The Feeder Read online

  Eve stopped in the cellar room with me for the next few days until she finally felt safe enough to return to her apartment above. That last night, the urge to abandon my makeshift bed upon the floor and climb under the sheets with her was stronger than ever. I wanted her and not just as a warm-blooded body in my bed. She intrigued me. Yes, I wanted her blood, but who wouldn't, she was mouth-watering. And I wanted her petite, curved body pinned under mine. But was it more than just her blood and body – the things that usually were the only factors I took into account. I just wanted her.

  She was sweet, kind, funny, dedicated, and loyal. And when she wasn’t running around ripping her hair out over finding a new cleaning crew for the club or getting the money out of Gideon for a new bar, again, she made time to talk to every one of the staff, to make sure they were coping after Pippa’s murder.

  If anything, it should have been them asking how she was. She was the one with the body in her bed. Everything I learned about her made me want her more.

  And I could tell that she wanted me too… or well, I hoped so.

  Every so often I would get the sense that she did, a hint of attraction. Want. Desire. I felt it all, but without direct contact, I couldn’t be sure. There were other emotions too that plagued her; fear was the one that was present most. Usually, when another note was found – which pissed me off to no end as I couldn’t figure out who was leaving them – or after I asked her a question about life before the club. Both had me profoundly worried.

  The first day the club was reopened, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But at the end of the night when Eve made her rounds, checking each of the floors and rooms to see what needed cleaning up or fixing the next day, another body was found in the women’s toilets, a note pinned to her chest. It hadn’t been a familiar this time, just some young human. The most upsetting thing had been that the girl looked a lot like Eve. Long auburn hair and blue eyes. Whoever this guy was, he was well and truly obsessed with Eve… and a dead man when I got a hold of him.

  After that, we made it our mission to find and dispose of the bodies and notes before she found them. We never told her what we found, and we certainly didn’t show her the notes. They were getting more and more disturbing by the night.

  While I was worried about this crazy stalker, her reactions to my questions had been more worrisome. After another creep about during the day while she slept, I found the staff records. She was right, every single person that had been working at the club – both vampire and human alike – had been sacked the moment Gideon had come into power. He had also sent everyone connected to Denton packing. Why had he done that? What was he hiding? Or should I say who?

  It had taken a few days, but through a contact of mine, I’d discovered that there was a contract out for the collection and return of an Owned human whose last known location had been this club… the same day that Gideon had taken over. That human had been installed with a tracking device embedded deep within their right shoulder blade. A tracking device that I was more than positive was the one I’d found hidden away in Gideon’s office. According to the records, there were just three humans hired at the beginning of Gideon’s ownership of the club. Two of them had already left, one remained… Eve.

  Taking a quick break, I headed down to my room below. Checking my phone I saw that I had a missed call. Hitting redial, I flopped down on the bed and waited for it to connect.

  “So how is the job going?” Sabrina answered after only one ring. I could practically hear the sadistic smile etched across her face. The image of her fierce blood red eyes glinting in the darkness flashed in my mind.

  “Slow, that’s how it’s going. Fucking, bloody slow.”

  “So no one knows anything?”

  “Nothing. When the bastard took over after defeating Denton, he got rid of everyone that had not already left that was attached to him. Every one of the staff here, vamp and human, were hired after he took control. Well, everyone apart from Eve, who he brought here with him.”

  “Well, that’s something. Start with her. Get a hold of her and drag the information out of her,” she demanded. I didn’t like what she was suggesting. I knew the kind of methods she would use to get information and they were ones that I had used a time or two in my existence. But this was Eve we were talking about here. There was no way I would ever do anything like that to her.

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  The line went quiet. Pulling the receiver from my ear, I checked to make sure that I hadn’t just been disconnected. No, she was still there. Suddenly laughter blasted through the speaker of the phone. “Gabriel,” I heard her shout in the background. “Thayne’s only gone and fucking fell for Gideon’s pet,” she cackled.

  “She’s not his fucking pet!” I snarled.

  “Okay, calm down. You know what I mean. I bet that’s the way he sees her, though.”

  And it was, I knew that, didn’t mean she had to call her that.

  “Listen,” she sighed getting all serious again. “Have you found anything, anything at all that might suggest that Gideon got his position through illegal means? Or if he is doing anything that would give us a good reason to kick his ass off the Council?”

  “Not really.” Nothing that actually counted, anyway. “He’s been getting someone else to fill out all that damn paperwork you have been sending him, but as that is all just a bunch of garbage anyway, it’s not exactly going to get you any closer to getting rid of his ass.”

  “Unfortunately, you’re right,” she snarled, the click of her heels echoing through the phone. She was pacing, always did when she was pissed… at least nowadays. Years ago she would have gone on a bloody rampage after hearing news she didn’t like.

  “Argh! I just wish I knew how the fuck he was doing it. I know there is something. No one can resist my hypnosis, no one. But somehow that fucker can.”

  Sabrina was one of, if not the, most powerful vampires around. One of her many abilities was hypnosis. She could make anyone do exactly what she wanted. But when she had tried to force the truth about Denton’s demise out of Gideon when she didn’t believe his story of events, it had failed to work. For that reason alone she was more determined than ever to discover his secrets.

  “What about this other job I heard you were working on? You getting any closer to finding your new clients missing play-toy?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I heard through the grapevine that you were taking on a contract while you were down there, finding some bastard’s escaped Owned.”

  There was never ever hiding anything from that nosy bitch, couldn’t even inquire about something without her finding out. “No I haven’t taken on the job, officially, but I am looking into it. The timing of the tracking device being deactivated and Gideon’s take over here are ridiculously close... like within hours. If I am right, and I think I am with me finding a used tracking device in his office, it’s going to be one of three people he hired first off.”

  “Well, that’s something at least. And if he has stolen another’s property, we might be able to use that against him.”

  True, but with Eve’s reluctance to talk about her past, I had a terrible feeling that it was her. Did I really want to get her involved in all this if she was? When an Owned ran from their owner, it was usually for good reason.

  “I guess. You heard anything from Brad lately?” I’d sent one of the vials of blood that I had found with the tracker and not heard anything back from him since I’d received a text stating that he had received it.

  “We have actually, though, the message was very vague. He’s on his way north to speak with Sebastian, but I have no idea what about.”

  Strange, but I doubted it was anything to do with what I had sent him. I mean, it was only blood.

  “We got another one,” Reese hissed running past me the moment I exited the cellar and stepped behind the bar.

  This was getting ridiculous. How many was this guy going to kill b
efore he made his move? We’d been secretly keeping an eye on Eve every night, one of us shadowing her at all times, but nothing. Fuck, even Vince had been adamant at helping out since the bodies started piling up. I still didn’t like the guy, but at least, he seemed to be pulling his weight now. Maybe Gideon had finally decided to have a word with him.

  “Where?” I demanded, following.

  “In the lobby.”

  Shit. The club was going to be closing in fifteen minutes time. We couldn’t have a body out there for all and sundry to see. “And a note?”

  “Oh yeah, he left a fucking note alright.” I didn’t like the sound of that.

  Racing into the lobby, I skidded to a stop, just short of stepping on the so-called note. Instead of writing a little, scrawled note on a scrap of paper, as usual, the guy had decided to write the message in blood on the floor.

  I will come for my taste… soon.

  “Get this cleaned up quickly,” I demanded as I quickly grabbed one of the familiars that had come stumbling into the lobby from the toilets, covering her mouth when she made to scream. “In a few minutes those doors are going to open, and the last thing we need anyone seeing is this.”

  Nodding in agreement, Trent, Reese, and Vince got to work, removing the body and cleaning up the mess. Within ten minutes there was no sign of the blood but the smell remained. “This isn’t going to work, we need another plan,” Reese sighed, scenting the air.

  Vince laughed arrogantly. “Like what? We can’t exactly lock them all in there and refuse to let them leave; Eve will get suspicious, and Gideon will be pissed.” True, but he didn’t need to be so smug about it.

  We were running out of time. Fuck, even the humans would be able to scent the blood that had coated the floor only minutes ago.

  “The fire doors,” Trent suddenly shouted. “We can send them all out through the fire doors. That way everyone gets out, but they don’t need to come through here to do so.”

  “Brilliant. Good thinking, Trent.” It would work for the customers, but I wasn’t sure how the fuck we were going to keep Eve from finding out what had happened.

  “Reese, give the orders that everyone is to leave via the fire exits. Trent, you make sure that body is disposed of properly and does not get pinned back on us. Vince,” turning to face the bastard, “make sure no one gets through those doors.”

  “What about Eve?” he asked, moving to enter the main club. I didn’t like that way he said her name, the way his eyes lit up and the faint hint of want and desire that hit me. Maybe I hadn’t been so wrong about him after all.

  “I’ll deal with her.” There was no way I was going to let him anywhere near her. It was meant to be his turn to shadow her next, but after what I just felt, I wasn’t going to let that happen. No, he wasn’t getting anywhere near her.

  Eve

  Being back in my apartment was great, it really was. But it was also lonely. Being alone had never bothered me before. If anything, it had been a blessing. But now, after spending almost a week with Thayne as my constant companion, I hated the silence that surrounded me.

  There had been no more incidents since the second body, a female I had found in the toilets the night we reopened the club, but I could tell everyone was on high alert. Every night one of the guys would shadow me, follow my every move. They were doing their best to keep their presence a secret from me, but I wasn’t stupid, I knew they were there.

  At first, I’d been a little annoyed about it, but to be honest, I felt kind of safe knowing they were around. I felt the safest when Thayne was around, though. I don’t know what it was about him that made me feel that way; he was a vampire for crying out loud. I should have been terrified of being in a room alone with him, of being in such close proximity to him for so long, but I wasn’t.

  Pulling the covers up to my neck, I tried to relax, to close my eyes and let my mind calm so I could sleep, but sleep just wouldn’t come. That feeling was back again, the one of the eyes watching me. I’d been feeling it for the past few nights, ever since I had moved back into my apartment.

  Should I go downstairs and ask Thayne if I can sleep with him?

  Well, not sleep with him. You know what I mean. Not that I would really mind that. I had plenty of times already… in my dreams that is. But in reality, that was one thing that could not happen. It would be too dangerous.

  Vampires tended to mix sex with feeding, and that was something I could not allow to happen. It was bad enough having to feed Gideon. If I allowed Thayne to have even just a taste I was in no doubt that I would then be forced to become his personal feedbag also. It wasn’t that I thought Thayne was like that, the kind of vampire that would demand ownership over a human, but it was just the way it was for people like me. One taste and we were either forced into slavery – like I was with Gideon – or dead.

  The worse thing was that if I could have, I wouldn’t have minded Thayne biting me. I had seen him feeding the other night from across the club. The way he had held Jess, pinning her back against his chest as he lowered his face to her neck. A shiver ran through me every time I thought about it. I longed for him to hold me like that, for his lips to be against my flesh.

  Oh hell, I was never going to get any sleep with those thoughts in my head. Groaning, turning over and burying my face in my pillow, I was just starting to relax when I heard a noise, a creak.

  What was that?

  Frozen in fear, I strained to hear more, and for a moment, I thought it was my brain playing tricks on me… until I heard it again. Without thought I dived from the bed, grabbing my robe off the door as I flew out of the room, out of my apartment and down into the club. There was no way I was going to be staying up there alone. No way in hell.

  “Thayne?” I shrieked as I raced through the club. “Thayne?”

  One moment I had been alone, tears running down my face as I screamed for him. The next I was in his arms, pulled tight to his chest, being rocked gently as he hushed me, promising that everything would be okay. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

  “There’s someone up there,” I hiccupped, his body tensing in response to my words. “I heard something.”

  “Where? Where did you hear something?”

  “In my room. I was in bed when I heard some weird creaking noise. I’ve never heard anything like it before, Thayne. Never.”

  “Okay,” he nodded. “Go down to my room and stay there, do not move. I’ll go and check this out,” he said, turning me towards the door to the cellar.

  “No! Don’t leave me,” I cried. I couldn’t do it, couldn’t go down into the darkness of the cellar alone.

  Spinning around, I pressed myself again him, my hands meeting naked flesh as I made to fist them in his shirt. A shirt he wasn’t wearing.

  If I hadn’t been so desperate for him not to leave me, I probably would have stepped back, recoiled in shock and embarrassment the moment my hands met his skin, but I didn’t. Burying my face in his chest, I found comfort in his embrace, his touch.

  “Thayne, I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me. Please.”

  Thayne

  “Please,” Eve whimpered, need and passion burning in her eyes. “I need you.”

  Now those were the words I wanted to hear.

  Giving into her demands – and the needs of my own body, to be honest – I thrust deep into her moist, welcoming heat. “Thayne,” she gasped, gripping my shoulders tightly. Wrapping her legs around my hips, she tried to get me to move, to thrust, but not yet.

  “Thayne. Please,” she begged, tilting her hips.

  “Thayne?” she yelled again when I continued to remain still. But something was wrong. While I heard the words, her lips didn’t move.

  “Thayne?” Panic laced her voice, but again the Eve beneath me didn’t move an inch.

  A dream. Another damn dream. Every night it seemed I found myself plundering into Eve’s welcoming body, only to wake the next night and discover that it was only a dream.

 
“Thayne.”

  But if this was a dream and the voice I could hear, the one laced with fear wasn’t coming from it, then that meant… “Thayne!”

  My eyes snapped open, and I dived out of the bed. The scream of terror was coming from above, the fear in it waking me instantly and dousing all hint of arousal. Flying up the stair at a much faster rate than any human could, I didn’t know what I would find when I reached the top. Ripping the door from its hinges in my haste, I flung it to the side, opening my arms just in time to catch the woman flying towards me with tears running down her face. “I’ve got you,” I whispered in her ear as I held her tight, breathing in her delicious scent. “I’ve got you.”

  “There’s someone up there. I heard something.”

  What? The guys and I had checked the place from top to bottom after the latest body had been found. How could anyone have gotten in during broad daylight? Unless it was just some human thief? If so, I would beat the fucker to death for scaring her. Then again, I would kill the fucking vampire stalking her if it was him also. So no matter what, someone was about to die.

  “Where? Where did you hear something?”

  “In my room. I was in bed when I suddenly heard some weird creaking noise. I’ve never heard anything like it before, Thayne. Never.”

  “Okay. Go down to my room and stay there, do not move. I’ll go and check this out,” I said turning to walk her towards the stairs.

  “No! Don’t leave me,” she cried, spinning back around and placing her hands on my chest, burying her face against me. The moment she put her hands upon my naked flesh, I was hit by fear so strong that it took me some time to push it away, to not feel it as my own. “Thayne, I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me. Please.”

  “Okay,” I soothed, rubbing her back in soothing motions in an attempt to calm her, my hand gliding smoothly over the silk fabric of her robe. “I need to check this out, sweetheart. So you can either come back upstairs with me or wait for me down there.”