by Kita Bell
Time to forget about Rohe, her Gens, her mother. Time to forget about whatever it was that darkened Brand’s eyes over his past.
As Brand’s lips found her breasts through the sweater, Eva parted her thighs to straddle him, the scent of her arousal permeating the air of the cabin. She watched Brand’s face change, his nostrils flare as he drew it in. His jaw tightened, his muscles clenched, becoming so hard beneath her they felt like steel.
Eva gasped as her fingers found his rigid erection, stroking the solid length through his pants. Brand was huge, thick…god how he would fill her. Eva wanted his pants off, she needed…hunger sparked painfully inside her lower belly. “Brand,” she gasped, fingers tightening, her eyes flashing to his. She was wet enough.
Brand growled, opened his eyes.
Deep ruby striations traced the edge of his irises. His jaw was tense, his gaze wild. His thighs, his body, were hot beneath her. And Eva realized that Brand had gripped her hips, fastening her to him. The length of his erection pulsed against her cleft, so close, blatantly proclaiming his hunger. Eva slid forward, fitting herself against him, and tilted her hips. Brand hissed.
“What do you need?” It was a bare growl.
“You.”
“No. For this to work. To be right. What do you need?”
Eva looked up and smiled...ran her palm under the edge of Brand’s sweater…and rocked against his erection. He was hard beneath her swollen cleft, hot. And she was ready. So very ready. Not much.
The breath hissed from Brand’s teeth. The pained expression on his face made her even wetter.
She shivered. “That’s not all – of you – is it?” Eva whispered, meaning to tease…but her words came out breathy with anticipation. God, he felt like more than enough. She nibbled his throat, licked him.
“Eva.” Brand’s fingers dug into the softness of her hips.
“Shhh. Stop. Stop thinking. We’re forgetting. Remember?” Eva reached up to cradle Brand’s face as she rocked again, and he let her. She pulled back in time to see a feral expression enter Brand’s gaze.
“Answer. Tell me what you need. Now. Because I,” Brand’s voice was harsh, guttural, and for the first time, had the faintest twist of an accent in it, “…am going to fuck you, Eva. You keep rocking on me like that. But you need kind. If you want me to be kind, you tell me what you need. Now.”
Eva just smiled and ground against him. Brand closed his eyes, his jaw turning white. Biteable. She leaned forward, nibbled.
“Evita.”
“But that’s the point…isn’t it?” she breathed into his ear, inhaling the beautiful sunlit scent of him, beginning to get the faintest hinting scent of his own arousal, and gave a quick lick on his neck. “To fuck?” She pressed against the ridge of his erection, hard. “Maybe I don’t care about kindness. Maybe fucking is what I need.”
Brand was on her.
“Goddamned sweater Joshua bought you,” a snarl as he ripped the material away, as if he were offended by it, the lines of his claws trailing seductive points over her skin, then disappearing as he gripped her ribcage, running his callused palms up over her waist. The rough sensation of his hands rippled through her skin and Eva arched against him. The hunger inside her was mounting, the press of him against her maddening.
“It was…too hot anyway.” She needed him closer… “I thought it was…ah.” Eva gasped, her head falling back as Brand palmed her breasts, ran his thumbs up and over the confines of her bra, suckling the pulse of her neck.
“Joshua knows better. Buying clothes for my…” Brand focused on the red bra that set off the creaminess of Eva’s skin, and swore. When he looked up, the flecks in his gaze weren’t entirely due to lust, but to rage. “You let him buy that. Fucking…”
“Free bra,” Eva murmured, dragging his shirt up over his chest, baring the hard, muscled expanse to her teeth, her mouth. He ripped it over his head and tossed it away, and Eva swiped her tongue across a bronze, puckered nipple. Brand hissed and jerked beneath her hips and she clenched in response. “Free bra,” Eva gasped, lowering her forehead to his chest as she breathed the scent of arousal from his skin, soaking in the warm spiced flavor. He wants me. Brand’s aroused for me. “If you ruin it…you’re the one who gets…to pay him back…”
Brand snarled, there was the hot trail of claws against the delicate skin of her breasts, and the bra shredded away.
Eva froze and leaned back, staring at Brand in shock and dying protest. “That was my only bra.”
“I will buy you a new one.” No smile. Brand’s face was absolutely unyielding as he oh-so-slowly lowered his hot gaze to her taut breasts.
The heat of in expression made her gasp. Her breasts were swollen and heavy, her nipples achingly tight.
Brand raised a thumb, brushed it across her sensitive right nipple, and Eva shuddered.
Brand spoke in a low rumble. “If Joshua ever comes near your breasts, Evita, if he so much as buys you another undergarment, I will beat him within an inch of his life. Kinship notwithstanding.”
His possessiveness sent a chill down her spine, lodged into her heart. Brand’s hands were a steel trap around her ribcage…
…that set her afire as he leaned forward and caught the peak of her nipple between his teeth. He teased her into his mouth – pulled oh so gently – and sucked. As if she were candy, or chocolate.
The ache built between her thighs.
Eva forgot her reservations. She twined her arms around his neck, ran her hands through his thick silky hair and held Brand to her as he laved her breasts. Her body burned, the insistent press of his lips to her flesh spiraled through Eva, destroying her control.
Eva became increasingly aware of a need – another need – thickly lodged beneath her hips, hot and huge and insistent at the cleft of her opening. That need wasn’t just Brand’s, but hers too.
“Brand,” Eva groaned, the tiny cabin smelled of the spice of their mutual arousal, of their shared hunger. “I need you.”
Slowly he glanced up, his eyes a blaze of sapphire, gold and red. They flickered, so beautiful. The tip of her breast was caught between his teeth as he withdrew, tugging gently. His movements were steady, unhurried. He nibbled her, then, as she gasped – finally – released the pink, swollen flesh.
His large hands smoothed down her thighs, beneath the material of her pants. There was the faint prick of claw – and then they spread out hard, away from her, and Brand’s arms flexed as the cloth shredded from Eva’s thighs.
Then it was just Eva.
And Brand.
And his pants.
Eva attacked the clasp with a wild fury, wishing she could grow her claws as well, and only succeeded in ripping the top button away. It flew across the room, pinged against the windowpane, then fell to the floor. Then Brand cursed, his strong fingers sliding up under her hips, running into the folds of her heat and wetness, and Eva lost track of what she had been doing, of why she was so desperate.
Brand flicked against the nubbin of her flesh, dipping a finger into her ready body. Eva gave a hoarse cry, clenching around the thick intrusion as warm pleasure start to gather within her, her thighs trembling against him.
“Ah Eva, my Evita, I am going to eat you,” he murmured before pushing her away, back down into the seat cushions. Eva protested, refusing to move until she realized what Brand intended.
“No, I’m ready now,” she gasped. God, if Brand made her wait much longer… She needed him. She needed that thick length inside her. Now. No more waiting…no more…
Brand hands traced the softness of her belly, tucked under her hips to tilt them up to his wicked tongue and Eva gasped…
The door opened.
“Fuck,” Joshua swore, then the door slammed shut again as the room suddenly filled with the scent of aggression, danger and violence. Death.
Eva wrapped herself around Brand before he could launch himself out of the cabin after Joshua. His eyes were pure blood red, lips drawn from his teeth.
Claws out, but no longer gentle. “Brand! Brand, no. It’s Joshua.” He snarled again, and Eva forced her voice to steady. Despite her embarrassment. Despite the fact that she was naked. And despite the fact that Brand was…frightening. “Brand. Snap out of it. Now.”
He didn’t.
He pushed against Eva, trying to keep her behind him, but Eva refused to let go. Her heart thudded. She refused to get out of his path. “No,” she said again, but he disentangled her fingers and moved her aside as if her strength meant nothing. Eva shoved off the seat again to stop Brand, suddenly terrified – but not for herself. For him.
For what it would do to Brand, if he hurt Joshua.
God, a blind woman could see that they were as close as she and Rainey.
“Brand!” Eva gripped his arm, let the fear ride her voice, and panicked as he reached the door. The scent of her fear sliced through the lust in the air like a knife, so that the small cabin churned in a whirlpool of scents. “Brand, no!”
This time Brand stilled. He turned toward Eva, his face a mask.
“Brand, stop…” Eva didn’t know what to say to stop him, to hold him there. She gripped his arm. It was tense. “Joshua didn’t know. None of us knew. It was an accident. I know that. You know that. It was just…just sex.”
Brand flinched. Then his eyes flicked from red, to gold, before taking on sparks of blue. Eva dropped his arm, abruptly awkward and odd, standing there naked in front of the man she had been about to have sex with – but who, now that she knew Joshua was standing outside the door and probably listening to every word they said, she couldn’t possibly have sex with.
It was too…embarrassing.
Even if her body still wanted to. More than ever.
And that, Eva realized, is worst of all. It wasn’t normal. It was more frightening than anything Brand had done. Because Eva had lost her control. Where Brand was concerned, Eva couldn’t control her body, her actions. Her need.
She shuddered, crossing her arms over her exposed breasts, drawing away. No.
Awareness came back into Brand’s eyes. He ran fingers through his dark hair, and Eva saw – again – the withholding enter his gaze.
The withholding that earlier, she had fought so hard against.
Eva swallowed. “What was that…what happened to you just now?” Why did you do that to Joshua? Why do I need you, even after that? If I wasn’t holding myself here, I would wrap my arms around you, lick the sweat from your body and we would pick up exactly where we left off…
“Brand,” Eva whispered, catching his gaze. “Something’s not…right. Between us. Is it always like this – between two blood tigers?”
Brand rubbed a hand across his jaw. “Eva…” Eva glimpsed the depth of hunger in his expression before it shuttered again. He glanced away, out the dark window, “You don’t have to worry about that. It is…normal.”
Somehow, that felt like a lie.
Eva’s chest tightened and she shivered before quickly turning away.
“Yeah. Normal.”
The Bloodborn stood beside a bench in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at midnight and waited. He put his hands in his pockets and studied the moon.
He was young – only a little over a hundred – and had served a stint in WWI before returning stateside where he met his Winterbourne master. His master had been good; not long after that – on a night such as this – the Winterbourne had changed him, given him the gift of immortality. But he had lost the ability to walk in daylight. That was one of the prices he paid. It had been worth it. So ten short years ago, when his master had died, the Bloodborn grieved and vowed revenge. Eight more years had passed before his master’s Shadowline was destroyed, and the Bloodborn was cast into Rohe Nightchild’s tender keeping.
On nights such as this, the moon’s brightness reminded him of that first loss. And it reminded him of all the losses that had followed since.
But more than anything, the moon reminded the Bloodborn of the Nightchild’s eyes, when she first looked into his own, touched his cheek, and kindly proclaimed him Hers.
It had been true ever since. He would do anything for his beautiful Mistress, his pale Lady. When she had shared her blood with him…
Darkness shifted beside the Bloodborn, and he realized that he was being watched. He schooled his expression as Corin King stepped from the shadows, golden hair gleaming like moonlit wheat.
“You are the contact?” the Bloodborn asked, uneasy about the other Sakai. No. More than uneasy. Oddly frightened. Like prey.
King slanted him a dismissive glance, then stopped to gaze up at the moon as well. “You are one of Rohe’s more recent…acquisitions.” The words were toneless and cold, distaste lacing through them like a poisoned blade. The Bloodborn tensed, hand brushing his gun. But he had a job to do.
“I found them,” he said to the Strategoi’s side, gritting his teeth in irritation, determined to get this meeting over. He had a maid tied up in his bed at the hotel, waiting for him; he hadn’t fed tonight, and he had other leads to follow. “I swept the footage, found the train your targets are on. Here.” He held out a sheet of paper with the information. “The tickets are good to Whitefish, Montana.”
Slowly, Corin King glanced down from the moon. He eyed the Bloodborn’s dark talons for a long inscrutable moment before taking the paper between his thumb and forefinger to slip inside his coat. The Bloodborn shifted as that unsettling gaze fell on him.
“What more do you know of my targets?” the Strategoi asked mildly, and the Bloodborn began to sweat.
He licked his lips. “A woman. Two men. They are especially unique. The Mistress wishes them for her assessments.”
“You have purveyed many for assessment?”
“Of course.” He puffed out his chest in pride. He would not fail Rohe.
“Your approach lacks in subtlety. This has been noted.” A neutral statement.
The Bloodborn began to argue, but as the Strategoi’s expression chilled further, he dropped his gaze. “If you have nothing more for me, sir…”
“No. Nothing more,” Corin King said and looked up at the moon again, dismissing the Bloodborn as if he were a worm. A piece of vermin. A fat roach crawling the face of the earth.
The Bloodborn grimaced, and with a sense of reprieve, turned to go.
He didn’t see the sword that sliced out of the darkness to take his head. He didn’t feel the blade that twisted through his heart, rending the muscle. He didn’t see the figure that crouched beside him to watch, drop by drop, as his precious lifeblood drained away into the dirt until it stopped.
He was dead.
Corin King moved his lips in a smile at the corpse. “I didn’t like you,” he said dispassionately, as if in explanation.
He cleaned his sword on his victim’s coat and left.
Chapter 7
A tall slender man with dark red hair was waiting for them as Eva followed Brand and Joshua out of the Whitefish train station. The cold Montana wind cut through the coat Eva wore, carrying hard fragments of ice pellets and snow with it; her ragged hair whipped around her neck. The sky was a dark, leaden gray and Eva shivered as she glanced at it, wishing she was home with Rainey in their cozy house.
“Bryan. I didn’t expect you here,” Brand said to the red-haired man. “Not in Shiri’s condition. Where is Nikandrie?”
“Your sister remained at Stronghold,” Bryan said tersely; he gave a brief nod as his eyes found Eva. “Gaviros thought it was best I come, rather than Seth. Dmitrei brought a female in two days ago. We need to get you back. Kevin’s bringing the vehicle around.”
“Dmitrei. He was at Stronghold?” Brand swore, going still. “Did he and Seth fight?”
Eva frowned, Brand’s tension pulling at her even as Joshua interrupted with a snarl, “No one’s heard from that bastard in three years. Is he still at Stronghold?” He almost seemed angry…and disappointed.
So maybe Brand’s family isn’t so perfect, Eva thought dryly. Oddly enou
gh, it comforted her. It was nice to know that the Kades were well, normal.
“No to both.” Bryan shook his head, shrugging lean shoulders beneath the heavy gray parka as he watched the street. “Dmitrei dropped the girl off and left while Seth was out at the east lake. The girl’s from Arizona. Just past Initium,” Bryan’s eyes focused on Brand, “and her abilities got out of control. Her birth Gens couldn’t handle her, so they passed her off to a stronger Gens. Dmitrei said they were about to kill her when he came along.”
“Kill her?” Eva said in horror. If the girl was just past her Initium, she couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Eva had gone through her own first Change at fourteen. It had been terrifying, exhilarating.
Brand’s shoulders tensed. “Nikandria hasn’t been able to help her?”
“The girl won’t even come out of tiger form. And your sister’s been trying, Brand,” Bryan shook his head, then turned as an old mud-splattered SUV pulled up to the curb behind him. “Dmitrei could control the girl, but whatever it is that happened, she’s not right anymore.” Eva squinted at the tinted windows, absorbing their words as Bryan opened the central door to the red SUV and stepped in.
Not right anymore?
Eva shuddered. If she had been fourteen when Rohe kidnapped her, she never would have escaped. And sometimes, Eva wasn’t sure that she had. Is that what Brand and Joshua told their Gens about me? That I’m not right? Eva bit her lip against the pain that rose in her chest and told herself that what had happened earlier had no basis on her pain. She was only going to be at the Kade Gens for a short while, anyway.
Brand took her arm, tugging her toward the vehicle. “It’s warmer inside,” he murmured against her ear, breath brushing her neck. Eva shivered for an entirely different reason than the cold, and moved to sit behind the sober young man who was their driver.
He looked about nineteen or twenty, dark brown hair cut to shoulder-length, with that same wild almost-mane that Brand and Joshua had. His pale blue eyes were curious as he studied her in the rearview, and Eva thought the bone structure of his face was almost identical to the red-haired man’s – Bryan’s, she corrected herself.