“Thank you, Martin.” Devon focused on Gayle and Jon. “You were foolish to follow us. We outnumber you. If you stayed away, we all could have lived in peace.”
“Oh please. What good are animals against immortals?” Jon spat.
“Let’s do this quickly and get out of here,” Gayle said.
Jon lunged at Devon, fangs extended, while Gayle spun around him to get to me. I never knew exactly how old she was as her vanity kept both her human and immortal age a secret, but I knew it was old enough to make her older and more powerful than me. Still, I couldn’t let her take me without a struggle.
She’d knocked me to the ground and extended her fangs, readying for the kill. I tried to push against her, but it was like pushing a concrete wall, even with the strength of my own. She was inching nearer, her fangs dangerously close to my neck. I couldn’t reach the silver knife with her on top of me. Knowing it was there but out of reach made me want to cry.
I reached around on the ground near me to grab anything I could use against her, but I couldn’t even see what I was reaching for. A rock would come in handy right now, but no such luck. But I felt a branch. It wouldn’t even make a scratch on Gayle, let alone slow her down, but it was all I could find. And then it dawned on me—use it on her eyes.
I grabbed the branch and thrust it at one eye, scraping it across her face so I could damage the other as well. She screamed an ungodly sound I’d never heard from a human or animal before and she grabbed at her eyes. She would recover quickly, but it gave me a moment to catch her off guard.
I pulled my knees up and rolled us to the side, knocking her off balance. In the split second she’d pulled away, I caught the scent of blood, which diverted my attention. Devon and a wolf were both fighting Jon. Whose blood was spilled, I couldn’t tell. Maybe all of them?
Where were the others? And why hadn’t Devon shifted into an animal like his friend had? I could use some shifter help right now. And with the other two focused on Jon, it looked like I was on my own with Gayle.
Gayle caught the scent of blood too. She clutched at her eyes still, but she wasn’t screaming anymore and I thought the pain might already be ebbing away. I didn’t have much time. She might even be able to see me again in seconds.
I reached for the knife attached to my thigh just as she dropped her hands from her eyes and focused on me. Fangs extended, she flew through the air, coming for me. She moved so quickly a human would never have been able to register it. But a vampire could.
I pointed my knife up in her direction just as she landed on me. My knife sank into her ribs but since she grabbed me and sank her teeth into my neck, I knew it wasn’t a fatal wound.
Fuck, she bit me. She’s drinking my blood, even with my bloody knife stuck in her torso.
She had knocked my grasp off the knife when we landed and with her draped across me, I felt her reaching for it.
This was it. If she got hold of the knife, she’d finish me off one way or another. Drain me dry or impale me. I would have screamed help me to get some shifter help if there was time, but there wasn’t. The only chance I had was in my own hands. Unfortunately I couldn’t see what was going on with her on my neck.
She pulled away to look down at her wound. Just as she got a grip on the handle to pull it out, I slammed down on her hand. The blade slid diagonally into her chest, slicing deeper, rather than coming out. She screamed in agony and then punched me so hard in the face that blood spurted from my mouth and eyes.
There was no time to let the pain register; I dove at her, reaching for the knife as I landed. Why wouldn’t this bitch die? Where the fuck was her heart? Did she not have one and was that why I had trouble finding it?
I grabbed the knife and pulled it out, stabbing her higher where I thought her bloody heart would be. Then I pulled it out again and plunged the knife in twice more on either side.
Finally this demon bitch from hell lay still on the ground, smoke curling up from her chest wounds. I watched her for a few more seconds to make sure she didn’t spring back to life and attack me like I’d seen in one too many movies. As her body smoldered and the smoke rose, I turned my attention to Devon and his friend. Jon had his teeth sunk deep into the wolf’s neck. Where was Devon? This didn’t bode well.
My heart sank as I looked around for his body.
The wolf was still fighting Jon. With Devon’s abilities and his finesse at taking out all the vampires at Stefano’s, I wouldn’t have thought Jon would be more of a challenge than the others. What happened? Was he taken off guard? And if Jon had already killed Devon, this guy was next. And then it was me.
I had to do something. He had come to warn us; I couldn’t just let him die.
I leapt on Jon from one side, wrapping my legs around his torso as he was so much bigger than me. Then I sank my teeth deep into his neck, which distracted him enough so he released his hold on the wolf. He swatted at me and screamed, “Bitch!” and then slammed me into the trunk of a tree, which made me relinquish my hold on his neck.
Then a tremendous blow knocked us both to the ground. An enormous lion pounced on Jon and he screamed, “No!” but the sound died out as the lion ripped his throat out.
For a long moment, I stared in shock at the lion and what I’d just seen. “Devon?” I whispered.
He nodded his massive head over at where Gayle lay. I turned and saw her body had half disintegrated, starting from the chest wound outward. A pile of ashes lay around her and the knife had fallen flat as her chest had become an ashy cavern.
Smoke emanated from Gayle’s body as she disintegrated. Blood oozed out the torn flesh where Jon’s neck used to be, but was he really dead? Nothing smoked. I ran and fetched the knife from Gayle’s decaying corpse and sprinted back to Jon’s body. I plunged the knife into his chest three times the way I had with Gayle, impatiently waiting to see some sign to indicate he was really dead.
Time wasn’t even a concept at this point so I don’t know if seconds had passed or minutes. How long had that entire encounter just taken? It felt like hours, but in actually may have been only a couple of minutes.
I used the knife cut off Jon’s head. There was no way this asshole was piecing himself back to his evil immortal self. This time I was rewarded with the telltale sign of smoke billowing from Jon’s wounds. I watched with a sick sense of satisfaction as his body disintegrated in front of me. This was it. I didn’t have to hide from anyone anymore. They were all dead.
I was free.
When I felt a disturbance in the air next to me, I saw Devon shifting back to his human form. His delicious human male physique captivating me as it always did.
“You still have a little blood on your face,” I said.
Devon threw his head back and laughed. “A little? You should take a look at yourself. You look like a goddamn predator.”
“Takes one to know one.”
We were interrupted by a male voice. The wolf had shifted back to the blond man we’d seen earlier. “Devon, could I get some help?”
He had blood spurting from the wounds in his neck where Jon had bitten him. Devon covered the wounds with his hand.
“Let me close them,” I said.
“How?”
“Move out of the way,” I said and bent down to his neck. This man appeared terrified and backed up as he saw me approach. “Don’t bite me, vampire!”
“I’m not. I’m going to close the wounds.”
“How?”
These nosy guys and their questions!
“We don’t have time to discuss this. You’re losing too much blood. Let me in.”
“Let her, Martin,” Devon said. “I trust her.”
“I don’t,” Martin said. “I don’t know anything about her except she’s a bloodsucking vampire. Look at her face—there’s blood all over her mouth!”
“Martin, you’re going to die if you don’t let her!”
“What if she turns me? I’d rather die than be turned into a vampire.”
/> I didn’t even know if that was possible—to turn a shifter into a vampire—but I kept my mouth shut.
“Martin, enough. Trust me. Let her help you.”
They locked eyes for a few moments and then Martin nodded. “Okay.”
I bent down and he hesitated before he moved his hand away. Being so close to blood oozing from a vein was overpowering. The monster in me was still raging from the fight and wanted to clamp down and take every last ounce of blood from this stranger. But he had helped us. And he was Devon’s friend.
You were human once, I reminded myself. You don’t have to be a monster.
I bent down and licked one wound to close it, tasting the salty blood on my tongue. Shifter blood. There was nothing like it. I was reminded of how delicious Devon had tasted when I bit him, like trying a new, delicious dessert as a human and wanting more. The urge to drink came back with a fury.
“Control it, Layla,” Devon said.
Don’t have to let the thirst control you. Do the right thing.
“She’s going to kill me!” Martin said, pulling away.
“No, Martin. She’s helping you. Let her finish.”
I pushed the urge for blood away and licked his other wound to close it.
“It’s done,” I said, backing off. “You’ve lost some blood, but you’ll be fine. Go home and have some fluids, have something to eat and get some sleep.”
“Thank you, Layla,” Devon said.
Martin looked at me with an expression of terror and confusion on his face.
Just then a group of five men and women arrived and Devon laughed. “Good timing.”
“Why do you say that, Devon? Where are they?” an older male with gray streaking his black hair asked.
“Dead.” He pointed to Gayle’s body, which was now completely ashes, and the remainder of Jon’s, which was still disintegrating.
“We got here as fast as we could,” the man said. “We came as soon as Martin told us.”
Once again, I tried to gauge how much time had passed. The whole fight must have been over in just a few minutes.
One of the women took a defensive stance and held up a sword. “She’s one. A vampire. Why haven’t you taken care of her?”
“She’s with me,” Devon said. “I told you to forget your prejudices against the vampires as I had one with me.”
“Devon, how could you?” she said. “Our species don’t mix.”
“Why not?” Devon said. “Have you ever met one before? I know what I’ve been told all my life, but vampires are as different as people are, or shifters. We can’t be blinded by prejudices.”
“We know what you said,” the older man said. “But seeing her here with blood all over her makes it hard to see her for what she is.”
“She spilled blood the same way I did. Look at me covered in blood as well. Killing the evil that had come into this forest. She’s on our side.”
Martin stood up, a little wobbly. “I agree with Devon. She just saved my life. I don’t understand her or what she’s done, but my ignorance about her kind doesn’t mean I should shun her, and neither should you. Now let us leave them. Our job here is done.” He faced me and said, “Thank you, Layla.” Then he led the others back into the forest.
Devon
After the others left, we walked back to my cottage. Layla’s hair was tousled and strewn with leaves. Bloodstains marred her flawless skin, smearing her face, neck, arms—pretty much her entire upper body. Her clothing was stained with blood and torn, teasing me by exposing parts of her pale skin. She appeared to me as a vision of a huntress, which I found intoxicating and irresistible. Combined with all my testosterone built up from the fight, her sensual image was impossible to ignore. I tried to force my growing erection down, which was quite visible since I was still naked.
“That was pretty intense,” I said. “Hunting with you, fighting with you…” I left my last thought for her to finish.
She focused on what I said, though, rather than what I implied. “Who would have thought a shifter and vampire could coexist?”
True, but I had more pressing concerns on my mind—and other body parts as well. I spoke more directly. “I’ve got to admit, I’m so turned-on right now. Makes me think of something else we can do together.”
She threw her head back when she laughed. “I bet you could.” Then her eyes raked over my body, which did nothing to help calm my erection. “Do you always get turned-on like this when you hunt? Fight?”
“Never like this,” I said through a strained voice. “You’re lucky I don’t pounce on you right now and take you here in the woods.”
“You want me in this state?” she said, pointing to her ravaged appearance. “Don’t you want me to clean the blood off first at least?”
“Hell no.” I shook my head. “It only turns me on more, seeing you so wild like this. You’re not like any woman I’ve ever met before. Even other shifters. A true predator. A fighter. In the forest as well as the bedroom.”
“Me?” she replied, raising her eyebrows. “I haven’t been doing this for long. Only a few years and I have to admit I was very clumsy at first. My initial hunting attempts went awry and I went hungry.”
“You don’t see yourself as I see you. A beautiful, capable, intelligent woman. And a fierce predator. You told me how powerful Gayle was and you took her on yourself. And you’re the one who walked away alive. You should never doubt what you’re capable of. I never would.”
She looked down and I swear she must have turned red underneath the bloodstains. “Thank you, Devon. That means a lot to me.”
I turned to her and took her wrists in my hands, lifting them over her head as I backed her up against a tree. “Not to mention you’re utterly irresistible.”
Her full, blood-red lips parted and her eyelids fluttered. “I’m starting to find you hard to resist as well.”
I pressed my body against her as I kissed over her bloodstained face, her neck, her lips. How I appeared to her I wasn’t sure, although I knew I had bloodstains on me as well.
Her intoxicating scent mixed amid the smell of blood around us shot my desire to a dangerous level where I would do anything to have her right now. I reached under her sweater and pulled her red lace bra away to feel one of her velvety-soft breasts. Her nipple hardened under my touch and I rolled my thumb and forefinger over it. The urge to take it in my mouth took over and I pulled her sweater up more to taste the taut pink bud. She moaned softly and then I tasted the other perfect peak.
I pulled her brown leggings down and admired her matching red lace panties for a brief moment before pulling them down as well, kissing her in her most sensitive parts. She murmured something as she leaned back against the tree and let me taste her delicious flesh.
“Take a boot off,” she said, reaching down to remove one of the furry brown boots and a pant leg.
“Want me to take off the other one?” I asked.
“No, I can’t wait. I want you in me now.”
I stood up again and had to lift her against the tree to accommodate our height difference. She was so tiny next to me. I pressed my aching head against her soft, wet opening.
“Is this hurting you?” I asked. “Up against the tree?”
“I’m not as delicate as I look. Remember?” she said.
True. She just took on a powerful vampire and earlier hunted a deer with her bare hands. I entered her slowly, savoring the tightening sensation of being enveloped by her warm flesh.
“Yes, Devon.” She moaned, throwing her head back. “More. Now.”
I slid the rest of my length into her and from that point took nothing slowly. I took her like a wild man up against the tree. Her soft moans escalated into more throaty groans as I thrashed into her, driving me to continue fucking her hard like this. Her limbs tightened around me and she screamed out into the night. She was so loud, I’m sure many others animals or shifters heard us, but it wasn’t like we were the only ones mating in the forests.
Then I said something that surprised me, I hadn’t even been thinking it until that moment. I bent my head to the side to expose my neck and said, “You can bite me.”
“What?” she answered in surprise, pulling back to look at me.
I slowed down my pace so I could speak. “You showed great restraint with Martin back there. And you saved him. I know how difficult it was for you to control. You can bite me now.”
“It’s fine, Devon. I’m fine. I know the idea revolts you.”
“I want you to. I want to know what it feels like.”
She looked into my eyes as if searching to find the truth. Whatever she saw must have convinced her, as she then opened her mouth and extended her fangs. “It’ll only hurt for a second. And then it will feel good. I promise.”
I braced myself for the piercing of sharp points sinking into my flesh. She was right, it did hurt, but it passed quickly and was followed by another feeling. As the blood flowed from my veins and into her mouth, I was overpowered by a sensual warmth, driving my lust to a new intensity.
I thrust into her again as she clamped down and drank from me, her body meeting mine with greater force. Her nails sank into my back as her muscles tightened and flexed around me as she reached her peak. The erotic sensations of being so connected with her in so many ways right now flooded through every part of my body. I pumped into her as hard as possible until the world burst into a zillion stars before me and I emptied all my passion into her.
After a few moments, she pulled away from my neck, my blood still dripping from her fangs.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m more than okay,” I replied. “Never been fuckin’ better in my life.”
“Thanks for letting me do that. You’re unbelievably delicious by the way.”
“As are you,” I replied. I let her down to her feet. “Come on, let’s go back home and clean up.”
Funny how I referred to my cottage as home, as if it was for the two of us.
BloodlustandMetal Page 16
