by Kitty Thomas
Did she imagine the small smile that curved the vampire’s mouth? The satisfaction that he had her now?
“A human cannot override thrall. It simply can’t be done. The brain won’t allow it. He never could have believed you. Of course you were never getting out without me. I am the only one who can fully understand. I’m the only one you can depend on, and you run from me.”
Nicole scrubbed the tears from her eyes. He wasn’t going to make her feel ashamed for trying to take her life back.
“I don’t care what you say. Dominic is my soul mate.” She rubbed her bare wrist. Her husband had her bracelet, and with it he’d taken the last shred of a physical object that would allow her to hold onto his love. Through all her time in August’s cellar, through all of Dominic’s enthralled neglect, that bracelet had been an amulet that held the seed of his love inside it. As long as she had it, she somehow still had Dominic, but now that love was free… escaped and dissipated into the wild air, diluted to the point of vanishing.
“If that’s true, if he’s truly your soul mate, you’ve made a very foolish choice giving yourself to me.”
As if she needed reminding. If only she could have resisted the tantalizing offer of being back in Dominic’s arms. If only she could have starved to death or let August lose control and kill her. She’d be free on the other side, separated from her husband for a while until the hands of time pushed him back into her waiting arms again in the spirit world. Now she would have him for a little while, only to be separated from him later forever. That is… if August allowed her to see him again.
Nicole’s Lexus was parked in the driveway when they reached her house.
“I don’t want to see him right now, take me home,” she said.
August got out of the Bugatti, walked around to her side, and opened the door.
“I’m still mad at him.”
“I don’t care. Don’t test my patience right now, Nicolette. You have no idea how difficult it is to keep my anger in check after your latest stunt.”
So fighting for one’s freedom was a stunt now?
He waited for another few minutes before Nicole took his hand and allowed him to pull her out of the car and lead her to the front door.
A confused Dominic answered. “Who…? What…?”
August shoved his way into the house. “Nicolette?” he said, turning back to Nicole.
She stood stupidly in the door, a million questions whirring through her mind… chief among them… Why are we here? Why is August here?
“Nicole, I thought you were… who is this man?”
Her face grew hot. This is the man—no—monster I’ve been fucking behind your back. So sorry, dear. She stepped the rest of the way inside.
“I’m August. I’m the vampire your beloved attempted to warn you about. You wanted him to know, right, Nicolette?”
August bared his fangs, and her husband took a step back. Anyone would be caught off guard by the revelation of vampires, especially so up close and personal, but something about the action infuriated her. Shouldn’t he instinctively move to protect her from the threat?
Suddenly August and Dominic were in competition… pro/con lists in her brain. This one did this, but that one did that. August had taken her out of the hospital. Dominic hadn’t believed her.
Dominic had taken a step back. A step. Back. But August had set this nightmare in motion, so how was any of this Dominic’s fault?
She closed her eyes to block it all out. Why the fuck couldn’t they both leave her alone? Suddenly she wanted to be in a dark, quiet room. She wanted to be the only sentient being left on the planet, to have no one else to answer to, nothing to worry about but her own basic existence. Surely without other people, life would somehow be simpler.
When she managed to open her eyes again, the two men were in a staring contest. Dominic’s expression still held doubt. He was already trying to erase the vision of fangs from his consciousness. Maybe remnants of the vampire’s thrall still clung to the corners of his mind.
Fangs weren’t real enough for him. It had to be something else, something that would imprint upon his brain forever, something he could never deny. She spied a paring knife through the kitchen doorway. It lay on a counter beside an apple Dominic must have been about to peel. She went to the other room to get it before anyone could stop her and returned to find the male stares still locked together as if she didn’t exist at all.
She cried out as the blade slid against her palm. The smell drew August, but it was the cry of pain that grabbed her husband’s attention.
The wound sealed itself as Dominic watched with disbelief.
“I told you I could prove it. I told you I wasn’t crazy.”
“Put the knife down and come here.” August’s voice was deadly serious, so serious she was afraid to disobey him.
“Please, let’s just go home.” She couldn’t bring herself to meet Dominic’s eyes when she said it. It was a choice, wasn’t it? It wasn’t the one she wanted. She wanted to erase the vampire and go back to the days when everything was right, when the sheets smelled like a meadow and the sun was bright and the birds chattered away outside the window, when Dominic’s dimple made the world turn and his light teasing lit her up inside, when it was all so simple and beautiful.
August pulled her into his arms. She tried to escape, but his fangs were already in her throat. If there was ever a time she wanted it to hurt again, it was now. Dominic would see the bliss on her face as the vampire drank.
To her husband’s credit, he tried to intervene, but August batted him away.
“Nicole!”
Let the earth swallow me. The thought came over and over in her mind. Like a mantra, a chant, a spell. If she were more than merely human now, wasn’t there a chance it could work? Couldn’t the foundations of her house simply crumble and some slithering evil from the depths of the earth reach up and take her away from both of them?
August lifted his head, casually licking the place on her neck where he’d bitten to get the last drops of blood that spilled. His hand rubbed soothing circles on her lower back, and she had to fight with herself not to straddle his leg and dry hump him. All she could think of was his hand, rubbing those soothing circles in a more intimate place between her legs, of coming for him like his good little bitch.
“She’s fine,” August said. “I’m not hurting her. Did she not tell you about us? When you are dead and gone she will be mine, forever. She’s already mine. But I’ll let you borrow her if you like. You are welcome to enjoy her… charms, as long as you play nice with me.”
Nicole knew she should be offended, hurt he’d speak of her like she was some whore being pimped to the highest bidder, but the effect of his bite was still strong, his power humming in her veins… vibrating. The link between them made her need to be bitten as strong as his need to bite. A sort of mutually assured self-destruction.
Everything stopped humming at one whispered word from the vampire. “Strip.”
“August, no… I… what?” The blood rushed to her face.
Let the earth swallow me. Let the earth swallow me. Let the earth swallow me.
But instead of some tentacled beast rising out of the ground to consume her, August’s fingertips played on the edges of her collarbone, his voice fucking her as he spoke, causing her body to arch ever closer each time he said her name.
“Nicolette… ”
She couldn’t stop the urge to turn toward Dominic, afraid to see the disgust but unable to avoid confronting it.
“You let her go this instant.” Her husband shook with rage.
The vampire’s expression was mild. “No. You let her go. You weren’t strong enough to keep her. Your weakness caused this.”
Dominic looked from August to Nicole.
“Don’t listen to him. He’ll twist anything,” Nicole said.
August strode to her husband and grabbed him by the lapels of his collar. For one sickening moment she thought she was about
to watch Dominic die, but instead, August looked into the man’s eyes and said, “It’s time for you to remember how poorly you treated your wife, how you pushed her into my arms.”
The vampire pressed the memories of the months of neglect into Dominic’s mind. It was like a physical thing forcing its way through flesh and bone straight into his brain.
“Stop it!” Nicole shouted. But it was too late. Dominic had already seen.
“You see? Nicolette’s mind is strong. Your mind is weak. I had to break her down piece by piece to possess her, but now she’s mine. It’s survival of the fittest; nature isn’t personal. If it’s any consolation, I think she still loves you, though I can’t begin to imagine how you appeal to her. Now sit.” August pointed at an overstuffed chair, and Dominic dropped into it, unable to resist the order.
“August, please, let’s go home. I’ll let him go, just don’t do this, please.”
The vampire’s eyes glowed when his head snapped around to her. “He let them lock you up. I can’t forgive him for that. You were scared and alone.”
August returned to her side; the smell of him was like a drug. Vampire pheromones danced around her nose. He might not be able to control her in the way he could control others, but the bond made him too hard to resist.
He embraced her, his mouth skimming over the edge of her ear. Then he whispered words that threw cold water over her arousal. “I’ll let you choose. Which do you think would upset your husband less: watching you give yourself to me and enjoying it, or watching me just take you?” He’d completely lost it, his anger edging out any pretense of civility.
“I thought you said you’d forgive me. I thought you said you’d show me mercy.”
August pulled back to look at her. Madness danced in his eyes. “And what do you imagine mercy is to a vampire? There are things I could do to you more horrible than your worst nightmare. The fact that I’m not doing them should be interpreted as mercy. I can erase his memory once it’s done. But if you put up a fuss, he’s going to have to remember today for the rest of his life. Think about it.”
“I hate you. I wish you’d left me in that fucking hospital. I can’t believe I ever wanted you to rescue me, even for two seconds. At least there I was spared your presence and constant manipulations.”
“What did you say?” The darkness cleared from his face, replaced by shock and some un-nameable softness, as if he couldn’t imagine and could barely dare to hope that for some small fraction of a moment, he had been the one she’d cried out for. Not Dominic.
“I wanted you to take me out of there.”
The mask of anger fell back into place. “No, I was the only one who could save you. I was the only one strong enough. You wanted me because it was convenient. If your husband could have pulled his head out of his ass for two seconds, you would have chosen him. You’ll always choose him. Now, strip.” He bit out the last word with so much venom she took a step back, the same involuntary step she’d held against Dominic minutes before.
***
August pushed away the pity. Nicolette’s tears were meant to manipulate him. He would make her see who she belonged to. He would force her to see the truth with such finality she would never run from him again, because she would know there was nowhere to go.
It had been a mistake to allow her to be with her husband. He should have whisked her to the other side of the planet already. Let her pine after Dominic for a few years or decades. None of it mattered. August had given up the hope of having her heart. So if this was how she wanted to play with him, so be it.
She gave one last pleading look, but the wall was up.
He shook his head. “You know what your choices are. Give yourself to me in front of him. Satisfy my anger, and he can forget about it as soon as it’s over. If I have to throw you down and take what should be offered up freely, I’ll leave tonight emblazoned on his mind until the reaper comes for him.”
He just needed to lose himself inside her for a few minutes, needed to take the edge off his rage, needed to gloat that he’d won… even if it wasn’t the truth. Even if it could never be true.
Nicolette held Dominic’s desolate gaze for seconds that loomed and stretched, threatening to engulf August’s concept of eternity. A moment later, time collapsed in on itself as she turned and darted toward the door.
The vampire was faster. He dragged her back to the living room, kicking and screaming about how much she hated him. She reared back and spit on him. He wiped his face and felt his vision go red. The place in the back of his mind, the long-shriveled conscience that had tried to re-awaken, chastised him for his actions, but it was easy enough to push the half-starved thing back into its box so he wouldn’t have to be bothered with it. It was easier to be free.
His voice lowered as he pulled her closer. “Ask me to make this easier. I’ll make it so easy. I’ll make you love every second.”
“August, please… ”
“Was that so hard?”
Dominic white-knuckled the chair as August’s fangs descended.
He bit into her tender neck. She moaned and began to relax in his arms, their link already taking over. The tragedy was that if it weren’t for her husband, they could be happy together without any of this angst.
He stopped drinking almost as soon as he’d started then dragged his fangs lightly over her throat. “Take the rest of it off, my dear. Take it off slowly. Let us both enjoy the show,” he whispered.
This time, the doubt and fear were gone from her eyes, replaced with the unmistakable animal lust.
“You’ve done something to her,” Dominic said.
“Of course I’ve done something to her. She’s my mate. She belongs to me. She consented to a blood exchange between us that links us for all eternity. Are you beginning to see how you are the third wheel here? How you have no claim on her?”
Nicolette’s gaze was vacant as she swayed and shimmied out of her jeans.
“Come here, poppet.” August pricked his finger with one fang, and blood bubbled to the surface.
A sound between a whimper and a purr escaped her throat, and he chuckled as she took his finger into her mouth and sucked as if he offered her the last drop of sustenance in the world. Dominic leaned forward in his seat, obviously aroused by the display.
Nicolette sucked the blood until the wound sealed. Even under the power of a warm, wet mouth’s suction, she couldn’t stop him from healing too fast to satisfy her greedy desires. She whimpered but allowed the finger to slide out of her mouth.
“You can have more if you’re a good girl.”
She unsnapped her bra and dragged the straps down her arms. Before she could slide her panties down, August pulled her close, her back flush against him. He ripped the scrap of fabric off and rubbed her already-swollen clit. Nicolette bucked against his fingers. He withdrew his hand and pushed her closer to her husband, who still gripped the arm rests as if he’d been glued there.
“Straddle him. Rub against him. Let him feel how wet I make you.”
She was too far gone to resist grinding her bare pussy against her husband’s leg.
“So, what do you think, Dominic? More or less than the results you could get?”
Dominic glared at the vampire.
August brought Nicolette’s arm to his mouth. He bit down and drank, eliciting a moan from her as she rocked against her husband. When he finished drinking, the vampire pulled her away from him.
“Do you really imagine she wants you at all? I never needed to drug her,” Dominic said.
August’s face remained mild, but the barb hit its mark. “Stop. Speaking.”
August took in the blissful silence as he pulled Nicolette onto the couch with him. He arranged her on her back, her legs splayed.
He leaned over her and licked the glistening folds of skin. She groaned and squirmed against his mouth as he lapped between her legs, but she was crying. Even with his blood. He felt her pain as it dug into him and burned through his veins. What th
e fuck was he doing? He snapped out of the red haze and pulled her into his arms and held her. She’s right. I’m a monster. He didn’t deserve her. He didn’t deserve salvation.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so angry. I can’t shut it off. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to punish him. I couldn’t see you. I couldn’t think. I can’t shut it off. I’m sorry.”
He pushed her away and retreated into the kitchen.
Chapter Thirteen
Nicole couldn’t look at Dominic. Instead, she searched for her clothing, something to cover up and hide. She turned away as she slipped her shirt over her head and put the jeans back on. She didn’t bother with undergarments. She just wanted to be covered.
“Nicole. Come here, sweetheart.”
In spite of the million reasons she could think of to run out of the house and never stop running, she crossed the room to him. The sight of his arms held out to her made her heart stick in her throat.
“Come here.”
She sat on his lap, and his arms came around her. She started to cry again.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. In my defense, vampires aren’t real.”
She couldn’t help the small, nervous laugh. “Do you still love me?” She was afraid to hear the answer but couldn’t fight the urge to ask the question.
“It’s not your fault. If he could control me like that… ”
She wanted to tell him the truth. It was her fault. It was her fault she’d allowed the link and tied herself to him. And she wasn’t enthralled—not like Dominic had been. He’d had no free will to resist the vampire’s commands. She simply hadn’t had the will power, not with August’s bite and his blood. The blood made her stop caring for a while, but it didn’t remove her free will.
But if she told him that, he’d be disgusted, and she still needed one person in the world who could love her. Someone human.
“Where’s my bracelet?”
He opened the drawer on the end table and pulled it out. As the clasp snicked against her skin, she let out a breath.