Tempted by Blood

by Laurie London

  “I like the color you’re using. What’s the name of that?”

  Lily stared at her for a moment, one perfectly shaped brow lifted. “RazzleDazzle Me.”

  “Cute name.” Arianna went back to her own nails as Lily smiled broadly. Must be an inside joke or something.

  “Do you know that our saliva has healing properties, as well as acting as a mild pain reliever?” Lily said, pressing the tips of her pointer finger and middle finger on her neck to demonstrate. “You know, to hide any evidence that we were there. It comes in handy with other minor…abrasions, as well.”

  Arianna could feel her cheeks heating up. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “So, as I was saying, when you’re not in a relationship, having friends with benefits can be a good thing. Which leads me to something else.”

  “What? That the two of you have slept together? He already told me that.” Jackson had explained everything on the long drive here, while Krystal slept. She liked that he’d felt the need to be honest with her.

  Lily looked relieved. “Oh, good. I just didn’t want you to find out later and feel uncomfortable. I’m madly in love with Alfonso. What Jackson and I had years ago was purely physical. Sex only. None of this up here.” She tapped her forehead with a red-tipped nail. “That’s when the magic really happens.”

  “So, how did you and Jackson meet?”

  “We both started with the Agency about the same time. He was working on a missing-sweetblood case. It was my first assignment.”

  “But I thought that you only kept tabs on sweetbloods, that you didn’t necessarily track them down if they go missing.”

  “This case was special. It involved a young girl. Jackson wouldn’t drop the case after the trail ran cold. Said she’s someone’s daughter or sister and that we needed to find out what happened to her.”

  “And did you?”

  “Yeah, we sure did, all right.” She looked at all the rows of fingernail polish, but Arianna had a feeling she wasn’t really looking at them.

  “We wiped her memory then took her back to her parents’, where she miraculously turned up after being missing for days. Alien abduction is how some people explain why that happens. Others say it was a kidnapper with a change of heart.” Lily capped the bottle and shook it again.

  This was just like what happened with Krystal. “I get the feeling that it didn’t go well.”

  “It didn’t. Three weeks after we wiped her mind and returned her to her home, her body turned up in a local storm sewer. A whole new set of Darkbloods had tracked her down that time.”

  Arianna gasped. “What—what did they do to her?”

  Lily shook her head. “I don’t think you want to know.”

  “Please.” Her voice came out as a whisper. It could’ve been what had been done to her mother and what could’ve been done to Krystal if Jackson hadn’t come along when he had.

  “Generally, victims are taken to one of the Darkblood dens where they’re strapped to a gurney and their blood drained. It’s then put into vials and sold on the black market.”

  Arianna felt as if she was going to get sick.

  “Oh, God, I knew I shouldn’t have told you this much. Darkbloods are vicious and ruthless, which is why Jackson and I do what we do. To prevent things like that from happening and weaken the Alliance’s power structure. The less organized they are, the more slipshod their efforts.”

  “What do they do with the people when they’re…done?”

  Lily cast a sidelong glance to the left, and Arianna got the distinct impression that what she was about to say wouldn’t be the full truth. “Sometimes they’re buried, sometimes they’re dumped, and other times, the bodies are never found. They waste no time with niceties when there’s blood that needs to be sold.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ALTHOUGH SHE WASN’T A neat freak by a long shot, Arianna felt the need to do something to keep herself busy until nightfall, especially since she didn’t have use of a computer or phone. As she gathered up the wet towels in the bathroom, she thought about the conversation she and Jackson had before he went to work out in Alfonso’s weight room, his arm looking a lot better.

  “After all that’s happened, you still don’t trust me,” she’d said to him. “Do you really think I’d post anything to jeopardize your secret after all you’ve done—that all of you have done for me and Krystal?”

  “Sorry. Dom’s orders.”

  She’d wanted to punch something. Or someone. Preferably this Dom character.

  “Jackson, I’ve got thousands of readers who depend on me each morning. They count on the fact that they can drink their first cup of coffee and read Paranormalish. I need access to a computer.”

  “Impossible.”

  What could she say to convince him, get him to change his mind? “This isn’t just a little hobby of mine. I have regular blog features, comments that need answering, emails, story leads, none of which I can do from here without my laptop. I have two ad spots, which need to be changed out no later than tomorrow.”

  He’d run a hand through his hair and she’d watched as the green and blue streaks settled back in place. It was clear he didn’t trust her, but she didn’t know what else she could say to convince him otherwise. “Please. This is really important to me.”

  “Arianna, I can’t. End of discussion.”

  “No. It’s not.” She didn’t care who or what he was, no one dismissed her like that. “Although the fact that vampires exist would normally be something I’d continue to write about and explore on Paranormalish, there are many other areas within the paranormal realm that I can cover. If I don’t make a post in the next day or so, people are going to wonder what’s going on. Especially if they read that last post before you guys took it down.”

  He’d exhaled heavily. “Jesus.”

  “You can Big Brother me. Watch to make sure I don’t post anything I shouldn’t. You can be the blog police, for all I care. Just give me access so I can do what I need to do.”

  He stared at her as if trying to decide.

  “If it makes you happy, I’ll run everything past you first. It’s not like I have a desire to expose the people who—who saved my life. Jackson, this is really important to me.”

  “Part of the problem is that your computer isn’t secure by Agency standards.”

  “Is there a different computer I can use?”

  “I could maybe arrange that.”

  She’d felt a huge sense of relief, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. That’d just barely keep things afloat. “That’s a start, I suppose.”

  “A start?” He’d spun to face her, his eyes blazing.

  “I really need to finish reporting on that boy missing from the Devil’s Backbone. Photos and videos from the site—that kind of thing. That’s what I would have done already if this mess hadn’t happened. My readers are expecting it. Plus, I heard on the radio that another person went missing from the same vicinity. I can’t help but wonder if it’s from the same place. I want to go there, check things out myself.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” All the warmth and understanding had gone from his eyes.

  Did she dare push him for more? He looked about as unbendable as anyone she’d ever seen. But she had to. “Will you take me?”

  He’d cursed under his breath and stormed out the door an hour ago.

  Well, at least she’d gotten him to cave about the computer, she told herself as she opened a drawer, looking for something to wipe down the bathroom counters. A small metal stud sat on a pile of washcloths. She picked it up, thinking maybe it was a piece of hardware from one of the drawers. Given that Alfonso was still working on the house, she wondered if it was a screw that needed to go somewhere. But it wasn’t a s
crew.

  It was several centimeters long with a small ball on each end. She twisted it. One of the ends could be unscrewed. Wait. Was this what she thought it was? Did Jackson have a piercing after all? When they made love, she was pretty sure she’d have felt it if he’d had it in, which was why she’d assumed her eyes had been playing tricks on her. If this was his, why had he removed it?

  A sound in the bedroom drew her attention. Jackson must be back from working out. He’d be coming in to take a shower any moment. While she waited for him to open the door, she sat on the counter, crossed her legs to look coy and held out her hand with the metal stud displayed prominently.

  He kicked the door open as he was peeling off his shirt. Her stomach did a couple of backflips when she saw his well-defined abs.

  “Jesus, Arianna, I didn’t know you were in here,” he said, pulling the shirt over his head and tossing it into the corner. When he looked down to see what she had in her outstretched hand, a shadow darkened his features. “What are you doing?”

  “This looks like body jewelry of some sort.”

  Without answering, he turned abruptly away from her and started the water in the shower.

  “Is it?”

  “It doesn’t concern you,” he growled.

  “I just want to know if it is or not. No big deal.”

  “Yes, goddamn it. It is.” He angrily stripped off his shorts and climbed into the shower stall. “Fuuuck,” he said from inside. She guessed the water was either too hot or too cold.

  “Why aren’t you wearing it?”

  She heard him fumbling for the shampoo bottle. Then another curse.

  “Jackson?”

  “I don’t feel like it.”

  “Why not? If it’s because—”

  He yanked the door open, but was careful to keep his business hidden. The sight of him standing there with rivulets of soapy water snaking down his torso and over the thigh of the one leg she could see made the words catch in her throat.

  “It’s not a belly-button ring, Arianna,” he snapped. “It’s a genital piercing.”

  “Yeah, I—I know.”

  His jaw ticked. He looked ready to explode. His gaze darted from her hand up to her face before he closed the door again and stepped back inside. She could see his silhouette behind the rippled glass. He wasn’t moving, just standing under the water.

  Why was he pissed that she’d found it? And why had he removed it in the first place? Except for earrings, body jewelry stayed in place most of the time.

  Then she remembered when he’d stormed out of bed on the first night they slept together. Had he removed it then? He had to have. He must not have wanted her to know about it.

  She quietly peeled off her clothes and opened the shower door. With both hands pressed to the tile, he stood under the showerhead, letting the water spray his back. He didn’t bother to look up when she stepped inside. “Go away.”

  “If you took it off for me,” she said quietly, resting a hand on the small of his back, right over his twin dimples, “you needn’t have.”

  He scoffed.

  “I’m serious, Jackson. I’m—I’m game for a lot of things with you, if you hadn’t already figured that out. You should put it back in.” She tentatively reached around between his legs. She started to cup him when he grabbed her wrist and shoved her hand away.

  “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not a fashion statement, like earrings or a nose ring or a belly-button ring. ‘Oh, I think I’ll wear the blue one today. It’ll go with my shirt.’ The main reason guys pierce their dick is to get more sex. To please a variety of partners.”

  “If that’s the case, then why did you take it off before we slept together?”

  He didn’t answer right away. The water continued to spray him. Then, when finally he spoke, his voice was so low she strained to hear it over the sound of the shower. “I—I didn’t want you to have that be your impression of me the first time we made love. I wanted to be…different for you.”

  “Different?” Did he think guys with piercings like that were commonplace in her world?

  “Normal,” he added.

  Her chest felt suddenly tight and her knees went all rubbery. He cared about what she thought of him and considered her different from other women he’d been with. “You’re a vampire,” she whispered. “I’m a human. Nothing about you is normal to me. And with or without that in, I’m still desperately attracted to you.”

  This time when she reached for him, he didn’t shove her hand away.

  Sweet Mother Mary, he was hard. Rock hard. Her fingers could barely fit all the way around his shaft. Before she knew what was happening, he’d grabbed her by the hips, lifted her up, and in the blink of an eye, she was sliding down over the top of him.

  His hands were everywhere. Spanning her rib cage. Kneading her buttocks. Holding her hip bones for leverage. Twisting first one nipple then the other one just hard enough that it almost hurt. The muscles in his shoulders and arms flexed under her hands with every movement. Guess his arm really was better.

  With her legs around his waist and her back pressed against the tiles, he pounded into her over and over, leaving her breathless and aware of nothing else in this world but him, unsure of when one climax was over and the next one started.

  When he grabbed the back of her hair, she tilted her head back and laughed. She couldn’t help herself. He felt so amazing, so good.

  His shaft seemed to thicken then, the tip going infinitesimally deeper inside, as her body opened up farther to him. Oh, God, he was on the verge just as was she.

  “I’m having another one,” she said, grabbing at his shoulders. “I want you to have one with me.” She caught a glimpse of fang before he quickly turned his head away. She found it darkly erotic that he wanted that from her, too.

  She grabbed his face and turned it back to hers. His fangs were fully extended, the green of his irises a thin ring around his dilated pupils. He was a powerful, deadly male and for a fleeting instant he belonged to her. “That, too,” she said breathlessly as wave after wave of pleasure pulsed through her again. “Take that, too.”

  Needing no more encouragement, he struck quickly. The sharpness of the pain surprised her as his teeth sank into her flesh. But before she could gasp or cry out, it was gone, followed instead by a warm, almost calming sensation. With his lips hot against her throat, water cascading over them, he swallowed what she gave to him as his seed pumped into her body.

  THEY LAY IN A TANGLE of sheets, Arianna’s leg draped carelessly over his torso. Jackson seriously hadn’t felt this good in ages. Not only was he sexually sated, but he felt unusually calm and clearheaded. Two emotions he hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “You still never told me why you have this pierced.” She had reached down and was fondling him.

  That was something he had for those women, not Arianna. That part of his life, though necessary, wasn’t something he was proud of. He enjoyed and found useful the attention that his reputation afforded him, but she didn’t belong in that world.

  So, why am I pulling her into it?

  “I know you said it’s to get more sex, but seriously, Jackson, that can hardly be an issue with you.”

  “What do you mean?” Although he had a damn good idea what she meant, he was just vain enough to want to hear her say it.

  “Because you’re hot, that’s why. And that’s the best damn sex I’ve ever had. I can’t imagine you’d ever have trouble finding a willing partner.”

  A mixture of satisfaction and pride swelled his chest. This woman, whom he couldn’t seem to get enough of, apparently felt the same way about him. He felt himself growing harder yet again. Her fingertips were cool on the base of his shaft and he loved how she seemed as interested in his balls as he
was with her nipples. If she kept touching him like this, he was going to cave in to those urges once more.

  He found it so incredible that she’d actually offered him her blood back in the shower. She’d seen the very worst of his kind and he’d have thought that the blood thing would’ve freaked her out, but it obviously hadn’t. Its coppery sweetness still lingered on the back of his tongue.

  “I mean, not that I’m against the body art,” she continued, “but your logic seems flawed.”

  “I’ve told you my concerns about reverting. Part of the reason I suspect it’s happening is that my blood and energy needs have skyrocketed. Most of us can go for weeks at a time without taking either, but not me.”

  He wondered how long Arianna’s blood and energy would last in his system before he’d need to go out looking for more. At least his arm seemed to be doing better now. In fact, as he rubbed a hand over the fresh bandage, the injury didn’t hurt at all. Good. It meant that he’d have an easier time going out later than if it still bothered him.

  She sat up and looked at him, her messy hair cascading over her shoulders and partially covering her ample breasts. He brushed her hair away with a flick so that he could play with a dusty-rose nipple.

  “So you make your friends and associates think you’re having a lot of sex, when you’re actually doing it for the energy.”

  He rolled the delicate flesh between his finger and thumb, then watched as it peaked.

  She poked him in the side and he jumped. “Answer me.”

  “Okay, fine,” he said, still staring at her breasts.

  What he really wanted was to bury his face between them and feel the creamy softness of her skin against his cheeks. She made a little sound of frustration, then lifted his chin and forced him to look at her face. God, she was beautiful with those pouty lips, crimson-stained cheeks and a few freckles sprinkled across her nose.

  He lifted an eyebrow. “I’m no saint.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” she said flatly.