Pierced [Pain & Love 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Ashlei D. Hawley

  “Did the previous owners finish the basement?” Mallory inquired. “Is that one of the reasons you bought it?”

  Leigh hesitated, but he knew he wouldn’t lie to her about something so stupid.

  “I made the space comfortable because I find myself down here so often.”

  Mallory looked around the room with a new appreciation. She noted how the two sofas complemented the environment with their forest green shade and smooth, plump surfaces. The space had the essence of the woods and Mallory loved it. What a great eye and fantastic taste Leigh has, she thought.

  “It’s wonderful!” she said encouragingly. “This is such a great space.”

  Leigh warmed at her praise, but still felt slightly embarrassed by her observations. “Well, I hope you will be comfortable here.” Moving further into the room, Leigh closed the door that led to the small, tiled room that held his washer, dryer, dirty clothing, and laundry hampers. They were dark green to match the room. He didn’t want Mallory to see how far his accessorizing went.

  “Nothing of interest in there,” he told her. He fought the urge to smile sheepishly at her as she walked by without a second glance.

  Mallory didn’t press the laundry room. She eyed his expensive-looking couches.

  “Do you want my naked butt on your couch?” she asked frankly.

  Leigh laughed and found he enjoyed the fact that she could do that for him so much. He was not a man who laughed often.

  “Your naked anything is welcome on my couch.” Mallory mirrored his smile and plopped down. Her smile quickly dissipated and she rubbed a hand over her bare stomach with a frown.

  “I’m super starved,” she complained. The cramps in her stomach increased in their intensity at an alarming rate, reminding her she’d been asleep for two days. “Do you have a sandwich or something?”

  Leigh sat near her and fought the urge to brush stray strands of gold away from her face as he spoke.

  “You don’t need a sandwich, blood of my heart.” Mallory’s pulse seemed to stutter at his softly spoken words. She ached for him to touch her almost as terribly as she ached with hunger. She fought both urges.

  “Well, the sun’s coming up,” Mallory said. “I can’t go out and get…other food.” She made a face and refused to say the word blood.

  “Discretion is not exactly a bad thing,” Leigh assured the floundering Mallory as he noted her difficulty with the phrasing. “What would you prefer to call hunting?”

  Brightening, Mallory suggested, “Going out for drinks.”

  Leigh laughed again. He fought to keep the sound a dark rumble of unwarranted amusement instead of the light peel of enjoyment it fought to be.

  “Going out for drinks it is,” he affirmed. “Until the coming night, I will offer you sustenance.”

  Mallory caught her breath and wondered why she even needed to breathe. She was undead, wasn’t she? She hadn’t expected vampires would need to breathe for some reason.

  “We are not truly dead, any more than we are truly alive.” Leigh’s words made Mallory think the handsome man with eyes born of storm clouds could definitely read her mind. It wasn’t an active talent, though, and he only caught passing thoughts from her occasionally. Some makers were much more psychically attuned to their younglings, but Leigh’s talents had never rested in that area.

  “You are changed,” Leigh continued as he brushed one hand down her cheek and neck. She shivered and he concluded, “Not dead.”

  “Gotcha.” With Mallory trembling under his fingertips, Leigh barely heard her whispered word.

  “We should go.” Neither of them moved at his suggestion.

  When she moved away from his touch, Mallory could think a little more clearly. “Go where?” she asked. “I thought the sun will burn.”

  Leigh realized the height of his distraction due to the fact that he’d forgotten about the sun. When was the last time he’d done that?

  “Go to the study.” Leigh covered his lapse quickly and, he hoped, successfully. He stood and offered a hand to help Mallory up. “We should plan for what we will face when we go up against the Hunters. Plus, a little learning about your temporary heritage couldn’t hurt. You like to read?”

  Mallory grinned and stood, fighting shivers at the touch of Leigh’s hand. “Love it!” she professed. “Lead on.”

  Chapter Six

  As she followed him to one of the three spare rooms in the basement, Mallory was hesitant to speak again, but she had to. She was so damn hungry.

  “Leigh, I really need to eat. I’m about to keel over here.”

  His level of distraction was unforgiveable, Leigh thought.

  “There are chairs in the study. We’ll sit and you can feed before we begin looking through the books and planning.”

  Grateful for the plan, Mallory followed Leigh inside his study. She wanted to examine the amazing space, which looked like some scholar’s wet dream, but she was too famished to do anything else but impatiently wait for Leigh to take his seat.

  “I do have food down here,” Leigh began as he sat. “You can have normal food after you take blood from me. It should sate you until the night, when we can go out and allow you to feed properly.”

  “What should I do?” Mallory asked as she faced Leigh. Uncomfortable and uncertain, she fought the urge to wring her hands as Leigh pulled another chair close to his, positioning it so she would sit across from him.

  “You sit here.” Mallory did as instructed and sat. She noticed that the seats of the chairs were pressed so close together, she had no room to do anything with her legs except put one between Leigh’s legs and the other on the outside of his. The contact sent an immediate thrill through her body and Mallory tried to quell her discomfort. She’d had sex with the man. She had no reason to get embarrassed over the fact that their bare legs were touching.

  Leaning forward, Leigh tipped his head to expose the length of his throat and drew his hair away so it was not in the way.

  “You can bite or I can begin the wound for you,” Leigh offered. Mallory didn’t know how to respond to that, but she felt her gums tingling in response. She felt her teeth start to shift, but Leigh took her silence for hesitation and drew one sharp nail down his own skin. Blood blossomed and Mallory whimpered when the scent enveloped her and chased away everything else.

  Taking Leigh by his shoulders, Mallory leaned into him and pulled him forward as she sealed her mouth over the wound. She was surprised by her lack of hesitation. She’d expected to be disgusted by the thought of ingesting blood, but as soon as it touched her lips any chance at doubt or revulsion was dispelled.

  While she swallowed, Mallory found her hands wandering. The amazing taste and feel of the blood running down her thought was satisfying and arousing. She found as her hands trailed lower that the feeding was arousing to Leigh, as well.

  Moaning with her mouth still sucking at Leigh’s neck, Mallory slid her hands over his hardening erection. Leigh gave a short gasp of surprise and attempted to pull away, but he had nowhere to go. Mallory stroked him as she feasted. Her eyes eased closed and she lost herself to the divine taste on her tongue and the feel of Leigh’s stiff heat in her hands.

  As she fed, time seemed to spiral out until she lost meaning of the concept. She could have drunk Leigh down for minutes or hours. Trusting him to stop her if the feeding became dangerous, Mallory sucked, swallowed, and stroked in a rhythm that soon had Leigh panting and shuddering.

  Leigh’s hips jerked forward as he spilled himself between them, coating Mallory’s stomach and breasts with his seed. He gasped for breath as he gently dislodged her from his neck and pulled them apart.

  “Oh, my God! Leigh, I’m so sorry!” Mallory exclaimed as she realized the damage she’d done to him. Blood poured from his open wound, which looked as though it had been savaged by some beast with massive fangs. She’d torn the edges of the skin around where he’d first opened the wound and the skin looked as though it was hanging, having been ripped as
she fed. Had she really done that? How terrible!

  “Don’t fret, blood of my heart,” Leigh insisted. He pulled one of her hands toward him and gently nipped the side of her palm. Mallory’s blood welled up from the injury and Leigh pressed it against his bleeding neck wound when it began to flow more freely.

  After Leigh released Mallory’s hand, she was stunned to see that his wound had completely sealed. There was plenty of blood drying on his skin, but the gash itself had vanished. She watched her hand, and saw her own injury sealing itself. The healing was amazingly quick, and she thought it was a stellar benefit of being a vampire.

  “I need a towel,” Leigh said. Mallory expected him to sound embarrassed. After all, his twitching member was still covered in pearly remnants of his pleasure. “And it looks as though you do, as well. How does a shower sound?”

  “Um, together?” Mallory asked. She thought the question was a dumb one, but it escaped her anyway.

  Leigh laughed. “You may go first. I will wash up at the sink.”

  Not knowing whether to feel appreciative or offended that Leigh didn’t want to join her, Mallory quickly stood and disentangled their legs.

  “All right,” she agreed. “Bathroom’s this way?” Leigh smiled.

  “I’ll show you the way. And then, we can read.”

  Mallory nodded as she followed Leigh out of the room. It was going to be a long day, she thought to herself as she admired the view.

  * * * *

  Night sank into the world around Mallory. She watched it dye the sky in shades of blue, purple, gray, and finally black. She’d been cooped up all day and she wanted out. The reading and planning had been exciting as promised, but she was desperate for activity.

  Leigh had assured her they’d hunt and had smirked when he’d used her preferred expression of “going out for drinks.” He thought she was cute and squeamish, but she wasn’t a baby. She’d show him she accepted what they had to do to feed.

  Then they could go get her family, she hoped. She was so ready to get them back. Feeling fidgety and wanting to just get on with it, she’d asked Leigh why they couldn’t just go that night. He’d said he needed to see how she reacted to blood of prey. If she couldn’t control herself, chances were she could do more damage than help to her family. He’d told her the Hunters wouldn’t hurt them. They were trying to draw her near. Without their bait, she had no reason to go to them. Mallory hoped he was right.

  “You learn to feel the night.” Leigh surprised Mallory by appearing soundlessly beside her at the window. She refrained from making a startled noise, but wondered how he could still sneak up on her when her senses had become so elevated. She could hear cars driving a street over. How had his footsteps right behind her not appeared on her radar?

  “I’m just anxious to go,” she explained without really knowing why. She decided not to ask Leigh about his preternatural silence. Apparently, it was a vampire trick, she thought to herself. “What does it feel like?”

  “Excitement and the slightest bit of pain.” Leigh knew she was asking about the night, and he gave her the honest answer. “The night is a wild and feral thing.”

  “And so are we, right?”

  Leigh tipped his head in the slightest agreement. “I am. You are for now.”

  Her maker reminding her of their arrangement made Mallory feel uneasy. She shifted from one foot to the other and adjusted her clothing for the thousandth time. She’d wanted to be clothed, but her heightened senses made the tactile overload almost unbearable. The fabric sat on her like the pelt of an animal which had maintained its life after being skinned. Every breath moved it against her skin in a maddening way.

  Leigh noticed Mallory’s discomfort. He wanted to offer her advice or comfort, but kept reminding himself that it would only be for a short time. Soon enough, it wouldn’t be a problem for her and he would be gone. The thought saddened him more than he’d expected it to. To distract himself, he announced, “Time to go.”

  They entered a world completely changed for Mallory. Every blade of grass gleamed with its own individual reflected sheen of moonlight. The night breathed in a thousand different ways. She heard small prey creatures and nocturnal stalkers. Winds minute as a secret sigh rustled leaves in a symphony of sounds to observe. Starlight and moonlight was adequate for Mallory to see every facet of everything that occupied the night-softened world.

  As she stepped forward, Mallory could feel the dirt shift underfoot, even though she was wearing shoes. She glanced down at the ground and wondered how she could ever behave productively with her body experiencing every single thing so fully and to the point of such distraction. She’d get used to it, she told herself. She had to. Otherwise, how did Leigh exist and act so comfortably in any environment?

  “Your speed is greatly enhanced, but on your own, you will limit yourself through the shortcomings of your preconceptions.” As Leigh explained to Mallory, he touched the small of her back and urged her forward. “You will run with me, because logic no longer limits my speed.”

  “Are you my training wheels, then?” Mallory asked. She felt the electric chill of his fingertips through her thin, filmy tank top and worked to keep her voice from going breathy at the contact.

  “I am more like your current,” Leigh suggested. Instead of water, Mallory pictured an electrical current. Then thought filled her with trepidation, not calmness. “Follow where I flow.”

  Leigh ran, and Mallory followed. Within the first few seconds, Mallory embraced a wonderful truth. Running was freedom.

  As they flew over streets and lawns, woods and gravel, Mallory was not distracted by the multitude of things she could now see more clearly, nor those she could feel more intensely. Running changed the hyper-focused world into a blissful blur. It was a perfect escape.

  When they stopped, Mallory felt a shock of pain and disappointment hit her right in the chest. She wanted to run forever.

  “Where are we?” Mallory asked as she looked around the unfamiliar area. She wasn’t even breathing hard. It was fantastic!

  Leigh had taken her to a small town. It was one of three within fifty miles of Mallory’s hometown in which he hunted.

  “One of my hunting grounds.”

  Leigh pulled Mallory forward and saw her expression of pain as her enhanced senses fought once more to overwhelm her.

  “How do you hunt?” she asked in order to distract herself. “Do you stalk like a wolf? Pounce like a lion? Swoop down like an owl?”

  They reached the door of a small, brown house with a lawn full of riotous flowers, a stone flag post display, and well-trimmed bushes. Leigh drew Mallory up to the front steps and raised his hand.

  “None of those,” he answered. “I knock.”

  Chapter Seven

  The woman who opened the door to Leigh’s knocking was in her early thirties, blond, with eyes as brown as the siding of her house. She was plump, short, and had a welcoming smile and no hint of suspicion in her eyes. They were sweet and inviting as a chocolate cupcake.

  “Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?”

  The welcome in her gaze drained away as Leigh’s stormy gray eyes lit with unnatural power. Unfocused and absent of will, the woman pulled the door open and stepped aside to allow Leigh and Mallory to enter. Leigh swept in with no hesitation. Mallory moved more slowly, inspecting the empty eyes of the woman.

  “She’s hypnotized?” Mallory guessed.

  “She’s dreaming,” Leigh corrected. “We have the ability to affect the brain waves of humans. If we wish not to be seen, noticed, or remembered, we can put a human in the sleep state of dreams.”

  “But she’s still walking. She still looks awake,” Mallory protested.

  “Sleepwalking is not an unknown phenomenon, is it?”

  Nodding in hesitant agreement, Mallory watched the woman close her door. She moved to where Leigh and Mallory stood and waited for instructions.

  “You make all humans impressionable sleepwalkers,” Mallory
said, testing her understanding of the vampiric power. “Do they remember you?”

  “They remember sweet dreams.”

  With Leigh’s assurance, Mallory found herself more comfortable as she watched him lead the woman to her living room. He moved around like he knew his way, and Mallory wondered how many times he’d taken blood from this woman. Relief washed through her.

  “You don’t kill your victims.” She was unable to disguise the happiness in her voice.

  Leigh sat the woman down on one of the two cushiony chairs that sat to either side of a handsome glass center table.

  “You were concerned about the possibility.” It wasn’t a question. Leigh said the words in a very matter-of-fact tone.

  “Terrified,” Mallory admitted.

  Instead of continuing the conversation, Leigh tipped his head toward the empty chair and instructed, “Sit.”

  Mallory sat. She watched as Leigh situated the woman’s hands in her lap and eased her back gently. Inspired by his careful handling of his victim, Mallory’s curiosity rose.

  “What’s her name?”

  “Gina.” Leigh could have bitten his tongue in two if it would have prevented the answer from slipping out. He looked for a hasty cover. “I’ve noticed it on her mail and such.”

  Mallory didn’t respond to what Leigh had said. She simply smiled at him.

  Returning to his stoic and somber persona, Leigh began explaining feeding to his temporary youngling.

  “We do not kill because it would attract unwanted attention, but sometimes the very young cannot help themselves. That is where the maker becomes invaluable. Chances are, you will not be a vampire long enough to graduate to feeing on your own. Until then, I will feed for you. You can either take blood from me as your sustenance, or we will feed this way I will guide you through shortly. You have any questions? Ask them now.”