The
sequel to the bestselling Blood Rush...
Myra Danson has to die. The only
question that remains is the kind of afterlife she’ll enjoy.
Selling her blood with a side of sex as
a blood courtesan was supposed to have been about saving her mom, but now Myra
has to go deeper into the vampire world in order to save herself. A hidden past
she never knew existed is coming for her and now everyone wants her; dead or alive.
Being blood bound to the handsome
vampire Kristos Anastos offers some protection, but her only real hope? To die
faster than they can kill her.
An erotic vampire romance novella that
completes the story started in Blood Rush. Approximately 30,000 words (also
known as half a novel). Warning: Contains sexy vampires along with fast paced
action and adventure.
Available now at:
Chapter
One
In
order to live, I have to die.
Turning that truth over and over in my
mind, I sipped my caramel latte amidst the hustle and bustle of a very busy coffee
shop in New York’s Upper East Side. It was late fall now and the crisp air
drove people into the small cafe. I watched with mild disinterest as they ordered
their favorite brew in harsh New York accents and waited for their orders,
hands thrust in pockets because the weather had shifted so suddenly that no one
had gloves yet. Yesterday it had been seventy, today it was in the thirties.
They left the shop in self-important whirls of light coats meant for warmer
weather and hands wrapped around steaming takeout cups, soaking up the heat.
What I wouldn’t give for such an easy solution to the chill permeating my life.
When a dark, swarthy man standing in
line seemed to spend a little too much time looking at me, I slouched down in
my chair, pulling the collar of my coat up to hide my face. It was better if no
one noticed me. There were a lot of people who would like to know where I was
and whether or not I was dead already. And if I was still alive, they would be
only too happy to rectify that oversight.
He stared at me as if he recognized me
from somewhere and then abruptly answered his phone, turning his back to me as
he spoke. Shaking his head as if irritated, he rushed out of the cafe without
even placing an order. I held my breath as he went and didn’t resume breathing
until the door shut after him. He hadn’t bothered to look at me again so it
must’ve just been a coincidence. Maybe I looked like an old girlfriend. That
could happen, right? Surely not everyone was
out to get me? But I couldn’t shake a little niggle of suspicion. His
expression had been sharply intent.
I probably shouldn’t have even come to
the coffee shop, but I was going stir-crazy sitting in the apartment and needed
the change of scenery. Every afternoon for the last week, I’d been sneaking
down here for a quick caffeine fix. Security relaxed when the sun was at its
zenith and I could slip out without raising any alarms. It helped that there
was an ATM directly across the street from the apartment building, which made
it easy to get cash.
I never had enough cash, which was why I’d
signed up to be a blood courtesan in the first place--out of financial desperation.
My mom needed money for her cancer treatments and selling sex mixed with blood
to vampires was a fast way to earn a large amount of cash. Not to mention it
had been the only way to raise funds I could find outside of a bank heist. I
didn’t have the skill-set to rob banks, but I did have a blood. It only seemed
logical to trade on what assets I had in order to help my mom.
In hindsight, I probably should’ve
robbed a bank.
Instead I became a blood courtesan and
had been sent out on a paid audition. Then bullets had started to fly and I had
the stitches in my hand to prove it. I’d survived that first attack as well as the
second one that followed thanks to Kristos.
Just the thought of the handsome vampire
sent a tingle through me. In the back of my mind the connection that we shared
ever since I’d drank his blood flared to life. I could feel him as if he was
right there and pressed up against me. He was sleeping at the moment. While he
could walk during the day, he preferred to sleep until the sun set.
Part of the reason why security was so
lax during daylight hours was because he was the exception to the rule. I’d
learned most vampires didn’t have a choice about when they were up and about.
The sun came up and they powered down like someone had abruptly removed their
batteries. I’d seen it happen to the men Kristos had brought in to protect me.
One second they were awake, and the next they were the equivalent of a poseable
doll.
As far as he knew, Kristos was the only
day walker of his kind. “We are just like humans, Myra,” he’d said with a
sardonic smile, his blue eyes glittering with a mixture of amusement and
restrained impatience at my constant stream of questions. “We’re all different.”
“Can some of you fly?” I’d asked, idly
running my hand over his chest. We’d been in bed--we were always in bed--and I loved to touch him. He was smooth and hard,
like a river rock molded by forces of nature I couldn’t comprehend.
He‘d shrugged and ran his hand down my back,
reciprocating. “I’ve heard rumors but never seen it myself.”
I’d traced the outline of his pecs,
biting my lip as his nipples hardened at the attention. I loved his chest. “Turn
into bats?”
Kristos had shaken his head. “No shape
shifting that I’m aware of.”
I smiled at the memory of that
conversation. I’d peppered him with so many questions, he’d finally silenced me
with a long, drawn out kiss that completely changed the subject.
He was a good kisser and an amazing
lover, so I’d allowed him to distract me. But during the day, when he wasn’t
there to divide my focus, all the unanswered questions swarmed my mind,
stinging me with anxiety and worry.
I gripped my coffee cup a little
tighter, wincing when it pulled at the stitches in my hand, and scanned the
cafe again. There were maybe five people in the coffee shop now, noses buried
in their laptops or smart phones. I relaxed and contemplated the pastries in
the display case. A brownie the size of my hand beckoned me with its glistening
chocolate ganache icing. My stomach growled at the sight of it.
Sad, but true: When I died, my ability
to eat brownies would die with me. That fact had been established fairly early
on in my questioning.
My priorities quickly rearranged
themselves to include a brownie, a cinnamon scone and a gingersnap that was
bigger than the brownie. If I ate it all in one sitting I invited diabetes and
a five pound weight gain, but those kinds of health consequences weren’t much
of a concern anymore.
Some people might call that an upside to
my situation, but I was too wound up about things to take it as a plus. It was
more stress eating than anything else.
I took the sugary confections to go,
and, clutching the bag against my chest, I made my way back to the apartment.
As I went, I scanned both in front of me and behind me for sinister figures or
signs of being followed. I hadn’t seen any cause for concern on my previous
jaunts to the coffee shop and today was no different. If I was on the vampire
world’s most wanted list, they weren’t working too hard to find me.
The safe house wasn’t as nice as the
penthouse suite Kristos had taken me to after the first shooting. I shook my
head recalling how we’d both thought they were after him, neither of us
realizing it was me they wanted until it was almost too late. As it turned out,
my father had been (was? I was a little foggy on whether or not he was still
out there somewhere) one of a handful of vampires able to sire children the
old-fashioned way. I was his daughter and that made me a hot commodity among
the fanged set.
The apartment building was in the same
block as the coffee shop, but on the opposite end. So it only took a few
minutes to walk back. Just as I was about to step into the entrance, a cadre of
armed men dressed in black spilled down the sidewalk on the other side of the
street. They tried to look casual, but the way they scanned the street--as if
they were looking for something and knew exactly how to find it--made me
nervous. They walked with a purpose and every so often their hands would go to
their sides as if reaching for a gun.
I ducked inside the building and pulled
the door shut after me. Thankfully, the glass foyer of the building was
tinted--you could see out, but not in. Another plus, access required a key
card. Unless they were willing to shoot out the glass, they wouldn’t get in. I worried
my bottom lip and watched them gather round the ATM I had used to withdraw cash
a few days ago.
One of the men seemed to sense my
presence and turned his head sharply, zeroing in on my building. He was blonde
with an ugly red scar down the side of his face. His gaze seemed to penetrate the
tinted glass.
With a gasp I stepped back. My heart
raced as adrenaline shot through me, ready for fight-or-flight. My hand shaking,
I pressed the key card against the access pad for the second door and rushed
inside to the main lobby. When I looked back, the man was still there,
watching, but one of his buddies nudged him forward. With a frown, he moved
along with the rest of his group.
They spread out as they went with a few
crossing to my side of the street. I could see now that they had ear pieces and
were communicating with each other and maybe who ever had sent them. I fled
before they reached my door, eschewing the elevator for the stairs. Climbing
all twenty flights was out of the question, but I didn’t want to be found
waiting for an elevator on the main floor if they somehow gained entry.
By the tenth flight of stairs, my heart
pounded like it would explode and my breathing was loud and labored. I
staggered into the hallway, thighs burning, and headed for the elevator. It was
Kristos who made me think of things like taking the stairs. He helped me keep
up with my new action-adventure life style.
“Be ready at all times,” he’d said to me
time and time again. “Zig when they think you’ll zag,” was another favorite
line.
Hopefully I’d zagged while they were
looking for a zig. I shivered even as the sweat trickled down my back from my
impromptu workout. That had been close. I
should probably stay in for the next few days.
Chapter
Two
The elevator delivered me to the top
floor with a soft ding. The doors opened and I jumped because Kristos was
standing there, waiting for me, his gaze a dark glower.
“Hey, Kristos.” I stepped into the
hallway and tried to sound nonchalant.
“Myra,” he said, his voice almost a
growl. He took my elbow, fingers digging into me with disapproval, and guided
me back to the apartment.
“What are you doing up so early?” I
asked, feigning innocence. He was not going to be happy about me sneaking out
or the black ops team that had infiltrated the area. I wanted to delay the bad
news as long as I could.
He shoved me through the entrance to our
living quarters---a four bedroom with a rather mundane view of the street below.
We slept in one bedroom and the rest of his team shared the other three. For a
billionaire CEO like Kristos, I imagined it was like living in a trailer park.
“You woke me up,” he said.
“I did?”
I thought back to all the times his name had come to mind, wondering
which of them had drawn him to consciousness. I still wasn’t used to the link
between us. In fact, I hadn’t even noticed it at first. Now, I knew it was
there, but didn’t know how it worked. Baby steps, I guess.
“The bond we share,” he gestured to
himself and then me, “means I can track you, know what you are feeling.”
“Oh.” I paused wondering how that felt
during sex. Did he feel the desire rising in me? Could I feel his? I would have
to try it the next time we made love.
“I saw the men on the street from the
window. They’re looking for you, tracing your debit card. You know you weren’t
supposed to leave the apartment and now they know you’re here.” His tone was full of reproof.
I opened my mouth to defend my
disobedience, but nothing came out. Kristos was right to be upset. Finally, I
asked, “How did you know about the debit card?”
“Because they wouldn’t have cared about
the ATM otherwise.” With a long suffering sigh, Kristos grabbed my purse and
pulled out my wallet. Flipping through it he located my bank card. Holding it
up so I could see, he crushed it in his hand. He didn’t even grimace either.
Vampires were stronger than humans, I knew that, but it always chilled me to see
it up close and personal. He’d thrown Samira out a skyscraper window like she
weighed nothing and then the vampire had gotten up and walked off like nothing
had happened. She’d been stolen away from Kristos and was supposed to tell her
new master I was a vampire. We were counting on that lie to keep me safe. If
everyone believed I’d already been claimed, it made me less of a target. In
theory at least.
He opened his hand to reveal my now
crumpled debit card. “It’s just luck that you weren’t found, that you’re still
alive.” Kristos took the bag of pastries from me and opened it. He wrinkled his
nose at the sugary scent that rose in the air. “Is this worth it?”
I thought of the chocolate brownie with its
luscious ganache icing and gave a half shrug. In an attempt at levity, I said,
“Asks the man who was born before chocolate was invented.”
“No, asks the man who is trying to save
your life. At great personal cost, I might add.” He was irritated now and fisted
his hands in my hair, pulling me in for a stern, admonishing kiss. While he
kissed me, he took my purse and dropped it to the floor. The bakery bag
followed suit and he paused just long enough to give me a look.
“What? I was hungry.” I did my best to
look innocent and my stomach growled on cue.
He bared his fangs at me, but smiled as
he did so. “You left me with nothing
to eat.”
“I came back, didn’t I?”
“You were never supposed to go out in
the first place.” His eyes narrowed. “You realize both our lives are at stake?”
I evaded his gaze. One, he could play mind
tricks on me if I looked at him too long and two, I didn’t want him to see that
I felt guilty. “I was going crazy in the apartment.”
“Go crazy or go dead, your choice, love.
Just try not to take me with you.” He kissed me again and pulled my coat off my
shoulders, using it to pin my arms behind my back. “You smell delicious, by the
way. What did you eat?”
“Just a caramel latte.” I lifted my head
to look up at him, aware that the small movement exposed my throat.
He sniffed the nape of my neck, burying
his nose there, his fangs just pricking my skin. “The contrast between bitter
and sweet is tantalizing.”
“Mmm,” I moaned as I pressed up against
his fangs, wanting them to break my skin. I welcomed the pain; it meant I was
still alive. Also the things he did to me while feeding were pretty
spectacular.
He refused to bite and pulled back,
releasing me as he did so. “I could have sent someone out for your latte.”
I shook my head and removed my coat,
draping it over a dining room chair. The compact apartment layout had the
dining room just inside the entrance. “It’s not the same.” I’d wanted the
freedom to pretend everything was normal. Pretend being the key word. I was
probably in the denial phase of my life going to hell.
“Neither is a bullet to the head.” He
made a gun with his finger and aimed it at me. “They’ll shoot you and either
bury you or make you rise to their bidding like a slave. Is that what you
want?”
I sighed. “It’s just the suspense is
killing me. Sitting here feels like a mistake.”
His expression became serious. “I can
turn you tonight.”
I gulped, the offer making my blood run
cold. To his credit, Kristos was giving me a lot of space and time to try and
process the inevitable. He’d also set my mom up with medical care in a first
class clinic under an assumed name to protect her. He was an all around
gentleman...if that could be said for a bloodsucking vampire. I trusted him,
except for when I didn’t.
I also wasn’t so sure about this ‘become
a vampire’ thing.
He gave me a fatherly kiss on the
forehead. “You’re going to have to decide soon, Myra. I can’t keep you safe
forever.”
I leaned against him. “Thank you for
trying though.”
He hugged me and then his hands began to
roam my curves. His fingers tugged at the buttons on my blouse.
I put up a hand to stop him. “What are
you doing?”
“I’m up. I’m hungry. We have no place to
go and some free time before the others wake. In short, we are alone and I plan
to take full advantage of that fact.” A wicked grin spread across his mouth as
he spoke. “Consider this your punishment for breaking the rules.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You’re letting me
off lightly.”
“That,” he peeled my shirt away from my
chest, exposing my bra, “remains to be seen.”
Kristos led me to the bedroom we shared,
discarding my clothes as we went. By the time we crossed the threshold, I’d
lost my shirt, my bra and my pants. He pushed me down on the bed and inched my
panties off, tossing them over his shoulder.
I reached for him, wanting to undo his
shirt, but he evaded my touch. “Not yet, love. Look into my eyes.”
I hesitated. “That’s such a cliché. I
can’t believe you just said that.”
He chuckled. “Just look into my eyes,
Myra.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Kristos ran his hands along my stomach
and up to cup my breasts. I shivered as he caressed their sensitive tips.
“You’ll be missing out.”
I made the mistake of looking up and
making eye contact, wanting to see his face. His gaze captured mine in less
than a second. I’d been mad when I realized he’d been doing this to me since we
met. I’d thought his eyes were irresistible because they were sparkling
aquamarine blue, but it really was whatever magic that made a vampire a
vampire.
“Come for me, Myra.” His voice sounded
distant and distorted as if he spoke underwater. My body, however, heard him
crystal clear and bucked as a hard and fast orgasm washed over me. The whole
time our eyes were locked on each other, the windows to our souls wide open.
His were full of darkness that threatened to spill out and consume me. I
imagined mine were like those of a doe cornered by a hunter, wide and brimming
with shattered innocence.
Kristos allowed me a second to recover
and once my breathing had resumed at its normal rate, he said, “You will come
every time I command it, understood?”
I gave a slow nod, bowing to his
compulsion. A shiver went through me at his forcefulness, the way he just took
my body and made it his. He was a considerate man and attentive to my
needs...except when it came to sex, then he just took what he wanted, what he
needed without asking. I’d been a virgin when we first met and he’d
indoctrinated me into a world where blood and sex were one and the same.
I
could never go back.
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