Love's Challenge (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #5) (10 page)

Matt’s face was concerned and serious.  “Sarah.  First thing you do when
you walk out there is attach the wire.  Okay?  First thing.  Got it?” he said. 

I patted the back of his hand and smiled, “Anchor first, got it
sweetheart.” 

Matt turned and faced the others.  “As soon as we get out the doors,” he
began, but I stopped him. 

“Shhh,” I said.  I was listening.  He looked at me and waited.  “Did you
hear that?” I said.  “Way off in the distance.  Sounds like an eagle’s cry.”

“It could just be an eagle, Sarah,” Billy said.

“No, it’s them.  It’s getting closer.  They’re coming,” I whispered.

“Shit,” Matt said.

“You can’t go out these doors and up to the roof, Matt.  They’ll see
you.  Run.  Take the stairs, but run, please,” I said then I pushed my way
through them and started to open the door.

“Sarah!  Wait!” Matt and Carlos both said then they glared at each other.
 Carlos dropped his eyes as Matt stepped forward. 

“Honey, give us a minute to get up there before you go out, please,” he
whispered.

I smiled and put my hand on his cheek.  “Honey, they might be too close
then for me to get the anchor on.  I need to go right now.  You’ll make it.  I
know you will.”  I leaned up and kissed his cheek, then stepped out into the
daylight. 

As the door closed behind me, I heard Matt yell, “Shit!  Everybody,
move!”  I glanced quickly into the sky.  I didn’t see anything, but I knew they
were close.  I walked deliberately toward the edge of the grass, quickly spread
out the towel and sat down.  I grabbed the anchor and tried to attach it to my
ankle.  My fingers were shaking and it took me a few seconds longer than it
should have, but I finally got it attached.  I folded the edge of the towel
over my foot to hide it then picked up my book.  The pages fluttered around as
a gust of wind hit it.

“Shit,” I muttered.  I threw my mind into Carlos’,
‘Please tell me
you’re in place ‘cause they’re here.’

‘Fuck, Sarah.  Almost.  We’re putting the loops at the edges
of the net around our hands.  Okay, got it.  Holy shit, they’re huge,’
he thought.

Then and only then did I allow myself to look up.  I inhaled my scream. 
I didn’t want them to see my fear.  I locked my eyes on the largest one, a
male.  He had to be over seven feet tall and he was one of the most beautiful specimens
of man I had ever seen.  I slowly lay back on my towel.  He squinted his eyes
and tilted his head at me.  I could tell that he was confused and was trying to
figure out why I wasn’t trying to run, why I wasn’t panicking.  Suddenly he
looked at the others and gestured to them.  “Is unus est mei,” he growled.  The
others backed off and hovered higher in the sky.  The male moved lower until he
was hovering just inches above me.  He sniffed me and ran his hands over my
body.  I couldn’t help but notice that he was getting aroused – and holy shit was
he big.  “Decorus proprius.  I’m iens ludo per is unus primoris,” he
whispered.  I caught the shadow of Matt, Carlos and the others as they flew
over.  The other creatures issued a warning cry and the hovering male glanced
up, but I reached up and grabbed his arms, holding on as tight as I could.  Christ,
his arms felt like granite.  His head came back down to look at me.  I saw the
panic in his eyes turn to… was that anger?  Or lust?  He smiled and brought his
mouth down to mine as he folded his wings and dropped the weight of his body
down onto mine.  Crack!  There went a rib.  Crack, crack!  Two more ribs. 
Shit.  I tried to push him up, but he was too much. 

I turned my head to the side, as I tried to get my mouth away from his,
and croaked out, “Hurry,” as the net came down on top of us.  He crushed his
mouth down on mine again and I felt his foot move up my leg.  His talon grabbed
the pocket of my jeans and tore right down my leg, ripping open my pants and my
leg.  I screamed into his mouth.  Dear God, he was trying to get into me before
they could separate us.   He was pressing his erection into my pelvis.  His
foot came up and again grabbed the top of my jeans.  He scraped it down and
tore another gash in my leg.  But the rip in my jeans this time was much closer
to my crotch.  He shifted, breaking another rib, and I could feel him trying to
find his way in.  My eyes flew open and I screamed into his mouth again.  He
stopped kissing and grinned at me as his hand reached down to push what
remained of my clothing that was covering my crotch to the side.  

I yelled “No!” as I felt his fingers touch skin and not material.  “Get
this fucking thing off of me now!” I screamed as loud as I could before his
mouth came down and I felt his hard shaft press into my skin where the inside
of my thigh and my pelvis met.  I could feel the wetness of him.  I could feel
him trying to shift the few inches to the left that would give him what he
wanted.  I squeezed my eyes shut.  And then I gasped as his weight came off of
me.  Troy, Billy and everyone else had shoved with all their might and pushed
him off of me.  They were trying to keep him in the net, but he was fighting
hard.  Matt pulled a huge syringe out of his back pocket and shoved it into its
neck.  It took a few seconds of fighting but the thing finally collapsed. 
That’s when the others began dive-bombing us.  Matt and Carlos moved to either
side of me to protect me.  I couldn’t move and was completely vulnerable to
everything. 

Suddenly Bahiti stood up.  She turned to Derek and said, “Use my tracking
device, Derek.  Find me and find them.”  We all realized what she was going to
do a split second before she did it.

“Bahiti!  No!” Derek yelled as she jumped up into their arms.  The
creatures were surprised at first.  Then, realizing that they had a prime
female, they flew off with her in their grasp.

“Shit, this thing weighs a ton.  Derek, we need your help.  You can worry
about Bahiti later.  Derek!  Derek!” Billy said.  Derek’s eyes finally moved
from the now empty sky to Billy’s face.  He slowly nodded and moved to help
them.  “Matt, Carlos, we’re going to need your help too.  We have to get this
thing into the cage before it wakes up.”  Billy said.

Matt and Carlos looked at each other.  “But we can’t just leave her out
here by herself.  She’s hurt and can’t fight.  They could come back,” Matt said
as he pulled off his t-shirt and spread it across me as best as he could. 

Billy sighed, “Fine.  Use the towel to carry her inside the doors, then
come and help.  You can get her to the clinic after we get this thing locked
up, okay?” he said.  Carlos began unbuckling the anchor from my ankle.  I winced
as he moved my leg. 

“Sorry, Sarah,” he mumbled.

“It’s okay,” I said through clenched teeth.

Carlos picked up the two bottom corners of the towel, Matt picked up the
top two.  “Sorry, honey.  This is probably gonna hurt,” Matt said then he
looked at Carlos.  “On three.  One, two, three,” he said then they picked me
up.  The pain made me inhale sharply, which hurt like hell.  Every step they
took sent a shock wave through my broken bones. 

I squeezed my fists until my fingernails dug into my palms, drawing
blood.  I knew crying out would hurt, but the more steps they took, the more I
knew I had no choice.  I screamed.  “Stop, stop.  Please stop,” I moaned.

“We’re almost there, sweetie,” Carlos said.  “Just a few more steps.”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call her sweetie in front of me,” Matt
growled.

“What would you rather I called her?  Lover?” he growled.

“Fuck.  Not now,” I hissed.

Troy was holding the door open for them.  “Sorry,” Matt whispered.  “We’re
here.  We’re going to carefully set you down now.  Don’t go anywhere.  We’ll be
back right back. I promise.”

“Don’t go anywhere.  Funny,” I whispered then I hissed in a breath as
they set me on the cold, hard floor. 

“Sorry, honey.  It’s only for a few minutes,” Matt said.  I met his eyes
and nodded slightly.  He jumped up and ran out the door.  Before Carlos
followed, he knelt by my head and placed his hand on my cheek.  He looked into
my eyes, then leaned down and kissed my forehead.  Then he quickly jumped up
and raced out the door.  I could hear them grunting and groaning as they pulled
that thing closer to the doors.  The closer they got, the more terrified I
became.  I turned my head to the side and saw Troy and Billy backing in.  They
were followed by Derek, who was on one side, and Miguel on the other.  They
must have pulled Miguel off of guard duty to help, since we had lost Bahiti.  I
squeezed my eyes shut for a second when I thought of her.  Why had she done
it?  She knew that these tracking devices only worked if you were within a few
hundred miles of them.  It was going to take us time to figure out which
direction they had taken her.  What if we were too late?  Suddenly my eyes
popped open again as the scent of that thing hit me.  I gasped.  It was only a
few inches from me.  Even though it was unconscious, I still started trembling,
which made me groan.  “Sorry honey,” Matt grunted, “we’ll have this thing away
from you in a second.”

A second wasn’t soon enough for me.  That thing was strong enough to do
anything it wanted to any of us.  And it was intelligent too.  “Latin,” I
croaked.

“What was that?” Carlos said as they moved past me.

“It spoke Latin to me.  Bring a laptop to the clinic later.  I’ll try to
remember what it said so we can translate.”  Suddenly I screamed as the thing’s
arm shifted and came down on my leg.  It felt to me like it was grabbing for
me.  Matt leaned over and kicked the arm away from me, then knelt down and
caressed my forehead as he tried to calm me down.  It hurt so much to move
anything but I was dangerously close to a full-blown panic attack that would
have me thrashing around and trying to get up.  “Shhhh.  It’s okay, Sarah.  It
won’t touch you ever again.  I promise.”

“Just get it the hell out of here, please,” I whispered as I squeezed my
eyes shut.  I couldn’t look at it anymore.  Thankfully I must have passed out
because the next thing I knew Matt was kneeling by my head.

“Sarah?  Wake up, Sarah.  Honey?  We’re going to get you to the clinic
now.  We’re going to get you fixed up,” he said then he exhaled as I opened my
eyes and looked around.

“We?  I don’t see any we,” I said as I struggled to stay conscious.

“He went to get Cameron and a gurney,” Matt said.

“Christ Matt.  It’s Carlos.  Are you going to tell me that you won’t even
say his name anymore?”

Matt squeezed his eyes shut.  “Okay.  Carlos went to get a gurney.  Happy
now?”

“What?  What is the issue now?”

“I’m just having a hard time dealing with how concerned he is about you
right now.  He’s acting like, well, like he loves you.”

“He does love me, Matt.  He loved me before everything happened and he
still loves me now.  Just like I love him too.  He’s still my best friend,
Matt, and he always will be, regardless of whether or not we’re sleeping
together.  Of course, he’s concerned about me.  Did you see what that thing did
to me?  Did you see what it
tried
to do?  Do you know how f-ing close it
came to succeeding?  One more quarter of an inch to the left and that huge
thing that he’s got between his legs would have been inside me tearing me apart
and we wouldn’t be dealing with just some messed up ribs and a cut leg.  So he’s
worried too, just like you, Matt.  Cut him some slack, would you?  Please?”

He nodded.  “I’ll try, Sarah.  But please understand how hard this is for
me.  He looks at you with such longing in his eyes.  I know exactly what he’s
feeling.  Truthfully, I almost feel sorry for him because he doesn’t get to be
with you as much as he needs to.  I know I wouldn’t survive if you gave me any
less of you than you do now.  I really don’t know how he does it.  I know why
he does it, but I don’t know how.”

It hurt like hell, but I reached my hand up to his cheek.  “I do know how
hard this is for you.  For Carlos and how he does it, he does it because he
loves me, he does it because he loves you and he does it because he knows that
you and I belong together.  It kills both of us that we’re hurting you like
this.  This is just something that we can’t make go away.  We tried.  Dear God,
both of us tried so hard.  Neither of us wanted this. But it wouldn’t let us
go, Matt.  It just wouldn’t let us go,” I dropped my hand back to the floor and
winced.

“Honey, don’t move.  Don’t hurt yourself.  Look, here comes Carlos and
Cameron now,” he looked down at me and smiled.

“How’s she doing?” Carlos mumbled as he stopped and leaned against the
wall about six feet from where I was. 

Matt looked at him then looked down at me.  He took a deep breath and
turned to Carlos.  “She’s hurting and she needs you.  She needs both of us.  So
what the hell are you doing way over there?”

Carlos hesitated a moment, then smiled and flew to my side, gently taking
my other hand in his.  “Hey kiddo.  How’re you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

“Yeah, well you look like it too,” he grinned.

I smiled.  “So do you.”

“Touché,” he said.  

“Okay, move back you two.  I need to get the gurney in here.  Help me get
her up on it, would you?” Cameron said.  I clenched my teeth and hands and
tried not to cry out as they lifted me up and gently set me down.  Cameron
moved to the head of the gurney to push.  Carlos and Matt were on both sides
holding my hands.  “We’re going to x-ray first,” Cameron said as we moved
through the double doors into the halls of the clinic.