“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
By fuck my shoulder stung. The gashes which the lycan had ripped into my skin oozed blood through my jacket, shirt and down onto the dusty floor. My hand lifted, covering the ragged wounds, the hot sticky liquid seeping through my fingers and my gaze lifted.Rhayden’s mouth was firmly planted on the lycan’s neck, its thick mangy fur coated in blood. The creature screamed again, as it had when I’d shot it and it tried to grab at the vampire on its back. But there was no use.Vampires latch hold, like a spider with it's prey. Wrapping their bodies about you, holding on until the victim starts to weaken from the blood loss... and yb then, you're fucked. Trust me... I know.Rhayden had a good grip on the lycan, and with the loss of blood from the bullet wounds, and the blood, which was being drained by the vampire, the creature he was attached to quickly weakened. It slumped to the floor, Rhayden still on its back and within a few short moments, all it was doing was twitching.Rhayden lif
I felt Marley lose consciousness. Her body sagged under my touch and her scream died in her throat. I ignored it, dragging in mouthfuls of blood from the wound, spoiled with lycan taint. I lifted myself and turned my head, spitting it to the side, before I went back for another bite. People thought being bitten by a lycan was what turned them. Sure... in the movies. It was the same principal as us. You could turn from a bite... but you also had to have their blood injected back into you. But if you got slashed... well, then you were fucked. The bacteria which sat under their nails was deadly.I had to get as much of the scum which sat under the lycan’s claws out from Marley’s skin. If I didn’t, it would continue to taint her blood, fester and would eventually kill her.Once I’d done this, there was only one thing which would save her life... and it wasn't here.The last mouthful of blood I took didn’t have the taste of lycan taint and I lifted myself, spitting the blood to the sid
My head of security, Anthony Carter—Tony—had always been a man I could trust. His sense of duty was second to none and he was well mannered, if not a little stiff. So, when the normally composed vampire burst into the library, his eyes wild, I knew something had gone terribly wrong.“Sire! Master Raynes is coming through the gate.” I lifted myself from the high back chair. Rhayden coming through the gates? He was more than two hundred miles awa— “Miss Brennan is injured.”In my haste to get out the door, I knocked the bust of my grandfather to the floor and as the alabaster smashed into a thousand pieces, I flung myself down the steps to the main hall. Vampires lined the hall, reclined on sofas, drinking tall glasses of animal blood, oblivious to what was happening in the outside world, since I’d recalled them back to the mansion.Curious glances followed me, as I moved through the throng of pale faces and opened the front doors, in time for Rhayden to come sweeping through.Marley
My hands were on Mars again, grazing over soft flesh, raising goosepimples along her skin. Marley tipped her head back as my lips trailed up her neck, nipping at her skin with my fangs, drawing tiny drops of blood which tasted sublime. “Mars.”She wrapped her arms around my neck, letting me plunder her mouth with my tongue. I didn’t know why the simple act of kissing this woman sent me crazy. Maybe it was the difference in temperature. My cold tongue against her hot mouth, the sensation was phenomenal.My hands gripped her buttocks, squeezing them and she sighed against me, pulling away and looked up at me, raising an eyebrow. “You know he’s in the other room, right?”“So?” I asked, smirking, kissing along her jaw.“You’re going to fuck me, with your brother in the next room?”“Yep.”I turned Marley around, pushing her against the cold tiles, bringing her hips back
He looked younger in the picture than when I’d spoken to him two weeks prior. But that smug look… was still there.I let my hand off the page, letting Rhayden flip to the next one. He turned the book, turning it toward me.Looking down at the picture, my eyebrows furrowed. “He looks like… Hang on.”I reached out and grabbed my phone, and held it to the book, looking between photos. “It’s… It’s him. The one in the alley.”“It might not be.” Absinthe muttered, pulling the book toward him and I stared at him.“I’m not fucking stupid Absinthe; I know it’s him. It’s the tattoo on his neck.” I said, turning the phone and stood, putting it next to the picture of the man. “See, there.”Rhayden leaned in, looking at it. “She’s right you know.”“You shut it.” Absinthe said, looking at me and he pushe
All I wanted to do was break down the doors of the library and go to Mars. But I waited patiently behind my brother, as the doors opened, and we calmly walked through them.Marley stood as we walked over to the table and at any other time, she would she poked her tongue out or said something snarky. But not this time. Her gaze dropped to the table and she sat down as Absinthe and I took our seats.She looked tired.Beyond tired. She looked drained and… sad.“Marely, are you okay?”My head turned to Absinthe as he asked her what I’d been wanting to and I looked back to her in time for her to nod. “I’m fine. Lord Othello and I have been talking.”“About?” I asked.What had they been discussing for the last few hours. For that was how long we’d been pacing and waiting.Mars’ gaze went to Othello, who nodded. “Go on, you can tell them.”S
Othello had walked me to a bathroom, leaving me to do my business and then back to the library, where a plate of food was waiting. “Eat, I will be back in a few moments.”I stared at the food, my stomach rumbling with hunger, but also churning with sickness.Othello was nothing like the monster others had told me he was. He’d been sweet and kind, listening to me speak about my sister. He had questioned me about my working relationship with the Raynes and what had me agreeing to the contract I’d signed with Absinthe.I’d even told him of my doubts about my lover, about him keeping information about Johan from me. Which had been rebuked.“Absinthe wouldn’t do that.” “Which part?”“All of it.” Othello had replied. “I was present when he was born, with Absinthe being the heir to the Raynes’ coven, it was my duty as Lord of the Vampires to oversee the birth. Strapping, healthy young vampire he was, his hair as dark as night. So, I know Absinthe and what he is like, he would not tarnish th
If I could have been in the cell with Marley. I would already be there.Not being allowed to be anywhere near her, while she was going through this was breaking my heart and my spirit. And not to mention what it was doing to Rhayden.My brother had always told me he would never sully himself with a human, that because he was a born vampire, sleeping with a human was beneath him… Until he set eyes on Marlene Brennan.I had to admit, even I was quite surprised with how visceral my attraction to her had been when we first met.Now I sat here, in an empty parlor, watching my brother pace and brood. “I don’t give a fuck who he is, if Othello touches a single hair on Mars’ head I will skin him.”That threw up images of my pale haired, alabaster skinned brother, covered in black blood, while he carved Othello’s skin from him… and honestly, it painted quite a pretty—“Are you listening to me?”Rolling my eyes, I looked at my brother. “Of course I’m not.”“Asshole.” Rhayden spat, continuing hi
There was someone in the room with me…“I will get you a better bed.”My body stilled as the voice spoke and chills sped across my skin. Slowly, I opened my eyes and rolled over. There was a man standing at the door, barely taking up the doorway, but the authority he threw off, told me he was important.I climbed to my feet and stepped back, pressing myself against the wall, as he stepped inside the room and the door closed with a heavy thud behind him.The man… no creature in front of me was old. There was a blue tinge to his pale skin. Head bald, mottled with dark spots, he wore a dark suit, which hung off his thin frame. But there was not even a hint of danger coming from this man.Finally, I found my voice. “W-who are you?”There was a moment’s silence, “I am Othello, human hunter.”Oh shit.This was The Lord of the Vampires. The one every coven in the United
I paced the room, aware of Absinthe watching me from his comfy chair. My mind was on the woman in the room, near the armory.It had broken my undead heart, pushing Mars into that room and closing the door.“Rhayden, you’re making me dizzy.”Rolling my eyes, I glared at Abe and kept pacing.How the fuck had everything gone so fucking wrong? And Mathias…“I’m going to gut him.”“Othello wouldn’t approve of you slaying one of the vampire Lords, little brother. No matter how much of an asshole he is.”And by god, Mathias was one of the most assholey of all assholes. He had a mean streak to him, which came to the surface with his superiority complex. He thought he was better than everyone else, just because of his bloodline, because he was a vampire lord.Yeah, well that didn’t excuse his behaviors. Especially in our mansion.“Rhayden.”&ldq
“So, this is the murderess of my Coven member?”Barely had I stepped out of the elevator, when I was overcome with the scent of spoiled blood. Great… he was one of those vampires.Looking past Rhayden, who had stopped in the middle of the corridor, I looked at the vampire before us; his skintight on his bones, his eyes copper with anger, claws descended.In seconds, Absinthe had stepped past me, and was standing shoulder to shoulder with his brother, blocking the volatile vampire from reaching me.“You are in my mansion Mathias, remember that. If you even lay a finger on her, I will rip your head off and use it for a soccer ball.” Abe’s tone was blunt, to the point and my fear kicked into overdrive. What would happen if the vampire didn’t heed Abe’s warning? Would I become a casualty of a fight between them?Mathias leaned forward, looking past the vampires protecting her, lee
The five hours it took to drive back to my mansion, was the longest five hours of my life.Marley and I didn’t speak much, and I was glad, because I knew if we did, the inevitable talk of Johan would arise and we would argue.Seeing the gates of the mansion loom ahead of us though… my stomach churned. And when I drove up the drive, to see more than twenty cars lined up in front of the building, the churning became worse. I knew those cars and why they were there. I turned my head a little, looking across to Marley, as her gaze took in the vehicles, as we drove past and toward the back of the mansion to the garage. “I am not going to be able to speak with you much, once we get inside. Othello will want to speak with you alone.”“Awesome.” Marley muttered and I could hear not only the emotion in her voice, but the way her heart fluttered quicker, the closer we came to the garage. “If you knew that I was in danger, why com