Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (18 page)

I felt indescribable remorse. I knew that all those people were dead because the fallen were s
earching for me. Guilt riveted through me, but I couldn’t run. Gavin wouldn’t allow me to.

Gavin’s hands skimmed down his neck and massaged his shoulders. I never thought I would see him break, but I feared he was about to – and all because of me. His head tilted back and hi
s eyes scanned the ceiling like he was clearing his mind to try to find an answer, a way to get me out safely.

“It’s no use!”
I said as I sat down in the floor, cradling my head in my arms. “What the hell are we supposed to do? I can’t escape this. I can’t escape death!”

He grabbed me and
brought me to him. “I’ll do it. I’ll make you immortal – I’ll change you.” His lips trembled as his face moved toward my neck. He hesitated and then his mouth met my flesh. I felt his jaw tense up and his tongue slither along the length of my jugular; his hands ran down my sides and to my hips, where they stopped to gather my skin in his palms. I closed my eyes and prepared myself for death.

Gavin
tore himself away from me. His hands gripped the sides of my face and his eyes watered up, but the liquid never fell from his eyes. Casting his gaze sullenly down, he said, “I can’t – what I’d make you…” He bit down on his lip and his eyes met mine. “I can’t save you, love. Not that way.”

His fear terrified me.
Closing his eyes, the water seeped from his lash line. He quickly turned his back to me and the softness was replaced by rage.

Gavi
n let out an angry yell, sounding more like a screech from the devil than something from a creature formed by the heavens. His arms clenched down at his sides and then his elbow raised back, his fist slamming through the wall. He swiped at the mirror. The frame flew through the air and shattered across the hardwood floors. Like a beast, Gavin swatted at anything around him. Picking up the large, heavy brass lamp up, he tossed it across the room. His hands flipped the television and sent it crashing to the floor. He turned; his face was red and his eyes had been completely swallowed by his pupils. His large masculine hands were riveted with veins and he reached underneath the edge of the mattress and flung it from the bedframe. His foot kicked at the nightstand. It flew across the room and crashed into the wall. Searching the room for something else to lash his anger out at, his stare rested on me, and a helpless expression cast itself across his face. His eyebrows relaxed and he knelt down in front of me. His hands cradled my face and he pressed his damp forehead against mine. “If I have to trade my immortality for you, I’ll do it.”

I knew he meant what he said. Never, I knew there had never been a love as strong and p
assionate as the one we shared. We were bound not only by desire, we were bound by prophecies of ages – a love so rare that all of history had been formed around it and all of life hinged on it.

Gavin sweetly swept
his fingers through my hair. His eyes showered me in adoration, skimming to each of my eyes and slowly down to my lips. “I’ll have to kill you to get you to safety,” he said.

Blinking my eyes,
I backed away from him enough so that I could see his entire face. “Kill me?”

He nodded
and pushed a loose tendril of hair back behind his ear. I was stunned, and, realizing he was serious, I stood in silence.

“Just enough so that they won’t sense you.” His fingers traced down my jawline. “You do trust that I can control myself, don’t you?”
His stare was vacant, and it terrified me.

I
tried to swallow back the anxiety that had formed in my throat, but failed to do so. “How are you gonna kill me?” The question came out in a pant.

“I’ll just take you to the brink of death. Enough that your heart will slow down as not to be heard by them. You’ll lose enough warmth so that they won’t sense you.”

“And where are you gonna take me?”

Glaring down at me, he said,
“The catacombs. I can’t think of a safer place. It’s underground. I can barricade the only entrance…” His tongue traced over his bottom lip and his eyes narrowed. “Just enough blood that you lose consciousness. You’ll be weak when you wake up, but you’ll be alive.”

Bringing my hand to my mouth, I chewed on my nails. My hand
s were shaking so terribly I couldn’t grip any skin with my teeth.

Gavin
closed his hands around my wrists. “I promise you’ll wake up, love. I give my word to you.”

His hands released
me and wandered up my back and neck. Holding the base of my head in his palms, his fingers twisted in my hair. The perfection of his face moved gracefully toward mine and his lips met mine with a heat. The fullness of his lips melted into mine and the aphrodisiacal taste of his mouth invaded me. His tongue wrapped around mine and his teeth raked lightly across my tongue. Closing his mouth around my bottom lip, he pulled away, his teeth biting down as it slid out from between them. 

Gavin backe
d away. His eyes flickered and he whispered, “What I’m about to do to you – there’s nothing in existence more intimate than it.”

Fisting
my hair and wrapping it around his wrists, he sensually tugged my head back. He pulled harder, the force twisting my neck to the side. I heard his breath pull in and a deep groan came from his lips as they hovered over my bare skin. The hand that wasn’t entangled in my hair crept down my side and he pushed my pants down. He caressed between my legs, gripping me tightly in his palm.

“Take my pants off,” he pant
ed against my neck, his warm breath blowing over my ear.

My finger
s found their way to his fly and pulled the metal button through the material. They fumbled with the zipper, tugging it down. I pulled at the sides of his jeans, and they fell to the floor. My fingers traced underneath his boxers, rubbing down the front. The warmth of his erection came through the material and my breath stalled. Tugging the thin material down, I wrapped my hand around him.

Gavin’s finger felt inside me, applying pressure in areas I couldn’t even find. The intoxicating effect of his touch spread
like wildfire through my body and I fell to my knees. Bringing him to my lips, I ran my tongue up the length of him, wrapping around his head and enclosing around its plump shape. I pulled him into my mouth and another sensation of heat traveled up my legs. His hand grabbed my hair and coaxed me back up to my feet.

His
grip on my hair tightened. His eyes pierced through me. “As much as I love how you do that,” he paused and licked across my lips, “I just want to feel myself as deep in you as fucking possible.”

Forcefully, dominating, owning
, he pushed me down onto the box springs. My legs fell open, waiting for him to lay down between them. Gavin grabbed my ankles and jerked my legs further apart. Climbing on top of me, pressing his hard body over me, he teased me by almost pushing himself into me before pulling away.

“No,
” he said, as he reached behind my ass and flipped me over. His hands gripped the upper part of my thighs and then I felt the sting of his hand as he slapped it against my ass.

I steadied myself with my arms. His hand smacked against my skin again with a loud clap that I felt travel up to my lowe
r back. My face lurched forward and I heard him let out a deep and sated groan. His fingers buried into my ass, kneading the flesh as hard as I could stand.

Gavin pulled my hair back agai
n and he slung the weight of his body down on top of me, pushing the air from my lungs. I felt his free hand reach between my legs, and he placed his dick between my thighs, the heat of it flaming my desire, my need for him.

Panting heavily in my ear,
he growled, “I told you after that first night in Boston that I’d do things to you, that I’d show you things no other man ever could – and I
meant
that in ways you’ve yet to imagine.”

He rammed into me
hard, and I involuntarily clenched down around him. Gavin steadied himself by placing his hands on my ass, thrusting into me with wild and unruly movements. His hand traveled up the small of my back, gripping skin and twisting. Pulling himself out of me, he grabbed onto my ankles and yanked me from the bed into the floor.

Gavin’s
mouth encircled my nipple and pulled it in between his teeth. His face traveled down between my breasts, down my stomach, and finally between my legs. The slickness of his tongue plunged into me and he groaned, “Your taste.” Giving a deeper lick, he stared up from between my thighs and whispered against my clit, “… is so damn exquisite.”

His hands fondled
me and his face lifted from between my legs. Gavin’s hand pushed my knees back beside my head and he forced himself back inside me. It was only a few moments and his hands had crossed behind my back and pulled me up on top of him.

Pushing
the hair out of my face, I stared down at him.

“Show me what I do to you,” he said.

I placed my hands firmly on his chest, raising my hips up and slamming myself back down on him. Pulling my feet underneath me, I crouched over him. My hands moved down to his lower abdomen and I pushed down harder on him, grinding my hips with each movement, my breasts bouncing with each hard rise, each physical representation of how badly I needed him.

Gavin positioned his arms behind his head and his lip c
urled underneath his top teeth. One corner of his mouth wickedly flipped up. “I want you to fuck me like your life
depends
on it.”

Adrenaline
coursed through me and I forced myself onto him as though that one motion would save me, as though this act in and of itself was the only thing that could keep me from death. Nodding, his smile widened. “That’s right, love. Fuck me just – like – that.”

Placing my hands behind me to provide some sense of stability,
I bore down on him, my teeth gritting from the force I was using. Sweat collected in the small of my back and between my breasts. Gavin sat up and his large arms enveloped my frame. His hips thrust up as mine pushed down. My body tensed up and my muscles began to spasm. I panted out moans of varying loudness and fell completely vulnerable to him. Unable to control myself, I screamed, collapsing into his chest as he continued to move inside me. My nails dug into his flesh, my teeth clamped down on his shoulder as the feeling of absolute fucking madness, bliss, oblivion; as every damn pleasurable sensation imaginable shattered my core.

Gavin’s face rested
on my shoulder and he pushed into me so hard his entire body shook. I felt the tip of his nose graze my neck and then his lips press against my skin. His fingers danced up my spine and twisted within my hair, yanking my head back.

Another hard push penetrated me, his body trembling again from the sheer force he was using.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered just as I felt his teeth sink into my flesh.

My skin burned when he broke through. The sensation of pain mixed with the unrelenting pleasure of him inside me was overwhelming
, and a helpless whimper found its way out of my parted lips. The grip of his teeth tightened like a vice and I heard him sucking. I could literally feel the blood being pulled from me, draining first from my fingertips, then my arms, the sensation slowly creeping across my entire body. Every few seconds he would stop to swallow back my blood, leaving me to feel hot breaths on my neck.

Gavin’s hips pressed into me
and his fingers drew up in my hair. Releasing my skin from his teeth, a loud groan resonated in my ears. His arms crossed behind my back and he forced my body against his so tightly my chest was barely able to expand enough to pull in a breath.

Gavin placed his mouth to my neck once more
. “Oh, love,” he groaned desperately. “You’ve no idea what this is doing to me.” He pushed into me, tearing me from the force and depth. His body stiffened, then his lips slammed back over my flesh and I felt my body being drained of the last bit of life. My vision blurred and a silence pierced my ears, a coldness falling over me just as the darkness enveloped me.

Gavin

Chapter
Twenty-one

Brooke’s he
ad fell to the side. Her breathing was so shallow I couldn’t see her chest rise at all, and her body was losing warmth. I closed my eyes and laid her gently on the floor, trying to convince myself that the taste of her blood as it coated my throat was not nearly as pleasing as it had been. Drinking from her that way while I was so deep inside of her was by far the most sensual moment of my existence.

Grabbing her clothes, I
quickly dressed her. After I’d dressed myself I took several pieces of clothing from both our suitcases and placed them inside my duffel bag. Bending down, I scooped Brooke up in my arms and set my gaze on her face. The radiance of her skin had dulled. Her face flopped against my chest and I saw the place where my teeth had torn into her neck. I leaned down and kissed the wound, the taste of her drying blood sending a bolt of want throughout me. Her blood was so different, I could only assume it was because she was not marked that her blood had tasted so pure, so divine.

I
threw her body over my shoulder, grabbed my bag, and quickly made my way toward the door, kicking it open with my foot.

The hallway was dark,
empty. I don’t really know what I expected, nearly all life had been taken by the vampires. Kicking another door open, my footsteps echoed as I made my way down the stairwell. I stopped and listened to make sure no one else was lurking inside, and then continued to descend the ten flights of stairs. I came to the bottom and lifted my leg to push the bar with my foot. The door swung open and the cool night air rushed around me. My hair blew across my face. And Brooke’s hair lifted with the wind and tangled with mine. The flowery smell of her shampoo was quickly overtaken by the stench of death that hung thick in the air.

Paris, the city that never sleeps, was completely dark and utterly still. The streets were empty
and had been dusted with the volcanic ash showering down from the black sky. The only sound came from the gutters emptying into the sewers. I heard a splash as my foot met the street. Looking down, I lifted it from a puddle. Red liquid dripped from the rubber soles of my boot. Blood.

Footsteps scurried
across the pavement, and then I heard something scathing across the brick facing of the hotel I’d just come from. Looking back, I saw an outline of a figure making its way across the side of the building and dropping in front of me.

The vampire stared at me, then
glanced down at Brooke.

“She’s mine
. My kill!” I said, growling at him.

His eyes narrowed as he strained to he
ar a flutter of her heart. I tried to calm my own pulse as I waited, hoping he would hear nothing. Letting out a frustrated grunt, he turned and vanished in the alleyway.

I carried Brooke
down the sidewalk in the direction of the old city gates, sweat pouring from my forehead the entire time. Each noise, each flap of a bird’s wings caused my stomach to knot up. I knew how miserable it had felt to lose grace, and I was determined to not ever experience the sensation of loss again. I couldn’t allow her to be taken from me. My pace quickened, fearing that I hadn’t taken enough blood to dull the sound of her heart, terrified that her unmistakable scent would draw darkness to us.

Outside
the gates, I stepped over the body of a man. His face was contorted in fear, a large gash ripped in his neck. The body was setting into a state of rigor mortis and his hand twitched as I lifted my leg over him.

The small black building
in front of me resembled a guard station. I adjusted the weight of Brooke’s limp body in my arms and lifted my foot to kick in the door. The sound echoed from the buildings and I tensed up. Freezing, I waited to see if the noise had caught the interest of anyone.

I maneuvered my way inside the slender door, being careful not to graze Brooke’s head on anything.
Shutting the door behind me, I made my way to the narrow spiral staircase that lead down into the catacombs.

At the bottom of the stairwell
the room opened up into a long, thin, dark tunnel. The emergency lights flickered along the wall; somehow power still reached some parts of the city.

The ceiling was low and the gravel crunched underneath my feet as I walked steadily down the corridor. The air of this underg
round haven grew colder the further in I went. Reaching an opening, I took a right down a hallway lined with mortar and brick. 

I stopped outside an arched pass
ageway and read the sign carved above the entrance. It said, “Stop! Here is the empire of the dead.” Ducking down, I walked underneath the low ceiling. Skulls and an assortment of bones lined the hallway that opened up into a large room. From here on out all the walls of the catacombs were made of bones. The skulls in many areas had been arranged to make crucifixes.

I
could remember when this place was created as a solution to the overcrowded cemeteries, and now it served as a tourist attraction. The fascination mortals tended to have with death seemed so peculiar to me; death was something that no matter how hard humans tried to understand, they never would. It was an event that each mortal human must experience,
alone,
and I think that was the aspect about it that frightened people the most – the loneliness of it.

K
neeling down, I laid Brooke on the grey gravel. She let out a frail whimper as I adjusted her hand across her stomach. My lips pressed against her warming cheek and then moved to her ear. “I’ll be right back, love,” I said and turned to go back to the entrance and barricade the door.

I hesitated as I came to the long hallway
. Glancing back over my shoulder, I stared at her lying on the ground of the tunnel. The macabre setting of her lifeless body against the backdrop of skeletal remains decorating the walls sent a cold chill up my spine. I knew that when it was all said and done, that was what awaited her – death. If the world continued to exist, her beauty would fade and age would etch itself across her face, her vibrancy would be dulled by physical ailments, and her voice would become raspy and shaky. One day the rarity I’d found with her would be unidentifiable from the remains of the rest of the world. My love for her was punishment because it was the only part of me that would ever die. Existing without her would be no different than a mortal living without a soul. Brooke was my soul.

Lifting the toe of my boot, I se
t it gently down into the gravel, raking it from side to side. The soft noise from the shifting rocks echoed from the corridor. I finally forced myself to leave her and wove my way back through the maze of tunnels to the entrance. I approached the black, wooden door. The lock had busted through the doorframe when I kicked the door in. All I could do was pull the chain across the door and pray that no one noticed the splintered wood around the frame.