She’d taken his virginity that night,
his arms and legs chained to the altar as she gave him such great
pleasure, and dealt him such terrible pain, dripping the acid-like
water in time with her own undulating hips. From that night on,
pain had been irrevocably linked to the pleasure of sex.
How many times had she cut him deep
with a silver blade just as he’d climaxed? How many times had she
branded him with a crucifix as she rode him to her own
orgasm?
He gulped, but then felt a little
thrill start to burn in his chest. It rose in intensity until he
thought he would burst into flames. He could only hope the witch
was so inclined, and so creative.
Chapter 5
To Luca’s frustration, not only were
the windows of the witch’s house now gone, but so were the doors.
He knew where the front door had been, but as he ran his hands over
the unforgiving bricks of the outer walls of the house, he could
not find it.
And that’s all he needed: a door he
could smash to a thousand splintery pieces. Now that he had an
invitation, all he needed was an entrance. Fangs fully extended, he
seethed with aggravation. He had to get into the house. His thirst
for the witch’s blood was excruciating.
As he circled the brownstone he
sporadically beat his fists against the brick walls, and searched
frantically for a windowpane he could break in through. But he
found nothing but more infernal brick.
Ultimately, he stood once again across
the street from the house and stared up from the shadows to where
there should have been windows. He knew that if he did not enter
the house before the sun rose, the next night the invitation would
be lost. But if he could just get inside, even if he didn’t kill
her, he would be free to enter anytime he wanted.
Of course, that was if he could find
his way into the house for a second time…and since he wasn’t doing
very well with that at the present, he wondered if he was being
overly optimistic.
And what if the witch knew how to
revoke the invitation? He had heard that it had happened a few
times in the past, but truthfully he hadn’t put much stock into the
rumors. Of course, until tonight, Luca had never once considered
not killing his prey. Maybe those tales of revoked invitations had
also been brought on because one of his brethren had wanted to turn
his prey into his companion.
Maybe this is an
omen?
Luca rubbed the back of his neck.
Ever since the moment he’d laid his hands on the witch’s creamy
soft skin, he had felt an incredible burning at the back of his
neck, right at the base of his skull. Maybe that was an omen too.
And the way that electrical connection had been when he’d touched
her. Not to mention the fact that the witch’s blood was what had
lured him to the blasted city in the first place.
Luca’s attention came to rest high
above where the windows had been, up on the gabled rooftop. There
stood a large stone and brick chimney—and there wasn’t a bit of
smoke wafting out to smudge the clear, black night sky.
Ah…just what I was looking
for…
Luca, as with most vampires, was a very
good climber. He had heard stories of vampires who could fly. But
that, like so many powers and talents vampires were said to
possess, was not found in most. His sire had had exceptional
strength and mental powers that kept her more than safe from humans
and other supernatural beings.
He scaled up the bricks of the
brownstone, used a drainage gutter to flip up and over and landed
on his feet high atop the roof. He stood there for a moment and
half expected the witch to have rigged some sort of trap for him,
or for the chimney, or the roof itself, to change its
geography.
But nothing of the kind happened.
Instead, Luca moved with silent speed to the lip of the chimney and
took a long inhalation. No fire—thankfully—but he caught the
intoxicating aroma of the witch, and her blood, drifting up to
him.
Could be a trap…but then
again, maybe the witch isn’t as sharp as she thinks.
It would be hard for a human to consider all a
vampire’s capacity for physicality. Sometimes even Luca was
surprised by what he could manage to do.
Probable trap or no, the witch was just
down the chimney, and the possibility of getting to her and taking
her was more than he could pass up. As if he’d done it all of his
many long years, Luca hopped up atop the lip of the chimney and
swiftly descended the tight confines of the brick construct, and
made not a sound. Moments later his feet found purchase in the
empty hearth and with a dip at the waist Luca ducked out of the
chimney and into the witch’s bedroom.
He was so excited he almost didn’t
notice the pinprick feeling that shivered over his flesh, as if
he’d walked through a spider web. He moved into the room, taking in
the worn yet romantically antique furnishings, and the enormous
four poster bed that took up an entire wall and stretched like a
vast Roman arena dedicated to the battles of lust.
I must take her in that
bed.
The thought made his entire body ache.
As he stood there and gazed dreamily down at the satin sheets and
the feather pillows, and old fashion feather mattress, the witch
sauntered out of what had to be a bathroom and crossed the room
behind him. She took a seat on the antique loveseat and took a
drink from a glass of red wine, as if the vampire wasn’t even
present.
“
You are either very brave,
or incredibly stupid,” Luca said.
The witch looked up from her wine and
made a haughty clucking with her tongue. “And you’re either the
rudest vampire I’ve ever met, or…” She laughed. Again it made
Luca’s blood boil in his veins. “No, I was right the first time.
You are the rudest man—living or dead—I’ve ever met.”
Luca surged toward her, instinctively
raising his hand to land a blow across her cheek, hard enough to
not only take that glower from her pretty face, but to possibly
knock her unconscious. That way he wouldn’t have to hear her quips,
and he could have his way with her without her using her magicks
against him.
In that moment he no longer
considered bringing her over to be one of the undead. He wanted her
dead
. Dead dead.
With a playful purse of her lips the
witch said, “Stop.” She didn’t even raise her voice, just said it
as if she’d said hello. And to the vampire’s amazement he stopped
in his tracks and stood stalk still, his body abruptly not his own.
It was practically vibrating, waiting for her next
order.
Luca shook his head and tried to force
it from his mind, but there it stayed, the overwhelming desire to
do exactly what she told him to do. He still wanted to kill her,
wanted to beat her to a pulp, then lick the blood from every scrape
and gash he visited upon her. But his body just stood there, not
flinching a muscle…waiting.
She looked up at him with the biggest
doe eyes, brown and drowning deep.
“
So,” she cooed as she stood
and moved toward the vampire, “do you want to play?”
~*~
Min entered her bedroom and
caught sight of the vampire in her peripheral vision.
Good.
He does have half a
brain. Well, not much more. Enough to find a way in, but not enough
to know it’s all a trap.
She sashayed over to where
she’d left her glass of wine then sat down on the loveseat. It was
usually where she read each night before retiring to her bed. The
book sitting on the marble-topped end table was Alice
Hoffman’s
Blue Diary
. The monster-of-the-piece’s son had just chopped down an
enormous apple tree. She’d wanted to return home to that book all
day, but now she could scarcely remember why.
“
You are either very brave,
or incredibly stupid,” the vampire said to her. She liked that he
was so arrogant. It made him more interesting.
Min looked up at the vampire and felt a
surge of raw need course through her veins. She had never wanted a
man more than she wanted this monster. Every molecule in her body
was singing with that need. And that spark he’d set off inside her,
with just that first touch, had smoldered and built until it felt
like a bonfire was alight in her soul.
“
And you’re either the
rudest vampire I’ve ever met, or…” She laughed.
And I wouldn’t change that a bit!
“No,
I was right the first time. You are the rudest man—living or
dead—I’ve ever met.”
Immediately she recognized pure hatred
infuse the vampire’s features, and with blurry speed he tore across
the room toward her.
She was surprised how calm her voice
was when she told him to stop. Not so surprisingly, he did. As if
an invisible hand had caught hold of him and held him anchored to
the spot, he stood still as a statue…at least from the neck down.
His face was distended with effort as he tried to break free of his
constraints and kill her.
She caught his eyes in her gaze, and as
she stood to move toward him she felt a magnetic tug, some force
pulling her toward him. She knew, deep down, that if she was
smart—and didn’t want to die a gruesome, rather painful death—that
she should stake the murderous fiend right then and
there.
But instead the words, “So…do you want
to play?” fell from her lips.
“
Play?” the vampire spat at
Min. “I’ll play with you! After I snap that pretty neck of yours,
I’ll play with your—”
“
Enough!” Min snapped and
paced toward him. She felt an irrational stab of physical pain,
that he really only wanted to kill her now…
“
If you really don’t want to
play, then I might as well tell you to…” Her face burned as she
rummaged through her humiliation-stricken mind for something to
scare the bastard with. “To burst into flame.”
And it did seem to scare him. His
shoulders hunched and the life drained from his
features.
He gulped. “You can’t just tell me to
catch on fire.” He didn’t sound so sure though.
“
You’re in no position to
tell me what I can and can’t do.” Min pushed him, and he fell back
a few paces. Obviously she didn’t have to verbally tell him to
move. She could just move him manually without his
consent.
Good to know.
“
And,” Min practically
purred, “I’ve got a box of matches right over there on the mantle,
right above the —”
The vampire gasped.
“Gris-gris.”
Min smiled and enjoyed the long, bitter
silence that followed.
“
Good,” she said as she
moved to the fireplace and retrieved the box of matches from the
mantle, “you know about gypsy magicks…necromancy and voodoo. Then I
won’t have to waste any more of our fleeting time together trying
to convince you that I’m in the driver’s seat here.” She stopped in
front of him and stared into his feral, monstrous face. Fangs were
one thing, but the bumpy forehead thing was not much of a turn on.
“You’re just along for the ride.”
The vampire closed his eyes, defeated.
“It was all a trap.”
Something hot flared deep within Min’s
chest, warm enough to soften the cold edge of her hatred. “Well,
yes. But I think you’ll like the kind of games I have
planned.”
“
If you’re going to kill
me...” His eyes opened, and he looked down on Min with weary, jade
green eyes. She had assumed they would be blue, since his hair was
as golden as the sun. “Just get it over with.”
A sudden image swept over her, a memory
of a vision she had a few months ago. Soon after they’d found her
mother frozen in some sort of stasis, she’d been in the office at
the shop. While she cleaned up she’d picked up a strange silver
dagger from her mother’s desk. It had been carved with numerous
ancient runes, a language she didn’t understand in the least. The
moment she picked the thing up it had thrummed with power, and no
sooner did she feel that power enter her, the damn blade of the
dagger cut her. Not a deep cut, but her blood spilled over the
blade well enough.
In that moment she’d fallen into a
vision: as if on a distant shore a man waited, silent but intense.
He wasn’t just waiting for her, he was hungering for her. And for a
split second she saw his face in terrifying clarity, so close she
could have touched it. “Come to me,” she had whispered.
A heartbeat later she once again sat at
her mother’s desk in the magic shop. The silver dagger was gone.
She hadn’t thought of that night even once since it had happened.
It just hadn’t occurred to her to even try.
But looking into the vampire’s cruel
green eyes, she just knew that he was the man in her vision. There
was no question. But why would a soulless, murdering vampire appear
in a vision?
Min closed her eyes and gave
her head a little shake.
We return you to
the regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
She let out a haughty breath.
This vampire just isn’t getting it, is he?
“
Take off your shirt,
please.”
“
What?” The vampire jerked,
his face incredulous, but his hands immediately moved to unbutton,
and then pull his black, long sleeved, silk dress shirt from where
it was tucked into his slacks, and then off over his brawny
shoulders.