Blood Bond

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “Is that what you want, Justice? My teeth on your skin?”

  “That’s part of it.”

  “And the rest?”

  Her gaze was direct, almost cold. “If you’re going to stick around, I want you strong enough to stop me if I try to kill you.”

  Ronan didn’t know if her concern was sweet or insulting. “Who says I’m not strong enough now?”

  She pulled her Glock and aimed it at him. The move was planned, deliberate. “I say so.”

  “You think that because you have a gun aimed at me that I’m helpless?”

  “Aren’t you?”

  Rather than answer, he simply acted. He used the power flowing through his veins to speed his movements, and in a blurry split second, he had her caged against the metal wall, her gun hand pinned high above her head.

  “Hardly,” he said.

  A look of relief softened her features and relaxed the tension coiled in her body. She let out a long breath and sagged where he held her.

  Her little display was over, but the animal inside Ronan was just getting started.

  “Testing me isn’t smart,” he said in a low voice too close to a growl for his peace of mind.

  “Neither is being near me.”

  He had no other choice. She compelled him as completely as the fates that controlled her. He could no more walk away from her now than she could simply decide to disobey her compulsions.

  “You and I are both prisoners of our nature. I need your blood and that isn’t going to change. It’s about time you accepted that you’re stuck with me.”

  “So, it is about my blood?” she asked.

  “Does that make it easier for you to accept me staying with you?”

  Her chin jerked up, her expression became defiant. “I don’t worry about what’s easy and what isn’t. Life isn’t about easy.”

  “What’s it about then?” he asked.

  “Duty.” The word popped out, automatic and without hesitation.

  Something about that tickled the back of his mind as if it were a missing piece to a puzzle he was working on.

  Before he could take the time to figure out where the piece went, she said, “If you’re going to be near me, it’s your duty to stay strong. Take my blood, Ronan. I need to know you’re strong enough to defeat me if the fates make me hurt you.”

  He would never defeat her. Subdue her? Yes. But never defeat.

  She was still pinned against the wall, her smaller body caged by his. She wasn’t fighting his hold, but her stare was one-hundred percent challenge. If he didn’t do as she asked, he had no doubt that she’d try to ditch him again.

  That was the true danger. Not only would she be alone to face whatever came her way, but he didn’t think he’d be able to contain his anger a second time.

  If she tried to leave him again, he’d be forced to do something drastic. Possibly something unforgivable.

  Even now, with her lithe body trapped by his hand, dark urges were surfacing inside him. He liked having her against him. He liked controlling her body. He loved knowing that she wasn’t going anywhere unless he let her.

  The animal side of him found her captivity arousing, consuming. His cold skin heated and a flush spread out through his limbs. Need prowled through his veins, entwining itself with the part of her that still lingered inside him.

  He wanted more. So much more. He wanted to strip her bare and fuck her right here against the wall while he fed from her. Her blood was hottest between her thighs, sweet and heady with the taste of her arousal.

  That’s where he loved most to feed, with her naked and splayed for his enjoyment.

  Justice’s hips surged against him. “Take me, Ronan. Whatever you want.”

  Such dark temptation was beyond him to resist. He could smell her sexual need entwining with his own, combining into a new, powerful scent that drove him mad with lust.

  He eased the gun from her hand and tossed it aside. There was no soft bed here, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t in a bed kind of mood. The hard wall was just what he had in mind.

  Before he lost himself in the haze of lust, his essence dove inside her body and used a sudden burst of power to heal her wounds all at once. He wasn’t gentle about it, and when she cried out in pleasure or pain—he couldn’t tell which—he covered her mouth with his and drank in the sound.

  He freed her arms just long enough to strip off her jeans and open his own. His cock was throbbing and thick, the head slick with his need for her.

  He lifted her body, wrapped her legs around his hips and surged inside her in one heavy thrust.

  Paradise. Destiny. Home.

  She felt like all those things and more. The hot grip of her slick body welcomed him inside. Her silvery-green gaze promised him impossible things.

  Ronan shut his eyes to block it all out. He didn’t want to think about what would happen next. All he wanted was to feel this moment with her and know that neither of them was completely alone.

  As he moved inside of her, all thoughts were washed away on a wave of pleasure unlike anything he’d ever felt before. The woman he craved with every fiber of his being surrounded him. She wove through him, part of his very cells. After a lifetime of living half a life, he was finally made whole by her.

  The pressure of his orgasm would not be denied. He was too far gone to hold back and make this moment last. Justice was far too potent for self-control.

  Rather than dive into the fiery throes of climax alone, he sought out her mind and forced her to feel what he felt. Within seconds, she was right there with him, desperate and needy and gasping for one more breath before the tidal wave broke over them.

  As the pleasure crashed inward, they were together, grasping onto each other as the only anchor in the storm.

  His seed exploded out of him, flooding her. The feeling was so exquisite, he was left blind and deaf. He could feel her chest vibrating with her cries of release but couldn’t hear the music. He could sense the way her body arched against his but couldn’t see her beautiful face tense with her climax.

  The intense sensations went on and on until there was no air left to breathe, no semen left to spill.

  After his orgasm released his body back into his control, he felt oddly renewed, rather than spent. Justice’s magic had wrapped itself around him and given him everything he could possibly need.

  Well, almost everything.

  He laid her gasping body on the ground, settled between her limp legs, lowered his head, and began to feed.

  ***

  Justice had just drifted off into a satisfied sleep when she felt pressure behind her eyes.

  She lay on the cold floor of her warehouse with Ronan’s body cradling hers. His breathing was deep and even, but she could tell without looking that he was awake.

  Part of him was inside her, weaving through her mind as if he could knit himself to her permanently. The way she was feeling now, with her body humming pleasantly and her muscles relaxed and loose, maybe he could. He certainly possessed enough magic to make her body do whatever he wanted it to.

  Her thighs clenched together as she remembered the way he’d pulled orgasm after orgasm from her as he’d fed. Her throat was still sore from screaming.

  “Just relax,” he whispered into her hair. “Close your eyes and relax.”

  If she was any more relaxed, she’d melt into a puddle and soak into the concrete floor.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Playing with the fates.”

  Whatever he was doing, it felt nice. There was a slight pressure, almost like her mind was stretching to hold more of him, but even that was an odd kind of pleasure. Much like her body stretching to hold the thickness of his cock.

  “I think it’s a single presence,” he said.

  “One fate?” she asked.

  “Not fate. Not karma or God. Something else.” His voice drifted off as the pressure behind her eyes warmed.

  Justice floated and let him do what he wanted
. She didn’t try to shove him out or block him from seeing her thoughts. There were so few of them in her mind now, anyway.

  Ronan had done a thorough job of fucking her brains out.

  “It’s a woman,” he said, his voice faint and distant. “Powerful. She….” The warm band of Ronan flowing through her mind tightened as his arms flexed around her body. “She knows I’m here. She knows I’m trying to stop her.”

  Sharp, needlelike pain raced just below Justice’s skull and made her cry out and clench her head. Her mind filled with a shrill buzzing sound. It wasn’t words, but each vibration was filled with meaning she couldn’t understand. Panic. Desperation. Fear. Everything was too jumbled to understand, but the emotions ricocheting through her were strong enough to steal her breath.

  Ronan retreated instantly and gathered her up in his arms. As soon as he was gone from her mind, the pain began to ease. Only the echoes of desperation remained.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Justice nodded rather than trusting her voice.

  “What did you feel?”

  “Pain. Panic.”

  “Yours?” he asked.

  She wasn’t sure anymore. Everything had bombarded her at once, and she could no longer tell if what she’d felt was her own emotions, or those of someone else. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  Ronan let out a resigned breath. “Whoever she was, she’s far stronger than I am, even after I’ve fed. We’re going to have to try something else.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

  “It means I’m going to need help to evict her.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “Logan. Maybe Tynan as well.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that.” She sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to another attempt to evict the woman in her head.

  He hesitated for a moment. “They’ll have to take some of your blood. It’s the only way they could connect to you deeply enough to do what must be done.”

  “So?”

  “So, the idea of another Sanguinar feeding from you makes me feel quite violent. I love my brothers and wish them no harm, but I’m afraid of what I might do if they were to get their fangs anywhere near you.”

  She rolled over and faced him. Just the sight of his face had the power to calm her nerves and ease her fears.

  He truly was a magical creature.

  “Possessive, are we?” she asked in an effort to lighten his mood.

  “Deeply. But for you, I’ll get over it. We need my brothers’ help to free you.”

  There were no more echoes of that pain now, just an empty kind of hum where it had once been. She felt hollowed out somehow, as if part of her had been removed and left empty. A vacuum.

  “Who could she be?” Justice asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m starting to get the feeling that you know her—or did, before your memories were stripped from you.”

  Justice chewed on that for a moment. “Hope told me that her memories came back when she took some of Logan’s blood. Do you think that would work for me? That your blood could restore my memories?”

  “Perhaps, but it’s too dangerous.”

  “Because of what I might remember?”

  “Because my seed is still within you. If you ingest my blood, it will be possible for you to become pregnant. I won’t sentence my child to a life of starvation.”

  She nodded. “Right. I agree. I forgot for a second.” Besides, what the hell would she do with a kid? It’s not like she could tote a baby across the planet while she followed the whims of the fates.

  Or a single fate, as the case was.

  Justice needed a better name for the woman who’d ruined her life. The bitch, maybe.

  Something about that seemed off. Wrong. Disrespectful. As much as Justice hated being used, she hated even more being judged by those who didn’t understand why she did the things she did.

  She did bad things, so that made her bad. Only she didn’t want to do them, so was she truly to blame? Justice had always held onto the idea that she wasn’t evil. It was the only way she could live with herself.

  What if this woman was in the same boat—being forced to torture Justice against her will for some reason? Maybe she was no more evil than Justice was.

  As soon as that thought entered her mind, it expanded and settled into the cracks in her memory, as if mending them. She saw faces for a split second, but not long enough to name them. Before she could capture the image, it disappeared. There was a flicker of recognition and a thought that almost formed into a whole memory before falling to pieces once again.

  She closed her eyes and let her head fall back to the concrete floor. As soon as she recovered from a pang of disappointment, she said, “I think that whoever is doing this to me doesn’t like it any more than I do.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I don’t know. Just a feeling, I guess.”

  “A feeling is progress. We’ll take it as a win.”

  “It doesn’t seem like one, but I guess in a sea of losses, it’s about as close as we’re going to get to a win.”

  He stroked her temple with one long, tapered finger. His blue eyes slid across her features as if caressing them.

  He was so handsome, she couldn’t help but do a little staring of her own. Women everywhere would kill for one night with a man like him, and she’d already had him twice.

  Now that was a win.

  “Will you come back to Dabyr with me?” he asked.

  “I don’t think that’s smart. There’s something about that place that blocked the fates—the woman—from reaching me. I’m afraid if I’m there too long, the next time I leave, it might kill me.”

  “Joseph won’t let any of the Sanguinar leave, not so close to the births. If we want help from Logan and Tynan, we’ll have to go to them.”

  “Maybe they can help me once the babies are born?”

  Ronan shook his head. “I don’t want to wait that long. Every time this woman sends you on an errand, you’re risking your life. You’ve been shot multiple times this week. We need to get rid of her before it’s too late.”

  Before he’d finished speaking, the perimeter alarm guarding the warehouse began to scream. A second later, a hole exploded in the door where the lock used to be and armed men flooded the warehouse.

  Ronan leapt to his feet, gloriously naked and predatory. His fangs lengthened, his fingernails grew into sharp claws. His blue eyes lit with angry fire as he lifted his hand toward the intruders.

  A faint blue light began to spread out from his fingertips, but before it could grow into a protective shield, one of the men fired.

  A bright, red hole bloomed in the middle of Ronan’s chest. He flew back and landed hard on the concrete floor.

  Denial billowed up inside Justice like giant dragon wings as she rushed to Ronan’s side. She didn’t care that the men might shoot her in the back. All she cared about was stopping the flow of blood spilling from Ronan’s heart.

  Before she could reach him, one of the men grabbed her foot and dragged her away from Ronan.

  Something sharp jabbed into her calf, but she didn’t care.

  Panic fueled her strength but stole all ability to think clearly. She kicked and fought her attackers and all she gained was a few grunts of pain and several harsh curses.

  Her body became heavy. Her vision fogged and shrank into a distant tunnel. At the end was Ronan, his blood pooling on the concrete beneath his still body, his sightless eyes staring toward heaven.

  These men had killed him and the only comfort Justice could find was knowing she would soon follow him into death’s embrace.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nika found her husband pacing in front of the glass sliders leading out onto the wide, open grounds of Dabyr. Nervous energy spilled out of him and flooded the mental link they shared.

  She’d tried to send him soothing thoughts to reassure him that everything with her and the
baby was going to be fine, but his mind was too filled with all the things that could go wrong for her to have any effect.

  Clearly, he’d read one too many medical textbook about delivery and what could go wrong.

  “You’re wearing out your shoes,” she told him.

  He turned away from the empty night as if startled to find her there.

  Madoc was a big man, with wide shoulders and plenty of muscle. But lately, he’d lost weight, too worried about the birth of their daughter to eat.

  His bright green eyes narrowed as he studied both her body and her mind.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is the baby okay?”

  Nika stifled a frustrated sigh and gathered her patience. “We’re fine. Everything is fine except you.”

  “I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  She nodded to the sword in his hand. “You’re not exactly acting normal.”

  He turned back to look outside and growled, “I won’t let those fuckers come for my baby.”

  “This is supposed to be a time of joy and excitement, Madoc. I really wish you could relax and enjoy it just a little.”

  “I’d enjoy killing something.”

  “You’ve been out of the field too long. Maybe you should go on patrol or something.”

  “And leave you undefended? Like fuck I will.”

  She shook her head. Her white hair had grown like a weed since she’d gotten pregnant, and now it hung nearly to her waist, getting in the way every time she moved. If not for how much Madoc seemed to like it, she would have cut it off months ago.

  “I’m hardly defenseless,” she said. “I’ve killed my share of demons since I’ve had access to your power.”

  “Killing is my job right now. You shouldn’t be straining yourself in your condition.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Madoc. I’m pregnant, not dying.”

  He stalked to her, grim and dangerous.

  Her insides melted with need. It had been too long since they’d had sex. For both of them. No matter how many times she told him that it was perfectly safe for the baby, he refused—some remnant from his antiquated upbringing, she guessed.