by Ruby Raine
“Lisbeth, please do not tempt me.”
“Am I tempting?” She let a seductive smile spread across her lips. She left him, continuing on her walk.
William followed. A few paces behind.
Lizzy slowed her pace, turning toward the beach. She let out an excited squeal as her bare feet stepped into the cool sand. She let it squish between her toes, feeling every grain rub against her skin.
Waves crashed gently onto the shore and she looked eagerly out across the water. Clouds were building overhead, the moon just a shadow.
“I’m going for a swim,” she said, with a slight turn of her head.
William followed, silently. Stalking his victim... his willing victim.
Lizzy reached the shoreline and stepped into the chilling waters of the Atlantic.
William watched, barely able to contain himself as she shimmied out of her dress, leaving it on the beach. Her long locks fell to the middle of her back, just meeting her tiny waist.
She walked deeper into the water, stepping gently, releasing a moan of pure pleasure as the water licked at her warmed skin. She turned her head, glancing sideways.
“Are you coming, William? Or does the monster want me to beg?”
William’s eyes blazed black.
He should not be here. He should be leaving.
But his body would only move forward, toward her.
“I might hurt you,” his voice taunted in her ear.
She gasped, his cold skin pressing against her back. “That was... fast.”
“I am a vampire.” He spoke it as a final warning.
Water splashed against her stomach, but the frigid Atlantic did nothing to cool the heated pulses burning her up inside. So long. So very long since feeling the touch of another human.
William sucked in the lust. The smell sticking in his throat. It wasn’t as inviting as Melinda. Just thinking her name shot frustration surging through him. He snaked his arms around Lizzy, ensnaring her breasts underneath his icy skin. He ground into her hardened peaks, reliving another of Melinda’s dreams of him. The body ensnared wasn’t the body he desired.
No. But she was a willing victim.
He pulled Lizzy into his iced hardness.
His teeth seethed against the skin on Lizzy’s shoulder over to the base of her neck.
A shuddering moan came out of Lizzy striking a hot poker into his chest.
William went still.
Waves splashed against them.
His eyes froze on two puncture wounds on Lizzy’s neck.
He hadn’t done that. Yet they looked recent, a few days old he guessed.
“You’ve been bitten.”
“Yes.” She swallowed hard.
“I don’t understand.”
“My... my fiancé. Before I was turned into a ghast.”
“Your fiancé was a vampire?”
“Yes. It’s why I was turned into a ghast. The other woman, she wanted him for herself. She wanted him to turn her.”
William’s hands fell to his sides. His world spinning. There had been another vampire on the Isle, long before him, and was engaged to this woman. Had he planned on turning Lizzy into a vampire? Was she just wanting him to finish what her fiancé could not? He stepped back a little.
Lizzy turned and looked up at him.
His gaze a torrent of confusion. Repulsion. Desire. Need. Fear. Confusion.
“You said,” William stopped. “You said your fiancé killed himself. Jumped off the cliff. We cannot die that way.”
“You can if the sun is rising. And you’re not protected from the sun like you seem to be.” Tears swam in her eyes. “He jumped just as the sun rose. Burned...” She reached out and stroked William’s chest but dropped her hand when she started to shake. “There was nothing but ash to swim in the ocean below that cliff.”
“Was he going to turn you?”
“No. No. We were going to be married. But he wasn’t going to turn me.”
“I don’t see how that could work.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t have. We never had the chance to find out. I only know I loved him and was willing to try.”
“Did he drink from humans?”
“Yes. Until I helped him stop.”
“You?”
“Yes.” She dropped her head. “He was good. At least he was trying to be. I think he would have succeeded if he’d lived.”
“I’m sorry you lost him.”
She looked into William’s eyes. “He told me. Warned me. But I didn’t believe him.”
“Told you what?”
“That if he ever lost me, he’d be forced to take his own life. He told me he thought he’d been in love before, but not until he’d met me did he realize he hadn’t truly. I didn’t believe him. But it was true. After I was gone he just... shattered. Became a shadow of himself.”
The meaning behind this warning plagued him. Was this true? He’d thought he’d been in love before. Had he not been? Was it possible after hundreds of years as a vampire, there were still things he hadn’t discovered about his kind?
Lizzy spoke, barely audible above the crashing of the waves, which grew more violent as a storm built over the Isle. But William could hear her perfectly.
“I thought once I was back in my body, I would move forward. That I’d just be able to live. I thought I’d mourned my losses so many years ago. But now that I’m back in my skin, it’s like this wound.” She reached up to the healing punctures on her neck. “It’s still fresh. Still healing. Like it all just happened. Like I just watched him burn. Like I just lost everyone I loved. I... I didn’t think it would be like this.” Her chest heaved. Her eyes tugging at his, begging him to make her human again, in a way only he could.
William peered down at her. Seeing her for what she really was.
Not a ghast. Not a Deane. Or a witch.
A woman. Who’d lost everything.
Who’d never properly been able to mourn that loss. Who’d loved a vampire, and now the intensity of the loss drowned her in a need so deep she’d die trying to satiate that need. To feel anything other than alone, and numb, like a thing going through the motions of life, but not really living it. Not ever feeling it.
Something only he would understand.
Darkness returned to his eyes.
The monster fed off her anguish.
It needed to ravage. To devour, without restraint.
In a single swift movement, he lifted Lizzy out of the water.
With a gasp she landed on the beach, her hands and knees digging into the sand. Chilling strength pressed into her backside. She turned her head to see him behind her.
His eyes warned they’d gone past the point of turning back.
“You want to feel something?” William’s voice was dark, almost a growl.
“Yes,” she urged.
“Then I’ll fuck you until you beg me to feel nothing.” He plunged himself inside her emptiness. Filling her with all of his own.
No foreplay. No feeling her to see if she was wet, or ready for him.
He needed release.
She needed to feel. To hurt.
But he shouldn’t hurt her. Not too much, his darkness savored wickedly.
He pulled out, sinking into her again. Stretching her.
Her hands dug into the sand, which soaked up a demanding exhale.
His eyes trailed along her back, following the pulsing veins gushing to her heart.
Crisp breath rushed through William’s teeth. Fangs pushed against his lips getting longer, pinching his bottom lip. Frigid hands gripped her thighs pulling her into each frosty thrust. Each attack entombing him deeper and deeper.
Lizzy gasped, gripping into the sand. “More,” she ordered greedily.
William slid his left hand down her back, pressing her shoulders into the sand. Opening her, allowing him deeper entry. Filling her completely. The movement of his thrusts scraped her hardened buds across the sand. It stung. And burned. And shot waves of
pleasure down to her core.
She pushed out a fevered moan. He snarled, increasing his speed.
“More William. Please. I need everything.”
If he gave her more of himself he might inflict permanent damage. He pulled out of her and in a flashing movement was on his feet snatching Lizzy off the ground. Her body spun in his arms, her back pinned against a rock a few feet away. His icy shaft pushed deep inside her. No break to catch her breath from the sudden movement. Rock scratched at her back. Fangs grazed her neck, threatening, but not biting.
He slowed his rhythm, each draw deliberate and meant to torment.
His mouth trailed down to the curve of her breast. She arched into him, enticing him to bite her.
“Beg me.” The monster needed to hear her plead for it. The points of his teeth plucked at her nipple. Her body begged for release. Every thrust got her closer. But it wasn’t enough.
“Bite me,” she pleaded, her voice thick.
“Here?” he nipped at her hard bud.
“Oh God. Yes. I mean no.”
His mouth traveled to the other side, his fangs grazing and pinching from base to peak. “Here?” He captured her peak, torturing it with his teeth. A shudder ripped through Lizzy. Her body tightened underneath him.
William released his teeth, nipping his way back to her neck. She arched into him, her body begging him to do it.
“Please, William. Bite me.”
Her delicate skin gave way with ease. A slight punch when his teeth sank into her vein. Lizzy cried out. Nerves exploded. Blackness squeezed out her vision.
The rush of life teased his fangs. Coating his tongue and throat in heavenly heated rust. And lust. The sweet red syrup screaming into his veins.
The icy rocket between her legs charged inside a few more times, its pent up release a quaking vibration that rippled outward. William freed her neck, throwing his head into the air. His breath a euphoric fury.
Angry waves washed up against the shore, stabbing at William’s legs.
Lizzy leaned against the rock, her breathing ragged.
The sky was black. No stars. No moon.
A bead of rain hit William’s face. Followed by another.
He looked down at Lizzy splayed against the rock in front of him. His tongue licked the succulent slick covering his fangs. “I’m not done eating yet.”
“I’m not begging you to stop yet.”
Rain dripped harder.
Lizzy reached out and traced his lips with her fingers; blood, her blood, dripped in wet streams down her hand. Down his neck, splattering onto his chest.
The rain beat down, a full downpour biting at their skin.
Ice flared to life, breaching her heat. She writhed against him, encouraging him deeper. But he withdrew the ice leaving her hot and wet. And empty.
A whimper escaped Lizzy.
The coal in his eyes narrowed. “I warned you I wasn’t done eating yet.”
He dropped to his knees. His strength pinning her legs to the rock.
An arctic impact lashed at her lust. She bucked sucking in through her teeth, pushing out a frantic moan. William curled his lips, his tongue igniting her desire. His hands pressed her legs open. She couldn’t have escaped his grasp if her life depended on it.
He tore away from her pleasure, leaving her open to him.
“Please don’t stop, William.”
The desperation in her voice fed the predator. His lips drew across her inner thigh. Fangs pinching deep, but not breaking through. Rain pelted their skin. To Lizzy, each drop sizzled, setting fire to another nerve.
William denied her the climax she wanted so badly, the monster needing her to beg him. He teased, nuzzling her thighs, tickling her core. Nipping in playful tugs.
The rain lessened. The storm slowing.
The summer heat settled around them, steaming the rocks as the cool rain evaporated.
“Please,” she begged him. “Please. I need more.”
William snarled, her pleas quenching the monster’s need. He pulled her body down in front of him, her legs straddling him. He taunted her center, nudging his unyielding ice just inside. She pressed down with all her might; what she wanted out of reach. He was too strong. And denying her.
She pounded her hands onto his shoulders digging in with her fingernails. It did nothing against his hard vampire skin.
“Why do you want it?” William taunted her entrance, not giving in. “Tell me why you want it.”
“Because I need it.”
“Not good enough. Why?”
“I need to have it. I need to feel.”
He let her slide down just a little further, but then pulled out.
“Still not good enough. Why?” His tone demanded her to spill, or the consequence would be severe.
“Because I’m fucking pissed. Because I lost everything. My life was stolen,” she cried her last words. Tears streaked down her rain-washed faced.
“Tell me everything.” William’s voice came out in strained exhales. He couldn’t hold out much longer. His darkness fed on her pain.
Lizzy leaned her head against his shoulder. “I can’t.”
“You cannot heal until you hurt.”
“I... I’m to blame. It’s my fault I lost him. My fault he died.” Lizzy spoke of the fiancé she’d lost so long ago. “The witch warned me she’d try to steal him. I didn’t believe her.” She sobbed. “I didn’t believe her. I could have stopped her. And when she couldn’t take him from me, she stole me away from him. And it killed him.” She lifted her head and let out an impassioned cry. “I killed him.”
William slammed her down over the ice, burning and stretching her to the limit.
She cried out in pleasure and pain.
“If you want more, keep talking,” William warned.
She swallowed, her voice weak. “My friends, my family, they wrote me off believing I’d thrown myself over that cliff. They believed I’d do such a cowardly thing. How could they? How could they?” she whimpered. “And they just forget me. Like I never existed.”
William groaned, drawing from her pain. His hands gripped her thighs tighter with each stroke.
Lizzy sobbed bitterly. “And that bitch. She didn’t pay. She didn’t suffer. No one ever found out what she did. She got to live her life. She didn’t die until she was ninety fucking years old!”
Lizzy’s body seized, pressure building. Stars burst in front of her eyes transforming into black splotches. “William,” she called out. Her head tossed back, her hair dripping in wet ringlets behind her.
A splattering of ice shattered her heat. William groaned in the effort. Waves of fire ravaged through her body smoldering into a contented warmth. Her head fell forward. Her body weakened. Spent.
For a moment, they didn’t speak or move.
Just breathed.
Just were.
Lizzy’s chin lifted, William’s touch gentle.
“The witch did get what she deserved, Lisbeth.”
She searched the darkness in his eyes for what he meant.
“She died. She grew old and withered away into nothing. She never got her greatest desire, and her short human life was stripped from her. You got a chance to live yours again. You did not lose everything.”
The pain in Lizzy’s chest lightened.
He was right.
“It’s not the life you should have lived, Lisbeth. But live it now. Live the hell out of each day and if she’s watching you from whatever afterlife hell she’s stuck in, let her wallow in the misery that she did not win.”
A mindful satisfaction forged across Lizzy’s tear stained face. A sensation of wholeness returning to her soul. The final step to returning to her human form. The grief abated. She’d let the tide carry it out to sea.
William closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers.
The predator crept back into hiding. The darkness retreating. It had gotten what it wanted, mostly. Enough to satiate the beast, for now. To calm t
he carnal cravings that had been building inside him and driving him to madness.
Tomorrow. That was a different story. He’d have to lock himself away after drinking human blood. Fresh human blood. But for this moment, just a brief moment, he could just be a man. A man mending a broken soul.
There was no hope for his own.
Moist lips pressed against his own and released.
He pulled back and opened his eyes.
“Thank you,” Lizzy whispered. “I know vampires don’t really enjoy kissing, but I am a human.”
“Kissing is intimate. Something people in love do. Not vampires.”
“My fiancé told me he’d never really kissed a woman before me. He’d never wanted to.”
There was only one pair of lips William wanted.
“You do love someone, don’t you?” She spoke as if she knew, but preferred he told her so, himself. He said nothing.
“Now look who’s being stubborn.”
“Conversation for another day.” He had no intention of following through with it.
She pulled herself off his body, kneeling in the sand in front of him. “Would you mind dashing out to the beach and grabbing our clothes?”
“So modest all of a sudden.”
“Actually, I’m not sure I can walk quite yet. I think you wrecked me.”
His eyes widened. “I didn’t hurt you badly, did I?”
“Just enough.” She winked.
He shook his head. “I did try to restrain myself.”
A rather sick pairing they made.
William disappeared, leaving a flash of sand in his wake, returning just a second later. He’d already dressed.
“Should I carry you home?” He helped her off the ground, sliding the summer dress over her head.
“No. I’m going to sit on the beach for a bit. I’d forgotten what air feels like. To have the ocean mist spray against my skin. The rain... for too long I could only hear the waves. Hear the wind. To feel it again,” she let out a languid sigh.
He sensed she wanted to be alone.
“Good night, Lisbeth.”
“Good night, William.”
He dashed out of sight, slowing his pace. Choosing to walk deliberately back to the mansion. What excuse would he give for locking himself away for the night? Or for the next day. After the blood craving kicked in.
It didn’t matter. The moment of surrender was worth the quiet filling his mind. It satisfied the predator, which slept soundly once again. He could return to his life of control and bask in the serenity before the return of chaos.
