by Renea Mason
“So good. Perfect,” he all but purred as he pressed himself deep inside me.
The instant connection that overcame me with his penetration was unlike anything I had ever felt. The only thing that made sense was the fact that my blood flowed through his veins. That it drew us closer, heightened the sensation.
“Dora, feel me inside you? Don’t you love the way we feel? So perfect. It’s never been like this.”
Drunk on all the sensations running through me, he was right. I couldn’t deny what could only be described as completion with the way he filled me. Completed me.
His pelvis slammed against my ass as he thrust his cock in and out of my sex. Wrapping his fist in my hair, he chanted to himself, “So good. Not possible.”
His nose nudged the space between my collarbone and my collar. “I can make this work.” He licked my neck. “I want you to feel what it’s like to have me inside you, running through your veins while feeling my cock inside at the same time.” He inhaled sharply, and then snaked his wrist around to my mouth, offering me the blood that dripped from the puncture wounds visible on his dark skin. “Drink. Take me inside you.”
I hesitated for a moment. I had tasted his blood before, but this was different. Either way, I didn’t have the will to fight him. I lapped at the wound that oozed thick red liquid and then locked my lips over the punctures and sucked.
His cock glided in and out of my heat. “That’s it, suck it. Take all you can. I’m going to give you all of me.”
I swirled my tongue over his skin and he cried out, “Fuck, Dora, I’m coming.” The next moment he sank his fangs into my shoulder just below my collar.
Deep, syncopated thrusts and he emptied inside me. At the same time, a new rush ran through me. It was as though I was feeling his orgasm, too—intense, cleansing, and satisfying. But so strange.
He stayed still for some time, allowing me to savor the fullness while he kissed my shoulder and breathed, “Beautiful.”
I sighed. Now what was I going to do? That was by far the best sex of my life, but would I be satisfied to experience it only one more time before I died? What if I could experience it forever? Could I trade one prison for another? Some options. Pushing aside my thoughts, I closed my eyes and lost myself in the feel of him. Tomorrow, I’d figure out what to do.
Chapter 9
Indulgence
Marcus was gone when I finally woke up. At some point, he had moved me to the bed. I stretched while yawning. My muscles ached, but the feeling was satisfying. I strode into the bathroom and stared at my matted hair, but my face held the glow of a well-fucked woman. Vampires… No wonder every woman wanted their turn with him. I stared at my reflection. If I were to indulge with him two more times, we would be forever connected.
I stared and examined the hollow look behind my eyes. Into that emptiness that had been there for so long. I now understood. My resentment of him wasn’t really about his promiscuity. What must it be like for him? To taste the pleasure but never savor that deep connection with someone? Like the bond I’d once had with Julian, but the warlock’s lie stripped me of my gift and left me to suffer alone. It wasn’t the hordes of women I hated Marcus for, it was the fact that I saw the same haze in his eyes as mine—a reflection, a reminder of my own misery. Whereas I suffered in silence, losing myself in books and solitude, he tried to lose himself in every woman he bedded. And if we had really met before, did I somehow recognize him, too? The mask he wore at the ball only concealed so much. Did my subconscious recognize him and my reaction was really jealousy, not disgust? I had wanted to meet that masked man again, to kiss him again. Perhaps to be his.
I blinked, turned on the water, and cupped my hands together to gather the cool liquid. I splashed it onto my face, wiping away the melancholy. Another look in the mirror. “What the fuck is wrong with me?” I get laid and all of a sudden, I’m rationalizing. “Fuck.”
*****
I stumbled through the door that lead to the library’s main floor and staggered to the counter. It was closing time, and Wendy looked as chipper as she did when she first arrived that morning.
I slumped my head onto my folded arms on the counter. “I swear I must have climbed two hundred flights of stairs today. I’m exhausted.”
She stared at me. “Actually, you only put away half as many books as you normally do. Are you feeling OK?” She tilted her head and examined me.
I sighed and closed my eyes. “I’m fine, just tired.”
She gasped. “What the hell is that on your neck?”
Oh shit. Play dumb. No one could know he was here. I ran my fingers over the place just under my collar where Marcus bit me. “What?” I touched the skin above the binding circlet too, pretending not to know what she meant to help embellish my lie.
“Are those bite marks?”
“Bite marks? No. How on Earth would I get bite marks?” I stood up. “I’d better go check it out. Might be a rash or something. See you tomorrow.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond before running to the tower door. Once on the other side, I leaned my back against the door and sighed. This was not what I needed. How could I get out of this mess?
*****
I sat on the floor of the thirteenth floor of the tower, surrounded by books. I leafed through page after page. Even if I found something that might work, I still had Baba Yaga to convince, but my endeavors were turning into a whole lot of nothing.
The light cast by the magical candle in the stairway flickered and I spun my head to look. Marcus stood tall, majestic even, in my pink, feather accented satin robe.
I let out a soft giggle. “What are you wearing?”
“Well…being nude seemed to upset you and the sheet wasn’t easy to keep up, so I hope you don’t mind I went rummaging through the closet and found this. It’s a little sexier than my usual choices, but it was the only thing I saw that would fit.”
“I think you might have to hand in your badass vampire card.”
He folded himself onto the floor beside me and leaned in to whisper in my ear. His hot breath tickled. “Even after last night?” He kissed the puncture wounds that peeked out from under my collar.
I shivered.
He sighed. “Can I make a confession?”
“Sure.”
“I…” He paused. “What are you researching?” He picked up the book and read the cover. “101 Spells to Make You Fall in Love.” He stared at me, but I concentrated on the floor. “Why are you reading this?”
I didn’t want to answer him. Embarrassment heated my cheeks. “I was mated to Julian, so from my understanding, I’ll never be able to feel that way for anyone else.”
“Do you want to feel that way for someone?”
I cleared my throat. “I wouldn’t say I want to. It’s more a need. If I can have Baba Yaga cast a spell for me, perhaps it will let me love someone again.”
He brushed my hair from my face. “Anyone you have in mind?”
On barely a whisper, I let one word drift on the air. “Yes.”
He asked, his words barely audible, “May I ask who?”
I looked up into his eyes not wanting to show him the intense fear I felt. “You.”
He wrapped his arms around me and my confession flowed with my tears. “I’m not a murderer. I’ve looked over and over for a way to undo the curse, but it’s so binding not even Baba Yaga could undo it. But she’s right. If you’re mated to me, it negates everything. I can’t kill you even with a curse and you can’t kill me if we’re bound. But I don’t want to be a prisoner, and I don’t want to be a burden. So I thought if I could be compelled to love you and you me, it might make an intolerable situation tolerable.” I sniffled and wiped my tears with the back of my hand. “Because I can’t be responsible for your death, not after all you’ve done for me.”
He unwound his arms from around me. “Look at me, Dora.”
A tear fell from my eyes and dotted the satin of the pink robe. I blinked away the salty water from
my lashes. “What?”
“Is it so hard to believe that you might fall in love without the help of magic?”
“Yes, because I was mated to Julian.”
He smiled. “Ahhhh…but Julian was a warlock. I am not.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Mating is mating.”
“See I’ve been doing a little research of my own, and under normal circumstances, that’s true. Had you been a witch and selected him as your mate, there would be only one. But you could have also as easily chosen a vampire or a were or ghost.”
“Ghost? How in the hell does someone mate with a ghost?”
“I have no bloody idea, but… Do you know one of the reasons why we’re not supposed to mate with humans?”
“Because you’re not supposed to interfere in the mortal world.”
“That’s one reason, but there is another. Because you can’t mate with us. It doesn’t stick. Most supernaturals aren’t willing to take that kind of one-sided risk. See, Julian was bound by all of the mystical forces that come with mating, but you were not. You simply loved him as any human loves another human.”
“But he did the ritual. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I read all about it.”
“The book probably left out that little tidbit about humans. It’s so strictly forbidden, it isn’t surprising the book didn’t address it. You’re not mated to Julian, but he was mated to you.”
“Well… That’s just wonderful. Now we’re both fucked because even if I figure out the love spell, the mating won’t reverse the curse if I’m immune.”
He smiled. “But you’re no longer human. You’re a witch. When Julian gave you his powers, it changed you. You are free to mate with any supernatural being you choose.”
“But—”
He cut me off. “As for your love spell…” He leaned his head in until his lips were nearly pressed against mine. “I think you are a more powerful witch than you realize. Even hampered by your collar you were able to bewitch me. Was that your plan? Because I’ve been looking for centuries for someone I felt anything more than lust for and just five minutes ago, I fell in love.” He pressed his lips against mine and the caress was soft and gentle. He breathed against my mouth. “Not in five-hundred years has anyone been so selfless. You considered my burden and are willing to spare my life by giving up your only path to peace.”
His lips lingered on the place just under my jaw. “I’d love to tell you I’m as selfless and that I’m going to decline your offer and die with you, but I’ll make you a deal.” His lips were soft and teasing against my skin. “How about I give you a reason to live?” He pulled me into his lap, reached down under my skirt, and slid my underwear to the side. A quick swipe of his fingers over my wet flesh, and he lifted me by the hips and impaled me on his cock.
I gasped.
“Tell me this doesn’t feel right? Tell me that you don’t feel the completeness I do?”
I couldn’t, but I didn’t have the courage to answer him. I closed my eyes and savored him. The only thing I could manage to say was, “If I’m fucking you, you have to lose the robe.”
He laughed, but smacked my ass, causing me to slide along his cock. With a quick tug of the string, he shrugged it from his shoulders. “Better?”
“Much.”
With his hands on my hips, he urged me to set the rhythm. “You don’t have to answer the question I asked, I will. No matter how irritating you’ve been, how angry I was at you for trapping me, or how tightly wound I’ve been around you for the past few weeks, when we made love last night, it was different. It was perfection, just as it is now.”
I had been taught for most of my upbringing to never allow sex to form a connection in my relationships, but I also knew that the supernatural world played by different rules. Forces and energy were consumers of will, changing it to something different. Making it their own. Choice was nothing more than an illusion.
“You know what this means, Dora?” He kissed the base of my throat.
I tossed my head back giving him better access. “No, I really don’t know what any of this means.”
“You were meant to be my mate.”
“So what you’re saying is that fucking the spider queen was something you were fated to do.” The slap that reverberated off my left butt cheek echoed through the room. “Hey!”
“It explains everything. Why I used to come into the library every Wednesday? I now know it was to see you.”
“You were coming there to see me?”
“Yes, I knew what I felt for you wasn’t lust, so I kept my distance. I’ve spent my whole life running from love, and I guess it took the world, or you rather, taking away my choices to finally embrace it.”
I lifted and sank down onto his cock. “But you pretended you didn’t know me.”
He moaned. “I didn’t know you. I remembered the things you made me feel, but didn’t recognize your face. You’re older. No mask. When you wouldn’t bow to me, after I took so long to work up the courage, it infuriated me. I had finally taken the chance and given into that nagging and foolish notion to come to you, and you wouldn’t even acknowledge me.”
“So you’re saying I drove you into the arms of that sexy arachnid.”
“Well…if you had obeyed…”
I leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Never.”
“Then be prepared to be punished…a lot.” He lifted his hips and drove into me before smacking my ass again.
“I should probably be upset about that.”
“Yes, you should. But I have a few other things I can have you do with that smart mouth of yours that might keep you quiet.”
“Promises, promises.” Our bodies continued to move in that slow, steady rhythm.
“Dora, watch me.” He lowered his head to my breast and lathed the skin with his tongue. He pulled back for a moment and then struck, piercing the soft skin with his fangs. With every draw of my blood, the intensity inside me grew. He sliced his fingernail across his neck, causing his blood to bubble to the surface. “Drink,” he commanded.
The moment the taste of salted chocolate touched my tongue, I was lost. Him drinking me and me drinking him with our bodies entwined completed a circuit. I trembled in his arms.
Moments later, he filled me with his pleasure and removed his fangs from my breast. Cupping my face in both hands, he said, “If you have any doubts about what I feel, know this. In five-hundred years, I’ve never given anyone my blood. It’s considered the most intimate of acts among my people and usually only done between mates, but last night there was no other choice. It’s why I refused the blood oath initially, but you are a fierce negotiator. So now you know. You fascinated me before this all started, and I’ve shared parts of me with you I’ve never given another. Why not put away your spell book and let me put you to bed?”
I stood and then bent to pick up the pink robe from the floor. I handed it to him. “Will you serve me breakfast while wearing this in the morning?”
“It doesn’t hide my erection, cooking could be hazardous.”
“Who said you’d be serving food?”
He rose from the floor and gripped my upper arms, gazing deep into my eyes. “Well…if I serve you anything else…” Worry creased his brow. “If we make love again, Dora, there is no going back. I spared you a life with me once, I’ll do again if need be, because when this is all said and done, if you’re to be by my side, I want it to be because you want to be and not because you have no other choice.” He grabbed the robe in one hand and kissed my forehead. Before I could respond, he swatted my ass.
“Hey, I didn’t swear. I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh that’s one I owe you from before. How many are you up to now? Let me think…” He stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger before pressing his lips to my ear. “Fifteen, I believe. But wait until you see how I plan to punish you for being good.”
I shivered, but then grabbed him by the arm. “When… How… I mean…�
��
He kissed my forehead again, knowing what I meant without me saying it. “When you’re ready. Everything has happened so fast. I want to give you some time to process it. To make sure it’s what you want.” He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “You know I was ready to die for you once. I’ll do it again, if that’s what you choose. Just let me know, when or if you’re ready. I’ll follow—whether it be life or death.” He grabbed my hand and led me to the stairs.
Goddamn magical forces. There wasn’t a choice. There never had been. Fuck.
Chapter 10
Naughty
Three days had passed and I got to know more about Marcus. How he became the vampire king by accident. His dislike of the governing council of witches, those early rebellious years, his love of art and music. As with anything destined, it was easy. Comforting even.
Wendy bounded through the double doors of the library. “Sorry I’m late.”
I raised my finger to my lips. “Shhhh. This is a library.”
“Sorry.” She shrugged off her coat and stowed it under the counter. “And I’m going to need to leave early.” She shot me a pleading look.
“Of course.” She rarely completed a full shift, and for the next hour or so, she tapped her fingers on the counter.
“Could you stop that please?”
“Well… Things are so slow. Wednesdays used to be the best days when his vampire hotness used to show up, but since he’s gone missing, this place is a ghost town.”
I clenched my hands at my side remembering how insanely angry I used to get seeing him leave with woman after woman. It was becoming more apparent by the moment that my distaste had always been jealousy in disguise. Had I known then he was meant to be mine? Fucking supernatural bullshit.
Wendy let out a big sigh.
