TASTE OF BLOOD

Rare Love

"Time to go."

She and Rad went out the side entrance to find a shiny black Audi was sitting there with the engine running. "You drive." Rad's voice had very little tone now.

She got in behind the wheel. Following his instructions to head back downtown, she found the car easy to handle. It was late and there was no traffic and all the streetlights were on. He finally told her to pull over and they got out of the car.

"Misty, I want you to hang onto the back of my pants and don't let go until I need to get into a fight." His toneless voice was strange. She slide behind him and put fingers into his waistband to follow him.

They walked for a block and she said. "Rad, Vampires." He stopped and waited. He moved out into a light and two of the men who had been at the house moved into another light down the street.

He moved faster and they met. They were told that the area was clear. The two men wanted to go in with him, but he said no, and thanked them. They said they would stay on the outside just in case any more arrived. She continued to hang onto him as he entered the lobby of a grand old hotel. There was no one present, not even a clerk behind the scarred counter. The faded velvet cushions on the couches were empty and the elevators were both on the main floor, just waiting.

"I am going to carry you up the stairs." He lifted her and with a rush they were moving upward. She buried her face into his neck, hanging on until they reached a point where he stopped. He set her down and shocked her by dragging her hand over the front of his leather pants where his large erection pushed painfully forward.

He leaned down, kissed her, and he tilted her head and bit her neck. She felt the pain and the ecstasy. He took only a little and licked the two punctures before he lifted his head. He smiled his crooked smile and he disappeared. Virtually disappeared right in front of her eyes. She heard the noise but she was not sure what she was hearing and she was afraid to move. Either he was going to win and he would come back for her or they would come for her. So she found the railing of the stairwell to lean against and waited, barely breathing, not thinking, just listening.

There was a draft and he was again in front of her. She had no feeling of the time involved—it could have been a few minutes or it could have been an hour. He pulled her to his hard chest and she wrapped her arms around him and hung on with what little strength she had, suddenly feeling extremely weak.

He turned and picked her up and carried her down the hall past several closed doors and into a large guest room. She took in several things at one time. There were a number of dust piles with wrinkled clothes in them. There was the lovely woman, Vasa, who sat on a couch with a silver knife pinning her hand to the wood in the armrest. But worst of all there was Alex, lying across a large desk. He was too tall for the desk so his knees were bent and his feet almost touched the floor. His chest was bare and he had terrible burns over his upper arms, across his pecs and on his stomach. She saw the small stud, like the one that had been in Rad. But the flesh around it was dark and discolored.

Rad set her down and he went over and carefully lifted Alex, carrying the beautiful blond over to place him on the carpet. Rad threw a coffee table across the room to have it out of the way and gently straightened Alex's arms and legs. He glanced once with eyes that were on fire at Vasa. She showed no expression. He placed a hand, spreading his fingers open around the stud, and using his other hand he pulled the silver item from Alex. She heard Alex moan. She moved over to the two male Vampires she admired.

"Will he make it?" She did not know why she whispered.

Rad looked at her. "You will have to help him heal. He is younger and such a restraining item, along with the torture, is much worse on him than it was on me." He rose up and walked over to Vasa. He reached over and taking her neckline in his hand, he ripped her top to her waist, leaving her naked. Then with one swift movement he jabbed the stud into her chest, just below the collarbone. He pulled out his knife, wiped it on her skirt and put it into his sheath, on the back of his jacket.