Lisa Renee Jones (8 page)

Marissa scrambled to get up but he rolled her to her back. “You aren’t alone in this, Marissa.

You aren’t alone. We’ll get through this. I’ll make this right.”

“You don’t understand,” she shouted. “It wants you dead.” She started squirming and kicking again, but he used his body, to trap her, easily holding her. Still, she kept fighting. He shoved her hands over her head as he had once before, pressed his lips near her ear, sent her a mental compulsion he prayed would work. Stop. Stop now.

She listened, going still beneath him, though he wasn’t sure if he’d willed her actions, or she’d simply tired. Suddenly, he was aware of every womanly curve beneath him, of her bare breasts beneath the wet tee she wore. His cock thickened, his balls tightened. His hand slid over her breast, teasing her nipple. She moaned and arched into him.

“You and your wolf want me,” he pursed, scraping his teeth over her shirt, teasing the pebbled peak beneath.

“Damn you. Don’t be a fool,” she hissed, “I’ll fuck you and I’ll like it, just like Sarah did Troy.

But in the end, Evan, I’ll still be the monster who kills you when the full moon comes.” He lowered his mouth to hers. “Sarah was a natural born wolf. She worked for the rebels and was using Troy to try and infiltrate the Wardens. She’s wasn’t an innocent victim like you are.”

“I stopped being innocent the minute this thing started growing inside me.”

“Maybe,” he conceded, “but you’ll get rid of your wolf far easier than you will this vampire.” He kissed her, stroking her tongue with his, telling her he’d meant his words. He had no idea why this woman had taken him by storm, why she was the woman for him – only that she was. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his. He dropped her hands and pressed them beneath her t-shirt, fingering her hard little buds. His dick throbbed, his blood all but boiled.

Mine. The word echoed in his head, in his body. He was alive again because of this woman, burning alive with lust and need.

He shoved his hand past the loose band of her shorts, his fingers between hers thighs, over the bristle of blonde hair, to the sensitive folds of her. His pushed his fingers inside her, her muscles clenching onto him, her hips lifting.

“Evan,” she cried out. “I…” She gasped as he rolled her swollen nub and then suckled her nipple between his lips. Possessiveness like nothing he’d ever known rolled through him. He wanted her pleasure, her understanding that it was his to take and give, and no one else’s.

Her nails dug into his shoulders, her teeth scraping his neck. “I want you inside me. I need you inside me.”

He growled low in his throat – a primal sound that no wolf could match. He was a vampire – he would not give this woman up to a damnable wolf. He twisted his hand, the butt of his palm stroking her clit, his fingers pumping into her. She dropped back onto the ground, tilted her head back, exposing her neck. Her blood pulsing in the vein, calling him, as it had from the moment he’d first seen her.

He sunk his teeth into her neck, and she instantly came, her body instantly clenched around his fingers, her body tightening, spasming. That possessive feeling rolled over him with her pleasure, with her blood. He drank her in, tasted her. He could save her now, convert her. End this all. End the wolf. Thunder rumbled overhead, the rain soaking them, her breathing a sensual rasp in his hear. Time stood still for Evan. There was only Marissa’s blood, and the wildness of the vampire in him that knew what he wanted, what he had to do. No man, wolf, or council member could take her from him once it was done.

A split second of warning spiked in his body before a hand was shoved into his hair, and his head was yanked back, blood – Marissa’s blood dripping down his mouth.

A massive male squatted in front of him his black as hell eyes holding a lethal threat. “It appears I’m just in time.”

“Marcus,” Evan whispered, reality coming back to him as he brought his ‘Warden in Charge’

into focus. For a moment a haze of lust and need rumbled through him, small details fading in and out. In some far corner of his mind, he registered the absence of rain, the presence of mud and ground beneath him – and Marissa. His gaze dropped to find her passed out, her skin pale and her body half way to dead. He cursed, and quickly closed her wound, opening one on his wrist, to replace her blood loss.

“Nice to have you back with us,” Marcus said, standing up, a vision of pure power in his black leather, his long blonde hair wet around his shoulders. “Take her someplace safe, out of the wolf’s reach,” he said. “I’ll deal with the council while your brother’s deal with the wolf.” Marissa began to stir, and Evan’s reason for converting her here and now slammed into him like a punch in the gut. “I won’t kill her and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”

“You won’t get the chance to kill her if you cross the council,” he said. “They’ll tell me to do it.

And if I won’t – they’ll send another ancient who’ll get the job done, which means I’ll have to kill them before they do. And while I don’t like most of the bastards, if we really have a mutation of the wolf virus we might need them.” He reached in a pocket and tossed Evan a syringe. “Get me a blood sample when she’s strong enough. And when I say take her someplace safe, I also mean someplace nice. Seriously man, if you want to win the lady over – that rattrap isn’t the way to do it.” And then he was gone, moving so fast, the eye couldn’t register him, a talent few of their kind possessed. No one knew his past or his origins. Only that he wasn’t someone you ever wanted to piss off. He was damn glad Marcus had his and Marissa’s back.

***

So cold that her bones felt like ice that might crack into tiny pieces at any moment. She barely remembered what had happened. There were just flashes of moments – of being in the room alone, of needing to run. Fighting with Evan then waking up in the mud. The moment Evan had lifted her into his arms and she’d curled into his chest, pressed her ear to his heart, but found no heartbeat. Vampire, the word had come to her, and replayed over and over.

“Sit a second,” he urged her softly, reaching behind the shower curtain and turning on the water.

And then, suddenly he was naked and pulling her into the shower, his arms and the warm water piercing the cold. He washed her hair, soaped her body. He soothed her with his hands, his lips.

Warmth seeped into the places she’d been cold. Never had anyone touched her so gently, with so much care and tenderness. She realized then, that she’d built a wall around herself, a way to deal with being alone in the world. If she didn’t let anyone in, they couldn’t leave.

She rested her head on his chest, letting his powerful body hold her up, give her strength. “I heard,” she finally whispered, tilting her chin up to look at him. “I heard what your brother’s said about the blood bond being against your laws.”

“I know,” he said solemnly. “The water is getting cold. Let’s get out of here before you start shaking again.” He turned off the water, and then yanked the curtain back. He dried her off, wrapped her in a towel, but never once looked at her.

When he wrapped a towel around his waist, she grabbed his arm, forced his gaze to hers. “Tell me what is happening. Make me understand.”

He motioned to the bed. “Let’s go sit down.”

His discomfort was palpable. Whatever he had to tell her she wasn’t going to like. He sat down on the bed and patted the area beside him.

She hugged herself. “Tell me.”

Reluctantly, he seemed to accept her distance. “Vampires are a relatively small race. And we’ve survived extinction by staying off the radar. If we expose ourselves to a human, their memory is erased.”

“Wait. What? You can erase a memory?”

“Yes.”

“Mine? Have you erased my memory? Is that why I can’t remember all of what happened earlier tonight?”

“No. Once a blood bond is created the human is immune to our abilities. And,” he hesitated,

“they become a potential liability.”

Her jaw went slack. “Are you telling me that your government will kill me? And you too for creating the bond?” His lips thinned to a grim line and he didn’t even have to speak for her to know she was right. “So either you kill me because I become a wolf or they kill us both because I don’t.” Emotion exploded inside her and she started shaking all over again. “You aren’t going to die for me. I remember now. I remember why I ran, why I tried to get away from you. I’m going to be the reason you die. I knew it then and I know it now. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.” Evan grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed, then rolled so that one leg slid between hers.

“There’s a way out of this,” he promised. “A way we both live.”

“What way?” she asked urgently. She was desperate for an answer that would make this feeling inside her and the certainty that she was destined to kill Evan, go away.

She listened to his story of a mutated wolf virus, how her blood was the way to convince the council she was important, that she was worth saving. A way for her petition to be converted to vampire before the full moon would be approved.

“I don’t want to steal your life from you Marisa,” he told her, brushing his lips over hers. “I swear to you. I want to give you a second chance at one.”

“I know,” she said, running her fingers threw his damp hair. “I know.” And she did. “I want that chance. I want to make a difference in the world. I haven’t and I regret that so much now.” So why wasn’t she shouting with joy? “What happens now if I say yes to conversion?”

“We get the council blood samples and then find a safe place to hole up – a luxury hotel of your choice. We’ll wait on word of the petition there. That’ll give you a chance to ask questions about our race, and learn about what you’ll become. A luxury I wasn’t given and I want you to have.”

“What about the wolf?”

“Troy and Aiden are going after it. My job is to keep you safe and alive.”

“Don’t you mean ‘sane’ and alive.”

He drew her knuckles to his lips. “Actually. I intend to drive you as crazy as I possibly can.” She wanted nothing more than to spend the next twelve days, as he’d suggested, holed up in a plush hotel room while he drove her crazy with passion. It was a chance to explore why this vampire male felt so right – as if she’d known him a lifetime, a chance to think through how she’d take this new spin on life by the horns. She would leave an imprint this time, she’d do more, be more.

“I have no money and no job,” she said.

“All newly created vampires are given a dowry,” he said. “And if you do as we have, and invest it well, it’ll last you an eternity as it should.”

This was all wonderful, this solution that wiped away all the bad, and left only good. There was an optimistic future, one where they both survived, one where maybe – just maybe – she and Evan were more than lovers. She told herself to be happy, to be relieved. Only, she could still feel the wolf inside her. Still feel its hatred of Evan, its own desire to survive. The wolf cared only about its own happiness, and it wouldn’t be happy until Evan was dead.

Ten days later, Evan stood on the porch of the Lake Austin cabin he’d taken Marissa too, with both Troy and Aiden. “Tell me you have a lead on the wolf?” Both his brothers grimaced then shook their heads. “It’s like he just disappeared,” Troy said.

“And we could chase random leads all over the country and get nowhere,” Aiden said.

Troy motioned to the house. “Where is Marissa?” Troy asked.

“Shower,” Evan said. “Her skin keeps getting hot. Nothing helps but ice cold water.”

“I guess that answers my question,” Aiden said. “Which was going to be – how is she?”

“She was great when we first got here. Running in the woods helped the adrenaline spikes she keeps having. But she has two days left before she turns into a monster. She’s pretty upset. And all Marcus keeps saying is – one more blood sample. If the mutation we suspected hasn’t shown up by now, it’s not going to. We had to be wrong.”

“At the risk of being called cynical,” Troy started.

“You,” Aiden asked mockingly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Cynical? Never.” Troy ignored him. “The council could easily send in an assassin to kill you both before she turns.”

“Why not now,” Aiden said. ”Why not ten days ago?”

“Maybe,” Troy said tightly. “They really are waiting out her blood samples, looking for a mutation. There’s got to be a reason this wolf could partially shift when we’ve never seen that in any other wolf. They know that.”

“Or maybe they don’t want to kill her at all,” Evan said softly, voicing the worry in his mind.

“Maybe they want her to change so they can study her.” The expression on his brother’s faces, said they’d thought the same thing.

“If you care about her as much as we think you do,” Troy said. “You can’t let her shift.” He more than cared about her. He loved her, everything about her. From her odd habit of eating mustard with French fries, to her ability to coax him into watching Wesley Snipes in a Blade marathon, when he didn’t watch vampire movies. But he hadn’t told her. He knew what she’d say. He knew she’d say he didn’t know her long enough to love her, or he felt sorry for her, or responsible for her because of the wolf attack. He’d gladly spend a lifetime proving her wrong on all those points. But he needed to be sure he had a life, she had a life, to start with.

He arched a brow at Troy. “Are you suggesting I change her now?”

“That puts them on the run,” Aiden said. “That’s not the life they want.”

“I’m suggesting you take precautions,” Troy said. “Change locations and quickly, we’ll stay here and wait for action. If Marcus delivers your sign, sealed and approved petition, we’ll let you know. If not -- you change her before the full moon.” Aiden scrubbed his day old beard. “I hate to admit it, but he makes sense. Do it Evan. Move her.

Move her now.”

“And what about Marcus,” Evan asked. “He’s going to be pissed.”

“If Marcus is plotting with the council against you then piss on him,” Troy said. “And if he’s not