When I returned to the bedroom, Dru was sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows braced on his thighs. He lifted his head, and I adjusted the corset that I definitely didn’t want to be wearing any more.
His expression was frustratingly neutral. I wanted to see him in pain like I was. I knew in my heart I wasn’t like that other human. I didn’t want to be a vampire, I wasn’t obsessed with this club. I just wanted to be in Dru’s presence, to kiss his lips and feel his arms around me.
When I stood in front of him, he reached out a hand and drew me closer, between his legs. He rested his forehead on my stomach, and the sight of his bent head gave me flashbacks to last night.
I wanted to ask if I could come visit him, but I wasn’t sure how he’d take it. So I stayed silent, and ran my hands through his dark hair. Was this our goodbye? A wordless one?
Finally he stood up, and with a tight jaw said, “It’s time.”
Right, Cassie was waiting. I picked up my heels and stood behind Dru as he paused with his hand on the door. He glanced at me over his shoulder, and opened his mouth like he’d speak, but then his eyes clouded over. With a nod, he opened the door and walked out.
We made our way through the club, now mostly empty except for a cleaning crew. Cassie stood near the entrance, arms wrapped around her waist, craning her neck to see me from behind Dru’s body.
“Roxy!” she squealed and raced toward me on bare feet. She crashed into me, and I wrapped my arms around her. “Oh my God, I was so worried. I didn’t see you all night.” She held me at arm’s length and studied my face. “You okay?”
I wasn’t. Nope. “Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay?”
She beamed at me. “Great! I’ll be back for sure. What about you?”
I glanced at Dru, but couldn’t see his eyes as he stood in a shadow. “Uh, I’m not sure. Maybe in a couple of months if I need the money.”
“Oh, speaking of money.” She held up two envelopes and handed me one. “Here’s yours.”
I took it from her, the weight of the money not comforting at all. This was what I’d come here for, and now that I had it, it felt wrong, dirty. I was getting paid for what Dru and I had done. All I said was a soft, “Awesome.”
“Ready to go? I have your jacket by the way.” She handed me the leather bundle.
“Zeb will lead us back upstairs.” She pointed to our guide from last night, who stood by the doors.
I clutched my jacket, glad for the familiar feel of the soft material. “Oh wow, thanks. And yeah, I’m ready.”
She turned around with a flare of her skirt, and I risked another glance at Dru. He didn’t move toward me, and my heart felt like it was cracking into a dozen pieces. When I walked by him, his hand shot out, gripping my wrist. I paused as his thumb caressed the soft skin. “Bye, Roxy.”
Those words were final. And I vowed that no matter how poor I was, and how desperately I needed the money, I wouldn’t return. It wasn’t worth it to put myself or Dru through this. It ended here. Now.
“Bye Dru,” I said. Then I hurried after Cassie.
Two months later…
“See you tomorrow!” I called to the cook as I left the diner after a ten-hour shift. I had the next two days off, and I planned to spend them all on my couch reading and sleeping. My feet were killing me, and I was glad that the walk home was only two blocks.
Mission was quiet tonight. The cold always had a way of keeping the shenanigans to a minimum. Still, I wrapped my coat around myself and stuck my hand in my pocket, where I kept my pepper spray on my keychain.
I’d always avoided Mission at night, and lectured my brother about his curfew as well. But every since that night at Bite, I’d found excuses to extend my time outdoors at night a little bit. It was stupid. I knew that. Dru wasn’t coming up here to see me. But that didn’t stop me from glancing around, hoping for a glimpse of those dark eyes and sharp jaw.
That vampire had utterly ruined me. I dreamed of him. And sometimes I wondered if I was going slightly insane, but then I realized I was…in love. Or in lust. Or infatuated. Which was maybe still insane. I’d known him for one night. Every time I thought about him, my stomach went fluttery like it did when I got a crush—which I hadn’t had since I was a teenager.
I couldn’t talk to anyone about him. I hadn’t told Cassie. She would have thought I was crazy. She was basically a groupie now. She went to the club almost every week and asked me to come with her every time. I always said no. She tried to get me to talk about what happened, and I refused. What Dru and I had shared was between us.
I didn’t want to go to Bite, because what if he wasn’t there? Or worse, what if he was drinking from another human? He was probably back to fucking them now since I’d proven not all humans went nuts on him. If I went there and saw him with his tongue between another woman’s legs…
I squeezed my eyes shut. Stop it, Roxy.
I reached my apartment and jogged up the stairs to my floor. After unlocking the doorknob and the two deadbolts, I called for my brother. “Nate!” I shut the door behind me and hung my coat and purse up on a hook by the door. “Nate!” I called again. No answer. Frowning, I made my way to the kitchen to see a note on the fridge.
Spending the night at Andy’s, be back tomorrow afternoon. Love ya.
Nate was sixteen and had a job that he worked after school hours. He was a good kid, and Andy was one of the few friends of his who had decent parents.
I looked around the apartment. I had it to myself. This was a novelty. I stripped as I made my way down the hallway, peeling off my apron, my jeans, and my grease-stained shirt. After a quick rinse in the shower, I combed out my hair and let it down so it could dry. With a towel wrapped around me, I walked into my bedroom to find something to wear.
And I promptly screamed when I saw a figure standing by my bed.
I mean an actual blood-curdling scream, which I shut off with a hand clapped over my mouth when I realized it was Dru.
Dru was in my apartment.
I stared at him with wide eyes, taking in his massive form, his dark eyes. He wore a long leather jacket that reached his knees, and beneath that, a pair of jeans, and a dark shirt.
But what I noticed the most was how sunken his eyes look, how his eyes were narrowed like he was in pain. His lips parted, and his voice was like sandpaper. “Roxy.”
I leaped at him. Because oh God, he was here, in the flesh, in my world this time. I wrapped my arms around his waist and clung to him. His fingers sifted through my wet hair. “Roxy,” he said again, and I pressed against him harder.
He stumbled a bit, and I pulled back as he sank down onto the edge of my bed. His shoulders trembled slightly and my happiness at seeing him was quickly replaced with concern. I tilted his chin up so I could get a good look at his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
His eyes weren’t focusing well. “Tired.”
“Oh, well we can sleep—” I frowned. “Wait, you don’t sleep. What’s going on? Are you sick? When’s the last time you fed?”
He licked his lips and his gaze dropped to my neck before slowly returned to my face. “A bit ago.”
I gripped his chin tighter. “How long ago, Dru?”
“Supposed to have fresh blood every few days, but I’ve been stretching it out…” His voice trailed off.
“What the hell?” I was frustrated now. “What’s going on?”
“I’m weak,” he said abruptly.
I stilled. “Well that’s because you need to feed—”
He shook his head. “I’m weak because I want you.” His hands wrapped around the back of my thighs and drew me between his legs. Heat spread to my core quickly and I held back a gasp as he kept talking. “I tried to keep going. I fed from other humans, but they didn’t taste like you. They didn’t smell like you. No one said my name in your voice, or ran their fingers through my hair. Every time I fed, I could only picture you, and it was torture.”
His hands slid up higher, under my towel. “
Dru,” I murmured.
“See? That. Fuck I missed that.” He moved the edge of my towel to the side and nuzzled against my bare hip. “I missed the sounds you make when you come, how well you fit me. I haven’t been able to touch anyone in two months. I’m the weak one, Roxy. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
His tongue swirled around my hip bone and I clutched his shoulders. I hadn’t even wanted to touch myself the last two months, as my sex drive was at an all-time low, but one look at Dru, and I was soaking wet. I knew he could smell it through the damp towel.
“You let me leave,” I said. “You let me walk out, and you didn’t ask me to come back.”
He lifted his head. “Did you want to come back?”
“I don’t care about going back to Bite. I only wanted to see you.” I swallowed. “But I didn’t know how that could work. I’m human, you’re…not, and…”
“I can come visit you.” He seemed to come alive a bit now, his eyes more alert. “I’ll get permission from the Council. And I’ll take you underground on your days off to show you my apartment. It’s not the norm, but we’ll make it work. We have to. I want—I need you to be mine. I have since I first saw you.”
I didn’t know much about vampire social constructs. “And will you…only be mine?”
“Of course. I don’t want anyone else.”
Could this really work? “When I left, you didn’t…” Shit, I’d been an emotional void for two months and now I was going to cry.
“I didn’t what?” His hands cupped my bare ass.
“You didn’t even kiss me,” I choked out.
His eyes widened, then he blinked a few times. “I…I didn’t, did I?”
I shook my head and bit my lip.
His eyes fell to half-mast and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Does my Roxy want me to kiss her?”
“More than anything,” I whispered.
He gripped my head and tugged my face down, then pressed his lips to mine. Oh fuck, this was better than I imagined. His lips were soft, yet commanding, parting mine as he dipped his tongue inside. He kissed like he fucked, with an all-consuming possessiveness. I whimpered into his mouth, my knees going weak as he turned me inside out.
With a grunt, he tugged me into his lap, my knees on either sides of his hips, and pulled the towel off my body. His lips slid down my jaw. “I can’t…I can’t wait anymore. I need to taste you…”
“Bite me,” I said, grinding into the hard length I could feel through his jeans. “Take what you need, then fuck me until we can’t speak.”
He moaned, and when his teeth sliced into his neck, I knew I’d found home.
Also By Megan Erickson
For more Mission series, please check out the following titles wherever ebooks are sold:
BLOOD GUARD
BLOOD VEIL
Blood Guard
A Mission Novel
By Megan Erickson
Click here to purchase
Want more Mission series?
Enter a world of immortal danger and desire—and discover an incredible fate borne of blood.
Tendra: One minute, I’m a bartender in gritty Mission City; the next, I’m whisked away by a vampire named Athan who tells me that I’m the lifeblood of his clan. It sounds unbelievable, but he’s got evidence I can’t deny. Turns out, Athan belongs to an underground society of vampires who feed only on humans with their consent. Their enemies have no such qualms, and they want me dead. The only thing standing in their way is strong, sexy Athan. And the closer we get, the more tempted I am to let Athan feed. . . .
Athan: How could I have known when I snatched this snarky, beautiful human off the streets that she would change my destiny? As a loyal soldier, I must deliver Tendra to our future king—my brother. Empowered with the blood of ten generations of the Gregorie breed, she is fated to rule as our queen. But there’s something between us that’s so intoxicating, so carnal, I can’t help wanting Tendra for myself . . . even if it’s treason.
Advance praise for Blood Guard
“Engrossing . . . Athan and Tendra’s journey marks a promising beginning to [Megan] Erickson’s newest series. . . . Their chemistry is pleasantly intense.”—Publishers Weekly
“Blood Guard caught me wonderfully off guard—a road trip paranormal romance that twisted my heart in all the right ways.”—Sarah Robinson, bestselling author of the Kavanagh Legends series
“Megan Erickson knows how to bring the heat! With a kick-butt heroine and a hero to die for, Blood Guard kept me reading all night long.”—New York Times bestselling author Tracy Wolff
“Lots of action and tons of sexually charged encounters. This book will fulfill your craving for the supernatural. A five-star read that is worthy of fang marks.”—Books and Boys Book Blog
*Available wherever ebooks are sold!
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