chapter 4
It only took a few seconds for Colton’s sub-conscious to realize that he had to wake up, now, and that he was waking to danger, extreme danger – and something was very wrong. He instinctively tried to reach for Tess but he couldn’t move. He felt like he was in a fog. After a few attempts he finally managed to open his heavy eyelids – and what he saw did nothing to alleviate his fears. There were at least a dozen werewolves – in their human form – in the room, and they had him pinned to the bed underneath a steel mesh net. Without thinking – his inner beast came out – his fangs elongated, his eyes changed to black and he tried to lash out but his body felt like it was filled with lead. His eyes flew open and locked on the largest male in the room – who had his arm around a struggling Tess’ neck. The male’s eyes locked onto Colton’s as his tongue came out of his mouth and licked along Tess’ neck.
“Let me go you f*cking creep,” she growled as she yanked on her arm.
“Now, Tess, baby, is that any way to act towards your boyfriend?” he mumbled.
“Wh, wh, what? You’re lying. You are not my boyfriend. I would never be involved with a creep like you,” she hissed.
“That’s not what you said last week when you were begging me to f*ck you one last time before you had to hook up with the fang creep.”
Her panicked eyes moved to Colton’s, “Colton, he’s lying. I have no idea who this guy is. Please, you have to believe me.”
Colton could see in her eyes that she meant what she said – she truly did – and yet, he was getting a bad, bad feeling about this entire situation.
The alpha male rolled his eyes, “Selena, will you get your ass in here and break this spell that you put your sister under? This crap is getting old – and I want my girlfriend back.”
Colton’s heart fell as a young woman who looked remarkably like Tess walked into the room. “I’m only doing this so that you can break up with her, my mate,” she said to the alpha male. The male pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. A growl began in his chest, “I would love to change into wolf form and take you right here and now – but we have work to do, my beloved Selena.”
She began reciting a chant over and over as she looked at Tess, “Juina Shelt Fonsed. I cast a spell asking. I now ask the favor of having the spell removed. No harm may come from the cancellation of this spell. No further power shall it have. This is my will. So be it. Juina Shelt Fonsed. . I cast a spell asking. I now ask the favor of having the spell removed. No harm may come from the cancellation of this spell. No further power shall it have. This is my will. So be it.”
Colton watched, horrified and with his heart breaking, as Tess’ body began to shake uncontrollably. She screamed and cried out his name, “Colton!” then she fell to the floor on all fours, gasping and crying. When her head came up and he finally saw her eyes, the last of fight drained out of Colton as his heart broke. These were not the eyes of the woman he was falling for – these were not Tess’ eyes – these were the eyes of a stranger.
Her eyes darted around the room, “Wh, where am I? Shane? Selena? Where the hell am I?”
The alpha male called Shane knelt on the floor in front of Tess and stroked her hair down her back. Colton wanted to kill him for touching her.
“Tess? Tess, baby? Come back to me. You’re safe now. You don’t have to bang the nasty fang-er anymore. You did good, baby.”
“I did? Everything is so foggy. And why is my foot in a walking cast?” she whispered.
“You asked me to do that as part of your cover baby. Don’t you remember? We had to stage that rape scene so that he would see it in your memories as real – complete with you escaping and injuring your foot.”
Tess’ gaze came around to meet Colton’s. Her eyes narrowed to slits and there was no love in her eyes as she hissed, “Who the hell is the nasty fang-er?” she said as she struggled to her feet.
“This is the one that you told us about – the ancient one that you found by using your spells. I was content with killing him and using his blood for our little experiment one time – but you convinced me that you could lure him to us and we could capture him and use him over and over. We should be able to get at least a dozen vamp-wolves out of him before he croaks. Excellent work, Tess. We couldn’t have done this without you,” he rasped – turning Colton’s blood to molten lava.
It’s not possible that she faked all of that. He would have known. He would have felt it – wouldn’t he?
“Tess? Look at me Tess. Tell me what he’s saying isn’t true. I felt you when you were with me. I felt your love for me. It was real – I know it was,” Colton mumbled – hoping against hope to see some spark, a flicker of recognition in her eyes – but he saw none.
The alpha male – Shane – walked over to Colton’s bedside, “Ahhhh, poor lonely vamp thinks that Tess fell in love with him after only a week. Isn’t that cute. What a sad, pathetic loser.”
Selena sidled up to Shane, her hands caressing his body but her eyes were glued to Colton’s crotch – which he realized with a groan had not been zipped up yet. “Yes, but a very well-endowed sad pathetic loser,” she purred.
“Easy, babe, this vamp can’t do you the way that I can. Taylor – let his hand go so he can tuck his dick in, would ya?” Shane said.
“Are you sure, Sir? This guy’s pretty strong.”
“Well, perhaps you’d like to touch his dick and put it away for him?”
Taylor’s hands quickly released Colton’s left hand. He tucked himself into his leather pants, worked the zipper and button closed and then mumbled, “Thanks,” and then he went limp on the bed. Shane leaned down so that his breath was against Colton’s ear, “You’re not going to fight me anymore, are you vamp?”
“No.”
“Cause you’re a broken man with a broken heart?”
“Yes,” Colton choked out and squeezed his eyes closed.
The males rolled him up in the steel mesh net, secured it then rolled him up in a black, thick blanket – that’s when Colton realized that they were going to take him outside. “You do know that this won’t protect me for long, right?” he mumbled.
“I know. We’ll have you underground soon enough. And the pain you’ll feel during the short time that we have you outside in the sun, well, that’s just a little bonus for me now isn’t it?”
Colton felt his body being lifted by unseen hands, felt as they walked him out of the door to his bedroom and onto the stairs, felt the movement as they walked down the stairs then felt the agonizing burn as they walked out the front door and into the daylight. Despite the dark blanket, his skin started bubbling, he could smell burnt flesh but none of that hurt as bad as when he heard Tess’ voice say, “get me home so that I can shower his stench off of me,” as they tossed him into the back of a darkened van. The unbearable pain of his broken heart brought on a welcome blackness as he passed out.
Colton woke to find that he was chained, ankles and wrists, in the middle of a dank, dark, musty basement. His arms were stretched out to the sides so that he couldn’t reach his hands together or his feet – no chance of breaking the shackles that way. He started to think of other ways to get out of there. He wasn’t too worried, yet. He knew that Hansen would be tracking him soon – and once that happened God helped anything that got in Hansen’s way. But, as hurt as he was, he didn’t want that something to be Tess. He still held out hope that she was just acting back in his bedroom. And he knew that nothing would be able to stop Hansen once he went into his death mode. He had to get free so that he could get Tess somewhere safe, somewhere he could talk to her. He knew that deep down inside she still felt something for him – there’s no way she could have faked the connection between the two of them that they both felt, he was sure of that. A witch’s spell could have never gotten him to tell anyone about Lisette, never in a million years. The sound of the door unlocking brought him out of his thoughts and back to his situation. He stared daggers at the figure who entered the room – it was Tess’ sister, Selena. She walked towards him, looking up and down his body seductively, “Mmm, mmm, mmm, for a vampire you are one fine looking dish. I think I’m just going to have to sample you myself,” she said.
“Please do so that I can kill you. There’s no way that you’d be able to get that close to me without me being able to bite and drain you,” he hissed.
“My, my, so angry. Relax fang. I haven’t decided if I’m going to f*ck you…..yet. Right now I’m just here to take some of your blood.”
“My blood? What for?”
“I’m going to store it so that I can inject it into our pregnant females to create were-vampires, idiot.”
“Oh,” Colton said as he suppressed his smile. Apparently she didn’t realize that storing it made it nothing more than blood. They needed to use it immediately or the vampire virus would die. There was no way to store it to keep it alive. What he didn’t realize was how much she was planning on taking. He tried not to show his fear as she saw her lay three pint bags on the floor near his wrist. Three pints when they weren’t allowing him to feed? This was not good. He watched as she stood just out of reach of his teeth by his wrist. She pulled a dagger from her pocket and slid it across his wrist, then quickly shoved a needle in his vein before the wound could close. They both watched as the blood made its way down the tube and into the first bag. “You know,” she said as she stood and moved around to face him, “I’m sure I could get your heart pumping faster if I got you aroused,” she said as she reached her hand out and cupped the front of his pants. He hissed and lunged for her with his teeth but she kept herself just out of reach as she began stroking him through the leather. His mind screamed¸ “Oh hell no,” but of course his body couldn’t listen. It reacted to the stimulation by hardening beneath her touch.
“Oh yes,” she murmured as her eyelids grew heavy. Smelling her arousal didn’t help Colton either. He cursed under his breath as his erection grew even more.
“I think somebody wants to come out and play,” she mumbled as she reached her other hand towards the button on his pants.
“Back away from the vamp, Selena,” the alpha-male, Shane, said as he stepped into the room.
“You are not my master yet. I’m still human,” she spat.
“And you’ll stay that way until I feel that you’re worthy. Then and only then will I bite you, female. And disobeying an order from me is not a good way to prove your worth to me now is it? Besides, that bag is full, you need to switch to the next one.”
“Damn,” she said as she moved over to switch the pint bags. She looked at Colton and smiled a devilish smile as she said, “Looks like I helped increase the flow.”
Thankfully, Shane stayed in the room until the next two bags were full, forcing Selena to keep her hands off of Colton. Colton felt a little weak, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle, he thought, as Selena gathered up the three pints and hurried out of the room. Shane stopped her on her way out, grabbing her free hand and placing it on his crotch as he said, “Don’t worry baby. I’ll f*ck you so good when I’m done here that you’ll be walking funny for a week.”
“Promises, promises,” Selena mumbled as she walked out.
That pissed Shane off, which made what he did next that much worse. He turned toward Colton, daggers flying from his eyes as he stomped forward. It was then that Colton saw what he had in his hand: a small baseball bat.
“We gonna play ball?” he said, smiling.
“Something like that,” Shane hissed as he walked behind Colton and raised his arms. “Batter up,” he said as he swung the bat, hitting the backs of Colton’s legs. Colton hissed, but he refused to cry out. Blow, after blow, rained down on him until he collapsed to his knees and Shane was so exhausted that he couldn’t lift his arms anymore. He dropped the bat to the floor then he unlocked Colton’s wrists and mumbled, “See you tomorrow, vamp,” as he headed toward the door.
“Looking forward to it,” Colton mumbled, keeping the pain from his voice as he collapsed onto his hands and knees.
Three days later, exhausted, starving and weak, Colton braced himself for Selena’s appearance and another blood-letting. He doubted he had anymore to give after today. He flinched when he heard the key turn in the lock. Only his eyes moved to the door because his head was too heavy. He couldn’t keep himself from groaning when he saw Selena walk in. “I’ll be empty after today if you don’t feed me,” he mumbled through clenched teeth. For some strange reason, Selena didn’t come back with some smartass comment like she usually did. Instead she was deathly quiet, and skittish. He watched her with renewed interest as she walked towards him. Her eyes kept darting back to the door, almost like she was checking to see if she was being followed, or watched. He looked down at her hands and it finally dawned on him: she wasn’t carrying any empty blood pint bags. He squinted as he looked at her face again as she got closer. Something was different about her - something about her eyes. They didn’t look like Selena’s eyes. They didn’t have confidence and evil in them – instead they had fear……and pity. She looked at his gaunt face, at his starving eyes, and slowed her pace. “Colton?” she whispered, “Colton, it’s me. It’s Tess.”
“No it’s not. I’m delirious and you’re trying to make me believe things that aren’t true. You are not Tess.”
“Colton. Look at me. I had to cast a spell to make me look like my sister, but it’s me, it’s Tess. I’ve come here to help you,” she whispered.
“Help me how? Are you going to set me free?”
“I can’t. I haven’t found the keys yet.”
“Then how can you help me?”
“Can, can, can you feed without killing me?” she stammered.
He stared at her several seconds before he finally answered, “I don’t know.”
She pulled the sleeve up on her shirt and moved her wrist towards his mouth as she said, “I’ll take my chances.”
It was at that moment that he knew it was her….and that she still loved him. He pressed his lips closed, refusing to bite her, “Tess, don’t, please,” he mumbled.
She put her hands on his cheeks, “Colton Renner, you listen to me. This is my fault. You being here, hurting, dying, is my fault. But I’m not going to let you die, Colton. I’m not. I can’t because I love you. So feed dammit or I’m going to kick your ass.”
What little strength he had to fight with evaporated when he felt her love, “Oh God, Tess, please don’t. Please don’t make me do this.”
She reached up with her other hand and lifted his lip, exposing one of his fangs. She used it to pierce her wrist, knowing that the moment the scent of her blood hit him he wouldn’t be able to fight anymore. She was right. “Damn you,” he whispered as he fangs sank into her flesh. The instant her blood began to flow into his mouth, his mind was gone – he had no idea where he was, no idea who he was feeding off of, the only thing his mind knew was that he was starving and this was the nourishment that he needed and his body told him that he was going to take as much as he could. His burning throat swallowed the lifesaving elixir as fast as it could. His mouth pulled as he swallowed, increasing the flow into his body. He began to feel alive again with thoughts and emotions. His brain began to think of something other than starvation. And the first thought that popped into his mind was Tess. Beautiful Tess. His heart thumped hard in his chest as he replayed her words in his brain, her pledge of love for him, her stubbornness, her….Oh my God, Tess! He thought with a start. His eyes popped open and he forced his fangs to retract, even though they didn’t want to because he hadn’t come close to replenishing what his body needed. She was limp in his arms. Her arm flopped to her side as he released her wrist. No, God, no, he had killed her, was his first thought. He pressed his hand to her chest, silently praying that he would feel her breathing. He closed his eyes and concentrated, training his ears to listen for nothing but the rhythmic beating of her heart. It felt like an eternity, but he finally felt his hand rise and fall as she took a shallow breath. He finally took a breath when he heard the faint thump of her weakened heart. She needed food, and fast. He opened his mouth to call for help but stopped when she placed a shaky finger on his lips. Her eyes struggled to focus on his. “Don’t. They can’t know that I’m here,” she whispered.
“Oh God, Tess, I’m so sorry,” he groaned. “I have to call for somebody. You need help.”
“No, Colt. S’okay. I’m fine,” she said with the thick tongue of someone who was definitely not fine.
She turned away from him, pushed herself up and tried to walk away but she took two swerving steps and then started to go down to the floor. Colton reached out as far as he could with his chained legs and managed to catch her before she fell but not before digging the chains into his ankles. The blood splashed onto her dress. She stared down at the drops for a few silent moments then whispered, “I see why you love it. It really is a beautiful color, isn’t it?”
“Shit, Tess, why did you make me do it? Why did you force me to feed off of you?”
“Because I love you and this is my fault,” she whispered.
“This isn’t your fault, Tess.”
“Yes it is. These a*sholes, these wolves, were my friends. They were a part of my life. But when they came to me with this insane idea, I told them no. I told them they were crazy and to f*ck off. But my sister, my own f*cking sister put a spell on me. She took away my memories and planted false ones in my head. Everything was fake, well almost everything.”
“The rape?” he whispered.
“It wasn’t a rape. He was my boyfriend. I thought we were just going to have sex but he had other things in mind. To make it look like rape, he made it rough. He brought in Tommy and Dean who tied my wrists then they smacked me around while he was screwing me. It scared the hell out of me so I pulled at my restraints trying to break free – which played directly into their ruse that I had to escape during a rape. The whole thing was a ruse to get me into your life to make you vulnerable. So, you see? It was my fault,” she said as tears slid down her cheeks.
He reached out with his thumb to gently wipe them away, “But Tess, you didn’t agree to this part. You told them they were crazy and that you didn’t want any part of this. They had to put a spell on you to get you to do this. So it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault at all. I know that and you need to know that too.”
“You can’t trust me, Colton. I can’t even trust me. This, right here, could be part of their evil plan as well. I could still be under the influence of a spell,” she groaned as more tears slid down her cheeks.
Colton tilted her chin up so that her eyes met his. The love he felt for her that she saw in his eyes made her gasp. Why would he still love her after all of this? Why didn’t he hate her?
“Tess, you were a victim in this just like I was. And I trust you completely.”
“Why?” she cried with anguish.
His smile melted her heart as he said, “Because I love you and you love me. I can feel your love for me, Tess. It’s in your blood and it’s inside me. That can’t be faked in a spell, Tess. It’s real.”
She collapsed farther into his arms, exhausted from both her loss of blood and from the overload of emotions coursing through her. “Damn it Tess, I’m calling for help. You need food.”
Her fingers gripped his forearm as she whispered, “No. I need you, only you,” right before she passed out.
He knew what she was saying. She was close enough to death now that if she drank his blood she would probably turn. But he didn’t have enough blood in him to complete her transformation. He had been starved for days, maybe even a week. The only blood he had consumed was hers. It wasn’t enough. If he allowed her to drink his blood now, it would save her but she wouldn’t turn – and she would run the risk of becoming addicted to the incredible high that humans get if they drank vampire blood – an addiction that could claim her instantly, just like it did to Lisette so many years ago.
“I’m not like her, Colton. I’ll be fine. I just, I just need to get out of here to find the key to save you, but I can barely walk right now,” she said, as if she had been reading his mind.
He sank down to the floor, cradling her between his legs, as he agonized over his decision. He could hear how slow her heart was beating. Her breathing came in slow exaggerated rasps. He had taken too much from her and she was going to die if somebody didn’t do something – and the only somebody around was him – he hadn’t heard any other sounds in the house for hours. He could sense the full moon outside – it seemed that everyone was out on a hunt right now – which left only Colton to save her – or doom her depending on how she reacted to his blood. He growled a curse as he brought his shaking hand to his mouth and pierced his wrist with his fangs. He pressed the bleeding wound to her lips and had to force himself to speak, “Come on Tess. Wake up. You need to drink,” he said as he shook her shoulder gently with his other hand. She stirred, “Mmmm?” she mumbled.
“Open your mouth Tess,” he whispered into her ear.
He winced as he felt both fear and relief as her tongue snaked its way onto his wrist.
He hissed, his fangs dropped and his cock was instantly hard the moment her lips locked on and she sucked - swallowing her first taste of his blood. He didn’t mean to be turned on, in fact his brain was still screaming that he was scared shitless, but his body reacted the same way every vampire’s body reacts when someone or something was drinking from it – it got turned on and immediately wanted sex – lots and lots of sex.
“Sweet Jesus,” he hissed.
Tess groaned into his wrist and pressed her body back into his erection as if she was feeling the same thing.
She reached over and grasped his other forearm, dragging his fingers over her rock hard nipples and settling his hand between her legs.
“Oh God. You’re so wet,” he gasped into her ear as his fingers pressed against her. He tucked them under her soaked panties and slipped one inside as his thumb pressed against her. Within seconds she threw her head back against his chest as she writhed with the full-body orgasm that engulfed her. It went on and on and on. Seconds turned into minutes until, finally, she collapsed against him, little twitches still surging through her every few seconds.
“Holy shit, Colton,” she gasped then she tried to bring his wrist back to her mouth. She frowned when she saw that the wounds were already healed.
“Do I get more?” she mumbled.
Colton kissed her temple, “You don’t need more Tess.”
“I know I don’t need more, I feel awesome. But that was amazing. Seriously the best, biggest, mind-blowing orgasm that I’ve ever had. I felt that from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes and it felt like it was going to go on forever. You can’t blame me for wanting more,” she said as she sighed and leaned back into him.
Colton smiled, “I don’t. And I will give you more, a lot more. But right now you need to hit me.”
She jerked up and looked at him, “Excuse me? Why do I need to hit you?”
“Because somebody is coming. You need to act like you came in here to check on me and I tried to bite you.”
“Shit,” she said as she scrambled to her feet. As she did, he tore a piece of her dress. She held her left arm out to him, “Grab it,” she said.
“What?”
“Grab it hard enough to leave marks. Now, Colton!”
He did and she winced – which caused him to loosen his grip and got him an angry look from her, so he tightened it again. A moment later they both tensed as footsteps stopped at the not-quite-closed-door to his cell. Tess took this as her cue. She hauled her right hand back and slapped Colton across the face as hard as she could as she wrenched her left arm free, “Don’t touch me, a*shole!” she screamed as she backed away from him. The door flew open as Shane burst in, “What the hell is going on here?” he growled.
Tess rubbed her arm, her body shaking, as she said, “I came in to check on this leech and he tried to bite me, f*cking bite me!” she shrieked as she rubbed her sore arm. She looked down and appeared to notice her tattered, dirty dress for the first time, “Damn it – I love this dress.”
Shane walked up to her, sniffing the air as he did, “I’ll buy you a new one,” he said as his brow furrowed and his gaze fell to Colton’s face. Shit, Colton knew instantly that he was scenting her arousal from just a few minutes ago.
Shane grabbed Tess’ arm, “What were you doing right before you came in here?” he growled.
Tess’ eyes popped up and flitted between Colton and Shane, “W – W – Why?” she mumbled.
“Answer the damn question, Tess,” he snarled.
Tess barely caught Colton’s gaze as it flickered quickly to her crotch. Her eyes went wide as she realized what he was silently telling her.
“You’re hurting me, Shane,” she moaned as she tried to pull her arm free – he only gripped harder.
“I’m going to do a lot worse if you don’t answer my f*cking question right now,” he spat, nostrils flared and eyes flashing red.
“Fine. I was getting myself off, okay? Happy now? I had a lot of pent up energy so I decided to do something about it. Thanks for thoroughly embarrassing me, a*shole,” she said as she yanked her arm free.
As Tess was pulling off the best acting he had seen in a while, Colton was quietly dragging his hand – the hand that had just been inside Tess and still had the evidence of her ‘pent up energy’ all over it – through the filth on the floor, trying desperately to get rid of the evidence that it was him who had gotten her off, not she because he knew without a doubt that Shane would check.
“Get out,” Shane growled at Tess before he turned his attention to Colton.
Tess scurried out the door, glancing back at Colton for a quick second with sympathy in her eyes before dashing down the hall.
Shane began slowly circling Colton, sniffing as he did. Colton decided that making Shane angry might distract him so he said, “What the f*ck are you sniffing at wolf-boy? Don’t you trust your woman?”
“It’s you I don’t trust, vamp. And she’s not my woman. She won’t come near me ever since I brought her back from your place. You want to tell me why that is?” he spat.
“Dunno. Maybe she realized that wolf wasn’t good for her diet when you beat the shit out of her.”
“Or maybe you turned her into a fang girl, in which case I’m going to have to kill her.”
Colton shook his head, “She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me, Shane. She’s not a fang girl.”
“Uh huh,” Shane said and then he sniffed sharply near Colton’s back.
“Would you stop doing that? You’re creeping me out,” Colton said.
“You smell like….,” he began and Colton squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that he wouldn’t say ‘her’.
“I smell like what dickhead?” he hissed.
“You smell like blood.”
Colton had to force himself to not visibly exhale in relief. “Of course I smell like blood, you imbecile. I’m a vampire.”
“I know that you arrogant prick. What I’m trying to decide is if you smell like more blood, like you’ve fed.”
“Look at me, Shane. I’m skin and bones. I’m withering away to nothing. Do I really look like I’ve fed?”
“No, but why aren’t you dead yet?”
“It can take months, years even, for my body to die of starvation. I won’t be able to move or speak, basically I’ll be in a coma, but I won’t die for a long time.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to kill you, but first I’m going to give you a little going away present, as it were,” he said as he walked to the door and stepped out. Colton tried to listen as he spoke to the guard but he could only pick up bits and pieces. One thing he definitely heard was Tess’ name, and that was not good.
Shane stepped back into the room and walked to the wall. He grabbed a large length of heavy metal chain and wrapped the end of it several times around his hand. Using the chain was heavy-duty, this punishment was different and it made Colton worry about what else Shane had in store for him, especially after Shane put Colton’s wrists back in the restraints hanging from the ceiling. Colton closed his eyes and waited for the beating to start.