Micah pointed. “Under the throat.”
The beast circled, closing in and forcing Micah and me back to back.
“I have a plan,” I whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I somersaulted and landed past the creature’s circle, flat on my back. The thing turned and jumped. Just before the beast landed on my chest, I whipped out my remaining Brimstone blade.
I used the animal’s momentum against it. As it came down on me, I shoved the knife in my hand up, through the throat. My grunt mixed with the beast’s pitiful howl.
Hot, sticky blood poured from the dying monster. Rancid. I’d finally found a cure for bloodlust. My arms trembled and I pushed the dead weight off me. I stood, shook my hands and watched black, gooey blood splatter to the ground and sizzle in the rain.
“That was your plan?” Micah asked with a shake of his head.
“Part of it. You know me. I take the hands-on approach.”
Micah’s nose twitched when I got near. “You smell horrible.”
“Kiss my ass.”
I yanked the chain free from around the dead beast’s neck. The metal was thick and heavy. Perfect. I wrapped the chain around my hand and wrist until I had a firm grip.
I swung the chain back and forth. With each pass, a whooshing sound crisscrossed through the air and sent a spray of rain off the metal links. I felt my grin, unfriendly and cold, widen as I approached the demons. Micah hung back, probably waiting to see phase two of my plan.
Only a few feet separated me from my enemy. This close, I could clearly see the rotting, sagging lines. Two sets of red eyes glowed in anger. I decided to go for the one on the right. The demon wheezed and blew out a stream of air that smelled like the rotting blood all over me.
I drew the chain through the air, flicked my wrist and sent the metal links at my target. The chain wrapped around the demon’s neck. I yanked. The demon pitched and fell to his knees. My success was short-lived. Clawed hands found the chain and pulled. The demon tugged me close and lashed out with its talons.
I tried to drop the chain, to get out of the way, but the links were wrapped too tightly around my hand. The demon’s fist struck my jaw. Pain flared from the impact and rattled my teeth. The salty-sweet taste of my blood filled my mouth.
I snarled and returned the favor with a matching blow to the demon’s face. I tried to ignore the soft flesh melting around my fist. I straightened back up and spun into a roundhouse kick that missed the demon’s face by mere inches. Shit. The demon hit me again.
“Duck,” Micah shouted.
I ducked.
Gunfire pierced the night. Black blood blossomed in the hole that was now right between the demon’s eyes. A second shot rang out and the remaining demon, the one about to jump on my back, went down, his head exploded. Chunks of flesh and brain scattered across the ground.
“You cheated,” I panted.
“You were getting your ass kicked.”
He rubbed my cheek, picked off a few clumps of something thicker than blood. I grimaced. He laughed. He wrapped a hand around my waist and pressed his chest against mine. The blood and ash on my shirt made us stick together. I lifted up, grabbed his soaked shirt and pressed my mouth to his in a quick, hard kiss.
The moment I released Micah’s shirt, the sound of clapping rang out over the rain. We both stiffened. I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t. An invisible hand gripped my jaw, drew my head around until I was staring at the boogeyman himself.
Julian lounged against a tall, moss-covered cross. He was long and lean and looked like sex on a stick. The long black coat he wore danced in the wind and did nothing to hide the hard planes of his body on display through his tight black clothes.
“How very romantic.” Julian’s words dripped like acid.
The air shimmered. Before I could blink, two vampires phazed in behind us and that was all she wrote. I didn’t have time to process or see or react. A crack rang out in the night. Micah fell face first into the ground beside me. I looked up into the electric-blue eyes of a vampire who now held a blood-smeared bat in his hands.
I gasped, turned to face Julian and, against my will, I fell to my knees in front of my sire.
Chapter Fifteen
The cold rain pelting my body was a welcome relief from the inferno raging inside. Sweat mixed with rain slid down my face. I clenched my jaw. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. Next to me, Micah lay unconscious.
Through narrowed eyes I watched Julian push off the cross he’d been leaning against. He stalked to me. As if he were the devil himself, strolling through the playgrounds of hell, Julian’s coat billowed around him. He was not just a vampire. I could see that in every step he took, in every shift of sinew and muscle.
He was a king.
An unbelievably handsome king.
Since I’d seen him last, he’d let his white-blond hair grow long enough to reach his shoulders. As he walked, the wet strands caressed the collar of his jacket. Although over four hundred years old, my sire would always look like he was in his mid-twenties.
The phantom silk of his hair trailed over my neck, across my naked breasts. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. My mind knew it was a memory but my body didn’t. The image of Julian moving over me, sliding down my body, crept inside like a thief in the darkest part of the night. I had never known what kind of power my sire would hold over me. This close, shielding him was almost impossible. The wall inside my head began to shake. Hundreds of knives cut at the ivy holding my sanity together.
The hard tips of my nipples pressed against my rain-soaked shirt. I sucked in a breath and felt soft hairs tickle the insides of my thighs. No. No. No. Julian was not going to do this to me. The bastard was feeding me memories of us together.
A sharp, biting pain on my upper thigh pulled me out of the fog. Micah’s bite. The mark throbbed and burned as if it knew an intruder invaded its territory. The pain was the push I needed. With effort, I rose to my feet and, through the bond, let my sire feel how much I loathed him. Our gazes met, blue on blue, and I made sure he saw the hatred in my eyes.
Energy in the air gathered. The hair on my arms stood on end. Julian strode across the graveyard, vanished and reappeared an inch away from my face.
The honey-and-cider scent I’d always associated with him wrapped around me. I looked up at him. Water dripped from my lashes and obscured my view. Through the veil of rain, Julian’s pale skin glowed.
“You bastard.” My anger forced the words out in a whisper.
Inside me, the rage that had been building over the last seven years twisted into something beastly. He had manipulated me. He had taken my innocence. He had changed me. He had left me. For a few seconds, I lost all rational thought. I rushed at him, blind to anything except one thought: Die, you motherfucking bastard, die.
Before I even realized it, my stake was poised in my hand. My target was his cold black heart. A scream tore from my throat. I launched myself at him, tried to shove my knee through his groin and up into his stomach.
Julian caught my wrist and squeezed. Pain speared up my arm and the stake slipped out of my hand. Like a giant swatting a fly, he batted my knee to the side. I fell into him. Julian twisted my arm in his hand and spun me until he drew me against his chest. I struggled. I kicked. I called him every foul name I’d ever heard.
“Now, now, aren’t you happy to see me?” Julian purred.
Hot air panted against my ear. His breath was the only thing I could hear over the erratic beating of my heart. I grunted, tried to twist free. Julian twisted my arm, pulling the shoulder that had so recently been injured. Tendons ripped. I doubled over in mind-numbing agony and my vision melted into a blur.
The first thing my father taught me was to never attack with emotion. Use skill, power and intelligence. The first mistake I made was letting my anger rule me, the second was attacking with my wounded arm. His grip tightened even more, until I made a pitiful mewling sound in the
back of my throat.
“Fuck you,” I spat.
Never letting go, Julian phazed. My world spun and, unlike the times when I’d phazed to Micah, my skin felt like it was being ripped apart. I was only half-conscious by the time Julian pressed my cheek to the soft, wet moss of the cross he’d been leaning against. My stomach lurched and I gagged.
Julian moved his free hand into my hair. He tangled his fingers through the sodden strands. Yanked. I clawed at the moss, broke the tips of my nails when I found the cement underneath. Julian drew the tip of his nose down the exposed line of my throat. He inhaled.
“You smell like your mongrel hunter, älskare. I think we should remedy that.”
I threw my head back, a poor attempt at breaking his nose. Julian’s soft laugh sent spiders crawling down my spine. The moist, rough trail of his tongue along my throat was the only warning I got. Fangs plunged deep, ripped into the vein at my neck.
The first awful second of pain quickly morphed into pleasure. Ecstasy rolled through me and a low moan escaped. The hand I pressed against the stone cross convulsed—I could no longer struggle to get away.
Julian’s fangs retreated. The tip of his tongue rimmed the puncture marks and I moaned.
“Is this what you want?” he asked before sinking into my throat.
Tears wet my cheeks. Compared to the rain, they were molten hot. This was not happening.
“I should take you right here, in front of your hunter. I should show him who you really belong to.” Julian thrust the hard ridge of his cock against my ass.
The dampness between my thighs was humiliating. The image hit me at once, Julian’s cock and teeth sinking into my body. I didn’t just see it in my mind, I felt it.
Fuck that. This man—vampire—had broken my heart. I was not the hapless teenager anymore.
Rearing back, stronger this time, I smashed my head against the bridge of his nose. Crying out, he eased his grip. That was all I needed to slip out from beneath him. Too bad I had nowhere to run.
Julian pressed his hand to the bleeding fountain of his nose. Before my eyes, the swollen, crooked cartilage straightened and then thinned as if I hadn’t just broken it.
I glared at him. “Stay away from me. Stay out of my head.”
“I do not remember you being so…feisty.”
“Yes, well, I’m no longer eighteen and enamored. You changed me out of some selfish need to keep me in this world, and then you left!”
“If I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have left. I’m sorry, I truly am.”
“I don’t accept your apology.”
Warily, I watched Julian take a few steps back. He leaned against a gravestone and pulled an immaculately rolled cigarette from his pocket. He didn’t light it, just rolled it between his fingers like I remembered him doing so many times before. I had never actually seen Julian smoke. He had once told me he liked the texture between his fingers, the scent of the tobacco.
Silence yawned between us and I tried to think of some way to get Micah and me out of here alive. I was moderately sure Julian wouldn’t kill me. But Micah? If the disgusted, murderous glances Julian kept giving him were any indication, my sire had plans for my mate.
I’ll fuck you in his blood, make you lick it off my cock. The voice echoed in my head.
As I waited for Julian to speak, the pounding sound of the rain was my only comfort. When my head began to spin, I was momentarily terrified I was going to phaze somewhere. What happened next was worse. By some cruel twist of fate, I wound up inside my sire’s head.
Our roles were reversed and, strangely enough, I was looking at myself through his eyes. I was met with equal parts fury and desire. He saw the trails of water dripping from my chin. Saw the electric blue of my eyes. I knew he thought I was the most beautiful creature in the world, despite how my ponytail had come loose and my hair was plastered against me. I pulled out of his head as quickly as I could.
“I forgot how much you loved the rain.” Julian looked up, found my gaze. He was trying to remind me of how much I had once loved him.
“Don’t.” I stiffened. “You betrayed me, manipulated me into loving you. I’ll never forget that. You’ve said your piece and I’ve said mine. I’m tired of games.”
Any warmth in Julian’s eyes disappeared. With a careless flick of two fingers, Julian sent his soggy, unsmoked cigarette to the ground. His boot crushed the tobacco into the grass. When he advanced, I felt his growing fury rumbling through my head like thunder.
My gut coiled and I sprung to my left. I wasn’t fast enough. He jerked me back by my hair. Like someone reeling in rope, he twisted the strands around his fingers until he could pull me the rest of the way to him.
Pressed nose to nose, I had a close-up view of the bitterness in his eyes.
“I killed for you. I broke my bond with my sire for you. I made you a queen!” Julian’s spittle hit me in the face. He drew in a breath and softened his tone. “I love you.”
Now probably wasn’t the time to tell him that he didn’t know what love was, that he hadn’t done any of those things he’d mentioned alone. Micah and I made it possible for him to break his bonds. Unfortunately I didn’t have to say anything. He plucked the thoughts from my mind.
Julian unleashed his rage. The blistering heat of his anger snaked through my mind and spread out. My knees buckled, but with Julian’s hold on me, I had nowhere to drop.
“You’re mine, Ella. Mine. I can force you, do you understand that? I could make you rule by my side for eternity.”
No. The shadow threading through my soul roared. The darkness unfurled and I used the added strength to capture and separate all the pain and the anger Julian was bombarding me with. I threw the emotions back at him. He loosened the hand in my hair and staggered back as if I’d punched him. I fell to my hands and knees.
“God damn you, Julian,” I yelled. “I was never yours! You wanted this, wanted to turn me into your queen. Instead, you made me into a monster. You can’t take what isn’t yours. I won’t apologize for finally understanding what a manipulative, self-centered bastard you are. Kill me or leave.”
He dropped to his knees in front of me, mindless of the wet, muddy ground. He gripped my cheeks, looked deep into my eyes. The rain came down in thick sheets, making it difficult to see. My heart clenched painfully. Why was he making this so hard?
“Do you think I want to kill you?” Julian yelled over the downpour. “I do know what love is. All I’ve ever wanted was you by my side. Why don’t you understand?”
“If you loved me, you would have let me be. You knew I didn’t want this. You should have left me to die! I can’t spend the rest of my existence with you, knowing how badly you’ve fucked up my life.” My voice dropped to a cruel whisper. “You make me sick.”
Julian’s intent was reflected in his eyes. Before I could react, he grabbed the back of my neck and forced his lips against mine. The oxygen I struggled to find came from Julian’s lungs. He breathed into me. Velvet soft, Julian stroked his tongue against mine in a way only a man with centuries of experience knew how to do.
When I tried to pull away, Julian tightened the hand he held around my neck. He plundered my mouth deeper. The kiss turned violent. The sharp point of a fang gouged my lower lip and the sweet taste of blood filled our mouths.
I pushed away with a gasp. Hot trails of blood trickled down my chin.
Quick as lightning, Julian’s hand clamped down on my shoulder. I jerked, or tried to. Tears stung my eyes. Julian dug his thumb into the place where the sand demon had left a piece of his claw. The pain wrenched a raw sound from deep inside me.
“We aren’t done here,” Julian hissed.
I couldn’t speak through the pain. He moved his grip, twisted my arm and used the leverage to keep me on my knees. I barely felt the cold through the murderous rage coursing through me. Julian wrenched my head back until I was looking into his face. A renewed rage darkened his blue eyes into black, fathomless pits. His mouth
twisted to expose his bloodstained fangs. He was no longer the flawless man I’d once been so in love with. The vampire in front of me crouched, put his face close to mine.
“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make your choice. You can join me, rule by my side as my queen willingly, or I’ll force you. The choice is yours, min älskling. You will never be free of me.”
I spit in his face. “I’d rather eat my own entrails than submit to you.” Blood and saliva splattered his left eye and cheek. Perverse pleasure filled me at the sight.
I never saw him move, just staggered at the sting of his backhanded slap across my face. The strength of the blow knocked me to the ground. Blood dripped to the earth and it was hard to tell if it came from my nose or the corner of my mouth.
Julian sneered down at me. “I can arrange that.”
Something roared behind me. The sound was inhuman and furious. With my heart in my throat, I turned to see Micah rise to his feet. Murder was in his eyes. From the back of his pants, Micah took out a heavy, high-powered pistol. Too caught up in my own desperate drama, I’d forgotten about the two vampires Julian had brought with him.
Micah hadn’t. The vampire behind him lunged for his arm, but Micah blurred out of the way. The gun went off with a flash of red in the darkness and the vampire’s head disintegrated. I was never eating tomatoes again.
Never pausing, Micah threw his gun, grabbed the second vampire and twisted. Flesh ripped. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed into the air. The decapitated head dropped to the ground at Micah’s feet.
The rain flattened Micah’s hair, ran down his face and streamed behind him with every step he took. Through the torrents of water, I saw Micah’s bared teeth. Castro had said something about newly mated males being dangerous. I could see what he meant.
Julian’s hands curled into fists and he growled beside me.
Micah’s words came out in a low, guttural sound, “She is mine, you bloodsucking asshole. She is my mate. How dare you touch her!”
Dark Cravings Page 19