There were only a few ways to kill a vampire--and Navarre knew the most proficient. The vamp screamed in agony as Navarre’s hand reached like a scalpel through his body, bucked, trying to free himself. Blood flooded the air, pooling around Navarre’s arm.
The muscle pumped against his fingertips as he reached the heart, wrapping his clawed hand around it. Biting back his disgust, he crushed it, and the vampire went still, his screams suddenly silenced. His body crumbled instantly around Navarre’s arm ... crumbling to dust that mingled with the mud.
It was kill or be killed. He should not have been disturbed--but he had been. It had taken mere seconds to kill the vampire. Seconds more to stand and face his remaining foe.
He wondered that the dark haired vamp hadn’t attacked him from behind, but saw he had better quarry.
He held Kaeli.
Navarre hardly recognized her. Her face was a mask of blood. It matted her hair, and the headlights made her eyes shine with wild pain.
Navarre tensed, dropping his arms for a killing stance. He moved forward, halting only when the vamp twisted her head back, threatening to snap her neck. She grimaced, digging her nails into her captor’s arm around her chest--to no avail.
“Don’t come any closer,” he said, smiling with a confidence that boiled Navarre’s blood.
Navarre’s fingers curled with the urge to take his heart.
He licked the blood from her neck with one long swipe, drawing a strangled gasp from her throat. “Mmmm. She tastes almost as sweet as Lycans. Maybe it’s because she fucked one.”
“Why are you ... doing this?” she gasped out, her hands falling limp to her sides.
He gave Navarre a look. “Why not?”
“Did Danior send you?” Navarre said between his clenched teeth.
Was this some twisted method of revenge on the Lycans? He would kill Danior if it were true. If he lived through this night.
He laughed, a mocking, snickering sound that grated Navarre’s strained nerves. “Danior has gone. Disappeared. He told us not to touch the Lycans, but he is nowhere to be found, so we do not obey his commands. Perhaps I will be the new master.”
“Perhaps not, mon ennemi. Perhaps we all die this night.” Navarre tensed imperceptibly, waiting for the moment of inattention that would be her salvation.
“I think you are right. Let’s start with this bitch.” He slammed her head to the side and sank his teeth into her neck, shredding her throat.
Kaeli’s scream cut off almost before it began, her body going limp as the poison paralyzed her body. Blood bubbled from her lips.
It was his only chance. Navarre jumped, shifting in an instant, ignoring the pain of transformation. His pants fell away as his body melded from man to wolf, sailing through the air, propelled by inhuman strength.
He hit them both with his heavy forepaws, knocking her to the side, out of the vamp’s grip.
A fountain of red liquid streamed from her neck as the suction of his mouth broke away. The vamp’s eyes had gone red with his glut, her precious blood flowing down his chin.
Navarre landed on the ground, his veins singing with his beast. He twisted, tearing at the vamp’s belly, forcing him back. The vampire slid on blood slickened grass, his feet flying beneath him as Navarre pressed forward, going down.
Navarre was on him before he could
He shook him like a rag doll, the taste of blood fueling his rage, taking over his human half, drowning out his reason.
There was nothing but the taste of the kill, the flutter of his heartbeat, hands ripping at him, feet flailing ... and then nothing. The head rolled away. He’d severed it without realizing it, so fogged with bloodlust had he become.
Seconds only had passed, an eternity for the last moments of life.
Navarre released the vampire, padding to Kaeli as the vamp crumbled to dust.
She lay in a crumpled heap, her eyes closed with the pain. Blood and saliva frothed her lips, thick red pumping from her jugular.
In a moment more she would be dead. He had but one choice to save her. If it failed, she would suffer a more horrible death than he could imagine.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kaeli was mercifully unconscious as he knelt over her and pressed his snout against the wound on her neck. One bite, one scratch in this form was all it took to infect her. The full moon had risen above them, dappled light shining down through the edges of the trees. The change would be almost instantaneous ... if she survived.
May god have mercy on his soul.
Navarre sank his wolf’s teeth into her neck. She moaned softly, whimpering as he released her. He shuddered, shaking off his shift as he changed into his human form. He crouched next to her, naked, touching her body as the first spasm wracked through her.
Her eyes flew open, looking up at him but not seeing, filled with pain.
She screamed, grasping his wrist with a strength that would break a mortal man. A ripple flowed over her skin like water. The blood from her wounds ceased its flow abruptly. Fire flashed beneath his palm, her skin going feverish hot, and he felt the movement of bone, heard the sharp crack as it shifted, collapsing upon itself.
She screamed again and again, arching her back, releasing him as her body seized. Bile rose in his throat, and he choked it back, his gut clenching with her pain. He wanted to halt her torment, but he was as powerless to kill her as he was to let her die. She rolled onto her side, convulsing, curling into a ball. Her limbs drew up, shortening with agonizing slowness as she became wolf.
Fragile hope spread through him as he watched, unable to look away.
She was going to make it. Never had he met a human woman who’d survived so much.
She gasped, hassling as fur sprang from her skin, growing like some bizarre plant in time release video.
He blinked, unable to believe his eyes. The wolf lay on the ground, panting, then slowly stood and shook its fur as if wet, throwing off the remnants of her gown. Glowing, golden eyes met his as the wolf regarded him. He reached for her, slowly, and ran his fingers through her silky hair.
She tilted her head, watching him as he petted her, marveling that the change had completed. He smiled wryly, allowing his racing heart to slow to normal. He should have known better than to misjudge her strength and tenacity to survive. No woman had ever fought so hard. No woman had ever captured him so completely.
“Are you ready to change back?” he asked softly, rubbing her fur in soothing circles.
He sensed her acceptance, her eagerness to return to human form with the slight tensing of her body. “All you have to do is wish it. The first change always comes with the moon. Once you survive it, you can change back and forth at will. It gets easier with time.” Until then, each shift would be painful, but never like the first time. The body acclimated with the cellular change, able to heal and recover faster as it took hold, until shifting could come as easily as a thought.
And with experience, the rising full moon would not shift her immediately to wolf, though it was hard for even an old hand as himself to resist the seductive lunar call.
“Concentrate,” he whispered. “See your human self and it will come.”
Long moments passed and nothing happened. She whined, and he knew what was wrong. The moon was as yet too strong, still in the sky.
Once it set, she could shift back. He’d forgotten something so elementary.
“Soon,” he promised. He scooped up his jeans and led her to his car for a night that promised to be long.
