Undeniable

by Doreen Orsini

  Undeniable

  Doreen Orsini

  The vampires of Mina’s Cove have passed sentence. The vampire hunter’s daughter will pay for his crimes by becoming the very creature he hunts. Chosen to pass a drop of his blood then deny her, Sebastian is warned that Diana may be the one luring vampires into her father’s trap.

  After one night, Sebastian realizes he would follow Diana into the light of dawn for just one more kiss…one more touch…one more taste. How can he refuse to sate her hunger when he’s grown addicted to her sweet blood and body? How can he destroy the woman he doubts even knows about her father’s crimes, the woman born to be his forever?

  Diana believes she’s finally found her soul mate. But Sebastian only comes to her after the sun sets. A dark phantom she cannot resist. A lover whose scorching kisses sate a hunger that nearly drives her mad. She’d offer her body and soul to him, she’d tell him anything…except her father’s secrets.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Undeniable

  ISBN 9781419933790

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Undeniable Copyright © 2011 Doreen Orsini

  Edited by Briana St. James

  Cover art by Syneca

  Electronic book publication June 2011

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  UNDENIABLE

  Doreen Orsini

  Chapter One

  Listening to the roars reverberating through the auditorium of Mina’s Cove High School, Sebastian feared his fellow night creatures had all reached that point where the beast inside reigned supreme—or as the younger vamps would say, gone over the edge.

  Those old enough to recall Van Helsing’s reign of terror and those years away from cutting their adult fangs cowered in the shadows in fear. The females, usually so adept at keeping their mates from releasing their inner beasts, shrieked and tore at their hair. The males bared their fangs, snarled and roared as they clutched their children in their arms. Some even spoke of leaving Mina’s Cove.

  Up until now, they’d all felt safe living along the secluded, northern inlets of Lake George. Thanks to the combined powers of their elders, humans approaching by air, on land or from the lake failed to see the vampires’ village or majestic homes, failed to see the metal shutters descending over every window moments before dawn. The vampires’ peaceful coexistence with the humans sharing this little slice of heaven might have gone on for centuries.

  If not for Frank Nostrum. Now, for the first time since Dracula and Mina brought them to this haven, the vampires of Lake George, creatures capable of snapping a man’s spine in two with no more effort than it took to pop open a beer, hid within the confines of Mina’s Cove, too terrified to leave the protection of their elders. Sebastian couldn’t blame them. This morning his brother, Marek, Frank Nostrum’s latest victim, had merged with all their minds during his agonizing demise beneath the dawn’s searing rays. His screams had ripped them all from their slumber.

  Their elders, seven vampires who had once ruled as lords, who had once set out to destroy the vampire they now would face the sun to protect, sat on the stage in thrones brought with them from Transylvania. The only vampires transformed by Dracula, their combined power humbled Sebastian. And while they looked no older than any of the other adult vampires in the room, they had each shared this earth with humans for over five hundred years.

  “Silence,” Tobias, Sebastian’s grandfather, commanded in a steel-laden voice. Dust floated down from the timbers rattling overhead. The oldest and strongest of the elders, he was both loved and feared equally by them all. “For over a hundred years, we have lived here with only the occasional hunter to deal with and you dare risk exposing us with this despicable display? I have watched over you, as I promised Mina and Dracula when they left on their quest, but I cannot protect you from your own carelessness.”

  A hush fell over the crowd. Only the sound of a summer breeze whistling through the blinds broke the silence. Tobias’ wrath could incinerate them all if let loose. His eyes filled with crimson tears as he met each terrified gaze. Sebastian had never seen his grandfather so angry, so grief-stricken.

  “I too heard Marek’s screams at dawn. I too lay trapped in my home while he burned beneath the sun in Nostrum’s pen. My daughter, Olympia,” Tobias glanced down at Sebastian’s mother, “is right. It is time that Frank Nostrum pays for hunting and killing our kind. He has condemned so many of us to an eternity without our loved ones, an eternity of grief. It is only right that his punishment fit his crimes. That he face a future without his greatest love. His daughter, Diana.”

  “But the angels,” a female yelled from the back. “What of the angels?”

  “Their wrath could turn us all into Slashers,” one of the females closer to the front shrieked.

  The need for revenge churned in Sebastian’s stomach, but he was a Champion d’Angelique, a protector of all innocents. Those sent to watch the hunter had yet to prove Diana Nostrum even believed in vampires, much less helped her father hunt them. He knew he should speak up, be the voice of reason, but how could he not avenge his stepbrother’s murder or those who perished in the hunter’s pen before Marek? He longed to wipe Frank Nostrum from the face of the earth.

  But kill his daughter? They hadn’t killed an innocent human since the angels returned Dracula to Mina.

  “Please, you must listen to me,” Damien, Sebastian’s stepfather, pleaded. The other elders sharing the stage with him held up their hands for silence. “I beg of you, don’t taint my son’s memory with the blood of an innocent woman.”

  “I say an eye for an eye,” Sebastian’s mother, Olympia, cried out, knocking one vamp after another out of her way as she neared the stage. “Nostrum killed my son. I demand we take his daughter. As Marek’s mother, I have the right to choose the hunter’s sentence. I want his daughter’s head!”

  Damien bared his fangs. “You are not Marek’s mother.”

  Olympia scaled the four foot stage in one leap. “I am more his mother than the human bitch that spit him out.” Shoving Damien aside before her feet touched the floor, she fell to her knees before Tobias. “Father, Diana is the one luring our vamps into the hunter’s pen. She’s Nostrum’s weapon. She bewitches them somehow. I say, let her taste our blood. Just a drop, just enough to send her to Fentmore.”

  �
�Turn her into a Slasher?” Damien’s fists clenched. “Tobias, I beg you. Don’t even consider this.”

  Olympia’s eyes shone with hatred as she turned to Damien. Only Sebastian knew that his mother would do anything to win his stepfather’s heart, only he knew that she spent countless nights crying because Damien still pined for Marek’s human mother.

  Olympia touched her forehead to Tobias’ knees, then raised her head. “As the only mother Marek knew, I deserve to pass sentence on his murderer.”

  Tobias’ eyes filled with sorrow. “Very well, Olympia, I’ll send—”

  “Sebastian,” Olympia cut in.

  Sebastian stumbled back as the vampires who had crowded around him shifted away. The Champion in him demanded he refuse. As he opened his mouth to do just that, he recalled Marek’s screams. Their minds had merged so completely, Sebastian felt his pain, smelled his flesh burning. The anguished roar lodged in his throat since dawn threatened to break free.

  “But he’s a Champion,” Damien said, raking his hand through his hair. “Why the hell would you choose Sebastian?”

  “It’s his right…as Marek’s stepbrother.” Olympia sat on her father’s lap and cupped his cheeks. “Please, Father. Send Sebastian.”

  “You know that’s impossible, Olympia. He’ll never go through with it.” Tobias stared pointedly into Olympia’s eyes. “He’s a Champion and you know as well as I that he’s her—”

  Olympia pressed her fingers over Tobias’ mouth. “He’ll do it if you command him to, Father.” She kissed Tobias’ furrowed brow and slid something into his hand. “Do it. Let the daughter of the hunter become the hunted.”

  Closing his eyes, Tobias raised his hand. “Take this, Sebastian. Follow Diana Nostrum’s scent.”

  A red strip of cloth floated from Tobias’ palm toward Sebastian’s outstretched hand. It unfurled and caught the light of the overhead fixtures. Clenching his fingers around it the moment it landed in his palm, Sebastian brought his fist up to his nose and drew in a deep breath. A strange feeling shimmered down his spine.

  Tobias continued, “You have one week to prove Diana Nostrum’s innocence. May the angels forgive us all if you fail.”

  Lowering his hand, Sebastian barely heard his grandfather. Blood surged to his cock. A hunger he couldn’t comprehend drew his hand back up to his face. His fangs shot down and sliced open his lower lip. Muscles and nerves quivered with the need to find Diana and…

  Blinking against the pain and lust engulfing him, he opened his hand. A scant strip of lace draped across his palm. The skin beneath it burned. He merged his mind with his grandfather’s. What spell have you woven into this?

  Tobias rose and turned to leave.

  Grandfather!

  Just when Sebastian thought his grandfather would leave without answering, Tobias’ voice filtered into his mind. I have done nothing, Sebastian. The cloth holds only her scent. Nothing more.

  “Sebastian, don’t do this.” Damien appeared beside him and grasped his arm.

  “Mother believes our vamps follow Diana into her father’s pen.” Sebastian fought to resurrect the rage he’d felt moments before Diana’s scent blindsided him. He crushed the cloth in his fist and held it under Damien’s nose. “Smell it. This is how she lures them. This is why they follow her.”

  Damien took the cloth and sniffed. “She smells no different than any other human.”

  “You feel nothing? Nothing?”

  When Damien sniffed again, then only shrugged, Sebastian snatched back the lace that had incited his senses. Instantly, his body grew more aroused than he ever recalled. “What the hell is this, Damien? Some kind of trick?”

  Damien blanched. “What did you feel, Sebastian?”

  Vampires patted Sebastian’s back as they passed on their way out. Voices both mental and physical offered condolences for the loss of his stepbrother and thanked him for coming to their aid.

  “Answer me, Sebastian. What did you feel?”

  Guilt brought a lie to his lips. “Nothing.”

  Damien’s fingers wrapped around Sebastian’s biceps. “Sebastian, listen—”

  Curling his upper lip high above his fangs, Sebastian let out a low warning growl. “I feel nothing.” He turned and shoved the cloth into the back pocket of his jeans. The desire to find Diana and mount her suffocated him until he caught a trace of her scent coming from outside. Yanking his arm free, he pushed his way through the door and followed. Outside, he found the trail of her scent and began the hunt for Diana.

  * * * * *

  “You’ve taken enough, Mother. Any more and you’ll kill him.” Most summer evenings, Sebastian relished the orchestra of his fellow night creatures—crickets singing their sweet melody, owls providing a soft bass, a raccoon’s call to its mate adding the melancholy cry of a lone violin. Tonight he willed them to silence their clamoring so that he might hear the whisper of a breath, the soft thump of a heartbeat, the slightest sign that life remained in his mother’s latest victim.

  When his mother merely moaned in reply, he pushed off from the boulder he’d been leaning against and, in one swift leap, crossed the yard to where his mother stood. A toy shovel snapped beneath his feet. “Enough!”

  His mother’s head jerked up. Blood dripped from her fangs and splashed onto the tiny creature’s glazed eyes. “I’ll decide when I’ve had enough. What are you going to do? Bring me before the elders for killing a worthless animal?” Holding his gaze, she narrowed her eyes and brought the kitten back up to her mouth.

  “Take another drop and I will.”

  With a toss of her head, she swept a lock of her hair over her shoulder, then curled her tongue over her fangs and sucked until no sign of her deed marred a single, pure white tooth. “It’s not like I stole it, Sebastian. The stupid animal offered itself to me.” She pouted and kissed the kitten’s nose. “Didn’t you, sweetie?”

  Closing his eyes, Sebastian shook his head. One look and fully matured vamps who knew his mother, who had been warned and knew better, succumbed. What chance did an innocent have?

  She held out the limp body. “Come on, Sebastian. Have a taste. There’s no blood sweeter than a kitten’s. Not even a virgin’s.”

  “Touché, Mother.” He kept his face devoid of emotion and shielded his thoughts.

  Her remark resurrected memories of the dazed virgins she had dragged before him in his youth, virgins she had held down while he’d taken their innocence and blood, virgins who had gazed upon him with revulsion, who had considered his kind nothing more than vile creatures more suited to dwell in nightmares than in the real world. He wished he could forget that time ever existed, yet the memory of their faces saved him whenever the pure scent of virgin blood stirred a hunger he barely controlled.

  “What’s wrong, Sebastian? Still battling that addiction?”

  Sebastian released a low warning growl.

  “Fine.” She tossed the kitten over her shoulder. “You’re just as boring as a recovering alcoholic.”

  He lurched forward and caught the kitten inches from the ground. The rich scent of its blood invaded his senses, mocking her claim that it could ever compare to virgin’s blood. Baring his fangs, he glared at the woman he doubted would have shared her black hair and blue eyes if she hadn’t been forced to pass them on in her womb. “Either tell me why you’re here or leave and let me get this over with.”

  She glanced down at the kitten cradled against his chest. Rolling her eyes, she turned and stepped over a low hedge into the next yard. “You really disappoint me, Sebastian. How long has it been since you’ve indulged? Ten years?”

  Following her only because Diana’s scent would have led him that way anyway, he muttered, “I indulge.”

  “You know, damn well, I’m not talking about drinking some vamp whore’s blood. Admit it. You miss human blood…the rush of adrenaline from their fear…the mind-blowing orgasms.”

  “That’s where you and I differ, Mother. I find that fear during sex spoils the
taste of blood.” He gently massaged the fur over the kitten’s heart and willed it to beat.

  Snorting, his mother headed for the lake.

  A faint heartbeat tapped into his palm. He let out a relieved breath and licked the kitten’s wounds so they would heal before dawn. Carrying it in one hand as he picked fur from his tongue, he nearly bumped into his mother when she abruptly stopped and spun around.

  “Aren’t you getting a little old for pets?”

  Bile filled his mouth. As a child he had poured his blood down the throats of the innocent refuse of his mother’s ravenous appetite believing it would save them. Within days his “pets” had transformed into bloodthirsty creatures that attacked any vampire they encountered. Too many of his “pets” died before he realized they had lost their sanity to a hunger his blood had spawned, a hunger only his blood could satisfy. Too many before he learned how vampire blood turned animals and humans into Slashers. “Just tell me why the hell you’re here.”

  “Impatient as ever.” She pulled an antique lace hanky from the back pocket of her jeans and delicately dabbed at the corners of her mouth. “You don’t have to follow Diana, you know. The files the elders emailed you on her and her father have more than enough information. And my puppets are her dearest friends. They could tell you anything you want.”

  “Not according to Damien and the other elders.”

  “Damien?” She snarled. “Diana is not the innocent he described at the elder’s meeting. You want a virgin, Sebastian? One lives right across the lake. A pure, sweet virgin just waiting to be plucked.”

  “Goodbye, Mother.” Sebastian turned and leapt into the air.

  Below, a car pulled off the road on the other side of the homes lining the lake. Open windows released the perfumes and feminine scents of those in the car. Only one held his attention. Only one hit him with enough force to nearly send him plummeting to the ground. Following an older, lingering scent that told him she’d come this way before, he soared over a dense wall of ten-foot high hemlocks and landed in the middle of a lakefront yard. Filling his lungs, he knew he’d come to the end of his hunt. Diana’s essence permeated the area.