A Vampire's Thirst_Nikolai

by Marissa Farrar

  “You’d prefer to stay here, locked up with the werewolves?”

  She looked left and right, as though unsure what she was supposed to be doing.

  “The wolves are coming,” Ivan called.

  “Don’t they know you’re here?” she asked. “Isn’t that the whole point?”

  Nikolai shook his head. “No, it’s better that they don’t. I have a feeling they wouldn’t much like it.”

  “Did you rip them off?”

  He looked to her, confused. “What? No.”

  Ivan hissed back at them. “Now isn’t the time for questions. We have to go.”

  “What are you doing locked up here?” he asked her.

  “The wolves kidnapped me. They threw a bag over my head, and taped my wrists together, and brought me here. But this part... this wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I mean... it wasn’t what I was expecting.”

  “No, me either.”

  Already he could feel her presence soothing the fire that had been raging through his veins.

  “But it’s okay now. You’re safe. I’ll make sure you stay safe with every fibre of my being.”

  “This is crazy,” she whispered.

  He grinned at her. “Yeah, it really is.”

  Nikolai grabbed her by the hand. Touching her sent his nerve endings firing, directing both to his heart and his cock. He’d only been in this exquisite creature’s presence for mere moments, and yet already he felt joined to her. She was far smaller than he was, yet perfectly proportioned, and in that dress she looked like she should be the doll in a music box, or positioned on the top of a cake. But he also saw the spark in her dark eyes and instinctively understood that no matter how perfect she looked, she’d never be a woman who’d allow herself to be displayed in such a way.

  He tugged her back down the corridor. Footsteps came pounding towards them. He knew he was putting Ivan in an incredibly difficult position if they came face to face and were forced to fight. His maker was still tied to the wolves, and fighting with them directly would surely put an end to his romance with Deacon’s daughter.

  “Go that way,” he told Ivan, pushing him out in the direction of the club. “Pretend you’re here to talk to Deacon. Distract them.”

  Ivan shot him a glance, but nodded. It might not work, but it would be better than going into this with only bloodshed planned.

  “Come on,” he told the young woman, pulling her in the opposite direction. This place was a rabbit warren of corridors and exits. If they moved swiftly, they might be lucky enough to avoid everyone. Though he believed he’d be able to take down the wolves if it came to a one-on-one fight, he preferred to be more civilised about the matter.

  He yanked her back against the wall, pressing their bodies flat as someone else ran past, obviously hurrying to see what all the fuss was about. As soon as they’d gone, he pulled her back out again, and they continued to run.

  They reached a fire exit, and he pressed the metal bar across the middle to open the door. Thankfully, no alarms sounded, though he’d been tensed for the wail, half-expecting it.

  “My car is this way.”

  He wished he’d thought to park the vehicle in a better position, not liking that he was going to have to pull her out onto the main street to reach the car. He also felt bad that he was leaving Ivan, though the other vampire was far older and stronger than he was. Besides, Ivan had been the one to get them involved with the wolves in the first place. If it hadn’t been for him, none of this might be happening.

  And he’d have never met his Bloodmate ...

  He didn’t know if he should be thanking Ivan, or killing him.

  It was impossible for them to not draw attention, with him in his black shirt and suit trousers, and her in her deep red dress, running through the streets. Her heels clicked on the pavement, and the layers of her dress flowed out behind her, together with her dark hair. She kept glancing over her shoulder, and he guessed she was expecting the wolves to chase after them.

  Thankfully, he’d pocketed the keys when he’d parked. You couldn’t leave your car with the keys in the ignition in this part of London—hell, any part of London—and expect it to still be there when you returned. He hit the button on the key fob to unlock the doors, and opened the passenger door for her, before darting around to the driver’s side and climbing behind the wheel.

  They both pulled the doors shut with a slam.

  She sat in the passenger seat, gasping for breath. He couldn’t help noticing the way the swell of her breasts rose and fell with each ragged inhale and exhale. Her skin was a golden hue, so unlike his pale complexion, and his fingers itched to trace the curve of each swell that peeped from the top of her dress.

  But there was no time for that. He slammed the car into reverse and stamped down on the accelerator. He enjoyed speed, and reversing in high speed into on-coming traffic didn’t faze him. Other cars honked their horns in annoyance, but he was able to manoeuvre down a side alley, then he shoved the gear back into first and took off, back in the direction of his penthouse.

  Leaving the club behind him, he was finally able to relax a fraction. He hoped Ivan was all right. The other vampire normally knew how to look after himself, and he was a smooth enough talker. If he couldn’t talk his way out of it, he’d use some of his vampire strength to fight his way out, but Nikolai knew that would be a last resort. Ivan still had ties to Deacon Thorn, and he wouldn’t want to burn those bridges completely.

  Nikolai glanced over at the young woman sitting beside him.

  “I don’t know your name.”

  At the sound of his voice, she looked in his direction. Her expression looked strained, the cords on her throat standing out, her full lips tight, her jaw rigid.

  “Lauren,” she said. “My name’s Lauren.”

  “I’m Nikolai Petrov. I’m sorry we had to meet in such a way.”

  Her small, blunt teeth dug into her full lower lip. “I have to admit, it wasn’t quite how I expected things to play out.”

  That was the second thing she’d said that confused him. “You weren’t?”

  “No. I was expecting it to be a little more ... formal.” She shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve ever done this sort of thing before. But I wasn’t expecting you to be the one whose voice I’d been hearing inn my head.”

  He frowned over at her. “You heard my voice? When?”

  “Yesterday. I heard it first then. But then I heard it again before you arrived just now.”

  “You’re sure it was mine?”

  The briefest hint of a smile touched her lips before it vanished again. “Yeah, I’m sure. Your accent is kind of distinctive.”

  “I don’t have an accent.” After all these years living in England, he’d truly thought he’d managed to teach himself to speak without one.

  She laughed this time. “Yes, you do.”

  If thinking he didn’t have an accent was something that coaxed a laugh out of her, then he didn’t give a damn about the accent. Her laugh was the best thing he’d ever heard.

  “We’re almost there,” he told her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back to my home.”

  The tall towers of Canary Wharf loomed into the sky up ahead. He took a couple of turnings, navigating his way back to his place. Automatic gates on the car park opened to let them through. He pulled into his reserved space, and they climbed out. Nikolai took her hand again and led her towards the front door of the building. He wanted to get her up to his penthouse as quickly as possible. There was a good chance Deacon would send someone after her. He still didn’t know why the werewolf had Lauren locked up in the cellar beneath his club, but he was pretty sure it would be for no good reason. If she meant something to him, he wouldn’t just let this rest. There might have been security cameras in the place which would have caught him pulling Lauren out of there, and that would be plenty proof enough for him to work out who had taken her. There wasn’t much chance
of a wolf being able to get up here without a key to work the private lift, but Nikolai knew Deacon would come after her. He didn’t want to feel like they would be prisoners in this place until Deacon was taken care of, but he had the feeling that was how it was going to go.

  In the foyer, he pulled Lauren—her hand still in his, as though he couldn’t stand the thought of them not touching for even the briefest of seconds—towards his private lift. He used his key to unlock the panel, and then called down the car. Within seconds, the door slid open with a ping, and Nikolai pulled her inside.

  The walls were glass, so her beauty was reflected back at him from every angle. She was far shorter than he was, but the way she held herself told him that she wasn’t someone to be messed with.

  He couldn’t help himself, however. He slipped his hand to her face, his thumb tracing the lines of her jaw.

  She gazed up at him with those dark eyes. “I don’t understand why I’m not screaming and running from you right now.”

  He didn’t want to launch into the whole Bloodmate thing just yet, frightened the intensity of it would send her running. Instead, he used the thing she’d told him. “I think it has something to do with you being able to hear my thoughts.”

  She nodded. “Yes, and ... I feel like I know you from somewhere already. Like maybe we were children together who grew up and lost touch.”

  He chuckled. “Only if you also happened to be a child over seventy years ago.”

  She stared up at him. “Is that how old you are?”

  “Yes, comparatively young for a vampire, but old for a human.”

  “It’s kind of weird to think of you as being that old.”

  “How old are you?” he asked.

  “Twenty.”

  A slow smile spread across his lips. “Then it’s kind of weird you being so young.”

  She gave a small laugh. “Yes, I guess it must be. Like a May-to-December thing.”

  He frowned, not understanding. “A what?”

  “That’s what they call an older man and a younger woman. A May-to-December relationship.”

  Something warmed inside him at the idea that she’d already thought of them as having a relationship.

  The lift door slid open and they stepped out and into his penthouse.

  Chapter 8

  Lauren stepped into the penthouse and did her best to school her expression into not looking impressed. This place was huge.

  Obviously, she’d known he must have had money. Most vampires did. It was easy to accumulate wealth when you had hundreds of years to do so. Plus, the wolves had told her that he had bought her, so she figured if you had enough money to pay for an actual human being, you were probably fairly well off.

  The way it had all happened had been strange, though. The wolves had come and made her get all dressed up, as though she was going to be presented like some kind of gift, but then they’d ended up running.

  Also, the way she’d reacted to this vampire wasn’t how she’d been expecting either. She’d expected to hate him the moment she set eyes on him—what kind of person bought another person anyway?—but it had been quite the opposite. She’d heard him speaking in her head, and she was sure she’d somehow sensed him. Then when she’d been faced with him, it was as though she’d been reintroduced to an old friend she hadn’t seen in years. No part of her was afraid of him, though she felt she should be. Hadn’t he bought her for her blood?

  So why did she feel as though she’d been rescued rather than bought?

  The vampire, Nikolai, pulled a mobile phone from his trouser pocket. He lifted a finger at her.

  “Stay right there, okay? Don’t move a muscle. I need to see if my friend is all right. I feel bad that I abandoned him there.”

  He placed the phone to his ear, and she took the moment to study his face as he listened, frowning into the phone.

  He truly was an attractive man. Perhaps a bit hard to be considered beautiful, but striking, most certainly. His jaw was almost a little too square, and the light blue of his eyes could be considered cold. His hair was somewhere between blond and brown, and cut to be swept away from his face with product, so there wasn’t a single hair out of place. His shoulders appeared broad in his shirt, and from what she could see from the shapes beneath the material, his stomach was flat, his pectoral muscles well defined.

  He spoke in one word answers, his voice clipped. “Yes ... No ... Fine ... Tomorrow ...” Then he hung up.

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Everything all right?”

  “For the moment, yes, but I don’t know how long it will last. My maker, Ivan, was able to get out of there, but I don’t think this will have done much good for vampire-wolf relations.”

  “So the other vampire with you was your maker?”

  “Ivan, yes. He saved my life. But I was only in that club because of him. He was the one who persuaded me to go through with this.”

  Lauren pressed her lips together. A curious question burned through her. “How much did you pay?”

  He frowned at her. “Sorry?”

  “How much did you pay the wolves to take me?”

  He shook his head, the confusion never leaving his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She blinked, the confusion transferring from him to her. “You bought me, didn’t you? That was the whole reason I was being kept down in that cellar. The whole reason I’m wearing this stupid dress. The werewolves had been paid to take me, and you came to collect what you’d paid for.”

  “Lauren, I swear to you, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

  She hesitated, unsure if she should believe what she was hearing. “So... you’re saying you’re not the vampire who’d bought me?”

  “Of course not! I’d never pay for a person.” His reaction made her believe him, as though she’d just insulted him with the worst possible slur. Something inside her relaxed, and she found herself exhaling a sigh of relief. So this wasn’t the vampire who had paid for her. She didn’t know why that should mean as much as it did, but she was relieved to be able to look at him in a different light. She hadn’t liked thinking this beautiful man was capable of paying to own a person to sate his desires. He had rescued her, not bought her, just as her instincts had told her.

  He must have thought of something, as the lines of his frown deepened. “So, you mean, there was another vampire on his way to get you?”

  She nodded. “If it wasn’t you, then yes, there must have been.”

  “And he’s about to turn up at the club, only to find the thing he paid for has already been taken.” Nikolai ran his hand over his mouth. “Fuck. This is more serious than I thought.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “It’s always seemed pretty serious to me.”

  But then something else dawned on his face. “Wait a moment. You thought I was the vampire who’d paid to have you kidnapped, but you came with me anyway?”

  She shrugged. “When I heard your voice in my head, and then I saw you in person, it was like I already knew you. I wasn’t afraid of you—quite the opposite. It was like something was pulling me to you. Like I looked at you and I saw only hope.”

  He stared at her with those light blue eyes and nodded. “Yes, I felt it, too. That was the reason I came to find you. I sensed you, too, Lauren.”

  She gave a tight smile. “Besides, I kind of figured anything was going to be better than being around those wolves. You seemed like the safer bet.”

  “I am. I’ll never let anyone hurt you, or threaten you, ever again. I swear that to you on my immortal life.”

  He looked so earnest, as though he truly believed everything he was saying.

  “But why?” she asked. “Why are you saying all of this to me?”

  “You’re my Bloodmate, Lauren. You know what that is?”

  She shook her head.

  “It means we’re destined to be together,” he continued, “you and I. I knew it from the moment I first caught the scent of yo
u.”

  “Caught the scent of me?” Horrified, she turned her head and sniffed at her shoulder. She’d had a shower the same morning she’d been taken. The idea that she smelled so strongly that she left a trail mortified her. “Do I smell?”

  He must have read her thoughts on her face. “Not like that. You smell like everything wonderful I could ever imagine. All the scents of my childhood rolled into one.”

  What he was saying to her sounded crazy, but for some stupid reason, she believed every word that came out of his mouth. Because it was a beautiful mouth—full lips, with a defined Cupid’s bow, straight white teeth, and she wondered ... if she looked closely enough, would she catch a glimpse of his fangs? The thought sent a strange thrill through her. She should be screaming and running, but instead an unfamiliar tingle ran through her, causing her core to tighten, and her nipples to crinkle into buds. The tingle spread to her lips, and she realised he was staring at her mouth in the exact same way she was staring at his.

  Without another word, they crashed together, his hands plunging into her dark tresses, and her hands slipping up his back to feel the rock hard muscles of his shoulders. His mouth captured hers, kissing her fiercely, his tongue pushing its way into her mouth. She felt as though she had lost her mind, allowing herself to be kissed in such a way in the middle of a strange vampire’s home, but she couldn’t help it. Her body had taken over, and now all she wanted was more of what he was offering her. His kisses left her mouth and peppered down the side of her jaw and down to her throat. One of his hands left her hair and reached down to where her breasts were still cupped in the bodice of her dress. His fingers squeezed her through the material, making her gasp.

  A vampire is kissing your neck. He’ll bite you. He’s a vampire, and he’s near your neck. You’re going to end up as dinner.

  Sudden panic surged through her, and though it took every ounce of her self-control, she managed to push him away. “No, stop, please.”

  He looked down at her, and she noticed how his silvery blue eyes had gone a shade darker with lust. She dared glance down and saw how a thick ridge ran down one side of his trousers. Jesus Christ. His cock looked huge, and she hadn’t even seen it properly yet.