“Maybe we should give her the whole bag.” Jude’s voice. Deep and booming, except maybe he’d been whispering.
Her gaze slanted to him, and she found him holding up one of those bags, kinda like the IV drips you’d see in a hospital, only—this one was filled with red fluid. No, with blood.
Give her the whole bag.
Dee licked her lips and the mug dropped from her hand, shattering onto the floor.
She vomited then because she knew what they’d just given her. What she’d eagerly taken.
“Fuck! Get towels in here!” Shouted to someone, somewhere, then, “Everything is okay, Dee.” Pak, still trying to be reassuring.
No, everything was not okay. Her head fell back even as her tongue skated over her teeth, caught the too-sharp edge of her canines—
No, Christ, no! “Pak?”
Jude moved toward her, holding that damn vampire takeout, and Dee shuddered. Her hands came up. Her short nails were turning into claws. “What did he do to me?”
Simon.
The vampire who’d held her in her last moments. The lover she’d stupidly trusted. “What did he do?” But she knew. Oh, dammit, she knew.
Jude lowered his hand. “He said he didn’t do anything.”
“Look at me!” She screamed as the voices droned in her head and the smells blasted her nose. “I’m not human anymore! That bastard changed me.” I’ve become what I hate most.
“Dee.” Pak, calm, trying to talk her down. No talking down from this.
The blood—so close. She wanted more.
No, no, she was going to be sick again—
Blood.
Her gaze rose to Jude’s throat. To the pulse that throbbed beneath the skin. Fresh blood would be better. So much better.
His brow furrowed. “Why you looking at me like I’m your meal, hunter? Stay in control, you got me? Stay in—”
She shoved her hand against her mouth. The hunger was so intense she nearly doubled over. A vampire. Just like those bastards who’d slaughtered her family. No. Never this. Never. “Stay away from me,” she growled, and didn’t look at him. Couldn’t, because he tempted her too much.
“You have to drink more,” Pak said, voice smooth as silk. Calm, steady Pak. Acting as if nothing were wrong. As if her world hadn’t just gone to hell thanks to a sexy, lying vampire who’d set her up from the beginning. “The first hunger can be too strong for some. I can’t allow you to attack anyone, Dee. You have to drink.”
She threw out her hand. Another mug was pushed against her fingers. She lifted the cup, guzzled the blood. Keep. It. Down.
I’m drinking blood. Nausea rolled inside her, the human remnants fighting what she’d become.
Empty. She pushed the mug back at Pak. It was refilled almost instantly.
She swallowed the dark liquid. Keep. It. Down.
Again.
Again.
Dee drank and closed her eyes. Her cheeks were wet, but she didn’t care. She’d never cried in front of the other hunters. Never cried, period. But this was different. This was hell.
Her teeth ached. Her stomach knotted. She still drank. Drank until the vicious need pounding through her body eased, until she could breathe without wanting to sink her teeth into Jude’s throat.
Until the monster inside had quieted.
“No more.” Pak took the cup from her. Dee swiped the back of her hand over her cheeks. Stupid tears—what good would crying do her? She glanced at her hands, frowning. Wait, was that blood? She’d cried tears of blood?
Dee’s chin came up. “Where’s Zane?” She wasn’t stupid. She hunted vampires for a living. She’d known that a day like this could come, probably would come, sooner or later. She’d hedged her bets to make sure that she wouldn’t turn into one of those killers who preyed on innocents. So many vampires just lost control and killed…killed.
Because the bloodlust could flare so strongly.
Zane was her safety net.
“He’s with the cleanup team on Bymore.”
She’d been on Bymore, right before the attack. “Ian?”
“Bastard’s dead, and so is some cop, a female who’d been working vice.”
The bitch who’d stabbed her. And she’d been one of Tony’s girls?
“The place is a fucking mess, blood everywhere, dead vamps torn apart—”
“What?” With the hunger slaked, she could think better. “Did Night Watch get there to—”
“Not our kills.” Pak crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. “We found the bodies like that and thought maybe you’d managed to take some of the bastards out.”
She shook her head. “No, no, the cop stabbed me. I was down for the count.” Should have been, anyway.
You won’t touch her. Dee could still hear the rage in Simon’s voice. “He brought me here?” Dumped her. He’d changed her, then dumped her.
She swallowed, aware that the knowledge hurt. The jerk still had the power to hurt her.
Dumped me like garbage. Why?
Because he knew she’d be coming after his ass.
“Chase wanted you taken care of. He knew you’d be safe here.”
But the hunters weren’t safe. She was too unstable. Too—
“You know the first forty-eight hours are the hardest.” Pak, still with those crossed-arms and quiet voice. “We’re going to have to keep you under lockdown until we can make sure you’re not—”
Insane. Driven crazy by bloodlust and power. A freaking killer who would slaughter everyone and everything in her path.
“I know you gave Zane kill orders,” Pak said and Jude sucked in a sharp breath.
“What the hell?” Jude’s claws sprang out.
“But you’re not dying yet,” Pak told her.
“I’m already dead!”
He jerked his head toward Jude. “Lock her up. And, do whatever you have to do, but keep that demon away from her.” A pause. “For now.”
Because if she went bad, if she couldn’t keep her control, Zane would come for her.
He’d given her his word, after all, and one thing about that demon, he always kept his word.
Unlike Simon…I’ll find you. Sooner or later, she’d find her lover and make him pay.
“You don’t smell like a vamp,” Jude said four nights later when he led her out the back door of Night Watch. His nostrils flared a bit and he leaned in close. “Damn, woman, you just smell, hell, like you.”
Dee glanced his way, then turned to stare at the long, dark street. Since the moment she’d awoken, Pak had kept her under close scrutiny. He’d watched her. Fed her. Helped her to focus the chaos in her mind that came from the enhanced senses and the fears.
Just like before, Pak had taught her.
Not how to hunt this time.
How to live as a vampire.
“Pak told me that a vamp’s scent changes,” Dee said, not sure she understood why she wasn’t reeking like a corpse. “Those bastards that hunt and rip apart humans, they stink of death and decay.”
“Because they have no soul left,” Pak’s soft voice, coming from behind them. Dee didn’t glance back. She’d known he was there. It was too easy to catch even his soft footfalls now.
“My grandfather once said that when the Taken lose their humanity, they become no more than the walking dead.”
His grandfather had been a Choctaw shaman, so Dee figured the guy had known a thing or two about the walking dead.
“You still have your soul, Dee. Your mortal life is gone, but you’re still the same inside.”
Yeah, right. She just had a few flashy additions on the outside. New teeth. New nails. New eyes.
Taken. Why had Simon changed her? “Why not just leave me to die?” she asked the night, her hands clenched into fists.
No answer. Dee hadn’t really expected one.
“You’ll hunt now.” Pak sounded certain.