She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. All her life, her only goal had been to protect her sisters. Those she loved, those she didn’t. Now she was to fight against one.
And Layel…
What was she to do about him? She’d wondered all through the night, yet she still didn’t have an answer. They were enemies now, more so than before. At least, they were supposed to be.
Last night he had said cruel things to her. At first, she’d been hurt and had by turns wanted to beat him senseless and cry in his arms like a weakling. But then she’d remembered something. In battle, anything goes. She knew that better than most, and last night they had been locked in a battle of fierce desire. Words meant nothing. Actions, everything.
He wanted her. Proof: just a little while ago he had peered at her with naked longing in his eyes. But while he did want her, he clearly did not want to want her. Proof: he always walked away.
Part of Delilah was ready to fight him until he changed his mind. Until he admitted that he craved her kiss as much as she craved his. And yet, the other part of Delilah insisted she do nothing, forcing him to fight for her and treat her as the prize she’d always wanted to be. She was confused by the conflicting nature of her desires. Fight for him—make him fight for her. Dominate him—be dominated by him.
She knew she would not do the first, even though she’d allowed herself moments of weakness and had almost given in to the thought of pleasure. To give herself to another man, she had to know she was the most important thing in his life. He had to want her more than anything. He had to need her.
Would Layel ever need anyone?
Someone approached her, and she stiffened. She heard the swish of sand against boot, the faint rasp of even breathing. Not Layel, for this man radiated heat and smelled like sex.
“Nymph.” She pushed to her feet and turned to him, hands curled into fists. Just in case.
“Amazon.” He was at her side a moment later. He faced the water, careful not to focus his decadent gaze on her, and locked his hands behind his back. “We are teammates, you and I,” he said.
He was tall, forcing her to look up…and up…and up. He had pale hair and bright blue eyes. His body was stacked with muscle upon muscle, visible even through his clothing. Normally, she remained as far away from the nymphs as possible. After all, they were capable of enslaving a woman with only a glance.
Yet she felt no passion-flare for him. No compulsion to strip for him, kiss him, touch him. His eyes were not a clear enough blue. His hair wasn’t white, completely devoid of color. His skin wasn’t white-velvet and slightly chilled to the touch. His features were not haunted.
“Yes,” she finally said. “We are.”
“For us to win, I need to remain strong.”
“Yes.” Where was he going with this?
At last he faced her, his lips curling into a tender smile. “I am glad we understand one another.” The words were casual, the tone joyful. “Do you prefer clothing on or off?”
She shook her head, positive she had misheard. “What?”
“Clothes on or off?” He fisted the hem of his shirt, ready to lift at a moment’s notice.
Dear gods. He expected to bed her. “I don’t even know your name and you expect me to welcome you into my body?”
“I am Broderick. And, yes.”
Let’s see. How could she respond without insulting a teammate she might need aid from tonight? “Gods, no.”
“No?” His brow puckered for a moment before smoothing out. “Oh, you mean, no clothing.” Whoosh. His shirt pooled at their feet. He was grinning now.
“No bedding.” Why could she not desire him, though? Why did he fail to thrill her? He was handsome, as powerful as Vorik the dragon had been, might be able to talk her sisters into anything without having to fight them for her, hurting them. With a nymph, you will never be number one. You will be exactly what you have never wanted: a convenience.
Broderick lost his grin and blinked in surprise. “But to maintain my strength, I need sex.”
“So go have sex.” She braced her hands on her hips.
He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in satisfaction. “Where would you like me to take you? Here?”
Were all nymphs so dense? “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying, so I’m going to explain it a little better.” In the span of a single heartbeat, she grabbed hold of his wrist, spun behind him and twisted, flipping him onto his stomach and giving him a mouthful of sand. “I’m not bedding you anywhere, anytime.”
Spitting out those white grains, he rolled over and frowned up at her. “But we are teammates. If I am weak, we could lose.”
“So you’ve said.”
“If we lose, one of us will die.”
Her blood chilled, becoming streams of ice. He was right. One weak link could drag down an entire army. She had seen it happen, had fought to make it happen, actually, her sisters sometimes seducing a warrior and enticing him to betray his own kind.
Losing had never and would never sit well with her.
But sleep with this man? This nymph? Just to win? She had once let a formorian fondle her while her sisters sneaked inside his home and searched for the young Amazons he had stolen and locked away, hoping to train them as his personal guard. He had repulsed her, but she had allowed his ministrations with a smile. Had even patted his head as if he were a favored pet.
Once the girls had been found, Delilah had sliced his throat.
That fondling had been for a good cause. This, too, was a good cause, yet the thought of letting anyone other than Layel pleasure her was somehow…abhorrent.
Broderick stood, and he did not appear pleased. Grains of sand clung to his roped chest lovingly. Female sand? A pretty scar slashed from one of his nipples to his navel.
Women came easily, eagerly to him. That much was obvious. Delilah wondered if she was the first to ever have told him no.
“You will not find my touch distasteful, Amazon, I swear it.”
“Step away from her, Broderick.”
Both Delilah and the nymph pivoted to face their intruder. Layel. Her heart sped up, hammering so hard her ribs would surely crack. His voice had been devoid of emotion, as was his expression. Still, he was the most beautiful sight she’d ever beheld. Sensual, hard, determined. Mine.
Dangerous…Oh, yes, he was. In every way imaginable, maybe even some that weren’t.
A needy whimper rose in her throat, and she barely managed to silence it.
“Layel,” the nymph said, and there was genuine affection in his tone.
They were friends, and that friendship made her own turbulent relationship with the vampire seem so much darker.
“She is mine,” Layel said firmly.
Broderick’s lush lips dipped into a confused frown. “But you—”
“Mine,” he insisted.
Hearing the vampire’s claim was like being branded, the words fiery hot and reverberating all the way to her soul. She should have rebuffed him. Appearances had to be maintained. In front of others, especially her new teammates, she had to be cold, heartless. But she couldn’t force the words out.
Mine, he’d said, mimicking her own thoughts. She wanted to smile.
The nymph sighed in disappointment, yet there was a sharp edge to the sound. “I never poach another man’s property, you know that. If you change your mind…”
“I will not.”
Wait. Property? Had Broderick just called her Layel’s property?
Broderick shrugged and strode from the beach. His easy compliance confirmed what she had suspected. She would not have been important to the nymph. She would have been a warm body in an assuredly long line of warm bodies, forgotten when the loving was over. Not good enough for more than a few tumbles.
What would it take to be important to a man? To mean something? To mean everything?
For several seconds, neither Delilah nor Layel spoke. She didn’t know what to say to him, really, too
afraid to ruin this heady moment.
“Do not think I care about your welfare,” he said, looking away from her and to the water.
Moment ruined. Still determined to fight her, was he? Disappointment rocked her, but she squared her shoulders and raised her chin. Words meant nothing, she reminded herself once more. Actions, everything. “Do not think I will deny myself a man if I want him.”
A muscle ticked in Layel’s stubborn jaw.
“So tell me. If you don’t want me for yourself, why did you send the beautiful Broderick away?” she said.
Several seconds passed in agonizing slowness. “I will see you on the battlefield, Amazon,” was all he finally said. And then he, too, strode away.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“LAYEL IS MISSING.”
Alyssa, fierce soldier of the vampire army, stared up at the nymph king, gauging his reaction to her announcement. Valerian was the only man Layel truly trusted. The only man he counted as friend. Layel respected his warriors, of course, and he was fair and generous to his people. But he kept himself distanced, always distanced.
Still, ever since the nymph sovereign had struck an alliance with the dragons to maintain peace and possession of this palace, the friendship had been strained, and so Alyssa could not be sure of Valerian’s innocence.
Had Valerian hurt Layel, the vampire king responsible for hundreds of dragon deaths, to appease his new ally?
The nymph king frowned over at her, concern lighting his brilliant blue eyes. “How long has he been gone?”
That concern appeared genuine, and Alyssa experienced a rush of relief. Layel shouldn’t be made to suffer another devastating loss. He might not survive. If he even lived. “This is the second day,” she said. “He disappeared amidst…” she swayed, her head suddenly swimming, her knees weaker than usual. Somehow she managed to remain on her feet.
“Woman?” Valerian inquired, concern shifting now to her.
“Forgive the disruption. I’m fine.” But she wasn’t. She needed blood. Blood she hadn’t been able to take in months. Much longer and she would collapse, no amount of determination or fortitude able to save her. “He disappeared amidst a battle in the Forest of Dragons.”
Valerian was not easily diverted. “Are you unwell? We now have a healer in residence. Brenna will—”
Do not dare glance at the man beside Valerian. Eyes ahead. “I’m fine,” she repeated firmly. “We were speaking of Layel…”
His frown sharpened around the edges. He was a beautiful man, probably the most sensually lovely creature the gods had ever created. He had golden hair, a hard, muscled body and an eroticism that radiated from him no matter where he was or what he was doing.
Females young and old constantly threw themselves at him, though there was only one woman he desired. And that woman was even now sitting on his lap, frowning just as fervently as he was.
“Layel has disappeared before,” Queen Shaye said, patting her mate’s arm in a bid to comfort him.
Alyssa’s chest ached at the sight of their obvious love for each other. She wanted that for herself. Had thought, for a single night, that she had found it. How wrong she’d been.
Once again she had to remind herself to keep her eyes focused on something other than the soldier standing beside Valerian. Shivawn.
She’d hungered for him since the first moment she had spied him and the hunger had only grown. At that first sighting, she’d craved friendship, his fierce loyalty. As she’d grown into a woman, that craving had become sexual. To her absolute devastation, he’d never wanted anything to do with her. Except once…
After ignoring her for years, he had finally allowed her to entice him to her bed. For hours, she’d feasted on his body. She’d savored every sound he uttered, every move he made and every delicious beat of his heart. It had been the most exquisite night of her entire life.
But when the loving had finished, he’d left. No tender goodbye, no farewell kiss.
No hunting her down and sweeping her back into his arms the next day. In fact, he hadn’t spoken to her since, even though they had stumbled upon each other several times. With his every glance, however, he’d conveyed his message perfectly: she was a nuisance. Beneath him. Unworthy. She wanted to hate him. Instead, she remembered. She desired. Still. Perhaps forever.
Her gaze moved of its own accord, landing on him, and her heart stuttered to a halt. He was tall; his sandy hair hung in waves to his broad shoulders. He was looking past her, just over her shoulder. His expression conveyed boredom, as though he could not wait for her to leave.
When would he learn? Leaving was the one thing she could never do, not with him. Pathetic of her, yes. But cruel as he was turning out to be, she now needed him to survive. Much longer and she would truly die. He just did not know it yet.
“My mate speaks true,” Valerian said, claiming Alyssa’s attention once more. “Layel often steals a few days for himself.”
“Yet he has never abandoned his own people without word of when he would return. He has never left without placing a second-in-command. And you know as well as I that he would never leave during a battle with dragons.”
“You speak true, as well.” Valerian’s tanned skin blanched, his strong arms tightening around his mate. She was like new-fallen snow, with silver-white hair and skin so luminous it practically glowed. The only color to her belonged to her large, dark eyes. She was human, a child of the surface world, with blood that smelled pure and sweet.
Used to be, the gods had gifted the vampires with humans they didn’t want tarnishing that surface world. Mmm, she remembered how delicious they’d been. No one tasted better.
Except Shivawn.
She had tasted him that night he’d allowed her to seduce him. The sensual power she had found with a single swallow, the headiness…Light-headed, she nearly lost her balance again. She had been unable to take a single drop of crimson nectar from anyone else since.
Oh, she had tried. But everything tasted like rot when compared to Shivawn and she gagged. Finally, she’d stopped trying to feed. She had lost weight, strength, and now spent more time in bed than she did out of it. She was becoming desperate for another taste of Shivawn.
“I will send a troop to scour the Inner and Outer cities,” Valerian said. “We will find him.”
“Another vampire disappeared, as well,” she said. “Zane, a warrior. He is wild, even unpredictable, but he is loyal to Layel and would not have hurt him.”
Pensive, Valerian stroked his chin. “Two vampires disappeared, you said?”
“Yes.”
“No others?”
She shook her head.
“Two?” he insisted.
“Yes.”
“That disturbs me, for two of my nymphs are unaccounted for. Two of my elite. I had thought they stumbled upon bed partners and simply lost track of time. But…”
Two vampires, two nymphs. “What could this mean?”
“I wonder if any other creatures are missing.” Valerian flicked Shivawn a glance. “Go into the cities. Learn what you can and report back to me. I want an answer by morning.”
Shivawn gave a stiff nod and turned on his booted heel.
“My lord,” Alyssa rushed out, stepping closer to the king’s dais. Had she been any other species, his guards would have attacked her. Because she was vampire, servant of Layel, the action was tolerated. “I must insist that I accompany your soldier.”
Shivawn, who had not paused during her speech, halted abruptly. He kept his back to both Valerian and Alyssa. As he stood there, the braided hair at his temples swung back and forth, beads clicking together. “And I must insist I go alone, my king.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, but she didn’t direct her words to him. “Your man will get nothing done if he is forced to fight off every woman he encounters. More than that, he will enrage the men of those enslaved females and they will refuse to aid him.”
Shaye sighed, a sound of feminine pique. “She’s right. You
nymphs and your damn mojo. It ruins everything!”
Mojo?
“Everything?” Valerian asked the queen huskily, as if he knew exactly what she meant. Just then, they were clearly the only two people in the chamber, everyone else forgotten.
The human chuckled and kissed his cheek. “Well, maybe not everything.”
Another ache lanced through Alyssa’s chest as Valerian gazed tenderly at his mate. Oh, to be loved like that.
“Shivawn,” Valerian said, “take the vampire with you.”
Pivoting, radiating outrage, Shivawn scowled. “My king, I—”
“Will do it,” was the firm, sharp interruption.
A moment passed. Then another. The sudden silence was thick and oppressive. Hurtful. Shivawn wanted to argue. She knew that from the clench of his jaw, the tic below his eye and the fists he tried to keep hidden at his sides.
Alyssa pulled her gaze from him. Ultimately, he would not refuse his king. But his hesitation cut her so deeply she longed to sink to her knees and sob. He would have welcomed any other woman, she was sure. Why did he hate her so? Clear your mind. Do not show him the depth of your hurt.
Limbs trembling, she studied the palace throne room. The floors were white marble veined with silver, the walls black onyx studded with jewels of every color. From sapphires to rubies, from emeralds to diamonds, they winked at her, mocking her with their beauty and purity.
Why did he hate her so? she wondered again, unable to bury the question this time.
You know the reason, you simply do not wish to acknowledge it. True. To acknowledge the truth was to lose all hope of winning the man. There is no hope. To Shivawn, she was, and would always be, tainted, for he despised both demons and vampires—and she was equal measures of each. He didn’t know it, no one did, but he must sense it on some level.
The demons he blamed for killing his father many years ago. A crime she had inadvertently been involved in, though he didn’t know that, either. Would never know it, if she had her way.
The vampires he despised because of their need for blood, for one had nearly killed him. That night, in bed, when she had sunk her teeth into his chest, he had almost slapped her. Had barely managed to stay his hand.
The Vampire's Bride--A Paranormal Romance Novel Page 10
