Bound by Night

  Nicole rubbed her aching eyes as she scanned the documents in the file. Fraser had collated the medical stats of every female who had conceived in the lab and then compared the data against those who hadn’t become pregnant. Interestingly, the rate of conception in the lab was higher than that among vampires in the wild.

  Fraser had concluded that being bound and forced to copulate increased the chances of conception, but he didn’t know exactly why that was.

  Fraser was a fucking idiot.

  A sharp, stabbing throb started up inside her head, and oh, yeah, she was on her way to Flu-ville. Maybe when Grant got back, he could get her some aspirin.

  Nicole massaged her temples as she jotted down notes on a pad of paper. Only the females who had been fed blood taken from males on the night of the new moon had gotten pregnant, but not all who drank the blood had conceived.

  Sweat bloomed on her forehead. Why was it so hot in here?

  She wiped her brow and went back to the research, finding it curious that the females who got pregnant had also fought the hardest when they were taken into the breeding chamber. Fraser’s conclusion was that in their natural state, the females battled the males, causing a rise in hormones.

  Nicole threw down the bullshit flag on that one. It didn’t make sense. Rough play . . . perhaps dominance play might happen among animal species when the females were receptive to males, but the females in the lab weren’t “playing.” They were fighting for their lives. That wouldn’t happen in normal vampire society.

  But then, normal vampire society saw a sadly pathetic birthrate.

  Dammit. She was missing something important here. But her head was spinning, and the lights were dimming to the point where she was having a hard time seeing the screen.

  “Nicole?” Bastien’s voice came from somewhere behind her. “Nicole.”

  Something hit her like a full-body slam by a bus. The floor. The floor had jumped up and struck her. She couldn’t see, and suddenly, she could barely breathe.

  “Help! Someone help!” Bastien was closer, maybe even touching her shoulder.

  She heard more raised voices, running footsteps, curses, and then someone picked her up. Words buzzed in her ear. She heard them but couldn’t comprehend them.

  “It’s too late. Is it too late?” Grant’s voice, she thought.

  “Shit.” Myne for sure.

  “Hurry, dammit,” Grant insisted. “She’s dying.”

  “Don’t let her die!” That, she was sure, was Bastien.

  A massive explosion of pain blew every cell apart. Dear God, it was as if every bone was breaking and every muscle fiber was stretching to its limit and then snapping. Agony such as she’d never known became her entire world, until mercifully, life as she knew it . . . ended.

  MYNE RUSHED THROUGH the compound, the unconscious female limp in his arms. Grant had to hold Bastien back; the boy had gone nuts, full-blown, rabid, fangs-bared nuts, when Myne tried to take Nicole from the lab. Nothing Myne had said convinced Bastien that he wasn’t going to hurt Nicole. The kid had been too far gone with protective instinct, like a dog standing near the body of its owner, defending even against the paramedics who had come to help.

  Myne just hoped he could help. The silver flecks forming in Nicole’s eyes were a clear sign that she was in the middle of the change from human to vampire, but he’d never seen it happen so suddenly, and definitely not after a full week of no symptoms. Usually, humans showed signs within hours after being introduced to the virus, and they were sick for weeks as their bodies changed over. Hell, it could take up to a month for the full transition.

  Nicole appeared to be halfway there, and as far as he knew, she’d only been sick for hours. This could be bad. Real fucking bad.

  His first instinct was to deliver her to Hunter, but before Riker had offered himself up to ShadowSpawn’s leader, he’d asked Myne to take care of Nicole. Myne would have refused, but how could he refuse a guy who had saved his life?

  And who was on his way to certain death.

  Shit.

  He headed toward his quarters, but when he reached the door, he changed his mind. She needed the best shot at survival he could give her, and keeping her someplace strange was a piss-poor idea. Right now, she needed Riker, so he’d give her the next best thing.

  He burst into Riker’s apartment and laid her carefully on the bed. She groaned and rolled onto her side, curling into a fetal position. She was burning up, her skin so hot that she wasn’t even sweating.

  Sinking down onto the bed, he thumbed her upper lip and exposed her canines. Gently, he touched the tip of his finger to one. It jiggled under his touch, loosening as the vampire fang behind it grew in to replace the human tooth.

  “Nicole? Can you hear me?”

  She let out another groan, and her eyes flickered open. The green irises had clouded over, and the whites had turned red as the blood vessels inside them burst.

  It was at this point that infected humans would, if left on their own, either die or rally enough to attack anything that moved in order to drink its blood. Few would survive if they found only animals. More would survive if they drank from humans. The best chance at survival was to drink from a vampire, and best of all was a born vampire’s powerful platelets.

  This wasn’t something Myne was comfortable with. If Nicole survived, he’d forever be linked to her, when he’d never been linked to anyone but his brother. If she died, he’d have failed Riker, the only person he’d ever considered a friend.

  Exhaling on a curse, he stripped her down to her bra and underwear, partly to help cool her down and partly because her body would change, and the clothing could restrict blood flow. Naked would be best, but he figured he could go that route later if needed.

  He just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. If Nicole survived, she didn’t need to spend the rest of her life knowing he’d seen her naked. Although he wasn’t sure seeing her like this was any better. Her black bra cupped breasts made to fit into a male’s palm, and her blue panties, while not the sexiest things he’d ever seen, covered a rounded bottom he’d admit to admiring every time he saw her in the jeans with the hole under the back pocket.

  He’d always been an ass man, and Nicole had a spectacular one.

  Myne tore his gaze away with another foul curse. He wasn’t especially noble, didn’t even have to pretend to respect her modesty, but Riker was his friend, and Myne wasn’t going to ogle his only friend’s helpless female.

  “Riker, you lucky bastard,” he muttered as he put his wrist to his mouth and then ripped open the vein with his titanium teeth, cradled Nicole’s head in one hand, and put the wound to her mouth.

  She reared back, swatting at him.

  “Come on,” he urged her, but her struggles only got fiercer. She kneed him in the groin, and son of a bitch, that hurt.

  He was done trying to be hands-off. No more Mr. Gentleman. He’d never been good at it anyway.

  With a grunt, he fell on top of her and rolled them both so he was behind her, his legs clamped around her thighs, his arms pinning hers securely while he forced his wrist against her mouth.

  Suddenly, she jerked and stopped fighting. Thank the spirit-gods. Her lips closed on his wrist, and she began to take dainty draws.

  Excellent. Now he had to stay with her, feeding her when she needed blood, holding her when she went through agonizing changes. He just had to hope she wouldn’t demand his body as well as his blood. She was beautiful, passionate, intelligent . . . everything he’d ever wanted in a female.

  She was also Riker’s. It didn’t matter that Riker wasn’t here. It wouldn’t matter if they never saw him again.

  This was Riker’s female, whether he’d claimed her or not, and Myne would treat her that way.

  And that meant keeping her alive and untouched.

  “Drink,” he murmured into her ear.

  Moaning, she wriggled closer to him, tucking herself into the curve of his body. He cursed as his body hardened,
reacting to the awareness of a gorgeous female rubbing herself against him, and he cursed harder when his chest tightened with an even worse sensation: loneliness.

  He shouldn’t be enjoying the feeling of closeness, of holding someone who didn’t belong to him, but damn, this felt good. He didn’t get to be with females often, not when his bite caused excruciating pain, and he definitely didn’t get to save a life . . . ever. Nicole was depending on him in order to survive, and he began to shake with the magnitude of it all.

  Rike, he whispered to himself. If you come back and don’t mate this female before the next daybreak, I’ll kill you myself.

  Of course, that was if Riker didn’t kill him first for getting a raging erection for his female.

  NICOLE WAS STARVING.

  She rolled over, groaning at the aches and pains in her body. Geez, had she gone a few rounds in a boxing ring? If so, she’d lost the fight.

  Riker’s earthy leather scent surrounded her, both comforting her and making her even hungrier. Her stomach growled, and deep inside, another hunger throbbed, a sexual one that pulsed hottest between her thighs.

  The two needs tangled together, becoming one monstrous entity that demanded satisfaction. It was as if nine-tenths of her brain was operating only on instinct, and she had to struggle to get the remaining tenth to focus on rational thought.

  Through a haze of hunger and lust, she reached for Riker, found him next to her. She opened her eyes but saw only pitch blackness. She should probably be afraid, but the rational sliver of brain was rapidly being swallowed by primitive compulsions. She wanted to climb on top of Riker, close her mouth over his throat, and—

  “Ouch!” A needlelike stab of pain pricked her in the lip. She dabbed at the spot with her finger, felt the distinct warm stickiness of blood. She licked the puncture before touching the tip of her tongue to the sharp, pointed end of her canine tooth. Then the other.

  Were those . . . oh, God, yes, they were.

  She had fangs.

  Her breath snagged in her throat. Her heart, which would have nearly doubled in size during her transformation, pounded erratically against a rib cage she knew had also expanded and grown an extra set of bones.

  Holy shit, she was a vampire.

  A confusing mix of emotions crashed over her in a violent wave: fear of the unknown, relief that she’d survived the transformation, and sorrow at severing the last link to humanity she had left. It didn’t matter that she’d had her eyes opened to the vampire world. She’d been born a human, but she’d die a vampire, and that was a difficult concept to grasp, especially as a fresh swell of hunger crushed her ability to think.

  Need became a wicked jolt of pain that streaked from her belly to her teeth. Crying out, she curled in on herself. Hands came down on her, and suddenly, it was as if she knew exactly what to do.

  She dived for Riker’s throat, clawing her way up his body. A guttural growl echoed in her ears. Hers? Was she actually growling?

  “Your tongue,” he rasped. “Touch your tongue to the backs of your fangs.”

  What was he babbling about? She didn’t care. She needed food. Hissing, she opened her mouth, ready to punch her fangs into anything that came within striking distance.

  Fingers closed on her jaw, forcing her face up and squeezing hard enough to make her eyes sting.

  “Your tongue,” he repeated sternly. “Do it, or you don’t eat.”

  Food. She had to have food. Okay, wait, the tongue thing. Hastily, she probed the backs of her fangs, and there, just behind each, was a soft spot. She pressed inward and moaned as an erotic tingle spread along her teeth.

  “Good girl,” he murmured, lying back and allowing her to pounce.

  As if she’d been feeding like this her entire life, she struck, biting deep into flesh. The warm, heady rush of liquid filled her mouth and slid down her throat like silk. Her body jolted as if she’d plugged herself into an electric socket, and as her blood hunger began to ease, the other hunger swamped her.

  It didn’t matter that Riker didn’t want her. Right now, all that mattered was satisfying the insane urges twisting up her insides.

  Reaching between their bodies, she palmed the thick bulge behind his fly. He sucked air and arched up, pressing himself into her touch. A heartbeat later, he snarled a vile curse and shackled her wrist with his fingers.

  “No.”

  No? She whimpered, not understanding why he would deny her something she needed so badly that she couldn’t stop rocking her sex against his. The shifting, restless energy inside her demanded release. Demanded a merging of bodies and blood.

  Frantically, she writhed, seeking relief that was only two thin barriers of clothing away. He groaned as she ground on top of him, and then, suddenly, she was on her back, and he was gone.

  “Riker?” Her voice sounded like it had been dragged behind a car on a gravel road. Sitting up, she inhaled, but alongside Riker’s earthy scent was the distinct tang of meadow grass and warm, musky skin. “M-Myne?”

  “Yeah.” He was panting, and she could smell both lust and anguish coming off him in alternating waves. “Riker isn’t here.”

  Confused, she sat there, trying to put the pieces of this bizarre puzzle together. Why would she be in a dark bedroom—Riker’s bedroom, she was sure—with Myne? And . . . was she in her underwear? She touched herself, confirmed the bra and granny panties, and was flooded with mortification.

  “What’s going on?” she finally managed.

  She heard the distinct sound of boots scuffing the wooden floor. “You passed out in the lab. You’ve been out of it for four days.”

  She frowned. “But . . . Riker?”

  “ShadowSpawn, remember?”

  Everything came back in a dizzying, nauseating rush. Riker was in trouble, and she needed to help him. That was why she’d been in the lab. And shit, four days had passed? So much time . . . he could be dead by now.

  She flailed around on the mattress in an uncoordinated scramble, feeling for her clothes. Where were they? She needed to find them, needed to help Riker—

  “Hey.” Myne’s arms came around her. “Settle down. You can’t move too fast until you’ve gotten used to your new body.”

  New body. She froze up as her new reality sank in. She really was a vampire, and this was the beginning of a new life. A new set of rules.

  Overwhelmed by everything closing in on her, she forced herself to relax but only a little. She needed to find her bearings if she was going to both recover quickly and save Riker.

  “How did this happen?” she croaked. “I was symptom-free for days.”

  Myne eased away from her, and a moment later, he settled a wool blanket over her shoulders. “Grant thinks Chuck’s immunization delayed the symptoms but accelerated the turn. Either that, or whatever made you react so badly to the original vaccine you received as a child also reacted to the recent one.” His voice lowered, almost to a whisper. “There were a couple of times we thought we were going to lose you.”

  She swallowed dryly, still tasting him on her tongue. “You were with me the entire time?”

  “Yeah.” His breathing was still labored, and now she understood why.

  She’d practically attacked him. Groaning, she flopped back on the mattress and covered her eyes with her arm. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  “S’okay.” She heard him shuffle around the room. “Can you see yet?”

  “It’s not dark in here?” Propping herself up on one elbow, she peered into the blackness. A tinge of gray teased the edges of her vision, and gradually, she could make out his shadowy form standing near the dresser. “I can see shapes now.”

  “Good. Your vision will come fully online soon, within half an hour or so.” He moved to the doorway. “I had food brought for you. It’s in the kitchen. I’ll go if you want me to. I’ll leave my cell number on the counter. You’re going to need someone to help you through these next weeks. If you need a female for . . . female things, Katina will help yo
u out.”

  She knew he was desperate to get away from her, and she didn’t blame him. “Thank you, Myne. Right now, I just want a shower.”

  Dead silence. Then a raspy “Do you want help? You’re going to be as clumsy as a newborn foal for a while.”

  Heat blasted her face at the thought of Myne helping her into the shower. “I’ll manage. But, Myne? Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  “I did it for Riker,” he said roughly. “It should have been him.”

  She agreed. But she wondered if Riker would feel the same way.

  BEING A VAMPIRE was taking a lot of getting used to. Mainly because, as far as Nicole could tell, there weren’t a lot of downsides, and that bothered her. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected.

  Fangs were awesome. So was the extra energy, speed, and strength that came with turning into a vampire. Nicole still wasn’t used to the silver eyes or having to drink human blood, but she supposed that would come in time.

  She hoped. She was having a hard time accepting the fact that the mere sight of blood made her mouth water. It was one thing not to be bothered by it; it was quite another to attack a packet of food blood like a starving wolverine.

  She was now the very thing she’d despised for so long, and what did it say about her that she didn’t care? For the most part, the clan members had accepted her, but she realized it would take time to earn their complete trust. No one was outwardly malicious, but a few weren’t letting her off the hook for her role as Daedalus’s CEO. Their questions and comments were blunt but not unfair. She answered with straightforward honesty no matter how difficult it was.

  How many vampires did you kill?

  None.

  How many did you dissect?

  Dozens.

  How many slaves did you own?

  None.

  Did you sleep well at night, knowing what your company was doing?

  Except for a few nightmares, yes.