There was a full moon, but dark clouds had moved to cover the light, making it nearly black. But my eyes were their very sharpest in the darkness. So, when a woman came racing out from under a bridge, I was immediately struck by her beauty. Her skin was pale, even more so with the fear emanating from her. Dark, nearly black, hair was twisted up behind her head, but several strands had come loose and blew around her angelic face.
Dark brown eyes were filled with terror as she glanced behind, and her full, ruby lips were slightly open from her panting breaths. Her choppy breathing and fast pace caused her full, round breasts to bounce under her white, long-sleeved blouse, and her large black skirt flowed behind her.
If I had been human, I imagined I would have been having very inappropriate thoughts about this woman when my first instincts should have been to help her. Not ogle her. However, having never experienced any sexual response to a woman, I was guessing, which was why I was caught off guard at being struck by her appearance when I should have gone directly into attack mode. Not that I was worried. Whatever was chasing her wouldn’t stand a chance against me.
I stepped directly into her path, and her head swiveled back around just as she plowed into me. I planted myself on the ground, so I didn’t budge when her body barreled into mine. My arms wanted to close around her and keep her hidden in my embrace, but I needed to deal with the danger first. “I won’t hurt you, angel,” I assured her softly. “Get behind me, and I’ll keep you safe. I promise.” She stared up at me in confusion for a beat, then her fear receded a little, and she nodded.
I guided her around, so I was between her and the approaching threat. I could hear their footsteps as they ran through the tunnel under the bridge, and it didn’t take long for me to recognize my natural enemy. I’d certainly fought enough of them in the last five centuries. Considering their accelerated speed from being a vampire, I assumed they were playing with their prey, which only made me doubly annoyed with their interruption of my night.
The two nightwalkers emerged from the arched exit, and I was ready with a stake in each hand and a bored expression on my face. When they saw me, however, their gaits faltered for a second before they continued toward us. “I just changed into these clothes for a party, and I’d rather not have to do it again due to your messy ashes. So, I’m giving you one chance to turn around and leave.” I spoke no louder than I would have if they’d been standing right in front of me, knowing their vampiric hearing would pick it up.
A dark-skinned, yet still pale—being undead tended to do that to a person—male vampire smiled evilly, his expression cocky. Imbecile. “Hand her over, and we won’t get your blood all over your pretty clothes, daywalker.”
I heard the woman gasp from behind me, but thankfully, she stayed put. Being forced to chase after her while trying to fend off two nightwalkers would have been a pain in the ass.
I rolled my eyes and twirled one of the stakes in my hand. “You must be newly bitten if you think you can take me, bloodsucker.” I looked at the other vampire—a tall, skinny blonde with red-eyes—who was hanging back slightly. “Ah, I see. Your friend here is using you to distract me. She’s counting on my killing you to give her an opening to get to the female she’s after.”
The male looked back at his companion, who was too busy glaring at me to try to convince him I was lying. She was the real threat. Never removing my eyes from her, I launched one stake at the man and heard a pop before the thud of the wood hitting the ground.
“Next?” I taunted.
Her thin lips pinched, and her eyes narrowed, rage burning in their depths. “I won’t be so easily taken out, Bancroft,” she sneered.
It wasn’t shocking that she knew who I was; the Bancrofts were a well-known, established bloodline among the daywalkers. In addition to our own reputations, our father had seven siblings, all boys, and they’d provided us with a plethora of cousins who lived up to their heritage. In fact, I’d been known to get wasted with a few of them when the sight of the only Bancrofts in our generation with mates became too much to handle. We were also enabled by the fact that our cousin Liam—who lived two towns over—owned a company that produced high-end whiskey.
Angling my head a tiny fraction, I didn’t break eye contact with the female vampire as I spoke to the angel. “Do you see that house down the road?” I asked her. It was the only one around since I owned the ten acres it stood on, but I wasn’t sure how frazzled she was and wanted to be very clear. “The one with the winding drive at the square turret?”
“Yes,” she whispered in a trembling voice.
“Head over there, and I’ll be right behind you.”
“Alone?”
I hated to send her off without me, but this female vamp was clearly very old and likely quite powerful; I didn’t want my angel distracting me. I was a little startled at the possessive adjective I used so thoughtlessly. I had no idea where it had come from. If a nightwalker was chasing her, it almost certainly meant that she was someone’s consort. Daywalkers were very possessive and jealous of their mates. Whoever she was destined for would tear off my head for thoughts like that.
“I promise I’ll be there before you even reach the front door,” I vowed.
She started to protest, and I cut her off with a firm tone and command. “Go, angel.”
Her warmth disappeared from behind me as she complied with my request. I felt a little bereft at the loss but shrugged it off.
I cocked my head to the side and studied the vampire who was glaring past my shoulder. She became a blur so suddenly that most night or day walkers would probably have missed her as she slipped by.
A snort escaped my mouth as my arm shot out. My strength and toned muscles acted like a steel beam when she ran straight into it, slamming her forehead and bouncing back from the impact.
“Son of a bitch!” she snarled as she tried to steady herself while gingerly checking her forehead for injury.
“My father would take quite the exception to that characterization of my mother,” I chastised her using the same tone I used when scolding my niece and nephews.
Again, she became a blur, but this time, I delivered an uppercut that drove a stake up through her ribs, straight into her heart. A cry of fury had barely escaped her mouth when she burst into flames and disintegrated into ash.
Glancing down, I cursed as I was yet again covered in cremated nightwalker. “Athan is going to have my head on a platter,” I grumbled as I teleported to my front door. The angel was a few steps away, and when I appeared, she screamed as she came to a grinding halt.
“What? How did you? But you’re the same—”
I shook my head and hurried to her side, grasping her arm to keep her stumble from turning into a fall. “Don’t compare me to them, angel,” I demanded, though I deliberately kept my tone soft. “You are very special, and my kind are here to protect you. Even if it wasn’t my job, I would never hurt you.”
She blinked a few times, then wiggled her head as if she was shaking away some clutter. “Why do I trust you?” she blurted.
I grinned. “What is your name, angel?”
“Bronwyn,” she mumbled. A beautiful name, befitting of my—this angel. “Stephan,” I introduced myself. “Well, Bronwyn, I’d like to say it’s because I’m so damn charming, but the truth is that it’s an instinct for consorts to trust daywalkers as you are meant to be one of us.”
Her arm jerked hard as she tried to pull it from my grip, but I didn’t let her go. I silently called myself ten different kinds of a moron for blurting that out. I’d been doing this job for centuries, and I knew how to handle an uneducated consort. But for some reason, I was royally fucking this up. Thinking strange thoughts and speaking without considering my words first.
“You said you trust me,” I reminded her in a cajoling tone. “Come with me, and I’ll answer all your questions while we find you transportation to safety.”
My hand slid down her arm to take hold of her small one so I could g
uide her into the house. The second our skin touched, my entire world upended. Except...it didn’t turn upside down. It righted itself as though it had always been inverted, and I’d never noticed. Electric shocks sparked and traveled over my skin, several going straight to my cock. The flaccid appendage was suddenly stiff and swollen, pulsing with every beat of my heart and already dripping with the desire to be inside our consort’s virgin pussy. The need to claim her welled up inside me and nearly knocked me on my ass. My canines fully descended, and my throat dried up, parched, and thirsty for her blood.
“What?” Bronwyn’s eyes had widened to round saucers, and they jumped back and forth between our joined hands and my face. “I don’t understand what is happening.” Her pretty lips turned down, and her brown eyes filled with sadness, squeezing my heart. “You’re sending me away?”
“No,” I growled, unable to conceal the raw, animalistic feelings consuming me. “You’re never leaving.”
3
Bronwyn
The ordeal I had just gone through must have affected me more than I realized. My fear over the possibility of Stephan sending me away was more about wanting to stay close to him than having to go back out into the dark night by myself again. I should have been scared about another attack instead of worrying about leaving a man I didn’t even know. But no woman alive would blame me for wanting to stick close to Stephan. Not only had he rescued me, but he was also the most handsome man I’d ever met. Tall, dark, and dangerous with bright blue eyes and pale skin was apparently the perfect type of guy to kick-start my dormant libido.
At a completely inappropriate time, too. I’d just learned vampires were real, and the man I was lusting over was one of them. My heart was racing faster from being next to him than it had been when I was running from the bad vampires who had been chasing me. “Something has to be seriously wrong with me,” I mumbled under my breath.
“What? Are you injured?” Stephan’s eyes lit with fury as he scanned my body for any outward sign I’d been hurt. “Did one of those bloodsuckers get to you before you bumped into me?”
“No, I’m fine.” I shook my head and tried to clear the mental fog. My wits were scattered, and it took me longer than it should have to put everything together. His bright blue eyes and name could only mean one thing. “You’re Kieran and Athan’s brother?”
“You know my family?” He scrutinized my borrowed outfit before asking, “Fuck, please tell me you didn’t get attacked after leaving the party Athan and Selene threw tonight.”
“Yes”—my answer seemed to make him furious again—“although I have nobody but myself to blame for being out there by myself. Athan, Selene, and Thana tried to talk me into accepting a ride home, but I thought I’d be fine since I didn’t have far to go and I was looking forward to getting some fresh, night air.”
Opening the door and gesturing me inside ahead of him, Stephan grumbled, “That’s what I get for dragging my feet tonight.”
I didn’t understand what he was talking about, so I asked, “What do you mean?”
“I could’ve met you there, and then you wouldn’t have gone through all of this,” he explained as he led me through the elegant entryway and into a sitting room off to the side. “You almost paid a steep price for me wanting to spend as little time at their event as possible so I wouldn’t be disappointed when all of their attempts at matchmaking failed.”
It was a good thing there was a couch nearby because my knees went weak at his answer. I dropped down onto one of the brown leather cushions, my head shaking in disbelief. My voice wavered when I asked, “Athan and Selene hosted the party to try to match you up with someone?”
Stephan must have caught that I was hurt by the idea, even though I had no right to be. He sat down next to me and took my hands in his, giving them a little squeeze. “Not just anyone, though. For daywalkers, there’s only one woman for whom we will feel that spark of love and desire, and it often takes us many centuries to find our match.”
“Whoa.” There was a lot to take in from what he said. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I decided to go with the easiest question first. “What exactly is a daywalker?”
His explanation about the existence of two kinds of vampires and how he and his brothers had been born as daywalkers made me realize that none of the things I needed to ask were going to have simple answers. But I couldn’t bury my head in the sand and pretend tonight hadn’t happened. My eyes had been opened to a world I hadn’t known existed, and there was no going back now. Thinking about his reference to some daywalkers waiting centuries to find their perfect match, I dove into the next subject. “How old are you?”
“I’m six hundred and thirty-four.”
I pressed my head against the couch’s back cushions and stared up at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. After I did a little mental math, I gasped, “You’re thirty-two times older than me.”
Stephan’s deep chuckle sent a shiver down my spine as he stretched out next to me and scooted close enough that our bodies were touching from my shoulder all the way down to my knee. I tensed up, trying to stop my reaction from turning into a full-on shudder as he teased, “Age is just a number, angel.”
I rolled my eyes at his playful banter, but the endearment he’d attached to his sentence sent a thrill through my body. “That’s probably easier for you to say since you’re more than six hundred years older than me.”
“True,” he conceded, gripping my chin between his thumb and index finger to turn my head in his direction. When our gazes met, he added, “But we’re on a level playing field where it matters most. When it comes to love, I’m as much a novice as you are.”
I bit my bottom lip, my eyes going wide at his confession. “So, when you said that there was only one woman for a daywalker, you meant—”
I let my question trail off because I wasn’t sure how to word what I was trying to get at. My cheeks were already warm just at the thought of Stephan and sex. If I’d had to give voice to what was in my head, I might have spontaneously combusted. Luckily, he stepped in to save me again. “Yes, you took what I said exactly how I intended. Daywalkers don’t feel passion for anyone other than their fated consort.”
“Oh.” My shoulders slumped because it really sucked that my libido roared to life for a guy who couldn’t return my interest. Hoping to cover up my disappointment by distracting Stephan, I murmured, “There isn’t any way to make finding your consort easier? I can’t imagine what it would be like to spend your life knowing you could walk right past the only person you were meant to be with and never realize you missed out on meeting them.”
Stephan trailed his fingertips over the birthmark that was hidden beneath the white material of my blouse. “Potential mates are born with a mark right here. It’s shaped like—”
“Two brownish red spots?” I gasped, interrupting him.
“Yes.”
“I have that mark.” I wrapped my fingers around his hand and pressed his palm against my shoulder. “Right here.”
His lips curved up in a pleased smile. “I know, Bronwyn.”
“How could you possibly know?” My head reared back in shock as a possibility occurred to me. “Can you see through my clothing?”
“No.” Humor shone from his bright blue orbs as he chuckled and shook his head.
“Hey, it’s not as if I know all the powers vampires have.” I poked him in the chest, marveling over how firm his lean muscles were. “It didn’t seem as though it was a big leap in logic since you appeared out of thin air on your front step earlier.”
“That’s fair,” he conceded as he lifted my hand and brushed a kiss across my knuckles. “But I know about your birthmark because my body’s reaction to you can only mean that you’re my consort.”
Butterflies took flight in my belly at the discovery that my attraction wasn’t one-sided. “I’m yours?”
“Yes, fate finally favored me.” He slid his arm around my shoulder and pulled me against his chest. “T
he second our skin touched, I knew you were meant to be mine. I just hate that it took you running from those damn bloodsuckers in the blackest of nights for me to find you.”
I was still absorbing the knowledge that I was born to be Stephan’s consort—and what that might mean to me—as I muttered, “Why were they chasing me? I don’t understand why they targeted me when I’d never seen them before.”
Stephan gave me a comforting squeeze before explaining, “Nightwalkers hunt consorts because daywalkers can kill them. They don’t want any more of us to be born.”
“Wow. Okay.” I blinked a few times as my heart began to race again. “I guess I hadn’t put one and one together to get two yet. But I guess if daywalkers are born, and they can only feel desire for their consorts, then it only stands to reason that they’re made the, um...traditional way.”
He flashed me a smile of pure male satisfaction as need flared in his bright blue eyes. “Oh, yes, my dear Bronwyn. We will most definitely create our babies the old-fashioned way, and I’m quite enthusiastic to get started on trying.”
Sweet heavens, I was almost certain my ovaries just exploded, and he hadn’t even kissed me yet.
4
Stephan
I pulled Bronwyn onto my lap and placed my lips over her birthmark before inhaling her scent deep into my lungs. Her skin smelled like freshly picked apples, but the aroma of her blood made my mouth water and my cock so hard I nearly gasped in pain.
“You want that too, don’t you, angel? To let me claim you, have our babies, and be mine forever?” Her body trembled, and she swallowed hard. My fangs elongated, and I couldn’t stop myself from making a tiny nick and lapping up the droplets of blood that beaded on the surface. I groaned, and my hands clamped onto her hips, shifting her to straddle me until her pussy was pressed against the bulge in my pants.
The Blackest Night Page 2