by Bonnie Vanak
After you kill Jones, the darkness whispered.
“For you and I to mate.”
Mara stared.
“The reason I’m here. When we sexually bond, I will absorb your dark powers and diffuse them so you won’t harm Jones.” Lucien’s gaze remained steady even as a pulse beat wildly in his throat.
“And if I refuse?” Mara choked out the words.
“Simple. Then you will die.”
Chapter 5
“You would kill me?”
Hot and bitter panic rose up in Mara’s throat. She’d willingly walked into his room. What an utter fool she was. Her chances were better on the street with the hunters trailing every move.
“No, Mara.” Emotion shadowed his gaze. “I would never allow that to happen.”
“Then there’s only one choice. Having sex with you.”
“You must,” he said gently. “It is the only way.”
He’d use his Ancient powers and overcome her, until she wanted and begged and pleaded. And then Lucien would overshadow her just as his naked body would dominate her in bed, siphoning away the part of her she feared, but the part she needed.
The darkness that made her strong and brave.
Without it she’d become a gentle and meek doormat. People could easily hurt her.
“I can’t live without my dark powers.”
“I’ll protect you, Mara. This I promise. I will always be there to keep you safe. Think of it as a business arrangement.” He gave a slow smile, showing a hint of fang. Lucien glanced through the window at the snowy white bed. “Friends, with very pleasurable benefits. I will make it very, very pleasurable.”
“That’s what worries me.”
She headed inside, intent on escape. But before she reached the door, he appeared behind her and slid a hand across her waist, pulling her tight against him. He bent his head, nuzzled her neck. Desire sang through her veins as his breath feathered against her ear. Lucien took the lobe gently between his teeth. “Think, Mara. You saw the future in the vision we shared. You cannot fight it. I will have you in my bed. Even now, your thighs tremble to open to me, to lie down. I’d fuck you very slowly, and make you scream, bring you to ecstasy. And when you think you cannot take it anymore, I’d push you harder, higher, until you begged me to come inside you.”
He was no vampire, but a devil himself. Fighting this seduction would prove harder than tackling Jones. She bristled against his dark sensuality. “I don’t want or need your body, or your protection. I can do fine on my own.”
Long fingers slid up her body beneath her breast. He did not touch her there, but his hand lingered a whisper away, the heat blazing through her shirt.
“As you’ve done so far? Did the darkness protect you from Jones?”
A tiny doubt winked. “I wasn’t strong enough then. I am now. Stronger than I was when I stupidly thought Jones needed my help and I let him climb into my car. I did a good deed and was punished.”
With a weary sigh, Lucien released her. Mara felt surprisingly bereft.
“Doing a good turn for a stranger can turn badly. But tell me this, Mara. How did you escape the furnace? It wasn’t your demon’s power.”
The memory stung like a blade across her skin. Flames, agonizing heat and then a blessed coolness.
“The white light,” she whispered. “It extinguished the flames before he threw me in.”
“Your angelic half helped you escape. Twin natures, Mara. Good and evil exist inside you, but you must find balance.”
“How? My demon is stronger. My demon never would have allowed my helping Jones in the first place.”
“I cannot argue with that.”
Shadows danced across his face as she turned to face him. In his dark eyes she recognized a kindred spirit. Lucien was cold inside. So frozen, so empty, like an Arctic wasteland.
Using her powers, she tunneled inside him to find what lingered in his soul.
The blackness there made her gasp. It was hollow and vast, like staring into an endless void with no light to pierce the darkness.
Mara pulled out.
Lucien’s face became granite. Emotions crested over her in waves of anguish and tremendous loneliness. His emotions.
“Do not fight the Society, Mara,” he said quietly. “Resisting them only causes further anguish.”
“What did they do to you?”
He said nothing. An odd connection forged between them. Compelled, she touched his angular cheek, feeling beard stubble beneath her fingers.
“I know what they can do. I saw what their hunters did to my mother and father. They killed my parents, all because my father got a little…enthusiastic.”
“He killed a human.”
Mara dropped her hand. “He had good reason. That human was a scumbag who was taking advantage of innocents. My mother asked Father to stop it. It was justice.”
“Your mother should have notified the authorities.”
“Why, when my father did a more efficient job?”
“Human justice is left for humans. It’s the prime rule of the Society. We have powers humans lack and this upsets the balance. Justice is best served by those who can remain impartial. There are laws to govern us, for good reason.”
“And your reasons, Lucien? Why do you do this?”
She felt an odd tug of compassion for this vampire. “What grief did they cause you, Lucien? Why are you working for them?”
When his gaze turned dark and cold, insight hit her. “They forced you. It must have been very bad.”
Emotions pulsed from him in waves. Mara summoned her newfound powers and focused on the vampire. A black aura ringed his body, pulsing not with evil, but emptiness.
The white light inside her blazed with the need to comfort him. Mara touched his hand to forge a connection and send the healing rays into his body.
Lucien’s mouth tightened as if he was trying to resist her ministrations. But he did not draw away. Mara felt her control slipping away as more light fled her, attempting to heal the bitter hurt this vampire hid. Her angelic half yearned to bond with him and ease his anguish.
A few minutes later, she sagged back, drained and spent. Lucien watched her with a guarded look.
“You exhausted your good energy. Why, when you need it so much?”
Mara stretched out her trembling fingers. “I’m only learning the full extent of my powers. It’s as if I have no control over the angel and demon inside me.”
“I can teach you to control the demon.” His expression darkened. “I know nothing about controlling good.”
“Can you teach me? If you teach me to control the demon, I’d be very grateful.”
“Perhaps.” He kept watching her with a thoughtful look. “For a price.”
A price too steep to pay, she felt certain. “What is it?”
“Kiss me,” he demanded.
A kiss and nothing more. Couldn’t hurt.
Mara lifted her face upward and Lucien framed her face with his hands, sliding his lips across hers. The kiss was a bare brush, light and teasing. When she parted her lips, he fisted a hand in her hair, tipped her head back. He ravaged her mouth, claiming, stroking deep.
It was as though someone flicked on a switch in her body. Her spirit had been inside his, her body knew him from the dream. Every tensile curve, every bit of hardness. The twin muscles that divided his back, the smooth firmness of his ass, the strength in his limbs, the power in his arms.
Knew what it felt like to have all that hard male hardness pressing her against the bed, settling between her trembling thighs as he set out to join his body to hers. The sexual craving intensified until it burned inside her body.
Control shattered with the urgent need to feel his warm skin against her palm.
She fumbled with his shirt buttons, slid her hands inside with a moan. Feeling all that skin over hard muscle, the soft, springy hairs over the muscles on his chest. Her hands drifted lower to the pads of muscle ribbing his abdomen.
Mara moaned as she touched him. Needing this connection, this delicious friction pulsing between them. The hard ridge of his erection pressed against her belly. Images from the vision arose.
Then Lucien pulled her shirt off, unhooked her bra. The white lace tumbled to the floor. He palmed her breasts, rubbing his thumbs against her hardened nipples.
When he bent his head to suckle one, she cried out.
The connection forged between them excited her as white and dark light reacted to her rising sensuality. The vampire was controlling her body like a master, stroking her until she throbbed and ached and would do anything for release.
He would remove the darkness, stripping it from her. Baring her to her very soul.
Lucien lifted his head, his eyes darkening with passion. His fangs lengthened as if he scented the blood pulsing beneath her skin.
A door slammed, dimly registering on her awareness. “Shit,” Lucien muttered, releasing her.
Mara struggled to set her clothing to rights as a girl sang out. “Yo, Lucien. Great shopping. You should see all the yummy male eye candy on Ocean Drive.”
He stalked toward the living room. Mara followed.
A tall, slender teenager fumbled with a Gucci purse and a shopping bag. Her black hair had bright red streaks, matching her black-and-red skirt and net top.
Lucien’s jaw went taut. “Petra, I told you to stay in your room. It’s too risky for you to venture out of the hotel.”
“Got bored watching television. I had to get new shoes. These heels are killing me.”
As Mara stared, a green gremlin replaced the girl. The gremlin beamed, showing small pointed teeth and prominent fangs. “That’s much better.”
Lucien sighed. “Mara, this is Petra. My…assistant. Petra, this is Mara.”
The gremlin stared at her. “The Darklighter. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but I don’t trust your kind.”
“I can’t say the same about you, either. I didn’t know gremlins could change forms.”
Petra shrugged. “Child’s play.”
“Well, you are barely out of childhood.” Mara pointed out.
“Hardly. I’m 52 years old.” At her startled look, the gremlin added, “We age very slowly. Not as slow as Lucien, but slow. Assuming another’s form is a trick any gremlin can master. I can be anyone. Even go into someone’s mind and take an image of someone important to them and assume that form.” Her green eyes sparkled. “I can try with you.”
“No, that’s not a good idea,” Lucien began.
An elderly man clad in black appeared. Dennis Jones.
“How’s that? Is this your dad?” the Jones thing asked.
Fury engulfed Mara, emotion feeding her demonic side chunks of energy. Her body began to shift as a strangled growl tore from her throat. Jones, standing before her, laughing. The enemy. He must be destroyed.
The Jones thing backed away. “Lucien, your Darklighter is wigging out.”
With a shriek like a banshee, Mara launched herself at her enemy. A red haze fogged her mind, urging her to hurt and maim and kill. She could feel Jones laughing at her, taunting her for being kind and helping a bleeding stranger.
Trapping her in the dark basement, the opened furnace door, waiting for her….
The gremlin ran. Mara was quicker. Her lengthened fingernails found flesh and ripped. The scent of fresh blood pumped new life into her demon, made it roar in satisfaction. Then two steel-like arms wrapped around her waist, yanking her backward.
“Stop it. Mara. No one’s taking you back there to the basement. This isn’t Dennis Jones.”
He laid a hand over her forehead, soothing the raging demon inside her. It was as if the white light she’d sent into him returned to her. Stunned, she felt her emotions calm.
Greenish-red blood trickled down the gremlin’s face. Petra looked terrified as she backed away, wiping her face. Even as she touched the gouges, they began to heal. Odd, she thought dimly. Gremlins usually didn’t heal that fast.
“Remind me never to get inside your head again,” Petra said in a shaky voice.
Lucien’s murmurs soothed Mara, his deep velvet voice a hypnotic drone. The white light inside her responded to his call and doused her raging emotions. Panting, Mara wrenched free of his grip and willed herself to return to normal.
Whatever normal was for a Darklighter.
An hour later, after confining Petra to her quarters, Lucien sat on the plush sofa. Feeling like a caged animal, Mara paced back and forth.
“Let me go, Lucien. You can’t keep me trapped here! I’ll take my chances with the bounty hunters.”
“I can’t let you go,” he told her. “I will not allow you to risk exposing yourself. Your emotions are too out of control, so you are remaining here.”
“Like hell I am.” Mara jammed a hand through her hair. “And I know what hell feels like. It’s not even the flames and the scorching pain you’re clawing to escape, it’s the knowledge your own damned kindness trapped you in this cage.”
“I know.”
The quietness of his voice banked her fury. Mara’s eyes widened. Tendrils of the vampire’s anguish threaded around his aura. Lucien’s expression darkened. He didn’t like it, this intensity as she peered into his very soul and saw the blackness staring back at her.
His own particular darkness.
“You’re hurting,” she whispered in a dreamy voice and she knew it was the goodness inside her, her angelic powers that saw and spoke only truth. “You hide it well, but life has scarred you and this is why you remain alone. It has to do with Petra and your past….”
Snapping his fingers, he broke the vision, shattering it like glass. She startled. Mara pressed fingers to her temples.
“We’re talking about you, Mara.” He gave her a steely look. “You admitted you cannot control your angel or your demon.”
She gulped down a shaky breath, stunned at the truth. “Then teach me, Lucien. Teach me to control my temper and my emotions. All I ever wanted was to go to school, live a normal life.”
“There is no such thing as a normal life. Not for you,” he said gently. “I will teach you restraint and to find balance, Mara. But you must obey me and follow my rules. I am doing this for your own protection.”
At the mention of obedience, the rebellious demon reared its ugly head. “I don’t need protecting, I need my powers!”
“Your eyes are flashing red again, Mara. The darkness is taking over. Do not test my patience. You will not like the consequences. You do not know the extent of my power. I can tunnel inside your mind and control each thought.”
Oh, damn. Her demon retreated hastily. Mara stepped back, her knees connecting with the seat of the couch.
“Sit,” he ordered in a silky tone.
She sat.
“Stay,” he purred.
Something stroked inside her mind with a velvet finger. Heat flushed her cheeks as she felt him inside her, surrounding her.
Lucien began to play her body like a violinist plucking the strings of an instrument. Stroking. Touching. All the while he sat at the other end of the couch, remote as the Arctic.
Watching her.
Moaning, she threw her head back, sensations tingling across her skin as phantom hands slid over her body. Tugging at her nipples, thumbing them until their overly sensitive tips crested. Then it felt as though hundreds of long, elegant hands were touching her all over.
With impartial blankness, he watched with folded arms, his mouth a grim slash.
The touching was exquisite, coaxing warmth from her cold body. More hands caressed her backside, dipping between her panties and her bare ass. A finger gently slid between her buttocks, teased.
Palms cupped her hips, holding her down as the ghost hands slid between her thighs, opening them wide. Moisture wept from her core. Mara squeezed her fists, trembling and fighting the sensations as fingers delicately opened her soaked cleft, slid across it.
One long finger entered h
er core, the sensitive tissues shuddering at the phantom intruder. Mara clamped down, trying to keep him out, but could not. He rubbed back and forth, making her moan. Another teased her clit, circling it with lazy strokes that increased to a determined rhythm. Her eyes bulged as whimpers spilled from her mouth. She was a puppet and he the master puppeteer, pulling the strings of her body, each feather light touch bringing her higher and higher….
“Please,” she gasped. “Please.”
Lucien leaned close, his gaze fierce. “Please what, sweet?”
“Let me come,” she wailed.
A slight push, a harder stroke and she climaxed, her body shuddering. Mara sagged on the couch, spent and trembling. Her head tipped back on her neck like a broken daisy.
“I can control you, sweet. I need only enter your mind to make you sexually submissive to my will.”
The musky smell of her arousal tinged the air. She gulped down a shattered breath, trying to hide her shock.
“This is for your protection, Mara. I will not see you ripped apart by hunters.” A shadow crossed his face. “So now, will you follow my rules?”
“Maybe.”
A phantom hand cupped between her legs, began massaging.
“No more,” she wailed. “All right, I will follow your rules.”
The hand vanished. Lucien smiled with pure male satisfaction.
Two could play this game, she thought. “I have a few rules of my own. No more mind fucking.”
Mara ran a hand over his firm thigh, reached between his legs. Squeezed. Hard and thick, his erection twitched beneath her hand.
This time, he wasn’t so immune to her. All the time he’d stroked her to orgasm, his own body had become aroused. Satisfied, she grinned and squeezed again.
“Lucien?”
He gasped, and drew in a ragged breath. “I agree. No more telepathic seductions.”
As she drew away, pleased with her little victory, he fell back against the couch. But the vampire gave a slow smile. “I prefer to wait for the real thing, your naked body in my arms. Much more of a challenge, and exciting.”
