Vampire's Thirst (The Awakening Series) (13 page)

Kimber shook her head. “No, no. You can be happy for me. I’m happy for me. Mostly. It’s just…” She swiped at a tear. “I have some of the Unseen in me, and when I drained energy from Atticus and then again from Duncan, there was some part of me, some small, gleeful part that wanted more, that wanted to take all they had.” Her hazel eyes took on a green cast as her emotions grew. “I could kill him.”

“And it’s possible you could
not
.” Natalie covered Kimber’s hand with hers. “You don’t want to raise a child in this environment. What other choice do you have but to try to put down all zombies once and for all?”

“I could refuse to use him, make him let me use someone else.”

“Who else? Atticus?” At the repulsed expression on Kimber’s face, Natalie knew the idea of sacrificing anyone else was repugnant to her friend. But Natalie kept pushing. “Or maybe Leon?”

“Stop. I know what you’re doing.” Kimber scowled. “There was a difference in the level of power. It’s…muted, for want of a better description, in the zombies. In vampires it’s unfiltered. Much more potent. If I were to do this, do you think it would work?”

Natalie thought about it for a few minutes. While she wasn’t a necromancer herself, she’d worked with Kimber for a few years and had observed her at work. She was good. The best, in Natalie’s admittedly biased opinion. But thankfully it wasn’t just her who thought that. Others had commented on Kimber’s amazing ability as well. If anyone could do this, it was Kimberly Treat.

“If the difference in power is what you say it is,” Natalie said slowly, “then, yes, I think you could do it. Especially if you use more necromancers and have Brigid act as your focus.” She began to get excited at the prospect. “You could set up a domino effect, so that the power to push out the Unseen goes from zombie to zombie. You start with just a few and the effect cascades from there.” She paused and tapped her chin. “I don’t know if it would travel across the oceans, but we could at least take care of this continent.”

“Continent.” Kimber sighed. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the sofa. “Would you listen to yourself? ‘We could take care of a continent.’ Do you have any idea how daunting that sounds?” She rolled her head back and forth. “Continent. Crap.”

And there it was. This was so much bigger than their little corner of the world. It had always been, of course, but survival had necessitated focusing things homeward. But to truly make the situation better, they couldn’t merely take care of themselves and call it quits. They had to look at the whole world, beginning with the Americas.

“I don’t think I can use Duncan.” Kimber’s voice was reed-thin and the raw look of misery in her eyes was heart wrenching. “I love him too much. But I know he won’t put any of his people in danger. Oh, God. What am I going to do?”

Natalie shivered. She didn’t have an answer. She was a spectator in this; she had no special powers to offer. It would be up to Kimber and Duncan, and those like them, to make things right.

She only hoped they survived.

A
fter talking things over with Natalie, Kimber went back to her suite, feeling torn. But at least she had the beginnings of a plan in place, and the more she thought about it the more excited she became. To start with just a few zombies and have the effects branch out from there would be like imploding a building upon itself. The apocalypse would pretty much take care of itself.

She needed to bounce this idea off Duncan, because if it worked the way she hoped it would, whoever she used to draw energy from would be put at risk for a very short period of time. Much shorter a time than when she’d used Atticus to put down that batch on the way back from the drug store. When she entered the suite, Duncan glanced up from where he was looking over some papers at the head of the dining room table.

“Work never stops, huh?” She went over and pulled out a chair to sit at the spot on his left.

“Unfortunately, no. I’ve sent a runner to Xavier Vachon asking him to send down a necromancer, if he has one, to replace Jason. Just in case we go through with this. I’ve also asked for any food he can spare.” He shoved the documents away and scrubbed a big hand across his jaw. “We’re clearing out some land to plant a good-sized garden, but quite honestly I think we’re going to have to start rationing food before anything’s ready to be harvested. I’ve told Atticus to hold off on bringing more humans here until our foodstuffs are restocked.”

Kimber frowned. She didn’t like the idea of barring admittance to anyone who needed shelter. “But if we know of humans out there, we can’t just leave them. It’s not safe.”

“We can’t feed them, Kimber. In another month we’ll barely be able to feed the ones we already are housing here.” He scowled. “This is what I get for allowing a human to keep track of inventory.”

Anger started a slow boil inside her. “You know, you keep referring to us like we’re stupid. Worse than stupid, even.”

His scowl deepened. “What’re you talking about?”

“Just now, when you said ‘this is what I get for allowing a human to keep track of inventory,’ and a couple of weeks ago you were equally condescending about me and my
little
friends wanting to play with zombies. Oh, and let’s not forget your crack about ‘you humans’ wanting to go waltzing around in the park.” Hurt rose to join the anger. She pointed a finger at him. “Be honest. You don’t like us very much, do you? We’re nothing more to you than a meal ticket. Literally.”

He turned to face her more fully. “Kimber, you know that’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” She pushed to her feet so violently she knocked over the chair. It clattered to the floor and with a snarl she shoved it aside. The rage built, roiling through her like a boiling tide of red-hot magma. Even as she was aware of the anger and knew it was out of proportion to the conversation, she wanted to be even more furious, wanted to feed that hungry darkness inside her. “It’s always ‘you humans this’ and ‘you humans that.’”

He slowly stood. His face impassive, he said, “And you’ve never once spoken disparagingly about vampires?”

She snapped her mouth closed on a reply. She had, damn it. Some of the rage fizzled as if ice water had doused it. “That’s not the point. Stop trying to distract me.”

“Not trying to distract you, sweetheart. I’m just saying the spaghetti sauce shouldn’t call the ketchup a son of a tomato.”

Ooh, he was infuriating. How like a vampire to use an analogy with foods that were red. “So you respect us, then? Humans, I mean.”

“I don’t respect all humans, nor do I respect all vampires.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “ His serious gaze held hers. “I respect you. I respect Natalie. And Maggie, I suppose, though I don’t know her very well.”

Yeah, right.
He said that now, but in a few minutes she wouldn’t be surprised if he started spouting off about humans again. He’d told her he loved her, but did he really? How could he? She was a danger to him. To his people, which he’d made very clear didn’t include humans. Humans were necessary to vampires’ survival, but they were clearly a nuisance to him, and she didn’t see him making friends with any of them except for Natalie. And he was only friends with her because of her relationship with Kimber. Kind of a twofer.

“It’s not the species that dictates my respect. It’s how a person uses their intelligence. You know that.” He moved closer and wrapped his hands gently around her upper arms. “Kimber, tell me where the hell all of this is coming from.”

Gah. She was going crazy. The Unseen inside her was making her insane. She pulled away from him. “Nowhere. It’s nothing. Never mind.” She walked into the living room and stood in front of the empty fireplace. “I think I have a plan to stop the apocalypse.”

As he joined her in the living room, she heard a barely imperceptible sigh from him. Good grief, she was only two months pregnant, emotional, and hyped up because of the Unseen inside her, and he was already losing his patience with her. What would he be like when she was eight months pregnant, felt as huge as a house, ate everything in sight, and was even crankier than she was now?

“What’s the plan?” he asked as he sat down on the sofa. Apparently he was going to let her earlier attitude—and really lame response to him calling her out on it—slide for now.

After she explained about her notion of a domino effect, his expression indicated his intrigue with the idea. “You really think it would work?”

“Yeah, I think it could work.” She sat beside him on the couch. “We’d be using the Unseen that is in you, which is pure Unseen, untainted by Eduardo, to push the corrupt Unseen out of the zombies.”

His brows furrowed. “But won’t that corrupt the Unseen?”

She shook her head. “The Unseen itself is neither good nor bad. It just is. It’s the netherworld where all life begins and where souls return after death. It’s where Eduardo’s essence was to begin with.” She settled back into the corner of the sofa, sitting cross-legged to face Duncan on the other end.

He stared at her a few moments; then his shoulders slumped slightly as if he’d been holding himself in a rigid posture he just couldn’t maintain any longer. “When do you want to do this?”

“We’ll need a few days to prepare. This is assuming we get a third necromancer.” She bit her lip. “I really don’t think it’ll work with just two. Especially since Maggie and I are both pregnant.” When his mouth opened, she held up one hand. “Don’t, Duncan. I’ll do everything I can to not risk the baby, but I have to do this. And you know it.”

His chin dipped. “Yes.” His voice was low. Quiet. Sad. For the first time since she’d known him, his eyes glittered with tears. “I don’t want to lose you, Kimber. Either one of you.”

Her own eyes went a little misty. “I don’t want to lose you, either. It’s not just me and the baby that will be in danger, you know. I’ll be drawing energy from you. You’ll be the source of the Unseen to push out to all the zombies. What if I take it too far? Hold on too long?” The last word came out on a wail, and she brought her hands up to her face, bowing over as grief and fear assailed her. She wanted to stop the zombie apocalypse, but not with Duncan’s life. That cost was too high.

But she didn’t want to try to raise her baby while fighting for survival surrounded by a bunch of flesh eaters, either.

Duncan’s arms came around her, and he lifted her to place her on his lap, pressing her head to his shoulder. She clasped her hands around his neck and held on through the storm of tears. Vaguely she heard him murmuring to her, words she couldn’t discern over the sounds of her weeping and her pulse whooshing in her ears.

Her body shook, her sobs breaking loose in heaving waves, coming from somewhere very deep within her. For nine months she’d believed she’d been the cause of the Outbreak. Now she knew she wasn’t. But it looked like she could end it, but at what cost?

Kimber turned her face into Duncan’s neck and after a few minutes they began to abate and finally subsided. All the tension left her, leaving her limp in his arms. With his fingers beneath her chin, he tilted her face up to look down at her. She made eye contact with him but said nothing.

“We’ll get through this, sweetheart,” he said. “You have to believe that.”

“I want to believe it.” She sniffed, then smiled when he dug out a clean white handkerchief from his back pocket and handed it to her. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Crumpling the material in her fist, she whispered, “You’re the only person I know who carries one of those around.”

“One never knows when a lady in distress might need a hankie.” He swiped his thumb over her cheek, scooping up a last bit of moisture. “I love you, Kimber.” He dropped his mouth on hers, lips moving, seeking. When her lips parted, his tongue stroked inside, languid, tender, moving her to tears again, though she managed to stem the tide.

“Make love with me.” She dropped the handkerchief onto the coffee table and fisted her hands in his shirt. “I need to feel you inside me.”

He muttered a curse and in a deft movement swept her beneath him. He settled his hips against her pelvis, making space for himself in the cradle of her thighs.

She could feel the length of his erection pressing against her mound. With greedy hands she tugged his shirttail from his slacks. “Too many clothes.”

He stood and stripped, his motions no less sexy for their efficiency. Before she could do much more than blink, he had her clothes off, too, and came back down on top of her. He kept his upper body off her but rolled his groin against her.

Kimber pushed her hips up and moaned at the feel of Duncan’s hard length sliding against the lips of her sex. Just a couple of strokes against her labia and she was slick and hot. “Please,” she moaned.

His mouth closed wetly around her nipple, suckling her with hard pulls of lips and tongue. He gave her other breast the same sweet treatment, acting like he could stay where he was for the next year or so.

She wasn’t going to have any of that. “Inside me, Duncan,” she demanded. “Stop fooling around and fuck me.”

He lifted his head and stared down at her. One corner of his mouth quirked. “And here I thought women wanted foreplay. You seem to complain if you don’t get it.”

She smiled sweetly with bared teeth. “We want foreplay to get our motors revving. My motor’s already at about eight RPMs, so foreplay is just pissing me off.” She grabbed his shoulders, her nails biting into his skin. “Get. Inside. Me. Now.”

The other side of his mouth curled up. “Yes, ma’am.” His big hands slid over her inner thighs and parted them slowly. He raised her left leg and hooked it over his right forearm and placed the head of his big, swollen cock at the slick entrance to her body. She trembled at the feel of his hot flesh against her, the intimacy of his touch. Leaning over her, he braced himself on his elbow and kissed her, murmuring against her lips, “You’re so beautiful. I love you.”

He pressed into her, the broad head sliding in slowly, his girth stretching her sheath. He continued his slow glide in until his balls rested against the curve of her behind. Sensual pleasure tightened the lean lines of his face, glittered with silver fire in his eyes. Then he pulled back until only the head of his cock was inside her. With a taut smile, he began to thrust, in and out, slow strokes that gradually picked up speed until his hips hammered her. The sounds of flesh slapping against flesh filled the room.

He tilted her pelvis and on each inward stroke he touched that sensitive bundle of nerves in her passage, making her tighten around him, causing her to gasp and moan with every jab of his hips. Lifting her head, she watched his possession of her, his cock coated with her juices, sliding into her pussy to the root.

Another adjustment on her position increased the friction on her clit. As her arousal heightened, her body went taut. Higher and higher he took her until her inner muscles clamped down, clenching and releasing in a shattering climax. She screamed, her fingers digging into his hips.

He thrust hard two more times and then shoved deep, holding himself still inside her and giving a shout of his own as he came. His hot ejaculate jetted into her sex. All she could do was hold on to him. His head tilted back, features relaxing in the aftermath, and he reversed their positions so he was on his back and she lay on top of him, their intimate connection unbroken.

Breathing hard, she rested her head on his chest and snuggled into him. That had been amazingly intense, and right now, she had no doubts whatsoever that he loved and wanted her.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” His voice was raspy and deeply satisfied.

“Of course not.” She rubbed her cheek against his chest. “You gave me exactly what I wanted.”

His hands rubbed up and down her back, and they remained as they were for several minutes. She found herself wishing they could stay like this forever, just the two of them at peace with themselves and the world.

A knock at the door ended that little daydream.

She sighed and climbed off him, moaning softly when his semihard cock slid out of her. “Later, baby.” She gave him a wink.

His mouth tilted in that half-smile she loved and in silence they hurriedly dressed. He made sure she was decent before he walked over to the door and pulled it open.

Kimber moved to a spot where she could see who was there. “Hi, Leon,” she called out, and waggled her fingers at him.

“Hello, Ms. Treat,” he responded. He looked at Duncan and said, “Xavier Vachon and a human named Hunter McKay are here. Vachon says McKay’s a necromancer.” He glanced over Duncan’s shoulder to Kimber, then focused on Duncan again. “I put them across the hall in your office.” By the expression on his face, he clearly wanted to know why there was yet another necromancer on the premises, but he was too well trained to ask.

“Thank you, Leon. We’ll be right over. Would you please bring Maggie and Brigid up?”

Leon nodded and turned away.

Duncan closed the door and gathered up his shoes and socks. He sat on the sofa and pulled them on.

Kimber did the same.

“Are you ready for this?” He looped his arms around her and clasped his hands loosely behind her back.