B006P1R39O EBOK (13 page)

“I want to experience what it is like to be a woman.”

“Yes … I think I recall that conversation.” A scowl spread across his face. “But that was when you were facing imminent death. Why are you in such a hurry now? I think you can guess that my plans have changed.”

“Why did your plans change?” she asked, taking a small step in his direction.

“It doesn’t matter.” Luciano turned away.

Just being in his presence - being near him was so overwhelmingly erotic that she began to shake inside. Still she found her reaction to him puzzling. He was a killer - someone that even the foulest of vampires feared. Why did she yearn to be with him?

But he saved her life!

This was the one thing that she couldn’t fit neatly into the image that everyone had created of Luciano, and it was the one thing that she couldn’t put out of her mind.

“Did you kill my mother?” This was something that she had to know.

Luciano had his eyes fixed on the floor, but when she asked him about her mother he looked up suddenly.

“Do you think I did?” he asked.

“Please don’t play this game with me. I am asking you a direct question and I would appreciate a direct answer.” Kathrina could sense that he was avoiding an answer, and this made her uneasy.

“I did not kill your mother,” he told her, his eyes never leaving her face.

“But you intended to … didn’t you? You needed her blood like you need mine.”

“Yes,” he answered in a low voice.

“Why? I thought that the blood you needed had to be from a vampire-wolf hybrid. My mother was not a born vampire.”

“This is true,” he admitted, moving closer to her so that their bodies were nearly touching.

“Your mother was born of the wolves, but she was more than that.”

“Not a vampire!” Kathrina shook her head.

“No … she was not a vampire.”

“Then what was so special about her blood?”

“The same thing that is special about yours. It is the reason that I cannot just breed with a wolf and produce a child that could sacrifice their blood for me.”

Kathrina was confused. There was an important piece of the puzzle still missing, and something told her that if she could find out what that was, she just might be able to put an end to this nightmare that they had been living.

“You and your sisters have always been destined to fight against the evil that has taken control of the immortal, but you are unique Kathrina. You are a bearer of light … this is both an advantage and a danger.”

Shaking her head, Kathrina asked, “Why am I different … what is it about me and my mother that makes us different. What is it that makes our blood so important?”

“Even if I were to tell you … you probably wouldn’t believe me.”

Kathrina rolled her eyes. “Well let’s see … I am standing here talking to a vampire, my father is a vampire … and I was adopted by wolves that come from another dimension. I think I just might believe anything you can throw at me.”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “But then again … maybe you wouldn’t.”

Kathrina felt her heart flutter when Luciano put one arm around her and pulled her against him. “I will admit that I intended to do with your mother, the same as I was going to do with you, but your father saved her from that fate. He took her away and kept her hidden.”

Now that flutter in her heart had turned into an intense pounding. Her fear of him and her longing for his touch were at war, and Kathrina was not sure which emotion would win out.

She had every reason to fear him, but still she had no desire to pull away. Kathrina knew she was under his spell, but she could not bring herself to flee his embrace. Instead she craved his touch.

Tilting her head back, she looked into his eyes. He leaned down to press his lips against her cheek. “All that doesn’t matter … because now I have you,” he whispered.

His lips moved to her mouth. Kathrina had to catch her breath when she felt his tongue dart between her lips. She welcomed his kiss, savoring the sensation of his tongue exploring her mouth - his fangs biting at her lips.

One hand slipped beneath her shirt to caress her skin while his other hand went to the front of her jeans. Her stomach lurched when she felt him unbutton her pants.

His mouth moved to her ear. The sensation of his tongue sliding across her skin sent chills down her spine.

“Poor little Kathrina,” he whispered in her ear. “So curious, and oh so hot.” As he spoke, he unzipped her jeans. Kathrina gasped when she felt his fingers seeking the moistness between her legs. His cool skin against her flesh was like fire and ice - startling, but so delightfully erotic.

His fingers massaged her swollen - hard clit until she was sure she would burst from the unfamiliar sensations that were racing through her body. His touch stirred feelings within her that she had never before experienced. It felt so good, but it fed the ache between her legs until she burned with an uncontrollable hunger.

When she felt him pushing her back against a nearby wall, the thought of resisting never crossed her mind. In her heart she knew that this was what she wanted - what she’d needed from him since the first time they’d kissed.

Luciano had her pinned against the wall - his erection pressed hard against her stomach. He gently took her hand and placed it on his stiff flesh.

“Is this what you want sweetheart?” he asked in a low voice.

Kathrina moaned, she was beyond intelligible thought. Her body was on fire and she was running on instinct.

Kneeling in front of her, he reached up and slid her pants down. Kathrina pulled her legs free and kicked the denim away. Luciano spread her legs, forcing her to brace herself against the wall.

Kathrina felt his tongue caressing the flesh of her inner thigh - his fangs just barely piercing the skin. A wet heat soaked the soft folds of her sex, and she could not stop the trembling that spread through her body. Her breathing became erratic, escaping her mouth in ragged gasps.

His tongue danced on her throbbing bud and Kathrina had to clutch his shoulders to stay on her feet. With expert precision, he manipulated her clit until she was thrown into wave after wave of orgasm.

Moaning, Kathrina was forced to bite her bottom lip to keep from screaming out. It took several minutes for the feeling of euphoria to subside. When she opened her eyes, she saw Luciano standing in front of her, his dark eyes burning with unfulfilled need.

Kathrina threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “Let me help you to feel better too.”

Resting his forehead against hers, he reached up and softly caressed her cheek. “No … I can’t let it go that far.”

His words nicked at her heart, and her hurt showed clearly on her face. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Believe me when I tell you that it’s not you … it’s me.”

“That sounds like some kind of line,” she frowned.

Luciano chuckled softly. “For being so innocent, you do seem to grasp the nature of the opposite sex very well.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” she pouted.

“Yes … maybe I am, but it’s time to get you home.”

Kathrina shook her head. “I don’t want to go yet. Can’t I stay here with you for a while?”

No matter what her feelings for Luciano were - and she wasn’t really sure at the moment - Kathrina had to admit that she felt much safer when she was with him. Even she found this ironic, considering he’d wanted to feed on her.

Luciano shook his head. “Being with you is too tempting.”

“But someone’s after me. I think someone wants to kill me,” she tried to explain, remembering the mysterious words of the boy vampire.”

He touched her lips with his, giving her a feather light kiss. “I know, but you are safest in your father’s care.”

Kathrina opened her mouth to voice another protest, but was silenced when he laid his hand on her forehead. The world faded to black.

From the garden, Luciano stared up at Kathrina’s window. He watched as her bedroom went dark. After she was unconscious, he’d brought her back to her father’s house and placed her on the swing that sat on the porch. He then watched from a distance until her sisters found her. It was best that her family not know whom she’d been with. They already detested him for who he was. It would only get worse if they believed that he still posed any danger to Kathrina.

The girl was getting to be a handful. She was willful and stubborn to a fault, and she had her heart set on bedding him. Luciano wasn’t sure how much longer he could resist her. She was just too tempting.

What he’d told her about his sexual partners was true. He would willingly enjoy the delights that they offered, and then he’d feed on them until their life essence faded away. He rarely gave one of them a second thought. His anger toward Ophelia had been so great that he’d punished all females for her betrayal, stealing their lives and delivering their souls to darkness.

That was until Kathrina. From the moment he saw her - tasted her lips, he’d been able to think of almost nothing else.

He could still hear the seer’s words as she lay dying in his arms. He’d drained her of blood until she was nearly gone. She’d begged him for immortality, but he’d been unrelenting. Never had he gone so far as to turn his prey. That was a sentence too cruel to pass on anyone, even a feeder.

You will hunger for a woman that carries the light within her soul. It is her blood that will set you free, but only if you can kill her. My debt to Azazel now becomes yours.

Then she’d died. It was not until it was too late that he’d realized what she’d meant and who Azazel was.

The only woman that could purify his tainted blood was also the only woman that he could not bring himself to kill. If he delivered her soul to Azazel the virus would be reversed, but how could he kill the only woman that had been able to touch his heart?

The witch had reached out from the grave to extract her revenge. He would live in infinite darkness, unless he could kill Kathrina. He could not just feed from her - he must take her last drop of blood and release her soul.

The reason that her blood would kill a turned vampire was because it attacked anything that was impure. A turned vampire was a virus - the walking talking incarnation of the virus itself. But it wasn’t just the fact that she was a wolf - vampire hybrid. It was true that when the virus was transmitted to a wolf or vampire through a bite from a hybrid, it caused a violent reaction that killed the victim, but Kathrina’s bite would be even more deadly. Her blood was special - so unique that he may never find another like her.

When Ophelia created the virus - she did not just produced some biological weapon to destroy the offspring of humans and vampires, she’d created a living evil that actually fed off of the vampire’s hunger for blood. She’d created monsters. Only if he were to consume the purest blood in existence could he destroy that monster within him. It was the purity of light in her blood that made Kathrina so special. He could never tell her the origins of her blood. If she knew, and another vampire ever read her thoughts, she would be as good as dead. Just like her mother.

Her mother’s blood had not been deadly to the turned vampire, but Kathrina’s would. The problem was that most vampires wouldn’t know that she was a hybrid. Once they found out what she really was, the part about her wolf-vampire blood would be irrelevant. They would kill her hoping to end their own curse and they would be destroyed in the process.

Luciano took one last look at her dark bedroom window, and then turned to walk away - the battle within him still raging. He wanted her near him, but he just didn’t trust himself. If he lost control, the result could be disastrous, no matter which part of him that won out. If he killed her, he would lose a part of himself that would plunge him into darkness much blacker than his existence as an immortal. If he gave in and let himself sample the pleasures of the flesh, he would never be able to let her go.

* * *

Kathrina stood in front of the bathroom mirror, shocked by the sight of the sallow - pale girl that stared back at her. When waking, she’d felt a little off, but she was not prepared for the image that greeted her when she looked in the mirror. She looked ill, and she felt ill.

Closing her eyes, she tried to recall the night before. The last thing she remembered was looking into Luciano’s eyes. The next thing she knew she was waking up in her own bed.

Had it all been some kind of strange dream?

She dismissed the possibility. Somehow he’d rendered her unconscious. Again he’d rejected her, but at least this time he hadn’t brushed her off completely. Maybe she was making some progress.

Kathrina could no longer pretend that he didn’t matter - that he was simply an enemy that she had to destroy. As bizarre as it was, she had to admit that she wanted him, and the more he resisted her - the stronger her desire became.

His hands and lips were magical, giving her pleasure that she had never even dreamed of. Now she could understand why women found vampires so captivating. Once they had you under their spell, you would be completely lost.