I took a step closer to her and she took a step back. Her breathing was becoming more rapid, her chest rising and falling quickly, and my eyes abandoned her throat for a moment.
A great testament to what a distraction it was, that it would draw the eye of a vampire away from her throat.
She had curves that would test the patience of a good man, and I was not a good man. Not a monster, but not a saint either.
I was a man with needs, and I needed her in that moment. I took another step closer without thinking about it, drawn to her.
She stepped back.
I narrowed my eyes as I looked back up at her. "You're afraid."
"You're a vampire."
A smirk curved my lips. "Indeed, little hunter, I am."
I strode towards her with purpose now, backing her up until she was at the edge of the building. She lifted her leg to step back and yelped when there was nothing but air to catch her.
On instinct, I moved faster than light to her side, gripping her by the waist and pulling her back onto the building—against me. Her body was flush against mine, her breasts crushed against my chest, her thighs enclosed by my own.
Unable to restrain myself, I bowed my head to her neck and breathed in the scent of her—just as intoxicating as it had been at a distance, only so much more. My body hardened to an impossible degree, and I felt myself pulsing against her, to my great embarrassment.
Step away from her.
Yet I was surprised to find that she was not stiff in my arms, but rather had melted against me, her fingers gripping my forearms.
It's because you're the only thing holding her in place right now. Move away from her, damn it. You're embarrassing yourself.
My lips were inches away from her neck, and a small groan escaped them.
She shifted her weight, her hips swaying against mine, and the friction only heightened my pain.
My breath came in shallow pants, as if I had run a great distance, but I knew that it was because of the control I was exerting to keep myself in place. I couldn't move away from her, but I could stop myself from doing anything else.
Couldn't I?
My fingers shifted, brushing the small of her back, and she whimpered. I tensed, and she shifted her weight again.
Now, we were at an impasse. I knew that I had to move away from her, but she had not told me to go.
It's because you're a fucking vampire and you’re inches away from her neck. She knows she can't win now.
True. Very true.
Bastard.
Just one taste...
I bent my head, my lips parted, and my tongue slipped out to graze her neck.
I will not feed on her.
She moaned and I lost reason, my tongue flicking out again in little darts along her neck, tasting her.
She was temptation incarnate, and I was but a prisoner at her feet. I pulled her closer to my body, pressing us tightly together, and she arched her neck, exposing herself to me.
I tilted my head up, leaving the temptation of her neck, and my lips closed around her ear, sucking lightly. She moaned again, and I felt her heart racing against my chest as it heaved up and down with every breath she took.
Her fingers dug into my arms, and she shifted her hips, brushing against my erection.
This woman will be the death of me.
I nipped at her ear before flicking my tongue out to soothe the small hurt. She whimpered.
"Do you want me to stop?" My voice was husky, betraying my need.
"No," she whispered.
Victory.
I sucked at her earlobe a moment longer before returning my attention to her neck, grazing my teeth against her flesh then licking at her skin.
I will not feed on her.
I had to keep telling myself that because the temptation was so great. I wanted nothing more than to taste her blood, to know what it was like, to feel the euphoria of her essence flooding through me. But this I would not do.
Carefully, very careful not to break the skin, I took her skin between my teeth and sucked, and was rewarded with another moan. Her hand abandoned my arm and fisted in the lengths of my white hair, holding me there.
I obliged her, lavishing my attention on her neck.
Her hips moved against mine again, and I pulled my face away from her, hissing out a slow breath.
"You play with fire, little hunter," I said.
She stared up at me, her eyes clouded for a moment but then they began to clear. And then they widened with shock—she was realizing what had passed between us, and her rational mind did not like it.
It shouldn't have been a surprise to me. She was a hunter. It was in her nature to hate me. And yet it wounded my pride just a little.
"Move," she said, bracing her hands against my chest and shoving me back a few steps.
I arched an eyebrow. "That is not what you were saying just a moment ago."
"Shut up. Just. Shut up. Do not talk." Her chest heaved with every breath she took.
"I am perfectly fine going back to not talking," I said, laughing.
She glared at me.
I stepped closer to her again, crowding her, and lowered my face so that I was mere inches away from her. "What's wrong, little hunter? Are you scared?" I lifted my hand, intent on removing her mask so that I could kiss her.
And then she was gone over the edge.
Chapter 17
Nina
Fuck.
My muscles screamed at me in protest, my unprotected fingers burned, but there was nothing I could do in that second. I had to catch my breath. I'd planned this—somewhat. I'd been hoping it wouldn't be necessary, that there would be another way out, but the Prince had pushed me quite literally over the edge.
While staking out the rooftop I'd found the edge that had a ladder on its side—another safety feature. It would lead down to another fire escape. I was damned lucky that I'd managed to fall straight down instead of flying out backwards, but it had been my best shot at escape.
Why didn't I just stay near the first fire escape?
Because it would have taken too much time to clear the first few levels, precious time during which he could have caught up to me.
Speaking of which, I needed to move.
I dragged air into my lungs and started moving down the ladder as quickly as possible. My fingers protested every movement I made, they didn't want to close around the rungs of the ladder as I scaled down it, but I gave them no choice.
My willpower was stronger than my body, and I commanded it to move.
At last I landed on the fire escape and took off down it at a dead run.
My training had included running up and down stairs every day to build up my leg muscles, and it had the added benefit of allowing me to have perfected the art of moving down a flight of stairs at a rather dangerous speed.
I couldn't fall. If I fell he might catch up to me.
I spared a precious second to glance up and ensure that he wasn't following me down. He would probably make for the fire escape I'd been on originally—he was fast enough that he didn't need the head start I did.
He was nowhere to be seen, thank God.
Why did I let him touch me?
Nope, nope, noppity nope. I was not going down that train of thought right now. I kept running down the fire escape until it bottomed out at the ground and then I took off at a sprint out of the alley and down the road.
It was dangerous, moving on the road instead of through the alleys, but I wanted to get as far away from the building as quickly as was possible.
A few blocks later and I darted into an alley, pressing my back against a wall as I panted. God, I'd been reckless. I should have gotten off that rooftop as soon as I sensed the vampire. Damn the logic of knowing he'd be able to follow me, I should have just beat it the hell out of there.
I had very nearly risked being captured by the vampires again, going back to the cages. Fuck that, I wasn't going to do that as long as I still
had breath in my body. I would rather die than go back to the cages.
Very carefully I inched my way to the edge of the wall and peered around the corner. The Prince was nowhere to be seen.
Was he not following me?
I shook my head. More likely than not he was moving through the shadows, faster than light, and I wouldn't be able to see him coming.
After I had time to take in a few extra breaths, I ran down the alley and followed its twists and turns until it emptied out onto a side street. It took me a second to get my bearings, but I recognized this area of the city. I could make my way back to the mansion from here.
The mark!
The thought came flying into my brain a moment after I started moving again.
I cursed. I had to complete my kill or I was going to end up on the streets, easy prey for the vampire Prince. And I didn't doubt that he would come for me as soon as he could track me down. The man had been too intent on me to give me up easily.
But he didn't feed on you. Why not?
I shoved the thought from my mind. I didn't have time to think about that right now, I had to get back to the club and pray that the mark hadn't left already.
Risking wasting more time, I sent my tendrils of magic throughout the street and into the alleys that ran away from it, searching for the vampire Prince. I had picked up on his biorhythm when he'd been pressed against me—my body heated at the memory—and I was certain that I could pick him out of a crowd now.
He wasn't near.
That confused me more than anything, and there was also a small twinge of disappointment.
Ruthlessly, I crushed it. Damn my traitorous body, I wasn't going to examine those feelings.
Satisfied that the Prince was nowhere to be found and wasn't following me, I ran back through the alley towards the bar I'd abandoned minutes ago. It was a risk; the Prince might still be on the rooftop, so I calculated a different route and adjusted accordingly.
Ten minutes later I was in an alley behind the bar, watching the back exit. I extended my awareness into the club and breathed a sigh of relief when I felt the mark inside. His heart rate was high—likely he was drunk—but he was still there.
Still alive for me to kill the moment he vacated the premises.
I recognized that I was at a strategic disadvantage right now, hiding out behind the bar, but I didn't dare risk going to the other side again. Maybe my mark would come out the back door—unlikely, but a girl could hope. More likely than not he would leave through the front door. I would just have to monitor his movements, and if he headed towards the front, then so would I.
My heart rate, having risen from the mad dash through the city, now started to slow. I focused on it, taking deep breaths to regain control of my body, until I felt like I had everything in hand.
Then, unbidden, my thoughts turned back to the interaction on the rooftop.
I'd known the Prince the moment I'd seen him on the rooftop—no other vampire I'd seen had white hair like his. I didn't know what the King looked like, but I'd be surprised if he didn't have the same stark white hair. It must be a genetic trait of the royal line.
What was most interesting was that he'd seemed to remember me. Somewhat. I'd put my money on it. That had to be why he hadn't killed me right away; he'd been curious about who I was and wanted to solve the puzzle. I'd refused to give that information away, knowing it was the only thing that had kept me alive.
Or at least, that's what I'd thought had been his reasoning, until he'd saved me from falling off the rooftop, and his body had been pressed tight against mine.
My breathing shallowed and I closed my eyes, remembering the feeling of his body against mine. The harsh evidence of his arousal pressing into my hip, the feeling of his heart beating too heavily in his chest. The moment when his tongue had touched my skin, teasing me until I'd forgotten all rational sense and had held him against me just as tightly as he'd held me.
He'd turned my body against me. It had to be some sort of spell that vampires were capable of—but then, why had I never been attracted to any of the other vampires I'd met? There had been no arousal with them, no interest stirring inside of me. They'd always repulsed me, and I'd assumed that was because they were inherently evil creatures and that was what it would always feel like to be around him.
But the Prince had been so different. He'd smelled like the earth after a fresh rain—clean, and something a little intoxicating hidden in his scent. Almost like whisky.
Maybe he'd recently devoured someone who had those qualities, and that was why he'd fooled me. Yeah, that had to be it.
It couldn't be that I was attracted to the vampire. I refused to accept that possibility.
But my body reminded me what it had felt like to be against him, and my cheeks flamed in embarrassment.
My attention was drawn a moment later by the sound of rustling in the neighboring alley, my eyes snapping open as I pushed all thoughts aside and focused.
I was not alone.
Chapter 18
Nina
Shifting my weight so that it was all on my back leg ready to propel me forward, I drew a steel dagger from my belt. Hopefully it wasn't a vampire—or maybe, hopefully it was? I didn't want to have to kill a person, but anyone who hung out in a dark alley in the middle of the night probably wasn't there to say hello and how are you doing.
Like me. I was the kind of person you didn't want to meet in a dark alley right now.
I dropped to a crouch and slowly moved forward until I was at the mouth of the alley, able to peer around the corner and see if whoever was there had moved out of their alley.
No one in sight.
Closing my eyes, I extended my senses into the neighboring alley. Just as I'd suspected, a heartbeat answered my call. A moment later and I recognized the source—Lisa.
I let out a sigh of relief and stood up.
"I know it's you, Lisa," I said as I walked into the small clearing behind the bar.
A moment later she walked out of the darkness she'd been shrouded in.
"Hey, kid," she said, smiling. "Good job finding the mark first, but I've got it from here. Go on home."
I set my jaw in a hard line, taking in a deep breath. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I got here first, I'm getting the kill."
"What are you going to do with the money? You don't need anything that the mansion doesn't provide. Just go on home."
"Uh, I kind of need to stay at the mansion, which means I need this kill."
Her lips formed into an 'O' as she absorbed what I'd said, but then she shook her head. "Sorry, but I need this kill."
"So do I," I said. I didn't want to have to fight her for it, but I wasn't above doing that. I knew I could knock her out with blood magic just as I had done to the other wolves earlier in the day. I wouldn't have to kill her, just immobilize her, but I knew it would wreck the peace we had built between us.
She was the closest thing I had to a friend in the mansion, and I didn't want to give that up. But I'd been through enough bullshit this night, so I wasn't going to put up with her trying to steal my kill.
"Don't make me hurt you, Nina," she said. "I don't want to knock your pretty little teeth out, but this is the way our world works."
"Give it your best shot," I said, and bared my teeth at her. "I don't think you're going to win."
She dropped into a crouch, but the mark chose that moment to stumble out of the back exit. He reeked of alcohol, and I had no doubt that he had come out here to take a piss rather than choosing one of the bathrooms.
Fucking men.
"Whachu doin?" He slurred, swaying on his feet.
Lisa and I locked eyes, frozen for a moment with indecision.
I didn't waste time, I threw my free hand forward and locked onto her biorhythm, freezing her blood so that she couldn't move. She had just enough time to set her face in a look of immense anger before her muscles locked into place, unable to fight the frigid cold I'd put on her.
"What the fuck?" My mark sounded a hell of a lot more lucid now, and a quick glance at him confirmed that he'd deduced what was happening.
Vampires must have a quick metabolism if he was clearing up already. Maybe that was why he reeked of alcohol—he was literally sweating it out of his system before it could really sink into him.
Had he been playing the drunk?
No time to wonder about that, I had to handle the situation before more wolves closed in. If Lisa had found me, then it was possible the others wouldn't be too far behind her.
I turned my back on Lisa, compartmentalizing the spell I needed to keep her frozen so that I could focus most of my attention on the vampire.
He lunged at me as soon as I cleared my mind, slamming a fist into the side of my head.
With an oof I stumbled to the side.
Focus, Nina.
Months of training with wolves that fought dirty had prepared me for this. I wasted no time, sweeping his legs out from under him with one quick move and then landing two kicks—one to his ribs and the other to his head. I knelt and slammed my fist into his face, then adjusted my hand so that my fingers touched his bare neck.
I didn't need to touch someone to lock onto their biorhythm, but it made it a much faster process and I needed all the speed I could get in this moment. It took mere seconds before I picked up on the feeling of his heart beating.
It was a little difficult to sort out Lisa and the vampire's biorhythms now that I had the sensation of three hearts beating, but I pushed through it. I splayed my hand wind open on his chest, slugging him in the head with my other hand to keep him dazed.
I began to chant the spell to boil his blood, closing my eyes to afford myself more concentration. I visualized the blood heating up, watched it start to pop and sizzle as it reached unbearable levels. I could feel it working, so I opened my eyes to look down at him.
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