by Cynthia Eden
“Let’s have that taste. I’ll make you like it.”
His teeth sank into her throat. And, damn him, he was making his bite pleasurable. That drugging, addictive pleasure that could come from a vampire’s bite. She tried to fight him, punching and clawing, but he kept drinking her blood. Taking and taking…
No! Stop!
He wasn’t.
And she…she couldn’t even cry out.
That’s part of a vampire’s power. He makes you want the bite. Makes you want it more than anything else.
But she didn’t want his bite. She didn’t want him. She wanted Connor.
“Now…” Keegan lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “Aren’t you delicious?”
She couldn’t move.
“I want you to scream for me, Chloe. Scream for Connor…”
No, she wouldn’t listen to his compulsion. She wouldn’t…
Connor!
***
The stairs were burning. The fire had licked over his arm and the side of his face. Connor burst into the basement, his gaze frantically flying to the left and the right.
He saw the woman, huddled on the ground. The fire hadn’t reached her, not yet.
When he took a step toward her, her head whipped up, and she bared her fangs at him.
Vampire.
Long chains circled her wrists and ankles.
She was so thin, her hair tumbled down her back in lank tangles, and her eyes reflected hell.
She’s the reason Keegan is a cross-over.
“I’m here to help you,” Connor told her as he advanced on her slowly. A vampire would normally be able to break free of chains like that, no problem, but the woman before him looked as if she’d been starved. How long had it been since she’d had blood?
“Wolf…wolf…just like him.” The woman shook her head. “Not help, hurt.”
“Yeah, well, I might look a little like the bastard, but I’m not him.” He broke the manacle that circled her right wrist. Shattered the manacle that bound her left wrist. “And you can—”
She rushed away from him, running up the stairs faster than he could blink.
“Thank me later,” Connor muttered. He hefted the chains in his arms. He held them and—
“Connor!”
Chloe’s voice. But Chloe shouldn’t be in the building. Eric had her outside. Eric would be keeping her safe.
Still holding those chains, he ran for the stairs. He climbed them even as fire rolled across the walls. Then he was back on the main level of the building.
“She’s mine, brother.”
And Chloe was there. So was Keegan.
Her neck was bleeding. Fire was all around her. And Keegan was behind her.
“Chloe is mine now. She’ll do anything for me. Always…me.” Keegan’s claws were at her throat.
“Chloe, baby, are you okay?” He could swing those chains and hit Keegan. Maybe that would free Chloe and she could run out of the inferno.
“Tell him that you’re mine, Chloe,” Keegan ordered.
Chloe’s gaze met Connor’s. “I’m his.”
Connor shook his head.
Keegan’s eyes gleamed with madness and power. Just like our father’s had. “Want to watch her burn in front of you?” Keegan asked him.
His teeth clenched. “You won’t…do that…” Talking was getting hard. His beast wanted out and that fire was choking him. The flames were so hot. If they didn’t all get out of there soon, they’d be dead.
If we were humans, we’d already be dead.
The air was too hot. Humans couldn’t breathe it and live.
Chloe swayed in Keegan’s grasp.
“You’re going to die here, Connor,” Keegan said. “I’m going to watch you. You’re going to stand right there and burn. Because if you move, if you take one step, I’ll kill Chloe.”
And Chloe…
Smiled?
“I’ll kill you…” Keegan coughed a bit on the smoke. “Then I’ll kill Duncan. I’ll take out the whole Para Unit—”
Chloe’s hand was rising. Had Keegan not even noticed that movement? Her hand was rising and her claws had come out. She stared at Connor and said, “I love you.”
Fuck. Eric’s idea had actually worked. Connor’s compulsion was holding for her. Keegan couldn’t control her. He couldn’t—
Chloe spun in Keegan’s grasp and she drove her claws right into his eyes. He howled and blood flowed and Chloe kicked him, sending him stumbling back into the flames.
Connor rushed forward. He swung out with the chains, slamming them into the side of Keegan’s head. Keegan crashed into the floor. The floor gave way beneath him and he fell, going down in a ball of flames as he crashed into the basement.
Hell, yes. The fire was destroying the bastard—and not even a super vamp could survive those flames.
Chloe wrapped her arms around Connor. She held him tight. Her body trembled against his. “It worked! He was trying to get into my head, but I just kept thinking of you! Because I love you!”
More fire fell down on them. The whole building was shuddering and creaking and Connor thought the place would collapse at any moment.
They left Keegan and rushed for the door. Chloe stumbled so he just lifted her up in his arms, holding her tightly. He could see Duncan running toward him. The woman he’d rescued from the basement was out there. Eric was holding her. The vampiress fought his hold, but Eric wasn’t letting her go.
The heat of the fire lanced over Connor’s skin.
He reached the threshold. He heard the terrible groan over him. Connor leapt forward.
He and Chloe made it out. They fell to the ground, but they’d escaped! They’d gotten away from Keegan!
We made it. Chloe loves me. I love her.
We made it!
He reached for Chloe, and that was when Connor realized…the smell of blood coated Chloe.
“Baby?” he could see the wound on her neck, but…the scent of blood was so strong. Too strong. He hadn’t noticed it before because the smell of smoke and fire had been too strong.
She was on the ground, staring up at the moon. He remembered how her legs had given way, right before they’d gotten out of that hell. He’d picked her up and run…
Why did her legs give way?
“Chloe?”
“H-he wanted me to…call out for you…wanted you to walk into…trap…” She licked her lips. “I didn’t.”
Her voice was too soft. Too weak.
She had on a dark coat and when he opened it with trembling fingers.
Then he saw her wounds.
“He kept cutting me…” Her voice had gone even softer. “But I…I didn’t call out. Not until you saved her.”
Her? The vampiress?
His gaze cut to the woman. She was staring at Chloe with stunned, desperate eyes. The vampiress wasn’t struggling in Eric’s arms any longer.
“Made him believe…I had given in…knew you had to come back up…the fire…too strong…”
“She needs help!” Connor roared.
His bellow shook everyone from their stupor. Eric freed the vampiress and ran over to them. Holly rushed from the right. Duncan fell to his knees beside Chloe.
Holly sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, Connor…”
No, no, she didn’t need to look at Chloe with such pity. She didn’t need to shake her head.
He put his hands on Chloe’s chest. He had to stop the blood.
“He cut her heart, Connor.” Holly’s voice was sad. “Don’t you see? He cut into her heart.”
“She’s okay!” She has to be okay.
Chloe smiled at him. “I kept thinking of you. You…you said you loved me.”
“I fucking do. Always.” He put his hands down even harder on her wounds. “Get her some stitches! Give her some blood! Help her!” Because she couldn’t die. He couldn’t watch that. Not again.
“I’ll…come back…” Chloe said.
“What if you don’t?” His
terrible fear. “What if I lose you? No, baby, no, just stay with me.” They weren’t helping her, so he picked her up and ran with her.
Shane and Olivia met him half-way. Shane’s chest was also covered in blood and when Olivia reached for Chloe, he saw that blood stained Olivia’s fingers.
“She dug the bullet out of my heart,” Shane muttered. “And what the hell happened to your girl?”
Connor stared at Olivia’s stricken face. “Keegan happened.” Fear was choking him. “Make a wish, Olivia. Bring her back. Make sure she comes back.”
Olivia’s stark eyes met his. “My wishes don’t work anymore.”
She was growing cold in his arms. Barely seeming to breathe at all. “Make her come back! Wish her back!” And he ran on, pushing past them when tears slid down Olivia’s cheeks.
“I wish…” Olivia’s soft voice followed him.
There were medics up ahead. They could sew her up. He saw an ambulance to the right. Carefully, he lowered Chloe on the gurney near that ambulance.
Her eyes were closed.
“Chloe?”
She wasn’t breathing.
“No, Chloe, don’t leave me!” He would have traded anything for her right then. Any fucking thing. “Come back! Stay with me!”
The others gathered around him. No one spoke.
No one but…
The vampiress he’d saved. “She looks like her mother.”
Connor didn’t look at her. He couldn’t take his eyes off Chloe.
“Her mother…was my friend. The only friend I had. Until that bastard Keegan killed her.” She reached out her hand and smoothed back Chloe’s hair. “I think she’s still breathing.”
No, she wasn’t.
“Let’s see if she’s hungry.”
Then she slashed open her wrist and put it over Chloe’s mouth.
“No!” Eric shouted. He grabbed the woman and hauled her back. “What the hell are you doing? Chloe isn’t human! She comes back!”
She should come back…but she wasn’t.
“I wanted to help,” the vampiress said, her words shaking. “The way her mother helped…I wanted to help…”
Blood smeared Chloe’s lips.
“That’s it!” Olivia’s voice was excited. “It fixed me—it can fix her, too!” And she was grabbing a scalpel from one of the EMTs and slashing open her wrist. She put it to Chloe’s mouth.
Connor shook his head. What the hell were they thinking?
“It takes a female vamp to make a cross-over, right?” Olivia said, her voice breaking with hope and fear. “Then let’s make her a vampire. Let’s fix it so she doesn’t die! Let’s—”
“Stop.” Eric’s voice was low and lethal. “You don’t know what Chloe wants. She’s been screwed with enough.”
Olivia blanched. Her wrist was still over Chloe’s mouth.
Chloe wasn’t drinking her blood. Chloe wasn’t moving at all.
Eric stared at Connor. “What would Chloe want?”
To be free.
His chest burned. The fire seemed to be rising inside of him. “I love her,” he said. She needed to open her eyes. She needed to come back to him.
Olivia’s hand fell away from Chloe. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry. “
Connor leaned over Chloe. “I love you so much, baby. Please, please, come back to me.” Because I don’t think I can live without you. “Just open your eyes and come back to me.” She’d come back before—twice—within moments.
The first time she’d died, when her own father had killed her.
And the second time….when Keegan had broken her neck.
She’d come back so quickly.
“Why isn’t she back yet?” Connor asked. The pain inside was growing worse. Spreading. Destroying. He needed Chloe. Needed her to open her eyes. Needed her to see him. If she would just open her eyes, just smile, then everything would be all right.
The minutes passed in painful silence. Eric’s hand curled around Connor’s shoulder. “You may have to let her go.”
No. He shook his head. He wouldn’t give up on Chloe.
She hadn’t given up on him.
“She should have come back by now,” Eric said, voice gruff. “Let’s get her back to the base. Back to the lab there. Let’s—”
Chloe’s eyes flew open.
Connor nearly hit the ground. He grabbed for the gurney. Grabbed for Chloe. He yanked her into his arms and held her as tightly as he could.
Her arms were around him. Holding him. Squeezing him just as fiercely as he squeezed her. He could feel her heart beating. He could hear her breathing.
She’d come back.
Tears stung his eyes and he didn’t fucking care. He had Chloe.
He had his life back.
He kissed her. Wildly. Desperately.
“I’ll be damned,” he heard Eric say.
Yeah, the guy would be—but that wasn’t a problem Connor needed to deal with right then.
He stood up, holding Chloe in his arms. He didn’t think he’d be letting her go anytime soon. But he pulled his lips from hers, just long enough to whisper, “I love you.”
She smiled at him. “And I love you.”
He kissed her again and Connor knew that he would never, ever let Chloe go. She was more than just his mate. She was his soul and without her…
He was a beast.
She made him a man.
***
Something was wrong.
Chloe stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something just seemed off.
Probably a side effect of dying…and coming back. Again.
But…she felt different. Kind of hungry.
Kind of horny, too.
Hmmm…where’s Connor?
She turned off the light and headed back to her little room at the base. They would be getting better accommodations, ASAP, but for the moment…
Connor stretched in the bed, and he smiled at her. He was naked. His hair was tousled, and he was so sexy.
She smiled at him.
Connor blinked. “Um, baby…”
She slid into the bed with him. Put her body against his. The guy was so amazingly, deliciously warm. And he was all hers! No more fears, no more bad guys…they were safe.
She kissed his neck. She could feel his pulse pounding beneath her lips. Such a fast, strong beat.
Her teeth scraped lightly over his neck. He growled his pleasure.
She was naked. So was he. Why bother with foreplay? She wanted him.
Right then. Right there.
Chloe straddled him. His fingers slid between her legs. Pushed into her. Had her gasping against his neck.
Her teeth raked him again.
He thrust into her.
Yes!
Pleasure spiraled inside of her as he thrust and thrust, and she bit down on his neck. The move of her mouth was instinctive.
His blood spilled onto her tongue. Heaven, paradise, wine. Connor.
She drank from him and the pleasure nearly tore her apart. So strong she couldn’t breathe. So powerful it overwhelmed her. She shuddered. She quaked. She came until she thought her body would collapse.
And Connor was with her, roaring out his pleasure. Riding that endless wave with her.
She licked his throat.
Chloe felt the drumbeat of his heart against her.
She felt him getting thick and long as his cock stretched inside of her once more.
Oh, yes, please…
“Baby…” Connor’s voice was a growl. “Something you should know…”
She wanted to fuck and she wanted to bite.
She also wanted to love him. Forever.
“I don’t think…you’re just a werewolf anymore.”
Her head lifted.
He touched her fang. “Baby, you’re a vampire.”
Her jaw dropped. Chloe shook her head.
He nodded. “You are.”
Her hands cl
amped over her mouth. I took his blood. I drank it—definitely vampire-style. She stared at him in rising horror.
“Olivia and that other vampiress…they tried to give you blood at the scene. You weren’t waking fast enough,” Connor shook his head. “They changed you. I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, normally, a vampire has to take the blood and give it—” He broke off as his eyes widened. “I took your blood. Several times. Oh, Chloe, baby, I’m sorry!”
I’m a vampire?
Her hands slowly lowered. If she was a vampire, then she’d have to worry a whole lot less about the dying and coming back routine. “Do you mind?”
Connor cupped her cheek in his hand. “I love you. Vampire. Werewolf. Djinn. I wouldn’t care what you are, baby. The only thing that matters to me is that you’re mine.”
And the only thing that mattered to her…still being with Connor. Actually having a chance to be happy with him.
If she truly was a vampire, then they wouldn’t have just a chance together. They’d have forever.
He pulled her back down toward him. Connor kissed her lips. “I’ll be with you,” he said softly, “by your side, no matter what comes.”
That was exactly where she wanted him to be. “And I’ll be by your side.” She pressed a kiss to the line of his jaw. “Always.”
When she slept later, Chloe didn’t have nightmares, but she did have dreams.
Dreams of her new life, with Connor.
I’ll always choose to stay with him.
Epilogue
“Let’s go over this one more time,” Eric said as he rubbed his chin. “Tell me exactly what you wished, word for word.”
Olivia squirmed a bit in her chair. “My wishes don’t matter. You said that. I-I’m a vampire now, so—”
“Humor me,” he said, forcing a smile.
Olivia glanced over her shoulder at Shane. Eric knew he had to tread carefully when Shane was around. The vamp wouldn’t like it if he jumped across the desk and shook Olivia in order to make her talk.
Not that he would do that.
Yet.
Chloe shouldn’t have become a vampire. That’s not the way the transformation worked. Only, she had. Holly had conducted the tests to prove that fact.
“The words were actually Chloe’s,” Olivia said as she shifted some more in her seat. “She said something like…‘Are you sure you don’t have another wish in you?’”