Darkness Awakened

by Katie Reus

  When he started feathering kisses along her jaw up to her earlobe, she rolled her hips against him again. She wanted to feel his thick length pushing deep inside her, wanted to drink his blood while they made love. They’d done it so often in the past and she missed it more than she wanted to admit.

  But she didn’t dare ask for that. He might have offered his neck to her before, but it had been because she needed it. For her to feed from him while they were making love would make him vulnerable and she didn’t know if he was willing to do that. She was too afraid to ask.

  When he started a path down her collarbone to the upper swell of her breast, his teeth nipping her skin, she lost what little control she had left.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered, knowing the reaction she’d get.

  There was no way she could have contained the words. Couldn’t have even if she’d wanted to. Her body craved his in a way that defied logic. It was like she’d been made for him. And him for her.

  Letting her wrists go, Finn sat back. Breathing hard, he stared down at her, his blue eyes seeming to glow in the dark room. He’d been serious about how close his wolf was to the surface, ready to take over. She knew he was running on empty and needed a few precious hours of sleep. That, she could give to him. Later, if there was a next time for them, they could take things slow and relearn every inch of each other’s bodies. But not now.

  His eyes flared bright as he reached for her shorts. He practically tore them down her legs as she did the same to her top, frantically yanking it off and tossing it away.

  Once she was completely bared to him, his stare went molten. “You’re mine, Lyra.” There was no control in his hoarse voice.

  She nodded, not bothering to deny the truth. She was his and had been from the moment she’d stepped into that shifter bar so many years ago. He owned her heart and soul. She knew that made her ten kinds of stupid, but she didn’t care.

  He cupped her mound in that possessive way of his, dragging his finger along the length of her wet slit. When he slid two fingers inside her, testing her slickness, he shuddered, but didn’t take his eyes off hers.

  Moving away, he pulled back before settling his cock between her legs. His hard length pushed at her wet opening, but didn’t fully penetrate.

  “Don’t tease.” She couldn’t take it. Her inner walls tightened, knowing what was coming.

  Inch by inch he pushed inside her, his thickness filling her completely until she forgot to breathe.

  Growling, he buried his face against her neck. He scraped his canines against her soft flesh. “You feel amazing.”

  He did too, but she couldn’t find her voice. But she could show him what she needed. For him to move. Clutching onto his shoulders, she rolled her hips.

  He growled again and they found a steady rhythm as he thrust harder with each stroke. Each time he pushed deep inside her, her already building climax raced closer to the edge of that cliff.

  “Feed from me.” His strangled demand slammed through her.

  She couldn’t believe what he’d said but she wasn’t going to question it. She’d been keeping her fangs in out of fear she’d take what her body was demanding without his permission. His demand set her free.

  Releasing them, she sank her teeth into his neck the instant he tweaked her clit. As she sucked deep, his sweet blood coating her tongue and running down her throat, her orgasm surged through her.

  The sharpness of it took her by surprise. Hitting all her nerve endings at once, she lost all control as she was consumed by pleasure. She was filled with him, both his body and his blood, surrounded by his scent and his strength.

  “Lyra.” There he went again with that low, sexy voice.

  He continued thrusting as his climax built, his movements now unsteady and out of control. She knew he was going to come the moment before he let go. His entire body, including his neck muscles, pulled tight as he shouted her name. She sucked harder against his neck, knowing the reaction it would elicit, the intensified pleasure it would bring him.

  He groaned even louder as he continued slamming against her until they both collapsed, boneless. She licked the small puncture wounds, though they were already healing. She just wanted to taste him more, couldn’t seem to make herself stop.

  He simultaneously nuzzled her neck, murmuring her name under his breath. It sounded so much like a prayer that tears sprung to her eyes. She quickly blinked them away as sleep set in. Staying wrapped around him, she said, “Sleep, Finn.”

  He rolled to the side, tugging her with him as he moved. She curled up against him, soaking up his warmth as she let sleep overtake her. It touched her on the deepest level that this powerful Alpha trusted her enough to sleep in the same bed, to make himself even more vulnerable with her. She tightened her grip around him, taking advantage of their limited time together. As she started to doze she could hear his breathing even out. Good. In a few hours God knew they’d need it because she was going to rip this city apart until she found Vega.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lyra jerked up in bed at the low ringing sound, panic thrumming through her. Finn was gone and her internal clock told her sunset was maybe half an hour away. She snatched her phone off the nightstand and frowned at the number. She didn’t recognize it, but for all she knew it could be one of Finn’s packmates or he was using another phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Mom?” Vega whispered, her voice shaky.

  “Vega!” she shouted, then cringed. “Honey, where are you?” Lyra grabbed her discarded pants from the antique chair in the corner of the room and started tugging them on.

  “In a graveyard. I had to steal a phone from a human groundskeeper using mental persuasion. Then I told him to go home and forget he ever saw me.”

  She didn’t care if Vega had out and out mugged someone. She just needed her daughter’s location. “What graveyard?”

  “I’m not sure where we are,” she whispered again. “Claudius had me and another prisoner in chains. The prisoner helped us both escape but he’s hurt and we’re both exhausted. We…ran as far as we could but it wasn’t far. I don’t think any of his people followed us though because it was right at sunrise. I wanted to call you earlier, but we passed out. I barely managed to drag us into one of the empty vault tombs but mom, this guy is hurt and I’m exhausted. I can’t get him to wake up. We’ve got to help him and we both need blood bad.”

  Lyra grabbed her shirt, blade, shoes and jacket as she sprinted out the bedroom door. Keeping the items gathered against her chest, she raced down the hall, following the scents of the others in the house to guide her. “Can you see any kind of landmark? Is there any unique architecture in the cemetery? What stands out?” She barreled into the kitchen downstairs to find Finn, four of his packmates and Justus and Christian strapping on weapons. She mouthed Vega’s name as she pressed speaker and put the phone on the marble island. Lyra tugged her rumpled shirt on as the room quieted.

  “Hold on,” Vega said.

  Next to Lyra, Finn stared at the phone and gripped the island top until it cracked.

  “She escaped with another prisoner and is in a cemetery but doesn’t know where they are. She’s trying to figure out her location,” she murmured even though Vega would hear. She wanted her daughter to concentrate on her surroundings.

  “Okay, I see a lot of vault tombs. There are too many to count…” She trailed off for a moment and Lyra thought of something else.

  “Didn’t you say you stole this phone from a groundskeeper?” she asked.

  The moment she spoke, Lyra watched out of the corner of her eye as Spiro flipped open one of the three laptops on the counter. Without pause, he moved to the phone and looked at the caller ID before hurrying back to his computer.

  “Yeah!” Vega sounded excited now. “He was wearing a green and white uniform. It had…crap, I can’t remember what the patch on his shirt said.” Her voice started to waver and Lyra knew she was trying not to cry.

  “Hone
y, we’re going to find you, I swear. One of your father’s packmates is doing some magic on his computer right now.” She looked at Finn as she spoke. His jaw was clenched tight but she could see the determination on his face as he met her gaze.

  “I’ve got his billing address…his city of residence…hold on…” Spiro’s fingers flew across the keyboard and Lyra watched as a social media site popped up. “Got his current place of employment!” More typing and another screen popped up. “And from the cemetery website, the picture of their employees’ uniforms matches her description. This is the place.”

  “Did you hear that? We’re on our way,” she said as she watched Spiro pull up different maps.

  “Please hurry.” She sounded so young and vulnerable and Lyra wanted to kill her brother in that moment for putting Vega through hell. But more than anything she just wanted to save her daughter.

  “It’s isolated and not far from here,” Spiro murmured as he mapped out a path from their current place to the cemetery.

  “We’re going to find you, Vega,” Finn said, his voice thick with emotion.

  When her daughter didn’t respond Lyra took the phone off speaker and looked at Finn. “Go. I’ll leave as soon as the sun sets.”

  He nodded, though he was already moving toward the door, looking fierce and determined. As he hurried away, he pulled out his cell phone and started barking orders into it, letting other packmates know where to head. Everyone except Justus and Christian raced out the door.

  Lyra stayed on the line with Vega. “I’ll be leaving in ten minutes. I’ll fly so it won’t take me long. After that I should be there in five.” If her guesstimate from the open map view on the laptop was any indication it wouldn’t take long.

  “I believe you…I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to him. I just got tongue-tied.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Did you escape from the basement of a house with cells in it?” And a hell gate, but she didn’t want to ask that just yet.

  “Yes, but there was more there too. Mom, there was a hell gate and ritualistic stuff. It was scary.”

  “How did you escape? What happened to Claudius?” Maybe her brother was dead.

  Vega paused. “Can anyone else hear you?”

  Lyra met Justus’s gaze. “Two vampires can. They’re honorable though and won’t repeat anything you say.” She put a deadly bite behind the words. So far she believed them, but at this point she was still being cautious.

  Both vamps nodded. “We swear.”

  “Did you hear that?” Lyra asked her daughter.

  “Yes. Claudius was injured but not killed. And…please don’t freak out but I was shot a couple times. So was the man who rescued me.”

  Lyra sucked in a sharp breath and forced herself to remain calm. No wonder they hadn’t been able to get far. “How are you now?”

  “Healed. Both of us. They were lead, not silver. Our bodies pushed the bullets out but that’s why we couldn’t go far and why we must have lost consciousness. We’re just lucky no humans saw us.”

  “I’m so sorry, Vega. This is my fault.” It probably wasn’t the time for apologies, but she had to say it. As she spoke she strapped her blade on. “I should have let you go to see your father when you wanted.”

  Vega sniffled. “No, I should have listened. I just didn’t want to wait one stupid week for you to contact him and make arrangements. I should have been patient. This is my fault.”

  Lyra shook her head even though her daughter couldn’t see her. She started tugging her boots on. “None of this is your fault. Now tell me how you two escaped.” The leftover scorch marks and burned out doors could mean any number of creatures, none that she could think of that were good.

  “You can’t tell anyone… Can you find some privacy?”

  Lyra looked at the other two vampires and raised her eyebrows. Wordlessly they nodded and disappeared out of the room. She trusted them not to eavesdrop. “Okay, it’s just me now.”

  Vega pushed out a harsh breath. “The man who saved me came out of the hell gate. I thought maybe he was a demon at first but…he’s a dragon,” she whispered the last part. “Before he passed out he made me promise not to tell anyone. But you don’t count. Just please—”

  “No one else will know.” Shock rippled through her, but Lyra didn’t care if a flying hedgehog had saved her daughter. All that mattered was Vega had escaped. “Did he injure Claudius?” It had to be the only way they’d managed to get out.

  “He burned a couple of Claudius’s vamps to ash and managed to graze Claudius before they opened fire on us. We still made it outside and from there he flew us a few miles until the sun started coming up. He wasn’t able to fly very high before we basically crashed. I was in so much pain so I can only imagine he was worse. He…took most of the bullets for me, Mom. God, we’ve got to save him.” Vega started crying then, the sound echoing from the vault tomb she was in.

  “We will,” Lyra said as she tugged her jacket on. “I’m keeping the line open and will leave this in my pocket, but I’ve got to go now. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Lyra shoved the phone in her pocket then quickly found the other two vamps waiting near the front of the house. When Justus saw her, he handed her a gun which she tucked into the back of her pants. She didn’t mind being over prepared with weapons right now. Without any further conversation, she yanked open the front door and raced outside. While the other two headed toward the driveway where an SUV waited for them, Lyra ran down the side of the house toward the backyard. Once she was sure she wasn’t being watched by nosey humans, she took to the air, using the cover of night to hide her.

  * * *

  “Did you hear that?” Vega whispered to the unconscious, naked man with no name curled up in their cramped hiding spot. She set her phone down on the marble slab next to him. “Of course you didn’t,” she muttered, hating the fear that had taken over.

  After being shot three times—which was another one of her new experiences she was going to pretend never happened—she’d tried so damn hard to stay awake once they’d found shelter. But that had freaking hurt. It didn’t matter that she was supernatural and could heal faster, metal ripping through her flesh and bones sucked any way you looked at it. Now she felt as if she’d run back-to-back marathons. After losing so much blood beforehand she was just glad she was alive.

  “We’re going to be okay,” she whispered again as she placed her palm over the man’s forehead. His temperature was so high she wasn’t sure how he could survive without help. Even though she was weak, she scored her wrist with her fangs and held it up to his mouth.

  He moaned and moved against the stone floor as he slowly drank, but he still didn’t open his eyes. So far their hiding place was working out pretty good. The cemetery the dragon shifter had flown them to was quiet, not like the touristy ones she’d read about. She’d been unconscious most of the day while her body healed itself so if there had been a lot of visitors she hadn’t heard any of them from inside the tomb.

  She still felt bad about stealing that guy’s phone after she’d gone looking for help, but—she straightened at a very faint sound. Almost like a rustling outside.

  Removing her wrist from the shifter’s mouth, she stood up as much as she could. Because of the vaulted top she had a little room, but was still hunched over. Moving toward the marble slab covering, she turned her ear and listened.

  When it cracked down the middle, she scrambled back, her heart in her throat. That sulfuric stench invaded her senses as she moved to cover the shifter’s body. Even though she was weak she let her claws extend. She might not be able to shift to her wolf, but she wasn’t letting anyone take her again. No freaking way.

  The covering suddenly ripped away. Behind her, she felt the dragon moving, but she kept her focus on the opening. Moonlight streamed in as her uncle appeared in the dome opening.

  He smiled evilly, his perfect features so at odds with the dark aura that clung to him l
ike an oily film. “Stupid bitch. You can’t escape me. I tagged you the moment I took you,” he snarled.

  Tagged? What the hell did that mean? Before she could respond an enraged howl rent the air. It was so loud, so primal, it sent chills down her spine. Multiple howls immediately followed, the sound music to her ears no matter how freaking scary. It was her father’s pack.

  She knew it and so did Claudius. He let out a vicious curse then looked to the side, away from her and out of her line of sight. “Stay with them. If they try to leave, kill them,” he commanded.

  In a blink he’d disappeared from view. Tentatively she moved to the entrance but jumped back when two of the grossest creatures she’d ever seen stepped into view. With reptilian skin and yellow eyes she immediately knew what they were.

  Akkadian demons.

  She also knew that her blood supposedly had the ability to control them. Now she had to figure out how and put it to use.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lyra’s fear skyrocketed out of control as she skimmed the top of the oak trees. Vaulted domes and gravestones lined the expansive cemetery as far as she could see. She pulled her phone out of her pocket. The wind whipped around her as she scanned the area. “Vega?” she whispered.

  No answer.

  A moment ago she’d heard the howls of Finn’s pack but then everything had gone silent. There were too many trees in the cemetery blocking her view. From the map she knew it expanded for a couple miles.

  As she scanned the graves below her, a flash of glowing yellow caught her eye. She focused on it and made out two reptilian forms.

  Withdrawing her blade, she continued her silent descent, her focus laser-sharp. Two Akkadian demons hovered in front of a vaulted grave. Large chunks of marble littered the ground as the demons looked at each other. It was almost as if they were communicating something, but with the direction of the wind she couldn’t hear well enough.

  Didn’t matter.

  She couldn’t see anyone else around as a possible threat. Raising her blade high, she increased her descent. The two creatures didn’t even hear her as she swooped down. She sliced at the first one, severing its head in one perfect move. Using her momentum she struck again, slicing off the next one’s head.