by E. M. Moore
“You’re going to kill me,” he said. He made small little pumps into my hand until his face glazed over in passion. “I’ve thought about this,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about this.”
I reached up to undo the buttons on his jeans. I sneaked my hand in, moving his boxers out of the way to grab him skin on skin. His eyes widened; he almost glowered as he looked at me. Not an angry look, but one of fierce determination. He pitched his hips forward as I ran my hand down the length of him. He groaned until he lowered his head back down to my nipple; his hot breath caressing it at first before he closed his mouth over it. I started to work harder on him. I wanted to make him feel as good as I did the other day. I wanted his first time to be special. While he sucked and played, I concentrated on running my hands down the length of him. I noticed when I played with his tip, he’d groan. After a short amount of time, his strokes began to shorten. He pulled away from my chest; his eyes glowing as they locked onto mine. I matched him stroke for stroke, his breaths coming out in short rasps as he moved his hips against my hand. “Ariana.” He grabbed my forearm, and I felt him twitch in my hands. Then, there were short convulsions as he emptied everything onto my arms and his stomach.
He groaned through clenched teeth and then when he was done, he turned the most adoring eyes to me. A sense of peace overcame him as he stared up. Then, he slowly moved my hands away from him. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
He ran into the attached bathroom and came out with a wet washcloth. Very carefully, almost sensually, he wiped my arms and hands clear of his evidence, then worried about himself, folding the cloth to an unused side. Afterward, he threw the washcloth in the hamper in the bathroom and strolled back out again. His boxers were pulled up covering himself, but his jeans were still undone and open and his chest was still exposed.
I stared up at him, almost unbelieving. I’d just given him his first experience. I felt like a goddess. A surge of power ran through me. I turned over, not caring that my breasts were exposed for him to see, that I was naked from the waist up. He took his time devouring me, then he slid in next to me, his hand coming to rest on my lower stomach. His voice was strong when he spoke. “I need you to feel that way.”
Need pulsed between my legs. I slid his hand underneath the band of my pants until his fingertips just grazed my center. My mouth went dry at the feel of him there. I hurried and unbuttoned my pants, then pulled them down to give him room, my panties along with it. “Then touch me.”
His eyes sparked. They traveled down to my exposed skin and then his fingers started to move. He explored me, running the length of the area between my legs, almost calculatingly so to see where I gasped and when I moaned. Then, he lowered his head to my breasts again, taking his time kissing there while he touched. Within a few minutes, he already had my every sensitive spot pegged and memorized. He took his time, drawing out my need, but intensifying it at the same time. I closed my eyes and concentrated on his fingers on me, the way they just whispered over my skin in some places and then pushed down in others. How he swirled into the center, into the most sensitive spots of me. He pushed further and sparks burst in front of my eyes. I grabbed his hand and held it close while I moved my hips into him.
“You like that.”
It wasn’t a question, just an observation. I looked up to see his eyes burning down on me. I was hooked. I couldn’t look away. He met my hip thrusts with his own tantalizing movements inside, turning me into an almost frenzy-like state. When we got in sync, into a rhythm that pushed my limits, I gripped the bed sheets in my fists as he worked me higher and higher.
“Let it out,” he said, his eyes pleading with mine.
God, I was scared to. I was already practically seizing on the bed. His careful attention to detail was bringing the feeling on hard and quick. I was so close. So, so close. I let out a cry, and he moved faster, his eyes practically dripping with passion. I sped up to catch up with him until I was teetering on the edge. It built and built until I let out a short, loud scream, all the while watching his reaction. I’d never forget it now; the amount of love in his eyes was indescribable as he watched me topple over the precipice. It was as if I took him over with me, and we fell and fell even deeper into one another’s hearts.
He didn’t pull away from me until he was sure I was done. I was spent, my chest still heaving. He leaned over, his forehead dropping to mine. “That was beautiful.”
I closed my eyes and reached up to kiss him, showing him how wonderful he was, how amazing I thought it all was without words.
Too soon, we pulled away from one another and wordlessly put our clothes back on. It was as if both of us knew that was all the alone time we were going to get, at least for now. He pulled me to him and already I missed his bare chest on mine. He kissed the top of my head. “Now I really don’t want you to go tonight,” he said.
I closed my eyes; my throat tightening. I almost didn’t want to go either, but I also knew I was doing all of this for him—for them. If we could stop the rogue vampire clan, we could stop one whole aspect of our problems, and possibly mitigating the other.
I hadn’t made up my mind what to say to him when he said, “I can’t ask you to do that though.”
I pulled away and looked up at him.
He dropped his hands to my shoulders. “I can’t be selfish,” he explained. “No, I don’t want you to go. I’m going to be freaking out from the moment you leave until the moment you come back, but I also can’t tell you not to go. That would be like telling you not to be who you are, and Ariana, I love who you are.”
I swallowed and reached up to cup his face. “You know I’m coming back. In fact, you can wait right here until I do.”
He grinned. “So, no slumber party tonight?”
My insides twisted. It wasn’t a tough choice. Why would you choose just one when you could have them all? “We better do the slumber party.”
“Then I’ll wait with my brothers in the library until you come back to us.”
I reached up to my tiptoes to kiss his perfect lips, making him a silent promise that I would be coming back. There was just no other option.
12
We were in a beat-up old Dodge Durango that smelled like a family had lived—and possibly even died—in it, but I was still grinning from ear-to-ear. I’d said goodbye to my princes and then sprinted across the estate to the guard area. I had to admit I was a little taken aback by the vehicle we were in today, but not when they explained it to me. Of course we couldn’t ride around the closest town in one of the sleek black SUV’s. We’d stick out like a sore thumb.
I sat in the backseat peering out the driver’s side window down empty streets and alleyways looking for anything out of the ordinary. T.J. and Lex were in the front, Lex was driving. It’d been mostly just small talk for the time being. T.J. and Lex seemed to know each other well and kept the conversation going after they told me what to expect from the night. In short, they weren’t expecting to see anything, but in case they did, I was to follow them. I half wondered if one of the guys had contacted them and told them to make sure that I stayed safe. It would be a risky move, but I wouldn’t put it past one of them especially if they had a really good relationship with Lex. If they felt like they could trust her, they probably called her the moment I sent that text.
Oh well. At least I was out here doing it.
Stars dotted the night sky above. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, only the small white sphere of the moon flirting with the rooftops of the buildings. I had no idea we were near a big city out here. The way we’d come in from the highway was all backroads so this was a bit of a surprise. It was definitely bigger than Calcutta and about ten times bigger than the small town near The Fort. It reminded me of Richmond a little. I’d visited there with my mom once. I was young then, and I only remembered glimpses, but I could succinctly bring up a picture in my mind of me in a car and looking up at the tall buildings of a downtown. Of cou
rse, back then I’d thought it was as big as New York City, but now that I was older, I knew that wasn’t the case. It’d be nice to go back to Richmond someday to see if it was at all like I remembered it.
“So, Ri?” Lex asked from the front.
Ri? Since when did anyone call me Ri but Nicolai. I was going to beat him. Suspicions confirmed. He’d called Lex. I knew it. And he’d been the first one to say how great it was! I was so going to punch him in the arm when I got back.
“Yeah?” I said, not even bothering to ask her where she got my nickname from because there was only one other person in the world who called me that.
“How’s Stephan doing?”
“Stephan?” I asked, my stomach immediately bottoming out. “What about him?”
She caught my eye in the rearview mirror and my nerves settled a bit. A look of true concern crossed her face. “I heard he was the one who expired Kay. I was just wondering how he was dealing with it.”
Expired. What a weird choice of words. Since the guys trusted this woman, I might as well trust her, too. “It was tough for him in the beginning,” I said, running my palms down my pants.
“He was always the most sensitive,” she said, shaking her head.
“Yeah, well, that hasn’t changed. Since it’s a complete turnabout from his normal self, I think he needed time to think it over. Deep down he knows it was the right thing to do, but just coming to terms with it is going to be the hardest thing for him.”
The guard to my side scoffed. “He didn’t have to kill her. Imagine if we just up and killed a vampire. We’d be having to explain ourselves seven different ways.”
“Matthews,” Lex scolded.
I turned toward the guard next to me. He wasn’t that much older than I was. What was he doing here then? He was too young to retire, which meant he was probably on loan from another family. “Actually,” I said, “he did have to kill her. Kay almost killed Christian, and it wasn’t as if she was all that good to me. She captured me and locked me up. She wouldn’t have stopped there.”
“We’ve talked about this Matthews,” Lex said, butting in. “That family is the best thing we have to becoming something close to equals. I don’t care what you’ve heard.”
“What have you heard?” Curiosity had me leaning closer to him on the seat. Why did some not like the Ravanas? Obviously I was a little biased, but everything I’ve heard and witnessed said that they were doing their best for both parties.
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Forget I said anything.”
“Not likely,” I grumbled, sitting back in my seat. “Maybe you should listen to the facts before you start making assumptions.”
He held his hands up. “Listen, I’m not trying to fight. It’s just never a good thing when a guard dies. To make matters worse, it was at the hands of a vampire. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s a member of the most respected clan. Now all the vampires are going to think killing guards is okay.”
“No one felt it more than Stephan,” I argued. “I can tell you that with one-hundred percent certainty. He hated to do it, but wouldn’t you do everything in your power to protect your family? That’s what he was doing. I doubt he was even differentiating between vampire, guard, human or any other species. He saw the threat, he took care of it. End of story.”
“Well said,” Lex agreed.
I was suddenly all itchy. I didn’t like being in this car and having to defend my guys in that way. This Matthews guard didn’t even know the Ravanas if he thought they would do anything like that on purpose or just for the fun of it. And they definitely didn’t do it so all the other vampires would think it was okay to take a guard’s life. He was being ridiculous.
“Hey,” Matthews said, poking me in the arm. I turned toward him and he tried a half smile on me. When that didn’t work, he held his hand out? “A truce? Sometimes I just shoot my mouth off and don’t think about it.”
I eyed his hand and then looked back up at him. I didn’t want him to think what he’d said was okay, but I also knew that we were out on a mission and that meant we all had to trust one another explicitly. If you didn’t have trust, what did you have?
I took his hand and shook it. “Forgiven. For now.”
I smiled, and he smiled back.
“Slow down,” T.J. urged, waving his hand in the air. “You see that? Alleyway on the left.”
I leaned forward, my eyes immediately moving to the direction T.J. pointed. A young, lean kid with spiky hair just walked into the shadows. There was a person hot on his trail. Another guy, slightly older than the young one, but he looked all wrong. “You think the follower’s a vampire?” I asked, disbelieving. If he was, he was unlike any vampire I’d ever seen.
T.J. shrugged. “Even if he’s not, it looks damn suspicious, doesn’t it?”
Lex pulled the SUV over to the right side of the road. “Let’s see what we see.”
My heart popped up into my throat as I took off my seatbelt and waited for the rest of them to get out of the vehicle. Matthews came over to stand beside me, and then we all walked toward the alley. I tried not to show it, but internally, I was freaking out. My hands started to shake. In front of me, Lex pulled out a small gun from the back of her jeans and held it like I’d seen cops do in movies. We stalked forward until we were in the mouth of the alley. Sure enough, the guy who was following the punk rock kid had him down on the ground, and he was slamming his fist down into his face.
“Stop it right there,” T.J. called out.
Part relief hit me. Surely if it was one of the rogue vampires, he’d be sucking the guy dry right now. This was probably just an extension of a bar fight we could break up and then be done with it.
The guy on top slowly lifted himself to his feet. He straightened his jacket and then turned. I gasped. Not only was he a vampire, but as if I needed extra proof, his fangs slid out and he hissed at us.
Lex fired off her gun. She caught him in the shoulder, and he hissed again, his hand moving up to the dart that was sticking out of his arm. He tore it out and started moving backward. He took a brief, longing glance at the body that was still on the pavement, but still kept moving back. The young kid gasped, spitting up blood. I tried to shove past to help him, but Lex held her hand out. “It could be a trap. Don’t move.”
“Who are you?” T.J. shouted.
Matthews stiffened, his gaze flicking above us to the two-story buildings surrounding the short alley.
“Ha,” the vamp said, his mouth pulling into an evil smirk. “Like I’m going to tell you that.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, my gaze moving to the poor kid, blood still spurting from his lips. This was just too crazy. He wasn’t even feeding from him, just beating him to a pulp.
“It’s about time things got shook up, don’t you think?”
“One in the doorway,” Lex whispered.
“One on the roof,” Matthews added.
Shocked, I started to look around. What did they see that I didn’t? I was too preoccupied with the one who was right there in front of us and our poor victim. We needed to get him some help.
Matthews pulled me to him. “Stay back. Don’t step in unless we absolutely need you.” Then, he shoved me backward. “Go!”
The three of them ran up the alley. Lex went after the main guy who’d turned and started to flee. She tracked him down and tripped him. That brought the guy from the doorway out, and the other one from the roof dropped down. Matthews and T.J. worked in tandem to try to take them out. I moved forward toward the victim. I pulled my hoodie off and used it to wipe away the blood from his mouth. He was pale, almost sickly. “We’re going to get you some help,” I said. I looked up to see that the three guards were still fighting with the others. They were in control, but they hadn’t taken them out yet.
When I looked down, my stomach turned. The young kid was looking up at me and smiling. His grin was too wide, too bright, and as I watched, fangs slid out of his gums.
; I stepped back, pushing away. I fell on my butt, but I continued to move back as the young kid sat up.
“Gotcha,” he said. “And my, do you look good enough to eat.” He sniffed the air. “There’s something about sinking your teeth into guards, too. It’s just so much more appetizing than regular old humans.”
My hand found a small pile of dirt. I closed my hand around some and then threw it in his face while I got to my feet. He calmly wiped it out of his eyes and then stared at me. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Watch out, Ri!” Lex called out. Then, I heard a grunt.
I was distracted for a second, just a second, when I felt the marble arms grab me from behind and tilt my head back so my neck was exposed. “Let my friends go,” the punk rocker called out next to my ear.
Irrational anger poured from me. Not again. I was not going to be the weak link again. In the alley, the three vampires that had been fighting the guards all pushed off and started down the alley nonchalantly as if nothing had happened. The vampire’s breath coated my neck, making my stomach roll.
“Don’t hurt her,” Lex said.
Screw that, I thought. There was no way I was going to let this be me again. I wasn’t going to be the guard everyone had to save. I was supposed to be doing the saving. I picked up my heel and slammed it down on the vampire’s right foot. Then I stepped around him, held on tight to his arm, and threw him over my shoulder and onto the floor like the Judo throw Samuel had taught us. He landed, and the ground shook a little.
My small victory didn’t last long. He hissed and flailed his hands out, his finger nails—no, claws—sliced through my forearm. I jumped back, pain radiating up my arm.
Lex’s gun went off again, but the vampire dodged it. The next thing I knew, I saw him crouch, look back at me to wink, and then he was gone. He ran so fast past me that Lex couldn’t get a good shot, and neither T.J. nor Matthews would’ve been able to catch him.