"What happened? What's wrong?" Raven asked, pulling her away from himself. His dark eyes searched her face. "Are you hurt?"
Maddie sniffled. "He ... He..."
"He, who?"
"D-devlin. He ... he bit me." Maddie saw Raven's eyes widen in horror, then his face close down into a mask of anger.
"Where?" he said, grasping her chin, turning her head to look at her neck.
"I ... I'm sorry."
Raven frowned, shaking his head. "Not your fault. Where is the wound?"
Maddie swallowed thickly. She took Raven's hand and moved it to one of her breasts. She looked him in the eye, watching his reaction. Then, she moved his hand to her other breast.
Raven's face was made of granite, his jaw working. Rage flashed in the depths of his eyes, turning them a swirling black. "Let me see," he said, his voice low. He eased Maddie up against the headboard of the bed and gingerly raised her sweatshirt.
Maddie trembled, remembering the weight of her guilt.
Raven turned on the bedside lamp. Maddie watched him take a deep breath as he carefully ran a finger over each of the wounds on her breasts. Maddie sucked in her breath. Raven glanced up at her. "Hurt?"
Maddie nodded.
"It's the venom." He lowered her shirt. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
Maddie grasped his shirt. "Don't leave me."
Raven gently removed her hand. "I'm not. I'm going to get something to put on the wounds. Don't worry."
Maddie let go, settling back against the headboard.
Raven disappeared through the doorway and Madison felt the tears begin again. How could she have felt such passion with Devlin? Of course, she had thought he was Raven for a time. But she should have known.
Raven returned with a small black bag. He sat it on the nightstand beside the bed and removed his coat. "Take your sweatshirt off."
Maddie rose up and slowly pulled the shirt over her head, grimacing when she stretched her arms. Stretching pulled on her throbbing breasts. The ruined bra still dangled from her shoulders and she managed to get it off her body without too much additional pain..
Raven rolled up his sleeves and reached into the black bag, pulling out a small jar. "Lie back," He told her gently. He sat on the edge of the bed as Maddie stretched out, her breasts fully exposed to him.
Raven dipped his fingers into the jar. "This will only hurt for a moment," he said, lowering his cream-covered fingers to one swollen breast. "It will counteract the venom."
Maddie tensed for a moment, then gasped at the first touch of his cold fingers. Raven hesitated, then began to massage the thick cream into the wound. Maddie felt a stinging sensation, directly in the punctures, then the stinging turned into a not unpleasant deep tingle. Raven smiled down at her, his skillful fingers continuing to work the cream into the flesh of her breast. "Feel better?" he asked, his hand moving slickly over her.
Maddie nodded. She watched his face as he worked on her breast, his attention fully focused there. She saw his nostrils flare as his thumb grazed her nipple and it hardened to a tightened bud under his touch. His eyes became hooded as he dipped his fingers into the jar and began to work on her other breast.
Then his eyes, smoldering with lust, met hers. Maddie found herself gasping for breath as Raven dipped his other hand in the cream and brought it to her breasts. Now both hands were on her breasts, slathering them with the tingling, rich cream.
Maddie moaned. "God that feels so good," she whispered.
Raven drew in a long breath, then caught her nipples between his fingers, rolling them. "Does it?"
Maddie sucked in her breath. This was the man she loved. The man she wanted touching her. The man she trusted.
Then she remembered Devlin.
Her bottom lip began to tremble.
Raven stopped teasing her nipples and slid his hands down to her waist. "What's wrong?"
Maddie looked away but Raven gently turned her head back to him, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"Tell me. Have I done something?"
Maddie shook her head. "No. It's me."
"What is it?"
Maddie licked her lips and met his eyes with candor in her own. "I have to tell you. I'm so sorry. When ... when Devlin was ... feeding ... I..."
"You felt pleasure," Raven said, cutting her off.
Maddie's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
Raven cupped her cheek in his palm. "Vampires project pleasurable feelings so their prey doesn't fight them. Stop worrying. You couldn't help it."
"But I thought he was you," she said.
Raven nodded. "He projected it into your mind. He wanted you to feel the most pleasure and passion that was possible so your body would welcome his touch. You didn't betray me, Madison."
Maddie felt her heart flip. Thank God he understood. She reached for him, drawing him down into her arms. Maddie closed her eyes and breathed in the male scent of him as he braced himself above her, careful not to put pressure on her tender breasts. "I love you," Maddie whispered, surprised that it was so easy for her to say.
Raven groaned. "I love you too, Madison Woods." He turned his head and kissed her neck.
Maddie felt a shiver rush completely through her.
"Damn," Raven growled, "I want you so bad."
Maddie buried her fingers in his long, silken hair. "Come closer."
"I don't want to hurt you. Your breasts..."
Maddie breathed in deep, thrusting her breasts upward. "They need your attention."
Raven's arms trembled as he held himself over her. He leaned back, looking at her, letting his eyes roam over her exposed skin.
Maddie felt herself grow hot and dewy with the heat of his gaze. She began to unbutton his shirt.
"Madison, you may not be ready for this." Raven cocked his head.
Madison smiled up at him, her fingers still working. His shirt completely unbuttoned, she reached down, feeling evidence of his desire.. "Show me how much you love me, John."
Raven shuddered at the sound of his name on her lips. He rose from the bed and removed the rest of his clothes.
Maddie watched him, licking her lips at the sight of his muscles working in the dim light of the streetlamp. Her breasts tingled from the cream he had massaged into them but no longer pained her. As a matter of fact, she wanted him to touch them, love them, massage them more. She wanted his touch all over her body.
He dropped his clothes on the floor and turned to face her. His penis stood at attention, ready and willing to do as she asked. Raven moved toward her, his nostrils flaring. Maddie raised her arms behind her head and spread her legs slightly, as though in offering. But he had her jeans to contend with. "Strip me," she said, commanding.
Raven obeyed. His fingers unsnapped her jeans, sliding the zipper down oh-so-slowly. He spread it open, then slid his fingers into the waistband. As Maddie raised her hips off the bed, Raven smoothly slid the jeans over her hips and drew them down her legs. He threw them onto the floor.
Raven ran his hands over her feet and up her calves. Though she still wore her white cotton panties, Maddie could feel the dampness of her arousal in their crotch. As Raven's hands moved over her knees, his body followed. He settled himself between her legs, his face level with her hot center.
Maddie raised her head slightly. She loved to watch him. He slid his fingers up through the legs of her panties, teasing the folds of her labia apart beneath the cotton. Maddie gasped as he lowered his head and breathed in her scent.
Without raising his head, Raven met her gaze with his own. Maddie's thighs trembled as his fingers danced in her cleft, massaging. He still had a trace of the tingling cream on his fingers, which was sending delicious sensations through her clitoris. Still, he didn't remove her panties but toyed with her. Maddie felt the heat building. Her body was tensing, her breasts straining, nipples hard and taught.
Raven blew hot breath over the damp crotch of her panties, warming her bud of desire. Her whole being quaked with
the rush of passion that filled her. Maddie's hands moved from behind her head to her sides, grasping the sheets. "You're teasing me," she said, her voice thick.
Raven gathered her panties in his hands and tugged them down low enough to expose her engorged clitoris. It peeked out from between her labia, a swollen rosebud. Raven, eyes on Maddie's eyes, ran his tongue over his lips.
Maddie felt a rush of wetness flow from inside, dampening her cleft.
Then, his tongue slid out and slipped between her labia, gliding over the folds, sending shivers through her. He lapped at her, making her slick. Maddie moaned, dropping her head back on the pillow. She thrust her hips forward.
Raven, using his fingers again, separated her, opening her, his hot breath wafting over her. Maddie sighed with a wave of pleasure. "John, please," she said, her voice trembling.
Raven groaned. He place his lips over her clitoris and began to suck.
Maddie's hips bucked with the force of her orgasm. She thrashed on the bed, hands gripping the sheets as Raven moaned, still unwilling to let her clit out of his hot mouth.
Maddie panted as wave after wave of dewy juice flowed out of her and over Raven's face.
She managed to raise her head to look at him, buried between her shaking thighs. "Oh yes," she hissed, shoving her hips at him. "Take me."
Raven released her clitoris and raised his head just enough so she saw his lower face glistening with her cum. He looked like an animal, eyes intense, his nostrils flaring, scenting her.
Then his tongue was diving inside her, swirling inside her vagina, drawing out her own passionate cream.
Maddie convulsed, another orgasm shaking her to the bone. She gulped the air, her heart beating wildly.
Raven licked, sucked and savored all of her juices, making delicious sounds as he drew her orgasm on and on. Maddie didn't think she was ever going to come down from the heights. Just as she started to feel the ebb of the wave, Raven would send his tongue inside her again for another deep drink and she would be washed away on another crest.
Maddie was electrified. Her nerve endings sang, the tingle of the cream Raven had used on her increased one hundred-fold. She closed her eyes, her body jerking, no longer in her control as Raven fed on her clitoris, her labia, inside her vagina. His tongue was, long, wet and powerful. But she wanted more of him. She wanted him completely inside her.
Maddie licked her parched lips. "John" she whispered, her voice nothing more than a rasp.
She felt his mouth move away from her cleft. It felt like she had been abandoned. Then, her panties, which had been parked halfway down her thighs, slid the rest of the way down her legs and off of her feet. Maddie watched Raven through heavy lidded eyes as he climbed further up the bed toward her.
Maddie breathed with her mouth open, waiting to see what he would do next.
He moved up her body, stalking her with his eyes. When he was level with her breasts, his eyes scathed a hot path over them.
Maddie arched her back.
Raven met her eyes. He moved over her right breast, his tongue grazing slickly over the wound left by Devlin.
Maddie shuddered, wanting him to taste.
He raised his hand, fingered her nipple. "Does it still hurt you?" he asked, his eyes on her piqued nipple.
"No," she breathed.
Raven cupped it in his hand. Lowered that delicious mouth of his.
Maddie came again, violently, as he nursed at her breast, suckling her nipple deep into the moist wetness of his mouth. Her hands found his head, pressed him to her. An unfamiliar craving began to move through her as the wound over her nipple began to throb. Maddie bared her teeth, pressing Raven's head to her, wanting him to drink, to feed as Devlin had done.
Raven groaned, sucking harder. His rock hard penis pressed against her thigh, wetting it with pre-cum. Maddie shifted her hips, placing his penis between her legs. "Come inside me, John."
Without releasing her breast, Raven moved slightly. His hardened shaft slid inside her smoothly. She was so wet, so slathered with pure lusty juice, when he began to move, his strokes long and slow, there was no resistance.
Still, Maddie felt the strange craving, like an itch that needed to be scratched. The longer he was at her breast, the more tantalizing the need became.
"John ... you have to..." Her breath was coming in great gasps. Her hips met his every stroke as he shoved his penis into her harder and deeper. His silken hair draped over her, sending chills over her body.
Raven released her breast, raising himself up. His stroke became even stronger as he gazed down into her eyes. "What do you want, Madison?" he asked, a trickle of sweat running down from his forehead to his cheek.
Maddie moaned, her hands tangling in his hair. "You have to..."
"What?" Raven rammed himself inside her.
Maddie's insides sucked at him, squeezing him. She was almost ready to come again. But this ... this itch had to be quenched. Maddie took his head and lowered it back to her breast. With a whimper, she said, "Drink, John. Drink where he did. Take my blood. Make me your own."
Raven roared as he slammed into her, his mouth closing over her breast. She felt the hot jolt of his fangs, reopening the wound Devlin had left.
Then, he drank, his mouth pulling at her breast as Maddie was drawn up into a cyclone of an orgasm, her whole body coming unglued as Raven drank her blood, nursing at her breast, slamming his hot penis inside her.
Claiming her as his own.
Raven flung his head back and howled as he spilled his seed into Madison. He tasted the spicy, copper taste of her blood on his lips as his body shook with the most powerful orgasm he had ever had.
Spent, he collapsed on the bed, falling to Madison's side.
He raised a hand to his mouth, touched his lips. Horror struck him. What the hell had he done?
He leaned over Madison, checking her breast where he had reopened the wound. It was already closed a reddening of the skin surrounding it. Madison lay watching him, sleepy-eyed. "Are you all right?" he asked, pushing her hair back from her forehead.
She sighed. "Damn you're good," she said, wetting her lips with her tongue. "I didn't hurt you, did I? Madison, I have never tasted blood before..."
"Stop," she said, raising a hand. "I wanted you to. It was like this all-consuming need to have you do it." She frowned. "I wonder if, since Devlin ... did what he did ... will I want someone to drink my blood all of the time?"
Raven smoothed a hand over her hair. "It's not likely. Maybe it was just the heat of the moment."
Maddie nodded, smiling. She reached up and slid her thumb inside his mouth, feeling his fangs. "And you are such a handsome vampire."
Raven let the reference to him being a vampire go. He drew her closer into his arms and held her. He was much more concerned over how he had enjoyed feeding from her. What was he turning into?
"What are you thinking about?" Madison asked, running her hand over his chest.
Raven took a deep breath. "Destroying the one that wounded you."
"Do you know how?"
"Yes."
"Can I help?"
Raven tightened his grip on her. "No."
Maddie stilled.
Raven frowned. "What are you thinking, Madison?"
"That I should have believed you when you first told me there really were vampires."
"Hmm." Raven relaxed his hold on her. Then he began to plan just how he was going to kill Devlin Morse.
Chapter Nine
Madison was quiet as she lay wrapped in John Raven's arms. She was exhausted. The combination of Devlin's attack and sex with Raven left her body was extremely tired. Not to mention, Devlin and Raven both had taken blood from her. Devlin had stolen it. But she had offered it freely to Raven. She had been surprised when he had actually fed from her. There was still a niggling thought in the back of her mind, a tiny wondering if Raven really was a vampire or a vampire hunter as he said.
Maddie compared the differences betwee
n Raven and Devlin. Devlin's 'touch' had been cold, so cold that it almost hurt. Plus, she had felt controlled. Her body was anyway. She still felt guilty about feeling such passion when he had assaulted her.
Now, Raven ... his touch was warm. His hands, his skin ... the moist wetness of his mouth. All of him was warm to the touch and taste. He had to be human.
Maddie's hand rested on Raven's chest as she lay curled in his arms. His heart beat strongly under her palm. Maddie bit her lip. Did a vampire's heart actually beat? She searched her mind, trying to remember if she had come across that issue in her research.
Maddie glanced up at him. His eyes were closed but she knew his mind was working. He was thinking about how to destroy Devlin. Maddie traced circles on his smooth muscled chest, thinking to herself about how she was going to help him, despite his denials. Even if John Raven were the man of her dreams, he wasn't going to order her around. If she wanted to help him, she damn well would.
After all, Maddie reasoned, she must have known about vampire hunting, or why else would Devlin Morse and the other vampires think that she was a vampire hunter? Maddie bit her lip. She would have to review her research notes describing how to destroy a vampire. She'd probably have to enlist Leah to help, too. Maddie frowned, wondering if Leah would even believe her.
Also, keeping it secret from Raven was going to be a gamble, but one she would have to take. I can't let Raven do this on his own, she thought. He's outnumbered. And I can't let anything happen to him. Not now that I've found him.
Maddie stretched and looked at the alarm clock on the dresser. It was almost four-thirty in the morning. One thing was certain. She knew that you didn't fight vampires during the night. Not unless you were absolutely forced to. Daylight was when they were weakest. She glanced at Raven. Does he sleep in the daylight? she wondered. She glanced at him again.
"Why do you keep looking at me, Madison?" Raven asked, keeping his eyes closed. His arm tightened its hold around her shoulders.
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