Stolen: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance

by Marissa Farrar

“As I explained, she has the advantage of walking in the light, which makes her appear human. Most don’t even know she’s a vampire, and so she’s been almost impossible to find. You, yourself, after spending so much time in her company, didn’t even know she’s a vampire.”

  I couldn’t imagine spending a hundred years searching for something. “All this time, and you’ve never given up.”

  “And I never will. That bitch needs to be stopped, before she ruins any more lives.”

  “Stopped, how?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.

  “The same way she stopped her maker.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I was still struggling to align my thoughts of Mother with the story Roman had told me. The woman had never had much affection for me, or any of us, for that matter, and she sold us to vampires and kept us prisoner our whole childhoods. I knew she was wicked, and had to be stopped, but, at the same time, the idea of Roman ripping off her head made my stomach turn.

  With a sense of mission behind us, we both dressed. I picked out a sleeveless t-shirt and skirt, while Roman wore his usual dark shirt and pants.

  Together, we left the bedroom and went into the kitchen. Roman poured me a glass of water, and himself a glass of red wine.

  I was still full of questions. “What happens to the other girls once you kill Mother?”

  “I will free them, of course. Find their families and reunite them.”

  “What if they don’t want to see their families again?”

  “Then I guess that’s their choice.”

  I thought of Christa, and little Annie. How I would love to see them, to pull them into a hug and tell them the future they’d thought belonged to someone else, was now their own again. Perhaps some, like Scarlet, would go on to become blood courtesans anyway, but at least they would be paid, and it would be their choice to do so.

  “So, what now?” I asked.

  He captured me in his gaze again, so dark and intense, making me feel like no one existed in the world except for us. “Are you willing to help me?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  He paused for a moment, his eyes searching my face, as though trying to decide if I was serious, or making the right choice, and then he continued. “We need to figure out where you were being kept.”

  “I told you. It’s somewhere in New York, but I’ve no idea where.”

  “We can narrow it down more than that. There must have been something you’d seen on the way here that would give you an idea, signposts or landmarks.”

  “Roman, I’ve been kept locked away my whole life. It’s not as though I’m going to recognize anything. Besides, the men who brought me here put black screens up around the car windows, and another screen between us. I didn’t see anything. All I did was sit in the back until they pulled up outside your building.”

  “Okay.” Roman crossed to a desk in the corner where he pulled out a map. “So you were in the car for how long?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. An hour, maybe two. The traffic was pretty slow in some places.”

  He spread the map out across the dining room table. “Let’s say you were traveling an average of thirty miles an hour, which, to be honest, is probably faster than you actually were.” He stabbed a pen in the map. “This is our apartment.” I buzzed at the fact he’d said ‘our,’ not ‘my.’ “So you must have been kept within sixty miles of this point. He picked up a pen and a piece of string from his desk and tied one end of the string to the pen. Then he placed the other end of the string to the position of the apartment on the map, and measured out the scale of what I assume was sixty miles. He pulled the string in a circle, using the pen to draw a line and map out a perimeter.

  “So this narrows it down,” he said, putting down the pen to look at the map again. “You’re also going to have been kept in an industrial area, not a suburb. If you’d been in a suburb, someone would have noticed the strange goings-on and reported the place by now.”

  I frowned, remembering. “It was gray,” I said. “All concrete. The window in my bedroom looked out onto concrete walls, and when I stepped out of the door—which wasn’t like a door here, but more like the metal of a garage door—I was faced with walls again. I remember being disappointed that was the first thing I’d seen upon being freed from there.”

  Roman nodded, a line between his brow as he stared down at the map in concentration. “Good. That’s good, Dakota.” He took the pen and began to cross out large areas. “These are all the suburbs. You weren’t held here.”

  I nodded. He was right. I definitely wasn’t kept anywhere with green lawns and a Neighborhood Watch.

  “Try to think, Dakota. Is there anything else?”

  I screwed up my face in concentration and shook my head. “I really don’t think so. I wish I could help more, but I don’t know what else to say. I wasn’t really thinking about my location when I left. I was more focused on where I was going than where I’d been.”

  Roman sat back and folded his arms across his chest. He bit his lower lip, the fangs pressing dangerously against the pink flesh as he watched me, deep in thought.

  “What is it?” I asked, knowing he was thinking something.

  “I have an idea.”

  “Go on…”

  “How would you feel about having a taste of my blood and allowing me to see inside your head?”

  I blushed at the idea. What would he see about me? All the filthy thoughts I’d had about him? About my burgeoning feelings for him? I didn’t want him to know about any of that, not yet. He’d think I was just a silly little girl, falling for him so soon after we’d met.

  But I owed it to the other girls to let him try. If it meant I’d get to see Christa again, and help Annie find her family, it was worth a little embarrassment on my part.

  Roman leaned forward to lock me with his eyes. “It’s okay if you don’t want to. I will understand.”

  I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “It’s not that. I want to do everything I can to help. I guess I just don’t want you to judge me for what you might find in there.”

  He suppressed a smile. “Do you have some deep dark secret you don’t want me to know about?”

  Yes, that I’m starting to wonder if I’d want a life where you’re not in it…

  I forced a bright smile. “No, of course not. Just stupid stuff, really.”

  “I promise not to probe too hard.”

  I took a breath.

  What would his blood taste like? Would it be awful? What if I couldn’t swallow it? What if it made me sick?

  His hand touching mine made me look up, and he gave me a smile. “Dakota, relax. It will be fine, I promise.”

  “Sorry,” I managed, though my voice wasn’t much more than a whisper. Why, after everything, was this the thing that had thrown me the most?

  A blood bond meant I’d be connected to another person. Able to feel their emotions, maybe even pick up on their thoughts. I’d never had anyone I’d been close to my whole life. Christa was probably the closest, and, crazily, then probably Mother, but I’d never had the opportunity to have anyone get close to me before. Never had someone I’d been able to think of as my own.

  He’s not yours, I warned myself. He just needs to do this to find Mother, the vampire he knows as the Madam. My emotions warred within me. I didn’t want to think about what would happen when he found her. I knew what she’d done, and what she continued to do, was bad and I wanted her to stop—she couldn’t keep stealing young girls and selling them off to vampires when they were grown—but at the same time I didn’t want Roman to hurt her. I didn’t want Roman to get hurt either. Mother was older than he was, and so most likely stronger. Plus, she had the added advantage of being able to walk in the light. What if she just hid until it was daylight and Roman was asleep, and then walked up to him and rip off his head, just like she’d done to her maker?

  “Dakota,” Roman said again, pulling me out of my thoughts. “It’s only a dro
p of blood.”

  I shook my head slightly. “Sorry, it wasn’t that. I was just worrying about people getting hurt.”

  “They’re being hurt every day if the Madam is allowed to continue. Think of all the families left, mourning their lost daughters.”

  “You’re right. I’m just trying to get my head around it.”

  “I understand.”

  I’d been lucky with Roman. Yes, he was a vampire, but he wasn’t vicious and cold-hearted, like I imagined some vampires could be. Despite our bumpy start, I figured I could have done a lot worse, and the other girls didn’t even know who they’d be sold to yet. What if they were sold to vampires who were brutal and hurt them? Mother had always said she vetted our potential owners, but I knew she lied on a lot of fronts now, so why should I believe her about that particular morsel?

  “So what do I need to do?”

  He locked eyes with me. “Just kiss me.”

  “What?”

  “It’ll be the least disturbing way for you to ingest my blood. I’ll nick my tongue with my fangs. You will barely even notice it.”

  I was never going to turn down an offer to kiss Roman, the man kissed as though he earned a six figure salary for doing so. Not knowing what else to say, I nodded.

  He moved toward me and took my face in his hands.

  My breath caught, my heart pounding.

  Roman leaned in toward me and his mouth pressed against mine, firm and cool. Eager for him, I parted my lips, my tongue searching for his. I should be tentative, but being in his proximity woke something in me, and though the thought of what was about to happen made me nervous, it didn’t stop me from wanting to kiss him.

  We moved closer, and Roman sat down on one of the dining room chairs we’d been standing beside, pulling me onto his lap. My arms wound around the back of his neck and we deepened the kiss. I wriggled on his lap, his hardness pressing against my thigh. Wanting more, I twisted around and swung my leg over his hip so I straddled him.

  Our tongues touched, but I couldn’t taste any blood, not yet. I had the feeling he was just getting me warmed up.

  His hands were on my body, one slipping up my torso to crush my breast and pinch my nipple, the other moving down to grab my ass and pull me hard against him. Crazily turned on, I ground myself against the ridge in his pants, wanting more.

  He stopped kissing me for a fraction of second, a flash of movement in his mouth, and that was the only thing that clued me to the fact he’d done it. I had to do my part now.

  When he kissed me again, I sucked his tongue into my mouth. A rush of copper flooded my tongue, but, instead of balking, I tried to concentrate on the feel of Roman’s body beneath mine. I just needed to keep my mind away from the idea that I was tasting blood, to stop my body’s natural reaction to reject it. I swallowed, and then swallowed again, and a strange feeling swarmed through my veins. I could feel him, his cock hard beneath my pussy, his tongue in my mouth, but at the same time, I could feel myself as well. It was the strangest thing I’d ever experienced, like watching myself from the outside in a dream, but being able to feel what was happening as well.

  “Oh!”

  Surprise made me pull away, breaking our contact. I caught a glimpse of red on Roman’s lips.

  “It’s okay,” he said, drawing me back to him. “It’s supposed to feel like this. I don’t want you to stop.”

  “Me either.”

  I wanted to explore this new territory. I allowed him to pull me back in and he kissed me again. Then he pulled my shirt over my head, and I did the same to him. I drew his tongue back into my mouth, sucking, our bodies pressed together, my naked breasts against his naked chest.

  I wanted more.

  I reached between us, popping the button on his pants and frantically working at his zipper. I lifted myself slightly, giving us room to maneuver, and Roman raised his hips from the chair, allowing me to yank down his pants. He was going commando and utterly naked once he’d kicked the pants away. I wore a skirt, so he didn’t even bother to rid me of my clothing. Instead, he tore away my panties, leaving me naked under the short skirt, and then pulled me back onto his lap. With my thighs straddling his hips, the position opened me up to him. I was still a little sore and swollen from earlier, but from our connection I could sense that Roman was taking it slowly with me this time. In this position, I was the one controlling our movements, something that turned me on even more.

  With our mouths crushed together, our tongues dancing in a wicked battle, I reached between us and took hold of his cock. It was rock hard in my hand, the skin a silken glove over the top. I lifted myself slightly again, positioning him at my entrance, and then slowly sank down, impaling myself on him.

  I gave a gasp against his mouth, my eyes squeezing shut as he filled me so perfectly. I clutched tight to his shoulders as I rocked my hips, giving myself time to accommodate his length and girth. Because of our connection, I could feel how I felt to him—how hot my body was against his, how my inner muscles held him so tightly. It was an intense sensation, the feeling of both having someone inside me, while being inside myself as well. My mind went hazy at the edges momentarily, as though all of this was just too much to comprehend, but then my body took over and I stopped over-thinking it all.

  Roman’s hands clutched my bottom, using his strength to lift me up, so I slid off his whole length, almost to the head, and then pushed back down. The friction the movement was creating drove me wild, and now that my body had warmed up, my natural lubricant slicking the way, my hips began to buck against his, wanting more. I wanted it harder and faster. I wanted him to bite me and claim me for his own.

  I still wore the collar Mother had given me, but Roman placed his mouth against the point where my neck met my shoulder and sank in his fangs. I cried out, the feeling of his teeth penetrating me, while his cock rode deep, was enough to make me lose my mind. He let go of my ass with one hand and reached between us. His fingers made contact with the little bud of nerves at the apex of my thighs and he strummed it, making my back arch, and dragging a second cry from my throat. My body was so tightly wound now, every muscle tensed to break for the orgasm that hit me like a tsunami.

  “Oh, God,” I cried out, as my body was hit with jolt after jolt of eye-rolling, toe-curling pleasure.

  “Ah, fuck,” Roman groaned, crushing me to him as he came inside me, his hips thrust one last time, holding himself deep as his own orgasm rode through him.

  We were left panting, clinging to one another, as we both came down from the highest of highs.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “So did it work?” I asked, as we lay together on the couch. I lifted myself up onto my elbow so I could see into his face. The effects of the blood were still working on me, though I knew he’d only given me a couple of drops. I didn’t know how long the effect would last, and perhaps it wasn’t real, but I was also enjoying both the physical and mental bond that currently existed between us. “Tell me what you saw.”

  “I saw much as you’d described. Lots of gray concrete walls, the car you were put in when you came out, the men who’d brought you here. I felt how you did then, too, the nervous excitement combined with fear.”

  I nodded, that was exactly how I’d felt.

  He took my hand. “I understand now why you were so upset with me for rejecting you. I’d never considered that you would actually be excited to meet me. I thought you’d have hated me.”

  His words surprised me. “Why?”

  “Because I’d bought you. Because essentially you were forced into this situation against your will.”

  I sighed. “I know that now, and I guess I knew it at the time, but like you said, we were kind of brainwashed at the center. I didn’t know any differently.”

  “Conditioned,” he said. “The Madam conditioned you to feel as you did about me. Perhaps, when all this is over, and you go and create a life for yourself, you’ll feel as you’re supposed to.”

  I squeezed his hand.
“I could never hate you.”

  He gave a smile that was tinged with sadness. “I’d like to think that, but like I said, you might have a very different opinion of me if you’d been raised in a normal household.”

  “I’d still have feelings for you,” I said, and then clamped my mouth shut. I didn’t want him to know how I felt. He would dismiss my feelings as being part of my training—and who knew, maybe they were. But to me, my feelings were real. I didn’t want to go off and start a new life when this was over. I wanted to stay here, and create a life with him.

  Of course, I said none of these things.

  “But what else did you see?” I continued, changing the subject. “Anything that might help narrow down the search?”

  He nodded. “I think so. You saw a poster when you came out of the center—for a band that is playing on Saturday. Do you remember?”

  I narrowed my eyes in concentration, and then nodded. “Yes, I do! It was on the wall right in front of me.”

  “The band are called The Crazed, and they’re playing in a bar called Ader’s Tavern. My bet is the training center isn’t too far from there. No one is going to bother putting up posters for a band playing in a completely different part of the city. Plus, we know the building you were kept in was at least three stories, and that it was industrial, and the entrance is a big metal, sliding shutter.”

  My heart lifted with hope. Would I really see Christa again? Would we be able to find little twelve-year-old Annie’s family and reunite them? Annie was young enough to be able to remember where she’d come from. I imagined a couple of the girls wouldn’t be so happy about being released—both Scarlet and Kitty came to mind—but the others would be able to go on to live normal lives, I hoped.

  I was still worried, though. I didn’t want Roman to get hurt, and I wasn’t sure what I would say or how I would feel when faced with Mother… or the Madam… again.

  “So when do we leave?” I asked.

  “We don’t leave at any time. You’re staying right here.”