Compelled (Vampires in America #10.5) (6 page)

She sighed and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Escalade. She had a long drive back to Kansas City ahead of her, and at the end of it, she’d have work to do. But, most important of all, she needed to be there when her vampire woke for the night.

Chapter Four

CYN WAVED A greeting to Steve Sipes, who headed up Raphael’s daylight security team. Whether they were home on the estate or traveling, Steve was an important part of Raphael’s close-in security team, and she trusted him completely. She nodded at the two guards stationed at the foot of the stairs, then made her way quickly up and into the jet. The heavy door at the top was closed, but by now, she was an old hand at opening those things. The guards would have been happy to help, but she was the only one allowed up the stairs. Steve was an exception to the rule, but only in an emergency. And if the emergency was severe enough, like if the plane was on fire or something, Steve had discretion to bring his team all the way on board. That alone was the measure of Raphael’s trust in him.

But there was no emergency this afternoon, so Cyn was alone as she closed the hatch behind her and made her way down the quiet aisle. Most of Raphael’s vampires slept in the special temporary quarters set up for them in the hangar itself, but a few slept on board the plane. She and Raphael had a private bedroom, while the others shared a windowless sleeping chamber to one side of the aircraft that doubled as a seating area at night. No one liked to sleep on the plane, but sometimes it was necessary, and it was as comfortable as money and ingenuity could make it.

She let herself into their dimly lit bedroom. There were no windows back here at all, so no danger of any sunlight intruding, but there was a dim lamp burning on her side of the bed. Raphael needed that light too when he first rose. Vampires had remarkable night vision, but even they needed a little bit of light to see by.

Going right to the small, utilitarian desk, she booted up both of the computers she had there and entered everything she had on Gary Briley, Jr. One system was put to work on an in-depth search, casting a wide net for just about anything her searchbots could find, while the other began tracking his cell phone, digging up all activity for the last month. Not only where he’d been, but calls made and received. That particular search was quite illegal, just as it was illegal for her to have access to those phone records at all, but there were vampires occupying sensitive positions all over the United States, including inside the various phone companies, and their loyalties were unhindered by human law.

Rather than sit and watch the screens, she stripped off her clothes and hung them neatly in the tiny closet, all the while wishing she were back home in Malibu. She knew she shouldn’t complain—the bedroom in this 707 was as elegant as one could make it. But it was still an airplane, which meant she had to make do with limited space and, even worse, nothing but a quick, warm shower. This was Cyn’s definition of camping. No long, hot pummeling of water, no soothing session in a deep soaker tub . . . no room service, either.
Although Raphael would certainly be having room service when he woke up
, she thought grumpily.

She could have used the relaxation of a hot shower about now. Between the lack of sleep necessary to join Nick for his visit to Mrs. Briley and remaining awake all night with Raphael—not to mention the high stress levels of dealing with the hostility between the two men—she was worn out. Raphael had promised her a vacation after Hawaii, which seemed counterintuitive, now that she thought about it. Most people
took
vacations in Hawaii. But, regardless, she’d accepted that there wouldn’t be any vacations until the European invasion had been completely defeated, and there was no end in sight to that. Not that she could see. In fact, she was deathly worried about her friend Colin, who was mated to Sophia, the vampire lord who ruled over all of Canada. Sophia had finally reached out to consult with Raphael, and he’d brought Aden into the conversation, since his territory was one of those bordering Canada. Colin was missing, and while Cyn knew his fate was in good hands, she still wished she could be looking for him herself. She was worried.

Unfortunately, Raphael didn’t have the luxury of dealing with one crisis at a time. Any of the eight North American lords could stand against the European invasion, singly or together. But only she and Raphael could deal with Nick. They’d made a promise and had to make good on it. Not to mention the fact that the manacles were extremely dangerous and could very well come back and bite them in the ass someday if they didn’t deal with it now.

She walked out of the bathroom, still toweling off as she sat down in front of her computer. The detailed search she’d set up on Gary Briley, Jr. and his family was still digging away, but the results she had so far didn’t add much to what Nick had already told her. The phone search was more interesting, however. Gary, Jr., it seemed, was on the move. Running scared, maybe? But from whom? His buyer? The auction where he’d sold the manacles was a darknet site. She didn’t do much on the darknet, but she knew the basics. It overlaid the Internet, using specific software and protocols to limit participation to only those who were invited. Nick seemed to be more familiar with it than she was—big surprise there—so she was leaving that part of the search up to him. But she didn’t need details to know that the kind of person who would buy something like the manacles—the kind who, first of all, would even know such a thing existed and, secondly, where to find it—might be someone to avoid. Maybe Gary, Jr. had bit off more than he could chew. Maybe his buyer wanted to be sure no one could track the manacles back to him, and Gary, Jr. had become a liability.

Deciding the computers could work without her for a while, she draped the towel on the rack in the bathroom, then crossed the compact room and slid beneath the sheets next to Raphael, resting her head on the solid muscle of his shoulder, draping one leg over his hip. Even in daylight sleep, he was still a
presence
. It was as if he was simply too much in the world for something as ordinary as sleep to stifle his energy. She curled her arm over his chest and breathed deeply for what felt like the first time in hours. She was never more at peace than when she was with him. Closing her eyes, she drifted almost immediately into a deep sleep.

She woke a few hours later when the familiar weight of Raphael’s arm dropped over her back, and his deep voice rumbled in her ear, “You showered.”

“Of course, I showered,” she muttered grumpily. “The last thing I need is you sniffing and licking me all over, trying to get rid of the smell of sorcerer.”

He chuckled, low and deep. “You’re in a mood,” he said, then rolled over, tucking her beneath him before leaning down to trail his tongue over her neck. “You don’t like my tongue on you?”

Cyn flexed hard, shoving him onto his back as she followed, ending up with her legs straddling his hips. “I love
everything
you do with your tongue,” she murmured, leaning over to brush her breasts against his chest as she licked his mouth, tangling her tongue briefly with his in a hard kiss. “But I have better uses for it than licking imaginary sorcerer taint off my skin.” She bit his lower lip, then let him pull her into a longer kiss, his fingers digging into her hips as she rocked back and forth on top of him. His cock was already hard beneath her, a firm ridge over his belly as she ground against him.

Raphael growled, his fingers tightening as his hands moved down to cup her ass. She could feel his muscles bunching, ready to throw her onto the bed and take her, could read the determination in his dark eyes as he watched her from beneath half-lowered eyelids, his gaze unwavering, like a predator watching its prey.

Cyn gave him a wicked grin. “Unh uh. This is my turn,” she taunted, then slid down his body, her hard nipples scraping over his chest and belly, before she squeezed her breasts together to cradle the length of his erection as she slid down even further, her bare pussy wet against his firm thigh, her hair slipping over his groin when she finally took him in her mouth.

Raphael hissed his pleasure, his strong fingers twisting in her hair, tugging until she could feel the burn in her scalp. She twirled her tongue around the tip of his shaft, lifting her gaze to find him staring down at her, not meeting her eyes, but staring at her lips as they surrounded his hard cock, watching the wet slide of her mouth up and down. Gripping him at the base, she squeezed his thickness, while she teased the swollen tip, gliding her tongue around and down, licking up the drop of pre-cum. Sucking hard, she took him fully into her mouth, her fingers sliding down to cup his balls as she stroked her tongue along the sensitive underside of his penis, from base to tip, and then again, letting him feel the press of her teeth before sucking him deep into her throat.

Raphael’s muscles clenched, fighting the urge to take control, to force her to swallow his cock while he thrust hard and deep. Cyn took him as far as she could, humming her pleasure at the taste of his satin skin, the iron thickness of his erection, knowing the sound would vibrate along the sensitive nerves of his cock, thrumming over his wet skin.

She rolled her eyes up to look at him again, meeting his hungry stare.

“Cyn,” he growled in warning, and she knew her time was limited. Raphael was as alpha a male as she’d ever known, willing to surrender to her for only so long before he was driven to seize control.

Her fingers tightened around the base of his cock as she swallowed, taking more of him until her lips met her fingers. Then she swallowed again, sliding him deep into her throat as he threw his head back and groaned. She held him there, filling her throat, caressing his length as she swallowed over and over again, his muscles turning to rock beneath her. She waited as long as she could, until she ran out of air, and then she released him, forcing herself to go slowly, sucking and licking as she lifted her head, her cheeks hollowing out as she worked his length in and out of her mouth.

His balls tightened in the cup of her fingers, his cock swelled between her lips, and she knew he was close to coming. She wanted the heat and taste of him, wanted to revel in the knowledge that she could break that rigid control of his, could make him lose it entirely.

But this was Raphael. With a growled curse, he pulled her off of his cock and flipped her to her back, shoving her knees to her chest and spreading her thighs as he drove his hips forward, slamming his cock into her soaking wet pussy, pistoning in and out with absolute focus. His eyes gleamed silver in the low light, his fangs bared in a thrilling snarl of heat and hunger. The sight of him thrusting above her nearly made her come, but she held out. Not yet, not yet.

She moaned a hunger of her own, nails digging into his powerful biceps, feeling his muscles flex every time he pumped his cock deep inside her and dragged it back out again. He leaned forward without breaking the rhythm of his thrusts, and shoved his face into the curve of her neck, his tongue rasping over her sweat-dampened skin in a sensuous glide from her throat to her ear until his lips closed over her jugular vein and pulled gently, toying with her, knowing what she wanted.

Rumbling a wordless curse, he struck without warning, his fangs slicing through her skin and into her vein. She cried out in pain even as the euphoric in his bite shot into her veins in a searing flood of heat and desire. The orgasm crashed over her in a rush of unimaginable sensation, her pussy clenching around his cock, her abdominal muscles contracting so hard it hurt. Blood ran down his arms as her nails dug in, as he kept sucking her vein, kept driving his cock into her body as the orgasm consumed her.

Cyn bit her tongue to keep from screaming, agonizingly aware, as her own blood filled her mouth, of the many sensitive vampire ears far too close. Raphael drew in a noisy breath, his nostrils flaring against her skin as he scented the fresh blood. He lifted his head, tonguing away the wound in her neck as he kept fucking her, licking his way up to her mouth and closing his lips over hers as he drank in the blood from her damaged tongue. He came suddenly and hard, and Cyn swallowed the groan of his climax as his cock bucked inside her, his release filling her with warm, wet jets of cum.

Raphael collapsed finally, his full weight coming down on her as she stretched her legs wide, and then wrapped them around his hips. He licked the inside of her mouth lazily, gathering up the last bit of blood from her injured tongue with slow, soft sweeps, before lifting his head to murmur sweet words of Russian against her lips. Then he pressed his mouth against hers in a kiss that lasted long enough that his still-firm cock reacted deep inside her. She raised her arms to circle his neck, and he rolled them over, his cock pulling out as he tucked her tight against his side. She flung a leg over his hip, her pussy wet against the searing heat of his skin.

He didn’t say anything, and neither did she. Words weren’t necessary. The two of them were connected, by blood or magic or whatever anyone wanted to call it. She and Raphael beat with one heart, dreamed with one soul.

They lay that way until the sounds all around them intruded. The gentle bounce of the plane as his vampires woke, the voices, human and vampire, as his team transitioned from day to night.

“Are we leaving this place?” he asked finally. And Cyn knew what he was asking. He wanted to know what she and Nick had discovered. Had they found their missing guard or, even better, the buyer of the cursed manacles? And how long before they could finish this task and go home to Malibu?

“I need to check my computers,” she said lazily, her voice still thick with sated desire.

Raphael chuckled, a sound full of male satisfaction. To the world at large, he was a powerful vampire lord, someone to respect and fear. But in bed, he was just a guy. A guy with uncommon sexual skills to be sure, but still a guy who took smug pride in having his woman draped over his body, her pussy still pulsing with leftover tremors from the climax he’d given her, her voice heavy with delicious contentment.

She stroked her hand down over his ridged abdomen, past his flat belly, and circled his cock with her fingers. He stiffened almost instantly, in every way, and she gave her own version of a satisfied chuckle.

Raphael slapped her ass. “Behave or we’ll be here all night.”

“Would that be a bad thing?”

“Only because I want to put this ordeal behind us.”

“Hmmm. Point taken,” she agreed. She permitted herself a final stroke of his very fine cock, and then patted his belly and sat up. “I, um,
borrowed
Gary’s mom’s phone while we were at the house and kept it long enough to get a few phone numbers. We should have a location by now, and maybe more.” She slid from the bed as Raphael’s fingers trailed over her ass, teasing between her cheeks. “Now who’s not behaving,” she scolded, then turned away with a grin and crossed the short distance to where her computers were still hard at work.