Mastering Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  He was so careful as he led her out of her bedroom, but before they got all the way back to her sofa, she turned and hugged him. She pressed the side of her face against his cool, bare shoulder, then closed her eyes and just held him.

  He caressed her back and kissed the top of her head. “My sweet, I’m so sorry for the shock of all this, and for taking too much from you. I beg for your forgiveness. It won’t happen again.”

  “Shhh. It’s ok.” She didn’t want this new closeness between them to end, and she worried that as soon as the talking started, things would be different. The reality of her relationships were never as good as what she’d had with Anthony up to this point, and as soon as her brain started working right again, her past would catch up with her and things would change. He’d change. Somehow, someway. It’s just the way things worked in her world.

  She couldn’t stand here and hold him forever, though. Her head was pounding and she was starting to get nauseous. When the shaking started, Anthony quietly said, “You need to sit down.”

  She could hear in his voice that he knew things were different now, too, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  Chapter 20

  “Do you have something sweet to eat? And perhaps some juice?”

  Anthony was anxious as he blindly opened cupboards while Kaia settled on the sofa, looking shaky and pale. He silently cursed himself for taking too much blood from her. He was the Master Vampire of this entire territory. He should be able to control himself better.

  “There’s apple juice in the fridge and some cookies in the cupboard in the corner.” She situated some throw pillows behind her back before resting her head on the arm rest of the sofa.

  He gathered up what he hoped would help her feel better and quickly brought the food and drink to her side. Feeling desperate for her acceptance, he knelt on the floor and held her glass for her as she took a drink. “This will never happen again. I have better control than this. It’s just been a very long time for me.”

  “Shhhh.” She put her finger to his lips. “I’ll be fine. I’ve given blood before and the woozy feeling goes away after a little bit. I just need to lay here.” She blinked tired eyes as she ate the cookies and drank her juice, and after a short time she started to look less dazed. He worriedly took her dishes to the kitchen and rinsed them off in the sink.

  As he stepped back into the living room, she haltingly asked, “Can we talk about it? I mean, will you tell me more about what being vampire means?”

  He stopped for a moment and just looked at her. He’d hoped but never really believed she’d accept him for being vampire, and here she was, recovering from him accidentally hurting her, and she still wanted to know more about him. She made his heart feel full and free, and it was an intoxicating feeling. If only he didn’t feel Ethan impatiently waiting on the other side of her door right now…

  “I’ll tell you anything you’d like to know. Absolutely anything.”

  He released the remaining energy in his sound barrier and let it drop completely, then stepped towards the ottoman next to her sofa while mentally preparing himself for Ethan’s patronizing visit.

  Before he could sit down, Kaia moved her legs and gestured for him to take a seat right next to her instead. He sat where she wanted him, fighting a smile when she draped her legs over his lap. He watched her while she fidgeted and got settled, loving that she was so comfortable with him. Her eyes trailed more than once to his bare chest, his shirt lost somewhere in the room. His ego couldn’t help feeling good that she seemed quite happy being here with him when Ethan was forced to eavesdrop to get his thrills.

  He looked to where he could now feel Ethan hovering in the air just inside her door, and picked up Kaia’s hand and kissed it. “I’ll tell you anything, my sweet, and if Ethan would like to join our conversation, he’s free to make himself known as well.”

  She frowned, then looked blindly around the room. Anthony could feel Ethan’s irritation even before he could see it on his face as he materialized and headed towards Kaia.

  Her eyes went wide as he solidified, and then her face shut down, just like earlier when she realized why he’d said Ethan was coming over.

  She hadn’t been this mad, though. As she lay here with pursed lips and anger nearly thick enough to touch, he decided there was no way she’d known about him before now. Her emotions were too raw for this to be a game.

  Ethan slowly knelt in front of her, then quickly became frantic as he turned her head from side to side. He scowled at Anthony. “You hurt her. I told you not to!”

  Anthony arched an eyebrow at his tone. Ethan may be powerful, but Anthony was still Master. Forcing back his growing anger, he said, “Yes, I bit her and took too much blood. I’ve apologized to her and I believe she’s accepted my apology.”

  Ethan glared at him until Kaia started pushing his hands away from her neck. Ethan’s expression turned to all out concern for her. “How do you feel? Are you tired? Sick? Do you know what day it is today?”

  She scoffed and sarcastically said, “Yes, I’m sick and tired of the days I find out people are lying to me. Today’s another one of those days.”

  Ethan clearly didn’t like her tone, though he quickly softened to her again. “I wanted to keep you safe. Look what can happen when some half dressed monster gets ahold of you.” He gestured towards Anthony, but she didn’t seem to think it was very funny. “Kaia, come on.”

  In a severe tone, she said, “We’ve known each other a long time, Ethan.”

  “Kaia−”

  “A long time.” She glared at him, tears starting to spill down her cheeks.

  He deflated and sank to his knees in front of her. “I just wanted you to be safe. I never meant to hurt you.”

  She angrily spat out, “Why wouldn’t I be safe if I’d known about who you really were? You know an awful lot about me.”

  Anthony almost felt bad for Ethan when he quietly said, “I wasn’t sure how you’d react. Some people don’t take it well.”

  She deflated a little at that, but was still upset. Ethan glanced back at Anthony, his gaze flicking to his bare chest before he scowled and curled his lip.

  Anthony didn’t walk around half naked as a rule, but living among shifters for hundreds of years, and seeing their naked bodies before they shifted on full moons, he also wasn’t a complete prude. Ethan, however, had never struck him as someone as easily comfortable with that kind of thing, even though he was clearly more experienced with women than Anthony was. He supposed old habits died hard. Anthony had grown up on a farm, where things weren’t proper like they were more so in the cities. Ethan, from everything he’d heard, had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and was used to the finer things in life.

  But Ethan also hadn’t lived amongst shifters as long as Anthony had. He’d only grudgingly accepted them into his small family as a condition of moving to Atlanta. But he’d always followed Anthony’s city rules, oddly enough, and that included getting used to feeding from shifters and giving up human blood completely.

  At least as a meal. Lovers were a different story.

  Ethan cocked his head at Kaia’s angry frown and sighed. “Anthony will tell you about us. You can trust him.”

  With her legs draped across his lap, Anthony didn’t miss the immediate tension in her body. He could see by Ethan’s quickly hidden smirk that he’d sensed it, too. He locked eyes with Anthony, then gave Kaia one last, ridiculously sad eyed look before turning into mist and leaving.

  That bastard.

  Chapter 21

  “Are we alone? Can you tell?”

  “He’s gone. I think he left the building.” Anthony searched her face and she felt bad for his brief, suspicious look as she wiped away her tears. If the thumping in her skull hadn’t gotten so bad, and if she wasn’t still dazed from Anthony’s apparent lust for her blood, maybe she could get her thoughts together enough to tell him she wasn’t crying over Ethan. She wasn’t even crying because she�
��d just found out there were people in this world she had no idea could even exist.

  She was crying because she’d just found out that the sense of control she thought she had over her life was a lie. Ethan was supposed to be her friend, her best friend if she had to admit it. Now he felt like a sometimes acquaintance and it made the already tenuous safe bottom drop out of her world.

  It made her mad, too, because here she sat with the most caring guy she’d ever met. She didn’t want him to see her so out of control of herself. She didn’t want him to see her crying and being at the lowest she’d felt in a long, long time.

  It made her tear up even more when he took her hands in his and asked, “How do you feel?”

  Dammit, she didn’t deserve him. Vampire creature or not, he was a good guy and deserved a good woman, not some beat up girl who’d clawed her way through life and maybe still was.

  That thought helped her calm down. She’d gone through a lot to get here, to get somewhere safe and far away from the terror of her past. She could get through Ethan’s betrayal, too. On her own, as usual.

  Feeling determined once again that she wasn’t going to let anyone tear her down, she looked into Anthony’s concerned eyes and said, “I’ll be fine.”

  He ran his thumbs lightly over her palms and it felt so good. “Your body will be fine. How are you though?”

  She swallowed hard at his question. Why did he have to be so nice to her? It almost made her think he actually cared. The last time she’d let herself believe that… She pushed those thoughts away. She couldn’t let herself feel that false sense of security with someone ever again. Friend or lover.

  “I… uh…”

  He continued caressing her hands as he said, “I truly didn’t mean for you to find out this way.” He took a deep breath, looking so worried, and she had to fight back tears again. “When I found out Ethan was your friend, we talked and he wanted me to tell you about our world. He wanted you to know. He knew you needed to know. I didn’t really know how to go about it, though, or if I should be the one to tell you.” He shook his head. “I didn’t mean for it to be this way. It shouldn’t have been such a shock like this. I should’ve done it differently. Better.”

  She couldn’t make herself tell him he wasn’t the one she was mad at because she didn’t want to talk about what was really upsetting her. That wasn’t date night material. Besides, she’d barely known Anthony a few days. There was no way she could be mad about anything he hadn’t told her yet because they were still getting to know each other. Ethan on the other hand…

  Anthony’s eyes trailed to her neck as he carefully reached for it. She cocked her head so he could see his bite better, wondering what he thought of it, but not quite sure she was ready to find out. Was biting a turn on for him? And was she ok with that?

  For now, yes, because he felt so good… And his intense gaze made her feel like nothing else in the world mattered except her.

  She pet his hand while he watched her, then nuzzled it against her cheek. His worried frown relaxed the more she touched him. She liked that.

  “I’m ok Anthony. And I’m glad I found out from you.”

  He blinked in surprise. “You are?”

  She nodded. “Will you lay next to me so we can talk some more? You’re too far away. I want you closer.”

  “Of course.” The quick smile in his eyes made her feel nervous all over again. He was an intense guy, so every small smile, every sneak peak, and every time his posture relaxed just a little, she felt good because she knew it was all for her.

  “If you can scoot the ottoman closer, I think we can both fit on the couch. I’ll lay over here.”

  He was so careful as he lifted her legs and scooted out from under her. He got up and his long, dark hair hung like a soft curtain over his shoulder and down his chiseled back. His body was lean with tight muscle, his skin pale and creamy… so lickable. Kaia smiled to herself thinking of doing just that, if only she wasn’t still foggy headed from his bite. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine a man would tell her he was vampire and for it to be true.

  She also never imagined her good friend of over fourteen years was one, too. Damn Ethan. Why did he have to wait until she’d met Anthony to reveal that he’d been lying to her all these years? And while he was at it, why not pick another fight with her date? Way to go Ethan. Jerk.

  But he was gone now, and Anthony’s bunching muscles as he moved the ottoman closer were a good distraction from her feelings of ultimate betrayal.

  Anthony was such a decent guy, she wondered how he’d become vampire. Did it have to do with how he’d gotten that scar that marred half his face? She felt like she hadn’t known him long enough to ask.

  He stepped away and reached to the floor to pick up his shirt, and his silky hair cascaded over his shoulder again. When he stood back up, her eyes trailed down his bare chest and washboard abs. The dark hairs on his upper body were sparse, thickening as they trickled down below his belly button until they disappeared inside his waistband. She indulged in a lovely little fantasy of what she knew he looked like beneath those dark pants, but her daydream was interrupted by Anthony pulling his shirt together to start buttoning it up, watching her intently as he did.

  She reached a hand out for him and frowned. “Hey. Don’t do that.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her with a slight smirk. “You prefer me shirtless?”

  “Yes. Come here.”

  She preferred him naked, actually, but her aching head reminded her to be careful what she wished for.

  His dark gaze on her as he shrugged out of his shirt made her shiver in anticipation. She wasn’t usually so bossy with guys, but she felt too wrung out to be nicer. Plus, he didn’t seem to mind. That was another thing in his favor… he didn’t freak out over little things.

  For the briefest instant while he settled in next to her, she imagined him as a deadly, powerful force of nature, and she wondered why she’d thought that. He’d never done anything to make her think he was anything other than a decent guy, besides revealing that he was a vampire. She needed more information from him about that.

  In the meantime, her hands had a mind of their own as soon as he was stretched out beside her. His skin was soft over his incredibly hard muscles and she took her time meticulously tracing his contours. She liked that he wasn’t ticklish as he patiently lie there, seeming in no hurry to start a conversation as she got to know his body better. She finally made her way with caresses over his collarbone and up his neck, and he seemed comfortable just being here with her.

  **

  Anthony had never lain with a woman like he was doing with Kaia right now. He’d never been with someone he could actually relax with, and the feeling was incredible. It made him forget all about mysterious vampire gifts, creeping cold powers, and his duties outside of this room.

  She eventually asked some questions about vampires and shifters as she continued her slow exploration of his body. He did his best at answering her, but he guiltily left out many things that she perhaps didn’t need to know right now, if ever. He was the Master of this territory and truth be told, if anyone ever thought to use her as bait to get to him, like a certain deranged Master Vampire named Isadora, or any of the shifters in her family, the less she knew about some things the better. If a supernatural had the power to get into someone’s mind, they couldn’t get information out of her mind if she didn’t have it to begin with.

  He hated that he had to think about things like that, but his life was what it was. In the meantime, it was obvious she was tired from him taking too much blood, tired because it was getting late, and tired from finding out about a world she’d never known existed. Either because of that or because she just didn’t know what to ask, her questions were all over the place and not very specific.

  Except for one. “If vampires need blood every night, who do you drink from?”

  She was curled halfway on top of him by this point, her eyes getting droopy and her b
ody heat keeping him warm. It was like an unreal scene from a romantic movie, one he had no desire to bring to an end.

  “I alternate each night drinking from either a werejaguar or a werewolf.”

  “Girls or guys? Or is it someone different every night?”

  “They’re both men. Either Zach or Sebastian each night. I don’t drink from women.”

  She carefully asked, “Why just guys? Are you also attracted to men?”

  He startled at her question. “No. Quite the opposite. Since I’m only attracted to women, it’s easier for me to stay calm while I’m feeding if I only drink from men.”

  “Oh. So when you feed…”

  “My senses become extremely heightened.”

  She nodded in understanding and looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but her eyes said she was tired. He put a finger to her lips to stop her words, and she sucked in a quick breath, an anxious look in her eyes. The quiet, romantic music in the background and the quickening beat of her heart made him feel yet again like this was all a dream.

  He lightly traced her bottom lip with his fingertip, and she flicked the tip of her tongue out to taste him, making his body clench in need. “We don’t know each other very well yet. I’d like to continue to remedy that.”

  She took a shaky breath, her desire obvious and very, very welcome. But she needed rest in order to heal properly, so he leaned closer and kissed her forehead, completely satisfied with just laying here with her.

  She took a deep breath and tucked some of his long hair behind his ear. “You’re so handsome, baby.”

  He smiled halfheartedly at that. “You might be the only person to think so, my sweet.”

  Her look turned more serious as she gazed into his eyes. She ran her fingertips down the side of his face, down his neck, then down his chest, her gaze following along. She picked up his hand and kissed his fingertips. “So handsome.” She placed his hand against her cheek and nuzzled into it, and he never wanted to lose this image of her.

  She yawned and he smiled in reluctant defeat. “It’s late for you.”