Bring Out Your Dead (13 page)

I raised an eyebrow at Sebastian. He was
still imitating a statue, staring down Adrian, whose hand was still
extended. “Stop acting so stubborn,” I hissed, nudging him with my
hip.

“
I can stand here as long
as you can,” Adrian said, humor lighting his eyes. “You might as
well give in.”

Sebastian ground his teeth, his hands fisted
tightly at his sides.

You stubborn man. Don’t you see that Adrian
was forced to betray you by Asmodeus? If he didn’t sacrifice you,
who knows how many innocent people would have been killed? You
wouldn’t have wanted them to suffer in your stead, would you?

It took a few seconds for
him to sigh heavily into my mind.
No.
But
—

I leaned into him.
The sooner you shake his hand, the sooner they’ll
leave and I can reward your generous nature.

You count too heavily on my ability to
forgive, woman.

And you are adorable beyond words.

“
Pax, then,” Sebastian
said, grabbing Adrian’s hand and giving it a hearty handshake. He
all but ran to open the door for them, sliding me a look that
expressed both his annoyance at having to forgive Adrian and his
intention to claim his reward.

Adrian laughed, but said nothing as he
collected his family and herded them toward the door.

“
Can we stop at a
supermarket before we go to the museum?” Damian asked, handing his
stepmother a bulging carrier bag. “Be careful, he’s
sleeping.”

“
A supermarket? I suppose
so,” Nell said, looking curiously at the bag.

“
Good. Belle said I can
keep William, although he’s only to have vegetables and no meat at
all.”

“
William?” Nell asked as
she walked through the door. “Is William a hamster or something? I
suppose we could handle a little pet, but nothing
large…”

Sebastian closed the door just as she was
peering into the bag. I held my breath for the count of five,
expecting Nell to be pounding on the door asking what on earth we
were doing giving the disembodied head of a revenant to her
stepson, but for once, the Fates were with us.

“
And now, my sweet
Beloved, you will pay for forcing me to behave in a polite manner
to the man who has so much of my blood on his hands.”

Before I could protest—not that I intended
to—Sebastian scooped me up and carried me into the bedroom in the
best romantic hero tradition.

“
You’ve been watching too
many French movies,” I told him with a kiss to the tip of his
adorable nose. “No, Sebastian, seriously, we must talk.”

“
You may talk. I will
feast.”

“
I can’t possibly…wait.” I
pushed back on his chest until he put a few inches between us. “Are
you hungry?”

His eyes went midnight gray. “I am hungry
for you, sweet Belle.”

The flood of images into
my head had my toes curling in delight. “Oh, that all sounds
lovely—I particularly like that third idea you had; was that
whipped cream and strawberries?—but what I meant was, are
you
hungry
hungry? You know, for…er…lunch?” I tipped my head to the side
and presented my neck.

Sebastian growled again, a sound that just
about caused my blood to boil. His mouth was hot on my flesh, and I
was tempted to throw morality and friendship to the wind and grab
him, but fortunately, my errant companion chose that moment to
check on me.

“
Les
zombies have gone home, thank
Dieu.
How did—
sacre bleu
and all the saints! Is he
ravishing
vous
?”

“
No, but—”

“
Yes,” Sebastian said,
rolling off me and onto his feet. Sally’s eyes widened as he
stalked toward her, his hands on his shirt. With a short rending
noise, he ripped the shirt off, two buttons flying right through
her. “Yes, I’m ravishing her.”

Sally looked in surprise
at the buttons behind her, then back to the now bare-chested man
approaching her. She backed up toward the door.
“
Zût!
”

“
Unless you wish to watch
me make lengthy, passionate love to Belle, I would advise you to
leave now,” he told her, pausing to kick off his shoes.

Her eyes grew huge as he whipped off his
belt.

I rolled over onto my side and admired the
sight of the man I was bound to heart and soul…souls…as he did a
striptease. It was funny how life worked out. I never in five
hundred years would have imagined that I would fall in love with a
vampire.

Dark
One
, a voice in my head
corrected.

“
Are you…you’re not going
to…Belle, he’s not going to—holy
merde!
” Sally made an odd
eep
ing noise and
disappeared through the door just as Sebastian’s pants came
off.

“
You ought to be ashamed
of yourself scaring her that way…” The words, which seemed to have
no problem rolling off my tongue while I ogled Sebastian’s
backside, legs, and back, suddenly dried up when he turned around.
“Holy
merde
,
indeed.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes
as he strolled toward me. “I am just a man, Beloved. There is
nothing here out of the ordinary. Well, perhaps
extra
-ordinary, but nothing to make
that much of a shocked face over.”

“
My other husbands—” I
started to say.

“
We will not discuss your
previous husbands,” he interrupted, his movements like a big cat
stalking its prey.

My gaze wandered across an incredibly broad
chest, down abs that were impressive without being too sculpted,
ultimately following a dark honey trail of hair that led to an
impressive male endowment. “Fair enough. But—”

“
No. You are mine now,
Belle, and you will have no other man. What passed before we Joined
does not matter to us.”

“
But—”

He pounced on me before I could finish the
sentence, pulling off my shoes, pants, shirt, and underthings so
quickly, I didn’t have time to do more than blink before I was
naked. He rolled me over until I was on my back underneath him, my
breasts, my thighs, my hidden female parts all tightening at the
sensation of his flesh against mine. Erotic images filled my mind,
images of what he wanted us to do together, sending my temperature
up several degrees. He kissed me then, a long, thorough kiss that
lazily explored my mouth, demanding I respond without holding
anything back.

“
Yes, it does,” I said a
few minutes later when I managed to pull my mouth from his,
desperately trying to hang on to the few fragmented wits I had
left. “At least, one thing does—Noelle.”

He froze at the mention of her name.

“
I’m sorry, Sebastian.” I
put my hands on both sides of his face, willing him to understand
my somewhat tangled emotions. “I love you. I love you more than
I’ve ever loved another person, but she is my friend, and she has a
bond to you—”

“
You are my Beloved, not
her.”

“
But she—”

His eyes lightened as he pushed back a bit
to glare down at me. “You bring me happiness. You brought light and
love into my life, ended my torment, and gave me the most precious
gift anyone has ever been given. How can you believe you are not my
Beloved?”

“
Well…” I tried to come up
with convincing proof, but he was right. The one thing I hadn’t
thought I’d been able to do for him had worked out.

Perhaps it wasn’t the traditional method of
soul redemption, my love, but the result was just as successful.
And I will be eternally grateful that I was blessed to find
you.

The words, and emotions behind them, were
enough to make me blush, but one thing still bothered me, one
problem that we had yet to overcome.

“
I am willing to accept
that we were meant to be together. But Noelle is a friend, and
we’ve hurt her. I must do something about that, or it will taint
our relationship.”

He was silent for a moment, his beautiful
face reflecting the thoughts he shared with me. “We’ve proven
beyond any doubt that she is not my Beloved. Thus we will help her
find the man for whom she was meant.”

I nibbled my lip. “She’s never been one for
blind dates, but honestly, I don’t see much of an alternative. I
just hope she understands that we will be doing everything in our
power to help her, though.”

“
We will make her
understand,” he promised, his mouth descending to mine, gently
tugging my lip from where I was still nibbling on it. Whatever it
takes, we will do. I do not like these feelings of guilt within
you. They distract you from the proper adoration of me.

Arrogant
vampire
, I answered, gasping when he found
a ticklish spot behind my ear.
You never
answered me. Are you hungry? For…blood?

I didn’t want him to know, but I was a bit
squeamish about the whole blood-drinking aspect to our
relationship. I’d never been one of those women who thought
vampires were sexy…the thought of someone feeding off me was almost
repugnant.

I will not feed, sweet Belle. You will
provide life for me, but it will not be an act of feeding. You will
give me life, and in return, I will worship you as a slave
might.

I don’t want a
slave,
I said, my body burning as his
mouth kissed a hot path down to my breastbone.
I want a man.

I am yours.
His cheeks, roughened slightly with golden
stubble, brushed against my left breast. At the gentle abrasion it
suddently became the most demanding part of my body.

“
Oh,” I gasped, waves of
little shocks rolling down my body. Sebastian lifted his head long
enough to send me a look so heated, it damn near set the bedding
alight.

“
I think we can do better
than that,” he growled, his mouth hovering over my suddenly
insistent breast. Every muscle in my body was taut with
anticipation, my breath so ragged it was a wonder I was getting any
oxygen. When he took the tip of my breast in his mouth, I thought I
would die. When he suckled that breast while gently tugging on my
second nipple, I knew I was in heaven. And when he nuzzled the soft
area on the underside of my breast, his teeth grazing the flesh for
a second before piercing the skin, a white-hot pain dissolving into
a feeling of profound pleasure that was multiplied by the joy he
felt in taking life from me, I exploded into a nova of
ecstacy.

This is not feeding, my
Beloved. This is a celebration of life—of our lives together,
today, next month, and a millenia from now
. His voice was soft in my head, full of love and
appreciation, and my heart swelled to know he was mine.

Always
, he said, moving over me. I parted my legs, reveling in the
purely physical pleasures to be found in the weight of him on me,
of the sensation of my legs rubbing against him, of his chest hair
teasing my already sensitive breasts.
You
will always be mine
.

I bit his lip, sucking it
into my mouth, and demanded that he do something about the tight
ache he’d built up inside me.
I will hold
you to that, Sebastian. Now stop tormenting me!

His chuckle filled my mind when he entered
me, the feeling of him gently pushing into my body a familiar
pleasure, yet wholly different. I pulled my knees around his hips
to accept more of him into me, digging my fingers into the muscles
of his behind. His hips flexed as I twirled my tongue around his,
drowning in the sensation of the taste, scent, and feel of him. He
was everywhere, in my head, in my body, his mouth possessing mine
until I broke free to breathe. His eyes were dark as night, but
glowing with more love than I ever thought I’d see.

“
I love you, my adorable
zombie,” he murmured against my neck.

“
Revenant,” I said on
another gasp of pleasure as all my insides began to tighten even
more. “I’m…a…rev…rev…oh, God’s bones!”

My words trailed off into a high scream of
absolute rapture as he surged hard into my body, his teeth deep in
my flesh, the sensation of his approaching orgasm mingling with my
own, as well as the sensation of him taking blood from me. My back
arched as I clutched him, our bodies moving quickly in a rhythm
that seemed to start in my heart.

God’s blood, I had no idea
it was going to be like this. Why didn’t I meet you a century
ago?
I asked just before my being burst
into a thousand little pieces of dazzling brilliance. Our souls, my
own and the one I’d given him, touched, and for a moment, we were
one glorious being as his orgasm claimed him, sweeping me
along.

It seemed to take hours for me to finally
come to my senses, but I’m sure it was just a matter of minutes. I
was pleased to notice, as Sebastian rolled onto his back, taking me
with him so I rested on his now damp chest, that he seemed to be
having as much difficulty catching his breath as I did.

Smug
vixen
, he said, one hand caressing my
behind in a gesture of love so sweet, it brought tears to my
eyes.
What was that you were saying about
your previous husbands?