by Kim Faulks
Bitten
The Blood Courtesan Series
Kim Faulks
Michelle Fox
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
1. Nova
2. Nova
3. Nova
4. Nova
5. Nova
6. Kol
7. Nova
8. Kol
9. Nova
10. Kol
11. Nova
12. Nova
13. Nova
14. Nova
15. Kol
16. Nova
17. Nova
Afterword
About the Author
Also in the Blood Courtesan Series
Continued
Continued
Copyright © 2016 by Kim Faulks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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For all the vampire lovers out there.
Nova
Plastic bags laden with groceries bit into my palms and licked my skin with fire. My boyfriend, Jared brushed my back moving into the dark apartment. I tracked his steps into the kitchen. “You know, a hand would’ve been nice.”
I nudged the light switch with my nose. The weak yellow glow threw shadows across the room. But the shadows kept coming, moving swiftly to swallow my boyfriend as he reached for the tap.
“Turn around.”
I wrenched my head toward the guttural growl. Steel glinted under the glow of the brightening bulb, rising to press against Jared’s neck. The fluorescent buzz overhead filled my ears, growing to a crescendo. I was caught on that sound as the brightening light revealed the monster in our home.
The bag in my hand slipped. Tin cans hit the floor with a thud and rolled. I never moved, never blinked.
Blood trickled from under the blade, glistening black against Jared’s ashen skin. The attacker leaned closer and I followed the movement. My vision tunneled, taking in one fraction of him at a time. Leather bands around his wrists, corded muscles clenching tight as he gripped the hilt of the knife.
The long sleeves of his pullover rode high. Soft fabric hugged the hard curve of his chest. Six-foot-three, or four. Pale skin. Red lips. Eyes….
I couldn’t see his eyes….
Short, curled golden hair glistened under the light. He was lean, thick around the chest.
The man seemed to grow and swell, dominating the room with chilling anger that lapped the edges of my mind. He moved slowly and deliberately, arching forward to bow Jared backwards over the sink.
I licked my lips. Dry, husky words filled the room. “You don’t have to do this. There’s fifty dollars in my purse. But, we don’t have drugs… if that’s what you want.”
Jared’s hand scattered the cutlery, and hit my favorite mug—my mother’s mug. Faded pink flowers turned end over end and hit the tiles. White shards scattered across the floor.
Pain sliced my heart. I slapped my hand to my chest and lifted my gaze. The attacker turned, piercing me with a deadly stare. Long white fangs peeked out from under blood red lips. My fingers stilled and so did my breath.
This was no man.
Vampire. My pulse sped at the thought. “I’ll give you anything you want… blood, if you’re hungry.”
Blue eyes glistened before the creature turned to Jared. “The money—now. Rurik is not a patient man—and neither am I.”
Tears shone against my boyfriend’s cheek. His legs shook, rattling the cupboard. “I don’t have it. It’s not my fault. The deal… it went bad. Investors pulled out. I lost everything…everything. I promise I’ll pay you… I just need a little more time.”
“You promised one hundred and fifty percent on ten grand. How about I break some bones? How about I do a little damage to that pretty face of yours and give you an incentive to pay on time?”
Money… investors… lost everything. What the fuck was he talking about?
I speared my fingers into my bag, fumbling between the empty tubes of lip gloss and perfume. The smooth round canister slipped under my grasp. I kept my eyes focused on the monster in my home and dug harder, grasping the cold metal canister and wrenching it free.
The beast moved in, fangs ready. Everything about him screamed predator. Blond curls fell to bounce against porcelain skin. This creature was beautiful—but deadly. I squeezed. The tab on top of the canister popped. A steady white stream hit him in the face.
The knife slipped. The beast stumbled backwards. I wrenched my head toward Jared and screamed, “Run!”
The vampire lunged. Wind buffeted my body, scattering my hair into my eyes. Jared lunged for the door. The blow was sudden, sharp, driving into my belly, doubling me forward. I thrashed and stumbled, trying to find my footing as a vice clenched around my neck.
“You are a problem.”
Piercing cerulean eyes captured mine as I hit the wall. His tongue sneaked out and licked the white drip of spray at the top of his lip. “Next time you want to hose me with pepper spray, love, you could at least tempt me with a little meat to accompany it.”
My stomach turned to water. Hard stone pressed against me, mashing my breasts. I turned, avoiding those bottomless pools as his cool breath tickled my cheek, then moved to my neck.
Ice lingered on the throbbing of my throat. His lips pressed into the hollow as he snarled, “Yes, I think you’re a massive problem. Hasn’t anyone told you to never piss off a vampire?”
I wrenched my gaze forward, and shrugged his lips from my skin and met the steel in his eyes with my own. “Hasn’t anyone told you to never piss off a woman?”
Blood red lips flattened, curling at the edges in a twisted smirk. White fangs shone, coupled with the deep rumble that echoed from his chest and rippled from his throat, gaining momentum.
Fangs, lips, tongue, and that grin. I couldn’t look away. He tilted his head, staring into my eyes, and for a second I saw more than a vampire, more than a beast—I saw him.
His bark of laughter rebounded inside the apartment. “Yes, I think someone might’ve said that once.”
The steel clamps around my neck eased. Air rushed in, filling my lungs. One second he was against me, and the next, he was gone. Grunts and thrashing echoed from out in the hall. Jared’s screams followed.
He ran… Jared just left me and ran.
Spineless fucking bastard. Anger welled in the hollow pit of my stomach. I swallowed it, shoved it all the way down as the vampire dragged my boyfriend back inside and lifted him into the air.
“I can already tell you’re going to be a pain, Jared. I don’t like pain. I loathe pain.” Midnight eyes found mine, there was a flicker of something… something almost human before the steel door slammed shut.
Jared scurried across the floor, holding out his hand. “No more. Okay. Okay. I’ll get you the money. I’ll get you the damn money.”
The immortal bully took a step, and then another, circling his prey. “You have a week. One week and not a day longer. Don’t make me come back, Jared. You won’t like it if I do.”
In a breath he was gone, leaving me staring at the empty space.
Jared shuddered and whimpered.
I forced myself to move, racing to the open door and slammed it shut, then turned. “Jared, what the hell have you done?”
Nova
His words were a jumbled mess. The room spun, darkened shadows hissed and moved everywhere I looked. He could be here. The vampire could be still here… and I’d never know.
“Who was that monster?”
Shudders turned into gulping sobs. “God… I’m a fucking dead man.”
I hovered on the edge of the sofa waiting for him to finish.
The name came out tortured and strange, sounding like, Carl. “Carl? His name is Carl?”
Jared turned on me, annoyance flaring. Then he sucked in a breath and dragged a shaking hand over his face. “No. I said, his name is Kol. He’s a damn vamp enforcer. A fucking killer. I can’t fucking believe this is happening.”
A vampire enforcer? The inhuman look and aggression made perfect sense. Kol. The name rebounded inside my head and settled somewhere I didn’t like. Somewhere between intrigue and excitement.
“Why doesn’t anything work out for me? Why does the universe hate me so much?”
I dropped to my knees. My fingers brushed his shoulder, skimming the tiny cut on his throat and the thin trail of blood. “How many times are we going to do this? One hundred and fifty percent that’s… fifteen grand… where are we going to come up with that?”
Jared stiffened and jerked his head up, anger glinted in his eyes. “That’s all you have to say? I tell you my world is falling apart and that’s all you have to say?”
“I’m sorry your world is falling apart. But fifteen grand, Jared.”
He crumpled in front of me. “Jesus… Jesus… I know. I’m so sorry, Nova. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I didn’t think they’d come for me like that. I didn’t think they’d.…” His hand trembled as he reached for his neck. Blood glistened on the tip of his fingers as he dropped his head and stared. “I could’ve been killed. I could’ve been killed right there in the fucking kitchen.”
Rage and anger swirled in a deadly tornado. I sucked in the air, trying to quell the maelstrom inside. “You just make stupid fucking decisions, it’s true. We’ll figure this out… we always do, somehow.”
The shake of his head butted against my jaw. “It won’t. I’ve failed. I’ve stuffed everything up.”
I leaned backwards, letting him stumble before finding his balance. I’m weak. So fucking weak. I wasn’t this person—this pathetic doormat. But I wasn’t someone who walked out either. Jared in his strange way cared for me. “Yes you have. But what kind of girlfriend would I be if I couldn’t take the bad with the good? We’ve got a week. A week for you to get us out of this damn mess.”
I slipped the chain across the closed door. Metal and wood were useless on the undead—I thought they could only come in if…. “Wait. He’s been here before, hasn’t he?”
“Huh?”
I spun, shaking my head. I couldn’t believe it… couldn’t believe what he’d done. “He’s been here before, hasn’t he? Vampires can’t come in unless they’re invited. You idiot! Why would you do that? Why would you invite someone like that into our home? Didn’t you think about what might happen?”
Jared shook his head and threw his hands into the air. “Yes. No. I don’t know. I fucked up, okay? Is that what you want to hear?”
My mind raced, how would I get Jared out of this mess? A black hole swallowed me. I tried to climb out, but the bottom was too deep and the sides crumbled like stale bread.
“Who else, Jared? Who else have you invited into our home when I wasn’t here?”
“No one.” The answer was too quick.
I backed away from the pain. “Okay. Tonight’s been crazy and we don’t need to fight. I’m going to run you a bath, and then I’ll cook dinner.”
Jared nodded, allowing me to lead him into the bathroom. I turned and dropped the plug into the tub before I hit the taps.
I felt like I was drowning, but no one could hear my cries for help—because no one really cared.
I stared at the list of everything we owned—it wasn’t a long list. My ten-year old Kia seemed like the best way to get cash, but even that would leave me eight grand short.
Jared’s snores echoed from the bedroom. The bastard was sleeping like a baby, leaving me to toss and turn through the night. I ground my jaw, feeling the pressure in my teeth. I wanted to kick him. To slap him until he understood. I wanted to sleep while he figured a way out of his own damn mess. But that wasn’t who he was and fighting only made things worse.
My eyes stung. No amount of make-up would hide the dark circles under my eyes and no smile would soothe my troubles.
How much would someone pay for a kidney?
My four shifts a week at the local supermarket barely paid the bills—it was a far cry from paying off a fifteen-thousand-dollar debt.
My stomach rolled at the thought of owing that much to a credit card. At twenty-percent interest, I was better off with the vampires. Our credit rating was shot—thanks to Jared, no bank would give us a loan, even with half my mother’s house as collateral—so, we were screwed. A car honked outside, wrenching me from the moment. I stood and walked toward the door, taking one last glance at the bedroom before I grabbed my purse from the back of the door and walked out.
Caring for Jared was habit now. He needed me. He needed me to be strong where he was weak. He needed me to be loyal. I raced down the two flights of stairs and shoved through the front door of our building. White smoke billowed out of the old green Volvo. Tommy dropped his head and waved as I rounded the rear and reached for the passenger’s door.
“Sorry,” I muttered, sliding into the seat.
“You look like hell. Fighting with Jared again?”
I winced and reached for the seatbelt. I couldn’t hide it anymore. Tommy put the car into drive and pulled out into the morning traffic.
My mind raced in a jumble of bills and papers and finally, those blue, deadly eyes of the vampire.
“Hey, you okay?”
I wrenched my head toward him. “Yeah, just money troubles.”
Tommy shook his head. His shaggy blonde hair brushed his shoulders. If he cut it, curled it maybe… he would almost look like… Kol..
“Don’t tell me, another one of Jared’s harebrained schemes. What was it this time? Broken-down race horses, or the good old charity fraud?”
Deep down I was nodding along with him. I smothered a smirk and clenched a fist, smacking his arm. “You know for a friend, you can be a real dick.”
“I know, but a truthful dick.” His deep chuckle filled the car.
I shook my head. I jolted as we hit the entrance to the parking lot, then pulled up hard. “Hey, is your cousin still looking for a cheap car?”
Tommie switched off the engine and turned to me. “I think so, why?”
“I’m selling the Kia. We don’t use it much and I can use the cash more.” I shrugged and stared at the thick dust clinging to the air vents.
“I can ask her, if you want.”
I nodded, turning to the bleak sky outside. Cloudy with a chance of rain—just like my life. “Yeah, ask for me. Tell her the sooner the better.”
I grabbed my bag and headed for the front doors. For the next four hours I’d be bagging chicken with a smile. At this moment, the hardest question I needed in my life was ‘do you want that in one package, or two?’
Nova
The sofa was gone. The TV—gone. My car… I glanced down to the piece of paper— gone. The open notepad on the counter had become my life for the last three days. I pinned the check on the fridge and turned to pick up the pen. Two-thousand dollars… that made a total of three-thousand, two-hundred and nine dollars.
We weren’t going to make it.
I dropped the pen to rest in the spine of the open book, then lowered my head to my hands.
We weren’t going to make it.
I lifted my head to a scratch at the door. The lock
turned, and a second later, Jared strode through. The smile died on his face as his gaze met mine and for the hundredth time I felt like I didn’t belong in my own home.
Jared closed the door and force a smile. “Hey.”
I climbed to my feet. “Hey. How was your day? Did you find any work?”
The shake of his head turned my stomach to stone. “It’s hard out there. No one’s hiring.”
“Well you can always slum it with me at the supermarket. Steffie just left to have her baby.”
He dropped his bag beside the door and shook his head. “You know that’s not me, Nova. I can’t put my ambitions aside to bag groceries and ask people how their day is. I’m not like you, I can’t just give up.”
I clenched my jaw and swallowed. “I didn’t give up. I can go back to my degree any time, but one of us needed to—”
“Look, I’m sick of fighting. I’m tired of all the same arguments. I’m going to have a shower and watch porn—I need a release.”
A pathetic sound tore from my chest. I turned as he blurred and swiped my tears with the back of my hand. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed him… I shouldn’t want him to change.
In high school, we were the couple. We were happy, going steady. Maybe I was the one who’d changed, while Jared seemed content to skate on by with life, never worrying, never stopping for too long. Those were the things I’d loved about him at first—now, they were nothing more than a burden. My life had been planned out, college, a degree… happiness, until my mother’s cancer took it all away… I had the money Mom left me. It wasn’t much, enough for a down payment on a house—enough to pay for the rest of my degree.
I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my throat. I’d kept the money a secret for as long as I could—but now it seemed pointless to hide it any longer.
Tears slipped down my cheek. I hadn’t the strength to wipe them away. I was weak… so damn weak. I made a promise, a promise to my Mom as she lay dying. There had to be another way—a way to change this, a way to be free.
