Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (16 page)

It couldn’t happen!

“Is something wro
ng?” she frowned at the noise.

“No. It’s nothing. I was just thi—” He paused and looked over his shoulder, hearing footsteps drawing near. He inhaled, drawing in the scent of the forest through his nostrils to identify the owner of the steps
and groaned as he realized who was approaching. “You need to hide. Now!

She frowned and followed his gaze and bit her lip as she realized what was happening, “But what about—”

“Do as I said if you want to stay alive! Hide and don’t come out until I say so! Do whatever you can to mask your scent and don’t make a noise!” He stood and stepped towards her in one fluid motion, grabbing her and easily lifting her to her feet before pushing her out of the clearing. The brief contact of their touch sparked something within him and he frowned at the sensation, quickly turning away, and waiting for the company to cross into the clearing.

Zoey
stayed quiet as she wrapped her aura around herself to keep the newcomer from sensing her.

“There you are
!” A husky female voice chimed from behind the bushes as she and another female therion approached him, “We were wondering where you’d wandered off to.”

“Shouldn’t
you be back with the others and preparing?” Isaac’s posture went from relaxed to ramrod-straight as soon as the two emerged.

“Aw, but without you it’s n
o fun!” She stuck out a far-too-large bottom lip in a seductive mockery of a pout, “Besides, more of his kin have arrived and they are cruel! Far crueler than the last!”

“I know that. But, the
re’s nothing else I can do about this Keith or his followers right now.”

She frowned at this, “But you’re our
leader
! We can’t just—”

“That’s right! And
as
the leader I have to make a choice that might get a lot of you killed. Until we know how it will affect us, we do nothing more than what we’ve been doing! Do you understand?”

The two whimpered and nodded.

He shook his head, clearly irritated, and threw out his hand to point off in the distance; directing them to leave. “Go. Both of you! We can’t afford a conflict with them; not now. I’ll be back soon.”

“But we’re tired of them!
” The one began to step forward, obviously not liking his answer, “It’s been three cycles already and you
still
haven’t chosen a ma—”

He growled and narrowed his eyes at her, “I’m not dealing with this now!”

The other therion tugged at the first’s shoulder, “Come on. He’s never taken a female before. Why would he change that now?” she glared at him, driving the accusation further.

The other girl nodded slowly a
nd turned to her friend, whimpering softly.

“Do not
test my patience any further than you have! I’ve dealt with enough already without having you and the others cause any more problems! Now get back to the others! Don’t make me say it again.” He flashed them his teeth, his eyes glowing bright in the moonlight and they scampered off.

Once they were completely out of sight and earsho
t, Isaac called out: “You can come out now, vampire!” Though his posture and tone had shifted from a moment earlier, he didn’t turn away from where the two female therions had been standing.

“You know you can call me Zoey!
” she pouted as she stepped out.

“
What’s wrong with ‘vampire’? It’s what you are, isn’t it? Why would you think it a bad title?” he asked curiously, cocking his head to one side.

“I guess be
cause even though it’s
what
I am, it’s not
who
I am.”

Isaac frowned, not sure of how to take her statement an
d watched as she brushed her knees. He frowned at the realization that his curiosity had returned, and he suddenly wanted to learn more about her and her mind. He let out a heavy breath and leaned against a tree, “Should you
really
be spending time with your enemy?”

She smirked and shrugged,
“I could ask you the same thing.” She stuck out her tongue before plopping down next to him, “Besides,”—she blushed and looked down—“I think you’re interesting. And besides, I’m allowed to talk to whomever I want! Especially since our clan is in between leaders.” She frowned at her own confession, knowing that Gregori wouldn’t have liked her talking to a therion either, let alone revealing clan secrets.

He grinned and turned his atten
tion to her and arched his eyebrow, “You find me
that
interesting, eh?”

She paused and blushed
, delighted that he’d overlooked the politics of the situation but embarrassed nonetheless, and began to stammer before realizing nothing coherent was emerging and shut her mouth abruptly. He laughed and shook his head, watching the moon in the pond and sighed.

“Y
ou’re not half bad yourself. In fact, I’d go so far to say you are interesting as well. I mean, for a vampire and all, I guess.” He shot her a coy smirk.

She faked a pout
and punched Isaac softly in the arm before giggling, “Well, thank you… I guess.”

Before she could pull her hand back he grabbed her wrist
and held it in his large hand and frowned, confused at his own actions. She blushed at the contact but didn’t flinch or try to pull free, but instead shifted her hand to meet his grip. His gaze descended to the foreign sight of their clasped hands and he watched as she squeezed his fingers and returned his gaze with her brightly lit blue eyes; eyes that both challenged him and made him feel whole.

She was beautiful inside and out.

He couldn’t help but smile despite the single truth that burned in his mind, she was going to be his downfall.

Though weakness and defeat had long-since been something for him to avoid at all costs, h
e couldn’t bring himself to pull away despite this fact.

And
that
made him more afraid than he ever could have imagined.

He was
supposed
to hate vampires—all vampires!—and yet here he sat, feeling driven to do the unspeakable with this gorgeous female.

Instead, in clear defiance of himself and his kind, he acknowledged his need to taste her.

Her lips called to his and he suddenly needed to feel them against his. His heart had felt so cold, driving him away from the numerous advances of countless females of his pack again and again, but suddenly he felt a spark and wanted nothing more than to take this new warmth into him and make it his.

Being with this vampire made his blood boil again.

She had closed her eyes as he leaned closer and he could feel an exhale of anticipation from her as he dipped his head in and pressed his lips to hers.

Zoey gasped as the therion pr
essed his lips to hers!

Was this real?

Her mind was reeling; spinning and dragging her more and more into him. All logic—all the past truths and orders and teachings—was burned away by the fire spreading within her. With all she had once held on to gone, the only certainty in her mind was that she never wanted to leave this place.

She lifted her arms and wrapped them carefully around his neck to p
ull him in tighter. He matched her efforts as she felt his strong hands at her waist as he pulled her against his body.

Zoey gave
him complete control, not caring what he did to her at that point, and moaned at the intensity of if all. She felt herself get lost in him—aching and driving to entangle herself all the more within his essence—and refused to worry about where it might take her. Never before had she felt this way; so powerful and yet so helpless and, through the chaos, so goddam beautiful. She knew he was her enemy and yet, she couldn’t find any reason to let go.

Slowly, they drew away from one-another, both breathing heavily and letting their lids open to reveal the others’ gaze. Neither wanting to release the hold on the other and they just stared at the other for a moment longer.

Zoey knew then that he was going to be her downfall; that he had her so entirely under the power of his passion that there was nothing she wouldn’t do to find herself back in its depths.

And, while she couldn’t bring herself to care about what happened to her, she had no way of pushing away the burning trut
h and under no circumstances could she risk her comrades; no matter the situation, she couldn’t bring herself to threaten the Clan of Vail.

And this—Isaac and his people—were too much of a threat to Vail’s security
…

She felt her breath lock in her chest, kno
wing that she couldn’t allow her heart’s desires to go any further. In their vulnerable state and without a leader there was no solid defense against an attack.

She couldn’t do that to them…

“I… I need to go. I’ve been gone… and the others will worry if I don’t get home soon. I’m sorry, Isaac.” She bit her lip, fighting the welling tears as she took in his face once more, and turned away before he had a chance to respond. As more and more distance was put between them, she felt his aura begin to shrivel and stutter with his growing sadness, and as she stepped out of range and lost the heart-wrenching ache from his mind—leaving her only with her own—she heard a pained howl echo through the forest.