Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Fortify

It was just Keegan. Keegan and roughly four pints of fresh human blood. He stopped on the bottom step and cocked his head asking, "Am I interrupting something?"

"Help me!" I screeched but my voice was muffled by Zane's hand on my mouth. Keegan laughed and inquired, "Excuse me? I didn't quite catch that." I tried to shout something obscene, but Zane shook me roughly. It was becoming hard to breathe.

He was babbling again, words dissolving from Romanian into gibberish. He sounded afraid. His eyes looked right through Keegan. He clutched at me fervently.

Keegan sighed and strode forward kneeling in front of Zane and I. He stared at the two of us. His eyes were a light mossy green. They were always light in the morning.

"Sometimes you forget what time it is and you fall into the past and you start imagining things that never happened are happening now," he mumbled reaching out to grab onto the chain near the manacle wrapped around Zane's left wrist.

"You can try as hard as you like, but you will never be able to rewrite the past. You will never be able to make her love you, Dumitru," he said and he pulled on the chains and I felt Zane's grip loosen slightly.

"Te rog, frate. Lăsați trecutul să fie," Keegan whispered and I felt Zane's fingers trembling, his chest rising and falling with intermittent breath. Keegan held up a bag of blood with his free hand and said, "Proaspătă și caldă. Exact așa cum îți place."

I heard Zane whimper and I was suddenly tossed to the side like day old plasma. I pushed myself up off the cold basement floor just in time to see Zane clambering over Keegan clutching at the squishy bag of dark red blood, sinking his teeth through the plastic and moaning softly as it splashed down his throat.

He did pretty well throughout the day, but most mornings he was incoherent and insatiable. I wondered if it would get better after today. I knew the hunger would remain, but perhaps the mind behind it would be fortified.

"Lori, are you in the basement?" I heard Phoebe's voice ring through the house. Before I could reply I heard her footsteps thumping down the stairs and she asked, "Is Keegan he--ugh!"

She stopped halfway down the staircase and exclaimed, "Why do I always have to walk in on this?" She didn't even look at me before stomping back up the stairs. I watched Keegan and Zane for a moment. Keegan holding the bag steady while Zane gnawed at it. The thin trail of red spilling from the corner of Zane's mouth. Keegan's thumb reaching out to wipe the spill away.

I didn't like it. I really didn't like that Keegan was so much closer. That he knew so much more. That he had been with him through so much more. But it made me feel better knowing that Zane would have someone after I was gone. I wouldn't live forever...heck, I probably wouldn't live to see thirty so it was nice to know that he wouldn't be alone.

I felt pain squeeze my heart and tears prick at my eyes. I turned and went upstairs to find Phoebe preparing tea as she had the last two mornings. She had even gone out and bought a tin of loose leaf Irish breakfast tea which Keegan heartily drank. Several cups a day while he was here actually because I didn't let him smoke. Ridiculously strong, no sugar and a gross amount of milk. I honestly wondered where it went because as far as I had observed, vampires didn't pee.

I took a large cup. Strong with lots of sugar and no milk. I had to be alert and on my toes today. Gosh...it was already 10:30am. How was I supposed to get Keegan out of the house by noon? Zane wouldn't need another feeding until at least four.

I sat at the counter and drank my tea and fought the desire to just go back upstairs and lock myself in my room with Phoebe and her enchantments until the whole thing was over.