In the Beginning... (16 page)

Her eyes didn’t open. It
gave him pause. Had she not
heard
him? He snapped his fingers, the sound cracking in
the silence. Still nothing.

He slipped into her head effortlessly,
getting tangled in a complex feminine brain within half a second.
There were no true sounds, just a type of humming stillness that he
had encountered before. Deaf, then.

Interesting.

He settled in her mind for a
few moments, learning of her what he could. She was
Jocelyn,
daughter of the
youngest son Jason
.
A doctor, educated at Johns Hopkins. She worked for Taniss
Industries like all the rest of the Taniss filth.

He’d never despised anyone the way he did Leo
Taniss and his issue. The older human was responsible for the
deaths of thousands of Dardaptoans. The ancient vampiric race had
few enemies amongst the humans, but those with the name Taniss
topped that list.

Leo Taniss had taken
Dardaptoans to his lab in Boulder and done horrific and deadly
experiments on them. Most died; only three out of the known
thousands taken had survived—Cormac’s only sister, her
brother-in-law, and his adopted niece, Jierra. Ji had been only a
three-week-old babe when Cormac had found her lying amongst the
rest of her dead family. Two years after he’d found his sister
Kindara rocking the dead body of her
Rajni
, or mate, Iavius. Iavius’s
teenaged sister lay beside him, gone forever. Erastine had been a
beautiful child with a bright future. No more.

And it was all that sociopath Leo Taniss’s
doing.

Tonight Cormac would wreak his vengeance upon
the man’s granddaughter. His friends—Rydere, Aodhan, and
Theodoric—were doing the same against three other Taniss
grandchildren. The women would disappear forever, and then they
would take Leo Taniss to show him the tortures the women would have
endured before finally being drained dry at Dardaptoan hands.

Taniss blood feeding Dardaptoan. It was only
fitting.

He sank deeper into her mind as he stepped
closer to the tub. He reached for her, his hand settling atop
thick, soft blonde hair. He pushed her beneath the water before
she’d fully registered he was there.

Her scream echoed through the room and
through his mental connection to her. He’d rarely seen such terror
in a mind. She tried to fight his hands, but he held her under the
water as long as he felt necessary. When she was limp and docile he
pulled her from the water and dropped her to the thick rug. He
grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her skinny
shoulders.

He bent, ignoring the confusion and terror
coating her mind, and lifted her wet and naked body over his
shoulder. His hand gripped a curved ass cheek and he resisted the
urge to squeeze, test it out in his hand.

She was dirt. The enemy. He would have to
remind himself of that.

He might be a killer by her standards, but he
was not a damned pervert.

Josey trembled as the man, the monster,
carried her from her bath into her room. He might think she was
subdued, but she would not let him rape her easily. Where was Free?
Had he killed the dog already? Was that why she wasn’t trying to
bite him?

She pushed the grief away. She couldn’t deal
with the loss of the dog now. Not if she wanted to get away from
him. His hand curved on her butt cheek, burning her flesh. She had
to get away from him.

She’d screamed earlier, but she didn’t know
if anyone had heard her—she had no clue how well sound carried
between her house and her cousins’.

Had the monster said something? She felt
vibrations against her stomach—was he talking? Threatening her?

Did he intend to kill her?

Ultimately, yes. I do plan to kill you, but
first you will feel great pain at my hands. It is only fitting and
fair. You will soon understand your fate.

The words bounced around inside her m0ind
with accompanying pain. She’d not heard another human voice in
nearly twenty years—how was this even possible?

I am not human.
He dumped her on her bed and smiled at her. More
intense pain shot through her skull, and Josey took the only escape
she could. Darkness and pain consumed her.

Her body went limp beneath his hands as he
dried the excess water from her skin. She was quite pale, several
shades fairer than him. Her hair was soaked and tangled from his
dunking her. He dried it as best he could. His car seats were
leather and he didn’t want her hair ruining them. He opened her
drawers and pulled a pair of denims and a sweatshirt out. The top
drawer held a mess of feminine lace, and he picked a scrap of red
free.

He’d dress his captive and get moving. He
didn’t have much time, but he was not going to take a naked woman
for a drive through Denver. He had not the time to deal with human
authorities tonight.

He enjoyed slipping the scrap over her long
legs more than he would admit, even to himself. He almost hated to
cover her skin with the denim, but he did it.

The dog whimpered from her spot in the
corner. He’d almost forgotten her. He considered leaving her
behind, but the dog was a Border collie, his favorite breed—a smart
dog, he could easily see that within the beast’s head. It had been
many years since he’d had pups around his wing. The dog’s leash was
right where the woman had hung it by the bed. He leashed the bitch
and turned back to his Taniss dinner.

She was starting to stir on the bed, the
migraine-like pain in her head having faded some. He had not
intended to hurt her by speaking in her mind and a moment’s remorse
hit him. But only a moment’s. It was an unexpected result that had
not occurred before when he had spoken within a being’s mind. Just
hers.

She rose to sit, her green eyes wide and
frightened. Taniss eyes that on her were remarkably beautiful.

He was inside her mind the
moment she realized this was not a bizarre nightmare. She thought
him a serial rapist or killer and that amused him. Terror warred
with determination in her and he momentarily considered playing
with those emotions. He discarded the ideas—Rydere, the
Dahr
or king of his
people—had given strict orders that they were not to remain on the
Taniss Compound any longer than necessary.

Besides, he would have plenty of time to toy
with her once he had her back in his suite. He would make this
blonde flower pay for all her grandfather’s sins and he would make
that payment last for several days before he called it even.

If he ever did. How could he put a price on
the souls of his sister’s family? Of the babe she’d lost before its
breath, his death coming at the hands of this girl’s own
grandfather?

His thoughts momentarily consumed with grief,
his hold on her mind lessened. She must have somehow known—she
rolled from the bed and grabbed the brass alarm clock. She heaved
it at him, screaming as she ran for the bedroom door.

For a damned human girl, she was quicker than
he expected.

She should not have run—it only aroused the
hunting urge in him. And Cormac was first and foremost a
hunter.

He was steps behind her as she ran into the
living room of the small house. It surprised him how small it was;
he would have expected a woman of her wealth living in a much
larger home. This place was cozy and intimate, too small by most
standards.

She tripped, terror making her clumsy. He
almost winced at the sound her shoulder made as it rammed into an
end table. If she lived long enough, that injury would make a
bruise.

He grabbed her by the blonde
hair falling down her back. His other hand he wrapped around her
stomach. He pulled her back against his chest.
Shhh, little rabbit. It is foolish and useless to run from me.
I will have you no matter how you protest.

Her struggles only increased at his silent
words. She had ruthlessly pushed her terror at his ability to speak
to her away, but it threatened to resurface. He considered using
his powerful skill to pull that terror free and let it consume her.
One feminine hand reached back and slashed across his cheek. His
face burned where her nails damaged his skin.

He wrapped the hand he had buried in her hair
around her wrist and clenched. She cried out again. He tightened
his grip, wanting to bruise her deliberately so that she would
learn and understand her place. Understand what he expected her to
do.

He turned her to face him.

She closed her eyes, drew in a shuddering
breath that pressed her chest to his much larger one.

His gut heated as he felt her soft curves
mesh with his harder body. He loosened his hold on her wrist,
pulling that arm behind her to meet her other. He held her wrists
behind her with one hand and used his other to tilt her head back
so that he could see those damned Taniss green eyes.

She opened those eyes and looked straight
into his. A tear slid from her left eye and landed on his shirt. A
second quickly followed. He used a gentle hand to wipe it away. Her
lip trembled, suddenly reminding him of his niece Jierra. So young.
So vulnerable.

Please, don’t…

The sweetly feminine voice that sounded in
his head completely shocked him and had his own eyes widening. No
one had ever been able to respond to him on the channel he used to
read others’ minds. He'd never actually conversed with someone
inside their heads.

Why her?

He stared down at her for long moments,
caught by the green of her eyes. The same color as his House
colors. Her lips trembled as a tear slipped out of one eye.

His grip on her eased. He cursed against the
gods and goddesses. He could not do it, could not kill her for her
grandfather’s sins.

He dropped his head and covered those
trembling lips with his own. Her gasp echoed in his head as she
tried to pull away. He would not let her; she was his to do with as
he wished. He kissed her for a long moment before raising his
head.

You have two choices, girl. You can do as I
wish and live, or I can kill you this night. What will it be? Live
or die?

Josey trembled against the man, feeling small
and powerless. He had to be at least a foot taller than her five
and a half feet. And he was huge. The body pressed against hers was
riddled with thick muscles and he had lifted her so easily. Did she
have much choice? Maybe she could escape if he thought she was
cooperative?

His hand rose to encircle
her neck. His finger found her pulse and pressed slightly, then
rubbed against the beat.
Choose.

Live. Please don’t kill me!

Josey bowed her head in both supplication and
shame. How could she have given in so easily to him?

Her cousin Mallory’s face popped into her
mind and more tears flooded Josey’s eyes. What would Mal say about
her easily capitulation if she knew of it? Mal would urge her to
fight as Mal had so many years ago when attacked in the parking
garage at Taniss Industries late one night. Mal wouldn’t have just
bowed her head and given in to the monster holding her.

Josey struggled again, but
the man jerked her arms up behind her even higher, forcing her to
bend against him.
Do not be stupid, girl.
You think me a mere mortal man? I could kill you so easily, how is
it you think to escape? I am the monster from your nightmares and I
will act upon those nightmares if you fail to cooperate even
once.

Josey forced her breath to steady, forced
herself to keep her head bowed, forehead resting against the broad
male chest. She refused to acknowledge that he claimed he was not
human.

Nod if you understand what I am saying to
you, girl.

Josey closed her eyes, defeat filling her.
She nodded.

His hand loosened on her wrists. His other
tangled in the hair beside her left ear. He pushed the hair over
her back, exposing her neck.

He ignored the woman’s tears. They mattered
little to him. She was being allowed to live, was she not? His
original plan had been to kill her, after all, and he had done
little to hide that fact from her.

Her neck was close to his mouth and he
lowered his head the final few inches until he could graze her skin
with his lips. She jerked, but did not pull away.

She whimpered. But she stood still against
him.

His body tightened in anticipation. What
would Taniss blood, the blood of his enemy, taste like on his
tongue? Would it be bitter like such evil demanded, or would it be
a sweetness like candy?

Was she as innocent as she appeared? Would
that innocence have its own particular taste? He ran his tongue
over his fangs then over her pulse. It increased and he
laughed.

Regardless of her taste, this moment was so
good.

His teeth sank deep and her taste exploded in
him.

She was sweet. She was hot. She was
right.

She was his damned
Rajni.

He had wrapped the cord—from
a lamp by her bed—around her wrists, securing her tightly. She
would not escape him; he needed the time to think things out, to
determine what to do with her. His
Rajni
could not be a human, and a
Taniss. The goddess could not be that cruel.

The girl trembled in the passenger seat of
his Viper, terrified of him. Exactly what he had wanted. What he
had worked for. She seemed to shrink in on herself, huddled in the
University of Colorado sweatshirt he'd pulled over her while she
was unconscious. Her damp hair put wet spots on the shirt. A
trickle of blood ran down her neck to soak into the gray material.
The small Border collie huddled at her feet.