Bonded by Blood

by Laurie London

  “I’d like that.”

  Was she crazy? She turned her face up to his. Her eyes burned with an intensity hotter than the embers at the base of their driftwood fire. Being with her felt so natural, so easy. He had a plan for his life and love had never been a part of it before. As he leaned in to kiss her, the flickering light glinted on her earrings and he pulled away.

  “What?”

  “Your earrings. They’re silver.”

  With a few flicks of her fingers, they were gone. “Better?”

  “For me, but maybe not for you. You probably should have kept them on.”

  “Stop worrying. Does your head vibrate a little when you hear my thoughts?” she whispered as his lips hungrily sought out hers.

  “Yes, and when you’re nearby.” Her kiss was warm and spicy, tasting faintly of oregano.

  “Mmm. Me, too. And do you hear two heartbeats until we’re closer?” she asked.

  He slipped the robe off one shoulder. When he ran his fingertips under her breast and caressed a thumb over her stiffened nipple, a moan of pleasure escaped her lips. “They mesh into one sound when our air mingles. And your heart becomes mine when I’m in you.” She sighed heavily and he breathed her air into his lungs.

  Without a word, she slid a hand to his face and stroked her thumb over his temple. The vibration in his head as their energies mingled swept him into another dimension. Over the sound of the waves lapping and retreating on the rocky beach, nothing existed any longer except the two of them. I want you like I’ve never wanted anything else before. Her words. Blood pounded between his legs when he heard them in his mind and he took her mouth with a fervor that surprised him.

  Pushing her down on the blanket-covered sand, he peeled off his jeans and his erection sprang free.

  She held her arms out to him and opened her legs. My proud, beautiful savior. He groaned when he heard her words and enveloped her body with his.

  MACKENZIE LET DOM spread her knees apart with his thick thighs as he settled his body over her. His erection probed her hip and inner leg searching out her entrance. She arched herself to help him. Waiting for his thrust, she was surprised when he pushed up on his forearms and looked into her face. His hair hung over his forehead and his eyes were dark in the flickering glow from the fire.

  “What?” she whispered. “Don’t stop. Not now. I need you now, Dom.” With secrets gone and questions answered, she wanted to feel the truth of him.

  “I love how my name sounds on your lips,” he said as he kissed her. His erection stood poised, ready to enter her.

  Did his teeth just graze her neck? She wanted him so badly that a little part of her died each moment he wasn’t inside her. She wrapped her legs around his hips, forcing his tip inside. But still he didn’t rock forward. She impatiently slid her hands to his buttocks, digging her nails in deep, but he didn’t go in.

  “Please. I’m dying here.”

  His laughter vibrated against her chest. “Are you always so impatient? Maybe I want to just lie here and look at you for a moment. To sear your face into my memory and compare it to how it looks after I leave a bit of myself inside of you.” His large palm slid down to massage her hip, as if he were getting ready to take hold, and her breath stopped halfway in her throat.

  “Stop testing your willpower. It’s much stronger than mine.” She needed him. She needed this. She was suffocating without him.

  In the firelight his pupils expanded, leaving a ring of crystal blue and the muscles in his face relaxed. She kept her eyes pinned to his as he thrust his hips forward, sheathing himself inside.

  “Dom.” She breathed out his name as the sound of his heart filled her body. His eyes danced with excitement as he flexed his buttocks and drove deeper. She was so ready that she came hard and fast around him almost instantly.

  “Oh, darling,” he murmured into her hair. “You are so sweet to my body. Amada mia.”

  He pulled out of her then and she let out a little cry of protest. “Shhh. I can go deeper this way.” His sex glistened in the glow of the bonfire as he urged her to roll over. The breath caught in her throat. He was utterly magnificent. Powerful, commanding. She needed that strength filling her from the inside. On her hands and knees, his body warmed her back as he searched her out again. She rocked back and took him inside.

  Grabbing her hipbones, he pulled her toward him as he thrust hard. The sound of the sea muffled her moan. He pushed even deeper until finally she felt him graze that swollen bud at the end of her channel. Coaxing and prodding, he moved inside her until she began to climax again. His sex quivered and her body fully welcomed him inside with a glorious hitch.

  As the world faded away, revolving only on the axis of their joining, a strong urge clamored in her head. She wanted to give all of herself to him, to please him in every way she could. She needed to be his everything.

  He wanted to drink from her, she could sense it. Flipping her hair away from her shoulder, she exposed her neck to him and reached back to pull his head down.

  She felt his warm lips against her skin just as she reached the crushing peak of her orgasm.

  AS HIS FANGS elongated from his gums, he stared at the graceful arch of her neck. He lifted her off her hands. Back to front, he fit the contours of her body to his. With his fingers, he sought out the precise location of her artery. It fluttered as if it was calling to him and his mouth watered. Perfect. So beautiful. He wanted to feel her nectar slip down his throat as his seed spilled into her. As she climaxed around him, he reared back to bite.

  He brushed her mind, but sensed no thoughts about pain or danger, just her eagerness to give herself to him. Oh God, she trusted him in a way he didn’t deserve.

  Bastard. What the hell was he thinking? He’d drain her dry without the distraction of the cilice. Of course he would. He wouldn’t be able to stop and she’d die.

  His whole body stiffened then, his arms going rigid. Cursing, he tried to pull out of her, but her internal muscles held him tight. Her body refused to release him until he climaxed. He cried out in agony. This couldn’t be happening.

  Pushing her down on all fours again, he arched his head to the darkened sky, trying to put what little distance he could between them, but he salivated with anticipation.

  Take her. Do it now. Look how beautiful she is, and she is yours. Remember the rush of her sweet taste in your mouth. The invincibility it gives you. For God’s sake, you can even vapor. Drink from her and use that strength to finally kill Pavlos and avenge your parents’ deaths. That’s what you want, isn’t it? You’ve waited a lifetime for this opportunity. Don’t waste it. Take her now.

  “No. No,” he cried as he released into her and plunged his teeth into the skin of his forearm. Her body loosened its hold when it received what it needed from him and he pulled himself out.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Get away. Get the hell away.” He scrambled to the far side of the dwindling bonfire. It’s not too late. Look at her. She wants to give herself to you. She wants you to take her blood again. To sacrifice herself for your cause. She was made for you, don’t you agree? And you were meant to defeat Pavlos. So take what you deserve in order to kill him. Do it now.

  “Oh God, I’m sorry. Are you okay? What happened? Dom, please.”

  She was concerned for him when she was the one in danger. That floored him. What had he been thinking, bringing her here like this, cooking for her like they were mated, pretending he could make a normal life with her? What an idiot.

  He crouched in the sand like an animal, ready to attack. Through the hanks of hair covering his face, he watched as she stood and wrapped herself with her robe.

  “I know you won’t hurt me, that you won’t go too far. I feel it, Dom. You’ll stop when you need to. You’re not a monster. You’re a good man and…and I love you.”

  Dios mio. She loved him? Like this? Anguish tore his heart open and he became suddenly light-headed, as if the oxygen molecules in the air
around him had been sucked away.

  Was she insane? Did she not know what he was capable of? What he truly wanted? What had he done to deserve an angel like her? With her hair tousled and her skin flushed from their lovemaking, she was way too perfect for him. She reached out to take his hand and he felt his foot dig into the sand, compressing it like a starting block, his body ready to spring.

  When she didn’t move right away, he bared his teeth to her. Her eyes widened and she took a step back. With the firelight playing off his fully extended fangs, which dripped with coppery blood from where he’d bitten himself, he knew she saw the nightmare he truly was. “You think you want this? Run to the cabin and lock yourself in the bathroom. Pray I don’t break down the door or vapor through the cracks. Go. Go now.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “SIR, A NEW capture team in Seattle is on to something.”

  A tall, slender man floated over to the monitor, his feet barely touching the floor, and he placed a bejeweled hand on the computer programmer’s shoulder. It lingered a moment longer than necessary as he bent down until he was eye-level with the screen. Maurice tried to keep from shivering but wasn’t having much luck. The Overlord’s breath reeked with the stench of his all-blood diet. Maurice hadn’t completely reverted to the old ways. He still enjoyed fast food. Maybe all those French fries would keep him from smelling this bad.

  “What did they discover?” the Overlord asked.

  “We’ve been checking and cross-checking our Sangre Dulce database against census reports and internet search engines, trying to track down other family members of known sweetbloods. The researchers think some families may carry the recessive gene that they can isolate in the lab.”

  “I’m liking the sounds of this already.” The vampire’s thick, yellowed nails dug into Maurice’s shoulder. “So instead of mating two sweetbloods, they may be able to mate two non-sweetbloods who have the recessive trait and still get Sangre Dulce offspring? Is that what you’re saying?”

  Maurice nodded, but he doubted the Overlord would like what he was going to hear next.

  “So what has that Seattle cell discovered?”

  “Remember that prolific family, the Shaws from Southern California, the one that produces several sweetbloods each generation?” He pushed his glasses up higher. They slipped down his nose when he sweated. And he always sweated when the Overlord was this close.

  “Yes. I know them very well indeed. Let’s just say I’ve had a personal relationship with quite a few of them over the years.”

  “Our boys were playing around on their new computer and accessed our database. Seems one of them has some internet sleuthing abilities, as he traced a Shaw female to the Seattle area. She had hyphenated her last name so she wasn’t flagged by our system.”

  “A Shaw female there? Two new team members found a human with one of the most sought-out bloodlines? I’d call that an egregious oversight.”

  “Yes, I agree, sir. We’ve put a patch into the code so our spiderbots are looking for hyphenated names, as well.”

  “How did they find her?”

  “She recently set up a website and her About Me page mentions San Diego. We would have found her eventually, sir. We did locate her brother—he doesn’t have a hyphenated last name and he’s not Sangre Dulce.”

  The Overlord cursed quietly under his breath, halting the movement of air in Maurice’s lungs. “And you’re just figuring out now he has a sister? Do we know if she’s Sangre Dulce yet?”

  “Yes, she is. They believe she has the sweetblood.” Maurice took off his glasses and mopped his forehead with a tissue.

  “You believe?” The stench rose off the Overlord like a mist.

  “She actually hasn’t been captured yet. The team had her cornered, but somehow before they could bring her in, one of them was staked and the other one ran.”

  The pungent smell intensified and bile bubbled into Maurice’s esophagus, burning away at the lining. He could hardly keep his glasses perched on his nose.

  “Who staked them and where is the female?”

  “Agency operatives, sir, and we think one of them has her.”

  The sound Maurice heard next surprised him a little. He’d figured death would hurt, but he hadn’t expected it to have a sound. It was rather like a juicy thud, a watermelon sliced in half with a sharp blade.

  EVERY NERVE IN his body had frayed like ends of an unraveled rope by the time Dom pulled into the parking garage. If it hadn’t been dawn, he’d have walked the streets of Seattle looking for a fight. Any fight. It wouldn’t have mattered whether he ran into a Darkblood or not, as any confrontational being would’ve served the same purpose. His body itched with aggressive energy and he needed to unload it somehow.

  A short time ago a willing female would’ve provided the necessary outlet for his pent-up aggressions. But it didn’t hold much appeal now since all he could think about was Mackenzie. He would not lie with another woman. If he were to be with someone else, he had to assume she’d do the same. And the thought of Mackenzie underneath another man, those emerald eyes looking up into a face other than his own, her lips swollen from another man’s kisses, another man’s name on her tongue, made him seethe with anger.

  Should he call her? It was still early and he hoped she was sleeping back at Chuck and Shirl’s. He pulled out his cell phone, punched in her number. His thumb hovered over the Send button for a moment before he flipped the phone shut. He ached to hear her voice again but didn’t know what he would say. “I love you but I want to kill you. I want to be with you but I have no life to offer you.” What a fucking catch he was.

  He pressed Send anyway and clicked his earpiece. He had to hear the spirited lilt of her voice again, even if she was frightened of him. Or angry with him. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and clicked the wireless earpiece. It rang once and his heart tumbled in his rib cage. Twice and his scalp prickled with sweat. Three times and it went to voice mail. He listened to her whole message, letting the sound of her voice echo inside him, then hung up without leaving one of his own.

  She deserved far better than anything he had to offer. He was an idiot to even contemplate a future.

  After going through security, he took the stairs down to the field office two at a time. Changing out of his street clothes, he slipped on his favorite set of gloves and pummeled a punching bag until rivulets of sweat stung his eyes and blurred his vision. After a quick swipe with a towel, he grabbed a pair of wooden knives and worked the knife dummy, thrusting and twisting until his muscles screamed in protest. And then he did it all over again.

  LILY HAD BEEN Looking forward to her daily run on the treadmill before turning in for the day, but when she pushed open the double doors to the gym and heard familiar, yet very irritating music screeching through the speakers, she knew her mindless 5K probably wasn’t going to happen. It had to be Dom. Why was he back so soon? She’d figured he’d be gone for another day or two—even if he had received her text message about what they’d found at the Darkblood den. Must not have gone well with the woman last night.

  On the far side of the boxing ring, amidst a row of speed bags and heavy bags, she saw him. He was beating the crap out of a punching bag like an experienced fighter—an experienced, pissed-off fighter—dipping his head to avoid invisible fists as the balls of his feet danced on the mats. Faster, much faster than the tempo of his horrible music. His pace picked up as she approached, as if he were telling her to stay away and didn’t want to talk.

  She scrutinized his hooded eyes and saw that his olive complexion looked even darker with the stubble on his chin. Holy shit. Had he drained the woman? Lifting her nose in the air, Lily casually sniffed. Just the same hint of Sweet she’d smelled back at the bar, maybe a tiny bit more, but definitely not a killing amount—thank goodness.

  “I’m surprised to see you here, but then who else could be playing this kind of garbage?” She waited but got no response. She’d have to try something else. “In th
e mood to grapple, love?”

  Wiping the sweat from his face with his shoulder, he grunted something and continued punching.

  “I was going to log a few kilometers on the treadmill before calling it a day, but it looks like you could use some horizontal work on the mats. A little BJJ then a BJ?”

  “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a blow job? Shit, Lily, go away.”

  Didn’t that at least warrant a smile from him? Guess not. “Where’s, uh…Mackenzie. Everything okay?”

  “On the island.”

  Chuck and Shirl’s. Good. She’d be safe there, Chuck would see to that. He may be retired from the Agency, but he was still more than capable.

  Dom grabbed a pair of wooden knives and the dizzying sound of repetitive clattering echoed above the music. Given what had happened last night with those two Darkbloods, the woman was probably safer on the island right now than she’d be in the Seattle area anyway.

  Lily climbed onto her favorite treadmill and put in her ear buds as the belt slowly gained speed. What music could she play to drown out this crap? Before she could select a playlist, she heard a crash, then saw the wooden dummy fly across the room. Whoa. She grabbed at the handrails to regain her balance. He’d kicked the whole thing off its support posts. Was he jacked up or what?

  After mopping his face with a white gym towel, he sat—no, collapsed—on a nearby bench. Interesting. There were many other places to sit, yet he chose this one. And he faced her. She draped the cord of her headphones around her neck and eased into a slow, non confrontational jog.

  “Feel like talking?” Lily asked.

  He flashed her a look that said no. As in, hell no, but he couldn’t fool her. She didn’t have to wait long. “About BJJ and BJs? Thought you had a regular hook-up anyway,” he said.

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Had Santiago said anything? Surely he wouldn’t without consulting her first.

  “Don’t want to make you tap out if you have a boyfriend. I’ll leave that for him to do.”