by K. F. Breene
Darius threw it in gear, and the tires chirped as we launched forward.
“I’ve made preparations. The supplies will be brought to us. We’ll have to travel light.” Of course he had. Stupid question. “As far as the note, you can write it at the estate and have Moss deliver it. I have also arranged for unicorn blood. You can only take it a certain number of times before it will negatively affect you…”
His words drifted away as a need to have unicorn blood right then rose in me, the effect of taking it only once. I pushed it down, realizing he’d stopped talking. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I’ll grow dependent on it, won’t I?” It was the most potent of drugs, capable of boosting energy and magical ability. It was also incredibly addictive for everyone other than vampires. The vampires protected the unicorns, whose blood they used in the serum to make new vampires—it was a symbiotic relationship.
“Not after you bond me. My blood will prevent the physical craving. You will be responsible for the mental craving, however. That will be mind over matter, as they say. I will work to take your mind off it.”
My body and face lit up with heat. I breathed out slowly, not trusting my voice.
A thrilling hour of very fast driving later, we turned into a small driveway and crept toward a massive plantation house with a walkway leading through huge oak trees weeping moss. We drove around the side to a much newer structure that had been built some ways from the main house.
“Is that a five-car garage?” I asked. “Why do you need all these cars, anyway? You’re driven around by Moss eight or nine times out of ten.”
“When I purchase collectible cars, I need somewhere outside of the city to store them until I can arrange for shipment to a milder location, weather-wise.”
“You have a lot of collectible cars, then?”
“Yes. I have a lot of collectible everything. Every one item that holds its value far outweighs the three or four that don’t.”
“That’s where your fortune comes from, then?” I waited until he parked in the empty garage before climbing out. He must’ve recently sent out a shipment.
“One of the many places. I have my hands in many pots, which ensures I will monetarily survive things like stock market crashes and great depressions. I also take care to establish the brightest of my children, setting them up for long-term success.”
“How does that help you?”
Darius guided me out of the garage by the small of my back before closing the door. The trees swayed in the gentle breeze as we made our way to the gorgeous three-story house. Butterflies surged in my stomach. I was actually doing this. I was tying myself to a vampire—this vampire—forever.
Shouldn’t I be scared or horrified instead of nervous?
“I get a percentage of my children’s earnings,” he said, rubbing my back. He probably noticed my stiff walking and constant fidgeting.
“Like a mob boss?”
He frowned at me. “I couldn’t say. I have not looked at a mob boss’s books.”
“So you get a percentage of that nice hotel in Seattle?”
“Yes. The idea is that we will put greater care and attention into training our children and helping them flourish if there is a financial benefit. This helps our whole faction.”
“And those who aren’t bright?”
“Survival of the fittest doesn’t just apply to humans. Dimwitted vampires rarely make it out of adolescence.”
“Ah.” I stepped onto the wide wraparound porch that looked perfectly restored.
He waved his hand to unlock the door, a vampire’s most useful party trick, before pushing it open and stepping back so I could enter. I breathed deeply, trying to still the tremors of my body as desire unfurled within my middle.
“When did you purchase this?” I asked, needing sound. Needing trivial conversation. Suddenly Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” had a whole different vibe.
“Some five years ago now.” He led me to the right, into a decent-sized sitting room—well, decent compared to his French Quarter house, huge compared to anywhere else. “This was the women’s drawing room after they’d eaten.” Back across the entryway we landed into another sitting room of a similar size. “The men’s, where they smoked and drank. Would you like to sit for a moment? Have a glass of wine?”
His hand curled around my side before applying pressure, pulling me nearer. I leaned against his hard body, soaking in his heat.
“If you’d like,” I said in a breathy whisper.
“Which room would you prefer?” He bent to me, running his lips across mine.
Electricity ran between us, spicy and hot. I opened my mouth to him. He teased my tongue with his and his taste exploded in my senses. The smell and feel of him sent shock waves of pleasure through my body. I moaned, clutching tightly.
He swooped me up into his arms before leaving the room, signaling the end of the tour. No more relaxing or getting used to the idea. It was happening, right now, and suddenly I couldn’t wait.
Chapter Ten
He carried me into a large room at the top of the stairs and put me down next to the bed. A beautiful silk chemise lay across the duvet. It tumbled to the ground in a shower of silk and lace when he pulled back the covers. No sooner had my feet hit the ground than my fingers were at his buttons. His hands tangled in my hair, stripped off my clothes. Urgency overcame me, dissipating my ability to feel nervous. I was nowhere near scared.
He threw me up onto the bed before crawling between my legs. “I love how you lose yourself to me, Reagan,” he murmured. I sighed in delight as his body entered mine. “But when the fear of death is upon you, remember that I would never hurt you. Remember to trust me.”
He began moving, slow and sensual, hitting all the glorious places within. His lips slid across mine, making my eyes flutter closed and my body coil with need. Together we moved, the sensations overwhelming.
“Here we go, my dearest. I love you.”
His bite made me suck air through my teeth. “Holy sh—” I arched back, lost to the feeling. No matter how many times I had felt this sensation, which was a great many at that point, it was always so fantastically overwhelming that I couldn’t think.
The draw on my neck had me wrapping my arms more tightly around his muscular shoulders. I squeezed his hips with my thighs, pulling to get him closer. Deeper. The bed thumped against the wall to his rhythm, fast now, my body so tight I couldn’t stand it.
A wave of pleasure washed over me, making me shake beneath him. He shuddered a moment later, but his mouth didn’t come away from my neck. Instead, he continued to suck, taking more.
Immediately, I began to build again, this situation having happened in the past. Those other times—three, he had said—he’d tried to pull back. Forced himself to slow. This time, though, his suction increased, if anything. Pulling with everything he had.
Another orgasm washed over me, dragging me under. I focused on that pull, on his hot mouth taking more from me. On his body still going, his shudder of release not stopping him. Another climax. Then another. They were coming right on top of each other now. I was probably screaming, or moaning like a banshee, but I couldn’t be bothered to care. Wave after glorious wave of pleasure pounded into me even as he did, each movement better than anything in the world. Vibrating through the fibers of my being.
Like a crack of lightning, a shock of fear hit me, so strong I stopped breathing. My ice magic flooded me, overriding the fog of pleasure and restoring my thoughts to crystal clarity. My fire swirled around it a moment later, the ink-in-water situation, mixed but not fused.
Air condensed around Darius, pulling him off my body. Fire swirled between us. Floated around the room. Frost coated the windows.
“We have found your threshold, my love,” he said softly, hovering above me. A smile spread across his face. “Look at how powerful you are. I doubt anyone has ever bonded someone such as you. I am the luckiest man alive.” A crimson drop fell from his full bottom lip and on
to my skin. For some reason, it calmed me.
I cut out the fire and gently lowered him back to my body. Back between my legs. “Oops, my bad.”
“I think, for you, that feeling will get worse.” He kissed me softly. “I had hoped to power through it, but I see now that that will be impossible. You’d throw me out the window without meaning to.”
“Why are you taking such joy in my crazy?”
“Because I know that you will allow me to do this based on your regard for me. No one else would be able to. You’d kill them long before they could complete the first draining.”
“Why you, Darius?” I asked. “Why us? You’ve said it a million times—this shouldn’t be possible. You shouldn’t be able to love anyone, let alone a prickly girl scared of loving you back. And, as said prickly girl, I should die alone with ten cats. I’ve tried everything not to feel this way about you.” I still stopped short of using the L-word. “To ignore the effect you have on me, which is more than just fantastic bed mambo and pretty awesome vampire serum. It’s you, the man at the root of the vampire. I shouldn’t even be able to find him.”
“I don’t know,” he said, staring into my eyes, “but I’m past asking for reasons. I am now allowing the feeling to seep into every part of my soul—and accepting it for the gift it truly is. So many vampires would kill to feel like I do. To reconnect with their humanity. I get that ability, and I will not shy away from it. Not anymore.”
I just sighed and hugged him close, because I wasn’t beyond asking for reasons. Everything in my person, in my past, said not to trust vampires, especially elder vampires. Yet here I was, doing just that. It had to be a recipe for disaster. Had to be. I wasn’t lucky enough to find love, let alone get to keep it. My life wouldn’t allow it.
“Go slow and I’ll run interference with my magic.” I slid my thighs up his hips.
“Here we go again.” He slowly thrust forward. My eyes fluttered closed.
The pull on my neck wasn’t as glorious as normal.
“Can you boost the effect of the serum?” I asked.
“It is as potent as I can make it.” He pulled again, greedy.
My fingers tightened on his shoulders and I struggled for clarity.
He wasn’t being greedy; he was actually being gentler than normal.
Another pull and I tore my hands away from his body and gripped the bed, clenching it to prevent from doing something crazy. It felt like he was killing me. Murdering me.
The suck felt sickly now, dangerous. “Pull out, Darius,” I commanded as I turned my face away and put my energy into lifting the bed off the ground. It wasn’t nearly as hard as it should be. “Pull out of me. This has taken a turn for the worse.”
He did so without hesitation, but kept sucking, draining my life away. The bed wobbled with each pull, my energy sapping.
I squeezed my eyes shut and flexed each muscle, feeling his hardness against me and wanting it in me—and also wanting to rip it off and beat him to death with it.
“Definitely taken a turn for the worse. How much longer?” I panted like a dog in the sun.
His answer was to keep sucking, unmoving while he did so. He must’ve known I was on the edge.
I hummed a little tune as more power flooded me, coming from who knew where. It filled each crevice, eating away the haze from blood loss. Eating away my worry and guilt. All the tense lines of my life smoothed. I was confident I wouldn’t die. Without blood, air, food, water—everything—I still wouldn’t die.
Superman complex, had to be.
I love you, mon ange, he thought.
The ice magic had kicked in enough that I was reading thoughts. This was usually where the uncontrollable rage roared to life, but I didn’t feel it. Instead, I felt a deeper emotion, pulsing way down, in a place I’d sealed up after my mom had died. A place no man had ever occupied before. A squishy, emotional place that filled my body with warmth and light.
Love.
Just like that, I turned a corner. I wasn’t a girl who did things by halves. Dying or not, I was going to run at this like I ran at danger. With a snarl turned smile and the refusal to be bested.
I pulled us off the bed and repositioned us so he was sitting in midair and I was straddling him. As soon as he was once again inside me, I threw my arms around him, laid my head on his shoulder, and went for it. He answered by squeezing me tightly and thrusting harder. Faster. Almost immediately, the orgasms resumed, smashing into and through me one after the other, not human and almost unbearable. I held on for dear life, not even having to focus on keeping us in the air. Power pumped into me, like I’d opened a floodgate. He shuddered as much as I did.
My fingers started to tingle. So did my toes. No haze overcame me, though. No lightheadedness or dizziness from blood loss. When Darius pulled his head away with a gasp of air and a flash of bloodstained fangs, I lifted my head to look him directly in the eyes.
A crease formed between his brows. He didn’t say anything. But then, he didn’t have to.
What is happening? he thought. Does she not need blood to survive?
“Remember that I can hear you. As far as what’s happening…I probably do need blood, but I think my demonic side is overriding my human side right now. I’d probably die before I admitted I was dying, because I’m pretty sure demons need blood, too.”
His eyes dipped to my lips. He kissed me passionately. “You are like a puzzle. What fun I will have figuring you out.”
“Right. I’ll just put us down now, and we can move on to what’s next.”
The bed bumped off the floor right before we bumped onto the bed. I was pretty impressed with my own soft landing.
Is your magic receding?
“Not yet. You can use words, though, so I don’t feel like I’m intruding.”
You are not intruding. If I don’t wish you to hear my thoughts, I simply won’t think them. How fortunate for me not to have to waste energy moving my lips.
That was one way of looking at things. I doubted Callie and Dizzy would agree. That was, if they ever forgave me and deigned to speak to me again.
Assuming I made it out of the underworld at all.
“I still need to send Callie and Dizzy a note,” I said, feeling the pang of guilt.
We will arrange it when we wake up.
“Talk normally, please. As a favor. Hearing you without actually hearing you is weird.”
“If you wish.” He ran his thumb along my chin. “Now you must take my blood. Normally, I would advise you to take as much as you wanted, but…I worry that might be foolish. So I must ask you to stop taking blood when I tap you. Or resist you. Or, in dire circumstances, attack you.”
“Fair enough. What’s good for the goose is good for the vampire.” I glanced at his neck, then his wrist, then his muscular body and erect manhood. “It amazes me that you never seem to get tired.”
“It is your blood. It acts like human crack. Or speed. Honestly, I’m not sure what the difference in effect is between those drugs. I haven’t bothered to research it.”
“Your pillow talk is sure something.” Part of me wanted to bend down to the distinctly male part of him, but I figured I should get some blood in me before I passed out. I was probably on fumes and didn’t know it. “I don’t want to rip into your neck like a wild animal, so can you make a cut with a claw or something?”
“Where?” A claw extended from his pointer finger. Just one.
“Impressive.”
“Your blood gives me greater control. It has since I first consumed it. I wonder what bonding will bring me. And which of my strengths will come to you.”
I tapped the wrist of his other hand and he made a small slice. Blood welled up out of the gash.
“Ew. I’m not really into this. Hang on while I try to push the magic away. If I’m on the verge of death, I’ll probably like doing this more.” I squeezed my eyes shut and focused, pushing at the power pumping through the shell of my body. It wouldn’t go anywhere. B
oth types of magic were pumped up and didn’t want to leave.
I tried again when skin bumped against my lips. Without thinking, I latched on to his wrist with my hands and mouth, sucking like my life depended on it. Just like last time I’d taken his blood, power surged through me, adding to what was already there. His heartbeat pounded in my ears. His skin against mine felt like velvet.
I moaned, both from our friction and the taste of him. The feel of his blood as it boosted my magic. My life force sang inside me, lifting me up. My hair felt like it was standing on end, and my stomach filled with butterflies.
I felt the tap but didn’t want to stop. The climaxes had started again, and I was riding them all the way to Happy Town.
A harder tap hit my thigh.
I need to stop.
But my body wouldn’t listen. The taste curled my toes. The feel of him, all of him, put me into a state of euphoria that I never wanted to let go.
I was flying through the air before I knew what had happened. I had time to blink twice before I hit the wall and fell to the ground. My head bounced off the floor.
“Ouch.” I lay there for a moment, because I was still shivering in climax. Still. After being thrown across the room. “That’s a good time.”
My legs wobbled as I picked myself up and went back to the bed. Darius pulled the blanket over him and turned onto his side, holding it up for me to slip into the hollow of his body.
“Now we sleep, then we wake up and do it again?” I asked as I crawled in next to him.
“Yes. The sensations are supposed to get more intense as the days go by, which is why the sixth day is to recover and let the bond finish taking root.”
“The sensations will get stronger?” I looked at the dent in the wall. “Let’s hope my urge to kill you doesn’t.”
Chapter Eleven
I lay like a zombie, staring up at the ceiling. Darius lay next to me, also not moving.