Blind with need, he drew her closer and kept thrusting until he felt himself tightening, plunging in powerful strokes as what little left of his control broke. He groaned out with every thrust, the delicious sensation of her taking him higher and higher to a pleasure unlike he’d ever experienced before – a pleasure that erupted as he finally exploded inside her and joined her in bliss.
*****
They lay in the aftermath in silence, catching their breaths as they slowly came down from their high. The snow was gone, the floor as clean as it had been before. Realizing that she was still on the hard floor, Robbie rolled them around until he was back on the floor and she was tucked beside him.
His palm splayed on her chest between her breasts, where he felt her heart’s steady beating.
“You liked that,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
She buried her head against him, sleepy eyes looking up at the ceiling. “So did you.”
“Want more?” he asked, hand playing with her nipple.
“Only if you can catch up,” she managed shakily as his other hand touched her still-wet core, finger sliding in.
“Challenged accepted. But first, any spells to soften the floor?”
She seemed to think it over before closing her eyes and whispering softly. Grass filled the floor, as bright as the grass outside.
With a grin, Robbie rolled around until she was below him again on her back. The sight of her body, naked and flushed, aroused him again like no other, and he found he couldn't wait a second longer.
He had to touch her again.
“Soften for?” Sophia asked.
“This,” he said, trailing his mouth down.
There were no more words again as he focused his attention on tasting her and pleasuring her with his mouth.
And making her reach her climax again.
*****
The missive arrived at his room at dawn, with instructions made up of a few urgent words. There was no signature attached, but there was no need for one.
Still in his bed, Robbie woke a sleepy Sophia up and tasted her one more time, loving the sweet whimpers coming out of her mouth as he sucked repeatedly at her nub. Still hard from wanting her, he took her while she was almost on the verge of an orgasm, groaning as she welcomed him into her wet heat like salvation. He made the moment last and touched her everywhere, savoring her orgasm before joining her in the blissful silence. They napped again, but he woke up after a few minutes, and so did she. Holding her tightly, he grimly told her the message from Dylan.
“We need to return to New York.”
Silence.
Then Sophia nodded her head.
“Okay.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The trip to New York was short and uneventful, something Sophia was thankful for. They arrived in shifter headquarters in record time, just before the sun set and early dinner was served. Once that was over, Dylan called them into his office to deliver the news with a severe tone.
Sophia listened with a poker face as the head shifter told them of the discovery – that the vampires themselves were directly part of the murders and had caused the shifters to turn violent. Apparently, they’d discovered one of the violent shifters and managed to knock it down and cage it, then trace a mix of magic and vampire blood inside it. Robbie reacted as expected – with a growl and a very angry look on his face at the betrayal.
She, in turn, remained silent, careful to hide the great pounding of her heart as one thought repeated itself over and over in her mind – that it was all lies.
And she had to prove it.
Dylan called Robbie for a meeting with the other leaders in half an hour to set up a plan, then asked one of the shifters to help them settle separately. Robbie entered her room and gave her a kiss, the passion in him threatening to drown her and make her give in. Instead, she reluctantly ended it and told him to go and do his thing, and come back to her at night when they were done.
“I'll be back,” he murmured before kissing her one last time. Then he left the room.
Torn between the magnet pulling her towards him and her conflicted thoughts, Sophia allowed herself a moment of composure.
Loyalties didn’t just break after a few weeks with a man. Especially not family.
With a heavy heart, she waited until all was quiet.
Then she quietly slipped out of headquarters and into the night.
*****
Working for vampires meant knowing their secret back doors, in case things went awry and one had to make a quick escape while avoiding detection. Using the front door was useless, even with her concealment spells – it would be like inviting yourself at a vampire party and offering yourself as a meal. Vampires were cunning by nature, and a blur of movement when they needed to be – and she simply shouldn't get caught.
Or killed.
Using the advantage of the night, Sophia doubled up her concealment protection as she used one of the secret hideouts, careful not to breathe or move a muscle every time a vampire passed her by. The mansion was quiet, eerily so, and her nervous heart was threatening to give way at the thought of coming face to face with Killian by accident. But she needed to see John, and there was no other way.
She got to the left wing where his study room was, scot-free, and slid into the panel where she'd been when they'd last seen each other as voices carried on inside the room. The familiar voice of John washed over her like a balm, followed by Lucinda with her smooth, crystal tones set in a hush.
Then Killian's voice floated on the air, chilling her skin as she willed herself not to react.
What they were discussing was said too quietly for her to hear – and so Sophia decided to wait it out, until the word goodnight and the sound of a door's click was heard. Still, she waited, as was her job before. She let him detect her presence, waited for his reaction.
Someone cleared his throat.
“Sophia, come out now.”
At the familiar voice, Sophia carefully shed part of her concealment spell and slid out of the panel in one smooth move. The action rendered her face to face with the head vampire, who was looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face.
She thought John wouldn’t speak at all, so she opened her mouth to start. But he surprised her by interrupting her.
“The nerve of you to come back here.”
Sophia blinked, then turned wary. “The nerve of me? I wasn’t the one who created those monsters, John.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. And instead of consulting with me, you chose to betray your kind.”
She tilted her chin up, her voice ringing clear. “I didn’t do that, either.”
John shook his head. “Yet you ran off with a shifter the first chance you got, instead of returning here and proving to us you were innocent.”
“It was Killian,” she said, her voice shaking. She willed it to turn to steel. “Killian tried to kill me. He visited my place and brought some vampires with him, and they tried to kill me. And then some rogue vampires…”
Her voice trailed off. John hadn’t moved while she was speaking, perfectly still with his hands behind him, but he had tilted his head to the side at the end. The head vampire was always perfectly still during conversations, and didn’t make unnecessary movements.
“What?” she whispered.
“Lucinda’s headed this way,” he said softly. “It’s best you leave.”
“But—”
“You’ve been banished by the council, Sophia. And the decision’s final. They’re going to kill you if they see you.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the words. Her hand trembled at what he wasn’t saying.
So she said one word in response.
“Father.”
The unreadable expression on John’s face turned sharp, before returning to its original expression.
“Don’t come back,” he said.
Backing away, Sophia allowed herself a look at the study room again – thei
r briefing area, the place where they always had conversations about everything and anything. It was classy and old, and exactly like the vampire he was. Then she took a look at his face one more time – the man who’d brought her up and kept her a secret – before she turned around and left.
*****
The travel back to headquarters was a bitter one as she tried to get control of her roaring emotions. Halfway through the walk, she’d dropped the concealment spell altogether – a decision she would probably regret later, but couldn’t have cared less about at the moment.
It was just a sad life when the person you thought you could trust would turn you away, wasn’t it? She wanted to scream – scream so loud that everyone in the vicinity would hear the rage going on inside her and respond. She wanted to smash things – breakable things, shattering them to a thousand little pieces. She wanted to punch a wall until she bled, just like she did inside.
Instead, Sophia drew her coat closer and tried not to tremble.
Just because she’d been banished didn’t mean she couldn’t help out. Deep in her heart, she knew John was innocent – knew he meant to keep the peace between the shifters and the vampires, no matter how flimsy or frail it was. Somewhere in his internal circle, someone was plotting something else. And had friends.
And didn’t she know exactly who it was?
She had to do something about that, at least.
And stop lying to Robbie.
Another internal conflict that needed to be resolved soon. She still didn’t know exactly what she felt about him, but she felt something. It was a hot and tender kind of feeling, and she needed to analyze it soon.
And she needed to start by telling him the truth.
The strong, deliberate presence behind her stopped her in her tracks. Quickly, Sophia chanted the words for her concealment spell, ready to go on the offensive.
A brush beside her, then a hand was suddenly tight on her throat, the hold unbelievably strong, choking the life out of her.
“I could kill you, but then you’re John’s daughter,” Killian said in his smooth, charming tone. “Imagine my surprise.”
Trying not to panic, Sophia tried to remove his grip, tried to remember the other spells she’d learned to attack – but like water on sand, they disappeared before she could form the thoughts and the words. Blindly, she lifted her leg for a kick – and heard a crunch and felt excruciating pain as her whole body went limp.
“I’ll tell you what,” Killian was saying as he dragged her out from the deserted area and into what looked like a park. “I won’t kill you, but I’ll experiment on you. You’ll be my first vampire victim, so to speak.”
Another crunch, another round of unbelievable pain.
And then a syringe was plunged into her neck, and Sophia had no time to scream as she saw nothing but darkness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
She’d been missing for more than two hours now, and Robbie wanted to rage and panic at the same time. Instead, he kept his head and remained calm, joining the search party as soon as it was set out.
The meeting had had a divided reaction, as predicted. Half of the shifters, particularly the very old ones, wanted to stick to tradition and cut ties with the vampire clan completely, arguing that nothing good would ever come of it. The other half was more open, wanting to investigate first for actual proof before coming to a certain conclusion. Robbie had chosen not to vote, then had gone back to the chambers only to find Sophia’s room empty.
He had just combed the area where the locator witch, Mya, was residing when the buzz on his phone halted him in his tracks. It was Jack.
“We’ve found her.”
*****
They’d put her in a cage – but it wasn’t really her, much to Robbie’s horror as he stared at the creature trying to break free of the chains and the silver bars.
Sophia still had brown hair and the same, not-so-tall stature, but her eyes had gone from honey to red – and her teeth had grown very sharp, bared at him threateningly. Claws shook her cage, dark and as sharp as her teeth. Her skin was still intact, but her movements reminded him of the creatures who’d attacked her apartment back when he barely knew her.
Creatures that he’d killed.
“She’s…”
“She’s turned rogue,” Dylan said quietly, watching her at enough distance to remain disconnected.
Robbie made a move to come closer, and Sophia reached out to strike. He stepped back and glared at Dylan.
“Someone must have bit her,” he growled.
Dylan shook his head. “You know that’s not true, Robbie.”
Humans who got turned didn’t turn until a few days later – and this was their first day out of the castle. The sick realization settled through his mind, then his heart, like a burning stake stabbed through.
Sophia had huddled on a corner of the cage, scratching madly.
“She’s showing symptoms like our violent shifters, Robbie,” Dylan said. “You know what we have to do.”
“Yes.” Robbie looked one more time at Sophia before turning to Dylan. His voice turned hard. “Give her to me and I’ll keep her in my castle.”
“Robbie—”
“She’s my mate, Dylan. I’ll keep her in my cage.”
Silence.
Finally, Dylan nodded his head.
“Just make sure you know where your loyalties lie.”
“Always.”
Except always never involved a mate before.
By the time they’d arrived in Ireland, with Dylan’s borrowed private jet and Jack in escort, Sophia had become very violent, thrashing around in her makeshift cage and hissing for blood.
Finn took one look at her and demanded to know what was going on right away.
“I’ll tell you once we get her settled,” Robbie said shortly.
“Settled?” Charlie repeated in puzzlement.
“Get the dungeon ready.”
It took their combined forces to get Sophia out of the cage and inside the dungeon prison, where she further turned violent and tried to attack all of them. It resulted in scratches on Finn’s face and on Charlie’s arms, who both took it in stride as they grimly followed Robbie’s order to watch out for her while he escorted Jack outside the castle. They both shifted quietly to their animal forms and headed quickly for the portal spot on the fields, listening for a few seconds as the waves crashed against the cliffs, louder than ever.
“You will tell me if anything’s going on, won't you?” Robbie asked.
Jack nodded his head. “It’s probably not going to be good news.”
“I’ll take anything.”
He transported the jaguar shifter back to the back alley of Cromwell, where they exchanged a few more words before Jack finally left. When Robbie returned back to the island, the sky had gone dark-gray clouds rolling in thick numbers.
Shifting back to his animal form, Robbie flew up and joined the clouds to meet the thunder and the light.
*****
The storm came at midnight, and so did her cries.
It was Robbie’s turn to watch her, and he did so by placing a chair in the dungeon’s far corner and bringing a book to read. She made no sound at first, just observing him from her position in the darkened prison, red eyes practically glowing. He’d kept his silence as she did, reading up on the history of Africa and drinking a cup of brewed coffee.
When she started to cry, he glanced from the corner of his eye as no tear fell from hers. Instead, her eyes held a calculated glint as she stared at him, waiting.
He turned a page, took a sip.
Her crying turned to rage.
She began rattling the bars with her hands, screaming that he had no mercy and it was a mistake to trust him. Then she’d become incoherent, her words turning to snarling as she banged her body against the bars repeatedly.
Robbie turned another page and ignored her completely.
Eventually, the banging stopped as she retreated into her corner
again, whimpering. Then daylight came, and she slept. Charlie arrived to take over the watch, quietly ordering him to get some much-needed sleep.
Once Robbie had removed himself from her presence, sight and smell, he went straight for his room and repeatedly punched the wall until his knuckles bled.
On the second night in the dungeon, the creature who’d taken over Sophia started to sing. It was such a soft, melodic tune that it should have sounded innocent and sweet. Instead, it chilled Robbie’s blood as he kept turning the pages, kept reading until his eyes blurred over.
On the third night, it was clear that she didn’t have the behavior as that of normal rogues, or the violent shifters. Normal rogues had skin falling off and smelled rotten, and couldn’t say a single word at all. Violent shifters were the same, and had infected saliva and pus coming out of them. Sophia had the red eyes and the often violent attacking, but her skin was intact and she was able to retain some words during the silence. Sometimes she sang, sometimes she screamed.
Sometimes she begged for blood.
Days turned to a week. Then, two weeks. They fed her normal food, which she oftentimes threw back at them, but sometimes took.
“She’ll die if we don’t feed her blood,” Finn said during the end of the second week, none of the humor he usually held in his demeanor. Robbie disagreed – but that night, he slipped her a drop of his blood and watched her take a sip.
When the whimpering went on that night, he closed his book and approached her, staring into her red eyes.
“Sophia, I know you’re in there,” he murmured. “Fight it. I know you can. Come back.”
Come back to me.
She cried, her hands clawing the bars. She went to sleep, thrashing in her dreams.
Robbie fell asleep on the floor beside her, too close – he’d moved near her without his realization. When he woke up, she was staring at him weakly, quietly – and she did not attack. But that wasn’t the most surprising part.
Dragon: The Clan Legacy Series Page 11