Blackthorn [3] Blood Torn (4 page)

She turned, placed her hands flat against the white tiles, spread her legs slightly and leaned forward just enough that he could see both the backs and inners of her thighs.

‘Let me know when the thrill is over,’ she said.

But when she looked over her shoulder, he’d already draped a towel over the rail above and was removing a shirt from the hook by the doorway.

He threw it at her.

‘Get rid of the underwear and put that on.’ He turned away. ‘You’ve got two minutes.’

Stepping outside, he let the door curtain drop back into place.

Chapter Three

J
ask stood in front of the window seat, arms folded as he looked out beyond the fences and barbed wire. Dawn had defeated the darkness on Blackthorn’s horizon, early sunlight diminishing the shadowed recesses of the compound.

From the pivotal viewing point of his quarters, he looked left, down at the archway that led to the outbuildings where Rone and Samson had been taken. He didn’t have time to wait around. He needed to get down there and find out as much as he could of exactly what they had been doing on that side of Blackthorn, let alone what mess there could still be to clear up.

But clearly his idea of two minutes and the serryn’s idea of two minutes were two entirely different things. The bathroom was silent and it sure as hell didn’t take a woman more than two minutes to put a shirt on.

He pulled away from the window and drew back the curtain to the bathroom.

She was sat cross-legged on the vanity unit, her small frame swamped in the towel, arms lax in her lap, her head resting back against the wall. She stared back at him – her brown eyes still brimming with anger and resentment, despite the lack of harsh makeup to emphasise such. Make-up without which, as he’d suspected, she was even prettier.

Her sodden combats, sweater and T-shirt were draped over the rail to dry. Her exposed slender shoulders still revealed the straps of her bra.
His
shirt had been thrown to the floor.

As aggravating as her non-compliance was, he’d give her spirit its due. He rested his forearm above his head against the architrave. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘I asked you a question.’

Her gaze remained unflinching. ‘Give me multiple-choice answers and I’ll pick one.’

A pang of irritation sliced his chest at her insolence. But it was fascinating insolence all the same – especially from something two-thirds of his size, let alone in her situation.

He folded his arms and rested his shoulder against the doorframe. ‘I’ll just call you serryn then, shall I?’

‘It’s the closest you’ll get to the truth.’ She broke eye contact only to assess him slowly from feet to chest.

He’d changed into a dry shirt and jeans in the time it had taken her to do the exact opposite. But that wasn’t the reason for the serryn’s appraisal. She was checking him out – and unashamedly so. He would have laughed had the blatancy of the act not been so intentionally defiant.

‘You’re even better-looking in the flesh than they say you are,’ she said, those eyes locking on his again.

Coming onto him in his private quarters, or mocking him – both were intrepid acts. But then he had to remind himself this
was
a serryn he was dealing with, despite how small and helpless she looked. In Blackthorn, neither of the latter meant a thing.

‘How long have you been working the streets of Blackthorn?’ he asked. ‘Only I haven’t heard whispers of a serryn on the loose.’

‘That’s because I’m good.’

‘So good that you got caught?’

She frowned. ‘That’s not how it was.’

‘Then how was it exactly? Only going from the lack of recent bites I saw on you, you’re not very successful.’

‘I’m picky.’

‘Is that even possible for a serryn? I understood you’d go with anything.’

Her eyes flared, but almost undetectably had he not been looking so closely. ‘What exactly does any of it have to do with you? The vampires are none of your business, right? That’s how it works around here – you stay in your little pound and they run Blackthorn. Which raises the question as to what I’m doing here.’

‘You’ll know when I want you to know. Until then, you’ll do as you’re told – starting with getting dressed.’

She used the leverage of one arm to lower herself nimbly from the vanity unit, the other hand keeping the knot of the towel at her chest. She stopped in front of him.

‘Because
you’re
going to tame me, right?’ She dared to smirk as she echoed his words from in the ruins.

It was a smirk he’d seen once too often for one day.

As she sidestepped to slip past him, Jask braced his arm across the doorway.

‘Did I say I’d finished with you?’ he asked.

She took a step back, but not out of intimidation it seemed – instead to look him direct in the eyes. She folded her arms, emphasising the enticing upward curve of her small breasts now brimming the top of the towel. ‘Why, Jask? What have you got planned next? Strip me all the way this time? And then what? You lycans like to come across all civilised, but we both know what you are underneath. You scratch behind your ear and howl at the moon with the best of them, I bet.’

Her ignorance, intentional or otherwise, was about as appealing as the way she looked at him as though she’d fallen face first into sewage.

‘You’ve got a lot to say for yourself for someone in your predicament, serryn.’

‘I’ve got a lot to say for myself whatever the predicament.’

His heart rate hitched up a notch. The first signs of tension formed in his chest. He kept his fists clenched to remind himself not to allow his talons to slide out from beneath the protective covering of his nails.

Corbin had been right – she was going to be hard work. And despite his light-hearted remark back on the wasteland for Rone and Samson’s benefit, both he and Corbin knew the gravity of the situation. The fact was that he
did
need to tame her – and tame her he would. And that’s what he had to keep his focus on – not on the blood pounding from his heart at the arrogant witch staring him down. Not on the thought of other circumstances, another time, when she’d have spent the next few minutes on her knees begging for his mercy – and doing whatever he asked of her to secure it.

He’d let his pack down before by letting his instincts take over – and he wasn’t going to do it again. Which was why, first and foremost, he needed to work out exactly what he was dealing with.

Jask took a couple of steps towards her but she didn’t flinch.

She didn’t just have spirit; she appeared to believe she was titanium-coated – her inherent gift deluding her with a sense of impenetrability that, if the rumours were true, was characteristic of all serryns. Seemingly their spat in the shower hadn’t quelled that confidence, nor had losing to him out on the wasteland.

But even he had to admit she’d put up a decent fight out there. If her moves hadn’t been so learned, so predictable, she may have got one or two more to make impact. She’d soon discover though that her toned, nimble body wasn’t anywhere near as invincible as she liked to believe – not if she continued to look at him with such contempt.

‘You smell better already,’ he said. And it wasn’t a lie. Not only did she smell good now that her own scent took over but the closer he got, the better she looked. Her eyelashes, now free of thick black mascara, were fine but generous and with a feminine upward kink. Her earth-brown eyes were glossy despite being bloodshot – the latter either from the recent onslaught of soap or too many sleepless nights. Haughty eyes that were perfectly complemented by her delicate, slightly upturned nose. But it was those full, shapely lips that spoke too quickly and too cuttingly that would cause her the most trouble if she wasn’t careful.

She frowned. ‘I bet you really enjoyed that, didn’t you? Stripping me like that.’

‘I was fighting to contain myself.’

Her eyes narrowed in defensiveness. It seemed she took sarcastic insults less well than losing in combat. ‘I bet you say that to all the girls. You
are
into girls, aren’t you, Jask? Or is there something between you and Corbin you’d rather not share?’

It was an impulsive retort. A revealingly childish retort.

It was his turn to smirk. ‘You’re nothing but a kid, are you?’

Her eyes flared again. ‘I’m twenty-nine, you patronising git.’

‘Like I said – nothing but a kid.’

Her folded arms tensed, revealing any slight against her status was another button-pusher. ‘The reputation that precedes you is quite phenomenal, Jask. I must admit I was a little worried when I knew you’d been called. But you’re nothing but a pretty boy hiding behind the rumours, are you?’

He’d already had enough questions forming during the return journey about how she’d allowed herself to be manacled to a wall by two vampires. But now it seemed she was as poor at handling herself as she was them.

She certainly wasn’t what he’d ever imagined – the mature, smooth, seductive females he’d always understood serryns to be. She got frustrated too quickly. Was impatient for control. She was too erratic, too impetuous – particularly in response to any of her weaknesses being exposed. Let alone too temperamental and emotionally vulnerable, from the way those eyes brimmed with self-preservation.

Her serrynity was undeniable – the macabre evidence on the floor back in the ruins proved that – but her adeptness at using it was questionable. And that was the last thing he needed.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been called pretty,’ he said, resting his hands low on his hips, skilfully diverting her attention there. ‘And it’s been a
long
time since I’ve been called a boy.’

It could have been a hint of a blush he’d seen – or a symptom of her anger.

Her gaze shot back to his. ‘Like you said, I’m too used to fighting vampires.’

From what he’d seen in the shower, she certainly had a few minor scars to confirm it. But aside from the fresh wounds to her neck and arm from the vampires in the ruins, there was only one other slightly older set on her inner thigh.

‘Don’t make this any harder on yourself than it needs to be, serryn.’

As unpredictable as she was, he didn’t expect her to flash a playful smile in response. And he didn’t need to feel tension now tighten in his groin as well. Thoughts switching to the sexual potential her kind was notorious for was most definitely one distraction he could do without.

‘That sounds like an enticing promise,’ she dared to say, that unsettlingly sexy smile lingering. She closed the gap between them. ‘Why, what bad things are you planning to do to me, Jask? Are all the rumours about you true? Are you really as insatiable as they say? Only you may have a few thousand years of evolution under your belt but I’m right, aren’t I, about the animal still lurking inside? And unleashed during the sex act more than any other time, right? I hear you got so carried away once that you tore your partner’s throat out. Is that true? Only I
love
a bit of risk between the sheets.’

As every part of him stiffened, he resolved to add painfully naïve to her profile. ‘Been with a lycan before, have you?’

Her tongue played over her top teeth, drawing his attention to her lips. ‘No. I never thought it worth my while. But being around you is changing my mind.’ She
dared
to look him direct in the eyes as she said it. ‘For you I could
definitely
make an exception to the rule.’

He promptly added suicidal tendencies to the list. ‘Is that right?’

‘You’re very restrained, Jask. Just like you were back on the wasteland. That kind of self-control is an extremely attractive quality. But tell me, what does it take to break it?’

Confident words. Confident stance. But he’d seen the way she’d looked at him as he’d pinned her on the ground. For that moment, she’d panicked. Being out of control had scared her. And now he’d seen enough to know that smart retorts and gaining the upper hand sexually were her most trusty defence mechanisms.

Only she’d learn that self-control and restraint, fortunately for her,
were
now his most trusty defence mechanisms. And no smart-mouthed, attitude-laden little witch was going to make him lose what he had spent decades refining.

Not now. Not when he needed it most. Not when his pack needed it most.

‘Take the rest of your clothes off,’ he said. ‘Or I
will
strip you. And I will drag you naked down the stairs, through the lobby and out onto the green, where I will rope you down and spread you on the lawn for all my pack to see. If you think I’m joking, you keep glowering at me like that.’ He stepped around the back of her, picked up the shirt she had discarded and slammed it against her chest as he drew level again. ‘Or you can do as you’re told.’

Her scowl deepened as she bunched the shirt up in her hand, but it only took a few more seconds for her to choose the smart option.

She abruptly turned away from him, away from the windows. Lowering the towel to her slender waist, she unfastened and slipped off her bra with curt movements before tugging on his shirt and letting the towel drop to the floor. She fastened the buttons before turning to face him again. Eyes fixed on his in the only act of defiance she had left, she bent over to yank off her knickers before dropping them to the floor. But the whole sullen act was ruined as she folded her arms, the too-long shirt sleeves flapping over each other adding an unintentionally comical touch.

But he wouldn’t let himself smile. This
was
about taming, not playing.

He gathered her wet clothing from the rail before scooping up her underwear from the floor.

‘What are you doing with those?’ she asked.

He turned away from her and pushed back through the curtain.

‘Hey!’ she called after him.

But he was already through the next curtain and approaching the door, collecting his boots along the way.

‘You can’t just walk off with my stuff!’ she protested as she swept through the curtain behind him.

Less than an hour and already every one of his nerves were sparking.

He slammed the door behind him and locked it before heading back towards the stairs.

He glanced over his shoulder as he heard something make contact with the door from the other side. And this time his smile reluctantly broke through. Grating though she was, she was undeniably entertaining.

Another time, another place, another him, and he could have spent the next few hours reminding the serryn that, though lethal to vampires, she was in a lycan den now.

To some extent, he still could.