by Trim, Brenda
Selene grips my head in her hands and snaps at me. “Stop moving and he will feed you. That’s it,” she praises when I still my movements. “Let it drop in from there.”
I don’t realize who she’s talking to until I see Lucius’s arm with that blood dripping off lift away from my face. I open my mouth and groan as the blood fills my mouth. I swallow as much as possible and lick my lips when it stops.
The hunger still gnaws at my gut, but I can focus on more than just my need for more. It hits me then what has happened, and I can no longer deny what I want to ignore. I’d be okay living in ignorance, but that would be dangerous for innocents.
Turning my head to the side, I try and bury my face and give in to the emotions tearing me apart. Selene seems to know I am no longer mindless and releases her hold. When Lucius lets me go, I turn on my side away from them.
The tears come, and I let them fall. I’m a monster now. The hunger is so strong that I know I would have killed without thinking. My heart aches and I worry Liam won’t be attracted to me anymore. I’m no longer the innocent, caring person he met.
“You can’t let me out of here,” I blurt. The last thing I want is to be allowed to roam free. Even now the hunger tries to steal my ability to reason. If I kill someone, I will never forgive myself.
“I see you realize what’s happened. Do you have questions?” Lucius asks.
“Only a million or so. Good thing we have eternity,” I reply.
Selene snorts and stands up. “You’ll be just fine.”
“I’m not so sure about that. I’m a monster now,” I admit, giving voice to my thoughts.
“Not all vampires are monsters,” Lucius says tightly. The change in his voice is so subtle I doubt I would have noticed before, but I hear everything now. And, I know with every fiber of my being that he’s annoyed with my portrayal.
“None of you are monsters, but I am. Maybe it has to do with me being different,” I say and then close my mouth, unsure if I should tell them what Steve said. Thinking about Steve makes me snarl and growl. It’s then that I feel the sharp points of my fangs.
“What makes you different? I’m guessing the shifters told you something,” Lucius says.
“They told me a lot. I don’t know what to believe, but I need you to guarantee me Steve can’t reach me here. I can’t stand the thought of either of you getting hurt because I put you in danger.”
“Steve?” Selene asks. “Is that the alpha that kidnapped you?”
I twist and sit upright, once again wrapping my arms around my knees. I nod my head. “Steve was my old boyfriend. The one my parents wanted me to marry. He said I was part fae or maybe witch. But there’s no way I believe him. He’s a liar and jerk.”
“He isn’t anything anymore. Liam tore him to pieces and Garrett burned his body. But he might be right about you having fae in your ancestry. I’ll ask around and see if there’s a way to find out for sure. Something is making you stronger than the average new vampire.”
“So how does this work? Can I return to work?”
Lucius points to the stairs. “Let’s take this upstairs. We will all be more comfortable. There’s a lot to discuss.”
“Good idea. I need a shower,” Selene says before she walks up the exit and I follow with Lucius behind me. I swear Liam was here before, but his scent isn’t fresh, so he must have left. The thought hurts more than I expect. He saved me from Steve and must have turned me. That means he cares about me, right?
“Are my clothes still in the bedroom?” I ask as I take in the tattered, bloody clothes hanging off my frame.
Selene presses a hidden button and the floor opens to a bedroom. Fresh air breezes down to us and I pick out different identities.
“Your clothes are as you left them,” Lucius informs me before breaking off and heading to the massive walk-in closet in what I realize is the master bedroom.
I pause at the door and look back at Selene. “Can you come with me? I don’t trust myself and I know there are others nearby. I feel my control slipping a little each second.”
Selene nods and heads my way. “Not only are you strong, but you are adapting fast.”
“Where’s Liam?” I ask as we head down the hall. “He changed me, right?”
“Lucius sent him home. He didn’t change you. Lucius did. It’s why you crave his blood.”
Tears well in my eyes as my chest tightens. Why that hurts so much I have no idea, but it guts me. “Oh.”
“He couldn’t. Not many vampires can turn others, and he refused to take a risk with your survival, so he begged Lucius to do it for him. He said you had to be alive in the world or it would become a bleak place. It was terribly romantic,” Selene tells me.
A smile blooms across my face and the pain in my chest fades. “Why isn’t he here then?”
“New vampires aren’t safe until they get their bloodlust under control. We thought he would calm you earlier, but he enraged you more,” Selene enters the room in front of me and sits on the chair in the corner.
“I won’t be long,” I tell her. Inside the bathroom I look in the mirror and scream. Selene comes running in and looks around.
“What’s wrong?”
“I…I can’t see myself,” I blurt and wave at the mirror.
“Vampires don’t have a reflection. That’s normal,” she replies and crosses to my side. “This is a lot to take in. You have time to adjust. The biggest issue right now is accepting that your human life is over. The rest will come in time. You will get a handle on the hunger and life will be easier after that.”
Nodding, I thank her and get in the shower without waiting for the water to warm up. The cold water heats within seconds unlike in my apartment where it takes nearly ten minutes before I have hot water.
I cringe when I see the water slide off me in brownish-red rivers. I scrub with shampoo and soap until the water runs clear then step out. Drying off, I wrap the soft towel around my body and head out to get dressed.
Selene stands up the second I step into the closet. “I’m going to shower. Lucius will meet you in the kitchen.
I tug my shirt on and peek my head out of the closet. “Thank you. Sorry about earlier,” I say motioning to her face.
“Don’t worry. We will rematch soon,” she promises before heading out the door.
I take a deep breath and get ready to learn how to live the rest of my life. I’m terrified, excited, and most of all grateful to be alive. I didn’t want to die. I have too much to do and discover. And I need to tell Liam how I feel.
Chapter 15
Harper
I bounce on the balls of my feet and motion at Selene with my hands, palms up. “Come get me.”
Selene laughs and launches herself at me. We collide in the middle of the room Lucius transformed into a sparring area for us. My fist connects with her face while her fists slam into my back three times before I lift my leg and kick her away from me.
I run away from her and stop before she reaches me. Jumping into the air, I land behind her and plant both palms on her back and push. She flies forward, but glides into a cartwheel and her foot lands in the middle of my chest.
A grunt leaves my mouth and I land on my ass. I kick my legs up and push off of the hands I plant above my head. Flipping up, I land on my feet in a move I watched in more action movies than I can remember. Now I can do them. It seriously freaks me out, but I love it at the same time.
Lucius enters the room in a suit custom made to fit his body. Selene purrs and prowls to her mate’s side. I turn away so I don’t have to watch the affection. They’re the best couple, but I can hardly handle seeing them together.
Liam hasn’t visited me again, but I have been on a roller coaster since turning several weeks ago. I quit my job and gave up my apartment. Lucius promises me I can work at the club to make money, but I don’t fit in any better now that I’m a vampire than I did when I was human.
Tonight is the first night I haven’t consumed Lucius’s blood first thing
upon waking. I’m getting stronger, but I don’t trust myself.
“You hungry, Harper?” Lucius asks me.
Turning around, I smile at him and shake my head. “I think I can make it longer. I’m hungry, but it’s not obliterating every other thought.”
“Good. Liam’s on his way over and would like to see you,” my sire informs me.
My jaw drops open and my eyes flare wide. “What? He’s coming here? Now?”
“He is. I told him it’s best if you stay here and talk.”
“Did he say what he wants to talk about?” I have wondered a million times since waking up a vampire if he regrets begging Lucius to turn me. It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me.
“I didn’t ask. Selene and I are going to the club for a bit. We will be back later,” he tells me as calmly as if we are discussing the weather.
“No! You can’t leave me. What if I lose control and go on a killing rampage?”
Selene claps a hand on my shoulder. “There’s no way you are going to attack anyone. And you need to work things out with Liam. It’ll help your stress levels.”
The vampire queen and I have become close over the past weeks. She’s helped train me. It started as a way to exhaust me, so I didn’t have the energy to try and fight my way out of the house, but now it is how we start every evening.
Giving her a smirk, I head for the door. “I’m going to shower.”
I blur to my room. I blur everywhere now. I love moving fast. The winds flowing over my body, the way energy crackles around me, making me aware of my surroundings. Initially I ran into everything. Now it’s rare for me to bump into a table.
In the bathroom I shower then wrap up in a towel. When I enter the bedroom, my mouth goes dry. Liam is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Hello, kitten.” My eyes close as his voice travels over my body making me shiver.
“What are you doing here?” I open my eyes and watch him push off the wall. His swagger is the same, but entirely different, as well.
“I’m here to claim what’s mine,” he informs me.
His words melt any resistance I have to his presence, but I can’t give in yet. “What makes you think I’m yours?”
“You became mine the moment I laid my eyes on you. Ensuring your survival made sure I never lose you.”
“You don’t know me anymore. I’m different.” And I doubt he will want the woman I’ve become. I’m no longer unsure and willing to bend to anyone’s will.
“You are mine, kitten. I’ll prove it. Drop that towel,” he orders me.
A smirk crosses my face and disappears when my hand releases the terry cloth and it falls to the floor. Like a panther, Liam prowls toward me while licking his lips. His eyes travel up and down my body and I react immediately.
My blood heats and my core tightens and tingles. Moisture pools between my legs. I smell my arousal fill the room and know he’s right. His hand caresses my cheek as he steps close to my body.
“I missed you, kitten. I’ve gone out of my mind not being able to see you,” he admits, destroying more of my defenses.
“What do you want from me?”
Liam steps right up to me so our bodies brush each other. “I want you forever.” His lips crash down on mine, stopping my rebuttal.
As his mouth moves over mine all thoughts fly away on the wind. All I can think is how badly I want him to take me. Our tongues glide together. The kiss so frenzied our teeth clash. My hands are all over him.
Before I reach my destination, he clamps both of my wrists in one of his big palms. “I don’t have my cuffs, so you are going to have to keep them above your head.”
My back arches as he takes control. I love his domination. This is what I’ve been missing. I thread my fingers together and press them to the wall he has walked me to. Stepping back, he takes in the scene before him.
The hunger in his eyes burns the last of my doubt to ash. Reaching out, he tweaks my nipples and bends to kiss the hurt. “I love you, Harper. I need you to know that.”
“I love you, too. Take me,” I tell him.
One of his eyebrows lifts as he watches me. “Take me, what?”
My cheeks heat and my legs press together. “Take me, sir.”
“Oh, I will, kitten. I am going to take the edge off before I take you to our home,” he says with glowing eyes and a hint of fang.
Going to his knees, his hands work their way from my chest to my legs. His shoulder nudges one knee and I spread my legs. His groan makes me weaken and I nearly fall over.
“Stay where you are, love. If you fall, this ends until I have you strapped to my bench.”
My head falls against the wall with a thump. I look down my body and watch him spread me open with his thumbs. His tongue strokes me from my opening to my clit and makes me jump.
It’s been a while and I haven’t had much experience. As Liam sets in with licking and sucking my clit, his hands twist and fondle my nipples. My hips are moving, rubbing my core against his face as he laves me.
When he inserts a finger in my core, I feel my muscles tighten right before my orgasm explodes out of me. I scream his name and slap the wall at my sides. I have no idea when my hands moved, but I’m too lost in ecstasy to care.
Liam prolongs my climax for several seconds before standing up and wrapping his arms around my shoulders. His lips claim mine and we kiss for several heated seconds. By the time he breaks away I am breathless and needy all over again.
“Tell me you’ll come home with me, kitten. You’re my everything and I can’t live another second without you. You’re the light to my dark,” Liam admits to me.
Jumping up, I trust him to catch me. “Yes,” I kiss him. “Yes. Thank you for saving me.”
“I couldn’t let you die, love.”
“Not in the cave. You saved me long before that. In the club that first night, but it’s more than that. I was walking through life half dead. You showed me how to live.”
“I have a surprise for you at home,” he tells me after he sets me down.
“A surprise?” I ask, while I pull my clothes on.
“I think you’ll like it. You seemed rather interested in Lucius’s the first night I brought you here.”
My mind immediately recalls the chair with two dildos on it. My arousal ramps up at Mach speed and my desire floods my panties. Forgetting everything in the room, I run from the closet with my shoes in my hand. “I’m ready.”
“I love you, kitten,” Liam professes as we leave the mansion.
My life took a left turn, but it turns out the path is far better than I ever could have guessed. I don’t know what my future holds, but I know Liam will be by my side and that’s all I need.
Want More?
Get ready for the next book in the Midnight Doms series, Her Vampire Rebel by Zara Zenia
Read all the books in the Midnight Doms Series
Alpha’s Blood by Renee Rose and Lee Savino
Her Vampire Master by Maren Smith
Her Vampire Prince by Ines Johnson
Her Vampire Hero by Nicolina Martin
Her Vampire Bad Boy by Brenda Trim
Her Vampire Rebel by Zara Zenia
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About the Author
Bestselling Author and award-winner Brenda Trim co-authored over thirty books in the bestselling Dark Warrior Alliance and Hollow Rock Shifters series and is the mastermind behind the Bramble's Edge Academy series, as well as many other titles. Check out her other works.
EXCERPT FROM Dream Warrior BOOK #1 in the Dark Warrior Alliance Series
Elsie woke, drenched in sweat with a scream trapped on her lips and her sheets tangled around her legs. Her sister stirred next to her on the queen-sized mattress. She didn’t want to wake her and sh
oved a fist into her mouth, stifling the scream from clawing its way out as the images from her nightmare continued to consume her. No matter how long and hard she fought it, the visions and memories refused to leave her.
It always started the same, with her standing on the cracked linoleum in the long hall of the group home where Dalton had been murdered. She had relived that entire night countless times over the past eighteen months. She squeezed her eyes shut as the images flooded her aching brain for what seemed like the millionth time. An abattoir surrounded her. Blood splatter covered the walls, and there were pools of the crimson liquid congealing on the black-and-white checkerboard floor. She gagged when she saw a lump of bright, red meat on the floor…flesh. Yellow flags and cones lined the walls and floor, amidst the carnage. Her stomach revolted while her body went numb.
In between heaving, she had whispered a plea for help. No one responded and she fell into a heap on the floor. Mindless of the blood she sat in, she gazed at the sight of her husband lying in a pool of blood, his sightless eyes trained on her. His neck had been torn open and shredded. How long she sat there screaming, she didn’t know. Finally, a police officer had escorted her away from his body and out of the house where her nightmare became worse when she came up against a mass of news media shouting questions about her husband being the latest TwiKill victim. Her world came to a crashing halt that night. At that moment, a giant black hole imploded into an endless ache in her chest.
Now, eighteen months later, that black hole had grown thorns and pierced her heart. The pain forced her to curl into a ball on her bed. She hated how much power the memories had over her. Joining SOVA had been a way to gain some of that power back. Still, she longed to be a “normal” college student again. You haven’t been normal since you were three years old, she thought wryly.
Not even thoughts of her childhood could suppress the pain of loss. No matter how much time had passed, Dalton’s murder still seemed unbelievable. The police still didn’t know who was responsible, and the detectives in charge had been spouting the same bull-shit excuses to the press for eighteen months. They were incompetent and hadn’t learned a fraction of what she had within the first forty-eight hours. Not that she was able to tell them what she had learned. She couldn’t, or she’d risk herself or her friends’ freedom. The instant the police learned the facts of the case they’d all be charged with a crime.