Chapter Sixteen
Erin
An invisible burden strained my shoulders as I unlocked the door to my townhome. Dante would need to feed at some point this morning, but not before I had a long, relaxing bath—
“Dante!”
He was curled on the floor of my living room, his eyes squeezed shut, whispering words I couldn’t make out.
I ran to him and knelt down, gripping his shoulders and shaking him. “Dante, baby. What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Show me,” he whispered, urgency lacing his quiet voice. “Show me what I seek. My qu—”
“No!” I pushed him as hard as I could, rolling him onto his back. “Stop it, Dante. Stop it right now!”
His eyes shot open, and his lips trembled. “Show me…”
“No!” I had no idea what he was talking about or to whom, but inside me I knew I had to stop him. It was a life or death thing at this point, and it was drumming in my head like a Native American chant.
Stop him. Stop him. Stop him.
I pushed him again. “No! Stop it, Dante. Stop it!”
His eyes were glassy as he gazed at me. His pupils were dilated. He still wasn’t focusing.
Stop him. Stop him. Stop him.
“Dante, stop it. Wake up. I love you, Dante. It’s Erin. I love you.”
His gaze was still thick, as though he were looking through fog.
One more push. “Dante! I love you! You are vampire, and I love you!”
His pupils responded, and his gaze softened. I heaved a sigh of relief. My heart was stampeding against my chest. I hadn’t realized how worked up I was until I was able to release the tension binding me.
“Erin. My love,” he whispered.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here. Are you all right?”
He closed his eyes, inhaled, and then opened them. “I am now.”
“That was scary. You kept saying, ‘show me.’ What were you talking about, Dante?”
He attempted to sit up, and I steadied him until we were both upright.
“I let the book take me to a bad place.”
“The book? You mean the Vampyre Texts?” I pointed at the coffee table.
“Yeah. I let my curiosity… God, Erin, I came so close to succumbing to her.” He cupped my cheek, caressing it with his thumb. “Her. The woman who took me. Kept me away from my family all that time. She gets in my head sometimes. I try to stop it. Usually I can, but today…” He shivered.
“It’s okay.” I massaged his forearm. “I’m here.”
“You saved me. Thank you.”
“I was so scared. But somehow I knew I had to stop whatever was going on with you. Your eyes were dilated, Dante. You were having a physiological response to something. I think you need…” I breathed in, unsure of how to continue. “Maybe get some help. I know some good therapists at the hospital.”
That got a chuckle out of him. “I’ve considered it. I have. But how could I be honest? Any therapist worth his degree would have me locked up after hearing my story.”
I couldn’t fault his observation. But I could help. If he would let me. “Talk to me, Dante. Tell me what happened.”
“I…can’t. It’s too humiliating.”
“Baby, do you really think anything you tell me could make me stop loving you? I know you. I know how strong you are. How determined. If you were held against your will…”
It sank in as if lightning had struck my brain.
Still so much I didn’t know about this vampire I was in love with.
Still so much…
None of that mattered right now, because a wave of need swept over me.
My blood boiled in my veins, warming and reddening my skin, and a desire so profound swept through me that it almost seemed as if it had a divine purpose.
I needed to feed Dante.
I needed to feed the man I loved.
I moved toward him, embracing him, leaning to the side and offering my neck. “Take from me, Dante. Take what you need. Please.”
He pierced my flesh.
Emotion instantly overpowered me.
I’d fed him before, but this time the feeling was so raw, so powerful, that my eyes closed and I fell limp into his arms.
True submission to the man I adored. The man who needed me as no other ever had or would.
As my blood flowed into him, the purpose of my existence came to me so swiftly that I knew it had always been lying within me. To nourish Dante Gabriel, and as I did so, he nourished me as well.
He completed me.
Quenched my thirst and sated my hunger.
The sweet tugging of his lips and teeth on my flesh sent pinpricks of delight swirling through me. The more of my blood that flowed between his lips, the more of him I felt flowing within me.
His strength. His passion. Even his uncertainties, and I welcomed them as my own.
His curiosity. His torment.
Oh, such torment!
Questions. He was so full of questions, and so hungry for answers that he had almost succumbed to the devil herself.
Along with my blood, I let my strength flow into him. Although I was exhausted from my shift, as I gave him my strength, his flowed back into me, rejuvenating me.
Awakening me.
Arousing me.
My pulse quickened, and honeyed warmth surged through me. I’m yours, I said to him with each drop of my blood he ingested. I’m yours and you’re mine. You’ll protect me and I’ll protect you. We will protect each other from whatever threatens either or both of us. We exist together now. As one.
A low growl emerged against my tender flesh.
Dante released me, licking the two puncture wounds.
“I love you, Erin.”
“I love you, Dante.”
He swept me into his arms and headed up the stairs, stopping at my bedroom door.
“I need you,” he said, his voice a husky rasp.
“I need you too.”
He pushed through the door, depositing me on the bed. “Undress,” he growled.
I’d just come from work, so I wore only sweats and a T-shirt with sneakers. The shoes I kicked off without untying them, toeing off my socks as well.
“You’re going too slow,” he snarled. He yanked my sweat pants and underwear over my hips.
His touch ignited me. He unbuttoned his jeans, pushing them over his hips in a flash.
Then he was inside me, thrusting, thrusting, thrusting. His grunts fueled my desire. We were fornicating like a couple of animals in the wild, and I couldn’t have loved it more.
This coupling was the very essence of what we were, what we had become to each other.
We were animals. Animals fated to be together. Though our love existed on a higher plane, right now, we were giving in to our most basic desires.
He had taken my blood, had let me nourish him, and in so doing he had nourished me. Now we fucked. A celebratory fuck to commemorate our bond.
Dante called it a blood bond, and for the first time I understood exactly what that meant.
All of the questions he had, all of the research he was doing to figure out this crazy thing between us—and now I knew what it was. I felt it in my very soul.
The blood bond.
Once bonded, never broken.
Chapter Seventeen
Dante
She had saved me, this amazing woman. And now, as I did nothing more than fuck her, I knew she would always save me. When I needed her, Erin would be there, as she had been today when I had nearly succumbed to her. She accepted me, not only with her words but with her actions—with everything that was Erin.
That last bit that had been missing was now in place. We had come full circle.
I was fucking her with primal ferocity, but I needed her to feel what I was feeling.
“I do,” she said on a whisper.
“Touch yourself, Erin. Touch yourself, and come for me.”
She slid her hand down her still clothed torso a
nd found her clit, so perfectly swollen and pink. Her first two fingers slid over her hard nub. I inhaled, her fragrance thick with pheromones and lust. Such a sweet perfume, made—no created—solely for me.
She arched her back as I continued to plummet into her. I plunged again and again into her sweet suction. She gloved me, and the sensation was so perfect that heaven itself couldn’t have felt any better. And when she cried out in climax, I buried myself in her exquisiteness, letting go.
Letting all of it go…
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“Erin,” I growled, my eyes closed, as I emptied myself into her. “You. Are. Mine.”
I fell down upon the bed, next to her, trembling and sweating, my jeans and boxer briefs around my knees. I breathed in. Breathed out. Breathed in again.
“Dante…” she whispered, half moaning.
“Mine. Erin. Mine.”
Nothing mattered. Nothing but Erin and me and the blood bond between us.
I awoke a while later, my jeans still scrunched around my knees. Erin slept soundly next to me, still wearing her T-shirt and bra. I stroked her soft hair falling out of her ponytail. A magnitude of emotion bubbled up inside me as I gazed at her, her cheeks pink, her lips still soft and not swollen.
I hadn’t even kissed her. I’d only taken what I needed, and with such sweetness and giving, she had allowed me to.
This woman was my life. Once bonded, never broken.
For a dark second, she burst into my mind, reminding me of where I first heard those words.
I stared at my Erin, my only love, and banished her from my mind.
She had lied to me, told me I was weak and vulnerable. She might not be gone forever, but for now, as I looked at my sweet love, I had the strength to exile her.
Erin rustled softly and then opened her eyes. She met my gaze and smiled, warming my heart.
“Hey,” she said.
“I didn’t mean to wake you. I know you worked all night and must be tired.”
As if on cue, her lips split into a yawn, making us both laugh a little.
“It was a pretty rough night actually, but none of that matters now. You’re here. I’m here. That’s all I need.”
“You saved me today.”
“I just brought you here. Back where you belong. Next to me.”
“I don’t know how I can repay you,” I said. “For everything.”
She smiled, that sweet smile I’d come to need as much as air. “Love isn’t something you repay, Dante. It isn’t something you earn. It’s something another person gives to you freely. I give you my love because I want to. I give you my blood because I want to. I will give you whatever you ask of me. What makes you happy makes me happy.”
She was so special, this woman. “I want to tell you everything.”
She stroked my cheek, the soft pads of her fingers warm with her blood flowing beneath them. “When you’re ready. I can wait.”
I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers in a soft kiss. “Thank you. Thank you for everything. Mostly, thank you for loving me.”
“Love isn’t something you have to thank me for either.”
“Then how can I let you know how much your love means to me?”
“I already know that, my love. Just like you know how much your love means to me.”
Warmth flowed into me, almost as if balmy chocolate syrup had been drizzled over me. I felt perfectly safe wrapped in a cocoon of love where nothing could hurt either of us.
I wished we could stay here forever.
But we couldn’t. I had an obligation to my father. I had to recover his body, and tonight was the night. I had to tell Erin. I couldn’t, in good conscience, keep something of this magnitude from her.
But for now, we could lie together. I eased her T-shirt over her head and then removed her bra. Her beautiful breasts fell, her nipples already tight and hard. I took one between my lips and sucked gently.
“Dante…” she sighed. “I love you so.”
I let her nipple go with a soft pop and quickly removed my clothes. I settled in next to her, kissing her lips, her cheeks, the sweet flesh of her neck. I trailed my lips over her shoulders and chest, the round swell of her breasts, until I again found her lovely hard nipple. I sucked gently again, relishing the soft sighs from her throat. The texture of her skin was like silk on my tongue, and her fragrance wrapped itself around me in an almost visible shield.
Slowly, her hand traveled over her breast and she began playing with the other nipple. My dick hardened again.
“Yeah, baby. Touch yourself. It’s so hot. You make me want you so much.”
Her hips began undulating slowly, almost undetectable, but I could sense it.
I let her nipple drop from my mouth again, and I trailed my tongue over her soft flat abdomen. I spread her legs until her beautiful pussy was fanned out before me like a smorgasbord for all of my senses. My eyes took in its glistening pinkness, the sweet swells of her labia, the hard little nub of her clit. With my fingers, I touched the slickness of her folds. The moist softness of her inner thighs. And I inhaled. That sweet musky fragrance that was part arousal and part simply Erin. Apples. Chocolate. Musky truffles and Cabernet. With my ears, I heard the breathy sighs that morphed into lower tones when I swept my fingers over her clit.
And my sense of taste… I inhaled once more, gleaning everything I could from my other senses before I dived in to that sweet pie.
“Please,” she breathed, still playing with her nipples. “Please, Dante. Lick me. Suck my pussy.”
I could hold out no longer. I pushed her thighs forward and swiped my tongue from her cute little asshole all the way up to her clit.
My cock hardened into granite.
“Please. Your fingers, Dante. I need them inside me.”
“In good time, love.” I sucked on her labia, tugged on them, swirled my tongue back to her clit and sucked some more.
Her silky texture, her sweet female scent, her arousing pinkness—it all combined to offer an explosion on my senses.
I shoved my tongue into her heat, letting it dance inside her as I savored every nuance of her flavor. She wriggled beneath me, first arching her back and then taking handfuls of my hair and pushing me farther into her depths. She lifted her hips and ground against me, wetting my cheeks with juices.
“Feels so good. I’m going to come, Dante. Oh my God!”
She exploded around my face, fresh honey gushing over my lips and tongue.
I opened my mouth wide and took as much of her as I could. Still her climax continued, and only when the contractions started to slow did I thrust two fingers into her heat.
She ascended again into orgasm.
My aching cock needed her now. I quickly replaced my fingers with my hard dick, slamming into her. She was still working her nipples, her whole body flushed with burst capillaries thrumming in my ears.
My fangs had long since descended, and her breasts were red and swollen. I leaned down and punctured the soft flesh above her areola.
Though she was flushed, the blood didn’t flow as quickly in this spot. This wasn’t about feeding. No, this was about lovemaking. This was about my needs merged with hers. This was about her being mine. I sucked gently, taking very little of her red nectar, and she flew into another orgasm.
I thrust once more into her until I emptied myself again.
We stayed together then, joined. My cock inside her, my teeth inside her.
And we fell asleep together.
Chapter Eighteen
Erin
Despite the exhausting previous night, I slept better than I had in weeks. When I woke snuggled next to Dante, inhaling his salty masculine aroma, I felt at peace. More at peace than I had since we’d met.
But when he awoke and looked at me with a frighteningly serious gaze, I knew my feeling of Nirvana would be short-lived.
I couldn’t say I was surprised. Life would never be completely normal with Dante, and until we figured out who’d
been feeding on me and my brother, not to mention whatever else was plaguing Dante that he couldn’t tell me about, life wouldn’t even be close to routine.
“What is it?” I asked, stroking his hair.
“River and I have to do something tonight.”
“Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like it, am I?”
“I can’t see how you could.”
I listened, forcing myself not to tune out, as he told me his plans.
“I suppose you’ve considered the fact that you could be arrested for trespassing and all that other stuff. River must know this, being a cop and all.”
“He does. And he resisted at first. But I need help. My father doesn’t have a body anymore, so he can’t realistically help me. My sister is pregnant, and I certainly can’t drag you into this. River is the only option, and you know that as well as I do. So does he.”
“Does your grandfather know about any of this?”
Dante shook his head. “And we’d like to keep it that way, not that I think you’ll go running to him.”
“I’m sure you have your reasons,” I said with resignation.
“I do.”
“And your father?”
“He’ll be with us, making sure anyone who comes near us is glamoured so we can do what we need to do.”
“I see.” Julian had glamoured me, something I still wasn’t comfortable with despite his good intentions. “When do you leave?”
“Tonight. After you go to work.”
“What if I decide to take the night off and go with you?”
“You can’t, Erin. Not this time, not when I can’t guarantee you’ll be safe.”
“I’m not sure I could be any safer, Dante. You, your cousin, and your father will be there. Who better than the three of you to protect me?”
“This is the cemetery. Supernatural forces are thick there, and River and I will be busy.”
“So you’ll have better things to do than look after me. Is that what you’re saying?”
“The most important thing in my life is looking after you, Erin. You know that. I shouldn’t have to keep saying it. But you have your shift at night. They need you there.”
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 25