Midnight Hunger (Blackthorne Bloodlines #2)

by K Loraine

“I gave her a sample of my blood. Do you think it’ll help?”

  Her eyes lit up. “You did? Brilliant. I better get started straight away. I hope I still have a salvageable sample after you destroyed everything.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “No apologies. What I did to your father was wretched and unforgivable.”

  “Your father was crazy, manipulative, and possibly the most evil man I’ve ever known. I can see very clearly that it wasn’t your choice.”

  “It wasn’t. We were never given a choice in any of his orders. It was do or die back then.”

  “I understand.”

  A buzzing sounded from the nightstand next to Lucas’ bed, catching my attention and turning it away from Callie’s misty form. When I looked back, she was gone. Of course.

  He left his phone. Something was rotten about all of this. I could smell it. I grabbed the device and slid my finger across the screen.

  “Hello?” My voice was tight and soft.

  My mother’s voice washed over me, cool and calm. And terrifying. “Briar, darling. So, you are alive.”

  17

  BRIAR

  “No thanks to you,” I practically snarled. “You left me for dead with Nik.”

  “No. I let him take you to try and save you.”

  A bitter laugh was my only response.

  “Briar. I didn’t think… He told us you died after the first year. I buried you.”

  “He lied.” I swallowed back the cold fear at the memory of my time with Nik. I didn’t think I could believe her. “He lied and did unspeakable things to me, and you didn’t even try to find me.”

  “Come home. Come back to us.”

  “I can’t. The council—”

  “I will handle them.”

  “Even if my mate is a vampire?”

  She let out a dark chuckle. “And where is the bastard prince now? Long gone, I bet.”

  My stomach sank. “He…”

  “Ah. So he is gone?”

  “He left for a little while.”

  She sighed. “Briar. I can tell you’re lying. I’m still your mother.”

  Sitting on the edge of the bed, I groaned. “Why do you care? You’ve moved on, haven’t you? I hear you’re getting married. I hope you don’t expect me to come to the wedding.”

  I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed. I wouldn’t be twisted up by her again. If Lucas had left, it was for good reason. I had to trust him. Trust us. But most of all, I had to trust myself.

  I strode out of the bedroom and into the main part of his chambers with one goal in mind. Throwing open the French doors, I stepped out onto the balcony, a soft breeze blowing my hair around my face. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, desperate for a hint of a connection to Lucas.

  “Lucas, where are you?”

  The slightest wisp of his scent curled around me, barely there, but it made my heart flutter with anticipation. If I could smell him, that meant he had to be somewhere close enough for the wind to catch him. That could have been anywhere within a fifty-mile radius, but it was at least a start.

  Back when I was still able to shift, I could have found him. I wouldn’t be so useless. Frustration gripped my chest. God, why couldn’t I just fucking do it? It used to be so easy. I barely had to think about it, and my wolf took over. Now, just the idea of letting her take hold made my skin crawl. She was wild, always, but my change had made her fight like a cornered animal desperate for survival. She’d bite down and more than likely never release her grip.

  “Briar, something’s happened.” Cashel’s voice broke through the haze of worry and fear I was lost in. Turning, I faced him, holding my robe closed tight around my naked body.

  “What? What is it? Where is Lucas?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “As in, you don’t know, or you won’t tell me?”

  He didn’t break. His gaze never left mine as he pushed aside my attempts to infiltrate his mind and steal his thoughts. “I don’t know. But I can’t reach him with my thoughts, can’t sense him anywhere. He left on the edge of sunset to handle a group of wolves who’d crossed the property line. I haven’t been able to reach him since.”

  My throat closed up, tightening painfully as fear clawed at my chest. “Has he ever been out of contact like this before?”

  “Once.”

  Swallowing past the lump blocking my words, I forced myself to ask the question. “When?”

  “After you. We lost him for a decade.” He shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks before sighing. “We never really got him back, not until last year.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would he leave? We’d…things changed between us.”

  “I think we have to face the truth, Briar. Lucas is dead.” His words might have been cool and collected, but everything about him was tense, rage rolling off him.

  Heart turning cold, I shook my head. “No. That’s not possible. I’d know. I’d feel it.”

  “Not without a bond.”

  The fucking bond again. The bond he’d given Olivia to save them. “I guess I have you to thank for that not being possible.”

  Closing his eyes, Cashel’s jaw tightened as he clearly worked for control.

  “He’s not dead. He can’t be. And if you won’t go find him, I will.” I strode past him, shoving by his broad-shouldered frame on my way out into the hall.

  “I’ve already searched the property, Briar. I can’t even catch his scent.”

  Taking a deep breath, I stopped in my tracks. “You aren’t his mate, and you don’t have what I do.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A wolf.”

  I stood naked in the moonlight, nothing around me but the trees of the thickly wooded forest at the edge of the property. I’d followed Lucas’ scent trail all the way here, and here was where it went cold. Unnaturally cold. Usually all beings left some kind of evidence, some echo of their existence. If he’d been killed here, I’d smell the blood, see the ash of his remains. Instead, all I found was undisturbed ground and a silent night sky.

  “Where are you?”

  Muscles aching from the tension I’d been holding and the constant control over my wolf, I began to tremble as the gravity of what I had to do settled on me. I may never come back from this. But finding Lucas was worth it.

  “Here goes nothing.”

  I stared up at the moon, her light breaking through the treetops and bathing me in a soft cool glow. I used to love her. I’d craved her and the power she brought me. I needed her power again.

  Falling to my knees, I dug my fingers into the moss-covered earth and let the rush of my wolf take me. I felt good. Strong. Like myself again as the animal inside became the only one in power. Already my senses were more in tune with what had happened here. They locked onto the scent of my mate, the barest hint of his blood, the electric current between us. He’d been here, and there had been a conflict, even though something was hiding it, covering the evidence in an invisible cloak. The bite of magic in the air was bitter and tasted like death. Dark and cloyingly sweet. Wrong.

  I followed it. Running through the woods, chasing after the only thing I had to help me find him. An hour outside of the property line, the scent of Lucas grew stronger, more heady. He was here. Somewhere close. My heart hammered in my chest at the possibility of what I might find. Was Seb’s instinct correct that Lucas was just using me? Or was it something much worse?

  Through the break in the trees, I saw him. Spread out across a boulder, naked, bloodied, unconscious. His blood dripped onto the ground, soaking into the earth from two wounds in his shoulders. Silver spikes driven into the stone held him in place. But it wasn’t that which stopped me. It was the sigil carved deep into his chest. Blood magic. Someone was using him as a sacrifice to gain more power.

  Without a second thought, I shifted back into my human form, just as naked as he was, but not giving a single damn. I ran to him, pressing my palm to his che
st and willing his heart to beat, but nothing happened. Not a sound came from him.

  “If you think I’m going to let you fucking leave me now, you’d better think again, Blackthorne,” I whispered into his ear before I tore at my wrist and pressed the bleeding wound to his lips. “Drink, or I’ll come find you in the afterlife and drag you back.”

  I heard it then. The faint thump, thump, thump of a pulse linked with mine. Elation shot through me, and I let out a little sob of pure happiness. His lips moved on my skin before fangs sank into my vein and he began pulling from my wrist. The wounds on his chest sealed, but the sigil remained as a faint scar. That worried me. Someone had hunted him and marked him. Whoever the witch was, she’d be back for what was mine.

  Lucas’ head fell back and he groaned. “Get these bloody silver spikes out of my arms.”

  I grabbed hold of the spike in his left shoulder. It stung my skin, but I didn’t care. As the metal shifted under my grasp, he gritted his teeth and hissed out a harsh breath. “Fast, Briar.”

  Nodding, I pulled with such force, I toppled off the boulder as the spike came free. He let out a sharp cry of pain, and the second spike fell to the ground at my feet. My hands burned from touching the metal, but I had to get back to him. Had to see if he was really and truly all right.

  “Lucas,” I said, climbing back to the top of the stone. “I knew you wouldn’t leave. What happened?”

  He sat up, wincing as the wounds in his shoulders began closing. “Fucking witches.”

  “There’s a coven nearby?”

  He laughed. “There’s always a coven nearby. But, yes. This one has been quiet for a long time, but we’ve had some…issues with them in the past. They caught me off guard. I was expecting shifters. Instead, I got hit with a spell.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”

  A soft look filled his eyes. “You appeared so peaceful, so at ease in your sleep. I know that’s rare for you. I’ve been inside your nightmares. I couldn’t bring myself to disturb you.”

  Annoyance pushed aside all the warm feelings his thoughtfulness created. I frowned and stared him down.

  “What?”

  “You can’t leave me out of things. Not now. We’re mates, and I just discovered there’s nothing worse than not knowing where your mate is or being able to sense them. I couldn’t find you. No one could.”

  He raised a brow. “It looks to me like you found me just fine.”

  “I had to turn into a fucking wolf to do it.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I gasped. I shifted back. I wasn’t stuck as a wolf. She hadn’t taken control of me and not let go.

  “Lucas, I changed…just like before I was a vampire. I didn’t even have to think about it. I just saw you and shifted back.”

  “I thought you couldn’t.” Cupping my nape, he pulled me close and kissed my lips, hard. I tasted my blood on his tongue, and the combination of the contact and the knowledge that I’d saved him made my thighs clench with need.

  “Briar,” he breathed. “As much as I want to take advantage of the fact that we’re here together…like this,” he looked down at our naked bodies before bringing his gaze back to mine. “There’s something about being skyclad after being mounted to a rock by magic that makes this all seem a bit too ritualistic for my taste.”

  “You’re right. We could be playing right into their hands. Who knows what that sigil on your chest means.”

  I backed away, my focus briefly landing on the long, thick erection he was sporting. “Where are your clothes?”

  “I haven’t a clue. Some witch is probably making a poppet to cast a curse on me.”

  I jumped down from the boulder and waited for him to do the same. “Well, I hope your brother doesn’t mind nudity.”

  He growled. “He’ll have fair warning we’re coming. No one sees what’s mine.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, right, I forgot about your Victorian sensibilities. You vampires are so buttoned up.”

  “And you wolves are brazen.”

  “Isn’t that what you love about me?”

  He scooped me into his arms and kissed me again, this time nicking my lip with his fang. Collecting the drop of blood on his tongue, he shivered and sighed. “There are infinite reasons I love you, Briar. I’ll spend eternity showing you.”

  “Promise?”

  “Until my heart stops beating.”

  18

  LUCAS

  “Where are we going? This isn’t the manor.” Briar held tight to my neck as I carried her toward the veil of ivy covering the tunnel carved into the side of the mountain.

  Reaching out, I parted the curtain and chuckled as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Secret passageways extend beyond the house, Briar.”

  “Of course. Everything is in this world is a secret.” She wriggled in my arms and huffed. “I’m not a child. I can walk on my own. Besides, you’re the one who was carved up and mounted to a rock in the middle of the forest.”

  “Ah, so true, but I also fed from you and am completely healed now. While you…I weakened you. I haven’t given you anything in return.”

  I ran my thumb over the underside of her breast and couldn’t keep the low growl of need from escaping at the feel of her soft curves. She’d saved me. Every moment she existed, she was saving me.

  Her full lips trailed over my jaw and down my neck, sending a rush of desire straight to my already hardening cock. “Keep teasing me like that and we’ll never make it inside.”

  “What if I said I didn’t want to make it inside?” Her voice was husky and filled with the promise of things she’d let me do to her in the dark.

  I placed her on her feet and kissed her long and deep, desperate to sate the lust simply having her in my arms caused. I bit her lip and pulled back before whispering, “Run, wild wolf. Because when I catch you, you’re going to be mine.”

  She smiled, her violet irises glittering in the dim light of the long corridor. “I’m fast. Or have you forgotten?”

  “Try as I might, I was never able to forget you, Briar.”

  She bolted then, running fast enough that she was nothing but a blur. I let her go. It was all about the chase, and I knew exactly where this would end. With her against the wall as I fucked and claimed what was mine.

  When I could no longer hear her steps, I gave in to the urge to run after her.

  I gave chase and found her easily, hidden inside the secret lagoon we’d built years ago. Her blond locks cascaded down her back as she slowly walked toward the back of the cave-like room.

  “You’re not going to escape me now. I’ve got you cornered.”

  “Who says I want to escape?” she asked, smirking over her shoulder, a wicked gleam in her eye.

  In less than a second, I dropped all pretense and closed the space between us, pressing against her until she was caged in and trapped by my body. Her breaths came in sharp little pants, nipples hard points brushing my chest enticingly.

  I pushed on the latch disguised as a craggy rock, and the door slid open, revealing a spacious steam room. Snaking my hand around her waist, I kissed her, backing her up and pushing her into the room. Warm, damp air infused lightly with eucalyptus hit us, coating our bare bodies like an embrace.

  “This is nice,” she said, her breathy voice indicating she wasn’t talking about the steam room. She nipped my throat, sending arousal straight to my cock.

  “It’s about to be a whole lot more than nice.” I grabbed her by the arse and lifted until she wrapped her legs around my waist, positioning my aching length against her heated, slick core. It would be easy to sink into her right now, but this wasn’t a time for easy.

  “What else are you hiding in this house?” Her teeth scraped along my shoulder, and I groaned. “Olivia mentioned a sex dungeon.”

  I chuckled. “Does my wolf need to be tied up and flogged?”

  “No. But you do.”

  Everything inside me drew tight. I did love it when she
dominated me. “Later, darling. I promise. Right now, I need to own you.”

  I placed her on the second level bench and watched as she took in the large space, walls lined with Himalayan salt tiles, light radiating up from the floor and casting everything in a warm glow. Parting her thighs, I slid my palms up her legs and over her hips before standing on the first tier of the benches that spanned the wall.

  “So pretty and pink.”

  “Shut up and fuck me.”

  I growled but smirked all the same. “Shut up and kiss me like you mean it. Like you’re dying for it.”

  “That’s not hard.” She gripped me by the shoulders and slammed her mouth down on my own while at the same time, I surged forward and entered her roughly.

  We were nothing but skin hitting skin, soft groans and grunts, animalistic creatures who needed to claim each other again and again.

  “Let me into your thoughts, Briar. Let me feel you from the inside.”

  She dropped the carefully constructed walls, and pleasure on a level I’d never experienced washed over me. My approaching orgasm mingled with hers, the sensation almost too much. We were linked. Body, soul, mind. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t have a true bond. We created our own.

  Pain sliced into my shoulder as she bit down on the tender flesh where neck met torso, but it soon dulled into a pleasurable throb as she fed from me. Her release crested, and she pulsed around me, pulling my own climax from me with a ragged shout. I had to brace my palm on the wall behind us, cracking the tile with the force.

  We lay there together after, fingers intertwined, staring up at the wisps of steam floating in the air.

  Then casually, she said, “So, you’re going to show me the sex dungeon one day, right?”

  I chuckled and sat up, cocking a brow, already getting hard at the thought of showing her everything. “One day. But for now, you can dominate me right here.”

  She smirked. “Again?”

  Nodding, I lay back and lazily stroked my shaft. “And again.”