His nostrils flared as her essence enveloped him in a heady embrace. “I want you, Diana. Only you.”
She brought her hands back to her knees. “Then prove it.”
Sebastian placed his hands over hers and spread her legs even farther apart. He moved between them and slowly dipped his head, his eyes fixed on her face. When her eyes closed in anticipation, he changed direction and grazed his teeth over a pert nipple.
Diana would have fallen back onto the bed from the jolt that shot through her breast if his arm hadn’t suddenly encircled her back and held her in place. He set to suckling her breast, his fangs tormenting her sensitive peak. Desire spiraled down and pooled in her pussy.
His abs ground into her, torturing her nubbin.
“Not fair,” she whimpered, “I’m supposed to be in charge.”
When he pierced her skin just above her nipple, she writhed from the pleasure-pain of his suckling. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, that she’d tumble into an orgasm, he released her. She fell back with a cry, then sighed as the cool satin pillows embraced her damp skin. She held her breath and whimpered as she waited for his touch.
Endless seconds passed with nothing but his warm breath answering her silent pleas. She knew without opening her eyes that he was staring at her quivering moist flesh and spread her legs wider. She heard him draw in a hissing breath.
When he let out a deep rumbling growl, she trembled with uncontrollable need. An unbearable ache throbbed where she awaited the touch of his lips and she begged him to hurry. Still he hesitated. With a guttural cry, she reached down to bury her hands in his silken hair and draw his head to her.
His mouth finally took burning possession, his teeth tormenting her labia, his tongue flicking along her inner pussy. Her muscles clenched painfully, wanting more, demanding release. Every nerve ending seemed to converge beneath his mouth and follow the path of his teeth to her most sensitive spot. Her hips bucked when they made contact.
Sebastian roared into her depths.
Diana’s screams shattered the silent night.
The door to the cottage burst open.
Diana could barely focus on the figure charging into the middle of the room. Even as her heart lurched, her hands refused to let go of Sebastian’s head.
Sebastian snarled against the molten flesh beneath his lips. Leave us!
Damien took in the scene and halted. “I heard her scream and…” He spun around and left, slamming the door behind him.
Damien already forgotten, Sebastian drove his tongue deep into Diana’s pussy again and again, feasting upon her juices. He stopped to torment her clit, swirling his tongue around it, sucking it until she begged for mercy. His fangs grew even longer, piercing the soft flesh beside her throbbing nubbin.
Diana gasped from the slight prick of pain, then groaned with pleasure as he drew her flesh into his hot moist mouth and sucked voraciously at her sensitive clit. She screamed again as every clenched muscle burst free, every nerve sent one fireball after another to her core. A vast void opened deep with her, demanding to be filled.
Gasping for air, she vaguely felt Sebastian release her, rise, then push her further back onto the bed. Her eyes fluttered open. A lump formed in her throat. Tenderness mingled with untold passion filled his eyes.
“Fuck me, Diana. Make me yours,” he whispered as the head of his throbbing cock nudged its way in.
Looking into his eyes, Diana grabbed his hips and brought them forward with so much force she felt the air rush out of her lungs.
Her hunger grew tenfold. Her mind revolted when she finally grasped exactly what she hungered for. A long guttural moan of denial rose from her.
She wanted this, wanted him, but his massive size and the idea of just how much blood she’d have to drink to drain him appalled her. Her stomach clenched at the thought even as her hunger seized control.
Sebastian’s hands tortured her breasts as his mouth bore down on hers.
After enjoying the feel of her lips brushing across his for a few moments, Sebastian offered her his lower lip and, after a fearfully long wait, almost came when he felt her newborn fangs pierce it. He let her have her way for a while, enjoying the sensations her suckling sent through his body. But tonight she had to take much more than his lip could offer.
He closed his eyes, struggling with the wave of doubts that threatened to tear him from her arms. Because of his own manipulations, Diana’s actions tonight were led totally by her body’s needs, while her emotions and thoughts had been weakened to the point where they would be useless when she needed them most, when he needed them most to survive. Because of his own manipulations, every time she doubted or tried to grasp the strands still linked to the memories he’d taken from her mind, her desire took hold.
He grimly resolved he had no choice. He had to release his hold before they went any further.
But when he pulled away and saw his blood dripping from her fangs, saw the undeniable hunger burning in her eyes, his own passion overpowered his logic. He released a roar of triumph that this goddess had accepted him, then clutched the back of her head and brought her mouth to his neck, all the while slamming his cock deeper into her hot pussy.
Diana tentatively brushed her teeth against his coarse skin.
As soon as the first drop of blood entered her mouth, their minds merged, became one. The hunger obliterated all but Diana’s need to feed. The harder she sucked at the tiny scratches, the faster he thrust himself into her. When he suddenly buried himself to the hilt and his white hot seed poured into her, the blood trickling into her mouth grew sweeter, hotter, and she experienced a hunger so powerful that she was lost to its demands.
She opened her mouth and bit down on the throbbing vein just as the stab of his teeth piercing her neck sent her spiraling into a vortex of passion. Suckling harder and harder, drawing in more and more, she imploded into a mass of writhing ecstasy.
Deep in the recesses of her mind, she knew Sebastian had only taken a small amount from her, knew she had to be careful of how much she took from him, but she couldn’t seem to stop. They were one being and she couldn’t bear the thought of tearing their souls apart.
“Diana,” Sebastian, aware that she had lost control, moaned against her throat, “enough.” He couldn’t pull away even though he felt himself growing dangerously weak. Tonight he had no choice but to offer her his life and trust that she would not bleed him completely even though he knew that only passion and her faith in her grandmother’s visions had led her this far. If he died, he had no one to blame but himself.
Diana continued to suckle, a ravenous babe at its mother’s breast, unwilling to stop until she’d taken in every sweet drop.
Her small frame writhed beneath his weight. He tried to rise and alleviate it to some extent, but after only a hairsbreadth separated them, his arms began to tremble. Never had he felt so weak. The sound of her suckling grew faint. He had to release her mind.
If he died tonight, he’d never have the chance to ask her forgiveness. He could no longer deny that his own selfish need to possess her, to have someone beside him for the endless nights ahead, had led him to withhold why he’d begun their bonding ritual. Each time he’d given her more of his blood, he’d ensured that her hunger for him would grow.
And if he was totally honest, this night could have been postponed. He could have relieved her hunger just as he had during the month of abstinence and given her a chance to love him.
Only his fear that she might never agree to join him in eternal darkness had driven him to proceed. And now he wanted nothing more than to free her and discover if she’d choose on her own to stay by his side. He opened his mouth to speak.
Sebastian’s massive chest crashed down upon Diana’s, knocking the air from her lungs.
With a shriek, she tore her mouth away from his neck and tried to lift his head. “Sebastian?”
He lay sprawled over her, his head resting on her shoulder, his weight pinning
her to the bed. One glance at the vein she’d been feeding on so voraciously revealed the absence of the strong pulse she’d felt only seconds earlier. Sebastian! What have I done?” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
She pushed at his chest with all her strength and watched in horror as he flopped to the side. Leaning over, she pressed her ear to his chest and let out a gut wrenching wail. “Damien!”
The door once again crashed open. Damien charged into the room and placed himself between the bed and any possible threat.
“What?” His eyes darted around the room. “What,” he said in exasperation, shielding his eyes from another embarrassing scene.
“Help me!”
He lowered his hand.
Diana, her body set aglow by the fire, sat in the middle of the bed and rocked as she cradled Sebastian’s head against her breasts.
“Diana, what’s wrong?”
“I took too much, Damien,” she sobbed, “I’ve killed him.”
Damien smirked. “He’s fine.”
Diana shook her head. “No, I can barely hear his heartbeat.” Opening Sebastian’s mouth, she slashed open her wrist with one of his fangs.
“No!” Damien grabbed Diana’s wrist and clamped his hand over the gaping wound. Blood spurted through his fingers. He pressed his fingers into the gash.
Diana screamed and tried to pull free. “I have to give him back his blood.” She tried again to wrench her hand free. “Damien, let go of me!”
Dragging her off the bed, Damien brought her into the bathroom, grabbed the first-aid kit and within seconds had her wrist stitched up. The floor and his clothes were covered with her blood. He turned to her and laughed at her shocked face.
“I’m an elder, Diana. One of my jobs is to quietly, usually unknowingly, attend bondings specifically for situations like this. You’d be surprised how many times I have to stitch up some part of the females’ bodies. You all, humans and vampires alike, think you’ve gone too far.”
“But he looks…” She ran to the bed, unmindful of her nakedness.
“He’s fine. This is a test of your love, Diana. And a sign of his faith. He trusted you to stop as soon as he passed out and you did.”
“But I’ve never told him I love him. I’m not even sure I do.”
“But you’re here.” Damien rested his hand on her shoulder. “Why are you here if you don’t love him?”
“My grandmother…she saw us.” She ran her fingers down Sebastian’s cheek. Her heart clenched at how cold his skin felt. “He’s my soul mate. What else could I do? My God, I could have killed him, couldn’t I?”
“No, Diana. It would have never gone that far. We don’t leave our loved ones’ lives in the hands of another so easily. I knew you stopped as soon as I lost touch with him. I felt every drop you took.” He draped a blanket around her shoulders.
“Yes, but—”
“He’s fine. We can lose quite a bit of blood after the point of unconsciousness, so don’t worry. Actually, you stopped sooner than I thought you would.” Her tears continued as she lay down beside Sebastian and draped most of the blanket and her body over his.
“Promise me he’ll be all right, Damien. I couldn’t bear it if I lost him.” She laid her head on his chest. “I just couldn’t bear it.”
“I promise. But you have to promise not to give him any of your blood. Do you hear me? Not a drop. Tonight and tomorrow you must possess his life’s essence and he must know what it is to hunger for you. This way you are both truly pledging to live only for each other.”
Diana ran her fingers through the damp hair covering Sebastian’s chest. How had she come to this? She barely knew Sebastian, yet she had just pledged her life to him.
She realized with a start that when she’d opened her own vein to save him, she’d neither considered nor cared if she died in the process. All that had mattered was saving Sebastian.
And when she’d thought she’d killed him, the terror that had gripped her had nothing to do with the fact that she might have killed someone and everything to do with the fact that she couldn’t imagine losing him, couldn’t bear the thought of facing one day without seeing his smile.
“I promise. Not a drop.” Diana stared down at her soul mate’s face and felt her heart swell. “You know, up ‘til now, it’s been mostly me trusting my grandmother’s prophecy.”
“And, now,” Damien asked.
She leaned over and kissed Sebastian’s lids. “Now, I know he holds my heart. I love him, Damien. So much, it scares me.”
“Never fear love, Diana. It’s God’s most precious gift.”
Damien sat on the floor beside the bed, watching the two lovers until Diana drifted off to sleep. Her mouth parted and revealed two small fangs.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a newborn in the house,” he whispered with a smile. He could remember feeling the same sense of awe upon seeing Angelina’s new fangs.
If not for Frank Nostrum, he would have had a lifetime of memories with her. As a young boy, he had put an end to their bonding and now, as a man, he had killed the fruit of their love. Thank God Angelina had no idea what her son had done.
“Ah, Angelina,” he whispered and closed his eyes, “how I long to see you again.”
A hand gently grabbed his shoulder. He turned to see Diana groggily gazing at him. “She said she would wait an eternity for you to return. She told me she understood why you stayed away.”
“So you think she might forgive me?”
Lifting her hand, she caught a crimson tear as it dripped from his jaw. “She already has, Damien. She already has.”
Diana rubbed her cheek against Sebastian’s chest and, with a sigh, dozed off.
Damien longed to see Angelina. He would risk anything, even banishment, to be with her. He glanced at the two young lovers, their limbs entangled as they slept, secure that he would keep them safe during the night. He would never betray their trust. Not even for Angelina.
If he left, Olympia could attack Diana while Sebastian would not have the strength to stop her.
Losing Diana would drive Sebastian over the edge Damien wouldn’t risk that.
Sebastian might not be a son of his loins, but he was his son all the same. And Diana? He would protect her with his life.
For Angelina.
When he felt the heat of the approaching dawn, Damien drew the blinds. Glancing down at the blood covering his clothes, he decided to spare Sebastian the sight and stripped. He quickly washed them and then hung them near the fireplace. Grabbing a throw from the couch and wrapping it around himself, he went to wake Diana.
“Diana. Diana, come on, time to get up.”
Diana stretched, then snuggled deeper into the crook of Sebastian’s arms. “Go away, Daddy.”
A shiver of fear ran down Damien’s spine even though he knew Frank had no idea where they were. With him in the dark about their whereabouts and Olympia as trapped by the sunlight as they, they should be safe. What harm would it do to let her sleep a little longer?
Climbing onto the bed, he lay down on the other side of Sebastian and closed his eyes.
The whirring of gears filled the room. The three sleeping on the bed heard nothing. Sunlight began to seep through the cracks in the blinds. Solid shutters slammed against the windows, completely shutting out the dangerous rays.
The gears spun faster. Slowly the bed lowered into the hole that had opened beneath it. When it had dropped fifteen feet, another bed slid out from wall to take its place in the alcove.
When darkness returned, if the sensors detected no motion in or around the cottage, the bed carrying the three would return.
Diana awoke. She glanced around, disoriented by her surroundings. Cherry mahogany walls held dozens of sconces that lit a room much bigger than the cottage she deduced, after seeing the cables rising on either side of the bed, was above them. She had no idea how they’d come to be here, but Sebastian and Damien were with her and even though they slept, she felt comforted by thei
r presence.
A glance at Sebastian’s undulating chest told her all she needed to know.
No longer tired, wondering how late she’d actually slept, she knew that today she would have to protect the two sharing the bed. She had no idea from what, had no idea how she could even hope to fight off whoever had led them to seek out this place, but she knew she would die trying.
She sat up and searched the room for her backpack. Groaning, she remembered Sebastian dropped it by the front door.
“Great. No clothes, no toothpaste or toothbrush.” After a failed attempt at running her hands through her tangled hair, she swore under her breath. “No brush.”
At least the room was comfortably warm and the furniture plush and inviting. She crept out of bed. One corner of the room looked like a small library. Running her fingers along the shelves holding dozens of books, she couldn’t help but smile.
Lining the shelves were books by the same authors that filled the bookcases in her grandmother’s den. She wondered if her grandmother had spent the day after her bonding ritual here.
Damien must have known this place was safe because he had used it for himself. The cottage and this room had played a part in their bonding. She felt a rush of warmth at the thought of the love her grandmother felt for the handsome man sprawled on his stomach with one arm protectively draped over Sebastian’s chest.
She grinned at the thought of Sebastian thinking he lay in her embrace as he slept.
With a chuckle she strode over to an ornate chest. On top was a large book encased with leather. Embossed in gold, the title sent a chill down her spine. “The Laws of the Clan of Mina,” she murmured.
Lifting the heavy book, she curled up on an overstuffed chair that faced the bed. The day would feel like an eternity with no way to tell the time and nothing to do but read and wait.
Her stomach growled. She glanced around at the various pieces of furniture, somehow confident that Damien had food stashed somewhere for her, that he’d made certain this would be the haven they needed.
They were safe, she was sure of it. Safe from whomever Sebastian felt wanted to put an end to their bonding.
Undeniable Page 23
