Into the Darkness (16 page)

“How?” Natalie croaked, unaware smears of blood remained around her mouth and chin.

She looked like a goddamn zombie.

“Open your wrist,” the dark-haired man said. When she

still didn’t move, he brought her hand to his mouth.

A cry of pain had Rene wincing along with Natalie as her

wrist was slashed and then placed to the mouth of the dying

man.

But he didn’t move. Didn’t drink. His lips remained slack.

Chessa tilted back his head and pinched his chin to open

his mouth wider. Then she rubbed his throat, trying to force

him to swallow the blood.

Rene thought for sure the bastard had bought it. The blood

pooled in his mouth and overflowed his lips. Chessa and the

dark-haired man shared a tense, charged glance.

Finally, the younger man’s hand twitched on the floor.

“That’s it,” Chessa crooned, stroking his hair as he started

to drink. “What’s his name, Nic?”

The dark-haired man’s jaw tensed. “Gerard,” he said, his

voice thick.

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“That’s it, Gerard. Drink. You want to live, baby? Drink!”

Slowly, one tiny swallow at a time, he regained strength,

gurgling at first as he fought down the blood dripping steadily

into his mouth, choking, and then drawing ravenously against

Natalie’s wrist.

His parchment-pale features regained color until at last he

opened his eyes and jackknifed out of Chessa’s arms to curl

into a ball, whimpering with pain.

“Nicolas, get him out of here, he’ll need time to recover.”

Nicolas put his arm beneath the young man’s shoulders and

hefted him into his arms to carry him out, leaving Natalie

and Chessa kneeling there, blood trickling now from Natalie’s

arm into the carpet.

“Inanna’s not gong to be happy,” Chessa said, her gaze on

the dark, stained carpet. Looking pissed off, her eyebrows

nearly meeting, Chessa lifted Natalie’s arm and placed her

lips around the wound on the younger woman’s wrist. She

sucked and licked until the wounds closed.

Throughout, Rene had barely breathed, observing the

transformation from dying to dead, and beyond. He shuddered at witnessing the birth of another unnatural creature

and wondered how he’d ever look at Natalie quite the same

way. She was no longer an innocent, but a demon.

Chessa turned his way and caught him staring. She must

have read something in his expression, because she stiffened.

“Natalie, go get a shower and stay there until I come for

you.”

Natalie, her face pale and fragile, followed the command

like an automaton, shuffling toward the door and closing it

quietly behind her.

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Chessa dug into the pocket of her dark trousers and pulled

out a key. “I think you know what’s going to happen here now,

don’t you?”

“Cheech, get me the fuck out of here, now,” he said, letting

her see the tension and desperation in his face. “You know

that’s not what I want. You know I don’t want to die like

that.”

Chessa leaned over him to unlock his handcuffs, one at a

time. As she reached, her small, firm breasts rubbed against

his chest.

Rene’s arms were already screaming with agony. Too much

so to fully enjoy the softness pressing against him. He was

afraid to move his arms because he knew he wouldn’t be able

to hide his pain, so he kept them in place as she circled around

the end of the bed to release his feet.

When at last the chains dropped to the floor, she lifted

his foot and started to massage it, working her way up the

calf, then helping him bend his knee as he gritted against the

agony.

Her gaze averted from the part of him he couldn’t control

as he reacted to the ministrations of an attractive woman,

someone he’d wondered about from time to time and had,

in his weakest, horniest moments, considered as a sexual

partner.

“Must be a bitch, not being able to hide a single thing you

think,” she said, as she gently placed his leg back on the bed

and reached for the next.

His lips twisted in self-derision, not bothering to deny he

was hard because she touched him. “Yeah, kinda makes a guy

vulnerable.”

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133

She took a deep breath. “What you saw before—”

“I saw Natalie fuckin’ kill that guy.”

“What you saw,”
she repeated slowly, “doesn’t happen often.

We have rules. We learn discipline.”

He turned away his face.

“Usually, we only do that when we are asked, and only

when someone’s proven their loyalty to the coven. The reason

Gerard was at that door was because we were ready to turn

him and bring him into our security team.”

Rene gave her an incredulous stare. “You aren’t worried

about the fact he disobeyed an order?”

“That’s something we’ll work on. We’re not really worried

about that—he was under the spell of our little Jezebel in

there.”

Under the spell? Was there more at work than just an attraction, something mystical? The thought encouraged him.

He might be able to fight this.

“You wanna try sitting up?”

Rene blew out a breath and nodded.

Chessa put her arm beneath his shoulders and helped

him to sit. He lowered his arms, gasping at the pain shooting through his shoulders and upper back. Once the worst

had subsided, he opened his eyes and gave her a weak grin.

“Now I really am gonna need to piss. And no, you’re not

holdin’ it for me.” He swung his legs over the side of the

bed.

“Darn. You just crushed my dreams.”

Rene laughed, and then groaned in agony when his feet finally met the floor, but he stretched, forcing blood into muscles that had been asleep.

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He glanced down at Chessa standing next to him. Her

glance slid slowly over his naked body. “You know, Cheech, if

things had been different before I met you . . .”

She shook her head, a hint of regret shadowing her gaze.

“I don’t understand, Rene,” she said, her face uncharacteristically somber and sincere. “I know your wife died in a car

crash. Not by a vampire’s bite. You have to let go of your

guilt sometime. You deserve happiness.”

He blinked hard and looked away. “Whatever. I still have

to piss.”

Her back straightened. “Come with me.” Chessa led him

out the room and across the hallway to another bedroom.

He glanced around another comfortably appointed bedroom. “What, no bondage equipment here?”

“No, we save that for assholes.”

Glad the old Chessa snapped back, he gave her a crooked

grin.

She opened an inner door and stood back. “Don’t bother

trying to go out the window. The grounds are patrolled by

some really nasty creatures.”

“Werewolves?”

“No, mastiffs.” She gave him a saccharine smile. “You

change your mind about me holding it?”

He narrowed his eyes and entered the bathroom, locking

the door behind him. Although she could bust it down in a

heartbeat, it still felt good to lock her out.

Chessa slumped against the wall and sucked in a deep breath.

She could have waited a month of fucking Sundays for a day

like this.

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She’d been pulled away from her nap the moment Gerard was seen entering the bedroom. Natalie was way ahead

of schedule. A chip right off the old block. Her mother had

never learned to regulate her hungers.

The door clicked open and Rene walked out, still naked.

He hadn’t availed himself of any of the towels hanging from

the rack. “Must be really comfortable in your skin,” she said,

dropping her gaze down the front of his body.

“It hardly matters. The whole point is for me to have sex

with her twenty-four-seven—until I’m bat food.”

“If things got out of hand, we’d step in.”

“Like you did for old Gerard.”

“That was unexpected.”

As she escorted him back to his room, he hesitated at the

door. “Are you going to chain me, again?”

“You gonna miss having an excuse not to give it up?”

His gaze narrowed. “Fuck you.”

“You’d like that?” She lifted one brow to mock him. “Want

us both?”

The force he used to open the door slammed it against the

wall. She must have struck one helluva raw nerve.

Once inside the room, Chessa reached up and tilted back

his head, surprising him with the strength of her fingers—

she knew by the way he sucked in his breath. But he didn’t

step back out of her reach.

She traced the slight indentations left from his first bite.

“I hate to tell you this, partner, but your life is forever

changed.”

“Nothing’s changed—I’m just takin’ a vacation. I’m goin’

back to my life when this is over.”

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“You really think you can leave her—walk out of this house

and not look back? You’re bound to her.”

“I’m not turned yet, and I won’t ever be.” The vehemence

in his tone relayed a stubborn resistance to his fate.

“You’ll beg for it in the end. The blood bond between a Born

coming into her season and her first mate is strong—stronger

than either of you. You don’t need the cuffs anymore. You’re

already chained to her, tighter than any steel.”

Rene’s tense jaw and bunched shoulders didn’t worry her a

bit—he was fighting himself.

Chessa locked him inside the bedroom, without the manacles, just as another of Nicolas’s team reported for duty at the

door—this time a seasoned man, a vampire.

She gave him a nod and continued down the hallway, down

the curved staircase, shoving the maelstrom of emotion roiling inside her deep down where it couldn’t touch her. Where

it wouldn’t show on her face.

Dinner was being served in the dining room. There was

no getting out of it. She’d taken so long with Rene, she was

already late. Inanna’d had plenty of time to play with the

seating arrangements.

She entered the dining room and quickly noted only two

empty seats. All heads turned toward her, and she stifled a

curse.

Candlelight lit the room from wall sconces and the ornate

candelabrum placed near both ends of the long, ebony table.

The place settings and the guests reflected Inanna’s preference for ceremony. The long dining-room table gleamed, and

the scent of beeswax lay beneath the savory aroma of roasted

meats.

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Everything looked so perfect and civilized. Succulent

roasts, seared on the outside, bloody on the inside. Enough

to whet an appetite, but nothing as garish as a blood-host

sitting next to a vampire to supply the main course. Carnal

appetites were meant to be appeased in private.

Inanna waved her to the chair beside her. “Come, dear.

Come sit beside me. It’s been so long, we have lots to catch

up on.”

Dragging her feet, she made her way toward the head of

the table to the seat directly across from Nicolas.

Erika sat beside him, her blonde hair piled high. Small diamonds in her ears sparkled as brightly as her smile.

Everyone, it seemed, had dressed for the occasion, except

her. If they didn’t like it, fuck them. She wasn’t going to play

dress up. She wasn’t here because she had any real choices.

Inanna had dressed in bronze silk that draped one shoulder

and left one bare. Around her throat was her primitive carnelian cabochon with its carved phoenix on a braided gold cord.

Chessa remembered playing with it as a child as it dangled

between “Nanna’s” breasts.

Inanna’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “So, it appears we

have a new member of our family.”

“Are we talking Natalie or the
Revenant
?” Chessa growled.

At Inanna’s disappointed moue, Chessa shrugged. “What?

Should I call him ‘the walking dead’? It sounds more polite

in French.”

“You’ve offended Nicolas,” Inanna said. Her tone was soft,

chiding.

“She hasn’t offended me,” Nicolas murmured, his dark

gaze resting on Chessa.

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She shifted in her seat, wishing he’d look anywhere but at

her. She could still feel the bruises on her bottom where he’d

gripped her hard as he’d taken her.

Inanna sat back, sly amusement glittering in the glance she

swept between the two of them. “Ahhhh, I suppose any barbs

she throws your way this evening will be deflected,
eh, cher
?”

Nicolas didn’t comment, but the look he shot Chessa confused her.

There was no triumph, only a question.

One she wanted to avoid at all costs.
Would she seek him out

again?

chapter

10

ercifully, Inanna veered the conversation

Manother way. “Erika, what did you think of

our baby girl?”

Erika’s mobile face lit up. Her brown eyes and

lips widened as she enthused, “Isn’t she beautiful?

I never would have expected blue eyes. I wonder

where they came from?”

“Her father’s side, perhaps,” Inanna murmured,

taking a sip of wine from her crystal glass. “It’s not