“We both know it already has me,” she yelled, the rain suddenly pounding on them again, a torrential downpour.
He kissed her, a deep passionate devouring kiss, meant to stake a claim, to silently declare her his woman. It was a branding. The wolf couldn’t have her and neither could the council. “I’m not letting you go,” her repeated against her lips.
“No,” she shouted, trying to push away from him. “No. You need to stay away from me. Far away so I can’t hurt you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her captive. “I’m a vampire,” he said. “No wolf is going to hurt me.”
“Tell Troy that,” she countered.
He scooped her up, ending the conversation with actions. He didn’t want to hear about Troy and Sarah.
Marissa squirmed in his arms, wet and slippery, and already stronger for the wolf growing inside her. “Damn you, Evan! Let me go. I have to go.”
She was illogical, kicking and biting, and he didn’t want to hurt her, which proved a challenge. The next thing he knew, he was slipping. He went down hard with her on top of him. Mud splattered around them, but thankfully the downpour slowed.
Marissa scrambled to get up but he rolled her to her back. “You aren’t alone in this, Marissa. You aren’t alone. We’ll get through this. I’ll make this right.”
“You don’t understand,” she shouted. “It wants you dead.” She started squirming and kicking again, but he used his body, to trap her, easily holding her. Still, she kept fighting. He shoved her hands over her head as he had once before, pressed his lips near her ear, sent her a mental compulsion he prayed would work. Stop. Stop now.
She listened, going still beneath him, though he wasn’t sure if he’d willed her actions, or she’d simply tired. Suddenly, he was aware of every womanly curve beneath him, of her bare breasts beneath the wet tee she wore. His cock thickened, his balls tightened. His hand slid over her breast, teasing her nipple. She moaned and arched into him.
“You and your wolf want me,” he pursed, scraping his teeth over her shirt, teasing the pebbled peak beneath.
“Damn you. Don’t be a fool,” she hissed, “I’ll fuck you and I’ll like it, just like Sarah did Troy. But in the end, Evan, I’ll still be the monster who kills you when the full moon comes.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. “Sarah was a natural born wolf. She worked for the rebels and was using Troy to try and infiltrate the Wardens. She’s wasn’t an innocent victim like you are.”
“I stopped being innocent the minute this thing started growing inside me.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, “but you’ll get rid of your wolf far easier than you will this vampire.” He kissed her, stroking her tongue with his, telling her he’d meant his words. He had no idea why this woman had taken him by storm, why she was the woman for him—only that she was. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his. He dropped her hands and pressed them beneath her t-shirt, fingering her hard little buds. His dick throbbed, his blood all but boiled. Mine. The word echoed in his head, in his body. He was alive again because of this woman, burning alive with lust and need.
He shoved his hand past the loose band of her shorts, his fingers between her thighs, over the bristle of blonde hair, to the sensitive folds of her. His pushed his fingers inside her, her muscles clenching onto him, her hips lifting.
“Evan,” she cried out. “I…” She gasped as he rolled her swollen nub and then suckled her nipple between his lips. Possessiveness like nothing he’d ever known rolled through him. He wanted her pleasure, her understanding that it was his to take and give, and no one else’s.
Her nails dug into his shoulders, her teeth scraping his neck. “I want you inside me. I need you inside me.”
He growled low in his throat—a primal sound that no wolf could match. He was a vampire—he would not give this woman up to a damnable wolf. He twisted his hand, the butt of his palm stroking her clit, his fingers pumping into her. She dropped back onto the ground, tilted her head back, exposing her neck. Her blood pulsing in the vein, calling him, as it had from the moment he’d first seen her.
He sunk his teeth into her neck, and she instantly came, her body instantly clenched around his fingers, her body tightening, spasming. That possessive feeling rolled over him with her pleasure, with her blood. He drank her in, tasted her. He could save her now, convert her. End this all. End the wolf. Thunder rumbled overhead, the rain soaking them, her breathing a sensual rasp in his hear. Time stood still for Evan. There was only Marissa’s blood, and the wildness of the vampire in him that knew what he wanted, what he had to do. No man, wolf, or council member could take her from him once it was done.
A split second of warning spiked in his body before a hand was shoved into his hair, and his head was yanked back, blood—Marissa’s blood dripping down his mouth.
A massive male squatted in front of him his black as hell eyes holding a lethal threat. “It appears I’m just in time.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Marcus,” Evan whispered, reality coming back to him as he brought his ‘Warden in Charge’ into focus. For a moment a haze of lust and need rumbled through him, small details fading in and out. In some far corner of his mind, he registered the absence of rain, the presence of mud and ground beneath him—and Marissa. His gaze dropped to find her passed out, her skin pale and her body half way to dead. He cursed, and quickly closed her wound, opening one on his wrist, to replace her blood loss.
“Nice to have you back with us,” Marcus said, standing up, a vision of pure power in his black leather, his long blonde hair wet around his shoulders. “Take her someplace safe, out of the wolf’s reach,” he said. “I’ll deal with the council while your brother’s deal with the wolf.”
Marissa began to stir, and Evan’s reason for converting her here and now slammed into him like a punch in the gut. “I won’t kill her and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
“You won’t get the chance to kill her if you cross the council,” he said. “They’ll tell me to do it. And if I won’t—they’ll send another ancient who’ll get the job done, which means I’ll have to kill them before they do. And while I don’t like most of the bastards, if we really have a mutation of the wolf virus we might need them.” He reached in a pocket and tossed Evan a syringe. “Get me a blood sample when she’s strong enough. And when I say take her someplace safe, I also mean someplace nice. Seriously man, if you want to win the lady over—that rattrap isn’t the way to do it.” And then he was gone, moving so fast, the eye couldn’t register him, a talent few of their kind possessed. No one knew his past or his origins. Only that he wasn’t someone you ever wanted to piss off. He was damn glad Marcus had his and Marissa’s back.
***
Marissa stood in the bathroom of the hotel while Evan undressed her. She was cold, so very cold. So cold that her bones felt like ice that might crack into tiny pieces at any moment. She barely remembered what had happened. There were just flashes of moments—of being in the room alone, of needing to run. Fighting with Evan then waking up in the mud. The moment Evan had lifted her into his arms and she’d curled into his chest, pressed her ear to his heart, but found no heartbeat. Vampire, the word had come to her, and replayed over and over.