by Larissa Ione
A slow, cocky smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Good Lord, were they really bantering? In this incredibly fucked-up situation? He seemed to realize the incongruity of it all as well, and he sobered, releasing her as if she were a burning coal.
"Get away from me." He shoved at her, knocking her off balance and sending her sprawling. Instantly, he was on his knees beside her, his hands on her shoulders. "Oh, shit. Andy, I'm sorry."
She allowed him to help her sit up, but he didn't remove his hands. Neither of them moved a single muscle. Even the air went still with the uncertain tension hanging in the cell. Gradually, she became aware of the fact that Kaden's entire body was trembling, and once more, his gaze was fixed on her throat.
Something touched her hand. The stake. He pressed it into her palm even as he lowered his head toward her neck. Her heart slammed into her rib cage and her stomach clenched, but she remained motionless, focusing all her energy on simply breathing, because that, at least, was still in her control.
"Don't let me do it," he rasped, but his lips were grazing her suddenly sensitive skin.
He closed her fingers around the stake. His teeth scratched her throat, tiny, erotic pricks of pain.
His masculine need rolled off him in waves, and her traitorous body answered, going wet and molten hot. In the past, she'd always responded to him quickly, often from nothing more than a lustful look. But this was different. It was as though she was flame and he was fuel, and there was nothing she could do but let it all burn out of control.
That's how they get you. Vampires are very sexual beings, they ooze sex appeal and are magnetic and irresistible to humans. They're spiders that weave sensual webs to capture the careless fly.
The familiar words of Aegis leaders rang through her head, and though she knew she should fight, she couldn't.
"Please," he whispered brokenly. He lifted her hand, placing the point of the stake over his heart. "I can't control...myself. Don't want to hurt you." His mouth was at her jugular.
Andrea's entire body quivered, and a sob caught in her throat. What he was asking her to do...oh, God.
A shudder tore through Kaden's body. "Andrea...fuck."
His fangs pierced her skin. Her stake pierced his. They both gasped. Neither had gone deep, but there was no doubt they could both kill.
They remained still, frozen in a twisted game of cat and mouse. He needed to feed, and she needed to kill him, but neither had the willpower.
He squeezed her hand, putting pressure on the stake, driving it deeper into his flesh. She strained against him, her hand shaking as she tried to keep him from jamming the stake all the way to his heart. She wasn't ready to do this. Wasn't ready to lose the person who had filled her life with more than revenge.
Before Kaden, she'd been nothing but a machine. She'd done what was required to stay alive -- eat, sleep, drink. But there'd been no joy beyond killing demons, vampires, and weres. Kaden had saved her life -- more than once.
"No!" In one smooth move, she flung the stake away and grasped his head, pulling him firmly against her.
Kaden's teeth penetrated her throat in a white-hot stab of pain that veered sharply to pleasure. His moan vibrated through her, and she was lost to him.
Chapter Four
She should have killed him.
Now it was too late, and Kaden didn't think he'd ever be the same. He'd crossed a line -- vaulted over it -- and there was no going back. Sensation stabbed at him, shooting like mini-orgasms through his fangs, all the way to his groin. He should tear himself away from Andrea. Man-up and do the right thing.
But he was so cold and she was so warm. She smelled like leather and cherries -- a strange combination, but one that had always excited both the lover and the warrior in him. And best of all -- worst of all -- she tasted like sweet, sweet sin. Silky, warm blood filled his mouth and cascaded down his throat, filling that empty hole inside him that hurt.
No, not filling...because his chest cavity was truly empty now, his ribs caging in a useless heart and lungs that still breathed even though they didn't need air. Some sort of cell memory kept him breathing, he supposed, and he wondered when that would end, when his lungs would collapse and shrivel.
Andrea's pulse tapped against his teeth, and he moaned at the ecstasy of it. He'd been guided by instinct when he'd bitten her, and even though guilt knotted his stomach, he couldn't fight the drive to suck harder.
He also couldn't fight the desire to ease her onto her back and settle himself between her legs. Only the knowledge that there was a camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling kept him from tearing off her clothes, ripping open his fly, and plunging into her body. But still, some instincts were too powerful to deny, and he rocked his erection against her core, drawing a low, heady groan from her.
Beneath him, she writhed, arching up to plaster their bodies more solidly against each other. An erotic surge crashed through him in a hot tide, swelling his cock and making his balls throb. Andrea tightened her legs around his hips so his cock rubbed right where she needed it, and with each thrusting motion, she gasped, her panting breaths coming faster and faster.
Damn, he loved the sounds she made when she was making love. Granted, they weren't exactly making love, not while they were fully clothed, but the motions were the same, the feelings were the same, and oh, yeah, the way she drove him wild with her fingers digging into his back was the same.
"Kaden," she whispered, "yes, yes."
She was close, something he knew not from experience, but from his new senses. He could smell the delicious scent of her lust, could taste the zing of desire in her blood. It was like a drug he knew he couldn't kick. As a human, sex had been great. As a vampire, it was out of this world, and he hadn't even gotten inside her.
Delicious agony.
He shuddered, sucked, rocked against her until the friction became nearly too hot to handle and a vibration sang through his veins. This was crazy, but his body had hijacked his thoughts, and nothing mattered but getting inside her. Impatient, he slid his palm down her body, but before he reached her zipper, she cried out, her orgasm hitting so hard and fast he could only hang on for the ride as she bucked beneath him.
She called out his name, over and over, her smoky, pleasure-soaked voice nearly sending him over the edge with her.
"I love you," she whispered. "God, I love you."
The words stopped him in his tracks like nothing else, not even his own will, had been able to do. She'd never said that to him, not in the entire year they'd been together. He'd suspected, but then, he'd suspected that he was in love with her, too. But it was something he'd never planned to admit, not when a Guardian's lifespan was as likely to be measured in months as in years.
Five years ago, he'd lost Gabrielle to this violent life just days after their engagement, when she'd been bitten by a werewolf, had slaughtered several other Guardians, and Kaden had been forced to kill her.
He couldn't go through that again, and he'd guarded the words, "I love you," with the ferocity of a lion protecting his pride. Andrea knew how he felt about love, and damn her for striking at him with a weapon every bit as dangerous and painful as a stake.
Roaring in agony and fury, he broke away from Andrea, surprising himself at the speed with which he came to his feet. Wide, glazed eyes blinked in confusion even as she slapped a palm over her throat. Blood seeped from between her fingers, and shit, he was a dumbass. A newbie vampire dumbass who must look utterly ridiculous, standing in a cell with a raging hard-on making a tent in his cargos.
Quickly, he seized her upper arms, yanked her to her feet, and swiped his tongue over the punctures he'd made, another instinctive move. And then he stepped away, but the cell was far too small to allow enough distance between them. An entire ocean of distance wouldn't be enough. Not when he still wanted her so badly it hurt, which was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid.
"Dammit, Andrea." He rammed his hands through his hair, needing to do something with t
hem before he grabbed her again and this time, refused to let go. "I told you--"
"Yeah, you told me." Her hands formed fists at her sides, and her face was flushed from her climax -- and from anger. "Told me you never wanted to fall in love again, because it hurts too much when it ends. You told me when we first fell into my bed that our relationship could go nowhere except between the sheets. But it went a lot further than that, and you know it. It's time to stop skirting the issue and pretending that we only have strong feelings for each other."
Fuck. He flicked his tongue over one fang, a new habit he'd developed. Because he was a vampire. Which she seemed to be forgetting, even though two seconds ago he'd been at her throat and sucking her lifeblood out of her. How the hell could she act as though it hadn't happened? As though she'd forgotten what he'd become? For every second of every hour, until Gabrielle turned into a slavering beast, he'd been well aware of the fact that she had been bitten by a werewolf.
And yet, he'd been careless. Sloppy. Although it was Aegis policy to kill any human who had been bitten or scratched by a were-beast, he'd let his love for her cloud his judgment. He'd heard rumors of humans who were immune to the infection, and on the off chance that Gabrielle was one of those rare people, he'd restrained her until night fell, bringing the curse of the full moon with it. Worse, he'd not wanted to hurt her, so he'd kept her restraints loose. When she'd turned, she got free and killed five of their colleagues before Kaden had put a silver killing bolt through her chest.
The pain, the guilt, had mired him in misery until Andrea showed up in Portland a year ago, a transfer from the Phoenix cell. She'd been like a whirlwind, sucking him into her life with her dry humor, take-no-prisoners attitude, and intense energy, which was exactly what he needed after four years of loneliness and one-night stands.
"Well?" Andrea prompted, and he realized he'd been lost in his thoughts, which was not the place he wanted to be.
Not that their reality, where they were locked in a dungeon, was much better.
Way to feel sorry for yourself. God, he was a moron. If growing up with two blind parents had taught him anything, it was that self-pity was a pathetic waste of time.
"Well, what?" he snapped, residual lust giving him the sharp edge he needed to do what he must. "You do realize that I'm a vampire, right? And you're a vampire slayer. Whatever relationship you think we had is over. The man you claim to love is gone, so you have two choices. You can stake me like a good little Guardian, or you can join forces with me to make an escape. But either way, there is no more us."
Crimson splotches mottled Andrea's cheeks, but he didn't need to see her fury to know she was bubbling over with it. His enhanced senses picked up her anger as a scent that was so bitter he could taste it on his tongue.
"You son of a bitch." Like a well-trained warrior, she didn't give away her next move, which was to snap up the stake.
He could have stopped her; his reflexes were twice as fast as they had been. But in truth, he was curious to see what she'd do.
And when she came at him, he had his answer.
Chapter Five
Damn him!
Crazed with hurt and anger, Andrea launched herself at Kaden, her stake aimed right at his cold heart. Effortlessly, as though she were nothing but a minor annoyance, he blocked her with one upraised arm. Humiliation aside, she was glad he'd done it. Oh, she wanted to hurt him, but she'd planned to check up at the last moment, not really wanting to kill him, and clearly, he didn't want to die. Or, probably more accurately, he didn't want her to be the one to have to kill him. Not after the trauma he'd suffered when he'd had to put down his fiancee.
Yes, his words had put a fissure in her heart, but she wasn't stupid -- he was trying to piss her off, to chase her away in order to save them both a lot of pain. She was sorry she'd told him she loved him, but she wasn't sorry for how she felt. She'd dated before Kaden, but she'd never fallen in love, hadn't known how good it could feel.
Or how bad.
Still smarting from his verbal smackdown, she struck out, slapping him across the face. His head snapped back and his eyes went wide, as though he couldn't believe she'd just done that. In an instant, he recovered, red sparks turning his eyes to molten metal as he grasped her wrists and yanked her into him.
Just as she'd wanted him to do.
Still, her heart thundered in her chest. Angering a vampire, even one you loved -- one that had just given you an orgasm for the record books -- wasn't the brightest move in the world.
"There's a camera in the corner," she said, angling her face away from said camera in case whoever was watching could read lips. "We need to fight, and you need to pretend to kill me. It's the only way to fool that psycho vamp into thinking you've truly gone over to their side."
She struggled, feigning fury, though she did put some power behind her knee to his thigh. He totally deserved that, and she smiled a little at his grunt.
"Good girl," he said through gritted teeth. "Didn't know you saw the camera." She didn't have time to bask in his praise, because suddenly, he spun her, put her back against the wall and his forearm across her throat. "So we fight."
His teeth were bared and his eyes glinted and if she didn't know any better she'd think he really was planning violence.
Then again, she didn't know any better. He'd changed. She shivered, but not with fear. No, once more, she was utterly turned on by the life or death game they were playing. And this was definitely life -- heart-stopping, adrenaline-pumping life. Kaden had once said that you never felt more alive than when you were facing death, and if the way her skin tingled, her breasts tightened, and heat bloomed between her thighs was any indication, he was so right.
"Fight me, damn you."
"Gladly," she snapped.
Squaring her shoulders, she stomped on his foot and followed up with a swift kick to his shin and a hook of her boot to the back of his knee. His leg buckled, but before she could wrench free, he recovered.
"We've sparred for months," he said with an arrogant smile. "You think I don't know all your moves?"
She rocked her head forward and caught him in the mouth. "You didn't know that one."
He grinned, flashing teeth smeared with blood. "Nice."
God, he was hot when he smiled like that, and again, the pseudo-battle stirred up something wicked in her, something hot and naughty. The puncture wounds on her throat began to throb in time with the pulsing between her legs, as if her body was preparing to take him inside her in any way he wanted. He was a very male animal, and her feminine instincts were answering without her brain's consent.
As though he sensed the change in her, his eyes darkened and his gaze dropped to her mouth.
"Kaden--"
He took her to the ground, twisting at the last second to absorb the brunt of the impact. In a smooth, easy motion, he rolled on top of her, pinning her with his superior strength and considerable weight.
Beneath him, she writhed, partly in a show of struggle for the camera, and partly because he felt so damned good pressed against her. She schooled her expression into one of rage, using her anger at her situation, at Kaden's transformation, at a past that robbed her of a normal life, to make the emotion believable when all she wanted to do was roll around with him on a soft bed instead of the hard ground.
Kaden fisted her hair in one hand and wrenched her head to the side, exposing her throat the way he had before. A raw, purring rumble dredged up from deep in his chest. Her breath quickened as he lowered his mouth to her neck and struck like a snake, with no warning. Like before, pain pierced her, a sweet, erotic agony that drained her of any resistance. No wonder humans succumbed to vampires so easily. Pleasure streaked from where his teeth penetrated her to every pulse point in her body.
Moaning, she arched her pelvis into his, and he shuddered even as he shifted his weight to press her flat again. Right. She wasn't supposed to be getting off on this. This was a show for the camera, and she was ruining it by wanting t
o ride him like a horse.
Again.
It struck her that she might be a little stupid in trusting him not to kill her, but what choice did she have? Besides, despite what The Aegis had taught her, she knew Kaden. She knew it would take more than an exchange of vampire blood to turn him evil.
Too soon, he disengaged his teeth, but the motion was subtle, and he repositioned his mouth over the bite and stroked his tongue along the wounds to seal them.
But he never lifted his head, and she barely heard him whisper, "This is killing me. Later, we'll do this right, but for now, I need to pretend to be drinking from you until you're dead. In sixty seconds, go limp and play possum. With any luck, he'll have fed recently."
God, she hoped so. Apparently, a vampire's ability to hear a heart beating grew more acute the hungrier they were, and if their ruse had any shot of working, she had to appear very, very dead.
She waited as he mouthed her throat, his tongue swirling and flicking on her hyper-sensitive skin. How was she supposed to play dead when every lick brought her body to shivering, vibrant awareness?
And wait. He'd said later. Did he mean it? Could there be a later?
She'd have to find out -- later -- because he pushed away from her. With a vicious, but oddly careful shove, he nudged her aside with his foot like a dead animal he'd found on the road. She lay motionless, trying to not even breathe as he paced.
She wondered if this was how he'd been while he waited for Gabrielle to turn into a werewolf, this restless energy that kept him prowling back and forth and grumbling to himself. Had he prayed for her life, as Andrea had prayed for Dee's?
Poor, brave Dee. She'd been only one year younger than Andrea, and she'd wanted to stay and fight the demons that had attacked their parents. Instead, she'd fought when Andrea had dragged Dee, screaming, from the house. Six months later, it had been Dee who had been approached by The Aegis to join their cause. Apparently, her bitter and rather public insistence that demons were real had snagged the organization's attention, and they were always looking for new recruits -- especially those who wanted vengeance.