Boxed Set

by Brenda K. Davies

  She gasped and jerked as pleasure coursed through her. His mouth seared into her neck and back as he left a trail of kisses across her skin. Trembling with need, Isabelle was swept away by his touch as he continued to make love to her with his hand. Isabelle moaned her displeasure when his hand slid away from her. She was about to roll over when he slid on top of her and his body pressed against her back.

  "Stefan," she breathed as his muscular thigh parted her legs.

  "Shh," he soothed as he nibbled on her ear.

  Isabelle forgot all about her trepidation as he slid slowly into her, enfolding her in his arms as he moved over her. Isabelle was whimpering with pleasure when he grabbed her waist and pulled her to her knees. She was swept away by the feel of him and the delicious sensations flooding her body when his movements grew more demanding. His hands encircled her, fondling and caressing her breasts as he teased her nipples.

  Isabelle cried out from the force of her orgasm as it shook her legs. His arms held her up as he fiercely drove into her, groaning as he spilled into her.

  She collapsed onto the bed, panting for air, and trembling from the shivers of delight still racking her. Stefan fell beside her, pulling her on top of his chest and entrapping her against him. She nuzzled his chest and relished the feel of him against her. Her hands curled around his neck and lightly played with the silky hair curling at the base of it.

  He smoothed back her hair as he stroked her back. Isabelle didn't want to move, didn't want to think about anything, but she knew she had to. She had to know the truth, and she couldn't put it off forever, no matter how much she wished to.

  "Stefan—"

  "When I was eleven my family and I were coming back from the theater; we were attacked." He knew what she was going to say before she even spoke. The time for the truth had arrived, and he wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. He held her close as he opened himself up to memories he’d been trying to forget for a long time.

  "There were three of them, two men, and one woman. Vampires. They trapped us in an alley and killed my mother and father instantly. My brother was sixteen at the time, and my sister had just turned fifteen. My brother tried to stop them, he went after them, but he was useless against them. My sister grabbed me and started running toward the street. I tried to go back, but she wouldn't let go of me. My brother's dying screams followed us out of that alley."

  Isabelle shuddered against him; tears welled in her eyes as she continued to rub the back of his neck. His voice revealed no emotion as he spoke. If it weren't for his hands digging into her waist, and the increase of his heartbeat, she would have thought the death of his family didn’t affect him.

  "We were sent to live with my aunt and uncle in Wales. My sister and I never spoke of what happened again, not even to each other. I think we were both scared we’d end up in Bedlam; at least I knew I was. She married three years later and moved back to London. I didn't see her again until I was eighteen, and by then, she had a son. That was the only time I tried to talk to her about what happened. She screamed at me and told me they were thieves, and I was crazy. When I pressed the issue, she ordered me out of her house, and told me to never come back. I never did.

  "After that, I searched London. I knew what I had seen, what they were, and I was determined to seek vengeance for my family. When I couldn't find them there, I went to the continent. I spent a long time searching France, Spain, and Germany before moving to Italy. That was when I met up with a group of vampire hunters and joined them. I was twenty-one at the time."

  Stefan paused to take a deep breath. Isabelle remained silent; her hands curled into his neck as she fought back her tears. Tears she instinctively knew would cause him to stop speaking. He didn't want her tears, but her heart was breaking for the boy he’d been, for the cruel twist of fate that ripped his family away from him and caused him to grow up in an instant.

  She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose any of her family; it was like a knife in the chest just thinking about it. She couldn't imagine what it was like for him to see them murdered, and so viciously. She wanted to cry for the man who went to his sister only to be turned away by the only family he had left. If the woman was still alive, Isabelle would rip her to shreds for being so cruel to him.

  "For the next five years, I searched the continent, destroying any vampires I came across. I found the two men in that time, both in Greece. With the help of my newfound friends, I overtook and destroyed them, but the woman still evaded me."

  "I ran into her again two years later, in Dublin. Her name was Brenda." His voice was strained, and his hands dug into her skin. She knew he wasn't aware of it, and she didn’t protest it. "She recognized me, remembered me. I was alone with her, consumed with vengeance and hatred, but it wasn't enough. She won the fight but thought it would be more fun, more amusing to turn me into the one thing I’d loathed for the last sixteen years.

  “She changed me instead of killing me. I fought against it, but as you know, the more you fight, the more it hurts, and the more difficult it becomes to resist. She forced her blood into me and disappeared. After that, I had nowhere to go, no idea of what to do. I couldn't return to my friends, they would have killed me instantly, so I left Europe and went to Canada."

  Isabelle could no longer hold back her tears; they slid down her cheeks to wet his shoulder. Sorrow engulfed her for the man he’d been, for the man he could have been if things had been different. She bit back a sob as his grip eased on her waist and he began to stroke her back again. She was the one who should be offering him comfort, not the other way around. She snuggled closer as she sought to ease some of the torment radiating from his body. He nuzzled her neck before speaking again in a softer, less cold voice.

  "I spent the next fifty years traveling between Canada and the states. A lot of our kind came here. It was an excellent place for them to feed. People could just disappear into the wilderness with no questions asked.

  "I hunted the killers amongst our kind, feeding off them, and growing stronger. I couldn't go for the most powerful ones; they would have destroyed me. So I bided my time, killing the newer ones until I grew stronger. I met Brian in Boston when I was seventy-eight. He’d been changed twenty years earlier, his wife, and children were murdered at the same time."

  Isabelle shuddered as she bit back a sob. "He was just as determined as I was to avenge their deaths. He’d been doing his own hunting, destroying any vampires he came across. We fought, I could have killed him, but I didn't. I could sense he wasn't evil, wasn't like the others. Brian's powers hadn't matured enough for him to sense the same thing about me. When I explained to him not all of us were evil; we joined together to hunt the ones who were.

  "With Brian's help, I killed even more, and went after ones who were stronger. After a hundred years, we found the two who killed Brian's family. They were the most powerful we’d ever come up against, but we destroyed them. Both of us left the battle severely wounded but much stronger from their blood.

  "That was when we decided to go back to Europe. Most of the older ones had remained on the continent. Our strength steadily grew as we moved through the continent, hunting and destroying everyone we could find.

  "I never found Brenda, and after thirty years we decided to return to the states. By this time, I was beginning to doubt I would ever find her and that she may already be dead. Twenty years later, I ran into her in New Orleans. By then, I was stronger than she was. I’d fed from some of the most powerful of our kind, absorbing their strength and powers. Brenda lived off humans and took pleasure in destroying families, but their blood wasn't as strong as the blood I’d been thriving on.

  "The battle was short and brutal, and when it was over, I was left with nothing. For the last two hundred years, I’d been consumed with a need for revenge. It was the only thing driving me; the only thing keeping me alive for so long. After Brenda was dead, there was nothing left to fuel me.

  "Brian and I con
tinued our mission, but it wasn't the same. I was only going through the motions, just surviving. I began to realize all my existence had ever been, and ever would be, was nothing but death and destruction. There was nothing left to drive me, except for survival, and the need to try and make sure no other families were destroyed, but it wasn't the same.

  "I wasn't much better than the monsters I’d been killing. I also thrived on it, for the same reasons they did, for the power. Granted, I didn't destroy families, I didn't take innocent lives, but I was a brutal killer all the same."

  Isabelle shuddered; never had she thought this side of Stefan could exist. Never had she dreamed it could be possible. It frightened the hell out of her.

  "Two years ago, we ran into a group of human hunters. I killed one of them; Brian killed two. Neither of us had ever killed a person before, and it rattled us both. I vowed I was done, I would never kill anyone, or anything, again. Brian was more determined than ever to destroy everything in his path. He hasn't been killing humans, but he has taken everything to a darker place than ever before. It gives him a purpose.

  "I lost everything that day when Brian and I went our separate ways, the idea of killing anything again made me sick. I did the one thing I’d vowed never to do, the one thing that made me exactly like the monsters I’d been killing for centuries, and I hated myself for it.

  "I wanted to live in some semblance of peace, but I never found it. Everywhere I went, I was alone. That's when I started settling down with just one girl at a time, for a couple of months at a time. It was at least someone to have around for a little bit, so I wasn't completely alone, but it wasn't enough. I was still alone, no matter what I tried to do. When I came here and met you, I felt alive again for the first time since I was a boy. Felt as if I had found a place where I belonged, and had a purpose other than death."

  Isabelle sobbed into his shoulder as she clung to him. She couldn't imagine such loneliness. She ached everywhere for what he’d experienced. She hated herself for what she’d said the other night. There was no way she could take the words back, no way to erase his past, but she vowed his future would be better. She would make sure of it.

  "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry for everything. I didn't mean it. I love you, Stefan. I love you more than anything. Please forgive me."

  "There's nothing to forgive," he assured her.

  "There is!" she sobbed. "What I said to you the other night, the way I reacted was completely unforgivable. I should have listened to you; I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I should have known."

  "Isabelle, you were angry and upset, I understand that."

  His forgiveness and caring words didn't help to ease the anguish she felt. They only made her feel worse. She wouldn't have forgiven him so easily if it was the other way around, but he readily did. It made her hate herself even more.

  "How can you be so understanding?" she demanded.

  "Easily," he said with a laugh. "I know you, Isabelle; you're quick to judge and very quick to lose your temper. But you're also strong, proud, determined, loving, and one of the most loyal women I’ve ever met. I love you for all those reasons, the good, as well as the bad. I wouldn't change a thing."

  He wasn't making her feel any better; he was making her feel worse as she wept into his shoulder. "I'm sorry you lost your family," she whispered. "I wish it never happened."

  "It was a long time ago. It may have taken me a while to come to terms with it, but I have. It is the past, and the two of us are going to have an incredible future."

  "Yes we are," she vowed fervently. "I promise we will."

  He laughed as he dropped a kiss on her neck. "Stop crying, Isabelle. I hate it when you cry."

  She tried to stifle her sobs, but she couldn't. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  He sighed as his hands stopped stroking her back, and he pulled her head out of his shoulder. He turned her toward him as he tenderly wiped the tears from her cheeks. Misery filled her eyes when she hesitantly met his gaze. Her lower lip trembled as she valiantly tried to hold back her sobs.

  "When Brian and I first met David, I was surprised by the way he talked about his friends. For the last hundred and fifty years, all I'd had was Brian and all the ugliness that came with him. The air of freshness and innocence David possessed amazed me. When he talked about how none of his friends had ever killed, and how close they all were, I wondered what it was like to be that naive. He knew what our kind was capable of, but he didn't let it corrupt him.

  "When I came here, you were so beautifully innocent that the last thing I wanted was for anything dark to touch you. Until the night at the club, you had no idea how cruel and vicious the world could be. I didn't want you tainted by it, and by what I was. I wanted to keep you protected from it, and I mistakenly thought the past was the past. You gave me a reason to live, to feel, and I never wanted to take anything away from you. I wasn't about to let darkness into your world, Isabelle."

  Tears slipped free as she stared into his warm eyes. There was so much tenderness, so much love radiating from him that it shook her. She was incredibly grateful fate had thrown them together; that it had given her someone as wonderful as him.

  "You told my mom all of this."

  He frowned. "I didn't tell your mom any of this. You and Brian are the only two who know."

  Isabelle stared at him in confusion. "She said she asked you why you killed our kind and you told her."

  "She asked me if I had a good reason for killing our kind, I told her, yes, and that was all."

  Isabelle closed her eyes, dropped her head to his shoulder, and groaned as she realized the full extent of her stupidity and foolishness. It made her feel worse her mother put such blind faith in him when she hadn't.

  "I'm such an idiot," she mumbled.

  He laughed as he rolled her over and pinned her to the mattress with his solid body. "You are anything but an idiot, Isabelle; you're just stubborn. Your mother knows that."

  Isabelle opened her eyes to look up at his twinkling black ones. "We don't have to leave," she murmured. "Ethan and I are a lot alike; he didn't mean what he said, and he'll come around."

  He grinned at her as he brushed a light kiss across her mouth. "I know, trust me, I know."

  Isabelle frowned at him as he happily smiled down at her. "What is Europe like?" she asked.

  "It's beautiful."

  "Do you want to go?"

  His smile faded as he stroked her cheek. "We can stay here, Isabelle. I like it here, your family is here, and I know this is where you're the happiest."

  "Yes, but I've decided I want to see the world, and I want you to show it to me. We'll always be welcome here, always be able to come back, but I would like to go if you want to."

  He smiled as he bent and placed a feather light kiss on her lips. "I would love to show you everything, Isabelle," he whispered.

  She smiled as he brushed away her drying tears. Seizing his hand, she brought it to her mouth. Drawing one of his fingers inside, she began to suck and lick it as she savored the taste of him. His eyes clouded with passion as he watched her with fascination. She released his finger and wrapped her hands around the back of his head.

  "First things first though," she whispered.

  "What's that?" His voice was deep and husky as she felt him lengthen against her thigh.

  Her smile turned sly and seductive as she brought his head down. "I need to show you how sorry I am, and how much I do love you."

  He grinned down at her, as his eyebrows quirked in amusement. "That might take a lot of persuasion."

  By the end of the day, she’d managed to convince him.

  The End.

  Turn the page to continue reading book 3, Untamed.

  Untamed

  The Vampire Awakenings, Book 3

  To all the fans, you are all amazing and without you, I couldn't do any of this. To my husband for always being there. To Leslie for her continued hard work and to ebook launch for their amazing cover
work!

  Chapter One

  Ethan felt like he was trying to squeeze himself into a space the size of a high school locker as he kept his arms close to his sides in an attempt to avoid bumping into anyone around him. It was bad enough hearing the human's heartbeats and smelling the blood flowing through their veins, but the thought of touching one of them made his skin crawl.

  He'd been crazy to make this trip though he'd fed almost double what he normally did before leaving home to curb the ever-present hunger within him. Being this close to so many humans strained his control and tried his patience. That nagging voice inside him, the one wanting to taste every single one of these people, begged to be obeyed. He was afraid of what might happen if he didn't get away from this crowd soon.

  Sliding his sunglasses into place, he stepped out of the airport and into the bright light of the day. The heat was like a slap in the face after the cool air inside the airport, and it caused him to inhale sharply. Adjusting the bag in his hand, he scanned the crowd of people swarming around him. Ants, he thought. Annoying ants he would prefer to stomp, but he gritted his teeth and concentrated on keeping his desire to become a blood-sucking terminator under control. He'd never been a fan of people; however, being enclosed within three different flying tin cans for almost a day, had frayed his nerves and shortened his already low tolerance for the creatures.

  He couldn't believe he'd let Isabelle talk him into this, but getting away from his siblings for a month and vacationing in paradise had seemed a lot more appealing before he stepped onto the first airplane. He glanced around the crowd again, searching for two familiar dark heads, but he didn't see them amongst the crush of people.

  Inhaling, he took in the familiar and pleasant aroma of the tangy ocean air. After a shower, a change of clothes, some blood, and a few drinks, he'd be back to looking forward to spending the next month with his sister and brother-in-law in Bermuda again.