Superstition

by Veronica Blake

  His hands began to tremble against the silken softness of her skin as they held her breasts tenderly. Short breaths escaped from her parted lips, but her eyes remained closed. The feathery tips of her long lashes fluttered softly above the tops of her cheekbones for a second before they parted and her hazel eyes looked up at him.

  As he met her gaze Mateo was reminded once again of the rich color of the brown sand that blanketed the desert floor and the brilliance of the green cactus native to this area. She was born to be his woman in every way.

  How he adored and loved this woman—more than he ever imagined could be possible. He loved her in a way he was sure no other immortal man ever loved their eternal mate. He loved her so much he wished he could find a way to save her from her preordained destiny.

  “I love you so much, Mateo,” she whispered. Her arms rose and encircled his neck as her hands became lost in his thick hair. She pressed her half-naked body against him and pulled herself up until her lips were pressed against his mouth in a demanding kiss.

  His arms enslaved her waist holding her as close as was humanly possible while his tongue invaded her mouth. His throat constricted with another fierce need he was barely able to control this time. He pulled back and pressed his lips tightly together.

  The alluring taste inside her mouth made him want to savor all of her, and for a moment he worried he would lose control. The taste of her tempting blood was the only thing that would satisfy this diabolical urge coursing through his mind and body. He knew his human nature had to gain full control over his macabre craving fast, or tonight really would be their last night in her world...and the last time he would know what it was like to be her mortal lover.

  Without opening her eyes, a soft moan was Dawn’s only response to his abrupt departure from their fevered kiss. He focused on her soft lips and tried not to think of the taste of her sweet succulent blood. Maybe—hopefully—once he was making love to her, his voracious hunger for her blood could be satisfied in a different way.

  But this growing famine was still demanding more than just her body; this unnatural craving sought much more and it was growing stronger than anything he experienced up to this point in his hundred years of existence. To his horror, he realized it might even be stronger than his love for her, even though he couldn’t comprehend how this could be possible.

  He reached out and anxiously began to push her jeans from her hips. Her eyes opened, surprised at his sudden urgency. But she complied with his quest and kicked her pants away from her feet. Still blissfully unaware of his strange behavior, she began to anxiously undo the black buttons running down his shirt of the same color. She didn’t hesitate when she reached the waistband of his jeans, unfastening the snaps and shoving the pants down to a point where he could easily step out of them. Without the barrier of their clothes, they came together with a wild hunger.

  Mateo clasped hold of her firm buttocks and pulled her to him. Her long legs wrapped around his hips while they were standing upright. Overcome with his sexual and immortal needs, he plunged backward onto the bed with her sculpted intimately against him. They bounced slightly in the middle of the thick mattress. He heard a soft gasp escape from her as he rolled over and pinned her beneath his body.

  Pulling her slender legs up over his shoulders, she was an open invitation he could not resist a second longer, and his cock didn’t need any guidance to penetrate her inviting pussy. He sank into her and heard her whimper softly as he pushed into her as far as her body would allow. He thrust deeper. If she protested, he didn’t hear her.

  Over and over his hips moved up and down, claiming her inside and out. She clung to him with impassioned desperation, while trying to prolong the release that would propel her into the unknown. Her hips—her entire body—were propelling up and down with each of his frantic movements. Their sweating skin was fused tightly together.

  His body had never felt so consumed with predatory needs in the couple of times they made love before. His cock couldn’t seem to burrow deep enough inside her and it felt as if it was filled with searing lava. When the volcano inside him did finally erupt, he wasn’t sure he could remain in control of the evil he could still sense lurking so close in the back of his throat.

  From the center of his very core he felt something feral was pounding out of control and about to explode from inside his body. His mind and heart were fighting equally as hard to remain in control of the human side of him as his body was battling to control his primal urges.

  The building sensation inside him reached epic proportions and he could not hold back the surge of fiery fluid that spilled into her as his body convulsed and plummeted back to reality. He felt Dawn’s body go limp beneath him.

  Sometime during the almost violent act of making love, the inner battle with his monstrous alter-ego emerged, and in the mist of the earth-shattering climax, Mateo had become vaguely aware of his mouth against her neck. There had been no rational thought or moment of hesitation as his teeth clamped down. Thick warmth flooded his mouth and washed down his throat as the euphoric sweetness of her blood overpowered every one of his senses in the most powerful feeling of satisfaction he could ever imagine.

  After his animalistic orgasm everything was clouded with a mixture of horror, confusion, and the strong carnal urges still controlling his mind and body. He wanted to protect her from the revulsion of what he had just done to her. Yet, he still wanted to make hard impetus love to her again and again; he wanted to sink his sharp teeth in her soft enticing skin once more, and drink all her sweet nectar until there was nothing left.

  But a slow dawning of what he was truly capable of doing to her began to grip hold of the human side of his rampant emotions. Shame, disgust, and a strangling fear stripped him of all the previous thoughts of his uncontrollable demonic needs. His tentative gaze lowered to look at her, although he was terrified of what he would see.

  Dawn’s orgasm had been as sensuous and overpowering as the one he experienced. He felt her on that highest summit with him, gripping him like he was all that anchored her to this earth, writhing in pleasure beneath him and crying out his name in abandonment until this last final second when he had done the unthinkable. Now, she was lying unmoving, her arms and legs limp against the mattress, staring up at him with the most hideous wide-eyed look of horror in her brown and green gaze that he had ever seen. His heart arrested in his chest.

  Ever since the first time he had seen this elegant and romantic bedroom, he had been envisioning her long shiny blonde hair spread out across the navy blue velvet pillows and her beautiful pale-skinned body reclining on the matching comforter that covered this king-sized bed. Looking down at her now, he only noticed how deathly pale she looked against the rich dark coloring of the quilt.

  Her fair skin should radiate with a satisfied glow from making love. Instead, fright drained all color from her face, except for several thin trails of deep red blood draining from the crescent moon shape of his bite, trailing down the side of her neck, and disappearing into the thick material of the velvet bed covering. Her beautiful hazel eyes, so recently overflowing with love and trust, were now wide with fright and disbelief.

  He couldn’t take a breath. His heart refused to start beating again. He recalled something he read a very long time ago. How ironic this strange memory should pop into his head now.

  Dhampyres can go long periods without drinking human blood but fighting the urge when it could them can drive them into a wild frenzy. They can lose control when they are not expecting it. It can be so consuming they could even kill someone they love.

  Why didn’t he remember this significant bit of information sooner? Probably, because when he read it many years ago, it didn’t have any real meaning to him. That had been long before he discovered the powerful love he was capable of feeling for his human mate. Unfortunately, his inhuman need for her blood was proving to be even more dominant.

  It was the strange sound of her voice that finally brought his tortur
ed mind out of its indecisive trance. Her tone suggested she had already resigned herself to the truth she suspected, but tried to deny until this moment.

  “It was you,” she murmured. “You really were the one in my dreams, only they weren’t dreams, were they? And the-the night I went to the mountain to meet you. I thought I was sleep walking, or maybe, just losing my mind.” Her eyes closed for an instant as if she was trying to remember—or forget—every small detail. Her lashes fluttered and parted again; her unwavering stare held his gaze prisoner.

  “Then, I met you at the pizza place. You seemed so familiar—even your scent—I think I knew it even then. I just couldn’t allow myself to accept it. It was easier to believe I was losing my mind.” She swallowed hard and he saw fresh droplets of blood ooze from the bite wound in her neck.

  He held his breath as his mouth and throat constricted with revolting yearnings once again. His lips clamped together as tight as he could hold them, while his gut twisted and flip-flopped in his stomach.

  As much as he loved this woman; as much as he desired to be here with her in her human world, and as much as he wanted to protect her from her eternal fate for as long as possible; at this moment, he had never wanted anything more than he wanted to drink those tiny drops of blood from her soft neck.

  If he gave into this overpowering craving again, he knew there would be no stopping.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The strange unnatural calm in Dawn’s mind and body felt nothing short of weird and unreal. She was in the most defenseless position a woman could be in at this moment; naked, flat on her back, impaled by Mateo’s body as intimately as possible, and she wasn’t even sure if he was real or merely a figment of her obviously diminishing sanity. Shock was the only way to describe what she was feeling.

  “What are you?” she asked in voice that sounded so oddly calm to her own ears. She should be trying to run as fast and far away from him as she could go, or at the very least, fearing for her life. Maybe she wasn’t deathly afraid because perhaps Mateo Two Moons—her perfect man in every way—didn’t even exist.

  His eyes were black as coals as he stared down at her, and an unreadable expression held his face motionless.

  “What are you?” she repeated in the voice she still didn’t recognize as her own.

  His mouth barely moved as he whispered, “Dhampyre.”

  “Wha—What?” Irritation was edging into her voice. “What the hell is that?” All at once she realized the excruciating pain in her neck. She reached up to cautiously touch the fresh blood pooling along the ridges of the teeth marks. Her shaking hand pulled back slowly as she stared at the red stain on her fingertips.

  Her confused gaze rose again. An expression of pain and dread contorted Mateo’s handsome face and his eyes were misted with unshed tears.

  “Dawn, I’m so sorry,” he said a hoarse voice. “I-I just lost control.”

  Her fingers shook more visibly as she glanced at the deep red smears along her fingertips. She could barely speak as she choked out the words again, “What are you really?”

  “I was born a dhamp—half-human, half-vampire. My mother was human when I was conceived, and my father is a-a vampire.”

  He closed his eyes as if he couldn’t bear witnessing the mortified look of disbelief on her face.

  She wished she could close her mind to this lunacy as easily as he just blocked out the sight of her.

  “There is no such thing,” she stated in a low and surprisingly controlled voice.

  He lifted his hips carefully, releasing his intimate hold on her, and rolled to her side. In spite of everything, the absence of him molded into her body felt as if a part of her was missing. She was cold and empty without his touch, yet at the same time, so thoroughly confused.

  The expressive black eyes of the man she loved more than life were watching her again from within the perfectly handsome face she had memorized, and those lips she yearned to kiss every moment of each passing day were saying the most insane things. Was he really trying to tell her he was part...vampire?

  “Mateo.” She turned on her side and stared back at him. The pain in her neck reminded her that whatever was happening here was not natural, but she wasn’t ready to believe the outlandish lie he told her. “This, whatever this kinky biting fetish is you have going on here, well, it’s definitely weird, but it’s something we can work on toge—”

  “I know you are just trying to find a rational explanation, because what I’m telling you must sound so impossible,” he cut in. He reached out and gently placed his hand against the side of her face. “I wish there was an answer that didn’t include exposing you to horrors you never could have imagined exist. Most of all, I just wish I never had to hurt you in any way.”

  She could only stare at his beautiful tortured face. Did he seriously think she would believe the nonsense he was telling her? If she did, shouldn’t she be pulling away from him in repulsion and horror? Begging for her life? Anything other than just lying here beside him with his warm loving hand against her cheek?

  He was still her Mateo Two Moons, her perfect forever love. She reached up and placed her own hand over where his touched lightly on her face. His skin was smooth and hot, still sweaty from their recent love-making. He felt like what he was...just a man. Her man. A touch of a smile curved her lips.

  “Vampires or d-dhamp—whatever you said, they don’t exist. You are the man I love and want to spend the rest of my life with, and I refuse to believe anything else.”

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. She felt engulfed in love with his soothing gestures. There was no way she could believe what he said.

  Vampires were cold pale creatures with long fangs protruding from their mouths; they bit people in the neck and drained them of all their blood until they were nothing but hollow corpses. Vampires slept in coffins during the day and lived in castles in Romania or…what the hell was she even thinking?

  Vampires did not exist.

  “Do you want to take a bath,” he suggested after a few minutes of silence. “It might help to calm you and we can talk while we soak.”

  His worried voice intruded into Dawn’s conflicting thoughts of rationality and insanity and fictitious horror stories. Yes please, she thought as she nodded her head. Let’s do something normal like take a bath. But no more talking. Let’s stop talking and thinking about crazy things that don’t exist.

  She realized they were really perfect together…they were both certifiably insane.

  She let him pick her up from the bed and cradle her in his arms as he carried her into the big master en suite. An over-sized oval tub sat in one corner of the room. He stood her on the brown tiled floor as he turned on the water. Dawn took his hand as he helped her step over the side. She sank down gratefully as hot water poured into the tub and over her numb body.

  He climbed in behind her and she leaned back against him as soon as he sat down. This felt so perfectly normal. This was something an ordinary man would do with his woman after making mad passionate, somewhat deviant, love to her.

  The biting thing—well, that was another story. Guess it was too good to be true that he could be perfect in every way. There were probably sex therapists to help him overcome that kinkiness. She would discuss this awkward issue with him tomorrow. Between Chloe’s disappearance and now all this, she was too tired to think straight tonight.

  When their bodies were immersed in deep water that teetered almost to the top of the tub, he turned the water off and wrapped both his arms tightly around her waist. She sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe she only dreamt all that insane stuff he told her about being a half-human, half-vampirey thing.

  “We have to talk about it. Ignoring it won’t change the facts,” Mateo whispered in her ear.

  She exhaled a heavy sigh. Okay, Cowboy up, Cupcake. Her neck throbbed as a reminder this madness was real. She swallowed tentatively, but thankfully, did not feel any more blood flowing down her neck.
>
  “So, you really expect me to believe you are Dracula?” She retorted in a snarky tone as she shook her head slightly. “Dracula who drives a big truck instead of using your bat wings?” She tried to add a chuckle, because she was trying hard to make a joke. When she glanced back at him, she realized it wasn’t working. Her attempt to laugh sounded grossly forced. A scowl was his only response.

  “If I had followed the customs of my clan, the Blood Clan, you never would have found out the truth about me. The first night you came up to the Superstitions, and I came to you during the night in your sleeping bag, you would have been powerless to resist me. I would have completed our mating ritual and taken you with me. Your disappearance would never have been explained. From that moment on you would be living with me in my hidden village at the top of the Superstitions. You’re only purpose would be to be my mate, to make love to me, care for my needs, and have my children so our bloodline could carry on.”

  His words echoed through her mind. The frigid storm racing through her body froze her to the core. Now, she was beginning to get scared. Not even the hot water could heat her as her body began to shake vehemently. Mateo’s arms tightened around her.

  “I’m sorry I had to say it so bluntly, but you refused to listen to the truth.”

  “I still don’t believe you,” she replied in a voice shaking as ferociously as her body. She choked down the heavy sludge in the back of her throat with a loud gulp.

  “We live in the r-real world, Mateo. I love you, but this is getting seriously strange and freaky. I-I just don’t understand why you would want to scare me like this? Do you belong to some underground vampire club or blood-sucking cult or something?”

  “In my world we refer to humans—like you—as real ones,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard anything she asked him. “And, yes, you do live in the real world, my love. But I and the others like me, sleep in caves during the daylight hours. Only when the night begins to fall are we allowed to venture out into your world.”