The Warrior Vampire (29 page)

Three vampire males spoke for an entire race at this point. And so far, the tetherings had been anything but normal. Ronan found no evidence of non-vampire matings in the Collective, but perhaps nature and evolution had compensated for the vampires' near extinction.

“Mikhail and Claire will love you.” Claire shared Naya's fiery spirit. Ronan had no doubt that the two would like each other. “Jenner too.” The male was like a brother to Ronan. He could have been tethered by a seaweed-covered sea nymph who had to live in a giant tank and Jenner would have approved. “They are my family. No one else matters.”

That was the truth. The rest of the world could go to hell. He didn't give a good goddamn what anyone else thought. Even if Mikhail treated Ronan's tether with disdain, he wouldn't care. Naya belonged to him. And he was hers. There was no being, no force on this earth, that could break their bond.

And that included Siobhan.

“You're my family, Naya. My tribe. My pod. My coven. Whatever you want to call it. I don't give my vows lightly. And I've given mine to you.”

“And you gave it to Siobhan.”

“I did. For Mikhail.”

“You got in a little over your head, I'd say.” There was no more pity in her sympathetic tone.

“That's an understatement. But I'd do it again,” he said.

“I know you don't think so, but you're a very selfless male, Ronan. You sacrificed your body for your king and your friend. You sacrificed your memory and possibly—” Naya broke off abruptly as though the words were too painful to say. “—your life to find your sister. You're brave. A male worthy of admiration and love.”

“You make me sound like a saint.” He snorted. “Believe me, love, I'm not. I needed the codex. Ensuring that Mikhail's mate bond with Claire was secure was worth the sacrifice, but it wasn't selfless. I did it to be sure that Mikhail would give me his bite. That he'd uphold a centuries-long promise and turn me.”

“Why was there any question? You said vampires recognize the tether immediately.”

“Claire was human.”

Naya quirked a brow. “Was?”

Ronan smiled. “Mikhail turned her.”

“Ronan.” Fear soured Naya's fresh rain scent. “I don't want to be turned.”

His laughter echoed in the quiet room. “And I don't want to turn you. Claire is an anomaly. She was rare as a human and is even more so as a vampire. Typically, only dhampirs can endure the transition. I have no intention of trying to make you anything other than what you already are.”

“A stubborn
bruja
with a laundry list of hang-ups and familial obligations with a penchant for violence?”

The air left his lungs in a rush. Gods, she was perfect.
“Exactly.”

She rose up on an elbow and put her mouth to his. The kiss was slow, sensual, deliberate. Her tongue flicked out at the seam of his lips and Ronan opened up to her, reveling in her dewy sweet taste. Her lips wandered to the corner of his mouth, and she murmured, “I'm lost to you, Ronan. Addicted. I don't have any control when it comes to you.” She kissed across his jaw and took his earlobe between her teeth. “Nothing else matters. No one else. The way you make me feel I can't get enough. And it scares me.”

*   *   *

Naya's palm wandered down Ronan's chest and the flat plane of his stomach. The muscles contracted and rippled under her fingertips as she ventured lower. Every word she'd said was the truth. She needed to go and talk to Paul and Joaquin before the situation with Ronan got even more out of control, but for the life of her she couldn't make herself leave his side. The magic generated by their coupling would wear off soon and his blood troth to Siobhan would remain intact. When would Naya get another chance to be with him like this?

If the magic overtook him, there wouldn't ever be a chance.

I'll have no choice but to kill him.

Naya's hands shook with fear. Roan would no doubt sense it and she focused instead on the work of art that was his body. If Luz had done what Naya had asked, Paul would be momentarily placated. Sunset was still hours away and Ronan was virtually a prisoner here until evening came. There was no telling what Paul would do once she showed up at the house. Hell, she might be the one to wake up handcuffed to a bed. He wouldn't want to hear what she was going to tell him: She was leaving. With Ronan. As soon as the magic creating the mapinguari was banished and they found Chelle. Naya was leaving the Bororo, her people, for a life with a vampire.

“Naya? What's wrong?”

Ronan wrapped his fingers around her wrist to stay her progress. She could hide nothing from him. Through their bond, her feelings were laid bare. She looked at him, her lips curving in what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I'm going to talk to Paul before the sun sets. But before I leave I need this.” She tugged against his hold and Ronan released her. “Let's both be selfish, just for a while longer.”

His brow furrowed and his eyes flashed brilliant silver. The most breathtaking male she'd ever laid eyes on. “When it comes to you, Naya, how can I ever be anything but selfish?”

This wasn't normal. It wasn't even close to sane. They'd known each other for barely a couple of weeks, and already Naya couldn't imagine another day without him. Her need surpassed obsession. Hell, it went way past addiction. There wasn't a word to explain what this was between them. He was the air she needed to breathe. Water. Food. Ronan was
everything
.

The rough stubble of his jaw brushed her lips as she kissed him. Naya worked her way down his throat, nipping at the flesh before kissing his collarbone, over the swell of his pec, and down his chest. She ventured lower, down the trail of dark hair and the juncture where his thigh met his hip. The silky flesh of his erection brushed her cheek and Naya turned to kiss there as well. A groan vibrated in Ronan's chest and Naya kissed her way up and around the long shaft to the crown.

“Fuck, Naya,” Ronan grated. “You're driving me crazy.”

She took him in her hand—her fingers barely met—and stroked. He was marble encased in silk as her hand glided over his thick shaft. Ronan's hips bucked and he pressed his head back onto the pillows. She watched the play of muscles, contracting and releasing across his body as she stroked him again. Fascinating. A living, breathing work of art. With her free hand Naya cradled his sac, massaging the tender flesh as she took the head of his cock into her mouth.

She swirled her tongue over the engorged flesh and Ronan wound his fist in her hair, giving shallow thrusts of his hips. His breaths came in ragged pants, and as she took him deeper those pants turned to desperate groans. “Gods, yes.” His thrusts became more forceful, though he didn't push any deeper into her mouth than Naya could take him. “That feels so good. Don't stop.”

She had no intention of stopping. The giddy haze of the unique magic created by their coupling coursed through her veins and burst on Naya's skin like myriad bubbles. He filled her mouth, the salty-sweet taste of his skin causing her own moan of pleasure to vibrate over his shaft.

Power consumed her. Not only the magic but also the power borne of giving someone pleasure. Ronan writhed beneath her, the veins stood out on his arm as he worked his fingers against her scalp. She'd meant what she'd said to him. She was starved for Ronan and she would never get enough.

She took him deeper into her mouth, allowing the blunt ends of her teeth to scrape gently over his shaft. Ronan shuddered and an incoherent moan conveyed his pleasure in a way that words never could. The sound drove Naya mad with want. She worked her mouth over his shaft in earnest, sucking with greedy attention. She held the base of his cock firmly in her grip, stroking him as she worked her mouth back up to the swollen head.

Without warning Ronan sat up and seized Naya in his embrace. He flipped her around so that she lay on her stomach and jerked her hips up in the air. Her fists wound in the sheets and she moaned at the shock of heat as he entered her. Naya cried out as Ronan molded his chest to her back, his powerful thrusts sending her to a state of ecstasy that caused her limbs to tremble and her mind to go blank.

“Harder.”

The word meant nothing, yet it came to her lips as though by instinct. Ronan wrapped one large arm around her waist to steady her, and his free hand cupped one swaying breast. He rolled the tight nipple between his thumb and finger, and Naya cried out, a desperate sob of pleasure that caused her sex to clench around his hard length. His mouth sealed over her throat and she came as his fangs broke the surface of her skin. Waves of sensation pulsed inside of her, the ebb and flow of which stole her breath and caused her limbs to go limp in his embrace.

Ronan disengaged, his hips jerking as he thrust wildly into her. Naya sensed that he was about to pull away and held on to him, gripping his thighs from behind. “No. Stay with me,” she said through pants of breath.

His body went rigid as he came, his low, drawn-out moan coaxing delicious chills to the surface of Naya's skin. Heat flooded her body as his cock pulsed inside of her. He collapsed over her, holding her tight against him as he rocked back to rest on his knees. Their bodies still joined, Naya sank back, enjoying the way he filled her so completely. His heated breath raced in her ear and Ronan trembled around her. “Our child would be a dhampir,” he whispered. The words bore such deep emotion that her heart ached. “A dhampir with the ability to hear the music of magic, perhaps. I wasn't sure if—”

“Ronan.” Maybe they should have talked about issues like pregnancy before they'd attacked each other like mindless animals. Though supernatural beings didn't contract human diseases, they shared one sentiment with the mundane, and it was obvious Ronan was worried. “I'm not fertile, if that's what you're worried about. One of the benefits of wielding magic. I'm in control of every aspect of my body.”

“I wasn't worried.” He kissed behind her ear. “I love babies. I plan to have several of them someday. But we didn't talk about it and I didn't want you to think that I would be careless with you.”

Several of them? Good gods.
“I appreciate your concern.” She laughed. “But there's no reason to be. And Ronan…” She might not have wanted to discuss the prospect of children with him while their relationship was so new, but it needed to be said. “I would love my child if it was a dhampir,
bruja,
or anything else.”

He continued to hold her, his chest brushing her back with every breath. “The complications of a tether are many, it seems.” The words were spoken with humor, but Naya sensed his worry.

“But nothing we can't manage.” She meant that, too. Their relationship was definitely unconventional, but in comparison to the obstacles that still stood in their way—the mapinguari for starters—a conversation about birth control was a walk in the park.

Ronan pulled out and a profound sense of loss overtook her as their bodies separated. He urged her to turn and Naya settled in his lap, wrapping her legs around his waist.

“You're right.” He kissed her once, slow. “There's nothing we can't manage.”

Gods, she hoped they were right.

 

CHAPTER

25

“Naya. Wait for sundown.”

Ronan raked his fingers through his hair as frustration churned in his gut. Two hours, that's all he needed from her, yet Naya refused to wait another second.

“I've already waited too long.” She slid the yellow blade of her dagger into the sheath at her back before she secured a wide leather cuff bracelet around her left wrist. “It's not fair to Luz to make her run interference for this long, either.”

“Seems fair to me.” She'd threatened to run her blade through his heart. Ronan didn't want to be anywhere near Naya's cousin right now.

Naya turned a caustic eye on him and continued to get ready, retrieving a pair of boots from the nearly empty closet. “Paul already has it out for her. I'm not going to give him any more ammo.”

The more Ronan learned about Paul, the more he sounded like the type of male that Ronan would like to stomp under his boot. “What did she do to get on his bad side?”

Naya grinned. “What didn't she do? Luz harbors a general disdain for authority. Doesn't really do her any favors with our tightly woven social structure, know what I mean?”

Ronan couldn't imagine any female feistier than Naya, though Luz had definitely served to rub him the wrong way. It appeared that the female was always looking for an excuse to commit violence on someone's person. Come to think of it, she'd be great to have on the payroll.

“Regardless, I think she can take care of herself, don't you?”

Naya's mouth formed a hard line.
So stubborn.
“That's not the point. Whether or not she can hold her own with Paul and Joaquin, she shouldn't
have
to. This is my responsibility, not hers.”

“I'm a responsibility?” Ronan knew he was acting like an ass, but her words stung.

She let out a huff of breath. “You know what I mean, Ronan.”

“What if you're attacked on your way?” He couldn't simply sit here, imprisoned until sundown, while she was out there, unprotected.

“Mapinguari are nocturnal.” Her matter-of-fact tone drove him crazy. She cocked her head to the side and flashed him a superior grin. “Sort of like vampires. Nothing's going to attack me as long as the sun is up.”

Infuriating!
“There are more than demonic forces that could do you harm, Naya.” Her own gods-damned people for starters!

“Paul's not going to hurt me.”

Again, so fucking confident. “You don't know that.”

“Ronan, Paul's power isn't absolute. With Bororo pods, every decision is made by the elders. We don't have a king. This isn't a monarchy.”