Primal Cravings (22 page)

Jake recalled that Dee had done quite a bit of texting on the drive to Arizona. “You called in the cavalry.” It was half accusation, half amusement.

“They’re Tower folk.” She jerked her head back toward the spreading darkness. “This is their kind of work.”

“Help!” Leon yelled.

Jake moved himself and Dee aside as a half dozen mortals came racing in. When the Sacher family saw what was happening there were exclamations and swearing, but they quickly lined up around Leon. They began to chant and gesture. Jake decided to take this as a sign the world was about to be saved. Even if it wasn’t, he wanted to spend his last moments with his bondmate.

He picked Dee up and carried her outside. She only protested a little about how she should help.

“Not your kind of magic,” he said. “And you can’t wave your arm when it’s broken.”

“I don’t think it’s broken. But it sure as hell hurts,” she conceded.

He ran his hands over her arm and shoulder. “Sorry.”

He pulled. Her shoulder popped back into place.

Dee shouted, “You son of a—!”

Jake kissed Dee. She struggled for a moment, then she pulled him closer and her mouth clung fiercely to his. He was already aware she was naked, but it took him a while to realized her bare skin was cold. Dawn light bathed her skin in gold, but it wasn’t doing anything to warm her up.

Dee broke the kiss to say, “It’s December, and I’m frozen.”

“It’s hot in the cave.”

“And my clothes are in there.”

So were a lot of witches, and possibly the end of the world. And….

He looked toward the cave mouth.

Dee stroked his cheek. “What did you see? Before Levi went through.”

Bondmates know things about each other. Whether they wanted them to or not. Jake sighed.

“For an instant—it was my imagination—but for an instant I thought I saw Melchor.”

“Not your Melchor,” she said.

He nodded. He kissed her forehead very tenderly on the spot where the knife point had cut her. “Thank you for trusting me. The vision I had when we were with Tobias—it ended with you tied up on an altar.”

“I had a few nanoseconds of doubt,” she admitted. She hugged him, with the arm that wasn’t hurting. “We’re partners.”

“I realized that just because you were supposed to be a sacrifice didn’t mean you had to die. I wouldn’t have let anything happen.”

She slapped his shoulder. “You could have told me!”

Jake shook his head. “Not with Levi trying to get back into my mind.” He rested his forehead against Dee’s. Their thoughts and emotions mingled. Their souls touched, blended. This was how a bond ought to feel. How long had Levi been keeping him from this fulfillment?

“He needed to die,” Jake said, knowing it was true even as a moment of guilt ripped through him. “For all the things he’d done. For what he was trying to do. He was too dangerous, too crazy. Nothing could help him.”

“I’m still sorry it was you who had to do it.”

“It’s better that it was me, I think.” Jake brightened. “It’s good to know that I’m not the last Leviathan—though I am perfectly content being a Piper. I have my nieces. And I have you. I love you,” he told her. “Is that the first time I’ve said it?”

She nodded, smiling. “It is.”

“Not the last time, I promise.” He stroked her face, traced her lips. “Levi promised me an infinite number of Delilah McCoy’s. All I want is this one.”

Leon Sacher appeared at the cave mouth. “It’s all right now. Everything is under control. You can come back in.”

“I believe I’m beginning to understand why vampires keep mortals around,” Jake said. “Put enough of them together in the same place, and they can save the world for us.” He picked her up.

“Hey!” Dee said as Jake swept her back up to carry her inside. “I can walk.”

“You’ll hurt your feet on the rocks.”

“I happened to be a member of the toughest commando unit in this universe,” she said. “So are you.”

“Oh, yes.” Jake groaned. “You do realize what is going to be worse than what happened in that cave, don’t you?”

“All the teasing we’re going to get from the Dark Angels when we come home all bonded and lovey dovey.”

“We’re tough enough to take it, right partner?”

She kissed his chin. “Oh, yeah. Partner. You know, we’re in Sedona. It’s a resort town. How about a honeymoon before going back to face the music?”

—The End—

* * *

Books in the Vampire Primes series:

I BURN FOR YOU

I THIRST FOR YOU

I HUNGER FOR YOU

MASTER OF DARKNESS

PRIMAL HEAT

PRIMAL DESIRES

PRIMAL NEEDS

DARK STRANGER

PRIMAL INSTINCTS

PRIMAL CALL—available in ebook format

PRIMAL CRAVINGS—available in ebook format

BY SUN AND CANDELIGHT—available in ebook format

* * *

Upcoming Vampire Primes books, exclusively in ebook format:

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT, YOU’RE GROUNDED

FIREBIRD

DON’T BLINK

* * *

To join Susan Sizemore’s mailing list for updates on all her books, send an email to
[email protected]

* * *

Excerpt from
Children of the Night, You’re Grounded

A new Vampire Primes story by Susan Sizemore

The old cemetery had the look of a horror movie set. Which was as it should be, Ariadne thought. The moon was full overhead, with high clouds scuttling across its face. The church in the background was abandoned and run down, with dark, gaping, broken windows. A scattering of gnarled old trees thrust skeletal fingers of branches into the air. Many of the headstones were fallen, and most of the rest were crooked.

“Brin says it’s the perfect place to go ghost hunting,” Ariadne told her twin sister Cheetah after they jumped over the rusting, shoulder-high iron fence to get into the place.

Cheetah’s actual name was Celeste, but who could blame someone named Celeste for taking what at least she thought was a cool nickname because she was on the track team? Ariadne wasn’t all that thrilled with her own so old-fashioned it was from the Bronze Age name, but didn’t feel it necessary to tart it up or change it.

Cheetah took a few steps into the cemetery. Dead leaves crackled under her feet. The wind gave an obligingly mournful howl. She turned around slowly, arms out, eyes closed. “What does a ghost feel like?” she asked when she opened her eyes.

Ariadne shrugged. “I guess that’s what we’re here to find out.”

Cheetah snorted.

All right, the real reason they’d sneaked out of their great-grandmother’s high-security mansion had been because of an ongoing war with the old lady about their social lives. If they didn’t fight the system they wouldn’t have social lives. And they were also here to see a couple of boys invited on this supernatural excuse-to-hookup gathering their friend Brin had organized. Actually, Brin’s motives were pure and deeply nerdy. She’d claimed to have read how-to ebooks on ghost hunting and to watch television shows on the subject. Apparently there were techniques and equipment and protocols for searching for evidence of disembodied spirits.

Ariadne had asked around about the existence of ghosts, but no adult she knew had ever encountered spirits of dead mortals. “Which doesn’t mean such entities don’t exist,” Uncle Kiril told her. “But what reason do we have to deal with ghosts? Dating werewolves is bad enough.” Which had been a jab at cousin Sid.

“I wonder why ghosts would be here?” Ariadne asked.

Cheetah walked to the nearest group of headstones. “I wonder why people bury their dead in the first place. Why leave evidence behind?”

Ariadne pointed a finger at her twin. “Remember not to talk like that around the others.”

“I’m not stupid!”

“I’ll be careful, too,” Ariadne promised.

Of course they would. They lived their lives in the outside world being careful. But that was the price you paid for living in the outside world. Their cousin Sid had taught them carefully about the traps they had to face. It was worth it.