Noose (Road Kill MC #1) (33 page)

CHAPTER 2

Spinners was packed as usual and we jockeyed for position, awkwardly elbowing everyone without trying to maim people. It was always this way.

I couldn't believe our luck! I spied a couple of bar stools and we raced over there to stake our claim before they were snatched up. We perched our butts on the stools, aimlessly looking around at the bodies packed together, dancing the night away. I noticed they had already opened all the windows, allowing the sub-twenty degree air in. It didn't matter, it felt like a balmy eighty where we sat.

The bartender got our drinks. I sipped on a Blue Hawaiian and Michelle had Sex on the Beach (of course). She swung her leg back and forth and I was getting a spot-on flash of bright red panties... and so were a bunch of guys, judging from the expression of the gaggle of hunks sitting across from us.

“So what happened with Erik?”

“Yeah!” I yelled to be heard over the din. “He did this weird thing with my keys...” and I told her the whole thing. Michelle leaned forward to catch everything because the noise was swallowing my words.

She leaned back against the bar, her elbows flung back and her wrists dangling off the edge, looking thoughtful. For Michelle that meant she was quiet for more than one minute.

Finally she said, “Yeah, you want to stay away from him. I hear he went out with some girl and date-raped her.”

Perfect,
I thought. That'd kinda been the vibe I was getting off him. Wasn't sure that confirmation was the greatest thing in this case, after all, I worked with the weirdo.

Wonderful
.

I was momentarily distracted when two of the cute guys across the way sidled over to us. The one on the right was almost as blonde as Michelle but that's where the similarity ended. He was a head taller than her with brown eyes and a face that had seen acne in its youth. I guess he was ruggedly handsome. He spent time in the gym; it was in the set of his shoulders, the way he moved... like he had purpose.

Tonight his purpose was Michelle.

His eyes never left the foot that swung, traveling up to the apex of what the skirt almost showed. He looked like a dog ready to mount a bitch. It did something for her because her foot stopped swinging and she gave him the come hither look.

The night was Going According to Plan.

“Want to dance, cutie-pie?” she asked, batting her eyelashes. He all but panted while I rolled my eyes in my head. I just couldn't do it. It's not that I'd never had sex. Casual just wasn't a main entree. I dreamed that there was someone for me in my future. Someone that I could share something with. I felt almost like... almost like I was waiting.

Michelle argued there was plenty to be shared. She was into sharing.

Generous Michelle.

I watched her on the dance floor, plastered to Rugged, grinding for all she was worth, he was all over her and she was loving it.

I took my eyes off them and looked at the guy in front of me. He was way cuter than Rugged. He had the enigmatic
something
that made a girl want to get a little closer.

So I did.

“Do you want to dance?” he asked.

I nodded. He held out his hand, which was big I noticed. I tried not to think about how it would feel to have those hands roaming over my body but
couldn't quite do it
.
He took me up against him and I molded against his torso. As those hands came to rest on the small of my back, the heat from them warmed me. He looked into my eyes and they held a promise of a fun night... if that's what I wanted. I didn't grind against him but I could feel that he was happy to be there. He smiled at me, knowing I was aware of his arousal.

He clutched me tighter and lowered his face next to mine and whispered, “Your friend's gone.” Now he was kissing my neck.

Unease crept its way along my body. Usually Michelle gave me some kind of signal or something. I looked around for her trying not to feel frantic.

“Where did they go?” I semi-shouted at him.

“Outside!” He inclined his head in the direction of the door.

“You want to go find them?” he asked, his fingers already twining in mine.

I looked down at our clasped hands and that feeling of unease bloomed in me again. I couldn't shake it. I understood on some level that I was just getting residual anxiety from the strange encounter with Erik and letting that cloud my thinking. I wasn't going to take it out on this guy.

“Yeah, let's find them,” I said decisively.

I should have listened to that voice inside my head.

CHAPTER 3

The wind was up and tore at the light outfit I had chosen for dancing
inside
. It simply wasn't enough. But the guy, (Matt, he'd told me as we hurried out) had said he thought they'd be in the car.

“How much further?” I asked as I shivered in the light coat I'd slung on without a care before we left.

I cared now, I was freezing my half-naked ass off
.

“Not much,” he wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we walked and that helped.

Sure enough, another block of parked cars revealed a car that was running.

I could see a flash of pink in the car, but barely.

What was happening? It was Michelle but there were... others.

Other men.

My foreboding slammed back over me, washing away all tact. I went to wrench the car door open and Matt stopped me.

“They're busy.”

“Ah duh, Einstein, I can see that. But I don't know if she was planning on being this busy,” I said, seeing that there were at least two guys in there.

Matt put his hands up, as if to say,
hey, no problem, just sayin'.

Irritating jerk.

Sighing, I tore open the door and was entirely unprepared for what I saw before me:

Michelle had Rugged behind her shoving his cock right up to her groin, the whole length of him digging in, sparing her nothing, his balls slapping her ass. The other guy, who I vaguely remembered sitting across the way from us, had his hand fisted in all that blonde hair and was pressing her face up and down on the shaft of his dick.

When the door opened, Rugged's eyes flew open and his gaze met mine. His body was pumping and working behind Michelle his hand reached over and slapped her ass and she moaned, her head working up and down the shaft of the prick she had in her mouth.

I didn't think she had planned on this and I yelled, “Michelle!”

She tried to take her head off the cock she was on but he shoved her back down and she gagged. “I'm gonna spray my cum you dumb bitch, keep sucking.”

She squirmed to try and get away and Rugged held her hips, pounding into her harder. I backed away with my hand covering my mouth.

Michelle wasn't fooling around... she was getting raped.

I swung around to get help and Matt wrapped his arms around me. One of his big hands that I'd admired so much earlier covered my mouth so I couldn't scream.

Adrenaline slammed into me like a sheet of cold water.

Dragging me into the front seat of the car he threw me across and I bounced once, almost landing against the opposite door. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what was going to happen as Rugged said hoarsely, “God... I'm gonna cum in her snatch right now, oh God!”

The whole car rocked as he plunged his length into Michelle and the other guy torqued her head down on him and said, “Swallow it... that's it,
swallow it.
Ahhh... that's right,” he groaned, throwing his head back, his lips slightly parted.

I started to fully panic then, scrambling across the seat, my skirt hiking around my hips as I struggled to reach the door.

Matt landed on top of me and all the air in my lungs went out in a rush. I couldn't breathe and was in a state of sheer panic, Matt was not the guy I had taken him for.

Neither were his friends.

I could hear Michelle sobbing softly and the rustle of her clothes as she tried to adjust everything.

Two heads and upper chests appeared over the top of the back seat as Matt's engorged arousal pressed along my inner thigh, trying to gain entrance, his pants long gone.

“You gotta a
live
one there,” Guy X said.

“Not as 'live' as the bitch we just did,” Rugged replied, laughing.

The sweet air of the car's interior entered in a rush, filling my lungs to capacity and I screamed for all I was worth, tearing something loose in the process. Matt's hand clamped over my mouth and I bit him, trying to meet my teeth together. He snatched his hand away and bellowed. I knew what was coming as I was pinned under him, his other hand came down with depressing speed and accuracy, slamming into my cheekbone, my head rocketing back against the door.

My head swam and his fingers dug at my panties while the other men watched....

Just when I thought there wasn't a hope in the world, the driver's side door was torn open, the hinges shrieking, then releasing in the process. The door was flung behind the figure that filled the opening.

I was seeing him upside down but the guys in the back seat summed it up, “What the fuck? Who the fuck are you?”

He was my savior... whoever he was.

Matt was backing off me in a hurry, leaving me to the stranger's mercy. With my head spinning all I saw was a strong jaw, black jeans, boots and a bad-ass leather zip-up. As he leaned down, the whiteness of his teeth gleamed in the interior dome light of the car, his nearly bald head had an inky wash of short black hair covering it, the shirt breaking open at the neck to reveal a tattoo that crawled up his neck.

He wasn't big on conversation, his hand snaking out in a lethal punch that terminated on Matt's nose. There was a sickening crunch and he backed up, howling. His bleeding hand with my teethmarks held what I was sure was a broken nose as he fell right outside the car on his ass.

The stranger looked down at me then and his eyes were a startling blue, not icy pale like mine. They were nearly white in a face that was pale, his lush mouth a deep scarlet slash. He looked me over carefully, but only a second or two as he was going to have to deal with Rugged and Guy X. Those two had gotten out of the car and I was too weak to even turn over and see things right side up. If he'd meant me harm, it would have happened.

At least that's what I told myself.

Rugged and Guy X faced him. “You could have had a piece of this action, if you'd asked nice.”

The stranger looked briefly at Michelle who was trying to stop crying, the sobs turning to hitching hiccups. Then he spared a glance in my direction, taking in my clothes in disarray, my face starting to swell from the blow I'd received.

“They do not look as though it was the attention they wished for,” the stranger responded.

I noticed that he was enormously big compared to the two men who had abused Michelle. And that was saying something because Matt had me by inches and I was five-eight.

Rugged said, “You talk funny.”

“As do you,” Stranger said.

Guy X circled around him, taking his measure as a male. “I think you need an ass-kicking. You've beat the shit out of our car in the middle of fuckin' winter in this cold-ass place, ruined another piece of easy tail for me and my buds here. You gotta get what's comin' to ya.”

Stranger looked at them as they rushed him at the same time. From my angle I saw everything upside down and in slow motion. Rugged came at him like a charging bear and Stranger swung his arm forward in a stiffened knife jab move and with the flat of the palm he landed it square in Rugged's nose. He stared blankly for a moment then fell like a box of rocks, his nose shattered. Guy X was a slow learner and grabbed him from behind and latched onto his wind pipe. Stranger grabbed the forearm which held him, crushing it before my eyes just using the one hand, while the other spun Guy X around to stare at him. He was howling, taking great lungfuls of air to bellow louder.

“Stop that noise,” Stranger said.

And he did.

The stranger stared into the eyes of Guy X. “Tilt your head.”

Guy X looked like he was in a fog, as if he was not in command of his mind. He cocked his head to the extreme left. The long, clean line of his neck was exposed under the street lamp, the artificial light casting a ghostly yellow on the flesh of his throat.

The stranger reared back like a snake and hissing, struck Guy X's neck. His teeth as he arced above Guy X's neck was something I would never forget:

They were fangs.

I was riveted. My presumed savior was not a man... he was something else. I had to get out of here. I tried to sit up and my head swam. I was woozy from the blow. The stranger had gathered Guy X in his arms and was taking great gulps from him but his eyes were pinned on me.

Time. To. Go.

I looked over the back seat and met Michelle's horrified eyes. Her mascara had made its way all over her face and I said, “Let's get out of here.
Right now
.”

I slid out of the car, one of my high heels falling off and was met by another stranger. This one had blonde hair and the same icy-blue eyes as the other.

They were busy tonight.

This one was all over Matt. He sucked at his neck while Matt made disconcerting mewling sounds underneath him. He lifted his mouth off Matt long enough to hiss at Michelle, which got us moving.

We backed away, both my shoes left on the sidewalk. They watched us but did not follow, taking the last of the men's blood. Their lives ebbed as we watched.

“What are they?” Michelle whispered.

“Ah... I think we've just been saved by those blood-killers.”

“They... they raped the women...”

We looked at each other, dawning comprehension mirrored in our expressions.

We ran
.

We ran until my lungs burned, the images of them sucking those guys lives away etched permanently in my brain. We were within sight of my car when we saw them leaning against it, one dark, the other light.

“Holy shit,” Michelle stammered.

Yeah, that
.

They came off the car at the same moment like perfectly choreographed twins. But it was the dark one that made my heart speed in my chest.

They came to stand before us. “We need to scrub them both. They have seen entirely too much,” the blonde one said, his stare going from Michelle to me.

The dark one laid his icy gaze on me and I shivered. From what I didn't know but his gaze penetrated my bone and marrow.

“Holy shit,” Michelle said again.

I seconded that.

Still I said nothing while they looked at us for a long moment. “No. The blonde one forgets. This one, no.”

“Why, Cole?” the blonde stranger asked. “She is fair of face and figure, but there are many...”

“You cannot smell her?” Cole asked.

The blonde's head whipped around and his penetrating gaze was suddenly all for me; I backed away.

Finally, he shook his head. “All I smell is their fear. They smell like prey.”

“Underneath that, Nathan.”

One moment he was ten feet away and the next he had his arms around me and I screamed. Michelle started to run but faster than my eyes could track, the one named Cole had her in his arms, his hand covering her mouth and the fingers of those long hands feathered her temple. And I'd thought Matt's hand had been big...
my God
, his were palming her entire face.

Voices drifted down, the blonde's face was buried in my neck and I began to hyperventilate. Images flooded my mind of my would-be rapists not finishing what they started, distracted with death-by-blood loss.

“Be still,” he said, his fangs bursting out of his mouth.

I thrashed around and he turned to Cole. “She will not follow my command.”

“Will it so,” Cole said.

He buried his nose in my neck, breathing my scent in, his fangs grazing the skin of my neck. Lifting his head he said,
“Breeder.”

“Yes.”

“We must take her. There are so few left. This one is... she is rare.”

A drunken group stepped out into our little mess and Michelle began hollering, “Help, help!”

A couple of the guys broke away from the pack and made their way over to us, Cole stood away from Michelle and the blonde released me slowly, like he didn't want to stop touching me.

As they approached the males, they looked into their eyes and each stranger said, “Leave this place.” One of the men grabbed his temples with his hands, shaking his head like he couldn't release the clutches of something.

“That one has a strong mind,” Nathan said.

“Some of the cattle do,” Cole said.

Cattle.

I started to back away, subtly getting Michelle's attention. We were almost to the car when Cole's head whipped around. “You... will not leave.”

Michelle began hollering again but the men walked away. The one who shook his head cast a final glance behind him. As we watched he massaged his temple, continuing to walk away.

They retraced their steps toward us and my heart sank. We could not outrun something we couldn't see move, something that crushed a man's face with one swipe, disintegrated an arm with a grip strong enough to pulverize bone. As they drew nearer, their fangs stood out of their mouths, barbed points ready to pierce our flesh.

Michelle latched on to my hand and I prepared myself for the worst.

“You cannot thirst.”