Figuring all eyes were on the idiot in dress-up, I sank back into shadow and moved noiselessly to the business park off the boulevard. Whatever the something I sensed was, it seemed to be back that way.
The hunt was on. Me versus the mystery. I climbed to the roofs and outran drops of rain, exhilarated at the rush. My sensitive ears listened for clues, but all I heard was Kells’s clumsy technique: brakes applied hard, safety glass punched, a man screaming.
Raising my nose into the air, I sought the elusive scent. Past the print shop, I caught a whiff. Sliding down the red bricks, I went back to street level, where I caught another, stronger nose full. Cautiously moved toward it, stopped, stepped back, squatted down, and waited. I slid my gaze right to left, fearing a trap. Crawling forward, I listened.
Avoiding the open, I slunk against the brick walls until I reached the metal back door of a wheelchair repair shop. A fresh, large, wet oval stain covered the lower half. The scent was thick there, almost a fog of male presence.
He marked in my territory.
Black fury settled on my brain. Even Kells wouldn’t dare spray in my hunting grounds. Not that Kells would understand what that was about. He thought he was fucking Lestat; I knew we were more animalistic than that.
I pressed against the door, my upper lip curling back so that I could pull the stranger’s flavor over my tongue. It wasn’t enough. I had to know who violated my turf. My hands clenched into tight fists. Extending my tongue, I licked the door, tasting him.
He coated my mouth, made me wild. I wanted to rip out his fucking throat! I wanted to taste him fresh. I dragged my lips from the top of the stain down a long, solitary path, and kissed the drop that still hung at the end of the line. His piss burned the tip of my tongue.
I whipped out my dick and covered his mark with mine, spraying higher and wider. The challenge grated raw on my temper.
One thing I’d learned over the years was that blind anger led me into trouble. I figured I needed to cool down a bit before I went after the fool who dared challenge me, so I went to see how Kells was doing with his kill. It was bound to be good for a laugh.
The BMW sat just past the stop sign. Toxic clouds of exhaust puffed from the end of the tailpipe. The passenger door of the white car hung like a broken wing and the ragtop was ripped open. The body in the gutter was a mangled mess. Leave it to Kells to fuck up a simple snatch and suck.
Reaching into the car, I flicked the key, killing the engine. Vowing it was my last time to clean up after Kells, I had to force the man’s head to his knees until something finally cracked and his body fit into the small trunk.
“I have him,” a male voice caressed my ear. I whipped around. “Your blond bitch.”
I laughed at the implied threat. “Keep him.”
“Dude, that’s not how the game is played. I don’t want him either.”
Kells grunted as he was thrown against a Dumpster. Before he dragged his sorry ass off the ground, we were in motion, the intruder and I. My route hugged cluttered, dark spaces. Every lightbulb I saw, I broke. From the sounds I heard, he did the same.
He was good, but so was I. We drew near and pulled back, our game of tag expanding out of the business park and onto the streets I called mine. At first I was pissed off at him, but then I realized I was having fun the first time since I turned. Passing stores that were protected behind iron gates, I stole toward the bridge. At an intersection, I caught a glimpse of my prey. He faced the wrong way. He wasn’t that tall, but his legs were so lanky that he gave the impression of height. Probably pure Japanese. His hair was bleached and spiked. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. He spun, but too late.
The sound of his chuckle ran down my chest and to my groin. That caught me by surprise. I hadn’t felt horny in a long time. Suddenly my night was alive. I wrung mist out of my hair. Probing above my gums with my tongue, I searched for remnants of his flavor in my mouth.
He darted up a cinder-block wall; I ran at top speed for the freeway. Between impounded cars in a lockup, I caught him again, that time brushing against his shoulder before moving past.
“Does that make me It?” His voice carried on private vampire frequencies.
“It makes you slow.” On my next pass I swept his feet out from under him. Muscle strained against muscle as we fell together and wrestled for control. I ground against his thigh. He didn’t fight it.
“Follow me,” I ordered. Without checking to see if he did, I headed for the bridge.
Traffic sped across the bridge. Tires hissed over the damp pavement. Above the bridge, on each tower, a red light shone. At that height, the mist tightened into fog.
Scrambling over razor wire, I climbed the open ironwork of the trestle until the concrete bed of the road was above my head. Birds, startled by my arrival, took flight into the dark. I went there a lot, but I never showed it to Kells. In the dark, the details of the city faded. All that was left were the lights, the smell of the distant ocean, and the sound of the wind.
The new vampire grinned at me before swinging his lean legs over the girder. A small scratch of beard showed at the tip of his pointed chin.
“Kobi,” I offered my name.
“I know.” He grinned again. Sleek, hard muscled, he was something beautiful. “Lee.”
Since my chats the past couple years were limited to tricks and Kells, I’d lost the knack for conversation. I gnawed at the rough skin around my thumbnail as we sat there. I needed something to do with my hands.
He pushed up his T-shirt and pinched his nipple in a slow roll. Even in the dark, I could see his muscled stomach and wanted to touch it.
“Watched you hunt over on Osage,” Lee told me. “Saw you working it.”
Suddenly, I was wary. I never knew I was watched. It seemed I should have sensed it. It never occurred to me that I’d been hunting in someone’s territory. I braced for trouble.
“First time I saw you though was in a club. You were dancing on the edge of the floor, eyes closed, lost in the music. I was going to try to pick you up, but I got close and realized you were like me. So I followed you. Watched. You’re incredible. That blond idiot you hunt with is a disgrace, though. Sloppy. No stealth.”
“Kells? Yeah, he’s kind of a loser.” That slipped out before I could stop it, but once it was said, I knew that was how I felt.
Lee’s head tilted back when he laughed, showing his throat. The urge to lunge at him almost swept me away. I curled my fingers under the steel girder to hold back.
“Then why do you hang out with him?” He gave me a sideways glance.
I shrugged. “Habit.” That was the best explanation I had.
“Cool sun tats.” Lee nodded at the burn marks on my hands. “Never seen anyone who could stand to do that twice, much less make designs.”
I glanced at my hands even though I already knew what was there.
Lee raised his chin again and showed me his neck. I lanced my palms with my fingernails to make myself hold still because I was ready to knock him down and sink my teeth deep. I didn’t understand that rush of lust. Necks never turned me on before.
When I didn’t react outwardly, his eyebrows furrowed. My silence seemed to make him nervous. All the earlier bravado was gone. Lee lowered his gaze but sneaked glances at me and seemed to wait for me to do something.
Slow, I was so slow to catch on, but I didn’t know any other vampires besides Kells, and Kells didn’t go out of his way to turn me on. When Lee bared his neck to me the third time, I quickly pressed the flats of my teeth to his skin. It felt good, hot. My stomach muscles clenched in that good kind of way.
Lee’s eyes went dreamy. “You’re the greatest hunter I’ve ever seen.” His voice vibrated against my teeth. “How you play with them. You let those guys think they have you, and then suddenly, you have them, and they never even see it coming. You should see the look on their faces when you feed. Ah, so cool, like they’re having the best, longest orgasm of their life. No fear, just ecstasy. And then they start screaming; only they can’t make a sound because you’ve destroyed their throat. Totally lethal.”
It wasn’t like that. I let them have me. I liked locking my heels behind their necks as they banged into my hole. The warmth of their come in my ass was as close as I got to life.
“It’s so cool that you’re ridding the world of the creeps.”
Oh yeah, I was some kind of hero. There was no crusade; I hunted what came to me.
Lee leaned into my teeth. “Have you ever had vamp blood? No? Dude, you don’t know what you’re missing. Go ahead.”
I’d never even thought of biting Kells. I pulled back, not sure how I should do it.
Lee was hurt that I refused him. Not wanting to see that look on his face, I took his hand and brought the palm to my lips. His eyes widened. Suddenly, I knew how Kells saw me that night in the hotel. That terrible hurt, that aching hunger, the exposure. I never expected to see someone look at me like that, especially not someone as hot as Lee.
“I’ve seen lots of hunters. You’re the best. I know you’re tight with that other guy, but we could do some stuff together, mess around. It’d be fun.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“I’ve seen you at the board shop. I know a deserted swimming pool we can skate in. Have you tried it since you turned? Nothing like it. It’s like gravity doesn’t exist. Or we could go out dancing. I noticed that Kells doesn’t go to the clubs with you.”
I could smell Lee’s hard-on, that whiff of man and lust. His finger sliced open easily under my sharp teeth. His mouth opened as I worked my lips across it and drew it into my mouth.
His blood oozed thick as cum over my tongue. His flavor blew me away. There was no drug like it. It felt like that moment when my balls tightened and every muscle in my body coiled behind my hard-on. I sucked deeper, pushing my tongue into the slit of skin. He shuddered and so did I, like jizz was ready to explode out my dick.
“See? I told you. There’s nothing like vamp blood.” His free hand yanked his cock out of his pants. It curved up toward his belly, slender from base to head, but long. Thick veins bulged under his taut, gold skin. Like me, he wasn’t hairy.
“Stroke it,” I whispered.
Seeing his hand work his shaft was killer. He rubbed the palm over his head and then ran a feathery grip up and down so fast it was almost a blur even to my eyes. I spat on it for him, and his hand jerked quick near the head with a firmer grip.
I milked blood up his arm so that I could take more. The little taste was barely enough. Stars danced behind my eyes. The hot, thick blood coated my mouth. Oh fuck, that was great.
Lee groaned. His hand fell away from his cock.
Grasping his jaw, I glared at him. “Don’t ever fucking mark in my territory again or I’ll bring you real-death.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to get your attention. I promise…”
God, he took me so seriously! I licked my blood off his teeth. We shared it back and forth until the coppery flavor filled both our mouths.
“Yeah, like that.” He sighed.
I shoved back his head and forced my fangs into his throat. It was like sinking my dick into a hot mouth. A spasm chased through his body. He came in warm gushes over my hand as I pumped his dick for him.
The lights flickering on the edge of my vision and the warmth under my skin built until I didn’t think I could take it anymore, but I didn’t want it to stop. My thirst was never so sated, and yet couldn’t be quenched. Lee touched my arm. I drew deep from him. He tasted like dark kisses and sweat and feverish sex. Voices murmured in my ears, the sounds of men fucking. Every nerve tingled, and for that brief moment, I was alive again. A bubble of feeling welled inside me. My muscles clenched and then— There were no words for the mouth orgasm that charged through my body.
I pulled out of Lee’s throat. His eyelashes fluttered as he moaned. “Did I take too much?” I asked, suddenly afraid for him because he seemed fragile, like a human. My kills looked like that in the moment before their life ended.
“Holy fuck. I haven’t edged like that since I was turned.”
Lee was so light and frail in my arms. I touched his face, not afraid to be tender with him because he knew what I was and wanted me anyway. “Will you real-death if we don’t get you more blood?”
“I don’t know.”
“Shit.” I wasn’t sure what to do, so I hooked my hands under his pits and dragged him off the girder. I was panting by the time I dragged him up to the road. Headlights blinded me as we staggered down the bridge. People hit their horns, but kept driving. If one of them would have stopped, I would have snatched them and let Lee feed, but they were speeding by too fast and I didn’t want to drop him in the middle of the road. Hell, I would have been happy to see a cop.
By the time we reached my territory, Lee was really messed up. I was so screwed. I finally found a guy that would be cool to hang with, and I fucking drained him.
He scratched his arm. “I need to feed, bad.”
We sank to the sidewalk. I rubbed my face along Lee’s, leaving scent trails on his skin. Dragging my tongue across his throat, I bathed his wound. He smiled and snuggled against my chest. I was younger, I was smaller, I was nothing, and he worshipped me. He was worth a thousand Kells, or at least worth trading for the one I was stuck with.