Cursed (4 page)

When his lids lifted a moment later, his eyes weren’t nearly as blankly emotionless as they had been a moment ago. Now they were full of something akin to eager lust. She would have been happy that they were on the same page if it hadn’t been for the fact that they were also now as black as night, the light grey of his irises almost completely taken over by the pupil. She was reminded of a cat she’d once owned, and how its pupils had expanded when it was about to go in for the kill. The mental reference was not lost on her.

“You don’t smell like a pre-trans,” the Goth God said with a slight rasp. “In fact, you don’t smell like anything I’ve ever come across before.”

Okay, not what she’d expected him to say. What the hell was a pre-trans?

Man, his eyes were really black now and his expression really intense. It was starting to freak her out.
But at the same time, really turning you on,
a little voice in the corner of her mind said gleefully.

It was true. Even though her heart was thudding in her chest from fear and adrenaline was rushing through her body as every little potential outcome of this situation flashed through her mind, there was still a part of her that was raging with lust over him.

You sick puppy
, she thought to herself as she took a step back. He followed along with her, his fingers digging into her wrist.

“Your pulse is racing,” he said, his upper lip pulling back slightly as if in readiness for something, revealing some wickedly long incisors.

Oh, no way. They hadn’t just been there a moment ago, had they? She thought she would have noticed something like that.

Was he really a
vampire
or were they fake? She’d read about fake fangs before—how you could build them with a spring mechanism that you could trigger with your tongue—but why would anyone want fake vampire fangs? Sure, as a gimmick to wow your vampire-loving friends, but for everyday use? Maybe he just liked to scare gullible young women with them, or maybe he was some kind of serial killer who liked to rip out the throats of his victims in some tribute to vampires?

But what about his pupils? How did someone make their pupils expand like that? Sure, drugs could do it, but she’d seen it happen and there hadn’t been a pill or injection in sight. He had seemed pretty damn quick in grabbing her wrist. Vampires had super-speed, didn’t they?

But why would he attack her? Wasn’t he here because of Jacob? Was this going to be a crime of opportunity?

All of these thoughts raced through her head as she continued to back away, with him following right along. Maybe if she just led him around the apartment by her wrist for the next few minutes, Jacob would return?

And do what? How was he going to save her from a frickin’
vampire
?

“Are those real?” she asked, glancing at his fangs and then back up into his black eyes.

He scraped the tip of his tongue along the point of a tooth and let the blood well on his tongue in answer. She swallowed hard. Even if they weren’t, they were sharp and that was real enough for her.

“Are you going to bite me?” she asked, stalling for time, her eyes still on the red liquid seeping out of his tongue.

I wonder what it tastes like.

“Yes.”

“And drink my blood?”

“Yes.”

Can you reciprocate afterwards?

“Do you do that often?” she asked, instead.

“Yes,” he replied, somewhat apologetically she thought, backing her into a wall.

Dammit, she should have known that was there. This was her apartment, after all. She pressed herself into the cool plasterboard and realised, as he caged her there, that he actually wasn’t much taller than her 5’8”. He’d seemed taller, but maybe it was just his presence that made him seem that way. Still, she had no illusions that she could have pushed him away. He was solid muscle.

And didn’t she know it. She had to curl her hands into fists as it was, just to keep her fingers from reaching out and touching the mounds of muscle on his chest. His body, mixed with the smell of leather and clean male, was an intoxicating mixture that had her good sense deserting her completely.

TD&D was nose to nose with her now, his black eyes boring into hers. He breathed deeply and she felt the rush of air as it was pulled into his lungs.

“Why do you smell so good?” he asked her, his voice and expression suddenly furious.

“Ah, it’s my perfume?”

He chuckled, not without malice, but even so, the sound rolled over and around her, heightening both her fear and her desire. She wanted him to kiss her, to press his body against hers, to put his hands on her breasts, to use those teeth in her skin.

Funny, she’d never thought of herself as a masochist before; surely it would hurt to be bitten in the neck.

“You’re shaking,” he said, his voice a mere whisper.

She was. And breathing heavily too. Was it fear or desire? She couldn’t tell anymore. “Will it hurt?”

“Only for a minute.”

She held her breath as he moved, his cool cheek brushing against her flushed skin as he headed for her neck. She gasped when she felt the smooth warmth of his tongue slide wetly over her jugular and shivered with pleasure. Curling her hands tighter, she pressed them hard against the wall and braced herself.

*  *  *

Greyvian was lost in a world where the need for blood and sex were twisted together so tightly the two were, for all intents and purposes, one and the same. At the moment, he was keeping them separated by sheer force of will. Otherwise, his hands would have been all over the woman who was shaking like a leaf and breathing raggedly. With the figure-hugging grey dress that she was wearing, he could well imagine the shape of her body, the softness of her skin, the firm swell of her breasts, the pliant mounds of her ass. His fingers twitched with the need to feel the silky waves of her dark brown hair, but he kept them plastered to the wall as if his arms were the only force supporting the structure. To go down that road would surely lead to disaster for the both of them. More so for her.

But it wasn’t her attractiveness or her tight body that was at the root of the cause for his normally unshakeable calm deserting him. He’d met a lot of beautiful women in his time and not one of them had ever been more than an itch he needed to scratch. No, it wasn’t her appearance that had him going from cool as a cucumber and about as emotional to a moment away from losing it.

It was the way she smelled.

He couldn’t believe how intoxicating her scent was. He’d been catching faint traces of it around the apartment since he’d arrived, but it was nothing compared to the source. He hadn’t meant to go predatory on her, but one hint of the full-strength sweet chocolaty aroma she gave off had brought the beast inside of him roaring to life.

Staring into her vibrant blue eyes, he realised that she didn’t seem particularly terrified. Alert, yes; aroused, definitely. It was almost as if she wanted him to bite her.

Silly girl.

Inhaling again, he breathed her into his lungs, his teeth aching with the need to pierce her flesh and release the crimson flow of liquid that teased him so. He knew it would be as sweet as she smelled, and vampires were nothing if not sweet toothed. But the tasting of her wouldn’t be enough. He would drain her dry and then she would be no more.

“Why do you smell so good?” he asked, angry now that she had awakened his desire and caused him to lose control.

“Ah, it’s my perfume,” she offered with a half-smile.

An evil chuckle escaped his throat, surprising and angering him further.

Damn her! 
If she hadn’t smelled so utterly intoxicating there wouldn’t have been a problem. Yes, he hadn’t fed in over a week and it was getting time that he needed to find someone, but he should have been a long way from reacting this uncontrollably.

“You’re shaking,” he breathed, trying to delay the inevitable and wondering if she’d finally regained her senses enough to be afraid for her life.

“Will it hurt?” she asked, bracing herself for the possibility.

Maybe he
should
kill her. Just sink his fangs into her neck, drain her dry, and then sink back into the emotionless oblivion he had been living in for the past century.

“Only for a minute,” he assured, giving in and committing himself to the tragedy.

Running his tongue over the smooth flesh of her neck, he tasted just a hint of the sweetness he could smell in her veins. The woman shuddered but didn’t protest. He had to commend her for her bravery—or maybe he should be cursing her for her stupidity. She should be screaming and running for the door. But maybe it was better that she didn’t. The beast inside him loved a chase, and he didn’t want her to die terrified.

The fact that he didn’t hear the door open was testimony to how far gone he was.

“Heyyyy, Sienna. Are we interrupting?” an amused voice questioned.

His head snapped towards the trio who had entered the apartment; a distant part of him recognised two of them as Knox and Lucas, but the beast within saw only a threat to its meal. As a deep growl erupted from his throat, he pressed into the female, protecting her with his body.

Recognising the danger, Knox held his hands out to his companions and said in a gentle voice, “Easy, boys. Jacob, if that female means anything to you, I’d be really careful what you say and do right now.”

“Another vampire?” the stranger asked, sounding somewhat resigned.

“Yes.” In a much lower voice, so low Greyvian assumed Knox believed he couldn’t hear, the male cautioned, “But he’s dangerous to humans if you catch my drift.”

Irritated by the comment, he struggled to reign in his lust and bring coherent thought back into his brain, but as the three eased further into the apartment, the closer they came, the harder it was. The beast inside was fighting him tooth and nail, and it was nigh impossible to make any headspace when his mind was full of aggression.

“Back off,” he hissed, pressing the length of his body even closer to the female. He shuddered as his erection ground into her soft belly and had a strong urge to strip her naked and fuck her up against the wall, no matter who was watching.

“Buddy,
you’d
better back the fuck off, you hear me?” The stranger—Jacob, if his fried brain remembered correctly—took another step closer. “If you hurt her, I will personally kick your ass.”

Greyvian growled and huddled his body around the female protectively. Who was this male who thought he had any hope of keeping him from what was his?

“Good job, Jacob. Way to listen,” Knox said dryly, sighing.

Greyvian’s eyes finally focused enough on the stranger to realise that he could have been looking into a mirror on one of those days when he’d gone too long without feeding and the beast within had taken over and done a number on a victim—the blood on Jacob’s shirt perfectly adding to that picture. On any other occasion, he might have looked at the male with little emotion, but he wasn’t feeling himself just now, and the bottom dropped out of his stomach. Any lust he had been feeling prior to that moment withered and died in light of the shock, and his field of vision returned to normal; his eyes no doubt flashing from black to light grey once more.

“What is your mother’s name?” he asked, his voice betraying his shock.

The pre-trans was looking at him as if he’d only now realised that the two of them could have passed as twins and took a long moment to answer. When he did, he sounded a little faint himself. “Mary Fletcher. Why?”

A face flashed in his mind’s eye: a brunette with large blue eyes and a shy smile; one of the more memorable itches that he’d scratched along the way, but still largely forgettable. Given that he was here because of the male, he figured it must have been just over twenty-five years ago now.

“Where are my manners?” Knox interrupted, a sly smile on his face. “Greyvian Kobussen, meet Jacob
Greyson
.”

“Are you supposed to be my long lost twin brother?” Jacob asked, not looking too thrilled with the concept.

With his lust forgotten for the moment, Greyvian carefully composed himself and finally eased away from Sienna without looking at her, not wanting to tempt fate. Straightening to his full height, which was surprisingly shorter than Jacob’s possible six feet, he turned towards the male.

“No,” he said, his tone of voice back to neutral, “I’m your father.”

3

When Jacob had finally relented and told Knox his address, the last thing he had imagined was coming home to find a Queen of the Damned, leather-clad male seconds away from mauling his best friend. Although, perhaps mauling wasn’t the right word. Penetrating? Yeah, that might be better suited to the situation. It would work for the erection that was slowly fading inside the guy’s leather pants, as well as the inch-long fangs that had been on display only a moment ago.

At first, he hadn’t realised the guy could have passed for his Goth twin, but then the male’s expression had gone blank, his eyes had changed from black to grey, and it had been like looking at the photo on his driver’s licence where they told you not to smile and you had to look all serious and boring.

But his father? He couldn’t believe that.

“Yeah, right,” he scoffed. “You can’t be more than thirty.”

Knox chuckled in amusement. “Vampire, remember? We don’t show our age.”

Jacob made a face. “Oh, right.”

Wondering how his life could have turned upside down in a matter of minutes, his eyes drifted over to Sienna. She looked a bit like a wilted flower. Her shoulders were hunched and her back was pressed against the wall like it was the only thing holding her up. She didn’t look hurt in any way, just severely disappointed and a bit forlorn as she stared at the profile of the guy who’d almost eaten her for lunch. She didn’t even seem to notice that there was anyone else in the room.

What the hell? Was she seriously attracted to the guy? How was that possible? He could have been Jacob’s evil twin, and she’d never felt anything but platonic for
him
. He had a sudden vision of the hard-on the guy had been sporting only moments ago and remembered the way Sienna had seemed completely on board with whatever the guy had been about to do.

Chemistry, he supposed, was everything.

Maybe if he’d come at her with a raging hard-on, things would have been different between them. But then, he’d have to have been capable of feeling that kind of desire for her in the first place and he just couldn’t seem to drum up that kind of passion for someone he thought of as a sister—at least, being an orphan, how he imagined someone with a sister would feel about their sister.

Still, walking in on your best friend looking to get down with someone who could be your twin was a bit of a blow to the ego. Especially when said twin actually turned out to be your father.

Was it really possible? Could this guy—Greyvian Kobussen—really be his father? (What the hell kind of name was that anyway? Russian?) If only his mother were still alive. Surely she’d be able to confirm or deny it. If she didn’t completely freak out first that her ex-lover was a vampire. Or had she known at the time? Had she told the guy she was pregnant? Or had it just been a one-night stand? Had she even known his name? Although, judging by the surname she’d given him, Grey
son
, he supposed she had.

“Did you love her?” he asked. “My mother?”

Not a flicker of emotion crossed Greyvian’s face. “No.”

Great conversationalist, this guy. He could see that getting information out of him would be like pulling teeth.

“She’s dead, you know.” He was hoping to raise some kind of reaction, but he got nothing with the statement. “I’ve been an orphan since before I can even remember.”

Still nothing. This guy was ice-cold. It was downright eerie. He’d gone from slobbering monster to the Poker Faced King in a matter of seconds. Jacob found himself almost preferring the raging beast to this lack of... anything.

“Did she ever tell you about me?” He didn’t know what he was hoping for, asking that question. Even if his mother had told the guy, did he really wish he’d had this mercurial male for a father?

“No. I only knew her for a very brief moment.”

Wow, a whole sentence.

“Did you rape her?” By the look of the guy and the way he’d had Sienna so aggressively pressed to the wall, it wasn’t a leap to think he might have.

“No.” Greyvian didn’t elaborate or show any reaction to the jibe.

Damn, he’d been hoping for at least a little bit of outrage, but still nothing.

Suddenly he was too exhausted to ask any more questions. This was all too much. The fight earlier, having his blood drunk by a frickin’ vampire, finding out he wasn’t just sick because he had the flu but because he was actually about to turn into one of the bastards. Now this? How the hell was anyone supposed to cope with this many shocks in one day?

In the silence that followed, nobody moved. It was like they were each processing the whole episode and needed a moment to organise their thoughts.

Knox was the first to speak, coming back to reality with a shake of the head that said more than words about how weird this situation was. “So, who’s the female? She smells delightful.”

Jacob looked over at Sienna, feeling strangely numb. She hadn’t moved from her wilted position and was still staring mournfully in Greyvian’s direction. “Sienna. My best friend. We live here together.”

As if the sound of her name snapped her out of whatever mind-bend she was dealing with, she looked over at him, her eyes widening.

“Jesus, Jacob! What happened to you? Are you alright? Are you hurt? There’s blood all over your shirt!” She came rushing over to him, once more herself, and turned his head from side to side as if looking for a wound.

“It’s not my blood,” he assured her quickly. “Well,
mostly
not my blood.”

“Mostly? You
were
hurt? Where? I don’t see a wound,” she noted, checking over his arms and then turning an accusing eye to Knox and Lucas. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

“Jesus!” Knox yelped in surprise, his gaze darting over to Greyvian. “She’s Aware?!”

“Obviously,” the guy replied, completely deadpan.

Knox looked at her, expression intense. “How old are you?”

Sienna looked at him like he was insane. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just answer the question, please.”

She frowned, but humoured the guy. “Twenty-five. Why?”

“When’s your birthday?”

“May.”

“Five months ago. You’re sure?”

“That’s what it says on my birth certificate,” she said, a frustrated look on her face. “
Why
do you want to know?”

Knox just shook his head as he exchanged a look with Lucas, and then Greyvian, obviously troubled by something. Jacob was too tired to remember why that might be.

“Whatever,” she muttered, dismissing the vampires as she looked back at his shirt. “So, what happened?”

“Ah, yeah,” he muttered, glancing down at his blood-splattered shirt before meeting her eyes again. “Well, some douchebags that don’t like these two,” he began, aiming his thumb at Knox and Lucas, “wanted to fight. I stepped in and one of them bit me, drank my blood, then Knox ripped his throat open and the guy bled all over me.

“At least, I think that’s what happened. It all feels so surreal now.”

Sienna’s only reaction was to ask, “Where did he bite you?”

“Here. I think,” he said, putting his fingers to his neck and rubbing slowly at the remembered pain. Had it really happened? Had a vampire really bitten him and drunk his blood? What reality had he stepped into?

Sienna’s expression said that she believed him, but that she was having a hard time reconciling his information with the obvious lack of a wound. The fact that she didn’t question that someone had bitten him and drunk his blood told him that she had pretty much already figured out that they were dealing with vampires—unsurprising, given what he’d walked in on—but he confirmed it for her anyway.

“Yeah, these guys are vampires,” he explained. “And, get this: they have healing saliva.”

“Healing saliva?” she echoed, looking immediately at Greyvian, and then over to Knox and Lucas. “Well, that’s one I’ve never heard of before.”

“I know, right,” he smiled half-heartedly. “Other than that though, they tell me they’re just like regular humans, but with big teeth and a thirst for blood.”

A sudden thought had him turning to Knox, “Hey, if that’s true, how could those guys get up so damn fast? I’m sure I hit them hard enough to put them down for longer than that.”

Knox smirked and said, “They’re used to pain. They should be—they get their asses handed to them often enough. But, seriously, we do tend to have a higher pain threshold than a human. Nothing to get too excited about though. If you get knifed, shot, or your throat ripped open, it’s still gonna hurt.”

Turning back to Sienna, Jacob shared a look of disappointment with her that vampires weren’t everything Hollywood had made them out to be. He felt like he was forgetting a really important piece of information, but he was too tired to focus on anything but the next thing he wanted to say to her.

As her gaze drifted to Greyvian, he drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then said, “But that’s not even the best part.”

Her eyes snapped back to his and she looked at him expectantly.

“You know how I’ve been feeling pretty crap lately?”

She nodded slowly, her gaze darting over to Greyvian like she had an inkling as to what he might say next.

“Well, turns out it’s not the flu or anything. The fact is, that guy’s my father,” he pointed at Greyvian, “and I’m about to become a vampire. This thing that’s happening to me is the first part of my
transition
.”

“Holy shit,” Sienna replied, her gaze drifting to Greyvian again. “I guess that explains your resemblance, huh?”

Jacob smirked, ready to rib her for having the hots for the guy, but a fresh wave of fatigue hit him and his body felt suddenly heavy, causing him to sway. Luckily Knox was on the ball and provided a solid support for him before he face-planted onto the floor.

“Is he going to be alright?” Sienna asked, reaching out a hand in concern.

“With Greyvian here?” Knox replied. “Eventually. I won’t lie, the transition from human to vampire isn’t easy, but his father’s blood will help.”

Jacob was too exhausted to react to any of that.

“Now, I think I’d better put him in bed before he passes out and is completely useless. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy lugging ninety kilos of dead weight down the hallway.”

Sienna was hyper-aware of Greyvian as she watched Knox lead her best friend out of the room. She tried not to look directly at him, like maybe that would help, but her eyes kept darting back to him again and again.

She couldn’t begin to express the depth of her disappointment at the interruption earlier, but it was a distinctly physical ache that began in her core and bloomed throughout her entire body—or maybe that was the lingering effects of all those hormones still racing through her system? She wasn’t a virgin, and she wasn’t unfamiliar with being turned on, but she’d never felt it quite this intensely before.

And to think—the vampire was Jacob’s father. How bizarre was that? She had the hots for her best friend’s dad! Ha! Hilarious! But, even better: the two of them looked the same age, could almost pass as twins, and yet, she was only attracted to one of them.

How the hell did that work?

Looking him over from top to toe and back again, she thought it must be due to Greyvian’s undeniable sex appeal. It wasn’t just his clothing that gave him an edge, but the way he held himself; he stood tall, didn’t slouch, and yet seemed relaxed in his stance. He didn’t fidget—at all—not even a slight shifting from foot to foot like any other human would when left standing for a while. He was statue still—and that was sexy as hell for some reason. As was the way he seemed to be watching her with a similar regard, as if he were cataloguing all of
her
desirable traits. Not that you could tell from his neutral expression what was actually going on inside that brain of his, but she liked to think that maybe he was thinking dirty thoughts about her.

Suddenly aware that they weren’t alone and that the silence was stretching to infinity, she cleared her throat and asked the first question that popped into her head. “So, ah, how long will the transition take?”

Greyvian’s eyes rose from where they had lingered on her neck, completely unreadable. When he spoke, his voice was impersonal, as if he hadn’t just had his erection and his fangs pressed intimately against her only a little while ago. “Judging by his scent and level of exhaustion, he should be entering the final stage very soon. I’d give him no more than a day or so.”

Awesome. The thought of Greyvian sticking around until it happened had her stomach doing little flips and forward rolls of excitement.

Glancing at the other vampire—Lucas—she marvelled at the resemblance to Knox and wondered if the two were also a father-son duo. If so, then it seemed that physical appearance bred true in the vampire bloodline. Keeping track of family lineage would be a snap if that were the case. Also, pretty damn weird at family get-togethers!

For a vampire, the guy looked harmless enough. He was about her height, lean, and good-looking—but not intimidatingly so. He was watching Greyvian with a thoughtful expression on his face but smiled briefly when he caught her looking his way. He had really nice green eyes—a pretty colour, and a nice shape. Best of all, they looked friendly. Was it real, or only an act? He was a vampire after all.