Blood Deep (36 page)

He arched up, his fingers gripping Zayan’s thighs, and he took the taut, bulbous head of Zayan’s rod between his lips.
I’ll
make you come first, General,
he threatened. He meant to tease, and he saw Miranda wag her finger in playful discipline.
If I’m
naughty,
he said to her in her thoughts,
come and spank me.

Zayan’s mouth moved expertly over Lukos’s shaft, ramping up his arousal. But Lukos had no intention of giving his climax to Zayan. No, his orgasm was for Miranda, and he would hold on to his control. In challenge, Zayan began to play with his balls—exactly as he liked it, not gently, but with a roughness that took the caress to the brink of pain.

Lukos raked his fangs along Zayan’s shaft. Strange to think he was sucking at the man he’d hated, and doing it to please Miranda. He knew Zayan loved Miranda, and he understood how that felt. He might not have a soul, but he had a heart. It gave him a kinship with Zayan—a closeness.

For Miranda, he could share.

He released Zayan’s rigid cock and held out his hand to her.

“Join us, angel. I want to be inside you. I want to explode in your tight cunny. I want your fingernails digging into my shoulders as you climax. You belong between us, love.”

She climbed onto the bed, and Zayan shifted, so she was sitting in the middle, her thighs pressing against theirs. She frowned playfully. “If I were to suck one of you now, it would be like kissing the other.”

Convoluted woman’s logic, but the thought was erotic and Lukos was more than game. Demurely holding back her hair, she bestowed a kiss to his weeping cock head. After Zayan’s fierce sucking, it amazed him that her gentle caress was so potent.

She bent and gave a gentle suckle to Zayan’s prick, and let her fingernails tease the sac between his thighs. She looked at ease, her cheeks flushed with arousal, her mouth plump, wet, and tempting.

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In his mortal youth, he’d enjoyed foreplay. With little freedom for one thousand years, he’d always rutted quickly. He’d wanted to slowly enjoy this night with Miranda.

But he couldn’t wait any longer.

Miranda climbed on top of him, taking his cock deep inside her tight, fiery hot pussy. Zayan swiftly worked three fingers into her tight derriere, making her moan and whimper in ecstasy.

In no time, she came for them. And fell to his chest, gasping for breath.

“Another position, angel,” he whispered against her ear.

“We have all night . . .”

“Oh, dear heaven, yes. I never want to stop making love to you both.”

Lovemaking had never been like this.

Lukos fell back on the bed. He had been the last to surrender to climax, and he felt as though his brain, his spine, his every muscle has dissolved into semen and had shot out of his prick.

Miranda’s arm slid over his chest. “That seemed to be . . .

very intense.”

It was.
He patted her arm, and she nestled against him. After such strenuous sex, and such powerful orgasms, she would likely succumb to sleep. Once she did, he needed to be able to slip away.

So he coaxed her to roll over to face Zayan. He stroked her hair, and the look Zayan gave Miranda spoke plainly of love.

Hell, Lukos knew that expression of wonderment. He suspected he’d been wearing it several times in the last few days. Zayan was marveling over this just as he was. How in blazes had they both been fortunate enough to find love?

Lukos snuggled up to Miranda from behind. Her derriere was a lush cushion for his softening cock. She was warm, and deliciously damp with sweat. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders in wild curls.
Go to sleep, angel,
he urged.

He saw Zayan relax against Miranda. Dawn was near, and BLOOD DEEP / 297

Zayan no doubt intended to stay close to her until she dropped off into sleep.

Zayan would keep her safe. He was certain of that. And that meant he could leave her now.

He wanted to stay forever at Miranda’s side. Hades, he was willing to share with Zayan to do that. But he had another responsibility. And fulfilling it would likely destroy him.

“You did not tell me why you believe we were making love for the last time.”

Lukos jerked away from the balustrade, looking guilty. He also looked exotic standing there. Even when he was in the form of a man, he exuded the primal power of a wolf. A sharp gust of wind whipped his waist-length black hair around him.

Miranda waited, but suspected he intended to avoid an answer again.

“I never knew making love could be so exotic,” he murmured instead.

“You won’t distract me,” she vowed. “I want to know.” She held her robe—a heavy brocade one she had found—more tightly around her. The night was clear, and she had never known anything more reassuring that the velvety-black sky. There was no fog. But dawn was close. The mantel clock had put the time at a quarter after four.

She approached slowly. “Tell me.”

He laughed. How differently he did so than Zayan. Zayan’s laugh was gusty and bold, the sound of a man with the world spread out at his feet. And with his children, his chuckles were rich and poignant and filled with love. Lukos’s spoke of irony, of a joke he was making at his own expense. It was the sound of a bitter man.

“I never expected I would make love to a woman who makes my heart soar, angel. I never thought I’d make love to a woman I loved.”

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“And we can do it again. Tomorrow night. And every night after that—”

He clasped her fingers and drew them to his lips. He bestowed a courtly kiss to their tips, but with such a heated gaze that it set her toes on fire, even as it made her heart ache.

“I love you, Miranda.”

The wind had died, letting his softly spoken words hang in the crisp air.

“But?” she asked on a wry smile. She’d guessed exactly which word would follow his declaration.

He drew her index finger into his mouth and suckled. Then he stopped. “I can’t have you, love.”

There would be more to follow. Miranda wanted to prompt but saw darkness shroud his eyes, a blackness that seemed to come from inside him, and suck away the reflected moonlight.

He straightened and turned to look out over the terrace railing once more. “I don’t know if the red power, the
Pravus,
was speaking the truth when it told me my sister Ara is still alive and has been Lucifer’s prisoner. It could have been a bluff. But it could also be true. I have to go to her, Miranda, and rescue her.”

She stroked his shoulder, savoring the smoothness of his skin. “And then you could come back.”

“I wish I could, angel. And I believe you are the one who can save me from the prophesy. But if I go into the Underworld, I won’t get out alive. Lucifer made me an apprentice to serve him, and I betrayed him. I even tried to destroy him out of revenge for taking Ara. I’m not strong enough to take on the devil and win. But I suspect he would be willing to trade Ara for me.

He’d let her go so he can have the pleasure of torturing me.”

“But our power combined—”

He put his finger to her lips. “Too great a risk for you. And resurrecting Zayan’s children has weakened you. You’ve tried to hide it, but I can sense it about you.”

BLOOD DEEP / 299

He moved away from her abruptly, striding along the terrace. She rushed toward him but was too late. White clouds surged around them, then scattered in the burst of wind. She glimpsed a wolf racing across the dark lawns. Lukos was gone, running away to enter the Underworld.

She did not even know where the entrance to Lucifer’s labyrinth was. She could not stop Lukos, and now she could not even follow him.

In his dream, he saw Lukos. He stood naked on the terrace, and Zayan groaned as cool night breezes whispered over his skin.

He felt them as though he were in Lukos’s body. As though his mind was deeply connected to Lukos’s experiences.

Demure lavender scents teased him, and he saw Miranda pad across the flagstones toward Lukos. Her hair rippled behind her, a cape of gold. Her arms slid around Lukos’s waist, and at the shared sensation of touch, Zayan went instantly hard.

Heat flooded him—not the quick sizzle of lust, but the sharp, fiery pain of a shape-shift. Lukos, in wolf form, bounded over the terrace railing, the rough stone brushing the underside of his belly. His claws tore into the earth, his paws threw up a spray of dirt as he loped in the night.

Zayan saw Miranda turn back to see him, where he waited in the bedchamber. He felt the quickening of her heart. Then he felt it suddenly stutter—her pulse skipped a beat or two, and she pressed her hand to her breast in shock. Her heart began to beat again, slower. He could almost feel the strain on it.

He struggled to wake, but he could not escape the daysleep.

His senses were still alert, even if he could not move physically.

It was one of the traits that distinguished him from lesser vampires. He could sense Miranda’s energy, her life force, was less than it had been before Lukos had left.

Was it the truth, or just a trick of his dreaming mind? And if it was the truth, what in blazes did it mean?

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Sharon Page

His gut instincts knew, even as he tried not to think of it.

Lukos had left. After Miranda had joined with them both, and their magical powers had combined. Somehow, Lukos’s disappearance meant that Miranda was dying.

“You intend to calmly walk into Blackthorne’s castle and ask the slayers to help you save Lukos?” Miranda could not believe Zayan would do such a mad, irrational thing.

Zayan drew on a greatcoat he had commanded a footman to fetch for him. He quirked a brow. “Yes, love, that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“You would take such a risk, after your children were returned to you?”

“Does your aunt, the vampire-slaying one, love you very much?”

“You think she would help us? I did save her life. Years ago, when I was a young girl. I used my power then to save her life.”

Zayan drew on a pair of fine black leather gloves. “Then she owes you.”

“But what of your children? They are confused and will be frightened if you leave them—”

“I will take them with me to the slayers. Your aunt should be gentle with them.”

Miranda caught her breath. To have the chance to spend time with children who had been resurrected after two thousand years?

She imagined Aunt Eugenia, Althea, and Serena would be delighted.

But it astonished her that he would have such trust in people who wanted to destroy him. She had told him of her encounter with Lord Denby on the road to the castle, and he had realized the implication at once. There were members of the Royal Society determined to wear blinders, to see the unknown as evil, but there were others who wanted to understand more of the magical world surrounding them.

BLOOD DEEP / 301

“You are willing to trust the slayers, those who were your enemies, for Lukos?”

“I am not doing this for Lukos.” He tipped up her chin, the leather of his glove a soft caress against her skin. “I am doing it for you, Miranda. I am afraid that breaking up the threesome is draining your life force in some way. And the only ones who can help me understand why are the vampire queens.”

Miranda bit her lip. Lukos had not trusted the vampire queens, but they had helped her. “I think Lukos believes he must sacrifice his life for his sister’s. He isn’t planning to return.”

Zayan grimaced. “He thinks he can strike a bargain with Lucifer, doesn’t he? His life for his sister’s.”

“You don’t believe he can?”

“Any bargain he could make would involve so much trickery, he’ll end up sacrificing both himself and his sister.”

Miranda accepted a cloak from a maid and threw it around her shoulders. “I do not know how to get into the Underworld.”

Zayan looked grim. “Well, love, I do.”

“Aunt Eugenia, I want you to put down the crossbow. Please, he can be trusted. He’s brought his children here!”

Miranda held Lina on her lap. The girl had been afraid of her at first, but now, only hours after she had saved the child, Lina was already beginning to trust her.

Zayan stood by the fireplace, holding Marc’s hand. The fire roared behind them, and Aunt Eugenia, along with Althea, Serena, and their husbands, stood between Zayan and the drawing-room door.

“I would never trust him,” Aunt Eugenia declared. But she did lower the weapon. “He was the vampire I was hunting on the night you saved my life, my dear.”

Miranda’s heart plummeted. Suddenly, Zayan’s past was personal. She remembered how wounded her aunt had been.

Heart in her throat, she faced him.

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Sharon Page

“Do you hate me now, love?” he asked gently. “Your aunt was going to stake and destroy me. I didn’t hurt her. I retreated because I could not bring myself to destroy a lady. Instead, another vampire attacked her. A younger one than I.”

Miranda looked from her resolute aunt to the man she loved.

“I can’t choose,” she finally said. “I want to love you both and have you both love me. If you cannot, Aunt Eugenia, I understand.”

She saw her aunt bite her lip, a gesture of uncertainty she’d never seen Eugenia make. “I suppose I could not expect him to simply stand there while I stuck a stake in his heart. But are you certain of this, my dear? You say you love these vampires. But perhaps—”

“No, Aunt. I am not under their spell. I’ve found where I belong. With them.”

Her aunt placed the crossbow on a table. And walked to her side. “I will look out for you always, Miranda. I promised you that when you saved me and I saw your power. No matter what choice you make, I will support you. I want you to feel you belong. I want you to be happy.”

Miranda’s throat tightened. “You will accept that I must follow my heart?”

The Earl of Brookshire stepped forward. “Are you sure of your heart, though, Miss Bond?”

“I am,” she declared loudly. “Do you not understand? Zayan became a vampire because he had been betrayed by everyone who was close to him, and he had his children viciously taken from him.” She pointed to the earl. “Would you not go mad if your daughter was taken away?”