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The world fell away as we moved together, my cheap wooden bed frame protesting beneath us as he drove into me with supernatural strength, his muscles rippling with each powerful thrust as he lost himself in our shared rhythm. He flipped us suddenly, pulling me astride him without breaking our connection.

The new angle drove him impossibly deeper, and something inside me snapped. I stopped holding back. Stopped worrying about who he was, his past, his darkness and what it meant. I rode him with desperation, driving myself into him, forgetting everything outside the feeling of him, and his callused hands gripped my hips hard enough to bruise anyone else, guiding me up and down his length.

“Take it all,” he rumbled, his voice hoarse. “All ye need. I’m yours, love.”

The reverence in his face was almost too much to bear. My name fell from his lips like a plea with each rise and fall of my hips, the heat at my core building to an impossible peak. When his thumb found my centre again, dancing and circling in perfect rhythm with our movements, I shattered completely. Myinner walls clamped down around him as wave after wave of molten fire crashed through me, and I held on to him like a lifeline.

“Nicholas,” I gasped, my voice unrecognisable. Free. His hips bucked up wildly, all control finally abandoned as his own release claimed him, emerald eyes fixed on mine as his body tensed beneath me. His strong hands gripped my thighs, holding me firmly against him as he pulsed inside me, triggering another heady climax that had me begging for oblivion.

The world began to fade into focus again and our urgency slowed, though we stayed tangled together. I found myself resting on his now-warm chest, bedsheets scattered around us, listening to the slow, drawn-out beats of his heart. My breathing was the sole sound in the room; his body only occasionally rising and falling.

Nicholas’s fingertips danced lazy patterns on my back, and he pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of my head. “In all my years waitin’… searchin’…” he murmured, his voice barely a whisper in the dark. “I ne’er truly kent what ye’d mean to me, love.”

Moonlight spilled through the open curtains, gilding his profile and casting shadows across the network of scars across his skin. His sooty lashes cast shadows in the hollows beneath his eyes, and I memorised every detail: the sharp angle of his jaw, the straight line of his nose, the fullness of his swollen lips. Light caught his brow as he shifted, and I resisted the urge to touch him – I didn’t want to break his perfect peace.

“Erin.” My name was a sigh. No more words were needed.

My eyes grew heavy as I glanced at the clock – it was almostfour in the morning. Contentment drew me into dreamless sleep.

???

In the dark street outside, the vampire stood motionless – a statue hidden in the shadow beyond the light of the streetlamps. They watched the unlit house, waiting. It was almost time. Everything was in motion. Soon they would breathe freely again, for the first time in decades.

PART THREE

28: Single-handed Defeat

Tom stamped his boots in the snow, hands jammed deep in his pockets. He was already regretting his dramatic exit – and it would have worked a whole lot better if his piece of shit car hadn’t picked tonight to die. The cold was seeping through his less-than-winterproof jacket, the weather had delayed the buses, he’d been waiting an hour alreadyandthe last bus wasn’t due for another twenty minutes.

He’d let his anger – so close to the surface these days – get the better of him. He knew he was being irrational. Erin had proven herself far from stupid a hundred times over. She might be reckless occasionally, but she wouldn’t risk her life without a bloody good reason.

It was just the way she’d thrown herself in with the vamps so easily! After everything they’d learned, she was still willing to overlook Murray and Wyatt’s history. Okay, maybe they hadn’t killed Jon or Maggie – but the real killer had taken inspiration from their methods. That was fucking damning enough.

If Jon had been here, he’d have said something to her long before now. He’d have known exactly what, too – probablysomething cutting wrapped in that disarming smile of his that made even the hardest truths easier to swallow. Of course, if Jon had been here, the vampires wouldn’t be. Underneath it all, that was what was fuelling his temper – but knowing it did nothing to dispel the unquiet feeling. Fuck, he missed him.

Tom’s phone trilled shrilly in his coat pocket, making him jump. He pulled it out, not recognising the number as he fumbled to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Thomas?” A female voice purred.

Tom stilled. “Who is this?” He paused. “Wyatt?”

“Of course.”

Tom heard the smile in her voice but didn’t understand it. Something wasn’t right – if there was a real problem, why call him and not Erin? They’d all been together a few bloody hours ago.

“What do you want?” he asked roughly, not bothering to hide his contempt.

“I want to discuss what we’re going to do about Nicholas. It’s not a good idea for us to let this…liaisoncontinue. I know you agree.” She didn’t sound the same – none of that smooth, cultured bollocks he’d come to expect. It took a second for her words to sink in.

“I thought you’d all decided you trusted him?”

“Look, do you want my help or not?”

He considered it for less than a minute. If he left Erin to her own devices much longer, the whole thing was going to go to shit. He’d already tried talking to her about Murray’s feedinghabits, about what happened after all this – and she’d brushed him off every time. Maybe this was his chance to get rid of the bastard once and for all. After that, his bloodsucking friends would have no reason to stick around – and Erin would forgive him, eventually. She’d have to. It was for the greater good, even if he had to work with one vamp to kill another.

“I’ll meet you,” he said, finally. “Where?”