His gaze held an impassioned blaze.
She held his beloved face between her hands, thrilling at the touch of his warm, smooth jawline, and the pulse beneath his ears that she wanted to feel thrashing against her lips. She slid desperate fingers through the unfettered satin of his long, dark hair.
“You are the one I’ve been searching for,” she said. “Our paths were meant to cross. You cannot leave me here, Juliun. I love you despite what you think you’ve done by turning me into a vampire. You didn’t have to sacrifice yourself out of guilt. I love you. You have something to hold onto in me, a place to come back to. Come back to me, Juliun.”
He lay between her knees, his warm lips capturing hers in a slow, drugging kiss that tasted of desire and dark spice. She moaned and struggled to get closer, ever closer, adoring the heat of him that pressed her down into the pliable earth, the scent of his hair and his musky skin overwhelming her senses.
She leaned up to his ear, her hands wrapping around his broad shoulders. “You must stay with me.” His hair tickled her nose. “Stay!”
He groaned. “Simone.” He dotted frantic kisses all over her face, neck and eyes. He caught her bottom lip between his teeth, then licked the sting, repeating the action until the blood pumped hot and feverish in her veins.
He ran his hands over her in jerky, out-of-control strokes, trying to pull her closer to him. They clutched at each other, tearing each other’s shirts to the ground. She sat up, smoothing her hands over his broad back and chest in an attempt to touch every part of his body. He murmured in her ear, and his dark head bent, branding fiery kisses in the valley of her breasts, then along the curve of her belly.
She arched up, groaning, clasping his head against her body. He rolled over onto the grass, pulling her on top of him, and the soft, spiky carpet contrasted to the smooth texture of his skin.
They rolled again, and he hovered over her like a dark angel, dominating with the strength of his grip, his mouth a dreamy intimacy of hunger and love that left her weak and burning. His fingers tightened on her arms, and he whispered slowly, his breath full in her ear.
“You should know that you mean everything to me. I am yours forever.”
She started to sob; feeling unrelenting emotion that she could no longer control. She hugged him to her, savouring the weight of his body like a hoarder saving up gold. She couldn’t let him go and wrapped her legs around his waist to bring him into her. He thrust his hips forward with a low groan, his dark head descending to hers, the back of his arms bunched with hard muscle.
He nibbled at her lips, her jaw, her ear, moaning there, and then moved back to her mouth, slipping his tongue inside and skilfully stroking her sensitised flesh.
Their tongues met, caressed, and they both groaned. She clasped his head in her hands until the taste of him obliterated everything else. Only he existed and this love between them. If it was the last thing they shared, then she would drown in him.
But he jerked backwards in her arms, and his body disappeared, then returned.
“What is it? What’s happening?” Her words were slurred with passion. “Where did you go?”
“What are they doing?” he shouted.
Simone clung to his hands. “Stay here.”
He reared up suddenly and clutched his heart. Sweat broke out across his forehead, and his big barrel chest heaved in and out. His hands faded into nothing, and he shot her a panicked look. “Simone—” He disappeared again, materialising within seconds to a few feet away from her.
“I cannot get closer,” he said. “I am going toward…” He looked out over the water to something in the distance, washing over the land with colour and sensation. Light swamped the air in a golden dawn. “Sunlight,” he whispered. “It is sunlight. Beautiful.”
She thought, ‘They’re killing him,’ and sprinted across the soft grass. “Don’t look at it. Don’t go.”
He turned back to her, his long hair a flutter in the cool night breeze. A dark God against the dawn. His voice sounded very faint and sad. His body faded until it was completely transparent.
She reached out to him, but her hand fell through his body. In desperation, she stretched her neck to the side, baring the smooth line of her throat. “Bite me, Juliun. Don’t you want a taste before you leave?”
He sucked in a harsh breath, and she caught the unbelievable longing in his eyes. “A taste of you?” His feet and legs faded into nothing, and that damn gold light filtered everywhere.
His hands disappeared. They were both completely surrounded in light. “I can feel myself going. I love you, never forget that,” he said, worriedly.
She shook her head. “That light can go away.” She grabbed him by the shoulders, and surprisingly, her hands found purchase. The tingle of his skin made her heart pound. She ran her hands up to cup the back of his head and guided his mouth down to her throat.
“Bite. Taste me before you go. Sink your teeth into my skin, Juliun. Drink from me. Please. For the both of us.”
He groaned and stepped closer. The puff of his breath on her skin made her tremble, and then the sharpness of his teeth sank into her flesh.
She gasped, her knees buckling, her every nerve springing into chaotic life. She gripped him, trying to hold herself up, but needn’t have bothered for he held her in a such tight clinch, his fingers taut on her waist.
Every molecule in her body tried to escape its immortal bonds and join in the glitter of starlight. Her body was one with the dance of the leaves in the trees and part of the violent ocean as it crashed against the cliff at their feet. The earth trembled, and the rain-washed scents of grass, salt, blood and him filled her senses.
Her breath fluttered inside her lungs, ears drowned in sound.
LUB-DUB, LUB-DUB, LUB-DUB. Every thump drained more blood from her veins, linking her closer to the rhythmic thrumming of his heart. She had no choice but to gaze up at the night sky, shining so black. Her hands screwed in his hair, then slid down to his waist under the waistband of his pants.
He stumbled, managing to catch himself before she hit the ground, and then he lifted his head, eyelashes fluttering open slowly. His glowing eyes cast by the light of the moon had the stare of a predator and adoring protector.
“Juliun,” she whispered, her heart full to bursting. “You’re alive.”
His legs tangled with hers, and she realised he’d taken form again. It’d worked. She hugged him.
“You let me feed from you,” he said, blinking. Her blood glowed ruby red on his incisors. “You let me…” He choked up.
“Yes.”
“That light is gone.” He panted and gently laid her on the ground. His cheeks reddened from the rapid influx of blood, and his skin didn’t look so pinched and grey.
She closed her eyes and pushed herself up to meet his kiss, but air brushed her lips. Her eyelashes popped open.
“No.”
The word came out in a shocked whisper. She jack-knifed into a sitting position and searched around her desperately. “Juliun?”
He’d disappeared.
Her heart broke, and she screamed.
Chapter Forty-Three
The land disappeared in dizzying swirls, and Simone spun round, and around through darkness, trying to grasp reality with fingers that blurred. She couldn’t go—she needed to get back to Juliun.
A hand patted her arm. “Simone, come back! Simone…” Witch called. “It is all right. He’s here. Juliun’s conscious.”
Simone opened her reluctant eyelids. Her spirit felt ethereal, split between two worlds, but the harsh lights of the clinic forced her to shift away from the world inside her mind. She found herself staring into comforting brown eyes. “He left me, disappeared into thin air.”
“He is back that’s why,” Radu said, tiredly. He pushed some papers from the top of a filing cabinet and made a nest with one arm. His head dipped down into the crook of his elbow, and he slumped in the chair. The white-wash of total exhaustion bled the me
agre colour from his face.
Simone sucked in a relieved breath. “He’s here?” She grasped Juliun’s hands and sank to her knees on the tiled floor, unable to still her shaking body. “Thank you, thank you so much!”
Witch approached Radu. “How about I—”
“Do not even think about it,” he wheezed, his eyelids struggling to open. “That herbal stuff is sludge. I need good red blood and plenty of it.”
Witch shelved the herbs with a huff and drummed her fingers on her hips. “Cantankerous old devil.” She swivelled to Simone. “You both did well. How did you make him stay? I could feel him slipping away.”
Simone rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “I asked him to bite me. It was the only way I could think to make him stay.”
Radu laughed weakly. “Brilliant, girl.”
A faint blush spread across Juliun’s skin, staining his sharply hewn cheekbones. The bitter and enervating smell of herbal medicine permeated Simone’s nostrils as she leaned down to kiss his brow. His silky hair spilled out over the pillow in a black fan, and his chest rose and fell with ease.
A glorious hope pushed out the misery inside her heart. They had been given another chance, one she dared not waste. “He’s alive.”
Witch nodded at Radu. “You were right to let her help. Quick thinking.”
“When will he wake up properly?” Simone laid a hand on Juliun’s forehead and inspected him worriedly. “Is all the poison gone?”
“Vanished,” Radu announced. “A grim task, that one. The toxin had infected all his organs. I only used the mist to dissolve the poison because he surely would have died otherwise.”
“He will awaken soon,” Witch said, gently. “Watch. Once the poison is gone, there is nothing to stop him. He is healed.”
Juliun blinked. His dark lashes fluttered up and down, and his pupils contracted from the glare from the overhead lights. His head twisted to the side, and he stared at Simone with such an intense and penetrating expression that she laughed.
A happy grin broke out across his face that matched his grey eyes which glittered like luminescent stones.
“Come here.”
She chuckled. “You want me?” She looked at him with a challenge in her eyes. “Sit up.”
He dissolved to mist and took form so close to her that his legs and chest pressed against hers, his dark hair flowing around his face. “I want you more than anything right now.” Quick as thought, he picked her up and pressed his lips to hers, his tongue stroking the seam of her lips in passionate inquiry.
She gasped and leaned closer, tremors spreading all over her skin.
His velvet smooth tongue darted into her parted mouth, lips caressing hers in a demanding pressure that grew passionate.
So this is what love felt like. An all-consuming fever and trust. She laughed again.
His arms wrapped around her, drawing her up tight, as though he wanted to merge with her forever, his warm lips sucking and nibbling hotly at her ear, his mouth moving back to hers with a drugging intensity.
She sighed and melted into him, her arms twined around his neck, feet dangling from the floor.
“Time for a much needed drink, I think. I will tell Lissanne,” Radu said from somewhere in the background. “Let us leave the children alone. Tiring work this. Killing psychic vampires and saving your grandson’s life.”
“You love it, and you’ll need more than one,” Witch chided. “I hate drinking alone. You got anything other than alcoholic blood in that liquor cabinet of yours?”
“Like you cannot just conjure anything you want.”
Their laughter and footsteps retreated, and the door snicked shut behind them.
Juliun raised his head and smiled down at her. “I did not believe you would ever come to care for me the way I do for you.” He set her on her feet, running his hands up her arms and sliding them around the base of her skull, cupping her head beneath the fall of her hair.
His warm, hard chest pressed against her, his racing heartbeat a frantic throb against her breasts. “I have dreamed about you for centuries. I knew who you were the moment I saw you clearly, but how could I tell you that you were my bride?” A brief flare of agony flashed in his eyes, and his jaw clenched. “You would run. I turned you into a vampire, and your mother was taken by vampires. You have the mist. I believed I would never find you again.” He gently razed his teeth on the soft skin under her ear. “I dreamed of you constantly, the way someone dreams of their greatest moment, the best time of their life, and I meant what I said. I have lived long enough to know nothing here means anything without you.”
She swallowed a lump in her throat. Gooseflesh and tingles raced over her skin, and she laid her head over his heartbeat. Total serenity and happiness washed over her. She had the feeling her life was going to turn supernova.
“I can’t wait for you to show me, since I helped snatch you back from the jaws of death and all that.”
He chuckled, a sexy, low rumble that made her weak at the knees. She was suddenly faded and appeared in his apartment, his hands secure on her shoulders as though he were afraid she might balk.
“I need to tell you—”
The sound of metal shutters sliding on their rails filled the room, cutting off his words, and a light beeping reverberated in the air.
He cursed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Daylight is coming. We will continue this conversation tomorrow.”
She looked up at him in alarm. “Is that the…? It’s…oh gosh!” She stifled a yawn wide enough to crack her jaw.
He smiled and picked her up, setting her gently on the cool black silk sheets of his bed. Excitement was a wild beast inside of her, multiplying every sensation by a thousand.
He leaned down and lay beside her, drawing her body into his strong arms so her head rested beneath his chin.
“This is too delicious.” She snuggled into the wonderful scent of him and ran her tongue lazily over the fabric atop one of his nipples and used a fang to gently raze the nub.
“Torturer.” He sighed with pleasure to counteract the statement and lifted a long, muscled leg and wrapped it around both of hers, effectively pinning her against him. “Tomorrow we talk, my love. I too, need sleep, but it does not matter,” he murmured, his voice dark. “You are here. My dreams have come true.” His breathing steadied, and he grew steadily colder.
She smiled contentedly, and the oblivion of sleep claimed them both.
Chapter Forty-Four
Where the hell was she?
Juliun clenched his teeth so tightly his jaw hurt. His heart raced, gaze roaming over the attendees while forcing a mask of composure. The richest and deadliest vampires in the world waltzed to Shubert’s 9th Symphony at the annual vampire ball held in Vienna. They whispered courtly intrigue and smiled at the sharp witticisms of their wealthy escorts.
The scent of blood, expensive perfume and night permeated the air. The music built to a crescendo, and yet he wanted nothing but escape.
Anxiety drummed at his temples. The mist ebbed and flowed, merging into the wall, shifting the archway into black fog. He did not rein it in. Couldn’t. The plantar became mist; the flowers, the lights and the after burn distracted him.
What would Simone think if he hunted her down right now—swept her off her feet and carried her back to Ravenkeep? Stripped her naked. Made love to her until they both cried with ecstasy. He imagined kissing, tasting every part of her supple body.
His hands shook, and his fangs descended. The room blurred.
If he did and she wasn’t ready in her mind, then he would lose her trust forever. He remembered the gentle look in her eyes when she’d awoken in his bed the night after saving him, but the complications of destroying Dravego’s regime and saving her mother had taken up all their time during the last two nights. They hadn’t had a proper chance to talk about their burgeoning relationship.
He would be patient, but it was a series of mini deaths while waiting. Their bond went f
ar beyond the constraints of a human lifetime. He would give her time to get used to the idea and let her decide by her own free will, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t stack the odds in his favour.
The sumptuous dinner had been a myriad of different bloods, no doubt delicious, but they’d all tasted like ash, bitter and foul. He rubbed at his eyes, remembering her sweet smile and the faint waft of alluring perfume as she promised to be on time.
Her sweet scent played over him again, like the wash of a memory from which he couldn’t surface. A waking dream of delight.
She’d given him that ‘don’t worry’ scowl and flat-out refused the couture ball gown he’d offered. She had money and means to buy her own things, she’d said. He respected that. He only wished she understood that everything he owned was hers anyway. Even his heart.
And she still wasn’t here.
The mist swarmed wider, eating into a glorious pillar or two and one of the many ornate mirrors. His mother and grandfather forced him to move from the tables to the dancing; probably realising he neared breaking point.
His head ached. His chest ached. Only half of him was in the room while he waited for her. He should’ve had more drinks to stave off the hunger, but a longing more powerful than bloodlust consumed him now.
His mother floated over, graceful as ever, her head a mass of heavy blonde coils. He retracted the mist, and she swept into place beside him.
“The flowers and walls are disappearing,” she teased, a glint shining in her brown eyes. “The guests were quite shocked. They’ve never seen you lose control.”
He shifted uncomfortably in his tuxedo. “Something must have happened to her. I should leave now.”
“Give it five more minutes,” his mother advised.
And then the voices stopped. The orchestra faded to a stumbling jumble, and silence. The crowd turned as one to the doorway.
A glimpse of red fabric peeked between the attendees.
He straightened, craned his neck and picked out the scent of Simone’s blood. He closed his eyes, his heart so light it might have floated away. The crowd parted. Some obviously didn’t know the newcomer, but they sensed something.
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