Toxic

Chapter Six

I spent another day barely sleeping, too caught up in my fantasies revolving around the untouchable doctor. I’d thumbed through my black book looking for a fuck buddy to call, but none of them had the tousled blond hair, blue eyes and geeky look I craved.

I made do with my vibrator, but even though I climaxed, I found myself more sexually frustrated than ever. I decided I needed better toys. I left a note for Annabelle to invest in some heavy duty hardware, anything to help scratch the erotic itch I couldn’t shake.

I was disgruntled and on my third pair of panties by the time I met Raphael in the front hall. As requested, he wore black from head to toe, and he even had a black leather bomber jacket that made me arch a brow. He looked like a good boy turned bad, in other words, totally freaking hot!

“Did you go shopping with a biker?” I asked to mask the fact I wanted to peel him and eat him.

Rafe looked down at himself then up at me with a grin. “You said black. And weren’t you the one who told me leather is easier to wipe the filth off.”

Actually I’d said blood, but I wouldn’t split hairs. He looked good, damned good, and when I approached and sniffed him, he smelt even better.

I growled.

“I didn’t put any aftershave on,” he said raising his hands.

“Doesn’t matter, you still smell like food,” I grumbled, heading out the door and into the fresh air, away from his tantalizing scent.

“Where are we going?” he asked as he followed me out.

“Hunting,” I said swinging a leg over my motorcycle parked out front. I patted the seat behind me. “Think of it as an up close look at how a vampire takes down prey.”

“Are you going to kill someone?”

Humans and their morals-what a drag. “Who me?” I batted my lashes at him. “I’m not after a human if that’s what you’re worried about. Now, are you getting your ass on here or not?”

“I guess this is your way of telling me you can’t fly,” he said, swinging onto the bike behind me.

“I wish,” I said, gunning the throttle. “Hold on tight.” His hands came around my midsection and with a chuckle to myself, I peeled out of my driveway. His grip tightened and I wondered if my curious doctor was frightened. A moment later I revised that thought as his erection poked my backside. More like excited.

He leaned forward and yelled in my ear. “How good are your reflexes on this thing?”

I smirked at his challenge. I poured on the speed and as the speedometer crept higher and higher, weaved in and out among the traffic. I was in perfect control of my machine and loved the speed.

He shouted again to be heard over the motorcycles engine noise. I should have told him not to bother. I could hear his heartbeat still with my enhanced senses.

“Not bad, but what if you’re distracted?”

I meant to ask, “Distracted by what?” but I almost crashed us when he showed me. He slid his hands down to rest on my spread thighs. And then he went between them, the heel of his hand rubbing at my crotch.

“Holy fuck! What are you doing?” I yelled as molten heat shot through me.

“Just checking,” he whispered in my ear followed by a wet swipe of his tongue which had me wetting my panties.

What had happened to my shy doctor? I pinned my lips tight-both sets-as he chuckled behind me. The pressure on my crotch lessened, but he kept his hands on my thighs. Something I was all too aware of. I’d have to have another talk with him about the dangers of rousing me. A woman, and a vampire at that, could only take so much before she snapped, and if that happened, the brief bliss we’d both enjoy would be tinged with regret as I buried his lifeless body. Or I could turn him, a thought that should have had little to no appeal given my dislike of blood thirsty fledglings. But considering how Rafe affected me, the idea had merit. I stowed the thought for later perusal.

We drove for about two hours before I reached the place in my report. An industrial area that at this time of night was vacant of humans, most of them anyway.

I stopped the bike and stepped off, instantly missing the warmth of Rafe’s body hugging mine.

“So you going to tell me what you’re after?” he asked peering off into the darkness.

“How familiar are you with the concept of daemons?”

I thought I heard him choke and I whirled to look at him.

He returned my stare placidly. “I know of them in theory and from fiction. Why do you ask?”

“Because tonight, if we’re lucky, we’re going to find the reason why vampires came out of the closet.”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to elaborate.”

I grinned in reply as I headed off into the darkness. He followed behind and I grudgingly had to admit, for a human, he moved almost as quietly as I did.

I wasn’t sure where the daemon might be hiding, or even if it had stayed in the area. But given their territorial tendencies and the secluded nature of this area-plenty of hiding spots-I had a hunch it hadn’t moved on.

I just needed the right bait to get it to come out. “Hey Rafe, we need to split up so we can cover more ground. If you see something, don’t engage it, just holler for me.”

I could have sworn I saw his eyes twinkle, but he turned to lope off into the darkness and I chalked it up to the light glinting off his glasses.

I paralleled him, leaping up to the top of the containers and silently tracking behind him. I drew my power around me to cloak me even further and watched my libido disturbing doctor as he peeked around corners, searching blindly.

Given the daemon taste for human flesh, I figured Rafe would tempt the beast out of hiding and then I’d soar in for the rescue.

At least that was my plan until something hit me in the back and sent me tumbling to the ground. I hit the packed earth hard, but immediately rolled in time to miss being impaled by the sharp claws of a daemon.

Holy fuck. The beast was huge, bigger than the daemons we’d faced previously. And uglier, too. He sported a pair of curling alabaster horns with sharp points, a perfect match for his filed teeth. His black skin gleamed with moisture covered in an icky slime I knew from experience would burn my skin.

“Well, aren’t you a handsome boy,” I crooned as I jumped to my feet.

The creature drooled in reply and I shuddered, especially when I saw the saliva hit the ground and sizzle. Mental note to self: do not kiss the daemon.

I circled the monster, sizing him up and waiting for the right moment. When the opening didn’t miraculously arrive, I just charged to make one. I hit the beast in the midsection and we barreled backwards into a container with a loud thud.

I’d underestimated the daemon’s strength, though. Its arms came around me in a bear hug that squeezed the breath from me and trapped my arms.

Stuck, I leaned forward instead of away from its grasp and sank my teeth into the oily black skin of its neck, my lips burning at the touch.

I immediately spat out the foul tasting blood. “Eew,” I exclaimed as the daemon screeched.

But the creature loosened its hold on me and I stepped back to deliver the killing blow. Palming my knife of purest silver, I slashed and sliced at the hulking brute. We danced back and forth, it slashing with its claws, me with my razor sharp dagger.

The daemon’s movements got sluggish, the loss of blood from the dozens of cuts that oozed ichor, affecting it finally.

I grinned in triumph and prepared to strike the killing blow.

So then my old friend fate-that bitch who hates me-arrived to fuck me over.

Arms thick as saplings wrapped around me from behind, squeezing me in a tight vise that forced the breath from my lungs.

Fuck! I’d miscalculated. There were two daemons, not one. I struggled in the implacable grasp of the beast holding me, especially when the one I’d grievously injured approached with a leering grin.

I guess I should have waited for my troops to arrive before engaging the enemy. Then an even scarier thought overtook that one. Rafe. He wouldn’t stand a chance against these brutes.

“Run, Rafe,” I yelled, amplifying the sound of my voice. I didn’t manage to say anything else for the daemon in front of me punched me in the face.

My head snapped back, but I refused to show pain. “You’re going to have try harder than that,” I taunted.

The daemon hissed and held up its clawed hands in front of me, its intent to slice and dice me clear. Me and my big mouth. While I would eventually heal, getting cut up definitely would suck, not to mention hurt.

A flash of white from the corner of my eye filled me with relief-my men are here finally. I yelled, “About time you guys got here. Get the tranquilizer guns and take these bastards down.”

Apparently the daemon holding me didn’t like my plan for it whirled us until my back was against a metal storage unit, then it commenced to bash my head against it. Harder and harder. It fucking hurt. The attempt to crush my skull along with my constricted chest in its boa like arms made me close my eyes as the world spun nauseatingly around me.

I found myself slipping into a soothing blackness, and barely noticed the daemon releasing me. Everything in me ached. But I hadn’t lived over four hundred years only to swoon like a damsel because of one itty bitty daemon ambush.

I forced my eyes open, but found myself unable to focus. What I did see was blurred and bright. I thought I saw the flash of a sword wielded by a being that shone white, but when I blinked-a long blink that might have lasted a few minutes-I opened them to see Rafe kneeling before me.

“Run,” I gasped, some stupid sentimental part of me not willing to see him killed.

“Shh, it’s okay.” He stayed on his knees as he checked me, shining a pen light into my eyes and palpating me for injury.

“I’m healing,” I grumbled as I struggled to sit, hard to do with his surprisingly strong hands holding me down.

“You need blood,” Rafe replied in a tight voice.

“My people will have emergency blood bags in the van. Have they secured the daemons?”

Rafe looked away from me. “Um, well, see-.”

His explanation was cut off by the shouts of my people as they poured into the area and surrounded the daemon which I could now clearly see as my body healed the damage. The black beast lay on the ground, a hole from its side pouring blood. Only the gentle rise of its chest let me know it lived. Of the other daemon, only a black sludge remained. Someone or something had killed it and I wished I could take the credit.

I frowned. Wait, if they just arrived then who saved me? I looked at my benign doctor with suspicious eyes. Dressed in black and definitely not carrying a sword, he obviously wasn’t the blurry white figure I’d seen saving my ass. Then again, given my mental state at the time, I could have possibly hallucinated.

Questions would have to wait. I had more important things to deal with. I picked myself off the ground and brushed off the dirt as I gave my crew directions for taking in the daemon. A big fucking bastard compared to the punier ones we’d fought with before. I hoped it wasn’t a harbinger of the hordes to come. If I, one of the stronger more vicious vampires, couldn’t handle one of them alone, then how would the puny humans fight them?

I hoped that Rafe would find the answers. Find a way to save us all from the sure death approaching. And if he didn’t, then just maybe I would take the pleasure to be found with the good doctor before the daemonic hordes arrived.