Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (21 page)

Their blood bond grew stronger and he knew it was Amber’s work. She was calling to him, reinforcing the link between them.

The vampire disappeared. Kearn’s panic began to subside when he sensed her feelings. No pain or fear touched them now that the vampire was gone. She must have been trying to fight his hold over her by herself. Her heartbeat and feelings hadn’t altered because she had been in mortal danger. It had been because she didn’t want to leave him.

Her heart beat steadily in his ears.

Her warm scent soothed his senses.

The connection between them remained strong and open, tying their hearts together.

Kearn stared at the road ahead, his panic clearing and leaving reason behind. The vampire would have only taken enough blood to test it and control her. He wouldn’t have endangered her when he wanted her alive so he could harvest her blood. She would survive the attack.

It didn’t stop Kearn from worrying about her though. Every time he saw the blood on her, saw how pale she was, a voice inside him whispered that he was going to lose her.

She was human. Frail. He didn’t know if she could withstand this sort of attack on her body and mind.

He drove down into the large empty garage beneath his apartment building. The metal shutter door creaked as it closed behind them. Kearn turned off the car engine and raced around to Amber’s side. His arm hurt as he lifted her out of the car but he ignored it. He wasn’t losing too much blood now. The pain was nothing. He bore it because Amber was more important.

He looked down at her peaceful face, monitoring her feelings as well as her heartbeat, and hurried to his apartment.

An image of her attacking him flashed across his mind.

The vampire had made her do it but it still upset him. There had been such genuine fear in her eyes. He had felt as though he was a monster after she had made him feel like a man, and he still felt that way.

He was a monster for bringing her into this. He hadn’t even given it a second thought when he had decided to use her as bait, and had been willing to do so against her wishes. A monster without a heart.

She had changed him though.

She had opened his heart and he could no longer close it to her.

Kearn waved his hand over his apartment door and it opened. He closed it with the same gesture once inside and carried Amber across the large white room to his bedroom. He carefully laid her down on his bed. She didn’t stir, not even when he turned on the light.

“Amber,” he whispered and touched her cheek.

He lost his hold on her blood, the connection between them severing and leaving him cold and alone. She lay on his bed, white against the brown covers, looking like death.

Kearn tried to talk to her blood again. Nothing happened. She had passed out. It would keep her safe from the vampire but it worried him. He wasn’t used to dealing with humans so didn’t know how bad this was. A vampire could lose consciousness from lack of blood and come around only a moment later. He didn’t know how long a human would take.

He removed his black uniform jacket and placed it over her to keep her warm, and then ran around the foot of the bed and into the bathroom. He wet one of the brown hand towels and came back to her, and drew the jacket away from her chest. Blood caked it in a thick line down from the left side of her neck. He gently cleaned it off her and then took the black napkins away from her throat.

Bits of the tissue stuck to the blood on her throat. He picked them off, careful not to disturb the cut, and then concentrated on cleaning around the wound.

The dried blood slowly cleared to reveal the cut. It was shallow and only half as long as his little finger, stopping just before her artery. Tonight would have gone differently if it had reached there. He would have had to seal the wound in the ballroom and suffer the consequences.

The precision of the cut backed up his earlier thoughts about the vampire. He hadn’t intended to place her in any serious danger. He had only wanted to confirm her as a Source Blood and control her.

Kearn wrapped the damp towel around his fingers and dabbed at the cut. Tiny beads of blood lined it in spots where the skin hadn’t begun to heal.

He reached over and turned on the bedside table light. It shone brightly on the cut and relief bloomed sweet and strong inside him.

The knife.

The vampire had cut her with the knife. The line of the wound was too clean for fangs.

She wouldn’t become like them.

With his fear eased, his anger returned. What the vampire had done wasn’t the only reason he was angry. It was the way the man had held her and the look of ecstasy she had worn. It was the fact that the vampire had made her hold him too and made her enjoy the feel of his lips against her throat.

Kearn’s blood burned. His jaw tensed and he ground his teeth together, frowning down at Amber’s throat. His heart demanded the life of the vampire in return for trying to take her from him.

The vampire wasn’t the only one to blame for her suffering.

Kearn had failed her too. He should have assured her safety and then greeted the Venator. From now on, he had to place her before his duty. He wouldn’t fail her again.

He put the towel down on the side cupboard and gently tilted Amber’s head to her right, so he could see the wound. He needed to help it heal. The thought of running his tongue over her throat was potent and arousing, stirring him to hardness against his trousers even when he knew that nothing would happen between them. He had never touched a human’s throat in this way before and wasn’t sure if he would be able to control himself, but he needed to seal the cut.

With a deep breath, he kneeled on the bed and leaned over her, placing his hands on either side of her arms. His gazed fixed on her throat. He wasn’t strong enough to do this. It would tip him over the edge, past the point of no return, and the effect on him wouldn’t be because she was a Source Blood. It would be because it was her.

Tear tracks lined her pallid face, black make-up ringed her closed eyes, and her red lipstick had worn away, but she was still beautiful to him. She still captivated him.

Closing his eyes, he dipped his head to her neck and took another deep breath to regain some control.

The moment his tongue touched her throat, he was lost. The taste of her blood was sweet on his senses, rousing them and strengthening the connection to her. She surfaced from the black abyss of unconsciousness and wrapped him in invisible arms that held him to her throat. Her mind swam with his in the darkness of their joined blood. He licked her throat again, savouring her blood and opening further to her, allowing her in so more than their blood became one. Her feelings ran in his veins, all warmth and happiness, fear and trepidation, arousal and desire. His matched them but for different reasons. He feared what she would think of him.

She wouldn’t think anything bad.

He desired to protect her.

She wanted to free him, to give him reason to fight, so he would never be lonely.

He was scared of the future.

She was unafraid of it, because he would be with her, and she would savour every moment of it, no matter how it ended.

Kearn wrapped his lips around her throat, unable to resist the call in her blood for him to take it, to bring her into his body so they could be as one for longer and remain together. It went beyond merely healing her, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed her.

She moved against him when he sucked on her blood, taking a small amount and reopening the wound. His head felt heavy and light at the same time, his senses swirling and emotions spiralling out of control. He pulled harder, needing more, and a buzz ran through his veins when he swallowed the mouthful of blood. Not only his feelings but Amber’s too. She wanted this. She wanted him. He licked the cut and kissed her throat, desperate to take things further, and then buried his face in her neck, sucking on her blood again. Images from his dreams ran through his mind. His arousal soared and warmth coiled in his abdomen. He groaned and longed to feel her naked body against his, her legs wrapped around his hips and their bodies truly as one. His heart beat harder, a dizzying rush in his veins that relaxed him and released his inhibitions. He wanted her too.

So take her.

Make her his.

His fangs extended at the command and he pulled away, afraid of catching her with them or giving in to his desire to sink them into her throat and seal her fate. He breathed hard, staring down at her, and struggled for control, grasping the bedcovers and drawing them into his fists.

He couldn’t do as her blood bid. She had no place in his world.

Duke Montagu’s words hit him with full force as his body still tingled from the taste of her blood and still ached to be inside her.

She would make a beautiful vampire.

While normal humans became weak vampires, Amber would become one strong enough to rival even the power of the oldest of his kind. Her blood would see to that, and it wouldn’t become like a normal vampire’s, strong and dull in taste. It would retain most of its fragrance, but would lose almost all of the effect it had on other vampires. That power would be hers then, locked deep in her blood, held out of reach of others. She would be a goddess with both beauty and power.

Kearn remained leaning over her, his gaze on her peaceful face. Feelings surfaced within her that threatened to shatter his control. Affection. Tenderness. Understanding. She wanted to be with him. He believed that deep in his heart. She was falling for him.

He lowered himself and pressed his lips to hers. She surprised him by responding, kissing him so lightly that he warmed inside and longed for more. His lips played against hers, parting and meeting, moving slowly over each other in a gentle caress that tested his restraint. His fangs grazed his lower lip and he was careful to keep them away from hers. They wouldn’t go away as long as her blood was calling to him to taste it again. He took a deep breath, breathing in her scent and savouring it, memorising this moment in case it never happened again.

Amber tilted her head up towards his.

She whispered against his lips.

“Stay with me forever.”

Kearn pulled back, eyes wide, the tips of his silver hair framing his vision of her.

He searched his blood but couldn’t tell where her feelings ended and his began. Had she meant those words or had they been his voiced through her? His arms trembled, as though they could no longer support his weight, and his breathing became shaky. He was a fool.

He was falling for her, a human, and it was too late to stop himself.

She didn’t need to become a vampire to win the heart of her Noble.

She had already captured it.

Her blood in his veins cried out for him. It called his name and he knew that the other vampire would sense it too. Kearn wanted nothing more than to take the offer to slake his desire for her by making love with her and taking her blood, but he couldn’t.

She had no place in his world.

As painful as it was, he had to keep his distance from her. What they had could only be fleeting. He wouldn’t make her a vampire.

His heart said that he would if she asked him. If those words that had left her lips had really been her feelings and not his, he would do as she bid, even if it hurt him. He could never refuse her.

Kearn leaned over her again and pressed a kiss to her lips. He supported himself on one arm, and touched her cheek with his other hand.

“Say those words to me again when my blood is not with yours,” he whispered against her mouth and then sent her a command to sleep.

Her body relaxed into the bed and her mind emptied, her thoughts going deep. He pushed her beyond sleep so the vampire couldn’t affect her while she rested, and lost the connection to her. It was better this way. He needed to clear his head and gain some perspective, and he couldn’t do it when he could feel her calling out to him. He would give in to her.

Kearn pressed another kiss to her forehead and then went to the bathroom.

He looked back when he reached the door.

Did she really want to be with him forever? If she asked him, would he bring her into his world? She didn’t want him to be lonely.

Kearn turned away.

He didn’t want it either, but it was the path that he had chosen.

And one he had to walk.

Alone.

CHAPTER 14

K
earn closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower, avoiding his reflection in the large black framed mirror above the white oval sink. He couldn’t look himself in the eye when he was thinking about Amber and whether he would go through with it. His blood hungered for hers, his body craving the taste and the effect it had on him. He focused on clearing his mind. With the connection between them closed, it was easier to purge his lust and the hazy feeling. A sliver of desire remained, not induced by her blood but by the feel of her skin beneath his lips and the taste of her kiss.

He stripped off and inspected the wound on his right arm, turning his attention there in an attempt to shut out the desire to go back to Amber and kiss her again. The cut was in a difficult place on top of his forearm, slicing through the silver marks there. He twisted his arm towards his chest and managed to reach it with his tongue. His saliva would speed the external healing process, stopping the cut from reopening, and his body would take care of the rest.

Kearn stepped into the shower. The hot water soothed his muscles, relaxing him even while Amber’s blood flowed in his veins. He ran over everything that had happened tonight. Another chance had slipped through his fingers because he had placed Amber first when facing his enemy. He couldn’t help it. When she was in danger, he could think only of protecting her.

He traced the evening backwards, looking for anything that could point to the man’s identity. So many of the guests had drunk the spiked blood and shown trace effects that it had been impossible to detect the man from looking at eyes alone. The masks were another problem, hiding enough of the guests’ faces that most of them looked the same.