“Maria didn’t react to my blood ‘til the next day. And even then, she wasn’t in pain.”
Olympia glared at him. “What about Sebastian? Did you read him?”
“It was even worse for him. I got hit with a wave of pain so, so—” His eyes flew open. “One drop. Oh no, you didn’t.”
Realizing her error, Olympia tried to change the subject. She ran her hands over her breasts and licked her lips. “Come here, Diego, and give me what I want.”
Shaking his head, Diego backed away. “You told him he was to give no more than a drop of his blood. You insisted I stop him if he tried to give her more. I wondered about that.”
“Now, Diego, you’re letting your imagination run away with you.”
“It doesn’t matter how much blood a vampire passes to a human that first time. How much shouldn’t have mattered to turn Diana into a Slasher. What matters is that he not return, that he never feed her growing hunger for his blood. That’s how they grow mad. Waiting and waiting to feed that hunger. That’s how they turn into Slashers. Not right away and not from the pain!”
“Listen to you!” Olympia laughed, stalking him as he backed into a tree. “I’ve watched scores of humans turn into Slashers. They—”
“I know more than you ever will how our blood poisons humans. After I brought Maria to Fentmore, I found out everything I could about our blood so I would never create another Slasher. It doesn’t hurt like that.” Crimson tears filled his eyes. “Except if the human is a soul mate. That’s why we have to be especially careful with them. If too little blood is offered to a human soul mate the first time, the pain is unbearable. That’s why Maria didn’t feel as much pain as Diana. She wasn’t my soul mate. She only turned into one of those monsters because you made me stop feeding her.”
Olympia’s lip curled up, revealing one, long fang. “I never—”
Diego shook his head and bared his fangs, then cut her off with a deafening roar. “What have you done? Is Sebastian just another pawn in one of your sick games?”
“No.” Olympia turned her back on Diego and stared down the road. How she wished she could just break the necks of Diana and her grandmother. But she’d never win back Damien if he knew she had a hand in their deaths. “So they’re soul mates. A minor glitch.”
“Minor glitch? Minor glitch? It’s a minor glitch that your son suffered even more than she did? That her pain became his, only worse. If he finds out—oh god—if he finds out he harmed his soul mate, that he turned his soul mate into a Slasher, he’ll go over the edge, Olympia. I know he will. He’ll face the dawn.”
“He’ll survive. Which is more than I can say for that she-devil.” Her nostrils flared. She drew in a deep breath. Diana’s scent still lingered in the air. It didn’t make sense. She could smell Sebastian’s blood mingled with Diana’s. “The fool must have given her too much.”
“How could you do this to your own son?” Diego stared at her, his eyes filled with condemnation.
“I did this for Mina’s Cove.”
Diego continued to stare at her in the way that too many of her kind did whenever they questioned her love for her son.
She loved Sebastian. Why does everyone always doubt that? Everyone, even her own father always brings up some minor mistake she made raising him or her lack of affection towards him during his boring existence. Does a mother have to kiss her child every year just to prove she loves him?
So what if she left him to fend for himself when he was scarcely old enough to walk. She’d locked the door, didn’t she? And so what if Dracula and his perfect mate had to feed Sebastian when he was a baby. She had a right to go out and feed. And why, why does everyone have to dwell on the scars he carries from the one morning she didn’t have time to grab him when she’d sought shelter from the dawn. Tobias heard his screams, didn’t he? He got him inside on time.
Dammit, she loved her son. “Anyway, Sebastian will never find out that Diana is his soul mate.”
“If he doesn’t continue to feed her and complete the bonding, he’ll realize it when she goes mad. He’ll feel her torment. He’ll go mad!” Diego closed his eyes and drew in a ragged breath. “He has to go to her and give her more of his blood. He has to bond with her. Yes, yes, and if they mate it will soothe her. He has to bond with her.”
Mist swirled around Diego’s feet as he ran with preternatural speed.
Realizing he’d dematerialize unless she broke his concentration, Olympia hurled a mental shriek that would slice through his mind. When he stumbled, she let out a relieved sigh. “Get back here, Diego.”
Furious that he continued to transform, enraged that he dared ignore her, she pooled her anger into a massive ball and hurled it directly at his legs.
The sound of bones cracking soothed her anger. Somewhat.
She’d managed to convince the elders that Diana’s descent into hell was Frank Nostrum’s punishment, but Frank had little to do with her reason for picking Diana. Someone else loved Diana even more than her father. Someone else considered her the only bright spot in her otherwise dark existence. Diego would not interfere with Lina Nostrum’s punishment for stealing Damien’s heart.
She strode over to Diego’s writhing body. “Listen, you worthless piece of shit. When this is all over, Sebastian will be fine.” Squatting down, she kissed his furrowed brow and, releasing a breast from her shirt, slid her nipple over his lips. “I know you want Diana. I saw how hard your cock got when you told me how she looked in bed. Before I take her to Fentmore, I’ll let you play with her. Okay, baby? I’ll let you suck her little tits. I’ll even let you rut between her legs like the animal I know you are.”
While he suckled, she scraped her nail up the zipper on his jeans. He stared up at her with those doe-colored eyes the young female vamps found so appealing and silently begged for her blood. She smoothed back his dark-brown hair from his brow and rubbed her knuckles over his square jaw.
This young vamp others considered so handsome was not her type at all except in one very important way. He allowed his dick to rule his head, something she’d discovered years ago, something she used to her advantage again and again. Piercing the skin of her breast with her nail, she watched his pupils dilate as he watched a drop of blood emerge.
“But Sebastian,” he murmured, running his tongue up the side of her breast and capturing the drop. He moaned as the blood she’d addicted him to stirred a hunger she knew he couldn’t refuse.
“I was given free rein by Tobias in carrying out Nostrum’s punishment.”
She pushed his head away from her chest. Shoving her breast back into her shirt, she grabbed Diego under his arms and, ignoring his screams of pain, flung him over her shoulder. “Let’s go. When we get home, you can show me all the wicked things you’re going to do to little Miss Diana.”
“What about Sebastian, Olympia?”
“Don’t worry about Sebastian. I’ll take care of everything. If he’s not strong enough to carry out a simple sentence for the sake of our kind without going over the edge, it’s certainly not my fault.”
“He won’t stay away from her when he finds out.” Diego cried out when she dug her nails into his thighs. When he continued, his voice trembled. “His guilt will get the best of him if he’s experiencing her pain and hunger. Knowing him, I bet he gave in and fed her that night.”
“You are so ignorant, Diego. Why do you think their being soul mates was so perfect? I know my son. He would have given in to his guilt with her first whimper even if they weren’t soul mates. This way he was too busy dealing with his own pain to worry about hers.” She frowned, then shook her head. “No, he would never have been able to give her more once the pain hit him. Pain has a way of sapping one’s power, doesn’t it?”
She took to the sky. Diego needed a lesson. One he’d never forget. As she neared the northern inlets of the lake and Mina’s Cove, she noticed a rocky slope leading down to the shore. Diego’s thoughts of finding a way to tell Sebastian filled her
head.
Each time she’d shove more of Diego’s body over her shoulder, his fear of tumbling to the ground and down that slope entered her mind. Each time he tried and failed to gather enough power to ensure his survival if she happened to drop him, her fangs throbbed and her thoughts grew more sinister. His nails pierced the soft flesh of her thighs as he struggled to hold on.
And still, the fool’s thoughts centered on warning Sebastian.
“You really should work on shielding your mind, Diego. I know you’re planning on telling Sebastian that I knew Diana was his soul mate.”
“No, no I wouldn’t. I swear, I—”
Tired of hearing his whining voice, she paralyzed his larynx, then opened her hands. Diego’s knees slammed into her chest as he struggled to remain on her shoulder. Olympia slid her fingers around his ankles and flung his legs over.
She hovered beneath a cloud and took in the show. Not looking to kill the young vamp, she aimed his flailing body towards a tree, then grinned when it broke his fall. Still, his descent down the slope was a sight to behold. Watching, she winced when his face bounced off the trunk of a lofty pine, bit her lip when his already battered legs slammed into another. The force of the impact sent him spinning through the air.
She frowned. His body picked up an amazing amount of momentum when it again hit the ground. As he tumbled another ten feet towards the lake, she swept down from the sky and caught his ankle in both hands a moment before his head would have hit a huge boulder protruding from the ground. Digging in her heels, she brought his body to a sudden halt.
She flipped over his limp body and drew in a sharp breath. Diego’s cheekbones were either shattered or hiding beneath the raw, blood-soaked flesh swelling before her eyes. One glance at his legs confirmed her little trick had accomplished much more than she’d intended. His left one, bent at an impossible angle, bled profusely from a gaping hole beneath his knee where the ragged end of a bone jutted out.
She considered leaving him. At the rate he was bleeding, the rate their kind bled, he’d be dead before dawn and the sun would erase any evidence of her crime.
But the extent of her handsome vamp’s injuries intrigued her. It would take the remainder of the night and the entire day for him to recover. His body healing itself would surely be a spectacle worth losing sleep over.
As she lifted him and resumed their flight to her house, Olympia licked at one of the gaping wounds marring his face. Burrowing her tongue as deep as possible, she spread her saliva along torn muscles and tendons.
When they arrived at her house, she laid Diego on the couch and licked every gash from his accident. His eyes fluttered open. He curled his lips, maybe hoping to scare her by baring his fangs, but the fool’s face was so swollen his mouth merely formed a lopsided grin. One of his precious fangs was chipped and the other, nothing but a ragged stump. She watched him run his tongue over them and discover their shortcomings for himself.
When he squeezed his eyes closed and turned his head away, Olympia released a weary sigh. “You really left me no choice, Diego. Planning to tell Sebastian about Diana. Now this is going to hurt, but do try to be a man about it.”
She grasped one of his legs and, twisting it back and forth, tried to realign the bone. His screams ricocheted through her head.
The air crackled with the power Diego’s body drew in to heal itself. Olympia added some of her own to speed up the process. She never tired of watching their kind mend. Tonight, she’d torture her young slave. Tomorrow night, after she properly paid her twin puppets for warning her about Diana’s condition, she’d deal with Sebastian and Diana.
* * * * *
Resting her cheek on Sebastian’s shoulder, Diana smoothed out the blanket they’d laid on the ground and watched Sebastian bite off a chunk of meat from the bone of the rib he held in barbeque-sauce-covered fingers. “You’re a mess.”
Sebastian glanced down at the pile of crumpled, soiled napkins on the ground beside his paper dish. “I’m out of napkins.”
“Here.” She tossed some of hers in his lap. Gazing at the couples and families scattered around the bonfire, she smirked. “Looks like everyone’s running out of napkins.”
He eyed the ribs on her dish. “Aren’t you eating those?”
Although her hunger had disappeared after Sebastian’s passionate greeting when he’d picked her up for their date, Diana scowled. “Touch them and die.”
His smile vanished as he leaned over. Closing her eyes, she shivered when his tongue slid over her chin. She parted her lips as he approached her mouth, but he veered away and licked her cheek. She opened her eyes to find Sebastian wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“Best barbeque sauce I ever tasted. Oh I missed a spot.” He leaned over then licked and nibbled at her lips until she clenched her thighs together and slid her tongue into his mouth.
“Now can I eat your ribs,” he asked, nodding toward the one he’d already stolen from her plate.
Diana giggled and shoved him away. “Tease!”
“Having fun?”
“I haven’t been on one of these midnight trail rides since I was a teen.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Very popular date with the boys in my school. Stealing off into the woods for a kiss. Those were the days.”
Sebastian tossed the rib onto the dish and swept her into his arms. “I’m just going to have to wipe those memories right out of your mind.”
“Oh, really? And how do you propose to do that?” Giggling as he carried her towards the line of trees on the edge of the clearing, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
In reply, Sebastian began to nibble along her jaw. “I have my ways.”
When they returned to the clearing, Diana tried to remember what had led them into the woods, but Sebastian’s kisses had been so mind-boggling she couldn’t seem to remember much of anything except his delicious lips.
* * * * *
Later, as they made their way down the mountain, Sebastian glanced over and watched Diana skillfully steer her horse with nothing but her knees. Her hands rested lightly on the saddle horn, the reins loosely draped over her thighs. She glanced over and, upon catching his perusal, smiled softly.
Every few seconds, Diana would lean over and talk to her horse in a lilting, hushed voice. Sebastian watched in wonder when the horse would tilt its head closer to her mouth as if intently listening to every word.
They made their way around a bend. A wave of anger swept over his shoulders, raising the hairs on his neck and setting his senses on alert. He reached over and grabbed the reins of Diana’s horse, drawing it closer to his.
He scanned the surrounding forest, searching for whoever watched, whoever dared intrude on his time with Diana.
Diana nudged her horse even closer to his and leaned over just as a rock flew out from a cluster of bushes on her right and struck her horse’s flank. With an ear-shattering whinny, the horse reared, tossed Diana from its back, then bolted down the trail.
Sebastian reached her side a second after she hit the ground. He slid his hands beneath her and lifted her into his arms, all the while torn between his need to care for her and his desire to find whoever had thrown the rock. The anger he’d sensed moments earlier told him that this was no accident. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Sebastian. Someone threw a rock at my horse. I saw it right before it hit, but I didn’t have time…” She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her forehead on his cheek.
“You should see a doctor.”
“Relax, big guy. I’m all right.”
He glared into the shadows. “If I ever find out who did it—”
“It was probably just some teens fooling around.”
He sent a silent threat into the shadows. “You could have broken your neck.”
“I’m fine.”
He lifted her onto his horse, then easily leapt up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he let her warmth calm his pounding heart. When he’d seen her tum
bling over her horse’s back, terror had immobilized him. He tightened his hold and rubbed his cheek against her satin curls.
Diana brought her hand up and caressed his cheek.
He kissed her temple. His reaction, his fear over losing her rattled him, left him oddly bereft.
She shifted, tilted her face and offered the lips he’d grown to crave as much as her blood. When he only stared into her eyes, she nibbled, licked and tortured his mouth. The passion of their kiss calmed his fear and anger. She tasted so sweet. Swinging her leg over, she shimmied until her hip pressed into his crotch.
He raised his lips a hairsbreadth away from hers and whispered, “Diana.”
His hand slid out of her hair, over her shoulder, down until it halted right above her breast. She rose up and arched her back. He loved the way she responded to his touch, the way she gave herself up to him. When his hand moved down her arm, she closed her eyes.
Touch me.
Hearing her soft plea, unable to deny her anything, he tugged her shirt from her shorts as he nibbled on her lips. “Tell me what you want, Diana,” he asked, his voice so low he wondered if she heard it. “Tell me.”
“I want…I want…” she stammered, blushing profusely, “I want you to touch me.”
He grazed the skin of her stomach, then cupped her breast over her shirt. Smiling against her lips, he asked, “Like this.”
“No,” she breathed.
“Unbutton your shirt for me, Diana,” he demanded more gruffly than he’d intended.
Diana didn’t seem to mind. If anything, her eyes darkened with desire as she raised trembling hands to her shirt. She hesitated, glancing in the direction of the others in their group. Sebastian brought his horse to a halt.
“We’re alone, goddess. Now bare those beautiful breasts to me.” He held her gaze as he thumped her nipple with his knuckles.
She started to unbutton her shirt. Every button that slid free sent a surge of blood to his cock, amplifying his pain. Keeping his fangs in check had never been as hard as when she spread the sides and revealed her lace-clad breasts. A deft flick at the clasp, and her bra opened. Sebastian slid his finger under one lace cup and peeled it away, then proceeded to do the same to the other.
Undeniable Page 15
