by Tina Folsom
Katie’s chest heaved. “I know.”
He searched her face for any sign of fear, but found none. Did she have any idea what she was doing? Or had the lust drugged her to a point where she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions? Did she realize that freely offering blood to a vampire other than to save his life meant submission?
“You’ll feel my fangs the moment you start to climax.”
He drove his cock deeper, enjoying how her muscles clamped around him, holding him like a tight fist.
Her lids lowered halfway, and a moan left her lips. “Luther, yes!”
He shifted his position slightly and drove deeper once more. When he felt her muscles spasm around him, he let go of the last vestiges of his control and gave in to his release, joining her in her climax. As his semen shot from the tip of his cock, he lowered his face to Katie’s breast and scraped his fangs against her soft skin.
“Luther!” she cried out and thrust her breast into his mouth.
He opened his mouth wider and set his fangs on either side of her nipple.
“Get the fuck away from her or you’re dust!”
Luther reared up, letting Katie’s breast slip from his mouth.
Shit!
27
Several things happened all at once. Luther spun around, pulling out of her, and jumping up from the bed. In the blink of an eye he snatched one side of the sheet and pulled it over her naked body, shielding her. Katie shot up to a sitting position, glaring at the three men who’d burst into the room: Blake, Grayson, and an utterly pissed-off looking Wesley.
She didn’t get the time to glare back at her brother, who’d been the one issuing the threat directed at Luther. The sound of something smashing against the wall tore her gaze to Luther. He’d trashed the chair and broken off a wooden leg to use as a makeshift stake.
Improvised weapon in hand, he leapt toward the three Scanguards men. The three lifted their weapons—small-caliber handguns—and pointed them at Luther.
“No!” Katie screamed and jumped up from the bed, unconcerned about her nudity. “Don’t hurt him!”
She charged toward them, but Luther blocked her way, holding her behind his broad body with one arm.
“Stay back, Katie!” he growled, his other hand holding the stake above his head.
“How dare you order my sister around?” Wesley spat, glowering at Luther.
“Wes, stay out of this!”
She peered past Luther’s arm and could see how Wes ran his eyes over Luther’s nude body, a look of disgust on his face. Then he met her gaze.
“How could you, Katie? What happened? Did he force you?”
“I didn’t fucking force anybody!” Luther snarled.
Grayson flashed his fangs. “I should kill you right here and now.”
“Oh look at the little pup! Feeling all strong in the company of his friends,” Luther scoffed.
Grayson made a move toward him, but Blake pulled him back. “Stand down, Grayson! Now!” Blake exchanged a look with him. “I’ll handle this.”
Grayson took a deep breath. His jaw set into a grim line. Grudgingly he said, “You’re the boss.” It was clear that at this moment he wished he were in Blake’s shoes.
Blake looked back at Luther before his gaze landed on her. He slowly shook his head. “You disappoint me, Katie.” There was a resigned tone in his voice. “I thought I could trust you, and what do you do? You’re sleeping with the enemy. Literally!”
“Blake, please…” she started. “I can explain.”
He motioned to Luther, who had lowered his weapon. “It’s pretty self-explanatory from where I stand.” Disappointment spread in his eyes. “But to let him bite you?” He shook his head.
“He didn’t,” she said.
“He was about to,” Wesley interrupted, “if we hadn’t gotten here in time.”
Katie looked at Wes. “Damn it, Wes, I’m an adult. Don’t treat me like a little child. I can make my own decisions.”
“You’re still my sister.”
“Still doesn’t give you the right to interfere in my life.”
Hands at her hips, she tried to walk past Luther, but he pushed her back behind him. “You’re naked, Katie.”
Then Luther exchanged a look with Blake. “If you don’t mind, a little privacy so Katie can get dressed without you guys ogling her.”
Blake gave a stiff nod. “Two minutes. And don’t try to escape out the back. We have another man watching the outside. You wouldn’t get far.”
Blake shooed the other two out before turning away and closing the door.
Alone with Luther, Katie let out a breath of air. “Shit!”
Luther turned to her. “You could say that.” He ran his eyes over her. “Let’s get dressed. Those guys saw more of you than they ever should have.”
He took the towel from earlier and brought it to the juncture of her thighs, gently wiping away his semen. “This wasn’t exactly how I imagined this ending.”
“It’s not over,” she said.
Luther took the towel and cleaned himself off, before turning to collect his clothes from the floor. Katie closed the clasp of her bra and searched for her panties.
“Is there something between you and Blake?”
The sudden question surprised her and made her spin around to look at him. “Why would you think there’s something between me and Blake?”
Luther shrugged. “He seemed hurt, as if you’d betrayed him.”
Katie rolled her eyes and reached for her panties, pulling them on. “Men! We’re friends. Have been for a long time.”
“Maybe he wants more,” Luther hedged.
Katie pulled on her jeans while Luther stepped into his pants and zipped up.
“Blake is under stress because Isabelle was his responsibility. He’s just lashing out.”
“You do know that we can hear you, right?” Blake’s voice came from the other side of the door.
Katie cursed. “Damn it, Blake, what part of privacy did you not get into your thick skull?”
A grunt was the answer, then footsteps shuffled away.
When she turned, she caught Luther grinning at her.
“What?” She walked to where her bloodstained shirt lay on the floor and picked it up.
“Looks like you know how to handle these guys.”
She gave a one-shouldered shrug and fed her arms into the sleeves. “They’re just big boys with toys. Underneath it they’re—”
“I can still hear you, Katie,” Blake warned from the hallway.
“Screw you, Blake!” she cried out. Maybe she was overreacting a bit, but damn it, Blake and the others had interrupted her at the height of sexual ecstasy and prevented her from feeling Luther’s bite. She felt cheated out of an experience that she’d been told was out of this world. Who wouldn’t be a tad pissy about that?
She charged toward the door, but Luther pulled her back. He leaned down to her and whispered into her ear, “Don’t let him rile you up. Though you do look utterly sexy when you’re mad!”
She didn’t get a chance to reply, because Luther’s warm lips captured her mouth for a kiss that robbed her of her breath.
28
“Let’s deal with this,” Luther said and opened the door to the hallway, leaving the bedroom ahead of Katie.
The three men from Scanguards were pacing in the living room when he entered followed by Katie. He walked up to Blake, but before he could start explaining, Wesley took a few steps toward Katie.
“What the fuck happened to you?” He pointed to the bloodstained shirt. Then he charged at Luther, fists raised. “You hurt her, you fucking asshole?”
Luther blocked Wesley’s punch with ease, pushing him back without fighting back. He didn’t think it wise beating up Katie’s brother. “I didn’t hurt her,” he ground out.
He felt Katie’s hand on his arm as she moved to his side. “I got injured. It wasn’t Luther’s fault.”
Well, that was a blatan
t lie on Katie’s part, because it had been his fault. He hadn’t kept her safe like he’d promised.
“How?” Wes hissed, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, approaching slowly.
“I got stabbed by a prison guard.”
“A prison guard?” Blake interrupted.
Before either Luther or Katie could answer, Wesley snatched the edge of Katie’s shirt and lifted it by a few inches. “You’re healed.” He turned his head to look at Luther. “You gave her your blood.”
Not a question, but a statement. Though it sounded like Wesley wasn’t pleased about it.
“I had no choice. Her lung was punctured. She would have died.”
Next to him, Katie sucked in a breath and grabbed his elbow. “What?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad it was?”
“I didn’t wanna worry you. Besides, you’re fine now.”
“Fuck!” Wesley cursed. “Jesus Christ, Katie, what did you get yourself into?”
“How much did you give her?” The question came from Blake.
Luther exchanged a look with the vampire. “Enough.”
“Well, that explains that. So you decided to get quid pro quo for saving her life, didn’t you?”
He knew Blake was referring to the fact that Katie would have been aroused by his blood, whether she was attracted to him or not. Considering that her brother already seemed to be annoyed with her, Luther decided to shoulder the responsibility for what had happened in the last hour. After all, it was his fault. He’d given into her demands to have sex when he knew full well that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make a decision.
“Yes, I did. I took advantage of Katie.” Though he didn’t regret it. Making love to her had been the best thing he’d done in over twenty years. And if he had to pay for it now, so be it.
“You didn’t!” Katie shot back at him, bracing her hands on her hips. “I told you already, it had nothing to do with your blood. Idiot!”
“Let me handle this,” Luther said through gritted teeth. “It’s better this way.”
“But you’re distorting the facts!” Katie protested.
“Stop!” Wesley raised his hand in a plea for silence, his face red with rage. “I don’t think I wanna know the facts about what happened in there.” He motioned to the bedroom in the back. “I have a feeling I know more than I ever wanted to know. But what I do wanna know is what the fuck you’re doing with him and why you got stabbed by a prison guard. Maybe we should start with that.”
Blake folded his arms over his chest, looking at them expectantly. “I’d like to know that, too. And start from the beginning.”
“And you’d better not leave anything out,” Grayson added, aggression rolling off him.
Luther caught his look. There was no love lost between them. No surprise. The young hybrid clearly knew all about Luther’s past, how he’d tried to kill his mother. Hell, Grayson wouldn’t even be here today if Luther had succeeded. Somehow he couldn’t blame the guy, though that didn’t mean he had to like him.
“You got my message about the letters?” Katie asked, looking at Blake.
He nodded. “I called you back right away, but got no answer. When we couldn’t find you, Haven searched your house, but found no sign of the letters.”
Luther tossed her a sideways glance. “So there are no copies in existence.”
Katie gave him a sheepish smile. “I bluffed.” Then she looked back at Blake. “I have the letters. They’re in my purse in my car.”
“We didn’t see your car outside,” Wes commented.
“We had to abandon it when we fled the prison,” Luther explained. “I can give you the exact location.”
Blake nodded, then motioned to Katie. “By prison I’m assuming you mean the vampire penitentiary near Grass Valley.” He shifted his gaze to Luther. “From which our friend here was just recently released.”
“Yes, the vampire prison. When I couldn’t get a hold of you and ran into Luther…”
Luther clasped her forearm. “Maybe I should explain from here.” He looked at the three Scanguards men. “When I saw the letters, I realized that somebody connected to the prison had to have sent them. So I decided to help Katie locate the person who wrote them.”
That Katie had practically blackmailed him by threatening to set all of Scanguards on his ass and use witchcraft on him—witchcraft she didn’t even possess!—was immaterial. He was certainly not going to admit to the men standing in front of him that he’d been tricked by a woman.
“You could have let us do that. No reason to get involved. Samson told you to stay out of our way,” Blake said.
Luther scoffed. “Yeah, and the moment you learned about the letters coming from the prison, you would have put two and two together and chased me instead of the real culprit. Samson isn’t acting rational right now. He would have just—”
Grayson jumped at him, baring his fangs. “How dare you talk about my father like that?”
Luther didn’t budge an inch. “You’re just like him, hothead!”
“You fucking—”
“Shut up, Grayson!” Blake ordered and pulled him back. “He’s right. Samson would have pulled resources off other leads and chased down Luther. And considering that Katie is still alive and Isabelle isn’t here, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s got nothing to do with Isabelle’s kidnapping.” He lifted his chin. “Go on.”
“I’d seen a cell of one of the V-CONs plastered with posters of Katie. I figured he was obsessed with her. Had to be him. I had to find out his name, and I could only do that from inside the prison. So we broke in.”
“How?” Blake asked.
“You don’t need to know the details about that. What’s important is that we got the information we were looking for and got out.”
“Apparently you ran into a few problems.” Blake motioned to the bloodstain on Katie’s shirt.
“They kind of don’t like it when you break in and then try to break out again,” Luther said nonchalantly. “Anyway…” He turned to Katie. “The printout.”
Katie dug into her jeans pocket and pulled out the folded sheet. Blake reached for it and unfolded it. His eyes flew over the information printed on it.
“Cliff Forrester. You sure?” he asked.
Luther nodded. “Has to be him. He was released a week ago. He had ample time to plan this. And the letters he sent to Katie over the last year seem to suggest he was preparing to come for her.”
Blake looked up. “Good work.” He handed the piece of paper to Wesley. “Call HQ and give them this information.”
“And what do we do about him?” Wesley asked, glancing at Luther.
Blake took a step toward Luther. “Thank you for your help. In light of all this, let’s forget what happened here. But I think it would be best for all involved, if you left the area like Samson suggested.”
“Well, that’s just not gonna happen,” Katie snapped.
Luther spun his head to her, as did the others.
“Excuse me?” Blake said.
“You heard me. Luther risked his life to get us this information, and now you’re gonna just dismiss him?”
“By the looks of it, he risked your life, too!” Blake grunted. “So excuse me, if I’m not too keen on having him around. Nor will Samson or Amaury tolerate him getting involved in this.”
“Well, he’s already involved. Without him, you wouldn’t have anything! Maybe his methods are a little unorthodox, but at least they produce results. We now know who’s got Isabelle. Now we just have to find him.” Katie crossed her arms over her chest. “So you have a choice here: either you let Luther help us find Isabelle, or you turn around now and I’ll investigate with Luther on my own.”
“Out of the fucking question!” Wesley interrupted, grabbing her bicep. “You are coming home with us!” He glared at Luther. “You’re not staying with him! It’s gonna get you killed!”
Katie tore her arm fro
m her brother’s grip. “He saved my life! So make your choice.”
Luther tapped Katie on the shoulder. “Katie, just out of curiosity: were you gonna ask me whether I wanted to stay involved in this?”
“No.”
“Thought so.”
And strangely enough the fact that she didn’t give him a choice in this turned him on. Katie was a force to be reckoned with. A woman who knew what she wanted.
Luther grinned and exchanged a look with Blake. “No use fighting her. I tried. And look what it got me into.” What exactly he’d landed in, he wasn’t quite sure yet. But it was a welcome change from the monotonous life he’d spent in prison.
“Yeah, that’s our Katie,” Wes confirmed. “Once she’s got something in her head, you can’t stop her.”
And oddly enough, Luther didn’t want to stop her. Had they been alone, he would have pulled her into his arms and continued where they’d been interrupted, because a strong woman like Katie was a bigger turn-on than anything else he’d ever encountered.
29
“My father will never allow it!” Grayson protested, glaring at Luther. “He hates you!”
Blake put a hand on the young hybrid’s arm, then looked at Luther. “I’m afraid Grayson is right. There are several people at Scanguards who’d rather drive a stake through your heart than let you get anywhere near this investigation,” Blake stated calmly. “Unfortunately we’re running out of time. We know the kidnapper already knows that he’s got the wrong woman.”
Katie’s breath hitched. They had news from Isabelle? Why hadn’t anybody told her? “How? What happened?”
Blake took his eyes off Luther. “We were able to identify the vampire who kidnapped her.”
“Cliff Forrester?” Katie asked. “So you already knew.” She pointed to the piece of paper, then glanced at Luther. “I got you into all this trouble for nothing?”
Blake shook his head. “It wasn’t Forrester who took Isabelle. It was a guy named Antonio Mendoza. He was a hired gun.”
“You think Cliff Forrester hired him?”
