My Vampire Purred
There wasn’t time for anything else, and I was in no mood to get raped tonight. I reached to the back of my jeans, where two short knives were sitting in leather sheathes at the small of my back. I pulled one out with each hand, then did the last thing they expected me to do.
I attacked.
When in a fight, you always go after the leader first, because if he goes down, the rest might run. His eyes picked up the glint of steel, but it was too late. My left hand plunged the blade into his stomach, then the right sliced across his neck just below the ear. Blood sprayed out five feet as I turned to meet the second guy between me and my motorcycle.
Bob was a musclebound former wrestler, and he wrapped his arms around my chest from behind and lifted me off my feet. I snapped my head back, breaking his nose, and when his grip loosened I plunged the three-inch blades into his thighs. He screamed in pain and I was able to break free. I sliced a blade across his throat before meeting the third guy with a knife to the chest.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck in bone. The fourth guy had a pistol, and he pointed it at me as I followed guy number three to the ground. I had to hope he wouldn’t fire with his guy next to me. “You don’t have to die,” I said as I let go of the stuck knife and let my hand drop to my boot.
“You fucking KILLED THEM,” he yelled as the gun shook in his hand.
“They needed killing,” I said. I removed the throwing knife in my boot and threw it in the same motion from my knees; the blade flew true, puncturing his left eye and penetrating his brain to the hilt. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
I turned to the man in my arms, he was struggling to breathe as his lung was punctured. My inner beast surged forward, the scent of blood and the thrill of the fight was too much to hold her back. My fangs descended, and he tried to scream as I bit deeply into the artery on his neck and started to feed.
I had struggled with my vampire nature this past year, especially the compulsion to drink human blood. This was the first time I fed outside the protection of the Coven; until now I had used willing familiars or blood bags to sate the thirst that came every few weeks. My vampire purred in satisfaction as I felt his life essence be sucked into my mouth and down my throat.
I let him go when his heart fluttered to a stop.
I looked around, letting my senses out. There was no one else around, and the other men had bled out. I was covered with blood and shaking. Standing up, I took a deep breath and pushed my beast back. I pulled the knives free, setting them on the ground, then pulled off my shirt. I used the back to wipe off as much as I could, then wrapped the bloody knives in them.
“You forgot something,” Marcy said.
“Shit you scared me,” I said as I saw her walking out of the shadows. “How long were you there?”
“The whole time. You did well, but you can’t leave him like that for the cops. Come here.” I walked over to where she stood by the man I’d fed from. “These puncture wounds can’t be left for an autopsy. Plunge the knife into each hole, then stab it a few more times to make it look random.” I stabbed some more, there was almost no blood now. “Leave him by this puddle of blood, they won’t test to see how much came from each guy.”
I grabbed his arm and belt, lifting the man easily and dropping him so his neck was in the pool of blood from where Turk had bled out. “Anything else?”
She handed me a pair of latex gloves and I put them on. “Take their wallets, remove the cash and toss the rest. Make it look like a mugging.”
There wasn’t much left in their wallets since I had most of their money, but I took the rest. She was parked nearby, she came back with a change of clothes and a plastic bag. I pulled off my bloody clothes in the alley and used a big water bottle to rinse the rest from my hair, arms and legs. I wiped off with a towel and dressed. Marcy took the bag and tossed it in her trunk. “You need an alibi.”
“The girls were going to meet up for drinks.”
“Go, have fun, make sure you’re seen. I’ll take care of the rest.” I went back to my Harley, firing it up and heading for the French Quarter.
We talked about it when we got home. I’d already told everyone I was going to Miami, so I wasn’t missed at the gym or the dojos I’d been working out at. Two of the four men had rap sheets and gang connections, and none were missed. No one ever looked at it closely, thinking it was a gang fight that they lost.
“I think we’ve gone as far as we can with humans training you,” Jarrod said when we were done talking about what happened. “It’s time to see how you do against a werewolf.”
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Luna Teri’s POV
LaCrosse Pack House
I woke up with the sun coming in the room through the partially open drapes and reached for my niece. Finding nothing, I sat up and looked around. The bathroom door was open and dark, and her scent in the room was stale. Getting up, I pulled on my robe and went into the hallway.
Her scent was here, but it was overwhelmed by the scent of Bobby. He must have been sleeping at our door, his wolf pushing him to be as close to his mate as he could get. I checked in the guest room, it was still empty, so I went downstairs to the kitchen. “Good morning Luna,” Alice said. She and two others were busy cooking breakfast. “Breakfast is biscuits and gravy today.”
“Smells wonderful,” I said. “Have you seen Tania?”
“The human we can’t talk about outside the Pack?” Alice had mated one of our young men and joined the Pack two years ago, she didn’t know her as my niece. My mate had put out a command last night, no one outside the Pack was to know about her. We didn’t want those involved in her disappearance getting away because they found out she was still alive. “In the lounge room.”
I walked in, their combined smells were stronger and I froze as I saw them together. Bobby was in wolf form on the big couch, his long legs hanging off the edge of the cushion. Tania was trapped between him and the cushions, but she looked very cozy. Her right leg was slung over his side, and her right arm was wrapped around his shoulders. His head was bent back so her face was using his neck as a pillow. She looked comfortable and she needed the rest; she had nightmares when she was in my arms last night, tossing and turning, but now she looked peaceful.
I had to smile as I thought about Bobby’s wolf, he was a smart one. He’d found the one way to get close to his mate without scaring her, and the close contact would build the bond between them. Things were different when your mate was a human, since they didn’t feel the mating pull like a werewolf would. It was more of a feeling of love and safety, it had been explained to me. “You just feel like you are home in his arms,” one of the women who took the change and joined our Pack had told us. “The love built up from there.”
I picked up the empty ice cream container and cheese bag along with the spoon and brought them back into the kitchen to throw away. “How long have they been there?”
“They were asleep when we got here at 4:30,” Alice said. “Haven’t heard a peep out of them since.”
“Let them sleep. If they wake up, offer them food.” I walked back up to our room, and Clark woke when I opened the door. I told him where I found her and with who.
“Bobby’s wolf is smarter than he is,” he said with a chuckle. “When she wakes up, we need to get some answers. I want to know who took her and where she’s been the last four years.”
“I don’t know if she’s ready for that,” I said as I sat on the edge of the bed by him. “Hell, I don’t know if I’M ready to hear what she went through.”
He pulled me into his lap, his lips moving down to kiss my mating mark at the junction of my left shoulder and neck. I moaned as I moved my head, giving him full access as his hands moved up my sides. “I want you,” he said.
“I’m yours,” I moaned as his hands cupped my breasts. My body hadn’t changed much in the sixty years we had been mated, and I could pass as a woman in her early thirties in the human world. His fingers tweaked my nipples as his kisses moved along my neck, then they moved up and pulled the nightgown from my shoulders. The cooler air hit my breasts as it fell to my waist, and I leaned back into him as he resumed his play with them.