Memory of an Immortal Heart (Immortal Hearts) (19 page)

“Free
bra,” Eva murmured, dragging his shirt up over his chest, baring the hard,
muscled expanse to her teeth, her mouth. He ripped it over his head and tossed
it away, and Eva swiped her tongue across a bronze, puckered nipple. Brand
hissed and jerked beneath her hips and she clenched in response. “Free bra,”
Eva gasped, lowering her forehead to his chest as she breathed the scent of arousal
from his skin, soaking in the warm spiced flavor.
He wants me. Brand’s
aroused for
me
.
“If you ruin it…
you’re
the one who gets…to
pay him back…”

Brand
snarled, there was the hot trail of claws against the delicate skin of her
breasts, and the bra shredded away.

Eva
froze and leaned back, staring at Brand in shock and dying protest. “That was
my
only
bra.”

“I will
buy you a new one.” No smile. Brand’s face was absolutely unyielding as he
oh-so-slowly lowered his hot gaze to her taut breasts.

The heat
of in expression made her gasp. Her breasts were swollen and heavy, her nipples
achingly tight.

Brand
raised a thumb, brushed it across her sensitive right nipple, and Eva
shuddered.

Brand
spoke in a low rumble. “If Joshua ever comes near your breasts, Evita, if he so
much as buys you another undergarment, I will beat him within an inch of his
life. Kinship notwithstanding.”

His
possessiveness sent a chill down her spine, lodged into her heart. Brand’s
hands were a steel trap around her ribcage…

…that
set her afire as he leaned forward and caught the peak of her nipple between
his teeth. He teased her into his mouth – pulled oh so gently – and
sucked. As if she were candy, or chocolate.

The
ache built between her thighs.

Eva
forgot her reservations. She twined her arms around his neck, ran her hands
through his thick silky hair and held Brand to her as he laved her breasts. Her
body burned, the insistent press of his lips to her flesh spiraled through Eva,
destroying her control.

Eva
became increasingly aware of a need – another need – thickly lodged
beneath her hips, hot and huge and insistent at the cleft of her opening. That
need wasn’t just Brand’s, but hers too.

“Brand,”
Eva groaned, the tiny cabin smelled of the spice of their mutual arousal, of their
shared hunger. “I need you.”

Slowly
he glanced up, his eyes a blaze of sapphire, gold and red. They flickered, so
beautiful. The tip of her breast was caught between his teeth as he withdrew,
tugging gently. His movements were steady, unhurried. He nibbled her, then, as
she gasped – finally – released the pink, swollen flesh.

His
large hands smoothed down her thighs, beneath the material of her pants. There
was the faint prick of claw – and then they spread out hard, away from
her, and Brand’s arms flexed as the cloth shredded from Eva’s thighs.

Then it
was just Eva.

And
Brand.

And
his
pants.

Eva
attacked the clasp with a wild fury, wishing she could grow her claws as well,
and only succeeded in ripping the top button away. It flew across the room,
pinged
against the windowpane, then fell to the floor. Then Brand cursed, his strong
fingers sliding up under her hips, running into the folds of her heat and
wetness, and Eva lost track of what she had been doing, of why
she
was
so desperate.

Brand
flicked against the nubbin of her flesh, dipping a finger into her ready body.
Eva gave a hoarse cry, clenching around the thick intrusion as warm pleasure
start to gather within her, her thighs trembling against him.

“Ah
Eva, my Evita, I am going to eat you,” he murmured before pushing her away,
back down into the seat cushions. Eva protested, refusing to move until she
realized what Brand intended.

“No,
I’m ready now,” she gasped. God, if Brand made her wait much longer… She needed
him
. She needed that thick length inside her.
Now
. No more
waiting…no more…

Brand
hands traced the softness of her belly, tucked under her hips to tilt them up
to his wicked tongue and Eva gasped…

The
door opened.

“
Fuck,
”
Joshua swore, then the door slammed shut again as the room suddenly filled with
the scent of aggression, danger and violence.
Death
.

Eva
wrapped herself around Brand before he could launch himself out of the cabin
after Joshua. His eyes were pure blood red, lips drawn from his teeth. Claws
out, but no longer gentle. “
Brand!
Brand, no. It’s Joshua.” He snarled
again, and Eva forced her voice to steady. Despite her embarrassment. Despite
the fact that she was naked. And despite the fact that Brand was…frightening.
“Brand. Snap out of it.
Now.
”

He
didn’t.

He
pushed against Eva, trying to keep her behind him, but Eva refused to let go.
Her heart thudded. She refused to get out of his path. “No,” she said again,
but he disentangled her fingers and moved her aside as if her strength meant
nothing. Eva shoved off the seat again to stop Brand, suddenly terrified
– but not for herself. For
him
.

For
what it would do to Brand, if he hurt Joshua.

God, a
blind woman could see that they were as close as she and Rainey.

“
Brand!
”
Eva gripped his arm, let the fear ride her voice, and panicked as he reached
the door. The scent of her fear sliced through the lust in the air like a
knife, so that the small cabin churned in a whirlpool of scents. “Brand, no!”

This
time Brand stilled. He turned toward Eva, his face a mask.

“Brand,
stop…” Eva didn’t know what to say to stop him, to hold him there. She gripped
his arm. It was tense. “Joshua didn’t
know
. None of us knew. It was an
accident.
I know that.
You
know that. It was just…
just sex
.”

Brand
flinched. Then his eyes flicked from red, to gold, before taking on sparks of
blue. Eva dropped his arm, abruptly awkward and odd, standing there naked in
front of the man she had been about to have sex with – but who, now that
she knew Joshua was standing outside the door and probably listening to every
word they said, she couldn’t
possibly
have sex with.

It was
too…embarrassing.

Even if
her body still
wanted
to. More than ever.

And
that
, Eva realized,
is worst of all
. It wasn’t
normal
. It was
more frightening than anything Brand had done. Because Eva had lost her
control. Where Brand was concerned, Eva couldn’t control her body, her actions.
Her
need
.

She
shuddered, crossing her arms over her exposed breasts, drawing away.
No
.

Awareness
came back into Brand’s eyes. He ran fingers through his dark hair, and Eva saw
– again – the withholding enter his gaze.

The
withholding that earlier, she had fought so hard against.

Eva
swallowed. “What was that…what happened to you just now?”
Why did you do
that to Joshua? Why do I need you, even after that? If I wasn’t holding myself
here, I would wrap my arms around you, lick the sweat from your body and we
would pick up exactly where we left off…

“Brand,”
Eva whispered, catching his gaze. “Something’s not…right. Between us. Is it
always like this – between two blood tigers?”

Brand
rubbed a hand across his jaw. “Eva…” Eva glimpsed the depth of hunger in his
expression before it shuttered again. He glanced away, out the dark window,
“You don’t have to worry about that. It is…normal.”

Somehow,
that felt like a lie.

Eva’s
chest tightened and she shivered before quickly turning away.

“Yeah.
Normal
.”

The
Bloodborn stood beside a bench in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at midnight
and waited. He put his hands in his pockets and studied the moon.

He was
young – only a little over a hundred – and had served a stint in
WWI before returning stateside where he met his Winterbourne master. His master
had been good; not long after that – on a night such as this – the
Winterbourne had changed him, given him the gift of immortality. But he had
lost the ability to walk in daylight. That was one of the prices he paid. It
had been worth it. So ten short years ago, when his master had died, the
Bloodborn grieved and vowed revenge. Eight more years had passed before his
master’s Shadowline was destroyed, and the Bloodborn was cast into Rohe
Nightchild’s tender keeping.

On
nights such as this, the moon’s brightness reminded him of that first loss. And
it reminded him of all the losses that had followed since.

But
more than anything, the moon reminded the Bloodborn of the Nightchild’s eyes,
when she first looked into his own, touched his cheek, and kindly proclaimed
him
Hers
.

It had
been true ever since. He would do anything for his beautiful Mistress, his pale
Lady. When she had shared her blood with him…

Darkness
shifted beside the Bloodborn, and he realized that he was being watched. He
schooled his expression as Corin King stepped from the shadows, golden hair
gleaming like moonlit wheat.

“You
are the contact?” the Bloodborn asked, uneasy about the other Sakai. No. More
than uneasy. Oddly
frightened
. Like prey.

King
slanted him a dismissive glance, then stopped to gaze up at the moon as well.
“You are one of Rohe’s more recent…acquisitions.” The words were toneless and
cold, distaste lacing through them like a poisoned blade. The Bloodborn tensed,
hand brushing his gun. But he had a job to do.

“I
found them,” he said to the Strategoi’s side, gritting his teeth in irritation,
determined to get this meeting over. He had a maid tied up in his bed at the
hotel, waiting for him; he hadn’t fed tonight, and he had other leads to
follow. “I swept the footage, found the train your targets are on. Here.” He
held out a sheet of paper with the information. “The tickets are good to
Whitefish, Montana.”

Slowly,
Corin King glanced down from the moon. He eyed the Bloodborn’s dark talons for
a long inscrutable moment before taking the paper between his thumb and
forefinger to slip inside his coat. The Bloodborn shifted as that unsettling
gaze fell on him.

“What
more do you know of my targets?” the Strategoi asked mildly, and the Bloodborn
began to sweat.

He
licked his lips. “A woman. Two men. They are especially unique. The Mistress
wishes them for her assessments.”

“You
have purveyed many for assessment?”

“Of
course.” He puffed out his chest in pride. He would not fail Rohe.

“Your
approach lacks in subtlety. This has been noted.” A neutral statement.

The
Bloodborn began to argue, but as the Strategoi’s expression chilled further, he
dropped his gaze. “If you have nothing more for me, sir…”

“No.
Nothing more,” Corin King said and looked up at the moon again, dismissing the
Bloodborn as if he were a worm. A piece of vermin. A fat roach crawling the
face of the earth.

The
Bloodborn grimaced, and with a sense of reprieve, turned to go.

He
didn’t see the sword that sliced out of the darkness to take his head. He
didn’t feel the blade that twisted through his heart, rending the muscle. He
didn’t see the figure that crouched beside him to watch, drop by drop, as his
precious lifeblood drained away into the dirt until it stopped.

He was
dead.

Corin
King moved his lips in a smile at the corpse. “I didn’t like you,” he said
dispassionately, as if in explanation.

He
cleaned his sword on his victim’s coat and left.

A tall
slender man with dark red hair was waiting for them as Eva followed Brand and
Joshua out of the Whitefish train station. The cold Montana wind cut through
the coat Eva wore, carrying hard fragments of ice pellets and snow with it; her
ragged hair whipped around her neck. The sky was a dark, leaden gray and Eva
shivered as she glanced at it, wishing she was home with Rainey in their cozy
house.

“Bryan.
I didn’t expect you here,” Brand said to the red-haired man. “Not in Shiri’s
condition. Where is Nikandrie?”

“Your
sister remained at Stronghold,” Bryan said tersely; he gave a brief nod as his
eyes found Eva. “Gaviros thought it was best I come, rather than Seth. Dmitrei
brought a female in two days ago. We need to get you back. Kevin’s bringing the
vehicle around.”

“
Dmitrei
.
He was at
Stronghold?
” Brand swore, going still. “Did he and Seth
fight?”

Eva
frowned, Brand’s tension pulling at her even as Joshua interrupted with a snarl,
“No one’s heard from that bastard in three years. Is he still at Stronghold?”
He almost seemed angry…and disappointed.