The Red Lily (Vampire Blood)

by Juliette Cross

  Luca shook his head back and forth, then he too shifted into the black wolf with a crackle of electricity. He did not venture away but waited for Allora.

  Allora lay a hand upon Sienna’s crown. Sierra shied away a little, leaning toward Nikolai. Allora brushed her hand down to the tips of a lock of Sienna’s copper hair. “I am so grateful the hartstone has bestowed her gift upon you.”

  Sienna frowned, looking back where it still beat a constant pulse. “I am, too. But it changed me somehow.” She gazed at her hands. “I feel something new burning inside of me. Not painful at all. But…different.”

  “We will discover what that might be tomorrow,” said Allora. “Tonight, I believe your lover wants you to rest. He has also had a long, difficult journey.” She smiled at Nikolai. And in her eyes he saw empathy for his tragic journey, not the physical but the emotional one that had nearly crippled him. Killed him.

  He gave her a thankful nod.

  Allora smiled, then turned toward Luca. She caressed Luca’s muzzle. He licked her hand. She started to run away with Luca chasing after her. With a tinkling laugh, she shifted into the white she-wolf, the two of them disappearing into the shadowy night together.

  Nikolai swept Sienna into his arms, his own muscles sore with fatigue from carrying her so far already, though he didn’t give a damn. He’d let his arms break in half before he let her go again.

  “Nikolai, I can walk,” she said, clasping her hands around his shoulders.

  “Enough. My own beast is going to claw right out of my skin unless I get you indoors and safe.”

  “Then take me home.” She pressed a kiss to his neck and burrowed her head against him.

  Nikolai’s stomach flipped end over end at her gentle affection. Not an hour before, he thought he’d lost her forever. But the beating, living hartstone of Silvane Forest brought her back. He wasn’t sure what it had done to her in the process. But like Allora said, they’d figure that out tomorrow. Right now, he wanted to be alone with the woman he adored, worshipped, cherished…and loved.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  She had died?

  “All I remember was a dream,” she told Nikolai as he stoked the fire to life in the hearth.

  Sienna sat on her sofa with a quilt wrapped tightly around her. Nikolai had taken it from her bed and covered her body the second they’d walked inside her freezing cottage. He’d gone outside and found a few dry logs and kindling. The chill slowly melted away, and yet Nikolai hadn’t looked at her once since they’d come inside.

  He stared into the hearth, one arm propped on the mantel, his shoulders bunched, his head ducked low. “What happened in the dream?”

  “I wandered through a misty wood. All I could hear was your voice calling me.” She fisted her hands in the edges of the quilt. “But I couldn’t find you.”

  He didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t even look at her.

  “Finally, I stumbled into a meadow where your voice seemed to emanate from a silver-white tree. When I touched it, my entire body caught on fire. That was all I remembered before waking up on the…on the hartstone.” She longed for him to look at her, to touch her, to hold her. “What did the hartstone do to me? Besides bring me back. I feel different.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, his voice dragging on gravel and rock.

  Silence deepened between them. Gilded by firelight, his profile was sharp, his lips pressed tight, his expression grim and distant.

  “Are you—are you all right?”

  He scoffed and finally turned to her. She swallowed hard at the tormented expression contorting his face.

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “Angry with you?” His tone was full of menace, yet he didn’t move from the mantel. “I want to race back to Dale’s Peak and burn alive every man, woman, and child who stood there and watched what happened to you. I want to hunt down that bloody bastard Volkov and his men and rip their fucking throats out with my bare teeth. I want to murder the world and bathe in their blood, and still, it wouldn’t be punishment enough.” His voice trembled with rising fury. His vocals strained with quaking rage. “Not nearly enough.”

  Sienna stood and approached him slowly, for he seemed about to bolt at any minute. Or combust with boiling rage. She lifted a hand from under the quilt.

  He followed her hand as if it were a snake about to strike. He was afraid.

  “Shhh.” She reached out and swept a lock of hair away from his stern brow. His eyes slid closed, and he exhaled a shaky breath. “Let the anger go, Nikolai.”

  “I bloody can’t.” Voice still quivering, his chest rose and fell quickly, and his eyes remained closed.

  “Yes, you can,” she soothed. She slid one hand to cup his gaunt cheek. He’d worn himself out, saving her, his paleness more striking now that she could see him in the light. She lifted her other hand, letting the quilt drop to the floor. Wrapping his nape with a soothing caress of her nails, she dragged him closer.

  At first unyielding, he let her pull his head down. She combed her fingers through his silky hair and brushed an airy kiss over his lips. His eyes popped open, gleaming bright with desperation. Need.

  Still not moving a hand to touch her, he said, “You should rest.”

  “No.” She unbuttoned his top button, then worked her way down in a slow line. His gaze followed her fingers. “I died, Nikolai. And by some miracle have been brought back to life. I do not need rest.” She tried to pull his shirt off, but he wouldn’t move his arm from the mantel. “I could use your help here.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I thought it was quite clear. I’m trying to remove your clothes so I can take you to my bed.”

  “Sienna…” He clenched his jaw and deepened his frown. “I won’t take you. Not so soon after Volkov, after—”

  She stopped him with a finger to his lips. “He didn’t violate me in that way. He took only my blood.” She glanced down at her bare body. “As you can see, my body is healed. But my heart is not. And here I am, begging you to touch me. To make good on your promise.”

  “What promise is that?” he asked, voice a husky roll of thunder, his body so rigid and his arm so stiff on the mantel as if he were holding up the wall, the world, and gravity itself purely by sheer will.

  “In the widow’s house. You promised to give me pleasure to take away the pain.”

  He released a shaky breath, his expression crashing into sorrow. Perhaps she shouldn’t have reminded him of that moment, the last precious moment they shared before their nightmare began.

  “I’m raw, Sienna. Scraped from the inside out. I held your lifeless body in my arms a few hours ago.”

  “Then hold me alive…now. And let me heal you, Nikolai.”

  “I can’t be gentle.”

  “Who said I wanted gentle?”

  “I don’t trust myself.”

  She smiled and closed the space between them, wrapping her arms around his waist and under his unbuttoned shirt, his body taut, unyielding. She pressed her soft curves against his hard frame. “I trust you.”

  He breathed her name on a long sigh. “Sienna.” Then he finally moved. He swept her hair off of one shoulder where he grazed an open-mouthed kiss, hot and wet. Sienna angled her head in the other direction, inviting him to taste, to bite. But he didn’t.

  “More, Nikolai.”

  She knew he still held himself back, fearing to hurt her in some way. What he didn’t understand was that she was stronger than she’d ever been. The hartstone had breathed fire into her veins, which now lit up her senses to a heightened level. Her skin ached, craving the sensation of friction, hungering for him to heal her in the only way he could. But the man—obstinate, with willpower of iron—would not give in to the passion simmering between them, begging to be released.

  “Fine,” she whispered. She’d have to show him she had determination of her own to match his. She needed to do something dramatic, to make him understand. Dropping to her knees, she
undid the lacings of his trousers.

  “Sienna,” he warned.

  She flicked him a glare. “I want you, Nikolai.” She pulled free the last lacing. “I need you.” She freed his cock—full and thick. He couldn’t deny he didn’t feel the same desire. She had no experience in this realm at all, but instincts took over, the innate need to taste him overriding all sense and reason. Gripping him at the base of his shaft, she opened her mouth on the tip.

  “Fucking hell.” He clenched a fist into her hair. Instead of pulling away, he urged her on, pumping forward slowly on a hiss.

  She moaned, staring up at him and holding his burning gaze. His mouth gaped, the tips of his sharpened fangs long and protruding.

  Volkov had filled her with fear and loathing with his toxin, but the hartstone had washed that all away—death and fear in one. She yearned for Nikolai to mark her deep. She surged forward, sliding her mouth on a groan.

  Before she knew what had happened, she was off the floor and on her back in the bed. Nikolai knelt above her and stripped away his shirt, revealing his sculpted abdomen. His trousers hung loose on his hips, his cock protruding straight up against his belly.

  “Put your hands behind your head under the pillow.”

  His command was rough and razor-sharp. She obeyed.

  “Spread your legs for me, Sienna.”

  Already breathless, she crooked her knees in obedience.

  He shook his head, gaze wandering south to her sex. “Wider.”

  Heat flushed up her chest and into her cheeks.

  “Wider, sweetheart. You’re going to lay yourself bare and give it all to me. Then I’ll give it all back.”

  Licking her lips, her mouth gone dry, she let her legs fall open till her knees hit the mattress. Completely and utterly exposed.

  “Right there. That’s what I want.”

  He gripped his cock and pumped in a slow rhythm, then fell forward on his other arm and lowered his body. He brushed his hard chest over her sensitive breasts, teasing her nipples into tight peaks. Dipping his head toward her neck, he whispered, “Don’t move your hands from beneath the pillows, no matter how badly you want to.”

  She clenched her fists, trying to obey.

  “I want to be in control of every sensation you feel. Tell me you understand.” He grazed the head of his cock through the folds of her sex. “So wet already.”

  She whimpered.

  “I didn’t hear you, Sienna.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “I understand.”

  His voice dropped another octave. “Good.”

  Beginning under her jaw, he scraped his fangs down the side of her neck, then up the slope of one breast, letting one canine prick her sensitive nipple. She gasped and instinctually raised her knees to squeeze her legs together. He lifted up with a warning look.

  “I want your knees flat against the mattress and your legs wide, sweet Sienna.”

  She bit her lip, nodded, and did as he demanded, her blood stirring hotter to his rough commands. Then he lowered down and sucked her nipple hard, growling when she arched her back and pressed closer.

  “Nikolai,” she murmured, squirming beneath him.

  He circled around the peak with his tongue, then lifted up and blew, the cool wetness drawing low in her belly. She watched him as he licked two of his fingers, then set to work between her legs, rolling the nub between them.

  Her mouth dropped open on a gasp while she pulled one arm partly free. He froze.

  “Damn,” she muttered and thrust it back beneath the pillow.

  “Good girl.” He thrust two fingers inside her.

  Arching her neck, she begged, “Please. Please.”

  “What do you want, sweet Sienna?”

  “I want you inside of me. All of you.”

  Suddenly he pulled his hand away and leveraged over her, his thick cock at her entrance. “Don’t move,” he commanded, pushing inside of her just an inch.

  She wanted to pull her hands free and claw down his back, wanted to wrap her ankles around his thighs and rock her hips up into him and take him deeper. Instead, she held perfectly still, breathing hot, heavy breaths.

  He glided his lips along the underside of her jaw, a growl vibrating in his chest. “I can smell your arousal.” He trailed his tongue down her throat. “All for me.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her nails cutting into her palm where she squeezed her fists tight.

  “You are mine, Sienna.” He nuzzled under her ear with a soft caress of lips, but his voice was nowhere near gentle. “From now…until death. Whenever that may be. You are mine.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but then he thrust his cock deep and plunged his fangs into her neck. She sucked in a gasping breath. His warm, erotic elixir flowed straight to her core. He pounded hard over and over with fierce thrusts, keeping his fangs embedded in her skin as he sucked deep and long. A feral growl rumbled from his chest, vibrating against hers.

  “Nikolai!” An orgasm ripped through her body. Too hard, too fast. She couldn’t help but squeeze her legs together, trapping his hips and whimpering her release. He drove hard and held still while the waves crashed through her. She finally pulled her arms from beneath the pillow and clutched his flexed biceps.

  Catching her breath, she licked her lips and gave her own command. “Roll over, Nikolai. It’s my turn.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Nikolai grinned. Satisfied with her erotic surrender and her fervent cries during the violent orgasm he gave her, he was more than willing to let her take the reins. For now. Gripping her waist, he rolled, keeping himself inside her. When she planted her palms on his pectorals, squeezing her full breasts together, her pink nipples erect, his cock thickened more.

  She opened her mouth on a groan, raising her hips and slamming back down, slowly rocking and picking up speed.

  “Bloody fucking hell, woman,” he muttered, gritting his teeth together and trying not to come on that sight alone.

  A woman taking full charge of her desires was beyond arousing. But Sienna—beautiful, sensual Sienna who had known no other man but him—demanding control so that she could pleasure herself on his body. That made his blood run so hot and his cock so hard, he hoped his body didn’t combust.

  Tilting her head forward, her hair slid over her shoulder and teased the skin on his chest, swishing back and forth as she found her rhythm, raising her ass then sliding back down, stroking him with her tight sex. Her full breasts swayed and bounced with each downward thrust.

  “I am yours,” she said, pumping her sweet hips in a faster tempo. “And you are mine.”

  He curled his hands around her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh. “Yes, Sienna. Show me.”

  The air resonated with a quivering energy. The same he’d felt among the standing stones in the heart of Silvane Forest. Sienna’s eyes glimmered, the green shimmering with ethereal sparks of gold, a fiery aura licking around her. She seemed unaware, for she continued to stare at him and pounded her hips, the energy building and vibrating through him. He gripped her harder and lifted his pelvis, thrusting up on each downward plunge of her perfect ass.

  Lifting to a sitting position, he took one pink nipple into his mouth and suckled on a groan. She clenched her fingers in his hair, stinging his scalp, and screamed, her inner walls pulsing while she rocked her pelvis in little circles. He banded his arms around her waist to keep her still and drove his cock with one final thrust, groaning as he spilled his seed inside of her.

  He found the punctures in her throat which he hadn’t yet sealed and opened his mouth to suck her essence inside of him again. Like honey from the gods. He wanted more of this woman, so much more. She mewled little moans as she came down, and he licked the puncture to seal the wound closed.

  Her blood coursed and mingled with his, lighting him up inside, filling him with potent energy and strength. He reveled in the euphoric sensation, his heart so full, as she looked down and swept her mouth across his, lips trembling.


  “What is it, sweetheart?” he whispered. The emotions shattering across her face spoke of too much at once. He couldn’t make out their meaning.

  “I’m afraid to lose you again.”

  He frowned, then raised up and rolled with her, flipping her to her back. Caging her face between his palms, he settled his weight on top of her.

  “Afraid to lose me?” he asked with a questioning smile. “I think you have that the other way around.”

  A tear slipped down one cheek. “I didn’t want to leave you behind. Not when I’d just found you.”

  “Found me?” He brushed a thumb high across her cheekbone, soothing.

  She stared at him, her emotions still running high, flitting across her face too fast for him to decipher. But one he knew well, and that was fear. He swept in, ghosting his lips over hers then settling deeper, melting her resolve in one, heart-stealing kiss. When he pulled away, her eyes had softened.

  “Now tell me what you mean. Found me how?”

  She licked her lips, her lashes dropping to brush cream-white cheeks.

  “Tell me,” he commanded in the voice he’d used during sex, the one that made her obey him.

  She licked her lips again then finally spoke, the words rolling out fast. “Remember when I told you I used to dream about you?”

  “Yes.”

  “That wasn’t an exaggeration. From the night after I met you, you’ve been haunting me. Or I should say, the image of you. I thought it just a fancy. Nothing more than an infatuation. But it was a lie.”

  All the while she spoke, Nikolai moved one hand down her shoulder and trailed his fingers lightly up and down the side of her ribcage, comforting strokes to keep her going. But he did not interrupt her. And she did not look at him. Taking a deep breath, she went on.

  “But then you showed up in the flesh, and suddenly my world changed. No, that’s not right either. I changed. After the first time you drank from me, I wanted something I’d never wanted before. I’d been content to live here by myself with the hart wolves—and now I don’t know what to think of them—but regardless I wanted more. And you were the ‘more’ I wanted…that I still want. Not just a lover for now or for a few months, but for always.” Having said her piece, she let out a trembling breath, still avoiding eye contact.