Dark Temptation (Immortal Legacy Book 4)

by Kennedy,Lorraine

  “Want to go somewhere?” he asked, even as he was skillfully moving me toward the exit of the Tiger’s Lair.

  “Does my father know what we have been doing when we’re alone?” I questioned him, but I didn’t resist when he pulled me out the door and into the night.

  Darrien’s dark laughter was unnerving. “If he did, I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

  Before I could respond, I was in his arms and rising above the nightclub. The view of Reno was breathtaking from such heights, but I barely noticed. Darrien’s kiss drew me in, refusing to let me experience anything but his desire; his utter and complete need to possess me.

  I was barely aware when we landed on the top of a tall building. Darrien drew me into the darkness so that we would be hidden from the lights of the city. His teeth were on my skin, piercing my flesh as he violently tore away the silk dress I was wearing.

  Cupping my bare breasts in his hands, he fell to his knees and took one hard nipple into his mouth.

  The searing need between my legs erupted into an inferno of pure lust when his fangs scraped against my tender flesh. My hands strayed to his hair. I delighted in the feel of his silky mane as I ran my fingers through it, pulling him even closer.

  “I’m not Caroline,” I breathed. I wanted him so fiercely that I was like a woman possessed, but I needed to hear my name on his lips when he took me.

  “I don’t care! I must have you now.” Darrien’s voice trembled with his barely controlled lust.

  Darrien pulled me to my knees and his mouth took mine. He kissed me deeply, sucking and biting my tongue until I was squirming just to keep from demanding that he fulfill my need with this flesh.

  I peeled away his black leather jacket so that I could feel his cool skin and his muscles rippling beneath my hands. Darrien moved until he was positioned behind me. I heard the sharp sound of him lowering the zipper on his pants and my core flooded with hot, wet anticipation. Then I felt his stiff flesh resting against the back of my thighs.

  The sound of my panties being ripped from my body cut through the stillness surrounding us. Gasping, I waited for the moment he would fill me with his need and release me from my agony. When I felt him slide between my legs the world started spinning. He was teasing my moist heat with the promise of fulfilling me, utterly. It was the promise of absolute ecstasy.

  “Say my name,” I gasped.

  “Hmm … Sarah. I want you, Sarah,” Darrien’s smooth voice was like an aphrodisiac that sent me over the edge of reason.

  Wiggling my hips against him, I tried to force him inside of me, but he continued to tease, letting me feel only the silky head of his erection.

  “Once we do this, there’s no taking it back,” he warned, though he continued to tease me until I was sure I would explode.

  “I want it.” My voice cracked. The effort to speak was too much to deal with while I burned for him with so much intensity.

  Darrien mounted me before the last word left my mouth. A small scream escaped my lips as he parted my flesh with his throbbing tool.

  At last, he was inside me and I could finally feel him as intimately as was possible for two separate beings to feel each other. The sensation was akin to being reborn as one.

  As he moved inside me, he pulled me with him to unimaginable heights of pleasure - pleasure that was like nothing I’d ever experienced. Pushing hard against him, I tried to feel even more of him. Darrien made love to me with the skill that only an Immortal could possess - giving me pain and pleasure in the same instant.

  With his hands on my hips, he held me tight against him. Leaning over me, he sank his fangs into my back and then tenderly slid his tongue across the wound, licking up the droplets of blood.

  Just when I was sure the fire would sear my flesh, I felt him pulsate within me as he spilled his seed into my body. I quivered with the force ripping through me, beginning at my core and spreading to every nerve ending in my body.

  My screams of ecstasy were quickly cut off when he clamped a hand over my mouth.

  “Shhh, you’ll attract attention,” he whispered.

  When Darrien moved away, I sat up and stared down at my tattered dress. The silky material was shredded and now it no longer covered me sufficiently. Sensing my dilemma, Darrien draped his leather jacket over my shoulders.

  “Thank you,” I told him, an uncertain smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Our lovemaking had been nothing short of unbelievable, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was me he’d made love to or Caroline.

  Darrien gave me a feather soft kiss. “What’s troubling you,” he asked. “Do you regret what happened?”

  I shook my head. “No, I could never regret what we’ve had.

  From the top of the building, the view of the city was captivating. The neon lights of the casinos lit up the streets below, but on the rooftop, the darkness shielded us - wrapping us in a blanket of enchantment that could not be penetrated by the outside world, at least not yet.

  Darrien pulled me into his arms. “So tell me what’s wrong?”

  “I’m Sarah, not Caroline.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he whispered, kissing me again. “I love you no matter who you are.”

  “What will happen to us? I mean, when this is all over?” I looked over at him, wanting to hear that he would be with me always, but somehow knowing that wasn’t what he would say.

  Darrien seemed completely engrossed in the city lights. When he spoke, he refused to look at me. “You and I, we are very different, Sarah. If I’m unlucky, I will live forever, but death will claim you at some point, even if it’s when you are old and have lived a full life. I cannot watch you die, not again.”

  “There you go again, thinking I’m Caroline.” I pulled away from him.

  “When is my birthday, Sarah?” he asked, his question seemingly off topic.

  “June 10, 1735,” I answered quickly, too quickly.

  Darrien lifted his hands. “Now how would you have known that if you are not Caroline? I have never told you what my birthday is, at least not while you were Sarah.”

  “Maybe I am reading you? I can do that sometimes.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you can, but you can’t read me, Sarah. I’m a vampire and that would be difficult, even for a psychic. Only the oldest and most powerful vampires can read other vampires.”

  “Okay then, I’m picking up Caroline’s spirit, her memories.” I shrugged.

  “Close your eyes, Sarah. Remember the first time we spoke. Go back to that time and relive it as if you were there.”

  When I closed my eyes, instead of darkness, I saw a field of wildflowers. Darrien was there, at the gates of the chateau. He was riding a black horse. Unlike the many times that I’d seen him out riding, on that day he noticed me right away and waved. Through the years, I’d watched him from a distance, but that was the first time he’d acknowledged me.

  When I waved back, he started riding toward me. Looking down, I could see that I was no longer Sarah, but Caroline. I was wearing the woman’s brown cotton skirt and leather shoes. Although I felt extremely unattractive in such unflattering garments, I need not have worried. To Darrien, I was the vision of perfection. He always said that my long auburn hair resembled a cascade of fire, and my green eyes were like sparkling emeralds.

  Darrien pulled up on the horse’s reins and stared at me as if he’d never seen me before.

  I fixed my eyes on the wildflowers that I was holding. “My Lord.”

  “Are you not Caroline Fabre?” he asked.

  “Yes, My Lord.”

  “Call me Darrien,” he said.

  I didn’t respond but continued to stare at the flowers, afraid of what my eyes would reveal if I looked up. Too many times I’d dreamed of this moment, longed to hear him say my name, and now he was here, talking to me.

  “Do you know how to ride?” he asked.

  I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. I was filled with too much anxiety.

&nb
sp; Darrien held out his hand to me. “Come, we’ll ride together. I would like to know more about Caroline Fabre.”

  I’d gone with him that day, and every day after, for weeks. We made love in a grove of trees, far from prying eyes. Though I’d known I would never be more than a diversion, I couldn’t help but hope that just maybe, it would be different than it had been with the others. I’d heard the rumors about Darrien and the servant girls. How he’d take them for his pleasure and disregard them when done. Each day, I vowed to love him forever, if he would only do the same.

  Then the day came that he didn’t show up for our ride. He didn’t come the next day or the next. I was heartbroken, but as the months passed, I’d moved beyond my pain and eventually married.

  When I opened my eyes I was yanked back to the present. This time, I was as one with Caroline. I experienced the same love for him, and the same pain.

  “How dare you treat me like that?” I seethed.

  “Now you remember?” He smiled.

  “You left me without a word!”

  “I had no choice,” he defended himself. “Omar attacked me with the intention of turning me and gaining control of my father’s domain in France. As soon as my father found out, he sent me away, in spite of the fact that he should have destroyed me instead. I had to go away and couldn’t return to you the next day, or any day.”

  “But you could have come to me in the night,” I insisted.

  “Yes, I could have, but what could I have offered you?” The hard glint in his eyes disappeared, replaced by sorrow.

  “You could have at least told me instead of letting me believe you’d disregarded me like trash.” There was a lump forming in my throat.

  Although I hadn’t actually lived through the pain and memories I was experiencing, they were real to me.

  “Try to remember,” he said. “I did come back to you, eventually,” he told me, softly.

  Visions of darkness and the horror of what he’d become filled my mind. The memories came back like a relentless storm, pounding at my heart until I was in tears.

  There was that dark spirit, the one that had threatened to take the life of my child if I accepted his kiss of immortality.

  “You were the last person I saw before I died,” I said, my voice soft and full of sorrow.

  “I know. I wanted it to be that way. I wanted you to go from life seeing the face of someone that loved you.” Darrien kissed me again, this time, putting so much emotion in it that I could feel it radiating from his soul.

  “My baby?” I asked, pulling away from him.

  Darrien put a finger to my lips. “Shhh, she was taken to safety. Otherwise, the Fabre witches would not be, would they?”

  “But what about us? Promise me that you won’t go away again.”

  Darrien turned away. “I can’t give you that promise. As I said, I will not bring death to you again.”

  “That’s exactly what you do every time you turn away from me,” I told him, hoping he would see reason.

  “Let’s not waste time,” he said. “We have right now and that’s what’s important.”

  His mouth covered mine when I tried to protest. Though I let myself get lost in his kiss, I vowed that this time, we would not be parted.

  Chapter

  Twenty-One

  Nicole

  The catacombs are a place of darkness, a place so black that the darkness itself seems to be alive. That darkness wrapped itself around me, mocking the human weakness that prevented me from seeing what was hidden within the black void of the tomb. My arm throbbed, but the pain only scratched the surface of my consciousness. Even the intense throbbing of my dislocated shoulder couldn’t overcome the terror crawling through my mind, taking control of my thoughts.

  The last thing I remembered was someone or something dragging me through the tunnels by my arm, and then the excruciating pain that sent me into nothingness.

  When I finally opened my eyes, nothing changed. If anything, it seemed even darker than when my eyes were closed. After feeling around the wall I was leaning against, I concluded that I was in some type of small room, closed in by a heavy wooden door. I tried to pull the door open with my good arm, but it wouldn’t budge.

  Dash had been right behind me, chasing my abductor, but as far as I could tell, he wasn’t in the room with me.

  What had happened to Dash?

  Fear chewed at my insides. Had he simply lost me in the chase, or had something happened to him?

  My breath caught in my throat at the sound of rattling chains somewhere in the darkness, not far from where I lay on the cold earthen floor. Memories of what Omar had done to Ethan pounded through my head.

  “Dash!” I called out. My voice sounded small in the thick, inky void.

  I heard a growl and then the sound of rattling chains grew louder. Whoever was in those chains was trying to break free.

  “Dash! Is that you?”

  Again there was no answer but a series of angry growls, and then silence. A moment later, the silence was shattered by the harsh sound of a lock releasing. The door swung open and then I was blinded by the bright light of a torch. I couldn’t see who carried the torch, but I guessed it to be whoever had dragged me into the hole where I was being held prisoner.

  As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw the shape of a woman behind the light.

  “Isn’t this cozy?” she asked, poison dripping from her voice.

  As Julia’s face came into focus, my despair grew. Next to the female vampire was a man that I assumed was also a vampire. While his eyes radiated hunger, his short-cropped white hair, and pasty complexion made him appear more specter than vampire.

  Julia was the definition of pure evil. It was Julia who’d been so instrumental when Omar had taken me captive with the intention of turning me. It had also been Julia who’d turned Alec so long ago. Julia was angry, and she directed that anger at me. Alec made it clear to Julia that he would not treat her as his mistress, and that he preferred me to her.

  Now Julia directed her fury at both of us.

  Blinking, I tried to force my gaze away from the vampire’s cold eyes.

  “So, Donovan’s human brat is awake?” She glowered at me.

  I said nothing.

  “Good! I want you awake when I let your vampire lover loose on you,” Julia told me, nodding to the darkness behind me.

  Twisting around, I looked to the side of me and saw who’d been rattling chains. Visions of Ethan’s deformed features, mingled with the horror of what I was seeing. Blood deprivation, it would turn a vampire into a true monster. Alec didn’t seem to be quite as far gone as Ethan was when Omar had deprived him of feeding for weeks, but he wasn’t the Alec I knew.

  His blue eyes were alight with bloodlust and a hunger I’d never seen in them before. When he drew back his cracked lips, his fangs protruded abnormally as if he were drying up and becoming a shell.

  The growls that ripped from his throat were that of a creature that had no thought but to go with the hunger controlling him.

  “Why are you doing this to him?” I cried. “It’s me that Omar wants.”

  “As noble as your thoughts are, doing it this way is just easier. We get rid of you and I get to watch the horror on Alec’s face when he comes to his senses and realizes that he’s fed on his beloved human bitch.” Julia’s face twisted with hate.

  Julia turned to her companion. “Let him go and we’ll leave her to him,” she said before placing the torch in a bracket attached to the wall.

  “No!” Alec’s growled as he yanked at the chains that bound to the wall.

  Julia laughed. “Will you be able to resist your hunger, Alec? Will you die in agony so that she will live? Somehow I doubt it.”

  When Alec was free, the two vampires left the room, locking the door behind them.

  Instead of lunging at me, Alec fell to the ground and rolled into a ball. With howls of agony, he began tearing at his hair. The aching in my heart subdued my fear. Hi
s pain was my pain and I couldn’t endure it. Getting to my hands and knees, I crawled to him.

  “Go away,” he snarled, trying to roll away from me.

  Unbuttoning my blouse so that my breasts were bare, I offered them to him. It would be safer than him feeding from the artery in my neck. “Feed on me,” I urged in a low voice.

  Alec ignored me and continued to wither in pain on the cold floor.

  I leaned closer to him until my breast brushed against his face. “Please, take what you need.”

  I gasped at the sudden sensation of pain when his fangs sank into my tender flesh. He was ravenous. As he fed, I could feel my strength ebbing and the warmth leaving my body.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Two

  Sarah

  Sitting in the cave’s entrance, I watched as the sun descended into the western horizon. Behind me, the darkness of the cave provided a safe haven for Darrien as he slept. That was how we’d traveled. By day, we would find shelter from the sun, most often a cave, but an abandoned building would do as well if it had a basement. At night, we would travel.

  Darrien found a motorbike at a truck stop and took it by force from the owner. The biker resisted until he saw Darrien’s ugly side. After that, the man was more than happy to let us take his bike, as long as we left him alone.

  Before sunrise, Darrien would find shelter. When he thought I was asleep, he would leave to hunt. I let him believe that I didn’t know what he did when he was gone, but I knew. I watched him leave and return with the hunger gone from his eyes.

  After three nights of travel, we reached the Ozarks. There were caves to hide in, but after tonight there wouldn’t be caves to offer shelter. When we entered Louisiana, there would be swamp.

  Darrien informed me that once we reached the swamplands we might be forced to turn to the above ground tombs for shelter. That was unless we could make it all the way to New Orleans, but that was doubtful. The thought of sleeping in a tomb sent shivers down my spine. What stories would the dead tell me? What horror and heartbreak would I live through their memories and pain?