Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (25 page)

He wanted to hold her against him but couldn’t get his arms free. The feel of her fingers threading into his hair and holding his mouth against her throat was enough to placate the desire. He fed deep, drawing greedy mouthfuls of her blood and savouring every one. The moment he felt her weaken, he released her neck and licked the cut, carefully sealing it and being gentle so he didn’t hurt her any more. He would never hurt her.

Not now that she was his.

“Lord Savernake?” The voice was dull. He ignored it, wanting to stay with Amber, wrapped tight in her embrace as she held him close to her, as a lover would. “Lord Savernake?”

The world shook and he frowned at it when Amber disappeared.

He fluttered his eyes open and stared at the bright white ceiling. Where was he? Where had Amber gone?

An unfamiliar face appeared in view. It took him a moment to gather himself. The vision had been strong. He had never experienced anything quite like it. Had Amber seen it too?

He reached out to her. She was sleeping. He sensed desire in her and deep contentment. His eyes widened at the thought that she might have experienced it too. If it hadn’t been just his imagination but a vision created by their joined blood, then she had offered her throat willingly.

She wanted to be like him.

“Lord Savernake?” Venator Greystone said again and he snapped himself out of his thoughts. She removed the needle from his arm. “Did you experience any adverse effects?”

He shook his head.

Only the most fantastic vision he’d ever had.

“It will take a short while to test your blood. I have to keep the restraints in place until we are done. I hope that does not offend you, Lord Savernake.”

Kearn shook his head again. The restraints didn’t bother him as much as her persistence in using his former title did. It brought back the ball and the way the man had held Amber. He had felt a violent urge to kill the man with his bare hands, had wanted to unleash his power on him, even before he had known who the man was. He had never killed another vampire without orders to, but he had wanted to butcher any who had dared to look at her. He had wanted to fight his own uncle.

He closed his eyes and sighed. What was becoming of him?

Not only did he consider killing without orders but he also wanted to turn her into a vampire without consent. Was he that caught up in her? Did he honestly love her?

Kearn.

He frowned.

Kearn? He hadn’t taken long to come back. He felt tired still but rubbed it away and then opened his eyes. Only he didn’t see the truck. He saw a dark room. His apartment.

Who had turned out the lights?

Was it Kearn? Had he come back so soon?

A shape came out of the darkness. Red eyes. Sharp fangs. It wasn’t him. Another man materialised from the shadows. He shook his head. His panic rose and his heart raced so fast that he felt sick.

It wasn’t him.

Kearn!

There were men in the apartment.

Amber. Kearn growled and tugged at the arm restraints, gritting his teeth against the pain and calling all of his strength. Someone was up there with her. Her fear strained the connection between them, distorting it until he couldn’t sense her clearly.

Run. Amber. Run. Hide in the bathroom. He was coming to protect her.

CHAPTER 17

K
earn pulled at the restraints again. The metal bit into his wrists, filling his senses with the smell of blood, but he struggled on, determined to break his bonds and save Amber.

“What’s wrong, Lord Savernake?” Venator Greystone’s eyes were wide, showing her fear. She thought he was suffering a delayed attack from having his blood taken. He could see it in her wary expression.

“You have to unlock me.” He clenched his fists and growled, tugging the cuffs. “Amber is in danger. I need to go to her.”

Venator Greystone’s expression filled with astonishment. “How much blood did you take from her?”

His patience snapped when he felt Amber trembling, felt the threads that bound them quivering with it and sensed her panic. She didn’t want to die. Her blood called to him. It demanded that he go to her.

“It was a deep wound,” he snarled and the Venator stepped backwards, away from him. “I had to seal it!”

He fought again, until blood covered his wrists, the chair creaked and the entire van rocked from his struggle. He wouldn’t let her die. He wouldn’t let the man take her from him.

“What are you doing? You can’t break those.” The Venator’s words were lost on him.

Amber screamed.

Strength surged through him. His eyes burned red and his fangs sharpened. He roared and lifted his arms, snapping the metal in the cuffs and tearing through the leather.

“Lord Savernake!” The fear in those words satisfied him. He would hear more like it soon. He would murder those fiends for daring to go near his woman.

He was out of the van before Venator Greystone could interfere and was running up the stairs towards his apartment.

Hide, Amber. Hide. He willed her to do it, sent the message through his blood, but none came back. The connection was weakening. The man was fighting him again. He wouldn’t let him have her.

“Kearn!”

He heard her this time. He bolted down the corridor to his apartment and kicked the door in. A man held Amber from behind as she flailed and screamed for her life.

Kearn lost it.

In the blink of an eye, he was behind Amber and tearing the man away. He threw him across the apartment, sending him crashing into the kitchen island and toppling the stools, and then pulled Amber back against his chest and covered her eyes with his left hand.

“Do not look,” he whispered close to her ear, his eyes scanning over the two large men dressed in black, assessing them. They were strong. Worthy opponents. He was stronger. “Do not listen.”

His arm glowed blue. Not a reaction to the two vampires but a reaction to his desire to protect Amber. He couldn’t use it. These men were clean and he had no order to kill them. He would use his own powers this time, and obey his own command.

He would destroy them.

They rushed him but didn’t reach within five feet of him before he raised his arm and sent a telekinetic wave deep into their minds. They stopped dead and he grinned, revealing his fangs, and narrowed his eyes on them. The blue light from his arm brightened until it lit the apartment and their faces. Die. He wanted them to die.

Violence rose within him, black ribbons edged with red that wound around his heart, and he surrendered to his lust to see their blood painting his walls.

He sent a shock into their minds, stronger than any he had dared used before in his lifetime. Their faces twisted in agony and he kept applying the pressure, kept feeding the hatred within him into them. They screamed and clutched at their heads and he tilted his back, looking down on them. Feel the power of a Noble. Know that this is the end.

Kearn closed his hand into a fist, gathering his strength, and then flicked his fingers open.

A shrill cry pierced the night.

The men shattered and exploded.

He quickly raised his hand, palm facing outwards, and formed an invisible bubble around him and Amber. Blood splattered over it so it ran as red as the walls of his apartment and covered the floor in a slick pool that glowed in the light of his arm. He wanted more. A deep sense of dissatisfaction blazed inside him. It had been too easy. He needed more to quench the fire. His eyes dropped to Amber’s throat. He needed her blood.

Kearn breathed hard, struggling to regain control, and held Amber to him. He wouldn’t do that. The blood rolled off the shield around them, revealing the gruesome sight of his apartment, and he let it fade and disappear. He kept his hand firmly over her eyes, pulled her backwards into his bedroom and closed the door before releasing her. The sickening stench of vampire blood crept in under the door. He needed to get Amber out of the apartment. It was bad enough that she would smell the blood and had heard the death cries of the men who had dared to frighten her. He couldn’t let her see what he had done.

He held her at arm’s length, clutching both of her arms, and dipped his head so he could see straight into her eyes. She panted, her racing heart speaking of fear, and shook beneath his hands.

Had she seen anything? He didn’t want her to witness such atrocity.

“You are safe now.” He could almost see her strength leave her, as though it was a tangible thing.

Amber stood there a moment with tears lining her lashes and her face a mask of fear, and then she was against him, her hands pressing into his back and holding him close to her. He hesitated, his fingers flexing as he considered holding her, and then placed his arms around her. It felt so good to have her nestled close to him, safe in his arms, unharmed, that he sighed and pressed a long kiss to her hair. Her body trembled with her sobs, shuddering against his. He stroked her ponytail with one hand, clutched the nape of her neck with his other, holding her against him, and vowed never to leave her alone again, not until this was over, not if he could help it. The man had shown his intent and the lengths he was willing to go to now. Nowhere was safe for them.

Or was it?

“Are you hurt?” He couldn’t smell any blood on her. The only blood he could smell was that of those wretched men and his own cut wrists.

She shook her head but didn’t emerge from his embrace.

“Are you—” He couldn’t bring himself to ask that question. He had done something terrible and he feared that she was shaking because of it, and not just because of the attack on her.

She was afraid of him now.

Amber drew back. Tears shone in her beautiful hazel eyes and stained her cheeks. He didn’t dare move and wipe them away for her. He didn’t want her to fear him.

“You… I was so scared.” Her voice was small and she dropped her gaze away from his. Her hands didn’t relinquish their grip on him and he was thankful for it and the fact that she remained close to him. “You saved me… you must be getting pretty tired of me and my damsel in distress routine.”

He smiled at her although she couldn’t see it. Her damsel in distress routine? She hadn’t chosen to become a victim or thrown herself into the path of the man. She hadn’t asked for any of this to happen to her.

Kearn placed two fingers under her chin and tilted it up. His eyes searched hers. He needed her to say it again. Even though he was a beast, a creature who would shed blood without hesitation or regret, he still had the heart of a man. He still needed to hear the woman he was falling in love with tell him that he hadn’t destroyed their future. He could live with her hating him, would bear that cross when he finally succumbed to his nature and turned her, but he couldn’t live with her fearing him.

Her fingers brushed his cheek. He closed his eyes and then opened them again, wanting to see her feelings when she said it and wanting to feel them in her blood. He needed proof that she wasn’t lying.

“Thank you for saving me, and for protecting me. I don’t know what you did, but you did it for me.” She tiptoed and pressed a kiss to his lips.

It was over before he could respond but it left his senses reeling and his head was full of her again. He took hold of her arm and she frowned when she looked down at his wrist. She turned, released him, and gently caught hold of his arm.

“What happened?” she whispered, her dark eyebrows furrowing with concern, and took hold of his other arm. She held them both in front of her, her gaze scanning over the cuts and the blood, and then looked up into his eyes for an answer to her question.

“I was having my blood tested when I sensed you were in danger. I had to break the restraints.”

The soft warmth in her eyes heated his chest and he frowned when she lowered her mouth and pressed light kisses to his wrists, worshipping them with affection that eased the fear in his heart. She wasn’t afraid of him. She still wanted him.

When she raised her head, there was blood on her lips. He shook at the sight of her and the memory of his vision, and his desire returned, fiercer than ever, burning in his blood and fraying the tethers of his control. He reached out and swept his thumb over her lips, erasing the blood, and they parted. Her breath was warm against his thumb but the way it made him feel couldn’t compare to the hunger that surged through him when she poked her silken pink tongue out and swept it over her lips, capturing the remnants of his blood and touching his thumb in the process.

Kearn waited with his heart in his throat, expecting her to be disgusted by the taste of his blood and what she had done.

She didn’t retch or spit it out. Instead, she tiptoed again and kissed him, and he could taste himself on her tongue. He pulled her close, tangled his tongue with hers, and unleashed his need for her, pouring it into his kiss so she would feel everything that he was—fear, relief, love—all of it.

“Thank you,” she whispered against his lips and her forehead touched his, the tips of their noses pressing against each other. She stroked his cheek and briefly kissed him again before settling back on her feet.

Kearn wasn’t sure what to say or do. She had tasted his blood and his desire to do the same with hers, to sink his fangs into her throat, was overwhelming. He drew a deep breath and the stench of dead blood filled his senses, tamping down his hunger and reminding him that now wasn’t the time for such things.

“We need to get out of here.” He took hold of her arm and led her to the bed, unwilling to risk leaving her near the door in case she tried to open it.

She might think he was the prince charming to her damsel in distress, but she would think him evil and a monster if she saw the other room. She sat on the bed and placed her hands in her lap. Very behaved. He could sense her curiosity even if she wasn’t showing it. Her blood whispered her deepest desires to him. She wanted to see what he had done in order to protect her.

He went to the bathroom and washed the blood off his hands and wrists, and then licked the cuts to seal them, his senses fixed on Amber the whole time. She kept still but he knew she was looking at the door. He walked into the bedroom and grabbed his gun and holster from the side table, and put it on.