“We’re not done with this,” he warned Ty.
The shifter’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing as he scooped up the large wolf in his arms as if he were no more than a puppy, and stepped over the piles of debris to disappear into the woods.
Slade uncocked the gun and slid it back into his waistband, then staggered out of what was left of the cabin. He found Raina lying on the ground, unconscious, a nasty cut on her head.
The sight of the bright red blood, so tempting and sweet, sent a spike of hunger bolting through his system. It took every shred of control he possessed not to pull her up into his arms and kiss her there, just to see if she truly tasted as delicious as she smelled.
He kneeled beside her and lifted her into his lap with his right arm then gently patted her cheeks. “Raina. Raina, wake up. Can you hear me?”
Her head shook slightly from side to side and her lashes fluttered open. “What? Where am I?”
“We’re at your aunt’s cabin.” He glanced over his shoulder at the ruin of broken timbers and roofless walls. “Well, what’s left of it.”
She sat up and put her hand to her head. It came back bright with blood and her eyes widened. “I hit my head?” She pulled up her shirt and held it to the spot, revealing her bra and golden skin beneath.
“Damn waste of fine blood,” he muttered.
“Don’t you even think—” Her words were interrupted by a gasp as she stared, then reached a trembling hand to touch the open gashes where the lead wolf had sliced him with his claws as they’d fought. He winced as she brushed over a broken rib.
“You’re hurt bad.”
He grunted, his body sluggish with pain and hunger. “Nothing a little blood and some stitches won’t fix.” He gritted his teeth.
“What got all over you?” She touched his tattered shirt and her fingers came away black with his ichor. His vision started to fade on the edges as the pain took over.
“Ichor. Vampire blood.”
She sucked in a startled breath, her face contorted with shock then worry. “B-but there’s so much of it. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
“Just help me get the jacket and shirt off before the skin heals over it.”
She swallowed hard and got to her knees, then looked around, her eyes narrowing and body tensing. “Where are the wolves?”
“Gone for now.”
“And our gear?”
“Buried in that heap.” He nodded at the ruined cabin.
Her shoulders relaxed as she gingerly pulled at the remnants of his clothes. “Not exactly the first meeting I’d envisioned.”
Slade nodded. “And not likely to be the last.” He let out a slow, hissing breath as the cloth pulled away from the worst of his wounds, where it had already begun to be covered with skin.
“Just hold still,” she muttered near his ear as she peeled the shirt off his shoulders and back.
He grunted, then ground his teeth.
“Don’t be such a baby.”
Yeah, well, this wasn’t like some ordinary bandage she was pulling off. He growled at her, showing her his fangs. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t need your help. See?”
Raina moved back around to the front of him and looked at the gaping wounds across the impressive span of his muscular chest. They’d already become smaller and, before her eyes, they began to scab over.
“That’s amazing,” she breathed as the scab fell away, revealing the raw new pink skin of a scar. The blackish blood around the wounds had dried to a thin crust, leaving Slade looking like he’d been smeared with ink or dark mud. While his surface wounds had healed she could tell by the glazed look in his eyes he wasn’t fully recovered.
“We still need to get you cleaned up.”
He shook his head, his golden gaze dark with pain. “Cleanup can come later. Right now I need to eat if we have a hope of making it down the mountain today.”
She couldn’t help her eyes widening in response. From the throb at her temple she could tell her cut was still bleeding. “You know I’m not on the menu, right?”
A corner of his mouth lifted in a half grin that revealed the longer length of one of his fangs. “You could be—if you wanted.”
While logically Raina knew she should be terrified, she found instead she was fascinated. It made him seem more feral. The adrenaline rush from the wolves’ attack was still circulating in her system, and rather than fight or flight, now that the immediate danger had passed, it was dulling her fear and feeding her curiosity. And Slade’s revelation that her tribal ancestors were actually shifters had made her start looking at things from a whole new perspective.
“How do they work, anyway?” Raina reached out a finger and stroked the length of his fang.
A deep rumble vibrated through Slade as he closed his eyes. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away. “Don’t. Touch. That.”
“Sensitive, huh?” she teased, but when he opened his eyes, it was her turn to gasp. His irises had turned the color of pale golden sunlight dancing on the edges of huge pupils dark with desire and need. They pulled her in, making her forget everything else around her, as if there were nothing but him and her.
“You have no idea.” The rough pad of his thumb began to slowly trace a swirling pattern along the inside of her wrist, making sparks dance up her arm and spread through her system as he stared at her, as if she were the most beautiful thing on earth.
“Mmm,” she murmured as her body seemed to tune itself to his touch. “Tell me.”
Slade pulled her forward until her breasts were pressed against the rock-hard expanse of his chest, and rumbled just beneath her ear, “I’ve got a better idea. How about I show you?”
Chapter 8
Slade knew what he was doing was wrong, but at the moment he didn’t give a damn. The rules of the clan expressly forbade glamouring a mortal with the purpose of feeding from them without their consent, but the smell of her blood, strawberry sweet and sparkling with the essence of her vibrant life force, was too much for his weakened state. He needed blood. Her blood. Now. And her curiosity was consent enough for him.
He brushed his fangs in a slow scrape against her neck from the base of her ear down to the sweep of her collarbone. The path followed the thrumming beat of her artery that called to him like an addictive drug. With light, soft kisses he soothed her skin.
Small goose bumps rose as she shivered, an appreciative sound vibrating in her throat and up his fangs. “That feels wonderful,” she murmured.
She had no idea how good it could feel, but he’d be happy to show her. Slade’s fangs throbbed with hunger and desire. A light breeze stirred past her nape, lifting her hair and stirring the heated scent of her fragrance. Even as he sat this close to her, he could tell he was already shifting, changing to suit her most intimate fantasies. It was part and parcel of being a vampire, one of their many adaptations as a predatory species.
He kissed a path along her jaw and captured her mouth in a searing connection. Raina threw her arms around his neck and fisted her fingers into the hair at his nape. She pressed herself against him in an all-out assault. Her eager response inflamed the potent mix of hunger and desire ranging through him like a match to gasoline. When he pulled back, her lips were slightly swollen, the pink hue of them ratcheting up his desire to taste her to just under unbearable.
While he may have only been a vampire for less than a decade, he knew his response to her was far more than normal bloodlust. There was something about Raina that brought out the animalistic nature in him. It tempered his hunger with fear. What if he went too far? What if he couldn’t control himself once he tasted her?
“Raina,” he said softly, like a seductive whisper. “Will you let me—” he kissed her, a soft teasing kiss “—taste you?” The hungry edge to his voice went undisguised.
Even under a glamour, her own desire glowed about her, drawing him to her. “Will it hurt?” she asked, her lips brushing back and forth against his mouth in a seduc
tive touch that made his fangs throb.
“Just the opposite.”
Raina slowly twirled the tip of her tongue over one of his fangs, in a hot silken slide that ripped through him from mouth to groin. Slade almost came apart at the seams. His erection pulsed almost as hard as his fangs in response to her. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her they were sensitive.
The wet, soft heat of her tongue might as well have been curved around the tip of his shaft as his fangs, because he felt it in both places with equal intensity. He sucked in a sustaining breath, not because he needed the oxygen, but to maintain his control.
She pulled back slightly. A sexy-as-hell smile that stole away his ability to think curved her full lips. Raina crossed her arms, grabbing the bottom edge of her T-shirt and pulling it up and over her head in one fluid motion, leaving the glorious coppery skin of her torso bare except for the lacy white bra she wore that made her skin look even darker. Dusky nipples, barely visible behind the white fabric, peaked into hardened nubs.
He reached for her. Raina put a hand out on his bare chest, her touch like the licking flame of a candle next to his cooler skin. “I’ve got one condition, Donovan.”
Hunger and desire were mixed in a lethal cocktail in his blood, demanding him to take what she offered. Gods, at this point he would have agreed to just about anything.
“You can taste me as long as you keep your hands to yourself.”
Words were beyond him so he just nodded.
“Turn around.”
He twisted to accommodate her. His ears picked up the metallic clink of cuffs an instant before she put it on his wrist and pulled his other wrist back behind him. Deep down an old memory raged. He been cuffed at least a dozen times before he’d become a Shyeld. But he’d never done so willingly like he did now.
He could snap the cuffs as if they were a set of kid’s plastic toy cuffs if he wanted, but right now, if it made her feel better, he’d gladly put up with them. He’d do anything if she’d just let him taste her.
“This is just a safety precaution. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but—”
“You’ve never fed a vampire before,” he finished for her.
A pretty blush deepened the tone of her skin and raw hunger gripped him hard. He watched as her long, tapered fingers pulled aside the dark sweep of hair, exposing her creamy soft skin for him.
“You know you’re killing me, don’t you?” he said hoarsely.
Her eyes glittered with delight. “My blood, my rules.”
He leaned forward, using every ounce of his control to take it slowly—even as the hunger claimed him, every cell demanding he take what she offered with haste. Slade traced his tongue over the spot where her blood called to him, the warm shushing tempo of it increasing as her heartbeat grew faster with anticipation. Her skin tasted of saltwater taffy, sweet and slightly salty at the same time.
With ultimate care, he kissed her there, his fangs extended, letting her skin adjust to the feel of him. At the same time he let his mind take over. If he’d already broken a rule by glamouring her, what was wrong with going the whole way? He infiltrated her thoughts, allowing his mind to take her where she’d told him his body could not.
Raina gasped as he reached out with his mind and stroked his hands up her bare ribs, unclasping her bra and slipping it off her slender shoulders. She reached up to insure her bra was still there. Her fingers found fabric, but it didn’t stop the sensations he flooded into her consciousness.
He mentally cupped her small bare breasts in the palms of his hands, softly stroking the silky, hot weight of them until the tips were peaked and hard. Perfect B cup, just as he’d thought. At the same time he slid his hands down her bare back, grasping her bottom, and sent clever fingers to tease the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs. His mind played other tricks, as well, allowing him to suckle her breasts as he also feathered kisses over her stomach and down the length of her spine. That was one of the advantages of being a vampire—one didn’t have to touch physically to experience all the sensation. The mind was infinite.
“Are you sure you aren’t touching me?” Raina panted, as she brushed her hands over the hard tips of her own breasts and patted herself down. “It feels like you are. And like you have several pairs of hands and maybe two or three mouths.”
Slade pulled back and gave her a wicked smile. Every sensation he gave her impacted him, as well, and he was both hot and hungry for her. He could smell the soft, subtle sweetness of her arousal and her body was trembling. “Absolutely sure,” he murmured as he kept twisting his wrist, rattling the cuffs. “See, no hands.”
Raina let out a shuddering breath as he placed his mouth back on her neck and scraped his fangs in delicate circles on her skin while simultaneously he reached out to her and mentally traced the slick seam of her labia with his fingers, opening her and smoothing small slow circles on the hard bud he found there.
Raina gasped and arched at the sensation and his fangs sank slowly and smoothly into her. Blood, hot, sugary sweet and pulsing with sparkling life force, flooded into his mouth, making him groan. Gods above, she was far sweeter, more potent, than he’d imagined. Like fine aged whiskey, it hit his stomach in a hot, searing rush that left him light-headed, then spread a slow glowing warmth out through his body to his fingers and toes.
But in the fast, heated rush, he didn’t forget she was tethered to him. With gentle insistence his mind urged her to open for him, and he touched her, his fingers sliding into her tight heat. Raina bucked her hips, bringing her up against him and the very evident, very real erection she’d caused.
Slade groaned and sucked hard at her neck. The pull caused a chain reaction in him and her, sending them both over the edge.
Raina let her head tip back as the heated waves of sensation overtook her, lifting her up, shaking her to the core, only to leave her breathless and boneless. His fangs slipped from her skin and he lapped at her neck. “You drive one hard bargain, lady,” he muttered against her skin. “Maybe next time, I can touch you, as well.”
“Next time?” Raina could barely breathe. Her world was fuzzy about the edges with a pleasant glow that suffused every cell in her body. She tilted forward and clung to him for support. “I don’t know if I could survive a next time. That was—that was, wow. What was that?” she panted.
The slow, sexy smile that crossed his lips made her want to lick the indentation in his chin and kiss him hard. “That was how vampires feed,” he said simply.
Suddenly the appeal of being a donor to a vampire made a whole lot more sense to her. She swallowed hard, trying to get her breathing back to some semblance of normal, but as hard and fast as her heart was beating it was an almost wasted effort. “They definitely didn’t mention that on the six-o’clock news.”
She swayed slightly, and he steadied her with his shoulder. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Oh, yeah. Better than all right. I feel great.” Truth was she felt so relaxed and wonderful it was as though she’d spent a week lounging on some tropical beach with sugar-fine white sand and aquamarine water sipping sweet drinks with little umbrellas. She noticed that his eyes had returned to their normal whiskey color, but his fangs had yet to retract, the small points of them indenting against his sculptured lips. Boy, could he kiss a woman senseless.
She’d been kissed many times, but nothing, nothing could have prepared her for this. Raina wasn’t exactly sure if it had been the kiss or the feeding that had brought on a full-blown orgasm that had rocked her socks off, but either way, it cemented her impression that Slade Donovan Blackwolf was serious bad-boy material who pushed all the right buttons in all the wrong ways. She gingerly stroked her fingers over her neck, finding small twin indentions in her skin where he’d used his fangs.
“How about you? Feeling more yourself now that you’ve had something to eat?”
Slade gave her a smooth smile as if he were reading her thoughts, and her skin tightened. “About as good as
it gets until we get off this mountain.”
She spread her hands on his bare chest, her fingers tingling from the touch. “We still need to get you cleaned up. There’s a stream nearby.” She grabbed up her discarded T-shirt, shook the fir needles from it and slipped it back over her head, then took a set of keys from her belt and unlocked the cuffs and tucked them back in the pouch on her belt.
Slade rubbed his wrists slightly, stood up, rolled his head back and forth, then phased himself a new pair of sunglasses. Together they started walking, Raina leading the way to the stream.
Raina glanced at him. “How can you stand to walk around in broad daylight like this?” She held back a slender tree branch in the path to pass it and let him catch hold of it before she let it go so it wouldn’t smack him in his very broad, very muscular chest, which she seemed to be staring at way too much. His hand lightly brushed hers, sending a bolt of awareness zipping up her arm and down to her core. His gaze connected with hers.
“Feeding makes all the difference. Thank you. You don’t know how badly I needed that.” He sounded sincere, which made her tummy swoop. A bad boy who could be sincere was a rarity. In fact, she’d never met one before. The trouble with bad boys was they liked to have their fun, then be done. A luxury she would have loved to be able to afford, but that wasn’t possible any longer. Not with her job on the line and her realization that the name of Whisperer held some real implications for her tribe.
“You’re welcome.” She couldn’t hold his gaze any longer. Heat stole into her cheeks. She wasn’t the blushing kind, but Slade had made her feel things no normal man had ever made her feel before, and certainly not with her pants still on. She wasn’t about to tell him that the release had been more than welcome for her.
The Half-Breed Vampire Page 8
