Being a vampire had its benefits and he damned well planned to take advantage of them. He settled onto his bed in a determined, take-no-prisoners mood. There was no reason they shouldn’t have their night together. Leaning back against the headboard, he closed his eyes and worked his magic.
Because of their deep connection, it was easy to share his feelings of desire with Rana. He smiled when he heard her gasp, knew exactly when she felt the clawing, pit-of-the-stomach need he experienced. Lucian’s longing was stronger, harder and far more pent-up, and he let her feel it all in a slow, methodical unfurling of sensations. He concentrated on her soft skin, her sensitized nipples. He brushed an invisible tongue across one and then the other. By the audible gasp and thudding of her racing heart, he knew exactly when the throbbing desire took hold of her. Spread your legs. Let me touch you. Your hand is my hand, he whispered on the edge of her mind. Not enough so she would know it was him, but enough to push her over the edge.
He shuddered when she touched herself and he heard her moan. Knowing she was in the other room, rubbing her damp body—moist with want for him—he guided her fingers inside, to a place he so desperately wanted to be. It almost did him in. Lucian freed his cock from his pants and stroked himself in the same rhythm of her rampant breaths. His heightened sense of smell caught the scent of her arousal and the seductive aroma hit him hard. He tightened his jaw as his own pace increased with hers.
Lucian imagined the hand that touched her aching clit and the fingers that sunk into her wet sheath were his, and that it was her hand that held him in a firm grip, knowing exactly what to do to send him over the edge.
And she did, in a way.
When her muffled cries of ecstasy reached him, Lucian’s balls tightened as her feelings, so strong and pure, ricocheted back, permeating the walls between them. His mind reached out and absorbed her emotions like a sponge, reveling in both the real and vicarious sensations the link between them allowed as he finally surrendered to his own explosive climax. You’re mine. My anima, he whispered along the perimeter of her mind right before she fell into a deep asleep.
Chapter Seven
The next morning, as soon as Rana opened her bedroom door, Lucian opened his. They stood there staring at one another for several tense, heart-stopping moments.
“Good morning.” He finally broke the silence. The lines around his eyes and mouth made him look tired and even more dangerous.
Rana knew she couldn’t look much better. When she woke up, her entire body ached. She felt like she’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler, not some rinky-dink yellow cab. She didn’t bother with niceties. “You look terrible. Did you sleep at all?”
“I told you, I must protect you.”
“It’s daylight now, Lucian. Surely, you can give yourself a break.”
He slowly shook his head, a determined expression on his face. “Kraid will only rest for a little while. When he discovers you didn’t die in that accident, he’ll come looking for you.”
Her brows drew together. “Why would he come after me?”
“Because of me.” Lucian sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “He knows how much I care for you and—”
“Don’t say that.” She cut him off.
He looked surprised. “Why?”
“Because we can never be, Lucian.” She turned and walked down the hall.
Before she’d taken three steps, his strong hands were on her shoulders, turning her around. “Because I’m a vampire?”
She sucked in her breath, wincing at the pain his sudden movements caused.
Lucian let her go, his eyes apologetic. “I’m sorry. I forgot you don’t heal at the same pace.”
Rana was thankful he’d been distracted from his question, but his statement piqued her curiosity. She pulled his torn shirt away from his shoulder. There were no deep gashes, only faint lines. “Amazing,” she said, meeting his gaze.
Arrogance laced his grin. “Being a vampire does come with certain perks.”
Rana let go of his shirt and turned away in a huff, angry that he could be so flippant. Kraid played for keeps. And from her reading yesterday, she knew vampires weren’t invincible.
Without thinking, she closed all the curtains in the house before she walked into the kitchen. Opening the cabinet, she retrieved the coffee, then slammed the door closed in frustration. “Want some coffee?” she grumbled over her shoulder.
“Sure,” Lucian said from the doorway.
As Rana filled the coffee pot, she felt the weight of Lucian’s gaze on her back. Pretending she didn’t notice, she rummaged through the fridge for bagels and cream cheese.
“Why can’t we be, Rana?” Lucian asked softly from his position at the table.
Rana poured him a cup of coffee, adding two teaspoons of sugar. Leaving the spoon inside the cup, she set his on the table with a snap of her wrist.
“Because you’re a vampire,” she stated bluntly, hoping that would get him off her back.
With an unruffled expression, Lucian took the spoon between his fingers.
She watched him stir his coffee, thinking, three circles to the right, one circle to the left, and Lucian did just that.
He regarded her with a thoughtful expression as he lifted the cup and took a sip. Setting it down in the saucer, he smiled broadly. “You knew just how I like it.”
Rana opened her mouth to deny his statement, but couldn’t. Why had she put sugar in his coffee without asking? Why didn’t she think to ask him if he wanted cream, when somehow she knew he wouldn’t? And then, there was that whole stirring thing. How strange!
With a shake of her head, she grabbed a bagel and turned away, mumbling, “I’m going to take a shower.”
She ignored his chuckle as she stomped down the hall.
*
Rana returned to the living room an hour later. She’d taken her time with her shower, needing the distance from Lucian’s disturbingly magnetic presence.
She found him sitting in her reading chair holding the book on vampires. He lowered it when she entered the room.
“This book is filled with all kinds of inaccuracies,” he said in a condescending tone.
Rana raised an eyebrow and sat down on the soft brown leather couch, curling her feet underneath her. “Oh, really? Well then, care to enlighten me?” She couldn’t have engineered a better way to ask Lucian about the Kendrian vampires without seeming entirely too interested.
Lucian opened the book and drew his finger down the page. “Here. It says you can detect vampires because they have no reflection in mirrors.” He glanced at her. “Not true.” He flipped some more pages. “It says we hate garlic.” He looked up and met her gaze. “Also untrue.” Thumbing farther into the book, he reached another section. “It says we can’t abide the cross. A cross is just a religious symbol, no more, no less.”
He turned a few more pages and read, “‘Vampires can only be killed with a wooden stake driven through their hearts.’” He looked at her once more. “I bleed. If you cut something off, it stays off. Vampires are hard to kill, but they can be killed in various ways.”
Rana shuddered at his words. And yet he didn’t contradict the drinking of blood, the aversion to sun, the superhuman strength, the ability to move faster than the eye can see, the almost-immortality, the night-vision or the ability to turn a human into a vampire.
She leaned forward, needing to know for certain. “So you don’t disagree with the rest?”
“Some of it was accurate.” His gaze held hers. “The taking of blood during sex can be especially erotic with the right person.”
Her cheeks flamed. Glancing away, she cleared her throat, feeling nervous for what she was about to ask. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was offering, but he looked worse now than he had earlier. “Er, speaking of…don’t you need to go eat?”
His smile was tender. “I can wait.”
Rana shook her head at his stubbornness, then grabbed a book off the stack she�
��d brought from the store. Settling into the contours of her sofa, she sat back and opened it. Lucian smiled at her and reopened his as well.
After a couple of hours, she noticed the slant of the sun coming through the bottom of her curtains. It was two in the afternoon and she’d skipped lunch.
Jumping up from the sofa, she looked at Lucian. “I’m fixing a sandwich, do you want anything?”
When Lucian looked up from his book, his eyes were slightly glazed. He looked tired.
Alarmed, she asked, “Are you okay?”
Lucian snapped out of his haze, his face settling into hard lines as if he were trying not to acknowledge pain. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” she insisted. “It was daylight when I saw you at the graveyard. How early can you go out?”
“It depends on how overcast it is. If it’s a sunny day, I have to wait until at least five in the evening.”
Rana folded her arms. “When five o’clock rolls around, I’m kicking your vampire butt out of my house. You need to feed, Lucian. I don’t want your wellbeing on my conscience.”
He set his mouth in a firm line. “If I’m able to go out, so is Kraid.” He gave her a steely look. “I’m not leaving you. End of discussion.”
Rana walked away, gritting her teeth. He was so bullheaded. While she ate her sandwich, she mulled over Lucian’s protective nature. It both thrilled and worried her. He’s said he cared a great deal for her. The words made her heart ache. Why did he have to be a vampire, and why did she have to be dead? Sighing heavily, she cleaned up, then made a sandwich for Lucian.
“Eat something, please,” she said as she set the food on the end table near his chair.
Lucian flicked his gaze to the sandwich. “Thanks for thinking of me, but blood is my only food source.”
“You drank coffee earlier.”
He smiled. “That was purely recreational. I don’t need it to survive.”
Rana swallowed her frustration, then sat down, picking up her novel.
Lucian’s entire body shook with his need to feed. He bit back the clawing hunger and instead focused on Rana. Her blonde hair fell forward as she bent over her book. He watched her delicate hand absently brush the strand away from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
He adored her pert nose, her wide set eyes and expressive eyebrows. He loved her full lips when they quirked upward in humor and respected her strong sense of self she held onto in the face of near-death. Even her dedication to her grandfather’s memory made him want her more. He wanted to see that kind of dedication and even more…love in her expression when she looked at him. Instead, he saw uncertainty, anger, and betrayal reflected in her eyes when she cast her gaze his way.
Lucian closed his eyes as his strength weakened. Normally he could go for weeks without eating if he was in a deep sleep, but having to constantly deflect Rana’s scent so Kraid couldn’t zero in on her, drained his energy considerably.
He sunk farther into the chair and clenched his jaw as the sound of Rana’s beating heart and the whooshing pulse of her blood pumping through her veins grew louder.
*
After another hour had passed, Rana glanced up when Lucian’s book dropped to the floor. His face was very pale, his entire body tense.
She rushed to his side, but he quickly jumped up from the chair and moved over to lean against the front door, closing his eyes. “Stay away from me, Rana. My body is craving blood and I don’t trust myself around you.”
Rana stood too and looked at her watch. It was only four. He still had another hour to go. While she contemplated what to do, Lucian slid to the floor, landing on his rear with a soft thud.
“Lucian!” Squatting next to him, Rana didn’t worry for herself. She touched his forehead. He was so cold. “Lucian, you must eat.”
He lifted his head and whispered, almost in delirium, “I hear your blood rushing through your body. So sweet and warm.”
Rana closed her eyes and tried not to let what he was saying worry her. She had to help him. She couldn’t bear to watch him suffer. But I’d better confirm the three strikes you’re out rule. “How many times?”
“Mmmm?” He looked at her, confused.
She grasped his shoulders. “How many times does a human have to be bitten to become a vampire?”
“Three. Close together,” he mumbled.
“Good. Then once won’t kill me.”
When his eyes closed, she panicked, her heart racing in fear. Pulling him close, she offered her neck. “Take my blood, Lucian. For God’s sake, take what you need to survive.”
Lucian looked at her neck and his nostrils flared. He set his jaw and shoved her shoulders, sending her sliding back across the wood floor. “No!” His expression was intense, the most focused she’d seen him in the last few hours. “When I take your blood, it will not be for sustenance.”
His words sent a secret thrill racing to her stomach, but she didn’t have time to contemplate his meaning. Rana scrambled to her knees and placed her hands on her hips, scowling at him. “Don’t be ridiculous! I’m here, willing to give you what you need.”
His eyes lost focus again, and this time his head fell back against the door. He was talking to himself. “I must keep the house camouflaged.”
She crawled to him and shook his shoulders. “Is that why you’re so weak?”
His head drooped and his chin touched his chest. He mumbled something unintelligible.
Rana hit his shoulder as tears began to fall. “Don’t you dare die on me from something so stupid, Lucian. When this is all over, I’m going to kill you myself for being so stubborn.”
Her mind scrambled for something to do. Then it hit her. The word Lucian had said sounded like Sabryn. Could the Sabryn she’d bought the ring from be his sister? She rushed to her purse and pulled out the receipt from the antique store.
Her hands trembled while she dialed the number and waited for an answer.
“Hello.”
“Sabryn?”
“Yes.”
“Sabryn, my name is Rana Sterling. Do you have a brother named Lucian Trevane?”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Is my brother okay? I didn’t see him last night. I’ve been worried sick.”
Rana quickly explained what happened. “Lucian’s being dogged in his desire to protect me and he’s now close to passing out on my living room floor. I’m afraid for him.”
“I’ll be right there. Give me directions to your house.”
Twenty agonizing minutes later, someone knocked at her door. Rana grabbed Lucian’s hand and tried to pull him away from the door, but Lucian clasped her wrist in a vice-like hold, stalling her efforts.
“Don’t open your door.”
“Lucian, it’s Sabryn,” Rana said in her most soothing voice. “I called her.”
His hold tightened, but his eyes couldn’t stay focused on her, they lolled in his head. “No. It’s a vampire trick.”
Rana called to Sabryn through the door. “Sabryn, please speak to your brother mentally. Let him know it’s you. He won’t let me near the door.”
She waited for a few tense seconds, and then finally Lucian’s grip loosened as he collapsed to the floor, completely unconscious. Rana tugged him out of the way, doubled-checked through the peephole, and then opened the door.
Sabryn rushed in, an older gentleman with black hair sprinkled with gray, following in her wake.
“Lucian,” Sabryn called out, concern etched in her beautiful features as she bent over her brother, touching his forehead.
Rana watched in amazement as the woman lifted Lucian in her arms as if he were a mere child. She walked out the door, calling behind her, “Uncle Vlad will stay to protect you, Rana.”
Rana sank to the floor and let the tears fall. God, please let him recover.
*
Sabryn took him to a secluded park and compelled three humans, two females and a male, to them. With a worried look, she left him to nourish himself. He fed
until he was completely satiated. Tonight, he did erase the memories of those who’d given him their blood. He hadn’t been violent, but he didn’t have the time or inclination to lure and cajole as he normally would.
Strength surged through his veins as he shapeshifted to a raven’s form. Lucian’s heart pounded in anticipation now that he was assured of Rana’s love for him. He’d stubbornly stayed by her side, needing to protect her from Kraid, even as his heart sank to the deepest despair over the condemnation in her eyes whenever she looked his way.
But before he lost consciousness, he’d seen the concern written all over her face, remembered the anger and then alarm in her voice when she yelled at him for being so foolish. Rana cared. She cared a great deal. He sucked the fresh air into his lungs, reveling in life as his heart filled with happiness.
When he neared her house, anger and revenge coursed through him, dampening his high spirits as his mind turned to Kraid. The evil prick was out there, waiting to try and kill her. Again. The fact that Kraid admitted he’d been responsible for Elizabeth’s death hadn’t left Lucian’s mind, but Rana had to be his first priority. Kraid would pay when he got his hands on the murdering bastard.
Now that Rana knew him for what he really was, Lucian refused to hide anything about himself from her, ever again. He misted into the living room and materialized, stark naked, right in front of Rana as she stood up from the couch. Sabryn cast an amused glance his way, his uncle’s expression stayed deliberately neutral, but the shocked look on Rana’s face would’ve made him laugh if her life wasn’t currently in danger.
“That certainly wasn’t in the book,” Rana said, keeping her eyes at his shoulder level and above.
I only said the book had some inaccuracies. I didn’t say the book wasn’t missing a few pertinent facts, he stated dryly in her mind.
Her face drained of color before a fusion of embarrassed pink tinted her ashen skin.
“All those nights?” She narrowed her eyes and stiffened. “You were real?”
“Lucian…” his uncle began in a warning tone.
Lucian spoke to Sabryn and his Uncle Vlad, his words clipped as he kept his gaze locked on Rana’s. “Leave us.”
Love's First Bite: Bad Boys and Alpha Vampires Boxed Set (6 book bundle) Page 54
