Kiss Me Before I Die

by Rena Marks

  But his growing power scared me, along with the fact it took him so little time to find me. I’d only been gone a week, while it took a year to hunt me down last time.

  He gripped my hair, pulling my head back. He slid his lips down the side of my neck, scraping his fangs along the outstretched tendon. My breath caught. I knew how little control he had when he inhaled deeply, as if he could smell the rich scent of blood just beneath my skin.

  And if I wasn’t so afraid of the secrets he’d find hidden in the taste of my blood, I’d let him bite. The need blazed like a tidal wave in me, responding to the yearning call in him.

  His was fed from anger. Though I’d never admit it, mine was fed from fear. But could Ethan find out how much vampirism ran rampant through my genes by tasting my veins? Was it more than the human DNA in my blood?

  “Ethan,” I began.

  “Not a word, Afton,” he snapped, his patience at an end. “Not now.”

  He bent and easily lifted me. Had he always been so large? Of course he had, he’d always towered over me. I’d just never paid attention, as I was busy fighting him most of my life. But this was different and now I appreciated his size. For once in my life, I didn’t mind being swept up.

  He flung open the double French doors of my balcony and made his way directly to my bedroom, as if he was impatient. Wanton desire stirred deep inside me, dueling with the beginning of fear.

  He deposited me on the bed, grinding his mouth to mine. Lust overrode any fear as I tasted the need in him. My shawl had been lost long ago, discarded along with my inhibitions. His fingers stroked slowly upward along my breastbone as if searching for buttons to my silk pajamas. Finding none, his large hands grasped the fabric and ripped.

  The tearing was harsh in the silence that contained only the sound of our labored breathing.

  The air touched my breasts, taunting my nipples into stiffened peaks.

  His hands reached down and cupped both. His touch hadn’t gentled and I didn’t want it to. He squeezed masterfully and I arched my back, wanting him to take them into his mouth.

  I ran my hands underneath his black turtleneck, feeling his harsh intake of breath at my touch.

  “Hands off, Afton. I have no patience.”

  I looked into his eyes. They glowed with a strange light. Deliberately, I let my hands fall back to the bed, wrists up, dangerously taunting him with the tiny blue veins outlined against the pale skin.

  He glanced down and lingered over the sight.

  He grasped the waistband of my silk shorts and yanked them down my thighs. Then he pushed my legs up and apart at the knees.

  I was splayed open and glistening when his tongue touched me. My head dropped back on the bed and I felt the flames incinerate me.

  He was ruthless as he pushed and prodded needs from me. My breath grew to ragged gasps as my insides liquefied, preparing me to receive him.

  Just thinking about him grinding and thrusting into me sent me into harsh spasms when his tongue stopped its antics. Instead, his mouth covered my entire sex and wickedly sucked. The orgasm was relentless, going on and on until I pushed his head from me weakly. I lay back, catching my breath.

  His eyes were still angry when he looked up at me. He stared for long seconds before he deliberately lowered his mouth to my quivering flesh again.

  I was so sensitive I gasped. He was much gentler now, giving me long licks instead of sucks and nibbles. And slower, taking his time after that first harsh and violent orgasm.

  “Ethan, what are you doing?”

  “It’s obvious, is it not?”

  “But I already—”

  “You will again. And again. And the next time you run, you’ll remember this lesson between you and me. I’ve given you your way for far too long now.”

  He stopped talking then and inserted two fingers into my swollen sheath, curling them upward and then massaging. He sucked tender flesh into his mouth.

  I grabbed a pillow and leaned forward to watch him. He worked my body again, until the rolling waves of pleasure washed over me anew.

  Still he didn’t stop. “Ethan, no more,” I begged.

  He began to trace patterns with his tongue, spiraling up my hip, around my navel. He kissed all the way up my abdomen and then ran his tongue underneath the crease of my breast.

  His fangs were distended. I could feel them scrape against my flesh as he kissed my entire breast. He was angry, in a possessive mode. And I was his.

  My body was still sensitive, humming with pleasure. He began to suck my breast and inserted his fingers into my already soaked sheath.

  “You’re so wet,” he muttered, thrusting them deep.

  “And you’re so hard,” I said softly, to remind him of his own pleasure.

  He looked up at me. I couldn’t define the emotion in his eyes.

  “Let me touch you?” I cajoled.

  “No.”

  I curled my arm around his neck, knowing he couldn’t resist for long. I was right, he brought his lips to mine and I kissed him hungrily. He met my mouth eagerly, inserting his tongue. I felt his erection press against my hip and I spread my legs apart even more, forcing him to press against my spread lips.

  The head of his cock rubbed along my slit, stirring into the slippery juices.

  “Please, Ethan. I want you inside me.”

  “Why?”

  Ahh, still angry. I spoke as I punctuated with kisses. “Because. I. Want. You. Only you. Always and forever.”

  It was the right answer.

  “Did you miss me, bella?” His voice was unsure.

  I answered honestly. “Of course I did. I thought of you every single minute of the day. I wondered what you were doing—” I gasped when the thick head of his erection pushed into me. It went no farther, just paused, right there at the verge of my opening.

  I tilted my pelvis up, hoping to get more of him.

  “Please,” I begged.

  One of his fingers traced circles over my wet cleft, every now and then sliding over the sensitive flesh of my clitoris. “You beg so sweetly, my love. Tell me you’re sorry.”

  “I am. Let’s talk about this later, please. I need you so much.”

  He pushed all the way into me and I took a deep breath, savoring the feeling of being filled with him. He pulled out and rocked his hips against me. Together we moved, faster and faster, until I wrapped my legs around his waist in a rush of uncontrollable writhing. I clutched his shoulders, feeling my fingers glide over his damp skin.

  The vibrations ripped through my body, exploding through every nerve ending I had.

  He groaned and collapsed, his forehead pressed to my shoulder. I caressed the taut muscles in his back, every now and then letting my hands roam down to feel his muscular butt.

  His breaths ran ragged.

  “Why?”

  One word. So simple and yet so complicated. Why did I leave him? Or why did I want to visit my mother without him?

  “I needed to. I have things to do.”

  “Like what?”

  “They wanted to breed me, Ethan. I have to find out what made me different from the other Extinguishers, so different that they won’t let me go. They’re determined to re-create me.”

  He held me tight. “How are you going to find out?”

  “I already told you. My first step was to find my mother.”

  “Were you going to return to me?”

  I ran the tip of my finger down the side of his face. “When it was safe.”

  “I will go with you,” he said arrogantly.

  I could have told him I’d already been once. But I didn’t.

  “I’m not sure if I can face what I find. I don’t know how you’ll react.”

  “My reactions do not matter. I am here to support you through yours. I know you love me, bella. Now you must learn to want me and need me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We were meant to be together. Together we will be. If I have to, I’ll follow y
ou. But you’ll never be apart from me.”

  Chapter Eight

  It was a long drive, though out of consideration for Ethan, my rental car had tinted windows to deflect most of the sun’s rays.

  “How do you know where she’s kept?” he asked.

  “I’ve been watching her for a year.”

  “You’ve never made contact?”

  “Not previously. They’d moved her after my retirement and I couldn’t let them suspect any interest on my part, or they might up the security now.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Concord Clinic.”

  “You never answered my question of how you know where she’s kept.”

  I sighed. I was quite aware of not giving him that information and should have known he wouldn’t give up easily. “When I left the lab, I took my records.”

  “Records?”

  “Everything they had on me. Every file, every sample, every video tape of my life. I would rather destroy them than allow the government access to my personal information.”

  “They just let you walk away with all that?”

  “They had no choice. There was too much media attention on the first Extinguisher to reach retirement age for them to renege and not allow my departure.”

  “But to allow you personal records? Didn’t they claim they were government property?”

  “If I’d let them have their say, I’m sure they would have. However, I took everything and never asked. By the time they filed formal paperwork demanding the return of the files, it was too late. I’d destroyed it all. My argument was the files were my personal property.”

  The car rolled to a stop on the grassy grounds of the hospital. I turned the key, shutting off the engine. It looked very different in the light of day.

  “How do you intend to enter?” Ethan asked, breaking my silence.

  “I was planning to infiltrate as one of their employees,” I said, sarcastically aware of the fact that I dressed in skintight black, while their uniforms were white.

  He didn’t skip a beat. “Risky. They could have the same employees for years, a new face would stand out.”

  “Plan Two was to have myself committed as a patient.”

  Now he got it. He looked straight at me, his gaze sharp. “Funny.”

  I smiled. “Did you have a better idea?”

  “We simply sneak in.”

  “Ethan,” I said patiently. “The government committed her. They don’t know I’m aware of where she’s kept because they’ve moved her since I took my files but surely they’re on the lookout for a human female paired with a vampire?”

  “Then we separate. I can take care of setting a distraction, bella. Unless they have silver lining in the hospital?”

  “They shouldn’t,” I said slowly. “I’m sure I would have noticed it when I studied the blueprints. Plus, they would have used all the silver they could in the underground facility, never suspecting that one day a human and a vamp would want to break into a mental institution.”

  “That’s it, then. I’ll provide your diversion, you get what you need and we’ll meet back here at the car.”

  He grabbed me with an arm hooked around my neck. “Bella, be careful.” His lips closed over mine. “Okay, go,” he commanded, while he took off for the front door. I darted around the back of the building and waited.

  I knew exactly when the commotion started. Hospital guards and personnel began to run across the lawn, toward the front of the building. I waited a few minutes, then leapt up, grabbing the bottom rung of a second floor balcony.

  It was amazing how untrained the hospital personnel was. Not once did any of the guards bother to look anywhere but straight ahead to the front doors. I pulled myself up and over by swinging my legs over the bar and flipping up.

  I studied my surroundings. I knew which window was Virginia’s and climbed up to it. I momentarily paused. Metal bars encased the glass. But the grate was old and was separating from the building. Jerking quickly, I was able to break the entire metal grate from the sill, then parted the curtains and entered the open window.

  She watched from her bed, calmly. I was slightly startled that I’d never sensed her. I was growing lax, overusing my Extinguisher abilities to the point of not using common sense on my human side.

  “You didn’t scream,” I said to her.

  “The silver didn’t turn.”

  I looked around the window. Naturally, the untouched years of silver was still stained a filthy black.

  I sighed. “Have you visited with Mr. Millicotti?”

  “No,” she sulked. “He’s crazy.”

  I raised my eyebrows at the irony.

  “Well,” she amended, “he’s sleepy during the day. Wakes up a little more at night but then I’m sleepy. And he’s not Mr. Millicotti, he’s Father.”

  That’s right. A priest.

  “You’re not here to ask me more of those mean questions, are you?”

  “Virginia, I really need to know. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t ask you.”

  Her lips quivered and again she drew her knees up to her chest. Now I recognized the position as a defense mechanism. “I don’t want to think about the dark place. I’ll scream,” she threatened.

  “Who are you gonna scream for, Mum?” I asked, my voice dangerously soft. Faint awareness flicked in her eyes.

  “There’s something wrong with your pupils,” she said, wringing her hands agitatedly.

  I shrugged off my abnormality. My eyes were permanently dilated and would be forever. “I wear sunglasses a lot. See, you don’t want to think about the dark place but I live in the dark place. Now, tell me about a monster named Ramon.”

  She knew. I could tell by the widening of her eyes, the instant look of terror on her face.

  “Let’s start slowly. Just tell me what he looked like so I can make sure it’s the same one.”

  Her gaze strayed to the window, to the silver hung around the frame.

  “If it’s any consolation, the one I know is dead now. He’s been dead for over ten years.”

  She was silent for a long time, with just the faint rasping of her breathing. Then, her voice was a whisper. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Very much. Describe him for me.”

  She stared off into space as she searched her memory. Her eyes looked past me as if I were no longer present and her voice grew monotonous. “He was tall. His skin color was odd, a pasty kind of white. Not pink, like a redhead or albino. But a pale yellowish shade. Like an earthworm. He had dark eyes but even the whites were a little yellow. A little bit of a mustache. His body was big, not just tall.”

  It could have been the same man. Of course, when I had seen him last, he was as thin as a rail.

  “Did he have any scars?”

  “I…I don’t know,” she said, hugging her legs against her chest. “I can’t remember!”

  “It’s okay,” I soothed. “What else can you remember? Was he handsome?”

  “He was evil inside and that took away any beauty. Do you know what I mean? Like the kid who enjoys pulling the wings off bugs.”

  “But if you didn’t know he was evil, he’d be handsome?”

  Her eyes stared vacantly again as she tried to recall his face. “I think so. But I can’t see the beauty because he’s so mean inside. Vicious. I know, he reminds me of a bully. The kind who fights with others while his parents pretend their child does nothing wrong. Then he grows to slaughter those same parents. His own.”

  Slaughter. That was an interesting word.

  “How did you meet him?”

  “I don’t know!” she said, her voice panicked.

  I remembered the scarring of her breast.

  “Did he like to burn things?”

  That question might have pushed her over the top. She inhaled sharply. Then began to sing as she rocked her body frantically back and forth.

  “If pulling and pinching and twisting don’t mark, strike a match while a person’s
tied up in the dark. La, la, la.”

  She covered her ears with her hands, pressing tightly. “Go away, go away, go away.”

  Footsteps thumped in the hallway and I stepped quickly behind the door before it was pushed open.

  Virginia still rocked frantically, her hands over her ears.

  “Doctor!” a voice called. “She’s having another episode.”

  Another sound of running footsteps. “Haldol! Five milligrams.”

  “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” Virginia screamed, her eyes clenched, her ears covered. Behind the door, I waited and listened to the scuffling noises.

  Gradually, her voice died away as the drugs spread into her system.

  The nurses spoke between themselves. “What is going on today? First that commotion downstairs, now this.”

  “It was some crazy vamp down there who just ran off. It probably triggered some memory in poor crazy little Virginia. No big deal.”

  That would be easy enough for them to believe. I slid out from behind the door while they were distracted by lifting her deadened body to haul her over to the bed. Her drug-zoned eyes caught me, connected with mine and looked away. I slipped down the hallway.

  A shiver ran down my spine. She’d protected me.

  The Reis women had endured more than their fair share of torture.

  I had one last chore to do. Hospital personnel were slowly starting to thread their way back through the corridors. I had to duck twice to get back over to the hallway I remembered. I slipped back into Room 403.

  Joseph Millicotti was still half staring in his drugged state, between wake and sleep. I grabbed his chart, looking down the line of medications. I couldn’t erase them, it would alert the staff who counted out his daily meds.

  But I could add something. I remembered a drug from the lab that was being used in experiments. Naloxone’s original purpose was to reverse the effects of calming drugs, aka narcotics. On us, it was mixed with other experimental stimulants and used without narcs to push us farther.

  He would be more lucid right after it was injected. A very mild dose on a man with years of narcotic built up in his system…

  My brain was going a mile a minute. There were so many ifs—I could easily kill him if I wasn’t careful. But then again, perhaps even death would be a blessing compared to the decades of what he’d already faced.