5. Chapter 5
AssoonasI met the raven-haired beauty at the bar, my cock was instantly hard. Her scent was intoxicating, and I wanted to claim her. My gums ached as my fangs throbbed, needing to descend and taste her blood. Would she taste as good as she smelled? After watching Jax with her on the dance floor, I”d seen enough. I needed to get away and relieve the pressure in my cock. If I didn”t, I was going to risk coming right where I stood. And that would be embarrassing.
I signal for Harley to cover me on the bar while I go on a break. Thursday is one of our busier nights and tonight is no exception, but I know she has it covered. Making my way to the back room, I close the door behind me and thread through the stacked boxes until I come to the darkened corner. No one should disturb me, the bar is fully stocked already. I made sure of it. Unzipping my jeans, I pull out my throbbing cock and wrap my hand around it.
Rubbing my fist up and down my length, I think of her. Everything about her is so perfect: her scent, her body in that tiny black dress, and the way she reacted not only to me but to Jax as well. I picture her hand running up and down my steely length. My hips jerk as I speed up the motion on my cock.
How would she feel as I sink inside her? Would her walls grip me tight as I thrust into her? Would she let me bite her and drink her blood, heightening both her orgasm and mine as I fuck her senseless? What would my name sound like, ripping from her lips as I push her over the edge?
Leaning my head against the wall in front of me, I try to cool my overheating skin. It”s one thing humans seem to believe about vampires - that we are cold-skinned, but it”s far from the truth. If we drink blood frequently enough, it keeps our bodies at almost the same temperature as a human.
My balls tighten and draw up. A groan escapes me as I come. Thoughts of taking her whirl through my mind as I explode. Grabbing a roll of tissue, I wipe up the mess I have made and tuck my softening cock back into my jeans; the material catching against my overly sensitive skin.
Placing the roll back on the shelf, I make my way out of the back room, throwing the wad of tissue in the trash as I pass. Opening the door, I run straight into Bane. It”s like hitting a brick wall. Bane isn”t his real name, but he reminds most people of the character from Batman and as soon as he started working at the club, the nickname just stuck.
Jax and I had known him for years before we ended up here. We never used a nickname before, but now it”s all we ever call him. It suits him better than his real one. At well over 6ft 4in, he”s built like a brick shit house, all muscle and not a scrap of fat on him. The black t-shirt he”s wearing stretches over his muscles, leaving nothing to the imagination.
”On a break?” I comment nonchalantly.
He grunts and nods at me, but adds nothing else to the conversation. We have a small fridge in the back room filled with blood sachets. Employees are allowed up to three during shifts. It”s not that we need them. A vampire can go for up to a week on as little as a pint of blood, but the fact that Jax allows drinking from the vein in the club means the extra keeps our bloodlust under control.
Brushing past me, Bane makes his way through the door I just came out of as I head into the main club. When I get back, I check the bar. Harley is still there, serving, and I glance around to see if I can see the dark-haired temptress again. I shouldn”t be wanting to find her again, but my body is telling me I need to.
I make my way to a spot where her scent is the strongest. It”s an empty booth, but two jackets lie on the seat. Lifting the jacket I know is hers to my nose, I inhale deeply.
Wrong move.
My cock twitches in the tight confines of my jeans. Pulling the jacket away from my nose again, I look out at the dance floor. It”s the only place I can think she would be if she left her jacket here.
As I”m about to head for the dance floor, I catch a whiff of something else mingled with her scent. Fear. My instincts are suddenly on high alert. I widen my senses, following the fear-laced trail to the women”s bathroom. I don”t stop to think as I walk inside. A few startled screams don”t even get my attention as I survey the room, but she”s not here anymore. She was. But she”s gone now.
Turning, I follow her scent back outside. Looking down the hallway, I notice the emergency exit door is ajar. Odd. No one should use that door unless there”s an emergency. As I get closer to the door, another smell hits me. Blood. Blood that mingles with her scent and another”s. Using my speed, I burst out of the door into the alley. It crashes against the wall.
I snarl at the scene before me. There is blood everywhere. Inhaling, my nostrils flare and my fangs ache to descend. I clench my fists as I attempt to get control of my blood lust. It”s trying to drag me under, to make me drink. I glance down to the left of the alley where two prone forms lay.
Speeding over to them, I drop straight to my knees, their blood soaks into my clothes. It”s the women from the bar, my dark-haired temptress and her friend. Sensing my female still has a heartbeat, albeit it slow, I turn my attention to the other woman. She’s naked and covered in deep cuts - obviously dead. There is no color to her now pale skin, and there”s no heat coming from her.
I check her pulse, just in case, but I can”t hear a heartbeat. The lack of a pulse confirms what I already know. Moving to my female, I can hear the slow beat of her heart, but it”s struggling. Her shoulder is ripped open, and like her friend, she is covered in slash marks, which are all bleeding. She”s still clothed, but her dress is ruined. Her blood is pulling me in, and I lean closer to her. I want to taste her, even if it”s just a drop.
A hand grabs my shoulder, pulling me back, and I snarl. I turn on the person. It”s Bane.
”No.” His one word is firm, and he doesn”t let go of my shoulder. ”Call Jax.”
Shoving me away from my woman, he crouches down next to her. Brushing her hair back from her face, it”s the gentlest I”ve ever seen him. He gathers her up in his arms and lifts her like she weighs nothing. She looks so small in his arms. He holds her close as I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and dial Jax”s number. It doesn”t take him long to answer.
”Diego?”
”Back alley. Now.” I hang up and pocket the phone.
I look back over at Bane. He”s cradling my woman in his arms. I take a step closer, wanting to pull her from him, but his head whips up and he snarls at me. His long fangs are showing, and his eyes are rimmed with red. I”m not sure if it”s his bloodlust or the fact he can sense I want to take her from him.
Holding my hands up in defeat, I take a step back. My fangs are cutting into my lip, blood dripping from the tiny holes. I look down at the body on the floor. Sniffing the air, I can smell them now. The smell of wet dogs. Wolves; on our territory. I clench my fists. I will find them and I will kill them. They touched what”s mine, and they deserve to be ripped apart.
A disturbance in the air makes me turn. Jax is standing in front of me. His nostrils are also flaring, but he has more control than me. His fangs have yet to descend as he surveys the scene before him.
”What the fuck happened?” He glares at me.
”Don’t look at me! I found them like this. She”s dying.” I point to my female and he follows my finger to where she lies within Bane”s arms.
”Get her upstairs. NOW! If someone in the club smells her, they will attack.”
Bane is off before Jax even finishes his sentence. He heads down the alley and cuts to the left. There”s a set of stairs there that leads up to Jax”s apartment above the club. Myself, Jax, and Bane are the only ones who know the codes for the doors at the top and bottom. They lead up to a heavy security door that even the strongest creatures couldn”t break down.
”And what about her?” I tilt my head towards the dead friend.
”We can”t leave her out here. We don”t know what sort of things the blood will attract. I”ll take her inside, find somewhere to put her until clean up arrives.”
Taking out his phone, his fingers fly across the screen before shoving it back into his pocket and moving over to the dead girl. He shrugs off his suit jacket and lays it over her body before gathering her up in his arms and heading the same way as Bane. I collect her bag and discarded dress and follow him. We head down to the basement and I throw the clothes in the incinerator, leaving Jax to deal with the body before I head up to the apartment.
The last time I saw both women, they were on the dance floor. The dark-haired temptress was dancing with Jax, and her friend was close by. After that, I left for the back room, needing release. How did so much happen between me leaving and now? With the amount of blood, I”m surprised no one else found the bodies first. There was enough to draw even the oldest vampire into bloodlust.
In that short space of time, it looks like they were attacked. Her friend was mutilated, raped, and murdered; I could smell the individual scents of many men. But I didn’t smell semen on my woman, only the smell of wet dog. Did she see everything that happened to her friend, or was she already unconscious at that point? I can”t begin to imagine what she has been through, or how she will react when she wakes up. If she wakes up.
When I get inside, Bane has cleared off the dining table. He has laid the raven-haired woman on top of it, her blood soaking into the wood. Bane”s huge hands cover her body, trying to stem the flow, but he can”t reach every wound. The one on her neck is bleeding profusely.
I approach slowly, stopping myself from breathing. As a vampire, I don”t need to, but old habits die hard. When I feel I can get close enough without being triggered by her blood, I place a hand over the gaping wound on her shoulder. The liquid coats my hand and streams steadily between my fingers.
Lifting my head, I look at Bane. His eyes bore into mine. The red rings are still prominent around his irises, his fangs still out, but he doesn”t move closer to her. He”s touching her like she is glass about to shatter.
Jax appears between us. With no warning, he bites into his wrist, letting his blood flow down to his cupped hand.
”Move.” He speaks in my direction, and I pull my hand away from her neck.
With the blood that”s in his hand, he smears it over the gaping wound. The best way to heal someone is to get them to drink our blood, but adding it to the wounds, for now, should be enough to stop her bleeding out before I can get her to drink my blood.
Wait, why my blood?It doesn”t matter whose blood she drinks, but for some reason, I want it to be mine. Just like I”ve been calling her mine, I want to be hers as well. Movement draws me back to the present as Jax finishes applying his blood to her other wounds. The flow of blood is slower now, but she”s still so pale.
”Tell me what you know, Diego.”
”They came to the bar and ordered drinks. Not long after I saw her,” I look down at the woman on the table, ”dancing with you. I went on a break.” I don”t feel the need to voice the fact that I was so turned on I needed to get away and find release.
”When I came back, I was drawn to her scent. I found the booth they had been sitting at, but only their jackets were there. Then I smelled her fear, so I followed it.” I recount, wincing as I remember what happened next, ”I was near the bathroom, close to the emergency exit, and I caught the smell of blood. When I got outside, I found them. I checked them both, the friend was already dead. Bane arrived, and I called you. You know the rest.”
My eyes cut to Bane, wondering if he will voice the fact I was ready to sink my fangs into her neck, despite how much blood she had already lost. But he just looks at me and tilts his head to the side, his silent way of telling me he won”t say anything.
Jax looks down at the woman. His hand reaches out, and he runs his fingers through her hair. Part of me wants to snap at him, to pull him away and demand he doesn”t touch her again, but another small part of me tells me she”s not just mine. But his too, all of ours. Fighting with each other will get us nowhere.
”I”ll take her to my bedroom. One of us needs to stay with her. If she comes to, you need to give her your blood. It”ll help to heal her.” Jax orders.
Lifting her carefully, he moves down the hallway towards his bedroom. Kicking open the door, he disappears inside. I look back over at Bane. He”s standing perfectly still next to the table, like he”s scared to move. His fangs have retracted, and his pupils are fully blue again.
”Why?” I whisper, quiet enough that Jax shouldn”t hear me.
”She”s ours. And I”ll protect her, even from you.”
Without another word, he takes off after Jax. I”m guessing he”s decided he”s going to be the one to watch over her first. I want to be the one that is there when she wakes up, but until her wounds have healed a little more, I don”t think I can trust myself to be too close to her. Not without wanting to taste her.