“Well, in three hundred years, see where you’re at with your sister.”
“I… don’t think I’ll be chopping her head off,” he says.
“Yes, but maybe she’ll be trying to chop your head off.”
Finn scrutinizes me for about a full minute. “Why are vampires just so weird?”
I honestly have no idea why he enjoys asking that when there’s clearly nothing weird about this. “We’re not.”
He nods slowly. “Uh-huh.”
“Come here,” I say as I hold my hands out.
If I thought he looked skeptical before, it was nothing to how he looks now. “For?”
“Sit on my lap.”
“For?” he asks, like it’s not apparent.
“So you’re close enough for me to strangle, why else?”
“Hmm…”
I grab the shirt and pull it back on my head. “Better?”
I hear the water slosh as he pushes over to me and pulls the shirt off. “No. I don’t like your face covered. If we cover your face then there’s nothing pretty about you.”
“And even after that, I still love you. Now sit on my lap before I force you.”
“Evil!” he cries as I hook his waist. I don’t pull him, though, because I want it to be his choice.
“Come closer, I have puppies and candy.”
He eyes me like any of that could have been true. “I do like puppies and candy. What else do you have?”
“Me.”
“Eh…” He shrugs. “Something better?”
I glare at him which makes a smile form on his face. “And you call me the evil one.”
He sinks onto my lap and I wrap him up in my arms as he slides his right arm around the back of my neck. He leans in and presses his lips softly against mine before pulling back just enough so I can see that smile on his lips.
“Why are you so sexy?” I ask. “I think your cute smile just makes me blind to your rotten personality.”
“Shouldn’t I be saying that about you?”
“Maybe we’re meant for each other.”
“Maybe? Nah, it’s a done deal,” he says as he kisses me again. This time, his lips part and I feel his tongue against mine. His hand squeezes tightly against my neck and shoulder as he presses into me.
And for a moment, we can forget about all of this. About the man after Finn, about the attack that left Claude and Artemus wounded and Finn afraid. I can forget about that monster entering our safe place where he could have taken Finn from me.
Instead, I can fixate on his body and his touch as his tongue and lips move against mine. And I promise that I will never leave him to deal with this alone.
I will stop that monster so Finn can be free, even if it’s the last thing I do.
FINN
I can tell Marcus is distracted. It might be the main reason I felt like I could do this. If he can put up with all the shit this vampire is putting us through, I can get over my fear that he’ll see me differently without my leg and arm. It’s such a stupid thought, I know it is. I know he’s not going to be disgusted or something. I think maybe it’s more me than him.
With my prostheses on, I’m okay. It’s that without them, I feel out of control and vulnerable, almost like I can’t defend myself. It’s an old fear from when I was stuck in that room, but it led me to hate the moments I have to be vulnerable without them.
I run my fingers through Marcus’s hair, wondering what’s going on in that head of his. I know he’s concerned, but I know that more than anything, he’s upset with himself because he feels like he can’t keep me safe. But he’s trying so damn hard to stay positive and upbeat. It almost seems weird on him, but I love how much he’s trying.
I lean in and kiss him again as I push my hips forward so I can feel more of him. My bare chest rubs against his as the warm water moves around us. “Do you want to go upstairs?” I ask.
He nods. “As long as there’s not a camera in there.”
I snort. “Orin’s not going to peep on us. He’s not a creep!”
Marcus grins as he lifts me up, like he’s going to set me outside the tub, before thinking better of it and letting me decide what I want to do. It makes me feel a little bad that I’ve made him hesitate to do things when he’s so determined to show me that none of it matters; he doesn’t care if I have them on or off. It’s always been in my own head that it does. Not his.
So I take a deep breath and push myself onto the edge. “Can you grab me a towel? Orin might notice if we splash water all over his ridiculously overpriced rugs. I think they’re made of like knitted lion mane or something,” I joke.
“He did spend his years raking in the money, didn’t he?”
“Oh yeah.”
Marcus gets out and grabs a towel, which he tosses on my head. Before I can pull it off, he starts drying my hair. “It reminds me of when I give Artemus a bath.”
“Yay, I love reminding you of a dog,” I tease.
He snickers as he pulls the towel off my head and smiles at me. Once I’m dry, I put my leg and arm back on before reaching out to him. He pulls me to my feet and kisses me again.
“Upstairs?”
“Yeah, I’ll race you,” I say as I hook his leg and grab his arm before pulling his leg out and pushing him onto the ground. Then I take off while remembering that the whole reason I got in the tub was to get rid of the soreness in my leg.
But I’m a man of my word and I absolutely cannot go back on a race. So I rush for the stairs. It was a dumb race seeing as he flies past me at lightning speed before I even put foot on one step and then I’m left in his wake.
When I reach the bedroom, he’s already butt-ass naked, sprawled out on the bed reading a book. “Huh, I’m surprised you bothered to show. I thought you got lost along the way.”
“Ass,” I growl as I shed my wet shorts near the door and walk over to the bed. “You even had time to read?”
“I got a whole chapter finished.”
“Liar. Then what happened in it?”
“Don’t even get me started on what Louise did when Hammerhead Dan came home. And he didn’t get that nickname from using a hammer.”
“Oh my… kinky,” I say as I crawl onto his lap. “I didn’t know you read such kinky books.”
“I didn’t either.” He tosses the book on the bedside table before pulling me onto his lap. I lean into him as he sits up, back against the headboard, my ass on his lap as his cock brushes against mine. I lean in until his lips find my throat and begin to move down it, sucking and kissing as I press into him, aching for him to bite me. When he returns to my lips again, I feel a little disappointed, but I know he doesn’t like biting me too often, even if I don’t mind.
At all.
He grabs the lubricant, which he also must have had time to get out as I was struggling up the stairs, and pops the cap as he gives me a cocky grin that always makes me smile in return.
“What?”
“Oh, just thinking back on that time when you thought you could beat me in a race,” he teases.
I laugh as I slide my hands up his chest and over his shoulders. He’s a little damp where water still drips from his hair and onto his back, so I trail my fingers through it like I’m painting him with splashes of water. “Hey, I put you on the ground first.”
“You actually did,” he says. “I guess I was expecting sexy time, and instead, you just threw my ass on the ground and ran off.”
“I like keeping you on your toes.”
“You do a good job of that.”
His hand, wet with lube, runs down our cocks, pushing them together so they rub into each other as he moves his hand over them. I moan as I reach down and rub my palm over the head of his cock. I love the way he leans into me as my hand quickens. His free hand traces a line down my thigh and over to my ass, squeezing it gently. While I draw my hand over our cocks, his wet hand joins the other and rubs a line between my ass cheeks. As his finger circles my hole, I press into him and k
iss him. His tongue wraps around mine as the heat in my body rises.
His finger pushes inside me and rubs against me as I stroke him. I already want more of him, need more of him, but he’s going teasingly slow as he adds a second finger that moves in and out and stretches me. I feel like it’s been too long since we’ve had sex since it’s not exactly like we can hide from Orin while here.
“I love you, Marcus. I know I tell you I love you all the time, but you make me feel so free and so strong.”
“That’s all you. I don’t believe I’m the one who has done that,” he says.
“Of course you have,” I say.
Once I’m ready, I pull away from his fingers as I take ahold of his cock and hover over him. Slowly, I lower myself down until I feel the head brushing against my ass. I push down until I feel him begin to open me up. As soon as the head of his cock is resting inside me, I sink down onto him and groan as he fills me up.
He murmurs something against my lips before kissing my throat as I rise up and drop back down while my arms drape around him to keep him close. His hand strokes my cock in time to me rising and falling. His lips move from my cheek down to my neck as he licks and sucks a moment before his fangs slice into me. I groan as I drop down on his cock, instantly forgetting everything I’m doing as I desperately grab onto him. My fingers tighten on his back as pleasure rushes through my entire body. I feel like it’s too much. Too much stimulation with his cock deep inside me, his hand stroking me and this overwhelming pleasure of his bite. I want to pull back, overwhelmed, but I also want to sink into it because it feels so fucking good.
Once he releases me, he thrusts up into me and I groan. And as I try to handle the pleasure of it all, I begin to move again. I’m so close to the edge, his bite always drives me there so quickly, that I dig my nails into him as my body aches for release.
“Feel good?” he murmurs against my neck.
“Too good,” I whisper.
He chuckles as he shifts forward until I’m on my back, beginning to thrust hard into me as I just give myself over to him. He isn’t rough, but I feel so sensitive to his touch as the pleasure from the bite slowly begins to drain and the ecstasy of him inside me drives it back up.
“There,” I groan as he hits that sweet spot inside me that makes me throw back my head as I come. He grabs on harder, his hand not stopping yet as his hips drive into me. He thrusts a few more times, also caught up in whatever my blood seems to do to him. He groans as his cock pulses inside me while he comes.
He lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses my fingers as he slowly pulls out of me and drags me up against him. I’m breathing hard, wondering if I’d even remembered to breathe ever since the bite. But I lean into him and close my eyes, just wanting to feel him and forget everything else that’s happening around me.
Chapter Twenty-One
FINN
When I wake up, I’m confused. I feel dizzy, like the world is spinning around me as I force my eyes to open. Have eyelids always been this heavy?
I want to sit up. Something in my body is telling me that I have to get up. I have to get away. But why?
That’s when I remember my mother getting me from school. She was taking me home… no… ice cream… or was it home? What was happening?
Where am I?
There’s throbbing in my leg and I remember it being pinned between the door and the console.
That’s right. There was a car accident and I’m in the hospital.
I must feel fuzzy because of the pain medication.
I close my eyes again and for a moment, I just feel like I’m floating. If I try moving, pain spikes into my leg and my head is pounding, but if I lie perfectly still, everything evens out and becomes dull.
I can handle a dull ache.
That’s the moment I remember my mother, body limp. Is she dead?
I open my eyes again and look around before realizing that this doesn’t look like a hospital room. I’m on some type of pad or mat. The light’s so dim, I can barely see anything as I sit up and my world shifts and turns. I choke back nausea as I look for something I can use to call for help, but I see nothing near me. No call light, no person.
Where’s Orin? Why isn’t Orin here?
“Orin?” I whisper, mouth unbelievably dry. “Orin?”
This isn’t right. The light is dim, but I can tell this isn’t right. Am I not fully awake? The ache in my body as I sit up tells me I’m awake.
The door opens and I still. This horrible feeling hits me as an overwhelming sense of terror consumes me. I feel like I’m weak. Too horribly weak when confronted by this aura. What is happening?
A man steps inside the room and my body instantly tells me I need to run.
It’s such an odd feeling. I’ve been around vampires for years. Most of Orin’s friends are vampires and Mom would even bring vampires around every now and then, but this is different. This man… feels different.
And I don’t know if it’s the pain, the dizziness, or something else, but I know, more than anything, that I have to run.
His face is almost completely covered, and it makes it even more unnerving only being able to see his eyes.
I push myself up and the moment I draw my right leg to me, unimaginable pain spikes into me, reminding me that it was at least broken if not crushed from the accident. I fall forward, slamming down on my hands. When I look down, I see my leg is wrapped but I can feel the broken bones grating against each other as nausea rises in me.
Quickly, I look back at the vampire and realize that his eyes are glowing a deep red. It’s all I can see of him hidden behind dark clothes and a mask.
“I see that you’re awake, my beautiful doll. It’s okay. Just lie back down and let me take care of you,” he says, voice deep and cold.
I don’t know if it’s the aura or the pain or just my fear, but his voice sounds wrong. Twisted. Words stabbing into my brain holding this almost playful or teasing tone to them. It’s like he’s enjoying my fear. My panic.
“Where’s Orin? Please… please…”
“Oh, don’t worry about Orin, you’re mine now. I’ve always wanted you. You’ve always been the missing doll in my collection.”
Faster than my eyes can follow, he’s standing before me, grabbing hard onto my left wrist.
“Your mother did everything she could to try and ruin this beautiful body of yours. But I’ll make you perfect again,” he says as he runs a finger over my cheek. “But first, let me taste you. I’ll bet you taste so sweet.”
He yanks my head back and I feel his fangs tear into my throat as I cry out and fight against him. He pins me down like I’m a child, telling me there’s nothing to do to get away as realization begins to settle on me.
He’s going to kill me.
My eyes snap open and for a moment, I feel him there, leering down at me, calling me his sweet and beautiful doll.
The panic is thick inside me as I try to breathe, but it seems like I was just there. I was just lying on the floor, coated in terror as he came into my life and proceeded to destroy it.
“Something wrong?” Marcus mumbles as he reaches for me.
I must not have woken him this time, which is good. “I was going to get a drink,” I say as I push the covers back.
“I can get it.”
“No, I’m fine,” I say as I put my leg and arm on quickly and escape from the room. It’s not that I want to get away from Marcus, it’s that I want to be in a room with all the lights on where I can breathe. Where I can look around myself and know he’s not there waiting in the shadows. I head downstairs, but instead of going into the kitchen, I continue down into the basement. I hesitate when I remember him rushing through that window, especially when I’m so far from Marcus, but then anger fills me because I’m letting him rule my life again. I’m letting him dictate what I can and can’t do.
I’m letting him consume me. And that’s what he wants. He wants me to fear him. To think about him. He wants to be my
only focus, but I can’t let him.
I rush down the stairs and over to a tall heavy bag I’d talked Orin into letting me get when I started learning how to fight. I had to promise that my prostheses would never ever make contact with it, but I think Orin was happy I was learning self-defense. Well, happy until I jumped into law enforcement.
When I first started working with it, I made Aria come down with me every time because I was afraid of being alone down here. I felt like he was waiting in every corner. Aria would join me on most nights or would do her homework in the corner.
I pull my old gloves on and punch the bag, wishing it was his face. Wishing it was his body I could beat and abuse.
Jab, jab, uppercut, punch after punch. When my arms begin to tire, I shift to kicking with my good leg. Roundhouse, side, back kick. I grab the bag and nail it again and again with my knee, begging for the strength to destroy him but more than anything, letting those dark thoughts dissipate.
“Is this because I stole the sheets again?”
I jump and turn quickly before realizing it’s just Marcus. “Pillow, actually,” I say.
“What are you up to?”
“Punching away my anger. You?”
“I’m sorry,” he says, and he looks upset.
“It’s stupid, isn’t it? Learning how to fight against a vampire. You can’t fight against a vampire when you’re just a human. But I learned anyway.”
I go over to the supplies and pick up a pair of gloves that Orin would wear. He was never really into the whole fighting thing, but he’d occasionally humor me. I toss them to Marcus who stares at them for a moment.
“Fight me.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Fight you?”
“Yes. Get your gloves on and fight me. No holding back.”
Marcus seems skeptical but puts them on and faces me. “Okay?”
“Ready?”
“Yeah.”
I move in and punch him right in the gut. He barely blocks, so I aim another for his groin since I know that’ll get him to move and it sure does. “Marcus, fight me.”
“I can’t fight you. What if I hug you instead?”
How to Elude a Vampire (VRC: Vampire Related Crimes Book 2) Page 21