Feral Hearts Page 18

  “Get my shit together? Are you out of your damned mind? Those pissed vampire whores are out for me and Paul. We’ve got every reason to run. Way I figure it, you’re probably gonna be fine if you stay right here.” That was bullshit, and he knew it.

  “Well, I happen to think that the only way any of us are getting out of here is by working together, coming up with something that has less to do with running with our tails between our legs and more to do with stealth.”

  Her eyes drifted over to Paul in the hope that he’d help her convince Barry she was right. His eyes met hers with just as much fear as in Barry’s, only it seemed to be something much more useful. She saw the gears working in that brain of his.

  She was about to ask him what he was thinking when a loud, throbbing barrage of fisted hands struck the door. For a moment, all of them were struck dumb and glued to the floor beneath them. Jenna whimpered, starting to slip into a panic attack that sent her breathing into an irregular rhythm.

  Someone spoke from behind the door out in the hallway. “Could you assholes shut the fuck up? Just ‘cause you’ve got a gut full of piss doesn’t mean the rest of us need to hear about it!”

  “It’s just Angela.” With a breath, Paul walked the few steps to the door and reached out his hand to open it, only to have Barry barrel his way across the room and hold it shut with one splayed palm.

  “Fuck that. What proof have we got it’s really her and not one of those vamps? Haven’t any of you assholes seen a horror movie?”

  “Fine then, let’s figure it out because it won’t be long before the real vamps get their asses up here.” For a man who was used to partying and throwing caution to the wind, Paul suddenly became very rational. Lucy could see history there, some edge of his past coloring his outlook.

  A look passed between the two men and Barry swung the door open, slipping a look around the edge of it. “Hey, welcome to the party. It’s starting to get awful interesting.” He reached out and pulled Angela into the room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

  Her eyes went wide for a second as she was jerked across the threshold, but she recovered fast, smoothing her clothes and thrusting her open palms into Barry’s chest hard enough to shove him back a few feet.

  “Nobody fucking touches me!”

  At first, Barry’s ego looked like it wanted to dance its way all over her, but he took in a big breath instead.

  “Listen I don’t want people screwing with me either, but if you hadn’t noticed, it’s a little late for that.” He pushed his injured neck into the light, revealing blood and a wound that made it all too clear that things are nothing like they should’ve been. Paul pointed to his bite as well.

  “What the fuck?” Again she was clearly thrown for a moment, but it didn’t take her long to throw up her armor, arms crossed and her face turned down in a scowl. “Oh, I get it, you pissed off the root rats, and when they tried to get a piece of you, things got dicey.”

  “Actually, we’re being hunted by vampires, and they’re outside the hotel right now,” said Barry.

  “What? You’re out of your mind?” Angela looked around the room for confirmation that Barry was drunk, high, or just plain crazy.

  “Apparently, Barry killed one of them, and now they’re out for blood,” said Lucy.

  Angela still thought this was a stupid joke, but she saw the grave expression on Lucy’s face. “This is a joke, right?”

  “I’m afraid not,” answered Lucy.

  Angela didn’t quite know how to process the new information. “If these two douche bags got themselves into trouble with the locals, how is that any of that our problem?”

  “God, you’ve got balls!” said Barry. “Tell you what—we can toss you right out that window, and then we’ll see exactly how focused they are on me and Paul.” Barry got close to her face with his and met her eyes with a glare of cold bravado. “And, for your information, I killed the bitch that did this shit to me.”

  Angela didn’t give him an inch, glaring straight back into his eyes. “I couldn’t give a shit less what the show pony thinks of me, and I’m sure as shit not going to let you play stand over man with me!”

  Lucy heard Jenna whimpering behind her, and she turned to check her condition. Her anxiety had escalated, and the hand that was jittering before was now quaking furiously as she gazed out the window again. “There are twenty-four scary, bloody men and twelve mostly naked vampires coming!”

  “Let me see,” said Angela, shoving her way to the window, still not believing any of it. When she looked down to the street, her eyes went wide and she fell silent.

  Barry snickered. “What, cat suddenly got your tongue?”

  The courtyard resonated with screams.

  * * *

  Jamie breathed deep, choking on blood and snot, and spit it out on the street. “Fucking bitch.” The world spun in his vision for a moment, and he stumbled, falling back against the wall. He tried to breathe deeply again.

  In the distance he heard the madmen and the vampires roaring and marauding in the street, building up steam to attack his fellow tourists. Guilt panged his gut again, and he knew the sound of Viktoriya’s voice only too well. It took on the same sort of bullying rant his mother’s voice once had, though the crimes and the demands were far worse.

  Closer by, he heard a clicking sound. He wasn’t surprised to see an old woman with desperate pleading eyes staring at him from a partially closed door. The look didn’t last long, but he recognized the same sort of shame in her as she shut her door and bolted it closed with an almost apologetic finality.

  She doesn’t want me, lady. She wants them, and I don’t hold it against you that you value your life more than mine. I tried to escape, tried to shut all of this out too, but she kept on coming and she kept on taking whatever she wanted. He laughed to himself, a cold mirthless sound in the dark alley.

  Now, I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing. She set me free, took the yoke off, but this isn’t over. I still have a lot to do to try and fix this, and I’d better get started.

  * * *

  Jenna was pleading her case for Jamie as they fled. “I don’t think Jamie’s a bad guy. I don’t think we should be abandoning him like this.”

  Barry was seriously getting sick of Jenna’s shit. He was at the front of the little group as they tried to slip down an alley not far from the hotel. With this racket, it was a goddamn miracle they’d gotten this far.

  If he had it his way, he’d already be off on his own. If Paul wanted to tag along, fine. Hell, even Angela could come if she could quit being a bitch for five minutes, but Jenna’s crazy talk was getting old, real fuckin’ old.

  “If you could keep the quackin’ down to a dull roar, it’d be great, and if you don’t want your ass knocked into next week, I advise you stop nattering on about that little weirdo. Gave me the creeps the first time I saw him, and I sure as shit ain’t gonna bust my ass trying to save him when it’s clear he just gave us over to those cunts.”

  There wasn’t any protest from the rest of the group.

  Jenna panted as she struggled to keep up. “But—”

  “But nothing. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  He wasn’t too surprised to find Lucy catching up to him a few seconds later, giving him an earful. “The least you could do is be civil. She’s got OCD, social anxiety, and clearly there are several other underlying issues. She can’t help herself!”

  It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard this all before.

  “Whatever. Her feelings aren’t as big a concern for me right now as my own ass. Be glad I don’t leave the rest of you to fend for yourselves.” They were walking at a brisk jog. The tension in the muscles of his neck and shoulders was really starting to make his wounds ache. “Do you think you could keep your eyes peeled for some weapons lying around? There’s gotta be some farm implements or something basic like that, if nothing else. You’re a smart chick. I’m sure you can see the immediacy of that need over this be n
ice crap.”

  He heard Lucy grunt with frustration, but it didn’t slow him down any. He had priorities, even if she didn’t. I’m gonna kick that asshole’s tail when I get home, get a new PR guy, a new manager, and plan my own fuckin’ trips from now on.

  It’s not like it’s my fault, anyway. I sure as hell didn’t plan to get turned into some stupid whore’s evening meal.

  He didn’t really like looking back on that scene—all sex, blood, and industrial nightmare. It was the sort of thing you got in torture porn horror movies. Nonetheless, it was exactly where his brain wanted to go just about every time he tried not to think about it.

  He supposed that was to be expected, considering his life wasn’t exactly full of tough situations and hard details. It brought perspective and did a very nice job of scaring the piss out of him when his adrenaline was already spiked.

  Fuck her. Fuck her and all of those stupid cunts. I didn’t hurt a one of them until she went for my throat. Bitch was going to fucking kill me, and it’s supposed to be my fault we’re all in this mess?

  Paul slips closer to Barry and reaches out a hand to lay it on his shoulder, causing Barry to flinch. He really didn’t want to be touched.

  “You all right, man? You’re coming on green and—”

  “Yeah, jus’ back off, okay? “ Lumbering on, Barry sucked in deep ragged breaths, the sting and the burn of his wounds adding to it all, a vivid series of images in his head from the vampire house on the edge of town playing over and over….

  It had become dark while they were inside. When they got to the house, the “ladies” were playing all kinds of loud industrial music, the kind of stuff that’s all intense beats and loud German lyrics.

  It didn’t take long for Viktoriya to pull Paul along to another room. The blonde Barry had come with was pushing him back into the comfortable pillows of a nice, comfy couch. She wasn’t being gentle, not that Barry minded, but he did have his limits. “Not too rough. I’m not in the mood for that.”

  She donned her lascivious smile, and she lifted herself up with her arms and spread her legs wide around his waist, pressing her heat into him. The thin blue satin robe she’d worn from the club was off her shoulders in a moment, and soon those big, beautiful breasts were within easy playing range.

  Barry didn’t waste a moment fondling and sucking them in turns, enjoying the sound of her genuine arousal. He always knew when they were faking, and it annoyed him when they were. However, this was nice and just what the doctor ordered after all the crap he’d been through today. As a result, he got generous.

  He pulled a few tricks from his bag, slipped his hands from her erect nipples and down with soft movements over her ribs, gliding up her back and up her shoulders, making her writhe. Her eyes stayed closed as he kept nimbly gliding over those little erogenous zones, slipped his hands from her back, over her hips, and into the little hollows where her hips connected to her pelvis. He moved down to her ass, gripping it in both massaging hands for a moment before he glided his fingers down even further, moving things along very nicely with soft, even strokes.

  When he’d got her really going, the wet warmth slipping through and drenching the cloth of the tiny thong she still had on, he got real close. He nibbled and bit his way up her neckline straight to her ear.

  “What do you want me to do?”He whispered it in her ear, his voice a slow purr of sex, and she shivered with pleasure at the sound. The tickle of his warm breath on her neck as he pressed his body to hers was a welcome surprise, making her gasp a little more. My work here is done, he thought with a smile, and with any luck maybe she’ll give me a freebie.

  “Fuck me,” she gasped, her eyes still shut and her body tight with need. Bingo. He chuckled, pulling the string on her thong until it snapped, and he lifted her just right to slip himself inside. Barry moved fast and hard, taking it rough now that he had her really going.

  She bounced on his hips, the pair of them moving together. He watched her move on top of him, her breasts slapping against his chest as she built up to her first orgasm. Her body quivered and grew tight, then loose as she groaned in an arch that left him holding onto her hips so she wouldn’t fall off.

  That had been the good part, the kind of shit you saved in the old memory banks for later perusal when you got bored. Hell, he was only getting started, really. However, orgasm was an imperative that would not be put off any longer.

  The rush was coming. Barry felt it building, her body rocking some more on top of his. Lost in the moment, he closed his eyes. She dove forward and slammed flat onto his body as she moved on top of him, her teeth piercing his neck. At first it was great, the endorphins making it wild and intense, enough so that he blew once, twice, and then a third time.

  Then it hit him—her teeth were still in his neck and not just nibbling…she chewed and slurped as she moaned with pleasure. The suction of her mouth gave him that strange tug that he always felt when he had to have blood drawn, only this was worse, a lot damn worse cause he felt it in his cock too. She was like some big damned leech sucking him dry at both ends!

  Overcome from the sensation, he didn’t have a lot of pull at first, but when he could get his arms up between them, he used all of his adrenaline to throw her crazy ass across the room.

  She was not pleased when she recovered and pushed herself up off of the floor, crouching like an animal ready to strike. But that was okay because he wasn’t too happy either.

  Barry pushed himself to his feet and threw a solid kick right to her throat as she began to leap at him. He followed it up with a right hook to her face, sending her crashing into the wall.

  He looked for something else to use on her. That was when he saw the ax, old and a little rusted, but it would do. He snatched it, dodging a swipe of her claws, hefted it high up on the handle, and got it up just in time to let her roaring, horrible body drive itself right into his swing.

  He’d been aiming for her neck but it caught her in the chest, driving deep into her right breast and through. He cringed at her howls of rage drowning out the industrial music.

  With one last burst of adrenaline, he placed a foot on the writhing vampire’s neck and pulled the ax out of her chest. He pressed down on his foot, steadying her beneath his weight, and brought the ax down, severing her head from her body.

  That last action brought Victoria from her room, Paul not long behind. Barry had to hand it to him. Paul hadn’t spared a moment getting his ass over the rail on the stairs and straight out the door, making it easy for Barry to follow not long after.

  “Come the fuck on, Barry,” he called out over his shoulder as he disappeared into the night.

  Viktoriya’s howl of rage was louder than anything else in the vacant streets...

  After that, it was a matter of getting back to their room and trying to talk it over.

  Paul was out of breath, terrified and lividly angry at him. “The fuck was that, man? The fuck were you thinking?”

  “She was crazy, all right? She fucking bit me!” He paced back and forth a minute, and then he jerked his head hard to the side showing Paul the wound. “How bad is it? Fuckin’ hurts, man!”

  “Oh my God.” Paul’s eyes, gone wide as saucers, were enough to send him running for the bathroom and the mirror there.

  “I got bit, too,” said Paul, standing behind him. “But mine’s not as bad.”

  “Shit! Fuck!” Barry had never been good at hiding his emotions, and getting a good look at the wounds in the mirror had thrown him over the edge. That, in turn, had brought Jenna and Lucy over, and the whole damned mess snowballed into an even bigger pile of shit in the interim.

  Mulling it over for what must have been the 18th time in the last hour alone, he didn’t notice the shadow that shot over the alleyway in front of him and coalesced into a bright flesh colored streak of movement just in front of where he stood.

  He never saw it coming, just a white hot streak of strangeness across his throat and a warm spray of blood in
front of him in vivid scarlet. Gasping and confused, he reached up to his throat and tried to stop the flow of it with his muscled hands. His eyes bulged, the air not quite making it to his lungs, and his vision went a stark and empty white.

  He sank to his knees, unable to see the vampire as she strolled out in front of the group, her teeth a jagged and terrible gleam in her face, her supple body and high firm breasts painted in his blood. She mocked the keening sound he made as he gasped, growing weaker and weaker as they watched.

  “You deserve it for what you did to Anya! Not very strong for such a flashy beast, but then few are. All bluster and no…” she reached down, gripped his groin, and ripped it away in one hand, raising the scrap of meat and cloth high in the moonlight, “…balls.”

  The rest of them scattered before Barry had even breathed his last, the sound of their feet dashing away drowned out by the beat of his slowly dying heart thudding away in his own head.

  The vampire didn’t follow. They would scatter, and the others would get them in time. In the meantime, she enjoyed what was left of her meal.

  * * *

  Paul and Angela shot down one alley, up another, and straight off into the darkened trees and arbors of a vineyard. It had far less to do with any real planning and a lot to do with blind panic.

  It took a real will, but he was able to keep up with her flying legs, the pair of them covering more ground than he would have expected. That just topped the living shit out of any high I have ever had up until now. Well, besides…

  Stop it! No more thinking about her! No more getting lost in the crazy shit back there! We’ve got shit to take care of here. Surely your own ass is more important than a piece of ass?

  God this is a load of bollocks, just the worst fucking shit ever, and here I am with the girl that just happened to be the last one to walk in on the…