River was giving me an imposing stare. “What the hell are you doing, Dante? Put that wallet away now.”
“Sorry. But she helped Erin and me earlier. We promised her—”
“Whatever. Be quiet. If someone hears that you’re giving away money, you’ll have every homeless person in the area awake and holding out his hand.”
He most likely had a point. I hastily put the wallet back in my pocket—my front pocket this time.
“Bea,” I said, “we’re looking for the vampires who hang around here at night. The ones who feed on Red Rover.”
“They’re around. They stay in the shadows.”
“In which shadows?”
“Just the shadows.” She tilted her head. “They run drugs for some bigwig.”
“Who?” I asked.
“She won’t be able to tell you,” River said. “We’ve never been able to ferret out their leader. He’s eluded the cops for years.”
“I can tell you more than you think I can,” Bea said.
“Yeah? What?” River flashed his badge. “Withholding evidence from a police officer is a crime, ma’am.”
“What is my information worth to you?”
“Bribing a police officer is also a crime.” He put his badge away.
She let out her cackling laugh. “Do you think I care? Cart me off to jail. I’ll get three meals a day and a bed.”
“You got it,” River said. “Stand up. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say—”
“Riv”—I grabbed his arm—“let’s just find out what she knows.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’d listen to your friend,” Bea said. “Unless you want everyone on the force to find out you’re a vampire.”
“No one would believe you,” River said.
She cackled again. “You’re probably right.”
“Look,” I said. “We just want to find these guys. You know I can make it worth your while if you help us.”
“They’re in the shadows, like I said.”
I reached for my wallet.
“You’ve got to be joking,” River said.
“I need to know.” I took out a fifty-dollar bill and held it in front of her. “What can you tell me?”
She reached for it, but I whisked it away. “Only if you tell me, and then only if your information leads us somewhere. You know I’m good for it.”
“I can’t tell you where to find the vamps. They only come out when they need to. But I can tell you something about the person they work for.”
“Yeah?” This time River bit. “What do you know about him?”
Bea smiled, her missing tooth a black hole in a sea of yellow that seemed to glow in the darkness. “Only that he is a she.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Erin
Dante was waiting for me when I got home. He looked a little frazzled, his hair in more disarray than usual, and something was off about his mouth. Were his teeth out? I’d find out when he spoke.
I unlocked the door and let him in. “I suppose I should give you a key,” I said.
“When you’re ready.”
Ready. Wow. I so wasn’t ready for any of this, but we’d already begun, and I couldn’t stop it now. Didn’t want to stop it. I sighed. How much longer could I survive this battle inside me?
“Take your clothes off, Erin.”
Abrupt. No talk of breakfast. Of my night or his. All right. Two could play this game. “You take yours off too.”
He responded with a soft growl. “You forget who’s in charge here. I don’t obey you. You obey me.”
His words, though I’d heard them before, unnerved me. And excited me. I undressed, soon standing before him in my bra and panties.
“The rest,” he snarled, “or I will rip them off you with my bare hands.”
Shaking, I unsnapped my bra and removed it, letting my breasts fall against my chest.
Dante inhaled and licked his lips. “God. Beautiful. Keep going.”
I pushed my cotton panties over my hips and down my thighs until they lay on the floor. I kicked them away.
He closed his eyes and inhaled. “You’re ripe. So ripe.”
I squeezed my thighs together. My body tingled all over, and my pussy was pulsing. I’d just gotten home, and already I was wet for him.
He inched toward me, and then he buried his nose in my neck, sniffing from my shoulder blade up to my earlobe. “I want to sink my cock inside you, Erin,” he whispered. “I need you.”
I moaned softly. My juices moistened my inner thighs. I was ready. No foreplay necessary. He still hadn’t taken any clothes off.
“Please. Take off your clothes. I want to see you.”
He moved backward a few feet, his eyes smoldering. He lifted the T-shirt he wore over his head to display his magnificent chest. His skin was fair, as usual, his nipples a light copper. His abs formed a perfect six pack.
I sank to my knees and unsnapped his jeans. I shoved the denim over his hips. And that perfect cock sprang out to greet me.
I licked the tip, and a shudder raced through his whole body.
He closed his eyes and groaned.
I licked the rest of the salty fluid from the tip until it was coated in the sheen of my saliva. I took him as far as I could and then retreated when the tip nudged the back of my throat. I kissed him, swirling my tongue around the head and then in little figure eights along his shaft until I got to his balls, which were scrunched up against his body. I sprinkled kisses all over them, inhaling his masculine musk. Then I went back to work on his cock.
I plunged my mouth onto it again, this time adding my fist so I could make it all the way to his base. My nipples ached and my pussy vibrated as I blew him. I wanted to give him the blowjob of his life. And I intended to.
He grabbed two handfuls of my hair, and fresh juice gushed from me. But instead of pushing me toward his cock, he pulled my head off of him.
“Upstairs,” he growled. Quickly he hoisted up his jeans and then lifted me into his arms and threw me over his shoulder, advancing toward the steps. “Mine,” he said under his breath but loud enough that I felt it.
Yours. The words formed in my mind. Yours forever.
When we arrived at my bedroom, he laid me—not gently—on the bed and spread my legs.
His eyes widened. Rage poured off of him in waves.
“Wh-What? What is it?”
Dante’s eyes were on fire, the “mark” around his irises more apparent than ever. And his teeth…
“The bite marks.” His voice was more growling than speaking. “These wounds are new, Erin. Someone has fed on you in the last twelve hours.”
Epilogue
The Queen
Don’t be fooled, Dante.
You have only one blood bond—the one you and I formed together. No human can give you what I gave you.
You are mine.
Once bonded, never broken.
Prologue
Erin
“Take your clothes off, Erin.”
Abrupt. No talk of breakfast. Of my night or his. All right. Two could play this game. “You take yours off too.”
He responded with a soft growl. “You forget who’s in charge here. I don’t obey you. You obey me.”
His words, though I’d heard them before, unnerved me. And excited me. I undressed, soon standing before him in my bra and panties.
“The rest,” he snarled, “or I will rip them off you with my bare hands.”
Shaking, I unsnapped my bra and removed it, letting my breasts fall against my chest.
Dante inhaled and licked his lips. “God. Beautiful. Keep going.”
I pushed my cotton panties over my hips and down my thighs until they lay on the floor. I kicked them away.
He closed his eyes and inhaled. “You’re ripe. So ripe.”
I squeezed my thighs together. My body tingled all over, and my pussy was pulsing. I’d just gotten home, and already I was wet for h
im.
He inched toward me, and then he buried his nose in my neck, sniffing from my shoulder blade up to my earlobe. “I want to sink my cock inside you, Erin,” he whispered. “I need you.”
I moaned softly. My juices moistened my inner thighs. I was ready. No foreplay necessary. He still hadn’t taken any clothes off.
“Please. Take off your clothes. I want to see you.”
He moved backward a few feet, his eyes smoldering. He lifted the T-shirt he wore over his head to display his magnificent chest. His skin was fair, as usual, his nipples a light copper. His abs formed a perfect six pack.
I sank to my knees and unsnapped his jeans. I shoved the denim over his hips. And that perfect cock sprang out to greet me.
I licked the tip, and a shudder raced through his whole body.
He closed his eyes and groaned.
I licked the rest of the salty fluid from the tip until it was coated in the sheen of my saliva. I took him as far as I could and then retreated when the tip nudged the back of my throat. I kissed him, swirling my tongue around the head and then in little figure eights along his shaft until I got to his balls, which were scrunched up against his body. I sprinkled kisses all over them, inhaling his masculine musk. Then I went back to work on his cock.
I plunged my mouth onto it again, this time adding my fist so I could make it all the way to his base. My nipples ached and my pussy vibrated as I blew him. I wanted to give him the blowjob of his life. And I intended to.
He grabbed two handfuls of my hair, and fresh juice gushed from me. But instead of pushing me toward his cock, he pulled my head off of him.
“Upstairs,” he growled. Quickly he hoisted up his jeans and then lifted me into his arms and threw me over his shoulder, advancing toward the steps. “Mine,” he said under his breath but loud enough that I felt it.
Yours. The words formed in my mind. Yours forever.
When we arrived at my bedroom, he laid me—not gently—on the bed and spread my legs.
His eyes widened. Rage poured off of him in waves.
“Wh-What? What is it?”
Dante’s eyes were on fire, the “mark” around his irises more apparent than ever. And his teeth…
“The bite marks.” His voice was more growling than speaking. “These wounds are new, Erin. Someone has fed on you in the last twelve hours.”
Chapter One
Dante
My vision sharpened. I’d felt protective of Erin before, but now that I’d taken her blood, red rage consumed me. In a split second, all of my senses were on alert, and I was ready to spring. My fangs had already descended, but a new sensation took flight within them. My canine nerves pulsed, each throb honing my teeth, until they were longer and more lethal than ever before.
These teeth would kill.
I didn’t stop to think about the how or the why of what was happening. One thought only shifted through my mind to the beat of my thundering heart.
Mine.
Then—
Mark her.
Mark what’s mine.
With no warning, I lowered my head and sank my teeth into the milky flesh of her thigh.
“Dante!” she cried out, but she didn’t try to stop me.
Good thing. I wouldn’t have been able to. My mouth, my teeth were without my control now. They took over my mind, intent on plundering what had been stolen. I sucked ferociously, taking what was mine, what had been wrongfully taken from Erin.
My Erin.
Her red nectar flowed over my tongue, infusing me with her strength, her femininity, her courage—everything Erin.
Everything mine.
Then it crawled down my throat, feeding me, nourishing me. Calming me. Saving me.
I hadn’t climaxed and neither had she, yet still the soft jazz played in the air around us, still waves of pure energy and rapture catapulted through my whole body.
My cock was hard for her, and she was wet for me, and a beautiful climax was in the near future.
But for now, I took. Took from her, and she gave to me willingly. Her body answered my call so sweetly.
Her mind would follow. Soon, I hoped. It had to.
She writhed beneath me, urging me on. What must this feel like to her? To me, it was heaven.
Though my rage hadn’t dissipated, I stopped when I needed to. Nothing in the world, not even the blackest anger, could make me harm my love. I licked her wounds and then looked up at her. She’d raised her head off the pillow, and her light-green eyes electrified me.
“Come here,” she said. “Come here and kiss me. Please. God, Dante. Please.”
I slithered up her body and crushed my mouth to hers. Her sweetness mingled with the blood still on my lips. I took from her in this kiss, took what was mine, gave her what she had begged me for.
Me. All of me.
My teeth were sharp and fully descended, but I didn’t hold back as our mouths slid together. My heart was pounding, and so was hers. I could feel as well as hear it thumping to the jazzy beat surrounding us. Her reaction fascinated me, made me ache for her even more. I’d taken blood from her thigh, marked her over the wounds that had been forced on her against her will, and now she wanted more.
Wanted me.
My hard cock stiffened further between her legs, sliding over her wetness. I plunged in. Her soft moan reverberated inside my mouth, and her pussy formed around me, a perfect cast for my cock. I continued the feral kiss, holding my cock inside her, relishing the perfect suction, until I could wait no longer. I pulled out and thrust back in with a vengeance.
She wrapped her lithe legs around me, cushioning me in her warmth. I thrust, and I thrust, and she arched into me and cried out. As her slick walls convulsed around me, I pushed inside her once more balls deep and gave her everything.
The soft jazz around us had become faster and louder, in time with my thrusts, and now, with my mouth still clamped to hers, I experienced something new.
I had taken her blood before orgasm, had marked what was mine, covering the wounds made by someone else who had taken her without consent.
An image swirled in my mind, of Erin handing me a newborn son.
Our son.
Downy dark hair and fair skin. He wailed with his first breath, and the nubs of his baby eye teeth protruded through his pink gums.
He was vampire.
Chapter Two
Erin
This orgasm was even more spectacular than the previous ones I’d experienced while Dante took my blood.
When he was feeding from my thigh, the music around us had increased, until it ascended into the familiar colors and shapes I’d seen before.
But this time, we hadn’t joined our bodies.
Yet we had. His teeth in my flesh was another kind of joining, a joining I’d come to enjoy despite the reservations I still held on to.
Was this a new kind of lovemaking?
Now that we’d both climaxed, and he lay next to me, his arm strewn across his forehead, these thoughts crossed my mind.
He hadn’t asked to bite my thigh. Not verbally. Yet he had somehow. I’d felt it within my soul, and I’d consented. He would’ve stopped if he’d felt something else from me. I was sure of it.
The tugging on my flesh was familiar, the same as when he fed at my neck, but what made this so intense was that he was covering something else.
The marks from another vampire.
Another vampire who had fed on me within the last twelve hours.
I jerked upward into a sitting position as the thought materialized in my mind.
The only place I’d been in the last twelve hours was the hospital. Also in my car, but mostly at work. Had I stopped? Yes, I stopped this morning to fill my gas tank. I’d forgotten because when I got home, Dante had been waiting for me, and he commanded me to undress. Then…
Then…I hadn’t been able to think about anything else once he’d said those words.
“Erin?” Dante rose and sat beside me.
“Yes.” He clenched his hands into fists, his eyes flaming. “And I will find out who and put an end to it. Trust me on that.”
I did trust him, but we hadn’t had any luck questioning Abe Lincoln or the others at Claiborne Bridge. We hadn’t gone to the Quarter at night as he’d first suggested.
“Where did you go in the last twelve hours? Retrace your steps.”
“I went to work. I was in my car. Then at the hospital. On my way home, I stopped to fill up my tank, but that’s it. When I got here, you were waiting for me.”
“A vampire could have stopped you during any of that. Or you could have gone somewhere else and been glamoured into not remembering it.”
My skin chilled, and I rubbed my arms to ease the gooseflesh. Nausea welled in my throat, and I swallowed. “I can’t stand this. I feel so…so…used.”
“I know, baby. No vampire should take blood from a human unless he has consented. Outside of an emergency, of course.”
“Maybe this was an emergency.” But I didn’t believe the words even as they tumbled from my mouth.
“We can’t rule that out, but I’m not buying it. If it were an emergency, it wouldn’t have happened more than once. Your scent is strong, Erin. Strong and delicious and nearly impossible to resist. Someone knows you and has been feeding on you. Not every day, thank goodness, which means it’s probably not someone at work.”
“Then…” I trembled. I’d been going somewhere, most likely in my car, and I didn’t even know it.
Dante stared at me, his fangs lengthening until the points protruded between his lips still smeared with my blood. “Listen to me. I will not let anyone harm you. I will find who’s been doing this to you and I will put a stop to it. Trust me, Erin. I will do everything to protect you.”
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 9
