The wind picked up, and he howled, the sound like a lover’s lament reverberating through the trees. He let the sound carry a caress, soft but insistent against her lame attempt at ignoring him.
He sent an image of her, wonton and wet, from the last time the two shared the shower together. Her hair wild and hanging in wet strands clinging to her breasts, her chest heaving as she straddled him on the marble shower bench. He sent the memory of how she’d looked to him as she climaxed, with her eyes dark and dilated with need.
Lily moaned, and the sound echoed through his mind. Her body tingled, the feel echoing through him as the ghost of his hand skimmed across her belly to stroke the juncture between her legs. “Lily…I need you.” His voice was a pure growl, rough with desire.
The pull of the moon stirred his body as it rose to its zenith in the sky. Her body reacted intuitively to his, and his craving for her filled her mind, overwhelming her. With a shove, she forced him to the back of her mind, his ache and her guilt flooding them both completely.
He was as relentless as the animal living inside him. More images flowed, filling her with his desperation. He showed her his body, tense and aching as he tried to give himself release, his hand working his cock, but the wolf inside him refusing to be satisfied. ”Lily, I am on the edge of insanity. I need you.”
Lily turned the water off, twisting the knob with a jerk of her hand. Through their mind link, Sean saw everything, felt everything and she let the full force of her own frustration flow through. He was not the only one who was torn. There was more involved here than just the need to satisfy pheromones.
Barefoot, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her, humming loudly as she charged out of the bathroom, dripping across the cold, hardwood floor. Through her window, she gazed up at the same moon that had him pacing like a caged animal, the wind whipping at him. “Sean…I want you too, but I want you here…there’s too much going on.” The words drifted past, along with her silent plea for the full moon to be done with, soon.
Lily rested her palms on the ice-frosted glass, her mind and body at odds. Sean felt so close, but the glass beneath her fingers might as well have been a chasm between them.
He howled, the sound mournful and heart wrenching, but Lily felt the underlying violence beneath the surface. Sean was walking a razor’s edge, and she prayed she hadn’t pushed him over the precipice.
“Please Sean, Stop this. I need you…I think I’m in trouble.”
Lily froze. Sean was all of a sudden lucid. The hardwired need to protect and defend had completely overruled his cock.
“Does this have anything to do with why I couldn’t reach you this afternoon?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Jack? Does he know? He told me everything was fine…”
“He knows. But only just…” she hesitated. “I was going to call you after I got out of the shower. We have a huge problem, Sean. There’s a vampire wreaking havoc in the city. We saw it tonight. I was in its mind, but I’m telling you, something’s wrong with it. Whatever it is, I swear it’s familiar, but not.”
“A vampire? Are you sure?”
Lily pressed her lips together. Didn’t anybody trust her assessment these days? “Yes,” she shot back, allowing visual and olfactory images from the scene at the park to filter through their link.
Sean’s growl was as menacing as it was worried. “Tell Jack, I’m on my way.”
***
Sean coasted down the highway heading toward the Henry Hudson toll bridge, just north of Manhattan. He was making good time, considering GPS set his arrival at just over five hours before reaching Lily’s apartment. The roads were clear, and if luck held, he’d be at her front door in about a half hour.
It felt like days since he’d briefed Mitch and his hunters about the situation in New York. While they were privy to what was going on and where he headed, Sean had instructed them to say nothing. As far as the disbanded council was concerned, the Alpha was otherwise occupied with a full investigation into the recent assassination attempt.
Mitch had full authority by proxy while Sean was in New York, with the complete understanding he would supply the alpha with a daily dossier of all Edward Parr’s comings and goings. Not one of his hunters balked at the idea of Sean going to New York, not when they learned it was to investigate a rogue vampire. Weres and vampires were notorious enemies, yet their differences were set aside when it came to protecting their mutual anonymity. An unwritten truce existed for the greater good of keeping both their worlds hidden.
As to keeping things at home status quo, Mitch and the boys would keep Parr in check. Sean doubted anything overt or premeditated would happen, not in the time he planned to be away, and certainly not after the way he’d dealt with the tracker. Parr might be many things, but he wasn’t stupid, and he had to know Sean’s hunters would be on high alert.
With accusations fresh on his heels, Parr would lay low, but not for long. The ruse of gathering intelligence was the one cover Parr would buy, and if he proved himself more foolish than Sean or Mitch anticipated, perhaps this trip would then rid the supe community of two evils, one as cunning as the other, and both just as parasitical.
It had taken the better part of the day to tie up loose ends at the Compound, with Sean’s inner wolf gnawing at his gut every moment he was delayed. However much he wanted to dump everything and run; his conscience would never allow it. Being the Alpha came with price tags, and putting the concerns of the pack before his own wants was one of them.
Clouds covered the night sky, obscuring the moon. The air was both cold and heavy a sure sign snow was on the way. However, a winter squall wasn’t the only storm brewing. Sean’s entire body reacted when Lily’s visions filtered through their mind link, and the violence of the attack wasn’t the only thing to cause his hackles to rise.
Lily had said that something wasn’t right, and as usual, the woman’s intuition was dead on. He sensed it too, but the images and emotion he’d read were not firsthand. They had been compromised, slanted through no fault of her own, by Lily’s knee-jerk reaction to what she had witnessed. Understandable, of course, considering how horrific the images, but he needed to make his own evaluations.
Based on the severity of the situation, and the violent, not to mention, overly conspicuous nature of the attacks, it was curious that vampire adjudicators hadn’t yet moved to have the rogue destroyed. When it came to policing their own, vampires were the Nazis of the supernatural world. In the grand scheme of things, they had the most to lose. Aversion to daylight and subsisting on human blood limited their ability to coexist with humanity. But for thousands of years they had managed to do just that, with only a few rogue instances giving birth to folklore and legend, and eventually Hollywood’s fascination with their kind.
It had taken vampires years to recover from Vlad Ţepeş and his little hiccup in history, not to mention Elizabeth Báthory and her penchant for bathing in virgin blood. The advent of modern science and the industrial revolution almost won them back their anonymity—that is until Irish novelist, Bram Stoker, rekindled the fervor. His gothic melodrama, Dracula, had paved the way for countless stories of romanticized vampires, forever fighting against their base nature in search of love and redemption.
This new depiction presented a double-edged sword for the vampire council. Newly created vampires bought into the idealized hype, finding the dangerously romantic role intoxicating enough to try to live it outside the boundaries of their kind. Sean had heard stories of how tribunals had tripled in the last few decades alone, as adjudicators tried to keep rein on the havoc triggered by the new guise. The situation forced the council to reevaluate some of its ancient laws. He chuckled, shaking his head.
Tell me about it.
Truth be told, Supes were no different from any other society of beings on this planet. Either you adapted, or you died. Period. He just wished Parr and his flock of sheep would see it that way. Sean exhaled. No, Parr knew it all rig
ht he just twisted it for his own gain. Perhaps the Vamps had it right. No questions. No quarter. No second chances.
The Westside Highway was a deserted straightaway, tempting Sean to blow through the traffic lights once he reached 57th street, and speed south toward Jane Street. He could almost smell her, and the thought of how close they were shot jolts of anticipation into his groin. The idea of waking her with telepathic foreplay, and having her wet and waiting for him when he got there made his cock jerk, but he’d had enough of the Werewolf version of phone sex. He wanted Lily in the flesh, warm and willing and in his arms. Just ten more minutes…
The small-intertwined streets of lower Manhattan were a nightmare to navigate, but he managed to keep his focus on driving instead of on the promise of Lily’s warmth. He wound his way around Abingdon Square, craning his neck at the postage-stamp sized area the city deemed a park.
GPS had him bear left off 8th Avenue. “Finally,” he thought, and turned the car onto Lily’s street. Searching for a parking space, he raised an eyebrow at the tree-lined sidewalks and quaint cobblestoned street, surprised to see neighborhood shops nestled between the buildings, and a charming corner bistro with its colorful awning and café seats. He smiled to himself. New York might be a concrete jungle, but leave it to Lily to find a place of beauty nestled within its madness.
Forewarned, he wasn’t surprised that parking was practically non-existent, so he rounded the corner again pulling instead, into one of the city’s many 24hr parking garages. Talk about a racket.
“How long you gonna be, Mac?” the attendant asked, handing Sean his claim ticket.
“A few days, and I’ll probably be in and out a lot,” he answered, handing the man his keys and a fifty-dollar bill. “Park it short if you can. Traffic here is bad enough, and I don’t like to wait if I can help it.”
The attendant took the money, stashing it in his pocket. “You got it, chief.”
Like everywhere else, money talked, and with a nod, Sean walked out of the garage, turning left to head the two blocks over toward Lily’s place. The street was deserted, not a sound except for a few stray cats, at least he hoped they were cats, but considering the fabled size and prevalence of New York City rats, he wasn’t so sure.
The sky was almost completely devoid of stars, and the glare from the streetlights cast a garish sheen across the dirt-splotched sidewalk. His footsteps echoed in the dark quiet, and combined with sound of sirens in the distance, gave the night a certain film noir quality.
He crossed the street and stepped up onto the curb in front of Lily’s red brick walk-up. Glancing up, he watched a female silhouette pass behind lace curtains on the top floor, and his body hardened.
It was her.
Squelching an overwhelming urge to scale the fire escape, he pushed his way through the building’s street entrance only to find the inside door locked.
Peering through the glass, his fingers closed around the doorknob, leaving dents the dull brass. With a low growl, he considered crushing the lock, but didn’t. He pulled his hand back, digging his fingers into his palm, instead. She was so close.
His eyes scanned the tenant list for her name, but the door clicked open before he even unclenched his fist. She knew he was here. Anticipation flooded his body with adrenaline, and he took the stairs three at a time, his blood pulsing through his veins.
Lily’s scent thickened in the air with each step, sending his inner wolf to near madness, shredding his tenuous grip. He rounded the top landing, and there she stood, waiting for him in the doorway with a ready smile.
“Sean…”
Her words cut off along with her breath, as he threw her over his shoulder. Without missing a step, he slammed the door with his foot, ignoring her protests as he headed down the hall in search of a bedroom.
“Sean…” she tried again, only to be silenced with a savage kiss. With another low growl, he pushed the bedroom door open and deposited her on the mattress, sliding himself along her full length.
He kissed her more, his fingers slipping beneath the front of her robe, her bare skin silky and warm beneath the flat of his palm. Lily shivered as his hand traveled across her belly, searching out her full breasts. He teased her, cupping the full weight of one in his hand, his thumb grazing the ridge of her taut nipple. Her breath hitched in her throat, and the sound jolted straight through his groin.
“Open for me Lily,” he said, his voice deep and rough with need. He squeezed her breast, rolling her nipple between his thumb and forefinger while devouring her mouth with another kiss.
Her fingers fumbled with the knot on her belt, but the soft cotton refused to budge. Her moan of frustration was answered by a smooth, seductive half grin as Sean tore the fabric in two and with a single twist.
He pushed the front edges of her robe apart, exposing her naked flesh. A warm flush crept its way across her creamy skin, from her bare thighs to her throat, staining her cheeks with desire.
Sean’s nostrils flared at the scent of her wet arousal, and he half moaned, half growled, rolling her onto her stomach and ripping the rest of her robe from her body. He could wait no more.
Lily read his urgency and came up on all fours, her hair splayed across her back, arching and pushing her swollen sex toward him, hearing his sharp intake at the wetness glistening between her legs.
Sean grabbed her hips, grinding himself against her, his cock throbbing as he rubbed himself across her slick entrance. Leaning across her back, he cupped her breasts, rolling her nipples again, before trailing one hand down over her chest and belly and delving his fingers into her moist cleft. His thumb circled her taut, swollen nub, her juices dripping.
Lily gasped, moaning and grinding herself further into his hand. Sean’s inner wolf snarled, its need to dominate, to take its chosen mate overwhelmed him. Gripping both her hips, he dragged Lily up and back, driving his thick, corded cock into her wetness. Her cries turned to moans of pleasure as he thrust, pushing his engorged member deeper and harder.
His body shivered, every muscle taut and hard, pulsing along with his cock. He pulled back, and ignoring her protests flipped her onto her back, impaling her with a single stoke. He rode her hard, lifting her legs to delve even deeper. Lily’s body trembled, slick against the rock hardness of him, her thigh muscles burning and straining to hold on as he thrust harder and faster.
Sean’s upper and lower canines descended, hurtling him toward the edge of sanity. He needed her in submission, his alpha female, his wolf-bitch. With a feral growl, he flipped her onto her stomach and pulled her hips back, driving himself into her again and again, his cockhead swelling to near bursting. He bit down on Lily’s shoulder just as he had before she’d left, his body shuddering in climax and his inner wolf snarling in unleashed conquest. Lily threw her head back in a swirl of pain and pleasure, her inner walls convulsing in time with Sean’s release.
Time stood still for a moment, neither daring to move until the last waves receded and they slumped forward on the bed, panting and sweaty.
Lily pushed her hair back from her face and peered up at Sean from behind her shoulder. “I guess this means you can’t live without me, huh?” she said, kissing his fingers as they came up to stroke her cheek.
“You could say that,” he answered, his voice still rough and growly. He pulled back, trailing his fingers down her damp back and smacking her butt as he withdrew.
“Hey!”
“You didn’t seem to mind my smacking that part of you a minute ago,” he said with a grin.
“That’s completely different.”
“Hmmm…and here I thought you liked it rough.”
“Me? You’re the one doing the caveman impersonation, throwing me over your shoulder like a sack of grain. What’s up with that, anyway? Did you really think I was going to turn you down?”
He smirked, tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. “I told you I was on the brink.”
“Brink? That’s the understatement of the decade.
Is this what I have to look forward to every month?” she asked, tilting her head a bit.
Sean looked down at Lily’s fingers as she absently traced the pattern on her duvet cover, a sexy smile spreading toward the corner of his mouth. His gaze flicked back to hers. “Only if you want it to be.”
Lily laughed, giving his shoulder a gentle shove. “Ha! Typical male answer.”
“So, you’re saying you didn’t enjoy yourself?”
Lily’s face pinked, and the color was glorious against her creamy complexion. She was tough as nails, but he loved that he could still make her blush.
“No, but…”
Sean’s lips silenced any further reply. He broke their kiss, resting his index finger over her lips. “Ssh. I missed you. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”
His initial urgency for her had ebbed, however, as Lily looked at him, one glance told him her antennae were up and pointed his way.
“What’s going on, Sean? There’s something you’re not telling me.”
He blinked, but didn’t answer. Damn that mind of hers.
“Sean…”
If he told her there had been an attempt on his life, she’d be gunning for Parr before he even finished speaking. Not that he could blame her though, not when he’d do the same. Like it or not, the attack had actually bought them some time. Time for him to be here, with her.
“Lily, it’s nothing, just Parr grasping at straws. He tried, he gambled, and he lost. Nevertheless, I took care of it, and now he’s off somewhere licking his wounds. Trust me, his miscalculation cost him, and he won’t be trying anything else for a while. I’m here now, and Mitch has everything under control, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“If you say there’s nothing to worry about, then how can I argue? Parr tried a different approach…okay. What kind of approach? Is that why you were in wolf form for days, or can’t you tell me?”
“Lily, I’m tired, that’s all. Having to deal with Parr, while at the same time trying to keep a lid on my libido, is just exhausting. Of course, I feel a whole lot better, now,” he said, rubbing his knuckles over the swell of her breast.
The Cursed by Blood Saga Page 31
