Waiting for Darkness (Blood Martyr) (2 page)

"I like that. I like that very much. I like it when you make that sound."

One minute, the hunter.

The next, the prey.

My head whirled and bile rose in the back of my throat. I thought I was going to lose everything in my stomach.

"I've been watching you for a very long time, Tanith."

I closed my eyes, tried to distance myself from the man who made me want things I didn't want. Was this what it felt like, to be sexually violated? I was one of the lucky few women who had never been touched in such a manner, even five hundred years ago, but I began to get the feeling I would not be able to count myself so lucky. "If you let me go, I swear to God, I won't rip your head off. In fact, I'll be extra nice and let you walk out of here. With your clothes on, even."

But the threat sounded empty, weak, and he laughed.

"Always the feisty one, aren't you? If I hadn't seen you bring men here night after night, I would've bet my life savings you were a complete dyke. But you like men, don't you? Pretty boys, every single one of them."

I didn't have an answer.

"I knew you'd be there," he continued. "I knew you'd pick me. You thought you were choosing me for one night...too bad I'll have to spoil your plans."

Cloth ripped, and there was a brief pain as the leather shredded like paper under his hands. Before I could come to my senses, his hands wrapped around my wrists, holding me completely under h
is power.

Under his will.

"What do you want?" It was amazing how calm I sounded.

The corners of his eyes crinkled. "Now, do I have to dignify that with an answer?"

His mouth, hot and insistent, settled on my neck, sucking, licking, kissing, and I convulsed, the pure pleasure almost making me black out. He pulled away and his kitty-cat eyes bored into me, as if he looked for the way into my soul.

"What do I want?" His lips flickered into a mere semblance of a smile. "I think it's pretty obvious."

His gaze traveled all the way down my bare chest, past the wide leather belt that kept my pants in place. And despite the fact we'd spent the entire night completely naked, a blush rose up my cheeks.

Back then, he was mild, meek and I was in control.

But now, I had control over nothing, and it felt as like I was with someone else, not the man from twelve hours ago.

I swallowed a painfully dry throat. "We already did that."

He tsked, shaking his head. "Correction.
You
did it. And you know...it was kind of fun. But I think I want
my
turn now."

My body and my mind were at war.

My body wanted him.

A need deeper than anything I'd ever experienced thrummed through my body and made my blood run like quicksilver. We fucked before; no, according to him, I fucked him. I
rode him until he cried out and spilled himself into me and it hadn't been satisfying, not completely.

I saw now it was just an act. He fooled me, tricked me into thinking him completely malleable to my will. Now, my body was tensed up, like a drawn up pia
no wire, and I wanted to be taken.

I wanted to be used.

Hard.

The candlelight danced over his skin, turning it shades of darkness that seemed to shift like patches of fur.

I knew, then.

I knew what he was.

And he knew that I knew.

He let his eyes
…change.

There were only three things that could change their appearance at will and he was neither a vampire lord or a witch.

Shit!

I couldn
’t stop myself. My body jerked in shock and his smile deepened.

“
That’s right,” he all but purred. “Why don’t you say it?”

I couldn
’t look away from the eyes. Couldn’t look away from the amber eyes that should have belonged to a wolf, but somehow looked right.

On him.

“You’re a Shifter.”

And he wasn
’t just any Shifter.

He was a King.

CHAPTER TWO

“Is love just another façade, another mask that deceit so willingly flaunts? I fear I shall never know…”

-Unknown French Nobleman, 1796

“
You’re a Shifter King.” I hated how breathy I sounded, as though I was actually enjoying this whole affair.

H
e blinked and I watched as his eyes changed back into the deep azure that lured me into his arms in the first place.

“
Not just any Shifter King, my dear Tanith.” The softness of his breath was like fingernails dragged over my bare skin. “I’m the
only
King. I know there's been some…arguments, but really, I am a King. The only King if I have anything to say about it."

I didn
’t know what to say.

Was I even supposed to respond?

His tongue flicked out along the line of my lower lip and I pushed up from the bed, hips sinking into the too-soft mattress.

Not to get away, but to get closer. I still wanted so much more.

But why? I’d been pushed into a position, into a rank I should not have derived any joy from, but here he was, making me cry out because I couldn’t seem to get enough.

“
You thought you could pick up some pathetic surfer boy you could just use, didn’t you?” His eyes half-closed as he watched me. He was almost daring me to make a move, almost waiting for me to escape. “You’re worse than a pimp, you know that? At least a pimp will, to some degree, actually take care of his girls. But you? You don’t care about the people you hurt. It’s just their body you want, and their feelings can go to hell, right?”

“
Are you actually scolding me?” I sounded normal. That was a start. “Did I fuck one of your lover boys? Is that why you’re doing this? To punish me?”

He smiled, but there was no warmth in those blue eyes. In that instant, I knew it was not wise to make him my enemy. I was a vampire, made before America was
even a splotch in some forgotten cartographer’s scrawlings, but he was the King.

One did not just become the Shifter King. It wasn
’t a title that was passed down in a family…not unless you killed all your family members to get the crown. I could break a human skull with my bare hands.

Kieran could do the same to mine.

“Anyone ever tell you what a bitch you are?” he whispered.

Talking. This was something I could handle. It was his touching, his seducing that turned me into a worthless piece of shit.

“Yeah, but they’re all dead now.” I flashed my fangs and he laughed softly.

He was naked, body pale and pure like an alabaster statue come to life. I didn
’t have to look down to see how much he wanted me, this. The heat radiating from his body would’ve melted steel.

He
’d played the part of an innocent so damn well.

What would it be like to be fucked by a Shifter King?

“You play the seducer well enough,” I said quietly, only vaguely aware of the sounds of rush-hour traffic outside my studio window. “But you want to be fucked, just as much as I do.” I put my hands on my belt buckle. “Tell me I’m wrong. And I’ll stop.”

His eyes narrowed and for a moment, just a moment, my movements halted as a small part of my mind questioned my sanity of testing the mental pa
tience of a man who could tear me apart with his bare hands.

Then again, I never had that much sanity to begin with.

Being a vampire long enough can do that to a person.

Abruptly, he pulled away and sat back on his haunches. “
This is just a game to you, isn’t it?”

I blinked at him, body still heavy with desire, not entirely sure what the hell was going on. “
Excuse me?”

He rose from the bed in one fluid motion and angrily started to pull on his pants, the dark jeans I could
’ve practically eaten off of him, they looked that damn good. On him, at least.

Feeling more than a little ridiculous, I spared a glance at my shredded top before hiding my torso with a fluffy pillow that still smelled like him. “
What the hell are you doing?”

Pulling up the zipper, he t
urned back to me, and his hand snaked out, wrapping around my hair. He brought me in so close that I smelled the peppermint on his breath. I wanted to kiss him. And this time, I wanted him to kiss me back. I wanted him to kiss me like the Shifter King he was, not the innocent boy he pretended to be.

And why the fuck had he done that in the first place? I was a vampire, not a courtesan. He could
’ve found a dozen others to appease his hunger, but he chose me.

Why?

“Don’t I affect you? Jesus fucking Christ on a fucking stick! You make me want you so badly I could hardly breathe, make me want you so much I see spots, but you just lie there, cool as the fucking Queen of Sheba, and you have the nerve to try to seduce me.” He shook me, that handsome face raw with emotions I couldn’t decipher.

Crouched over me, face shadowed, eyes glowing like sapphires set into a rugged cliff side, he made me wish for impossible things. Things not available to those damned by the light.

“I don’t even know you, Kieran. We haven’t even known each other for twenty-four hours,” I said and mentally congratulated myself on my calm, measured voice.

“
You think that means a damned thing to me?” His voice quivered with ill-constrained rage. "I don't have to know you to know the damage you cause!"

Caught off guard, I drew in a breath, a remnant of the human past I couldn't seem to shake off, not completely.

Much as I detested my own existence, I didn’t want to end up as a bloodstain on the floor. Because, despite all the rumors and myths floating around about vampires vanishing in a cloud of ash, we vampires bleed the same as humans, and it is not a pretty sight.

“
You have no idea how long I’ve been watching you.”

“
But why? It’s not like I’m the only vampire in the city. Hell, you were in a fucking vampire
club
, Kieran. You could’ve had your pick. You chose me. What was
that
all about?” I hadn’t meant to engage in a shouting match, but once I got started, it was hard to stop. Like a runaway train, I suppose. “And you say you’ve had your eyes on me? Why? What the hell do you want with me?”

A muscle in his cheek twitched. “
You’re…you’re not like other vampires. There’s something about you…I can’t explain it. It makes me want you. Makes me want to fuck you until you beg me to stop. Makes me want to hurt you so much you’d die from it.” Voice raspy, his lips hovered inches over mine.

“
I know about vampires. The minute they crawl out from the raw earth, God has forsaken their soul. They’re no longer wanted back in His embrace. But you…you’re different. You’re still pure, untouched. With enough persuasion, I think He’d take you back.”

I stared at him, all thoughts of sex gone from my mind. “
Have you gone insane? Please don’t tell me this is your idea of seduction because it sucks ass and seriously needs work.” I tried to tug his fingers out of my hair without yanking out my scalp, because vampires, contrary to popular belief,
do
feel pain. “Now let go, before I snap your wrist in half.”

We both knew it was an empty threat, but I had to do something, ha
d to say something.

I was grateful when he sauntered to the cherry wood dining table in the large studio apartment I currently called home. I needed the space, the distance to think clearly.

“I don’t know what it is about you. But you’re like an innocent virgin and an experienced whore all in one. Do you know how many men in this city want to possess that kind of rarity? And in a vampire, no less. I didn’t even know something like you was even possible until one of my pack members told me about the black-haired vampire slut with a habit of breaking little boys.” His lips quirked in a small smile, but it wasn’t the sort of smile that meant anything good. It was the kind of smile humans got when faced with a large, medium-rare steak just off the grill. “At first, it was kind of fun watching you make all those human boys fall in love with you. Do you know half of them still talk about you, even the ones you’ve kicked to the curb five years ago?”