Of Blood and Passion (36 page)

“Turo,” she breathed when he tugged on her nipple, laving it with his tongue.

Even as his mouth remained locked on her flesh, his gaze rose to hers, his pupils white with hunger. She felt the prick of fangs against her flesh.

Her fingers ran through his hair, tracing the strong lines of his skull. “I want to know what it feels like if you bite me there.”

Shall I show you?

“Yes.”

I would like nothing more.

He pulled back. As his gaze found hers, she saw that his fangs had almost entirely elongated.

“I’ll take only a little blood,” he assured her, but she wasn’t the least bit worried. His bite wouldn’t hurt. He would, quite literally, die before he hurt her. Odd to think that, to
know
it.

With his gaze locked on hers, he pulled back his lips and sunk his fangs into her breast, one on either side of her nipple.

At first, the sensation felt a little strange, a little ticklish. Then he closed his mouth around her breast and took a small pull of her blood. Quinn gasped, then moaned as heat roared into a living flame deep within her core. She began to pulse low inside.

Did you enjoy that?

“Do it again.”

The eyes he turned up to her were nothing short of wicked as he took a second pull of blood from her breast. She cried out this time, the pleasure so intense she could barely breathe.

“I need you,” she gasped. Whenever he pulled on her neck, she invariably came. But this was different. Though the feel was every bit as intense, it instead set up a powerful hunger between her legs, a need to be filled that was almost more than she could bear. Her hips began to rock, her legs moving restlessly. “Turo…
now.
” She grabbed him by the upper arms and pulled him to his feet.

For a startled moment, he stared at her, then began to laugh. “I keep forgetting your strength,
amore mio.
I will give you exactly what you want but you will have to wait a moment.” He disappeared in a vampire flash, blurring back and forth. Moments later, he was again at her side, sweeping her into his arms. Then he carried her back to another section of the storeroom, one she’d never been in, where there was a stack of more than a dozen blankets and quilts, open wide, one on top of the other.

“Did you just do this?”

“Of course. I would not make love to you on the bare cement floor.”

Quinn grinned. “We’ll probably sink so deep into it that we’ll need help getting out.”

To her surprise, Arturo didn’t return her smile, but watched her, his eyes achingly serious. Lifting his hand, he stroked her hair. “I would give you a palace if I could,
bella
. A palace in the sun with floor to ceiling windows and a view as far as the eye can see. I’d give you pristine white beaches and I would lay with you in the surf in broad daylight. So many places I would take you if I could. But I am a vampire. And we are about to go to battle for our worlds, if not our lives. A bed of blankets in the storeroom will have to do.”

Quinn stroked his cheek, unaccountably moved by his words. “I’ve seen enough of palaces to last a lifetime. This is perfect.”

His lips turned up and he kissed her, long and passionately, tightening the need inside her even more. She grabbed for his belt and began to undress him as he removed the last of her clothes.

Finally, he swept her up and laid her in the center of the stack of blankets, then followed her down, sliding deep inside of her on a thick, powerful,
perfect
stroke.

Quinn cried out, rising to meet him with a hard thrust of her hips. Hunger roared through her and their lovemaking turned hot and frantic, a desperate attempt to claim every scrap of beauty and pleasure they could before the world came crashing down upon their heads.

Arturo lifted just enough to watch her as he drove into her, his eyes once more dark-centered, though just as hungry as before. In those dark depths she saw such tenderness, such adoration, that her eyes began to film and she had to blink back the moisture. Somewhere inside of her, she felt his emotion, a piercing sadness, and she was suddenly filled with the certainty that he was saying goodbye.

Closing her eyes, she pulled away from that well of sorrow, immersing herself instead in the sensation, in the heat, meeting him thrust for thrust until they were both climbing, racing toward the sun, exploding into a million heat-filled pieces each one of which floated slowly back down through the air.

Arturo collapsed on top of her, then rolled slightly until he was only half on her. The blankets rose all around them and she did wonder how they were ever going to fight their way out again. But for now she was content to lie within Arturo’s strong arms, against his now-warm body, and pretend they didn’t have to worry about whether either of them would survive the night.

After a time, Quinn looked up to find him watching her with deep, fathomless eyes. She stroked his jaw. “Were you successful in enlisting the aid of the kovenas?”

“For the most part. Of the four Kassius and I visited, three have pledged full support. One, Borzilov, is aligned with Cristoff and refuses to move his kovena against him. But I do not believe he’ll send troops to fight with Cristoff.”

“What about the other four?”

“Micah and Lukas were not yet back when I came to find you.” He turned to her, his dark gaze grabbing hold of hers. “I want you to go home, Quinn. Now, before the battle begins.”

“What do you mean…home?”

“D.C. Farther than D.C. Perhaps California. Or Japan.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but before she could form words, he continued.

“Take Lily. When the battle is over, I will search for Zack. If I find him, if he’s well, I’ll set him free.”

Quinn shook her head. “I’m not leaving.”

“You must.” His expression was suddenly as intense as she’d ever seen it. “I want you to be happy,
cara
. I want you to find a man you can love, one who will walk with you in the sunlight and give you babies with beautiful green eyes.”

“Turo.” She stared into his dark, determined gaze, her own emotions a hopeless tangle. “I’m not leaving. This is my battle, too.”

“You have lost your power.”

“Not all of it. I still have a little, more when we work together.”

Frustration ignited in the dark depths of his eyes. “I will have no time to concentrate on your tricks, Quinn, not in the middle of battle. I will be consumed with saving all of our lives. I do not want you there to distract me.”

Her
tricks
? She understood he only wanted her safe, but his word choice annoyed her. “Tough.” She rolled away from him, fighting her way out of the blankets to stand. As she dressed, she glared at him. “I’m not leaving, Vampire. And you damn well better not try to make me.”

He rose from the bed with annoying ease and slid into his own clothes, vampire-fast. She could feel his frustration, see his anger. “You will get yourself killed. For what? In all probability Zack is already dead.”

His words were razor sharp, meant to hurt, and they did. Quinn fisted her hands, longing to slug him.

“You want to know what I’m fighting for?” she asked, pulling her shirt on over her head. “Do you want to know?” But before she could tell him, her world exploded in a single mass of excruciating pain. An unseen noose tightened around her throat, cutting off her air.

Chapter 41

A
rturo leaped to his feet, racing to Quinn. He wasn’t sure what was happening until, suddenly, a male in some kind of maintenance uniform appeared in front of them, clutching at his throat much as Quinn clutched at hers.

The worlds were merging again.
Dio.
What was Cristoff doing? Scaring them?
Suffocating
them? He’d kill them all!

“
Tesoro,
open your mouth. Let me see.”

Her struggle, her terror, flayed him alive, but she did as he asked even as she struggled for air. But he could see nothing, no blockage, nothing for him to tear away or battle against.

He didn’t know what to do! But of a certainty, he couldn’t stand here and do nothing. Sweeping her into his arms, he ran through the underground, leaping over half a dozen more humans who’d suddenly appeared, humans all in the throes of strangulation. Racing up the stairs, he found them everywhere. But scattered among them were his friends—Mukdalla, Neo, Lukas, Amanda. The immortals were suffocating just as completely as the humans. And while they would take longer to die, no creature could live indefinitely without air.

Something hit the roof. Then something else. Again and again, as if the sky were falling on top of them. Or humans.

“Ax!” Micah made his way to him, his eyes almost as wild as those struggling to pull in air. “
I don’t know how to help them.
”

Around them, the thrashing was beginning to fade as one by one, the victims lost consciousness.

Quinn’s eyes were round with terror as she stared into his. Her hands clawed at her throat, then began to slacken as he felt her losing her own hold on consciousness.

“
Cara,
you must hold on. Hold on!”

Suddenly, she gasped and took a deep, lung-filling breath.

Arturo nearly sank to his knees in relief. He pulled her tight against him, cradling her, treasuring her. Belatedly, he realized the humans who’d suddenly appeared had disappeared again, just as quickly.

His friends, too, were again beginning to breathe.

“Lily!” Quinn cried.

Micah turned, then lunged for the girl who had apparently fallen unconscious. But even as he reached her, she began to gasp and cough, slowly opening her eyes.

Quinn sank against him, her arm curved around his neck, her head tilting against his as relief softened her body. “You can put me down.”

His chest was still tight from having nearly lost her. Again. “I would rather not.”

She pulled back, a smile softening her eyes, and she kissed him lightly. “You would slay all my dragons.”

“Always. But one in particular.”

Her smile died. “Cristoff. I felt him again.”

He set her on her feet, but kept one arm protectively around her. “Explain.”

“I’m not sure I can. Just as I’m starting to feel your emotions, I’ve been feeling his. Ever since he stabbed me. It’s almost as if, in taking my magic he formed a connection between us. Heaven knows, I don’t want a soul cord with
him.”

“What did you feel?”

“This time, confusion. Then a rush of elation. He enjoyed our suffocating, but I don’t think he meant for it to happen. My guess is that he’s not in control of his power, yet. He’s learning what he can do, largely by trial and error.”

“He’s powerful,” Mukdalla said brushing off her skirt.

Quinn nodded. “And he’s barely scratched the surface.”

“God help us all,” Neo muttered.

Sam strode in the back door and made a beeline for Amanda, pulling her tight against him.

“Clean up?” Arturo asked.

Quinn looked at him with confusion.

Sam shook his head, his face ashen. “They’re gone.”

“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked.

Sam’s gaze moved from Quinn to Arturo, and back again. “The worlds merged on this side this time. But only the people. Not the buildings they were in.”

In his arms, Quinn jerked with shock, swaying. He saw the horror in her eyes, felt it, as she realized that thousands had just lost their lives and hundreds more probably lay broken and dying. When the worlds merged, and their multi-story buildings disappeared beneath them, they’d fallen, many undoubtedly to their deaths.

“We have to help them.”

“They’re gone,
cara
. They returned to D.C.”

She clung to him for several minutes more, one arm wrapped around her middle as if trying to breathe around the blow. Slowly she straightened and turned to face him, her eyes glowing with righteous fire and fury.

“You wanted to know what I’m fighting for, what I would risk my life for. This. Stopping
this.
Stopping
him.
”

Deep within that connection they’d formed, within the core of her fury at Cristoff, he felt her courage and protectiveness rearing up like a lioness’s to surround all those in Neo’s kitchen. And more. Many more. That need to protect and save extended outward to all those in Vamp City. To all those suffering and dying in D.C.

She would protect the world, both worlds, from the monster that was his father. Her heart, so long closed, had opened wide enough to embrace a multitude.

He wondered if it was yet wide enough to embrace him.

“Ax,” Kassius said, striding in the back door. “The wolves have arrived.”

“How many?”

“Both packs. Most of the wolves in V.C.” When every male in the room shot to his feet, Kassius held up his hand. “They’ve set up a perimeter around Neo’s to protect the sorceress.”

Arturo frowned. “I told them to wait for us in the Crux.”

Kassius’s gaze turned to Quinn. “The old legend is spreading through V.C. like wildfire.”

“What legend?” Quinn asked warily, hoping he didn’t mean the one that claimed that sorcerer’s flesh empowered the wolf that ate it. That one had nearly gotten her killed.