Into Death's Arms (28 page)

     I moaned
,
I couldn’t help it
,
the feel of his flesh so close to mine, the sounds he was making,
the heat of his skin through satin.
I wanted this. I wanted this so badly I couldn’t stand it. “Dayton,” I growled. His head snapped up and he crawled the rest of the way to my mouth. He lowered his mouth to mine and captured my lips with his. My blood boiled beneath my skin. I dropped the sheet
. M
y motor skills weren’t working
so fantastically anymore.
He cupped my chin with one hand while the other slid around to grasp my neck. He held me immobile while he plundered my mouth with his to
ngue. I shuddered beneath him.
Cool strands of his hair moved over my shoulders and across my breasts.

     I surged toward him aggressively doing some exploring of my own. I ran my hands along the cool plains of his back. His skin was soft like velvet. He broke free of my mouth and traced his lips down my throat. “Macyn
,” he whispered reverently,
I shuddered. He nipped at my
collarbone
. My body undulated under him. I had never felt anything so potent in my life. Even the pain of being sliced open by
Shifters
was nothing compared to this. His hands slid under the sheet pulling it down further to give him better access to me.
“I’d nearly given up hope.” He whispered his breath hot on my breast. He took my nipple into his mouth tonguing the hard little crest. I cried out loudly.
The sound reverberated around the room.

     He moved to the other breast
,
I struggled to move
,
but his heavy body held
me in
place. “Dayton,
” I whimpered again.

   
I fisted his hair and pulled him away from my body. I dragged him forward so he was kneeling directly in front of me. He looked down at me heat radiated from his gaze. I glanced up at him and smiled wickedly just before I ran my tongue over his belly tattoo. He threw
his head back and shouted “Yes,
” I could feel his erection against my chin.
I nipped at his AoLi mark.
He fisted my hair as I had done his earlier. He jerked my head back and leaned down to take my lips again. I reached for the button to his jeans and jerked it free. He let go of my hair
as
I reached for his zipper and looked up at him again I wanted to see his eyes when I took him into my hand. His eyes
glowed;
he was breathing heavily, his fangs slid down over his lower lip. His fangs… oh God what was I doing!

  
I threw him
off
me and surged across the room breathing hard. He sat on the
floor shaking his head. “Macyn,
” he asked tentatively, his hand reaching out towards me.

     “No,
” I yelled.
The word sounded like a shot in the room
. “
No, I can’t do this. You are a
Vamp
ire
! The enemy! I can’t do this.”
My arms crossed over my bare chest.
I looked around desperately searching for something
anything
to wear.

    He stood and took a hesitant step towards me,
“Macyn, please.”

   “NO,
” I yelled again. “W
here the hell are my clothes?” T
ears started to fall from my eyes
I didn’t even know where they’d come from. My hands were shaking I couldn’t believe what I’d almost done.
I hugged
my torso
, tightly
.

    His eyes clouded with despair. “Macyn,” I shook my head violently. He sighed, “I will get you something.” He dropped his hand, his eyes searched me one more time,
and he
turned and left the room.  I ran back to the bed and snatched the sheet off the bed. I wrapped it around me and sank into one of the chairs. My skin burned where Dayton had touched me. My body we
pt for what I had turned away.
I had almost betrayed everything I was supposed to stand for.

   
I really was unworthy.

   
I wept into my hands. 

   A sound near the door drew my attention. Dayton stood in the doorway. He was dressed and immaculately groomed as if he hadn’t just been rolling around in the sheets with me. He held a stack of clothing in his arms. “I brought some different things so you would have a choice.” His tone was measured and sure. I really didn’t like him much right now. How could he be so calm?
He set them down on a table near the chair I was perched in. “I’ll be in the next room when you are clothed.” That was all he had to say before he left. I stared after him. What is wrong with me? I was angry he wasn’t still worked up. I had no right to be angry. I went through the clothes he had left and was angry t
o find they were women’s clothes. I had no r
ight to get angry
,
I told myself, again!
I dressed in the borrowed clothing and somehow managed to get my raging hormones under control.

    True to his
word,
Dayton was waiting in the next
room, which
was like a little antechamber to the bedroom. He leaned against the far wall. All casual grace, I wondered if he still felt as
hot as I did. “I don’t su
ppose my wallet survived either,
” I asked not looking him in the eye. Yeah, I know I was a coward
,
a big fat coward but there it was.

    He reached into his back pocket and held out my wallet
and my cell phone
for me. Great now I just h
ad to cross the room and take them
from him. Only I really didn’t want to get that close to him.

     
I could do this.

     
I was tough. He raised one of those soft black eyebrows at me.

    
I was so out of my league. I st
rode across the room and took them
from him.

  
He grabbed my arm and pulled me against his body. My free hand smacked into a firm wall of warm muscle. “This is not over between us Macyn. I will give you tim
e to accept it but you are mine,” h
e said softly. A bass rumble against my hand.

    I jerked away from him. “Keep dreaming
Vamp
ire
,
” I said steadily and left as quickly as my feet could carry me.

   
Laughter
followed me down in the elevator
Run, run as fast as you can AoD.

    Shut up!
I hissed again and threw up my s
hields. My motorcycle was waiting
right outside the door for me. The doorman handed me the key.
I headed home without another word.
Tears streaming down my face, I was a mess. This was not how an AoD was supposed to behave. I tried to tell myself I had just had a near death experience
but if that excused
my behavior how did I explain what had happened in my bedroom earlier?

Chapter 1
3

   My phone rang as I pulled into the
driveway
. “Mace
,
” I answered.

    “Hey kiddo, how are things,
” my dad asked. Ha, let me repeat Ha. 

   I did what any red-blooded American girl would do when talking to her daddy on the phone I talked shop and avoided sexy
Vamp
ires
. “Good, I took down a whole
Shifter
pack tonight.” It was the truth I had he didn’t need to know I’d nearly had sex with a
Vamp
ire
afterwards, not just any
Vamp
ire
but Dayton Tameron.

   “Really,
” he sounded surprised. “What kind?”

    “Bear,” I said succinctly and why the hell did he sound so surprised?

   “Really, w
as it a small pack?” What
,
he didn’t think I could take on a real pack by myself I had
,
damn it.

    “No, it was a five man pack. Well
the youngest
one got away but I took down the rest.” I wonder if I sounded as annoyed to him as I did to me.

     “Mace honey I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said it that way. It just isn’t very often that an AoD takes on a whole bear pack by himself and walks away. They are one of the toughest packs well bears and lions. I’m proud
really;
I am just worried about you. Were you hurt badly?” his voice was truly laced with concern.
So
,
I forgave him.

    How do you tell your dad well sure I almost died but don’t worry your archenemy, my nearly lover, the
Vamp
ire
took good care of me?
“Yeah
, there
was an AoLi nearby so I was taken care of.”

     “An AoLi in San Fran
,
” I could hear the question in his voice. “There isn’t an AoLi in San Fran
,
Macyn.”
He sounded so very sure of that.

     
“Well there might not have been before but there certainly is now. Cause he stitched
me up and put me back together,
” I snapped. This conversation was starting to piss me off.
First,
he didn’t believe I could do my job now he didn’t believe I would know an AoLi when I saw one.

      “Macyn, you swo
re you’d stay away from Tameron,
” He yelled. What, he knew?

     “You knew,
” I yelled myself. “You knew he was an AoLi? How come you never said
anything?
Damn it dad I thought we swor
e to be honest with each other.” I yelled like I had held up my end of that bargain. “
How the hell does that happen anyway? He is a
Vamp
ire
how can he be an AoLi?” Laith came out of the house and tilted his head at me. I slapped my finger to my lips the last thing I needed w
as my dad questioning me about the
Shifter
brother he didn’t know I had. He nodded and went back inside.

    My father sighed, “He was, is the progeny of an AoLi and a
Vamp
ire
. He seemed
Ao
until he went through the ascension, for
a while
he was a completely normal AoLi then the blood lust started in. Now he’s just a
Vamp
ire
like the rest of them.”

    “No
,
not just a
Vamp
ire
like the rest of them dad he can heal that gives him an outrageous advantage over the
other
Shadow-born
!
Oh, and it gives them the advantage over us too.
He can t
ear us up and heal up his troops
,
” I w
ent into the house. Laith had set out several peanut butter
and jelly
sandwiches.

    “Did he hurt you Macyn,
” he asked concerned again.

    “No
,
damn it
,
he didn’t
;
he healed me. Then he tried to seduce me. You should have told me just how powerful he was
.  Y
ou withheld information fr
om me and I have paid a pretty
high price for it Dad.” I mouthed thank you at Laith he nodded again.

    “I know. I’m sorry baby,
it’s
just, well we were very close at one point. It is hard to talk about. He was once the closest thing I ever had to a brother.
Wait did
you say he tried to seduce you,
”
yeah focus in dad.

    “He was your year mate,
” I interrupted.
I so didn’t want to discuss my almost sexual experience with Tameron.

     “Yeah, I’m sorry Mace I should have warned you just how dangerous he was.
Did he really try to seduce you,
” he sounded surprised.
There he went pissing me off again, I knew I wasn’t gorgeous like Deanna but I had some nice attributes, some.

    “Yes, it might surprise you dad but I am a pretty good looking
girl.” I laughed,
a harsh sound
, he had hurt my feelings weren’t daddy’s supposed to tell you how you were the prettiest little girl ever, even if you looked like you’d been hit with the ugly stick
, a lot
.
Maybe some of my self-esteem issues weren’t my fault after all. When
I
spent
my
entire life trying to compare to women like Deanna and my mother how could
I
not fall short.
“How are things in Peru,
” I asked wanting to change the subject.