She put her arm around his neck as he cupped her bottom. A low growl of satisfaction came from the back of his throat as she grasped his hair, holding him close and twirling her tongue against his.
He liked the little moans she made, the whimpers of ecstasy. Picking her up, he laid her across the red satin sheets, then followed to lay over her. McLain held her gaze, watching the pleasure darken her eyes as he cupped and fondled her breasts. Her hand came over his, holding his palm against her. Her other hand raked into his hair, clutching a fistful to pull him down so she could taste his lips again. His thighs rubbed against her softer smaller ones. His knee wedged between hers until she opened her thighs where he could rest, snuggled between them. She raised one bent knee to slide it against his side, opening herself more fully. He grabbed her raised thigh and ran his large hand along its smoothness until his fingers rounded her bottom and found her moist heat.
Carmen whimpered as he toyed with her. Her kiss became more aggressive, more frenzied. McLain’s other hand move to the hair behind her neck, grabbing it with a growl as he met her kiss with ravenous lips. He pushed his fingers deep within her sheath as his tongue pushed in to taste the sweet essence of her mouth. The passion intensified, growing desperate and hungry. A crackle of energy sizzled about them, growing with the rise in their passions.
Not wishing to wait any longer to possess her, he replaced his fingers with his hardened staff, pushing through her wet folds to reach the very core of her. The energy splashed into a curtain of blue light. It circled them in a cloak as they made love. Every thrust brought a cracking of intensity, but McLain’s every thought centered on Carmen, the feel, and smell of her. Being deep inside...connected to another like he had never been before. The joining felt right, complete.
With every retreat to thrust forward, he felt Carmen grasp at his hips, holding him within. McLain plunged deep. She gasped, doing so with each slow invasion of his hard body. Carmen raised her hips to meet every plunge, his body slid over hers again and again as a fine layer of sweat coated their flesh.
“Ride me, sweet Carmen. Hold me.”
Her cry of ecstasy drove him over the edge. His seed burst forth deep within her very core. A roar of release and satisfaction rumbled from his soul to echo about the chamber and the blue glow disappeared.
McLain pulled her tight against him, burying his face against her throat. The sound of life beating where his lips rested brought a strong primal urge to take her essence. His fangs lengthened and he scrapped them across her soft flesh. The beast demanded and McLain struggled, as Carmen lay submissive. Then she sighed and moved under him and he growled, tearing himself away from the temptation. He sat up quickly, pushing both hands through his hair. The need for her was powerful.
When he felt her hand slide up his back, he turned to her and gave a command.
“Sleep, my love.”
Carmen’s hand fell away and her eyes closed in deep peaceful slumber. McLain sighed; he would explain things to her tomorrow evening. He was too emotionally tired to have spoken of sharing blood this night, the temptation too strong. He didn’t have the patience to answer all her questions. Her innocence on intimate matters was hard to deal with. He lay back down beside her, covering them both with the satin sheets and a down filled comforter before slowing his heart and slipping into a deep sleep.
Chapter Seven
“Wake up, fool.” Jayce kicked the man lying on the floor. “I have found the woman.”
The man groaned and rolled over. “What the hell are you talking about? A person shouldn’t be rudely awakened so early in the day.”
“Get up. I know who the woman is that is said to carry the power of the gods in her veins.”
The man sat up, rubbing his red swollen eyes. “I thought that was a myth.”
“Well, it’s not. We have to get the others together. She’s to be killed before the full moon or the vampires will take that power.”
“I don’t kill women. There’s no sport in it, so before I work up a sweat to do your bidding, tell me why you think she has powers.”
“I heard the truth from her mother’s lips. The bitch screwed a god and found herself breeding.”
“You have drunk too much wine. No one believes in the ancient gods any longer. Now you’re telling me that they exist? Mayhap the woman only told you she laid with a god because your manhood lacks muscle.”
“Shut up fool, before I take your tongue.”
He held up his hands. “All right, all right...so where is this woman?”
“I had spies placed everywhere around the city, and she was spotted near a boarding house in the marsh. My lookout informed me that she and another man ran through the woods to the city’s edge and there hired a hack. He followed them to the Dubrinski mansion.”
“What are your plans?”
“I plan to take her.” Jayce felt the pressure building behind his eyes. The urge to taste her power became a sharp pain in his head. “She must be moved to the sacred ring for sacrifice. I will have her powers.” He rubbed his hands together then felt an itching in his palms that he dug at with vigor. “Have our men surround the estate and wait for any opening to steal her. If this person she is with gets in my way...no...he is already in my way. Lord Dubrinski will be eliminated. I want all traces covered carefully so that Brom is not able to tell who took his sister. Invade the house, take what you want, but kill Dubrinski. He has attached himself to Carmen and she is following. I can’t have any connections. Her power must be mine.
* * *
Carmen woke up hungry. McLain laid next to her still and cool to the touch, as if in death, but she knew from Slain that vampires all rested like that until sunset or some sense of danger brought them forth.
Besides, she was not used to others waiting on her, so she slipped from bed and dressed. There had to be food that she could fix within the kitchens.
Taking a candle, she made her way back up the stairs to the main floor, closing the hidden panel behind her. She took the time to explore some of the mansion until she found the kitchen. As she moved through the room, she saw again like the rest of the house that everything was very clean. She wondered if McLain had a spell over the manor. There was no dust or dirt anywhere. But more importantly, she found no food. Carmen moved to the pantry. With him being a vampire, she suspected the larder to be empty as well but she had to look. Her hunger ravaged her stomach, and it growled with impatience.
Pulling the door open, she found nothing but empty shelves in the large storeroom. Clean glass jars, and crock-pots sat empty on the shelves. No sacks of grain or wheels of cheese lay propped on the bottom racks and large hooks in the ceiling where smoked meat once hung told that days of plenty had been great in the past.
With a sigh, she closed the door and the hollow sound echoed through the room. Glancing out a window over the wash sink, she spied an abandoned garden. Overgrown weeds covered fruit trees and bushes of flowers or berries. Here stood her chance for food. She moved to the back door and stepped out. A barren apple tree grew in the center of one stone garden surrounded below by unkempt herbs; both would be tasty at the moment. Her mouth watered for the imagined fruit.
Glancing about to make sure no one notice what would occur, Carmen walked one row over, broke off a thorn from a bare rose bush, and pricked her finger, bringing forth a drop of bright ruby-red blood.
Carmen approached the apple tree, and with her finger, she smeared a circle upon the rough tree trunk with her finger. She whispered softly the words of life. “Take freely from my blood and bring forth fruit. I gladly share my circle of life in exchange for sustenance.” She stepped back and waited again, glancing nervously about.
The ground trembled, causing the pebbles about her feet to jump. The tree swayed and shook, a glow coming up from its roots. Its golden beams shot forth from the earth, casting the light along the trunk and within the tree’s heart until it radiated out through its branches. First leaves and flowers burst forth in thick
foliage then the flowers became buds to grow into full size green apples. Within minutes, the color of the fruit changed to a bright juicy red in the evening sun.
Fully ripe, Carmen reached out and plucked the luscious fruit, biting into it. She closed her eyes as the sweet juice slid down her throat to satisfy her hunger and quiet her stomach. This trick had always been her secret. Carmen kept it hidden from even her mother. She had stumbled onto it when she was younger. She tripped over a stone along the river’s stony shore and scraped her knee. As the blood touched the ground, flowers appeared, growing about her in a ring of reds, pinks, and yellows. She got so excited about the blooms, she forgot about the wound. That was when she started to experiment and found that her blood could actually renew life.
However, it wasn’t until she lost her favorite dog that she realized the potency of her blood. Her pet dog licked a cut on her elbow, and he suffered a horrible death. She cut her finger and tried to revive the beloved pet with blood given freely, but it came too late. She couldn’t give life to the dead. If blood, the vital force of life, was taken without her consent, it killed violently but in the offering and accepting of it, life grew strong. Her powers only went so far, so she buried her beloved pet and retreated from life fearing accidents, for with accidents came questions. She knew then she had to bandage and take care of her own wounds.
She reached up for another apple, biting into its white flesh, consuming it with pleasure. She walked around the forsaken garden. At one time, these plant beds had been beautiful. Marble sculptures lay hidden and rejected among the weeds and overgrown bushes. The mint and rosemary perfumed the air bringing a peace to her soul. Carmen could close her eyes and see it the way it had been once long ago.
It reminded her of the garden she had played hide-and-seek in as a child. Brom always pretended he couldn’t find her as he searched all around where she huddled. However, as she got older, she became good at hiding. Now the game had become a matter of life and death.
Even at a young age, she knew if the knowledge got out about her powers, her life was forfeit. She had an understanding far beyond her years. That was why the betrayal ran so deep when her brother murdered their mother. For she had looked up to him, and would not have guessed he was capable of such violence against a family member. Carmen wondered if somehow he had discovered her secret.
McLain filled her thoughts. She was learning to love him. What would happen if he found out the truth? He was a good man even though he tried to hide it.
Walking back to the apple tree, she took another red fruit. Her hunger pains were gone. She closed her eyes and bit into the juicy fruit just for the enjoyment.
Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind. Carmen choked on the bit of apple as a hand covered her mouth and an arm wrapped tight around her waist. Another pair of hands quickly tied her wrists behind her back. The apple she held fell from her numb fingers to roll along the dirt path. She kicked out and yelled. Her cry muffled beneath the pressing palm of her attacker. Fear widened her eyes, taking in everything happening around her. Her breathing came in loud short pants through her nose. She fought, kicking and twisting to find release from the two men who had their faces covered in masks. They started pulling her away from the house when she saw other masked men breaking into the back door, swords, and wooden stakes in their hands.
“McLain!” They meant to kill, him. Images of a stake shoved through his chest, breaking ribs to pierce his gentle heart, along with the flash of a blade, slicing through his neck to sever his head from his shoulders brought terror and panic to converge like a thick cloud upon her thoughts.
With every fiber of her being, she screamed out to McLain, hoping it would reach some part of him as he slept below ground. A sharp pain exploded at her temple and her world went dark.
Chapter Eight
McLain’s eyes snapped open as he drew his first breath. Something had disturbed his sleep. Unconsciously, he reached for Carmen and found her side of the bed empty. Fear pressed down on his chest. He reached out with his senses, searching for her inside the house then outside around his manor. She was nowhere around. However, there remained a disturbance in his house. The violence left an oily evil skin, a calling card for him.
Scanning outside, he found a warning hanging about his garden. The warning came from Carmen. She had pulled him from his sleep, and now she was gone—taken.
Three men still plundered his house above and he felt the beast grow within him. Letting loose the dark powers he normally held in check, he rose from the bed with the fires of hell dancing between the fingers of each hand. He would kill the man who took Carmen. He dressed quickly then transformed into smoke, racing up the steps. Sliding through the crack at the bottom of the panel, he emerged near the stairs on the main floor.
He floated above the room like an ominous presence, waiting for his victims to blunder into his grasp. One of the intruders, dressed in black with a mask concealing his face, moved around the stairwell. McLain took form just behind him. He grabbed the invader around the neck, twisting his head with a sickening crack. He exposed the man’s throat then fed on the corpse, draining it before throwing it to the floor. His hunger was appeased but his wrath only grew.
McLain touched each of the other men’s minds, and found nothing of Carmen in their thoughts. Yet, he knew they were part of those men that took her. They worked as a pack, so a leader reined. They were cowards, working together to boost their lagging morals.
He vanished into vapor and flew swiftly from room to room until he found his next victim. This man, he took form in front of, watching the fear grow in the attacker’s eyes through the holes in his mask. McLain bared his fangs in a snarl as he stepped forward, ripping into the man’s throat, draining him until the last beat of his heart. McLain threw him against the wall. The attacker slid to the floor in a pile of limp bones.
The power grew in McLain and he embraced it. He would need all his strength and wit to find Carmen. Rage still boiled and rolled in his chest and in his mind. The anger turned into a red haze, threatened to devour him.
He quickly found the last intruder, cornering him near the back entrance. “Tell me where she is so your sins will be forgiven and death quick. Who has taken Carmen from me?” He stalked the attacker, slowly moving closer.
The man cowered and whimpered, looking franticly for a way out. “He goes by the name, Ram. That is all I know. Let me go.”
McLain gave a wicked bark of laughter. “You have chosen this path—not I.”
He used his speed to reach the troll and snapped his neck, ending the man’s suffering. He refused to drink this man’s weak blood. The other two had left a foul taste in his mouth.
In quick work, McLain carried all three corpses out of the house and commanded the earth to open. A deep hole gaped in the rich soil and he threw them in. Then with a swift jerk of his hand, red flames flew from his fingers, incinerating skin and bone. He closed the dirt over their charred remains.
Mentality, he ran over possible suspects reckless enough to have taken Carmen. Brom came to mind. McLain wondered if Carmen’s brother had succeeded in following them, if he now held her, chained somewhere in the dark. Was she alone or were others torturing her?
He took to the air, changing into a bird of prey, his tormented screech echoing over the woods. His emotions swirled in turmoil. Anger warred with fear. The beast within him snapped and snarled for vengeance. How could they have gotten to her? Whoever had her, or whatever power they used, nothing could shelter or hide them now.
Retracing his steps toward the boarding house, he found Brom and Roy on horseback headed his way just inside the city limits. They both carried lanterns and Brom was leaning over his mount’s neck, examining the road.
Fog had formed early within the city. Its wispy fingers crawled out among the trees and would soon surround the country grounds as well.
McLain flew low and transformed into his human form just as he stepped through the fog and past the tree
line into the rider’s ring of light. The horses, startled by his presence, jerked and pranced away. Brom’s stallion reared, but he brought him under control. The horse’s body quivered and he patted his mount’s neck no doubt to reassure.
McLain met Brom’s gaze. “Where is she?” His voice rumbled like thunder, deep and threatening.
Brom’s gaze narrowed. “I want the return of my sister, McLain. You don’t know what you have stepped into.”
“Are you saying you don’t have her?” Thinking on it, Brom wouldn’t have had time to hide her securely then end up here, returning to his estate. Someone else had her, but whom?
Brom’s eyes darkened, his lips tightened over his clinched jaw. “Are you saying you don’t?”
“I’m saying she was taken from my home by a band of men in masks. Three assassins were left in her place. I removed them, and set off to find her. I gave my word to protect her and I will do so at any cost.”
Brom raised his brow, his gaze intense. “I wonder if you know just what you bit into with that vow. I would guess it doesn’t matter, you are now involved.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t have her, but I’m almost sure who does.”
Roy turned to Brom. “Would you be thinking Jayce has her?”
“I would.”
McLain snarled. “Perhaps you should enlighten me farther.”
Brom signed. “We were headed to your place. I would suggest we meet there. Outside ears must not hear what is said. I will tell you what you need to know.”
Brom turned to Roy, pulled a gold piece from his pocket, and flipped it to him. Roy reached out and caught the coin in midair. “What’s this for?”
“Go buy yourself a feast. I’ll let you know of our plans within the hour. I must speak to McLain privately.”
Roy nodded. A frown wrinkled his brow and his lips pinched as if he’d eaten something sour, but he didn’t bark any objections. “I’ll be at the Boars Head Eatery. If I don’t hear from you in an hour, I’ll be sending a group to McLain’s residence.” Roy turned his horse about, trotting back toward town.
Satin Chamber Page 6
