The Last True Vampire (38 page)

That light was Mikhail. Beside the silver veins, the gold still burned brightly, pulsing with vitality. That light belonged to Claire. It surged through her veins in a delicious warm rush that relaxed her from head to toe. She had strength enough for all of them. Why hadn’t Mikhail allowed her power to nourish him?

Awareness scratched at the back of her senses and Claire opened her eyes to find Mikhail’s clear blue eyes fixed as he quietly studied her.

“You shouldn’t be awake.” Her husky, teasing tone was answered with a heady bloom of musky scent that stirred her body.

“Neither should you.” His gaze burned, turquoise flames tipped with silver as he dragged his eyes down the length of her body. “Nor so lucid.”

His voice shivered over her skin and a deep, throbbing ache settled between Claire’s thighs. Her need for Mikhail’s body far outweighed her need for blood. For anything, really. Just a look, the sound of his voice drove her far beyond reason. Like the first night they’d met, she found his pull irresistible. She would do anything for this man.
Anything.
All he had to do was ask.

“Your desire is the sweetest perfume.” His voice was strained, the words choked out as his fingers curled tightly around the armrests. Claire watched with fascination as the cords of veins stood out on his forearms. God, to have him grip her so tightly … his hand wrapped possessively around her thighs. “Claire.” She snapped to attention, her eyes going back to his like the recoil of a rubber band. “I’m holding on to my control by the barest of threads. And you should feed before I become too distracted to care.”

She could sate her thirst later. It was her need for his body that required attention right now. A low purr vibrated in her chest and Mikhail’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch. His fingers curled tighter into the armrests and Claire glanced down, a satisfied smirk pulling at her lips as she noticed the erection straining against the fly of his neatly pressed slacks.

A sly smile curved her lips and one sharp fang nicked her bottom lip. Mikhail’s gaze wandered, locked where the blood began to well and Claire’s tongue flicked out slowly to lick it from her skin. As she took the crimson droplet into her mouth Mikhail’s scent grew stronger. A rich, intoxicating mixture of cinnamon and dark chocolate with the undertones of a cool spring rain. He craved her body as badly as he needed her blood. Her senses were so attuned to him now that she knew what he wanted without him having to say a single word and she was quickly becoming drunk on the sense of power and control that she felt.

Her shirt was torn and stained with her own blood. It was anyone’s guess where her jeans had gotten off to. Clad in nothing but her underwear and shirt, she let her fingertips wander. Up her bare thighs, under the hem of her shirt, to the unmarred skin of her abdomen. Gregor had cut into her. Again and again. Opening veins and slicing through muscle as he used her pain to unravel Mikhail. Gregor had tried to take their son from them and Mikhail had broken loose of his bonds and protected them both. And thanks to her transformation, not even a single scar remained to betray her torture.

Bits of crusted blood still clung to her skin and Claire stripped off her shirt, unhooked her bra, and let them both fall to the floor before pushing her underwear down over her hips. Mikhail was rapt, his chest heaving with each breath as he took in the sight of her. Claire turned with a secretive smile and headed for the bathroom without uttering a single word.

Her stomach twisted into an anxious knot, the feeling of being pursued triggering something primal within her. Her footfalls were almost silent, whispering over the tile as she made her way to the enormous glass-enclosed shower.

Mikhail was right behind her. Closing in like a wolf on the hunt.

Excitement coursed through Claire’s veins, the effects so powerful that she swayed on her feet. Her human emotions, feelings, sensations, seemed so gray and pale in comparison to this new existence. The intensity of it all stole her breath and sent her heart beating madly in her chest.

She opened the glass door and turned the knob on the shower while she waited for the water to warm. Showerheads covered the ceiling and two of the walls, creating a constant cascade of water that was sure to feel like heaven on her bare skin.

Strong arms encircled her and Mikhail cupped her breasts in his palms. He feathered his thumbs over her already erect nipples and Claire gasped, arching her back as he pinched lightly and then just hard enough to cause a rush of wetness to spread between her naked thighs. Steam billowed inside of the enclosed glass and Mikhail reached out to open the door.

The kiss of microscopic water droplets on her skin, like thousands of tiny caresses on her hypersensitive flesh, caused Claire to shudder. She let out a slow sigh that ended on a husky moan.

“Everything is more intense.” She shivered at Mikhail’s heated words in her ear. His bottom lip brushed her earlobe and a satisfied purr rumbled in Claire’s throat. “I could make you come by doing nothing more than blowing lightly on your clit.”

Holy hell.
If he kept up with the dirty talk, it was going to take a hell of a lot less than a breath to make her come. The bond between them flared, opening a direct line between her emotions and his. “I can feel you,” she gasped. Her fangs throbbed in her gums as the line between her needs for sex and blood blurred and became one and the same.

“Feeding and sex are closely tied,” he said as though he knew her thoughts. “Which is why there is nothing better than having my fangs deep in your throat while I fuck you.”

“Yes.” Claire let out a breath on the word. She wanted to bite. To suck. To drink her fill, and even then she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

“Bloodlust,” Mikhail murmured against her temple. He urged her inside the shower and she took a step under the multiple jets, letting out an audible sigh as the myriad drops rained down on her skin. He stepped in behind her, the hard length of his erection sliding through the crease of her ass. “If you wait too long to feed, you’ll succumb to the madness.”

How could something so distressing sound so goddamned sexy? She wanted to lose it, to give herself over to base desires. To surrender completely, until there was nothing left of her but mindless need and want. Abandon herself to instinct. Only then would she truly connect to the animal side of her nature that Mikhail had brought to life.

“Careful, Claire.” Mikhail threaded his fingers through her hair, wetting it under the spray. “I can feel you slipping away. You must always remain in control. No matter how badly you want to surrender.”

His dark, seductive voice anchored her to the present. Kept her head as level as it was going to get. She tried to turn and face him, but Mikhail forced her shoulders back around and gave a shallow thrust of his hips, sliding his cock between her thighs and through her wet, swollen lips. “Gods, how I’ve missed you,” he said against her throat. “Needed you. I worried…” He paused, his mouth hovering over her jugular. “That you wouldn’t survive.”

She rolled her hips, urging his cock to slip through her slick, sensitive flesh. “It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a few supernatural assassins to keep me from you, Mikhail.”

CHAPTER

30

Mikhail wanted to roar his satisfaction. It appeared that all of his worry was for naught. Claire had handled the transition remarkably well, showing the kind of restraint most new vampires didn’t master for weeks afterward. The Collective seemed to no longer press at the forefront of her mind, and though he could sense the bloodlust that crept upon her, she wasn’t lost to it.

Her control amazed him.

Unfortunately, his was hanging on by the barest of threads. The need to take her vein overwhelmed him. Her scent, enhanced by the heat of the shower, intensified his need and he couldn’t wait to taste the sweet nectar of her blood as it flowed over his tongue. The human’s blood had sustained her. Had satisfied a thirst that Mikhail had thought unquenchable. What should have weakened her only made her stronger. A miracle if ever he’d seen one. Mikhail had fed from humans for centuries and it had nearly killed him. Claire suffered no such restriction. She was an anomaly. A species unique to herself.

Extraordinary
.

He sealed his mouth over the vein on her throat, sucking gently to coax it to the surface of her skin. She let out a soft moan before turning abruptly. Her speed rivaled his own as she gripped his biceps and forced him against the cool marble wall.
Gods, such a female!
She heated what blood was left in his body to the boiling point.

“Not so fast, vampire.” Her voice was a seductive purr that sparked every nerve ending of his body into awareness. Gold eyes sparked with mischief and his already-rigid cock hardened further. Claire drew her bottom lip between her teeth, giving him an unhindered view of her petite fangs. Gods, the sight of her … water sluicing off of her pert breasts, the slight roundness of her abdomen, and the flair of her hips that curved into thighs he wanted wrapped tightly around his waist. No female in all of his years of existence had stirred his lust to the degree that Claire did.

Mikhail didn’t know what he needed more: to sink his fangs into her throat or his cock into the heat of her pussy.

She kept him pressed against the wall as she slid to her knees. The soft glide of her breasts and tight beads of her nipples moving down the length of his torso was a sweet torture that he couldn’t get enough of. One hand reached up, splayed across his chest as she took the length of his cock in the other. Mikhail sucked in a sharp breath and his muscles tensed as she stroked him from the swollen head to throbbing base.

“Again.”

The back of his skull knocked against the marble wall and she took the head of his cock in her hand, swirling her palm over the tip before squeezing him tightly in her fist. She stroked all the way down and his balls drew up tight. He thrust into her grip, eagerly pumping his hips in a desperate surge.

Claire’s eyes met his, her seductive gaze alight with gold fire. She leaned in and flicked out with her tongue, never looking away as she swirled it—
gods, so soft
—over the glossy head. A bead of moisture formed at the tip and she licked it away, a slow, sensual, deliberate motion that left him panting as her lids grew hooded just before she pulled away and licked her lips.

The pause was momentary. Water cascaded over them, the glass enclosure filled with steam, and Claire knelt before him, a goddess he was surely unworthy of, paying homage to his body with her mouth. The glide of her lips was heaven. The wet heat encasing his cock, perfection. She took him deep and he could do nothing about the low moan of approval that worked its way up his throat. As she pulled away, her little fangs dragged over his shaft and a pleasant shiver ran down Mikhail’s spine. She plunged down again and fell into a steady rhythm that stole his breath. His hips thrust in time and Claire dug her nails into his ass as he fucked her mouth.

“You’re so beautiful, Claire. So gods-damned perfect.”

He wound his fists into the wet tangles of her hair and she pulled away. Water droplets clung to her dark lashes as she looked up at him, dotted her brow and cheeks, the gentle curve of her shoulders. She pushed him to his breaking point with teasing licks. She took him as deep as she could and then hollowed her cheeks as she sucked just the engorged head of his cock.

A half smile played on her lips as she bit down with only the blunt edges of her teeth. Mikhail’s jaw locked down and his body went taut. Every corded muscle flexed as a shudder racked him from head to toe. “Yes, love,” he said on a groan. “Gods, yes.”

She bit down again, this time with the razor-sharp point of one fang. The skin broke and Mikhail was possessed by a delicious heat, flames of desire that licked at his skin until he thought he’d combust from the intense sensation. He threw his head back as Claire lapped and sucked. A spasm traveled from his sac up his shaft and the backs of his thighs as he came. Claire didn’t pull away; instead, she became greedier still, sucking deeply as she eagerly took everything he had to offer. The orgasm was intense, ripping through him and stealing every ounce of strength left in his legs.

No woman had pleasured him in such a way. None could compare to his mate. His Claire.

*   *   *

Becoming a vampire freaking rocked!

Claire had never experienced anything so intense in her entire life and she hadn’t even been on the receiving end. Being with Mikhail had been unlike any other sexual encounter and that had been when she was human. But now…? It was like sex times a trillion. Supersex. She couldn’t get enough of him. His taste, the hard length of his cock that filled and stretched her mouth. A full-on religious experience. Unbelievable.

Mikhail pulled her to her feet and turned, slamming her against the marble wall with enough force to crack the tiles. He pressed his body against hers and kissed her with all of the ferocity of a starved animal consuming a meal. Each deep thrust of his tongue was surely a precursor to how unmercifully he planned to fuck her, and it sent a thrill through Claire to think of Mikhail, so desperate, so urgent, to take her that he would abandon all common sense.

She didn’t want to be treated with care. Not this time.

Over the course of a week she’d been made into an animal. Plugged back into that primal aspect of her psyche that had been bred out of humanity over the course of millennia. She wanted to fuck and be fucked like an animal. With reckless abandon. Mikhail lifted her as though she weighed nothing, slinging her legs over his shoulders. He cradled her ass in his palms as Claire braced her back against the shower wall to steady them.

When the heat of his mouth met her sex, Claire cried out. Mikhail devoured her, lapped at her, with mindless desperation. The scent of his arousal mingled with the steam, creating a perfume that intoxicated Claire, and her head spun from the heady mixture of that delicious aroma, his taste that still lingered on her lips, and the sensation dancing across her flesh, radiating from her clit as he passed over it again and again with the flat of his tongue.