Blood Lust

by Heather MacKinnon

  She pressed her mouth against mine, and my heart thumped hard in my chest. “It’s okay. I’m here now,” she whispered against my lips.

  My dick was now fully hard and straining against my zipper. I tried to shift again, but there was no helping the situation in my pants.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I met her eyes reluctantly. “I’m sorry. It’s been a while.”

  She frowned at my words until I shifted again, and she finally felt what I was referring to. Her eyes widened as a small smile spread across her face. “Oh.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Oh. And if you don’t want me to fuck you in this parking lot, we should head inside.”

  She slid off my lap, an even wider smile on her face. “I’m okay with a little exhibitionism.”

  I groaned as I pocketed the keys and exited the vehicle. I ran full speed around the car to open her door. “Don’t say shit like that to me,” I grumbled as I wrapped an arm around her.

  She giggled, and the weight that hadn’t left my chest in days lightened the smallest bit. Only Charlotte had that kind of power over me.

  We walked up to the old warehouse and entered the opulent vampire hotel. Charlotte gasped quietly at the plush lobby as I led her to the front desk.

  “Hello. Do you have a reservation?” the vampire on duty asked.

  “No. Do you have any rooms available?”

  The man smiled. “Of course. Any room preferences?”

  “A suite. The biggest one you have.”

  He nodded as he tapped away on his keyboard. “Name?”

  I spit out the first thing that came to mind. “Alex Wakefield.”

  Charlotte giggled next to me and I shot her a smile before handing over my credit card. The vampire behind the desk finished our transaction and handed me a set of keys before wishing us a good stay.

  I pulled Charlotte down the hall toward our room, knowing I wasn’t going to get away with the shit I just pulled.

  “Interesting,” she commented.

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t look too far into it.”

  “I’m just wondering if this means you’ll be taking my last name when we get married.”

  I waited for the anxiety to race through my veins at her words, but it was nowhere to be found.

  “We’re getting married now?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe someday. If you play your cards right.”

  I laughed, knowing it didn’t matter what game we were playing. When it came to Charlotte, I’d rig the fucking thing if it meant I got to keep her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I unlocked our door and ushered her ahead of me, turning on lights as I went. The room was big and beautiful, and I didn’t care at all.

  Standing in the middle of it was my whole entire fucking universe.

  When she turned around to smile at me, I knew then that I’d never stop loving this woman. It just wasn’t possible.

  “This place is gorgeous,” she said.

  I shrugged as I crossed the distance between us. My hands found her hips like they always did, and I pulled her closer. “How are you feeling? Do you need more blood?”

  She reached up to wrap her arms around my neck, but stopped halfway, her face twisted in pain. My hands clenched into fists as I watched her breathe through the worst of it.

  “I want to know what he did to you,” I said.

  She shook her head. “You don’t.”

  I grasped her chin between my fingers and tilted her head. “I need to know.” I let her go and took a step back. “Show me where he hurt you.”

  She stood there watching me for a long time, the only sound our racing hearts and slow breaths. Finally, she used one shaking finger to point at her head.

  I stepped into her space again and slid my fingers into her messy blonde hair. I pressed kiss after kiss all along her head, hoping I’d hit the right spot at least once. “Where else?”

  Her fingers grazed her throat, and I moved toward it. My lips slid along her neck, pressing harder against her racing pulse and tasting her skin.

  When I pulled away, she held out both arms to me and I took them gently. Twisting them back and forth, I didn’t notice any wounds, but I’d kiss them anyway. My mouth traveled from her shoulder to her fingers, up and down both arms until I was satisfied.

  When I met her gaze again, she pointed to her ribs.

  My hands were shaking now too as they disappeared beneath her shirt and pulled the fabric up and over her head. My breath caught in my lungs as I spotted the bruises still discoloring her skin. I fell to my knees in front of her and rubbed my fingers against a bloody scab below her breast.

  “That one was pretty bad,” she said, her voice wobbling and breathy.

  I leaned forward and pressed my mouth against her skin. Over and over, I peppered her chest and stomach with as many kisses as I could. I felt her heart pounding beneath my lips, reminding me that she was still here.

  I pulled away from her. “Where else?” I asked, my voice gruff.

  She lifted her foot in the air and I caught her sneaker in my hand. I pulled off her shoe and sock and found ugly bruised skin beneath it. I had no idea how he could have damaged her foot so badly, but I wanted to race back to Brooklyn and kill him all over again. I dipped my head to press a kiss to the top of her foot.

  She giggled, and I met her eyes, a smile I hadn’t expected twitching on my lips. “Is that it?”

  Her face fell as she shook her head. Charlotte bent over and pointed to both her knees, and my stomach fell. “That’s the last place,” she said softly.

  I unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off her legs. Once she was bare, I could see the way her knees were bent at just the wrong angle. They were also black and blue and so swollen they were at least twice their normal size.

  I squeezed my eyes closed to quell the anger deep inside me, but it wasn’t easy. Leaning forward, I kissed first one knee and then the other before going back to the first. When I’d finally placed at least a dozen kisses on each, I looked back up at her.

  “You still need blood.”

  She shrugged. “I’ll get plenty if you change me.”

  My heart leapt in my chest at her words. Gone was the trepidation. The worry. The anxiety. Now all I felt was raw anticipation and this elation that couldn’t be controlled.

  I climbed to my feet and pulled her against my chest. “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Her wide eyes and wider smile turned to me. “Really?”

  “Yes. Really.”

  She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight, and I swear, my fucking chest ached. I hugged her back before scooping her into my arms and carrying her into the bedroom. I placed her gently on the bed and took a step back.

  “It’s not going to be painless,” I reminded her.

  She nodded. “That’s okay. I can handle it.”

  I crawled onto the bed next to her. “I know. You can handle anything.” I slid my hand from her ankle to her bare hip before wrapping it around the back of her neck. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. I can’t wait to spend the next hundred years showing you how much you mean to me.”

  She sniffed, her big eyes watery as she shook her head. “Not long enough.”

  My fucking chest. It felt like it would crack in half, but it hurt so good I never wanted it to stop.

  I nuzzled her throat with my nose as I listened to her heart race. “Are you ready?” I whispered against her skin.

  She arched her back, hands gripping the blanket beneath her. “Yes,” she gasped. “Do it.”

  I groaned softly before sinking my fangs into her neck. Her thick blood spilled onto my tongue and I moaned again. I pulled on her wounds, filling myself with Charlotte as she writhed beneath me.

  I drank faster and deeper than I ever had before, each pull getting me closer to ending her life, but each sip getting me closer to making her a vampire and keeping her forever.

  It was scary and exhilarating as I
felt her weaken beneath me. Finally, I pulled my mouth away, listening carefully to the beat of her heart. It was slower, but still that faithful rhythm I’d come to love.

  Ba-bum.

  Ba-bum.

  Ba-bum.

  I tore into my arm and pushed it against her mouth. “Drink, love,” I whispered. My stomach cramped tightly for a moment when she didn’t respond, only untangling when she finally started sucking on my wrist.

  I ran my fingers through her hair as she drank more than she ever had. My essence mixed with hers as she took from me what I’d already taken from her. I watched her closely as her bruises faded, and her wounds disappeared. I kissed the side of her face as she drank more, and the hold she had on my arm weakened.

  When she finally let go, I carefully lowered her to the bed and kissed her lips again.

  “Sleep, love. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  Epilogue

  Alexander

  Three days was a long fucking time.

  Seventy-two hours.

  Four thousand twenty minutes.

  Two hundred fifty-nine thousand two hundred seconds.

  Every single one of them ticked by slowly as I watched Charlotte sleep. I listened to her heart and watched her chest rise and fall as I waited.

  I’d never done this before, so I hadn’t known how her heart would slow before racing forward again over and over until I thought it would drive me mad.

  I also hadn’t known that it wouldn’t be exactly three days that she was asleep.

  I’d called no fewer than five other vampires with progeny before I was finally convinced that the change was different for everyone. Sometimes it took a couple hours more or less for the new vampire to wake up.

  I knew that.

  I believed it.

  But I also wasn’t going to take my eyes off her until she woke up.

  Because my gaze was trained on her, I noticed the moment her eyelids fluttered, and my heart felt like it could beat again.

  “Charlotte?”

  Her eyes sprang open, and I jolted upright in bed. I watched as she looked around the room, surely seeing things she’d never noticed before and hearing things she never could before.

  Her whole world would forever be different.

  I just had to hope she wouldn’t regret it.

  When she finally turned to me, her beautiful blue eyes widened before she reached out to touch my face. Her fingers were light on my skin, and I closed my eyes as she explored. When she pulled away, I opened them again and watched her closely.

  She looked at me in wonder as I tried to guess what was going through her head at that moment. Finally, she spoke.

  “You’re even more beautiful than I thought,” she said, her voice strong and clear.

  I rolled my eyes as I inched closer to her. “I’m not beautiful, love. You are.”

  She shook her head. “No, you really are.” She pursed her lips and tipped her head to the side. “What else have you been keeping from me?”

  I laughed, my chest so light, my heart so full. I pulled her into my arms and pressed her against the bed. “There’s lots I’ve had to hold back.” I slipped between her thighs and pressed my hips against hers.

  She gasped softly, her eyes widening with excitement. “Like what?” she breathed.

  Slipping my hands behind her, I grabbed her ass and squeezed. “I can show you if you’d like.”

  Her head was nodding before I’d finished my sentence. “Yes. Show me.”

  I laughed again before leaning down to press my lips against hers. She opened for me immediately, and I spent a long time losing myself in her.

  When I finally pulled away, I met her gaze and asked the question I couldn’t ignore. “No regrets?”

  She shook her head. “Never.”

  I took my first real, deep breath in a long fucking time and slipped my hand into her pants. “Then, I’d be happy to show you all the things I couldn’t do when you were a human.”

  Want more from the Changed universe?

  Read on for the first chapter of the next book in the series, Blood Feud!

  Blood Feud

  Chapter 1

  Ashton

  “What the hell did I get myself into?”

  I continued to grumble under my breath as I paced my boss’s marble foyer. Alexander left with Charlotte over an hour ago and asked me to wait for his friend to arrive.

  The friend who was supposed to dispose of a body for him.

  I glanced at the bathroom door, knowing there was a dead guy behind it. With a shake of my head, I turned to pace in the other direction.

  It wasn’t that I was particularly averse to dead people. I’d seen enough of that in the SEALs, but I wasn’t employed by the government anymore, and this wasn’t a deployment. This was a dead body smack dab in the middle of New York City, and I could very likely wind up charged with this murder if I wasn’t careful.

  I glanced at my watch for the fifth time in the past ten minutes, noting that this Mildred person was now officially late. With a snort, I wondered if her powered scooter broke down on her way up here.

  I made another lap around the foyer and came face to face with a large gilded mirror on one wall. My eyes were swollen and bruised, but my nose was the real problem. I reached up to touch it, hoping I could pop the bone back into place and go on with my day. But that wish quickly faded as I felt around and realized it wasn’t a clean break. And that I’d have to probably get x-rays tomorrow.

  “Hausle’s getting that fucking bill,” I mumbled.

  A knock on the door drew me out of my thoughts, and I hurried to open it. When I did, a red-headed woman with the greenest eyes I’d ever seen was standing there. I took a quick moment to check out the rest of her and wasn’t disappointed at all.

  But what the hell is she doing here?

  I leaned against the door and gave her a grin. “Can I help you?”

  Please say yes.

  Please say yes.

  Please say yes.

  “Alexander Hausle called me.”

  I jerked back before looking her up and down again. “Mildred?”

  She shrugged one delicate shoulder. “I prefer Millie.”

  Holy.

  Fucking.

  Shit.

  The whole time, I’d been expecting some wrinkly old woman to come and take the body off my hands, but instead, this was what I got.

  A fucking bombshell with curves for days and eyes I could stare into for hours, just counting all the shades of green in them.

  What the fuck?

  “He called you to deal with this… problem?” I finished lamely.

  “Yes. And? Who are you?”

  “Ashton McGraw. Hausle hired me to guard his girlfriend.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re not glamoured, are you?”

  I frowned. “That hypno bullshit? Fuck no.”

  She tilted her head to the side as she continued to study me. “Why is that?”

  It was my turn to shrug. “I guess he likes me.”

  Or more accurately, I was more useful to him like this. That’s what Alexander said, at least.

  She pursed her lips but didn’t say anything else. We stood there for a moment, our eyes locked and my dick already hardening in my pants. Finally, she cleared her throat.

  “Can I come in?”

  I jumped to attention and pushed the door open wider. “Of course. My apologies. Come on.”

  I stood still as she passed me, willing my hands to not reach for the curves I was already fantasizing about. She smelled sweet and expensive as she passed me by, and it was not helping the situation in my pants one bit.

  She stopped in the middle of the foyer and turned to me. Next to her was a suitcase I honestly hadn’t even noticed. I was too busy looking at her to care about what she was carrying.

  “Well,” she said. I held my breath as I waited to hear what she’d say next. When I didn’t say anything, she huffed out an irritated
breath and waved to the apartment around her. “Where is it?”

  I jumped again and hustled over to the bathroom door. I swear, I hadn’t moved so fast since boot camp.

  “It’s in here.”

  She followed behind me, close enough that I could smell her again. Millie ducked into the bathroom without hesitation. She stopped in the middle of the room and put her hands on her hips.

  “He’s going to have to go in pieces,” she muttered. When she turned to me, I looked away quickly so she wouldn’t know I’d been staring that whole time. “Was he drained?”

  I frowned. “Of what?”

  Her lips twitched with a grin as she shook her head. “How did you get yourself into this situation?”

  I leaned against the doorframe and gave her a smile of my own. “I’ve been asking myself the same shit all day.”

  Her eyes shined bright with humor before she turned back to the body. She crouched beside him and turned his head to the side before nodding. “Yeah, he was drained.” Without warning, she grabbed both his legs and started pulling.

  I jumped into action again.

  “Hey, let me help you with that.”

  She laughed. Actually fucking laughed at me. “Don’t worry about it. Just get out of my way.”

  I stood there stupidly for a moment before hurrying out the bathroom. I watched her drag the full-grown man out into the foyer as easily as if she were pulling a little red wagon. In seconds, he was sprawled across the marble floor in between us.

  “You might want to leave for this part,” she said.

  I looked up at her before checking my watch. Truthfully, I’d had every intention of leaving the moment she got here, but now that she was, I didn’t want to go.

  I could lie and say it was chivalry.

  I could lie and say it was me making sure the job was done right.

  But they’d both be just that. Lies.

  The truth was, Millie was hot as fuck and I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “It’s cool. I can stay and help.”

  She laughed again. “I don’t need your help.” Millie walked over to the suitcase she’d abandoned and opened it up. Inside was a large plastic tarp, and I watched in fascination as she spread it out on the floor.