She stopped feeding and glanced up at him. “More.”
Vicq grasped her behind the knees and set her atop the conference room table. He parted her thighs and then pulled her aching center toward him. He made a heady, thick sound of pleasure the moment his cock head split the plump folds of her pussy. While balancing her on the edge of the table, he pushed into her. There was no momentary pause to allow her time to accommodate his heavy cock. His thrusts were hard and unrelenting from the onset. His eyes never left hers as he studied every little expression on her face. He ground his body against her clit, sending her into a climax. Her orgasm only seemed to excite him more. He pumped into her like a piston, tipping something deep and carnal in her. She gripped his back and screamed as one release folded into another. At the moment of his release, his fangs thrust downward, and he groaned out in pleasure. He buried his face against her shoulder but resisted the urge to bite her.
As Vicq panted against her, she rubbed his back to soothe the scratches she’d put there. It didn’t take them long to heal. After kissing her sweetly on the lips, he fell back into the chair closest to him.
“You rock my world, Elaina,” he breathed.
She smiled and glided her palm against his cheeks. “Do I?”
“From the very first moment we met…”
There was a soft knock at the door. “Elaina? Vicq?” It was Leila calling out for them.
Elaina brought her hands to her lips, hoping that she’d move on to another room, at least until she and Vicq had all their clothes on again.
When the door creaked open, Elaina realized that Leila had other ideas.
Elaina searched for something to cover herself with, but before she could react, Vicq used his heightened strength to shift them to the bedroom.
They burst out in laughter once inside the master suite they shared.
“Fast thinking,” Elaina said between kissing. “She’ll know what we did. Our clothes are still there.”
“Oh…right…our clothes.” He parted from her to grab a robe, slipping it on. “I’ll get them. Be right back.”
“Hurry. I’ll be in the bath waiting for you. And then I’ll help put you to sleep, ” she teased, licking her lips. “You have a long day ahead tomorrow.”
“Mmmm. I like that plan,” he said, just before leaving her alone in the room.
Chapter 9
Vicq moved forward across the empty parking lot, shielding his eyes from the bright sun rays. The post office was abandoned, all right. There wasn’t a soul or the presence of an undead person in sight. The sun certainly felt hot as hell as it worked to burn just the surface of his skin. And it wasn’t even summer. It didn’t matter what season it was—one could never escape the sun. His vampire abilities activated, working quickly to heal the skin as soon as the burns began to set in. If he hadn’t fed on humans as much as he had last night, this could have been worse. The trench coat he wore aided him some.
He checked the street signs again. Anahurst and Fletcher. He was in the right place, but there wasn’t anyone around. Had he been set up? Or worse, had Elaina’s father set her up?
He moved toward the building and paused to notice how someone had cut through the thick metal chains on the door. Apparently, the chains hadn’t been successful in keeping out the trespassers. In the past, Vicq had always found the homeless living in abandoned buildings like these.
After pulling the door open, he stepped inside, crossing the threshold ever so slowly. And just as he’d thought, the building was completely abandoned except for a few wayward pieces of furniture—desks and some chairs. And homeless people. There weren’t that many—maybe a dozen or so huddled in different corners of the room. Some held tightly to garbage bags stuffed with their belongings. There were even a few rickety shopping carts filled with odds and ends, probably items found in dumpsters or landfills. Peanut shells covered the floor, and with each step, his boots crushed over them. The residents inside were eating the peanuts.
No one paid Vicq any attention as he moved forward into the dusty, dark space of the abandoned building. The air was damp and putrid. The place needed a good airing out.
He looked up just in time to see a flash of red near the adjacent corner of the room. His eyes adjusted to the dull light and a male figure appeared. The vision was there momentarily and then it was gone. He tried to move as naturally as possible to the area, but when he reached it, the person wasn’t there. He turned down a hallway and followed his intuition. There was something there at the end of the corridor.
The sound of a click rebounded in the space, but before Vicq could react, a bullet ruptured his thigh. He bit down on his tongue from the shock of it and nearly fell to his knees from the pain.
A man with a red t-shirt appeared in front of him. Vicq swooned, sweeping his gaze back and forth as he tried to focus on the images around him. He soon realized that there was not just one man, but rather a group of men.
“What did you shoot me with?” He couldn’t move. His limbs were seizing up.
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out,” the man in the red shirt replied. “Who sent you?”
“I’m here to see Glory,” Vicq rasped, his lungs burning with each breath he took.
“I’ve got your Glory.”
The man swung something long, thick, and shiny like metal at him. One hit to the head and Vicq was out.
Chapter 10
Vicq struggled to breathe, but something or someone was holding him back. His face was wet, his clothes were drenched. It felt like he was drowning. He peeled his eyes open only to have a bucket of ice-cold water thrown in his face.
“You awake now?” someone asked. “We ain’t got all day. Wake your ass up.”
The voice was familiar. It was the man in the red shirt.
Vicq gasped and pulled against the thick chains binding him to a chair.
“Oh no you don’t,” the man in the red shirt protested.
Had he been set up? Better him than Elaina. He was glad he’d come in her place.
“Man, are your eyes red? You need to get that shit checked out ASAP,” the man taunted, leaning against a table and cracking open a few peanuts shells and popping the nuts into his mouth.
Vicq growled. “Let me go.”
“The sun has really got you weak. Why would you want to go outside again?” He grinned.
The thing that Vicq hated worse than being held was being taunted. Plus, he didn’t have time for chitchat. He needed to get a message to Elaina’s father and head back before the sun grew stronger and he grew weaker.
Vicq wasn’t on the main level anymore. He could tell from the absence of windows and the drastic drop in room temperature that they were at a lower elevation. Maybe the basement level.
“I’m going to drain you dry,” Vicq warned.
The man smiled, showing pearly whites. “I don’t taste very good.”
When the chains shifted and loosened around his chest, the man’s eyes widened, and for a moment, Vicq thought he detected fear.
“If you break these chains, there will be hell to pay. These cost me a pretty penny,” the man said, grabbing a handful of peanuts from a bucket nearby on the table.
“I don’t give a fuck about your chains or your pretty pennies,” Vicq replied, struggling against his bindings until, eventually, one of the chains split. “Unlock me before I break them all.”
“Oh, shit!” the man exclaimed. “Guys! Get out here. Our vamp is awake and he ain’t no rogue.”
Three men came barreling into the room with guns. Two younger men and one older man. Vicq recognized one of the younger men instantly as the guy who’d handed Elaina her father’s note back at the dock.
“You need to shoot him again. Those chains aren’t gonna hold him,” one of the younger men suggested.
“If you’re going to kill me, just do it now.” Vicq held up his palm. “I’m not a good sport when it comes to being held in chains. Been there. Done that. Trust me.”
“I don’t trust you.” Then the older man asked, “Why are you here?”
Vicq raised his gaze and studied him for a moment, hoping to find some resemblance or something about him that reminded him of Elaina. He couldn’t. This man’s blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin were opposite of Elaina’s. He was tall, and so was Elaina, but had most of Elaina’s genes come from her mother then?
Was this Elaina’s father? Were these men who they appeared to be? Should he talk or keep his mouth shut?
“Obviously, this is a setup,” Vicq said.
“This is no setup, vamp.” This statement came from the guy that had handed the letter to Elaina down at the dock. “I saw you last night with the girl. I figured there would be trouble. So, we came prepared. Sure enough, you’re here…but Elaina is not.”
“Where is my daughter?” the older man demanded.
“She’s safe. She got your message, but she can’t meet you here.”
“Why not?”
“She’s…” Vicq bit his lower lip, processing a million ways in which to tell Elaina’s “father” that she was now a vampire. It wasn’t his message to deliver. Not under these circumstances. He just had to get the man to trust him enough to meet Elaina under the cover of night.
“Are you a rogue? A District mutant?” The older man’s demands came quickly.
Vicq shook his head. District mutant?
“I’m vampire. Dresdan,” Vicq said. “Haven’t we figured this out already? You aren’t asking the right questions. For a couple of bounty hunters, you should learn to make the most efficient use of time. At any given moment, your outlaw could…escape…or vanish into thin air without a trace.”
The men looked back and forth between each other.
Vicq chuckled. “Apparently, you don’t know who you’re dealing with. Just like you said, I’m no rogue. But you know what? I’d really like to know what you shot me with before I haul ass.”
The older man rushed forward and grabbed Vicq about the throat. “What have you done with my daughter?”
Vicq tried with all of his might to contain himself and his ever increasing rage. He wanted to kill them all. Every last one of them in the room. He could, but he wouldn’t.
“Vampire, I will fry you to death,” the man warned again.
“You won’t get any answers about Elaina then, will you?” Vicq replied.
The older man produced a gun and aimed for Vicq’s chest. His finger shook near the trigger.
“You should be careful where you aim,” Vicq said. “You will only get one chance to kill me. I really don’t want to return to Elaina with news that her father died because of a misunderstanding.”
The older man raised his pistol, this time aiming for Vicq’s head. “Then let me help you understand, Dresdan. I will blow your brains out without hesitation if you don’t tell me where my daughter is. Do you understand me now?”
“Like father, like daughter. Should I call you Mr. Arakelian?”
Some of the tension left the old man’s arms. His expression changed from sheer anger to curiosity.
“My name is Vicq. I would never hurt your daughter. In fact, I would die right now if that meant saving her.”
“I…” He lowered the gun.
“Of all the memories that Elaina has cherished of you, she enjoyed the moments when you let her ride with you on the back of your tractor. You also taught her how to shoot a gun.” Vicq smiled. “Might I add that she’s got skills.”
Vicq thought he saw a hint of a smile somewhere, but then it vanished instantly.
“You know her?”
“Sí.” Intimately.
“You know where she is?”
“Sí.”
“Can you take me to her?”
“Of course. That’s what she wants. Now, like I said. I would die for Elaina. Would you mind telling me why you wish to reunite with her given your old ties with the District?”
“My name’s not Arakelian. It’s Smith, but yes, I’m Elaina’s father and legal guardian. I know it’s risky, but this situation will become even riskier, I’m afraid. But first, it’s urgent that I speak to Elaina about her mother.”
That’s when Vicq saw the tears welling up in the man’s eyes. The pain was so thick in the room, he could almost smell it. He swallowed and hoped this didn’t mean what he sensed it did.
“She has terms,” Vicq said. “You’ll have to meet her at sundown.”
“Is that because she’s sided with you and other Dresdan to protect her from the District hunting her?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’ve heard the rumors about her going AWOL and escaping capture with the help of vampires.”
“Not just any vampire, Mr. Smith,” Vicq corrected and then demonstrated by thrusting his form forward, breaking himself from the chains.
Everyone scrambled to opposite corners of the room, far away from Vicq, whose fangs had somehow fully extended. Except for Elaina’s father, Mr. Smith. His fearless attitude reminded Vicq of someone else.
Red dots flitted across his chest, and he followed the source to automatic rifles being aimed at his body. Vicq’s gaze traveled back to Mr. Smith, who had two fingers raised in the air as a sign to the young men to hold fire. There was also a strange unnatural mark on the inside of his wrist. Not a District mark. A mark symbolizing something else. Vicq hadn’t seen anything like it before. One thing was certain, Mr. Smith was this group’s leader.
“One more thing…?” Vicq asked. “What did you shoot me with?”
“A tranquilizer strong enough to paralyze a vampire. It freezes the blood in your system as well as your limbs. It should have kept you out for longer than this, but there aren’t that many vampires out here as strong as you are. It’ll wear off,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I think it already has.”
Vicq looked at the two men with guns. “Do you plan to put me down again? If so, I don’t think this is going to work out the way we planned it. Bummer. Elaina really wanted to see you.”
Mr. Smith turned around to address his followers. “Put down your weapons.” He returned his handgun to the holster on his hip. “Okay, so…even though I feel I’m making a bad decision somehow, I have to see my daughter. I accept the terms.”
“Good.” Vicq reached into his coat and pulled out two plane tickets and an envelope. “Two plane tickets and instructions on how to find the meeting location.”
Mr. Smith accepted the items. “And my daughter will be there?”
“Just like we agreed.”
Vicq gathered up his last remaining strength to bolt from the room. When he reached the threshold of the abandoned building, he folded in with the dense fog waiting outside and shifted his way back to sanctuary.
Chapter 11
Elaina checked her reflection in the mirror again to take in her appearance. She couldn’t remember the last time she had worn a dress, but her mom had always loved seeing her in them.
She was ready to see her parents again, yet she couldn’t conquer her nervousness and anxiety. It had been too long since she’d last seen them. Never in a million years would she have guessed that her next reunion with them would be as a vampire. She could only hope that they didn’t hate her for it. Luckily, they already knew vampires existed, but they had a lot of catching up to do.
Leila still held ownership of a local bed and breakfast not too far from sanctuary, so she’d cleared out the entire hotel to accommodate the meeting. Elaina expected things to go smoothly, but like everyone else, she agreed that privacy was most important. Plus, her parents had traveled a long way to get here.
Vicq walked through the door, closed the distance between them, and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Ready?”
“They’re here?” she asked.
Vicq nodded once and offered his hand.
On the way to the elevator, all she could think about was what she would say. She felt she had more of an explanation to give to them a
bout her new life than they did about why they had abandoned the old home and led authorities to believe they were dead. She’d rehearsed her speech in her mind over and over again.
There was a small dining area on the first floor. As she and Vicq walked down the hallway to reach the room, Leila, who was standing near the entrance, gave a small supportive smile and then disappeared down another narrow hallway.
Her father was waiting by the fireplace, which had been lit to keep the area warm for him. When he looked up and turned around, his entire face lit up. For a moment, all doubts and fear left her as she marched across the room to meet him in the center.
“Elaina,” he breathed as he hugged her tightly to his chest. “It’s you.” He pulled back a little to study her. “You haven’t changed a bit. Except your hair is longer and you’re slimmer. It’s really you?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s me.”
He rubbed the outside of her arms. “You feel cold, LadyBug. Where’s your sweater?”
She shook her head. “I’m okay.”
He kissed her forehead and then ran the pad of his thumb across her temple. His brow wrinkled as he appeared to be deep in thought.
“Are you sure?”
“Um…”
An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Elaina glanced behind her, hoping to find Vicq still there, but he was long gone, and the door to the dining room was now closed.
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