Succulent Prey (13 page)

herself now, but when he'd told her about the correlation he'd found between the

werewolf and vampire legends and the

evolution of the serial kil er it almost made sense to her. If he could just find and kil that fucker that infected him then he'd be cured and he'd let her go and

maybe they could even go out again

sometime once he was normal.

Alicia knew that she was being a fool.

Why would she want to go out with the

guy who chained her up and bit her

nipples off and was more than likely

going to murder her?

Because you're a sex-addict, her

subconscious answered back.

The likelihood of him curing himself by plunging a stake through the heart of a serial child murderer was so remote it

was crazy. Stil , it was the only thing she had to hang her hopes on.

"I'l help you."

"What?"

"I'l help you find him ... and kil him." Joe stared into Alicia's eyes for a long moment. He saw an honesty and a trust

there that was almost childlike. There

was loneliness there too, and a need-the need for love. He reached out and

stroked her long curly black hair and

leaned in to kiss her.

As Joe's lips touched hers Alicia

screamed at herself: Bite his lips off. Bite off his fucking tongue! Kil Him! Kil Him!!!

Instead, she returned his kiss. Their

tongues dueled and danced and Joe

lovingly caressed her beautiful body,

careful to avoid her savaged nipples,

which were stil raw and tender. He

kissed her throat and sucked the sweat

from the hol ows of her col arbones. He licked the salt of her tears from her

cheeks and brushed his lips against her eyelids. He sucked her bruised lips and kissed the tip of her chin. Then he laid her down and removed the leg spreader

from between her ankles, slipping off her restraints and kissing the chafed and

torn flesh beneath, shivering at the meaty metal ic taste of her blood.

Joe stroked her buttery caramel thighs

and Alicia moaned in appreciation. She

tried to tel herself to fight him, to kick him off and run for her life, but he was so big, so strong. She doubted she'd have

had a chance of overcoming him even

for a second and she was enjoying his

touch, enjoying the emotion in his eyes, in his soulful moans, and delicate

caresses. As much as she hated to

admit it, she was fal ing for him. She

gasped as he lowered his weight on top

of her and parted her thighs, entering her with cautious probing thrusts.

He lowered his head to the nape of her

neck and she stiffened, momentarily

certain that he would bite her again, tear out her throat like a vampire. But when he raised his head there were tears in

his eyes.

"I love you, Alicia. You have to help me."

"I wil . Ipromise."

That night they made love, gently, softly, sweetly. They gave and took, exchanging pain for pleasure, solitude for solace, and when they were done they held each

other and wept for both their lives.

Chapter Fifteen

Damon was towering above him as

eight-year-old Joey rounded the corner

on his BMX bike. The overweight high

school dropout stood in the middle of the sidewalk in his Windy City Deep Dish

Pizza delivery uniform, his van idling at the curb, and the passenger door swung

wide. He leered coyly at little Joey with a lecherous scowl on his face and a cruel gleam in his eyes. His smile was even

more threatening. It was the predatorial rictus of a hyena approaching weakened

prey.

Joe tried to steer around him but the fat teenager stepped right into his path,

teenager stepped right into his path,

causing Joe to slam on his brakes and

skid out, nearly flipping over the

handlebars. He was just about to cuss

the chubby loser out when he felt the

boy's fat fingers close around his throat and lift him from the bike. Joe tried to cal out, but he could get no air in or out of his lungs. He pinwheeled his arms

and legs in the air as if he were trying to swim away from an onrushing shark as

the boy carried him across the sidewalk and into the idling van. The fat kid

smel ed like pepperoni and ammonia.

That's the last thing Joe remembered

thinking before the van doors slammed

shut, sealing

out the midday August sun and the joyful cries of the kids playing just yards away in the park.

Joe woke up with his fist clenched tight around Alicia's throat. Her eyes were

bulging out of their sockets, her tongue lol ed stupidly from her mouth, and her complexion was turning the prettiest

turquoise blue. He jerked his hands

away from her neck and jumped back,

scooting to the other side of the bed,

startled by what he had done. Alicia was gasping and choking as she sucked air

back into her depleted lungs. Joe was

breathing hard with sweat bul eting down his face.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I-I was having a bad dream. I didn't mean to-I mean, I didn't know what I was doing."

"You almost kil ed me! You're crazy! Oh my God! You're fucking crazy! Heeelp!

Heeeelp!!!"

Joe shook his head in exasperation and

reached down to pick up the restraints

from where he'd tossed them on the

floor. He seized one of Alicia's legs and slipped the leather cuff around her ankle. This time she did try to kick, to fight back. She aimed a kick at his face and

her heel caught him in the jaw as he

reached out for her feet, causing his

head to spin and his lip to split open and run red. Joe barely seemed to notice. He grabbed both of her ankles and flipped

her over onto her stomach.

Joe's breath caught in his throat as that perfect ass rol ed into view, wobbling

temptingly in the moonlight. The hunger came rushing upon him urgent and

insistent. He sat on Alicia's back as she continued to scream and struggle,

seizing her ankles and placing the

leather cuffs and leg spreader back

between her ankles. Then he turned and

cuffed and chained her wrists again as

wel .

"Noooo! Nooo! Don't do this!"

"I said I wouldn't hurt you and I won't-not if I can find the cure."

Joe trussed her up, reinserted the bal

gag into her mouth and reattached her to the chain hanging from the ceiling before he hurried out of the room.

Chapter Sixteen

Emma Purcel was reading a dog-eared

copy of Tropic of Cancer and waiting for the two law students on the computers

and the four medical students half

asleep on the couches and lounge

chairs to final y realize that nothing they did in the next four hours was going to help them pass a test they hadn't

prepared for earlier. She was startled

when the massively muscled psychology

student suddenly appeared at her desk.

"Uh, c-can I help you?"

"I need to find someone."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"There's a man I need to find. I was hoping you could show me how to

search for him on the computer."

"Oh, sure. There're several searches you can run to track someone on the

computer. Here, I'l show you." Emma rose from behind the desk and

immediately felt the large creepy

student's eyes lunge for her, charging

over her curves and invading her most

intimate areas. She felt simultaneously frightened, annoyed, and aroused,

sensations she was used to

experiencing in his presence. Her

nipples hardened and stabbed the sheer

fabric of her blouse. Joe stared at her heaving bosom with unselfconscious

lust. Emma's face colored. She turned

her back to him and sat down at the

computer.

Emma had to admit that the boy was

extremely good-looking. He exuded a

savage sexuality that was nearly

oppressive. She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck as she tapped

the keyboard and logged on to the Web.

C , i 7 . - . . so who are we looking for?"

"His name is Damon Trent. He would be almost thirty by now."

"Do you have any idea where he might be? A city? A state?"

"He would stil be in Seattle; either in prison or a mental institution."

Emma's fingers hovered suspended

over the keys. This was more of his

bizarre research.

"What exactly did he do?"

"He raped and mutilated a couple young boys about twelve years ago."

"That's sick! I'm not going to be a part of this! What is this twisted morbid

fascination you have with these

monsters? Look, you're online now. I'm

sure you'l have no problem locating your murderous pedophile. I've got work to do back at my desk." The librarian stood and turned to leave.

Joe placed a hand on her shoulder and

gently eased her back into her seat.

"Please. You have to help me."

"Why? Why should I help you with this obsession? A child murderer? Why

would you want to know anything about a man like that?" Joe's voice lowered and tightened to a

deep self conscious mumble. The

librarian could feel the boy's body tense as he spoke.

"Because I was one of the boys this particular monster assaulted."

The librarian's eyes widened then

softened and moistened with emotion.

Her mouth fel open and her body

slumped back into the chair, as if

physical y struck by the student's

unexpected confession. She placed her

hand atop his and turned to look him in his eyes. Her bottom lip trembled and

her voice lowered to a soft, maternal

whisper.

"Oh my God! I-I'm sorry. I didn't know. No wonder you're so obsessed with finding

out what makes them tick."

"Wil you help me?"

"Of course."

It took no time at al to locate their kil er.

"He's not in Seattle anymore. He's in Tacoma, at the state mental hospital in a special unit they have for violent sex

offenders."

Joe scrol ed down the screen, reading

about the hospital where Damon Trent

had been kept since he'd openly

confessed to drinking the blood of young boys and was declared unfit to stand trial a dozen years ago. Trent believed that

he could absorb the souls of his victims by imbibing their body fluids. The article, written two years after his incarceration, said that Trent claimed the doctors at the state hospital were deliberately trying to drive him insane by depriving him of

human blood to drink.

Joe wrote down the address and phone

number of the hospital and turned his

attention back to the thick meaty

librarian. He'd wanted her for a long time and though he had needed to locate

Trent, he'd real y come down here for

her, using his search for the child rapist as a way to get close to her.

"Would you have a cup of coffee with me?"

"I don't know. I've got a lot of work to do. Besides, I'm old enough to be your

mother. Why are you so interested in

me?"

"Because you're beautiful and I need a friend right now.,,

It was the right thing to say. Joe had

been rehearsing it from the first day he'd seen her. Her need was so obvious you

didn't have to be a con man or a

predator to spot it. Emma needed to be

needed. There was a deep loneliness

and sorrow within her, like one of those chimpanzee mothers who cradle their

miscarriages in their arms for weeks,

refusing to accept their death. Joe

played on those maternal instincts lying dormant within her, starving for a

purpose.

"I know I frighten you. We can take separate cars and go to the cafe down

the street where there wil be lots of

people."

"That sounds awful. I'm sorry. It's not that I think you'd hurt me. It's just that ... those books you read ..."

"I'm a psychology student and I'm trying to understand what turns normal human

beings into these vicious predators. One day, I hope I can find a cure for their madness."

"I think that's admirable, but I hope you won't be offended if I take my own car

and meet you there?"

Joe smiled wide.

"Thank you."

They talked late into the night. Emma

told him about her two failed marriages. Her first husband beat her and her

second left her for her sister. She had a daughter who ran away from home five

years ago, only two months after her

sixteenth birthday.

"Do you ever hear from her?"

"She cal s every once in a while. When she's in trouble or needs money or just needs someone to listen to her. I'm a

good listener. I don't know where she is now, though. She hasn't cal ed in

months."

"It must be hard, not hearing from your daughter in so long."

"I cope."

Joe nodded and looked down at the

scrap of paper with the name Damon

Trent written on it, fol owed by the phone number and address to the State

Hospital for the Criminal y Insane. He

rol ed the slip of paper over and over in his hands as dark shadows slithered

through his mind.

"What did he do to you?"

"You don't want to know."

"Maybe not, but you need to tel it. I can see that you're hurting. It might help to talk."

Joe didn't want to talk to her anymore. He didn't want to get too close because he was stil planning on murdering her, but maybe talking about these horrors

would be just the distraction he needed. Perhaps it would calm him down until he could get her alone.