A Beast For The Eyes: A Steamy Shifter Romance (A Ravenswood Romance Book 2) (13 page)

“Why are you sorry?” She asked. “I’m the one that got stabbed.”

Erik explained but she was listened half way due to the pain she was in. He said something about a bounty on his head for kissing another vampire’s mate. He thought he was safe here.

“I never meant for you to get hurt. I figured if a hunter would come after me that he wouldn’t be interested in killing other vampires. Also I figured when I left you’d be safe. I was wrong, the hunter found out about my feelings for you.” He said softly.

Kat was trying to register what he was saying. What feelings was Erik talking about? He barely knew her.

“Sleep now,” he told her. “You will be safe here. You need to sleep to heal.”

Kat closed her eyes and slept. She had visions of Erik standing over her as if he was checking on her. She even thought she had fed from him. That wasn’t possible, was it? She felt as she did when she was mortal and sick with the fever. Kat was having trouble comprehending all of it. She had had injuries before but they always healed quickly. This was so strange.

It was a little past sunset when Kat opened her eyes. She looked around for a moment at the unfamiliar room. It slowly came back to her. She remembered the stranger, being stabbed and Erik bringing her somewhere. She looked around for Erik but couldn’t find him. She had to get up.

Kat sat up and realized she was dressed in a beautiful silk and satin nightgown. She had never worn anything this luxurious in her life. Carefully she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Slowly she rose to her feet.

She quietly left the bedroom and walked down the hall towards the living area. Erik sat there at a grand piano playing the most beautiful and haunting song Kat had ever heard. She stood and watched as his fingers moved over the keys. When he was done, he looked up at her. She smiled at him.

“Thank you for letting me spend the day here while I healed. I do appreciate it. The nightgown is gorgeous. Do you always keep such lovely ladies’ clothing in your closet?”

He stared at her with a funny expression on his face. “Kat, you have been asleep for a week now, not just one day.”

Kat was horrified and it probably showed on her face. “But how and why? I was just stabbed in the stomach, I should have healed quickly.”

“The stake was dipped in poison,” he said quietly.

“How do you know?” Kat asked him.

“I have had this bounty on my head for a very long time. It was a decade ago when I was traveling with a companion. It was another male vampire, Julian. He was like a brother to me. We traveled around together. It was like one long party. We even hunted together. One night, we were out in the streets of London when a hunter came up on us. Two male vampires against a human hunter is no big deal. We fought and Julian was stabbed in the leg. I knew something was wrong immediately. He collapsed to the ground. I told the hunter I would spare his life if he told me what he did. He said that there was a liquid on the stake made by a witch from werewolf saliva. As you know, a bite from the werewolf is deadly to us. He told me that my best friend was dying.”

Kat could hear the sadness in Erik voice and see it on his face. She felt a pain inside her.

“I threatened the guy and told him I needed the cure. He just laughed and said, ‘There is no cure’. I got so angry that I drained him of every last drop of blood running through his veins. I dropped his body to the ground and helped Julian to his feet and took him back to our home. I watched as the poison flowed through him and destroyed his body. Finally, the poison took him and he passed on. I scattered his ashes in Venice, Italy because it was one of his favorite places.”

“So if I was poisoned how am I not eternally dead?” Kat asked him.

“I had to do some fast work. I basically drained you of almost all of your blood then fed you mine. I was weakened considerably and I wasn’t even sure it was going to work. I did this every night for a week. I’d go out feed and then come back and have you drink from me. After a week I figured the best thing for you was to sleep and let your body heal. I haven’t left the house. I had to make sure you were going to make it.”

“Now that I’m better are you going to leave?”

Erik just looked into Kat’s eyes and she knew the answer to her question. She didn’t want him to go. Kat could beg and plead but she knew it wouldn't do any good. He had made up his mind to flee again. She would have to let him go.

“I will stay with you tonight but then I have to go,” he said a touch of sadness in his voice. “I can’t put you in danger. I know he will send another hunter for me. I won’t risk you being hurt, or worse, destroyed like Julian.”

Kat swallowed hard and nodded her head. She sat next to him at the piano and he started to play. She recognized the song from the radio. It was Halo by Beyoncé. It sounded beautiful as he played it. She sat there closed her eyes and listened.

When he finished playing, she walked back to the bedroom. She was getting stronger but still not her usual self. Erik came in with a goblet and handed it to her. It was filled with blood.

“It’s not as good as fresh from the vein but it will help heal you.” Erik said softly.

She smiled as she took a sip. It was cold and she wanted to spit it out. She realized he had gotten this from a blood bank. It was a vampire trick when you just couldn’t feed from humans for whatever reason. Kat drank it down quickly so the taste wouldn’t linger in her mouth. She laid back on the bed and Erik started to walk to the door.

“Please, stay.” She told him. He looked at her and she said, “Lay down with me please.”

He nodded and she felt the bed move as he sat down. His body was pressed against hers and he put his arm around her pulling her in close. Kat started to cry. She was finally happy. She had found someone she wanted to be with and now he was going to leave her. She couldn’t believe it.

The sun came up and they both fell asleep. When Kat woke up she knew he was gone. Her body was strong and she felt normal except for the hole in her heart. It was breaking and there was nothing she could do about it. Erik had left her a note stating the house had been paid for her and she could live there as long as she wanted. It was much nicer sleeping in a bed then in a crypt, so she decided to stay.

Months went by and Kat tried to get on with her life. The house was great. She moved all of her stuff into the place. She had even hired an assistant to help with things during the day. That was something she had never done before. She missed Erik terribly and often wondered where he was.

Her feeding behavior changed too. She became less intimate with those she fed from. For a while after she was poisoned, she had to feed a lot. It was like she was a fledgling vampire again. It was frustrating but soon the desire to feed went back to normal for her. The days passed but her longer for Erik never diminished.

CHAPTER 6

One day she walked into the house after hunting and could swear she smelled Erik there. Kat dismissed it thinking her mind was playing games with her because she missed him so much. That was when she heard the piano playing softly. It was Halo. She ran into the room and Erik was there sitting and playing as if he had never left her.

She smiled at him and he smiled back. He stood up and grabbed her- kissing her wildly. Kat knew he was taking a big chance coming back to see her like this. His passion was furious and he practically ripped off her clothing. She didn’t care as long as she could be with him.

When she was naked he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and kissed his way down her body. First he kissed her lips tenderly. He moved down to her breasts, gently licking and sucking on them. Kat gasped as his fangs rubbed across her nipples. Her body felt as if it were on fire.

His kisses moved down to her stomach. She knew where he was headed and let out a moan as his mouth moved further down her body. He planted loving kisses up one thigh and back down again, then moved to the other one doing the same thing. Finally his mouth hovered over her sweet, tender part and he kissed her there softly. Kat’s back arched in pleasure.

His tongue moved over her, driving her wild with passion. He kept up the long, slow licks as her excitement intensified. When she thought she could not take any more, he found her button and started flicking his tongue over it, going faster and faster. The feeling was incredible and Kat couldn’t hold back any more. She cried out his name as her body experienced the most intense orgasm she had ever felt.

Erik got up off the bed just long enough to undress. He laid down next to her. She wanted him so badly and she knew he wanted her too. He moved on top of her and Kat spread her legs. He grabbed on to them and lifted her legs up over his shoulder then slid his hardness inside her.

Erik could feel how wet she was and he smiled as he started slowly moving in and out of her. Kat was moaning again with each stroke. It wasn’t long before his movements sped up. He growled as Kat started moving her hips with his.

The movements came faster and harder. It reminded her of the first night they were together when he had her pinned against the wall. He practically slammed himself into her. He gripped her thighs and held on tight. Their bodies were moving as one. Kat felt her body tense and shake at the very moment that Erik exploded inside her. He let out a loud groan then collapsed on top of her.

Kat smiled and asked, “So, miss me a lot?”

He actually laughed and said, “Yes I did, baby.”

They laid there on the bed cuddling for some time. Neither one of them really wanted to speak. They savored the moment. Kat finally asked him, “So why did you come back?”

He paused and then said, “I couldn’t live without you. Oh sure I could exist just about anywhere. However, I wasn’t living.”

Kat was shocked by his statement. She never thought he would feel this way about her.

“Kat, I have never felt this way about anyone but my wife. That was back in the 800s in Scandinavia. In all that time I never really wanted to be with anyone. That night when you were stabbed and I almost lost you, I couldn’t bare it. I need you with me. I don’t want to let you go.”

Kat was astounded and didn’t know what to say. She loved him and wanted to be with him always. Never did she imagine he would feel it too.

“So now what we do?” she asked him.

“I can’t say being with me will be easy. I move a lot. I am still worried I won’t be able to keep you safe but I can’t imagine being without you.”

“I can take care of myself, thank you very much!” Kat cried out.

Erik laughed. “I have no doubt of that. So will you come with me?”

Kat paused for a moment. She couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving again. She knew she had to go with him. There was no other way. She knew he would keep her as safe as he could. Erik would die for her if he had to.

“Yes, I will. I can’t live without you either. Where will we go to?” She asked.

“Well, my old friend said that Venice was the most romantic city he knew of. So I thought, why not there?”

Kat smiled as she looked at him. She couldn’t think of a better place to go to.

“However, we aren’t going to leave tonight. We have a lot of catching up to do.” He grinned a very wicked grin as he pinned her on her back and started to kiss her passionately again.

Loretta knew she was being followed. The person was sticking to the shadows and hoping that she wouldn’t notice but they moved clumsily. Probably a low level mugger who was hoping to get the drop on her. The snow kicked up around her feet as she walked. The sky was dark and heavy, threatening to drop a blizzard on top of the city. Loretta was in no mood to deal with a mugger. Her hands tightened around her keys, positioning them so she could lash out when the person made their move.

She turned to the right quickly, leading whoever it was away from her car. The sidewalk was empty. It was the middle of the night. Loretta could hear the footsteps behind her. As they walked faster towards her, she gripped the keys tighter. Fingers grabbed her wrist as Loretta spun around on her heel, ready to slash the keys across the mugger’s face.

But suddenly there was a blur of color. The mugger soared through the air and hit the ground with a thud. A figure dressed in all black was on top of the man.

“Stop!” Loretta cried, going to yank the figure off the unconscious man.

The figure went still and moved swiftly off of the mugger. Her heart beat quickly as the man stepped forward into the streetlight. His skin was pale and his eyes dark – and his fangs extended.

“What do you want?” Loretta said, crossing her arms.

“I heard you were putting the word out that you wanted someone to Turn you,” the vampire said, “And you pay handsomely for it.”

“Yeah, that’s right. But are we actually going to discuss this here? I just left my friend’s party and now you knocked out this guy on the street.”

“He was going to mug you.” The vampire said stiffly.

“Sorry, not interested in you being the one to Turn me. Thanks anyway.”

The vampire mumbled something under his breath as Loretta walked past him, heading back towards her car. She sighed. What a mess. Yes, she wanted vampires to speak to her about turning her into one of them but no, she didn’t want it to turn into a big fuss in the middle of the street. Loretta couldn’t wait to get home and crawl into bed and try to forget the entire night. The party had been a wash, like she knew it would be, and then the mugger on top of the vampire. She had the worst luck.

Loretta was actively looking to be turned into a vampire. For years, she had dreamed of it. She was born into a family of Guardians. Ever since she was a kid her father had explained to her that their family were protectors of the supernatural – the guardians tasked to make sure the regular world didn’t find out about the supernatural world.

But Loretta didn’t want to just be a Guardian. She wanted to be a vampire. Ageless and forever, she admired their world from afar. Why did she need to guard their secrets and only stare from the outside? Her parents had been proud of their bookshelves boasting all their knowledge. They were gate keepers of all things supernatural. But as Loretta grew older and found out more about this life chosen for her, she realized she wanted more than that.