by Eva Sloan
Chapter 10
Having Min bent over that sink had been a thing of beauty. Luca had enjoyed forcing her to do as he wanted, and she had tasted all the better for it—she had truly been afraid. But she could have stopped him. She could have ordered him to leave, to go back to the bedroom—hell, she could have told him to stake himself. With as much power as he’d felt in her binding spell, she probably really could have told him to burst into flame this time, and he would have, no match required.
But she hadn’t.
And though he felt himself losing his connection with a vital part of himself, the beast inside, he still enjoyed dominating her.
He’d feasted greedily at her nether lips, at her sex, making her squirm and buck. But as she came he felt the tide of her orgasm crash over him. He felt her orgasm inside him, overwhelming. He’d barely kept himself from falling to the floor and curling up in sated bliss at her feet.
God in heaven it was the most intoxicating feeling he’d had that century. It made him hunger for the witch’s blood all the more. If just the taste of her sex, and the feel of her orgasm could illicit so much from him, through him, he just knew the thick red liquid that pumped through her veins would be all the more powerful, all the more exhilarating.
He barely remembered taking off his shirt—it just seemed so urgent that he be naked with her—and before he knew it he was thrusting himself inside her. Not being a bit gentle, wanting to hear her moan and cry out as he fucked her.
He wanted her to cry out his name.
But she didn’t.
And that alone drove him instantly insane. He wanted her lips, her tongue, to wrap around his name. He needed her to scream it, to moan and to writhe as she called it out.
Not vampire. Luca.
But she didn’t. The sounds that escaped her lips were feral and maddened with lust and desire, and pain…but they were incoherent. He slammed himself into her all the harder for that.
Luca pulled her face up so she had to gaze at his nonexistent reflection, and know it was him fucking her, him making her body come time and again, that he had control over her.
But then he heard it. Faint at first, just a pulse, a murmur, but then it broke into a solid, perfect beat.
The beating of her heart.
“Min,” he said with awe, and as his words left him, he felt that heartbeat race and shift. It was beating for him. He grudgingly pulled his manhood out of her hot, tight embrace, feeling her shudder as he did so. He pulled her about, gently turning her to face him. He whipped the silken thing she wore up over her head so she was naked and shivering before him. Leaning down, he pressed his ear to her chest, feeling that lust fevered flesh against his skin, hearing the urgent cadence of her heart. He had no idea why before now he hadn’t been able to hear it, but it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
It called to him, pulsing and pounding out his name. She was all he could think about. And, for some unfathomable reason, he was not thinking even the slightest bit about the delicious red that flowed in her veins. He was truly thinking about, and only about, her. Min. His min.
“I can hear it. I can hear it beating now.”
Mine.
Though he didn’t need to breathe, he felt his breath become labored as he rubbed his face against her breasts, licking and kissing and nipping at her tender, lovely flesh. He moved back into her, calling out in ecstasy as the succulent folds of her sex opened to receive him again. He buried his face in the aroma of her hair, and picked her up off the sink, wrapping her long, supple legs about his hips, crushing her round, perfect bottom in his hands. Moving heedlessly, he somehow navigated them back to her bedroom, lying her gently on her enormous bed, then removing his shoes and pants, wanting nothing between them as he made love to her.
He stopped and stared down at her, naked and quaking for him.
Made love? Luca could not remember once in his three hundred years thinking that phrase. It had always been just about sex, and of course feeding. But never had he thought of love during any of it. Especially not with his maker. No, fear and hate, that was what he’d felt for Elaina.
But right that moment, as his preternatural body moved of its own accord, crawling onto the bed and up atop Min, pushing itself into her once again, he knew that he indeed felt it. He loved Min. And the thought, the knowledge of that made something hot flicker inside him, something strange and alien…but somehow familiar. What had only been a spark only moments ago now burned like a torch. It was engulfing him, overwhelming him, and he didn’t want to do a damned thing to stop it. It could burn him to a cinder, as long as he could stay with her.
Min’s hand flew out and slapped against his chest, her arm straight and strong, holding him away from her. That one move made that torch inside him flicker and shudder with pain. She was pushing him away.
Her eyes sharpened to slits, and she simply stared up at him.
No, no, no…she’d finally decided to be done with him. Somehow he’d displeased her. Or maybe she had just gotten hold of her sanity once more, and was now wondering why in god’s name she had a filthy, murdering monster like him in her bed.
Fear all but snuffed out the fire that had been burning inside him, but then she reached with both hands and grabbed him not too delicately by the sides of his face and pulled him down to her, into a burning, succulent kiss. The fire inside him rekindled and blazed like a bonfire, and he melted into Min’s embrace, their bodies becoming one, and somehow, in a way he couldn’t begin to describe, they became one in more than just that way as well.
~*~
When they were done and sated, Luca held Min to him, listening to her heart and her breathing slow, feeling her warm body soften and dissolve against his. When he closed his eyes, all he saw was her, and when he opened them, there she lay, soft and warm and his.
Mine.
He held her, not daring to breath—thankfully he didn’t have to—and watched her as she dosed in his possessive embrace. His thoughts had been blessedly empty…that was until he felt her slip into sleep. That was when the beast’s voice struck with its usual perfect timing. It was a master at knowing exactly when to speak, when to push its wants and desires, and somehow to make them feel and taste like one’s own.
If she is asleep…could you not bite her? The beast rumbled inside him. Could you not drink her blood, and then bring her over? Or, maybe you could just make a meal of her, kill her outright, extinguish her wondrous beauty—not just because she has power over you, but because to kill something so beautiful has its own pleasure.
Luca felt his teeth worrying at his gums, yearning to elongate, to become what he was meant to be: a monster, a killer.
Min breathed, nearly sighing with contentment, her lush, strong body so warm and soft against his, her expression so innocent. She was not innocent. She was good, yes, she was good. But she did not possess true innocence. But that didn’t make the innocent look on her beautiful face any less compelling or attractive to the beast inside him. The beast wanted blood, wanted violence and death. The beast looked upon his min like a lion standing over a fresh kill. All hunger and possession.
Mine. Luca thought bitterly.
No, the monster inside him hissed. The witch is mine.
Luca could all too well see how exciting it would be to allow his beast to take over. Especially now that Min was asleep, her magicks would be unfocussed—there still, lingering in the air—yet inanimate. They could have her exactly as they wanted her.
But Luca didn’t want Min as food. He didn’t want her to be dead, or an eternal slave to him. He wanted her exactly as she was: strong, powerful, good.
But no sooner did he think that than the beast clamped its primal will over Luca, holding his body in its control. Luca struggled to move, but couldn’t. He struggled to speak, to try and warn Min, to wake her, but that too was not happening. The beast had far more power over him than he had ever imagined. It was so very strong. Of course, Luca had never resisted the beast
’s will before. He’d always obediently let himself be taken over, reveling in the release, throwing in his own twist to the beasts hungers. They’d shared quite the partnership.
But now something burned inside him, something strong, something…something more powerful than the blasted, slathering beast inside him. Luca called to that part of himself and let it well up in his body, until its fire burned excruciatingly hot, but not just burning him but the beast as well.
As it writhed and screamed, Luca felt its absolute control over him waver and fade.
That was when Luca jerked his body, jerked it hard enough that Min woke with a start, and a “By the goddess!”
Min pulled away from him, and he felt the inert spell snap to attention again, pushing his raging and angry beast back down deep inside him. She looked up at Luca, and he could practically see the thoughts swirling in her head. That she’d let her guard down. That he could have taken her while she was dosing. She shook her head and pushed herself up and out of bed, away from him, wrapping a silken robe about her.
She was furious, that much he could feel—the heat of her anger coming off her in waves. But he wasn’t entirely sure she was angry with him.
He felt it when she shut herself down, as if she was suddenly standing behind an immense stone wall. He could see her, smell her, could practically taste her. But he couldn’t sense her.
But when had he started sensing her?
Finally she said “Your invitation is now revoked…Luca. Come back in three nights’ time—”
“Three nights!” Luca shot up in bed, his body going tense with panic. “How can I—”
“Three nights.” Min said, the authority of an order in her voice. “I need time to…to recover. I’m not a demon or immortal.”
You’re not exactly human either. The beast growled.
Luca inhaled to protest. There is no way he could live without her for three days. She is the entire world to him now. To not look upon her, to not be able to touch her or taste her.
I’ll go mad…
Min’s expression turned softer, and for a moment Luca thought she was about to rescind his banishment. But then the cold steel returned to her eyes, the resolve…she has plans for him…he could nearly hear the thoughts swirling chaotically in her mind. And then the wall solidified once more, and he was cut off.
She leaned over, her silk robe falling open to show him the creamy goodness of her naked body. She pressed her lips to his, and then replaced her lips with her right index finger, making a hushing noise.
“Come to me in three days. Now go.”
Luca dressed quickly as she beckoned him to follow her, down the stairs and out the front door. “Three days…Luca. Be standing right here in three days, at this exact time.” And she closed the door behind her.
Without the least bit of struggle Luca walked away from Min’s house, and walked for nearly an hour before he felt the all encompassing hold she’d had on him dissolve. Which wasn’t right. He should have been free to rant and rave the moment he crossed the threshold of her home.
Somehow her power over him was stronger than just the gris-gris, or the spell it conveyed. But how? And why? And what the hell was happening to him?
Only a week ago he’d been a blood thirsty creature of the night, and now he was a starving, soul hampered sex toy to a gypsy witch. A goddamned mortal.
But she wasn’t just a mortal was she. No, no simple human could possess so much power. Sure, a mortal could become a mage, and gypsies had always had more power than most of those…but her power was too much, too overwhelming…too inhuman.
Of course most of her was human, mortal. But there had to be something else in her blood, or she wouldn’t have such strength. Only three things it could be. One, the blood of the divine. From a god or angel. And she didn’t smell of that. If she were of that lineage, just the touch of her skin would be hurtful to a creature of darkness, even in its most diluted state. Two, she has demon in her. That wouldn’t preclude she was evil, but he’d seen how brave she was when she had an innocent to save. No, no demon blood in her, none that he could tell. Plus those with demon ancestry usually had an aroma to them, one of ash and fire, sometimes even sulfur and brimstone.
That just left the fae. Damn hard, if not impossible for a lone vampire to kill, and excruciatingly irresistible to any such vampire, their scent alone, not to mention their blood! If that were the case, and it probably was, then that could explain some of the things he was feeling when he was with her…and when he wasn’t with her. Maybe his soul wasn’t really stirring at all. Maybe he was just feeling withdraw, like a junky coming down from a drug fueled high. That would make things so much the simpler. But as he stood and stared up into the cloudless night sky over Augusta, and scented the air, he knew it was more than just a chemical thing. Whatever had been stirred within him was strong enough to not only resist the beast inside him, but to push it back like a dog on a chain.
He pulled in a long, uneven breath and then tried to clear his mind. Though he could hardly wait for the three nights to pass, so he could go back to her and be hers alone…there was the chilling knowledge that she had plans for him. And from the cold, steel like gleam in her eyes, it probably wasn’t going to be an enjoyable plan.
But he couldn’t even entertain the thought of not going back to her. She was his, and he was hers.
Three nights…three nights and then we will see.
Chapter 11
Min sat in her kitchen, her silk robe tied at her waist, the tome with the passage about the vampire with a soul in her lap, the thrill and chill of the possible making her breathe too fast, her heart pound in her chest. Could it be possible? After all, she’d seen it with her own eyes. When he’d been inside her, on the bed, she’d looked up into those beautiful jade green eyes and had seen it. Shining like the light of a faint, distant star…the vampire’s soul.
It hadn’t been merely demonic fire, nor could it be glamour, for she had control over him and his powers once he passed her threshold. It had indeed been his soul. But how could a vampire have a soul? It was impossible.
She sat there perfectly still, but she was thinking furiously fast. Questions echoed, answered by other questions, all bouncing off each other, forming a cacophony of thoughts and feelings in her head.
However it had happened, it was exactly what she needed, just when she needed it. He had come right to her.
She needed time to think, time to research, and time to plan.
Over the next three days min practically memorized every word the book had to say about using a vampire’s soul to pull another’s soul from the ether. Even one lost to the spirit world. The spell would find the soul, capture it and bring it back to her, to its host body.
Between the magic shop and her own supplies at the house, Min had almost all the ingredients she needed. She had to call in a few favors to find real Mongolian snap dragons. But luckily one of her customers, a member of the coven on campus and a professor of botany, had recently traveled to Europe and had brought back a cutting. It had flourished in her backyard, and had begun to bear fruit just that month. Resilient to the cold weather…but again, a Georgia winter wasn’t that much different than a European summer.
So she had everything she needed to bring back her mother’s soul, to restore her to life. She even had the impossible, a vampire with an honest to Hecate soul. And he was coming to her of his own volition too.
But there was a passage at the end of the spell that spoke to what would become of the vampire. And as she read that the ritual would steal the immortal life from him, ending all that he had or would be—it stopped Min in her tracks. This shouldn’t have bothered her. She had slain so many of his kind in her life. But then again, she had never taken one of his kind to her bed, or had such feeling for one…for any man, actually. And then there was the little matter of him having a soul. It was the entire reason for killing him, for using him in the spell, in the first place. But it also made it too muc
h like sacrificing a human being. It was the divine spark that made us human. How could she just snuff it out?
But Min knew she had to. There just wasn’t another way. She’d been searching for months, her and her sister, and had found not a shred of information about what had happened to her mother. No, she loved her mother more than she would love anything else in this world or the next. She had to sacrifice him. She had no choice.
Chapter 12
The three days trudged by so slowly for Luca. He was starved. Since their second time together he couldn’t bear to even think of feeding off a human. He was ruined. She had ruined him. And though his beast couldn’t cajole him into feeding on those delicious, succulent humans scurrying all around him, it was trying its best to tempt him with the witch’s blood. Whispering in his ear how wondrous, how earth shatteringly delicious it would be to devour her the next time he had her in his arms.
His dreams, so shocking to finally dream after three hundred years, were of nothing but making love to Min. And in each and every dream he felt the hunger for her so searing hot, and with each dream the anticipation was all the worse. He knew what he was about to do, and loathed himself as much as he hungered for it. Every dream ended with him feasting on her neck, sucking her life force out of her very veins until there was nothing left beneath him but a flaccid, cold corpse.
The dreams scared him as much as they left him hungering for more. He hated himself, but as the three days ticked away he found himself feeling that same anticipation in the waking world. His beast was growing, its hunger almost overpowering his need for her. Was it love he felt? Could something like him even feel such a thing?
Maybe he should just let the beast have her, if it could indeed break through her magicks. At least then he could return to how he was before she came into his life. He’d been so blissfully happy; now he was miserable.