Mating Fever (15 page)

Gabriel wondered just how many knew what
atrocities went on in the townhouse before them.

A vamp at the back entrance motioned them
forward, holding the door open for them. They left a few men behind
for backup to go for help should they need it, not that he expected
there would be a need. They lived or died, there would be no second
chances.

The vamp let them in without question. Had
Gabriel been in any doubt it was a trap, his suspicions were now
confirmed. He knew better than to expect them to keep their
word--not with the way things had progressed in the past few
months. Either the vampire force far exceeded their own ... or they
were foolishly confident and on equal footing.

Another vamp waited inside, leading them down
corridors into the belly of the earth. He did not bind their eyes
or dowse the lights.

The vampires didn’t expect the Lycans to
leave.

He caught the faint scent of old blood. For
decades, victims had been lured to the Devil’s Belly, never to see
light again. The cold stone was oppressive. The stink of vampires
permeated the walls, like the dried husks of roses--a sickly sweet
stench, unnoticeable by any but the most sensitive.

They were led through labyrinthine corridors
of reinforced stone, finally to a throne room, barren of anything
save candelabras filled with glowing candles, a raised throne, and
vampires. Dozens of vampires.

Gabriel stopped in the middle of the room,
his men fanning out behind him, facing the man seated on the
throne. “Where is Danior?”

Mordecai smiled thinly. “I killed him. I am
master of this city now.”

It explained why the incidents had steadily
worsened. Danior had managed to keep some peace between the wolves
and the vampires. That peace had steadily declined in his
absence.

“I’ve come to trade myself for the woman.
Where is she?”

Mordecai inclined his head, and two vampires
pushed through a curtained doorway, dragging Jessica between them.
Her head hung down to her chest. She was unconscious. The front of
her dress was stained with blood.

“I have marked her,” Mordecai remarked,
standing.

His vision turned red. Mordecai had fed on
her. A violent urge to tear the man apart surged in his veins. “She
can’t be turned. She’s one of us.”

“As delicious, as well. Take her back,” he
said, gesturing toward the men.

Gabriel stepped forward, growling. “Danior
kept his word.”

Mordecai’s eyes glittered dangerously. “I am
not Danior.”

He didn’t have to look to know the vampire’s
ranks were on the move, closing in. He tried to block thoughts of
Jessica from his mind, worries that she was still alive.

Mordecai grinned, showing his fangs. “I
ordered in tonight. Tonight, we feast on Lycan.”

Gabriel unleashed the beast with a furious
howl, answered by his brethren in chorus. They launched at their
enemies, ripping clothes, human flesh replaced with fur and fangs
and razored claws.

Mordecai launched himself from the dais,
straight for Gabriel.

* * * *

Something called Jessica, reached into the
corners of her mind with urgent fingers. Howls filled the air, a
haunting chorus of bloodlust answered in her soul. She sank deeper
into the darkness, blinded, pain scalding her muscles. The pain was
everywhere, on her skin, in her bones, spurred on by the incessant
howls. Molten oil coated her like tar, oozing over her flesh,
sticking to her skin, burning a path over her body.

She screamed, clawed at herself, but she was
frozen, unable to move. The pain changed suddenly, mellowed.
Ripples of energy rubbed inside her, spreading like tingling waves
of ecstasy. Her body jerked involuntarily, seized with rolling,
mingling agony and bliss. Senses that could only have been dead
before came alive, so clear and sharp, they stabbed her brain with
piercing clarity. She smelled blood, buried in the walls, fresh
from cut veins; damp stone and flowing water; the burning of candle
wax and wick; fear and sweat.... Her ears prickled with thousands
of sounds, with grunts and groans; the rip of flesh; the splatter
of blood; teeth gnashing; moans of pain.

A canine cry pierced the cacophony, sending
instant alarm racing through her heart. It broke off abruptly. Her
eyes flew open.

Gabriel
. He
needed her, needed her help. Jessica rolled off her back onto her
hands and knees.

Something ... was ... wrong.

Her hands were no longer there.

* * * *

Jessica could not tear her eyes away. Fabric
pooled around her feet, her torn and bloody dress and a satin robe.
She flexed her fingers, watching the claws distend and retract from
the blunted tips. The sounds of fighting faded, drowned out by the
roar of blood in her ears.

Fur coated her arm, supple black dusted
silver that extended up as far as she could see. Her hands were no
longer hands--they were paws.

She’d become a wolf.

The realization exhilarated her. She
stretched, feeling power move through her limbs. Everything Gabriel
had told her was true. She was Lycan born, of his people.

A savage growl caught her, drawing her
attention to Gabriel. He fought the man who’d bitten her,
Mordecai.

Part wolf, part man, shadowed by black
hair--she knew it was Gabriel, felt it by some heightened, inner
sense that connected her to him.

They were locked together, tearing at each
other with their hands. The vampire had changed somehow, grown
until he dwarfed Gabriel. Her heart leapt in her throat as Gabriel
was forced down to his knees. He arched his back, groaning in pain
and fury. Mordecai kicked him, sending him sprawling on the
floor.

Jessica yelped, a canine cry--her voice gone.
Mordecai’s head snapped up the instant she called. He turned toward
her and smiled, red rivulets streaming down his face and hands.

In a lightning fast move, he rushed her.
Before he could reach her, Gabriel rose from the floor and grabbed
him, pulling him abruptly back in a flip with sheer strength.
Mordecai screamed and whirled in the air, landing on the ground,
Gabriel atop him, his hand poised to rip the vampire’s heart from
his chest.

“I yield!” Mordecai yelled, holding his hands
up to defend himself from Gabriel’s claws.

Gabriel regarded him warily a long moment,
still caught in the blood lust of his beast, torn between the urge
of the beast within and the human side that told him truce had been
offered and must be respected. Finally, he stood, releasing the
vamp leader. The others had ceased their battles, as well, at
Mordecai’s words. The room was still, waiting.

Gabriel turned and faced them, gazing around
at the carnage. They had lost two of their brethren, but decimated
the vamps by more than half. A sense of triumph raced through his
blood, quickening the beast. It was the beast that warned him, that
sensed that Mordecai had risen behind him, warning of the threat
inherent in turning his back on any vamp, particularly one who’d
shown he could not be counted upon to keep his word.

Too late, the subtle change in the air warned
him of the vamp’s underhanded ruse. Even as he turned to meet the
death strike of the vamp, he heard the call of his mate.

Jessica leapt through the air, driving her
claws deep, ripping Modecai’s heart from his chest with her claws,
shredding it before she’d even landed on the ground.

With a thought, she shifted back into human
form and faced Gabriel. Gabriel gave her an appreciative look,
glanced at Mordecai’s lifeless body, and then looked back at her
with a frown.

“That was not honorable,
cherie
. The vamp had called a
truce.”

Jessica shrugged. “I’m a woman. I’ve no use
for honor when it comes to dealing with the likes of him. Besides,
he would’ve killed me and you both if given the chance.”

He held out his hand. She glanced at it, but
shook her head slightly, smiling faintly. Returning to the place
where she’d been held, she scooped up the abandoned robe, covering
herself. This time when Gabriel, who’d followed her curiously,
offered his hand, she took it.

Unhindered, they left that place of death,
leaving the remaining Lycans to watch over the surviving vampires.
Deron would come and arrange terms with the survivors.

By uniting at last to face the threat, the
Lycan had ensured that the war that had raged in New Orleans for
one hundred years was finally over.

At least for now.

Chapter Ten

“What do we do now?” Jessica asked once they
were outside and had washed the blood from their bodies in the
fountain. The crisp air turned the water to ice, forming chillbumps
on her skin.

Gabriel’s expression washed heat over her
skin and made her cleft clench with hunger. “I have faced the pack
and fought for the right to claim you as mate. Do you accept me,
Jessica?”

Jessica couldn’t find her voice. She
swallowed past the lump in her throat, forcing herself to speak. “I
do. I’ve wanted it since I first saw you. But ... is everything
okay now?”

“No one can harm you ever again, so
long as I live,
petite
.”

She felt suddenly breathless at his promise.
“What do we do now?”

He smiled wickedly. “Now we find a bed.”

He led her in a run to his car. The streets
were empty with the lateness of the hour. Jessica followed him
breathlessly. She laughed throatily when they reached his car.

She moved along the passenger side, reaching
for the door. He grabbed her wrist before she could open it,
whirling her around, crushing her against the metal.

His hand closed on the back of her neck,
forcing her lips to his as he rubbed his jean clad erection against
her pubic mound. He nipped at the curves of her lips, swallowing
her passionate cry as he ground against her. Her legs parted for
him, allowing him closer.

He swept his tongue into her mouth, tangling
with her tongue. She sucked him, hard. He tasted wild, like summer
thunder. He consumed her, addicting her with his taste. She loved
kissing him, loved that he was hers and she was his. Her breasts
pressed into his chest, growing full and swollen, her nipples achy
for the heat of his mouth.

He growled against her lips as she bucked
against him, forcing her to accept his tongue and the rough grind
of his hips. Blood pounded in her veins, in her clit, pooling in
the hot center of her until the slightest touch had her writhing in
erotic agony.

“I can’ wait that long to taste you,” he
ground out, pulling back to stare at her intently. His teeth skated
along the arch of her throat, past her clavicle. Pleasure erupted
along her nerves.

He thrust the robe open with rough
hands, baring her body to his eyes and the wet heat of his mouth.
“I have hungered for dis,
chere
.” His lips and teeth nibbled at the top of
one breast.

She knew what he wanted. Her body thrilled to
his rough sensuality, the sense of danger and exposure. “Oh god,
Gabriel, not here.”

“Oui
.” His
mouth locked over her nipple, enveloping the tip in the hot depths
of his mouth. His tongue rubbed the achy bud as he suckled her,
hard, harder.

Jessica bit her lip to stifle her cries,
moaning as the pleasure moved up her breast and spread through her
body.

He broke away, nuzzled her other breast,
closing his hand around her still throbbing nipple as he lathed the
other. His free hand moved down the curve of her waist, lower, to
her apex, playing in the wet curls there. Jessica rose on her toes,
grasping his head, trying to anchor herself to the ground.

Her body anticipated the thrust of his
fingers, creamed in excess, preparing for the invasion she wanted
so badly.

“It’s no’ enough,” Gabriel ground out,
breaking from her breast. He rubbed his nose in the valley, moving
lower, trailing wet kisses down her stomach. He was kneeling now,
pushing her legs roughly apart.

Jessica acquiesced, too eager to stop him
now, no matter who might come along. She had to have him inside her
or she’d go crazy.

“Will this appease my hunger?” he said
hoarsely, looking up at her with intensely dark eyes, spreading her
swollen lips with one tender hand. “You are so wet for me,
chere
. I wonder if your cream can
slake my thirst.”

He forced one of her legs over his shoulder,
spreading her wide to his mouth. He reached around and gripped the
cheeks of her ass, burying his face in her pussy.

Jessica cried out as his tongue burrowed into
her slick channel, pushing past the tight muscles ringing the
entrance of her vagina, deeper. Her blood boiled in her veins. He
groaned into her cleft with a deep, rumbling sound of appreciation
and ate her with hungry, rough strokes. He pulled loose from the
suction of her cunt, lapping at the edges of her pussy, up to her
clit, circling the sensitized nub.