by taking a nearby chair. Then he waited for everyone else to be seated.

For once, Fin seemed satisfied. “Things worked out a lot better than I expected.”

Jenna didn’t agree. “A power-hungry vampire bitch set one of her own on fire just to prove she could. After that she threatened us with death and Spin had to kill half a church full of vampires to save our lives. I don’t know about you, but I expected a better ending to my day.”

Al wondered what held her together, and why she didn’t run. Just a few days ago she was an ordinary woman living an ordinary life. Now she was witnessing death and horror everywhere she turned.

If she was staying just for her sister, then why did she agree to go anywhere with him? She could refuse. Fin wouldn’t drag her kicking and screaming from the condo. Fin might be able to keep her from going along with Kelly and Ty on their nightly hunts, but he couldn’t stop her from visiting her sister each day. And that was all she really needed to do to assure herself that Kelly was okay.

“We have to look at the big picture.” One of Fin’s favorite phrases. “We got rid of Katherine, who would’ve signed up with Eight, and replaced her with Jude, who’ll fight on our side. This Kenny guy looks like someone we can use. And we even found out what name Eight is using.” He shook his head. “Dumb name.”

“Speaking of names, Infinity is an interesting choice.” She looked as if she was trying to work through something. “Numbers are a big thing with you, so naturally you’d see yourself as a forever kind of guy.” Her gaze sharpened. “Infinity also means something that’s not subject to any limitations. Do you see yourself like that?” The questions kept on coming. “You call your enemies immortals. What about you guys? Are you immortal?”

Fin held up his hand to stop her. “No more. This whole question thing must be a genetic weakness in the Maloy family. You’re even worse than your sister.”

Al wondered how many of Jenna’s questions Fin would answer. Fin only gave out information on a need-to-know basis. But he
was
loosening up a little. Al now knew that Fin had manipulated his memory and that Jenna was the ticket to Eight’s trip home.

“Our enemies are true immortals because nothing can kill them. Our only hope is to ban them from Earth until the end of the next time period. In a few million more years we might have the power to keep them out permanently.” His expression spoke of his frustration with the good guys’ limitations. “The Eleven? They don’t die natural deaths. Old age, disease, or even life-threatening injuries can’t destroy them. But they
are
vulnerable.” The silence was filled with the memory of Rap. “They can still lose their heads.”

Jenna mentioned the obvious. “You said ‘they’ not ‘we.’ You didn’t include yourself.”

His smile was classic Fin—warm, open, and as fake as the rest of him. Al shook his head. He needed sleep. Fin might not be his favorite of the Eleven—okay, so his feelings came close to hate sometimes—and Fin might drive him crazy with the things he refused to tell them, but Al always held onto his core belief that Fin was on their side. Fin was the only reason they’d survived to fight in the year 2012.

“I
didn’t
include myself, did I?” Fin yawned. “I’m tired. See you all in the afternoon.” Then he simply rose and left them all sitting there.

Al glanced at Spin to see what he thought of Fin’s side-stepping. Spin was fast asleep. He looked at Jenna.

Her eyes were alight with excitement. “I’m going to find out what Fin is.”

Al closed his eyes. Oh, hell.

Jenna was having a quiet crisis. She sat cross-legged on the couch in the sitting area of her room trying to figure out why the formula that had worked her entire life was no longer enough.

When she’d realized she couldn’t be as perfect as Kelly in school, she’d stopped competing and proclaimed she didn’t care. When she’d recognized that she’d never be as good with animals as her parents were, she’d given up on her plans to be a vet and switched to an English Lit major. It was for the best. She never could stand the sight of animals suffering.

The only thing that
had
been perfect for her was her tabloid job. What had started out being another I-don’t-care moment had morphed into a damn-I’m-good-at-this job. Her perfectionism had translated into awesome articles. The best part? She wasn’t competing with any of her family.

So what was she doing competing with Kelly again? Her sister had saved the day in Houston, and now Fin expected Jenna to do the same in Philly. If she didn’t ring that damn bell, it was bye-bye humanity. And this time she couldn’t walk away and pretend she didn’t care.

The last two nights proved she wasn’t ready for a prime-time performance. Last night she’d wasted her chance to shine by heaving up her stomach. Tonight she’d just stood frozen trying to breathe past the boulder in her throat. Kelly probably would’ve picked up a candlestick and splattered some vampire brains over the floor.

Then there was Al. He terrified her on a level so primal, her modern mind couldn’t wrap itself around the emotion. She’d looked into his eyes to night and seen death. He’d wanted to join Spin in the killing, and he’d had a tough time resisting all that fun. His soul had recognized her to night. And she had a gut feeling it was trying to decide where to file her. She hoped it wasn’t under “prey.”

So if she was that afraid, then why did she want to rip his clothes from his body and do things with him she’d never wanted to do with any other man? She didn’t just want sex, she wanted SEX—rough, raw, and savage. No holds barred. Was there something in the carnal, elemental male of him that called to the primitive remnants of her essential female? She was a thinking person, and something that spoke to instinct and not reason made her nervous.

Even though she was physically exhausted, her mind was awake and trying to dissect everything Al had said and done today even as it analyzed how those things related to her.

And when her mind took a breather from thinking about Al, it brought up all the violent images from the church. In living, or more accurately undead, color. God, she didn’t want to think about that.

So she did what she always did when she wanted a mental distraction: she turned to her laptop. First she checked her e-mail. Penis enlargement, hair replacement, sexy singles, and a message from her editor. She needed to up the level of her spam filter. Delete, delete, delete, and read.

Martha had succeeded as editor of
The Scene
by holding the strings to tipsters all over the world. When a tip came in, she found someone to check it out. This time she’d tapped Jenna.

Two tips had popped up from anonymous sources in Philly. Luckily, she had Jenna right in the city. Martha wanted her to see if there was anything to them.

Jenna glanced at the tips before saving them to her work file. Aliens were planning to steal the Liberty Bell, and some restaurants in Philly were fronts for vampire activity.

She’d had personal experience with the vampire restaurants. But the Liberty Bell lead held special interest. And just for a moment, she enjoyed the irony of her treating the tips as real when a few days ago she would’ve done lots of eye rolling.

Next order of business, Fin. Jenna didn’t know where to start learning about him, so she shut down her computer until her mind was clearer. Wait. There was something she’d meant to follow up on. Opening her notebook, she checked her facts. Yep, Al had been extinct by the time Ty rolled onto the scene.

She’d tell Kelly and Al about her finding first. Jenna didn’t trust Fin. He had the power to make her forget all about her discovery. But this could wait until the afternoon.

After taking a shower and pulling on her nightgown, she turned off the light and climbed into bed. If she could turn off her brain too, maybe she could fall asleep.

She was just dozing off when someone knocked on her door. The temptation to ignore it lasted all of ten seconds. Kelly? Not bothering to even run her fingers through her hair, she pulled on her robe, stumbled to the door, and flung it open. “What?”

Then her brain caught up with her mouth and she just stared. Al stood in the darkened hallway. He wore jeans and…jeans. His chest was sculpted perfection, and she’d always craved perfection. His feet were bare, and his skin gleamed damply as though he’d just gotten out of the shower.

And his hair wasn’t braided. It was a dark curtain that fell down his back and flowed across his shoulders. It looked clean, shiny, and just blow-dried.

He smiled at her, a sensual lifting of his lips that changed the hard lines of his face into something softer but just as dangerous. “I was heading straight to bed, but I started thinking about what happened to night. I need to talk to you about it.”

“It can’t wait until this afternoon?” She wanted him to stay. She wanted him to leave. The message was different according to which part of her body she asked. Her brain thought the faster he left the better. Other body systems thought she should open her door wide and invite his gorgeous ass in.

“I think it needs to be now.” His face might look softer, but he still had the eyes of a predator.

Now Jenna knew how Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma felt, because she was tuning out her brain even as she held the door open for him.

He shook his head. “Not here. The walls are starting to close in. The roof is good. I can see the sky.”

She glanced back at her nice warm room, her nice warm
bed
. “A little chilly up there.”

Al laughed, and there were no undertones, no unspoken messages. “Come see.” He held out his hand.

Jenna knew she looked doubtful. “Give me a minute to change and—”

“You don’t need to change.”

“I’m from Houston, the land of hot weather and thin blood.” But she wanted to stay with him, so she let him pull her toward the stairs at the end of the hallway. When they reached the roof, she expected to be met by a blast of frigid air. Instead they stepped into a heated glass room—four glass walls and a glass ceiling. No lights.

“Wow.” She spun in a circle, taking in the 360 degrees of city lights and night sky. The snow flurries had stopped. Too bad. “Did Fin do this?”

“Yeah. He has an ongoing psychic battle with Zero, and lately he’s had trouble unwinding enough to sleep. Being able to see the sky relaxes him.”

“Okay, that explains the floor.” The floor that was one big mattress. Great to sleep on, hard to walk on. Since there weren’t any chairs, she dropped onto the mattress and leaned back against the glass. Jenna watched as Al stared out at the night before turning toward her.

“If I ever have a place of my own, I’d like a room like this.” It was the first time he’d ever hinted there might be an “after” for him. “I don’t like feeling trapped.”

“You were an apex predator. I thought fear wasn’t in your vocabulary.”

“Maybe the human in me is bleeding through.” His gaze settled on her, impersonal but with intimate waiting in the wings. “Anyway, being up here drives the shadows away.”

You bring the shadows with you.
“Well, it sure is spectacular.”
Like you.

He stared at her in silence for so long she had to resist the urge to squirm.

“I saw your expression when you looked at me to night. Do I scare you, Jenna?”

“You scare the hell out of me. I looked into your eyes while Spin was tearing through the vampires, and I saw your soul. That would be scary for any human.”

For a moment she thought she saw regret in his eyes.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t trust you to keep me safe.”
It doesn’t mean that I don’t want you deep inside me.

Al nodded. “I guess that’s better than nothing.” He settled down next to her. “No matter how much knowledge Fin poured in here”—he tapped his forehead—“when I get emotional, my soul tries to take over.” He shrugged. “I can fight it, but I don’t always win. Fin says as we spend time in our new bodies, human nature will exert more power over us.” His smile didn’t look convinced. “The upside is that I can call my soul out at will. That’s a good thing.”

“Are you saying that
all
emotions trigger it?” What would it be like making love with this man? Would he bring his soul into the bed with them? Not a comfortable threesome. But even as she told herself she absolutely did
not
want to deal with the danger, a primitive part of her was anticipating the rush of so much primal energy focused on her.

He must have seen something in her expression, because his smile was all heated temptation. “Rage and sexual hunger. That doesn’t mean a woman will wake up with a dinosaur beside her, but it does mean we bring the same intensity to mating as we did millions of years ago.”

She took that to its obvious conclusion. “Not long on foreplay, huh?” Jenna smiled so he would know she was trying to lighten a conversation in danger of getting out of control.

His eyes darkened, “I wouldn’t know.”

Uh-oh. “How long have you had your human body?”

“I rose on November eleventh of last year and now it’s January, so about two months.”

She stopped herself before she asked the next question.

He answered it. “Sixty-five million years ago.”

A random thought cut through sexual tension so thick Jenna couldn’t have hacked a hole in it with a machete. According to her research, it had been more like 145 million years.

“Oh.” But what were a few million years between lovers?

Suddenly, he turned his head to stare directly at her. Those predator eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness. She suppressed a nervous giggle. She
never
giggled. “When you look at me like that, my over-the-top imagination kicks in. Did you see
Jurassic Park
?”

“Yeah. We rented it.” He smiled. “We cheered every time one of us ate one of you.”

“Not funny.” But she smiled back. “When I look into your eyes, I think of the scene where the power fails and everyone’s stuck in the tour cars. It’s dark and suddenly you feel the ground shaking as though something massive is moving through the trees. We all know the T. rex is coming. Nearer, and nearer, and nearer…We wait for it, wait for it…” Thud, thud, thud. She shook her head. Just the pounding of her heart. “And then all at once it’s there. So big it takes your breath away. And those teeth.” She remembered her terror when she’d first caught a glimpse of the Allosaurus’s massive shadow looming over their car as Jude scrambled out to face it. She shuddered.

He must have sensed a little of what she was feeling because he slid down until his head was lower than hers.

Jenna choked back a laugh. “Making yourself look smaller doesn’t help.” She shook her head. “You’re a dangerous man with or without a prehistoric soul. And I was damn glad of it in that church.”

He nodded, but Jenna couldn’t read the expression in his eyes.

“Take a chance and go out with me again. This time without Jude.”

“I won’t find any bells by hiding in the condo.” She couldn’t help it; she had to know. Reaching over, she slid her fingers through the long, glossy strands of his hair. It was as smooth and soft as she’d imagined. So
not
like the rest of the man. The way it framed his face, the clean smell of it, touched a primal part of her soul. “I thought you only left it free when you hunted.”

Something hot and hungry moved in his gaze. “Who said I’m not hunting?”

She didn’t know where to go with that line. He glanced away from her, searching for something in the night sky. His past? His future? “One of the guys in
Jurassic Park
said something that’s true. He said the T. rex didn’t want to be fed, it wanted to hunt. He nailed it. What makes us so dangerous is our need to attack, to kill. It’s hardwired into our souls. The man in me loves to sit down to a rare prime rib with mashed potatoes and gravy. My soul would rather stalk a nice fat heifer as it grazes out on the range.”

More info than she needed to know. Time for a change of subject. “It must’ve taken you a long time to grow your hair that long.”

“I wouldn’t know. The body wasn’t mine when the hair started growing.”

“I see.” Jenna decided not to ask how Fin had acquired the bodies. She was trying to think of something to say to keep the conversation flowing when he put his hand on her thigh. But then, who needed conversation?

“I don’t play games, Jenna. I want you. And if I broadcast my emotions, it’s because they’re that strong, so strong that I can’t hold them down. And sometimes they get all mixed up. My soul strings emotions together. One leads to another. That’s why you might get feelings coming from me that scare you on a whole bunch of levels. Sex, rage, hunger. All primitive emotions, and all churning in my head at the same time.”

“So when you’re lusting after a big juicy steak, you might hit me with one of your emotional punches without meaning to?”

He smiled. It was slow, and beautiful, and so sensual she had to remind herself to breathe. She’d met more gorgeous men since coming to Philly than she’d ever seen in her entire life, and they all had incredible smiles. But Al owned her with his. It was tuned into every erotic fantasy stashed away in that dark little corner of her mind with the sign reading: Never Gonna Happen. His smile made her think it just might.

“I’m not lusting after steaks.”

She had a hard time concentrating on his words as he pushed her robe aside and slipped his hand beneath her gown to massage the flesh high on her inner thigh. Thinking was becoming hard work.

But the voice in her head that separated truth from fantasy was stubborn. In her line of work, she was always searching for the angle. Did he have one?

Shut up.
But her mind wasn’t that easy to silence. Even though mind and body had their own agendas, mind kept on blabbing in the background. A man got turned on at the drop of an innuendo. A man didn’t need to even like a woman to get aroused. A man wouldn’t hesitate to use sex to manipulate. And a man with the soul of a prehistoric predator would expect to always get what he wanted.