The Romanov's Pursuit (6 page)

That smirk that she was beginning to despise remained on Cutter’s face. “But that isn’t exactly true, is it?”

“Are you calling me a liar?”

“Not at all
solnyska
, you’re just in deep denial.”

“I told you to stop calling me that, Blade. I don’t understand you two. We’ve barely had a conversation yet you’ve stalked me all over the world.”

Cutter hunched his shoulders into a nonchalant shrug. “What you call stalking, we call going after what is ours. You’ve been ours since we saw you. The time wasn’t right then, you were connected to another, but we knew it was a matter of time before you would be ours. It was destined. You felt it too, perhaps you didn’t understand it at first because you had another mate at the time but you sensed it
all the same
. That’s why we made you so nervous. We gave you time to grieve and be alone. But we’re not going to wait any longer, nor will we allow you to pretend there isn’t something between us.”

Nya scrunched her nose in anger and annoyance. “Allow me? Unless you guys plan on holding me hostage with that frozen stunt you just pulled, you don’t get to dictate what I will and will not do. I’ve lived my life at other people’s whims for far too long and I’ll be damned if I let either of you control me. I’d rather die!” She didn’t have a particular death wish but her freedom was the one thing she valued above all else. She’d sacrificed so much to gain it and Nya didn’t intend for it to be snatched away from her again.

Neither twin spoke as they exchanged a meaningful look. She was certain they were communicating telepathically so she made sure to keep up her mental barrier so they wouldn’t be able to intrude into her thoughts.

Thinking that they might be distracted she quickly gripped the door knob but was
met
with an electric jolt upon contact.

“You fuckers!” Nya screamed shaking her hand that tingled more than a little.

Two identical gazes refocused on her, but Cutter spoke. “I thought I made it quite clear, that there is no escaping us.”

Chapter Five

Cutter could empathize with Nya’s dilemma. She had after all lost a mate in the not-too-distant past. But that had been nearly a year ago, and now it was his and Blade’s turn to finally claim her as theirs.

Nya’s eyes changed from dark brown to amber as they began to glow. She parted her lips slightly to reveal her descended incisors. Her fingers had also transformed into sharpened claws. She was in battle mode and he and Blade were her targets. “Let me out of here. This is your last and final warning.” She took a few menacing steps toward them.

“Or you’ll what? Will you bite us?” Blade challenged, his voice full of amusement. “That might be quite nice actually.”

Cutter placed his hand on his brother’s arm and shook his head. Now was not the time to
make
joke
s
. He was certain Blade didn’t find this situation funny at all, but sometimes people didn’t always know how to take his twin’s delivery in tight situations like this.

Nya was so quick they barely saw her charge. She swiped her nails down the side of Blade’s face, gouging into his skin. Blade hollered in surprise. Before she could take another swipe at his brother, Cutter snapped his fingers, activating the immobilization spell again.

Nya released a roar so loud it nearly made the cabin shake. Her rage was evident and if she were an older vampire she might have had the strength to break their spell. There was murder in her eyes as she yelled and screamed. “Let me go! Right fucking now!”

Cutter shook his head. “Not until you promise
to behave
.”

“Fuck the both of you! The only thing I promise is that when you release me, I’m going to kick your warlock asses.”

“And I’m sure she means it. Fuck, woman, you’re dangerous.” Blade gingerly touched his face where Nya had torn into muscle. On a mortal, a wound like that would leave a permanent scar and possible facial paralysis, but the injury on Blade was already beginning to heal. In ten minutes, it would close up like it had never happened although Cutter knew it hurt like crazy because there was a slight throbbing in his own cheek due to the psychic connection he shared with his twin.

“No one invited you here and you refuse to leave. What do you expect me to do? I knew the two of you would be trouble when I saw you.”

Cutter raised a brow. “Perhaps you’ve convinced yourself of that lie but there’s no fooling us. You
know why our presence disturbs
you. Nya, you are our soulmate but you’d call us your
bloodmates
. Either way, whateve
r name you decide to use
, it’s still the same thing. We were meant to be together for the rest of eternity.”

“The only thing I call it is bullshit. I’ve had a mate already and the
experience
wasn’t always flowers and sunshine,” Nya countered.

Blade narrowed his gaze as he continued to hold the side of his face. “So what? Can’t you see what a blessing it is to find another mate? Don’t you understand how rare and special something like this is? Some immortals
are never gifted
mates
so for it to happen twice is damn near a miracle. You might
be willing to deny what’s
as plain as the nose on your face, but we aren’t.”

Cutter nodded in agreement. “Nya, I can release you from this spell, and uncharm the door so you can make your escape, but what makes you think we wouldn’t find you again and again?
Why
delay the inevitable?”

N
ya’s eyes stopped glowing
. “I don’t want a mate, let alone you two assholes.”

“You can call us any names you want, b
ut it won’t change what fate has
presented us. What are you so scared of, Nya? Are you
afr
ai
d
to care about someone again,
frightened
to be loved and cherished?” Cutter couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he had a feeling that Nya’s reluctance went way deeper than the loss of her previous mate. Even before her mate had died, he and Blade had noticed a deep pain and sadness within the lovely vampire. He wasn’t sure how to get through
to
Nya if she wasn’t willing to let them in.

“Love.” She snorted. “What is that? There’s no such thing. It’s just an illusion created to give one a false sense of security that tricks people into believing they aren’t alone in this world. But in the end that so-called love is trampled on and destroyed to the point of hopelessness. So fuck your love and everything that it stands for.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, but Cutter guessed she wouldn’t let them fall. Nya was way too proud to be vulnerable in front of them, and her inner turmoil was so palatable that he could physically feel her pain. He clutched his chest, wincing at the sudden twinge he felt in his heart.

Blade closed the distance between him and the vampire and placed his hand on hers. “Nya, whether you believe it or not, you’re no longer alone. You have us.”

“And I’ve already told you that I’m not interested.”

Cutter shrugged. “Why? Because you’ve been hurt before? Haven’t we all?”

She sneered. “I doubt you’ve lost as much as I have.”

“So this is a competition about who’s suffered the most?” Blade demanded befor
e releasing her hand and backing away
. “If that’s the case, then fine, you win. You’ve been hurt more than anyone else in the entire world and because of that you have to live the rest of your life in solitude because of some overinflated sense of repentance.”

She’s not ready. I told you we should give her some more time
, Blade messaged to him telepathically.

We could have given her a hundred more years and she still wouldn’t have been ready. She seems to be in this constant state of martyrdom and it’s up to us to break her out of it,
Cutter insisted.

I’m releasing her and if she chooses to walk out the door I’m going to let her.

It was rare when he and his twin had disagreements over something as major as this but there was no way Cutter planned on letting Nya go. She belonged to them and the sooner she realized that the better.
Absolutely not. Don’t you remember the trouble we went through to find her, the torture of being away from her and how it had felt when we’d briefly seen her when we went to assist in her descendant’s rescue? It hurt like hell when she disappeared on us and I can’t go through that again.

I’m not saying that we l
et her go for good. We’re simply allowing her
a little space,
to
give her a little more time and then we
’ll
find her again.

And just how much more time should we give her?

I don’t know, another year perhaps? It will give us enough time to figure out what happened to Magda.

Fuck that. This is our priority. Can’t you see how much pain our
solnyska
is in?

Of course
,
I do. I feel it. But you know how it felt when we lost Ca—

This has nothing to do with that. It’s quite obvious we don’t see eye to eye on this issue so let’s compromise. How about I try another tactic and if it doesn’t work, we’ll give her some more time, but only a few months. I refuse to wait a year.

Blade hesitated for a moment before slowly nodding his head.
Agreed.

Cutter focused his attention on Nya who had bloody murder gleaming in her eyes. “Perhaps we could assist you with your dilemma.”

“There’s absolutely nothing I want from either of you other than to release me.”

Cutter approached Nya and gently grazed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Is that so? Perhaps we imagined it when we saw you eyeing that woman in the middle of town square. Given the opportunity, I’m sure you would have glamoured her into letting you
feed from
her.”

“You were watching me?”

“
Of course
,
we were,” Blade answered for him. “We used a cloaking
spell so
that we could move about undetected.”

“And you looked incredibly hungry, Nya. Perhaps you’ve gone a while without feeding. I’m sure you’re aware that if you
feed from
another immortal you can go longer between feedings. We can feed you,
and
give you all the life essence
that’s
require
d
.”

“I’d rather starve,” she answered defiantly.

One of the things that they admired about Nya was her spirit, but Cutter was learning that she also had a strong stubborn streak. He’d hoped that
Nya’s
need to feed would outweigh her pride.

Blade
seemed to catch on to Cutter’s plan and added, “That’s a shame. It seems quite odd that you’d join a group whose main mission is to take care of rogue threats, but you’re willing to become one yourself because you refuse to accept what we have to offer.”

“I can find my own source
of life essence
. I don’t need or want either of you.”

Cutter locked eyes with his brother and smirked. Neither one of them were known to turn down a challenge. He did a quick glance around her little cabin in search of a useful tool. His gaze landed on a nail only half hammered into the wall in the far corner. He concentrated on
it
and telekinetically yanked the object from its wooden home. Cutter caught the nail as it came flying in his direction and then the dragged the sharp end down his wrist, digging deep enough to draw blood. He then held his wrist beneath her nostrils so that she could smell the metallic sweetness of the red gold flowing from his veins.

Her breathing became ragged.
This time
,
there was no angry retort.
Instead
,
she eyed his arm and there was only one expression in her
gaze
. Hunger.

Blade tilted his head to the side as he gave her a discerning look. “How long have you gone without a feed?”

“Five months,” she answered breathlessly, her eyes never leaving the blood trickling from Cutter’s wrist.

Blade shook his head in disapproval. “Hmm, you may be over two hundred years old but it’s not a good idea to go that long between feedings. You know what happens when you don’t.”

Cutter was careful not to grin, lest Nya decided to cut off her own nose to spite her face. He was almost certain they had her where they wanted her. “Do you want this,
solnyska
?
There is plenty more where this
came from. Blade and I only want to help you. We feel your hunger. Give in, Nya
. You know what will happen if you don’t.
And we all know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt innocent people because you were too stubborn to take what was offered.”

Her pupils darted from side to side as Nya looked back and forth between him and Blade as if she was having a hard time deciding.

“Well?” Blade prompted.

“How can I feed, when I’m frozen, you asses?”

Cutter snapped his fingers to release her from his spell. In a blur, Nya grabbed his wrist and licked along the trail of blood that slid down his arm. The contact of her tongue against his flesh made his cock jump to attention. He released a moan as pleasure coursed through his veins.

She suddenly released his wrist and gripped him by his shoulders. Her fangs descended before she sunk them at the pulse in his neck. Cutter had had a few vampire lovers in his lifetime and had even been bitten by them. In a lot of human mythology it was thought that a vampire’s bite contained a venom that would kill its prey or turn one into an undead creature, when in truth the properties in a vampire’s saliva were more of an aphrodisiac that created a euphoric sensation that could actually make the person on the receiving end of the bite orgasm, depending on the length of the feed.

That feeling was heightened if the two people involved were mates. Cutter’s entire body quaked when she pressed her full lips against his flesh while she went about her task. His knees starte
d to wobble and he feared they w
ouldn’t support him if she kept it up. Nya’s breasts were flush with his chest, her pelvis was so close to his erection, Cutter could feel the heat emanating from her core.

How does it feel
,
brother?
Blade asked, entering his brother’s mind.

Good. So fucking good.
Cutter could barely get that coherent thought out of his head and Nya cupped the back of his neck as she fed. That she was voluntarily touching him was more than he’d hope for in this encounter but this was far from enough. He wanted her naked one the floor, impaled with his cock.

I can’t hold back anymore, Cutter. I need her too.

Then have her. She’s ours for the taking.
With great reluctance and
effort,
he nudged her off of him.

Nya’s eyes flashed briefly. “More.” She reached out for him but Cutter backed away from her. As much as he wanted to feel her sexy body against his again, it wasn’t fair to Blade
, plus
he couldn’t risk her draining him. In her state of
hunger
,
it was quite possible she would.