Born to Bite Bundle

by Hannah Howell

  Glancing over her shoulder, Juliet tilted her chin, refusing to reveal the fear he could feel trembling through her body. His lips twisted as he ruefully admitted that he admired her courage, even as it threatened to drive him insane. After all, if she were a bit more timid they might even now be at his lair, spending the evening in a far more satisfying manner.

  Wickedly, intimately satisfying.

  “What are we doing?” she demanded.

  “Waiting and hoping the creature passes on without noticing our trail.”

  She nodded her head, then her brows tugged together as she noticed the thick scents that wafted from the far tunnel.

  “Good lord, it smells of . . .”

  “Humans.”

  “Terror,” she softly corrected him.

  His hand cupped her chin as he studied her delicate face. “And what would you know of such a thing, little one?”

  “When I was young my parents and I were traveling through Africa. One night we entered a town where a slaver’s ship was berthed.” She shivered. “I will never forget the stench of desperation. It spread through the streets and tainted everything in its path.”

  “Your parents permitted you to be near such evil?”

  “Actually, my mother used me to sneak aboard the ship and release the shackles that held the humans captive while she cast a spell that made the slavers believe they were being chased by hungry lions.” A small smile of remembered satisfaction curved her lips. “The last we heard, they ran straight into a tribal village that happened to take a very dim view of their townsfolk being sold like cattle.”

  A cold fury clenched his stomach at the mere thought of what might have happened to her.

  “Your mother sent you alone to release brutalized slaves?”

  “She trusted that I was capable of performing an important task as well as teaching me to care for others,” she snapped, the raw wound of her parents’ death suddenly visible in her eyes. “Something I have forgotten far too often since . . .”

  His fingers softened their grip to trail over her cheek, oddly feeling her pain as if it were his own.

  “How did you become Hawthorne’s apprentice?”

  “After my parents were murdered, I was determined to remain on my own.” A tremor shook her body. “It did not take long before I learned that humans are not the only creatures capable of great evil.”

  “You were hurt?”

  Her eyes clouded before she hastily lowered her lashes, as if she could hide her emotions from him.

  “I was captured by trolls and sold to the highest bidder.”

  Victor made no effort to contain the eruption of frigid power that filled the tunnels.

  “Their names.”

  She regarded him warily. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Give me the names of the trolls.”

  “They did not bother to share their private information and it no longer matters.” She gave a restless shrug. “I was fortunate that Lord Hawthorne was at the auction and purchased me.”

  “Hardly fortunate,” he bit out. “The bastard has taken advantage of you and your talents for decades.”

  “We both know how much worse it could have been.”

  His jaw clenched. He wanted to deny the truth of her words. He detested the overly conceited bastard, and not just because he was a mage.

  The man stood as a protector to this woman.

  A position that belonged solely to Victor.

  “Very well. I will concede there are worse fates than to be apprenticed to Hawthorne, but why do you continue to remain with him?” he growled. “The debt must be paid by now.”

  “I have nowhere else to go.”

  A dangerous emotion jolted through his heart at her soft words, his arm tightening in an unconsciously possessive motion.

  “You are mistaken, little one. Your place is with me.”

  A bleak smile curved her lips. “And once you weary of me in your bed, my lord? Would I become a tasty meal for your clan?”

  Unthinkable.

  He growled low in his throat, knowing he would readily kill any of his brothers who tried to touch her.

  “Perhaps I will never weary of you.”

  “I am no gullible mortal. A vampire’s hunger is as varied as it is insatiable until he has mated.”

  His lips twisted in a humorless smile. “That is the common assumption.”

  “Ah, no doubt you are about to convince me that you are different from every other vampire?”

  “But of course I am. I expected that went without mentioning.”

  “Arrogant—”

  Victor swooped down to claim her lips in a kiss of naked, unrelenting need.

  “My hunger remains insatiable, but it is no longer varied,” he confessed. “I desire no woman but you.”

  “For the moment.”

  He pulled back to capture her wary gaze. “Since I first caught sight of you.”

  “Are you implying . . . ?” She sharply shook her head. “No, it is impossible.”

  “I can be deceitful when the occasion demands, but I will never lie to you, little one,” he swore. “That you can depend on.”

  Chapter Four

  Juliet’s heart forgot to beat as she gazed into the silver eyes, mesmerized by the promise that shimmered in the beautiful depths.

  Was it possible?

  Could he truly have forsaken women since meeting her?

  And if he had, why would he?

  He had to have a potent reason to deny himself. It was, after all, unheard of for a vampire to go even a few nights without sating his sexual appetite.

  So why . . .

  It was the yearning ache deep inside her that abruptly shocked her out of her inane thoughts.

  Good Lord, she had known for two years that she lusted after Victor. Hardly a shocking realization. What female in London did not desire the handsome beast?

  But to long for something he could never, ever offer her was utter madness.

  “This is hardly the time or place for such a discussion,” she forced herself to say, spinning out of his hold and heading toward the far tunnel before he could guess her intent.

  “Juliet. Damn.” There was a stir of cold air before Victor was grasping her arm to bring her to an abrupt halt. “Where do you think you are going?”

  “To see if we can help the humans.” She squared her shoulders. “And then to find Levet.”

  “Do not be a fool.”

  “Fine. You remain here. I will go.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  She steadily met his smoldering silver gaze. “We have already been through this, my lord. You are not my keeper. In truth, you have no right to tell me what I can or cannot do.”

  His jaw tightened with frustration. “You have always possessed an independent spirit, but you have never willfully courted danger. Why are you being so stubborn?”

  Her gaze dropped to where his slender fingers wrapped around her wrist, genuinely considering his question.

  “Because I am weary of allowing my fears to isolate me from the world,” she at last confessed.

  “You are hardly isolated.”

  “Perhaps not physically, but I have avoided becoming emotionally involved.” Her voice was soft, edged with regret. “I told myself that it would be illogical to become attached to others when I would eventually be forced to leave them behind. Spending time with Levet has made me realize I was simply being a coward.”

  He gave a short, humorless laugh. “You have readily defied the most dangerous demon in the entire British Empire. You consider that the behavior of a coward?”

  “More like the behavior of a lunatic,” she muttered, lifting her head to meet his glare. “But I was referring to my habit of avoiding relationships out of a fainthearted fear of experiencing the same pain I endured when I lost my parents. It has kept me in a prison of my own making.”

  “I would be the first to applaud your desire to share your life, so long as it is with me,
but what does this newfound need have to do with recklessly endangering yourself?”

  She shrugged, ignoring his frigid displeasure. Stupid, of course. Only a fool would willingly cross swords with a vampire.

  But over the past months she had been plagued with a growing restless need to break free of the fear that had held her captive for far too long.

  “Truly being a part of the world means taking risks, as my mother taught me. Whether it is with your heart or with your life.” She sent him a challenging frown. “Do not try to convince me that you would not do whatever was necessary to rescue a vampire who had been kidnapped.”

  “It is my duty as clan chief.”

  “Well, this is my duty as a . . .”

  “Yes?”

  She yanked her arm from his grasp. “As a mongrel, I suppose.”

  His brows snapped together at her brittle tone, but before he could continue his lecture, she was moving down the tunnel, refusing to halt until she reached the heavy metal door that blocked the passage.

  She pressed a hand to the wall of the tunnel, knowing better than to actually touch the door until she was certain there were no nasty surprises. Her brow pleated with concentration. Unlike full-blooded demons, she did not possess finely tuned senses that allowed her to easily determine every nuance of her surroundings.

  Which only meant she had to work harder, she grimly told herself.

  Ignoring the annoyed vampire hovering protectively at her shoulder, Juliet pushed out with her senses, nearly going to her knees at the staggering odor of unwashed bodies and barely leashed panic.

  Her every instinct urged her to turn around and flee, just as it had all those years ago when she had been in the bowels of the slave ship. Hardly unexpected. No creature with the least amount of sense would be eager to confront whatever was behind the door.

  But now, as then, she called on the thought of her parents. Her fierce, fearless mother who defied her own coven to be with the imp she loved. Her impulsive, charming father with his ready laugh and open delight in his only child.

  They believed in her, never allowing her to accept she was less because she was a mere mongrel.

  Tonight she would make them proud.

  “There are more than just humans,” she muttered.

  “Sprites,” Victor determined with annoying ease. “A few nymphs.”

  “Gargoyle?”

  “Not mixed among the others.”

  She snapped her gaze to his wary face. “But Levet is here?”

  His lips thinned; he was no doubt regretting his promise he would never lie to her.

  “Yes.”

  Relief surged through her. “Thank God.”

  “No god would be so cruel,” he drawled.

  She ignored Victor’s callous indifference toward her friend. Vampires considered any demon not a vampire as a lesser demon. Even werewolves.

  “First we must release the captives,” she decided.

  Victor scowled. “Juliet, you do realize this might very well be a trap?”

  “Do you sense—”

  “I do not need to sense danger to know it is there.”

  “I am doing this with or without you, Victor.”

  The silver eyes flashed with mocking amusement. “Ah, when you have need of me I am Victor, eh, little one?”

  She clenched her teeth, belatedly realizing she had indeed allowed his name to slip out. It was a luxury she never indulged in. Not when she needed the formality to remind herself that Victor was a forbidden temptation. Just as she pretended she did not notice the manner in which his silk shirt clung to the chiseled muscles of his chest, or how precisely his pantaloons outlined the hard lines of his legs . . .

  “I have several other names if you prefer,” she muttered.

  With an impatient sound, Victor captured her face in his hands and leaned down to steal a kiss that jolted through her with stunning force.

  “Let us be done with this,” he rasped against her mouth. “I have a far better means to spend the evening.”

  She shivered, the image of the delicious vampire sprawled on satin sheets, his fangs latched onto the vulnerable throat of a woman, searing through her mind.

  “I can imagine.”

  He pulled back, a wicked smile curving his lips at the thickness of her voice.

  “Soon you will not have to imagine,” he promised.

  Annoyed with the indecent ease with which he could make her heart pound and her body ache, Juliet turned her attention to the heavy door blocking their path.

  “Magic?” Victor softly demanded.

  She held out a hand, lightly touching the dull metal of the door handle, stiffening when the door slid open with shocking ease.

  “There are no hexes or curses.”

  “No silver,” Victor deduced. Like most demons, vampires were lethally allergic to silver. “A spell?”

  Juliet shook her head, ignoring the urge to gag at the putrid scent of unwashed bodies and human waste as she stepped to peer into the gloom of the cavern.

  She expected the dozen or so people huddled against the far wall, and even their deplorable state of misery. Whether human or demon, being held as a prisoner was a ghastly fate.

  No, but what did surprise her was the realization that none of them were bound in any way.

  No cages, no shackles, no magic.

  She turned to stab Victor with a puzzled frown. “What is keeping them in there?”

  “Pure fear.” His expression hardened. “There is nothing to be done, little one. So long as the prisoners are held captive by their terror, then nothing will induce them to leave.”

  “Could you glamour them?”

  “I am powerful, but there is no vampire who could glamour so many at once.”

  She gnawed her bottom lip, considering their limited options.

  “Then we must discover something that will convince them that it is more dangerous to remain than to flee.”

  His brows arched at her odd request. “I do not believe you would appreciate my means of convincing them just how dangerous I can be.”

  “No, I did not mean you,” she hastily said, appalled at the mere thought of the poor creatures being tormented by a rampaging vampire. “I know a spell, but I have not attempted to use it for years.”

  The silver eyes flickered with a wary surprise. “I did not know you could perform magic.”

  She reached into her pocket to pull out her mother’s amulet, ruefully wishing she possessed the sort of power that would frighten a vampire. Then perhaps she would have the courage to accept Victor as her lover.

  “I have no talent for true magic, but I can perform a few small illusions.”

  “I do not like this.”

  She heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Is there anything you do like?”

  His gaze flared over her with a blatant hunger. “You.”

  Good . . . Lord.

  Juliet hurriedly bent down, using her finger to draw a circle in the dirt, and at the same time hiding the heat staining her cheeks.

  “Stand back and do not break the circle.”

  Closing her eyes, Juliet rubbed her fingers over the amulet, using her mother’s lingering powers to bolster her own as she filled her mind with the image of a Saulgon demon in full bloodlust. The actual demon had been extinct from this world for centuries, but the sight of the hulking creature with its gray, rotting flesh and double row of razor-sharp fangs was enough to break the nerve of the most courageous warrior.

  At the same moment, she conjured the sensation of choking terror that had assailed her in the outer chamber.

  Whispering the words of power, she sent the illusion spreading outward, touching the minds of the captives.

  Engrossed with her spell, Juliet failed to notice the startled cries, and even the sudden pounding of footsteps. It was not until Victor snatched her into his arms and pressed her painfully against the wall of the tunnel that she realized she had very nearly been trampled by the fleeing prisoners.<
br />
  “Damn,” Victor snarled, keeping her wrapped tightly in his arms even after the last of the terrified humans had disappeared down the tunnel.

  “It worked,” she breathed, astonishment blending with relief as she sensed the prisoners continuing their frantic flight through the tunnels.

  “Too bloody well,” Victor growled next to her ear.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The escaping prisoners have attracted precisely the attention we hoped to avoid.”

  Shaking off the fog of her spell, Juliet stiffened as a violent wave of fury pulsed through the tunnel. Dear God. Something was charging toward them. And she did not have to be a full-blooded demon to know it intended harm.

  Profound, agonizing harm.

  The thought had barely flared through her mind when Victor scooped her off her feet and was bolting across the cavern to a narrow tunnel that Juliet hadn’t noticed until that moment.

  “Victor,” she breathed, fear crawling over her skin.

  “Just hold on, little one.”

  She did. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she unashamedly clung to him, knowing that without Victor she would still be stumbling across the cavern. Few things could match a vampire for speed.

  Well, few things except for the creature chasing them, she realized with a stab of regret.

  No matter how swiftly Victor sped through the tunnels, or how often he darted into side corridors, the menacing pursuer continued to grow closer.

  “We will never be able to outrun it,” she at last muttered.

  “I fear you are right.” Coming to a grudging halt, Victor placed her on her feet, his beautiful features grim. “It appears we must fight.”

  Juliet gave a sharp shake of her head. “No.”

  “No?”

  “This is not your battle,” she said, unconsciously pressing her hands to his chest. “You can escape. I will distract—”

  He muttered an incoherent curse before grabbing her face and kissing her with a combination of frustration and yearning need.

  “I will not leave you,” he husked against her mouth. “I will never leave you.”