Winter's Kiss (22 page)

Nika hummed and wriggled, his length still buried deep inside her. He wrapped his
arm
across her chest and

189

pulled her tight against him, a streak of possession controlling him. Nika was his. Irrespective of the fact another had turned her, she was his.

He leaned back and stared at her crimson-stained throat.

She bore his mark.

She was his.

He was hers.

Nothing would change that. When he had killed Willem and set her free, he would leave but his heart would remain here with Nika until he had found the strength and means to return to her. He would find a way, one that made it safe for him to be with her, near her, while remaining loyal to his lord and bloodline. He wouldn’t risk the Law Keepers. There had to be a way.

Nika sighed.

“So do I still taste tainted?”

“No,” he said and licked her throat one last time. She tasted divine. “Not since you finished the transformation.”

He could almost hear her smile when she sighed again. She wriggled closer to him and hummed.

“I’m happy here.”

She wasn’t talking about the bastion. She was talking about being in his arms.

He stared at her neck and frowned as he held her tight, knowing that he would never be able to let her go now. He would have to return. He would have to find a way.

“I miss the sunshine though.”

Winter rested his head on the pillow and frowned again when she rolled over, disentangling herself from him and coming to curl up close to his chest. He lay on his back and she moved closer, hooking her leg over his thighs and resting her head against his shoulder.

“There is no reason you cannot go out in the sunshine,” he said, staring at the canopy of the bed. “It will not affect you.”

Her fingertips drew patterns on his chest.

“There’s a reason,” she whispered and her head shifted. He felt her looking up at his face. His gaze dropped to meet hers. “You can’t go out in sunlight so I won’t feel safe out there.”

Those words made him warm but pained him at the same time. They were growing too attached to each other. He licked his lips, the taste of her blood still strong on them.

“Sleep then,” he whispered and closed his eyes. He held her closer, almost clinging to her as she had done to him before. The thought of leaving her echoed around his mind, stealing his sleep. He would have to, regardless of what his heart wanted.

It was weak when it came to Nika. He couldn’t risk her. He couldn’t live with himself if he took the easy way out and remained here with her in secret, running the gauntlet of being seen. He had to leave her so he could find the strength to love her and be with her as she deserved, so he could be with her without fear of the Law Keepers.

And he would have to do it soon.

An unfamiliar room slowly came into focus as Nika opened her eyes. They fixed on the open curtains and the darkening sky beyond. These past few days had been a whirlwind and she hadn’t had a chance to find her feet. Now she had them firmly planted in a new home, or at least the place that Winter wanted her to come to call that. Home. She had lost hers. Everything she had known had been erased and replaced with something fantastical and mind-blowing, so incredible that she still wasn’t sure whether it was happening or not. A werewolf had bitten her—a werewolf that her father had promised her to at an early age. A vampire had rescued her—a vampire who had wanted to make her like him and now fought those feelings so fiercely that she was convinced he really would leave. Now she lay in the most extravagant bed she had ever seen, after a day sleeping in the arms of the man that she loved, and she felt as though she was dreaming.

Or was it a nightmare?

Her eyes widened.

The curtains were open.

Shooting up in bed, Nika turned to look at the spot beside her. Empty. Where was Winter?

She scrambled about in the bedclothes, searching for a sign of him. If the sunlight had killed him, he would have woken her, surely? He wouldn’t have gone silently. She frowned. He wouldn’t have disappeared. What was she looking for? Ash? This wasn’t a movie. For all she knew, vampires might just die in the sun and not go poof. She looked around the room. Cold silence greeted her.

Winter was gone.

Her heart thudded against her chest, a sickening beat that made her head pound. Not gone. He couldn’t be gone. Not after last night.

She shot from the bed, heedless of the fact she was nude and the curtains were open. Grabbing her clothes, she saw that Winter’s were gone. His sword was gone too. The knives and his dagger remained. Perhaps he wasn’t gone. He wouldn’t leave without his arsenal. But his sword was gone.

Tugging her black shirt and trousers on, she forwent shoes
and
hurried to the door. She opened it
and
looked both ways up the corridor. No sign of anyone. The whole house seemed silent.

She walked to a large mirror hanging on the dark wall opposite. Her gaze fixed on her neck, not on the deep bruising but on the dark set of puncture marks. Winter’s marks. The memory of his bite made her stomach tighten and arousal burned her blood. She closed her eyes a moment to relish the ghost of how it had felt to have him inside her
and
biting her at the same time. It was strange to think that only a couple of days ago she had been untouched. That time seemed dream-like and surreal. It all did. Except for one thing. Winter. He had touched her so deeply that she would never forget him. He had changed her as much as becoming a werewolf had.

The passion and desire he had awoken in her was fierce. The love she felt for him consumed her. She felt as though she had known him all her life, as though they had always been together, and she would do anything to keep him with her. There had to be a way. He couldn’t have left her.

Winter.

She frowned and looked along the corridor in both directions. Taking a deep breath, she tried to smell him, but all she could smell was the lingering scent of him on her body.

“Winter!” she shouted and walked along the corridor, aimless and wondering where he could be.

He couldn’t have left her. He wouldn’t leave her without saying goodbye.

“Winter!” She wrapped her arms about herself and huddled up. The night was falling and the floor was cold underfoot. She regretted rushing out without her boots or her cloak. The old house was chilly and the draught sent shivers cascading up her legs and arms and down her spine.

A door further down opened and a man walked out. She didn’t recognise him. He was far taller than she was and as broad and menacing as the man who had hurt her. She cowered away from him, brushing against the wall as he approached. His gaze raked over her.

“Winter!” She pressed into the wall and glared at the man as he passed.

“Nika.” Winter’s voice drifted to her and she sped down the hall, trying to use her senses to locate him. “Nika?”

A large set of double doors on her right were open. A light breeze tousled the fine white curtains and made them dance like pale ghosts. The air smelt of spring at last—refreshing and cool, wet with the melting snow. She walked through the doors and sighed with relief when she saw Winter standing on a large grey stone balcony.

“I thought you’d left,” she said and ran at him, wrapping her arms around him as he turned.

A short laugh left his lips and he wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes and sighed again when he pressed a kiss to her hair. Her heart continued to pound. She had really thought that he had left without saying goodbye.

“I am right here,” he whispered into her hair and his thumb stroked her upper arm. “I did not go far.”

The way he had said those words soothed her heart, strengthening her belief that she could change his mind and make him stay with her. There had to be a way to make him see that they belonged together. She didn’t understand why he had to leave. If only he would explain things to her, would tell her more about himself and his reasons, then maybe she would understand. Maybe then, she would have the power to reason with him and change his mind. She couldn’t force him to stay, but she couldn’t let him go without a fight.

Everything she wanted, her whole world, had his arms wrapped tight around her, holding her so close that she knew without a doubt that he loved her, that he returned the feelings in her heart, and that he wanted to be with her.

So why was he leaving?

If it was for her sake, she wished he would say so she could tell him that she didn’t want to him to leave because of her, because of some desire to protect her from whatever these laws were that he feared. They could be together here. She was sure they would be safe in this bastion of werewolves.

She frowned when she sensed something. Unease. Not nerves or fear. It was just a general unease and it was coming from Winter. Drawing away from him but remaining close enough that his arms stayed around her, she looked up at him. His dark eyebrows knitted into a pensive frown and his deep blue eyes showed concern. The concern was for her, but the thoughtfulness?

A wolf howled in the distance and he tensed.

She realised what was wrong.

“Do werewolves and vampires hate each other?” she said. Her voice was unsteady, wavering from her fear of asking him such a question.

He nodded.

“It makes you nervous to be around them.” She frowned at him when he stepped back and then she looked
over
the stone wall of the balcony at the river and garden far below. Would summer ever come? She glanced at Winter and, for once, she hoped that it didn’t. Cloudy days and long nights were perfect for spending time with him, and she didn’t want to lose one minute, not when her instinct said that he would leave soon. This bastion wasn’t so safe after all, at least not for him. If werewolves hated vampires, then he wouldn’t want to remain here with her, in a place where he would have to watch his back.

“Not nervous,” he said with a confident smile. “Unsettled perhaps. I do not like to be surrounded by them.”

“Why do werewolves hate vampires?” she said and stepped up to him. She tiptoed and looked over the wall at the dizzying drop to the river below. Winter’s hand on her shoulder made her jump and she smiled at him when she realised that he was worried about her safety near the edge of the balcony.

“Your feet are bare,” he said with another frown. She gave him a look that said he wasn’t going to get out of answering her question that easily and hopped up onto the wall. His hands went to her waist to steady her and he moved her forwards so she was away from the edge again. She smiled inside and felt warm when she realised that he wasn’t going to let go of her waist the whole time she was sitting on the wall. He looked pensive. “Why do we hate each other?”

She didn’t like the way he had made it sound as though they hated each other. It was quite the opposite for her. She loved him unconditionally. She only wished that he would come to his senses and realise that he loved her too, or, if he knew that already, that he wanted to be with her regardless of the stupid laws.

“The werewolves were once a proud race, born of strength and skill to rival the vampires. The vampires saw this and battled with the werewolves, diminishing their numbers until it was easy to overpower them. Vampires enslaved the werewolves, and we still keep werewolves to this day.” His gaze remained locked with hers, even when she expected him to show a hint of shame by looking away. There was no apology in his look or his tone. “The werewolves here are free. Their leader is the rightful alpha, a lord among werewolves.”

Something Winter’s lord had said came back to her and she frowned.

“Your lord used a word… I’ve forgotten what it was… he said something about sending me to somewhere… compound. What’s a compound?” Her frown intensified as she waited to hear his answer.

His look changed now but not to show regret. It held the same flicker of ferocity that always settled on his face whenever he was thinking about protecting her.

“It is a place where you will never venture. I will never let them take you there,” he whispered, a harsh edge to his words and darkness in his eyes. “You will never be a slave.”

She touched his hand where it held her waist, wanting to thank him, and then realised it wasn’t enough. Raising her hand, she lightly stroked his cheek and stared deep into his eyes. Whatever this compound place was, it was somewhere they held the werewolves that his family owned. The thought that he would protect her from such a fate made her heart warm and race. It made her love him more than ever.

His hands left her waist at the same time as hers fell from his face. Someone was coming.

She hopped down from the wall and came to stand beside Winter. His hand went to his sword and grasped the hilt, ready to draw it.

A woman walked through the curtains. Nika didn’t recognise her. Her long dark dress matched the ones the women from the night before had worn but this woman seemed different. Her ebony hair was drawn into a loose knot of curls at the back of her head and her too-thin figure combined with the dark circles beneath her eyes and her pale skin to make her look ill.