SweetHeat (9 page)

She knew she would be their mate.
Forever.

* * * * *

Oh sweet
Vampira
! What have you done?”
Mati
scolded Julie after she confessed she’d been shared by two vampires with a brother bond.

It wasn’t as if she had a choice about confessing. Her
Vampira
sisters’ noses went into overdrive the minute Julie walked into the gorgeous Maine mansion they used for their monthly meetings.

“Have you no loyalty? No shame!”
Mati
chastised. Her face had turned deathly white.
Whiter than her usual pale complexion.
Her eyes bulged with anger and her fangs were unsheathing in obvious distaste. The thirty females in the room, her sisters in
Vampira
, remained silent. Disappointment melted through Julie as none of them came to her defense.

Okay, so they all had every right to be shocked. She’d just dropped a bomb on them without
so
much as a warning.

“What you have done cannot be undone, Julie.”
Mati’s
voice quivered as she practically flopped into the nearest armchair, obviously swooning from her shock, her usual calm composure shattered.

Guilt, betrayal and compassion slithered through Julie. She had repaid
Mati
by stabbing the other female right through her heart, betraying her.

“Maybe you should leave,” a
Vampira
member
tsked
.

Another female, Meg, grabbed her by the elbow. “Yes, maybe it would be best if you came back when
Mati
has had time to accept what has happened.”

Mati
waved them away. “It is the Davenport brothers, isn’t it?”
Mati
said coolly, knowingly. She still looked awfully pale, yet her green eyes sparkled with a bright light Julie hadn’t seen in the female before.

“They captured you with their fantasy dreams. Seduced you into their bed, didn’t they?”

Mati’s
words made Julie feel dirty and cheap and she could see
Mati
and the
sisterhood were
judging her as weak. These females had sworn to support one another no matter what.
Through thick and thin.
Yet now they looked at her in disgust.

Julie tried to ignore them. Dropping to her knees she took
Mati’s
cold white hands into hers.

“How would you know what they did?”

“I knew what you would face if you went back to carry out the arranged marriage. You weren’t ready for them. You were too young and your passion for exploring was very strong. Yes, you might have been happy with them then. But I didn’t want you to wonder about what kind of life you would have had, had you never been given the chance to pursue your goals without the males in your life. Even though I knew you were not of a true
Vampira
nature, I decided to help you. I have always known you are not as cold and independent as some of the rest of us. I should have warned you of the intensity you might face, but I wished your
Vampira
experience to be peaceful and for you not to look over your shoulder as I had to do.”

Julie remembered
Mati’s
reluctance in helping her in the beginning, but then
Mati
had vetoed the other females’ decision. Julie had never asked why. She’d considered
herself
very lucky to get into
Vampira
and had relied on the support of the clique.

She watched
Mati
get a faraway look in her eyes as if the female were looking right through her, as if she’d slipped into another time in her life.

“The Davenport twins’ sires almost caught me in their seductive world. I must admit I was very happy with them in the short time I had with them. They pleasured me and loved me and I wanted so badly to stay with them. But their lives would be in danger if I stayed with them.

“Besides, I couldn’t take the chance of being thrust into another type of servitude.
A world of love.
The love the three of us shared was very powerful, but I could not be with them. I craved freedom more than our love, so I left them. I heard they’d mated with another female and twin sons were a result. Twins with a powerful blood brother bond that would make any female love to feed off them. There had been an arranged marriage for the young brothers, but the female, you, ran away.”

Powerful blood brother bond.

Oh boy, they certainly were potent, Julie mused as flashes of their times together over the past several nights rushed through her. Both vamps taking her over and over again until she was screaming, begging, whimpering for them to bring her the release she craved.

Mati’s
voice grew higher. Her fingernails clenched painfully into Julie’s palms, making her gasp.

“Have I taught you nothing? Have I told you to trust no one?
To hide during your heating cycles?”

Mati
was shrieking now and Julie totally understood why.
Mati
had trust issues.
Understandable with her past.
Julie should have respected
Mati’s
wishes. She should have remembered what
Mati
and the others had done for her. But
Zander
and Caleb were irresistible.
So powerful in drawing her to them.
It just felt so right to be with them. She found herself smiling at the pleasure those two naughty vamps brought to her.

“You must choose.
Those two vamps or
Vampira
.”

The shock of
Mati’s
words hit Julie in a gut-wrenching blow. Now it was her turn to feel betrayed. How could
Mati
turn so easily against her?

“Choose now, Juliette. Choose now,”
Mati’s
voice shuddered thickly. “If you decide to stay with
Vampira
you must begin anew.
A new face.
New identity.
Everything new.”

Tears burst into
Mati’s
eyes and flowed down her cheeks, making Julie swallow at the clog of emotion. She shook her head.

“No, I will not choose,
Mati
. I won’t.”

“You must! I cannot have confidence in you if you stay with them. I cannot!”

“You can trust me. You can,” Julie insisted. Tears stung her own eyes and she swiped them away.

“I did trust you. This is how you have repaid me. I’ve never allowed myself to put faith in anyone outside of
Vampira
. I cannot and I will not do it now. Not even for you. And the fact we are having this conversation means I have my answer, doesn’t it?”

Anger burst inside Julie. Letting go of
Mati’s
hands, Julie stood.

“If you want to keep me in your life you’re going to have to believe in me that I won’t hurt you. Keep me inside
Vampira
, and I will prove to you that you can trust me
and
my lovers.
That we can help protect you.
You denied that chance to their sires. Do not deny their sons a chance to help you,” she stated.

Mati
sat, silent and looking stunned. The other females remained quiet as well.

“Trust me,
Mati
,” she urged, feeling desperation rip through her as she realized all these strong females were in fact not strong. They were in hiding.
Hiding from their emotions.
Hiding from their past.
From each other.

Before she turned from
Mati
she swore she saw her nod ever so slightly. Instinctively she knew
Mati
would give her another chance. When she calmed down, she would realize it was in everyone’s best interest to allow Julie to remain a member, despite her having a relationship with her fated males. Besides, having Julie inside the elite coven would allow
Mati
to keep a close eye on Julie’s males. It would encourage Julie and her males to keep their loyalty to
Vampira
for Julie knew a lot about each member. Besides, she knew her males would help protect
Mati
against anyone still searching for her from her past.
Mati
was a smart female. She would do what was in her best interest as well as what was best for
Vampira
.

“And that goes for the rest of you,
Vampira
! Get your acts together. We need to trust each other with far more than attaining just power and wealth. We need to stick together and protect each other and to support each other emotionally in relationships with males. We need to trust our own feelings. If we feel it is right to pursue a male for us, then by all means we should be allowed to do it.
Vampira
is supposed to stand for freedom. That should mean everything.”

She swore she saw tears of shame in some of their eyes.
Disappointment and anger in others.

Oh to hell with them! Each female would have to figure out her own destiny. And Julie was going to embrace hers.

Dammit
! She would take her destiny!

* * * * *

After leaving
Mati’s
Victorian mansion, Julie caught the first red-eye flight back to Florida. She picked up her car at the airport and drove around until the full moon made her fangs throb with longing.

Damn them! They’d seduced their way into her life and into her heart.

Pulling her car in behind her beach house, she got out and inhaled the fresh ocean air, feeling the tension ebb from her shoulders. She was home and that’s all that mattered now. When she let herself into her house, she stiffened when she smelled their sexy scents. She found them in her kitchen.

Obviously they’d materialized into her home. They seemed quite comfortable with their surroundings for Caleb lounged on her kitchen bar stool and
Zander
sat with his long legs splayed out beneath her dining table. They’d helped themselves to the clone blood she kept in her refrigerator.

Both looked up from their mugs when she threw her purse onto the counter. She realized she’d let them off too easy in the way they’d seduced her. She would have to make them pay for a long time for deceiving her about their true identities. Placing her hands on her hips she forced herself to give them her iciest stare.

Neither of them flinched.

Bastards.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, forcing
a coolness
into her voice she didn’t feel.

“We missed you, baby,” they both said at the same time.

Oh shit. They sounded so cute when they spoke in unison. Her anger was already peeling away, replaced with a need to have them loving her again.

“Having the two of you in my life is something I hadn’t planned,” she began.

Zander
grinned. “Hadn’t planned? Speaking in the past tense, are you?”

“Definitely past tense,” Caleb agreed.

Frustration gnawed at her.

“You’re not listening to me.
Vampira
asked me to decide. It’s you or them. They’ve invested a lot of time and money into me and—”

“
Vampira
is safe with us. We would never put you or your friends in any kind of jeopardy. You have my word,” Caleb reassured her.

“And my word.
We’ll protect them with our lives. We’ll protect you with our lives,”
Zander
added.

She’d never seen them this serious before. Now, as she thought about it, somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she’d instinctively known from the moment they’d stepped into her dreams, they were trustworthy.

As soon as possible, she would set up a meeting with
Mati
and introduce her to
Zander
and Caleb. They would put
Mati
at ease and Julie’s two males would show
Mati
that some males could be trusted. Just thinking about helping her friend with her trust issues brought Julie such a rush of relief and excitement, she wanted to get on the phone and call her right away and set up a meeting.

But she stopped short when she noticed the pink tip of
Zander’s
tongue dart slowly from between his slightly parted lips.

Suddenly she wanted
Zander’s
tongue dipping into her pussy and circling her clit in leisurely strokes.

Shoot!
Mati
would still be ticked if she called her now. Maybe it would be best to wait for just a bit. Besides, Julie couldn’t talk about her idea to meet
Mati
when these two vamps kept looking at her with such ravenous hunger in their eyes.

If they didn’t get out of her beach home soon she knew what would happen tonight. She could already make out their huge bulges against their pants.
Could feel her own needs pulsing through her anger.

She watched Caleb unzip his pants and Julie’s breath backed up.

“I never said I would make love with you two tonight,” she protested as
Zander
started undressing as well. Even as she said it, she could hear the lust heavy in her voice. Could feel her fangs begin to unsheathe with excitement.

“You don’t have to say it, Julie.” Caleb got off the stool and sauntered over to her. “It’s written all over your face and your scent is all over the air. You want us, baby, and we want you. Arranged marriage or not, we do belong together. The Vampire Gods have blessed us with a gift so few are given.”

“And we’ve bonded with you,”
Zander
said from where he’d taken up position behind her. Their combined intoxicating scents weakened her knees. The familiar hum of sensual anticipation flooded her as both males continued to undress.

“We won’t take your freedom,”
Zander
continued. “We aren’t Traditionalists. We only want you, no others. You can live wherever you want. Do whatever you want. We just want to make you happy.
To be with you.
Let us show you how much we need you, baby. How much we’ve come to love you.”

Their scents grew stronger, teasing her nose and her heart picked up speed.