Bonds of Blood (3 page)

Chapter 4

Kat took a long sip of
her drink to calm her nerves. 

Where the hell had Mina
disappeared to?

One minute
the girl was by her side and the next she was gone.  Casting furtive glances around the room, Kat tried to locate her.  Despite the curious looks she received in return, Mina was nowhere to be found.

W
ithout warning, the room began to spin.  The lights became colors that danced all around her.  She looked down into her glass. 

What the hell was in this drink?

Kat tried her best to control her breathing, but it felt like the floor was shaking beneath her feet.  She was beginning to wobble when a strong hand caught her arm to steady her. 

Her gaze rose and was met by an arresting pair of silver eyes.  Unable to look away, she let him hold her up.

“Are you alright?”

The deep husky timbre of his voice seemed to reach out and stroke her intimately.

“I…”

Her mind swirled to images.

Images of his hands traveling over her body.

His
mouth teasing hers open.

She tried to hold on to rational thought, but the effort was strained. 
The wine had to be drugged.  It was the only excuse she had for letting him take her drink and lead her out of the club. 

When they were in the courtyard, his gaze traveled over her length.  She drew in a shaky breath as she struggled to remain on her feet.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded.  “Yes,” she
managed.

He fixed her with an intent stare.  “You shouldn’t be here.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “Why?”

He hesitated for a moment before answering.  “It’s just not safe.”

She should leave and go back inside.  After all, she didn’t know him.  She had no idea what his intentions were.  But there was something about him, something familiar.  Something that made her feel safe.

“Have we met before?”

The corners of his lips twitched up.  “I don’t believe so.  I’m sure I would remember you.”

She wobbled again
, and he caught her, his arm sliding around her waist.  She leaned into him, her chin tilting back to meet his eyes.

“I could swear I’ve seen you before,” she murmured.

“Maybe in another life,” he suggested his voice husky.

Kat’s head was spinning from the drink.  Her eyes focused on him.  His
dark brown hair was a little long.  It curled over the collar of his shirt.  She ached to run her fingers through it.  His jaw was perfectly sculpted, his full lips begging for her kiss.  Even though the arm around her waist was cool, it heated her blood.  She felt her nipples harden into tight buds against the material of her dress.

What was wrong with her?

Whatever was in the house wine was potent stuff.  Suddenly, the world began to spin violently and she collapsed against him.

****

Damien felt the life drain from the girl in his arms as the sweet taste of her blood filled his mouth.  When he was finished with her, he passed Alyssa to the man at his side.  He turned away as the man took the girl and hurried out the back door.  She would be disposed of like all the rest. 

Damien headed back out to the drawing room, his gaze scanning the crowd.  Most of th
e patrons thought they had just seen an elaborate production.  But it was no show.  To him, it was nothing more than dinner.  Still, he grew tired of the charade.  Humans were so easy.  Easy to command.  To enthrall. 

And after four hundred years, he was bored.  There was no sport anymore.  As much as he had always enjoyed
mesmerizing them, it seemed like little more than a chore now.  If it wasn’t for the necessity of feeding he would have stopped years ago.  But the club enabled them to stay in one place, to live freely if that’s what you call it.  He moved through the crowd like a vapor stealing into their thoughts, releasing their hidden desires.  Tonight, though, he had only one thing on his mind.

The
woman with the dark hair.

Where had she disappeared to?

He watched her watching him with Alyssa, had felt her longing, her untapped desire.  He tried to ease into her mind, to tease her.  But for the first time in years, he hadn’t been able to.  In that moment, he made up his mind to find her as soon as he finished with Alyssa.

What was it about her that called out to him?

Was it just the anonymity of her thoughts, the fact that he couldn’t read her as easily as he could read everyone else?

No, there was something else.

She was different.

He could feel it.

After walking through the rooms several times, his search turned up nothing.  His gaze still searching for her, he inhaled deeply to see if he could pick up her smell.

Suddenly, he felt a presence at his side.  He didn’t have to turn to know who it was.

“Unhappy with tonight’s selection?” Genevieve inquired.

“It is the same selection we have seen for weeks
.”

She tilted her head to the side.  “Now that’s not true.  I’ve seen several faces disappear recently.”

He sighed heavily.

“Someone in particular you are looking for?”

He sometimes forgot that Genevieve knew him so well. 

When he didn’t answer, she continued.  “Her name is Kat Montague.”

He turned to face her.  “Who?”

“The woman you’re looking for
.”

His eyes narrowed.  “And you know this how?”

A diabolical smile slid across her mouth.  “I make it my business to know our patrons.”

He turned to look at the crowd before him, not wanting her to be able to read him. 

“She’s not human,” she observed casually.

“I know.”

“So, what is she?” she prodded.

His lips formed a grim line.  “That is what I intend to find out.  Is she upstairs?”

She shook her head.  “I would have been informed if she was using a room.  She must have slipped out after the show.”

He inhaled deeply, his eyes narrowing as he picked up another scent.  “Am I mistaken or was a visitor from the past here as well?

Genevieve didn’t look at him.  “No one I recall.”

His jaw clenched, but he said nothing.

She may have gotten away tonight, but her luck would not hold out for long.  Because for the first time in years, Damien actually wanted something, craved it.

And what he craved…was her.

****

Alec laid her gently on the bed.  Getting away so easily was a shock, even to him.  He leaned down to remove her arms from his neck, but to his surprise she tightened her hold pulling him down on the bed beside her. 

“Don’t go,” she murmured.

Her eyelids hung low
, her mouth curved in a smile of satisfaction.  Alec felt a longing deep in his gut.  He shouldn’t want her to say these things, shouldn’t want her to desire his presence, but he did.

“I must,” he replied solemnly.

Her hands caressed his face, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw.

“Don’t leave me.  Not again,” she whispered.

Again?

Had he heard her right?

He reached up, his hand gently encircling her wrist to pull her hand away.  But she resisted, lacing her fingers through his. 

“Stay with me tonight.”

More than anything he wished he could give in and just forget about all his obligations.  For years he had been watching her.  And for years he had been tormented—tortured with visions of a future that could never be.  He was a member of the Vigilate, ordered to protect her.  There would never be a day when his thoughts could be enacted.  Never be a day when he could give in to the temptation to be with her.  To do so would mean death for certain.

“I can’t,” he answered honestly.

She leaned up, her lips mere inches from his.  Her breath wafted over his face. 

How he longed to close the distance
, to show her how much he desired her.

“Please don’t leave.  For once, just stay with me.”

His eyes widened as he stared at her.

She couldn’t know what she was saying.

It had to be the drug.

The club’s house wine h
ad more than an exotic flavor.  It also contained an aphrodisiac.  It enabled the club’s owners a measure of crowd control. 

“You don’t know what you’re saying
.”

H
er eyes opened and her gaze met his.  “You’ve been here before.  I’ve seen you.”

If his heart
was still beating, it surely would have stopped in that instant.  She couldn’t have seen him.  Could she?  His kind were used to living in the shadows, had done it for thousands of years. 

Had he truly been that careless?

Had his obsession with her made him forget all of the rules ingrained in him?

H
e pulled her hands away from his face.  But before he could back away, she reached up and pressed her lips against his.  For a moment, he was too stunned to move.  But then, he felt her tongue stroke his lower lip.   He let out a low growl as he gave in to the temptation clawing at him.  Taking control of the kiss, his tongue drove into her mouth.  It traced her lips, her teeth, the hollow of her mouth before drawing her own out to play.  His hands framed her face, his fingers memorizing her cheekbones, the line of her jaw.

She was the most beautiful creature he
’d ever seen in all his years, and for this moment she was his.   She pulled him on top of her, his hips settling between her legs.  Her nipples hardened against his chest, and her legs wrapped around his waist as she let out a low moan. 

Her heat seemed to burn through the icy layer of his skin.  He wanted nothing more than to plunge into that warmth, to feel it surround him.
For a moment, he indulged and let himself enjoy the way she writhed against him.  He allowed her breath to fill the hollow shell of his body. 

After the life he led, he resigned himself to hell long ago.  But nothing could be closer to heaven than the ecstasy of holding her in his arms. 
Her heart beat rhythmically against his chest.  She was pure hot fire, and in this moment she was burning for him. 

His hands slid under her dress, feeling the smooth skin of her legs.  One hand slid
up her abdomen to cup her breast, his thumb teasing her nipple through the fabric of her dress. 

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she murmured the words against his mouth
.

He rose up on his elbows, his eyes narrowing as he stared down at her.  She couldn’t know what she was saying.  He rolled away, his eyes squeezing shut as the harsh realization ripped through him.

What the hell was he doing?

If
Tarquin knew, he would surely kill Alec for this.

And he would have every right to do it.

Alec leaned back on the bed, willing the strong desire to stop.

Before he
could move away, she rubbed her body along his as she settled on top of him.  Her hands framed his face as she pressed her lips against his.  His hands curled in the bed sheets in an attempt to refrain from grabbing her, from holding her to him.  He felt her tongue stroke the line of his lips.  He struggled for a control he wasn’t sure he possessed.

For so long, he had watched her, wanted her
, and now she was here in his arms.  It was the worst kind of torture.  He allowed his hands the luxury of gripping her hips as she writhed against him. 

He shouldn’t be doing this.

He shouldn’t even be touching her.

He
flipped her on the bed reversing their positions to put him on top.  He was about to put an end to this when her soft voice stopped him with a single word.

“Please.”

Her heavy lidded gaze met his. 

“It’s not safe,” he explained in a voice that sounded husky to his own ears.

She placed a tender kiss on his mouth.  “I have protection in my purse.”

He frowned at her statement.  Just what had she thought would happen tonight?  Had she been expecting to meet someone at the club?  Expecting to sleep with
them?

The thought filled him with a jealous rage he had no right to feel.  Just thinking of her with anyone else made his fangs extend.  Luckily, the darkness of the room hid his terrible secret. 

“I want to be with you,” she whispered.

Everything in his body seemed to come to life at the sound of her voice.

Deep down he knew she couldn’t possibly know what she was asking for.  The drugs had surely let loose her inhibitions.  But knowing that didn’t stop him from pretending for just a few minutes the words were true.