Her hand went to her throat, to where Malvina had bitten into her flawless skin. Now, my mark replaced those previous ones. I should have healed the small punctures, but the sight of my bite on her flesh stirred something primal in me, reminding me of how close I was to letting the demon out. I wanted the world over to know Stella was mine. Still, I would have to conceal those scars if I wanted to keep her safe.
Reluctantly, I dipped my head and brushed the wound with my lips. My intention was to heal her, but Stella moaned, and I couldn’t help but graze her skin with my fangs. Then she moved her hips against me, and I thrust both my fangs and my hardness into her. Before I could think better of it, I was sinking deeper and deeper into her tight sheath, eliciting more cries and incoherent mumbles as I switched from her throat to her mouth. Blood smeared her lips, and the sight, the scent, the little sounds she made drove me to a frenzy in no time. The demon thrust through me, making me want to forgo all restraints and possess her body and mind until there was nothing left of her, just raw sensations.
Stella cried her release, her channel convulsing around me, grabbing me tighter, stealing my will. She was beautiful and frail, and mine. And I reminded myself that I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt her. Imagining Stella crying in pain instead of pleasure was enough to slow my movements until they were just an intimate caress, meant to soothe her ache. I let her ride the last wave of her pleasure before I slid out of her, kissing her mouth as I caressed her in long strokes.
“Did you—?” she asked, relaxing under my touch.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I left her mouth to kiss her throat. This time, I closed the puncture wounds, then I trailed my lips over her collarbone, her shoulder, the length of her arm. When I moved to the side of her breast, Stella shivered.
“It’s too much,” she said, stopping me with her hands flat against my cheeks. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it, to take all of you. You are too much. The way you make me feel, it’s too much.” She blinked, and tears filled her eyes.
I kissed my way back to her mouth. “Don’t cry.”
“It’s happiness—” Her voice shook, and her body trembled.
I wrapped her in my arms, cradling her as I sat on the bed and positioned her on my lap. I left soft brushes on the tip of her nose, her temples, her cheeks. Still hard, I moved her slightly out of the way, but kept her still sitting on me—I couldn’t bear the idea of not touching her, of not being skin to skin, even though it was torture. “I’ve wanted you for so long, I can’t command my body to behave.”
“Is it very uncomfortable?” She turned slightly in my arms, making a hard situation harder.
I gave her a smile through gritted teeth. “Only if I think about it.”
Her wide eyes lit, and a smile graced her beautiful face. Her hand slid down between us, circling me with tentative fingers. “Is it okay?”
I cupped her hand with mine as an answer and guided it up and down while I kissed her. Her mouth was soft and inviting and yielded to my invasion when I pushed my tongue between her teeth. I stroked the inside of her mouth as if I were making love to her again, and I was, because a mere caress became something profound when it was Stella trembling under my hands and lips. The demon wanted more, but for Stella, I kept it guarded, pushed away from the surface of my mind, relegated to the mental cage where I locked my most dark desires. She moaned, the throaty sound sending me over as our united hands brought me to the brink, closer, closer, until I could only shout her name, exploding against her touch. When I looked down, I saw my essence painted all over the creamy skin of her belly, and I wanted to growl my animalistic satisfaction that I had marked her again as mine.
My princess. My Stella. Forever mine.
“Fabian,” she said, and it sounded like a question.
I looked up, locking her eyes with mine. “I’ll never have enough of you. If I were a better man, I would find a way to send you away.”
Her expression changed, from bliss to sadness in the span of a heartbeat.
I kissed her lips, dragged mine against hers, then nibbled at the corners. “But I’m not that man, and I don’t want to give you up. I just can’t.” My hand rose to her breast, and my fingers skimmed over her nipple. “I can’t even stop touching you.” I pinched the taut bud and rejoiced at her sharp intake of breath that was followed by a long shiver and the increasing beats of her heart. “You are like an addiction to me.”
I pushed her down, and she uncurled on the mattress, going all soft angles and liquid eyes, displayed for me like an offering with her legs slightly parted and her red, swollen mouth forming an “O” around a moan. I couldn’t resist her invitation and rolled on top of her, ready to take her again, to suck from her vein one more time, only it wouldn’t be from her throat but from her round breast. Then I would move my fangs to the inside of her tan thighs, then to her soft mound. It would be exquisite for the both of us—
I couldn’t finish my thought because a strong wind entered through the window.
Realizing my error in lowering my guard and sensing my sirra’s presence happened at once, and by then it was too late.
“I see you haven’t wasted time, pet,” Malvina said, standing at the foot of my bed, looking like a vengeful goddess.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Stella
One moment I was being swept away by Fabian’s touches, oblivious to the world. The next, the monster of my nightmares was back in my life.
The woman didn’t spare a glance at me. Her black eyes, blazing like fiery obsidian, glared at Fabian. Hatred consumed her. Her whole body thrummed with dark energy, scaring me, sending me back to ten years ago, to teenager me.
Faster than my eye could see, Fabian sat and pulled me up with him, then moved in front of me, shielding my naked body from the woman.
“Leave her out of this,” he said, his hand reaching back, touching my knee, reassuring me with that little brush of his fingers.
“She is important to you,” Malvina sneered. Rage contorted her face. “You really feel something more than lust for this little nothing.” She shook her head.
“If you want to shun me, do it. It’s your right to punish me, but leave her alone. I’ll be a renegade for the rest of my life if that pleases you.” Fabian kept his voice low, but his fingers on my skin weren’t steady.
What was he bargaining with the monster? His touch steadied, slightly pressing on my knee as if he was warning me to stay silent.
“Do you think that dishonoring you would ever be enough?” Malvina asked. In her arrogant tone, there was a trace of hurt, and that made her even more dangerous. Because a monster with sentiments would slash until her prey lay in pieces at her feet.
“It’s me who failed you.” Fabian stilled.
“And it’s you who will pay, but you don’t get to choose your punishment.” Malvina circled the bed, forcing Fabian to move as she stepped closer to my side.
“How did you find me?” Fabian asked, his large back forming a wall for me to hide behind.
I wondered if he was trying to stall his sirra because even I could see that there would be no reasoning with the woman. The deranged expression on the vampire’s face made her appear grotesque. Her rage clashed with her polished looks and immaculate high-heeled boots and elegant mini dress.
“Did you think you could lose me with your cheap trick?” Malvina laughed. The sound was terrifying because there was no warmth behind it. “I only had to contact one of my pets in Vienna, and as soon as your jet landed in Austria, I was informed you weren’t on it.”
“How did you find this place?” Fabian’s body was even stiller now as if frozen or saving his energies.
I couldn’t tell what he was doing, but the verbal sparring was fraying my nerves.
Malvina’s laugh became a strident cackle. “I’ve known of this place for a long time.”
“You’ve been following me,” Fabian said.
“Of course, I’ve had you followed, pet.” M
alvina tilted her head, studying him with her terrifying stare. “I owe it to my nest to be the best sirra I can be. And that applies to keeping my children under my eye at all times. Especially when they are rebellious. I can’t let any of you do whatever you please, with no respect for your maker.” She stepped closer to the bed, her hand reaching for Fabian’s hair. As she leaned, her ample chest almost spilled out from her too-short tube dress.
He still didn’t move, but I could sense his energy darkening. I don’t know how I could feel it, with him turned away from me, but his emotions were displayed on his body, like a painting on a canvas. The way he remained rigid as if studying the vampire’s every movement made him resemble a cat waiting to unfurl and lunge at a mouse.
“Why did you have to change?” Malvina grabbed a lock of Fabian’s hair and tugged it.
He still didn’t react.
“You’ve always been my favorite. I still remember the first time I saw you in the Coliseum, fighting against three men and a tiger. You were soaked in blood, but your chin was high, and you kept your stance with your legs wide and your back straight, looking at the crowd with a grin tugging at your fleshy mouth as if you had already won.” She released his hair, only to lower her hand to his face, passing her hand against his jaw, her long nails scraping at his skin until it broke. Her eyes widened in pleasure at the sight of the blood she drew from the cuts, and she licked her lips.
“Remember our first time?” Malvina’s gaze fleetingly moved behind Fabian to me. Even though I tried to hide my hurt, she liked what she saw because her lips curved into a grin. Satisfied, she turned her focus back to Fabian. “I left you breathless, and you told me that no woman could ever make you feel like I did. One bite as I was pleasuring you, and you begged me to turn you.” She took his chin and tilted his face up, stretching his neck backward as she descended to kiss his mouth. Her free hand reached between his legs. “Would you like me to sink my fangs into your hard flesh?”
I knew Malvina was goading Fabian to say something, to react, and I was but the tool she was using to elicit a reaction from him. My pain wasn’t important to her. Only Fabian’s discomfort at my pain mattered to her.
Malvina’s eyes searched for me, her triumphant smile a poison that tainted the air I breathed. Still looking at me, with her whole arm hidden by Fabian’s back, she said, “You are always ready for me—”
She didn’t finish the sentence because Fabian’s arm shot up and grabbed her hair, pulling her down to the bed, then straddling her before she could react. I jumped back on the mattress, flattening against the headboard.
“You were always too confident, sirra.” Fabian cupped her chin with one hand and her crown with the other. With a sickening crack, he broke her neck, turning her head at an impossible angle. He reached for her a second time, but a sudden ruckus stopped his hand in midair.
“Run!” he shouted, turning toward me, but it was too late.
A gust of wind blew through the sheets and curtains, moving everything in the room that wasn’t anchored to the floor. Dark shapes took form in the middle of the room, and an army of vampires filled the space. They attacked Fabian at once, and the fight was too fast for my eyes to catch every detail. Not knowing what to do or how to defend myself, I reached for the lamp on the nightstand. The light fixture had a spindly wooden stem that ended with a flared base and was covered by a glass ampoule. I smashed the glass against the nightstand’s edge to free the tapered end. Brandishing the makeshift weapon in front of me, I hoped that my wooden spear could kill a vampire.
Snarls and the sound of snapping fangs made me feel sick, compounding my terror with the notion that I might not escape my fate this time, but I was prepared to fight until my last breath. So I raised my spear, trying to follow what was happening before my eyes. I caught a glimpse of Fabian’s green gaze as his hand went through a vampire’s chest. The result of his attack was a spray of dark red that splattered all over the wall by my side. A blink of an eye later, a body fell to the carpet, more blood seeping from the gaping hole in his back. The smell of copper, sweet and sickly, filled my nostrils, and I gagged.
A second body found its way to the floor, hitting the marble tiles with a loud thud. More copper reached my nose along with the sight of the man’s head dangling to the side, attached to the neck only by a narrow strip of flesh. By now, I should have been shocked, trembling, crying, begging for my life. Instead, something snapped inside me. I had enough of being a victim, powerless, at the mercy of whatever fate dished out for me. I had lost everything, but tonight, amid one of the most terrifying moments of my life, I found myself. Not the princess who was no longer a princess, but a warrior who would fight for herself and the man at her side.
When one of the vampires attacking Fabian slowed down enough for me to see his trajectory, hot rage possessed me, making me lunge forward with my wooden stick at the ready. Remembering a few of the teachings from my fencing lessons, I thrust, placing all my weight behind my weapon. The impact of the stick against the man’s throat was such that I recoiled, my entire arm shaking, but I didn’t let go, following the momentum with a second push. The sharp end of the wood penetrated flesh and sinew, lodging between vertebrae. The man looked at me in surprise, and when he coughed, blood spurred from his mouth and around the wood sticking out of his throat under his Adam’s apple. Surging from behind the man, Fabian grabbed the incapacitated vampire’s head and tore it away completely, then let him go, turning to fend an attack from behind. Steadying my hand, I reached down and retrieved the stick from the corpse.
As Fabian whizzed through the room, bodies piled to the floor, staining the oriental carpet with viscous blood that seeped under the silk knots and filled the grout between the tiles, flowing like miniature rivers. Whenever a vampire came too close to me, I fended him off with the lamp’s stem. Once or twice, I hit an arm or a leg, but it was difficult to drive the stick through fabric, and although I alternated my arms, I tired soon.
Then Malvina stirred on the bed, her head moving to the side as her neck slowly turned. Her eyes opened, and she looked at me, hatred so strong it made me gasp. Her arm rose, her fingers grasping the air in front of me.
I didn’t think; my body reacted before I realized what I was doing. Gathering all my strength one last time, I drove the stick into the vampire’s chest, remembering to angle the flat part of the stem’s edge so that it would slide between her ribs and reach her heart beneath.
Her bellow froze my hand. Gritting my teeth, I kept pushing until only the flared base of the stem stuck out of her chest, like a large button between the valley of her breasts.
“Stella—” Fabian called. Then his hand grabbed my elbow, and he pulled me off the bed. Snagging my dress and his pants and shirt from the floor, Fabian led me to the window. A moment later, he was cradling me in his arms as he jumped down, falling into the dark abyss.
The image of the rocks bordering the perimeter of the castle came back to me, but Fabian hit the surface of the sea before panic could form in my chest. His body took the brunt of the impact, but I still felt it in my bones, and I bit my tongue. A sharp pain filled my senses, but Fabian’s hungry mouth was on mine, and his tongue wiped and healed my wounded tongue as we sank lower into the cold waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Darkness surrounded me, the pressure from the water intensified, but although I couldn’t breathe, I felt safe. Fabian’s legs kicked. His mouth was still on mine, kissing me as he swam toward the surface, working against the strong current. When we emerged, he didn’t release my lips yet, but his hands stroked my back, then my front, running up and down my arms. He finally leaned away to look at me. His eyes filled with worry.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, cupping his face with my hands.
“I’m sorry, Stella—”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should’ve protected you better. I was an idiot, thinking that Malvina wouldn’t know every one of my hideouts. I thought I’d been clever by bid
ding for you anonymously, but she was one step ahead of me the whole time.” Holding on to me with one arm around my waist, he brought us closer to the shore until he was finally walking instead of swimming, wading as he cradled me to his chest.
“What happens now?” I asked when he put me down on the wet sand at the water’s edge.
“Now we go into hiding.” He didn’t let me go far; his arm snuck around my back and pulled me back to him. “I’ll take care of Malvina once and for all, but I need to rest first.” He handed me my gown, which he hadn’t let go of throughout the dive into the ocean and the swim.
Trying to put on my dress made heavy by the marine water, I watched him. Slowly, he pulled on his pants and shrugged into his shirt with an economy of movements that didn’t belong to him; he was always smooth and elegant in everything he did. Only then did I notice how the green in his eyes looked dull, and how his stance wasn’t steady. His face was pale, paler than it had always been.
Giving up on wearing my dress in any way that made sense, I let it cover my chest, then I stepped aside to look at him, but he moved too. “You are hurt.”
“It’s nothing that can’t be cured with some sleep,” he said, and his voice was too controlled.
“What did she do to you?” I was afraid of touching him, but with every second that passed, I could see he was suffering and could not hide it any longer.
Then he moved to the side, and a sliver of moonlight cut across his naked body he was keeping at an angle, away from my eyes. He had pulled his shirt together without buttoning it, and I reached for its hem when I saw the dark stain smearing the wet fabric. He wasn’t fast enough to avoid my grasping fingers, and that should have warned me how serious his situation was. I still screamed when I saw the gash in his lower abdomen. His pants sagged low over his hips, and the wound continued underneath. The dark color of his trousers hid the blood stain, but now that I knew what to look for, I could see the different shade of black coloring the soft wool cloth.
Desired: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance Page 12