Survive the Dawn (10 page)

Nina looked into her eyes and swayed slightly. “Anything I want?”

Leigh sported a toothy grin. She reached up and caressed her cheek. “Anything, my darling. Anything your heart desires,” she whispered. “You may kiss me, Nina.”

Nina was lost, lost in a haze of lust, lost in her loneliness that she hoped would someday end. She saw the end and the beginning in Leigh’s hypnotic gaze. She leaned in, tentatively touching her lips against Leigh’s, and moaned deeply when she felt the full lips return her kiss.

Leigh pulled back and grinned. “That was just the beginning, my darling. Come,” she whispered in a mesmerizing voice. She reached down and took Nina’s hand. “Eternity awaits.”

They walked off the bridge and into the foggy night.

Nina let out an amused laugh. Oh, how Leigh showed her what life was like as a vampire. Her worthless life as a mortal paled in comparison to this new existence.

At first, Nina was shocked when Leigh told her she was a vampire. It was impossible, but when Leigh allowed her to accompany her into the night to see exactly what Leigh was talking about, Nina was once again captivated.

She remembered the night Leigh sired her, the night as she stood in the shadows of the bedroom and watched, spellbound, as Leigh toyed with the mortal…

The young Englishwoman, who was lying stretched out on the bed, watched Leigh, naked as she walked around the bed as if stalking her prey. Nina knew that was exactly what she was doing. Leigh glanced in the shadows and winked at Nina as she moved around the bed.

“So, darling, you want me, is that it?” Leigh asked the woman.

“Yes, very much. I’ve noticed you so many times in London at the theater, and I—”

Leigh put her hand up. “I get the general idea, darling. You adore me. Stop chattering and stand up.”

The woman looked confused as she slid off the bed and stood.

“Disrobe,” Leigh said. “Do it now.”

“B-but—”

“Do it now or I shall leave,” Leigh said in a dead calm voice.

The woman started with trembling hands and untied the bodice of her dress, then the many buttons in the front, until the dress fell to a heap at her feet.

“Continue,” Leigh urged and sat on the edge of the bed next to her. She reached out and lightly ran her fingers up and down the woman’s arm.

Nina watched in the shadows, realizing she was becoming increasingly aroused by this display. She was in awe at the power and control Leigh wielded over this woman—Nina wanted such power.

The woman stepped out of the dress and Leigh kicked it out of the way. She then crossed her legs, lazily swinging her leg back and forth. “Hurry, my dear.”

Quickly, the young woman slipped out of the undergarments and stood naked before Leigh. “Very lovely.” Leigh slid back against the pillows and parted her legs. “I believe you have an idea of what happens next, darling. Do not disappoint me. Use that tongue for something else besides inane chatter.”

The woman tentatively crawled onto the bed and between Leigh’s thighs.

Nina watched as the woman lowered her head and Leigh let out a contented sigh; she ran her fingers through the woman’s hair and pulled her close. “Very good,” she whispered.

Nina watched Leigh’s beautiful body writhe as the woman pleasured her, her long blond hair blanketing the pillow, her red lips parted slightly. Nina breathed deeply when she heard a deep moan escape from Leigh. In a moment, Leigh was panting with the onset of her orgasm. A few moments later, she howled and arched off the bed.

Completely aroused, Nina fought the urge to touch herself as she watched Leigh’s eyes turn a deep blood red, her fangs protruding from her lips. The Englishwoman was unaware as she continued pleasuring Leigh.

In a flash that left Nina and the young woman gasping, Leigh had the woman on her back. She entered her and thrust hard while the woman cried out and arched her back. In the throes of an orgasm, the woman had no idea her life was about to end.

Leigh roughly pushed the woman’s hair away from her neck and yanked her head to one side. She looked at Nina for one second, opened her mouth exposing her fangs, then plunged them into the woman’s neck.

The woman cried out and thrashed for a moment, then was still. Nina was transfixed as Leigh, never looking up as she fed, raised her hand and beckoned Nina from the shadows.

On numb shaking legs, Nina walked to the bed and noticed the lifeless eyes of the woman; she died completely sated and stunned. Leigh pulled back and licked the blood from her lips.

Nina leaned in and kissed her, tasting the coppery fluid. Leigh pulled back and glanced down at the woman beneath her, then back to Nina, who knew exactly what Leigh required of her. Nina crawled onto the bed, staring at the blood that trickled out of the puncture wounds on her neck. She lowered her mouth to the wound; she shivered when she felt Leigh’s hand caressing her hair as she sucked from the open wound.

“That’s it, my darling Nina. One step closer to eternity,” Leigh cooed.

Nina pulled back and licked her lips. “I want it all, Leigh. Now,” she said hastily.

Leigh raised an eyebrow. “Do you, my pet?” She glanced down at the corpse on the bed. “The conditions are not the best right now, my darling. It’s a little crowded here and—”

“Please!” Nina begged. “I want eternity now.”

Leigh offered a challenging look and laughed. “Be very careful what you ask for, Nina darling.” She slid the corpse off the bed and lay back against the pillows.

Nina could not take her eyes off her blood-stained lips. She disrobed and flew into Leigh’s arms.

Leigh let out a delightful laugh. “What? No romance?” she asked as Nina kissed her again.

Leigh lay back and held Nina at arm’s length. “Watch, my pet.”

Nina knelt next to her and watched as Leigh placed her little finger against her breast. Her long nail pierced the skin at the top of her breast as she sliced open a small wound.

“Drink from me, Nina, and know eternity,” she said in a low commanding voice. “You will be sired by Leigh. I will teach you wondrous things, and you will be mine.”

Nina lowered her head, her mouth inches away from eternity. Leigh stopped her and pulled Nina’s long hair away from her neck and caressed the throbbing vein. “So soft,” Leigh sighed. “I will feast, as well, my pet. I will bring you eternity.”

She urged Nina lower and closed her eyes. Nina heard her moan when she suckled against Leigh’s breast. The rush was uncontrollable as she ravenously licked and sucked the blood from Leigh.

Suddenly, the blood raced through her veins; it felt like hot lava flowing through her entire body, which trembled as she continued.

In the next instant, she was on her back, looking up at Leigh, who was looming over her and grinning evilly. With her chest still bleeding, she pulled at Nina to continue. Leigh lowered her body, and Nina, lost in her lust for this vampire, drank once again. She cried out again when Leigh entered her, thrusting deeply. Her body jerked from the force but still she fed from Leigh.

“Come for me, my pet,” Leigh said in a commanding voice.

Nina came then with such force, she screamed out, pulling her head away from Leigh’s breast, trying to suck in as much air as she could.

As her orgasm raged through her, she heard Leigh’s laughter before she passed out, completely spent.

Eternity was hers.

Nina smiled evilly. “Oh, what a time we had, Leigh,” she said into the darkness.

She made her way back to her captive detective. They had a plane to catch.

Chapter 8

Sebastian stood in the library by the fireplace; thinking of so many things nagged at her. She looked at the opened box on her desk and picked up the ring that Tatiana had given her. Her words resonated in her brain:

“Take this ring, Sebastian, but never, ever wear it. When the time comes, when it is time to transfer the power to you, we will do it together, my darling. You will be the one, the one to be feared and respected. It is an ancient ceremony. I will lead you into the next thousand years.”

“The next thousand years,” Sebastian repeated and let out a deep exasperated breath. She held the ring up and examined it again. The intricate pattern was the same as the pendant Tatiana wore around her neck. Sebastian knew there was a connection between them but feared with Tatiana gone, the connection would be forever lost.

Sebastian! Avenge me!
Sebastian heard Tatiana’s desperate plea again and looked at the ring. And again, she knew—
Nicolae
would never let her rest. He wanted it all; only Sebastian stood in his way. Perhaps the other elders might still believe her, but she couldn’t count on it. Old ways were hard to change and
Nicholae
embodied the old way: Mortals are used to survive; we do not live among them. To survive, a vampire must destroy the mortals who threaten the vampire’s existence.

She looked out the window and watched the sun as it slowly descended behind the trees. She had witnessed the sunrise and sunset for the first time in over five hundred years; it would take all of Alex’s resources to reproduce the serum for Sebastian to continue to do so.

“We do not need to destroy them to survive,” Sebastian whispered as the sun disappeared behind the tree line, giving up its warmth to the dark night.

“I do so hope you’re right, Sebastian,”
Gaylen’s
voice called out.

Sebastian turned back into the room to see her old friend standing there. He wore the same outfit and another one of her silk shirts. “Don’t you have your own clothes?”

Gaylen
laughed as he walked into the room. He spread his arms and turned around. “This is my coat.”

Sebastian noticed it was a heavy tweed greatcoat. “You look like Sherlock Holmes.”

Gaylen
waved her off. “He was a drug addict.”

“He wasn’t real,
Gaylen
—” Sebastian stopped and shook her head. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve been thinking about your troubles.”

“Which one?”

Gaylen
chuckled and slipped out of his coat. “The trouble with your adorable mortal and finding a laboratory. I think I have the answer.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow and sat in the high-backed chair by the fire.
Gaylen
sat across from her, placing his booted foot on the hearth. He lazily lounged back, his arms dangling over the arms of the chair.

“Comfy?”

“Stop scowling. Yes, I am. You, however, look like a queen on her throne,” he said. “Perhaps a king?”

“
Gaylen
, you are truly testing my patience.” Sebastian put her head back and closed her eyes.

“Oh, all right.” He waited for a moment before speaking. “Kendra.”

Sebastian’s head shot up and her eyes flew open. “What did you say?”

Gaylen
offered a smug grin. “You heard me, dear.”

“What has she to do with this? Is she here?”

“First off, she’s been trying to do the same thing your adored one has seemingly accomplished. This will not sit well with Kendra, as you may remember. She’s quite the competitor,” he smiled evilly, “as you surely remember.”

Sebastian grinned. “I remember.”