Page 19 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)

19

BLAKE

M y entire fucking world spun around me like a gyroscope.

And when the spinning stopped, everything was different.

My blood roared. I’d never felt such a strong instinctual drive to claim, to ravage, and to keep a female safe all at the same time. But there had been an undeniable spark between us from the beginning, first when we’d locked eyes in the castle and now…now I was consumed.

The girl—I had to find out her name—lay half asleep across my chest, sated and uncharacteristically compliant as I tugged her close, cradling her in my arms, burying my nose deep in the crook of her neck. Stealing stolen breaths that sent my stone heart racing.

She’d need to feed again soon.

Then again in a few more hours.

Two or three times a day for a week, and if this firestorm was the outcome every time…my cock hardened as anticipation shivered through me. I’d be well satisfied and sore as hell by the time she was through the change. I pulled in a shaky breath and tightened my embrace, my magic curling around us, shielding us from sight.

I’d give her anything she wanted.

She was a study in opposites. An innocent, and yet there was a weary worldliness about her that made me intensely curious, a jaded bitterness I’d detected that first time I saw her. And after what she did to Tyrell…

Rohr was right.

She was the secret weapon we’d been looking for. We had few allies, and overthrowing Tyrell had been Riordan’s goal since his sire died and left him in charge of this corrupted kingdom. She’d done more damage in one night than either of us had managed in a decade.

Fuck, that was an understatement.

The last time we were there, we’d almost ended up dead.

I drank in her delicate scent, hyperaware that every inch of our bodies touched, how perfectly she fit against me, how fate had thrown us together, now, when I’d given up on ever escaping the fucking chaos that was my life.

Yet here she was, tearing my world down to its foundations.

Making me want to live not in the past, but maybe wonder what the future held.

My chest swelled painfully and I wondered at the destruction of the walls I’d worked so hard to erect. I wondered what it said of me, that they’d fallen so easily and so completely, in the matter of hours, at the feet of a female whose name I didn’t even know.

I stroked her bare hip, the skin cool beneath my fingers, marveling at how innocent she looked asleep. She wasn’t old, late twenties, perhaps, and already her scent was carved into me like the scars that peppered my body,

I twisted a strand of her honey-colored hair around my finger, marveling at how the colors melded together into one. Smooth as silk, although…I plucked a leaf out of it, then a twig.

Reality slowly crept in.

We lay at the center of the gardens—out of sight of Crimson House, thank Christ—in a nest of crushed spring grass and bits of blue gauzy fabric. She was practically naked; I was practically fully clothed. Still had my boots on.

Fuck. Fuck .

She deserved better. So much better . Our first time shouldn’t have been during an out-of-control feeding frenzy in the middle of the formal gardens.

She should have been pampered, romanced, spoiled. Courted, though I didn’t know how to do such things anymore. But we should be in a bed, under roof, not out here in the grass while I rutted her like an animal. What the fuck was I thinking ?

I wasn’t.

I’d been too caught up in…her.

I shook her, careful to keep her head nestled against my chest. Wrapped her in a layer of my shadows, my magic following every soft, delicious curve. I couldn’t fight this overwhelming need to touch every inch of her, to never break the connection between us.

I’d never been with a newly-Made vampire before—had only heard stories—but something about tonight was unnaturally intense. Even with her in my arms, I needed her closer, the tug in my chest turning painful when she lifted her head and stared past me into the sun-speckled shade, like she was thinking of running again.

“You’re at Crimson House. You’re feeling logy because you fed for the first time. That’s normal. You’re safe.” I pushed her tangled hair away to see her face better. “Let me take you inside where I’ll explain…everything.” God, where the fuck would I even start?

I’d make her so many promises. How I’d keep her safe and protected, how she was part of a clan now and we’d always take care of her. Then I’d take her to my fucking chamber and keep her there for seven days.

Get her into my bed and feed her. Fuck her again.

Every cell in my body demanded I sink my cock into her, lose myself in her again. I couldn’t pinpoint when these compulsions came about, only that I was utterly obsessed with the girl in my arms.

I rose, balancing her carefully against my chest, buttoning up my pants with my other hand because I sure as fuck wasn’t ghosting to the main house with my cock hanging out, still coated in her essence, my entire being coated with the scent of her desire.

“Hang on tight.” I burrowed my nose into the crook of her neck, drinking in her sweet scent as I dematerialized. “I can’t believe I’m just getting around to asking this, but what is your name, love?”

Her beautiful voice was dreamy, a drowsy smile playing on her lips when she tightened her arms around my neck and spoke the words that turned my heart to stone.

“Evangeline Silverwood. But I suppose you can call me Evie, after everything.”

My feet hit the floor of Crimson House and I stumbled forward, thanking Christ I’d landed on the rug when I crashed to my knees, dumping the girl onto the floor.

She rolled across the flagstones, coming to rest at the base of a suit of armor.

For one fraught minute we stared at each other, the floor of the foyer disappearing beneath my shadows until I got ahold of my magic. This could not be fucking happening. Fate had a habit of fucking me over, but this…nobody had this bad of luck.

“Tell me your name. Again .” Surely, I’d misheard her, my head scrambled by that ground-shaking, mind-blowing sex. By the exotic taste of her coating my mouth.

This was a mistake. Please let this be a mistake.

“Evangeline Grace Silverwood.”

She stared at me with those wide, innocent blue eyes, arms crossed over her chest to hide her perfect breasts. This couldn’t be happening.

Evangeline was the fucking enemy, and not only had I fed her, I’d fucked her. Riordan—the king I was supposed to protect with my life—was fucking blood bonded to a vampire slayer .

For the rest of his fucking life .

I dragged my hands through my hair, cursing fate itself for my shit luck.

All the pieces slotted together so fucking neatly, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen the truth before. Tyrell had manipulated us both, and when Rohr found out…

“I…I don’t understand. I don’t know what I did, but…” She reached out a trembling hand, such a look of intense yearning on her face I stepped back. “Please, Blake, I need you.”

“You don’t need me. I’m a vampire,” I sneered. “You’d fucking kill me if I gave you half a chance. A fucking Silverwood . You never thought to mention that before just now?”

“I…It’s my name. You never asked…” Her ragged voice caught on that last word and that raw vulnerability made me despise her even more. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re so angry about.” Then her gaze sharpened, face slackening as realization sank in.

“Oh… Oh, shit .”

“Yeah, I think you do understand.”

I half expected her to lie, to pretend her family wasn’t the scourge of our species, but right before my eyes she put the pieces together in real time, teeth grit together so hard her bottom lip bled from where her new fangs punctured the skin.

Even this pissed, I fought the urge to go lick it off, to drive my tongue into her mouth and take her again. I…This was the way bonded mates acted, not fucking enemies. This was bad. I had to get as far away from her as I could. Fast .

I was a selfish, arrogant bastard even on the best of days, and today was not my best day.

Not anymore.

She was still sprawled across the floor, barely anything covering her curves, while I loomed over her in leather and violent fury, but I didn’t fucking care. The Silverwoods were the reason I was alone in the world, why my family home stood empty and rotting, why I had lost everything that had ever mattered.

“Your family has been killing my kind for centuries.” I rubbed my chest, wanting to claw my aching heart out of my chest, but settled on worrying the tiny gold ring on the chain between my fingers, the only thing I had left of my sister.

“The Silverwoods murdered my sire and dam in their fucking beds.”

Her shocked gaze locked on my hand, and I dropped my fist to my side, hating I’d revealed another small weakness, but the words wouldn’t stop.

“Then your family took my sister, brutalized her, and when they were finished, do you know what they did?” I leaned in close enough our noses touched. “They dropped her on Tyrell’s steps. Bound in iron so she couldn’t dematerialize, with a note pinned to her bloodied blouse. ‘ A gift for the Ancient ,’ it said. I tried…”

The words got stuck in my throat, hatred tangling together with the memories until I was full of violence, too dangerous to be close to anyone, especially her. I stepped away, heated anger shifting to cold fury.

“Riordan and I went to Darkmore to save her, but we were too late. Tyrell finished what your family started. Now I’m the only Marten left. You should be proud; you’ve managed to wipe out one of the oldest bloodlines in the Nocturne Clan. Bragging rights, I suppose, at your annual vampire hunting meetings.”

“Blake. Please .” Her plea sounded so fucking sincere I nearly bought it. “I didn’t do that. That wasn’t me.”

“No. But one of you killed them. Your family destroyed mine. They destroyed me .” I raked my gaze over her, putting every ounce of hatred into my glare. “I never want to see you again. Not here, not in this town, not in this fucking state. Get yourself gone or I’ll be tempted to do something I’ll regret.”

“But…what am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t care. You are not my problem anymore.” I clenched my hands before I did something I’d regret. “And I’ll make fucking sure you’re not Riordan’s, either. Why don’t you crawl back to Tyrell? He’s exactly what you deserve.”

Bitter, cruel words that made something twist in my chest, painful enough I fought to catch my breath. This was fucking hell, my entire being wrenched apart from the agony as I rejected Evangeline Silverwood from my life.

Even though I had every reason to.

That was the last I saw of her, in a heap on the floor, clutching her ruined dress, blue eyes brimming with tears as I walked away.

Good fucking riddance.