JARHARIS (8 page)

Selena gasped and turned angry eyes on Tanya. “How dare you! I’ll pull every hair on your fucking head out! You bitch!”

“Whoa! Hold on!”
Jarharis
caught Selena around the waist and lifted her off the floor. He held her body against his side. Selena thrashed about, curse words flying from her mouth. “You better leave, Tanya, before I turn this wild cat loose.”

Tanya walked to the door of the room and vanished through the solid wood without further argument.

 
Jarharis
released Selena and pushed her onto the bed. “I have little doubt that Tanya isn’t already at the window.” He smiled and began opening his shirt. “Let’s give her a show to remember.”

CHAPTER NINE

Jarharis
could sense Tanya’s presence at the bedroom window. He felt a measure of arousal and remorse
congeal
inside his big body for the she vampire. When he was first turned, he had difficulty adjusting so he knew what she was going through. Had it not been for the fact that three of his brothers had been turned at about the same time as he, he would have been hard pressed to accept his new way of life—or death, as he came to call his vampirism.

“Don’t count on me entertaining Tanya!” Selena stalked about the bedroom, her legs stiff and her jaw set. “So don’t even plan on taking your clothes off,
Jarharis
. I’m not fucking you with an audience.” She turned suddenly, facing him. “Suppose you tell me how you came to know Tanya.”

Jarharis
halted his fingers on the buttons of his shirt and leaned one shoulder against the wall. “I met her in a nightclub earlier this evening.”

“Is that the truth?”

“What else would it be?”

Selena combed her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know. She’s been feeding the club information about the vampires in the city, telling us where to look for them, what they have planned in advance. She wants us to find Aston and drive a stake through his heart.”

Jarharis
nodded his head. “She wanted me to help her destroy him as well.”

Selena turned imploring eyes on him. “You could help us—since you’re one of them.”

“One of them?
I’m not one of Aston’s vampires, Selena. I have allegiance with no one.” He swallowed the urge to add her name to those with whom he desired attachment, but lacked it.

“But you know about vampires in general.”

He chuckled.
If you only knew, my sweet Selena.

She sauntered toward him, a smile inching across her mouth. “You could tell us about vampires. What they are capable of. How they communicate with each other.
Where they hide during the day time.”

He watched her with amusement. “You can ask Tanya all those questions.”

Selena waved one hand at him. “Tanya is new. She’s not really very good at being a vampire yet.”

“Do the members of your little vampire club know about Tanya?”

“Yes. She’s one of us—or rather, she
was
one of us. She used to work at the same newspaper with most of the club members.”

“And they aren’t planning to drive a wooden stake through her heart?”

She shook her head. “Tanya wants to help us destroy all the other vampires. There isn’t any plan to eliminate her. She’s the only help we have. For Pete’s sake,
Jarharis
, we would never hunt her.”

He cocked one eyebrow in speculation.
“And what about me, Selena?
Does your club have plans to hunt me?”

Her jaw dropped open. “The club doesn’t even know about you!”

“I imagine after tonight they have an idea that there’s another vampire in their midst.”

“
Which is why you should help us.
Don’t you see?”

“I see that your little group is playing with fire. They’re out of their league when it comes to hunting the undead.”

“Help us,
Jarharis
.” She halted in front of him and reached out one hand to slip her fingers inside his open shirt. “Tell us about vampires.”

Her fingers were warm against his cool flesh. He looked down at her and wanted to be mortal so bad that he had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming the words aloud. He covered her hand with his, halting the play of her fingers across his chest. “Your friends would never accept me in their club.”

“You never know—“

“Yes. I do know, Selena. If you profess to hunt vampires then you hunt the creatures. You don’t befriend them under any circumstance.” He stopped short of telling her that sooner or later, Tanya Sills would become their victim.

She pushed both hands inside his shirt, circling his waist and snuggling against his chest. She leaned her head back, awaiting his kiss.

He looked down into her upturned face. Arousal showed in her eyes. He groaned and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pressing her breasts against the wall of his chest.

“What kind of powers do you have?” Her voice was soft, barely more than a whisper, her tone, imploring.

He lowered his head and took her mouth in a sultry kiss that warmed his insides and started his cock rising. She moaned and pressed tighter against his chest, squeezing her arms around his waist. She opened her mouth and sucked his tongue between her lips.

He knew she was attempting to seduce him, but he was becoming so aroused that he didn’t care. He had come to her for sex—the fact that she was the one who instigated the act made the coupling even more erotic. He slid his hands the length of her back and found the hem of her top. With one quick motion, he lifted it over her head and flung it across the room. Quickly he released the bra she wore, sliding it from her breasts and pushing it from between their bodies so it would drop to the floor.

Her flesh was warm and inviting. He savored the silken texture as he caressed her back with his palms. His arousal grew, mounting faster and hotter than he could contain. He slid one hand to the waistband of her jeans, intending to rip them off her body then paused. His eyes flickered open as he sensed that Tanya had suddenly taken leave from the bedroom window.

He pushed all thoughts from his mind and concentrated on the woman in his arms. His cock was straining against his fly and his balls were beginning to ache. His emotions were racing out of control. He needed to fuck.

He tore the tight jeans from Selena’s body and lifted her into his arms. She straddled his waist with her legs. He clasped her buttocks in either hand, pulling her body tighter against his. He leaned his back against the wall and released his prick from his jeans. It sprang forth engorged and ready. He pushed Selena’s tight butt down onto his cock, and
lunged
his hips upward, entering her to the hilt.

She groaned and began bucking her hips, riding his hard staff as she clung to his shoulders.

Jarharis
held her ass and worked his cock inside her hot passage, savoring every thrust. Selena dug her nails into his shoulders and received his mouth against hers with a greedy passion. Her breath quickened, her breasts pushed firmly against his chest.

He felt the first tingles of orgasm as they began in his belly and rapidly spiraled along his limbs until he was all but overcome with sensations of electrifying currents. A multitude of feelings coursed through his body, making him pull his mouth away from hers and pant to catch his breath. He hunched his hips, milking his cock, wanting to experience every last nuance of sensation the act wrought.

Selena tightened her grasp around his neck, bringing realization to his brain. She was coming. He pressed her buttocks tighter against his abdomen and rocked his cock inside her, rubbing her clitoris and bringing her to climax. She panted loudly in his ear and nipped at his lobe with her teeth. He smiled at her display of pleasure, holding her bare ass tightly in his big hands as she wiggled against him.

“You are such a…good…lover.”

Her voice was heavy with emotion. He dipped his head and brushed his mouth across hers, tasting the perspiration on her top lip. He opened his eyes and gazed down into her face. Her flesh was moist from the exertion. He smiled and hugged her close as he strode across the room to the bed and lowered her naked body to the flowered coverlet.

She settled on the bed, releasing her arms from
Jarharis’s
neck and unclasping her legs from around his waist. She sighed and stretched out on her back, smiling up at him as he poked his cock back inside his fly and zipped up. He stood looking down at her, a look of contemplation on his features.

I have to find Aston and destroy him—before he comes after her.
The thought jarred his insides. The mere idea that the vampire might eventually come seeking Selena made his senses enraged. A shiver of awareness passed over his flesh. He jerked his head toward the window in the room, suddenly sensing a presence—a threatening presence that emanated from beyond the glass pane.

Aston!
A shard of dread stabbed at his brain as he realized that the sensation had fled almost as quickly as it came upon him.

Without further delay, he passed swiftly to the window and vaporized, slipping beneath the pane and into the darkness, awareness gripping his insides like the grasp of an iron fist. All his vampire powers suddenly came to the fore, heightened by the threat of evil that had entered his midst.

He passed through the night, a blurry shadow that melded with the darkness and silently coursed through the heavens, his senses keen to any presence of the undead. Forces pulled at his body, drawing his attention to a tattered form on the street below. He drew closer until confirming that the figure was merely a victim of one of the vampires. He hurried on, investigating other signs of the undead, victims that lay in alleys, most of their life’s blood drained from their bodies, hovering near death, unnoticed.

Sorrow wrenched his heart as he pushed aside thoughts of the multitude he had come across in such a short time. The number was staggering. The unsuspecting, traveling the streets after dark and accosted by the greed of the vampires, were easy prey. He followed the blood-sucking trail winding through the city and leading to the outskirts where the population thinned. Houses were less numerous. Dense woods covered acres of land with no visible roads leading inside. Only then did the trail lessen, the bodies of the victims becoming less evident.

Jarharis
paused near a dark grove and contemplated all he had seen during the past hours. There were many vampires within the city and beyond. He shook his head in weariness. He hated to admit that he was no better than they were—an undead thing that must take the life force from a living being to remain in the state of limbo that vampirism brought. He hung his head as the curse rose up inside his body. Blood sustained his body in the same manner. His needs were exact.

He sought comfort in the fact that he had a bit more respect for his victims than what he had seen tonight from his fellow vampires. Though, come to trial, he could be viewed no differently by mortal man. Still, he had never taken a life and had no intention of changing that fact. Once he had awakened and found he had the curse, he had vowed never to drain a body and he had managed—so far—to keep that promise.

He pulled in deep breaths to try and steady his big body. His search had turned up little beyond victims either dead or near death from loss of blood. He scanned the sky overhead, deciding how much night there was remaining then turned his attentions to the stand of trees directly in front of him. Recalling that Tanya had divulged that Aston boasted of sleeping inside a crypt that was hidden from all made him wonder if his sanctuary was perhaps inside an unexplored patch of woods in the vicinity. He concentrated his powers of perception on the grove of trees.

He sighed. Alas, there was nothing within that he could discern. He turned to leave the area, ready to call upon the magic and transform into a winged creature when he suddenly heard a movement behind him. He whirled around, glimpsing a shadowy form rapidly approaching.

“So you have been searching for me,
Jarharis
.” Aston stood before him, his slim body poised as though to do battle.

Jarharis
eyed his enemy. “You leave a noxious trail, Aston.”

Aston threw back his head and laughed loudly.

Jarharis
sensed Aston’s rage though he tried to cover it with an attempt at humor. And suddenly he sensed the dark woods concealed the legion traveling with Aston.

“You have found me only because I allowed you to find me,
Jarharis
. You should not become so pompous in your ability to track me down.” He snarled. “What do you want?”

“A word of warning, Aston.”
He fought to contain his rage, holding his emotions as best he could. The urge to grasp the young vampire by the throat and tear his veins open gripped his insides though he doubted he could stand against the many loyal to Aston.

“Warning?
You dare to speak a
warning
to me?” He strode forward, his back stiff, and one hand stroking his chin in mock contemplation. “You lay with a mortal whore—”

Jarharis
struck without warning, lunging forward and grasping Aston by the neck. He propelled his body upward then slammed him against the ground all so quickly that there was only a gasp of surprise from the vampire’s mouth.

A great roar sounded from within the darkened woods. Aston raised one hand, holding his legion at bay while he bounded to his feet. He stroked his neck, displaying an amused grin. “You did not bring a wooden stake to drive into my heart,
Jarharis
? Your tactics are lacking, my friend.” He resumed his pompous posture before
Jarharis
. “And as for your whore—”