Blood Wicked

by Sharon Page

  Heath could smell the mortal woman’s blood. His hunger was swamping his head. He shoved Raine aside so hard, his brother sprawled onto the floor. The woman screamed and she tried to run, but she crashed into the locked door. Realizing she was trapped, she pounded on it.

  “Look at him.” He heard Nikolai triumphantly shout to Vivienne. “You are turning him into that. It is your scent that has brought out the beast in him. You made love to him once, and that has given the curse more power over him.”

  Dimly, Heath saw Nikolai grasp Vivi’s arms and force her to look at him. “He never feeds from mortals. Never. He has denied himself blood for months at a time. But because of you, he will become the very thing he has fought against. A mindless animal. He will act like the demon he is destined to be.”

  “No, stop it. Please.”

  Heath could not stop prowling toward the terrified woman. Her blood lured him. His body throbbed with the desire to feed.

  “Stop it!” Vivienne screamed.

  “That is what you want?” Nikolai asked, and the conscious part of Heath’s mind heard the triumph. What in hell was his sire doing?

  “Yes. Please, yes,” Vivi desperately answered. Her blue eyes were huge with fear. And—hell, and guilt.

  Laughing happily, Nikolai pulled a long wooden stake from a pocket in his flowing cloak. “This is the only way to stop him.” Heath knew he had to regain control, but the scent of blood was flooding his head. Think. Think like a damn man, not a beast.

  Nikolai stalked toward him. He couldn’t turn away from the terrified woman, even to protect himself. He wanted to take her—

  So he did. He scooped her into his arms, like a rescuer, and the motion seemed to snap his senses free for a moment. Long enough that he was in control and ran straight toward Nikolai. He jumped over his stunned sire and ran to Vivienne.

  She was swaying on her feet. And she shut her eyes as he came near her. “No,” she mumbled. “No. I want to wake up.”

  Hell, Nikolai had brought her here through a dream, the way succubi went to men in the night. Could he take control? He had to get them out of there. He knew now what Nikolai wanted: to drive that stake through his heart and destroy him, then force Vivienne to make love to Raine and trigger his curse.

  Vivi, he shouted into her thoughts. Take control. Dream that we are outside, that we are at my carriage. We are going to escape.

  The room suddenly swirled around them. Vivi screamed, and the woman in his arms did the same. Surrounded by women’s cries, Heath felt himself hurtled forward into darkness. And in the next instant, hard cobbles were beneath his feet, snorting horses stood in front of him. Dimitri’s coachman held the door open. He still held the mortal woman. And Vivienne faced him with wide, startled eyes.

  “You did it, Flower.” He hugged Vivi tight. “You saved us all.”

  17

  Her father was the vampire who had made and cursed Heath.

  Heath wrapped his arms around her, but Vivienne pulled away. Shame and horror brewed inside her, making a caustic mix of acid and bile. She slid into the shadows by the carriage wall and pressed her shoulder hard against paneled wood, filled with ruthless anger and despair.

  Her father was not just a demon; he was a brutal, unconscionable killer, and she had seen the proof of it with her own eyes. He had planned to drive a stake into Heath’s heart. He wanted Heath to bite and kill an innocent woman. They had taken that poor woman to her home, and Heath had soothed her with a handful of sovereigns.

  Nikolai had told her he was going to destroy Heath to protect her, because Heath would make love to her and change, then kill her. She didn’t believe Nikolai. Her father had been delighted by the prospect of killing the man she loved in front of her eyes. Never would she believe he was doing that for her.

  How could Heath look at her without thinking of what a vile monster her father was? Vivienne jumped from the carriage, slipping her hand free as Heath tried to clasp her wrist.

  “Vivi, love, wait—”

  But she didn’t. Stones skittered from beneath her feet as she rushed up the steps, passed the footmen who stood as guards at Dimitri’s door, and plunged into the cool darkness.

  She stumbled through the house, winding blindly through the corridors. Dimitri’s guests halted their conversations and turned to stare at her. One couple even paused in the middle of a fierce session of lovemaking against a wall, stunned, apparently, by the sight of a tearstained woman running as though for her life. She reached her room and slammed the door behind her.

  Her father was a monster. What did that make her?

  She knew what she was. A horrible, destructive demon, like Nikolai. She would destroy Heath just by making him care about her. Her father had created her for that very reason. In her, he had wanted to create an irresistible evil intended to destroy human men. She was to have been the first of an army of succubi.

  Tears dropped to her cheeks. This was the exact same torment Sarah was going through—

  “It’s all right, love.”

  She knew it was Heath, and his deep, throaty voice made her throat tighten. His lips slid over the back of her neck. At once she shivered with heat and awareness.

  “How can you bear to touch me?” she cried. Guilt dragged at her shoulders, pulled at her as though trying to swallow her up in the depths of hell. “The vampire who ruined your life is my father. He has taken the one thing that you’ve wanted. The promise of love.”

  Heath only hugged her tighter. He pulled her back against his wide chest, and rested his chin on top of her head. No one had ever held her like this. No lover. Certainly not her vicious father. No one but Heath.

  “It’s not entirely his fault, Flower. When I went to the Carpathians and tried to live in a constant drunken stupor, I was looking to destroy my life. Your father merely helped a man find the eternal damnation he wanted. It has nothing to do with you, Vivi. You didn’t control what he did. You didn’t even know who he was.”

  Heath undid the fastenings of her gown. His breath teased her ear as he peeled her dress from her, his touch gentle. Not like a hot, lusty lover, but like someone who could love her.

  He deserved to love someone, and not the person who could destroy him. “No, you cannot do this.”

  “Vivi, you are no more like your father than Sarah is like hers.”

  “But I’m destroying you! My father explained everything to me. I am the reason you aren’t healing anymore, why you almost attacked the woman to drink her blood. My very presence is destroying you. Just by making love to you once, I’ve given the curse more power over you. And it’s killing you.”

  She covered her face with her hands. “My father tried to kill you. And I am so terrified that he will use me to do it.”

  “Angel …” His voice was so soft. “You don’t have to be afraid of what you are.”

  She half-turned and met his silvery gaze through the veil of her fingers. “Yes, I do. I am a demon. It’s my fault those men are dead. I didn’t mean to do anything—I didn’t know—but it doesn’t change what happened. Wouldn’t the world be better if I was destroyed? But then I think about Sarah; I can’t leave her alone.”

  Heath’s hand cupped her chin. His eyes flashed sparks at her, like flecks of gold leaping off a roaring fire. “No. Don’t ever say you should be destroyed.”

  “But it’s true. I told my father I would never take a man’s soul again.” She flushed. She had shouted it at Nikolai and he had given a sardonic, infuriating laugh in return. “He told me I will become worse. The pain I feel will get stronger. He told me I won’t age; I’ll stay like this so I can be pretty enough to lure men into making love to me. I don’t want to do that! I won’t ever do it again.” And her father had not told her she was immortal.

  But then, she guessed Nikolai intended to destroy her when he was finished using her.

  Heath stroked her trembling arms, then cradled her. “You won’t have to.”

  “But don’t you see? I’ve only
survived because you have given me pleasure. But that is destroying you.”

  “You are shivering.” With brisk efficiency, Heath peeled her gown down to her ankles. She had to step out of it. And before she could blink, he returned with a thick velvet robe from her wardrobe.

  He drew it on her, and just as she was about to protest, he slanted his mouth over hers. She tried to pull free because she had no right to kiss him. But his grip on her waist was far too tight. And the kiss turned her shivers into ripples of desire.

  I want to prove to you how lovable you are, he whispered in her head.

  “You—you can’t make love to me.”

  “No. But I can do this—”

  His tongue traced the line of her neck, along the back. His tongue was so warm, so firm, trailing hot and moist over her tingling skin. The tip ran up and down, making her quiver, and ache, and need.

  She tried to pull away, but his hands locked tight around her waist. “You have to stop,” she whispered. “The more you do this, the more you are turning yourself into a demon. These kisses mean my father is winning.”

  But he shook his head. “There is no way I could stop touching you now, Vivi.” His palms skimmed up along her side, following the now wrinkled silk of her velvet robe. She had to moan at the firm, delicious pressure. “I need this,” he murmured, and cupped her breasts.

  Her breasts almost seemed to swell and plump at his touch. His palms brushed her soft bosom inside the robe, rubbed over her nipples. Her cunny ached for him.

  “Stop,” she gasped. She shoved at his broad, heavily muscled chest, trying to push him away. But he didn’t budge. “I can’t do this. It only proves my father was right. I’m a monster. I just vowed I would never bed a man again, yet here I am, on fire for you. You only have to touch my nipples and I’m burning for you. I can’t resist you—”

  “Then don’t. I know exactly what I’m doing, Vivi. This is about love. You don’t believe you should be loved. And I intend to show you how much you are.”

  He bent his head, held her breasts up, and flicked his tongue over her nipples. Deeply, intensely, he sucked in her right nipple. Pleasure shot through her, leaving her weak in the knees. Then he let her nipple slide out, reddened to a happy scarlet. And it no longer looked like a plump little thimble; it stood up higher, fuller, harder. Her nipples adored him.

  And her heart …

  Love.

  Another four-letter word. Very similar to hope, yet even more dangerous.

  She clutched his shoulders. Pleaded with him through her thoughts. Stop. Stop. Stop. But he didn’t obey. And she wasn’t strong enough to push him away—because he was big, and as immovable as a brick wall. And she wasn’t strong enough in her heart.

  From nipple to nipple, Heath moved. Licking. Caressing. Suckling hard. She let her head drop back. And sobbed with the sheer agonizing pleasure of it. “It’s hopeless. I don’t want you to stop.”

  “I’ve only started, Vivi.”

  He dropped to one knee in front of her. He lifted her foot, balancing it on his palm. The position opened her cunny to him, parting her nether lips with a sticky little tug.

  Smiling, he arched up and pressed his mouth to her dark gold curls. He kissed her there, between her thighs.

  She had to grasp his shoulders or she would have melted to the floor. She blotted everything else out. Fear. Guilt. The future. Instead she shut her eyes tight and felt.

  His tongue was firm at the tip and could flick her most sensitive places with teasing punishment. When he applied the flat of it in a long sweep over her clit, it rasped in a way that made her very soul quiver. His breath was a swift breeze of heat. He was thawing her. She knew it. He was making her so hot, he was melting the cold fear wrapped around her heart.

  She clutched his shoulders and ground against him … and surrendered to the pleasure.

  Next thing she knew, his mouth was on hers, tasting salty and earthy. He broke the kiss, rested his forehead against hers. Tears lay in her eyelashes. Tears … tears that slid out and would not stop.

  He scooped her into his arms. “I could make love to you,” he rasped.

  Pure terror sliced icily into her heart and stopped the tears. “No, you can’t. You cannot forget about the curse.”

  “I could cut my own heart afterward; destroy my body before I became a demon.”

  “Heath, you can’t.” She would not allow it. She would not let him make love to her.

  “It would be worth it. For one more time with you.”

  Now she was scared.

  He carried her to the bed, and her heartbeat became a roar in her ears. But he shook his head. “Don’t worry, love. I won’t do anything stupid. Just touch me, Vivi. I need your touch.”

  He needed her touch, when she was bringing him nothing but destruction.

  “I need it to live, Flower. It’s as simple as that. My existence isn’t worth anything if I don’t have your touch. That’s how I feel.” He got off the bed and took off his clothes. He never stopped looking at her as he did.

  He was so beautiful. She’d never savored a man’s body as she savored his. But Nikolai had said each act of pleasure between them was making Heath weaker.

  “My heart needs your touch, Vivi,” he said. “You talked about destroying yourself to protect the world. That’s what I should do. And I would, except—”

  Dear heaven, was he going to say except for her?

  “Except I need to stop Nikolai. I’m sorry—I know he is your father—but I have to stop him. I can’t let him unleash either Raine or me on the world.”

  “There’s nothing to be sorry for. He’s a monster. I know that. I know what you have to do.”

  “Your touch,” he said softly, “gives me hope. I know that’s hopeless—” He gave a wry smile. “But for a little while when I’m pleasuring you, I can forget the future. So please, love. Give me what I crave so much.”

  Her hand trembled a bit. Her fingers brushed the bare skin of his forearm. She stroked his arm, tracing the lines of his veins. He had such beautiful arms. She got on her knees. Put her mouth to his right bicep, kissed along the hard bulge, and watched him shudder.

  “What are you proposing?” she whispered. “Are you going to take me to Dimitri’s orgy and watch me again?”

  “I don’t know.” Deep, harsh lines framed his mouth.

  She swept her fingers up over the crest of his shoulder, then slid her hands down his chest. Daringly, she tweaked his nipple. She had to swallow the bite of tears. She wished they were both normal. Mortal. She wished she was pinching his nipple for erotic play before he would lay her down and make love to her….

  She ran her hands over the ridges of his abdomen. Then, with two hands, she clasped his cock.

  But he eased her hands away, his prick moving with a swift upward jolt as she released him. “I know of a way we can have a night of pleasure ourselves. Just the two of us.”

  “You aren’t planning to make love to me and then … drive a stake in your heart, are you? I am not going to allow it.”

  “No, my beautiful one. We’re going to share pleasure, but my cock won’t touch you.”

  Vivienne had pulled on a scarlet robe, but Heath prowled naked along the corridor. With his long stride, his relaxed posture, he moved as comfortably as if he wore evening dress. Vivienne knew she would never feel as natural about sexual things, about being naked, as he did.

  He reached a door, jiggled the doorknob. Then he whispered some words in a soft voice, and the lock mysteriously clicked and the door swung open.

  She blinked. “Was that magic?” She thought of Guidon’s door. “Or a trick?”

  A sly grin curved his mouth. “Both. I believe this was Guidon’s invention for Dimitri, created a century ago. The metal inside responds to the resonance of a voice.”

  Heath winked, looking rather like a naughty boy. A naked, muscular, beautiful naughty boy. He crooked his finger. “We have to sneak in. Dimitri won’t be pleased if he catc
hes us. He saves this room for his female conquests.”

  Now she was terribly intrigued. She glanced up and down the corridor, but really, for all she knew Dimitri could sense them from the other side of the enormous mansion. Heath pulled her inside and closed the door behind them. The lock clicked again. A golden glow filled the room from a small fire in the grate. Light slanted along the polished doors of six closed wardrobes. It fell upon two chaises of Grecian design, two wing chairs, and a low table that stood in front of the fireplace.

  She had expected the room to be lit only by bluish-white moonlight. Instead, several lamps added to the golden glow. Heath flashed another smile that made her legs shake, her quim throb. “I think our host intends to use the room later.” He crossed the room toward one of the large wardrobes.

  “What is in those?”

  “Dimitri’s collection of carnal toys.” His eyes glinted teasingly.

  “You are joking,” she said.

  “I’m not. Honestly.”

  “He collects them?” The half-dozen wardrobes were enormous. How many whips and riding crops and shackles could any man need? Giggles hit her then. “Are they … used toys?”

  “I assume so. Though washed, or repaired, and then given a place of pride in his collection room.”

  “Repaired. Heavens, how does one break a sex toy?”

  His grin sparkled with wickedness. “Vigorous thrusting?”

  “I suppose.” She giggled as she tried to imagine how. “Would it be possible to break one in half? Perhaps by trying to balance on it before it was completely inside?”

  “Balance on it? What naughty things have you done before, Flower?”

  She couldn’t answer. She had used a dildo for her own pleasure. She would put it inside and lie on her bed, using the mattress to thrust against.

  Heath’s low laugh seemed to flood through every nerve. Deliciously. She had never done this. Laughed so openly and freely with a man.