Torn
“I need to leave.” Toni ignored her knees’ protests as she forced herself to her feet and wrapped the fur around her.
But she knew her plan was ill-thought-through. There was nowhere to go on the edge of the polar north, and if what they said was true, she was a long way from her base. She stared around at the eerie, steely room. It reminded her of the inside of a submarine, not a family home, and despite the cozy touches of cushions and artwork, she could still make out the gray, metallic walls of something more ominous.
“You need to eat.” Ezra thrust the packet of cookies at her.
She eyed the packaging with suspicion. The contents looked almost as old as she was. She couldn’t imagine wanting anything less. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’re a scientist, yes?” Dropping the packet to the ground, Ezra rose to his knees. Startled, she realized he was already almost as tall as her.
“Yes,” she murmured. “A biologist.”
“Then you know what happens to your body when you starve it.” Mal sneered. “The lethargy, the endless cold despite the fire, and your lowering heart rate.”
Toni’s brows knitted. “I’m not starving.”
She took a step backward when Ezra rose to his feet, almost colliding with the fireplace. The men had looked big from the floor, but standing beside Ezra, he was somehow even more colossal. Much taller than any men she knew, it wasn’t only his height and brawn that unsettled her. There was something else; a visceral difference she hadn’t yet put her finger on, but glancing at Mal, she realized he exhibited it too.
Superficially, they seemed like other men. They had two arms and legs and appeared to share the usual male banter she’d experienced at the base, but the tell-tale signs that things weren’t right were there beneath the surface— if she chose to look carefully.
Mal had moved at ridiculous speed when he’d leaped to the couch, and he’d been able to jump far beyond normal human movement. She was tired and possibly dehydrated, but she was sure she hadn’t imagined those things. He’d also called the two of them ‘top of the food chain’—whatever the hell that meant. She hadn’t yet ascertained what that disconcerting statement meant.
Their skin, she noticed, was also different. Ezra’s taut pectorals had an odd, chilling quality, as though the layers were almost translucent. Blinking, she looked again, certain her exhausted mind was contriving the difference, but to her trepidation, she noticed the unnerving effect again.
Almost see-through . She could see his veins beneath the skin, mingling with his musculature wrapped around the bones.
But that can’t be right.
Her focus flew to Ezra’s face, demanding answers. The skin there was also wraithlike, but it was thicker than the membrane covering his limbs.
“You told us you ate this morning.” Mal stretched out on the sofa opposite. “Whenever the fuck that was.”
“You have to eat.” Ezra’s tone was harder as he nudged the packet in her direction with his foot.
“What’s wrong with your skin?” She wanted to reach out and touch him—to discover the truth with her fingertips—but an instinctual part of her dared not to.
It was possible they both suffered from a condition that affected the skin. Perhaps it was perpetuated from living this far north. Yet, something inside mistrusted her scientific theory and held her hand stationary as she awaited his answer.
“You’re going to have to tell her.” Mal sang the answer as though it was a twisted lullaby.
“Tell me what?”
The cold, which seemed to have been abated before began to inch back along her limbs, just as Mal had said it would. Was she starving as he’d suggested, or was this only the shock at waking up in an unknown place with the two gorgeous, yet inexplicably insidious strangers?
“Why me?” A flash of emotion glinted in Ezra’s dark eyes as he turned to Mal, although she couldn’t decipher what it was.
“You brought her here.” Mal gestured to Toni as he lounged across the couch. “ You can answer the lady’s question.”
Mal’s impressive physique was similar to Ezra’s, except that the brown-haired guy was slightly more muscular. Both looked incredible, with their immense arms and rippling abdominals, and she couldn’t remember ever knowing two men who were in such pristine physical condition before. Her ogling confirmed what should have been obvious. Mal and Ezra were attractive—the most alluring guys she’d ever met—whatever their oddities.
Ezra clenched his jaw as though he was biting back on the riposte he wanted to give. “Toni.” A crease appeared in his otherwise perfect brow. “There’s something we need to tell you.”
“What?” The adrenaline flooding her system instructed her to flee, but she already knew that instinct was useless.
She had to control her emotions and figure out what was going on there. Mal had inferred that they weren’t actually alive by referring to them as what and not who , but that was, frankly, ridiculous. Toni had studied numerous species for years, but she’d never known one with such strange-looking skin. Perhaps that was the peculiar genetic quirk Mal was talking about.
But that doesn’t explain the way he moved.
Somewhere deep inside her, genuine terror bloomed. It wasn’t just the urgency to leave she’d felt before—the tug to go back to base, to see her friends and continue her research—it was something more, something instinctive—the part of her that wanted to stay alive.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Mal sprang to his feet, another otherworldly action that seemed to defy time and gravity. Time shifted in unnerving waves as she watched his lithe movement, the scene only ratcheting her unease. “We are going to talk about this later, Ezra.”
If it was possible, Ezra seemed to shrink in stature as Mal arrived beside him. Amidst the ballooning panic, she wondered at Ezra’s strange reaction. Why would a guy as big as him respond in what could only be described as a submissive way? It didn’t make sense.
“What my softly spoken mate here is trying to tell you is that we’re no longer human.” Mal spoke slowly, as if anticipating the way her head wouldn’t be able to keep up, and he was right.
No longer human?
How could they have evolved beyond humanity? Humans were the most advanced species on the planet.
“No longer?” She heard herself speak, but she barely recognized her voice.
“That’s right,” Ezra replied as though Mal’s intervention had liberated his lips into action. “We were once like you, but we changed a long time ago.”
“Changed how?” Her heart was hammering so fast she was struggling to think.
“Into what we are now,” Ezra replied.
“Suitably vague, lover.” Mal smirked in Ezra’s direction before his gaze pierced her. “We’re upyri …” His grin stretched wider, and for the first time, she noticed the extended canine teeth protruding at the front of his mouth. “We’re vampires , Toni.”
“We’re immortal,” Ezra went on, as if the things they were saying made sense. “They call us night-walkers, although the old myth about sunlight simply isn’t true.”
Vampires?
She wanted to laugh at the ridiculous statement as Ezra continued, but a distant part of her mind acknowledged what she already knew—it was true.
Somehow , it was true.
“… without even sunburn.” Ezra was still talking, but Toni wasn’t listening, her mind in freefall with chaotic thoughts about dark fables and freedom.
“How can you be vampires?” She cringed as she spoke the word aloud. “Vampires are fictional…” She frowned. “They’re not real!”
“Oh, no.” Mal’s chuckle was menacing. “We’re very real, and thanks to that incessant heartbeat of yours, we’re getting pretty hungry.”
“What?”
She edged away from them both, finding herself backed against the gray wall beside the hearth.
“Blood.” A dangerous sparkle shone in Mal’s ice-blue eyes. “Your blood, Toni.”
“You can’t be serious.” Her quivering tone revealed just how solemn she considered the threat.
“Deadly serious.” Mal grazed his tongue over the edge of his fangs.
“But not necessarily deadly.” Ezra sounded calmer. “We don’t need all of your blood.”
“Well, that’s reassuring.” Her laughter was hollow as the two predators stepped toward her.
“He’s right,” Mal simpered. “And there are other, more mutually satisfying things we could indulge in, as well as feeding.”
“I don’t know what’s going on here.” She pressed her back against the hard wall, attempting but failing to keep her voice upbeat. “But I don’t appreciate the way you’re trying to frighten me.”
“Oh, we don’t have to try,” Mal assured her. “I can hear how fast your heart is beating.”
He could hear her heart rate? That wasn’t possible! But then, neither was his leap earlier, or their strange skin…
“We’re not trying to frighten you,” Ezra soothed.
“Speak for yourself!” Mal’s tone radiated disdain. “I don’t mind if you’re frightened, Toni. You should be scared. We’re monsters.” He chuckled. “Beautiful fucking monsters.”
“Mal!” Ezra hissed. “You’re not helping!”
Mal’s palms shot into the air, although Toni doubted his apparent conciliation. Mal was edgier than Ezra. She didn’t trust either of them, but she definitely mistrusted Mal the most.
“So, you want my blood?” She couldn’t believe she was even asking. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s what he brought you here for.” Mal motioned toward Ezra. “That’s what he brings them all for.”
All?
Did that mean she wasn’t the first? A wave of fresh horror washed over her. Ezra had brought others there? What had happened to those people? Toni dreaded to think.
“But I don’t want to die!” The words burst from her lips, although she couldn’t remember ordering them there.
Mal shot Ezra a sly look. “Then do as you’re told and we’ll look after you.” The blond inched closer. “Give us a donation—just enough to satiate us—and we’ll make sure you’re pleasured and looked after.”
“You want my blood.” She tried to make sense of the words, but they didn’t sound any better the second time.
“And to bring your body to life,” Mal purred. “I know you want that, Toni. I saw the way you looked at us.”
He noticed that?
The idea of having one, or both of them, had crossed her mind, but that was before they’d started talking about bleeding her.
That was before they’d purported to be vampires.
“You’re both attractive.” She shrugged, noticing heat rising at her face. “That’s all.”
“Yes, we are.” Mal’s voice was full of dark promise. “And believe me, I know how good Ezra is in bed. I’d be willing to share him with you if you do as we ask.”
“But would I...” She hesitated, the rational part of her brain still unsure why she was even replying.
She should have been finding suitable clothes and planning to get back to base. So, why was she imagining how it would feel to be part of a carnal tag team with them both? Why was the heat between her thighs becoming impossible to ignore?
“Would you… what?” Ezra reached for her right hand, and she glanced down at his large palm. She’d expected his skin to be cold, yet it felt warm to the touch—warmer than hers. Fleetingly, she wondered how that was possible.
She looked up to find both of their brooding gazes searing into her.
Wow.
The raw magnetism sparking in the room insisted she think only about the idea of fucking them, of feeling their hard, unyielding bodies crushing against hers, of discovering how good their cocks would feel inside her.
“Would I have you both?” She pushed the words out as the mental image of that event played out in her mind.
Mal burst into laughter, the noise cutting through the increasingly fraught energy in the room.
“You’re priceless!” His stare speared Ezra before it slid back to Toni. “Your life is in imminent danger, and you’re worried about whether you’ll get one cock instead of two!”
Embarrassment flared at her face. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Or maybe she had. “I just want to understand.”
“In case you hadn’t guessed, we’re a couple.” Ezra motioned to Mal.
“Yeah.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “I realized.”
“What he means is, if he’s fucking you, then so am I.” Mal’s expression was smug. “We’re a ‘two for the price of one’ deal.”
“Perfect.” Shit. Had she just said that out loud?
“And there we are.” Mal folded his arms across his chest, his tone wry. “We have an accord.”