by Kari Gregg
She swallowed convulsively, glanced away. “He said not to let you take my blood.”
And Luc had been right.
About all of it.
She should’ve stayed far away from Garrick, werewolf or no werewolf. Even if he hadn’t mesmerized her until just a moment ago and had stopped when she’d asked, she should’ve been more careful. The rest may not matter so much, but this? Placing herself in a position that practically invited Garrick to bite her? That failure was unforgivably stupid. Had either she or Luc believed she could handle the vampyr, no matter that he’d been drained near-bone-dry of blood and weakened?
They were fools. Both of them. Regardless of the power Garrick claimed Luc had over him, Luc wasn’t there now. Only she was, and Garrick’s firm grip indicated he didn’t intend to let her go anytime soon.
He could bite her whenever he liked.
There wasn’t a damned thing either she or her guardian could do to prevent it.
The fact that her vulnerability turned her on even more?
Petrifying.
“That didn’t take long.” He threaded the baby-fine hair at her nape in his fingers. “Your mind is your own, and already, I terrify you. But there’s no need for Luc’s wariness or yours. You’ll be stronger soon, better able to tolerate the shock of mating. My control is not so fragile as to fail to grasp that.” His fingers stilled. “Did Luc explain why he does not want me to taste you?”
She squirmed, because tasting sounded a whole lot sexier than biting. “No.” Needs collided within her, the urge to flee batting against the impulse to stay in his arms. To let him take her. God, she wanted him. “He just told me not to let you bite.”
“You tasted my blood. My blood scent inside you marks you as mine. It’s not a strong mark, one that will require reinforcing, but…” He inhaled, nostrils flaring. His eyes glittered predatory satisfaction. “Your vampyr accepted me as your equal—your mate—the moment you tasted me.”
She stiffened. Her jaw dropped. Her equal? Since when had Kate ever been as strong and as powerful as Garrick, much less Luc? Never.
And what was this mating crap?
Sex she could handle. The longer she nestled against his hard body, the more she wanted to rub against him, to take his cock in her hand, into her mouth. To make him as crazy as he was making her. But mating?
Mating sounded a lot more involved than the mindless fuck her body craved. “I didn’t know—”
“That doesn’t change what is.” His hand framed her face, forcing her gaze to his. “A drop of your blood is all it will take to mark me as yours. To seal us. Once we’re sealed, there’s no stopping it. We will mate.”
When his weight shifted beneath her, she grabbed his shoulders to steady herself. He rolled her beneath him, his weight pressing her into the couch. The bottom dropped out of her stomach when the ridge of his cock pressed into the V of her thighs. “Garrick.”
“I want to be yours, to bear your mark,” he said against the lobe of her ear. His mouth nuzzled the wispy hair he found there. “I need it.” He trembled against her. “But as strong as your new instincts are, you’re not physically or mentally ready for mating. When you are, you’ll know. We’ll both know. Until then, I won’t taste you.”
She wanted to believe him. “Then what—Why—”
He chuckled into her hair. “I want to neck.”
She froze, a bubble of dubious laughter working up her throat, though she tried to smother it. “I beg your pardon?”
His warm breath bathed her earlobe. “I want to hold you.” His mouth brushed the tender skin underneath, forcing a whispery sigh past her lips. “Kiss you.” His hand settled at her hip to squeeze. “Touch you.”
She stiffened when his lips settled on her neck, her hands pushing against him when he drew her skin into his mouth. Then she moaned with pleasure as his tongue darted out to sample her skin.
Not her blood.
Her skin.
“Human or vampyr doesn’t matter when it comes to this.” He slid his hand under her sweatshirt to caress the flat stretch of her stomach. “Let me show you how good our mating will be.”
She shivered as he traced his lips along the line of her jaw. Aftershocks of shivery sensation spread everywhere his mouth and his clever fingers touched. She’d never felt anything like it, nor wanted something—someone—more. She didn’t know half of what he was talking about. Didn’t care. As long as he didn’t stop kissing her. As long as he kept touching her. Her hands no longer pushed him away but drew him closer. “Garrick,” she said on a throaty whisper.
“Rick,” he said against her mouth, his tongue testing her bottom lip so that she trembled and shook. “For five hundred years, I dreamed that someday I’d have you beneath me and you’d call me Rick.”
His mouth settled on hers. Kate’s mind spun dizzily past her at the taste of him, the feel of his tongue sliding past her lips and twining with hers.
She should’ve been afraid. A wise woman would’ve been wary, but Kate couldn’t be wise, not when his mouth was doing such wonderful things to hers. Her world narrowed to the silk of his hair in her hands as she urged the kiss harder, deeper. The hot, too-sensitive quiver of her skin wherever he touched. The glorious weight of his hips when they aligned with hers, and the sweet, sweet ache that weight birthed inside her when his cock rubbed at the damp heat of her pussy through frustrating barriers of fabric.
She whimpered in protest when his mouth lifted, then moaned as he scattered kisses along the column of her neck. His tongue stabbed into the hollow of her throat, and she shuddered. “Rick,” she whispered, giving him what he wanted.
Under her shirt, his palm glided over the curve of her breast. When her back arched into his touch, welcoming him there, Garrick groaned. “Yes, love. Show me what you need.”
He found her nipple, already pebbled, and when he rubbed it between his fingers, heat poured from her breasts to her cunt in a rush that left her giddy and breathless.
It was too much and far too soon, but Kate didn’t care. She fisted her fingers in his hair to guide his lips back to hers, and when his mouth captured hers, she lifted her hips to his.
This time, he shuddered.
She ripped her mouth free, only to trail it down the corded muscle of his neck. Her tongue laved his skin to take in the earthy flavor of him. Sharp. Pungent. He moaned when her teeth brushed his throat just under the collar of his shirt.
She liked it.
A lot.
So she did it again.
Garrick’s hand raced from under her shirt to grope at his own. He cursed when his awkward fingers fumbled with the buttons.
His jaw clenched when she slid them free herself with a whispered, “Let me.”
Inch by wonderful inch, she spread his shirt wide until the full expanse of his chest lay open to her. She lifted her fingers to light on his hard muscle, and he jumped. “Your hands,” he said when she looked at him. She smiled and his eyes snapped shut. “You’re driving me insane.”
Considering how her blood boiled in her veins and her skin screamed wherever he touched, Kate thought him not crazy enough, so she smoothed her lips across his chest. “I love the taste of you.”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
When her tongue darted out to circle the flat disk of his nipple, fingers twining in the curls of his chest hair, his palm cupped her head to hold her to him. “Don’t stop.”
As if she would.
She sucked his pebbling nipple into her mouth, teasing it with her tongue, her teeth—
“Let go of her, you bastard.”
She shrugged away the hand that clamped down on her shoulder, holding firmly to Garrick instead. He was where she wanted to be, with his warm, silky skin finally under her fingers, her mouth on his flesh.
“Wait, Luc. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know I’ll take your head if you don’t get off her right now.”
Kate reluctantly shifted her inter
est from Garrick’s chest. Fingers digging into his sides, she hissed at Luc and the sword he wielded.
Luc froze.
His jaw dropped.
“What’ve you done to her?”
Garrick stroked her hair, and she purred low in her throat, rubbed her cheek against his skin just below his nipple. “Kate’s vampyr is stirring. She’s reacting instinctively. If you ever loved me at all, Luc, don’t move.”
“You’re molesting my ward, and I’m not to move? Draining you hasn’t affected your hormones, but it’s made you feebleminded.”
“I’m fine. Go away, Luc,” she mumbled, but all she could think of was Garrick, touching him, the feel of him touching her. She wanted him inside her, his cock piercing her through. Nothing else mattered. Garrick might let Luc interfere, but Kate wouldn’t. Garrick could make him go away if he wanted. She just needed to convince him to make Luc go.
She flicked his nipple with the tip of her tongue.
A vein throbbed at Luc’s temple. “Get off her. Now.”
Garrick’s lashes drooped with the erotic attention her mouth lavished on him, but he rubbed her back in frustratingly gentle strokes. “Her vampyr is too strong. She—”
“Final warning.” Luc swung the sword in a practiced arc inches from Garrick’s left ear.
“No!” Kate snarled at the sword, the blade sharply menacing. She sank her teeth into Garrick’s chest. He grunted, then threw his head back. Intimately linked with him, she shared his fierce wonder, his exhilaration, the pleasure and pain that rocketed through him. Her gluttonous satisfaction, his—who could tell? It was one and the same. They were one and the same.
Kate vaguely heard the clatter of the sword dropping to the floor. Luc’s shadow cast over her when he stumbled forward. “God help us. Bébé, no.”
“Don’t. You’ll hurt her,” Garrick said through clenched teeth when Luc reached for Kate. She growled at him, sucked, and greedily swallowed the precious blood that spilled from Garrick’s chest. “She’ll fight if you try to take her from me.”
“I nearly drained you dry an hour ago. She’ll hurt you. Maybe kill you.”
She wouldn’t. She’d never hurt him, never in a million years, but… It was so good. The taste she’d had earlier was a wretched shadow for the feast his body offered her now. The power and life fermenting inside him lashed out at her, sucked her in. Maddened her. She was drowning in him. Gleefully drowning.
Luc crouched beside them, rubbed his eyes. “I should kill you myself.” Instead, he shoved his wrist to Garrick’s mouth.
Fighting for breath, Garrick arched an amused eyebrow.
Luc scowled. “I drained you earlier, so it’s your blood anyway. You could say I just borrowed it.” He winced when Garrick’s teeth penetrated the meat of his wrist. “Besides, I need the stronger link to reach Kate.”
She knew only the hot splash of Garrick’s blood at the back of her throat, the salty flavor of him. She loved the feel of his fingers digging into her scalp, pushing her to drink deeply, loved the wild beat of his heart just under her cheek, loved his decadent smell… More.
“Kate.”
She ignored Luc’s intrusion, focusing on Garrick and the banquet his body offered her.
“Come away, chérie. You aren’t ready for this.”
She knew the bite of her teeth hurt Garrick, but she couldn’t help it. Luc would take her away. He must not take her away.
“Your presence only threatens her, Luc.”
Luc cursed him but nonetheless drifted to the distant reaches of her mind.
Kate felt his fury pound like rolling thunder.
She paid him no mind.
She groaned against Garrick’s chest, drunk on the strength of his elder blood and the heavy weight of his hips pressing her into the couch, the hard length of his cock rubbing her slick, sensitive clit.
“That’s it, love. My blood is yours. My body is yours. Feed…”
When finally her body slackened against his, her mouth less avid on him, Garrick released Luc’s wrist.
She curled into him, equal measures sated and exhausted.
He smiled at her. “Don’t sleep, love. Stay with me.”
She sighed his name, her eyelids unbearably heavy.
Luc jabbed at Garrick’s hip with an angry elbow. “Will you please get off my ward now?”
“You know what must be done.” Garrick stroked her hair. The comfort of his body warmed her, reassured her.
Luc shrugged. “You marked her before. Nothing has changed.”
“To leave it unfinished, after she’s tasted me twice now and so thoroughly… I cannot.”
“If she doesn’t accept you when it’s done, your life is forfeit. Have you forgotten? You’ll die, Garrick.”
“Without her mark, I’m dead already.”
She blinked the numbing effects of fatigue away. “Garrick?”
“Don’t be afraid.” He tipped her head up with a finger under her chin, skated a kiss across her lips. “I need to be yours. I must be yours.” He flashed a stony glance at Luc. “Even having fed so richly, she’s little to spare. I won’t take much.”
His mouth teased hers with playful, nibbling kisses, but she stiffened in his arms, eyes widening with sudden alarm. “You won’t what?”
Chapter Seven
Luc held her hand, toyed with her fingers. “You’ve taken his blood, his mark. He must have yours.”
Kate’s frantic gaze focused on Garrick. Her heart beat a rabbity staccato against her ribs. “You’re going to bite me?” She pinned Luc with the same horrified stare. “And you’re okay with this?”
“You haven’t fully recovered from David or the transition. You should’ve been stronger. He—” Luc sneered at Garrick’s glare, but he amended himself nonetheless. “We should have been more careful.” Luc shrugged a stiff shoulder. “But he’s right. You’ve taken his blood twice. Your vampyr has chosen. Interfering with the pair-bond would be dangerous. Without your blood, I won’t be able to control him.”
She squirmed beneath Garrick’s heavy weight, so pleasing and wonderful before. Ominous and frightening to her now. “Don’t bite me, Garrick. Please.”
“Remember how it felt when your teeth sank into me. The thrill of me in your mouth, filling you, inside you.”
She shivered, because she did remember.
“It was the same for me. The pleasure you felt at the taste of me, I felt as well. Your mouth was so voracious I was drunk with it, so much I didn’t notice Luc’s approach. Delight in you stunned me and staggers me still. Do you not feel my body trembling?”
She felt it. Oh, how she felt it, and the delicious quiver taunted her. But tears welled in her eyes just the same because she remembered the agonizing stab of incisors into her skin as well. Luc thought she’d forgotten, and truthfully, she couldn’t remember much.
Thank God.
But that, she recalled. With perfect clarity.
The horror.
The bone-melting fear and torturous pain.
Over and over and over again, the dark master had sunk his teeth into her, and she’d prayed for death that had cruelly escaped her.
Tears burned her eyes. “It hurt.”
Luc winced at the sickening flash of memory. “He’s dead, bébé. He will never hurt you again.”
“David’s bite was an abomination, a rape of what should have been beautiful.” Garrick’s tongue whirled over her pulse, coaxing, seductive. “Feeding from Luc, you’ve shared his care and comfort, but with me…” He shuddered. “Biting is natural for us, a pleasure. Sexy. You shared it with me.”
His teeth scraped lightly over her skin, and she gasped, desires stirring in her. Fear warred with need. “I’m scared.”
Luc kissed her fingers. “You’ll like it. I promise.”
“Trust me.”
Trust him?
Sure.
Why not?
She choked down bitter laughter, but really, what choice did she have?
<
br /> What choice had she ever had?
“You are vampyr, an unmated female. You alone have the power to draw us, to summon and command. Do you believe I would survive if you turned me away? That I’d want to?” Garrick’s lips skated along the line of her jaw, and he chuckled when she shivered in response. “The power is yours; the decision is yours. My life is yours.”
Kate’s head swam.
That was it?
This was the mysterious power she yielded?
If she blew Garrick off, she killed him?
What kind of sick choice was that?
“There’s more, much more.” Luc squeezed her hand. “But for now, yes, you hold his life in your hands. Is that not enough?”
She didn’t want it, this so-called power. She hadn’t wanted any of it, but she was a powerless to prevent Garrick from taking her blood as she’d been to stop David from making her a vampire to start with. To stop the others from pursuing them. Command? If any of this had been hers to command, she’d have ordered the bloody vampires—all the bloody vampires—to leave her the hell alone.
But that wasn’t going to happen, so she turned away, leaving her neck bared to his mouth, deliberately vulnerable. Her muscles coiled tight. She held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the torturous jab of invading teeth.
And waited.
And waited.
Instead of stabbing his incisors into her throat, he danced his lips to her ear and sucked her lobe into his mouth to nibble sensually.
The intimacy of his hot breath shocked her.
Her eyes flashed open.
He traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. “Your ears are your weakness, love. I hear the quickening kick of your heartbeat when I touch you here,” he whispered and kissed the sensitive flesh behind her dangling lobe.
Pleasure streaked through her.
“I can scent your blood rushing below your skin. Right here.” He nipped lower on her throat, not breaking the skin, but arousing her unbearably instead. “You smell of woman, my woman. Of me.”
She gasped his name.
He licked at her neck. “You’re shaking. Part of that’s fear. But another part, an increasingly larger part of it, is anticipation.”