“This isn’t a movie, girlie,” he said, voice dripping with derision. My heart sank. His cell phone rang, and Mark turned, walking off to go and answer it. As I listened to his voice echo from far off, I pulled halfheartedly on the chain. It was bolted solidly to the wall. I looked at the lock on the cuff—it was heavy, and gleamed with newness. He had planned this…recently. I heard Mark’s footsteps as he returned. His teeth shone in the dark, light from the streetlamps flashing off of his noticeable fangs.
“Good news,” he said, clasping his hands before him. “Your boyfriend cares about you. Quite a bit, in fact. I am going to save you for something post-lunch. Dessert, perhaps.” I threw my head back, wondering why Jared had let Mark have the impression that I was special. He had completely ruined the angle that I had been working. I sat, trying to figure out where to go from here.
Chapter Eight
While I was waiting, I began to feel about me in the darkness. The floor was smooth and dirty with collected grit. It had been closed for several decades, at least. I felt about me in the darkness, going slowly. If I cut myself, it could spell the end of the line. To my surprise, I felt the familiar, smooth, thick cloth of my medical coat. With bated breath, I patted it, feeling for my makeshift stake in the inner pocket. I exhaled in relief when my hand met with its solidness. I pulled the coat on, hugging myself, making it look like I was trying to get warm, and hiding the fact that I was reaching for the handle of the stake.
The last thing that I wanted to do was to have Mark focus his attention on me. Although I didn’t want to engage Mark in conversation, I also knew that I needed to get him off-guard. I needed to lull him into a false sense of security, so that I could find an opportunity to slip my makeshift stake in between his ribs. I was a doctor—familiar than most with anatomy. This should be something that I excelled at.
“So, who were you, like, originally?” I asked him. He faced me, frowning a bit. “I mean, you must have been someone important if such a powerful rogue vampire like your Maker turned you. Jared told me all about him and how great he was. He didn’t tell me much about you, though.” To my surprise, he answered.
“You assume wrong, Samantha. I was your average kid. I was the youngest of two brothers,” he said. “My older brother was a straight-A student, a star athlete, and then a decorated Marine. He died in Vietnam. My parents didn’t pay much attention to me before his death. But after, it was like they were ghosts. It was like I was a ghost.”
“That must have been hard,” I said, coaxing him.
“Indeed. They were the first that I killed…when I became this.” He smiled. “The terror in their eyes as they found that they had been harboring a monster, and the fear that permeated their blood made it sweet and succulent. And perfect Brian, dead.” He laughed as something occurred to me. “If only I had been able to kill him, too. Alas.”
“That’s why most of your victims were young men, isn’t it?” I said. “You feed off of young men who look like your brother because it’s like killing him.”
“You are so good at putting two and two together,” Mark said sarcastically. “Clever, Doctor.” He sighed heavily.
“My father owned this factory,” he said, waving his hand in the air. “He built it from the ground up, spending his entire life perfecting it…making it run like clockwork. He so desperately wanted my brother to follow in his footsteps after attending college on the G.I. Bill. Instead, it came to me. And I let it fall into ruin and disuse from the moment my father’s heart stopped beating.”
“My Maker showed me how to have power. Going rogue was the best thing to happen to me. And then Jared had to go and kill Gregor…bring him to some sort of justice. But that just freed me from the bonds of my Maker. Now that I have all of the power, I can ascend to the greatness for which I was meant.” He looked at me, and there was a strange gleam in his eye. “Now that I am the Undead, nothing can stop me.”
“Why would you want that?”
“And your life is working out so well, Samantha?” his voice was hushed, yet menacing. He was looking at me, his face in shadow, his head cocked to the side, as if he were making a study of me.
“I can’t complain,” I replied, shrugging. “I mean, my relationships don’t seem to work out, and then I do tend to be a little awkward in social situations, but you know, my career is working out really well, and I love my apartment.”
“And this is what you want? Always struggling, always rushing about to put other people back together?” It was like he was looking inside of me and finding something wanting. “Always tired, always the one in the relationship who gets left for someone else…someone with more time, someone more confident?”
“When you put it that way…” My voice came out sounding hurt, as though stung by this remark. I steeled myself: I wasn’t about to let him get to me. I needed to survive this. I needed to stay on point.
“Have you ever thought about what it would mean to put all of that aside?” he was walking closer to me, kneeling down so that we were face-to-face. I could smell his breath; it reeked of blood. I wondered that I had never smelled it before. “What if you could have power, and wealth?” He caressed my cheek with his frozen hand. “What if you could have beauty that would last for eternity?” He paused, exhaling in a rush of frozen air, reminiscent of a refrigerator door opening. I knew that this was not yet my moment. I let him go on and let him get comfortable within my reach.
“You know, Samantha,” he said. “One of the reasons why I talk to you is because I really do find you attractive. Your pale, creamy skin, hair blonde like corn silk, eyes that would look like cold stars when I take all of the warmth out of you.” I suppressed a shudder at the thought of being so cold.
“You would taste…incredibly sweet.” His voice was seductive. I tried to keep my breathing calm, and to not move a muscle, my hand gripping the stake in my jacket, but I was shaking horribly from tension and fear. From Mark’s undisguised pleasure as he smiled, cruelly stroking my cheek, and then my neck, right along my carotid artery, I could tell that he was savoring my poorly disguised fear. I was his plaything.
He leaned back, pulling out his phone, and glancing at it, his pale skin blue in its light. He sighed as he checked the time.
“We still have some time yet,” he said, placing his phone back into his pocket before he lunged at me, like a snake striking at its prey. He grabbed me by the neck, standing and lifting me to him in the cruel mockery of a kiss, his ice cold lips at mine. His razor-sharp fangs cut my lip as he forced his tongue inside of my mouth. I knew—it was time.
In a single movement, I pulled the stake from my coat pocket, shoving it as best as I could up and in between his ribs and in the direction of his heart. He screamed in surprise and threw me against the wall, where I hit, sliding down to the floor in a daze. He looked down at the stake, sticking out from beneath his sternum. With a sinking feeling, I realized that I had missed his heart.
He pulled it from his chest, and, snarling, leaped at me with lightning speed.
Chapter Nine
I ducked, curling into a fetal position to protect myself, certain that Mark was about to tear me to pieces. His strike never fell. An enormous, echoing growl permeated the warehouse. I felt an intense heat fill the air. I looked up to see a massive form, blocking out the doorway. It was reptilian, with a long and large, sinuous body. There was a crackling, thrumming noise coming from within the beast, as though it contained fire.
Its eyes were lit from within, green and glowing; they were trained on Mark, who stood, crouching before the beast, sizing it up. Although Mark was smaller by a mile, I knew that they were evenly matched. The vampire attacked the dragon, who I knew was Jared, come to rescue me and exact justice.
They fought, and my heart was pounding in my chest. Mark was using the stake that I had brought against Jared—I was furious with myself for placing a weapon at his disposal. He stabbed at the dragon with all of his might, trying to punch a hole in the scaled
hide. Jared, on the other hand, swiped at Mark with his knifelike claws. Throwing the stake aside, Mark wrapped his body around Jared’s neck, squeezing, trying to suffocate him. Jared shook his head violently, causing Mark to be thrown off. He landed with a crash in a pile of rusting machinery parts.
Jared reared his head back, looking for Mark. I sat, still dazed from being thrown. There was no way that I could free myself and help. Jared was searching frantically through the pile of machinery. I suddenly felt myself being grabbed by cold hands. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t make my voice work properly. I could feel Mark’s lips against the skin of my throat, the pulsing of my jugular as fangs pierced the tender skin of my throat. I could hear Jared, shuffling through the room, searching for the vampire in all of the wrong places.
The room was alight in a wash of fire that blasted from the dragon’s maw. Mark was a dark shadow in the foreground. Old wood caught, and the room stayed lit as the dragon continued his search in vain.
I struggled, trying to get the vampire off, feeling his lips tighten at my neck, feeling the strange suction as he drank my blood. The sound of my heartbeat was loud in my ears, and the fear that I was experiencing was nauseating. As I struggled, the cross around my neck grazed his hand. I heard a sizzling sound as Mark pulled away, cursing in pain. I smelled his seared flesh. Seizing my opportunity, I brought my knee up, hitting him in the balls. Mark cried out in surprise and pain. With a rush, I realized that I had lost too much blood already, and I reeled like a drunk and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Chapter Ten
I awoke with the taste of blood in my mouth, metallic and bitter. I felt achy, and a little tired, but I also felt brand-new, and stronger than usual. Opening my eyes, I found that I was wrapped within Jared’s arms. Looking at him, I knew that he had watched me closely while I had slept. We lay in a soft bed with a plush down comforter covering the two of us. I smiled at him, reaching up to cup his face in my hand. Two large tears rolled down his cheeks. They glittered in the morning light.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking about me. The walls were a distressed, aged wood, and the windows were large and full of light.
“My cabin,” he replied.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“We fought the vampire the night before last.”
“So long?” Why had I slept for such a long time?
“Samantha.” His voice was soft, almost reverent, as though my name was a prayer.
"I'm alive," I said, happy to find myself in such a state. The last things that I could recall were darkness, teeth painfully biting into my throat, and ice-cold lips sucking the blood from my body.
"About that…" Jared sighed. He looked away from me. “By the time that I could get to you, you were on the precipice between life and death. I needed to act quickly and do the only thing that I could in order to save you...” He trailed off.
“What? What is it?” I reached out, cupping his face in the palm of my hand.
“I turned you.” He looked gaunt and tired…even guilty, as though he had taken something from me.
“So, I am…”
“A dragon shifter,” he replied. I pondered this for a moment. I thought of all of the things that I had been told about dragon shifters—none of them were inherently bad. None of them were as bad as being a vampire. “You are…my destined mate. The moment that we kissed, our lives became entwined. But I didn’t want it to happen like this.” He held my hand in his as he went on.
“I never wanted to turn you and rob you of your human life. I was willing to die with you, the moment that you died, after we had lived a life together,” he said. “But I could not let you die before we’d had any time at all…so I brought you back. I am so sorry. Please forgive me for my selfishness, even if you won’t stay with me.”
I sat up, looking at him. He expected rejection, I realized. He thought that he had committed a heinous act.
“Look at me,” I said, and he did, raising his eyes hesitantly. I saw sadness there, and guilt. “I feel stronger than I ever have. You didn’t ruin my life; you saved it.” He sat up, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him close to me. I could feel the strength of our bond.
“I want that future with you,” I told him. I brought him to me, kissing him passionately. He rolled on top of me, supporting himself with his hands. He gingerly avoided making contact with me. “I’m fine,” I assured him, pulling him so that he dropped down, putting his weight on me.
“I forgot that you weren’t human for a second,” he muttered into my hair. I growled as I pulled him to me; it came out as a rumbling purr, an animal vibrato against my sternum. His mouth met mine, and I ran my hands over his smooth skin. He no longer felt hot, as my internal temperature was the same as his now.
I looked him in the eyes; they were glowing, an iridescent green, like the dragon from the night before. It was definitely going to take some getting used to, remembering that the dragon and the person were one and the same.
I rolled, causing us to tumble within the sheets. Straddling his hips, I sat astride him. He reached up, cupping my breasts. I mounted him and began gyrating my hips sensually. It was a position of strength. I felt strong and sexy as I slowly moved myself up and down. I threw my head back, arching my spine. I could feel the heat generated by our bodies. It was just like the first time—we were on fire. It felt as though the house around us was beginning to catch—that we were setting the rest of the world ablaze, leaving nothing behind but ash.
~*~
THE END
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Don’t Hurt Me
~ Bonus Story ~
A Werewolf - Witch Romance
Penelope Harris is cursed. When she was twelve, she placed a spell on herself so that she would only marry her one true love. Now, she runs a matchmaking service that is highly suspect in the public eye due to Penny’s string of explosively ended engagements; the tabloids have dubbed her “Unlucky Penny.”
Davey Allred is a popular actor. He’s enlisted Penny’s help to find him “the One.” The problem is, Penny’s love magic isn’t working because her instant attraction to Davey is blinding her to any other potential matches for him.
Can she find someone for him before he falls for her and is injured or worse by the curse? Can she keep her own heart from breaking over this notorious playboy? And why does he even want to settle down in the first place?
* * *
Prologue
I could hear Mom and Jack, yelling at each other in the other room. I was twelve, and just coming into my powers. My mint-green walls were scribbled on with Sharpie marker—my second favorite past time. Jack was yet another in a string of bad relationships that my mother had been in, the first being my father. Evidently, Jack had cheated on my mother, who had found out when Jack arrived at our house to pick my mother up with a bright, cherry red lipstick stain on the collar of his white oxford dress shirt.
I shut my eyes. How could I make it so that this would never happen to me? I began to picture a thread—a green one, one that represented me and the span of my life. Fate, according to my grandmother. I began to wrap a golden thread around the green one in my mind.
As the door slammed shut in punctuation to the fight in the other room, I worked my first major spell—I would only be able to marry my one true love. I could feel the spell as it covered the surface of my skin—a tingling feeling that shot through my fingertips. As the spell finished, the door to my bedroom opened.
“Penny?” my grandmother asked me. “What are you—” She gasped, a deep intake of breath.
“I fixed it,” I said ecstatically. “I can only marry my one true love, Grandma!”
“Penny! I told you not to cast anything that would affect the Fates!”
“But—” My Grandmother knelt down in front of me, taking my hands. She closed her eyes and began to mutter und
er her breath. She went on in this manner for several minutes before dropping my hands.
“You worked a strong spell…I can’t change it.” She looked at me. “You may live to regret this, my dear.” I nodded, keeping my face calm, but inside, I felt proud and triumphant. It was my first major working—and it had been successful.
Chapter One
“So?” she asked me, shrugging her shoulders and widening her eyes in excited expectation. We were wrapped in the soft sheets on my bed. She had this gorgeous copper colored hair and deep brown eyes. I caressed her through the sheets.
“You’re fun,” I said. She smiled and laughed. She had a great laugh. I tried to think back again to where, exactly I had met her. It had been a long night of drinking and partying. It was typical of my life. I was a movie star, after all. I had met her in that nightclub…the one with the 1970’s theme…yeah. What was her name?
I thought about taking her to Starbuck’s. That way, I could get her name surreptitiously. That would work…instead of breakfast, just a coffee. Get her name and number for later possible reference, and then send her on her way. I lay back in the bed, feeling my heart rate begin to slow.
Whatever her name was, she was caressing my sideburn, looking at me seriously. I hoped that she wasn’t about to start some type of bedroom confessions session. I was too tired, and I could feel my hangover beginning. Luckily, or not, my cellphone rang. That meant one person. My grand-aunt Annalise. I answered immediately. I never failed to answer her calls. Never.
“Aunt Anna?” I asked.
The Beast In The Castle Page 33
