by Tina Folsom
As Francine set the dagger against his palm, he grabbed it from her unsuspecting hand. At the same time, Wesley kicked out his leg, his foot connecting with the back of Francine’s knees, making her topple. She let out a startled scream as she fell to the ground, but already, she tried to get up.
It was all the time Haven needed. He held the dagger in both hands and gritted his teeth. Taking all his courage and drawing on the love that was now firmly lodged in his heart, he drove the blade into his stomach, jerking it in as far as it would go. White-hot fire exploded from ruptured guts, wrenching an agonized scream from his throat. Warm liquid dripped over his hands still holding the dagger’s handle. He looked down and watched the blood seep from his body as the reality of what he’d done settled in.
“NOOOOOO!”
Who screamed, he couldn’t tell. He only felt strong arms around him as he tumbled to the ground. Wesley’s body cushioned his fall. Cold blasted through him. The damp of the night spread. His vision blurred, and his ears felt as if stuffed with cotton wool.
He was going to die so the Power of Three was destroyed forever.
***
Yvette’s feet simply moved forward, propelling her into Haven’s direction. She barely noticed that suddenly the force field was down. Haven’s action was most likely the reason for it, breaking Francine’s concentration even as the witch now staggered back onto her feet.
But whatever the reason for the force field disappearing, Yvette had to get to Haven. Her body moved independently from her brain; all her mind could focus on was that he’d stabbed himself to prevent the ritual from succeeding.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the other vampires close in, Zane next to her, his hand on his knife as he charged forward, a hairsbreadth faster than Yvette. When he was within several yards of the witch, who now seemed to have regained her wits and prepared to launch bolts of energy against them, Zane raised his right arm, flicked his wrist and threw the knife.
It lodged in the middle of Francine’s forehead. Like a dead tree, she fell.
Yvette derived no satisfaction from her death and merely glanced at her body, not halting her dead run toward Haven. When she reached him, she dropped to the ground and ripped him from his brother’s arms, cradling his head in her lap.
Haven’s eyes opened. “I knew you’d come …” His voice was weak and low.
“Haven. Please. You have to hold on.” She pressed her hand against his gaping stomach wound, trying to stop the flow of blood, but there was too much. Like a river it flowed from him.
“I love you,” he whispered, barely audible, the strength leaving his body. His face pale and bloodless, his eyes still carried the same passion he’d shown her earlier.
“Nooooo! Don’t go! Don’t leave me!” She was beyond foolish pride now. All she knew was that she couldn’t live without him.
A hand on her shoulder made her snap her head to the side. Wesley. His face tear-stained, his lips trembling, he gave her a pleading look. “You have to turn him.”
A sob escaped her. Turn him? Make him into the one creature he despised? “I can’t do that to him. He’ll hate me.” She would never survive his hate when all she craved was his love.
Wesley smiled through his tears. “No. He’ll never hate you. Look.” He pointed at Haven, and she gazed down into his face. His eyes still open, as if holding on for a few more seconds, his lips moved again.
Yvette lowered her head to him, trying to make out his words.
“Make me … like you …” His eyes searched hers. “Love me …”
“Oh God, forgive me for what I’m about to do.”
Then she stroked her hand over his face, feeling the clammy coldness of his skin. He had little time left. “I love you.”
Her fangs lengthened, pushing past her lips. A moment later, she dropped her head to his neck and pierced his skin, driving her sharp fangs deep into his flesh. His body trembled, fighting the invasion for a second or two before he stilled against her. As she pulled on his vein and took his rich blood into her, she clutched his body to her chest and listened for his weakening heartbeat until it stuttered to a halt.
***
Zane pulled his knife from Francine’s head and wiped the blood off on his pants before tucking it back into its sheath at his hip. He’d never trusted the bitch, and by the looks of it, he’d been the only one who hadn’t been taken in by her. So it was only right that he was the one who’d killed her. Yet only a sliver of satisfaction spread in his chest. Her speech had given him the chill: she’d been tempted by the power. And he knew better than anyone how hard it was to fight that kind of temptation. Not to simply unleash the power and wreck havoc. To sit back and wait, he knew of that too.
When Wesley rose as Yvette now fed her own blood to the dying Haven, and cradled his crying sister in his arms, Zane approached. For some strange reason, he felt the need to reassure the scared siblings.
“He’ll make it.”
Wesley nodded. “It’s what he wanted.”
“To be a vampire?” Zane couldn’t have been more surprised about the revelation. The vampire hunter wanted to be a vampire? When he hated them so much?
“No. I mean, yes. But, no. That wasn’t his motive. But he knew that if he gave up his human life, he’d destroy the Power of Three for good. That’s why he did it.”
Haven had just risen in Zane’s esteem by about a thousand percent. “He sacrificed himself.”
“For us. For all of us.” Wesley looked down at his brother. “God, I hope he won’t regret it.”
“We’ll make him welcome. I’m proud to have a new brother with such courage.”
Zane wiped his hand on his shirt and held it out to Wesley. “Two new brothers and a sister.”
Hesitantly, Wesley put his hand into Zane’s. Zane squeezed it. “You’ll always have our protection.”
Kimberly left her brother’s embrace and stepped toward Zane. With a sideways glance toward Yvette, she smiled through her tears. “They love each other.”
Zane felt himself compelled to replace his usual scowl with a friendly smile. “That’s why he won’t regret it.”
Thirty-Six
Haven’s head swam. His dreams projected in the most vivid of colors he’d ever seen. A multitude of scents invaded, and his brain worked like a computer, analyzing them, comparing and processing them. Among the smells was one he felt drawn to more than any other: oranges. Home. Finally home.
He forced his heavy eyelids open. Images burst into conscious being. Despite the semidarkness, he had no trouble seeing every detail. A room, one he’d never been in. Decorated by a woman, the feminine touches leaving no doubt about that. The softness of a bed underneath him. Soft cotton sheets brushed against his naked skin.
Haven sat up in a fluid motion, the light duvet dropping to his stomach. It reminded him of something. Far away, like in a different lifetime, he remembered pain. A blade. Blood. His gaze traveled down his stomach, where the ghost of a memory lingered. But nothing marred his perfect skin.
As he touched his belly, a flood of memories rushed back. He saw Francine as she performed the ritual. Then the dagger was in his hand. The pain came a second later as his hands plunged the sharp blade into his stomach. And after that, he remembered only one thing: Yvette, feeling her arms around him, then her fangs in his neck, draining him.
Instinctively, his hand went to his neck, but there, too, his skin was unblemished.
Yet he knew what had happened. He was one of them now. He felt it with his body and his heart. Every fiber of his new body was alert, every pore of his skin poised to take in impressions, sensations, and stimuli. Not in his wildest dreams could he ever have imagined how alive he would feel.
Haven took his first conscious breath as a vampire and inhaled an utterly enticing scent, one he knew from his earlier life. Only now, it was more pronounced, more intense, and ultimately impossible to resist. Underneath the covers, his body responded. Pulling back the covers, he sl
id out of bed, not the least bit surprised that his cock jutted out like a tent pole.
His ears picked up the sound of water running: a shower. With single-minded determination he crossed the room and followed the sound. The door to the bathroom was ajar. He pushed it open without making a noise and stepped inside the steam-filled room. The large soaking tub to his right was empty, but next to it was the large glass-enclosed shower. And in it, Yvette stood under the spray, her back turned to him.
Haven’s heart raced as he opened the glass door and slipped in. Yvette turned in the same instant, startled.
“You’re awake.”
“I’m alive.” Alive and hungry. The thirst in his throat burned like a furnace.
Her eyes roamed his face. “Do you remember what happened?”
Haven nodded. “Every second of it.” His gaze drifted to the pale column of her throat. “I’m hungry.”
“I left you a bottle of blood on the nightstand.”
While he instinctively knew that he needed the nourishment she’d left for him, he wanted something else first, to still a different hunger. “Later.”
“Haven … I … I had no choice.”
He put his finger onto her lips, stopping her from saying anything else.
“It was the only way.”
Yvette’s breath ghosted against his finger as she parted her lips. “I couldn’t let you die.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to punish you for that. You see, Yvette, you turned me into a vampire, now you’re stuck with me.” He let his eyes drift down her nude form. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.
“Why did you do it?” the anguished sound in her voice gave him pause.
“It was the only solution to destroy the power. No witchcraft can live in a vampire’s body. Francine said so herself.”
“You should have discussed it with me.”
“And have you stop me?” He shook his head. “No, baby; you would have tried to talk me out of it.”
“But what if I hadn’t gotten to you in time?”
Unshed tears stood sentry in her eyes. Haven stroked his hand over her cheek. “But you did. I’m alive. And I’ve never felt better in my entire life.”
“But you’ve hated vampires all your life, how could you—”
“You’ve taught me that vampires have a heart. They’re not soulless creatures.” Then he looked down at himself and noticed how she followed his gaze. “And by the looks of it, vampires have an increased sex drive.” Or was it because Yvette was near him?
Yvette’s breath hitched. “I love you.”
Her words made everything right in his life. Haven pulled her against his naked body and felt his skin sizzle at the touch. The sensations the contact with her skin produced, were more intense than when he’d been human. “I was hoping you’d say that.” He gently brushed his lips against hers. “Because I’ll never let you go. You understand that, don’t you? There won’t be any running away.”
“How’re you gonna make sure of that?” Her coquettish smile told him that she was ready to play.
“Only one way to do that …” Haven dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers, inhaling her scent. “God, you smell even better than I remember.”
“Everything will be different now,” she whispered against his lips.
“Different good?”
“Better. More intense.”
Haven slid his hand down her back to the swells of her ass and drew her against his aching cock.
Yvette’s breath hitched at the contact. “And bigger.”
He couldn’t suppress a smile from forming on his lips. “If I’d known that, I would have considered this change earlier.”
“You shouldn’t joke about it.”
“Why not?”
She pulled back and slammed her fist into his shoulder. “Because you scared the shit out of me when you stabbed yourself! Don’t you ever dare do anything like that again!”
“And how are you gonna make sure I never do that?” Haven sent her own words back at her, chuckling softly.
“There’s one way I’d always know what you’re planning,” Yvette hedged, lowering her lids as if unsure about how to go on.
Haven didn’t have to ask what she was thinking of. A memory from the day before crept into his consciousness: of Amaury knowing when Nina was hurt, and of Maya telling Gabriel telepathically that Delilah had delivered a baby girl. He understood.
“You want a blood-bond.”
Yvette pulled back slightly, trying to twist out of his hold. “It’s too soon to talk about something like that. And besides, maybe what you want is different.”
Haven didn’t loosen his grip. And now that he was a vampire, he was as strong as Yvette. She’d never again be able to escape him. “Too early, huh?”
“I was just joking. Really.”
“Uh, huh.” Then he forced her head up with his hand, gripping her chin between thumb and forefinger. “I thought we were past that phase.”
“Which phase?”
“Where you lie to me, and I call you on it.”
“I wasn’t—”
He tsked. “Baby, I’m asking you again. Do you want a blood-bond?”
She averted her gaze, but he pulled her face back to him. “Because I want one. And I’d be very disappointed if you turned me down.”
Yvette’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Against his chest, he felt her heartbeat race. “Oh, Haven, are you sure? Because if we’re bonded … it’ll be forever.”
Forever was just what he had in mind. Haven stroked his hand over her cheek. “Baby, I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t sure. Or would you like me to repeat my proposal on bent knees? I guess proposing in a shower is a little unorthodox, but I—”
She shook her head, cutting him off with her next words. “I love you.”
Then she flung her arms around him and pressed herself against him.
“I take that as a ‘yes.’ ”
“Yes.” Her breath caressed his ear, sending a shiver down his body, the shockwave of it traveling all the way to his cock.
Impatient to make her his forever, he asked, “When?”
“Now.”
Now couldn’t come fast enough. “You have to tell me what to do.”
She loosened her embrace and looked at him. “We’ll make love and drink each other’s blood when our bodies are joined.”
Haven groaned. This was better than he’d ever imagined the ritual to be. At best he’d thought that there’d be a ceremony akin to a wedding, with other vampires present, while they exchanged blood by cutting their hands in the American Indian tradition. But this, well, this was more than just an unexpected threat. He realized that this was what he’d dreamed of ever since he’d met Yvette, without even knowing what it meant. Ever since he’d first tasted her blood.
The moment he sank his lips onto Yvette’s and captured her, he realized he’d finally found peace. He was finally free to love the woman in his arms, and he would do so for eternity. She’d freed him from the shackles of revenge and hatred and shown him that love could dwell in any being.
Haven angled his head and swept his tongue between her parted lips, reacquainting himself with her intoxicating taste. Only this time, everything was more intense, more real. Yet despite the intensity, he couldn’t imagine ever getting enough of Yvette.
Without effort, he pressed her against the tile wall of the shower and devoured her mouth as if he’d been deprived of food for a week. He licked and nipped, delved and sucked, swept and stroked. And Yvette matched his every action, her body writhing against him, the spray of the warm shower making their bodies slide against each other in a fluid motion.
With every caress, Haven felt the cords of his control strung tighter. His gums itched and burned as if somebody was pressing a branding iron against them. Haven ripped his mouth from Yvette and pulled back, his fingers instantly going to his teeth, before pulling back in shock.
And there they w
ere: fangs. Slowly, but surely descending from their sockets. Sharp, pointy, and dangerous.
His gaze snapped to Yvette’s who watched him with rapt fascination. In slow motion, she lifted her hand and touched his cheek, then trailed her fingers to his lips, nudging against them.
“Show me,” she whispered.
He hesitated, at first feeling apprehensive about showing her his new self, but then he realized it was stupid. She was like him, and he recalled how beautiful he’d found her when he’d looked at her with her fangs extended.
Haven parted his lips and felt her finger slide back along his teeth. A moment later, a bolt of energy went through him. His cock jerked in concert.
“Fuck!” he ground out. He’d never felt a more intense pleasure than the touch of her finger against his fang.
A wicked smile was her response.
“Is that what I did to you when I licked your fangs?”
Yvette nodded. “Yes. Do you understand now why I tried to stop you?”
“Hell, no!” He grabbed her hand and pulled it away, then drew her closer into his embrace, his swollen cock digging into her stomach. “Lick ‘em, baby.”
He saw the flash of delight in her eyes just before he sank his lips back on hers. When she swept her tongue into his mouth and ran it along his teeth, Haven was teetering on this edge of his control. No way would he make it back to her bed; he had to take her here and now.
He lifted her and pressed her against the wall, spreading her legs in the process. The instant she licked over one of his fangs, Haven slid into her to the hilt with one thrust, her tight channel engulfing him in wet heat. Her breath caught, her lips dislodging from him.
“Don’t stop now, baby,” he urged.
“You’re killing me, Haven.” Her response was more moans than words. “You’re new to this. We should take it slow so you won’t get overwhelmed.”
“Looks to me like you’re the one who can’t take it. Trust me, taking it slow isn’t what I’m looking for.” Haven withdrew from her sheath and plunged back in, his balls slapping against her flesh. “The words I’m looking for are hard and fast and deep.”
