Dark Vision (30 page)

‘Do you wish to feed the fallen vampire, Goddess?’ she said.

I nodded, feeling woozy but determined.

‘Then you shall.’

She turned to Gabriel, who despite his best efforts to remain acquiescent, was glaring at her and starting to grow some extra muscle. He opened his mouth to protest, and she held up one hand to silence him.

‘Do not try your puny tricks with me, High King – I am the Morrigan, and I will be obeyed. Who are you to tell me what to do? To tell the Goddess what to do? You are but a child in a man’s body. She will do as she pleases, and you will leave her be.’

Wow. That told him, in a way I’d never seen before. In fact, the only person I’d ever known to answer him back was me. I was liking the Morrigan already. Carmel lifted her head slightly and caught my eye, mouthing two words at me: girl power. I stifled a laugh. The Morrigan seemed to be big on being taken seriously.

‘She,’ said the woman, ‘is the cradle and the apple in one. She will save whom she will save. It is within her gift.’

‘But the consequences!’ shouted Gabriel, still not quite cowed enough to get the message and shut up.

‘What consequences?’ I asked, suddenly even more interested. Apart from, you know, potentially dying of exsanguination.

The Morrigan turned to me, emerald-green eyes shining in her face. Eyes that shone like jewels and reminded me of the Man in the Cavern. Eyes that promised passion and strength and death.

‘If you do this,’ she said, ‘then the vampire will be yours. You will own him.’

‘I don’t want to own him. Donn can have him. I just want to keep him alive. Or dead. Or whatever.’

‘There is no room for “whatever” in this, girl – and there is no room for negotiation. If you do this, you sever his ties with Donn, and his existence is yours. What do you say?’

I looked at Isabella, her exquisite face staring up at mine, desperate. Back at Luca, still and dying. At Gabriel, silently beseeching me to refuse.

‘I say yes,’ I replied.

Gabriel looked down at his feet. Nodded once. Said: ‘I cannot watch this,’ and left the room.

Isabella jumped up and ran at me, grabbing my wrist and tugging me towards Luca. I planted my feet as firmly as I could, and shoved her away.

‘I will do this myself – don’t try to force me!’ I said, hissing at her. She hissed back, and her fangs gleamed white and terrifying. It was potentially a bad move, but I was
sooo
sick of being bossed and dragged and bullied. It’s happened to me my whole life, and I needed to make a stand. Choosing a feral vampire to test it out on might not have been the wisest of decisions, but the time had come – the time for people to just back the fuck off and leave me alone.

I could see her body trembling with the need to rip my throat out, but one glance at the ginger Amazon hovering behind us told her that would be a bad thing. They were way more scared of her than of Gabriel, so I was going Team Morrigan all the way. Miraculously, she backed the fuck off.

I kneeled down beside Luca, the blood and gore sloshing beneath my knees, and stroked his pale face with my good hand. He was so beautiful. Why wouldn’t I want to save him? And as for owning him … well, I’d find a way to give him back later. Assuming Donn had the same returns policy as M&S, that is.

I leaned forward, cradled his blond head in my arms, and pressed my bleeding wrist to his lips.

At first, there was nothing. Not a twitch, not a lick, and I thought it was too late. That all the arguing, all the fighting, had been wasted.

‘You’re not doing it properly!’ whispered Isabella, still hovering at my shoulder, her tone a mixture of plea and threat. ‘You need to bleed better!’ I ignored her, and pressed my flesh deeper on to his mouth, willing him to wake up and drink. To feed. To live.

‘Come on, Luca …’ I muttered, stroking his hair back from his face. ‘Be a good little vampire, and drink up.’

It was tentative to start with: the tiniest flicker of his tongue. Like a kitten lapping at milk. It felt soft and gentle and pleasant, and I was just starting to think that this wasn’t so bad when his mouth crunched down on to my flesh.

I wanted to scream – in fact, I suspect I may have – as his lips clamped down on my wrist, sealing off the wound. The suction was so powerful I thought a few internal organs might slip out with the blood, and I found myself straining backwards, trying to pull away from him.

After the first couple of mouthfuls, he regained enough strength to move, and grabbed my arm to hold it forcefully in place. I could feel his fingertips hitting bone, and knew I’d be bruised. His eyes flickered open, deep and dark and shining, going a fraction wider when he saw it was me.

He yanked his mouth away, letting his head fall back into my arms, and licked his lips.

‘No!’ shouted Isabella, dashing forward. ‘He needs more – you need more, Luca!’

I heard rather than saw the Morrigan intervene, and the sound of Isabella screeching as she was thrown yet again across the room. I guessed it just wasn’t her night.

‘Do you?’ I asked, really hoping that the answer was no. It hurt. God, it hurt. I felt dizzy and sore and ached all over. I liked Luca, and I wanted to save him, but I was praying that was enough. I glanced down at his body, at the tattered rags of his T-shirt. The flesh had started to knit back together, and his insides were back where they belonged. But the cuts were still open and gleaming, blood seeping from the edges as his body tried to heal itself. Shit. He was better, but still not right.

He shook his head, too weak to speak, and I knew I had to make the decision for him.

‘You need more,’ I said, offering my wrist to him again, clenching my eyes shut and hoping for the best.

‘Relax,
bella
– this can be fun, you know?’ he murmured, pausing to lick a few stray droplets from my skin. Yeah, right, I thought. Fun in the same way getting electric shock therapy was fun. And as for ‘relax’ – well, that sounded about as convincing as when the nurse doing a smear test says it.

I took a breath, deep and long, realising that he had stopped. That he was waiting for me to give him some sign.

‘Do it, Luca,’ I said, ‘but please – be quick.’

‘That’s not what the girls usually say,’ he replied, and I realised that if he was joking again, this must be working. I was doing it. I was saving him. Yeah, it hurt – but so what? This was bigger than that. This was what I was meant to do. It made me feel good. It made me feel powerful. It made me feel like when I’d finished with Luca, I could go and grow Kevin a new eye, and then make my way to the nearest hospice and carry right on. Yeah. Go Goddess.

It was also making Luca feel good, I couldn’t help noticing. Despite the fact that his torso was still covered in half-healed wounds, his leathers were shifting and filling in an obscenely male way. I wondered if this was normal – if that happened every time he fed – or if I was, you know, special.

I decided I didn’t care, and pushed my wrist back to his mouth. He clamped back down and started to suck again, but this time he was slower, gentler. More controlled. He reached up, placed long fingers on the side of my face, softly stroking. I leaned into his touch, rubbing my skin against his in the way I always felt free to do with him. God, he was right. It was starting to feel … nice.

His sucking was slow, rhythmic and sensual. He started to time it with my heartbeat, and that sent a great big shuddering throb all through my body. His hand was twined into my hair, and I rubbed against it, murmuring quietly, feeling his fingers stroking my scalp.

I glanced down at his body. The cuts had closed. There were still faint pink lines where the wounds had been, but he was whole again. And gorgeous again. And so damned sexy again.

He stopped just drinking, and replaced it with feathery touches of his tongue, licking and probing and quite frankly making me go all wriggly in the knickers department. He never broke eye contact with me as I hitched a leg over his lap, straddling him until I could feel his body pressing into mine through the fabric of my jeans.

He sucked. And I squirmed. And he got even bigger. And I got even hornier. I leaned down, started to nip and nuzzle at his neck, licking the tanned skin and strong muscle at the top of his shoulder. His hand in my hair twined deeper, pulling me closer, and his whole body bucked up to meet mine. I shook and trembled and ground down even harder against him. I had no control over it at all, and the fact that I had an audience hadn’t even entered my mind – I was going on pure, delicious physical instinct, for the first time in my life.

I honestly had no idea what was happening to me. Bear in mind my sexual history is completely and utterly blank. Nothing had ever prepared me for this. Sex was something that other people did. That other people felt. And yet here I was – writhing around on top of this drop-dead gorgeous hunk of newly healed beefcake, feeling my face flush red with desire, thrusting away at him with every beat of my heart, every suck of my blood.

I pulled my wrist away, looked down at him. Blond hair falling to the sides of his cheekbones; pupils huge in chocolate-brown eyes. My own blood smeared on his lips. And I kissed him – long, and hard, and desperate, as he snaked one hand up beneath my top, stroking erect nipples through the lace of my bra. I gasped, and kissed, and wriggled, and sighed as an intense feeling of need built up through my whole body. Something very good was coming. I just knew it was …

The next sound out of my mouth was a scream – but not the kind I’d been hoping for. The Morrigan had grabbed me by my hair, and dragged me away, boots kicking against the slippery floor as she pulled me back to her.

‘Ow!’ I yelled, rubbing my sore scalp. ‘Why did you do that? You could have just told me to stop!’

‘I did,’ she said, ‘several times. You were distracted by the vampire, and he would have drained you dry in your need.’

‘I would
not
,’ said Luca, sitting up and grinning over at us. ‘I would never harm her – unless she wanted me to. She is my mistress, and I live to serve her – in any way she chooses …’

I looked at him. All healed up now. Cheeky again, brown eyes glinting with humour and the remnants of desire. I still wanted him. I wanted to sit on him, and bite him, and have him bite me, and see him completely naked while we did it …

‘Pay attention!’ said the Morrigan, taking me by the shoulders and whirling me round to face her. ‘This is not real – this is not right. We will leave now, whether you want to or not.’

I didn’t want to leave. And if I did, I wanted to take Luca with me. I opened my mouth to argue, just as Gabriel walked back into the room.

He’d been in the shower, and was wearing only a battered pair of faded Levis. Feet bare. Chest bare. Hair damp and curling on his shoulders, trickles of water running over ridged muscle and smooth skin. His eyes met mine and they were bright, brilliant violet. He’d known. Of course he had. He looked at Luca, looked at me, and dragged a hand back through his hair. More water. On even more muscle.

He looked angry. And edible. And like the most gorgeous creature I’d ever laid eyes on. My body was still thrumming with need, and all of my desire detoured from Luca, and headed in Gabriel’s direction – channelled by the clamouring want I could feel beating through me. I shook the Morrigan’s hands from my shoulders, and ran towards him.

I didn’t slow as I approached, and slammed him physically back against the wall, pinning him up against it and leaning into his body. My hands flew to his bare chest, stroking the outlines of his pecs, his nipples, leaning down and licking the droplets of water from his flesh with my tongue. I wanted to lick him clean, then make him dirty, then lick him all over again.

‘No …’ he muttered, trying to push me away. ‘This is not right …’

I crooked my neck to look up at him, and knew that whatever he was saying, he didn’t mean it. He wanted me. I wanted him. I’d never given in to anything like these urges before – hell, I’d never known these urges even existed. All I knew was that I was going to bloody well have him.

I twined my hands behind his neck, and tugged his face down to mine, meeting his lips like an invading army. His arms went around my waist, and I was crushed against him, left in no doubt that I was right. He wanted me – a lot.

Gabriel. My mate. Just then, it didn’t sound wrong. It sounded … perfect. I started to fiddle with the buttons on his fly, and he groaned in response, swept away by the lust that I was throwing out like a garden sprinkler. For a moment my mind collided with his, and I caught a snippet of what he was feeling: regret, and anger, and pride that he had at last proved himself irresistible. But all of that was overshadowed by need: hard, driving, ignore-everythingelse-in-the-universe need.

I’d just about managed the first few buttons when, once again, I was torn away – and, again, by my hair. I was going to fucking kill that woman.

The Morrigan grabbed hold of me and threw me against the wall, face first. She twisted one arm behind my back and tugged it upwards, all the time crushing my head into the wallpaper. It hurt, and it showed no signs of stopping. Maybe I wasn’t going to kill her after all.

‘Stop pulling my hair!’ I hissed. ‘I’m not a naughty puppy!’

‘But you are behaving like a bitch in heat,’ she said, leaning so close to my face that I could feel her warm breath on my cheeks. ‘Time to go to sleep now, Goddess.’

As she murmured the words, I slid down. Down to the floor, and out. Sleep. At last.

I twisted my head upwards.

I was looking at birds. Thousands of them, streaking through a sky that was tinted with the grey haze of dawn. They flocked and swirled like starlings, but I could see all kinds in their twirling nimbus: gulls and pigeons and sparrows and many I had no name for, all swooping and screeching and wheeling around us in a dark cloud of fluttering wings.

If that wasn’t strange enough, I could also, when I looked to the side, see Carmel’s legs. Or Carmel’s jeans, at least – those slinky Karen Millen numbers, now customised with dried blood and goop. I was upside down, looking up at crazed birds and my friend’s thighs, my head bobbing around like a nodding dog in the back of a car.