Embrace the Night (6 page)

She moaned heavily. “Jude, the heat and vibration together. I won’t last long.”

Good, because I’m ready. I want to fill you up, Hannah.

I want to be filled.

While still suckling at her vein, he drove with purposeful, deep thrusts and the vibration kept getting stronger. She gulped in air, panting hard. She felt her orgasm hovering, but she wanted to hold back, and was unwilling to let go just yet because of all the exquisite sensations.

But when he began to move his hips fast, curling them in quick thrusts, her body took over. A great swell began inside her, taking her breath away. Pleasure unfurled as she pulled hard on Jude’s cock, intensifying her desire. The heat and the vibration grew stronger, amplifying what she felt, building to a pinnacle.

Suddenly, the release flew from her, and she cried out as a warm, heady flush engulfed her body, forcing her to writhe heavily against Jude. Her heart felt lit on fire. She moaned, then once again cried out over and over at the intensity of the orgasm.

Hannah, what you’re doing to me!

It’s unbelievable.
The sweet, gripping sensation kept rolling, and just when it peaked and she thought she was through, Jude began to release, igniting pleasure all over again.

His cock, still vibrating, pistoned within her, and another orgasm swelled, streaking through her, gaining in size and heat, then once more flooding her body with so much pure ecstasy and so many sensations that this time she screamed. She could hardly catch her breath as he continued to drive into her, as he shouted into the air, as his cock released his seed in pulses.

The orgasm swirled through her, forcing small cries from her mouth again and again, until at last she began to ease back from the pinnacle.

It was some time before she came to an awareness that Jude was no longer moving and that he’d released her neck and was now kissing her over and over above her vein.
Thank you, Hannah. This was an amazing experience. I swear, I’ve never had a release like that before.

Her mind felt muddled. She wanted to tell him she hadn’t either, but this made her laugh softly because nothing about making love with him was exactly in her catalog of prior experiences. Nothing could compare.

Of course, now her arms shook from staying in one position so long. She chuckled again. “I need to lie down.”

He lowered her slowly and because he was big, he remained connected to her which she thought absolute genius.

“Let me know if I get too heavy.”

“K.” She drew in a deep breath. She still felt drugged out and sleepy at the same time. She really needed to head to bed for the day.

She closed her eyes, reaching for Jude’s hand. When she found it, she clasped his fingers tight. “Thank you.”

She felt him sigh. He was a solid weight on top of her, even though he held himself up on his forearms. He felt so good. He’d remained half-aroused, which made her wiggle a couple of times just to feel him.

But as she lay there, sweat began to trickle down her forehead. She was really perspiring, something that made sense given what she’d just been through and yet didn’t. In fact, she felt warm all over, and she could tell her temperature was climbing in a very bizarre way.

“Jude, something’s wrong. Get off. Please. I’m sorry, but I think I’m in trouble.”

Jude pulled out of her then moved backwards. She slid sideways from the bunk then headed straight to the bathroom where she quickly started up the shower, though leaving the temp on cold.

She heard him follow after her, his bare feet padding on the tile floor.

“Hannah, did I hurt you?”

“No, of course not. This is … I don’t what this is. I’m just over-heated in a way that is really off.”

She stepped into the cool spray, and groaned because it felt so good. She dipped her head under the water, savoring the icy feel. But how strange that she actually liked the temperature. She should have been jumping and shouting because it was so cold.

Instead, heaven.

Yet her whole body seemed to be on fire. Did having sex with a vampire do this to a human? Or feeding a vampire maybe?

She’d had plenty of friends who’d crawled into bed with vampires, even donated from a willing vein. But she’d never had one tell her she felt like her body had become a living inferno.

When she finally felt cool enough, she stepped from the shower and wrapped herself up in a towel.

Jude had remained by the door. And as naked as he was, with just his long mane of black hair surrounding his muscular shoulders and arms, he’d never looked sexier.

She almost suggested a second round, but he stared at her with an odd expression, his gray eyes wide and a frown between his brows. “Hannah, what’s going on? You look like you’re sunburned, stem to stern.”

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror over the sink. He was right. She was very flushed. She glanced down at her legs and toes. Same thing.

Shifting to face Jude once more, she shook her head. “Do you think I might have some kind of allergy to you, because I can’t explain this heat at all. Or is it something that occasionally happens to your donors?”

He shook his head, his frown deepening. “Never.” After a long moment, she grew uncomfortable with the way he kept staring at her. He looked worried. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. But, I do have a question. Can you tell me how you felt after I fed from your wrist?”

She spread her hands wide. “Good. I mean a lot better, actually. I’d had this kind of weight on my chest.” Something about that sounded familiar, but her mind wouldn’t bring anything into sharp focus. “Afterward, though, I was just fine.”

~ ~ ~

Jude stood rooted to the floor. He’d finally realized that something very realm was going on with Hannah.

He took deep breaths because he was afraid of what was coming next and he didn’t want to look at it, not even a little. “I should head back to Kellcasse.” A completely irrational statement given that the sun was up. But, yeah, he wanted to run.

She chuckled. “You can’t go. You’d be fried to a pile of ashes.”

He nodded. She was right, but she was still bright red, beautiful as hell with her violet eyes glittering and her damp hair drawn away from high cheekbones. But still her skin was such an odd shade. “I know.”

“Jude, you look distressed.”

He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about this or to acknowledge any of its truth. He knew this particular phenomenon was racing through the Nine Realms, perhaps even in response to Margetta’s aggression against their world, but it couldn’t happen to him. Not now. Not ever.

He couldn’t have a permanent woman in his life. He’d lost his wife and daughter and that had been it for him, his last attempt at normalcy while he was ruler of Kellcasse. He was too much of a target and Naomi’s death, as well as Joy’s, had been a deliberate attack against him.

Yes, he had a powerful reason for remaining unattached.

Putting his hand to his stomach, he groaned, not because of the usual cramping but because it was gone, completely gone. He was pain-free for the first time since he’d gained mastyr status so long ago.

And to his knowledge, there was only one reason he could ever be free of that kind of pain.

He opened his eyes, meeting Hannah’s now-worried gaze. She’d taken a couple of steps closer. “Jude, what’s going on?”

“Did you ever wonder why you were suddenly so into me in the same way I’d become obsessed with making more frequent trips to the Gold Rush?”

She shrugged. “I guess I just thought I’d awakened to this.” She waved a hand to encompass his entire body. She even smiled.

In any other circumstance, he would have been gratified, his male ego stroked nicely by her words. He would have smiled as well, maybe even laughed, and he definitely would have hauled her back into his arms.

But not this time.

Things had just gotten way too complicated.

“Think, Hannah. You said your heart felt weighty until you fed me. Doesn’t that sound familiar to you? I know that you’re on the loop with all the other bonded females. Surely they’ve talked about what it’s like for them.”

She laughed and used a second towel to pat her hair dry. “But you’re talking nonsense now.”

“Am I?”

“Of course. Look, I think you’re overreacting to what happened between us just now.” She waved in the direction of the bunkroom. “You know, in there. And it was amazing.”

For a moment, he let himself remember, and his tension eased a little. “It was incredible.”

She cocked her head. “Wait a minute. I just supposed it was always like that for you.”

He shook his head. “No. This was damn extraordinary.”

At that, she frowned. “You mean the sex?”

“Especially the sex. What did you think I meant?”

“The feeding, of course.”

“That, too.” His gaze fell to her neck and an internal vibration very deep wanted to rise, one that he’d kept suppressed for a hundred years. Shit, this couldn’t be happening, but all the signs were there. Yet, Hannah wasn’t taking his hints.

“I need to ask you something.”

Hannah leaned her hips against the sink, the second towel bunched in her hands. She looked troubled, and her gaze flitted toward him then away. “Sure. Whatever.”

“Why did you throw yourself on me like you did, earlier, in the parking lot? At the time, I didn’t understand because it hurt like hell. So why did you?”

“You don’t know what happened?” She set the towel on the sink, then tightened the one around her body.

“Only that you seemed to be protecting me,” Jude said. “But from what I still don’t know. I was flat on my back and I couldn’t see everything that was going on.”

Her eyes widened. “Well, because that vampire was aiming his hand-blast at you. I was looking back at the dock and caught sight of this red glow and it was coming from his palm. He would have killed you so I covered you.”

“Shit,” he murmured.

She then shook her head. “But Jude, don’t you remember what happened next, because you sent this kind of wave of heat passing right through me and it burned him up. He was horribly blistered and died soon after. Don’t you remember? Didn’t you see what you did to him?”

Jude’s spirits sank one more notch. She’d just confirmed everything in those few words. It was also clear she didn’t understand what had really happened. “I don’t have that kind of power to bring fire out of my body and destroy others, to burn others.”

She put both hands on her head. “I’m so confused. I don’t get what you’re saying. How is that possible? I mean maybe what happened was that your usual blasting power got activated somehow.”

“If it had passed through you, you’d be dead. No, Hannah, I had nothing to do with killing that vampire.” He could see she was in a state of shock as she slowly lowered her arms to her sides.

“If you’re suggesting that
I
had anything to do with it, I think you’re crazy. I run a bar, I don’t kill vampires.”

“But you did and I think it’s tied up with the flush that’s finally fading from your skin.”

She looked away from him, shaking her head. “None of this makes sense.”

Jude said nothing more, but waited for her to catch up. His mind rolled inward and switched lanes completely as he recalled being in Walvashorr with Mastyr Seth, and so deeply attracted to Lorelei, Seth’s emerging blood rose.

Jude had heard the tales, about the level of possessiveness a mastyr would feel for his woman and the drive he’d have toward her, but he’d dismissed a good portion of this as outright embellishment.

Until … and he cringed at the memory … until he’d found himself alone with Lorelei for the first time. It was as though he’d lost his mind. He went after her and something about her blood-rose state responded to his mastyr status as well. She’d all but opened her arms to him.

The moment had ended with Seth attacking him and he and Seth would have battled to the death if Lorelei hadn’t intervened.

As he stared at Hannah, he knew he’d just gotten thrown into the deep end once more. If she was a blood rose, or an emerging one, with unique incredible powers, and she remained unbonded for any length of time,
every mastyr
in the Nine Realms would eventually come hunting her.

He’d take the chronic pain he suffered as a mastyr to be rid of this horrible situation. He didn’t want a Goddess be-damned woman in his life, he hadn’t asked for a blood rose, and like hell he was going to act on it.

But this was Hannah. And if he wasn’t careful, a mastyr vampire of lesser ability and no character at all, could seduce her. Then she’d be locked into a life of pure torture.

What the hell was he supposed to do?

~ ~ ~

Hannah could feel that for whatever reason, Jude’s anger had taken over. Though why he was mad, she wasn’t sure.

Of course, nothing made sense to her right now. It was almost as though she knew something in the very center of her brain, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at it.

She glanced down at her toes once more, now more pink than red, so the flush was fading.

But what had caused all the redness?

Her tingling hands were still really warm and bugging her. She rubbed them together again.

And Jude had no pain.

She mentally danced a little more.

Maybe this was simple. She’d fed him and something about feeding him had been a little different than what he was used to. That had to be it. And as for her killing a vampire, well, he’d lost a whole bag of screws on that one. She was more likely to shut the Gold Rush down forever than to even kill a flea. All spiders walked out of her bar alive.

With her towel still snug, she turned toward the sink and flipped on the cold water. She held her hands beneath the stream and felt some relief from the tingling. Maybe it was time to see a doctor.

Jude drew close and settled a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Hannah.”

Why did he sound so resigned? And to what?

She held her hands up for him to see. “My hands won’t cool down, even though the water is freezing. I shouldn’t have fed you. This is because I fed you. I knew I shouldn’t have. I’m human, you’re realm and we shouldn’t engage like that.”