Claimed, a vampire romance (Lost) (4 page)

As if sensing her true thoughts, Cameron lowered his hand. “If you had seen the wolves in action, seen how they attacked your friend…”

“Attacked?” That explained why Nancy seemed weak. Rachel had thought her friend was just tired and drained emotionally from everything that had gone on. “They hurt her?”

Cameron nodded. “If Dorian hadn't been there, she wouldn't be here.”

Dead.

Nervous, Rachel held out her hand, but instead of placing one of the weapons into her grasp, Cameron leaned forward, slipped his fingers against the base of her neck, and tipped her face up to his.

“Don't be afraid. Nothing will hurt you. Nothing.” His expression was strong and tense. His eyes filled with intensity too.

Rachel's hand pressed against his chest, and her lips parted. His mouth brushed over hers, and, for a moment, she froze.

Vampire
, something deep in her psyche warned. But the warning didn't hold, couldn't sway her mind and body to keep her from lifting her arms until her hands were clasped around his neck and she was kissing him with all the passion she'd ever felt or ever dreamed of feeling.

His lips parted, and his tongue flirted with her own. His hand moved, trailing a path down the outside of her shirt, along her back, her hip, moving slowly, as if absorbing the feel of each curve.

Heat ran through her veins and pooled in her groin.

She felt her shirt slip upward, and she realized he had set the weapons down. Relief washed over her, but as the cool air of the basement brushed against her skin, relief, the wolves, and everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours slipped from her mind.

She lowered one hand to tug at his shirt and placed her palm against his side. Firm, solid muscle, cool to her touch.

She sucked in a breath, knowing desire was pushing her to do more than her rational mind would approve of. She barely knew him and what she did know... Vampire.

The word, however, was losing its power. Vampire. What did that mean? How would that feel? She wanted to know, wanted to experience whatever Cameron might offer.

She rose on her toes, caught the lobe of his ear between her teeth, and whispered into his ear. “I'm not afraid. Not with you.”

It was permission, and he took it as such. He lowered his face to her neck and sank his fangs into her.

Chapter 4

Cameron's fangs pierced Rachel's smooth skin. Her scent was sweet and heady, but her blood was even more so. He sucked slowly and delicately at the tiny wounds he had created, the ache inside him only growing bigger with each taste.

He wanted this human female more than he had ever wanted a woman, and not as a vampire should want a human. Caring for a human was folly. Humans aged too quickly, and even when young, they were fragile.

But as he held her in his arms and felt her warm curves press against his cool body, he forgot that. He forgot everything.

She moaned, and he let his fingers roam, from her back to her buttocks. Her muscles were plump but firm, the perfect mix of athletic and feminine. He lifted her slightly so her sex rubbed against his.

She moaned again, and his erection hardened. Thinking to brace himself against the wall so he could lift her even higher, he took a step back and knocked into the upturned trunk on which he had set the gun and knives.

One of the blades, the longer one with a bone handle, fell onto the ground, barely missing Rachel's foot.

He tensed.

“What?” she murmured. Her hands moved to his face as she tried to pull his mouth to hers.

But the moment was broken. The weapon falling as it had so close to her reminded him of the danger that still waited outside and of the promise he had made his father and himself.

He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes. They were wide and dark with passion. Her mouth parted, and her tongue darted out, swiping over her plump lower lip.

He closed his eyes to strengthen his resolve then lowered his mouth to her neck, just for a second, just long enough to seal the punctures he had created, with a kiss and the caress of his tongue.

Then he placed his hands on her shoulders and forced himself to step back from her again.

Her eyes were still wide, but confusion and hurt had replaced the passion.

Afraid he would weaken, he dropped his gaze to the upturned trunk, where one knife and the revolver still sat.

“We need to get going. I think the gun would be best for you if you have a place to hide it.”

He picked up the tiny gun. It was a derringer, from the late 1800s. The metal was shiny, as if brand new, and the carving of the wolf on its bone grips was still sharp and eye-catching.

He handed it to Rachel.

“It was made to hunt wolves— werewolves, that is,” he explained. “It is small and compact. So easy to hide.”

She licked her lips, a nervous action this time, and stared down at the gun. “How many... shots?”

“Two.” The limited number was a drawback to the weapon, but he still thought the derringer a better choice for Rachel than one of the knives— unless she could manage both.

He asked the question, but she shook her head no. “This... It almost doesn't feel real.” Then she smiled, or tried to. Cameron could see her nerves through the curve of her lips.

There was no response he could make that would make her feel better, no honest one at least. He could mesmerize her, soothe her nerves that way. But that would just put her more at risk. She needed to feel the edge of this danger, to know the wolves and their threat was real.

He closed his eyes until the desire to save her from the truth passed. When he opened them, her gaze, intense and unwavering, was on him. “This is serious, isn't it?”

He glanced at the gun held loosely in her grasp and replied, “Yes, it is.”

Then he held out his hand, and once her fingers slipped shyly into his grip, he led her out of the basement.

Chapter 5

Cameron's fingers pressed cool against Rachel's as he led her from his brother's house into the alley that ran behind the home's unattached garage.

The alley was dark. There were light poles, she noticed, but the bulbs were either all burnt out or missing.

She glanced Cameron's direction, remembering what he and his brother were. Vampires probably preferred the dark. Werewolves probably did too.

She shivered, and the derringer she still held knocked against her thigh.

“You should put that somewhere, in case we run into someone.” Cameron's tone was measured, as if keeping his voice calm would help her to remain that way too.

And strangely it did.

She nodded and slipped the gun into a pocket on the leg of her cargo shorts. She hadn't realized when she'd pulled the shorts from her dresser this morning what a practical choice they would be. She shook her head, trying to pull her reality back into focus, but it was an almost impossible task.

She was standing in a dark alley with a vampire, hiding a gun in the pocket of her shorts so they could hunt werewolves in secrecy.

No, she corrected herself, not hunt. The gun was for protection only. And once they found Shelby, once they were safe, Rachel could give the weapon back to Cameron and be done with it.

Except the wolves would still be out there. Someone would have to hunt them down. She didn't want to think about that. She gritted her teeth and focused instead on the first task, finding her friend.

“Shelby doesn't have a boyfriend,” she said. “Or a job. She does study at the library some, but it's closed now.” The library closed at nine and it was well past that.

“Could she have gone back to your sorority house?”

“Yes, I could call there or her cell, but...”

His fingers tightened around hers. “I threw away your phone.”

“Yes.” For some reason the topic embarrassed her.

“It was pink and sparkly,” he murmured, and she heard a smile in his voice.

Nothing about Cameron was pink or sparkly, and maybe nothing about Rachel was either, not anymore. With the weight of the gun pulling at her shorts, it was hard to believe she'd ever ooh and ahh over something as silly as rhinestones again.

As if reading her thoughts, Cameron pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Don't let this change you. Don't lose who you are.” Then he pressed something into her hand.

His phone, she realized.

“Keep it,” he ordered. “It doesn't have the personality of yours, but it will work for tonight.”

For tonight. And then what? Cameron would take it back and leave? Would her life go back to normal— studying and parties and late nights giggling with her sorority sisters?

She stupidly stared at the phone, forgetting for a moment why she held it and what she was supposed to be doing with it.

“Do you know her number?” Cameron prompted.

Shelby
. Rachel looked up, embarrassed again. “Yes, I think I do.” She never called Shelby’s phone, not by punching in the digits. With her smartphone, it hadn't been necessary, but Shelby had bragged when she'd gotten the number because it matched the street address of their sorority house. She'd said it was a sign that she was destined to be house president.

And maybe she'd been right. Shelby had won the election as a sophomore, something unheard of in Alpha history.

Rachel punched the number into Cameron's phone and waited.

When Shelby answered, her voice was unsure. “Hello?”

Realizing her friend wouldn't have recognized Cameron's number, Rachel quickly told her she was calling from a friend's phone.

“What friend?” Shelby asked, her tone suspicious.

“The guy... the one I told you about,” Rachel whispered. She glanced at Cameron to see if her words registered, and if so, how he took knowing that she'd been talking about him to her friend.

“The vampire?”

“Yes, but...” Rachel shook her head. There was no way to explain everything to Shelby over the phone. Besides, there was no reason. She just needed to get to her friend as quickly as possible. “I can explain everything when I see you. Where are you?”

There was silence on the other end of the line, long enough that, for a moment, Rachel thought the call had been dropped.

“Where are you?”

“I told you, with Cameron, but we need to get to you, to protect you.”

“Protect me?” More disbelief and another pause. Rachel realized then that Shelby wasn't alone and that she was sharing their conversation with whomever she was with.

She glanced at Cameron to share her annoyance and realized she was doing the same thing. She pulled in a breath and turned her attention back to the call.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I think someone is targeting us.”

“Us?”

“After the wreck, there were boys in the woods. Nancy saw them. They didn't try to save her; they tried to hurt her. And then tonight, after you left, a man came looking for you.”

“You've seen Nancy? She's all right?”

“Yes, yes. Thanks to Cameron and his brother, but there's more... more I can't tell you like this.” Not on the phone. It would be hard enough to convince Shelby of the rabbit hole they'd fallen into in person.

“More? What about the man? Who was he?”

Shelby was being annoyingly stubborn about ignoring Rachel's plea to tell her where she was, but then that was Shelby.

Rachel sighed and willed herself to stay calm. She'd learned in past run-ins with Shelby that showing annoyance or trying to push the older girl only created problems, usually for Rachel.

“I don't think you know him.”

“How do you know?”

How did she know? Because Shelby had never mentioned having a werewolf friend?

“He didn't seem to know you,” Rachel replied and took another deep breath.

“What was—”

Visions of Shelby being attacked as she talked on her phone overtook Rachel.

“Shelby,” she interrupted. “Tell me where you are, and we can meet you there. Then I'll tell you everything.” Or she would after she knew they were somewhere safe.

She looked at Cameron for reassurance that she was handling things properly. His lips were thin, but his eyes warmed as he stared at her. Then he nodded.

“Well, I guess that's okay. Are you bringing this Cameron?”

Relief washed over Rachel. She'd been afraid that she'd pushed too hard and that Shelby would lash out or, worse, hang up, leaving Rachel with no way of locating her.

“Yes, but he's a friend.”

“A vampire friend,” Shelby replied. Her tone was unreadable, but she seemed to quickly shake off whatever thoughts or doubts she was having. “I'm off campus, at a bar on the lake.”

She gave an address that Rachel recognized as an area which she had thought was strictly industrial. Relieved that Shelby had revealed her location, Rachel didn't question why she was there. She just repeated the address to Cameron, instructed Shelby to keep her phone handy in case they got lost, and hung up.

o0o

Behind the wheel of his car and with Rachel nestled in the leather seat to his right, the temptation to do as his father would have done— mesmerize Rachel into forgetting everything and taking her somewhere secluded and quiet— returned ten-fold to Cameron.

His fingers tightened around the leather-wrapped steering wheel. He wasn't his father, and he never would be.

He glared through the windshield at the dark street disappearing beneath the nose of his car.

Rachel's eyes darted to the side. She was watching him. Her hand rose, and she touched her neck where he'd bitten her.

The temptation rose again, like a snake he couldn't quite beat down.

The longer he was with her, the more his desire grew. Luckily his time with her was almost at an end. They would find her friend, and then he would take both of them to a charmed house he knew of, charmed against werewolves and vampires. It hadn’t been an option when he and Dorian were discussing hiding Nancy too, but it would be for Rachel and her human friend.

He’d settled on the plan as they were driving. And it was perfect.

Because once inside the house, Rachel and her friend would be safe, both from the fraternity-boys-turned-wolves and from Cameron himself.