She wouldn’t think anything bad.
He desired to protect her.
She wanted to free him, to give him reason to fight, so he would never be lonely.
He was scared of the future.
She was unafraid of it, because he would be with her, and she would savour every moment of it, no matter how it ended.
Kearn wrapped his lips around her throat, unable to resist the call in her blood for him to take it, to bring her into his body so they could be as one for longer and remain together. It went beyond merely healing her, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed her.
She moved against him when he sucked on her blood, taking a small amount and reopening the wound. His head felt heavy and light at the same time, his senses swirling and emotions spiralling out of control. He pulled harder, needing more, and a buzz ran through his veins when he swallowed the mouthful of blood. Not only his feelings but Amber’s too. She wanted this. She wanted him. He licked the cut and kissed her throat, desperate to take things further, and then buried his face in her neck, sucking on her blood again. Images from his dreams ran through his mind. His arousal soared and warmth coiled in his abdomen. He groaned and longed to feel her naked body against his, her legs wrapped around his hips and their bodies truly as one. His heart beat harder, a dizzying rush in his veins that relaxed him and released his inhibitions. He wanted her too.
So take her.
Make her his.
His fangs extended at the command and he pulled away, afraid of catching her with them or giving in to his desire to sink them into her throat and seal her fate. He breathed hard, staring down at her, and struggled for control, grasping the bedcovers and drawing them into his fists.
He couldn’t do as her blood bid. She had no place in his world.
Duke Montagu’s words hit him with full force as his body still tingled from the taste of her blood and still ached to be inside her.
She would make a beautiful vampire.
While normal humans became weak vampires, Amber would become one strong enough to rival even the power of the oldest of his kind. Her blood would see to that, and it wouldn’t become like a normal vampire’s, strong and dull in taste. It would retain most of its fragrance, but would lose almost all of the effect it had on other vampires. That power would be hers then, locked deep in her blood, held out of reach of others. She would be a goddess with both beauty and power.
Kearn remained leaning over her, his gaze on her peaceful face. Feelings surfaced within her that threatened to shatter his control. Affection. Tenderness. Understanding. She wanted to be with him. He believed that deep in his heart. She was falling for him.
He lowered himself and pressed his lips to hers. She surprised him by responding, kissing him so lightly that he warmed inside and longed for more. His lips played against hers, parting and meeting, moving slowly over each other in a gentle caress that tested his restraint. His fangs grazed his lower lip and he was careful to keep them away from hers. They wouldn’t go away as long as her blood was calling to him to taste it again. He took a deep breath, breathing in her scent and savouring it, memorising this moment in case it never happened again.
Amber tilted her head up towards his.
She whispered against his lips.
“Stay with me forever.”
Kearn pulled back, eyes wide, the tips of his silver hair framing his vision of her.
He searched his blood but couldn’t tell where her feelings ended and his began. Had she meant those words or had they been his voiced through her? His arms trembled, as though they could no longer support his weight, and his breathing became shaky. He was a fool.
He was falling for her, a human, and it was too late to stop himself.
She didn’t need to become a vampire to win the heart of her Noble.
She had already captured it.
Her blood in his veins cried out for him. It called his name and he knew that the other vampire would sense it too. Kearn wanted nothing more than to take the offer to slake his desire for her by making love with her and taking her blood, but he couldn’t.
She had no place in his world.
As painful as it was, he had to keep his distance from her. What they had could only be fleeting. He wouldn’t make her a vampire.
His heart said that he would if she asked him. If those words that had left her lips had really been her feelings and not his, he would do as she bid, even if it hurt him. He could never refuse her.
Kearn leaned over her again and pressed a kiss to her lips. He supported himself on one arm, and touched her cheek with his other hand.
“Say those words to me again when my blood is not with yours,” he whispered against her mouth and then sent her a command to sleep.
Her body relaxed into the bed and her mind emptied, her thoughts going deep. He pushed her beyond sleep so the vampire couldn’t affect her while she rested, and lost the connection to her. It was better this way. He needed to clear his head and gain some perspective, and he couldn’t do it when he could feel her calling out to him. He would give in to her.
Kearn pressed another kiss to her forehead and then went to the bathroom.
He looked back when he reached the door.
Did she really want to be with him forever? If she asked him, would he bring her into his world? She didn’t want him to be lonely.
Kearn turned away.
He didn’t want it either, but it was the path that he had chosen.
And one he had to walk.
Alone.
CHAPTER 14
Kearn closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower, avoiding his reflection in the large black framed mirror above the white oval sink. He couldn’t look himself in the eye when he was thinking about Amber and whether he would go through with it. His blood hungered for hers, his body craving the taste and the effect it had on him. He focused on clearing his mind. With the connection between them closed, it was easier to purge his lust and the hazy feeling. A sliver of desire remained, not induced by her blood but by the feel of her skin beneath his lips and the taste of her kiss.
He stripped off and inspected the wound on his right arm, turning his attention there in an attempt to shut out the desire to go back to Amber and kiss her again. The cut was in a difficult place on top of his forearm, slicing through the silver marks there. He twisted his arm towards his chest and managed to reach it with his tongue. His saliva would speed the external healing process, stopping the cut from reopening, and his body would take care of the rest.
Kearn stepped into the shower. The hot water soothed his muscles, relaxing him even while Amber’s blood flowed in his veins. He ran over everything that had happened tonight. Another chance had slipped through his fingers because he had placed Amber first when facing his enemy. He couldn’t help it. When she was in danger, he could think only of protecting her.
He traced the evening backwards, looking for anything that could point to the man’s identity. So many of the guests had drunk the spiked blood and shown trace effects that it had been impossible to detect the man from looking at eyes alone. The masks were another problem, hiding enough of the guests’ faces that most of them looked the same.
It left Kearn with little to go on.
All he knew was that the man was of noble blood and that he would come for Amber again.
Kearn tilted his head back and the water bounced off his face.
The image of the man and Amber flashed across his closed eyes.
Bastard.
He clenched his fists. He wanted to rip the man’s throat out for laying his hands on her and hurting her. Amber would wake knowing what she had done. She would remember it all. The cut on his arm stung under the hot water and he licked it again. She wouldn’t forgive herself, even though it hadn’t been her fault.
It was his fault.
He turned the water temperature down to cold but it did nothing to quell his anger and his desire for blood.
The man had to pay.
Power rose in Kearn’s right arm, trickling upwards from his fingers, warm and fierce. He let it fade away. This wasn’t about his duty now. It was about her. He wasn’t hunting the man on orders, not anymore. He was hunting him to protect Amber, to protect the woman who had become the most precious thing in his dark world.
He couldn’t deny his feelings for her. He loved her without a doubt, and even if there were no future for them, he would protect her, with his life if it came to it. Sacrificing his existence for the sake of hers would be an honourable death.
Kearn looked down at his right arm and the marks on it when they pulsed. Water streamed over his head, running in rivulets down the long strands of his silver hair like a waterfall.
He hated them. These marks were the reason he had to act so humbly around his kind, lowered to nothing more than a Commoner amongst them. He clenched his fist and cursed the power and the Sovereignty. If it weren’t for them and his foolish acceptance of their offer of revenge, he would still be the man he had once been, the man he longed to be.
He looked at the wall separating him from Amber.
She meant something to him. If he hadn’t walked the path he had chosen and had remained nothing but a Noble, he never would have met her and felt real love. He would have been lost to the darkness of lust, forbidden blood, and the life his parents had planned for him.
Status meant nothing in a world where he had no freedom and had no love. In his world without status, without rank amongst his peers, he had fallen in love with someone he never would have considered when he had been a Noble—a beautiful human woman.
Amber.
The marks on his arm flared into life and burned. He gritted his teeth and clutched it to his chest, screwing his eyes shut against the pain.
The water no longer touched his body. A chill breeze replaced it and he shivered as it froze the droplets on his bare skin. He opened his eyes and glared at the high dark grey stone arches of the cathedral-like room around him. The thick pillars supporting the arches and vaulted roof led his eyes down the length of the long dim rectangular room to the bright altar at the end.
The marks on his arm faded and the power disappeared.
Kearn cupped his groin with both hands to protect his modesty and frowned at the altar as he walked towards it. The dark flagstones were freezing underfoot. He had never seen any room besides this one in the building but they had shown him the outside once when he had asked about it. It was a gargantuan stone fortress hidden between planes, in neither Earth’s realm nor the demonic one. It bridged the gap between them, and the Sovereignty watched all, ensuring none of the laws of the species it governed were broken.
When he reached the crescent-moon-shaped pool that arched around in front of the altar, set into the flagstones, he stopped. He wouldn’t go any further. He had tried to once and they had punished him by sending him to the eternal darkness to suffer with the souls of those who had broken the law.
His gaze dropped to the still black water in the pool. It wasn’t pleasant in there and he had no desire to make a return visit.
“I thought I said never to bring me here from my apartment?” Kearn glared across the pool to the altar.
Nine figures stood there, all veiled in translucent long white flowing layers. Pale light streamed in from an opening above them, causing them to glow ethereally and hiding their faces from view. They were female, he knew that much from their voices, and they were all the same height and had the same figure. And they weren’t human or vampire. Whatever they were, they had long ago accepted the role of adjudicator over the nine species of demon, and they were the last of their kind, thousands of years old.
“We do so enjoy your visits,” the one in the middle said. Her voice was the youngest, always lined with an edge of playfulness. She was the one he felt most at ease with and he often left wondering if she represented his species. “You are doubting us again.”
He cursed under his breath. It was impossible for him to hide anything from the Sovereignty. They often watched him and were aware of every Venator from every species, and if they focused their power on him alone, they could sense his thoughts through the marks they had given him.
“I never stopped doubting you.” He pulled his shoulders back and stood tall. He didn’t care that he was nude before them because they had seen him naked before, but he kept his hands over his genitals, unwilling to give them a free show.
“Venator Greystone will visit you tomorrow night.”
Was that the female Venator’s name? A Lesser Noble. Greystone were one of the lowest ranked families. No wonder she had been so polite. His own family, Savernake, ranked third of all bloodlines, only lower than Montagu and the archduke’s bloodline, Pendragon.
“And why will she visit me?” The darkness in the crescent pool shifted and revealed an image of the woman. She was talking to Duke Montagu at the ball.
“She has come to test you.”
Kearn’s head snapped up and he frowned at the nine Sovereigns.
A blood test?
His heartbeat quickened. He had taken blood from Amber, enough that it would put him over the limit. The Sovereigns had to be aware of what had happened to her and what he had done. Were they trying to turn a Venator against him? If he measured over the limit, Venator Greystone could easily spread word to other Venators that he had broken the law. Even if the Sovereignty didn’t decree it, they could hunt him for it.
The Sovereign in the middle stepped forwards.
“It is important that you allow her to take your blood.” Her voice echoed around the dark stone walls of the hall. “We need you to do it.”
“Why? My blood will measure positive and she will—”
“You are not to question this order.” She turned away from him.
He watched her walk through an arch at the back of the altar, fury sweeping through his blood at her behaviour and order. He wanted to go after her but didn’t dare. The others turned and followed her, leaving him alone in the hall. He looked down at the moving image of the other Venator in the pool.
Why did they need her to test him?
If it wasn’t to incriminate him, or set the other Venators on him, what reason could they have for doing such a thing?
The image in the pool faded and his arm burned again. He growled and held it, waiting for the shift between their world and his.
Light swallowed him and when his vision came back, he was in his apartment.
In his bedroom to be precise.
Kearn covered his groin and his eyes darted to Amber. She was still sleeping soundly, his jacket acting as her blanket. He cursed the Sovereign. She had placed him back in his bedroom on purpose. He hated it when they amused themselves with him. It wasn’t as though he could return the favour. If he stepped out of line, they would kill him and send him back to the darkness.
He shivered at the thought and went into the bathroom.
The shower was still running. He turned it off, dried himself, and wrapped the brown towel around his waist. He was about to leave the bathroom when he caught his reflection in the mirror above the oval sink and black cabinet. Green eyes met his. Silver hair framed his face, icicles with staggered tips that brushed his nose, jaw and cheeks. Did Amber like how he looked?
She didn’t know him any other way and was attracted to him, so she had to like his appearance. He looked hard at himself and swept the hair from his eyes. Perhaps it was part of the reason she was falling for him.
Much as he might not have met her had he not become a Venator, her feelings for him might have been different if he had blue eyes and black hair.
His appearance suddenly seemed less repulsive.
She was changing him. He no longer truly hated his duty and what he had become. He was starting to accept it because of her.
He took the remaining bandages from the black cupboard under the basin and walked into the bedroom. Amber was still asleep. He set the bandages down on the end of the bed and ope
ned the left side of his wardrobe. He threw on a pair of black trunks and black trousers, and then tossed the damp towel into the bathroom.
Taking the bandages, he went to Amber and sat on the bed to her left. The digital clock on the bedside table read three in the morning. The Sovereignty had kept him a long time. He had gone into the shower around one thirty. Time always distorted when they called him to them. What was minutes there was hours on Earth. He was glad that Amber had remained asleep. If the vampire had attempted anything or had come for her, he would have made the Sovereignty pay for taking him purely to announce his impending blood test and to amuse themselves with his nudity. It wasn’t the first time they had taken him from his shower or his bed. It happened at least once a year, and that was why he had forbidden it last time it had happened. He might be theirs to command, but he wasn’t theirs to toy with.
Kearn tore the length of crepe bandage into two pieces. He wrapped one around the wound on his forearm, tying it tightly, and the other around Amber’s neck, securing it with a safety pin. It would catch any blood and stop her from accidentally reopening the cut.
He touched the bandage on her throat and stared at his fingers. He didn’t know what he would have done if the vampire had bitten her. Things were getting too dangerous.
Amber frowned in her sleep and stirred.
He smiled when her eyelids fluttered open to reveal her hazel irises.
He would keep her safe.
Because he loved her.
CHAPTER 15
Amber’s head throbbed and it hurt to swallow. She blinked her eyes open and the world gradually came into focus. Kearn sat beside her on the bed, shirtless and with tender concern in his dazzling green eyes. They smiled at her and she could feel his relief. There were other feelings there, mingling with hers, but they slipped through her grasp and fell away. The light in his eyes began to fade. She wouldn’t let him close his heart to her again. She still wasn’t sure how the connection between them worked but she wasn’t going to let him sever it.
Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) Page 17