Page 43 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)

43

RIORDAN

“ G et the fuck away from her.” Malachi was inches away when I materialized in front of Evangeline, arms spread, a growl ripping up my throat.

“ Run ,” I snarled, barely getting the order out before Malachi slammed into me, wrapped in a cloak of his goddamn misty glamour, hard enough to drive the air from my lungs and crack a rib.

This fucker . I should have known from the squirrelly way he’d acted back at Crimson House, he would go after Evangeline. I didn’t know why he wanted her, but his reasons didn’t matter, he wasn’t getting his filthy hands on her.

She was ours. Mine .

Laughter skittered through the glade, echoing off the ridged rocks rising up behind us.

I spun around, finding nothing but empty space.

“Come out and play, Malachi. You started this. Don’t tell me you’re afraid to finish it. Be glad Blake’s busy picking off the rest of Silas’s mercenaries, because he’d decapitate first and ask questions later.”

“I saved her life, Rohr.” The words echoed out from every dark shadow. “She owes me a boon, whether you like it or not. And I decide when I call in that favor.”

“Bullshit,” Evie growled from behind me.

Run, Evie, get out of here. He’s fucking dangerous.

Then I’m not leaving you alone with him.

This goddamned girl had a stubborn streak a mile long and she was going to complicate everything. Or worse, get herself killed.

“Blake was right there, waiting for cover so he could free her,” I said loudly, mostly for Evie’s benefit. Malachi loved to plant doubts in one’s head, and he’d use all his tricks to make Blake out to be the villain when my friend was anything but. “You manipulated the situation to your own benefit. As usual.”

“He was taking too long and she was dying.” Draven’s voice came out of the shadows to my right. “But why are we even arguing about this, Rohr ? The outcome is the same, since Blake already promised I could have her at the end of all this.” My heart sank at those words, the cold, calculated timing of them and at Evie’s horrified gasp that came right before Malachi’s attack.

“What was it he said, exactly?” I made a slow circle, studying every tree, every rock, every shadow for movement. “Oh, that’s right. She’s his progeny, a total pain in his ass, and he can do whatever he wants with her. How do you like that, Evangeline? Traded away like a book with a broken spine.”

The bastard came out of nowhere, his fist catching me across the chin, my head snapping back into a moss-covered rock. Stars danced in my vision, bile surging up my throat while he grasped my throat and squeezed.

“I will have her, one way or another. And I will collect my favor when the time is right.” Malachi laughed softly. “This way, at least I’m playing by the rules. You, of all vampires, should understand the value of the rules , Your Majesty.”

He leaned closer and sniffed, his eyes narrowing. “Interesting. Perhaps the always noble Blake wasn’t the one with the right to trade Evangeline away. Whatever would Tyrell think if he discovered you were her Maker?”

Malachi’s eyes glowed with triumph. “I’ll tell you what he’d do. He’d use that Maker’s bond to bury you both, Riordan.”

I clawed at his hand, managing to peel him off. “Fuck…you.”

“You’re welcome, by the way.” His eyes flicked over my head to where Evie stood wide-eyed and panting. “She’s had two mouthfuls of my blood, and you’re about to have a hellcat on your hands. I hope your cock’s up for the challenge.”

He lifted his head and grinned at Silver. “If the king disappoints, you know where to find me, love.”

Then the bastard disappeared, like fucking chaos impersonated.

***

“Silver.” I held up my hands, switching over to damage control as she stalked toward me. “Malachi excels at playing people against each other to get what he wants. If you let me explain?—”

“It’s too late. I heard everything , Riordan.” She was coming undone, a smear of red staining one side of her mouth, cheeks flushed pink, her body so ripe with lust she glowed against the forest shadows. “In the kitchen, right before I left. I heard you and Blake talking about how you were only using me.”

“I didn’t mean?—”

“Oh, but you did. I heard every word with my own ears. Or are you telling me I’m wrong?” Evie peered up at me with narrowed eyes. “So let me make sure I get this right… the sex is just a bonus , and this is my favorite part…how you agreed to use me and throw me away —and that is a direct quote—once Tyrell was dead.”

“This bullshit with Malachi just backs all of that up.” She shoved at me, palms slamming into my chest, knocking me back a step. “Unless you’re planning to convince me my ears don’t work?”

I gently caught her wrists, careful not to hurt the newly healed skin. “What you overheard…” Her pulse was pounding, her intoxicating scent so rich I could practically taste her on my tongue. God, I wanted to kiss her, but hurt shone in her eyes brighter than desire, sending a wave of remorse straight through me.

My first instinct was to apologize, to plead with her to see the truth, but I hardened my heart.

Silver was my weapon, nothing more.

She could never be more.

“What you heard was true.” Her gaze turned watery, bottom lip trembling.

“Remember, we made a deal, Silver. One where feelings aren’t part of the bargain. Feeding and fucking, that’s all you’ll get from me, and I never promised anything more. I’m not capable of anything more.” My entire chest twisted at the lie, but nothing would come of romantic entanglements.

Love was only one more weakness Tyrell would weaponize against us.

“Then fuck off. I’ll find someone else to feed from.” Her eyes glinted with vengeance. “That blond Viking tasted pretty fucking good. Maybe I’ll go find him.” She yanked away, sucking in a quick breath when I caught her by the arm and dragged her back, her heels cutting furrows in the soft ground.

“Malachi is off-limits for about a thousand reasons.” I rubbed my thumb over the pulse pounding in her wrist, measuring the lust hazing her eyes. She was succumbing so quickly to Malachi’s blood, I had about a minute to get us both out of here before everything went wrong.

I owed Blake everything .

He’d thrown his lot in with me the night my sire died. The least I could do was give him something in return. No matter how much he protested they were mates, I’d seen the way he came alive whenever Silver was around, the spark that flared to life in his dead eyes.

If not mates, there was something between them.

She’d wormed her way beneath every thick, crusty layer of my friend’s impenetrable armor, and Blake deserved more from this life than cruelty. He deserved something good.

I’d drop her in his lap, writhing with need and let him and Silver finally have what they’d been denied.

“As for Blake…the Silverwood’s ruined his life.”

“ Let me go , Riordan,” she hissed. “I don’t want to hear how my family hurt him. They hurt me, too, something neither of you seem to acknowledge.” She fought to get free, but I jerked her closer. She moaned, then rubbed against me, her stiffened nipples scraping my chest.

Fuck . Malachi’s blood was working too fast.

“Stop being stubborn and listen to me. Your father wrecked Blake, but you can give him back what he lost. Just…Blake’s a good male. He will take care of you in all the ways I cannot. Stay away from Malachi, but Blake…if you want to feed…if you want to fuck, find him when we get back to Crimson House. He’s the one you want, Silver, not me. I’m no good for you.”

“Blake Marten? Who gave me to Malachi like I’m some kind of pawn? He can go fuck himself, right along with you, Your Majesty.” She swayed, pupils so huge there wasn’t a shred of blue left in her eyes.

“Let me take you home to Blake. That’s what’s best for you. You don’t want my sort of darkness, Evie, I’d just ruin you.” We were in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from the Silverwood compound, but that didn’t mean we were safe. Tyrell could be closing in on us right now.

“Maybe I want to be ruined.” She gripped my shirt and ran her tongue over her bottom lip, leaving it shining and wet and fuck me, but I wanted nothing more than to suck that plumpness into my mouth and bite .

“Maybe I want you to fucking destroy me, Riordan.”

Goddamn it. My cock was so hard it hurt, my balls already tingled in anticipation of being buried deep inside her warm, wet heat.

“I can’t give you what you really need,” I reminded her coolly. “What you want. You and me? There’s no happily ever after for us, no grand romantic gestures. You fulfill your end of the bargain, then we go our separate ways. Better for everyone.”

She couldn’t have feelings for me. If she did, I had to rip them out by the roots, right now. “You weren’t expecting more out of our arrangement, were you?” I tipped my head, watching her coldly, that pulse beating rapidly against my fingers. She lifted her eyes to mine and my breath caught.

Yes. She was.

And worse?

So was I.

I wanted to take her down in the dirt and claim her, sinking my teeth into her throat and marking her as mine. A wild, crazy fantasy that had nothing to do with fifty years of careful planning and everything to do with this goddamned blood bond that was fucking with my head.

I had to be cruel now, had to stop this before things got out of hand.

“I have nothing to give you except my blood and my cock.” My smile felt brittle. “There is no room in my life for allies who I can’t trust, so I need to know right now—do you plan to fulfill your part of the bargain?”

“Of course I’ll keep my word,” she snapped. “I always keep my word. I would have helped you, you know,” she whispered, all the fight draining out of her. “If you’d only asked, Riordan, I would have helped you kill Tyrell. We could have been more than allies, but you had to go and be an asshole about things.”

“You’re right.” Her body softened when I pulled her into my arms, pressing her against me tight enough to feel her heart beating against mine as I dropped my hand and rubbed her through her jeans. Her juices soaked into my fingers, a low, needy moan slipping between her lips before I plunged my fingers between those plump lips.

“I’m a bastard. But I’ve never claimed to be a saint.” I ran my nose up the side of her throat, drinking in the heady scent of spice saturated with barely contained arousal. She was a quivering bundle of nerves, and my tongue darted out, licking her velvet skin, reminding myself she was only a means to an end, nothing more .

“But you don’t want a saint, do you, Silver? You want the storm not the rainbow, and I’m the one to give that to you.” I buried my face in her tangled, blood-soaked hair, and never had I smelled anything so sweet.

“I despise you.” Her eyes were dark, heat radiating from her like a furnace. “I’m pissed and hurt that you said those things about me. You are a fucking heartless bastard, and the day I leave Thorndale will be the happiest day of my entire life.”

“I believe you.” I stroked my hands down the curve of her spine and Evie relaxed, her entire body softening into mine, arms coming up around my neck. “You drank from Malachi.” I couldn’t keep the accusation out of my voice, and she glared up at me through her lashes.

“I’m not criticizing…” I closed my eyes as she began to move languidly against me, heat pouring off her. “The older a vampire, the more potent their blood. Blake’s blood is more potent than mine. Malachi is older than either of us. Which means his blood…Your wounds will heal faster, but there will be other…side effects.”

Fuck, she was like liquid fire, friction building between us as she rubbed herself against me, my cock pressed painfully against my zipper. “You are so fucking wet, Silver.” I nipped her throat, wanting nothing more than to sink my fangs in deep, rubbing my thumb over her taut nipple, instead.

She was barely healed, and no matter how much I was dying to taste her, that would have to wait.

“Is your pussy aching to be filled? Or should I check first and see how ready you are for my cock?”

“All I ever think about is your mouth on me.” Her voice was so dreamy, so languid, she was drowning in a fog of lust. “Your tongue driving deep inside my pussy felt so good and I keep wondering…what would it feel like if you sank your teeth into me, right as I was coming?”

I closed my eyes, my hands moving down to cup her ass, my hard as fuck cock trapped between us. I could come right now from her sweet scent and the filthy picture she’d put in my head.

I shouldn’t want her. I shouldn’t need her, but all I could think of was marking her as mine and keeping her forever.

“I’m taking you back to Crimson House.” I tried to unwind her arms from my neck, ignore the way her soft breasts crushed against my chest. “Evangeline, we can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

“I want you to pin me down in the dirt so I can’t move. So I have to take everything you give me.” Her voice turned rougher while her fingers tightened on the nape of my neck, nails digging in deep. “I want you to spread my legs and fuck me. No holding back, no pretty words, just every hard inch of you crashing into me.”

Before I fully wrapped my head around what she’d said, Evie stepped away and kicked off her boots. She peeled off the leather jacket, then her stained shirt, and unbuttoned her jeans, holding my gaze the entire time, her eyes unfocused.

“Need you inside me, Rohr.” She slurred every word like she was drugged, slipping off her pants and standing there in nothing but black panties. “Need you to fuck me, Your Majesty. Now .”

She was too new to compel me, but I jerked forward a step anyway, then another before falling to my knees in front of her, hooking my finger in her panties, and ripping them off. I gripped the back of her thighs and pressed my nose to her wet sex, inhaling pure, unadulterated need, so potent I had to dip my tongue between her folds and taste her for myself.

Fucking hell.

One lick and she exploded along my synapses, then I was lost, her hands tangled in my hair to hold me in place while she ground herself against my mouth, me trying not to nick her with my fangs, which refused to retract.

Primal need roared through me, and I feasted, hands moving up to grip her full ass so I could move her like I wanted, my knees pushing her feet wider until she was hanging onto my shoulders and I was devouring her, licking as deep as I could to get every last fucking drop of her juices.

Her thighs tensed, her ass clenching before she whimpered, “ Oh my God, oh my God, Riordan …”

Her release flooded my mouth, and I couldn’t get enough, couldn’t drink her down fast enough, deep enough, as she writhed against me, so completely undone I wished I could see what her face looked like, wished we weren’t in a fucking ravine.

Evangeline’s pleasure was a fucking gift, and I memorized every breathy moan, every needy whimper, counting the number of times she called out my name. When her fingers loosened their grip, I gave her one last lick and pressed a kiss to her belly.

I ran my lips up her body, palming her beautiful breast and sucking her pert nipple into my mouth before I looped my arm around her waist to hold her upright while I stripped off my jacket. Spreading the leather out across the moss-covered forest floor, I laid her on my coat and stood, unbuckling my belt and my pants before I lowered myself down over her.

“Are you sure—” She gripped my shirt and hauled me down to her mouth, her lips claiming mine, tongue dipping inside my mouth to taste and plunder, another one of those greedy moans vibrating into my skin.

“Fuck me, Your Highness. Hard and fast and deep. Don’t you dare hold back.”

I pushed her legs apart and rimmed the head of my cock around her soaking wet entrance, once, then again, watching her face. Her eyes fluttered closed, long lashes dark against her pale skin, her fangs pressed into her bottom lip, blood welling up around one of the tips.

I dipped my head and sucked that single drop into my mouth, power sizzling on my tongue.

Power…and something else.

Something darker, dangerous…addictive.

Please. Please, I need this, Riordan. I’m going to explode if I can’t feel you inside me.

I thrust into her harder than I’d planned, sheathing myself to the hilt in one stroke, and her mouth opened in a silent cry of pleasure, fingers digging into my ass to hold me against her, hips grinding as her lips traced the vein throbbing in my neck.

Go ahead , I urged. Drink .

I wanted that fuck Malachi out of her system, to have my blood coursing through her, giving her life, and when her fangs sank in and she began to feed, my cock pulsed, wrapped up in her tight, wet heat. I wanted to stay like this forever, with her fangs in my throat and my cock inside her, but my arms were already shaking from holding myself back.

Fuck, you’re tight. So tight, Evie, I’m not going to last.

I rocked in and out, short, shallow strokes meant to draw out her pleasure, but it wasn’t enough, not for either of us. Her lips pulled away from my neck as I pulled out and slammed back in, sliding my hand beneath one leg and lifting, opening her up so I could get deeper.

I wanted to wreck her, wanted to fucking claim her.

Driving into her pussy without mercy, the sight of my thick cock sliding in and out of her perfect pink sex and the gleaming mix of our juices undid me.

My jaw clenched tight as I fucked her exactly like she’d asked, lost to everything but instinct. Her soft moans as she broke apart again were my undoing. I buried myself to the hilt, and when her core clenched around me, I came apart, coming so hard I roared out her name before I collapsed, rolling to the side at the last possible second so I didn’t crush her.

We were still joined, legs tangled together, her pussy milking me with every spasm, my cock jerking in response, and our jagged breaths skating across heated skin.

She asked me to ruin her, but it was me who was ruined instead.

Utterly wrecked , heart, soul and body.

A moment later reality crept back in, the sound of the waterfall and the leaves and the forest registering over her soft, content breathing, and over the racing of our hearts.

“Tomorrow…I’ll go back to hating you for what you did. But right now, this feels kind of nice.” She lay limp in my arms, hair draped over my shoulder, lips pressed against my neck, her tongue gliding languidly over the bite mark on my throat, her fingers tracing my tattoo.

“That works for me. For now, I need to get you home so you can sleep.”

Home . Yes, I’d take her home, even though Crimson House had never truly been home to me. Only a box of bricks occupied by an ice-cold father who’d despised me and the ghost of a mother who’d given up on living.

But I was fucking wrecked over this female. Never had I wanted to belong to anyone more than I wanted to belong to Evie. There was a thin fucking line between love and hate, anyway, and…

I took a shuddering breath.

No, not Evie. Silve r.

I was not falling for this female.

Evangeline Silverwood was not mine . Would never be mine. She was poison, the child of our enemy, trained to kill my kind. She’d slaughtered twenty-one of my subjects in the streets. After this was over, I would send her on her way and never think of her again.

“Let’s get you back to Crimson House, where you can get cleaned up. Blake and I have a surprise…” I skated my hand up her bare back, my fingers tracing velvet soft skin…and hard, raised scar tissue.

“Silver…” I circled the mark with my thumb. Perfectly round. Raised. Almost like a brand . “What’s this?”

She pressed her lips to my throat in a kiss. “I don’t know. Something happened when I left the Vault.” Her words were strung together, eyes slipping closed like she didn’t have the energy to keep them open. “Then Silas found me and everything went to shit.”

She was exhausted. She’d been tortured, nearly died, hadn’t fed in days, then she’d had a double dose of my blood…and Malachi’s. I shoved that image out of my head, but not fast enough.

“Did you get cut…or burned somehow?”

I swear to fucking God, if that bastard burned her…

“Some kind of magic on the door.” She nestled deeper into the crook of my neck, and I hugged her closer, unable to stop touching her. “Like blue fire. Burned like acid when I tried to leave. But it doesn't hurt now.”

No, the burn didn’t hurt now because she’d healed at supernatural speed from Malachi’s fucking blood. “May I look at your back?”

I’d licked and kissed nearly every inch of her, but this…I hadn’t seen her back. Anger pounded through me like a war drum, my fingers skimming across the mark as I gently rolled her away from me, careful to ensure she didn’t end up on the ground.

I threaded my fingers through her hair and drew it to the side, and everything inside me froze.

The raised brand in the center of her back was as big as an orange, the edges puckered and angry red, the scar itself pale but threaded through with slender blue lines.

Every line emitted a faint bluish glow.

A tracking mark .

I’d never seen one but had heard of them.

My lips pulled back, my fangs punched out, and I was glad Evangeline’s eyes were closed, glad she couldn’t see the undiluted hatred twisting my face. “Does this hurt?” I ran my finger along the rough edge, barely able to breathe. “This looks painful, Evie.”

“No.” She sighed contentedly when I adjusted her position for a closer look. “Just feels…strange. Cold, I think. First it burned, now it’s cold.”

I tried to think around my anger, working out the perils of taking her back to Crimson House, already knowing that would be too dangerous. We’d put everyone there at risk, because Silas would never give up his daughter so easily.

No, he’d hunt her to the ends of the earth, for being vampire and for escaping his trap.

Fuck. I hoisted her up into my arms and reached out to Blake, praying we weren’t too far apart.

I need your help. Find me the closest safe house and meet me there.

Evangeline had been marked by a spell Silas paid good money for.

A tracking spell like this was complicated magic, came at a steep cost, and there were only a few witches capable of casting this powerful of magic. Most of them were dead, which meant this spell was centuries old.

Now there were only a handful alive who could break the spell’s effects.

Evie now had a literal target on her back. Her family could track her anywhere, and there wasn’t a single place in the world I could hide her for long.