by Bonnie Vanak
Sarah nodded in a languid daze.
They had tonight, and with dawn, it would end. She must not think of tomorrow. Adrian pushed up on his elbows to regard her in the gathering moonlight.
The stark hunger on his face made her shiver with anticipation as he ran a thumb over the vein in her throat. “I want you, Sarah. I have to taste you,” he murmured.
“If you take my blood, won’t your clan banish you for good?” she asked.
“Only if you take mine. My blood is powerful and healing, and it’s forbidden for me to share with anyone except another vampire. But if I take your blood, I’ll create a bond you can never break.”
She tilted her neck to the side. “Do it.”
The look in his eyes made her heart turn over. “I will not hurt you, sweet. Just lay back, and try to relax.”
A low growl, startling in its possessiveness, rumbled from his deep chest. He brushed aside her hair, held her trembling body against his, murmuring reassurances. She felt the sensual sweep of his warm tongue. A slight, stinging pain followed, a sensation of pressure, then a warm tide of intense pleasure. Each erotic suck sent all her nerves tingling, as if his mouth were pressed between her legs. It was too much.
As the pressure built, her muscles clenched, and she shattered, screaming as another intense orgasm swept through her.
He ran his tongue over the puncture wounds, kissed her as she lay in his arms, her body still spasming.
“Wow,” she managed, staring up at his tender, amused expression. “No wonder you use a blood bank. You’d have legions of groupies banging at your door if you did this all the time. Even dignified blue bloods.”
Adrian stroked a thumb over her trembling lips. “I like hot, red blood. Yours.”
She cupped his face, searching his deep blue eyes. “You took me as your kind does, so I belong to you. Now take me as my kind does. Mate with me.”
Passion glowed in his hooded, dark gaze. Sarah rolled over and knelt before him. From behind her, he ran his hands down the backs of her thighs. Then he caressed the inside of her thighs, and put his hand between her legs, rubbing gently. She felt soaked from wanting him, every cell crying out for him to take her.
With one hard, rapid thrust, he entered her. Sarah cried out from pleasured shock. He was bigger, harder than ever. He cupped her hips as he rocked against her, his flesh slapping heavily against hers. His breath rasped out in rapid pants, thundering with hers in the night air.
In this position, her wolf flared to life. It howled and demanded. Adrian thrust harder and faster. She screamed, nearly blacking out as she climaxed, hearing him cry out her name as he followed.
Minutes later, they lay tangled together, sweat cooling on their bodies. Blissful and languid, Sarah snuggled against him. She felt cherished. In the safe cocoon of his bedroom, it didn’t matter they were werewolf and vampire.
But her practical side warned that time marched forward. They had the moment. The moment could never be enough for her.
Mirrored in his eyes was a reflection of her own torment. “I can’t let you go.” Adrian brushed back a strand of hair from her face. “I care about you too much.”
It felt like hot knives lacerated her heart. She pressed a kiss into his palm. “I feel the same way and I don’t want to go, either, Adrian. What can we do?”
“Let’s not think about it now,” he murmured.
He quieted her with a kiss, his mouth moving over hers. She ran a finger down his smooth, muscled chest, toyed with a small brown nipple, delighting in his sharp intake of breath.
What would it feel like to remain forever in his arms? But how could his family accept her, the despised Draicon?
Adrian glanced at the clock and muttered a low curse. “My father’s arriving tonight, Sarah, in preparation for the ritual. I must get ready.”
He gave her a tender kiss. She watched him walk naked to the bathroom, admiring the taut curves of his ass. Sounds of the shower began.
Sarah went to the French doors overlooking the dark, rolling sea. Beneath the silvery moonlight, foaming whitecaps crashed against jagged, unyielding rock. She and Adrian were like that, ocean and rock, smashing against each other in the stern restrictions of their separate worlds. How could they merge, and have a life together without one having to give up all together?
She went to her own room, showered, as well. When she returned to his, Adrian was toweling his long, dark hair. Her gaze met his in the mirror.
“I’d like to formally meet your father,” she told him. “And apologize for what I did to you that night on the beach.”
Vampires did cast a reflection, contrary to myth. But the tormented look in his eyes made her suddenly wish they did not.
He dropped the towel, braced his palms on the dresser. “It’s best you don’t, Sarah. Not now. He refuses to associate with Draicon.”
Emotion tightened her throat. “Why does your father hate werewolves?” she asked him.
“He doesn’t hate your people. He merely wants to preserve the purity of our bloodlines. Marcus has always held to the belief that our clan should never mingle with outsiders. He made that rule long ago for that express purpose. My family is one of the oldest and most noble clans.” He sat up, jamming a hair through his thick hair. “The rules must not be broken.”
“Then you can’t break them by having me in your life,” she pointed out in a small voice.
His hard jaw ticced violently. “I’ll figure something out, Sarah. In the meantime, you must remain hidden from my family.”
Hidden? In the shadows, lurking as before, never accepted? “So you want me to hide again, like I used to when your family came around at your beach house in North Carolina? Where this time, Adrian? Should I run into the closet and douse myself with cologne to mask my scent? Or do you have another hiding place in mind?”
Cold dread gathered in her chest as Adrian’s mouth thinned. “This convocation is critical to me, Sarah. I must show my father and my clan I’m worthy of returning as his heir.”
Yet in his family’s eyes, she would never be worthy. Suddenly she realized she no longer wanted to remain hidden. “I’ve been in shadow all my life, Adrian, even before I got injured. I was always hovering in the background. That’s not a life. If we’re to be together, I won’t be a secret. All that time we spent together, hiding our friendship from our families, as if you and I were something to be ashamed of. I can’t live like that.”
His knuckles clenched, he stared at her in the mirror. “I can never be ashamed of you, Sarah. But my family won’t understand or accept you and I together. Would your family?”
The truth hurt deeply. “No, they wouldn’t,” she whispered.
Adrian hung his head. Sarah realized what she must do. Once she had hurt him, deeply, out of necessity. Now she must do so again.
“I have to leave, Adrian. I need to get my father settled into Terrence’s pack, so I might as well do it now.” She struggled to keep her voice even. “It’s time for me to go.”
He lifted his head. For a moment something fierce glittered in his eyes. She rushed on. “It’s best if I leave. You know that vampires and Draicon, well, we’re like oil and water.”
His expression shuttered. “You and I aren’t. Sarah, I thought…”
“You thought wrong. I could never be happy with a vampire, anyway.” She offered a bored shrug.
The pain in his deep blue eyes felt like a hot razor across her skin.
“Sarah, I meant what I said earlier when I told you how much I care,” he said in a low voice.
Tears she seldom shed now clogged her throat. Sarah forced herself to speak past them. “I didn’t. I feel nothing for you other than friendship,” she lied.
Adrian’s expression shifted to ice. She turned away, each step like a lead weight.
Sarah went to her room to pack. It was time to return to her own world, and leave his behind.
Chapter 9
A drian was about to get everything back
. Why did he feel as if his heart was shattering? He dressed for the convocation, his chest aching. He knew why. Sarah.
His father and elders from the clan waited downstairs to begin the ceremony of trust to return him to the fold. In the two days since Sarah’s departure, Adrian could not forget the Draicon sealed into his heart.
He wanted Sarah at his side each night, in his bed each morning, wanted to make her happy. Adrian longed to watch her eyes darken with arousal as he pleasured her, listen in loving tenderness as she clung to him and called out his name in passion.
But her needs came before his wants. And that was why he let her go. Back to her people, to forget this stabbing insanity crying out they could make it work. Too much was against them. She belonged with the Draicon.
He must release her forever, turn around and never look back.
Feeling as if someone crushed his heart beneath an uncaring fist, Adrian went downstairs to return to his old life.
A shaft of dying sunlight dappled balsam pine branches lining the pebbled drive.
The scent of pine mingled with tangy brine of the sharp, cold sea. Standing on the walkway, Sarah stared at the blue-gray shingles of Adrian’s house. She inhaled the crisp air.
James had arrived and settled into Terrence’s pack. They had both been welcomed. Sarah boldly faced them and told them she’d loved a vampire, but to her surprise, they accepted her anyway. Even her father seemed to understand. Cameron apologized profusely, confessing Sarah’s scars embarrassed him because she had been tested in battle, unlike him. Yet, for all the welcoming hugs and assurances of affection, Sarah found herself throwing up a mental shield.
The only one who could invade her mind and use her emotions against her was dead. Still, she felt the need for caution.
Returning to Adrian’s seemed foolhardy, but she couldn’t dismiss the urgent instinct to check on Adrian. Sarah glanced down at the notarized statement in her hand in which she testified that she’d witnessed Adrian defeating the enemy. The lightweight parchment was equally thin as an excuse to visit.
Her finger shook as it depressed the doorbell.
Adrian answered. No, not Adrian. This man had his prodigious height, the same chiseled features and burning blue eyes and air of quiet pride, but no scars were on his left cheek and his hair was silvered at the temples. Like Adrian, his fingers were long, lean, elegant, but one fact separated them. On his right pinkie he wore a gold signet ring with an elaborate crest.
The ring was a symbol of his power. Adrian once told her his father never removed it. Ever.
Behind him, she heard people talking, laughing and glasses clinking. The entire convocation must have arrived for the ceremony. But something felt off kilter. Every Draicon sense alerted her to danger. Hairs on the nape of her neck saluted the air.
“You’re Adrian’s father,” she said, studying him. “I need to give him this. It’s my signed statement that I saw him kill the Morphs that escaped him on the beach.”
The vampire’s piercing gaze focused on her like a laser. “You’re the one who asked him to fight on the beach. Sarah, the Draicon. The paper isn’t necessary. The Morph ashes are proof enough for tonight’s ceremony.”
She swallowed hard. “Had I known what would have happened, I’d never have asked him to fight with me, sir.”
Sarah looked him in the eye. As an equal, even though this powerful vampire could probably snap her neck like a matchstick.
Something flickered in his gaze.
“Please, I must see Adrian.”
Please, let me see him. Please, just one last time.
His fierce look thawed slightly. “He doesn’t wish to see you.”
“You’re assuming…”
“No,” the vampire said almost gently. “He looked out the window to see who was at the door. He asked me to answer it.”
Her heart lurched at the dismissal. Sarah clenched her fists. “I just want to see him, make sure he’s okay.”
“He’s fine…” Marcus frowned as he glanced around. An insect’s incessant whine buzzed in her ears. Scenting danger, Sarah went absolutely still.
“Damn mosquitoes! They’ve been buzzing around since this morning.”
Breath caught in her throat. Her senses cried out a warning.
One Morph wasn’t dead, after all.
Marcus flinched and then slapped his arm. “Dammit, missed again,” he muttered.
“There are no mosquitoes in Maine in winter,” she said, her heart pounding frantically. “Please, I must see Adrian. You’re all in danger.”
Pity shimmered in his gaze as he stepped back. “You need to leave. Now.”
Her fists pummeled the sturdy oak as the door shut in her face. “Adrian, open it. It’s me, Sarah. You’ve got to listen to me! Please.” Tears trickled down her face.
The door remained locked against her, while inside she knew what would soon happen.
A low, malicious chuckle echoed in her mind.
Sarah whirled and ran off. She could no longer handle this alone.
It was time to call in reinforcements.
Chapter 10
D arkness covered them as the twenty male Draicon hovered just outside Adrian’s mansion. The midnight hour rapidly approached. Alpha leader Terrence turned to her, his expression troubled. “Sarah, are you certain there’s something wrong?”
Besides her, her father tilted his head to the air. He cocked his head. “Trust my daughter,” he murmured. “I sense it. Something smells off.”
The other Draicon looked at James with respect. Of all of them, he had the sharpest sense of smell, another reason why Terrence wanted him in their pack.
Sarah took a deep breath. “The Morph that wanted me dead wants me to suffer first. It’s after Adrian. It knows how I’ll feel if something happens to him.”
The Alpha male nodded, his gaze narrowing. “Call us if you need us.”
Emotion overwhelmed her. She was alone no longer, and it felt good.
Hugging the fur collar of her sheepskin jacket, Sarah slipped through the shadows. Silent as her wolf, she crept around to the back French doors opening to the living room, and crouched down to watch.
The vampires entered the living room. Removed of furniture, with large red candles in ornate stands placed about the room and only the Christmas tree brightening the corner, the room looked slightly forbidding.
The twenty red-robed figures, cowls concealing their faces, could have been wraiths. She didn’t fear vampires, not even these, but something wasn’t right.
Marcus stepped in front of the vampires as they assembled in a line. Sarah’s nostrils flared. Head bowed in supplication and wearing his crimson robe, Adrian knelt before his father. A heavy sword in his hand, Marcus gazed down at his only son. The air thickened with malice.
If she interrupted this sacred ceremony now, Adrian would never forgive her. The other vampires might kill her.
Marcus raised the sword in the act of laying it just against Adrian’s neck in his gesture of absolute trust for his clan. Sarah’s gaze whipped to Marcus’s right pinkie.
It was bare.
Dread pooled in her stomach. She drew in a lungful of air, catching the fruity scent and feeling the tingle race down her spine.
The glass shattered with a direct pulse of her powers. Through the broken, wide opening of the doors Sarah burst through. “No!”
The shout was just enough to startle Marcus into pausing. Sarah didn’t stop, but barreled forward, pushing Adrian aside to safety.
Sarah’s frantic gaze met Adrian’s venomous one. He stood, tossed back his cowl, blue eyes icy as glaciers as he towered over her. “Sarah, what the hell?”
She heard the outraged murmurs. The others did not matter. Only Adrian.
“It isn’t your father, Adrian, but an imposter out to kill you.”
Adrian’s brow furrowed as Marcus lowered the sword, glaring at Sarah. “Enough, Adrian. Get rid of this intruder before I dispatch her myself.”
“Ridiculous,” one vampire scoffed. “Do you think we would not know our own leader, wolf?”
“Why would a Morph want me dead, Sarah?” Adrian remained motionless, pinning her with his intent gaze.
Sarah’s throat closed. “Because it knows if it kills you, I will die inside. And then when it then kills me, my grief will fill it with power it hasn’t experienced since the day it killed my mother. It’s my sister, Sandra. She knows how much I care about you. I was lying when I said I felt nothing for you other than friendship.”
Sarah prayed he would believe her, and take her side once more.
“My son, believe her and you will be banished forever,” Marcus warned.
Adrian hesitated and she saw his tormented indecision. Whom to trust? Side with his clan, or once more break with them?
Something flashed deep in his gaze. Adrian calmly regarded the others. “I trust Sarah and I’m taking her side.”
Through the ripples of shocked outrage, danger crackled in the air. Marcus snarled. The vampires cried out in alarm as vampire shifted.
The hunched figure with its wispy hair, black, soulless eyes and wet, red mouth hissed at them. The creature shifted, and burst into an explosion of bees, swarming straight at the vampires, then flying upstairs.
Looking severely shaken, the vampires stared at her. Sarah realized they finally understood she was on their side.
“I could use your help,” she told them. “You’re swifter and more powerful than we are.”
Respect filled his gaze as Adrian regarded Sarah. “None of us can scent the Morphs, but Sarah’s pack can.”
When the shaken vampires nodded, she stepped back and waved her hands, shifting into wolf. Sarah released a blood-curdling howl, calling forth her new pack. Minutes later, they streamed into the house, shifting as they ran.
Adrian took charge. “Each vampire team with a Draicon, find the Morphs and kill them.”
