Captiva Master - Vampire Warewolf Menage Six Feet Under Series Book 4) (15 page)

Crowding her against the glass, slipping his hands in her hair, he murmured, “You are truly sneaky.”

On its on volition, her ankle curled around his calf, stroking his leather. “If you want to know what Renee and I were doing, what’s stopping you from coercing me?”

Pressing his cheek against hers, he hissed, the blade of his cheekbone so sharp in his truest vampiric form. Maestru countered, “Why can’t you trust me?”

Licking her dry lips, she turned her face against his ear. “You’re making me so crazy.”

“Likewise, Dakota,” A low growl left him. “Why would Adam leave you with Dru?” Against her back, the glass wall shook. “What was so important?”

“If you think Adam was in cahoots with Renee and me, you’re wrong.” Dousing her flames with the cold water of reality, Dakota dropped her foot from his calf, wondering how she could easily explain anything regarding Adam. Considering the glass continued shaking, she sidestepped Maestru’s question and threw hers back at him, wondering why he refused to answer it in the first place. “Tell me what that thing was outside.”

“Would it make a difference?” he countered her once more. “I’ve told you time and time again, in no uncertain terms, you are on the map in a new world where blood and control are valued above all.” Easing his hands from her hair, he slammed his palm over his heart. “I am the creature many want to topple – the target of targets. After centuries, those waiting patiently have found a chink in what
was
faultless armor.” Pointing a long finger at her, he confirmed her fear. “You.”

The most powerful vampire in North American just humbled himself by admitting Dakota was his weakness. His admission should have thrilled her, should have driven her ardently mindless, but it left her trembling. He had saved her when no one else could have; however, his gift of life came with not only a Blood Debt, but also the consequence of a glorified imprisonment. When she stayed silent, he pinned her with an unwavering stare.

“Whether it insults your feminine sensitivities or not, I don’t care. Because you are human, you can never depend solely on yourself for your survival. What would have become of you and Renee, if I had arrived later?”
She admitted, “We would have died when that thing caught up with us.”

“So stop this foolishness,” he seethed. “Bristle all you want, history will not repeat itself -” his muscles rippled beneath his skin “not with you!”

Tangible power rolled off Maestru in furious waves. From the adjacent hallway, Dakota had a clear view of his library. First edition books and French Provincial antiques shifted on tall shelves, some falling to the floor in a heap of rubble. “If I have to stay inside all the time,” Dakota rebutted, “then I live in fear.” Apparently, in a controlled act of fury, Maestru could bring down an entire house. “I’m not the kind of person to live in fear.”

“I want your trust, not your fear.” As soft as a butterfly’s wing, he brushed her lips with his. Then he pried her lips open with his, sucking her tongue in a clearly vampiric way, until she thought he would tear it from her mouth. But she didn’t want him to stop. Dakota wanted his fierceness, needed Maestru’s frustration to ground her own.

He pulled his mouth away just as he pulled her to the tiled floor. Fire hit the side of her throat, a burst of pain, right over her frantic pulse. “You…bit me,” she gasped, and he was still going, drawing her blood. When the pain subsided, Dakota felt her life’s essence rush out of her body at his command, not hers. His long midnight hair brushed her cheek when his be-clawed hands drew her even closer to his hard frame. She wrapped her arms around his back and held him just as tightly. Maestru’s tongue flickered with every draw, throwing her into mindless ecstasy. He growled against her throat when she struggled to get away from this too-much sensation, something she’d never once felt. Whatever this was, it was dark, so very dark. When another heady jolt of lust blasted through her core, he pressed his erection against her, his breathing raw, undulating in a way a human man could never duplicate. She pushed at his face, feeling his mouth and jaw working against her throat. She couldn’t take whatever this was anymore. “Maestru, enough.” His hand slipped between her legs, gently stroking her pussy against the soft fabric of Renee’s leotard, yet the energy emitting from his body was nothing short of feral. “Enough!”

After another minute, his fangs left her throat and then his open mouth suckled the wounds he’d created, until she felt a cease in throbbing. His hand left her core and caressed her thigh, before moving up the side of her body. She combed her fingers through his satiny hair, mesmerized by the texture. He appeared calmer after his feeding, loving even, and so did she. It was almost as though they subdued one another, connected more than ever. When he pulled her up, he’d lost that vampiric state, where he’d been far larger than his present six and a half feet, and she was grateful.

“I guess I just paid my Blood Debt, huh,” she whispered, half-joking.

Immediately, Maestru’s jaw clenched, but he said nothing. With a wave of his hand, a hidden panel on the opposite wall opened, revealing a grey stone tunnel wrapping a descending staircase. “You have two choices. One, you can walk back outside.” A mist swallowed Maestru whole as his voice whispered inside Dakota’s head. “Two, you can walk down those stairs.”

As Dakota entered the stairwell, a torch flickered with blue fire midway down, its flames similar to the fireplace located inside Maestru’s library, casting the grey stones in an eerie aqua. Descending the stairs, she realized Maestru had her right where he wanted her. He was confident she would follow him into his cellar, an underground structure defying the laws of everything by existing beneath an island, and he wasn’t wrong. She kept her eyes focused ahead, searching for him in pockets of shadow. He gave nothing away, not a sound, remaining silent.

Although the walls seemed to move beneath the aqua glow, much in the way of ocean waves, she found no dampness here, nothing of the typical mustiness she expected. On the contrary, Dakota sensed warmth coming from the stone floor, radiating up the walls. Hesitating on the final step, she curled her fingers into her palms, willing away her uneasiness. She wanted Adam. She wanted Maestru. No matter what Renee had explained, Dakota still wondered how she could experience such overwhelming desire for both males. Would her desire prevail, where her mind could erase such significant doubts of her entering this new life?

“Make that final step,” he purred.

“Your arrogance is showing,” Dakota retorted, though obliging him. “Giving me two choices with one plausible outcome works only in your favor. Snow would fall on Captiva Island, before I would walk outside and face another one of those shadow creatures alone.”

Maestru appeared just as a short gust of wind whooshed through the cellar, blowing his long hair from his face. “Don’t beat yourself up, Dakota, with age comes wisdom, and you know how old I am.”

“If I had chosen to walk outside instead,” she asked, “would you have stopped me?”

“Taunting any vampire is unadvisable. Taunting
me
is just plain stupid.” From a shelf, he lifted two intricately detailed jewelry-sized boxes. His eyes, however, remained on Dakota, and as he studied her, his expression displayed resolve, maybe an odd contemplation. Instead of gliding in his usual way to a waist-high, marble block, he
walked
across the floor, his booted heels meeting the stone, their complicated buckles clacking with each step. Even though she was warm, goose bumps dotted her skin when he lowered the boxes onto the marble, placing them side-by-side. Reaching out his hand to her, Maestru curled his fingers. “Two more options for you, Dakota Erin Collins, you must choose your destiny and live with the consequences.”

The black box or the white box, she had to choose her destiny between the two? Bullshit. Something unfamiliar stirred beneath her skin, and in a blurring move of her own, Dakota delivered her reply via a borrowed blade, one of two Renee had thoughtfully provided as emergency weaponry. The thin knife sliced through the air, nearly clipping Maestru’s throat. In her heart, she knew that she hadn’t aimed to kill, just slow him down, to make him think. “No one likes a bully, Coven Master.” One tiny blade remained on the inside of her ankle, and she hoped he wouldn’t spy it. He smiled wide, baring his fangs, and she made a dash for the stairs.

Maestru grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arm around her middle and pressing his erection against her back. “Obviously, little human, you don’t understand the thrill of the chase.” Circling his hips, he drove the thought home.

“I understand now.” Since she was wearing Renee’s ridiculous leotard, there wasn’t much she couldn’t feel - his leathers, the buttons on his fly, his thick thigh muscles. Scary dominance turned her on more than she realized, and if she weren’t so wet and panting, she would be ashamed of herself. Then it hit her. “You know about Adam.” She yelped when he bit down on her shoulder, almost breaking skin, shaking her with his teeth and jaw. The sensation rocked her, making her press her ass into his groin and urge him for more, and her wanton behavior was completely unfair to Adam. Oh, how she was torn.

Pulling his mouth away, he grated, “Did you really think I couldn’t smell your virgin’s blood? Didn’t I tell you that you were mine? How could you forget that I vowed to never let you go?”

Apparently, some of his memory was missing. “How could you forget your abhorrence to virgins?” She elbowed him, but only managed to make her arm sore.

“I wanted to give you time,” he shot back, “so you could accept the magnitude of such a monumental decision, to discuss your health with Dru.” His hold tightened on her. “Look where my courtesy got me!”

“If you were honest with me from the beginning, I would’ve understood the consequences and skipped sleeping with Adam!” At least, she would have postponed it until she figured out what to do.

In a flash, Maestru had her in front of those damned boxes, raising one of her hands by her wrist and dangling her fingertips over each lid. Dakota glanced at the black one, then the white one, wondering how they would change her destiny. Even so, how could she think about anything when he was behind her, moving in
that
way. Always, he made her so angry and so turned on, the sensation beguiling and frightening in a disturbing way.
Oh
, she gritted her teeth, thinking he’d saved her life to create his version of a nymphomaniac freak that craved his blood.

“Do it,” he coaxed like Satan himself, “Pick your box.”

“You infuriating man!”

His lips touched her ear, his fangs scraping the sensitive hollow below. “I would take insult, if I were a man.”

“Oh!” White usually meant good, right? Dakota tore her wrist away from his hold and dropped her palm on the nacreous box. “Happy, Coven Master?”

“Humans are so predictable.” Somehow, he was in front of her now, opening the box she’d chosen and revealing the most incredible piece of jewelry that she’d ever seen. Shimmering obsidian stones, nearly matching Maestru’s eye color, twinkled beneath the torchlight.

They were enormous. “So pretty,” she murmured in awe, somewhat entranced. Three rows of platinum held prong after prong of smoky, glistening stones.

He was behind her again, moving in inhuman speed, fastening it around her neck. Touching it with her fingertips, she felt the stones heat beneath her touch. Then it started tightening around her throat. “Hey!” she screamed, tugging at it frantically.

“Relax,” he said in a husky whisper, once again, his anger completely vanished. “I’m adjusting it to fit your throat.”

“My destiny is…wait a minute! I’m wearing your
collar
,” she growled, though she was mildly taken aback since the almighty Coven Master appeared to be trembling. Then she refocused, tapping her throat. “I’m no one’s pet!”

Swallowing audibly, he said, “You made your decision.”

“Under duress,” she pointed out. “Give me the other box.”

“There’s no
do-over
on this, Dakota.” He sighed, gathering himself for a long moment. “For years, I tried to change fate, erase the past from every corner of my life. For once, I am at peace.” Maestru leaned down, and instead of kissing her; he reverently kissed the center stone. “From now on, you will learn to listen to me. In turn, you will stay alive in a world that would just as soon see you dead.” He cupped her throat, moving his gloved thumb over the line of her jugular. “I want to take you.”

“
I want the other box
,” she insisted, reaching back to open it, but it was gone. “Oh, you and your tricks!”

“You love my tricks.” Kneeling down, he removed her shoes, shaking his head when tossing her last hidden blade to a far corner. “You enjoy your blades, don’t you?”

She enjoyed local hockey, teaching her six graders, stopping for a greasy hotdog on her way to Six Feet Under, and talking to her dad. Would she ever do those things again? “I think you enjoy your blades more than anyone.”

“You’re correct,” he said without apology.

“But I don’t think you enjoying killing.” She eyed the perfection of his face, wondering what he was thinking. “Even outside, you didn’t hesitate to kill that shadow, but I sensed your regret buried beneath your obvious rage.”

He nodded. “It wasn’t a shadow, but an aged Lovec. When the hunters live as long as I have, they can throw their essence – their spirit, if you will – outside their bodies during a hunt.”

To her utter shock, Maestru had killed a member of his monarchy for her. “They’re going to come after you, aren’t they?”

“There will be an inquiry, which will surely expose you to those who haven’t heard of you yet. Still, the Lovci cannot set foot or wing on a Master’s property without said Master’s permission. My regret comes from worrying over your newest exposure, not myself.”

“There’s so much death in your world.” She pressed her toes against the stone floor, soaking up its warmth. “Do you believe in God?”

“Of course, I believe in God,” he replied, “You don’t think a creature such as me could have just happened, do you?” He stepped back. “Now, you will take off your clothes and accept your punishment. Sneaking away from your protector and nearly getting yourself killed are great infractions.”