Ivan looked thoughtful, and then smiled. “It’s not far from here. Grab Urvashi and we’ll go now, before we move for the night.”
“Give us a few minutes, and we’ll meet you in the lobby.”
Ivan grunted and took off down the hallway, nervous tension still evident in the set of his broad shoulders.
Dressed in her jeans and sweater, Katya barged out of her room and into the hallway. She stared at Aaron standing shirtless in his unbuttoned jeans. Her eyes narrowed to an angry squint, but she couldn’t hide the ever-present desire. When he’d saved her life, he had inadvertently claimed her as his bloodslave. This woman needed him, always. Every minute of every day she thought of him, of the next bite. And she fervently resented him for it.
He had wanted a lover, someone to replace his lost wife. He should have been happy with Michelle and Urvashi. Any other man would find it difficult to please a vampire and a fallen angel. Not Aaron. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He hated himself for what he’d done to Katya, even though he had saved her life at the time.
Her stare became uncertain as he read the question in her poorly masked mind. She wanted to ask, but hated the fact that she needed him. “Katya, you never need to ask. Come here.” With open arms he waited for her.
“Bloody hell! Get out of my head you bastard!”
She tried to turn away, but Aaron wouldn’t allow her to put a wedge between them. In a split second he flashed across the hallway and enveloped her in a warm embrace. He whispered against her neck and ear. “If I could undo this, I would. If I could go back in time, and avoid the bonding, I would do it right now. None of that changes anything. Katya, please don’t hate me. I’m not your enemy.”
She nodded, her lips parted as if she would speak of what she felt towards him, an indication that he meant something to her. No words emerged. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she leaned her neck aside and pulled back her shoulder length hair. Silently, she gave him access to what she needed so badly, yet was too proud to ask for. He bit down softly and sank his teeth in, without feeding. With his tender bite he gifted her the magic of his venom and took nothing in return. He practiced extreme caution with Katya. Vampires can kill a human in seconds, by accident. He tried his best to feed from her only once nightly, though he bit her several times.
She sighed into his embrace, and her hands found their way around him for a tight hug. The knowledge that he could have had a real friendship with the remarkable woman in his arms ate at him. The potential had been there all along.
Regrets. Aaron had his share and then some. This mistake could not be undone. Aaron had bonded Katya to him … for life. To the best of his knowledge, wolves lived every bit as long as a vampire. They had many years of strife to look forward to – together.
Aaron heard the door click open, and a second later Urvashi slid up behind him. Her tingling power coursed over his back as she caressed his skin in passing. His master’s touch was like plugging into a battery – an instant energy jolt straight to his groin.
She smiled sweetly, and for the millionth time, Aaron wished he could get inside her head and expose her inner secrets.
Urvashi cleared her throat. “There is little time, Aaron. We must be moving.” As soon as the words left her lips she flitted off, disappearing into her room down the hallway.
He caught a hint of her thoughts, only what she let him see. Urvashi already knew of their plans to hit the bar down the street. The woman rode the edge of his consciousness, forever there, tied to his mind. He had no privacy when it came to Urvashi.
Despite her casual tone, she was not making a suggestion. She expected Aaron’s unquestioning obedience. When she wasn’t trying to fuck his brains out the fallen angel acted like his damn mother. Technically she was his master, but, she rarely pulled on her reins of authority. Urvashi preferred to seduce cooperation.
Aaron let up his bite from Katya, licked the wound once to seal it, and kissed her on the lips. “Keep sharp. We’re going hunting before we change hotels.”
Katya smiled. She wanted in on the hunt.
Aaron held her gaze and tried to impart his concern. “Ivan’s spooked about Dmitri. I’ve never seen him this worried.”
High on his venom she grinned and winked at Aaron then slipped out of his arms without a word. How wonderful it would be to have her like this all the time, happy, willing, a pleasure to be with. He wondered if Katya would ever accept his domination of her life and stop fighting the inevitable. Probably not.
* * * *
Katya zipped up her black leather coat hiding her shoulder-holstered Makarov pistol and secured her hair in a ponytail. Can’t have anything getting in the way on a hunting expedition. Wearing jeans, knee-high leather boots, a sweater and heavy coat, she was ready to take on the world. Now, if only she could get rid of this insane craving for Aaron. The cheeky bastard rode forefront in her mind, constantly.
She stared at herself in the mirror and dabbed some cover up on the dark patches under her sunken eyes. She’d been giving too much blood to these damned leeches.
“You’re a wolf, a killer who preys on the flesh and bones of your enemies.” She preached to her reflection. “You have survived decades without a prick like Aaron fucking up your life. You don’t need him. Young, impetuous, inexperienced, foolish. A bloody cockup who never stops trying to get his leg over. He says he loves you. Ha! Not real. He doesn’t know what love is. You do not love him. He’s nothing more than a chemical addiction and a swinging dick.”
Her false bravado fell on her ears alone, leaving a fading confidence in the silence of her hotel room. She knew the moment she stepped into the hallway she would go to him, look for his smile, his approval, those loving eyes. She did need him. She wanted him, now, in her arms, in her bed, in her life, in her neck. As much as she hated to admit, chemical addiction or not, she cared for this bloody leech.
“You’re a liar, Katya, that’s what you are. Lying to yourself. He certainly isn’t fooled.” She slammed her fist down on the bathroom marble countertop hard enough to tear the skin off her knuckles. “Why did you have to fall in love with him? Why couldn’t it just be about sex and biting?”
The mirror offered no answers, only the same tired face that had been staring back at her since she was brought into the wolf pack all those decades ago.
She needed some action to burn off all this anxiety. “I hope some fucking Popov gets in my face, I’ll smash his bloody bollocks to a pulp.” She charged down the hallway, and banged her fist four times on the door of the leeches-in-residence.
As she reached back, ready for another slam on the door, it popped open. Suddenly he was there, an inch from her nose. “Katya. I’m here for you. Please try to get a grip on the situation. We can’t live like this.”
Fucker was in her head. Again!
His strong hands wrapped her cheeks and hypnotic dark brown eyes set into a beautifully sculpted sharp-angled face drew her into a light, gentle kiss. How could she fight a man who seduced her in three seconds flat? She was already wet, aching for his cock and his teeth. If he stripped her clothes off in the hallway and humped her against the wall, she wouldn’t consider stopping him. Betrayed by her body, she responded to his kiss. When he finally pulled away, it was all she could do not to yank him back by his coat.
He looked over his shoulder and yelled to Michelle. “We’re going after a lead down the block, be back in an hour or two.” He pulled the door closed behind him and guided Katya to the elevator.
* * * *
Michelle watched Aaron as he exited the room and then hurriedly combed her hair and applied a quick layer of blood-red lipstick. The damn wolves were forever rushing around, hiding her away, out of sight of the public. She tossed her robe aside and shimmied into a short, tight skirt. A second later she slipped a heavy, low cut sweater over her head and then pulled on her jacket. She grabbed the nearest shoes – her Gucci boots – snagged the hotel room keycard, and headed for the hallway. The clock was tick
ing. Aaron and the wolves would return quickly. Barely enough time to find a solid meal. The little nip from Katya wasn’t going to cut it. Michelle needed several donors a night to be truly satisfied.
She was hungry, now.
Silent as a predator on the hunt, she made a fast clip to the elevator. Waiting impatiently all the way down, finally, the elevator opened in front of the P-Square Bar on the second floor of the Intercontinental Tverskaya Hotel. Like a dinner bell, the sounds of strange Russian hip-hop music called her to the feeding grounds. Moscow had a rich nightlife, if anyone would let her enjoy it. Apart from her sip of Katya, an occasional sip off Aaron, and the room service bellhop she’d assaulted three nights ago, Michelle hadn’t taken a decent feeding in more than a week.
The savory scents of sweaty men drunk on vodka wafted over her senses. Ah the glorious smell of food. The menu was limited to Russian, but she wasn’t picky. She sized up the mostly overweight business men lounging around the room, and knew she was going to have no trouble at all with these healthy donors.
The only thing that bothered her was the amount of garlic Russian men ate. She had no allergy or sensitivity to speak of, but garlic gave the blood a funky tang. The smell was simply odieux. She made her rounds, moving through the bar slowly, tasting each morsel, trying her best to ignore the garlic. She found a nice group of Middle Eastern men who plied her with alcohol and offers to pay by the hour. This was her kind of meal: healthy, wealthy, and not afraid to spend. Not so long ago, in New York, her job as an escort, brought her paying clients she could feed from nightly. A wonderful arrangement. Adopting Aaron into her life had quickly put a stop to that.
Michelle danced with several men, swaying to the strange Russian techno-grunge music, catching several good nips, trying to fill her achingly empty stomach. She had just finished with one of the olive-skinned men when suddenly a strong grip enveloped her left arm. She smelled the wolf before she glared at him. Anatoly.
“No, Michelle. Not here. There are eyes watching everywhere.”
He looked around the bar nervously as he pulled her back towards the exit. She turned on him, ready to peel the skin off his face with fangs bared. “J’ai un faim de loup! Take your hands off me or I eat you!”
His face paled and he let go of her. Her time to play had run out. The fucking wolves were closing in. Nikolay came around the corner and joined Anatoly with an identical scowl.
She surveyed the bar patrons with their greased back hair and pale, sharp cheek bones, the mark of Eastern European features. The lucky man at the table nearby locked eyes with her, and she moved. “Monsieur, can you help me?” She was on him before the wolves could grab her. Leaning down low so her cleavage held the man’s attention, she seemed to whisper in his ear as her fangs latched onto his neck.
She wasn’t normally this abrupt. Surprised by her attack, the man tried to jerk away, forcing her to squeeze him tight and hold him in place. She sucked down every drop she could get, right up to the moment the wolves pulled her off him.
“Connards!” Assholes.
Anatoly held her close, like a lover gone astray. His lips brushed her ear as he whispered intimately. “We need to go Michelle. You’re attracting too much attention.”
“Va te faire enculer chez les Grecs.” Go get fucked in the ass by Greeks.
* * * *
Chapter 3
“Are you warm enough?” Aaron hugged Katya, and she leaned into his embrace.
It didn’t cost her anything to let him wrap his arm around her. His gesture, though immature and possessive, put a slight smile on her lips. She couldn’t recall a time when she had this intensely physical reaction to a man. Aaron sent tingles up and down her body with nothing more than a look, a smile, a warm hug.
He held her close as they followed Ivan and Urvashi into 411, one of the many strip clubs splattered all across the city. Lit with black lights, glowing white g-string panties and neon-painted naked dancers, the place was a constant flash of jiggly sex. Passing one writhing naked woman after another, Katya hoped these ladies weren’t victims of the otrok dealer. From the hungry looks they poured over Aaron, it seemed that the men were the victims in this place.
Several women approached, surrounding her and Aaron with glowing painted nipples. One woman had a neon orange arrow pointed down at the artful glowing petals of a flower – her shaved pussy. Nothing but fluorescent paint covered her smooth skin. What the hell was she being paid for? Her clothes were long gone. Katya wondered how often they had to redo her pussy paint job after she finished dancing with her clients.
It seemed that in the short time Katya had known these strange vampires, they were forever spending their evenings in places like this. If it wasn’t hunting down Jamison and Albanian gangsters, it was hunting the latest designer drug. Katya couldn’t care less if a few addicts did the funky chicken in the back alley after shooting up. She hadn’t come to Moscow for the otrok. She was here to kill Dmitri and his traitorous bitch, Kristina. They would pay with their lives for murdering Katya’s fallen brothers.
The strip club and all this concern over otrok did provide a convenient distraction. The pack placated Urvashi to secure her help in taking down the bastard Dmitri. Trolling the mafia hovels of Moscow was a small price to pay to get what Katya wanted.
Ivan and Urvashi stepped up to the bar, no doubt bribing the bartender – another nude woman. Aaron held back, his arm still squeezing Katya tight. His fingers traced her chin as he leaned in for a sweet, deep kiss. She preferred having his lips on her neck, but she didn’t complain as the warmth of his tongue caressed her mouth with a delicious glide. She leaned into him, seeking more, needing more. Somehow, this creature turned her into an affectionate sex kitten with a single kiss.
Ivan tapped her shoulder and pulled her from a world of sensual abandon. She had to blink several times to get her eyes to focus on her brother wolf as she licked her lips, wishing Aaron’s lips were still there.
Ivan winked. “Sex later. First we have a date with Natalya.”
* * * *
Aaron held hands with his bloodslave as he followed Ivan and Urvashi through a hallway into the back. One of the security men led the four of them to a curtained room and seated them in the semicircular booth that surrounded a raised dance platform. He mumbled something in Russian and Ivan nodded at him as he closed the curtain and disappeared.
A thin, dark-haired, tiger-stripe painted woman parted the curtains and looked at the four of them with a frown. Like all the other painted escorts, her orange neon stripes glowed vibrantly in the black light, but did nothing to hide the fact she was butt naked. She looked each of them up and down, her eyes lingering on Aaron. Aaron’s probe speared her mind and caught a brief glimpse of her thoughts. She had a confused jumble of apprehension and excitement at the potential opportunity. She recognized immediately that Aaron was an American, and wanted to take him for a ride, if she could somehow separate him from the woman holding his hand. Americans always overpay, and in dollars instead of rubles.
Digging deeper into her head, her eyes widened, and suddenly a wall closed off her mind, blocking Aaron out completely. She knew. She had sensed him delving into her thoughts. How strange.
She started for the curtains, like she intended to leave, but Aaron snagged her arm and pulled her back inside none-too-gently. Ivan stood up and surrounded her. “Zhenschina-tigr, where are you going in such a hurry?”
She shook her head and tried to pull away, fear evident in eyes. Aaron took her striped painted face in his hands. He flashed his fangs as his eyes bore into her soul, letting the depth of his gaze seat into her psyche. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just need to know about the otrok. Give us what we need and you can go.”
With the skin contact, he slipped past her mental block and dug through her head into a dark mess of panic, arousal, and a mind twisted by addiction.
“She’s high. Just shot up.” Aaron reached down between her legs and soaked his finger in her drug-
induced wetness. She shuddered as he drew away his finger, and her eyes watched him with darkening arousal. Though she knew she stood amidst killers, the crazy whore was ready to be fucked, too hyped on venom to care. “She’s been using otrok for a while.”
Ivan crowded in. Aaron watched the trepidation in her eyes flickering between fear and arousal. She knew something was wrong, but she was still game for sex. The woman would probably fuck them both at the same time – if the price was right.
Ivan growled in her face. “Where is our Tiger Lady getting the drug?”
Bam, her arousal flipped to fear and anger. She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She tried to pull away once more, but Aaron squeezed her arm tighter in his powerful grip.
True terror flashed in her eyes, and Aaron began to feel sorry for this beautiful hot mess of woman. Her eyes appealed to him for mercy. “You don’t know what he will do to me.”
Aaron pulled her in closer, trying to find a way past the block in her mind. His telepathic connection strengthened with touch, but it wasn’t enough to get a clear picture. He kissed her on the lips and again slipped two fingers into her slippery wet pussy.
Fear, anxiety, and excitement warred in her mind. She wanted him, sensed he was exactly what she needed – a vampire. The truth slid down his spine in a cold shiver. He pulled his wet fingers out of her and stepped away, shocked at the cascading revelations.
He knew the thing she feared most – Dmitri – or his retribution. “She’s getting it directly from Dmitri. She’s his bloodslave. He’s beaten her before, and won’t hesitate to kill her. She fears him more than us.”