Marked by the Vampire (4 page)

“Let’s see about that…” And, before she could even draw another breath, his fingers—his claws—cut into her wrist.

Don’t let him bite me. Don’t.

Blood slid down her wrist. Dropped to the floor.

“I bet the vamps down there can smell your blood,” he said. “Wonder if you smell like a human to them?”

The vamps were still shouting. She was staring into David’s eyes and seeing his beast.

Where are the guards?

He let her go. Just…let her go.

Olivia stumbled back. She sank down to her knees, as if she were too terrified to stand.

“Let’s have a taste…” David lifted his hand. His fingers were covered with her blood.

Her fingers slid inside her boot.

He—he licked up a drop of her blood from his claw. Closed his eyes. Seemed to savor her taste. “
What. Are. You?”

Olivia leapt up, the small silver knife held tightly in her hand. Olivia always,
always,
kept that knife hidden in her boot. The guards at Purgatory had never searched her, so they hadn’t known about her weapon. She drove that knife right toward David.

Just before the blade would have sunk into his chest, David’s eyes flew open. He grabbed for her hand, and the blade missed his heart. It sank into his side, and he roared his fury and pain. His claws came at her—

“
Don’t fucking try it.”
A low, lethal voice. One that was coming from…the window?

David froze. Then his head turned toward the window.

Olivia was already gazing at the vamp there with wild shock, and desperate hope.

Shane. Shane was in the window. She didn’t even know how the hell he’d gotten up there.
Had he scaled the stone wall?
But she was just so glad to see him that—

He’s a killer, too! He’s not a hero here to help you.

Her hope crashed as the voice of reality screamed in her head.

“Smelled the blood, did you, vamp?” David taunted. “Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be plenty to go around.”

Shane jumped down. His feet hit the stone floor and he started stalking toward David.  “Come to me, Olivia.”

Her blood trickled down her inner wrist.

“If you do, he’ll make a meal of you,” David promised her. “The vamp will gulp you all down. The last thing you’ll ever feel on this earth will be his teeth tearing into you.”

Yeah, well, she’d already felt the werewolf’s claws slicing into her. Unlike the werewolf, Shane hadn’t hurt her. Yet.  She inched toward him.

David grabbed her. “
My
prize, vamp.”

Shane’s gaze dropped to Olivia.  “He hurt you.”

“The collar isn’t working.” That was obvious. She hated the tremble of her voice.

“It’s all right,” Shane told her softly. “He won’t hurt you again.”

David’s rough laughter rang out. “I’ve got plans you don’t even—”

Shane lunged across the room. Moved so fast she barely saw him. One instant, David was holding her tightly, his claws far too close to her throat, and in the next moment, she was behind Shane as he faced off against the werewolf.

“She’s not
yours,”
Shane snarled.  “So don’t ever touch her again.”

The two men stood with their bodies tense, muscles locked in a battle-ready post.  Both tall, strong, powerful in different ways.

But…the sun was up.  David should’ve been stronger right then.

She crept toward Brett. Her hands slid over the downed guard. There was blood matting his hair, and the remote that he’d had was still secured at his waist. Fumbling, she pulled out that remote.

“You trying to claim her?”  David demanded, his voice rising. “You think you know what she is?  I tasted her, I tasted the power, and it’s going to be
mine!
”

Her head whipped back toward him. His claws were out and he was—transforming. Right then, right there, starting to shift into the deadly form of a wolf.
This shouldn’t happen! Not when he’s wearing a collar!
But his jaw was elongating, his bones snapping and—

She pressed the buttons on Brett’s remote. Frantically, she pushed every single button.

David screamed, an unholy cry of pain as he fell to the floor. His claws scraped over the stone even as his body arched in agony.

She hit the buttons again.

He slammed, face-first, into the stone, as his body went limp.

Shane whirled toward her.  His breath heaved out and his hands were clenched into fists.

His fangs were showing.

And she didn’t have a stake handy. The sound of her ragged breathing filled the air.

He stepped toward her.

“Stop!” Olivia ordered.  Right. Because that was supposed to do some kind of good. Her order to him. Shane kept coming toward her and then he—

Offered her his hand?

“Love, I told you this place was too dangerous.”

She blinked at him.

He pulled her to her feet. Held her injured wrist in his hand.

“Do
not
bite me,” she told him, and her voice only shook a little.  Okay, a lot.

“Tempting…” His fingers held her carefully.  His gaze was on the wound.

Footsteps thundered outside of the door.  “Dr. Maddox!” A desperate shout.

She recognized Case’s voice. The cavalry had come.

“Your rescue party is a bit late.”  Shane’s jaw locked. “That werewolf could have killed you long before that idiot and his men got inside.”

“How did you get inside? I mean, how did you get up to the window?”

His head lowered toward her. “It’s not the first time I’ve scaled a tower.”

She shook her head. That feat should have been impossible, even for a vamp. To get up that wall, so fast…

“I have to do this,” he told her then, just confusing her more. “I’m sorry, but I have to know why…” He started to raise her wrist to his mouth.

“No!” Olivia shouted as she tried to pull against him. He was even stronger than David. “Don’t!”

His eyes glinted at her. “He didn’t kill you.”

The guards were shoving at the door. She could hear their desperate efforts to get past the makeshift barricade that David had put in place.

“He tasted you…a werewolf’s senses are the most acute of any paranormal.”  His eyes raked over her. “What the fuck has Pate done now?”

Her jaw nearly hit the floor. “P-Pate?”

He put his mouth on his wrist.

“Don’t!”

His lips pressed to her skin and he…he licked her. Tasted the drops of her blood there. And while his tongue slid against her skin, his eyes held hers.

The guards broke through the door.

“Get away from her!” Case yelled. “Now!”  But he and the others were already running toward Shane.

“Interesting,” Shane murmured. “Very, very interesting…”  He kissed her wrist. Then he let her go. He swung to face the armed guards. “It’s about time you all joined the party.”

She could practically feel the fear filling that room.  The guards must have witnessed Shane’s display of power in the courtyard, and now they were afraid of him. Olivia knew they were right to fear him.

“Get the vamp in a cell! Get that damn werewolf out of here!”  Case barked orders. His gaze landed on Brett. “And get a medic!”

Shane didn’t fight against the hands that grabbed for him. He did look back at Olivia, though.  His gaze held hers.  “Love, I like the way you taste.”

She put her bleeding wrist behind her back.  Lifted her chin. “That’s the only taste you’ll ever be getting.”  She could still feel his mouth against her flesh. Like a brand. Hot. No, scorching.

His laughter drifted back to her as the guards led him from the room.

Other guards dragged David out of there even as two of the medics rushed inside.  Olivia backed up, trying to make room for them.  She backed right into Case because he’d closed in on her.

“The vampire bit you?”  His eyes were narrowed with fury.

“No.” She shook her head. Glanced toward the window. The courtyard must have been at least forty feet below them. “He saved me.”

“Bullshit.”

Brett let out a low groan.

“It’s true. David—David is the one who attacked me.”
What are you? 
His words seemed to echo in her head.  “He attacked Brett and…” Her breath rushed out. “My remote didn’t work on him.”

Case’s eyelids flickered.

“Why didn’t the guards come in immediately?” Brett was being carried out on a stretcher. “They were watching. Why didn’t they come in as soon as he attacked?”

“Because your vampire hero was causing a near riot downstairs.  All hands were needed. You had a guard in here,” he gritted out as fury darkened his gaze. “We thought you were
safe.
”

And she’d thought her remote would work. “What happened to the remote? Why didn’t it work?”

His gaze slid over the floor. He bent then and picked up the shattered remains of her remote. “Because it’s smashed to hell and back? It’s hard to work when it’s in pieces.”

He was a jerk. “David smashed it
after—”

A medic tapped her shoulder. “Miss, do you need stitching up?”

Her wrist was still throbbing. She could still feel Shane’s mouth on her skin. “Yes.”  The medic carefully pulled her toward the door.

“Where did the knife come from?” Case asked quietly.

She looked down and saw the bloody, silver knife near her feet. “I had to protect myself.” When the damn remote stopped working.

“You smuggled a silver knife into my prison?”

“I had to protect myself,” she said again. The medic was still pulling her toward the door.

“Why didn’t they kill you?”

At that question from Case, Olivia tensed. But she had an answer. The only answer that made sense. “Because David likes to play with his prey. He wasn’t done playing with me.”

“What about Shane?”

She glanced back at him.  “You got here in time.”
Lie.
There was so much more to Shane than she’d realized.  The vampire wasn’t at all what he appeared to be.

That was fine. She wasn’t exactly what she appeared to be, either. 

***

The cell door slammed shut behind Shane.  They hadn’t thrown him back in solitary. Probably because they realized solitary wasn’t doing a damn thing to him.

He closed his eyes as he stood in the middle of that cell.  He could still taste Olivia on his tongue. A taste that was far too sweet, like candy. A taste that had sent a surge of power flooding right through him.

He knew the taste of humans.  He’d sampled too many of them over the years not to know their taste.

Olivia looked human. She smelled human. She sounded human.

But she tasted…like something different. Like something special. 
Something I need to have.

Olivia wasn’t human.

He knew it, and now…so would the werewolf.

***

David slowly opened his eyes. The collar on his neck burned because the damn thing was still pumping silver into him.

They’d caged him again.  Put him in the solitary confinement area designed just for werewolves—a small, two by five box with silver walls.

He laughed as he sat in his hell.

The guards had no clue. No fucking clue.

The instrument he’d needed had just been delivered right into his hands.  Finally,
finally,
he could start his attack.

And the humans could die. 

Olivia opened the door to her temporary quarters—and found a guard standing on the other side.  Her heart jumped in surprise because she sure hadn’t been expecting the guy.  “I, um, didn’t realize I’d have an escort this morning.” The night had been hell. Every time she closed her eyes, she’d seen not David—not his claws.

She’d seen Shane.  He’d been in her mind all night long.

He mentioned Pate…Shane knows that Pate sent me in to Purgatory.

“I’m not your escort, doctor. I’m here to make sure you stay in the room you were assigned to.”

Wait, what? Olivia shook her head. “I’m not a prisoner here.”

He just stared back at her.

“The federal government sent me in here!” The freaking FBI! “I’m supposed to be interviewing the inmates!”  She hurried forward.

He blocked her path. “I’m sorry ma’am, but Warden Killian sent
me
here. You aren’t to get past me.  You’re to stay in your quarters until the ferry comes back on Friday.”

That was
days
away. “You are kidding me.”

“He said your assignment at Purgatory is over.”  Sympathy flashed on his face, but his tone didn’t soften. “So until the boat can come back for you, I’m afraid you don’t get to leave this area.”

The hell that would happen.  Fury pounded through her body. “Get your warden on the radio.
Now.
I have connections that man can’t even dream about.” Such a giant lie. She had one connection, but she would sure use it. “How does he think I got here in the first place? And if I do not get to continue my job, Warden Killian and you are both going to find your asses facing questions from the FBI.”

The guard swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously. He hesitated a moment longer.

“Get that radio!”

He snatched up his radio.

Olivia’s wound throbbed. 
Something is wrong here. Very, very wrong at Purgatory.
Every instinct she had was screaming at her, and Olivia only knew one thing with certainty.

She had to see Shane, immediately.

“I wish you’d get out of my way,” she snarled at the guard. “Just—
move.”

His face went slack with shock, and, surprisingly, he did.

She took that opportunity, and Olivia ran past the guard as fast as she could. 
I won’t be locked up like the prisoners.

Because she wasn’t one of them.

***

Shane’s head whipped up.  His heart drummed even faster in his chest. He could hear the sound of frantic footsteps coming his way. He inhaled, catching the scents around him—

Just as the footsteps turned and started running in the opposite direction.

“Olivia.”
Her name escaped from him as a growl. He grabbed for the cell door, and he yanked the thing right off its hinges.

The vamps in the cells around him began to yell.

“Get me out, man!”

“Break my fucking door!”

“He’s out, he’s out!”

He ran past them, following the sounds of those fleeing footsteps. The steps weren’t heading toward the vamp wing any longer. They were rushing toward the part of the facility that housed the werewolves.

He sped faster after her—and it
was
Olivia he was pursuing. He’d taken her blood, and now…hell, now he could track her any place. Any time.

She’d never escape him.

He rounded the corner and saw her just before she could disappear into a long corridor.

Shane snagged her wrist, and his fingers slid over the white bandage that covered her wound. She spun around, her hands tight, little fists, and one of those fists drove straight into his jaw.

Work on that hook, doc. Work on it.

“It’s me,” he whispered. Video cameras had to be watching, and he had pretty much screwed his cover to hell and back, but maybe he could still make this work…maybe…if he played things just right.

He pinned her against the nearest wall. Caged her with his body.

“What are you doing?” Olivia demanded, her voice high and sharp.

His body pressed to hers.  Desire surged through him when he felt her curves against him.  And when she twisted, rubbing her soft body against him…a groan broke from Shane’s lips.

“I need your help!” Olivia said. “I need—”

He kissed her. For two reasons. Reason one…because he had to stop her from talking before the woman shredded his cover by saying the wrong thing.

Reason two…he fucking wanted her mouth.

Her lips were open, and he liked that—oh, but it made things easier. His tongue slipped over the edge of her lips, slipped right inside her mouth, and she gasped.

His body pressed ever closer to hers.  Her hands were against the wall, held captive by his grip, and her mouth—she was kissing him
back.

The desire he felt surged ever stronger within him.  Her mouth opened more for him, and her soft lips moved lightly against his own.

He would have fucking kissed her forever…if he wasn’t sure they were about to be in some serious danger. So, hating it, Shane pulled his mouth from hers. But then he kissed her jaw. Her stubborn and damn adorable jaw, and then, with his mouth close to the shell of her ear, he whispered, “Surveillance—audio and video. Watch what you say.”

He could hear the thunder of her heartbeat.

“Dragon…” He barely breathed that word, but he knew she needed the reassurance it would give her. He’d tried to clue her in yesterday, but, this time, he needed her to fully know that she could count on him.

Her body trembled against his. “I knew…last night…”

He licked her ear. Just for the hell of it. The ear was there, he liked the delicate shell, so he licked it—and she trembled again.

His cock stiffened even more.  And her pulse was so close. Racing.  If he just bent down and kissed her neck that frantic pulse beat would be beneath his mouth.

“Something is wrong here…my…my silver remote didn’t work yesterday. And it took the guards too long…to help me.”

He pulled back, just a bit, to study her.  In the distance, he could hear the sound of metal doors clanging. Security was coming. But they’d been too slow about it. The guards must have seen them on the video camera, and they’d just
left
Olivia alone in the hallway with a monster.

“I think they wanted me vulnerable. And—and Case is trying to keep me locked up.”  Fear flashed in her eyes. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t understand—”

“
Why the hell do you keep going after her?”

Shane had known the warden was leading the march toward him. Instead of answering the warden, he leaned down and pressed a hard, hot kiss to Olivia’s lips.

The guards grabbed him and hauled Shane back. He broke free of them, and squared off against the warden. “Why? Because I fucking like the way she tastes.” And he
still
hadn’t recognized her taste.  He’d never encountered it before.

She’s half human. Has to be. She smells like a human. 

What was her other half?

Case’s eyes blazed with fury. “Tranq him until he can’t move.”

“No!” Olivia cried out as she leapt in front of Shane. “Don’t do that, he’s—”

Shane caught her shoulders and yanked her around to face him. He made sure his fangs were out as he drove his head toward her throat.

The tranqs hit him. Thuds in his back. His sides.  He lost count of how many hit him.

He could feel the drug coursing through his blood.

“Don’t…tell…” he managed to whisper. He hadn’t been going to bite her. Not there. Not with her fear in the air around them. When he bit her, she’d ask for his bite. Beg for it. His attack had been faked so that he could get close enough to whisper to her.

His knees hit the floor, and his hands locked around her hips as he stared up at Olivia’s face.

Don’t tell.

She gave an almost imperceptible nod.

And more fucking tranqs hit him.

“Drain him,” he heard Case order as Shane’s eyelids sagged closed. “Let’s see how strong he is once most of his blood is gone…”

Idiot. Shane would still be strong. Just as strong and
damn hungry.

***

“Sooner or later, the Paras here learn that we’re stronger than they are.”  Case’s voice was smooth. Calm.

But he was pacing around his narrow office, and his pacing was sure the sign of a nervous man.

Olivia watched him from her seat. “You drain vampires… regularly?” That was torture to her mind.

He whirled toward her. “What the hell else do you want me to do?  I use sunlight on them when I can, and that keeps most of them weak, but then we get the alphas in here. Alphas like your friend, Shane, and when they’re ripping the freaking doors off the cells, we have to use any means that we can in order to control them.”  His breath heaved out. “So don’t sit there and judge what we do.  My men do the best they can, in a situation that no man should ever be facing.”

Her stomach knotted. “You think this prison is failing.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “I
know
its failing. Hell, I was sent down here to clean up the mess that the last warden made, but there’s no cleaning up some things.” Case had stopped pacing. His grim stare leveled at her. “This place was a mistake. They’re too powerful to be kept here. Most of the time, I feel like
we’re
the prisoners, not them.”

“If they shouldn’t be locked up,” Olivia began carefully, “then they should be—”

“Dead. It’s the only way to keep humans safe.”

She leapt to her feet. “That’s not true. We can learn
why
they’ve killed. Why they’ve hunted—”

“It’s because they don’t have souls! They’re monsters!” He shook his head in disgust. “After what happened to you, hell, lady, you should know that.”

She tried to calm her racing heartbeat. “Harold Bath.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“A banker from Maine.”

“What?”

“One day, Harold came home from work. He shot his wife. His neighbor. Went on a rampage and hurt ten people before the cops arrested him.” She could see Harold in her mind. His slightly balding hair, his stooped shoulders.  His flat voice as he said he’d just gotten tired of hearing his wife talk. “Most people would say he was a monster, but he was just a human. Twisted, but human.”

Case stepped toward her.

“Lindsey Jones.” Another image flashed before her.  A pretty red-head with wide-set, blue eyes. “Female serial killers are rare, but Lindsey killed five men last summer along the Florida coast line and she was—”

“Let me guess,” he interrupted, voice tight, “human.”

Olivia nodded. “Monsters are everywhere.  We have to learn
why
they kill, why they break, if we truly want to protect the innocents out there.”  He had no idea how personal this was for her. 
Why? Why?
That single question had haunted Olivia for most of her life.  What made some people crack—what pushed them over the line and turned them into killers?

And will I be like that one day?

She slammed the door shut on that thought immediately. The way she always did.

“Maybe they’re just psychotic, did you think of that,
doctor?”

“Sometimes, they are.”  But the cases were often about more than just a chemical imbalance or some brain defect. They were about so much more. “My job is to find out why.  I’m here because I want to save lives.”

“Even if you lose your own in the process?”

“I don’t want to die.” She’d never had a death wish.

His laughter was rough, a bit cruel. “Do you even realize how close you came to death yesterday?”

“It’s not the first time a test subject has tried to hurt me.”

Shock widened his eyes.

“I know the risks of my job. I can handle them.”  She kept her voice calm with an extreme effort of will.

“You have an alpha vampire who wants nothing more than to sink his teeth into your neck and a werewolf who nearly killed you.” Case put his hands on his hips. “You actually think you can ‘handle’ them? Because I sure as shit don’t believe you can. I don’t believe—”

A shrill alarm cut through his words.

“No,” Case whispered. He whirled for the door. “
No!”

The alarm grew even louder.

“What’s happening?” Olivia asked as fear pumped through her.

He yanked open the door. A guard stood there. “Sir, the prisoners—”

“Someone’s trying to escape from the facility. We need to get this place locked down,
now,”
Case snapped back to the younger man. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Get her back to her quarters. Go via the south side of the facility—”

The guard’s blue eyes widened. “That’s where the werewolves are.”

“I damn well know where they are.” Case grabbed a weapon from the cabinet near the door. “Right now, we need to keep her away from a certain vampire, so that’s the safest course. Get her back to her quarters,
now.
”

The alarm was still shrieking.

Then Case was gone. 

***

She could hear the growls. The corridor was dark, too dark, and it felt as if she were walking right into a cave. The growls echoed all around her. The alarm had finally stopped, and maybe that should have made Olivia feel better. It didn’t.

“Why did you want to talk to the monsters?”  The guard asked, glancing back at her. Evan. He’d told her that his name was Evan Jurant.

“It’s my job.”

He grunted, then turned back around.  He pulled out a keycard and unlocked a door with thick, steel bars. He opened that door, swinging it so that it opened back toward them. He raised his hand, indicating she should go through first, but she hesitated.

Evan frowned. “Doctor?”

“This route will  take me to my quarters?”

“Of course.” He eased back, making even more room for her to go first.

She pushed back her shoulders and advanced.
I need to find Shane.
She’d taken about four steps when she heard the door shut behind her. The sound was overly loud. Strangely final.