Her Warrior for Eternity (12 page)

A magnificent body, strong, muscled and masculine. She wanted to bite it, to taste it, but more than that, she wanted to devour it. She pressed her mouth to his throat and the beckoning pulse there. Her fangs shot down and she bit through.

Blood, warm and rich, gushed into her mouth, faster than she could swallow. He stiffened, but he didn’t move, so she ignored him and just drank. The potion went straight to her head, the effect intoxicating.

“That’s enough, sweetie.”

She ignored him. How could it be enough when it tasted so wonderful and made her feel so splendid?

Power washed over her, demanding she obey. “That’s enough.”

She stopped feeding. She licked the blood that had spilled from the punctures, carefully collecting every last drop. The man shivered and his breathing caught.

You need to seal the wound.

How?

I’ll show you
.

An image came to her mind and the voice in her head guided her through it. Sealing the wound wore off her high, as she had to use the newly gained energy for it.
We’ll get more later
, the voice promised.

Satisfied, she stretched languidly right where she lay on top of him. Her naked body met his erection, hot and demanding attention. Instantly, another instinct took over. She glided down and took him inside her.

Strong hands grabbed her waist, preventing her when she was about to move. “No. You’re not strong enough yet. Stop.” The words were firm, but the voice was strained.

“Make me.” She smiled, slowly. Her fangs had retreated, but a drop of his blood clung to her lips and she licked it off. He inhaled sharply and his hold of her hips tightened. He lifted her up, and pressed her right down the length of him. Amazing pleasure shot through her and she moaned. It was too much for him. Holding her down, he began to pump up with his hips. She only needed to enjoy the ride, he did all the work.

She came with a scream and collapsed on him. A few heartbeats later, she was dead to the world again.

Chapter Thirteen

“How are you feeling?”

It was the evening of the twelfth day after Cora’s
promise
was
fulfilled
, and Jeremy had been anxiously waiting for her to get over the transformation. She had been in deep sleep for days. All new vampires required slumber to regain their energy, on top of which she had been healing the gunshot wound, which had taken its toll too.

He studied her, trying to assess her critically. She had lost some weight, which wasn’t good for someone with her lean structure. But she wasn’t as terribly pale anymore as she had been, and her eyes were clear.

She looked around, baffled. “Where am I?”

It was the first lucid question she had made since waking up for the first time a couple of nights ago. She had been almost feral then, her Rider in charge of her actions. The feeding the next night seemed to have done her good though.

He felt himself grow hard at the memory of her mouth at his throat, sucking, and her nostrils flared. She could smell his arousal now. He cleared his throat and forced his body into submission. He hadn’t been strong enough to resist her when she fed, but she was weak still and he couldn’t take advantage of her.

“You’re at the Crimson Manor. This is my bedroom.”

“Why am I here?” She made to get up and he hastened in to help her sit up. He put pillows behind her back so she would be more comfortable as she leaned against the headboard of his four-poster bed. Sharing the bed with her for almost two weeks had been both torture and privilege for him, but it was necessary. She needed constant supervision, as new vampires were unpredictable and often violent. She had tried to kill him the moment she got out of the bed for the first time.

The memory made him smile.

But looking after a bloodthirsty vampire and a woman who aroused him with her mere presence was easy compared to what he had to do next. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She frowned, confused, and then shook her head. “I have no idea. Everything’s so vague.”

He sat on the edge of the bed, facing her. “You were shot.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry I put it so bluntly, but that’s what happened.” He sensed her fear and put a calming hand on her arm that was resting on the duvet.

“By a renegade?”

“No, a human criminal.”

She stared at her for a few heartbeats. “Well, isn’t that ironic.” He smiled and didn’t point out that he had warned her about it. Accusations would do no good, and gods knew he had been blaming himself for it ever since. “But I feel fine. Was it just a flesh wound?” He controlled his face carefully, but not fast enough. “What? Tell me!”

“Maybe later, when you’re stronger.”

“I feel fine. Tell me now.”

He took her hand and studied it, playing with her long, slender fingers. She let him, but then she squeezed him, prompting him to speak. He faced her squarely, the pain showing in his eyes.

“You died.”

Colour bled from her face. “I … how … but I feel fine,” she said feebly. Without a conscious thought, he fed Might energy into her through their joined hands, the
hunger
requiring that he make her feel better. She began to relax. He kept a worried eye on her in case her Rider took advantage of her emotional stress and came out again, but it seemed content to lay low for now.

“We went for an early morning jog to Regent’s Park. When we returned, there was a guy trying to break into our car. You rushed in to stop him and he shot you. In the stomach.”

She frowned. Then she felt her stomach with her fingers through the duvet. She couldn’t feel anything, so she lifted it to take a look. She was naked and he tried not to stare. He had watched over her body the entire time she was here, cleaned and nourished it. It held no secrets. But she wasn’t a patient anymore and he fixed his eyes on where the wound had been to avoid temptation.

Only a faint scar reminded of that fateful morning. Had she been a stronger vampire, there wouldn’t have been even that left, not after the kind of healing Foley was capable of. She found the scar and ran her fingers over it.

“How is this possible? It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“It’s a kind of magic.” But the joke didn’t amuse her this time round.

“How?”

Here was the part he had dreaded. He tried to control his emotions so she wouldn’t smell his anxiety, but the mere notion of losing her filled him with such agony he wasn’t able to. Her hand sought his and squeezed it, and calm spread through him. If he had doubted that they belonged together, that alone made it clear. It took a special kind of connection between two vampires to be able to calm the other with a mere touch.

“It’s okay,” she said gently. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

He longed to take her offer, but it was best to get it over with. She needed to know. She had to learn about the Rider. “We had to make you a vampire.”

She stared at him in stunned silence for a long time, opening and closing her hand, as if needing the motion to make sense of his words. “I see…” she finally said, her voice emotionless. “So what will happen now?”

This he could answer. “You’ll need to take it easy for a couple of months, until you’re stable.”

“Months! I can’t take that long. I have my studies to finish.”

“The term has already begun. You’ve been here for almost two weeks.” She looked like she would burst into tears, the idea of not graduating in time clearly more upsetting than being turned into a vampire. He understood her sentiments. Her studies were easier for her to grasp than the alien world of two-natureds. He hastened to comfort her.

“Don’t worry. We’ve already taken care of everything. We’ve informed your university that you’ve been in an accident and will finish your assignments by the end of the summer. They were very understanding.”

“But what about my parents? And my job?”

“Grant knows. He and your co-workers sent you their best wishes and love.” That brought fresh tears to her eyes. “And we’ve contacted your parents. We had to tell them the truth, otherwise they would’ve come to be at your bedside. They were naturally upset, but I’m sure they’ll be over it by the time you’re strong enough to meet them.”

She crossed her arms over her chest in a stubborn gesture. “I feel strong enough now.”

“Trust me. You’re not.”

“I feel like I could lift this bed.”

He smiled, eyeing the large, four-poster mahogany bed. “And you probably could. I’m talking about emotional strength.” He hesitated. “Have you noticed … a presence inside you?”

She blinked a couple of times, taken aback by his question. “Yes, I have, actually. I thought I was losing my mind. I’m not?”

“No. That’s your second nature waking up.”

“You mean it’s not just a name? I actually have another side to me now?”

“Yes. We call it the Rider. That’s what I couldn’t tell you about until you were made a vampire. We don’t talk about it with outsiders. It’s not an easy creature to live with. It’s violent, vicious, and tries to take control of you all the time if you don’t watch over it. New vampires especially have to control themselves and their emotions constantly, otherwise it’ll break free and cause great havoc.”

She looked frightened. “Isn’t there any way to restrain it?”

“Blood helps. So you’ll be feeding regularly. From me.” He thought it best to add the last part. He wouldn’t allow her to feed from anyone else.

“I seem to remember feeding already.”

He smiled. “You most certainly did.”

She blushed. “So, how long before I’m able to control it?”

“It shouldn’t take more than a century.”

“What? I don’t have that long.”

He laughed, he couldn’t help it. “Baby, you have all eternity.”

The next evening Jeremy declared Corynn strong enough to venture out of his bedroom. “The house is relatively empty tonight so it’s safer. New people put a strain on your control, so we have to practice with small crowds.” He ignored her reasonable suggestion that she would stay in bed forever. “You’ll have to do this eventually. Don’t worry, you’re strong enough, and I’m here.”

He most certainly was. He hadn’t left her side once during the previous night, watching TV with her, fetching her books she might like to read, and more importantly, telling her about everything that being a new vampire entailed, including her constant need of supervision. She had worried that he wouldn’t get enough sleep watching over her, but he had smiled.

“Luckily, new vampires are completely dead to the world between sunrise and sunset. I can sleep then.”

“When you say dead, you mean figuratively, right?” They had already talked about this, but it was different now that she was a vampire herself. The mere notion of dying every day filled her with horror.

“Right. You’re not a living dead, no matter what the books say. But I can see how humans would believe that if they came across a newly fulfilled vampire during the day. And if they’ve done so right after a new vampire has woken up, I don’t question the stories about bloodbaths either.” She shuddered, doubly so when the voice in her head noted that it wouldn’t mind a bloodbath.

The voice was mercifully quiet most of the time, which gave her space to adjust to her other changes. Her senses were heightened to be almost unbearable, but Jeremy promised she would get used to it soon enough. Her strength and speed had multiplied, although she wouldn’t be able to test them properly until she left the room.

And then there was the magic that she was really eager to learn about. He tried his best to make her understand how it worked, but in the end every vampire would have to learn it for themselves, with the help of the Rider, which was the actual source of it. “We all have different skills. You’ll learn yours in time, and acquire new ways of doing magic all the time.”

But one thing she knew she wouldn’t adjust to. “I can’t believe I won’t see the sun again for at least a century.”

He looked apologetic. “I’m afraid so.”

She wanted to be angry with him for losing it and her earlier life. She’d had everything planned, but now she had no idea what she would do with her life. He had known she didn’t want to become a vampire, yet he’d had her turned anyway. But on this side of everything, she didn’t want to be dead either. Anger was futile.

The new situation had one definite upside: it put her on even footing with Jeremy. She wouldn’t have to stifle her feelings simply because they couldn’t have a future together. Of course, that didn’t mean they had eternity, but he seemed content to stay with her – for now at least. She didn’t want to think of what would become of her once he got bored with her. An eternity alone was too much to face.

Showered and properly dressed for the first time in ages, albeit in clothes that were slightly too big for her because of all the weight she had lost, she exited Jeremy’s room with him solicitously by her side. A long hallway led to the grand staircase in the middle wing of the huge manor, and they took the stairs down.

Below was a foyer straight from the past, with a stone floor and dark ornate wainscoting, heavy Tudor style furniture, and a roaring fire in a huge fireplace. She wanted to pause and stare, but he led her through the great hall, where servants were busy setting long tables, towards the east wing. The place was huge and opulent, but, overwhelmed with everything, she mostly noticed colours and impressions of wealth and age.

“It’s dinnertime, but we’ll eat in the breakfast room tonight, ‘cause it’s smaller. Most of us are dining at the great hall, but it would be too overwhelming for you to face all those warriors at once.” Since the mere size of the room was dizzying, she agreed with him.

“So there isn’t a reversed schedule for your day? Breakfast at sunset and so on?”

He smiled. “Some traditional vampire families keep to the old ways and only get up at sunset, which starts their day. But we’re all strong enough to face the sun, and although we work mostly at night, we usually wake up in the early afternoon and have breakfast then, although another breakfast is served in the morning too for those who keep to a different schedule. Dinner is served before the patrols head out, and supper when they return.”