Blood Marriage (18 page)

He was at her throat before he could stop himself, but he merely growled against it before trailing tickling kisses up to her ear. She squirmed, suppressed laughter humming behind closed lips.

"Still need a week to decide?" he asked.

"Five days perhaps," she said.

"We can improve on that." This time the kisses started at her collarbone and went the other direction, circling one breast. She squealed in surprise when he bit gently into the side of one firm mound. Her hands wrapped his biceps, tightening there, as his mouth found the nipple and sucked at it through the sheer fabric of her gown. Charmed with the little sounds she made, he lingered there for a long time before giving the same attention to other breast. He was keeping himself under control; the vampire within subdued by the desire of a human groom to please his bride. He lifted his head to look up at her. Her eyes were closed, a half-smile on her lips. 

"Two days?" he asked.

"Three," she said. 

He laughed, then used his teeth and lips to nibble his way past her flat belly to the mound between her thighs. She started to sit up and gently he pushed her back down. He kissed her pulse at the point where leg and hip joined near the edge of her thick curls, succumbing to the temptation to use his tongue against the sheer fabric of her negligee to tickle a path along the length of the artery. She wriggled, but didn't ask him to stop. The beast within him growled. 

He slid his hands down her legs to the hem of her gown; then slowly slid them back up again, bringing the fabric with him.

"Wait!" She started to push him away as he raised one of her legs over his shoulder. "I need to tell you someth--" She shrieked when his tongue parted her and pressed deep. "Nicholas!" She sounded shocked, but her fingers entwined in his hair. He played with her a while, nipping, tasting, teasing, enjoying the little sounds she made.

"Tonight?" he finally asked. Her answer was a gasp as he found the spot he sought and began to flick his tongue across it. Her hands dropped from his hair. Her palms pressed flat against the bed. He could feel the tension rising in her as he stayed the course, giving her all the time and attention she needed, recklessly ignoring the dark hunger building within him. When she screamed her release, the beast within rose, roaring with silent exultation in unison with her cry. Heat, blood-sweet, will-shattering engulfed him.

Her eyes were closed, her head flung back, her neck exposed. He rose on his hands and knees and crept up her body. Hunger madness crashed over him in magnificent, dizzying waves of bloodlust, drowning the half-human part of him, sweeping away all that was not vampire. It was not enough to just taste her, to begin to transmit to her the gift only one of his clan could give. He wanted all of her, to devour her, to gorge himself on the sweet warm nectar that pounded there, so close now, beneath the slim white column of her neck.

"Nicholas?"

A remnant of sanity surged up. He must stop. Now. Or he would be lost, and she with him. Desperately he struggled to pull back, but his body refused to obey, continuing its slow creep toward her exposed neck.

From the tower window, a sudden gusty breeze, as gentle as the forest scents it carried, stirred her hair and from some corner of his mind a memory rose: racing through the moonlit woods on horseback, Elizabeth wrapped safely in his arms, the night wind in her face, offering him a kiss of faith and trust and innocence. 

With a bestial howl, Nicholas rolled away from his wife and sat on the edge of the bed. Shaking violently, he fought to hold on to the purity and innocence of that kiss, praying it might be enough to check the twin lusts raging within him. Vlad had been right. He'd been a fool to risk her like this. She wasn't safe alone with him. Not tonight. Not the first time.

Behind him, Elizabeth was speaking in low tones, probably had been for a while. She brushed her nails lightly down his back. Nicholas kept his eyes down, his hands clamped to the edge of the bed. Sweat poured from him as every muscle in his body strained against the horror building within. He wanted to say something, tell her not to touch him, tell her to find the key, to run and hide. But no words would come. 

He seized on to the memory of her and that kiss, wielding it like a sword against the rising darkness, begging God that there was still a chance of making it down the tower stairs and getting away from the castle, leaving her behind, safe. He could send the priest back for her. Perhaps it wasn't too late. The darkness receded a little. She was saying something, her words hesitant, but clear. 

"…I'm glad I've finally told you the truth." She left the bed and came to stand before him, her legs between his thighs, her hands resting on his shoulders. "But Nicholas...I don't want to die a virgin." 

Her words shredded the last of his sanity. He growled low in his throat and reached for the bodice of the sheer gown. Rending it in one violent motion from neck to hem, he threw her down on the bed beneath him. 

Elizabeth's screams echoed through the deserted halls of Maidenstone.

Chapter Twenty-Three

A gentle warmth brushed Elizabeth's temple. A key grated in a lock and a door creaked open. The scent of roses surrounded her and the sensual caress of fur skimmed over her naked flesh as she stirred. Something was different. The familiar pain that should have been there, that had been there in her knees and elbows for so long, was missing. Instead, she was sore in other, more intimate, places. 

Elizabeth frowned, her eyes still closed. Amanda hadn't been completely right. The first time hadn't been pleasant. It had been frightening. But it had been over quickly and though she tried, she couldn't recall the details. How strange. 

On the other hand, she remembered every delicious second of the
twice
, as Nicholas had called it. That had been quite different. Amanda had assured her being married was wondrous. Elizabeth agreed. Her frown gave way to a shy smile and she peeked through her lashes, opening her eyes fully once she realized she was alone. 

Sunlight poured through the window, bathing the tower room in golden brilliance and bringing with it birdsong from the woods outside. Elizabeth sat up and a shower of white rose petals rained from her hair to join the multitudes scattered across the red linens and fur cover. She scooped up a handful and tossed them, turning her face up to feel the delicate brush on her cheeks and chin as they fell. When had he done this?

Outside, the sudden thump of wood on stone and the screech of metal on metal masked the songs of the birds. The door to the stairs was ajar. A small wooden box lay at the corner of the bed, its top off, a few white rose petals still inside. Elizabeth smiled.

She left the bed, taking the fur with her, and ran on bare toes across the chilly stone floor to the window, amazed at the way her legs carried her without pain. From where she stood, the dried moat and the edge of the forest were visible, but the windowsill was too wide to allow her to see down into the courtyard.

She was curious, but with the memory of the long drop to the ground made her cautious as well. She climbed gingerly onto the window ledge, grateful for the fur's protection from the cold stone. That gratitude quickly turned to alarm when she attempted to twist and scoot her way into a position to see down into the courtyard. As if it had suddenly transformed back into the group of wild animals it had once been, the fur twisted around her, tangling her legs and arms so thoroughly that despite being in a sitting position she lost her balance, toppling over to lie on her side in the window frame. Relieved that her fall took her to the edge of the window, not out of it, she lay in the knot of fur, peering down into the courtyard below. 

Nicholas, shirtless in leather trousers and boots, stood beside a stone well working the metal crank, but it was the man directly below the window who drew Elizabeth's attention. Dr. Bergen rose from where he'd been sitting, leaning against the base of the tower, and moved across the courtyard in that odd silent way of his. Nicholas turned just as the doctor reached him. Their voices carried easily on the clear morning air.

"What the hell are you doing here, Bergen?"

"Sleeping. Until you came down." The doctor reached over and grabbed the rope that extended down into the well, lifting out a bucket tied to its end. He tipped the contents of the well bucket into a second bucket at Nicholas's feet. "But only for the last few hours. Before that I was standing down here in the dark, waiting to run gallantly up the stairs, kick down the door, and rescue fair damsel from mighty monster." 

The doctor dropped the bucket back into the well and released the catch. The rope unwound from its coil, spinning the hand crank and plunging the bucket downward to splash into the water below.

Nicholas ran a hand through his hair. "Then why didn't you?"

Bergen shrugged. "Almost did once. Made it up the stairs, but the, uhm, tone of the lady's cries changed." Bergen squatted down beside the bucket and leaned over it continuing to speak as he splashed water in his face several times. "Though the volume and quantity stayed about the same for a good part of the night." 

He rose to his feet again and shook his head and hands, sending water droplets flying in all directions. "When you return to Heaven's Edge, Nick, you might want to consider moving your bride to a distant wing of the house. That is, if you're planning on more nights like that one."

Elizabeth’s whole body flushed hot despite the cold stone on which she lay. Nicholas looked like he might rip the doctor in two. Bergen seemed unconcerned. He slapped his friend's arm with the back of his hand and motioned with his head toward the forest. Nicholas turned in that direction. Elizabeth looked as well. Father Vlad, his black skirts ruffling in the morning breeze, was coming across the moat bridge.

"What could be better on a honeymoon than an early morning visit from a priest?" Bergen laughed.

"Finding out another man spent the night listening to you make love to your wife?" Nicholas sounded furious. Elizabeth felt a second flush of embarrassment wash over her. 

"My apologies, but Vlad insisted." Bergen picked up the water bucket near Nicholas's feet and tossed the contents away from them. He sat it back down and reached for the well crank. "But there's good news. After what I heard last night, my opinion of you has greatly improved." 

The sound of Bergen cranking the well bucket up again covered most of Nicholas's menacingly ear-burning response. Bergen grinned, undaunted by Nicholas's fury.

Nicholas grabbed the full bucket, which had reached the top of the well, snapped the catch to free it from the rope, then gave the rope a hard yank.

The hand crank spun violently as the rope unraveled, knocking Bergen backward to the ground. The doctor's bottom hit the stone paving hard, his arms and legs spread wide. Nicholas disgorged the entire contents of the bucket into doctor's face, drenching him. Then he slammed the empty bucket to the cobblestones and turned on his heel to follow the priest, who'd disappeared into the castle. Bergen's laughter filled the courtyard.

Elizabeth didn't wait to see if Bergen followed her husband; the priest was coming. In a panic she fought the knot of fur entangling her while attempting to scoot toward the room and away from the dangerous fall. But the more frantically she struggled the more the fur trap seemed to tighten around her. Finally she stopped, took a breath, and began again more calmly. Eventually she kicked free of the fur.

She scrambled, naked, off the windowsill just as footsteps and the rustle of skirts sounded from beyond the partially open door. She glanced around the room. Her wedding clothes still hung over the edge of the privacy screen, but she'd never get to them in time. The rose petal strewn bed, though closer, was no refuge.

"Child, it is Vlad." 

Elizabeth could see the priest's knuckles striking the partially-open door and his hand going to the knob. Again her eyes scanned the room taking in the fruit, bread, cheese and tarts on the table beside her, as well as Nicholas's clothes draped across a chair. Her husband's coat would surely have covered her decently, if only to her knees, but what if she fumbled finding the arm holes? She tried to call out to the priest not to come in, but panic tangled the words on her tongue as thoroughly as the fur had tangled around her limbs. The fur! Feeling like a brain-addled idiot, Elizabeth snatched the fur from the floor, wrapped it around herself, and tucked it beneath her arms.

"I'm coming in, child," the old man said as he began to push the door open. 

With a jerk, Elizabeth slung her hair forward so that it hung in thick columns down either side of her neck, over her breasts and past her waist. The priest stepped into the room.

"Did he hurt you, my dear?" the old man asked as he came across the room and stopped in front of her, a gentle expression on his face. 

Elizabeth flushed as anger tied her tongue as thoroughly in knots as frantic embarrassment had moments earlier. Last night on this priest's instructions, Dr. Bergen had listened to the intimate moments Nicholas and she had shared. Now the old man had invaded her bedchamber and was standing much too close. Elizabeth tried to move back, but with the window ledge behind her she had nowhere to go. 

Father Vlad peered closely at her, as if looking for something. Nicholas entered the room scowling.

"I've seen brides," Father Vlad said, "who fared badly after the first night, even with a guardian in the room." 

Elizabeth didn't know what the priest was talking about, but there was sincere concern in his eyes. Bergen came into the room and stood behind Nicholas, dripping water on the stone floor. His eyes too went to Elizabeth, concern turning to relief. What was it they'd expected to see? 

The priest continued, addressing Nicholas, "You've shown remarkable restraint,
mea fiu
. It was a foolish risk to take, but she was fortunate."

"What
are
you talking about?" Elizabeth asked. "And why are you here?"