Blood Hunger (An Adult Paranormal Romance) (Deathless Night Series #1)

by L. E. Wilson

Ok. Just calm down, Shea. Let’s not panic until there’s something to panic about. Maybe they’re just running late. She didn’t believe it. Neither one of them was ever late to leave on a mission like this. Something had to have happened.

  She decided to go take a look around the building. Ask the guards if they’d seen anything, see what she could find out. If nothing came out of that, she’d give Aiden a call.

  Back at the elevator, she hit the button that would take her to the underground garage. That was the only way either of them would have come in. The elevators in the lobby didn’t go past the human floors.

  Her heart pounded as she quickly rose up to the next floor. As the doors opened, she saw the guards standing at their station and hurried over to question them.

  Unfortunately, neither of them remembered seeing either of the guys the night before. Shea thanked them and headed out to the street to have a look around.

  She didn’t make it past the first block.

  ***

  After a brief pit stop behind a large Hemlock tree for Emma, they headed out through the thick undergrowth, winding in and out of the towering trees. The air was cool and misty, and heavy with the fragrance of spring from the recent rains.

  Emma struggled to see as the full moon played peek-a-boo with the clouds. Craning her neck, she looked up towards the top of the rock face she could sense looming above her, to no avail. She couldn’t even see the tops of the trees.

  She stayed close behind Nik, shadowing him, stepping where he stepped, and trying to be as unobtrusive as he was. But it was hard to watch where she was going when she was so distracted by the glorious sight of the male in front of her in full hunting mode.

  She sighed to herself. He was wearing his usual ensemble of combat boots, dark jeans just tight enough to show off the hard, lean muscle in his legs and ass, and a black long-sleeved cotton shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and powerful back. His blonde hair was pulled back with a tie, showing off his strong neck and the whisper of soft curls on his nape.

  Her fingers itched to play with those curls, the impulse so strong she had to curl her hands into fists around her backpack straps to keep them where they were.

  He moved through the brush with the grace of a large cat, the tightly wound power in him simmering just beneath the surface, ready to explode at a moment’s notice. It was a palpable thing that both frightened and attracted her.

  ***

  They’d walked in silence for about 25 minutes, when Nik pulled up suddenly, putting an arm out to stop Emma and raising his finger to his lips. Narrowing his eyes, he cocked his head and listened. It was quiet. Too quiet. No crickets. No nocturnal animals. He checked out the landscape but didn’t see anything moving other than the leaves on the trees twirling slightly in the breeze.

  Nothing.

  But something wasn’t right. He could feel it. Closing his eyes, he sent his senses out farther, blending them into the night.

  Yes. There. Something was coming.

  They’d been following the rock face at the bottom of the mountain range their hideout was located in, and he quietly steered Emma towards a narrow ravine in the stone large enough for her to squeeze into.

  “Emma, I need you to stay here. Do not come out until I tell you. Do you understand?” Nik’s face was cold, inhuman. His blue eyes shining silver in the night, the unholy glow they took on when his emotions ran high.

  “What is it?” she whispered. Her eyes were wide and terrified as she took in his appearance.

  Nik mentally kicked himself. What the hell had he been thinking, bringing her along?

  “Just stay here. Do not make a sound. Do NOT move. No matter what happens.” Taking off her backpack, he pushed her towards the opening. “Got your knife out?”

  She nodded and showed him.

  His eyes gleamed with approval. “Anything sticks its face in here, stab it. It will slow them down enough for you to get away.” I hope.

  Once she was out of sight, he turned around, dropped his bag, and paced a few feet away from her hiding place. Far enough to not draw attention to it, but close enough to help her if she needed him. Hopefully, they’d be too distracted by him to notice her in there.

  Standing perfectly still in that disconcerting way vampires had, he waited. Every cell inside of him was focused on one purpose and one purpose only.

  Protect his female.

  He didn’t have long to wait. They came at him out of nowhere and all at once, six of the them. What the fuck? What the hell were these things?

  Exactly as Emma had described, these must be the “monsters” she’d told him about. As they rushed him, the shock of their appearance quickly wore off and Nik smiled, his fangs elongating, his muscles thickening, his body immediately preparing itself for the fight…and for revenge.

  With a roar, he grabbed the closest one by the head with both hands. Its razor sharp teeth inches from his face, he twisted it sharply to the side until he felt the grey flesh tearing and the bones in its neck popping. Its red eyes bugged out of its head as death quickly descended upon it.

  Launching the limp body into the creature coming at him from the front, he shot out a left elbow to the face and followed it up with a back kick, throwing the next two off of him.

  A low spin kick to the knee took the next one down. Yanking his knife out of his thigh sheath, he dropped his knees down onto its back, jerked the head up, and slit a gash in its throat so deep only a few tendons were left attached.

  As he shot to his feet, the remaining four came at him with supernatural speed. Fists, elbows and kicks flying…fangs tearing into putrid flesh…Nik was a nightmare of destruction. His roars of rage mixed with their shrieks of agony as bones crunched and blood flew. For a few heart-stopping minutes, it was hard to tell who was coming out on top.

  And then, suddenly, it was over.

  Nik swung around with fists up, prepared to kill anything else coming at him, but nothing moved. His chest heaved with his ragged breaths, his head throbbed from a particularly vicious blow he took, and his fangs ached to rip through more flesh. Blood dripped from his mouth and down his arms and chest, some of it his own, the rest of it belonging to the pieces of shit laying in disintegrating heaps all around him.

  As the high of the fight dissipated and awareness slowly came back to him, he straightened up, searching. “Emma?” Where was she? Did they find her? “Emma!”

  A small scraping sound to his left had him swinging around, dropping into a fighting crouch with a feral hiss, fangs bared.

  Knife held shakily in front of her, Emma cautiously slid out from her hiding place in the stone. Wide-eyed, she took in the carnage on the ground, and then her gaze skipped up to Nik. He raised his hands, palms out, and slowly straightened up, spitting the blood out of his mouth and wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

  “Emma. Em, it’s ok. I won’t hurt you.” He kept his feet planted where they were for fear that she’d flee if he moved. Her face was as white as a sheet, her freckles standing out in harsh relief. And her eyes had a glazed look to them as they darted from him to the things on the ground, and back to him.

  Once her eyes hit him again, they locked on to his face and stayed there. His jaw dropped open in disbelief as she dropped the knife and ran, not away from him, but straight into his arms. She threw herself into him so hard he had a difficult time staying upright.

  “Are you ok?” she cried. “Oh my God, you’re bleeding!”

  “I’m fine. I’m fine. Most of it isn’t mine. Besides, vampire here, remember?” He hugged her close, surrounding her in the safe shelter of his arms and resting his cheek on the top of her head.

  The feel of her subtle curves trembling against him was wreaking havoc on his fragile self-control, but he couldn’t bring himself to push her away. Instead, he rubbed comforting circles on her back, trying to soothe her. The smell of her sweet blood and warm skin permeated his nose, and he inhaled deeply.

  Fresh from the fight, his senses were raw
and exposed, and like a starving man, his body responded eagerly to the attack upon them. His mouth watered, and his fangs ached to pierce her flesh, as his cock swelled to a painful size. He wanted nothing more than to throw her down on the blood-soaked ground and sink his fangs into her flesh and his hardness into the moist softness between her legs. He groaned aloud at the thought before he could stop himself.

  Emma pulled back just far enough to be able to look him over, her hands gripping his forearms. “Am I hurting you? You said you were ok!” she accused.

  As she frantically checked him for injuries, Nik felt branded everywhere her eyes touched, and a raging lust tore through his insides. Resisting the urge that came with it required an act of will he didn’t possess at the moment. He needed more distance between them, needed her to back off a bit. He became aware that his head was still throbbing, and he actually felt almost…tired. How strange.

  “You’re not hurting me, not like that.” Nik gently, but insistently, pulled away from her. “These are the monsters like you were telling me about?” At her stiff nod, he looked around at what remained of them. “I’ve never seen creatures like this before, Em. I have no idea what they are.”

  Emma wouldn’t, or couldn’t, look at the things, he wasn’t sure which. And he couldn’t say that he blamed her.

  Instead, she pegged him with a concerned look. “Nik, are you sure you’re ok? You look…not right.”

  “Yeah, I’m good. My head just hurts a bit is all.” Peering down at the torso of one of the creatures, he nudged it with his boot as it rapidly flaked away. “Maybe we should take one of these things back with us, have Aiden check it out. We’d have to move quick though.”

  She continued to study him. “Are you sure you don’t want to rest a minute?”

  He was suddenly, irrationally, angry. Did she think him weak? “I’m fine, Emma. So get that fucking look off your face.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than he was mentally kicking himself in the ass. Where the hell had that come from?

  Closing his eyes to avoid the hurt look he knew he would see, he tried to soften the blow he’d just dealt. “I probably just need to feed is all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Emma could’ve face-palmed herself. Of course! He needed to feed…from her.

  “Well, why don’t you?” she coaxed.

  “Why don’t I what?” Nik straightened up from his examination of the body he’d been prodding.

  “Why don’t you feed?” she asked. Then quickly clarified, “From me.”

  He froze. “I’m not going to do that, Emma.”

  Glancing around for their bags, he swung them both over his one shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get going.”

  But she stood her ground. He’d bitten her once already, it hadn’t been that bad. Ha! Who was she trying to kid? It had felt amazing. Much less traumatizing than being ripped apart like a piece meat.

  “You need to feed, Nik. What if we run into more of those things?” She grabbed his arm as he went to walk past her and stubbornly insisted, “Who will protect me? You need to feed.”

  His eyes burned holes into her. “I can’t, Emma.”

  “Can’t? Or won’t?” she retorted.

  She could practically feel the wall he threw up between them as he pressed his lips together and refused to answer her.

  Taking matters into her own hands, she stepped close enough to him so that the tips of her breasts brushed his ribs every time she inhaled.

  He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, but didn’t back away.

  Reaching up, she pulled her hair back off her neck and tilted her head to the side. His eyes instantly darted from her face to the strong pulse in her graceful neck. A low growl rumbled through his chest, and she shivered at the sound, desire unfurling low in her belly.

  She didn’t say anything else, just stood there quietly while the battle raged inside him, hoping he wouldn’t be able to resist what she offered.

  ***

  Nik sucked in a desperate breath, knowing he needed to stop this, but for the life of him unable to move away. Bad idea, breathing. His already swollen cock throbbed painfully against the confinement of his jeans as the scent of her desire for him wafted through the air, enhancing her delicious smell even more. The memory of her wet, silky folds slammed through him. The feel of her convulsing in his arms…

  He dropped the bags and clenched his fists tightly at his sides, the muscles in his jaw flexing as he ground his teeth together. He knew his eyes must be glowing icy blue as his vampire nature fought to be given free rein.

  Quietly, he ordered, “Emma. Back off.” His voice was low and rough. His words not quite convincing. Not even to himself.

  In response, she leaned closer to him, pressing her swollen breasts into his hard chest. Rising up on her tiptoes, she brought her exposed throat closer to his mouth. Her heart was pounding so hard, he could feel it thudding against him. In fear? Or anticipation?

  She let go of her hair, letting the wavy mass fall to the side as she slid her hands across his hard abs to each side of his waist to steady herself.

  His muscles tightened and jumped everywhere she touched. Clenching his jaw, he couldn’t stop himself from bending his head down and skimming his lips over her pulsing artery. Her body felt so perfect molded against his. Smelled so good to him. He could pick out her unique scent over all the others covering their clothes, barely even noticed them. Her scent completely overpowered everything else.

  As she leaned her soft length into his hardness, her faint moan of pleasure at the contact had him unclenching his fists. Grasping her hair with one hand, he bent her head farther to the side, while his other arm came around her shoulders and squeezed her to him.

  Another moan from her had him pulling his lips back, helplessly running the tip of one fang down her neck, until it rested on that titillating pulse, just barely puncturing the surface of her skin. He flicked his tongue over the drop of blood he’d drawn, his eyes nearly rolling back in his head at her taste.

  He imagined he’d have the same reaction when he tasted her cunt. She’d be drenched with desire for him. He knew this for a fact. He could smell her.

  His entire body shook with the effort it was taking him to restrain himself, and he felt the last remnants of his waning willpower slip away.

  Every single fiber of his being was telling him to take what she was offering. She was HIS, goddamn it.

  Yet still, he tried one last effort to resist. “Emma,” he pleaded. “Please…make me stop.” Even as he choked out the words, his large hand slid down her back to hold her hips still, and he ground his throbbing erection into her soft belly as he pressed a soft kiss to the wound he’d made. “Just…tell me to stop.”

  Her hands clenched on his shirt as her body trembled against his. Her breasts swelled and her nipples throbbed against his hard chest. His arm was the only thing that kept her from sagging to the ground.

  She ordered him to take what he needed, “Nikulas…Take me.” Whether she meant her blood, or her body, or both, he didn’t know.

  Her words were his undoing. With a shaky, “I’m so sorry,” his head reared back and he struck hard, his fangs sliding seamlessly through her soft skin and piercing her artery. He vaguely heard her cry out as her hot racing blood flooded his mouth.

  Lifting her off the ground while he drank, he strode forward to prop her back against the stone behind her, caging her in with his body. Sucking hard, her blood flowed down his throat like the sweetest ambrosia, and began to heal him, body and soul.

  ***

  Emma wrapped her legs around his waist as he fed, his soft moans in her ear the most erotic thing she’d ever heard. With every strong pull he took from her neck, an equally strong pulse of heat shot through her, streaking through her body from her neck to her core.

  When he started rolling his hips, his erection hitting her swollen clitoris thick and hot even through their clothes, she couldn’t hold back. Her orgasm hit her hard and f
ast, her body convulsing in his arms. Unable to hold in her cries of ecstasy, she let it take her, clinging to his strong shoulders for dear life.

  His arms were like steel bands as she came apart, holding her tight to him. The sounds he made ripped through her, altering her forever. Taking one last, long draw, Nik licked at his bite to help it heal.

  Without giving her a chance to recover, he covered her mouth with his, kissing her frantically while he continued to grind himself into her softness. Letting go of her hair, he grabbed the neckline of her bloody shirt with one hand, tearing it open like it was made of paper. Her half-hearted protest went unheard as he palmed her aching breast, plucking at the nipple through her bra, before ripping that off of her also.

  The feel of his warm hand on her bare skin swiftly evaporated any fleeting concerns she had about him seeing her naked again.

  Tearing his mouth from hers, he lifted her until her breasts were at level with his hungry mouth, one arm under her ass and the other hand sliding down her ribcage to lift her breast to his mouth. Sucking and nipping at her nipple, he drove all thought from her head except for the feel of his warm, wet mouth on her.

  Holy shit. Emma felt like she was about to pass out, and yet completely alive all at the same time. She was lost. Lost completely to this male. Helpless to stop him from doing anything he wanted to her. Not that she would stop him, even if she could.

  She cried out as he sucked hard on her nipple, flicking it with his tongue. Without warning, his fangs pierced her areola, drawing blood, and he groaned in delight as he sucked on her. She cried out again as pain mixed briefly with pleasure, her hips moving as she tried to rub herself against him to ease the tension that was building in her again. Stabbing her hands into his hair, Emma held him to her breast.

  “More,” she demanded. “Nikulas, please…”

  ***

  Out of his mind with lust for his female, Nik attacked her breasts while he effortlessly held her up against the rock. Her blood coursed through his body, stunning his senses. He’d never felt anything like it. It nourished him. Healed him. His muscles strengthened, his every nerve ending electrified, until he felt more alive than he had since first becoming a vampire.