Blood and Destiny (20 page)

Alexander’s face showed surprise and shock when he realized he’d left his own throat exposed.

Marcus’s hand flashed into the opening, slashing the bulging vein open.

Blood splashed across my face and I tried to back away from the arterial spray. The vampires around me weren’t that discriminating. The crowd surged forward. Several spectators stepped on me trying to reach the fallen king.

I struggled to the back of the crowd to find Peter watching for me. Gathering my magic, I flowed into my human form without stopping. He wordlessly averted his gaze as he offered me Marcus’s shirt for cover. I breathed in the scent of him as I donned it and felt the tears flowing down my face in reaction. I turned back to see the crowd part ahead of Marcus with the deference his position and age entitled him.

“There’s still some blood to be had, if you’ve a mind to take it. There’s power in it.” His words were for Peter, but his gaze was all for me.

Peter’s reply was low enough where only the two of us could hear it over the growing excitement around us. “Thank you, but no. My loyalty is to you and I’ll not leave you unprotected here. And while we’re talking protection, she’s not safe. Not even you can keep her safe once the blood frenzy starts.”

“This will get out of hand,” Marcus agreed. He raised his hand and Emanuel appeared like magic.

“Anyone not willing to live by the Covenant laws will be gone by sundown or declared outlaw with the dawn. Make sure they understand and take the oaths.”

Emanuel bowed low and stepped back. I had some idea as to the significance of what had happened, but to see two of Marcus’s most trusted lieutenants acting so cautiously made me wary.

All I wanted was to be gone from this place and all the hungry vampires, so I didn’t resist when Marcus took my arm and started angling for the door. I didn’t even balk when Luke and Betsy were hustled out of the back room to join us as we made our escape. No one with an ounce of mortality should be in the penthouse when Alexander’s blood ran dry.

Besides, it would be a shame to have finally tracked down Betsy Vincent only to have to tell her husband that I’d gotten her killed.

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Peter escorted us to the elevators. The tiny car was filled with Betsy’s quiet sobs, the stench of her fear, blood and adrenaline. I watched Luke’s nostrils flare in the reflection of the doors as he inhaled the intoxicating mixture. I hoped Marcus let me have some say in his punishment.

It was a credit to the Cosmopolitan staff that no one even glanced at my bared legs or Marcus’s bloody chest as we made our escape through the lobby. The sun was still low in the sky, but I had no idea exactly what day it was. Was it the morning after the rehearsal dinner or the morning of the wedding? No, it couldn’t be the wedding day because there would have been werewolves among the rescue party. The pack had to be in the mountains doing the tribal alpha-mating ceremony.

Still blinking from the sun, I stumbled on the curb and looked at the two long black cars.

Gratefully, I slipped into the dark interior of a waiting car while Peter signaled the vampires surrounding Luke and Betsy to take them to the other. He nodded before closing the door. The car shifted as he got into the front and the muffled sound of the door slamming was the only warning I had before the car pulled away.

I didn’t have time to settle into my seat before Marcus pulled me into his arms. His mouth was hungry as it met mine. He growled at the taste of blood on my tongue or perhaps it was the sheer desperation that I met him with. The leather of the seat wasn’t enough cushion for my back as he lay me down, covering my body with his. The position left my hands free to fall to his belt and my fingers were clumsy with haste.

His mouth was eager as he broke the kiss to work his way down my chin and around my jaw to settle on my neck. I stretched it and whimpered in frustration because his belt buckle wouldn’t release. He planted his mouth over my neck and the feeling of his tongue teasing that vein made my hands still in anticipation. I strained against him, begging him with my body. The sharp tips of his teeth against my skin made me whimper.

As suddenly as he’d grabbed me, he was gone. I opened eyes I hadn’t consciously closed to find him pushed into the corner of the opposite seat as far from me as he could get.

“What? Why did you stop?” I meant it as a demand, but it came out breathy and packed with far too much emotion. Marcus’s chest rose and fell as he panted. His eyes were narrowed and icy.

That look was all that kept me on my own seat as I sat up.

“Hefed on you.” Marcus spat the words at me.

“Yeah. It hurt like hell, too.” I stared at him in confusion. His gaze dropped and he closed his eyes before dropping his head into his hands.

“It doesn’t matter. You were at his mercy. You couldn’t say no. It never happened.” His pained tone didn’t help my confusion.

“It’ll heal, Marcus. It’s just a little blood.” His tortured gaze rose to mine and I cursed myself for being an idiot. “Itwas only blood. Prisoner or not, I’m entirely too picky about my partners to welcome anything else. Rape was off the table unless he wanted to die in the attempt. I might have been chained to the bed, but I’ve still got teeth and claws.”

Hope flickered and caught. He had honestly thought… Shaking my head, I did the only thing I could think of to break the mood. I gripped the shirttail and pulled it over my head to toss it to the floor. Dropping down beside it, I crawled as sensually as the confines of the car would let me to kneel between his knees. My hands reached for his belt buckle.

“Now, this is a better angle to get this undone. Where were we?”

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The belt buckle easily slipped free and I looked up at him across the long line of exposed flesh, letting all my intentions and determination show. He didn’t stop me as I lowered his zipper and reached around the waistband of the pants to slide my hands beneath them at his hips.

“You’re overdressed for what I have in mind.” My words were eager, breathy, and filled with an elemental desperation that could only be reached by watching him battle for his life.

He didn’t question, just reached down to take my hands in his and lifted up so that we pushed his pants off together. I wanted to look at him, but his gaze held me captive as he released my hands, silently urging me to take the lead. I gave him what he wanted because in that moment, it was exactly what I wanted too.

Planting a knee on either side of him, I settled against him, whimpering at the way he felt hot and hard against me. This position put us eye to eye, and I’d forgotten how intimate that could be with him. He reached up to smooth my hair back from my face and I let my gaze drop to his mouth.

Leaning in, I pressed our lips together in a painfully tentative kiss.

We were both being so very, very careful. Part of me wanted the white-hot sex we’d started with, but the rest of me acknowledged that this time was too important to waste on instinctive mating.

So many things remained unsaid between us. His words before the fight echoed in my mind, but it was my unspoken feelings for him that made my body burn. I wanted, no needed, to show him exactly what he meant to me.

The kiss grew while his hands fell to my hips, and he pulled me closer as his tongue invaded my mouth. My own met his and we dueled before coming up for air. My hands moved up his chest and slid through the slick path of blood across it. I started to pull my hands away, but he changed the angle so I had to hang on to his shoulders for balance.

Rubbing against him, I moaned at the way he felt and knew that he was only inches away. Riding higher on his thighs, I kissed him as the pieces lined up and broke it with a gasp as I impaled myself upon him. Months of abstinence made it a tight fit, but all the emotion and fear from the last half hour meant I was more than ready for him.

Words were beyond me as I rode him with a single-minded determination to wring every drop from this encounter that I could. He was not idle. His hands circled my back, anchoring me and encouraging me as his mouth nipped along my chin and down to my neck. He shifted us to another angle so he could go even lower, and the feel of his mouth on my breast made my lower body jerk and tighten on him.

His hands urged me to pick up the pace and I was more than happy to. Every nerve, every emotion hinged on that point where we were joined. Each thrust took me closer to that precipice until I sobbed with need.

And then, between heartbeats, I found my release. The sudden rush of pleasure made me shout and the only thing that kept me riding the waves was Marcus’s arms around me as he followed me into ecstasy.

While the aftershocks were still shaking my body, he straightened in the seat so I could lay my head on his shoulder comfortably. He rubbed my back like he was soothing a small child and I smiled against his neck. Leaning forward, I nipped him lightly.

“Hey, what was that for?”

“For thinking I rolled over like that trollop in the car behind us.”

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“Trollop? Betsy Vincent is hardly that. Maybe, with Alexander dead, the mind traps he wove will dissipate.”

That brought me to a question that wasn’t important fifteen minutes ago. “How did you know?

Where I was?”

“Your lion turned his coat. Apparently, Alexander refused to honor their agreement so he came to me.”

Luke. So I was right about his motives. We were going to address that issue, but it was going to have to wait until I had clothes and a meal. My stomach rumbled at the thought and I felt the flush rising from my breasts.

Marcus smiled and pulled me forward for a tender kiss.

“There are clothes in a bag underneath the seat. Unless you’ve gained weight since you last spent the night at the Vantage, they should fit. They’ll hold you until we can get business taken care of.

Then you can get cleaned up in time to rest before your slumber party with Yasmine this evening.”

Whoever had packed the bag had been considerate enough to provide a full change of clothes, including a pair of new sandals in my size, as well as a toiletry bag and towel. Of course, they probably hadn’t meant for it to be used this way, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

The jeans did fit, if a little snugly, and the shirt was one I’d looked for and finally reached the conclusion I’d lost at the laundry. It was a shimmery blue cotton-blend golf shirt that was soft and sexy against my skin. Wearing it, I felt ready to face anything that could be thrown at me.

Marcus had watched me clean up and dress after pulling his pants up with a proprietary air that should have offended me. It hadn’t and he noticed. The smile he wore as he took his shirt when I offered it told me that much.

“Aren’t you going to put it on?”

“I don’t want to ruin it with blood. It carries your scent.”

It was a sappy thing to say and I rolled my eyes. Taking the toiletry bag in hand, I hopped back beside him on the seat and pulled out a wet wipe. He hissed when I began carefully removing the drying blood.

“Stop being a baby. I’m not anywhere near the actual gashes.”

“There are more pleasant ways to clean the blood off, Destiny.”

I grinned at him impishly before giving him the rejection that comment deserved. “We’ve already done that. Besides, I don’t think Peter wants to take an extra spin around the parking lot to give us a chance to get dressed.”

His smile faded into an expression that made him look like his old self. “That wasn’t what I meant.

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I may not be my father, Destiny, but my blood still holds power. Just because you’re not a vampire doesn’t mean you can’t benefit since it’s already spilled.”

Spilled in defense of me. Looking down at the bloody wipe, I started cleaning the blood away, getting another towelette when it was past the point.

“Speaking of your father, are you okay?”

Marcus stopped flinching. “Yes,” he finally answered. “I’ve known it would come to this since he allowed me to walk away. In a lot of ways, I am relieved.”

“Why?” I shouldn’t have asked the question, but it slipped out.

“I have no fond memories of him. Alexander was the type of king that ruled by might. He didn’t understand the value of respect, especially toward women. When I became old enough to begin my progression into manhood, he felt my mother had served her purpose and banished her. I think that’s when I began to hate him. When he killed Xavier, he broke the final straw.”

He lapsed in his story. I wanted to push. Instead, I whispered the only thing I could. “I’m sorry.”

Marcus’s hand took mine and pressed it against his chest. “Don’t be. The last thing she said to me was to grow into a man worthy of her lineage, not Alexander’s. I think it bothered him that her line was more prestigious than his and that’s why he treated her as he did.”

“I’m sure she would be proud of you. What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. Someday, maybe she’ll appear to harass you as Kale’s mother does Yasmine.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly. It was an effective way to put an end to the conversation.

I broke away from him and picked up another wet wipe. He didn’t push me away when I returned to cleaning his wound. I was nearly finished when the car turned and began to slow. We must have arrived at the Vantage.

Marcus’s hand reached for mine and I didn’t hesitate as I laced our fingers together. In the heat of the moment, everything had seemed like such a great idea. Now, we were going to step out of our love nest and back into the roles we were locked into. Neither of us had professed undying love, but maybe that was just as well. A quickie in the car after a near-death incident was hardly the place to examine such things.

My assumption that we were going to the Vantage was wrong. I stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of my office. My two watchers were standing on either side of my open front door looking very official. I couldn’t help but wonder where they had been when Luke had carted me off.