by Lucinda Dark
“Barbie?” His gruff voice was tight, tense. As if he was working hard to control himself.
Why had I come in here originally? I wondered. It wasn’t for this. What would make me … I stopped and bit down on my lip hard as my eyes opened. “Satrina,” I cursed. Feminine laughter echoed in my head.
“I’m sorry?” Maverick’s head backed up until he could see my face. “Did you just say someone else’s fucking name while you’re under me?”
I shook my head. Oh dear, Satrina giggled. Look who you’ve managed to piss off. And it was just getting good, too.
“Shut up, you stupid bitch,” I growled. Fury climbed up my chest and deepened my voice further. That explained my sudden overblown desires. She told me to have sex and now she was trying to force the issue.
“Excuse me?”
I blinked. Shit. I hadn’t even realized I’d said that out loud. “Not you,” I said quickly as Maverick backed away from me, sitting back on his heels. I reached up and pulled my shirt back down, a light blush rolling across my face. I swallowed. “I’m so sorry—” Maverick’s fists punched the floor as his whole body hunched forward. “Maverick? Are you okay?” I reached for him.
“Don’t,” he snapped. My hands froze inches from his shoulders. “Don’t fucking touch me right now.”
“I’m sorry—”
“I don’t want your damn apology, Barbie,” he said.
“You don’t understand,” I tried. “I never meant to—”
“It doesn’t matter what you fucking meant,” he interrupted. “Do you have any clue what we almost just did?”
“We can’t.” As much as I meant it, my voice didn’t happen to agree with me. It came out quiet, almost a whisper.
His head jerked up. Angry eyes glared at me. “You think I don’t fucking know that?” he snapped. “For fuck’s sake, Barbie. You can’t just come onto a guy and not expect...” He lifted an arm and gestured. My eyes moved down, widening as I saw the tent of his gym shorts. They left very little to the imagination. “Barbie,” he barked.
“Sorry!” I snapped my head to the side, looking away.
“Jesus Fucking Christ.” Slowly, he rose to his feet, leaving me there on the floor, my legs slightly spread, my sleep shirt covering only the bare essentials. “You’re about to become my fucking sister,” he growled out.
“What?” That had my attention. I looked up at him, my mouth agape.
He rolled his eyes. “You thought I didn’t know?” he asked, his hands moving to his hips. “I know my parents offered to adopt you.”
Conscious of the wetness still between my thighs, I gingerly got to my feet and took a few steps away, eyeing him with caution. “I’m not going to become your sister,” I said.
“You’re not going to let them?” he asked.
I shook my head. How the fuck could he think that? “No, of course not.”
“Is that why you came here tonight then? Because it’s okay for you to try and seduce me?” he asked. His brows puckered. His abdomen rippled with movement as he strode away only to stop and turn back and look at me over his shoulder. “What would you even get out of it?”
“That’s not why I came in here,” I repeated.
“Then how do you explain that?” Maverick turned to face me fully once more.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said.
“No shit!” Maverick spun and stalked forward. Unconsciously, I backed up, only stopping when my spine touched the wall and he was breathing over me, his naked chest shining. I tipped my head back and met his glare head on. “Of course it’s not my fucking fault,” he seethed. “Any beautiful fucking girl walking in after a workout would get me just as worked up.” His arms came down on either side of me. “Don’t think you’re fucking special just because you got me hard, Princess.”
The comment sliced through my chest, but in an effort to disguise how much it hurt, I did nothing but arch my brow at him. “Why’s that, asshole?” I challenged.
His smile was all sharp edges and cruelty. “Just because I want to fuck you into this wall doesn’t mean I ever will. You can beg and plead just like you did tonight, but the reality is you’re not that hard to resist. You’re like a fucking siren. Gorgeous on the outside with razor sharp teeth. If I stuck my dick inside you, I’d come away bloody. You’re that dangerous. A pretty little demon.”
I shoved him back. His words struck a chord within me. Bloody. Pretty little demon. Why’d he have to fucking say it like that? I wanted to vomit. “Get the fuck off me,” I growled.
Maverick stepped to the side. I didn’t wait. I just ran. I darted from the room and didn’t stop until I was back in my bedroom with the door closed tightly behind me and my back pressed to it. Pretty little demon.
Yeah, I was. And there was no going back. The thing was, even with the fucked up desire Satrina pumped within my veins, I liked it. I liked the power. I looked down at my hand and squeezed it into a fist. Before I could think better of it, I shoved that fist through the nearest wall. It went through so easily, like punching through foam. Plaster rained down at my feet. I didn’t feel it at all. It didn’t hurt.
Yeah, I made a deal with a demon and I fucking liked it. What was so wrong about that?
Nine
Torin
Sunlight illuminated my surroundings as I left the plane and made my way across the private airfield towards the hangar. Human employees milled about, but I watched them anyway. Suspicious. Distrustful. I'd never felt particularly safe with Arrius or his underlings before, not even as a child, but now—after the last four weeks—I was even more on edge.
I studied the movements of the people around me with sharpened senses as I strode towards the open hangar doors to the bike that I'd called ahead for and had waiting for me. There was no possible way for Katalin to be waiting for me and I wasn't quite sure if I could handle being cooped up in a car at the moment. The interior of the plane, though lavish and clean, had felt just as much like a cage as my father's English mansion and Eloise's metal bands.
Reaching down, I absently rubbed my wrists. The bruises had faded quickly upon being given blood. The bones I had broken in my madness had mended. But the memories were still fresh. Every grinding second of the torture of the last few weeks was imprinted in my mind.
I bypassed anyone that might stop me. Officials. Workers. It didn't matter. I headed for the bike and found the keys in the ignition just as I had requested them. I tightened the straps of my bag on my back and slung one thigh over the body of the motorcycle. Turning the key, it roared to life. Something moved within my flesh, hissing at the brightness of the burning sun as I kicked the stand up and pressed down on the accelerator. I left the cover of the hangar and drove past the people as I steered towards the road leading into town.
I gripped the handles of the bike and leaned over the fuel tank. The machine rumbled and growled beneath me as I forced it to go faster. Wind whipped over my cheeks and through the hair that had grown longer at the top of my head, the strands twisting into my line of vision. No matter that it was warmer here than it had been in England, I was chilled to the bone, frozen to my very core.
My skin stretched too tight over my body. I was merely a container, a prison for a much more powerful being slithering beneath my flesh. My muscles tightened with the restriction this human body presented. Denied blood for so long—even if I was fed now—had left my vampire room to move closer to the surface. Once he had been set free for such an extended amount of time, it was harder than ever to suppress him. My blood cravings had grown. Even as I headed back into town, I didn't feel like the same person who had left. I was darker somehow. More destructive. Hungrier.
The handles of the bike groaned under the pressure I was exerting, threatening to break. I loosened my grip as I blew past a sign. Blue and red lights flashed in my rearview mirror. I had no time to deal with this. I needed to get back. I needed to find her.
As close as Eloise had watched me over the last few weeks
, she hadn't picked up on what allowing my vampire so close to the surface had done for me. I focused on the reflection of the cop car in the side mirror, letting his power fill me. It stretched through my veins, the slow crawl of lava over vast lands. Steady. Quiet. But no less potent. Unstoppable. With mild effort, I slid into the mind of the man gaining on me and erased his memory of me. There was a minor resistance so futile it was almost laughable.
I delved deeper and let a fog fill his head, confusion came through the mental link as murky as a dirty pond. The flashing lights went out. The cop car slowed down. He wouldn't even remember that he was chasing someone, much less that he'd seen a speeding man flying down the highway. I turned the handle and pressed my foot down harder until the pedal whined at my harshness.
The bike bolted forward, going faster. Flying.
Less than thirty minutes later, almost half the time it should have taken to return from the airfield, I pulled up outside the Priest Mansion and cut the engine off. The doors opened and an older man exited to hold them open. I shoved the kickstand down, swung my leg over the bike, and took the steps two at a time.
“Where is she?” I barked, not caring that I sounded like an asshole.
The man ducked his head. “Madam Katalin is in the library,” he answered quietly.
I didn’t stop to thank him or respond; I headed for the staircase leading up to the library and I found what I was looking for minutes later.
Chest lifting and falling with the strength of my breaths, I stopped in the doorway. My gaze flicked briefly to the metal shutters covering the windows and then back to where Katalin sat, a book in her lap. Her head lifted. Her gaze met mine.
“Did you know?” I didn’t stop to think of the consequences of her answer. I just blurted it out and hoped—fucking prayed that she had no clue what I was walking into when she told me Arrius had sent for me a month ago. “Tell me you didn’t,” I ordered. “Tell me I have no reason to rip your head from your shoulders.” I wouldn’t like it but my vampire would. His bloodlust roused, his fury rose up beneath my skin.
Katalin’s book closed with a quiet noise and she set the volume to the side as she stood up. Her eyes searched over me, roving over my body as if she could pinpoint everything that had been done. All that I had been through in the last four weeks. “I didn’t know.”
Relief coursed through me. So hard and fast my own breath seized and stuttered in my chest, stopping altogether. Though she had warned me not to trust her, the fact still stood—I saw this woman as my sister, as a substitute mother. She had raised me, cared for me, trained me, and helped me to understand my vampire. I released a breath.
She met my gaze once more and moved forward, her hands lifting as she ran them down my arms. I jerked at the electricity of her power. “Stay calm,” she urged. “I’m just checking you over. I want to see how much damage they might have—” She stopped, her eyes widening as they darted back to mine.
“What?” I demanded. “What is it?”
“How close is your vampire?” she asked.
I clenched my hands into fists. “Very close.”
She swallowed reflexively and took a step back, her hands leaving me. “That’s to be expected,” she said quietly. “When we are threatened or hungry, the vampire side will take over. You’ll need to keep up your blood intake for a while. At least a few months. How long—”
“Almost two weeks,” I answered her unfinished question. He’d been in charge, completely dominant for nearly fourteen days. The effects were still ringing throughout my body.
Her lips parted and she shook her head. “I wouldn’t recommend going back to school in your condition,” she stated. “The hunger will be greater the longer you remain around humans. You may also find your senses have heightened.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’ve got it under control.”
“Torin.” Katalin’s tone was razor sharp. I paused, half-turned back to the threshold. “Was there anything else?”
I chose my words carefully, unwilling to lie but at the same time, the whole truth would be dangerous. Katalin was as loyal as she could be, but in the end, she was nothing more than another one of Arrius’ puppets. She would do what he ordered because to refuse would result in her death. I had to be cautious for both our sakes.
“They didn’t discover anything else,” I said.
She watched me, and even now that her hands were gone from my skin, the prickle of her searching magic moved against me, over me, sensing for a lie—detecting the rate of my heartbeat, the sweat in my pores. Anything and everything. When it seemed she was satisfied, she nodded and turned away.
I stepped back into the hallway, stopping only when her voice followed me out, her words just as deliberately constructed as mine had been. “Before you go, you should be made aware. There has been a rash of raids in the local area,” she said. “Minor vampires who’ve succumbed to their bloodlust have been targeted and taken out. Another vampire hunter, it seems.” I said nothing as I waited for her to finish. “Watch your back, Torin.”
Ten
Barbie
“He’s back!” Olivia’s shriek rattled my fucking eardrums and made me want to turn and punch her in the mouth. It took every ounce of my strength not to turn and do exactly that as she came screeching to a halt at my side. “Did you hear me?” she asked with breathless excitement.
“I think everyone in the state heard you,” I said, starting forward once more, squeezing the books in my arms to keep from doing something stupid. My skin felt alive—electrified. Like at any moment, I was going to start climbing the walls or lighting things on fire. It had been present ever since the night before when Maverick and I had nearly … I shook my head and tore myself away from the thoughts and memories of what would never be. But at the same time, my stomach practically cramped with the need rolling through me.
“Did you know?” Olivia asked. “You had to have known. He’s looking for you.”
“Know what?” I asked absently as I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. This day was going to be a hellishly long one. I could already tell. “Who’s looking for me?”
“Torin is!”
I stopped so fast one of the girls trailing after us slammed into my back. “Bitch! Watch where—” I turned and leveled her with a glare, stopping her bitchy comment in a nanosecond. Her friend—a shorter girl in a bright yellow t-shirt—widened her eyes, snatched her friend’s arm and dragged her around me. As they sprinted for their own class, the final bell for third period rang, announcing the fact that everyone left standing in the hall was late.
I looked down at Olivia, whose own expression was shocked. Her eyebrows neared her hairline and her mouth gaped open. “Where is he?” I demanded. I wasn’t going to class.
She took a hesitant step back. “I just saw him in the library,” she said.
I didn’t stop to thank her or apologize for my behavior. I turned and headed for the library. Without a mirror, I couldn’t see my own expression, but from the way people gave me wide berth as I made my way through the hallway, I was certain that it wasn’t friendly.
When I reached the library doors, I spotted the top of a familiar head over the bookshelves. Snatching the door handle, I yanked it open and strode through the book detectors, my feet eating up the distance with remarkable speed. I dropped my books into my bag and left it on one of the couches as I passed and kept going. Rounding the bookshelf, I saw him. For the first time in four weeks, Torin was in front of me.
His hair had grown slightly longer and if I wasn’t mistaken, he looked skinnier—as if he hadn’t been eating properly. But his face was still as chiseled and unreadable as ever as he looked up from the book he was holding.
“Barbie—”
“Where the fuck have you been?” I hissed. If he was surprised by the level of animosity that question had, he didn’t show it.
Slowly, he lowered the book and closed it. “England,” he answered, sliding the book back into
its place on the shelf.
I strode forward another few steps, until I was right in front of him. Touching distance. My mouth watered. I tried to ignore it. “For a whole fucking month?” I stared at where the edge of his shirt hung low, baring a hint of his collarbone. My thighs clenched in need. With my heightened senses, I could smell every nuance of his scent. Need pulsed within me. He smelled so fucking good.
Torin watched me with cautious curiosity. No, they weren’t completely hazel today. The swirl of brown in the normally mixed colors was darker, more prominent today. “I wanted to come back earlier,” he said quietly, “but it wasn’t possible.” His arms flexed, and my eyes were drawn to the muscles in his biceps as they stretched the sleeve of his shirt. I licked my lips. He stepped forward, his gaze roving over me. “Barbie? Are you okay? You smell…” He paused, leaning forward, sniffing the air around me, his nostrils flaring and his jaw hardening. “Why do you smell like sulfur?”
My eyelids drooped as I stared at him. “You told me I smelled like fire and chocolate,” I mumbled absently, fog rolling into my head. Or rather, his vampire had. In the sex dream that had happened months ago. Perhaps, he didn’t remember.
“What?” He blinked. I took a step forward and stumbled. Torin reached out and caught me against his chest. I inhaled and found myself nuzzling into the softness of his shirt.
Fuck, what was I doing? I pulled away, but doing so felt like I was ripping every piece of flesh from my bones. It physically hurt to remove myself from him. I slumped back against the opposite bookshelf, panting. I would have crumbled straight to the ground had it not been for his arms.
“Barbie?” Torin’s eyes darkened as he looked down at me. “You little fool,” he hissed as he pressed his nose to the top of my head and inhaled again. “What have you done?”
