Night's Pleasure (Children of The Night 4)

“Mara said you would need to feed,” Savanah said, her words tripping over themselves. “Maybe you should go out for a while.” What was she saying? Sending Rane out now was like signing someone else’s death warrant.

Rane’s lips peeled back, revealing his fangs. “No need to go out.”

Savanah’s heart skipped a beat. “Rane…”

Lifting one hand, he stroked her cheek. “You saved me,” he said. “It wasn’t Rafe’s blood, or Mara’s, but yours.” His eyes, red as flames, burned into hers.

“Rane, please…don’t.”

He ran his knuckles along her neck, up and down, slowly, up and down.

“Rane…”

He recoiled from the stark fear in her eyes, fear that he had put there. Filled with self-loathing, he lurched to his feet.

“Tell me to get out,” he said, his voice gruff. “Now, before it’s too late, rescind your invitation.”

“I do,” she said. “I rescind it now.”

And just like that, he was gone, and she was alone.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Rane stalked the dark streets, his anger and self-loathing growing with his hunger. He had been a fool, a fool to think he could stay with her, near her, and never hurt her. A fool to think he could continue to deny what he was. He was a hunter, a predator, meant to roam the world alone. Forever alone. He had managed to keep the monster inside him under control for the last few months, but now…He slammed his fist into the side of a building, leaving a hole six inches deep in the stucco. Pain splintered through his hand. It hurt, but not enough.

He left Kelton behind and headed for the city, his destination the slums where the dregs of society gathered. He took the first mortal who crossed his path, bent over her neck, and drank. He drank enough to satisfy his hunger, then released the woman from his thrall and sent her on her way. He watched her stagger down the street. He was no better than the drug dealers and pimps who frequented this part of the city, he thought glumly. Driven by an insatiable need, he, too, preyed on the weak and the helpless.

The thought brought him up short. That might have been true once, but no more. He had not taken a human life since he met Savanah, nor had he been tempted to drain his last victim dry. In Savanah’s house, it hadn’t been the uncontrollable monster he feared rising up in him again, but simply a need for nourishment.

He swore softly. He had frightened Savanah away for nothing.

Savanah slept in her father’s room that night. It seemed fitting somehow. The only two men she had ever loved had stayed in this room, slept in this bed. She had lost them both, but, somehow, sleeping where they had slept gave her a small measure of comfort. Her father was dead, and she would never see him again. In his own way, Rane was also lost to her.

“Rane,” she murmured, “where are you now?”

She had been afraid of him earlier, even though, in her heart of hearts, she had been certain he would never hurt her; yet, at his bidding, she had sent him away. She wished now that she had refused. She should have made him stay so they could face their fears together because she knew, as surely as the sun would rise in the morning, that it had been Rane’s fear for her life that had driven him away.

Turning onto her side, she closed her eyes, wondering how long it would take him to realize the truth, and what she would do if he didn’t.

Rane stood in the late-afternoon shadows across the street from Savanah’s house, his thoughts in turmoil. It had been three weeks since he had walked out on her. Three weeks that seemed like three years. He hadn’t killed any of the women he had preyed upon in all that time, nor had he taken the life of the mortal male he had preyed upon less than an hour ago. The knowledge replayed itself in his mind over and over again. He hadn’t killed any of them, nor did he have any inclination to do so. Why? That was the question that plagued him. Why?

Only one answer came to mind. Savanah had given him her blood when he needed it most, given it to him of her own free will because she loved him. He had tasted her blood before, but he had never taken as much as he had when he lay trapped in the darkness with holy water sizzling through his veins like liquid fire. He didn’t know if it was her blood that had healed him, or the fact that she loved him, but it didn’t matter. She had saved his life and in so doing, she had somehow tamed the beast he had been fighting for the last ninety years. His only fear now was that he had frightened her so badly, she would never trust him again.

He was trying to summon his courage to knock on the front door when Rafe appeared beside him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Rane asked.

“I’m happy to see you, too,” Rafe said dryly.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I wanted to make sure you had healed. Now that I see you have, I’ll say good-bye.”

“Don’t go. I appreciate what you did for me, you and Mara.”

“You owe us nothing,” Rafe said. “It was the woman who saved you.”

“But you came.” Rane frowned at his brother. “How did you know where I was?”

“When you were ill, I felt your pain, and I followed it.”

“Some good came out of it, then,” Rane muttered.

Rafe nodded. “I tried to sense your presence before, but there was only emptiness where our bond used to be.”

Rane flinched at the unspoken accusation in his brother’s voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but…”

“Why, Rane, why did you block the bond between us? Why did you cut me out of your life?”

Rane took a deep breath, then loosed it in a long, slow sigh. “I was afraid if I stayed, the old man would find out what I’d done. That Mom would find out.” He met his brother’s gaze. “That you’d find out.”

“Find out what?” Rafe asked, frowning.

“That I wasn’t like you! That first night when the old man took us hunting, I went out later, alone, and…” Even now, all these years later, he couldn’t say it, couldn’t tell his brother what he had done.

“Is this about the woman you killed the night we were turned?” Rafe asked.

“How do you know about that?”

“How could you think I wouldn’t know?”

Rane stared at his brother in disbelief. “You’ve known about her all this time?”

“Of course.”

Rane searched his brother’s mind, looking for some sign of disgust or disappointment. He found neither. “What about Mom and Dad? Did you tell them?”