Vanquished Read online

  “Don’t let them take you,” Kat pleaded.

  “I won’t.”

  “I mean it. Save a round. No matter what, don’t let them take you.”

  He cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers again. “I won’t.”

  She nodded and ran to the front of the building. She hunkered down into a shooter crouch and peered into the night.

  Nothing moved. She searched the area slowly. She could see nothing but rocks and forgotten remnants of a long ago society.

  Yet something stirred behind her.

  Turning quickly, she shouldered her gun, and then lowered it when she saw who it was. “Damn it, Hades.”

  “Sorry, I don’t think we should separate.”

  He set Darquiel down on the ground. Her eyes still wide and frightened, she slumped over like a rag doll. He squatted down next to Kat, turning in the opposite direction.

  “Are you scared?” Kat chided.

  “Yeah, a little.” He nodded smiling.

  She stared back into the darkness. “Me, too.”

  They continued to watch the night. But nothing moved and they heard no sounds except Darquiel’s incessant mumbles.

  “Are you sure she’s right?” Kat asked.

  “I don’t know. She looks frightened enough.”

  Kat crouched near Darquiel and poked her in the arm to get her attention. Darquiel moved her head toward Kat, but seemed to stare right through her.

  “Are you sure he’s coming? I don’t see anything. You didn’t forget to tell us they were invisible or anything did you?”

  Darquiel suddenly sat up straight and stiff like a wooden board. “He’s here.”

  Kat jumped up and spun around, her gun aimed. “Where?”

  Hades also scrambled up and searched the area, gun pointed. Kat peered into the dark, but saw nothing. No shadows. No anything.

  “He’s here. He’s here. He’s here,” Darquiel’s voice rose with each word until she was screaming.

  Kat spun around in confusion. She pushed up against Hades. They stood back to back and swept their weapons back and forth.

  “I can’t see anything,” Kat whispered.

  “Me either.”

  “Can you shut her up?”

  Darquiel continued to mewl the same words over and over, but she was now standing, her arms wrapped around herself in a protective hug.

  Another sound vibrated over top of Darquiel’s chanting. A loud reverberating thumping sound. Like an amplified swoop of a bird’s wing.

  Kat veered her shotgun toward Darquiel. “Hey, shut up!”

  “What’s that noise?” Hades swung around searching the area.

  “I don’t know. It’s getting closer.”

  Darquiel stopped cold, turned toward Kat and grinned. The way the moonlight played across her pale skin made her look like an animated skeleton. “He’s come for you, Katarina.”

  Suddenly they were there.

  Standing behind them. Four of them. Kat and Hades swung around, but it was too late. They didn’t even get a shot off before the intruders yanked their weapons viciously from their hands.

  Baruch stepped out of the shadows and into a beam of moonlight. He was smiling as if greeting longtime friends. “How lovely to finally meet. I’ve been having such wonderful dreams about you both.”

  Kat unsheathed her knives. She twirled them in her hands, ready to strike out. “Fuck you, bloodsucker.”

  “As I told you before, love, you will have that pleasure soon enough.”

  Kat let out a battle yell and rushed at the nearest dweller. He sidestepped her with such speed she didn’t see it happen. His hand came back and hit her across the face. The powerful blow forced her to stumble sideways. She glanced behind her as Hades attacked another one.

  He, too, missed and was hit across the head. He staggered and fell to his knees. The dweller loomed over him and kicked him in the ribs. Hades lifted off the ground and landed on his side, his arms cradled to his stomach. Both his knives dropped from his hands.

  Kat turned around, shakily. Her knees were still wobbly. She spun her knives around again and made another rush. This time she faked to the left and went right, so when the dweller sidestepped he stepped into her knife. She plunged it deep into his gut. She pushed and twisted finishing the job.

  He grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, lifting her off the ground. Soon black spots popped up before her eyes. The world seemed to be spinning. As if her limbs were leaden, she dropped her hand from the knife still stuck in the assailant, and closed her eyes. She had lost the struggle. But before everything went black, she heard Baruch.

  He was laughing. Joyous, cheerful laughter. And she almost felt like joining in.

  Chapter Nineteen

  When Kat opened her eyes, she wasn’t sure if she was back in one of her dreams or if what she witnessed was real.

  She found herself on a bed. A big opulent one, with a canopy and sheer red drapery hanging from it, enclosing her in a frothy crimson cloud. The aroma of fresh bread and something sweet and tangy floated on the stale air to her nose. Her stomach rumbled in response to the delectable smells. Lifting her head, she peered through the curtains trying to determine where she was and if she was alone.

  The room was large, furnished with fancy dressers, tables, and a long sofa covered with pillows. The bed had the same type of pillows in deep rich colors. Kat picked one up and squeezed it. The fabric was soft and smooth against her palm. A material she’d never felt before. Putting it to her face, she rubbed it over her cheek, enjoying the way it felt on her skin. A familiar scent permeated the fabric. She tossed the pillow onto the bed.

  Baruch. This had to be his room.

  Glancing down at herself, she searched for her weapons. Naturally, they had been confiscated. A girl could hope, Kat thought. She pulled the curtain aside and slid off the bed. Peering around the room, it appeared to her that she was, thankfully, alone. For now anyway. Two platters of food were set on the low wood table in front of the black sofa. Her stomach growled again, clenching painfully. There was no ignoring it. She had to eat.

  When she reached the table, Kat eyed the food piled on the plastic plates. There were some pieces of sliced apple, and vegetables like cauliflower and tomatoes. Everything appeared fresh. Again, her stomach cramped and she doubled over. Reaching out, Kat grabbed a handful of food and shoved it into her mouth. As she chewed, bits and pieces fell from between her lips. She couldn’t eat it fast enough.

  While she ate, she glanced around the room taking in the lavish surroundings. Some of things scattered around the room, appeared foreign to her. Luxuries of an overindulgent and decadent past, she assumed, excavated from around the city. Tall elegant glasses with long thin stems stood next to an equally elegant glass decanter on the polished table. Both filled with a red liquid. Kat didn’t even want to consider the source of the crimson substance.

  “Are you thirsty?”

  Kat whipped around to stare at the bed she had previously occupied. Behind the red gauze, Baruch and two women lounged on the soft cushions.

  How did they get there? She was certain there had been no one else in the room. Peering past the headboard, Kat noticed a crack in the wall. A door, possibly?

  Baruch swept aside the curtains and stood. He wore the same black robe she remembered from her dreams. Thankfully, he wore something else under it, a pair of shiny black pants that flowed like water when he walked toward her. His chest was bare, and she couldn’t help notice the way his muscles rippled while he moved.

  Averting her gaze as he neared, Kat tried to concentrate on the anger about the attack and capture. But as his tantalizing smell reached her nostrils, making her knees weak, she could hardly think at all.

  He picked up the container from the table. “Would you like me to pour you a glass?”

  Kat took a few distancing steps back. The little hairs on her arms were standing to attention, and it felt like fingers were playing up and down her spin
e. His presence unnerved her. In ways, she didn’t want to consider.

  “No,” she grunted.

  Chuckling, he poured the red liquid into two of the elegant glasses. He picked his up and took a sip, studying her over the rim.

  “I’m pleased to finally meet you, Katarina. In the flesh, so to speak,” he drawled, as his gaze panned the length of her.

  She shivered from the way he scrutinized her, as if he was trying to decide how much of her he could fit on his plate.

  “That makes one of us.”

  As he took a step toward her, Kat peered around the room searching for a weapon. Anything to keep him at bay. She didn’t think she could handle it if he touched her. And not because he repulsed her, no, it was because he didn’t.

  She reasoned it was the virus inside her that reacted to him. There could be no other logical thought for the way her body flared in response to his presence, or for the erotic images that flashed behind her eyes when she looked at him.

  With a sly grin, he took another step toward her. “I can see in your eyes that you question why you are here. That you mistrust the feelings racing through your body.”

  Taking another step back, Kat ended up pressed up against the concrete wall. Stupid mistake. She hadn’t been concentrating on where she was going. Now she was trapped.

  Baruch took one last step, closing the already small gap between them. “Don’t be afraid, Katarina.”

  She smirked, “Listen, jerkoff, I don’t know the meaning of fear.”

  He chuckled and tilted his head, appearing to study her like a lab animal. “You amuse me.”

  “Fuck you,” she growled with a sneer. Lifting her arm, she swiped at his wineglass and pushed at him so she could run past. The glass fell from his hand to shatter into tiny pieces on the floor.

  But Baruch never flinched. The force of her shove did nothing to push him away. Instead, he shackled one wrist and pushed her up against the wall, her arm raised up above her head. He was strong. Stronger than any normal man and her struggles went unnoticed.

  Leaning forward, he brought his face a few inches from hers. She could smell the sweet wine on his hot breath as he nuzzled his nose against her cheek.

  “Fighting me is pointless, Katarina.” Flicking his tongue, he lathed the lobe of her ear. Shivers rushed down her spine like cascading water. He pitched his voice low. “We are connected, and no amount of denial and refusal will change that. Ever.”

  Turning her head to the side, Kat tried to pull away from his mouth and the delectable things he was doing to her ear and neck. But she had nowhere to go. He had her pinned with his arms and his body. She could feel his heat flowing from him through the cotton of her shirt. Her nipples grew into hard tight peaks in response. Sweat trickled down her back past the waistband of her pants to pool between the cheeks of her ass. His proximity was making her hot and sweaty, as if a small fire had erupted inside her body, flames licking at her from within.

  Cursing to herself, she tried to push down her growing desire. The last person she wanted to lust after was the vile man in front of her. Although he looked sexy and dangerous, her usual criteria for a man, she knew him to be cruel and heartless beneath his delicious exterior. Despite the fact that she knew these things, believed these things in her heart, her body craved him. A throb, deeply rooted and intense, mounted in her sex solidifying her body’s ultimate betrayal.

  He chuckled, and licked the side of her neck. “Mmm, I see my attentions are not going unrewarded.” He whispered into her ear. “I can smell your desire dripping between your legs.”

  Between clenched teeth, she snarled, “The only thing I desire is your head on a stake.”

  Laughing again, Baruch nibbled his way along her jaw line. Closing her eyes against the surge of pleasure washing over her as he nipped at her flesh, Kat brought her other hand up to his bare chest and tried to push him away. Her efforts proved futile. It was like pushing granite. And his skin felt so deliciously warm under her palm.

  Clenching her hand, against the need to stroke it over his smooth muscular chest, Kat tried to rein in her lust. She didn’t want this with him. He was the enemy. Sex with Baruch would be disastrous. To her and to everything she had gone through to get here. Everything she had experienced with Hades. Succumbing to this raging hunger racing through her body, would belittle everything she had come to feel for Hades. She wouldn’t do that to him. She found she cared too much.

  With all the strength she could muster, Kat punched Baruch. She missed her intended target, but managed to strike him in the side.

  If it affected him, he didn’t show it. He just laughed like they had just shared a joke.

  “Oh, Katarina, you are going to be fun to break.”

  With that, Baruch wrapped his other hand around her neck and squeezed. Kat struggled and flung her arm and legs at him, but to no avail. He let go of her other arm as he lifted her off the ground, holding only her throat in a tight grip.

  Flailing like a fish on the end of a hook, Kat struggled against his hold as he swung around and carried her across the room toward the bed. She kicked out with her legs, landing several blows to his stomach and ribs. He never even flinched.

  She was done for. There was no way she could fight him.

  When he reached the bed, the two women still reclining on the cushions pulled back the filmy drapes. Baruch tossed Kat onto the mattress. She bounced once like a rubber ball from the impact, and then lay still, shaking her head trying to clear it. She needed her wits about her, if she was going to survive this. Either she was going to succumb to his will, or she was going to die trying not to. She desperately hoped she’d get a chance to choose.

  “Char, Haziel, grab her arms,” Baruch commanded to the two scantily clad women kneeling next to Kat on the bed.

  Before Kat could react, each woman took an arm and held them above Kat’s head pinning them to the mattress. Kat struggled, but they were both much stronger than she was. The best she could do was raise her shoulders and jerk them, sending jolts of pain down her arms and back.

  Baruch grabbed one of her legs in each hand and spread them apart, so he could kneel in between. Once positioned, there was nothing she could do, but squeeze him in a vise with her thighs. But she didn’t think that would do anything but entice him further, and spark more insistent throbbing in her loins.

  Leering down at her, Baruch moved his hands up her thighs to rest on her pelvis. She could feel his heat emanating through his palms right through the leather of her pants.

  “It would be better if you didn’t fight me.”

  “Better for whom?”

  Licking his lips, his gaze traveled from her face down to her crotch. She could see the elongated fangs peeking between his full, luscious mouth. “For you. I will enjoy it regardless how much you struggle.”

  Kat wanted to scream, but knew it would be pointless and futile. Not to mention a waste of energy that she was certainly going to need, if she was going to escape. Although her situation seemed bleak, unavoidable, she wouldn’t give up. If there were a way out, she’d find it.

  Baruch leaned forward and covered her body with his own. Spreading out his legs, he was able to keep hers pinned to the bed and unable to kick him. Dipping his head, his mouth hovered over her breasts.

  The women holding her arms, giggled maliciously at Kat’s plight. By the way their breathing increased, she could tell that they were enjoying the show.

  Kat could feel Baruch’s hot breath through the cotton of her shirt. Clenching her teeth, Kat struggled against the urge to lift her chest to his waiting mouth.

  He moved his face around, clearly taking in her scent with each deep intake of breath, but being careful not to touch her. “You can’t stop the virus. It’s racing through your bloodstream like a drug. Soon it will overpower you. You’ll be left helpless and weak, unable to resist the hungers eating at your insides.” Closing his eyes, he pressed his slightly parted lips to her breast. She could feel the moistur
e of his tongue through her shirt. “A hunger for food, a hunger for sex, and a hunger for blood.”

  Kat drew her gaze away from him and glanced up at the two women holding her down. They both wore grins of feral satisfaction. Kat really wanted to smack those smiles off their pale faces. As she glared at the ghoulish woman on the left, Kat’s eye caught a glimpse of something silver. Turning her head slightly, she could plainly see one of her knives strapped to the gaunt woman’s thigh.

  A flash of hope flared in her mind. Maybe the situation wasn’t as desperate as it seemed. How could she get her knife? She needed use of her arms to be able to take back her weapon. But what would make the women release her?

  Her attention swung back to Baruch. He watched her face as he teased her nipples with the tip of his tongue through the fabric. He was waiting for a reaction. She’d give him one.

  Releasing her anger and the strangle hold she had on her desire, Kat let her body respond.

  As soon as she made the decision, surges of pleasure crashed over her flesh nearly drowning her in their power. She gasped as a hot flow of pleasure swept through her, pooling in a hot ball of intensity between her legs. She groaned as Baruch bit down on her nipple.

  “You see, it can be very pleasurable to give in to your desires,” he growled as he released his biting clamp on her aching peak, and then moved over to do the same to her other one.

  She writhed underneath him, while he tortured her with exquisite piercing pain. Moving his hands up and under her shirt, Baruch wrapped his hands around her breasts and squeezed them, pushing her nipples up farther into his mouth.

  Kat was never one for getting aroused by her pain, but what he was doing sent new violent jolts of pure bliss straight to between her thighs. As the sensations increased deep inside, it became nearly unbearable, and she squeezed her legs together clamping down around Baruch’s waist. Bucking her pelvis, she ground her sex into his. Anything to find release.

  Baruch chuckled. “You will not find release that easily, Katarina. I will say when you will come.” He relinquished his tight hold on her breasts and moved down her body so that his face was level with the crotch of her pants. Putting his nose right into the cross seam of her pants, Baruch took in a deep breath. “Mmm, you smell delicious. I bet you taste just as divine.” He glanced up and smiled. “What do you think, Char? Would you like to play with our new friend here?”