Once Bitten
Page 49He laughed, and I gaped at him. I hadn't anticipated him recognizing me. There went the element of surprise. He knew what I was. Well, actually, he knew what I used to be. At least I didn't have to come up with an excuse to be there.
I flashed teeth at him. “Come downstairs."
"No. You should come inside.” He held open the door.
Down the hall, a door opened. A man in a robe walked out with a small, yippy dog. He stood in the hall, waiting on the elevator.
Crap. What choice did I have but go inside? I couldn't just grab the rogue and drag him down the stairs. He'd wake the whole complex. I stepped through the doorway. The threshold resisted, but didn't stop me.
The rogue slammed the door behind me, bolt locking it. Oh good, the shifter who preyed on women now had me locked in the apartment. He might find me a little harder to take than Lorna or Candice though.
With the door shut, the room fell into near darkness. The city lights bled through the windows. Their pale orange glow threw strange shadows across the room. When whimpering sounded deep in the apartment, I cringed. Katie Jones, I was betting.
How was I going to get the rogue out? Time ticked against me.
"You can drop your coat anywhere,” the rogue said. He tried to step behind me, take my coat, but I wasn't about to give him my back. He smiled. “Please, get comfortable. I've been waiting for you. Dreaming about you."
Okay, that was more than just creepy. I needed to distract him. I could probably knock him unconscious. Then I could drag him downstairs. But I needed a clear shot first. If he shifted, I'd be in trouble. I was stronger as a vampire, but new, untested. Playing along was the best way to get his defenses down. I shrugged out of my coat and laid it over the corner of the couch.
His nostrils flared. “You don't smell like I thought you would."
I almost laughed. I bet I didn't. I'd sucked on two male vamps tonight. “Reality tends to screw you that way."
He nodded, his goatee twitching with the movement. “I'm Tyler. Remember that. I want to hear you screaming it in your last breath.” His gaze lingered on my torn turtle neck. “Someone else started my party, I see."
The time for playing along had passed. I dropped my weight to my back leg. His heartbeat sped up, loud in the silence of the apartment, but not from fear. His hand dropped to the front of his jeans, his thumb running down the bulge by his zipper.
He was turned on by the fact we were going to fight? Well I hoped he had a damn fine time while I beat his lights out.
Actually, maybe his excitement could turn the tables in my favor. If I could make that mesmerizing thing work, the way I'd turned Evan's excitement against him, I could get Tyler to follow me down the stairs and into the hands of the judge. The problem, of course, was that I didn't know how to do it.
I took a step closer to him and his eyes widened, his thumb stroking faster. He liked aggressive, I could do that.
I lunged. I was fast, but so was he. My fist glanced off his upper arm, but his punch slammed into the shoulder Tatius had ripped into earlier.
Pain surged through me and I backpedaled. Not fast enough. A back-handed hit sent me sprawling to the carpet. He followed me down, ripping at his jeans at the same time his knee landed a blow in my stomach.
I swung. My fist connected with his nose in a sickening crunch. Blood spurted from his nostrils. That was exactly what I needed. My fangs extended. I lunged for his throat. He pushed himself backward, but not far enough. My fangs sank in deep.
The world held its breath for one incredible moment, then his memories plowed into my mind like a tornado. Bits and pieces of his life filtered into me. He was despicable long before he became a shifter: a rapist, mugger, gang banger, and overall tormentor of those weaker than himself. I felt his beast burgeoning beneath his skin. Wolf. Even caught in his mind, I shivered.
I saw clips and pieces of his thoughts and memories of different victims both from before and after he changed. The small part of me that could still tell the difference between my thoughts and his fought the connection. Tried to keep us separate.
I became him, became Tyler as he shifted for the first time in the middle of a crowd. The party. Jason changed beside me. Our form solidified and the fresh born spirit looked out of new eyes. Jason also solidified, but he wasn't a predator. Small antlers sprouted from his head. Food. Like any prey that discovers a predator close by, Jason ran. This excited us, excited our new beast. We gave chase, tearing through the crowd in our way. We raced after the shifter, until we pounced on him in the center of the woods. Flesh split under our teeth. We howled, triumphant, even as the blood of our friend poured into the dirt at our feet.
Disgusted, I pushed the memory away and fell into a new one.
I caught an image myself, Kita, not as Tyler saw me now, but several months ago, before he'd been tagged. I had looked easy, but had turned out to be a hell cat. He'd enjoyed it until I tore through his arm. I saw the night Sharon had escaped. After that, he made sure every girl was too drugged to run. It took some of the fun away, he liked it when they screamed and fought him. That's why they were surviving now, it wasn't as much fun when they couldn't run and fight. Some of the girls I recognized from the paper, some I didn't. They all had streaked hair. It reminded him of me. I saw a single horrifying image of Lorna, then his mind flashed to Candice.
She kept trying to scream. It was delicious. We touched her, bringing more muffled screams. Her flesh ripped apart. Her bones snapped. We loved it. She cried for us.
I pulled away from him so fast my fangs tore chunks of flesh from his throat.
I was on the floor, Tyler convulsing on top of me with his jeans unbuckled, but thankfully, still on. I pushed him off and rolled away. I clutched my trembling knees to my chest and rocked myself while I watched him bleed onto the moldy carpet.
I should kill him now.
I didn't want to touch him again.
His eyes stared at nothing, completely glazed over. I dragged in another gulp of air. Every breath was tainted with his scent. My mouth tasted of his blood.
Deep breaths.
Could a vampire hyperventilate?
Somewhere deep in the apartment the whimpering had turned to soft crying, and I cursed under my breath. How much time had I lost already? It was impossible to tell.
I glanced down the hall. I only needed the rogue. I could send back help but I couldn't turn back the clock and save Bobby or Nathanial if I was late to the judge.
I turned to go. Another muffled scream tore through the air, cut through my skin. The memory of Candice's fear flashed through me, nearly bringing me to my knees.
I couldn't leave her. I only needed seconds to reassure her.
Cursing again, I stood up and walked to Tyler. “Don't move until I come back for you."
His eyes stared at nothing. No acknowledgment, but no movement either. Had the mesmerizing thing worked? I prayed it had. I also prayed Nathanial could feel my success, could tell the judge things were going well.
Creeping down the hall, I followed the muffled cries to a door deep in the back of the apartment. I pushed it open, cringing as the hinges squealed.
A woman in a short skirt and torn blouse lay bound and gagged in the middle of the floor. Fear pulsed off her in tangible waves as I stepped into the room.
Blood. I froze.
It wasn't a lot of blood, but she was injured. Was it enough for her to have been tagged? Black mascara tears trailed down her cheeks, soaking into the torn rag gagging her.
"I'll come back,” I whispered.
Her eyes squeezed shut.
Not acknowledgment. Resignation. No. Despair.
"Stay still. I'm a friend,” I whispered.
She jerked in the bindings, her head whipping to the side. She screamed again, her eyes rolling to focus on mine and then beyond me.
A footstep creaked behind me.
I went still. There were two scents in the room, and two racing heartbeats. I should have paid more attention. The girl wasn't senseless, she was trying to warn me.
I shot up, whirling around. It wasn't Tyler. Overgrown dark brown hair hung at his ears. Had I'd tagged all the men who had attacked me? Were they all in this apartment? No. One was dead. Jason was dead.
This man had already changed forms, though it was hardly a shift at all. Tagged shifters rarely managed to shift far. Even an advanced mid-form was out of their ability. That was certainly true for this rogue. His face had rounded out and his nose and jaw extended to give him the smallest bit of a muzzle. Too many sharp teeth were crammed into that small, almost human mouth, and his ears had reshaped so that they pointed at the ends. A sprinkling of fur covered him. The most dangerous part of his change though, were the curved claws extending from his fingernail beds. As far as shifting went, it was a baby of a change, but still deadly if he knew how to use the claws.
I crouched defensively. If I were still a shifter, he'd over power me in a heartbeat. But now? I wouldn't know until he attacked.
I waited, but this new rogue watched me. He seemed to be expecting some reaction I wasn't giving him. Terror? That would be a human reaction, but I wasn't human.
His eyes narrowed, sweeping over me. He took another step forward and suddenly, the human face came into focus in my mind.
"Bryant? So this is what you planned when you drugged my drink?"
He smiled, his canines flashing. “You don't find my appearance monstrous? Should I turn on a light so you can see clearer?” He took a step closer, and laughed, a sound half animal, half scream.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. He had been in the closet, and I was between him and the door. Not that it looked like he had any intention of leaving the room, but I had to be running out of time by now. Perhaps I could drain his blood until he lost consciousness and drag him down the stairs. If anyone asked, he was drunk.