by Mina Carter
My captor turned to me slowly, his gaze downcast as he looked at his hands. They were covered in a fine coating of dust—the remains of Darius, the unfortunate douche-bag of a vampire.
“Zane…is that your name?” I asked when he didn’t seem like he was going to move or speak. Vamps were like that sometimes. They could go as still as statues and stay that way for hours. Unbreathing, unblinking…
Except, he was breathing. And I could hear his heart beat. Slower than a mortal’s, closer to the rhythm of my own, but beating nonetheless. Had he done that to make me feel better? More comfortable? He needn’t have bothered.
Vampires didn’t scare me… for fuck’s sake, not even angels scared me. I’d tangled with both those from on high and the fallen to recover souls that were mine. And angels? Scary fuckers at the best of times. Put them in a bad mood? Extinction level event, let me tell you.
He looked up, and I was caught in his blue-eyed gaze. And the darkness that swirled there. It wasn’t just darkness, it was loneliness… and that I understood. That I understood only too well.
“Yeah. It is,” he said, his voice rough and nowhere near as smooth as he’d been when I’d first seen him outside the circle. “Yours?”
I blinked for a moment, wondering what the hell he was on about, and then I remembered my question.
“Uhh…Tove.”
Hell, talk about an awkward reply. I reached out and took his hands in mine, only hampered a little by the chain around my wrists. The enchantment tickled a bit but not much, and it was fading as the minutes passed.
Half an hour or so and I wouldn’t need it. That’s about how long I figured it would take for the enchantment on the silver to degrade enough for me to snap it. I said before that males of our species are more powerful?
Well, we’re not all created equal. I’m certainly not one of the big thirteen who run the council, but I’m no small fry either.
There aren’t many of us who are tasked with running demons down for one reason. No, three. You need some serious power backing up some solid fighting skills… and you need to be as crazy as fuck.
I luck out on all three. With extra helpings of crazy as fuck.
“Tove? That’s your name?”
His gaze latched onto my face, interest in his baby blues. With a start I realized he was closer than I’d thought. Somehow he’d managed to take a step, linking his fingers through mine.
Crap…vamps shouldn’t be able to do that, not to me. Never to me.
His fingertips whispered over my cheek and I froze, reactions hijacked by primal instincts of the male-female sort.
“It’s a beautiful name. A beautiful name for a beautiful lady.” He smiled, and his face transformed from merely handsome to stunningly beautiful. A visage worthy of an angel… right down to the darkness of lust in his eyes. Angels are not all sweetness and light as certain holy books would have you believe. They’re always just one step from losing it and becoming Fallen.
My heart leaped, heat thrilling through me. He held me captive with that burning gaze as he leaned down. He was going to kiss me, that much was obvious. My eyelids fluttered down without permission as my body softened and leaned into his. I hadn’t felt a man’s touch for so long… it was like I craved it, overriding all my higher brain functions to get what it wanted.
Then his hand moved, brushing the hair away from my jaw.
“What the fuck!” Panic set in and I slammed my hands up, breaking his hold and shoving him away hard. He hurtled backward, toward one of the concrete pillars dotted around the room.
Shitshitshit.
Time slowed as I waited for him to slam into the concrete, an impact that would damage even a creature as hardy as a vampire. There was nothing I could do. I’m fast, but nowhere near that fast…
He flipped in the air, as though his center of gravity had switched from the floor to the pillar. He landed lightly in a crouch, gaze meeting mine. Holy shit, he shouldn’t have been able to do that.
I didn’t waste time asking questions. With a twist of my wrists, I snapped the silver chain and sent a bolt of power hurtling his way. I didn’t wait to see it hit. I didn’t need to… I never missed. Turning, I beat feet. I had a sister to save and vamps to dust if they got in my way.
My job. I had to do my damn job.
Even if all I wanted to do was turn around and kiss the face right off Mr. Tall, blond and fangy…
I tore through the warehouse like a tornado. A woman on a mission. The vampires kept out of my way, mostly. Those that didn’t got the sharp edge of my knuckle-blades. Think… knuckle-dusters with sharp edges. When I get bored with them, I have combat knives sheathed either side of my spine.
Yeah, when I fight, I fight up close and really personal. Some of my sisters use swords and axes… Not me. I prefer to feel that tiny breath out when the blade slides in, the sudden widening of the eyes as the body realizes the blow is a killing one. I like to see death as it rushes inward in an unstoppable wave. We Valkyrie have been called death angels more than once. I find that description entirely accurate.
And right now, I could think of nothing I’d like more than to track down every single dead creature in this place and make them deader. That’s probably not even a word but I don’t care. It’s the only one that fits.
I tore down corridor after corridor, senses cast widely to catch a hint of where they were keeping my sister. If she was a Valk, even a Valk-born with the tiniest amount of our blood, I’d be able to find her.
That’s the thing about us, we can feel each other, like super Valkyrie sonar or something. It’s similar to the feeling we get when souls need to be collected for Valhalla but stronger. Way stronger. Forget blood hounds, there ain’t nothing like a Valkyrie on a hunt.
I worked another corridor, kicking in each door and checking rooms just in case they had her behind another sort of trap. A devil’s trap with her own blood wouldn’t work. They’d have to have something else set up. But what?
Three doors to go and I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to find her. Had they moved her… had Zane called ahead and had them sneak her out the back or something?
Shit, I really should call this in but I couldn’t. My phone had bitten the dust when that Legere had jumped me, taking the hit when the thing had tried to drive six-inch talons through my chest wall. I know I said I can’t die, but I’m not immune to pain, and claws through the chest? That shit fucking hurts. So I was kinda glad the metal and plastic got it, even if it put me up shit creek without a paddle right now. No problem. I’m used to dealing with things myself. On a hunt, things can go sideways really quickly, so I’m nothing if not adaptable.
Something caught at the edge of my senses and I froze. There was a terrified looking vamp crouching in the corner of the room, watching me through wide eyes as it tried to work out why I’d stopped instead of plunging my blades through its heart. That’s another thing the films have wrong. It doesn’t need to be a wooden stake, anything through the heart will dust a vamp.
It started to creep toward the door and safety, freezing as the movement got my attention. I glared for a moment and then waved at it dismissively. It needed to fuck off. I had bigger things to think about. Like the tiniest whisper of familiar feeling that indicated someone of my bloodline was close.
I turned on my heel and headed back out into the corridor, chasing down the feeling. It was faint but I had a bead on it, ignoring the rest of the floor and working my way up to the roof.
My steps got faster, the corridors and stairwells merging into a blur as I ran. The roof meant one thing…they were moving her. My heart stuttered a little in my chest. I couldn’t allow that to happen. Couldn’t allow her to stay in their clutches in case she was still just valk-born. If the worst happened and she died… I burst out the last door and out onto the roof. The cool night air wrapped around me as I stopped to get my bearings. Spinning on my heel I scanned the rooftop. The feeling was so strong I had to be about on top of her… so
where was she?
“What the hell?” My eyes narrowed. The rooftop was empty. There was nothing. Zip. Nada. AKA… fuck all.
A shadow on the left detached itself from a deeper pool. All my instincts on alert, I swung around, blades at the ready as a figure emerged from the darkness. It resolved into that of a man, tentacles of night sloughing away from his tall, broad-shouldered frame to reveal Zane.
The crease in my brow deepened to a pit. “How the fu… you should be dead. I hit you. I know I did.”
He shrugged and strolled forward, his loose-limbed stride waking up all my female parts and making them tingle. I tried to ignore them. Fuck’s sake, all the guy was doing was walking… I should not be on the edge of orgasm just over the way he put one foot in front of the frigging other.
“Can’t kill the dead, darling. You should know that.” His voice was low, controlled, and the look in his eyes was dangerous. Ruthless. Focused.
On me.
I took a step back before I could stop myself. Before he’d been laid back and affable. Charming and cutesy, for all he was a vampire… Now? The all-American jock look was somehow darker and more dangerous. He wasn’t cute or charming. He was something else entirely. Rage and lethality rolled off him in waves as he stalked toward me. The danger drew me like a moth to a flame though, everything female within me wanting to poke the tiger until it snapped and I saw the real man beneath.
“No, but I can make them deader than dead.” My voice was equally as careful as he stalked around me. No point in running. Not until I knew for sure what was going on. Because something was. No vampire, not even a high muckety-muck vampire earl, should be able to take a power-bolt like that and live to tell the tale.
“Which you, patently, are not. So what the fuck are you?”
Chapter 3
“So what the fuck are you?”
Tove watched him with a sharp gaze, her weight perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet and her hands held loosely in front of her. It was the poise and attitude of an experienced fighter and as alluring to him as the curvy figure under the skin-tight leather she wore.
Zane shrugged. “You know what I am, angel… I’m a vampire.”
She snorted. “I’m no fucking angel and neither are you just a vampire.” Tilting her head, she regarded him through the one eye he could see. “You’ve got something else going on there under the hood, something way more powerful.”
Her eyes were violet. A lovely, clear violet. At least the one he could see was…which brought him back to her violent reaction when he’d almost kissed her.
His brow creased. She hadn’t seemed opposed the to the idea. Seemed really into him in fact. Until he’d touched her face…then she’d gone batshit crazy and tried to turn him into crispy critter with that power bolt.
“I tell you what, My Lady… you tell me your secrets.” He nodded toward the hidden side of her face. “And I will bare all for you.”
Silence reigned between them for a moment and then she shrugged, dropping her head forward a little, her gaze still locked onto him.
“You do know I’ll find her, don’t you? Then where will you be, little bloodsucker?”
Her voice was a soft whisper of sound in the silence of the night, but he heard her easily. The rest of his brethren had fled the court, probably the city as well, leaving their earl with his prize. Alone. Good, because he didn’t plan on sharing her with anyone.
His lips quirked. “How about you come over here and I’ll show you how… little I am.”
He’d be amazed if this went anywhere, but he didn’t care. It had been so long since he’d found a woman he couldn’t hypnotize or bend to his will—one who wasn’t a shifter, or, he shuddered, a pixie—that he reveled in it.
She arched one delicate eyebrow. “Does that line work often for you, handsome?”
He couldn’t help it. He barked out a laugh. “Beautiful, and a delight as well. How did I get so lucky that you walked into my web?”
“A web? Is that it?” Her eye widened as though in shock, but he caught the slight curve of her lips. “Oh my word, that’s it… You’re part spider, aren’t you?”
He circled her, unable to help the caressing glance he slid down her figure. She was strong and beautiful, curvy as fuck… and she set even his cold blood on fire. With a start he realized his body had reacted, his cock hard and engorged with blood, tenting his pants in salute of her. A reaction he hadn’t initiated, fed by a heartbeat he hadn’t started… the not dead part of himself overruling the vampire.
“Ack…” He pressed a hand to his chest dramatically. “You have found me out. I’m a spider and I intend to wrap you in my web.”
She smiled, turning her head to follow his movements. He knew she didn’t need to. No, this was not about one preternatural creature tracking another. This was more about the tension between man and woman.
So why had she shoved him away? What dance were they performing here… a slow and dreamy waltz or something far raunchier and dirtier?
“Are you sure you’re the spider?” She caught his gaze and he sucked in a breath. Heat shot through his veins and it was all he could do not to close the gap between them, pull her into his arms and crush her lips beneath his.
“My sisters…” She gave a small smile. “They call me the Black Widow. So be careful I don’t wrap you in my web and lead you to your doom.”
He paused in front of her, so close that she had to look up to meet his gaze. “A doom I would accept happily in exchange for one taste of you.”
Again, that little quirk of her lips. “You sell yourself cheaply for the mere press of lips to lips. I would have thought a man in your position… an earl no less, would have had a firmer grasp of the bargaining process.”
It was his turn to grin, letting slip a little slyness into his expression. “Who said anything about a taste of your lips, sweetness?”
Her look of surprise was so complete it had to be real. He bit back his smile and circled again, stepping in close to her back. She caught a breath, releasing it on a sigh as he used the backs of his curled fingers to stroke up the bare skin of her arms.
Emboldened by the fact she hadn’t tried to rip his head off, he moved closer. His chest met her back as he slid a hand around her waist, easing her back against him as his lips whispered over the side of her neck.
“And they do say a vampire’s kiss is the most pleasurable thing on the face of the Earth… I’m not sure it is though. It’s what the mortals say, and what do they know about such things, what with their mundane senses. I think it needs someone properly qualified to make that decision. Like…oh say, an angel of death itself. What do you think?”
I knew vampires were master seducers, but fuck me, Zane was good.
As his clean scent wrapped around me, I could smell citrus from his shampoo and the crisp scent of his cologne laid over the unmistakable scent of warm man. There was no scent of death or corruption, and his heart beat almost as fast as mine. No vampire could do that. Just like no vampire’s presence should tingle enticingly against my senses like his did.
“You make a good point.” My voice emerged far huskier than I’d intended. Sexier, even for me. Not the sexy persona, the “Widow,” I used to lure my prey, but the real me. “Keep talking, handsome.”
I should be pushing him for more information, asking questions about why I could feel my sister so strongly but couldn’t see her. It no longer seemed important though. There was a reason it should be, but I couldn’t bring it to mind just at the moment with all my concentration on the man behind me.
Man. Not vampire.
How could I have mistaken him for one of the undead? Life practically radiated from him, easing something in the center of my chest I hadn’t realized hurt.
“Talk? I can think of better things to do with my lips.” The sentence was softly spoken as he turned me around. A small part of my brain screamed that this was too fast, too soon… that he was a vampire, but I shoved it right d
own and ignored it.
Men just did not do this to me… my sisters, yes, because they were fucking stunning…but not me, not after the changeling had fucked up my face. And I wanted more. Way more. Fuck, I never wanted it to end.
He was so close, the heat of his body beating against mine as he looked down at me. His gaze was locked to mine, unwavering in its intensity. It should have been intimidating, but it wasn’t. It was intimate… electrifying. Sensual. Tension crackled between us with so much heat I was surprised the air itself didn’t burst into flames.
He slid a hand around my waist, fingers spreading out over the back of my hips, and pulled me up against him. He was hard, all over. Holy crap, was he hard. His heavily carved muscles felt like granite under my hands and the thick, hard bar of his cock pressed insistently against my stomach.
A moan whispered free of my throat before I could stop it, hips rocking against his in a nonverbal, feminine plea to take this to the next level. His intake of breath made me smile. Turnabout was fair play.
A hand cupping the nape of my neck, his lips covered mine.
No, not covered. That was far too tame a word for what he did. He took. He dominated. He owned.
And I was more than happy to let him.
His lips left a brand on mine, parting them with a hard sweep of his tongue. It was my turn to catch my breath as he didn’t delve within immediately. Instead he pulled at my lower lip, nipping it lightly. Then not so lightly. He held onto the plump flesh and pulled gently. Just enough to make me moan. The sharp pleasure-pain sent thrills through my body, and desire simmered through my veins.
I parted my lips in invitation and he surged forward, filling my mouth with his tongue. Sliding, stroking… seeking mine to tangle with. All my higher thought processes scattered, and I acted on pure instinct. With a tiny murmur I moved closer to press myself into the circle of his arms.