Marked by the Vampire

Chapter Ten

“This isn’t what I expected,” Olivia said as she walked into the lush apartment that overlooked the lights of Seattle. Night had just fallen, but the buildings all around them glowed with illumination.

Shane shut the door behind them. “Let me guess…were you picturing some kind of medieval castle, maybe a dungeon, some restraints?”

Her cheeks flushed.

“Been there, done that.” He stalked toward her. Brushed his hand over her cheek. “Would be willing to do it again in a heartbeat for you.”

She caught his hand. “I don’t understand you.”

His smile flashed, and it was a predatory grin. “That drives you crazy, doesn’t it? Your whole deal is that you have to understand the monsters. But maybe you can’t figure out what makes us all tick. Maybe there are some things you’ll never know.”

His body was so close to hers, and the sensual awareness that he sparked within her just wouldn’t lessen no matter how many times she tried to calm herself down.

Riding with him in the car had been close to torture. He’d filled that small space. Dominated it. Every time he’d shifted even a tiny bit, she’d been hyper aware of him.

“I want to know about you.” And she did. This man had left the FBI behind, and he’d come with her. He kept protecting her, looking out for her. No one had done that before. After she’d lost her mother at eighteen, Olivia had been on her own.

I don’t feel like I’m alone anymore.

He rolled his shoulders, but didn’t pull away from her. “What if you don’t like what you learn?”

“You’re the white knight, the guy who keeps rushing to the rescue.” Not the monster she’d thought. “What’s not to like there?”

He shook his head. “I’ve been feared, rightfully so, for centuries.”

She tightened her hold on him. “You were born a vampire.”

“Do you understand what that means? The bloodlust, the hunger—they were with me, always. I grew up thinking it was normal to track and hunt prey…prey that was human.”

She didn’t let go.

“My father thought it was great sport to hunt humans. Of course, it was more challenging to go after the werewolves. And they tasted better.”

“Shane…”

“That’s what my life was. Death and pain. I was a monster. I am a monster. There are sins on my soul that can never be erased, no matter what I do.”

Atonement. “That’s why you work for the FBI. You’re trying to make up for what you’ve done.”

Now he did pull away. He strode toward the window. Stared out at the night. “A part of me always knew…what I was doing, what I was…it was all wrong. But when someone calls you a fucking god, hell, the power rush you get is too strong to deny.”

He put his hands on the glass window pane.

“We ruled the world then, until I looked around and saw it was a world full of death and pain. The children begged for mercy, the women fled, and the men were in agony.”

She shook her head, trying to shove away the images that his words pushed into her mind.

“My father was the leader. The most powerful vampire in existence, and he didn’t expect an attack to come from the one he trusted above all others.” His laughter held a cold, bitter edge. “Maybe that’s why I was able to take his head. He trusted me too much to expect a betrayal.”

He’d killed his own father? She hurried forward.

He turned to her. “You’re supposed to back away when a man makes a confession like that. When he tells you of the bloodlust and the death, you should be afraid.”

She was. Her breath felt cold in her lungs. “You haven’t hurt me.” Not once.

“Not yet,” he said, his jaw tightening. “My father wanted me to be just like him. There was a village that was trying to resist him, trying to fight back against us. They called us devils, and my father wanted to show them what hell was truly like.” His eyes were cloudy with memories. “I saw the children there. Terrified. And I saw my bloody past…it had to stop.” His lips thinned. “So I stopped it.”

There was pain there, filling the air all around him.

Then he smiled, and it was a chilling sight as his fangs flashed. “I could tell you good things, you know. About how I’ve saved lives. Stopped killers. But the scales never really balance, and I’ve always known, deep inside, that my father was right.”

“Shane…”

“I am just like him. I have the same darkness. It pushes me. It calls to me. It tempts me.” He paused. His eyes narrowed. “Or it did, until something else tempted me more.”

He tempted her. Danger, darkness, a vampire with a past so bloody and tortured. But he tempted her.

“My earliest memory,” she heard herself whisper, “is of being trapped by blood and fire. The fire was closing in on me and the blood…it was on my hands. My feet. I was screaming, but there was no escape for me.”

He didn’t speak. It was his turn to listen.

“I always knew something bad had happened to me, but I never could break through and figure out just what it had been. When I asked my mother, when I’d tell her about the nightmares that would never stop, she’d just whisper—”

Olivia broke off because now her mother’s whispers made a strange sense to her. And they left her chilled.

“She’d wish that I would have peace,” she finished, voice breaking. “And that the darkness would leave me alone.”

Only it never had. The darkness had been a living, breathing thing inside of her. Whispering sometimes, twisting insidiously within her. And she’d sought out killers, others who must feel that same darkness because she’d wanted to control herself.

Wanted to stop whatever it was that seemed to live in her heart.

Djinn?

Yes.

Her gaze fell to his throat. “I can’t believe Pate just let me go. Isn’t he worried about what I might do?” A few wrong words had sent Holly to the floor.

“I’m not worried,” Shane said softly. “Because you’re strong. Far stronger than you seem to realize.”

His words brought her eyes right back up to his.

“I want you,” he told her, the words stark and hard. “And I will always want you. I look at you, and I fucking feel complete. Like I found something I didn’t even know I was missing.”

She wanted his words to be true. Wanted the strange connection she felt with him to be real.

Because she hadn’t felt that connection with anyone else.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you. Any who comes after you—human, vamp, werewolf—they’ll have to go through me first.”

He sounded so fierce. Her vampire.

She leaned into him. Put her hands on his shoulders. Made her choice. “And anyone who comes after you will have to deal with me.” Because she wanted to see where this would go. Their connection, their desire…where would it take them?

She didn’t care about some fated nonsense. She cared about the way he made her feel.

For so long, she’d felt as if she were the secret freak in the room, even when she was with killers.

But with Shane, Olivia felt as if she were desired, wanted, more than anything else.

As if she mattered more than anything else.

“Don’t bite me this time,” Olivia told him. “I want to see what it’s like, when it’s just us.”

He gave a jerky nod.

She pushed onto her tip-toes and rose against him. Her lips pressed to his mouth, and her tongue slid over the crevice between his lips. Slowly, she licked the line there, savoring him for a moment even as the blood heated within her veins.

His lips parted and her tongue slid inside. His hands settled along her hips, his long, strong fingers curved around her ass, and he pulled her against the aroused length of his cock.

“Just us,” she whispered against his mouth.

Would it be as good this time? Without that strange blood link?

He kept kissing her, and the kiss became even deeper, so sensual that she trembled.

He lifted her into his arms. Carried her away from the window and down a narrow hallway. He took her into his bedroom. Stripped her. Lowered her onto the bed.

“Your clothes,” Olivia gasped. “You’re still dressed!”

He caught her legs and, gently, carefully, pulled her to the edge of the mattress. “I won’t bite,” he promised her, “but I will taste.”

He leaned over her. His mouth pressed a kiss to her throat, right above her racing heartbeat. He licked her, sucked the skin, had her moaning, and then he moved down.

Down her neck. Down her collarbone. Kissing. Caressing.

His fingers slid over her breasts. Strummed her nipples. Had the desire coiling so tightly within her. Then his mouth replaced his fingers. He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked, he laved her flesh, he had her hips arching up against him and her breath panting out.

Desire rolled through her on a red-hot wave. She wanted his clothes gone. Wanted to feel every inch of him against her. In her.

But he was kissing her stomach now. Being so careful not to hurt her. Being too careful when she needed, wanted, him to be wild right then.

“Shane!”

He parted her legs. “I told you, I get to taste.”

He bent at the edge of the bed and put his mouth on her. His lips feathered over her sensitive core, and his tongue stroked against her clit.

She cried out his name and squeezed her eyes shut as a powerful flood of sensation overwhelmed her. Yes!

She arched toward him.

His tongue thrust into her. His fingers stoked her. His lips savored and he was driving her insane.

Her hands grabbed for the covers. She fisted them. Her body was bow tight as the release waited just beyond her reach.

He licked her clit.

She erupted. No other word for it. The pleasure exploded through her and she shrieked his name. The waves of release racked her again and again, and her sex contracted, shuddering with the pleasure that was so intense it was on the verge of pain.

It wasn’t fleeting. Wasn’t some quick pop of release. The climax left her weak, gasping…and wanting more. Her eyes opened, and Olivia stared at Shane. He’d stood, and, as she watched, he jerked off his shirt. Tossed it across the room. He shoved down his pants and his heavily aroused cock sprang toward her.

The blood link hadn’t been some kind of aphrodisiac this time. She simply wanted him.

Olivia could see the edge of his fangs when he came down toward her, and his mouth went right to her throat. He kissed her. “You taste fucking delicious.”

He drove into her, thrusting his cock fully inside of her. She was slick and sensitive from her release, and a gasp escaped her at his complete penetration.

“Olivia?”

She wrapped her legs around him. Raked her nails down his back. “When do I…get to see…how you taste?”

He withdrew, plunged again.

The tension coiled within her once more. The pleasure mounted.

They rolled across the bed. Wrecked those covers. He pinned her beneath him, opened her wide, and thrust down at an angle that sent the heavy length of his cock sliding right over her clit.

He knew what she liked. What made her go wild.

What made her come, screaming his name.

His hands closed around her fists. She’d grabbed the covers in a death grip again. “Look at me,” he said, his voice a guttural demand.

She couldn’t look anywhere else. His gaze trapped hers.

She saw the pleasure take him. Watched as his release turned his eyes an even darker shade. His cheeks flushed, his teeth snapped as he ground them together, and he came, pumping deep inside of her.

It took a few moments before her breath stopped escaping in wild heaves. Her heart raced frantically against her chest. He still held her hands, and his eyes were on hers.

She hadn’t needed the bite to go wild. She’d just needed…him.

“Even better…” His voice sent a shiver skating over her. “Since we aren’t in some shit-forsaken cave this time.”

His words were so unexpected that a little laugh tumbled out of her.

Surprise flashed over his face, and his eyes narrowed. “I like that.”

“What?” Her lips quirked at him. “Shit-forsaken caves?”

He freed her right hand. His fingers brushed against her cheek. “I like the dimple that you have right here.”

Her smile slipped a bit.

“And I like the sound of your laughter.”

She hadn’t exactly been laughing it up with the guy, not with all of their life-or-death drama. But this was different. This moment, the aftermath. So intimate. There were no shields between them. There was nothing at all. She didn’t need to hide from him, didn’t have to pretend to be something she wasn’t.

Her other lovers had been human. She’d always felt on edge when she was with them. As if she had to watch herself. As if I had to fit in.

When she hadn’t even realized that she was different.

“Did I prove it to you?”

She shook her head, not understanding.

He kissed her, tasted her slowly. “Did I…” Shane said against her lips. “Convince you that the desire is just as strong without my bite?”

She nodded. Her heartbeat still hadn’t returned to a normal speed.

“Good.” But there was a note in his voice that had Olivia tensing. A dangerous rumble. “Because if I don’t sink my teeth into you soon, I’ll go fucking insane.”

She turned her head. Offered her neck. Asked for what she wanted, “Bite me.”

His teeth sank into her.

The pleasure rose once more.

Midnight was at hand. The fucking witching hour. Shane stared out at the darkness. He could feel the hunters in the night. Practically sense them closing in. He’d told Olivia that the danger wasn’t over. He’d tried to warn her.

There would be no more warnings.

Sheets rustled behind him. He turned back and saw her sitting up in bed. Her hair was tousled, her cheeks flushed, and his mark was on her neck.

I want to keep her with me…forever.

For a vampire, forever was a very, very long time.

He wanted to give her a choice, but if she didn’t choose him, Shane wasn’t sure what he would do.

I just found her. I’m not prepared to let her go.

So he figured the plan had to be simple—I need to make her love me.

Okay, maybe not so simple.

“You look like you lost your best friend.” She wrapped her hands around her knees. Her hair was a dark curtain running down her back. “What’s wrong?”

There would be no point in deception. “They’re coming.”

She stiffened. “They?”

“I can smell them.” Werewolves. In his building. He was a bit surprised that they’d taken such a direct approach. He’d thought they might try for a sneak attack.

Olivia jumped from the bed, giving him one gorgeous flash of her body before she started to frantically yank on her clothing.

He had on a pair of jeans, and he didn’t move. He wasn’t feeling so frantic. More pissed, yes.

The wolves need to leave us alone.

One way or another, they would.

“We have to get out of here!” She did a little dance as she shimmied into her jeans. Then she ran toward him and grabbed his arm. “Come on!”

He didn’t move. “We don’t have to worry about any humans getting caught in the crossfire here.”

Her brow furrowed. “There are five floors below us—”

“I own them all. No one else is here.” They’d entered the parking garage and taken the elevator straight up to his apartment. So Olivia hadn’t realized how alone they’d been.

We aren’t alone now. The werewolves are closing in.

“We still have to leave, we can’t be sitting ducks—”

“I have the advantage here. The wolves were able to attack us so well at the cabin because they had the woods for cover. All of the animal scents were already there. Here it’s different. I control everything here.”

Her fingers tightened around him. Suspicion flashed on her face, but vanished almost instantly. “Control is great. Staying alive is even better. Let’s go.”

He inhaled. “Two werewolves are coming up the elevator now. A man and a woman.”

“Why aren’t we leaving?” Again, suspicion flashed across her face.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” he promised.

And he saw understanding sink in. She looked at the bed. At him. “You control everything here,” Olivia repeated his words in a quiet, hurt voice. “I-I was never free of the Para Unit, was I?”

The car had been equipped with a tracking system. Just in case she’d tried to slip away without him. She wouldn’t have been able to go far. The Para Unit would have been able to remotely disable the car.

“Bait.” She said the word like a curse. “You didn’t want to compromise the precious location of the Para Unit, so you tossed me out? To the wolves?”

She had it wrong. “No one will hurt you.” He sure as hell hadn’t tossed her anyplace.

Olivia ran from the room. He followed her, body tense. “Olivia—”

She was at the window, looking down. “It’s too high for me to jump.”

Hell, yes, five stories up was too high for her to jump.

Olivia spun around and rushed for the door. “Guess that means I have to run.”

He beat her to the door. This was the moment that they had been waiting for. The leverage the team needed. “They’re on the other side of that door.”

Her eyes were stark. “What have you done?”

He pushed her back. Opened the door. Stared at the man and woman waiting there.

It was easy enough to recognize the warden. Case Killian looked like hell, though. Deep lines marred his face. Dark shadows swept under his eyes, and stubble covered his jaw.

Shane had never met the woman who stood just beside Case, but he’d seen pictures of Chloe Quick. She was petite, deceptively fragile, with bright blue eyes and black hair that skimmed her shoulders.

“I need to see Olivia,” Chloe said softly. Then she added, “Please.” Her voice broke on the plea.

Shane lifted a brow but before he could speak, Olivia was hauling him out of her way. “Chloe? What are you doing here?”

Chloe’s lower lip trembled. “I’m so sorry…”

“Sorry? Why?”

Olivia was far too trusting. “Because, love,” Shane told her, his words an angry growl, “your friend Chloe is the one who set you up.”