Another good fighter and a friend of his was the warrior Elijah. He had to say that were it not for the infamy and skills of Adam’s brother, Elijah might have made a future Warrior Captain, the leader of all of the Demon King’s armed forces. But should the present Captain ever retire, it was most likely Jacob who would fill his position.
At the moment Elijah was a highly ranked warrior who lived on the borders of the Vampire and Demon territories. He said it was to discourage Vampire raids on innocent Demons, but it was more likely so he could wake up every night and be immediately in the thick of battle. There was something of a friendly pissing contest going on between the warrior and Jacob. But it was a little like an apple competing with a pine cone. Elijah was a part of sanctioned battles orchestrated by the Captain and the King. Jacob was a bounty hunter, tracking down specific war criminals.
The thought came to Adam’s mind because he was very close to the warrior’s holdings just then. In fact, he was almost upon them when a movement below him caught his attention. The sleek-moving shape was too fast and too nimble to be just any kind of forest creature. Curious, he quickly descended into the forest below. As always, the first thing to fill his awareness was all sources of water. Where they were located, which directions they were traveling, the volume of each body of water both big and small. Nothing was too insignificant, no information deemed useless. His senses ran high with the presence of a heavy-running stream nearby, its source coming from up in the high, snow-laden mountains. It ran swift and cold only a short distance away. As he neared it with the March moonlight at his back, he changed back into flesh until he could see his breath clouding on the still and chill air. Then he heard and saw what had drawn him there in the first place.
Crouching down low to the forest floor, moving as silently as a breath, Adam peered through the nearby brush to see what manner of creature was running these woods in the darkest hours of the night. And because the moon was near full, its pearlescent light blanketing every inch of the water nearby, Adam could see with perfect clarity.
It was a woman. She was completely nude as she waded through the freezing temperature of the night and the water. She was pale as alabaster, the moonlight no doubt playing tricks on his eyes, because he had never seen such white perfection before. She was almost aglow as she stood there splashing water up and over her long, luminescent legs, and he could see almost every inch of her was covered in gooseflesh. Most obvious was the hard thrust of dark mauve nipples, as they stood out at the tips of rather generous breasts. Her hair was black as pitch, at least when wet, and a natural curl seemed to ease its way through it. She had the overall figure of a painstakingly crafted statue, although she was a bit too thin at the waist and hips for his taste. But that didn’t keep Adam’s lips from curling in a smile of appreciation.
She had to be out of her mind, bathing in such frigid conditions, alone in what amounted to a wilderness. The nearest human road was miles away from this place, not to mention any sign of a town or village. He wondered how she had even managed to get there, watching with amazement as she moved to a small fall of water nearby and let it crash into her hair and over her body until her smooth skin sparkled as though she’d been rubbed with diamonds. For that brief moment, Adam had a powerful compulsion to fling himself into his element; to become Water so he, too, could rush down those stones and onto the perfect, porcelain skin and all its charms.
The desire was so powerful, the draw all but irresistible, that he was shocked and stunned by it. He knew, in an instant, that the Hallowed moon of Beltane was what did this to him, and he growled low in ferocious defiance. He was Enforcer. He knew all too well the madness the full moons of Samhain and Beltane wrought on Demonkind. It was his calling, his special Destiny, to punish and control those who desired a member of any breed other than their own. It was not ever going to be acceptable for him to admire a non-Demon female in any fashion. He couldn’t afford the luxury of such risks. If he were ever to cross that maddening line, only his blood kin had the senses necessary to detect his betrayal of himself and his people. That would pit him against his young brother or, worse yet, his father. The idea of facing such humiliation was nothing to the proud Demon male when he considered the possibility that in a fit of madness, he might injure, or worse yet, kill a member of his own blood family. He knew all too well his own power and strength. After almost three centuries of life, he was more than familiar with his capabilities. People feared him because he was Enforcer, it was true, but they feared him more because they knew he was a savage and artful fighter who had almost no equal.
Adam swore hotly at the thought, jerking back unthinkingly in the underbrush. The girl in the water jolted at the sound and surged out from under the fall, coming toward him with several running steps through the water. Her motion caused tremors along the delectable flesh of the curves of her fair body. She saw him there, narrowing her gaze on him, and for a brief instant he saw the deep mink brown of sultry, bedroom-wise eyes. Then he very clearly saw the flick of a nictitating membrane drop down to cover her pupils as she attempted to define what manner of creature he was by use of her heat-sensing vision.
“Vampire!” he hissed at her in accusation, instantly on his guard as he snatched up the dagger at his belt. It mattered not if the Vampire was a female; she would be as strong and deadly as any male counterpart of her breed.
To Adam’s surprise, however, she merely set her hands on her hips, her stance wide and her expression almost bored as she took his measure. Her dark eyes drifted slowly over him, from head to toe, clearly evaluating him as if he were as naked and vulnerable as she was. About halfway down his body, she lifted a single slim brow as though in appreciation, and her lips curved into a wicked little smile.
Adam was shocked when her obvious interest found a mark within his tense body, a queer and robust thrill of heat and chill rushing under his skin and down his spine. Sweet Destiny, he thought in stunned disbelief, I know she is a Vampire, and still she arouses me! Adam wanted to be disgusted through and through at himself, but he hardly had the time to work up the proper response before she continued to walk toward him, a low little chuckle rolling out of her.
“My, my, they are making your breed quite large nowadays, are they not?” she asked as she rose from the water, climbing the bank of the stream. She looked down at the dagger in his hand, the metal gleaming in the moonlight as she walked up close enough so the tip of it touched just above her left breast. The fearless action completely disarmed the Enforcer as he tried to figure out what her game was. He sensed out for miles for other Vampires, other life forms, but they were alone. Even if she was clouding his perceptions with her Vampire ability to play with his mind, he knew how to remain clear despite that. He was fairly confident this was no trick or trap.
Fairly.
“I am assuming by your less-than-polite greeting that we are, perhaps, enemies?” she asked before affecting a wide yawn. Her whole body stretched, lean muscles flexing under perfectly pale skin. “I have been asleep for some time, you see. Is the war not over yet?”
“Demons and Vampires are still at war. And you can thank your bastard Prince for that,” he bit out. But her reaction was quite believable. If she had been asleep as she said, it was natural to expect she wasn’t up on recent news. It was not unusual for Vampires to “go to ground” when they grew bored with the outside world, seeking to sleep away a few years, hoping to wake during more exciting times.
“Damien?” She laughed as if it were the funniest joke she’d ever heard, her body dancing attractively under the vibration of her merriment. Hard as he tried, Adam could not keep his eyes on hers, where they needed to be. Even his breathing betrayed him and slid out of his control as he took in the curves of her breasts, the plane of her flat belly, and the wet droplets clinging to her nether curls and her thighs. He had always known Vampires had a natural sensuality that called to all bipedal creatures. It was part hunting instinct, part mating instinct. In a hunt, she c
ould use that body and its sexual magnetism to lure her prey in as close as she needed it. She might even choose to fornicate with her human meal before drinking and leaving her prey to recover in a defenseless heap.
“Well, nothing would surprise me,” she noted after she got control of her amusement. “But as for you and me, does this mean I am to get a dagger through the heart? War is so tedious. I was not prepared for it, as you see.” She spread out her arms and displayed her body in a rather slinky turn of her hip and proud upthrust of outstanding breasts. The movement caused her to prick herself on his blade tip, and a single line of blood appeared on her pale skin as a bead of red followed a slow path to the tip of her nipple before dripping off. When Adam let a pained little noise escape him, the female Vampire narrowed her gaze on his once again, and he realized with dread that she was seeing into his mind with her telepathic ability.
Adam jerked back and away from her, nearly falling on his ass in the process. She laughed again; completely confident of the disturbing effect she had on him.
“Well, well,” she teased, stepping in pursuit of him as he backed away from her, “it seems someone does not have thoughts of war in the front of his mind.”
“The mind is a fickle thing, Vampire. Do not let mine fool you. It is a full moon and a cursed holiday that puts me out of my own control; nothing more. Despite this disgusting display of lust my instincts force upon me, I will not hesitate to kill you. In fact, it only makes the temptation to do so all the stronger.”
“Such a waste,” she said to him softly, a mysterious contemplation in those dark eyes as they took his measure again. She stopped her gaze at the height of his hips, that little brow rising again as she took easy note of the erection he had developed. “Mmm, now, there is a sight to wake up to. ’Tis a shame you are not a Vampire. I must say, though, you are enough to make a girl reconsider playing outside of her race.” She gave a delicate shudder. “You at least seem to have learned how to bathe, unlike most others. But the fact is, your race is just as elitist as mine. It would be rather like a cat fornicating with a dog, would it not?”
“Do you Vampires think of nothing but sex and feeding?” he demanded, his voice a hoarse rasp as his mind swirled with the heat of the possibilities her provocative words sent bursting through his mind. Her reminder of the very laws he was supposed to be enforcing did little to quell him.
“Oh, my sweet Demon,” she purred, “do not stand there and pretend you are not considering dozens of ways of penetrating me,” she taunted him like a cruel siren. “Putting aside the state of your body, Adam,” she said, purposely using his name to remind him how easy it was for her to see into his mind, “you are already imagining the feel of coming deep inside me. Perhaps just after I have had a fresh feed, when my body is at its highest heat ...”
It was a temptation she should not have laid at the door of a Demon who struggled against the full Beltane moon. For in that moment Adam felt control slip out of his grasp and something wild was suddenly unleashed inside him. He lurched forward, dropping his dagger to the ground, and grabbed hold of her arms. He gritted his teeth as one wild urge after another surged through his mind, and finally he threw himself at her.
He changed form in the blink of an eye, morphing from man to a deluge of water that dashed against her face and body. But unlike normal water, he did not cascade off her and fall to the ground. Instead, he flowed over her supple body, slowly washing over and around her, covering her inch by inch. He felt the smoothness of her skin beneath his touch, the weight of her breasts ... tasted the hard points of her nipples.
She gasped in shock when he first hit her, but that shock quickly changed to something deeper and far sultrier. The sound that erupted from her as he flowed over her was nothing short of purest sin. He took satisfaction in it.
And even as he covered the most intimate inches of her skin with his exploration, he knew he was going too far. It had gone too far the moment he had sat in the brush to stare at her as she bathed. But this, what he was doing now, it was a whole other level of perversion, and as glorious as she felt, he knew he was stepping way over the line.
With a swirl of fluid grace he pulled away from her and resumed his natural form. They stood like that, in the cold, dark forest, breathing hard and dazed with the mutual arousal he had wrought. But even as their bodies ran hot with physical need, their minds realized they were enemies.
This was forbidden. By law and by nature, a Demon could never mate with a Vampire. And any Demon who tried would have to face the Enforcer.
The understanding brought the Enforcer sharply back to his senses. He fixed gazes with the admittedly beautiful Vampire and set his jaw. With a nod, he confessed to them both that he had instigated this walk in forbidden territory. But his demeanor made it just as clear he wouldn’t be repeating the act any time soon.
Adam burst into a superfine mist that caught on the chill breeze brushing through the forest and let it lift him fast and far from forbidden fruit.
Jasmine laughed breathlessly to herself as the Demon hightailed it out of her range. Her shock at the way he had splashed over her, the incredible way it had felt as he’d literally touched her everywhere at once, was indescribable. She had always thought Demons to be so puritanical, so boringly proper. She knew for a fact they were as racist as Vampires were. The idea of stepping outside of their species for enjoyment was something they simply would not consider.
Well, for the very first time, Jasmine could see some merit in considering it. Oh, not that she would ever really do something like that, but if ever she had been tempted, it had been five seconds ago, when she’d been touched in a way no one had touched her before or would ever be likely to touch her again.
She attempted to shake herself free of the peculiar spell he seemed to have cast on her hungry body. Honestly, she thought with amusement as she recalled his retreat, Demons were by far the most uptight, straightlaced bunch of Nightwalkers she had ever met. Even the annoying Shadowdwellers knew how to have fun as they caused impish mischief everywhere they could. But the Demons ... for all their varied powers of the elements, the Demons bogged themselves down in so many laws, morals, and self-recriminations, it was a wonder they even knew how to propagate their species at all!
Although, she considered slyly, this Adam seemed as though he’d give a girl a fair enough ride for her money. Jasmine sighed and stretched out her tingling body, the cold of the night warring with the heat of her thoughts. He was a brute, that one, she mused. Perhaps she was intrigued because most of her own race was made up of boyishly slim males, all long legs and lean elegance. When she lived with Damien’s entourage, as she was planning on doing again once she caught up to them, she often traded clothing with the males and hardly noticed any disparities of fit.
But that Demon ...
He’d had a good three inches and at least four stones of weight over Prince Damien, who himself was quite large for his breed. Adam’s shoulders had been broad enough to block her view of the moon completely. He had towered over her long height, and his dagger had obviously been special-made for the width and the size of his monstrous hands. She had never seen such enormous hands before, and although at ninety-three she was still considered quite young for a Vampire—for a Nightwalker, truth be told—she figured she had still seen enough.
Jasmine slowly knelt down in the brush at her feet, her hand reaching out to close around the dagger that lay forgotten on the forest floor. It was a thing of deadly beauty, heavy in the heft and bejeweled along the hilt in a delicate pattern of swirling aquamarines. Usually stones were bulky or coarsely cut, but these were each matched in size and had been faceted to catch any and every light.
How impractical, she thought. It would catch attention far too easily, making a stealth attack completely impossible. And yet she had never seen such a beautiful weapon. She held the length of it against her breastbone and thought about its owner. Again, Jasmine found herself contemplating raw sexual possibilities
with a male not of her kind. She surprised herself. She didn’t consider herself quite as lascivious as others of her breed. And she wasn’t usually turned on by the idea of sex with anyone not a Vampire. Other Vampires might dally with humans, but the idea of having sex outside her species was not for her.
Usually.
Anyway, she much preferred a good book, delving into modern sciences or merely watching the folly of others. Adam had been an opportunity of amusement, and now the moment was passed. He would be easily forgotten ...
Now she was better off focusing herself on the need for a good long feed. Then she’d find Damien and have him amuse her with stories about this continuing war.
Chapter 4
Damien felt the vibration of a Vampire entering his territory as if it were an earthquake inside him. Of course, he was literally surrounded by Vampires, dozens of them at a time coming and going from his territory as they hunted at a respectful distance from where he lived. But he could always sense the ones who did not belong, the ones who had trouble on their minds, and the ones ... the ones who were special to him.
She was young yet, too young to have grown past the natural functions of the body like breathing and a heartbeat and circulation. She was close to shedding them, though. Her body would mature greatly in the next few years, completely changing in chemistry and makeup, and all those physical things would cease to be autonomic.
But even as young as she was, he had never seen her as infantile, as he often did with newborn Vampires. She had been wise beyond her years, thoughtful and intelligent, stimulating to his mind.
It had crushed him when, at only fifty-four years old, she had grown so devastatingly bored with the world that she had decided to go to ground. But he had understood. It had surprised him it had happened while she was so young yet, and that kind of sensitivity did not bode well for her future, but he had understood. He had once become that disenchanted.
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