Creed Read online

  “So you and Demetrius and the rest, your goal is stop all of these vampires? I thought it was demon hunting.”

  “It is. We started years ago by planning a takedown of our government that sanctioned those types of atrocities. Once our new government was formed, they already had an existing police force, so to speak. And the demon problem among our kind was discovered, thus our mission changed.”

  “Thus it did.”

  He glanced at her. Was she mocking him? Occasionally, he defaulted to the more formal speech of his younger years, but he watched enough reality TV that it didn’t happen as often.

  Her stomach growled again. She placed a hand on her abdomen and scanned the walls.

  “No more scarabs dare come in here. They aren’t bad, you know, once you get past the shell. I’ve never eaten freshly butchered chicken before, but I imagine that’s how it’d taste.”

  What should he say? Did you eat them all was the minefield equivalent of a question. He’d never eaten raw chicken before, either, but he’d drained plenty of humans in his day, and he wasn’t bringing that up. Unlike her and her father only hunting what they could eat, he’d been indiscriminate about who and how many humans he’d dined on. It wasn’t the type of information that would comfort her.

  She shifted her position, but her hand was still on her belly. “Why am I so hungry?”

  “Healing, perhaps? Hypna’s powers are trying to change you, and you’re likely expending a lot of energy repairing the damage it’s causing.”

  “They’re my powers. Hypna has no more claim to them. I don’t get to shirk responsibility and blame Hypna. They’re mine. The actions are mine.” Her eyes glowed.

  He hadn’t imagined it. They were glowing, a green shine, like a predator’s. It was important to her to claim them as her own. And they were now, whether any of them liked it or not. Hypna was dead and gone, wouldn’t be coming back to repossess them.

  “You’re right,” he said.

  She narrowed her eyes slightly and her nostrils flared. Hellfire, she was scenting him for his honesty. Demons and vampires didn’t have the keenest sense for it, but more than a human’s.

  Melody really was changing.

  She sighed and looked around, squirming like she didn’t know what else to do. He took the opportunity to really look at her.

  The horns. More delicate than Hypna’s had been, but they were motherfucking horns, protruding from her temples to wrap around her head. The crown-like quality they had was as disturbing as it was ethereal.

  Had her fangs shrunk? They were barely noticeable, but when he’d charged her earlier, they had extended well past her lower lip.

  Her claws were so tiny, like a sharp manicure. Had those grown before she attacked as well?

  How long were they going to be down here? “Quution should be back soon. Our first task will be to find you sustenance.”

  “And you,” she said without looking at him.

  “Yep.” And they were back to awkward. “So… Was it just you and your dad?”

  “No.” Two little points of white protruded from her mouth. Her fangs had lengthened. She tapped the fingertips of one hand against her arm, the tips of her claw leaving pinpricks of blood behind. The horns undulated as if they sensed her distress.

  The hair on his nape tingled and he realized too late that he was still strapped down by her vines. Was it just emotional topics that made her unstable?

  “I didn’t have much to do with my mom. I wasn’t good enough.” She gave a sardonic laugh. “Or should I say I wasn’t girl enough.”

  “Because you liked hanging out with your dad?” His intuition screamed at him to shut up, not to provoke her, but he genuinely wanted to know about her. To the point where he’d risk blood he couldn’t spare to find out.

  “Dad tolerated me. He wanted a boy. Mom wanted a girl. Then I happened to both of them. Now it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  The floor vibrated ever so slightly. His gaze flew to her. The storm in her eyes returned. It had to be her roots causing the sensation.

  “I’m a disappointment to my parents, too,” he blurted.

  The floor quieted and more of her natural brown shone through her eyes. “Really.”

  “Yes. They were, uh…like the vampires I told you about.” I was, too. But he didn’t mention that. While she calmed, he jumped on his chance. “I’m very cozy, but would you be so kind as to assist me out of this cocoon?”

  Her brows shot up. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  She focused on the vines, a crease in her forehead. She sucked in a breath and focused again.

  Sighing, she said, “I can’t remove them with my mind. I have no idea how I do it in the first place, it just happens. They were lush and green when they first sprouted.”

  Interesting. These didn’t disappear like the ones from her earlier panicked flee through the caverns. Was she gaining more control?

  “Are you able to tear them? Perhaps I’m too weak to break free.” Or she made them much stronger than before.

  “Sure.” She didn’t move. He didn’t press. He’d rather have her come on her own terms than pressure her and risk her fight or flight response.

  Crawling toward him, she eyed the vines like she was planning her attack. Her breasts swayed with every move, mesmerizing him. Covered in grime, she was as appealing as she’d always been. As she prowled, her natural and unnatural predator instincts were on full display. She was powerful, stealthy, and yet he could only notice how her rib cage curved in to a waist that flared nicely at the hips.

  She was a vision, all feminine softness over hard muscle.

  He swallowed and switched his attention to the dirt ceiling.

  Snipping through the vines with the tips of her claws, she worked steadily through the mass. He took measured breath after measured breath, anything to calm his body down. His stupid male anatomy didn’t care that it wasn’t the right time to respond to her salted caramel scent.

  She cut through one entire side and flipped it over. Air brushed over him, cooling some much needed areas.

  “Oh no. The poison hasn’t worn off.”

  “I don’t feel crazed,” he lied. Let her think his erection was still from the injection. “I think it’s just a lingering response.”

  The look she gave him came close to calling him on his bullshit. He schooled his features to be sincere.

  He groaned as he tried to roll up. She gripped his elbow to help him.

  Damn, she was strong. He had no doubt she hadn’t been a weakling as a human, but this strength definitely wasn’t human. It was strong for his kind.

  “Ah. You two seem to be doing much better.” Quution’s voice drifted into the cavern.

  “We need to eat,” Creed growled. The male irritated him, only because Melody’s eyes lit up when she saw him.

  “Don’t we all.” Quution wove his hands around the entrance, undoing his energy wards.

  Melody deserted him to cross to the door. Her absence was a cold breeze. Creed’s foul mood had nothing to do with being hangry.

  “What’d you do while you were gone? Did you find a way to help me?”

  Q, the bastard, was a master at a placid expression. “Not yet, but… What do you want done about your new abilities, I think is the question.”

  Melody frowned and dropped her gaze. Creed watched her.

  A disturbing thought dawned on him. They’d been in survival mode from the beginning, and he hadn’t made the connection. The only way he could have Melody was if she remained the hybrid creature she’d become, and she’d become a danger to those around her. Helping her return to human, which would be the decent thing to do, would be to lose her all over again.

  He knew what had to be done.

  “We need to help her. To find a way to cleave the power from her.”

  The look Melody shot him was full of green glow with a hint of hurt. He steeled his resolve. Hypna’s powers were unpredictable in Melody, and he’d sworn himself to pro
tecting innocents.

  She wouldn’t remain innocent with that festering inside of her.

  Chapter Six

  She was successful controlling her rage the past few minutes with Creed, but Quution’s arrival was the eye of the storm. He was her moment of peace. Was it the demon in him that the demon in her responded to?

  Not sexually. Not romantically. But Quution was her safe place.

  “I think Creed is right,” she said. “He needs to feed. I need to eat.”

  Quution folded his hands in front of him. “If I may, you also need to feed.”

  Yes. The fangs. She was like them now.

  She nodded. “Without massacring anyone.” If she could do that.

  Quution shrugged. “Eh, I’ll find someone where it doesn’t matter.”

  Instead of being horrified, she chuckled. “Deal.”

  Creed was on his feet and scowling at them. “How am I going to drink demon blood without burning myself?”

  “Yes, it does pose a problem when drinking. Shall I dial down the burn and offer my vein? I doubt you’re going to stumble on many other energy demons.” Quution stuck his arm out. “And I doubt they’ll be as accommodating as I.”

  Creed looked less than thrilled, but nodded. Quution bit into his arm as he closed the distance to Creed. The vampire’s lips formed a flat line; his eyes tracked the wound in the wrist.

  Melody’s fascination rooted her in place. Quution held up his offering and Creed closed his mouth around the bite. So that was how it was done. A simple feeding. So much trust. She could’ve fed Creed. Her hunger might’ve protested. Then there was the issue of losing control.

  “Why are you helping us?” she asked.

  Quution’s lilac eyes were solemn. “They told you of me, yes?”

  “Not really. I wasn’t on a need to know basis.” Her bitterness eked out. The vampires more than tolerated her, they were friendly with her. But that was the extent of it. “You were like a necessary evil. No pun intended. I meant literally, but you’re not evil. Are you?”

  “I’m just a creature trying to survive down here. The atrocities I’ve seen have no place in any world and I mean to stop them. Creed and the others are working to stop the forces responsible. Our goals align. It makes sense to team up.”

  He was sharing so much, and was so matter of fact. Creed was still feeding; she pressed for more. “But why are you different?”

  He arched a brow. Ah, she’d hit on something. He was always so careful to conceal his thoughts. “Am I? Fyra. Stryke.”

  “He’s your brother. I’m not surprised you two are alike.”

  “You would be if you would’ve met our parents.”

  “That bad?”

  “Worse.” Quution tapped Creed’s head. “Enough, vampire. Or you’ll have to turn around and feed me, then we’ll get stuck in that ridiculous cycle.”

  Creed lifted his head. A healthy flush crept up his neck and infused his face. He wasn’t as gaunt as he was even ten minutes ago.

  The way her stomach protested, she should look the same as Creed. But glancing at herself proved her wrong. She was her normal self, just dirtier than she’d ever been.

  Quution didn’t close the wound in his wrist. Blood trickled down to capture her attention. She licked her lips.

  He offered it to her. “Care to see if vein drinking is now your thing?”

  Creed glared at him. “No, she doesn’t.”

  Demand roared, threatening to crush the control she’d attained over the last few hours. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.” She scowled at Creed and said to Quution, “But it was sweet of you to offer.”

  “Good enough for me.” Quution licked the puncture marks closed and dragged his sleeve over his arm. His skin looked perfectly normal, robust even. She thought she’d heard that creatures in the underworld were nude? Creed wore clothing, but he wasn’t from here. Was that how it worked?

  Creed crossed his arms, his legs spread in an alpha male posture. “What do you have in this realm to eat?”

  Quution folded his hands, his gaze dancing between them. “We have other demons. And scarabs, but it seems they know better than to enter the same room as her.” He hesitated, his expression grim. “I just put two and two together, however.”

  “Yeah, I have, too,” Creed said quietly. “But we can’t.”

  They lost her. What were they talking about? Hot anger plagued her again. The little human waiting for them to tell her what to do, just like when she was rescued from Rourke’s brother? She’d had no choice. They found a place she was useful, just like her parents had. What can Melody do where she isn’t in our way since she’s not what we want to deal with right now?

  The males didn’t elaborate and that red glow ignited in her mind. “If it’s about me, then spill it before I spill all that precious blood you’re protecting.”

  Creed didn’t flinch. Quution’s blood had worked its magic. She doubted she could best him now.

  Thought he was better now, did he?

  As her rage returned, her upper lip lifted. The first sign of her control slipping.

  Put down your lip! Her mouth trembled. Great. She probably looked more likely to cry than tear him limb from limb.

  “If you’re changing into part demon, then it’s possible you and I could bond, allowing both of us to travel freely between realms.” Creed leveled her with a solemn stare. “But if you were willing to bind with me, I can’t allow you to have free access to the realm. Not until I know you’re not a threat to the people up there. I’m sorry, but I want you to know what our considerations are. Because I know you’d want to do what’s safest for others, too.”

  She sucked in a breath. Her claws cut into the meat of her palms as she clenched her fists. Her? Hurt people?

  How dare he think that?

  His shredded clothing and the dried blood caked onto them gave him a perfect reason. Not to mention that lovely moment when he’d witnessed her munching on large, raw beetles. Did he think they were a transition food? Underworld cockroaches one day, humans the next?

  But the black pit in her mental capacity had a target painted on Creed. She wasn’t too far gone to realize she took Creed’s words and reactions personally. Being attached to him would leave an opening for her to attack him again.

  Wait—supernaturally attached, like a lot of her friends in her realm? “We’d have to bond? What goes into that?”

  Creed didn’t seem happy to explain. “It’s a vampire’s bond—you only get one shot.”

  Quution butted in. “Unless you’re like me. Stryke proved us energy demons have a work-around.”

  She shook her head. What the hell were they talking about?

  Creed jumped in with a quick explanation. “When we were saving you, Stryke got hit with Hypna’s poison. Zoey and I found a way down here, but there was no way for us to go back. Only a bond allows travel in between, unless you possess a host like—” He jerked his head toward Quution, who only nodded. “They were bonded, then weren’t, then tried again. Stryke managed another successful bond because of his energy.”

  “So there’s a way I can go home again, even if this—” she waved her hand around her horns, “—doesn’t go away?”

  “If we bonded…” Creed’s tone carried more than a hint of warning.

  “I wasn’t talking about you,” she snarled. “Maybe I’m the one who has a problem committing my life to you. There’s a lot of vampires in the sea, I’m sure I can find one who’d help a girl out and not think I’ll kill everything around me.”

  Oh, that felt good. It was almost like she had a choice in her extremely uncertain future.

  Quution’s mouth twitched, but he smothered it with his hand. Creed’s dumbfounded stare was as satisfying as she’d hoped and helped reduce the amount of rage swirling through her veins. Her hurt feelings that he wasn’t jumping on the idea didn’t help her control. Neither did the spike of excitement at being Creed’s one and only.

  B
ut just like she didn’t jump on the first opportunity to have sex with him, she wasn’t coercing him into a relationship that was more binding than a marriage.

  “In fact, I think we should find one. I get it’s a big deal.” She rolled her eyes, more to get under Creed’s skin than anything. “But it’d be safer for me to be out of this realm and in one where we have more allies, and more minds to solve the problem.”

  “I’d still be stuck down here,” Creed said. “Am I going to have to find a demoness to hook up with to get me out of here, then kill her when it’s all over?”

  She rounded on him. “You will do no such thing.” Find another demon? He thinks I’m not good enough! Again with the fury toward Creed. Her horns uncurled.

  “What is your issue with me?” He took a step closer. Her horns loosened from their resting place around her head. Their weight tugged at the skin on her forehead, encouraging another headache. “I know it’s not just what I said. You don’t go from hero worship to full hatred just because I said I’d have to bond to someone else. Completely true, but insensitive.”

  His confrontation was as upsetting as when she’d kept her mouth shut and did what the big vampires told her. That’d been the story of her life since Creed’s team rescued her: put her in charge of the kids and the vampires wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with her for a good ten to fifteen years. And then? She was human and would surely die in no time.

  But she wasn’t human anymore, and Creed still wasn’t listening to her. She was still another problem to deal with. Her horns extended and aimed toward him.

  He batted them out of the way as if they were more of an annoyance.

  Wha— Her fangs extended past her lower lip. “Everything you represent pisses me off. You’re the number one son.” A firstborn boy—probably was exactly what his parents had wanted. “You’re the one with money. You’re the one people listen to because you’re you. That’s all the qualifications you need. Not all of us get that kind of consideration.”

  “No.” He cut her off and fueled her temper. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you. And strap on a little self-control and tuck these back in.” He twanged her fang.