SweetHeat

Sweet Heat

Jan Springer

Running from an arranged marriage, Juliette
Dárques
hides within
Vampira
, a secret clique of female vampires who live among humans and have sworn off sex with males. Julie thought she was safe until scorching dreams leave her craving every hot, pulsing inch of the twin vamps newly hired at the factory she owns. Every night they set her fangs on fire, sandwiching her between their strong, naked bodies, whisking her into a world of forbidden ecstasy.

Caleb and
Zander
Davenport have always shared a magnificent brotherly bond, which includes the need to share their females. Lately, they’ve been hungering for Julie…and plan on seducing her out of her dreams and into their arms.

Chapter One

1910,
The
French Alps

“You will do as your sire instructs and attend your wedding!” Krystal
Dárques
snapped with such vehemence that Juliette couldn’t help but shrink in fear. Her mother’s eyes were sparkling, bright amber, indicating she’d reached the end of her patience with her youngest daughter. Mother Dearest wasn’t the only one ticked off, Juliette fumed to herself. Over the past century they’d had this fight way too many times.

Tonight, however, things were different. Desperation raged within Juliette, for it was quite literally the eve before her arranged union to two male vamps she’d never met. That she had no wish to go ahead with this joining just so her sire could form one of the most powerful covens in France wasn’t an issue for her parents. It was, however, a big problem for her!

Her older siblings, bless them all, had dutifully obeyed their sire and they seemed happy with the mates selected for them. But Juliette didn’t want happy. She wanted adventure and freedom from the tight constraints of the Traditionalist life. Despite her belonging to the Traditionalists, who forbade single females to roam away from their homes alone, Juliette had snuck out many times to explore the nighttime beauty as well as to meet with other female vampire friends who also defied their parents.

That’s where she’d learned there was a huge world out there with many human women beginning to break free of their restraints. It’s also where she’d learned about
Vampira
, a clique of powerful female vampires who secretly lived among the humans and took in females who ran from oppressive regimes such as the Traditionalists.

Tension zipped through the air like lightning rods as both her parents stared at her with such obvious disappointment and utmost fury she wanted nothing but to run away and hide from them forever. Sweet vamps! She would do just that if they didn’t call this whole nightmare off! She swore to herself she would join
Vampira
.

“You dare to humiliate me, female!” shouted her sire. Count
Dárques
, a staunch Traditionalist, took arranged marriages just as seriously as his right to mate with several wives and keep as many blood-slaves as he wished. During the argument with her mother, he’d kept silent as he sat at the long, oak dining room table counting the enormous number of gold coins he’d been sent earlier this evening from her soon-to-be mates’ sires.

Payment for
her
.

Damn him! She would not be sold like some lowly blood-slave to vamps she did not love, let alone had never met!

Rage at both her parents for insisting she marry made her fangs unsheathe. She shrugged back her shoulders in defiance. “I have stated my decision. I will not marry.”

Her mother’s surprised inhalation at Juliette’s steadfast disobedience mingled with the crash of her sire’s chair as it hit the hard, marble floor. He dematerialized and before she had a chance to run from his anger, he re-appeared before her, grabbing her by her waist-length, straight black hair. Pain screamed through her scalp as he knotted his hand in her hair and yanked her against him. At a menacing seven foot tall, compared to her five foot six, he was an intimidating figure. His fangs unleashed, gleaming white and pointing with menace.

Cold shivers raced through her as she remembered watching how he’d, in his rage, killed servants or blood-slaves with those fangs, ripping into their throats with fury. For a few seconds she feared he would do the same to her but then realized she was too valuable and doubted he would hurt her.
Much.

His brown eyes glowed fiery red. Juliette tried hard not to cower as his cold, too-controlled voice melted over her like a bucket of ice.

“I have arranged this mating from the day you were conceived. I have received the appreciation monitories as per tradition. There will be no more talk of this.” His eyes narrowed with threat and his voice grew louder. “You are female. I am your master. You will do as I say. You will be united with them in exactly twenty-four hours. Now go to your quarters. Nourish yourself on the blood-slaves so you are ready for your mates. Fix your hair and bat your blue eyes at your males when you see them. At least pretend you want them. It will be easier for you that way. I do not wish to ever hear of your fancies again or to see you until I have to hand you over to your husbands.”

He
unwrapped
his hand from her hair and let her go. Anxiety swept around Juliette like a suffocating blanket. She couldn’t go through with it! She couldn’t! Her spark for life would die if she became bonded with males. She
needed
to be free, wished to explore the world around her. That she hadn’t been allowed to venture farther than this veiled valley annoyed her no end. Yet her sire continued to forbid what she craved. Anger spouted anew.

“I will not!” she spat, suddenly not caring if he killed her. Death was better than this union.

“Enough!” he roared.

Pain sliced across her left cheek and silver stars exploded behind her eyes as the back of his hand met her face. The blow sent her reeling against the nearby wall, knocking the breath from her. She struggled to remain standing as raw emotions swelled through her. She detested being hit, but knew it was commonplace in the Traditionalist covens.

When the stars clouding her vision disintegrated and she could see again, Juliette realized her father had retaken his position in his chair at the table. Smugness laced his face as he once again began to count his gold coins.

Her mother was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t unusual when her father got mad. She, as most vampires, was blessed with the unique gift of vanishing and reappearing somewhere else. Unfortunately, no matter how hard Juliette tried, she had never been able to master that art.

Brutal betrayal whipped through her at her mother’s abandonment. She couldn’t stop the tears from welling in her eyes.

She balled her fists in anger and gritted her teeth. How could they do this to her? How could they force her to mate with unknowns? They had never even told her the names of her future mates!

It was the way of the sect. She knew her father and his wives had been introduced to each other the same way on the day of their arranged marriages. Just as their fathers and mothers before them. Just as her siblings before her. A tradition of arranged marriages wouldn’t be broken just because she didn’t want to become the mate of two complete strangers.

But there was more to it for her. There was
a restlessness
inside her.
An urge to be on her own.
A craving to be free of the constraints she lived in. She certainly did not wish to be a slave to a male as her mother was to her sire. Besides, many males took several wives. She could not fathom sharing her mates with other females. She couldn’t understand how her soon-to-be husbands could share her between them. Perhaps she was a different breed of vampire? Or maybe she was the jealous type? Not only that, she detested feeding from her father’s blood-slaves. She hated the dismal, defiant looks in their eyes just before she opened a vein and sucked their sweet blood into her mouth. They wanted to be free, just as she wished to be free. In a way her position was no better than theirs. She was a slave here, born and raised.

Her soon-to-be mates would no doubt be Traditionalists too as the sect rarely mated with outsiders. Just thinking the name
Traditionalist
brought shame racing through her.

Due to the stress of being in hiding from the human world, it was difficult for vampires to produce offspring. Yet she couldn’t think on the possibility of not having
any young ones of her own one day
. Under tradition it would be up to her mates to arrange her offspring’s marriages, keep them secluded from the outside world, most likely locked up in some old castle as she was.

Her male offspring would be taught they were superior. Her female children would be trained to be submissive and to obey the males. And a couple of centuries down the line she would most likely end up having this same argument with her own daughters. Young females who did not wish arranged marriages, who instead wanted to defy the traditions in order to be free to explore themselves as well as the human world.

Oh! How would she be able to tell them they would never be free, let alone to pick their own mate or mates as the case would be?

Juliette bit back a bitter sob. She could never deny them their freedom. Never!

Venturing into the human world where so much danger lurked was forbidden in the Traditionalist world. Yet she’d heard of other vampires who had broken and run. They disappeared into the human world and most were never heard from again. Whether they were hunted and killed by the Elders was never revealed.

There were whisperings that some who escaped kept secret ties with family members. She’d heard that by eavesdropping among her father’s many wives.

There were also whisperings of other vampire worlds beyond the Traditionalists. One of which were the Warriors, a group of dominant males who literally hunted down the females they wanted and took them against their will. Several decades back, the forced mate of the two Warrior Kings, who ruled the Warrior Empire, had left them. She’d been able to disappear with the help of
Vampira
.

That’s what she wanted.
To be free.

She would do anything to achieve her goal.

Shots of despair raced through her. Oh Sweet Vampires! She couldn’t sacrifice herself to this kind of life anymore. She couldn’t! Maybe she could plead with him one more time.
If she could just get him to listen.

“Father—”

“Away! To your quarters!
Now!”
He waved his arm at her as if he were shooing away a fly, as if she was a mere nuisance and not his youngest daughter. He didn’t so much as glance up from the gold he so greedily counted.
Acted as if his word was law.

Damn him!

On trembling legs, Juliette did his bidding. Humiliation raged and bitter nausea burned through her tummy as she walked from the giant dining room into the hallway of the centuries-old French castle.

Situated in the French Alps in a picturesque valley bordering Italy, the old castle was concealed from the humans by her father’s mind veil. Reportedly built by King Louis in the thirteenth century, the castle had seven towers and was made of gray schist and white stone. After the king abandoned it and made a larger castle somewhere else, her father had taken it over.

Now, as she rushed down the cold stone hallway, utter loneliness swept through her. If she went through with this horrid union, she would be trading one trap of her father’s coven for another trap in her soon-to-be mates’ coven. Surely she would go insane.

Anxiety swelled in her chest and the long hallway suddenly appeared too narrow. The walls gave the impression they were moving in on her.
Crushing her.
Panic ripped through her and cold perspiration blossomed across her brow. She struggled to breathe.

Air.
She needed to inhale the fresh mountain air. Yes, being outside the castle always made her feel better.

It took several minutes of dodging servants and hiding from a couple of her father’s wives before she reached the back door. There, she twisted the skeleton key in the lock, heard the click,
then
pushed open the heavy oak.

Icy air and swirling snowflakes slapped against her face as she stepped outside. It felt good.
Sobering.

Suddenly her thoughts gathered and she knew what she needed to do to survive. She would go to the one vampire she had heard was suspected of having ties with
Vampira
. She would throw herself at her mercy and beg for an audience with those powerful females.

And then she would be free.