Darker After Midnight (20 page)

It was the only warning he had before she sprang off her heels and took him down in a swift, vicious strike.

They landed hard, Chase’s spine crashing onto the floor under their combined weight. His breath went out of him in a gust and a groan, Tavia’s banshee cry echoing in his skull. She started fighting as soon as they hit the hardwood. Fast and strong, she clawed at him, shrieking and growling as he tried to ward off her frenzied assault.

The zippered front of her track suit hoodie was open just enough to give him a decent look at the web of
dermaglyphs
that spread in a flourish across her chest and up onto her throat. He had no doubt now that that’s what they were: The Breed skin markings were flooded with color, variegating hues of deep purple, blood wine, and black. She was furious and pained from starvation, her
glyphs
told him that much on sight.

How had the genetic markings lain dormant until now?

What the hell had been done to her to keep her true nature suppressed?

Chase didn’t have long to wonder about it. Tavia pulled her arm back and swung a fist toward his face. He dodged the blow, faster than her only because of experience and training. She was unschooled and out of control, a raw, natural power unleashed for what was clearly the first time. She was ferocious Breed might in a sleek, feminine form.

And goddamn if Chase had ever known anything hotter in his whole life.

She struggled against him some more, grunting as he deflected her every strike, roaring and snarling when he finally grabbed hold of her by the wrists and splayed her arms above him. Her pulse beat hard and steady in the sides of her slender neck. He could feel
it banging against his fingertips where he held her strong wrists. And he could feel that solid, thumping throb along the insides of her thighs too, which gripped him like iron bands around his waist, pinning him beneath her with astonishing force.

She panted and heaved, those bright amber eyes and bared fangs telling him the fight wasn’t drained out of her yet.

Not even close.

“Tavia, listen to me.” Her muscles twitched with a warning that she was about to strike. Chase spat a curse, teeth gritted with the effort to keep his hold on her tense arms. “Tavia, for fuck’s sake, you need to calm—”

She roared over his attempt to reason with her, but she didn’t try to break free of his hold.

No, she bit him.

Chase spewed a wordless shout as her fangs sank deep into the flesh and tendons of his left wrist. It wasn’t the pain of the bite that shook him but the sudden, alarming realization that his blood was gushing freely into her mouth.

He tried to speak her name—warn her to stop—but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a strangled moan. The pleasure and pain of her bite speared through him, like a jolt of current shot into every fiber of his being.

Christ, it felt good.

Too good, especially when he wasn’t even sure what his blood would do to her. She was somehow Breed; he understood that now. But how would her body react to his red cells pouring into her?

He had that answer not even a second later.

Tavia released him on a guttural cry. Her eyes burned brighter now, throwing off amber light as hot as smoldering coals. Her fangs dripped blood—his blood—down onto her chin and the heaving swell of her chest. Her
glyphs
pulsed, alive and changeable, sexy as hell against the smooth cream of her skin.

As he brought his punctured wrist to his mouth to seal the wounds, Tavia avidly watched him. She licked her lips, her dark pink tongue lapping up every drop of his spilled blood that lingered on her mouth. Tipping her head back for a moment, her
hands moved absently up to her neck, then over the top of her zippered hoodie to caress the curve of her breasts. It was a sensual move, unconsciously so, an instinctual reaction to the blood that was now feeding her cells. When she looked at him again, her smoldering gaze rooted on his throat. Her breathing was still hard and frenzied, her body still vibrating with coiled aggression.

And she was hot. Chase could feel her body radiating into his where they connected, her nylon-clad hips straddling his naked abdomen. His own pants felt too confining, his erection rising where her backside rubbed too pleasantly against his groin.

God, she was magnificent. Beyond beautiful.

And everything male in him was responding with swift, unwanted—quite obvious—interest.

He didn’t have the chance to summon the will to push her away before she fell on him again, swifter than before, moving so fast he could hardly track her. Her bite was harder this time. A dead-aim strike at his carotid.

Chase’s body arced violently, every muscle and tendon going taut as cables when her fangs pierced his neck and sank deep. She suckled him hard, drawing in a long pull at his vein that made his cock surge so tight, he thought he would explode on the spot.

He didn’t want to acknowledge the pleasure he was experiencing, but he was damned if he could deny it. His raging hard-on was evidence enough, but already he could feel his
glyphs
lighting up with approval as Tavia sucked in another mouthful of his blood.

“Christ,” he hissed, unable to do anything but comply with the demand of her mouth on his throat. The sensation was unlike anything he’d ever known.

Unmated, he’d fed exclusively on humans all his life. And never had he permitted a blood Host to drink from him. Not that blunt little teeth could compare to the razor-sharp pleasure of Tavia’s fangs, holding him tight against her mouth as she greedily fed from his vein.

With every beat of his heart, he felt his energy being drawn from within him, from limbs and core and senses, flowing into her. Nourishing her. He could feel her power growing. Her hunger deepened with every hard tug at his wounds. She moaned against
his skin as she drank some more, the hum of her pleasure ratcheting his own desire ever tighter.

Tavia’s hips began to move, grinding against him. He knew she was feeling the same arousal he was. He could see it in the liquid churn of her body. Could taste the fragrance of her desire in every hard breath he sucked into his lungs.

His cock was hard as stone beneath her undulating hips. The ache of his want was brutal, a pure, delicious agony.

And if his need was unbearable, hers could only be worse.

Genetically enhanced with qualities meant to make a Host more pliable when bitten, Breed blood was even more potent when ingested. To a female born a Breedmate, it was arousal in its most primal form.

To Tavia?

He couldn’t know. His only answer came in the form of her hips grinding more demandingly on his. He brought his hands up to rest along her back, on the verge of madness as she slid herself lower on his body, aligning the heat of her core to the hard ridge of his groin.

He knew he should stop this before it went any further. But any thought of denying her was losing ground quickly under the sensual assault being waged on his already tarnished honor.

“Tavia,” he muttered thickly, feeling the jab of his own fangs pressing into the soft flesh of his tongue as his body gave itself over to the dark nature of what he truly was. “Ah, fuck …”

MORE
.

It was all she knew in that moment, the only thing that mattered.

More
.

More of the quenching fluid that cooled the desert that was her throat. More of the power that was surging into every particle of her being, soothing the ache of her racked bones and muscles, calming the fury—the violent tempest of animal rage—that had first awakened her from her sleep overnight and left her shivering and confused, huddled on the floor of the room.

She wanted more of the pleasure that had started with her first taste of the spicy dark elixir that flowed over her tongue like liquid velvet from some exotic other world. It was blood. She knew this in the part of her mind that was still tethered to reality.

It was his blood. Sterling Chase. The man she should fear and probably despise. The man who was no man at all, but something dangerous and wild.

She wanted more of
him
.

Her pulse spiked at the thought, drumming harder in her veins. She felt her blood pumping, hot and alive, into every organ and muscle. Could practically hear the suck of her body’s cells, drinking in his dark strength, claiming it as their own.

And oh, he felt good.

Everywhere they made contact, her skin buzzed with arousal. She couldn’t deny the pleasure, any more than she could deny the need to slake the thirst that felt as though it had been building inside her all her life.

She’d felt so ill before—dying, she was sure. But now she felt no sickness. No quivering weakness, or the anxiety that so often had her scrambling for medicinal relief. She felt alive now. Infinitely, powerfully alive.

She drank urgently at his open vein, unable to be gentle. Nor could she curb the other craving that was lashing itself around her, a smoldering need that licked across her skin and into her heightened senses.

Everything seemed more vivid now. Her head filled with the dark scent of his skin and the blood that pulsed so forcefully against her tongue. She breathed him in, savored the wild taste of him. Indulged in the hard power of his body beneath her, the muscled planes of his bare chest warm and satin smooth under her fingertips.

His heart was hammering as hard as hers, a beat she could feel, somehow, throbbing in her own veins too. She could feel the power of his desire, a need that made the molten pool in the core of her burn even more intensely.

Tavia moaned, losing her hold on what little control she had left.

“More,” she murmured against his skin. Her hips were moving of their own accord, wanton despite her inexperience. All she knew was the yearning, the ache that swelled to consume her as she moved her virgin body against the large, unyielding bulge that nestled between her spread thighs. Pleasure burst inside her with the delicious friction, but it wasn’t enough to sate her. Not nearly enough.

She was panting as she finally tore her mouth away from the twin punctures she’d made in his throat. She rose up on top of him and stared down into his tormented face. His eyes glowed like hot coals. Behind his parted lips, his fangs gleamed snowy white and sharp as daggers.

“Please,” she whispered, lost to everything but the demands of her new consciousness. To make her point clear, she rocked her pelvis over him, hissing with the hungered need that yearned to be filled. “Please … make this ache go away.”

His answering groan sounded raw in his throat, on the verge of refusal.

But then he reached up and cupped his big hand around her nape. With a feral-sounding growl, he pulled her down to his mouth and claimed her in a ferocious kiss.

T
AVIA’S MOUTH
was hot on his, responsive and eager as he pushed his tongue past her parted lips in a deep, unforgiving kiss. She took him in, kissing him back with equal ferocity, even though her mouth was a little clumsy, her tongue a little untrained, clashing against the long points of his fangs. But she was a damn quick learner; he had to give her that.

Still seated on top of him, she moved her hips in time with the aggressive thrusts of his tongue, then soon she was matching the boldness of his mouth, grinding her body against him in a demanding rhythm. Her feminine fangs grazing his larger ones was an erotic sensation unlike anything he’d ever known. The sharp points abraded his lips as she pressed deeper into his kiss, nipping and prodding, driving him wild.

He broke contact on a growl, his lungs sawing, breath rushing as fast as his heart rate. He released his hold on her nape only to reach for the zippered front of her top. Tugged it open to bare her skin to his appreciative gaze.

Her
glyphs
were livid with dark colors. Beautiful swirls and arcs played across her clavicle and down onto her chest, disappearing under the modest black bra he’d bought with her clothes.
He’d chosen the thing in haste, grabbing a simple cotton one that looked like it would fit her. The bra couldn’t have been sexier on her if it was made out of lace and satin. Her pert, buoyant little breasts filled it out perfectly.

Chase flicked open the front clasp with his finger and thumb, then peeled away the fabric. Pretty flourishes pulsing with deep wine and indigo hues tracked around her dark, rosy nipples. The colors of desire, written all over her creamy skin as if rendered by an artist’s hand. He drank in the sight of her, and the breath that had been racing in and out of him now left on a ragged sigh.

“So lovely,” he whispered, the words gruff, his voice thick and parched. Then he raised his shoulders up off the floor so he could take one of those exquisite buds into his mouth. He suckled her with as much care as he could manage, loath to graze the delicate skin with his fangs. He didn’t want to hurt her, nor did he want to accidentally nick her and make her bleed. He was already too far gone with this erotic hunger to deal with even the slightest drop of her spilled blood.