Bound In Sin (A Vampire/Werewolf Romance) (3 page)

His eyes burned up at her.  His cock was also
shoving right at the junction of her legs. It was all she could do
not to rub against him. If she told him that there’d never been
anyone since him, Drake wouldn’t believe her.  

Even if the words were the truth.

Her body was
starving.
  She was already
wet for him.  Just the touch of his hands had sent a shiver
sliding over her.  She wanted more.  Just how much more
would she get?

“As many times as I want,” Drake told her, voice
rough and dark. “Until you can’t breathe without feeling me on
every inch of your body.”

Her nipples ached. She wanted his hands on them. His
mouth.

Did he smell her arousal?  Those wolves…

His lips curled in the faintest of smiles. Damn him,
he
did.

His hands rose and tangled in her hair.  He
began to pull her toward him. Toward his mouth.

Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. They had a deal,
and finally, she’d have him.

His lips were so close. She could already taste him
on her tongue. 
Would
taste him. And he’d taste
her.  He’d–

A shrill alarm cut through the room.

Sonofbitch.

She blinked, confused, aroused and–

Drake pushed her to the side of the bed and jumped to
his feet. “Stay here,” he ordered and rushed for the door as the
alarm kept shrieking.

Stay?
She was a vampire, not a dog. 
Paige jumped up and raced after him.

He was already thundering down the stairs. More men
and women were out now, all racing toward the main level of the
house. She joined them, and hoped no one decided to attack the vamp
in their midst. 

“Fire!” Someone shouted even as she caught the scent
of smoke drifting in the air.

Then they were shoving open the front doors and
hurrying into the darkness that waited outside of the main house.
She saw the flames then, rising quickly, burning right up that
thick wall that surrounded their compound. Red and gold flames,
burning in a world of snow. 

Paige stumbled to a stop even as the wolves fought
the blaze. They had buckets of water. Hoses. The water blasted at
the flames, but the fire kept attacking all around the compound
walls. To the left. To the right.

“
You can’t escape me.”
Gabe’s words rang in
her ears. He’d warned her of this, so many times. He’d said,
“
I’ll find you and destroy anyone who gets in my way.”

Someone bumped into her and Paige jerked, then she
realized–
I can’t just stand here.
She’d seen this type of
attack before. It was Gabe’s specialty. Distract and conquer. He’d
been using this technique for centuries.

Gabe…or rather, Gabriel, had been born long ago, in
the midst of battles and carnage.  War was what he knew, what
he craved.

When it came to fighting strategies, he liked to
think he was a master.  The pureblood vamp was always plotting
and planning. 

The wolves didn’t realize that this was just a trick.
They were scattering. Each going to a different spot to fight the
flames. Each–
vulnerable.

“Stop!” Paige screamed. 

No one listened to her.

More water. More fire.

“
Stop! They’re coming for you!”
  An
attack that had been planned for far too long.  She ran
forward and grabbed the arm of one woman, a chick with long red
hair. “They’re coming!”

The woman spun around and her eyes widened.
“
Vampire.”

Yes, she was. “And more of my kind are coming. Move
away from the walls! Get
ready.”

Because Gabe didn’t fight fair. He never had.

Thunder rumbled. Someone screamed. No, no, that
wasn’t thunder. In the wild confusion of the fire, that was someone
shooting
. A man fell to the ground as blood covered the
snow behind him.

Gabe always planned so well.

She looked up, her gaze flying along the length of
the burning walls. There, to the left.  Covered in darkness,
she could just see the outline of the shooter.

Only…he wasn’t the only one up there.

Paige pushed the woman away. “Get back!” Paige yelled
because she knew those guns would be loaded with silver bullets.
The fire was just the bait. Carefully placed and targeted to draw
out the wolves…

So they could be taken out easier.

She raced forward and leapt up that wall.  As a
human, she never would have been able to make that climb. The wall
was at least fifteen feet high. As a vamp–

Two seconds.
That was all it took.

The gunman turned on her. Fired.

The silver bullet tore right through her shoulder.
She gasped at the pain, and, somewhere below her, she heard a roar.
“Try…harder,” Paige gritted out to the shooter as she snatched the
gun from him.  Then she shot him, right in the heart.

He fell off the wall, tumbling down below.

The vamp wouldn’t be dead, not from a silver bullet
hit. He’d just be stunned for a while.

More gunshots. More screams.

She whirled around, balancing easily on top of the
wall. More vamp shooters had positioned themselves, carefully
hiding away from the flames. But the wolves were seeing them now.
They were launching at the vamps, trying to take them out.

They just had to take them out
faster.

Because there was blood on the ground. Injured
shifters crying out in pain.  And vamps were always attracted
to that blood…

Her fangs burned in her mouth as they stretched and
sharpened.  An instinctive response to the scent of blood. She
hurried along the wall’s edge, being careful to stay away from
those flames. She had her eyes on another gunman. That jerk waited
just five feet away, aiming down below. Her gaze darted to the
right as she tracked his target. The vamp was–

Aiming at Drake.

No! Drake was rushing toward her, not even looking
over at the gunman. “Get down!” She yelled at Drake, and she
slammed her body into the vamp’s.

His gun fired. The bullet thundered as it exploded
from the weapon.

The vampire laughed. “Got the alpha. Fuckin’ got him
in the heart!”

She drove her fist into his jaw. She heard bones snap
and wasn’t sure if that snapping was from the breaking of her own
fingers or his jaw.   

Her gaze lifted and flew to the area below. 
“
Drake!”
He was on the ground. Not moving.

The vamp’s gun had fallen into the snow near the
bottom of the wall.  Didn’t matter. She could deal with this
jerk.
He’d shot Drake.
She grabbed for the stake that she
kept in her left boot, strapped to her ankle. The vamp was twisting
and fighting, and the ledge of the wall was barely a foot across
and–

They both tumbled off the wall–falling not toward the
inside of the compound, with the werewolves, but back outside.

When they hit the ground, Paige landed on top of the
vamp. Even with the snow to cushion them, the thud of the impact
shook through her body.

When she sucked in a deep breath, the vampire drove
his knee into her stomach.

“Bitch,” the vamp snarled.  But he wasn’t just
any vamp.  
Henry
DeVeau
. She knew him. Had
always hated the prick. He liked to torture his victims. The way
he’d tortured her.Henry was Gabe’s number one attack vamp.  A
sadistic bastard who deserved to burn forever.

“You thought you’d be safe,” Henry spat the words at
her as he punched out with his ham-like fists. “You thought he’d
save you, but–”

“No,” Paige gasped out because, what did she have to
lose now?  No one else would hear what she said to Henry. The
wolves were too busy fighting the flames and the other shooters. “I
thought I’d save
him
.” Because she’d known that Gabe’s
attack on the wolves was coming. She’d known that he was going
after Drake.

So I wanted to be at Drake’s side, to keep him
safe.

The bargain she’d made hadn’t been about her
protection, not really. It had been about his.

But she’d failed him. After only a few damn minutes,
she’d
failed.

Henry’s thick brow lowered in confusion. “What?
You–”

She had the stake in her hand. She rushed forward–and
drove it into Henry’s heart.  “I
loved
him,” she
whispered as she twisted that stake. She had once loved him more
than anything else in this world, but Henry and Gabe had taken
Drake from her. Then, and
now.
“So you burn, asshole,
burn.”

Blood dripped from Henry’s mouth, and she saw the
light fade from his eyes as the bastard took his last gasp of
breath.

And she smiled. A cold puff of air appeared near her
face.  She was still breathing.  Henry would never
breathe again.

The other vamps were racing away now, disappearing
into the surrounding woods as quickly as they could–and vamps could
run  so very fast.

Time to chase.

She’d shown her true allegiance, and if she didn’t
give chase, they’d all be coming for her head–or her heart.

Paige yanked up her stake.  Barely glanced at
the blood on the wood and–

Hard arms wrapped her around. She lifted her weapon,
ready to take another heart herself.

But Drake stared down at her. His face was stark
white, and his eyes glowed with the power of his beast.

His wolf wasn’t the only one straining for
freedom.  Some of the others had already shifted.  Paige
could hear wolf howls now as the beasts hunted the vampires. Big,
furry beasts raced over the snow. 

When had they shifted? She hadn’t even noticed. She’d
been too intent on killing Henry. On getting vengeance because he’d
shot Drake. 

“Got the alpha. Fuckin’ got ‘him in in the
heart!”
Henry had been so certain of his hit.  Unlike
vampires, wolves couldn’t survive a shot of silver to the
heart.

So how was Drake still alive?

Her gaze dropped to his chest. A chest he’d clawed
open–
to get the bullet out.

Oh, damn.  That was just brutal.

“I thought you were dead.” His voice was guttural.
His hands locked around her shoulders and pulled her against him.
“I saw you go over the wall…”

She shook her head. Her body was trembling.
He’s
alive.
“I-I was just trying to stop him. I didn’t want him
to–”

Drake’s lips took hers. Not gentle. Not soft.

Hard. Wild. Rough.

There was desperation in his kiss, and so much
lust.

The sounds of the wolves were all around them. The
thudding of their paws on the snow. The howls that broke the
night.

It was cold out there, bitterly cold, but she barely
felt the ice around her. Right then, she was burning hot.

Drake lifted his head.  Stared down at her.
“Don’t ever do that again.”

Um, that wasn’t a promise she could make. She’d keep
fighting, until the threats to him were gone. She wasn’t the
running type, not anymore.

He kept a tight hold on her, smearing his blood over
her clothes, and he turned to face the wolves who’d gathered around
them. Smoke drifted in the air, but most of the flames were out,
for now.

“Find them,” he shouted.  “Hunt them!”

Some wolves were already in the woods, hunting. 
But vampires were good hunters, too.

“Find them,” Drake said again, and his voice cut
through the night, “and kill them.”

The wolves howled.

Paige knew that the final war between the vampires
and werewolves had begun. 

She could have fucking died.

Drake pulled Paige through the main house, making
sure not to let her go, not even for an instant.  The woman
wasn’t getting away from him, hell,
no.

When he’d looked up and seen her on that wall, with
that vampire bastard attacking her…

He’d roared her name.

Then the vamp had shot him.  The silver had
burned, ripping and tearing through him as he fell to the ground.
When Drake had looked up again, it had been to see Paige tumbling
right over the edge of the wall.

Drake rounded the corner and shoved open the door
that led to his quarters. 

“Drake, look, I–”

In an instant, he spun on her. “You knew they were
attacking.”

Did she look paler than before?  It seemed so.
Even the red of her lips had faded to a light pink. She stared up
at him and gave a slow nod.

Shit. Why couldn’t she have lied?  He didn’t
want to know that she’d set him up.

Because then he’d have to punish her. 

He headed to the left.  He had blood on his
hands, and he’d already smeared that blood on her. When he touched
her again, he wanted his hands clean.

All he could smell was blood. His blood. The blood of
the wolves who’d been attacked. The blood of the bastard she’d
staked. And…

Her blood.

She’d seemed paler than before.

He whirled back to face her. As she stumbled, he
picked her up and held her close against his chest. 
She’s
a vampire, but she can still die.
The scent of her blood was
too strong. “Where’s the wound?”   

She lifted her arm to her shoulder.  Her hair
had fallen forward, covering the injury, and he swept the mane
back, then cursed at the sight of her flesh.

A bullet had torn through her shoulder.

Why the hell wasn’t she healing?  Vampires
usually healed fast enough when they were injured.

She wasn’t healing.

He took her into his bathroom.  Put her down
next to the shower that could easily hold three people, though he
only preferred an intimate two.  Then he tore open her shirt
and tossed away the scraps of material so that he could see her
wound. 

But…it wasn’t the only wound that he found on her
body.  There were faint white lines on her flesh, snaking up
her stomach.  Sliding down her left arm. Scars.  Old
injuries.