Silent Cravings (33 page)

He stopped a few feet in, glancing to the bedroom Ashi shared with Christoph. A sly smile curved his lips, too overdone to be properly fiendish. “Even your packmate won’t help you. Whatever shall you do?”

Mouse was pacing. She felt jittery, like there was still something wrong. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Every time Sebastian edged closer to the door, she stopped him cold with nothing more than a look. He heartily wished she would either sit still or let him leave. He wanted to hide in his room.

“Stay the hell away from me,” Ashi snarled, pointing warningly at John.

His hand was shaking.

“I am so fucking serious.
Stay away
.”

He kept backing up until his back hit the doorframe of the entrance to the kitchen. He looked over his shoulder, casting about for something to use against the vampire. Maybe he could find a broom with a wooden handle. Useful as a makeshift bo staff, though how much damage that would do was up in the air.

Or he could snap it in two and use the pieces as monkey boxing sticks.

Or snap it in two and have a stake.

He looked back at John, his heart beating even faster.

The vampire tilted his head, turning his attention back to Ashi. His tongue crept out to run along his upper lip and that fiendish smile widened, taking a single step closer to see if he could make him bolt.

“Don’t worry, little man. I’m not here for you. Not this time.”

John laughed softly, heading to the room where Christoph had holed up. Ashi stood frozen in the doorway of the kitchen. His mind hadn’t caught up with this turn of events yet. His heart was still tapping out a stuttering triple-beat. His limbs felt like they were carved out of wood. Desperate relief was only starting to register.

The vampire knocked lightly on the bedroom door, as he imagined Mouse or Analie might. Not the frantic rapping Ashi had done a few minutes ago.

Christoph was reading an outdoors magazine. Ashi had quieted down. Probably running from Jessica or Ken, he thought. Christoph shook his head and got off the bed, padding over to the door.

“What the hell is Ashi’s prob—”

Christoph stared at John, mouth hanging open slightly in mid-sentence. He focused on the extended fangs, the devilish expression, and tried to shut the door as fast as possible.

Sebastian gave Mouse a pleading look, and she finally made a shooing motion at him. Grateful, he rushed out and headed upstairs. His mouth felt dry—not from hunger, but fear. He thought about making a stop to see Angus or maybe one of the donors so he wouldn’t have to think about the terror still wracking him after being confronted by a goddamn shapeshifted
tiger
.

He’d
never
thought he’d see anything weirder than other vampires.

“Hello, Christoph. Mind if I come in?”

John put out a hand, catching the door before it shut. He waited for just a moment before pushing back, slowly forcing it open despite Christoph’s frantic efforts to close it.

“I’m curious. Has Mouse
actually
bitten you yet?”

As he forced the door open, he slid inside, watching with predatory glee as the Were retreated from him. He stalked forward, unnatural grace making the movement smooth, fluid, inhuman. He knew, whether Christoph answered or not, that the answer was no.

“You know, where I come from, that means she doesn’t have a claim on you. Nobody does. You’re free and clear until you’re marked. Did you know that?”

John knew it didn’t work that way here. Not in this building, not with Royce or his people.

However, he also knew that Christoph couldn’t possibly have known that. He planned to take advantage of it in every way he could.

Christoph had jumped from a low rank to a middle rank in Goliath very quickly because of one thing: he had balls. He was a daunting opponent: brave, massive, strong, and fast. Amberguard soon learned to retreat from the ferocious black and red werewolf.

So any Goliath would have been stunned to see Christoph backpedaling at Mach Five, eyes wide.

“Hey, whoa, let’s just calm down,” Christoph said, holding up his hands. “Everyone seems to agree that I’m Mouse’s. I mean, hey. Jesus.”

He was babbling.
Way to go, tough guy.

“Funny. I don’t see her here. And you still haven’t given anyone, not even the one who’s supposed to be protecting you, a single… drop.”

In that short pause between words, John moved from the doorway to directly in front of Christoph, locking his hands around the Were’s upraised wrists like a cold, implacable vise.

“You know, it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about.”

His grip tightened. Just a little. Just enough to hurt. He pushed Christoph back, forcing him toward the wall until the Were’s back was up against it, pinning him there.

“How long have you been here now? A week? And no one, not even Mouse, has gotten a taste yet. Ashi got to find out what it was like his first day here.” John wasn’t as tall as Christoph, but that didn’t deter him. He pulled one of the Were’s arms up, ever so slowly bringing it closer his mouth. All the while, he smiled that devil’s grin, eyes alight with evil intent. “Does that sound very fair to you?”

Ashi scurried across the living room and bolted out the door. He took the stairs too fast and wound up falling down the last five steps, landing in a heap on the floor. He made a beeline for Mouse’s apartment—the only place on the first floor that didn’t hold the unknown.

It also held a tiger.

Ashi did an about-face and, at the first door he came to that
didn’t
lead to a tiger-infested apartment, he knocked with a speed normally reserved for double-beat punk rock drumming. He was
not
going to be out in the open with John on the prowl.

He really hoped whoever answered wasn’t hungry.

Clarisse opened the door. She frowned severely at the sight of the frantic little Asian man on the other side of it, pulling back to regard this bundle of joy on her doorstep.

“Yes? What?”

Ashi stared at the vampire, thinking back to his seventeen-year-old self: rebellious and independent, without a care in the world, challenging what he knew was a Were to a fistfight.

If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have joined Goliath.

If he hadn’t joined Goliath, he wouldn’t have met Christoph.

If he hadn’t met Christoph, he wouldn’t have dragged him to New York.

If he hadn’t dragged Christoph to New York, he wouldn’t be stuck in a vampire pit, standing in front of this door, staring at this strange woman he barely knew, asking her: “Can I come in?”

In Korean.

Way to regress.

“Sorry, I mean, can I come in? Please? For an hour or so?”

Christoph was horrified that struggling against John did little more than bruise his own wrists. The fairness of the situation was not something Christoph was concerned with. He was mostly focused on
not
getting bitten and that it hadn’t happened yet was fine and dandy with him.

Now with John looking like he was going to take a chomp, Christoph converted fear to anger and bellowed, “Get
off
me! I’m gonna rip your head off! Don’t you fucking
dare
!”

Clarisse stared blankly at Ashi, then frowned and glanced at the stairs. There had been some commotion from the hallway a little while ago. She’d been watching her favorite movie and, as the screaming hadn’t been prolonged, didn’t feel it was worth pausing it to investigate. Whatever had happened seemed to have passed.

Now that Ashi was here, perhaps she should have been paying more attention, but she couldn’t imagine what would drive the vampire-phobic Were to her door. She wasn’t particularly interested in putting up with him, but she wasn’t cruel enough to turn down someone in need, either.

“If ye wish. If whatever you’re running from followed ye here, ye get tae fix it.”

Mouse straightened in alarm when she heard Christoph’s yelling.

She took off, racing up to the second floor. Wesley, who had been on front door guard duty, was soon hot on her heels, peeved at all the commotion, his otherwise calm night interrupted this time by whatever was going on upstairs.