by L. E. Wilson
She lowered her hands and wrapped them around her teacup. They were shaking again, so hard he was afraid the porcelain was going to bust apart on the table. He carefully covered her cold hands with his to still them.
She didn’t pull away.
“Emma, you’ve got to stop this. You’re going to rattle the skin right off your bones.”
At his gentle teasing, a brief smile curved her lips. She sniffed and looked down at his hands engulfing hers. “I’ve just blocked out these memories for so long… It’s hard to revisit them.”
He left his hands where they were and smiled encouragingly until she continued, “It wasn’t a bear. It was...they were…monsters. I don’t know how else to say it. They attacked us.”
“Monsters,” he repeated. What in the world could she be talking about? Werewolves? The bitch that had his brother was most definitely a monster, but if you didn’t know her, all you would see is a beautiful woman. Her minions were all normal looking “people”, like him. He didn’t think “monster” was a word someone would use to describe them physically.
“Can you tell me what they looked like?” He squeezed her hands, careful not to hurt her.
“Um…” She risked a quick peek at him for reassurance. “They were like something out of a horror movie—very tall and thin, yet muscular, with long arms…” Her voice started to quiver, but she pressed on. “Grayish, rotting skin. Red eyes. They had a mouthful of sharp fangs, and they wore no clothes.”
Nik furrowed his brow as he tried to picture what she was describing. One of the locals he’d had watching Leeha’s lair up north had mentioned seeing something that sounded similar. That’s how they’d found out Leeha was back. He’d followed the thing and it took him right to her hideout.
He thought the civilian must have been mistaken, seen an animal or something. But he had no doubt Emma was telling the truth. If beings such as these existed, this was very disturbing.
“And these things took your sister?”
Emma nodded.
“Are you sure she was taken by force? She didn’t go willingly?”
Pulling her hands out from under his, she sat back in her chair. “What are you saying?”
“I’m only asking because the female who has my brother would not have been able to overpower him without a witch helping her.”
“And you think my sister is that witch.”
“Yes, I believe so. According to my sources, she’d been gone only a few days before the night my brother went to meet the bitch who’s holding him.”
Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “Keira was taken by force.”
Nik could feel the wall going up between them. He scrambled to undo the damage. “I know that’s what you believe, but think about it. You didn’t even know your sister is a witch. Isn’t it possible there are other things you don’t know about her?”
“Yes,” she admitted after a moment. “I suppose that could be possible. But whether or not she was abducted against her will, I have no doubts about that,” she insisted stubbornly.
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
Gritting her teeth, she said, “Because I was there. And because of this.” She grabbed the neckline of her purple sweater and yanked it down below her collarbone, revealing a 3-inch area of shiny, puckered scar tissue.
Chapter 12
Nik stared at her ruined skin, and swallowed hard. She’d been ripped open. No vampire would have left a mark like that. Not even a young, sloppy one.
His voice shaking with emotion, he asked her, “They did this to you? The monsters?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Letting go of her sweater, she let it cover her again. “Keira may not have wanted me to know if there was something dangerous going on with her, but there’s no way in hell she would have let anything hurt me. Especially if she had some kind of powers that could have stopped it.”
Dropping his voice down to match hers, he whispered, “What else did they do to you?”
She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. The rigid way she was holding herself spoke volumes. A buzzing noise started up inside his head. He wanted to reach into her mind to see these things for himself. Fuck what he’d told her before. But he stopped himself. He needed to be here right now, not off on a killing rampage, which is exactly what would happen if he groped around in her memories. He was dangerously on the verge of losing it as it was.
Nik didn’t think to question his reaction. He would kill them. He would hunt them down and fucking kill them. After he played with them a bit, like they had done to her. Every single one of those things that had dared to lay a finger on her.
If he thought his earlier reaction to her story was bad, seeing her beautiful skin marked with proof was much, much worse. And if Leeha was involved in this as he suspected? Nothing would save her this time. Burning would be too good for her.
“Nik? Are you alright?” Emma asked, bringing him partially back to the here and now. Her eyes were wide, captivated by what she saw.
He knew he was entirely vamped out on her. He couldn’t control it. His fangs were fully extended and razor-sharp, and his lips pulled back as he let out a long, slow hiss. His facial features would be sharper, harsher, the skin pulled taut across the bones. And his blue eyes would glow almost silver.
He stared right at her, but it wasn’t her face he was seeing. Tensed to attack, his hands were clenched into tight fists, his muscles taught and ready.
“Nikulas?”
Through the red haze of his rage, Emma’s concerned voice came to him as if through a fog. With some difficulty, he refocused his full attention on to her.
Fuck. It was too late to run off to the bathroom again. He dropped his head down, trying to calm himself. This was bad. This was very bad.
Mentally kicking himself, he was about to move away from her when a gentle stroke on his forehead whipped his eyes back up to hers. She was touching him? There was no fear in her eyes, only a curious fascination.
Watching him closely for any kind of reaction, she ran her fingers along his cheekbone and up underneath his eye, and then slowly leaned toward him to get a closer look at his mouth.
Expelling a shuddering breath, his blood lust for violence turned into a completely different kind of lust as she came closer and closer to him.
Fucking hell.
Abruptly, he pulled away from her, stood up, and stepped away from the table, cupping his hands in front of himself to hide the bulge in his pants. “Sorry about…” He waved a hand in front of his face, pointing at his vampirish features. “I have a hard time controlling it sometimes if I get angry, or…whatever. The thought of someone hurting you—” He clenched his jaw, unable to finish. “Yeah. I’m gonna shut up now.” Dropping his head again to hide from her gaze, he concentrated on his breathing. He needed to chill the fuck out.
Emma stood up from the table, cautiously walking over to stand in front of him. “This is all for me?” she asked. She reached out and laid a warm hand on his forearm, slightly squeezing the hard muscle under the cotton material. “Nik? It’s okay, you don’t have to hide from me.”
What the hell was she doing? Why wasn’t she running, screaming, from the room?
Unable to help himself, Nik groaned as her touch on his arm burned right through his shirt to the bare skin beneath. If she only knew what all he was hiding, like the throbbing bulge beneath his hands, she might not be so eager to lay her hands on him.
The tension in the air between them was a palpable thing. His entire body hummed from it, until he had to physically hold himself away from her. It made him feel more alive than he had in years, and he wondered if she could feel it too.
His control was rapidly slipping away at her touch, and he lifted his head. Her eyes were curious, but calm and warm. He knew his own had to be burning bright. Her close proximity to him wasn’t doing a damn thing to help him calm down. His mouth watered at the thought of tasting her. Her lips, her neck, her breasts, her slick folds…her
sweet blood.
He barely managed to rasp, “Emma, you need to back away.”
She frowned slightly. “You said you would never hurt me.”
“Emma, I’m so riled up right now…I just need you to…” Kiss me. Touch me. He breathed her deep into his lungs. “Go back to the table, and give me a moment.” All he could think about was tearing off her clothes and shoving her down onto her hands and knees right there on the hard floor. Pounding into her from behind while he sank his fangs into the soft skin between her neck and her shoulder. Her hot blood searing his throat while he exploded inside of her.
Nik caught himself right before he groaned aloud again at the erotic images he couldn’t seem to stop. “Please, Emma, just back away.” He was so jazzed up; the predator in him poised to pounce at the slightest trigger.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Nik continued to watch her with burning eyes and a clenched jaw, his hands still cupped in front of his hips. As she removed her hand from his arm, his eyes narrowed in on her. She stopped moving, her breasts rising and falling with quick breaths, then took a small step back.
Growling low in his throat, he tracked her.
She took another small step.
Nik’s eyes never left her face. His body leaned toward her, try as he might to stay where he was.
Finally, she seemed to truly comprehend the situation she was in. Her eyes widened, and he heard her heart speed up as she panicked and jerked away.
Big. Mistake.
No sooner had she started twisting around, then he was on her. She never even saw him coming. Wrapping her in the vice-like grip of his arms, she was spun around and slammed back into the fridge behind him, his arms taking the brunt of the hit.
One hand wrapped in her hair, and the other low on her back, he held her immobile, groaning in her ear as he rolled his hips into her softness. His erection pulsed on her belly, hard and thick, and he felt it grow impossibly harder as she moaned in response to the feel of him.
“Emma.” His voice was rough with strain as he tried to warn her. “I’m sorry.” Holding her head still, his mouth crashed onto hers. Heedless of his fangs, they scraped her lips, drawing blood. She gasped at the assault, and he used the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Thrusting his tongue into her mouth over and over, he tasted her until she was kissing him back, her tongue dueling with his. Her soft answering moan and the tease of her blood on his lips urged him on, and he lost what little control he’d managed to retain thus far.
A small sound escaped her as he bit into her lower lip, his fangs so sharp they sliced into her flesh like a hot knife through butter.
Nik felt her stiffen with panic as he bit her, but there was no way he was letting her go now. As her blood hit his tongue and ran down his throat, it spread through him like wildfire, burning through his body and igniting every nerve ending.
MINE.
The word reverberated through him until there was nothing else but Emma. He kissed her, drinking from her swollen lips until she relaxed against him again. The taste of her was so completely unreal; he couldn’t begin to describe it. He’d never had anything like her blood, not even Eliana had affected him like this.
Nik couldn’t get enough. He fed greedily from her lips as he moved his hand down to her ass, pulling her softness into his hard cock. Her little body felt so good, so utterly perfect against him, he was about to come in his jeans just kissing her.
A low growl escaped him as she rose up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he held her to him desperately. Licking at her lip to heal his wounds, he kissed his way over her soft jaw and down her throat, breathing in the heady scent that only belonged to her. Pulling her head to the side, he gently kissed her pulsing artery. He lingered there, the blood lust warring with his instinct not to hurt her.
The instinct won. For now.
Releasing her hair, he worked his way back up to her mouth as he ran his hands up over her back until he found the bottom of her sweater. Pushing it up, he slid his hands underneath it, unable to keep himself from touching her velvety, soft skin any longer.
Chapter 13
Emma was on fire, her entire body pulsing with heat. She’d had a heart stopping moment when he’d first grabbed her, but as soon as he’d kissed her she’d responded to him instinctively.
He held her so tight, she was probably going to have bruises tomorrow, but she couldn’t care less. She was completely surrounded by him—his hardness, his smell. Like soap and wilderness and pure male. She’d never felt anything like this. Not that she’d had much experience, but something told her she never would again.
His fangs scraped her lips, but she barely felt it. His tongue thrust into her mouth, distracting her until she kissed him back, moaning softly at the welcome invasion. At the sound, he ground his hips into her so hard she could feel him pulsing against her belly. Her nipples tightened against his chest until they hurt, her stomach clenched deep, and a rush of wetness soaked her panties.
Nik pulled his head back, and she moaned in protest, then stiffened when he held her still and struck, his fangs sliding through her lower lip. No! But the pain lasted only a fraction of a second, and was soon forgotten as he drank from her, every pull sending stabs of pleasure straight to her core.
Holy shit. He was drinking her blood, and it was nothing like what she had experienced with the grey monsters. Shocks of sensation streaked through her, and she wished she could somehow get closer. She wanted to crawl inside of him until they were one person. Sliding her hands up his hard chest, she did the next best thing. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer.
Releasing her lips, he pulled her head to the side and kissed his way to her throat, pausing over the artery there, and a small shiver of fear ran through her. But he didn’t bite her, instead kissing his way back up to her lips as he ran his hands over her back and down to her waist. She felt him push underneath her sweater until he was touching her bare skin, and she sighed with pleasure against his mouth at the feel of his hands on her. She wanted him to rip off their clothes until they were skin to skin. Wanted to feel him run his eyes and lips all over her.
Panicking, she tried to push him away. “No! Stop!”
Nik growled dangerously and hung on as something tried to pull Emma away from him. He was running on pure animalistic need, and it wasn’t until he felt her small fists banging on his chest and shoulders and heard her frantic voice, that he realized something was wrong.
“Nikulas!! Stop! Let go of me!”
What the hell?
He loosened his arms from around her just enough for her to get a good shot at his jaw. Her uppercut knocked his head back, surprising him enough that he let her go. She squeezed out from between him and the fridge and ran to the other side of the room.
Nikulas spun around to go after her, but stopped short when he saw her cowering in the corner of the counter with her arms wrapped around herself. The sight knocked some sense into him better than any punch could.
His ardor cooled instantly as he stared at her big eyes and swollen lips and messy hair. What the fuck was he doing? Licking his suddenly cold lips, he tasted the remnants of her blood.
MINE!
He gripped the sides of his head with his hands as he began to pace back and forth in front of the fridge. No. She couldn’t be his. No, no, no, no, NO!
He thought it was just folklore. Like every other vampire, he’d heard the stories of how just one taste of their blood would reveal your fated mate to you. The one you would do anything for, the one you’d die to protect without a thought for your own safety, the one who would possess you completely. However, though vampires hooked up with humans on occasion, he’d never seen a true mating in all of his hundreds of years of being a vampire. Like everyone else, he blew it off as an old wives tale.
But the compulsion raging within him told a very different tale. The way her blood blazed through him confirmed it. His entire being protested even the few fe
et of space separating them, and it took every ounce of his control to keep himself where he was. He craved to feed her, to protect her, to spoil her, to make her laugh, to hear her cry out in ecstasy over and over. But mostly, he craved to feed from her.
He craved to love her.
Nik stopped pacing and met her anguished gaze with one of his own. No. No way. No fucking way this was happening. For her safety, and his sanity, he would not, could not, go there.
Even if it killed him.
Emma saw the pain and confusion in his eyes from across the room. Feeling like she owed him some sort of explanation, she felt shame heat her face as she managed to stutter out, “I’m sorry. I just…I have these…I don’t like people to see me.”
“I’m sorry, Emma,” Nik began at the same time, “I shouldn’t have done that…I…what?” He stopped speaking as what she was saying registered on his face. “What did you say?”
She just shook her head at the floor, and refused to say anymore. How could she possibly express the hurt, the shame she felt every time she looked at herself? How could she ever let someone else see that?
Peeking up at him from under her lashes, she saw him glance at the clock on the stove to her left. It was way after midnight. He shoved his hands into his hair to push it off his face. He looked torn, his eyes going back and forth between her and the clock.
He paced a few steps away and turned his back to her. Emma watched, until she realized what he was doing. Embarrassed to catch him adjusting himself, she quickly looked back down at the floor.
He turned back around and leaned back against the fridge, crossing his arms, all James Dean cool. “I’m sorry, Emma. I just…I lost control.”
Understatement of the year.