Raven's Blood Read online

  Chapter Four

  Connor couldn’t believe the mess he’d gotten himself into. He also couldn’t figure out why he was going out of his way to taunt the nymph. It hadn’t been his intention to keep any of the humans. The humans had been too conspicuous in their flight from the hospital, obviously trying to draw their attention away from the small group stealing medical supplies.

  While Connor had no real fondness for most of the humans who still fought them, he knew about the sickness claiming the lives of many at the island settlement. He refused to become one of the monsters humans believed his people to be. Had they come to him and asked for the medicine, he would have negotiated to have it delivered to them. Naturally, he would have demanded something in return, but the humans could have donated a few bags of blood and called it even. Sadly, they didn’t trust his people, and he couldn’t risk looking weak by turning his back while humans stole from them. He also couldn’t allow the humans to think it was easy to steal from them. At least, not in a way that was obvious to his less loyal followers.

  The plan had been to chase the humans into the woods and lose them. The people he’d intended to have follow him were in on the plan. Unfortunately, a few others had decided they’d join him in the hunt rather than following his orders and staying behind to secure the hospital. It would have been too suspicious to argue with them. Those who had joined him against his wishes weren’t loyal to him and were looking for an excuse to discredit him as a leader.

  Still, he could have justified letting the humans go by claiming he didn’t want to risk bringing the sickness back to the humans living among them. They didn’t normally take captives unless they posed a real threat, because captives were too much work. They weren’t short on blood donors, so there was no reason to have unwilling humans around. Under their current laws, they could forcefully take humans to use as blood donors, but Connor had lived as a slave and the idea of having his own was distasteful, to say the least.

  He blew out a frustrated breath. The whole plan had seemed simple until the nymph had made her offer and revealed she was a wood nymph to everyone. As luck would have it, he hadn’t been surrounded by a bunch of vampires who didn’t believe in wood nymphs. Instead, he’d been with a group of believers. It was a total cluster fuck.

  Allowing an offer like this to slip through his fingers could have been a fatal mistake, not just for him but for many others under his care. It also could have ended very badly for the wood nymph. Had he not taken her, someone else would have, and he would’ve had no grounds to stop them. By offering to trade her own freedom for that of her friends, she’d sealed her own fate. He’d had no choice but to take her up on her offer and assert his dominance over her.

  He might feel better about himself if asserting his dominance wasn’t so arousing. That was one fact about his nature he couldn’t change. Vampires were dominant, predatory creatures. Even though he might like someone with a little fight, a challenge, in the end he wanted to win. He and the vampires with him had already been aroused from the chase. The nymph had sealed her own fate with her admission, and all he could do now was try to make it easier for her.

  So, now he had a wood nymph. If he had to guess he’d say she was also part human since she’d been living among humans. Actually, since all wood nymphs were female, he had to assume they were all part human. Then again, he hadn’t really believed the stories of their existence until he’d met this one. He was tempted to ask her who they bred with, but he figured the subject of wood nymph mating habits should probably wait until she didn’t want to stab him in the balls.

  Connor wasn’t sure what to do with her. He couldn’t allow her to escape, but he certainly didn’t want the hassle of keeping her. The blood was everything he’d heard it was, and he’d wanted to pull away from her wrist and sink his fangs into her neck as his sank his cock into her body. Damn! He really needed stop that train of thought.

  Glancing at his angry little nymph, he had to bite back a smile. She was sitting in the passenger’s seat of his jeep with her hands cuffed and attached to the loop on the dashboard. He could still see the mark where he’d bitten her. One might expect her to look defeated by her predicament. Far from it; she looked ready to tear his head off.

  When she caught him looking at her, she scowled even more. “What do you plan to do to me?”

  He sighed. “I’m not sure. This wasn’t part of my plan. There weren’t supposed to be any prisoners coming back with us.” He felt bad about leaving her feeling scared and in the dark, but he really didn’t know what to do.

  “No prisoners?” she asked. “Were you just planning to kill us?”

  “You’re awfully mouthy for someone in your position,” he remarked, not sure if he was annoyed or amused by her bravado. It would certainly mean more problems for him, but the attitude was much better than weeping.

  She shrugged. “I just want to know what’s going to happen,” she admitted. “I’m used to being in charge.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Raven,” she replied after a moment’s hesitation.

  “I’m Connor.”

  She waited for him to say more.

  “Just do what you’re told, and you won’t get hurt,” he assured her, which sounded reasonable to him.

  She snorted. “Sure, I’ll trust the undead guy. Maybe I can get a pet cobra and tongue kiss it, too.”

  Connor stifled a laugh. This wasn’t the time to bond with the nymph. He needed her to behave, and fear was probably the best way to control her. Respect would be better, but she obviously hated him too much for that. “You don’t have much choice, Raven. By giving yourself to me, you chose to become my property.” He really hated using that word.

  “I did what I had to do to save my friends,” she muttered.

  “Only you didn’t expect to have to keep your promise,” he reminded her as he slid the card into the security gate. It was primitive technology, but they hadn’t caught up with the rest of the world. It had only been forty years since they’d opened some tentative trade agreements. “You expected to give them enough time to get away and then disappear into the woods. I’ve heard your kind can do that. One minute you’re there, and the next you’re gone.”

  She surprised him by making no attempt to deny it. “Can you blame me?”

  He smiled and shook his head. “No, it was a good plan. Too bad you didn’t know about the collars. I suppose it also might have helped if I hadn’t known you could do that. Then I probably wouldn’t have even used the collar. So, tell me something, Raven. Had you known there was no escape for you—known you were really trading your freedom for theirs—would you have still done it? Would you have still played the martyr to save a handful of humans?”

  “Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “What choice did I have?”

  “Like I said before, you could have disappeared into those woods, and we never would have found you.” He couldn’t help admiring her loyalty, even knowing it was wasted on a bunch of humans who wouldn’t have done the same for her.

  “They’re my friends,” she explained with a shrug. “I’ve already lost enough people I cared about to vampires. I didn’t want to lose more.”

  “Turned vamps?” Connor asked.

  Her blank stare said louder than words she had no idea what the difference was. That didn’t really surprise him since most people in the human settlements didn’t know the difference.

  “Why are you living with humans?” he asked.

  She shrugged.

  “I figure your father must be human or you wouldn’t be with them. What I can’t figure out is why you weren’t living with your mother and her people.”

  “My mother was killed by vampires,” Raven responded, and Connor didn’t miss the tremor in her voice.

  “You saw it?” he asked, feeling unwelcome sympathy for her.

  Rather than answer him, she looked away. As if things weren’t bad enough, he was stuck with a wood nymph who had good re
ason to hate vampires. This just wasn’t his day.