Blood and Kisses (24 page)

He tumbled, disoriented for a moment in the wispy white cloud, unable to discern up or down. Bleeding, he regrouped and flew above the dense clouds, wings beating rapidly, their powerful up and down drafts molding the clouds into new fantastic forms. A blast of orange flame singed one pumping wing, the iridescent blue of a peacock feather in the bright moonlight. Akos emerged from the snowy cloudbank like a shark leaping from the waves. He made another pass.

Gideon twisted and rolled, eluding the blazing missiles. He summoned fire from deep within his belly and blew a stream at Akos.

Akos dodged, ducking and weaving among the clouds. The shot went streaking into the night sky like a meteor, hissing as it cut through a cloud, evaporating the water droplets in its path.

Gideon’s enormous wings cut through the thinning air as he flew higher to get above his enemy. Akos gave chase. They careened through the sky, darting over, under, and through the clouds, pulling a trail of vapor behind them. Two leviathans locked in mortal combat. Their flashes of fire lit the clouds like sheet lightning.

Tiring, Gideon’s heart thundered in his chest. His huge lungs gasped for oxygen. He couldn’t keep this up much longer. He was bleeding heavily, and the energy he’d received from his emergency rations was almost depleted. He had to take Akos down while he still had the strength to finish him. It meant risking being seen, but what choice did he have?

In a breakneck maneuver, Gideon wheeled around and wrapped his leathery wings around his enemy’s large body. They plummeted toward the earth, a two-ton stone.

With a sound like thunder, the pavement deformed as they hit the ground, and the adjacent buildings shook.

Shaking off the force of the impact, Gideon blew fire in Akos’ face. The rogue twisted his lizard-like head away on his long neck, and the fire blackened the wall of a nearby building. His head snaked forward and he buried his long teeth in Gideon’s flexible neck.

Gideon cried out with agony as Akos’ poisonous, dagger-like teeth, slipped beneath tough scales and punctured muscle and bone, slicing through his jugular. Incapable of maintaining his dragon form, Gideon staggered back, blood flowing from his neck and chest, poison invading his blood stream.

Akos shifted back to his human body, his face stretched in a smirk of triumph. “At last, I’ll be rid of you.” He looked around. “There’s only one thing missing.” Headlights flashed. An engine rumbled. He turned back to Gideon, crowing with satisfaction. “Ah, here she is now.”

A late model sedan screeched around the corner. Its headlights shone like a spotlight, throwing a grotesque silhouette of Akos on the wall of a nearby building. The shadow shrank as the car raced nearer.

Akos looked over his shoulder, his smirk dissolving as he realized it wasn’t going to stop. He screamed as the car plowed into his back, knocking him to the ground and crushing him under its wheels. The passenger door opened and Thalia leaned out, her face white in the reflected light. “Come on!”

Gideon hesitated. He wanted to end this now. But he was gravely wounded and Akos, fueled by the Claiming would not be easily killed. If Gideon stayed to finish him now, it might be the last thing he did. He slid into the car. “Let’s go.” As he put pressure on his wound, he realized the persistent feeling he’d forgotten something had disappeared.

Thalia checked the rearview mirror. Akos squirmed on the wet pavement, and she knew he was healing his broken body with every passing second, but she’d stopped him temporarily.

Seeing Akos standing over Gideon, she’d reacted without thinking. For a second, she relived the nauseating crunch as the metal bumper had hit solid flesh and bone, and the thud as the rogue’s body had been taken under the tires.

To be on the safe side, she watched Akos until he was no longer in view. Then she looked across the bench seat at Gideon. He was hurt bad. Much worse than the last time. The skin of his neck had been laid bare, revealing the muscles and ligaments beneath, but it was the blood gushing from his neck that told the true story. If she couldn’t get him blood, he had only minutes to live.

“Take me back to the alley where we found Akos,” he gasped.

She didn’t ask why and turned the car around like a professional moonshiner running from the revenuers. He put a hand on top of hers on the steering wheel. “Slow down. We can’t attract attention.”

She nodded grimly and brought their speed closer to the speed limit.

“How did you find us?” Gideon’s face was ashen, and he was beginning to wheeze. The car reeked of blood as more of the precious fluid darkened his clothes.

Thalia struggled to concentrate on driving while her heart felt like it might explode. “Locator spell.”

She pulled up to the curb and jumped out, leaving the engine running. “The police—” said Gideon, hoarsely.

“Will see nothing I don’t want them to see.”

She muttered the last word of a spell she’d worked in the car as she’d frantically raced to his side. She felt the magic flow from her, could see it color the air.

People nearby were about to experience missing time. She grimaced and hoped none of them thought they’d had an abduction experience.

She yanked the rusty passenger side door open. It groaned in objection. She clutched Gideon’s arm and half-dragged him out of the car. A sick pressure squeezed her heart, tears blurred her vision. Tottering under his weight, she managed to help him into the alley.

An older, gray-haired man stood there, frozen, a look of surprise on his homely face.

“Who is this?”

“Akos’ bait,” he whispered, pulling the man to him with one arm. He sank his fangs into the man’s thick neck and drank.

Gods, he hated having her see him this way. When he fed, the beast was never more than a hairsbreadth from the surface.

Gideon stepped out from Thalia’s supportive hold and turned his back on her so he couldn’t see her.

The rich, warm blood spurted into his mouth, urging him to drink deeply, to take his fill. The blood rushed to his head like the finest champagne. The pleasure of feeding dulled the pain of his injuries. His wounds began to heal. Still he drank. The man moaned, and Gideon came back to himself. He wrenched away, panting. He’d come very close to taking too much.

His eyes found Thalia’s sober face. Her eyes were huge with concern, her soft bottom lip pinched between her teeth, her breathing irregular.

“I’ve taken a bit much, but he should be okay. I’ll meet you at Mina’s. You’ll be safe there.” He didn’t want to leave her alone, but after what she’d done to Akos, his adversary would also have to feed before he went to ground at dawn.

“Your wounds?” Thalia protested.

“Almost healed. I need more blood, but I don’t have much time left before dawn.”

He could see the reluctance in Thalia’s expression, but she agreed, and he led her back to the car. “Where did this car come from?”

Thalia looked abashed. “I stole it. I took it from the emergency department parking lot and it’s only for the people who drive themselves.”

“Why didn’t you take one from the parking garage?”

“I don’t have any money.”

Despite his weakness, Gideon smiled.

He left the older man in the alley and followed Thalia back to Mina’s car, watching over her while she wiped her prints off the stolen vehicle. The sky was turning an ominous gray. Gideon left her and flew to one of the few places he could find prey in Rochester at this hour—the local Perkins.

Hours later, Gideon awoke in the dark room. He looked around, disoriented for a moment, and saw a glimmer of light shining around the edges of the curtains. Memory flooded back. He was in a spare bedroom at Mina’s.

His feeding the previous evening had gone smoothly, but he’d cut it close—the first rays of sun had begun to burn the back of his neck as Thalia had let him in. She’d led him to the nearest bedroom, and he’d gone straight to sleep.

A faint shaft of light from the hall pierced the darkness, and he knew why he’d awakened.

Thalia. He could tell by her scent, the rhythm of her breathing, even the beating of her heart. “Come in,” he said gently, as if to a wild creature.

She slid into the room and closed the door softly behind her. The latch fastened with a whisper and a click. “I can’t sleep.” She walked further into the room, her arms wrapped around her body as if she were cold. She wore a floor length wrapper of chenille, borrowed from Mina, no doubt. She was wound tight.

Nervous.

Reasonable when he considered she was about to face the most difficult challenge of her life, but he didn’t think that accounted for the wide dilation of her pupils and the skittering cadence of her heart. Her sweet, fresh scent held a hint of musk.

She hadn’t come to him to talk.

He should send her away. Nothing had changed. The reasons he’d broken it off earlier still remained and they were still good, solid reasons. But somehow he couldn’t seem to remember them.

Not with her standing here, her breath coming fast, the heady scent of her arousal in the air.

He held a hand out to her.

At that minute, nothing seemed more important to Thalia than having this time with Gideon. Not the challenge, not the community, not the rogue, nothing. She didn’t know where the courage had come from, but when she’d finally given up on sleep, she knew she had to be with Gideon. Their time together was running short. No man had ever called to her as he did. Maybe it
was
because he was a vampire. She didn’t care.

She’d almost lost him last night.

And maybe he didn’t want her, maybe he’d turn her away, but she needed to try. To be with him was worth the risk of rejection.

She could barely see him in the dark room. He was just a shadowy figure on the bed. She could see his eyes, though. They gleamed in the dim light seeping around the window shades.

She took his hand. He pulled her toward him and she went into his welcoming arms. He simply held her for a moment and though she savored the warmth of his embrace, she feared he intended no more than that. But then he cupped her cheek in his large hand. His thumb caressed her cheekbone, the slightly callused surface scraping her smooth skin and sending a flare of heat zinging though her. His eyes held hers for a long intoxicating second, and he lowered his lips to hers.

Her eyes closed as his mouth worked a dark magic as smooth as melted chocolate and just as sweet. The rough velvet of his tongue glided past her lips and delved into the inner recesses of her mouth. The touch of his tongue against hers ignited a spark that scorched her nerve endings, leaving them tortuously sensitive. She gasped for air, but her breathlessness had nothing to do with lack of oxygen and everything to do with the sorcery of his touch.

He ran his fingers through the silky skein of her hair. The brush of his digits against her scalp sent a shivery thrill down her spine. Her hand found the back of his head. His hair was soft. She stroked his nape. He groaned. The sound hummed within her chest. That she could elicit such a response from this man evoked an answering moan. His lips played over hers, the tiny, stinging nip of his teeth, hot alchemy. She discovered the sharp points of his fangs with her tongue and drew back. His eyes glowed red in the dark.