Undeniable

by Doreen Orsini

  “I already had something to live for, Tobias. I had Marek.”

  “And now you have Sebastian. Trust him to make the right decision for all of us. Trust me that all this was written in the stars long before Diana was even born.” Tobias leaned over and lifted the lid of an antique music box. The tinny chime of a minuet filled the room. After a few strains, he pressed down on one of the inlaid ivory butterflies. A slender drawer slid out of the front. Tobias removed a small, yellowed scroll and handed it to Damien.

  Damien unrolled the scroll and immediately recognized Mina’s handwriting. “Mina wrote this? But when?”

  Abject grief filled Tobias’ eyes. “Just read it, Damien.”

  Damien sat beside his friend and held the faded poem under the Tiffany lamp on the end table.

  When stars burst free from sunlight’s glare,

  The moon regains its throne in air

  The creatures of the night then whisper,

  Our future changed when Dracula kissed her

  The beast that once would kill for fun,

  Gave up his life so she could run

  God’s Angels touched by love so pure,

  Bestowed a gift of life secured

  And now his children who once were wild,

  In Mina’s Cove live meek and mild

  And blood still holds a strong attraction,

  But only when combined with passion

  It is foretold a woman scorned

  Shall risk it with a trusting pawn

  A rose so pure, a rose so white

  Will blind him with its brilliant light

  If two do not unite as one,

  We all will lose what we have won

  Damien raised the paper and breathed in Mina’s scent. It seemed an eternity since she and Dracula set out to find more of their kind. He wondered if Tobias had known all these years that his daughter was the woman mentioned in the poem, if he’d given Damien to her in the hope that it would change fate. Guilt kept his eyes from meeting his friend’s.

  “Forgive me, Tobias. If I’d known—

  “You what, Damien? Would have loved my daughter? No one can force someone to love.” He gripped Damien’s shoulders. “We can protect Sebastian, but we must not interfere with his feelings or his decision tonight. Our future rests in his hands.”

  When the sound of Tomas’ feet hitting the ground ensured that he and Diana were finally alone, Sebastian turned back to gaze upon the woman he had to destroy, the woman he felt compelled to protect.

  How could he protect her? He had already failed, had allowed Diego and Tomas to feast their eyes upon her bare breasts.

  He moved to cover her. His hand stilled. The cropped curls covering her pussy peeked over the sheet, tempting him to slide his fingers beneath the edge and feel their softness. But his gaze continued lower, past her exposed hip, down the inner thigh of her bared leg. The folds of the sheet drifted between her legs, demanding he give in to the desire pooling in his cock and grasp there.

  Diana shifted with a sigh, spreading her legs farther apart, revealing the crease where her thigh ended and her softest flesh began. Her scent rose up and enveloped him. When her hands skimmed down her stomach and slid beneath the sheet, drawing it lower, his nostrils flared and her scent filled his lungs.

  She flicked the sheet aside and skimmed her fingers over her tender skin. Before his heated gaze, she spread the moisture from her own arousal up to her clit. Her fingers swirled around her clit, then swept down to the opening of her pussy.

  A low rumble rose from his chest. He bit down, using the pain of his already torn lip to help him gain control. It seemed to work until her familiar essence wrapped itself around him, drawing his head lower against his will.

  He felt powerless, ensnared. Her bare leg slid across the mattress toward him, brushed against the painful bulge of his cock in his jeans and inflamed his need even as it soothed the pain. Her hands seemed to beckon to him, coaxing him as they crept up, then down her thighs. His eyes burned, but he didn’t dare blink and chance missing the moment her fingers sank between her dewy folds.

  Diego’s earlier words sliced through his passion. “We could play with her a little before you do it. You’ve got her in such a deep sleep, she’ll never remember.”

  But he would remember. And he would never forgive himself.

  He realized with a start that he had somehow climbed onto the bed and now knelt between her legs, that he was bent so far over that his mouth hovered mere inches from her glistening swollen flesh.

  His mother had been right. Diana was her father’s ultimate weapon, the one they’d all been trying to uncover. An enchantress, she could lure them with nothing save the promise of her body. Pain lanced his heart. Fear coiled in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

  His eyes took in the sight before him and, with a weary sigh, he surrendered. If this was a trap, then a night in Diana’s arms would be worth greeting the sun in Frank Nostrum’s pen.

  She moaned as the warm air he’d held trapped in his lungs fell upon her soft, quivering flesh. Closing his eyes and wondering if she moaned for him or some dream lover, he delved into her mind, then nearly bolted from the bed when he saw the vision that had enticed her. As if her eyes were open, he gazed through them down along her naked length upon something Diana had never seen and could not possibly dream about.

  His face.

  But what rocked him, what freed him from the web she’d woven, was her conviction that he and only he would ever gain entrance into her body and that once there, once she’d captured him, she would never let him go.

  He started to back away, never expecting her hands to grasp his head, never expecting her to drag it down so quickly and forcefully that his lips met her wet, hot pussy before he could react. He drew in a deep, shocked breath and was lost. Her erratic pulse thrummed beneath his lips, calling to him, sending blood surging to his already engorged cock.

  Control, ingrained in him from the last time he’d almost drained one of the virgins his mother had brought him, crumbled when Diana’s sweet nectar seeped between his lips. Without a moment’s hesitation, without a care to the consequences or the approaching dawn and Diana’s father, Sebastian ran his tongue down from her pulsating nubbin to her sweet entrance.

  He covered her with his mouth, delved his tongue between her labia and, encouraged by her ever rising moans, drew the satiny skin between his teeth.

  His hands crept up her quivering stomach, skimmed over her ribs and searched until they found the soft swells that rose up to greet them. Her pebbled nipples pressed into his palms. Cupping her breasts, he marveled at the heat filling his hands. The pain in his cock grew unbearable as it strained in the confines of his jeans. Sebastian ground his hips into the mattress to relieve the pressure. Angry at himself and her, he took hold of her nipples and squeezed them until he heard a soft whimper.

  Her back arched up, then fell as her hips rose and slammed her pussy into his mouth. He heard her heart thundering in his ears, sensed the tension coiling deep within her core and knew that, while he could never take her virginity as she slept, he could at least bring her to the climax she strove so desperately to attain, one his bite would send spiraling out of control. Yes, before carrying out her father’s punishment, he should give her one last moment of ecstasy.

  His fangs scraped along her outer lip, slightly piercing it. The droplets of her blood mingling with her juices tasted like the sweetest ambrosia. An alarm went off in his head, warning that soon he’d awake to find himself bound and stripped in her father’s pen. No blood could taste this sweet. No normal woman could create such an undeniable hunger. He was doomed.

  He had to have more.

  When her hips once again slammed her dripping pussy against his mouth and her hands fisted in his hair, he sank the tips of his teeth into her skin again, this time into the vein that lay just within her entrance. He nearly roared out loud when her soft cry told him she wanted more, needed
so much more.

  He drove his teeth deeper, then compelled her to stifle her screams from the climax he felt racking her body as he fed his own voracious hunger.

  Her orgasm rocked him. The pain in his cock and balls intensified while her blood warmed his body and sated his hunger. Her hands released their grip on his hair and slid down to the mattress. Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut and fought the consuming need to mate. He felt her body relax as her desire ebbed. Now that he only had to deal with his own hunger, he prayed he had enough control to deny it.

  His heart slammed against his chest. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t bring himself to rise and pass his blood to her, to leave and save himself if indeed this was all a trap. He held his breath and waited for her father to appear from the hall, the closet, the window, waited for her to open her eyes and laugh victoriously as her father dragged him off.

  Diana let out a satisfied sigh, raised her thigh and brushed it against his cheek. When he scanned the house and discovered they were still alone, relief poured over him, nearly cooling the fire still raging out of control in his cock. She had somehow enslaved him, yet had not handed him over to her father.

  Logic demanded he accept this as proof of her innocence.

  He licked the wounds he’d given her, then rose from the bed. His gaze fell to the drops of blood marring the pure white sheet between her legs.

  “What have I done?” he whispered, wondering if his old addiction to virgin blood and not Diana had overpowered him. He knelt beside the bed and dropped his forehead onto his arm. His hands clenched the sheet. “Diego’s right. I have no choice. If I fail, someone else will be sent tomorrow night.”

  Tears burned his eyes, tears for the woman who had swallowed her own fear to help what she’d thought was a wild animal, for the woman who could never harm any living thing, least of all sweet Marek.

  The tears Sebastian had managed to restrain every time he’d thought of facing eternity without Marek sprang free to join those for Diana. A deluge of grief overwhelmed him. He pressed his mouth onto the mattress to muffle the racking sobs he could no longer control.

  Fingers tenderly weaved through his hair. Don’t cry, Sebastian. I can’t bear it.

  His fangs dug into his lip, sending a fresh torrent of his own blood into his mouth. Without uttering a word, she had spoken to him. Said his name. Had she delved into his mind? Impossible.

  He slowly raised his head, absently swiped the backs of his hands across his chin and cheeks and prayed he would find her eyes open, her lips moving. Her hand slid from his hair, brushing at the bloody tears still streaming down his cheeks, yet her eyes remained closed, her breathing even.

  Only one untransformed human could telepathically speak to him, eavesdrop on his unshielded thoughts. Only his soul mate.

  He must have imagined her voice. There was no way God would choose the daughter of a vampire hunter as his soul mate. Unless he wanted him to suffer a fate worse than eternal damnation in hell.

  Staring at her face, he watched a tear escape from the corner of her eye, felt his rejection wash over her and clench her heart in a vise. His own heart stuttered.

  He rubbed the tense muscles on the back of his neck and recalled how Diana had managed to resurrect the memory of the scene at Cabana’s that he’d compelled her to forget, how she’d always seemed to gaze wherever he hid in the shadows. How they’d both so easily lost themselves in a mere kiss.

  Could his mother have known that the woman she’d sent him to destroy was his soul mate? His mother, transformed by one of Dracula’s spawn, possessed untold psychic abilities and often bragged that she knew the identity of a vampire’s soul mate as soon as he or she entered the world. Could her need for vengeance be so strong that she would destroy her only son?

  He brought the sheet up to cover Diana’s breasts.

  His soul mate. A goddess who loved to dance naked beneath the moon. A seductress who had raised her hands to the sky and called out for his touch. Had he forced himself upon her tonight or had it been the other way around?

  He saw her lips quirk, realized he would have to guard his thoughts around her, realized she had offered herself to him after hearing his thoughts about her destruction. He couldn’t help but wonder why she’d trusted he would not harm her. Other than the few moments they’d shared in the woods that first night and their encounter in Cabana’s, she had yet to meet him.

  How had she known that he could never harm his soul mate, that he would rather face the sun than inflict even the slightest pain? Any vampire, including his mother, would realize that his carrying out Nostrum’s punishment would be suicide. His eyes burned. His mother had known when she sent him here that once he gave Diana the scant drop she’d insisted upon he would feel her pain tenfold.

  And her hunger? To give a human soul mate the mere drop his mother had insisted on would not bring about the slow, debilitating hunger he’d been led to believe his mother had planned for Diana.

  No. Because she was his soul mate, that drop would have sliced through her veins and awakened an ancient hunger. If denied, that hunger would unleash a torrent of pain too excruciating for a human mind to handle without shutting down completely. But his mind would absorb it all and his body would be crippled, useless. He doubted he would have had the strength to do anything other than watch Diana suffer and wait for the dawn’s rays to enter her room.

  Neither one of them would have survived.

  Why would his mother sacrifice him for Marek? Marek was not her first. Marek had not shared nearly a century by her side. He wasn’t even her son.

  Shortly after Damien bonded with Olympia, he’d showed up with Marek. Olympia told Sebastian the baby was the product of Damien’s failed bonding with the human he’d thought was his soul mate. Olympia had only accepted the baby into their family because Damien had threatened to leave if she didn’t. Could she have grown to love Marek more than her own son?

  He shook his head, clenching his teeth. His mother may be deceitful, selfish and heartless, but she was still his mother. Even she wouldn’t sacrifice her own son.

  No, Diana’s ability to speak to vampires was a trick, or worse, Frank Nostrum’s weapon. The strongest vampire would trust his soul mate and follow her anywhere. He straightened his shoulders. It had to be a trick. God, let it be a trick. His mother loved him.

  My poor Sebastian. She couldn’t have known. Still sleeping, Diana clasped his hand and brought it to rest over her heart. She loves you. She must.

  He yanked his hand away. No!

  Diana’s body trembled uncontrollably, terror nearly stealing her breath away, yet he felt her heart breaking for him, for his torment over losing what he now wondered if he ever truly possessed—his mother’s love. Tears blurred his vision, veiling Diana in a crimson haze. I won’t hurt you, Diana. You have my word.

  Dawn lurked behind the mountains, too close to their lofty peaks. Tomorrow night he would find a way for them to meet. And if they were truly soul mates—body, heart and soul—he would find a way to ease her into his dark world and into a community of vampires who would rather face the dawn than embrace Frank Nostrum’s daughter as one of their own.

  He brushed the back of his fingers along her jaw. She wouldn’t remember him, would think him absurd if he told her she’d spoken to him as she slept, but he had plenty of time to bring them back to this moment.

  He would take it slow; get her to accept him for what he was before he ever touched her again. A chill ran down his spine. They were not destined to share eternity together just because they were soul mates. Damien’s soul mate had refused to give up her family for him.

  Now, thanks to his mother, Diana’s first memories of him, though buried deep in the recesses of her dream world, would include him coming to destroy her. Hopefully, she would never uncover those memories.

  Leaning over, he tenderly brushed his lips over hers. Her mouth molded to his. The sudden desire to mate nearly overpowered him, but logic and the need to look into
her eyes when they first made love helped him gain control. Pain from his gashed lower lip sent a jolt of terror into his heart. Blood, his blood, smeared Diana’s lips. Before she could taste a drop, he swept his tongue over her lips.

  “That was close, goddess,” he whispered, smiling down at her.

  The futility of courting Frank Nostrum’s daughter struck him as he gazed down at her angelic face. His kind would never accept her. She would never accept him. Plus, he still had no idea if she knew of her father’s crimes or helped him. No. Soul mates or not, they could never overcome their differences, never trust enough to love.

  He could wait until their paths crossed again, when her soul dwelt in one he could trust, one whose father had not killed. It might take a hundred years, a thousand. They may never meet again. Which meant he would never know her touch, never again taste her sweet blood, never again hear her silken voice in his mind.

  Diana opened her mouth and drew in a breath as if she was going to speak. He blinked away the crimson tears blinding him, then watched in horror as one bloody teardrop landed on her tongue and slid down her throat. No!

  He flinched as he felt his blood, unable to merge with hers, cutting a path through her veins. Unless he claimed her by filling her with his seed and giving her enough of his blood to carry her through the day, her veins would grow raw from the battle raging within them.

  Already her body recognized that his blood was the stronger of the two and craved more. She writhed on the bed. Her silent cries filled his head.

  He didn’t have to look at the clock to know he had very little time to save her. The skin on his back already shrank away from the heat of dawn’s approach. If she really was his soul mate, he couldn’t leave until he completed what they’d begun, even if it meant facing the sun unsheltered, even if it meant dooming Diana to eternal darkness without her consent.