Summoning Sebastian (26 page)

We were still connected, I realized. It wasn't as strong a meld as when he'd actually been inside my head, but it was there. I could sense his thoughts somewhat, could feel his emotions. I hadn't realized it while he was with Colin, but, yes, I'd felt him then too. Felt the rising of his hunger, felt his satisfaction when he'd brought Colin to climax. And now I felt his need to take me, hard and definitively, and I met his eyes and I nodded.

He lowered his head and fucked me. Hard. Pounding me into the bed with an unleashed power I hadn't experienced from him in a long time. I flashed back to the lovemaking we'd done—the three of us together—before he'd made his final pact with the vampire stone, before he'd killed Pieter and given up his own life. This was like that—desperate and needy—but this time he was coming back to life instead of giving it up.

The mattress shifted under me, and I realized Colin had moved closer. I almost expected him to take Sebastian from behind, or to do the same to me, but instead he just reached between us and cupped my breast, his thumb rolling my nipple while he looked down at where Sebastian was thrusting powerfully between my thighs. A quiet, content smile curved Colin's mouth.

I'm not sure why that sent me over, but it did. His calm, his acceptance and his satisfaction with the fact we were all back together again. Couple that with the intense, ravenous need I was catching from Sebastian, and there was nothing I could do about it. I climaxed with a shuddering noise that was part scream, part grunt, part deep-felt sob. And Sebastian came with me.

As I fell apart, Colin bent and took my breast into his mouth. Gentle, he suckled me through the climax, and then he stretched out next to us as both Sebastian and I eased down into quietude.

I pulled Sebastian's head against me and kissed his hair. “I'm glad you're back,” I told him, and he kissed the scar between my breasts.

It seemed to open the floodgates. Where before Sebastian had seemed almost reluctant to touch either of us, even though we couldn't keep our hands off him, he became less restrained, leaning into me when I set a hand on his shoulder, putting an arm around me when we sat next to each other. He wasn't as demonstrative with Colin, but he never had been. Still, I saw them exchanging meaningful looks across the room from time to time—the kind of meaningful looks that made my panties wet.

We finally left Vanavara a couple of evenings after Roland's call. Colin had wanted to leave earlier, but it wasn't the easiest thing to book a flight from Vanavara to Moscow at a day's notice. We could have made another stop in Chelyabinsk, but as it turned out Mom and Dad had decided to go to St. Petersburg, so there wasn't much point.

“Peter is lovely this time of year,” Colin commented, and I got the impression he was more than happy not to have to face my parents again. I'd actually kind of wanted Mom to meet Bastian, and that feeling had come as a surprise to me.

In any case, we booked a vampire-safe flight to Moscow, where we spent the day in a swank hotel and fucked like bunnies until the vampires couldn't hold their eyes open anymore. Then I headed out to squeeze in a city tour before we had to leave. I'd always wanted to see the Kremlin.

As a result, I was exhausted by the time we headed to the airport. But it was a long flight. I could sleep.

Denver seemed almost prosaic compared to Moscow. Even the crazy murals and the demonic horse at DIA couldn't hold up to Red Square. It didn't matter, though. Home was home, even if it didn't have onion domes.

And the truth of the matter was, none of it felt real until we stepped through Colin's—our—front door and dropped our suitcases in the living room. It wasn't until the door snicked shut behind me that I looked at Sebastian, realized he really, truly was back, and burst into tears.

He pulled me into his arms, and the three of us ended up mostly naked, in a tangle on the living room floor, before we'd even unpacked.

Later that night, as dawn crept closer, we lay together in the big bed in the master bedroom. Sebastian had rolled toward me and was tracing the whitening lines of the scars on my body. They would never go away, I was certain of it. Forever, until I was old and gray-haired with saggy skin and probably an old-lady goatee, I would bear the marks from the Tablet of Trichore, the arcane symbols that had, for a time, held everything that was left of Sebastian and kept him safe just beneath my skin.

He met my gaze as I watched him, his finger on the biggest of the symbols, there between my breasts.

“I'm sorry,” he said quietly.

I closed my hand over his, flattening it against my sternum. Behind me, Colin curled in closer, spooning me. The only thing missing from the bed was Rufus.

I smiled up at Sebastian, into his blue-blue eyes, and remembered the first time I'd seem them, watching me through the car window. “Don't be,” I told him. “It was worth it.”

About the Author

Katriena Knights wrote her first poem when she was three years old and had to dictate it to her mother under the bathroom door (her timing has never been very good). Now she's the author of several paranormal and contemporary romances. She grew up in a miniscule town in Illinois and now lives in a miniscule town in Colorado with her two children, her goofy dog, two ferrets and a weird little gerbil. Visit her website at
www.katrienaknights.com
, or her blog at
katrienaknights.blogspot.com
.

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Wishing for a little excitement in your life? Be careful what you wish for…

Nimuë Taylor thought working for a vampire would be cool. Instead it's just like any other annoying job, complete with a boss, Colin, who drives her crazy. Other than the daily humdrum routine, nothing much exciting happens.

Until the day Sebastian, Colin's old friend (read: ex-lover) comes to town, bearing a magical stone that can make any vampire immortal.
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When Nim unwittingly comes between the stone and its hunter, she's bitten. Not by just any vampire, but by one whose bite turns victims into mindless zombies. Healing her involves a ritual that creates a blood bond that's as passionate as it is dangerous.

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Warning: This book contains high levels of sarcasm, swaths of swearing, sex with two hot vampires at once, and a dog that likes to eat coffee grounds.

The neutral zone is no place for a vampire.

A right wing for the Chicago Blackhawks, all Travis Payne wants is to see his name on the Stanley Cup. He certainly doesn't expect to be attacked by a vampire on the eve of the Finals. But when he wakes up in the Warm Room of the Cook County Morgue, he knows his life will never be the same.

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Warning: Contains two hot alpha males playing hard on the ice and in the bedroom

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

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Summoning Sebastian

Copyright © 2015 by Katriena Knights

ISBN: 978-1-61922-672-2

Edited by Linda Ingmanson

Cover by Angela Waters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: August 2015

www.samhainpublishing.com