Blood Bond (6 page)

She kept her mouth around him until his
cock began to soften. Finally, Starr lifted her head and shot a glance at
Sorin, to gage his pleasure. He had his eyes closed and was breathing heavily.

She turned her head when Lucian stopped
kissing her shoulder.

Sorin’s tone was gruff when he said,
“You’re a natural, Starr.”

She smiled at Lucian. “I had a good
teacher.” Starr discreetly wiped her mouth and flexed her jaw muscles. Sorin
was more than a mouthful. As Sorin turned onto his side and patted the bed, she
scooted up and cuddled against him. She was aware of Lucian removing the plug
from her buttocks before he nestled behind her. He put his arm around her, and
his hand rested on Sorin’s hip.

Starr draped her arm across Sorin’s waist
and placed her hand on Lucian’s. Her body still thrummed with desire, but
pleasant exhaustion was flooding her. She found it impossible to keep her eyes
open. A yawn escaped her, and she cuddled just a bit closer to Sorin. Lucian
followed the movement.

Curled together, they slept.

Starr couldn’t remember sleeping better in
her life, which made the nightmare particularly horrifying.

She was lying in bed, but not the one she
shared with Sorin and Lucian. In the vision, she was bound somehow to the bed,
but not by any physical means. As she watched with wide-eyed terror, a glint of
silver flashed above her. As the silver descended, the moon shining through the
window reflected off something sharp…

She awoke with a scream trapped in her
throat, and her heart racing in her ears. It took Starr a second to realize she
was no longer in the dream, but back safely in the cabin. She frowned,
wondering if the nightmare had just been a dream, or if it was actually a
vision. She had always required an herbal concoction, incense, and meditation
to induce visions in the past.

Could it be that her powers were
increasing? She knew Ylenia had been adept at tuning into visions without the
aids Starr used, and had often received messages in her dreams.

But what did it mean? Was it a message,
heralding someone was going to stab her, or was it allegorical? Did it symbolize
her betraying Corsova, in effect stabbing the Protector in the back?

Starr’s attention wavered from the dream
when the bed dipped. She turned her head to find Sorin watching her. She curled
closer, while grasping Lucian’s hand. She couldn’t hide her anxiety, but they
must have misinterpreted the cause of it, not being privy to her vision.

“Please don’t regret what happened,” said
Lucian, sounding mournful.

“We have done nothing wrong,” Sorin said
quickly. “This was meant to be.”

“Everything will be fine. It will work out.
You must believe that,
dragostia
,” Lucian added.

She shook her head and tried to hide the
lingering disquiet from the nightmare. It didn’t seem like the right time to
burden them with the vision, especially since it was probably nothing more than
a manifestation of her anxiety over having given in to her needs.

It was difficult to meet their eyes.
Shyness welled inside her, and she looked down. Memories of the night they had
spent together flooded her mind, reminding her of just how uninhibited she had
been. She wondered what they thought of her this morning. “It
was
meant
to be, and I don’t regret what we did,” she whispered. It was true she didn’t
regret making love with them, but she couldn’t help dreading the consequences.

Lucian stroked her hip, while Sorin’s
fingers gently turned her face up to meet him. Before Starr could feel
disconcerted by his gaze, he brushed his lips against hers, giving her no time
to speak. As he lifted his mouth, Lucian’s lips traced across her neck, eliciting
a groan from her.

Her discomfort melted away, replaced by a
surge of desire. Starr ached for them again, with an unnerving intensity. It
was even stronger than the need she’d had for them before they made love to
her. She cupped her hand around Sorin’s cock, and then made a sound of surprise
as he pulled away. Didn’t he want to make love to her, as Lucian had? She
stared at him with confusion.

He gave her a tender smile. “I want you,
Starr.”

She leaned forward, wetting her lips, but
withdrew at his next words.

“But not today.”

She made a sound of distress, and then bit
hard on her tongue. She didn’t want him to see the pain his rejection caused.
She resisted the urge to turn her head away when Sorin caressed her cheek. “You
need your rest for tonight,
dragostia
.”

Starr’s brow furrowed, and she forgot her
ire. “What happens tonight, Sorin?”

Lucian laughed, low in his throat. “It’s a
surprise.”

Sorin also laughed. “That’s not the only
surprise. We have one more for you, so hurry and dress.” The note of huskiness
in his voice and the gleam in his eyes led Starr to believe the surprise was of
the carnal sort. A shiver of anticipation went through her. She couldn’t help
imagining what sorts of things they had in mind for her. She didn’t doubt each
one would be a sensual delight.

Chapter 5

The first surprise turned out to be a trip
to the natural hot springs a few miles up the mountain. When Starr asked why
they were going there, Lucian had replied, “To loosen your sore muscles. You
must be ready for tonight.”

She felt a stir of frustration at their
cryptic attitude, but bit down the urge to demand an answer. Anticipation had
already heightened her senses. She could just imagine what state she would be
in by the time they unveiled the surprise.

It felt wonderful to sink into the hot
water. Muscles she hadn’t been aware of until last night ached with low-grade
persistence. Almost as soon as she settled in the waist-deep pool, the water
soothed her tense areas.

Lucian and Sorin slid in on either side of
her, but made no move to touch her. Starr looked up at them through the veil of
her lashes, waiting for one or both to reach for her. Her mouth settled into a
frown when all they did was lean back and close their eyes. The water bubbled
around her with gentle whispers, but it couldn’t calm her racing thoughts and
taut nerves.

As the silence settled between them and
lengthened, she sighed. Finally, it was too quiet. The water was too relaxing,
and she was too anxious to rest. “Well?”

Lucian opened one of his eyes and gave her
a lazy look. “Well, what?”

“What are we doing here?”

“I told you…relaxing.”

She sighed again. “I’m relaxed.”

Sorin chuckled, but didn’t open his eyes.
“No, you aren’t. We can feel your mind thrumming with thoughts.”

Her mouth dropped open. “
What
? What
do you mean, you can feel my mind?”

He finally opened his eyes and looked at
her. “Today, your mind is so strong, I can’t block mine from yours. There’s a
constant,” he paused, frowning with concentration, “hum coming from you. Not
all of your thoughts are flowing to me, but I can feel your emotions.”

“I can sense them too,” Lucian added. “If
it had been this easy before, it wouldn’t have taken so long to figure out what
you needed.”

“I don’t—“ Starr broke off, turning a
puzzled gaze on Lucian. “What do you mean?”

Color had warmed his cheeks, and he shared
a long look with Sorin, who seemed annoyed with him. Lucian cleared his throat.
“We, uh, we deliberately eavesdropped on your thoughts whenever we sensed you
were aroused. We were trying to discern what you wanted, so we could give it to
you.” His blush deepened. “We hoped that fulfilling your fantasies would
convince you to join with us.”

She felt a stir of anger, remembering how
she had always respected the barriers in place between them. Being a vampire,
it would have been easy to tune in to their thoughts, especially in the early
days of their bonding, when their minds hadn’t acquired any psychic abilities.
How dare they not give her the same respect?

“We felt bad about it,” Sorin said. “We knew
it was wrong, but we never,
ever
listened in when you were doing other
things. It was only when we sensed your arousal. You have to understand that it
was desperation driving us,
dragostia
. We’ve been aching for you since
we were seventeen and formed the blood-bond with you.

“When we joined with you, we didn’t think
about not being able to have you in every way. When we realized what your
future position meant for all of us, we tried to deny our feelings for you, but
the time passing has only increased our need, not diminished it, as we had
hoped it would.” He gave a small, forced laugh. “Your being forbidden made you
all the more tantalizing.”

She remained motionless when Lucian touched
her thigh. She refused to look at him, but couldn’t pretend that her heart
didn’t race at the light touch.

“Hasn’t it been the same for you? Knowing
you can’t be with us, but longing for it. Haven’t you been tempted to do things
you thought you shouldn’t?”

She turned her head to meet his eyes. She
winced at the mingled shame and desire she saw there. Slowly, she nodded,
remembering the hours she had spent masturbating while fantasizing about the
two of them.

“We planned to tell you that we had seen
your fantasies,” Sorin said. He glared at Lucian. “We just hadn’t planned to
today.”

Heat blossomed in her cheeks, and it wasn’t
from the temperature of the hot springs. “You know what I fantasized about. Was
last night staged?”

There was a hesitation, before Sorin spoke
again. “We did arrange for you to walk in on us. We’d hoped you seeing what you
desired would crumble the last of your resistance—because we are all lovers,
dragostia
.”

Should she be angry for their manipulation,
or grateful that their plan had finally overruled her sense of duty? Starr
couldn’t decide. She had known coming to the cabin with them would lead to
lovemaking, but had expected it to occur naturally. She hadn’t imagined it
would happen because they had orchestrated it.

Would she have been brave enough to make
the first move? Even last night, she had been powerless to act on her wants for
a long time. If she were honest with herself, she had needed that extra push
provided by Sorin and Lucian.

She fixed a frown on her face. “I expect
you to stay out of my mind now that you’ve gotten what you want.”

“We will,” Sorin said.

“What we all wanted,” Lucian added
simultaneously.

The last bit of anger faded away, and Starr
relaxed. “Yes, that’s true.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. Sorin and
Lucian moved closer to her, but neither reached out to touch her. They seemed
content to relax without speaking.

It was a while before she broke the
silence. By then, her muscles had relaxed, and apparently, her tongue had
loosened too. “We’re very near Necheau. Perhaps you should visit your
families.” She was instantly aware of the way they tensed and could have kicked
herself. She knew they didn’t like talking about their past, but still couldn’t
resist trying to get them to reconcile with the Pack at least once or twice a
year.

She opened her eyes when Sorin shifted away
from her. The bleak expression he wore made her frown. She looked at Lucian and
saw it mirrored on his face. This was different from their usual brusque
reaction to any mention of the life they had turned away from when they were
seventeen. “What is it?”

It was a long moment before Sorin answered.
He sounded reluctant, and there was no disguising the trace of pain in his
eyes. “My mother is dead, Starr. She died a year ago, last winter, challenging
Rica. Lucian’s father was killed too. They tried to steal leadership of the
Pack. Rica did what was necessary.”

She gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Lucian wasn’t looking at her when he
answered the question she had asked Sorin. “It wasn’t that important.”

Starr shook her head. “How can you say
that? They were your family. You didn’t get a chance to reconcile with them
before their deaths.”

Lucian turned to look at her. “They didn’t
act like our family, Starr. My father and Belia turned their backs on us when
they discovered our relationship and intent to seek out a vampire to form a
blood-bond. We did our mourning when we left Necheau. We’ve been dead to our
families the last six years, so what does it matter if they are now dead to
us?”

She turned to look at Sorin, searching his
face for signs that he held a different sentiment. His expression bordered on
glacier. “Sorin, surely—“

He frowned. “You should understand how it
is. Look how your parents reacted when you formed a blood-bond with us.”

Starr flinched at the reminder of how
narrow-minded her own parents were. Rather, her mother. Her father had just
followed his wife’s lead. Starr’s mother was one of the few vampires who
believed in maintaining pure bloodlines. She saw no advantage in gaining the
ability to transform into a wolf by bonding with a werewolf. To her, that
merely weakened pure vampire blood.