Night Huntress 02 - One Foot in the Grave

Fifty minutes later, Tate and Cooper were soaked with sweat, Juan was just coming to, and Belinda hadn’t been successfully restrained. Oh, Tate and Cooper had come close a few times, but they hadn’t managed to hold on to her long enough to hand her back to Bones, which had been their objective. My stomach seemed to drop. If it had just been a matter of taking a kill shot, they would have succeeded several times over. But they couldn’t subdue her without resorting to unacceptable means. Motherfucker. That was going to have two bad consequences, the first of which would start now.

 

Belinda smiled with her fangs fully extended. “I won, so I want my victory spoils. Unless you’re a liar, Bones.”

 

Bones crossed his arms, giving her a hard stare. “I said you’d get your prize. I didn’t specify when, however.”

 

Belinda began to curse him when, amazingly, Tate interrupted her.

 

“Let’s get this over with,” he said shortly, and walked—or rather limped—up to her.

 

My gaze widened. “Tate—” I began.

 

“Save it,” he cut me off. “We failed you, Cat. You think her biting me is gonna hurt more than that?”

 

The rawness in his tone made me blink and turn away. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, that even with the added strength from Bones’ blood, he was still human and Belinda was still not. It was a lot easier to kill than to capture a vampire, even for me, or Don would’ve had more sets of fangs in his undead stable. But I knew my sympathy would only make Tate feel worse, so I didn’t say anything. I pretended to be fascinated by the wall in the opposite direction from where he was.

 

“Who says you’re the one I want?” Belinda asked dismissively.

 

“Doesn’t matter; I’m the one you’re gonna get,” Tate replied, his tone hardening. “You understand chain of command, suck head? Out of the three of us, I’m the top of the chain, so you’re getting my vein and no one else’s.”

 

That made me blink more rapidly. God, how like Tate to insist on taking the bullet, or in this case, the bite. It was what made him such a great leader. He never shirked from his duty to his men.

 

I felt rather than saw Belinda smile. “I guess you’ll do, then. Come here.”

 

“Not so fast,” Bones said, even as I composed myself and turned around. “Wrist only, Belinda. Not his neck.”

 

She gave a pout that was both menacing and sultry at the same time. “But I like the throat better.”

 

“Too bloody bad,” Bones said coldly. “Argue again and you’ll get nothing.”

 

I’d been about to insist on the same thing. A ripped-up arm was a damn sight less lethal than a ripped-up jugular, just in case Belinda thought about reneging on her promise to behave. Still, she seemed afraid enough of Bones to believe that he’d make her more than sorry if she did, which I guess stemmed from her knowing his reputation. That’s why Bones picked Belinda versus our other two caged vamps to test the guys, he’d explained. They hadn’t known him, so they didn’t know that he would follow through with exactly what he said. Belinda did know him. Too much of him for my liking, but there was nothing I could do about that.

 

She smiled as she reached out to Tate. Her shirt was still hanging open, leaving her breasts bare, and she cradled his arm next to her. Tate’s heart rate was way above normal and increasing, but I thought that had to do more with the anxiousness over being bitten versus excitement over Belinda’s tits.

 

“Don’t worry, gorgeous, you’ll like it,” she purred, giving her fangs a last lick.

 

Tate grunted. “Not on your afterlife, bitch.”

 

Belinda just laughed. Low, throaty, and knowing. “Yes you will.” Then she sank her sharp incisors into Tate’s forearm.

 

I saw the tremor go through him even as his heart began to beat faster. He thinned his lips, but not before a soft sound, almost like surprise, slipped from them. When Belinda swallowed and drew deeper, sucking on his arm, Tate’s eyes fluttered closed for a second before he snapped them open. And stared at me.

 

It was only a few moments, but it seemed to stretch much longer. Tate’s indigo gaze took on that same heated intensity it had the night he’d gotten drunk and confessed how he felt about me. I knew he’d be feeling that intoxicating warmth slipping through his veins. That heady, seductive rush that belied all logic. It didn’t happen every time a vampire bit someone, of course. I knew from experience after some nasty fights with them that a bite could hurt like hell. But when a vamp didn’t want it to hurt—it didn’t. Not even in the slightest way.

 

“That’s enough,” Bones said in a clipped tone.

 

Belinda slowly drew back, licking the drops of blood from her fangs. Tate didn’t move. He just kept staring at me like I’d somehow grown undead powers and mesmerized him.

 

“Close the holes,” Bones directed Belinda. Tate hadn’t even bothered to wipe the blood leaking out in a slow drip from his arm.

 

Belinda scored her thumb on a fang and held it over the punctures. They vanished in seconds.

 

“Is this why you can’t stay away from him, Cat?” Tate finally asked, ignoring everyone else around him.

 

I was stunned at the question, but Bones only smiled, showing a hint of his own fangs.

 

“You’d like to believe that, wouldn’t you, mate?”

 

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