His hold was firm, but gentle. I knew if I resisted, he’d release me instantly, but I wanted to be near him. The closeness offered a comfort I desperately craved.
“Rose said you needed to eat,” I murmured against his shirt.
He sighed. “I’ll find something later. You need to rest.”
The thought of him feeding on anyone but me struck a chord. I didn’t want his mouth on anyone else. As much as Rose had declared I “belonged” to him, I had begun to feel quite strongly about him “belonging” to me.
“Why did you hesitate when I offered at the café?”
“Because you were scared. Then when Garrett reacted the way he did to whatever he overheard in your thoughts, I knew we needed to talk before anything else happened.”
He stroked my hair, rubbing my scalp in small circles with his fingertips. If I hadn’t been so intent on listening, it would have put me to sleep for sure.
“I need to know your past, min kjaereste. I refuse to make a mistake with you because I don’t know what you fear. I sense your attraction to me, but I feel you holding back. You tell me you want this … me … but then fear that I would trap you in my home. Your mind and your heart are at war.”
It was like he could see straight into my bloodied and battered soul. Was I ready to bare it all, though? Part of me worried he would abandon me if he knew. What Kevin had done to me was monstrous. I didn’t want to lose the comfort I found in Erick’s presence. His arms holding me tightly, making me forget the troubles that followed me was enough for me for now.
I knew he would want everything. More than I could give him so soon. Maybe ever. I had to hold on to this comfort a little longer. I just needed a few days of eating real food and sleeping with both eyes closed.
I wondered if I would ever be free of my demons.
A single tear ran down my cheek.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered in my ear. “We don’t have to talk about it now.” He nuzzled my hair and he kissed my temple, letting his lips linger just a few moments on my skin. The tenderness undid me. I couldn’t help the stream of tears that fell, nor the sobs that followed.
Erick held me tighter. Without judgment, without words. My body heaved with each sob I’d forbidden myself to release for so many torturous years. I needed to cleanse myself of the emotional pain I had suffered, and he let me.
A deep hum rumbled from his chest, and I slowed my sobs as the hum changed to words. It was nothing I could understand. The words were in the same foreign language he’d used off and on before, but the melody was calming, ebbing and flowing like waves on a beach, and I felt myself fading.
He was singing me a lullaby.
***
I inhaled a deep breath and stretched my legs, startled to find an extra pair beneath mine. My lips turned up into a smile. He’d sung me a lullaby and I’d slept the whole time on top of him. I opened my eyes and rotated my head to look at him.
He smiled and rubbed the small of my back with one of his hands.
“How long did I sleep?”
“About two hours,” he answered.
I shifted, trying to find the best way to peel my body off of his. After a few attempts, I realized he would have to make the first move.
He moved his hands to my waist and lifted me, slipping out from under my body with the grace only a supernatural being could possess. I barely felt the move and then I was seated next to him once more.
“Are you hungry?”
As he waited for me to answer, I noticed him lick his lips and then frown. I wasn’t really that hungry, but I knew he still was. He hadn’t left my side this whole time.
“I’m fine, but you …”
He shook his head. “You aren’t ready for that.”
“Why not?”
“It will complete the link between us. I will be able to feel where you are always. And by allowing me to drink directly from your body, you acknowledge and accept my claim on you. Each time I feed, the bond will grow stronger.”
“If I left, would the bond fade?”
He frowned and narrowed his gaze. Apparently the thought of my leaving was already unpleasant to him.
That feeling was mutual.
“It would fade some, but it would never completely be gone. I would always be able to find you … your blood would be like a homing beacon.”
“Where do you prefer? Neck? Wrist?”
“Bailey.” His tone questioned. I knew he was trying to give me another chance to back out.
“I agree to your terms, but I don’t know how long I can stay. I certainly can’t promise you forever, but I agree for as long as I am here.” A shiver ran down my spine as I watched his bright blue eyes darken and a thin line of red circle the edge of the irises.
“Straddle me.”
I gulped. It wasn’t a question and I didn’t hesitate. I twisted my body and lifted my leg over his lap, situating myself across his thighs. I wiggled a little to get comfortable.
He grabbed my hips and pulled me closer, grinding my sex against his hard length. My body throbbed and my panties were soaked in seconds. Taking a deep breath, I focused on slowing my racing heart and trembling body. What I thought would be an uncomfortable bite and awkward aftermath had turned into something completely different.
Fire licked at my belly and I swayed my hips, allowing his hands to guide the movement. Another growl rumbled from his chest. His hands abandoned my waist and slid upward, grazing my breasts and then over my shoulders. He cupped each side of my face and pulled me closer, kissing me slowly. His tongue grazed first my top lip then my bottom, then plunged between them, sweeping inside. It was euphoric. He tasted sweet and I opened further for him.
My gesture did not go unnoticed and I received an encouraging gravelly moan as a reward. He sucked and nipped at my lips again before trailing his kisses slowly across my jaw and down the side of my neck below my ear. His right hand caressed the nape of my neck and grasped the base of the loose braid of my hair. He pulled my head gently to the side, further exposing my neck and collarbone to his hungry mouth.
My heart raced again. The bite had to be coming soon. I leaned into his kisses, pushing my neck closer. Something had changed in my mind. I no longer feared the bite. Instead, I desperately wanted it.
A slight pinch just above my collarbone startled me, then pain flared from that point on my neck for a brief moment before morphing into pleasure that coursed through my nerves, touching and awakening even more of my hibernating libido. My breasts swelled uncomfortably in their lacy confines and my clit throbbed beneath the layers of damp lace and denim.
He drank deeply, but the pain changed into something rapturous as our bodies continued to grind against each other. I knew I wasn’t the only one silently cursing the barriers of clothing.
I arched my back as his hand slid down the back of my jeans and slipped beneath the waistband. He squeezed my ass and then pulled me even closer, crushing me against his straining cock.
What was quite frustrating and unfulfilling for me had to be excruciating torture for him, but I knew he wouldn’t take it that far. I trusted him to wait for me to be ready.
I wasn’t. Not yet. My body was just reacting to the moment. To him.
The pain heightened for a split second before receding to a dull throb as he pulled away. His tongue laved over the bite and I shivered as a tingle of something swept over me, similar to what I’d felt in the bath earlier this morning when he’d licked the cut on my ankle.
Then it was gone.
No pain.
Only the throbbing in my sex still remained, and possibly the frustration from four years of sexual abstinence. I wasn’t ready yet, but it wouldn’t take me long to get there. He’d woven a spell around me and I was intoxicated on it. On him.
“Min kjaereste, I cannot wait to taste the rest of you. On my honor, I vow to protect and keep you safe as long as I walk this earth.”
Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to belong to Eri
ck Thorson. I curled into his chest and breathed in his light peppermint scent, loving that he smelled like the candy. Over the years, I’d developed quite an addiction to them. They were inexpensive and lasted forever. Now my suddenly naughty mind wondered if the rest of him tasted like my favorite candy, too.
“Thank you,” I murmured against his chest.
“You are the one who has bestowed the gift, kjaere. It is I who should thank you.”
Thanking me … A man had never thanked me for anything. Men took what they wanted and women did the best with what they could get. Even though there were more freedoms in the states of the Texas Republic, most women still were forced into choosing a partner at the ripe old age of eighteen.
The fact that I was in my twenties and unmarried automatically threw me into the prostitute population pool. I would eventually be caught and sold into a brothel, it was just a matter of letting down my guard.
There had been several times someone, probably sex traffickers, had followed me and I rode a city bus around town most of the night until they gave up and left.
The thought of being locked up and used by strangers terrified me nearly as much as the idea of Kevin finding me. Though I knew in the brothel, at least they would keep the men from beating me.
“There’s no brothel in town, is there?” My voice was so soft, I wondered if he’d hear me.
His body stiffened immediately. “No,” he replied sharply. “There used to be more human inhabitants of Sanctuary, but things changed after the riots in Los Angeles. We convinced them all to leave.”
“You influenced a whole town?”
“No, just a few of the men. They rest followed easily once the leaders were convinced. We already owned most of the town. Rose founded it in 1920. Cohabiting with humans wasn’t ever an issue until that stupid drug surprised us all. No one knew it would effect supernaturals the way it did. Our bodies usually metabolize drugs so quickly they don’t matter. But this one exposed an entire pack of wolves. There were public sightings, maulings, even a few deaths.” His voice faded away for a moment. “It’s so sad when the mistakes of a few can completely alter the course of history for the entire planet.”
I’d read about the laws changing when I was in high school. The general population rose up in outrage that Others might be mixing with humans. Martial law was declared in 2047, one year after the Los Angeles riots. Everything in the country changed overnight. Soldiers patrolled the streets and the country broke into pieces. We were taught that it was for the better. Better for whom? What they failed to teach was anything about life before 2047.
The U.S. had been drastically different. I knew, because I’d found that precious stash of contraband books in an abandoned barn in Tennessee. Some were fiction—fantastic stories of love and devotion that I couldn’t imagine existing nowadays. Some had been textbooks of American history going back two centuries.
Taking the books with me hadn’t been an option, but I had camped there almost a week, reading and absorbing everything I could before I ran out of food. I’d been fascinated and disgusted by the turn the country had taken. Lots of people said Europe hadn’t changed as much, but America had become a closed country. International flights had been banned since 2050. In 2052, the Mexican and Canadian borders were closed.
The knowledge eventually propelled me toward the tolerant states of the Texas Republic where politicians support Others’ rights instead of eliminate them. They encourage acceptance of and cohabitation with Others, and that citizens shouldn’t fear them, but accept them as our friends and neighbors. They viewed Others as an asset to the country. Of course that probably wasn’t the whole story. Governments never shared everything.
Now I was curled up on the lap of a Vampire—a man who had seen centuries of change and still lived. What stories he could tell. And I wanted to hear all of them.
“Will you tell me about what it was like before the riots?”
His leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You wouldn’t have been running from a jerk of an ex. The police would have arrested him. You could work in any type of field you wanted and go to college and study any subject your heart desired.”
“Is it true that Europe didn’t change much?”
He chuckled. “Much of Europe is the same, yes. Though some countries did adopt some of the same intolerant policies you find in the other U.S. republics. Supernaturals were more established there and had a better foothold in most of the governments. And, once we knew about the drug, we prepared our people and they knew to avoid it.”
“So no riots.”
“Exactly.” He rubbed her back, tracing his thumb around and around her shoulder blade. “People don’t like change. Because there had been no obvious direct threat in their own countries, it was much easier to convince citizens of their safety. Life goes on.”
“But you are stuck here.”
Another chuckle rumbled in his chest. “We are not stuck, kjaere. We are in Sanctuary for a reason. It is our home and we will not leave it.” He slid his hands under my arms and pushed me back, meeting my gaze with his beautiful blue eyes. “You know a lot for a human born after the riots.”
“Knowledge is power.”
He nodded. “Very true.”
“I listen and I read a lot. When I got away from Kevin at the beginning, I ran to Tennessee. People there saved a lot of old books from the government burnings. Then I went to Florida. There are a lot of old people there who like to talk.”
A laugh resonated from deep in his belly, shaking me a little. “The land of sunshine has long been a destination for retirees.”
“I got a job at one of the few retirement centers still operating. They gave me an apartment on the property. I was there almost a year before SECR investigators came sniffing around.
There was one sweet, old lady who always told me stories, and she let me know there was a detective looking for me. I kissed her and told her I had to go. That was the first time I ran with nothing but the clothes on my back … but not the last.”
“Your ex is part of the police force? Where?”
“Montgomery, Alabama.”
A grimace turned his lips downward. “What is his name?”
“Kevin Holt. After I ran from him in Florida, I knew I’d never be safe. What kind of man continues to hunt a woman years after she disappears?”
“A sick one,” he replied, his voice cold and angry. “Why does he want you back so badly? Why didn’t he just find another woman?”
“He told me the first time I tried to escape that no one leaves him. I know too much. Even though the police wouldn’t listen to me, I suppose he fears some sort of public exposure.”
“How often did you try to get away?”
“Twice.” I sighed, rubbing my shoulder. “The first time I made a timing mistake and paid dearly for it. He at least had a doctor come set my broken bones. The doctor told him I should rest in bed for four to six weeks.” Scorn and bitterness flowed through my voice, darkening it to something I barely recognized. I rarely let myself dwell on these memories and hated that he dredged them up. “I really don’t want to talk about this.” I pushed away from his chest and tried to move off his lap.
“Bailey, please. If I’m going to protect you, I need to know.” He held my hips tightly, refusing to let me go.
“Don’t beat me, chain me, or cage me and I’ll be fine,” I spat out. Anger welled inside my chest like a pool of molten lava. “I’ll die before letting him touch me again.”
If a vampire’s face could pale. His did.
He released his grip on my hips immediately and I got off his lap and walked to the other side of the room. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t have a place of my own. I couldn’t very well go hide in his bed. It was his.
Even as my emotions warred inside me, I knew his scent would probably be the only thing on the planet right now that would calm me.
A knock on the door jarred me from my thoughts and a small squeak of surprise sli
pped from between my lips. Erick took a deep breath and his eyes widened ever so slightly. I was good at watching people. Year of running had taught me to watch everyone. The knock had surprised him.
Another heavy knock sent vibrations shuddering through the house. “If you don’t want to meet anyone else right now, you should go upstairs, kjaere.”
I sucked in a breath and fled across the foyer and up the staircase, two steps at a time. His door was still ajar and I went inside and closed the door, but cracked it enough to hear some of what was said downstairs.
The front door swung open and two male voices entered the foyer, mixing with Erick’s. Curious, I opened the door further and crawled on the floor to the edge of the banister, peering between the rails at scene below. What I saw stole my breath. I’d thought Erick a large man, but the two standing across from him were at least a half-foot taller.
“Rose said you brought in a human woman this morning,” one of the men spoke. His skin was tan and his hair was as black as night. “She also said Darius was tracking you again.”
“She’s upstairs. As far as the Djinn, Darius has made trouble before. Nothing has changed because of her.”
“She’s a distraction, Thorson.” The first black-haired man glanced around and I ducked back, hoping he hadn’t caught sight of me. “I can smell her all over you. Look, just have your fun and send her on her way tomorrow when the next bus runs through town. We don’t allow humans to live in Sanctuary for a reason.”
Tomorrow? That barely gave me time to catch my breath, but Kevin would be searching every travel route out of Fort Worth. It was only a matter of time before he found the footage of me in that bus station. Maybe it would be better if I did leave. Even thinking about it made my heart hurt. How had I fallen for him so hard, so fast?
“Human or not, Bailey is mine and she is welcome in this town and my home as long as she desires.”
“Last time you hooked up with a human woman and things went south, you went off the deep end, Erick.”
“Is that how you feel too, Eli? Do you think I’m going to go off the deep end? Should I mention Diana? Or am I the only one to be guilt-tripped over the loss of a woman I loved.”
My Viking Vampire Page 7
