by Lori Devoti
He hissed and she frowned. Sitting up, she forced him to get up too, and looked at his wounds. He shifted his shoulder and it was all the evidence she needed to prove that he wasn’t healed enough. The burn mark from the cross was still red and sore.
“Lie down,” she said and he looked disappointed.
She smiled reassuringly, walked to the door and locked it before turning back around to face him. She slowly stripped her shirt off as she walked back to the bed and tossed it to one side so it fell in the same place her jacket was on the floor. Her fingers made fast work of the button and zip of her black trousers and she shimmied out of them, turning her back on him as she bent over.
He growled.
Her smile became a grin.
Stepping out of her trousers, she moved to the bed and looked down at him. His eyes scanned her body, full of desire and hunger. Had it really been fifty years since they had last done this? She had thought of no one but him. She had wanted no one but him. Had he been the same?
She thought about Alyssa and her expression darkened.
“Have you... with anyone?” she said before she had even thought about what she was asking.
He shook his head. “Call me crazy... but I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“Crazy,” she said with a broad smile.
He smiled too so she wiped it off his face by removing her bra. His lips parted and he swallowed hard. Slipping out of her knickers, she hesitated a moment and then knelt on the bed. She could feel how slick with arousal she was as she moved over to Jascha.
Her eyes strayed to his hard cock and she bit her lip. It was as beautiful as ever, ready and waiting to take her away from the world to a place where only she and Jascha existed.
Straddling his stomach, she lowered herself so she trapped his cock between their bodies and rubbed herself against it. It teased her clit and she moaned, her hands grasping his sides as the delicious feeling of him beneath her made her belly hot with fire.
She opened her eyes and stared into his violet ones. They were full of disbelief, as though he couldn’t quite accept that this was really happening. She couldn’t believe it either.
Her hands trembled as she raised herself and guided his length to her entrance. She settled back a little, just nudging the blunt head inside her and then sank slowly onto him, relishing each inch of him and how good it felt to have him back inside where he belonged.
The disbelief in his eyes was gone, chased away by the reality of this moment. She wriggled to get comfortable and smiled internally when he moaned and gripped her hips with his hands. The Devil, she had forgotten how wonderful it was to have his cock filling her up. No one had ever felt like him. No one had ever come close, not in all her years as a vampire.
Her pleasure was shattered by a knock at the door and someone jiggled the handle. She looked at Jascha.
He growled something in Russian.
There was a moment of silence and then retreating footsteps echoed in the hall.
She frowned at Jascha but he stole her voice by pulling out of her and then thrusting back into her depths. She closed her eyes again and leaned her head back, her hands covering his where they tightly held her hips. Gripping his hips with her knees, she lost herself in the maddening pleasure of their joining as he moved her on his cock, raising her off it and then slipping back in as deep as he could go. She wanted him deeper, wanted to remember this time forever.
She increased the pace of the thrusts, struggling to contain her moans for fear that someone would hear them. Jascha didn’t seem to care. He was groaning beneath her, his hips jerking hard with each powerful thrust of his cock. She tightened her grip on his hands and whispered pleas at him, begging him for more as the feeling inside of her began to border on painful. She wanted to feel him climax, she wanted him to fill her wholly and completely, to make her tremble as she used to when they made love.
He flipped her onto her back and did as she had asked, slamming into her and driving her out of her mind with pleasure as his pelvis hit her clit with each thrust. She wrapped her legs around him, her hands gripping his shoulders and then pulling him down to her. She closed her eyes and then cried out her release when his teeth sank into her neck. She quivered against him, her whole body shaking as her orgasm swept through her. He gave a few short pulls on her blood and she couldn’t resist joining him. She wanted to taste him too. She wanted this to be complete and as intimate as possible.
Kissing his neck, she teased him for a moment before sinking her fangs into it. She pulled gently on his blood, letting it pool in her mouth before swallowing it.
He growled against her throat as he came, filling her with his seed and making her moan. She drank deeper, getting her fill and sating her need to taste him. He rolled onto his side and took her with him, and she was content to curl up in his arms. Releasing his neck at the same time as he withdrew his fangs from hers, she wrapped her arms around him and held him as tightly as she could without hurting him.
She didn’t know what would happen now. She didn’t want to think about it. What had happened hadn’t changed her mind about one thing—she still didn’t want him coming with her to find the vampire hunter.
As for the rest, her struggle to resist him was going to be replaced with one to leave him.
She didn’t know if she could.
Was she strong enough to turn her back on him again?
Or would her heart win over her sense?
Chapter Seven
Marise ignored the two men following her at a distance so close it was obvious she was being tailed. They were making no effort to hide themselves. She continued to sweep the area with her senses, searching for something human. Instinct told her that the hunter would return here. He would want to finish their fight as much as she did.
She rolled her shoulders to loosen up and then looked down at the black jacket she was wearing. It had been a long time since she had worn the uniform of her bloodline’s guard. She wished that her jacket hadn’t been ruined. There was something powerful and confidence building about the uniform of a Law Keeper. It was her shield. It gave her strength and conviction. When she was wearing it, her purpose was clear, her duty ruling her actions. Now she was without it, thoughts about Jascha crowded her mind and she was scared that she would lose this fight against the hunter.
Turning and heading into the cemetery, she caught sight of Jascha out of the corner of her eye. He did look stunning in his uniform. Being the head guard suited him. He looked hotter in it than he had ever done in his regular guard uniform and she had always thought that he deserved a higher position within the family. Her eyes lingered on him and her senses followed suit, trying to pick out each subtle emotion he was feeling. It was hard enough when she was close to him. At this distance it was almost impossible. Sometimes she wondered if, had they remained together, he would’ve wanted to bond with her and become her mate. Then she would’ve been able to sense his feelings with ease, feeling them as though they were her own. Sometimes she wondered if he would want that now. She frowned and stifled her feelings, switching her senses back to her surroundings.
“Go home,” she said, throwing the words over her shoulder at him and Tynan. “Stop following me.”
“We’re not.” Jascha’s voice was clear in the still night, breaking the soothing silence. “We are just going the same way. We need to eat.”
She rolled her eyes. Did he honestly think she was going to accept that as an excuse for him following her? She wasn’t turned yesterday.
“Go a different way,” she said without looking at him, her eyes fixed on the distant gates. The hunter had to be somewhere in this cemetery. Maybe she was too early. It had been later last time.
“We always go this way,” Tynan said.
She cursed him for siding with his brother. Couldn’t he see that Jascha wasn’t up to a fight? His injuries were still healing. He had been at full strength last time and the hunter had almost defeated him.
&
nbsp; He had almost killed him.
Her stomach lurched at that thought and she wanted to turn around and push Jascha all the way home. When she got him there, she would lock him in his room and tell the guards to not let him out until she returned. She didn’t though. She just kept walking.
A smile flickered on her lips.
She went down a different path, veering off to the left.
They followed her.
“You’re following me,” she said, the smile still fixed in place. She would like to see him get out of this one.
There was a jumbled conversation in Russian.
Silence.
“No,” Jascha said, as confident as ever. “We took your advice and a different route sounds interesting.”
She growled in frustration and then bit back a squeal when she was suddenly being spun on the spot to face him. She gave an imploring glance to Tynan. He shrugged and dropped back, giving them space. Typical. He always had let his little brother do whatever he pleased.
Swatting Jascha’s hands away, she frowned at him, showing him clearly how angry she was with him but how concerned she was at the same time. He seized her shoulders again, his eyes dark and daring her to try and shift him.
“You may as well give up,” he said, his thick accent melting her almost as much as the feelings she could see in his eyes. “Get used to us being here. You’re not fighting alone.”
She frowned harder and then relaxed.
“Fine,” she muttered.
His eyebrows rose into a stunned look.
“In that case, you can help.” She grabbed his arm.
He looked down at it and then back into her eyes. He nodded.
“You’re bait,” she said, and before he had a chance to question her, she had bitten down on his neck, pulling blood to the surface.
She gasped when he twisted her body close to his and bit her too, giving her a taste of her own medicine. Her eyes swam out of focus and she released him, tilting her head back and struggling to resist holding him as he drank from her. She felt giddy, light, and painfully aroused.
“Get a room,” Tynan mumbled in the distance.
She smiled at the stars. “You want to join in?”
Jascha released her and growled in his brother’s direction. She silenced him by lightly touching his cheek and bringing his attention back to her.
“Be careful. We’ll be watching.” She wiped the blood off his lower lip with her thumb and then licked it clean as she walked to where Tynan stood.
Gesturing towards a tomb surrounded by bushes, she waited for him to nod in agreement before moving behind them. She squatted down, making sure they were both hidden from all angles and then peered through the bush at Jascha.
He was stroking his neck and idly cleaning the blood off his fingers. Her gaze tracked him as he paced. He really did look good in his uniform, the long black military-style jacket resembling that of a Law Keeper.
His dark hair was tied at the nape of his neck, his eyes like black pin pricks from this distance. She could sense that he was still in his vampire guise. Her eyes dropped to his neck as he turned again and she saw the fading marks from last night and the fresh dark ones from tonight. A smile curved the corners of her lips. The sight of him like this, marked by her, all hers, made her feel light and airy inside, and she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. Grinning like a silly youngling was hardly how a Law Keeper should be acting, but it was impossible to maintain a calm façade.
A jolt ran through her, her senses immediately latching onto the motion they had detected. She stared blankly at Jascha while she tried to locate the source of the movement. He turned his head and she knew he had sensed it too. A glance at Tynan revealed that he had also felt it. She closed her eyes and called her full strength to the surface. Her bones shifted, locking tighter together, and her teeth extended, the tips of them neatly sliding into place beside her lower canines as they sharpened too. Her senses heightened, bringing everything into focus and making it easy to detect the barest movement within a few hundred yards.
Jascha moved suddenly and she was on her feet. Tynan’s hand on her arm stopped her. She frowned down at him, her heart screaming at her to get to Jascha and protect him. Tynan shook his head and she looked at Jascha to see that it wasn’t the vampire hunter approaching him.
It was a woman.
Marise allowed Tynan to pull her back down behind the bush. She cursed the fact her hands were shaking and firmly gripped her knees with them to hide their trembling from Tynan as he looked at her. She couldn’t let him see how badly this was all affecting her. She was a Law Keeper. She was supposed to be strong, fearless and in command at all times. Since returning to her bloodline’s home, she had been unable to control herself. Her emotions had been ruling her, her fear at the reins. She felt weak, but it wasn’t because of her lack of control. It was Jascha. It was her love for him. It made her feel weak, crowding her mind with dark terrible thoughts, voices there taunting her by saying she wouldn’t be able to protect him.
She went to move again, her heart overruling her mind and telling her to protect him now. The vampire hunter didn’t matter. This woman could be in league with him.
Tynan growled and she froze, hearing the command in it. She looked at him, brow furrowed, eyes searching his for the reassurance she needed. He placed his hand over hers and smiled. The warmth and understanding in his dark eyes soothed her. He was confident that Jascha would be fine. She trusted his judgement, had to when she couldn’t trust her own. Her feelings were clouding hers, making her want to abort this mission at the risk of a tribunal.
He pointed towards Jascha and she looked there. A strange sense of relief filled her when she saw that he was talking to the woman. She listened to their conversation in Russian but could only pick a few words out that she recognised. All this time of living in St. Petersburg and she had never once thought about learning the language. She made a mental note to start once this was all over. Hopefully Jascha could teach her a little.
Her eyes widened when Jascha shifted and with lightning speed was on the woman, his face buried into her neck and his hand covering her mouth. Marise stared at him, desire and heat flooding her as she watched him draining the woman. The metallic tang of blood drifted on the air, stirring her senses and making her stomach tight with need. It had been so long since she had watched another kill, since she had seen Jascha kill. The sight of it had always driven her wild with passion and hunger, drawing out her innermost desires. Their coupling afterwards had always been swift and brutal, more often than not taking place only a few feet from the human he had killed. She never could wait. Neither of them could.
He dropped the body and looked in her direction. The Devil she wanted to go to him when he looked like that, face bloodied, eyes dark and his own hunger calling to her.
“You both reek of sex,” Tynan muttered beside her, bringing her crashing back to Earth.
She realised she was panting, breathing hard in time with Jascha as she stared at him.
“Shut up.” She took a deep breath and held it, trying to rein in her feelings and calm back down.
Jascha licked his lips and she felt the tug inside her, the pull that said to break cover and go to him. She didn’t care if Tynan watched. She just wanted Jascha.
Tynan laughed quietly.
“You told him then,” he whispered, his hand still over hers where it gripped her knee.
Jascha started pacing again, occasionally looking in her direction. She dropped her gaze to Tynan’s hand, thankful for the anchor it represented, the only thing stopping her from going to Jascha.
She nodded.
“It is a good thing,” he said and released her hand.
She sighed and felt the calm wash over her again, carrying away her desire to go to Jascha and bringing back her focus.
“He needed to know and you both needed to move past it.” Tynan shifted closer. “I know what you’re thinking... to be a Law Keeper is to fors
ake all chance at love, all feeling. It isn’t true. You can still be a Law Keeper and love Jascha.”
Marise stared at Jascha and let Tynan’s words sink in. Was he right? Could she love Jascha, be with him and still be a Law Keeper? Could she? Her heart said that she could but her mind still held doubts. Would the others accept this from her? To be a Law Keeper was to be impartial, emotionless, but only towards her missions and those involved. Jascha wasn’t her mission. He was her love. She couldn’t go through the rest of her life without love. The past fifty years had been so hard. A life without any feeling was an empty, pointless life. Not even her sense of pride and duty was strong enough to carry her for eternity. One day she would look back and regret what she had become and the path she had chosen. She didn’t want that. She wanted to be happy with her position and her choices in life, but she could see now that she hadn’t been for the past fifty years. She had been waiting for the day that brought love back into her life, and that was why she had feared returning home. She hadn’t feared seeing Jascha again, she had feared coming home only to discover he was dead or had found solitude and love in the arms of another.
“You could still be together,” Tynan said, his voice hushed and soothing. She looked at him, cursing the tears blurring her vision. “It has happened with other Law Keepers and there is no law against loving one of your own bloodline.”
She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words to tell him that he was right. She could love Jascha and still do her duty. If anything, she would do it better so each night she could return to him.
Her head snapped around when she heard a growl and immediately sprung into action. She ran full speed at Jascha’s attacker and stepped in between them, taking the blow meant for her love. She shook her head to clear it and then punched the hunter solidly across the jaw. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Tynan had joined the fight and was coming around behind the hunter.
She roared, exposing sharp teeth and drawing an almost startled look from the vampire hunter. His face still bore the marks of their last meeting and she grinned when she saw they hadn’t healed. He wasn’t as strong as he thought he was. His healing ability wasn’t like her own, or even that of the weaklings.
