Текст книги "Heat"

Автор книги: R. Lee Smith

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Текущая страница: 47 (всего у книги 54 страниц)

“And you are correct, of course,” he continued quietly. “Protocol would demand nothing less and my orders are explicit. All the same, I find myself reluctant to obey them.”

She offered him a crooked smile. “Isn’t there an ancient Jotan cure for that?”

The pain in his eyes sharpened, but he had an answering smile for her. “No,” he said. “On that, even the ancients are silent.” He looked around the room, and then went to collect Grendel from the bed beside her.

Time to go. Daria finished dressing in heartsick silence.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe there’d be a huge murder spree down in California this morning with all of E’Var’s trademarks. Another motel, maybe. An RV park, anything. A huge bunch of bodies would just be such a great thing to hear about today.

Oh, she was so going to Hell.

*

“County fair,” Sue-Eye said.

Kane raised himself up from his half-sleep and looked at her curiously. She could be a frustratingly chatty little beast, but she wasn’t really in the habit of blurting.

She was looking out the window, her eyes tracking a colored marker-board tacked to a tree as it neared, and then passed behind them. Her gaze shifted to him, hesitating, gauging his receptiveness. He didn’t give her any kind of encouragement, but he must have seemed amicable to her because she said, “We should check it out.”

“Are you kidding?” Raven demanded. “You want to stop and ride the Ferris wheel?”

Neither of them were making any sense.

Sue-Eye glanced at Kane. “Good hunting,” she said.

Some disquiet ghost from the back of Kane’s mind slipped through him, cold and thin as space itself. He tried to chase down its source and could think only of a dark room, the thump of engines, and the sound of his father’s voice. Just the sound, not the words.

“Big crowds,” Sue-Eye went on. “Lots of noise. Tents everywhere. Security’s pretty slim. The Dog Pack used to work fairs all the time, rolling for wallets and stuff.”

“People don’t go to the fair by themselves,” Raven argued. “It’s broad daylight, there’s no cover of any kind—”

“There’s plenty of cover. There’s woods all around, it’s just a matter of dragging folks off behind a booth, and then into the trees. I’m telling you, I’ve done it before. Easy hunt.”

Kane’s claws flexed slowly on the lid of his pack. Nine empty vials. Could he fill that in one hunt? He had filled ten at the motel-hunt, but then there had been darkness and isolation and sleeping humans. This was full day all around them and from the sound of it, Sue-Eye was talking about many, many humans.

“Raven,” he said. “What’s the danger?”

She scowled, but it wasn’t a look she was directing at him. “It’s just stupid to kill a bunch of people right out in the open and think no one’s going to notice,” she said. “People practically expect to get their pockets picked at a fair. Dying is different. It’s not like rolling for wallets.”

“No, it’s better,” Sue-Eye said calmly. “Since they won’t be getting up after a few minutes to start looking for a cop.”

“And people aren’t just going to be in a big crowd, they’re going to be families in a big crowd, which means they’re going to be looking out for each other. They’ll notice if Cousin Bob goes missing.”

“People may go to the fair as families, but they almost always split up after they get there,” Sue-Eye countered. “They split up, they lose track of time…it’s totally natural.”

“I have purple hair!” Raven shot back angrily. “We can’t go around killing people in some backwater boondock! They’re going to be staring right at us the whole damn time!”

“Bullshit,” was Sue-Eye’s blunt reply. “There’s nothing more normal than some out-of-towners taking in a county fair on a hot day, especially one just off the highway on a boring stretch of road.”

“Hot day,” Raven interrupted. “We’ll be there half an hour and he’ll go into Heat. No one is going to overlook that.”

“I said there’s woods all around, didn’t I? What, you don’t think people fuck at the fair? Whoring is even more popular than picking pockets.”

“That’s enough,” Kane said, and drummed his claws on the top of his pack as he considered. It was a risk, or Raven thought it was, much more than the other hunts Sue-Eye had led them on. But Sue-Eye believed it could be done, and that she’d had experience in a similar hunt. Nine vials of dopamine would render down to four of concentrated Vahst, maybe five if he cheated it out a little. And once they got into the woods and left the roads, he wasn’t likely to find enough humans to fill even one vial more before he returned to the ship. This could be his last chance for a big hunt.

“Pull us over, Raven,” he said. Immediately, that sense of ghostly warning grew and he wished he could call the words back. But he couldn’t show uncertainty, not to his ichuta’a. “We’ll have a look at least,” he said instead.

Both his females nodded, although Raven had that too-still quality to her features which meant she wasn’t happy. But she’d obey. She knew who her commander was.

Kane settled back into his chair and watched the forests of Earth slide by. He flexed his claws to hear them scrape on his pack and feel the resistance of the hard synthetic material, putting himself in the mindspace for hunting. For some reason, it was more difficult than it usually was to work up the killing mood. He wondered why and heard, as if in reply, the wordless timbre of his father’s voice.

It bothered him. It kept bothering him as Raven slowed and turned off the road onto a dirt path and into a rough parking bay. Sue-Eye, sitting quietly and perfectly behaved beside him, kept drawing his frustrated eye as Raven slowly prowled for a place to put the groundcar. She was responsible for this scratchy feeling, somehow. If she weren’t here, he could simply tell Raven he’d changed his mind and she’d take them away without a question or even a glance. But Sue-Eye would see weakness. And Sue-Eye might try to use it.

He really should just kill her. Fifty crona wasn’t worth this kind of aggravation.

But they were here already. He might as well look around.

Raven found a place to dock and Kane could feel Heat sinking into him almost the instant he stepped out of the car. It was crowded, too; more humans milled about in the parking field than Kane had ever seen in one place, outside of a breeding facility. Males, females, pregnant females, old ones, young ones, even infants, all of them exhibiting the high mania of celebration that so often flared into temper. It was easy to see why Sue-Eye considered this to be good hunting grounds. It was easier to see Raven’s caution.

Kane stood at the rear of the groundcar and pulled his hat down low over his eyes, feeling sweat bead up already along his brow, and watched the humans stream around him. He had wondered if he could really fill nine vials with dopamine on one hunt in broad daylight. Looking around now, seeing all these unknowing targets, he knew for damn sure he could. It put the blood in him for hunting, but his unease lingered. He listened for his father’s voice and heard nothing.

Well, what did he expect? He had always been the thought behind his father’s ghost. But it bothered him all the same.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Raven asked, stepping to his side.

The words, so close to his own thoughts, scratched at him and he answered with more fang than she merited. “Don’t question me, Raven. I’m not your partner, I’m your commander.”

She drew a breath and nodded, not in the least surprised by his venom, and Kane instantly felt annoyed with himself, which in turn made him want to snap at someone else. If there weren’t so many humans around, he’d have given Sue-Eye a sound cuff. But there were, and they might raise an alert if he was seen punching one of his females, so he got a grip on his simmering temper and started walking, following the flow of humanity.

He could smell smoke and sweat from here, but the closer they came to the gates, the stronger the smells of food became, reminding him of his hunger. There was music also, many different strains of it, and screams that might be born as easily of fear as excitement. Piercing child-screams stung the worst, but Kane contented himself with knowing that it was all temporary.

Sue-Eye bought their entry, and then they were inside. The ‘fair’, as it was called, went on as far as Kane could see, although the trees rose in the distance on every side as proof of finite borders. It stretched out in orderly streets, flanked by single-room shelters that acted as shops, display booths, information kiosks, and food stores. And all around, visible in colorful bursts over the flimsy roofs, were some dramatically unsafe-looking structures the humans were using as playthings—riding in cars on modular tracks, spinning in wheels, swinging on hammers. For the fun of it, by all appearances, although when Kane thought of fun, squeezing into an open car and riding it through a loop on a rusted metal bar was nowhere on his lengthy mental list.

Gradually, the staggering unfamiliarity of the place began to fade. Kane walked slowly, camouflaging himself with motion as he studied the hunting grounds. The first order would be to find the perimeter. The interior of the fair was simply too dangerous, even to patrol like this. With so many humans around him, he was well aware that he stood out from them in appearance and in dress. If a body were discovered, as eventually it would be, it was not far-fetched to think Kane would be suspected merely because he would be best-remembered. So, find the perimeter and stay there, away from the greater crowds. Hunt his fill, keep Heat at arm’s reach, and maybe take a meal on his way out to the parking bay. Trade the car out as quickly as possible afterwards, too, just in case. After that, one last drive, and then cool space, floods of money, and home.

Kane got Raven on one side of him, Sue-Eye on the other, and aimed himself at the nearest stretch of forest. All around him was Vahst. He prepared himself for one last hunt.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Thirty-Six

Dozing on the road again, damn it all. He’d given Daria orders to keep him engaged in conversation, but driving made her nervous and it was too easy for her to forget to talk when hazards such as curves, crossroads or other drivers came into sight. Likewise, occupying himself with Grendel was the worst way to combat fatigue, as the cat merely curled up under his hand and taunted him with blatant sleep. It was a nuisance, really, as it meant that he would not be tired enough to sleep when they stopped for the night and that would make him drowsy (and thus prone to doze off) the next day. A vicious, self-perpetuating cycle.

Tagen was irritably sinking into a doze nonetheless when Daria made that gentle coughing sound that meant she had something to say. He straightened up at once, displaying wakefulness, and she said, “Are you hungry?”

She must have meant the question rhetorically, he decided, glancing out the window. He could see nothing but trees.

“Because I’m about ready to stretch my legs,” she continued. “I know it’s hot, but if we park in the shade and leave the windows open, I’m sure Grendel will be all right. We won’t be all day or anything. Just long enough to grab a bite and shake the needles out, you know?”

This was sounding less and less like a rhetorical matter. Tagen looked again. The trees persisted. There were no towns. There were a few houses here and there, but surely she wasn’t planning to pick one at random and invade a kitchen.

“Where are you thinking to stop?” he asked finally.

“Here. Or rather, up there.” She pointed along the road to a brightly-colored signboard marked with human letters that surely were handprinted.

“I do not read N’Glish,” he reminded her. “What does it say?”

“It says Dog Days Fair, August first through third, nine to nine, two miles,” she answered. “Which means lots of food and a place to walk around. It’s a party,” she added, catching sight of his puzzled frown. “A big outdoor party where everyone’s invited. Pricey as hell, probably, but I don’t really care at this point.”

“Here?” Tagen saw, for the first time, all the other groundcars on the road. They were filled with humans, many with children, and most were traveling in the same direction as they themselves. The oncoming traffic, by comparison, was sparse.

Dread, like sleeping coals, came to burning life inside him. Many humans, gathered in an isolated area. Loud sound, thick smells, confusion.

His expression and his silence had not escaped Daria’s notice, as so few things did. Now she was frowning, ready to be concerned at his command.

“Take us there,” he said.

“What are you thinking?” she asked and almost immediately afterwards, her eyes flashed wide. “You think he’s there?”

“I think it may attract him,” he told her, stressing the variable.

She stared up the road, her face tightening with thought. He could see her becoming aware of the same qualities of seclusion and prey as he had done. “He couldn’t,” she said at last. “It’s too hot.”

“He has his females with him.”

“In broad daylight?” Daria shook her head, but it was not necessarily a gesture of negation. “Okay then,” she said at last. “If he’s there, he’ll probably stay close to the main gate, so he can leave in a hurry if he has to without attracting too much attention.”

“I think it likely. I think also he may keep close to the surrounding woods rather than move out among the crowds. With so many humans close at hand, he is likely to feel very Jotan.” His hands were already curling selfconsciously. He could see the place where the trees terminated, and a great field filled with groundcars. And humans. Hundreds, it seemed. Thousands. “Very Jotan,” he said again.

“Hopefully, we’ll be in and out.” Daria navigated off the main road and into the field, moving slow between rows of parked vehicles until she came to the barrier of the forest. She drove right on into the bushes in order to win the cover of trees, but it did gain them shade. She set about opening windows, and then shut off the engine. “We’ll ask at the gate. If anyone noticed him, it’d be there. We can walk around a little more, if you want, but I’m afraid to take all day. The heat-“

“We shall not leave Grendel long,” Tagen said firmly, unbuckling himself. He did not need her to tell him about the dangers of heat. Or Heat. “If our questions at the gate are not answered and we see nothing at the eating place, we will leave. Heat will come to me as surely as to E’Var and I doubt that he would suffer it for long. We will be quick, but we must be sure.”

Daria followed him from the vehicle, exiting through his door as hers was blocked by branches. “You really think he’s here, don’t you?”

Tagen stared out over the tops of groundcars to the place where humans were admitted in streams to the closed grounds of ‘fair’. He could hear a constant undulating roar—a medley of happy screams and frustration, summer tempers fraying and excitement running unbounded—all of it underscored by cacophonous music and mechanical noise. There was only one way to make such a setting better primed for murder and that would be to hold ‘fair’ at night.

“My instincts tell me if he travels the same road as we, and if he means to hunt, this is a good place for it. More than that, it is pointless to speculate.” Saying this, he took his neural stunner and his plasma gun from his gunbelt and tucked them out of sight inside his jacket.

Daria’s eyes were a weight he could feel as she stared at the slight bulging of his concealed weapons. “So this is it,” she said.

He shut the car’s door, and then reached in through the open window to rub at Grendel’s head. “Perhaps.”

Her hand came to rest lightly on his back and he turned to her, bending swiftly to take her lips in a kiss. She returned the touch with urgency and finished with a stirring bite to his jaw passionate enough to remind him of Heat coming, and precious minutes only before it became evident. And ah, how much he wished he could forget E’Var and just take this female into his arms. To love her, while loving was still possible, before this day’s events and all of Earth was behind him for all time.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He wished that he could say the same and know it to be true. For all the ache and intensity of his emotion, his world did not come with its own understanding of love for a mate as hers did. Fathers loved sons, as presumably females loved daughters. Mates were for mating, too transitory a thing for the depths of endurance the expression evoked. And what was this if not transitory? He knew it. He knew it when first she brought him to her bed. Love was for keeping, not leaving behind.

And none of that mattered. Feeling her breath at the hollow of his throat, her arms around his body, her hair underneath his hands, Tagen came to the unhappy understanding that officers may think in terms of rules as absolutes, but emotions did not.

“I love you.” He said it. He meant it. Gods help him. He said it again, feeling it hurt even more with repetition.

She uttered a laugh, a thin disguise over a sob, and hugged him tight before stepping away. “Okay,” she said. She squared her shoulders, a rock in the river of humanity she so feared. “Let’s go get this guy.”

“My brave Lindaria,” he said, crookedly smiling. “Indeed. Let’s.”

*

The hunting was good, every bit as good as Sue-Eye had claimed. The woods were a welcome dumping ground for bodies and its shade, if not quite enough to keep Heat’s teeth out of him, was better than the blistering weight of full sun. The outskirts of the endless celebrations was a haven for Kane’s kind—dark men avoiding notice as they pursued their own unwholesome trades. There was drinking of toxic fermentations, smoking of white paper and of glass pipes. And there was flesh to be had, flesh for sale and flesh for fun. It was a smuggler’s haven, like any lining the docks of smuggler’s space, and every eye that passed Kane’s way passed on, recognizing him as a brother.

Kane entered the woods with Raven and Sue-Eye at his side. He was searching for a shaded place to be his killing ground, one that was out of sight from the main path, where the sounds of bone snapping might be mistaken for dry branches underfoot. Screams, he could do nothing about but try to remember to tracheate his targets.

His chosen den was occupied at first by a couple of humans mating in a drunken frenzy, but not for long. Two humans brains flushed with lust filled an entire vial with dopamine and Kane’s mood lightened. He tossed the bodies into the bushes out of sight and snapped his fingers.

Both his humans came to attention, but it was Sue-Eye he fixed on. “I want to do this as quickly as possible,” he told her.

She nodded, and beside her, Raven folded her arms and frowned.

“I get more product from a sex-fired brain,” he said.

Sue-Eye nodded again.

“You’re going to bring me males and you’re going to get them ready to fuck.”

She pulled her shirt up and tied it between her breasts, showing her bare midriff and the painted sun around her belly-dimple to the world.

“You bring them right here.” Kane indicated a fairly open place right beside the clearing they now occupied, somewhat screened by thick bushes, but not so thickly that he couldn’t cross over in a hurry if he wanted to. “And you make them ready for me, ichuta’a. Go.”

She went obediently, eagerly even, and Kane was left with Raven.

She was gratingly on edge, pacing the little clearing over and over as her teeth worried at her own claws. Kane tried to ignore her, but her restlessness was contagious. He found his talons flexing and digging at the ground in subconscious tandem to her tight, angry walking and the realization pricked at him. He ordered her to him just to settle her down, although he didn’t object when she came and put her hand on his groin. Heat was itching at him already, itching hard, and her fingers sliding beneath his coverings to close on his cock was a welcome thing, even if it was a little too soon. Her heart wasn’t in it, though, and her eyes were darting from shadow to shadow, continuing the spirit of her agitation even if it showed nowhere else.

“We’ll be gone from here soon enough,” he said, readying a fresh vial for his harvester.

She nodded, but her lips were tight. Her hand continued its slow, soothing manipulation but her mind was elsewhere.

Kane heaved a sigh and tucked his harvester into a pocket of his human coat. “Spit it out then,” he said.

She let go of him and backed up, although she met his eyes fiercely enough. “This is a mistake.” Her voice was low but tight. “Can’t you feel it?”

Footsteps in the woods. Sue-Eye was coming back with a younger male, sparing Kane the aggravation of having to answer that. He turned away from Raven and watched his ichuta’a lead her prey just to the other side of this clearing, nearly within arm’s reach of Kane although they remained shrouded by forest. The male’s sweat stank of high rut; Kane flexed his claws broodingly and waited, letting Sue-Eye get her victim’s blood high for the maximum take of dopamine. He could feel Raven’s eyes boring into his back.

It was a mistake. He could feel it. He couldn’t understand it, but he did feel it, and it infuriated him because he knew he was doing everything right. This was a good hunt, damn it all! What was chewing at him?

Kane killed these thoughts with a snarl and reached out through the branches to seize the young male Sue-Eye was rubbing against. The human was muted with one expert jab, probably before it even knew Kane was there. The male clutched at its throat, blood oozing up between its many fingers, and turned around to gape at Kane. Not run, not duck away, not even to throw itself at Kane in one last, suicidal attack, but just to stare. Gods, this planet.

In a fit of aimless irritation, Kane slashed his claws across the human’s face, flaying it open to the bone. The human’s scream came out through the hole in its throat in a red mist, virtually soundless and not very satisfying. Kane shoved it facedown on the forest floor and broke the skull open, his harvester in hand and sour thoughts circling in his brain. He pulled dopamine into a fresh vial, then scooped up the twitching meat and flung it into the bushes atop the other bodies.

Raven was watching him, not unmoved by the slaughter, but still waiting grimly for her answer.

Kane could feel a growl working its way free of his chest. It was hot, he was over-strung, and he was horribly aware that if he lost his head now, he was probably going to do something he’d later regret. He turned his head in Sue-Eye’s direction, but kept his gaze locked on Raven. “Go on, ichuta’a,” he said tightly. “Get to work.”

Sue-Eye retreated and neither one of them watched her go. Beyond the borders of the forest, the fair roared on.

“We need to have an understanding,” Kane said.

“You’re not my partner, you’re my commander?”

Sarcasm. She looked him right in the eye as he stood there with blood still wet on his claws and met his efforts at peace-keeping with sarcasm. Kane stared her down in silence, wondering blackly why he was surprised. This was the same human who had once been under his foot with his talons crushing the air from her throat, and who had chosen that moment to threaten his life. His fierce little Raven. He’d laugh if he didn’t feel quite so much like slapping her.

“Do you see this?” Kane asked, giving the partially-filled ampule a shake. Amber fluid splashed and settled again. “I would have to kill three sleeping humans to get what I just took from one! You haven’t been tripping over yourself to help me hunt, Raven, and now you’re just going to have to stand there and shut up while I get some work done!”

“I can hear at least ten distinctly different voices from here!” she shot back, her own scarcely carrying. “This isn’t smart, Kane!”

He lowered his hand, his eyes narrowing and his jaw tightening.

“Okay, whatever, that wasn’t smart, either.” Raven cut her hand hard to one side, almost slapping her previous words out of the air. “Hit me if you have to hit me for it, but listen! Statistics being what they are, there have to be at least two hundred guns out there and if something happens, we’re what? Half a mile from our car? With god knows how many people in between us and the only exit! If there’s a panic, they’ll block us in. If…goddammit.”

Sue-Eye was already coming back, this time with two humans. “Kane,” she called, and to her prey added, “He’s got the best shit, swear to God. You’re gonna see through time.”

Kane went out to meet them. He threw a black look Sue-Eye’s way and her smile faltered. He held her in his eyes as he slashed out and tracheated the nearest human. The second sucked in a gasp instead of running, and then just stood there staring instead of screaming. Kane tracheated him as well, and then knocked both their heads together to drop them. He got his harvester in hand, but didn’t get to work just yet.

“Perhaps I wasn’t clear,” he said coldly.

Sue-Eye tensed, color rising in her cheeks.

“I want you to bring me one human at a time. I want you to make them ready to fuck. That’s what I want and you don’t get to improvise. Bringing me more than one is not a good thing in full daylight with a thousand fucking humans running around in easy hearing.”

Sue-Eye nodded. She even had the good sense to look sheepish. “I’m sorry, Kane. I won’t do it again.”

Kane grunted and hunkered down over the shallowly-breathing males. First one, and then the other opened up under his claws, and Sue-Eye stood by with her eyes down for him to finish. He glanced at her as he waited for the harvester to quit humming. “Smile,” he commanded. “You’re trying to attract a fuck-mate, remember?”

She did, at once, but it didn’t touch her eyes. Nor did it need to, he decided, ejecting the spent gland and rising. Not for what she was doing. He waved her off as he gathered a corpse in each hand and pressed the broken chunks of skulls under one arm. She turned and went, her head bowed.

And that was the kind of slave he could have gotten if he hadn’t come across Raven. Raven, whose only offense lay in trying to warn him, the way any truly loyal crewman would do. He needed to make peace.

He dragged the bodies back into the clearing where Raven was once again pacing and gnawing at her own hand. “The next time we come to Earth,” he said, throwing the corpses onto the pile, “we’ll come with a full crew. We won’t be this rushed and we won’t have to hunt out in the open. We’ll have a ship and holding pens. We’ll have the best equipment. We’ll have weapons.”

She stilled and turned to face him, her arms dropping to hug herself and her expression closed.

“But Raven,” he continued, making an effort to speak calmly and reasonably, “we’ll only have those things if we have money for it and this is our first, last, and only opportunity to earn money. Hunting here is a risk, I see that. But what we take away from this fair could damn well make the difference between good crew and good gear…and things I just settle for.”

She looked away, at the trees, at the sky, and then back at him. Her eyes were snapping and her face was flushed-furious and conciliatory all at once-but she didn’t argue.

“Men in my profession who settle for ships get caught,” Kane finished. “Men who settle for crew end up taking long walks in empty space. And I can’t just come back and try again.”

She dropped her eyes, her teeth bared. Kane growled, the sound an even mix of exasperation and arousal. She was still chafing at him, but she looked so cute with her blunt little fangs exposed it was hard to stay angry.

“Come here,” he told her, and she came, looking pissed off and defeated. “How long have I been hunting, Raven?” he asked, bringing her in against him.

“I don’t know. Long enough, I suppose.” She touched a finger to his stomach and lightly scratched, scowling. “Go ahead. Call me a whiner.”

“Ah, you’ll find I’m a forgiving man when it comes to over-caution.” He cupped her head, brought it to his chest, and closed his eyes as she bit. She was so maddeningly slow, so wonderfully thorough. He felt every muscle unlocking as he savored her. “See?” he murmured. “I’m forgiving you already.”

Her teeth burned their way slowly down his body. Her hands went before them, finishing the job Heat had begun, and stroking him hard through his clothing. Then she was gripping at his hips and biting just above the waist of his pants, pulling at him to force a lazy parody of thrust to bring him into her bites, but she made no effort to do more.

Too relaxed to do much more than bare his fangs, Kane said, “You’re teasing me again. Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

“Sue-Eye’s still trolling,” she replied evenly. “I’m not starting just so I have to stop. Why, is that what you want? Because you’re my commander. I’ll do what you say.” She bit, very carefully and very explosively, right at the base of his constrained cock.

Kane managed not to shout, but it was a near thing. He started to shove her away, then caught her in the same instant, hauling her up to meet his rough kiss and pulling her hips hard against his. He ground at her fiercely, forcing her mouth wider, and drew in breaths that grew ever richer with musk.

Footsteps in the woods again, by hell. Kane snarled into Raven’s mouth and she laughed into his.

“Your lesson,” he growled. “Tiyavek sa sen channan.”

She had to say it twice before he was satisfied. “What does it mean?” she asked.

“Teach me,” he said, nipping at her throat. “Teach me my lessons.”

“And what is it you think I need to learn?”

He growled again, less playfully, and bit her harder, drawing a bead of blood for him to lick away. She darted in right after, sucking her own blood back from the tip of his tongue, and he had to step back fast to keep from tearing the clothes right off her. She licked her lips, letting her blood paint them with color, and bared her teeth at him.

“Sorry,” he heard a human say behind him. “Didn’t know this tree was taken. Come on, baby.”