by Lucinda Dark
Torin’s eyes fucking blazed. I don’t know what I was expecting. Perhaps a “yes” or a “no,” but is that what I got? No. No the fuck it was not. What I got was a disappearing act.
I blinked as his body practically fucking vanished right before me. I looked down at where my hand had been and now … it was fucking empty. What the actual fuck? Just as soon as I had that thought, however, he was back.
The realization hit me. “Vampire fucking speed…” No sooner had the words left my mouth than Torin’s hands gripped my hips. He dragged me to the end of the bed, a square foil clenched between his teeth as he flipped me over onto my front. Palms down against the bed, I lifted up as the sound of foil tearing reached my ears.
“Comes in handy,” he said as my feet touched the floor and he nudged them slightly apart.
“Yes, it d—oh fuck!” Torin hadn’t waited—hadn’t probed or hesitated. He spread my thighs and sank into me in one smooth, forceful thrust. I slapped the mattress as my pussy tightened around him at the unexpected invasion.
“Jesus Christ.” Torin bowed over my back, his forehead pressed flat against my spine as his hips met my ass. The irony of a fucking dhampire calling for God was not lost on me. Good sex would do that to you, I supposed. And this was more than good fucking sex. It was monumental. Unnatural. Supernatural, a voice whispered in my head. Perhaps there was something more to two supernaturals having sex. I hadn’t thought to ask Satrina, but as Torin spoke through a throat thick with desire, the concerns fell away. “You feel so fucking good.” The curse slipped from him, sounding almost foreign on his tongue. He groaned as he lifted his head and withdrew his cock from me until I could only feel him at my entrance.
My head dropped back as a moan slipped from my throat. Even as my body tensed, power slithered through my veins. Satrina’s power. Fuck, I’d forgotten what sex could do to me. I opened my eyes and blinked. When had I closed them?
Fangs traced up my naked back as Torin pushed back in. I could feel every single fucking inch of him. The heat. The goddamn texture on the pads of his fingers as he dug them into my flesh. The world was brighter. The tone of the room clearer. I arched my shoulders back, my hands leaving the bed as I reached for him. My fingers glanced over his skull, cupping the back of it as I turned and captured his mouth with mine.
“Harder,” I whispered against his lips. Both a plea and a demand.
Torin didn’t make me ask again. Even as he continued to kiss me, his hips moved. He thrust into my core, using his grip on my sides to maneuver my body how he wanted. It. Was. Fucking. Magical.
My pussy tightened around him once more. Fire flooding my veins as I gasped for air. I fell back onto the bed, gripping the sheets with an uncontrollable half-scream. Torin pumped into me. Harder and harder. I could feel the sweat collecting on my back. The same dripping from him to me and I relished in it. He set a pace that would not have been possible for a human. Fast. Hard. Rough. I loved every single second of it.
A dark, sinister voice—not Satrina’s, but something completely my own—whispered that I should tear open his throat and bathe in his blood. The image was there along with a strange desire to roll around in his scent. To make him mine. To claim him. Own him. Give myself over to him.
Sex with Torin was rough, almost violent in its all-consuming haze. It was terrifying how fucking much I realized I wanted those savage actions to take place. Sharp pinpricks had me looking down at my hands. I blinked. Had my nails grown sharper? There were tears in the bedsheets. Long rips into the hotel’s moss green bedspread that revealed the crisp white sheets beneath. What was happening to me?
Torin’s hand left my hip and slid up my back and over my shoulder. Hard, undeniable fingers gripped my jaw and turned me towards him as he leaned over and kissed me again. His mouth pressed against mine, his tongue sliding into against mine. His fangs drew down over my lower lip and I felt a line of wetness rise up. Torin touched the small cut with the tip of his tongue, drawing it down over where the small amount of blood had formed in a slow and precise movement. I shivered against his chest.
“Fire and brimstone,” he whispered. “Your taste … it drives me mad.”
His hips snapped against mine sharply and catapulted me over the edge, driving me into a blinding orgasm. As it rolled through me, ripping away all coherency, I could have sworn I felt something inhuman slide down my spine beneath my skin.
I choked out another cry as Torin’s hips stilled against mine and he bent over, growling into my hair. His fangs pricked at my shoulder. I gritted my teeth against the unwanted desire that was spiraling out of control. It was a vicious need that I suddenly had. For him to bite me, to rip into my skin and imprint himself as far deep as he could go. I was practically salivating at the idea even as the very thought of him doing so scared me far worse than anything I’d ever known.
An image cropped up and it was my own face. The lower half covered in blood, the red liquid dripping from two sharp, monstrous fangs as I smiled and my eyes glowed a deep ruby red. And even as Torin slipped from between my thighs and helped me clean up, even as he urged me beneath the sheets and curled against my back—his warmth to my chilled flesh—the image remained.
Thirty-Nine
Barbie
When he slept, there was nothing about Torin that screamed ‘dangerous.’ No, in fact, when he curled against the pillow I’d managed to wedge between us as a buffer while I slowly crept out of bed, he looked almost innocent. Youthful. Like any other teenage boy. It physically hurt to stare down at him as I dressed and slipped from his room.
I’d done something irreversible. I’d thrown caution to the wind and let myself be taken in. Not just by Torin, but by Maverick as well. Revenge should have been my number one priority, but those two boys had complicated things. I shook my head as I strode down the silent hallway, heading back to my own room on the other side of the hotel.
My mind was a cluster of ‘what the fucks’ and ‘holy shits’ and I couldn’t make out what I was feeling except confused. It wasn’t until I had gotten to my room, that I finally decided to do something about my confusion. Perhaps this was as simple as actually caring about the men I’d slept with. I hadn’t cared the first time I had sex, but Torin and Maverick were different. They knew my past—my darkness—and they accepted it. When they’d found out about my demon, they’d been pissed, for sure, but they hadn’t left. They hadn’t given up on me and they weren’t dead yet.
Yet. That word slammed around my skull like a sharp boulder. Everywhere it hit left a gouging wound that seeped and reminded me what that word actually meant. They weren’t dead. Yet. But if they stayed—if they continued down the path I refused to let myself stray from and they did it with me—how long would they have left?
I was so absorbed in my own agonized thoughts that I didn’t smell the blood until it was too late. My hand on the knob, the door already partially open. The light from the hallway spilled across a scene far too familiar to my eyes. One I had hoped to avoid ever having to see again. Flashes of the same scene nearly a year ago spiraled through my mind. My mother’s prone body bleeding out in our foyer. My father’s shouts. My brother’s cold, dead eyes.
“I was wondering how long it’d take you to get back.” A pale figure dressed in an elegant pantsuit sat on the bed farthest from the doorway.
My first response was to slam the door and then upchuck everything I’d eaten in the last twenty-four hours. As much as I wanted to do that, though, I couldn’t seem to pull my gaze from Olivia’s lifeless body or the way her head lolled to one side, revealing the deep wounds in her throat. Her skull was pillowed on the woman’s lap—a familiar woman that I couldn’t quite place—but it was her neck that I was focused on. One thing was for certain. The woman was a vampire. Blood oozed from the open gouges in Olivia’s throat and at the same time dribbled over the woman’s lips as she licked her mouth clean.
Olivia… My heart squeezed tightly in my chest. She’d just been with Ben h
ours earlier. Had it truly been just hours ago? I shook my head and pushed the pain down. I shoved through the doorway and dove for the duffle bag at the end of the first bed. Mine. If I could just get to my swords, then maybe—
Olivia’s body was tossed to the side as if she were nothing more than a broken doll and cool, strong fingers gripped my wrists, stopping me from my objective. I didn’t even have to think before reacting. I reared back and slammed my forehead into the vampire’s nose. A sharp, startled cry escaped her as her hold loosened. I didn’t think about the pain I’d just caused myself. I didn’t have the luxury. Instead, I ripped myself away and snatched the zipper of my duffle. I got it halfway down and the handle of one of the swords in my grasp before she was back.
“You little bitch,” she growled, baring her bloodied fangs.
She was about to find out just how much of a bitch I could be. I jerked the blade up and slammed the handle across her cheek, knocking her away as I scrambled across the bed and down onto the floor where Olivia had landed. Ducking down and pressing my fingers to her neck, I breathed a sigh of relief. Her pulse was weak and faint, but still there. A blessing I hadn’t expected.
Claws locked into my hair and dragged me away. Arching my arm back, I slammed the pointed tip of my sword into the vampire’s thigh from behind and twisted with a bloodthirsty smile as she cursed and choked on a scream. Talons sank into my arm, going deep. Blood rushed over my skin and down to my hand. I switched grips immediately and spun out of the woman’s hold, slamming into a dresser.
Fire spread up my arm, as it throbbed in agony. When I looked down, I blinked and gagged. It wasn’t just blood—her talons had sunk past my muscle and shredded my forearm in long strips when I’d yanked myself away.
“And here I thought you’d be easy prey,” the woman said.
Raising my head, I was at least pleased to see that her leg was still smoking—the wound I’d given her not closing thanks to the blessing of my swords. “So sorry to disappoint,” I panted. Even as my body trembled in pain and sweat slicked down my spine, I dove forward. I had to ignore the pain in my arm or else Olivia and I were both dead. Swiping left and then right with the blade, the woman dodged my attacks too easily. Her leg made her slower, but only slightly. Fear took root in my chest and spread down throughout the rest of me.
Shadows appeared in the doorway behind the vampire. More. I needed to move faster. I slashed across the woman’s throat, but she was already gone. Having moved faster than my eyes could see. I needed … power… I reached for Satrina’s abilities. Fuck the consequences, I thought. Life or death. Here and now. I would kill this creature and send her back into the ether.
No, Barbie, wait! Satrina’s warning came at the same time as chains slammed down on my internal reach. The dark power I’d been seeking was abruptly yanked from the grasp of my fingertips. You can’t. Not here.
Satrina! I screamed her name. We had a deal! The fear I felt curdled into panic as two more vampires entered the room, moving to flank my enemy. Give me the power! If I didn’t have it, I was as good as dead. My eyes flashed to Olivia’s body on the ground. We both were.
Trust me, she whispered as my sword was knocked from my grasp and strong arms slammed me into a wall, locking my limbs into place. I struggled, opening my mouth on a scream for a split second before I thought better of it. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t cry for help. If I did—it would only bring more humans, more casualties. I had to protect them. I couldn’t let anyone else die here.
“Stick the fleshsack,” the woman behind the vampires holding me grit out, “and let’s get the fuck out of here. Don’t let Torin see this.”
Torin—these people—my mind raced with the knowledge. I cried out when a needle was jammed into my neck and the burn of medicine entered my system. The world grew blurry. Darkness seeped into my head. My body went slack and my limbs lost the ability to move, before I was picked up and tossed over a hard shoulder.
I’m sorry, Barbie, but this is for the best. We can’t let them know just yet… Satrina’s words were the last thing I heard as I slipped into unconsciousness. Whatever her reasons, though, if Olivia died because she’d gone back on her word, I’d find a way to rip the bitch from my soul and set her aflame.
Forty
Maverick
Burning. I was burning alive. My flesh fell off my bones in hard clumps of skin. Blood poured from my eyes. The fire raged. Fuck, it fucking hurt. Worse than anything I’d ever imagined. I couldn’t see what it was. Couldn’t smell it or feel anything but the tidal waves of heat that licked across my body. I sank into the crater of my soul as the rest of me caught fire and went up in smoke.
I was the dust in the wind…
I was the clouds in the sky…
I was nothing and everything…
I was no more and yet … immortal.
You are not immortal, a voice spoke up. One I didn’t recognize. You are merely changing.
Who the fuck are you?
There was a pause and then a low chuckle. Ahhh, the audacity of youth, how I have not missed it, the masculine tone said more to himself, I suspected, than to me. I am the being you carry with you, he said, returning his attention to me.
Being? My thoughts were muddled. I couldn’t seem to reach into my mind and remember what he was saying. It took several moments for me to remember the medallion. You’re the monster inside the medallion? I clarified.
I am, he replied. I am curious about the one my power might be granted to. Tell me, what do you seek?
That was easy, I thought. Power, I said. I need to be stronger.
Why? he asked.
Why does it fucking matter? I snapped. Will you give it to me or not?
The creature rumbled—the sound like an angry earthquake. It would do you better, child, to know your tongue and to whom you wield it against. With my medallion comes a great price. I want to know what you will pay to gain the power you seek and what you will do once you have it. Many men much braver than you have come before and fallen under the weight of my abilities. They have been crushed in the avalanche of my flame and torn asunder by my claws. Will you be the same and be crushed or will you burn with the flames and be reborn?
In my consciousness, I couldn’t escape his mad fucking rambles, nor could I understand a lick of it. I just want power, I said, to protect those I care about. I have to protect… I let my words drift off. I didn’t want to say her name. I couldn’t say why, but to admit that I was willing to go this far for one person was a terrifying thought.
There was a beat of silence, and then he said, Interesting.
I didn’t know what that meant. So? I pressed. Will you give it to me?
I will think on it, the voice replied.
Think on it? I wondered. What was there to think about? He would either give me the fucking power I needed, the kind I sought or he wouldn’t. It wasn’t goddamn rocket science.
No, he replied—having obviously heard my thoughts—it is far more dangerous than the science that has taken the modern world. Everything has rules, but unlike science, when you break the rules of magic—the consequences extend beyond life and death. Think on that a bit more when you wake.
When I woke…?
The door to my hotel room slammed open and I jerked up in bed. The light was flipped on, and Torin stood in the doorway. “Fucking Christ!” I snapped, shielding my eyes. “Tell me you didn’t fucking run naked through the goddamn hotel?”
“Is Barbie here?” Torin’s voice was raw and as I looked back at him, it was only then that I saw the pallor of his face. I thrust the covers off me and stood up.
I snatched up a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from my opened bag and thrust them at him before checking the hallway. Closing the door and flipping the lock I turned back to him just as he was sliding the shirt over his head. “No, Barbie’s not here,” I said, gesturing around the room. “Obviously.”
“I’m sorry for startling you.” He sucked in a breath and released
it. “I had a strange dream and I don’t know what came over me.”
“That makes two of us,” I muttered more to myself.
He frowned my way. “What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Come on, we’ll check her room.”
Torin nodded and then waited as I grabbed a pair of jeans as well before leaving the room. As we strode down the hall, I turned and looked at Torin out of the corner of my eyes. “Is there something you want to say?” he asked, keeping his head facing forward.
I huffed out a breath. “Not at all,” I said. Barbie’s door came into view. I quickened my step a split second before Torin’s hand shot out and locked on my elbow, drawing me up short. I scowled as I looked back at him. “What the hell are—” I stopped, mid-sentence, at the expression on his face. His eyes were blown wide, red glowing from the depths.
“I smell blood.” He whispered the words and then abruptly dropped my arm and disappeared. I turned, finding him already several paces away—at Barbie’s door. He shoved the thing open and I took off running, heading for him. I skidded to a stop just inside the room.
Torin was bent over Barbie’s friend—Olivia, I recalled. Her face was pale and her throat was obviously torn. “Is she…?” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to know.
“She’s alive,” he grunted. “Just barely. Call an ambulance.”
I’d already dialed the wrong number and pressed send before I remembered that we weren’t in fucking America. Quickly hitting the red button, I looked up the emergency number for Italy and dialed that, relaying all of the information we had—there was an American student who’d been attacked—to the woman on the phone. I was giving her the hotel address when Torin abruptly jerked his head up and flashed to the doorway, shoving me forward before disappearing into the hall and slamming the door behind him.
“The fuck?”
“Sir, can you stay on the line? Sir?”
