Vampire Redemption (Heart of the Huntress Book 5)

by Terry Spear

  She laughed and began unfastening his belt buckle, his hands caressing her shoulders. “All right. But as to your other comment, yes, I want to be with you. Not for one second would I want to do this just to be a vampire turned huntress.”

  “You don’t know how happy that makes me, but it also worries me that when you’re turned you won’t be happy with it.” He leaned down and suckled a breast through the lace bra.

  She leaned back and moaned. When he stopped, she said, “I’ve dealt with a lot of ups and downs in my life. To stay with you, I’m willing to do it.”

  He ran his hands over her breasts, then pulled the lace cups down to expose them and massaged them, skin to skin, making her hot and wanting.

  “Okay. I had the thought that we could do a blood transfer without biting each other, since we’re hunters and it’s just not something we do.”

  She stopped his hands for a second. “Oh, so you give up some blood and I drink it and I give up some blood and you drink it.”

  “I want to try it so we can avoid the whole biting each other issue.”

  She smiled. “Works for me.”

  “So do you want to wait for the mating after we take care of everything here?”

  “Nope. Just the blood part.”

  Zachary smiled, continuing to massage her breasts. “I love you, you know.”

  She gave in to the sexual heat building throughout her body. “Yeah, I know. It just about killed me when I learned what had happened to you, yet deep inside, I couldn’t let go of the desire to be with you as a huntress and you a hunter. No way could I have ever ended your life after you had saved mine. Well, I couldn’t have done it anyway because you were a hunter, not a rogue vampire.” She sighed. “From the moment I saw you enter the house, fighting the vampires, trying to save me, I knew you were the one for me. I…I just couldn’t believe it when I learned—”

  He cupped her face, his blue eyes spearing her with desire. “Most hunters don’t have to face this kind of a dilemma. Maybe it will make us stronger.”

  “It will.” She unfastened the button to his black cargo pants, and he removed her bra.

  Then he made her sit down on the bed so he could take off her boots and socks. After he was done, she switched places so she could remove his. And then he was standing again, running his hands over her black leather pants, cupping her buttocks and lifting, their bodies pressed together.

  She unzipped his zipper. Then she had the unfathomable urge to run her hand down his boxer briefs and wrap her hand around his cock, already rigid. Which she did with relish. It jerked in her hand with rabid interest.

  “Hmm,” she said, and kissed his delectable mouth. “You are so hot.”

  “You are so wild.” Zachary speared her mouth with his tongue, and she felt the pricks of his canines pressing, but not drawing blood, just there.

  She was so wrapped up in stroking his cock in his boxer briefs, she really wasn’t paying attention to anything else but his hands massaging her buttocks and his tongue playing with hers.

  Then he reached for her pants and quickly unfastened them and slid them down her legs. He didn’t wait for her to remove his pants. He was too eager to get undressed the rest of the way, she suspected.

  He pulled off his pants and tossed them, then pulled her around to press her back against his front, his hand dipping into her panties this time, and he spread her legs, then began to stroke her. His free hand cupped a breast and weighed and massaged it while he nuzzled her neck with his face.

  He was doing glorious things to her clit, making her wet, preparing for his penetration. She pressed his hand in her panty to push faster, harder. She was leaning against him, her buttocks pressed against his steel-hard cock and she felt she would have collapsed if it hadn’t been for his other hand holding her up.

  He stopped. No! No! No!

  But then he was pulling off her panties and his boxer briefs. He gathered her up and deposited her on the bed and joined her.

  He quickly began to stroke her clit again and kissed her mouth.

  “I love you.”

  “That’s all I wanted to hear.” He began kissing her again, his strokes to her nub bringing her closer to heaven.

  She loved the way he touched her and made her feel sexy and loved.

  His canines were still extended, but he had been controlling them so far, and she thought he would continue to do so unless she wanted him to bite her, which she didn’t want him to do. Not yet. She couldn’t help it that they still bothered her to an extent. When she finally went through with being turned, would she feel differently? Or still have the same reservations?

  His mouth kissed hers tenderly, and she fed into the desire, their pulses beating wildly as he pulled her closer, his gaze hot on her. His finger stroked her bundle of nerves centered in her sensitive nub. Every stroke filled her with heat. She forgot about their differences and only thought about being a huntress with a hunter who she’d claimed for her mate.

  She couldn’t imagine life without him, or with some other hunter. He was the only one for her. He was tender in the way he made love to her, but then wild with passion as she began to kiss him, tonguing him, despite his extended canines, at least she’d gotten used to them to some degree.

  The culmination of the rising pleasure heated by his strokes came to fruition and she cried out with release. She frowned at him while she tried to catch her breath because her hunter hero hadn’t muffled her cry of pleasure with a kiss.

  The rogue smiled at her, not sorry in the least. Now he kissed her!

  She rubbed her mons on his cock and her breasts against his chest, his hands in her hair, combing through the strands, as he kissed her just as passionately back.

  She thought of when they had gotten rid of the vampire threat, they could spend days and nights like this, in blissful, mating frenzy. She hoped he would feel the same way.

  Then he was pushing his penis between her feminine lips and diving in as deep as he could get. But she wanted him deeper, and once she placed her legs on his shoulders, he thrust into her as deeply as he could go. He was the perfect specimen of a hunter, the perfect mate, at least for her, and she was in love and lust all at once.

  Zachary continued to thrust into his beautiful mate, loving Pasha with all his heart, and glad she had decided they could work things out. He couldn’t have lived without her love, her huntress abilities, and her friendship. She was the only one for him.

  Even now, with her body wrapped around his, she was everything to him—hot, passionate, sexy, wild, and fun.

  He’d tried to sheathe his canines the whole time they were making love, but something about the fragrant smell of her, the way their hearts were beating so frantically, the taste of her, the feel of her beneath him, all of that made it impossible for him to keep his canines tucked away.

  The bloodlust filled him with a craving to bite her, to make her his mate for all time, but he fought that urge with all his strength, concentrating on taking pleasure in penetrating her inner sanctum and thrusting until he climaxed.

  The end was near and this was when it was the most difficult to hang onto his sanity and not bite her. He couldn’t screw it up now. But the craving was always worse, and he wondered—would it give them a heightened sense of pleasure if he bit her and sucked on the blood in her neck? Would she feel the same way with him?

  He stomped down on the craving and came deep inside her, groaning with the effort, satiated, content…for now. But the craving seemed to be getting worse, not easing up during their lovemaking and he realized he probably needed to get some blood to help him fight the need to take hers.

  He pulled her legs off his shoulders and kissed her again. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “Come on. Let’s get a shower.”

  He carried her into the shower, and they took one together. He knew he should tell her what was bothering him, but he feared how she would react to the news. Still, he had to be honest
with her.

  They were soaping each other up and he said, “I think I need to get some blood.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “Not yours. I need to make a blood bank run. Or have someone do it for me. I’ve never done that before.”

  “Okay. I can do it for you.”

  “They’re open at night for the vampires. So maybe one of the vampires on our team.”

  Pasha smiled and used a sponge to wash his back. “I can’t imagine asking a vampire prince or lord to get blood for you.”

  “They probably need to get some for themselves. I have to tell you something else.”

  “Your teeth keep extending when we make love.”

  “Uh, right.”

  “But?”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to lose control and bite you.”

  “You think the blood will help?” She continued to soap his back down.

  “Yeah. But if it gets too bad, we might have to stop making love until I can get it under control.”

  “No, way!”

  “Yes. I can’t afford to bite you.”

  “Just do it.”

  He turned and stared at her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Not until you’re ready.” He wasn’t going to force this on her, but what if he couldn’t fight the craving the next time? Or the time after that?

  “If you can’t make love to me because of the need to bite me, just do it. We’re mated. We’re not going to stop having sex.”

  He smiled. “I love you.”

  She poked at him with the sponge. “But only if you can’t control it.”

  “Of course.” How he wished she’d just say she was ready, whether he could control the issue or not. Then they finished soaping up, doing a lot of body rubs and kissing, then rinsing off, drying off, and were back in bed—to sleep, just in case they had vampires arrive again in the middle of the night to fight them—again.

  Chapter 23

  Before dawn the next morning, Pasha woke in Zachary’s arms and smiled up at him, resting her chin on his chest. She was still feeling a bit conflicted about the process of being turned, but to make this work between them for the long run, she knew she had to do it. She was glad he’d been honest with her about his need to bite her.

  “Are you still with me on this?” Zachary asked, kissing her forehead.

  “Yeah, you bet. I was thinking about Alex though.”

  Zachary smiled. “Really? Now?”

  She chuckled. “That might be something you need to know about me. I often am on task, even before I get out of bed.”

  “I know.”

  She sighed and kissed Zachary’s chest. “We have to know if Alex can be out in sunlight like the rest of you.”

  “All right. So I take it that after breakfast, you want to experiment on him.” Zachary rubbed her bare back.

  “Yeah. We don’t want to wait until the sun is up to have him come over. He needs to know if he can be out when it’s not just overcast and begin to live a more normal life. Invite him over for breakfast in half hour.” She kissed Zachary’s cheek. “Besides, you need to do your usual thing and check on how everyone’s doing anyway.”

  A short while later, Zachary and Pasha were dressed and in the kitchen, ready to make breakfast. Zachary had telepathically asked Alex to join them for breakfast. “He’s on his way. He asked if you wanted to test him in the full sunlight already.”

  Pasha smiled. “If you hadn’t made love to me in the shower, we would have invited him over earlier.”

  “Whose fault was that?” Zachary drew her into his arms and kissed her neck.

  “Hmm, I’d say we were equally at fault. I can’t resist you.”

  “I—” Someone knocked on the door, and Zachary appeared next to it, then peeked out the security peephole where Alex was standing on the covered porch in the dark before sunrise. He opened the door for Alex. “Good morning. Come in. We’re just fixing breakfast.”

  Pasha was glad Alex hadn’t just appeared in the house like he could have done. “Good morning, Alex. I was afraid you might have been sleeping the day away.” Pasha motioned to the eggs. “What would you like?”

  Alex was wearing a long-sleeved shirt for the experiment, thankfully, and he even had a pair of work gloves he’d scrounged up in her dad’s garage. “Scrambled eggs work for me. Thanks. I slept some earlier this morning so we could test your theory. I looked up the weather report and it says we’re getting full sun today.”

  “Yeah, so we can test our theory to the extent you’re comfortable with. Victor and Boniface are sleeping for now. The back patio will protect you and because it’s early, the sun won’t be as strong.” Pasha began serving up the eggs.

  Zachary had cooked up some sausage and hash browns and added them to the plates.

  “We could expose all but a small bit of skin and see if the sun has any effect on it.” Pasha got everyone cups of coffee. At least the vampires could still eat and drink regular food, even though they needed supplements of blood.

  “Okay. I was thinking about sticking my foot out in the sun, really wanting to believe this will work, but probably trying a patch of skin would be best.” Alex joined them at the table.

  “Do you remember a time since you were turned that you’ve made the mistake of going into the sunlight?” Zachary asked.

  “A couple of times I was about to when I remembered what I was now. You know, after thirty-one years of being strictly human, well, and half hunter, it’s ingrained in you to sleep at night and be up and about during the day. I didn’t feel any apprehension about going out.” Then Alex frowned. “Wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t it come naturally to feel something wasn’t right? To fear the sunlight?”

  “I would think so,” Zachary said. “I was afraid I couldn’t either, but then Adonis proved he could be out during the day and the sun wouldn’t affect him. He was afraid to go out in the sunlight to begin with. But then we’re fully hunters.”

  “Right.”

  They finished breakfast and then Zachary offered to clean the dishes while Alex and Pasha went to the back window to look out.

  The sun was rising, and a small amount was touching the edge of the covered patio.

  “Let’s do this while the sun isn’t at full strength. Maybe I can get around outside before a certain hour, if I don’t burn in lower light.” Alex was about to open the back door.

  “Wait, what part of your skin do you want to test?” She got a couple of washcloths and found some masking tape.

  “My arm. We can pull up my sleeve and wrap the cloths around all but a small amount of skin and see what happens.” Alex pulled on the work gloves.

  She covered the area around the skin so that he only had a small bit exposed.

  Zachary finished cleaning the dishes and joined them as they walked onto the back patio.

  “How do you feel?” Zachary asked.

  “Normal. Maybe a little bit of anxiety, but not like I have a real fear of the sun. More like fear of the unknown. I should have asked the Crichton vampires how they viewed the sun now, but they were all asleep when Zachary invited me over. Well, it didn’t even cross my mind to ask them earlier actually.” Alex moved toward the sunlight spreading across the back patio and before he changed his mind, he stuck his left arm into a band of light.

  Zachary was ready to yank him out of the sun if he needed to, both he and Pasha looking on, nearly bumping heads with each other and they blocked out the sun on Alex’s skin.

  Alex smiled. “Well, it appears low light sun doesn’t harm me.” He gave a big sigh of relief.

  “I’d still be cautious,” Pasha said, feeling anxious.

  “Yeah, I agree,” Zachary said.

  Alex pulled up a chair and sat in the shade. “I’m going to soak up the shade for a while.”

  “I’ll go check on the house across the street,” Zachary said, and Pasha appreciated that he’d offer to let her watch over Alex, but she couldn’t do it.

  She patted Zachary’s arm.
“If he needs to be moved out of the sunlight in a hurry, you can just grab him up and appear inside the house with him. It would take me longer to move him if he were to become incapacitated or confused.”

  “Are you sure?” Zachary asked.

  “Yeah. You can keep me posted on his progress.” She kissed Zachary’s mouth and he responded with just as much interest, and then she reluctantly pulled away and patted Alex on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” Alex said. “If this works, I’ll feel a lot better about my mother having been a huntress and falling in love with a human and then being turned by a vampire against my will.”

  Pasha just hoped as the sun intensified, Alex would be all right.

  Zachary couldn’t have been more pleased with how things had turned out for Alex, though he wanted to be with Pasha in case anything happened. But this was too important a find: that if one of theirs was mated to a human, their offspring could still have some protection against the vampire. Mainly, on a personal note, it was good that Alex was more like Zachary than like the other newly turned vampires.

  Alex was keeping his face out of the sun, and still just exposing the small amount of skin. “I’m getting too hot.”

  “Burning up?” Zachary asked, getting ready to remove Alex from his chair and whisk him away to the house.

  “No. I just want to toss the gloves because I’m getting so hot in the Florida sun.”

  “Just wait. It’s better to see what will happen as the sun rises in the sky and the light is more intense just on one little bit of skin. We don’t want you to overdo it and see you badly burned in the process.” Trying to get Alex’s mind off being so hot, Zachary asked, “Have you done much training with a sword, Alex?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t ever plan to learn how to fight. What good did it do for my mother and father? My mother, of course, was a huntress trained in sword and dagger fighting, throwing stars, wrist blades, the works. From what I’d learned about them after I’d grown up was that she had been teaching my father the trade. But humans don’t have the strength or faster healing abilities that hunters do. So no matter how much he trained, he would still have been at a disadvantage.”