Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) (36 page)

The pain of falling was nothing compared with the pain of losing Snow.

She couldn’t lose him. Blood bubbled up her throat, choking her, and she tried to swallow it back down, hating the acrid taste of death in her mouth. Her eyes widened.

Blood.

Snow had saved Antoine from the grip of death by giving him blood. If she did the same for Snow, would it work? His injuries were severe and he was losing blood at an alarming rate. Antoine had been in death’s embrace when Snow had brought him back though.

There was only one way to find out if she could do the same for Snow and, right now, she was willing to give anything a shot.

Aurora shifted forwards, tipped Snow’s head back in her lap, and brought her lips to his. She opened his mouth and kissed him, allowing her life force to flow into him, desperate that it would kick-start his healing process and save her beautiful noble vampire, and grant them a second chance to have the life they both desired.

Together.

Tears slipped down her cheeks and she kept kissing Snow, stroking his cheeks at the same time, silently begging the higher power to give them the chance at happiness that they deserved after enduring so much darkness and pain for two thousand years.

Aurora tried to reassure herself that no matter what happened, they would be together, whether it was in the realm of the dead or in this world of the living.

They would be together now.

The prince and the angel.

W
arm hands drew Snow up from the darkness. His head was foggy. His body burned. His chest was damn near killing him.

He couldn’t remember what had happened but he felt as though someone had put him through several rounds of torture for fun, cutting him to ribbons.

The pain buzzing in his skull and chest faded enough for him to regain control of his body, and he weakly opened his eyes. Aurora shimmered into view above him, colourful tears streaking her flushed cheeks, slipping in a steady stream from her closed eyes and cutting through the dirt and blood on her face.

It was her hands on his cheeks, stroking them softly.

It was her blood on his lips and tongue.

Her sweet intoxicating blood flowed in his veins, warming him from his very core and soothing his pain, stealing it away piece by piece and gradually restoring his strength.

His Aurora was the reason he was alive.

She had saved him from the brink of death.

A black feather floated over her shoulder and brushed his arm before landing on the floor beside him. It wasn’t alone. Her wings were falling apart. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw hundreds of feathers scattered across the stage, the blood of battle soaking into them.

“Are you crying because of your wings?” he whispered, feeling sorry for her and filled with the need to comfort her and take her pain away. He was in so much pain that he probably wouldn’t notice if hers was added on top of it. He would gladly bear it for her.

She started and her eyes opened wide, her caresses ceasing. She stared down at him and the shock in her beautiful colourful eyes became relief.

“I wasn’t crying for them… I was crying for you.” More tears came, slipping down her bloodstained and bruised cheeks to land on his forehead, and then she moved so fast that she startled him and kissed his brow, her hands clutching his cheeks.

“For me?” he whispered, incredulous. She nodded, her lips shifting against his skin. He had never felt so blessed, so loved. So needed.

“I thought you were dead.” When she drew back, she glanced around her. His senses were functional enough to tell him that they weren’t alone, and she wasn’t the only one feeling relieved but sorrowful. Or the only one who had thought he was dead.

They also told him that the angels were gone.

His pain subsided until the buzzing in his skull ceased and he could recall what he had done.

Snow tried to smile but it came out as a grimace when his chest blazed anew, the pain in it threatening to steal his senses and render him unconscious again.

“I’m not that easy to kill. Have a little faith in me.” He looked up at his upside down Aurora and she smiled shakily at him. “Were you worried your number was up?”

She shook her head. “I took measures to make sure we would be together.”

“Your wings?” he said and she nodded. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Pain lashed at his chest again and he gritted his teeth. Aurora grimaced too, reminding him that he had a lot of apologising to do and needed to find a way to make things up to her. He could smell her blood, knew she had the same injuries as he bore, and was suffering again because of him.

Aurora drew in an unsteady breath and swallowed hard, and then tried to smile at him again. He had to admire her courage and was grateful she had a leash on her temper and wasn’t beating the hell out of him for getting her skewered through the chest too. Yet.

“I did. I wanted to do it because I would like to be with you… if your offer to live with you still stands?” She looked beautifully hopeful and fearful at the same time, as if he would turn away the most wonderful thing that had ever happened in all his dark existence.

He managed to smile properly. “It might have been made two thousand years ago, but it still stands.”

Snow slid his gaze away from Aurora’s and bravely met Antoine’s. His younger brother stared at him, his ice-blue eyes red from the tears that cut pale lines through the bloodstains on his face.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Antoine snapped and Snow let him off for his outburst, knowing that it was relief making him raise his voice and not anger. It was just the depth of his brother’s love for him.

“It was the only way of killing him.” A crazy way, but at the time, he had seen Aurora growing weaker, bleeding badly from wounds her master was inflicting upon him, and he had lost his head.

“Killing yourself more like,” Antoine grumbled and looked as though he was considering throttling him.

Snow suspected he might limit his punishment to long term verbal aggravation and constant reminders that he had almost got himself and Aurora killed.

“But I did kill him… I presume I did.” Snow could still smell the bastard angel. He tried to sit up to check the male was dead but it hurt too much. He seized up halfway and collapsed back onto Aurora’s knees.

She nodded and stroked his cheeks. “He is dead.”

Snow hoped that didn’t mean they would be receiving a visit from other angels looking to carry out vengeance killings. If they were wise, they would see tonight as a sign not to mess with him. He had taken down one of their strongest, proving himself stronger.

He didn’t feel particularly strong right now though.

Aurora offered her wrist to him. As much as he hurt and needed more blood to begin healing his wounds, he needed to see her healing more. Only then would he feel better.

Snow shook his head and stared up at her. “You are injured and must conserve your strength.”

“I have a theory… the quicker you heal, the faster I will feel better.” She offered her wrist again and he wanted to shoot her theory down, but didn’t have the heart. He would take another sip from her if it would alleviate her fear and make her believe he was on the mend.

Snow allowed his fangs to extend. Aurora brought her wrist to his lips and he closed his eyes and eased his fangs into it, not wanting to hurt her. She gasped and her heart missed a beat, but it was pleasure that he felt in her this time. He closed his mouth around her arm and suckled softly, controlling himself so her pleasure didn’t become pain.

The taste of her was still divine and he could feel her blood mingling with his, renewing his strength and accelerating the rate of his healing. He stopped himself from taking more than a sip of her delicious blood and licked her wrist, sealing the twin puncture marks, feeling her shiver under his tongue.

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. Her cheeks were pink and there was more colour in her ashen lips now. Perhaps she was right and the bond between them linked her physical strength to his, meaning that the faster he healed from his wounds, the quicker her strength returned and she healed hers.

Snow pressed one hand to the wound on his chest and sat up with Antoine’s help. He froze when he saw all the blood on his brother’s shirt and all the injuries beneath. He braced himself on instinct, waiting for his bloodlust to seize him, roused by dark memories of the night he had attacked his brother.

For the first time since that night, the sight of his brother bleeding didn’t send him into a fit of bloodlust.

Antoine’s shoulders relaxed. He had braced himself too, expecting an attack to happen. His blue eyes darted to Aurora behind him and then back to Snow.

“It seems the latest addition to the Vampirerotique family has absolute power over you.”

Snow smiled and looked over his shoulder at her, his heart warmed by the coded welcome his brother had just issued to his female and the truth in his words.

“She does.”

Aurora blushed a pretty shade of pink that made him ache to kiss her.

“We should get you tended to,” Antoine said, a pointed reminder that he was in no condition to be getting physical with his female, no matter how badly he wanted her.

Payne moved forwards with Elissa at his side and Luca tucked between them. Snow looked up at the part-incubus vampire.

Payne offered his hand to him. “Express ride to your room, limited time offer.”

“Take Aurora,” Snow said, not wanting her to be left behind, even for a second. Payne glanced at her.

“I’ve got the girly.” Chica appeared behind Aurora, causing her to jump, and Aurora opened her mouth to speak but only a squeak came out before Chica caught her arm and they disappeared.

Snow growled and turned to warn Andreu that his female needed to learn manners around his woman.

Payne took that moment to grab Snow’s arm and teleport him, landing him square on his four-poster bed with him on his back and Payne standing on the mattress. The young elite vampire wobbled as he gingerly walked to the edge of the bed and hopped down onto the floor.

“Not my best landing, but at least I didn’t land on top of you.” He awkwardly ran his fingers through his dirty blond spiked hair, flashing the lines of fae markings that tracked up the underside of his forearm and causing the rolled up sleeves of his dark blue pinstriped shirt to tighten around his muscles.

“I win that one, Incupire.” Chica looked far too full of energy as she bounded away from Aurora, leaving her in the middle of his black apartment. Chica’s knee-high biker boots banged heavily on his wooden floor and her black skirt and jaw-length hair bounced with each leaping step. She twirled when she reached Payne and poked a finger against his chest. “Try to keep up. I’m streaking way ahead of you.”

Payne growled at her. “Just because you’re all hopped up on kisses. Some of us don’t flaunt it, Sweetheart.”

Chica’s brown-to-blue eyes widened in horror and she planted one hand on her hip, fingertips pressing hard into her purple strapless corset. “Are you calling me a hussy?”

Payne knocked her other hand away from him and rubbed a dark patch on his blue shirt, over the left side of his chest. Blood. Payne bore wounds from protecting his female and their youngling.

“No one is calling you a hussy,” Andreu said as he entered the room, his Spanish accent thickly lacing his English, a sign of his anger. His black shirt had more slashes in it now and there were some in his trousers too, and a long gash across his left cheek that had bled down to his jaw. He shot Payne a glare. “Were they?”

Payne shrugged nonchalantly and then rushed to Elissa and Luca as they entered behind Andreu. “You both okay?”

Elissa smiled and nodded. “Perfect, although Luca wants to keep the sword.”

“Just in case,” the young boy said, his grey eyes bright with enthusiasm. Payne ruffled his messy hair.

“Sounds like a good idea, Kiddo.” Payne gathered Luca up into his arms, winced and set him back down again.

“Let me take a look,” Elissa said and Snow was awestruck when she raised her hand and colourful swirls of light danced around her fingers. He had never expected magic could be so pretty. Or beneficial.

The wounds visible through the tears in Payne’s shirt healed before his eyes.

Antoine entered with Sera. Sera immediately broke away from her mate and crossed the room to Aurora, wiping her bloodied hands on her t-shirt as she walked. Lilah joined her the moment she entered in front of Javier, and the two females helped Aurora into the bathroom, shutting the door behind them.

Snow closed his eyes, taking a moment to steel himself, glad that those closest to him had survived the battle, and grateful that Lilah and Sera were helping Aurora with her wounds.

He sensed Antoine halt beside the bed.

“Come on. Up,” Antoine commanded, caught Snow’s hand and pulled him slowly into a sitting position.

Snow flicked his eyes open and bit back a groan. He hated it when Antoine fussed over him, but he obediently sat at the edge of the four-poster bed, letting his brother have his way because he knew it would make him feel better.

Andreu and Javier moved into the corner, both males leaning against the wall beyond Payne, their black shirts and trousers causing them to blend into it.

Javier sighed, tipped his head back and closed his eyes. Andreu flicked him a look of concern. Javier had taken some serious blows but he would live. Andreu didn’t need to worry about him.

Snow could sense that it was fatigue causing his brother to look as though he was about to fall asleep on his feet. Both males had battled valiantly to protect their females. There had been only a few patches of blood on Lilah’s pale blue summer dress and her bare arms. Javier must have fought like a wild thing to protect her.

Snow smiled across at them. Javier opened his eyes, met Snow’s gaze, and then smiled too. He yawned, scrubbed a hand over his face and talked to Andreu about the fight, discussing how many angels they had taken down. Chica fussed over Andreu, muttering about all the cuts on him and that she liked scars but she preferred his sexy body perfect and lickable.