Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (36 page)

She walked forwards and went to get into the car, and then straightened again and looked at him. Something wasn’t right.

“Where are we going?” She wanted an answer this time.

“Get in the car.”

“Tell me where we’re going.”

His jaw tensed.

Amber’s mind felt heavy. It spun and twirled, sending her vision out of focus, and she closed her eyes. A deep throb pulsed through her and then cold darkness swallowed her.

Her head was splitting when it receded and the world slowly came back. Sound came first, trickling in through her thick mind, and then she managed to open her bleary eyes and the haze in her head cleared enough for her to take things in, only there wasn’t much to see.

A dark room.

Was she back in the lodge?

She tried to sit up but her head spun and she collapsed back again. She fumbled around in the dark. Soft padding cushioned her back and her right side, and formed a pillow beneath her head. Her left leg dangled over the side. She touched the top, fingers tracing the elaborate carving there.

A sofa?

She hadn’t seen one in the lodge.

She sat up more slowly this time, clutching the back of the couch to steady herself.

Was she in the main house?

Her head throbbed and she closed her eyes. She touched her temples, feeling her blood pounding through them, and held it together. She didn’t want to pass out again.

Amber tried to think back to what had happened.

She had been going somewhere with Kearn. He wouldn’t tell her where. He had looked angry and then she had felt incredibly tired and sick.

Had he hit her?

It was a ridiculous thought. Kearn would never do such a thing and she hadn’t seen him move. All he had done was look at her.

Maybe he had used his powers to knock her out.

She frowned in the darkness. Maybe everything was getting to her. She had felt sleepy last night after making love with him, so bone deep tired that she had slept through to tonight. Kearn hadn’t even woken her when he had left the bed.

Bright light flared into life, chasing back the darkness, and she squinted against it.

“How are you feeling?”

Kearn.

It was good to hear his voice. She tried to look at him but her head hurt and the light was too bright for her eyes.

“I’ve been better.” She squinted until her eyes adjusted and then looked around the room. She didn’t recognise it, but it definitely wasn’t the lodge. The room was large and stately, with antique gilt-framed furniture and old oil paintings hanging on the deep green walls. She cast her gaze around, scanning over the Chinese rug covering most of the dark wooden floor, and the beautiful inlays on the black cabinets. Kearn stood to her left, a closed mahogany door as his backdrop. Was she somewhere in the main house?

Her eyes settled on Kearn when he moved towards her. He was shirtless, his toned muscles shifting deliciously with each step, and his hair was damp again. He knelt in front of her, concern bright in his green eyes, and placed his hands over hers, bringing them away from her temples.

“Let me see,” he said and searched her eyes, and then checked her over, touching around the side of her head and running his fingers through her hair. “You had me worried.”

She wished she could feel that emotion in him as well as see it in his eyes.

“What happened?” She struggled against the pain throbbing in her skull.

“I am not sure, but I believe it might be related to the stress you underwent when meeting the archduke. It must have been difficult for you to cope with him communicating with you through touch alone.” He sighed and held her hand, and warmth travelled up her arm and into her heart. His smile soothed some of her hurt, chasing away the darkness inside her, and she nodded. It made sense. She had felt strange and out of sorts after meeting the archduke. Her head and body hadn’t felt as though they were her own, and some of her memories of meeting him were still tangled into tight knots that were impossible to undo. Kearn squeezed her hand. “You are feeling better though?”

“A little,” she said and his smile widened. There was relief in his eyes but she couldn’t feel it in him.

Amber focused on him and closed her eyes, trying to sense his feelings. Nothing came to her. He was a void before her. Why had he shut her out? He had been so open with her, and she had felt as though he loved her too, but now he had closed himself off again. Had she done something wrong?

She wanted to ask him whether his feelings had changed, but she was afraid of the answer. She had begun to believe in his fairytale of undying love and being with him forever. He had said that he would cherish her and treat her like a queen when he made her into a vampire. Right now, she felt as though he would treat her as those women at the ball had been by their men.

“What happened back at the house?” She opened her eyes and searched his.

“We had to leave.” Annoyance laced his voice.

Was it because they had left the safety of his family’s estate or something else? She studied his eyes, trying to decipher the truth and his feelings from them. They were cold now, as emotionless as they had been when they had first met. She hadn’t seen them like that in a long time.

She started when his fingers brushed her cheek. They were warm against her and she was tempted to lean into his touch because she was cold. Only his warmth could chase away the chill in her heart.

“The Pendragons turned against us.” The look in his eyes when hers leapt to them said that he had been shocked too. She caught a glimmer of his anger. “The archduke is in league with the man we are after. That is why he had my blood.”

She believed him. When she had met the archduke, she had felt his power and had been afraid. She hadn’t wanted Kearn to go alone to see him and had meant to tell him that she wanted to go with him, but it had slipped her mind last night and then he had gone while she had been asleep.

“Your neck is bleeding again.”

Amber felt his eyes on it, burning through the crepe bandage. She sensed his intent and his desire. He wanted her blood.

Before she could utter a word, he was removing the bandage. His hands skimmed her throat, sending shivers tripping over her skin and building the anticipation inside her. It didn’t frighten her when he drank from her. She knew in her heart that he couldn’t help his hunger for her and that it wasn’t only her blood that evoked such a strong response in him. It was his feelings too. He needed her.

His cheek warmed hers and he held her waist and drew her closer to him, until her bottom was resting on the edge of the sofa and he was between her thighs. He breathed in deep and then sighed.

“You smell divine,” he murmured against her neck and heat flashed through her.

He kissed her throat and her eyes slipped shut. His tongue traced a line over the wound and it stung but the pleasure eclipsed the pain. He was gentle with her, softly licking her throat. It was nice to have him being so tender. It made her feel that he did love her after all.

He sighed again. “We need to be ready for the man. He will come soon, I am sure of it.”

She barely heard the words. He uttered them quietly on her throat, his breath tickling and teasing her.

“You must give me enough blood for me to feel the true effects so I can be strong enough to protect you.”

Those words frightened her a little. How much blood was he talking about? He had taken quite a lot in the past and hadn’t shown the effects that he had told her about. It hadn’t made him invincible and stronger than anyone. The archduke had felt ten times more powerful than Kearn ever had to her.

She nodded anyway and swallowed her trembling heart. She had to do this for him. She needed him to defeat the man so they could be together.

Kearn’s lips closed around the cut and he sucked. It hurt at first and she felt lightheaded. She had never felt so conscious of her blood leaving her before. He was sucking hard, his fingers closed tightly over her ribs, squeezing as though he wouldn’t let her escape.

She clutched his biceps when her neck hurt again, fiercer now, and squeezed her eyes shut. How much blood was he taking? The sound of his suckling turned her stomach. She wanted to push him away but he needed her blood and she had offered it. She had to give him the advantage over the man so he would survive the fight.

Her heart missed a beat. Her head spun and her grip on Kearn slipped, her hands falling to her lap. She was too tired to hold him now. Would he ever stop drinking? Every inch of her felt drained, as though he was sucking the life out of her.

His tongue traced her throat, sparking her arousal. He murmured quiet words against her skin about the sweetness of her blood and how he loved the taste of her. Desire chased away her fatigue but couldn’t erase it completely. Not even the feel of him sealing the cut could bring life back into her veins.

The connection between them reopened and she was glad to feel him at last, and to feel his hunger for her and his desire to protect her and keep her safe. He wanted her to be his, and she wanted nothing more. She wanted to give herself to him so his loneliness would end. She would be with him always.

“I want to bite you,” he whispered in her ear, low and sultry, his hot breath tickling her. “I want to make you mine. Do you want that too?”

Amber closed her eyes. “I want to be yours.”

“Soon.” He pressed a kiss to her throat and she trembled. “I will not let anything happen to you. You are mine now.”

Amber smiled and ran her hands up his back and into his hair.

She froze. Long lengths were under her fingertips, tied in a ponytail. Kearn’s hair wasn’t long enough to tie back. She pushed him away and her eyes widened, terror gripping her heart when she saw his face.

“You.” Her voice quivered and her heart thudded hard against her ribs, making her dizzy.

He grinned, revealing fangs.

It wasn’t Kearn.

It was the man who wanted her blood.

He had been Kearn a moment ago. She hadn’t been dreaming it. He had worn Kearn’s face and had Kearn’s voice. He had felt love towards her.

Amber panicked.

She lashed out, slapping him hard across the face, and quickly brought her feet up and kicked him off her. He fell backwards, landing on the Chinese rug, and she scrambled towards the back of the sofa. He caught her ankle before she could clamber over it and dragged her towards him.

Her chin hit the wooden frame and her skull ached, sending deep throbbing waves through her body. Amber kicked him in the chest. When he stumbled away from her, she broke for freedom again. It was no use. He lunged at her, knocking both her and the couch over backwards.

She landed awkwardly with it, her legs in the air and her back on the floor. He was on top of her in an instant, painfully twisting her arms and pinning her wrists to the floor.

“You shouldn’t fight me,” he whispered with a smile, his red eyes burning into hers and his bloodied fangs showing between his lips as he spoke. She shook at the sight of them. He had been at her throat and could have bitten her and drained her dry. As it was, he had taken enough blood that she was close to collapse. But he had been Kearn then. She was sure of it. He lowered his face to hers and his smile widened. “You’re mine now. You said you were.”

Amber struggled against him but it was no use. “I’ll never be yours. I’m Kearn’s.”

The man laughed. “The Venator?”

His grip on her wrists tightened and she cried out when it felt as though her bones would break.

“He won’t give you what you need.” The man smiled slyly. She wasn’t going to believe him. He was just trying to hurt her and make her his. Well, it wasn’t going to happen. She believed everything Kearn had said to her. “The Venator wants nothing to do with you… a human… a Noble vampire could never feel anything for a human.”

She wouldn’t believe that. Kearn felt something for her. It wasn’t an act just so she would become a vampire. She had felt it in his blood. He wasn’t like the other vampires. He loved her and he wanted to be with her. That was why he wanted to turn her. It was because he needed her, and he couldn’t live without her.

“How would you know?” she whispered, feeling defiant.

The man grinned. “Because I am one.”

Amber fought him again. He pinned her arms so she kneed him in the groin. He growled and struck her hard, sending her head spinning, her brain rattling around it from the force of the blow. It took her a moment to get her vision back.

“The Venator thinks only of duty. His duty to defeat me, and his duty to strengthen his bloodline. He told you his past, yes? His only point in life was to increase the numbers of his family. Why else would he want to make you a vampire?”

“Because he loves me.”

The sight of his fangs when he laughed unnerved her. He could have bitten her and she would have believed that it was Kearn. She wouldn’t have known until it was too late.

“Loves you?” His expression turned deadly serious. “His only feeling towards you is lust… lust caused by your blood.”

Amber grimaced when he yanked her hands above her head and pinned them with one of his. He lowered his free hand, skimming it down her arm, and settled it over her right breast for a moment before moving it to rest over her heart.

“Pitter patter… pitter patter… is it fear or thoughts of the Venator that stirs you so?” His red gaze fell to his hand and his look turned to fascination. “It makes beautiful music. Just as it did the night we danced. You wanted to be in my arms then… and you wanted it again tonight. You want me.”

“I want Kearn.” She glared at him. “You disgust me.”

His eyes darkened and then he smiled again, cruel this time, his lips compressed into a thin line.

“Your body wasn’t saying that a moment ago.”

“You were Kearn then... I swear... I don’t know how the hell you did it, but you looked like him.”

She glanced around, trying to find a way to escape. There was only the one door. Could she reach it before he caught her? Could she even get him off her? His grip on her wrists was so tight that she wanted to cry. Her gaze met his again and, for a moment, he was Kearn.