She didn’t know what that last word meant, but it sounded like it belonged to the language he had used on the phone. Would it be really bad if she said no?
“I won’t harm you. I only wish to show you something.”
She took a deep breath. To say no would be cowardly. “Go right ahead.”
He pulled at her shirtsleeve, and his mouth hung open. She followed his heated gaze. Oh, he was seeing her ink for the first time. She’d known it would be a shock to whoever was supposed to be taking her. The vampires at home always stared and then ran away.
Hanzi ran his hand over her arm with gentle fingers. Every place he touched jumped to life. He raised his eyes finally to meet hers.
“I’m a tattoo artist. You obviously don’t want to be with a woman who is inked. So, we can part ways.”
He furrowed his brow. “How do you keep the color so vibrant?”
“I....” Wow she hadn’t expected that question. “Um. I stay out of the sun. Probably best anyway. Skin cancer and all.” Her mouth had gone dry. Where was the coffee?
“I haven’t seen markings on skin in a long time. Once, on a woman from the east. When I was a young man. Before things happened to change the course of my life. I have been in China for the last decade. Handling a...situation. I’ve not been around people other than our servants in a long time. Is tattooing common? And you say you make these? You do your own artwork?”
She ripped her arm from his grasp. Their conversation had become a little personal. She didn’t want to mate him; therefore she shouldn’t know him or let him learn about her. There had been a point to letting him touch her.
“Why did you want to touch me?”
He took her wrist. “The mark on you, I’m shocked you haven’t had it removed or covered it.”
The stupid strawberry marking had started the whole mess. “I like to look at it. To remember my days are numbered.”
He held out his own hand for her to see. “I have the same mark.”
She looked at his arm and for a second she couldn’t believe what she was actually seeing. His mark was identical to hers, he hadn’t exaggerated—exactly the same, all the way to the tiny swivel of a black outline, which really made it seem a strawberry.
“So we match, what does the sameness mean?”
“It means you’re mine.” He dropped her wrist and took a step back from her. One second later, a knock sounded on the door. Hanzi had already travelled halfway across the room to answer it when the noise came. She’d deliberately spent so little time with vampires over the last years she’d almost forgotten how good their hearing was.
Hanzi swung open the door. “Jerome.”
The older man came into the room pushing a cart loaded with a pot of coffee and a delicious smelling breakfast. Eggs, salmon, bacon, and three different kinds of toast stared back at her.
Her mouth watered. Another thing she had been doing to perversely stick it to Hanzi—before she met him or knew his name—was to have become a vegetarian. Non-meat eaters didn’t taste as good to the vampires.
“Does the food look, okay, miss?” Jerome smiled at her.
“Um. I haven’t eaten meat in years.” Although she wanted to, badly, as she did almost any time she smelled bacon cooking.
“You’ll have to go back to consuming animal product.” Jerome’s eyebrows shot upwards. “I wouldn’t want you to become anemic during the change.”
His words caught her by surprise and she backed away abruptly. The change? No. Take the food back, hell no. She wouldn’t be experiencing any change requiring her to alter anything she ate ever.
Hanzi said something she couldn’t understand to Jerome, and the older man looked at the floor. He nodded once before heading toward the door.
“Thank you for breakfast,” she called after him, feeling like a tool. Had she somehow gotten the old man in trouble? She knew how hard it was to find employment with the vampires back home. What would happen to him if Hanzi fired him?
Jerome turned to her briefly and smiled. “You’re welcome.” He quietly closed the door behind him.
“Did you have to do whatever you did? He’s a very nice old man. Whatever you said to him in your language, I won’t have him getting in trouble.”
Hanzi walked over to the tray of food. “It has been two centuries since I ate food.”
Adrienne threw her hands in the air. “Are you listening to me at all?”
“Of course.” His eyes met hers. “I’m afraid it is you who aren’t hearing me. We’ll have to do something about your attention, seeing as we will be spending eternity together.”
“I...”She had to say something to rebuff his assumption. “I had no choice except to come here. After what happened to my aunt, I knew better than to run. If you think I want our relationship, if you think I have any interest in you whatsoever, you’re kidding yourself. Know one thing. If you force me to wed you, it’s under duress. I don’t consent to become your bride of Dracula.”
She’d said her piece, but his reaction shocked her. He laughed. Oh, what the hell?
****
Bride of Dracula? She amused him to no end. Perhaps he should let her off the hook, explain everything about the witches, curses, and destiny. It might make things better if he shared his own concerns—or at least the ones he’d had until he met her. All those earlier worries had fled. Too bad meeting him didn’t do the same for her.
He should be sleeping. Instead, he was tormenting his human for the joy of watching her color rise. His beautifully inked soon-to-be bride who turned out to be so more interesting than he ever imagined.
“Do you not eat meat because you have are a—what is the word?—animal activist? It bothers you when you think of them killing the poor beasts?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I think we could be kinder in our practices of slaughter but, no, not particularly. If you must know, I chose to stop eating meat because vampires prefer not to feed from vegetarians.”
“My people have gotten lazy where you live.” If they knew the lengths his brothers and he used to have to go to in order to feed. Haunting prisons, back alleys, whorehouses to find humans they didn’t have to feel guilty about draining. It had taken years to perfect the act of feeding without killing, a skill their descendants had in abundance. So much so they had towns of people to choose from and decided what variety of human they preferred when selecting one on whom to feed.
It never ceased to astound him.
Adrienne’s jaw dropped at his response. “You don’t care? You don’t prefer the taste of blood from someone regularly eating meat?”
“I wasn’t born a vampire. The ability to breed came to the second generation we made, although I am told you and I might have children if you wish. My understanding is it is the born vampires who can discern what you’ve eaten. If they ever had to scrounge through food during the black plague they wouldn’t be so prissy about it.” He crooked his finger. “Come here.”
She didn’t move. The universe certainly had given him a woman who didn’t want to obey, although she kept staring at the floor in a beautifully submissive move. He loved it. “What you’re saying is the fact I haven’t eaten any animal products for two years doesn’t bother you at all.”
“Exactly.”
If she wasn’t going to come to him, he would go to her. For now.
Hanzi scooped up a piece of the crisp bacon. Two centuries without food and he no longer craved it. Truthfully, he’d never found food all that palatable when he had been eating. Famine had been widespread. He had been grateful to go to bed without a stomachache.
He placed the bacon in front of her face, and her gaze followed it as if he’d compelled her to watch the pork. Though he possessed the ability to do so as he pleased, he’d determined the night before he wouldn’t ever force her hand. She was too...fascinating.
“Hungry?”
She took it from his hand yet still didn’t bite on the food. His cock tightened at the thought of watching her chew. It wo
uld be...sensuous.
“I’m not convinced you’re not tricking me. You saying you don’t care while you really want to trick me into eating pork.”
Hanzi tugged her against him. Although she stiffened, she didn’t push away. “If you would prefer, I will call Jerome again and order you some fruit. I care not what you eat. Rather, I simply wish to see you happy. The way you reacted to the food you have denied yourself under false impressions tells me you would receive great joy to eat it.”
To his amazement, she bent forward enough to bite the top of the bacon. His cock jerked as it had not since he had been a young man. She closed her eyes as she chewed with her tongue coming out to lick her lips for a second.
Finally, she opened her eyes in time for him to release her. He needed some space.
“That was, yeah...good...bacon.”
He held the rest of it to her, and she took it from his very unsteady hand. “I’m glad you enjoy it.”
Hanzi made for the communicator again and buzzed Jenci. He needed the man right away. His gums ached and his mouth watered. Blood. His brain fizzled, with the world blurring out slightly. It had been longer than he remembered since he’d lost control.
He wouldn’t terrify his woman. Not for anything. She didn’t want to be bit. Things would be easier if she had a blood fetish although they wouldn’t be as much fun.
His lifetime friend answered fast. Hanzi wasn’t certain which language he spoke when he finally got the words out, but he conveyed the message. Hurry and save me before I drink from my nonconsenting bride
“Hanzi?” Had she said his name before? Had anything in his long existence ever sounded so sweet?
“No.” He managed to get out. “I heard you before when you said you don’t want me. I wish to change your mind yet I will not force you.”
Everything else in his life had been difficult, their relationship shouldn’t be too. She was meant to be his reward. If she did not want him, perhaps he hadn’t yet earned her.
“Thank you.” The genuine relief in her voice should have moved him, but his hands shook and it was all he could manage not to lunge at her.
Finally, with as much effort as it would take him to run through broad daylight, he managed to point at the bedroom. “Go lock yourself in.”
Nothing would keep him out if he lost control and decided he wanted in. But if she left the room, it would perhaps buy him some time to allow Jerome, who was taking a millennium, to arrive there and distract him.
“You want to drink me.”
He covered his ears. If she spoke again, he’d be gone.
“Adrienne, what you see is me not compelling you. My restraint is me giving you what you wish. I had no idea my sudden blood lust would happen. If I were stronger, I would leave the room. Run to the hall. I cannot seem to make my legs work. Please, go in the bedroom, and as soon as I can I will leave you.”
Jerome finally arrived. This time his friend didn’t knock or act the servant. He busted through the door and extended his wrist beneath Hanzi’s mouth.
Hanzi’s fangs descended hard and fast, better suited for battle in their rush than general feeding. If his sharp piercing of Jerome’s skin bothered him, the other man didn’t flinch.
“Young lady.” Jerome nodded toward Hanzi’s bride. “I think my friend gave you instructions. Follow them. Immediately.”
He heard Adrienne’s sharp intake of breath. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t have missed the change in Jerome’s manner. Hanzi closed his eyes and let the warm, metallic lifeblood fill his mouth. He swallowed slowly, forcing his need to cool.
Blood. It always came back to blood. How did he ever manage to fool himself into thinking he was civilized?
The click of the door told him she had finally obeyed. He opened his eyes to meet his friend’s steady gaze.
“The need happened fast. I don’t think the others are as invested as you yet.”
Ambrus and Feri were also here. He’d felt their presence as a pounding in his head when he’d arrived. The two were also meeting their destined brides. Feri and he had once had a feud which lasted a hundred years. Hanzi had a hard time remembering what it was all about. Too many nights, too many battles....
If he stopped feeding, and he needed to soon, since Jerome couldn’t produce forever, he would tell him it had been the bacon. What had possessed him to do such a thing? It was too visceral. He was a man, but for a brief second it was as if he had stepped back in time, to the days when he’d been truly alive. The dream of providing for a wife, filling her stomach, giving her whatever he managed to make her happy.
So of course the blood need had risen.
He pulled back. “Thank you.”
Jerome nodded; the punctures in his wrist would close within seconds.
“Better?”
“Yes.” Sort of. Nothing would satisfy his blood need because he wanted Adrienne. His promise not forgotten, he grabbed his coat. Hanzi never felt the cold, but to blend in with humans he had to dress the part.
His friend rolled his eyes. “Liar.”
The door swung open, and Adrienne returned to his line of vision. What was she doing? Did she have no sense of self-preservation? She said she wanted not to be forced. Why did she have to torment his resolve?
“Don’t leave.” She looked unsure, not holding his eye contact, studying the floor. What had changed?
“You have proof of what I am, although I imagine with your upbringing you’ve always known. I cannot hold back the beast forever. Jerome here will not be able to stop my craving for you. The more I am with you, the stronger my need to feed will be. When I do, it will be pleasurable for you. The more we give in to the urge, the more of my own saliva will enter your system. Time and again, until you are consumed by it. As you said, it will kill you. It will make you want me.”
He understood more about his compulsive force than he ever had before. Everything was so much clearer. They never fed from the same human—with the exception of Jerome—without giving the human two weeks rest in between, the time it took for the human’s body to fight back the vampire cells.
He had to finish. “I haven’t changed a human in a century. I will not be able to stop myself with you.”
“Hanzi.” She raised her wrist. “When your fangs erupted, it should have been frightening.”
Yes, he imagined it would be. He’d not known monsters existed until he had become one. Lucky for him, he’d never seen anything more frightening than himself in the dark. He was the thing to scare all other fears away.
She swallowed, drawing his gaze to her pulse. “Only it wasn’t. The mark on my wrist started to burn. I wanted you. I don’t think I can stand it if you go.”
Jerome stepped back. “Never ceases to amaze me—the pull.”
His fangs wanted to descend again. In a matter of seconds, Adrienne had become bathed in white light, the angel she was. And Jerome stood too close to her. It wouldn’t take much aggression to make him want to rip out his friend’s throat.
“It’s not real.” Hanzi hated himself for saying what he did. “When I leave, it will pass.”
His friend paused at the door. “Are you kidding?”
“No.” He wouldn’t take an unwilling bride. Her need for him would pass with some space. He’d have Adrienne in her right mind or he wouldn’t take her at all.
Chapter Three
“Try to breathe through your nose.” Jerome instructed her with the same words she’d been hearing from him for the last ten minutes. All she knew was that since Hanzi walked out of the room, she couldn’t control the panic threatening to overtake her.
Jerome spoke again. “I swear it will be better soon. I’m going to find some help.”
“I’m allergic to penicillin. In case you mean medicinally. I thought you might need to know my drug reactions. Doctors always ask. I guess you’re not in the medical field. Do you have a sleeping pill? Something to knock me out.”
“Nothing quite so dramatic.”
She tried to do as he said, to breathe. Why did she react so violently toward him? Hanzi wanted to feed from her. His gaze altered when the fangs emerged, and then feeding was all she thought about, too. Adrienne wanted him to bite the hell out of her.
But she didn’t, not when she intellectualized it, and Hanzi had said her longing wasn’t real. So what the hell was going on? She couldn’t figure out how she felt about any of it; her entire world had shifted to revolve around her need to have him feed, a notion she’d rejected the moment she met him. Had she ever been so fucking frustrated?
The door clicked open again, and she assumed it was Jerome. But it wasn’t his voice she heard, and her lids flew open as she darted backward to the couch, nearly hitting the wall as she did.
“Miss.” The man, who knelt in front of her, set off her vampire alarms. It was the pale beauty, the gaze beckoning her to both look away and stare forever. The ultimate predator who made his prey wish to do whatever he wanted. Or so she had always been told. Until Hanzi, she’d never wanted to do anything with a vampire during her adult life.
“Who are you?”
The door clicked open and closed again, and Jerome came in. “Please meet Feri. He and Hanzi know each other.”
Feri’s blond hair fell in front of his dark brown, almost black, eyes which made his lighter tresses seem fake. He’d been gifted with some beautiful genes. But Feri didn’t even make her heart flutter; she preferred Hanzi’s darkness.
“Hanzi is a brother to me.”
His English sounded halting. Yet, she understood him perfectly.
“I don’t care who you are. What are you doing here? What is happening to me?” She knew she sounded hysterical. Her skin was too tight, and she feared exploding from the inside out if someone didn’t rush Hanzi back to her.
The new man, Feri, cupped the back of her head. She jerked at the contact. No one should be touching her except Hanzi. Where Feri’s hand touched her scalp, it burned.
“Sshh. Your reaction shouldn’t be happening to you the way it is. Way too soon. My lady is resting comfortably as you should be. Then again, nothing about Hanzi has ever gone as it should, exactly. Why should his courtship?”
Bitten Surrender Page 3
