Page 16 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

Jules cut off Luca’s next question with a hand on his jacket sleeve.

This couldn’t be happening right now. Jules’s body went stiff.

Her senses alert. The world around her quieted until all she heard was the sound of sucking and female whimpering.

All she smelled was fresh, human, blood.

A vampire was draining a human just around the distant corner.

Her senses zeroed in on the location. It was close enough. She still had time.

“Jules what’s wrong?” Luca asked looking around them, seeing nothing amiss.

“Blood,” Jules croaked. “Vampire.”

Luca began to say that she was a vampire, but balked as Jules ran away from him.

“Jules, stop!” He ran after her. He had to stop her.

She would not take a life, unless it was his.

He reached for her, but she sped away from him.

She was fast, so much faster than he would have guessed.

Straining every muscle, he attempted to catch up to her.

Just as she was about to round the corner to another path, he reached her.

Threat or no threat he had to stop her or die trying.

Luca wrapped both his arms around her, lifting the vampire off her feet.

Throwing her body weight against him, she made to kick out.

As a counter move, he dropped her feet to the pavement and curved his body over her, around her.

Arms and legs thrashed against his grip, but it held firm.

“Get off me,” she demanded. Her voice lethal. She clawed at his arms.

“I can’t.” Luca panted, struggling to hold onto her. “Jules, stop. I can’t let you kill anyone.”

The fight left her. His grip loosened and she wriggled free, shoving him away from her. He stumbled back and then crouched, hands raised in a defensive position. An unmovable barrier between her and the corner.

“Kill someone?” A look of incredulity crossed her beautiful face. Trying to dodge him, she ran again, but he cut her off. Pausing, her gaze floated past him. Sighing in defeat, she stood straight up and stilled on the path “I was trying to save someone.”

“What?” He straightened, feet stuck to the pavement. His gaze flicked over his shoulder in the direction she had been headed. The smell of fresh blood and vampire stung his nose.

“Now it’s too late.” Jules motioned in the direction behind him. “Whoever this other vampire is, they’re gone, and it’s done.”

“The human…” Luca began.

“The human is dead. There is no one left to save.”

Luca moved toward her slowly, hands out in placation now. Once he was directly in front of her, he reached out to put gentle hands on her arms but then thought better of it. He awkwardly dropped his hands down to his sides. “I’m sorry. Everyone told me you’d be a killer. I just assumed.”

Her eyes met his gaze, but there was a vulnerability there he hadn’t seen before. It was like her mask had cracked. “I am a killer. But I try not to be one now. It’s hard. I slip up. But it’s been decades since I…I don’t kill at will. Many of us don’t.”

“I didn’t know.” His eyes pleaded with her to understand. His fingers twitched, desperate to brush her cheek, her neck. Anything she’d give him access too. He moved one more step into her space, eyes locked on hers. “Forgive me?”

“Fuck it,” Jules said under her breath.

“Fuck what…?” Every thought flew out of his brain when she gripped his jacket, pulling his face down to hers.

Luca hunched at an almost extreme angle as their lips met.

Her hands slid around his waist, under his jacket.

His fingers found her hair and the side of her neck.

A thumb brushed over her exposed collarbone, causing a shutter to escape her.

Her mouth opened for his. Their tongues caressed and searched each other’s mouths.

His mouth cooled pleasantly as her touch eased the fire inside him.

Jules had gone mad. She was confused, elated, on fire, and alive. More alive than she’d felt in centuries. Something inside her knew that Luca could wake her up in a way she’d never experienced if only she’d let him close enough to try.

The first impulsive decision she’d made, maybe ever, had changed the course of her life. At least she suspected it would, if she chose to give in to him when they came up for air. Well, when he did, she didn’t need to breathe.

His hands slid down her shoulders to her back. Her skin burned lightly wherever his fingers trailed. Large, warm hands settled on her hips. He gripped her like he was about to lift her off her feet when his phone buzzed. Hers was in Monica’s small clutch, back on the carriage ride.

They pulled back simultaneously as the phone began to ring. “It’s probably Tai. He’ll just keep calling,” Luca said, voice deep and breathless. His forehead rested on her own. Noses almost brushing as they breathed.

“You’d better answer it then.” She pulled away.

One of them had to. A gasp emitted into the air when he pulled her back into him, wrapping one muscled arm around her as she rested against his torso.

With the other hand, he answered his ringing phone.

“Yeah. We’ll be there in a minute,” he said to Tai and then hung up.

Jules shifted enough to look up at him. Studying his flushed face her teeth dug into her bottom lip. A warm thumb brushed over it, releasing the pressure. He hunched again, his lips becoming a gentle whisper against hers.

“Nope.” She shoved him back. Unable to keep from smiling, she turned from him, walking back the way they had come. “We’re out of time.”

“Oh, that’s just cruel,” he said, jogging a little to get beside her again.

“I never claimed not to be.”

“So does this mean you forgive me?” His hands moved back to his pockets while he paced her. “Am I out of the dog house?”

“Maybe,” she conceded. “But don’t get too excited. You’re still chained up in the yard.”

A laugh burst from him, joined by a delicate chuckle.

“I’ll be sleeping on the couch before you know it,” he said with a wink.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Dog-man.”

Luca wasn’t ready for the evening to end.

He wanted to know everything about and do everything with this creature next to him.

He found himself committing fully to the idea.

But he sensed hesitation in her. Despite the fact she had initiated the best kiss of his eighty years of life.

They had time. Impatiently, he’d wait. However, one thing was certain.

He would have that time with her. He would do what he must to keep his pack from hurting her.

His new objective was to keep her safe at any cost.