Catherine (Echoes of Ossiria #1) (11 page)

He grinned and set
a casual pace.
 
“Knew I liked you for
some reason.”

Their rhythm
didn’t stay slow for long.
 
He couldn’t
keep from touching her, letting one hand, then the other, go in his quest to
tease and feel her.
 
She wrapped her arms
around his shoulders, his neck, threading her fingers through his hair as he
nipped at her breasts, her throat…
 

A clever swirl of
his hips made her moan again.
 
“
William…
”
 

“I’ve got
you.”
 
He slipped a hand between them and
flicked her clit.
 
Her muscles clenched
around him again in response.
 

She clung to him
as she arched off the bed, caught in the throes of orgasm and triggering
mine.
 
He vamped out, but didn’t bite
her.

It was the first
time she saw his demon mask.
 
His eyes
were gold, as in the color of his irises had changed.
 
She lifted a hand to glide her fingertips
over his forehead, his eyes closing as they trailed over his cheek.

He shook off the
fangy
look and softly kissed her.
 
“You alright?”

“Better
than.”
 
She stretched beneath him.
 
“Are you…?”

A shallow thrust
confirmed her discovery.
 
“Part of the
vampire package.”
 
He rolled them,
putting her on top.
 
“Not done with you,
yet.”

“Oh!”

Sitting on his lap
with him inside her put a whole new angle on things.
 
Her head tingled when she sat up straight,
making her feel drunk.
 
His strong hands
stayed on her waist until the dizziness passed.
 
“Don’t do that when I’m still woozy.”

He grinned, a
thoroughly naughty expression.
 
“Blood
flowing elsewhere than your brain, love?”

She tried to
scowl, though it came out looking more like a pout.
 
“’S your fault. What am I…?”
 
She gestured to the new position.

“Anything you
like, baby, that’s the point…you’re in control.”

She blushed.
 
“Oh.”
 

Logically knowing
what you read in a book, and
applying
it, were two different
things.
 
Luckily, she had a patient
teacher.

He gripped her
hips and lifted her a fraction off his erection, then let her slide down
again.
 
Her eyes widened as he stroked
her internally at this new angle.
 
Up,
down; up, down; and every time was hitting this new place…

“
Oh, god
…”
 

She caught on and
moved on her own.
 
His hands coasted up
her sides to mold around her breasts now that she didn’t need his help.
 
He leaned up to kiss them again.
 
She was riding him fast, then he slowed the
pace, sitting up to wrap his arms around her.
 
She opened her eyes, coming back to where she was, and her brow furrowed
with the unspoken question.
 
He just
tilted his head and captured her lips, kissing all thought away…

She came to on her
side in time to feel him enter her from behind.

“OH, my
god
…
William
…”

He placed a tender
kiss on her neck.
 
“Love how you say my
name like that,” he said with a measure of pride.
 
“You like this.”

She whimpered as
he pushed in again.
 
“How’d…we
get…?”
 

“You passed out
for a minute. Personal best for me.”

“Smug bastard.”

He laughed and
pinched her nipple.
 
“My parents were
married, thank you.”

“You keep this up;
I’m not going to be able to walk.”

“Not seeing the
problem, love.”

Chapter Seven

Catherine had
always guessed sex with William would be…well, more reflective of his
vampiric
status.
 

Instead, the
longer they were joined, the more tender and affectionate he was.
 
If there’d been any real feelings between
them, she would have called it making love.
 
Four hours after she’d last looked at the clock, they were finally sated
and exhausted.
 

She was curled up
against his side, her head pillowed on his shoulder and her leg tossed over his
thigh, the bed covers pulled up and tucked under her arm.
 
With dawn approaching, he was drifting off to
sleep, his unnecessary breaths becoming fewer and farther in between.

She allowed
herself a couple hours to nap.

Sandman’s Dust was
listed in a book on
Cures and Treatments
for Common Ailments
.
 
The day she
went shopping with Alicia, she’d had the great fortune to slip into a magic
shop unnoticed while Alicia harassed some clerk for Ferragamo shoes.
 
The vial was in plain sight on the shelf, and
the storeowner had no other customers at the time.

“Trouble sleeping,
dear?”

“Uh, no, it’s
actually…does this work on anyone? Really?”

“I’ve never had a
dissatisfied customer.”

“What about
someone who isn’t…exactly…human?” she asked.

“Ahhh…Well, you
might have to up the dosage, but as long as the subject sleeps in the first
place, Sandman’s Dust never fails. Guaranteed deep sleep for several hours.”

She paid for the
vial and stuck it in her purse, quickly hurrying back to Alicia.
 
The powder could be applied to the tongue
directly, or diluted in any liquid where it would be undetectable.
 
She wasn’t sure what compelled her to choose
that particular item, but it seemed to be an easy option of escape.

Now, with the sun
up outside and William sound asleep, she slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the
closet for her bag.
 
She found the small
vial in one of the outer pockets and tiptoed back to the sleeping vampire.
 
With his mouth dropping slightly open and his
face fully relaxed, her goal was even easier to accomplish.
 
She just had to do this
carefully.

Mixed with water
in a glass from the bar, she trickled the medicine in his mouth and whispered the
activation word: “
Dormio
.”
 

He sighed a puff
of white smoke, signaling the spell was in place.

Free to do what
she wished, she took a hot shower, ate the leftover cake, and dressed in
clothes she’d packed.
 
She found the
jewelry box in his coat pocket and put the pearls away.
 
Whatever she was now, she wasn’t a
thief.
 
Wincing as she hoisted the bag on
her shoulder, she paused to look at him.

She wished she
still had her camera, but
Tallis’s
crew stole
anything of value when they cleaned her stuff out of the dorm.
 

The blond vampire
really was quite beautiful.
 
The sheet
rest low on his hips, giving her a full view of his chiseled torso.
 
She set the satchel on a chair and stepped
nearer, unable to resist touching him one last time.
 
His handsome face looked younger in slumber,
a slight smile gracing his lips.
 
She
caressed the wild curls on his head and leaned down to press a kiss to his
forehead.

Then she left a
note on the pillow next to him and exited the suite.

As the cab she
rode in stopped in front of the American Embassy, she hoped he wouldn’t be too
angry when he awoke and discovered her gone.

“May I help the
next person?”

She stepped up to
the counter.
 
“Hi, I need to get a new
copy of my passport. Mine was stolen.”

“Identification,
please?”

She pushed a few
items under the glass separating them.
 
“I had my old passport in my suitcase, from when I was a kid? And here’s
my driver’s license and Social Security card.”

The woman looked
at the pictures, then held them up next to the brunette’s face.
 
“Fill out these forms, then go to that desk
over there.”

Catherine took her
personal items back and found a chair she could use.
 
With any luck, she’d be on a plane back to
the States by the end of the day.

She got a flight
to New York
from Heathrow and sat down in an airport restaurant to have an early
dinner.
 
The soreness from their
activities was catching up with her, and she had no doubt she’d sleep on the
plane.
 
The flight would be in the air by
sunset.

She would have to
watch her back for a while, as
Tallis
was bound to
find out soon about her escape, but hopefully…eventually…he’d get bored, and
she could live in peace.
 
The past month
felt like years had gone by.
 
It seemed
another lifetime ago that she’d been a mousy college freshman going about her
classes and little life.
 

She wasn’t
innocent anymore, or at least, no longer naïve.
 
Knowledge and experience aged you, even when it came quickly.

From NYC, she had
options.
 
There was California and the university.
 
She had cousins in Pennsylvania. A great-uncle in Oklahoma.
 

America was a very large haystack
to hide in.

She went straight
to the nearest hotel from the airport.
 
Her body thought it was late still, so she was going to sleep.
 
Figuring out where to go next could come in
the morning.

Epilogue

November 1987

One year after the
kidnapping…

Catherine walked
through the parking lot of the university at night.
 
She’d made it to her second year and was
looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
Humming the latest pop hit, she neared her car, seemingly unaware of the
man following her with silent footsteps.

It was a lie.

Tallis
darted from car to car behind her.
 
He crept up on her until he was about to
throw his arms around her and grab her, only to have her spin around in front
of him.
 
She plunged a stake through his
heart, the stunned look on his face a pleasure in its own right.

“Please. Did you
really think I didn’t know you were there?”

He disintegrated
into a little pile of dust at her feet.
 
She took a plastic bottle and spoon out of her backpack and scooped the
ashes into the container.

“All too easy,”
she sighed—bored, but happy.

The drive to her
nearby apartment was short.

Since her escape,
the strangest thing had happened to her.
 
She became a paladin, a latent power activating in her genes.
 
Her guide said she was a late-bloomer.
 
 

Her grandmother
passed away in the last year, leaving her enough money to live off-campus plus
pay tuition.
 
The result had been a nice
one-bedroom, complete with protective wards.
 
She took the secure elevator up to the third floor and walked down the
hallway to the corner apartment.

“Honey, I’m
home!”
 
She dropped her backpack in the
hall.

“How was class?”

She walked into
the living room to see Mike reclining shirtless on the couch, reading the newspaper.

“Last one before
the break, so it was awesome.”
 
She
tossed him the plastic bottle.
 
“Got you
a present.”

He arched a
brow.
 
“Dust? How thoughtful of you.”

She plucked the
paper out of his hands and straddled his lap.
 
“
Ashes
, to be more precise.”
 
Raked her nails down his pale chest.
 
“A thorn in my side?

He grinned,
catching her meaning.
 
“Do
tell
.
This is really him?”

“Mm-hmm. Idiot was
so arrogant, he didn’t even sense me.”

The vast majority
of paladins had their abilities manifest by age seventeen, but it meant she was
stronger, faster, and burned the undead with the touch of her skin.
 
Just like Mike.
 
He found her, trained her, and kept her off
the radar of his former bosses—not that he told her much about his past.
 
Since they were more friends-with-benefits
than dating, she didn’t mind much as long as he satisfied her appetites.
 

“You’re lucky he
didn’t.”

She pouted.
 
“I staked him, didn’t I?”
 
She got up and walked into the kitchen to
stand in front of the open refrigerator.

He came up behind
her and brushed her hair to the side.
 
“You’re still new to this, love.”

“Thought you said
I’m a natural talent.”

He started kissing
the skin he’d revealed.
 
“I did, but that
doesn’t replace experience.”
 
One of his
hands snuck underneath her jeans.
 
“You’ve
gotta watch out for the baddies that know just where to hit you the
hardest
.”
 
His fingers flicked—

Oh God
…
 
“Lucky me I have a good teacher, then.”

Only a year older
than her, Mike greatly benefitted from the training Alicia gave her.
 
And William.
 
Every time he came back to town, he was in her bed again.

He chuckled.
 
“Got anywhere you need to be in the morning?”

She turned to face
him.
 
“Nope, it’s Thanksgiving. Just
football and pumpkin pie.”

He crouched and
tossed her over his shoulder.
 
“Good!
I’ve got some lessons in mind, and they’re going to take
all
night.”

She pinched a butt
cheek.
 
“Yes,
sir
.”

The End