PARANORMAL: Tamed By My Alpha Vampire (Vampire Billionaire Alpha Male Paranormal Romance) (BBW Multicultural Mail Order Bride Short Stories) (3 page)

“Only if they wish to, and only when my body is fully formed.”

“Is that why you’re hiding your face and your body? Richard told me it had something to do with a cycle.”

He never tells them this much. Was he trying to soften the blow? Was it for my sake, so I wouldn’t have to watch her suffer in confusion, or was it for hers?

Richard emerged once again with a plate of food. He set the piping hot dish down in front of her.

“Wine?” he asked.

I grunted and Richard turned to look at me.

“No wine tonight Richard.”

“What if I want some?” Natalia asked.

“Out of the question. It taints the blood.”

Natalia smiled playfully. “Taints it? Or makes it better?”

She was smart. If she drank too much wine, her blood would have an equal effect on me. My mind would become dulled. In that state I wouldn’t be able to control my thirst. I could drain her completely and not even realize it.

“One glass, but that’s it,” I said.

Richard poured a glass of red wine for Natalia and she began eating. While she nourished her body, I allowed myself a moment to admire her. She had a perfect physique. Her jet black hair fell across her shoulders, which descended to thick breasts that filled out the shape of her gown. She was exactly as I remembered Rayna. The resemblance was uncanny to say the least.

“When you’re finished eating, I’ll take you to your room and feed,” I said.

“Will you stay with me tonight? I mean, if your skin grows back.”

“Why do you wish to lay with me?” 

“You make me feel something I’ve never felt before,” she said.

Could it be something as cliché as love? No, we barely knew one another. Even if she did look like Rayna, it couldn’t be that. Not yet.

“What is it? What do I make you feel?”

Natalia’s cheeks blushed as she set down her fork. She looked over at me with piercing blue eyes.

“You make me feel safe, Constantin. No one has ever been able to do that since I was a child.”

She knew my name? Richard must have told her that as well.

“How could you feel safe with me? I drink your blood.”

“I know, but somehow I know you won’t hurt me. Honestly, it’s kind of a rush. So, what do you say? Will you stay?”

“Only until dawn, then I must leave.”

A
fter dinner, Constantin lead me to my room. I wondered what he could possibly look like beneath the robe. I wanted to see his face, but I knew he wouldn’t show it until his skin grew back. He seemed kind, gentle even, despite his “condition.” When Richard told me my new husband was a vampire, I didn’t believe him, but after everything that’s happened, I had no choice but to believe.

We walked into the bedroom and he gestured to the bed beneath his robe.

“Take off your clothes, lay on the bed, and close your eyes. Do not open them until I tell you,” he said.

I was nervous, but also excited. The first time he fed on me, it was terrifying, but there was this rush of adrenaline. It was euphoric, and the entire time I somehow knew that he was in control, that he wouldn’t drain too much. That was when I knew, I knew he would keep me safe.

I laid back onto the soft silk sheets and closed my eyes. I felt something land on my stomach. It was a strip of cloth.

“Put this on,” he said.

“A blindfold? You don’t trust me?”

“I don’t want you to see me until it’s time. Put it on, please.”

I tied the blindfold around my head and laid back on the bed. The room was cold as ice. I felt Constantin’s hot breath on my thigh. He hovered just above my skin.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Do not worry, you will have pleasure to balance the pain.”

His fangs dug into the flesh of my thigh. My entire body flooded with adrenaline as blood was pulled from it. My heart raced and I felt the room spinning around me. It lasted for what seemed like an eternity before he stopped. I struggled to catch my breath, but barely could before I felt soft and supple hands gently wrap around my legs.

“Can I see you?”  I asked.

“Not yet,” he whispered.

He kissed the skin on my inner thigh and moved upward until I felt his breath between my legs. My body quaked with anticipation. His tongue emerged and gently parted the folds. He wandered upward and started gently licking at me, moving in perfect circles. The pleasure was beyond words. Wave after wave of chills ran down my body. My muscles spasmed, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

He was incredible, so precise and consistent. The pleasure was overwhelming, I felt a new and exciting feeling pouring through me. I lost control of my body and screamed out as a powerful climax crashed into me. Constantin’s hands came up and gently pulled the blindfold off of my eyes. I saw his face for the first time. Chiseled jaw, warm brown eyes, and short silvery hair. He was an incredible looking man. My head was spinning from blood loss. He looked down at me and smiled.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Incredible,” I whispered.

I sat up as he laid down on the bed. He had a perfectly toned body, perfect from top to bottom. I climbed onto him and looked down at his deep and mysterious eyes. I positioned myself and let him slide into me. He lacked warmth, like a living person. I didn’t mind, though, I still felt his passion. I leaned forward and grinded myself against him. I pressed my hands on his chest and braced myself as his hands reached up and cupped my breasts. He gently massaged them as I rocked back and forth.

“It’s been so long,” he said.

“Since you’ve made love?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Since I’ve felt something.”

I leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips. His hands traveled down my back until he gripped my backside and thrusted upward into me. My whole body shook as a wave of pleasure shot through me like lightning. Our hips found a common rhythm. I threw my head back and let him flow through me as he came inside me. I collapsed onto the bed beside him.

I couldn’t move. I felt myself fading, but I didn’t want this moment to end.

“It’s alright, Natalia, rest. I’ll be here to protect you.”

He made me feel safe. That was perhaps the best gift he could give me.

T
hat night, I had a different dream. I wasn’t in the mansion, nor was I in the time I knew. I was in the past, lying on the ground amidst rubble and dust. Around me, several prisoners laid crushed by rubble or impaled on spikes that were spread out across the floor. I had managed to avoid the trap, but only by a few inches. I had been hit with an arrow while the other prisoners and myself tried to flee into the depths of the enemy tombs.

The floor gave way and we fell. I still lived, but just barely. The arrow pierced my side. I was bleeding profusely. I didn’t have much time. My thoughts were only on Rayna and what had happened to her. Surely they would have killed her for conspiring with me, but if I made it out, I would find her.

Death was coming, though, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I knew this memory all too well, but for some strange reason or twist of fate, that night as I slept by Natalia’s side, the missing pieces revealed themselves.

A gaunt and emaciated man emerged from the darkness in the back of the chamber.

“You’re dying by the looks of it,” he whispered.

He sounded like he was in pain himself. He hid his mouth from me with his hand as he spoke.

“Please, help me,” I whispered.

“Aye, I can help you, but it is not a fate I would wish upon any man, even my enemies.”

“I must find her, I must save her,” I said.

“You would do this, at any cost?”

I coughed. Blood splattered across the sand covered ground in front of me.

“At any cost.”

“Very well, I will take you to her.”

The man dragged me across the ground by my arm. The pain was overwhelming. My screams echoed through the chamber, but no one responded, not even him.

“I will give you life eternal, but it will come with a cost. You will have the chance to save your beloved, if indeed she still lives, but you will live long after she is dust. Do you wish to take this burden from me?”

I was delirious. I shouldn’t have said yes, I should have died there!

“Yes.”

“Very well.”

The man lifted me onto his shoulders and I saw the statue of the goddess that now sat in the vault of my home. He lifted my arm into the statue’s mouth and its stone fangs dug into my skin. I had a brief moment of clarity as it drained everything from me. I looked over and saw the man’s vitality return to him. He took his hand away from his mouth and I saw a pair of fangs. They fell out like children’s teeth and landed on the ground in front of him. Joy filled his face as my vision went black.

***

I awoke to the sound of yelling. The lights in the bedroom illuminated and I saw a portly fellow stroll into the room. He swayed as if drunk and waved a pistol around that he had clutched in his hand.

“How dare you! How dare you steal my property!” the man screamed.

“I climbed out of the bed and pulled on my robe. Richard stood in the doorway behind the drunken man.

“I’m sorry sir, he threatened to kill me!”

I waved Richard off. “Go, I’ll handle this.’

“Did you sleep with her? Huh? Did you?”

I nodded.

The man pulled back the hammer on his revolver and growled.

“I had people lined up, people who paid good money for her first time! Now you took that from me!”

“I assure you, I can offer you something far more valuable than her in exchange. It’s just inside that vault there,” I said.

The man looked to the vault and then back to me. “In there? Unless you got another virgin woman in there, I’m not interested!”

“Constantin, don’t do this for me. I’ll go with him,” Natalia said.

The man spit on the ground. “I don’t want you back, whore! I want what’s owed to me!”

I looked back at Natalia. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”

I typed in the code and opened the vault. The man followed me inside and looked at the statue with contempt.

“This is it? Seriously? How is this supposed to help me?” he asked.

“It’s not the statue that’s priceless. It’s what it does. Go ahead, give it your arm,” I said.

“What’s it going to do?” the man asked.

“It’s going to make you immortal. Would you like that?”

“You’re shitting me!”

“Even if I am lying, what do you have to lose?” I asked.

The man raised his arm and placed it into the statue’s grasp. It grabbed him and lifted him off the ground. He screamed and dropped his gun as it bit into him. I picked up the gun and watched as it drained him entirely until he looked like nothing more than a fleshy sack of blood. I backed away from the scene and looked down as the fangs fell out of my mouth.

I felt a rush of adrenaline as I ran to the vault entrance. I pushed the door closed and it locked. I stepped back and fired the gun into the control panel, sealing him inside.

Natalia was dressed and standing beside the bed.

“What happened?” she asked.

I laughed as a smile swept over my face.

“Constantin, you have to go, the sun is coming up!” she said.

I shook my head. “No, I want to see it.”

I turned and ran down the hall. Natalia chased after me, begging me not to do it, but I had to know, I had to know if it was truly over.

Just like my dream, I approached the doors and grabbed the knobs with shaking hands. I pulled the door open and ran outside as the first rays of sunlight illuminated the world. I closed my eyes and felt it wash over me. I felt warmth, live giving warmth. Tears slid down my face, but when I touched them they weren’t crimson, they were real.

I looked over as Natalia stood in the doorway with a shocked expression on her face.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

I ran over and wrapped my arms around her. I felt her warm skin against mine.

“It’s over, the curse is broken!”

The nightmare had finally ended. I was awake. My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding in my chest.

I was alive.