Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) (29 page)

He had bitten her.

Aurora instantly stilled in his tensed arms, expecting him to start feasting on her blood, driven to drink all of her in the midst of his dark lust.

He didn’t.

He remained rigid behind her, crushing her against his body, his fangs buried in her flesh.

He hadn’t bitten her to drink her blood. He had bitten her to keep her with him and ensure she couldn’t try to sneak away from him again. It wasn’t an act of aggression. It was an act of possession. And possibly even protection.

It was light outside.

Had Snow feared she would go out into the day and the sunlight would harm her?

Aurora breathed slowly, forcing her fear to settle. His body relaxed a fraction of a degree with each second she lay calmly in his arms and the pain in her shoulder subsided. His breathing slowed again, steady once more, but he showed no sign of releasing her from his hold.

She placed her hands over his to soothe him and show him that she was going to stay. He relaxed further, his body moulding against hers in the most delicious way. His fangs remained buried in her shoulder, holding her still.

Aurora lost track of time, staring at the fire. She tried to stay awake but eventually sleep claimed her.

Something tickled her shoulder. She frowned and focused, clearing the fog of sleep from her mind. Snow had released her and was tenderly licking the spot where he had bitten her, his tongue soft and cool as it rasped over her flesh. His arms still caged her, keeping her flush against his body. He wasn’t taking her blood though.

He was healing her.

It surprised her, especially when he allowed her to roll over to face him and she found that his eyes were still blazing crimson. He was deep in his bloodlust even after his rest, but he was affectionate and gentle, two things he had never been before when the darkness had seized him. It gave her hope that she could save him.

She pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

He froze, eyes wide and fixed on her the whole time that she explored his lips. She couldn’t resist grazing one of his fangs with her tongue. He purred at that and pressed his palms into the small of her back, tugging her closer. She drew back and stroked his white hair from his brow.

“Rest now,” she whispered, her gaze holding his. “I will stay with you. You need not fear, Snow.”

To prove it, Aurora settled into his arms, her head against his chest. He tensed at first, then relaxed and rolled onto his back, dragging her with him so she was lying on top of him under the furs.

She dozed off again.

When she woke this time, the sun was close to setting and they weren’t alone.

The one she knew as Payne was standing in the middle of the room, shivering despite his thick black jacket and gloves, and looking more than a little annoyed.

“Do you know how big this damned valley is?” he snarled and she gestured for him to lower his voice.

Snow still slumbered, but if he woke, he was bound to attack his friend in order to protect her.

“I have been searching everywhere for you two. I had to hide out in a bloody cave when the sun rose this morning and wait for shade to come to this side of the valley before I could teleport through the forest. Do you have any idea how many trees I crashed into trying to get here and avoid getting fried at the same time?” Payne’s eyes darkened. Blue, gold and red mixed together like a tempest.

A very deadly tempest.

It made sense that he would be the one to show up. His incubus side gave him the ability to teleport, but only to places that he knew or could see. He had probably already been to the chateau in Switzerland looking for them and now he was here, in the middle of the arctic, hundreds of miles away from the nearest airport.

He would have had to teleport from there to the furthest point he could see and then repeat the process, risking ending up in a lake or any number of dangerous situations. Judging by his soaked blue jeans, soggy leather boots and damp coat, he had ended up neck deep in snow a few times.

He folded his arms across his chest, causing the sleeves of his thick black wool jacket to stretch tight across his muscular arms, and glared at her.

“Snow needs to come home now,” he said and his tone gained an edge she didn’t like, one that verged on threatening. He thought she was out to hurt Snow. What had Antoine told him about her? Why did everyone think she wanted to hurt him when all she was trying to do was save him?

Payne’s gaze flicked to Snow and then back to her. “Antoine needs him home.”

She knew that. She had wanted to go to him but Snow had stopped her.

“When he wakes and darkness has fallen, I will bring him back,” she whispered. “I couldn’t bring him back any sooner… even though I had wanted to. His bloodlust took over.”

Payne took a step back, as though that tiny distance could save him if Snow woke and viewed him as a threat to her.

“Please tell Antoine I am sorry and wanted to go to him and tell him about all of this… Snow would not let me go.” She glanced pointedly at Snow’s arms around her and the fact they had her pinned against him, trying to make Payne see that she wasn’t exactly comfortable sleeping on top of him like this and she certainly wasn’t doing it by choice.

Snow growled in his sleep and held her closer.

Payne tensed and crimson shot through his eyes, obliterating the blue and gold.

The growl must have been a threat.

Snow’s red eyes flicked open and she pressed her full weight onto his shoulders, cupped both of his cheeks in her palms and kept his gaze on her.

“I am safe,” she said and he inhaled, and then his lips peeled back off his fangs and he growled again. He tried to look towards Payne. She stopped him. “Snow, look at me. You know him. He means us no harm. Your brother sent him. Antoine sent him.”

Snow frowned at that and huffed as he set about covering more of her body with the furs. He tossed a growl at Payne and rolled her off him in the end, tucking her behind him and shielding her from the male by completely concealing her with his broad body and the furs.

Aurora stroked his bare back, trying to soothe him. She poked her head over Snow’s shoulder and caught the flicker of shock in Payne’s crimson eyes.

“Why isn’t he trying to kill me?”

She kept caressing Snow’s back, keeping the motion even and smooth. “He will be if you stick around. I think we had a little breakthrough.”

“Snow has claimed you as his female.” Payne hit the nail on the head with a resounding bang and looked as though he wanted a prize for it. She was tempted to point out all the evidence that should have made that clear from the moment he had popped into the cabin.

For a start, she had been in bed with Snow, sleeping on top of him.

Payne moved, just enough to undo all of her hard work, causing Snow to tense and toss a dark snarl at him. Snow clutched her closer to his back, his blunt claws digging into her bottom through the furs.

“I’m not interested in her. I’m taken, remember?” Payne said but it didn’t stop Snow from growling at him again.

“Perhaps you should leave and return to Antoine. Tell him that as soon as Snow is feeling better, I will bring him home,” Aurora said and stroked Snow’s hair, desperate to soothe him so he didn’t do something he would regret later.

“I’m damned well going to tell him that you fucked Snow some way towards sane.” He grinned and disappeared.

Aurora cursed him and was tempted to go after him, catch him before he could say something so vulgar to Antoine, and beat him into a bloody pulp. She should have let Snow have his way with the arrogant perverse male.

She squealed when Snow dragged her over him, caught her before she hit the floor, and kissed her.

Someone was learning fast.

Aurora melted into the furs, letting him have his way for a full minute before she decided that him kissing her senseless while lost to his bloodlust probably wasn’t a good thing.

She pushed him back and his eyes flicked open to reveal blue irises.

S
now stroked the tangled waves of Aurora’s long black hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. She stared at him, her beautiful green-to-blue eyes wide and full of the shock he could sense in her. She hadn’t expected him to be back. She had expected the red eyes of his bloodlust.

“Payne was here,” he murmured, not wanting to break the comfortable quiet that was happening between them. She nodded. Snow frowned. “He was rude to you.”

Aurora didn’t nod this time. “We should take you back to the theatre.”

His frown hardened and he rested his fingers on her warm pale cheek. He remembered her being cold last night, her skin chilled by the wintry weather. He remembered her coming to find him in the darkness, risking her life.

It had angered him, although he wasn’t sure why. At the time, he had felt she was in danger and he had been desperate to protect her. The only threat to her in this part of the world was a polar bear and Snow could easily take down such a beast. It wouldn’t have laid a paw on Aurora.

“What if I do not want to go back?” Snow said, partly because he didn’t want to return to Vampirerotique and partly because he wanted to see how she would react to that question.

“You have to—”

“Yes, I have to,” he interjected, disappointed that she was going to take the sensible route of what he must and must not do, rather than allowing her emotions to colour her answer. “But that doesn’t mean that I want to go back. If I didn’t go back… if I chose to spend the rest of my days in this cabin… would you stay with me?”

She nodded without hesitation.

“Because it is your mission to monitor me and decide my fate?”

She frowned now, the action pinching her black eyebrows together and turning her sensual mouth into a hard line. He had to put it out there. He needed to know that she was here with him because it was what her heart wanted, not because it was her duty.

“No,” she whispered and a delicate blush rose onto her cheeks. She glanced down at his chest. Snow stroked two fingers along her jaw, settled them under her chin, and raised her face again, forcing her to look at him. He wanted to see her eyes because he wanted to judge her feelings as she spoke to him and they hid nothing from him.

“But you would not stay for long though… how long do we have?”

She tried to look away again and then met his gaze. “Do not look at me like that.”

“Like what?” He wasn’t aware he was looking at her any differently from how he normally looked at his female.

“So full of hope… a look I would give anything to keep on your handsome face.” Her blush deepened.

She liked how he looked at her as though she was his salvation then, even though she could be his damnation just as easily. Could she read in it that his happiness hinged on remaining here with her?

He desired it more than anything. He needed to stay here, with her in his arms, away from a world that tested them both and pushed them to their limits. He wanted to be with her forever, living peacefully, sharing centuries together.

He ached for that even when his dark heart knew it was impossible and that hoping for such a thing would only lead him to suffer pain a thousand times worse than he had already experienced in his long weary life.

Such good things didn’t happen to him. They were the fate of others more deserving. His fate was a dark one, his path fraught with danger and bloodshed.

“How long do we have?” he said and then cleared his throat, attempting to ease the tightness that had built there all of a sudden.

He stared into her eyes, foolishly wishing she had come to him sooner so they could have had longer together. If he could have met her again centuries ago, before or maybe even after he had been drafted into the Preux Chevaliers, he might have been a different man.

He might not have killed his family.

He had witnessed how Sera tempered Antoine’s bloodlust, helping him maintain control. He yearned for that with Aurora, that her loving touch and presence at his side would give him back a modicum of control over the darkness that raged within him, and that with her he could come to master it completely in time.

A fool’s dream.

“Perhaps a day.” Those softly spoken words cut at his dream, tearing it to pieces before his eyes.

Only a day.

Today might be the last day of his life.

How many times had he wished for that?

Now that it was here, he feared what would happen. He feared for himself and for Aurora. The affection she showed to him, the fact she believed herself falling in love with him, wasn’t reason enough for her to risk her life by telling her superiors he was no threat to the world. He could never allow it.

He would have to think over everything that had happened to him in the past few decades and see whether there was hope for him, and speak with her about it all. He couldn’t do that at Vampirerotique. Antoine would want her away from him. His brother wouldn’t understand that they only had a short time in which to decide his fate, and Snow was damned if he was going to tell Antoine that he might die tomorrow. He couldn’t inflict that pain upon his beloved brother. Antoine had fought so hard to make him live.

Snow hated himself for deceiving his brother, and himself.

Aurora had made him realise that he had never truly fought his bloodlust. He had always allowed it to steal control over him, desiring the pain and suffering as punishment for his sins.

He would give anything to have a chance to go back and change his past, even if it was only so he could fight his bloodlust in the aftermath of killing his family, and consequently erase the lies he told to Antoine and the black feathers he added to Aurora’s wings.

“I think I really should take you back to your brother as soon as I can. Antoine seems a very determined and protective male, and if we do not return, he will make Payne teleport here again.”

Snow didn’t pay attention to half of what she said. He was too lost in his thoughts, going in circles and feeling increasingly frustrated, unsure whether there was a way to prove himself able to function in the world and whether he believed it possible anyway.