Vampire's Thirst (The Awakening Series) (6 page)

Aodhán’s eyes darkened. “You give him your blood?”

Natalie nodded. “There’s nothing sexual about it,” she hastened to add.

“He lets you feel the pain of the bite, then?” He moved closer. His hands in fists at his sides, he asked, “Or does he allow his vampire glamour to turn the pain into sensual pleasure?”

She heaved a sigh. “Okay, okay. He does that, but I don’t…” Her cheeks flared with heat and she had a feeling she was as red as a boiled lobster. “I’ve never, you know, come from it.” She scowled. “And, anyway, you weren’t here, weren’t even planning on coming back, so it’s really none of your business anyway.”

This was not the sort of conversation she’d ever expected to have with Aodhán. Damn it. How embarrassing.

He leaned back on his heels. “Well, at least he doesn’t give you an orgasm while he feeds.” His scowl matched hers. “I don’t like the thought of him touching you in any way.” He reached out and slowly drew her back into his arms. “Just give me another chance,
mo chroí.
That’s all I ask.”

She rested her cheek against the hard muscles of his chest. She was so afraid he’d walk away from her again, and she wasn’t sure how she’d get through it a third time. He’d asked her to give him another chance. How could she?

How could she not? If he left, she’d be heartbroken, but at least she would have tried. One thing the apocalypse had shown her about herself was that she wasn’t a coward. She refused to start acting like a scaredy-cat now.

So she’d give him another chance. And if he hurt her, maybe she’d just bust his balls before she let him walk away from her again.

I
think we can all agree that the situation is worse than we ever dreamed it could be,” Jason said. He sat beside Maggie, the fingers of one hand twined with hers, his other hand covering hers comfortingly.

Kimber stared at him, then looked down at her own hands, fingers twisting in her lap. She was acutely aware of Leon standing several paces behind them, close enough to hear their conversation even if they whispered but not close enough to be touched. The fey woman Brigid perched on the edge of a folding chair situated between the sofa and the armchair upon which Kimber was seated. As of yet, she hadn’t contributed to the conversation. If anything, she’d seemed completely disinterested in the discussion up to this point.

Kimber focused on the ongoing conversation. “Yes, if the fey realm has been affected, and I have no reason to doubt what Aodhán has told me, then we’re SOL.”

“It is as he said,” Brigid murmured, her voice holding a note of censure, probably for Kimber’s apparent lack of faith in Aodhán. “Day by day our magic wanes, siphoned off by the Unseen.” Her gaze flitted over the necromancers before it settled once more upon Kimber. “Without our magic, we will die. It is what sustains our realm. It is everything to us.”

“So what do we do?” Maggie leaned forward, never letting go of Jason’s hands.

Kimber paused. It would be so much easier to practice using a vampire, but she knew that would never happen. Plus she didn’t want to put any of Duncan’s people at risk. This was still such an unknown. She explained to Maggie and Jason about her previous experience in drawing upon the Unseen to fell zombies. “But it’s not easy, and it’s very draining. The first time I tried to draw the Unseen out of a friend who’d been bitten, I almost died.”

Maggie and Jason took a few moments to mull that over. Then Maggie said, “Tell us what to do, and when do we start?”

Kimber drew in a deep breath. This was where things got a bit murky. “I’m honestly not even certain this will work. I’ve never tried to join my power with other necromancers. But I think it can be done. Except…” She looked at Maggie. “I’m not so sure
you
should do anything.” She motioned vaguely toward the pregnant woman’s midsection. “I don’t want you to do something that could jeopardize your baby.”

The other woman frowned and, disengaging one of her hands from Jason’s grip, placed a palm protectively over her belly. “Nor do I, but how does practicing my craft—doing my job—put my baby in jeopardy?”

“With what I think we’ll need to do, it very well could. It will take a tremendous amount of energy, even energy that would ordinarily be given to your baby as a natural process of childbearing.” Kimber briefly closed her eyes. Now was the time she should tell them that she carried around some of the Unseen within her and let them know how it was affecting her mood. She didn’t want to verbalize it, though, because now that she was pregnant, too, it made it all the more real. Logic told her that whatever might put Maggie’s baby in danger would surely have the same effect on her baby.

“Just what is it you think we need to do?” This from Jason, who looked as concerned as Maggie did.

There was no hope for it. Kimber had to come clean. At least partially. She cleared her throat. “Just to be sure we’re all on the same page, you are aware that the Unseen is what’s animating the zombies, right?”

They both looked startled. Brigid looked bored once again with the chitchat going on around her. Damned fairies. Nothing was important until it affected them directly.

“You didn’t know?” Kimber frowned.

Maggie and Jason exchanged a look and shook their heads. “No,” Maggie said. “I thought it was a virus, since it’s spread by bite.” Her expression became uncertain. “You know, like in the movies.”

“Right,” Jason contributed. “That’s what I thought, too. You’re saying it’s not that way?”

Kimber suddenly felt like she’d been all alone in this battle, even though there were other necromancers all over the world. Maybe she was more aware because she’d seen the initial attack? “It is spread by bite, yes. Patient Zero, Lazarus, was the one who bit the ME, who then spread the zombie phenomenon, for want of a better word. But the origins are from the Unseen, not a virus.”

“And you’ve been able to push it out of them?” Maggie glanced at Jason again and Kimber saw her fingers tighten around his hand.

“Yes.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. “Were you touching a zombie when you did it? How did it feel? Did it hurt?”

“It hurt.” Kimber leaned forward. “Doing this puts a great strain on your system. I can’t stress that enough. It’s different than tapping into the Unseen to animate a corpse for questioning. That’s a piece of cake because you still have a spark of the person’s soul to work with, to anchor the Unseen to. But now, with everything so messed up…” She shook her head and sighed. “It’s not like it used to be.”

She almost volunteered the information about what she’d done to Atticus but thought better of it. She didn’t know how these two felt about vampires, and she didn’t want to give them any ideas. The last thing she needed was for them to go around attacking vampires.

The other woman looked hopeful when she asked, “Does it reverse the process? It makes them human again?”

“No.” Seeing the disappointment on Maggie’s face made Kimber feel like she’d just kicked a cute, fuzzy kitten. Nevertheless, she wouldn’t do either of them any favors if she wasn’t direct. “The initial infection kills them, Maggie. When the Unseen is stripped out of them, they go back to their original state, which is being dead.”

“Oh.” The word came out in barely a whisper.

“I’m sorry.” Kimber didn’t know what else to say. Everyone had someone who’d been turned…well, except for Kimber. She had no family and the one friend she’d had who’d been attacked had been killed before he could turn into one of those mindless cannibals.

“How did you do it?” Jason asked, twining his fingers with Maggie’s.

“The procedure is much the same as you would use for a raising. Only instead of summoning the Unseen to inhabit a body, you summon it to leave a body. Or bodies, more accurately.” Kimber studied them carefully. Both seemed to be following her reasoning, even if they looked a little shell-shocked. “I’ve only been able to do it once without holding on to a zombie, and it…” She swallowed. “Well, let’s just say it’s easier doing it by starting with one zombie.”

“You’re saying we have to do this one at a time?” Maggie’s frown crinkled her forehead.

“Not exactly. You start with one but spread it, like an infection.” She gave a small smile. “We fight infection with infection.”

Brigid sat up straighter. “Yes, I understand your thought process on this.” She gave an abrupt nod. “I would be able to assist in this endeavor.” Her gaze flicked over the other two necromancers. “My power acts as a focus. Think of me as a prism, anchoring three separate laser beams into one more powerful beam.”

It felt weird for one of the fey to be talking about laser beams, but that was the kind of world Kimber lived in now. Ten minutes later, impatient with going over the same talking points again and again, Kimber came to a decision. “We need to practice.”

Jason stood and rested clenched fists on his hips. “You want us to go out into a bunch of zombies? And do…what? Hold their hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’? Are you nuts?”

“No, no.” This was getting them nowhere. Kimber stood, too, and added, “Look, let me talk to Duncan. There has to be a safe way we can do this.”

“
Safe
and
zombies
really shouldn’t be together in the same sentence,” Maggie muttered.

Kimber couldn’t stop a quick grin. “We’ll find a way. I’ll get back to you.” As Brigid got to her feet, Kimber turned toward the door and saw Leon. Her smile faltered. She’d actually forgotten about him for a few minutes. “Come on, Leon,” she said on an aggrieved sigh. “Take me to your leader.”

He shot her a disgruntled look that almost made her want to apologize. Almost. She recognized that he was just doing his job and that she was really upset with Duncan, not Leon. But she felt like she’d choke on any apology she might try to give, so she kept her mouth shut.

When they reached the lobby, she saw she’d been in the human section long enough for the sun to set and full dark to fall. They crossed to the stairs that led up to the other floors, Kimber leading the way with Leon and Brigid following silently behind. As they approached Duncan’s office, she looked at Leon and said, “Why don’t you show Brigid to her quarters? I’m sure she’d like to rest a bit, maybe freshen up.” She glanced at the fey woman. “Would you like something to eat? I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask you that before.”

Why could she apologize to this stranger without blinking but not the vampire who’d been part of her personal protection detail for the last month? God, something was royally screwed up with her.

“I’m not hungry, but I would like to rest, thank you.”

Leon hesitated outside the door to Duncan’s office.

“Oh, come on, Leon. I sleep in the same bed with Duncan without any guards standing by. He’ll be fine with you letting me go into his office by myself.”

The big vampire folded his arms over his chest and broadened his stance. “So, go inside his office, and then I’ll escort Brigid to her room.”

Kimber pursed her lips. “Don’t trust me either, eh?” Jerk. None of them seemed to want to believe her when she said what happened with Atticus had been an accident. She was glad now that she hadn’t apologized. “Fine.” She threw up her hands and gave a brief knock. At Duncan’s bid to enter, she opened the door and waggled her fingers at Leon. “Off you go now.” Without waiting to see his response, she pulled the door closed behind her and walked toward where Duncan sat behind his desk.

He looked up. There was a hint of reserve in his eyes, something she’d never thought she’d see with him. For all his talk about knowing she’d never hurt him, he sure wasn’t putting his money where his mouth was. “How’d things go with the other necromancers?” he asked. His deep voice never failed to ignite her engines, but the same glimmer of constraint in the low tones dashed ice over the fire.

Really, could she blame him for his hesitancy? With the way her mood swung toward aggression, who was to say she might not go off and try to siphon off his energy? She’d never wanted this strong man, this alpha vampire, to feel fear around her, and that he might broke her heart.

With that in mind, her response was muted. “Fine. We want to practice on some zombies. I thought maybe we could—”

“No way in hell!” He shoved his chair back and stood. One palm slammed down on the desktop. His features hardened with resolve. “It was one thing to let you go out to get tampons, which you needed. I’m not about to risk my people so you and your little friends can go play with zombies. Hell, what is it with you humans wanting to go waltzing around like there’s no danger out there? Or, worse, expecting me to put my people in jeopardy to protect you while you play?”

She realized right away that he was being an ass because he was still shaken over what she’d done to Atticus, though that didn’t make her feel any better about his attitude. She also realized he must have received more complaints from the humans in “the hole,” as they’d taken to calling the basement level. But fury over his condescending attitude blasted away any sympathy she felt or any guilt she held in lying to him about those damned tampons. “We’re not in second grade,” she gritted out. “I’m not talking about going outside and playing a game of tag. Or taking a walk in the park,” she added to let him know what this was really about.

She really wanted to yell at him, maybe even bop him a good one right on his schnoz, but that wouldn’t make him more agreeable. She put her hands on her hips and fought to keep from tapping her foot in agitation. “I’m talking about setting up a practice area, something that won’t put the compound at risk. We could set up an arena of sorts in one of the buildings that’s unused on this block. Build a fenced-in corridor to get us from here to there safely, and we could handle the rest.”

“And just how would you get your zombies to this arena?” Duncan sat back down with a frown. At least he seemed to be listening to her instead of reacting to her words. “If it still comes down to vampires going out to round them up—”

“No, it doesn’t. Jason and I could—”

“Absolutely not. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you endanger yourself, either. And who the hell is Jason?” He jumped to his feet again, his frown deepening into a scowl, silver sparking the green of his irises.

Rather than anger her, the evidence of his jealousy knocked down a few chunks in the wall she’d begun to build around her emotions where he was concerned. Maybe there was a road back to when they’d been happy with each other. She gave a soft smile and walked around his desk to plop herself down in his lap. Her smile widening at his startled look, she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “Jason’s one of the necromancers and he’s madly in love with Maggie, the other one.” She stared down into his eyes. “If we do this, and I think we should, I’m afraid it’s me or your vamps, lover. Your choice.”

He stared at her for a moment; then his shoulders slumped. “Well, if I agree to let you do this, I guess it’ll be a couple of my vamps.” He brought one hand up and cupped her face, rubbing his thumb gently across her cheek. “I don’t want to lose you, Kimber.” For the first time in a week she could see in his eyes, his face, exactly what he felt—desire, uncertainty, and so much love it took her breath away.

And just like that, any lingering frustration and anger melted away. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. It was soft and sweet and gentle, a slow sliding of her mouth against his. He closed his lips around her lower one, then the upper before settling firmly over her mouth again. She sighed, parting her lips. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, tasting her, caressing her tongue in slow, easy strokes. She loved his flavor, though she always had a hard time describing it. Salty, with a little hint of sweet. Primitive with a definite undercurrent of ultramasculinity.