Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel

by Pennington, Winter

  Morina growled lightly and whispered harshly into the dark. “You are so frustrating.”

  I shot up then. “I’m frussstrating?” I leaned into her and hissed. “I’m the one that’sss frussstrating here? You can’t even follow through and have a complete conversssation with me!”

  “Keep your voice down,” she said. “We may not have spies trailing us about, but I’d rather not wake and rouse anyone’s interest.”

  I let out a huff and narrowed my eyes. How dare she call me frustrating? I wasn’t the one constantly dancing from foot to foot, trying to hide behind an invisible stone wall, and skirting subjects.

  “If you remember, lady,” I kept my voice down, as requested, “you took me. You ssstarted thisss.”

  “And are you ever going to let that go?” she whispered in exasperation. “I’m here with you now. I’m sticking my neck out for you.”

  “Oh, ssso you can ssstick your neck out but not the ressst of you?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t know,” I said heatedly. “You claim to be risssking your life for mine, you make your promisssesss and give your oathsss, and yet, look at how you treat me, Morina. You act asss though you really couldn’t be bothered to hold even one sssimple bloody conver—”

  Her hand slapped over my mouth to silence me and I glowered, heat rising to my cheeks beneath my fur.

  “I told you to keep your voice down,” she said without bothering to remove her hand. “Do you want everyone to hear us? What you think of me, I cannot help or change. If the fact that I’m here with you now isn’t enough proof, I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Proof of what?” I grumbled, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

  She lowered her hand and shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “Go to sleep.”

  “No.” I rolled on top of her without thinking and caught her hands.

  Morina’s attention snapped back to me and I heard the breath hitch in her throat. A warm sensation built low in my belly as we gazed at one another. Her eye was wide, showing a bit too much white. I knew I had surprised her as much as I had myself.

  “I’m sssorry,” I murmured and began to draw away.

  Morina’s hands tightened on mine and I hesitated. “Wait,” she said, her voice drawn tight as if she were choking.

  “Why?”

  “I want you.”

  An emotion that I’d tried to bury somewhere deep inside me came unfurled like a dragon rousing from its slumber. I was suddenly very aware of Morina’s body beneath mine, conscious of the rise and fall of her chest beneath the silk sleep shirt.

  “I don’t know how to seduce you or win your favor,” she whispered, and the fluttering in my chest increased. “I don’t know how to gain your forgiveness for what I’ve done to you and yours when I’m not sorry. If I apologized to you, it would be a lie. I’m not sorry I took you as my prisoner, Elpis.” Morina touched my face uncertainly. Her expression of confusion and want nearly undid me. Unthinkingly, I leaned into her touch, into the tenderness of the hand she offered. I covered her hand with one of my own and turned my mouth into her open palm, parting my lips and dragging my skin across hers.

  Morina trembled almost unnoticeably beneath me. “You frighten me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you were right,” she touched my thigh tentatively while keeping her eye closed. “You remind me of her.”

  “But I’m not her, Morina. I never will be,” I said, trying to keep my tone tender but honest. If what she looked for in me was Andrella, she wouldn’t find her. I couldn’t replace her and I wouldn’t try to.

  Morina rose and buried her hands in the fur of my neck. She brought my face down to hers and slid her cheek across mine until her face was buried in the bend of my shoulder.

  I stiffened uncertainly, a thousand battles warring inside me as my emotional and logical self conflicted. A part of me remembered the woman who would have done anything to hurt Iliaria and harm anyone that got in her way.

  Morina drew back, her voice small, “Do I repulse you?”

  I shook my head, lightly. She didn’t. And yet…

  I didn’t know what to do. A part of me wanted to draw away from her, to not let any sense of closeness happen between us, to not forge any more intimate ties or bonds with her. What had she really done to redeem herself and gain my trust? At any moment, she could still turn against me.

  I remembered Cuinn’s words, “Ye’ve already got two women in your bed. Do ye really want to add a third? Especially that one?”

  How would Renata and Iliaria feel if I took Morina to my bed, if I let passion come between us? Was it fair to them? Iliaria had already made it abundantly clear that I was hers.

  “What is it?” Morina asked.

  “I can’t, Morina. Not yet.”

  At first, it appeared as though she would protest, but then that guard settled once more between us.

  I touched her face, tracing the starburst of scar tissue just below her eye with my thumb. “No,” I said, “don’t withdraw. I’m not rejecting you entirely.”

  “Entirely,” she said and snorted. “That’s good to know.”

  “If thisss isss what you want…” I pressed my hips to hers, and even through our attire felt her sex kindle against mine. “I can’t give it to you yet, not completely.”

  Morina’s hips moved against me as if she could not help herself. A shuddering sigh fell from me at the contact. The slight friction of her body against mine sparked heat between my thighs and I cursed the passionate Draculian nature that encouraged me to release all thoughts and caution and to surrender to the call of flesh.

  Morina kept moving against me, and though the request was on the tip of my tongue, I didn’t say it. I didn’t ask her to stop. Her hands moved to my hips and when I looked down at her, her expression was pained. Her hand moved from my hips and fumbled with the clasp of my shorts. The muscles of my stomach jumped at the nearness of her touch. If she got her hand past the material and touched me, in truth, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

  Summoning all my willpower, I caught her hand in mine and drew it away from my groin. “I can’t.”

  She recoiled and turned away from me as if I’d hit her. I shut my eyes and focused on changing my form. We had spent enough nights under Damokles’s nose that I was certain we wouldn’t be interrupted if I didn’t stay in it too long.

  Morina turned back to me when she felt me change. She gazed up at my naked torso with hunger in her eye.

  “And so you seek to torment me?” she asked.

  “No,” I said, and when she reached up to touch my breasts, I caught her wrists to stop her. “No, I’m not trying to torment you.” I slid down her body and between her thighs. “I can’t give myself to you just yet, Morina. I hope you understand, but this…” I worked the laces of her breeches open. “This I can give to you.”

  Comprehension dawned on her features and her lips parted as I drew her breeches down her thighs to expose her sex. I couldn’t give all of myself to her, for so many reasons, but there was one thing I could do.

  I ran my lips down the shield of snowy fur at her mound. I moved lower, angling my head and pressing a feather-soft kiss against the tip of her sex. Her sex and the rest of her body responded immediately at that small touch, stiffening in arousal as she raised her arms above her head and caught hold of the headboard.

  I gazed up at her and asked, “Do you mind?” I recalled how adamantly against such an act Iliaria had initially been.

  Morina shook her head, apparently not sharing the same qualms. “No.”

  I settled comfortably between her thighs and explored the folds of her heated flesh with my fingertips. I traced her Nod Dragoste and admired how her body reacted to my touch, how her muscles constricted as the pleasure echoed and unraveled through her limbs.

  “How long has it been, Morina?” I whispered against her sex and the muscles in her stomach rippled beneath her shirt.


  “Since Andrella.”

  I traced a finger against the underside of her sex and her hips rocked slightly. Her sex glistened in the dark with the dew of her desire, and I eased my fingers through that sacred honey and inside her.

  Morina groaned and rose slightly off the bed, her hips pressing against me. I slid another finger inside, and her muscles constricted and fluttered against me, kindling a fire that burned low in my own body. I felt myself stiffen against the mattress and resisted the urge to grind my lower body into the bed.

  I parted my lips against her and traced her with my tongue. Morina moaned for me, her grip tightening on the headboard.

  “May this be worthy of breaking your long fast,” I said and closed my mouth around her.

  The wood of the headboard creaked under her hands and I sucked lightly, licking the length of her sex in long, sure strokes. I curled my fingers inside her and used them to mimic the broad strokes of my tongue against her sex.

  Morina raised her hips and I sucked her. Every muscle in her body tensed as she clasped around me. Her back arched and I had to lower my face to keep her sex sheltered in my mouth. I drew back with her between my lips and she cried out as I submitted my mouth and hands to her pleasure. I coaxed her body with gentle strokes and soft sucking until her legs began to tremble. Her climax built and quaked through her, and when she spent herself, she came with a closed-mouth moan.

  I withdrew from her and got to my hands and knees to crawl from between her thighs. I didn’t know what to do afterward and so I lay down in the empty spot where I slept and slid my arm beneath the pillow, remembering to focus on calling the Draculian form back to my mind. The shorts I wore were suddenly snug again and I drew my ears back against my skull. I heard Morina lace her breeches before I felt her against my back.

  “May I hold you?” she asked, stroking her hand down the bend of my neck, across my shoulder, and down my spine.

  “Yes,” I said, trying to ignore the pulse that throbbed between my legs.

  Morina curled her body against mine and draped her arm loosely over my waist, as if she wasn’t certain if I would let her leave it there.

  I did, and it seemed as soon as I closed my eyes, the sexual tension drifted away as sleep welcomed me in her embrace.

  *

  An ear-splitting sound echoed throughout our chambers. Morina threw back the blankets with a curse and stumbled out of bed quickly to don her attire. Groggily, I sat up, swiveling my ears in the direction of the sound. It came again, a loud, piercing blow that bounced off the walls. The air vibrated with its burst.

  “What isss that?”

  “An alarm,” Morina said as she tugged on her boots. She spared a hurried glance toward the door. “Get up.”

  Another sound rode the air, the familiar clang of steel on steel. I climbed quickly out of bed and pulled on my tunic, tying the ribbons beneath my wings and trembling as the adrenaline started to rush through me.

  “What’sss happening?”

  “I don’t know,” Morina said. “But one of Damokles’s men has sounded an alarm.”

  The door burst open and my heart leapt into my throat.

  Vasco stood in the doorway with a wild grin on his face, a sword held loosely in his right hand. Cuinn pushed past him to enter the room.

  “What’re ye doin’ just standing there?” Cuinn asked. “Get your arse up and go save your queen!”

  As if in a daze, I blinked. Surely, I was dreaming. Iliaria had told me she’d return again, but she hadn’t returned to tell me anything of her plans or what our next move would be.

  “Colombina,” Vasco said. “It’s time. We have to go.”

  He strode into the room and grabbed my elbow to emphasize the importance of his words. I blinked and tilted my head as I followed him out into the hall.

  “Where is she being held, colombina?”

  “Vasssco, why are you here?”

  “Helamina and Augusten refused to wait. We have to act now,” he said. “Damokles’s vampires can only hold the Dracule at bay for so long.”

  A growl sounded from behind us. One of the Draculian guards sank low on all fours, as if ready to launch an offensive attack. His lips drew back in a snarl as he hissed.

  Morina was suddenly between us and the Dracule. “Go!” she shouted. “Get her out of here, now!”

  She was unarmed and I hesitated to leave her. Vasco used his grip on my wrist to steer me down the hall and I went.

  “They’re thisss way,” I said, the ice in my limbs finally seeming to melt as I gained my bearings. Renata, I thought, finally.

  Cuinn, Vasco, and I rushed down the winding halls and to the dungeon rooms where the vampires were being held. We had no trouble making our way to the dungeon itself, but as soon as we burst through the door, Damokles’s guardsmen were upon us.

  Vasco was graceful and light on his feet as he rushed the Dracule in a blur, drawing his sword in an arch and slicing open his belly. The second Dracule set his attention on me and raised the two crescent blades in his hands.

  “Traitor!” he spat the word at me and rushed me, giving me no time to think.

  I reacted out of instinct when his blades crossed in a slashing motion near my midsection, leaping back in time to feel the disruption in the currents as his blades flashed past my stomach. I flexed my hands and unsheathed the sharp claws.

  Our fight broke out in earnest. I was distantly aware of the rhythm of Vasco’s boots scuffing the ground and knew he struggled to cripple the Dracule that attacked him.

  Cuinn started to move in front of me, to place himself between me and the Dracule, but I sidestepped him and charged.

  The Dracule raised his blades to swing both at me in an arch and I slid between his legs on the stone floor. I caught the base of his tail in my hand and sprang to my feet as the vampires and cells around me blurred. I pushed off the ground and lunged for the Dracule’s back, using his own barb like a blade as I drove it through his ribcage. The Dracule gave a sharp cry and went to his knees. I pushed against the resistance of the furred body beneath mine, shoving the barb in as deeply as it would go.

  In a red haze of fury, I lost myself. I slashed at the body beneath mine, tearing skin and fur with my claws as if I would dig a hole in his body to climb through. The smell of metallic blood filled the air and spurred my frenzy. The Dracule raised his arms to protect himself and I dove toward his neck, biting and tearing away the skin and arteries in a shower of blood. I thought of Renata and the vampires they had abused.

  Someone touched my back and I turned, snapping and narrowly missing a pale arm.

  “He’s dead, colombina,” Vasco said. “He’s dead. You can stop now.”

  I blinked and gazed down at the motionless body beneath mine. A pool of blood spread out from his body like a blossoming flower. At some point, I had ridden him to the floor. My white hands and knees were covered in the Dracule’s blood. The taste of metal was everywhere inside my mouth.

  I drew away and turned my attention to the vampires behind the bars of their prisons. Those strong enough and conscious enough to realize what was happening had moved closer to the bars, their eyes filled with an eager light at the scent of blood.

  “We have to free them,” I said.

  “Not yet,” Vasco said. “If we free them now we’ll have to fight them off of us.”

  He gripped me by the shoulders. “Where is Renata, colombina?”

  The two guards had emerged from Damokles’s trophy room and left the door wide open. I led Vasco and Cuinn through it.

  “They’re in here,” I said. I flattened my ears and scanned the room for a set of keys to open the dungeon doors.

  Vasco shot a question to me with a glance and I explained, “Keysss, we need keysss.”

  “Nay, we don’t,” Cuinn said. He approached the first cell on the left and rose on his back legs. He opened his mouth and blew into the small keyhole. The lock tumbled open with a click and the heavy door swung open.

&nb
sp; Vasco and I yanked the shackles out of the stone walls and lowered the kings and queens one at a time. Most of them were too weak to stand, let alone attack us for our blood. When we got to Renata’s cell, I went to her side and took her down. She fell into my arms, unconscious, and I took her weight, cradling her tall body against mine.

  I turned to Vasco when he lowered the man across from her. “I think they’re too weak to get out without help.”

  “Vasco,” a voice hissed from the steps as we emerged from the dark prison. Cuinn had unlocked all the doors, but we had not made it to the last two cells. I cradled Renata close to my chest as a figure descended the steps and stepped before us in a gown of white and gold like some terrible, demented angel.

  A look of confusion crossed Vasco’s face as he didn’t recognize the dark-haired woman. She turned to me with an expression of venom I had seen her wear so many times before in open court.

  “You,” she said. “I knew you were bad news.”

  “Vasssco,” I said, “take Renata.”

  “You won’t be taking her anywhere.”

  The glint of a sword winked like a threat in the dark.

  I drew back my lips in a snarl as Vasco took Renata’s weight.

  “Want to bet?” I sank to all fours and growled, tail lashing behind me. “I think it’sss time we sssee jussst how permanent that new body of yoursss isss, Lucrezzzia.”

  I lunged and she swung her sword to force me back. My claws ticked on the floor below me as I tried to find an opening in her defense. When I found it, I lunged forward again and Lucrezia deftly blocked me and drove me back again.

  “I have no fight with you, Great Siren, if you step aside,” she said in a low voice that did not reveal the fear I smelled emanating from her. She was afraid of me. She was afraid of all of the Dracule. I remembered her fear when she had learned I wore Iliaria’s mark.

  I used her fear to my advantage, taunting and testing her defense.

  “Ssso you think,” I hissed and lunged again, this time catching her sword hand in mine. I used all my strength to slam her back against the wall. I took both her wrists in my hands and pinned her body with mine, slamming her sword hand roughly into the wall until her grip loosened and the sword fell with a clatter.