The Vampire’s Kiss
Page 9
“Shit. I think I’m going to pass out.”
She helped him lie down on his back on the floor.
“You’re going to be all right. The bullet didn’t go in.
It just grazed you.”
He stared up in her eyes and lost himself in them.
She was so damn beautiful; it almost hurt to look at her, even with dust and dirt in her hair and dirty streaks across her perfect, pale face.
“I’ll only feel better if you kiss me, luv.”
Smiling, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his. “There. Is the pain gone?”
“Almost.”
She kissed him again. It was deeper and harder.
Fierce. He lifted his one arm, buried his hand in her hair and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. He could drown in her and be perfectly happy.
“Everyone okay over here?” They broke apart just as an EMT with a big bright flashlight knelt down beside Cale. He nodded to Olena. “Hey, Olena.”
She returned the greeting. “Trevor.” Olena pulled the shirt away from his wound. “The bullet grazed him.”
Trevor, the EMT, inspected the wound. His fingers poked and prodded at Cale, but he didn’t care. He just kept his attention on Olena. He worried that the pain was making him woozy and giddy because he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the vampiress. Maybe it was the fleeting thought of losing her that made him so adamant never to take his eyes off her again. Or it could be he was in serious trouble of losing his heart to her.
Maybe it was a little of both.
“We’re going to need to stitch him up. I’ll get a stretcher and we’ll take him to the hospital.”
Cale shook his head. “No hospital. Just stitch me up here.”
“It would be better—”
“I’m not going to any damn hospital. I don’t need to. Not when there’s probably a bunch of kids over there who need it more than I do.”
Olena shook her head. “He’s a stubborn ass. Just sew him here.”
With a sigh, Trevor opened up his bag and took out a large needle and some thread. “It’s going to hurt.”
“It already hurts, mate. Just get it over with.”
After cleaning the wound, Trevor pinched Cale’s flesh together and stuck the needle through. Cale had to suck in a breath to stop from screaming out.
Olena patted him on the chest. “I’m going to go check out what happened next door.”
“Okay.”
She pressed a quick a kiss to his lips, then stood. He watched her as she walked through the hole they’d made and into the other room. It still made his stomach roil to see the bloody holes in her back. At least the bleeding had stopped.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”
Cale glanced at the EMT. “What is?”
Trevor nodded toward the hole Olena stepped through. “Seeing how they can heal so fast.”
“I take it you’re not a vampire.”
Trevor shook his head. “Witch. Healing magic.”
Cale winced again, as another stitch went in. He’d had stitches before, a couple of knife wounds, one on his leg and the other down his back, but this one was particularly painful. This was actually the first time he’d been shot. And it wasn’t very much fun.
“The first time I treated a gunshot wound on a vampire I nearly lost my cool. It was close to the heart and I started CPR.”
“What happened?”
“She slapped me across the face and told me to et it together.”
Cale sniffed. “Let me guess. Olena?”
Trevor nodded. “Yup. I’d been such a bumbling fool that she grabbed the forceps from my kit and pulled out the bullet herself. She gave it to me.” He smiled. “I keep it in my pocket as a reminder.”
“Does it ever get easier, seeing that and not being able to do anything about it?”
Trevor shook his head. “Nope. I still panic every time.”
Cale sighed. He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing Olena hurt like that over and over again, without being able to help. It made him feel weak.
“So, healing magic, huh? Do you have something for the pain, then?”
Trevor nodded. “Of course.”
“What? Then why didn’t you give it to me?” Cale sputtered.
“Because I thought you wanted to be all tough and cool in front of Olena.” Trevor smiled wryly.
“Mate, I’m always tough and cool.”
With a laugh, Trevor finished tying off the stitch. After putting away the needle and thread, he took out a small tube of ointment. He squeezed some onto his gloved finger and smoothed it over Cale’s side.
The relief was instant and Cale sighed. “That’s brilliant. Can I have a tube of that stuff?”
“Yeah, here.” Trevor gave him the tube.
“Help me up.”
Trevor helped Cale sit up, and Cale slid the tube of magical pain relief into his pants pocket just as Olena came back into the room.
She came up alongside him and offered him her hand. He took it and she pulled him to his feet. “All patched up?”
He twisted his arm, thinking that the pain would zip through him, but it didn’t. It was as if he’d never been injured.
Cale smiled. “Yup. Trevor is a miracle worker.”
“Good.” She smiled in return. But the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Trevor packed up his bag and nodded to them both as he went to help his partners in the other room, which Cale assumed was a bloodbath.
“What’s the verdict?” Cale asked Olena.
“Two dead. Three wounded. And no Ivy anywhere.”
“She must’ve gotten out,” he said as he reached down to grab his jacket and shirt off the floor. His shirt was ruined, so he shoved it into his jacket pocket.
“I called Gabriel and he’s put out an APB on her.”
“That’s good.” He went to slip his jacket on, but Olena grabbed it and helped him into it. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Now what? Back to the lab?”
She wrapped an arm around him. “Back to your hotel.”
He smiled. “Olena, luv, you’re so forward. I like that in a woman.”
“You need rest and food.”
“I feel good.”
“You won’t when that magical ointment wears off.”
“What ointment?”
“The one I smell on you. I know Trevor gave you something.” She hugged him tighter and walked with him out of the room.
“I guess there isn’t too much I could get by you, huh?”
She shook her head, but there was a little smile on her lips. “No. So don’t even try.”
He sighed. “All right. Take me home then, luv. I’m in no shape to argue.”
Chapter 15
When they’d reached Cale’s hotel room, Olena had settled him down onto the sofa and then fixed him some herbal tea. What he hadn’t known was that she’d added some valerian root, which she’d gotten from one of the other medics. It was a sleeping potion. One that had immediate effects.
Cale hadn’t been able to protest by the time it ran through his system and he’d realized what was happening. One minute he was glaring at her and the next he was snoring like a water buffalo.
The man needed some rest. He’d been on the go since arriving in Nouveau Monde and hadn’t given himself any kind of break. She wondered if he thought he needed to prove himself above and beyond because, unlike the rest of them, he was human.
She’d put his feet up on the sofa and tucked a pillow under his head, even covered him with a blanket she’d found in the bedroom. He’d be out for about three hours. Enough time to clean herself up and figure out what they were going to do next.
In the bathroom, Olena stripped off her clothes and inspected the wounds in her back. One bullet had gone into her upper left shoulder and the other into her right shoulder blade. Neither injury was of any real consequence. The pain had dulled to a muted throb.
She pr
essed on the wound in her left shoulder, pushing and prodding at the bullet she could feel just inside her flesh. She would expel it in time, but she decided to hurry it along. Digging her finger in, she fished out the lead and dropped the bloody bullet into the sink.
Next she tried to reach the other hole, but it was in an awkward place and she couldn’t quite make it. That bullet would have to come out on its own.
Thank goodness she didn’t scar. She’d look like a golf ball by now, with all the pitted holes.
She turned on the shower, the hotter the better, and stepped into the hard, scalding spray. Closing her eyes, she let the hot water wash away all the pain and exhaustion she felt. Although it did nothing to the guilt eating away at her.
In her mind she could see the bodies of the dead teens. She knew it wasn’t her fault, but she still felt like there should’ve been something she could have done to prevent it. She’d sensed something off moments before the gunmen appeared. But would it have been enough time to warn anyone?
The only thing Olena had managed to do was hopefully save Ivy’s life. At least she thought she had. She remembered tackling the girl to the floor, with her body for protection. The bullet holes in her back attested to that. But then where did the girl disappear to?
As she’d lain on the floor, she’d thought for sure that the girl was still safely under her. She’d lost consciousness for barely a minute. Obviously, that had been enough time for Ivy to push out from under Olena’s body and escape. The girl had probably gone to ground. It would be very difficult to find her now.
But they had to.
The girl knew who’d killed Luc. She knew what he’d been messed up in. She knew, and that was probably what had prompted those men to shoot the place apart. Ivy was the key to the whole case.
Wiping the water from her face, Olena shut off the tap and opened the shower door. Eyes still closed, she stepped out into the cool air of the bathroom, reaching for the towel she’d set out for herself on the counter. But it wasn’t there.
“Looking for something?”
She peeked one eye open to see Cale, shirtless, leaning against the counter, the towel clutched in his hand. Although his gaze was one of hunger and heat, he didn’t look too happy.
“You should still be sleeping.”
“You drugged me.”
“You needed to rest. If I hadn’t, you’d be all gung-ho to do a city-wide search for the girl.” She grabbed for the towel but he held it out of her reach.
“You would’ve crashed and burned within hours of that. I need you to be strong. I can’t be worrying about you.”
His eyes darkened. “You don’t think I’m strong enough?”
Suddenly apprehensive, Olena took a step back.
He looked really dangerous and unpredictable. A trickle of apprehension laced her system. It wasn’t fear necessarily, but she was afraid of what he was going to do.
“I didn’t say that, Cale. I think you’re plenty strong for—” She stopped.
“For a human?” He dropped the towel and took a step toward her. “Is that what you were going to say?”
She put her hand up to ward him off. She knew that look in his eyes. Heat, hunger, need, anger, fury, all mixed together in an explosive, lethal dose. She didn’t know if she’d survive it.
“Cale,” she warned.
He didn’t heed her. He completely ignored her warning as he breached the distance between them and, grabbing her upper arms, slammed her up against the closed shower door. The impact rattled her a bit. But there was no mistaking the hot ache between her thighs.
With what sounded like a growl deep in his throat, Cale slid his hands down her slick body and wrapped his arms around her derriere. Squeezing her tight, he picked her up, kneed her legs apart and settled himself between them.
“Is that bloody well strong enough for you?”
“Oh, yeah,” she breathed, finding it hard to speak. Desire, hot and hearty, surged through her. Her heart hammered in her chest, eager for what Cale’s dark gaze promised.
“I’m not stopping this time.” He leaned into her mouth, his lips brushing lightly against hers. “You’re going to take everything I give you.” Then he kissed her, hard, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth.
She wound her hands in his hair and hung on as he took her mouth, eagerly nipping and biting at her lips and tongue. She returned every nip, every tug with her own. She was ravenous for him. The past two days had been like staring at a buffet table unable to eat, even though pangs of hunger ripped through her belly.
Frantic for him, Olena reached down between them and undid the button and zipper on his pants. Wiggling, Cale managed to squirm out of them and kick them away. She groaned in anticipation at the sight of his erection straining against his white cotton shorts.
When he ground himself against her, she thought she’d come. She was that urgent for him, that hot and wet and open for him. She couldn’t wait any longer to have him. It had to be now or she’d go mad.
“Now, Cale. Now. I can’t wait any longer.”
Though his arms quivered from the strain of holding her up, Cale let go of her with one hand and reached down to pull his shorts off.
Olena hated to see him struggle needlessly. Lifting her arms up, she hooked her hands over the shower door and held herself up. She tightened the hold her legs had around his waist. She could hold herself up there all day if it meant Cale could ravage her with both his hands and his mouth and whatever else he wanted to use. She was his completely and utterly. He could do with her what he wanted. And she’d take pleasure in every single delicious second of it.
Cale could barely breathe with the exhilaration surging through him. Sweat slicked his body. His muscles quivered and shook with anticipation. The urgency of having Olena made him weak-kneed and panting.
With one hand, he tugged at his shorts, desperate to get them off. Once he managed to pull them down his thighs, they dropped to the floor and he stepped out of them. Damn, he was as hard as steel and aching beyond reason. Heat pooled inside him, nearly searing him from the inside out. Only Olena could quench him now. Only she could slake this aching, burning need that pulsed inside him.
He’d been angry when he’d woken on the sofa, feeling drugged and lethargic. He’d had every intention of reaming her out when he’d entered the bathroom. But when she opened the shower door and stepped out, her whole body slick with water, he stopped. He’d thought her gorgeous before, but he’d never seen a woman as intensely sexy as Olena naked and sopping wet.
He’d gotten hard instantly. And since then he’d just gotten harder. He hadn’t known that was possible. He wanted her so much it hurt. A fierce, frantic ache thumped inside him, and the only thing he could think of to satisfy that, to end his suffering, was to plunge himself deep inside her beautiful body.
Her eyes were as deep as the ocean as he nuzzled his hardness against her hot core. Her lips parted and she gasped. The sight of her chewing on her bottom lip nearly did him in. The tips of her fangs worried her skin. With her arms up and pressed against the shower door, her breasts pushed out toward him, perfect and pale, with rosy, puckered nipples. It was an invitation he couldn’t refuse.
“Bloody hell, Olena, I can’t hold on.”
“Then don’t.”
He took himself in hand and stroked himself up and down the slick warmth of her. Groaning low in his throat, he thrust into her, hard and fast.
“Ah,” she cried out as she moved against him.
Leaning down, he sucked one beautiful nipple into his mouth. As he suckled on her, he rocked his pelvis, gaining a rhythm.
“Yes,” she moaned as she ground her sex against his every time he moved.
He increased his rhythm. Gripping her tight, he pounded into her again and again. Sweat dripped off his forehead and dotted her still-wet body. Clamping his eyes shut, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and concentrated on thrusting. In and out. Long and hard. He kept working and thrusting un
til he couldn’t think any longer.
Everything became one hot rush of pure pleasure.
Thrusting hard and fast, Cale squeezed Olena tight.
He was losing his mind. He was losing his breath.
Everything was light and dark and hot and cold.
He couldn’t reason beyond it. Sensations he’d never experienced before surged through him in one fierce blast. With one last thrust he buried himself deep, and like an explosion of sound and color and emotion, he came in a brutal flood.
“Olena,” he cried, clamping his eyes tight against the rush of emotions drowning him.
With a long, low groan, she fell forward and wrapped her arms around his head, stroking her fingers through his hair. He felt her lips on his cheek, kissing his sweat away.
His legs and arms were shaking. He didn’t know how long he could stay on his feet. Picking her up, he carried her over to the bathroom counter and set her down. They had still been joined when he moved her, but he slipped out of her when she leaned back against the fogged mirror.
She looked at him with a wry tilt to her mouth. He stared at her, unsure of what to say. Then she smiled, and her whole face lit up with a warm glow. It was the loveliest moment he’d ever witnessed.
“I think I can safely declare you completely healed,” she said still breathing hard.
He laughed, and leaned down and rested his head against hers. “I don’t know about that. I don’t think I can move anymore.”
Laughing with him, she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her face into his chest. “Me, either.”
He ran his hands over her damp hair and kissed the top of her head. He could stay in this position forever and not want for anything. Well, maybe food. His stomach decided to agree with him and grumbled quite loudly.
That made Olena laugh even more. “I guess that’s the cue that we need to take this into the living room and order room service.”
“Agreed.” He took a step back, feeling both languid and light-headed. “But you’re going to have to walk on your own. I’m not sure I can even carry myself.”
She slid off the counter and grabbed his hand in hers. “That’s all right. You’ve already proven to me how strong you are. I don’t think I can stand another demonstration. I’m way too sore.”