Night Haven (4 page)

She arched up, her body a tight string inside a vicious spiral of sensation. Her wrists were free now, her left hand clasped with his, fingers entwined, anchoring her as Dina rode the storm of pleasure. With need born of both wolf and magic, she gripped his neck to bring his lips to hers, used her tongue with the same torturous rhythm as his fingers. And when the pleasure sharpened to a blinding point, she sank her teeth into the patch of skin where his neck met shoulder. She filled herself with his taste, felt him shudder. And screaming, leapt over the cliff.

His eyes were a dark and burning green when Dina found the strength to look at him. His hands still threaded in her hair, she lifted up to swirl her tongue over the mark she’d carved into his neck.

She knew him now, his scents, his senses. She needed him to taste her the same way. His eyes were wide and bright, his lips partially parted when she gathered her hair in her hand and arched her neck an inch away from his beautiful mouth.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Shocked she looked up to find Luke scrambling away. Her breaths harsh, Dina shook her head, trying to clear the hot haze pumping in her veins.

In the dark room, his chest gleamed and his eyes were shattered. And he still bled from where she’d made her mark.

“I won’t take blood from you.” He backed away as if she were a monster. “Not like this.”

Her heart pounded, dread now instead of passion. She tasted him on her lips and realized what it was. What she had done. She forced her body upwards, hissing a breath through her rapidly tightening throat. His taste filled her mouth, metallic, potent, dead.

Of course he wouldn’t bite her. Even if he understood what she had done, he wouldn’t risk drinking from her. Lyck blood could make him mortal. And stupid her had offered him her throat just like a little girl wanting happily ever after. A Lyck marking a vampire as mate.

“This never happened.” She kept her voice low and marveled that she could even get the sound out. Inside, she shook, her chest closing in tight. The room smelled like her blood, his need and her arousal, the scents coiling around her neck and holding tight.

He got up, slowly, her mark a dark rip on his gleaming skin. “Dina.”

“Don’t.” Blindly, she groped to find an exit, bumping her hip into his desk. A movement caught her gaze when pens rolled off a sheet of paper where lines and shades combined to form a face.
Her face
. Serene and cocky features stared out from a white paper on his desk.

With shaking hands, Dina snatched it up, tore it with swift trembling fingers. Before either of them could say another word, she ran into the night.

Chapter Four

The ache of Dina’s mark had nothing to do with the grating inside him. Hunger beat at him and still Luke couldn’t stand the thought of tearing open a plastic packet of stale blood, much less finding the next thrill seeker willing to let him bite his or her throat.

She’d offered. Freely, without the haze of drugs or the high of danger. She’d bared her soul, and he rejected her because he couldn’t get past his own regrets. In the far corner of the attic, her bright and vicious eyes stared up at him in accusation from the torn sheet of paper on the floor.

He’d let her go into the night while she bled, while she was helpless. And she’d probably gut him if he followed her. Beside the corner of the paper with her eyes, her knife lay on the floor, its edges sharp and lethal.

Pride didn’t matter, neither his nor hers. Grabbing her blade, Luke ran down the stairs, her fragrance so strong he didn’t have any doubt of the way.

The smell of her teased at his nostrils, arousal mixed with pain. He’d hurt her because of his own ache. Because he was disgusted by his past while she innocently offered him all she had. Her blood, her soul, her trust. A bloodwolf, for God’s sake, trusting him enough to arch her neck for him, expecting nothing in return.

He didn’t have any problem spotting her, walking briskly alone on empty streets as the breeze chilled the air. She rubbed her arms clad in a thin black fabric and laid another guilt trip at his feet. Of course she wouldn’t take his jacket—Luke doubted she’d want his scent anywhere on her after tonight.

Silent, he kept enough distance between them so she wouldn’t spot him. He didn’t know how much wolf senses she retained, or how long whatever her condition of being unable to shift would last. Maybe it was an illness of some kind, something that confused her senses and let her open herself to a vampire.

He would protect her until it went away.

Better that way, for both of them. A bloodwolf had no business with a vampire.

She lived on instinct—he knew that of her kind. No calculation, no premeditated thought. She wanted and she took and when she offered, it was freely. And his vampire ass had no business taking what she wouldn’t give in her right mind.

Hunger chose just that moment to twist his insides. In his mind’s eye, he saw her neck again, a beautiful arched column, her skin gleaming and smooth in the dark night.

The bite mark on his neck throbbed when he pressed his fingers to it. Her aroma whipped at him with strong teasing waves. He had to feed, and at that point Luke realized he couldn’t. Not ever. Not from a willing faceless human out for a thrill, not from an empty plastic packet. His body wanted her, this bloodwolf with her carnal lips and reckless attitude.

She’d taken the first step. She’d offered. He followed her with the intent that she would end it too.

Dina knew exactly what she looked like as she ran up her porch and nearly knocked her brother sideways in the process.

She wasn’t in the mood for questions or the alpha ’tude. Instead, she simply brushed past him into her place, hoping he’d get the message and slink off, leave her alone to get all traces of Luke off her.

No matter how she ran, it kept getting stronger, as if he followed her into the night. He had no reason to, she knew that just as much as she knew why the magic had left her. The unity of mind and body had been broken—she’d sealed the deal when she’d marked a vampire with her teeth.

“You’re bleeding.” Man’s voice was somber as he followed her into her house, instantly making the small space feel crowded.

“One hell of a night.” She wanted him to go away, because she was this close to breaking down. Luke’s taste still burned her lips, made her crave him in ways she’d never craved before.

She didn’t turn the lights on, not that the lack of them would hide her from her brother’s eyes, but at least that way she felt safer. Skirting the punching bag that hung from the low ceiling, she headed towards the tiny bathroom.

Forget the loss of magic and her strength. She’d put a mate mark on a vampire, and that pretty much meant a ticket to the looney.

“You need help?” Man’s voice was muffled by the bathroom door.

“I’m good.” Dina splashed water on her face and hoped he’d go away so she could scream in private.

“Sure. You’re good. Like always.”

She threw open the door at that.

“What the hell do you mean?” She wasn’t in the mood to fight. At this point, he had all her blessings to exert his alpha and she would gladly keep her mouth shut.

“Nothing.” A shrug followed that sharp and mocking word. “Maybe I want to know what’s up with you. Maybe I want to know why Rogue goes batshit every time he hears your name. Maybe I want to kick his ass for sniffing at you, but if I do you’ll go all alpha bitch on me and I don’t want to fight you.”

She was too tired to deal with him, too rattled, too emotional. “I won’t go alpha bitch on you.” Her eyes met his, direct and true. “That’s your job.”

“Right.” A snort, a small release of tension.

Strange, talking to him like a friend, baiting him like a brother. And still she couldn’t talk about this. “Rogue got his ears twisted since I clocked him on our first and last date.”

His eyebrows rose. “I hadn’t heard.”

She shrugged, winced just a bit when the scabs over the scratches on her shoulder split wide open. She still had enough wolf in her to heal.

“Wasn’t much to tell.” Just like there wasn’t much to tell about the vampire she’d bitten tonight, the vampire who’d saved her, the vampire who saved humans if they asked for help.

She shook her head again, realization blooming slowly. “It’s not about killing vampires.” She didn’t phrase it as a question, simply watched Man’s eyes narrow as he tilted his head. “It’s about saving humans, whether they understand or not.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes.”

This was the passion she’d lost, the reason she hadn’t been named alpha. She hadn’t understood the simple rule of their cause, refused to do so after she had killed her human best friend who went into a blood rampage with her new thirst and undead strength.

Man arms crossed on his chest, his stance growing more tense and tired.

She didn’t have the patience to hide under both their prides. “Daddy picked you. And it was final.” And Dina realized she was okay with that decision. “I’d never challenge you for it, even back then.”

Her brother gave her a long look, as if gauging how far to trust. “You have one hell of a left hook,” he finally said and had her grinning. If nothing else, this one part of her life turned out right.

“Better remember that.”

“Roguell is on your case.” Man changed the topic, as this new and fragile peace bloomed.

Dina dabbed astringent over her shoulder, let herself wince in front of him. As far as truce, this was a small and yet giant step to let her brother see a weakness. “Rogue is the last thing on my mind.”

“I can smell that.”

She whirled around. “Excuse me?”

“I smell a male on you.” No judgment—not yet anyway. “Have him kick Roguell’s ass and he’ll back off.”

“I kick my own ass.”

“Sure.” He rocked back on his heels, as if not sure how to proceed.

“Listen.” Dina took another step along the newfound peace. “With you and Valoelle…” She trailed off when he frowned, but then pushed onward. “Did she mark you?”

His gaze suddenly sharpened—she figured he looked for a bite mark on her neck. Another sign of that fragile peace—he didn’t demand for her to show it. Not that she had something to show.

Man’s eyes stayed calm. Dina imagined that he forced himself to keep his hands inside his pockets. “Yes.” A single word that held a world of implication. Valoelle had left him, and though Dina couldn’t comprehend how that was possible, maybe she had a chance to just get over Luke and end this crazy notion that she’d marked him.

“How… How does it work?”

“She took my blood, I hers. We were complete.” Man shrugged and flatly spat out the answer. The topic of his mate was not one most could broach.

“Didn’t it bother you to go all vamp on her?”

He winced now, clearly in pain thinking of it. She should have simply shut her mouth.

“It didn’t matter.” He never said her name, as if the sound of it brought back memories. “It’s a wolf mating thing.” And it had run its course. Dina wanted to ask when he stopped feeling it, but judging by those dark gold eyes she figured now wasn’t the time.

She almost felt him push away the pain where she couldn’t reach it. “Why all this interest?” Again his arms were crossed over his chest.

“Just wondering. Maybe Rogue got me thinking.” She didn’t flinch at the small and vicious tug of pain, and wondered if Man saw right through her.

“If you want me to twist off his ears…” he paused to give her a small smile, “…remember, I am the alpha bitch.”

“Yeah. Right.” She wondered how alpha he would get if he ever found out whom his sister marked. Not that it mattered. Nothing would come of it.

Maybe she’d have the magic back. Pain was supposed to unify the mind and body, and with Luke’s scent so close, her clenching gut did a good imitation of it.

“Shouldn’t you be in Isla Vista?”

Her brother studied her with a probing quiet gaze. “You want to talk, you know where to find me.”

It was her turn to give him a small smile. “Yeah.”

The scars were already fading when Dina turned back to the mirror and looked at herself in the dark shadow of night. A tall and muscled woman with a strong jaw and wolfish ears, with tired amber eyes and badass attitude. She knew nothing about art, but she remembered the face Luke had drawn, the softened features, parted lips, full luscious mouth.

He didn’t know what he was dealing with. She was still brooding in the mirror when something crashed through glass.

Chapter Five

She knew that he would smell her fear. Even as something hammered in her throat, Dina forced her blood to calm. Maybe she couldn’t fight him, but she’d be damned if he would know she didn’t have her strength. “You didn’t have to break my window.”

In the middle of her tiny living room, Rogue showed his teeth. “You wouldn’t have let me in.”

No point in arguing. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have. So get out.”

He took a step closer, predator stalking prey, his pale eyes glistening with bloodlust. He would try to mate her, Dina realized, and at this point he wouldn’t care if she was willing. Dread beat a rapid-fire tattoo over her skin.

Maybe she’d have a chance if she ran out into the night, but she was through running away, from anyone. Magic or not, she’d make her stand, with or without the wolf inside her.

“You got something to say?”
Just keep him talking.
She needed something, anything, a weapon. A quick grope of her fingers at her back told her she’d lost her blade.

Slowly, Roguell came closer, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed with insulting pulls. “I smell a male on you.”

“I know.” No point denying it. Maybe he would respect another man’s scent and back away, except she didn’t have a mate mark, nothing to prove another’s hold on her. Fear, cold and unwanted, shivered through her.

“Where is he?” His smile full of teeth, Rogue turned a full circle. “Not here to protect you. He isn’t here to do jack shit.”

A small flick of his wrist sent the punching bag into an angry spiral. Her hands clenched into fists, Dina waited for him to make a move.

He slicked a hand through long pale hair, and looked at her with hooded, narrowed eyes. “You need someone to watch you.”