Silent Bite-A Scanguards Wedding (1001 Dark Nights)
Read Silent Bite-A Scanguards Wedding (1001 Dark Nights) Online
Authors: Tina Folsom
Silent Bite
A Scanguards Wedding
A Scanguards Vampire Novella
By Tina
Folsom
1001 Dark Nights
Book Description
New York Times Bestselling Author Tina Folsom presents:
Silent Bite (A Scanguards Wedding), Scanguards Vampires 8 ½
Newbie vampire Oliver and Ursula, the woman he saved from a blood brothel, are finally tying the knot. But with Ursula’s old-fashioned Chinese parents arriving in town for the traditional wedding, chaos soon breaks out—with Oliver always one step away from accidentally revealing to his soon-to-be in-laws that he and his extended Scanguards family are vampires.
And amidst all the chaos and confusion, a stalker lurks and threatens to tear Ursula and Oliver apart before they can blood-bond.
Contents
An excerpt from Oliver’s Hunger by Tina Folsom
One Thousand and One Dark Nights
Once upon a time, in the future…
I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.
I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and
the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast
library at my father’s home and collected thousands
of volumes of fantastic tales.
I learned all about ancient races and bygone
times. About myths and legends and dreams of all
people through the millennium. And the more I read
the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered
that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually
become part of them.
I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher
and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I
would not be telling you this tale now.
But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off
with bravery.
One afternoon, curious about the myth of the
Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to
see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar
(Persian: شهریار, "king") married a new virgin, and then
sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written
and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,
the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand
women.
Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived
in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged
places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had
never occurred before and that still to this day, I
cannot explain.
Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have
taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can
protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to
protect herself and stay alive.
Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.
And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a
point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.
And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that
he might hear the rest of my dark tale.
As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new
one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before
you now.
At the sight of Ursula’s pale neck, Oliver felt a shiver race down his spine and shoot into his balls like a lance. It was a pleasurable kind of pain that he experienced: intense, yet at the same time he didn’t want it to stop.
His fingers elongated, and his fingernails turned into sharp barbs. They were the claws of a beast because that’s what he still was inside, what he would always be, despite his refined exterior and the gentle shell he wore for everybody.
Ursula was the only one who knew better because she saw it every day and every night: the hunger that still simmered so closely under the surface. The insatiable hunger for blood. But it was different now.
Right after his turning, he’d sunk his fangs into any neck that was unfortunate enough to cross his path. Now, over half a year later, his taste had become much more sophisticated. Still, there was nothing refined about it. Nothing gentle or sweet. Nor civilized.
Only one thing had changed. He cared about the woman who offered her neck night after night more than he’d ever cared about anybody. He’d fallen in love with her before ever tasting her blood, before he even truly knew her, and he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice his own life in order to save hers.
They hadn’t been apart since the night he’d first bitten her, when she’d freely offered him her vein, despite the ordeal she’d been through for three long years. Despite the disgust she’d associated with the act until then. But Ursula had pushed her fears aside and given herself to him, trusted him and put the nightmare she’d experienced at the blood brothel aside.
For him.
Because she trusted him not to hurt her.
“What’s wrong?” Ursula’s voice came from the closet from which she removed her clothes and packed them into several large boxes.
“This!” He pointed to the moving boxes.
She tilted her head to the side and sighed heavily, her almond-shaped eyes begging for understanding. When she pushed a strand of her straight, raven-black hair behind her shoulder, the gesture reminded him of what it felt like when he buried his face in her hair and smelled her unique scent, a scent that came from her special blood. Blood that had the power to drug a vampire. Blood so addictive that his friends and colleagues at Scanguards had tried to keep him from her when they’d first found out.
“But we agreed,” she said softly.
Oliver took a step toward her, the beast inside him howling and demanding to be let out of its cage. “I know we agreed, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“It’s not easy for me either,” she replied, dropping a stack of T-shirts into a box and moving toward him with cat-like grace.
He’d always found her beautiful, ever since the first night she’d literally fallen into his arms in one of the dingiest parts of San Francisco. He realized that he’d never had a chance at resisting her, not even if her blood had been ordinary. Not even then would he have been able to disentangle himself from the Asian beauty who made his heart race whenever he looked at her.
Though his heart wasn’t the only organ that coveted her.
How he was supposed to survive without her, he couldn’t fathom.
“Please,” she whispered when she reached him, placing her palm on his cheek. “Don’t make this any harder than it is.”
At her choice of words, he took her hand and slipped it to the front of his jeans, pressing it against the bulge that had formed there. The bulge that was ever present when he was near her.
“Harder?” he echoed. “I don’t think it can get any harder.”
Ursula chuckled. “Is that all you think of?”
Oliver slid his hand on her nape, pulling her to him. “No. I also think of not being able to do this.”
He brought his lips to hers, gently pressing against her mouth. When he licked against the seam of her lips, she parted them lightly, and her breath rushed toward him.
“Hmm,” she hummed.
“Won’t you reconsider?” he coaxed her.
“I can’t.”
But he didn’t want to accept her answer. “Imagine what you’ll be missing.” He captured her mouth fully and slid his tongue between her parted lips, exploring her warmth, dancing with her tongue.
Ursula severed her lips from his. “Oliver, we don’t have time.”
“Just one last time,” he insisted and busied himself with tugging on her T-shirt, sliding it up her torso.
“But—”
He silenced her protest with a kiss and slid his hands underneath her shirt, caressing her soft skin. When his hands moved high up and encountered her bra, he stopped for a brief moment. Why she bothered to wear one, he wasn’t sure. Her young breasts were perfectly firm and round and needed no support. Besides, she never wore it for long, because he always found a way of stripping her of it so he could caress her boobs whenever he wanted to—which was frequently.
It took Oliver all of two seconds to find the clasp of her bra and open it. Immediately, he slid his hands under her bra and cupped her breasts, squeezing them lightly.
She moaned into his mouth, and at the same time he heard her heartbeat accelerate. Touching her breasts and fondling her nipples never failed to arouse her. Even though they didn’t have the time for this now, she responded to him as if her body couldn’t help itself.
“There you go, baby,” he murmured, releasing her lips for a brief moment. “You want this too.” He inhaled her heady scent. “You can’t wait to feel me inside you.”
“Oliver, this is crazy. We have to get to the airport.” Despite her protest, she didn’t push him away but pressed her pelvis against his rigid cock.
“We have a few minutes.”
And he was going to take advantage of the time they had left. Without allowing her any further protest, he pulled her T-shirt over her head and slipped the bra off her shoulders, dropping it carelessly to the floor.
“Undress me,” he ordered while he gazed at her beautiful breasts that were topped with dark nipples. Hard nipples. Yes, there was no denying that she was as aroused as he.
Ursula let out a sigh.
“You know I’ll make it worth your while. I always do,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her neck and grazing her skin with the sharp fangs that had already descended.
She shivered under the contact. “Oh God.”
No more protests came over her lips. Instead, her hands went to work, freeing him of his shirt, then opening the button and zipper of his pants. When she pushed them over his hips, he helped her and stepped out of them. Before she could free him of his boxer briefs, he helped her take off her own pants.
She wore only a tiny G-string that barely covered any of her enticing flesh. On top of it, the material was practically see-through and hid nothing from his vampire vision.
Oliver licked his lips in anticipation of what would happen now. He loved satisfying two of his greatest cravings at once. Two birds with one stone. Not only was it utterly thrilling to take her blood while he was inside her, in his and Ursula’s case it was also necessary. Only after she achieved an orgasm would the drugging effect of her blood be muted for a short while so that imbibing on it wouldn’t turn him into a crazed addict. Less than an hour after her orgasm, her blood would be just as dangerous as before and therefore off-limits to him.