A Vampire Bewitched (Deathless Night Book 1)

by L. E. Wilson

  He heard a quick exhale before Aiden finally gave it up. “Be careful. Don’t get too close.” He paused. “Although that would be the easiest way to find Luukas…”

  “Aiden!” Emma didn’t sound pleased with that plan.

  Another pause. “No, you’re right, Em. Leeha would love that. She’d have both brothers to torture, along with our missing Hunters, if that’s where they are.”

  Nik resumed walking and tried his best to ignore the both of them.

  “Although,” Aiden continued, “I could follow to see where she took you, but I’m not sure how I would get you all out of there on my own.”

  Nik glanced over his shoulder to see Aiden waving a hand around in dismissal. “Eh, I’ll figure something out.”

  He paused at the tunnel entrance, shooting an exasperated look at his friend. But he was already back on his radio, trying again to get a hold of the others.

  Emma rose from her spot on the floor and brushed off her pants. “I want to come with you, Nik.”

  Nik barely glanced at her. “No. It’s too dangerous, and you’ll just slow me down.” And I need some space from your scent.

  A frustrated breath burst from her lungs. “It’s my sister in there, too.”

  He turned to leave and heard her footsteps behind him.

  “You’re not going to just leave me here in this cave with this…this…unstable, womanizing, oversensitive, psychopath. No offense, Aiden.”

  Aiden grinned charmingly at her. “None taken, love.” Then he looked pointedly at Nik. “See, Nik? Emma understands me.”

  Nik turned around and found the two of them watching him expectantly. “What? No. Absolutely not. Emma is too fragile. Too human.” He ignored her sound of protest at that statement. “And too much of a distraction.”

  “Not disagreeing with you there, mate, she is quite the distraction,” Aiden agreed. “Clear off and leave her here with me, I’m sure I can find her something to do.” He winked at Emma, and the naughty grin on his face grew as Nik’s simmering growl filled the silence.

  That goddamn Brit was doing this on purpose. Nik knew it, but couldn’t keep himself from getting sucked in anyway. In the space of a breath he appeared next to Emma, grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him. With a hiss of warning, he bared his fangs at Aiden. Then he grabbed her backpack and threw it over his shoulder with his.

  Emma waved cheerfully at Aiden and he returned it as Nik stalked off, dragging her along behind him.

  Once they got outside, Nik pinned her with his glare. “Fine. You can come. But you do exactly as I say. No arguments. No questions. If I say jump, you jump. If I say run, you run like the demons of hell are chasing you. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  “I’m serious, Emma. I am NOT fucking around here.”

  She glared right back at him. “I SAID I’ve got it. You forget, Nik. I know exactly what we could be running in to, and what they can do.”

  He hadn’t forgotten. It was why he didn’t want her to come with him. He contemplated sending her back in to stay with Aiden, but his possessive nature and the need to keep her close ultimately won out in the end.

  “Here, take this.” He handed her one of the knives. “And let’s go. The night is wasting.”

  Chapter 29

  Shea checked the time again. Where the hell were they? She hadn’t spoken to either Dante or Christian since they’d left last night.

  Come to think of it, she’d never heard Christian come home. She always heard him come home.

  Tired of waiting, she walked out of her apartment and down the hall to bang on his door. When there was no answer, she took the spare key she’d brought with her and let herself in.

  “Christian?” she called. Closing the door behind her, she stuck her key back into her front pocket.

  “Christian! Where the hell are you?” Her own voice echoed back to her from the empty apartment. He really needed to get some stuff for this place. Stuff like furniture, and throw rugs. Her boots were silent as she walked across the bare expanse of living area to his bedroom. The door was closed.

  She rapped hard on the wood. “Hey, whoredog! Get your ass out of that bed! We need to go!” Cracking the door open, she peeked inside. The bed was unmade, blankets and pillows strewn about, some on the floor. Opening the door wide, she walked in and made her way over to the bathroom.

  The door was wide open. He wasn’t in there. She turned away from the doorway and looked around his room again. Where the hell was he? Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked it again.

  Nothing. No messages from either of them. What the hell?

  The hair rose up on the back of her neck. Something was wrong. She should call Nik and Aiden, but she wanted to check one more place before raising the alarm. Although she couldn’t imagine Christian being there, it wouldn’t hurt to look first.

  Moving quickly now, she jogged out to the elevator. While she waited for it to take her down to Dante’s quarters, she racked her brain, trying to come up with any reason that both of them wouldn’t show up at the appointed time. She couldn’t think of one.

  The bell above the door chimed as the car finally arrived. Stepping inside, she hit the button repeatedly until the doors finally closed. The ride down to the underground was quick, and she bolted out as soon as the doors opened.

  Shea ran full speed down the passageway. She turned left at the split, away from the area the tourists paid to see. She hated it down here. It was so wet and dark. A musty smell permeated the air and—

  Wait, was that blood?

  It was blood she scented. Some of it so faint it had obviously been here for quite a while. But some of it was fresh. Very fresh.

  I don’t even want to know.

  She came to the wood and steel barricade that kept out any nosey thrill seekers and effortlessly leaped up to the top of it. Pulling at the top plank, it opened on unseen hinges to make a space just big enough for a body to get through. Crawling over, she dropped down to the other side and took off again.

  Less than a minute or so later, she arrived at Dante’s main hideout. The smell of blood was stronger here. Her fangs slid down in response, but she didn’t see any evidence of it anywhere.

  A damp mattress was thrown on the floor, nothing but a thin blanket on top of it. A few candles were scattered about the small space, unlit. The only other thing in the room was a thick book next to the bed.

  Shea pushed on her temples. Think, think. Where would they be? She fought down her rising panic as she came to the conclusion that she just didn’t know. She had no idea what Dante did in his free time, and Christian could be anywhere in the city.

  Okay. Just calm down, Shea. Let’s not panic until there’s something to panic about. Maybe they’re just running late.

  But she didn’t believe it. Neither one of them was ever late to leave on a mission like this. Something had to have happened.

  She decided to go take a look around the building. Ask the security guards if they’d seen anything, see what she could find out. If nothing came out of that, then she’d give Aiden a call.

  Back at the elevator, she hit the button that would take her to the underground garage. It was the only way either of them would have come in. The elevators in the lobby didn’t go past the human floors.

  Her heart pounded as she quickly rose up to the next floor. As the doors opened, she saw the guards standing at their station and hurried over to question them.

  Unfortunately, neither of them remembered seeing either of the guys the night before. Shea thanked them and headed out to the street to have a look around.

  She didn’t make it past the first block before a van with black windows pulled up alongside her. Shea’s scream of pain was muffled as a rag was shoved in her mouth and she was thrown in the back.

  The doors shut, blocking out the lights of the city.

  Chapter 30

  They’d walked in silence for about 25 minutes when Nik pulled up suddenly. He raised a
n arm to stop Emma and put his finger to his lips. Narrowing his eyes, he cocked his head and listened. It was quiet. Too quiet. No crickets. No nocturnal animals. He searched the area around them but didn’t see anything other than the tree leaves twirling slightly in the breeze.

  Nothing.

  But something wasn’t right. He could feel it. Closing his eyes, he sent his senses out farther, blending them into the night.

  Yes. There. Something was coming.

  Nik looked around again. They’d been following the rock face at the bottom of the mountain range that concealed their hideout, and he quietly steered Emma toward a narrow ravine in the stone large enough for her to squeeze into.

  He kept his voice as low as he could. “Emma, I need you to stay here. Do not come out until I tell you. Do you understand?”

  “What is it?” she whispered. Her eyes were wide and terrified as they travelled over his face.

  “Just stay here. Do not make a sound. Do NOT move. No matter what happens.” Removing her backpack, he pushed her toward the opening. “Got your knife out?”

  She pulled it out and showed him.

  He nodded with approval. “Anything sticks its face in here, stab it. It will slow them down enough for you to get away.” I hope.

  Once she was hidden out of sight, he turned around, dropped his bag, and paced a few feet away from her hiding place. Far enough to not draw attention to it, but close enough to help her if she needed him. Hopefully, they’d be too distracted by him to notice her in there.

  Standing perfectly still in that disconcerting way vampires had, he waited. Every cell inside of him was focused on one purpose and one purpose only.

  Protect his female.

  He didn’t have long to wait. They came at him out of nowhere and all at once, six of them.

  What the fuck? What the hell were these things?

  Exactly as Emma had described, these must be the “monsters” she’d told him about. They rushed him, and the shock of their appearance quickly wore off. Adrenaline rushed through him and Nik smiled, flashing his fangs. His body immediately prepared itself for the fight—and for revenge.

  With a roar, he grabbed the closest one by the head with both hands. Its razor sharp teeth inches from his face, he twisted it sharply to the side until he felt the grey flesh tearing and the neck bones popping. Red eyes bugged out of its head right before they glazed over in death.

  Launching the limp body into the creature coming at him from the front, Nik shot out a left elbow and grinned as he felt bones crack beneath it. He followed it up with a back kick, knocking two more away from him.

  A low spin kick to the knee took the next one down. Yanking his knife out of his thigh sheath, he dropped on top of it, jerked the head up, and slit a gash in its throat so deep only a few tendons kept it attached.

  As he shot to his feet, the remaining four came at him with supernatural speed. Fists, elbows and kicks flying, fangs tearing into putrid flesh, Nik blocked out everything but the exhilaration of the fight. His roars of rage mixed with their shrieks of agony as bones crunched and blood spattered. For a few heart-stopping minutes, it was hard to tell who was coming out on top.

  And then, suddenly, it was over.

  Nik swung around with fists up, prepared to kill anything else coming at him, but nothing moved. His chest heaved with his ragged breaths, his head throbbed from a particularly vicious blow he took, and his fangs ached to rip through more flesh. Blood dripped from his mouth and down his chest and arms, some of it his own, the rest of it belonging to the pieces of shit disintegrating all around him.

  As the high of the fight dissipated and awareness slowly returned, he straightened up. “Emma? Emma!”

  A small scraping sounded to his left. Nik swung around and dropped into a fighting crouch with a feral hiss, fangs bared.

  Knife held shakily in front of her, Emma cautiously side-stepped from her hiding place in the stone. Wide-eyed, she took in the carnage on the ground, and then her gaze skipped up to Nik.

  He raised his hands, palms out, and slowly straightened, spitting the blood out of his mouth and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “Emma. Em, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” He kept his feet planted where they were for fear she’d flee if he moved.

  Her face remained white as a sheet, her freckles standing out in harsh relief. And her eyes had a glazed look to them as they darted from him, to the things on the ground, and back to him.

  Then they locked on to his face and stayed there. His jaw dropped open in disbelief as she dropped the knife and ran, not away from him, but straight into his arms. She threw herself against him so hard he had a difficult time staying upright.

  “Are you okay?” she cried. “Oh my God, you’re bleeding!”

  “I’m fine. I’m fine. Most of it isn’t mine. Besides, vampire here, remember?” He hugged her close, surrounding her in the safe shelter of his arms and resting his cheek on the top of her head.

  The feel of her subtle curves trembling against him wreaked havoc on his fragile self-control, but he couldn’t bring himself to push her away. Instead, he rubbed comforting circles on her back to soothe her. The smell of her sweet blood and warm skin flooded his nose, and he inhaled deeply, unable to help himself.

  Fresh from the fight, his senses were raw and exposed, and like a starving man, his body responded eagerly to the attack upon them. His mouth watered, and his fangs ached to pierce her flesh even as his cock swelled to a painful size. Nik wanted nothing more than to throw her down on the blood-soaked ground and sink his teeth into her flesh and his hardness into the slick softness between her legs.

  Before he could stop it, he groaned aloud.

  Emma pulled back just far enough to be able to look at him, her hands gripping his forearms. “Am I hurting you? You said you were okay!” she accused.

  As she frantically checked him for injuries, Nik felt her brand him everywhere her eyes touched. Her hands touched him, and raging lust tore through his insides. Resisting the urge that came with it required an act of will he didn’t possess at the moment. He needed more distance between them, needed her to back off a bit.

  “You’re not hurting me, not like that.” Nik gently, but insistently, pulled away from her. He became aware that his head was still throbbing, and he actually felt almost…tired. How strange. “These are the monsters you were telling me about?” At her stiff nod, he looked around at what remained of them. “I’ve never seen creatures like this before, Em. I have no idea what they are.”

  Emma wouldn’t, or couldn’t, look at the things. He wasn’t sure which. And he couldn’t say that he blamed her. “Nik, are you sure you’re okay? You look…not right.”

  “Yeah, I’m good. My head just hurts a little, is all.” He nudged one of the creatures with his boot as it rapidly flaked away. “Maybe we should take one of these things back with us. Have Aiden check it out. We’d have to move quick, though.”

  She continued to study him like a bug under a microscope. “Are you sure you don’t want to rest a minute?”

  He was suddenly, irrationally, angry. Did she think him weak? “I’m fine, Emma. So get that fucking look off your face.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than he was kicking himself in the ass. Where the hell had that come from?

  He closed his eyes to avoid the hurt look he knew he would see, and tried to soften the blow he’d just dealt. “I’m sorry. I probably just need to feed, is all.”

  Chapter 31

  Emma could’ve face-palmed herself. Of course! He was bleeding. He needed to feed.

  From her.

  “Well, why don’t you?” she coaxed.

  “Why don’t I what?” Nik straightened up from his examination of the body he’d been prodding.

  “Why don’t you feed?” she asked. Then quickly clarified, “From me.”

  He froze, but she could almost feel the tightly wound power in him simmering just beneath the surface. It was a palpable thing that both frightened and attracted he
r. His face was still cold, inhuman. And his blue eyes shone silver in the night with the unholy glow they took on when his emotions ran high.

  “I’m not going to do that, Emma.” Glancing around for their bags, he swung them both over one shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get going.”

  But she stood her ground. He’d bitten her once already. It hadn’t been that bad.

  Ha! Who was she trying to kid? It had felt amazing. Much less traumatizing than being ripped apart like a piece of meat.

  “You need to feed, Nik. What if we run into more of those things?” She grabbed his arm as he went to walk past her. “You need to be at full strength. You need to feed.”

  His eyes burned, the conflict he felt plain to see. “I can’t, Emma.”

  “Can’t? Or won’t?” she retorted.

  She felt the wall he threw up between them as he pressed his lips together and refused to answer her, and she had to stop herself from rubbing her arms against the sudden cold. Taking matters into her own hands, she stepped close enough to him so that the tips of her breasts brushed his ribs every time she inhaled.

  He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, but didn’t back away.

  Emma reached up, pulled her hair away from her neck, and tilted her head to the side.

  His eyes instantly darted from her face to the strong pulse in her neck. A low growl rumbled through his chest, and she shivered at the animalistic sound, desire unfurling low in her belly.

  She didn’t say anything else, just stood there quietly while the battle raged inside of him, and hoped he wouldn’t be able to resist what she offered.

  Nik sucked in a desperate breath, knowing he needed to stop this, but for the life of him unable to move away.

  Bad idea, breathing.

  His already swollen cock throbbed painfully against the confinement of his jeans as the scent of her desire rose in the air, enhancing her delicious smell even more. The memory of her wet, silky folds and the way she’d shuttered in his arms slammed through him.