Ryan stared at the floor and scuffed his foot across the concrete. “Yes, ma’am. I understand, I mean.”
She almost felt sorry for him.
“I’ll take him back with me,” Iona told them. “His place is with my people, even if his father was cast out from us. I know he played his part in everything that happened, but I won’t hold a child responsible for a parent’s actions.”
Serenity couldn’t pretend she wasn’t relieved. She’d not wanted him to stay at the house—not with Elizabeth living here—but she didn’t have the heart to physically throw him out either. Sebastian had killed his father, and though the boy had proven he’d not been on Conner’s side by helping Elizabeth, she was always aware that blood was thicker than water. So far, allowing those who had been wronged in any way to walk free from the aftermath hadn’t worked out so well for them. He might only be a boy now, but he would soon be a man.
Elizabeth had so far shown no more signs of her vampiric episodes. While she was always going to be half vampire, Iona seemed to think Elizabeth’s shift into womanhood, together with the magic Conner had stirred up, had been responsible for such a dramatic change in her. Serenity had been nothing but relieved, whereas Elizabeth seemed to be a little more disappointed.
“You mean no more amazing displays of strength,” she said, her mouth turning down at the corners. “No more leaping buildings in a single bound?”
“I’m not going to say it won’t come back,” Iona warned. “But you should be happy you didn’t burn in the daylight and that the urge to feed from people has gone. Imagine trying to explain those problems to your principal and friends at school.”
The girl shrugged. “I guess.”
Sebastian tried to struggle to his feet, but Elizabeth raced to his side and crouched beside him instead, holding his hand. “Whatever challenges you have to face in the future,” he told her, “you won’t have to deal with them on your own. Don’t ever feel you need to go to someone else for help.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Dad,” Elizabeth said, throwing her arms around Sebastian’s neck and squeezing him tight. “And it’s really great to see you again.” She pulled away and her brow creased in worry. “You’ll still be here when I wake up, right?”
Sebastian nodded. “I promise.”
Elizabeth grinned. “Good.”
Iona led Elizabeth and Ryan up into the house, leaving Serenity and Sebastian alone. Exhaustion weighted on Sebastian’s face and he closed his eyes. Within seconds, he’d given in to the sleep he’d been fighting for so long.
Serenity lay down beside him and pulled a throw Elizabeth had brought down over the top of their bodies to protect against the chill of the cellar. She curled up against his side and fell into a deep, contented sleep for the first time in years.
Serenity woke to find herself lying with her head on Sebastian’s broad chest, his hand in her hair. When she lifted her head and looked toward him, she was relieved to find him staring down at her.
He’s really here. He’s still here.
His face had completely healed, no sign of the black crust that had covered it earlier. From the single bulb still dimly lit above their heads, she could see his eyes were back to the brightest green. She lifted her hand and touched his cheek, and he lowered his face to rest his forehead against hers, their noses brushing. Happiness welled in her heart and she closed her eyes briefly just to absorb how good it felt to be with him again.
His forefinger touched her chin gently, and she opened her eyes again to find him staring at her intently, his smile gone. She recognized the intensity in his eyes and shivered in anticipation.
“I’m a mess,” she said, glancing away, suddenly shy. She realized they still lay on cushions in their dank cellar. “And this is hardly the most romantic setting in the world.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” he said, reaching out and brushing a lock of hair from her cheek. “All I want is you.”
He kissed her, tentative at first, and then with more force. She returned his hunger, trying to drown the years of deprivation she’d suffered for so long.
His hands raked through her hair, his lips leaving hers and pressing kisses all over her face until his mouth found hers once more. She kissed him back with equal passion, losing herself in the taste of his tongue. Part of her had never thought she’d be able to do this again, to trace every inch of his perfect skin with her fingers. She wanted to bind herself to him, to make them one person.
He tugged the faux fur throw from her body and then reached up and cupped one of her breasts in his hand, his thumb grazing the nipple. She whimpering in response and pressed her body closer to his, her leg hooking over his hip and locking herself against him.
Filled with a sudden urgency, she could no longer stand the feel of material between their bodies. She tore at his shirt, exposing the hard lines of his chest and abdominal muscles. How hard to imagine that same skin had been so badly burned only hours before. He returned the urgency, pulling her shirt up over her head, tearing down her jeans hard enough to leave marks on her skin.
With them both naked, he pushed between her thighs, joining them together. She clung to his shoulders, her face buried against his shoulder, gasping as he moved inside her. She buried her blunt teeth in his shoulder, stifling her cries as her release built, not wanting to disturb the rest of the house.
She felt him tip over the edge, filling her with hard thrusts as he moaned her name.
They clung together, her face pressed against the delicate skin of his throat, dampening it with her tears. The final throes of their lovemaking basked them in its warm glow, and Serenity’s breathing returned to normal.
“You saved me,” he said, lowering his head to plant a soft, cool kiss on her lips.
She smiled against his mouth. “And you saved Elizabeth.”
“I had some help.”
“You could have died, you almost did die.”
“It turns out that Elizabeth’s life is even more important than a vampire’s built-in sense of survival.”
“I guess I should be happy about that, even if you did give me one hell of a fright. I thought I had lost you again, permanently this time.”
“You didn’t lose me.”
She snuggled in closer to him. “What are we going to do now? I know I can live without you, but I don’t want to have to live without you. Please don’t tell me you’re going to leave us again now.”
Sebastian shook his head. “Not if you don’t want me to. The whole reason for me leaving in the first place was for Elizabeth, to try to keep her safe, but things have changed. She smells different.”
Serenity frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She’s more vampire than human now. Even if I wanted to hurt her, which of course I never would,” he added hurriedly. “But if someone should try to force me to harm her, through magic or anything else, it would be physically impossible.”
Hope lifted her heart. “So you can come home, be with us again as a family? That was the only reason you left, right? Because you were frightened someone might force you to hurt her.”
He lifted his hand and pushed her dark curls away from her face with the back of his knuckles, grazing her cheekbone. “But what about you?” he asked, softly. “I can still cause you harm.”
“We’ve been here before, Sebastian.”
“And yet, here we are again. This isn’t something we will get past while you’re human.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to be a vampire, Sebastian. I don’t want to have to kill.”
“I don’t want you to be a vampire either. I love you like this—soft, warm, fragile. But I can’t help but be frightened that I’ll hurt you.”
She searched his intense, green eyes. There was something else, something he wasn’t telling her. “Why would you ever hurt me?”
He glanced away, unable to meet her eye.
She squeezed his hand, drawing his attention back to her. “What
is it you’re really frightened of?”
His voice came out as barely a whisper. “Biting you.”
“What?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice. Of all things, she’d not been expecting that.
“I’m frightened of biting you, of wanting to feed from you. Of not being able to stop.”
“You’re frightened of wanting to bite me?”
He nodded, his gaze shifting away from her in shame.
“You want to bite me?” It was something he’d never admitted to before.
“Every time I look at you, I wonder how you’d taste. It’s who I am. I can’t help myself.”
She wriggled even closer to him, their bodies separated by only the thinnest sliver of air, and looked up into his eyes. “So do it. If that’s the one thing keeping us apart, let’s conquer the fear.”
“But what if I can’t stop?”
“You will. I love you and I trust you.”
“If I start to feed from you, with you also taking my blood, we will be the closest any two people can ever be. We’ll be like one being, sharing the same life force. You taking my blood, me taking yours.” His smoldering eyes took her in, his gaze seeming to scorch its way through her soul. “Our blood … our lives … our love … will all be a circle. It will be endless. You know, no matter how long we’ve been separated for, how I’ve felt about you has never changed. I’ve never stopped loving you, not for a single moment.”
“So do it.”
“Serenity—” he started, but she silenced his words with a kiss, deep, passionate.
She lost herself in the sensation of his mouth on hers, his tongue seeking hers with an expertise that left her panting. She forced herself away. They had more important things to focus on right now.
“I won’t let anything come between us again,” she told him. “I want this, I want you. You know that being dependent on someone else again has left me uneasy, but maybe this is a way of evening the playing field.”
He smiled at her. “You’re going to use sports metaphors now?”
Serenity shrugged. “As long as you understand what I’m trying to tell you.”
“You’re trying to tell me that you want this too.”
“Sebastian, I’d give myself to you in every way possible. I can’t not have you in my life. I love Elizabeth with all my heart, but now we know she’s going to be safe, we need to think about ourselves as well. In a few years, she’ll be grown, leaving home and living her own life. You and I will still be here, still together, forever, I hope.”
“Forever,” he repeated, his eyes fixed upon her face.
She reached up and swept her hair away from her throat. “I wanted you to do this only days after we first met, do you remember?”
At the exposure of her throat, Sebastian’s face took on a different look, his jaw hardening, the green of his eyes melting to yellow. His face seemed harder than normal, his skin paler. She was aware of every moment, every inch of her skin, how it ached to be touched by him, to join herself to him permanently. Her blood sang in her veins; her senses on hyper-alert, she could even feel the pulse thrumming in her throat—that sweet spot—the place he would bite.
“Of course I remember,” he said, his voice hoarse with … What? she wondered. Hunger or lust? Perhaps a mixture of both.
“You ran from me then,” she said. “So much running.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“It stops here. Right now.”
He nodded, his eyes locked on her throat. His upper lip curled, revealing the fangs that had elongated at the promise of blood. Her blood.
Sebastian reached out, one arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her close. He lowered his mouth to her throat, the tips of his fangs piercing her skin in a smooth motion, pain and pleasure all rolled into one. A surge of pleasure, from the very pit of her stomach, raced through her entire body, making her moan.
And he made her his.
A note from the author:
I’m fairly sure the main question I will get from readers after finishing this book will be ‘are there going to be any more Serenity books?’
I’m not going to say that I will never write another Serenity book, but for the moment I feel it is time I left Serenity and Sebastian in peace. However, I do believe in ‘never saying never’, so if at some point in the future the characters start yapping in my ear and demanding I write them another story, then I won’t ignore them.
The good news is that I do have plenty of other series projects coming up with characters I hope you will fall in love with as much as Serenity and Sebastian. Elizabeth is getting her own book, and probably her own series, simply because she is too good a character to let go of. I’m excited to explore how she’ll be as a young adult, with all the heartache and angst that time brings—especially when you happen to be half-vampire!
My other series is one I hope you’ll now read the first chapter of, ‘Autumn’s Blood’, book one in the Spirit Shifters series’. Where Serenity’s books are centred around a small family, this series is on a much larger scale, with more characters, government conspiracies, and a cataclysmic shift involving how people see the world. There may also be a couple of rather sexy paranormal types involved as well! The first book, Autumn’s Blood, will be published at the start of July 2013.
So thank you, lovely reader for your commitment to reading the Serenity series. I hope you’ll stick with me and continue to read the many more books I still have to come.
If you want to stay updated about my new releases, please sign up to my new release list on my blog. You will receive notification of when a new book comes out, together with exclusive previews and sales!
www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com
Thank you once again. Without you, this series never would have existed.
Marissa.
Please keeping reading for the first chapter in ‘Autumn’s Blood’, book one in the Spirit Shifters series…
Autumn’s Blood
The Spirit Shifters Book One
Chapter One
Blake Wolfcollar folded his arms across his massive chest and bit down on the fury tearing through him. He needed to keep control of his emotions. Now more than ever. Losing his grip on himself would mean exposing his true identity to the people who wanted to control his kind.
Bulletproof glass separated a team of men—which included himself—from the three people held captive. Further sheets of glass divided the prisoners, deliberately done so in order for the detainees to be able to witness each other’s torment. In each of the glass cubicles, a solitary metal chair was bolted to the floor. The prisoners—a woman in her mid-thirties, a man of about the same age, and a boy in his teens—had each been handcuffed to the chairs. To any outsider, the people could have been a young family, but Blake knew they’d never laid eyes upon each other until they’d been brought to the facility.
The government building towered above their heads, but they weren’t being held above the city. This part of the compound was buried several stories beneath ground level, preventing anyone who shouldn’t be there overhearing what was going on.
His superior, and friend, Peter Haverly, glanced over his shoulder to where Blake stood, his back to the two-inch-thick metal door which led to the elevator providing access to the rest of the building. Haverly’s eyes widened at him briefly, accompanied by a slow shake of his head.
Keep your cool.
Blake pressed his lips together and glanced away. He understood what Haverly was telling him—don’t get involved, stay quiet for the good of their kind—but he wasn’t known for his self-control.
Maxim Dumas, a silver-haired head of Operation Pursuit, pressed a button located on the control panel in front of him. He leaned forward and spoke into a small microphone. “We know what each of you is. If you simply change for us now, we won’t have the need to use force.”
A growl threatened to rumble from Blake’s throat, but he managed to swallow it down. T
he blunt ellipses of his nails dug into the intricate tribal tattoo etched into the bulk of his bicep. He forced himself to loosen his grip and ran a big palm over his head, his dark hair buzzed military short. He had no way of telling Dumas that the man, woman, and boy were unable to change at will without blowing his cover. Most Spirit Shifters only fused with their spirit guides in moments of intense stress, pain, or emotions. Of course, what Dumas planned on doing would take these people to such a level, but he would assume they cracked under torture rather than realize the pain was the actual trigger.
The people behind the screen stared at each other, abject fear widening their eyes. Blake recognized the woman’s coffee-colored skin, only a shade darker than his own, and her almost-black eyes and long, shiny, dark hair. Had they taken her from a reservation? Or was she like him, one of the lucky ones who had managed to escape the poverty and build a new life for herself?
She strained against her bonds. “Who are you? Why are you doing this to us?”
Dumas leaned forward once more. “I don’t believe you’re in any position to be asking questions, Ms. Lowery. The chair you are strapped to has an electrical current of over a thousand volts attached to its feet. If you don’t do as I ask, I will make sure my people start applying that voltage. We’ll start off low, but it won’t stay that way for long if you don’t comply.”
“You can’t do this!” she cried. “This is abduction and you’re threatening torture! It’s against the law.”
He leaned forward. “We’re outside of the law, Ms. Lowery. Now, I suggest you do as I tell you and change before I get my men to switch on the current.”
“Fuck you!”
Dumas turned to the other men and caught Blake’s eye. “She’s feisty.” He nodded approvingly. “I like that.”
“What the hell do you people want?” the man yelled, but no one acknowledged him.
Blake knew his background: married for eight years, two children—a boy and a girl—your average American Joe. With the exception of being able to shift into the form of his animal spirit guide. For now, Dumas’s attention seemed to be focused on the boy and the woman. Blake didn’t doubt the man’s time would come.
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