Awakening (The Vampire Destiny Series Book #3) (28 page)

I felt the odd feeling of my feet dangling.  He'd lifted me off the floor until our faces were mere inches apart.  His tortured blue eyes met mine, offering me his unspoken apology and begging me for acceptance.

“I love you,” I murmured softly.  It was all I needed to say.

A mangled sob choked him as he captured my lips with his.  His force of his guttural moans of happiness shook my entire body, leaving me to cry out in relief to feel his powerful body against mine once again.  The tattered tendrils of our bond slowly knitted themselves back together every moment we were together.

His mouth became more insistent on mine, the strength of his kiss growing more powerful.  The kisses were wet, filled with unbridled want.

Reluctantly I pulled away and studied his dirty face.  "You need to come with me."

Wordlessly, my feet once again met the floor and he followed obediently along behind me.  Leading him into the bedroom, I dragged him to the bathroom.  I adjusted the water in the bathtub and stripped him of his dingy clothes, checking every part of his body that was revealed for any injury.  Satisfied that he was unharmed, I moved quickly to turn off the taps.

“You need to get in so I can give you a bath.  You’re a mess,”  I wrinkled my nose and motioned at the tub.  Still silent, he climbed into the steaming water, sighing loudly as he sank into the hot water.

I hadn't been planning on joining him.  My plan had been to bathe him only, but once he settled his body inside the tub he looked up at me with his persuasive blue eyes.  Unable to resist him, I shed my clothes.  Lowering myself into the water along with him, I sat astride his legs in the large tub.  Releasing a ragged breath, I ran my fingers over his cheekbones, across the chiseled line of his jaw.  Biting my lip and blinking back tears, I relished the feel of his skin under my fingertips.

Methodically, I began to wash him, lathering his hair with shampoo and gently wiping the soot away from his face with a washcloth.  I soaped his shoulders and chest, leaning in to place kisses over the exposed skin I lovingly cleaned.  Our bond was strumming in contentment that he was safe, alive and we’d reconnected.  I'd been concentrating so hard on taking care of him that it wasn't until Stefan raised both hands to my face that I realized I was crying.  He gently wiped away the tears from my cheeks with his wet hands, is thumbs stroking over the outline of my lips.

"I thought you were dead.  I couldn't feel you at all.  My heart felt like it was being ripped in two pieces,"  I sobbed.  “I dreamed of you as a human.  I heard you talk.  Skjarr kvikindi.  Hitta minn hlið síða.  Elska minn, dveljask innan minn fold.  Fá minn lífdagar, fagr víf.  Stefan, do you remember?”

His hands hadn't moved from my face.  He continued to cup my face lovingly, cradling it as if I was the finest china that was going to break into a million pieces.  His blue eyes bored into mine, intense and shaken by my words.

"I was with Amir and the others on the Council when the explosion happened.  I think Adolfo and Lenora are dead.”  Stefan whispered, finally speaking.  He stroked my cheekbone, a wistful smile on his face.  "Whatever you are is more than either of us can imagine.  You spoke to me in Old Norse, a language I have not spoken in many years.  You smell of the sea.  Your memories of my human life mystify me.  When I factor in the way we feel when we are together and our bond, it is as if we are picking up where we left off."

I didn't need to mull over his words.  He was speaking the truth.  In some way, our lives became intertwined almost a millennia ago by some spiritual, mystical occurrence.

Bone tired and relieved, I resumed washing his body, just as his hands never left my body.  Sometimes he held onto my waist, occasionally drifting to caress my face with his wet hands.  More than once he simply pressed his soft lips against my forehead.  It had been a day of fear and terror and each time we touched, it was if a part of our bond mysteriously repaired itself.

"I love you, Josephine," he murmured.   He gripped my arms tightly, as if I would disappear at any moment.

“And I love you.”  I kissed him softly, craving the closeness as much as he was.  His mouth was hungry against mine, insatiable and powerful.  Our teeth clicked in his haste to consume me and I let him take what he needed from me.  Fisting his hair, I felt his cock stir between us.  Reaching down, I guided him inside of me.  I let out a low moan of pleasure, never taking my eyes off him for a second as I impaled myself on him until we were completely joined.

His hands started their roaming anew, beginning with my ass, slowly kneading it at the same time that he moved me over him.  My whole body trembled with ecstasy as he started moving his hands forward, holding on to the tops of my thighs, one lone thumb finding my clit and rubbing circles lightly around it.  Throwing my head back, I ran my hands from his shoulders down to his chest.  My fingertips skimmed over his muscles, taking his nipples between my fingers, twisting and pulling until he growled out with want.  My head flew forward to seek out his mouth, enjoying every rumble he uttered afterwards.

I picked up the pace of our lovemaking and pulled away from our kiss.  Stefan moved his hands to my sensitive breasts, pressing them together so he could run the tip of his tongue back and forth over my nipples.  Groaning loudly at the new sensation, my hips ground against him at the same time he raised his hips, plunging deeper.

"It's never going to be enough, is it?" I moaned, moving my hands to his shoulders for leverage, enjoying the feel of his powerful muscles under my fingers.

"Never."  Stefan smiled seductively.  I increased my pace and he raised his hips to meet my frenzied speed.  We repeated the motion over and over.  Every time we met, my cries of pleasure filled the room until the rhythm of sound and motion pushed me over the edge into one long howl of completion.  As I fell over the edge, he sank his fangs into my breast, coming at the same time my blood hit his tongue.  He held me tightly, bucking the last few times, punctuating each thrust with a grunt at my chest.

Collapsing against him, I hugged his shoulders and brushed my lips across neck, feeling the uncontrollable urge to bite him.  His skin ripped open under my teeth, his thick  blood rushing into my mouth.  He stiffened and pulsed again inside me again, bellowing out my name as I swallowed greedy mouthfuls of his blood.  The wound began to heal and I kissed his neck with bloody kisses.  Stefan's hands wound in my hair, pulling my head back slightly.  A drop of his blood fell from my lips into the water, sinking to the bottom of the tub in a lazy ribbon of red.

"You are exquisite."  He released my hair and ran his hands soothingly over my back.  " Min gudinna.  Min vän.  Min älskare."

With those words, he crashed his mouth to my lips, wrapping his arms around my waist.  I didn't hold anything back from him, returning his kiss like it was the sustenance I had been missing for months instead of hours.

As our frantic kiss continued, his blood pushed itself through my veins, forcing itself into every crevice of my body.  I could feel it like it was its own being, melding with my own blood, changing me.  My sluggish heart thumped frantically and my body stiffened against him.

“Josephine!”  Stefan bellowed.  He had us both out of the bathtub and had me wrapped in a towel in a blur of motion.  He cradled me to him on the bed.  “Talk to me.  What is happening?”

My hands clutched at his forearms, my nails sinking into his flesh.  My heart continued to beat out its frantic pace, my body seizing and pushing against him.

“I- I’m changing,”  I stuttered.  “I’m changing to be with you.  You wanted me to take your life when you were human.  Now you’ve given me yours.”

“Vackra, I did not want it to happen this way.  Not like this, not now.”  Stefan’s head fell against my breasts.  His tears soaked my naked skin as he held me and sobbed.

“Wait for me.  We will truly be equal soon,”  I uttered, shaking against him.  It was if my heart was fighting the last of the battle for me.  It pounded out an impossibly fast rhythm until finally it pulsed a few final erratic beats until it sputtered and my heart ceased to beat.

My exhausted body could take no more.  I went slack in his arms with the knowledge that when I awoke, nothing could tear us apart.

The End

Excerpt from Ascend (The Vampire Destiny Series Book #4)

We had to face the reality that the Council had been dismantled.  Adolfo and Lenora had more than likely met their final deaths since their futures were black to me.  The darkness could only mean one thing.  There was no other option.  Sofia had been badly injured in what was being labeled as an unfortunate gas explosion by the media at the Carriage House on the Upper East Side.

Truth be known, I had almost met my final death that day as well.  If not for my last minute vision of the building exploding into a fireball, Nigel, Amir and I would have perished, disintegrating into a pile of ash. We had all been lured there under the guise of an emergency meeting.  There was no meeting for us to attend.

Only death had been there to greet us.

There was only one person that could have responsible for the destruction of the Council.  It was the vampire that had everything to gain and nothing to lose.  Who would want their secrets to burn along with the building, the written logs of their experiments and lies being consumed by the fiery inferno? The mastermind behind this would be facing their biggest surprise when they would learn of our survival.  He would have not expected any of us to walk away alive.  This is what happened when greed and need for power overtook common sense.  I watched my own maker succumb to the same sort of madness hundreds of years ago.

I should lay it on the line.  I knew who masterminded this entire fiasco.  It was none other than my beloved’s father, Kian Ahearne.

Unbeknownst to Kian, I had copies of his journals and tomes locked away for my safe keeping.  He had grown sloppy, careless.  His arrogance was going to be his downfall.  I had insured Josephine's safety by his carelessness.  At some point, this evidence would be his final demise and if I were lucky, he would die at my hands.  The same hands that had killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocent vampires at his final command.

Revenge would be sweet. It was only fair considering that we had spent hours navigating through the underground tunnels to make it to the surface to safety.  The only thing that kept me motivated to return was Josephine.  It had always been her.  And it would always be her.

The love of my existence would soon be my wife in every way possible.  My dead heart sang with the knowledge.

Kian had disappeared after the fire, leading us all to believe he had perished.  I found it difficult to believe he was dead.  He was much too crafty to have not gotten away, yet he had not been seen for days.  Like a cockroach, he would show himself under the cloak of darkness when he felt it was safe.  He would have formed a safety net of some sort.

For now we had to remain vigilant.  We could not let our guard down for a moment.  He would be ready to pick off each of us, one by one.  Josephine and I would be at the top of his list.  If he separated or killed one of us,  the other would simply wither away.  The bond that tied us together so strongly could ultimately be our biggest vulnerability.

So we wait.  And we prepare.  And we will be ready.

Appendix A: Swedish to English Translations

Translations for Chapter 1

För evigt = Forever

Vackra = Beautiful

Jag vill äta dig levande och knulla dig tills du inte kan stå. = I want to eat you alive and fuck you until you can not stand.

Morgonen är här. Kom med mig. = The morning is here.  Come with me.

Translations for Chapter 3

Du är en självbelåten liten jävel. = You are a smug little fucker.

Hur vågar du knulla håller mig tillbaka, Josephine? Men du knulla mig med den trånga fitta, och jag är din villig fånge. Fan! = How dare you fucking hold me back, Josephine? But you fuck me with that tight pussy, and I am your willing prisoner. Damn!