Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed 8-Book Bundle (120 page)

“You were just a child,” Dylan said softly. “How did you survive after that?”

“For a while I went hungry. I tried feeding from animals, but their blood was like poison. I hunted my first human about a week after the attack. I was out of my mind with hunger, and I had no experience with finding my own food. I killed several innocent people those first few weeks I was on my own. I would have gone Rogue eventually, but then something miraculous happened. I was tracking prey in the woods when a huge shadow came out of the trees. It was a man, I thought, but he moved so fast and so stealthily I could hardly keep focus on him. He was hunting too. He went after the peasant I’d set my sights on, and with a grace I was sorely lacking, he brought the human down and began to feed from the wound he’d opened in the man’s throat. He was a blood-eater, like me.”

“What did you do, Rio?”

“I watched in fascination,” he said, remembering it as clearly as if it had just happened a few minutes ago.

“When it was over, the human got up and walked away as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. I was astonished, and when I drew in my breath, that’s when the blood-eater saw me hiding nearby. He called me out and after hearing that I was alone, he brought me with him to his home. It was a Darkhaven. I met many others like me, and learned that I was part of a race called the Breed. As my mother had not seen fit to give me a name, my new family in the Darkhaven gave me the one I have now.”

“Eleuterio de la Noche Atanacio,” Dylan said, the words sounding far too sweet as she spoke them. Her hand, as she placed it tenderly on the scarred side of his face felt far too comforting. “My God, Rio…it’s a miracle you’re standing here with me at all.”

She moved closer to him now, looking up into his eyes. Rio could hardly breathe as she rose onto her toes and tilted his chin down to meet her kiss. Their lips came together for the second time that night…and with a need that neither one of them seemed willing or able to conceal.

He could have kissed her forever.

But it was at that precise moment that the quiet promenade erupted in a sudden cacophony of gunfire.

CHAPTER
Twenty-Four

P
anic flooded Rio’s veins like acid.

The gunfire came again, another rapid report that split the night. The sharp staccato pops were coming from somewhere close; in his head they were cannon fire, the sound of them—the shock of a sudden attack—ripping through his senses, filling his mind with a thick fog that swallowed the here and now.

Dylan,
he thought fiercely.

Had to keep her safe.

He was only barely conscious of his actions as he grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her down onto the grass beneath him. Her cry of alarm was muted, more felt than heard as he covered her body with his, willing to sacrifice himself for her.

Protecting her was all that mattered.

But as they hit the hard earth together, Rio felt his mind splintering off. Past and present began to blend, mesh…morph into a hazy confusion of thought and fracturing logic.

Suddenly he was in the warehouse again—Lucan, Nikolai, and the other warriors moving in on a raid of a Rogue lair in Boston. He was glancing up into the rafters of the abandoned building, noting the movement of enemies in the shadows.

Seeing the silver glint of an electronic device in the suckhead’s hands.

Hearing Niko shout a warning that a bomb was set to blow…

Ah, fuck.

Rio roared as remembered pain blasted into his head, into every inch of his body. He felt like he was on fire, flesh burning, filling his nostrils with the stench of seared skin and hair.

Cool hands came up to his face, but he was too far gone to make sense of what was real and what was a nightmare from his recent past.

“Rio?”

He heard the soft voice, felt those soothing hands moving over his face.

And, from somewhere not far away the hoots and chortles of several human youths. The laughter was accompanied by the slap of sneakers on pavement, all of it growing distant now.

“Rio. Are you all right?”

He knew that voice. It filtered through the swelling madness that was engulfing him, a lifeline thrown to him in the dark of his mind. He reached for it, feeling her voice ground him where nothing else ever had.

“Dylan,” he managed to rasp out between the panting of his breath. “Don’t want you to get hurt…”

“I’m fine. It was only firecrackers.” She smoothed her fingers over the cold clamminess of his forehead. “Those boys set them off by the railing over there. It’s okay now.”

Like hell it was.

He felt one of his blackouts coming on, and coming on fast. He rolled away from Dylan with a groan. “Shit…my head hurts…can’t think straight.”

She must have leaned over him, because he felt her breath skate across his cheek as she blew out a low curse. “Your eyes, Rio. Shit. They’re changing…they’re glowing amber.”

He knew they must be. His fangs were biting into his tongue, his skin tightening up all over his body as rage and pain transformed him. He was at his most deadly like this, when his mind was not his own. When his devil’s hands were at their most unpredictable, and most powerful.

“We have to get you someplace less public,” Dylan said. She slipped her hands underneath his shoulders.

“Hold on to me. I’m going to help you stand up.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“Leave me,” he rasped.

Dylan scoffed. “Like hell I will. You can’t lie out here like this in the middle of Manhattan and expect not to be noticed. Now, come on. Get. Up.”

“I can’t…don’t want to touch you. I don’t want to hurt you, Dylan.”

“Then don’t,” she said, and put her weight into the task of hoisting him up onto his feet.

Rio had no choice but to put his hands on her shoulders to steady himself as the fog in his mind grew thicker, swallowing up his vision. He fought to keep the blackout at bay, knowing Dylan would be safest only if he remained lucid.

“Lean on me, damn it,” she ordered him. “I’m going to help you.”

Dylan wedged herself under Rio’s arm and took his wrist in her hand, bearing as much of his weight as she could while she tried to find somewhere private for him to deal with the aftershocks of the attack that had come over him. She led him off the riverside walkway and up a one-way side street where there was less traffic, and far less people around to get close enough to see his transformation.

“Still good?” she asked him, hurrying toward an old brick church with plenty of shadows behind it. “Can you make it a bit farther?”

He gave a nod and grunted, but each step was more sluggish than the last. “Blacking…out…”

“Yeah, I kind of figured that,” she said. “It’s okay, Rio. Just hang in with me for another minute, okay?”

No answer this time, but she could feel him working to stay upright and moving. Struggling to stay lucid long enough for her to help him.

“You’re doing great,” she told him. “Almost there.”

She pulled him into the dark behind the building, guiding him to an alcove near a rusted, padlocked door. Using the brick wall as back support for Rio, Dylan carefully eased him down into a sitting position on the ground. She threw a glance in both directions, relieved to see that they were fairly concealed from the side street and any passersby. They were safe there for now.

“Tell me what to do, Rio. What do you need to get through this?”

He didn’t answer. Maybe he was incapable. Dylan smoothed his dark hair away from his face and searched his eyes for any sign that he was still cognizant. The thin vertical pupils were always a shock, but no more so than the blast of amber that surrounded them. Rio’s eyes burned like hot coals set into his skull. Anyone driving or walking past the small church would have to be blind to miss the otherworldly glow.

Dylan glanced at the old door and its decrepit lock. She’d seen Rio turn on lamps and water spigots with his mind, so pulling off a B&E on the church should have been no big thing. Except he clearly was in no condition to attempt it. His head slumped down onto his chest and with a pained groan, he started listing to the side.

“Shit,” Dylan hissed.

She left him only long enough to search the lightless lot for something heavy. She came back with a piece of broken cinder block that had been keeping the lid of a Dumpster closed. The brick was rough in her hands, and made an echoing crack and a bright spark as she slammed it against the padlock on the church door. It took two more hard strikes before the lock dropped away with a thump.

“Rio,” she whispered fiercely as she lifted his thick shoulders back up. “Rio, can you hear me? We have to get you inside. Can you stand up?”

She raised his chin and stared into open eyes that were unseeing now, vacant pits of fire.

“Goddamn it,” she muttered, then winced at the poor choice of expletives, considering she was about to bring an unconscious creature of the night into a heavenly sanctuary for protection.

Dylan eased the church door open and listened for any signs of occupation. It was all quiet, not a single light on inside the small antechamber or in the main area of the nave beyond.

“Okay, here we go,” she said under her breath as she went around to Rio’s head and grabbed his arms to pull him over the threshold.

He was heavy as hell, two-hundred-plus pounds of solid muscle and bone, none of it cooperating with her. Dylan tugged and dragged him into the darkness, then closed the door behind them.

It didn’t take long to find a couple of candles and a box of matches in the cabinets. Dylan lit the pair of white tapers then ducked back outside to grab the cinder block as a makeshift holder. She stuffed the candles into the cylindrical holes of the cement brick, then went to check on Rio.

“Hey,” she said softly, leaning over his sprawled, unresponsive body where he lay on the floor. His eyes were closed now, but restless behind his lids. A muscle in his jaw twitched, his limbs unmoving yet tense with a coiled energy Dylan could feel as she got near him.

She stroked his face with a feather-light touch, running the backs of her fingers over the flawless cheek that made him so jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and the other side that completely broke her heart. Who could have predicted these past several days, and all the things she would experience? What could possibly have prepared her for meeting this complicated, incredible man?

Would she ever truly be able to forget him, even if he erased himself from her memory like he intended to do?

She doubted it. Even if her mind were forced to forget him, she didn’t think her heart ever would.

Dylan bent down and pressed her lips to his slack mouth.

Rio’s eyes snapped open. His hands shot around her throat so fast, she didn’t have a chance to draw breath enough to cry out.

CHAPTER
Twenty-Five

H
e didn’t know what yanked him harder out of the dead fog of his mind: the feel of soft lips on his mouth, or the realization a split second later that he was holding a slender throat in his hands. Squeezing tight, fury flowing from the confusion of his blackout into the tips of his fingers where they pressed with deadly intent on a delicate female larynx.

He couldn’t let go.

His eyes were open, but he couldn’t focus on the face before him. He heard a choked gasp, a moan vibrating against his locked thumbs.

None of it broke him out of the thick darkness.

It wasn’t until he felt soft hands come up to his face—his scars—that he felt the first glimmer of clarity.

Dylan.

Cristo…he was hurting her.

With a roar, Rio threw himself off her, releasing her the instant he realized what he was doing. He scrambled into the shadows of the unfamiliar surroundings, horrified at what he’d done.

Holy hell…what he might have done, if he’d held on any longer.

He heard her suck in a few rapid breaths of air behind him. He waited to hear her footsteps take off at a panicked run. He wouldn’t have blamed her. He wouldn’t have gone after her either. Not even for the purpose of scrubbing her mind in protection of the Breed and the secret let loose from that Bohemian cave.

If she ran now, she would have her freedom from him completely.

“Go, Dylan. Get far away from me…please.”

He heard a rustle of movement as she got up. He closed his eyes, ready to let her go.

Praying she would.

Instead she drew nearer to him. Rio flinched as her hand landed gently on his head and then drifted slowly down his hair.

“Go,” he rasped. “Before I lose my fucking mind again and do something even worse. For fuck’s sake, I might have killed you just now.”

He hissed as she knelt down beside him on the floor. With the slightest coaxing, she brought his head around to face her. “I’m okay, as you can see. You scared me a little, but that’s all. God, Rio…how often does this happen to you?”

He scowled and shook his head, not interested in having this conversation right now.

“How do you get through it?” she asked. “I’d like to help you—”

“You can’t.”

He couldn’t force his gaze away from her throat as he said it, hard as he tried to avoid looking at the graceful column of Dylan’s neck. He hadn’t bruised her—a small miracle—but he could still feel the velvety skin against his palms, the heat of her still tingling in his fingertips.

And there, near the hollow at the base of her throat, beat a strong, tempting pulse.

“You need blood, don’t you,” she said, too smart to miss the weakness that he couldn’t conceal. “Would it be better for you if you fed?”

“Not from you.”

“Why not, if you need it?”

He cursed, head still pounding from the lingering effects of his meltdown. “Your blood in my body will create a lasting, unbreakable bond. I would always feel you—be drawn to you—for as long as you are alive.”

“Oh,” she said softly. “And we definitely wouldn’t want that. Not when you prefer to feel isolated and alone.”

Rio scoffed. “You don’t know how I feel.”

“When did you start hating yourself?” she asked, unfazed by the fire he was throwing off with his narrow glare. “Was it after Eva betrayed you, or much earlier than that? Back in that forest cottage in Spain?”

He snarled, turning away from her before she stoked his anger any higher. He was volatile in his current state, a deadly predator teetering on the very edge of sanity.

Just another good reason why he should put the beast down. Before he hurt someone again. Before he let himself think that the future might hold anything of worth for him.

And damn well before he considered Dylan’s reckless offer any longer than he had already.

“My mother’s been fighting for her life for nearly a year. You can’t wait to throw yours away.”

“What do you think you’d be doing if you let me drink from you now?” he shot back, his voice rough, combative. A bit desperate, even. “I’m the last thing you need, Dylan. If you reach into the trap to pull me out, I can’t promise I won’t take your arm off in the process.”

“You’re not going to hurt me.”

Rio grunted, a coarse, animalistic sound. “How do you know I won’t?”

“Because I’m going to trust you not to.”

He made the very grave mistake of turning back to look at her. With her eyes on his now, Dylan pulled her hair over to one shoulder and moved closer, until her neck was poised near his mouth. Rio stared at the exposed column of pale skin, his gaze rooting on the rapid tick of her pulse beneath the tender flesh.

He growled a violent curse.

Then he curled his lips off his fangs and sank them into her neck.

Oh…God.

Dylan’s entire body seized up in the instant Rio’s bite penetrated her skin. There was a sudden, piercing shock of white-hot pain, then…
bliss
.

Warmth filled her as Rio’s lips fastened to the wound he’d made and his tongue coaxed her blood to begin flowing into his mouth. He drew from her with a needy intensity, his fangs grazing her skin, his tongue creating a demanding, delicious friction with each hard, wet pull at her vein.

“Rio,” she whispered, her breath leaking out of her in a long, shuddering sigh.

He made a low noise in the back of his throat, a rumbling growl that vibrated through her skin and bones as he eased her down beneath him to the floor. His strong arms cushioned her, the heat of his body warming her as he covered her.

Dylan melted into him, losing herself in the dizzying pleasure of Rio’s darkly erotic kiss. She was burning up inside. She writhed beneath him, desire swamping her as he held her close to him and drank more of her blood.

He was on fire too.

Dylan could feel the rigid line of his cock pressing against her hip as he lay atop her. His thigh was wedged between her legs, spreading her open. She wanted to be naked with him. She wanted to feel him driving into her as he suckled at her neck. She moaned with the need that was rising up in her, making her grind against his thigh.

“Rio…I want…Oh, God, I need to have you inside me.”

He groaned thickly, his pelvis kicking as he pushed the stiff ridge of his erection harder against her. But at her throat, his suckling grew less needy now, slowing to a calmer tempo. Tender, where Dylan wanted to feel more fire. She felt his tongue sweep over the bite, creating a tingly sensation that traveled through her like electricity. He lifted his head and Dylan moaned at the loss of his mouth on her skin.

“I don’t want you to stop,” she told him, reaching for him. “Don’t stop.”

He gazed down at her and said something low under his breath in Spanish. It sounded furious and profane.

Dylan stared up into his scorching amber eyes. “Now you hate me too, right?”

“No,” he snarled, fangs gleaming in the dim light of the candles.

He pulled one arm out from under her and touched her face. His fingers were shaking, but so very gentle. He smoothed her hair off her brow, then let his hand travel slowly down her cheek, her chin, and along the line of her sternum. Dylan sucked in a sigh as he caressed her breasts. He unbuttoned her shirt in mere moments, then snapped the front closure of her bra.

“You’re so soft,” he murmured as his palm covered her bare flesh.

He moved down and kissed her nipple, sucking the pearled tip of her breast into the heat of his mouth. Dylan arched up with the sudden arrow of pleasure that shot through her, her desire spiraling tight as a spring.

Rio came back up to kiss her mouth as he worked the button and zipper of her jeans loose and slipped his hand inside her panties. The coppery tang of her blood on his tongue shouldn’t have made her so hot, but knowing he’d fed from her—that he’d taken strength and comfort from her body in such a primal, intimate way—was the strongest aphrodisiac she’d ever known.

And what he was doing to her with his fingers now almost had her coming in his hand.

She cried out, on the verge of losing it. “Rio, please…”

He stripped out of his shirt and pants, then pulled her jeans off. Her panties went slower, as Rio kissed every inch of skin between her thigh and ankle as he eased the scrap of satin down from her legs and cast it aside.

He sat back on his folded knees, gloriously naked. “Come to me, Dylan.”

She wanted to explore the muscled beauty of his body, but her need for him was more immediate. He took her hands and brought her up onto his lap. His sex thrust up between them, a thick spear of hard flesh. Its broad head glistened with moisture, so temptingly ripe Dylan couldn’t resist bending over it and sucking him deep into her mouth.

“Cristo,”
he hissed, his cock leaping against her tongue.

He tunneled his fingers into her hair as she teased him with a few slow slides up and down the rigid length of him. When she lifted her head, Rio’s eyes burned into her. His fangs seemed immense now, his face drawn taut. He caressed her as she climbed up onto him and straddled his thighs.

He kissed her breasts, her shoulder, her throat, her mouth.

“What have you done to me,” he rasped, throwing his head back as she took hold of his sex and guided it into the slick cleft of her body. “Ah, fuck…
Dylan
.”

She seated herself onto him and slowly sank down to the hilt.

Oh, it felt good.

Rio filled her with a heat she’d never known before. At first, Dylan could only hold herself there, unmoving, reveling in the pure heaven of their joined bodies. Rio wrapped his arms around her as she began a slow, shuddering rhythm. He met her stroke for stroke, his erection kicking, surging deeper with each downward thrust of her hips.

It didn’t take long for Dylan’s climax to build. She’d been more than halfway there before they started, every nerve ending alive with sensation and looking for release. She rode him harder, clutching his shoulders as the first wave of her orgasm flooded over her. She cried out with the pleasure of it, quaking inside, splintering into a million shimmering pieces.

Rio’s possessive growl as she came made her smile. He hooked his arms under hers and leaned down, guiding her back onto the floor, their bodies still intimately joined. He drove into her, a hard push of his cock. His tempo was urgent, fierce, full of barely restrained power.

Dylan held on as he rocked against her, reveling in the feel of his muscles bunching and flexing under her palms. Overhead, the candles threw erotic shadows on the ceiling, the flames flaring brighter as Rio buried himself deep inside her and shouted with the force of his release.

As Dylan stroked his strong back, she felt like weeping for the depth of pleasure she’d just experienced with him…and for the voice in her head that warned she would be a fool to fall in love with him.

A fact she had to admit, had already come to pass.