Gathering Darkness: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Anna Zaires

  Her fists were tightly clenched on the table, she noticed, and she forced herself to relax her fingers before proceeding. “And when you’re done with your business in New York,” she asked quietly, “what happens then?”

  He regarded her with a level gaze. “Why don’t we cross that bridge when we come to it?” he suggested gently. “That might not be for a while.”

  “No,” said Mia, past the point of caring. “I want to cross that bridge now. If your business gets done next week, what would happen then?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Mia could feel herself getting even colder inside. Slowly getting up from the table, she searched for something to say. There was really nothing. She wanted to yell and scream and throw something at him, but that would not accomplish anything. The clueless Mia that she was supposed to be would not read anything particularly sinister into his silence. It was only Mia the spy who knew what could happen to a girl that a K regarded as his charl.

  So she acted the way he would expect any normal girl to act when her boyfriend was being unreasonable. “Korum,” she told him with a stubborn expression on her face, “I’m going to Florida this summer—and that’s that. I have a life that doesn’t just revolve around you. I made these plans months before I knew you, and I can’t change things around just because you want me to—”

  “Mia,” he said softly, “you can change things around and you will. If you try to leave at the end of the week, I will stop you. Do you understand me?”

  She did. She understood him perfectly. But the Mia she was pretending to be wouldn’t.

  “What, you’re going to prevent me from getting on the airplane? That’s ridiculous,” she said, even as her stomach twisted with fear.

  “Of course,” he said. “All I have to do is make one phone call, and your name will be on a no-fly list at all your human airports.”

  She stared at him in shock. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to go to such lengths to detain her. She figured he might lock her in the apartment or something. But it made perfect sense . . . Why do something as crude as physically restraining her when he could simply exercise his power with the U.S. government?

  She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she held them back with great effort. “I hate you,” she told him, barely able to speak past the constriction in her chest. And she really did in that moment. If she’d had any doubts about helping the Resistance, they dissolved as she stared at his uncompromising expression. He had no right to do this to her, to take over her life like that—and his kind deserved exactly what they got. If Mia could really make a difference in the fight against the Ks, then she had an obligation to do so—even if it meant losing her life in the process.

  He got up then and came toward her. “You don’t hate me,” he said in a silky tone. “You may wish you did, but you don’t . . .” He grasped her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. His eyes were nearly yellow at this point. “You’re mine,” he said quietly, “and you’re not going anywhere without me. The sooner you come to terms with it, my darling, the easier it will be for you.”

  And so the gloves had come off then. He was not going to hide his true colors any longer.

  Mia’s fists clenched with impotent rage.

  “I’m not coming to terms with anything,” she hissed at him. “I’m a human being. I have rights. You can’t order me around like this—”

  “That’s right, Mia,” he said in that same dangerously smooth tone. “You’re a human being—the creation of my kind. We made you. If it weren’t for the Krinar, your species would not exist at all. Your people came up with all kinds of imaginary deities to worship, to explain how you came to be on this Earth. The things you have done in the name of your so-called gods are simply preposterous. But we are your true creators—we made you in our image. The only reason you have the rights you think you have is because we choose to let you have them. And we’ve been extremely lenient with your species, interfering as little as possible since we came to your planet.” He leaned closer to her. “So if I want to keep one little human girl with me, and I have to order her around because she’s too inexperienced to realize that what we have is very special—well, then, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

  Mia could barely think past the fury clouding her brain. Staring up at his beautiful face, she felt a surge of hatred so strong that she would have gladly stabbed him in that moment if she’d had a knife nearby. “Screw you,” she told him bitterly, taking a step back to avoid his touch. “You and your kind should just go back to whatever hell you came from and leave us the fuck alone.”

  He smiled sardonically in response, letting her go for the moment. “That’s not going to happen, Mia. We’re here and we’re staying—you might as well get used to it.”

  No, they weren’t. Mia would make sure of that.

  But he couldn’t know that yet, so she said nothing, just looking up at him in defiance.

  “And Mia,” he added gently, “I can be very nice . . . or not—it’s really up to you.”

  “Fuck you,” she told him furiously, and watched his eyes flare even brighter.

  “Oh, you will—and gladly.” He smiled in anticipation.

  Mia wanted to hit him. If he thought she would melt into a puddle at his touch, he had another thing coming. Unless . . .

  “Fine,” she said slowly, “but I call the shots tonight.” And she smiled back at him, ignoring the rapid beating of her heart.

  His eyes glittered with sudden interest. “Oh really? And why is that?”

  “Because that’s the only way I’m having sex with you tonight . . . willingly, I mean.” Her smile took on a taunting edge. “You can always force me, of course—maybe even make me enjoy it. But I will always hate you for it . . . and you will ultimately regret it.”

  “Okay,” he said softly, the bulge in his pants growing before her eyes, “let’s pretend you’re calling the shots . . . What would you like to do?”

  Mia moistened her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue and watched his eyes follow the motion with a hungry look. “Let’s go into the bedroom,” she said huskily, and walked past him, making the safe assumption that he would follow her there.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  They entered the room.

  Mia walked over to the bed and sat down on it, fully dressed. He was about to do the same, but she stopped him with a shake of her head. “Not yet,” she murmured, and watched him pause in response.

  “I want you to take off your clothes,” she said quietly, and waited to see what would happen.

  To her surprise and growing excitement, he did as she asked, removing his T-shirt with one smoothly controlled motion. She inhaled sharply, the sight of his muscular half-naked body making her inner muscles clench with desire. Watching her with an amused half-smile, he unzipped his jeans and lowered them to the floor, stepping out of them gracefully. His erection was now covered only by a pair of briefs, and Mia could feel herself getting even wetter inside.

  “Okay,” he said softly, “now what?”

  Mia’s heart was galloping in her chest. “Lie down on the bed,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt.

  He smiled and obeyed, sprawling out on his back, his hands behind his head.

  Mia got up and started taking off her own clothes, watching the bulge in his briefs growing even larger as she shimmied out of her jeans and unbuttoned her shirt. Still wearing her bra and underwear, she climbed on top of him, straddling his hips. All of a sudden, he no longer looked amused, his entire body tensing up as her sex pressed against his erection, with only the two layers of underwear standing in the way of his cock.

  Mia smiled triumphantly and put her hands on his chest, feeling the powerful muscles bunching under her fingers. The game she was playing was incredibly dangerous, yet she couldn’t help but be aroused by the control she was exerting over her normally dominant lover. Running her hands over his chest, she leaned forward and touched the flat masculi
ne nipple with her tongue, loving the way his cock jumped beneath her at the simple action.

  “Give me your hands,” she whispered, her hair brushing against his naked chest. He reached for her, but she intercepted him, grabbing his wrists. His eyebrows rose in surprise, but he let her stop him, observing her actions with a heavy-lidded amber gaze.

  She twined her fingers with his and pressed his hands into the pillow above his head, as though her small human hands could contain his Krinar strength for even a second. His eyes burned brighter with lust, but he did not resist, letting her hold him captive for now. She leaned closer to him and kissed his neck, and he arched beneath her with a sharp hiss. Reveling in his response, she lightly scraped the area with her teeth and was rewarded with a low growl. Rising up a bit, she repeated the action on the other side of his neck. By now, his body was nearly vibrating with tension, and she wondered hazily how much longer he would allow her to tease him like that. Still holding his hands, she kissed him on the lips, her tongue tentatively entering his mouth. He kissed her back with barely controlled aggression, and she sucked lightly on his tongue, causing him to buck underneath her. Leaving his mouth, she nibbled his neck again, focusing on the tightly corded muscle connecting it to his shoulder, and he groaned as though in pain.

  Loving her newfound power, Mia licked the side of his neck and tongued his ear, softly biting the earlobe. His hips thrust at her in response, but the underwear was in the way of his penetration. She moaned, her panties getting soaked with her juices as his erection rubbed against her clit.

  “Keep your arms raised,” she whispered, finally letting go of his palms.

  He did, and Mia could see the effort it took him not to touch her in the sweat beading up on his forehead. She moved down his body then, licking and kissing every inch of skin along the way until her mouth reached his flat stomach. His abdominal muscles quivered in anticipation, and she smiled with excitement, gently squeezing his balls through the briefs as her lips followed the dark trail of hair down from his navel to where it disappeared into his underwear. He groaned her name, and she hooked her fingers into his briefs, slowly pulling them down. As he lifted his hips to help her, his cock sprang up at her, the bulbous shaft stiff and the tip glistening with pre-ejaculate.

  Mia swallowed with nervousness and excitement, wondering what would happen if he lost control—if she drove him as crazy as he could make her.

  Grasping his shaft with one hand, she lowered her head and slowly licked the underside of his balls, which were tightly drawn against his body with extreme arousal. He hissed at her action, torso arching and cock jumping in her hand, and Mia let go of it, using her hands to cup his balls instead. Simultaneously, she closed her lips around the tip of his cock and moved to take him further into her mouth, stopping only when he reached the back of her throat. She could taste the saltiness of his pre-cum, and her sex contracted in excitement. His body vibrating from the tension, he growled low in his throat, hips thrusting at her in a wordless demand to take him deeper, but Mia resisted, moving her lips up and down his shaft in a torturously slow and shallow rhythm.

  And then he snapped.

  Before she even realized what happened, he had her on her back, her panties ripped to shreds and his cock pushing into her in one heavy stroke. She cried out in shock, her nails digging into his upper arms as he penetrated her all the way without giving her any time to adjust to his fullness. She was dripping wet, but it didn’t matter, and her inner muscles trembled in the desperate attempt to accommodate the invasion. There was pain, but there was pleasure too, as his hips hammered at her in a merciless, driving rhythm. She screamed—in agony, in ecstasy, she didn’t know which—and felt him swell even more, becoming impossibly harder and thicker, and then he was coming, his head thrown back with a roar and his pelvis grinding into her sex. Mia cried out in frustration, her own release only a few elusive seconds away, and then his teeth sank into her shoulder, and her entire world exploded from the sudden rush of heated ecstasy through her veins.

  It was not enough for him, of course, with the taste of her blood driving him into a frenzy, and his cock stiffened again inside her before her pulsations even ended. And Mia could no longer think at all, the drug-like high from his saliva turning her body into a pure instrument of pleasure, her skin unbearably sensitized to his touch and her insides burning with liquid desire. He drove into her relentlessly, and she screamed from the excruciating tension until she climaxed, over and over, in a never-ending cascade of orgasmic peaks and valleys, the night turning into a nonstop marathon of sex and blood.

  Finally passing out toward the morning, Mia slept, her body still joined with his and her mind void of any thoughts.

  ***

  Mia woke up the next day to the feel of someone’s hand gently playing with her hair.

  Surprised, she opened her eyes just a bit and saw Korum sitting by the edge of the bed, looking oddly concerned.

  “Wh-what are you doing here?” she muttered sleepily, blinking in an attempt to focus.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked quietly, brushing back a stray curl that fell over her eye.

  “Um . . .” Mia tried to think. Moving a little, she became aware of various aches and pains, as well as an extreme soreness between her thighs.

  Obviously not satisfied with her response, Korum pulled off the blanket, uncovering her naked body to his eyes. Her mind still feeling fuzzy, Mia followed his gaze as it lingered on the faint bruises covering her breasts and torso, many in the shape of finger marks.

  His face darkened with guilt, and he groaned. “Mia, I’m so sorry about this . . . I should’ve never let you play that game with me last night. I can usually control myself with you because I know how small and fragile you are, but I completely lost it last night . . . I never meant to hurt you like this—please believe me . . .”

  Mia nodded, still trying to understand what happened. All she could recall was the mind-blowing sex, mixed with the ecstatic rush from his bite.

  He gently stroked her shoulder, caressing the soft skin. “I am really sorry about this,” he murmured. “You’re so delicate . . . I should’ve never lost control like that. I’ll make you feel better, I promise—”

  The events of last night were slowly coming back to Mia. Her hand clenched into a fist as she remembered what had led her to tease him like that, and the feel of the ring on her finger was utterly reassuring.

  She might be sore this morning, but she was also hopeful that the little device had worked as promised. There was no guarantee, of course, but her finger’s proximity to Korum’s palm last night should’ve been sufficient to get access to the necessary blueprints. Now she just had to get the ring over to John and, for that, she needed Korum to leave her alone.

  “It’s all right,” she mumbled, trying to think of something appropriate to say. He was obviously feeling guilty about leaving a few bruises on her body. It struck her as hypocritical, this extreme concern for her physical well-being, since he obviously had no problem causing her emotional pain by upending her entire life. Then again, her being sore could interfere with their sex life, and he probably didn’t want that.

  “I’ll bring something, okay?” he said, and disappeared from the room with inhuman speed.

  Mia buried her head in the pillow while waiting for his return, desperately thinking of ways to get the information over to John quickly. She still needed to write her papers, so maybe she could tell Korum she had to get some books from the library.

  He was back a minute later, carrying the familiar device that had “shined” her and something else that she’d never seen before. The second object looked most like a lipstick tube, but was made of some strange material.

  “Um, I’m all right—really, there’s no need for this,” said Mia quickly, not wanting him to plant any additional tracking devices on her. For all she knew, the next batch of nanotechnology in her body might broadcast her every thought to him, and that was the last thing she wanted.<
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  “There’s every need,” he said, obviously surprised at her reluctance. “You’re hurt, and I can fix it. Why not?”

  Why not indeed. She didn’t have a good answer for that, and protesting further would make him suspicious. Getting caught so close to the end of her mission would be stupid, and it’s not like she didn’t already have the tracking devices embedded in her palms. What’s a few more?

  So she just shrugged her shoulders in response, letting him do as he wanted.

  He activated the “shining” device and ran the warm red light over her bruises. Seeing it work the second time was still incredible, with the marks on her skin disappearing as though they were never there. He was very thorough, inspecting every inch of her skin, and Mia blushed slightly at having so much attention paid to her naked body in broad daylight. Once he was done, he took the tube-like device in his hand and brought it toward her thighs.

  “What are you going to do with that?” she asked suspiciously, eyeing it with distrust. There was only one place remaining on her body that still hadn’t been healed, and the red light from the device could not reach there. She hoped the little tube wasn’t really going where it looked like it could go.

  Korum sighed and said, “It’s something we use for deep internal damage, when you have to heal various organs before you can mend the outer layer of the skin. I know it’s overkill for what you’ve got, but it’s the only thing I have in this apartment that can reach inside you to help you with the soreness.”