Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel)

by Stephanie Rowe

  Fuck that. No one messed with his woman.

  Without hesitation now, he swept her hair back off her neck and kissed her throat. She gasped, and he felt the desire roaring through her, even though they were both being consumed by a force so dark and deadly that it was almost unstoppable. Almost. He swept his tongue over her skin, calling her blood to the surface. He could taste the mark of his brother, where Tristan had left his brand behind. Heat poured through her flesh as she screamed again. "If you're going to do something, do it now, Eric! Don't be so damn slow!"

  Lust exploded through him, and he gripped her hair more tightly. "Forgive me, Jordyn." Then he sank his fangs into her neck, and took the lifeblood that would save them both.

  ***

  Ecstasy flooded Jordyn as Eric bit her. Her entire body clenched with need so strong she felt like it would tear her apart. Heat flooded her, and the cold that had been attacking her so violently screamed with outrage.

  Let me in, Jordyn. Open your mind to me, and anchor yourself to your spirit guides. I'll connect to them using the bridge you establish.

  She did as he instructed, lowering her mental shields. She was immediately overwhelmed with the magnitude of his being. She could feel the corded strength of his body, the agony of his soul, and the strength of his will as he fought to hold them together. The skin on her legs burned, fighting the disintegration.

  Connect with the spirits!

  Trying to ignore the desire and cold warring for supremacy inside her, Jordyn reached out with her mind to the spirits she'd brought in to save them. She opened her heart to them, embracing the benevolent warmth of their female energy. Mothers. Daughters. Grandmothers. Infants. All those who had died and offered their energy back to the earth to heal and endure for future generations. They wrapped their feminine strength around her, protecting her against the doom trying to obliterate her defenses.

  Jordyn realized suddenly that the darkness trying to take her was pure male energy. All of the spirits were masculine. She was Eric's anchor, not only because of her goodness, but because she was a woman, the complement to his maleness. Eric touched her mind, sliding down the pathway she was holding with her spirit guardians.

  They recoiled from his dangerous male aura and tried to sever the connection, but Jordyn didn't allow them to retreat. She held the connection between Eric and the females, allowing him to wrap the tendrils of his soul around them, one by one, until he was so connected with them that they couldn't break away. For a moment, she and Eric were held in suspended animation, the maleficent forces battling with those protecting them.

  Eric's arms tightened around her. Stay with me, Jordyn. Hang on.

  She nodded, concentrating on the feel of his body against hers, his teeth still deep in her neck as he drank from her, connecting them on a metaphysical level. His skin was as cold as hers, but there was a strength emanating from him that she clung to. She could feel her blood singing through his veins, giving her access to his every thought, every emotion, and every need.

  She felt his anger. His guilt. Deep, deep loss. The strongest sensation, however, was his need for her. His desire flowed through her, and she clung to him, sliding her hands beneath his shirt to feel his skin. His groan of desire saturated her mind, and his cock pressed against the junction of her thighs, where she was still straddling him. A carnal craving burned through her, so acute she wanted to scream.

  It was different from when Tristan had bitten her and infected her with his lust. This time, the passion was emanating from her as well as Eric. Together, they were a raging combination of heat so penetrating that it was shattering the last bit of her self-control.

  With a low groan of capitulation, he flipped her beneath him. She landed on her back, and then gasped as he slipped his hand beneath her shirt and cupped her breast. "God, yes." She arched her back, her body aching for more as his finger brushed over her nipple. Need raced through her, battling the cold still screaming at them.

  Eric's fangs slid from her skin in a tantalizing seduction that made her entire body clench with need. He met her gaze, and she saw the battle raging in his eyes. "We need more connection," he said. "My bond with your guides isn't strong enough yet."

  She didn't need to ask. She knew what he was talking about. "Make love to me."

  The moment the words were out of her mouth, the most incredible sense of rightness poured through her, as if this was the moment she'd been hurtling toward for her entire life.

  Eric's face darkened, and he framed her face. "I will not betray you," he said urgently. "I swear it."

  She nodded, the pain in her head so great she could barely think. "I believe you."

  He swept her up in a fierce kiss even as his hands went to her jeans. She tried to help him, but her fingers were so cold she couldn't grasp the button. He fumbled, but eventually succeeded. It took precious seconds, but then her jeans were gone, and so were his.

  He slid between her thighs, his cock pressing against her entrance. He met her gaze, and behind him was a towering inferno of doom. A face was starting to take shape in it, and she realized it was Eric's face. "Dear God," she whispered. "Is that you?"

  "It's my true self." And then, he caught her mouth in a kiss and sheathed himself inside her in one swift move.

  Her entire body clenched in response to his invasion, a burst of need and passion so extreme she felt her soul fragment. She wanted every part of him to be hers on every level. He moved inside her, slowly at first, then faster, even while he continued to kiss her, devastating kisses that drained her of all thought. She felt his soul wrap around hers, gripping so tightly she almost couldn't breathe, but it was a beautiful, amazing sensation.

  She was being pulled in all directions: the ruthless pull of frigid evil against the warmth of her guardians, her own ardent longing, Eric's passion, and her crushing need for him. She felt her grip on the benevolent spirits beginning to falter, but Eric's immense strength surged through her. He reinforced the bond, calling upon centuries of discipline to lock their protectors to them and keep them from breaking away.

  Her spirit guardians shrieked in protest, trying to escape from the darkness, but Eric held on, using his physical connection with Jordyn to bridge his gap with them. As they retreated, Eric kept them connected, forcing them to take Eric and Jordyn with them. As she and Eric were pulled away from the darkness, he continued to kiss her, his hips driving in a relentless rhythm that sent shards of desire knifing through her. Her nipples burned for his touch, aching for more, and her body was trembling with hunger for him.

  The lovemaking grew more demanding. His thrusts became deeper and faster. His kisses became even more passionate, but she still needed more. She clung to him, kissing him back just as fiercely while her hips bucked and twisted, unable to hold still beneath his lovemaking. The howling coldness raged in protest, but it was in the distance now, growing fainter and fainter, until finally, it was gone.

  The moment it vanished, she and Eric released their guardian spirits, so there was nothing left but the two of them. Eric became her world, his kisses, his body, his mind, and his seduction.

  She held onto his shoulders, gasping as she felt his legs solidifying against hers. Suddenly, there was no more coldness, just burning hot flesh. They were fully corporeal, and alive. Sensation cascaded through her newly awakened body, and desire coiled more and more tightly between them.

  It unleashed with sudden fierceness, catapulting her into ecstasy as the orgasm erupted through her. She convulsed beneath Eric, and then he shouted her name, driving even deeper into her as he stiffened, his body going rigid as his climax took him. Together, they clung to each other, barely holding on as the orgasm elevated them both, drawing them over the precipice, and hurling them ruthlessly into the beautiful beyond.

  Chapter 14

  Jordyn didn't want to ever move again.

  The floor of the basement was hard and cold, and a piece of metal was digging into her back, but she didn't care. All she cou
ld focus on was the feel of Eric's body wrapped around hers. His leg was draped over her hip, and he'd pulled her against him, cradling her against his chest and sliding his arm under her head for a pillow.

  He was playing with her hair, an instinctive, tiny movement that was intimate and tender.

  She closed her eyes, basking in the feel of his warmth and strength. It had been so long since she'd been intimate with a man, and her time with Walter had been besieged with the fear of what was to come. Of course, the worst had still come despite all the time she'd spent worrying about it, but she'd survived, older, wiser, and carrying enough battle scars to toughen her up.

  She'd learned her lesson. Now, with Eric, the worst would come whether she worried about it or not, so it simply wasn't worth getting all neurotic and upset about. If he was going to kill her, well, then, he could go ahead and try. If Tristan was going to try to make her his personal sex toy/blood donor, well, then, she'd deal with it. But right now, neither Hunter twin was actively endangering her life, so she just wanted to be in this moment, to appreciate what it felt like to be protected by a man who had pretty much just sacrificed his soul to save her.

  Seriously, that was incredibly romantic, even for a woman who had long ago given up on romance as a practical emotion. He made her want to be soft again, and that felt good.

  He traced his finger over her neck, and her body trembled with sudden lust as he touched the place where both he and Tristan had bitten her. She opened her eyes to find him studying her, his dark eyes unfathomable. His skin was normal again, devoid of the dangerous shadows that had nearly taken him.

  Wearily, she touched his jaw, tracing her finger over his whiskers. "You're back."

  "Yeah." He caught her hand in his and pressed his lips to her fingertips. "Thank you."

  She smiled, idly watching him feather kisses on the tips of her fingers, one by one. "You're welcome. You're a little difficult to save, you know. Too stubborn and possessed, for starters."

  "I'm not stubborn. I just didn't want you to risk yourself."

  Her smile faded. "I figured that out. Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

  He kept kissing her fingers. "Not really."

  She lightly punched his chest. "You lost the right to shut me out when you turned into some sort of ghostly specter thing and then bit me."

  He sighed and finally raised his head from her hand. For a moment, he said nothing as he gently tucked her hair behind her ears, his dark eyes searching her face. All his little gestures were so intimate and tender, nothing like the arrogant sex-maniac he had always presented himself as. Was the true Eric finally allowing himself to be seen? "I don't know exactly what I am," he finally said, still smoothing her hair back instead of looking at her, almost like a little boy who was too shy to make eye contact.

  Her heart tightened for this vulnerable side of him that he'd never shown her before. "Because you don't know your past?"

  He nodded, then finally dropped his hand and looked at her. "There's something inside me that's pure evil," he said simply. "I've always been able to draw power from spirits, but the only ones that I can hear are the ones that are evil and dangerous. I bond with them, but it's always a battle not to let them take me. They give me power only if I let them in." He shrugged, and began tracing designs on her chest, just above her heart. Her shirt was still on, but that didn't keep her body from tingling in response to his touch. "In order to get through that steel door and take down Tristan, I had to go deep."

  She snuggled more intimately against him. "Has that happened before?"

  "Once." He splayed his fingers across her chest, as if he were palming her heart. "When we were teens, Tristan and I were messing around with some friends. We were showing off. Tristan resurrected my girlfriend's dog, and she thought he was so amazing. I got pissed that she was into him, instead of me. I wanted to impress her. I wanted to put on a big show, so I summoned as much magic as I could. Unfortunately, we were near a graveyard that had been used as an ancient burial ground for people accused of being demons." He suddenly released her, sliding his arm out from under her shoulders. He sat up, bracing his arms over his bent knees as he stared across the room. "They owned me," he said. "Completely."

  "Demons?" Oh, God, she could only imagine. Jordyn sat up, shivering at the loss of contact with him. She glanced around the room, and saw that a deep crevice had been burned across the floor where the funnel cloud had been. Furniture was broken and upended. It looked like a battle had occurred here, which, of course, it had. "What happened?"

  "I killed her." His shoulders were hunched. "I killed all our friends, except Tristan."

  Jordyn stared at him, her heart breaking for what he must have endured. "Oh, Eric—"

  "Tristan killed me to break the spirits' hold on me, and then he resurrected me. The resurrection was complicated, because I'd been claimed by the spirits. He had to give me a piece of his soul in order to save me, connecting us irrevocably. Part of his life force is in me, so if I die, he dies. Conversely, if he dies, then the light that's sustaining me dies with him, and I have nothing left."

  Jordyn's heart tightened at the sacrifice. What would it feel like to be loved so deeply by someone that he would give his very life for her? She thought of Tristan, who had done that for his brother, and of Eric, who lived with the realization of his brother's sacrifice every day of his life. "Tristan is not a fool," she said quietly. "He would never have given you part of his life force if you didn't deserve it. You know that, don't you?"

  "Nothing is worth his life, the damned fool," he muttered, shaking his head. "He got me back to the living world again, but those spirits are still in me. I'll never be free. I'm their chance to go corporeal in this world, and they'll never stop fighting." He managed a grim smile. "They're where my magic comes from. If it's easy magic, I'm in control, for the most part. But when I need something stronger, things change." He held out his hands, showing her his scarred knuckles. "See? Monster. Told you I wasn't human. I wasn't before that night when we were teens, but now? Shoot me now, babe, because I'm your worst nightmare." He gestured at the burned out crevice. "That's only the tip of the iceberg, sweetheart."

  "So, you're a demon?" She studied him carefully. Demon? She shook her head. That didn't feel right. Even when he'd been almost taken, his humanity had still been present. "What about when you bit me? Demons don't have breakfast at people's arteries, do they?"

  "No." He looked over at her. "I'm not a demon. They were accused of being demons, but they weren't demons. Not entirely."

  Her heart tightened, and then she knew. "They were vampires? The spirits that claimed you werevampires, weren't they?"

  "Yeah."

  She sat up. "So you're a vampire? A demon vampire?" Because being the soul mate of a rogue Calydon wasn't enough, right? She had to complicate her life by getting off the celibacy train with a demon vampire.

  "Not exactly, but kinda." He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know what the fuck I am, Jordyn. I don't know what I'm capable of. I don't know anything." He looked over at her. "All I know is that I've never bitten anyone until you, and I've never wanted to. But when that thing was taking us, I knew that's what I had to do." He ran his fingers over his teeth, which were flat and human again. "I've been changing since I've been here. The darkness is getting stronger. I don't know what's going to happen." He looked at her neck. "I bit you. What the fuck was that? I bit you?"

  He shoved himself to his feet and strode across the room. He braced his hands on the wall and let his head drop toward the floor.

  Slowly, Jordyn stood up. She was still shaky, but her balance was better now. Her neck was aching, but in a good way, like she'd just downed a gallon of the richest chocolate fudge ever. Instinctively, she ran her fingers over her neck again, drawn to the spot where the brothers had bitten her. "Eric? Why didn't you want me to connect with you? Why didn't you want to bite me?"

  He didn't answer, but his body was ri
gid with tension.

  "Eric?" She walked over to him and put her hand on his back. His muscles jumped beneath her touch and he spun around, stepping away from her.

  "Why didn't I want to bite you? Maybe because it's psychotic and insane?"

  She almost smiled at his reply. "If you're a vampire, like Tristan, it's not psychotic and insane. It's part of survival. Yes, maybe a little barbaric, and terrifying under certain circumstances, but it's actually sort of sexy, in a weird sort of way." She thought back to the vampire that had attacked him and grimaced. "I mean, not when you got your throat ripped out. That wasn't sexy. I just meant when you did it to me." Great. Now she sounded like a vampire groupie? "I mean, I knew you needed to do it to survive, so it was okay. Because I knew you weren't going to kill me." Yikes. What in heaven's name was she rambling about? "Nevermind. So, yeah, how are you feeling?"

  His eyes darkened as he looked at her. "Sexy? You thought it was sexy when I bit you?"

  She felt her cheeks heat up. Of course he'd focused on that one word. He might be part demon-vampire-spirit assassin dude, but he was also Eric, who was always very pleased when the topic of conversation turned to sex. She cleared her throat, and walked over to retrieve her jeans, which had landed near the stairs. "Well, I guess. Didn't you?" Had she been the only one to have her body turn into a boiling cauldron of pure sex when his teeth sank into her flesh? Fully mortified now, she grabbed her underwear and pants, and yanked them on, not looking at him.

  He said nothing, and she felt his gaze on her, drifting over her nakedness with the same heat that he'd sent in her direction so many times in the past. This time, however, it felt different, because the sexual tension had been shattered, sliced through with the mind-blowing sex that was still making her legs tremble.

  She glared at him. "Can we talk about something else? It was one moment of weakness. So, I thought it was kind of sexy when you bit me. That doesn't mean that I suddenly think you're sexy or that I want a repeat of that little lovemaking session. That was to save us both, nothing else. Right? Right. Of course, right? Men," she muttered under her breath as she finished zipping her pants. "They overdramatize everything."