A Night with a Vampire Read online

  Marius grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall. She leveraged the stake between them and pushed it against his chest. “Let me go,” she threatened.

  “You first.”

  “Where is my brother?”

  “Where is the formula?”

  This couldn’t end well. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now let me—”

  The next thing she knew she was flying through the air as if she weighed no more than a child’s toy. She hit the wall with a teeth-chattering thud then slid to the floor. She waited for the stars to stop circling then with a derisive shake, pushed to her feet. Damn, she wished she had her gun.

  “You should have played possum,” Marius scolded, his lips curving into a smile, revealing sharp white teeth elongated into fine chiseled points.

  “What fun would that be?” Xana picked up a broken wooden leg from a chair and thudded it against the palm of her hand. God, she looked stupid. Like this little piece of splintered wood would stop someone as old and strong as Marius, but she wasn’t about to stand there and let him think of her as a weak little girl he could easily whip. Even if he could.

  She drew back and bent low, her weight evenly distributed on the balls of her feet as she contemplated what she should do next and how the hell she was going to get out of there. In an instant, Marius had her once more shoved against the wall, her feet dangling mere inches above the ground. Long fingers gripped her neck, and squeezed. The broken leg dropped to the floor with a loud clatter.

  “Are you going to make me ask again?”

  “I don’t know,” Xana spluttered. She knew he had the strength to snap her neck with no more effort than snapping a decayed twig. But he wouldn’t as long as he thought she could help him.

  She squirmed in his grasp. Marius’s grip tightened. “If you don’t want me to dismember you, finger by finger, limb by limb, while you lay on the ground screaming for your daddy, then give me the cylinder.”

  Xana didn’t doubt for a second that Marius would live up to his threat. “What’s so important about this cylinder?”

  Marius leaned in close, his lips mere inches from hers, his black gaze warming her skin, even as she refused to look into it. Lesson 101 in dealing with vampires—never look them in the eyes unless you want your free will pulverized to mush. But she had to breathe, and Marius’s breath smelled sweet as it filled her mouth and nose and slowly moved down her throat to expand in her lungs.

  Xana gagged, trying to stop the sensation crawling through her. Marius was an old vampire and the most powerful she had ever run across. He had tricks up his sleeve that would make her head spin. Languid warmth coursed through her, relaxing her muscles, easing her mind. For a second, she actually believed everything was going to be okay.

  “What are you doing to me?” She tried to pull away, to escape the sickly sweet odor, but only succeeded in butting the back of her head against the wall.

  A sharp sting pierced her skin as he sank his fangs into her neck. The sensation burned hot, lighting a fire in her veins as Marius’s mouth worked against her throat, sucking, pulling as he drank. A sudden eroticism swept over her, and against her will, against every fiber in her being, she felt desire surge, riding her heated blood as it pulsed through her veins.

  She fought it with every ounce of willpower she had, but to no avail. Marius laughed, the sound rumbling deep in his throat and vibrating against her chest.

  “I love this. Xana Scorpio, fearless vampire hunter, is now pinned against the wall, helpless against my ministrations. Are you afraid of what I might do to you? Afraid of the sensations flooding though your very human body?”

  “Go to hell!”

  He laughed again, obviously enjoying himself. “Humans really are victims of the blood coursing through them, flowing and ebbing like the tide. You don’t have nearly as much control or power over yourselves as you think you have. But you try, you fight, you play, making the game oh, so sweet.”

  Xana watched the blood lining the inside of his lips drip down the side of his mouth and knew it was her own. He wiped the crimson liquid off his chin then sucked it off his finger. “I love the taste of you.”

  Xana’s chest tightened with revulsion…and fear.

  “I love how you taste so similar to your brother.”

  Rage laced her mind, spinning it out of control. Had Marius snatched Cayman from the warehouse? Had he killed him while she’d been lying in the bushes outside? How long had she been there? Seconds? Minutes?

  Marius bit her again, and this time, as he drank, a peaceful, languid sensation came over her. Even as she pushed against his rock-solid chest, a part of her wanted to throw in the towel, to let her eyes drift closed and sleep—to join her parents in whatever hell existed beyond this place, even if it was nothing but a deep yawning abyss of darkness.

  Marius released her and Xana slumped to the floor. Sensations flooded back—fear, anxiety, rage—while dizziness swam through her head.

  The sound of approaching sirens painfully pierced her temples.

  He shoved his hand inside her breast pocket, his hard grasp scraping against her tightened nipple. “Cayman put a case in this pocket. Where is it?”

  Xana turned surprised eyes on her empty pocket. Good question.

  “It was the case for the blasting caps I needed to detonate the explosives,” she muttered, hoping he’d believe her. Hoping he’d let her go. He didn’t. Disoriented and confused she looked up at him, as his tight grasp on her neck cut off her circulation. Her vision wavered as darkness encroached. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.

  And then there was nothing.

  As the sirens grew louder with the approach of the fire trucks, Marius picked up the woman and quickly disappeared into the woods, heading down the mountain to where his car was parked. He didn’t know what Cayman and his sister were up to or why they were here, but he’d make them sorry they blew up his warehouse. That formula had been inside and the two annoying humans had obviously beat him to it. But if Cayman ever wanted to see his dear sister again, he would return it. And quick.

  Marius had to get that formula for the virus to his people tonight before this situation got any worse. He’d had to kill three of his brethren last night. Who knew how many more were infected. He didn’t have the time or the patience to play the human’s game.

  He resisted the urge to push the accelerator to the floor as he navigated the winding road, passing one emergency vehicle after another. He almost wished he could stick around and see what lies the humans would tell each other about what they were about to discover in the basement of the warehouse. Fire was a great cleanser, but it wouldn’t erase everything.

  When Marius first learned about the Alliance and their virus, he hadn’t believed it could be true. Why should he? The arrogance. The audacity of humans thinking they could conquer the vampire. That they could mimic the genetic structure and create “super” humans. It was ridiculous.

  But he’d seen the coffins and the abominations within them. But so far, he’d yet to see a human survive the experiments. Still, he was more concerned about what was happening to the vampires that had been lured into their plan. Somehow the experiments had infected them with a virus that replicated and destroyed, turning friends into vicious, rabid killers with no soul, no conscience, no semblance of who they really were.

  He had to stop it.

  But to do that he needed the formula from the experiments the Alliance had been conducting. He needed that cylinder. And he would get it, because he knew Cayman well enough to know there was only one thing in this entire world that man valued and Marius had just dumped it in his backseat.

  The pretty little Xana would look nice perched on his hook, now all he needed to do was reel Cayman in.

  Xana opened her eyes. The first thing she was aware of was the pain shooting through her skull. The second was the chill seeping into her skin. Her eyes widened. Where were her clothes? She tried to move, but couldn’t. Bo
th her hands were tied above her, and each foot was strapped to a bed post by…silk scarves?

  Son of a bitch!

  The bastard had tied her spread-eagle to the bed.

  Panic fired through her mind, zipping across her nerve endings. She writhed, pulling at her restraints. Suddenly, fluorescent light lit the room, burning her eyes and sending a fresh arrow of pain shooting through her temples.

  “Oh, good, you’re finally awake,” Marius said as he walked into the room.

  With all the strength in her legs, she pulled at her entrapments and cringed as they tightened around her ankles. Tears of anger and frustration filled her eyes. Furiously, she blinked them back. “Where are my clothes?”

  “Does it matter? You look much more beautiful as you are.”

  She stared down at herself. The only clothing she still wore was her white satin thong. The bastard was trying to make her feel vulnerable. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She steeled her eyes and glared at him. “What do you want with me?”

  “I want the formula and now that I have you, your brother is going to bring it to me.” He walked closer, trailing the tip of his finger up her leg. “How have you been, Xana?”

  “Just fine, thanks,” she said through gritted teeth.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and grinned. It was eerie—seductive, charming and deadly. Monsters should not look so damned hot. Leaning in close, he ran his finger along the groove in her stomach.

  “Don’t touch me.” She said the words softly, but stared at him with such fury her eyes felt like hard-burning orbs in her skull.

  She was going to kill him.

  “You really are a lovely woman.”

  She ignored him. He was trying to get to her with his mind games. He hovered closer. She looked at his mouth, his deep red lips, made all the more crimson by the pale tint of his skin. Long dark hair framed his face. His dark eyes were…mesmerizing. Seductive. She glanced away.

  “Cayman will bring me the formula, and then he will help me and we will all work together.”

  “You’re lying.” She bit down hard on her lip to keep from screaming at him and tasted the tinny metallic flavor of her blood.

  He stared at her lip and seemed momentarily distracted.

  Damn.

  He leaned closer. “Am I? Did you know he told me to meet him at that warehouse? It looks as if he’s left us both…hanging.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “You’re right, why should you? Except now it appears you might have lost him, too. You might be…alone in the world.” There was a tiny glint of pleasure on his face as he said the words.

  Had he been responsible for what had happened to Cayman? Had Cayman played some stupid game with Marius and lost? For the first time since she opened her eyes, she felt real grab-you-by-the-guts-and-twist fear. Her outrage and anger evaporated.

  “What do you know about my brother?”

  “What makes you think I know anything?” Marius laughed, then the smile disappeared and his face turned cold, freezing the blood in her veins. “What do you know about the Alliance?” he asked. “About the warehouse we were in?”

  “Nothing.” This time she whined. She hated it. Hated that she couldn’t hold on to her fury. Hated that the fear was seeping in. She felt a slight tickle on the inside of her thigh and tried desperately to clamp her legs together, but all she succeeded in doing was tightening the restraints around her ankles until they cut off her circulation and burned.

  “Don’t you and your brother talk?”

  “Please, let me go,” she pleaded, her bravado vanishing and quickly being replaced by Miss Timid-and-Scared.

  He bent his face toward the juncture between her thighs.

  “What are you doing?” she cried as panic rose in her throat.

  “I love this spot, where the flesh is so soft and creamy.”

  A flash of burning pain exploded in her thigh. “Stop,” she screamed. He was biting her! Tearing into her skin. She ripped at her restraints, thrashing on the bed, trying desperately to pull away from him. The silk ripped, nearly freeing her left leg.

  The burning in her thigh dulled, spreading languid warmth through her body. Her muscles relaxed. He continued sucking her thigh, until her breathing became shallow and her breasts swelled, reaching, aching…

  A hot tingling ignited beneath the satin thong, and she squirmed, growing light-headed. To her horror, a moan escaped her wet lips. Marius lifted his face from her thigh and stared at her, blood dripping down his chin and landing on the white satin where it pooled and spread into the fragile threads.

  She knew she shouldn’t look into his eyes, but she was past caring. “Please,” she whimpered. Do it again, take more, take her.

  Fury lit a fire in his eyes. “The Alliance? The experiments?”

  The desire-ridden brain-fog swirling in her mind left her incapable of understanding or caring what it was he wanted. In a movement of extreme speed and dexterity, he was lying on top of her, the weight of his body pressing down on hers. She pushed her hips against him, grinding slightly, trying to find some release to the pressure that was just beginning to subside.

  She lost herself in the black pools of his eyes, and knew she was his. Right now, she would do whatever he wanted.

  He licked the skin behind her ear, tasting, smelling. “Why didn’t Cayman tell you? Did he not trust you?” He pulled the sensitive lobe into his mouth, loving it tenderly with his tongue.

  The burning within her grew again, building until she felt she’d explode if he didn’t kiss her.

  She made soft mewling noises as his tongue slipped from behind his teeth and circled her lips. She arched her back, trying to get closer, trying to draw him into her.

  “More,” she demanded. She pushed her tongue into his mouth, kissing him hard, tasting, devouring, conquering…

  He pulled back. “No.”

  She looked up at him, trying to catch her breath as mortification set it. She wanted him. She’d begged him. And he’d said no.

  “Oh, God,” she squeaked.

  “Don’t worry, darling. You couldn’t help yourself. You’re only…human, after all.”

  He left her and started toward the door.

  “Wait. You can’t leave me here like this.”

  “Like what? Wanting? Lusting? Craving?”

  Yes, craving. “Tied up,” she said, her voice barely audible.

  “Oh, but I can. And I will, until your brother brings me what I want.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then you need to think about exactly what you’re going to do to help me find him.”

  “Why would I help you?”

  “Because it’s the only chance you will ever have to see him or anyone again.”

  “Great,” she muttered as he walked out the door. She pulled her leg against the silk bind that had come loose, and pulled her foot free. She glanced quickly at the door, then tried with the other leg. It didn’t budge.

  “Great,” she muttered again and closed her legs. “Happy birthday to me.”

  Chapter Three

  Leaving the delectable Miss Xana, Marius walked into the kitchen for a bag of blood. She’d responded to him much more strongly than he’d expected, but what truly surprised him was the way he’d responded to her. It had been a long time since he’d felt such an intense pull toward a woman. Any woman, and a human woman at that. But there was something about the bright spot of crimson on her silky white panties and the smell of her desire that stuck with him, and fueled the rock-hard erection that was pushing uncomfortably against his leather pants.

  He should go back in there and give her what she wanted. What they both needed. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He needed her to trust him, to help him figure out what Cayman was doing in that warehouse. His cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.

  “There’s a problem at Crank it Up.” Jaz, his first sergeant in control of District 3, a
lmost never called. He liked to handle things on his own, and Marius liked to let him. Sometimes. But after what had happened with his three brethren last night, and then not finding the formula at the warehouse tonight, he didn’t want to hear any more bad news.

  “What kind of problem?”

  “A few of our own are out of control.”

  A few? “Can’t you handle it?” Marius barked, clearly annoyed.

  “Maybe. There are a lot.”

  Marius stilled. “How many?”

  “Last count…at least six. But more are coming in.”

  Damn it. What was going on in his city? “All right. I’m coming.”

  But he wouldn’t be going alone. Miss Xana needed to see for herself what they were up against and what the stakes would be if she didn’t help him find her brother and that formula.

  He gathered up her clothes, walked into the room and threw them on the bed, then quickly untied her silk binds. “Get dressed. We’re going into the city.”

  Instantly, she pulled her clothes in front of her using them as a shield. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Do you really think you have a choice? You can either come of your own free will, or I can make you. Now which would you prefer?”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I don’t have time for games. The Alliance has waged war against us.”

  “I don’t even know what this Alliance is.”

  “Your brother does. If he kept it from you, that’s your problem. You are going to help me find out exactly what he and this Alliance are up to.”

  “I’m not helping you do anything,” she hissed and sputtered, as if she were a wet little kitten. He could almost smile, if he weren’t so damned annoyed.

  “Fine, then stay here tied up in the dark and maybe I’ll come back for you. Or maybe I’ll just leave you here to rot.” He picked up a silk scarf then grabbed her ankle and yanked it toward him.