Forever Kisses Volume 1

by Angela Knight

  “You won’t. Besides, even if you did, I could heal it.” His hand urged her closer again until her lips brushed his strong throat. The sigh of his blood seemed to call her.

  Closing her eyes, she opened her mouth and tried to put her teeth against him. But her fangs were longer than the teeth she was used to, and she had to widen her jaws further until she could press the points into his skin.

  Two tantalizing drops slid into her mouth, but that was all. Frustrated, she drew harder.

  She heard a deep rumble under her mouth as Cade chuckled, then his hand tightened on her head, moving it to shift her teeth fractionally. Blood poured into her mouth. “You have to widen the punctures to get anything,” he told her.

  She barely absorbed the information, too entranced by the alien flavor spilling over her tongue. She’d tasted his blood before, of course, but it was even better now -- hot, spicy, intoxicating. She drank greedily, wanting more.

  Cade moaned and stiffened under her. The link snapped into place between them with such intensity her eyes widened. She felt the sudden lust that swamped him at her touch, her mouth on his skin. An echoing desire blazed through her. He reached down and unzipped his jeans with one hand as he reached under the hem of her shirt to the panties that were all she wore with them.

  And ripped the scrap of lace right in two.

  Cade rolled her under him without breaking her hold on his throat and settled between her thighs. Smoothly, he thrust into her. She was so ready for him, he slid inside like a knife into whipped cream. She threw her legs across his narrow rump and hooked her ankles together, then held on as he began to drive, moving with short, hungry strokes that matched the starving pull of her mouth on his throat.

  He groaned as she hummed against his skin, her head spinning with the shared pleasure of his touch, his size, her own slick, tight grip. They came at the same instant, fused in a hot explosion that detonated in her skull like a bomb.

  When it was over, she gently released her grip on his throat as he slowly slid out of her. “Yeah,” he croaked. “I could do that for another three hundred years.”

  Remembering the dream, she just hoped he’d have the chance.

  * * *

  Val had thought her senses were acute before, but now each sensation was so much more powerful, even the most mundane act became a sensual assault. Colors were brighter, more vivid, smells stronger, sounds louder. When they took a shower together, every touch of Cade’s hands, his mouth, his big body -- it all made her shake with need.

  They made love again, but she held off on drinking from him; she saw from his thoughts he’d need to go out hunting as it was.

  “Besides,” Cade told her as he got up to dress, “I have to get things straightened out with the cops so we can go home.”

  “That’s not going to be easy,” Val warned him, speaking from years of experience as a police-beat reporter. “They’re going to want to know why it took you so long to check in. It’s pretty damn obvious those mercenaries broke into the house planning to kill the occupants, so you probably won’t be charged. But I’d be prepared for some tough questions if I were you.”

  “I am,” Cade told her, tugging on his shirt. “I’ll even have the answers.”

  She gave him a dry look. “As soon as you can think some up.”

  “Well, I can’t exactly tell the truth, can I?” He grinned and sauntered toward the door.

  “Bring me a change of clothes when you come back,” Val called as he stepped outside. “I’m definitely ready to part company with these shorts.”

  Cade looked over his shoulder and gave her a wicked smile. “In that case, I’ll hurry.”

  As the door closed behind him, Val chuckled. And grimaced as the smell of old sweat. “Okay, that’s it. I don’t care if he does bring me a change of clothes, this outfit is getting washed. I can’t stand to be in the same area code with it.”

  * * *

  She was ankle deep in water, wringing out her shorts in the tub when Abigail’s head thrust through the shower curtain. Val jumped -- and yelped as her head smacked into the ceiling. Coming down hard, she slipped and fell on her backside with a splash that sent water arcing across the bathroom.

  “Dammit, Abigail!” Lying in the tub, she glared up at the ghost and probed her throbbing scalp for bruises. “Don’t do that!”

  The ghost’s glowing little face looked suffused, as if she were fighting a laugh. “I gather you got through the Change. You must have leaped three feet straight up.”

  “Apparently,” Val grumbled, as she sat up and started to clamber out of the tub. Her butt protested and she rubbed it too, eying the ghost resentfully. “Though I’d rather have learned about that particular talent some other way.”

  Abigail sobered. “Unfortunately, you have a great many other difficult lessons ahead of you. Cade’s going to have to teach you how to amplify his power, and that won’t be easy.”

  She lifted a brow. “It’s not automatic?”

  “No. It took Ridgemont more than a week to teach him those skills. It will be even harder for you, given that you’ve never done any fighting at all.”

  Reminded of her vision of Cade’s loss to Ridgemont, Val frowned uneasily. “Abigail, I had a… dream. It…”

  Evidently picking the memory right out of her mind, the ghost looked troubled. “That’s the arena at Ridgemont’s mansion.”

  Val blinked. “He’s got his own arena?”

  Abigail shrugged. “It’s where he taught Hirsch and Cade swordplay.”

  “Damn, I was hoping that was just a nightmare. Could it be a memory of something that’s already happened?” Reading the answer in the ghost’s worried eyes, she winced. “What the hell are we going to do?”

  “Make sure it doesn’t come true.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  When an hour passed and Cade still had not returned, Val felt exhaustion begin to weigh at her. Her body was still adjusting to the Change; like a newborn baby, it needed to sleep. Leaving her clothes drying over the shower rod, she wrapped herself in a sheet and curled up naked on the bed.

  A burning sensation jarred her awake. Opening her eyes, she discovered one hand was lying in a shaft of morning sunlight. She frowned at it muzzily. The skin of her fingers felt hot, swollen -- as if she’d been lying out on the beach too long. But…

  “Oh, hell!” She jumped back so fast her vampire muscles propelled her halfway across the room to bang against the wall. Catching herself barely in time to keep from falling on her face, Val scurried around the bed toward the window and gingerly flicked the blackout curtains closed. It’s a good thing the bursting into flame things is a myth or I’d be one long cigarette ash by now.

  This vampire business was going to take some getting used to.

  She padded naked into the bathroom to check her clothes. They were wrinkled and slightly damp, but she knew her body heat would dry them. She dressed, grimacing at the feeling of clammy fabric against her skin.

  Her stomach rumbled. Suddenly she was ravenously hungry. An image flicked through her mind -- Cade, sprawled gloriously naked under her, tilting his head back… Her nipples peaked, and her fangs slid to their full length in her mouth.

  Frowning, she reached for one of the toothbrushes Cade had bought from a vending machine. Usually when I’m this hungry, I fantasize about Egg McMuffins, not Stud McMuffins. There was something more than a little unnerving about this new Hunger and the way it combined the need for sex and blood.

  Squirting toothpaste onto the brush, Val lifted it and peeled her lips back from her teeth -- and stopped short at the sight of the two neat fangs. They were sharp, white, and an inch long. Oh, God, I really am a vampire. What the hell have I done?

  Gazing hypnotized at her teeth, she didn’t even hear the knock. She jolted from her trance at the sound of the motel room’s door swinging open as a cheery voice called, “Housekeeping!”

  God knew the room needed it; Cade had hung out the “Do Not Disturb”
sign days ago during her illness. “Come in!” she called back, then closed her lips to hide her new canines.

  A blonde thirty-something in a brown polyester uniform bustled in with a stack of towels in her arms. As Val stepped out of the bathroom, the smell of shampoo and soap wafted from the housekeeper, as intense as if she’d just stepped out of the shower. And something else, dark and musky -- her natural scent.

  Val drew in an instinctive breath, never having smelled anything like it. Instantly, the scent of blood flooded her mouth and nose. The woman must have a cut somewhere. It smelled a little blander than Cade’s, a little less fiery somehow. Yet there was something so rich and tempting about the aroma, it made her fangs ache.

  She froze in the bathroom doorway, unable to move, paralyzed by the sudden intensity of her need. Heading toward the bathroom, the woman almost ran into her. Startled, the housekeeper looked up and met her gaze. “Is there something…”

  And Val could feel her thoughts. Her name was Mary Sanders, and she was working to support her two kids while she went to night school to obtain her accounting degree. She was worried about George Billingham, her live-in boyfriend, who’d fallen off the wagon again. Just yesterday he’d slapped her for not having dinner ready, though she’d worked all day while he’d stayed home watching talk shows and polishing off a fifth of vodka.

  “You ought to get rid of that bastard,” Val told her. “He’s going to put you in the hospital again.”

  Mary’s eyes lost their focus. “Okay.”

  And she’ll do it, Val realized in amazement, watching the compulsion close over the woman’s mind. I influenced her. Just then, without even intending to. No wonder Cade uses his power so much. It’s instinctive.

  What a terrifying talent. She stared down into the smaller woman’s blank face, wondering wildly if she’d done the right thing. Yeah, Mary obviously needed to get rid of George, but what if he hurt her when she told him to get out? And what right did Val have to make that decision one way or another?

  Maybe I need to go looking for George…

  And maybe you should tell her to tip up her chin, the Hunger whispered.

  Val’s eyes widened. It would be so easy, the Hunger’s dark, soft voice continued. You don’t need much. It won’t hurt her, and you can make sure she won’t remember.

  “What’s going on?” Cade asked from the open motel room door.

  She jumped guiltily as he walked in, dressed in his familiar black jeans and black T-shirt. His acute chocolate eyes flicked from her to the maid’s blank face. “Oh, hell,” he muttered. She felt him touch Mary’s thoughts, watched him wince at what he saw there.

  “I didn’t mean to!” Val burst out, twisting her hands together.

  “I know, but you’ve got to be careful.” He sent a wave of psychic energy to erase the accidental compulsion from Mary’s mind. “Even as young as you are, you’ve got a lot of power. You could do real damage without meaning to.” To the maid he added, “Why don’t you come back later. I’ve already checked out, so you can clean up after we’re gone.”

  Mary nodded mechanically and left with the slow, dreamy steps of a sleepwalker.

  “But what about George?” Val asked. “He’s going to hurt her sooner or later. Badly.”

  Cade’s handsome mouth took on a grim line. “No, he’s not. I’m going to have a word with him this evening about the proper treatment of women.”

  “Can I watch? In fact, can I slap him around a little?”

  “No, you may not, you bloodthirsty little wench.”

  “Literally.” Val grimaced, remembering how close she’d come to biting the housekeeper.

  “Goes with the territory,” Cade told her, shrugging. “In the meantime, let’s go. I paid a crew to clean up the house while I squared things with the cops. The cleaners just texted me they’re done, and I want to get home.”

  She flexed her sunburned hand. “But it’s daylight.”

  “I’ve picked up the Lexus when I returned the neighbor’s car. The windows are polarized, so if we don’t hang out in the parking lot, you won’t even get a tan.” He pulled the door open and gestured her out.

  Cautiously, Val stepped outside, wincing as the morning sunlight instantly assaulted her eyes. In a space just down the motel sidewalk, the Lexus’ locks clicked open accompanied by a little horn beep. She hurried toward it, intent on getting out of the murderous glare. Cade strode ahead to pull the passenger door open for her, and she slid inside gratefully as he went around to the driver’s side. “So once we get home, what then?”

  “Then,” he said grimly, “we get to work.”

  Val sent him a searching look. “The psychic amplification thing?”

  “Yeah.” He shot her a sudden, wicked smile. “But that we’ll have to do outside, which means we’ve got to wait for sunset. In the meantime, we really need to paint the upstairs hallway.”

  * * *

  They did indeed spend most of the day working around the house, spackling bullet holes in the wallboard while installers put down new wall-to-wall carpet over the bloodstained hardwood. Cade had evidently paid generously enough to get them to expedite the job. After her experience with the maid, Val went out of her way to avoid them.

  But once night fell and the workers went home, Cade went out to take care of George. When he got back, he told her he’d sent the bastard packing. He wouldn’t be bothering Mary again.

  Then it was time for the hard part.

  “We have to learn to amplify each other’s energies,” Cade told her, as they stepped out into the back yard. Night had fallen, and fireflies orbited the trees like perambulating stars “Even combined, we don’t have the power to take Ridgemont --”

  “What?” She stared at him, outraged. “I thought that was the whole point of this!”

  “Will you give me a minute? I meant that if we just pool our power, it won’t be enough. We need to amplify it by volleying it back and forth.”

  Val frowned at him. “I have no idea what you mean.”

  “Look, have you ever heard a microphone feedback squeal -- that shrill, high-pitched sound you hear sometimes when somebody’s trying to give a speech?”

  “I’m a reporter, remember? Anytime I’d cover a public gathering, somebody’s mic would feed back at least once and deafen everybody in the room.”

  “Yeah. Well, what happens is the mic is so close to the amplifiers, it picks up its own sound from them, then feeds that sound to the amps, which feed it back to the mic, and on and on. It happens so fast you instantly get a blast of noise.”

  Making the connection, she nodded. “And we’ve got to do the same thing.”

  “But quicker. Unfortunately, I’ve only practiced this a few times, and that was in 1884, when Ridgemont made me learn how to do it for him. But he was so damn powerful we never had to do it in combat, and I’m not sure how it’s going to work.”

  Val eyed him grimly. “That sounds encouraging.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s the only game in town. Touch my thoughts.”

  “Like this?”

  “Right. Now deeper, like we do when we make love. Try to feel what I’m feeling.”

  Val stepped in close and looked up into his face. Despite the darkness, her vampire night vision revealed his eyes, the planes and angles of his face, the long, straight blade of his nose and the full curve of his mouth. “You know, you’re kind of cute.”

  “Concentrate.” The thought boiled with impatience. “We need to get this. Try to look through my eyes.”

  She killed her smile and looked at him harder, fighting to slip into his mind. In the background, she could hear the murmur of his thoughts, the tension, the worry. An image of Ridgemont’s fist shooting toward her face flashed through her mind, followed by a searing blast of pain. Startled, she stepped back.

  “Dammit, you almost had it.”

  “Was that a memory?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a lot of them. Ridgemont made a hobby of beating the hell out
of me.” He sighed. “Look, maybe we’re going about this all wrong.” He put his big hands on her shoulders. “Concentrate on this.”

  The next thing she knew, she was plastered against him as he kissed her. The embrace started out hard and businesslike, but then he gentled it until his lips were moving softly over hers, seducing, caressing.

  The warm velvet of his lips felt different to her new senses as they brushed and stroked, the familiar sensations grown startling and intense. His tongue slipped into her mouth to swirl in a sweet dance around hers. She felt his Hunger grow.

  Cade’s tense body relaxed against her, and she sank into him, savoring the long, hot strength of his body. Just as he felt her, slim and soft against him. His mind caught hers, drawing her closer in an embrace that matched the one their bodies shared.

  “See how you feel to me,” he thought. “So good.” An image flashed through his mind of her body, naked and languorous, nipples hard and legs spread. Val flushed in embarrassment at his hungry approval. “You’re so beautiful.”

  “Now you’re playing with me,” she told him. “That looks like something out of a centerfold.”

  “I noticed.” The male satisfaction in his mental voice made her chuckle. He kissed her again, his mouth moving on hers in delicious lust.

  She reached for a memory of him, rock hard and hungry, his black eyes gleaming. “You’re not so bad yourself, Cowboy.”

  He seemed as taken aback by the image as she’d been. “I think you’re idealizing me.”

  “Uh-uh.” She began kissing her way up his jaw toward his right ear. “You’re the sexiest man I’ve ever met.”

  “Then we’re a matched set.” Cade pulled her closer, his arms closing tight around her as his mind drew hers deeper. Nibbling his earlobe, she felt the delicate sensation of teeth on her own ear, though she knew his mouth was nowhere near it. The sensation stopped her dead, and the gentle nibbling ceased.

  “It’s a mental echo,” he told her. “Closer. You’ve almost got it.” She nibbled again, concentrating on the ghostly sensation until it intensified.

  With a jolt, she found herself suddenly standing in a different position, looking down at a slim shoulder. A weight fell against her. Her arms supported something limp and heavy. She turned her head and saw a woman’s profile, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, apparently out cold with her auburn head resting on Val’s shoulder.