Owning the Night

by Ann Jacobs

  “Do you know a cop named Braunstein?” Stefan asked when he set the phone down.

  “He’s one of the men who work for Mara.” While Alex understood Stefan’s concern at him having been located by the local police, he was more concerned with why Ben might have called. “What did he say?”

  “That your woman has been arrested for letting you go. Stupid mortals, thinking you couldn’t escape on your own. He says they’re charging her as an accessory in Reynard’s murder and for facilitating the killer’s escape. That killer would be you, cousin.”

  Claude laughed, but the sound didn’t convey much humor. “Stupid mortals indeed. If they had half a brain among them, they’d realize there are times that call for vampire justice. Where do they have Alex’s lady cop locked away?”

  “The Women’s Detention Center. Braunstein just took her there.”

  “Fuck.” Alex had to swallow a scream when he forgot his broken hand and grabbed his cell phone. But he wouldn’t admit to major pain, not now. They had to get Mara, take her out of what had to be a hellish situation. Having spent several days in a Montana jail cell, he had a pretty good idea of how miserable being locked up could be. He imagined it would be many times worse for Mara than he’d experienced on his brief stay, because she was a law enforcement officer tossed in among several hundred women she might have helped put there. “I’ve got to call Maman, tell her I’m bringing home a mate and that she needs to have a maid go over and tidy up my apartment.” The gods only knew what souvenirs might still have been around after the farewell party those three female d’Argents had thrown for him before he took off after Reynard.

  “Are you sure?” Claude asked.

  Alex had meant to wait, give his own feelings as well as hers the test of time. But he didn’t have that time. Not now. Besides, he’d known the minute he saw Mara that he’d found his mate, he just hadn’t wanted to admit it. There was no time to waste. He had to rescue her and claim her as his own.

  Even though she’d begged him to turn her in the throes of passion, he figured she might not be too thrilled at first to become a vampire, but she’d learn to love it. Claude’s Marisa had, and so had Stefan’s Julie. Even Sam Quill, despite all his protests that he didn’t want to be turned, had settled in nicely as Alina’s mate. Especially now that Alina had turned the clan leadership over to Claude and could reveal her submissive nature to one and all. “I’m sure. Let’s not waste time. We need to go break her out of that hole she’s in.”

  “You know you’re going to have to turn her there, and you’re likely to have a very interested audience.” Stefan shot Alex a doubtful look. “You don’t look well enough to fight off half a dozen or more women desperate to get out and find a fix.”

  “I’ll leave that to you, my friends. The only prisoner I’m interested in springing is Mara.” Trying not to think about his aches and pains, Alex stood and made for the door. He knew, no matter how much they might protest, Claude and Stefan would always be at his back.

  • • •

  The Women’s Detention Center might as well have been a dungeon, if only it had been below ground instead of above. She imagined the only reason it hadn’t been built that way was because Miami’s topography didn’t lend itself to below-ground construction. Seeing it inside, up close and personal, made Mara wonder if she really should have brought ninety percent of the women she’d arrested over the years to this hellhole.

  She had six cellmates in a boxlike room designed for eight, surrounded by concrete block walls that had recently been painted an ugly shade of gray. No window, and only a barred opening in the locked metal door. From the look of it, the other women were sleeping off drunks or drug highs, except for one snarling psycho who looked as if she was trying to decide which one of them to attack. None of them smelled any too clean, but then the orange jumpsuit they’d given Mara didn’t exactly feel or smell as if it had just come out of the laundry, either.

  Where the hell was the lawyer Ben was supposed to have found for her? She wanted to see him, not that she figured he’d be able to do much for getting her out of this place. She knew the ropes. They wouldn’t even hold a bond hearing for a couple of days, no matter how loudly her lawyer screamed. Taking a seat on one of the two unoccupied bunks, she took a deep breath and tried to relax.

  Easier said than done, when the psycho was eyeing her with what seemed like intent, unnatural interest. Mara stared her down the way she might have done a suspect, and finally after what seemed like a long time the woman gave up and flopped back on her bunk.

  Mara might have gone to sleep, but a mental picture of Alex kept getting in the way. A murderer? Never. So far as she was concerned, her vampire lover was nothing less than a hero. Because of him, Louis Reynard would never again victimize anyone. And that made the world a safer place.

  She couldn’t help thinking about how he’d touched her mind as well as her body. How she’d responded to him sexually as she hadn’t to any man for many long years. As she’d never responded to any mortal. I guess Dante spoiled me. Instinctively she knew Alex would spoil her more. Her hand went to her throat, and she felt for the small puncture marks he’d left. Gone. Just as he was gone.

  But he’d told her he’d come back.

  As if she’d conjured him up, there he stood, in the cell that no one had unlocked. The two vampires who’d rescued him were at his back. Shock, yes, but the thrill of seeing him overshadowed her disbelief. “How?” she managed to ask, surprised she was still able to talk.

  “We’re vampires. That’s how.” Alex took her hand, looked into her eyes. “Come with us now. Be my vampire bride.”

  The psycho jumped up and screamed, “Get these wackos outta here. I’m trying to get some shuteye. Guard!”

  “Shut up, bitch,” one of the other women growled. Then she apparently noticed Alex and his two companions. “Oh, my, any of you guys can fuck me any time you’d like.”

  Alex laughed as he reached out and cupped Mara’s chin. “Well. I’m waiting. Isn’t this the time you’re supposed to throw your arms around my neck and say, ‘Bite me’?”

  Mara guessed it was, but she was still too shocked to move. Hours earlier she’d wished he’d taken her with him. It wasn’t that she’d be spending her life in prison. No jury in its right mind would convict her. This was just Sierra’s ego trip, and it would be over as soon as Mara’s lawyer explained what had gone down to a judge. But did all that really matter?

  She wanted Alex. Wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her thirty-some years. Mara, girl, for once in your life do what you want to do. Take a chance. She looked him in the eye and smiled. “Bite me, baby. And please, for God’s sake, get me out of here.”

  When she bared her throat, Alex laid her back on the bunk and sank his fangs into her tender flesh. Not even the hysterical screaming from her cellmates detracted from the incredible high. Like sex, but better . . . almost. The sensations were indescribable, out of this world, transporting her to a place where she’d find true happiness with the vampire she loved.

  Vaguely, as if from a great distance, she heard guards’ boots pounding on the concrete floor, keys clanking and cellblock doors slamming open and shut. She felt Alex lifting her, had a sensation of drifting free, flanked by the other vampires as they made their way through barred windows. Then she felt nothing. Nothing but her lover’s arms holding her safe and warm.

  • • •

  She’d lain limp in his arms as they crossed the Atlantic, and now that morning was breaking and they’d finally reached Paris, Alex tried not to panic as he strode past the clansmen who’d come to greet them. He placed Mara’s cool, pale body in the center of the huge bed that had been the site of more than one d’Argent vampire orgy. Willing her to open her eyes and greet him as her mate,, he fell to his knees beside her, bent his head, and brushed his lips across hers.

  Nothing. He couldn’t detect the first sign of life. Had he done as Stefan had so many years ago and destroyed h
is lover? No. Mara was too vital, too full of life to be dead. Alex remembered her sassy comeback when he’d said to tell him to bite her, considered the stubborn streak that had made her go out on her own to face Reynard.

  “Mara? Baby?”

  “Let me.” Alina placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder, drew him gently back from the bed. “Wake up, Mara. Meet your new family.”

  Alex’s gaze locked on Mara’s face, searching for any sign she was coming around. Had she blinked at the sound of his cousin’s voice? He wasn’t sure. One by one, his kinsmen surrounded the bed, talking to her softly, touching her cheek, brushing lips across hands that were too still, too pale even for a newly made vampire.

  Ass. You didn’t even think that by saving her you might destroy her. Alex cursed himself for his ego, his damnable confidence that no task might be beyond his ability. When he turned away Stefan embraced him. “She’s not gone, cousin.”

  “Stefan’s right.” Her consort in tow, Alina turned into the circle of her cousins’ arms. “What I believe Mara needs is a dose of our own life forces. Julie, you should join Stefan.”

  Claude joined them, dragging his heavily pregnant mate Marisa into the circle. “A vampire welcoming ritual?”

  As they all shed their clothes, Alex felt the combined power among them, power unequaled by any other vampire clan on earth. Hope restored, he crawled onto the bed beside Mara and gently stripped away the ugly jail clothes she’d had on before she was turned. He did the same with the equally ugly white underwear, baring her completely to his family’s eyes. “Join us?” he asked, wishing to all the gods he’d ever heard of that this was just another vampire orgy . . . just another time for sharing pleasure among his loved ones.

  As head of the clan, Claude came first, sitting at the head of the bed beside Alex. He lifted Mara’s head onto his lap and ran his fingers through her tangled auburn hair, his touch confident. Marisa came up behind Alex, resting her head against his shoulder. He felt life—the strong motion of Claude’s child nudging him in the back. Alex laid a hand on Mara’s cheek, passing along Marisa’s energy . . . and the baby’s.

  Stefan and Julie took their places at Mara’s side and began to stroke her cool, dry skin. Was Alex being hopeful or had some color come back into her still body? When Sam opened Mara’s legs and ran his hands along her inner thighs, and Alina rested her cheek on Mara’s flat, soft belly, Alex was certain he saw her eyelids flutter.

  • • •

  A sense of magic filled the room. Warmth surrounded her. She heard voices calling her, but she couldn’t answer. Tired. So tired.

  And hungry. Desperate to feed, not on mortal food but on blood. Vampire blood. She felt the sting of Alex’s fangs, the incredible pleasure when he’d drained her. The sensation of floating . . . of a transformation from her world into his.

  Mara rubbed her tongue across her teeth, found sharp fangs she’d somehow known would be there. Hands touched her. Alex’s. His two companions. Another male who now was rubbing his thumb over her clit. And females. Three of them, with gentle hands and long hair that brushed her skin, all murmuring soft words of encouragement.

  She reached for Alex. Drew him to her. Bodies shifted. Suddenly he rolled her on top of him and sank his hot cock into her well-primed core. “Bite me, baby,” he said, baring his throat. “Yeah, like that. Feels so fucking good.”

  The women petted her with soft, gentle hands while she rode Alex and drank his blood. One at a time the men probed her rear orifice first with their fingers and then with their cocks. Pressure built inside her, threatened to implode. She came and came and came, the salty taste on her lips incredibly arousing. She’d never felt so full. So sexually fulfilled. So loved, not only by her master but by her new vampire family.

  When she felt certain she couldn’t come again, Alex caught her hips and slammed her down on him. With a triumphant shout he flooded her with his seed as the other males left her and began to fuck their own women.

  • • •

  Later Alex introduced her to his family and explained who went with whom. His very young-looking uncle, Claude, had found his pregnant mate Marisa at a South Beach strip club, while Stefan had met Julie in Chicago when Reynard had singled her out for his next kill. Sam, the rugged older vampire who’d wakened her, was Julie’s father, whom Alex’s cousin Alina had turned after one of the Fox’s henchmen ended his mortal existence. Mara lay back on the bed and held out her arms for her own vampire mate. “What did you do with Philippe?”

  “He’s with Sam and Alina. Do you miss him?”

  She grinned. “He is mighty tempting. Seriously, he seemed so sad.”

  Alex stretched out between her legs and licked her mound. Good thing she’d no longer need to shave it, because she loved the tickly, tingly feeling of his mustache and beard against her sex—almost as much as she liked the way his perfectly smooth cock and balls slid sensuously against her own flesh. “He hasn’t gotten over losing his mate. You know, they were together like this for over a hundred years.”

  “Like this?”

  “Well, not exactly. But close enough.” His movement more fluid than any other male Mara had ever seen, he straddled her face. “Like this. Suck my cock, my precious baby vampire. You’ll need a lot of practice before the next d’Argent family orgy, keeping those pretty fangs retracted.”

  He tasted good. Very good. Mara would miss her team—especially Ben—but she was pretty damn sure she’d never regret having fallen for Alex, or opting to trade her mortal existence for a long, lusty life with Alex and his dynamic family.

  Hunting the Dark Lord Series

  Don’t miss the first three books

  in the Hunting the Dark Lord Series!

  On the Trail of Darkness

  Marisa Delgado has always struggled to make a life for herself in the Cuban barrio of Miami, but the sultry beauty is driven to the edge of despair when her younger brother runs afoul of a drug lord’s enforcers, who demand that Marisa either pay off her brother’s debts—or watch him die. With time and hope running out, she meets the darkly handsome Claude d’Argent, a prince of the night who instantly captivates her and sets her heart and body on fire. Turning to him may be the only way to save her family and her life—it will also mean the ultimate sacrifice.

  Claude d’Argent is the descendant of a long line of honorable vampires, but his clan is threatened by a dark and notorious vampire who is savagely attacking humans at every turn, inflaming mankind’s vengeance on all his kind. Claude vows to pursue and destroy this scourge at any cost, and the trail leads him to Marisa, a lusciously beautiful woman who stirs his blood in ways he’s never felt and fills him with a feverish sensual need. Indulging in Marisa’s dusky allure may free his heart—but endanger his quest, and his life.

  Surrendering to their undeniable attraction, the two give themselves to each other fully in a burning haze of passion. And as unsurpassed pleasure turns to unconditional love, Marisa must decide whether to abandon her human life for an eternal one with Claude, and he must find a way to save Marisa and her brother so that he can also save himself and his people.

  Shadowing the Beast

  Stefan d’Argent has spent lifetimes hunting Louis Reynard, a renegade vampire who’s bent on a sick trail of revenge for all those who resemble the woman who broke his heart. When Reynard slips through his grasp in a savage battle, Stefan tracks him to his next victim, the lovely and incredibly alluring Julie Quill.

  Julie has led a quiet life with only one flaw, that she bears a striking resemblance to Alina, queen of the vampires and the woman who rejected Reynard. When Stefan d’Argent enters her life in an effort to save her, he awakens in her a sensual need she never knew she had, and one that she knows only he can fulfill.

  As Julie and Stefan lose themselves in the burning desire that flares between them, Reynard grows closer and threatens to destroy everything they both hold dear. And in the epic struggle that ensues, they will discover that the height of their passion is m
atched only by the intensity of the fight they’ll put up to save their lives and the eternal love they’ve discovered in each other’s arms.

  Stalking the Dark

  Following a brutal battle that left the sadistic vampire Louis Reynard severely wounded and sent him into hiding, the strikingly beautiful vampire queen Alina and the rest of the d’Argent clan are in New Orleans to celebrate the wedding of one of their own. With Reynard temporarily out of the picture, Alina is free to relax and indulge her deeply passionate nature.

  Sam Quill, the bride’s human father, has been widowed and alone for many years and finds himself irresistibly drawn to Alina. While he has no desire to be turned himself, their romantic interlude escalates to a fever pitch, and he’s more than eager to explore the unworldly pleasures Alina promises—pleasures that will take them both to erotic heights neither of them could have imagined.

  Lurking in the shadows is Wim, another of Reynard’s evil kind who’s just as dark, just as cruel, and just as hell-bent on destroying the queen and her entire clan. When he launches his attack, it’s Sam who confronts him, but he’s no match for the vampire’s demonic strength. And as Alina helplessly watches Sam’s torment, she’s forced to choose between honoring his wishes and letting him die, or changing him to a creature of the eternal night in order to save the only man who’s ever taken her to the blistering edge of sensual surrender.

  The Oil Barons Series

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  by Ann Jacobs!