Blood Curse (Pulse #8) (3 page)

          His victims?

          “What happened here?” Kalina felt her voice quivering. What did she expect, she asked herself? Did she expect the walls to answer her?

          Samson sniffed the air. “Murder,” he said darkly. “Murder most foul.”

          “A surprise attack.” Jaegar looked down, and they all watched as the dune winds blew away the last of the dusty footprints in the cave. “I've heard of this place, Kal. The cave – there was a reason that the vampires chose it.”

          “What do you mean?”

          “It held precious treasure,” Samson cut in. “Treasures deemed priceless to vampires. So the Consortium members here met to guard it.”

          “What kind of treasure?” Kalina asked him. What kind of treasure could possibly be important enough for vampires to devote their entire existence to guarding it?”

          Samson looked down at his feet, shuffling. He seemed distinctly uncomfortable, grunting harshly. If vampires could blush, Kalina thought, he'd be blushing now. “You tell her,” he snapped, turning to Jaegar.

          Jaegar looked confused at first, but Samson gave him a pointed look. “Oh.
Oh
.
”
He looked at Max and Justin. “I need to tell you in private, Kalina. Let's go for a short walk, shall we?”

          Kalina was uncertain. “It'd have to be fast, Jaegar. I really don't like knowing that Nereti is fully awakened, that her power is restored. She's out there – she wants revenge – she has Octavius, and...”

          Jaegar grabbed her arm and started walking, yanking her alongside with him. “We'll be back shortly,” he called over his shoulder to the others. “Try to see if you can't find out anything else about what's going on.”

          No sooner were they out of sight, deep within the labyrinthine cave, than he pushed her up against the cavern wall, pushing her arms up above her head, kissing her wildly, passionately. “Oh, Kal,” he murmured. “You have no idea how much, how long, I've wanted to do that. Oh, how I've been waiting for you. Not a word – no notice – nothing to say. You simply...got up from the dead, took a shower, ate, grabbed your stakes, and said “let's go.” You said ‘let's go to Octavius’ and left us in the dust.” Bewilderment and pain crossed his face, but Kalina could still see the unmistakable impression of love and desire.

          “I mean...after all we've been through! After you put me through the grief of seeing you dead, you could at least have spent some time safe at home. Letting me hold you. Letting me touch you. Letting me take you, getting as close as we could get to bringing our bodies together.” He groaned aloud. “I barely got a chance to touch you before you were off. Tell me, Kalina, what happened?”

          Kalina shook her head, trying mournfully to explain. “Things are different now,” she tried. They were different – now that she realized how limited was the time she had. Dying had clarified things in her mind. Made her realize how important it was to stop Nereti before she carried out her plans of destruction. “Jaegar,” she gently touched his face. “Believe me, I love you. I love you so much, and sometimes I think there's nothing I want more than to let you have your way with me.  But it's like – when I died and came back, ever since then all I've been able to think about was stopping Nereti. I keep thinking -that must be why I've been given another shot at life, when all those other Carriers died. To stop her. And I can't fall short of the mission now.”

          “It was whatever was in that vial your mother gave you to drink – the miracle blood or whatever it was...from the doctor's box we found in China.” Jaegar took a step back. “What else is different now? Besides the gliding, the faster flying, what else have you noticed is different?”

          “I've been single-minded,” Kalina admitted. “About Nereti. But also...” It felt good to admit it out loud. “My...desires. They've been stronger, lately.” It was true. Her vampire strength had brought with it a new vampire hunger – a new desire she could not control. “This.” She pushed Jaegar back against the wall, twisting him around to hold him off the floor, raising her lips higher until they were brushing the top of his jeans. She unbuckled his belt, slid it off, unbuttoned his jeans, feeling beneath the denim the hard force of him, waiting with desire for her. She would have to give in, now – now that he had awakened it. Her desires were too strong for her to bear.

          “Kal...” Jaegar put a warning hand on his shoulder. “That vision of you just now is something I want to cherish for the rest of my life – your mouth...there...” Jaegar closed his eyes, shuddering. “But I can't. Not here.”

          “You think it'll destroy the Life's Blood?” Kalina's voice was rough with desire.

          “No – I think the rules are pretty straightforward,” Jaegar said. “But....when we do go that bit further, I want to do it right, Kalina. I want to do it to you, too.”

          “No!” Kalina's aggression surprised her. “No...” She laughed softly. “Funny. Ever since I woke up from the dead...I've been feeling...like I want to conquer. Take everything. Like I want to go after what I want. Like...I want every man here to submit to me. Like Nereti.”

          Jaegar's eyes lit up, and a wickedly wide smile shot across his face. “I like how you take charge, Kal!”

          “I'm not so sure...” she admitted. “I'm not sure what it means.”

          She slowly let Jaegar slide down the wall while she ran her tongue up from his navel to his chest, letting her lips linger on his. He captured her kiss, kissing her back with a wild hunger. In the heat of his passion his fangs appeared, sharp against his lips.

          He jumped back and took a deep breath.

          “I'm sorry, Kal. I'm having a hard time...keeping my cool...”

          She smiled softly. “Keeping your cool, yeah.” She knew as well as he that if they were in a nice bed, in their own bed, with all the time in the world, she would submit to him. They would not be able to hold themselves back.

          She said nothing, but deep down she knew she was having a hard time keeping her cool, too. This new awakening had brought with it a new hunger. But was it a hunger she could control?

Chapter 3

         
W
hat was going on? Kalina felt heated, flushed, pink and hot with desire as never before. A few moments ago, all she had been able to think about was her mission, her need to find Octavius and destroy Nereti, no matter what the cost. But now something new, something strange, something utterly foreign to her, had come over her. It was desire, but not like desire as she had known it before. That desire was something she had gotten used to – a mortal, human need. This was something different. Wild like bloodlust, it was – an animal hunger that threatened to take over her, to consume her, to make her its slave. All she wanted to do was make Jaegar submit to her, bodily; in mind too, make him her creature. Deep down some rational part of her tried to fight the desire.
This is crazy, you have work to do, you love Jaegar, you don't want to conquer him
....but these small sounds were lost amid the pulsing of her Life's Blood in her veins. Suddenly it was as if nothing in the world mattered but this desire. They walked back to the cave, and Kalina felt the blood so hot within her. Her face was flushed, she knew; Jaegar could read the desire on her face. All of her senses were alert; all of her nerve endings were fired up.

         
What are you doing, Kalina, this is crazy...

           
She was hyper-sensitive to his touch. Every brush of his skin against hers, every hint of his flesh so near her flesh, sent her into a wild ecstasy. She could smell him, too – a distinctive vampire smell, the sweet and musky smell of danger, of manhood, of power. She wanted nothing more than to tear off his clothes, rip them from his glistening, taut chest and lick every part of his body, take him and taste him...

          “Jaegar...” Her blush grew hot upon her face as she looked down. “Jaegar, please, I can't wait...” Her voice trembled. “If I don't satisfy this right now, I'm...”

          Jaegar's hand was tight upon her shoulders. “What are you saying?” His growl was low and throaty.

          “I need you, Jaegar,” she whispered.

          His brow furrowed at first in concern and confusion, but as the full force of her words struck him his expression gave way to one of joy and deep desire.

          “What are you saying?”

          “I need you
now.
”

          “We have to go back to the others,” he forced out, his voice husky with need. “We need to...”

          She was hot – so hot – her skin burning, her face burning, her whole body burning for him. She could not stop herself from kissing his neck, his shoulders, pressing her tongue lightly against his chest underneath his shirt.

          “Kalina,” he groaned. “Oh, Kalina...wait...I'll tell the others you decided to break for the night. We'll go to a hotel, check us all in...get a room to ourselves…” His voice trembled and he could not finish the sentence.

          He went back to the others inside the cave, leaving Kalina alone. Sweat pearled upon her body. Inside, she was burning with lust. What was happening?

          Then he had returned, quickly telling Samson and the rest that Kalina was overcome with a side effect of her resurrection and needed to get out of there fast and to the closest hotel to rest.  So, in record time, without question because everyone didn’t know what to expect with Kalina coming back to life, they packed up and flew – at vampire speed – to the nearest hotel. It all happened in such a flash.

          “Kalina…” Max said, trying to feel Kalina’s forehead.  “You look alright, but your eyes… they’re glazed over and overly wide like you’re seeing something. You have a… obsessed look.” Max looked over at Jaegar, who was looking everywhere else besides Max’s eyes. Almost like some vampire beau who was  a little embarrassed to be in the same room with the mom of the woman he was about to deflower.

          “Um,” he coughed. “Yeah. Kal got that look when I took her for a walk just now.  I think she’s remembering a few things from the past, and…well, I think I can help her with that.  You know. It must be traumatic waking up from the and finding out you suddenly have this intense craving… Oh,” he blushed, his eyes widening. “I know exactly how she feels.  It’s like when I became a vampire. When I turned. She must be going through some transformation or something, but not quite a full-fledge vampire, but still human but with vampire needs.”  

“Um, Jaegar,” Kalina came up to him and grabbed the front of his crotch, when Max had looked over at the hotel’s front registration desk clerk and asked how much longer until they can check in. “I can’t wait,” Kalina said. “Please hurry this up.”

Jaegar swallowed hard, and gritted his teeth. “I’m trying…”  He walked up to the desk clerk and looked him in the eyes. “We need a room now. The nicest ones you have, and send us room service with the best dishes from your restaurant in about an hour. Hurry.” 

The clerk couldn’t stop looking at Jaegar’s mesmerizing blue eyes as he nodded and said, “Yes, sir, right away. I have the entire penthouse floor for you and your guests.  Complements of the hotel, Sir Greystone.”

Jaegar nearly shoved everyone into their own rooms as soon as they got up to the penthouse suite floor and grabbed Kalina, pulling her into his suite, covered in luxurious fabrics – silks and satins and damask. The large bed lay covered in silk, furs, and soft pillows beckoned to them, and they fell together into bed, their arms and legs intertwined, in a single heated embrace.

She had forgotten why they had visited the cave…what was their mission. She was consumed by an unquenchable thirst for power, over Jaegar, over anyone, over everyone, but especially first over the very vampires who should serve her.

          “What has come over you?” Jaegar whispered, as she tore off his jeans. “Whatever it is, they should bottle it up and sell it to all women.  A guy likes a woman to take charge like this once in a while. So sexy.”

“Quiet,” Kalina said, impatiently pulling off her own jeans. Soon they had stripped to their underwear. His chest – so muscular, so pale like ivory – glimmered in the evening light. And she...she looked different too. Kalina looked down at her body – it had changed, somehow. She was shapelier, somehow – more tanned, more toned, more beautiful than ever before. She stood up straighter, admiring her shapelier, stronger, and more womanly body. The woman in the mirrored walls around the bed looked confident, radiant, and hungry with desire. In all her haste in running from and chasing vampires ever since the death of her first boyfriend Aaron, the half-brother to Stuart and Jaegar, she haven’t taken the time to look at herself.  It had been nearly three years now, and she was no longer a naïve teen girl but a woman who would be twenty soon…an adult, a new adult, but still someone who could be old enough to get married, have children, and
conquer the world
…
starting with this vampire
.

          “Like an Egyptian queen,” Jaegar whispered into her flesh as he came up behind her and kissed her shoulder.  “My very own Egyptian queen. You are so beautiful, Kalina...” He kneeled to the floor before her while she sat upon the bed watching him, pulsing with desire, stripped by now down to her panties. “So gloriously beautiful.” He kissed her inner thighs before moving up to face her, his mouth curling in a wicked smile as he prepared to taste, her, to savor her – oh, Kalina could not bear the waiting!

          “Let's get this out of the way, shall we?” He winked at her before tearing the crotch of her panties from her, his vampire fangs slicing through the black lace fabric. “That's better.”

          And then he was kissing her there, his tongue smooth and hungry against her heated flesh. She could not stop herself from moaning in ecstasy, from crying out loud in sheer pleasure, her back arched, her hair falling back against the pillow, until she too had thrown her whole body back on the bed, with Jaegar's head and tongue still buried between her thighs. They had fooled around before, but never like this. The feelings, the pleasure, the pain – the
need
were all heightened. She had never felt such pleasure before. She shuddered with each new wave of touch. “What's happening?”