Undying Hunger

by Jessica Lee

  His jaw ached under the pressure from his molars. He inhaled deeply through his nostrils and managed to utter, “Good luck with that, sweetheart.” His voice was steady, calm, belying the tension in his body. Damn, I’m good.

  “It would be a hell of lot easier if you’d just tell me.” She crossed her arms under her breasts.

  “Then what would be in it for me?” Yeah. He was taunting her. But the path to one’s treasure wasn’t always a straight line.

  Her spine went rigid. “Are you kidding me?” She scoffed. “What’s in it for you? Don’t you think turning me into a monster like you was enough of a prize?”

  He lunged for the bars, stopping short of slamming his palms around the poisonous metal. Alexandria’s eyes widened, but she didn’t flinch, didn’t jump back. She stood, rigid, fire blooming, swirling around her pupils. “You think you’re like me? A monster, Vixen?” He curled his upper lip, making sure a long, sharp section of a fang was exposed. “You don’t have a damn clue about what I am,” he snarled.

  “Don’t I?” Her brow lifted. “You’re a former trusted member of the Enclave who betrayed his fellow warriors to their worst enemy and became second-in-command of Marguerite’s minions. You sired not only me but my sister, as well, against her wishes. But now look at you.” She raked him with her gaze. “You’re a prisoner of the very Enclave you betrayed. You don’t scare me, Markus.” Her hands went to her hips. “I want answers, and I’m not leaving till I get them.”

  Markus chuckled. She had balls. “Fine.” He shrugged. “I’ll give you what you want.” He rocked on his heels, then pivoted away from the door. “But under one condition.”

  “Of course there would be a condition,” she mumbled. “Why would you do anything just for the hell of it?”

  Alexandria would like his terms about as much as she’d enjoy a raging case of herpes. But there was no other way around it. With Enrique sniffing around, he had no choice. He’d need to keep tabs on her. Besides, as a bonus, he’d have her next to him…

  Yeah. He was a selfish motherfucker.

  “So what is this ‘condition’?”

  Markus turned around. “Come to me, Alexandria, of your own free will. Feed me, and I’ll answer your questions.”

  As if struck by a blow, Alexandria stumbled back, but quickly regained her balance. “You’re insane,” she breathed.

  Stepping forward once more, he added, “You want something from me… I want something from you. It’s simple, really.” He held his arms out to his sides, palms open.

  “Kenric constantly offers to feed you, but I hear you refuse him. So why the hell are you suddenly hungry for my blood?”

  He perused her with his gaze. “Do you really have to ask?” It was partly true. He wanted her more than he ever believed possible. With Marguerite, the lust had been driven by the addiction. She’d been alluring, but true chemistry? Primal desire? Neither had been why he’d stayed. “But if it’ll make you feel any better, I give you my word it’s only what’s in your veins that I’m after.”

  She glanced toward the outer door, chewing her bottom lip.

  “What? Are you afraid to be alone with me, Vixen—without the bars between us? I already gave you my word.”

  “Dammit,” she snapped. “Just stop talking.”

  Such a tough and icy front, yet Markus hadn’t missed the hesitant swallow or the twitch in her hands. She was nervous. Smart girl. She should be. He didn’t trust himself around her. Not really. Her presence chipped away at his control. Reminded him of cravings that would never be satiated and fantasies of a future that would never be his.

  “How am I supposed to even get inside there?” She shoved her hair back behind her ears.

  His pulsed leaped and his cock twitched. Fuck. She was going to do this. “The key’s inside the cabinet on the wall behind you.”

  Looking over her shoulder, she smoothed a palm over her midsection. “Oh…”

  After another quick check of the main door separating them and the rest of the Enclave, Alexandria edged closer to the metal box hanging on the wall.

  And each step elevated Markus’s heart rate.

  Squeezing his fists, he jabbed his nails into the flesh. Focus on the pain. He had to rein in the beast, or he’d become a feral animal the moment she stepped across the threshold. I must not hurt her.

  The metal jingled on the ring in her hand, and she faced him. “Just this once.” Her voice was low, steady. “I do this, and you tell me what I want to know. Do we have a deal?” She snagged a glove and stepped forward.

  Markus nodded.

  The key rattled in the lock, then the door swung open. She stood there as if frozen. And it was all he could do not to charge her, take her to the floor, bury his cock and his fangs inside her. Drink from her until nothing identifiable remained of himself.

  Fuck. Me.

  What would it feel like to lose himself inside her?

  Oblivion. Inside her, the darkness would recede, and he could almost believe there was hope for his heart. His shaft throbbed with each beat of the tainted organ. Get a grip, vampire. Males like you don’t get a chance with a female like this one.

  Lifting his arm, he crooked his index finger in her direction, beckoning her to come in. With her shoulders squared, she stepped inside. A smile lifted a corner of his mouth. She was actually here, inside his four walls, and it wasn’t a dream. “There… That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “Spare me,” she said. “Where do you want to do this?”

  This. Allow him to take from her vein. His gut twisted at the thought, the pain nearly doubling him over. Dammit. He’d pushed the hunger back for months now, refusing to succumb to its demand in favor of death. But now… Markus choked back a groan. Nothing had ever sounded so incredibly delicious.

  “Here,” he said, his voice hoarse. Without a second glance to see if she followed, Markus settled onto the edge of his mattress, then looked up.

  She hadn’t budged. “Seriously? You want me on your bed?”

  “Beside me, Alexandria. Not under me.” He hit her with a mocking glare. “Although that could be arranged, if it’s what you’d prefer.”

  “You really are an ass, you know that?” She stomped forward and plopped on the bed beside him.

  “So I’ve been told,” he murmured.

  She jutted her arm out in front of his face while staring at some distant part of the room. “Get on with it,” she demanded with her fist curled tight.

  Oh hell no. “What the fuck is this?” he grumbled. “You’re not a child about to receive an inoculation.”

  “Are you truly expecting me to sit here and pretend as if we’re lovers?” she spat.

  “Not at all.” He yanked on her arm, not enough to hurt, but hard enough to bring them shoulder to shoulder. “But I expect you to be here. Watching. I want to feel your eyes on me while I drink you in.”

  Alexandra jerked her arm back to her side. “The deal was I feed you.” Her eyelids narrowed, and her expression was venomous. “That was it. There wasn’t any specification on how to do it.”

  “It’s not like I’m asking you to bare your neck.” He grasped her wrist once more. She tugged at his hold, but not enough to break his grip. “You want answers…you do this my way.”

  Seconds passed, and for a moment, he thought she might bolt. Then she exhaled and allowed him to lift her arm. “Fine,” she bit out.

  Score two.

  He closed his eyes, doing his best to mentally wrap a vise grip around his heart. To tame the monster inside who wanted to tear down the walls around his mind and claim the female at his side.

  “Why?” she whispered.

  He opened his eyes. “Why, what?”

  “Why is it so important that I watch while you do it?”

  Because it’s the closest I’ll ever have you, and for some damn reason it matters that I know you’re willingly at my side.

  “Because I said so,” he said.

  “Control freak
, much?”

  “When necessary.”

  Lifting her wrist to his mouth, he forced himself to slow down when all he wanted to do was dive in and drown in her essence. But he had to make this last. Savor every delectable drop. Her pulse lifted the delicate flesh just beneath her palm, and he inhaled along the surface. Vanilla laced with honey. So damn sweet. Yet something was different. Gently, he ran the tip of his tongue over her artery. She jerked, but held her place. Glancing up from under his lashes, he rolled the flavor around on his tongue. Ah, that was it. His scent was missing. After he’d turned her, Markus had been the only one to nourish Alexandria. Her blood was now littered with a cocktail of various molecules from whom she’d fed.

  Breathing her in once more, anger sparked like a lit fuse on a block of C-4, ready to blow. “Where have you been going to satiate your hunger?” And how many of them were male?

  “I don’t think that’s any of your damn business,” she said, her tone stern.

  His spine stiffened, ready to snap back that everything pertaining to her was his business. Yet a second before he opened his mouth, he glanced up, and the whitewashed walls of his cell reminded him of his current status.

  Markus swallowed hard, forcing back his initial rebuke. “You’re absolutely correct.”

  Her wide-eyed expression told him that his response hadn’t been the one she’d expected.

  “Go ahead.” She nodded and captured her lower lip with her teeth once more. “If we’re going to do this, let’s get it over with,” she whispered.

  At her words—her permission—a hard cramp seized his stomach. He couldn’t deny the pull any longer.

  Opening his mouth, his fangs fully extended, Markus sank them into her supple flesh. A gasp sounded from her a half second before the heat of her essence burst into his mouth. Hot, sweet, a decadent flavor he had no right to savor, yet every fiber in his body cried out for more. He swallowed, and a tremor racked his body. Oh fuck… His cock surged to life, going rock hard, forcing a groan from his throat.

  How in the hell had he thought one taste of her would ever be enough?

  Chapter Three

  What was I thinking? How could Alex have believed allowing Markus this close would be something she could walk away from unscathed?

  The moment he’d wrapped his fingers around her wrist, she’d toed the edge of a cliff. The second his fangs had pierced her flesh she’d toppled over. Flying. Lost to sensation. Spellbound by the male who devoured her.

  And Christ help her, she didn’t want it to end.

  Every pull at her vein resonated across her nerve endings and pooled between her thighs. She moaned, and her head lolled forward. Arousal swelled in her core, making her squirm. Oh God.

  Markus’s hair fell forward, brushing her arm, and the effect hit her like a tidal wave of lust. Her nipples hardened to stiff peaks, and the bundle of nerves at the apex of her sex throbbed, and it took every fiber of her control not to reach down with her free hand and relieve the ache.

  What the hell was wrong with her? Arousal came with feeding from or donating to the opposite sex, especially if there was an attraction. That little side effect she understood all too well. She’d been a vampire long enough to have experienced the reaction. Not that she was ready to give in to those urges, the lust. She wasn’t in any hurry to confirm her suspicions that sex wasn’t going to be any more pleasurable as a vampire than she’d found it as a human. It was enough just trying to keep her leash on the bloodlust.

  But this was different.

  The need was too strong.

  Her desire for the male went beyond enticing. It was mind-altering.

  Her pulse raced, hammering inside her head like a bass drum of warning.

  “Stop!” she cried out and tugged at his hold. “That’s enough!” She couldn’t take another second of his mouth on her. Alex yanked hard and Markus’s head popped up, but instead of letting her go, he snagged her forearm, growling, and jerked her next to him. Her blood stained his mouth, and his fangs glistened beneath his lip. His pupils filled his eyes, engulfing every visible inch of the white.

  Swallowing hard, she attempted to bring some moisture back to her suddenly parched throat. Markus’s appearance had altered since his confinement. His hair had grown longer, his signature goatee lost within his unkempt beard, and his weight had plummeted, yet between them—the way she responded to him—nothing had changed. “Let me go,” she bit out.

  She pulled once more, testing his grip. He didn’t budge. Instead, his nostrils flared.

  “Is that what you really want?” His voice was barely human.

  Was it? A shiver raced over her flesh. Her breasts, her sex, ached with need. Yet…

  “Yes,” she managed to utter, surprising herself with the conviction in her voice.

  She couldn’t give in. She could never allow herself to act on the lust burning up her veins.

  Not with him.

  It had to be the beast inside her responding to the feeding, their history. Because there was no way in hell she actually wanted anything more than answers from Markus Santini.

  “Release me,” she ordered, her voice hoarse.

  Uncurling his fingers, Markus eased back. He repositioned himself on the edge of the bed. A grunt exited his throat with the movement. If he was half as aroused as she’d been—was—she could only imagine the deep shade of blue his balls were now sporting.

  Hate it for him. After everything he’d done to her and the Enclave… Aching balls was the least he deserved. This was the deal he’d concocted. Not hers.

  She started to stand, but he reached out for her arm once more.

  “I haven’t healed you yet,” he said.

  Blood trickled from the open bite, traveling down to her fingertips. She curled her fingers, trying to contain the flow.

  “Let me help you,” Markus added.

  Alex dodged his touch. “I think you’ve done enough.” She darted toward the back of the small room, seeking out his bathroom. Inside the lavatory, she sealed the wounds to her wrists with her tongue, then twisted the faucets and shoved her hands beneath the stream of cool water.

  She’d been such an idiot stepping inside his cage and expecting this to be a simple matter of give and take. The giving…well, she’d done more than her share. Now to receive what he’d promised.

  Sighing, she plucked the soap container from the porcelain ledge. She pumped the top, dispensing a generous amount of foam onto her trembling fingers. I need to pull myself together. I can’t let him see how much he got to me. He’ll smell my weakness to his allure and use it like a weapon. Remember what he did to Kenric, to his own partner, my sister, hell, the whole Enclave.

  “I could have done that for you,” Markus said.

  Lost in her thoughts, she jumped at the sound. “I can handle washing my hands.”

  “I’m sure you can,” he said, his voice a deep vibration along her spine. “But as the one who sank his fangs into you, I should have at least sealed the wound.”

  “I would think vampire etiquette would be the least of your worries.” Alex grabbed a paper towel and brushed past him.

  “Just because I can be an ass doesn’t mean I’ve lost all my manners.”

  “Well then, Mr. Post, how about fulfilling your end of our agreement.” She spun around and faced him. Wearing a loose pair of black sweats and a white T-shirt that had to be at least two sizes too big, Markus stood with his arms crossed. His dark hair hung in thick long strands around his face and brushed his shoulders. The color was a stark contrast against skin that she remembered had once possessed a rich olive tone, but now was a ghostly white. Yet thanks to her feeding, she could already detect a bit of color returning to his cheeks.

  Damn, even in his anorexic state he had the power to make her legs wobble. And the ability had nothing to do with his wicked reputation. Unlike any other male, something about him drew her in, as if she were a ship adrift in a dense fog and he was the seductive beacon coaxing he
r to shore. Except in this case, a part of her would rather crash into the rocks than allow the devil to be her savior.

  “What do you want to know?” Markus eased back onto his bed and shoved himself up against the wall, facing her. Bending one of his legs, he draped an arm across his knee, then cocked a brow.

  “I want to know what happened to me while you and Marguerite held me captive.”

  “You were brought in by a few of our DEADs along with several others. Instead of killing you”—he sighed—“I decided to turn you.” He waved a dismissive hand, as if he were done.

  No way in hell. He was playing with her.

  “I remember that much. My memory isn’t completely blank. Tell me about the stuff I don’t know. All of it,” she spat.

  “All of what? What more can I tell you?” His upper lip curled. “I stole your life. Your humanity. I destroyed you. At least that’s what you would incessantly rant, day after day!” He lunged from the bed and into her face. But Alex held her ground. She’d never been a shrinking violet, and she wasn’t about to start now. “Does that bring back a few memories for you?”

  “Sounds like me,” she quipped. “What else?”

  “There’s not much more to tell. I fed you when necessary. Kept you safe. Made sure no one could touch you.”

  “You touched me,” she muttered.

  “Not like they wanted to. Not like that.”

  “Did you want to?” Why am I playing cat-and-mouse with this guy?

  His mouth formed a grim line, and he turned, giving her his back. “And then the cavalry came to your rescue,” he continued on, as if she’d never asked the question. Thank God. Did she really want to know the answer to that one? “End of story.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Believe what you want, Vixen. That’s all I got.”

  “What about Enrique?” She braced her hands on her hips.

  “What about him?”

  “Something tells me he has a story to tell. Maybe I’ll find him and see if he can fill me in on a few more details.” She whipped around toward the exit, but before she could take a step, Markus captured her arm and swung her back around.