The Immortal Hunter

"Come, I have a couple of surprises for you, and I know we're going to enjoy them mightily." Leonius took Dani's arm and half dragged her up the steps to the porch of the old farmhouse when she didn't move quickly enough for his liking. She winced at his bruising hold, but otherwise didn't react. She had no intention of saying or doing anything that might add to his enjoyment of this nightmare.

"Here we are." Leo leaned past her to push the front door open and then forced her inside.

Dani closed her eyes briefly as the bright, overhead light sent shafts of pain through her head. The smell of cinnamon and apples teased her nose and brought her eyes slowly open. They stood in an old country kitchen with white cupboards and a wide-planked, hardwood floor that was undoubtedly as old as the house itself. Her gaze slid over a rooster-shaped teapot on the table, cow figurine salt and pepper shakers, and finally to the source of the sweet smell; a pie, not long from the oven. It sat on a cooling rack on the far end of the old, long, butcher-block table before her.

"I was watching from the woods in front of the house when you and Decker went into the barn," Leo said beside her. "When you stayed there so long, I approached under cover of the rain. Once I saw what the two of you were up to, I knew I'd have time to search for a place close by, somewhere near enough to keep an eye out, and to bring you to after I captured you." He paused to explain, "I didn't expect you to go shopping or even to really leave the grounds. I expected I'd have to steal you from the house while the others were sleeping.

"Anyway," Leo continued, urging her to the opposite end of the table. "I was very pleased when I found this place. It's nice and cozy, with only the mister and missus to worry about... I was a little worried about it being right next door, but-" He brought them both to a halt in front of the pie and ran one finger lightly over the crust. As light as his touch appeared to be, some of the crust flaked away. It made him smile, and he continued, "When I came in the old woman was just taking the pie out of the oven. I decided to take that as a good omen and risk it."

Dani frowned at the mention of an old woman, wondering what had become of her, but then his words sank in and she realized how close they must be to the enforcer house. Right next door. If she could just get away-

"Your heart rate has picked up," Leo commented with amusement, and when she cast a startled glance his way, he explained, "I have very good hearing. We all do. And your heart is racing. What could you be thinking, I wonder?" He leaned close and whispered by her ear, "Could you be thinking of escaping? Running away to your Decker?"

He burst out laughing at the thought, then shook his head and said, "So amusing" as he turned and led her to an archway leading to the next room.

It was a living room. With no lights on it was dark enough that she had trouble making out much. Leo didn't seem to have the same problem, and she was reminded that Decker had said the nanos improved their night vision when he asked with distaste, "Very colonial, don't you think?"

She glanced to his face and thought he was wrinkling his nose, and then he confided, "I despised the colonials. A bunch of jumpy redneck idiots with guns who shot first and asked questions after. It was hard for a self-respecting no-fanger like me to get a meal without getting a chest full of buckshot in the process."

Yay, colonials, Dani thought grimly, although she hadn't a clue what a no-fanger was.

Leo was apparently reading her mind again because he turned on her and said, "Oh, see, now that's the kind of thing that's going to make me have to punish you again. If you don't learn a little self-control, this could be even more painful than I planned."

Dani remained silent. There was nothing else she could do.

Nodding with apparent satisfaction, Leo led her through the dark room to a door. He opened it, flipped a switch to turn on the lights, and then urged her down into a laundry room in the basement.

Dani glanced around at the concrete floor, cheerful pale yellow walls, and then to the washer and dryer against the wall as he led her the few steps to and through an archway into a much larger room. It was obviously the husband's workshop. The wall opposite them was covered with pegboard. Tools of every description hung from hooks slotted into its holes. The wall on the left was taken up with a long workbench. The wall on the right had shelves holding sanders and paint cans lined up on either side of a wide archway into what appeared to be a small, dark room taken up by a large boiler and the other workings of the house. But Dani barely gave all of this a glance. Her attention was on the three chairs set in the center of the room and the elderly couple, each one bound and gagged and tied to an end chair, leaving the one in the center empty.

"Come. Let me introduce you to our hosts."

Dani stumbled forward when he tugged her arm, her gaze shifting between the couple. They were older, perhaps in their late fifties to early sixties. The husband had skin darkened and leathery from years in the sun, and a grimly determined expression that refused to show fear. The wife had wide eyes full of tears, fear, and pleading as she gazed at Dani from above her gag.

"This is Mr. Dani's-Dinner and Mrs. Dani's-Midnight-Snack," Leo announced, bringing her startled glance to him as he explained, "They're my surprises. They're going to help you through the turn, my dear."

"Turn?" she asked sharply. "I thought you were going to trade me for your sons?"

"I am," he assured her in a soothing voice, and then grinned. "Actually my original plan was to kill you to punish Decker for staking my sons, but then I realized he was only following Lucian's orders and a lesser punishment would do... for him," he added darkly. "Lucian is another matter entirely. He's lorded it over the rest of the immortals for far too long. It's time he-" Leonius stopped suddenly, his anger falling away. Shrugging, he said, "But I digress. We were talking about you. Come sit."

He urged her toward the center chair, taking control of her and making her sit between the older couple when she resisted.

Dani sank onto the seat and turned to look first at the husband and then at the wife. The husband peered at her pityingly, the wife with despair. She turned back to Leonius and said the first thing that popped into her head, "But I don't want to be a vampire."

"I know," he murmured, smiling down at her in a way that suggested that didn't bother him at all. "So sad really. Don't you realize there are women all over the world who would pay good money to be one?"

"Well go turn them then," she said at once.

Leo burst out laughing. "You are so adorable. No. I fear it's you or no one."

"Why?" Dani asked with frustration.

"Because Decker has to be punished," he explained patiently.

That logic just bewildered her. "But I'm his life mate. He'd probably turn me himself if given the chance. He'll hardly think it a punishment for you to turn me."

"He wants to turn you into one of his kind," Leo said. "I'm going to turn you into my kind. You'll be a no-fanger, and he won't like that at all. In fact, I'm afraid he and the rest of them despise our kind, my dear, so don't expect a warm reunion should you be foolish enough to escape. Lucian and his bunch have hunted us ever since Atlantis, nearly to extinction at one point. They killed my father and all my brothers. The only reason I survived is because they didn't know about my mother or that she was carrying me in her womb. So"-he smiled cruelly-"this will be a punishment to Decker. I have taken his beloved life mate and am turning her into one of the despicable no-fangers he and his kind loathe so much. He'll really want to kill me then... and you."

Dani stared at him with a combination of confusion and fear. "I don't-"

"You don't know what a no-fanger is?" he asked, apparently plucking the rest of the thought from her head. "Oh my, Decker has been very remiss. But I suppose he was busy doing other things, wasn't he?"

Dani flushed at the insinuating way his eyes traveled over her, and recalled his saying earlier that he'd seen what they'd gotten up to in the barn.

"Is that a bite mark on your neck, Dani?" He suddenly bent at the waist to bring his face closer to look, and then he asked in a stage whisper, "Are there any other places he bit you, I wonder? More... intimate places perhaps?"

She caught the hand that was suddenly sliding up her thigh and leaned her head back to glare at him. The man was crazy as a loon. One thought could make him suddenly angry, while another that should be insulting amused him. She had no idea what he was talking about when he said no-fanger, but she wanted none of it.

"It's an immortal without fangs," Leo said, apparently poking around in her head again.

Dani frowned at the announcement and asked with confusion, "But you have the nanos?"

"Oh yes. We have the nanos and need the blood."

"Then how do you..." She paused as she recalled the women in the ravine with their cuts and wondered if his blow hadn't done some brain damage that she would be so slow.

"Like this."

Dani glanced down as the hand that she'd used to grab his was suddenly being held by him in turn, and then he produced a short, sharp knife and flashed it across her wrist. It all happened so fast that it took a moment for her to realize what he'd done, and then the pain set in and she drew in a hissing breath as she watched blood rise, rich and red, to spill out of the wound.

Leo immediately lifted her wrist to his mouth to catch the liquid and began to suck greedily.

Dani stared with revulsion and tried to pull her hand away, but he merely tightened his hold painfully and continued with his meal, sucking at the wound until it stopped bleeding. She ground her teeth together to keep from crying out when he then used his tongue and teeth to dig at it to encourage it to bleed more.

When he couldn't seem to extract another drop, Leonius raised his head and sighed with pleasure before glancing at her to announce, "There's just nothing as sweet as fear in the blood. All that adrenaline and noradrenaline and the extra oxygen just make it perfect." He tilted his head and gestured to the bleeding cut, asking politely, "You didn't mind, did you? It seems only fair since I'm going to give you some of mine."

"You're insane," she said weakly.

"Yes, isn't it marvelous? It's in the blood, you know," Leo announced, and then his smile took on a cruel edge and he used the knife to slice his own wrist, adding, "And now I'm going to share that blood with you."

Dani jerked back, trying to avoid him when he reached for her, but there was no escape. Leonius was fast, strong, and determined. Before she knew it, his hand was at the back of her head, grabbing a handful of her hair. He yanked viciously so that she cried out in startled pain, and then his wrist was immediately against her open mouth.

"Swallow," he ordered.

Dani pushed desperately at his wrist, feeling the blood pouring in, but refusing to swallow it as she fought to get out of the chair and get away, but she was held in place by the hand at the back of her head. When her mouth was full and blood began to leak out around his arm, he suddenly released her hair and pinched her nose closed with thumb and finger. Dani gasped in panic, swallowing convulsively as she tried to get air, and then again, choking on the thick liquid that poured down her throat. But no air followed, just more blood.

Dani was sure she was going to drown or suffocate, and then she was suddenly free. Choking loudly and spitting up what was left in her mouth, she gasped for air and peered around to see that the farmer had tried to help. Bending as far forward as he could, tied up as he was, he'd launched himself at Leo, chair and all, ramming him in the stomach and forcing him back from Dani. As she realized this, Leo roared with fury and swung out at the man.

Standing bent over, and panting, the chair still tied to his back, the farmer was helpless to avoid the strike. Dani screamed in horror, hardly noticing the wife's muffled shrieks as the blow picked up the farmer and sent him flying into the wall. A loud crack filled the basement as he struck the stone wall chair-first, and then man and what were now chair pieces tumbled to the cement floor.

Dani slid weakly from her seat and onto her knees on the cold concrete, still trying to catch her breath, and then glanced worriedly to the woman when Leo's angry gaze turned to her. She was making frantic little sounds through her muffle and scraping her chair across the floor, trying to get to her husband.

"No," Dani gasped desperately as he moved to the woman, his arm rising again.

Leonius paused and turned to peer at her, one eyebrow arched. "No is a word I dislike very much."

Dani bit her lip and then winced when he turned back and hit the farmer's wife. The blow had much less anger and strength behind it, however. While it sent the woman's face jerking to the side, and blood began to pour from a cut on her mouth above her gag, she at least stayed in her chair and remained conscious.

Dani bit her tongue, afraid to say anything in case it just angered him and caused him to inflict more pain on the woman, but had to dig her nails into her palms to keep her mouth shut when he bent to lick away the blood trail from the shrinking woman.

"Mmmm." He straightened slowly, eyes closed as he savored the flavor, and then he smiled at Dani. "Afraid and diabetic, an unbeatable combination. You're going to love me for leaving you such a treat."

"Never." The word-full of disgust-slid from her lips before she could stop it.

Fortunately, in his usual unpredictable manner, Leo was amused rather than angered further. Laughing loudly, he shook his head. "You say that now, but trust me, when the hunger hits, you'll tear these two to pieces to suck out every last drop of blood."

Dani stared back with silent horror at the very possibility, and shook her head.

"Yes," he assured her as he moved back to catch her by the arms and lift her up into her chair. He paused then, bent over and face-to-face with her as he added with delight, "It will take less than an hour for the need to get so bad they start looking like a couple of big juicy steaks on legs." He straightened and then continued, "Not long after that you won't be able to control yourself. The pain and hunger will be so strong you'll start gnawing on them."

Leonius grinned at her expression and gave a little shiver. "I can hardly wait and only wish I'd thought to get a camera to film it for you to watch afterward." He sighed. "All this talk of food has given me the munchies. Those two gals from the restaurant weren't very filling yesterday, and I'm afraid in all the excitement today I neglected to feed myself."

His considering gaze turned back to the farmer's wife. As the woman shrank back into her chair, Dani said quickly, "You said she was mine."

Leo turned back, eyebrows rising again, but this time a wry smile joined them. "You're only saying that to try to save her, but you'll understand the irony of that in an hour or so. I, at least, have a knife. You will be tearing into her with your teeth."

When Dani shook her head again, he smiled and shrugged. "However, I did say she was a gift to you. Besides, I'd just have to run out and grab you another. You'll need at least two to get through the turning. So..." Swinging away, he headed for the arch and the stairs beyond. "I guess I'll just have to run out and pick up some fast food. I do want to be back in time to watch the fun when it starts, and, unfortunately, Lucian did choose a spot to hell and back for this new headquarters of his. I might take a bit of time, but I promise I'll get back as quickly as I can. Do try to wait for me so I can watch, won't you?"

Leonius paused at the stairs and turned back. When she merely stared, face expressionless, he let his eyes slide over her and added, "Perhaps I'll find myself a nice plump little blond like yourself." He smiled. "Watching you and Decker earlier today has put me in the mood for some fun and games, and I haven't bothered with that in a very long time. But I promise I'll save that until I get back so that you can join in too if you like." Turning away, he continued upstairs, calling, "Back soon."

The door closed behind him, but Dani waited, listening to the footsteps cross the floor above. The moment she heard the yawn of the screen door opening, then the clack of it slamming shut, she got swiftly to her feet and moved to the farmer on legs that were a bit shaky. Kneeling beside the unconscious man, she examined him quickly, assuring herself that nothing seemed to be broken. Other than a head wound, he appeared uninjured, though he would no doubt be bruised and battered by the abuse he'd taken.

She set his head gently back on the floor and started to glance toward the wife, but paused and raised her hand to her forehead as a wave of dizziness swept over her. The smell of blood immediately overwhelmed Dani and she stiffened and pulled her hand back. The shallow cut on her wrist was no longer bleeding; Leonius had sucked every bit of blood out of it that he could. However, a stain of fresh red liquid covered her palm from her examination of the farmer. The blood glistened on her skin in the fluorescent light in the room, its smell oddly sweet and rather pleasant.

Horrified as that thought wafted through her mind, Dani pushed herself to her feet. The room spun, but, desperate to get away from the bleeding man, she stumbled across the workshop and up the stairs to try the door. It was locked, of course.

Panic immediately overwhelmed her, but Dani leaned her head against the wooden panel, forcing herself to take deep breaths in an effort to calm down. She was panicking about nothing. The dizziness was the result of stress and the wound on her wrist. She couldn't be turning this quickly, Dani assured herself, and then Leonius's words whispered through her head. It will take less than an hour for the need to get so bad they start looking like a couple of big juicy steaks on legs... Not long after that you won V be able to control yourself The pain and hunger will be so strong you 'II start gnawing on them.

She closed her eyes on a moan. She had to escape and get the couple as far away from her as she could, Dani thought, and turned away from the door to start back down the steps, alarmed at how shaky her legs had grown in so short a time. Doing her best to ignore it, Dani glanced around the laundry room, but since there didn't appear to be anything she could use to pick the lock, she moved into the workshop.

The husband was still unconscious and the wife was looking at him with worry, but one glance at the woman's bloody lip made Dani avoid her and instead head toward the pegboard with its lined-up tools. She grabbed a hammer, then a pry bar, and started to turn back, her eyes running over the archway into the boiler room as she did.

A glimpse of what appeared to be the corner of a door made her pause. Dani peered at it for a moment, then set the tools on the corner of the workbench and moved to the archway. Sure enough, there was a door there, half hidden on the other side of the boiler. She moved closer before opening it, and found herself staring into darkness.

There was a light switch on the wall and she flicked it up, blinking as a bare light bulb winked on overhead. It was a strange room. Two feet deep and running the length of the basement. It smelled damp and felt chilly. A pump and water softener were at one end, and empty shelves took up the other, suggesting that it had at one time been used as a cold storage room, but the wall across from her was covered with sheet after sheet of hard Styrofoam insulation boards. There was no exit.

Disappointed, Dani stepped back and closed the door, then turned away, only to sway and grab for the boiler as the room spun around her. She closed her eyes, assuring herself yet again that this had to be because of the blood Leonius had taken. Surely the turning couldn't start affecting her this quickly?

Then why are you avoiding the couple? Why haven't you dared get close enough to untie the wife? some part of her mind asked tauntingly, and Dani moaned unhappily as she acknowledged that they were in real trouble. Leo had forced her to drink his blood and presumably she was turning, becoming like him.

A no-fanger, she thought unhappily. Even though Dani still really didn't know what that was, the possibility that her being one might make Decker despise and apparently want to kill her was gut-wrenching. While she hadn't been sure if she'd wanted to make a life with him before this, having that possibility taken away was enough to sweep aside the uncertainty. It certainly would have been preferable to what she was now faced with.

Leonius had ruined her, she accepted sadly. He had utterly destroyed her and might as well have killed her, because it was the only acceptable end she could now see for herself. Dani was not going to allow herself to become like him, killing innocent people to revel in their blood. She had become a doctor to save lives, not to destroy them.

Becoming aware of an unpleasant acidy feeling in her stomach, Dani closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced herself to think calmly. She needed to find a way to get this couple out of here so that they were out of both her and Leo's reach by the time he got back...

and then she had to figure out how to kill the no-fanger and herself. She'd rather be dead than a monster.

Her mind made up, Dani opened her eyes again and moved carefully back to the archway. She was about to head back to collect the tools she'd set on the workbench, hoping to use them to force the upstairs door open, but paused at a moan from the farmer. Her gaze slid to find him rolling onto his side. Dani started to go to him, but had taken only one step when the acidy feeling in her stomach increased to a brief stabbing pain. Sucking in a shocked breath, she stumbled, bumping into the arch. She grasped it, and then slid down its length when pain stabbed through her again. By the time the second one passed, she was on her hands and knees, panting heavily.

Finally she lifted her dazed eyes to find the farmer now grunting and making other sounds trying to get her attention. The man was also squirming on the floor, appearing to be trying to move closer to her, his head bobbing. It took her a moment to realize the head bobbing was a silent gesture meant to get her to come to him. Her eyes slid to the blood still dripping from his head, and Dani shuddered as she recalled Leo's claim that in less than an hour the couple would look like big juicy steaks to her.

They didn't have much time. She had to get them out of there, Dani thought faintly. She had to .get them untied so they could help her find a way out. Even if they couldn't come up with anything, it would be better if the couple were untied and could at least fight her off if she did lose control of herself.

Determination coursing through her, Dani started to shift to stand, but groaned and fell back to her knees as the action brought the stabbing pain again. Whimpering, she took a moment to wait for it to ease and then crawled across the floor to the husband. Tears were bleeding from her eyes by the time she reached him, but she ignored that and untied his hands. The moment she'd accomplished the task, he brushed away her clumsy hands and took over the job of freeing himself.

Dani fell back with relief, finding the sight and smell of his blood disturbing. She rolled away from him, curling into a ball on the floor and hugging herself around the waist. She heard him grunt and a rustle she suspected was his getting to his feet, but didn't look. Instead she pressed her hands into her stomach, wishing she could dig out Leo's blood and stop all the pain.

The farmer moved past her, coming into her line of vision again as he moved quickly to his wife. Dani watched him untie the rope that bound the woman to the chair, but when he set the rope aside on the floor, she said, "Tie me up."

The farmer and his wife both turned to glance at her with surprise.

"Tie me up," she repeated. "You'll be safer."

They exchanged a glance, and then he returned to untying his wife, concentrating on the rope around her wrists now.

"If we can't get out of here," she began desperately, "I might-"

"Don't worry, girl," he interrupted. "I know a way out."

Dani felt a moment's hope, even thinking for one moment that she too might escape and perhaps find a way to stop what was happening to her, or to at least get help from Decker and the others. There would be a better chance of their stopping Leo and ensuring he never did this to anyone else than she had by herself... and they would keep her from hurting anyone too, Dani thought, but then closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn't risk going with them. There was no way to know how long she could control herself. Her gaze slid back to the farmer as he finished untying his wife's hands and she said, "Tie me up and you two go without me then."

The wife reached up to remove her gag now her hands were free and said firmly, "We're not leaving you here for him to abuse."

"You need to get away from me. If what he said is true, I could attack you."

"What? That blood and vampire business he kept going on about?" The husband snorted as he straightened and helped his wife to stand. "The man was high on something. It was all bunk."

"What did he give you, dear?" the wife asked with concern, moving toward her as her husband rushed off through the boiler room to the long narrow room with the pump and water softener.

"His blood," Dani said on a sigh. "Now I'm becoming a vampire too."

The woman stopped beside Dani, her mouth opening to speak, but she paused and glanced around as her husband reappeared and rushed to the workbench. They both watched him grab the claw hammer Dani had set there, and then he rushed away again. There was a squeal of nails being torn from wood, and then the wife said, "What's your name, dear?"

"Dani," she answered wearily.

"Well, Dani, my name is Hazel Parker and that is my husband, John." Hazel knelt beside her and added sensibly, "I have to tell you, dear, vampires aren't real. That man must have drugged you somehow before he brought you down here."

Dani closed her eyes. She wasn't terribly surprised they didn't believe it. She hadn't when Decker had told her, and he'd had fangs to flash. To Hazel and John, Leo must have just seemed your normal, everyday psychopath, she thought. Unless-

"Who tied you up?" Dani asked, suddenly.

Confusion flashed briefly on Hazel's face, but she said, "I tied John and then the young man tied me up."

"Why did you tie up John? Did Leo threaten you?"

"No," she admitted, her confusion deepening. "He didn't even tell me to do it, and I didn't want to... I just... did." Something like panic flickered in her eyes. "I tried to stop myself, but it was like someone else was controlling my body."

"Someone else was," Dani said firmly. "Leo. He's a vampire."

Hazel peered at her with uncertainty and then turned with relief as her husband hurried back into the room.

"I got it open," John announced, rushing to them. "I didn't think I would be able to. I nailed it shut a good twenty years ago, but the nails pulled out with a little elbow grease."

He paused to peer from his wife to Dani, and then set his mouth and bent to catch Dani's arm and lifted her. "Come on. He could be back any minute."

Dani resisted briefly, but her struggles were weak at best. She didn't seem to have any strength left in her body, and that was what made her give in and add what little strength she had to helping him get her to her feet. There was no way she could take Leo like this. If she stayed, he would simply bring her more innocents to feed on, and the way it was going, Dani feared she wouldn't be able to resist.

She would get out of the house with them and then send them next door to the enforcer house for help while she hid in the bushes or something. Then Decker and the others could come back and take care of her and Leo. It seemed like a good plan to Dani, and under John's urging, she took a faltering step forward, only to gasp and bend over as the movement made her pain increase again. Panting like a woman in labor, she stared at the floor and told herself she only had to get outside. Then they would drive off safely, leaving her-Dani stopped and glanced to John sharply, asking, "You don't drive a brown pickup, do you?"

"Yes," John answered, urging her forward another step. "Why?"

"Because that's what he was driving and is probably driving now," Dani told them miserably, ready to give up and find some way to force them to leave without her.

"Then we'll have to take his car," John said staunchly. "It's in the barn. I was out there putting away the new tractor when he drove it right in and-" John cut himself off abruptly, his mouth tightening at some unpleasant memory. "Come on, let's go, or we'll still all be standing here arguing when he gets back."

Dani bit her lip, but started to move again. She did her best to ignore the pain the activity sent shooting through her as they made their way to the cold room she'd examined earlier. She noticed the hammer and long nails lying abandoned on the concrete floor, and then raised her head to see that one of the boards of Styrofoam had been removed to reveal a stone wall with an old window in it.

The sight made her heart sink with despair. There was no way she was going to be able to get out through that in the shape she was in.