Raven Walks Ch. 15

Chapter Fifteen: Raven

He had contemplated the idea of leaving town many times, but Raven ultimately decided that he was never made to run away from the conflict. In fact, the more he thought about this Creature systematically picking off people closer and closer to him, the more Raven felt the need to confront this evil monstrosity once and for all.

That meant he would have to make himself visible and yet somehow alienate those who might want to stay near him.

He still felt bile rise in his throat as he remembered the look of stark terror in Abigail's face when he transformed in front of her.

But he done it for her own good -- he could scarcely regret it.

The only thing he did regret was turning Constantine all those many years ago; it linked them forever and made every single action painfully synced with Raven's own consciousness. That meant Raven was aware of every kiss, every caress -- even the pivotal first taste of her blood -- as if he'd been there himself.

Because in a very real way, he was.

Damn that Constantine! How could he do that? His lust and his selfishness undid everything Raven had done to scare her away.

That definitely contributed to the urgency of the situation. Raven knew Abi would never turn from their lifestyle now, and so he had no choice but to uncover who this killer was and deal with the Creature once and for all.

So he made his way back to Sebastian's club early that night. To stand guard, and to investigate. He wasn't surprised to see Ginger there, but he was surprised to see Hunter -- who seemed to stand guard over his wife like a protector Raven was not quite convinced she needed.

She had his bottle of water ready for him before he even sat at the bar. "Nice night," drawled Hunter with a lopsided smirk.

"Indeed," Raven remarked in return. "Almost too good a night to be hidden away in some seedy club."

Hunter just laughed as he took a sip from his drink. "Then what are we doing here, I wonder?"

Raven followed Hunter's gaze to Ginger, who was trying very hard to inconspicuously listen in to their conversation. "I wonder," Raven responded.

He could have sworn he saw a blush rush up her neck, and if he were being honest he had to admit he liked having that affect on someone seemingly so unaffected.

He stared at her through hooded eyes, standing over her in his mind's eye until she turned to face him and look at him with those endless green eyes. They were forbidding but yet inviting; and he couldn't quite decide which one was more predominant.

It changed the closer he got to her in his imagination. He circled her without touching her, and felt her aura rise up to meet him. He held his hand out just above her skin, over her clean neck, over her shoulder and then over the swell of her breast.

He smiled as it puckered up to meet his touch.

Just as he started to sear into her subconsciousness and see how far he could get with this unusual human, Constantine interrupted his train of thought by taking the seat next to him. Raven glared at him. "I thought you'd be too busy to show up here," he grated through clinched teeth.

"Yeah, listen. About that..."

Raven shot around to face him. "About what a selfish asshole you are? How you couldn't leave well enough alone? She was terrified -- she'd have never come back here again."

"Come on, Raven," Constantine said. "You have to know that isn't true."

"I saw her eyes. It was working."

"So did I," was Constantine's deadpan reply. "And it wasn't enough."

"So fucking her was your solution? How is that supposed to help?"

"It helped plenty," a female voice purred from behind.

Raven turned around to find Abigail -- more alive and more sexual than he'd ever seen her. Outwardly she wore a yellow halter miniskirt and, it was obvious, very little else. She was primed for sex and for the conquest, of which she had not experienced either to the fullness of what she needed as yet. Inside something had awoken the moment Constantine's fangs pierced her skin. Her skin was more rosy, her breasts and hips fuller and more welcoming and her musk intoxicating. Her eyes were bottomless and hungry.

She was no longer a virgin in any sense, and it both excited and frightened Raven to see it.

He turned away while he was still able to, and somehow he sensed she knew how vulnerable he was to her now. "Get out of here, Abigail," he told her as he went back to his bottle of water.

She leaned in close and whispered hot against his neck. "You don't get to tell me what to do."

Ginger watched as Raven's mouth set in a firm line and his jaw clenched. Abi barely acknowledged her sister as she sidled up to Constantine, right into the crook of his arm.

Normally this would have given Constantine a much needed ego boost to rub Raven's nose in the fact he had won over the object of his affection. Now, it was a matter of practicality. Abi was quite simply safer with Constantine, and he was willing to risk Raven's wrath to keep her from the Creature's grip.

He was convinced now more than ever that he had what it took to eliminate this monster and the threat it posed to their world. He hadn't known it at the time, but this was what his whole life as a vampire had been primed for.

He was, by very definition, a hunter.

Raven turned and glared at Constantine and Constantine only. "Get her out of here."

Constantine simply shook his head. Abi was the ultimate bait; and he was convinced he could keep her safe from the ultimate showdown.

"You can't order him around anymore than you can order me around!" Abi snapped.

Raven shot up off of the barstool and flared up right in front of her. His eyes were red, and his skin began to thin immediately against his bones. "You stupid little human! You have no clue who you're dealing with!"

He hadn't realized that Hunter also slid off of his barstool, and was poised to intervene, but Constantine did. "Who are you?" he demanded.

Raven turned to see the hard look on Hunter's face as he stepped forward. "Her brother in law. Who are you?"

Constantine lifted Abi's hair away from the two fresh wounds on her neck. He was rewarded by the thin line of disapproval on Hunter's face. He smiled as she replied, "Her master."

Ginger had managed not to gasp when she saw the bite marks on her sister's neck. Maybe because she knew it was inevitable the minute she found out Abi had frequented a den of vampires. She had never had much self control, and the power of a vampire was pretty hard to resist if one wasn't used to saying no to their most primal desires.

There had been a time not so long ago when Ginger herself had faced that very same dilemma.

She absently rubbed her neck as she watched with great interest, and great trepidation, as she inched toward the edge of the bar.

"I'm a little surprised by your choice of companion," Hunter drawled to Abi, who seemed suddenly very uncomfortable being confronted about her wounds in front of her sister.

But she tipped her head in defiance. "What can I say? There was only one way to go from you. Up."

Hunter merely chuckled. "Funny, I felt the very same way."

That stole the smug look from her face as she darted a glance to where Ginger stood behind the bar. Constantine ran a possessive hand up her back. "As charming as this little family reunion has been, I think I'd rather spend a little time alone on the dance floor -- wouldn't you?"

Abi glanced up into those hypnotic brown eyes and suddenly nothing else mattered...

Except making everyone, especially Raven, pay for rejecting her.

She nodded, took Constantine's hand and led him toward the practically empty dance floor.

Raven watched with a snarl as Constantine and Abi got familiar during a slow song with a seductive beat. His hands slid over her body like the possession she now was. There was no part of her that didn't belong to him, and he made sure everyone in that club knew it. There were deep, open mouthed kisses that not only showed how deeply his tongue invaded her mouth -- but the very noticeable growth of his fangs as his desire grew.

Worse, it was evident to all present that was what turned her on the most. Her hands reached up into his long, wavy hair as she pulled him closer, to explore the recesses of his mouth with her own tongue as well.

Constantine's hand slipped down the curve of her back and over her ample backside, encouraging her leg to slide up his side so she could grind her bare pelvis against his growing erection. From the groan coming from his throat, anyone watching could easily believe that they would fuck right there in the middle of the room for all to see.

But even more intimate was the way he nuzzled into the crook of her neck, hovering over the old wounds, licking the skin and preparing himself to penetrate her not just in one way, but in two.

Ginger couldn't help but notice that despite himself Raven couldn't keep his eyes off of the two of them. The angrier he got, the more translucent his skin, the redder his eyes. He was transforming right in front of her, and despite all that she'd been through the last four years of her life, she was actually afraid.

Hunter sensed it, but knew that she'd never relent to his comfort in front of all these vampires. So he did the only other thing he could do.

He cut in.

Constantine was in a heightened state of arousal when Hunter pulled Abi away from him; so much so that he couldn't properly respond for a moment. It was all the opportunity Hunter needed to spin Abi into his arms and away from Constantine before he collected his senses.

Abi was disoriented and lost in her desire as well, so she could hardly fight against the hard body that now held her -- a familiar hard body that had been the object of her desire for more years than she could remember. She looked into those icy blue eyes and then at that insufferable grin, and before she knew it she leaning in for a kiss, damn the consequences.

Hunter was stunned by the urgency of her passion as her mouth covered his and her tongue drove between his lips and ground herself against his body. She needed to be filled, needed to be kissed... needed to be fucked. Her hands grabbed his ass and pressed him hard against her, close enough to feel every curve of his body, every hard muscle as it responded to her hands, her mouth and her curves.

He didn't kiss or touch her in return, but for a moment he didn't -- couldn't -- pull away.

Raven glanced over at Ginger, whose mouth fell open as she looked on. Of all the things she expected to happen when she got to New Orleans, this was not one of them.

Or, she thought with a sinking stomach, maybe it was.

She felt a hand grasp her arm and pull her out onto the floor.

It was Raven.

She could hear his skin sizzle slightly against her own. His eyes, which had now returned to the velvet brown of before, were quizzical as he looked deeply into her own. Who was this woman? Why did this always happen when he touched her?

But touch her he did as he spun her around the floor. The more he held her the more uncomfortable it felt, but oddly the more turned on he got. He couldn't imagine driving himself into her body, but yet his body responded to the sweet mix of pleasure and pain of having her in his arms.

Ginger herself was thrown for a loop. This was the first time in a long time a vampire had taken her into his arms and held on despite how her body's chemistry reacted to their own. That was dangerous... very dangerous...

Dangerous in that he was the ultimate predator who was created to suck the very life from her body. Dangerous in that the fullness of his mouth offered more than pleasure -- but the most exquisite pain. Dangerous in that she could almost taste him on her lips and in a flash see him in the throes of a passion she absolutely couldn't indulge.

But more dangerous than that was there was a part of her that didn't want him to let go. It was familiar, this dance with death, and the most she'd ever felt alive... like lightning was shooting between them. She thought her heart would burst when his mouth descended on trembling lips, and sparks flashed between them as his tongue meshed with hers.

They both groaned as they melted against each other. Their kiss was literally electric and sending their nerve endings into high alert as they reached out and clashed against each other.

In a blue haze she stumbled away from him, noticing only then how everyone on the dance floor had stopped to stare at what was happening between them.

Everyone's hair stood on end and sparks still flew from the surface of their skin.

Abi's brow furrowed as she glanced between Raven and Ginger, and Hunter's cautionary, "Ginger," was lost in the sudden hum of vampires swaying and hissing in a circle around them.

Constantine was the first to say the word all vampires ultimately feared. "Hunters!"

He advanced toward Abi to pull her back to him but Hunter stood in between, ready for battle. "I don't think so," he snarled.

"Hunter?" came Abi's confused voice from behind him.

"In more ways than one," Constantine accused.

Raven stared at Ginger incredulously. "Is this true?" he asked, but she didn't say anything. "Is this true?" he demanded suddenly as he grabbed her arm in his hand.

It burned him immediately, and just as immediately he let her go.

He'd met a few hunters before, but never had they had this reaction to the mere contact of his skin. Ginger backed up toward Hunter and Abi. "We're not here to hurt you," she started but neither vampire was convinced.

"Likely story," Constantine sneered. "But while we're on the subject, why are you here?"

Ginger hesitated for a long moment before Hunter finally answered, "We're here to kill the Creature."