Trueblood 01-The-Consolation-Prize (10 page)

She scrambled into the room. “It’s okay. There’s no fire.”

Luka didn’t respond. His face was pale as snow. For one heart-stopping moment, Chloe thought he was dead.

“Luka!”

She kissed his cheek and when his eyes fluttered open, she wanted to scream with joy. One look at his colorless irises froze the elation. At that moment, Chloe knew she’d been lying to herself.

She hadn’t wanted to believe because it seemed too fantastic, too over-the-top, too everything, but she’d watched them suck blood from his neck. She’d seen Luka’s fangs. The women only came out at night. No one would run a spa that operated from dusk to dawn. Santa Claus went around the world in a twinkling. The tooth fairy exchanged money for teeth, and vampires really existed.

There was only one thing she could do. She put her wrist to his mouth and swallowed hard. “Bite me.”

A hint of a smile fluttered across his face, but his mouth stayed closed. Chloe pulled up his top lip. His teeth looked normal. No fangs in sight.

“You have to have blood. What’s wrong with mine?”

“I use bagged blood.”

“Do you see any bagged blood?”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Luka, there’s no choice here. You have to feed and if you feed on me, you might be able to break free.”

He shook his head.

Chloe ground her teeth as an alternative to thumping him. “You can’t afford to be picky. Maybe you’d rather I knocked a stake into your chest. Any particular size or wood type?”

He snorted.

Chloe got up, looked around the room, and picked up a nail from the floor. She could get tetanus, gangrene. Before an overactive imagination could stop her she dragged the sharp end hard across her wrist and watched in painful horror as a bright red line blossomed on her skin.

The scent of Chloe’s blood surged through Luka’s senses. His eyes opened and he groaned. The noise of the fire alarm rang in his head, but the pulse of Chloe’s blood overwhelmed rational thought. He didn’t want to feed off her, but his head rose from the pillow of its own accord.

Chloe pressed her wrist on his lips and he lost control. He was too hungry, too desperate. His teeth slid out and he sucked so hard she toppled against him. Luka struggled against the chains, wanting to hold her, wanting to sink his teeth into the top of her breast, into her neck -- oh God, the inside of her thigh. Her warm blood flooded his mouth and Luka gulped in the same desperate way he had when he was a child.

He could feel the power of her blood in an instant, streaming into his veins, arteries, surging to every cell. More. He needed more.

Luka wasn’t sure what brought him back to his senses, but the noise of the alarm had stopped.

He pulled his mouth away from Chloe’s wrist and she fell off the bed.
Shit
.

“Chloe, sweetheart, put your wrist back on my mouth.”

He could hear her gasping. “You…took…enough.”

“Too much. My saliva will heal the wound.”

She pulled herself onto the bed and laid her arm over his lips. The trust in that gesture touched him more deeply than she could know. One delicate wet caress and the blood stopped flowing.

Once the feeding was over, enzymes flooded his saliva to ensure any wound he’d made was sealed.

“You’ve got another problem now,” she whispered, nodding at his groin.

His cock lay iron-hard against her thigh.

“I can’t help it. Feeding is very sensual.”

“Make it go down again.”

Luka smiled. “Not that easy when you’re here next to me, so luscious and tempting. Get outside.

They’ll be counting heads. They’ll look for you. Go.”

Chloe pushed herself upright.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” she said. “I thought you were a load of crazy people.”

“We are. Now go and make sure you drink plenty of water.”

Chloe vaguely registered that Rufus the dragon had changed places with Angel horse on the shelf as she staggered past. She was delirious. Toys didn’t move on their own. The fireplace had barely slotted back into position when she heard a pounding at the door.

“Chloe! Are you in there?”

She grabbed her iPod, stuck one earpiece in, cranked up the volume, and opened the door. The gardener stood there.

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“What’s the matter?” She took the earpiece out and staggered slightly.

“Thirsty. Water. Drink now.”

Her sixth-and-a-half sense hammered the message home. She stumbled to the bathroom with him in pursuit.

“Where are you going? Didn’t you hear the fire alarm?”

Chloe shook her head. “I was listening to music.” The water was wonderful, but it didn’t stop her head spinning.

“Come on. We have to get out.”

“Drink water, Chloe.”

That wasn’t her pain in the butt voice, but someone else.

“Leave me alone,” she yelped.

“For Pete’s sake.” The guy grabbed her arm.

“Just a minute.” She finished the glass and poured another and took it with her.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

She tried to look worried. “Getting water for the fire?”

He rolled his eyes as she hurried to the door.

“Aren’t you going to take your camera?”

Shit
. Chloe grabbed it. She hadn’t thought to check for a surveillance camera outside the sauna.

She hoped no one had noticed her activating the alarm.

Everyone had gathered on the gravel at the front of the hall. A fire engine, its lights flashing in the darkness, stood nearby, firemen milling about. In all the confusion, it would have been an ideal time to sneak Luka away. Maybe he’d been able to break free. Maybe he’d gone already.

Chloe felt a pang at the thought.

Women wandered everywhere. Were they all vampires? How could she tell? If she took a photograph, would their image appear? She glanced at the gardener. He’d told her his name was Matt. Not very vampire-like, though he’d been out in daylight so didn’t that prove he wasn’t one? Why was he growing vegetables when vampires didn’t eat? As though he sensed her gaze on him, he glanced at her and took hold of her hand.

“Stop that.”

That didn’t sound like her sixth-and-a-half sense either. Who else was in her mind? Chloe began building a mental wall, brick by brick. It had never worked with her inner voices though maybe it would with this one. Brick upon brick. It was a technique that allowed Chloe to tell her mother with a straight face that she had not flushed the goldfish down the toilet, nor had she taken the money from her charity box and spent it on sweets.

“Stop it.”

Chloe added another row of bricks.

“Get your hand out of his.”

Oops. Not working
, Chloe thought.

When Matt began to stroke her wrist with his thumb, she pulled free and wrapped her arms around her body. Which was why she must have surprised him a moment later by throwing herself into his arms and pressing her lips against his. His shock didn’t last long. Chloe felt his tongue push into her mouth, his arms pull her close. She had no choice but to pretend this was what she’d been longing for because if she moved she’d be in front of someone she thought she’d never see again. Her grandmother Selena.

Chloe’s heart pounded like a pile-driver, slamming into her stomach. When Matt increased the intensity of the kiss, she tried to pull back.

“No. No. No.”

The words screamed in her head until she thought the top of her skull was about to blow off. She felt terrible using Matt like this, but his hunky body was an effective shield. Chloe knew that in theory, she and Selena could have had a nice little chat, then walked away from each other and never spoken again. Just one problem. One slight, niggling difficulty. Only one little thing, but Chloe couldn’t ignore it. Selena had been in her thirties when Chloe last saw her. Fifteen years later, she looked younger than Chloe, which could only mean one of two things. She had a fabulous plastic surgeon or she was a vampire.

The moment Selena moved, Chloe broke away from Matt’s embrace.

“Hey,” he said and gave a happy grin. “Where did that come from?”

“Fear.” Chloe shivered. Not a lie. “I could have died and you saved me. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. How about we --”

“Matthew! You’re not paid to stand around talking,” Eve said. “Where have you been?”

“Making sure all the guests were safe.”

“Well, I need you. I’m feeling peckish. Come with me.”

Chloe sidled over to the fire truck. The firemen were trying to pack up but women were draped all over their equipment. The arrival of a team of muscular men, otherwise known as free drinks, had drawn the naked and half-naked women like bank robbers to an open vault. While everyone was occupied, Chloe grabbed an axe.

“
She noticed we’d swapped places.”

“Angel, that’s the least of our worries. Someone else is talking to her.”

“Rufus, you idiot, it’s him. He’s in her head. We told her to drink and so did he. They’re
bonding.”

“Don’t sound so smug, Phoebe. He’s still in chains and that axe isn’t going to work.”

“It might, Rufus. At least she’s trying.”

“Luka, are you asleep,” Chloe whispered.

“No.” He opened his eyes, smiled at her -- then flinched.

“Brace yourself,” Chloe said.

She lifted the axe over her head and swung it down on the chain that lay along the metal bed head. The shock went straight up her arm and rattled her teeth. She clung on to the wooden handle as she staggered backwards.

“Christ, Chloe. I thought you were aiming for my head.”

She dropped the axe and bent over the chain.

“I didn’t even mark it,” she said in disgust and slumped at his side.

“Who kissed you?” Luka asked.

Chloe turned to look at him. “How did you know?”

Luka glared and pulled on the chains. “I can smell him. Who was it?”

She felt a flicker of joy that he might be jealous. “Was that you in my head? Vampires really can --?”

“In your head?”

“I…someone told me to drink more water and to stop kissing Matt. It wasn’t one of
my
voices so --”

“Your voices? What the hell are you talking about? And who’s Matt?” he demanded.

“A guy who works here.”

“You kissed him.”

Luka’s voice was flat. He
was
jealous. Chloe tried not to smile.

“I needed him as a distraction. I was trying to hide and he was the nearest big thing.”

“Why were you trying to hide?”

She didn’t want to tell him about Selena. Chloe had a horrible feeling that Selena was more than a guest at Washburn Hall. Maybe she’d never sold the place and knew exactly what was happening to Luka.

Chloe snuggled against him. “I didn’t want anyone to catch me with the axe.” She slipped her arm across his chest, loving the feel of him, the spicy smell of him. “Only I didn’t make you strong enough to break free and the axe is useless. What now?” She leaned up to look at him.

“Hey, where did those marks go? You’re healing.”

“Your blood did that.”

“Really?”

Her hand swept over his chest, teasing a nipple. It felt so soft -- no, that would be hard --

between her fingers, like a little hazelnut.

Luka groaned. “Chloe!”

“Oh God, I’m sorry.”

She whipped her fingers away, dropped them down to his flat stomach, and watched his cock straining to reach her hand, the foreskin drawn back, the head the shape of a rosy mushroom. It looked so good, but this was so bad.

“I wanted to help and I’m making things worse.” She moved off the bed.

“You’re too tempting.”

“Should I go? I mean, you need to stop it doing that.”

Luka sighed. “I’m not entirely in control of my cock. I’ve been holding back for so long, I think it’s making a point.”

“A bloody big one,” Chloe said.

His chest shook as he laughed.

“Er…Luka? How about if you exhaust yourself with me? If I helped you out again, in a matter of a few minutes you’d be back to your slightly less huge state.”

“Vampires can keep going for hours.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed. That’s supposed to be a good thing.”

“Sorry.” She sat down and absentmindedly returned to circling his nipple with her finger.

There was a long pause.

“But…I’m not opposed to the idea of you trying to tire me out,” he said, his voice hoarse.

Chloe lifted her head. Luka smiled and his eyes darkened. Oh God, vampire or not, he was the most enticing man she’d ever seen. She’d be doing him a favor, right? It was partly her fault he was in this state. So the decent thing to do was help him out, and if she helped herself out at the same time, well that was just a bonus. Chloe pulled her T-shirt over her head. Luka stopped smiling. When she stood up to unzip her jeans, he moaned.

“Oh God, I really want to hold you,” Luka whispered.

Before she lost her nerve, Chloe unclipped her bra and dropped it. Luka gave a rumbling growl.

Her jeans and panties followed her bra and he went silent, staring without blinking at her naked body. The only thing that let Chloe know he wanted her was his rock-hard erection. His cock seemed to get longer, thicker and more rocklike each time she looked, and more irresistible and intimidating the longer she looked. She chewed her lower lip.

Dimly aware that she was about to deplete his energy and undo some of the good done by her voluntary blood donation, Chloe straddled his body, kneeling up on the bed. She stroked his face with her hands, running her fingers along his cheeks and down his corded neck to his shoulders.

“Your face is so --”

“Vampires don’t need to shave.”

“How did you know I was going to say soft? I might have been going to say ugly.”

“Were you?”

Chloe shook her head. “You’re the best looking man I’ve ever seen. That’s probably why I’ve taken my clothes off. I’m not usually like this. I --”

“Chloe, it’s okay. This isn’t wrong. The way I’m being held against my will is wrong. The way they’re trying to force me to give them my seed is wrong. You and I, we’re not wrong. I don’t remember when something felt this right.”