Darkest Desire of the Vampire: Wicked in Moonlight\Vampire Island (Harlequin Nocturne) (10 page)

“Nick, I’m so sorry,” she gasped the moment she could find her voice, horrified to have hurt him.

Pulling his fangs from her throat, he licked the wounds closed and lifted his head, a lazy, sexy smile on his lips that made her breath catch. “Don’t be sorry,” he told her, his voice warm and husky with pleasure as he rubbed his lips against hers. “I loved it. Can’t wait for you to do it again.”

“I...I didn’t hurt you?” she asked, stealing his question for once.

He gave a low, deliciously gritty laugh. “I’m a vampire, sweetheart. We sometimes like a little pain with our pleasure.”

Her eyes went wide with surprise. “Oh...I, uh...”

“Don’t you like it when I’m so deep inside you that it hurts a little?” he asked with a rough, wicked purr. He hadn’t come with her, and he gripped her ass with those big hands, holding her in place as he rammed against her, shoving so deep there was a sweet, sharp pain, and her sex spasmed with a shocking jolt of sensation.

“I see what you mean,” she gasped, but the quiet words were drowned out by his deep, guttural groan, and she could feel the rippling of powerful muscle beneath his skin as he lost control, driving them to a place where the pleasure was so intense she nearly passed out.

When the sweat had finally cooled on their skin, he carefully pulled out of her and moved into a sitting position at the side of the bed. “You okay?” he rasped, scrubbing his hands down his face, then shoving them back through his hair. Staring at the door, he said, “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

He’d asked her that question so many times today, but her answer was always the same. “No, Nick. I’m fine,” she whispered, reaching out to touch the strong, beautiful length of his back. But when he flinched from her touch, a low, animal sound vibrating in his throat, she drew her hand back, knowing something was wrong. “Nick?”

Without a word he pushed himself to his feet. He grabbed his jeans off the floor and her eyes watered as she watched him hike the well-worn denim over his hips, the fly still undone as he padded toward the tall cabinet against the wall and keyed in the combination. A second later the door popped open, and Nick reached inside, his broad shoulders making it impossible for Lainey to see what he was doing. But a chill started to creep its way down her spine. In that moment, she was a thousand times more terrified by what Nick was doing than she was by the monsters trying to break their way into the bunker.

When he finally pulled something out of the cabinet, then turned around to face her, she knew she’d been right to be afraid.

He was holding what looked like a wooden stake in his fist, gripping it so tightly his veins were popping up beneath his dark skin. She scrambled to her feet and quickly pulled on the T-shirt he’d given her to wear earlier, never taking her eyes off the stake.

“What the hell is that?” she asked, even though she knew damn well what it was.

Instead of answering the question, he walked toward her, saying, “Lainey, I need you to do something for me.”

Tears burst into her eyes, her voice little more than an emotional croak as she whispered, “What?”

He grabbed her wrist and tried to press the stake into her hand. But she refused to hold it.

“N-Nick?” she stammered, staring up into his beautiful face with blurry eyes that were wide with shock.

He exhaled a ragged breath, his own eyes burning with a cold, dark fire. “I hate to do this to you, sweetheart. But I need you to kill me.”

Chapter 7

S
haking her head in stunned horror, Lainey couldn’t believe what he’d said. “You
what?
” she gasped. “What are you talking about?”

His jaw was like iron. “You heard me.”

“God, Nick. You must be out of your mind! Don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit? Because I think you
definitely
are!”

“You’re a human, Lainey. What the hell do you know about it?” he sneered.

“I know I’m not doing this.”

“You
will.
” His low voice shook with his rage. “You’ll do it because it’s our only choice.”

She was trembling so hard she could barely speak. “N-no freaking way! If you’re too worried to stay in here with m-me, then let’s go out there and fight them together. I can use the gun and you can rip those bastards to shreds.”

“We can’t,” he argued. “You’d be in too much danger, and I refuse to let that happen.”

“Then we’ll just keep waiting. It’ll be okay, Nick. We made it through hours of sex and you taking my blood without any incidents, and we’ll make it through this. You won’t hurt me. I know you won’t.”

“Lainey, we’re out of bloody time. Since we entered this bunker I’ve used every second that I wasn’t obsessing about you to try to figure out another way. But there isn’t one. I can’t even do it myself because vampires
can’t
commit suicide. It’s part of our survival mechanism.”

“Well, I’m not doing it either!”

He stepped closer, ignoring her struggles as he jammed the stake against her palm again, and this time he closed his fingers around hers as he lifted the tip to his chest. With a muscle pulsing in the side of his jaw, he said, “I knew I would refuse to gamble with your life when you were little more than a beautiful, infuriating stranger. You can bet your ass that after what happened between us in that bed today, I still refuse to gamble with it. This is the
only
choice. You are going to drive this damn stake through my heart, Lainey Maxwell, or I’ll never forgive you.”

She stared up into his furious eyes, barely able to see him through her tears. “No,” she sobbed. “I won’t!”

“You fucking will!” he roared, the savage force of his anger making her tremble so hard that her teeth chattered. “I can feel the moon pulling on me. It’s getting stronger every goddamn second. So stop screwing around and do what needs to be done!”

“You don’t get to do this!” she screamed, completely losing it as she struggled to free her hand from his grip. “You don’t get to leave me! To just give up on me!”

“I’m not giving up on you,” he growled, his breathing loud and uneven. “Damn it, Lainey, I’m trying to save you.”

She blinked her tears away. “By leaving me all alone?”

“You won’t be alone,” he scraped out, his dark eyes burning with emotion. “Not for long. When I’m dead, my family will be able to...sense it. The connection should be strong enough to lead them to my body. They’ll find you, Lainey.”

“And kill me,” she said flatly.

He leaned down, pressing his warm lips to her forehead as he cradled the back of her head in his free hand. “No, sweetheart. When they see you they’ll know that I...” His voice broke, and he cleared his throat. “Just trust me when I say that they would never hurt you.”

She would have asked why he was so sure of that, but it didn’t matter. No way in hell was she doing anything to harm him. Lifting her watery gaze to his, she said, “I’m sorry, Nick. I know you think this is the right thing to do. I know you’re going to be angry with me. But I won’t do it. I’d rather you kill me than be the one who takes your life.”

With a chilling roar of frustration, he shoved her away from him, the stake dropping from her hand to clatter against the floor. Turning his back on her, he stalked across the room and started pounding his fists into the barricaded door until blood was flying from his knuckles, smearing across the steel gray metal.

Running to him, Lainey draped herself across his back, begging him to stop hurting himself. He continued as if he didn’t even hear her, until he suddenly shoved away from the door, moving so quickly she nearly stumbled back on her bottom, only just managing to stay on her feet. She watched as his head shot back and he sniffed at the air. Then he lurched forward and put his ear to the door, listening.

“What’s going on?” she whispered, terrified that more wolves had come for them.

Without answering her, he shoved away from the door again and headed toward the bed, buttoning his jeans along the way. Picking the handgun up from where she’d left it sitting on one of the chairs at the bedside, he made his way toward her and shoved the weapon into her hands. “Shoot anything that comes near you,” he growled, his voice sounding even deeper than it had before, his eyes glowing with a strange golden light. “I mean it, Lainey. Even if it’s me, you fucking shoot.”

“What’s g-going on?” she stammered, more terrified for his safety than she was for her own.

Running his tongue over the edge of his teeth, he said, “My brothers are here.”

As if on cue, she heard the vicious sounds of battle coming from beyond the door.

Releasing his deadly talons from the tips of his fingers, he said, “I have to help them.”

“No! Just...wait with me, Nick. Please! I don’t want you going out there.”

Ignoring her plea, he ordered her to stay in the room and headed back over to the door. It took him only a moment to wrench the bars off, unfasten the locks and pull it open. She made one move to go toward him, but he turned his head to snarl at her, and she could see the animal in his glowing eyes. He was already changing, and she heeded the warning in that visceral gaze, stepping away until the backs of her knees hit the bed. She went down with a thud, sitting on the edge of the mattress, tears streaming down her face as she watched him disappear around the edge of the door. Then he yanked the door shut behind him, no doubt expecting her to lock it again, but she couldn’t move. All she could do was sit there and listen to the excruciating sounds of the battle, and it was the most horrifying thing she’d ever heard, seeming to go on forever...

And then there was a blessed, peaceful, terrifying silence.

Forcing herself into action, Lainey set the gun on the bed and wiped the tears from her face as she crept toward the door, using every ounce of strength she possessed to pull it open, praying she’d find Nick standing on the other side.

Please don’t let him be dead. Please, please, please let him be alive.

As soon as she had the door opened enough that she could squeeze through the gap, she slipped into the shadowy tunnel, the only light coming from the room behind her. But it was enough to illuminate the tall, olive-skinned male who was standing about five feet away, his shoulders propped against the opposite side of the tunnel, his hands pressed against a bleeding wound in his side. When he turned his head to look at her, she gasped at the resemblance to Nick she could see in the man’s face. He just looked a little younger, his dark hair long enough to touch his jaw.

This must be one of the brothers,
she thought, while the male shouted, “Nick! She’s out!”

She saw a flash of movement at the corner of her eye followed by a strange gust of wind. Her skin tingled as she turned her head and realized there was suddenly someone standing right next to her. Tilting her head back, she gazed up at the hard, savage, blood-spattered face staring down at her and knew she should be terrified. In his “new” form, Nick was even taller than he’d been before, and broader, his talons replaced by long, gleaming claws that dripped with blood and could have easily sliced her in two. But though her heart was racing, she refused to react to him with fear; instead, she reached out and ran her fingertips over the new bluish-black tint of his skin. It was undeniably sexy, reminding her of the hero in the
Underworld
movie she’d been watching in her room at the inn. His eyes burned that same molten gold that she’d seen before and his long, sinister fangs gleamed white in the pale glow of light.

He was so powerful and huge, he probably could have killed her with nothing more than a flick of his wrist, but she wasn’t afraid. There was enough of
her
Nick in this savage beauty for her to feel nothing but relief and need. And more love than she ever could have possibly imagined.

“You made it,” she whispered, cupping his dark cheek in her hand. His now shoulder-length black hair brushed her wrist as he affectionately turned his head into her touch, nuzzling her palm.

“Nick!” another male shouted from behind him. “More wolves are coming!”

He snarled deep in his chest as he leaned down and took a rough, hungry sniff of her scent at the side of her throat, the primitive act striking her as intensely intimate. Then he pulled back and stepped away from her, his golden stare holding her own as he spoke to the tall, blood-covered male who was now standing beside him. The vampire had long, shaggy blond hair that reached his massive shoulders and a short blond beard. But his eyes were the same piercing shade of blue as Nick’s, and she knew this was brother number two.

“Get her the hell out of here, Val,” Nick commanded the male in a low, graveled voice, “and guard her with your life. I’ll meet the three of you back up at the house when I’m done.” Then he turned and disappeared in a blur of speed.

Within seconds, they heard more bone-chilling howls, and Lainey knew he was fighting the wolves on his own. Determined to help him, she’d just turned and started back for the room, where she’d left the gun, when a pair of strong hands gripped her waist. As if she weighed little more than a feather, they lifted her off the ground, her breath whooshing out of her chest as she landed over a hard, broad shoulder. “No!” she screamed, beating on Val’s back, furious that he would take her away. She didn’t want to leave when Nick was in so much danger. Couldn’t stand the thought of not being there to help him if he got injured. Of never being able to tell him that he’d changed her life. That she’d fallen utterly and completely in love with him. And that if he died, she didn’t know how she was going to go on without him.

But no matter how she screamed and thrashed, his brother didn’t care. He just carried her out into the moonlit darkness of the night, leaving her heart in jeopardy behind them.

* * ** * *

It was almost daybreak by the time Nick had dispatched the last werewolf, buried the bodies in one of the deepest, most difficult to reach caves and made his way back to his cliff-top home.

He entered the house through the French doors that opened into his master suite, snagging a clean pair of jeans and a T-shirt. An hour ago he’d started to return to his normal appearance, but the fabric of the clean clothes still chafed against his skin. His senses continued to be heightened beyond even his vampire abilities. He couldn’t imagine how incredible it was going to feel when he had Lainey’s soft, sumptuous body spread out beneath him, all velvety and lush. Damn it, he couldn’t wait to feel her, period, needing to hold her in his arms so badly he was shaking.

Despite the fact that he’d managed to control himself in his strange, new hybrid vampire/wolf state, Nick knew the best thing he could do for her was to stay away—but it wasn’t possible. It no doubt made him a selfish bastard, but he’d finally admitted to himself that he needed her too much to lose her. He’d just have to figure out a way to protect her from his enemies, whatever it took.

But when he opened his bedroom door and stepped out onto the open upstairs landing, Nick couldn’t detect her scent, and he knew she wasn’t in the house.

“Where the hell is she?” he bellowed, his heart banging against his ribs as he waited for his brothers to show their faces. Seb came from one of the guest rooms down the hallway on his left, while a stone-faced Val started up the wide stairs that hugged the wall on his right.

“She left,” Seb told him, propping his bare shoulder against the wall. He’d been clawed open by a werewolf during the fight, and he kept one hand pressed to the white bandage that wrapped around his middle.

Nick glared at his younger brother, daring him to say those words to him again. Quietly, he asked, “What did the two of you say to her?”

“We didn’t say anything,” Val muttered, reaching the top of the stairs, his eyes hooded as he pushed his hands deep in the front pockets of his cargo pants. His tone was flat. “She simply refused to stay. Said this was all too much for her and demanded we let her go.”

“Bullshit!” Nick snarled, his chest heaving. “That woman has more courage in her little pinkie than you could ever even begin to imagine! She’s not like the women you’ve known. She’s...damn it, even if she didn’t want me, she would have had the guts to stay and say it to my face. So what the fuck did you do to make her run?”

Seb cut a worried look toward Val, then cleared his throat. “We didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, Nick. We were just worried as hell about you.”

“And just what is your fucking idea of the truth?” he growled.

It was Val who answered him. “We could tell by the way you looked at her,” he said, his hard tone thick with bitterness. “You were willing to tie your life to a human. To give up your immortality for her. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, Nick. But we’re not just going to stand by and let that happen.”

He was across the room in a burst of speed that was probably too fast for even a vampire to see. Wrapping his hand tightly around Val’s throat, he pinned him to the wall and roared, “That wasn’t your choice to make, you meddling son of a bitch! When will you ever learn?”

“It wasn’t like that, man! We did it because we love you,” Seb shouted at his back, trying to pull him off Val. But Nick wasn’t budging. From the cold look in Val’s dark eyes, he knew exactly what his big brother had been thinking. And, God help him, Nick refused to head down that same dead-end road.

“If you cared anything about me at all,” he grated around his rough breaths, releasing his hold on Val as he took a step back, “then you would have done as I asked and protected the woman who I pray to God is going to be my wife.”