Blood Ties (3 page)

At last she sighed and looked around the
room. Club Nighthawk -- the very last place she would ever have
guessed Orion would bring her. Probably why he chose it, she
thought. If Barrett knew as much as she suspected he did, he
wouldn’t think to look for them here, at least not at first.

There was no way Orion would stay under this
roof an instant longer than was absolutely necessary, no matter how
much more dangerous it would be for them out in the open. She
spotted an open door and went through it, the sheet tangling around
her legs, sighing with relief as she found a small but perfectly
serviceable bathroom with a tiny shower stall in the corner.

The hot water stung her skin as she scrubbed
Orion’s scent from her body. By the time she was done, she wasn’t
sure if the anger filling her thoughts was hers or his.

Damn it all, did he think he was the only one
who’d lost something tonight, the only one who’d been betrayed?

Barrett’s face rose in her mind. The little
cleft in his chin. His crystalline blue eyes smiling at her. His
sleek blond hair, never out of place. His full lips descending to
kiss her. Murmuring words of love.

Those same lips shouting out the order to
burn her, calling her a vampire whore.

She shut off the water and pounded her fist
against the wall, shaking with the force of her heartache and the
need to strike out at something, anything. The fury rose hot and
fierce as the full extent of his duplicity finally registered. The
sharp crack of shattering tile barely penetrated her awareness as
she remembered how Barrett had held her, kissed her, all the while
planning her murder. In her mind’s eye it was Barrett she struck,
Barrett she hurt, and she slammed her fists against the wall again
and again and wished she could shred his handsome face.

”Kira, stop!”

Orion’s voice, in her mind as well as her
ears, brought her out of her blind rage. She stood in the shower,
head down, breathing hard, only now realizing that her feet were
buried in a litter of broken tile and plaster. Her fists stung from
numerous lacerations. Opening her eyes, she saw the shower was
utterly destroyed -- huge holes gouged in the walls, the showerhead
bent almost double, the frosted glass door shattered and hanging
from one hinge, both faucets snapped cleanly off. Jets of hot and
cold water sprayed her, scalding one hip, freezing the other.

Sweet Christ, had she really done this?

Orion grabbed the swinging door and yanked it
free from its remaining hinge. Broken glass fell to the tile as he
dropped it. She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath,
trying to tamp down the burning fury that still sizzled through
her.

The scent of her own blood, coppery and
electric, filled her senses. The bloodlust roared to life again,
stealing her rage and replacing it with a need that bordered on
madness.

Orion reached for her and she leapt at
him.

The impact slammed him against the wall. She
snapped at his throat, aching for another taste of his blood, but
he moved faster. Spinning her away from him and trapping her arms
at her sides, he held her so tightly she could hardly breathe.
“Easy, baby,” he whispered as she struggled, her new vampiric
strength surging through her muscles. Strong as she was, however,
he overpowered her as though she were weak as a newborn kitten.
“Easy. Control it, Kira. You must master the urge.”

Master it? She laughed, a sound that had more
than a tinge of hysteria to it. This wasn’t a feeling that would
bow to reason. Her veins flowed with lava, her body ached, and her
fangs throbbed. Why fight it? Even the friction of her body against
his as he held her immobile was fuel to the fire. “Give me more,”
she demanded, twisting, trying to find a part of him she could
bite. “Orion, I need blood!”

He lifted her off her feet and carried her,
still struggling, back into the bedroom. “You’ll have everything
you need,” he said, his voice low and soothing. “But not until I
know you won’t tear my throat out. Control it, Kira. You must not
let the bloodlust rule you, baby. Don’t go feral on me now. Control
it!”

She moaned. “I’m burning,” she cried,
writhing in his arms. “Help me!”

Orion swore, long and vicious, before saying
a few words in a language she didn’t recognize. Instantly her
muscles went limp. “Be calm,” he said, lowering her to the bed as
panic overwhelmed her when her body didn’t obey her commands. “I’ve
enthralled you, for your safety as well as mine. It’s not
permanent.”

The cool sheets seared the skin of her back.
Kira moaned again, a desperate sound deep in her throat, wanting to
reach for Orion and unable to move so much as a finger. “Please,”
she whispered as he straightened, terrified he’d leave her like
this until the bloodlust receded.

But he only moved far enough back to strip
off his shirt and toss it aside. His jeans went next, revealing his
thick cock, throbbing and erect. She licked her lips at the sight
of it. His eyes tracked the movement and she saw the pulse throb at
his throat.

The sight only made the fire in her blood
burn hotter. The mattress dipped as he sank down beside her,
propping himself on his elbow and looking down at her. “I would
never leave you to suffer this alone,” he whispered, and she
wondered if he’d seen the thought in her eyes or plucked it
straight from her mind. “But you must calm yourself, Kira. You
can’t let the bloodlust rule you.”

“It hurts,” she breathed, aching for his
touch. Her fangs throbbed in time to her racing pulse. Her stomach
cramped and twisted.

“Shh.” He bent and brushed his lips over her
forehead. Just that simple touch almost drove her wild with desire,
but no matter how hard she tried to arch her neck and capture his
mouth with hers, she remained still beside him. “Shh,” he soothed
again. “Let me take care of you. Trust me.”

Trust him -- when he didn’t trust her at
all.

That thought was swept away when he lifted
one stinging, lacerated hand in his. He shook his head at the
damage. “The Change has made you strong, baby, but your body is
still fragile,” he murmured. “Bloodlust will force you to forget
your body’s limitations. That is why you must control it, not the
other way around. Are you hearing me?”

Whatever reply she might’ve made was
swallowed by a rush of heat as he bent over her hand and swept his
tongue along one of the deep cuts. Their groans blended into one
deep sound of need. “You taste so damn good,” he growled, sucking
one finger into his mouth and laving it with his tongue.

Every cut, every scrape, even the tiniest
bruise received his full attention. With each sweep of his velvet
tongue, the pain yielded to pleasure, and when he finished and
stretched her arm high above her head, not one scratch
remained.

And then he started over on her other
hand.

“Orion,” she moaned, her breath coming in
little pants, her core hot and wet, aching to be filled by that
thick cock. “Oh, God, please!”

“
I’m
trying to please you,” he whispered against her skin. “Feel me,
Kira. Feel
me,
not the
bloodlust.”

His thigh slid across her legs, heavy,
muscular. The pressure made her want to writhe and wiggle until she
could trap his thigh between hers, ride it, feel his hard muscle
against her throbbing clit. Simultaneously he nipped the tender
pulse at her wrist, taking no more than a sip of her simmering
blood before sealing the wound with a flick of his tongue.

It was
enough to heighten the link between them. Kira hissed as the cool
weight of his mind slid across hers just as his thigh had trapped
her legs. “Feel me,” he repeated, stretching her other arm up
beside the first, making her back arch and her breasts jut forward.
“Desire
me,
not my
blood. Burn for me.”

He bent over her, licking a hot path over the
swell of her breast and down into the valley over her heart. “You
can feed from anyone,” he murmured against her skin. She felt his
arousal in her mind, the thrill of tasting her and pressing his
cheek to her soft breast. “Want what only I can give you, Kira.
Need me.”

His desire, urgent and spicy, warred with the
raging bloodlust. Kissing a path between her breasts and down her
belly, ignoring her increasingly frantic pleas for release, for
satisfaction, he found the scalded skin of her hip and laved it
with his tongue. The sting of the burn faded and was replaced by
goose bumps. “Crave me,” he whispered, licking his way over her hip
and down to her thigh before raising his head to meet her eyes. “Do
you feel me now, baby?”

“Yes,” she whispered. Her body shivered as
the pain of the bloodlust battled with the hot need Orion’s touch
woke in her. She wanted to scream with frustration at the loss of
his mouth on her skin. “God, love, don’t you dare stop!”

Orion froze for a long moment, just long
enough for Kira to realize what she’d said. Suddenly he rolled off
the bed and grabbed her knees, pulling her to the edge of the
mattress with one hard jerk. She cried out as his cock bumped her
thigh and ached to wiggle just the slightest bit to put it where
she so desperately wanted it. The paralysis heightened her
frustration, while conversely increasing the erotic thrill of every
touch. He caught the back of her neck and yanked her upright,
supporting her body with that one hand as the other cupped her
breast.

His entire face had changed. No longer soft
and tender, Orion was as fierce as she’d ever seen him. “You are at
my mercy, Kira,” he growled, his eyes burning with intensity. “You
know that, don’t you? I can do anything I want to you now and you
can’t fight me.”

His fingers twisted in her hair and pulled
her head to the side, exposing her throat. His tongue trailed a hot
path over her pulse. “I could bite you, fuck you, turn you over and
bury my cock in that sweet ass.” His words vibrated against her
skin and sent her pulse racing. “I could leave you here until the
bloodlust subsides on its own, or keep you beside me for all time.
I can make you come or keep you from it, fuck you or leave you,
hurt you or pleasure you. You don’t tell me what to do, fledgling.”
Now his voice was a snarl, punctuated by a sharp nip at her
collarbone. “You take what I give you and you say thank you when
I’m done. Do you understand me?”

She should have been alarmed. She knew she
should be screaming by now, too terrified to breathe, but Kira had
never been so turned on in her life. Some deep instinct had always
trusted Orion and she knew to the depths of her soul that he
wouldn’t hurt her now. He couldn’t hide that he wanted her as badly
as she needed him.

And she knew that no matter what he said, he
wouldn’t leave her to suffer alone.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m at your
mercy.”

“Damn straight,” he growled. “And you’d best
remember that I’m not merciful.” He raised his head and met her
eyes again. “Bite me and you’ll regret it,” he promised, and then
bit his own lip hard enough to draw blood before taking her mouth
in a ravenous kiss.

The taste of him tore a moan from her throat.
She met his dominating thrusts with her own tongue, his coppery
flavor teasing her bloodlust to new heights. Her fangs throbbed in
time to her pounding heart. Never in her life had she wanted
anything as badly as she wanted to bite his tongue, to turn that
hint of his blood into a rush that would sate her hunger. Every
cell in her body, every instinct demanded it!

She was panting with the effort of resisting
by the time he pulled away. His pupils were enlarged, his own
desire vivid in their depths. “Good girl,” he whispered, then
licked the last trace of crimson from his lips and hers. “You’ve
pleased me.”

“I want to please you,” she said, meaning it
with everything in her.

“
Then you
should know that injuring yourself greatly
dis
pleased me.”

It was the only warning she had before he
sank his fangs into the curve of her breast. She cried out, unable
to hold back, but as his tongue flicked over the bite her cry
turned to a moan. Her nipple was a hard little peak, begging for
attention, demanding that she tell him to suck it, but she didn’t
dare. She couldn’t even arch her back to guide him to it. All she
could do was submit, take what he gave her.

He moved then, biting the underside of her
other breast, drawing more inarticulate cries from her throat. The
pleasure/pain was like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life.
Forcing down the urge to beg, to plead for him to use that
incredible mouth on all the places that were dying for his
attention, she closed her eyes and held it inside.

He sealed the wounds with a swipe of his
tongue and laid her back down on the bed. “You’re learning your
place very well,” he purred, both hands sliding up to cover her
breasts. A quick pinch of both nipples sent a new wave of cream to
her pussy and her eyes flew open to find him smiling down at her.
“Still hungry for my blood, Kira?”

“Yes,” she said, unable to lie to him.

He rewarded her honesty by rolling her
nipples between his fingers, tugging and caressing the hardened
peaks. “And which do you want more, my blood or my cock?”

This time, honesty was more difficult to come
by. She couldn’t look away from his eyes, even knowing that he
could see the sexual fire warring with the bloodlust there. He gave
her nipples a little tug that sent a wave of electricity straight
to her clit and tipped the balance. “Cock,” she whispered.

This time
his smile had a decidedly savage twist. “Any cock, or
my
cock?”