Trina M. Lee

by Alexa O'Brien Huntress Series Book 1-4 Box Set (Retail)

  Wherever he was, he was hunting. His victim’s screams drove him over the edge, and the walls between us came down as he tore into her with a savagery that had me shaking. If I closed my eyes, I could almost see through his as images swarmed me.

  She was bleached blonde, middle aged and heavily made up. I had no way of knowing why he’d chosen her. She fought hard, and the thrill that raced through Arys in response was easily transferred to me. Like a rabid dog, he tore into her without holding back. She didn’t make noise for long.

  I could hear Shaz asking if I was alright as I sat frozen stiff in his arms. Arys’s strong emotions were flooding me with more than I could take. His excitement as the blood spilled was what pushed me over the edge. Snapping into action, I scrambled away from Shaz and focused on forcing Arys out of my mind. It was easier than I expected, but the damage was done.

  I forced myself to concentrate on the sound of the fire crackling and the smell of logs burning. Anything to combat the bloodlust that rocked me. I closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t look at my wolf mate and see food. He wasn’t prey to me, but he was still a blood source. It hurt in places that never should feel that kind of agony.

  Shaz was no fool, but he approached me anyway, hands held up cautiously. “Whatever that was,” he said softly. “You can’t run from it, Lex. We can deal with it.”

  I whimpered softly and hid my face behind a curtain of my hair. The closer he drew, the stronger the beat of his heart sounded in my sensitive ears. I didn’t realize I’d started growling at him until he told me to stop. Shaz wasn’t afraid of me though, not in the least. Not a trace of fear emanated from him.

  When I bared my fangs at him though, his demeanor changed. The look in his eyes was fierce when, with a solid motion, he grabbed me and flipped me so that I landed hard on the floor beneath him. He used his body to pin me, and it came as a shock to find him dominating me like the Alpha male that he now was.

  I grunted when I hit the floor. My wolf was instantly subdued as Shaz commanded respect from me with the action. Though the wolf in me was calmed, there was a part of me that was enraged and then ashamed. I was roiling with emotions, each of them leaving confusion in its wake. I choked back a sob and bared my throat to Shaz, submitting to him completely.

  He didn’t hesitate to bite me, and it was nothing short of astounding. I hadn’t expected him to go Alpha on me. His teeth didn’t break my skin, but the act spoke volumes rather than the injury. I was awed and also madly turned on.

  “I’m sorry, Lex, but I’m not going to let you worry about making me a victim. I’m your mate. You should never be running from me because you think you’re going to hurt me.” With a strong hand wrapped around my arm, he jerked me to my feet. “Call it tough love, baby, but I have to stop this now, before it spirals out of control.” I stared at him with wide-eyed astonishment. I thought I was hearing things when he said, “You’re just going to have to take my blood. It’s the only way for you to realize you can handle this.”

  I swallowed hard and tried to say no. My lips formed the word, but nothing came out. He smiled down at me, clearly enjoying his moment of power. When at last I could speak, I squeaked out, “Why?”

  Shaz’s hands were rough where he gripped my arms. “You know why. I’m not letting you do this by yourself. You’re only weak if you don’t let me help you.”

  Awe filled me, as well as complete adoration. He was everything I needed in a man and more. But, when he held his wrist out to me as an offering, I paled and shrunk back, shaking my head. “No, Shaz I can’t.”

  “You will.” His tone held no room for argument, and I did a double take. If Arys had said that to me, I would have told him to shove it up his ass. This was Shaz, though, and all I could do was stare stupidly. When he saw my face fall, dismayed, his expression softened, and he added, “Trust me.”

  Was he serious? Trust him? I trusted him more than I trusted any creature on the planet. It was me that I had little faith in.

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” I peered at him through strands of blonde and red hair as a lock fell in my eyes. He reached out to brush it away, the gesture filled with tenderness.

  “It hurts me more to watch you suffer like this. For months now, I have kept quiet about this side of you, but things have changed. Let me be part of this. I’m your mate, Lex.”

  There was no changing his mind. I knew that look in his jade eyes. He had made up his mind, and he was taking a stand. I should have been overwhelmed with emotion at his words, but instead I was stricken with terror.

  With the bloodlust eating away at me, I was unable to cling to that terror. It fell away from me like abandoned clothing. The pulse beating in his offered wrist drew my eye, and I licked my lips hungrily. We faced each other in all of our naked glory, completely at ease with the naturalness of it.

  I watched him pensively, a question in my eyes. Without words, Shaz merely nodded, waiting with acceptance and even a hint of excitement. Because it was him, I didn’t snap in a frenzy of blood hunger. However, I was clinging to sanity by a very thin rope. And, I could feel that I was slipping quickly.

  I had to do this. It was vital to preventing my quick descent into blood madness, and it meant something to Shaz. If I didn’t act soon, I was going to lose it.

  With shaky hands, I encircled his wrist with my fingers. I was virtually salivating when I drew in the clean wolf scent of him. I indulged in the urge to rub my face against that perfect skin. Pressing my lips to his pulse, I closed my eyes and savored the sensation of his life force pumping just beneath the surface.

  That was all it took, and there was no going back. I bit into his wrist fast, hoping to ease the pain. When Shaz gave a small gasp, I thought I had hurt him. The pleasure that oozed from his energy indicated otherwise.

  Once released, the blood dripped fast and steady. I rushed to catch it with my tongue. The scent, taste and feeling of it in my mouth hit me like a tornado. Everything around me seemed to fall away. Nothing was left in the entire world but Shaz and me in that moment.

  Along with the hot, flowing, crimson stream, I took in the freely exuded energy of a male Alpha wolf. It was like having electricity poured over and through me. Tasting Shaz was like sipping from a fount of lively power, one that I couldn’t get enough of. He tasted like heaven.

  It didn’t take much to satiate the hunger for blood. I didn’t need it to survive. Not yet. The craving for the energy high that was building had only just gotten started. My need for my mate was immense, and giving the slowing bleed a long satisfying lick, I began to kiss my way up his arm.

  Shaz reached to pull me close. The power ruled us both as we fed it with our voracious desire. He kissed me roughly, his tongue delving into my mouth between my fangs. Tasting his own blood, he shuddered.

  Something had changed between us, something that transcended everything we’d known so far. Allowing him to meet one of my needs had enabled him to be my mate in every sense. He needed it as badly as I’d needed to be dependent on him. Shaz’s devotion spoke louder than any words.

  Epilogue

  The taste of human blood lingered on my tongue like sweet copper. With a pinky finger, I wiped a minute trace from the corner of my mouth. Breathing hard, I glanced at Arys, who watched me like I was the most delicious thing he’d ever seen. The dead pimp at my feet stirred no emotion within me. He’d been a peddler of teen girls barely old enough to drive a car. Worthless.

  How I had managed to avoid slaughtering an innocent was beyond me. The bloodlust was a strange and funny thing. It no longer assaulted me when Arys neglected to feed. It assaulted me on a nightly basis. My hunger was my own, yet, his neglect reverberated through me when his energy infected me with his inner desires. That’s when it became too much for me to bear, and my control was stripped away in layers until I was a maniacal mess.

  On the flipside, nothing had changed for Arys as far as my personal weaknesses go. My wolf lurked inside him due to our metaphysical bond, but A
rys was long past mortal afflictions, and he experienced nothing further in that regard. Though as far as connections go, ours had undergone many transitions.

  We could now open a telepathic link by will and tap one another’s power when we were apart, though we were strongest when together. If Arys had been packing a loaded weapon before … well now, we were really something to be feared. Of course, that would be more accurate if I knew how to handle half the power I possessed.

  Arys insisted that we could command this power ourselves, wield it as needed, however needed. Lena once told me that we were two souls cut from the same magical cloth, destined to unite as one regardless of our physical forms. If this power is to be of any real use to me, I need to be the one in control, and that is something that I intend to focus my strength on.

  It nagged me to no end knowing that Harley has the valuable information that I seek. He can’t possibly be the only one. Finding a source willing to share was among my priorities.

  I wasn’t naive enough to believe that I was safe because of sharing the wicked kiss with Arys. Harley’s warning continued to haunt me. If he wanted a piece of me so bad, who else out there did? As a mortal with this kind of power, I was a walking snack to bigger, badder predators than me. My biggest fear continued to be endangering those I loved. Though they can all protect themselves, there are things out there that may not hesitate to use them to get to me.

  “Alexa,” Arys murmured, pulling me into his arms. He nuzzled my hair, inhaling my scent before tasting the blood on my tongue with a deep kiss that had me swooning.

  My heart pounded until I thought it would burst. The exhilaration of the feed along with the rush of the hunt was better than any drug known to man. This was why vampires and Weres lost it. It was why I took them out before they did something stupid to expose the rest of us. Control was not an option. I had to have it.

  I was curious as to what Veryl would say when he returned to town. After the secrets he’d hid from me for the past ten years, I didn’t feel that I owed him anything, least of all explanations regarding my personal life.

  If Arys and I hadn’t been standing in a dirty back alley behind a filthy nightclub, I would have been tempted to hike my skirt up and take him right there. The high that I was flying was that spectacular. Instead, I took his hand and led him down the alley, towards the light at the far end. I wanted to go home.

  It was strange still to think of Raoul’s house as home, but that got easier the longer I stayed. I still hadn’t braved his bedroom, but I had been thinking long and hard about what I was going to do with it. Though I missed having the stretch of forest behind my house, Kylarai’s was just a short jaunt across town. Easily accessible.

  Strolling down the dingy alley with my vampire lover, my senses were working on overdrive. I was informed of everything from the sound of each and every separate car on the parallel main street to a couple having sex in the bathroom of the nightclub we’d just walked away from. The smells were a whole other world unto themselves.

  Perhaps the best part was that I could now feel every supernatural creature in the surrounding vicinity. Like a hot red glow, I could sense two vampires four blocks to the west and a werewolf sitting in a coffeehouse at the end of the street. If I really concentrated, The Wicked Kiss stood out like a blinking beacon in my mind, ablaze with the energy of all those inside.

  I couldn’t help the satisfied smile that curled my lips. There were certainly perks to this blood bonding thing. The increased psychic awareness was almost worth the occasional agony. It gave me great peace of mind to know that Harley wouldn’t so easily catch me off guard again. There is more to being empowered than an increased arsenal, but nobody can say it doesn’t make a difference.

  “So,” Arys began hesitantly, drawing my attention. “What do you think the point is to all of this?”

  That was random. I frowned, pondering what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”

  “Uncanny abilities don’t just happen. Isn’t there usually some reason, some purpose for the greater good?”

  That drew my eyes to him, and I gave him a studious look that had him glowering in response to my scrutiny. Was Arys feeling the need to justify what we had, or did he know something I didn’t?

  “Maybe it’s up to us what we do with it. That whole good versus evil kind of deal.” I’d asked myself the very same question that Arys was voicing now. I was sure there was something he wasn’t sharing.

  “Yeah … maybe.”

  We ambled along in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Walking in darkness didn’t mean having to become one with it, did it? Could we not live with our inner natures without embracing the true evil we all are privy to? Humans are no less evil than the worst of vampires at times. Surely right and wrong couldn’t be so perfectly cut and dried.

  Reaching the end of the alley, we stepped out into the glow of the streetlights. The city traffic flew past us as those out and about for the evening sought entertainment, companionship or things unknown to the rest of us.

  A homeless man on the corner began to shout, “I see you, bloodsuckers. You ain’t gonna get me. No sir, I know your kind.”

  It was somewhat expected. The mentally ill had a tendency to see right through our human appearance. Thankfully, nobody paid them any mind when they ranted and raved about it.

  We strode past him without a second glance. I didn’t want to encourage his shouting by making eye contact. The heavy stare of a young woman waiting for the bus drew me. She wore a knowing expression but quickly averted her eyes when I met them. Psychic? Possibly. Those with sixth sense abilities could often detect our inhuman energy. For the most part, they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

  The werewolf I’d sensed in the nearby coffee shop watched us with little interest from his place in the window. He held a coffee cup in one hand and a book in the other. I chuckled to myself, finding it amusing that so many supernatural creatures were nothing like the average person would assume. Of course, I was probably exactly how they would assume: blood hungry and power tripping.

  Arys reached for my hand, stroking my fingers gently with his thumb. The zap of our energy making a sudden physical connection tingled all the way up my arm like a bad static shock. It created a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach, which spread to encompass my limbs. The sexy grin he shot me stirred the sensations into a fire that blazed just for him.

  As we drew closer to the car, my anticipation grew. I hungered for many things, but my need for Arys and Shaz was something I was happily learning to live with. I’d just opened the driver’s door when the strange awareness struck me.

  That glowing place in my mind, The Wicked Kiss, had just spawned another vampire. I felt the new undead existence as surely as if I’d been inside the club. Perhaps I should look into how often that was occurring in the blood bar. I wanted nothing more than to chase Harley back to Vegas and out of my domain. Maybe that would get the ball rolling.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked Arys, afraid I was the only one.

  “Yes.” Arys stared off into the distance, as if seeing The Wicked Kiss in his mind. “Somebody has just awoken as a vampire.”

  One thing was for sure, I would be keeping a close eye on the vampire bar. The Wicked Kiss was definitely on my radar; however, it would have to wait for another night.

  Tonight, I wanted nothing more than to go home to a hot bath and curl up in front of the fireplace. If Arys’s libidinous energy was any sign, he was thinking along the same lines.

  As we made the short trip home, I felt surprisingly peaceful. The stars twinkling overhead called to my wolf. Though I wasn’t so foolish as to believe that everything was perfect, I was content, and that’s what mattered.

  My heart was shared by two men, each of them I desperately ached for. They completed me in ways that I still could barely comprehend. With them in my life, I was learning how to trust again.

  I never would have come this far without either of the
m. I have gained so much: strength in mind and emotion as well as the ability to set my past free. But perhaps most important of all, the desire for more from this world.

  Only Vampires Cry Blood

  Alexa O’Brien Huntress Book Three

  By Trina M. Lee

  Only Vampires Cry Blood

  Trina M. Lee

  Copyright 2010 by Trina M. Lee

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Editor

  B. Leigh Hogan

  Cover Artist

  Michael Hart

  Published by

  Dark Mountain Books

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  The city scenery flew by as I hurtled down the street at full speed. The ice cold, night wind whipped my hair around behind me, and the sound of snow crunching underfoot accompanied my pursuit. I was hot on the heels of a vampire I’d been tracking. It hadn’t taken him long to determine that he was being followed. He ran and I gave chase, unwilling to lose this one. The fact that he ran only enticed me more. He was acting like prey.

  This son of a bitch was mine. The chilly, seasonal air carried his scent, guiding me with perfect precision. The combination of blood, citrus and a woman’s perfume on him made it easy to navigate the twists and turns he was taking. The bastard had about a block on me. With inhuman speed, I shot through the night like a bullet.