Darkness Captured (7 page)

Knowing what he had in mind, she began to struggle, jerking hard against his hold, but to no avail. He quickly looped the silk around her wrists, binding her. Raised onto her knees, any tugging pulled on the silk, which constricted her wrists. “It hurts. Untie me.”

“You only hurt yourself. Cease your struggles.”

Faced toward the curtain now, she glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t like this.”

“Liar. Your skin is flushing.” He inhaled deeply. “Your scent ripens. You crave to be overwhelmed and mastered by a man.”

He knew! Mortification heightened the flush creeping across her cheeks. “You’ve got me all wrong.”

“I don’t think so. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy to draw your hand to that mirror. My love, it only took one look.”

Gabriella turned from his self-satisfied expression, fighting the very thing he’d discerned about her. Her entire body was flooding with anticipation, melting from the inside at his commanding tone.

She felt the mattress dip behind her. Felt the heat radiating from his skin as he came between her bent legs and his chest snuggled close to her back. “There is no shame in surrendering,” he murmured against her hair.

Which was true in a way. The shame that had painted her whole life with dark, violent colors was deeper than the sexual need he’d discovered … and details she’d never shared with anyone since the day she’d made those responsible pay for her pain.

Her submission was just part of her nature, and a facet she’d learned to control by swallowing down her pride to engage in brief liaisons and rid herself of the edgy anxiety that filled her from time to time. With human partners, she could play at submission. Fill the well of her needs, then slip back into the mantle of her rank and kind without anyone knowing—no one who mattered or could use her weakness against her, that is.

Only with Alex had she ever seriously considered surrendering all.

No human could control her or fulfill her. She’d played at it, sharing her secret liaisons with just one of her kind, but Guntram was like a loyal dog and had never used his knowledge to wrest away her power. And in his way, he had stood guard over her, protecting her from herself.

Surrendering to a demon now was unthinkable. But fighting his unnatural charisma was taking all her energy. Somehow, she had to find a way to prevent him from enslaving her to her own pleasure and need.

For just a moment, she considered transforming and biting through her ties. She’d love to see his eyes widen with fear when she turned on him. However, she still didn’t know the full extent of his power and strength. And for now, the only advantage she held was the truth about herself.

Hands glided down her back to her buttocks. His fingers curled beneath them and parted her. His cock’s blunt crown slid into her crevice, raking up and down, and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, because she knew he’d decided to inflame another part of her body.

His fingers bit into her tender flesh, his thumbs swept closer to the small entrance and pressed it open. Again, his cock nudged, centering there, and then pressed inward.

Her buttocks flexed as she tried to pull away, tried to squeeze them together to repel him. This act was the ultimate in submission—the most intimate, the most demeaning when accomplished through force.

“I don’t want this,” she hissed.

“Shall I prove that you’re lying?” he whispered next to her ear. His mouth dropped to her shoulder, teeth and lips scraping across skin, sparking nerve endings, which crackled and fired, sending darts of pleasure south. She was doomed by her own sensuality.

She shivered at his seductive promise and the underlying hint of menace, and then moaned with relief when his cock shifted, sliding forward to dip into her pussy—just the head, just to wet it, because again, he pressed against her back entrance, this time sinking the crown inside her.

Then his hands let go of her ass and came around her hips, one raking over her stomach to palm a breast and gently massage it, the other sliding between her legs. Fingers plunged into her pussy; his thumb toggled her engorged clit until her body shook, rocked by his skill and his relentless pursuit of her submission.

When his cock thrust upward, she dangled on the cords, her body going limp because she no longer controlled it. Her resistance had been all for show, a front that quickly crumpled as ripples of dark pleasure spiraled inside her.

The demon surrounding her, penetrating her, would make good on his promise to master her. Every endless caress and thrust bound her more tightly in this oppressive realm. Already, she craved his cock, his fingers, his lips …

He thrust up again, sliding deep inside her ass. Her ring eased around him, until he was slamming her body down his cock, fucking her relentlessly over and over while he fingered her, until her orgasm exploded, taking her breath, leaving her hanging on the cords and controlled by the hands holding her in a bruising grip that continued to work her up and down his cock.

As her rhythmic convulsions clasping his cock and fingers waned, his motions shortened, sharpened, jerking her body with his powerful thrusts, until his breathing rasped like sandpaper and his body stiffened. Then, giving a muffled groan, warmth filled her as he emptied his passion inside her.

Wrung out and listless, all resistance overcome at last, she wilted against him. He untied her hands and laid her on the bed, clasped close to his shuddering frame.

As she snuggled close to his chest, she silently prayed. Rescue had better come soon or her free will would be turned to mush and her mind consumed with hunger for this dark god. Alex might abandon her here, and she knew deep in her heart that the Master would never let her go.

Guntram was her only hope.

CHAPTER
5

S
leep eluded Guntram. He lay stretched on a narrow cot in a windowless, monk-like cell, waiting for the evening to arrive—waiting for his “hosts” to leave their beds and summon him.

The wait was interminable. He’d checked on his men, who slept in shifts, not trusting the promise their captors had made to do them no harm. Guntram worried about their safety should something go wrong in the dark realm. If he didn’t come back with Gabriella, Alex would have an even bigger problem on his hands. Guntram knew the smartest thing for the vampires to do would be to make the entire team “disappear” rather than release them to carry the tale back to their clan.

However, his wolves’ fate didn’t weigh heaviest on his conscience. They’d been handpicked by him, knew the risk they’d faced when they’d snuck into enemy territory. They’d face death the same way he would—fighting for every last breath but resigned to their fate. They were all warriors, and their destiny was to sacrifice for the good of the clan.

No, his heart wasn’t burdened by their fate. Instead, he worried about the woman again. Gabriella wasn’t a warrior, although she’d fought many battles. She was a woman at her core. She ought to have been covered long ago, filled with cubs, cosseted and pampered as any breedable wolf was entitled to be.

Her abduction was as much his fault as Alex’s. As a male, he had the duty to protect a female, whatever the means, including taking her and forcing her to his will. Since she’d never accepted a mate from within her own rank, she’d lost the right to refuse a lesser suit.

His protection had enabled her to continue to remain free. His backing had given her a false sense of security. She’d kept her status as alpha of her pack, kept her wealth and her autonomy. Long ago, he’d stopped wondering why she refused to follow her natural path. She’d grown into a goddess in his mind, and as long as she craved her freedom, and more, because he didn’t want to see her covered by another male, he’d silently given his support.

Even to the point of watching over her when her heat grew so intense that she had to alleviate the cramping desire by seeking trysts with lesser creatures. Hovering outside motel rooms and sex-club dungeons, knowing what she did with men she didn’t give a damn about, hadn’t lessened his desire for her.

He’d denied his own urges, shoving them deep inside. She’d damn near made a eunuch of him.

If Alex was to be believed, the last thing she wanted from him was everything he’d ever offered her. She didn’t want his protection—she wanted him to prove his physical strength was greater than hers, wanted him to prove he was even more determined to have her than she was to refuse his suit.

The formula for breaking through her icy reserve was simple. Demolish every argument, every show of resistance. Restrain her if need be, never let her get the upper hand—but do it “respectfully.”

Guntram had snorted when Alex added that caveat. How did one “respectfully” conquer a woman?

With his body tightening with arousal at the thought of Gabriella spread beneath him, her eyes glaring daggers while her body moistened and heated, Guntram sat up and swung his legs to the side of the cot. A one-fisted rub wasn’t going to cure what ailed him. He needed action, needed to break something, put a fist through something hard to dull the sharp edge of his longing.

Like an answer to a prayer, a knock sounded at the door.
At last.

The blonde Born, Natalie, stood outside his door with a dark, burly
Revenant
who kept close to her back. Her mate perhaps? By the glower on his face, he knew Guntram had thrown her to the ground.

“You ready?” she asked.

Since he’d slept in his clothes, he nodded. “Just let me get my gear,” he said, going to the corner where he’d propped the sword he’d selected and the knives he would strap to his belt and inside the top of his boot. A thin and supple steel garrote had already been threaded through a seam of the black cargo pants he’d been given. The handles appeared like toggle adornments at his belt and at the edge of one deep pocket.

He followed the couple down the corridor and through the open barracks, where his team stood in a single rank as he passed, hands fisted over their hearts. At the very end, he halted in front of Udo. “Stay vigilant,” he said softly.

Udo snorted. “Just bring her back. I’ll make sure the team doesn’t get too lazy, living here in the lap of luxury.”

Guntram gave him a tight smile and moved along, following Natalie and her mate out of the building and through the darkened gardens to the main house. Inside, he was brought to a salon just off the black-and-white-tiled foyer on the first floor. Alex, Nicolas, and Simon were already inside, along with a red-haired woman who sat quietly beside Alex. Her green eyes widened as she watched him enter—Alex’s phoenix, Guntram surmised. A small falcon rested on Simon’s raised arm, rubbing its head against his cheek.

Odd, the pets these bastards keep.

When Simon spotted him, he gave a last caress to the bird’s feathers and handed it to Alex, whose face grew taut. Perhaps the bird was more than a pet or the mage had a very strange fetish.

Guntram took the seat Natalie indicated on a small wine-colored sofa opposite Alex and Simon. When the others chose seats far away from him, he smiled. He’d made use of the showers, so he knew wolfscent and dirt weren’t what put them off. “Are we going to have tea before we leave?” he asked edgily.

Simon’s lips twitched, but Alex’s eyes narrowed as he transferred the bird to his knee and leaned forward. “Your journey isn’t going to be like serving in any war zone you’ve ever fought in. A little discussion might save your ass.”

Guntram shrugged. “Give me a map and a compass, have the old man stay behind me, and we shouldn’t run into anything I can’t handle.” The words should have been pure bluster, but Guntram felt them all the way to his soul. Nothing was going to get in the way of finding Gabriella.

Simon picked up a paper bag sitting on the coffee table between them and dumped out the contents. Two crystals, both dark brown and cloudy, clattered onto the table. They were wrapped in silver wire and hung from black cords.

Guntram bit back the quip that leapt to mind about dressing for the occasion, but Simon’s brooding expression said the crystals were more than an adornment. “One for each of us?” he asked, keeping derision from his voice.

“Put it on and tuck it under your shirt,” Simon said. “Don’t ever take it off when we’re inside the dark realm.”

Guntram lifted it and curled his fingers around the crystal in his palm. It warmed unnaturally fast inside his hand. He opened his fingers and peered at the stone and discovered that it was actually clear with a brown-black cloud floating beneath its polished surface. “It’s enchanted.”

“The stones will hold the horrors at bay.”

“It’s a shield then?”

“Not the sort you’re thinking. We may still meet corporeal foes we’ll have to battle, but you’ll be protected from true hell.”

Guntram’s hand gripped the stone. Annoyed with Simon’s doublespeak but impatient to begin the search, he held his tongue. “Is there anything else, or can we leave?”

Simon’s chest lifted around a deep breath and his features tightened. “I need you to trust me,” he said, his deepening tone no doubt meant to convey earnestness.

Guntram gave him a wary glance but let him finish.

“I know I haven’t given you a single reason to do so, and you have plenty of reasons of your own not to, but I give you my word that my first priority is to bring Gabriella back. She’s important to all of us. We don’t need a war between the nations. Not when an accord will be vital to all our interests in the future.”

Guntram smiled, showing his teeth. “I don’t care why you do this. And I don’t have to trust you. I’ll be watching. So long as you get me inside, I’ll follow your lead.”

Simon nodded slowly, his expression easing only slightly. Then he gave Alex a level stare. “The promise I extracted from you … don’t waiver.”

Alex’s chest rose. “Don’t make it necessary.”

The two men stood and embraced. Simon gave one more glance at the small falcon and then lifted his chin to point toward the door. “I have everything ready in the council chamber. Follow me.”