The Enclave 2 Undying Embrace

by Jessica Lee

  “Where are we going?”

  “Just hang on.” He smiled and pressed his palm to the center of her back, then grabbed another blanket with his other hand. “I think you’re going to like it.”

  Closing his eyes, he pictured the night sky above the cabin and the metal roof beneath him. With his next breath, the cool feel of the aluminum under the bottom of his feet signaled their arrival.

  She released a long sigh into his chest. “I’m never going to get used to that messed-up carnival ride you guys call phasing.”

  He chuckled and smoothed his hand across the blanket, following the curve of her spine. “Open your eyes, lass. I think you’ll appreciate the ride once you see the view.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and nudged her around. “Look up.”

  “Oh my!” She gasped. “It’s beautiful up here. I’ve never seen so many stars. And the moon…the moon looks enormous.” She lifted her hand and reached for the sky. “It looks so close. I swear; it’s like I could touch it with my fingertips.”

  God, he had to look stupid standing there with the fat grin he knew was on his face. But it was worth it. For her. She looked so happy and at peace. At least for the next few hours, he’d bring peace to her life. Something he never believed he was capable of. Death? Yeah, he knew exactly how to bring it on. But peace and happiness? A week ago, he would have called someone a fucking liar if they’d said his future would be associated in any way with those words.

  He shook his head, then leaned over and spread the blanket across the roof behind Gabrielle. “Here.” He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the blanket. “Sit down, lie back, and enjoy.” She did as instructed, and he took the spot next to her.

  “Wow,” she said, reaching over and taking his hand in hers.

  Opening his eyes, he glanced over at the beautiful woman beside him. “Yeah, wow,” he said in return. But it didn’t have a damn thing to do with the moon and stars. He gently squeezed her palm and allowed his eyelids to drift closed, listening to the steady sound of her breathing and the soft beat of her heart.

  “Can I ask you a question that’s been on my mind about your time in Virginia?”

  Every muscle in his body tensed. He couldn’t help it. He knew there would be questions. But knowing it and having to talk about it were two very different things. Arran swallowed hard and then forced out his answer. The only one there could be. She deserved that much. “Ask your question.”

  “Why would you kill the master of your colony and then walk away?” She rolled her head in his direction. Her gaze didn’t flinch from his as she waited for his response. “It doesn’t make sense. You could have forced the colony’s acceptance and taken the power. Logan said you left without an explanation, allowing everyone to believe you were a murderer. Something’s not right with that story.”

  “I’m sure he also told you I was the last to join that colony as well.” He turned his gaze to the stars.

  “Yes. Yes, he did.”

  “I was Derek’s assassin. What kind of reputation do you think I had in the colony?” He turned his head around and faced her. “I killed whoever he ordered me to. It’s what I knew how to do from my days in Glasgow. And when Derek wanted more power, more territory, he came to me.” Arran found his spot in the sky again. It was easier that way. Easier to let the story out if he didn’t have to watch her eyes for a reaction. “There was another large colony a few miles away. Derek wanted that territory too. He was drunk on the high that came with the control he held over so many. One night, he came to me with a brilliant plan. He said he wanted to start a war. He felt a few sacrificed lives within his own colony were an acceptable cost compared to the numbers he’d gain when they won the battle.”

  “What did he mean by sacrificed lives? What did he want you to do?” She was a smart woman. He could already hear the sound of her putting the pieces together.

  “He wanted me to kill a few of our own and make it look like our rival colony had done the deed.” Arran rolled to his side, facing Gabrielle. “And the name at the top of that list was Logan’s.”

  “Oh my God.” Her eyes grew large.

  “Logan was one of our strongest males—and a threat to Derek. This way, Derek would take out any challenge to his position and start a war that would bring him more power. A perfect plan, except for one flaw: no way in hell was I going to kill any of our own people. Add that to the fact that he was one insane motherfucker.”

  She shot forward into a sitting position, holding her blanket to her chest. “You saved Logan’s life. All this time, he’s thought the worst of you, and you never told him why you did what you did.”

  “He would have never believed me. I’m sure he didn’t hold back on the rest of the story. The part that included the time he walked in on me with his female?”

  “You’re right.” Her gaze fell to the blanket material she gripped in her fists. “He didn’t leave that detail out.”

  “I’m not excusing what I did, or my role in how he found us. But what Logan refused to see was that his perfect intended mate had probably screwed every male in the colony. He wanted to believe she’d changed for him. That night, she had approached Jason and me for the second time in so many days. I was young, and sex made me feel alive, closer to human, because for a few minutes when I fucked…I felt something.”

  Gabrielle lifted to her knees and moved closer. She trailed her hand up his abdomen until it rested on his chest.

  “It’s no excuse. I should have never touched his female.” He shook his head. “I was wrong.”

  She leaned in and placed her lips to his. Her teeth caught his lower lip and tugged before she released him. “I believe you,” she whispered. “We all make mistakes. And you shouldn’t have to pay for yours for an eternity.”

  Incredible. The depths of her compassion and empathy knew no bounds. The blanket fell away from her shoulders, taking his breath with it. To him, she was absolute perfection, her mind, heart, and body. And he never wanted to let her go again.

  Lifting one knee, she straddled his hips. His cock pulsed and stiffened from the sudden rush of blood to his groin. She slid her moist folds over the length of his growing erection, teasing him. His hips bucked in reflex, his body ravenous for more. But it could wait.

  Arran pulled her closer. Once more, he needed to imprint his scent on every inch of her. Fuck it. He was staking his claim. Gabrielle Stevens was his, and he wanted every male to know it. Except this time, he was more in control and going to take things slow and easy. Just like she deserved.

  He pulled one of the sweet, rosy, hard buds jutting out from her breast with his lips and sucked the pebble, flicking his tongue over its center. A soft gasp, followed by a moan, was his reward from the gorgeous woman torturing his cock. He sucked and licked the delicious hard berry of one nipple and then switched to the other. She pressed forward, pushing more of her breast into his mouth, and worked her hips along his hard length.

  “God, Arran, please.” Her voice trembled. “I need you inside me now.” Gabrielle lifted, and he released her breast from his mouth with a soft pop then reached low, positioning his shaft at her entrance. Pressing down, she pushed the first inch of him inside her.

  “Shit. Gabrielle.” He thrust his hips up, needing to sink farther in, faster. She drove herself down hard onto his shaft. His cock barreled inside her, balls-deep, drawing a hiss and another curse from his lips.

  “Arran!” Gabrielle’s head fell back on her shoulders, and she arched. His fucking mind was gonna blow from the exquisite, heated sensation. The moonlight danced on her skin, her breasts, her hair. God, she was simply magnificent. Her hips rose and fell over his cock—slow, too damn slow—while her inner muscles squeezed and milked him. It was all he could do not to flip, taking her under him and giving his body what it screamed for.

  But this was for her. Her pleasure.

  A purr rolled from her throat as her head came forward. Lightning shot down his spine, driven by the sound. His b
alls drew tight, hovering on the brink of climax. But not. Quite. There. “Fuck!” He slammed his eyelids shut and groaned. “You’re killing me, kitten. Faster. God, I need you to let go.”

  A seductive smile curled on lips a man would kill for, and Gabrielle leaned forward, bracing her hands on his chest. “Like this, my love?” Her hips rocked, and then the tempo quickened.

  He groaned and thrust his hips, slamming them into her downward strokes. Oh, fuck, yeah. Arran gripped her hips with his hands. She felt so damn good.

  “Arran…yes. Harder.” Sweat dripped into his eyes, stinging them. But he couldn’t close them now. He wanted to see her face, here in the moonlight, when her orgasm crashed over her.

  Moving one hand from her hips, he slid it low, between them. His fingertip slipped inside her wet folds and found the jewel he was looking for. Hot, swollen, begging to be stroked. He circled the bundle of nerves, then allowed the pad of his finger to rock over its center.

  “Oh God! Arran…” she begged. “Do that again.” She rocked into his hand, urging him on.

  “Do you know how damn sexy you sound when you beg?” The question was a slow and easy one, matching the pace of his finger as it hovered around her clit.

  Gabrielle’s chin tilted down, and her gaze locked with his. Her tawny eyes blazed from her unleashed orgasm. “Don’t screw with me, Arran.”

  He pumped his cock hard into her depths. “Baby, I think that’s exactly what I’m doing. And you love it.” A hard squeeze hugged his cock, nearly pulling the cum from his balls. He groaned and rotated his hips against hers.

  “Remember what they say, vampire.” She released the vise hold on his shaft and quirked her brow, panting hard. “Payback is hell.”

  “I do love it when you talk dirty, kitten,” he said with a swipe over the center of her clit. Her mouth fell open on a gasp, and she rocked on his shaft. “That’s it, lass. Take it. Take what you need.” He inserted a second finger to add more pressure and broaden his stroke. Pumping his hips in time with hers, he worked his fingers in firm circles over the swollen bundle of nerves.

  Four strokes later, her body tensed, clamped down, and bathed his cock with her arousal. “Come for me, kitten. Let me watch you come.” The shakes began in her thighs pressed against his hips, then traveled up her body. Her cheeks flushed, and her lips parted right before her eyelids lowered. Beautiful.

  His.

  The pulsations of her climax along his cock were his undoing, and he couldn’t hold back his release any longer. He circled his arms around her and took her onto her back, burying his shaft as deep as her channel would accept. Finding the pulse at her neck, he sank his fangs, and his orgasm ruptured. Gabrielle’s hot blood filled his mouth, and her soft moans of pleasure caressed his ear.

  It was as if time stood still while his climax pumped in an endless stream of pleasure. He released her neck, sealing the punctures with his tongue. With the palm of his hand, he turned her head next to his. A warm tear fell onto his hand. Hers. Tilting his head up, he met her gaze. Her fingers sank into his hair and tugged at the roots. The sting went straight to his balls, making his cock jerk. Fuck, he loved it when she did that. She pulled him closer to her lips and brushed a kiss across them. Pressing his mouth harder against hers, he deepened their kiss as a low growl rumbled in the back of his throat.

  Oh yeah, he was well and truly fucked.

  Chapter Fourteen

  His skin was alive with a thousand crawling ants, biting and stinging. Markus rolled, swiping at his arms, his legs. He groaned. No relief. The fuckers were everywhere. His eyelids popped open, and he launched into a sitting position with a shout.

  The hazy room, with its glaring lights, tilted on its axis. Shit. He flung his hand out, scrambling for purchase. A cool, thin bar banged against his knuckles. He wrapped his hand around it. “Son of a bitch!” Markus snatched his sizzling hand back and rolled onto his side. It was as if he’d wrapped his hand around a live wire. He brought his palm up, blinking rapidly to bring the surface into focus. Fuck. Me. Blisters were already forming where the skin had touched the bar.

  With his opposite hand, he pushed back into a sitting position on the floor. His surroundings came into focus, and what a sight they were. He rotated his head left and then right. A fucking silver cage. Recognition dawned; he was in the basement of Wicked Ways.

  Clever.

  One point for you, Enclave.

  Then it hit him, and horror took root in his mind. Where is she?

  “Alexandria!” He jumped to his feet.

  “She’s over there, ass wipe.” Guerin sauntered into the room and pointed to the small bump covered by a blanket in the cage next to his.

  Markus snapped his head in the direction the other vampire had indicated. Relief rushed through his limbs. The overdose of silver that caged him not only felt like the constant sting of insects, but it had to be screwing with his senses. He should have felt her there, lying that close to him. Alexandria was a young vampire, which was most likely the reason she was still sleeping and not clawing at her flesh. She wouldn’t want to touch the bars, but her young age would make being in the presence of so much of the metal tolerable.

  Directing his mind into hers, Markus pushed. He had to make sure she was truly okay. Alexandria, hear me. Wake up. She moaned, and the blanket moved. Wake up, vixen, and show me your eyes.

  A loud crash against the front of his cage rattled the bars around him, jerking his gaze in the direction of its source. A metal chair lay in front of his cage’s door. Guerin stood a foot away, looking like he wanted to take him apart piece by piece.

  “Get out of her damn mind and leave her alone, minion!”

  Placing his nose less than an inch from the bars forming the cage door, Markus eased his lips into a toothy grin. “Make me. Oh…excuse me.” His grin fell. “Make me…Commander.” Markus bowed his head in mock obedience.

  Fangs flashed on the opposite side of the door, and the growl that unleashed should have made the hair on his body stand on end. But that would mean he’d have to be afraid of the motherfucker on the other side. He quirked his lip at Guerin.

  “Don’t let him antagonize you, Guerin. It’s the only source of control he has at the moment.” Kenric’s voice entered the room before he did, and then he stepped through the open door, followed a second later by Emily. Ah, she’d come to view the Enclave zoo’s trophy specimens.

  Markus backed away from the door and crouched low in the cage’s center. “Alexandria, I said wake up.” He glanced once in her direction to confirm she’d obeyed this time. She was upright. The blanket lay rumpled in her lap and strands of her long black hair covered her eyes. His palms itched to reach through the bars and smooth the wild locks around her face. How he wished he’d been the one to have put them there because she’d been beneath him for the last several hours. Not because they’d been drugged and tossed in fucking silver cages! His fangs pulsed, aching to sink into the throat of one of the Enclave warriors standing a few feet away. It didn’t matter which one or who at this point. Eeny, meeny, miney, moe… Guerin stared back at him, his upper lip curled as if he were jonesing as hard as Markus to rip his throat out. Yeah. Open the cage door, and he’d gladly give him the opportunity and try.

  Emily edged her way near the front of his cage. Kenric stayed with her, keeping his hand planted firmly at the back of her neck, protective. And he should be. Marguerite still simmered over his betrayal of mating with the female.

  “I wanted to see you…face-to-face this time, with no drug distorting my mind,” she said. Markus rose to his full height and took the two steps that brought him to the door. Ah. She wanted some kind of closure. How very…human. She was still a relatively young vamp, so he guessed it was to be expected. “I wanted to get a good look at the creature who betrayed the men who would have given their lives for him. The ones you’d sworn your loyalty to.” She stepped closer, lifting her chin and met his gaze. Out of the corner of his eyes, he didn’t miss Guer
in matching her movements as well. Apparently Kenric’s second in command didn’t like the idea of his friend’s mate being this close to such a sick son of a bitch. And judging by the hard look on Kenric’s face, he was one second from snatching her out of there.

  An eerie minute of silence lingered between the two before Emily’s face twisted into a grimace. “How can you stand to fuck that crazy bitch—” She lunged at the cage, grabbing onto one of the bars, while reaching through with her other hand for any part of him she could latch onto. He threw himself to the back of the cage, landing in a crouch. At the same time, Guerin and Kenric went for Emily and yanked her away from the bars. But it was too late. The smell of seared flesh permeated the room. Emily hissed and clutched the wrist of her burned hand.

  “She tortured my mate, you bastard!”

  “Christ! Emily…” Kenric pulled her into his arms. Even from his angle on the other side of the bars, Markus couldn’t miss the blisters starting to swell inside her palm. Kenric moved her into the other room. Fuck. Such drama. She’d heal quickly, especially with the all you can eat buffet the Enclave’s Master provided for her with his blood. Slowly, Markus cranked his head in the direction where Guerin had been left standing. The murderous expression on his face was priceless.

  “What? You blame me for her burns?” Markus shrugged. “I didn’t do a damn thing. I’m innocent.”

  Laughter rolled from the commander. “Now that’s funny. You? Innocent?” He shook his head. “Yeah. You’re as close to the poster boy for innocence as I am a monk.” Guerin sauntered closer to the cage’s door. Markus sat low on his heels with his arms stretched out over his knees. “You are one lucky bastard,” Guerin drawled. “If it weren’t for Elle’s sister”—Guerin shot a look over at the blank gaze on Alexandria’s face, then back to Markus—“you’d be a dead man.”

  Markus lifted his brows and then cocked his head in Alexandria’s direction. Well, I be damned. “Elle’s sister? Well, isn’t that a sweet little coincidence.”