Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series

by Ford, Rinna

  I tried to stand up, but my legs were too weak. I collapsed onto the concrete floor, not able to move from my spot. Matias’ vampire side slid away and he ran to me, scooping me up in his arms and carrying me to a nearby chair. He sat down with me in his arms and I curled into his chest.

  He was covered in blood and gore, but then again, so was I. It didn’t bother me as much as I knew it would have in the past and I snuggled in further, even though I was dejected and heartbroken. We sat in silence for several minutes and I let him hold me while I got used to my new reality. I was a killer and I was okay with it. But I needed Matias. It was time to let him know, even if he rejected me.

  “Emelia, I…” he began but his words died off. I knew that he was going to apologize for letting Di get so close and not following through with his promise to her, but he had nothing to apologize for. Not really. It wasn’t like he owed me anything.

  “I meant it, you know,” I said to him. “If you want to go, I will release you from your promise. You have no obligation to me and I was selfish to make you stick around when I had no intention of fully mating with you. You had every right to look elsewhere, but I just wish it hadn’t been with her.”

  Matias shifted in his seat so he could get a better look at my face. “Had? Had no intention? Does that mean you’ve changed your mind?”

  “Yeah. I mean, if you still want me. After what happened this morning and how cold you were toward me. I didn’t like it. I missed you so much. It hurt when I knew you didn’t want me. But to go to her...”

  Matias let out a booming laugh and I sat up, puzzled at his outburst.

  “I thought you were slightly naive but not foolish, Emelia,” he laughed. I furrowed my eyebrows as I took offense to his words and tried to get up out of his lap, but he held me down. “It’s my turn to hold you in place now,” he then told me, his eyes dancing with joy. “I didn’t mean it as an insult, but I can't believe you could ever think I’d want someone like Diane when you are around. You are my world and no one will ever come close. I’d spend all of eternity being your shadow, just to be close to you. I know I’ve already told you that, but I thought you believed me. And as for what you walked in on, I knew you’d want to take care of her, so I was keeping her busy by letting her think she was seducing me. I can’t believe you thought I’d ever let that woman near me without good reason. I wanted to rip her apart for what she had done to you. And the fact you thought I’d look elsewhere when you’re the only one I see...”

  “It’s not that I didn’t believe you, Matias, it was I didn’t think it was fair. I’ve put you through so much… I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

  “Emelia, I’d walk through Hell for you and come back smiling. Don’t you know that by now?”

  His words sounded familiar because it was something Xander told me only days before. How did I get so lucky to get not one, but two mates who cared for me unconditionally? But the thing was, I’d do the same for them. Admitting it was easier than I thought.

  I put my hand on Matias’ face and leaned forward kissing him gently on the lips. Pulling back, I watched him open his eyes and smile radiantly. I hoped I told him everything I felt in my kiss, and it seemed as if I had.

  I leaned down to kiss him again, this time letting my need outweigh my emotions and put all of the lust I’d felt for him in the last few days. I thought about the day before, the first time he let me feed from him, how I licked his body clean of his blood. I thought about me being sandwiched between him and Xander earlier that morning and how good it felt to have both of their hands and mouths on me at the same time.

  Matias gripped my head below my ears and pulled me in closer, deepening the kiss. I needed to be closer still so I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my chest next to his, but it still wasn’t close enough. I didn’t think I’d ever be close enough until he was inside of me, a part of me.

  My vampire mate then did something I wasn’t expecting. He reached up and wrapped his hands around my forearms, dislodging them from his body. I looked at him with confusion and he just smiled at me.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he chuckled. “First we work, then I can make you mine.” He pointed his head in the general direction of the carnage the two of us just made.

  I looked over at the dead bodies and back to Matias, pouting. “Is it bad that it kind of turns me on?” I asked.

  He let out another booming laugh. I loved the way it looked on him.

  “Not at all,” he told me, “but for our first time, and our mating, I want to take my time and I kind of feel like this needs to be taken care of before I can take care of you. The next time we can fuck in the blood of our enemies. What do you say about that?”

  It was my turn to laugh out loud. “It’s a deal!” I jumped up and walked over to the closest dead body and kicked it. “Now, what do we do?” I asked. “I’ve never had to dispose of a dead body before.”

  “What? You think I have?” He looked offended but I knew he wasn’t.

  “Please,” I scoffed. “You are ‘the Butcher’ after all.”

  He moved his head from side to side as if he were considering it. “True, but it’s been a while for me so I need to think about it.”

  “I have an idea.” Soleil said from my subconscious.

  I stopped moving and my eyes went wide with surprise. For some reason, I could hear her loud and clear. Up to that point, it was all just feelings and even when she talked to me before, it wasn’t actual words, but just an understanding of what she was trying to say to me.

  “What’s the matter?” Matias asked, suddenly right in front of me.

  “Soleil, my dragon,” I told him. “She talked to me.”

  “I’m still here,” she said, sort of annoyed. “I could eat them, if you’d like.”

  “What?! Ewwww.” I scrunched my face in disgust.

  “It was just a suggestion,” she pouted. “At least I have an idea.”

  “Well, I’m not open to the idea of eating them,” I told her.

  “You drink their blood. Why is this different?” she asked. I didn’t have a good answer for her because probably if I let her take over, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with it as I do in my human-like form.

  “Because… I’d have four adult bodies in my stomach and I wouldn’t be able to change back, that’s why.”

  Matias seemed to enjoy listening to my side of the conversation a little too much by the amused look on his face.

  “Excuses, excuses. You’d just have to stay a dragon for a little while until they digested. Would that be so bad?”

  “Yes! I have plans, Soliel! And I can’t do them as a dragon!”

  “You want to mate with your vampire, I get it. I’ll think of something else.”

  I closed my eyes and let out a small laugh.

  “You know, I think you’d be kind of hot as your dragon,” Matias smiled and ran his hands over my waist.

  “You have no idea,” I smiled back. Then I got an even better idea than Soleil’s. She huffed at me, but was excited at the idea of being able to come out twice in one day. “Bring the bodies outside, will ya? I think I have a good plan and you’ll get to see my dragon after all.”

  He smiled wider then lifted one of the minion’s bodies up and over his shoulder before walking out the open sliding glass door. The pool was an indoor/outdoor pool and the windows were giant panes of glass that could push back into the wall creating a giant open space. I was happy to hear Xander didn’t destroy this area of the house when he went on his rampage after I was changed. I loved it and I made a note when I first saw it to have one in my house, whenever I got settled somewhere.

  Matias came back inside and grabbed another body. Feeling responsible for what I did to Di, I didn’t want to make my mate be the one to carry her out, so I lifted her up using my vampire strength and carried her outside, laying her on top of one of the other bodies.

  I moved further into the grass and said the invisibility spell, fo
cusing on myself, the bodies, and Matias so we would all be out of sight and I began stripping out of my clothes. Matias stopped short when he saw me almost completely naked and dropped the last body at his feet.

  “I’m going to take them out to sea,” I told him with a smile and turned my back to him. Looking over my shoulder with a smirk, I let Soleil take over and bent and changed until I was my giant golden dragon.

  “You are beautiful,” he told me, rubbing against my front right flank and up toward my neck. I turned my head toward him and closed my eyes in a happy huff before starting to flap my wings and lifted myself off the ground only a few feet. I moved over and picked up the two piles of dead vampires before flying out over the ocean.

  My plan was to find a hungry school of sharks or something equally as frightening and drop the bodies in the middle of them, thinking they’d help take care of the mess. After all, the bodies were all covered in blood and sharks tended to be attracted to blood.

  Once my task was completed, I flew back home and landed near where I took off. I gave Soleil a quiet ‘thank you’, got dressed, and walked back into the indoor pool area. I expected to see lots of blood and gore still laying around the area, but in my absence, it seemed like Matias was able to clean up most of it. Pleasantly surprised, I smiled and joined him.

  “It’s too early in the goddamn morning for this,” Amos said as he walked into the open room, holding a steaming mug of coffee and bringing it to his lips. I was almost envious, that was, if I wasn’t silently panicking at the fact he walked in on us cleaning up a murder scene.

  “It’s okay,” Matias said. “I asked him to help.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I’m the leader of this little faction and your grandfather, that’s why,” Amos said, answering for the vampire. “I may have stood by while you were killed and brought back to life by that woman, but I was also there when you told her what would happen if she didn’t stay away. You were within your rights to exact your punishment. I’m just sorry I wasn’t here to rip her head off myself. I’m sure your other mate will feel the same once he finds out.” Oh, shit. Xander would be pissed. “You are loved, Emelia. Remember that, and don’t go at it alone because you’re not alone. Never again. Now, I’ll make sure none of this will blow back on either one of you, okay?”

  I nodded my head, stunned. “Thanks Amos,” I finally said.

  He raised his mug and replied, “You’re welcome.” Then, he exited the room leaving me alone again with my gorgeous vampire mate and a clean room.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The next thing I knew I was gently lifted and carried through the house and up two flights of stairs, all while running at vampire speed. Matias seemed to be as ready to claim me as I was to claim him.

  We got to his bedroom door and he put me down and opened it, then lifted me again and we were both lying on his bed. He was on top, staring down at me with so much love and awe it took my breath away. He hadn’t said the words since we had only known each other for a few days, but I felt it as his gaze moved over every feature of my face. It was more than a mating bond I felt from him. Sure, he was the vampire who was destined to be mine, but it was so much more.

  I knew fate sometimes had screwy ways of showing you what it wanted, take my mom and Ironshot for example, so I knew I was lucky when it sent me two, hopefully three, amazing men I could call my mates.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “Once we do this, it cannot be undone.”

  “There’s nothing I need more at this moment than for you to make me yours,” I assured him and brought my hands up to his face, pulling his lips down to meet mine.

  Our tongues and lips moved in perfect harmony with one another, as cool hands roamed over sensitive skin. He began unbuttoning my shirt, one painful button at a time until my only my bra-covered chest was in between us.

  Somewhere between the bedroom door and the bed Matias had lost his shirt and I definitely wasn’t complaining. So much beautiful golden skin decorated with haunting images I itched to touch with my fingers and lick with my tongue. I didn’t get the chance though, at least not this time because his mouth left mine and traveled over my cheek and down my neck to my collarbone.

  “This will not go fast,” he murmured against my skin. “It will be slow and agonizing, but in the best possible way ever. We’ll feed, we’ll fuck, and when we’re done, we’ll be us, together forever. Understand?”

  “Yessss,” I sighed and my chest rose up off of the bed’s surface and my fangs descended.

  He moved the cups of my bra aside revealing taut nipples, begging to be sucked and he did more than oblige. He put one pebbled nipple in his mouth, twirling his tongue around it. When I didn’t think the sensation couldn’t get any more pleasurable, he slid one sharp fang into it.

  My back rose off the bed again, but this time I screamed out my pleasure as I came hard and fast. He lightly sucked blood from my nipple while I rode the waves of my orgasm, and he withdrew when it was fading away.

  “Oh shit,” I sighed, running my hand over my forehead and laughing. “What the hell was that?”

  “That, my love, was only the beginning.” He gave me a devilish look and my already soaked panties became drenched.

  Oh. My. Goodness.

  With quick fingers, he unbuttoned my jeans and slid them down my legs along with my panties in one swift motion. I sat up, using shaky arms and pulled my shirt the rest of the way off and unsnapped my bra, leaving me completely bare.

  He stared down at me, a man possessed, and reached for me, bringing me up to meet him. My knees went around his hips and he sat back with me on top, my red hair cascading around us.

  “My beauty, my mate,” he sighed and ran his hands over my back and down to my ass.

  He pulled me down, grinding my wet pussy against the rough fabric of his pants. I moaned against his lips and ground against him again. It felt amazing, but I knew something that would feel even better.

  I reached down in between us and flicked open the top button of his jeans, giving my hand enough room to slide down the front of his pants. He wasn’t wearing underwear and, as if it were possible, I became even wetter. Man, everything Matias did brought me to my knees. He was sex incarnate and I needed to see the rest of him.

  I pulled down the zipper and tried to push the jeans down his hips but with him sitting, they didn’t get too far. Reluctantly, I got up on me knees in front of him and motioned for him to move as well.

  He gave me a sexy smile, but made no move to give me what I want. He was in control and he was making damn sure I knew it.

  “Patience,” he said and he pulled me back down into his lap. “Trust me, I have every intention of letting you taste my cock and swallow my cum, but not this time. I have other plans for you right now and they include you screaming my name while I drive into you over and over again. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes. Please,” I sighed at the thought of it.

  With my next breath, I was flipped over on my stomach and his hands were on my back. His mouth started at the base of my neck as he licked down my backbone, stopping only to admire the swirls and swoops on my skin with his fingers.

  “Is this your curse? The one your mother gave you?” he asked.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Nothing will ever hurt you like this again, I promise you. I will never let it happen again.”

  Normally those kinds of promises were fragile and meant to be broken, but I believed if anyone could keep it, it would be Matias. He was such a force of nature, very few people stood against him and lived to tell the tale.

  He continued to lick and touch the marks on my back, working his way down to my ass, grabbing the cheeks and spreading my legs wide. Matias then moved his hand toward my wet core and slid his fingers through the folds making me moan against the pillow. My ass raised up off the mattress as I all but begged for more. More fingers, more everything.

  Feeling generous, he slid two fingers
inside and twisted them as his lips continued licking the lines of my marks. When he added a third finger, I nearly came off the bed in need. He was driving me right to the edge and whenever I started to get close to coming, he would ease off. He did this over and over again until I was a writhing mess underneath him.

  Finally, he flipped me back over and he crawled up my body, settling himself between my shaky thighs. I felt his bareness down below as his cock rubbed up and down my pussy and wondered when he found the time to get naked between his care of my back and his exquisite torture of my pussy.

  “Please, Matias. Please,” I moaned. “I need you.”

  He kissed down the side of my neck to my collarbone again. “Where do you need me?” he asked.

  “Inside. I need you to fuck me. Become mine. Please…”

  “You ask so sweetly…”

  With that, he lined the head of his cock with my pussy and pushed it all the way to the hilt in one quick push. In the same moment, he opened his mouth wide and sank his fangs into my neck. I cried out as another strong orgasm crashed over me. As I started to come down from it, he was pumping into me with hard, steady thrusts. Matias lifted one of my legs over his shoulder and started thrusting at a different angle.

  While our bodies moved together, I began to feel a familiar tingling wherever our skin touched. It was happening. Our souls were bonding, making us closer than should ever be possible.

  The tingling grew more and more intense and I knew the crest was imminent. Matias lowered my leg down so it wrapped around his hip with the other one and leaned in close to me. He wanted to be close to me when our souls finally joined, but I had an even better idea.

  I opened my mouth and sunk my fangs into his neck, making him shoot streams of cum into me. In the same moment, the tingles exploded into a million bright lights and slowly settled around us. I withdrew my fangs and licked the wounds closed as he stilled on top of me.

  “I can feel you,” he smiled against my cheek. “We’re bonded.”

  “You’re stuck with me now.”