My tattoos, the final gift from a very helpful temple of demon monks in Nepal, were three months old but they still itched like a bitch and a half. The moment I was on the other side of the bedroom door, I immediately peeled off my t-shirt. Clothing was the root of this problem, especially in this sweltering summer heat. For the past few nights I had been staying with a generous elderly Polish man while I tried to fix my truck, damn girl had broke down in a town that didn't even have a motel. I chewed my lip when I had the sudden desire to claw at my exposed flesh and make the burning stop. It was so distracting that I didn't even notice that there was another person in the room until she spoke up.
"Mmmm, that fresh ink looks good on you, Lindsey."
The voice was so shockingly familiar that I froze. As I slowly turned, I was trying to decide whether to grab the stake from behind the table lamp or the crucifix from the wall near the bed
"Darla?" I croaked in surprise. I swallowed hard at the sight of the tiny blonde that could drive my insides into a near frenzy at a mere inflection in her voice. My itch was suddenly forgotten as I willed myself to process the ludicrous image before me. It was Darla all right and she was – she was –
My brow knitted in confusion. She was pregnant.
"Hello, cowboy, you miss me?" she asked sweetly as she slipped away from the window.
I struggled to find which of the hundred questions I wanted to ask first and absentmindedly scratched my chest. "How did you fucking get in here?" I finally demanded.
"Lindsey…" the way my name rolled softly off her vicious tongue sent a pang of lust straight through my navel.
Darla was big as a house yet the burning hunger in her dark eyes sent my mind into places that would make a sailor blush. As she ran her hands over her swollen belly, I found myself unable to break her gaze. She looked so dangerous, like a snake approaching her prey, as she closed in on me, but goddamn was she ever beautiful.
"You never change, do you, Lindsey?" she quietly asked as she tilted her chin coyly with a little smile. "You never were frightened of me. Not even now."
The clammy chill of her hand slid over my cheek and I slowly glanced out of the corner of my eye to follow her long nimble fingers that soon pressed lightly into my throat. "Such a brave boy. Or a dumb one."
Her laugh was airy and wicked as she let her thumb rove my windpipe. "I can't stop feeding, Lindsey. This thing inside me, it never stops wanting more and it makes me want more."
She inclined my chin with her hand to rest her cool cheek against the skin of my throat. "Do you know what that's like, Lindsey?" she purred. "Wanting more of something and knowing you'll never have enough. That you'll never be able to satisfy that want. That need."
She dragged the nails of her free hand down my torso and gripped my belt buckle and the waistband of my jeans. "That thirst…"
Even though my eyes were now closed in an attempt to breathe through my imminent arousal, I felt her face shift and my hand instinctively snapped up to her hair to yank her back. Darla let out a surprised yelp as she stumbled away from me. Catching herself on a wall, she slithered across it with a chuckle as her face returned to its human form.
"Mmmm, the farm boy has some new tricks up his sleeve," she smirked devilishly after she gave my waist and below a significant glance, "or in his jeans, as the case maybe."
Panting, I tired to find my head once more. I grabbed a stake from behind a nearby lamp and leveled it with her. "I'll find you blood if you need it, but don't you dare come in here and try to fuckin' bite me!" I snapped.
That wicked smile that numbed my brain crossed her face once more. "Oh, my little rattlesnake does bite back."
"I'm not your anything, Darla," I replied fiercely. Goddamnit, if this was some ploy of Angel's, so help me… "You didn't choose me." I could feel the anger starting to burn right through the lust at the thought of that gel-head. "You chose him. You used me. You used me like I was some piece of Johhny fuckin' lunch meat and left me high and dry."
Darla rolled her eyes and pushed away from the wall. "You always were so dramatic, Lindsey. It kills the mood, you know."
"Fuck you!" I snarled in rage and thrust the stake at her menacingly. "Why the hell are you here, huh? And how the fuck are you pregnant? That isn't possible!"
Her hands found her belly once more and she gazed up at me from beneath heavy lids. "Apparently it is if the mother is pregnant before she is turned," she whispered in a matter-of-fact tone.
And that was when my brain froze up. My arm went limp as it drooped to my side and I swear my eyes jumped ten feet out of my skull. I couldn't believe this. It wasn't be possible. My body suddenly felt very heavy standing there as I tried to find the words. "We only – just once – should be - dead," I sputtered, for once at a loss for words.
Darla abruptly shrieked and doubled over. Somehow my feet moved without me telling them to and my hands were on her shoulders, which were shaking violently. My heart was slamming in my chest by now as I finally let a little fear grip me.
When her face rose, I scowled darkly and shoved her backwards into the wall. "BITCH!" I roared in my wounded rage. Darla slid down the old yellow wallpaper as she dissolved into laughter.
I paced a little, wanting to dust her right then and there, but I couldn't fucking bring myself to do it to her. Goddamn soul. It always fucked everything up. Not that I was sympathizing with Angel. Asshole.
I glowered at her, keeping a tight grip on the stake I had retrieved. "It's his, isn't it? It's Angel's."
"Of course it is, lover," she replied, her eyes were sparkling with humor.
"Don't – don't fucking call me that!" I seethed with a threatening leer. I hated this. I hated the way she could just toy with me and still manage to keep me wanting more of her. "And that's not possible, damn it! You're vampires for Christ's sake!"
"Angel's not just any vampire, Lindsey-" she started slowly.
"Spare me the goddamn lecture, all right?" I kept my distance as I watched her. I was fast now, but she was still faster, even in her current…condition. "Now, tell me, why the fuck are you here? What does this have to do with me, huh?"
Her smile faltered and she adverted her gaze to the floor. When she looked back, I could see the tears gathering. "I need your help, Lindsey," her voice shook and she looked down to her belly which she punched with a force that made me wince. "This thing inside me, it won't go away. It won't die!"
The anger started to melt away at the helpless sight of her. It wasn't even the fact that it was a girl crying that got to me, but that it was Darla. Goddamnit, I was a whipped bastard sometimes. I swallowed hard in the realization of what she was going to ask me to do. "Darla-" I started slowly.
"You have to be able to do something, Lindsey!" She was climbing to her feet now. Her eyes were dark as she tried to choke back the tears and her voice became an angry rasp. "You know someone, something that I haven't already tried. I want it gone! Dead. Out of me!"
Next thing I knew, she was burying her face in my bare chest as she beat her palms against my shoulders in her tantrum. I was lost to my own stunned silence once more. She was fucking train wreck of emotion and need right now. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
Not releasing the stake, I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back and shoulders as I whispered calming hushes into her hair. She was pretty desperate to have come to me, to have sought me out. I didn't have spit in a pail as to what the hell was going on, but I was going to help her. I didn't even care that she had just tried to bite me. Her thirst was insatiable. She had something unnatural, even in the world of vampires and demons, growing inside her. I couldn't turn her away. Not now. I suddenly felt like I had purpose again, that I was back where I was meant to be. And you know what? It felt damn good.