by Lisa Childs
“You don’t believe that. Not with the way he flew out of here. And even if I didn’t miss, your special surgeon probably could have saved him.”
She nodded.
“So there is no other option for me. I won’t spend my life hiding.”
“But you despise vampires,” she reminded him.
“I despise one vampire,” he said. “Just the one who killed my brother. He’s a monster. But you’re not. You’re not any different now than you were as a human.”
She smiled at his ignorance. “Everything’s different. I had to give up my family. My friends.”
“I have nothing to give up,” he said. Then, as if just realizing what he’d admitted, he solemnly repeated, “I have nothing.”
Touched by the vulnerability on his handsome face, Jennifer stepped closer to him. “Liam…”
“I’ve been so consumed with my quest for vengeance that I wasn’t really living. I have nothing to give up, Jennifer.” He slid his hands around her waist. “Turn me.”
“It’s not just people or things. You’re giving up your lifestyle,” she said. Wistfully she added, “Sunshine.”
“I’ve been living in darkness already,” he insisted. “I won’t miss the sun. I would miss you, though, if I had to go into hiding.”
“Me?” Was it possible that he was feeling it, too, this emotion that connected them?
“You’re the only one who knows Bryan like I did. You’re the one person I can share his memory with—the one person besides me who truly cared about him.”
She nodded. She had loved her friend. But she was afraid that she was falling in love with his brother. And Liam, as loyal as he was, probably wouldn’t let himself fall for her—not when he believed that Bryan was the one who should have been with her.
“What would he want you to do now?” Liam asked. “Wouldn’t he want you to protect me?”
“But I wouldn’t be protecting you. I might be hurting you more. I’ve never even bit a human, let alone turned one. It’s dangerous. You have to take out a specific amount of blood,” she explained. “Too little and you won’t turn. Too much and I’ll kill you.”
“I know the risks. I extensively investigated the society,” he reminded her.
“Then you know why I shouldn’t do this.”
“Do you really think anyone else would? The professor isn’t going to help me.”
“Probably not,” she said.
“So it has to be you.”
“But you don’t trust me,” she reminded him.
“I asked you to turn me,” he said with a sexy grin and a twinkle in his pale blue eyes. “Isn’t that proof that I do now?”
“I don’t trust myself….” Not with his life. He was too important to her.
“You can do this,” he assured her, and he tugged on the belt of her robe, pulling it free so that the sides parted. “We can do this together.”
He lowered his head and kissed her, as if to soothe her doubts and fears. But instead of soothing her, passion ignited at just the brief brush of his lips across hers. He deepened the kiss, parting her lips like he had her robe. His hands slid up from her waist, over her rib cage, to cup her breasts. His thumbs teased across the nipples, so that they peaked.
She moaned at the sensations rippling through her. Now that she knew the extent of the pleasure he could give her she reacted faster to his touch. Tension pulled from her nipples to her core, the pressure building. Her body throbbed for release. She pulled her mouth from his to murmur his name as a plea. “Liam…”
His naked body hardened, his erection pushing against her belly. “I wasn’t going to do this again. But I can’t resist you.”
She needed to resist him so that she could send him off before night fell and the society came for him. But he was right; they would track him down no matter where he hid. They wouldn’t stop searching for him until they killed the vampire hunter. She was his only chance for survival.
His hands trailed from her breasts to her hips. He cupped her bottom in his palms and lifted her to the edge of the mattress. Then he knelt and parted her legs. He pressed soft kisses to the sensitive inner skin of her thighs.
She clutched her fingers in his hair, the auburn strands soft even as they glowed like burnished flames. “Liam…”
He answered her unspoken plea and kissed her intimately, sliding his tongue inside her. His hands moved up her torso and over her stomach, until he cupped her breasts again. And as his tongue stroked in and out of her, his thumbs stroked her nipples.
Jennifer arched her body, the tension nearly breaking her in two. Then he flicked his tongue over her clit, back and forth, and she came. A shudder of release left her trembling. The tremors didn’t subside until he pulled her into his arms and held her tight against his chest. His heart beat hard. And his muscles remained tense, his body unsatisfied.
She skimmed her hand down his chest to where his cock throbbed above his navel. Closing her fingers around the thickness, she stroked her palm up and down the impressive length of his shaft. “You’re so big….” So powerful for a human. But not powerful enough to fight the vampires who would come for him.
Could she turn him? Could she risk his life in order to save it?
His hand stroked down her side, over her hip, which he clutched. Then he guided her up and over his erection. She eased the tip inside her, gasping at the sweet invasion. The tension built again despite the pleasure he’d just given her. She moved, sliding farther down, taking him deeper inside her.
He sat up, leaned forward and kissed her neck. Then his lips slid down her collarbone, over the curve of her breast to a peaked nipple. He tugged at it gently.
She cried out and spread her legs wider, taking him so deep that he was buried to the hilt inside her. Then she rocked, back and forth, meeting his thrusts. He lifted his head from her breast and kissed her lips. He slid his tongue inside her mouth and stroked it over her fangs, which grew and sharpened. And he groaned.
“Turn me,” he requested, his pale eyes bright with determination and desire. “Bite me.” He lay back on the bed and pulled her down with him, her face in his neck.
And so she did. She first scraped her fangs over one of the distended cords in his neck. He thrust deeper inside her, his hands clutching her back, holding her to him. Then his fingers moved into her hair, tangling the strands. “Really bite me…”
She nipped at him, just barely breaking the skin. He groaned, and she jerked back. “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”
“Only because you stopped,” he said, pulling her face back to his neck, where blood trickled from his small puncture wound. “Do it.”
She flicked her tongue across the wound, enjoying the sweet taste of his blood. But she had to do more than taste to turn him. She had to drink. How much…?
Nerves joined the tension building inside her. Could she do it?
He reached between them, teasing her clit with his fingertip. Stroking it back and forth until every part of her throbbed. And her control snapped. She bit harder, sinking her fangs into his neck. His blood, sweet and thick, poured over her tongue. She swallowed it and continued to drink the very essence of him.
He thrust harder, and warmth filled her as he came. Sensations spiraled through her, the tension broken as intense pleasure shattered her body. She came and came, rocking against him, her face buried in his neck. Finally spent and satiated, she collapsed on top of him.
“Are you all right?” she asked, concerned that she’d drank too much. Concerned that she’d hurt him.
He nodded. “I never felt anything like that. Never felt so much…” His pale eyes drifted closed, and his breathing slowed.
He was breathing, though. He was still alive. She curled up on his chest, her head pressed to his heart so that she could monitor its beat. He was alive. But maybe just for now…
The murmur of voices drew aside the heavy curtain of sleep. Liam struggled to lift his lids, but exhaustion defeated his effort.
So he kept his eyes closed and concentrated on listening. The voices weren’t whispering. It was his hearing that was strained, as if he were far away—not just in another room but in another dimension, as if he were caught between life and death.
Was he?
“He’s dead,” Jennifer’s soft feminine voice confirmed. “You had no reason to come back here and no right to break in the first time.”
“I’d heard about him. He’s a vampire hunter,” a male voice replied.
Just as he’d feared, Roger was not dead.
“Was,” Jennifer corrected him.
Dread clutched Liam’s heart at the conviction in her voice. He tried lifting his lids again and managed this time to pry open his eyes. The room spun and blurred before him. Now he tried lifting his body from the bed, but his muscles ached in protest of any movement.
“Too close to dawn someone saw him carrying you out of the alley behind the club,” the man continued. “You were believed to be in danger. I came to save you!”
“I don’t need anyone to save me anymore,” she said, as if offended. “I can protect myself.”
Was that what she was doing? He wished he knew for certain if she’d been trying to turn him or kill him. Maybe his first instincts about her had been right, and he’d let her feminine wiles sway his body and his mind.
“I want to be the one to protect you, Jennifer. I want to be there for you,” the man said. “I’ve always wanted to be there for you, but you’ve pushed me away. And then you let him in here. You take him—a human…a vampire hunter—to your bed?”
“I needed to distract him,” she claimed. “Needed to disarm him, so that I could get rid of him for good. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder the rest of his life.”
“And now he has no life?” The vampire’s voice was hollow with doubts. “You really killed someone? You?”
“Why not?” she asked.
And even though his vision was still blurred, in his mind Liam could see her shrugging nonchalantly.
“Because you’re too sweet. Too gentle…”
Liam shuddered because he could tell, from the intimate tone of the man’s voice, that he’d stepped closer to her. That he might be touching her…
Jealousy wound through him, quickening his pulse and renewing his strength. His vision cleared, the room righting itself. And he righted himself and sat up. He had to get to her, had to protect her no matter what she said.
“But it’s the law of the society,” she said. “If a human finds out about it—about us—we have to get rid of them. And Liam McKiernan wasn’t just any human. He was the only human who knows how to kill us.” And now she was protecting her sister.
“He nearly killed me,” Roger admitted. “But he didn’t get the stake in deep enough—didn’t do enough damage that Doc Davison wasn’t able to fix with a couple stitches and a transfusion.”
Damn…
“He won’t be a problem anymore,” Jennifer assured him. “You can leave now.”
“No,” he insisted. “Not without seeing his body for myself…”
“You don’t believe me?” she asked, as if surprised. “You think you’re the only one who can kill for the society?”
“What do you mean?”
“It was you who killed his brother, right?” she asked. “The boy who was looking for me right after I was turned.”
“I had no choice, Jennifer,” Roger swore. “I only did it because I was protecting you.”
“I know that. I know now how you feel about me. Let’s get out of here.”
“What?”
“I’ll leave with you,” she offered. “I’ll go wherever you want me to go.”
And Liam had his answer. She was putting herself at risk for him. Mustering all his slowly returning strength, he vaulted himself out of the bed and yelled out, “No!”
He couldn’t let her sacrifice herself for him. He would rather die…and as the vampire rushed into the bedroom, he realized that he just might….
Chapter Six
“No!” Jennifer echoed Liam’s shout as Roger headed toward the bedroom. She flew at his back, pounding on him. Roger had to be weak yet from the stake, but he shrugged her off as if she were inconsequential.
As if she were powerless—and she had been powerless for too much of her life. She launched herself at him, pulling at his hair and kicking and biting at his shoulders.
“Damn it!” he shouted. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You hurt me when you killed my friend,” she said. “And you’re going to hurt me again if you do any harm to Liam. Let him go. Just leave!”
“Don’t you get it?” he asked, whirling on her, his soulless, black eyes full of a scary intensity. “I can’t ever leave you. I can’t ever let you go. You belong to me.”
She shook her head. “I’m not a possession. You don’t own me.”
“I’m the reason you’re alive,” he reminded her. “I risked my own life when I told you about the society. And how do you thank me? You go to the professor. You could have got me killed.”
“I didn’t know,” she said, defending her action. And she hadn’t known then that if a vampire revealed the secret, he forfeited his immortality. She hadn’t entirely believed that Roger had told the truth about being a vampire.
“You owe me your life! I’m going to take it, but first I’m going to take his.” He turned back to the bedroom.
Liam stood in the doorway, weakly propped against the jamb.
She gasped in fear because he stood no chance against the obsessed vampire. She’d tried to save him by turning him, but she’d only made him more vulnerable.
“No!” she screamed again as she rushed at Roger. She caught him around the waist and dragged him away from the bedroom, back across the living room. He pulled at her arms, trying to free himself from her grasp. But she was strong. She wasn’t powerless anymore.
Cursing her, he swung his elbow into her side.
Her breath rushed out in a gasp of pain, but she didn’t let go. As they struggled, they fell into her paintings. Wood splintered as the frames around the canvases cracked beneath their weight.
“Get out!” Liam shouted, drawing their attention back to him. But he wasn’t looking at the intruder; he was staring at her. “Get out!”
She shook her head. “No…” Had he overheard the lies she’d told in order to protect him? And, worse yet, had he believed them?
Roger laughed at her confusion and took advantage of her distraction to pull free of her grasp. “He doesn’t want you around, Jennifer. He doesn’t realize yet that he’s the one who needs to go. But he will.” He surged to his feet then into the air, flying at Liam full force.
Her heart beating with fear and dread and the love she’d only just realized for Liam, she screamed in horror as the two men connected. Liam, in his weakened state, was no match for the vampire’s strength. The two bodies fell to the floor, Roger lying atop him. But neither moved.
Rage, even fiercer than the rage she’d felt when she’d come upon Liam threatening her sister in the alley, overwhelmed her. Maybe she’d somehow instinctively known that Eve hadn’t been in any real danger. But now…
Red heat blurring her vision, she vaulted to her feet and flew across the length of her living room. She clawed at Roger’s back, dragging him to his feet. She whirled him toward her, ready to pummel him, but his body was limp. Blood gushed from around the stake impaled in his heart.
Eternity had ended for Roger Milliken; he was dead.
“Liam!” She dropped the vampire and turned back to her lover. He lay yet on the floor, that strange gun clutched in his hands. He might not have been strong enough yet to fight Roger, but he’d been strong enough to pull the trigger. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
He shook his head. “No. Is he…?”
She nodded. “Yes. I’ll call the doctor.”
“To resurrect him?” he asked, his light blue eyes widening with horror.
“I don’t think even Dr. Davison could save him, and when he learns what Roger did, he wouldn’t want to. I’m going to call him to check you out,” she said, as yet again tears of relief and apprehension stung her eyes. Roger hadn’t harmed him, but she was afraid that she had. “You’re not well. I didn’t do it right.”
“I’m getting stronger,” he said. And as if to prove the point, he stood up. But he staggered and leaned against the doorjamb again.
“You’re not well,” she repeated. “You need to see the doctor.” Her hand shaking, she reached for the phone. “He’ll take care of you…and Roger’s body. He’ll dispose of it.” She shuddered at the thought, at the incinerator that disposed of vampire remains so that the society’s secret was protected. She quickly placed the call, summoning the surgeon to her apartment. “He’s on the way.”
“You need to leave,” Liam said, as he had earlier, with the same amount of coldness and resolution.
And she had the answer to the question she’d asked herself earlier. He had believed the lies she’d told Roger. Liam didn’t trust that she hadn’t tried to kill him. “I need to stay and explain what happened to Dr. Davison,” she said.
“You need to go see your sister and the professor. I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
She followed his gaze to where he stared behind herat the broken portraits. The picture of Eve, lying in the hospital bed, was now ripped from corner to corner. The picture of young Liam in the tree had also been ripped, and the frame was broken. Only the solo one of Bryan remained untouched, his face grinning down at them from above the fireplace mantel.
Guilt that she could see her sister, but that he could only see Bryan like this, plagued her. “I’m sorry that you can’t be with Bryan again.” Now that he’d been turned, he’d never be able to see his brother again, not even in the afterlife.
“It’s still hurts that he’s gone,” he admitted. “But it’s better since he’s gone, too.” He glanced down at the dead vampire. “I did what I promised Bryan I would do. I brought his killer to justice.” Now he had no reason to stay with her.
