Savannah Past Midnight (18 page)

“Damn … so good baby. Love how wet you always
are for me. Pushes my control right to the edge.”

I flatten my hands on his smooth chest to steady
myself at the same moment he lifts his hand to his face. His tongue
flicks twice against the tip of his thumb, which he uses to toy
mercilessly with my throbbing clit.

“Colton … oh, oh yeah.”

“That’s right, Cosette, give it up to me. Clench my
cock hard with that sweet cunt. Fuckin’ love the feeling of filling
you ’til you can’t take any more.”

He presses harder against the sensitive bundle of
nerves and the combination of the pressure and his filthy words
acts as a detonator. I scream as I slam down onto him, far harder
than before, and the waves of undiluted ecstasy explode, masking
any rational thought, leaving my body adrift in pure, raw pleasure.
As the orgasm rolls through me in wave after spectacular wave I’m
hardly aware of his hands around my waist, lifting me down and back
up again, forcing me to ride him to completion. I toss my head back
and grab the top of his thighs while screaming out. My mind is
filled with a hazy, euphoric blend of luscious images of him. I
love the way he moves, his dominance, the way he fucks—giving every
ounce of his focus and energy to the act. Suddenly he thrusts up
from below at the exact moment I’m forced down hard to take him
impossibly deep. His primal shout echoes across the lake as his
orgasm takes over, pulsing hot and glorious inside of me.

He struggles to catch his breath as his shaking hand
reaches up to move the hair away that has fallen haphazardly across
my face. He senses my need, and my raging hunger must be written
all over my face because his hand locks onto the nape of my neck,
lowering me down toward him.

“Wait, let me glamour you so there’s no
discomfort.”

“Fuck no. Take what you need right now, woman. Wanna
feel those sexy fangs strike me.”

The last word barely has time to escape his lips
before I plunge deep, my sharp fangs breaching his skin with
surgical precision. He gasps and his body gives a firm jerk but he
stays in place as I start to draw from him. The first swallow is
exquisite. Maybe it’s the combination of his power along with the
unique taste of his blood that I’ve grown addicted to, but I
suddenly realize that I never want to drink from another. He groans
as I begin grinding my hips, loving the deep connection with
him.

He’s still hard inside me as he grates out between
clenched teeth, “Don’t stop.”

Surprisingly I feel more control than I ever thought
possible in this reckless scenario. I take three more deep pulls
before unlatching my jaw and swiping my tongue across the wound.
Then I begin to ride him fast and determined, fucking him with
everything I have, feeling like some sort of sexual siren who can
make him just as crazed as he makes me.

“Oh, hell, yeah, Christ … just like that,
fucuuck
, yeah, so hard, Cosette!”

I speed up the already rapid tempo, knowing that
we’re both so very close. The orgasm closes in on me with the power
of a freight train, stunning me as the blast of energy ignites. His
follows right on the heels of mine, and a deep, sexy groan tunnels
out of him as his heat begins to lash me deep inside once again. I
fall forward against his searing chest, both our bodies glistening
with exertion. We cling to each other, satiated lovers embraced by
the velvet cover of night.

“
Y
ou know, as pretty as you
are, wildcat, you’re turnin’ out to be mighty distractin’.”

She pulls up to the curb in front of my house,
shifting the gears to neutral as she bats her black lashes
innocently. “Who me? How so?”

“ ’Cause it’s safe to say that I’m hopelessly
addicted, woman. Couldn’t even slow myself down to pull my damn
jeans all the way off before we got it on back there tonight. Lucky
they didn’t fall into the fucking lake.”

She giggles as I continue, “Drives me half crazy when
we’re apart. Speaking of which, I did manage to hang those
black-out blinds in my room. Wanna come up with me?”

“Mmm, you’re not tired after everything tonight?”

I’m about to reply ‘Hell no’ when a flash of movement
in front of us makes my neck hairs stand right on end.

I throw the car into reverse and shout at her, “Hit
the gas! Now!”

She gasps and stomps on the pedal, but it’s already
too late. We’re being ambushed. The car has barely made it five
feet, tires squealing, when a powerful force brings it to a
standstill. It’s as if we’ve hit a thick steel guardrail. I whip
around and see a massive vampire, one of the bodyguards from
Sub-Zero, staring at us menacingly though the narrow panel of the
back window
.

He’s strong enough to hold a moving car? We’re
completely fucked.

Glass simultaneously shatters on both sides, and
everything begins happening impossibly fast. I grab for her, but
the force that’s pulling on her is too powerful as we’re both
dragged out from opposite sides of the smashed windows.

I do the only thing I can, I begin to fight, all the
while yelling repeatedly, “Trace! Fucking trace, Cosette!”

Please let her listen to me. If she doesn’t there’s
little chance we’ll both make it out of whatever hell awaits
us.

The metallic tang of my own blood fills my mouth as I
spit once again, never once breaking eye contact with the prick in
the designer suit. He has Cosette by the back of the hair and is
forcing her to kneel on the metal floor at his feet while he sits
arrogantly across from me, watching me with a cruel smirk of
victory on his pale face.
I want to eat him alive.

He cocks his head to the left and smiles, flashing a
set of perfect, long, gleaming fangs as he says in a thick Eastern
European accent, “You see what betrayal gets you, Cosette?”

She twists vigorously in her restraints, determined
to shake loose of his punishing hold, but he won’t have it.

“I suggest you save your strength, darling. You’re
going to need it.”

“I hate you!”

“That’s strange. You didn’t feel that way when we
first met, when I showed you things you’d never dreamed of.”

“Shut up, Tristan!”

My mind momentarily blanks in a rage so black and
toxic that it’s a wonder it’s not oozing out of my pores. The
thought of him fucking my girl, touching her in
any
way,
makes me mental, on the verge of going ballistic. But I have to
stay in control, or I’m no good to her.

For what seems like the hundredth time I strain with
all I have against the steel cuffs. Nothing. I can’t budge an inch.
My hands are locked behind my back to a thick metal pole that runs
from floor to ceiling. We’re in the hull of a large ship, I can
tell by the surrounding sheets of riveted metal and the way the
floor sways beneath my feet. I feel the eyes of the five other
vampires on me as the gravity of the situation hits home. Even if I
got free, I’d be lucky to take two, maybe three of them out …
that is, if I wasn’t already beaten half to hell. It’s been close
to an hour since they tossed us into the back of a van, bound and
hooded. Beating me over and over again on the ride to the
waterfront was just their warm-up for the evening. I’m furious that
she didn’t trace to get help, but she more than likely wanted to
know exactly where we were headed, fearing that they’d kill me
simply to make a point.

Dammit girl, you should’ve listened to me.

My eyes bore into hers and I know that she reads both
my anger and concern. I wrack my brain for some way, any way, to
get her out of here in one piece. Chances are, neither of us will
survive this night.

She jerks against him again and seethes, “Why are you
doing this, Tristan? You must have a death wish because you have to
know that my family will seek revenge against you. They already
suspect that you’re behind the wolf attacks, and there’s no denying
it now.

He bursts out laughing at her and I want to smash his
face in, fangs first.

“She’s such a charmer, isn’t she? Unfortunately for
you, my sweet, all of this falls on
your
shoulders. There is
no denying the truth. Now it’s time to pay.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Are you
seriously doing all of this because I dumped you?”

My fists tighten up as his eyes go as hard as flint.
He drags her closer, pulling her within an inch of his face. “This
isn’t about feelings or pride; this is about
power.
Your
arrogance and entitlement put a crimp in my plans, Cosette, and for
that alone you will be punished.”

Practically hissing she says, “Enlighten me on your
plans
, you sick fuck.”

“Watch your mouth, Miss Beauvais.”

She shocks the shit out of me by hauling back and
spitting right in his face.

Holy fuck.

In a flash of movement—so fast that my eyes can’t
track it—his fangs pierce her neck as she screams and tries to
fight him, but the cuffs make her actions futile and it becomes
clear that she’s unable to trace with him holding onto her.

“Enough!” I roar from across the room. “Get off her!
Drink me!”

He continues until I think I’ll lose my mind. Finally
he pulls back, his maniacal laughter bouncing off the steel walls.
Her crimson blood drips down his face and saturates his light hair.
“The pride and honor of a fighter. I would never let our little
Cosette miss the show.”

I’m practically foaming at the mouth as I seethe,
“Turn me! Turn me so I can fuck you up, ’cause I swear to God, you
do it and I’ll rip your head right off your body,
motherfucker.”

He keeps laughing, which makes me even more pissed
off.

“Really, Cosette, your standards have plummeted. A
thug who barely has a grasp on the English language. Tsk tsk, I can
only imagine what Severin must think. He must be positively
appalled. And to think you could have had it all. You could have
been at my side when I take total control of the South.”

“You’re deranged. There are too many vampire covens
around to stop you.”

“Not if they don’t know it’s me taking them down.
See, that’s where the wolves come in. It’s taken me years of
preparation and planning, but I’ve slowly and methodically injected
them with minute amounts of vampire blood, giving each new litter
additional strength—the superior strength needed to fight against
our kind. I figured once the other covens’ numbers are decimated,
it won’t take me long to swoop in and claim what’s mine. I should
actually thank Severin for taking out Valdon for me. He was the
only vampire who ever posed any real threat to my plans. Now that
he’s gone and most of his men have returned to the old country,
Charleston and the remainder of the Southeast are mine for the
taking.”

“That’s insane. There’s no way you can control wolves
to do your bidding, Tristan. They are wild animals and will
inevitably turn on you.”

“That’s where you’re so wrong, darling. They are
trained from a young age to attack by scent.”

“What?” she whispers in disbelief.

“They are given the scent of enemy vampires and food
is withheld, sometimes for days. They are ravenous and trained for
aggression. We really have come up with a positively gruesome
Pavlovian style of conditioning. I underestimated your will to
live, Cosette, I really did, because I never thought you would be
able to escape from my most powerful wolf, but from what I’ve heard
about that night, your survival was mostly due to timing and luck.
No matter, I will have the pleasure of watching you fight him once
again later tonight. The prospect makes me strangely excited.”

“You’re sick, Tristan. There is no way you’ll get
away with this. You’ll be caught and put to death. It’s just a
matter of time. My family will hunt you down. They will never stop
until you are obliterated.”

“So naive, my little Cosette.” He looks over to one
of the guards, “Release her boyfriend. I want her to see what a
pathetic choice she’s made.”

Raw, burning anger flares in me as I stare across
into his cold eyes and think to myself,
You’re going to eat
those words, you jackass. If it’s with my dying breath, I’ll make
damned certain of it.

The dark-haired vampire on my left closes in on me
with an arrogant sneer and I steel myself for the fight that’s
about to bust open. He catches me off guard, gripping me brutally
by the throat and dragging me up the pole until I’m suspended
several feet in the air. Still bound, I can do nothing to defend
myself, aside from kicking my feet out in a wild attempt to get him
to let go of my airway.

I’m starting to black out when I hear the guards
laughing and Cosette wailing desperately, “Make him stop! Release
him!”

“Yes, unchain him, Lucas. Let us all see our tough
prize fighter in action.”

His hand opens and I’m dropped right onto my ass,
where I gasp desperately for air. He reaches behind me and with his
bare hands snaps the chain between the cuffs. Instantly I scramble
backward, struggling to get my feet beneath me. My opponent is
standing ten feet away, an annoyed look on his face, most likely
because he’s being forced to fight a lowly human.

I drop a shoulder and rush him but he steps away in a
blur of motion and I slam hard into the steel wall that should have
been him. Snickers of amusement fill the dank enclosure as I whip
around and take off after him again, this time going right for his
throat.
If I can just get him beneath me on the
ground ….

My fingers don’t even make it to his body. As swift
as a cobra, he strikes out, twisting my forearm until it snaps in a
sickening crunch from the brute force.

The mind-bending agony explodes hard and fast. The
compound fracture is so crushing that I’m brought to my knees.
There’s nothing I can do to stop my own guttural screams. I try not
to look down at the bone and blood that’s spewing out of my arm,
but I can’t help it.