Raven Walks (24 page)

Abi’s eyes widened, and Constantine just
laughed. “We have a lot in common, my love. Wanting that which we
cannot have. Only I had to depend on Raven to give me what I needed
to win her heart forever. Power. And immortality.”

Raven glared at Constantine. “Well go ahead.
Finish the story. Tell her how Nina never saw the new and improved
you because they’d burned her at the stake, believing her a witch
because she tried to raise you from the dead. And how that’s all my
fault.”

“You should have protected her!” Constantine
bellowed and hurled the crystal glass against the wall.

Raven didn’t back down. “I protected you! I
got you out of that village before anyone knew the truth. Or do you
forget that your brother was a hunter himself, and bound by law to
kill the likes of both of us.” Raven had to laugh as he advanced on
Constantine. “You always forget that part of the story.
Convenient.”

“My brother was never part of the equation,”
Constantine hissed.

“The hell he wasn’t!” Raven exploded. “Admit
it! He’s the only reason you wanted Nina to begin with.”

Constantine stood toe to toe with Raven, but
Raven just turned on Abi. “And now you’ve done the same thing to
your sister.” He sneered at both of them. “Forgive me for trying to
get in between this perfect love affair. It’s quite evident that
you were both made for each other.” He grabbed a leather jacket
from the back of the sofa and then tossed an evil grin over his
shoulder to where Constantine stood sheltering Abigail.

“I apologize I couldn’t give you Nina wrapped
up in a pretty little bow,” he said with fake sincerity as he
motioned to Abi. “But please accept this condolence prize, won’t
you?”

And for the second time that day, a man left
Abi to go chase after her sister.

It was more than Abi could take. She broke
down into tears that were not lost on the vampire who stood near
her.

He said nothing as he took her into his arms
and rocked her against his strong chest. “He’s an asshole,”
Constantine said against her hair.

“But he’s an asshole who is right,” she said,
her voice hitching on sobs. “I did this to Gina not once but twice.
I’m a horrible person.”

He had to smile. “You say to the guy who
sucks blood to survive and gleefully kills for pleasure.” Her
tearful eyes met his. “I win.”

Since he brought it up... “Why didn’t you
kill me, Constantine?”

He had to pull away then. “Because you didn’t
ask me,” he offered casually, but she didn’t believe him.

She watched him go over to the sofa and
sprawl over the red silk upholstery. “So if I asked you right now,
you’d do it?”

He leveled those intense eyes on her. “Is
that a dare, Miss Mandrake? Because if it is you should know those
are very dangerous words you can’t take back.”

“And still you hesitate,” she mused. “Am I
just not good enough to join your little club?”

“You’re plenty good enough,” he remarked, but
didn’t move. “Or should I say bad enough? Let me ask you... did you
even hesitate to jump on Hunter’s jock after you fucked Raven and
I?”

She blushed at the accusation she couldn’t
exactly argue. “I guess I was still looking for a real man,” she
said instead.

He just laughed. “What can I say? There are
no men here. Just beasts.”

She thought about Hunter and how he had not
returned for her even though night had fallen. He probably found
Gina and was making love to her so that she would forgive him
again, once again forgetting all about the sister that was good
enough to fuck on a bathroom floor, but not good enough to come
back and protect from dangerous creatures of the night.

“You’re all beasts.” She turned her back on
him and went over to the doors overlooking the veranda.

A moment later she felt a hand slide up her
arm. “Is that what you want, Abi? To be a beast?”

A tear slid down her face as she remembered
the agonized look in Gina’s eyes when she found Hunter and Abi
together. “I already am,” she said quietly.

Constantine took her into his arms then, sad
for her because he had been where she was many, many times.
He remembered
what it had felt like when
his blood had spilled into Raven’s throat and exploded with the
disease he felt he deserved for the kisses he shared with Nina
while his brother slept in the other room.

If he was a monster for loving his brother’s
wife, the least he could do is enjoy the fruits of the disease by
feeling a power and immortality his sickly body had never allowed
him to feel.

He wanted to live forever, and he had.

But with that forever came the knowledge
every day that even immortal he didn’t deserve the love of Nina for
more than just a passing fancy while they were both still stricken
with human vulnerability.

Now here he stood with another vulnerable
human that a horrible, soul-less creature wanted to kill, immortal
or not. Their time together was no more guaranteed than his time
with Nina those brief mortal moments that didn’t last long enough
for an eternity of memories.

He wasn’t sure he could go through it
again.

His eyes softened as he looked at her, and
her hand touched his face. In his eyes she saw a reflection of
herself... of her pain, of her regret, of all the missed
opportunities.

Maybe he really was the only one to
understand her.

He certainly was the only one who had chosen
to stay.

So she pulled his face down to hers and
kissed him softly on the lips.

He groaned as his fingers touched her face
and then tangled in her long hair. “Abi,” he whispered against her
lips, and it touched her soul. She pulled away, took his hand in
hers and led him back to the bedroom they had shared.

She undressed him as she led him toward the
bed. His eyes never left hers and she never wavered as she pushed
him down on the mattress and straddled him as she followed him
down. They kissed each other slowly, tasting each other on the tips
of their tongues, and as she ground against his growing erection he
buried his face in the crook of her neck.

When his breath danced over her wounds she
felt her whole body shudder. Gone was the human lovemaking of the
morning, sweet and gentle and safe. Death was at her neck, all she
needed to do was ask for it.

Why did she want to ask for it?

As he slid up inside of her, filling her and
stretching her wide, she whispered, “Are you going to do it?”

She felt his cock jump as he fucked her
slowly, the idea of what she was offering making him impossibly
hard inside of her. His fingers closed over her full breasts and he
kissed his way back up to her mouth, taking his time, making her
tremble.

“Are you asking?” he asked her in a deep,
commanding, but soft voice, his dark eyes sparkling in the low
light.

The words hovered somewhere in her throat.
“I... I....”

Gently he turned her around and laid her on
the bed under him. “Shh,” he whispered. “When you’re ready,” he
instructed before he kissed his way down her body, over each hard
nipple, over the quivering swell of her tummy, and down in between
her legs.

When his breath hit her painfully hard
clitoris, she shuddered and her thighs spread wider. Her hand went
into his hair as she guided his mouth closer to where she needed it
to be. His tongue reached out to her and flicked over her lightly.
She cried out as she moved her hips up to meet his mouth. He
responded in kind, and flattened his tongue over her clit with
luxurious laps across the sensitive skin.

“Please,” she begged in a breathless whisper,
and he complied by sucking that tiny, sensitive nub into his mouth.
The warmth of his mouth sent a volt of electricity throughout her
body while his tongue snaked around to make her tremble from its
touch.

She begged him for more, urged him with her
hips, but he took his time as he teased her. He would speed up to
get her to the brink of orgasm, then slow down or stop altogether
while she gathered her wits about her again.

Her fingers circled her own nipples as she
writhed under him. He was making her crazy and the more he
manipulated her under his mouth the more she wanted to give herself
to him totally and completely. This must be how they do it, was her
fuzzy thought. They use their seductive prowess to take humans to
the brink of the temptation that they can bear.

And she was there. God help her, she was
there.

“Do it,” she begged. “Please...
Constantine....”

His mouth fastened over her clit and he
sucked her to her first of many multiple explosions that she rode
out under his tongue. As she thrashed under him, his two fingers
knit together and slid up inside of her, causing her to cry
out.

Then she felt his mouth kiss its way up her
groin and his fangs drug along her skin. This was the point of no
return she thought. As his fingers slid easily in and out of her,
reaching high up inside to touch that spot that sent her off on
another amazing climax, a tear squeezed out of the corner of her
eye.

“Ask,” he commanded low against her skin.

His fangs hovered over her skin, their sharp
points digging in but not yet breaking the skin. She reached
herself up to his mouth but he kept himself just out of reach.

“Ask!” he said again, this time with a power
that scared her.

Her head spun from the pleasure he gave her
with his mouth and his tongue, his touch and his voice. “Do it,”
she barely heard herself whisper.

His fangs sank into her skin and she felt her
blood splash into his mouth as she came all around his fingers.

The next time she asked to die, she was
screaming.

Raven flew through the night, trying to rid
his thoughts of what was happening between Abi and Constantine back
at Bella. He was an unwilling observer as skin touched skin, mouth
explored mouth and ultimately blood was shed.

He could taste it in his mouth, and he had to
force his body not to respond.

He tried instead to get into Gina’s mind, to
find her. Their kiss had connected them in a way that surprised
Raven. There was some ancient part of her that had reached out to
him and had stitched itself under his skin like a tattoo, and he
knew that was true by the way he woke up with a heavy heart full of
betrayal and heartache.

It had been hers. When he read Abi’s mind he
saw it from Gina’s point of view and felt her pain, which was why
he grew so angry at Abigail.

Somehow or another, probably because he could
not possess her, Gina had earned a spot in his heart that he never
knew anyone could occupy. He couldn’t have her so he felt compelled
to save her; she the first one out of so many that had been able to
resist him and stand her ground as his equal.

It was too precious to destroy.

He knew he had to stop her from doing
something stupid like what Nina had done all those years ago. She
had risked it all for Constantine, risked her life and her very
soul to retrieve the man she loved and punish the man who had taken
him away...only Constantine never knew the full story.

Raven had spared him from that – because he
knew that if Constantine had known it would have caused a war that
no one would have won. Hunters weren’t the only ones who were able
to destroy vampires; and Nina was a lot closer to the title of
“witch” than Constantine ever knew.

But Raven couldn’t think of that now. That
was ancient history. He had to find Gina.

He just hoped it wasn’t too late.

When Damien opened his eyes that evening he
found her sitting in the bay window seat, staring out into the
night, and sharpening a wooden stake.

Despite his alarm, he sat up from his bed
slowly. “Rambo,” he quipped. “We meet again.”

She simply kept whittling away the sharpened
tip of the stake. “I’m not here to hurt you,” she assured him
quietly. “And the name is Gina.”

He swung his legs over the side of his satin
covered bed. “Well then, Gina, welcome to my home. Might I ask why
you’re here?”

“Because it’s a place no one will look for
me,” she informed without even looking his directly. “I needed a
vampire older and stronger than Raven to throw off his radar, but
one who wasn’t anywhere close to the club.” She turned her green
eyes on him then. “You’re the only candidate that fit.”

“Ah,” he said as he nodded. He slid out of
bed and came to join her at the window. “And why don’t you want
Raven to know where you are?”

She blew the dust from the stake. “Because
he’ll try to convince me not to go after the Creature by
myself.”

She sleeved the stake and then stood to face
Damien, who studied her with a thoughtful gaze. “And you think that
little piece of wood is going to kill that thing?”

She shrugged. “It might slow him down at
least.”

She turned to walk away but his voice stopped
her. “You are Abigail’s sister.”

Without turning around she whispered, “Not
anymore,” and left the room.

***

At Sebastian’s club, Hunter faced off with
the older, wiser vampire with an angry stare. “Don’t lie to me, you
filthy blood sucker. I know she’s here!”

Sebastian just smiled. “For your information
I do not suck blood. So that’s two counts where you’re wrong.”

Raven entered the club behind Hunter just as
he advanced on Sebastian. “Enough,” Raven warned. “Sebastian
doesn’t know where Gina is any more than you do.”

Hunter swirled around. “And how do you know
that?”

“Because I know why she left,” Raven pointed
out. “And she’d never hide anywhere that you could find her.”

Raven brushed past both of them to head
toward the bar. Hunter followed. “You know she’s not safe out
there,” he said – but Raven appeared nonplussed.