Wicked Love

by Michelle Dare

  I wasn’t about to let him do that to Jane. I’d claim her before I let him touch a hair on her head. I had John drive her home again with her friends. It was the only thing I could think of as I had Andrew lead him to the dungeon to help out a witch and her lover. Kinky shit was his jam and I went home once John assured me she was safe.

  “Always playing the good guy.” Dorian sat in the dark of my study tossing another apple into the air. I put out my hand and forced it into mine, overriding his abilities to move objects. “Show off.” He muttered, and I bit into the apple eating almost half of it in one bite.

  “I’m certainly not luring innocent young women into a club with hungry supernatural beings.”

  “I didn’t even get to play.” Dorian pouted. Of course not. He lured her there, she brought her friends and had I not intervened it could have been a real shit show with bodies piling up and me having to play clean up duty to his mess as usual.

  “Either play nice with the sorority girls on campus or go back to France and hang out with Leo and Sara.” I said pissed off.

  “I don’t want to play with them, they make me eat my vegetables.” He could sulk all he wanted but I wasn’t letting him near Jane. I hadn’t figured out what I felt for her but the bond as strong as evidenced by the connection we had to each other, feeling each other, sensing something between us.

  “I don’t understand your issue with Jane. I don’t want this anymore than she would if she even knew.”

  “Knew that she might be bonded to a bonafide Prince of Darkness.” He drawled.

  “You hated my wife, you hated Aileen, I don’t understand you, Dorian. This is exactly why we don’t get along. You do crazy shit to people I care about and then come crawling back.”

  “Your wife liked to turn village boys into her pets.” He sneered.

  “Well, the sun took care of that thank you very much.” Despite my human sense of smell being gone, I still remembered the scent of burning flesh.

  “Aileen was as good as the town bicycle if they’d been invented by then. I couldn’t stand to see my brother be humiliated.”

  “So you called her a witch and they tortured her before they killed her.”

  “Look, I’m just saying, if she quacks like a duck, rides a broom at midnight, and has cats follow her everywhere, she just might be a witch.”

  “Do you hate women? Is that it?” I asked demanding an answer to a question I know I won’t get.

  “How can you say that, Sebastián? I honor and cherish them.” He shrugged and we both knew nothing could be further from the truth. I’d possibly found a mate, though unclaimed, and he burned with jealousy. It was the only explanation I could come up with.

  “Why are you pursing Jane? This isn’t a game.” I growled at him angrier than all his betrayals combined.

  “Because you compelled her, a bond mate, and then you let her go. Took the fun out of the game and if you don’t take care of her then the council might decide she’s fair game.” He smiled standing up. “Oh, and by the way, you might get asked to teach a class today. Looks like Professor Michelson is taking a sabbatical in Greece.” He shrugged.

  “What did you do to the professor?”

  Dorian smacked his lips. “She was delicious and light, like virgin olive oil. Practically like drinking gold.”

  My phone buzzed and Dorian made his way out of the house and out of my reach, damn him.

  7

  There’s a new teacher in town.

  JANE

  I reeled from my strange encounter at the club. Dorian vanished and I wasn’t about to text him. The ache in my heart came close to a visit with the campus health center and Nina was pissed we got kicked out of a hot club rife with weirdoes. I didn’t sleep all night thinking about the man who put me in the elevator.

  The more I thought about his chiseled good looks, the more I wanted to go back to the club and confront him which was so not a Jane thing to do. Normal, plain Jane hid inside her room and worked ahead on assignments. She took extra shifts at the crappy diner and she also didn’t talk about herself in the third person. I snapped myself out of it. There was something so strangely familiar about the man from the elevator and over the course of several days my nightmares increased. I saw the creepy black splotches again and every shadow across my bedroom ceiling was a monster come to get me. It was exhausting and by the time it came for me to attend Professor Michelson’s class I didn’t have the energy to deal with Dorian if he showed up there to drag me into some new mess.

  I walked to class and dumped my bag onto the floor next to my chair taking a heavy seat. I pulled out my notebook, and by the time I looked up, it was to see that Professor Michelson was indeed not teaching today’s class. It was the man from the club, the one who put me in the elevator with no buttons.

  I scanned the room and for a moment it felt like time stood still. We could have been the only two inside the room the way it pulsed inside its own vacuum. There was no one else coming except for a handful of students who seemed non-pulsed by the missing status of our teacher. I didn’t know what to make of this man who spoke eloquently of Greek vases and exploding volcanos with the passion and vision, as if he might have witnessed it himself in person which I knew was completely impossible.

  Class ended and the students filed out one by one. Dorian never showed and now it was down to me and one other student who was rambling on about the paper we had to write I wanted to yell and scream at him that if he hadn’t figure out how to write a paper by now he was in the school. I barely kept my cool as I gathered my belongings gearing myself up to demand answers.

  “Miss Wilder, I presume.” My new teacher stood in the front of the room. I glanced around, we were indeed alone. He dropped a binder into his leather messenger bag lifting the flap over the side before hefting it onto his shoulder.

  “I apologize, sir. I don’t believe I caught your name though your face is oddly familiar to me.” He approached my desk slowly as if hunting his prey.

  “Sebastián Knight. I have my doctorate in Greek studies, but much of my life’s work has been restoration the last few…decades.”

  I shook my head. “No. That’s not where I know you from at all.” The night materializes in my mind. His suit, his growly smile, and the gentle push inside the elevator as if he were trying to save me from something.

  “I suggest you edit that memory, Miss Wilder.” His accent deepened as did my resolve. The flash came again, this time washed and duller. The images blurred and I fight to hold onto them. He smiled and the pain radiated through my shoulders.

  “No, I don’t think I want to do that. I think what I want are answers.”

  “Be careful of the questions you ask little lamb.”

  “You’re related to my classmate, aren’t you? The one who isn’t here, Dorian.” I hold onto the flash of recognition like it’s the edge of a cliff and I don’t want to fall off.

  “Jane.” He said in that bossy tone of voice I’ve come to dislike heartily. He was always telling me to do something, wasn’t he?

  “Why can’t you tell me? What are you hiding?”

  And just like that the pressure releases like a value. The steam pops out in dangerous licks of hot water, but my chest isn’t constricted and I don’t feel any pain. Professor Knight, Sebastián, Mr. Knight or whatever the heck he wants to be called placed his hand on my shoulder squeezing me gently.

  “Jane, my lamb.” I nodded eagerly waiting for his next instruction somehow okay with all of this weirdness. “Stay away from Dorian. Stay away from the club.” I heard what he said, but I don’t want to do it and some other awful revelation emerges.

  “Hey, wait, are you the reason, I haven’t had a date since New Year’s?”

  He released his grip on my shoulder immediately breaking our connection. I felt dizzy, a little woozy and irritated. “Are you?” I demanded again.

  “Jane, stay away. I can’t be held responsible if you keep showing up flaunting your…”
<
br />   “My what?” I demanded.

  “Your scent.” He growled as if I was supposed to understand at all what that meant. Yeah, sure, okay. I’d change my deodorant, but I was still going to go back to the club and get the answers I needed. He didn’t have to like it, but he also wasn’t the boss of me.

  He turned and huffed stomping out of the lecture hall leaving me there alone. I wondered if he’d be back to teach next week. This semester wasn’t going according to plan at all, but I knew one person who would enjoy my about face on going out, Nina.

  8

  Relentless.

  BASH

  “Well, would you take a look at what the cat dragged in.” Dorian moved up next to me and I glanced at the door. A group of young women walked in looking bright-eyed and curious. Colin, one of my bouncers on the main floor had his arms around two of them. He must have hawked the nearby campus and given out the coveted invites to my exclusive club thinking I wouldn’t notice. I might have been dead the last few hundred years, but I wasn’t an idiot. The girls looked like prey in a perfect storm. They were feeder fish for the piranhas, gazelles for the lions, and inside these walls, I was their king.

  Human blood was as unique as any other shifter. Cinnamon. Vanilla. Sometimes Citrus depending on age. The younger the fruitier palate. Older and they became more refined like an Italian pinot. I knew my food well like any uncompromising connoisseur and what assaulted my senses woke an age-old hunger enough to make the sanest of us all feral.

  I’d already warned off Jane, but she was as stubborn as she was psychically inclined, as I was coming to learn.

  “You know we don’t take innocents like this, get them out of here before I lose my patience.” I flicked my wrist and with it went my brother’s body into the wall. He slammed against it hard scaring the girls and slumped down to the floor in a heap of limbs. Colin stood back trying to contain his laughter. He’d be next.

  The smaller of the women leaned down to help Dorian up and annoyed me further. I watched her try to heft him, but he was too much for her slight weight. The thing about vampires was that we defied all the urban legends. Sure we could day walk with enchantments and our cravings could and did get out of control, but we were denser than mortal human beings. It was a chain tethering us here as a penance for what we had become. It was a means to balance out our strength and superior speed. All supernatural beings had these caveats to equalize the scales. Werewolves carried a distinct odor detectable by all of us. Witches couldn’t consume water without a protection spell which left them out of drinking games much to my chagrin.

  I wagged my finger motioning for Colin to bring them forward. I might as well get a peek at what was so interesting about these girls that he broke my cardinal rule to bring them around. I could have been home, holed up in my study moving art like chess pieces around the world instead of here ignore my base desires since meeting Jane.

  There was something bright and intense about her like biting into a plump crisp apple full of juice or in this case blood. Yes. My little lamb was the equivalent of a ripe Empire, or sweet like a Gala. Perfectly pink inside. I imagined vividly sinking my teeth into her flesh and letting her essence dribble over my lips.

  She must have sensed my hunger for her like a good little lamb. Her heartbeat thundered and my eyes zeroed in on her thin skin pulsing over her delicate vein. She stepped back as my fangs descended on instinct. I was long past the adolescence of vampire youth where my mouth ached and my skin tightened into a ghoulish silhouette.

  I’d wage war on her neckline if I could with menacing bites and not a care in the world. A wave of desire stirred my cock and my dick was close to getting a zipper scar from my suit pants. I looked at Colin with a feral glance. “Get them out of here.”

  He nodded and pushed the girls back through the doorway. One protested until he grabbed her arm and compelled her to leave. The other, mine, stood still her chest heaving, hands clutching her neck as if she wore pearls. Silly girl. Colin gave her a shake and tugged her away out of my clutches and down to a lower floor of the club. He’d let her dance until she got tired and realized she wasn’t getting anywhere near the VIP section tonight. I don’t know where she stood in more danger. Here inside the club or outside. I told her to stay away. Her desire to continue to defy me and push back on my compulsion was frustrating. I’d make sure she had her little bit of fun supervised by Colin and then at the end of the night, I’d have John drive her home again.

  Why did I have to save her that night and get taste of ambrosia to taunt me?

  9

  The nerve of some guys.

  JANE

  I watched the man sitting on a throne looking like a careless prince surveying his kingdom inside the club. Bodies gyrated around him. He seemed bored, and I took the drink my roommate handed me, taking a sip of the bitter alcohol. It heated my throat, and I stuffed a cough back behind my hand. I didn’t want to embarrass myself this early in the evening.

  Come to me little lamb.

  I heard the voice and spun myself around confused. Surely, I wasn’t drunk, I didn’t even feel tipsy yet. I heard the voice repeat itself and pushed the crazy thought out of my head. I felt it push back and I ignored it. I’d have a headache by the end of the night, but nothing a few more drinks couldn’t cure. If I was blasted out my mind then maybe this wasn’t real at all.

  Oh lamb, you know that’s not true. I won’t let you get that far gone.

  “Stop it! Get out of my head.” I shouted over the music.

  He already had his bouncer try to get us kicked out, but this time I wasn’t having it. I was staying and damn him for trying. I didn’t know where this reckless side of me came from, but I embraced her.

  I came here for a good time and I was going to have it even if he didn’t like it.

  I made eye contact with the devil again and this time he beckoned me to come closer.

  10

  Honey, he’s not a prince.

  BASH

  I couldn’t believe she pushed me out of her mind. I pushed back and felt her resistance. She was psychic, but probably didn’t even know it. Witchy woman. I wanted her even more. I could have removed her clothing as she stood at the bar. An old parlor trick that amused the club patrons when I chose a woman for the evening to pleasure me as much as I would pleasure her. It was fun, sexy, and worth it to see her expression change from one of shock and surprise to pure need when she realized it was me who beckoned her to my side.

  However, Jane wasn’t that sort of girl and I had no wish for her take my joke as humiliation.

  I let her drink more than her fair share before I got off my ass and approached her. She weaved, but held her ground. I caged her in with my arms.

  “You don’t listen very well do you little lamb?” My breath was cold against her skin, I’d been feeding off hot little human bodies, but none, not even my two previous longtime lovers came close to what I felt for her.

  “Who are you?” She cocked her head asked for more than my name. This woman wanted all my secrets.

  “I’m the owner of this establishment.”

  “You seem like it.” She poked me with her drunk little finger and swayed in my arms.

  “Do I?” She made me laugh with her impertinence. I warned her to stay away but it wasn’t happening.

  “More like the prince of darkness, or the devil I guess.” She sighed.

  “You know, I saved you once, but I’m thinking you don’t want me to save you anymore.”

  She shook her head no with a smile. I didn’t have it in me to compel her to forget another night. It was dangerous, but I’d protect her from my brother and anyone else who came after her.

  “I’ve been waiting for you. You haunt me and I don’t want to be afraid anymore, not when the darkness feels like its apart of me.” She took my hand in hers and placed it over her heart. I felt it too though this wasn’t the time or place to admit the connection and fess up to everything.

  “My brother w
ould call that indigestion.”

  “I think your brother is an idiot.”

  This time I threw my head back with a laugh causing everyone, vampire, shifter, and human to look our way. It was dangerous to single her out like this and expose her, but it was too late. She intrigued me and she wasn’t leaving here tonight unmarked. They would know she was mine, bonded or not, my mark would place her under my protection.

  “Join me then.” I held out my hand and encouraged her to take it. After a moment of eying me up and down, she took my hand and I guided her to my VIP lounge that overlooked several of the dance floors from above. I reigned supreme here and I’d let her know it.

  “Interesting club you have here.” She glanced around looking over the railing into the room with several spanking benches and couples engaged in activities to arouse. These couples weren’t visible to those busy bumping and grinding but they still got want they wanted out of the club experience.

  “Come.” I patted the seat next to me playfully and watched her pale skin pink with a blush that would be impossible to hide. She took her time which I found equally endearing as I did irritating. I might have been an immortal with nowhere to go, but even she was aging with her every delay to deny me. When she finally joined me, she sat stiff staring at the table. I brushed her hair over her shoulder and traced the angle of her neck and shoulder watching her vein pump blood in a staccato flow with each beat teasing me. Seducing me. I licked my lips over my fangs hiding them from her. Soon my need to have her would overpower me, but for now I made the most of this time with her.