He closed his eyes, dipping his head forehead, and he felt the cool skin of her head against his. Her quiet confidence, her faith in his ability, was both bolstering and daunting. What if he failed? Failed himself, failed Vivianne, failed his pack...? He thought of J.J., of Nate and Samantha. Then he thought of Vivianne. She was right. They were in this together. If he couldn’t get his act together, then she would be fumbling in the dark.
They had to do this.
He nodded. “Okay.”
* * *
The next night, Zane watched as Vivianne’s car pulled out of the Marchetta Tower parking lot, Harris at the wheel. He’d hadn’t spoken with her since the night before, when he’d gone all hunter-killer on the hiker. Zane glanced briefly up at the sky, still bearing the fiery tangerine streaks of the day, edged by the purple of night creeping in, as he drove his car behind her. Technically, it was Nate’s car, he was just ‘borrowing’ it. All going well, he’d have the vehicle back before Nate even noticed it was missing.
The sun had just set, and it wouldn’t be long before the moon started to rise. He’d told Vivianne, just before they’d parted ways the night before, that she should come up to Alpine territory for the full moon.
But she was wary of her father’s spies, and didn’t want to give them any more fuel for the man’s paranoid suspicions with regards to his daughter’s loyalty.
Zane shook his head. That was just twisted. Vivianne may be the most calculated, composed and strategic person he knew, and she commanded the wealthiest vampire colony of Irondell, but she still wanted to please her father, damn it. The man had no idea how loyal his daughter was to him.
It seemed Vivianne was always serving her colony, her family, but when she needed personal support, she had no one.
Except for him.
She’d stopped him from stealing a man’s life blood, an action that would have made him live forever in a state of self-hatred. For that, he’d make damn sure he was there for her when she needed him—whether she realized it or not.
The only hurdle to her accepting his offer of help tonight was that she didn’t want it to look like she was in league with Alpine, or any werewolf pack—apparently that would send her father off the deep end.
He could work with that.
Harris had seven established routes between Marchetta Tower and Vivianne’s penthouse apartment, and after spending almost a year accompanying Vivianne everywhere, Zane had a contingency plan for each of them.
As soon as Harris showed the selected route for tonight, Zane turned down a side street, pushing the speed limit to arrive at just the right intersection at just the right time.
He pushed his foot down on the accelerator, racing through the red light just as Harris drove through the intersection from the right.
Harris swerved, and the car ran up onto the sidewalk, colliding into the brick wall of a retail store. Zane screeched to a halt, then bounded out of the car, racing up to Harris’s door. The vampire guardian was still for a moment, then jerked awake, sucking in a deep breath. Zane skidded to a stop, then reached in and snapped the man’s neck before the vampire had quite got his bearings.
“Back to sleep,” he murmured. The vampire guardian would wake up in a few hours.
He opened the rear passenger door, and Vivianne was on the back seat, eyes blazing red, incisors bared as she growled. He grinned.
“Hello, Princess.”
He reached in and pulled her out, ignoring her struggles. He jerked back when her teeth snapped awfully close to his jugular. He propped her up against the car, his hand curling into a fist. “Lights out,” he said, and then lashed out with his fist.
Her head whipped to the side, and then she sagged against the car. He caught her as she started to slide to the ground, and then heaved her over his shoulder, trotting back to the Alpine vehicle. In moments he’d driven away from the scene.
He grinned in the rearview mirror. “Very good.”
“I must admit, I almost tore your throat out before I knew it was you.” Her voice was just a little grumpy.
“You played along brilliantly.” If there were any witnesses, or any CCTV footage of the accident, it would look like Vivianne had not gone willingly. “Although you did turn your head a little early. I didn’t get anywhere near your face.”
“That’s why it’s called acting—it doesn’t have to be real to make it look real.” Vivianne opened one eye, looking up at him from where he’d dumped her in the back seat. “Can I get up, now?”
“Not yet. Let me get outside the city limits, first.”
Almost an hour later, Zane leaned against the driver’s door and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. Vivianne walked around the car to face him, and he felt oddly awkward with her.
The last twenty-four hours had been a period of intense reflection—something he couldn’t remember doing before. And he hated it. He now understood why Vivianne didn’t do warm and fuzzy. That required embracing vulnerability, and after the episode in the woods, he just didn’t want to go there.
He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so low. So...ugh. It wasn’t so much the killing—he was a werewolf, he’d killed before—it was just...he’d never consumed someone before. He could now understand the draw, the attraction for the vampires. He’d wanted everything from that man, and it was a burning need, a compulsion he couldn’t resist. He’d always thought being a werewolf held its own honor, its own innate natural law and order. Fight to survive, animalistic power, etc. He’d always thought vampires were cold, ruthless, cursed, unnatural creatures whose very cunning made them perverse. He was beginning to see, though, with Vivianne’s help, that they were just as complex, driven and caring as the werewolves. They just showed it differently.
Vivianne stopped in front of him. Her expression was composed, but he knew her well enough that he could read her. He saw her anxiety in the faint lines bracketing her mouth, the troubled distraction in the line that showed between her brows. Something was bothering her. The shift? It was a full moon tonight, and all werewolves shifted. Most of the time they could control when, where and how they shifted, but on a full moon it didn’t matter how strong you were, your beast always won out. Usually. He had no idea how a vampire would handle the shift. This was unchartered territory, for both of them.
He gave her a reassuring smile. Tonight she’d worn dark leggings and a black turtle neck to work. If the woman was trying to be discrete, and blend into the darkness, she failed miserably. The figure-hugging clothes made her petite figure look sexy and curvaceous, and his fists clenched in his pockets. He wanted to kiss her all over.
But that’s not what she needed from him, right now. No, she needed his wolf. He didn’t think she realized just how much. But she’d learn.
He forced his lips into a friendly smile. “Ready?”
She nodded. “Ready.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
* * *
Vivianne stood in the gully, eyes wide as she peered around her. She was stunned at the beauty of this little spot. “What is this place?” she asked breathlessly. He’d taken her for a hike along the tree line, and had slowly ventured higher into the mountain range. Now they were in what looked like the underside of a frozen waterfall, all ice sheets, stalactites and stalagmites. It was eerily beautiful, a silent, blue-green opalesque cavern that gave them some shelter from the icy winds outside. She didn’t know this little pocket of serenity, though. It was quite a way away from the Nightwing border, and it wasn’t on any maps—not so unusual, though, as many breeds liked to keep parts of their territory secret. Nightwing did the same, with some uncharted zones that were special, or valuable for whatever operation they were earmarked for.
This, though—this was lovely. Her breath gusted in front of her. There was such serenity, such heavenly peace. She could feel her worries and strain lessen, the longer she s
tood there and soaked in the quietude. Even her current issue of locating a gap in Nightwing funds of approximately twenty million dollars didn’t prey so much upon her.
“I like coming here, when I need space, or when I need time to think.”
She looked at Zane. This place was personal to him. And he’d shared it with her.
He smiled, and she was struck by the mischief in his eyes, the lighthearted curve to his lips. With his unruly hair and short-cropped beard, he looked like a dark, devilish, sexy rogue. “You tracked me the other day. I figure we do some more scent work.” He shrugged.
“Great, because I am smelling so much more stuff now.”
She looked at the frozen wall again, admiring the splintered glow of starlight through the ice. This place was truly beautiful.
“Thank y—” She gasped with pain as her arm twisted, snapping. Oh, God. It was happening again. She sucked in a breath, trying to calm herself against the instinct to scream. She focused on her limb, trying to make it heal itself, and Zane stepped up to her, clasping her face between his hands.
“Let it go, Viv. Let it happen. It hurts the first time, but the less you fight it, the less it hurts. After this first change, it won’t hurt anymore.”
She shook her head, eyes brimming with unshed tears. He was telling her to let the beast out. To relinquish the control she lived her life by—“Ah!” This time her collar bone snapped, and she tried to brace it with her hand. “I don’t want to, Zane. It hurts so much.”
He gave her an assessing glance. “I don’t think it’s the pain that is worrying you. You need to let your beast run. It’s losing control you’re having a hard time with.” He smiled, and she nearly whimpered at the understanding, the sympathy. “From dusk ’til dawn, I will be right here, by your side. I won’t let anything happen to you, and I’ll make sure you come back.” He grinned. “As a vampire, you may think you know the night, but as a werewolf, let me show you how to play in the moonlight. Just...let go.”
She gaped at him. The words were uttered so quietly, so implacably, and he’d cut right to the heart of the matter. What if she couldn’t turn back? How did her beast think? How did it know to shift back into human form? But Zane was so confident, and so convincing. The day before, in the woods, he’d been right. When she let it happen, it hadn’t hurt. After generations of werewolves shifting, maybe they knew a few things about the process that vampires didn’t understand.
She closed her eyes and did as he instructed. She let go.
Chapter 16
Something deep inside her stretched, and she felt warm approval wash over her. Then her body started to shift.
Bone by bone, she snapped, shifted, reformed. Fabric ripped, tore... Her long scream ended in a howl. When she opened her eyes, everything was different. Her clothes hung from her in torn remnants. She could see the frayed cloth, right down to the fibrous strands. Her vision was so much sharper. She could see the different icicles within the wall of ice that cascaded along one side of the cavern, and how the moonlight fractured into crystalized rainbows as it hit the ice.
Smell—oh, wow, so many scents...snow had a scent. Who knew? It was cold, oxidized, with a hint of wintery freshness. And Zane...she turned to face him, and the torn clothing fell to the ground. He’d morphed along with her, and now stood before her in his werewolf form. Brown fur, with gold highlights, he stood proud and patient, waiting to see what she’d do next.
She twisted around to look at herself. She was a full wolf. Her pelt was the darkest brown, and depending on the light, she could see deep red highlights in the fur. Her coat glistened in the muted moonlight. And then she realized the thing she’d feared most was nothing to fear at all. She still had some thoughts, some innate “Vivianne-ness” in her shifting. She didn’t become a thoughtless creature driven by base needs. No, she was still herself, only...different. The beast that Zane spoke of, she could feel it, and she lifted her head along with it, and...howled.
She wanted to run. She wanted to test her new form. She bounded along the ice wall, until she found the gap at the end, and she burst through into thick powdered snow. So cold! So invigorating! All of her senses were awake, alert, and taking everything in. She felt so...alive.
Zane ploughed into her, and she fell into the snow. She sat up, shook the snow off her head, and glared at Zane. He yipped at her, pranced a little, then nudged her with his shoulder. She rolled in the snow, and the sound that emerged from her throat was laughter, but different. She launched herself at him, and they tumbled in the snow.
* * *
Zane prowled through the undergrowth, his senses on high alert. He’d let Vivianne dictate what she wanted to do, and they’d been roaming for hours. They’d hunted, and he’d been truly impressed with how strong and fast Vivianne was, how strong and fast they both were. Her skills with tracking were better than most of the guardians he knew—almost as good as Trinity Woodland, tracker prime for the Woodland pack, and she was the best. He had to concede Vivianne’s point—with this change they both seemed to have enhanced strength and speed, more so than the average shadow breed.
He glanced up at the sky. The moon was beginning to set. They’d worked their way through the lower range, and were now in that pocket of land between Summercliffe, Alpine and Woodland. There was no chance of coming across hikers—not tonight. All breeds observed the phases of the moon. There were special dispensations under the law when it came to the full moon. Humans knew better than to venture out when the werewolves were out and about, at their strongest. Vampires knew better, too—unless they were just looking for trouble. No, the chances of bumping into anybody out here tonight, of all nights, were slim to none.
And Vivianne had decided to play hide-and-seek. He paused next to a boulder, using it to shield his body from the main track. Where was sh—
One soft pad of paw on ground was all the warning he had, and she collided into him. Damn, she was fast. And strong. In their mock-wrestles she rated up there with Nate—higher than the other guardians he wrestled with, male or female. They rolled off the trail and along the grass, and he sensed her changing as they did so. She landed beneath him, panting, hair spilling out along the grass, eyes bright with laughter. Zane morphed, holding himself above her in human form. He’d never seen her happier, or more relaxed.
“That was amazing,” she exclaimed, lifting her chin to shout it to the night sky.
He grinned. “See? Nothing to worry about. You were a champ.” He was being honest. Her first transition had been swifter than any he’d ever seen before. Sometimes a first shift could take hours, with all the excruciating agony that would entail. Vivianne, though, had shifted both suddenly and smoothly. As though she and her beast had been in sync.
Her smile broadened. “If you hadn’t been here...”
“You would have been fine,” Zane told her. “You did really well.”
Her gaze drifted down his body, then she realized she was lying buck naked beneath him. She jolted. “Where the hell are my clothes?”
Zane started to laugh, but stopped himself at her fierce frown. “You shift, but your clothes don’t. If you don’t strip out of them, they tear. We spend a lot of time naked,” he said, maintaining eye contact with her. Werewolves didn’t have the usual hang-ups about being bare-assed naked in front of others. It was a natural state for them. He realized, though, that others may not be as comfortable in their naked state.
Vivianne’s gaze flickered from his, and then slowly drifted down his body. He let her look. Hell, he didn’t want to move in case he ruined this rare moment of intimacy with his vamp.
His vamp.
Yeah. That’s what she was to him, in his mind. Oh, not from a position of ownership... Vivianne would probably rip him apart if he even tried to assert a claim on her. He couldn’t see her being ‘claimed’ by anyone... No, she was his vamp from the perspective that he couldn’t,
wouldn’t consider getting this close, this cozy or intimate with another vampire. Ever.
Her eyes slowly rose to meet his, and he sucked his breath in at what he saw.
Vivianne was no shrinking violet. She was confident enough to let a man know when she was interested, and from the look in her eyes...she was interested.
He finally let his gaze drift south. Her body was stunning. Perfect breasts, creamy golden skin with dark rosy nipples. He dipped his head, and lathed one nipple, and he could feel the nipple tighten into a bud against his tongue.
Vivianne arched her back, sighing. Her arms slid up over his biceps to his shoulders, and he transferred his lips to her other breast, earning a gentle raking of nails down his back in reward.
His cock stiffened, rising to attention between them, and he rubbed against her.
She hummed in approval, flexing against him, and he kissed his way down her body. Their first time had been hot, fast, and intensely satisfying. Now, he wanted to take his time, to learn the secrets of her body, and to bring her so much pleasure, to make her his vamp, so that she wouldn’t, couldn’t think of another man.
The streak of possessiveness rushed through him, and he could feel his beast rising beneath him, surrendering to the man’s needs in total agreement. Tonight, he was going to make love to Vivianne.
* * *
Vivianne’s eyes widened as Zane kissed her. There. Her breath hitched, and her heart pounded as he wrung a response from her she’d been unprepared to give. Her hips rolled against him, her channel growing moist and slick from his attentions. He showed no intention of moving, as though content to continue with a leisurely play. She could feel the tension coiling inside her, tighter, harsher. She tugged on his hair, but he ignored her wordless urging. His fingers joined his lips, and she opened her mouth in a soundless scream as her orgasm swept over her.
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