Her head snapped back, her seething eyes pinned on me. With only a moment’s delay, she sprang toward me again in another blurry attack. And again she was stopped, this time when she was, her whole body still swayed toward me.
Her whole body, that was, except her head and her neck.
Lucien had her by her throat. Just one hand at her throat, the muscles in his arm and back bunching as he took two steps and slammed her against another wall, more plaster breaking, more debris falling.
Lucien got close to her and I saw his fingers squeeze.
“You just made a fatal mistake, Katrina,” he gritted from between clenched teeth.
His fury matched hers, maybe surpassed it. I knew this because his jaw was working so hard a muscle leapt there.
I stood frozen not only from what I just witnessed but that I was just almost attacked by what amounted to Lucien’s wife.
His wife!
And she was stunning. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I had to admit that even if she wanted to tear me limb from limb.
Her incensed gaze slid from me to Lucien.
“You’ve fucked her. I can smell it.” Her voice was deep, throaty, seductive. It wasn’t throaty because her husband held her by the throat but just because it was.
“I haven’t fucked her,” Lucien replied truthfully and I thanked God at that moment that it was, indeed, the truth. Then, presenting more evidence he was the demented sort of vampire, Lucien finished with, “Yet.”
Her fisted hands slammed into the walls at her sides breaking clean through the drywall before her body started thrashing wildly to gain release.
In a delayed effort of self-preservation, I took several hasty steps back.
Settle, pet. I’ll not let her hurt you. You’re safe. Lucien’s voice sounded in my head and it was just his voice, not a command, my body was at my will.
Even so, I stopped moving.
Suddenly, Katrina tensed from the top of her head to her toes. She tilted her head back and let out a wild screech that hurt my ears and it felt like it even shook the windows.
After she was done, her eyes sliced to me.
“I’m going to kill her,” she screamed.
My body grew tense but I stayed still.
Lucien’s voice was a snarl. “You touch her, fuck, Rina, after this you even look at her, you’ll fucking burn.”
Her gaze moved to Lucien and she changed her threat. “Then I’m going to kill you.”
Instantly, to my shock and despair, he dropped her and stepped back. His hands went out to his sides and he issued a one word invitation.
“Try.”
A roar of fury tore from her throat and she lunged.
That was pretty much all I saw with any clarity.
They were too fast, too powerful, all their movement was a blur. Every once in a while Lucien would pin her and they’d come into focus but she’d escape and their movements would become indistinct.
The table in the hall was turned over, the vase on it shattering into pieces, those pieces kicked wildly about as they moved.
I took two more steps back, these up the stairs when I heard Lucien again in my brain, Still, pet.
I stilled. I didn’t want to. I didn’t even know why I did. I just did.
Even though I didn’t see it I knew it was brutal, savage even. The noises they made, her grunts of pain and effort, Lucien’s grunts solely of effort, the sounds of fists against flesh, the noise of bodies colliding, all of this slashed through the air.
I had felt a great deal of fear in the last few weeks but I’d never been so terrified in all my life than I was at that moment.
This was because I was witnessing something extraordinarily vicious.
This was also because I was witnessing, no matter how indistinct, Lucien beating the shit out of his wife.
If he ever got physical with me in that way he’d kill me in seconds.
My body started trembling and I wanted to run, I really did, but my fear rooted me to the spot.
Finally, Katrina came into focus, her body slamming against the door making its heavy, solidness shake.
She stopped, as did Lucien facing her but slightly turned to the side. I could see bloody, angry scratch marks marring his chest and neck.
She was far worse for the wear, her nose bleeding profusely, her lip cut, angry red marks at her neck and wrists.
At the sight of what Lucien had done to her, a violent tremor shook through my body nearly bringing me to my knees.
“I got the Severance papers this morning,” she spat at him as she wiped the back of her hand under her nose, smearing the blood across her face.
Her words confused me.
“You don’t say?” he retorted carelessly.
Her face twisted with rage. “You’d throw me away for a mortal?”
My astonished, frightened eyes moved to Lucien.
“Look at her, Rina, she’s no mere mortal,” Lucien clipped.
Katrina didn’t look at me, instead she snapped, “Yes, I forgot. She’s life.”
What did that mean?
Any of it!
Lucien took an ominous step closer to her and I watched her quail, her bravado slipping, she’d learned her lesson far faster than any he’d ever taught me.
“I lost you the minute you laid eyes on her,” she accused, her voice turning small.
“You lost me two seconds after The Claiming and you know it,” he returned sharply. She flinched because clearly, whatever the hell that meant, she did know it.
I flinched for her. It was hard not to feel sorry for her. She wasn’t pathetic, she was just broken.
Her gaze shifted to me and it narrowed.
“Are you enjoying this?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
It was safe to say I was not.
I was saved from having to reply when Lucien gritted out, “Look at me, Rina, don’t look at Leah. She no longer exists for you.” When she didn’t obey immediately, he thundered, “Fucking look at me!”
She did, so did I, anyone would.
“Keep her safe, Lucien,” she whispered, her tone disturbing, so disturbing it sent a chill straight through me.
“You touch her, you’ll burn.” Lucien’s voice was just as disturbing, more so.
I didn’t know Katrina, her threat could be empty. I knew Lucien, his threat was not.
“Yes, but you don’t get it Lucien. I’ll be happy to burn because while I burn I’ll know you’ll be facing eternity without your precious life.”
Lucien’s body tensed the way it had done earlier, his muscles coming into sharp relief, menacing, sinister.
I held my breath. Then I heard the backdoor open.
“Yoo hoo!” Edwina called. “There’s a car in the drive! Do we have… oh!”
Edwina stopped speaking. The backdoor had a direct shot to the front door down a wide hall off of which four rooms led. Edwina couldn’t see me but she could likely see Lucien and Katrina. And you didn’t have to have extra sensory perception to feel the crackling animosity in the air not to mention Katrina’s face was a bloody mess.
“You backed a losing horse, Edwina,” Katrina called apropos of absolutely nothing. “Everyone knows about Leah. He kissed her at the bar at a fucking Feast for all the world to fucking see.”
This too confused me and I heard Edwina’s shocked gasp from not too far away so I knew it surprised her which confused me all the more.
“The Council will investigate,” Katrina went on and I saw Edwina come into my vision at the side of the stairs.
Her face was pale.
“Investigate?” Edwina asked the question on the tip of my tongue.
“You know they will,” Katrina stated, her eyes sliding to Lucien. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Lucien was standing with his arms crossed on his chest like he was watching a vaguely annoying street performer who had roped him into his routine.
“Another threat,” he drawled de
risively.
“I’ll call them from your fucking driveway. You’re kissing her at Feasts. You’ve moved in with her. You intend to –” Katrina retorted and Lucien cut her off.
“Be my guest,” he invited and Katrina’s eyes went wide then they swung to me.
“You’ve lost your mind,” she breathed toward me even though she was talking to Lucien. Her gaze moving back, she studied him a moment and all of a sudden her lip curled. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised, You’ve always had a taste for sweet smelling pussy.”
I gasped. Edwina gasped. Lucien moved.
He crowded her back into the door, his powerful frame cutting her off from view.
I looked nervously at Edwina. Edwina looked nervously at me. Then she gave me a shaky smile which I did not return and we both looked back at the scene.
“The Council will grant me this.” Lucien was saying.
“Never,” Katrina returned.
“I’m calling in my marker,” Lucien announced.
I heard Katrina’s sharp intake of breath. I looked to Edwina who was staring fixedly at Lucien’s back, her face the picture of shock and I knew at least she knew what this meant.
I had no idea what was going on. None of it.
“They’ll still not allow it.” Katrina didn’t sound so sure now.
“They owe me,” Lucien retorted.
“They do but a mortal?” Katrina shot back. “They won’t even consider it. Not even for you.”
“They’ve no choice,” Lucien stated.
There was a hesitation then softly, with some kind of weird understanding in her voice, Katrina said, “I’ve heard of this but didn’t expect it of you. Her scent has driven you insane.”
Lucien didn’t hesitate with his reply. “If that’s the case, I’m happy in my insanity.”
That was the third weirdest, yet most profound, compliment I had that day even though I had no idea what was going on. I also had the distinct feeling I wanted no more compliments from the Mighty Vampire Lucien who’d beat the crap out of his wife in his concubine’s foyer while insisting said concubine watch.
“You want war,” Katrina whispered.
“I want my life back,” Lucien replied. “If to get it that means war then I want war.”
Um…
War?
“I’ll not fight on your side,” she informed him, the bravado back in her voice, her words a challenge.
“I never expected you would,” Lucien returned.
I couldn’t see all of her but I saw parts of her body twitch as if she’d been struck.
“You don’t think much of me, do you?” she asked.
“I haven’t for the last thirty years,” he replied with frank cruelty.
She stepped out from in front of him and I could see her now. Her eyes looked to me then back to Lucien.
“I’m beginning to feel sorry for her,” Katrina commented.
“You shouldn’t. She’s everything you’re not,” Lucien responded.
That hurt. I could see it in her flinch and I felt her pain. Any woman would.
He was harsh and he was heartless and, honest to goodness, I never thought I could hate him anymore but I did at that moment. It was lunacy, his wife had tried to do me bodily harm but I felt for her, I couldn’t help it.
“What did I do to make you hate me so much?” she whispered.
“You, like all of them, tried to cage me. I can’t abide that, Rina, you knew it. You knew how I felt about it and you did it all the same.”
“I loved you.” She was still whispering.
Even at her soft words, Lucien remained remote. “Love is a blanket that keeps you warm not one that traps and suffocates you. You never learned that lesson, Rina. You never paid it any attention no matter how many times I explained. You kept pulling that blanket over my head.”
Silently she assumed the posture of defeat and it was so heartbreaking, my eyes swung to Lucien, thinking he’d relent.
He didn’t. In fact, as he took her in, his lip curled in a contemptuous sneer.
My heart started beating faster. I didn’t know why, hatred, fear for my future life as this man was going to factor largely in it or both.
He heard my heart. I knew this because his eyes cut to me, his face lost its disdain and his brows drew together in puzzlement.
“Edwina,” Katrina said in a soft farewell and I tore my gaze from Lucien but before I could focus or Edwina could respond, Katrina was gone.
“See to the groceries,” Lucien ordered Edwina. I looked back to him to see him striding with purpose toward me.
I started backing up the steps.
“Clean up this mess,” Lucien continued his instructions, his gait wide and determined and I started backing up double time. “You don’t need to say good-bye when you leave,” Lucien finished his commands to Edwina.
At those ominous words, I turned on the landing and ran.
In a second I was cradled in his arms and in the next we were in the bedroom and I was bouncing on the bed.
Lucien was looming over me, fists to his hips, eyes dark and glittering.
“You run from me?” His voice was dangerous.
I felt my fear escalate at a slightly lower rate than my temper flared.
“Down there, I trusted you.” Those five words were an accusation.
His head cocked to the side. “And how, exactly, did I betray that trust, pet?”
“You told me to stay,” I informed him.
“Yes?”
“I stayed.”
“And?”
“You can’t possibly need me to explain!” I snapped.
“I’m afraid I do,” he clipped back.
I got to my knees, hands balled into fists at my sides and I leaned toward him.
“You just beat your wife in front of me!” I shouted.
“It wasn’t the first time but, fortunately, it was the last,” he replied indifferently.
I drew in a sharp breath, reared back in horror and fell to my bottom.
“You disgust me,” I hissed, meaning every word.
His body did that thing again, that menacing, sinister change where his muscles came into sharp relief.
“I disgust you?” he whispered.
I ignored his stance even though he had to know my fear. My heart was beating so wildly I could, indeed, this time actually hear it.
If I could, he certainly could.
“Yes,” I retorted with more bravery than sense.
“You don’t have any fucking idea what you just witnessed.” His voice was still a low, outraged whisper.
“I do and it was nauseating.”
All of a sudden his rage filled the room, clogging my throat, expanding my lungs and he was leaning over me, his fists in the bed beside my hips.
I scrambled backwards up the bed.
He followed, faster, crawling along with my body.
My head hit the headboard and he retreated, only far enough to rise up, using my legs to yank me back down the bed between his thighs and then he settled his heavy weight on me.
“You’ve demonstrated another appalling trait, pet.” He was still using his scary whisper.
“And what’s this one?” I shot back. “I thought you’d seen them all.”
“You’re quick to judge, not even asking that first, fucking question,” he retorted.
“And how could you explain bloodying your wife’s nose in front of your supposed to be lover? Hunh? How about humiliating her in the same company? How about wanting a lover at all when you have a wife.” I made a snorting noise that was slightly embarrassing but I was too furious to care. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You’ve forced me to humble myself more than once. Why I trusted you and didn’t run so I wasn’t forced to witness that I… will… never… know.”
His body went solid and his eyes bored into mine. This lasted what felt like an eternity.
Then he pulled in a breath sharply through his nose.
When he was
done, I sensed the patience he was seeking eluded him.
I wasn’t wrong.
“I’ve risked everything for you,” he told me quietly.
“Your marriage?” My voice was dripping acid. “It didn’t seem you prized that overly much.”
It was like I didn’t even speak.
“Everything,” he repeated. “And what do I get in return?”
It was beginning to dawn on me that I was in a very bad situation.
Firstly, Lucien could and did in a fury beat the crap out of his wife. Secondly, if he did that to me, I wouldn’t survive. Thirdly, for whatever reason, he was angry, no, he was infuriated. Beyond anything I’d ever experienced from anyone before in my life. And lastly, I couldn’t fight him. I had absolutely no way to defend myself against anything he chose to inflict on me.
All the tissues in my body petrified as fear paralyzed me.
“That’s the smartest response you’ve had today,” Lucien informed me and I knew I was in trouble.
He grinned and it was not one of his handsome grins. This was a grin I’d never seen before.
It was ruthless.
His grin disappeared because his face disappeared in my neck.
“Listen to me now, Leah. I will break you. Do you understand me?” he vowed, his voice rumbling against my skin.
I didn’t but at the same time I did.
He continued, “And, right now, I’m taking a taste of what I’m risking everything for.” His head came up and his face came close, so close, I could feel his breath against my lips. “But don’t worry, pet, you don’t have to beg for it.”
Oh no.
My body burst into a flurry of frenzied motion, a futile effort at escape.
I knew this would have no effect and it didn’t.
My robe was gone in nary a second. My panties whisked down my legs in a blur of his arm. He spread my legs with his large hands and I opened my mouth to scream.
The scream died in my throat as his mouth touched me.
The sudden shock of his mouth moving on me killed my scream. His obvious talent subdued my struggles. He’d lived a long time and in that time he’d obviously learned exactly what to do between a woman’s legs.
In fact, it was pretty clear he made an art of it.