Now.
Chapter Six
A moment after his command, Yuri felt a powerful shudder quake through her slight body. A passionate gasp screamed from her lips and she came hard and forcefully. The sight, the feel and the sound of her climax cued Yuri to unleash his tightly reined desire. He let go, quenching the fire she’d spread like wildfire inside him. Hot and thick, his seed jetted inside her womb.
Groaning his release, he fisted the hair at her nape, hauling her neck down to him. Lost in a haze of desire and need, his fangs lengthened, stretching toward her.
Claim. Mine.
Yuri opened his mouth, piercing her sweet skin. Her flesh hugged his fangs with the same perfection as she sheathed his body. Their bodies joined, their connection, their oneness was stark and unshakable. He drew in her essence in long, sensual pulls. Each swallow of her sweet blood pulsed through his body, riding his pleasure out even further than he thought possible.
It took all the will he owned to pull away from her. With a soft kiss, he pulled back and turned his neck, offering himself to her. A shudder of anticipation skated up his spine, a cord of excitement knotted and tightened in his core. Featherlight, the tips of her hair danced on his chest before covering him in its silken blanket. Her breath warmed his neck, her tongue flicked out, sampling his skin. Even the simple touch had Yuri arching off the floor, his grip on her tensing. He felt her smile a heartbeat before he savored the sweetest pain and deepest pleasure he’d ever experienced in his long life. Ileana’s sharp bite, and the heady rush of giving everything of himself and having it not only accepted, but unconditionally reciprocated.
After Yuri left to check the perimeter, Ileana found some clothes in one of the trunks. Although obviously meant for a young boy, she felt more at home and more herself in the leather jacket, tailored pants and holster than she had in those Samostan robes. Like armor, they shielded her from Yuri’s heated gaze and her own sensuality that came out when he stared at her.
A minute later, Yuri stepped through the door. He held his jacket like a child in his arms, obviously carrying something although from this vantage point she couldn’t see what. After securing the door lock, he kicked his boots on a small rug, knocking off the red dust that had accumulated on the soles. The domestic sight warmed her heart and put a smile on her lips.
For one brief moment she could envision a life with him, picture him coming home to her. Her smile fled almost as quickly as it came. Anger and resentment followed close at its heels. Would that image bring joy to her lonely heart in years to come or would it haunt her?
“What are you wearing?”
Ileana blinked, his query pulling her out of her thoughts. She glanced up at him, feeling a smile and the warmth of a blush on her face.
“I found them in that trunk, there.” Standing, she brushed the dust off her pant legs and walked over to Yuri. He held an apple in his proffered hand and she hungrily accepted it. Although she tried, it was impossible to ignore his admiring gaze as it skimmed over her body.
“I think I miss the robes,” he said, biting into the apple. His fangs pierced the fleshy skin in a way that made her sex clench and her blood thrum wildly in her veins. Last night she’d been that apple, captured between his teeth, a prisoner to his passion. An image of him taking her, her skin as white as the apple’s flesh, their blood mixing into a fiery melding of reds like the fruits skin, flashed in her mind.
Her body thrummed, a wave of heat crashing atop her, the erotic current threatening to once again drag her into his undertow. How could she ever let him go today? Never look upon his face again? Never taste the intoxicating, hot sweet assault of his lips on hers?
A sandbag of emotions collapsed atop her heart, weighing her down. As if reading her thoughts, Yuri stepped forward. Strands of dark hair cascaded over his eyes. Eyes that held hers, watched her as if they could see straight through the flesh and bone to her soul. She shivered. Then they dropped to her neck, her collarbone, his finger following the path his gaze made.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, his fingertip running along what she knew to be an outline of one of her tattoos.
Ileana shifted from his reach. “Stop.”
“Why?”
“It’s ugly.”
Fingers hooked beneath her chin, forcing her gaze to his. “You’re not ugly, Ileana. You’re the most beautiful, perfect creature I’ve ever seen.”
She tried to look away and he forced her chin back to him.
“Every marked inch of you.”
At the solemn vow in his eyes, Ileana’s heart stuck in her throat. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. Not from his words. But from the fact that, for the first time in her life, she believed something good about herself.
“Yuri, I…”
A riot of gunshots ripped through the cabin, piercing the windows and shattering glass all around them. Yuri pushed her to the floor, the weight of his body above her, shielding her from harm.
A low curse flew from his lips. “I must have been followed back here,” he panted.
Ileana paused for only a moment before scooting from underneath him, and crawled toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“We have to evade the vanators and get you through the veil,” she said over the roaring blasts.
“You’re leaving out the part about me needing your blood.”
“Small detail.”
He pulled on her arm, stopping her hasty move for the door. “Ileana, I won’t do this.”
Exhaling, Ileana wrapped her arms around his neck, sealing her lips against his. Yuri released a low moan and kissed her back. One hand dug into her hair, cupping her skull and keeping her a prisoner in his powerful arms. The other snaked around her waist, pinning her against his solid build. Hot and urgent, she kissed him with all the passion she felt for him. A kiss could speak if you listened. Part of her feared him paying heed to what her lips told him now. The other part needed him to know how she felt, for she was certain those three little words would never fall from them. Not in time anyway.
“Now,” she said when they broke away. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Before he could protest any further, Ileana opened the door. Bending at the waist, she shielded her head with her arm and ran for the tree line, holding onto Yuri’s hand with her other. As they had fled last night from the red wind, today they hurled away from a different threat, but one just as deadly.
Last night, Yuri served as the motor who kept them running, got them to safety. Ileana led them today. She ran until her thighs burned, sprinted even when there was no longer any sign of their pursuers behind them. Kept her grip tight on Yuri’s and did not slow until they came to the stone garden. The one place she knew of with a sacred tablet, the porthole for creating a tear in the veil.
Now all he needed was her blood and he’d be safe.
“Ileana, stop!”
Yuri had been shouting for minutes, but she didn’t listen until now. Releasing her grip on his hand, she pointed to the stone.
“There,” she panted, her hands collapsing atop her knees as she fought for breath.
Yuri stared at the tablet and then back at her. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not leaving you,” he shouted. “Not after last night.”
“You must. They’ll kill you.” Ileana winced. Without looking into his eyes, she could feel him opening her up, sense his medji powers pushing on her mind, attempting to manipulate her thoughts.
“Stop it, Yuri,” she pleaded, squeezing her eyes shut as if the move could force him out too.
When the pressure in her head didn’t cease, the probing ache in her mind wouldn’t stop, helpless resignation swelled inside her. Ileana stopped fighting and sank to her knees on the grass.
“Please,” she said on a sob. “I can’t lose you too.”
Yuri flinched. Her words snapped the connection he had on her mind at once, as if a
light switch had been flung off. His heart hurt for her, for her pain and loss. To think he might contribute more suffering in her life made him physically ill. Forgetting everything, he rushed to her side.
“Forgive me…” he began. His words cut off when Ileana snatched the dagger from his thigh holster, slicing her palm open and smearing the holy stone with her blood before he even knew what happened.
“No,” he breathed.
A deafening crack of thunder split the night. Winds kicked from the north, swirling her hair around her into a whirlwind of pulsing energy.
“What have you done,” Yuri shouted over the roaring winds.
She blinked up at him. “What you needed me to do.”
Lightning pulsed in blinding flashes, so bright Ileana had to shield her eyes with her hand. The sky split behind the stone, creating a whirlpool of blue, gray, purple and white mist that swirled in the heavens.
“A tear in the veil,” she whispered. “You must jump, Yuri. Now!”
Instead, he stepped away from the ebbing whirl of light behind him and toward her. “I’m not going without you. That.” He pointed to the vortex. “This. Leaving. It’s a reaction, not a solution.”
“But the vanators,” she said, her voice pleading. “They’ll kill you if you stay.”
“And you if I go,” he replied solemnly.
Ileana shook her head. “What other choice is there?”
Yuri didn’t hesitate. “Come with me.”
“What?” she breathed. Her heart leapt out of her chest before plummeting back down on the jagged stones of reality. “I—” She swallowed. “I’ve never left the Mysts before.”
Yuri smiled, his lips curving in that devastating grin that melted her heart and ignited a spark of arousal deep in her core. “I’ll take care of you,” he said, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet.
Goddess help her, but she believed him. “They won’t stop hunting us.”
“We will fight them,” he vowed, tucking her arm to his chest.
Violent wind lapped at their bodies, but a sense of peace settled her usually turbulent emotions. The air currents licked his hair, kicking it in a boyish tousle that had her heart beaming. Voices shouted in the distance, more gunshots echoing in the wild sky. Whoever tracked them was close. Too close. Yuri pulled back and squeezed her hand.
“Are you ready?”
Ileana paused. Was she ready to trust? Ready to love? Ready to let someone in? “More than I have ever been for anything.”
Yuri exhaled, as if in relief. They turned to face the vortex, both the swirling unknown and their sanctuary.
“We jump on three.”
Ileana nodded, her stomach floating wildly like a kite in a storm at the prospect of what lay before them. But she wasn’t nervous or afraid. She knew Yuri held the other line and he wasn’t letting go.
“One,” he said.
“Two,” she replied.
“Three.”
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-8015-5
Vampire In Her Mysts
Copyright © 2011 by Meagan Hatfield
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