Daring Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 2) (15 page)

“Her beauty caught the attention of a vampire who became obsessed with her. He locked her in a room and turned her against her will. After careful plotting, she killed him and took control of all his assets. It’s rather exceptional for a newly turned human to be able to kill a vampire, let alone a pure born. That’s only the beginning of her reputation.

“As turned vampires need to feed off other vampires, she set off to turn her own small army. Now they wander the world, still punishing the men who deserve it. If you have enough cash, she will work private security, but it involves
lots
of cash.”

“Something tells me the vampire king has lots of cash,” commented Gena. “But if he’s king, why can’t he just order her to work security?”

Marcus appeared to choose his words carefully. “Ironheart is not loyal to any king. She considers herself loyal to herself and her crew. That being said, she does respect Aleksander and his policies and she has supported his decisions so far.”

“You think Aleksander is afraid of her?” She wondered what kind of vampire could strike fear into the heart of the king.

“Let’s just say Aleksander would not have his throne if he hadn’t had her support throughout his rule.”

Gena nodded in apprehension. “Remind me to be nice to her if we ever meet.”

“Will do,” agreed Marcus.

As he started to lead her from the beautiful, glass-enclosed restaurant, she gave one last lingering sweep of the room. “Do we really have to leave so soon?”

“Though it’s reasonable I would check on the progress of the building, it’s best if we leave quickly.”

Gena could see his point, but she still gazed wistfully at the splendor of the room they were leaving.

“It’s so romantic up there,” she said. “Lots of babies are going to be conceived in this building.” The idea made her pause. “Vampires can have babies, right? You said you were pure born.”

Marcus nodded. “Babies are very possible. They just take a lot of work, as ovulation only occurs once every few years, and during pregnancy, the mother has to make sure she is very well fed. Miscarriage is very common as well, so it’s usually a long process.”

Gena couldn’t imagine the pain of waiting so long to conceive only to lose the child. “Can half angels have children?” she asked, not expecting him to know.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know any other half angels.”

Gena would give anything to question her “other” mother at this moment.

Before they could continue their conversation, the doors opened. At the exit to the building, there were now three guards. One of them seemed very relaxed while the other two seemed pissed off at something.

Gena was trying to piece together what that something was when their angry glances settled on Marcus.
Oh yes, Marcus was a traitor.
It made sense they would want him gone.

“Are you finished yet?” asked one of the angry guards in a curt voice.

Marcus said nothing to the man but did narrow his eyes at the vampire. Gena never wanted to find herself on the receiving end of one of Marcus’s angry glares.

The amount of heated looks being tossed around the lobby was overwhelming. She averted her gaze and noticed the more relaxed guard. He leaned nonchalantly against the wall next to the doors and looked at Marcus and her with light interest. She wondered why he was so different from the other two.

As Marcus and she left the building, his gaze followed them. As his neck turned, Gena saw the edge of a tattoo poke out from his collar but didn’t have a good enough view to make out what it was.

Marcus and Gena walked in silence. The car was parked right down the street, but Gena enjoyed the walk. It was surprisingly peaceful, considering Marcus’s irritation at the way he was treated. It had to be hard to know that all of his people believed he committed a crime he was innocent of.

Her thoughts kept going back to the relaxed guard. Gena asked, “Do you have any tattoos?”

The question seemed to startle Marcus out of deep thought. “What did you ask?”

She immediately felt stupid for asking the question. He was obviously dealing with serious shit. What did it matter if he had any tattoos? “It was nothing,” she assured softly.

She could tell Marcus was about to ask her what she’d said again but before he had a chance, he was knocked at least ten feet away from her. She screamed and reached for him, but she was pushed in the opposite direction by the same unseen force.

Gena landed painfully on her side, but the force of her fall still caused her to roll twice before her battered body came to a stop. As she tried to get her arms under her, she heard sounds of a struggle from behind her.

These weren’t the sounds of a normal fistfight, though. There were gruesome sounds of flesh on flesh, along with the strangest growling noises coming from the vampires fighting, almost as if there were three dogs trying to kill each other.

Gena finally stood up and observed the horrific scene. Three vampires were attacking Marcus. Two held him back while one landed punch after punch to his face and stomach. Gena knew how strong Marcus was and she could only imagine how much those punches had to hurt.

As much pain as he was in, Marcus didn’t go down without a fight. All of his attackers had serious injuries of their own, though the worse, by far, was the damage caused to the arm of one of the assailants holding Marcus.

The arm containing Marcus seemed fine, but the unoccupied one hung onto the rest of his body by only a thread, or, rather, a tendon in this case. The sight made Gena gag, but the bastard deserved it for what he was doing.

The logical part of her mind told her to turn and run, but she knew she could never abandon Marcus. Besides, she was immortal now. Right?

Trying not to be completely idiotic, she took a few precious seconds to think clearly. They were vampires. She knew how to kill a vampire. Destroy the head or heart, but that was easier said than done.

She had a dagger and a handgun loaded with silver bullets in her purse. The dagger would make it easier to destroy the heart, but she had no desire to get close enough to use it. Gun it was.

Her purse had rolled away from her after she was pushed, and she reached for it as discreetly as possible. Apparently humans didn’t pose much of a threat because no one seemed to notice she was up and moving.

When the purse was in her hands, she found the comforting cold feel of the handgun. She ran her fingers over the cold metal until she found the safety and clicked the small piece of steel over. Taking a calming breath that didn’t stop her shaking, she moved forward.

As she approached the cluster of vampires, her heart started to beat uncontrollably as the fear attempted to take over. Every time the fear climbed up her throat, the main assailant would land another blow on Marcus and her breaking heart would give her even more resolve.

When she was about ten feet away, she shouted, “Stop it!”

Well, that got everyone’s attention. Four shocked faces looked her way. All of them had fangs bared and cold, black eyes stared at her. Marcus might’ve been even more surprised than the other three that she stuck around.

“What the hell are you doing to him?” she asked, unable to keep the anger from her voice.

The assailant looked her way and she tightened her grasp on the gun that was still hidden in her purse. Instead of answering her, the main assailant made eye contact with her. As she stared into his eyes, some of her fears eased. “You don’t want to be around this traitor,” he said in a calming voice. “You want to go home and have no memory of anything after you and this traitorous fuck left the tower.”

The strange trance his eyes had put on her dropped like a stone. These were not even rebels attacking. These were just vigilantes trying to get revenge. Part of her wanted to scream at them that Marcus was innocent, but she knew she couldn’t blow his cover. So she had to fight back.

The next three seconds seemed to play in slow motion. As she brought the gun up, she flashed back to standing in her kitchen. Ryan stood over her, blocking her way out. She had the knife in her hand and raised it to attack. She should have gone for the neck. He would have been dead in seconds and she would never have been murdered.

Her hesitation had caused her death. She couldn’t hesitate now. With ice in her veins, powered by the hottest anger she’d ever felt, the gun was up and her arm was locked.

Without a pause, she fired. She took only fractions of a second between each round, and she alternated all three shots between the three vampires who surrounded Marcus.

She aimed for their hearts. She knew if she got one or two bullets through the heart they would die, but she didn’t have that much faith in her aim.

After the fifteenth and last round was fired, she braced herself for the attack. As she saw a blur of motion move toward her, she prepared to die again. Instead of pain, two hard arms closed around her and held her close. Her arms went around Marcus in a heartbeat as she finally allowed herself to see what she’d done.

All three vampires withered in pain on the pavement, now wet with a mixture of their and Marcus’s blood. They all appeared to still be alive, but none were in good condition. Marcus also looked to the three. “I’m sure the police heard the gunfire,” he said in a calm voice Gena couldn’t have imagined possible under the circumstances. “I would suggest you drag your sorry asses out of here before they arrive. Be sure to tell everyone how a human almost killed you.”

Gena smiled at that last verbal blow as she looked to Marcus, but her smile immediately faded at the sight of his badly beaten body.

“You need help,” she said.

Marcus looked as if he was about to argue, but he didn’t protest the supporting arm she wrapped around his waist. She saw him wince as his weight was transferred to her. Her heart broke all over again for him. She was certain he had broken ribs, and any movement had to be agonizing. They hobbled together until they reached the entrance to the parking garage where they'd parked.

Marcus wanted to keep walking, but Gena refused to let him go any farther. She pulled him into the doorway of the garage, giving them coverage from any cars and people passing by. “You need to feed,” she said matter-of-factly.

Marcus shook his head, where one cheekbone had swollen to the size of a golf ball. It was big enough that his left eye could no longer open. He told her vampires healed quickly, but she needed it to go faster. “I have blood at the penthouse,” he wheezed out.

“You have blood right here,” she pointed out.

He was still resistant. “This won’t kill me. I just need to make it to the car.”

“You’re in pain,” she said softly. She pushed a bloody strand of hair away from his eyes. “Let me help you. Please.”

He shook his head at her suggestion. Gena tried really hard to let herself respect his wishes. She knew powerful men did not always appreciate help when it was offered, and she also knew from their previous conversations that the injuries, though probably fatal for a human, would not kill him.

But she also knew broken ribs hurt like a bitch, and with the force and number of punches he’d taken, he probably had severe internal bleeding and many other broken bones. The fact that he was still standing was a testament to his strength and tenacity.

It was that very strength and tenacity that she’d grown to care for in the short time she’d spent with him. She refused to just sit back when she could help him.

She gently leaned him against the door they were next to as she set her purse on the ground. After a quick second of rifling around, she closed her fingers around the silver knife. She held the blade up to her wrist, but then thought better of it.

She knew Marcus was older and had been feeding on humans without killing for a long time, but she didn’t know how much control he’d have in his injured state. She’d still want to have the ability to back him off of her with the silver.

The neck seemed very intimate, but considering the things she’d already done with him, she decided that having both hands free was the best option.

Marcus knew her intentions with the knife, and his weak voice sputtered out one more protest. “Gena, no.”

She was already moving the knife up as he spoke. As quickly as she could, she ran the blade against her skin, causing a shallow cut in the delicate spot where neck met shoulder.

She gasped at the sudden sting and grabbed Marcus’s head and pulled him toward her. He didn’t protest anymore. In a fraction of a second, his mouth went right to her neck.

Strong hands gripped her upper arms tight and pulled her closer as she felt the two cutting points of his fangs sink into her. He fed from her with a frantic rhythm, as if she were the only water in the desert after walking for days.

She shuddered at the small pain but felt the rush of relief that he was letting her help him. While one of her hands still held the dagger in case he fed for too long, her other hand reached up to wrap around his brawny shoulders. As her arm moved up, he released his grip on her to allow her to move. His own arms wrapped around her waist as they held each other.

As their embrace relaxed, so did his frenzied feeding. He now took long and slow drags, as if savoring her taste. As his pace changed, so did her reaction. Instead of focusing on the pain, she felt other things.

She felt his quickly beating heart almost matching her own heart’s frantic rhythm. The heat of his body had soaked through her clothes, and it almost felt as though the two of them would spontaneously combust.

His rock-hard cock pushing against her thigh didn’t do much to dampen the arousal that shot through her body. After one long drag, she felt the playful tip of his tongue against her neck, and she jumped so hard at the electric feeling that the silver dagger fell to the ground with a loud clang.

The noise seemed to be an off switch for him. He gently eased his mouth away from her and used his hands at her waist to push her back to give him a few inches of space between them.

Gena’s breath came in shallow pants and she swore she saw stars in front of her eyes. She tried very hard to determine whether they were from the blood loss or her sudden need to be naked and under Marcus as soon as possible.

She couldn’t figure out how much blood he’d taken. She didn’t know the rate he drank, and, in all honesty, she had no comprehension of the time that had passed.

It made her feel better that he looked just as dazed as her, but that could be due to the savage beating he’d received. Suddenly remembering the entire reason for letting him bite her, she stuttered out, “How-how are you feeling?”

He already looked better. The swelling on his face was already greatly reduced, and both eyes were open, though the injured one still couldn’t open all the way. She couldn’t see how his insides were doing, but she hoped that they were improving as much as his face.

“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” he said in a heated voice. “How are you feeling?”

The first response that came to mind was
more horny than she’d ever been in her life
, but that seemed a bit too forward. On the other hand, did it get more forward than cutting your neck in front of a hungry vampire?

Then it struck her that he was asking whether she was feeling any ill effects from the bite or her self-inflicted cut. “I’m a little dizzy,” she said honestly, though she was still not sure whether the dizziness was caused by the blood loss.

Surprisingly, she felt no pain in her neck. She reached one tentative hand up to where she’d cut herself and was shocked when her touch caused no pain. She pressed her palm more firmly to her neck, but felt no open wound, from the knife or from teeth.

She looked up to Marcus. “How did I heal so quickly?” Even as she asked, she knew the answer. “This is crazy,” she muttered. She knew she was now immortal, but actually witnessing her newfound healing capabilities was mind-blowing for her.

“It’s a new world,” said Marcus softly.

As the awe of what she was capable of was still setting in, the blaring lights and sound of sirens passed them on the street. “We should head out,” said Marcus. “We can’t know for sure, but I would bet that those police are heading to where we just came from.”

Gena was in complete agreement as they started to walk again, moving up the ramp to where the car was parked. Marcus was no longer leaning on her, but he still showed a bit of a limp. She was very happy with the progress he’d made.

“Do you think the men I shot got away in time?” she asked.

“Probably. All they have to do is get back to the Towers, where the other guards can help replenish them.”

Gena frowned at that. “You think the guards sent them? I was wondering about that.”

Marcus shrugged. “I don’t fucking care anymore. They do have every reason to hate me and I can’t exactly proclaim my innocence. On the other hand, they deserved every bullet that you shot into them and then some.” Marcus looked over at her. “By the way, that was incredible what you did back there.”

Gena smiled at the compliment. “You’d be surprised how much easier firing a gun becomes when three pissed-off and bloodied vampires are staring you down with black eyes,” she said, trying to be modest yet agreeing that she’d been pretty badass.

This was a scary world that she was now a part of, but the more time she spent in it, the more she realized that she belonged there.

Something she said had apparently rubbed Marcus the wrong way. He frowned and stopped their conversation. Gena chalked it up to him allowing his body to heal.

The entire ride, Marcus said nothing to her, and she started to feel uncomfortable.

Maybe he was pissed at her for making him feed. Did she really overstep her bounds?

Well, let him be pissed at her
, she thought. No matter what his arrogant brain filled with male pride told him, she’d made the trip to his apartment a lot less painful, and she’d be damned if he was pissed at her for that.