She rubbed her arms, suddenly cold and hot, at the same time. Her knees were shaking right along with her hands now she realized. She started to pace, trying to let go of the energy that bloomed inside her, a dark and hungry energy that wanted to consume her and everything around her. Her fingers laced into her hair, stroking her scalp that was prickling with discomfort. She didn’t know what was happening to her. She stopped walking and stared at the door, trying to decide if she should go into the other room and ask for help. No. No. Troy was in there, and he might just go ahead and kill her. He wanted to. She sensed it. He hated her because he thought she was dangerous to his brother. She read that in him, smelled it in the air waving off of him.
She turned to the hotel door. The need to run overcame her, much like it had when the wolf had attacked back at her house. The need to expel energy before her wolf could claw itself out of her. That wasn’t a good idea. She knew that. Marissa forced herself to sit down on the bed, telling herself not to open the door. Not to leave the room.
Her fingernails dug into her arms, into her skin. She couldn’t look away from the door. Evan’s voice echoed through the wall, and she inhaled, telling herself he’d be back in a moment. He’d kiss her, touch her, caress her -- calm her. She focused on his voice, not the door. Think about Evan. She wasn’t going to run. She wasn’t going out that door.
Slowly her focus, her sense of hearing heightened, the words being spoken in the next room taking form enough for her to realize what she should have already assumed. They were talking about her, and she didn’t like what they were saying.
Her gaze went back to the door. Run. The words murmured in her head, playing like background music to the conversation one room over. Run. She stood up.
Chapter Ten
“Damn it Troy,” Evan growled, furious with his brother. “I want you both out of here. I’ll handle this myself.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Troy said. “You can’t kill her and someone might have to. I know how this goes down. I couldn’t kill Sarah, remember? And I should have.”
“Stop making this about Sarah,” Evan ground out, his fist balled at his sides. “Marissa isn’t Sarah.”
“Not yet,” Troy countered.
That was it. Evan snapped and moved toward Troy, who pulled his shoulders back, ready for conflict.
“Enough,” Aiden commanded, shoving a hand on both of their chests. “No one is getting killed. When have we ever not gotten a target we set out to get?”
Troy scoffed. “We’ve chased this wolf half way across the country. We didn’t get him in three other states.” He glared at Evan. “Yet, you put your life on the line with the gamble we’ll get him in a few days.”
“My life,” Evan blasted back. “Mine.”
“Even if we left you to deal with this, and by some miracle, you managed to kill the wolf, you’re problems aren’t over. You broke the law by bonding with a human. That’s punishable by death. You saved her life and wrote your own tombstone.”
“Which is why I want you out of here. That’s the only way you can deny being a part of this.”
“If you two would pipe down I know how to get out of this,” Aiden declared.
Evan’s gaze shifted to Aiden, “How?”
“The virus is mutating. It has to be. There’s no other way that wolf only partially shifted and still attacked us, back at Marissa’s place. We need a blood sample.” He lifted his chin toward the other room. “Marissa gives us that.”
A glimmer of hope spread through Evan. “You’ll have to involve Marcus.” Marcus being the Vampire who’d saved them, and now their ‘Warden-in-charge’. No one wanted to piss off Marcus.
“Hand me a phone and let me get to it,” Aiden said. “This is a good cover story. Saving Marissa to study the mutation of the virus really could save lives. And I’ll petition for Marissa’s conversion to vampire before the full moon which will stop her from changing to wolf.”
Evan scrubbed his jaw and turned away, no longer thinking of a battle with Troy. He didn’t want to force conversion on Marissa. He wanted to kill the wolf and then give her time to decide on conversion herself, even if it meant putting himself at risk with the council. But he had to keep his options open, give himself, and Marissa, options to survive.
He turned to face his brothers, and gave Aiden a quick nod. “Call Marcus, talk to him.” He glared at Troy. “And you go find that damn wolf without making yourself his chew toy again. We don’t even know which direction he went and--”
The door in the next room opened and then slammed shut. Evan cursed and didn’t even bother looking in the next room. He went for the front door of the room he was in, and opened the door to a downpour of rain. Marissa was already across the road, headed towards the woods. He’d been too pissed off at Troy to consider her heightened senses, her ability to hear through the door. But she’d heard. He had no doubt. She’d heard and she’d bolted.
“She’s upset,” Evan said to his brothers, who flanked him on either side. “So just stay back and make sure the wolf doesn’t show up.” He took off running.
It took only a minute to catch up with her, but he let her run, hoping she’d burn off some of the adrenaline her emotions, and the virus, were fueling. Twenty minutes passed, and still she ran. The rain shifted from intervals of light to heavy showers, but she pressed onward, until she stumbled and he was there to catch her, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
She whirled on him, hands on his chest, anger gleaming from her eyes. “Why’d you do it? Why would you put your life on the line for a woman you barely know? Why, Evan?”
“Because the minute you walked in that bar I felt more alive than I have in a hundred years and I needed to know – I need to know why.”
A stunned look slid across her face, along with droplets of water. She shoved her hair from her face. “You don’t know me.”
“The bond--”
“Will get you killed,” she said. “I live and you die. I can’t live with that.” Her knees started to buckle and he tightened his hold on her waist.
“I’ve got you,” he told her, pressing her wet hair back from her face. “And I’m not letting go, so you might as well just accept that.” He softened his voice, pressed hair from her face. “Come back to the room with me.”
She shook her head. “Troy hates me. I can’t deal with him right now.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t want to like you.”
“Because he thinks he might have to kill me.”
“Because he was in love with a Werewolf, she turned on him. And he and Aiden are going after the wolf, they’re leaving. We’ll be alone.” He felt some of the tension slide from her body and he kissed her. “Come back to the room with me.”
“Only if you agree that if the full moon arrives, and the wolf isn’t dead, you’ll let Troy kill me before I change. He hates me. I know he can do it. And I know you can’t and won’t.”
“Sweetheart, I told you. Troy doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t want to like you.”
“And I told you why. Because he knows he’s going to have to kill me.”
“No. It was because he fell in love with a wolf who betrayed him.”
Surprise flickered in her face, her voice rasping out. “And he’s afraid I’m going to betray you. And I will Evan. I know I will. My wolf absolutely does hate you.”
He framed her face. “Your wolf doesn’t hate me anymore than Troy hates you or you wouldn’t want to fuck me like you do. You just don’t understand your primal side well enough to understand what it’s telling you.”
“You’re wrong,” she insisted. “It hates you. It will kill you if I survive that moon.”
“It doesn’t hate me. It fears me. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever you want to label it,” she said. “It wants you dead.”
Chapter Eleven
It wants you dead. The hair on the back of Evan’s neck stood up at those words, and anger fir
ed in his gut. “Message, for your wolf -- you’re mine. It can’t have you.”
“We both know it already has me,” she yelled, the rain suddenly pounding on them again, a torrential downpour.
He kissed her, a deep passionate devouring kiss, meant to stake a claim, to silently declare her his woman. It was a branding. The wolf couldn’t have her and neither could the council. “I’m not letting you go,” her repeated against her lips.
“No,” she shouted, trying to push away from him. “No. You need to stay away from me. Far away so I can’t hurt you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her captive. “I’m a vampire,” he said. “No wolf is going to hurt me.”
“Tell Troy that,” she countered.
He scooped her up, ending the conversation with actions. He didn’t want to hear about Troy and Sarah.
Marissa squirmed in his arms, wet and slippery, and already stronger for the wolf growing inside her. “Damn you, Evan! Let me go. I have to go.”
She was illogical, kicking and biting, and he didn’t want to hurt her, which proved a challenge. The next thing he knew, he was slipping. He went down hard with her on top of him. Mud splattered around them, but thankfully the downpour slowed.
Marissa scrambled to get up but he rolled her to her back. “You aren’t alone in this, Marissa. You aren’t alone. We’ll get through this. I’ll make this right.”
“You don’t understand,” she shouted. “It wants you dead.” She started squirming and kicking again, but he used his body, to trap her, easily holding her. Still, she kept fighting. He shoved her hands over her head as he had once before, pressed his lips near her ear, sent her a mental compulsion he prayed would work. Stop. Stop now.
She listened, going still beneath him, though he wasn’t sure if he’d willed her actions, or she’d simply tired. Suddenly, he was aware of every womanly curve beneath him, of her bare breasts beneath the wet tee she wore. His cock thickened, his balls tightened. His hand slid over her breast, teasing her nipple. She moaned and arched into him.
“You and your wolf want me,” he pursed, scraping his teeth over her shirt, teasing the pebbled peak beneath.
“Damn you. Don’t be a fool,” she hissed, “I’ll fuck you and I’ll like it, just like Sarah did Troy. But in the end, Evan, I’ll still be the monster who kills you when the full moon comes.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. “Sarah was a natural born wolf. She worked for the rebels and was using Troy to try and infiltrate the Wardens. She’s wasn’t an innocent victim like you are.”
“I stopped being innocent the minute this thing started growing inside me.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, “but you’ll get rid of your wolf far easier than you will this vampire.” He kissed her, stroking her tongue with his, telling her he’d meant his words. He had no idea why this woman had taken him by storm, why she was the woman for him – only that she was. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his. He dropped her hands and pressed them beneath her t-shirt, fingering her hard little buds. His dick throbbed, his blood all but boiled. Mine. The word echoed in his head, in his body. He was alive again because of this woman, burning alive with lust and need.
He shoved his hand past the loose band of her shorts, his fingers between hers thighs, over the bristle of blonde hair, to the sensitive folds of her. His pushed his fingers inside her, her muscles clenching onto him, her hips lifting.
“Evan,” she cried out. “I…” She gasped as he rolled her swollen nub and then suckled her nipple between his lips. Possessiveness like nothing he’d ever known rolled through him. He wanted her pleasure, her understanding that it was his to take and give, and no one else’s.
Her nails dug into his shoulders, her teeth scraping his neck. “I want you inside me. I need you inside me.”
He growled low in his throat – a primal sound that no wolf could match. He was a vampire – he would not give this woman up to a damnable wolf. He twisted his hand, the butt of his palm stroking her clit, his fingers pumping into her. She dropped back onto the ground, tilted her head back, exposing her neck. Her blood pulsing in the vein, calling him, as it had from the moment he’d first seen her.
He sunk his teeth into her neck, and she instantly came, her body instantly clenched around his fingers, her body tightening, spasming. That possessive feeling rolled over him with her pleasure, with her blood. He drank her in, tasted her. He could save her now, convert her. End this all. End the wolf. Thunder rumbled overhead, the rain soaking them, her breathing a sensual rasp in his hear. Time stood still for Evan. There was only Marissa’s blood, and the wildness of the vampire in him that knew what he wanted, what he had to do. No man, wolf, or council member could take her from him once it was done.
A split second of warning spiked in his body before a hand was shoved into his hair, and his head was yanked back, blood – Marissa’s blood dripping down his mouth.
A massive male squatted in front of him his black as hell eyes holding a lethal threat. “It appears I’m just in time.”
Chapter Twelve
“Marcus,” Evan whispered, reality coming back to him as he brought his ‘Warden in Charge’ into focus. For a moment a haze of lust and need rumbled through him, small details fading in and out. In some far corner of his mind, he registered the absence of rain, the presence of mud and ground beneath him – and Marissa. His gaze dropped to find her passed out, her skin pale and her body half way to dead. He cursed, and quickly closed her wound, opening one on his wrist, to replace her blood loss.
“Nice to have you back with us,” Marcus said, standing up, a vision of pure power in his black leather, his long blonde hair wet around his shoulders. “Take her someplace safe, out of the wolf’s reach,” he said. “I’ll deal with the council while your brother’s deal with the wolf.”
Marissa began to stir, and Evan’s reason for converting her here and now slammed into him like a punch in the gut. “I won’t kill her and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
“You won’t get the chance to kill her if you cross the council,” he said. “They’ll tell me to do it. And if I won’t – they’ll send another ancient who’ll get the job done, which means I’ll have to kill them before they do. And while I don’t like most of the bastards, if we really have a mutation of the wolf virus we might need them.” He reached in a pocket and tossed Evan a syringe. “Get me a blood sample when she’s strong enough. And when I say take her someplace safe, I also mean someplace nice. Seriously man, if you want to win the lady over – that rattrap isn’t the way to do it.” And then he was gone, moving so fast, the eye couldn’t register him, a talent few of their kind possessed. No one knew his past or his origins. Only that he wasn’t someone you ever wanted to piss off. He was damn glad Marcus had his and Marissa’s back.
***
Marissa stood in the bathroom of the hotel while Evan undressed her. She was cold, so very cold. So cold that her bones felt like ice that might crack into tiny pieces at any moment. She barely remembered what had happened. There were just flashes of moments – of being in the room alone, of needing to run. Fighting with Evan then waking up in the mud. The moment Evan had lifted her into his arms and she’d curled into his chest, pressed her ear to his heart, but found no heartbeat. Vampire, the word had come to her, and replayed over and over.
“Sit a second,” he urged her softly, reaching behind the shower curtain and turning on the water. And then, suddenly he was naked and pulling her into the shower, his arms and the warm water piercing the cold. He washed her hair, soaped her body. He soothed her with his hands, his lips. Warmth seeped into the places she’d been cold. Never had anyone touched her so gently, with so much care and tenderness. She realized then, that she’d built a wall around herself, a way to deal with being alone in the world. If she didn’t let anyone in, they couldn’t leave.
She rested her head on his chest, letting his powerful body hold her up, give her strength. “I heard,” she finally whispe
red, tilting her chin up to look at him. “I heard what your brother’s said about the blood bond being against your laws.”
“I know,” he said solemnly. “The water is getting cold. Let’s get out of here before you start shaking again.” He turned off the water, and then yanked the curtain back. He dried her off, wrapped her in a towel, but never once looked at her.
When he wrapped a towel around his waist, she grabbed his arm, forced his gaze to hers. “Tell me what is happening. Make me understand.”
He motioned to the bed. “Let’s go sit down.”
His discomfort was palpable. Whatever he had to tell her she wasn’t going to like. He sat down on the bed and patted the area beside him.
She hugged herself. “Tell me.”
Reluctantly, he seemed to accept her distance. “Vampires are a relatively small race. And we’ve survived extinction by staying off the radar. If we expose ourselves to a human, their memory is erased.”
“Wait. What? You can erase a memory?”
“Yes.”
“Mine? Have you erased my memory? Is that why I can’t remember all of what happened earlier tonight?”
“No. Once a blood bond is created the human is immune to our abilities. And,” he hesitated, “they become a potential liability.”
Her jaw went slack. “Are you telling me that your government will kill me? And you too for creating the bond?” His lips thinned to a grim line and he didn’t even have to speak for her to know she was right. “So either you kill me because I become a wolf or they kill us both because I don’t.” Emotion exploded inside her and she started shaking all over again. “You aren’t going to die for me. I remember now. I remember why I ran, why I tried to get away from you. I’m going to be the reason you die. I knew it then and I know it now. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.”
Hot Vampire Kiss -- Book 1 of The Vampire Wardens Page 6