The Darkling's Surrender

by Lauren Hawkeye

  “Honey.” Having licked the wound clean, Gavin swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Honey that’s been warmed in the sun.”

  He noted her stare, which was focused on his neck. “You’re thirsty, too.”

  Aubrey nodded.

  “What do I smell like to you?” He hadn’t offered himself, not yet, and she could think of nothing but thirst. But she could remember the taste of him on her tongue, of the scent that had filled her nostrils.

  “Chocolate.” Her eyes shifted to the throbbing pulse in his wrist, then to the firm length of thigh encased in fitted denim. “Melted chocolate. The good stuff, like from a real candy store.”

  Their stares met. Aubrey leaned in. She just wanted a taste… surely just a sip would take the edge off of her ever-growing thirst. But through her thirst she became aware of a knocking at the door.

  “Are you expecting someone?” The moment was gone. Gavin leaned back so fast that Aubrey might as well have burned him as inhaled his scent.

  “No.” Aubrey frowned, looking from Gavin to the door and back. “No. No one should be here.”

  “Stay here.” Gavin pressed down on one of her shoulders, urging her to stay seated on the couch. He stood and crossed the room to the door.

  Aubrey was one step behind him.

  “This is my home!” She grabbed him by the arm and tugged. She wouldn’t use her new, extra strength unless she had to. “And you shouldn’t be here. Malcolm will give me hell if he finds out I didn’t wipe your memory right. And then he’ll do it.”

  “He can try.” Gavin set his jaw, but allowed Aubrey to ease in front of him. “Check who it is before you open the door.”

  She shot him an exasperated glance, but was too edgy to do more than that. Really, there shouldn’t be anyone at her door.

  A quick peep through the peephole told her that her visitor was no one she knew. A man and a woman stood on the other side. She’d never seen them before.

  The innate stillness that surrounded them told her that her visitors were vampires, as did the lack of an audible heartbeat.

  Knowing that if she didn’t open the door for them they could quite easily just let themselves in, she signaled to Gavin to stand back, out of sight. Then she opened the door just enough to seem friendly yet cautious.

  “Yes?” She knew now without a doubt that her visitors were vamps. There was no smell of fresh, living blood, no rushing noise as it flowed through slender veins.

  “Ms. Hart?” The man spoke.

  “Dr. Hart.” She made the correction automatically, with the same surge of irritation that always accompanied the gaffe.

  She’d worked bloody hard for the title. She wanted people to use it.

  The man looked slightly taken aback, but smoothed over his features quickly and seamlessly. “My apologies. I am Blaine, and this is Valentina. We are here to discuss your new…circumstances. Might we come in?”

  Aubrey eyed them warily. The man spoke with a thick accent, Eastern European, if her guess was correct, but his English was perfect. His suit was simple but fit him neatly, and was entirely black.

  The woman’s garb was similar. Both had pale skin like Aubrey’s, but their hair was dark, identical shades of nut brown. They had similar features, too—shadowy eyes and prominent, straight noses.

  Aubrey wondered if they were siblings. More, she wondered what they were doing here.

  “I assure you, we come in peace.” The woman—Valentina—spoke with an accent as well. “Not that you have reason to believe us. But you might prefer that we speak in your house, where others cannot hear.” She motioned with her eyes down the hall, and Aubrey thought of Mrs. Newbanks, the snoopy divorcée who lived across the way.

  “Come in.” She stepped back and allowed them to enter. Both Blaine and Valentina moved with a grace that belied, at least to Aubrey’s eyes, their lack of humanness. Both halted abruptly when they saw Gavin, standing with arms crossed belligerently, across the room.

  “You have told someone of your new life?” Valentina turned to Aubrey and pressed her lips tightly together in disapproval. Aubrey watched, fascinated, as the little color that the woman’ skin had faded with the pressure.

  “Not exactly.” Aubrey squirmed in place, feeling as if she’d done something very wrong. She also felt nervous, on edge. Something about these two unsettled her, but she couldn’t have said why, exactly.

  “Please…uh…sit? Can I…can I get you something to drink?” The words were automatic, and she cringed after saying them. Of course she couldn’t get them something to drink. She didn’t have any blood.

  But she had no idea what vampire etiquette was.

  “I would love some hot chocolate, if you have it.” Blaine was excruciatingly polite as he seated himself—rather stiffly, in Aubrey’s opinion—on the edge of the couch. She noticed that he was staring at Gavin without trying to seem as if he was doing so.

  “Hot chocolate?” She was incredulous. “Can you—can we—” She stopped herself. They hadn’t even admitted that they were vampires, though she knew bloody well that they were.

  Blaine chuckled, and Valentina cocked her head at Gavin as if he was something tasty to eat. “Yes, we can. We can eat, we can drink. I would prefer a taste of your guest, here, but it’s not polite to eat occupants in another vampire’s home.” He gestured at Gavin, who stiffened and reminded Aubrey of a cat about to pounce.

  He was on alert, full alert. He was holding back for her sake.

  Hmm.

  “I don’t have any hot chocolate.” That was a lie, but she was uncomfortable leaving these two alone with Gavin—though she wasn’t sure who was the danger, exactly.

  “Well, then.” Blaine patted the seat beside him, gesturing for her to come sit between himself and Valentina. Aubrey resented being asked to sit in her own home. Instead, she crossed the room and stood next to Gavin.

  She found his warmth reassuring as it worked on her chilled skin. She didn’t know what he was now—he didn’t know what he was—but he made her feel safe.

  There was the smallest tightening of Blaine’s features, then they were again smoothed with apparent ease.

  “That lack of knowledge is the reason we are here.” He gave her a slow smile, one with enough flirtation in it that Aubrey was a bit startled.

  Beside her, Gavin tensed, and his heart rate sped up. He may have been angry with her, angry and confused, but he didn’t like another poaching on his territory.

  “Your maker was…how shall I put this…a dreg.” Both of the other vampires’ faces reflected disapproval. “He barely followed our rules himself, and we certainly can’t trust that he showed you the way properly. As it is, he abandoned you before he was allowed to, and for that he will be punished.”

  Even though these two were here to help out, a chill skated down Aubrey’s spine.

  “Well.” She forced a smile to her face. “What do I need to know?”

  Blaine and Valentina turned to look at each other, and then back to Aubrey. “It might be easiest for you to simply visit our council’s headquarters.” Valentina nodded at Blaine’s words, but Aubrey got the distinct impression that that wasn’t what he had been about to say.

  “Council’s headquarters?” Malcolm had mentioned a council—with distaste dripping from his words—but he hadn’t said any more about it. The few conversations that they had had since he had turned her had been perfunctory, Malcolm telling her a minimum of information. “Where is that?”

  Another quickly exchanged glance.

  “Lviv, Ukraine.” Valentina seemed unimpressed when Aubrey barked out a laugh and Gavin snorted in disbelief.

  Blaine stood smoothly, and held out a hand to the woman. “Come now, Valentina, we are silly to expect her to just hop a plane with us and fly halfway around the world. Let
us go get some dinner—a pleasant if unnecessary meal—and talk. Then she can decide.”

  “All right.” That sounded reasonable, and Aubrey relaxed some. Gavin stayed tense at her side, and didn’t move.

  “The gentleman will come, of course?” It didn’t sound like a question.

  “It wasn’t ever in question.” Aubrey looked up into Gavin’s face and was amazed at the ferocity in his expression. He touched his hand to the small of her waist, nudging her forward and indicating that he would follow.

  “I need to change first.” She looked down at her thin T-shirt and short boxers. Eyeing the group warily, she raced for her bedroom and grabbed the first thing that she saw, a little sundress that wasn’t at all appropriate for the crunchy bite of the fall wind.

  She didn’t care. She wasn’t going to leave Gavin alone with these two strangers. Besides, she no longer seemed sensitive to the cold, or to warmth, for that matter. Her flesh stayed chilled and firm, no matter the temperature of the air surrounding her.

  Aubrey heard rustling from behind Mrs. Newbanks’ door when they all exited the apartment and made their way down to the lobby.

  “What are you, by the by?” Blaine dropped the question to Gavin once they were outside. The words were casual, but seemed deceptively so.

  “A doctor.” He was being deliberately obtuse, but Aubrey was wondering if he could see something that she couldn’t—he had jumped to her defense so quickly, even though she knew he was upset with her.

  “Ah.” That wasn’t what Blaine had meant at all, and they all knew it.

  If he didn’t know what Gavin was, did they have any hope of finding out?

  They walked down the street in pairs, Blaine and Valentina, Aubrey and Gavin. When they came alongside a parked, shiny black SUV the first pair stopped dead in their tracks.

  Aubrey skidded to a halt. If she hadn’t had her new speed, she would have found her nose pressed into Valentina’s back.

  While she was trying to regain her footing, which she could have done easily enough with her newfound grace, Valentina grabbed one of her wrists and clamped a bracelet on it.

  Aubrey screamed. The bracelet was nothing special, apart from the fact that it was half of a pair of handcuffs, and the metal pressed against her skin was scorching her flesh.

  She could smell the nauseating odor of her own tissue frying. The pain radiated up her arm and allowed Valentina to clasp her other wrist in her bony hand.

  “Gavin!” The noise beside her said that he was fighting, himself. There was no one else on the street, unless they were hiding in the shadows. No one to help.

  Aubrey was strong, but Valentina was stronger. And the pain from the cuffs was clouding her mind.

  A blast of blue light hit her as she tried to kick Valentina somewhere, anywhere, to prevent being shoved into the back of the now-open SUV. The force of the glow sent her falling to meet the rough concrete of the sidewalk.

  She smelled blood, her own blood, welling up from the areas where the ground had ruthlessly scraped her skin away. The air was hot wherever the blue light touched.

  “Come on!” Her arm, the one with the cuff, was grabbed roughly and she was dragged to her feet. “Run!”

  She smelled Gavin, and so she ran. She didn’t look behind them, had no idea if the two were chasing them or not. Her entire being was so consumed with keeping up with Gavin—and with the pain that threatened to melt her bones.

  Aubrey had no idea how long they ran, but she instinctively trusted that Gavin would get her to safety. She was no weakling who waited for a man to save the day, but she wasn’t stupid, either. She was in excruciating pain, and her mind was fogged from it.

  Finally Gavin pulled her into an alley, and she caught a glimpse of the coffee shop across the street where she’d met Malcolm. They were close to the hospital. Gavin pressed her into the wall, the rough surface of the brick pulling at her hair. Covering her mouth with his hand and cradling her wounded arm against his chest, he pressed her in, shielding her with his chest.

  After a long moment, when he apparently deemed that all was safe, he let his hand fall from her mouth.

  She was weak with thirst, dizzy from the burn, but otherwise all right, so she only needed a minute to gather her thoughts.

  “What did you do?”

  Chapter Four

  Gavin had no idea what he’d done, but he hated admitting it. Still, what choice did he have?

  “I just…I was angry.” Mostly he was angry that either of the deadly duo had laid hands on Aubrey, even though he was still angry with her himself, but he didn’t see the need to mention that. “I wanted to get them off us.” Off her.

  “And then that blue light was coming from my hands again. But instead of healing, it pushed them away. It was like a blast. A big blast of…I don’t know.” He truly didn’t. “It was hot. Dry. Like the air in a desert.”

  Aubrey stared at him as if she’d never seen anyone more strange. She bit her lower lip, and he saw that her fangs were fully extended.

  Given the last few hours, the notion of a blood-drinking vampire didn’t freak him out as much as he’d been when he first realized she’d bitten him and turned him into a vampire.

  “You’re thirsty?” Still, he wasn’t sure he could let her drink from him. His own thirst had been fully abated by the small taste that he’d had earlier.

  Her hunger seemed darker and deeper.

  She licked her lips, then deliberately shook her head.

  “I’ll be fine.” He suspected that she was just too proud to ask him for a drink. “But I don’t know how much more I can take of this bracelet. I don’t know why it’s hurting me so badly.”

  Gently he lifted her wrist until he could see it easily. Her skin was raw and red, even peeling away in some spots, and when his fingers accidentally brushed it she winced.

  “Sorry.” As carefully as he could, he tilted the cuff until it caught a gleam of light from a streetlight shining golden just outside the alley.

  The light showed him a marking carved into metal. Sterling silver. Huh.

  He told Aubrey what is was. She winced again.

  “Well, that myth is true, then.” Her eyes were starting to look glassy, with a crystalline sheen overtop the sky blue. “Wonder if the one about garlic is, too. That’d be a kicker. I love garlic.”

  “Aubrey.” He caught her chin in his hand and turned her face toward his. Earlier today she’d looked vital, strong. Like a high-definition version of her old self.

  Now she looked as if she was on the verge of collapse. The physician, the man and the id in him all stirred at the sight.

  The physician wanted to heal.

  The man wanted to protect.

  The id? It was connected directly to his cock, and he was abashed at the fact that just holding her in his arms, breathing her in, made his glans stir, even when she was so weak.

  The first two made up his mind. He held his wrist in front of her face, and he saw her pupils dilate at the sight of his throbbing pulse.

  “Do it.” He was fascinated to see her fangs gleam white in the faint light from the street. “Quickly. It will help until we can get the bracelet off.”

  She hesitated, clearly considering. Then as she realized that she had no choice, she brought her lips to his skin and slowly bit.

  He wasn’t sure if it was because of how it had happened the night before, during sex, that the pain was so pleasurable. It was an odd sensation, the suckling, but her mouth was hot and wet and it turned him on unbearably.

  He shuddered, let out a groan and pressed his body against hers, careful not to disturb the arm with the bracelet on it.

  His cock rubbed against the denim of his jeans as he pressed Aubrey back into the wall. He wouldn’t press if she was repulsed by his arousal. />
  But she made a small noise that vibrated through his wrist and ground her hips into his as she pulled deeper from the vein.

  They didn’t have time. He knew that. They’d run far, but he didn’t know how long Blaine and Valentina would be incapacitated.

  Then Aubrey abruptly released his wrist, having drunk her fill. She stared at him hungrily, but it was a different kind of hunger.

  He felt it, too.

  She had a trickle of his blood running from the corner of her mouth. He wiped it away with his thumb.

  She ran her tongue over the digit, then closed her eyes, relishing the sensation.

  He gritted his teeth, wanting nothing more than to reach up underneath her little dress and jam his cock into her waiting flesh.

  He wouldn’t take advantage of her while she was in so much pain.

  Aubrey had other ideas. He found his lips plastered against her own, tasted the salt and the sweet of himself on her tongue when she lunged at him.

  “Now. Now.” She pulled her lips away only long enough to murmur the words. He started to protest that they didn’t have time, that it was too dangerous, that she was hurt. But her hands had undone his jeans, and she’d freed his straining erection, and then she’d guided his fingers under her sundress and to the slick, naked chasm between her legs.

  “Fuck.” He lost his mind, and whatever thoughts he’d been entertaining along with it. With a growl from down deep in his throat, he caught one of her legs over in the crook of his arm and lifted it to circle his waist.

  A moment later he embedded himself in her, knowing from the look of bloodlust dancing in her eyes that she was ready for him. She cried out into the night at the sudden invasion, then rocked her hips toward him in search of more.

  “Fuck,” he cursed again, fighting her skirts with his free hand. His thumb found her clit and began to rub insistently, intent on making her come as fast and as hard as possible. At the same time he set a frantic pace, thrusting into her again and again.

  They could be set upon at any moment. They both knew it. But they couldn’t stop. Their bodies strained to get closer and closer still, as if their lives depended on it, until they each cried with ultimate pleasure, and Gavin felt the hot silky glove of her channel fist around him tightly.