by E A Price
“I love you,” he groaned, barely audible but she heard it. Whether he meant to say it or not, she didn’t know, but it sent her soaring. They were words she’d never heard before, words she had only dreamed would be said to her, and in spite of all her objections to Ryder, she cherished hearing them. Her pleasure reached new heights as she sung with her release and her fangs sunk into his neck.
Ryder roared into the night as he violently throbbed and pulsed, coming inside her. His blood trickled over her tongue, and she clasped him tightly.
Mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Juliet was lying in bed. Sunrise was nearly upon her, and she was readying to bed down for the day. But unusually, she wasn’t alone.
They had enjoyed a spectacular night.
Sex, feeding, sex, bathing, sex and then more sex. He really shouldn’t taste quite so delicious, but then hadn’t she known he would be? She hadn’t even minded the look of triumph on his face when she relieved him of a pint. The words ‘told ya so’ were virtually burned on his lips.
She didn’t care; she was too sated to care. The big oaf could do whatever he wanted at that moment. Except bite her. No, never that, and a part of her worried that he did want that.
Juliet really should kick him out of bed, but he was awfully comfortable. She made a feeble attempt to put a little distance between the two of them, and Ryder’s arm clutched her even harder.
Oh, well, she tried.
Juliet rubbed her cheek over his pec. The muffled boom of his heartbeat vibrated through her as he slept. It was comforting. She’d never actually had sex with anyone who had a heartbeat. She got close a few times to sleeping with a human, but it never happened.
Her cheek ticked as she heard the second thumping, felt it, too. Actually, it was starting to get annoying. It was keeping her from her sleep. It was even louder than Ryder’s heart, the vibrations even more pronounced.
Was some bozo driving up and down the streets with their stereo blaring?
Juliet’s eyes snapped open as she realized what is was.
How could she have not realized sooner? In her defense, it had been a long time since it happened. No wonder she’d forgotten what it felt like. Why on earth was it happening now she wondered. Surely it was just a strange anomaly. Probably didn’t mean anything. Probably happened to all vampires at some point in their undead lives.
Her heart had started beating again.
*
One week later
“You are not going there alone!” howled Ryder.
“Hello to you, too,” called Juliet as Ryder burst into her office.
“I’ve called security,” snapped Emily from somewhere behind his huge form.
“It’s quite all right, I… know him.”
In the biblical sense, she thought a little bashfully. Even if Emily didn’t get that fact from Juliet, she certainly did from the cocky grin Ryder flashed her.
Emily wasn’t at all appeased. “I have no idea how he got past security in the first place, but to just fly right past me…”
“Emily, it’s absolutely fine,” soothed Juliet. She was getting used to his little outbursts by now, and he did prefer to do them in person. Or rather, he knew she was more likely to cave to him in person rather than over the phone.
“He doesn’t have an appointment,” griped Emily, “and you have a meeting in five minutes with…”
Juliet smiled patiently. “I can spare him a minute, Emily.”
Emily hovered at the door, infinitely unhappy.
“Please close the door, Emily.”
“Yes, Emily,” added Ryder, perhaps not very wisely.
Emily flashed an expression of hatred at Ryder before trying to give Juliet another pleading look and then finally slamming the door when that didn’t work.
“What are you…” she started.
She couldn’t finish her sentence. As soon as the door slammed, Ryder was upon her, tentacle-like hands over every inch of her body and hot lips trying to devour hers.
“You’re happy to see me,” she breathed in between lusty assaults.
“I missed you,” he growled roughly.
For the past week, Juliet decided to take leave from the SEA. Since she had never taken a sick or vacation day for the past five years, she figured she was due some time.
She had meant to spend the time relaxing, preparing herself for any upcoming meeting she would have with the other elders. Instead, she pretty much spent the entire time being sexed by an insatiable sabre-tooth tiger shifter.
The moment he decided he’d had enough of her, that he was bored with her, never seemed to arrive. If anything, his ardor grew by the minute.
“We’ve only been apart for an hour,” she protested, trying to hide her pleasure at his words
After a week, she really did have to get to work, and crazily thought that time apart might help the fact that she was very much getting used to sharing her house and her bed with him. Not to mention that she was starting to get the sneaking suspicion that she didn’t want him to leave – ever.
Twenty minutes ago, Julian called and told her that she was expected to attend a meeting with him and only two of the elders who were coming into town that night – a much more appetizing prospect than all six of them.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have called Ryder to let him know. Perhaps nothing! She definitely shouldn’t have. Didn’t she know deep, deep, deep, deep down that he would rush right over to try and forbid her from going?
She wasn’t going to listen to him – it was more than her undead life was worth than to irk the vampire elders – but she quite liked him getting riled on her behalf.
Evidently, finally sated with kisses, Ryder settled for nuzzling her neck, his chest heaving against hers.
Her own heart had stopped beating – for now. Whenever she fed on him, it started beating again, but never for more than a few hours. It was probably just a quirk of ingesting shifter blood. She might consult with the SEA pathologist, Dr. Powers if she could spare a few minutes, but it wasn’t urgent. It certainly wasn’t harming her.
“You can put me down now.” She waggled her dangling feet, but the grunt from Ryder told her she was unlikely to feel the ground again within the next few minutes.
“Did you hear me?” he groused.
“The whole building probably did.”
“You are not going to that meeting.”
“I have to.”
“The hell you do!”
“If I don’t, some really nasty vampires will hunt me down, and if I’m lucky, they might drag me to the meeting. If I’m not, they’ll just kill me on the spot for disobeying.”
Ryder chewed on that thought for a few moments before deciding, “I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Instinctively she hugged him closer. “They might just kill you for the heck of it.”
“They could try.”
“They would try, and they would succeed. Most vampires are absolute monsters. They don’t consider shifters to be real people. Please don’t underestimate my kind.” Did she really have to beg him?
He kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re one of them so they can’t be all bad.”
“Yeah well, I’m not one by choice,” she murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing.”
Ryder took a few steps back and sat down heavily on her desk, making her straddle him. She winced as she heard a definite crack from her new laptop.
“Tell me,” he said huskily.
Juliet shook her head slightly.
“Please,” he added and cupped her head, tracing a thumb over her ear.
How could one word and a gentle touch be so darn irresistible?
“My parents were poor, and they were given money for me to become a blood donor. I was taken to…” she gulped, “Master, and he decided to turn me. It’s a part of my life I’d like to forget. They were dark times.”
Ryder gazed at her for a few mom
ents, his eyes hooded. “When my mom found out I was a sabre-tooth she tried to sell me.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “My goodness! How awful.”
“It’s no worse than what happened to you.”
“That was hundreds of years ago.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“Times were different. My parents were exceptionally poor; they had no education and many children they could not support. It should no longer happen.”
Ryder exhaled. “It should never happen. But my mom was a drunk and had half a dozen kids to support, and my dad never stuck around for long. I lost my shit one day at school and shifted, and the next thing I know, there’s some guys in suits at my mom’s trailer offering her money if she legally signs away her parental rights.”
“Evil bitch,” she exclaimed, making Ryder snicker.
“Yeah, not so much evil as a useless mother.” His hands ran up and down her back.
“What did you do?”
“Well, I wanted to tear all the men in suits apart, but they were pretty huge elephant shifters and back then I was kind of a skinny wiener.”
Juliet arched an eyebrow. “You, skinny?”
“Hard to believe now, right?” He held up his arm and flexed a bicep.
“I can’t believe you were ever small,” she purred in his ear, wriggling her rear over his burgeoning arousal.
Ryder growled lustily. “You’re trying to distract me.”
“No, I am distracting you – there’s a difference.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t either. But I will be okay.”
Ryder grumbled some more, and she did actually manage to distract him by licking his neck. That was a sensitive area for him.
“Do you want to…”
“Yes.” She did, the only better thing than tasting his blood at that moment would be feeling him inside her, taking her into oblivious ecstasy over and over. “But I better not. I don’t want my heart beating when I meet the elders.”
Julian already rightly thought she was having an inappropriate liaison with Ryder; she didn’t want the others thinking that, too.
“I like it when it beats.”
“Umm hmmm.”
He did because she made the mistake of telling him it never beat for anyone else. Made him feel special. Poured fuel on the flame of his belief that they were mates. Yep, he really wasn’t getting bored of her.
There was banging on the door.
“Juliet, you’ll be late for your meeting,” called Emily waspishly.
“I’ll be two minutes.”
Emily’s irritated mumblings could be heard through the door. Juliet groaned. “I don’t think she likes you.”
“Well, she better get used to me.”
Juliet didn’t bother replying to that.
“I really do have a meeting to get to, and after that, I’m seeing the elders.”
“I’ll wait and drive you.”
“There’s no need.”
“I insist.”
“I don’t want you to waste your evening.”
“No waste.”
“Well, if you’re sure…” She didn’t take much convincing.
“Very sure.”
Juliet snuggled into his chest, and Ryder stroked her back. She could get used to this. Her heart gave a beat of approval. She really should get that under control.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ryder leafed through one of his new vampire books. Kalinda had found him some more volumes on vampire lore. He was glad he thought to bring one with him. He was getting a little frustrated with his lack of progress on the whole no shifter-vampire matings thing, but he was determined.
He’d tried quizzing Juliet on it again, but when he did, she clammed up and got all moody with him. Best not to rock the boat now that things were going so well with her. The last week with her had been amazing.
Ryder was sure they were meant to be together. Bite her, bond her, insisted his tiger.
He wanted to. The urge to do so nearly consumed him, but he held off.
He knew that what she told him was utter crap but… he couldn’t rule it out completely. He couldn’t risk actually hurting Juliet. He knew he was winning her over, though. He was happy in every moment he spent with her, though he couldn’t deny a feeling of unease.
Not because of the shifter-vampire thing. But he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched. He had no proof, just a grumbling from his inner beast. It started when he briefly left the house to buy food for himself. He had the idea someone was following him. But a few times in the house, he felt the hair on the back of his neck rising, and he wondered what it was. A couple of times he went outside and stomped around the bushes where he himself had spent time hiding and watching the house. Juliet thought he was mad, but he couldn’t help the tiger’s gut instinct, and his tiger’s gut instincts rarely steered him wrong. Except for the time, he was abducted and nearly sold as some rich woman’s playtoy. Yeah, thanks a lot. His tiger pawed the ground nervously. Still, it did lead him to Juliet, so it wasn’t all bad.
He couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone was following Juliet. Maybe one of the vampire elders was having her tailed, though she doubted it.
Or maybe someone was after him. That would be much more preferable. His beast preened. He was rare. Plenty wanted to get hold of him and study him, try to figure out why he – the son of regular tiger shifters – happened to be a sabre-tooth. Recessive gene maybe? There were some who wanted him strapped to a table while they poked and prodded him. Not while I have my strength. But he must be careful that Juliet didn’t get hurt in the crossfire. If it were a threat to him, he’d handle it.
Emily threw him an unconcealed look of loathing. He beamed in return. He didn’t know why she hated him, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. He could easily incite fury in other people without even trying.
“Juliet might be a while.”
“I can wait.”
“She’s a very busy woman,” she added.
“Yep, sure is.”
“Her career is very important.”
“No doubt.”
Emily’s lips bunched. “Why don’t you just leave?” she hissed. “You’re not good enough for her.”
Ryder let out a bark of laughter even as his tiger roared furiously. “No arguments here.”
Emily looked like she wanted to say more but at that moment, Juliet swept into the room, a bright and welcome vision of loveliness. Ryder rose to his feet.
“I’ll be out for the rest of the evening,” she said to her assistant.
Emily looked like she wanted to argue, but she merely pouted. “Will you be in tomorrow evening?”
Juliet hesitated. “I’ll let you know.”
Emily’s mouth bunched even more, and Ryder didn’t bother to hide his triumphant smirk. She’d be sort of attractive if she didn’t look like she had a fence post up her flat derriere. Not Juliet level of hotness, but not bad. Plus it didn’t help that she was trying to burn through his head with a just a look.
“Let’s go,” he rumbled, grabbing Juliet’s hand and dragging her to the door.
Juliet did sigh, but she didn’t resist. Yeah, he was wearing her down.
*
“Juliet!”
She was retrieving her coat when he approached. “Erik, what a surprise, what are you doing here?”
“I’m working for the elders,” the sleek vampire told her.
Yikes. Working for the elders, she better watch her mouth. Erik was one of her more recent ex-boyfriends – the one she had dumped and moved away from Serpens City to avoid. He wasn’t particularly awful, he was… frankly, a buffoon.
“It is nice to see you,” she said politely, “it has been a long time.”
“Almost two decades, are you enjoying your work for the Supernatural Enforcers Agency?”
“Mostly. And you?”
“It’s never boring. How was your meeting?”<
br />
“A lot more pleasant than I expected.”
“The elders are preoccupied right now,” he admitted.
“Yes, their questions were… somewhat distracted.” Meaning they were not half as eviscerating as she thought they would be.
Erik moved slightly closer and told her in a confidential tone, “Elder Corwell passed on recently.”
“Indeed? I had not heard.” A vampire dying was quite a rare occurrence.
“It has not been officially announced yet.”
“What happened?”
“He opted to walk into the dawn.”
“Oh, my!” Her stomach lurched at the thought.
“Yes. The death has the elders on edge.”
No wonder, a death of their own kind made them consider their own undead lives. The older they got, the more precious they considered their rotten lives.
Erik smiled wanly. “But life goes on. I can’t talk about it, but a new elder will be named soon.”
“Of course.”
That meant their self-appointed queen, Katherine would come down from her throne – wherever it happened to be at that time - to name someone. Juliet felt even more queasy. Very few vampires had ever met her. Juliet never wanted to. To stare into her eyes was supposed to be the same was staring through a window into hell. That was probably an exaggeration, but Juliet certainly didn’t want to find out.
“I must be getting along.”
They said their goodbyes and Juliet hurried to find Ryder.
She prayed that of all the places on earth the queen chose for the inauguration of a new elder, it wouldn’t be Los Lobos. Have a little mercy.
*
Ryder paced up and down the alley. Juliet was meeting the vampire elder dicks in the fancy-ass restaurant next door. She absolutely forbade him from going in. Normally, he wouldn’t listen to anyone trying to forbid him from doing anything, but, she had this look in her eyes he hadn’t seen before.
She had her usual looks that she gave him on a regular basis. Annoyed. Exasperated. Bossy. Defeated. Sad. Pleasured… But this was new. A touch of pleading and a smidgeon of concern. She was worried for his safety. Thought he’d be in danger from those stuffy old bloodsuckers. He wasn’t worried, but hey, anything to make his lady happy.
