“I...”
“Say yes. Just say yes,” he whispered against her hair.
Closing her eyes, she leaned into him, melting against his strong, solid body. “Yes, Glenn,” she sighed at last. “Yes.”
Her world seemed to tilt suddenly and she gasped as she lost her balance. She was wrapped securely in a cloud of mist, and she blinked and allowed her body to relax, knowing the Glenn was holding her and misting her.
When she took her next breath, she was in Glenn's bedroom, standing at the foot of his bed. Before she could turn around, she felt his hands on her waist as he pressed up behind her. His lips nibbled down her neck and her bare shoulders, and she felt the scrape of his fangs on her skin.
She was still in that red dress, the same dress she had worn when he first took her to his bed. How apt that she should be wearing the same dress on their last night together.
She squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to let her tears fall. If this was her last night with Glenn, she would make it the best night of her life.
And his.
All those females he said he had bedded, she would erase them with this night.
She was a demoness, a blood demoness. And she was his mate.
She would claim him, own him, mark him. Other females would forever see her mark on him, and know that he had been mated, even if his mate was no longer around.
The thought that she would soon be leaving him, and that he might have other females after her, hurt her and angered her. The sudden stab of rage and pain was excruciating. Even her torment in the Abyss couldn't compare with this pain.
But she couldn't expect him to remain celibate for years and centuries after she was gone, could she?
She would be long gone. And she'd be lucky if he still remembered her.
Charlene swiped roughly at her eyes.
“Charlene, what's wrong? Did I hurt you?” Glenn stopped biting her shoulder and turned her to face him. “Are you...crying?”
“No, no! Don't be silly. Of course not.” She laughed.
“Charlene, you are my mate. You don't have to hide anything from me. You don't have to ever pretend in front of me. I see you, and I love you as you are.”
She looked into his piercing, dark eyes and again, she felt the sting of her tears. This time, she let him see her tears. No hiding, no pretending.
“I...I just don't want you to forget me. And I know this is silly and crazy, but I just can't bear the thought of you with other women after I'm gone. I know I shouldn't be...”
Glenn silenced her with a scorching kiss. She sobbed and moaned against his mouth, feeling his pain and passion so fiercely.
Her wet lashes brushed against his cheek as he released her slowly. “Why would I be with other women, when I have found my mate?” he asked softly, resting his forehead against hers.
“You are the only female for me. The one. The only one.”
“But I'll be...” Gone. Tomorrow night.
“You are my mate. Forever.” He said it with absolute certainty. There was no wavering, no flinching, no hesitation.
“And you are mine,” she whispered back. “I love you, Glenn, and...” She backed away from him slowly with a coy smile. “I'm going to show you how much I love you.”
She saw Glenn start towards her, his fangs elongating as she began to pull her zip down and step out of her little red dress. But she shook her finger at him. “Don't move.”
Naked, she sashayed to him and pushed him back onto the bed.
He watched her with hungry eyes as she straddled him. Bending forward, she felt his hot breath on her breasts, and her nipples peaked instantly.
Glenn let out a tortured groan. He moved to grab her, but she tut-tutted. “I said don't move.”
He complied and she rewarded him by gyrating her hips against his erection, letting him feel her heat and moisture.
With her claws, she made quick work of his shirt and pants, licking her lips as his huge, throbbing erection sprang free.
Raking her claws down his torso, she lowered her face to his muscular thighs and kissed them. She held his hands down at his side and he let her. Wrapping her lips round his swollen cock, she sucked at the bead of moisture at the crown and swirled her tongue round the sensitive slit. Glenn's hips bucked and he groaned her name as she began to suck him harder, taking more of him into her mouth.
He was huge, and he tasted of raw musk and masculinity. She knew that the last time he took her to his bed, he hadn't released his seed. This time, she would drive him mindless with pleasure, and force him to come. She would swallow every drop of her mate, lick him, relish the taste and feel of him.
Glenn began to jerk, as he fisted the sheets. But he allowed her to hold his hands down, giving her complete control over him.
“Charlene!” he roared.
She smiled as she continued tormenting him with her mouth. He was close. She could feel it.
She increased her pace, stretching up her hand to play with his nipples. She ran her fingers across his small, male nipples, feeling the hard, broad expanse of his chest.
Suddenly, Glenn gripped both her wrists and pulled her up to him. He pressed her flush against him and kissed her wildly, his lips and tongue ravishing her mouth.
Pulling her hips up, he forced her legs apart, and made her straddle him. Charlene pushed her palms against his chest and knelt up, letting her wet core hover just out of reach of his straining cock.
With a wicked mile, she began to lower her hips, ever so slowly, to take him into her body.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Glenn knew that his hold on his rampaging lust was fast slipping. This woman, this exquisite, tempting female was a demoness, in every sense of the word. She really was a devil in bed. Her touch, her lips, her tongue burnt and inflamed him to unimaginable heights. No woman had aroused him so, made him so crazed with desire for her.
Glenn's breathing was ragged as he watched her wiggle her luscious hips to take him deeper into her. He held himself perfectly still as she winced. He could feel her tight walls stretching to accommodate him and he didn't want to cause her any pain. With a shuddering breath, she impaled herself completely on him, burying him fully inside her.
He made a strangled sound, as she began to rock her hips. She was hot and wet, and her channel formed a tight fist around him. Glenn sat up, and kneaded the round globes of her butt as she ground down on him.
They sat up facing each other, her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist. Glenn jerked his hips, and grabbed hers, moving her in a more frantic rhythm against him. He bent down and took one bouncing breast into his mouth. Ah, sweet heaven! She was delicious, and he suckled hungrily. His fangs scraped at her skin, and a trickle of blood oozed down her cleavage. Charlene threw back her head in ecstasy as Glenn sucked her nipple and her blood, intensifying her pleasure.
He licked and lapped at her other breast, blowing on her wet, erect nipples and making her moan. Her fangs had descended, and he coaxed her mouth towards his neck.
She didn't resist, just rested her lips against his neck as she moved against him, letting him slide in and out of her. Glenn held her and lowered her onto her back on the bed. She gazed up at him, and turned her head to the side to expose her neck.
She was so, so beautiful. His mate. He thrust into her with a gentle rhythm, and thumbed her nipples as he licked down the column of her neck. She was growing wetter, and he could feel the first ripples of her orgasm. When she started to pant, he plunged his fangs into her and sucked hard.
She opened her mouth to scream, and he immediately pressed her fangs down hard into his neck. The pain was extreme, but so was the pleasure. He could feel her coming, as her muscles contracted and spasmed, and her claws and fangs dug into him. Her hot, red blood filled his mouth as he sucked hungrily, giving her the most explosive orgasm as he took her blood. She was sucking hard at his neck as well, drinking him, milking him, driving him over the edge.
Glenn relea
sed her neck with a bellow. He couldn't control himself any longer. He climaxed and shot deep into her soft, lush body, coming so hard and so long he felt like he had emptied all of himself into her. He kept moving inside her, even after he had spent every drop of his seed, filling her completely.
Panting and gasping, they held each other, their bodies still joined and shuddering.
Very slowly and reluctantly, Glenn pulled out of her, gazing tenderly into her shining green eyes.
Still green, for now. But he could see lines of red bleeding into her lovely emerald eyes.
Soon, they would be wholly red, and her blood would turn black. And she would become fully, irrevocably demon.
Glenn knew he was racing against time, gambling against fate. He let out a small, bitter laugh.
As a vampire who had lived for centuries, time just didn't hold the same value and urgency as it had for him when he was a human. Each day, each year, each decade was just more of the same old cycle for him. The more things change, the more they stay the same. That had been true for him.
But now, every second, every breath and heartbeat was a stark reminder of just how late in his long life he had found his mate, and how soon he was about to lose her.
No, he wouldn't lose her. It had to work.
He touched her face and her neck, feeling her pulse beneath his fingertips. So strong, so fragile, and so very precious to him.
He had marked her with his fangs, pushing his fangs deep into her neck so that there would be two distinct marks on her neck forever. The puncture wounds were already beginning to heal on her neck, but the marks were there. He had claimed and marked her as his mate.
Glenn touched his own neck. He healed at an extraordinary rate even from the most serious injuries, but Charlene had bitten him hard to mark him. His wounds had closed, but he could feel the ridged scar along his neck where she had sunk her jagged fangs into him.
“You marked me, baby,” he murmured.
“You are my mate,” she stated, looking upon her handiwork with pride.
“I know.” His voice cracked as he hugged her fiercely to him. “So how can I ever let you go?”
Charlene held him tightly, and tried to turn a sob into a strange sounding giggle. “Will you make love to me again?” she whispered.
Glenn kissed away her tears, tasting blood on his tongue. He kissed the top of her head, and worked his way slowly down her face, kissing her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her flushed cheeks, the corners of her mouth and down her jawline.
His lips kept roving down her body, as he worshipped her beautiful, curvaceous body with his mouth and hands. She closed her eyes, stretching her arms up above her head in utter surrender, giving herself completely to him.
Glenn lavished attention on her heaving breasts, kissing, licking and sucking until she arched her back and begged for him to take her. But he took his time. It was hours before the dawn, and he would spend hours pleasuring every inch of her body.
Kissing down the inside of her thigh and down her legs, he sucked every toe, and then worked his way back up. He spread her legs and slipped her engorged clit into his mouth, tormenting it with his tongue before thrusting his tongue into her, driving her to screams and shudders again and again.
With her body pliant and boneless with pleasure, he made love to her slowly, taking her, enjoying her and loving her the whole night.
This night belonged to them. And he would use it to celebrate his mate and their love.
Too soon, dawn...and death would arrive.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Charlene awoke in Glenn's bed, in his arms. She closed her eyes to savor the feeling of utter bliss, of knowing that this was where she belonged. His arms were wrapped possessively around her, his chest pressed against her back, his long legs entangled with hers. Slowly, she twisted round to gaze upon his face. With a sad smile, she traced his angular features with her fingertips. He had the face of a dark angel, a powerful, brutal warrior who could command hundreds of vampires and lure countless women into his bed.
You are the only female for me. The one. The only one.
She recalled his words with a sudden pang of pride and sorrow.
You are my mate. Forever.
“I love you, Glenn. Forever,” she whispered, and kissed him very softly on the lips.
His arms tightened around her for an instant before relaxing. She eased herself out of his arms and plucked her clothes and shoes off the floor. By the time his eyes snapped open, and he jerked up calling her name, she was already dressed and sitting stiffly at the edge of the bed.
“Good afternoon, love,” she smiled.
Glenn glanced at his watch on the bedside table and leaped up. “Afternoon. Kron hasn't Summoned you?” he asked.
“Nope. I think he has other demons to fry.”
In a jiffy, Glenn had pulled on a black t-shirt, cargo pants and combat boots. He tapped a message into his watch, grabbed the demon knife and stashed it in a holster at his side.
Charlene look surprised. “Shouldn't I have that? Since I'm the one who will be cutting out Kron's heart?”
“Do you think I'm letting you walk into that demon's domain on your own?” Glenn said, throwing on a jacket that held an arsenal of weapons in its folds. “You'll be with me. All the way.” To the last.
“But...”
“No buts. This is not just your fight. It is our fight, Charlene. You are not going into this alone.”
She swallowed hard. But where I am going, you can't follow, Glenn.
Glenn faced her and said, “Let's fight, Charlene. Fight for us.”
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“Could you do something for me?” Glenn asked. “Could you peek out the window and check the weather for me?”
She raised her brows at the unusual request but complied. Pushing the blinds open a crack, she looked out into the late afternoon sky and announced, “Fair, with little cloud and no chance of rain.”
“No cloud cover, eh?” Glenn flexed his fingers. “Guess we'll have to do something about that.”
Charlene started as he strode towards the window and opened the blinds. “Be careful!”
Glenn merely gave her a lopsided smile as he stood at the tinted windows and tapped the glass. “I've got UV protection.” He winked. “A little sunlight can't kill me. But—I'd rather avoid the noon sun if I can help it.”
His expression changed from playful to solemn as he turned to stare out the window, his eyes suddenly becoming completely black. His fangs elongated as he raised his arms with a guttural cry. Charlene gasped as she saw the sky transform from clear to cloudy in the space of a few blinks. Glenn beckoned the clouds forward, covering the entire sky with heavy, gray clouds. The clouds descended and swirled, choking out the sunlight as they brewed up a storm.
Lighting flashed through the storm clouds and the first pitter-patter of rain against the windowpanes could be heard.
The rain intensified, building up to a full blown storm. Glenn lowered his arms and turned to her. With one blink, his eyes returned to normal.
“No chance of rain, you said?”
Charlene gawked at him, finally sputtering, “You can control the weather?”
“To a degree.” He shrugged. “As you know, the weather is largely unpredictable and uncontrollable.”
“What else can you do?” she demanded as he took her hand.
“Oh, there's lots more I can do, but I want to show them to you slowly. There are lots of things I want to do with you, to you,” he said with a mischievous glint in his eye. “But we don't have time now. The PAC is waiting.”
“Okay,” she smiled, appreciating Glenn's effort to put her at ease. He was trying to joke around and make their last few hours together fun and warm and happy. She would savor these last few moments of happiness with Glenn instead of being sad and scared. She would put on a brave front for him.
“I'll mist you,” he said, embracing her tenderly.
I'
ll miss you too, she thought.
As soon as she leaned into his arms, the room faded from her and she closed her eyes. When she felt solid ground beneath her feet, she blinked and saw that she was standing in front of the tall gates of Kron's castle.
Lightning streaked overhead, illuminating the large group of PAC members, Enforcers and vampires that had gathered in front of the demon lord's residence.
Lucas stepped forward to speak to Glenn. “Your vampires misted all of us here one second ago. We're ready.”
Glenn turned to face the large group of silent vampires. “I have Called you here, and commanded you to mist all these Council members and Enforcers here, as your Master. But now, I release you.”
Charlene stared at the vampires and noticed that all their eyes were completely black. As soon as Glenn uttered the last three words, the black receded from their eyes, and the vampires jerked and blinked, as if they had just awoken from a deep trance. There were soft murmurings as the vamps stared at Glenn. He had Called them as their Master, and now he had released them from his Call and they were free to go. But instead of leaving, they stepped up to him and Charlene heard them speak softly to Glenn. Their words differed, but their intent and meaning were all the same.
His vampires weren't going anywhere. They chose to stay and fight for him.
“I owe you my life, Glenn!” She heard more than one of them say.
Bryn was bouncing on the balls of her feet and nudging a young vampire who had the looks and rakish charm and confidence of a movie star. “Come on Caleb, let's kick some demon butt!”
Caleb grinned, and saw Charlene staring at him. He tipped his head at her and winked. “My pleasure,” he drawled. Charlene managed a smile before turning away. This was Caleb Thorn, that playboy billionaire vampire. And he was here to fight for Glenn.
All these vampires, the vampires that Glenn had turned over the ages had responded to their Master's Call, and had chosen to stay even after he released them from the Call. They were fighting for him, not because they were Called and compelled to, but because they chose to. She saw clearly the immense power that Glenn held over them, but he chose not to abuse this power.
Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance Page 12
