The Dresdan Coven Trilogy

by Amber Ella Monroe

“Sorry…we were told—”

  “Forget what your organization told you. Everything was a lie. Don’t you see that now?”

  Elaina didn’t answer right away. She looked down at her open palms. “This is all so surreal. You tasted me once, maybe twice, and now you think my blood is your magic potion.”

  “It goes both ways, Elaina. You just don’t know it yet, and you won’t know it until I’ve shared mine with you,” he said.

  “But I’m only human.”

  “Yes, but that makes no difference. Humans have cravings, as well.”

  Her gaze rose to meet him. “Then give me your blood.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You said I would know if I tasted you. Prove it.”

  “You want to bite me?” He grinned.

  “No, I just want you to give me your blood from the vein,” she said.

  He laughed. “Doesn’t quite work that way.”

  “Just slit your wrist and give it to me,” she taunted.

  He extended his arm out and turned his wrist over so that it was facing upward. “Go ahead, slit it.”

  She hesitated. “You’re toying with me.” She shot up, walked over to the mantle again, and turned her back to him.

  “I assure you, I’m not.”

  “You are.”

  When she spun around again, he pulled her close and kissed her. Fuck it, she would probably slay him for it, but he just couldn’t help himself.

  When Elaina spun around to confront him, Vicq instantly embraced her and his lips descended onto hers. Blood raced through her veins and throbbed in her eardrums. She was nervous and excited all at once. Maybe a combination of both, but she knew what the consequences of her actions were.

  His heated lips left a trail along her collarbone down to the plump cleavage peeking from the top of her fitted tee. His wicked tongue tasted the sensitive skin there.

  “Vicq.” Elaina grasped his arms tightly as he nuzzled her.

  “You still have time to stop me,” he whispered.

  “I don’t want you to stop.” She arched her breasts toward him. She hadn’t done this in so long. She wanted, needed it.

  He exhaled as though he were relieved.

  “If you want me so badly, take me,” she said.

  He lifted her top over her head with haste. Her bra fell down to the floor shortly after, freeing her breasts to his gaze. He lowered his head and took a hardened nipple between his lips. Cupping her back for support, he suckled gently. Each delicate tug caused a frenzy of lust to spread throughout her body. Her insides felt like they were on fire, heat rising within her like an inferno.

  Vicq gently rolled a nipple between his fingers as he softly licked the other. The contrast—the roughness of his tongue, the softness of his lips, the smoothness of his fingertips, the urgency of his caresses—drove her absolutely insane. Another part of her demanded attention. His wicked tongue caused a heat wave at her core.

  “I want to taste every inch of you, not just your blood.”

  They took turns tasting and savoring.

  His fingertips slipped into the waistband of her jeans. He helped her pull them down her legs and then traced the lace edges of her panty line. The flesh between her legs ached so badly; she couldn’t imagine why any women—blood slave or Donor—would want to endure such torture. Elaina cried out against his shoulder as his fingers circumvented her panties and dipped into her wet heat. He slid his fingers down into her folds, stroking her. Her knees buckled and she held onto his forearms for support.

  Vicq mumbled something against her flesh that she didn’t understand. His accent and the soft foreign words he whispered to her turned her brains to mush. When he spoke English again, he said, “You’re hot for me.” He used his body to urge her backwards until her back hit the wall. “I bet you taste just as sweet as your blood.”

  Elaina pushed her head against the wall and closed her eyes as his fingers stroked her outer lips. Immobilized, she couldn’t even speak.

  “May I?”

  She sucked in her breath and nodded.

  He lifted her in his arms, and just as he’d done to get them here, fled up two flights of stairs at the speed of light. She barely had time to catch her breath.

  After shedding the rest of her garments, he stood over her and gazed down at her for what seemed like several minutes. His eyes traced over every curve of her body from head to toe. A never-ending caress. Sparks of red flickered in his eyes.

  Vicq pulled his own shirt over his head, and her gaze immediately shifted to the ink-like symbol on his chest. Almost like a tattoo, but she knew the vampires were marked based on what breed they were. He unzipped his jeans, threw them aside, and then came down over her, slowly.

  His heavy cock swept against her skin as he peppered her with kisses from head to toe. He brushed his cool fingertips against her skin, as if admiring the feel of her warm body against his own. When he dipped his tongue into the crevice of her navel, she gasped and grabbed a fistful of his hair. He laughed softly into her stomach and then moved lower and blew puffs of air on her belly.

  “Vicq.”

  She anticipated what came next when his lips brushed her thigh. He kissed her sex once, twice…

  “Turn over,” he commanded.

  “Vicq, I need…” She bit her lips. When she didn’t obey him, he licked the inside of each thigh.

  “Don’t you like being teased?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I need something now,” she begged. She never begged.

  “You need what?” He brought his hand over her sex and slid his fingers through her slit. “Mierda, you are so wet.”

  She squeezed her insides against his thick digit, as he pushed in and out of her. The walls of her sex gripped his fingers, and her clit pulsed rhythmically in harmony with his thrusts.

  “Come,” he whispered.

  Her orgasm was near. So near, waiting on the edge. Elaina clutched the sheets when her convulsions began. Her orgasm burned through her like an erupting volcano.

  Vicq grinned and then dipped his head again to place his lips to her clit.

  She gasped and grabbed his hair. His strands felt like silk between her fingers. His mouth felt like heaven against her sex.

  His tongue entered her, and he alternated between thrusting and licking. She showed him the rhythm she liked, holding her fingers against his scalp and lifting her hips off the bed to meet his lips. She came undone again, and this time her climax filtered through every cell in her body.

  Vicq worked his way up her body gently, settling between her legs. He brushed the hair from her face and then kissed her forehead. His eyes burned red and his fangs had already descended.

  Elaina didn’t fear him. She craved him.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips and arched upward.

  He pushed himself into her sex one inch at a time. His cock felt just as good as his tongue inside of her, and when he started pumping, her body grew pliant beneath him and she gave herself over completely. Every stroke sent her further into ecstasy. She savored every one of his kisses.

  He lifted her chin and nipped at the underside of her throat. His fangs scraped her neck gently, testing her readiness.

  She dug her nails into his back, and he began to plunge with determination. He held his fangs against her neck. He was holding back. She could tell.

  “Do it,” she whispered against his hair and then threaded her fingers through his strands. “Is this what you want? Me as your Donor? Your personal sunshine?” She pulled his head in closer to her until she felt his lips against her throbbing vein.

  “There’s no going back, Elaina…once I do this…”

  “I know,” she said. “You’ll crave my blood forever. That’s what you meant earlier.”

  “Yes. I’ll only crave yours.”

  “I want that…”

  He sunk his fangs deeply into her neck, breaking through the skin with ease. She screamed. Another climax consumed her, but this time it felt d
ifferent. No pain, only pleasure. He siphoned and drank her blood in the same slow driving rhythm that he took her sex. His release came as he was feeding from her. Streams of semen filled her the same way her blood had flooded his mouth. The feeding lasted minutes, but she would provide what he craved for as long as he craved it.

  Vicq slipped his fangs from her vein and rested his face against her chest. “Elaina…my sunshine.”

  Chapter 14

  “Have you ever made another vampire?” Elaina asked.

  They were seated on the grass at a river’s edge under the moonlight. Vicq was resting back on a tree, while she leaned into his chest enjoying his embrace and the view. Her legs were stretched out with his and her head rested close to his heart. The sounds of nightlife and the rustling of the tree branches blended beautifully with the water rippling downstream.

  “I’ve made many. Too many to count. Both while I was serving under the Court and about a dozen more after I fled,” he said.

  “What happens to vampires who flee from the Court?”

  “It’s a punishable offense to denounce ties to the Court. Most are captured and executed.”

  “This Court is always led by a Master vampire right? Is the one who betrayed your Maker the Master of the Dresdan Court now?”

  Vicq’s body tensed against her. “Sí.”

  “If he wronged you and the Court by betraying another Dresdan, why can’t he be removed as leader?” she asked.

  “That’s not how the Court is operated. If one manages to kill a Master, they reap everything. My Maker, Zaket, was also Russo’s Maker.”

  “Are you the only one in your Court that hates Russo for betraying Zaket?”

  “No, I’m not,” he said. “There are dozens who denounced ties and fled. Some have already been captured, especially the ones who formed covens and tried to devise a plan to regain control of the Court and the Dresdan population.”

  “You’re a member of a coven, right? Do you think Russo will come for you?”

  “He has tried to bring me down countless times.”

  She placed her palms on the top of his hands and threaded her fingers with his. “Are you afraid?”

  “Of what?” he asked, his breath fanning her face.

  “Of being executed?”

  “No. Throughout the decades, a vampire gains the ability to subdue emotions, especially fear.”

  Elaina paused for a moment to meditate on his answer. “Fear allows us to feel our humanity. It’s the emotion that reminds of us of just how vulnerable we are. It’s the emotion that we feel right before we’re faced with what limits us and raises doubt in our hearts.”

  “Precisamente. Fear is what happens when we risk losing something.”

  “Is there nothing in your life worth keeping?” she asked, turning her head slightly eager for his answer.

  “There is now.” He lifted her hair from her shoulders and pressed his lips to her neck. “Te adoro…mi rayo de sol.”

  A small gasp pushed passed her lips when she felt the cool point of his fangs testing the delicate skin on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes and waited for the bite, which he seemed to delay on purpose.

  “Voy a asesinar a los que te marcó,” he whispered into her skin.

  “You’ll have to teach me this language,” she replied, not understanding a word he spoke.

  “Through the blood. In due time.”

  “When will you give me your blood?” she asked.

  “I want to make sure you really want it before I do that,” he replied. “You won’t be the same once I do. It’s only fair that I introduce you to who I really am. Once you take my blood, you will become more acquainted with my dark side but I want you to know who I am as it now stands.”

  “Are you also afraid that I will no longer be el sol if you give me your blood?”

  “Siempre serás mi sol. Always.”

  She smiled. “Marcó…? What does it mean?”

  “Marcado. Voy a asesinar a los que te marcó,” he told her. “It means that I’ll murder those who have marked you.”

  Remembering the mark of the District burned into the flesh on the back of her neck, she slid her palm up to caress it. “This will never disappear, will it?”

  Vicq kissed her fingers. “It will…if you want it to.”

  “I do.” Elaina turned around to face him, placed her thighs on either side of his, and straddled him. She initiated a kiss that lasted for several minutes. Before long, her hips were moving in tandem to the thrusts of his pelvis. She wanted him and he sensed it. Vicq brought her to stand and paid great attention as she rid herself of her boots and leather jumpsuit. He shed his clothes within a matter of seconds. Starting at her shoulders, he rained kisses all over her skin, venturing downward until his head was level with the apex of her thighs. He caressed her backside and pleasured her sex with his lips and tongue as he knelt on the ground before her.

  Elaina was already wet by the time she led him back down to a seating position on the ground. She straddled him again, sliding her sex down over his cock until the length of him was buried to the hilt inside of her. Wrapping her arms around his head, she embraced him with her fingers tangled through his silky black hair. As she rode him, she bared her neck, offering her vampire lover the thickest part of her vein. This time, he accepted without hesitation. Her blood pulsed into his mouth at the same tempo as her hips moved sensuously over him.

  She reached her first peak, moaning softly into his hair. “Vicq…”

  He extracted his fangs and exhaled and inhaled harshly to catch his breath. It wasn’t long before he descended on her again for another taste.

  Elaina rode Vicq through midnight just like that, under the stars and under the moonlight. Her adrenaline levels rose with every bite he delivered and every breath she took. When he reached his orgasm, sheer unrelenting pleasure barreled through her. He was like a drug, better than any drug. Her addiction for Vicq had grown in such a short time. This craving instilled a need so great that she just might long for his touch forever with the knowledge that Vicq offered eternal satisfaction.

  Chapter 15

  “Is it good?” Vicq asked, eyeing her from across the small table.

  They were seated at a small twenty-four-hour diner in a town out in the middle of nowhere. Vicq had been watching her eat for almost fifteen minutes. She was on her second serving of scrambled eggs and protein pancakes.

  She nodded, swallowed, and chugged down some ice-cold water. “I haven’t been this hungry in a very long time.”

  “Do you know why that is?” he asked.

  She frowned at him. “I’m not that different from you, ya know? I’m hungry because I need sustenance…the same way you need blood.” She added the last part with her tone lowered.

  Although it was 2AM, there were a few truckers that had stopped in and were seated at nearby tables.

  “A few days of me feeding from you will do that,” Vicq said.

  He fumbled with the basket of toast set out in front of him. He hadn’t even pretended to be eating. He just sat there, watching her. Well, that was fine with Elaina. When it came to food and eating, she wasn’t shy. If she didn’t burn as many calories as she ate on a daily basis, she’d probably have more curves where she’d always wanted them to be.

  “Then I conclude that having a Donor is costing you more than you expected.” She held up the guest bill and glanced at the double digit cost of her meal.

  He laughed. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I want you to be well fed.”

  “What are our plans for tonight? As much as I love the things we do in the dark in your bedroom, I’d love to play some other ways, too.”

  His eyebrow rose as he assessed her. “Have any ideas?”

  “You said you’d show me how to easily track a rogue.”

  “I did, didn’t I? What if I say I don’t want my woman around danger?”

  She smiled. “Understood, but don’t ever forget how we first met. I wasn�
��t wearing a frilly dress, selling cupcakes after Sunday school then, was I? I don’t mind getting my hands dirty.”

  “Oh, don’t I know it.” He grinned.

  “So, is that a deal? You show me how to track a rogue without being sensed, and I might let you bite my neck again.” She winked.

  Vicq narrowed his gaze. “I’ll think about it.”

  Elaina shrugged. “Think all you want, but while time’s a wastin’, you’ll go hungry.”

  “We’ve got a few more hours until all the rogues are likely to retreat to their slumbering places, so you’re in luck,” Vicq said as they reached his motorcycle.

  Elaina stuffed her satchel into the tail box. “Do they slumber sooner because they’re not as strong as Dresdan?”

  “That’s part of the reason. They also slumber often because they’re still considered fledging.” He handed her a helmet.

  “Thanks.” She closed the gap between them, pressing her body against his to kiss his lips.

  Vicq responded as he always did, kissing her back firmly, but gently. And what had started as a long, sensual kissing session became a series of short kisses between panting.

  “Hmmmm,” she moaned as he cupped and gently kneaded her ass. “I think maybe we should finish this first.”

  “Of course, I’m ready whenever you are.” He demonstrated by pressing the hard length of his cock against her belly and scraping his fangs across her neck.

  Elaina wanted both his cock and his fangs inside of her. This craving for him seemed never ending, and she had yet to take any of his blood. She could only imagine what the first taste of his blood would have her doing.

  She—

  Her train of thought was cut off and a sharp object splintered through her shoulder. The impact was so sudden that it knocked the wind right out of her. Her knees gave out instantly and she slumped against Vicq.

  Her vision went in and out as a pain so great it almost made her black out. She struggled to hold on...

  “No…” Vicq screamed.

  Just before her eyes rolled back into her head, she saw the shooter on the roof with a crossbow. A District 5 tracker had just shot her with a poisoned arrow. She couldn’t move. It was as if everything had frozen in time.