Into the Storm (Vampires of Velum Mortis Book 2)

by Stephanie Summers

  “If I hadn’t been looking right at you when it happened, I probably wouldn’t have… Don’t make me ask, since you seem to hate when I do,” she said with a smirk.

  I hadn’t willingly told anyone who didn’t already know about the punishment that had been imposed on me, but there was something about her that made me want to open up. Again, despite believing wholeheartedly just a few moments before, I found myself questioning whether it was possible that she was my mate. After all, I had told myself there was a first for everything. Maybe a wolf could mate with a vampire, but it still didn’t explain why I hadn’t known about her presence. When a vampire’s mate came of age, there was no force in the worlds that could keep him from her, yet I knew nothing of her. Never felt the pull, never felt like I might life might be in danger if I didn’t find her. No, I had gone about my life like she didn’t exist.

  “I was punished by my king years ago for becoming a danger to my kind and yours. I cannot pass through the veil to your world with my full abilities. For the last twenty-five years or so, I’ve been suppressing myself with an injection a witch made for the king, and though there is an antidote I can use when I come home, I don’t use it all that often anymore. I used it when I realized the demon had taken you, but immediately suppressed myself again once we were settled in the hotel. I didn’t trust myself to go out alone to fetch those items for you without it.”

  “And you haven’t used the antidote since we’ve been back?”

  “No,” I said.

  She nodded and took a sip of her drink, grimacing as the liquid passed over her tongue.

  “Tell me more about you,” I said, taking a shot of whiskey, warmth spreading over my body as it hit my bloodstream. “What’s the significance of the tattoo on your wrist?”

  She slipped out of her hoodie and turned her wrist to look at it. “It’s to remind me that love doesn’t really exist and that I’ll only end up with a broken heart if I go chasing it.”

  “But if love didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have a broken heart in the first place.”

  “Maybe…” she said. “That demon kept calling me an uncivilized dog, just the same as what he called the members of the Mathis pack.”

  I swallowed hard, my back stiffening. Here we go…

  “Yes.”

  “Why did he say that?” she asked, her eyes focused intently on me.

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “It should be,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. She shook her head and continued, “But I don’t know how it’s possible.”

  “You’re a wolf.”

  “But how?”

  “Your parents were wolves, or at least one of them is. Just like mine were vampires.”

  “Were?”

  “Yes. My parents died a long time ago during a volatile time in Velum Mortis.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, a light sheen casting over her eyes.

  “Thank you,” I replied, my heart aching at the thought of my mother and father.

  “My mother never said anything about being a wolf. Never showed any evidence of it, and I’ve never felt like anything other than human.”

  “She might not have been a wolf, and if you’re only half, it’s possible you don’t possess the ability to shift, but you probably exhibited traits you didn’t realize were unique to your kind. Craving meat, increased sense of smell, things of that sort…”

  “That’s why I could smell you,” she said, her brows raising as her mouth dropped open slightly. “At work, even when you weren’t close. As soon as you walked through the door, no matter where in the place I was, I knew you were there.”

  “What do I smell like to you?” I asked, hoping to hear an answer that would confirm what I felt. To a wolf, I should smell like death, and if she said I smelled like anything other than that, it could help me to determine what we were to each other.

  “It’s hard to describe. It’s not like anything I’ve ever smelled before, like pure masculinity,” she said, taking a sip of her drink again. “You’re heady and exotic and rich… Every time I’ve been even remotely close to you,” she said, a quiet chuckle escaping her lips as she looked away and smiled.

  “Tell me,” I said.

  “Well… It makes me want to climb you like a fucking tree.”

  15

  Sydney

  He smirked and took a swig of his drink before setting the glass down, and saying, “Redwood…”

  “Sorry,” I said, my cheeks flushing red hot. I couldn’t believe I’d felt comfortable enough to say that our loud to him.

  “Don’t be,” he replied. “You didn’t say anything offensive to me.”

  “It’s just weird for me,” I said, and finished off the vodka in the glass.

  Taking the bottle of vodka and the glass from my hand, he poured me another, and asked. “How so?”

  “I’ve never really been attracted to anyone before you,” I said and took a long drink. “I can’t believe I’m admitting to any of this.”

  “No one?”

  “Nope,” I said, wiping at my lips. “I can’t believe I’m even telling you any of this.”

  “Surely you’ve been with a man before who wasn’t a scumbag. Someone you wanted to be with.”

  “No, and he wasn’t the only one I’ve done things like that with,” I said, almost whispering. I couldn’t believe I had admitted that out loud to him. In fact, I hadn’t really acknowledged that it had happened before that to myself. The disgusting pig from the strip club had been the only one I ever focused on, and I think that’s only because that had been the catalyst for finally getting away from it all.

  “The fact that you had to do that for her, or that she ever exposed you to things like that at all,” he said, sitting down on the couch beside me, his thigh brushing against mine.

  I slung back the rest of my drink. The dizzying feeling had already begun to sink in, my inhibitions floating away, the desire I had for him growing by the second.

  “I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said as his cheeks flushed red and his eyes darkened. “A mother should protect her child, not expose her to all the nastiness in the world.”

  “The dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life was to agree to meet with her yesterday.”

  “So why did you then?”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a slight shrug of the shoulders. “I guess I was hopeful that she’d finally changed. Even after everything, I just wanted a damn family,” I said, my voice shaking as I bit back tears. “I just wanted to be loved for once in my goddamn life. It’s all I’ve ever really wanted, despite the tattoo reminding me that it’s not worth it. I’m sorry… I don’t mean to vomit my emotional baggage all over you.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got my own baggage to deal with. Yours doesn’t add too much to the burden.”

  “At least you don’t have to put up with me for much longer. You might as well take me to your king now and get it over with. Let me get onto the next leg of this miserable journey I call life.”

  “What if I said I didn’t want to take you to him?” he leaned into me and took my hand in his.

  “What if I said I didn’t really want you to either?” I breathed, casting my gaze downward.

  “Stay here with me,” he replied, tilting my chin up with his finger. “To hell with the consequences. Stay with me, and I’ll show you what it’s like to be fucked by someone you want to fuck.”

  My eyes met his, searching for sincerity, searching for anything that would prove he wasn’t trying to take advantage of the situation and that maybe he wanted something more than just my body. Desperate for a connection I had always longed for, I wanted everything he could give as long as it was sincere. I didn’t think I could survive learning once again that I was unworthy of love.

  He dipped his head and brushed his lips against mine, subtle sparks of electricity snapping between us.

  “I’ll show you how good it can be to be fucked by someone wh
o wants to fuck you as much as you want to fuck him. Someone who will worship every piece of you from here until the end of time. Just stay with me, and I’ll show you…”

  “You barely know me,” I whispered. “How could you possibly know what I want or who I want it from?”

  “Because I can hear thunder breaking in your heart, the same thunder that breaks in mine. I can see through you, past the scars others have inflicted on you, to the woman you truly are. Your body calls to mine because you were made to be mine. Let me love you, Syd,” he said smoothly.

  My heart seemed to rumble in response and I could almost hear the thunder he’d spoke of, could almost feel the sweet chaos of a storm brewing between us.

  "Let me do this for you." Stellan laid a hand on my thigh, giving a reassuring squeeze. “Let me give you everything you’ve ever wanted and more.”

  A single soft nod was all the confirmation he seemed to need. He placed a hand at my shoulder and eased me onto my back. All I could think about was how loud my hammering pulse must have seemed to him. My eyes lingered on his lips, parted just slightly in a wicked sort of smile.

  I waited for a glimpse of his fangs and remembered how terrified I’d been when he’d first shown them to me. They didn't inspire fear in me now—not really—but the excitement I felt in that moment wasn't all that far removed. I'd already seen how powerful he was, been immersed in the heady manliness of his scent, but only now did I consider how careful he'd been with me.

  If all he wanted was to fuck me, he could have taken it any time from the moment he first walked through the doors of Club Dead or when he took me from those men or any time leading up to this moment. But he hadn’t.

  His grip at my shoulder was gentle, but in those hands, I could practically feel the punishing potential.

  At first, he undressed me carefully, working my shirt up and over my head, waiting for me to lift my arms to allow it passage. Once it had been tossed aside, he paused and moved his palm to my cheek as I kept my arms lazily in place. I expected his gaze to be firmly joined with my own, but I saw his eyes roaming just below. Rather than my nearly exposed breasts, he lingered on my jaw, my shoulder, the undersides of my arms.

  I thought he might have been teasing himself by putting off his satisfaction, lingering above me, but the spreading of his grin made it abundantly clear what that look was really about. He looked at me like I was equal parts present and meal, his chest rising and falling a little more rapidly with every moment.

  All at once, he seemed unable to contain himself and he dove forward, eyes fixed at my neck and mouth quickly opening. I gasped and jerked a little to the side instinctively, though whether it was just fear of that flash of intimacy or Stellan himself, I couldn't say.

  When I felt the melting heat of his lips just above my collarbone, kissing and sucking with an altogether surprising sort of worshiping slowness, my whole body went slack. I expected to feel the sting of his fangs piercing my flesh a moment later, but it never came. I brought a hand up to lay at the back of his head, stroking his hair and pulling him close. The lavishing kisses trailed over the whole area, and when he had to pull back to skip over my bra strap, I urged his head up and away.

  The moment I sat up, he slipped a hand behind me and undid the hooks of my bra with almost shocking ease, though he left it to me to slide it off at my own pace. His hunger, his slavering need was becoming more and more clear, but that small gesture was enough to put me in his hands completely.

  I slid the bra off, and the moment my back rested on the couch, I brought my hips up and slipped out of every other stitch of clothing I wore.

  Stellan watched with wide eyes until I'd settled back onto the smooth leather of the couch, finally meeting my eyes with his brow hiked high. "Is this truly what you desire?"

  Bringing a hand out to brush his hair away from his eyes, I breathed the word, “Yes.”

  “Are you ready to follow me into the storm?” he asked, taking my hand and placing it on his chest over his heart.

  “I’m ready to follow you anywhere.”

  He nodded once seemingly getting the message loud and clear that I was ready to trust him. Completely.

  As much as he seemed to want to linger at my neck, he instead pressed his cool lips to my stomach, drifting out to my hips on his way down. I shifted in place as he slid between my legs, my whole body thrumming with anticipation. I could hear my fluttering heartbeat, feel the buzzing warmth shooting down my arms and legs, see the flush coming over my chest.

  Stellan wrapped an arm around each of my thighs, pulling me close to him as he lapped and suckled at my inner thighs. A humming sort of growl sounded in his chest as that ferocious hunger grew, obvious in his fervor, how he seemed moments from devouring me whole. His whole body writhed, no doubt with the effort of suppressing the urge to feed at the artery that ran the length of my leg.

  Instead, he wrapped those beautiful lips around my clit with a shocking suddenness. I cried out, my hand shooting down to his head instinctively, though when it got there it seemed unsure of whether to push or pull. The lightning-strike intensity was sudden, setting my whole form alight, but I desperately wanted more of it. My hand still trembling, I settled back on my place at the crown of his head, stroking and urging him on.

  He began pumping his head a bit, picking up the pressure around my clit each time he pulled back, his tongue flicking out to stimulate me every time. I'd never felt anything like it, and the intensity had my body moving on its own without my control.

  Each time he eased off, my hips rocked forward, urging him on. We fell into a tight rhythm soon, and the faster it became, the closer I came to what felt like a dizzying precipice. I fought through the thick fog of ecstasy that clouded my mind, battling the voracious instinct that drove my hips forward.

  Through a shaking, shuddering series of panting moans, I managed to eke out a few words. "Stellan... Not, not yet." My hips trembled along with my legs, an immense pressure like a river crashing against a dam, raging against its confinement.

  Stellan knew exactly what I wanted. He was on his feet in a flash, stripping down with a quick, though not unexpected, grace. Even in the low light of the room, I could see how beautifully pale he was. His form stood out like bright brush strokes of titanium white against the darkness behind him.

  The dividing lines of his musculature were deep, lining power-made-flesh that was at once lean and ample. With every motion, he seemed to swell and harden, but even when he stood still in front of me, I could see how sharp he was, honed like a gleaming blade.

  My eyes drifted down over the stark Adonis belt groove of his hips, settling on his cock. He was almost painfully hard I was sure, the smooth length twitching just slightly with every breath he took.

  I think he liked showing off, because the smile that had faltered in his haste to undress returned in full force.

  Stellan took his place between my legs once more, but continued to slide up until our chests were pressed together and he'd claimed my gaze. I couldn't have looked away from those gorgeous, striking gray eyes if I wanted to—and I didn't.

  I was still beneath him, suddenly aware of how intense my hammering heartbeat must have been against his own chest. For a fleeting moment, the prey-like fear returned, but it was shoved aside when his lips met mine. The simple, slow kiss left me still and silent inside and out, aside from the now-cacophonous demands of my body and the quiet moans that passed between us.

  Stellan shifted his hips back and down a bit, and I could feel his throbbing cock against me. When he rocked forward, the head pressed tight to my clit before sliding over, stimulating me with the whole of his length. A few agonizing moments of this teasing left me begging with everything but my words, panting and staring up at him in desperation, my legs coming up of their own volition to wrap around his hips in an attempt to urge him inside.

  Finally, he positioned himself at my opening. The sudden pressure of his thick cock pressing into me sent a jittering wave
of pleasure through me. I pressed my body down slightly, desperate to have him deeper, to feel him stretching me harder. My legs tightened around him, and I could feel the pressure pushing hard at the limits of what I could take, leaving me writhing and gasping beneath him, a sudden thrash of my head to the side breaking our kiss.

  He dove forward at that opportunity and claimed his place at my throat. His teeth grazed ever-so-lightly over my flesh before he began kissing and suckling madly, his hips pressing forward ever harder with quick, shallow strokes. Before long, he was buried deep inside, his cock pumping against my deepest, most sensitive place. I brought my arms up to wrap around his upper back, my whole body enveloping him as best it could, desperate to keep him close and deep.

  He picked up the pace of his rocking hips then, and with a slight shift of his legs, I hardly seemed to be touching the couch. I could still feel the faint pressure against my back, but every thrust of his hips sent me sliding over it. I was held only by my own desperation and the fierce hardness of the massive cock inside me, leaving me completely impaled upon him.

  All at once, I soared up some unimaginable height, the world fading from around and beneath me, leaving me in a senseless void. A great pressure pushed in on me. Just when it seemed I couldn’t take another moment, the darkness pulled in tight around me. As quickly as I’d soared up, I seemed to go in all directions at once, my whole being exploding in a blinding supernova of pure ecstasy.

  I was faintly aware of screaming, roaring moans, the wild joining of two bodies, unfettered pleasure and a pure, mad sort of lust.

  The sensation of his thick seed filling me pulled me suddenly back to reality, my fragmented and disoriented self hardly seeming to fit in the confines of my body. I shuddered, thrashed, trembled, unable to form a single thought that didn’t center on how incredible everything was in that moment.

  But as fast as the belief that in his arms, our bodies tangled up as one, was exactly where I belonged had come over me, that all he had given me was everything I ever needed or wanted, it had begun to fade. Just as the foundation to the walls I’d built around myself began to crack, doubt reinforced them. How could I fall so hard and so fast for him the way I had?