Holding the phone to my ear, I listened to my brother droning on the other end. My eyes rolled as he went on and on and on, about how important this mission was; for the hundredth time. Like I didn't already know that, by the fact we'd lost twenty members of our fucking coven. men and women I had practically grown up with. “I know, Abe. I am not stupid.”There was a pause, then a chuckle. “That’s—”“Don’t fucking say it.” I growled. I had always been considered the brawn of the two of us. More muscle than brains, but I was not some dickhead killing machine. I could outthink Absinthe if I wanted to, and if the idiot had listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't have twenty dead vampires, and I wouldn't be here, babysitting Marley.A waft of scent and I turned, watching my brother's hunter as she paced the room beyond the one, I was in. I had been harsh to her earlier. It was not fair the way I was treating her. I knew she could not do anything about her relationship with Abe.He
I had forgotten to grab underwear.In my haste to get away from Rhayden, and to wash the scent of his brother off me, to keep him happy I had managed to forget one of the most vital pieces of clothing. Something which would, in my mind, protect me from the creature I travelled with.Padding through the house, I kept my eye out for the vampire. I did not want him to know I was panty-less. I'd seen the way he looked at me, when I was fully clothed. Going to my bag, I rummaged through it, trying to keep my long night-shirt covering my backside. “Where the fuck are they?”I had packed at least three pairs and they all seemed to be missing...“Looking for these?”My stomach contracted as I turned. Rhayden was leaning against the doorjamb, one of my lace thongs hooked over his index finger, the other two pairs of panties, gripped in his hand. I blinked and stared at him. “Did you seriously go through my bag?”His grin widened. “Just wanted to see what kind of underwear you preferred. Wou
The scrap of lace she called panties fell to the ground with the others, as I launched myself at her. My hands gripped her face, my mouth crushing against hers and I kissed Marley deeply.Her taste was sweet, her hands scrambling for my hips, and I growled as her fingernails dug into my flesh. A soft mewl escaped her lips as my tongue drove into her mouth and her knees weakened.I laid her softly on the cold floor, my body next to hers as I buried my head against the side of her neck, her breath ragged to my ears. Marley’s back arched as my lips travelled along her neck to her ear and I moaned against her skin. “Beautiful, mortal woman…”My mouth moved down her neck, laying wet, cold kisses to her skin and her heart hammered loudly in her chest, igniting a fire within me I'd never felt before. Down over her night shirt, I teased her nipples through the fabric with my teeth, resisting the urge to unleash my fangs on her soft skin.To mark her, would be to place a target on both mine a
“Fucking cock sucking asshole!” I paced the courtyard, resisting the urge to kick Rhayden’s car as I walked past it.Fuck kicking it, I would take to it with a baseball bat if I had a chance.“Fucking prick.”It was supposed to be a kiss. Instead, the vampire had eaten me out in what I could only describe as one of the best fucking experiences of my life.My voice was coarse from yelling at the rising sun for the last hour, while Rhayden was deep within the bowels of the safe house, knocked out cold, in hibernate. All I wanted to do was go in there, drag his sorry ass outside and dance a jig while he burned in the sun.Sighing, I twisted and sank to the pavement, my legs folded underneath me. My head went to my hands, tears threatening to break through and drown me. Why was this happening to me? Surely, I could have found the killer and dealt with them on my own.I should not have been teamed up with the one vampire I could not resist. I wanted to call Abe and confess to what had hap
The brain fog which usually accompanied waking from hibernate, was not there when my eyes opened. The only thing there was... the taste of Marley on my lips. Pure ambrosia.I licked them, a fresh tingle racing through me. I had never tasted blood as sweet as hers.The one smear I had had the night before had been nothing to the gullet full I had now. I was sated. I would not need to feed tonight or even tomorrow night. Now I knew why Absinthe kept her around.Stretching, I eased myself off the hard bed in the corner of the darkened room. My night vision kicked in, the colors we vampires saw in the dark, flashing as I looked around and froze.Just outside, there was a steady thumping rhythm of a heartbeat. Deep in slumber, the heart could belong to Marley. No one else would be game enough to come down into the basement.I moved to the door and spun the wheel, opening it and stepped out into the dark. Turning my head, Marley was slumped against the wall next to the door, curled up in
A phone rang shrilly in the library, and I blinked, turning to the delegates who were being introduced by Tony. I looked back at the library doors, before turning back to my guests. These were the heads of other covens, there was important things to be discussed... but that phone kept ringing, and I developed a sinking feeling in my stomach. Being as polite as possible, I bowed to the other leaders, “I’m sorry, if you’d excuse me for one moment…”I walked into the library and closed the doors. Usually, when entertaining such important guests, I’d let a phone ring out or I’d allow someone else to answer it, but it was my cell. Only two people had the number and they only called it in an emergency.I picked up the device, seeing Marley’s name flash across the screen and held it to my ear. “Marley?”“Abe!” There was fright in her voice, and I sank to my chair, my stomach rebelling against the pack of blood I’d consumed half an hour earlier; because while the human's blood could sate me
I stared at the racks of guns and stacks of ammo.Rhayden travelled the lines of cages and grinned, punching in a code. The doors sprung open, and he gripped the semi-automatic handgun, turning back to me, shoving the weapon into the back of his jeans. “My favorite room, no matter where we are.”“You’re an ass.” I turned from him, looking at the door we had come through. They lycan would be able to break through in a matter of seconds. Rhayden had put us in a god-damned kill box.As if he had read my mind, Rhayden replied from behind me. “Relax Mars, they are not getting in. Wolfsbane.”Wolfsbane only stopped a lycan for so long. It was near fatal to them in werewolf form, but the human side of them, it was merely an irritant.I rolled my eyes and turned back to Rhayden as he held up a knife. Infused with silver, he grinned and stepped forward. “Your favorite weapon.”He crouched, his hand gripping the back of my calf and he slipped the dagger into the side of my boot. His head lifted
Marley was behind me, her heartbeat almost lost in the sound of howling, as the team of hunters sent to rescue us, slaughtered the lycan outside. Her scent still lingered though. Able to break through the smell of fur and blood and it did nothing to calm the animal in me. I would protect Marley with my life, and not just because of what we had done the night before, but because if my brother lost her...My other concern... how the fuck did a pack of lycan find us.My senses heightened, I sought out Vince and his team; a group of seven of Absinthe’s best and deadliest hunters. From the commotion which lifted to my ears, they were still in the courtyard, not having gained access to the safehouse. I just hoped the Lycan had not breached the house either; if they had, I didn't know how Marley and I would go, fending them off.We moved as one, Marley's shotgun trained just over my shoulder, the muzzle next to my ear; if she let it off, I’d be deaf for a week.We came to the corner of the
Pacing the library, I waited for the phone to pick up.“This is Maddison.”I could hear the tautness of pleasure to the vampire’s voice, and it pissed me off. While I had told Tony, his relationship with Maddison was not forbidden, it was not looked upon favorably right now. “Where is Tony?”I heard the phone scrambled between hands as my head of security took the device from his fledgling. “Lord Raynes?”My temper was white hot. “Where have you been?”“Sir. We were with Lord James all of last night. Someone came into Miss Brennan’s room and tried to take her. We stopped them. But they had the mark of Korin’s coven, so we dragged him back to his master. Turns out he’s a traitor and Korin flayed him.”Yeah, that sounded about right for my cousin. If anyone crossed him, he would make them pay in the most painful of ways. “And now?”“Sir
I had eaten.Proteins bars were my staple when in a vampire safe house.I’d showered and I’d napped, while the little black box I’d found in the bag Rhayden had left, did its thing. When I plugged it into the computer, it had lurched to life and started to correlate against other files, bringing up possibilities and discarding unwanted files.Maddison had called.They were at Korin’s mansion.They’d been the ones to leave blood in the hotel room.One of Korin’s lackeys had decided they didn’t like their Lord being weak, by hiring a human and wanted to make an example of him, by coming after me. They just didn’t count on the fact Maddison and Tony were in my room.I was amazed I’d slept through the fight.Maddison told me they were there, while Korin literally flayed the vampire alive, for information on who he’d defected to. I really didn’t want to know but was g
I didn’t think my heart could have taken much more… but the punch coming from Mars had been so left of field, that when it happened, the only safe option was for me to leave. If I had stayed, I would have thrown her against a wall and hurt her. I might have even killed he…Never in my life had I met someone so infuriating. But that was what she was. My infuriating, beautiful human lover. And there in lay the problem. She was human.
He was still a crappy driver and I held onto the seat as Rhayden raced through the streets of Vegas. “Where are we going?”“Somewhere safe.” He growled, his hands tight on the steering wheel. My eyes slammed close as Rhayden swerved into oncoming traffic to get around a tour bus.“Rhayden! For fuck’s sake slow down!” He put his foot down harder and the car lurched, making me grit my teeth, “Rhayden, please.”He didn’t listen and I knew he wouldn’t. He had a mission.Get me to safety. He would do that, and I wouldn’t be able to change the way he did.So while he drove like a maniac and I hoped to hell we didn’t get pulled over by cops—because Rhayden Raynes would be difficult to explain— I thought of other things.Like Johan.How had he found me?After two years, why had he suddenly surfaced?The last time we’d seen each other,
I sat opposite my cousin, staring at him, while he stared right back. “Cousin, so good to see you again…”I rolled my eyes. “Let’s cut the crap, Korin. You know I can’t stand being in the same city as you, let alone the same room.”Korin’s throaty chuckle echoed around the room, earning a few sniggers from fledglings in the shadows. I could smell the stale blood in their veins. They were barely a week turned. How long my cousin had fallen… “Oh I do miss this. The old jabs and barbs. Tell me, are you still sore about Loretta?”
“You look tired Marley.”I looked to Maddison, “I-I had a visitor.”“Yes, Lord Raynes spoke to us before he left this evening. I am sorry about what happened last night, with Korin.”“It's ok. I wasn't expecting him in my hotel room. He didn't give me a chance to do anything but talk with him, even though I would have rather put a bullet in his brain.”Maddison giggled and I smiled, this woman, this vampire was quickly becoming one of my confidants, and I considered her, my friend. “So, Lord Raynes came all this way to…?”My face heated and Maddison smiled.“Ahh… You seem to have a touch. Absinthe is not one to swoon or fall for someone, he hasn't even been Mated before. You must have a very, very big pull. Not only him, but Rhayden too? Two powerful, old vampires wanting you. Girl, you are the bomb!”I laughed, tipping my head back and Maddison join
“Thought I might find you here.”Looking up, I rolled my eyes as my brother walked over to me and sat beside me. I turned my head and looked back out over the twinkling lights of Vegas. “What do you want?” Abe didn’t answer. I turned and looked at him and saw a flash of fear come over him. “What is with you and heights?”Oh yeah, that’s right, my perfect brother wasn’t overly keen on heights. Probably had something to do with me pushing him o
Absinthe gripped my hips, allowing me to rock against him. The pleasure built, his hands tightening on my hips and my orgasm peaked. Throwing back my head back, I cried out. “Abe!”He sat up, bringing me closer to him. I tipped forward, allowing him to grip my ass and lift me a little, ramming into me. Fangs nipped at my throat, heightening the pleasure, before he sealed them with a stroke of his tongue. Then he bit down, drawing a mouthful of blood, before raking his tongue over the marks again, his voice thick with lust as he moaned my name. “Marley.”My orgasm built again, my clit rubbing against hard, cool abs. “Abe…”He flipped us, rising above me, slamming his hips against mine, the bed shuddering with every inhuman thrust. My arms lifted and I reached out not for him, but for the headboard, holding it hard, as Abe’s thrusts became wild.His mouth lowered, biting the edge of my breast. Tender flesh yi
It had taken everything in me not to have sprayed Marley’s hotel room with Korin’s thick, putrid blood. How fucking dare he be in her room without permission. I didn't give a fuck that he owned the hotel, or half the buildings in the street. He had been told my hunter was off limits.I could have handled the snide remarks, as I had warned him away from her the night before, or the mentions of his sleazy antics towards Marley… but to find her one swipe of his claws away from death… to have him to close to her, that he could have leaned in and kissed her... that had been one step too far. When I had asked Rhayden to leave Vegas, the only other option was to be there myself