Dark Cravings (19 page)

I drew the chain through the air, flicked my wrist and sent
the metal links at my target. The chain wrapped around the demon’s neck. I
yanked. The demon pitched and fell to his knees. My success was short-lived.
Clawed hands found the chain and pulled. The demon tugged me close and lashed
out with its talons.

I tried to drop the chain, to get out of the way, but the
links were wrapped too tightly around my hand. The demon’s fist struck my jaw.
Pain flared from the impact and rattled my teeth. The salty-sweet taste of my
blood filled my mouth.

I snarled and returned the favor with a matching blow to the
demon’s face. I tried to ignore the soft flesh melting around my fist. I
straightened back up and spun into a roundhouse kick that missed the demon’s
face by mere inches. Shit. The demon hit me again.

“Duck,” Micah shouted.

I ducked.

Gunfire pierced the night. Black blood blossomed in the hole
that was now right between the demon’s eyes. A second shot rang out and the
remaining demon, the one about to jump on my back, went down, his head
exploded. Chunks of flesh and brain scattered across the ground.

“You cheated,” I panted.

“You were getting your ass kicked.”

He rubbed my cheek, picked off a few clumps of something
thicker than blood. I grimaced. He laughed. He wrapped a hand around my waist
and pressed his chest against mine. The blood and ash on my shirt made us stick
together. I lifted up, grabbed his soaked shirt and pressed my mouth to his in
a quick, hard kiss.

The moment I released Micah’s shirt, the sound of clapping
rang out over the rain. We both stiffened. I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t.
An invisible hand gripped my jaw, drew my head around until I was staring at
the boogeyman himself.

Julian lounged against a tall, moss-covered cross. He was
long and lean and looked like sex on a stick. The long black coat he wore
danced in the wind and did nothing to hide the hard planes of his body on display
through his tight black clothes.

“How very romantic.” Julian’s words dripped like acid.

The air shimmered. Before I could blink, two vampires phazed
in behind us and that was all she wrote. I didn’t have time to process or see
or react. A crack rang out in the night. Micah fell face first into the ground
beside me. I looked up into the electric-blue eyes of a vampire who now held a
blood-smeared bat in his hands.

I gasped, turned to face Julian and, against my will, I fell
to my knees in front of my sire.

The cold rain pelting my body was a welcome relief from the
inferno raging inside. Sweat mixed with rain slid down my face. I clenched my
jaw. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. Next to me, Micah lay unconscious.

Through narrowed eyes I watched Julian push off the cross he’d
been leaning against. He stalked to me. As if he were the devil himself,
strolling through the playgrounds of hell, Julian’s coat billowed around him.
He was not just a vampire. I could see that in every step he took, in every
shift of sinew and muscle.

He was a king.

An unbelievably handsome king.

Since I’d seen him last, he’d let his white-blond hair grow
long enough to reach his shoulders. As he walked, the wet strands caressed the
collar of his jacket. Although over four hundred years old, my sire would
always look like he was in his mid-twenties.

The phantom silk of his hair trailed over my neck, across my
naked breasts. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. My mind knew it was a memory but
my body didn’t. The image of Julian moving over me, sliding down my body, crept
inside like a thief in the darkest part of the night. I had never known what
kind of power my sire would hold over me. This close, shielding him was almost
impossible. The wall inside my head began to shake. Hundreds of knives cut at
the ivy holding my sanity together.

The hard tips of my nipples pressed against my rain-soaked
shirt. I sucked in a breath and felt soft hairs tickle the insides of my
thighs. No. No. No. Julian was not going to do this to me. The bastard was
feeding me memories of us together.

A sharp, biting pain on my upper thigh pulled me out of the
fog. Micah’s bite. The mark throbbed and burned as if it knew an intruder
invaded its territory. The pain was the push I needed. With effort, I rose to
my feet and, through the bond, let my sire feel how much I loathed him. Our
gazes met, blue on blue, and I made sure he saw the hatred in my eyes.

Energy in the air gathered. The hair on my arms stood on
end. Julian strode across the graveyard, vanished and reappeared an inch away
from my face.

The honey-and-cider scent I’d always associated with him
wrapped around me. I looked up at him. Water dripped from my lashes and
obscured my view. Through the veil of rain, Julian’s pale skin glowed.

“You bastard.” My anger forced the words out in a whisper.

Inside me, the rage that had been building over the last
seven years twisted into something beastly. He had manipulated me. He had taken
my innocence. He had changed me. He had left me. For a few seconds, I lost all
rational thought. I rushed at him, blind to anything except one thought:
Die,
you motherfucking bastard, die.

Before I even realized it, my stake was poised in my hand.
My target was his cold black heart. A scream tore from my throat. I launched myself
at him, tried to shove my knee through his groin and up into his stomach.

Julian caught my wrist and squeezed. Pain speared up my arm
and the stake slipped out of my hand. Like a giant swatting a fly, he batted my
knee to the side. I fell into him. Julian twisted my arm in his hand and spun
me until he drew me against his chest. I struggled. I kicked. I called him
every foul name I’d ever heard.

“Now, now, aren’t you happy to see me?” Julian purred.

Hot air panted against my ear. His breath was the only thing
I could hear over the erratic beating of my heart. I grunted, tried to twist
free. Julian twisted my arm, pulling the shoulder that had so recently been
injured. Tendons ripped. I doubled over in mind-numbing agony and my vision melted
into a blur.

The first thing my father taught me was to never attack with
emotion. Use skill, power and intelligence. The first mistake I made was
letting my anger rule me, the second was attacking with my wounded arm. His
grip tightened even more, until I made a pitiful mewling sound in the back of
my throat.

“Fuck you,” I spat.

Never letting go, Julian phazed. My world spun and, unlike
the times when I’d phazed to Micah, my skin felt like it was being ripped
apart. I was only half-conscious by the time Julian pressed my cheek to the
soft, wet moss of the cross he’d been leaning against. My stomach lurched and I
gagged.

Julian moved his free hand into my hair. He tangled his
fingers through the sodden strands. Yanked. I clawed at the moss, broke the tips
of my nails when I found the cement underneath. Julian drew the tip of his nose
down the exposed line of my throat. He inhaled.

“You smell like your mongrel hunter,
älskare
. I think
we should remedy that.”

I threw my head back, a poor attempt at breaking his nose.
Julian’s soft laugh sent spiders crawling down my spine. The moist, rough trail
of his tongue along my throat was the only warning I got. Fangs plunged deep,
ripped into the vein at my neck.

The first awful second of pain quickly morphed into pleasure.
Ecstasy rolled through me and a low moan escaped. The hand I pressed against
the stone cross convulsed—I could no longer struggle to get away.

Julian’s fangs retreated. The tip of his tongue rimmed the
puncture marks and I moaned.

“Is this what you want?” he asked before sinking into my
throat.

Tears wet my cheeks. Compared to the rain, they were molten
hot. This was not happening.

“I should take you right here, in front of your hunter. I
should show him who you really belong to.” Julian thrust the hard ridge of his
cock against my ass.

The dampness between my thighs was humiliating. The image
hit me at once, Julian’s cock and teeth sinking into my body. I didn’t just see
it in my mind, I felt it.

Fuck that. This man—vampire—had broken my heart. I was not
the hapless teenager anymore.

Rearing back, stronger this time, I smashed my head against
the bridge of his nose. Crying out, he eased his grip. That was all I needed to
slip out from beneath him. Too bad I had nowhere to run.

Julian pressed his hand to the bleeding fountain of his
nose. Before my eyes, the swollen, crooked cartilage straightened and then thinned
as if I hadn’t just broken it.

I glared at him. “Stay away from me. Stay out of my head.”

“I do not remember you being so…feisty.”

“Yes, well, I’m no longer eighteen and enamored. You changed
me out of some selfish need to keep me in this world, and then you left!”

“If I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have left. I’m sorry, I
truly am.”

“I don’t accept your apology.”

Warily, I watched Julian take a few steps back. He leaned
against a gravestone and pulled an immaculately rolled cigarette from his
pocket. He didn’t light it, just rolled it between his fingers like I
remembered him doing so many times before. I had never actually seen Julian
smoke. He had once told me he liked the texture between his fingers, the scent
of the tobacco.

Silence yawned between us and I tried to think of some way
to get Micah and me out of here alive. I was moderately sure Julian wouldn’t
kill me. But Micah? If the disgusted, murderous glances Julian kept giving him
were any indication, my sire had plans for my mate.

I’ll fuck you in his blood, make you lick it off my cock.
The voice echoed in my head.

As I waited for Julian to speak, the pounding sound of the
rain was my only comfort. When my head began to spin, I was momentarily
terrified I was going to phaze somewhere. What happened next was worse. By some
cruel twist of fate, I wound up inside my sire’s head.

Our roles were reversed and, strangely enough, I was looking
at myself through his eyes. I was met with equal parts fury and desire. He saw
the trails of water dripping from my chin. Saw the electric blue of my eyes. I
knew he thought I was the most beautiful creature in the world, despite how my
ponytail had come loose and my hair was plastered against me. I pulled out of
his head as quickly as I could.

“I forgot how much you loved the rain.” Julian looked up,
found my gaze. He was trying to remind me of how much I had once loved him.

“Don’t.” I stiffened. “You betrayed me, manipulated me into
loving you. I’ll never forget that. You’ve said your piece and I’ve said mine. I’m
tired of games.”

Any warmth in Julian’s eyes disappeared. With a careless
flick of two fingers, Julian sent his soggy, unsmoked cigarette to the ground.
His boot crushed the tobacco into the grass. When he advanced, I felt his
growing fury rumbling through my head like thunder.

My gut coiled and I sprung to my left. I wasn’t fast enough.
He jerked me back by my hair. Like someone reeling in rope, he twisted the
strands around his fingers until he could pull me the rest of the way to him.

Pressed nose to nose, I had a close-up view of the
bitterness in his eyes.

“I killed for you. I broke my bond with my sire for you. I
made you a queen!” Julian’s spittle hit me in the face. He drew in a breath and
softened his tone. “I love you.”

Now probably wasn’t the time to tell him that he didn’t know
what love was, that he hadn’t done any of those things he’d mentioned alone.
Micah and I made it possible for him to break his bonds. Unfortunately I didn’t
have to say anything. He plucked the thoughts from my mind.

Julian unleashed his rage. The blistering heat of his anger
snaked through my mind and spread out. My knees buckled, but with Julian’s hold
on me, I had nowhere to drop.

“You’re mine, Ella. Mine. I can force you, do you understand
that? I could make you rule by my side for eternity.”

No.
The shadow threading through my soul roared. The
darkness unfurled and I used the added strength to capture and separate all the
pain and the anger Julian was bombarding me with. I threw the emotions back at
him. He loosened the hand in my hair and staggered back as if I’d punched him.
I fell to my hands and knees.

“God damn you, Julian,” I yelled. “I was never yours! You
wanted this, wanted to turn me into your queen. Instead, you made me into a
monster. You can’t take what isn’t yours. I won’t apologize for finally
understanding what a manipulative, self-centered bastard you are. Kill me or
leave.”

He dropped to his knees in front of me, mindless of the wet,
muddy ground. He gripped my cheeks, looked deep into my eyes. The rain came
down in thick sheets, making it difficult to see. My heart clenched painfully.
Why was he making this so hard?

“Do you think I want to kill you?” Julian yelled over the
downpour. “I do know what love is. All I’ve ever wanted was you by my side. Why
don’t you understand?”

“If you loved me, you would have let me be. You knew I didn’t
want this. You should have left me to die! I can’t spend the rest of my
existence with you, knowing how badly you’ve fucked up my life.” My voice
dropped to a cruel whisper. “You make me sick.”

Julian’s intent was reflected in his eyes. Before I could
react, he grabbed the back of my neck and forced his lips against mine. The
oxygen I struggled to find came from Julian’s lungs. He breathed into me.
Velvet soft, Julian stroked his tongue against mine in a way only a man with
centuries of experience knew how to do.

When I tried to pull away, Julian tightened the hand he held
around my neck. He plundered my mouth deeper. The kiss turned violent. The
sharp point of a fang gouged my lower lip and the sweet taste of blood filled
our mouths.

I pushed away with a gasp. Hot trails of blood trickled down
my chin.

Quick as lightning, Julian’s hand clamped down on my
shoulder. I jerked, or tried to. Tears stung my eyes. Julian dug his thumb into
the place where the sand demon had left a piece of his claw. The pain wrenched
a raw sound from deep inside me.

“We aren’t done here,” Julian hissed.

I couldn’t speak through the pain. He moved his grip,
twisted my arm and used the leverage to keep me on my knees. I barely felt the
cold through the murderous rage coursing through me. Julian wrenched my head
back until I was looking into his face. A renewed rage darkened his blue eyes
into black, fathomless pits. His mouth twisted to expose his bloodstained
fangs. He was no longer the flawless man I’d once been so in love with. The
vampire in front of me crouched, put his face close to mine.

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make your choice. You
can join me, rule by my side as my queen willingly, or I’ll force you. The
choice is yours,
min älskling
. You will never be free of me.”

I spit in his face. “I’d rather eat my own entrails than
submit to you.” Blood and saliva splattered his left eye and cheek. Perverse
pleasure filled me at the sight.

I never saw him move, just staggered at the sting of his
backhanded slap across my face. The strength of the blow knocked me to the
ground. Blood dripped to the earth and it was hard to tell if it came from my
nose or the corner of my mouth.

Julian sneered down at me. “I can arrange that.”

Something roared behind me. The sound was inhuman and
furious. With my heart in my throat, I turned to see Micah rise to his feet.
Murder was in his eyes. From the back of his pants, Micah took out a heavy,
high-powered pistol. Too caught up in my own desperate drama, I’d forgotten
about the two vampires Julian had brought with him.

Micah hadn’t. The vampire behind him lunged for his arm, but
Micah blurred out of the way. The gun went off with a flash of red in the
darkness and the vampire’s head disintegrated. I was never eating tomatoes
again.

Never pausing, Micah threw his gun, grabbed the second
vampire and twisted. Flesh ripped. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed into the air.
The decapitated head dropped to the ground at Micah’s feet.

The rain flattened Micah’s hair, ran down his face and
streamed behind him with every step he took. Through the torrents of water, I
saw Micah’s bared teeth. Castro had said something about newly mated males
being dangerous. I could see what he meant.