Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (10 page)

“I…believe you,” I said slowly. “I don’t know
why but I do.”

Corbin smiled, flashing some fang. “That is
the first sensible thing you’ve said all night. Now come.” He
gestured to the stone stairs again and this time I went with
him.

He was right—the passage did open up after a
few hundred feet. It led to a small antechamber with a computer
screen and door that looked like it belonged on the outside of a
bank vault.

“This is one of my daytime resting places.”
Corbin placed his hand on the flat screen and each one of his
fingers was briefly outlined in light, one after the other.
“Consider yourself lucky,” he said when the vault-like door emitted
a hissing sound as though it was depressurizing. “I have never
brought a human down here before.”

“Not even to fuck?” I asked tartly.

Corbin gave me a long look. “Lest you get the
wrong idea about me, fucking humans isn’t something I do all the
time. It takes a great amount of control and I have to care very
much to want to expend the effort. I haven’t cared that much in
years.”

Great—he kept going on and on about how
careful he could be but he’d basically just admitted that he was
way out of practice at vampire/human sex. Of course, maybe it was
like riding a bicycle—now
there
was a mental image that
brought a blush to my cheeks. And speaking of being out of
practice, it had been so long since I’d slept with anyone I was
practically a virgin again. Not that I wanted a four hundred year
old vampire to break my dry spell. I was definitely
not
going to volunteer to help Corbin test his much vaunted
control.

“After you.” He swung the door open and
gestured as he had at the top of the steps. And I hesitated again,
just as I had earlier. Was I really going to do this? Lock myself
into what amounted to a bank vault with a creature who could kill
me as easily as I could swat a fly? But really, what choice did I
have? I couldn’t let Corbin send Taylor back to Celeste. He had
kept his end of the contract—my best friend was safe somewhere,
hidden away from the sick assholes who had tormented and tortured
her. Maybe now she could start enjoying what was left of her life
and I could stop feeling so guilty for leaving her alone that night
and letting her get turned into a vamp in the first place. If, that
was, I survived to stop feeling guilty.

Corbin stood quietly, letting me think, which
I doubt any human man would have done. But that’s a vamp for
you—they have unlimited time, which usually equates to greater than
human patience. In this case, I was glad of the difference.

“All right,” I said finally and stepped
through the door.

The room I entered appeared to be a bedroom,
and it surprised me by not being an obvious “sex lair” like the one
we’d found Taylor in. There were no slick satin sheets or sex toys.
Instead, it actually looked like a room where someone lived and
spent time—if you can call what vampires do living.

There was a large brass bed covered in a dark
green and gold bedspread against one wall and a fireplace opposite
it against the other wall. There was already a small fire going in
the grate—its flames were reflected in an old fashioned full-length
mirror that stood in a golden claw-footed frame in the far corner
of the room. Angled to face the fires was a large brown leather
easy chair and beside it stood a tall wooden bookcase filled with
all kinds of books.

I walked over to the shelf as Corbin shut us
into the room and studied his private library. I was trying
desperately not to think about how we were now locked in together
but despite my nervousness, a few of his books caught my eye.

There were a lot of things I would have
expected to see on any guy’s night table—some Clancy novels,
histories of different wars, mostly by Shelby Foote. There were
also books in French, Spanish, and possibly Japanese, which I
couldn’t read. Hmm, Corbin was well read at least. Being an English
major, that was definitely on my wish list for Mr. Right—too bad he
wasn’t human and I couldn’t stand him. Besides the novels and the
foreign language books, there were a few volumes so old I was
afraid to touch them—was that really a first edition of
Tamerlane
?

“Amazing,” I murmured, daring to trace the
spine of the book with a single finger.

“A fine work by a tormented man.” Corbin was
suddenly standing right behind me.

I looked up at him. “You knew Edgar Allan
Poe?”

He shrugged. “In passing. I knew one who
considered bringing him over. Unfortunately, his mental illness
near the end was such that it was feared he would be too
destructive if he became one of my kind.”

“But think how much more he could have
written,” I breathed. “Maybe your, uh, friend should have taken the
risk.”

“Maybe. It is a difficult decision—there is a
fine line between genius and madness.”

I looked farther down the bookcase and found
something that topped even
Tamerlane.
It was a tattered
paperback book with a picture of a bare-chested muscular man in a
kilt with fangs. At his feet was a woman who was falling out of her
low cut dress. I had known that there was a proliferation of
vampire romance novels ever since the fanged set had come out
publicly about ten years before, but I had never dreamed that a
real, self-respecting vampire would read them. Especially a
four-star vamp like Corbin.

I looked up at him. “Uh…
Immortal Highland
Lover
? Seriously?”

He smiled. “I read it for comedic effect. The
historical inaccuracies amuse me. As well as the way the writers
always assume a vampire would keep his accent for centuries.”

“Doesn’t he?” I asked, frowning.

Corbin shook his head. “Maybe if he or she
was able to stay in their country of origin. But in the era I was
brought over, the need to keep moving, or be suspected of what one
was, made that impossible. By the time I was a century old I had
been around the globe twice and spoke twelve different languages.
The accent is one of the first things to go.”

“Can you still use it if you want to?” I
asked curiously.

He grinned. “That I can, lassie, an’ ye wish
it.” His brogue was so thick and startling that I started laughing.
Corbin laughed with me and before I knew it the book was back on
the shelf and I was in his arms. “You’re beautiful when you laugh,”
he murmured. There was still just a touch of an accent in his deep
voice.

I looked up at him. His body was big and hard
in all the right places against mine and I couldn’t help the way my
heart started to race when he was so close to me.
He’s the
enemy,
I reminded myself sternly.
A vampire’s a vampire, no
matter how charming he is.

“Don’t do that,” Corbin whispered, looking
into my eyes. “Don’t talk yourself out of feeling for me.”

I frowned. “How do you know what I was
thinking? Are you trying to glam me?”

He looked frustrated. “No. I’m trying to make
you care for me. But it appears to be an uphill battle.”

I shrugged. “Those are the breaks. Maybe you
should have fallen for someone who hasn’t seen what vamps can
do—how violent and destructive they can be. Or maybe you should
just glam some other woman into thinking she loves you.”

He frowned. “Is that what you think I want? A
false love? A woman who only thinks she cares for me because I
manipulated her mind?”

“It’s what a lot of vamps seem to want,” I
pointed out. I had seen it more than once—a human so enslaved by
glam-sex that they would literally do anything for the vamp who was
supplying them. No crack head in the world has anything on a
glam-addict.

“I see it is useless to try and change your
mind.” Corbin let me go abruptly. “Therefore, let us commence your
punishment.” His eyes were hard and every trace of the thick accent
he’d used earlier was gone. I felt like a cold wind had swept
through the room, taking away the warmth that had been momentarily
between us and replacing it with chilly civility. But please, like
I
wanted
to have warm fuzzies over a vampire?

“Fine.” I lifted my chin. “You said no sex
and no spanking. So what are you going to do to me?”

Corbin settled into the brown leather chain
and steepled his long fingers. “To begin with, I will watch you
disrobe.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “You’re
serious? You want me to strip for you?”

“Exactly.”

“God.” I ran a hand through my hair, which
was beginning to come down out of the tight ponytail I always wore
it in. “Where’s some cheesy music and a stripper pole when you need
them?”

Corbin shook his head. “There is no need for
you to try and make a show out of it to arouse me. I am quite
certain I will find the sight of your naked body erotic enough
without any other efforts on your part.”

Sure, if he had a thing for freckles, small
breasts and big thighs. At least I didn’t have to worry about him
losing control once he saw me in the altogether. In fact, seeing me
naked might just cure him of his ridiculous obsession with me—as I
have mentioned before, I don’t hate my body but I’m not exactly
model material either.

I took a deep breath and started unbuttoning
my jacket. Great—so my punishment was going to be humiliation. But
if Corbin thought he could rattle my cage by getting me naked, he
was mistaken. I could get through this, I told myself fiercely.
Besides, taking off my clothes was a hell of a lot better than
having sex with him.

I kept telling myself that until I got down
to my bra and panties. They were pink and lacy and innocent
looking, which made me feel like an inexperienced little girl in
front of Corbin, who was watching my every move intently. At least
they matched. I was absurdly glad that he hadn’t caught me wearing
my granny panties although I told myself I shouldn’t care what he
thought.

I was reaching behind my back to unsnap my
bra when Corbin held up his hand. “Stop.”

“What?” I looked down at myself. Had he
already decided he’d seen enough? That was a little insulting.

“What is that? On the inside of your elbow?”
He pointed and I looked down with a growing sense of dread. It was
Taylor’s bite from the night before and it was still raw.

Corbin was up and out of his chair in a blur.
Suddenly he was standing in front of me and the light in his eyes
was truly frightening.

“I…I…” I tried to back away from him but he
already had my arm grasped firmly in his big hand.

“Did I not tell you that you weren’t to give
Taylor any more of your blood?”

“Take it easy! That’s from last night when
she came to see me at my place,” I protested.

Corbin seemed to relax a little. “All right.
But earlier you told me there was nothing more for me to heal,
Addison. Why did you lie to me?”

“Technically I told you there were no more
scars,
which is true,” I pointed out.

He shook his head. “You kept this from me on
purpose. Why?”

I could tell from the look in his eyes that
he wasn’t letting me go until I answered. “Because the way I felt
when you…when you healed my wrists freaked me out, okay?” I said,
feeling the hot blood rush to my cheeks as I remembered the way my
body had reacted to his touch. “I couldn’t imagine letting you do
that, letting you put your mouth on me, farther up my arm.”

Corbin’s eyes darkened. “I fear that very
soon you will have to get used to my mouth all over your body, my
darling. In the meantime, you have incurred another punishment for
lying to me.”

“What? But I’m not even done with this one
yet!”

“Indeed you are not.” He let go of my arm.
“Continue, please.”

Trembling with anger and indignation, I went
back to fumbling with my bra strap. But somehow the damn thing was
stuck or else maybe my hands were just shaking too much. At any
rate, I couldn’t get it undone.

Corbin saw my problem. “Here. Let me.” He
reached behind me to unhook the strap and then drew the bra slowly
down my arms. Without asking, he knelt at my feet and slowly teased
my panties down my legs until I could step out of them. Afterward
he simply sat there, staring up at me.

I wanted to be brave and proud and fierce and
not care what he thought of me but too many years of body image
issues got in the way. I put an arm over my breasts and my other
hand between my thighs, cupping the neatly trimmed strip of
red-gold curls that grew there. “Okay, I’m naked. Are you happy
now?” I asked, feeling like my cheeks must be as red as my hair
with mortification.

“Not yet. Move your hands, Addison. Let me
look at you.”

“I don’t want to,” I said stubbornly. This
punishment was turning out to be harder than I’d imagined. “I…I’m
shy.”

“I can see that.” His voice was curiously
gentle. “Nevertheless, I wish to see you.” He continued to look at
me, waiting silently. After a while I realized there was no point
in hoping he’d get bored or decide to move on to something else—he
literally had all the time in the world. He could sit there staring
at me like that forever until I gave in.

Better to get it over with—like ripping
off a bandage.
Gritting my teeth, I dropped my hands to my
sides and closed my eyes tightly. Corbin might want to look at me
naked but that didn’t mean I had to watch him doing it. There was a
long, long silence in which I could feel myself getting more and
more embarrassed.

“Anytime you’re done looking,” I finally
ground out. “I mean, unless my second punishment is standing naked
in the middle of the room all night.”

“As lovely as you are, I do not think that
will be necessary.” Corbin’s deep voice sounded closer. My eyes
flew open to see him standing in front of me now, so close his
chest was almost touching my bare breasts. “And your second
punishment will not begin until I have healed you.”