Ecstasy in Darkness (Alien Huntress #5)(24)
Author: Gena Showalter

Of course she knew. Everyone she infected, and everyone they infected, became linked to her. She knew what they knew. Since AIR had captured one of her closest advisers—Nolan—and later healed him with Bride’s blood, she’d known before they had that the guy was on the mend.

Another step toward her, another and another. Almost … there … “Aren’t you worried?” He reached out, so close …

In the blink of an eye, she was farther down the alley, increasing the distance between them. Dallas almost shouted, “To hell with it,” and grabbed his gun. Only the need for more answers kept him quiet and still.

Damn her. There had to be a way to overpower her, here, now. Steady.

“Am I worried that the cure will kill me, since I’m the source of the infection?” She laughed, a tinkling sound. “No. But are you sure the cure works? Are you sure the disease isn’t hiding, pretending to be eradicated? Waiting for a chance to strike?”

Junior, the idiot, twitched. That laugh … Enemy, enemy, enemy. The hair-trigger arousal had to end. And what had happened to her tears? Her eyes were now dry, color blooming prettily in her cheeks.

“Yeah,” he said, determined to try again. One step, two. “I’m sure.” She wouldn’t bait him into believing otherwise.

All of Nolan’s symptoms had vanished. The desire to eat human flesh, the oozing sores that had covered his body, the gray, flaking skin and total loss of hair. And since the disease was a living, mindless being, with a never-ending hunger, constantly growing until it had outgrown its host and required the excess to be drained into another vessel, there was no way it could “pretend” to be gone.

He mentioned none of that, however. Let her think she’d convinced him. “What do you want from me, Trinity?” he asked again, even as he continued to move toward her.

“I wish to speak to your leader.”

Oh, really. “She’s inside the bar.” He stopped, held out his hand, expectant. “Come on. I’ll take you to her right now.”

Trinity shook her head, blond hair dancing over her arms. “You will be my ambassador,” she said. “I will speak through you.”

His arm fell heavily to his side. Dread washed through him, chilling his blood. “And just how will you speak through me?”

“I’ll infect you.” A return of the sadness, as if she cared, hurt for him.

She meant to control him through the mental link, he realized. Now he backed away from her. No distance would be great enough. “Not just no, but hell, no.” If she turned on the charm, if she sent her guard to hold him down, he would … what? Fuck! No answers. He had no answers.

Her eyelids slitted, dark lashes fusing together. “You will cave in this matter, Dallas.” Hard, determined.

“No,” he grated. “I won’t.”

“Let’s test your resolve, then, shall we? For every week that you deny me, I will personally infect one of your friends. Beginning tonight …” Without another word, she disappeared.

Leaving him alone with her threat. A threat he had no doubt she would see through.

Eight

The hunger woke him.

Terrible pains clawed through McKell’s body, first tearing out of his stomach, then ripping his ribs apart, then entering his bloodstream and turning every cell he possessed into a dagger. He hurt, ached, throbbed. Too … much … His fangs were sharpened, ready, his lips bleeding. He must have gnashed them in his sleep, trying to feed from himself.

He’d woken up hungry before, but never like this. As if he could die at any moment. Why had he now?

He forced his focus past the pain and took stock, gaze cataloging his surroundings. Small bedroom. Moonlight seeped past the slatted window. Pictures of Ava and Noelle hung on the wall. In them, the two were smiling, flipping off the camera, or standing over unconscious people they’d obviously beaten to pulp.

Mmm, pulp. The pain broke free, once again agonizing him.

Concentrate. Clearly, he was still in Ava’s home. He recalled coming here, insisting she doctor him, and then deciding to “nap” in her bed. Partially to piss her off, and partially because he hadn’t wanted to brave the sunlight again. He’d never meant to actually fall asleep. Had thought to put distance between them, yet keep her close, while his body healed and his mind centered.

The moment he’d climbed into this bed and realized that her butterscotch scent infused the sheets, his shaft had hardened, plaguing him, demanding he stomp out of the bedroom, find her, and finally have her. All of her. Body, blood. Devotion. He’d resisted, assuming the lust alone would keep him awake.

Lust he still didn’t understand.

Well, right now he did. Not only was Ava beneath him—mmm, beneath him—she was over him, beside him, surrounding him. Damned covers! His c**k hardened once more, desire sparking back to dazzling life and chasing away some of the pain. But why her? he wondered for the thousandth time since meeting her. She was contrary, argumentative, violent, and determined to lock him away.

Because she had agreed to help him? Not that he fully trusted her in that matter. But no, that made no sense. He’d wanted her before her agreement. Wanted her for more than his master plan.

A plan that still involved using her scent to attract other vampires. No bloodsucker would be able to resist her. They would smell her, flock to her, and he could swoop in, capture them, and demand the answers he sought. No more hunting them down, only to have them run and hide in this world he hadn’t yet learned how to navigate.

“McKell,” Ava suddenly shouted.

Danger! She was in danger.

He was off the bed and rushing into the kitchen a moment later. He expected to find her injured or battling an intruder. Instead, she sat at the kitchen table, calmly sipping sweetened coffee.

“What?” he snarled, panting, hurting again, desperate to destroy whatever had scared her. His mouth watered, and his claws sprang out. He would rip into—

“You’re lazy. You slept all damn day.”

“So you are unharmed?”

“Yes. What made you think I would be harmed?”

“You shouted.”

“Like I said, you’re lazy. I took exception.”

Deep breath in, deep breath out. He swallowed the excess moisture and retracted his claws. Another deep breath, and he was calm enough to claim the chair across from her. “I was healing.” And he wasn’t yet at full strength. Besides the overwhelming hunger, there was still a twinge in his side where she’d stabbed him.