by Mara Leigh
“Humans aren’t as evolved as we are, my pet.” She puts one hand on her hip. “Their ignorance is rooted in evil and causes nothing but pain.”
“That’s not true. Not all humans are evil.” But I think back to my abusive stepfather, my mother who did nothing to stop him, the many predators I encountered while living on the streets…
Excluding my time in Xavier’s court, my experiences with vampires have been a million times better than those with humans.
“Name one human who’s been good to you,” she taunts as if reading my mind.
I frown. “Humans and vampires lived together in harmony for millennia,” I respond. “And we can again.” I need both Colton and Zora to see that.
He can help the police and then other humans to understand. Together we can stop all the killing. I reach for the back door to O’Malley’s.
Zora leaps in front of me, blocking my path. “You have so much to learn, my pet.”
“I’m not your pet.”
“You’re my Progeny, my daughter.” She pulls me into a tight embrace, then whispers in my ear, “And now that I’ve found you, I will never leave you.” Her tongue laps over the vein in my neck. “I have so much to teach you.”
I want to pull back, but find myself holding her as tightly as she’s holding me. Her blood smells and sounds so comforting, so delicious, and I realize that she’s right. It’s been too long since I’ve fed.
She pulls back her hair to expose her throat. “Take what you need, my pet. What I have is yours.” She licks my neck. “We will feed from each other and grow stronger.”
I lick my fangs, fighting the impulse to dig them into her vein. I’ve never wanted anything so badly and yet I know it would be a mistake. I remember what happened when I fed from Gray, how passionate and carried away I became although I’d just met him. And Zora’s my Maker. Surely drinking her blood will be even more intoxicating. And powerful. I think back to the things Gray told me.
Someone whistles at us. I spot a few laughing young men at the end of the alley, and realize I was rubbing against Zora’s body. We must look like a couple badly in need of a room.
“Take my vein,” she purrs. “Do it.”
A growl interrupts us, and she’s torn away from my hold.
I want to attack whoever or whatever took her from me, but I’m breathless, weak from hunger and lust, and high on the promise of her vein.
And then I see that her attacker was Pike.
He holds Zora by her throat, her back against the brick wall. The fierceness in his eyes is something I’ve witnessed before, many times. But this time, as much as it scares me, it excites me too. He’s so powerful, so determined, so sexy.
I shake my head at that final thought.
Zora looks terrified. And she can’t breathe.
“You’re going to kill her,” I tell Pike.
He turns toward me. “Is that good or bad?”
Looking into his amber eyes, fierce with power, I don’t know how to answer. Both is the answer in my mind. She needs to die so the killings will stop, but I don’t want her dead.
“Let her go,” I tell him.
Pike drops Zora, and she vanishes into the night.
I slump against the wall, panting, weaker than I’ve felt since I was human.
Chapter 31
Selina
“Why did you let her live?” Pike asks me.
He’s standing against the dumpster where Rock and I left my meal container the night we met. The night Pike let me—helped me—escape. Reflected light from the street bounces off his leather-clad body, highlighting the intense masculine beauty of his shape. His thick thighs and biceps, his broad chest and tapered torso—and the obvious bulge between his legs.
“She’s my Maker,” I whisper. “And killing another vampire is murder.”
He nods as if that’s enough explanation, at least for him, and I’m glad that there’s at least one person in my life who’s not arguing with me tonight, who’s agreeable and supports my decisions.
Who would ever have believed that person would be Pike?
I take a step toward him, but my legs give out.
In a flash, his arms are around me, the only thing keeping me from hitting the pavement. “You need to feed.”
I nod.
He leads me to the far side of the dumpster, away from sight of anyone passing by the end of the alley. “I’ll find someone.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want some random human. I want you.”
His eyes open wider as he shakes his head. So much for him agreeing with me.
“Please,” I reach out and grab hold of the front of his open jacket. “I need vampire blood. I need you.” I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I clearly let my thirst for vampire blood build too long, and the unsatisfied sexual tension between me and Colton tonight, and then nearly taking Zora’s vein, have left me drained, desperate.
His heart rate triples, and my senses are overtaken by the force generated by his heart muscles. Each thundering beat of his powerful pumping organ pushes what sounds like gallons of thick, hot liquid coursing through his equally powerful body, and its scent and sound is so enticing I can already taste it. I want it. I want it more than I can bear.
An equally strong need is also building between my legs, and my hips pulse slowly, my inner muscles contracting in time with his heartbeat as if that part of me is reaching toward him, begging him too.
One arm around my back to hold me on my feet, Pike’s other hand rests on the front of my shoulder to keep me at bay. If not for that, I’d be pressed up against him already. Holding him. Taking from him what I need.
“I’ll get Gray,” he says roughly.
I shake my head. “Gray won’t let me feed.” My hips continue to pulse and I lick my lips, my teeth. I feel crazed, my mind, my body out of my control.
“Why?” He tips his head to the side and frowns.
“Gray’s refused to feed me. Multiple times. And I need this. Now.”
Pike props me up against the dumpster and then removes his leather jacket. Under it, his simple black shirt is well worn and looks soft, and I’m jealous of the cotton fabric because it’s already touching Pike’s chest, his abs, his back, his arms.
Panting, unable to move, I wait for him.
He approaches me slowly, tentatively, like a mountain lion might. I’m so weak with need that I’m not sure what to do, but he seems willing to take the lead. He lifts one of my arms and slides it into the sleeve of his jacket, and the heat transferred from his body to mine through the leather, combined with the smell of Pike, overtakes my senses. I close my eyes, barely aware that I’m moaning.
He sheathes my other arm in the jacket, and then I realize he’s put it onto me backwards, the back of his jacket covering my chest, the collar over my throat.
Pulling me forward from the dumpster, he turns me, gently, then tugs back my arms.
“What are you doing?”
My arms move farther behind my back. I try to pull them forward, but can’t. He’s tied the jacket sleeves behind my back, putting me in a quasi straightjacket.
Taking my shoulders, he turns me back toward him, and the lust in his amber eyes heightens the dampness and need between my legs, as the pulsing down there continues. I’m drooling with ferocious wetness between both sets of lips. Both sets of lips want him, need him. Now.
“You can feed,” he says in a near growl. “But no fucking.”
A disappointed cry erupts from my chest, taking us both by surprise. I’m so turned on, but the idea of actually fucking Pike hadn’t really crossed my mind until he forbade it. I remember how I felt when I fed from Gray. I should have realized sex would be an issue.
“What makes you think I’d let you fuck me?” I ask, breathless, trying to sound convincing.
He grunts, then lifts me and presses me back against the brick wall at just the right height. Tipping his head to the side, he exposes his throat to me.
My entire body reacts, undulating against him, wanting this so badly that all other thoughts, all awareness of my surroundings, the alley, the whole world—all of it vanishes. All of it’s gone except Pike.
I pierce his skin. Immediately his hot, meaty liquid enters my mouth, coming in hard pulses that I need to gulp or I’d choke. I’m unable to keep up, yet unable to get enough. His thigh presses against my belly to prop me up, and I part my legs, sliding down slightly until my hot, wet sex finds his thick, hard thigh.
I thrust my hips as I feed, the seam of my jeans grinding against the leather covering his muscles, but instead of relieving my intense pressure, it magnifies it. The pace of my pumping accelerates and my hips shift to maximize the pleasure on my clit. But it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.
Sensing what I crave, Pike slips his hand, hot and calloused, down the front of my jeans, and I release his vein as he strokes my clit, then slips his fingers through my folds and pushes one finger inside.
Crying out, I come, tightening around his digit, and his thumb presses into my clit as he pumps his finger inside me, gravity increasing the force as my feet dangle over the pavement and my arms remain bound behind my back.
My orgasm seems to go on forever—each time it subsides, it begins anew. And through it all Pike keeps supporting me, his head resting against the metal beside me, his finger plunging, his thumb strumming and his blood coursing through my body, igniting every cell inside me with its powerful, nourishing fire.
His finger slows, then withdraws, sliding up over my belly and rubbing there a few times before I hear the sound of my fly coming up and I realize I never even noticed it going down.
He slowly lowers me to the ground, but won’t make eye contact as he unties the jacket, and I pull it off me.
“Pike.”
He turns from me, eyes pointed down.
I reach around toward his massive bulge, but my fingertips barely graze the leather before he grabs my wrist.
“No.”
“Why?”
He shakes his head.
“Fuck me. Please, fuck me.” I can’t believe my own words, but I’ve never felt so powerful, so energized—or so in need of a hard cock inside me. Not just any hard cock—Pike’s. “I need you,” I tell him. “Now.”
“Go.” He backs away from me. “Go find Gray.” He races away into the night, gone before I can take another breath.
Disappointment stabs inside me, then passes, replaced by the need to do just as he suggested. I need to find Gray. I need to find Gray this second.
Chapter 32
Gray
Selina looks wild when she comes through the back door and into the bar.
I leap out of the booth. “What’s going on?”
She grabs me by the neck and kisses me, hard, pushing her tongue into my mouth, and I taste the lingering scent of blood. Not human blood. What the fuck has she done?
“Home. Now.” Her eyes are wide, her pupils huge, and her small body rubs against mine as if she thinks friction can dissolve the fabric between us.
I take her head in my hands. “What did you do?”
She shakes her head. “No time. I need to fuck. If you won’t, I’ll find someone else.” Her hand lands over my package and strokes the length of me through my trousers. I almost come.
“We’re heading out,” I tell Chelle who’s staring at us, wide-eyed. As is, I imagine, every other patron in Rock’s bar. “Tell Rock we’ll see him at home.”
The moment I get Selina out the door, we run. Run faster than I’ve run in years, almost flying, and it’s even more clear to me now that Selina fed from a vampire. She’s faster, and newfound power pulses off her in rays, and I’ve never seen anything so sexy.
“Your room,” she says once we’re in the foyer.
We both leap up to the second floor, vaulting over the railing there. She heads for my room and I remember I left it unlocked.
“No.” I say. “Don’t go in there!” I call after her, but it’s too late, she’s already opening the door.
After what she went through with Xavier, she’ll leave me once she sees what’s inside.
I chase after her, but she’s already torn off her jeans and I forget why I wanted to stop her.
She starts removing my clothes, her hands shaking, so I take over and let her deal with her panties, but the moment my fly’s open her hand is around my cock, stroking so hard that it hurts.
Maybe if I fuck her up against the wall she won’t notice everything in the room and I can coax her into going somewhere else.
“Who was it, Selina?” I ask her between kisses. “Who fed you?” It must have been a woman or Selina would have already been fucked.
No male vampire I know could have ever resisted her. Or has she already been fucked by whoever fed her? Am I round two?
Jealousy and betrayal flash through me. But I don’t own her. In fact, I know she will never be mine, but the idea of her feeding from—not to mention fucking—another vampire raises emotions inside me I didn’t think I’d ever feel.
She heads for my bed, then turns back to me, questions and lust swirling in her eyes. There’s a reason I haven’t let Selina in my room. It’s full of my playthings.
Toys I loved using with other women, and based on what she’s told me about her time in Xavier’s dungeon, some of my playthings might seem familiar—and repulsive.
“Are you okay?” I study her face, but she looks more turned on than traumatized. “These things—”
She steps toward my bed and grabs one of the rubber restraints attached to the post.
“Selina. I’m so sorry.” I step up slowly behind her. “After hearing what you’ve been through, I should have gotten rid of all this.”
I haven’t felt the desire for kink since I met her, but seeing her in my room, my desire for it returns with a vengeance. And if she’s not traumatized by this, maybe it will be a way to turn off my emotions, to make this all about sex.
“Don’t be sorry.” She looks around the room, taking everything in, and relief floods through me when she doesn’t bolt. “I trust you, Gray. You won’t hurt me.”
I smile as my lust shoots through the roof, then I realize she still hasn’t told me who fed her. I tell myself it doesn’t matter. Not right now.
Clearly she needed vampire blood, and if she fed from me tonight, I would have fed from her too—I’d never be able to resist it again—and our bond would have deepened, and then my pain, and hers, would be that much worse when I lose her.
She rips off her shirt, literally tears it, and throws the scraps of fabric to the side, then unclasps her bra. My shirt gets a similarly rough treatment from me as she grabs hold of the rubber straps attached to the foot posts of my four-poster bed and bends forward, leaning way back, presenting her ass and her sex to me.
Her pussy is bright red and so wet I can’t even imagine the power of her need right now, but if it’s as half as strong as mine…
Not even preparing her tight pussy with a finger or a slow shallow start, I grab her hips, bend my legs and force myself balls deep inside her, using one long, hard, punishing thrust.
She cries out, but I don’t stop. I grip her hips and drive, using every muscle in my body to impale her with my cock as she holds the straps and lets her weight fall back, gravity pulling her down harder to meet each of my drives.
Selina comes quickly, her insides pulsing around me so hard it’s difficult to keep moving against the tightening muscles inside her, but I keep moving anyway, and her climax goes on and on, the longest, strongest orgasm I’ve ever felt around my dick.
I want to come too, but I hold back, wanting to eke out every last contraction from her body.
Her orgasm slows, and I hold her around the waist, supporting her, expecting her to collapse from all that expended energy, but she straightens and my cock slips out from inside her.
“What’s that?” She sees the St. Andrew’s cross for flogging, then my fucking bench and sh
e turns toward me wide-eyed. “I know what that is.”
I want to kiss her, but when I try to pull her into an embrace she crosses the room to the bench and discovers the glass-covered cabinet of sex toys beside it.
She bends forward over the bench, ass in the air.
“You act like you’ve done this before.” I chuckle.
She looks over her shoulder. “Who says I haven’t?”
An icy shock enters my veins. “The dungeon.”
She nods.
“Selina. We can’t. How…” I rub her back as she lies draped forward over the bench, her ass at its apex.
“I want this, Gray. Please. I need to be fucked tonight. Hard. And I know this will help. Please. This is what I need. I’m about to explode.”
“You just came.”
“Not enough. Not nearly enough. And this… If you take me here. It might erase my bad memories, neuter the power that Xavier once held over me.”
Her hips squirm. Her sex glistens.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she says forcefully. “Fuck me. Fuck me now. Fuck me as hard as you know how.”
I can’t imagine whose blood she has coursing through her right now, but it’s given her not only more power, but a sexual energy I can barely fathom and can only hope to match.
“Strap me in,” she says, while grinding her hips against the bench.
“Are you sure?”
“Do it.” The strength in her voice takes me by surprise and I quickly fasten the constraints at her wrists, ankles and waist. She won’t be able to move. She’ll be completely vulnerable to me. Unable to adjust to or lessen the force of my thrusts.
My cock pounds at the idea, so hard I feel like the skin might burst.
I stroke her back. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Fuck me, Gray.”
Not needing another invitation, I push inside her again.
Her pussy recovered during the time we talked, and my first thrust is like entering a virgin. She cries out and bucks under me as much as the bench’s constraints allow.