Stryke (New Vampire Disorder Book 4)

by Marie Johnston

  Zoey growled. Stryke was hers.

  Quution ducked into an opening and stepped back out. “I’ll weave an energy ward for you until Stryke can raise one himself.”

  Zoey towed Stryke inside. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I admit to a foreign fondness toward him because we’re related. While I do hold some resentment toward him for leaving me in that hellhole, he didn’t know I existed.” Quution straightened his dirty clothing. “And you and rest of the vampires are necessary to carry out our plans. Simple as that.” His lilac eyes flicked to where Stryke paced the cave as if waiting for an opening. “We’ve sworn allegiance to each other.”

  Was that a challenge or a warning? “I’ve heard. I don’t plan on interfering.” Her heart fell. She’d had her chance.

  With a curt nod, Quution left. Zoey’s skin tingled as the energy wards went up. Nice power to have.

  She eyed the opening. Did the opening keep others away? Would they walk by and know what was going on in here but not get in?

  She sighed and started unbuckling her weapons belt and harness. Setting them by the hard dirt bed, she continued to her clothing.

  Stryke faced away from her, his back taut, his buttocks tense and rounded. Liquid heat pooled into her belly. Hellfire. She wanted this. Her shirt came off, then her pants.

  “Get dressed.” His guttural words sent more heat to her core. She’d missed him. Wanted more time with him to sit on the couch and chat while watching TV. Wanted fucking matching pajamas. Wanted to sup on his blood and split a Gatorade with him.

  Could they still do that while she did her job and he did his? Could she walk away from the Synod without regrets, without feeling like she was letting her people down over a male?

  She could. She wasn’t leaving it for him, she was leaving for her.

  “Come here, Stryke.”

  His head twitched to the side. “I’m not taking you like this.”

  “I want you to.” She closed the distance between them and slid her hands over his hot shoulders. Stepping closer, she pressed a cheek to his back. He flinched.

  “I can’t do this again.” The pain in his words drove straight into her heart.

  “I don’t just want to help you. I want to be with you. Always.”

  Tremors shuddered through him. “You can’t mean that. You’re stuck down here—you need me.” The words were full of bitterness.

  She drew back. After a beat of anger passed, she recognized the fear in his voice. “Have you ever known me to be the type of girl to sleep with a male out of pity or fear?” She waited for an answer and sensed his defenses dropping. “And you know me better than anyone,” she said softly.

  He finally turned around, his manhood wedged between them, but she didn’t touch it yet, needed him to accept this act between them as more than a quick fuck to take the worst of the poison’s edge off.

  “So we have sex. Then what?” His violet eyes swirled with uncertainty.

  She reached up and plucked the pins out of her hair and let it cascade down her back. Fire ignited in his gaze. “I was thinking… Why could I have both a mate and a bond to you? Has any demon tried bonding a second time?”

  He paused. “They usually try avoiding the first time.”

  “What if we try again?”

  Disbelief crossed his face, followed by suspicion. He didn’t trust her intentions.

  “I want us to make this work and it can’t work down here. I’d be too big of a target. But I want you, Stryke.” She wrapped a hand around his hot, pulsing shaft.

  The muscles in his arms bulged as he resisted reaching for her. “And if it works, what about the Synod? They won’t allow you to remain bonded to me.”

  “Fuck ’em.” When his gaze narrowed incredulously, she continued, “I was doing exactly what I’d been determined not to do my entire life. I was letting another dictate what I was and wasn’t allowed to do, and it didn’t just affect my job, but my life…and yours.”

  A low rumble started, but his eyes remained narrowed. The sound grew until he growled and banded his hands around her biceps. Twirling her around, he pressed her up against the wall and hooked her legs around his waist. His gaze swept up to her forehead.

  “Were you injured?”

  “A little.”

  He shoved inside in the next second.

  She wasn’t as prepared for him as usual. Pleasure/pain filled her and he stilled.

  “Dammit, did I hurt you?”

  “Keep going,” she gasped and smashed her mouth against his. His wood-fire taste filled her senses and he thrust once before he came for the first time.

  He continued to piston in and out. She didn’t try to match his rhythm but let him take her with complete trust. Their tongues tangled, but he pulled away and kissed a hot, wet path down her neck.

  His fangs nicked her and she shivered. He lapped at the drops of blood and slammed into her and stopped. “Promise yourself to me.”

  Her eyelids fluttered open and she had to reorient herself from the ecstasy coursing through her body. It was no problem to acquiesce. “I’m yours.”

  He struck, piercing her vein. Zoey bowed as much as she could between the wall and Stryke as her orgasm slammed into her.

  Stryke released in a second orgasm but kept pumping.

  “I don’t feel anything different,” she gasped, barely able to think around the ecstasy.

  “Because it didn’t work,” he growled.

  No. It had to work. It had to. She wanted to be linked to this male, wanted it more than anything. She didn’t care about her safety, didn’t care if she returned to Earth. Sure, they could be a couple, but she wanted the damn link!

  “Use your energy.”

  He stilled and looked her in the eye, his gaze the clearest she’d seen since she reunited with him. His forehead crinkled in concentration and his eyelids fell shut.

  Her lips parted as faint tendrils of energy warmed her insides. “I can feel you.”

  With a groan, his hips undulated. “Zoey, I can’t hold back. If this works, it’s for real. I’m not letting you go again.”

  Hellfire, she hoped not. She cupped his face. “Do it. I’m yours. For all time.”

  As he filled her body with his energy, a special, singular bond linked them and she relished the feeling of completeness it created. She had him back. She didn’t want to be without him.

  He closed off the wound and bared his neck for her. She caressed his face instead. “I love you, Stryke.”

  He met her gaze and stilled. The change was instantaneous. He wrapped his arms around her back and turned them away from the wall. With her wrapped around him, still connected in the most intimate way, he settled onto the rectangular platform, not letting Zoey take the brunt of the hardness.

  Zoey stretched over him and he cradled her head into his neck so she could feed. She rode him in a steady pace, located his vein, and reveled in the changes that had taken place between them. They made love and bonded in the underworld.

  ***

  His body was his own again, thanks to his female.

  His female. Zoey was his once again, willingly this time. He couldn’t believe it had worked. This bond was different, like a current ran between the two of them.

  But would she stay? She no longer had the bracelet to demand he release her, but he would if she asked. He’d catch and release her until he exhausted his bond-forming abilities.

  She was dressing and he shouldn’t watch, because he was hard again. He had no clothes to don, so he waited. She twisted her hair into a bun, but this time it didn’t seem like a defense against the world, but a way to keep from having it used against her in a fight.

  Finishing with her hair, she started on her weapons. “Between you and me, can we get Creed and Melody back?”

  “Dunno. Don’t think it’s ever been tried before.” He wasn’t supposed to be able to bond again, either.

  “What if we can’t?”

  “Q and I will hide
them until we figure it out.”

  She dropped her hands to her side, her expression solemn. “You two are really doing this.”

  He bobbed his head. They were. And it felt right. He and Zoey felt right. But were the two mutually exclusive? “Ready?”

  When she nodded, he wove his fingers through the air and dismantled Q’s wards. The energy waves were so like his own, he marveled over it every time.

  They maneuvered back to Creed and Melody. Fyra and Bishop had arrived and were hovering over the couple on the floor. The girl was still ashen and limp in Creed’s arms. Quution brooded in the corner. No one was speaking to each other. As they entered, the energy vibrated with hostility, desperation, and curiosity. Only desperation emanated from Creed. From the way Stryke’s brother watched Melody, that answered the curiosity question. From the way Quution’s gaze clouded when he looked at Creed, there was the hostility.

  Was his brother crushing on a human?

  “How do we do this?”

  Quution pushed off the wall. “We link hands like some kumbaya human bullshit.” His brother had flicked his concerned gaze toward Melody at the word “human.”

  Stryke glanced at Zoey, who’d subtly raised a brow toward him.

  They crowded around Creed. If the male cared that they were there, he didn’t show it, and they had to wrestle their hands around his because he wasn’t letting go of the blonde.

  The sight of Zoey’s hand in Creed’s no longer bothered Stryke. It was obvious there was nothing but friendship between them. Any ill feelings toward Creed would no longer originate in Stryke at least. He couldn’t speak for his brother.

  “What do I do?” Zoey asked.

  Stryke gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s probably like flashing. Envision the place you’ll arrive. We’ll go to the compound, right by the door where the fight for the kids took place. You and I will try to transport with them and Quution will push us with his energy.”

  Fyra’s brilliant gaze assessed all of them. “Let’s do this.”

  Zoey closed her eyes.

  Stryke kept his open, along with Quution. Creed watched them with both hope and suspicion. Then he glanced at Fyra and Bishop as if for reassurance. Stryke latched onto his bond with Zoey, his first priority to get her home.

  A familiar draft of displacement wafted over him. He and Zoey disappeared, a wave of Quution’s energy riding behind them.

  Her eyelids flew up and Stryke clenched his jaw. Fresh, cold air with the crisp smell of winter surrounded them. Fyra and Bishop stood next to them.

  Until Quution’s hologram appeared. “Well, that didn’t work.”

  “They didn’t budge.” Stryke hadn’t felt any willing energy from the couple they’d left behind.

  Quution sighed. “I will hide them, then. The girl needs time to recover.”

  Zoey drew her phone out and started messaging. “We’ll work on finding a way to help Melody, to remove her power.”

  Bishop guided Fyra to the compound’s door. “We’ll update D.” They disappeared inside.

  “I can try the transfer spell again.” A muscle jumped in Quution’s jaw and his prosthetic teeth ground together. “But I doubt she’d survive the attempt.” He drew himself up straighter. “Brother, to ward the place, your assistance is required.”

  And Quution threw down the first test. Would Stryke say fuck them all and stay with Zoey?

  She’d paused on her phone, and her gaze met his.

  “I will be back when I can.”

  Zoey blinked. “Oh, of course. Um…yeah. Demetrius will want to talk with Quution. We need to come to an agreement.”

  “And I’m your main line to your missing friends,” Quution tacked on. “Got it.”

  He vanished and Stryke felt like he should say more, explain when he was going to be… home? Back? When he’d return?

  Did he lean in and give her a good-bye kiss?

  Zoey seemed to sense his indecision and she gave him a little smile. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Okay. So that was it.

  ***

  Two days later, Stryke threaded through the hallway of the compound to Zoey’s apartment in the early morning hours. Fatigue weighed on him, and he hadn’t even stopped to steal a pair of sweats. He would’ve broken into the compound, but Fyra had met him at the door and let him in, muttering about not having access for him yet because without Creed’s help, she’d fried the computer. He gave her the quick rundown of how they’d stashed Creed and that there’d been no change in Melody’s condition. She was comatose but breathing fine on her own with a steady heartbeat. He rattled off a time and place for his brother to hologram with Demetrius. Fyra had said she’d pass it on in case he was, wink, wink, busy.

  Would he be? He approached Zoey’s door.

  Would he be welcome here? Was their bond truly more than a work arrangement? Her only experience with him was when he’d have done anything for her, but within an hour of recommitting herself to him, he’d disappeared. Her mate had given up everything for her. Now Stryke sacrificed his time and safety for others. Would she truly be okay with that?

  He tested the doorknob with his senses and was surprised to find it unlocked. He opened it and went in.

  Zoey was cross-legged on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn in her lap. Her hair was down in soft waves around her face. The TV was playing a cartoon movie with colorful clown fish. Her doe eyes lit up and she smiled.

  A pang of guilt nailed him when he looked back down at the bowl. She’d been resorting to dietary salt because he hadn’t been available for blood. That would be the way it was for them. He’d be away for work. She’d be away for work.

  “Hey, you’re home—here.” She chewed her lip. “I mean, this can be your home, but you don’t have to…”

  He frowned and scanned her place. It was the same, but different. His gaze landed on the eggplant lampshade, the rainbow lap blanket, and the throw pillows with cats all over them.

  She was back to worrying her lip. “I, uh, since… I had some extra time since I no longer have to attend the Synod meetings, so I went shopping. It was too plain in here.”

  She stood up and the shorts with cartoon cats became visible. His heart warmed but not much as blood rushed to his cock.

  He held his desire at bay. “The Synod removed you.”

  “I removed myself. They don’t get to dictate my life. I have my work with the team. Now that we’ve identified another population the brokers are targeting, I have plenty to do.”

  The tentative wall he’d built wavered. “How has your salt supply been?”

  Genuine confusion crossed her face before understanding set in. “Same as always.” A slow smile curved her lips. “I’ve lived like this my whole life. You’re kind of like dessert. Don’t worry when you’re gone. The guys have me covered if shit goes to hell.”

  He didn’t like the idea of not being there to help, but for Zoey, it was life, it was how she preferred it. His wall crumbled and his arousal bloomed.

  Heat simmered in her eyes when she noticed his manhood growing. “I have the matching sweats for you, but it looks like we might not need them for a few hours.”

  And she was cutting her playful side loose. “You’re really serious about us?” he asked, his voice thick.

  She shed her top and stepped out of her shorts as she reached him. “I am. I know your time will be split between here and the underworld, but we’ll make it work. I think it’ll be good for us.” She hesitated, as if testing what she was going to say next. “I’m proud of you.”

  He shoved the door closed behind him and sent an electric bolt to lock it. The next shock he sent out tickled across Zoey’s ass.

  She yelped, her eyes widening in surprise before she threw her head back and laughed.

  Stryke’s gaze followed the smooth column of her throat to her smiling, beautiful face. He wrapped his arms around her and caught her mouth in a kiss. He was finally holding his mate, his true mate.


  ___________________

  Thank you for reading. I’d love to know what you thought. Please consider leaving a review at the retailor the book was purchased from.

  ~Marie

  For new release updates, chapter sneak peeks, and exclusive quarterly short stories, sign up for Marie’s newsletter and receive download links for the book that started it all, Fever Claim, and three short stories of characters from the series.

  About the Author

  Marie Johnston lives in the upper-Midwest with her husband, four kids, and an old cat. Deciding to trade in her lab coat for a laptop, she’s writing down all the tales she’s been making up in her head for years. An avid reader of paranormal romance, these are the stories hanging out and waiting to be told between the demands of work, home, and the endless chauffeuring that comes with children.

  mariejohnstonwriter.com

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  Also by Marie Johnston

  The Sigma Menace:

  Fever Claim (Book 1)

  Primal Claim (Book 2)

  True Claim (Book 3)

  Reclaim (Book 3.5)

  Lawful Claim (Book 4)

  Pure Claim (Book 5)

  New Vampire Disorder:

  Demetrius (Book1)

  Rourke (Book 2)

  Bishop (Book 3)

  Pale Moonlight:

  Birthright (Book 1)

  Ancient Ties (Book 2)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen