When another Savage stepped in his way, Lucien drew on the strength the few drops of her blood had given him. He remained far weaker than he used to be, and his mind was a convoluted mess that made him feel like the rat hunting the cheese in the maze, but her blood helped to focus him.
He needed to kill; it had been too long since he felt the thrill of snuffing out the life of a Savage with his bare hands, and now he was too weak to experience that thrill. It had been too long since killing helped smother the demon part of him, and he had to unleash that part of himself on something soon.
The delicious aroma of her blood teased his nostrils until all he desired was to taste more of her. But no matter how much his mind churned with its incessant chatter to feed, he couldn’t do that to her again.
The woman’s hands pressed into the small of his back as she kept herself propped up and hit him again. He barely felt her fists against his flesh, but he lowered her and set her on the ground when he spotted two Savages running toward him from the end of the tunnel.
Unprepared for the abrupt motion, Callie staggered to the side and almost hit the wall before righting herself. She glared at the brute, but her irritation with him vanished as, from both sides of the tunnel, footsteps slapped against the dirt and monsters raced after them.
Lucien caught the first Savage by the throat and slammed it into the wall. He tore its throat out as the second came in low and wrapped its arms around his waist. He lost his hold on the first Savage and hit the ground with a loud oomph.
He twisted beneath the clawing hands of the Savage as it pulled at his flesh. Its fingers threaded through his hair, and gripping it firmly, the creature lifted his head from the ground. Before it could smash his head into the earth, Lucien jabbed his palm up and into the Savage’s nose.
Its foul-smelling blood sprayed his face, but though the blood reeked worse than him, it pricked his appetite. Before he could stop himself, he sank his fangs into the Savage’s throat. The vampire started to howl, and its fingers dug into his flesh before it stiffened and the creature became immobile against him.
Uncaring about the suffering radiating from this victim, Lucien greedily consumed the blood until the thud of footsteps penetrated his bloodlust. More Savages were coming, and if he continued to feed, they would get to him and the woman.
Lucien tore his fangs from the Savage’s throat, drove his hand into its chest, and captured its heart. A feeling of rightness stole through him when its heart beat against his flesh before he tore it free.
He crushed the heart in his hand as he lifted the Savage’s body and threw it aside. The first Savage was sitting against the wall, its hand to its throat as blood spilled out around its fingers. A glint of silver at the thing’s waist caught his attention, and he lunged forward to rip away the keys hanging from its belt.
He was about to end the asshole’s life when a shout caused his head to turn. A horde of Savages was only twenty feet away and closing in fast. Leaping to his feet, he shoved the keys into his pocket and turned for the woman.
She was gone.
His heart stuttered before he spotted her disappearing into the shadows ahead of him.
“Shit!” he hissed and took off after her.
He was the only hope she had of surviving this place. Of course, she didn’t know that, as he kept biting her. Self-hatred rose from the depths of his conscience, but his thirst for blood also warred back to life; the Savage had done little to assuage that.
However, as Lucien sprinted after her, he realized the rotten blood of the Savage had helped him regain some of his strength. His steps were faster as he chased her into the tunnels.
He didn’t dare look behind him; the thuds of the Savage’s footsteps and the excited rush of their breaths were far too close as they pursued him down the corridor. Their fetid stench permeated the air until he felt as if he were running through a landfill instead of these damp, mildew-scented tunnels.
Callie turned left when the corridor split. She’d long ago lost any sense of direction, but she couldn’t pause to take in her surroundings no matter how badly her lungs burned and her legs ached.
In high school, she was on the track team, but she was far from the star. She’d joined because it would look good on her college applications. It had been years since she ran for any length of time, but she pushed herself to keep going. She would die before she stopped.
However, it didn’t matter how fast she pushed herself as she heard them closing in on her. No, no, no!
Lowering her head, she pumped her arms as she pushed herself faster. She only made it another ten feet before hands seized her waist.
She didn’t have time to react as she was lifted off the ground, turned around, and flung over a shoulder again. When her nose smacked off the taut muscles of a lower back and the potent scent filled her nostrils, she realized he’d been the one to catch her again.
She supposed she should be grateful it was him instead of one of the other monsters hunting them, but she was too damn pissed about being treated like a sack of flour again to be grateful.
However, though he kept biting her, she sensed a lot more malicious intent from the other creatures than she did from him. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t finish what he’d started and eat her.
Eat me. She shuddered as those words sank in. He may not be Hannibal Lecter enjoying her liver with fava beans and chianti, but he kept biting her and drinking her blood.
A possibility tugged at her mind. It was an impossible possibility, but once she considered it, she couldn’t shake the notion that he wasn’t human…. maybe he was something more.
She thought of his red eyes when she first saw him. Those red eyes hadn’t really pierced through the haze of terror choking her, but they registered now.
However, she refused to let herself traverse the pathways of what the something more he was might be. She had enough to deal with right now.
Placing her hands on the small of his back again, she lifted herself away from him. Her arms almost gave out when she saw what was pursuing them.
Their pursuers reminded her of cockroaches or gremlins as they chased them down the tunnel. Their vivid red eyes were bright against the darkness enshrouding them. When the man took another turn, those eyes became the only source of illumination.
What are they? As the question ran through her mind, a primal part of her whispered the answer. You know what they are.
But it was impossible. They simply could not be what she thought they were.
Vampires did not exist. They were a myth made up to scare people into behaving centuries ago. They were scary stories to tell around campfires. They lived in movies meant to frighten and came to life in fantasy books. They did not pull you off the street, drag you into some unknown underground hell, and thrust you into a pit to…. What?
Why had they taken her? What was her purpose here?
Her fingers dug into the flesh of the man’s back, but he was not a man. She couldn’t deny that anymore. His red eyes, his bites, and the slurp of her blood told her what he was.
And he was also the reason she was here. She didn’t understand it and had no idea what was happening, but she was sure she was here because of him.
The rest of these assholes were free; shackles bound his wrists. The rest were clean and dressed like any other person walking down the street. He was filthy, missing a shirt and shoes, and his clothes were too baggy on him.
She wanted to get as far from him as fast as she could, but she suspected he was as much of a prisoner in this place as her. Which meant he was also an ally—the enemy of my enemy—even if that enemy kept using her as a pincushion.
Prisoner or not, he was also the only one who had caused her to experience the worst pain of her life, not once but twice.
She had to get away from him, but right now, he might be her only chance of escaping this mess. With the creatures closing in on them, she realized she was going to die. She didn’t want to die. She had so many dreams and things she planned to do.
And she especially didn’t want to die at the hands of these monsters as their red eyes and loud breaths echoed around her. They all but drooled at the prospect of her death.
She slapped his back a couple of times. “Faster.”
Lucien didn’t need her to tell him that; he heard them closing in, but starvation and weakness were starting to wear on him, and his step faltered even as he was overwhelmed by his compulsion to get her to safety.