Rachel Lee - Forever Claimed

Dani’s heart sank. She wanted most of all to get away from this damnably attractive bloodsucker who was making her feel things she didn’t want, making her want things that ought to make her shudder. Just looking at him sent a shiver of desire through her. The vampire magnetism, she told herself. That’s all it was. Hadn’t her family warned her?

Her reply, when it came, was heavy with dislike. “What choice do I have?”

“None, ma petite,” he said. “None. These rogues have narrowed the choices for all of us. They will get their war. And they will not succeed.”

“So sure?” Chloe asked acidly.

“No. But it never pays to go into battle full of doubt.”

With that, he appeared to draw into himself, to ponder whatever unhappy thoughts darkened his face.

Jude returned in the hour before dawn. His first words were “It’s begun. Four violent murders tonight.”

“Terri?” Chloe asked with instant concern.

“She’s at the morgue surrounded by enough people to be safe. Whoever the rogues are, they weren’t interested in following the bodies. And soon they’ll be going to ground.”

“Did you learn anything else?” Luc asked.

“Other than that the bodies reeked of vampire? No. From time to time while I was watching Terri on the streets, I thought I caught a whiff of them, but they seemed to have kept moving all night.”

“So they do not yet feel truly confident,” Luc remarked.

“That would be my guess. It may be that so far there are only those that attacked Dani.”

Luc waved a hand. “Perhaps. If they can’t gather others to their cause, they can deal with that quickly enough. Perhaps tomorrow night we’ll have fewer bodies. And the next night we’ll be dealing with newborns.”

Chloe gasped. Dani asked, “Newborns?”

Luc’s golden gaze had darkened a bit. “Newborns,” he repeated. “The newly changed. The most dangerous vampires of all.”

Apprehension prickled through Dani. “Why?”

“Because they’re the strongest vampires of all. Because they’re voracious and out of control. The last time I had to deal with a new vampire, it terrorized an entire city and it took two of us to execute it.”

Dani drew a long, shaky breath.

“You see,” Luc continued, “those are the stories which persuade your kind to see my kind as such a threat. Most of the undead follow certain rules. The newborns follow no rules at all.”

Chloe slumped at her desk. “No wonder you don’t want to change Terri.”

Jude spoke. “It’s possible to prepare someone for the change and make it easier by providing plenty of food. But if you leave them on their own, yes, that’s where you get true monsters. What a devil of a thought, Luc.”

“I’m trying to think of everything. How else can we prepare?”

“Damned if I know,” Jude said almost wearily. “All right. Time is short right now. You need a place to go to ground, Luc. Soon. And then it’ll be safe for Dani and Chloe to go home. That leaves darkfall to deal with.”

“I’m not leaving this office, boss,” Chloe said firmly. “I’ll sleep right here.” Then she looked at Dani. “Can you get home by yourself once it’s light?”

“Of course.” She sounded more certain than she felt, though. Yesterday she had felt completely safe in this city, and now she didn’t feel safe at all. Not even knowing the bloodsuckers couldn’t roam in the daylight eased her apprehension.

Chloe hesitated. “I’ll drive you home at dawn. Then I’m coming back here to get ready for the siege.”

Luc waited for Dani outside the university building where she worked. Chloe had managed to get the information from her, and while he didn’t exactly want to be here, he knew no one else could promise Dani any kind of safety.

He smelled the approach of snow on the air and suspected that before the night was over, a white blanket would cover the city. It mattered to him not one way or the other, for he felt neither cold nor heat, but it might slow the rogues down a bit. It would be hard for them not to leave trails that even human eyes could read once it snowed.

He had donned clothing unfamiliar to him: a parka, rather than the leather that he preferred because it could stand up to the treatment he gave it, and jeans—the human preference for which he could not begin to understand. He hoped to blend in as he stood here waiting.

Already the city was on heightened alert because of the four murders last night, all of them grotesque, savage enough to hide any evidence vampires were involved. He didn’t want to appear out of place at all. Not now, not when he was here to protect Dani. Another time it would have made no difference to him, but tonight he could not take to the rooftops or vanish swiftly and without warning, not unless he wanted to terrorize Dani more than she already had been.

He saw her emerge from the building, wrapped in a long coat with a knit scarf around her neck and a knit cap on her unusual hair.

He forced himself to walk at a human pace toward her.

“Good evening,” he called, so his appearance wouldn’t startle her.

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