Bound by Night (The Moonbound Clan Vampires)
Read Bound by Night (The Moonbound Clan Vampires) Online
Authors: Larissa Ione
P
RAISE FOR
L
ARISSA
I
ONE’S
D
EMONICA NOVELS
“Sexy, dark, and suspenseful. . . . Larissa Ione brings to life a riveting new world filled with sizzling sensuality, dark wit, and wicked hot demons. Larissa Ione is an exciting voice in paranormal romance.”
—Lara Adrian,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Wicked . . . decadently sinful . . . prepare to be burned.”
—Gena Showalter,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Dangerously erotic, wonderfully satisfying. . . . Ione knows how to make your heart race.”
—Cheyenne McCray,
New York Times
bestselling author
“What a ride! Dark, sexy, and very intriguing, this book gripped me from start to finish. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.”
—Nalini Singh,
New York Tines
bestselling author
“Dark, dynamic, and dangerously seductive.”
—Jaci Burton,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Very dark, very sexy, and very creative. Ione’s Demonica series will have the most jaded paranormal fans perking up.”
—Emma Holly, author of
Demon’s Fire
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For my mom.
With this book, I finally get to explore a little of our Native American heritage. I hope you’re proud. I love you.
ONTENTS
P
ROLOGUE
T
HE VAMPIRES WERE
behaving weird today. Not that anyone believed Nicole when she told them. No, all the adults simply smiled, patted her on the head, and told her to go upstairs to play until her older brother arrived to take her to the zoo.
Half
brother, she’d told them, and again, they’d smiled and shooed her away. She never reminded her mother about the half-brother thing, though. Chuck had a different mom, and although Nicole didn’t understand what an “affair” was, talking about Chuck always brought up that word, and it made her mom and dad fight.
One of the household vampires, Anthony, grinned as he passed her in the foyer with a tray of decadent hors d’oeuvres, but something about his smile made goose bumps prickle her arms. Like all the servants, he’d always kept his eyes downcast—“secured his gaze,” as her father called it—in the presence of humans, but not this time. This time, he looked at her the way her dad looked at the Thanksgiving turkey.
Barefoot and wearing the pink princess dress she
was never supposed to wear outside, she darted out the back door reserved for the servants and ran as fast as she could, squinting against the bright summer sunlight. She slipped unnoticed past the wet bar and the food-laden tables, through the crowds of people partying around the pool, until she reached the hedges designed to conceal the gardening shed and equipment. Laughter and the clinking of glasses followed her through the dense brush. She scurried like a little animal, not caring that the branches were scratching her skin and catching on her dress.
Panting, she crouched in the very spot where, just six months before, her vampire nanny had died, her unborn baby with her. Nicole shivered at the memory. She’d been so excited about Terese’s baby. Terese had been the best nanny ever, always teaching Nicole new things, reading to her, asking her opinion on things as if Nicole were a grown-up. Terese would have been a great mommy to the baby. Secretly, Nicole had sometimes wished Terese were
her
mommy, too.
Tears stung Nicole’s eyes as she reached up and wrapped her necklace around her fingers, bringing the ring Terese had given her to her lips.
It’s a secret ring
, Terese had said as she pressed it into her small hand.
You can hide things inside it. I want you to have it
.
And remember what I said. Be a good girl and a good adult. You’ll have a lot of power someday. Use it well. I love you, Nikki.
Terese had been killed half an hour later . . . by her own mate.
Riker
.
The very name struck fear into Nicole’s heart.
Terese had loved him, trusted him. And he’d driven a blade into her throat.
Nicole would never forget Terese’s broken voice as she pleaded with him. She’d definitely never forget his face. His glittering silver eyes. His sandy hair that Terese said was silky-soft. His fangs that had been longer than Nicole’s finger.
All of it haunted her nightmares.
“Nicole Michelle.”
Nicole jumped at her father’s angry voice. He stood a few feet away in the dappled shade from the huge oak tree, his lips pressed together in a forbidding line.
“How many times have I told you to stay away from the shed? It’s not healthy for you to hang out here like a damned dog mourning the loss of his master. Terese was just a vampire. We got you a hamster
and
a new nanny. It’s time to get over it.”
“But I don’t like my new nanny! Chelsea’s grumpy, and she doesn’t read to me before bed—”
“We didn’t purchase her to be your best friend,” he snapped. “And look what you’ve done to your dress. Your mother is going to have Chelsea spank you.”
Terese would never have spanked Nicole. Hand shaking, Nicole automatically reached for the comfort of the ring Terese had given her, but in an instant, her father fisted the chain and yanked, snapping the necklace and sending the ring tumbling into the grass.
“Enough with the ring! You were supposed to throw it away. It’s beneath you to wear a slave’s jewelry. And frankly, it’s disturbing.” He flung the destroyed chain into the bushes. “Go to your room and—”
A shrill scream interrupted him. Maybe it was weird, but her first thought was that Daddy hated to be interrupted. Whoever did that would be in
big
trouble.
Her father spun around as another scream joined the first. And then another. And another, until suddenly, all Nicole could hear were cries for help and shrieks of terror.
“Stay here, Nicole.” Her father turned to her for just a second, but in that moment, she saw something in his face she’d never seen in him before: fear. “Hide. No matter what happens, don’t come out.”
She nodded, but he was already gone, running for the main house. Frightened and confused, she wedged herself between the storage shed and a bush and listened to the screams and pleas, the groans, and the wet, horrible crunching sounds punctuated by maniacal laughter. On the ground, the ring Terese had given her lay in a tangle of trampled grass, and Nicole found that if she focused on the shiny oval ruby, she could pretend the noises all around her weren’t real.
Suddenly, a huge foot came down on the ring. Too petrified to move, Nicole could only gasp when massive hands ripped her from her hiding place and hurled her against the supply-shed wall. She crumpled to the ground, pain tearing through her back, her hips, and her right leg. She tried to scramble to her feet, but her body wasn’t working right.
Trembling, choking on a sob, she looked down at her thigh and the bloody end of bone protruding through mangled flesh. Her princess dress was grass-and bloodstained now. Even through her unimaginable agony and terror, her mind could form only one thought
with any semblance of clarity: she would be in so much trouble for ruining her clothes.
“I’ve been looking for you, Nicole.”
Through a haze of anguish and tears, she glanced up at the vampire looming over her. “B-Boris?” She cried out as her family’s chef lifted her and once again slammed her against the shed, this time pinning her there. “Where’s my daddy? I want my mommy.
Mommy!
”
“Call for her all you want,” Boris said. “She’s not coming.” He touched her cheek with his finger, and a stab of icy terror shot straight to her heart. “I’ve fed you since you were old enough to eat solid foods, you spoiled little human. Now it’s time for you to feed me.” He took a deep breath, like he was smelling her. “I’ve always heard that children taste better than adults. Sweeter. Purer. Now I get to find out for myself.” He grinned. “It’s going to hurt, since I have no fangs.”
Nicole tried to fight. Tried to kick, hit, scream. But Boris was strong, and she was a petrified eight-year-old girl with a broken leg. His dull teeth sank into her skin. Grinding, crushing sounds accompanied a storm of agony as he chewed into her throat. Liquid warmth streamed down her neck, and when she tried to scream, only a gurgling noise came out of her mouth.
Why was he doing this? Why would someone who had baked her cookies for after-school snacks and strawberry cakes for her birthdays want to hurt her so badly?
You can domesticate animals, but you can never trust them or know for sure that they won’t bite. You can’t override instinct,
her father once said.
Vampires are animals that must always be harnessed. Remember that, Nicole
.
She hadn’t believed him. But as her body went mercifully numb and her struggles weakened, she recalled what her father had said when she’d argued that their household vampires, like Boris and Terese, were kind and loyal.
Even cute, fluffy pet bunnies can bite
.
Darkness closed in, and in the last second before she lost consciousness, Nicole wondered if bunny bites hurt as badly as vampire bites.
