Pain twisted his insides, paralyzing him, as he knew it would, as his mother knew it would. Terror engulfed him.
The assault of Diana’s agony immobilized him.
Sebastian fell to his knees.
Chapter Four
Seconds after something sweet slid down her throat, Diana’s veins began to ripple, twitch and burn as if lava, not blood, flowed through them. Strangely detached from the pain, she searched her mind for the cause of the deluge of liquid fire and birthed an image of spiders, scorpions and an army of red ants. A panicked scream lodged in the back of her throat.
Terror wrapped icy fingers around her pounding heart when her mind envisioned her veins bursting and releasing thousands of the venomous insects into her body. She could feel millions of tiny legs skittering beneath her skin, feel thousands of sharp pincers piercing her raw flesh. Her heart faltered when she imagined them crawling up her throat, injecting their fiery venom as they battled each other in their rush to escape the confines of her body. Her lungs seized.
Breathe.
The moment the command entered her mind, blessed air filled her burning lungs, hope soothed her tortured mind. But then a beast took up residence deep within her ravaged body, tore at her insides and demanded she sate its hunger. She sank deeper into whatever hellish world she’d dreamed up even as her mind grasped that this was no nightmare. She tossed her head from side to side, refusing to accept such torture could exist in the real world.
Her body craved something, would trade the air she breathed for it. But what? The craving grew unbearable, the inferno in her veins threatened to engulf her, and still she had no idea how to appease this undeniable hunger. Scalding tears filled her eyes, burned a path down her cheeks. She wanted. She needed. What? What?
The beast she imagined clawing at her stomach roared at her ignorance.
As if unknown hands had yanked on her tendons, pulling them until they nearly snapped, her body arched up off the bed, her toes and fingers curled, her jaw locked shut and for one brief moment the pain subsided.
A dream, she silently chanted. This had to be a dream. It started as a dream, didn’t it? One moment she was sleeping on a cloud while the chatter of those around her mingled with that of the birds. The memory of the passion that had followed created a flash fire of desire that overwhelmed the conflagration in her veins and melted her tendons enough to drop her back down onto the bed.
Still, the hunger she could neither understand nor identify clawed at her. Balling the sheets in her hands, she struggled to comprehend how such an erotic dream could have evolved into this nightmare.
She recalled the voices that had filtered into her mind, voices discussing plans for vengeance. One drop. One kiss. A mere taste of the sweetest elixir. Abandonment. Her heart shattered. Oh God, no! Don’t leave me like this!
Hold on, Diana. For Mina’s sake, hold on.
She didn’t recognize the voice, but she felt as if she had heard the masculine timbre before, whispering in her mind all week as it whispered now for her to open her eyes. Peering out from beneath her lashes, she turned her head to the side. Her phantom lover stood beside her bed. A fresh wave of tears blurred her vision, tears of hope, relief and joy.
A bright white orb appeared in the window behind him, a shimmering, brilliant, minute dot peeking over the mountains. While the light’s warmth bathed her cheeks and soothed some of her pain, her phantom flinched like a man whipped.
All week he had followed her. Even when she had not seen evidence of his presence, she had felt him hovering, watching, protecting. At the lake when the strange mist had swirled around her body, she had known the mist and her phantom were the same and had welcomed his return.
During the light of day when her phantom failed to materialize, when logic prevailed and nearly suffocated her with the possibility that, like her father, she had somehow lost sight of the line between reality and fantasy, she told herself that her dreams had somehow been confused with her memories of the night.
Now, she understood and accepted that somehow fantasy had become reality and that, like the wisps of mist rising off the mountainsides surrounding the lake at dawn, her phantom could not last long beneath the heat of the sun’s rays. Soon those rays would fill her room and her phantom lover, her savior, would vanish and leave her to drown in this nightmare that had followed her into the waking world.
Forgive me, Diana. There’s so little time.
Little time? He had no time. She knew that as surely as she knew her mind was losing its grip on sanity. Drowning in the lava that now seared her skin as it flowed from her pores, sure that in a second, in a heartbeat, her mind would snap, she pressed her elbows into the mattress and lifted her head and shoulders off the bed. Arms of steel wrapped around her waist and cradled her in a soothing embrace.
Although his body shuddered from dawn’s assault on his back, his lips covered hers with infinite tenderness. Diana sighed into his mouth as she clutched onto his massive shoulders.
Drink. The soft voice once again demanded she obey.
Like a babe at its mother’s breast, Diana suckled her phantom’s lip the moment it slid between hers. Warm honey flowed between her lips, down her throat and immediately appeased the army of angry insects. She swallowed, instinctively aware that only the elixir responsible for her torturous nightmare could tame the beast threatening to destroy her mind, body and soul.
Her nerves, no longer raw with pain, tingled as his weight pressed down upon her. An onslaught of butterflies beat back the insects with their wings as she drank until all she could hear were her and her phantom’s mingled breaths and the rustle of the sheets beneath her writhing body. Pleasure replaced pain, fear evaporated beneath the heat of passion. Desperate to take in all of him, terrified that if she stopped the beast would revolt, she continued to suckle his lip long after the flow of his elixir stopped.
A kiss meant to sate the beast torturing her body spawned a new hunger.
Her phantom lover’s body hardened. His cool skin brushing against hers dulled the lingering sting of her ordeal. His heartbeat reverberating through her body calmed the tumultuous pace of hers while his breath filled her weary lungs. She felt his hands tremble as they glided up over her ribs. Her breasts swelled, anticipating his touch. An exquisite coil of heat tightened in the center of her stomach.
She wanted this, needed this more than air itself. Too many nights dreaming of his touch, too many days denying he existed. He ended the kiss and nipped his way down her neck, over her collarbone and the swell of her breasts, then clamped her aching nipple between his teeth and tortured it with his tongue until she arched her back and silently pled for release.
The heat from his body blanketed her, grew hotter as he lowered himself between her legs. But when Diana felt the hairs on his legs tickle her inner thighs, years of denial insisted she stop him, save herself for her soul mate. Her hips sank into the mattress. No. Wait.
You have always belonged to me, Diana. From the moment you were born, you were mine to possess.
As his tongue swept into her mouth, she felt something hard nudge her pulsing nether lips.
Spread your legs wider for me, Diana. Concede what is rightfully mine. The voice in her head demanded she obey.
Unable to deny him anything, Diana slowly spread her legs until she felt his hands grasp her thighs and hold them in place. He nudged in a scant inch, stretching her until she burned.
He felt too wide, too hot. Diana, still reeling from the excruciating agony she had felt only moments earlier, cringed away in fear. Her hand reached between them and felt a burning cock bigger and wider than she thought humanly possible.
She peeked through her lashes at the impenetrable shadow which was too black, too murky for her to see what dwelt within. She feared that her phantom would invade her body and tear her apart from the inside out. Fear waged war with desire as her hands released their grip on his shoulders and pushed feebly at the mass of muscles rippling across his ch
est.
He would rip through her maidenhead, split her in two. Her phantom had fooled her into believing he was her savior. The moment he impaled her, she would realize he had been the beast all along.
Yet, even as she shook her head, even as she silently pleaded with him to free her, her hips rose.
How could she open herself to him, offer the virginity she had refused to all others when he was a stranger cloaked in an impossible mass of black mist, a phantom who had come into her room to bring her life to an end? And most terrifying of all, she doubted someone so huge could take her virginity without killing her. She felt him pull away and moaned with relief, even as her body arched up to reconnect.
I’ll take away the pain, Diana. You’ll only feel pleasure. You have my word. Close your eyes. Trust me.
I can’t. I have to save myself for my soul mate. Heat fanned out over her cheeks. In the presence of a being that could not possibly be of this world, her words sounded silly, immature.
Knuckles traced a cool path down her cheeks and along her jaw. You have been saving yourself for me, Diana. For me.
Diana closed her eyes, brought her hands up into the darkness and let her fingers paint the picture of his face. They brushed over a coarse, stubbly jaw, feathered over long, satin lashes, meandered down the straight bridge of a prominent nose and came to rest on full lips that quirked up in amusement before opening and capturing her fingertips.
She gasped softly when his tongue flicked across the sensitive pads of her fingers and pleasure spiraled down her spine. The instant she relaxed, he slid in deeper, fanning her burning embers, then slid out, leaving her cold. She cried out, wrapped her legs around his hips and tried to draw him back. Returning hotter, deeper, he stilled until she grew accustomed to his size, until her hips rose, then began a languid rhythm, sliding almost completely free before slowly delving back in.
As if the invasion below her waist were not enough, he released her fingers and made his way down her neck, kissing, nibbling, until he reached her breast. Drawing her nipple between his teeth, he tortured the sensitive peak with his tongue, birthing a need that mocked the hunger she had suffered earlier. Muscles she never knew existed coiled tightly until she thought she’d scream from the tension.
Her mind focused on their joined bodies and she realized that, with each thrust, his hips would stop far from meeting hers. She demanded he go deeper, faster and cried out in frustration when he refused.
Say it, Diana. Say you are mine.
Please, I can’t wait any longer.
Mine. He roared into her head. Say it.
Yours, only yours.
No one else will ever touch you as I have. Take my blood and seed, Diana Nostrum. Become my soul mate, my eternal mate, my only mate. For all eternity. Mine. You will never offer anyone else what you give to me tonight.
Diana shivered under the wrath that seemed to crash down upon her with each word.
He continued holding back until she was nearly mad with need before he drove himself in to the hilt, taking her virginity with a deafening roar that crashed into her mind. His hands slid beneath her and grasped her buttocks, holding her in place as he slammed into her again and again.
Diana shattered. Desire fanned out from her deepest recesses, streaked through her belly and shot down her legs. As she screamed from an orgasm much more powerful than she’d ever been able to bring herself to, he cradled her face against his neck.
Drink, goddess. Accept me. Accept the essence of my life.
As the sweet elixir surged into her mouth, white hot pain pierced her neck, then just as quickly evolved into exquisite pleasure. She felt her blood rush up to the spot beneath his mouth. Her body imploded, control shattered. His essence filled her mouth, his seed her womb. Although she knew he felt he was claiming her, possessing her, she realized he would forever belong to her—his blood running through her veins, his soul forever ensnared in her heart.
“Forever,” he whispered against her neck.
“Forever,” she whispered back, absorbing the shudders still racking his body. She longed to see his face and opened her eyes. His face hovered mere inches from her own. His gaze met hers. How just that her soul mate’s eyes mirrored the midnight-blue sky she loved so much.
He leaned down and gave her a gentle, brief kiss on the bridge of her nose. Diana raked her fingers into his hair and tried to draw his head down for a deeper, more defining kiss. A kiss that would calm the fear trickling up from her stomach, fear that he would leave now, leave her to the beast she could still feel stirring deep within her body. His fingers glanced over her lids, lowering them against her will.
Sleep, goddess.
Heat engulfed Sebastian’s back. It was far too late to return home, far too late to even attempt leaving Diana’s house. He rose, stood beside the bed and stared down at Diana’s blood between her splayed legs. The vein on his neck twitched in rhythm with the one pulsing on hers.
Tenderly drawing the sheet over her body, he bent to rub his knuckles over the pulsating vein. Remember my touch, Diana. When you feel it again, trust that I will never hurt you. His knuckles glided over the slight swell of her breast, thumped one by one over her erect nipple. And when I touch you again, do not deny me. You are mine, now, Diana. As I am yours. Mine.
Sunlight streamed through the window. The skin on the back of his legs sizzled. After yanking on his pants, he grabbed his shoes and sped to the door. Striding soundlessly through the house, he found the entrance to her attic just as he heard the garage door rise.
Transforming into mist, he flowed through the crack between the attic door and the ceiling. Webs clung to his face as he materialized. He moved toward the boxes that bore the thickest layer of dust and searched the darkest part of the massive attic behind them until he found a corner he thought would be safe. As if he could be safe in the house of the most feared vampire hunter since Van Helsing.
* * * * *
Diana pushed her sunglasses higher up on the bridge of her nose and lowered her visor against the sunlight streaming through her windshield. Her eyes burned from straining to see through the glare. Although she knew she should be concentrating on driving, her thoughts kept returning to the smear of blood she’d discovered on her sheets this morning. A small voice, sounding too much like Dr. Ruth, kept insisting only one thing would leave such a mark exactly where…
Of course, she could have scratched herself. She shifted in her seat. There was definitely a little tenderness, but no pinching. Scratches pinched, didn’t they? Her heart hiccupped when she recalled how heated her dreams had been. A tear slid down her cheek. What had she done? Masturbated and broken her hymen during an erotic dream?
She gripped the steering wheel and told herself to think of something else, something that would not send her to work with red, swollen eyes. Tuning the radio until she heard Gwen Stefani singing about being a rich girl, she forced herself to sing along and tap her nails on the steering wheel.
As usual, traffic crawled through Lake George Village as people haphazardly crossed between the cars. Summer brought a flock of tourists to Lake George. Diana could never understand why the locals complained about the tourists invading their close-knit community or why they counted the days until the tranquility of winter returned.
While she enjoyed horseback riding along snow-covered mountain trails and past iced-over ponds, she welcomed the energy that surged into the village with the first line of cars streaming off the interstate in June.
During summer the sidewalks teemed with activity and the air filled with the scents of suntan lotion, caramel corn and meat roasting over charcoal grills. Best of all, the tourists knew nothing about her mother’s desertion or her father’s obsession with vampires. They never pitied her or watched her for signs that would prove she’d inherited her parents’ instability.
Continuing up Route 9, Diana leaned over and tilted the passenger air conditioner vents in her direction. Glancing down at the pink skin on her thighs,
she frowned.
She never burned. Well not this far into July. By the time she pulled into the parking lot of the Hop-a-long Ranch, her hands, arms and thighs felt and looked as if she’d spent a full day on a Florida beach. Without sunblock.
“Howdy, Miss Diana.” Stanley Kowalski, known as Old Jake during working hours, lifted his Stetson, swept a long lock of gray hair over his bald spot and whistled as she stepped out of the car. “Now, what’d you go and do, little lady? Fall asleep in one of them tanning beds?”
“Cut the cowboy act, Stan,” Diana said and pressed her finger down on her rosy thigh. “I don’t get it. This is just from driving here.”
“Maybe you’re coming down with something. Man, that’s burnt.” He ran his calloused hand down her thigh.
Diana jerked away. “Geez, Stan. Your hand feels like sandpaper.” Following him into the main office, she eyed the brown paper bag on his desk and rubbed her stomach. “Maybe I am getting sick. I’m starving.”
Stan sat behind his desk and unwrapped a buttered sesame bagel. Handing her half, he smirked. “You’ve eaten half my bagel every morning since the day I hired you.”
“That’s because I never eat breakfast at home. But this morning I raided the fridge and ate enough to last through lunch.” Taking a bite, she sat on the edge of the desk and peered at the schedule board on the wall. After she swallowed, she asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice, “Any word from Colette Solange?”
“Not yet. If you’re planning on running this place when I retire, you’re going to need thicker skin.” He pointed at the schedule with his bagel. “That child only missed one lesson. Some regulars just up and disappear, Diana. They find a better, closer or cheaper ranch and are too embarrassed to show their faces here or call to let us know.”
“Not them, Stan. Something’s wrong. I just know it.” She stood up and walked over to the schedule. After staring at it a few minutes, she heard Stan chuckle and turned to find him literally wiping a smile from his face. “Come on, Stan. You know I’m not a nervous Nelly.”
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