DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

The faint sound of crunching snow renewed his senses, and he forced his eyes open. The crunching became louder, and Ryan didn’t know whether he should be elated at the thought of being rescued or terrified.

Why would someone be out here
?
Oh my god, maybe it’s her, she’s okay! Did she climb down in the dark? Maybe I didn’t fall that far down the mountain.

His mind was a frenzy, questions darting from every direction. He was about to call out to her when a hand came through his driver’s side window and rested on his chest. The hand probed his body, searching and evaluating. There was power behind the touch.

Somehow, Ryan knew it was not her.

“You only have a few moments left,” a deep male voice spoke as he hovered over the window. “You must decide quickly.”

“Help me,” whispered Ryan. He tried to turn to see his rescuer, but all he saw was a dark shadow from the corner of his eye.

“Listen to me carefully. You’re lucky that I am here first. If the others would’ve found you…you may not have had a choice.” The shadow leaned in closer to Ryan. “Tell me what you wish for yourself. I can leave you here untouched, allowing your injuries to consume you, or I can quickly rid you of your pain, allowing you immediate peace and serenity in death.”

The shadow paused, leaning even closer to whisper in Ryan’s ear. “Or I can repair your body. But with this choice, you will forever be a black ink darkness, walking this earth as something
unnatural
.” His voice was calm, unhurried, and melodic.

Ryan noted a rhythmic accent in his speech.

“Save me. Save my life, please!” pleaded Ryan as tears started to mix in with the blood.

A low growl came from the shadow’s chest. “You are not listening carefully. I am not giving you the option of life, but rather…”

“I need her. I have nothing without her!” Ryan blurted out. He feared she would be dead, but he clung to hope that she’d somehow survived. Amidst the pain, his mind raced.

What am I going to do? She needs to sign the deed papers,
he thought to himself in a panic.

In an instant, Ryan felt the shadow pull back. And while he couldn’t see them, he could feel evaluating eyes transfix on him.

The shadow broke the stillness of the moment. Through Ryan’s cloudy vision he watched the shadow lift his head and scan the grove of Aspen trees and large boulders that surrounded them.

“What? What is it? Is someone else out there?” Ryan asked.

The shadow looked back down at Ryan and reached for his clutched fist.

Cold fingers explored Ryan’s bare ring finger.

“What are you doing?” Ryan screeched in panic.

The shadow moved in close to Ryan’s ear. For the first time, the words spoken took on a humanlike character.

“You are choosing, not based on the pain you are in but rather the love you have in your heart for another? I can’t take that away from you. If your human bond is strong, you will remember her and carry it with you through the turning. You will reunite again. I will do this for you.”

“Thank you,” whispered Ryan in response without fully understanding what he had agreed to.

In an instant, Ryan passed out from the pain.

* * * *

The jasper dropped from the injured man’s clutched fist into the hands of Steffan.

Steffan tugged frantically on the hood of his black coat, pulling it down and exposing his face. His silver eyes focused on his clutched fist.

Cautiously, he opened it and revealed the jasper resting in the palm of his hand. Suddenly, electric currents shot through his body and he once again clutched the stone in his hand.

A sweet scent of a woman penetrated his senses.

Fragmented, undulating visions projected in his mind—silky, black hair, sun-kissed skin, a strand of pearls, a sweeping instrument bow and a partial view of a symbol, one that he could not readily identify. He’d never felt anything like that before. Someone of great importance to him, someone whom he had yet to meet, had a connection to that stone.

“
Could it be?”

Steffan contemplated as his heart pounded both in excitement and trepidation. Whoever it was and whatever it meant, it would have to wait to be sorted out.

He had a promise to fulfill to the man who lay dying in front of him.

Carefully, Steffan placed the stone in his coat jacket. He pushed up the sleeve of his jacket and bit out a chunk of flesh from his wrist. The gaping wound pumped out thick, black blood. He situated the wound over the man and poured the blood into his mouth.

The man choked and gagged.

“Drink!” Steffan screamed. He squeezed his face and leaned in. “Drink, please,” he said slowly this time.

The man’s eyes were wide with fear as he swallowed as instructed.

Instantly, his body shook uncontrollably. He broke free from the seat belt and fell against the passenger doorframe of the SUV. Steffan lifted the vehicle upright, dragging the man out through the shattered window, and laid him down in the snow. The man’s eyes flew open and rolled back over and over again into his head. Steffan crouched over him as he watched the violent eye rolls continue.

Then suddenly, they stopped.

The man’s eyes froze in an open gaze. His pupils clouded over.

Like clockwork, sparks of color danced along the outer edge of his eyes, signaling the beginning of the eye inversion.

Steffan leaned in closer and waited for it.

From the outer edges inward, the whites of his eyes slowly turned black.

“Black!” yelled Steffan. He slammed his fists into the ground and shook his head in disappointment. “You deceived me!”

Completing their transformation, the man’s eyes began to violently roll again and Steffan backed off.

The veins throughout the man’s face were engorged and pulsing, turning black under his skin. He tried to scream out in pain, but nothing came out.

With haste, Steffan leaned in and ripped the wool coat and shirt that covered the man’s chest and arms to shreds. Thin, black veins crept from his heart, through his shoulder, and down his arm to settle at his wrist. The delicate webbing of veins covered his wound and seemed to
sew
the wrist back in place.

The man slowly lifted his wrist. He moved it back and forth, a look of disbelief plastered on his face. He turned his attention to Steffan. And while he didn’t speak one word, his eyes seemed to beg for answers.

And as fast as they appeared, the webs faded, completely absorbing into the man’s skin.

Suddenly, the man jerked and looked down at his leg.

Steffan ripped the man’s trousers from his body, exposing the stringy black webs that congregated on the exposed bone in his thigh, mending the injury.

Steffan sighed.

The repair mechanism and eye inversion were complete. There was no mistaking it. The man was now a vampire.

And he was Steffan’s newborn.

Slowly rising over his newborn’s body, Steffan brushed his tongue over his self-inflicted wound, instantly healing his arm. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. He raised a hand to his chest and rubbed against the jasper through his long black coat.

Even through the material, shards of energy penetrated his body.

Steffan stood still in the moonlight, basking in the sensation. Snowflakes shimmered all around him, collecting in his hair and settling onto the blackness that cloaked him from head to toe

Steffan brought his head forward and caught his newborn’s evaluating stare. He slowly raised one eyebrow. “Black or not, it cannot be undone. You have already begun. You are my responsibility. You are my newborn.”

Steffan reached for his vampire, lifting him from the ground.

In one sweeping motion, Steffan took to the sky with his newborn safely tucked in his arms.

Chapter Four

Anya Evans’s long, slender legs wrapped around the instrument as her fingers graced the strings of the cello. Bach’s cello “Suite No. 1 in G major” filled the room with a heavenly sweetness. As the last rays of the sunset spilled through the windows, the golden hues glistened against her olive skin and bounced off the movements of her bow. Her last student of the day had cancelled the early evening lesson, and since she still hadn’t heard from Ryan, she spent the time enjoying the way the acoustics seemed to carry each note and suspend in the room with an undefined enchantment. She closed her eyes and let the music flow through her body.

The beauty of the melody transported her and rejuvenated her spirit.

Hours passed, and Anya packed away her cello safely in its case. She walked the width of the room, listening to the resonating tones each footstep made against the wooden floor.

She settled at the window and gazed at the scenery outside.

Steam emanated from the long stacks of the cooling towers of the nearby power plant. The white clouds hovered over the building and slowly separated, taking on various forms and shapes. Against the darkened sky, they looked like large apparitions, morphing eerily as their shades of white were highlighted by the moonlight. She reached for the red jasper that hung from a delicate, black velvet cord around her neck and stroked the polished stone with her thumb and forefinger. She fell deeper in her gaze, leaning her forehead against the cool pane of glass. A light snow flurry was now discernable. The purity of the snow, its delicate, lacy quality, suddenly changed the mood. The scene outside seemed to evoke romance, altering the ghostlike clouds to take on a much different form. The clouds now looked like two lovers in an embrace.

She was captivated with the sight.

Anya lifted the stone, pressing it against her lips, and smiled as she reminisced about the first intimate exchange with her husband.

“
Ryan!” Anya whimpered in the heat of passion.

Ryan reached up, tracing his thumb against her lips.

Her breath was hot and erratic. Her long hair swayed back and forth with her rhythmic movement.

She rode him, naughty and wild.

“Jesus…you’re so beautiful,” Ryan moaned, his breathing labored and lustful.

Anya knew he had waited for this very moment. After all, he courted her months on end, doing and saying all the right things. In the end, it was something as simple as a conversation about his family tragedy some fourteen years ago that finally won her over.

As he wanted, she was on full display for him.

With each move, Anya lured Ryan into a hypnotic spell.

She was creative, vibrating and swirling with undulating moves. She enraptured Ryan as she performed a slow and erotic grind down his shaft. She lifted her arms, running her hands sensually through her hair and then traced back down slowly, cupping her breast in an offering gesture to Ryan.

“Kiss,” Anya begged.

Ryan lifted and brought his mouth to her breast. He wasted no time in any delicacy. He took her in, sucking hard.

Ryan lay back down, laced his hands between the intricate carvings in the headboard, and focused on Anya.