Eternity Embraced (3 page)

"Yeah, you told me."  Her hands formed fists at her sides, and her face was flushed from her climax -- and from anger.  "Told me you never wanted to fall in love again, because it hurts too much when it ends.  You told me when we first fell into my bed that our relationship could go nowhere except between the sheets.  But it went a lot further than that, and you know it.  It's time to stop skirting the issue and pretending that we only have
strong feelings
for each other."

Fuck.  He flicked his tongue over one fang, a new habit he'd developed.  Because he was a vampire.  Which she seemed to be forgetting, even though two seconds ago he'd been at her throat and sucking her lifeblood out of her.  How the hell could she act as though it hadn't happened?  As though she'd forgotten what he'd become?  For every second of every hour, until Gabrielle turned into a slavering beast, he'd been well aware of the fact that she had been bitten by a werewolf.

And yet, he'd been careless.  Sloppy.  Although it was Aegis policy to kill any human who had been bitten or scratched by a were-beast, he'd let his love for her cloud his judgment.  He'd heard rumors of humans who were immune to the infection, and on the off chance that Gabrielle was one of those rare people, he'd restrained her until night fell, bringing the curse of the full moon with it.  Worse, he'd not wanted to hurt her, so he'd kept her restraints loose.  When she'd turned, she got free and killed five of their colleagues before Kaden had put a silver killing bolt through her chest.

The pain, the guilt, had mired him in misery until Andrea showed up in Portland a year ago, a transfer from the Phoenix cell.  She'd been like a whirlwind, sucking him into her life with her dry humor, take-no-prisoners attitude, and intense energy, which was exactly what he needed after four years of loneliness and one-night stands.

"Well?" Andrea prompted, and he realized he'd been lost in his thoughts, which was not the place he wanted to be.

Not that their reality, where they were locked in a dungeon, was much better.

Way to feel sorry for yourself
.  God, he was a moron.  If growing up with two blind parents had taught him anything, it was that self-pity was a pathetic waste of time.

"Well, what?" he snapped, residual lust giving him the sharp edge he needed to do what he must.  "You do realize that I'm a vampire, right?  And you're a vampire slayer.  Whatever
relationship
you think we had is over.  The man you claim to love is gone, so you have two choices.  You can stake me like a good little Guardian, or you can join forces with me to make an escape.  But either way, there is no more us."

Crimson splotches mottled Andrea's cheeks, but he didn't need to see her fury to know she was bubbling over with it.  His enhanced senses picked up her anger as a scent that was so bitter he could taste it on his tongue.

"You son of a bitch."  Like a well-trained warrior, she didn't give away her next move, which was to snap up the stake.

He could have stopped her; his reflexes were twice as fast as they had been.  But in truth, he was curious to see what she'd do.

And when she came at him, he had his answer.

Chapter Five

Damn him
!

Crazed with hurt and anger, Andrea launched herself at Kaden, her stake aimed right at his cold heart.  Effortlessly, as though she were nothing but a minor annoyance, he blocked her with one upraised arm.  Humiliation aside, she was glad he'd done it.  Oh, she wanted to hurt him, but she'd planned to check up at the last moment, not really wanting to kill him, and clearly, he didn't want to die.  Or, probably more accurately, he didn't want her to be the one to have to kill him.  Not after the trauma he'd suffered when he'd had to put down his fiancee.

Yes, his words had put a fissure in her heart, but she wasn't stupid -- he was trying to piss her off, to chase her away in order to save them both a lot of pain.  She was sorry she'd told him she loved him, but she wasn't sorry for how she felt.  She'd dated before Kaden, but she'd never fallen in love, hadn't known how good it could feel.

Or how bad.

Still smarting from his verbal smackdown, she struck out, slapping him across the face.  His head snapped back and his eyes went wide, as though he couldn't believe she'd just done that.  In an instant, he recovered, red sparks turning his eyes to molten metal as he grasped her wrists and yanked her into him.

Just as she'd wanted him to do.

Still, her heart thundered in her chest.  Angering a vampire, even one you loved -- one that had just given you an orgasm for the record books -- wasn't the brightest move in the world.

"There's a camera in the corner," she said, angling her face away from said camera in case whoever was watching could read lips.  "We need to fight, and you need to pretend to kill me.  It's the only way to fool that psycho vamp into thinking you've truly gone over to their side."

She struggled, feigning fury, though she did put some power behind her knee to his thigh.  He totally deserved that, and she smiled a little at his grunt.

"Good girl," he said through gritted teeth.  "Didn't know you saw the camera."  She didn't have time to bask in his praise, because suddenly, he spun her, put her back against the wall and his forearm across her throat.  "So we fight."

His teeth were bared and his eyes glinted and if she didn't know any better she'd think he really was planning violence.

Then again, she
didn't
know any better.  He'd changed.  She shivered, but not with fear.  No, once more, she was utterly turned on by the life or death game they were playing.  And this was definitely life -- heart-stopping, adrenaline-pumping life.  Kaden had once said that you never felt more alive than when you were facing death, and if the way her skin tingled, her breasts tightened, and heat bloomed between her thighs was any indication, he was
so
right.

"Fight me, damn you."

"Gladly," she snapped. 

Squaring her shoulders, she stomped on his foot and followed up with a swift kick to his shin and a hook of her boot to the back of his knee.  His leg buckled, but before she could wrench free, he recovered.

"We've sparred for months," he said with an arrogant smile.  "You think I don't know all your moves?"

She rocked her head forward and caught him in the mouth.  "You didn't know that one."

He grinned, flashing teeth smeared with blood.  "Nice."

God, he was hot when he smiled like that, and again, the pseudo-battle stirred up something wicked in her, something hot and naughty.  The puncture wounds on her throat began to throb in time with the pulsing between her legs, as if her body was preparing to take him inside her in any way he wanted.  He was a very male animal, and her feminine instincts were answering without her brain's consent.

As though he sensed the change in her, his eyes darkened and his gaze dropped to her mouth.

"Kaden--"

He took her to the ground, twisting at the last second to absorb the brunt of the impact.  In a smooth, easy motion, he rolled on top of her, pinning her with his superior strength and considerable weight.

Beneath him, she writhed, partly in a show of struggle for the camera, and partly because he felt so damned good pressed against her.  She schooled her expression into one of rage, using her anger at her situation, at Kaden's transformation, at a past that robbed her of a normal life, to make the emotion believable when all she wanted to do was roll around with him on a soft bed instead of the hard ground.

Kaden fisted her hair in one hand and wrenched her head to the side, exposing her throat the way he had before.  A raw, purring rumble dredged up from deep in his chest.  Her breath quickened as he lowered his mouth to her neck and struck like a snake, with no warning.  Like before, pain pierced her, a sweet, erotic agony that drained her of any resistance.  No wonder humans succumbed to vampires so easily.  Pleasure streaked from where his teeth penetrated her to every pulse point in her body.

Moaning, she arched her pelvis into his, and he shuddered even as he shifted his weight to press her flat again.  Right.  She wasn't supposed to be getting off on this.  This was a show for the camera, and she was ruining it by wanting to ride him like a horse.

Again.

It struck her that she might be a little stupid in trusting him not to kill her, but what choice did she have?  Besides, despite what The Aegis had taught her, she knew Kaden.  She knew it would take more than an exchange of vampire blood to turn him evil.

Too soon, he disengaged his teeth, but the motion was subtle, and he repositioned his mouth over the bite and stroked his tongue along the wounds to seal them.

But he never lifted his head, and she barely heard him whisper, "This is killing me.  Later, we'll do this right, but for now, I need to pretend to be drinking from you until you're dead.  In sixty seconds, go limp and play possum.  With any luck, he'll have fed recently."

God, she hoped so.  Apparently, a vampire's ability to hear a heart beating grew more acute the hungrier they were, and if their ruse had any shot of working, she had to appear very, very dead.

She waited as he mouthed her throat, his tongue swirling and flicking on her hyper-sensitive skin.  How was she supposed to play dead when every lick brought her body to shivering, vibrant awareness?

And wait.  He'd said later.  Did he mean it?  Could there be a later?

She'd have to find out --
later
-- because he pushed away from her.  With a vicious, but oddly careful shove, he nudged her aside with his foot like a dead animal he'd found on the road.  She lay motionless, trying to not even breathe as he paced.

She wondered if this was how he'd been while he waited for Gabrielle to turn into a werewolf, this restless energy that kept him prowling back and forth and grumbling to himself.  Had he prayed for her life, as Andrea had prayed for Dee's?

Poor, brave Dee.  She'd been only one year younger than Andrea, and she'd wanted to stay and fight the demons that had attacked their parents.  Instead, she'd fought when Andrea had dragged Dee, screaming, from the house.  Six months later, it had been Dee who had been approached by The Aegis to join their cause.  Apparently, her bitter and rather public insistence that demons were real had snagged the organization's attention, and they were always looking for new recruits -- especially those who wanted vengeance.

Andrea had joined too, desperate to uphold her promise to keep Dee safe.  But Dee had never forgiven Andrea for deserting their parents, and she'd ditched Andrea whenever she could.  Within a year of joining The Aegis, Dee's reckless pursuit of revenge had gotten her killed when she'd slipped away from Andrea to hunt down a demon in an alley.

She didn't know how long they went on like that, with her playing dead and Kaden wearing a rut in the ground like a big cat in a cage.  Finally, she heard the ominous thump of footsteps.

"Kaden."  The psycho vamp's voice sent a chill slithering up her spine.  "You are now one of us."

Chapter Six

You are now one of us
.

The words rang through Kaden in a deafening clang.  Yeah, he was one of them.  No, he hadn't killed anyone.  But he'd fed.  He'd sunk his fangs into a human -- a human
Guardian
-- and had filled up on her lifeblood.

And he'd enjoyed it.  God help him, he'd enjoyed it.

He allowed Cedric to see his pleasure and his misery before averting his gaze in a show of shame.  Which wasn't much of an act.  But he needed the other vampire to believe he had gone over to the dark side...reluctantly.  Cedric wasn't stupid enough to think Kaden would convert without a fight.  He'd have to play this smart if he wanted to get Andrea out of this alive.

"You've killed a slayer,
slayer
," Cedric said.  "You are the worst kind of enemy to them.  You know you can never go back.  We can keep you alive."

"Go to hell."

Cedric didn't miss a beat.  "The Aegis will hunt you to the ends of the earth.  We can protect you.  You know I'm right."

He was, but once he was free, Kaden would kill Cedric, which would draw the wrath of Cedric's entire clan.  It was a trade-off Kaden was willing to live with.  He'd survive as long as he could, inflicting damage and racking up vampire casualties until he could no longer fight. 

Until either Cedric's clan or The Aegis took him down.

Kaden swung his gaze back around to the bastard, nailing him with every ounce of hatred he could muster.  "The Aegis won't hunt me specifically.  They'll assume I'm dead."

Cedric laughed.  "We allowed one of the captured slayers to witness you killing the girl.  Then we released him.  I doubt it will be long before The Aegis issues an order of execution with your name on it."

Fuck.  Kaden's death would be a priority by sunrise.  "You son of a bitch."

Through the narrow window, Kaden saw the light of victory in Cedric's pale eyes.  "So.  Are you willing to work with us?  I've tenderized a few slayers, and now they're just waiting to be eaten."

That shouldn't have made Kaden's mouth water, and the fact that it did pissed him off even more.

"Yes," Cedric purred.  "I can sense your hunger."  The crisp clang of the sliding lock vibrated the air in a concussion wave.

Kaden tensed up so hard he was nearly shaking with the desire to leap through the doorway and tear the other vampire apart. 
Stay calm, stay calm...
He kept himself in check as the door creaked open.  Wisely, Cedric stood back, well away from Kaden as he stalked through the doorway without so much as glancing at Andrea.  His combat boots, socks, and shirt lay in a pile where they'd been left after the vamps had stripped him to prepare for his torture, and Kaden went to them without permission.