“What? I-I can’t believe this. Theodore froze you and your friend alive?”
“Friends—plural. There are more of us here. And believe me, it’s been colder than a fucking five-hundred-meter-deep iceberg. Vencelzes always have despised the cold.” He shuddered. “So your boss will pay for putting us through that agony.”
“B-but he’s… He’s—” She snapped her jaw shut as if she realized she’d given away a secret.
Endre leaned down, his mouth a breath’s space from hers. Her warmth and the energy that suffused into him made him sigh. He inhaled, drawing in the intoxicating scent of something he hadn’t indulged in in ages: Warm woman and wild perfume.
“He’s what?” When she didn’t answer, he replied for her. “Ill and in the hospital?”
When her mouth fell open, he let out a chopped laugh and went on. “Yes, I know this already. I’m very aware of what’s been going on here. We’re like spies once you freeze us. Our souls can leave our bodies if and when we choose. The day you arrived? I remember that night well.”
Mmm, you can bet I recall that first night when you masturbated in your private quarters with that buzzing contraption. The suppressed moans, the flush of your skin, the way your neck bowed back and made me hunger to sink my fangs into your vital flesh.
With her eyes wide, her tongue flicked out and raked over her top lip. She angled her face away from him offering neither a confirmation to his original question, nor a taste of her luscious lips. It drove Endre mad, and made him wonder how she could so easily fire up his system and make him forget the hell of more than two decades of cold.
He knew the urge to feed was understandable after so long in a frozen state, but noshing didn’t always accompany fucking for those of the Vencelze race. Yet somehow when he looked upon this woman, he couldn’t seem to untangle the two. Irritated with his thoughts, he brushed them aside. There wasn’t time to analyze this strange sexual attraction for this human woman or to explain everything to her. Instead, he shrugged and flipped out his claws, scraping the ice at Tabor’s left hand until he had it completely exposed.
The room had warmed enough to thaw the ice down to a thin layer. Even now, it melted to dangerous levels around Tabor’s lifeless body. Luckily, Aurora had come when they’d mentally called to her, and had arrived before full thaw and death had set in.
Endre placed her hand down next to Tabor’s. “Tabor, take life, my man.” As an afterthought, he jerked his gaze up and penetrated Aurora’s eyes once again. He loved how—if he chose to accept the mental bond—her brainwaves could so easily be connected to his by a simple thought or stare. “It won’t hurt any more than the stinging sensation you felt when I clawed you. But he must have your blood or he’ll die.”
She flinched. “No, you can’t—” Her eyes glistened with unease, yet he detected an edge of fascination. “Please tell me I’m not… Am I going to become a vampire now that you—you stung my wrist?”
He couldn’t help smiling. With his free hand, he reached up and traced the curve of her jaw. The warmth of her flesh flooded his palm, chasing away the last traces of cold and causing his vampire’s heart to pump faster, hotter.
“No, our falcon’s talons can’t taint a human.” He revealed his fangs to her, delighted when her eyes rounded in fascination. “Only if you’re infected by the venom within our fangs will you become one of us. And right now, that’s the furthest thing from my mind,” he lied. “So may I allow Tabor to…?”
He wouldn’t force her. Endre could simply offer Tabor his own blood, which now swam and multiplied with Aurora’s lifesaving elixir. But it would take longer and weaken Endre enough to delay his mission. He’d honor her wishes if it frightened her that much, though he wouldn’t like having to take the extra time to allow his own strength to build following the transfer of blood. Offering a few drops of her vital fluid to Tabor at this very moment would simply speed up the process of revenge.
And he would get revenge on the professor if it were the last thing he ever did on this earth.
She narrowed those bright eyes. “You promise me I won’t turn into a vampire, or get sick or anything?”
“I promise with my immortal life. I wouldn’t lie to you. I owe you—we do. We’re very grateful you came along when you did.”
She blew out a breath, the shade of her heart-shaped face nearly matching the white of her lab coat. “I…I don’t know.”
With the exception of subtly calling Aurora to the freezer, Endre hadn’t used his telepathic powers in decades. He hated to do it, but there was no choice. He could feel the temperatures rising in the cooler. Minute by minute, the ice thawed around Tabor’s stiff body. Time, rather than the professor, had become the current enemy—that and the possibility he might not be able to convince Aurora to offer up just one drop of her blood to Tabor.
Look at me, Aurora. Listen to everything I’m about to tell you…
He called to her over and over until she finally stared up at him with the glazed, blank expression that denoted enspelling had occurred. Coupled with a kiss, it was the most effective, rapid way he knew to impart truths and information to a subject outside of random transmissions during out-of-body phases. Endre didn’t have time to waste. He drew her into his arms and molded her lithe, warm form to his. Her swift intake of breath against his lips surprised him. Most humans were sedated enough during the enspell process that they barely had the energy to breathe or return the kiss. Nevertheless, she continued to astonish him with her strength and defiance. She was able to release a groan, and though she stood with her arms down at her sides, she leaned into the kiss and accepted his mouth on hers.
Holy vamp, but she tasted of decadent passion. Her lips skated over his in a wisp of silk and wet honey. Her tongue plunged into his mouth like a ribbon of sweet satin, stroking, giving, taking. His cock engorged with hot, swift arousal, and helpless to resist, he ground it against her soft abdomen. He could feel his balls tighten while his loins ached deep into his anus. It had been so long, such an eternity since he’d held a woman this way. Endre couldn’t get enough, and he skimmed his hands up her body, molding his palms to the swell of ass, the peak of ripe breasts, imagining what it might feel like to sink his erect penis into her dripping, wet vagina. He moaned at the mental picture that conjured up, and in a maddened flurry of need, his lips found that spot in the crook of her neck where blood coursed like liquid fire and flesh tasted of some long forgotten, delectable Vencelze dessert. The slam of desire made his fangs tingle and elongate, made him hunger to sink them into that warm, succulent column.
Just a taste, just one tiny taste…
He heard the subtle shift of Tabor at his left, his limited way of reminding Endre to focus on the matter at hand. It seemed he’d nearly allowed Aurora to turn the tables and enspell him instead. Endre snapped himself out of the fog of passion she’d wrapped him in and got right to work. He imparted the information to her making her see the necessary truths of the dire predicament the professor had put them in. Now that he had her lifeblood multiplying in his system, he used its power and the energy of the kiss to build her trust and educate her on the facts of how her boss had lured his people here and trapped them with the intent to kill. He didn’t send all the information to her. No, too much at once could endanger her mental status and risk permanent madness. The rest would come later, but for now, he continued to transmit the details to her, repeating them until he was sure she comprehended and accepted it all as truth.
With her lips still pressed to his, her eyelids finally fluttered open, the liquid pools of amethyst now clear and lucid. It was at that moment his world shifted out of orbit. He knew she understood, sensed her genuine sympathy. And he saw something there in her soul, something he couldn’t quite define.
Endre shook the bewilderment from his head. His breath clogged in his lungs and he fought to speak. Her beauty left him breathless. “So now you see you won’t turn into a vampire, and Tabor needs one crucial drop of your bloo
d to live.”
She eased back, inhaled, and her gaze fell to Tabor. “Yes,” she finally whispered, her voice tinged with the last drugged traces of enspelling. “Let him…let him do his thing.”
“Thank you.” Endre sighed and pressed a kiss to her forehead, charmed when her lashes fluttered coquettishly down against her high cheekbones. He detected the sturdy thump of her heart, much stronger than it had been before the kiss, as it pumped delicious blood through the curves and planes of her gorgeous body. His gaze dipped to the V of the tight black sweater beneath the lab coat, making his legs quiver at the sight of that luscious cavern.
He shook his head to clear the tempting thoughts, knowing Tabor would kill him if he didn’t get on with the resurrection. Later…there would be time later to explore the strange connection he felt to this woman. Endre filed that thought away and set her hand near Tabor’s.
“Tabor, take the hand offered. Use your talons now so we can be on our way. It’s time to travel to Balitori Island and recuperate. Later we will return here and see what damage has been done to our species.”
Seconds passed. Finally, Tabor’s fingers flexed and straightened. His hooked claws emerged one by one from beneath the human-like fingernails.
“That’s it, close your fingers around her arm.”
Tabor’s hand curled around Aurora’s wrist eliciting a hiss of dread from her. To her credit, she held her blood source voluntarily within reach, only flinching slightly when he penetrated her flesh. It didn’t take long to drink the single drop he required from her. Tabor’s ice shell cracked and he rose, releasing his hold on her while retracting his talons.
“Son of a vamp bitch, that was one damn long twenty-five-year nap.” Tabor stretched and contracted his muscles, his skin already returning to its normally tanned tone.
“Fucking right.” Endre laced his hand into Aurora’s and started for the door. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Wait!” Aurora dug her booted heels into the floor. “Where are you going? And why are you dragging me with you?”
Tabor strode up and took her other hand. “I think Endre already enspelled the information to you. But let’s try it again. We have to go home to replenish our Vencelze energy, then return here to free the rest of them.”
“No, I-I…” She pulled frantically against their hands. “Let go of me. Please. I gave you what you wanted. If you must leave, fine, I totally understand now, but why are you…?”
They ushered her to the door. Endre led them through the laboratory, shoved against the metal bar, and moved out into the dimly lit hallway.
“Why are we dragging you with us?”
“Yes, exactly,” she bit out, stumbling against their pull. “I’m not preventing either one of you from leaving. In fact, I helped bring you back to life…or whatever. I-I can’t leave. I…see, I—goddamn it, let go of me!”
Her stern tone rather than the tug of her hands had them stopping just long enough to arch their brows at her.
“Sorry to say, sweet Aurora, but you’re coming with us,” Endre informed her.
Her golden brows drew together as one. “Oh, no I’m not!”
Tabor simply nodded.
Her narrowed gaze shot flames from one to the other. “You’re both crazy. And even though I get what you somehow made me understand—however it was you did that—I must be losing my mind right along with you if I’m allowing my sleep-deprived brain to believe all this ridiculous crap.”
“Aurora, you already know the truth. I enspelled it all to you.”
“Enspelled? How absurd,” she scoffed, her nose raising a notch. “Like there are really dead frozen men rising up and claiming to be vampires, pricking me with their claws, accusing the professor of murder. It’s all a bunch of bullshit, and I’m going to wake up any second from this fucking nightmare and zap you both out of my freaking mind.”
“Look, we don’t have time for—” Endre’s words were cut short by Tabor.
“No, darling, we don’t have a second to spare,” Tabor said, dragging a finger along her lower lip. “So we’ll have to talk about it later.”
He tugged. She tugged back.
“Why? Why do you seem to think I have to go with you? I have work to do here. Theo’s in the hospital and I need to stay here to welcome him back. I can’t just drop everything and run off and abandon the station.”
Tabor’s voice came out on a raspy whisper, his crystal blue eyes twinkling. “Why, you ask? Because, you’re ours now, forever. We’ve mutually chosen you, our human. The triangle forms even as we speak. Whether in love or friendship, the bond is now sealed no matter if you’re on one side of the universe and we on the other. When and if the day comes that you decide to surrender completely to us and take our venom into your blood by bite, the three of us will be an integral Vencelze Triangle. However, if you should deny us this wedded, eternal bliss, a covenant of friendship and devotion will always remain between us because you’ve been chosen. If we leave without you, you’ll ache as if we’d torn your heart from that luscious chest of yours. Better to be in close proximity to alleviate that inevitable pain.”
When she only stared at him in stunned disbelief, he went on. “Once we’ve had the opportunity to finish briefing you in your dreams during the trip home, you’ll further understand. Then, I believe that of your own free will, you’ll have no ambivalence about leaving your post here.”
“We can’t safely remain here any longer, Aurora. We have to hurry now, and we need to be given the opportunity to complete the briefing process.”
“But—”
Endre spared not a moment longer. He knew the plan. With a nod to Tabor, they led her outside, embraced her, and shifted into partial-falcon form. Together, they rose into the emerald and scarlet night of the aurora borealis sky with Aurora tucked between them.
Chapter Two
Aurora awoke to the melody of surf and parrots. The aroma of salt and tropical blooms hung heavy on the sultry breeze. Propping herself up on one hand, her gaze scanned the room. She lay in a king-size bed, red silk sheets tangled about her naked body. It didn’t surprise her to see that she’d been stripped. Images of two strong, handsome men filled her mind. One dark and dangerous with the build of a serious weightlifter, eyes as cool and pale blue as ice. The other a shade lighter in coloring, his body tough and lean, his face startlingly beautiful.
At the station, they had shifted into half-man half-falcon form, their long wings wrapping her in feathery warmth, and had whisked her into the night sky. The brilliant blood reds and greens of the northern lights had blinded her, and the sharp cold of the dry air had cut through her lungs like a knife. She recalled the rhythmic swish and flap of wings, the eerie song of the blustery winds, and the pungent odor of smoke from the station below.
From there, things were fuzzy. She’d slipped into that state of oblivion she’d been in when Endre had kissed her at the station. But even as knowledge had poured into her dazed mind, she’d sensed the change of climates from deathly cold to hot and humid. There’d been the occasional blast of an ocean liner’s horn, the caw of a seagull soaring nearby, the grand rush of the ocean beneath them. It moved through her memory in a blur, in soft dream flashes, yet she knew it had all been real.
Aurora scanned the richly furnished bedroom, saw that the white wispy curtain panels over the patio door fluttered almost romantically on the breeze that wafted in. She rose, drawing the sheet with her, and knotted the fabric between her breasts. As she crossed to the open glass slider, brilliant sunlight blinded her. She stepped out onto a large cedar deck into the soothing warmth. The view stunned her into dazed silence. Across a sparkling, half-moon-shaped lagoon, smoky-gray hills skirted an enormous mountain, which in turn cut into the crisp azure sky. The peak’s proud jut spoke of ruthless command and the volatile petulance of Mother Nature. Halfway down the summit, a castle perched on a wide cliff and overlooked a tier of homes below. The cluster of dwellings and their castle rei
gned majestic over the turquoise cove arcing back into the hills.
She glanced down, her gaze following a succession of stairs that stopped at a landing, turned and fell to another. And that’s when she saw them floating naked in an enormous pool at the bottom of the steps. The inlet had been formed by a circle of random rocks and ledges just below the foot of the stairs. The bright aqua water reflected the high-noon sunlight, scattering twinkles of diamonds across the surface. The light of the sun, she’d learned in her enspelling, wasn’t deadly to Vencelzes as it was portrayed in classic literature. Rather, it energized the vampire’s body and soul, much the opposite of ice. Aurora saw the confirmation of this as they floated in the pool, lounging in the sun’s rays, and knew why their race had migrated here centuries ago to this island off the coast of Australia.
“Ah, she has risen,” Tabor shouted, his deep voice echoing across the bay.
“Good morning, princess.” Endre added his own warm greeting from his place near a natural waterfall tumbling down the rocky hillside and into the swimming hole. Its musical tune sang in the background, drawing her to the paradise below.
Together the men splashed, working their way toward the stairs. Reaching their destination, they planted their feet on the sandy bottom, penetrating her with bold stares, one icy-cool, but no less hot than the fiery one.
Aurora shivered, though the punch of desire that blasted through her loins had nothing whatsoever to do with cold. She clutched the sheet to her breasts with one hand, set her other on the warm wooden rail. Her clitoris engorged with blood, her pussy dampened, spilling juices onto her naked inner thighs as she watched them eagerly await her approach.
“What a delicious sight,” she whispered to herself, certain now her vow of celibacy after the break-up of her marriage last year had been a self-defeating mistake.
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