Night Haven Read online

  “Turned. Right.” The short laugh didn’t have a trace of humor. “There’s no turning. The thirst just grows in you. You fight it.” His tone changed slightly, grew more rough. “You fight it until you give up.”

  “Did you?” She’d seen him push away a willing female.

  “Plenty of necks going around.”

  She was surprised to hear disgust in his voice. As if he hated those who freely gave their throats for him to feed on. “Were you waiting for the kid?”

  He gave her a swift look, his green eyes shadowed. “I wanted to see if he would struggle.”

  She frowned at him. “Why?”

  “So I could help him.”

  “You sat on your ass watching him being drained.” A hot quick stab of anger. “But if he screamed, you’d help?” Hadn’t she been saying something similar, ever since Darlene was turned into a vamp? Hadn’t she wondered why she bothered saving humans when they did nothing to save themselves?

  His voice stayed quiet. “If that kid wanted help I would have given it.”

  She only shook her head, hearing her own thoughts thrown back at her. Nothing made sense. Not this, not her own body and its lack of strength and magic. Not this strange and intense need for his touch.

  The vampire stopped in front of a sprawling Victorian with peeling paint and wooden shutters. “That’s me.”

  Like she was idiot enough to trust him and go up there. And yet the need to touch him, to see if he tasted as good as he smelled, crawled through her veins.

  A lone window was lit amidst its dark mates.

  “My friend lives in the main house,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “He won’t bother us, unless you’d like to meet him.”

  Right. As if she was about to walk into a vampire nest.

  His lips curled in a mocking smile. His eyes stayed quiet and intense on hers. “Walter is human.”

  “Sure.” She wasn’t going up with him. He was a vampire. And she… At this point, Dina didn’t know if she trusted herself. “Just…forget it.” She started to shrug out of his jacket.

  “Keep it.” His eyes nearly burned her. She frowned—maybe now he would show his teeth, make this whole thing easier. She didn’t need to think when she was fighting. She didn’t want to think.

  He gripped her arm when Dina took off his jacket.

  She bared her teeth at him. “You don’t get—”

  “Yeah.” In a blur Luke closed the small space left between them. “I don’t get.” His mouth hovered above hers, sweet, hot and teasing.

  She had the chance to kick, to slam her fist into his ribs, to curse him. Instead, she just moved in.

  Her pulse roared in her ears. Dina fisted both hands in his hair, feasted on his lips. His arms banded around her, his mouth harsh and brutal, savaging her, soothing the burn while enflaming it. She pushed herself into his chest, felt his heart thunder. His taste exploded on her tongue, his scent driving her wild while his lips moved hot and restless over hers.

  She moaned when the rough heat of his fingers pushed under the thin cotton of her shirt and found skin. Slow, torturous, his palms slid over her, caressed her back, his thumbs brushing the undersides of breasts that suddenly felt heavy. His lips trailed pleasure on her neck, licking at the feverish skin, pressing small, burning kisses just below her ear.

  Before her chest exploded Dina gulped in a breath of air, then tugged on his neck to bring his mouth onto hers again. In a flash of greed, she bit down on his lower lip, enough for blood, enough to momentarily satisfy the curiosity of what he’d taste like. When she opened her eyes, his gaze burned dark with surprised need.

  “Upstairs.” His arms gentled around her. A question, Dina realized. The choice was hers to take.

  “Yes.” She couldn’t think beyond the taste of him.

  The stairs were a blur, harsh breaths and mindless wrenching kisses. He trapped her at the door, his body hard and burning, passion laced with a hint of greed. Propped by the door, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, fit herself to him, core to core.

  Somehow they were inside, rolling like mad on the thin carpet, his weight heavy relief on top of her, mouths mating, impatient hands tearing through fabric, groping to find more skin.

  Over the roar in her head Dina pushed him back, straddled his thighs, heard something ripping. His T-shirt became tatters in her hands, his solid chest gleaming, rising with each shuddering breath. With a short growl she bit a flat male nipple, felt a deep jolt of satisfaction at his groan.

  His hands moving on her skin, Luke rolled with her, pressed his erection into the apex of her thighs, ground into her with heavy teasing motions. In the dark, Dina saw his fangs before he lowered his lips to her neck, trailed light kisses down to tease the hard peaks of her nipples.

  She fought for every breath. She had to have his mouth. She wanted to feel teeth grazing her skin. Shaking, his weight pressing her to the floor, Dina pushed her hand between their bodies and felt him jerk when she slid her palm over his swollen length before fumbling for the zipper.

  His hands closed swift and brutal on her wrists.

  “Let me.” The words barely had sound.

  She barely had the breath to nod.

  His gaze locked on hers as his palm spanned her belly, his other hand trapping both her wrists above her head. Dina arched up under the slow caresses of his fingers, a subtle circle around her navel, a dip to touch the skin under her jeans.

  She forced the words from dry, parched lips. “Do it.”

  “Not yet.”

  He watched her as he slowly drew down her zipper and pushed his palm lower over her pelvic bone. Not nearly close enough to where she burned.

  Her thighs clenched hard around his hand when he brushed at her center. She was trapped in that green unflinching gaze, frightened, aroused, helpless to do anything but feel.

  “Let me,” he said again, and since she couldn’t speak, Dina simply nodded.

  Slow when she wanted quick and brutal. Tender when she craved speed. Light and erotic and impossible when she wanted to crest the wave and ride it out till the onslaught on her senses ended. Luke stroked her with clever fingers, soft tiny shocks of pleasure, just enough to keep her quivering on the edge.

  She arched up, her body a tight string inside a vicious spiral of sensation. Her wrists were free now, her left hand clasped with his, fingers entwined, anchoring her as Dina rode the storm of pleasure. With need born of both wolf and magic, she gripped his neck to bring his lips to hers, used her tongue with the same torturous rhythm as his fingers. And when the pleasure sharpened to a blinding point, she sank her teeth into the patch of skin where his neck met shoulder. She filled herself with his taste, felt him shudder. And screaming, leapt over the cliff.

  His eyes were a dark and burning green when Dina found the strength to look at him. His hands still threaded in her hair, she lifted up to swirl her tongue over the mark she’d carved into his neck.

  She knew him now, his scents, his senses. She needed him to taste her the same way. His eyes were wide and bright, his lips partially parted when she gathered her hair in her hand and arched her neck an inch away from his beautiful mouth.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Shocked she looked up to find Luke scrambling away. Her breaths harsh, Dina shook her head, trying to clear the hot haze pumping in her veins.

  In the dark room, his chest gleamed and his eyes were shattered. And he still bled from where she’d made her mark.

  “I won’t take blood from you.” He backed away as if she were a monster. “Not like this.”

  Her heart pounded, dread now instead of passion. She tasted him on her lips and realized what it was. What she had done. She forced her body upwards, hissing a breath through her rapidly tightening throat. His taste filled her mouth, metallic, potent, dead.

  Of course he wouldn’t bite her. Even if he understood what she had done, he wouldn’t risk drinking from her. Lyck blood could make him mortal. And stupid
her had offered him her throat just like a little girl wanting happily ever after. A Lyck marking a vampire as mate.

  “This never happened.” She kept her voice low and marveled that she could even get the sound out. Inside, she shook, her chest closing in tight. The room smelled like her blood, his need and her arousal, the scents coiling around her neck and holding tight.

  He got up, slowly, her mark a dark rip on his gleaming skin. “Dina.”

  “Don’t.” Blindly, she groped to find an exit, bumping her hip into his desk. A movement caught her gaze when pens rolled off a sheet of paper where lines and shades combined to form a face. Her face. Serene and cocky features stared out from a white paper on his desk.

  With shaking hands, Dina snatched it up, tore it with swift trembling fingers. Before either of them could say another word, she ran into the night.

  Chapter Four

  The ache of Dina’s mark had nothing to do with the grating inside him. Hunger beat at him and still Luke couldn’t stand the thought of tearing open a plastic packet of stale blood, much less finding the next thrill seeker willing to let him bite his or her throat.

  She’d offered. Freely, without the haze of drugs or the high of danger. She’d bared her soul, and he rejected her because he couldn’t get past his own regrets. In the far corner of the attic, her bright and vicious eyes stared up at him in accusation from the torn sheet of paper on the floor.

  He’d let her go into the night while she bled, while she was helpless. And she’d probably gut him if he followed her. Beside the corner of the paper with her eyes, her knife lay on the floor, its edges sharp and lethal.

  Pride didn’t matter, neither his nor hers. Grabbing her blade, Luke ran down the stairs, her fragrance so strong he didn’t have any doubt of the way.

  The smell of her teased at his nostrils, arousal mixed with pain. He’d hurt her because of his own ache. Because he was disgusted by his past while she innocently offered him all she had. Her blood, her soul, her trust. A bloodwolf, for God’s sake, trusting him enough to arch her neck for him, expecting nothing in return.

  He didn’t have any problem spotting her, walking briskly alone on empty streets as the breeze chilled the air. She rubbed her arms clad in a thin black fabric and laid another guilt trip at his feet. Of course she wouldn’t take his jacket—Luke doubted she’d want his scent anywhere on her after tonight.

  Silent, he kept enough distance between them so she wouldn’t spot him. He didn’t know how much wolf senses she retained, or how long whatever her condition of being unable to shift would last. Maybe it was an illness of some kind, something that confused her senses and let her open herself to a vampire.

  He would protect her until it went away.

  Better that way, for both of them. A bloodwolf had no business with a vampire.

  She lived on instinct—he knew that of her kind. No calculation, no premeditated thought. She wanted and she took and when she offered, it was freely. And his vampire ass had no business taking what she wouldn’t give in her right mind.

  Hunger chose just that moment to twist his insides. In his mind’s eye, he saw her neck again, a beautiful arched column, her skin gleaming and smooth in the dark night.

  The bite mark on his neck throbbed when he pressed his fingers to it. Her aroma whipped at him with strong teasing waves. He had to feed, and at that point Luke realized he couldn’t. Not ever. Not from a willing faceless human out for a thrill, not from an empty plastic packet. His body wanted her, this bloodwolf with her carnal lips and reckless attitude.

  She’d taken the first step. She’d offered. He followed her with the intent that she would end it too.

  Dina knew exactly what she looked like as she ran up her porch and nearly knocked her brother sideways in the process.

  She wasn’t in the mood for questions or the alpha ’tude. Instead, she simply brushed past him into her place, hoping he’d get the message and slink off, leave her alone to get all traces of Luke off her.

  No matter how she ran, it kept getting stronger, as if he followed her into the night. He had no reason to, she knew that just as much as she knew why the magic had left her. The unity of mind and body had been broken—she’d sealed the deal when she’d marked a vampire with her teeth.

  “You’re bleeding.” Man’s voice was somber as he followed her into her house, instantly making the small space feel crowded.

  “One hell of a night.” She wanted him to go away, because she was this close to breaking down. Luke’s taste still burned her lips, made her crave him in ways she’d never craved before.

  She didn’t turn the lights on, not that the lack of them would hide her from her brother’s eyes, but at least that way she felt safer. Skirting the punching bag that hung from the low ceiling, she headed towards the tiny bathroom.

  Forget the loss of magic and her strength. She’d put a mate mark on a vampire, and that pretty much meant a ticket to the looney.

  “You need help?” Man’s voice was muffled by the bathroom door.

  “I’m good.” Dina splashed water on her face and hoped he’d go away so she could scream in private.

  “Sure. You’re good. Like always.”

  She threw open the door at that.

  “What the hell do you mean?” She wasn’t in the mood to fight. At this point, he had all her blessings to exert his alpha and she would gladly keep her mouth shut.

  “Nothing.” A shrug followed that sharp and mocking word. “Maybe I want to know what’s up with you. Maybe I want to know why Rogue goes batshit every time he hears your name. Maybe I want to kick his ass for sniffing at you, but if I do you’ll go all alpha bitch on me and I don’t want to fight you.”

  She was too tired to deal with him, too rattled, too emotional. “I won’t go alpha bitch on you.” Her eyes met his, direct and true. “That’s your job.”

  “Right.” A snort, a small release of tension.

  Strange, talking to him like a friend, baiting him like a brother. And still she couldn’t talk about this. “Rogue got his ears twisted since I clocked him on our first and last date.”

  His eyebrows rose. “I hadn’t heard.”

  She shrugged, winced just a bit when the scabs over the scratches on her shoulder split wide open. She still had enough wolf in her to heal.

  “Wasn’t much to tell.” Just like there wasn’t much to tell about the vampire she’d bitten tonight, the vampire who’d saved her, the vampire who saved humans if they asked for help.

  She shook her head again, realization blooming slowly. “It’s not about killing vampires.” She didn’t phrase it as a question, simply watched Man’s eyes narrow as he tilted his head. “It’s about saving humans, whether they understand or not.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  This was the passion she’d lost, the reason she hadn’t been named alpha. She hadn’t understood the simple rule of their cause, refused to do so after she had killed her human best friend who went into a blood rampage with her new thirst and undead strength.

  Man arms crossed on his chest, his stance growing more tense and tired.

  She didn’t have the patience to hide under both their prides. “Daddy picked you. And it was final.” And Dina realized she was okay with that decision. “I’d never challenge you for it, even back then.”

  Her brother gave her a long look, as if gauging how far to trust. “You have one hell of a left hook,” he finally said and had her grinning. If nothing else, this one part of her life turned out right.

  “Better remember that.”

  “Roguell is on your case.” Man changed the topic, as this new and fragile peace bloomed.

  Dina dabbed astringent over her shoulder, let herself wince in front of him. As far as truce, this was a small and yet giant step to let her brother see a weakness. “Rogue is the last thing on my mind.”

  “I can smell that.”

  She whirled around. “Excuse me?”

  “I smell a male on you.” No j
udgment—not yet anyway. “Have him kick Roguell’s ass and he’ll back off.”

  “I kick my own ass.”

  “Sure.” He rocked back on his heels, as if not sure how to proceed.

  “Listen.” Dina took another step along the newfound peace. “With you and Valoelle…” She trailed off when he frowned, but then pushed onward. “Did she mark you?”

  His gaze suddenly sharpened—she figured he looked for a bite mark on her neck. Another sign of that fragile peace—he didn’t demand for her to show it. Not that she had something to show.

  Man’s eyes stayed calm. Dina imagined that he forced himself to keep his hands inside his pockets. “Yes.” A single word that held a world of implication. Valoelle had left him, and though Dina couldn’t comprehend how that was possible, maybe she had a chance to just get over Luke and end this crazy notion that she’d marked him.

  “How… How does it work?”

  “She took my blood, I hers. We were complete.” Man shrugged and flatly spat out the answer. The topic of his mate was not one most could broach.

  “Didn’t it bother you to go all vamp on her?”

  He winced now, clearly in pain thinking of it. She should have simply shut her mouth.

  “It didn’t matter.” He never said her name, as if the sound of it brought back memories. “It’s a wolf mating thing.” And it had run its course. Dina wanted to ask when he stopped feeling it, but judging by those dark gold eyes she figured now wasn’t the time.

  She almost felt him push away the pain where she couldn’t reach it. “Why all this interest?” Again his arms were crossed over his chest.

  “Just wondering. Maybe Rogue got me thinking.” She didn’t flinch at the small and vicious tug of pain, and wondered if Man saw right through her.

  “If you want me to twist off his ears…” he paused to give her a small smile, “…remember, I am the alpha bitch.”

  “Yeah. Right.” She wondered how alpha he would get if he ever found out whom his sister marked. Not that it mattered. Nothing would come of it.

  Maybe she’d have the magic back. Pain was supposed to unify the mind and body, and with Luke’s scent so close, her clenching gut did a good imitation of it.