Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (7 page)

“Why can’t you just say that someone else bit
me?” I asked.

He gave me a dark look. “Because if you were
truly mine, I would never, ever share you. I am not into what you
humans call open relationships.”

“Possessive, are you?”

“Extremely.” His voice was nearly a
growl.

“Why am I not surprised?”

“I do not even like the idea of your friend
taking blood from you,” Corbin continued. “Though I realize it was
a necessity since she is too incompetent to feed herself any other
way.”

“Don’t talk that way about Taylor. She was
always the best at everything she did before she got turned,” I
protested. “She’s extremely intelligent—she just isn’t cruel enough
to adapt to being a vamp.”

“So you think cruelty is the main
prerequisite for becoming one of my kind?” he asked blandly.

“I think it helps, yes.” I frowned at him as
I unbuttoned my jacket and took it off. “I mean, you’re not exactly
all hearts and flowers and warm fuzzies, now are you?”

Corbin shook his head. “We do what we must to
survive. That is not always easy in my world.”

I had a feeling I was going to learn a whole
lot more than I wanted to about his world in the near future but I
didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Here,” I said, rolling up
the sleeves of my white silk blouse and holding out a wrist. “How
are you going to heal me?” I hoped it didn’t involve him trying to
get inside my mind.

But Corbin simply cupped my hand in his palm
and brought my wrist to his mouth. “Like this,” he murmured.
Bending his mouth to my scarred wrist, he began to lick and suck.
My breath caught in my throat at the feeling of his hot, wet tongue
against my flesh and my heart immediately began to pound.

“How is that supposed to hel—” I started to
ask and then I felt a cool tingling sensation that began at my
wrist and seemed to travel up my arm and down into my chest. It
felt strange at first and then really good—
too
good, to be
honest. My nipples were suddenly stiff and achy and I could feel
that I was getting hot and wet between my thighs.

I squirmed uncomfortably, wishing I could
pull my wrist away from his mouth. Corbin’s gaze met mine as he
continued to lick and kiss the flesh of my badly scarred wrist. His
silver-blue eyes were half lidded with lust. It was as though this
simple act of tasting my flesh was extremely erotic to him. I
shivered from the way he was looking at me as much as from the
tingling that was spreading through my entire body.

It occurred to me that I shouldn’t have been
able to feel anything at all. I had been feeding Taylor for almost
six years now and I’d lost a lot of sensitivity in that area—no
doubt her badly placed bites had caused some kind of nerve damage.
But now I could feel everything, every tiny movement of his lips
and tongue against my skin—it was as though I was suddenly
hypersensitive to his touch.

“How much longer?” I finally blurted out
after what felt like an eternity of his mouth on my skin.

Corbin straightened up—he’d bent down to
reach my wrist—and smiled at me. “See for yourself.”

I looked at my wrist in disbelief. I was
healed. And I don’t just mean that the scars Taylor had left on my
skin had faded—they were completely gone. It was as though they had
never been in the first place.

“How did you do that?” I demanded. “I’ve
never heard of a vamp that could heal before.”

He shrugged. “Many of us have special
abilities we don’t share with your kind. Are you ready for me to
heal your other wrist?”

I thought of the strange, hot feeling I’d
gotten when the healing tingles traveled through my body and
frowned. “I…guess so.”

Corbin arched an eyebrow. “You don’t sound
very happy to be healed. You cannot tell me you
enjoyed
having such disfiguring scars in such a prominent place.”

“No,” I admitted, shifting restlessly from
foot to foot. “I’ve been wearing long sleeves for what seems like
forever so I don’t have to explain them to people.”

“When I am finished you will no longer have
to worry about such things,” he said reasonably.

“I know. I just…” I frowned at him. “Why did
that…why did having you heal me feel so…so strange?”

He gave me a sharp look. “You had other
sensations than just my mouth against your skin?”

“It felt like…cool tingles running up and
down my arms and all over my body,” I said.

“What else?” His eyes were as penetrating as
a laser beam.

“What do you mean, what else?” I said
defensively. I wasn’t about to tell him how my nipples had gotten
hard or my…other symptoms for want of a better word.

“You know very well what I am talking about.
If we are going to enter into this partnership, you need to be
truthful with me.” Corbin sounded positively stern and his eyes
flashed angrily, reminding me for a moment of why he was considered
the most powerful and ruthless vamp in the entire state.

“Fine.” I lifted my chin. “I felt…how can I
put this without feeding your already massive ego? I felt some
symptoms of…of sexual arousal.”

“Such as?”

“You’re really going to make me say it?” I
looked at him in disbelief but he simply nodded. “God…” I could
feel my cheeks burning. “All right, fine. I…my nipples got hard
and…and…”

“And you got wet. Here.” One large hand
brushed lightly over the sensitive V between my thighs and was gone
again before I could stop him.

I glared at him and then looked away,
embarrassed. “If you already knew, why did you make me say it?”

“Because it is time that you start
acknowledging what is between us—that there is a connection waiting
to happen. I am standing on one side of the chasm, holding out my
hand to you, yet you refuse to reach for me.”

“And I’m going to keep refusing,” I said
through tight lips. “All the cheap vamp tricks in the world won’t
change that.”

“Addison.” Corbin lifted my chin with one
finger, forcing me to look at him. “There is no trick to this. It
is simply the way your body reacts to mine. If you had no
attraction to me at all, letting me heal you would have felt much
the way allowing your friend to drink from you does.”

I knew he was referring to the weird,
bugs-crawling-all-over-my-skin feeling I got when Taylor bit me.
The way I had felt when he healed my wrist was pretty much the
exact opposite. With Taylor, I could hardly bear the queasy
wrongness of the situation. With Corbin, I could barely stand the
strange pervading pleasure that seemed to build and build every
moment we were connected. But that didn’t have to mean anything…
did it?

“Look, just because it felt good when you
healed me doesn’t mean we’re soul mates. Now can we get on with
this?”

Corbin sighed, looking more exasperated than
I’d ever seen him. “Why must you be so stubborn? I need every
minute of my four centuries of patience to deal with you
sometimes.”

I didn’t know what to say to that so I just
held out my other wrist. “Do you want to do this one too? If not, I
can go now.”

His eyes flashed. “Oh no, my darling. You
aren’t going anywhere. It is almost dusk and you are coming with me
to rescue your stupid little friend from Celeste. I want you to
know just how much trouble you are causing in case you’re tempted
to forget our bargain.”

“I wouldn’t back out of our deal,” I said,
stung by his implication.

“I didn’t say that you would. But I have seen
for myself how willfully blind you can be when the occasion suits
you. I think you need to meet the Area Inquisitor firsthand to have
an idea of what is at stake. No pun intended.”

“Very funny,” I muttered, irritated. Damn it,
I had the right to stand up for myself and deny this supposed
connection he was saying we had! So why did I feel like a sullen
little girl when I did just that?

“Let me heal your other wrist,” he said. “And
then we must hurry if we wish to catch Celeste before she goes out
for the night.” He eyed my sober black pants suit. “It is a great
pity we don’t have time to change you into something more
appropriate.”

“What do you mean? Look at how you’re
dressed,” I said, gesturing to his olive green t-shirt and jeans.
“You’re not exactly wearing a tie and tails.”

“I have no need to dress for the occasion. My
consort, however, must be resplendent at all times.” He shook his
head. “Never mind. We will see to getting you a new wardrobe
soon.”

I opened my mouth to protest but by then he
was already licking my other wrist and sending warm sparks of
desire through my entire body. God, how could I stand it? I tried
not to fidget but I couldn’t stop myself from pressing my legs
together, as though by keeping them tightly closed I could stop the
rush of sensation that made my pussy wet. I thought at one point
that I couldn’t get any wetter if his tongue was actually between
my legs instead of on my wrist. But that thought and the
accompanying mental image made me blush so hard I felt dizzy and I
quickly pushed it away.

Corbin must really have been in a hurry or
else my second wrist wasn’t as scarred as the first. For whatever
reason, it didn’t seem to take as long this time, which was a big
relief to me.

“There,” he said finally, lifting his mouth
from my arm. “All better?”

“Yes. Thank you,” I made myself say. I tried
to look him in the eye but I couldn’t quite manage it. My nipples
were aching to be touched…to be sucked. And my pussy was so wet and
ready my clit was throbbing like a second heartbeat.

“You are very welcome, Addison,” Corbin
murmured. “Now, is there any place else you are in need of
healing?”

I thought of the inner bend of my elbow where
Taylor had bitten me just the night before. It was still red and
raw and painful, almost as though I’d been bitten by an animal
instead of my friend. Not that it was her fault. I opened my mouth
to tell Corbin about the fresher wound and closed it again. I
couldn’t have his mouth on me anymore tonight. Not if I didn’t want
to embarrass myself by coming right in front of him.

“Addison?” he asked again, frowning and I
realized I’d been taking too long to answer his question.

“Uh, no. No, that’s it for scars,” I said,
which was technically the truth. I’d only recently had Taylor start
using the inside of my elbows because the much-abused veins in my
wrist were getting too hard to find, so there weren’t really any
scars there yet.

He looked at me for a moment more and then
nodded. “All right, then. Let’s go. I want to surprise Celeste when
she is just waking up.”

I followed him out of the office and into the
purple Tampa twilight with a feeling of dread in the pit of my
stomach. I ought to be glad—we were going to get Taylor out of her
life of bondage, after all. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I
had bitten off more than I could chew.

Celeste’s house was exactly as I remembered
it. Decorated in a dramatic black and white motif, it seemed like
something you’d see in a fashion magazine, not an actual place
you’d want to live.

I had been wondering how Corbin planned to
gain entry to the house. If he would knock politely or blow the
door open with some kind of as-yet-unexplained vampire mind power.
After the way he’d healed my wrist I wouldn’t put anything past
him. However, he surprised me by doing neither. He just turned the
knob on the ornate, blood red door and walked into Celeste’s living
room as though he lived there. He must have seen the surprise on my
face.

“What is your question? Ask, Addison.”

“Well…” I looked around nervously. I didn’t
exactly have the best memories of this house. “I guess I thought
you’d, uh, make more of a dramatic entrance. You know, to get
Celeste’s attention.”

Corbin shrugged. “What could be more dramatic
than bypassing all of her carefully constructed wards and entering
her home without an invitation?”

I looked back at the blood red door which
he’d left standing casually open. “You mean we shouldn’t have been
able to just walk in like that?”

He shook his head. “No. And please do not
ever attempt to enter a powerful vampire’s home unannounced without
me—the result could be nasty to say the least.”

“I didn’t know,” I said, feeling like I
should have.

Corbin shrugged again. “How could you? You
prefer to harass us at our places of business where such wards are
not possible, do you not?”

“Hey, buddy, that
harassment
is part
of my job.”

He smiled. “I am not complaining. I never
would have met you if you hadn’t come to
the Fang
to harass
me.”

I opened my mouth to shoot back some smart
reply but at that moment Celeste herself appeared and I forgot what
I had been going to say. She was dressed in a long red silk robe
that draped around her dramatically and made her pixie-cut blonde
hair look almost white. Her dark eyes were filled with rage.

“You.” To my great relief she was talking to
Corbin, not me. “What are you doing in my house at this time of
day?”

“It’s twilight outside, Celeste, no longer
daytime. Or are you unable to go out until full dark?” He shook his
head. “Such weakness. What a pity.”

“What are you doing here?” she repeated and
then she saw me. “And why ever did you bring that annoying little
non-glam with you?”

“I have come for a fledgling you created. I
understand you have been abusing her.”

“What? Why should you care what I do with my
creations? Unless…” Her eyes narrowed and she glared at me. “You
are speaking of Taylor, aren’t you? She is the one you have come
for.”

Corbin inclined his head gravely. “Indeed. So
if you could please produce her, I will be on my way.”

“It’s not so easy as that,” Celeste spat. “I
don’t know how this little human has bewitched you into taking her
side but Taylor is mine. I brought her over and I am not willing to
let her go.”