Skye's Trail (21 page)

Kyle and Nahir eased out of the shadows a short while later. “They’re gone,” Kyle said. “I sense no one in the house.”

“I’m going in there,” Skye said.

“Of course,” Gian said, making no effort to restrain her. The men went with her, pausing and watching as Skye broke a window and started to climb into the house. She hesitated only briefly, aware that none of them was moving forward. A memory of Gian insisting that she invite him into her apartment flashed through her mind. “You can come through here or hold on a minute and I’ll unlock the front door and you can come in that way.” Gian stepped forward, boosting her through the window and coming after her, the other men followed.

The stench of evil-fouled blood was everywhere. The front rooms a mess.

The men moved toward the back of the house but Skye saw her clothes dumped carelessly next to the sofa and went to them, taking the time to pull on her jeans and boots, to note that her cell phone and wallet were still there, before stuffing her bra in a pocket and tying her shirt around her waist.

Only her panties were missing.

Disgust rolled through her, revulsion at the thought that someone had kept her panties as a trophy or souvenir. She shook it off and went to find the men.

They stood around the altar, staring at the naked body that lay facedown, spread-eagled on the symbol-marked surface. Blood and intestines oozing out from underneath him in a sloppy mess. A smaller measure of blood escaped from the slits on his wrists.

He smelled of semen, of blood and bowels, of death.

Only his ankles were tethered at the corners of the altar, but Skye didn’t think they’d been bound in order to restrain him. He’d probably been past caring by then, the chains used merely to keep him from sliding off the altar as he’d been butt-fucked during the ceremony in which his blood was drained.

Gian pulled her to him and Skye didn’t need to hear his words to know that he was envisioning her lying on the altar instead of the man she’d gutted during her escape. Kyle turned away and moved to the coffins.

Their lids were thrown back. Skye was sure they’d be empty, but Kyle’s hiss had the blood freezing in her veins even as her heart sped up. Gian didn’t release her as he moved to where Kyle, and now Nahir, stood.

Tension radiated from Kyle and his gaze never left Skye’s face. She braced herself against showing any reaction.

The female vampire she’d destroyed lay pale and still in the coffin, in perfect repose other than the gaping hole where her heart had once beat. “Do you know her?” Skye asked, trying not to gather herself in preparation for an attack.

Gian’s grip tightened on her and a small hiss escaped. Kyle appeared to back down. “She was a friend of Amy’s. I don’t know her name.”

Skye sensed that the danger had passed. She said, “I want to search the rest of the house.”

Gian released her. “Hurry.”

Skye looked around the room. “My prints are here. My DNA.”

Something that looked like humor flashed in Gian’s eyes. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Hurry with your search. We will make the necessary preparations here.”

Skye knew instinctively what he meant. The house would have to be destroyed, burned until there was no taint of evil, no clue as to what had happened. The forensic evidence would be lost, any clues that might be unearthed would be destroyed. She paused only momentarily then accepted the cost.

This was not a matter for the police. She’d been lucky to survive the fledgling vampire’s attack. She doubted someone not born into this other world, prepared for this task, would be as lucky.

She left the ceremonial room and returned to the front of the house. The witch’s room was empty of anything other than clothes. The second bedroom had three mattresses on the floor. Male clothing was jumbled on and around them. A black robe lay folded on the end of one bed, its neat positioning a testament to the fact that it hadn’t been used that night.

Skye went to that bed and found fliers advertising discount nights from a couple of strip clubs—Bangers, and the one she hadn’t visited yet, Toppers. An empty wallet lay in a corner, stripped of identification and money, but the scent of the man who’d owned it lingered underneath—the man Gian had killed.

She picked up the folded robe. It smelled new, unused.

Her memories moved to the day she’d saved Haley. This smell—his smell—hadn’t intermixed with Brittany Armstrong’s, hadn’t reeked of tainted blood then or on the night he’d almost killed her.

An initiate, not yet a servant, though perhaps all the men hoped to become vampire too. Skye searched her mind for distinctions but found only the knowledge that the Angelini did not use their blood magic to create servants as witches and vampires did.

The second man had cleaned out any thing that might identify him, but mixed in among the dirty clothes were a couple of blackjack chips with a Toppers logo. The final bed probably belonged to the dead man on the altar. She hit the jackpot with a pair of cutoffs. In the back pocket was a wallet with a driver’s license. She slipped the license in her pocket and kept searching, moving to other rooms until Gian found her and said, “Ready?”

“Yeah. Ready.”

They returned to the SUV together, but Kyle and Nahir didn’t join them. Gian got behind the wheel and started driving. As Fangs came into sight, Skye thought about the Harley for the first time since the night’s activities had begun. “I need to go to the airport. I need to know if they’ve got my bike.”

Gian took her wrist in one hand and laughed softly. “Not tonight.”

Shivers ran along Skye’s body, but she wasn’t sure whether they were from anticipation or wariness. The smooth flow of his voice promised pleasure but the death of the vampire fledgling might demand retribution. She tested his grip on her wrist and knew that without true violence, she wouldn’t be able to break it.

Gian parked the SUV in a reserved parking space behind the nightclub and pulled Skye from the car. A man—a vampire—who she’d never seen before appeared at the back entrance as though silently summoned. His long, deep red hair made her think of a waterfall of blood.

“You will find this of interest, Brann,” Gian said as he offered the athame that Skye had taken in her escape.

The vampire nodded. His eyes flicked to Skye and back as he took the knife.

“My companion,” Gian said. “Kyle and Nahir are doing what’s necessary. They will seek you out when they return.”

“Good.” The other vampire’s gaze met and held Gian’s before he turned and disappeared back into the club.

“Not a man of many words,” Skye said as she allowed Gian to lead her to the bedroom where she’d awakened after the first attack on her.

“No, but dangerous all the same,” Gian said, positioning her against the wall and leaning down to nuzzle her neck as he added, “Just like you are.”

Desire pooled low in Skye’s body when his lips pressed against the bite mark on her neck, but he didn’t do more than flutter a kiss over it before moving up her neck, along her chin, before finally resting his lips on hers as he captured her in his dark gaze.

Instinctively she tried to shift out of his grasp, but he maneuvered her so that he held both of her wrists overhead with one of his hands. There was a deep stillness about him, like a predator about to strike his prey.

His free hand moved to cover Skye’s heart before he whispered against her lips, “Did you kill the fledgling?”

She couldn’t stop the accelerated beat from pounding against his palm in a quick rush of uncertainty. The flame deep in his eyes grew. She could feel the compulsion to answer, but fought it off.

Gian smiled against her lips before sliding his tongue along the seam and tempting her into a kiss.

Despite the danger—or perhaps because of it—Skye’s body tightened with need as her tongue dueled with his. When he pulled away, his mouth went unerringly to the bite on her neck. This time he took it between his teeth and bit down. Skye arched against him in silent pleading, her body fully aroused.

Once again he released her, only to trail teasing licks and kisses upward until his gaze met hers. “Did you kill the fledgling?” There was more compulsion this time.

Skye’s heart raced in response. Her survival instincts kicked in. “There was no choice.”

The flame in the deep centers of Gian’s eyes flared—hot, hungry, possessive—commanding that she immerse herself in it. His free hand moved from her heart and opened first her shirt then his. Pressing his naked chest to hers, he whispered, “Admit that you’re my companion, accept the medallion.”

Searing heat radiated from the ancient pendant pressed between their two bodies. Fire poured through Skye’s veins and she rode the crest of a wave that was equal parts pain and pleasure until she found the strength and escaped from Gian’s hypnotic gaze.

She was panting, disoriented, but still able to warn, “You won’t control me.”

Gian smiled slightly, showing just a hint of his fangs. “You have bound me to you, now I will bind you to me.”

His lips covered hers, and as his tongue mated with her tongue, Gian unzipped her pants, toying first with her engorged clit, before covering it with his palm and pressing two fingers deep into her slick, swollen cunt.

She tried to fight the desire, the enthrallment, but her body had already chosen him. As he began pumping his fingers in and out of her, she could do nothing but whimper and arch closer, begging him with her body to form a deeper bond.

Gian pulled her body against his and carried her to the bed. When she felt the cool linens underneath her, Skye’s survival instincts rose to the surface for a split second, but he was too strong for her, too fast. He held her down as he stripped them both of their clothing, and then he was on top of her.

“Admit that you’re my companion, accept the medallion,” he demanded again as his tongue swirled around her nipple before drawing it into his mouth.

Her womb rippled with each hard suck to her nipple. She bucked against him, opening herself and rubbing her wet folds against Gian’s penis. But he didn’t enter her.

Gian switched to the other nipple, making her whimper and cry out, making her open herself wider and plead silently for him to complete her. The bite he’d left over her heart ached for his touch. The blood roared through her veins like a fire through dry forest.

Skye was shaking with need when he lifted his head and moved up her body, taking her hands and pinning them above her head as he thrust deep into her channel. She cried out, fighting the restraint even as she pumped her body upward to welcome him, to take him deeper. Of their own accord, her lips moved along his neck, traced the pulse until she found the place where it beat hard and fast near the surface of his skin.

At the feel of her lips on his throat, Gian slammed his cock into her, seeking the place reserved only for males lucky enough to take an Angelini mate. She whimpered underneath him, yielding, opening herself so that the tip of his penis could reach her hidden recess.

He held back, driving the hunger and the need to bond higher and higher until all she could think about was his possession. When he felt the sting of her teeth against his flesh, he gave her what she wanted.

Every cell in his body screamed in satisfaction as she locked him inside her, milking his semen with each shuddering orgasm as she took his blood with each deep swallow.

Feelings such as Skye had never known washed over her, through her. She opened herself to them, wanted more of them, knew that she would forever crave them, even as the dark wave of ecstasy consumed her.

She was shuddering, panting, crying when she became aware again. When she would have tried to separate their bodies, Gian prevented it.