Taming the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance Novella (7 page)

The spell had worked, all right. The way she
felt now, she’d be willing to take on the Kraken, King Kong, and
Godzilla with one hand tied behind her back.

Feeling strong was what she lived for.
Fighting evil was what she lived for. She should have been
exhilarated, on top of the world.

But all she could think about was the vampire
she’d left behind.

She was a goddess.

Not because of the spell, although the golden
halo helped from a special effects standpoint. But Liz Marlowe had
always had the power, grace, and beauty of Artemis. Of a divine
warrior.

Once she left the apartment Jack had gone
stumbling after her, his steps slow and uncertain, his body fragile
with humanity.

The spell hadn’t hurt him—it had just made
him human again. Human without a heartbeat, or breath, or life, or
those things that made humanity endurable.

His instincts told him to wait in the safety
of Liz’s apartment until the spell ended. But he couldn’t stand
thinking of her out there, fighting the Kraken, without at least
trying to follow.

Jack found them near the end, coming to the
docks in time to witness the last minutes of their battle.

They were caught in a kind of embrace,
darkness and light together. The Kraken’s deadly cold against Liz’s
blazing heat.

She was incredible. In all his long life,
he’d never seen anything to equal her. Fearless and glorious and
full of grace, she was an angel burning with divine fire.

They had each other by the throat. Her light
diminished just for a moment, and Jack stumbled towards them. But
Liz never wavered, never faltered, and with a wild, keening cry she
fought back, glowing brighter and brighter as she grappled with her
enemy, until looking at her was like looking at the sun.

There was a flash of light so bright he was
blinded. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them
again, Liz was casting a lifeless, tentacled body far into the
ocean.

She stood looking after it for what seemed
like a long time. Jack was in the shadows several yards away,
leaning against the wall of an old warehouse. He wanted to call out
to her, to cross the space between them and take her in his arms,
weak as they were.

But he’d told her it was just for one night.
She’d surrendered to him because of that. She would never have made
herself vulnerable if she’d thought he’d want more, demand more.
She was a warrior. She’d never be vulnerable with him again.

Jack ducked around the corner so she wouldn’t
be able to see him if she turned around. He walked a few more feet,
then closed his eyes and leaned against the building.

He would have to leave Boston, he realized
with a sick feeling in his stomach. He’d fallen in love with Liz
Marlowe, and he’d never be able to stay in the same city with
her.

“Hey, man, you okay?”

He opened his eyes to see a teenager standing
in front of him, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Had one too many I
guess.”

The boy shifted his feet. “Then I guess you
can give me your wallet, and your watch if you’ve got one.”

Jack stared at him in disbelief. “Kid, you
should move on. Now.”

A glint of silver, and it wasn’t so funny
anymore. Jack reminded himself he was under the weather, to put it
mildly, and anyway he didn’t fight humans—even when they richly
deserved it.

He held out his hands. “I don’t carry a
wallet, and I don’t wear a watch, but—”

There was a snarl of rage, a blur of golden
light, and Liz had her hands around the kid’s throat.

“Liz! He’s human. Not a shining example of
the species, but human.”

Jack felt a rush of sensation. He turned his
head towards the harbor, and saw that the eastern sky was turning
pink.

The sun was coming up. The spell was
ending.

He looked back at Liz, and saw the glow
around her fading slowly, until she looked like an ordinary woman
again.

Not that Liz Marlowe could ever look
ordinary.

“Lady, chill out!”

“Chill out yourself, you little scum bag,”
Liz spat at him, her hands still around his throat. “If you laid a
hand on him I’ll knock your teeth down your throat. Did you?”

“Jesus, lady, what’s it to you? Do you even
know this guy?”

“He’s mine,” Liz said between her teeth.

Jack reeled back, and if he hadn’t bumped
into the building behind him he would have fallen to the ground.
She’d used the words of the claiming ritual, the words no vampire
used to anyone but an intended mate. Earlier that night they’d been
pretending, but this?

Even if she meant it, she didn’t understand.
She didn’t know what those words meant to his kind.

But that didn’t matter to his demon. The
beast in him was straining at its bonds, and Jack was petrified.
His strength had returned, but not his control.

Liz brought the kid’s face close to her. “Did
you hurt him?” she asked, almost wishing the answer was yes so she
could punch him into next week.

“No!”

She let him go abruptly. “It’s your lucky
day, then. Get the hell out of here.”

The boy ran, and Liz turned to Jack, who was
leaning against the building as though he could barely stand. He
seemed dazed. She could tell the spell had ended, so why wasn’t
Jack back to normal?

“He hurt you. Did he hurt you? Or is it the
spell? Why aren’t you—”

“I’m fine.” His voice sounded strained. “Liz,
you need to get out of here.”

“What? I’m not going anywhere. Tell me
what—”

“Damn it, Liz!” His eyes turned yellow, his
expression feral. Fangs burst from his gums. “I’m not playing here,
warrior. Get the hell away from me.”

Liz had seen Jack in vamp face before, but
this time something strange ran down her spine. “Jack, what’s going
on? Are you mad at me?”

He was gripping the brick building with one
hand, and suddenly a piece of it crumbled beneath his fingers. He
stumbled backwards, and when she went to follow he held up a
hand.

“Go. Now. Liz, I can’t—”

What the hell was going on? “Is it the spell?
Please, Jack, just tell me what’s going on. Why are you trying to
send me away?”

“Liz, please!” He looked desperate, and words
came tumbling out of him. “You laid claim to me. You didn’t mean
to, but...if you don’t run right now, I’ll lay claim to you. I’ll
make you mine. I can feel the demon, feel it inside me...but it’s
not just the demon...Christ, it’s all of me. You’ll try to stop me,
and the only way—Liz, I won’t stop until you kill me. Please—I
can’t—oh, God, I can’t—”

Liz stood frozen. Staring at Jack’s face, the
torment there, she knew they were at the brink of something
irrevocable. If she went tumbling off there was no coming back.

She was terrified. To the roots of her soul,
she was terrified. She should take the way out Jack was giving her
and run the hell away.

But if she did that, it would be herself she
was running from. And she didn’t want to do that anymore.

Even so, she was a heartbeat away from doing
it. From running.

Only she waited a second too long.

Jack had never looked less human as he came
for her, a savage growl in his throat. If reason and logic had any
part in this, she would have reminded herself reasonably and
logically that he probably wasn’t intending to attack her—at least
not in the fight-to-the-death kind of way. But she was still in the
grip of fear, the deepest fear she’d ever known, and when he came
within striking distance, she struck.

He parried the blow with ease and came at her
again, and Liz, falling back on instinct, went into full-blown
warrior mode. And Jack was Jack, powerful and relentless, and it
took every ounce of her skill and strength just to hold him
off.

This was their last battle. She could kill
him, or she could surrender, body and soul. This was her final
stand, and she knew it.

Not a word was spoken. Liz was panting, but
that was the only sound outside the dull thud of fists and feet, of
flesh striking flesh, and muffled grunts when a blow landed.

Jack’s demon face was feral, inhuman, and
should have inspired nothing but fear. And yet she was filled with
a strange exhilaration.

They were perfectly matched. The warrior in
her felt a rush of joy, a sense of completion she’d never felt with
another opponent. She saw herself in Jack, this glorious, savage
being, everything in him actualized in the raw intensity of
physical passion.

This was a poem they were speaking, brutal
and blinding. It had no words. Only their bodies could etch it into
the air, into each other.

God, she loved him like this.

That one thought was her undoing. As she
heard the words echo in her mind, she knew the truth. She was in
love with Jack. And the enormity of that realization made her
falter for a second—less than a second. Less than a second, but it
was enough. With a blazing light in his eyes Jack threw her to the
ground and landed on top of her, trapping her body with his.

“You’re mine,” he growled, more beast than
man. She knew the demon was in control right now, and she didn’t
know what was coming. He might bite her, savage her, rip her open.
But it didn’t matter. She was his, and with a long, shuddering
breath, she let the knowledge come into her mind, her body, her
heart.

The fight was over.

“You’re mine,” he said again, and Liz’s mouth
was so dry she could hardly speak.

“Yes,” she whispered, knowing he could feel
the yielding in her body, the yielding in every part of her.
Instinctively she turned her head to the side, exposing her throat
and the marks the other vampire had made.

Jack growled deep in his chest, and as much
as she wanted this her heart was hammering with fear. She closed
her eyes tight.

Then she felt him at her throat.

She expected it to hurt. The other vampire’s
bite had hurt horribly. But Jack entered her like a slice of
moonlight, with barely a sting...as if he were coming home.

“Ohhhhh....” she breathed, her eyes snapping
open. Every nerve ending, every cell in her body was focused on his
cool fangs sliding into her. Her muscles were taut, trembling,
waiting for something, waiting...

Then he fastened his mouth on her neck and
took a slow pull of her blood. She gasped as exquisite sensation
shot through her, more voluptuous than orgasm, making her jerk and
spasm beneath him.

Then his fangs were gone and he was licking
her throat. His tongue moved gently over her skin, and every time
he touched his marks Liz felt a jolt between her legs.

She was still vibrating with pleasure when
she felt Jack go still, his face buried against her shoulder. After
a minute he pulled back, his features human again, his blue eyes
searching hers anxiously.

What he saw there must have reassured him.
His expression changed, and he looked at her with so much awe that
she shivered.

“Liz,” he said, and in all her life she’d
never heard her name spoken like that.

He pulled away suddenly, levering himself to
his feet. He reached for her hand and jerked her upright. Before
she could find her footing he hoisted her into the air and settled
her against him, striding forward with her legs wrapped around his
waist.

After only a few paces she felt the warehouse
wall at her back. She was trapped between two hard things, stone
and Jack. He kissed her thoroughly, biting down on her bottom lip
while his cock ground against her through two layers of
clothing.

And then he pulled away, letting her slide
slowly down his body until she was standing on her own feet
again.

Every inch of her was flushed with warmth.
She leaned back against the wall and looked at him, wanting him so
much she thought she might be drooling.

Please don’t let me be drooling.

Then he ran the tips of his fingers over the
mark on her throat.

Electricity shot through her, leaving her
shaking.

“Jack,” she gasped. “Does that...will that
happen every time?”

His blue eyes were tinged with yellow. “Yes,”
he said, doing it again. “Every time I touch you there, you’ll
remember who you belong to.”

For the first time, a sinking feeling settled
in the pit of her stomach.

“Does that mean...shit. What exactly does
that mean?”

He grinned at her, stroking her hair with one
hand. “You want to know if you’re my bitch now, don’t you? No, Liz.
Most definitely not. Or at least, if you’re my bitch, I’m yours,
too.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m not
saying this won’t be complicated. For one thing, your kind and mine
don’t usually claim each other. So, yes, it’ll be complicated...but
I’m willing to figure it out if you are.”

He brought his mouth close to her ear. “How
about a deal? We’ll take turns being in charge. I’ll follow your
orders in battle if you’ll follow mine in the bedroom. Is that
something you think you could live with?”

Liz closed her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered
back. “I think I could live with that.”

Chloe Hart spends a lot of time lying awake at night,
thinking about vampires, demon hunters, and creatures that lurk in
the darkness. During the day she writes about them. You can email
her at [email protected].