Raven Walks (18 page)

But as deep as he got, it was not deep
enough. The moonlight glinted off his fangs and instinctively she
bared her neck for him.

This time, Constantine did not hold back. As
he drove his cock inside of her, his fangs buried into the soft,
tender flesh of her neck, sucking the nectar they both needed to
survive.

Only this time, one would not.

When the last drop exploded into his mouth
and she gave up her soul with a gasp, he buried himself inside of
her and spent himself while her body sagged against him, her arms
limp by her side.

And as he felt himself grow stronger, he also
felt one more inch of his humanity slip away – as evidenced by the
fact he was able to disentangle himself from this dead human, lay
her on the bed on top of torn sheets, and dress slowly and
deliberately without regret.

When he slid back through the window he
caught sight of Felicia watching him from her bedroom window across
the street. He knew two things. Felicia did not judge him and his
immediate disregard of his “no human” pact. She knew him better
than anyone else, except maybe for Raven, and knew that this was
the vampire he’d come to be.

He also knew that when this new, redheaded
and hungry vampire rose again, Felicia would be there to guide her
and teach her how to navigate this new existence, and hopefully
become something other than the monster who created her.

Perhaps he was just the one to face this
Creature and put an end to their terror. He was closer to that
Creature’s frame of mind than anyone.

With that he turned and aimed himself back
toward New Orleans.

He had contemplated the idea of leaving town
many times, but Raven ultimately decided that he was never made to
run away from the conflict. In fact, the more he thought about this
Creature systematically picking off people closer and closer to
him, the more Raven felt the need to confront this monster once and
for all.

That meant he would have to make himself
visible and yet somehow alienate those who might want to stay near
him. He still felt bile rise in his throat as he remembered the
look of stark terror in Abigail’s face when he transformed in front
of her, but he done it for her own good – he could scarcely regret
it.

The only thing he did regret was turning
Constantine all those many years ago; it linked them forever and
made every single action painfully synced with Raven’s own
consciousness. That meant Raven was aware of every kiss, every
caress – even the pivotal first taste of her blood – as if he’d
been there himself.

In a very real way, he was.

Damn that Constantine! How could he do that?
His lust and his selfishness undid everything Raven had done to
scare her away.

That definitely contributed to the urgency of
the situation. Raven knew Abi would never turn from their lifestyle
now, and so he had no choice but to uncover who this killer was and
deal with the Creature once and for all.

So he made his way back to Sebastian’s club
early that night, to stand guard, and to investigate. He wasn’t
surprised to see Gina there, but he was surprised to see Hunter –
who seemed to watch over his wife like a protector Raven was not
entirely quite convinced she needed.

She had his bottle of water ready for him
before he even sat at the bar. “Nice night,” drawled Hunter with a
lopsided smirk.

“Indeed,” Raven remarked in return. “Almost
too good to waste away in some seedy club.”

Hunter just laughed as he took a sip from his
drink. “Then what are we doing here, I wonder?”

Raven followed Hunter’s gaze to Gina, who was
trying very hard to listen in to their conversation. “I wonder,”
Raven responded.

He could have sworn he saw a blush rush up
her neck, and if he were being honest he had to admit he liked
having that effect on someone seemingly so unaffected.

He had never met anyone like her before. She
was lovely, sure. But there was something more, something deeper,
something otherworldly in the way she carried herself. Like a
goddess among mortals.

But he wasn’t a mortal. He was practically a
god himself. He stared at her through hooded eyes, standing over
her in his mind’s eye until she turned to face him and look at him
with those endless green eyes. They were forbidding but yet
inviting; and he couldn’t quite decide which one was more
predominant.

It changed the closer he got to her in his
imagination. He circled her without touching her, and felt her aura
rise up to meet him. He held his hand out just above her skin, over
her clean neck, over her shoulder and then over the swell of her
breast.

He smiled as it puckered up to meet his
touch.

Just as he started to sear into her
subconscious and see how far he could get with this unusual human,
Constantine interrupted his train of thought by taking the seat
next to him. Raven glared at him. “I thought you’d be too busy to
show up here,” he grated through clinched teeth.

“Yeah, listen. About that …,” he began, but
Raven shot around to face him.

“About what a selfish asshole you are? How
you couldn’t leave well enough alone? She was terrified – she’d
have never come back here again.”

“Come on, Raven,” Constantine said. “You have
to know that isn’t true.”

“I saw her eyes. It was working.”

“So did I,” was Constantine’s deadpan reply.
“And it wasn’t enough.”

“So fucking her was your solution? How is
that supposed to help?”

“It helped plenty,” a female voice purred
from behind.

Raven turned around to find Abigail – more
alive and more sexual than he’d ever seen her. Outwardly she wore a
yellow halter miniskirt and, it was obvious, very little else. She
was primed for sex and for the conquest, of which she had not
experienced either to the fullness of what she needed as yet.
Inside something had awoken the moment Constantine’s fangs pierced
her skin. Her skin was rosier, her breasts and hips fuller and more
welcoming and her musk intoxicating. Her eyes were bottomless and
hungry.

She was no longer a virgin in any sense, and
it both excited and frightened Raven to see it.

He turned away while he was still able to,
and somehow he sensed she knew how vulnerable he was to her now.
“Get out of here, Abigail,” he told her as he went back to his
bottle of water.

She leaned in close and whispered hot against
his neck. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. You are not my
master.”

Gina watched as Raven’s mouth set in a firm
line and his jaw clenched. Abi barely acknowledged her sister as
she sidled up to Constantine, right into the crook of his arm.

Normally this would have given Constantine a
much needed ego boost to rub Raven’s nose in the fact he had won
over the object of his affection. Now, it was a matter of
practicality. Abi was quite simply safer with Constantine, and he
was willing to risk Raven’s wrath to keep her from the Creature’s
grip.

He was convinced now more than ever that he
had what it took to eliminate this monster and the threat it posed
to their world. He hadn’t known it at the time, but this was what
his whole life as a vampire had been primed for.

He was, by very definition, a hunter.

Raven turned and glared at Constantine and
Constantine only. “Get her out of here.”

Constantine simply shook his head. Abi was
the ultimate bait; and he was convinced he could keep her safe from
the ultimate showdown.

“You can’t order him around anymore than you
can order me around!” Abi snapped.

Raven shot up off of the bar stool and flared
up right in front of her. His eyes were red, and his skin began to
thin immediately against his bones. “You stupid little human! You
have no clue who you’re dealing with!”

He hadn’t realized that Hunter also slid off
of his bar stool, and was poised to intervene, but Constantine did.
“Who are you?” he demanded.

Raven turned to see the hard look on Hunter’s
face as he stepped forward. “Her brother-in-law. Who are you?”

Constantine lifted Abi’s hair away from the
two fresh wounds on her neck. He was rewarded by the thin line of
disapproval on Hunter’s face. He smiled as he replied, “Her
master.”

Gina had managed not to gasp when she saw the
bite marks on her sister’s neck. Maybe because she knew it was
inevitable the minute she found out Abi had frequented a den of
vampires. She had never had much self-control, and the power of a
vampire was pretty hard to resist if one wasn’t used to saying no
to one’s most primal desires.

There had been a time not so long ago when
Gina herself had faced that very same dilemma.

She absently rubbed her neck as she watched
with great interest, and great trepidation, as she inched toward
the edge of the bar.

“I’m a little surprised by your choice of
companion,” Hunter drawled to Abi, who seemed suddenly very
uncomfortable being confronted about her wounds in front of her
sister.

But she tipped her head in defiance. “What
can I say? There was only one way to go from you. Up.”

Hunter merely chuckled. “Funny, I felt the
very same way.”

That stole the smug look from her face as she
darted a glance to where Gina stood behind the bar. Constantine ran
a possessive hand up her back. “As charming as this little family
reunion has been, I think I’d rather spend a little time alone on
the dance floor – wouldn’t you?”

Abi glanced up into those hypnotic brown eyes
and suddenly nothing else mattered, except making everyone,
especially Raven, pay for rejecting her.

She nodded, took Constantine’s hand and led
him toward the practically empty dance floor.

Raven watched with a snarl as Constantine and
Abi got familiar during a slow song with a seductive beat. His
hands slid over her body like the possession she now was. There was
no part of her that didn’t belong to him, and he made sure everyone
in that club knew it. There were deep, open-mouthed kisses that not
only showed how deeply his tongue invaded her mouth – but the very
noticeable growth of his fangs as his desire grew.

Worse, it was evident to all present that was
what turned her on the most. Her hands reached up into his long,
wavy hair as she pulled him closer, to explore the recesses of his
mouth with her own tongue as well.

Constantine’s hand slipped down the curve of
her back and over her ample backside, encouraging her leg to slide
up his side so she could grind her bare pelvis against his growing
erection. From the groan coming from his throat, anyone watching
could easily believe that they would fuck right there in the middle
of the room for all to see.

But even more intimate was the way he nuzzled
into the crook of her neck, hovering over the old wounds, licking
the skin and preparing himself to penetrate her not just in one
way, but in two.

Gina couldn’t help but notice that despite
himself Raven couldn’t keep his eyes off of the two of them. The
angrier he got, the more translucent his skin, the redder his eyes.
He was transforming right in front of her, and despite all that
she’d been through the last four years of her life, she was
actually afraid.

Hunter sensed it, but knew that she’d never
relent to his comfort in front of all these vampires. So he did the
only other thing he could do.

He cut in.

Constantine was in a heightened state of
arousal when Hunter pulled Abi away from him, so much so that he
couldn’t properly respond for a moment. It was all the opportunity
Hunter needed to spin Abi into his arms and away from Constantine
before he collected his senses.

Abi was disoriented and lost in her desire as
well, so she could hardly fight against the hard body that now held
her – a familiar hard body that had been the object of her desire
for more years than she could remember. She looked into those icy
blue eyes and then at that insufferable grin, and before she knew
it she leaning in for a kiss, damn the consequences.

Hunter was stunned by the urgency of her
passion as her mouth covered his and her tongue drove between his
lips and ground herself against his body. She needed to be filled,
needed to be kissed... needed to be fucked. Her hands grabbed his
ass and pressed him hard against her, close enough to feel every
curve of his body, every hard muscle as it responded to her hands,
her mouth and her curves.

He didn’t kiss or touch her in return, but
for a moment he didn’t – couldn’t – pull away.

Raven glanced over at Gina, whose mouth fell
open as she looked on. Of all the things she expected to happen
when she got to New Orleans, this was not one of them.

Or, she thought with a sinking stomach, maybe
it was.

She felt a hand grasp her arm and pull her
out on the floor. It was Raven.

She could hear his skin sizzle slightly
against her own. His eyes, which had now returned to the velvet
brown of before, were quizzical as he looked deeply into hers. Who
was this woman? Why did this always happen when he touched her?

But touch her he did as he spun her around
the floor. The more he held her, the more uncomfortable it felt,
but oddly the more turned on he got. He couldn’t imagine driving
himself into her body, but yet his body responded to the sweet mix
of pleasure and pain of having her in his arms.

Gina herself was thrown for a loop. This was
the first time in a long time a vampire had taken her into his arms
and held on despite how her body’s chemistry reacted to their own.
That was dangerous … very dangerous.

He was the ultimate predator who was created
to suck the very life from her body. The fullness of his mouth
offered more than pleasure – but the most exquisite pain. She could
almost taste him on her lips and in a flash see him in the throes
of a passion she absolutely couldn’t indulge, because that moment
could be her last.