Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by Jennifer Ashley

  “What’s wrong with me?” Eve said in a broken whisper and looked at him, her dark eyebrows furrowing and near-black eyes reflecting her pain. “What’s wrong with us?”

  Tor’s breath left him in a rush as one possible answer came to him. “It can’t be… not with such words.”

  The agony began to ebb away, leaving him numb, his senses still reeling from the assault.

  “What do you mean?” She looked deep into his eyes and he caught the flicker of confusion in hers. She cupped his cheeks, her gaze searching his, no doubt seeing the feelings he combated in them. Vulnerability. Fear. Hope. “What happened? You know, don’t you?”

  Tor nodded, pulled down a breath, and tried to think of a good way to break it to her. His mind and heart were now pulling him in so many directions he felt he would rip apart into a million pieces. She needed to know what had happened.

  “We instigated a bond,” he said and her eyes flew wide. “It shouldn’t be possible with such words… without the right words.”

  “A claiming?” Her eyes didn’t grow any smaller as she absorbed what he had told her. “I thought they entailed a ritual, not idle words.”

  That lashed at him and he growled. “No words are idle if you mean them, heart and soul.”

  Her palms pressed harder against his face and she shook her head. “I didn’t mean that… I mean… did you mean them?”

  He closed his mouth hard, his lips pressing into a firm line, every instinct warning him not to answer, not to lay his heart on the line and let her crush it. He still wasn’t used to how Eve made him feel, still felt these emotions were alien and didn’t belong to him. He couldn’t be the one to admit they existed.

  “Did you mean them?” he countered.

  Her eyes instantly softened, warmth colouring them, and she stroked his cheeks. She understood him just as he understood her. This was alien to both of them, strange and unnerving.

  Eve nodded. “I did, Tor. I meant that. Heart and soul. I want to be with you forever.”

  Tor growled and kissed her again, claiming her mouth with fierce possession, in the same way she had claimed his heart. She wrapped her arms around his neck and met his fervour, moaning as she kissed him.

  He couldn’t believe what they had done, but he knew he would never regret it.

  Eve was his now.

  The bond that had been placed between them with only a declaration of their desire to be together forever was proof that her feelings for him were strong, just as his were for her.

  She drew back, a wide beautiful smile on her lips, showing her happiness to him even though he could feel a glimmer of it. Over the course of a few days, that ability to detect her emotions would grow and other abilities would develop too.

  Her gaze danced to his neck and a flicker of guilt shone in her eyes. “I should have warned you, shouldn’t I?”

  He nodded. “What did you see?”

  She must have seen something because his guard had been down and he had been in no fit condition to bring it up at any point during her feeding. He hoped to the Devil she hadn’t seen anything bad that might shake her feelings for him.

  She stroked the left side of his neck. “I saw the man who did this to you.”

  She had seen his awakening, the earliest memory he had as a vampire.

  He pulled out of her but held her in place, keeping their bodies pressed together.

  “Who turned you? He seemed important.” Eve fingered the scars again, the only ones he had possessed before she had bitten the other side of his throat. Twice. Once to claim him.

  “Mikael, the previous lord of our bloodline and the same man who turned Lincoln.”

  Her pretty face darkened. “You mean to say a lord turned you, and these vampires still treat you with disdain and revulsion while they treat Lincoln with respect and reverence?”

  Tor sighed and tried to find a way to explain things that wouldn’t have her out for the blood of most of her family. “It is the way of our kind, Eve. Lincoln has their respect because of his status. To these people, I am a shadow, a man bred for a purpose none of them could understand. They are pampered and sheltered.”

  “Because of you,” she snapped and cupped his cheeks, staring deep into his eyes. “You’re the reason these people can sleep safely during the day and they should respect you for that. You place yourself at incredible risk… you live alone… all to protect your bloodline from those who would harm it.”

  He sounded noble when she put it like that. He set her down on her feet, tucked himself away and buttoned his trousers, not wanting to have this conversation when he was exposed and vulnerable. “You cannot blame them for their behaviour. They view me as a servant. The hunters in our family have always been of that rank. We’re not like the Aurorea, where the sole hunter is admired and feared.”

  She shook her head, causing a length of her dark hair to fall free of the messy bundle she always wore it in. It brushed her throat, drawing his eyes down to it, and his fangs ached with a need to bite her again, to ensure the world knew that she was his and the marks would never fade.

  “They have no right to treat you so poorly.” She stroked his cheeks, a beautiful soft look in her eyes. “You could have been high ranking. You had the opportunity, but you decided to be a hunter. You put yourself through Hell in order to become the best out there, a man able to defend your bloodline and protect everyone. You endured darkness and death for their sakes, withstood torture, and none of them care or give you the respect you deserve.”

  It touched him deep in his heart, stirring warmth that still felt unfamiliar and strange to him. She had melted his cold heart, bringing it back to life, but he feared that in the end, it would be the death of him.

  Images flashed in his mind, a vision of fire and destruction, of smoke, darkness and death that haunted his dreams. He didn’t want it to come to pass. He didn’t want to lose her in that inferno. He couldn’t bear seeing her in that vision, afraid and choking on the fumes, slowly burning away as she tried to escape the maze of flaming corridors.

  “Tor, what’s wrong?” She held his cheeks in her palms and brushed her thumbs across his cheekbones. “Come back to me.”

  He blinked himself away from the nightmare and shook it off. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

  She gave him a look that said she could see straight through him, took hold of his hands and kissed his palms, his knuckles, and stroked his fingers.

  “It’s about me, isn’t it? The dream is about me… and it’s about the future. You can see things that will happen.” She pressed his knuckles to her face and closed her eyes.

  Tor stifled his sigh and opened his hand, turned it and cupped her cheek, needing to feel her softness and absorb her beauty as she sought his comfort. “It won’t come to pass. Each time I have it, I see it all a little more clearly. The key is in the details and they’re coming to me now. I won’t let anything happen to you, Eve.”

  She opened her eyes and lifted them to his. “Tell me what you see.”

  Tor shook his head.

  “Tell me.”

  “No.” He stood his ground, unwilling to let her press him on this, refusing because he knew that it would frighten her. They couldn’t escape his vision because it was the path they were treading towards her revenge that would ultimately lead to it happening, and he knew he couldn’t ask her to set aside her hunger for vengeance, because he couldn’t do it either.

  She needed to put her past to rest.

  And he needed to put Adam in the ground.

  CHAPTER 15

  Eve paced the library, awaiting the arrival of the three Law Keepers. Tor’s steady gaze tracked her, his presence alone keeping her grounded and stopping her from lashing out at the vampires who passed along the corridor outside the room. In her opinion, the Law Keepers could have come sooner instead of making her wait for two whole days.

  Her family had only grown more irritating in that time. The sight of Tor’s bite mark on her throat had t
riggered a vicious round of cursing his name in most of the men present in the house, and some of the women too.

  Tor had put up with it all in silence, but she knew it affected him and that he hated it as much as she did. She wanted him to say something, but he refused when she pressed him about it, reiterating that he was a servant in their eyes and unworthy of her.

  She had the impression he thought he was unworthy of her too.

  She refused to let him think that way about himself, and proved her feelings for him every night when they woke and again before they went to bed.

  “Wearing a groove in the carpet will not make them arrive any quicker,” Tor said and lifted his gaze from the book in his lap, settling it on her and tracking her for a few steps while he turned the page.

  Every night they had spent in this house, they had passed most of it in this room or their apartment. Tor loved to read. She had never seen a man devour books as he could. She had made the mistake of asking what he was reading on the first night. He had launched into a long and detailed explanation of his current book, and she had discovered with dismay that he was reading the history of their bloodline, and other bloodlines recorded by the Vehemens.

  Eve had told him that about his choice of reading material several times since then, and every time he countered that he had thought as a hunter from Section Seven she would love to read the history of the bloodlines, discovering all of their secrets.

  She wanted to know about them, but she didn’t want to do the necessary reading involved. She couldn’t rest with a book when she was wound tight inside, spending every second waiting for the Law Keepers to arrive. They had only received word tonight that their arrival was imminent.

  The Law Keepers could have at least called her and Tor earlier to give them their arrival date. It would have saved them both waiting all night long every night for them to decide to show up. They could have gone out to Amsterdam and scouted for Adam and the other weaklings.

  Who knew how many vampires they had taken blood from and how many humans they had abducted by now?

  She should have been out there, stopping them.

  “Eve,” Tor said, his deep voice sending a tremble through her, and she stopped and faced him.

  He held his hand out to her and she went to him, slipped hers into it and held it to her chest. She knew she was driving him crazy and setting him on edge, because she could sense his feelings.

  She hadn’t realised just how useful a bond would be. Tor couldn’t hide his feelings from her. Of course, the reverse was the same. She couldn’t hide hers from him, and right now, he was picking up her agitation, underlying fear, and the constant trace of anger she felt. That anger was a product of both being stuck in this house and Adam’s betrayal. Until she left this place forever, and killed Adam, it wouldn’t leave her.

  “Want to know about the night Lord Hyperion threatened war on all the bloodlines to save his sister from the death penalty?” Tor smiled at her. “It might take your mind off everything.”

  She shook her head. “As delightful, and bloody, as that sounds, I’m happy pacing and working off some energy.”

  His smile became a salacious grin and he tugged his arm towards him, bringing her with it. “I know other ways of burning energy.”

  “Yeah?” she murmured and dipped her head to capture his mouth, savouring his soft kiss and the promise of where it would lead them.

  Someone knocked on the door.

  Eve bit back a growl. She swore people waited until they knew she was kissing Tor and thinking about taking things further, fired up with need for him, before interrupting them.

  “What?” she snapped and the door opened to reveal three tall men dressed in black uniforms with silver detailing on their long stand-up collar jackets and riding boots.

  She shrank back, bumping against Tor, as their signatures wrapped around her, speaking of their strength and power, pressing down on her.

  Tor stood and claimed her shoulders, his large hands clamping down on them, steadying her.

  These were Law Keepers?

  The one with the blond ponytail and hazel eyes looked the least formidable of the three, the smile lines bracketing his mouth saying he had owned a sense of humour at one point, and might still possess it now.

  The other two, both with black hair but one with short hair and grey eyes and the taller one with shaved hair and blue, were dark and cold, and aloof, looking down on her with empty eyes devoid of emotion. She had thought Tor looked and acted like an assassin. These two men made him look positively warm, fuzzy and social.

  They broke apart and scouted the room in silence, not acknowledging or greeting her.

  The blond smiled and strode forwards, extending his hand.

  Eve took it and tremendous pain shot up her arm, her stomach turning and threatening to expel the blood she had taken from Tor on waking. Tor wrenched her hand from the man’s, growled at him and pulled her into the protective shelter of his arms.

  The blond raised an eyebrow at her, his hazel eyes bright with intrigue.

  The bond. Tor had warned her that she wouldn’t be able to handle a man’s touch without experiencing incredible pain, and that he couldn’t tolerate another female’s touch. The sensation would fade in time, and if that level of agony was going to hit her whenever a man other than Tor laid a hand on her, that time couldn’t come soon enough.

  “If I had been forewarned, I would not have touched her,” the man said, a Spanish lilt to his smooth voice.

  “We couldn’t exactly forewarn people who are impossible to contact and impossible to make arrive promptly,” Eve bit out and nursed her arm, rubbing it to ease the pain.

  The man’s eyebrows shot up and the other two turned glares on her. Evidently, people didn’t normally speak up and put these men in their place.

  “Eve,” Tor warned and she nodded to let him know she had received the message and wouldn’t verbally slap the Law Keepers again.

  “You could have warned us via your Chosen Son,” the man said.

  “It hadn’t happened then. It’s an… ah… recent development.” She pushed out of Tor’s arms and faced the man again.

  “I see. Well, we will take it into account. It’s a good thing you’re the same bloodline.” He smiled but there was only coldness and menace in it this time.

  Eve wanted to mention he clearly drew vast quantities of pleasure from sentencing vampires who fell in love with someone from another bloodline to death, but held her tongue.

  The other two men joined their comrade, flanking him.

  “I’m Vincent,” the blond said and held his hand out to his right. “This is Serge.”

  The man with shaved hair and moody blue eyes nodded.

  “And Daemon.” Vincent swept his hand to his left.

  The one with stony grey eyes just looked her over in response, his gaze calculating and setting her on edge. She didn’t like him. There was something very off about him. If Vincent took vast quantities of pleasure from killing people just because they had fallen in love, then this man, Daemon, got high on it and probably got off on it too.

  He ran a hand over his thick black hair, causing the cuff of his black jacket to tug back and reveal a leather cuff wrapped around his wrist. The point of a silver blade flashed in the overhead lights. Eve moved another step away from him. Any man who carried concealed weapons like hidden blades was one she wanted to avoid.

  Eve took all three of them in. If they were typical Law Keepers, then she didn’t want to meet the others and she didn’t want to know what the one for the Vehemens bloodline was like. There was only one for each family. Seven chosen to enforce the laws and carry out the sentences on the guilty.

  She eyed them, trying to figure out which bloodlines they were from. She wasn’t up to speed on her who’s who of Law Keepers. Lincoln had mentioned they were going to work with the Caelestis, Aurorea, and Validus Law Keepers but that didn’t help her in the slightest. Was it rude to ask?

&n
bsp; Eve decided she would quiz Tor on it when they were alone. He stood behind her, an immovable wall of muscle and menace, his left hand on the curve of her waist. Staking his claim? As if a Law Keeper would be foolish enough to hit on a woman not from his own bloodline.

  “They are kindly arranging quarters for us. As soon as we are settled, and changed into more appropriate clothing, we would like to take a look at the city and the areas where you have witnessed activity related to this Midnight project you believe to be in progress.”

  Did Vincent always speak for Daemon and Serge? The other two seemed to lack a voice. Maybe Vincent was the only one willing to speak with her and Tor.

  And what the heck did he mean by ‘believe to be in progress’? As if she and Tor had imagined the whole thing. Eve reined in her temper. Suspicion was clearly their default position. They wouldn’t believe it until they saw it for themselves.

  “Very well,” she said and placed her hand on Tor’s on her waist. “As soon as you’re ready, we’ll take you into Amsterdam and show you around. I can’t guarantee they’ll be out on the hunt. We were waiting in for two valuable nights expecting you all to show up. Now that you’re here, we can get back to our work.”

  Tor’s hand tightened against her hip, his fingertips pressing into her in a silent warning. She knew she was treading a thin line but she didn’t care. It turned out her vampire family weren’t the only ones able to annoy her without really trying. Law Keepers could too.

  Vincent gave her a tight smile. “We shall meet back here in twenty minutes.”

  She nodded and watched them go. Serge shut the door behind them. As soon as it closed, she turned to Tor.

  “Spare me the lecture. I get that I should probably respect them. Everyone else does. And how does that work anyway?” She looked up into his clear blue eyes and frowned. “How is it they get respected for killing and protecting bloodlines, and you don’t?”

  “It’s a position thing, Eve. I have a rank within my bloodline, they have a rank outside of all bloodlines. Even the lords and ladies pretend to respect them.” Tor released her and leaned his backside against the large wooden table.