by Rachel Lee
His arm reached up after just a couple of seconds and snared her, drawing her onto his lap.
“Forgive me, ma belle,” he said hoarsely. Then he nuzzled into her neck, she felt the cool lap of his tongue, and then everything inside her exploded with delight.
She was helpless to stop him, even if she wanted to. Instead, she reached up a hand to cup the back of his head and hold him even closer. She could hear his heart, could feel hers settle into an identical rhythm, a rhythm that soon pulsed through her entire body until even her womanhood throbbed in time with it.
Her head fell back as she gave herself up to sheer enchantment and passion. He had shown her the incredible bliss of a lover’s touches, but never had she imagined she could reach the same place when he drank from her.
The moments that passed became as intense as any lovemaking they’d shared. Maybe more intense. Pinwheels of light exploded behind her eyelids, and her body throbbed so hard she knew climax was only moments away.
Her thighs tightened, seeking pressure to answer the need. Her head tipped to one side to grant him better access. With each pull of his mouth, she felt that pull echo in her groin. She had never known anything this erotic. Never imagined it.
All he did was drink, and her core grew heavy and wet. Her breasts felt as if he touched them; her nipples grew so hard they ached. Simply by drinking from her, he wrapped her in shackles of passion so strong they might have been steel.
Her hips rocked helplessly, her body entered the rhythm of his own heart, beating faster and faster as he grew stronger with each mouthful of her blood.
Just a little longer. Just a bit more…
But suddenly he tore his mouth from her. “No more,” he said. “I’ll take too much.”
Still sitting on his lap, feeling dazed by the sudden change, Dani blinked as she looked at him, trying to understand why it had stopped. Why it had needed to stop.
Then the moment was totally interrupted by Jude. “Here, have a bag. I’m sure you didn’t get enough from Dani, to judge by the blood on your clothes.”
While Dani was still trying to recover her grip on the world around her, Luc took the bag and drained it. Then he licked the last shiny remnants from his mouth and looked at her.
She saw that already the burn was fading from his face.
“I can’t stay awake much longer,” he said.
“You two take my bedroom,” Jude said. “I can stay out here in the office. It’s almost as well protected, and I’ll be available if anyone shows up.”
“My mother should be coming,” Dani said. “Besides, what difference does it make who uses which room when you’re both going to be dead, anyway?”
A quiet chuckle shook Luc’s chest. Even Jude laughed.
“The lady has a point,” Luc said. “But if your mother sees what I have done, she will probably kill me the instant I awake.”
Dani shook her head. “She won’t see. I’ll hide it.”
“And the coats.” Luc paused, his eyelids drooping. “I left your coats on a rooftop several blocks away.”
“So what happened to you?” Dani demanded. “You obviously got attacked.”
“I did the attacking. A newborn. One less to face come nightfall. But the jackets…I don’t know if it’s a problem.” He seemed to be drifting away.
“You two go to bed,” Dani said. “Just give me a general idea where the coats are and I’ll have my mother get them. She can have someone bring them here.”
Much as she didn’t want to, she gave in to the reality and slid off Luc’s lap. “Bed,” she said. “Both of you. I can keep watch with the help of my pack.”
Jude handed her a key card and made her remember six numbers. “That’ll get you into my bedroom if you need to wake us for some reason.”
“Okay. Go now. Sheesh, the two of you are dead on your feet.”
But after she heard the dead bolts thud into place, she stood there feeling very alone and very afraid. She had some idea of Luc’s incredible strength. That a newborn could have injured him filled her with horror, enough to make her mouth go dry.
She reminded herself that Luc had come back alive and in one piece. Despite this knowledge, she stood swaying for a few moments, trembling a bit as she tried to deal with what had happened and what might have happened.
And dreading what would happen as soon as her pack smelled her.
There was a shower in the front office off Chloe’s bedroom. Dani took advantage of it, scrubbing herself thoroughly. She found fresh clothes in the bag she’d packed when she left her apartment. She even used alcohol to wipe the tiny wounds Luc had inflicted before she covered them up. Everything she could do to lessen the odors of Luc and of his having drunk from her.
She stared at the pricks on her wrist and her neck, though, wondering why they weren’t yet healing. She was used to having her wounds heal swiftly, and small ones in very short order. These remained, like marks. Something about vampire bites?
She had healed from the attack by those four vampires, but perhaps it had taken longer than usual. How would she know? She had never really had an opportunity to assess her wounds that night. She just hoped these marks vanished entirely before her mother arrived. There was no question in her mind that Lucinda would smell them as long as they remained.
She settled on the couch in the front office to nap as much as she could while awaiting either a call or a visit from her mother. She honestly hoped it would be a call.
All she knew for certain right now was that she didn’t need to fear vampires until sunset. Now all she had to fear was her own family.
That somehow seemed far worse.
Exhausted, she curled up on the couch and tried to absorb what had happened to her when Luc had drunk from her. She throbbed at the mere memory of it and replayed it in her mind. She was beginning to understand why Luc feared making an addict of her.
Because she already wanted that experience again. She was eager for it. The need still pounded in her blood like some heady drug, and permanent withdrawal seemed impossible to bear.
That realization lifted her from the edge of slumber and slammed her with fear. Addiction. He had warned her, she hadn’t listened, and when he was weakened she had forced him to do what he had so far resisted.
Oh, man, had she lost her mind? Looking at the past few days, she could well believe it. She had given her soul to a vampire, and she wasn’t even sure he wanted it.
But even upset couldn’t win over exhaustion, and sleep found her quickly, releasing her for just a little while from all the questions, fears and anxieties that had beset her since she was attacked.
She didn’t get much sleep. The barred window above and behind Chloe’s desk that let in the light from the street hadn’t brightened all that much by the time she heard the door buzzer sound.
Her heart skittered into high gear and she pushed herself up from the couch, hoping against hope that it would be some human who wanted to consult Jude, even though his hours were clearly posted outside.
Rubbing her eyes, she staggered to the desk and looked at the view from the outside security camera. It was Lucinda, bundled almost like an Eskimo.
She pressed the button to talk. “Mom?”
“Yes. Let me in, Dani.”
“Just you?”
Lucinda sighed. “Yes. What’s going on?”
“I just wondered.” Stupid question. Of course it put her mother on alert. But she wanted to know how much she would be facing. She pressed the buzzer, glimpsed the top of Lucinda’s hood as she passed the camera then watched the door close.
Lucinda arrived in the office seeming to radiate cold from outside. Her parka was made of old wolf pelts and fur, from wolves who had died of natural causes in the past. No lycan ever killed a wolf if it could be avoided, but when they died their pelts were treasured by those who found them.
She also carried Jude’s and Dani’s coats. “What were these doing out there? We found them when we were tracking.”<
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“Luc had to kill a newborn just at dawn. He dropped them and didn’t have time to go back for them.”
“Ah.” Lucinda tossed them on the couch. “And you. What is going on with you?”
“Jude brought me back here while Luc laid the trail.”
Lucinda sat in a chair facing Dani across the desk. “And you’ve been left to guard on your own?”
“What do I have to guard? The vampires are out of action until sunset.”
“Which means you and I get to talk without inhibition for the first time since this began.”
Dani tensed again. When her mother started talking like that, something unpleasant was about to come up.
“You smell different,” Lucinda said.
“I’m hanging out with a different crowd.”
“You were hanging out with a different crowd two nights ago. No, you smell different. Not like us any longer.”
Dani tried to keep her breathing regular, her pulse rate down, but she was sure she didn’t succeed. “I haven’t changed, Mom. I’m still me.”
“But you’ve done something you shouldn’t have.” She sniffed several times. “Oh, Dani, I told you not to let him take your blood.”
“He was injured! He needed it!”
Lucinda frowned, her eyes saddening. “You can’t become one of them.”
“I won’t.”
“But you’re halfway there. You let a bloodsucker take your blood.”
Dani’s throat tightened. “Luc needed it.”
“His scent not only clings around you now, it’s in you. You smell more like one of them now.”
“But I’m not. I’m the same Dani I’ve always been. A lycan who isn’t lycan, a human who isn’t human, a shape-shifter who can’t shape-shift. I am not a vampire.”
“I know. I can tell. But you’re so very close right now.”
“I did what I needed to do. For me, Mom. For me.”
“Is that where your path lies now?”
Dani felt her mouth tremble. “I don’t know,” she whispered. Then she added more strongly, “Luc doesn’t want me that way. He’s made that clear. So I just did what I needed to do to help him heal. Is that so wrong?”
Lucinda didn’t answer for long moments. “Perhaps not under the present circumstances. But take care you go no further. Right now it’s going to be hard enough to control the pack if they smell you.”
“Then let them smell me right now. Let’s get this over with.”
Lucinda shook her head. “No. Not now. The smell may fade by darkfall and we have a serious problem to deal with. I’ve called in more of the pack.”
Dani gripped the edge of the desk, tensing. “What’s going on?”
“We tracked those rogues last night. They followed the trail your friend left to the edge of town. It was a good trail, and I think they’ll follow it tonight. But I left some of your cousins behind to watch the city. There are more vampires now.”
Dani drew a shocked breath. “How many? Newborns?”
“I can’t tell a newborn from an adult by scent alone. We counted sixteen. We may be able to get rid of some of them before darkfall.”
“Mom, you’ve got to be careful. Vampires can wake up to defend themselves even from their death sleep.”
One corner of Lucinda’s mouth lifted. “They can’t hide from the sun.”
“But they’re already hidden.”
“We can use mirrors. The sun will be on them before they know we’re coming.”
For the first time in hours, Dani felt like smiling. “I like that. How many of them can you get to?”
“I’m not sure yet. Some have been much cagier in hiding themselves. Others are barely protected. And we’re not absolutely certain there are only sixteen.”
Dani nodded. “I’m going with you.”
“I told you to wait until the smell in your blood fades.”
Dani shook her head. “I have to do this. And the pack is just going to have to get used to it or tear me to shreds.” She lifted her chin. “There are some things I need to do, Mom. And you need to understand that.”
“I understood at least a little when you chose to leave us for life as a normal. It seemed to me you would be happier, and you haven’t been happy for a long time. But I’m not sure I can condone this path you’ve chosen.”
“I haven’t chosen anything,” Dani said hotly. “I was almost killed by bloodsuckers. Other bloodsuckers have saved me and protected me. But I am damn sick of being baggage!”
Lucinda was shocked. “Language!”
“I have some more bad human words if you want to hear them. The point is I have as much stake in this as anyone, and I’m not going to be shoved into a corner because you, the pack or the vampires think I’m useless and weak.”
Lucinda’s frown deepened. “You know how some of your cousins are.”
“They need to grow up. We’re facing a threat and it’s not just a threat to vampires and humans. You don’t want to live in a world where vampires run everything. You couldn’t move far enough away to find peace. We made an alliance, and whether they like how I smell is irrelevant. They’ll just have to live with it.”
“Some things are instinctual.”
“And others are learned. Judging by the way I’ve changed my thinking, it’s my opinion that this response is learned. It’s also my opinion that things have changed. Until the last few days, when was the last time any lycan actually talked to a vampire? I know what Luc said about us.”
“And that was?”
“That he had absolutely no interest in us unless we threatened him. Neither Jude nor Creed seemed in the least disturbed that I’m lycan. The only one who was disturbed was the human who works for Jude, Chloe, and she got over it fast. So maybe it’s time to make peace.”
Lucinda lowered her head, clearly thinking. Finally she sighed. “I don’t know. Things are different now from the past, I’ll agree. In the past we objected to the bloodsuckers taking unwilling mortals, and when they did, we sometimes intervened. You know we have our own idea about what is fair prey, and humans are not. We may share different shapes, but we share the same hearts and minds as humans.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe the bloodsuckers have evolved.”
“Then maybe we should, as well.”
Lucinda gave her a piercing look, as if she could read Dani’s heart and mind. “All this talk of peace will give the pack indigestion. Let’s just start with dealing with our common threat.”
“And letting me help.”
“Before you help, I’m going to bring you a new wolfskin jacket. That parka of yours smells entirely too much like a certain bloodsucker. We need to get through the first half minute without you being killed. Time enough for reason to reassert.”
“All right. But where can you get me a jacket?”
“I brought an extra. In fact it’s yours, the one you left behind.” Lucinda smiled wistfully. “I guess part of me hoped you’d come home with us. I see that is not to be. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“And I’m going to help, right?”
“Yes, daughter, you’re going to help. I just hope your father doesn’t blow a gasket.”
Dani didn’t bother to argue that she was an adult now. In the pack, being an adult meant accepting your place in the hierarchy and obeying orders. Defying her mother was defying that order. It put her squarely outside the pack in more ways than just her odor.
Once again she felt that grief that she would never, ever be a true member of her pack. But it was an old grief, a bittersweet one in a way, one she had fully accepted when she’d made her decision to move away and live life as a normal.
Life as a normal? She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that thought. Certainly she’d been normal for only a few months. Look at her now: fallen in with a bunch of bloodsuckers, making her own mother upset at every turn, possibly facing the hostility of the pack she loved as much as life itself.
That was
normal?
Lucinda returned around noon. The storm had given way to a day of nearly painful brilliance as the sun glittered off every bit of snow from a cloudless, piercingly blue sky.
Wrapped in the wolfskin coat she had once abandoned, mukluks on her feet, Dani left a note behind and went outside with her mother. Jude had given her the key card and pass code for his inner sanctum, but she doubted he used the same ones for his front door. Regardless, she tucked the card in an inside pocket for safety.
Outside, she blinked in the nearly blinding light of a winter day.
“We need to get over the first hump,” Lucinda said.
“Me?”
“Yes. We can’t roam the streets in wolf form because we’ll attract too much notice, but they’re going to meet you in that form at an out-of-the-way place. I’ve explained, but I can’t promise they aren’t agitated.”
Dani swallowed hard and nodded. Her mother was right to be worried. There was a level at which the pack acted to protect itself that not even an alpha could prevent. Survival trumped everything, and if the pack took this as survival, she’d be dead soon.
Oddly enough, thinking about her possible death dragged her thoughts straight to Luc. He’d been right to fear a claiming, she admitted. Nobody could be sure that something wouldn’t happen to rupture it. If even a portion of what he’d intimated about his suffering over Natasha was true, she hoped he’d escaped it with her. She never wanted him to long for death because the pain was too great to bear.
But even thinking of him was not enough to stop her. For once in her life, she had to do something in concert with her pack. To be truly useful to them in some way. The inability to do that had driven her away. Now, though she might never go back, she would at least know she was strong enough, sure enough, useful enough to work with them against a threat.
