Dragan's Redemption Book One of the Manor at Echo Lake Trilogy (22 page)

“
Almost immediately
your blood would flow into my mouth
,
and I drink from you.  If the bite happens during a moment of passion, for some wom
e
n, the sucking motion and drawing of blood has
brought
them to the brink of passion where they would pass out.  It is the same for the vampire.”

Amira felt him touch her again between her legs.  He was playing with her.  Her voice was shaky and low.

“Is that what you want to do to me?”

“Would it frighten you
if I said yes?  That I have dreamed of feeding off you since the day I met you in the field?”  His voice
was low,
now chok
ed
with passion as h
e slid his finger inside of her.
  Leaning his
forehead
against her chest
,
he gasped for breath
.

“
Would it frighten you if I told you that y
our scent is killing me right now
,
Amira
?
“

She reached between them,
untying
his belt, her fingers reaching for him.  He groaned as she moved her hands
along his skin.

“You must stop!”

“You do not frighten me
,
Dragan.  Your words do not frighten me.”

Kissing the side of his neck, she bit his skin to distract him, as she
quickly
stood on her toes, before
sliding
down on him quickly.  His hands grabbed her hips as his fingers dug into her skin.  Moving her hair to one side of her head, exposing her neck to him, the invitation was not lost on him.

“I can’t
,
Amira
, please
…..not with you.”

“
If
not me, then no one else
,
Dragan!”

Grabbing her hair, he twisted the strands between his fingers before yanking her head back.  Completely
impaled
on him, she could no longer move
.
Her heartbeat grew louder in his ears.   Feeling his fangs drop
while the pressure behind his eyes turned them red
, he looked at her allowing her to see who he really was
for the first time
.  She spoke the truth
;
she was not frightened.
  Pressing his mouth against the
throbbing
vein, he pressed down
with his teeth
,
hesitating
once more.

“
Please
!”
 
Her
whisper echoed in his head.

Quickly a
pplying pressure, his fangs broke through the skin
,
and he
heard
her
cry out
while
her
body tens
ed from the pain
.
  Her cry
and squirming
only fed the vampire
killer instinct
,
and he sucked deeply feeling the rush of blood filling his mo
uth.  Swall
ow
ing
greedily
, he relished
the food entering his system
but hating himself at the same time for what he was.
  Her whimpering soon turned to a moan
as the venom made its way through her own veins
,
and he knew that her desire would soon explode
.

Amira could only feel every sensation exploding within her cells.  She felt weak, yet strong at the same time.  Feeling herself floating
,
she realized that he was lifting her up, carrying her to his bed, his teeth still imbedded in her neck.

Dragan placed her gently on the bed removing his mouth from her throat, licking the wounds closed and sealing them before
k
issing her closed eyes, urging her to wake.  He couldn’t wait much longer for her, knowing he was going to lose control any second.  No longer able to wait, he pulled out of her then
quickly
thrust back into her.   Repeating this
over and over again
, each
time increasing
with an
urgency. 
Coming to,
Amira started to move underneath him, clutching his
forearms
as she soared high
er
than she had ever done before.  She gripped him tightly
as
with a roar, he spent himself before collapsing unconscious next to her.

“You
,
my young protégé
,
are taking a huge gamble with these two.”  Staring at the unconscious figures
,
Sebastian nodded his head.  “
I
t is a gamble I am willing to take.”

“Even at the cost of her life?”

Sebastian turned to his Elder.  “Tell me teacher, when did one life become more important than another?”

“Be warned, the risk is not only to them but to
you
.  May God’s grace be on you
,
Sebastian.”

Looking back to Dragan and Amira
,
Sebastian
nodded.  “May God’s grace be on us all.”

Aaron
walked into the kitchen
glanc
ing over
at his brother
who was sitting with his head in his hands at the counter.
“
R
ough night last night
,
b
ro
ther
?”

“Shut up
,
Aaron.”

“Hmmmm.  A lot of strange
noises
were coming
from your room.  Been awhile for you
,
huh
?”

Dragan looked up
,
glaring at his brother
who was grinning down at him
;
wincing at the bright light in the
kitchen
,
feeling it burn the retina of his eyes
,
he wished he had a pair of sunglasses on
.”

In a flash
,
Aaron was at his side yanking his
brother’s
head back
by the hair
,
taking in
Dragan’s
blood shot eyes
and pale features. 
It was as if he had
aged
20 years overnight
.
  The grin was no longer on his face, only worry.

“Shit.  She got you bad.
  How much did you drink from her?
”

Pulling away
,
Dragan
scowled.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Her blood
- i
t’s
bad.”  Looking curiously at
Dragan,
he realized that his brother
had no idea what he was talking about.  This
could not
be
his
first time with tainted blood.

Sighing
deeply, he
sat on the stool next to his brother
,
hating the fact that he was the one having to tell him the bad news.

“Dragan, something is wrong with her blood. 
As fantastic as that felt
last night
, y
ou cannot feed off of her anymore.”

“What do you mean
something is
wrong?”

“She is sick
with
some serious
blood disease,
leukemia
or the like.
  Not the little thing.  The small stuff doesn’t affect us but the big ones
….”  Aaron shuddered
,
“
they
will make you incredibly sick, even kill you if you drink too much
in a sort
period of time.
”

“You think I am going to die?”

Aaron laughed.  “No, not from the first time.  Thankfully, we use
what you are feeling right now
as a
gauge
. 
That pounding headache, nauseous feeling that you are experiencing
right now should be enough to warn you to stay away from her blood.  Enjoy what you have,
and by the sounds of the sex last night, there is a lot to enjoy,
just don’t
ever feed off of her again.
  Quite frankly, I can’t
b
elieve in 300 years, you never drank from someone that had blood issues”

Thinking over the years, Dragan realized that he had felt like this before, but usually it was after a binge, back in the days when he
randomly
took whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.  He hadn’t done that for over 150 years
; n
ot
since
being converted and
the
search
began
to save his soul
.

“Now that you mention it, I have.  It just has been so long, and even back then, I didn’t know what my problem was
, fi
gured it was the
alcohol
or something like that.”

Frowning
down into his coffee, he worried about
Amira
,
wondering if that was the reason why she moved to
Echo
Lake
. 
“
We talked about her being sick.  She said it was nothing major. 
Do you think she knows
just how
sick
she is
?”

Touching his arm, Aaron sought
to
reassure his brother.  “
Seeing how sick you are right now
,
and without knowing
the
amount you
drank
, I would hazard a guess that she either knows, or suspects something is wrong. 
You
,
on the other hand my friend
, will
be feeling better in a couple of hours
, again,
depending how much you drank.”

“It
was
her first
time
,
Aaron.”  Looking his brother directly in the
eyes while
his face flush
ed he continued
.
“In every
way
. 
I did not want to weaken her
so
I only fed for a short time.”

Sitting back in the stool
,
Aaron
was stunned but
relieved.

“
She was a virgin?  Holy shit, lucky you! 
Well that is good at least.
The feeding part
, I mean
.
What are you going to do?  Are you going to tell her that something is wrong?”

Dragan shrugged.  “I think I need to do some digging on my own before I make that kind of decision.  I
was supposed
to go back to work tomorrow,
but think I will head in today
and will look around.
I would rather she tell me on
her o
wn
though.
”

“Stay away from her blood
,
brother.  I am telling you, I am not going to lose the only relative I
have
in this God forsaken
universe
.
”

Both
brothers
turned hearing the door open
to the kitchen
.  Dragan stared at Amira.  She
was
posi
tively glowing.  Her skin clear
with
healthy
color in her cheeks.  For as sick as he was, she was the
complete
opposite.

“Good job
,
Dragan.  She looks stunning, considering the work over you
gave her.  In fact, she looks like she could go another round or two
.”

“Will you please shut up!”

“Hey, if you can’t do the job, I will be more than happy to stand in for you!
”