Templar Vampires - Midnight Sun Part 18

"You heard?"

"Vampire, remember? Extraordinary hearing comes with the package."

Was she to have no privacy, not even in the safety of her own mind? "Did you hear everything?"

He gave her a small squeeze. "What? That you think I'm a good lay? No, I didn't hear that."

Between Constantine and Sebastian's teasing she wanted to die from embarra.s.sment. If she had more blood in her body she would have blushed bright red. "It's not polite to eavesdrop, you know."

He raised a brow at her. "This from the woman who I caught snooping around my bedroom." Allie sat up and lifted her chin in feigned indignation. "I wasn't snooping."

His smile devastated her senses. "Yes you were."

"Whatever. Let's agree to disagree on that matter."

"If that makes you happy."

"Being with you makes me happy."

He made a very Constantine-like grunt of affection and kissed the top of her head.

She ran a hand over his chest. He closed his drowsy eyes and lay still, savoring her touch. It made Allie even more reluctant to leave. "I have to go."

Sebastian opened his eyes. "I know, sunshine."

She dipped her head and gave him a quick kiss. "Go back to sleep, baby. I'll see you later."

"I'd better."

His parting words, an unspoken admission that he'd miss her, filled her heart. For the first time in her life she was genuinely happy. She loved him, and though he hadn't returned the words, he returned the sentiment.

He could keep the words for she knew she had his heart

Once Allie left, Sebastian folded his arms under his head and closed his eyes. He still felt her blood flowing through him. Such a large part of her stayed with him, yet it also made her absence that much more keen.

He didn't like being trapped in here while she was out there unprotected. He worried about Allie, the concern cutting him to the core. He'd never worried about anyone before, not even Selena. With her, he'd felt responsible, believing he was to blame for what she became.

Remembering Selena in her last year, he recalled how she'd lost her will to go on. She gave up on life, growing tired of living in the prison of her own mind. By the time death took her, her madness had eroded her beauty, leaving her a withered sh.e.l.l of a human being.

He knew Allie would never waste away like that. She possessed too much life and she loved it too much to ever have it wear her down.

But as much as life burned within her, one day Alliewas going to be taken by her mortality. Sebastian would be forced to watch helplessly as time aged her, suffering through each night knowing it brought him one day closer to losing her. And once she was gone and her midnight sun extinguished, he would againbe lost and alone in the dark.

"Dear G.o.d," Sebastian begged, "please don't ever take her from me. Don't let me suffer in the dark alone anymore."

Sebastian fell back to sleep with Allie's warmth running through him and her love chasing away his relentless nightmares.

Before heading home, Allie stopped off at the supermarket to shop for the things she would need to make dinner for Lex.

Feeling horrible for having worried her sister, Allie hoped to make it up to her by cooking her favorite food before going out to the B&B. Too bad Allie was a lousy cook. Before she was done, Allie fully expected a few burns and setting off the smoke alarm at least once before she gave up and took Lex out for pizza.

As she came out of Peck's Supermarket juggling bags of groceries while she fished the car keys out of her pocket, she smacked right into Jude.

Her recent ex-boyfriend had the nerve to glare down at her like she was nothing more than s.h.i.t under his shoe.

"Watch where you're going."

"h.e.l.lo to you too, Jude," she shot back. "How's Denise?"

Jude threw her a haughty look. "We're both fine."

Sure,after some penicillin, Allie thought, almost laughing out loud.

"Look at you," he said with a wave of his hand. "You look horrible. You and those friends of yours. I warned you they were no good. I see I was right."

Allie might let Jude get away with insulting her. h.e.l.l, he made an art form out of it, but she'd be d.a.m.ned if he bad-mouthed the Templars.

She stepped in close to him, her voice a low warning. "Say one more nasty thing about my friends and I swear on G.o.d I'll make sure you'll be saying it to their faces."

The threat held enough weight to have him paling to a shade even whiter than she was. "Women are dying, Allie, did you know that? How do you know those men you call friends aren't responsible? For Christ's sake, the black-haired one with all those tattoos looks like a frigging serial-killer!"

Jude was about to pop a vein. How in G.o.d's name she tolerated this arrogant, judgmental, and very annoying man for ten months, she didn't know. She chalked it up to one of those stupid things a persondid that they spent their life pretending wasn't their one regret.

"They have nothing to do with those murders. If you spew that bulls.h.i.t to anyone, I'll personally make sure you regret it."

He rolled his eyes, completely ignoring her threat. "Go home and get some sleep. You look like s.h.i.t," he spat out nastily.

Allie shook her head, knowing it wasn't worth the effort to argue with him. He was never going to change. Once an a.s.shole always an a.s.shole. "It's been a real pleasure. Let's not do it again sometime, shall we?"

Having to suffer him was the equivalent of having her eyeb.a.l.l.s plucked clean and stepped on.

She pushed past him and climbed into her truck, driving off without a further thought of her ex-boyfriend.

And why would she, when she had Sebastian to think about?

Jude hurried into Peck's and quickly picked up the refill of his and Denise's penicillin prescription.

Heading home, having turned onto Route Three Seventy-One, he realized a big black truck was following him.

Though he tried to outrun it, he couldn't shake the guy on the narrow, winding road. Nor could he avoid it when the truck pulled beside him, heedless of any oncoming traffic. The driver, whom he couldn't see behind the black tinted windows, slammed into the side of Jude's Mercedes.

Careening to the right, Jude's car rolled into a deep ditch. By the time the car stopped rolling he was upside down but thankfully unhurt. He was still strapped into the driver's seat, though. Fumbling with the seatbelt, he tried everything to free himself short of attempting to bite his way out. His head snapped to the left when the mangled door was pulled open.

"Please..."

Never one too proud to beg, Jude did exactly that when a hulking bruiser of a man stalked to the car brandishing a syringe. Though Jude tried to fight the man, Jude was no match for his strength and easily subdued.

The man said nothing as he jabbed a needle into Jude's arm. Gasping, Jude yanked away his arm but not before the man pushed down on the syringe's stopper and injected him with the drug it held.

Whatever it was. .h.i.t Jude instantly. His head spun and his stomach lurched until everything went black.

He heard some rustling and felt himself being pulled from his wrecked car. If he wasn't so relaxed, d.a.m.ned near unconscious, he might have tried to fight.

"We gotta hurry. If he wakes up and this guy isn't there, he's gonna kill us." Jude had no idea who "he" was or why these guys were bringing him to whoever it was they worked for. Nor did he have any more time to wonder about it. The drug he had been shot with was powerful stuff. He went out cold a second later.

When he opened his eyes some time later he was in a large room. The windows had cardboard over them. The only light came from a few candles on a cracked dish set on the floor. The room stank of stale air, sweat, blood, and vomit.

Sick to his stomach and disoriented, he started to move and realized he was bound on a mattress. The thing was filthy, stained, and stank. Something moved in the corner of the room. His eyes tried to cut through the dim glow to see what it was. Barely focusing, he saw it was a young man.

"Who are you? Why am I here?"

Tall and lean, with long brown hair, the man moved stealthily out of the shadows. His eyes glowed silver.

They were not human eyes.

"Shut up, Jude," Though his tone was soft, it was thick with irritation.

Terror gripped Jude as he tried to break free of the binds. "How do you know who I am?"

The man approached the bed and Jude saw twin fangs peeking out from behind his parted lips. "I make it my business to know anyone who might aid me in my endeavor."

Fangs. The man had fangs. The chilling realization that Allie was right had icy fingers of fear working their way up his spine. Everything Allie told him came back at him in a rush of words in his spinning mind.

Vampires were real, she affirmed over and over again. Each time she spewed that bulls.h.i.t, Jude called her crazy, threatened to break things off with her if she didn't stop with her foolishness.

But it hadn't been bulls.h.i.t. Vampires were real and now Jude was caught in some deadly game he wanted no part of.

G.o.dd.a.m.n you, Allie...

"I'll give you whatever you want. Just let me go."

The man sat on the edge of the mattress. Jude tried to scurry away but the man stilled his frantic movements by placing a hand on his leg. "You shouldn't make such an offer, Jude."

"Is it money? I'll give you any amount you want." There was a desperate edge to his voice as he pleaded with the creature.

Shaking his head, the man patted Jude's leg. Jude wanted to yank his leg away but he was too afraid of making the vampire mad. "Now what would I want with money when I have plenty of my own?"

"Then what?" Jude's voice rose with fear, taking on a shrill note that cut through the abandoned house like a knife. "What do you want from me?"

Taking his hand from Jude's leg, the man stroked his chin. "What I need is help from you." Jude shook his head. His mind was a riot of thoughts as terror nearly rendered him as insane as he always accused Allie of being. "I don't understand."

The vampire's eyes shone with malevolence. "I'm looking for something, Jude. With your help, I think I found an easier way to get to it."

Jude saw a way to get himself out of this alive. "Anything. Whatever you want."

The man tsked and wagged a finger at him. "There you go again, offering anything. I warned you, Jude."

Before Jude could do anything to save himself, the man bared his fangs and leapt at him. His teeth came down hard and deep into Jude's throat. Jude gasped and thrashed wildly when he felt his vein give as those razor-sharp fangs punctured it. He tried to scream but couldn't, helpless to stop the monster pulling his blood from his body.

He couldn't fight tied as he was, though Jude doubted his meager strength would be any match for this creature. The vampire used his body weight to push him back down. Pinned to the bed, Jude gave up the fight as he felt himself growing weaker and colder by the second. He felt his own death coming fast, though something told him this wasn't going to be the end.

He knew he was going to die tonight, even worse, he knew he wasn't going to stay dead.

He prayed for G.o.d to save him, but it was too late. His heart beat for the last time.

Falling into the black peace of death, he was yanked out of the abyss by the vampire, who gave Jude back the blood he took from him. Unable to resist, he latched onto the vampire's wrist, drinking from the gaping wound. The blood filled his mouth, slipped down his throat and worked its way through his body.

When human death claimed his body, Jude's scream echoed through the night.

Yet it was the roar that was torn from Jude when he was reborn that brought a smile to the bloodied lips of Stephan. He watched as his newest child woke and took in the night with the burning silver eyes of immortality.

Chapter Eighteen.

"What a ma.s.sive waste of time,"

Allie and Lex were loading the Pa.s.sport with all the hand-held equipment they brought with them to the Millers.

"You knew it would be," Lex reminded her.

Allie slammed closed the back door of the truck, wincing when she did the same to the tailgate and it nearly rattled off its hinges. It was only a matter of time before the whole truck fell apart.

"It would have been nice to be proved wrong."

"How much did he offer you anyway?"