JAEL RETREATED AND leaned against a wall in a shadow as he waited for his Dragă to appear at the top of the stairs. Even that short distance eased a tenseness in his body. He didn't like the sea. Travel by ship was a necessary evil as he scoured the world hunting mages and their minions, but the ocean weakened vampires, and he preferred to keep away from it.
Viktoria was taking her time climbing the stairs. He shifted, impatient, then scolded himself. Where else could she go? The stairs led to one place. But the relaxed posture he fell into as he waited during a hunt abandoned him, and he forced himself not to fidget. His swords weren’t helping. Their eager anticipation filled him.
He crossed his arms and huffed a sigh, freezing as warm vanilla filled his nose. Soft laughter right next to him, closer than anyone should be able to get, brushed warm breath over his ear. Viktoria's chuckle. The same sound he’d heard at the gallery. His pants grew tight and the swords’ amusement trilled a light song in the back of his mind.
Gentle fingertips stroked his cheek. The ghostly touch turned his head to the right and vanished. His heart thumped and Jael blinked, bringing a flash of platinum hair and pale skin two blocks away into focus. What the fuck? How had she —
Gods help him. Having a Dragă was already making him crazy, and he hadn’t even decided to bond her to him.
But the chase was on.
HIS DRAGĂ WAS GOOD.
She’d. Almost. Lost. Him.
Several times. He’d never hunted prey like her before, and he still hadn’t figured out how she was pulling some of her tricks, but in the end she’d come to roost, leading him right to her home.
Her two-story brick house, more of a manor, sat on a large acreage of woodlands. She had a private forest and views of the sea from here — the crash and hiss of waves surging onto the beach and receding into the ocean sounded inches away, not across the street and down a hill. Twelve-foot stucco walls and massive evergreen trees provided privacy from distant neighbors. Lights came on and went off as she moved through the house until only one stayed on in a room on the second story.
Viktoria opened French doors leading into what he could now see was her bedroom and turned away, leaving them standing wide open. A pang of disappointment spiked anxiety in him at how unprotected her home was. Anyone could get to her here. He had expected more from her after the difficulties she’d given him when he stalked her. Did she think she’d managed to lose him after all? Did she imagine she was safe?
Jael hadn’t seen the man who had spoken to Viktoria at the gallery following her, so she probably wasn’t in any danger at the moment, but she needed to be more cautious. He sent a text to Zeke asking where the man went. Zeke texted back they were downtown, far enough away from Viktoria’s house that Jael relaxed.
He leapt, scaled the wall, and dropped to the ground on the other side. Moonlight illuminated two fifteen-foot statues of hairy men with enormous noses and ears facing one another across a wide, rectangular expanse of grass. Of course his Dragă couldn’t have anything as typical as a lawn gnome. She had statues of giant trolls.
An odd glow like sunlight shone in a corner of the property under snow-covered trees and fireflies, and what sounded like tiny feet zipped ahead of him. No threats, and he didn’t have time to follow them now. He slipped into the shelter of the forest and edged around the meadow until he approached a massive oak. It was simple to climb the enormous trunk and use the branches to swing over the railing of a wide balcony built on top of a porch running the length of the house.
Now that he knew where his Dragă lived, he could find her whenever he wanted. They still had the mage who had hurt Ember locked up. Jael toyed with the idea of returning to the compound and interrogating him again. Mages always said they didn’t know anything else, but Jael had discovered he was a much better judge of when they knew nothing else — with the appropriate encouragement, of course. The man who’d beaten Ember still had some secrets, and Jael intended to carve them out one spell at a time. His swords hummed in pleasure.
The mage wasn’t going anywhere. He should stay here. Not because he was stalking his Dragă. No, he needed to stay to make sure no more mage minions were coming for her. They tended to work in teams, and where there was one, there would be more. It was still early, not even midnight yet. There were hours until he had to return to the compound before sunrise.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
VIKTORIA
VIKTORIA GAVE THE VAMPIRE credit for being persistent. But she’d tired of the game on the streets of Port Storm, and the creepy sensation that something was crawling on her skin, and led the vampire to her home turf instead. She crossed her shadow wards. Her protection magic overpowered whatever spell Thomax had put on her, and a small spider dropped to the ground.
Spiders, huh? She’d grown up playing with creatures a lot more deadly than a spider. If this was meant to intimidate her, whoever was after Musette was in for a surprise. They’d have to work harder, but she pretended not to notice the arachnid as it scuttled away for shelter within a shadow. It wouldn’t hurt to see what it did, and it couldn’t pass her magic.
Leaving her boundary magic down long enough for the vampire to cross, she restored her wards and went upstairs to her bedroom. When the vampire slipped over the wall, her shadows quivered in anticipation and she watched out a window. He was good — she almost didn’t see the blur moving across her property.
He lurked on her balcony, thinking himself hidden from her in shadows, again. She hoped he brought her perfume. It was an expensive bottle — the scent created for her alone. The sacrifice would have been worth it if the distraction worked, but since it hadn’t, she wanted it back.
She struck a match and crouched to light kindling in the black brick fireplace. Shadows, some deep and onyx, others more like smoke, wispy and flexible, reached for her, in their way equally as warm and comforting as the firelight.
The vampire... she couldn’t keep calling him that. Ember could tell her his name, but Viktoria couldn’t be bothered to find out. She would call him... Lurky.
Lurky’s persistence didn’t bode well for being rid of him by telling him to go away when she was done with him. Well, if he wanted to lurk and watch, she’d give him a show.
She tossed her stilettos into the closet and went into the bathroom to begin the process of removing her dress. Untying the strings that weren’t held on by body glue from one another and a string that ran around her neck like a collar, she let them slither through her fingers one by one.
With her hair twisted into a messy knot, she filled a small bowl with hot water and dipped a washcloth into it. Tugging at the criss-cross of strings that covered her left breast, she ran the cloth over her skin to remove the traces of glue left behind. As the water cooled on her skin, her pale pink nipple hardened into an erect nub.
Revealing her right breast, she turned her back to the mirror, reaching her arms over her head and behind her back as she contorted to get at the last few strings. She stretched her body taut and arched her back, the extremes she was going to meant to tease and not necessary for the last few strings.
It wasn’t the best idea to tease a vampire, but Viktoria considered it payback for having to put up with his stalking her. And she was determined he would be the one to break their silent stalemate, not her.
When the last of the strings were freed, she let the dress slide off her body to pool around her feet. A low growl, cut off almost as soon as it began, came from the direction of her balcony. She gave no sign she heard it, but was gratified to know her efforts were appreciated.
Naked, she reached for some lotion with the same scent as her perfume. Squeezing a dollop into one palm, she set the tube down and rubbed her hands together to spread the lotion between them.
Tilting her head to one side to stretch her neck, she rubbed one hand up and down her throat, while the other one slid across her collarbone. Moving her hands down, she cupped her full breasts and massaged lotion into them. She tweaked her nipples, letting out a
small moan as her head fell back.
She slid her hands lower, skimming her belly, waist, and hips before propping one leg up on the counter so she could slather lotion over the length of it. She took her time, making sure to bend, stretch, and display her body as she massaged every inch of her leg before she shifted to prop her other leg on the counter and start over again.
Finished with her lesson on how to apply body lotion, she loosened the knot in her hair and let it tumbled to her waist. She left her dress on the floor, switched off the light, and walked through her bedroom clad only in the moonlight streaming in from the open balcony doors.
Lurky lurked, his stare boring into her.
In spite of the heat the fire put out, she told herself it was the cool winter air, not Lurky’s ardent gaze, that had her body shivering and her nipples hardening.
Her bedroom, like everything else about her, was a study of light and dark, and her bed was covered in an inky black comforter. She crawled onto the high four-poster bed and rolled onto her back, letting her body relax.
Time to step up her game even further.
CHAPTER TWELVE
JAEL
UP TO THIS MOMENT IN his long, undead life as a vampire, Jael thought only the sun, beheading, or a stake through his heart could kill him. As he watched his Dragă touching herself, he added spontaneous combustion to the list of possible ways to die.
His body and instincts warred with his mind in an unfair two-to-one fight to claim his Dragă. An unfair fight in which the odds became further skewed when his Dragă unknowingly joined the battle against his mind.
Jael thought it was bad when she used the washcloth. He hadn’t thirsted for water in thousands of years, but watching the rivulets of water drops caress her as they slid down her skin, he’d craved those drops like they were an oasis in a desert he’d been crawling through for days.
Watching her movements while she revealed her body bit by bit, baring herself with no hint of self-consciousness as she let her dress fall to the floor, had him growling and clenching his fists. Then she’d touched and massaged every inch of her skin using a cream with the same scent as the perfume he associated with her, and he took an involuntary step forward, fingers twitching.
And the way she’d walked across her bedroom, skin glowing in an intriguing combination of lights from flames and the moon, set against the dark fireplace, feet sinking into the snow-white carpet... he hadn’t been able to look away.
Her lithe body shivered, and hard pink nipples on full, round breasts poked from the curtain of her silvery hair, drawing his eyes like magnets. But did she give him any relief by sliding under the bed covers? No. His Dragă lay on her back on top, pale skin glowing against the ebony quilt.
Long legs fell open, and hands traveled over her body with a new purpose as she pleasured herself. Fingers slid up the inside of a thigh to her core and moved in rhythmic circles. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she moaned as his new favorite scent flavored the air — the sweet scent of her arousal.
He bit back a curse, heated blood rushing to a fast-growing erection. The idle thought of spontaneous combustion as an impending doom became a more tangible possibility.
Jael had seen enough. His mind gave up the fight, and he stepped from his hiding place on the balcony through the open doors into her bedroom. His boot sank into snow. Not snow-white carpet. Actual snow. She must be some sort of weather witch. “Viktoria.” He spoke in a quiet tone, not wanting to scare her. “Don’t be alarm —”
“So, the vampire can speak.”
Jael frowned. She knew he was here? More to the point, she knew what he was? And far from startled or scared, she sounded... bored. She hadn’t even opened her eyes to look at him or stopped moving her hands over herself.
“I was beginning to think you were mute.” His Dragă arched her back. “You’ll have to work on your timing, though. I’m busy now.”
So he was dismissed, was he? No woman had ever dismissed him before. Jael crossed to the foot of the bed, seized her ankle, and yanked her towards him.
Viktoria laughed as she slid across the bedspread, opening her eyes to meet his gaze. “What exactly do you think is going to happen here?”
Jael’s vision sharpened as his eyes bled into black and his fangs descended. He turned his head to the side and inhaled the scent of Viktoria’s lotion on her calf. He knew the scent of her, now he wanted the taste of her on his tongue. “I hunted you. I caught you. You are mine.” He opened his mouth, aching to fill her with venom and taste her blood.
She lifted her free leg and planted the heel of her bare foot on Jael’s forehead, knocking his head away from the leg he held. “Poor, misguided predator. I was never your prey. I was bait. Aren’t you hunter enough to recognize a trap? Or have you never been the one caught before?”
Cool sensations flowed over his body, wrapping around his neck and wrists, yanking his head back and his arms out to his sides. He tried to move and found he couldn’t. He tightened his grip on Viktoria’s ankle. “Asiptu.”
“A witch? Is that what you think I am?”
What else could she be?
His Dragă smiled. “Let me tell you what’s not going to happen. You are not going to break my skin with your fangs. So while I’m considering indulging one of your appetites, if you’re hoping for a snack, prepare for disappointment.”
How did she know what he’d said? His language hadn’t been spoken in thousands of years. Jael growled, a low, almost inaudible rumble deep in his chest. He hadn’t decided what he wanted to do about her being his Dragă, but he wanted his fangs in her. To have her deny him anything displeased him.
Whatever was around his wrist constricted until it forced him to open his fingers and free her ankle. He yanked hard, but the black cords holding him didn’t give.
This was not how he wanted her. She was naked, but he still had his clothes on, and it was driving him crazy that he couldn’t touch her. Couldn’t bite her. “Release me.” It sounded too much like a plea. “Now.”
“I’m afraid that’s not how my game works, vampire.” His Dragă curled her legs under herself, kneeling in front of him, bare and not the least bit shy about it.
Jael added ‘venom building up in his fangs and dissolving his skull’ to his list of possible ways to die. His mouth ached, fangs full of venom he burned to inject her with, marking her as his. He stared stupidly at her mouth. Her full lips, stained red, moved, and he heard that sultry voice, but it was hard to comprehend words with her kneeling naked in front of him.
She sighed, an inhalation and an exhalation that made her breasts rise and fall. Then she touched him, stroking his cheek the same way she had on the street. He knew it had been her somehow. “Lurky, are you listening to me?”
He snapped his head up to meet her gaze. “Lurky?”
Viktoria shrugged. “Lurking is all you’ve done all night. It seemed a fitting name.”
Jael shook his head, coming out of the trance she’d cast over him. “You shouldn’t have been able to see me in the shadows. How did you do that?” Was the magic in his swords failing after three thousand years? They were such an essential part of him, of his typically unbeating heart. The idea of something wrong with them filled him with dread.
“Silly vampire.” Viktoria’s low chuckle had the vampire in him pushing for control. The need to take her body and blood riled his baser instincts, and he yanked at his restraints.
“You are not a creature of shadows. You are a creature of darkness.” Viktoria unbuttoned his shirt and spread the halves, exposing his chest. She leaned forward, tracing his collarbone with a fingertip. “Are you going to answer my questions, Lurky?”
Jael tensed as her hands landed on his shoulders, just in front of his sword hilts. He arched away. “Viktoria...” As much as he wanted her, and to see what she was going to do next, no one touched his swords but him. Not even his Dragă. He relaxed as one of her hands slid down his chest between their bodies.
Hal
f expecting to see the glow from her skin mark a path along his, he stared where she touched him.
“Hello? Lurky? Are you going to answer my questions?”
Questions? What questions? Relief that his swords were fine, his wildly beating heart, the straining erection, his aching fangs. So many sensations and distractions. He couldn’t think! The forceful thump of his heart as she licked a line over it and up his chest startled him. A Dragă could restore a vampire’s lost humanity, but the part of him ready to live in the moment didn’t need any help.
Her lips curved in a triumphant smile. “I didn’t think you were listening before. There’s only one reason you followed me home, but it’s not the reason I led you here. I want to know what’s happening with my friends. I believe you can tell me. You answer my questions, and I’ll let you have most of what you want, but only for tonight. Agreed?”
With his arms outstretched, there was no way to reach his swords. While sentient, they couldn’t unsheathe themselves. The traitors hummed contentedly in his mind, not worried in the slightest that Viktoria had trussed him up with nothing but shadows. For now, this witch had him stuck at her mercy.
It bothered him he was not bothered by this.
He didn’t mind a little bondage, used it often when his vampire side was triggered too easily and he needed the extra control. But he was not in the habit of being the one helpless to another’s attentions. He didn’t want her to stop, though. Jael closed his eyes, fighting for sanity.
How dare she withhold herself from him? Leash him like a pet and deny him what he wanted. The hands on her should be his, not hers. The need to mark her as his raged through him. His first instinct was to agree to anything she wanted to get her mouth on him again, but he reined himself in.
She was his Dragă, but he didn’t know her. She’d seen Stryx with Ember, so while there were things she could figure out, some secrets weren’t his to reveal.
Viktoria's Shadow: Jael Page 4