His steps faltered, and he turned back to face her. She smiled broadly, brazenly displaying her fangs in the early afternoon light.
“Good boy,” she said.
He returned to the couch, rankling. “Could you please lay off with the dog references? What is with you people, anyway?”
She shrugged. “It’s in our blood,” she said, wickedly pleased with her own joke.
“Apparently.” He rolled his eyes and sat down again. “Aren’t you worried that you might cause a scene with those teeth out in the open like that?”
Elke grinned again, making no effort to hide her fangs. “No. This place is Draugr-owned and operated, and no humans make it this far back in the store.”
“Why not?”
“The staff has to eat.”
“That’s…disturbing.”
She laughed. “Oh, right. Like you’ve never eaten a human being.”
“Actually, I haven’t. Well…” He hesitated, then amended his comment. “Not on my own, anyway.”
“Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.”
She came closer to him and straddled him on the couch, her legs closing around his with a vise-like grip. She was all muscle. He considered trying to evade her, but realized that he had nowhere to go. He was behind enemy lines.
Elke grinned at him like a predator and tugged his T-shirt out of his jeans. “I’m thirsty,” she said. “And I’ve always wondered how werewolves taste.”
He caught at her wrists, but she shook him off easily. Draugr were physically stronger than Ulfen. “I don’t know about most vampires, but I’m told I taste horrible.”
He lifted his chin to show her the scar on his throat. She stopped and stared at it, then laughed.
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Before he could stop her, she had sunk her fangs into the soft flesh of his neck. Pain raced through him like lightning, and he bucked beneath her. She held on tight, not budging an iota as she gripped him with her jaws and thighs. Elke grabbed his wrists and pinned them to his sides as she fed. He struggled to free himself, but she overpowered him easily.
Dominic groaned as the pain began to give way to an entirely different sensation, one that was unexpected and unwelcome. His cock hardened and strained against the denim of his jeans, tenting the fabric and pressing painfully against the zipper. She chuckled in the back of her throat and reached down to free him from his confinement, not releasing his vein, which she stroked with rhythmic passes of her hot, wet tongue. Images rose in his mind of that tongue on other parts of his body, and he had no doubt that the thoughts were placed there by her. He had no wish to think such things.
She got him worked loose and took him in her hand, stroking the shaft with fast, quick jerks. He shuddered beneath her and his vision swam, stars sparkling in the outer fields of his vision. He tried desperately not to enjoy her touch. She worked him faster, rotating her grip and running her thumb over the weeping head, rubbing him just hard enough to give pleasure with just a hint of pain. She squeezed his balls in her other hand, tugging at them until he groaned. She stroked his taint with her finger and intensified the hand job she was forcing onto him. He began to shake.
She stopped pulling blood from his wound, although she left her teeth buried in his flesh. He was too far gone to even notice. Dominic cried out raggedly and came in hot spurts, coating her hand and his own stomach with his seed. He moaned in pleasure and defeat.
Elke finally released him and sat back, licking her fingers clean. “Good boy,” she said breathlessly, her face flushed. She bent down and licked the white trails from his hard-muscled abdomen. “Almost as good as blood.”
He tried to speak, but the blood loss worked against him. His amber eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.
Chapter Nine
Erik went to Snake Eyes without going home. The throbbing of the ward on the door startled the younger Draugr who had assembled there for their morning cup of blood, and as he walked past them, he had to wonder why they weren’t out fending for themselves.
He stopped and looked around. “Don’t you idiots hunt anymore?”
They looked astonished. One of them, a red-haired man with a smattering of freckles across his nose, stammered, “N-no…”
“Why not?”
The redhead looked away, embarrassed. “Human blood doesn’t taste as good as this.”
He looked at the bartender, Helaine. “Really? All faery dreyri all the time?”
She nodded. “That’s all they ask for. If they have the coin, they get the drink.”
Erik scowled. “God damn it. They’re cut off from the strong stuff. Give them regular dreyri or nothing at all.”
There were mumbled protests, but he ignored them.
He stalked into his office and sat at the desk, hating it. He wasn’t a desk job sort of person and never had been. Since his abrupt discharge from Special Ops, he had been more sedentary than at any time in his life, and that had him feeling agitated today.
The reports that he had asked Elke to compile weren’t on his desk. He pulled out his cellphone and glared at it while he punched in her number. His assistant’s phone rang twice, then a mechanical voice answered and told him to leave a message. He hung up in disgust.
Not two minutes later, Elke came into the office with a man’s body slung over her shoulder. She dumped him on the couch, and Erik recognized Dominic immediately.
“Look what I found,” she chirped.
“What did you do to him?”
Elke shrugged. “Eh. I fed a little. I might have overdone it.”
He went to the unconscious Ulfen. He could hear Dominic’s pulse, slow but rhythmic, and from his scent and the cold sweat on his brow, Erik could tell that the Ulfen was very depleted.
“Nice. You almost bled him out.”
“He tasted really good,” she defended. She reached into her messenger bag and pulled out a manila folder. “Here’s that info about Paris that you wanted.”
He took the folder and sat at his desk. “If he dies, it’s on you.”
She sat down in one of the chairs facing him and propped her ankles up on the desk. “Take it out of my salary.”
Erik looked archly at her boots and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She put her feet back on the floor.
He reviewed the information she had provided. The two most powerful Draugr in Paris were Derek Dupin and Laurentia Moselle. Dupin ran the Paris on the east side of the Seine, and Moselle ruled the west. There had been no love lost between the two of them for as long as anyone could remember. Both Dupin and Moselle had been turned during the years of the Black Death, and their age and power helped them to hold their territories in iron grips. Dupin was ambitious, though, and had taken advantage of Laurentia’s presence at Uppsala to stage a coup. He now possessed all of Paris, on both sides of the Seine, as Elke had told him on the phone. The information available indicated that it had been a largely bloodless take-over.
According to the information Elke had provided, Laurentia had busied herself over the years with collecting magickal texts and vat after vat of supernatural blood. She and her men had drained countless faeries, shifters, witches and other inhuman creatures into enchanted barrels that prevented both coagulation and decay. She was like the Draugr version of Elizabeth Báthory, drinking her fill but bathing every night in blood to suck up the life force it contained, soaking in more than her stomach could hold. She was a vain and greedy woman, and she collected power and hid in the bowels of her mansion while the world went by.
In his opinion, both Dupin and Moselle were too corrupt to rule.
“Moselle is here in Stockholm?” he asked her.
Elke nodded. “Yes. She’s staying with Maria.”
“Bring her here.”
“Yes, sir.” She hopped up and gave him a quick and sloppy salute. “Hey, if my wolf there wakes up, can I have him?”
“No.”
“Killjoy.”
“L
ive with it.”
Elke opened the office door and nearly collided with Nika, who was on her way in. Both women laughed in surprise, and Elke stepped aside to let Nika enter unimpeded. Elke winked at Erik and closed the door as she was leaving.
Nika hesitated when she saw the sleeping Ulfen. “Is that Dominic?”
“Apparently. Elke found him and brought him here. She fed from him first, so I think he might be under-sanguinated right now.” He put the folder aside and smiled. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” She came around the desk and kissed him, then pulled away before he could touch her. He frowned.
“Nika, is there something wrong?”
She smiled brightly, and it felt patently false. “No,” she said. “Not at all.”
He sighed. “You’re lying.”
Nika looked shocked. “I… I just thought maybe you were upset with me.”
“I should be asking you the same question.”
She sat down in the chair that Elke had just vacated. “Why would I be upset with you?”Erik sat back. “You tell me. What did I do? You seem like you don’t want me anymore. Like right now, I tried to put my arm around you, and you pulled away, like you pulled away from me last night. Is there something you need to say?”
“No.”
He sighed. “Why don’t I believe you? Nika, answer me. Do you still want me as your lover?”
Nika looked down at her hands, evidently finding it difficult to speak. “I do still want you, but I want to know that there’s more to our relationship than sex.”
He felt affronted. “If you’re doubting that, after everything we’ve been through together, then we have bigger problems than I thought. Of course there’s more to us than sex. By Odin’s eye, Nika, I’ve waited for you through lifetimes. I went without properly feeding for years and years because I wanted to prove to the gods that I deserved to have you back. Centuries. Don’t you think I would have given up by now if sex was all that I was after?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze, and her voice was small when she said, “I needed to be sure of you… after what you did with the other First…”
His stomach tightened. “You mean what happened to the Huldra.”
She tried to speak, but could only nod wordlessly.
“You yourself said once that I was not responsible for that, because I was under the influence of Mia’s enchantments. That’s why you hate her, if I’m not mistaken.”
“I needed to know if you would take no for an answer. You never did with Magda.”
“We’ve talked about my past, and about my sins. What happened with Magda was many, many years ago, and I know now that it was wrong, but at the time…” He sighed. “I have promised that I would never hurt you. If my word isn’t good enough for you, then I don’t know what else I can do to prove myself to you.”
He rose and collected his coat. Nika stared at him, shocked. “Erik, I’m sorry. I was…”
“If you think that I could ever raise a hand to you, you mistake me.”
“Erik…”
He walked out of the office without looking back.
***
Mia and Derek stood in the mairie, the government office that oversaw civil marriages. She was wearing a long white lace dress and white satin heels, dressed like a bride. He was in an impeccable suit. His two goons, the ones who had dragged her from the catacombs, were waiting to act as witnesses, dressed in suits of their own. One of them was filming the proceedings with his cell.
The actual wedding was short and dry, as emotionless as the couple themselves. The functionary performing the ceremony barely looked at them until after they had signed the register and all of the paperwork.
“There,” Derek said when it was over. “Our alliance is complete.”
The Draugr with the cell snickered. “Not quite complete, boss.”
Mia glared at him. “I understand what’s required of me.” She turned back to Dupin. “Let’s go back to the house and get this over with.”
He smirked. “Most women don’t greet the thought of lying with me in such a negative light.”
She snorted. “Most women have a choice.”
“You had a choice, my dear.”
“Not a good one.”
“It was a choice, all the same.” He held the door for her, smiling. “After you.”
They left the office and walked directly into a smiling man in a muddy overcoat. “Mia,” he said. “You’ve been a bad, bad girl.”
She recognized him immediately. “Assassin!” she hissed. Magic flared at her fingertips, and she flung it at Vladimir’s face. The Russian batted it away, magic of his own surrounding his hands.
Dupin and his men pulled guns from beneath their suit coats and opened fire. The bullets bounced harmlessly away, and Vladimir ignored them, focusing his attention on the Dark Sister before him.
“I went through a lot of trouble to find you,” he said. The magic around his hands was intensifying, glowing a sickly green and crawling up toward his elbows. “You almost got away.”
She bent and slipped a knife from inside her boot. “I still will.” She added her magic to the blade and threw both at him, snarling words of power. The knife penetrated his defenses, striking him in the shoulder. His magic flickered, and in that instant, Dupin fell upon him with fangs and claws.
Vladimir pushed his hands, still crawling with green magic, into Dupin’s face, and the vampire howled in pain as his skin blistered and split. Dupin reeled away, and Vladimir vanished into the ground, her knife still stuck in his body.
Mia went to her new husband and cast healing magic for him, augmenting his innate Draugr ability to recover from injury at lightning speed.
“Where did he go?” one of their companions demanded.
“In the ley lines,” she said, irritable. “He’s running, but he’ll be back.”
“Who was that?” Derek asked her.
“Vladimir. He’s a witch hunter.” She searched the spot where Vladimir had disappeared, hoping that he hadn’t taken her knife with him, but it was nowhere to be seen. “Damn.”
“Did Thorvald send him?” her husband asked.
“I have no idea. Most likely.” She glanced around. Their tussle was attracting a crowd of bewildered humans. “Get the car. We need to get out of here before the police arrive.”
Chapter Ten
Nika dialed Erik’s number, but the call went straight to voice mail. She bit her lip. Why did I listen to Tamara? She knew that her doubts had hurt him deeply and all she wanted was to make amends. She tried again, but again he failed to pick up. She swore and tossed the phone back into her purse.
Tamara was on a plane already, flying from America to Sweden. She couldn’t have reached her if she’d tried. The thought that she might have ruined things with Erik haunted her, and she wished he’d pick up the phone. She put her head into her hands and began to weep.
A moment later, a groggy male voice asked, “Rune Master, why are you crying?”
She gasped and turned to look at the couch. She had almost forgotten that Dominic was there, and now he was looking at her, his amber eyes cloudy, his face pale. He struggled to sit up as she wiped her cheeks.
“I… it’s personal.”
He nodded slowly. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry.”
She waved her hand at him. “It’s okay. It’s not … what happened to you?”
The Ulfen rubbed his hand over his neck, and he said, “One of your vampires happened to me.” He looked at his hand as if he expected it to be bloody, then dropped it into his lap. His expression took on an edge of shame and embarrassment. “She said her name was Elke.”
“Ah. That’s right. Erik told me.” She went to the bar and poured a glass of whiskey, which she brought to him. “Drink this. It might help.”
He sniffed the liquid suspiciously, then shook his head. “No, thanks. I don’t think I need alcohol right now.”
“Water, then?”
“Sur
e.”
Nika went to bar and got a glass of Perrier for him. He accepted it when she brought it back. He sipped it, then grimaced at the mineral burn. She sat beside him.
“You were with Mia.”
“Yes.” He leaned back, slouching on the sofa, the glass cradled in his hands. “I was trying to help her hide from the vampires in Paris, and we got separated. They found her, shot me, and then I was picked up by some Russian named Vladimir.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Interesting…”
“He healed me, then sent me on my way with new clothes.”
“Why Paris?”
“That’s where she wanted to go. I don’t know why. I wanted to get off the train in Cologne, but I couldn’t leave her.” He looked down into his glass. “Maybe I should have.”
“Do you know where they took her?”
Dominic shook his head. “No, and everybody can stop asking me. I volunteered to protect her because I’m an idiot. She didn’t lift a finger to help me. Now I’m back here in Sweden, and I just wanted to get the hell away…” He looked at her. “Ulfen aren’t very welcome in Stockholm, you know.”
Nika tried to look sympathetic and encouraging. “I know… why don’t you go back to your pack?”
He grimaced. “No, thank you.”
“Can werewolves even survive without a pack?”
“This one will.” He put the glass aside and rose unsteadily. “Listen, thanks for the water, but I have to get out of here.”
The door opened, and Elke came back in with a handful of papers. She grinned like a predator when she saw Dominic standing there. “Hey, handsome.” He blushed furiously and looked away, and Elke handed the papers to Nika. “This is the invoice for the delivery that just came. Thought you’d like to look it over.”
She glanced at it, her heart completely not in the task. “Whatever. You take care of it.”
“Where’s Erik?”
“He… left.”
Love Beyond the wall (A Rizer Pack Shifter Series Book 1) Page 26