Turning the water temperature down to freezing cold in order to wake himself up, he ran his fingers through his hair as the water rinsed the suds clean. When it ran clear, he turned the faucet off and reached for a towel, rubbing himself down quickly. He desperately wanted to hit the vodka again, but that was no longer an option. He’d have to stay compos mentis, or clear of mind, until he managed to get rid of her after which he would then be able to make up for lost time with any luck. Alcohol, and alcohol alone, was the only thing that managed to take the edge off his grief. The ache was now going to be a permanent fixture to his life and it was almost unbearable. Currently, he didn’t have his shit together, and as the powers that be already knew all of that, they’d just have to take what was left of him and hope for the best.
After returning to his bedroom, he dragged on a clean pair of denim jeans and a thick black sweater. He didn’t feel in the mood for colours. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes as he prepared to face the inevitable—one probable harpy of a woman who was about to be sorely pissed at the downward direction her life had just taken. Oh well, he knew it couldn’t be helped. He plastered his trademark smile across his face and prepared himself for a whole bunch of ear-splitting histrionics. Vampiric hearing was not always an asset.
As he entered his lounge, he flicked the light switch just beside the oak panelled door. He might be able to see in the dark but the chances were she couldn’t, and what with the having been buried thing and all, he didn’t want any more theatrics than were absolutely necessary. Striding into the room, his bare feet hardly making a sound upon the polished wooden floor, he decided to examine his charge before she started shouting and waving her arms about.
Leaning his upper body over the couch and peering down, he hoped she wasn’t going to be attractive. It was going to make his life a whole lot more difficult if she was easy on the eyes, and he didn’t relish the thought of yet another challenge.
Starting at her feet, he noted she wore sensible flat pumps that once upon a time had been black, but were now a watery brown in colour. They’d obviously made her walk to the casket. Ouch. His eyes continued upwards taking in a set of long, shapely legs gloved in jeans so tight she’d need to peel them off to remove them, also covered in their fair share of mud. The tiniest sliver of bare flesh appeared, displaying a flat stomach with soft rounded curves before a dark black shirt came into view. The shirt had entirely too many buttons and unfortunately, all fastened tight. Spoilsport. For all the coverage, anyone would have thought it was a chilly December day outside.
Progressing upwards, he found a set of soft full lips that were much paler than they should have been and a pretty, straight-edged little nose. She had masses of long blonde, shiny hair, which splayed everywhere, framing her face in a bright halo. Finally, his gaze settled on a pair of striking blue eyes that were wide-open and staring back at him.
“Seen enough have we?”
The shock of her words sent him tumbling backwards. Falling over with a thud, he stared at her amazed disbelief.
“You were unconscious,” he whispered even as his mind was whirling. How on earth had she managed to wake herself from his trance? It should have been virtually impossible for any human to break it.
“And you regularly ogle sleeping ladies?”
The beautiful royal blue eyes that he had admired only seconds ago were not looking very friendly now.
He frowned. “Now hang on. I have just spent my evening in a very large, very muddy field searching for a ridiculously small box, which I then had to dig out by hand. Next, I had to lug you…”
His mouth snapped shut, halting his rant. She’d begun screaming and there wasn’t much point in continuing the conversation. Slowly counting to twenty in his head, he let her get rid of the worst of it, even though his ears were ringing with pain. When her time was up, he got on his feet, squatted down to her level and secured her eyes with his.
“Stop.” The command was no more than a whisper. His lips barely moved. They didn’t need to because eye contact alone should have done the job, but something was wrong. The screaming continued.
Annoyed, he slapped his hands against his thighs and wondered if someone had tossed him into an alternate universe just for laughs. Oh well, there was more than one-way to deal with problems such as these. Placing a hand around the delicate skin of her neck, he gently squeezed her Adam’s apple and got his face up close and personal with hers.
“Stop it.” This time he spoke with a good deal more volume, and he made sure the look in his eye was menacing as he tightened his grip around her neck. As soon as he put pressure against her windpipe, she quietened down quick enough. After a few hiccupping breaths, she squirmed herself backwards on the sofa, and pushed his hand away.
“You have such wonderful diplomacy skills, Mr. Sadistic-axe murdering-crazy-psychotic-sociopath-son of a bitch. Have you considered a career in counselling?” She grabbed her neck and rubbed at it with her fingertips. The action was strangely sexy. Throwing him a furious look, she coughed and spluttered as she recovered the use of her larynx.
His eyes were everywhere at once. He watched the pulse flicker in her neck, the dart of her tongue as it moistened her lips, and the slow blink of her long black feathery eyelashes. Her eyes were the clearest blue. They held his with the kind of chemistry someone was lucky enough to see once or twice in a lifetime…if that someone was a human, of course. The kind of chemistry he’d seen more than his fair share of and was more than happy to avoid. It was like a static charge, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. He stumbled backwards for the second time that evening and swore.
“Sadistic, yes…crazy, most certainly, but an axe murderer? Not yet but if you keep looking at me like you want to eat me alive, I might decide to invest in one.” He’d said it to goad her, because he wanted to know if she felt it too.
Her eyes widened. Her mouth formed a perfect, shocked little O and then fury replaced surprise as she spluttered. “Is arrogance another of your charming traits? They seem to be adding up at an alarming rate. As to eating you alive, I’d rather eat snails. Who the hell are you anyway? And where am I?”
She glared at him, waiting for an answer. He simply grinned at her and received a frown in response. Therefore, she felt the attraction too. Damn. This was exactly what he didn’t want happening. Getting to his feet, he scooped her up in his arms and was rewarded with yet more screaming.
Pinning her with a dark look, he snarled. “For God’s sake, stop with the caterwauling. I have very delicate hearing and it feels like you’re trying to rupture my eardrums. I’m going to put you to bed where hopefully, you’ll stay out of trouble, at least for the rest of this evening. I don’t think you need any more enemies right now, do you?”
She struggled in his arms at first, kicking, biting, and scratching until he tossed her over his shoulder and placed an arm over her backside.
“Another move from you and I’ll spank that backside until it’s blistered, darling.”
Another scream ensued, followed by an enraged, “You wouldn’t dare. And I’m not your darling.”
Not missing a beat, his feet flying up the stairs to the bedroom, he barked, “Feel free to test that theory, Lainey.”
He heard her gasp of surprise that he knew her name, confirming it to him since it was the only name he’d pulled from her mind. Gripping one of her ass cheeks, he squeezed it tightly, to let her know he was deadly serious about his earlier threat. The good news was the struggling stopped instantly. The bad news was that tears replaced it. Floods of the things, until she choked so much she could barely breathe.
Kicking the door to the guest bedroom open, he held her while rocking her gently until the worst of the tremors that shook her body subsided. A nagging sliver of guilt had started to worm its way inside him. He needed to go easy on her. She’d had a rough day. Chances were that things were shortly going to get a lot worse before they got better however, so the little chit needed to toughen up. To be fair to the
girl, she didn’t waste too much time on tears. A few minutes later, there were a few more sniffs and snuffles, but then she stiffened in his arms.
He released his tight hold on her and laid her out flat on the bed. Keeping his voice devoid of any sympathy or pity, he looked down at her and said, “All cried out?”
There was a long pause before she finally answered. “I guess that depends on what you’re going to do to me. What do you want?” Her voice was a whisper of a sound. His eardrums were thankful.
“To get you out of my life as quickly as possible but as that seems unlikely, I’ll settle for your co-operation as I try to get you out of the Grand Canyon sized hole you seem to have found yourself in. How can one little slip of a girl be wanted dead by so many people?” He gave her an enquiring look but it seemed the art of conversation was lost, at least for this evening in any case. Raising an eyebrow at her lack of communication, he then shook his head. “You’re going to have to talk to me sooner or later, darling. If you don’t, we’re really going to be up against the odds.” Lying down beside her, he rested his head on the chintz-patterned quilt as he studied her expression.
“I want to go to sleep,” she whimpered, backing away from him.
“You need to relax before you stand a chance of accomplishing that feat.”
“Exactly,” she bit back, “so get the hell out of here.”
He snorted. This might have been the first time ever a female had ejected him from a bedroom. He found it wasn’t a particularly pleasing experience.
“Roll over.”
“I’m not having sex with you.”
“I think I’d know if you were.”
There was an outraged pause. “You’re not funny. I mean it. Other women may fall at your feet but I don’t find you remotely attractive, so don’t bother with the bedroom technique. You’ll be wasting your time. If that’s what you want from me, you might as well kill me now.”
A ghost of a smile played across his lips. “So melodramatic, princess, relax…everyone else may want to kill you, but I have the unfortunate task of trying to keep you alive. So let me make this clear. I do not want to have sex with you. I have no designs on your body. I do not need another unwanted houseguest in my life. If you play nicely, I’ll play nicely. Do we understand each other?”
There was anger in her eyes, but she managed to acknowledge his question with a stiff nod of her head.
“Now roll over.”
“I thought you just said…”
“And I meant it. My body heat will help warm you up and if we spoon, my heart rate will help slow yours down.”
“Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before, vampire.”
He stiffened and his mouth opened in shock. “How on earth do you…?”
“I know a vampire when I see one and you tick all the boxes. Attractive...mesmerising…bossy...arrogant...annoying…”
Forcefully rolling her over, he brought the flat of his hand up to her chin and snapped her jaw shut. “Shut up and go to sleep.”
If necessary, they could discuss the finer points of the paranormal world tomorrow.
Feeling her mouth try to pry itself open to offer up yet another reprisal, he decided she’d be better off unconscious. Having had quite enough exertion for this evening, he didn’t want her awake for the bite he needed to render. He didn’t care what she thought she knew, he knew a bite from him was going to be memorable, too memorable so if he were able to commit the sensations to dreamland, so much the better. He pushed into her mind to complete the deed.
“I know you’re trying to make me sleep. I’ll fight your control every step of the way, vamp.” Her voice was softer now, and she slurred a little but the woman was still wide-awake.
He growled. The human was insufferable and he felt his fingers flex as his fangs elongated in his mouth. Well, wasn’t this just marvellous. They found each other attractive. Perhaps he should just kill her now and not worry about the repercussions. He might even get away with the crime unscathed, considering he’d already been labelled as mentally unstable. It was a thought.
He pushed harder. It took a lot more energy than it should have but finally, he saw her eyelids droop. She could fight him up to a point, but he was still the master in this household, which she would learn sooner rather than later.
Smiling when he heard the first of her soft snores, he whispered, “Oh, and for the record, I’ve never met a girl that didn’t want to fuck me. You’re not going to be the first either.” If she could have seen his smug grin, she’d have known his certainty in the matter.
Giving her a few minutes, he waited until her breathing had taken on a slow and relaxed resonance. In her case, it was best to make sure she was in a deep sleep before he pounced. He did not want to risk her stirring, because waking up in the middle of an orgasm was a damn difficult thing to explain. He waited another couple of minutes just to be on the safe side, and then he took the plunge.
The buttons at the top of her shirt almost melted beneath his fingertips. He popped the first three, and then gently eased her collar down. She shifted slightly but her eyelids didn’t flutter, so there was little chance of her waking. Besides, the room was pitch black and it was nearing midnight. All good girls should be in bed and asleep by midnight.
Inhaling her scent, cinnamon and orange flooded his senses. Most likely, a perfume she had long ago applied but something expensive, for it had clung tenaciously to her skin. It suited her. Sassy and bright, it was invigorating and intoxicating. There was just enough to tease him. Taking another sweet lungful, he smiled before pushing the mane of her long blonde hair to the side. Unfortunately, he had things to do, caskets to bury. Casting his acute, vampire eyes down upon her neck, he admired the long sleek line of her shoulders before moving his gaze up to settle on her external jugular vein. Then he nearly had a heart attack. There, brazenly displayed upon her neck, was another bite and not just any bite. It was a master vampire bite. When a vampire had been alive as long as he had, he learned to spot these things. The canines were a little bigger and the bite was much deeper. The vampire that had bitten her had left a mark, which looked like he had tried to rip her neck off in the process. It was a vicious marking and done in anger. She was lucky to be was alive. It was the kind of bite death usually followed. Shit. That was why his influence wasn’t working properly on her. Another vampire carried her blood in his system, and he was vying for control.
Swearing viciously, he knew they only had a couple of days to take out a Master vampire, or else certain death would follow. That vampire would be following her every move, hearing each thought that flitted through her head, and trying to pin down her whereabouts. As of now, he was the biggest threat she faced, without question. Cursing again for good measure, he pulled his cell out of his pocket, pressed speed dial, and waited for HQ to pick up.
“Did you get her out alive?”
There was no space for idle chatter when Lucius was manning the desk.
“Yes, but we have a problem. She’s been bitten by an oldie.”
“You’ll need to exterminate him. Quickly.”
“Thanks for stating the bloody obvious, Lucius. The only trouble is that it’s a little difficult killing people who can’t be killed.”
“They can all be killed. You just have to find their weakness.”
“Hmm…well, while I deal with that problem, you need to send an operative to the address you gave me so they can tidy up the crime scene before it gets light.”
“Will do. Have an enjoyable evening, M.”
“Yeah…having a ball so far, thanks.” The line went dead.
Having dealt with that, he now had to sink his fangs into her tainted bloodstream. There was nothing else for it. He would need to keep track of her in case something happened. Steeling his stomach, he bent his head down and ran his tongue over the twin points of his canines, preparing himself for the taste of bile.
There was a very good chance this woman was just about to lead him
to his death. The trouble was that suited him just fine.
Chapter 2
The Bite
Even though he did not relish the thought of sucking her blood, Mercer savoured the moment of the bite. His nose pressed up against her neck, his mouth watered, and his fangs pleaded to be set free. Taking another breath of her tantalising scent, he let the beast loose.
The connection was instant. Her blood filled his mouth and it was the strangest concoction he had ever tasted. At first, it flowed through him like the sweetest syrup bringing forth an instant erection as desire pounded through every pore in his body. In the next moment, a bitter aftertaste coursed through him that could only be likened to drinking castor oil mixed with an impressive shot of menthol. The resulting effect was a vampire who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to pounce upon his next victim, or shove his head over the toilet. It made little difference to her, for she managed an instantaneous orgasm, bucking and jolting against his hard flesh. Holding his arms tight against her, he made sure she didn’t hurt herself as the throes of pleasure were ridden out. It was all right for some but he didn’t get his pleasure unless penetration was involved, and that looked unlikely to happen just now and probably for the next few days at least. Still, he supposed they could work on that…if they didn’t get themselves killed first.
Swallowing against the vile taste that flooded his throat, he had no other option but to cut the bite short. On the plus side, his hunger proved no danger but the disgusting taste was going to remain inside him for days. Goddamn. He had yet another reason to loath his unwanted friend.
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