Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (21 page)

Her eyes went wide when he ran his hand up under her skirt, muttering something about the feel of her stockings, and paused on her thigh.

A wicked smile tugged at his kiss-swollen lips and he looked down.

Sophis tried to think of something to say that would explain why she had three throwing knives strapped to each of her thighs but failed.

He ran his fingers over each small steel blade in turn and she thought he would remove them but he didn’t. His hand shifted, claiming her hip beneath her scarlet dress.

“I love a woman who is armed,” he said with another grin and dropped down.

His hand left hers to trail along the length of her arm and then over her breasts, and Sophis could only stare up at the round orb of the moon as he pressed kisses to her quivering thighs. Her mouth opened in a silent sigh as he licked the front of her underwear and then sucked, tasting her through the flimsy material, and then moved on. Devil, she needed him.

He slid his fingers into the sides of her underwear and then eased it down her legs. Her eyes drifted closed and she relaxed into the bench, lifting her feet so he could get her underwear off over them.

He kissed her calf and then moved forwards, hooking her knees over his arms, and she opened her eyes and stared into his.

Was he giving her a chance to back down?

Things had already gone too far for that.

There was a chance that she had already broken the law. She might as well shatter it completely now.

Sophis reached for him, ran her fingers along the strong line of his jaw, and let him see in her eyes that she had made her decision. She grazed her fingers down his chest and pushed herself up on one hand so she could reach his hard cock. Her legs slipped down his arms and he closed his eyes, clearly frowning behind his mask, and bit his lip. The sound of his zipper giving way was loud in the night air and it sent a tremble through her, not excitement but nerves this time. Was she really going to do this? She had gone too far already to turn back and she didn’t want this to end. She wanted him inside her, wanted to feel his hunger for her, even though she didn’t know anything about him. She wanted to lose herself in this fantasy and not be lonely anymore.

She wanted someone to love her.

He was hard and heavy in her hand, and he choked as she wrapped her fingers around the rigid length of him and squeezed.

His hands moved to her lower back and he pulled her up to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs dangled over his arms and her body poised above his. He shifted his hands down to her bottom and stared at her.

He opened his mouth to speak but Sophis pressed her finger to his lip, afraid he would ruin the moment by mentioning talking again. She didn’t care about anything he had to say. She wanted this and was going to have it, and him. The desire and attraction she felt towards him was too powerful to ignore even for a second.

Sophis’s eyes widened as she lowered herself and the head of his cock nudged against her. She wriggled her hips forwards and it slid inside her core. He inhaled sharply at the same time as she did and then they both stilled right down to their breathing as he eased in, stretching her hungry body, satisfying her more with every inch deeper he moved. He paused when he was fully sheathed in her, his eyes as wide as hers felt, and stared at her for a moment.

A grunt left him when she flexed her muscles around him and he snarled and tore a gasp from her by withdrawing quickly and thrusting hard into her core. Sophis screwed her eyes shut and tipped her head back. He snarled and leaned forwards, laying her back down on the bench. She pressed the back of her head into the stone slab beneath her as he pumped her hard and fast, her legs sticking up in the air. The roughness of his thrusts and his fierce grip on her hips drove her wild with desire and she worked against him, writhing and bucking, desperate for more. She couldn’t help herself and couldn’t stop herself from clutching his hands, gripping them as he held her in place. She needed more.

He moved deeper, slower, moaning into her ear with each long thrust. She caught him around the back of his head with her hand and craned her neck. She wanted to kiss him, needed to feel his lips on hers again, claiming her mouth as hungrily as he claimed her body.

He lowered her legs and pinned her to the bench with his body, his full weight against her, tearing a moan from her. He swallowed her next moan and she worshipped his mouth with breathy kisses and licks. His hands caught her waist again and she wrapped her legs around his hips, holding him to her, her body so hot she felt as though the sun was touching her rather than the moon and her stomach so tight she felt it might explode.

His mouth left hers and he kissed across her cheek, nibbled her earlobe and whispered harsh hungry things into it, and then licked and sucked her throat. Sophis held him there, each thrust of his cock tearing a moan from her throat and twisting her one turn tighter inside. She furrowed her brow and tipped her head back again, pressing it so hard into the bench that it hurt. She didn’t care. She could only focus on the pleasure, on the divine feel of his body in hers, his pelvis brushing her clit with each hard plunge of his cock, and the rush of excitement from each wet kiss he placed on her throat.

“Stay with me,” he muttered against her throat and she clung to him, holding him close, too lost to understand what he was saying or make sense of it. “Don’t leave me alone here.”

She thought he was talking about the moment, about their lovemaking, and she tried to hold on for him, wanted to do as he asked, but it was impossible. She unleashed a rough guttural growl of satisfaction as the tight feeling within her exploded, sending a hot wave of tingles racing over her stomach and thighs, and her body convulsed around his. He groaned into her ear, thrusting wildly into her, riding out her orgasm and then did the one thing she had never expected as he climaxed.

He sank his fangs into her.

Sophis cried out at the sudden pain and it turned into a breathless moan as he thrust into her, spilling himself, and she climaxed again. White stars danced across her eyes and she couldn’t breathe, struggled to regain control in the aftermath. Ecstasy. She floated as he drank from her, his fangs deep in her throat, and his body still buried in hers. Possessing her.

The night air turned cold again around her, chilling her skin, and she mewled when he removed his softening cock from her and licked her throat, sealing the puncture marks. She didn’t want it to be over yet.

Sophis slowly opened her eyes and stared at him.

It took her a few seconds to realise what she was seeing.

Ice-blue eyes.

He was Venia.

Her tongue touched her own fangs. She had changed too. It must have been in response to his bite. She was relieved they were both from the same bloodline so she hadn’t broken the law but the knowledge that he was a Venia frightened her too. What if word got out that she had shirked her duty to be with him in the maze?

“We need to talk... take off your mask,” he husked and air whooshed into her lungs as panic swept through her.

Sophis shook her head.

He reached for it and she shoved him away. He hit the bench with a thud and she didn’t look back to check whether she had hurt him. She ran barefoot into the maze, fixing her dress as she fled. If he recognised and reported her, Tynan would reprimand her. There was only one punishment she could think of for what she had done. She had slacked off tonight and had left the ball, forgetting her mission to protect the lords and ladies in favour of sleeping with a man who might have been from any bloodline.

Vivek would get his wish.

She would lose her position.

What was she going to do?

There was a part of her that was already considering leaving the guard but she wanted that choice to be hers, not taken from her by a moment of madness. If Tynan discovered what she had done and threw her out of the guard, she would have no choice but to leave. Her life would be over. What had she done?

A bright light shattered the darkness above her and a cacophony of shouts and screams rent the still night air. Her senses sparked into life, the presence of human blood bringing them quickly to focus on her surroundings. She ran harder, heading towards the source of the noise now, away from the mansion.

The sight that greeted her as she exited the maze and ran out onto the open lawn had her immediately reaching for her knives.

They were under attack.

V
ivek crashed back onto the stone bench, threw his arm across his eyes, knocking his mask hard against his nose, and exhaled slowly. Somewhere between dragging Sophis out onto the balcony and chasing her into the maze, his plan had gone severely off the rails. What had possessed him to go along with her? He had been set on just speaking to her and explaining everything, and letting her know that it was him. Now what was he supposed to do?

He had sensed her relief when she had seen his altered eyes, but also her fear. When she discovered that he was the one she had slept with, she was going to be madder than she had ever been. His chance of convincing her to stay here and to forgive him had just gone from slim to non-existent.

And what the hell had possessed him to say those things to her?

Stay with me. Don’t leave me alone here.

He was so desperate for her, needed her with such ferocity, that he couldn’t think straight let alone function whenever he thought about her leaving him. His heart had forced those words from his lips, uttered as a plea to hers, a pointless hope that she would listen and understand them and that everything would be alright.

He wanted to bask in the afterglow of what had just happened between them but it was impossible. She didn’t know that it was his body that had given her pleasure and his heart that had looked at her with total adoration through his eyes.

He dug his fingers into his hair and growled at the moon.

And now she had run away in fear.

A bright flash and discordant cries of battle reached his senses a second before the rich smell of human blood.

Vivek leapt to his feet, his sword in hand. He shed his mask and his jacket, hastily buttoned his shirt and tucked it into his trousers, and then fastened the sword belt around his waist. A heartbeat of time later he was racing through the maze, heading directly towards the fight.

Sophis.

She had gone in this direction. Had she heard the fight too? He crashed through the corridors of the maze, following her scent, and broke out onto the open grass. The battle was already underway, the werewolves savagely attacking the human intruders and the Venia guards fighting at their sides. He scoured the chaotic scene for Sophis, his chest tightening with each passing second. She couldn’t fight in this with only those small throwing knives at her disposal. He had to find her and keep her safe.

Vivek crossed the grounds in a blur, his senses stretching far and wide, searching for her. The smell of human blood and the emotions of everyone collided and swamped the area, dampening his senses and making it impossible for him to get a fix on her location.

He growled, drew his sword, and cut down a hunter as the man wildly attacked him with a stake. Who were these humans? None of them were the ones he had seen during patrol with Sophis, and he couldn’t smell Aleksis or Izabella anywhere amongst them. They were weak and inexperienced, falling easily to the blades and claws of their adversaries.

Noise from behind Vivek caused his senses to shift there even as he cut down another hunter, this time a young blonde woman. He moved on, pressing further into the fray, seeking Sophis. Panic pushed him, turning him tighter inside, twisting his stomach and stabbing his chest until he was grabbing everyone within reach and pulling them to face him. He skewered any humans with his rapier and moved on, leaving the guards and werewolves to finish them. She had to be somewhere. All he could see were guards in their black uniforms, the large furry forms of werewolves and humans. There was no sign of her in the moonlit darkness.

Vivek stopped in the midst of the battle and turned in a circle, his heart in his throat. Where was she?

There were barely thirty hunters remaining and they were falling fast, their blood filling the night air and bringing back the taste of Sophis’s on his tongue. She tasted so divine, just as he had known she would, and he wanted to lick her blood again and savour it this time, to watch her take pleasure from his bite. He had felt the ecstasy it had given her in the flutter of her body around his and the emotions that had come to life on his senses.

A vampire hunter slashed at him with a short blade, cutting across his upper arm, and Vivek snarled at the man for daring to interrupt his blissful memory of being with Sophis. He dodged the man’s second attack, spun low to avoid the dagger, and came up behind him. The man screamed as Vivek sank his fangs into his throat and he covered his mouth to silence him, digging his claws into his cheeks as he drained him.

When the man’s heartbeat stopped, Vivek dropped him and found himself face to face with Sophis. She was unmasked and unarmed, her hand outstretched towards him, and wore a scowl that didn’t suit her.

“You might want to feed after the fight,” she said and his eyebrow rose when his senses came back online and he heard the person behind him slump to the floor.

He looked down at the dead hunter sprawled out on the grass with a knife buried between his eyes and then back at Sophis. She was gone.

He turned to go after her but the whole sky lit up in bright shades of purple that seeped downwards, forming a dome over the entire mansion grounds. Vivek’s eyes widened when a hunter tried to pass through the shimmering barrier and disintegrated on contact. Werewolves and vampires alike backed away as one by one the hunters on the other side saw sense and turned tail, leaving their comrades trapped inside the dome.

The source of the spell wasn’t difficult to locate. She stood in the centre of the grounds, her right hand raised towards the sky and the amulet on her palm giving off violent purple flashes of light. Flanking her were her mate and her lover. Lady Prophecy.