Dangerous Days (The Firsts Book 18) Read online

  Without consciously deciding to do as this intruder asked her to do, Sophi followed him back to her couch and lowered herself slowly. It felt odd to suddenly feel relaxed sitting beside him because somewhere in her mind, in her gut, she was panicking. When she tried to get up and run from him, shock set back in again when she realized she actually could not do it. At all.

  He smiled showing perfect white teeth as he lifted the plates from her and set them on the table behind her couch.

  Trying not to panic, Sophi shook her head.

  “Who are you? What have you done to me? Please, whatever you do, don’t hurt Odysseus.”

  At least she could still say what she wanted to say.

  Her eyes stayed on his hands, powerful arms pushing long dark fingers through white fur, his strokes easy and caressing.

  “Never.”

  It was his voice, Sophi realized. It was hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Deeply timbered. She thought she could easily always listen to it. If he wasn’t a psychotic asshole who had broken into her home.

  “What do you want?”

  “To ask you some questions. Sophi, my name is Kwano. When I ask you questions, you must answer me honestly. Only the complete truth.”

  “I’m an honest woman. You can depend on that. I can’t imagine I know anything you would be willing to commit a crime to discover, but go ahead. Ask your questions and then please leave us.”

  Sophi was startled when Kwano’s hand slid off Odysseus and wrapped around hers. “I can tell you are an honest woman. This is a sensitive subject. Sophi Martin, you dated a man named Raoul for two years. I need to know if you knew what he did for a living.”

  What? Raoul? Sophi shook her head. “I…um…”

  “Sorry. That wasn’t clear. Tell me what he did for a living.”

  The lightheadedness came again and when it cleared, Sophi began to answer this man’s question by telling a secret she’d vowed never to reveal. “He hunted vampires. They’re real. They’re killers. Raoul manages a group of hunters who protect people from them.”

  Hand to stomach, because she thought she might throw up, Sophi stared into dark eyes that seemed to hold the warmth of the brown earth. They couldn’t, though, because this creature, what he’d done to her, what she now realized was the skill Raoul had told her about, only a vampire could wield it.

  What she said next would likely end her life, she was certain of it, but she said it anyway. “You’re one. You’re a vampire.”

  His slow nod told her everything she knew about her future and how she was going to die. Still, she couldn’t shut her mouth. “You’ll rape me, you’ll drink from me until I am nearly dead, then you’ll kill me. I sense some kind of humanity in you. Some. Maybe. Will you spare Odysseus?”

  If it was possible for a stranger to break his heart, and Kwano now thought it might be, Sophi Martin was breaking it. She truly thought him a monster who could do nothing other than brutalize her, use her, rip her throat out, kill her, and then kill her cat.

  Things were unbelievably ugly in a hunter’s world.

  He slid closer. “Sophi, I am vampire, but not a murderer. We are good people, most of us, just like you. I promise, you will not be harmed in any way, and this big ball of sweet fluffiness will continue to purr just as he is for a long time to come. I am only here to find out what you know. You have now verified that you are aware of vampire existence, so all I am going to do is remove that memory, re-sort others so that you’ll have no holes if you see Raoul again, and let you continue with a happy life.”

  “I don’t want you to screw with my memories. Raoul says that your kind loves controlling us and using us for food and sex.”

  “Raoul had good intentions, but he and all that worked with him are wrong. Before I do what I need to, I have one last question. Have you told anyone else in your life about the existence of vampires?”

  She lowered her head. “I don’t have any close friends, no one I would confide in. I promised Raoul I wouldn’t tell anyone and I didn’t. It’s a burden most people don’t need.”

  A sadness he hadn’t seen in her tonight came on suddenly. When all he had seen all night was sweetness and light, where did that come from? Humans lived such complicated lives out here in this unprotected world.

  “Sophi.”

  She lifted her head and her eyes found his again.

  “Tell me your story. Who are you and how you’ve come through your days to where you are now.”

  “Why?”

  The question surprised him. She shouldn’t have been able to do anything other than answer him. “Because you fascinate me.”

  Her head jerked back as if he’d struck her.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I fascinate you? Why?”

  “As vampire, I can feel much of what you feel. Within you is the capacity of boundless joy, love, hope, selfless altruism. Yet I also feel sorrow and disappointment. Pain. Old pain? I’m not sure.”

  His fingers had slipped around her wrist again.

  Unexpectedly, Sophi admitted his touch felt good and she had no desire for him to stop. People rarely touched her.

  “I don’t know how you can do that. I don’t know why you would. I’m nobody. I do what I do because it brings me so much pleasure to be able to help people. The people I see at the clinic are hurt and I’m able to stop it or give them hope that they’ll be well. We see a lot of terminal patients come through there, I don’t have the right to be sad.”

  “You have the right to be anything you need to be. Why do I sense so much loss in you?”

  Moments passed before she answered. When she finally began to speak, he watched the cat jump back into her lap and her other hand slide deep into the fur.

  “My family wasn’t… Damn, I try so hard to forget my childhood, but it’s apparent I never will. My mother was abusive. Physically, emotionally. Criminally bad. She beat my older brother and me. Often. Badly. We had no one to turn to, so we just endured. Endured. That’s the word I use, but the truth is we just tried to survive. My brother Eddie couldn’t take it anymore, so he left when he was fifteen. My mother locked me in my room so I couldn’t.”

  “Dear Gods.”

  “It’s okay. I made it through. Eddie didn’t. When you’re told every day that you’re stupid and ugly, it’s pretty hard to come out well on the other side. Eddie took his life when he was twenty years old.”

  She dropped her gaze. “I think he felt awful that he left me behind. It got worse afterward and I think he couldn’t live with that.”

  “I’m sorry. Ah, Sophi, I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’m okay. I made it through and I have a good life now. You see, Raoul and I didn’t date. We were kind of a support group for each other. He came from the same neighborhood and while his parents weren’t as bad as my mother, he and his sisters had it rough too.”

  “I’ve never been exposed to anyone who could do that to their children.”

  Tears welled, and she lifted the hand curved into Odysseus to touch his cheek when she noticed Kwano’s eyes were wet. “Wow. Tears from a vampire. Now that’s something I bet Raoul never saw.”

  Sophi took a deep breath. “Look, we all have our journeys and mine led me here to my own sanctuary where I can do what I want to do. I’m happy here.”

  “You are a brave woman, Sophi Martin.”

  “Yeah, I am.” Continuing to study Kwano’s face, emboldened by the odd feelings his compulsion had created, Sophi slid her hand down and cupped Kwano’s cheek, then lower, over thick muscles. She’d felt a man’s chest before, mostly in a clinical setting, never something so sensuous.

  “Can I tell you that you’re spectacular? Vampire, huh? You’re not here to hurt me? To eat me?”

  Kwano’s chuckle surprised her. “I’m really not. We do feed, but we don’t kill. Many times, we feed during sex to take an orgasm from incredible to intoxicating.”

  An orgasm. Sex. Sophi wasn’t a puritan, she’d had sex. Six y
ears ago she had dated a nice young man who worked in one of the labs at the clinic. Sex with him had been pleasant; the close connection to another human being had been nice. But it wasn’t anything that made her beg for more.

  Since, then, she’d tried again at a romantic relationship two more times, her dates uninspiring and the one time she had intercourse with each of them, the experiences were what she always thought of as lukewarm when what she had been looking for was something hot.

  Sophi scanned the mass of masculine perfection sitting on her couch, touching her hand, dark eyes showing sympathy for her messed-up childhood.

  Vampire. Sexual animals, bloodletting, an intoxicating orgasm. She wanted an intoxicating orgasm. And girls like her rarely had a chance at a man like this.

  Having just experienced compulsion when forced to say something she never would have, Sophi knew how it felt, and she knew that was she was going to say next was not compelled by Kwano. The twitching between her legs told her that it was all her own idea. Could she really ask something like this of him? Could she trust instincts that told her this man in front of her was no danger to her?

  “Would you…”

  My God, was she actually going to do this? Ask him?

  Yes, she was. She had never had a truly satisfying sexual encounter like she saw in countless books and vids. She’d never be this close to such an erotic moment again.

  “Would I what?”

  “I’ve never been with someone like you. Life’s too short for missed opportunities, so…”

  Gently pushing Odysseus off her lap, Sophi slid closer to her vampire intruder, well aware that this was all kinds of wrong. Heavens, he smelled like sex!

  “You’ll find I’m not shy, but I am curious. I’m tired of living safe. Kwano, would you do what you just said that you can do? To me? Feed from me? Give me an intoxicating orgasm?”

  He looked shocked. She could almost see his withdrawal from her.

  Shooting off the couch, Sophi nearly tripped, her hands in the air as if trying to erase the request.

  “Of course you won’t. It’s okay. I know I’m not pretty. Not sexy. I’ve made it clear I’m certainly not skilled. It was just a ridiculous idea.”

  Kwano was in front of her, capturing her flying hands, using impression to calm her agitation. “Sophi. Sophi, stop. You just caught me off guard. That’s the last thing I would have expected you to ask. Sex and feeding with a vampire is incredibly intimate. Just moments ago you thought vampires were mindless killers. I just had to process this.”

  “You’re right. But you understand what I mean? I’ve never had an orgasm, not with a man. I’d like to experience that. And, if you can’t give me one, it can’t be done. You are so damn beautiful.”

  Kwano’s gaze slid over Sophi. She’d forgotten she was just wearing a bra and her uniform pants. Swallowing hard, she knew what he saw. A bony woman with tiny breasts that wouldn’t come close to filling his hand. Pale as a ghost. Nothing sexy at all. Nothing remarkable at all.

  He probably couldn’t even get it up for her.

  “Forget it.” Sophi walked away, but only made it a few steps when her head spun again, her balance lost again.

  Held in Kwano’s arms, Sophi grabbed his neck.

  “You just told me I am beautiful. So are you. I am going to make love to you thoroughly, and Sophi Martin, you will have that intoxicating orgasm.”

  In her bedroom, Kwano stripped the ugly scrubs off her and let his eyes drink in every inch, few though they were. She was beautiful.

  “You glow, Sophi. There is so much love and beauty in you, you know that don’t you?”

  She couldn’t answer.

  “Do you know what an aura is?”

  “I know what they’re supposed to be.”

  “Auras are real, too, and yours shines like the sun.”

  Her smile made his desire surge when he used air-displacement to remove all his clothes. He started to lower himself to the bed when she pushed up onto her knees and crawled across it.

  “Wait. Let me touch you.”

  Sophi used both hands, and started at Kwano’s neck, slid them down his body, lingering, caressing, over muscled arms across a broad smooth chest, lower, lower, over hard-cut abdominals, a flat belly, to a long thick cock poking toward her. Her breathing quickened, closing one hand over the throbbing organ, she massaged and twisted her fingers until it wept from the tip.

  That was all he could take. Kwano moved her to the mattress on her back and lifted up to capture her nipples in his teeth. As erect as his cock, they were ready to play. Teasing her breasts, he heard the moan that let him know she was ready for more. So was he.

  His body lifted so he wouldn’t crush her, Kwano nipped all around her neck, just pinpricks.

  “Will it hurt?” The question came out on a whisper.

  His answer was a sharp bite, his teeth buried beneath her skin, her blood, sweet, delicious, flowing into his mouth.

  “No, it doesn’t,” she murmured as her hand went to his chest and she spread her legs, waiting to feel him.

  Pulling from the feed, Kwano used all the control he could muster and entered slowly, aware she hadn’t had sex in some time, his desire to plunge strong, but he wouldn’t hurt her for anything.

  Sophi wrapped her hands around his buttocks and pushed him closer, pushed him in, and tightened her legs around him as he got the message and began to move in her.

  Long minutes later, as she tightened down, waves of unbelievable pleasure, she came, her body finally understanding the joy of sexual connection to another human begin. “God! Yes!”

  An hour later, before he closed the door to her apartment behind him, Kwano removed all memory of the vampire world from Sophi’s mind. The intoxicating orgasm, and him telling her how beautiful she was, he left.

  At Hunter HQ

  Everyone had arrived except Dani.

  “She’s on her way,” Eva told them. “Be patient. This whole thing is strange enough as it is.”

  Sanquinetta nursed an Irish coffee. “I still don’t quite understand what happened.”

  Kwano, slicing apart an apple with a sharp blade not meant for food, looked at her. “First bloods. First bloods who announced their intention to attack us. This could be catastrophic.”

  Dani’s voice preceded her as she entered the room.

  “You bet your hard ass it will.”

  Jack watched her storm into the break room where the others had been waiting. “Have they contacted you again?”

  “No, but I had an interesting day. Once I fell asleep, I discovered an embedded message Quattro must have done with our proximity and shared magic. It came to me like a dream, but once I woke, I knew it for what it was.”

  She had everyone’s attention now.

  Gathered around their breakroom table, Kwano and Jack in the front, Eva and San on the sides across from each other, and Saul at the rear, Dani paced back and forth, finding her words.

  Stopping and turning toward them, she began.

  “While I slept, my memory unwound several moments with Quattro that I couldn’t access awake. While we danced, he implanted what seems to be an introductory and explanatory message.”

  After pausing to define the statement, she began to relay the message. “There are four of them, but only two are first blood, the ones we met last night, Quattro and Felix. The other two were made by them, one each. They call themselves the Four Horsemen.”

  Eva noticed everyone’s expressions of sudden concern and downright shock.

  “Why the four horsemen? They ride horses? I don’t get it.”

  “It’s an old legend,” Kwano explained. “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Originally, characters from the last book of the Old Testament in the Christian faith. They’ve named themselves after four soldiers known as War, Pestilence, Famine, and finally, Death. It isn’t good that they call themselves by that name.”

  Dani shook her head. “No, guys, it isn’t. They’re guns for hire,
have been for centuries, but only recently has Quattro become bored. He has been searching for a challenge and feels that he has found it in us. First blood to first blood. A battle between good and evil. Only I think he believes that his horsemen are the good ones in this case. He believes that vampires who kill vampires, for any reason, are assassins against the universal order. Humans are of little consequence.”

  Her eyes moved to Sanquinetta and then Eva.

  “Except for us, apparently, ladies. He is obsessed with our trio of feminine talent. Female warriors. Quattro believes the universe, that destiny, has pitted us, the Hunters, and them, the Horsemen, in one epic battle, winner take all.”

  “Fu-u-u-c-c-k-k.”

  Jack drew the word out because the single syllable spat out didn’t seem big enough for this crazy shit. The danger was clear. What they would face with this bizarre group wasn’t.

  No one else had anything to say until Saul cleared his throat and spoke. “Dani, why has he chosen to reveal himself through you?”

  Sharp eyes stabbed Saul. “How would I know?”

  She’d taken offence, it was obvious, and he tried to step out of the hole he’d dug. “I only meant that he chose you and perhaps there’s a reason. A connection from your past, maybe? Did you recognize him or his companion at all?”

  He knew he’d failed when she answered him one tight-lipped word at a time.

  “No, Saul, I didn’t. If I had, I would have said so.”

  Time to back down. “I’m sorry. Yes, of course you would have.”

  Dani knew she’d overreacted. Her hypersensitivity to Saul wasn’t getting any better.

  Releasing a frustrated sigh, she looked directly at Saul, then the others. “I really don’t know where they came from or what they plan for us. I told you exactly what this Quattro guy wanted us to know. I felt him in my head. He’s excited about this battle. They’re coming for us, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to play with us first. We have to be ready for anything.”