Stephen (19 page)

“
Please.” She’d barely gotten the word out when he pulled from her body and rolled her to her back. Clar could see him now, and she knew what the real meaning of vampire meant. He was right in front of her.

“
I won’t harm you.” She nodded, and he slid between her thighs with his body. The different angle gave her a little discomfort but not much. When he was settled over her body, she looked into his bloodied eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

“
Bite me. Please, I want to come around you.” His head lowered slowly, she was sure to give her time to change her mind. She’d seen his fangs; they were long and sharp, sharper than she’d ever seen them. When he licked her throat, his tongue felt rough and hot. As soon as his teeth dug into her, she came, screaming out his name even as he pounded her hard enough to hurt.

He came moments later. His hot cum seemed to not just fill her, but to cover her as well. Holding him to her body, she came twice more before he lifted his head and stared down at her. Tilting her neck again, she waited for him to finish her.

“
You’re sure?” She nodded. And when he tore at her throat, she knew a moment of panic, then nothing. Clar knew that for the first time in her life she was safe in another person’s care.

“
My lady.” Clar looked at Kasen and wondered if he’d been talking to her for long. She’d been so lost in what had happened last night she’d completely zoned out. “Would you care to try something to eat?”

“
You know.” He nodded and moved ahead of her. Clar followed because she was hungry, and curious to know how he’d figured it out when she wasn’t even sure it had worked. “I think I can eat. The thought of something meaty comes to mind. No veggies.”

He moved around the kitchen while she tried her best to figure out how to word it. He sat a plate of steak and ham and bacon in front of her and she looked at him. He sat down, something she’d never seen him do since she’d been staying there.

“
You’re curious, I can see.” She nodded as she picked up a slice of bacon and ate it. “You smell different. And there is an air about you that says that you are no longer human. I think it suits you very well.”

“
Then why am I eating this and wondering if you have any more?” He smiled and stood up, putting more sliced ham in the skillet. She heard it sizzle and crack and wondered if he could hurry the process up. “Kasen, I’m like really hungry.”

“
Come here.” Stephen was sudden standing between her and Kasen, and she went to him. As soon as he touched her, she took his throat. The feeling of his blood going down the back of her throat had her moaning. He simply held her to him until she lifted her head. She felt not quite full, but not nearly as hungry as she’d been before.

“
Better?”

“
Yes. I was…you thought I was going to bite him, didn’t you?” He nodded. “I wouldn’t have. I was going to ask him if that was normal to be this starved, but you showed up. Would he have known what to do?”

“
He would have called for me. But I felt your hunger first.” She sat down, suddenly dizzy. “Your body is adjusting. You’ll be fine in a couple of days. In the meantime you’ll have to drink more than you did before, and not leave the house unless I’m with you. I don’t want you to hurt anyone. Not that I think you will, but there will be times when you need more than you can eat.”

“
Will I? Hurt someone, I mean.” He shrugged and picked up a slice of bacon and handed it to her. She noticed that the skillet was off the burner and that Kasen was gone. “I scared him, didn’t I?”

“
I don’t think so. He left while you were busy.” She flushed. She’d wanted more than his blood. She’d wanted him and she was pretty sure he knew it. But she wanted answers first.

“
Kasen said he could smell I was no longer human. Will all humans be able to smell that? And will I have to carry around blood so I won’t eat everyone I see?” He laughed, and she wanted to smack him. But Kasen came back in the room then and started cooking. “I’m sorry, Kasen. I would never have hurt you.”

“
Not to worry, my lady. You are newly turned and you will have some things to work out. Had I known that you’d not fed before coming down, I would have called his lordship to you.” He put another plate of food in front of her. “I do believe I will have to order a deep freezer as well as hire a few more staff members to run the house, my lady. You will need someone to care for you as well as the house. You will be very busy I believe.”

“
Busy?” Kasen looked at Stephen, who was looking like he’d been told he was getting no dessert. “What is he talking about, and how pissed am I going to be with you?”

“
Very, I’m thinking. And I should have mentioned this last night but you…distracted me.” He kissed her nose after pulling her to his lap. “I’m the master in this area, and as of the morning you killed Jared, I am the highest
acting
member of the Vampire Council. Which means you are as well. We have over five hundred subjects.”

She looked at him to see if he was kidding and could see that he wasn’t. “What the hell am I supposed to do with five hundred subjects? Whatever that means. And I didn’t distract you as much as you did me, vamp boy.”

He swatted her ass when she stood up, and she moved away from him when she threw her water in his face. His laughter made her want to tease him more, make him smile at her as he was doing right now.

All movement came to a halt when someone knocked on the back door. Clar felt something in her rise up, and she heated with anger when she saw who was there. Snatching the door open and nearly off the hinges, she glared at Edward.

“
What the fuck are you doing here? I should kill you right now.” He dropped to his knees, and she looked at Stephen.

“
Please do it. Make it quick before she finds me.” He looked behind him as if someone might pop out at any minute. “Invite me in.”

She looked at Stephen, then back at Edward. There was no fucking way she was letting this fucking bastard into her life, much less this house. But before she could tell him no or something a good deal harsher, he laughed.

“
Fortunately for me, they don’t need an invitation.” The door snapped from her fingers as wolves, at least a dozen of them, forced their way in. She fell back as the first one hit her. Pain radiated from her head, but she sat up. Before she could move to defend herself, she felt something hit her…netting. Stephen cried out as he, too, was covered. Then a pain in her head took her breath away, and everything went black.

Chapter 11

Velvet looked at her prize. She had to refrain from dancing around him every time she looked at Stephen. The man was finally where she wanted him to be…tied to the chair and at her mercy. Well, she’d already decided that she’d show him none. Why should she when he’d never shown her the least amount when she’d needed it? But the girl…she wished now that she’d not promised Eddie he could have her.

It was his mate. Who would have thought that he’d find one after all this time, and her a vampire too? She hadn’t been one when she’d lived with Eddie, but now she was pretty powerful. Velvet wondered how long she’d been changed and had to fight the urge to go into the other cell and tear her head off her shoulders. But if she was honest with herself, she was curious as to what Eddie would do with her.

He’d been jabbering for two days about getting her. Eddie had this plan, but it was stupid and she’d told him so several times. Then he’d come up with the idea of him going to the house and being invited in. After that, Velvet could find them by zeroing in on him. She didn’t tell him she’d known where Stephen was for a few days now, because to do so would have meant admitting she was afraid to go to the house. It was being watched.

Velvet knew that Stephen was a powerful vampire and that he’d been a master of his own domain since he’d taken it from another vampire who had…well, she’d been sloppy and been caught fucking up. Velvet knew the other woman, had even come to admire her in some ways, but Valda had been too greedy and had tried to get things to run her way too soon. And then Stephen had also been in the way. When someone moved behind her, she turned.

“
She’s awake.” Velvet nodded at Eddie and waited for him to continue. “She won’t fucking speak to me. No matter what I do to her either.”

“
You’ve hit her?” He nodded, then shook his head. “You’re starting to piss me off, you know. Not a good thing when I hold all the keys to your release.”

That got his attention. “You said you’d release me if I got you Stephen. I held up my end of the bargain. You can’t pull out now.”

She was across the room before he could blink. If he had thought about it, he might have remembered he could move fast too, but she had him around the throat and a foot off the floor before he did anything. She let her beast go and stared at him.

“
You’ll do well to remember who is master here. I will say how long you’ll stay and if you get to leave me. For now…for now you serve a purpose. When that purpose is served, I will release you from it.” Eddie nodded, but she could see that his beast had risen too. She wanted to be impressed, but she was more pissed than anything. With a hard slam against the wall, she dropped him. “Now go to your little girl and either do what you want or give her to me. I’m sure I can find a usefulness about her that you’d never dream of.”

Eddie left without a word. Velvet was having a hard time keeping him around in general lately. He was…bored, she supposed. The constant whining about his state of affairs or the lack of them, the way nothing was going as he wanted, and his absolute terror of becoming a vampire. Velvet had changed him just so he could see it wasn’t all that bad. But that hadn’t gone well either. Now he had something else to add to his list of woes. She shook her head and looked at her own pain in the ass and saw that he was awake and staring at her.

“
You are mine now.” He didn’t move or even acknowledge her having him with any sound. “You think to pull the same shit on me as your darling mate is? Well, I got news for you. When I’m finished with you, you’re going to be very sorry you let them bury me alive.”

“
You will pay for this.” She felt her skin crawl at the calmness of the threat. He’d always had that way about him. He could deliver a threat or a promise in a way that had a person wanting to take it back the moment it was said. “And if you harm my mate, there will never be anywhere that I don’t find you and tear your throat out.”

“
Big words for a man tied down with silver chains. How do you propose to do anything in the state you’re in? Or do you expect some of the other animals you hang around with to come and save you?” She laughed at him, and she smiled at the way it echoed around the cavernous room. “They have no idea where you are and won’t find you until it’s too late. I plan to do to you what you had them do to me.”

“
Bury me in a silver casket.” She nodded, though he didn’t ask her a question. “Go ahead.”

“
You’re over your fear of the dark now?” Velvet knew it was a lie the moment he nodded. “Bullshit. You’re still a big fucking baby about it and we both know it. Your dear brother fucked you up, and I’m going to capitalize on that.”

“
You’ll still pay. I will get out, and when I do, you’re going to wish to Christ I’d kill you outright rather than what I want to do.” Image after image of him tearing her to pieces flashed through her mind, her arms and legs being torn from her body while she still lived. In another set of images, he had her tied to a tree and the animals of the night tore at her flesh, wolves feasting on her bones while she screamed at them to stop. When she was being staked in the sun, her skin blistering up and festering, she could feel it…the heat of the sun, the tearing of her skin as it filled with blisters and they popped. Finally she moved to him and slapped him. His head jerked back. He turned and looked at her, and she saw death. And she knew it was her that was going to die.

“
You think you’re so superior, don’t you?” He nodded at her, and she felt the urge to slap him again. When he lifted his chin for her, daring her to do as she wanted, Velvet walked to the door to leave. “I’m going to put you in my casket and bury you where no one will find you. And in a thousand years, I’ll dig you up and stake you in the heart.”

She started out the door, and he said her name softly. Velvet didn’t want to turn; she didn’t want to know what he was going to say, but she did and tried her best to avoid looking him in the eye. But she did and it was as if he’d captured her.

“
You’d better hope it’s a thousand years and that you’re dead when they find me.” She moved out of the room and stood in the hall with her back to the wall. She could hear his laughter as she tried to calm herself. He scared her more in this moment than when she’d been chained up and thrown into that hole. Shivering, she went to the other room to see how Eddie was faring.