The Way You Bite

by Zoe Forward

  “You might be right on the not-killing me. I’m just too hungry right now. I’m pretty sure I’ll hurt you, if we continue.” She pushed his arm away from her.

  “I’m almost five hundred years old. Nothing you can dish out will hurt me. I trust you not to make a prune of me.” He gripped her hair, pushed her face into his neck and ordered, “Take what you need.”

  On so many levels this didn’t make sense, but logic wasn’t a key player right now, not with his pulse pounding millimeters from her mouth. One more taste. She licked his neck and heard his groan. That was all the encouragement she needed.

  She whispered, “Do you want me to enthrall you?”

  “No.”

  “Pull me off, if you feel light-headed. I’m not sure I can stop once I start.” With a smooth bite, she pierced his skin. The rich essence of him flowed into her. Within seconds, she felt sated, more so than at any other time in her life. She wrapped her arms around him and straddled his lap, registering his moan. Based on the way he thrust his thick erection between her legs and undulated, she was pretty sure it was a moan of encouragement. She focused on drinking only for sustenance, ignoring the rocketing need to have him inside her. After a few seconds, she pulled away, resting her head against his neck. She licked away the two trickles, which fell from the puncture sites.

  His lips captured hers, drawing her into an open-mouthed kiss.

  Vee worked her hands under his shirt, desperate for contact with his skin. The roughness of his chest hair was novel and fascinating. Her only lovers had been vamps, a species without much body hair. Her fingers were halfway down his abs before he vise-clamped them to a halt.

  He threw his head back against the sofa in a vulnerable, yet endearing move. “We shouldn’t do this.”

  “It feels right, but I know in my head it’s wrong.”

  “It’s not wrong. It’s complicated.” He touched her face.

  “Please…” She was mortified to hear the pleading in her tone, but her need was downright painful. She wanted him in her when she bit him again. She accepted the inevitability of her fangs in his skin again. He was too delicious to deny herself. Snap out of it. This is blood obsession. Screw it…she wanted him. She wanted to forget everything else in her life.

  …

  “God, you’re driving me insane.” How long had it been since he’d been this turned on by a female? A very long time. In fact, had he ever been this turned on? This half breed was the hottest thing he’d touched in his entire existence. That was saying something. He’d touched a lot, been with a lot, and tried almost everything conceivable. But not a demisang and never a vamp by choice. Vee seemed resistant to his inborn allure, unlike any other female of his existence. That meant her reaction to him was authentic, not a product of his female magnetism curse.

  “What about your ethical dilemma?” he asked.

  She frowned. “What?”

  “You’re engaged. Has Ambrose cheated on you?”

  She nodded. “All the time.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “No.”

  “Does he love you?”

  “No. He prefers men.” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t ever tell anyone I said that. In exchange for my silence he lets me continue my job and live apart from him. If his father found out…”

  He traced her lips with his finger, smiling when they parted for him. “If you had a choice, would you do the treatment and marry him? Have his child?”

  “I don’t have a choice, if I stay in the vampire world. I choose freedom, which means disappearing. I had plans…have plans. I’m going to disappear from existence. Fake my death and then I’m gone. Only, I got sidetracked.”

  “I wouldn’t like you disappearing. I’d chase you, because this whatever it is needs time to work itself out. Be warned, I’ve got a team of experts who can find anyone. We wolves like the hunt. A lot.” He kissed her again.

  “I want to know what it could be like. Lexan…please. I need you.” She thrust her breasts against him he ran his hand beneath her shirt. Her expression turned sultry, her eyes heavy lidded and drowsy. Her lips pouted in sinful invitation.

  He was lost.

  Breath strangled in his lungs when she moaned at his touch. He pulled up her shirt and latched onto a pink tip.

  With an unexpected push, she jumped away from him. She kicked off her shoes and pulled off her jeans and panties. He was too close to climax to get completely undressed. He unzipped and shrugged down his pants.

  He pulled her half-naked form toward him. When the intoxicating fragrance of her arousal hit his nostrils, something possessive clicked in his brain. His tongue swept into her mouth.

  Her exquisite taste made him need more. He wanted to taste all of her. He moved his mouth down her neck again, nipping along the way. A growl worked itself from deep in his throat. He was so close, so very close to the edge of losing it.

  “Leave. I can’t resist the lure of you in heat. Get out of here before I do something that neither of us may survive or ever recover from.”

  “Touch me,” she whispered, “I need you.” Hard and fast. Don’t make me wait.

  Lexan heard her wish. Apparently, he’d discovered her mental wavelength. He dropped his head into the hollow of her neck. His hand drifted off her hips to dip between her thighs, finding her slick. “Tell me you want only me. This isn’t for anyone else.”

  “This is only for you.”

  He lifted her into his lap. A hiss escaped him as her heat burned him, slowly enveloping. She was so tight and so hot around him. Sweat broke out across his shoulders and ran down his spine. She tossed on him, bucking and writhing, demanding he move. The sensation was intense, almost too much.

  “Lexan—” Her plea was a hard gasp as her nails dug into his shoulder.

  Gritting his teeth, he fought to control the pleasure of the friction and her wildness.

  He rolled her beneath him. She locked her legs around him and gripped hard onto his biceps as he pistoned. The animal in him consumed him, mindless with the pleasure frenzy. He fought for control, not wanting to hurt her.

  “I need more,” she begged.

  He stretched her shirt off her shoulder and bit. Her core spasmed and gripped him hard. At that moment, she bit his neck.

  A climax like nothing in his life detonated through him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lexan had marked her. He ran his thumb over the bite on her shoulder. He’d never marked a female as his in his life. Not even when he’d been married for a quarter century. Not when he’d been infatuated as a youth with a very beautiful female werewolf he thought he loved. Now he’d marked Vee.

  He gazed down at the beautiful, flushed female beneath him, his brain numb.

  The mark looked good. It felt right. Instinct had made certain no question remained they were meant to be together. The era of him alone in the world was over. The future revealed itself with clarity. He was ready to invest his heart, head, and everything he had into this female. He’d observed what denial and procrastination did to destined couples, sometimes leaving one dead and the other mourning. Like Eric.

  He wanted her again. He wanted to experience that again, except slower, with time to savor every nuance of the magical chemistry gifted them. He wanted to know everything about her. Maybe he could get them back into the bedroom.

  Vee pushed him off, jumped up, and pulled on her clothes. Running her fingers over the mark on her shoulder, she said, “You’ve got to erase that. Lick it away or something. Now. And, oh crap, I’ve got to get rid of that mark on your neck.”

  “Wait…” He pulled up his pants, fully intending to get them back to his bedroom. He could bind her tight to him sensually and figure out the details of their future later. Before he could voice his intention, there was a knock on the door.

  Her gaze darted to the door, panicked. She gripped him with a strength she hadn’t demonstrated before to hold his head to one side while she licked his neck.
<
br />   Between the feel of her tongue on his skin and the view down her shirt, words abandoned him.

  “Wait for what?” she asked. “This was a mistake. Us, as in you and me together, is a no go. I’m out of here.”

  The knock on the door grew more insistent.

  She pulled away from his neck and stared at the door. “It’s not gone yet.”

  His gaze darted to the door, distracted. “We can figure it out. Make it work.”

  “As what? You find some secure little location to tuck me away as your dirty little secret. I play broodmare for some illegitimate hoard? Or, maybe you like the idea of me as a trophy wife, your novelty vamp-were mix? I don’t think so. I suck at politics, and I’m not some sort of prize.” She moved back toward his neck. “I need another few seconds to cover this up.”

  The door to the study flew open. Eric bellowed and launched one of his beloved shuriken-style throwing stars at Vee’s head. She pushed Lexan out of the way and caught the star in a jaw-dropping act of fluid motion. She launched the star back at Eric in an obvious intentional miss that lodged the piece deep into the doorframe.

  “What. The. Hell.” Lexan jumped upright, buttoning his pants in one smooth move.

  “She’s trying to kill you, sir.” Eric targeted her with a crossbow.

  He gritted out, “She’s not trying to hurt me. It’s you who fucking tried to take her head off. Get. Out.”

  Vee blocked Lexan with her body. An instant later, she moved faster than the blink of an eye across the room to stand in front of a window. “I haven’t hurt him and won’t.”

  “Prove it, bitch.” Eric swung the crossbow away from Lexan to find her. “Where are you?”

  Lexan used telepathy to speak to her. “Calm down.”

  Her soft whisper echoed in his head. “I’m so sorry. This has been a series of bad decisions. I hope I didn’t hurt you. The mark on you isn’t completely gone.”

  “Don’t run. Not after that. I want you here.”

  “That was a big mistake. That look on your face afterward said it all.”

  “What look? You misread if you think that was anything short of mind-blowing.”

  “Don’t follow me.”

  “We are far from done here.”

  With a crash, the desk chair launched through the paned window on the far side of the room. Vee jumped from behind his desk out the window. Then she was gone.

  He turned on Eric. “What the hell was that? I told you, all of you, to stay out.” Where would she go?

  “I just saved your ass is what I did.”

  “No one was in any danger.”

  Eric sniffed and glowered. “You didn’t. Deny you and her…in here?”

  Lexan walked to where she’d exited, gazing through the gaping hole in the window into the dark of night.

  “Send TC and one of the others to track her. Surveillance and protection only. Not acquisition. Have them report when they’ve got her position. No approaching her until I give the word unless a vampire tries to take her. I’m going to have to be the one to go to her after you tried to decapitate her. Damn it.”

  Eric pointed to Lexan’s neck. “You let her drink from you?” Disgust laced the question. “And you and her…a demisang, part leech? You’re the liege lord, and she’s going to marry a DiFalco.”

  “That’s right. I am the fucking liege lord here. That means I can do whatever the hell I want.” He smashed his fist into the wall, leaving a dent. He opened and shut his palm a few times, knuckles now oozing blood. The pain helped clear his mind.

  “Of course, sir.” There wasn’t an ounce of contrition to corroborate the statement.

  “TC. Surveillance and protection,” Lexan snapped. “Go. Now.”

  Eric nodded and disappeared into the hallway. Seconds later, he reappeared. “They’re on it. She drank from you, and she didn’t have any bad effects?”

  “Her father made me promise that I’d force her to drink from me when she was close to the change. Wolf blood will complete her transformation. With the full moon rising within the next two days, it should be a spectacular event to see her change.”

  “Your blood must’ve done something to her. How’d she disappear?” Eric walked to the broken window and stared into the darkness.

  “She didn’t. She moved too fast to see.” He wondered how long until Eric asked about her parentage.

  “Guess she’s not as boring as we thought. Who exactly asked you to rescue her?”

  “Blay.”

  Eric took a step back and muttered, “Holy Mary, mother of God.” He put down his crossbow. “How’s he related to her?”

  “Vee is his daughter.”

  “Blay is dead.”

  “Then the old bastard must’ve made a trip back from hell to donate sperm.”

  “Blay’s not dead?” He raked a hand through his spiked hair. “Bloody hell, Blay’s not dead.”

  “I met him at the bar the other day.”

  “Dominic and the DiFalcos would shit if they knew. Blay is older than dirt. Well, not as old as you…didn’t mean to imply you’re old as dirt. You know what I meant. Blay was jaded and hated vamps almost as much as you used to. He could lay down some vampire hurt like no other. What possessed him to screw one?”

  Two days ago Lexan would’ve agreed at the absurdity of it. Now, he concluded chemistry was a bitch you can’t deny, especially being half animal.

  Eric said, “It’s not like you can’t lend insight after you… At least Vee is only half vamp and a hot little thing. Still, she’s not exactly single. This’ll be a nuclear bomb in the vamp world. Is she worth war?”

  Jesus, everyone would have the same reaction as Eric. He wasn’t ready to acknowledge the political catastrophe of Vee as his mate.

  “Fine, don’t answer me. Wasn’t her mother a direct descendant of an original?”

  “Yes.” Now Eric would realize how truly unique Vee was.

  “Then Velvet Scarpa is a pureblood demisang?”

  “Unlike most vamps, she’s got little to no human dilution. She’s the only pureblood demisang ever known to have survived birth. A direct descendant of the originals for both species.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Don’t think. Run.

  The mantra fast looped in her brain for miles. The initial adrenaline rush had worn off long ago. Her legs screamed to the point she slowed to a walk. Minutes later she rested against a speed limit sign. Her head throbbed. She rubbed her eye sockets, massaging an acupressure point. It worked. The headache dulled.

  Aside from being tired, she was okay. Maybe better than okay. Her world didn’t go into a vertigo shudder every time she moved. For the first time in ages she wasn’t consumed by a relentless, stomach-eroding blood hunger.

  This was the power of Lexan’s blood. The logical jump to half werewolf didn’t seem as ridiculous as it’d sounded when he suggested it a half hour ago. Ingesting wolf blood hadn’t resulted in a fatal allergic reaction. Oh my God. She’d ingested the most toxic substance on earth without reaction. Her feelings of not belonging when around vamps made sense, but, crap, she really wasn’t a vampire. This must be why she couldn’t do superspeed moves and why she never seemed to develop a tolerance for the sun as most did as they aged.

  A mix. Half vampire and half werewolf. The implications were awful. Vampires despised mixes and targeted them for death as abominations. She wasn’t sure what wolves did to them. What did it really mean to be a mix? As a vampire, she belonged. Even if she didn’t buy into Dominic’s ideals, she knew her place in the world. She knew her people, her longevity, her diet, and her weaknesses.

  She was alone with no one to ask for advice. A future of hiding and running sounded pretty bleak.

  She stared at the stars sparkling in the sky. Now what?

  A mud-splattered Jeep pulled over to the side of the road beside her. She could barely find the strength to move to the driver’s window.

  A twenty-something guy smiled at her. Young, enthusias
tic. Of course, like all young humans, his mind filled with sex. In her current mood, he better not try anything. She’d bite, and not in a nice way, not that she planned to drink from him. She could hurt him, though.

  She smiled, allowing vampiric charm to overwhelm him. Usually, she kept the allure in check around humans, especially at work. Right now, with her lethargy worsening, she needed a lift.

  “Need a ride?” he asked.

  “I need to get to downtown.” She forced a wider smile.

  “Sure. Hop in. The Jeep’s a mess, but if you don’t mind…” He threw some items off the passenger seat into the back to make space.

  “Thanks.” She slid in.

  He held out his hand. “I’m Tony.”

  She clasped his hand briefly. “Good to meet you. I’m…” Give him a fake name. “Cindy.”

  “You don’t look like a Cindy.”

  She didn’t reply, uncaring what he thought.

  “Where to, Cindy?”

  “Seventh Street. Drop me anywhere.”

  “That’s a pretty big street.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Her head hit the headrest. She needed sleep and a place to avoid daylight. Dawn loomed on the horizon.

  She sensed the driver’s gaze on her. “Are you sick? I can drop you at one of the hospitals downtown.”

  She shook her head, which caused her stomach to lurch. “I went for a run and overdid it. Marathon training.” She managed a smile for him.

  He glanced at her jeans, not buying the lie.

  Minutes later they were in downtown. “Here is fine.” She pointed to the curb.

  He pulled over. As she opened the door, he grabbed her wrist. His mind filled with lustful images, and then his thoughts detoured into vile.

  Too tired to mask her inner being, she dropped her charming veneer and smiled full-fang.

  He froze. A trembling set into his entire body.

  She yanked her wrist free, not guilty at his terror. This jerk planned something disgusting in an alley. Something, had she been a human, she may not have been able to fight in her weakened state. “Sometimes monsters are the ones you least expect.”