by Anna Abner
She turned on Maks, sitting there like a child at his puppy’s funeral. “You can tell me now,” she said. “I want to hear everything.”
“You were dying,” he told his clenched fists. “I had two options: lose you or infect you.” He lifted his face, but couldn’t hold her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” she demanded. Her temper was very close to the surface. She imagined slamming her palm against his face or shattering the glass beside him with his perfect cheekbones. Is this how he felt all the time? Was he a powder keg constantly lit? How did he control himself? How was he kind? Or charming? With these emotions overrunning him? How would she?
“I did it because—” he began, misunderstanding.
“No,” she cut in. “Why are you sorry?”
He finally made eye contact, and a single, silvery tear escaped, shattering her heart. “I never wanted any of this for you. When I caught you on the sidewalk I wanted to set you free so you’d never know any of us again. But the witches screwed up. Then I promised myself when the curse was broken, I’d release you and you’d never feel pain again. But then Sergei found us…”
“I don’t want to be saved,” she said, curling her upper lip. “Maybe I’m right where I always wanted to be.”
“You want to be a monster?” he burst out, startling the cabbie who hit the brakes. After a warning look in the rearview mirror, the driver continued.
“You want to be reviled?” Maks hissed. “You want to drink blood? You want to be a hair’s breath from hurting people the rest of your life?”
“No,” she said simply. “I want to be with you. Maybe this is the only way we were ever going to work.”
He dismissed her feelings as if she were too sick or stupid to understand his point.
That was not okay with her.
“Look,” she said, leveling with him because her pulse was skyrocketing, her breathing was a puff in and out, and her panties were as wet as spilled champagne. “I’m finally strong enough for you to fuck me the way I’ve always wanted. I know you were holding back.” She grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a fierce kiss. “You don’t have to hold back anymore.”
He made some garbled, surprised, non-sensible noise, but the cabbie pulled over to the curb. “Nine dollars fifty cents,” he barked. Maks threw him a twenty and helped Violet out of the car.
He grabbed her hand in a tight grip and led her with long, purposeful strides to the elevator. The moment the doors opened, he picked her up under the arms and tossed her back against the car’s wall. She squeaked in part outrage, part delight.
When he smashed into her, Violet’s legs encircled his waist as if made to fit there, and her arms wrapped around him. Through her panties, she felt the hard ridge of his erection, and her muscles melted to warm molasses. She pushed against it, against him, wanting to devour him. She wanted that cock rubbing, driving, punching into her until she screamed in a blissful fusion of agony and ecstasy.
“Are you sure—” he started to say against her lips, and she pushed her tongue into his mouth to silence his stupid honor.
“Just fuck me, you beautiful idiot.”
The elevator glided to a stop, and the doors slid open. Maks carried her still around his waist to the suite, fumbled with the lock, and then took her briskly into their sometimes bedroom, not even paying attention as Connor threw up his hands in frustration. He must have been there waiting for news.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Connor complained, and then, “We need a bigger place. We have to move now, there’s no other choice.”
Behind a firmly closed door, Maks threw Violet onto the bed, nearly bouncing her right off. She grabbed on, though, and then reached up and yanked Maks down beside her.
“We’re finally going to do this right,” she promised, pressing him flat. “You’re gonna scream for me.”
His eyes dilated wide, making them look black as pits, and he sucked in his lower lip, wetting it.
She tore his shirt right down the middle revealing a plank of gorgeous male skin dotted with dark hairs, soft as silk, hot as hades. She dipped to his left nipple. Maks sucked in a surprised hiss before cupping the back of her head and burrowing his long, tapered fingers through her hair. She licked around his pebbled nipple, biting playfully, but she underestimated her strength and the sharpness of her new fangs. She drew blood, which fascinated her like nothing else ever had. She stared, transfixed at the droplet of shiny, red plasma and then greedily bent to suck. The more she sucked, the wetter she became, and the more frantic Maks’ thrashing.
Tearing her mouth from his chest, she ripped open the fly of his jeans and shoved them down his rock solid thighs. His hips flexed as his cock was freed, bobbing above his belly button.
“Violet,” he growled, reaching for her.
She popped his swollen, glossy crown into her mouth. His hips leapt again, and she smiled, amused, as she sucked as much of his impressive length into her as possible. Against her tongue, he quivered.
Drawing away, she asked, “Do you want to be inside me?”
He grit his teeth, and then said, “You know I do.”
“Then tell me how much.”
“Violet…,” he warned.
Unperturbed, Violet crawled higher and straddled him, but allowing only his crown to kiss the opening between her legs. “Does this feel good?”
“Damn you,” he swore. “Are you torturing me on purpose?”
“No,” she answered with a smile. “I just want to hear you enjoy it.”
“I’m enjoying it,” he said between clenched teeth.
With a slow, wet stroke, Violet took his entire length inside her and then began an ever-quickening rhythm. Harder. Faster. She rode him until sweat beaded her chest and her abdominal muscles cried out for release.
“Let it out,” she told him, taking his face in her hand as she sensed him cresting an orgasm. “I want to hear you.”
It started as a rumble in his chest, and then Maks threw his head back and came with a glorious bellow of raw ecstasy.
“I love you,” she panted, dropping her cheek upon his sweat slick chest.
Slowly coming back to himself, he kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, moppet.”
But he was far from satisfied. Maks rolled her over, forcing her face down on the mattress. She tensed, sensing him behind her, but in suspense of where he would touch her first.
His face, warm and prickly with whiskers, dove between her buttocks. He rolled his open mouth against her secret lips, already sensitive, spreading her wider and wider. She cried out, overcome with too many sensations at once. She fisted the comforter and buried her face in the puffy blankets. One of his thumbs slid into her silken depths, and then the other. Her inner muscles clenched as moisture saturated them both.
“Stop teasing me,” she gasped. She was on the brink of tipping. If he would only enter her, she’d be lost.
“You’ve been tormenting me for months,” he said, pushing and pulling his thumbs inside her, causing friction she couldn’t tolerate. “Staring at me—” in and out, “Touching me—” his fingers widened her opening, “Sleeping beside me—”
“Maks!” she screamed.
He bent over her aching, needy body and sank his fangs into the tender flesh of her hip.
Violet came in a torrent of pulsing, rocking, devastating pleasure. The spasms as he drank from her seemed to go on forever. Her pussy pulsed around his fingers, clenching and unclenching.
Weak and spent, she didn’t object or even hardly notice when he rolled her onto her back and crossed her ankles over one of his shoulders. “You want to fuck, little girl?” he warned, resting the head of his cock against the still buzzing flesh of her slit. “You want to get fucked by a vampire?”
“Yes,” she gasped, closing her eyes.
“Beg me for it.”
She opened her eyes and found him staring hard at her with an intensity she’d rarely seen in him. “I want you,” she said,
arching her spine and teasing him with her jutting breasts. “I’m begging you. Fuck me.”
Hard again, he pumped his full length into her. His girth stretched her inner walls, and she writhed. For a heady moment, he hung there, joining them. And then he withdrew to the very tip, only to pump into her again. Slowly. Again and again. Violet’s body woke immediately to his ministrations, ready to come a second time. Maks fed her his cock slowly and methodically.
“Finish it,” she cried out. “I can’t take any more.”
Maks brought her ankles down to rest against her thighs, and then spread her knees so wide she was sure he’d split her in two before thrusting into her with a new and frenzied stroke. Pounding. His cock was a battering ram that finally broke them both.
He fell, sweaty and breathless, against her bare breasts. Still inside her, his member pulsed.
Violet turned her head, slid an arm around his shoulders, and fell asleep.
When she awoke, her head tucked comfortably on a warm, silken chest, she was deliciously sore between her legs but sated in a way she’d never experienced before.
“You need to drink soon,” came a gentle rumble from beneath her.
“Or what?” she murmured curiously. “Will I submit to my bloodlust? Right now, I don’t think I could manage to lift my head let alone tear anyone’s throat out.”
“You should drink anyway.” He petted her hair. “So, we never find out what your bloodlust looks like.”
“Fine.” She exhaled and burrowed deeper under the covers, finding her nude skin chafed pink and smeared with their fluids. She should take a shower, but she was too comfortable to get up.
After a long few moments, during which she was an eye flutter from falling back to sleep, Maks said, “I’m sorry, Violet. Truly. Infecting you was the very last thing I wanted to do.”
She didn’t know how to answer him, so she concentrated on the steady beat of his heart and the in and out of his breathing. Should she feel guilty for being alive? Should she hide who she was? She wasn’t sure what being a vampire meant to her yet.
“Don’t be sorry,” she said at last. “I’m not sorry. Now, we’re the same.”
“But I took away your chance to have more babies,” he said so quietly. Ah, at last, the crux of his guilt.
She rose up on her elbows to see into his face. “We have Jackson. Besides, you were a vampire, and you had a family. We can adopt.”
He gave her a look. “Moppet, everyone in the world knows I’m infected.”
“Okay,” she conceded, “no one knows I’m infected. I’ll adopt on my own.”
“I love you,” he said, “and I want the best for you.”
“Right back at ya’, buddy.”
#
Violet stared at Roz like she must be crazy. “Cure me?” she repeated, horrified. “I don’t want to be cured.” At long last, she finally felt free. She wasn’t going to give that up.
Roz crossed the living room from the kitchen to the sofa where Violet had curled up beside Maks. “But I can. I’ve done it before.”
“I don’t want it,” Violet reiterated, glancing at Maks for support. “I’m happy the way I am.”
Maks bowed his head. “Think of Jackson.”
“What about him?” Violet snapped. As if she didn’t constantly worry over her son.
“If you attacked him,” Ali spoke up from a chair across the room, “you’d never forgive yourself. And neither would we.”
Ali was starting to piss Violet off. Anger washed through her. After Sergei’s attack, Ali had spirited Jackson away and set him up somewhere secret with Dr. Burke. Somewhere Violet couldn’t find him, and where he still resided. It made Violet furious that the woman thought she knew better than his mother how to care for him.
Maks placed a soothing hand upon her knee. “Your heart is racing,” he whispered. “No one is criticizing you. We all want the best for you.”
“If you want what’s best,” Violet said loudly to the room, “then give me back my son. He belongs with me.”
“Can you control yourself around him?” Ali asked.
“You must be out of your mind,” she exclaimed, and Maks’ grip on her knee tightened. “I spent nine weeks killing myself to get back to my son, and you think I’d do anything to hurt him now?”
Roz looked from Violet to Maks. “We just want you to know you have options. If you can’t handle the infection, I can make it go away. And if you threaten Jackson’s safety, we’re here to stop you.”
“Good.” Violet sat back, covering Maks’ hand with her own. “I want all of you to keep an eye on me. I know Maks will. Put Jackson’s crib in a different room, if you think it’ll help.” She looked to Maks. “Did Katya ever threaten Ali after she was born? She was a new vampire.”
“Never,” Maks answered automatically. He nodded in Ali’s direction. “She’ll be fine.”
With a worried puff of breath, Ali lifted her cell phone and dialed a number. “Bring him up,” she said.
When Dr. Burke arrived carrying Baby J, the entire team circled Violet in concern as she took her son from the doctor. But Violet hardly noticed, she was so focused on her sweet boy’s weight in her arms as his tiny hands fisted in her shirt. His baby smell definitely had an effect on her, but she’d already fed, and she didn’t even consider biting him.
“Mommy will never hurt you,” she swore into his fine, white hair. “And I will never leave you again.”
Chapter Sixteen
The first of September dawned a bright and beautiful day, and Violet’s smile could not be contained as she stood, eyes closed, in the dazzling sunlight. Maks stepped up behind her and covered her eyes with both hands.
“What’s the big surprise?” she asked, leaning into him.
“I want to keep you and Jackson safe,” he whispered. “We need more than a public hotel to raise a family and really run a team.”
“You’re intriguing me,” she admitted. “What did you do?” His generosity was heartrending, no matter how much he continued to give her and Jackson. She’d always known he was kind, but she’d never realized what a big heart he had.
“Open your eyes.” He removed his hands from her face, but kept them gently upon her shoulders.
She blinked in the bright Nevada sunshine. Across the street, several blocks off the Strip and tucked inside a well-manicured, upscale enclave was a driveway gate.
“Come with me,” he said, clasping her hand and leading her across the street.
He keyed in a code and opened the wide, automatic gate. Behind it stood a three-story, colonial mansion with white columns, wraparound balconies and what appeared to be a pool partially hidden by shrubbery. She couldn’t be sure from the driveway, but the front door looked equipped with security features, maybe a scanner of some kind. All very posh and state of the art, despite the historical architecture.
“What is it?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder. He wore a boyish, playful expression. She wanted to kiss him silly.
“It’s your new home,” he said simply, “if you like it.”
“Really?” She stared at the lovely building with new appreciation.
“Well, if I’m going to help lead Connor’s little team of commandoes, then we need a proper barracks and training facility.” He gave her a wistful smile. “The main house has eight bedrooms plus a one-bedroom bachelor’s quarters in the rear. It sits on three acres surrounded by landscaping that makes it invisible from the street. It has all the best security features, plus it has private, underground parking for those days we need to carry in a body. Or get rid of one.”
“Odd,” she mused, “how often both those scenarios happen to us.”
“Exactly.” Maks held open the front door for her. “And there’s plenty of room for children.”
She smiled, squeezing his hand. “Jackson will love it,” she promised.
They stood at the entrance of a grand foyer with curving staircases overhead and rooms on all sides. Through th
e back of the house, she glimpsed a wide lawn and a basketball court.
“It’s another reason why I adore you,” he said. “Thank you, moppet, for bringing me back to life.”
“You’re the one who woke me up,” she returned. “Let me try to repay you a little.”
Epilogue
Maks dipped his head under the steaming water, his eyes closing in pleasure. It was his first shower in the new house. Moving everyone in—him and Violet, Connor and Ali, Lukas and Roz, as well as the four remaining pits—had been a multi-week process, but now every room on the property was spoken for.
Grabbing the soap, he again thanked his new lucky streak that he’d been able to find such a secure home and then actually purchase it. With falsified documents, but still, it felt like a great victory when he hadn’t experienced many of those.
He heard a scream. Even across a hundred feet of space, through several solid walls, and past the water, he caught the sound of Roz’s desperate cry.
Maks left the shower without even slowing down to turn off the water. Wrapping a towel around his hips, he dashed into his bedroom.
Violet was on the floor playing with Jackson. “Stay here,” he ordered. “Lock the door behind me, and don’t open it until I get back.”
As he ran barefoot from the room, Violet called, “What happened?”
“I don’t know yet,” he shouted as he ran out of the guesthouse and sprinted around the in-ground pool. He shoved through the back kitchen door and took the stairs two at a time.
Sergei is dead, he repeated like a mantra inside his head, trying to stay calm.
But Ivan and Ilya aren’t, a devilish corner of his brain reminded him. Neither are the witches.
Once Maks made the second floor landing, he didn’t need to knock on doors. He smelled the blood, and went straight into Connor and Ali’s room.
“Ali?” he gasped, pausing in the doorway.