Dark Blooded Desires: Vampire Fantasy (Bonds of Damurios Book 1)

by Nicki Ruth

  Davina sighed and turned to Dar’quis. “Thank you for bringing us here. I truly appreciate—”

  “Daughter,” a soft whisper floated past her ear. A tremor ran through her body, raising hairs on her arms. A tendril of the familiar feathered against her memory. She turned around, trying to find the whisper’s source. Had she imagined it?

  “What is it, Davina?” Alexios asked, eyeing her closely.

  “Did you hear—?” She moved, as if transfixed, toward the cavern wall. “Here, there is something.” She reached out and palmed the wall.

  ∞∞∞

  Alexios frowned as Davina’s eyes glazed over. She stood by one of the original walls of the throne room, etched hieroglyphics marking its origins.

  “I feel it,” she whispered, so softly he almost didn’t hear.

  Stepping closer, he examined the spot in the rock. It was the source of the spring, moss and lichen covering the surrounding rock, but he could see nothing to indicate that there was any fissure or opening other than the water seeping out the rock. “What do you feel?”

  Davina suddenly pushed against the spot, and to Alexios’ amazement, some of the rock crumbled.

  “Let me,” Alexios offered. He rammed his fist into the spot. Nothing moved.

  “Hmm, OK. Rock, one, hands, zero.” Dar’quis’ voice echoed off rock behind them. “Maybe this will help.” He held a pickaxe that had been attached to his belt. “Though I’m not sure compromising the integrity of the wall is a good idea for the future of this cavern.”

  Alexios took the axe and raised it to attack the wall, but Davina stopped him.

  “No,” she said and raked her claws over her palm. The sweet smell of her blood scented the air, and he unconsciously licked his lips. She pressed her bloodied hand against the wall, and to his disbelief it began to crumble.

  More water flowed from the spring as the surrounding rock fell away. Dar’quis and Alexios looked on as a one-foot wide hole formed in the rock, and a small, black box fell out with the water that now gushed from it.

  Davina bent, scooped the box out of the water, and turned it around in her hands. It was beautiful, most likely made of Daruil, a black metamorphic rock native to Damurios, comprised of crystallized Damu blood. There were no markings on the box except for a small design on the top.

  “This . . . this was my mother’s,” Davina said with soft reverence. She twisted the top of the box to the right, then to the left twice, then to the right, and then left again. The top raised open and Davina slid it off. Inside lay two small, spherical, crystalline baubles, each with a simple, metallic clasp at the top.

  “Uh . . . maybe we should head back out,” Dar’quis interrupted, concern in his voice. “The water is beginning to pool in the cavern. It will probably flood this place soon.”

  Davina closed the box. “Yes, that’s probably best. Let’s go.” She looked around the room with sadness, her eyes lingering on the spot where her mother’s throne once stood.

  “OK, I’ll lead the way back,” Dar’quis said.

  “No,” Davina said. “We'll go the Damurian way. It’s much faster. Alexios, would you take Dar’quis?”

  Alexios nodded and beckoned Dar’quis over. He smirked at the look on Dar’quis’ face.

  “Don’t lose your courage now, or your dinner,” Alexios said as he grabbed hold of the balking, young man.

  “W . . . wait a minute!” Dar’quis’ eyes bulged. Alexios grinned, and they shimmered back to the camp.

  ∞∞∞

  Davina lay on the rugs of their tent, turning the black box in her hands. Alexios stretched out on his back at her side. They planned to leave at first light, only a couple of hours away, but Davina couldn’t sleep. Seeing what was left of her home had been traumatic, but finding something of her mother’s provided a small comfort. How had it come to be there?

  She opened it again and gazed at the two small, crystal containers. They were filled with blood whose scent she often reminisced about—her mother’s.

  As she looked at them for the millionth time that night, she wondered what the tiny markings etched on the crystals meant. She hadn’t seen markings like that before.

  “Try to get some sleep,” Alexios said beside her. “We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

  She sighed. “Why would my mother’s box be here all this time? Containing her blood, no less?”

  “We can think about those things tomorrow. Let’s get some rest,” he replied.

  “What’s strange are these markings,” she said, completely ignoring him. “Have you ever seen these before?” She held up one of the crystal spheres.

  Alexios rolled over and groaned softly. “OK, let’s see,” he said in resignation. He took the crystal sphere and examined it. He breathed in sharply.

  “Well? Do you recognize it?” she asked anxiously.

  After a few moments, he exhaled heavily and answered. “Yes. I know these markings. They are written in my native tongue. This is Macedonian script. This says ‘To my daughter’s Guardian, I offer my blood.’”

  Davina gasped then grinned. “Then you should drink, Alexios, my guardian.”

  Chapter 27

  Alexios lay in the tent on plush rugs and soft cushions that had been provided for their comfort as honored guests. Even so, he felt on edge. He sunk into the rug and looked at the small crystal in his hand, his finger tracing the etched script with trembling fingers. Seeing his native language took him back to a past life , when he had lived in his Macedonian village. He had been poor and illiterate, like most people at the time. Literacy was reserved for holy men and nobles. It was only many years later, after he had become a vampire, that Damjan taught him to read the languages of the powerful nations of the day. He'd been proud to be able to read his native tongue. Seeing it after so long, after it had gone extinct, was . . . well, it made him remember the past, his human past.

  Davina lay watching him in the darkness, he knew, waiting anxiously to see if he would drink the crystal’s contents. The other crystal had been marked, “My Daughter, my legacy, my blood,” but Davina wanted him to drink first.

  He was skeptical of what she had told him—she believed him to be her guardian, a fact she said was corroborated by both Lexi and Sandar—but the words of one in league with his sire, and another who may have been addled by centuries of suffering, were not enough.

  However, something kept him from dismissing her outright. He didn’t believe in fate or coincidence, which meant something had brought Davina into his life. What were the odds he would find her floating in the vastness of space? And now they just happened to find the queen’s memento among the discarded ruins of Zhar. These alone could, perhaps, be ignored, but even more intriguing was the bond they had formed without being consciously aware of it.

  “Alexios?” Davina whispered near his ear. “You’re right. Let’s just rest this night. We can make sense of everything when we return to Damurios.” She squirmed next to him, moving closer and resting her hand on his chest. Her golden eyes illuminated the darkness.

  “Yes,” he murmured, glad for a reprieve from the hollowed hauntings of the past.

  She wiggled closer and lay her head on his chest. He didn't stop her; instead, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.

  “It seems you and I are more connected than we know,” she spoke into his chest. “I don't know what it means, but we’ll find out together.”

  He squeezed her and kissed the top of her head, content to seek respite for the remainder of the night. But soon her hands were roaming his chest, burning a path over his skin. His body responded, but he moved to still her hands. They were in hostile territory with humans who were wary of outsiders. It was not the time for amorous endeavors. He needed his senses alert.

  Davina, however, had other plans. She settled on top of him and began kissing his neck, his chest. She was so bold, so passionate and wild, that it was impossible for him to resist her. Gods, she would be the end of him! He
pulled her in closer and rolled so that she lay on her back. They heated the tent with a kiss that robbed him of breath.

  He had her out of his jacket so fast, she gasped when the cold air licked her skin. His hands palmed her fleshy mounds, still bedazzled with rhinestones and glitter. Where had she gotten the idea to dress like this? He peeled back the adhesive, revealing her dark peaks, which stood erect and ready for his mouth.

  Davina gripped his hair and moaned as he sucked her flesh, his tongue tracing the edges of her nipples. He flicked his tongue across the hardened peak, and she squirmed and gasped in his embrace. His thumb rubbed circles around her other nipple, eager and stiff under his hand. He switched his attention to the other while his erection sought her out, grounding hard against her.

  “Alexios,” she breathed with a deep-throated moan.

  His pulse quickened. She tore at his clothing, and he peeled them off his body. His rational mind was silent as desire overwhelmed him, sending him hurtling into a weightless oasis. After weeks of heated fantasies and cold showers, Alexios was at his limit. He needed to be inside her, to feel her warm core around him, to have her blood’s electric current render his veins alight. Davina gripped him so tightly, he was sure she would not let him stop even if he could. His mouth moved lower, from her breasts to her flat stomach. He nipped her sensitive skin there with his fangs and moved lower still. He gripped her soft behind and squeezed.

  Greedily, he tugged her skirt off and laid his eyes on yet another bejeweled patch between her legs. Alexios looked up at her with eyebrows raised, her hungry gaze bored into his.

  “Jeweled treasure,” she half giggled, half moaned, wetting her lips.

  Alexios chuckled then groaned at the sight before him. With his teeth, he carefully removed the patch that hid her sex. His hands rubbed and kneaded her inner thighs, which he kissed and tongued. Like a deft snake charmer, he had Davina writhing beneath him. He spread her legs wider, but the little minx locked her legs tight against him.

  He grinned, baring his fangs, “Now to plunder your treasure.”

  His mouth descended onto the wet, hot core of her sex. It went straight to his head, intoxicating him. Never had anyone tasted like her. He tongued her apex, and she whimpered and jerked. Her breath came heavy now and her mutterings incomprehensible. Davina’s legs tightened behind his neck, and he knew she was close. He would make her climax and hear her screams of delight. But first, he would delay. He pulled back and blew a cool breath onto her glistening peak. She moaned and tried to pull him back into her center.

  “Please, vampire!” she panted.

  Slowly, he lowered his head again and devoured her. He licked and kissed her moist center, flicked and teased her tightened bud with his tongue, keeping her right on the edge but holding her impending climax at bay. She gasped and bucked, thrusting her hips into his eager mouth, seeking fulfillment. Her lustful melody increased his ardor, making him impossibly hard. His body demanded release. He needed to be inside her, wanted it beyond his current restraint.

  He increased his ministrations on her, and she came undone, her orgasm shuddering through her as her legs gripped his head and neck. He looked up and feasted his eyes on her in the throes of her climax, thrashing her head and fisting the rugs as tiny mewlings echoed symphonies throughout the tent.

  Alexios unwrapped her legs from behind him and moved up her body, kissing and marking his way from her sex to her stomach, nibbling the undersides of her breasts and claiming her again in a messy kiss, his lips slick with her essence. She eagerly kissed him back, open-mouthed, wantonly.

  “Davina,” he breathed against her lips, “I need you so badly.”

  She widened her legs, and he positioned himself between them. Her hands squeezed his bare behind, urging him on.

  Davina, Davina . . . His mind was singularly focused; his need and desire for her threatened to completely seize him. But he wanted to give her a few moments to recover from her orgasm. He wanted her full attention when he finally entered her and brought her satisfaction again.

  “Please, don't stop,” she panted feverishly against him. She tried to thrust up but he stayed her hips. A muffled groan escaped him as he slowly pushed into her sheath. She was tight and hot against him, and Alexios felt the air leave his lungs.

  “Oh, so perfect,” he moaned. He lifted her hips up slightly to ease his entry, inching in slowly. He sighed once he was seated all the way in. He inched back and thrust in, eliciting a lusty cry from her. Her eyes glowed brightly under weighted lids, and he knew his were red with molten desire.

  He pulled back again and thrust forward, harder this time. She murmured her approval, squeezing his rounded flesh and demanding more. He pumped into her slowly at first, then faster, setting a grueling pace. She met each of his thrusts and moaned as he flexed over her. Pleasure overtook him, and he struggled to retain control. He stretched over her body, whispering into her sweat-slicked skin sweet nothings that neither understood. He kissed and licked at her neck, her breasts, her ear.

  Davina was wild with abandon, urging him on, faster, faster, harder, harder! The sounds of flesh against flesh rivaled their crescendo of moans and ravings. He gripped her wrists and held them above her head, his body completely flush with hers, her breasts rising and falling to the rhythm he set. He pumped furiously into her, her legs tightly gripping his hips. Her heat enveloped him, scorching and branding his flesh with each plunge into her depths.

  His orgasm rolled over and through him like an avenging tidal wave, crashing upon him, powerful and shattering. He cried out as his balls drew up and his cock swelled within her slick channel. His hips slammed erratically into her one last time and he roared his release.

  She writhed under him, head thrown back, mouth open in silent supplication. Her core gripping his cock like a vise, and his seed rushed into her for what seemed forever. His orgasm wrung everything from him, pleasure ricocheting through him like bolts of lightning from the base of his spine. Before he knew it, his fangs had sunk deep into her neck, siphoning from her a sweetness which seemed to prolong the explosions of ecstasy.

  The rapturous tingling in his body gradually ebbed and was replaced with sated contentment. Languidly, he lay on top of her, completely spent, spasms still wracking his body. Alexios’ mind was sluggish from his powerful release and her blood and felt himself drifting on lazy clouds. The last thing he remembered was rolling over with Davina in his arms. They lay side by side, breathing heavily, clutching each other. She mumbled something he didn't understand.

  “Davina, sweet Davina, you're my everything,” he whispered before exhaustion claimed him.

  ∞∞∞

  Alexios awoke with a start to the scent of blood in the air. He raised himself from the plush rugs, his hands gripping the fibers beneath him. Davina loomed over him, still naked and flushed from their lovemaking. Blood painted her lips as she smiled at him, some running down the sides to her chin. She looked him up and down with a devilish glint that flickered in her eyes, her hands running over his body as if pleased with what she saw. Alexios stayed very still. The creature before him was not Davina. Not truly.

  “I’ve brought you gifts. Take, they are yours,” she purred, nuzzling his neck.

  Alexios gazed around the tent. Bodies littered the floor, the fresh, sanguine tang of blood in the air and on the rugs. They were people from the camp, three of them young children, stolen from their sleep. Some bore marks on their skin, evidence of a struggle, but they would have been no match for her. They’d been dead no more than an hour, mangled bodies and limbs laid out at his feet, covered in blood.

  What had she done?

  She leaned forward and took one lifeless, bleeding form by the neck and presented it to him. It was a young woman–Ah’ma, Dar’quis’ companion. He swallowed; she wasn’t quite dead.

  “I kept one fresh for you. Take. Drink.” She dragged her tongue across her lip, looking at him intently, expectantly.

  He needed to get them ou
t of there and quickly. Then he would deal with this . . . Davina.

  “Davina, did you forget what I said?” he said calmly, leveling his gaze on her. She tilted her head, confusion marking her face. He held her shoulders and sought out the bond they shared. She was there, but something was different, something foreign.

  “I told you to only drink from me. Only me.”

  Comprehension dawned on her face, and she let out a crack of laughter. “Indeed you did, vampire. But this,” she said, waving her hand at the macabre scene, “is for you.” Once again, she held up Ah’ma’s limp body to him.

  Faint cries came from the camp outside. Dawn was breaking. Soon they, and this . . . tragedy, would be discovered.

  “Listen to me. This is not who you are. Come back to me.” He squeezed her shoulder. He tugged at the fragile threads of their bond, hoping to bring her back to herself. “Davina, look at this. This is not you. Don’t let your thirst control you.”

  He tightened his grip. She was losing more than just control of her thirst. This was . . . different, darker. The eyes looking back at him had changed. They were more calculating, more sinister.

  “Feel me. Feel our bond. Regain control and come back to me!”

  She hissed and struggled against him, clawing at him, but he held onto her tightly.

  “Davina! Have you forgotten? We need to leave this place. We have to find Marius and get back to Lexi.”

  She stilled and a look of shock colored her face, followed by a strangled cry like that of a wounded animal. She quieted, and for a few moments, she remained like that, blinking rapidly. She looked around the tent slowly, realization dawning. He recognized the moment she returned to herself and understood what she had done. Horror and shame crossed her face.

  She breathed in sharply, shaking her head from side to side. “No, no, no.”

  Noises from the camp grew louder.

  “We need to go,” Alexios said firmly, not wanting to increase her panic.