“I’ll get you something.” Hunter slipped out from beneath her and knelt beside the small refrigerator next to the bed. He removed a packet of blood and got back into bed with her, lifting her easily against his bare chest and handing her the packet of blood.
She sipped the blood and cuddled close. He breathed in her orange blossom scent. “Have you ever been in love, Hunter?”
“Yes.”
“How long did it last?”
“Nearly fifty years.”
She tipped her head back to look up at him. “What happened?”
“It was nineteen-twenty. Travel back then was very difficult, and we rented a train car to go west to California. The men who worked on the trains were paid very little. When they opened the car and saw the two coffins, they decided to open them. They stripped Blythe of her jewelry, which wouldn’t have been an issue, but they left the coffin lid up and the car door open as well. When the sun rose high enough, it lanced into the car, and she caught fire and burned to death, setting the car on fire.
“One of the men on board the train was Ancil. He and two other men put the fire out. When I awoke, I compelled him to tell me who the men were who had done it. I was mad with grief and rage, and I killed them.”
“I’m so sorry, Hunter.” Her tears were warm against his skin.
But the pain still throbbed deep within him. The horror of waking to Blythe’s smoldering body, the remembered stench of her burned flesh, clamped a fist around his throat. He swallowed. “It was many years ago, Phoebe.”
“That doesn’t matter, does it? You still remember her, still grieve her loss. And after being together fifty years… You were so fortunate to find her.”
“I was.” He smoothed her hair and rested his cheek against it.
“I’ve never had that. The males I’ve dated only wanted a few weeks. They’re either power-hungry or hungry for everything, like Trevor is.”
He’d kill for a few weeks to know her. She was human enough that every experience seemed like something new. Like the police stop last night. He smiled just thinking about it.
But he could feel a definite ebb in her power. The poison was winning. His arms tightened around her. “It is their loss, Phoebe.”
She rubbed her cheek against his bare chest, and he had his usual reaction, stone-hard in an instant.
“You’d think I’d learn to be more like them. Or at least behave more like them so I can blend in.”
“I’m glad you’re just you, Phoebe. You’ve taken the best parts of your human self and blended them with your vampire. Most of us have lost the memory of what it’s like to be human. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel strongly. Perhaps the males you’ve dated haven’t been mature enough.”
“How old does a vampire have to be before he’s mature enough?” she asked.
“A couple hundred years at least.”
She handed him the empty blood packet and tilted her head to look up at him again. “How old are you?”
“Three hundred and two in vampire years. Three hundred and thirty in all.”
“Can you walk in the sun?”
“Yes, I can.”
“I want to walk in the sun, Hunter.”
Something in her expression seized his throat with emotion. “You’ll be able to in a few more years.”
She laid her head against his shoulder. “Will you bathe with me?”
He swallowed. “If it’s what you want, Phoebe.”
“It is.” She slipped out of bed and into the bathroom. He heard water running.
Sharing the bathroom with her while she brushed her teeth triggered a smile. How could brushing teeth seem sexy? She twisted her hair up at the crown of her head and clipped it with a comb. He brushed his teeth while she shed her nightshirt and lacy thong.
She was as slim as a willow branch, but muscular, like a runner. Her breasts seemed disproportionate to the rest of her, generous, the nipples pale pink beads.
He tossed his toothbrush aside, rinsed his mouth, and was there in a second to run a questing hand down the graceful curve of her spine, her skin like silk beneath his touch. He trailed a kiss across her shoulder to the back of her neck, and she shivered and reached back to grip his thigh and urge him closer.
He hardened even more. “You need to conserve your strength,” he murmured against her ear. He slipped free of his sleep pants and stepped over the edge of the tub, settling into the waist-deep water to lean back against the tub.
She stepped over the side, lowered herself between his thighs, and leaned back against him.
Hunter eased her up into a sitting position before squirting some body wash into his palm and running his soapy hands over her back, shoulders, and the base of her neck, massaging as well as bathing her. The warm water trickled down in rivulets while he squeezed a loofah over her shoulders to rinse her skin.
* * *
WHEN HE DREW her back against him, Phoebe rested her head against his shoulder and felt the heat of his erection against the cheek of her ass. Her breathing grew unsteady.
Had she ever been treated with such tenderness? Never by a male vampire. She’d wished for a sex toy while waiting to marry Trevor, but this was so much better. Was it because Hunter had been with someone for so long, and understood what it meant to be a mate?
When he soaped her breasts, her nipples puckered and a needy emptiness settled deep inside her. She covered his hands with her own. “Thank you for giving me this, Hunter.”
His voice sounded husky. “Thank you for sharing it with me.” He pressed an open-mouthed kiss against her shoulder. She ached for him to bite her, but the weakness reminded her of the danger. She turned her head to offer her mouth instead. His lips covered hers in an awkward, fervid kiss, their tongues tangling. She moaned beneath the intensity, and turned to rise on her knees and face him, pressing her soapy breasts against his chest.
She kissed him and teased his tongue into her mouth, sucking on it, and driving her need higher while making him hum. He cupped her wet buttocks and squeezed.
“We’re supposed to be getting clean” he murmured against her lips.
She closed her eyes against a wave of dizziness and rubbed her cheek against his beard-stubbled one. “We are. I’m sharing my soap with you.” She wiggled against him, and prayed the wooziness would pass.
Hunters ran his hands up and down the backs of her legs. She reached for the body wash and squirted some into her hands, working it over his broad shoulders and muscular arms, then rinsing the soap off them both with the loofah.
“I think we’re clean enough, don’t you?” he asked, cupping her breasts while he nibbled her earlobe and his breath fanned her neck. Delightful shivers trailed down her spine, and her breasts felt full and tight beneath his touch.
“Yes.” She cupped his face and guided his mouth to hers. Her power wrapped around them and lifted them out of the water and onto their feet.
His impressive erection pressed against her belly. She cupped it and explored its length and thickness. Hunter’s gray gaze glowed blue as his power flared and enveloped her in warmth. He lifted her easily, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
The trip between tub and bed took but a second, and she held onto him while he crawled up on the bed. She lay back to gaze up into his face. “There are real perks to having vampire skills sometimes.”
He chuckled. “And strength.”
He removed the comb from her hair and ran his fingers through the shoulder-length locks, his power intensifying and spreading like static electricity over her skin. She caught her breath at the sensation and ran her hands up his chest. Then she forked her fingers through the dark hair at the back of his head and tugged his mouth back to hers.
Their lips clung, and their tongues meshed in a kiss that had her rolling her hips against him, inviting a deeper intimacy. He nipped at her shoulder without breaking the skin, then slid lower to take one nipple into his mouth to suck, then the other.
She care
ssed his neck and shoulders and let her power flow over him in a caress. He looked up at her, his eyes aglow, his fangs lengthening. “I want to bite you every time you do that…among other things.”
His hand trailed over her belly and lower. He tempted her with his fingers and she bowed her back. His name emerged somewhere between a plea and a prayer.
He rose over her, and with a slow, scorching thrust, he was inside her, filling her, caressing her inside and out.
The act was so human, but Hunter’s power seemed to meld with hers so every part of their beings seemed to touch. For a moment she struggled against it, trapped between fear for herself and fear for him. If she bonded too closely to him and died… Or worse, what if she set something on fire?
“It’s okay, Phoebe. Let go,” Hunter murmured above her while he quickened his slow, steady pace. Looking up into his face, she believed it would be…or was she befuddled by need or the beginnings of something more?
“Feed from my power.” No male had ever invited her to do so. With Hunter moving inside her, stroking her in just the right spot, it was impossible not to want to reach for that wonderful strength. The sensations built to an unbearable peak, and his power flowed over her, through her, tearing away her resistance.
It was like riding a wave toward the unknown. Every inch of her body ached with titillating need, and the tension sharpened until she writhed beneath him, gasping and moaning.
Their power bloomed until they were locked inside a bubble of incomparable pleasure. Fulfillment rushed up and over her, and they flew over the edge together. It was then she opened herself and drew in his power with a greedy gulp. Only one, for fear of hurting him.
Hunter collapsed next to her, and she turned and wound herself around him. Drowsy from the exertion and almost drunk with pleasure, Phoebe found her limbs so weak it took too much effort to move. She didn’t want Hunter to move either.
“Can we take a nap?” she asked.
He smiled, and she studied the mouth that had stoked her passion so generously. “If you like.”
She forced herself to look up into his eyes, once again their normal deep gray with the blue ring. As she smoothed his hair back from his temple, a sweet wave of tenderness struck her. “How did you get to be so fearless?” she asked.
“Why would I be afraid of you, Phoebe? You sacrificed yourself for your sire, then for a sixteen-year-old girl. I knew you wouldn’t go too far.”
She supposed the question should be, who would sacrifice themselves for her? Who cared for her enough to do so? Hunter had come the closest.
But would they have the time to discover what more they could have together? What more he wanted from her? She wanted him. Wanted to be his mate. But even with the blood and the power they had shared, she felt weak. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Hunter.”
His gaze grew sharp, hawkish, making his features appear noble. “I’m not through yet, Phoebe. Not by a long shot. We’re going to get Trevor, and he will pay for everything he has done. You’re going to live, and we will have time to be together. As much time as we want.”
She longed to believe him.
CHAPTER 12
HUNTER PACED THROUGH the house, his footsteps echoing in the empty rooms. There were two overstuffed couches and two chairs in the living room, a dining room table and chairs, bar stools at the island in the kitchen, and bedroom furniture in Phoebe’s room in the basement, but the rest of the house remained empty.
The Hamilton brothers got up soon after he and Phoebe, and they also paced the house, anxious for some kind of action. A security team of fifty vampires was scattered throughout the area surrounding the house, waiting for Trevor to arrive. He wouldn’t be alone, Hunter was certain.
The Bernard Shifters, Babe, Shirley, and Marian prowled the house, watchful, on edge, and as impatient for this damnable waiting to end as he.
Hunter paused to look out the south window of the room Phoebe called her office.
“How is she?” Babe asked from his position at the west end.
Hunter fisted his hands. His voice, roughened with emotion, came out like gravel. “I encouraged her to sleep a little longer to conserve her strength. She won’t live another twenty-four hours if they don’t find an antidote.”
“I heal pretty quick, probably not as fast as you, but almost. Would my blood help her?”
Hunter bit back the instinctive growl of denial. But he needed to tame his jealousy if he wanted to help Phoebe. He wanted no other male to feed her, but if the big Shifter’s blood could do her some good…
“We could try it, Babe. If Phoebe’s open to it.”
“When she first started coming up here and prowling at night, we thought she was hunting, so we trailed her for a couple of nights. She was stalker quiet and fast as lightning. We had a hard time keeping up with her. Then when she turned her camera on us, we realized the only things she was hunting were images. It didn’t please us much, having our picture taken in full bear shift, especially since she’d managed to double back on us and ambush us with her camera.
“She invited us to a sit-down meal the next day at Arthur’s house, so we could draw up some ground rules. She said she wanted to share the peace and quiet of our valley, and the only hunting she intended to do was with her camera.”
Hunter swallowed. “What did she fix for you?”
“Best damn steak I’ve ever had, loaded baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, and homemade yeast rolls. And beer. She watched us eat every bite. She even fixed a fancy cheesecake, but we were too full to eat it, so she sent it home to my mom. We ate it later that night.
“She charmed the whole family, and convinced us she was sincere. She’s the most human vampire I’ve ever met, and I’ve met quite a few at the store. But then she’s not exactly a typical human, either.”
“No, she’s not.” Hunter smiled. “Cheeseburgers. They were her favorite, and she still misses them.”
“Must be rough living on a liquid diet, huh?”
“Sometimes. It’s been too long for me to care. It’s harder for her.”
“Do you want to ask her about the blood, or should I?”
“I’ll stay here on watch in your place while you go down and ask her.” And it was better if he didn’t watch another male feed her.
Babe paused at the office door. “She’s not interested in any of us. We’re like big brothers to her.”
Damn, the big Shifter was trying to ease his concerns. Surprised by Babe’s sensitivity, Hunter glanced over his shoulder at him. “A good thing. Otherwise I’d have to kill you.”
Babe’s laughter followed him out into the hallway.
Phoebe was weakening rapidly, and he was getting desperate. He couldn’t remember a time when this special blend of panic and fear churned in his gut, but it was happening now. Every muscle was tense with it. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t go through it with another mate. And she was his mate. He’d felt it from the moment they met.
He took out his phone and called Arthur again.
“They’ve got the antidote.”
“You need to send it by someone, now. She’s very weak, Arthur.”
“I’ve contacted Zaira O’Shea and asked if she can teleport the cure to you the moment they arrive. Horatio should be here any moment.”
Hunter braced his forearm against the window facing and stared out at the verdant landscape of grass, brush, and trees surrounding the house. The place was a nightmare to defend. There was too much cover.
But he wasn’t going to worry about that until after Phoebe was taken care of. “Get her there now so she’ll be waiting and ready.”
“Immediately.”
Hunter closed his eyes. He had to believe Zaira would make it in time.
“Is Ricci still there with you?”
“Yes, he is.”
“Are you going to give him the antidote when it arrives?”
“Not until I know Phoebe has taken it first and is better.”
&
nbsp; “Good.” Hunter knew it was vindictive, but it gave him some satisfaction knowing the master vampire would have to suffer a little longer. “I want the bastard to live and face the Council. I contacted them yesterday, and they should be there in a few hours. They’ll have some things they want to discuss with him.”
“Good. I’ll make certain he survives long enough to face them.”
Twenty minutes later, Babe returned with Phoebe in tow. Her cheeks had a soft dusting of color, so he could tell she had fed. Jealousy gave him a hard punch, but he shoved it away. Whatever helped her survive until the antidote arrived.
She sauntered up next to him. Feeling possessive, he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He caught her smile as she leaned into him.
“Feeling better?”
She nodded.
“It’s nearly three, so the second security team Arthur was supposed to send should be here any time.”
“We might be more help up on the widow’s walk. We can see better at night than anyone else. And I’d like some fresh air.”
Hunter took out his cell phone. “Babe, you have a cell phone?”
The big Shifter looked over his shoulder from his position at the window. “Dude, does a bear shit in the woods?”
Hunter laughed, and Phoebe’s husky chuckled joined in.
“What’s your number?” He keyed it in while Babe rattled it off. “We’ll text when we see something.”
* * *
THE MOON GLOWED from behind a cloud as they stepped out onto the roof. Beneath the midnight blue, the sky had the purplish-pink look of a newly formed bruise as lightning too distant for the sound to carry flashed intermittently. The breeze brushing against her skin felt moist, promising rain, which would make it even harder to see an attack coming. The scent of pine and fresh greenery sharpened with each swirling gust.
She scanned the distant forest and tilted her head to listen. When Trevor came, he would be at his strongest. And he wouldn’t be alone.
She would not hide below in her newly built panic room while everyone else was in danger. She had to fight. But she was getting weaker by the moment.
Phoebe assessed her physical condition while she followed the railing and looked out over the property. Babe’s strong, healing blood gave her a boost, but she didn’t know how long it would last. She was weaker already, her heart straining to beat now, and she felt unbelievably drained. Plus, the bite on her neck had turned green with infection. It had been nearly sixty years since she’d even seen anything like it.
Magic and Mayhem: Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Have Wand, Will Travel Book 2) Page 11
