by Kate Hill
“I love you so much, Matthew.”
“I love you, too, my sweet, loving wife.”
“Oh, Matthew.” She wrapped her arms around him. They clung to one another as if nothing could ever part them again. “You’re hungry. I can sense it.”
Even in the dream, his need for blood was almost unbearable.
“Drink from me.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Make love with me, Matthew.”
His pulse racing with desire, Matthew took her lower lip between his fangs and pricked gently. He licked the blood away and kissed her deeply, his tongue stroking hers and tasting every corner of her warm, wet mouth.
Tangling her fingers in his long, thick hair, she kissed him with equal vigor. Her smooth leg slipped between his. She stroked his calf with her foot and sank her fingers into his bottom, squeezing the ultra-firm muscles.
Matthew lifted his face from hers and gazed into her glowing, vampiric eyes.
“My love,” he whispered, kissing her brow and eyelids. With long, savoring sweeps of his tongue, he lapped her throat and collarbone. Pressing soft kisses over every voluptuous inch of each breast, he avoided her nipples, saving the delectable ruby peaks for last. As he licked and kissed her torso, his hands danced across her thighs and pelvis. Long, sensitive fingers stroked through her pubic curls and dipped into her drenched pussy, gathering wetness that he used to tease her plump clit.
Finally he took one of her nipples between his lips and tongued the delicate-skinned nub. Dulcie moaned with desire, the sound more beautiful to his ears than the softest magical chant. He used the tip of one fang on her nipple and she cried out in total surrender. Gripping his head close, she arched against him, her pelvis thrusting against his rubbing hand.
Growling with need, Matthew loomed over her, prodding her slick entrance with the tip of his cock, so swollen with passion that he felt it might burst before the first full thrust.
“Oh, Matthew!” she cried, clinging to him with arms and legs, her breasts crushed against his heaving chest.
“Dulcie, my love!” he panted, his eyes closed tightly, his lips hovering over her throat. “My darling, darling wife!”
His cock swept into her, then withdrew almost to the tip. As he impaled her again, his teeth sank deeply into her flesh and he drank and came, quenching his thirst and his desire…
* * * * *
Matthew jerked awake, his heart pounding and his body tingling in the aftermath of perfect sexual gratification. Dazed, he glanced around the familiar, dingy little room, the pain of longing sharper than any from the physical wounds he’d received over the past several days.
He was completely alone. Though her scent filled the room, Dulcie was not beside him. Blinking away tears, he closed his eyes and lay back down, wishing he could return to that wonderful dream and never wake up. It had been more like a vision than a dream. So agonizingly real that his chest and throat ached with repressed sorrow.
Unable to fall back to sleep, he walked to the bathroom, shocked to find his wounds had almost completely healed. Even the scars left by the platinum barbs in Rosa’s ring had faded a bit. It appeared as if he’d taken a large amount of blood and his body had regenerated quickly. He even felt better, powerful, yet he hadn’t taken a drop of blood since he’d left the sewer.
“It couldn’t have been,” he murmured, clutching his wedding ring that dangled from the shoelace around his neck. His magic wasn’t nearly strong enough to incite such an experience. Sighing, he closed his eyes. “Dulcie, if it was a vision, can you still hear me? I love you. I love you so, so much!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
As Matthew entered the training hall, his gaze locked with Judah’s. The other vampire wore a taunting expression in spite of a glimmer of mild surprise. He stood beside Gareth, who glanced anxiously from one Immaculate to the other.
“Have a fun watch, Matt?”
“Judah!” Gareth snapped, grasping the man’s bulging biceps as Judah raised his hands to fight.
Matthew approached, his arms relaxed at his sides. He willed his fangs into submission as he smiled at Judah. “It was an experience. I love new experiences.”
“It won’t happen again, Matthew,” Gareth said. “I assure you.”
“I assure you it will.” Matthew’s gaze remained fixed on Judah’s. “From now on, I’ll take every scheduled watch alone.”
Judah snorted. “I knew you were an arrogant prick, but I really didn’t think you were stupid.”
“That’s ridiculous, Matthew,” Gareth interjected.
“Obviously it isn’t. If I could do it once, I can do it again even better. It’s good training, wouldn’t you say, Jude?”
Judah glared, his teeth grinding. His booted foot kicked the wall behind him, scattering fragments of brick. He marched silently out of the training hall.
Gareth shook his head at Matthew. “You can’t be serious?”
“There’s no reason why I can’t take a shift alone. It will make fewer shifts during the week, and it will be good training, particularly if I’m going to be a regular in Rosa Ferrer’s competitions.”
Gareth shrugged. “I suppose you have a point. You liked it, didn’t you?”
“Fighting those wolves alone for two days? Absolutely not.”
“I meant Rosa Ferrer’s competition. I could sense how much it excited you.”
“No,” Matthew murmured. “I just did what had to be done.”
“You have a lot of power and innate instincts. Part of us is primitive, and it’s especially true of alpha male Immaculates. It’s a violent world down here, Matthew. If you lie to yourself, your own instincts will devour you.”
Matthew sighed, running his hand over the brick wall. A surge of power swept through him just from thinking about the fight. “All right, maybe I liked it a little, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Oh no?” Gareth smiled before walking away and leaving Matthew with his thoughts.
Dulcie, what would you think of all this? I believe part of you would love it as much as I do. I wish we were together.
“I wish,” Matthew whispered, closing his eyes. “I wish.”
* * * * *
Three weeks later
Matthew’s fists slammed the metal pole in the training hall. He growled, his fangs exposed and his heart pounding from rage as much as from physical exertion.
He’d been there for hours, hoping to calm the emotions that had burned him for nearly a week. Out of desperation for his old life and agonizing need for Dulcie, he’d returned to Boston, planning to find a way to prove his innocence. To his irritation, Gareth had actually convinced Matthew to let him join him. Fortunately, Gareth’s magical skills had come in handy.
Things were even worse in Boston than Matthew had imagined. The research center as well as the hospital crawled with Network agents. One had actually caught him watching the center from a distance and pulled a gun on him. Matthew had managed to turn the tables and forced the man into an abandoned train station, where Gareth had used his psychic powers to search their captive’s mind.
Virtually the entire Network hunted Matthew, with a surprising number of them paid under the table by Jay Ashford. The bastard wanted Matthew dead.
Matthew’s first impulse was to track down Ashford and tear him limb from limb. When Gareth convinced him to think before he leapt, Matthew saw clearly the incredible danger he’d left Dulcie in. With so many agents after him, he would be caught. Even if Matthew managed to escape, Ashford would think he’d made contact with Dulcie. Matthew shuddered to think of what might happen to her then.
The safest way for him and those he loved would be to stick to his original plan. He needed to hide until the Network lowered their guard, then he could slip back to Boston and find a way to prove his innocence and Jay’s evil. The only way he could truly protect Dulcie from the likes of Jay would be to keep as far from her as possible.
The separation was nearly destroying him. Usually, when he
was upset, he could throw himself into his work and block out the world. Without his research, he needed to vent his energy elsewhere. He practiced fighting constantly and took as many shifts with the wolves as he could handle, hoping he might find a moment of calmness through sheer physical exhaustion.
It never seemed to work.
In Rosa’s ring he’d already gained a deadly reputation. Two days ago, he’d killed a man for the first time there. He’d tried ending the fight after nearly knocking the other Immaculate senseless. The man had a platinum dagger hidden in his boot and almost stabbed Matthew in the back when he’d turned to leave the ring. To the delight of the crowd, a struggle ensued. After sustaining a slash across his chest, Matthew had wrestled the knife from the other vampire and instinctively turned the blade on him. Afterward another instinct had taken over—the desire to heal. But it was too late. His aim had been true and his opponent was dead.
That kill hadn’t rested well with Matthew. Few times in his life had he been angry and desperate enough to take a life.
“I think it’s dead.”
Matthew stopped hitting the badly dented pole and spun, facing Pete.
“Good. Then it fits my mental state,” Matthew growled.
“Sheesh, what a grouch.”
Matthew’s teeth ground as he unwound the sweaty wraps from his hands and headed topside. He wondered if he hadn’t been better off handing himself over to The Jury, even if it meant death. When he finally had the opportunity to return to his old life, he feared he might have changed too much to be worthy of Dulcie again.
About the author
A lifelong fan of action and romance, Kate Hill likes heroes with a touch of something wicked and wild. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in publications both on and off the Internet. When she’s not working on her books, Kate enjoys dancing, martial arts, and researching vampires and Viking history.
Kate Hill welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, Ohio 44224.
Also by Kate Hill:
Ancient Blood: Darkness Therein
Ancient Blood: Deep Red
Ancient Blood: Immaculate
Ancient Blood: In Black
Ancient Blood: The Blood Doctor
Ancient Blood: The Holiday Stalking
By Honor Bound anthology
Forever Midnight anthology
Horsemen 1: Dream Stallion
Horsemen 2: Captive Stallion
Horsemen 3: Highland Stallion
Knights of the Ruby Order 1: Torn
Knights of the Ruby Order 2: Crag
Knights of the Ruby Order 3: Lock
Midnight Desires
Moonlust Privateer
Vampires at Heart anthology
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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