INTO THE FIRE (Forbidden Love) (11 page)

When he found her clit, she did.

She heard the strip of sheets she had used to tie him down ripping. He broke his bonds easily. But he did not stop. He continued to flick his tongue across her clit with increasing speed, now holding her hips in place, forcing her to take more. And then, Lord help her, he added his finger to the mix. When she came for the second time, she saw stars behind her eyes.

Then, she was airborne. Rebel flipped their position so fast that Leigh didn’t have time to react. She was flat on her back and staring up at him. “You’re mine,” he growled and entered her in one hard thrust while she was still spasming from her climax.

Rebel lifted her legs and anchored his arms under her knees. He filled her to overflowing, stretching and burning her too sensitive flesh. “Mine,” he growled again and again in sync with his powerful thrusts. “Mine, mine, mine.” Then, he lowered his body and bit her.

White hot pain mixed with pleasure took over all of Leigh’s senses. Rebel was all she could see, smell, taste, and hear. She could hear his heart pounding in his chest. She could feel his body moving within hers. She was surrounded by his scent.

He raised his head from her neck and said, “You’re mine.” And then, he bit her again. From the first moment Leigh had laid eyes on him, she had known he was hers. No matter how hard she had tried to deny it, the proof was staring her in the face. He was marking her and she knew it. She knew it and was doing nothing to stop it. But she wasn’t one to be outdone. Leigh didn’t make the conscious decision to mark him, but she did. She set her teeth to his neck and sank her teeth into his skin, drawing blood. He tasted sinfully sweet, like dark chocolate. Yes, she thought, she was his. And he was hers. He might have had little in the common sense department, he might have been the most irritating mother fucker she ever met, and yes, he was Stalker-boy. But he was
her
stalker. Hers alone.

Rebel knew he was marking her. He wanted to mark her. He was surrounded by her heat and slick body. He ground his hips into her so hard that they were both moving up the mattress with every thrust. And still, he had to have more. When her body began to convulse again, his spine snapped rigid and he gave himself over to one eighteen wheeler of an orgasm, shouting her name as he filled her.

He dropped his weight and released her from his teeth. Panting wildly, he had to catch his breath before saying anything. He lifted his head to do just that when searing pain exploded throughout his body. His back arched, tight as a bow, and his head jerked back. He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn’t obey. He scrambled into a half sitting position, desperately trying to make his mouth work. Leigh’s expression was horrified. He wanted to tell her what was going on. But he couldn’t. No sooner than he was upright, the spasm hit again. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear. All he knew was the pain. Pain that enveloped every nerve ending in his body. Pain that scorched him from the inside out. His skin felt like it was being ripped from his body. Even his teeth hurt. Then, he felt himself falling.
I’m
dying,
he thought.
This is the end.

THIRTEEN

“Rebel!” Leigh shouted as she lunged off the bed and scampered to his fallen body on the floor. “Oh Jeesh, Cowboy, what’s wrong?” She knelt down next to him. His forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat, his body rigid. His face was twisted into a grimace of pain and tears were leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Eyes that were unfocused and wildly searching the room. There was a trickle of her blood running from his mouth down his cheek and into his hairline.

Leigh felt his neck, only to discover that his pulse was pounding erratically. “Shit, I killed you,” she whispered. “Come on, Cowboy, don’t do this. Come back. Fuck. Come back.”

Leigh blindly reached behind her and grabbed a pillow to shove under his head. “Rebel,” she said louder, “Come on, Man, I swear by everything holy that if you don’t snap out of this, I’m gonna call Angel.”

Rebel responded by jerking and flailing wildly. He was having a seizure. Did vampires have seizures? Hell, she didn’t know, but it sure as hell looked like it. Leigh tried to remember what to do for someone having a seizure. Wasn’t she supposed to hold him down? Or put something in his mouth so that he didn’t bite off his tongue? Fuck, fuck, fuck! The best lay she had ever had, and she killed him. Leigh felt a hot tear roll down her face.

At a loss, Leigh called out for Angel.

“What is it?” Angel huffed as he burst through the bedroom door.

“It’s Rebel!” she sobbed. “I killed him! Oh God, you have to help him.”

His eyes darted around the room and finally focused on Rebel. “
Merde!
What happened?” he hollered as he raced to his brother’s side, kneeling down beside him.

“We were… and then he bit me, and then… Hell, I think my blood killed him.” Leigh was trembling all over, her arms wrapped around her middle as if trying to hold herself together. “You have to save him.”

“He is not dead,” Angel said. He was very still for a moment and then the rest of the vampires in the house burst into the room.

“What the fuck?”

“What’s happened?”

“Holy Hell!” Her sentiments, exactly, Leigh thought.

“I poisoned him,” Leigh mumbled, slumping her shoulders in defeat. She was prepared for whatever the vampires wanted to do to her in retribution.

“I doubt that,” Jacque drawled. “Tell me what happened.” Rebel had finally stopped flopping around like a fish out of water and was now perfectly still. Deadly still. His eyes were closed and Leigh would have thought he was dead if not for the barest of movement in his chest. He was still breathing. Leigh looked at Jacque. He had insinuated himself next to Rebel and was brushing his hand across the other vampire’s head. The motion was clinical, but also something else. It was genuine concern. Leigh could plainly see that Jacque truly cared for his brother. “What happened?” he repeated. “And is that wax on his chest?”

Leigh blushed. She felt it spread across her face in a flash of white hot heat. Hadn’t they said that Jacque was the closest thing to a doctor that they had? Leigh took a deep breath, screwed her courage tight, and told Jacque what happened. When she finished telling him how Rebel reacted after drinking from her, she asked, “Did I do this to him?”

“I do not know,” he answered with a shake of his head. “I need to run some tests. I have never heard of this happening before. We are usually immune to any diseases that our dinner may have.”

“I am Not diseased.” Or dinner for that matter.

“I wasn’t inferring that you were,
Mademoiselle,
only that we are immune to most everything.”

Leigh humphed. Gage had wrapped a sheet around her still naked body at some point and was standing next to her with his arm around her back. She hadn’t even realized it at first, but she was glad for the support. She was grateful for the concerned look Gage turned on her. It didn’t make her feel guilty, which she was doing a great job of doing all on her own.

“Let’s get him in bed,” Antonio suggested. Four vampires lifted Rebel gently, reverently, as if they were afraid to break him. Another stab of guilt sliced through Leigh’s heart. What the fuck had she done now? She knew she should have stayed away from him. Now look at him. The most beautiful man she had ever met, inside and out, and she had quite possibly poisoned him or worse.

Once Rebel was settled in bed and covered in with a thick blanket, Angel directed his men out of the room. Only Jacque remained. He was sitting beside the bed in a chair that Leigh hadn’t even noticed was in the room before now.

“Is he going to be ok?” she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed beside Rebel’s still form.

“I don’t know,” Jacque answered. “I will have answers soon enough, though. Antonio has gone to get my supplies. I will take blood and run tests. If there is a way to help him, I will find it,” he vowed.

Leigh watched Rebel’s face. He was even more beautiful when he was at rest. Her heart tugged in her chest. He said that she was his mate. He said that he wanted her. Leigh felt stupid for even entertaining the idea for even a minute. Look where it got him. “I guess I’m not really his mate,” she mused aloud.

“I wouldn’t discount the possibility,” Jacque said. “Sometimes fate has a really twisted sense of humor.” Leigh didn’t miss the note of disdain in his voice.

“You lost your mate,” she said.

Jacque nodded. “I don’t think that she realized I was hers. I like to think that it was just ignorance. It is too painful to think she rejected me.”

“Did you tell her?”

“I never got the chance,” he said. “She left me before I could.”

“Why didn’t you follow her? I mean, if this whole mate thing is as strong for vamps as it is for dragons, nothing on Heaven or Earth would keep you from your true mate.”

“I was not aware that dragons had mates.”

“I never had one. But yeah, we have that mating issue too. When we bond, it’s for life. When we mark our mate, it’s permanent.”

“Did you mark Rebel?”

“I..um..I don’t know. I think I might have. I mean, hell. I figured he was just infatuated and would get over it in time. Most men do.”

“We do not throw around the word mate carelessly,” Jacque said through gritted teeth. “He would die for you.”

“I know that now,” she conceded. “I just wish I hadn’t hurt him.”

Antonio entered the room at that moment. He was carrying a tray full of various medical supplies. Leigh watched as Jacque systematically used each one. He took Rebel’s temperature, which was one hundred and one, too hot for a vampire, he drew blood, checked his eyes and his vital signs.

“If he were human, I would be very concerned,” Jacque said. “His temp is too high, his pulse is erratic, and his breathing is shallow. His blood pressure is through the roof. His abdomen is making odd noises. I need to get him downstairs and into CAT scan.”

They kept a CAT scan machine on hand? She thought. “Amongst other things,” Jacque answered her thought aloud. Or perhaps she had spoken the words out loud. “We keep a fully functional medical clinic in the basement. You just never know when we might need it.” Ok, either he was very powerful and she was projecting, or she was speaking her mind out loud.

Antonio nodded. Together, the two men lifted Rebel out of the bed and carried him away. Leigh considered following, but Antonio told her no. “We will bring him right back.”

Leigh flopped back on the bed. The bed that belonged to Rebel. The bed where he had made love to her. It still smelled of their combined scents. Leigh couldn’t help but wonder if it would ever happen again. No, she decided, probably not. She had really screwed up this time. She lay back on the pillows and sank into their softness. The dam she had erected against her heart broke and her emotions tore free. She turned her face into the pillows and cried.

Jacque had never seen anything like it. Rebel was out cold. His body was still functioning, albeit not very well, but working. He would do whatever it took to keep his brother alive. He would not let him die.

But a part of Jacque’s mind didn’t think he was dying. He had to get some lab results, and fast. The rest of his family had taken up in the kitchen, all of them doing what they did best. They were researching any and all information they could find about dragons and about vampires. Even if it was a myth, there might be a fraction of truth in they could use. At this point, they were desperate.

Jacque watched as the machine spun around Rebel’s still body. What if he didn’t wake up? What if dragon blood was poisonous to vampires? Jacque didn’t think he could bear to lose another person he loved. Nor could any of the others in his family. Yeah, they were a strange lot, but they all fit well together. They had been together for so long that they had formed a permanent bond. They were brothers. No matter what.

When the CAT scan was finished, Jacque leaned over and whispered in Rebel’s ear, “Wake soon, my beloved brother.”

By the time Rebel was returned to his bedroom, Leigh had managed to make the bed up with fresh sheets and pull on a pair of his boxers and t-shirt. They were too big, but at least she wasn’t naked anymore. She could have went in search of her bag for her own clothes, but she was loathe to leave his room for fear that she wouldn’t be there when he returned.

She was pacing the floor, wearing a rut in the plush carpeting, when Jacque appeared in the doorway. He had Rebel cradled in his arms, as if he were a small child instead of a six foot warrior. Jacque’s expression was grim, his mouth a thin line, his eyes were wary.

“Any luck?” Leigh asked as she pulled the sheets back on the freshly made bed for him.

“Not yet,” Jacque replied. He gently laid Rebel down on the bed and untwisted the sheet he was covered with from his body. Someone had cleaned all the dried wax from his body. Heat singed Leigh’s cheeks again. “I will know more as soon as I run the labs.”

“I’ll stay here with him.”

“I would expect nothing less from his mate,” Jacque said with a sad smile.

Leigh hated that she had caused all this angst. Hated that she had let herself succumb to a moment of weakness that had quite possibly put Rebel’s life in danger and caused so much hurt among his brothers. And she could feel it. Their pain saturated the air and made it heavy and thick. She opened her mouth to apologize once again, but Jacque cut her off.

“It is not your fault,” he said. “You couldn’t have known. None of us did. The others are researching every myth and every fable, trying to find any useful information. Now, your job is to stay with him. Take care of him. Alert us to any changes. Any at all.”

Leigh nodded her head. She could do that. It was the least she could do. “What about Merrick?” she asked. What if he decided to attack? What if he found out that Rebel was sick? What if he chose to hurt him while he was defenseless? She felt the heat rising in her blood. Over her dead body. Merrick could try to hurt Rebel, but he would sorely regret it. Leigh tasted blood and realized that she was gnashing her teeth together so hard her gums were bleeding.