“Is she alive?”
“Barely,” Lucas muttered, then sat beside her and stroked her cheek. “I will be forever in your debt for coming back for us.”
“Don’t give me too much credit.”
Lucas frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t go back for you. I went back to deal with Rafael. He never would have stopped until one of us was dead. He wanted me to suffer.” In his mind, Cain saw Diamond chained and at Rafael’s mercy. He wanted to kill him all over again. “We’re free of him now.”
Lucas nodded. “Yes, and thanks to you, Elizabeth and Diamonique are alive. That’s all that matters.”
“Too true.”
“If you ever have need, I would be honored to repay my debt to you.”
Cain looked at Elizabeth. “You can repay me by keeping her alive. She will save you, Lucas. In more ways than you can know.” Then, before Lucas could say anything else, Cain dematerialized.
When he reappeared, he was standing inside the doorway to the living room. Diamond had settled back into the cushions and closed her eyes, though he could tell she wasn’t really sleeping. With Diamond unaware of his presence in the room, Cain took a second to simply watch her. Christ, every time he closed his eyes he was going to see her bound to that cold brick wall, Rafael smiling. He’d come so close to losing her forever.
Never again.
He yearned to stay close, but they both needed nourishment so he forced himself to leave. He landed in the street, near a nightclub. There was a car close by with two young men and two women inside. They were just girls really, barely out of their teens. Cain didn’t relish taking their blood. He hadn’t really wanted the blood of women since meeting Diamonique. However, it couldn’t be helped; he needed whatever he could get tonight.
Cain strode up to them and knocked on their window. The silly fools rolled it down. Anyone with an ounce of sense would check, before blindly rolling their car window down in the middle of the night on a dark and empty street. Hadn’t their parents taught them a damn thing about survival? Before the night was through Cain would teach them a lesson they would never forget.
One of the boys laughed at something the other said, but all Cain heard was their hideous music. He never could figure why young people had to kill their eardrums in order to enjoy the sound of an instrument.
“What do you want?”
The skinny want-to-be stud was entirely too brave for his own good. Cain smiled, allowing his fangs to gleam under the light of the moon. The pierced youth stuttered and stammered, giving Cain ample time to take full advantage. He wrenched his door open and grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt.
“You have something I want, boy.”
The gangly boy flailed about, his feet dangling above the sidewalk, totally at Cain’s mercy.
“What’s your problem? Let me go!”
Cain smiled. He had to hand it to the kid; at least he was attempting to appear brave in front of his girlfriend.
“You’re about to be dinner.” Then Cain dipped his head towards the boy’s throat, stabbing at his jugular with his sharp incisors and then drank greedily. Cain was careful to take only a small amount, then closed the holes in his neck with his tongue. The marks would ensure the boy remembered this night. He wanted to instill a little fear in him. Maybe next time he would think twice before talking to strangers.
After sitting him gently on the sidewalk, Cain looked through the open door of the car. The other three stared in awe. As if he were some damned hero from a movie. They should have been scrambling to get away from him! One girl was dumb enough to say, “Awesome.”
What the hell was the matter with kids today? Cain reached in and yanked out the other guy. He had dark hair like the first but was considerably larger. There was no argument at all this time. In fact, this one seemed eager. Even bared his neck.
“Lord save me from teenagers,” Cain growled.
A moment or two later, he sat the second teen next to his friend and turned to stare at the two girls in the back seat. One was a blond who didn’t look any older than thirteen. The other a redhead. To his chagrin, they actually smiled at him and got out of the car. The blond sidled up next to him and batted her pretty baby blues. The little chit was flirting with him! Well, hell, didn’t that just beat all.
If they only knew moments ago he’d thrust a stake through the heart of the leader of The Dark Dominion they’d be running in fear. But, like sacrificial lambs to the slaughter, they both bent their heads and bared their necks for him. As if that wasn’t strange enough, the blonde one also tugged at the miniscule tank she was wearing until her tiny breasts spilled over the top, then smiled coyly up at him and murmured, “You can bite me anywhere you like.”
Christ, she was just a kid! If he had a daughter who acted like this, he’d turn her over his knee. He frowned at her blatant display and tugged her top back up, covering her barely-there chest.
“Go home little girl, before you find yourselves getting into more than you can handle.” He started off, but not before he heard one of the boys call out to him.
“Hey dude?”
Dude?