Sunfall Read online

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was late in the afternoon by the time I pulled onto the shoulder of the road just outside the entrance to the estate and cut the engine. The last hour of the drive had been a constant battle to keep my eyes open, and I wanted to collapse. Malnourished and dehydrated in two different ways, my energy stores were in serious need of replenishing.

  Within moments, a semicircle of armed guards was ringed around the cab of the truck. Unsure of how to respond, I raised my hands into the air. I didn’t recognize any familiar faces, and while I was certain they’d been told to expect me, they were also right to be suspicious. One of the men opened the driver’s side door.

  “Who are you?”

  “Valentine Darrow, Missionary and Blood Prime.”

  The one who seemed to be in charge extended the same kind of portable fingerprint reader Tian’s servants had used.

  “For verification.”

  When I pressed my thumb to the screen, I noticed my hand was shaking. Frowning, I concentrated on steadying my grip until the tremor had disappeared. When the device chirped, the man nodded.

  “Thank you, Missionary. Welcome. Our orders are to escort you to the command center. A car awaits you just inside the gate.”

  “This truck and its driver need to be dealt with,” I said as I climbed down from the cab. My legs screamed in protest, and as I hobbled through the gate, I finally gave up trying not to betray any weakness. “Humanely, please. I want him to have all of his assets intact. Just not his memories of the last several hours.”

  “I understand, Missionary.”

  As I slid my aching muscles into the backseat of the waiting Range Rover, a strong fatigue swept over me, rendering me dizzy. I focused on taking deep, steady breaths, but the sensation of vertigo never completely dissipated. Had I reached the limits of my superhuman body? Brenner had withheld food and water for days, but that deprivation was only exacerbating my condition, not causing it. I needed Alexa’s blood—my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. Soon. Leaning my head against the window, I watched the tops of the bare trees dance to the beat of a chill wind as the car drew steadily closer to the safe house.

  We parked directly in front of the entrance and I got out of the car on unsteady legs, feeling like an octogenarian. Suddenly, the front door was being thrown open and Alexa—too thin, too pale, and dressed in black camo—was flying down the stairs. She skidded to a halt in front of me, her face a kaleidoscope of emotions. Love, anger, fear, worry—they lashed at her like gale force winds. I tried to smile, but my face didn’t seem to be working properly. I tried to walk into her arms, but suddenly my legs wouldn’t bear my own weight.

  Without any warning, I finally succumbed to the tidal wave of my exhaustion. As it pulled me under, I collapsed into her embrace.

  *

  Gentle hands stroked my back as loving words filled my ears. I breathed in deeply, smiling as I filled my lungs with her scent. Alexa. Home. Safe.

  “Val, love, I know you’re so tired. But can you wake up for me, just for a little while? Please?”

  I wanted to make her happy, but my limbs wouldn’t work properly. They were impossibly heavy. Even my eyelids had been immobilized by tiny weights.

  “Can’t,” I murmured, already on the verge of falling back to sleep.

  “Did you catch that?” Alexa said. She sounded far away.

  “I think she said, ‘can’t.’” A familiar voice. Karma.

  “I’ve never seen her virtually unresponsive like this.”

  Alexa sounded frightened. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be just fine, but my lips wouldn’t form the words.

  “What do you think is wrong?” asked Karma.

  “I know exactly what she needs. I’ve just never seen her too weak to take it for herself.”

  I heard the rustling of cloth, and then the mattress moved beneath me as someone else added their weight to the bed. Alexa or Karma? I wanted to open my eyes to see. When I tried and failed, irritation seeped through my lethargy. A frustrated groan caught at the back of my throat.

  “What was that?” said Karma.

  “I think she’s trying,” said Alexa. “Hand me that knife, please. I’ll meet you downstairs as soon as I can.”

  “You’re sure you don’t want me to stay?”

  “She’s been through hell and she’s starving in more ways than one. I need to remind her of us. She won’t hurt me, Karma.”

  Alexa sounded so confident—so sure of herself, and of our relationship. She was my champion. She fought so hard. Wasn’t she tired? I wanted to tug her down next to me on the bed and wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her hair and sleep for years.

  “I understand. Be safe.”

  The door shut. Alexa’s hands were gentle as she turned me onto my back. I wanted to see her face, but my eyes refused to open.

  “I love you, Valentine.” As she spoke the words, the air became redolent with the aroma of heaven—rich and fragrant and pure. She grasped the back of my head and pressed her skin to my lips. “Drink. Come back to me.”

  The first taste unlocked my frozen body. As the gift of her blood trickled into my parched throat, my eyes flew open to the sight of her face, fierce and loving, above me. She had opened her wrist for me, and I reached up to clutch at her arm.

  “Yes, Val,” she gasped as I pulled deeply from her vein, filling myself with the heat and brightness of her. She flowed into me, pouring her strength into my aching muscles, knitting together my broken skin, soothing my bruised soul.

  “I love you,” she whispered, eyes locked on mine. “I love you.”

  I drank and drank, losing myself in her intoxicating taste, glorying in the vitality that returned to my body and mind. I never wanted to stop, but as my lucidity returned so did my sense of priority. Gentling my mouth against her, I licked the small wounds until I felt her skin close beneath my tongue.

  When I rolled onto my side and pulled her down to face me, she traced the lines of my face with tender strokes of her fingertips. I had despaired of ever seeing her again, and every loving touch was bliss.

  “Thank you,” I said, leaning in to press my lips to her tremulous smile. Her mouth opened to me like a flower, soft and delicate, and despite the demands weighing down on us I let myself luxuriate in the kiss.

  Finally, we parted. She rubbed her thumb across my mouth and I let my fingers sift through her hair, marveling at the crispness of the world. As I pushed myself into sitting position, I realized that already, I was experiencing far less pain than I had hours ago.

  “How do you feel?” she asked, mimicking my position on the bed.

  “You’re a miracle,” I told her. “I was near comatose, wasn’t I?”

  “It did seem that way.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You didn’t feed at all, while we were apart?”

  Her insecurity pierced me, and I cradled her hands in mine. “I think Brenner wanted to keep me hungry. I had a close moment with the truck driver, but then I thought of you and how I never wanted to betray you again, and I was able to stay in control. Whatever the flower did to my blood, I think it’s helped me with that.”

  My declaration only seemed to agitate her. She stood and began to pace. “Damn it, your body just shut down. I don’t ever want to stand in the way of what you need to survive.”

  I blocked her path, grasped her shoulders, and pulled her into my embrace. “Alexa, you are what I need to survive. Only you. I made it. We’re together, and thanks to you I’m already healing.” I cupped her face, compelling her to meet my gaze. “Now it’s time to finish what Brenner started—to take the opportunity to be rid of him so we can live in peace.”

  She swallowed hard, then nodded. “You’re right.”

  “Are the others downstairs? I want to tell them everything I know. Maybe some of it will help as we formulate a plan.”

  “Yes. When I left them, they were planning to review intelligence reports of the area you clued u
s into.”

  I reached for her hand, twining our fingers together. “Then let’s go.”

  But she resisted. “You didn’t take very much from me. There’s no way you’re even close to full strength, after what you’ve just been through.”

  I leaned in to kiss her all too briefly. “You’re right. Which is why once I’ve finished briefing everyone, I’m going to drag you back up here.” I smoothed a finger over the dark smudges beneath her eyes. “You need to rest, too.”

  We found the remainder of the team gathered in the mansion’s spacious living room. Foster was hunched over a laptop, speaking with someone—presumably at Headquarters—in hushed tones. Karma, Constantine, and Malcolm were poring over maps spread out across the coffee table and floor. They all looked up as I entered, and Foster ended her call.

  Karma jumped up to embrace me, and Foster stood to give me a one-armed hug. As Alexa and I sat on the couch, Constantine reached over to squeeze my hand, and even Malcolm smiled.

  “Any luck?” I asked, indicating the maps.

  “We’ve identified a few possibilities,” said Constantine. “Nothing definite yet.”

  “Any information you can share would be helpful,” Malcolm said, surprising me with his almost deferential tone. Perhaps the fact that I’d managed to escape from Brenner’s clutches trumped the distaste he’d felt for me ever since learning that Alexa had chosen to become a wereshifter in order to sustain me forever.

  But just as I was about to recount what had happened in Brenner’s lair, a surge of anxiety made it difficult to speak. My heartbeat accelerated as the panic rolled over my brain like a dark fog, and suddenly, I was back in that white room, bound to the steel table, spread open and helpless—

  The warm pressure of Alexa’s hand on my leg pulled me back from the darkness. The room was silent, save for my labored breaths. Ashamed, I stared at my fists, clenched white-knuckled on my knees.

  Alexa kissed my jaw. “You’re all right, my love. I’m here. You’re among friends.”

  I calmed my breathing and cleared my throat. Alexa was right. I didn’t have to look into the void alone, and that made all the difference.

  Between their questions and several interruptions from Headquarters and Malcolm’s scouts, it took me almost two hours to tell the full story. By the time I had finished, exhaustion had crept back into my every cell.

  “We have to assume that he is manufacturing the cannibal parasite as fast as possible for widespread distribution.” Malcolm’s large hands balled into fists on the table.

  In my mind, I flashed back to Tian, crazed in her thirst for vampire blood. To imagine a vampire civil war perpetrated by legions of starving, mindless killers was beyond horrible. For a moment, I was glad that Tian had perished so she wouldn’t see the Armageddon that was coming. The tragic betrayal of her own parasite DNA.

  “Do you think he might already have weaponized it?” I asked. “Do we know if Brenner’s still here?”

  “Our people have been closely monitoring the air traffic out of the Alaska interior for the past five days,” said Malcolm. “We’ve been able to account for all passengers in and out of the region, and none of them were Brenner.”

  “That’s no guarantee that he’s still at the installation,” Constantine chimed in. “He could have left by car or he could be four-legged. But that would still put him in the general vicinity.”

  I nodded, discouragement adding to my fatigue. We were adding up what-ifs, not certainties. They could easily amount to nothing.

  “Okay. Enough.” Alexa got to her feet and extended her hand to me. “We’re going to get some rest.” Her tone brooked no argument, and no one made to stop us. “Until there’s a plan, or a question only Val can answer, we’re out of commission.”

  She kept her arm around my waist as we ascended the stairs, but when she would have immediately pulled me into bed, I resisted.

  “I need to take a shower.”

  “You’re fine, sweetheart. Let’s just crawl under the—”

  “No!” My vehemence surprised me, and I dropped my eyes to the floor. “I’m a mess, and…and after talking about all that, I just want to be clean again.”

  “Okay,” she said softly. “I understand. Can I join you?” When I nodded, she smiled and told me to raise my arms. As she undressed me, she pressed a kiss to every scrape, every bruise. She treated my aching body with the utmost care, and instead of feeling weak, I only felt cherished.

  “You’re beautiful, Valentine. Bruised and battered, yes, but still so beautiful. Now, pay attention.”

  Alexa stripped slowly. As I watched her peel off each successive layer of clothing, desire welled up in my chest, over-spilling its bounds until it cascaded through every vein and vessel. She made me feel so alive, and I relaxed into my arousal, my thirst, my love for her. They braided together to become need—all encompassing need that blazed through my every cell.

  With a smile, she went into the bathroom and turned on the shower, adjusting the temperature until steam billowed out into the room.

  “Come on, sweetheart.” She took my hand and led me inside, wincing in sympathy at my hiss of pain as the water struck my abrasions. I fell into a daze as her fingertips massaged my scalp, as her palms swept gently over my body. She cleaned the grime and blood from my skin, and as I watched the shampoo and soap run down my legs and into the drain, I imagined my fears and anxieties following suit.

  Once I was clean, she began to wash herself, but I snapped out of my daze and took the bar of soap from her hands. I whispered to her as I washed her, telling her how much I loved her, how much I had missed her, my hands lathering her thick hair and kneading the muscles of her back and lingering on her full breasts.

  We dried off quickly and fell onto the bed, everything forgotten except each other. When I moved to slide my body over hers, Alexa pulled me beneath her with a strength I could not resist.

  “No,” she whispered, eyes shining with love but her face fierce with need. “I almost lost you, Valentine. You know what that feels like—so dark, so empty. And now you’re here, you’re safe, and I need to fill myself up with you. Don’t deny me that.”

  “Never,” I gasped, the intensity of her words making me liquid with desire. “I would never deny you anything.”

  She cradled my face as she kissed me, our bodies cleaving together. As I stroked the long muscles of her back and the curve of her buttocks, she raised her head and shuddered for breath.

  “Your hands on me feel so, so good.”

  “I love you,” I said and tried to recapture her lips. But she had other plans.

  Her mouth skated along my jaw line, then down the column of my neck. The closer she moved to my breasts, the more incandescent I became, my harsh breaths echoing loudly throughout the room.

  “I love the sounds you make. How responsive you are for me.” She flicked her tongue across my nipple, and her name left my mouth on a low moan.

  As she lavished attention on my breasts, my capacity for thought deserted me, swept away on the tide of arousal she had created. My body melted beneath her and my groans became incoherent. I was need incarnate.

  Her mouth remained at my breast as one hand slipped lower, bumping across my ribs before stroking along my abdomen. And then her fingers found me, and my hips rose to meet her touch as pleasure flared along every nerve.

  “You feel amazing, Val,” she whispered, never pausing her soft strokes as she slid farther down my body.

  When I felt the warmth of her breath against me, I shuddered and forced my eyes open. She stared back at me, smiling, exultant. “I want to be inside you, Valentine.”

  “Yes. Please, yes.” My breath caught as she poised one finger to enter me, then slowly, carefully increased the pressure.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned. “You’re so tight.” She pushed, and my body clenched around her fingertip. “Open, my love. Be open for me. I want all of you.”

  She bent her head, and as the heat of her mo
uth closed around me, she slid deep inside my body. My mouth opened on a soundless scream as the ecstasy found me, possessed me, wrung me out. Alexa stayed with me through it all, coaxing every ounce of pleasure, every drop of release from my body.

  Finally, she withdrew, sliding up along my side to wrap her arms around me. She kissed the corner of my mouth, my cheek, my earlobe. “That was incredible. I love you, Valentine.”

  Her declaration galvanized me, and I fought past the lassitude that suffused my body to roll her beneath me. Her eyes were wide and dark, her breathing quick. Now that she had had her fill of me, she craved my touch.

  The confidence was heady. Bracing my weight on my elbows, I plunged my hands into her hair and tilted her head back, exposing her throat. She shuddered against me, and as I pressed my thigh between her legs, I felt her wetness coat my skin.

  “Mine,” I growled, nipping gently at her breasts, her collarbone, her neck, teasing her without breaking skin.

  She reached up to pull my right hand down to the juncture of her thighs. “Yes,” she hissed. “Take me, Val. Make me yours.”

  Refusing to be commanded, I teased her first, swirling my fingertips against her most sensitive skin and kissing the breathy pleas from her lips. She grew more and more insistent until at last I gave in, plunging two fingers deep inside her body, glorying in her ecstatic cry and the clench of her muscles around me.

  I thrust slowly at first, then faster and faster until I felt her grow impossibly tight around my knuckles. Finally, I slid my teeth into her neck and she exploded, bucking and shivering, her passion igniting every corner of my soul.

  It was so hard to withdraw—to ease my teeth and my touch from the welcoming embrace of her body—but I didn’t want to deplete her much more than I already had. She blinked up at me in sleepy satisfaction as I smoothed her damp hair back from her face.

  “I love when you look at me like that,” I said.