Darkest Hour (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

by Bullard, Catherine

  Sighing, she went to the closet and pulled out her hunting outfit—a pair of black breeches, a tunic, and sturdy leather boots. She loved her dresses, but they did not make good hunting companions. Skirts had a tendency to catch on branches or drag against tree roots, which could be dangerous when chasing prey.

  When she stepped into the hallway, Thomas was waiting for her. Leaning against the wall, the single candle in his hand illuminating his face, he was both beautiful and sinister—like a vampire.

  “I want to come with you.”

  Elsbeth shook her head. “It’s too dangerous, and you’re not well.”

  He flexed one of his arms. “I can’t just sit here cowering in this house. If I’m going to survive in this new… form, you’re going to have to teach me how.”

  She frowned. “You’re so eager to take a human life to prove your worth?”

  “Have I any choice?” The hint of bitterness in his voice had her throat tightening. “I must make the best of this life.”

  “We could hunt animals,” she said after a moment. “Their blood is not as satisfying as a human’s, but it will do.”

  A long moment passed before he finally nodded. “Let’s go.”

  She took him to a forest; not the one where she’d first seen him, as she didn’t think it was wise to put him in such proximity with his home yet. It was very strange, to have him so close to her, and though he was obviously not at full strength yet, his virility and emerging power was electrifying. She suspected that if he’d been turned into a full vampire he would be powerful enough to have his own Seethe.

  He was a quick learner, and in no time was flitting through the trees along with her, quieter than the flutter of a moth’s wing—though he did have to stop every so often for a rest. Not much was out at this time of night, but he was able to catch a brace of rabbits, and she stood by watching him sink his fangs into his first kill, wondering if mothers felt the kind of pride that swelled her. Except that nothing else she felt for him could be called motherly.

  “It’s bitter,” he finally said after tossing the second rabbit carcass aside. He wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand. “Not sweet, like yours.” A mixture of hunger and pleasure flashed in his eyes, and moisture pooled between her thighs again.

  “Animal blood is not quite so satisfying,” Elsbeth admitted, her voice steady even as Thomas drew closer to her. “I would offer to let you feed from me again, but I have not yet eaten so I’m afraid I’ve not much to spare.”

  “I see you have yourself a new pet,” a familiar voice sneered out of the darkness, and she jumped. “Tell me, does he do tricks?”

  “Malachi!” Elsbeth whirled around to see him leaning against a nearby maple, a sinister grin on his face. “What are you doing here?”

  He laughed darkly. “Don’t you mean ‘why aren’t you still being punished’?”

  Elsbeth’s cheeks flushed, but she lifted her chin and met his gaze. “And so what if I do? Your behavior was inexcusable. I can’t believe she let you go.”

  “She seemed to think flaying the skin off my back was good enough.” Malachi’s eyes glowed menacingly. “Thankfully one of her ladies-in-waiting took pity on me and gave me a restorative potion, so the majority of my wounds are healed. Strange how I can get pretty much every vampire woman to fall at my feet, save you.”

  “This is the one?” Thomas asked, stepping forward before Elsbeth could respond. “The one who tried to kill me?”

  Malachi sketched a mocking bow. “I would say pleasure to make your acquaintance, but we both know that’s a lie.”

  Thomas curled his fingers into fists. His dark brows were drawn over his eyes, his jaw set at a mutinous angle. “Why would you do such a thing? I’ve never done anything to harm you.”

  Malachi arched a brow. “Why should I give you my reasons? You’re simply cattle. Your sole purpose is to feed my kind. The lion does not give his reasons to the antelope before he brings it down.”

  “Why, you—!” Thomas lunged for Malachi

  “Don’t!” Elsbeth threw her arms around his waist, dragging him to a halt.

  Malachi laughed. “Are you going to let a woman hold you back? You’re weaker than I thought.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Elsbeth hissed in Thomas’s ear. “He’s trying to goad you into attacking him so he can finish you off without retribution. If he claims self-defense, our Mistress won’t be able to hurt him.

  Thomas’s chest rose and fell rapidly, his vision hazed red with bloodlust. He wanted revenge against the one who’d done this to him. But he wasn’t so far gone that Elsbeth’s words did not penetrate. He would not allow Malachi to make him the victim in this cat-and-mouse game.

  He stopped struggling, and gently removed Elsbeth’s hands from around his torso. “You’re not worth the trouble,” he sneered at Malachi. “I’ll take my revenge on my own terms, not yours.”

  Malachi’s expression morphed from condescendingly amused to outright livid. “You will pay for this, Elsbeth.” His murderous gaze found hers, and a shiver rolled down her spine. “I won’t forgive you for siding with filth like him.” He drew the shadows around him like a cloak, then disappeared.

  The two of them stood for a long while, staring at the spot where Malachi had been. Elsbeth was almost dizzy with relief; she didn’t know what she would have done should Malachi have chosen to finish Thomas off. She wondered if she should speak to her Mistress again, but what would she say? He hadn’t actually done anything wrong this time.

  “Well.” Thomas finally broke the silence. “Your friend certainly has some interesting opinions.”

  Elsbeth shook her head. “He’s despicable. I’m ashamed we’re members of the same Seethe.”

  Thomas shrugged. “It’s not your fault he turned out the way he did.” He put an arm around her shoulder. “What do you say we go home for the night?”

  Elsbeth leaned against his side. “I think that sounds like a good plan.”

  She hid her smile, and decided not to mention that he’d called her house ‘home’.

  * * *

  Over the next few days, Thomas grew stronger. His senses grew sharp, his movements faster, and he adapted fairly quickly to taking nourishment from animal blood. Since he needed so little to survive, Elsbeth never tried to teach him how to hunt humans. Since he was only part-vampire, she could easily understand how such a thing would be abhorrent to him, even if it were only evil humans he hunted.

  “And how is it that you know these humans are evil?” He’d demanded of her one night, when she’d come home from a hunt. His eyes had latched onto the spot of blood at the corner of her mouth, which she’d missed when she’d stopped by a small brook to clean off.

  “We can scent it in their blood,” she’d told him. The corruption from evil souls often translated to the bloodstream, tainting it so that it had a slightly bitter flavor, which could also be scented.

  He’d shaken his head. “What if you’re wrong? What if you’d gotten the scent wrong?”

  She’d shrugged. “We might mistake the scent, but certainly never the flavor. It’s very distinct. If we’d gotten it wrong, we would let the human go, of course.” Though in the case of new vampires, they often didn’t have the tremendous amount of self-control required to stop a feeding once started. Innocents did die on occasion, and that was unfortunate. But such was the way of life.

  He hadn’t been completely satisfied, but the knowledge that she did her best to ensure no innocents were harmed seemed to appease him. For the next few days, they were content to exist, to grow, to learn.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Are you ever going to come back to your own bed, Elsbeth?”

  The question startled her so that she nearly dropped the match she’d been using to light the candles in the living room area. “What?” She blinked, that familiar image of the two of them rolling around on her feather mattress rising up to taunt her again. Her eyes settled on Thomas, whose hip was propped against the
chintz couch, clad in the black hunting gear that fit him like a glove. Why did he have to look so good? “I… I didn’t think you would be comfortable with that.”

  Silence. Then, “I meant that I would be willing to take the guest room as opposed to forcing you out of your own bedroom.”

  “Oh.” Cheeks burning, she turned away. “It’s really no trouble at all. You’re a guest here, and I want you to be comfortable.”

  Her sensitive hearing picked up his footfalls, his breathing, the displacement of the air behind her. The warmth radiating off him told her he stood scant inches from her back, but she refused to turn around even though her pulse was thundering like that of a living woman’s.

  He brushed a curl that had escaped her topknot from her neck, and traced the spot where it had been, sending shivers up and down her spine. “Would you rather share your bed with me, Elsbeth?”

  She turned slowly, and though she desperately wanted to search his face to see what he’d meant by that, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. “Don’t be silly. We both know you don’t really want me.”

  “Elsbeth.” He gently gripped her slightly rounded chin with his fingertips and lifted her face so she had no choice but to stare into his eyes. They were a light hazel, and filled with a tenderness that made her throat ache. “I know you didn’t mean to put me in harm’s way that night. I’ve said some harsh things since that time, but I can’t hold onto my anger against you. You’ve been unbearably kind, and you don’t deserve to be put through an emotional hell because of something someone else did to me. Don’t punish yourself for something you didn’t do.”

  Elsbeth sighed and pushed him away. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to sleep with me simply because you feel guilty for speaking to me in anger. Not that you didn’t have any right to say those things to me. Your circumstances were brought about by my actions.”

  His eyes flashed, though they remained human in color, and he pressed her up against the wall. “Do I look like a man who wants to have sex with a woman out of guilt? Do I feel like one?” He pushed his erection against her hip, and she gasped. “You’re still thinking with your guilt, Elsbeth. See me for what I am. See yourself for what you are: A beautiful woman with a sense of honor and duty, a woman who has taught me to take my new life and make something of it. It’s not guilt that I feel toward you, but gratitude. And I am more than willing to show you my appreciation for everything you’ve done for me.”

  He lowered his lips and caught hers in a gentle kiss, one that curled her toes and sent warmth rushing through every inch of her skin. His lips were warm and inviting, and he brushed them back and forth over hers, coaxing her into responding. She slid her hands up to cup either side of his jaw, loving the way his stubble teased her fingers as she kissed him back, slipping her tongue between his lips. She smiled as he groaned, then gasped as he dug his fingers into her butt cheeks and hauled her up so that she had to wrap her legs around his lean hips to keep them from dangling.

  Thomas tasted Elsbeth with the same fervor that a man dying of thirst might slurp water. She might have been undead, but she responded with the same passion and enthusiasm of any woman. True, her skin was still cool despite the flush he could feel thrumming through the veins beneath her skin, but the little sounds she made as he tangled his tongue with hers and pressed her further against the wall were unmistakable and hard to ignore. He liked the fact that she was wearing leggings rather than a dress, because he didn’t have to push her skirt up in order to wrap her legs around his waist. Her core, which was molten compared to the rest of her body, felt like heaven as it slid against his hardness, and shivers of pleasure ran through her body every time he ground himself against her.

  But it was not enough, and even though the tunic and leggings showcased her body, they also completely covered her, and he needed to feel her skin against his. Without breaking the kiss, he hauled her up against him and stumbled blindly down the hallway, knocking into the walls. Neither of them cared when a vase fell off a small decorative table and crashed against the hardwood floor, or when a painting slid from the wall. The need to become closer, to become one overpowered everything else.

  Eventually they made it to the bedroom, and he tossed her on the downy coverlet. She didn’t get much of a chance to admire him as he towered over her, looking both dangerous and desirable with that hungry look in his eyes, before he covered her with his body and took her lips again. It wasn’t long before his fingers tunneled beneath her tunic to find her breasts, and she arched into him as he flicked his thumbs over her nipples.

  Thomas teased her mercilessly with his hands, greedily swallowing every gasp and moan she made as he continued to kiss her—they were so sweet he could almost taste them on each breath that left her lips. His shaft grew harder as she pressed herself against his hands, hooking one of her ankles around his calf to bring him closer.

  Wanting to see her skin, he lifted her into a sitting position long enough to pull the tunic off. Her breasts bounced free, round, full creamy globes with pink, frosted nipples that had his mouth watering. He pushed her back down onto the bed, then took her left breast into his mouth, nipping and sucking at the pink, beaded pearl.

  A cry left Elsbeth’s lips, and her hands flew to Thomas’s hair, digging her nails into his scalp as he tormented her with his lips, teeth, and tongue. She’d never thought this could be so good. His spicy male scent surrounded her and she inhaled greedily, like it was a drug. And perhaps he was her drug; she’d been unable to stay away from him since the moment she’d first seen him. And even though by doing so she’d only further complicated their lives, she wouldn’t take it back for the world. Nor would she let him go.

  His lips left a burning trail down her abdomen, nipping at her ribs, his tongue dipping into her navel. Slowly, he peeled off her leggings, revealing her smooth, snowy white legs with every inch. A sudden shyness had her clamping them together, and they trembled as he ran a finger from her left knee down to her ankle.

  “You’re so beautiful.” His voice was soft, in direct contrast to the fire in his eyes. “Don’t hide yourself from me. I want to see you.” He lifted her leg, and trailed open-mouthed kisses up her calf and to her inner knee. By the time he started licking and nibbling her thigh, her other leg had gone limp, and was resting on the coverlet, giving him easy access to what he wanted most.

  “That’s it,” he murmured, sliding his hands beneath her knees so he could spread her legs wide. Her pink, swollen folds glistened from beneath a thatch of black curls. He licked his lips, then rested the backs of her calves on his shoulders before leaning down to press a kiss there.

  “Thomas,” Elsbeth gasped, her fingers finding his hair again, though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hold him there or pull him away. “What are you doing?”

  He lifted his head briefly, scorching her with his eyes. “Showing my appreciation for you.”

  Before she could come up with a suitable response, to tell him that he really didn’t have to do this, he lowered his head again, and she cried out in shock and pleasure as his hot, wet tongue speared her. He found the little nub of pleasure that she’d often stimulated during long, lonely nights when she’d not had a lover to ease either the ache in her heart or the one between her legs. But the pleasure she’d given herself on those nights didn’t come close to what she felt now—a bolt of lightning arced through her with every stroke of his tongue, and flames seemed to race across her skin. He then shoved two fingers inside her and she screamed, her hips lifting off the bed. Her nails dug into the coverlet, her body bowed into a full bridge, and she pumped her hips in time to his thrusting fingers, desperately craving the friction.

  The orgasm hit her like a hurricane, washing through her with such tremendous force that she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but take the pleasure as it saturated every inch of her. She didn’t hear her scream echoing off her walls, or see the smile of satisfaction cross Thomas’s face. And when she
finally collapsed onto the mattress, chest heaving, she didn’t want to do anything except bask in the afterglow.

  “Well, that was certainly entertaining.”

  Shock rippled through her, and she felt Thomas, who was still crouching between her legs, stiffen. Eyes wide, she sat up to see Aranda, another member of her Seethe and her mistress’s right hand, materialize out of the shadows.

  “Who the hell are you?” Thomas snarled, standing and shielding Elsbeth’s body from view. It didn’t matter that the intruder was a woman rather than a man—a possessive streak had risen up inside of him.

  “It’s all right, Thomas.” Elsbeth placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him, having dragged the coverlet around her body to cover it. “Although it would have been more prudent, not to mention courteous for you to stand outside and knock,” she said pointedly to the vampire woman.

  Aranda laughed and tossed her head, long, blonde hair rippling over her shoulders. “Our mistress told me to check on your charge. She said that you were nursing an invalid, but from what I’ve seen so far he certainly isn’t that. I imagine he has enough stamina for two,” she purred, taking a step closer, her hips swaying in the inky black dress she wore.

  It was Elsbeth’s turn to step in front of Thomas. “I don’t believe that our Mistress asked you to perform a physical examination.”

  Aranda gave her only a cursory glance before returning her attention to Thomas. “I suppose you’re right—my eyes are all I need.” She swept her gaze down to the bulge in his pants, and Thomas blushed. “From where I am standing, he looks quite healthy to me.”

  Elsbeth rolled her eyes. “If that is all the Mistress sent you here for, you are free to go.”

  Aranda winked. “So anxious to get rid of me, Elsbeth? I suppose I can’t blame you one bit. I can see why Malachi is in such a tiff over your new friend. I’ll admit I’m a bit jealous myself, but for all the wrong reasons.” She flashed a lascivious smile at Thomas, and Elsbeth had to take a deep breath to keep herself from slapping the woman. “In any case, the Mistress told me that should he be recovered, both of your presences are requested in her personal dining room at midnight.”