Amelia Elias - [Guardian's League 02] - Outcast Read online

  Eli shook his head at her and perched on the arm of the sofa. “You’re picky, anyone ever tell you that?” he asked, taking the glass from her and refilling it. “It’s best right from the source. You decide what you prefer.”

  Renee wrinkled her nose as she took it back and held her breath as she drank. She was already feeling much better. The blood tingled as it flowed through her veins, soaking into starved tissues and bringing her strength even as its chill made her shiver. “It’s probably an acquired taste,” she told him in a slightly choked voice, handing the glass back. “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”

  He rolled his eyes and reached for the third bag. “Don’t get too used to it. I’m not going to do this for you forever. Too many missing units from the local blood banks is not a good thing for a community of vampires. We don’t want to be noticed.” His dark eyes were serious as he looked at her. “You have to learn to feed properly, little one.”

  She stared into the glass as he gave it back to her again. “Your wish is my command, Big Kahuna,” she retorted, trying to work up the nerve to drink more. “Have you ever thought about how weird this is?” she said, swirling the blood in the glass like a fine wine that needed to breathe and hoping it would improve the taste. “I mean, the blood-drinking and everything, it’s too strange. How in the world did vampires ever come into being? Are we descended from leeches and mosquitoes or what?”

  Eli raised an eyebrow at her, not deigning to comment on her “big Kahuna” remark. “Finish up. We have other things to do tonight.”

  Renee smiled at him. She was actually getting used to him avoiding her questions. “Come on, give,” she said, putting off drinking the blood as long as possible. “You’re such an old fogey, I’m sure you know. Where did vampires come from?”

  Eli closed the cooler and took it and the empty bags to the bar. “I bet you were the kid who always played with her food.”

  Renee’s brows drew together at his avoidance of a pretty simple question, but she shrugged and took another big gulp. He didn’t seem to answer any questions he didn’t absolutely have to. A shudder worked its way down her spine as she drank and her eyes watered. “This stuff gets worse instead of better the more you drink,” she coughed. “Shouldn’t my taste buds be dead by this point?”

  Eli crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the arm of the couch. “You’re probably getting too much of the chemical in your system. Finish that and you’ll be done for the night.”

  “Fine with me,” she muttered. She held her nose and chugged the rest at top speed, well aware of Eli’s amusement. He took the glass from her when she was done and she watched as the traces of blood coating the sides simply vanished. “Look, Ma, he does dishes too,” she couldn’t resist teasing.

  He groaned and released the goblet. It flew back to the bar and slid into its place on the rack. “Saints preserve me, she’s feeling better,” he sighed in mock-resignation.

  Renee laughed. “What? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

  Eli raised an eyebrow at her. “Can you be serious for five minutes? I need to start teaching you some things.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who made the wall explode. Compared to you, I am perfectly serious.” He gave her a doubtful look and she grinned. “Go ahead, Professor Nosferatu, teach away. I’m all ears.”

  “You’re all mouth, and everything that comes out of it is disrespectful,” Eli shot back, but his eyes danced with amusement. Renee bit her lip as she looked at him sitting there, his lean body relaxed, his platinum hair flowing unbound down his back and his dark eyes sparkling as though stars were trapped in their depths. She found herself staring at his mouth, which curved with just a hint of a grin. It was entirely too sexy. He really shouldn’t be allowed to look like that. She had never seen a man look so sexy in her entire life and she knew he wasn’t even trying. She couldn’t help but want to drool and sincerely hoped he wasn’t reading her mind right now.

  If he was, he didn’t give any sign of it. “The most important thing for you to learn is how to control your prey. I think you won’t have trouble feeding when you are assured you’re not hurting them.”

  Renee made a face. All the nice things she’d been thinking about him went flying out the window. “I think I’ll always have trouble grabbing a perfect stranger, tearing a hole in their neck, and sucking down their blood. I’ll never be a good vampire. It’s not exactly what I always hoped I’d be when I grew up.”

  He shook his head. “Half your problem is in the way you think of it. Listen to yourself! When you put it that way, it sounds pretty bad to me, too, and I have no problem feeding.”

  “Bully for you.”

  Eli sighed. “Picky, feisty, and cranky,” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “How did I get myself into this again?”

  “You’ve got no one to blame, bud. I certainly didn’t ask you to bite me.”

  He shot her a quelling look. “Focus, will you? You’re going to have to practice on me because I think Diego would flip if we tried to use James, and I don’t have a Steward of my own. Concentrate and—”

  Renee’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m not going to bite you, Eli. No way.”

  “Damn right, you’re not. You will never bite me,” he said, the last traces of amusement vanishing. “You’re just going to practice reaching out to another person’s mind to send a suggestion. That’s all. Do you think you can close that smart mouth of yours for one minute and try to do what I say?”

  Renee pressed her lips together and glared at him. It was good to know he was as disgusted at the thought of her biting him as she was.

  But a part of her called her a liar. Biting Eli would be nothing like biting one of the smelly vagrants he’d led her to before. She couldn’t resist a glance at his strong throat. The faint beat of his pulse beneath the skin teased her heightened vision. Her body heated as her fangs tried to lengthen again despite the blood she’d already taken. Renee imagined his pulse throbbing beneath her lips, her tongue; pictured drawing his warm essence into herself as she pressed close to him. There was something intensely sexual about the thought. A shiver ran through her at the unexpected clarity of the image and her pulse kicked into high gear. No, she didn’t think she’d have a hard time biting him at all.

  Eli closed his eyes as he felt her first surge of power brush his mind. She was indeed thinking of biting him despite his warning and her protests, and the tone of her thoughts was decidedly sensual. His breath caught at the mental image of Renee in his arms, her mouth hot on his throat as his hands moved over her soft body. The fantasy was so clear he could almost hear her moans of pleasure as he cupped her breasts. He forced himself to open his eyes, trying to break the spell. Her eyes were narrowed, her lips slightly parted, and a light blush stained her cheeks. A wave of heat surged through him and settled in his groin. For an instant, the temptation to drag her against him, to tilt his head to the side and let the erotic image become reality, nearly overwhelmed him.

  Eli shook his head hard to clear it. “Enough,” he said, and he was surprised at the husky tone of his voice. She raised wide topaz eyes to his and he saw the echo of her thoughts there, her eyes warm and sexy as liquid gold. The insane image of her looking up at him like that in his bed burst over his mind and his entire body tightened. He cleared his throat and wished it was so easy to clear his mind. “Don’t do that again,” he said firmly, trying to forget that too-alluring image. “You can’t think of me that way.”

  Renee blushed scarlet. The rush of hot blood to her cheeks triggered his own hunger, making him all too aware he had not fed tonight. The surge of bloodlust did nothing to help calm his libido.

  “I thought I told you to stay out of my mind,” she whispered, looking past his shoulder at the wall.

  “I wasn’t looking in your mind, little one. You sent the image to me.”

  If it was possible, her blush deepened. He felt his fangs press against his lips at the promise of her warm bl
ood, but he closed his eyes and forced himself to continue. “There are some who prefer to feed while having sex. If you need to—”

  Renee leapt from the couch and glared at him. “It’s bad enough that I have to drink blood. I won’t be a whore!”

  He sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples as the force of her anger made his head pound. He hadn’t particularly cared for the suggestion either. “I never called you that.”

  He heard her gasp and opened his eyes as her emotions shifted in a heartbeat. Intense fear radiated from her now, and her face had gone pale as milk.

  “What?” he asked, straightening and scanning all around them for danger, but he didn’t find anything that might cause such terror. “What is it?”

  Only then did Eli realize she was staring straight at him. It was the first time she’d ever looked at him with real terror.

  “Don’t bite me again,” she whispered, covering her throat with her hands. “Please, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

  He realized she’d seen his fangs when he’d spoken and panicked. The terrible memory of the Outcast’s teeth tearing into her throat screamed through her head with such force he didn’t even have to try to touch her mind to feel it. Eli forced his hunger down until he felt his fangs retract before he spoke again.

  “I won’t bite you, little one,” he promised soothingly, infusing his voice with the urge to calm down, the assurance that she had nothing to fear from him.

  Some of her color came back but she still backed away. He stayed sitting, not moving, trying not to seem like a threat.

  “Why the fangs?” she asked, her hands still cupping her throat protectively. “If you’re not planning on snacking on me, why get all vamped up?”

  “I haven’t fed tonight.” He continued to use the magic of his voice to reassure her. Her wide eyes and her trembling hands told him it wasn’t working. He knew well the look of fear. Seeing it on her face quenched his desire more effectively than a bucket of ice water. “It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I won’t hurt you, little one.”

  Renee nodded and bit her lip, but she didn’t come any closer.

  He stood slowly, watching her reaction. She watched his every move warily but didn’t run. “I won’t bite you,” he repeated. “Never. Not to feed, not as punishment, not for any reason. Do you understand?”

  She nodded slowly but didn’t remove her hands from their protective positions around her neck. “Why don’t you go feed?” she suggested, clearly trying for calm. The trembling of her voice betrayed her.

  Eli stepped to her side. “I will. You’ll be all right here on your own for a few hours?” She nodded again but didn’t look at him. He touched her hair gently. “Sian was right, you know. You don’t have to fear me.”

  Renee didn’t move until he was gone. Then her legs went out from under her and she sat down hard on the stone floor, shaking with reaction. She had no doubt the erotic images she’d imagined had awoken this in him. How could she have thought those things about Eli? More than that, how could she ever have started to feel comfortable around him?

  Because she had. She’d joked with him, completely at ease in his presence, but she had to remember that the man who’d sprayed dirt all over his home simply to make her laugh was the same man who had brutally bitten her. The teasing and laughter were only a part of who he was, one facet of an infinitely complex whole. An ancient vampire, a powerful man who had lived through things she’d only read in history books.

  She’d forgotten that. She shouldn’t have been shocked at the sight of his fangs, but she was. Despite everything she’d seen and done tonight, she’d actually forgotten he was a vampire.

  It was a long time before she could make herself move to go into her room. When she did, she locked the door behind her and tucked a thick towel beneath it to stop any mist from seeping in.

  Just in case.

  Chapter Five

  Renee woke with her stomach cramping and her veins on fire.

  She moaned and rolled off the bed. Hunger and nausea beat at her in turns and every part of her body felt like it was roasting. Each beat of her heart sent agony searing through her. Her stomach clenched, rolled, ached. She crawled toward the door to the bathroom, not thinking clearly, fighting the pain and nausea with all her strength.

  She collapsed halfway there. “Eli,” she whispered, forgetting last night’s fear as the vague memory of him easing the pain of her barely-remembered Change urged her on. She had to get to the door and unlock it. He could help, she was sure of it. If only she could get to the door—

  The door flew open and suddenly Eli was there, rushing to her and scooping her up from the floor. She cried out as the movement sent another wave of fire tearing through her body. “What’s happening to me?”

  “You’re having a bad reaction to the anticoagulant,” he told her as he carried her back to the bed and laid her gently down. “Rest easy, little one. I will help you.” He rested one hand on her forehead and the other on her stomach and Renee felt the pain cease instantly.

  But she had only a brief second of relief before her stomach heaved. “I’m going to be sick,” she moaned, trying to roll away from him.

  He pulled her back and eased her head over the side of the bed. “I know. You have to get it out.” A basin suddenly appeared in his hand and he held it for her as she closed her eyes and emptied her stomach, retching again and again. Even when it was over she didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t want to look at the mess or see his disgust.

  “Don’t be silly,” he told her gruffly, and she felt him wipe her face with a cool cloth. “The bagged blood made you sick. Some vampires simply can’t drink it. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Renee curled up in a miserable ball, too weary for the moment to even care that he was reading her mind again. She didn’t want it to be true. No matter what he had told her, no matter that the stuff tasted horrible, she’d hoped she would be able to survive on the donated blood.

  “Maybe if I drank it a little at a time,” she whispered hopefully. After all, she’d had three bags last night. Surely she was merely a little overloaded. It didn’t have to mean she couldn’t ever have any more, did it?

  Eli brushed her hair back from her face and shook his head. “No. I’m sorry, little one.”

  She wanted to cry at the finality in his voice. Couldn’t he be wrong, just this once? She felt too tired and feeble to knock his hand away and let herself enjoy the soothing sensation of him stroking her hair. “My name is Renee. Just once, can you call me by my name? You never do. Why?”

  He was silent and after a moment, she opened her eyes to look up at him. “Eli?”

  He ran his fingers through her hair again and sighed. “You’re going to have to find a way to hunt. I know you don’t want to, but there’s no other way. If you want to live, you have to hunt.”

  He wasn’t even going to give her question a non-answer. Renee rolled away from him, unaccountably depressed by his continued refusal to use her name. Her life had shifted so drastically in the last few days that it would have been comforting to hear someone call her by her name again, just to remind her of who she had once been.

  His voice came from behind her shoulder, answering her unspoken thoughts. “You are still yourself. Nothing anyone can do to you can alter who you are.”

  “Get out of my head.” The retort was automatic, but her words lacked spirit. She felt like she’d just lost a vicious battle and she wasn’t up to verbal sparring yet. She lay there for a long moment, feeling him still there on the edge of the bed where he’d sat to care for her. “Thank you for helping me,” she made herself say.

  Eli looked at her back and ached with sympathy. She didn’t sound very feisty right now, and much as he’d complained about her smart mouth, he found that he missed her sass. Damn, he wished he could make this easier for her.

  Diego was right. This woman should never have been Changed. Her entire life as a vampire would b
e one long struggle against her nature.

  He squeezed her hand briefly, then stood. “I will always help you. That is what a sire does, little one.” He left her then, sensing her desire to get dressed and regain her composure.

  Guilt tormented him as soon as the door closed behind him. Was it really too much to ask for him to use her name? He wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping his distance. Why did he think calling her “little one” all the time would help if he had to destroy her? He already knew it would be hard. He liked her laughter too much, enjoyed the way she taunted him, liked the way she always rose to the bait when he teased her. She’d grinned like a kid when he’d sprayed her with dirt last night where another woman would have been outraged. His lips curved in a reluctant smile as he thought of her calling him “Big Kahuna” in revenge for his insistence on calling her “little one”. It was completely ridiculous, but no one else would ever even consider calling him such a thing.

  The smile faded and he ran a hand through his hair. It was already too late for distance. She was a person, not some anonymous fledgling, and she deserved to be treated as such. And if he did have to put her down in the end…

  He would do what he had to do. It was all he’d ever done.

  Eli heard her shut off the shower a few moments before the faint click of the bathroom door closing floated to him. “Renee?” he called.

  There was dead silence. He was about to call again when she opened her door so suddenly he almost fell in on top of her. Only his supernatural reflexes saved him, but she hardly seemed to notice as she stared up at him, wide-eyed.

  “Oh, someone pinch me, I don’t believe it. You actually used my name. I was beginning to wonder if you were physically incapable of doing it.”

  “Ha, ha,” he said, glad to see the return of her saucy mouth. “I just wanted to tell you to dress up. I’m taking you dancing.”

  She raised an eyebrow, but he saw the amusement in her eyes. “I take it this is another educational field trip. Do I get to learn the secret handshake and all the classified vampire dances?”