CONSUMED
The Deep in Your Veins Series
By
Suzanne Wright
Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2014 Suzanne Wright
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2014 Suzanne Wright
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For Mae
CHAPTER ONE
(Ava)
It wasn’t often that I found myself scowling. In general, I was a happy, upbeat, animated person. Even when I was a toddler, I’d always had a ready smile on my face. Always had more energy than I knew what to do with. My father had called me ‘dippy’. My mother had called me ‘neurotic’. Whatever. Both sounded fun.
I knew I was a little too…easily excitable…for most people’s tastes. Knew I was quirky with the whole ‘humming at random times’ thing, my refusal to eat anything green, and my aversion to all things luminous yellow – it was a weird colour and I didn’t trust it. But I didn’t see the point in changing to please others, it was a thankless job. And it seemed totally dumb to let people or their behaviour get to me. But when it came to a certain blond Pagori vampire, I didn’t seem to have much choice in the matter.
It was a few months ago, before Samantha Parker and Jared Michaels had ascended to become the Grand High Pair, that my brother and I had come to The Hollow – a gated community set on an off-the-map Caribbean island. The previous ruler, Antonio, had agreed to help me and Cristiano locate some of our missing nest. Sam, Jared, and their personal squad had accompanied us during the search, and that was when I’d first met Salem McCauley.
Confident. Focused. Reserved. Fearless. Dangerous. Private.
Salem was a complex character. He also had a very unapproachable air about him; his posture seemed to scream ‘stay the hell back’. Most vampires did. Maybe I should have been one of those people who gave Salem a wide berth. I didn’t, though…because his tall, trim build and his confidence and intensity always sparked a primal need to build inside me, twisting my stomach. It was too basic and elemental for me to make any sense of it, so I’d stopped trying to.
Normally, only one thought raced through my mind when I was around him: He is so freaking hot.
Right now, a totally other thought was zooming through my brain: I’m going to kill him.
The conversation I’d had an hour ago with Fletcher, Sam and Jared’s PA, replayed in my mind once again:
“Fletch, you should see the new member of Evan’s squad, he is so cute. We talked for a while, and he seems really nice – smooth, too.”
“You know that he won’t ask you out, though, don’t you?” Fletcher said carefully.
Offended, I frowned. “Why not?”
“Well…he wants to live.”
“Okay, you’ve totally lost me.”
“If he touches you, Salem will kill him.”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t.”
Fletcher’s smile was almost pitying. “Ava, you’re on an island where the ratio of men to women is something like 60 to 1. Don’t you find it a bit weird that not one bloke has come onto you? Salem put the word out that if any man touched you, he’d kill him.”
I ground my teeth. “He has some fucking nerve.”
Fletcher shot me an impatient glance. “Oh, come on. Did you really expect anything different? I don’t know why you two haven’t got together, but I do know he won’t let anyone else have you.”
And so, I was going to kill the shithead.
Said shithead was currently beside me at the long, glass conference table with the rest of his ten-man squad. I didn’t have a clue why I’d been asked to sit in on their meeting with Sam and Jared in the main building of The Hollow. Until the pair finally entered, I wouldn’t know. I might have been excited if it wasn’t for one thing…I’m going to kill him.
It had been a week ago, when he’d cornered me outside the restrooms of a bar, that he’d quite unexpectedly kissed me. No, ‘kissed’ wasn’t the right word – it was too tame. Salem hadn’t kissed my mouth, he’d taken it, plundered it, left me aching for more. But he hadn’t given me more.
Another conversation replayed in my mind…
Off-balance by the way he’d so abruptly pulled away, I stumbled, breathing hard. Every part of me cried out for him, and I knew by the bulge in his pants that he wanted me too…So why was he standing all the way over there?
As if Salem had seen the question in my eyes, he stated, ‘I’m not going to fuck you. I don’t want a one-night stand or a fling.’
‘What do you want?’
His eyes flared. ‘Everything.’
The unexpected response made my stomach clench – whether that was in anxiety or excitement, I didn’t know. Probably both. But there was one thing I did know: ‘I don’t do relationships. I can’t give you more.’
His mouth curved slightly. ‘Oh, but you will.’
Since then, he hadn’t kissed me again. But he’d teased me with subtle, light touches –brushing against me as I past, his hands lingering in places they had no right being. Each time, the memory of him devastating my mouth while his hands kneaded and teased would slam to the forefront of my mind. And the bastard knew it. He was attempting to wear me down. But it wasn’t going to work. Nope. Not at all.
Relationships never worked well for me. Guys liked me well enough until they realised just how quirky I really was. The cheeriness, the humming, the giggling, the optimism, and the ‘being a morning person’ thing – or ‘dusk person’, in my case – would begin to wear on them.
Eventually, they would get frustrated with me all the time, would try to change me, and then I’d have to punch them in the dick until they vomited. It just seemed practical to avoid all that and stick to flings, where everything was superficial and casual.
It had been so much easier to resist Salem when he’d been a hot and cold motherfucker: talking to me some days and then blowing me off on others. Even then, though, I’d never been able to stay mad at him for long. There was a deep sadness in Salem; a well of pain. He was good at hiding it, and I probably wouldn’t have sensed it if I hadn’t known someone like him – my brother.
From minute one, Salem had been oddly protective and possessive of me for some unknown reason. In actual fact, I wasn’t sure that he knew the reason either. He seemed confused by his behaviour, seemed to be a person who didn’t trust his own feelings. Or maybe he just wasn’t good at understanding them.
That protectiveness and possessiveness had hit a whole new level in the past week. Every ounce of his natural intensity and determination was focused on me. It was scary and, well, kind of hot. But hearing that the cheeky fucker had literally ordered the other males on the island to stay away from me, thereby stopping me from having a fling with anyone else…not so hot. If he thought he could –
“What’s wrong?” Salem quietly rumbled.
So deep in thought, I nearly jumped out of my skin. His gaze was piercing, searching, concerned. Oh, I had every intention of answering his question, but now wasn’t the time or the place. And it would be fun to torment him a little anyway, particularly since he could be quite adorable when he was irritated.
“What’s wrong?” he repeated.
I sniffed. “Nothing.”
“Ava…” It was a warning.
A warning I snorted at. The red ring to his irises that marked him as a Pagori vampire began to glow, which meant he was either thirsty, angry, or horny. Pagoris were the most powerful of
the three breeds; they easily became aggressive and were incredibly strong and fast, but the downside was that they had an overpowering bloodlust. Kejas, who were marked by the amber ring to their irises, all had hypnotic beauty to lure in their prey, but the poor things also had fangs.
I was a Sventé. My kind were the weakest of the three breeds; considered tame in that we didn’t have a strong bloodlust, which allowed us to easily blend in with humans. Also, our gifts tended to be defensive and mostly boring. However, once in a while, there were Sventés with offensive gifts, just like me and Sam.
Sam, who had once belonged to my nest – a nest I might soon leave – had later become a mix of all three breeds, but I wasn’t sure exactly how it happened. It was a story that only a select few knew.
“Ava…What. Is. Wrong?” Salem growled; that deep rumble did strange things to my insides. But I’d ignore that, I’d ignore my body’s responses to him, and I’d ignore his demand for an answer. Instead, I’d do what I always did when he annoyed me.
I smiled sweetly as I gently – and a little patronisingly – patted his rock-hard chest. “Just breathe.” And, yep, his face turned a disturbing shade of red. Ooh, such fun.
(Salem)
The female drove me fucking insane, and I was pretty sure she knew it. I wasn’t usually the type to care about other people’s problems. Just like I wasn’t usually attracted to petite women, and just like I ordinarily found bubbly, ridiculously happy people to be highly annoying. Yet, Ava Sanchez…She did something to me, brought out reactions that I was done with overthinking.
“Stop petting me like I’m a warm, cuddly bear.” She often did that when I scowled or snapped at her, all the while smiling indulgently at me…like a parent might do to a back-chatting toddler. I wasn’t warm. And I wasn’t cuddly.
But then, she knew that. We’d fought alongside each other; she’d seen me use my vampiric gift to kill, seen me enjoy using it. Yet, she apparently didn’t have the common sense to be wary of me. It was satisfying, since it got kind of old when everyone looked at you like they feared you wanted to eat their spleen. But it was also frustrating, because it would be impossible to keep someone safe if they didn’t experience fear. And she clearly didn’t.
Since she’d first appeared at The Hollow, I’d become increasingly fascinated with Ava. The hot little body, the innate grace, the combination of sweet and deadly, the beautiful fucking smile, and the fact that she smelt like sex, jasmine, and black liquorice – the impact of it all had hit me like a damn freight train.
I didn’t like seeing her pissed and subdued. In Sam’s words, Ava was ‘like the energizer bunny’. She was fast-moving, fast-talking, and always wearing that big cheery smile that I should have found irritating. Now, though, she was acting like…well, me: surly, irritable, and distant. I didn’t like it. She was unusually upset and I wanted to fix it. But she was playing dumb.
I wanted to collar her throat and force her to tell me what was bothering her.
I also wanted to slam her edible body onto the table and shove my cock deep inside her.
It was a struggle not to do either of those things. I was obsessed, and I knew it. Knew that it wasn’t good, because I was always intense and aggressive in going after what I wanted. It was never good for someone like me to be obsessive about anything, to want something as badly as I wanted Ava Sanchez.
The reality was that I had absolutely no right to want her. I was tainted and jaded, had too many stains on what was left of my soul. Ava, with her cheery and mischievous nature, couldn’t have been more different from me. To be with her would feel like I was touching something I had no right to touch. Christ knew I’d tarnished enough things in my life.
For a short time, it had made me hold back from her. But I was too selfish to be noble and self-sacrificing. I never denied myself what I wanted, and I wouldn’t deny myself Ava. Nor would I settle for a fling. No, we were going to be much more than that. Because I always held tight to what was mine. Whether Ava liked it or not, that was exactly what she was.
Needing to know what was bothering her so I could quickly deal with the problem, I growled into her ear, “Ava, tell me.”
Again, she flashed me a sweet little smile and patted my chest. “Easy, big guy. We don’t want you hyperventilating.”
I ground my teeth. “What makes you feel the need to drive me insane?”
“Do you want a list?”
Just then, Sam and Jared entered the room with their Advisor, Luther. That couldn’t be good. All vampires had a gift of some kind, and Luther’s was precognition. Many meetings had started with “Luther had a vision”, and things had often gone to shit after that.
My voice was low when I spoke again. “We’ll talk after the meeting.” The minx sniffed, dismissing me. Oh, she’d pay for that.
Although Sam and Jared had been the Grand High Pair for a few months now, it still felt weird to have meetings without Antonio being present. He was the one who had designed The Hollow, wanting a safe place to reside, since he’d had to worry about attempts on his life by those who coveted his position.
Sam and Jared now faced that danger, but unlike Antonio, they didn’t remain sequestered on the island. The Bound couple came on all assignments with my squad, just as they had when they had been commanders. If I was right, we were about to be given a new assignment. I had absolutely no idea why Ava was present at the meeting, but something told me that I wasn’t going to like the reason.
“Evening all.” Sam wasn’t much for pleasantries. She leaned forward in her seat, flicking her long brown hair over her shoulder. “Luther had a vision last night.” Everyone groaned, which pulled smiles from the couple and Luther.
“No offense, Luther, but you make it hard to like you.” Damien was smiling as he said it. The others laughed.
“Please tell us it’s a good vision this time,” pleaded Harvey. “Like Coach is finally going to dump Jared and Bind with me.” Despite that Sam had ascended, we would always think of her as ‘Coach’, first and foremost.
Sparks of electricity suddenly shot from the fingers that Jared had been drumming on the table and hit Harvey smack-bam in the forehead. The impact made his entire body shudder. A glint of satisfaction lit Jared’s hazel gaze.
Sam rolled her eyes, complaining in her British accent, “All right, all right, pull your big-boy pants up and stop moaning. What we’re about to say is serious, and you need to take it that way. I’ll let Luther tell you what he saw.”
His posture regal, the Gandalf-lookalike cleared his throat. His grave, solemn expression made me tense. Yep, things were about to go to shit.
“It was a large manor of some kind,” he told us. “Luxurious. Elegantly furnished. But there was such evil – it was in the air, in the walls. You were all there, searching the numerous bedrooms. I could feel that you were disgusted, enraged. Some of you were carrying female vampires, all of whom were malnourished, scantily dressed, and drugged to the point of unconsciousness.”
There was complete silence for a moment. Then Max asked, “A brothel?” Luther nodded.
“You don’t think the females are there willingly,” I guessed, my voice hard with anger at just the very idea of it.
“No, I believe they are being held against their will.”
Profanities rang throughout the room.
Denny shoved a hand through his scruffy dark hair, appearing lost. “What you’re saying…is that someone’s running a brothel for vampires?”
Luther sighed. “It would seem so.”
“The brothel keeper will probably be female, since that’s how many human brothels work.” Reuben suddenly flushed, clearing his throat. “Not that I would know from personal experience or anything.”
“One thing is for certain.” Sam’s smile was a little on the malevolent side. “I’ll enjoy whipping the living shit out of her just before I burn the place down.” I liked that idea. Being a Feeder, Sam was able to absorb and manipulate the surrounding energy. She li
ked to shape the energy into different things – bolts, beams, balls – but she much preferred her energy whip.
“But…I don’t get it.” Chico was stroking his Johnny Depp style moustache and goatee, as he often did when thinking hard about something. “Vampires are naturally sexual creatures; we can get sex easily enough without paying for it.”
“Yeah,” agreed Stuart, “there are clubs we can go where we’ll find that willingly, and it happens right there on the dance floor.”
“There’ll always be a market for illegal brothels,” Sam pointed out, her aquamarine eyes sad. “Maybe this brothel exists to cater for certain…tastes.”
“When do we leave?” Butch’s eerily dark eyes were eager. If there was one person who enjoyed assignments more than I did, it was Butch. The fact that his gift was defensive rather than offensive didn’t make him any less dangerous. He was an asset to the squad with his ability to deflect or negate anything that came at him.
“I’ll teleport us all there soon.” Jared had three gifts, thanks to Antonio’s ability to impart power: teleportation, electrokinesis, and telepathy. He wasn’t able to read minds, but he could hear any thought that was directed at him. “Luther gave me the coordinates for the place; it’s in New Hampshire.”
Sam’s gaze came to rest on Ava. “We’d like you to come along.”
I stiffened. Oh, the hell no. “No disrespect, Coach, but shouldn’t this be handled by the legion?”
Sam shrugged, unconcerned. “If Ava accepts my offer to join the female squad I’ll soon be forming, she will be part of the legion. This will be good experience for her.”
Okay, I couldn’t deny that, but…“You don’t think this is a bit much for her first assignment?”
“Clearly you’re missing the fact that this is none of your business,” Ava sang at me. I chose to ignore her remark on the grounds that it simply didn’t suit me.