Once Bitten, Twice Shy (25 page)

“Do you love me?” I asked.

Lex frowned at me. “Yes. You know I do.”

“Well, I love you, too. So, I think I can handle being tied to you.”

He looked down at the wound on his chest. I wasn’t surprised to see that the bite marks had healed almost completely. All that was left was a bright pink imprint of my teeth.

“I will bite my wrist. You will only need to draw a couple of mouthfuls but the wound will close quickly, so do not hesitate.”

I nodded and watched as he lifted his wrist to his mouth. He bit down and then quickly put his arm to my mouth. I put my lips around the wound and sucked. I pulled twice before I swallowed, amazed at the taste of his blood. I would have thought that I would find this act repugnant, but it felt incredibly intimate and sexy.

I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Lex was still inside me. As I began to suckle the wound on his wrist, his cock hardened and he began to move. I managed to get one more small mouthful of blood before the wound closed, but, by then, he was fully erect. He was gentle this time, though his hips were moving quickly.

Lex shoved my shirt above my breasts and yanked down the cups on my bra with one hand. His other hand snaked to the small of my back, forcing me to arch, and his lips closed around my nipple, sucking hard. The small flame of arousal exploded into an inferno within me. I wrapped my legs around his hips as he continued to nip and suckle my breasts. My hands buried themselves in his hair and I tugged his face toward mine.

He kissed me then, our tongues tangling. The hand that held my breast moved down my torso until his thumb rested on my clit. Lex began to rub firmly. Within minutes, I was on the edge again. My back arched as the orgasm washed over me. Lex followed me a few moments later.

After we both caught our breath, I cleaned up with a cloth Lex found in a drawer and he helped me climb off the counter. I glanced down at my destroyed pants then looked back up at him.

“Um, Lex, how am I going to get out of here without showing my goods to everyone in the house?”

When he saw the state of my pants, he chuckled. “Maybe you can command all the vampires to close their eyes,” he quipped.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How about I command you to go get me some damn pants since you’re the reason my current pair is ruined?”

He smirked at me. “I think I can manage that.”

I watched him leave, the smile disappearing from my face as the door shut behind him. Though I didn’t tell him, I was terrified of what the evening might bring. I just hoped that we all made it out alive.

I
sat alone
in the third row of the SUV. Donna, Conner, and Finn were all in the front, completely silent. Lex was in the sedan in front of us, a huge duffel bag in the back that contained several mannequin heads. I asked why he bothered with the ruse and he said that it would appear in the beginning as though he complied with their demands, perhaps giving the rest of the vampires, weres, and witches time to get into position.

We were on our way to the meet with representatives from The Faction. Belinda the Good Witch, which is how I thought of her, had managed to contact Kerry and we knew that the girls were being held in the same location as the meet. Whether The Faction intended to honor their promise to Lex or not, we were headed right for them.

I was worried about him. He would be alone with them for a bit before the horde descended upon the building. I knew he had been a general and a warrior his entire existence, but that didn’t mean he was completely immortal. I knew from all the questions I asked Donna after she was turned that vampires were not as hard to kill as the lore suggested.

I didn’t understand the entire plan, though I did know that Lex would go in and give the signal to strike. Calder’s pack and Belinda’s coven were there for back up, as were the four vampires Lex said he could trust; Donna, Conner, Finn, and Asher, who I had only met once.

With the information Kerry provided to Belinda, we knew there were between five and ten vampires in the building at any given time. She had also given Belinda information that had made the witch’s face look pale and pinched. Apparently, The Faction had a warlock on their payroll. According to Belinda, this took the operation up from a low danger level to on par with dismantling an armed nuclear device. Warlocks were witches that had gone bad and they liked to leave nasty little booby traps to protect themselves. We were going to have to be very, very careful.

Conner began to slow the SUV and I realized we had reached the edge of the perimeter that Belinda had set based on the magical survey her coven had done of the grounds surrounding the building. I watched as the sedan that Lex drove disappeared around a bend in the road, my heart sinking. It was beginning.

Conner had instructed Donna and I to stay in the car until he signaled for us. We fully intended to follow those commands as long as the boys didn’t run into any trouble.

If they did step into a pile of shit, Donna had told Conner, “All bets are off, Fangboy.”

The vampire knew Donna well enough not to argue, though he did look as though he wanted to throttle her.

Conner pulled the SUV over onto the shoulder. Finn opened the passenger door and climbed out.

“I’m off to help the witches,” he said. “I think they’ll need a bit more power than they have, and nothing is quite as powerful as vampire blood when added to a spell.”

I had no idea what he meant, but nodded to him anyway. “Be careful, Finn.”

He winked at me, shut the door, and disappeared into the trees along the side of the road. He moved so quickly all I saw was a blur. I began to gnaw on my thumbnail, eyes on the place where he had vanished.

“Don’t worry, Ivie. Finn has magic in his blood. He was a caster of spells long before he became a vampire. He will be fine.”

My eyes moved to the rearview mirror, meeting the bright blue of Conner’s gaze and I nodded.

“It’s been three minutes. Any word from Lex?” Donna asked.

Conner shook his head. “I haven’t received the signal yet.”

I had no idea how Lex intended to signal Conner. I’d asked, but he’d merely said, “It’s complicated.”

“We go in if we haven’t heard from him after seven minutes, right?” she asked, worry plain in her voice.

I didn’t say anything, but seven minutes just seemed like an arbitrary number to me. Why not five or ten?

“Yes, Donna.” Conner’s voice was tight with stress.

I moved my gaze to the back of Donna’s neck until she turned and looked at me. I gave a tiny shake of my head, warning her to be patient and not pester Conner. He needed to be focused. She sighed but didn’t say anything else.

The minutes ticked by so slowly that I thought I was going insane. At the six minute mark, there was still no word from Lex. My heart was beating fast and hard in my chest. This couldn’t be good.

Suddenly, blue fire exploded about thirty feet to our right, so bright that it was clearly visible through the trees. Conner shifted the SUV into drive.

“I think that is our fucking cue.” He peeled out and sped down the road, going the same direction as Lex had. “Remember, stay in the goddamn car until I call for you. I’m leaving the vehicle in the trees near the building. Do not leave it or I will blister both your asses.”

Donna made an annoyed sound, but I just squeaked. His threat to blister my ass didn’t sound nearly as fun as when Lex did it.

“Goddamn, fucking mistake to bring you two along,” I heard him mutter under his breath.

“It was your only choice and you know it. If you hadn’t brought us with you, we would have followed anyway,” Donna retorted.

Conner didn’t respond because he was steering the car off the road, barely slowing down. He shot between two trees, mowing down smaller brush and saplings until the SUV was hidden from the road. Through the branches of the tree to our left, I saw a building with the sedan Lex had driven parked in front of it, all four doors and the trunk open, and not a single vampire in sight. This was not good.

Conner turned and pinned us both with a harsh blue stare. “Stay down, be careful, and do not hesitate to kill if necessary. If you hesitate, you will die.”

With those ominous words, he leapt from the car and shut the door behind him. He rapped on the window next to Donna.

“Lock the doors.”

She nodded and reached over the driver’s seat to hit the automatic lock button. Conner didn’t move, merely pointed downward with his index finger. I understood he was being perfectly serious about us staying down. I climbed on to the floorboard and turned so I could see between the seats in front of me where the arm rest had been lowered.

Donna pressed her hand to the glass of the window. “I love you, Conner. Be careful.”

He winked at her as Finn had winked at me and left so quickly that I had no idea which direction he was headed. Donna did the same thing I had done, crouching on the floorboard but facing me so we could see each other over the armrest.

Somewhere nearby another explosion ripped through the trees, making the SUV shake and casting an eerie blue light inside the vehicle. I pulled my knees into my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them. Then the howling began and I knew the werewolves had arrived.

A few moments later I heard the screams of a woman quickly cut off. My wide eyes met Donna’s and she reached through the opening between the seats. I took her hand in mine and squeezed.

“It will be okay, Ivie,” she reassured me.

I didn’t respond. I hoped she was right, but I was also worried that she was wrong. More explosions and cries of pain drifted through the trees around us, along with howls and yips from the wolves. Some close, some further away. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, just that it felt like an eternity.

Finally everything around us fell silent. Not even the birds were chirping. Yet a heavy layer of energy seemed to cover everything. It was oppressive. Strangely, I felt as though it were waiting to lash out and injure anyone that might be stupid enough to remain in the woods.

As the quiet dragged on, Donna looked to me. “This isn’t good,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Conner has cut himself off from me. He did it a few moments ago.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“After he turned me, I developed a telepathic link with Conner. Now, he’s shut it down on his end. That can only mean one thing.”

My eyes widened as I understood what she was implying.

“He’s either severely injured or he thinks he’s dying.” She raised her head and peeked out the window behind her, toward the building. “I can’t sit here, just a few hundred feet away, and do nothing while he dies.”

I nodded. She was right. If Conner was in trouble, so was Lex. I couldn’t sit by and let him die.

“So, what do we do?” I asked.

She opened her mouth and I knew she was going to tell me to stay in the car. I lifted a hand to her.

Using the connection between us, I commanded, “Do not tell me to stay in the car.”

The look on her face would have been hilarious if the situation hadn’t been so dire. She wanted so badly to say those words, but I was keeping her from doing it. After a few seconds, I released my hold over her.

“So what’s the plan?” I prompted.

She grimaced at me. “I don’t have a plan exactly, except to go in and get our men and our friends and kill any bastards who get in the way.”

I nodded. “Sounds simple enough.”

She looked out the windows one more time, staying low. Then I watched as she crawled into the seat in front of me and lifted the mat off the floorboard where she had been sitting. There was a little trapdoor beneath it. My eyes bugged out of my head as she opened it to reveal three handguns.

“Do you know how to use one of these?” she asked.

I shook my head. Except for the time I’d almost shot Conner, I’d never held a gun in my life, much less fired one. I watched as she pulled it out, fiddled with it for a second until a clip popped out. She checked the clip, I assumed to see if it was full, before she put them back in. She pulled back the slide and revealed the bullet in the chamber as well.

Then she popped the clip back into the gun and repeated the process with the other weapon. She reached back into the hiding spot and pulled out two more clips, which she checked over.

“Since you can’t shoot, you need to stay right on my tail. No deviating from my path, no running off,” she stated calmly. “I’m faster and stronger than you, so I can block an attack long enough for you to do your mind control thing and then I’ll shoot whoever needs to be shot.”

“What if we run into the warlock?” I asked.

Donna looked at me. “I don’t know, but I guess I’ll try to shoot the bastard.”

I knew it was the best plan we could come up with considering we were out of time if we wanted to help Lex and Conner.

“Okay.”

She stuck her head up again, looking all around the SUV. I assumed the coast was clear because she said, “Crawl through but try to stay low.”

I gave her a look. “Why don’t you lower one side of the seats?” I asked. No use trying to wriggle over the top and draw attention to ourselves when I could just creep over the flattened seat.