Princess of Seduction (Dracula's Bloodline Book 6)

by Ana Calin

  “Yes, it would be nice if she were the one to do it, wouldn’t it?” I whisper viciously in his ear, twisting his arms to give him pain. “At least she knows how to kill you. These creatures would tear you apart, but nothing of what they do would kill you. It would be pure torture without even the hope of relief through death.”

  The immortals stop in place, quiet as no army has ever been, all their eyes fixed on him, their various superpowers out to see. The one with the bony-metal claws, now full of black serpent blood, has apparently turned into their leader. Right behind him stands the man Irina first awoke, his eyes alight like he can shoot fire from them.

  “Look at that,” I tell Zdrovan, playing with him like a cat with a trapped mouse. “They’re not only perfected humans, but it would seem they have mutations they could use to give you one hell of a time.”

  Zdrovan struggles, making a shrieking sound. It seems to hurt Irina. Her face changes as if she has pity for him, but it makes me laugh. I don’t even recognize myself, I sound like an evil creature enjoying the slaughter of another, anticipating it.

  “They’ll slaughter you,” I tell him. “And I’m pretty sure they’ll be as creative as you once were with Irina.”

  I pull his arms backwards, causing him pain and giving Irina one last good view of him before I push him down to his face.

  “He planned to slaughter you in your sleep, and then feed your body parts to supernaturals,” I tell the immortals. “But luckily we woke you from the induced sleep before he could do it. He’s yours now to do with as you please.”

  The immortals advance slowly, eyes set on their prey as if taking delight in the horror of his knowing what’s coming for him. I move slowly to Irina’s side, not letting him out of my sight, when she whispers to me,

  “Maybe we should take him with us. Help him out of here.”

  My head snaps to her. “You didn’t just say that, did you? You’re not actually considering saving this scum’s ass, are you? After everything he did to you?”

  The immortals have closed in on Zdrovan, who’s trying and failing to grip his wheel chair. Every time he touches it the thing rolls backwards as if it has a will of its own, and wants to leave him to his doom as much as I do. But the last thing the bastard decides to do is sting Irina one last time.

  “How can someone who’s lived so long believe in something as frivolous as love?” Foam gathers around his mouth as he speaks. “You’re a vampire, a powerful one! One of Dracula’s most trusted people, you’ve got the best training, the hardest past to turn you into a deadly machine. And what do you do? You go ahead and fall in fucking love!” He stares at her from head to toes as if he’s disappointed in her.

  “Love,” she whispers, looking down at him with the lightness of a saint. Like she just grasped the meaning of the universe. Even the immortals have reverence for her, they stopped to allow her to speak, giving the bastard the undeserved gift of a final conversation with her.

  “Since you’ve never done it, you can never know it,” she says. “Love, its real essence, is something more profound than you could ever understand. All your centuries of knowledge mean nothing if you never experienced this.” She looks to me with such emotion in those bright blue eyes that my heart melts. The beast inside me stands down, tamed at the mere sight of this woman.

  Zdrovan laughs, but it’s fake, forced.

  “It was my torture that forged you, that made of a you a powerful seductress, not Dracula’s venom, or even the love of this animal.” He points at me. “Because that’s what he is. You look at him with love in your eyes, but he’s no longer capable of feeling something so...” Venom fills his voice. “Noble. He drank the serpents’ blood in there, as he was keeping them back so you could run. He’s no longer the man you knew, he’s been corrupted by supernatural serpent blood.”

  Something in Irina’s gaze changes. I could kill this scumbag right now. My jaw ticks in anger, and he notices, he can feel my fury. He basks in it.

  “Look at him now, how he wants to rip me apart. It would have amazed you to see him as he tore the heads off of the serpents. The power their blood gave him. He became one of those lowly beasts he so despises.” He laughs.

  “Yeah, enjoy your last moments of glory, filth,” I spit through my teeth.

  “Oh my God, just hear him speak, Irina,” he calls, filling the room. “The young scholar that you love, thinking him so pure-hearted, so gentle and kind, your Mr. Perfect, turning out to be a beast, no better than you and me. He’s only been a beast for a night, and it’s been enough to take out all of my goons. Imagine the monster he’ll be in two centuries. He’d put both of us to shame, I tell you.”

  The emotion in Irina’s eyes changes with every word he says, and she finally looks away from me. But I don’t, I keep my eyes on her, hanging on her every breath. I can’t lose her no matter what.

  “But I’m not the only creature in this room that you’ve wronged,” she tells him calmly. Her gaze sweeps over the immortal humans as if they’re her long-lost siblings. “All of these men and women, you kidnapped them from their families, sedated them, and did things to their bodies. You intended to chop them up and feed them to vampires in order to enslave them. I’m overwhelmed. I cannot make a decision, so I leave your destiny in their hands.”

  He stares at her like he can’t believe she changed the subject as if nothing, as if his words just flew by her without making even a minimal impact.

  The immortals look down at him, nobody moving until the leader, the one with the claws, takes the first step. Zdrovan is stranded at their feet, the expression on his face changing with every move that the immortals make. His red eyes glow in fear, his mouth opening. He shrieks, reaching for his wheelchair as if it could help him.

  Irina watches the scene like a saint, as if expecting this last suffering will redeem him in some way.

  Not even a muscle in her body twitches when the immortals rip Zdrovan’s arm from his body. They take him apart bit by bit, his screams filling the hall, travelling upwards to the barracks. If only it weren’t so far away from any populated area, if only somebody could hear his screams. But they are lost in the ghost town above us, only a few foxes in search of food padding in the night.

  The immortals tear off his every limb until only his torso and his head remain, but he’s so covered in blood he’s unrecognizable. He locks eyes with Irina one last time, his mouth opening, thick blood, like marmalade, falling out.

  “Mercy,” he gurgles.

  Irina waits, but then holds out her hand to me. I place the object in her hand. She walks slowly to him, eyes locked with him until the very last moment, when she pushes the silver blade into his chest.

  Zdrovan Daniel lets out one last breath like a heaved whistle, his body crumpling like burning paper and falling to the ground, his remains as if carbonized.

  Now it’s just us and the immortals. We emerge from the old swimming hall, Irina and I leading a small army in the night, an army of the damned. I wrap an arm around Irina’s shoulders as we march forward. She’s exhausted, welcoming the support of strong arms, but she keeps hiding her face. Now that I’ve unleashed my dark side, and a fearsome beast replaced the fine scholar she desired so much, will she still want me? In a way Zdrovan was right—I became bad. And Irina has had her share of evil men, she’s sick and tired of bad boys. But no, I won’t lose her no matter what.

  CHAPTER VIII

  Irina

  It seems like years since I’ve been here, even though in truth it’s been only a few weeks. We’re at Dracula’s castle in the Carpathians, the safest place in the world for creatures like Lazarus and me.

  Dracula’s people intercepted us as soon as we set foot on university grounds in Berlin, and that’s when all the weight was taken from our shoulders. His people took in the immortals, and Radek and Juliet came for Lazarus and me.

  Radek and Juliet, of all people. It was easiest for Dracula to send them because Radek can travel through mirrors, bas
ically teleporting himself and his wife, but the situation is still, well, a bit awkward. Radek is the first man I ever fell in love with, and Juliet the only woman he ever truly desired. And the first woman Lazarus loved. I keep telling myself that now he loves me, that he proved it more than enough during the end of our mission, but I can’t shake the feeling that I don’t deserve him. I needed to put distance between us for a night, and I could use some more time, so I can think, but the bolt explodes off the door, and it flies open.

  Lazarus stands in the doorway, his dark locks framing his irresistible face, his deep blue eyes full of intelligence and kindness, of all the reasons I fell for him. But there’s something more in those eyes now that he’s had supernatural blood. Something wild and dangerous. Lazarus took down a dozen serpents, and their blood had a particularly strong effect on him. Not many vampires apart from Dracula and Tristan would have been able to do that, and they suspect this inclination, this talent for killing might come from Lazarus’ long-time involvement with the Hidden World. Right before Radek teleported us here through the mirror Juliet even launched the theory that Lazarus might have Lord Dracula’s blood in his veins. After all, Lazarus is Romanian, like Dracula, and his fascination with the Prince of Blood might have had its roots in his own DNA.

  But now the dangerous beast that my handsome scholar has become stands before me with an open shirt, the sight of him sending a current through my core. There’s fire in his eyes, determination, and a splash of madness.

  “I can’t take this anymore,” he says, his voice a low growl as he steps in, advancing on me slowly, like a stalking feral. “Why do you refuse to see me, and tell people to keep me away from your room?”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Yes you did, you told Juliet.”

  “I, I—” God, I never stammered in front of a man like this. I fold my arms over the thick fluffy bathrobe. I force myself to square my shoulders and speak clearly.

  “Lazarus, I need space, space and time to process all of this.” I turn and walk to the window. I can’t face him, not yet. “This has been the most intense mission I ever had, emotionally and physically. I’m drained. Try to understand.”

  He’s now close behind me, so close that I can feel the heat of his body even though the fluffy bathrobe. He clasps my shoulders with his big hands, and I press my eyes shut. Every time he touches me I feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy, a pleasant tingling in my clit. I breathe in his presence, wanting him. He closes his eyes, his nose sinking into the curve of my neck as he breathes in my scent like I’m a flower.

  No, I’m not as delicate, as fragile, as worthy of love as a flower. I try to shrug out of his hold, but his hands stay firm. Or maybe my attempt wasn’t firm enough, because it’s so hard to resist him. I don’t really want to break away from him, I want to be with him forever.

  “You haven’t even looked at me since the immortals took that bastard apart,” he says in my ear in that voice of his that makes my scalp tingle. Good God, he’s lifting the bathrobe, his fingers grazing the back of my thigh.

  “Don’t do this, please,” I whisper, but I don’t mean it, and he knows it.

  “Why didn’t you look at me?” His voice intoxicates me, his breath sending pleasure over the skin of my neck. I rest my head against his shoulder, my eyes closed, letting him do with me whatever he pleases.

  He pushes the bathrobe off my shoulders, and I let him do it, only slight protest escaping my lips.

  “Lazarus, please, I’m not ready.”

  “What changed since that dorm in Berlin when you made love to me like there was no tomorrow?”

  “There might well have been no tomorrow. We both could have died.”

  “But we didn’t.”

  “Lazarus, please.” I force myself to walk way. The bathrobe has pooled at my feet, and now I’m naked. I brace myself and keep my back to Lazarus as I walk towards the bathroom, but he grabs me and turns me around swiftly. He pins me against the wall, holding my hands hostage. God, the way those eyes burn into mine.

  “It’s because of what Zdrovan said, isn’t it? Because I became a beast, an animal, because of my dark, evil side.”

  I shake my head. “You can’t possibly believe I took his words seriously.”

  “You must have! You gazed at me full of love, and then, as he talked, something else replaced that love.” His big hands become cuffs on my wrists as he pushes his body into mine, the sides of his shirt open so we’re skin to skin. He’s hot and hard, his cock growing for me and pushing against my naked folds through his pants.

  “The dark side awakened when I first took you at the hotel, and you sensed it. You were in another place then, emotionally, and you accepted it, but now I can see that it’s killing your feelings for me.” I stare fascinated at his face that is changing, a beautiful scholar turning into a raging animal. I can feel the vulnerability behind his power, his fear of losing me, and it drives me wild. My hands coil to touch his fists that hold my wrists.

  “Nothing can shadow my love for you, Lazarus. Because that’s what I feel, love. Yes, it’s true. What you saw was guilt. Guilt that your dark side awoke or even came to exist because of me. That I’m to blame for what has become of you.” I let the truth of that show in my face. Lazarus searches my eyes like I just lifted a huge weight off of his shoulders.

  “Irina,” he whispers, but can’t continue, and kisses me, gently, his lips peeling unwillingly off of mine only to claim them again and again. Among kisses he says, “Even if that were so, I’m grateful it happened this way.” He cups my face, touching his forehead to mine. “The only thing that I regret is having wasted all this time. We could have been together all of these years.”

  I smile as bliss fills me. “You love me, too,” I whisper.

  “I do, with all my heart.”

  I cup his face as well, our bodies hot. I feel close to him in body and soul, our connection soaring with fulfillment. “Don’t darken this moment with thoughts of the past. Remember that we have eternity ahead of us.”

  His gaze burns. “Undress me,” he whispers.

  He watches me with eyes on fire as I do it. My fingers graze his strong arms as I brush the shirt off of him, then work on his buckle. I love unwrapping his handsome body, tracing the tribal tattoos along his forearms, a reminder that he’s always been a rebel despite his scholarly air.

  His breath trembles as if he can’t restrain himself anymore, and takes me up against the wall. His cock finds my entrance expertly, and he pushes in slow and deep and hard. My walls constrict around him, already slick, my sweet spot reacting to him, ready to cum for him in a minute. He grinds into me, one hand on my butt, pushing me against the wall, the other gathering my wrists above my head and holding them hostage.

  “I love you from the deepest depths of my soul,” he growls, an animal with an angel face and eyes of fire. “But I can’t fight this possessiveness. I want you more than I ever thought possible to want a woman, and I’m capable of terrible things if you ever try to leave me.”

  I moan, my legs clenching around him as I cum hard, calling his name, my face up at the ceiling. The orgasm is bliss, elating, making me forget where I am until I come down, resting my trembling lips in a kiss on Lazarus’ shoulder. I hear giggling somewhere outside. Damn. Radek and Juliet have their guest room close by, and Vlad and Rux’s master bedroom is right down the hall.

  “Don’t feel bad,” Lazarus whispers huskily, brushing a tendril of hair off my cheek, the tips of his fingers loving and tender.

  “My God.” I shudder. He leans back to take a good look at my face.

  “Have I hurt you?”

  “No, it’s just... I’m not used to this.” My voice trembles. “To having my feelings returned.”

  He pushes my chin up with his thumb, and looks deeply into my eyes. “I don’t just return your feelings. I have a direct line to them through our bond, and trust me when I tell you I love you more.”

  Tears of bliss fill my eyes. “
As if that were possible.”

  He kisses me gently, but his lips are hot, his desire growing between us again. “Let me heal you, Irina. Let me bring to light the angel of a woman you truly are, the angel child that bastard Zdrovan Daniel tried to kill.”

  Tears stream down my face. “He killed her, Lazarus. There’s nothing left of that girl.”

  “Oh yes, she’s there, I saw her when you took mercy on that bastard and put the silver through his heart. Irina, let me take you to the altar, let me make you my wife, and dedicate my life to healing and nurturing you, body and soul.”

  “Oh, Lazarus.” I lose myself in his arms as he kisses me deeply, laying me slowly on the floor, parting my legs and driving that delicious big cock inside of me.

  Lazarus

  “WHERE ARE THE IMMORTALS?” Irina asks as she takes her seat by my side at the big kingly table in the main hall. The question isn’t for me, but for Dracula, who presides over this gathering.

  “They stayed in Berlin, under the protection of Tristan and the Abbot of the Black Monks.”

  “They’re in good hands,” Ruxandra says. She seems a beautiful demoness with skin white as alabaster and waves of shiny ebony hair. It’s obvious she and her warlord husband belong together, and they’re a compelling couple to look at, but judging by how Radek and Juliet stare at Irina and me, I’d think we’re compelling as well.

  But what a sight we must all be, three couples like a strange trinity surrounded by rock columns, at a gothic table. Radek, with his breathtaking beautiful face, holds Juliet’s hand protectively. She stares lovingly at Irina and me, her white blond ringlets making a halo around her porcelain face. She seems like an angel.

  “Isolde?” I ask. “She with Tristan?”

  “You know you can’t keep them apart,” Juliet replies.

  “And Herald?” Irina puts in, the worry in her voice almost motherly.