“And then?” Verity’s soft voice threw him a lifeline. He held tightly to her, knowing he would not drown with his arms around her.
“She bit me.”
“What?”
How to describe it? The sensation of fangs tearing at flesh? Nick sighed. “Her teeth lengthened into fangs, Verity. She ripped into my neck and lacerated every muscle, every tendon, even the artery that fed my mind. She drank from me. Sucked the blood from me in great gulps—I can still hear that sound in my darkest moments.”
There was silence for a moment. “Dear God.”
He sighed. “God has nothing to do with Thérèse, my sweet.” He drew a ragged breath and continued. “She fed from me with a violence that knocked me all but unconscious.”
“And yet you survived?”
Nick frowned. “Yes. In the fog of pain and shock I remember her pulling away, pieces of my flesh hanging from her mouth. It was—unspeakable, Verity. Something I simply cannot put into words. But what came next…”
Her fingers tightened once more around his, offering what comfort she could.
“Next, she seemed to come to a decision. To keep me in her thrall, I suppose. Her eyes—black as night, like mine are now—they burned red and she tore into her own wrist then forced it against my mouth, her blood flowing freely to fill my throat. It was either swallow or die choking.” He paused for a moment. “I should have chosen to die.”
“No Nick.” Verity turned and nestled tightly to him. “No. No living thing wants to die. You chose the only path you could. You were injured, wounded to death. You only did what any creature, any human would do. You chose to live.”
“Did I?” He wondered how to explain all this. “I am not living, Verity. Not as you would understand it. After Thérèse had finished with me there was little of the mortal Nick Blaine left, other than this shell of a man. I crawled into the darkness of the forest and stayed there for a while, learning about the new existence I was now condemned to suffer.”
He closed his eyes. This was harder than he’d imagined. “I learned I could not tolerate the light of the sun. It burns me, a pain that cannot be described. I do not need food or drink to sustain me. My heart beats, but at so slow a speed you would not notice it. I do not age, I do not injure—or if I do it heals almost instantly. My skin is cool to the touch and my eyes…”
“Are no longer the blue of an English summer sky, but the black of a warm whispering night.”
Nick had almost forgotten Verity was there and her words caught him by surprise. He hugged her. “So fanciful. So poetic. You have been reading Lord Byron I think.”
“‘Tis all in one’s perspective. Go on with your tale, Nick.”
“There’s not much more to tell. I have survived—if you can call it that—in this state of darkness, of shadows, for more years than I can remember. Nothing has seemed important anymore, or worthwhile. I drift, no longer Sir Nicholas Blaine, aristocrat. Now I am Nick Blaine…vampire.”
“You are so wrong.” Verity surprised him with a touch of anger in her words. “You are still Nicholas Blaine. Still the man who asks questions of life and nature. Still the man whose heart is good and true, even though it beats differently now.” She rested her head against him in a gesture of trust and affection that shocked Nick.
“You are still the man I fell in love with as a child. And the man who caressed me with gentleness and care when I needed it—yet knew when I needed more than tenderness. You still feel, Nick. Your body may not be as mine, but your soul? It’s still as human as anybody’s.”
“I wish I could believe that.” She turned, but he laid a finger across her lips to halt her words. “There is more, love. I have done things—seen things—I have done what I had to do in order to survive. You were right when you said that all creatures have that instinct. But in my case—well, survival isn’t always…pretty.” He fought once more for the right words.
“I feed, Verity. On blood. On that essence that grants us all life.”
She was silent for a moment. “Have you killed for it?”
“No.” Nick’s denial was immediate, followed by a clarification he felt obliged to make. “Not that I know of.”
“Well, that’s all right then.”
Nick couldn’t help the laugh that surprised him with its sudden emergence. It had been so long since he’d done that… “You are—incredible.”
“Nonsense. I’m practical.” She turned in his arms. “Look, Nick. We’ve both done things we wish we hadn’t, but we’ve been forced into them by circumstances we could not control. You have become something quite out of the ordinary—something I’m not sure I fully understand, but you’re here. Holding me. You are real.” She sighed. “I’ve done things I’m not proud of. Things I’d take back in a second if I were permitted. But I’m here too. In your arms. I’m real.”
“And not afraid of a blood-sucking monster who shuns the daylight?”
She chuckled. “I probably would be if he were here. But I’m not afraid of you, Nick. I never could be. And you have not withdrawn from a wanton slut who has been little more than a sexual aide to her employers. So who am I to cast stones?”
Nick’s grip tightened until he heard Verity’s breath catch in her throat. “Don’t you ever—ever—demean yourself like that. I was there, remember? I saw. I knew what those two were in an instant. And I knew what you were.”
“What was I?” It was a whisper that carried anguish buried in its heart, an anguish that Nick sensed deep in Verity.
“You were unwilling, love. Trapped like a mouse beneath the paw of a vicious cat.”
She uttered a sound that was half a sob and half a sigh. “You knew.”
He held her snugly, cuddling her in to his body. He could offer her comfort, if not warmth. “I knew. I have told you my tale, Verity. Will you not honor me with yours? How the young maid I knew so long ago ended up in that…that…whorehouse?”
She shrugged. “‘Tis a much more common tale than yours, Nick.”
He dropped a light kiss on her shoulder. “Get comfortable here. Take this off…” He tugged at the coat and helped her free herself. “That’s better.”
The coat was spread over them and Nick breathed in the scent of warm Verity. He wanted to bury his face in her breasts and just inhale until she was deeply embedded in his lungs and his heart…
“Let me loosen this cravat…” She untied the white linen and sighed with pleasure as the folds fell away and her shirt parted more comfortably across her breasts.
“Oh yes. Much better.” Nick’s hand strayed to the curves he could see by the candlelight. “So silky. I love touching you, Verity.”
She smiled. “It’s mutual. But I must make my confession here and now. I want no secrets between us, Nick. Not you and me. Anybody else—they have no business knowing these things. But you—well, you need to know. Before I surrender to your touch…”
“Mmm.” Nick purred as he caressed her. He did not care one whit about what she’d done before he’d met her. He just knew she was his, past, present and hopefully future. “Then tell me quick, love. I have a need growing inside me that only you can quench.”
She shivered a little as his hand cupped her breast and rested there, holding the precious weight in his palm. “You make it hard to think…but I’ll be quick. My brother was killed, Nick. Did you know?”
He nodded. “I heard. I’m sorry, love.” What else could he say?
“After Clive’s death, my father…well, he took it hard. He turned to cards and drink, losing more than we could afford. It was almost a mercy when he succumbed to an ague. It made him weak and feverish and I suppose the depression was worsened by his condition. He found his gun…” She shivered a little. “They call it taking the Gentleman’s Way out of difficulties. I think losing him to the ague would have been better for the rest of us. But my mother had succumbed to his illness while nursing him and losing them both—well, it was a difficult time.”
“I can believe that.” He c
ould not offer words of sympathy. His throat was clogged at the mere thought of what she’d gone through.
“I survived, of course. Only to find myself penniless. There were debts to be settled. The usual business of wrapping up an estate. I took care of it.”
Such a brief explanation of what must have been extraordinarily hard for a sheltered young lady. But that was Verity. Grounded, practical, setting her own emotions aside to do what had to be done.
“Then I turned to my future. I was well-educated and soon got an offer to be a governess. A nearby family with a young son…it worked well for a while.” She paused in her narration.
“And then?”
Verity cleared her throat. “Then the older son returned home. He—he desired me.”
“Ah.”
“I repelled his advances, of course, but to no avail. He came to my bed eventually and took me.”
“He raped you?” Nick’s fury threatened to choke him.
Verity lifted her hand and spread her fingers over his, pressing them firmly against her breast. “In some ways, yes. In others no. It’s hard to explain. I cannot say why I permitted it, Nick, but what it boils down to is that although I did not anticipate it or encourage it, I did permit it. I found…something in his attentions…in his touch. A connection, perhaps…a joining of two people that gave me something I’d lacked.”
Nick understood. The young girl had sought comfort in the arms of a man who offered much. But apparently had taken more. “What happened?”
“I mistook his attentions for more than they were. He spent several weeks visiting my bed, then one night we were discovered. He announced I’d lured him there, seduced him if you can believe that.” She laughed, not a joyful sound. “As if one such as I could seduce anybody.”
Nick tamped down on his rage, knowing he needed to hear the end of this sad story. “We’ll discuss your seductive capabilities in a bit, my love. For now—finish the tale?”
“Well, the inevitable occurred. I was tossed out on my ear with scarcely a shilling to my name. I managed on my own for a couple of months, working here and there—a temporary seamstress for a little while—I even waited on tables at a small inn for a week or two. They let me sleep in the barn and fed me. But there wasn’t enough money—I was hungry too often. Just one amongst the many looking for food and shelter.” She shook her head slightly. “No matter. ‘Tis past now. The end of the story happened when I stupidly fainted and the Dowager FitzAdams found me. She and Isolde took me in. The rest you know.”
She took a lot for granted. There was much he didn’t yet know, although now he understood a great deal more. But it could wait—for now. He simply held her, enjoying the touch of her hand over his, the welcoming heat of her breast and the soft sound of her breathing so close to his body.
“I want you, Nick. I want you so much. This wanting—it’s clawing at my heart like a wild creature.” She turned a little toward him. “Is this what desire is? A hunger that refuses to be sated?”
“That and so much more, sweetheart.”
She blinked as the candle sputtered. “The light is dying. Soon it will be quite dark. Forgive me if I’m too bold, but I would lie with you. Now. Here. In the blackness where nothing but our passion will shine.”
“Byron would be proud.” Nick grinned.
“If you need…Nick…I don’t know how to ask this…”
“Anything, my darling. Just ask.”
“Will you drink from me?”
A bolt of lust shook his body as his fangs immediately stirred within his gums. “I—Verity—what you ask…”
“It’s what I want. What I’d like. To join with you in this way that you say nourishes you. Somehow I feel that we’ll be closer. And you wouldn’t hurt me. I am sure of that.”
Nick was stunned. “How can you know?”
“I just do.” He felt her shrug as the candle went out and darkness filled the small cave. “If you don’t need to, that’s fine as well. I just wanted you to know that I would be willing.” Her hands found his face and cupped it. “I want to be with you, Nick. Shameless as I am I can confess this truth here in this little black world of ours. No pretenses, no lies…we have been honest with each other up to now. Why stop?”
He had no answer to her question. He simply bent his head to hers and kissed her gently.
Chapter Eleven
“I cannot see.” Verity melted as Nick kissed her and tumbled her onto the makeshift bed of pine boughs.
“‘Tis of no matter. I can.” His hands efficiently stripped her and consequent sounds told her he was removing his own clothes as well.
“You can see in the dark?”
“Yes. And what I see…” Hands skimmed her body, caressing every inch as she lay naked to his gaze.
“What? What do you see? How can you see? Oh Nick—there are so many questions yet to be asked and answered.”
He laid a hand over her lips. “There’s time, sweetheart. If you will stay with me we have time for all of them.”
Her reply was immediate. “Of course I’ll stay. There’s nowhere else I would rather be.”
Her thighs were spread apart. “I’d hoped you’d say that.” A light touch on her thigh made her jump. “You are so beautiful.”
Vainly she tried to catch a glimpse of him, to sense more than just his caresses. “What do you see? I cannot make anything out.”
“I see…” He paused for a moment. “I see your pussy. A riot of curls above sweet pinkness. Shining already with your wanting.” He touched her then, a brush of a fingertip along swollen folds that did indeed want him. Badly.
Verity moaned. “More.”
“I see a body that calls to mine, makes me hard and aching to sink into your cunt.”
She shivered at his words and the husky rasp to his voice.
“Blunt words, Verity. I use them because they suit the moment. If they offend…”
“No, no, Nick. I am not offended. I’m surprised, that’s all. Such words…I’ve heard them before, but only in a room where passion was not present. Only lust.”
“They’re descriptive and simple, love. But you’re right. They’re different between us. When I tell you my cock is hard and weeping for you already, weeping for that sweetness within your pussy, that heat I know awaits me deep inside you—that is passion. That is desire. Lust is there but so is need. Aching, throbbing need that drives me crazy.”
“Me too.” Shyly Verity let her hands roam. “I would feel this hard c-cock of yours, Nick.”
“It would be my honor.” The formal words were accompanied by a shifting sound, a crackling of branches and the pressure of Nick’s body as he slid up Verity’s and straddled her. “Part your lips for me.”
Puzzled, she obeyed. Then understood.
Something cool and slick slid past her lips and onto her tongue. Something damp with moisture and velvety smooth. Something that could only be Nick.
Eagerly she tasted him, shyly at first, little flicking brushes of her tongue around the strange grooves and ridges of him. Then she grew bolder, sucking and licking, hungry now for the sweet remembered taste of his cock. Her hands found his hips and clutched at them as if she could devour him this way, piece by piece, starting with the splendid length of him.
He groaned, a sound that delighted her. Truly he must enjoy this as much as she did. Gaining confidence, her hands roamed, finding the tufts of his hair between his parted thighs, grasping the thick base as it moved in concert with her mouth.
“Faith, Verity. You could suck a man’s brain out through his cock.” Nick rasped out the words as his thighs corded hard next to her body.
She found the sac beneath, a pouch that seemed to respond with little shivers to her lips and her tongue. She cupped it, rolling it within her palm, cautiously exploring the strange new geography of this man. Wiry curls clung to her hands then shifted away as he moved, a symphony of sexual delights that she conducted.
Unable to see, Verity relied on her
other senses, deriving great joy from the knowledge that she was giving him physical pleasure. His scent was—different, cool but spicy. His whole body was colder than hers, yet even that was an arousal in itself.
Slick skin brushed her burning body as he thrust himself into her mouth, finding her tongue with accuracy, begging silently for her to suck him again and again.
She did so willingly, loving this experience, freed by the darkness to learn a sensual lesson without inhibition. Finally, with a groan, Nick pulled away.
“No more. ‘Tis my turn now. A man can only take so much. Even a vampire such as me.” She heard the desire thickening his voice even as he joked. Then she thought no more—Nick’s mouth had lowered to her breasts.
“Your body enchants me. What do you feel when I do this?” Teeth nipped delicately at one hardened nipple. “Tell me, Verity. You cannot see, you can only feel. Share those feelings with me.”
She sought the words. “It feels—it feels like a thousand little lightning bolts striking my—my—nipple. Then exploding down my body, shocking everything it touches.” She writhed beneath his skilled lips, sighing then gasping as he licked and suckled her breasts. He nipped again, harder this time and she cried out.
“Too much? Is it too much, Verity?”
“Never too much, Nick. I-I like it sharp. I seem to desire the pleasure that you can give me when you—do that. When you are—not gentle.” She gulped. “‘Tis wrong, I know. Very wrong.”
Teeth grazed her belly. “Nothing is wrong. Nothing we do to each other will ever be wrong.” Strong hands found her pussy and strong fingers spread the lips apart. “You need the pain to enhance the pleasure, Verity. I understand that need. ‘Tis one I share and enjoy myself.”
A finger penetrated her, then another. She was stretched, breathless, shivering with the excitement Nick was arousing inside her.
“So tight and yet so wet. I see you, Verity. All of you. Naked and spread before my eyes. And I want to fuck you, sink into your shining heat and fill you—for eternity and longer.”
“Do it, Nick.” Past the point of courtesy or charm, Verity had shifted into a world of desire. A world where she wanted nothing but Nick. Inside her, on top of her, any way he wanted would be just fine. As long as it was Nick claiming her, fucking her to her peak and beyond.
Darkness In The Flames Page 33