“I’ve gotten my strength back,” he said with a smile.
She crushed her mouth to his, flicking her tongue over his sharp teeth. He groaned and guided her down onto his rigid shaft, pulling his mouth from hers to watch her face.
“Bloody hell.”
She gripped his shoulders, the muscles bunching with strength beneath her fingers and palms, and held on tight as he pushed up inside her over and over again. She tried to ride him, but he’d created a tempo of his own that she could not match.
He grinned, his canines protruding. She couldn’t help but lick her lips at the sight of them. Never would she have thought to look on a vampire’s fangs with such undeniable desire. But never had she imagined having a lover such as Marius.
A true lover.
“Bite me again,” she begged. “Please, Marius.”
A growl tore through the room as he moved in vampire speed, pinning her to the carpet beside the hearth. Hooking one of her legs high with his arm, he thrust back inside her and sank his fangs into her flesh more fiercely than before. He lapped at her neck and pumped his pelvis until she could take no more. She climaxed on a scream. He pulsed inside of her, releasing on a desperate groan.
He licked the new punctures at the base of her neck then propped up on his forearms to look on her. Both of them breathless.
“Why do you do that?” she asked, huffing out a breath.
“To seal the wound. I want to be sure it heals well.” He brushed the backs of his knuckles across her cheek. “The scratch you had here is now gone.”
She touched the place where the queen had clawed her, frowning that it had disappeared. She no longer felt the stinging effects on her skin, either.
“It was my mother, wasn’t it? Who did that to you.” His gaze held a spark of violence behind the languorous look of a sated lover.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a shake of her head. “Your injury. Let me see.”
She ran her fingers over his bare shoulder, perfectly reformed without a hint of a scar. “It healed so quickly.”
“Must be you have some magic in your blood,” he teased, sweeping a kiss over her swollen lips.
“That elixir that’s released when you bit me? It has healing power?”
“Yes. It’s also in our blood, which is how we heal from bodily wounds.”
“Does that—that feeling happen to all humans who are bitten?”
He arched a dark brow. “What feeling might that be?”
“Ha!” She pushed on his chest, but he didn’t budge. “You know what feeling.”
“No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder.
“Yes, you do. The feeling that makes me want to claw my way through your clothes and violate you in all manners of ways.”
“Violate me?” He laughed, a black lock of hair falling in front of one eye. “That sounds delightful.”
“Be serious.”
“I’m quite serious.”
“Marius. Stop it. Tell me about the elixir.”
“Here I thought I’d seduced you into a silent rapture, and yet you have breath to ask me a dozen questions. I’m not sure I did that correctly.”
“Oh, men and their egos. You did everything very well, but I want to know about the elixir.”
He sighed. “All right. To some degree, yes, it has a similar effect. But also, no, not for all humans. Of course, I’ve not bitten the entire human population, so I can’t tell you for certain. But I know from vampire history and from conversations with others that the elixir can create a range of sensations in the host. Sometimes they might feel relaxed and sleepy, sometimes invigorated as if they just ran a race. I’ve even heard that one human swore she saw faeries.”
Arabelle laughed. “Faeries? That is nonsense.”
“No. ’Tis true. Well, ’tis true she believed she saw them, but the fellow who bit her said he saw none in the room.”
“What else?”
“I’ve heard of the elixir also creating the sensation of raw fear in a human, but I’ve only ever heard this from vampires who took a human by force or intimidated them into becoming a bleeder. And of course, as you well noticed, for you certainly did try to tear my clothes off, it has a rather erotic effect.”
Arabelle wiggled beneath him, enjoying the sensation of him still being inside her as they chatted casually. He grunted when she moved and hissed in a breath, remaining quite still.
“And, has this been your experience with humans? Do all your bleeders feel this erotic sensation?”
He shrugged a shoulder in response.
“I see.” She rocked her pelvis gently, holding him inside her. He closed his eyes on a heavy sigh.
“Then I’ve made a decision,” she said. “Henceforth, you will only drink from me.”
Growing rigid again in an instant, he pumped a slow tempo with his pelvis, grinding his hips against hers, never dropping her gaze.
“Well, that means you can never leave my side.”
“True.” She gasped on his next thrust, as he was fully hard again and hitting her deep. “But it is tradition for husband and wife to remain by each other’s side.”
He stilled.
“No,” she protested. “Keep moving.”
He obliged.
“Husband and wife, eh? I don’t recall you asking me to marry you.” He quickened his rhythm.
“Well, how’s this for a proposal?” She grabbed his nape and pulled him down till his lips hovered over hers as he continued to stroke her deep. “Will you marry me, Marius, Prince of Varis? Will you warm my bed every night? Will you love me, even when our days grow short and our nights grow long? Will you love any children that come of our union and protect us all with your own life should you have to? If you say yes, then I will do the same. I pledge to give you my body, my blood, my very life for yours, till death do us part.”
He thrust hard, grinding his hips in a circle to hit deeper each time.
“Yes,” he said, coming again inside of her, releasing with a quiver. “Always.” Then he laughed.
“What is it?” she asked breathlessly.
“I just hadn’t imagined spending my one hundredth birthday in this manner. Quite different than I expected.”
“One hundred?” She grimaced, still trying to wrap her head around a one-hundred-year-old man looking so positively in his prime. “I’d forgotten. Well, I hope it has ended as a happy birthday.”
“The happiest.” He smiled, canines still elongated, and swept his lips against hers.
The door burst open with Sienna in the front and Nikolai right behind her, both of them soaked through from the rain.
“Oh, Lord!” Sienna spun back around and bounced off Nikolai’s chest. “So sorry.”
“Well, hell man,” said Nikolai, holding a frazzled Sienna steady and grinning over her shoulder. “You don’t look like you’re on death’s door as I was warned.”
“Get out!” bellowed Marius, yanking a blanket from the sofa to cover Arabelle.
“Not out there, friend. I’m already soaked through.”
“Give us two minutes,” said Arabelle, laughing.
“Two minutes? Is that all?” asked Nikolai with a tsk.
“Come on, Lieutenant. Out,” urged Sienna, pushing on his shoulders and urging him outside.
“You have a pretty blush, lady, when you’re embarrassed,” said Nikolai. “I’d love to see how far down that blush goes.”
“But you won’t, Lieutenant.” She slammed the door behind them.
Arabelle yanked her dress back on while Marius pulled on his trousers.
“Leave it to damned Nikolai to ruin a perfectly romantic moment.”
“Well, he did come to save your life.” She picked up the bodice and laughed. She couldn’t put that back on, the broken laces dangling uselessly.
“But I didn’t need him, did I?” Marius swung her back into his arms and draped a shawl over her shoulders. “You saved me, Ara
belle. In so many, many ways. And for that, I am eternally grateful.”
He kissed her with tender nips and strokes of his tongue before he pulled her into a tight embrace. She held him close, unsure how she could ever do without him now. The thought struck a terrible fear into her heart. That’s when she knew how deep her love ran for this man.
This vampire.
She clung to him and whispered in his ear with all the tenderness she could manage, “You are my valiant prince, come to save me not from the cinder-sooted hovel in which I dwelled, but from the dark hollow of despair that was my heart. My world is brighter because of you, my love.”
He traced the back of his fingers down her cheek. “As is mine, my future wife.”
Inhaling a deep breath, she stole one more kiss then strode for the door with a bright smile creasing her face.
“Well, now that that’s settled, I suppose it’s time to bring both you and your lieutenant into the inner circle.”
“Inner circle?”
“Aye,” she said as she reached the door. “Funny. I never thought I’d be adding vampires to the Black Lily.”
“Actually, I thought that’s why you asked me to marry you.” He grabbed her from behind before she could open the door and planted a kiss on her neck. “Tell me the truth. That was your ulterior motive all along, wasn’t it?”
“You caught me. But it’s too late. You made a promise. And so now you’re stuck with me.”
He took her hand in his and pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles, just as he’d done on the first night they met.
“Yes. I did. And I always keep my promises,” he said with tender sincerity.
Somehow, Arabelle knew that was positively true. He was a man of his word. And now he was her man.
“And I will keep mine.”
Then they opened the door together.
Epilogue
Salty spray misted upward from the breakers. Arabelle sat atop the lookout point, not watching the sea, but looking on the men training below on the yellow sand. Marius’s friend, Nikolai, wasn’t a man of patience. He shook his head at Wyatt, the Barrow brothers’ friend, who still hadn’t gotten the drift of defensive swordplay. Nikolai gripped the man’s wrist and raised it to the proper height and made all manner of wild hand gestures, his mouth spewing a stream of commands before he stepped out of the way and let the trainee go another round with Ivan, who stood there, grinning and waiting.
Marius climbed the craggy steps toward Arabelle’s position at the top. Her observation changed course from the beach to the vampire who was now her husband.
They’d had a very small ceremony, only Sienna and Nikolai in attendance in a church in Hiddleston at midnight—the proper hour for vampire weddings. Arabelle didn’t mind, as it was also the best time for a clandestine wedding. It was by far the most unorthodox wedding she had ever attended. Her own. The priest was a friend of Sienna’s, and he asked no questions.
The breeze blowing off the ocean whipped his black hair in disarray and pressed his white linen shirt to his chest, revealing the perfect form beneath. His shirtsleeves were rolled up to quarter length, his strong forearms and hands exposed for easier training. All Arabelle could think of was the other wonderful things he could do with those hands in the privacy of their bedchamber.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked when he reached her.
“Quite.”
Rather than sit beside her, he sat behind and pulled her close, caging her between his legs. Arms around her waist, he nuzzled her loose hair out of the way to plant a kiss on the sensitive curve between her neck and shoulder. His favorite spot.
“You look awfully serious, brooding up here by yourself.”
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“Where we’re going. Where we’ve been.”
Nate ran along the waves with Deek’s dog, Bruno, chasing him in and out of the water line as each wave rolled onto the beach. Bruno’s floppy ears and heavy belly weren’t conducive to the overactive energy of Nate, but the older dog tried hard to keep up.
“Don’t look back, Arabelle.”
“I can’t help it. When I think of Deek. And Mary.”
“I know.” He squeezed her around the middle with a somber sigh of his own.
Arabelle couldn’t figure out which of them had lost more. Yes, she’d lost her dearest friend, the one who’d formed the Black Lily alongside her. And a good friend to her as well in Mary. But Marius had lost his parents. Disowning them, specifically his mother, didn’t make it hurt any less.
Marius planted a gentle kiss to her temple. “But don’t you worry. The men responsible are gone. And Nikolai ensured the Pervis family paid for their crimes before he left.”
“What happened to them when the Legionnaires took their property and land for not paying taxes to the crown?”
“I don’t know. But they had no money and no clothes but those they wore when they were thrown out of Sylus.”
Those women earned any horrible fate that should come to them after all they’d done to abuse their station and everyone beneath them. Especially after what they’d done to poor Mary, sealing her doom in a most cruel way.
“Why would they leave Mary’s body so publicly on the steps of the Pervis mansion?” asked Arabelle, still questioning what had happened after they fled the palace.
“It’s a message,” said Marius. “From my mother. I may have killed Adrian and his band that had the blood madness. But she’s letting us know she has more in her employ to do her dirty work.”
“And your father? Is he part of this?”
Marius sighed. “I don’t know.”
Having seen the horror of the blood madness and the kind of power it had over those infected, Arabelle worried about defeating such an enemy. And whether it was even possible.
“There must be more who are infected,” she said, bringing the conversation back around.
“Possibly. I have a cousin who lives in the north near Terrington and is investigating his region. And Nikolai is close to someone on the inside of the palace. When the time is right, he’ll go back and retrieve information. It’s too dangerous right now. I know my mother. She’ll be looking for us.”
“Tenacious, is she?”
“You have no idea.”
“Hmph. I think I have an idea.” She overlaid her arms onto his, admiring the band around her left ring finger. At first, they couldn’t decide what to use for their wedding bands. Gold was out of the question, even though they still had a large cache hidden in Larkin Wood. And silver signified royalty. Neither would suit. Then Nikolai had a welcome suggestion. They now both wore black-inked bands of interlacing tattooed knots around their ring fingers. Arabelle’s had a small but distinct lily budding on top. It seemed Nikolai had several hidden talents she wasn’t aware of, as he was the one to painstakingly create the artwork with pin and ink and hours of time. “You were rather relentless in pursuit of me,” she reminded him.
“Was I? If I remember correctly, there was some begging on your part. But I told you once I’d never gloat, even when you begged for me.”
“Ha!” She tried to wiggle free, but he held her tighter and chuckled.
“No, you don’t. You’re mine now.”
She laughed when he nipped lightly on her neck.
“Yes. I have witnesses, including your best friend down there.”
“Hmm.”
She leaned her head to one side so he could continue his attentions along her throat.
“Marius, does he regret coming with us?”
“Of course not. There wasn’t an option when I told him what had happened. Nikolai isn’t a good liar. He couldn’t continue with his duties, knowing my mother’s role in all of it. And we’re more like brothers than friends. I was hoping he’d come.”
“He’s more than come along. He’s head of arms training now.”
Marius laughed. “He likes being in charge. I hope you don’t mind.”
“N
ot at all. He’s the expert, with his background. He’s been a blessing to get our new recruits up to proper standards.”
“Yes. Well, we’ll need more than this, I’m afraid.”
“We’ll find them.”
Bruno barked below as he and Nate followed a crab trying desperately to escape them.
“And do you think Nikolai can really get information out of the Glass Tower?”
“Yes. His former sergeant under his command is his cousin. Riker is devoted to his older cousin. He’ll get us information if he can.”
“I want to go with Nikolai when he returns.”
“No. Not yet. It is too soon. We’ve been over this.”
She sighed. “Fine. But he must look in on Sienna. And Willow. I insist.”
“He’s already promised he would. And you received a letter from Sienna that Willow is healing nicely.”
“I suppose Nikolai keeps his promises as well as you do?”
“Of course he does. Stop worrying about your friend. And your mare. They’ve got the best bodyguards of anyone I know.”
Arabelle smiled. “True. But I still want word from her when he returns.”
“It will be done. And how much longer must I wait before you keep your promise to me?”
“Which one was that?” But she knew to what he referred, her heart tripping faster.
“Don’t be coy.”
They’d had more than one argument over her remaining human. For Marius, there was no option. He had refused to live centuries beyond his wife. And there was the whole blood-drinking dilemma. While she learned that vampires could feed temporarily off of other vampires, they must have human blood to live. Not animal, but human blood. The thought of Marius taking a bleeder made her nauseous, especially knowing the effect his elixir had on those he fed from. When he’d teased her about her jealousy, she reminded him that she’d need to take a bleeder of her own. That had brought on a gloomy countenance for an entire afternoon. But in the end, he continued to beg her to relent.
“I just need more time. And no, it’s not because the idea repels me. You know I don’t feel that way anymore.”
“Yes. I know how you feel.” He nipped harder on a tender spot, breaking the skin and sucking softly. “You could have centuries of this.”
The Black Lily (Tales of the Black Lily) Page 25
