“I’m sure, Erin. Haven’t you noticed that his eyes never leave you if you’re in the same room?”
“No.”
“Well, they don’t. Are you interested in him? I mean, he’s hot in a sexy nerd kind of way, but I never got that vibe from you.”
“That’s because there was never a vibe to get. And I don’t like to screw where I eat. But I think I might be changing my tune.” I had to do something to ease the ache between my legs.
“That will make young Dr. Crown very happy.” Steve winked at me. “And speaking of him, I have to run. He asked me to grab some stuff from the supply room.”
What the heck? If a fuck was what I needed, Logan Crown would suffice. Especially now that I knew Lucy hadn’t gone there.
Before I could find him, though, two ambulances screeched up to the ER. I was busy for the next four hours assisting on cases. It was a rough night. A young mother and her infant child came in dead on arrival from a car accident. The father and an older son were in critical condition. A teenage daughter had minor scrapes and had been released to social services. Her name was Ashley, and she had cried in my arms for a few minutes before I had to let her go so I could assist on yet more cases.
Sometimes I felt so useless in my profession. I often wondered why things happened the way they did. Nursing was so rewarding most of the time, but nights like these nearly sucked the life out of me.
So, after I had showered and changed back into my street clothes, ready to go home, when Dr. Crown came up to me and asked me to have breakfast with him—Steve must have filled him in on my possible interest—I said yes.
Maybe he wasn’t the man of my dreams. After such a lousy shift, I didn’t want to be alone, even if it was only an hour to share a meal.
“Tell me about yourself,” Dr. Crown said after we had ordered our breakfast.
“Not much to tell. I have a brother. He’s a detective with the NOPD. He works the night shift like I do.”
“That’s interesting. Both of you working the night shift and all.”
“We both prefer it. Our family has always been a little nocturnal.”
“These shifts kill me,” he said. “But as you know, the residents go where we’re told. I’m glad I got the shift, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have met you.”
I smiled and took a bite of my egg and bacon sandwich. I had no idea what to say anyway.
“How come you finally agreed to go out with me?”
Nothing like being put right on the spot. I certainly couldn’t tell him the real answer—that I was hoping for a good quick fuck.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just in a different place now.”
“Different than you were a few months ago?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to start anything up then.”
“Why?”
What was with all the questions? “Some family issues,” I lied. “But everything’s been resolved now.”
“I get it. You don’t want to talk about it.”
“No, not really.”
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“Honestly? I don’t want to talk about anything, Dr. Crown. I want to go back to my place, take you up to my bedroom, and fuck the daylights out of you.”
I clamped my hand over my mouth. What had I been thinking? After yesterday morning’s rejection by Dante, I had just set myself up for another one.
But a broad grin split his face. “Then I think you’d better start calling me Logan.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Dante
I’d spent the day at River’s. He’d slept, since he worked the night shift, so I’d tried to sleep as well. Hadn’t worked. I’d ended up pacing most of the day, and then, when Riv left for work in the evening, I paced some more.
Now the sun was rising.
I was sleep-deprived and blood-deprived. River had the same animal blood in his refrigerator as Bill. I drank two cups but was still not sated.
I knew what I needed.
I needed Erin’s blood.
Erin, whom I had rejected for her own well-being.
Erin, whom I couldn’t trust myself with—again for her own well-being.
Erin…who hadn’t turned me in that first night when she’d had every right to.
Erin…who never left my mind.
I wasn’t in love with her. Was I? I couldn’t be. I didn’t even know what love was or whether I was capable of the emotion.
But something about her drew me, pulled me…
Her scent, the sweet sound of her blood flowing through her veins to her heart, and then the higher-pitched whoosh of it flowing out into her body through her arteries.
Yes, human arteries. The pipeline to life for a vampire.
I’d had a slight taste of her when she nicked her tongue on my fang that first time. The memory flooded back into my mind. An earthy ambrosia that bubbled over my taste buds and then flowed into every cell of my body, making my fingers and toes tingle.
Perhaps my lust for her was purely blood lust.
And blood lust could be sated elsewhere.
But not with bagged animal blood that was days old.
I needed fresh blood.
Fresh…from a human. A female human.
I’d been brought up not to feed on humans. Some vampires did, Bill said, but those who had evolved found it distasteful.
Morally distasteful, that was.
Physically, it was not distasteful at all. In fact, he warned, do not ever do it, or you might not be able to stop. It would become an addiction.
I’d learned that lesson when I was old enough to recognize the urge for blood. I’d been only five years old, but in truth, I’d known the urge for much longer, after I’d been weaned from my mother’s breast. I just hadn’t been able to put it into words.
Bill had drummed that truth into Em even more so than me. Because our mother had died birthing her, she didn’t have the benefit of mother’s milk to lessen her urge for blood. She was only a toddler when she fed on a neighbor’s cat.
Luckily, Bill had stopped her from killing the animal, and our neighbor saw her pet safely returned.
But now I understood more than ever how Em had felt.
An uncontrollable urge.
I hadn’t had the last ten years to learn to control the combined blood and sexual urges that came with adulthood. Em had experienced only the blood lust of a toddler who hadn’t had the benefit of mother’s milk.
What I was feeling went so far beyond that.
I lusted for Erin’s blood, God yes, but I also lusted for her body. To embed myself so far within her that Dante didn’t exist anymore, to join our souls.
I needed to be saved—saved from the horrors of my past, saved from the uncontrollable lusts kaleidoscoping through my body.
Being with Erin would save me. I didn’t know how, but I knew it with every molecule within me.
I needed her.
I’d suppress my blood lust with her. I had to find a way. Because not having her was no longer an option.
I left River’s home and began walking. I had no idea how to get to Erin’s place, but somehow I found it. Some inner drive propelled me to where she was. Her scent was a part of me now. All I needed to do was follow the path laid out for me.
I knocked on her door. When no one answered, I threw it open.
Unlocked again, thank God.
“Erin!” I yelled. “Erin. Come to me!”
I sniffed. Yes, she was here. Upstairs. Along with…
The back of my neck prickled as my fangs descended.
Someone was with her.
I couldn’t pick up his scent, oddly, but I picked up hers, heavy with oxytocin. She was aroused, and not by her own hand.
I raced up the stairs.
Erin came running out of her bedroom clad in jeans and a shirt. A shirt that was unbuttoned, exposing her bra and her breasts bursting to tumble free.
I snarled low in my throat.
&n
bsp; “Dante! What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
I willed my fangs to retract. It took more effort than usual. “Your door was unlocked. Again.”
“That can’t be. I remember…” She glanced over her shoulder. “You need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” My veins turned to boiling rivers beneath my skin. The itching in my gums grew unbearable, and a growl rumbled low in my throat.
She advanced toward me. “You kicked me out of your place twenty-four hours ago. Now I’m returning the favor. Get. Out.”
I inhaled. She was ripe. Whoever was here intended to get inside her.
He would not.
I brushed past Erin and headed to her bedroom.
He was there, standing by her bed, his face shiny with perspiration, an erection apparent beneath his pants.
He was tall, but I was bigger. Stronger.
And mad as hell.
I held my blood lust in check, keeping my fangs from protruding. “Get out!” I growled.
“You! Wh-Who are you?”
Erin came running back in. “Dante! You can’t break into my home and go running into my bedroom like a lunatic. I won’t have it!”
“Try to stop me, Erin,” I said. “Just try. You won’t be able to.”
“Don’t you threaten her,” the man said, his voice cracking slightly. “You heard her. Get out of here.”
I laughed maniacally. I could take him out with a hard look, and right now, his blood was filled with testosterone. I could bite him, drink from him, and make myself even stronger.
My gums itched.
Yes. All that testosterone from a male on the cusp of becoming a man. It’s intoxicating.
“Get out of my head, you bitch!”
“Call her that again, and I’ll—”
I hadn’t been talking to Erin, but still I pushed the man against the wall, my hands gripping his shoulders. “And you’ll what?”
I inhaled. His testosterone had fled, replaced by the sharp scent of adrenaline.
“Look,” he said, “whatever is going on, it’s a misunderstanding.”
“You will leave this bedroom,” I said. “Now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Erin
“No, Dante,” I said, harnessing my anger as I entered my bedroom. “You will leave. And if you don’t, I’m calling the cops. I’m sure my brother will be happy to come over and arrest you.”
I didn’t threaten him with his vandalism of the hospital several nights ago. For some reason, I still wanted to protect him from that, though I had no idea why.
“It’s okay, Erin,” Logan said. “Tell him to let me go, and I’ll leave.”
“What? Are you kidding me? No way.” Dante had to leave. I had to tell him again. But my heart wasn’t in it. All I wanted to tell him was to get in my bed.
“It’s okay,” Logan said. “Breakfast was fun, but clearly this wasn’t meant to be.”
“You heard the man, Erin.” Dante released Logan. “Get the hell out of here.”
Logan straightened his collar and left my room in a flurry.
I advanced on Dante, fuming. “What the hell was—”
He grabbed me and pulled me into his body as his lips came down on mine. My knees weakened when his erection pushed into my belly.
I responded to his kiss despite myself, despite what he’d just done. Despite…everything.
Then I stopped thinking. Only pure emotion coursed through me as I responded to his kiss, let my tongue wander into his mouth, groaned when he took it between his lips and sucked.
No one had ever kissed me the way Dante kissed me.
I wanted more of it.
So much more.
He brushed my shirt forcefully from my shoulders down to my waist and then broke the kiss. “You kissed him,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Y-Yes.”
“You were going to fuck him.” Not a question. A statement. An angry statement.
I forced myself not to stammer this time. “Yes,” I said on a gulp.
“You will not fuck him.”
“Well…not right now. You scared him away.” I bit my trembling lip. “But I—”
“Ever. You will not fuck him…ever.”
“Now you wait a—”
He slammed his lips down on mine once more, crushing our bodies together. Without thinking, I slid my hands up his muscular arms to his shoulders clad in black cotton.
So hard beneath my fingertips, so perfect.
He swept me into his arms and placed me on my bed. “Mine,” he growled. “These lips are mine.” He ripped my bra open at the middle. “These breasts are mine. That treasure between your legs is mine.” He licked his lips, his eyes dark with desire. “You are mine.”
“But yesterday,” I whimpered. “You didn’t want—”
“Forget yesterday. I want you now. And I will have what’s mine.” He inhaled. “I can smell you. I can smell how much you want me.”
I could smell it too. My lust was thick in the room, and it hadn’t been there with Logan. Dante had brought it out in me.
Dante, who I hardly knew.
Dante, who was rude as hell.
Dante, who had broken into my home.
Dante, who I’d found vandalizing the blood bank.
Dante…who I wanted more than my next breath of air.
Couldn’t think. Couldn’t form words. All I wanted was his mouth on me. Everywhere.
He tugged off my shoes, then my jeans and panties. He spread my legs and closed his eyes. “Your musk is the sweetest thing I’ve ever scented.”
Scented? Odd use of the word. But then he lowered his head, slithered his tongue over his bottom lip…
Opened his eyes…
And then his mouth, his eyes ablaze with rage.
“What the hell is that?”
Epilogue
The Queen
You’ve made me stronger than ever, Dante, and I won’t give you up that easily. Your blood has given me more power than I thought possible. Still I feel its magnificence in my body. I am life itself. Death no longer exists.
I will miss you, miss what we’ve been to each other. But I have a suitable substitute, someone whose blood is nearly as potent as yours. So for now, go. Spread your wings and learn. Your experience will only enrich me, make you a better blood slave when we are reunited.
But I’ll be watching you.
Always watching you.
And never forget…
You did not escape.
I unchained you.
You are and always will be…mine.
Prologue
Erin
He swept me into his arms and placed me on my bed. “Mine,” he growled. “These lips are mine.” He ripped my bra open at the middle. “These breasts are mine. That treasure between your legs is mine.” He licked his lips, his eyes dark with desire. “You are mine.”
“But yesterday,” I whimpered. “You didn’t want—”
“Forget yesterday. I want you now. And I will have what’s mine.” He inhaled. “I can smell you. I can smell how much you want me.”
I could smell it too. My lust was thick in the room, and it hadn’t been there with Logan. Dante had brought it out in me.
Dante, who I hardly know.
Dante, who was rude as hell.
Dante, who had broken into my home.
Dante, who I’d found vandalizing the blood bank.
Dante…who I wanted more than my next breath of air.
Couldn’t think. Couldn’t form words. All I wanted was his mouth on me. Everywhere.
He tugged off my shoes, then my jeans and panties. He spread my legs and closed his eyes. “Your musk is the sweetest thing I’ve ever scented.”
Scented? Odd use of the word. But then he lowered his head, slithered his tongue over his bottom lip…
Opened his eyes…
And then his mouth, his eyes ablaze with rage.
“What the hell is
that?”
Chapter One
Dante
She didn’t respond, just stared at me, her peridot eyes wide.
Anger inched along my skin as it tightened around my body. The tingling in my gums. I’d already let my fangs out once without meaning to, during our first kiss. She’d nicked her tongue, and I’d gotten a brief taste of her essence—a flavor so intense and intoxicating…
And I’d had to have her.
Her pussy smelled like fresh flowers and fruit, but when I opened my eyes…
Two puncture wounds on the inside of her left thigh.
A vampire bite. I’d recognize the lesion anywhere. A vampire had fed from her femoral artery.
Someone had tasted what was mine. The need to possess rose within me, while the wild urge to punish whirled through my veins.
This had happened recently. Though the wounds were healing, they were near fresh.
“Who tasted you?” I demanded in a snarling voice.
She met my angry gaze. “Wh-What?”
Rage overtook me. I looked away, squeezing my eyes tightly shut. Couldn’t look at her right now. If I looked, I might… Damn! I opened my eyes and turned back to her, her own eyes frightened and confused.
“You let someone—”
I stopped abruptly. She’d most likely been glamoured and didn’t even know she’d been fed from. I closed my eyes again and drew in a deep breath. Control eluded me, but I had to find it from somewhere. I dived deep within myself, the self I’d been before I was taken.
As angry as I was that someone had fed from her, this wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t known.
But I needed to feed. Needed to mark my territory.
Can’t. Can’t do it… She doesn’t know what I am.
I gathered all my strength, moved away from her, and opened my eyes.
Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One Page 9