The Rise of Vlad (The Seeker Series Book 3) (8 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Nita held her breath as the phone continued to ring. “Pick up,” she whispered, praying she wasn’t too late.

“Hello?”

The sound of her mother’s voice would have brought her to her knees had she been standing. “Hey, Mom, it’s me.”

“Nita,” her mother breathed, tears evident in her voice. “You’re alive. Oh my God, are you all right?”

“I’m okay, Mom. I need you listen to me carefully. Don’t interrupt and don’t ask any questions.”

The line grew silent for a moment. “What’s wrong, honey? You’re scaring me.”

“Are you alone?” Nita’s chest tightened with anxiety.

“Yes. Now tell me what’s happening.”

Nita could see Vlad pacing in her peripheral. She turned her head away to block out the distraction. “I don’t have time to explain, Mom, but you can’t trust anyone but me right now.”

“Just tell me, baby. You’re worrying me.”

“I need you to grab a few things, get in your car, and drive to Winters Inn on Highway 2. Do not tell anyone where you’re going, and no matter what you do, no one is to know you’ve spoken with me.”

“But—”

“You have to do this, Mom. I’ll explain everything to you once I see you.”

“Okay, honey. I’ll leave here within the hour.”

“That’s too long!” Nita barked, immediately regretting her tone. “Go get dressed and leave now. Call this number when you arrive at the hotel.”

“All right. I’ll do it now.”

Relief instantly poured through Nita. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, baby.” The line went dead.

Nita handed Vlad his phone and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I need some clothes.”

Vlad nodded toward some folded items at the foot of the bed. “Courtesy of Ember.”

“Remind me to thank her. Again.”

Gathering the clothes that Ember had sent in, Vlad handed them to Nita and moved across the room to peer out the window, keeping his back to her as he spoke. “You can stay here for as long as you’d like.”

Nita’s stomach flipped. She pulled on her borrowed jeans and tugged the sweater over her head. “I can’t stay here, Vlad. I have to figure out a way to prove that I’m not a danger to my people.”

Vlad turned and sauntered back toward the bed. “After everything they did to you, you would return to them?”

“What does it matter to you?” Nita snapped, slipping her feet into the soft, fur-lined boots sitting next to the bed.

“You’re bonded to me, whether you like it or not. What hurts you hurts me.”

Panic settled in Nita’s chest. “Bonded? I know that works with vampires, but how can you be sure it will happen with me?”

“I’m not willing to risk it.”

Nita surged to her feet, instantly regretting it. The room spun around her, and nausea threatened.

“Lie back down,” Vlad insisted, immediately at her side. “It’s too soon for you to be up.”

Nita refused to sit. “I’ll be fine in a minute.”

Vlad kept his hand on her arm. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

Nita was suddenly aware of two things, Vlad’s incredible scent, and the vein pulsing in his neck. She could almost taste his blood on her tongue, feel it sliding down her throat.

She jerked her gaze to his, only to find him watching her with the same hunger she felt for him. “Nita…”

“What’s happening to me?” she whispered, searching his eyes for answers.

“My blood thrives in your veins, as yours does in mine. Your body craves something that I, alone can give. Just as I crave you in a way I never imagined possible.”

Warmth enveloped her the longer she stood there, drinking him in. Her nipples grew sensitive, tingling with awareness. She could feel her body awakening, preparing her for his touch.

“It’s not natural,” she breathed, barely able to speak.

“
We’re
not natural, Nita. We are creatures, put on this earth for two different purposes. One born of good, the other spawned from evil.”

“You’re not evil, Vlad.”

“It is true that I possess a certain darkness,” Vlad argued, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Perhaps you are my salvation.”

The dizziness Nita had felt upon standing slowly ebbed. She tore her gaze away from his and trailed off toward the door, not wanting to delve any deeper into his words. “I think I will have something to eat, if you don’t mind.”

Vlad followed her to the door, taking hold of her elbow. “If I don’t have anything you would like, I’ll have Mordecai go get you something.”

“Whatever you have will be fine,” Nita assured him, allowing him to guide her down the stairs.

Angel and Shon waited at the bottom.

Nita didn’t miss the flare of their nostrils, no doubt taking in her strange scent of shifter flesh and vampire blood.

Vlad guided her around the two gaping vampires. “I’m taking Nita to the kitchen for a bite to eat.”

Angel fell in step beside them. “Mordecai is already in there whipping her up a steak.”

“Damn, I miss steak,” Shon growled, following close behind.

Angel glanced back over his shoulder. “Really? Where would you like it, in the heart or the gut?”

“Very funny, Angela. I’ll just bet you would prefer one in a dark, tight—”

“Enough,” Vlad scolded, his lips twitching in humor. “I’m sure our guest doesn’t want to hear about Angelo’s sexual preferences.”

Nita managed to keep a straight face. “Oddly enough, I would have pegged Shon as the freak.”

Laughter erupted from the trio escorting her to the kitchen.

Strange, Nita thought, strolling through the giant castle. She had never thought vampires were capable of being a family. But that was exactly what they appeared to be.

Chapter Nineteen

The smell of meat cooking in the kitchen turned Vlad’s stomach. He hadn’t been born human like young Shon, and therefore never required anything other than blood to survive.

Over the years, Vlad had grown to love the taste of wine, a good brandy, and a few other drinks outside the blood family, but he’d never tasted a steak.

He helped Nita onto a stool and plucked down two wineglasses. “Is red wine okay with you?”

Nita nodded. “Did you bring your phone? Mom should be calling soon.”

Vlad tilted his head. “I did.”

Angel moved around the bar to face Nita. “Is your mom okay?”

Nita filled Angel in on everything that had happened during the ritual, ending with, “If she doesn’t get out of there soon, she’ll be at the mercy of Miles Castro.”

“Do you think he’ll hurt her?” Angel questioned, propping his elbows on the bar. “Or could it be an idle threat to get you to mate with him?”

The tightening of Nita’s body wasn’t lost on Vlad.

She kept her gaze on Angel. “I don’t know what he’s capable of. He proposed to me a week ago and then showed up at my camp in the mountains last night.”

“Before or after I saw you?” Vlad nonchalantly asked. He could feel the rebellion building inside Nita and wondered if Shon and Angel could as well.

“After,” she answered quietly.

Vlad stood stiffly beside her, staring straight ahead. “Did he touch you?”

Nita shook her head. “He tried. I had to promise him that I would think about his proposal in order to get him to leave.”

“You will not mate with Miles Castro,” Vlad snapped, picking up the wine bottle and filling their glasses.

Angel pushed away from the bar. “I’ll just go check on Lucius. Shon, would you mind helping me?”

“And miss the fireworks?” Shon crossed his arms over his chest. “Not a chance.”

Vlad swung his gaze in Shon’s direction. No words were exchanged, but then, none were needed.

Shon’s theatrical sigh echoed throughout the kitchen. “I’ll just go help Angela with Lucius.”

Vlad waited until both Angel and Shon left the room before taking a seat next to Nita. “Regardless of what you think of me, I assure you that my intensions are purer than Castro’s.”

“There is nothing pure about Vlad the Impaler,” Nita argued. “But your demands are made in vain. I would never mate with Miles Castro.”

“You will not mate with anyone. The bond you have with me would prevent it.”

Nita rested her forehead in her palm. “Is there no way to free oneself of a bond?”

Vlad shook his head. “Only through death.”

“Then I just have to kill you?”

“You cannot kill me, any more than I could kill you. Our bond will not allow it.”

Nita glanced sideways at him before taking a sip of her wine. “That only works with vampires. A shifter can take a mate’s life. They may wither away and die afterward, but it can be done.”

Mordecai shuffled around the corner, carrying a plate full of steak, baked potato, and a small salad.

He set the plate in front of Nita, laying a knife and fork within reach. “If you need anything else, Miss Franks, do let me know.”

Vlad nodded to the elderly butler. “That will be all, Mordecai. Please see that we are not disturbed.”

“As you wish,” the old man murmured, trailing from the room.

Vlad watched in amusement as Nita dug into the rare steak like a woman starved. He decided to fill her in on the council’s plan to flush out the Seekers.

Nita continued to eat, listening with rapt attention as Vlad went through the details of what they needed from her. “That’s it? I’m to meet with Leighton and follow him back to his lair?”

Vlad gave a short nod. “Without being seen.”

“You can’t just massacre that many people without bringing suspicion on you by the local police.”

“We’ll burn the bodies afterward. There will be no evidence to tie us to the scene,” Vlad amended.

Nita pushed her plate aside and took a drink of her wine. “When should I contact him?”

Vlad was surprised at how quickly she’d agreed to help him. He set his wineglass aside. “You’ll do it, then?”

“You’ve saved my life. Twice,” Nita explained in a soft voice. “Of course I will do it.”

“We will plan for tomorrow night, once your mother is here and out of danger.”

Vlad found himself watching her full lips as she licked the wine from their surface. He wanted to taste her, to peel her clothes off and feast on every inch of her body.

“Mom’s not going to come here willingly,” Nita whispered, her gaze dropping to his mouth as well.

Vlad leaned in, slowly descending toward Nita’s wine-stained lips. “Then we won’t tell her where she’s going until she gets here.”

Brushing his lips over hers, Vlad swiveled on his stool, wedging his knee between hers.

He cupped her face in his hands, holding her still for the onslaught of his hungry mouth.

Nita kissed him back, uncertainty giving way to the passion she’d shown him in the woods.

Vlad’s fangs shot down to throb in time with his cock. He broke off the kiss and pulled Nita to her feet with an urgency once foreign to him.

She held her arms up, giving silent permission for Vlad to remove her sweater.

He pulled it over her head, leaned in and swiped his tongue across a straining nipple.

Nita gasped, slipping her fingers into his hair to pull him tightly against her.

Vlad sucked the pebbled flesh deep, eliciting another sound from the depths of her throat.

Without breaking the suction on her breast, he freed the button of her jeans, unzipped them, and coaxed her to stand.

He quickly dragged them down to her knees, wrapped his hands around her waist, and lifted her onto the bar.

She lay back with a gentle push from Vlad, allowing him complete access to her incredible body.

Vlad’s gaze dropped to her smooth mound as he divested her of the cumbersome jeans and tossed them on the floor behind him.

His hands slid up her calves, stopping at her knees to push her thighs apart.

“Beautiful,” he breathed, dragging his hands up to slowly trace a finger over the soft flesh of her sex.

Nita’s hips jerked as he inserted a finger into her wet heat and gently withdrew, only to repeat the process.

“Please,” she moaned, her head arching back to expose her neck.

Vlad’s fangs ached to sink into the pulse point of her throat. The vein pulsing there called to him, beckoning him to sample just a taste.

Instead, he leaned in and softly swiped his tongue over her clit, wringing another sound from deep within her chest.

Her flavor was like no other: sweet, clean, and addictive.

He continued to penetrate her with his finger while devouring her with his mouth.

Her head rolled from side to side, her breathing grew uneven, and her legs came up to lock around his shoulders.

Vlad curled his finger inside her, brushing against her G-spot as he lashed his tongue over her swollen bundle of nerves with vampiric speed.

Nita suddenly cried out, her hips bucking against him and her legs squeezing his head with a strength that surprised him.

Vlad continued to massage her G-spot with his finger, but backed off her oversensitive clit to lick around it, drawing out her orgasm for as long as possible.

The feel of her contracting around his finger nearly brought on his own release.

“Vlad,” she moaned, moving to sit up. “Take me back to your bed.”

“You are still weak,” he began, only to close his mouth as she reached down and gripped his cock through his jeans.

“I’m not that weak,” Nita assured him, running her palm up and down his length. “I want you inside me.”

That was all Vlad needed to hear. He scooped her up into his arms and blurred his way up the stairs before he ended up taking her like an animal on the bar.