The Immortal Hunter(77)

John and Hazel Parker, Decker plucked the name from their thoughts as he glanced over the man. He appeared to have recovered from his run-in with Dani. Decker nodded toward the woods ahead and said, "That way."

Nodding, the man took his wife by the hand and began to lead her toward the woods.

Something cold dripping onto Dani's closed lips stirred her from the exhausted, almost unconscious state she'd worked herself into as Decker had carried her through the woods. Opening her eyes, she found him kneeling over her and glanced around with confusion to see she was tied down to the bed in her room. Since the bed was without a bed frame or headboard, the rope had simply been tied to one wrist, somehow passed under the bed, and then brought up to tie to her other wrist. The same had been done with her ankles. Primitive, but effective, she decided as she tugged at the rope and found the weight of the bed held her in place.

Dani didn't recall how she'd gotten there and realized she must have zoned out for a bit. She remembered fighting frantically to make Decker put her down, or at least just release her hand so she could suck her knuckle again, but he had ignored her as he'd herded the Parkers to the house. By the time they'd gotten there, she'd been really out of it. She had vague recollections of Sam, Mortimer, Justin, and Leigh crowding around them, thought Mortimer had ordered Justin to take care of the Parkers while he went to help Lucian, and then all she could recall were walls and ceilings swimming overhead and now this.

"Open up."

Rolling her head, Dani peered up at Decker, noting that his expression was grim and closed as he held a bag of blood over her mouth. "I don't want-"

The words died in her throat as he tipped the bag of blood, pouring some of the cold, red liquid into her mouth. The moment the cool, life-giving blood splashed onto her tongue, Dani forgot about telling him she didn't want to be an animal like Leo and that he should just kill her now. Instead she opened her jaws wider and swallowed greedily as the liquid flowed in.

It was like a cool cloth on a burn, easing her agony and beating it briefly back, but all too soon the bag was empty and the pain came roaring back like a riot of hoodlums charging up through her body demanding more. Dani was gasping under the attack when the door opened and Sam and Leigh rushed in, carrying three bags of blood each.

"We brought more," Sam announced as the two women rushed forward, their worried gazes on her.

"Thank you." Decker took a bag from Sam and used his teeth to rip off one corner. He then leaned over Dani to tip it over her mouth. She opened her lips eagerly, sighing as the cold blood slid down her throat, taming the riotous crowd inside.

They went through this four more times, five bags of blood altogether gushing into what had become the bottomless pit of her stomach, and then Dani stiffened as her body went still. There was no more rushing in her ears, no more acidy cramping in her stomach, and her heartbeat slowed to almost a stop. Dani felt trepidation creep over her then. It felt like the calm before a storm, and she just knew when it hit it would be a hurricane, devastating everything in its path.

"What is it?" Decker asked. He was eyeing her face with worry, another bag held, but unopened, in his hands.

"You tell me," she said tightly. "You're the expert here."

"I'm not an expert. I was born an immortal. I've never sat through a turning before," he admitted, and then turned to glance at Leigh in question.

"I'm afraid I haven't either," Lucian's life mate admitted, worry clear in her expression.

Dani heard Decker sigh, and then he turned back to her and said, "Tell me what's happening."

She opened her mouth to speak, and then cried out as it all charged back. The rushing in her ears returned, but was now a roaring, making her deaf to everything else. The acidy cramping returned in earnest and then became an invisible bed of knives slamming down from the ceiling, stabbing through her stomach and chest and then shooting off in all directions through her body. And her heartbeat began racing, charging, thudding so hard she feared it would explode out of her chest. But worse still was the blast that went off in her head. Pain as she'd never experienced ripped her skull apart. Her body then began to convulse, and Dani lost the ability to see or even think. She was pure sensation now, aware only of the agony tearing at her.

"Dear God, what's happening?" The question screamed through Decker's head, even as Sam asked it aloud when Dani began to convulse on the bed.

"Maybe I'd better call Lucian and see if this is normal," Leigh said.

"No. Lucian can't do anything," he said at once. "Call Bastien and tell him to send over drugs and an IV."

Leigh nodded, but before she could go in search of a phone, Dani suddenly began to thrash.

Decker turned back to the bed just in time to see her jerk her hands toward her chest. She appeared to be trying to grab at her stomach, or perhaps her heart, but the rope stopped her... for half a second, and then the sound of the box spring frame's snapping reached his ears just as her hands continued toward the middle and up. The edge of the destroyed box spring and mattress on the side Decker wasn't sitting on curled upward as Dani grabbed not for her chest or stomach, but for her head. Her fingers raked into her hair, catching handfuls and then fisting around them as she pressed against her skull, and then just as quickly she began to tug outward.

Had Decker not launched himself to grab her hands and stop her just then, he was pretty sure Dani would have torn whole hanks of hair out of her scalp. Fortunately, he did grab her and then struggled to hold her down and keep her from hurting herself, but her legs were now moving too, her whole body bucking. Decker was more than grateful for Leigh's help when she launched herself on Dani's legs, but when he saw Sam in his peripheral vision, coming up the side of the bed to help by taking one of the arms, he roared, "No! Stay back. She's too strong. She could kill you right now without even realizing it."