Taken by The Hunger: A Blood Thirst Novel (Book 1) Paranormal Romance/ Erotica/ Urban Fantasy

by Spade, Harnet

  My hands reach for him, and I kiss his lips so tenderly, “Please don’t be a dream…please, be real- Damn you be real!”

  I have molded myself against him. I am on my knees now and so is he. Our kiss quickly turns passionate, as images from earlier enter my mind. I remember how I was over him… taking his nipple into my mouth. I moan and lower my lips from his finding my way to his neck wanting to recreate it. My hunger intensifies when I feel him pulse against my stomach.

  “This time, I promise I will come inside you. I will come only after you’ve come several times, Angel.”

  My eyes are closed, and I am lost to my desire for him, but when they open, and I see the luminescence his eyes cast… I know I will quickly follow with a change of my own, one I could not allow. My eyes would turn to black, and Eros would know I hadn’t succeeded in killing him. He will see. I deceived us all.

  “I need to get out of here,” I said pushing away from him and running for the door.

  I open the door, but from behind me he quickly slams it with the palm of his hand, and my body is pushed by his against the door.

  “I’m not letting you run away from me, Angel.” He says biting my shoulder. I feel the tips of his teeth securing me.

  “I make you come with my mouth, and it’s Angel now? How typical of you.” I say pushing back on him. Feeling his desire for me.

  “Who’s being crude now, Eva?”

  His palm rubs down against my belly making me shiver, “I didn’t satisfy all you hungered for… let me make it up to you- maybe you’ll reciprocate and call me something special if I make you come with my mouth.”

  “Let me go, or leave… you choose.”

  “I smell your need, you want me, so tell me why are you back to pushing me away?” He whispers moving the hair away from my ear as he licks it. I feel my nipples harden against my forearms, and I know he can sense my desire. I have to stop us before it’s too late.

  “He was in my head. He made me walk away from you thinking you were dead. He asked me where I was. He wanted me to lead him here, and I would have had I known. I would have done anything he’d asked because I wanted him. I wanted him, not you Darius. I thought you were lying dead, and I didn’t care.”

  Both his hands break through the door around me. He is gone from behind me so quickly. I want to scream from the pain my words cause me, and because I didn’t tell him I’d only felt like that out of bloodlust; that I wanted him- Darius, now… always him, but I was fighting two beings. I was becoming something I didn’t want to become.

  “You don’t have to tell me Eva, I can read your thoughts. I can smell your need for me- that too doesn’t lie. When you came down below in the caves, it was for me. It wasn’t the first time you’ve come for me and never will it be the last.”

  His voice was feral, angry.

  “He can’t reach you while you are submerged in water, or surrounded by it. A spell I had a witch cast on you. It is why the caves are below us… for your protection.”

  “So explain, why did I leave you? Why?”

  “I imagine it was because you were scared, must have been quite a shock when you thought you killed me. I didn’t tell you, explain it was possible for you to drink all you wanted. I will not die the way you expected. I will come back.”

  I turned and saw him sitting on my bed. He was wearing his pants again.

  “How did you come up, the elevator…”

  “Is destroyed, I know. I imagine you did it when he tormented you with what you thought you had done to me. I used the entrance I told you about. One of the ones scattered throughout the grounds.”

  “He can’t know you’re alive… we can’t repeat what happened. You can’t touch me again, promise me!”

  He looked at me long and hard, frowning he got up… then took two steps towards me before he stopped himself. He seemed to be waging an inward battle. I refused to look at how beautiful his sapphire grey eyes looked. If I looked at them I would be reminded of the man himself, all storm and passion. He was waiting for me to raise my eyes from where they fell on his collar bone, all perfectly mended, and meet his gaze, but I refused. I would not give in to all the emotions and questions that surfaced; like the knowledge that he wasn’t completely human, if at all.

  I left him seconds from his death, yet he survived.

  ___________________

  I knew I would regret pushing him away, but I had to make him leave.

  He walks up to me and my eyes lower. He is so powerful in his movements it is an addiction just to watch him move. He grabs my chin until my head is slanted back when he says, “Fine Emma… I can’t keep having you push me away, it hurts too damn much. If what you want is to continue punishing us without any reprieve you’ve got it, but remember this was your choice, so don’t blame me for the outcome. Nothing good can come from this.” He’s no longer in front of me.

  He pauses by the door and turns to look at me. He catches me watching him leave, “I will continue to come into your room during the night. Nothing will stop me from sleeping with you. I won’t touch you. Not until you ask me to. I don’t like seeing the panic in your eyes, I now see reflected in them. I prefer them dark with passion. I will find him and end him, and then nothing will stop me from making you mine. Nothing!”

  We look at each other a final time because I know it will be the last time I will stand naked in front of him. His eyes don't move from my face... he wants me to give him what I won't allow myself to do, I shake my head because he's just told me we can get through this. A gentle whisper in my mind.

  No, I don't think we can.

  On an exhaled breath he says, “One last thing before I go, come to the lab tomorrow because something’s not right here. I think he’s trying to find you through the link your dreams provide; a connection of some sort. I need to break it, or at least figure out where to find him and kill him before he finds us.”

  “You don’t understand he can’t be killed… I know, believe me I tried.”

  “Let me worry about that. If you don’t come I won’t send Kamila. I’ll come for you myself; it’s important,” he says.

  “You won’t find anything in the labs. Most of it happens when I drink from you. I won’t drink from you again. We’ll go back to using the drugs. I’m weaker… easier to manage, and incapable of harming you- using whatever it is you give me.”

  That had been ten months ago, and like Kimmy said after that night we barely acknowledged each other’s existence.

  Chapter 10: You Can’t Outrun Fate

  “Hey Emma you with me?” Kimmy asked with a worried look on her face. “What’s wrong you look like you just saw a ghost?” She caught me off guard because most of the time I suppressed those memories especially since she probably reported so much to Darius. I noticed the house was just within sight before answering, “Nothing, just feeling really drained after a long night is all.”

  “Well if I have your attention, I’d like to tell you about pretty boy from the club… he was so freaking hot Emma, but if you’re not up to it then... I just won't tell you how absolutely fanfreakintastic, orgasmically good pretty boy was.”

  I smiled, a real smile now, Kimmy’s happiness being apparent, and drawing me out of a past I could not change, so I drew in a deep breath and said, “Spill all the juicy details.”

  So there was Kimmy going into the dirty details on just how good pretty boy gave it. We were both laughing with the cold weather almost forgotten when a black van with fully tinted windows swerves by almost taking Kimmy and I with it. Kimmy yanks me back by my wrist.

  “Shit this can’t be happening now, shh... not freaking happening! Emma, I so failed you right now.”

  “What’s going on?” I ask not liking Kimmy’s reactions.

  “Stay hidden over by the trees while I call backup,” she whispered.

  She was pushing me towards the forested woods on which the property lay while looking unusually panicked. As we ran, I tried my hardest not to fall beh
ind and failed miserably because I was beyond scared. I mean what could possibly be so bad that she would readily rat us out to Darius? Didn’t she know she was contributing to both our deaths?

  While my heels wobbled, and I was trying not to face plant, Kimmy was in soldier mode expertly taking out a phone, flash light, and handgun. As she placed the handgun in a garter she wore, then quickly discarded her purse with all its remains on the floor, I stood rooted to the spot watching her call the team.

  Just then a guttural roar iced my blood, we both turn and look at the van when the back doors were suddenly kicked wide from the inside tearing off the hinges. While Kimmy was urgently screaming into her cell phone, giving orders and locations- I was paralyzed because nothing could have prepared me for what I’d seen. What can possibly do that to a van? I asked myself disbelieving what I had just witnessed. My mind was reeling when I saw the brake lights flash and heard a peeling sound.

  A huge form of nothing I had ever seen, or thought possible jumped from the vehicle. What I could only describe as part human, but much larger and with very animalistic features stalked towards the front going to the driver’s side door. I was backing up and shaking my head no when I heard another door being torn and what had started as a man’s scream was suddenly cut off as shots were fired from the van and then that too, also ceased.

  Now I stood frozen, nothing I thought I knew… was. There was a ringing in my ears and everything suddenly seemed fogged. I was having difficulty breathing; it felt like my head was under water.

  Shit, I think I’m having a panic attack.

  God, was this what Darius had been warning me against all these years? Had he thought Jeffery capable of turning me over to this thing he had once said was out there searching for me? It had all been true… I had so misjudged him. It wasn’t my mother’s lover, the one I would not name- we had to worry about.

  Kimmy slapped and grabbed my face looking into my eyes and said, “Emma baby… Emma stay with me.” Once she had my attention again, she spoke more strongly, “Emma stay away from him don’t listen to your instincts Emma they’re wrong, stay strong. You will get through this. Just stay focused Emma because Darius will always come for you... he will find you.”

  I must have given her a terrified, confused look because nothing she was saying made any sense, but she didn’t have time to explain because she just yelled for me to run.

  I saw as she lifted and extended her arm aiming her gun, and started shooting in the direction of the van. I didn’t turn because honestly I didn’t want to see what it was she was shooting at, he… it must have been bigger than I thought because the firing wouldn’t cease, and she was a great shot. I stopped a few feet away, and started looking at the ground for anything to use as a weapon making sure I didn’t look up at the form approaching Kimmy. I heard the reassuring sirens from the house and thought to help Kimmy – I just couldn’t leave her.

  She started screaming over the gun shots. “I can’t slow him for long... RUN… and baby don’t stop running he’s after you.”

  “Shit,” I said, “I can’t Kimmy,” my legs felt as if they were glued and wouldn’t budge.

  She then yelled, “Don’t make me turn and put a bullet in your head, he’s not here for me. You could do this Emma… don’t worry he won’t hurt me.”

  That seemed to be enough to get me going. I had seen the determined possessive look in his eyes when our eyes met right after he’d jumped from the van. Somehow Kimmy’s words rang true, he hadn’t spared Kimmy a glance; almost as if he’d been looking for me. Only I didn’t recognize him. There’s no way I would forget him. So I ran towards the field and the safety of the trees because whatever he was had ripped that van apart, and he was in my path to the house. He would have cut me off easily.

  I ran deep into the woods and realized it was raining hard now hitting me painfully in the face. I tried to run in the blinding darkness with only the moon’s eerie glow to keep me from hitting the trees I sought shelter in. My ability to see in the dark was dimmed, maybe it was due to the rising panic.

  I was breathing hard… my chest rising and falling with every breath I labored to take while pain sliced my side. I yanked my soaking hair out of my face and tried to just focus on pumping my arms and legs.

  I must have been running for a while because I noticed I no longer had my heels. I felt the pain from cuts underneath my feet, my legs felt like they were made of lead, and my vision was blurring. I tried to remember when the shots had stopped, but everything was a haze… I was exhausted. I thought of Kimmy and almost lost my footing, so I pushed her from my mind. She said she would be fine. I needed to believe it if I was willing to keep going.

  As my head pounded, I repeated Darius’s name in my mind hoping to find strength in it. Finally, I knew I had exhausted all my energy when I thought I would soon fall to my knees, crawl, and look for a hiding spot. I heard him then. The sound came unexpectedly from directly in front of me… it was an animalistic, brutal sound that had me abruptly stopping trying desperately to avoid a deathly collision.

  Instead, I lost my balance scraping my hand on a nearby tree as I tried to hold on for support hoping to salvage my life… but then without time to take in a breath the monstrous form I had feared rushed me.

  It happened so quickly. I was grabbed with rough hands by my neck and waist, and hoisted up against a tree. I grabbed on to him… fighting against his force. The few moments I knew of my life flashed behind my lids, and I saw the people I loved, Darius and Kamila. Time slowed, and I round up the courage to fight what my mind couldn’t even name. I had lost all my breath from the momentum of his body hitting mine. I even tried to take a large gulp of air kicking out my legs, not caring about my rising dress.

  I was working on adrenaline and instinct. The hold on my neck loosened and a body made of steel pushed itself against my thighs when I heard and felt the ripping of my dress. It seemed my kicking had only served to allow him better access because he just rammed his hips into me while efficiently trapping me against the tree. He was so aroused by our struggle.

  I screamed, my panic rising to new heights.

  Chapter 11: Awakening of the Beast

  I’d shut my eyes at the feel of him; then, quickly opened them to better defend myself against him. His eyes narrowed on my face with a look of pure hunger as I whimpered from the sudden pain of overworking my body, and the defeat I felt as I allowed for weakness to take over. I started to shove at his arms and shoulders to create some separation between us.

  His skin moved underneath my palms almost as if currents ran through him and into me, burning me. I welcomed the unrelenting rain as it came down on us, without mercy, as my hands slid on his skin making it impossible to do any damage. I was shivering trying to grab at the hands caressing my neck and parting my thigh higher on his hip. He was forcing my body to open to him. There was no moving off me the hard impenetrable body that covered mine.

  So scared, I knew it was no use; nevertheless, I struggled against him with everything I had left.

  Just bid for more time… I thought, so I scratched and pushed my body at hard unrelenting skin. Tore with all my strength at the forearm that had come to rest between my breasts, and now rubbed me there. Everywhere he touched me, he was feeling me… I could feel how his body sought mine as my struggles lessened. Finally unable to move, my breasts rose and fell against him when I screamed in his face for help with the last surge of energy I possessed.

  All the while his fierce silver eyes took in all my struggles and watched while he caressed me with his thumbs where his hands held me. His eyes were taking me in. He held me securely to him as his hands lulled me, and he waited. I took deep panting breaths as my arms felt heavy; fatigue taking hold of me, making me complacent in his arms as my hands came to rest on his shoulders. Not knowing if he would understand I said, “Whatever you are thinking of doing to me, I promise it won’t be easy,” I managed to look at him forcing myself not to look away.


  His reply was the beginning of a smile that never really managed to reach his eyes. Then it was well worth the wait, I heard my mind reply- startled I looked at him for any sign he had put those words there.

  His hot breath fanned my face, as I watched the air escape through his full parted lips, and I felt him hard and throbbing at my center. Tremors traveled through my body even though my blood felt like it was boiling in my veins, and I could hear my heart beating incessantly.

  I tried to remember Kimmy’s warning, but nothing she said made any sense because my instincts were to fight him. Fear lodged itself deep in my throat while my nipples hardened. I thought to myself how could I be reacting like this… my heart and soul belonged to Darius, yet my body betrayed me. This was so surreal; it couldn’t be real I was dreaming a fantastical dream. I was still at that horrid club where Kimmy was talking and drinking it up with some handsome stranger while I had fallen asleep at a booth somewhere dreaming of a mystical beast with full upturned lips and white sharp fangs.

  The fangs fascinated me. I wanted to reach out and caress them, feel them puncture my tender skin. I imagined them gently scraping me where he was now touching me. It felt as though my skin was burning, so I tried to relax as he held me, and I looked at him more closely.

  I was truly surprised to see how beautifully savage he looked. This being was looking more human now with all the hard lines of his face, emphasizing his features. High cheekbones accentuated a primitively sensual face and a straight aristocratic nose led to these lips… my god they were all I could focus on… his smooth, plump, perfectly defined lips. His skin became lighter, and soon I would see the man. Trying to break free from the spell I was in, I looked up at smooth tan skin. He seemed less beastlike and a bit more dark angel at the moment with those breath taking silver eyes and long midnight lashes. With the back of my hands, I felt his black straight shoulder length hair. I wanted to feel more of him, so lowering my hands from his neck to his arms… I quickly found myself clutching him where before I had tried to scratch and loosen his grip. My hands now tightened and gripped, claiming him. I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t help it- he truly just mesmerized me. Maybe it was the familiarity between us, but as crazy as that sounded I felt I knew him.